Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Self-Referential Features In Sacred Texts, Donald Haase

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines a specific type of instance that bridges the divide between seeing sacred texts as merely vehicles for content and as objects themselves: self-reference. Doing so yielded a heuristic system of categories of self-reference in sacred texts based on the way the text self-describes: Inlibration, Necessity, and Untranslatability.

I provide examples of these self-referential features as found in various sacred texts: the Vedas, Āgamas, Papyrus of Ani, Torah, Quran, Sri Guru Granth Sahib, and the Book of Mormon. I then examine how different theories of sacredness interact with them. What do Durkheim, Otto, Freud, or Levinas say about …

Spatial And Temporal Distribution Of Total Phosphorus Concentration In Soil And Surface Water In The Everglades Protection Area, Shishir Kumar Sarker

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Draining of the Everglades allowed for the expansion of urban and agricultural development, reducing half of the size of the historic Everglades. The detrimental cascading effect on the Everglades ecosystem function is related to the total phosphorus (TP) concentrations of water inflow, the inflow rate and the distance from the discharge point. As Everglades restoration has approached 15 years since the inception of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP), there is a need to assess its progress across the ecosystem. Available data from 2004 to 2014 were collected for soils and from 2004 to 2016 for water to understand a …

Inheriting Illegality: Race, Statelessness, And Dominico-Haitian Activism In The Dominican Republic, Jacqueline Lyon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, the Dominican Republic’s highest court ruled to revoke birthright citizenship for over 200,000 Dominicans of Haitian descent. Ruling TC 168-13 prompted dialogue about race and racism in the country, breaking the racial silence that accompanies mestizaje (racial mixture). Scholars viewed this ruling through the lens of “Black denial” whereby Dominicans’ failure to adopt Black identities, despite being largely afrodescendant, fuels the racialization of Haitians as Black. Less evident in examinations of Dominican racial politics are anti-racist and anti-xenophobic organizing. Addressing the gap in scholarship on Dominican blackness, this dissertation project adopts an ethnographic approach to examine how Domicans …

International Trade And Environmental Regulation, Qingru Tu

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three chapters regarding international trade and environmental regulation. The first chapter focuses on the relationship between port ownership and the port R\&D investment. I investigate whether a larger degree of private involvement in the port sector makes for a higher level of welfare, as well as an improvement in port performance. I establish the stage games to analyze the reciprocal international trade. The theoretical findings indicate that the endowment of population plays an essential role in choosing the optimal port ownership. In the second chapter, I investigate the effect of port pollution regulation on port …

From Smallville To Metropolis: Career Transitioning From A Small Academic Library To A Large Research University, Ramces L. Marsilli, April Lafferty

Works of the FIU Libraries

Description Any career move can be a stressful endeavor and transitioning from a small to a large academic library is no exception. The addition of responsibilities and challenges can prove to be overwhelming for librarians trying to navigate this process. From writing a resume tailored to the position to finding a mentor, this poster session will uncover the secrets to landing the job at a large university library and how to hit the ground running. Presented by two librarians who have been there, it is our intention to prepare library professionals to make this jump as effortless as possible. Objectives …

Elucidating The Role Of Neighborhood Deprivation In Hypertensive Disorders Of Pregnancy, Kelly M. Winter

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined risk factors for hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP) — specifically whether neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation exacerbates individual socioeconomic disadvantage (deprivation amplification) to increase the likelihood of developing HDP. To select the optimal areal unit at which to investigate HDP, geographic proxies for neighborhoods were explored.

A thematic review qualitatively examined nontraditional neighborhood boundaries identified through internet sources. Data from 2008–2012 Miami-Dade County, Florida birth records (n=121,421) and the U.S. Census Bureau were used for the remaining analyses. Ordinary least squares (OLS) and geographically weighted regression (GWR) analysis empirically compared the proportion of HDP prevalence explained by six areal …

Three Essays On Growth, Housing Market And Inequality, Shahrzad Ghourchian

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three essays on growth, the housing market, and inequality. In the first essay, I analyze the effects of government consumption and government debt on long-run economic growth by considering the economic characteristics of the countries investigated. Linear regressions reveal that government consumption has a much bigger negative impact on long-run growth compared with the negative (and sometimes insignificant) effects of government debt. Nonlinear analyses further show that such effects are highly impacted by the economic characteristics of the countries investigated.

In the second essay, I study time-series fluctuations in the United States housing market from 2010 to …

Engineering Colonialism: Race, Class, And The Social History Of Flood Control In Guyana, Joshua Mullenite

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Overabundance and scarcity of water are global concerns. Across the world’s low-lying coastal plains, flooding brought on by sea level rise acts as an existential threat for a multitude of people and cultures while in desert (and increasingly non-desert) regions intensifying drought cycles do the same. In the decades to come, how people manage these threats will have important implications not only for individual and cultural survival, but also for questions of justice. Recent research on flooding and flood management probes the histories of survival, and adaptation in flood threatened regions for insights into emergent flood-related crises. However, scholars have …

Public Service Values And Disparate Performance: The Case Of Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher (Hcv) Program, Melissa Gomez Hernandez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public administration scholars accept that public service values guide administrators’ behavior. This guidance also derives from social and cultural values that motivate administrators’ individual attitudes. A part of the field recognizes that public servants play an active role during the implementation process through their daily use of discretion. Nevertheless, public administrators’ values and attitudes are rarely linked to policy implementation and organizational performance. In consequence, public policy evaluation seldom considers the role of values and attitudes of those implementing policy.

This study examines how public administrators’ values and attitudes towards citizens shape policy implementation and influence organizational and program performance. …

Impact Of Person-Environment Fit Upon Strain And Well-Being For Emergency Responders, April D. Schantz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation used a person-environment fit theoretical framework to examine the influence of person-job misfit as an organizational stressor on strain and well-being outcomes for emergency responders. Independent variables consisted of job attributes such as skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and job-based feedback. These job characteristics are often used in work redesign efforts as they are amendable to organizational change initiatives. Dependent variables included strain outcomes relevant to those working in emergency services: physical symptoms, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress. Also, to include a positive aspect of emergency services work, the well-being outcome of compassion satisfaction was examined. …

Resource Nationalism And Energy Integration In Latin America: The Paradox Of Populism, Brian Hollingsworth

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between resource nationalism and energy integration, and uses Bolivia and Brazil as a test case. Essentially, does resource nationalism affect energy integration? The findings nest within more expansive questions on international political economy and export-driven models of development. Why do populist regimes, historically operating under an economic nationalist cum protectionist paradigm, simultaneously pursue policies of economic integration? What is the relationship between resource nationalists and open markets, especially in the hydrocarbons sector? What is the relationship between populists, who are typically resource nationalists, and their decision to choose policies of energy integration?

The most common …

Eating Frequency And The Role Of Snacking On Body Weight Of Wic Preschool Children, Andrea Charvet

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this study was to understand the influence of eating episodes and snack quality on body weight of children ages 3-4.9 years participating in the Broward County Special Supplementation Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).Additional objectives were to evaluate obesity risk factors and to examine the effect of childcare arrangements on body weight. Data was collected from 7 Broward County Health Department WIC clinics over 4 months via a researcher-administered questionnaire. Additional data was extracted from the WIC data system. BMI-for-age percentiles were used to categorize children by weight according to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) …

Three Essays On Managing Extreme Weather Events And Climatic Shocks In Developing And Developed Countries, Md Tanvir Pavel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Climate change and extreme weather events are affecting the environment, and people’s livelihood in both developing and developed countries. Agriculture, forestry, fishing, livestock, water resources, human health, terrestrial ecosystems, biodiversity, and coastal zones are among the major sectors impacted by these shocks. The challenge of adaptation is particularly acute in the developing countries, as poverty and resource constraints limit their capacity to act. Bangladesh fits in this category, and thus I use data from Bangladesh to analyze the adaptation process in the first and second chapter of my dissertation.

In the first chapter, I investigate whether transient shocks (flood, cyclone) …

An Efficiency Evaluation Of Procedures To Evoke Vocalizations In Children With Autism, Alejandro Rene Diaz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Development of vocalizations in early learners with autism is critical to the acquisition of verbal behavior and other important life skills. The purpose of the present studies was to (1) evaluate the efficiency and efficacy of Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing (SSP) and standard Echoic Training (ET) procedures for the development and onset of verbal behavior in early learners with ASD to improve early intervention efficiency and (2) elucidate predictive characteristics or variables for the effective use of SSP. The present studies were comprised of a multiple-baseline (across behaviors) experimental design buttressed within a reversal design, also known more broadly as within-subject controlled …

A Field Study Examining The Effect Of High Intoxication Levels And Identification Format On Witnesses' Memory For Faces And Events, Christopher Altman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Members of the legal system (e.g., experts, jurors, investigators) are often skeptical of the information provided by intoxicated witnesses given the negative stigma surrounding alcohol and memory. However, studies examining the relationship between alcohol and witness memory often find that alcohol has no effect on peoples’ recall or their ability to identify a previously seen face. While insightful, the validity of these findings has been questioned given the low-moderate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels tested in these predominantly laboratory-based studies, which may not be high enough to consistently expose the cognitive deficits alcohol is expected to create. The present study …

Facing The Rising Tide: How Local Governments In The United States Collaborate To Adapt To Sea Level Rise, Vaiva Kalesnikaite

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While communities in the United States are already experiencing the effects of climate change, scientists project that sea level rise, increased precipitation, and record-breaking extreme weather events will devastate vulnerable regions in the following decades. The absence of federal strategies for climate change adaptation leaves state and city governments with broad discretion to undertake climate change adaptation measures. Yet cities may be unable to adapt to climate change without external assistance, particularly in states where the state leadership has not recognized the need to provide political and financial support to local governments. Collaboration allows cities to pool resources and work …

Reducing Risks For Anxiety And Depression Among Urban Youth: Leveraging After School Programs To Promote Emotion Regulation, Erin R. Hedemann

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rates of internalizing disorders in childhood are around 10% and higher among racial/ethnic minority youth and youth living in poverty. Targeting empirically derived processes associated with anxiety and depression may be an efficient and effective way to minimize risks for internalizing symptoms and impairment. Deficits in emotion regulation (e.g., increased use of emotional suppression, decreased use of cognitive reappraisal) are associated with anxiety and depression in youth and improve with treatment. The current study examined the acceptability and promise of an intervention targeting these emotion regulation strategies in the context of an after-school music program. Reflecting a community-based participatory research …

Essays On Trade And Growth, Yulin Hou

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays on international trade and economic growth. The first essay investigates whether the content of what economies export matters for human capital accumulation. I construct a small open economy model and find that expansion of primary exports can harm human capital accumulation if the economy is initially allocating significant resources to primary goods production. Then I test this prediction empirically using Latin American data over the period from 1965 to 2010 and find robust evidence in support of the hypothesis that a shift towards primary exports reduces human capital accumulation.

In the second essay, …

Three Essays In Health, Welfare, And International Economics, Amin Shoja

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Both economists and policy makers are interested in understanding the welfare effect of economic policies, especially in small open economies such as Turkey and Iran. This knowledge is crucial for priority setting in any informed policy discussion. This dissertation aims to study the impoverishing effect of high levels of out-of-pocket (OOP) payments in the health sector, referred to as catastrophic health expenditure (CHE), and investigates the impact of exchange rate pass-through (ERPT) on both the microeconomic and macroeconomic indicators of a country. For millions of people worldwide, health payments present a huge financial risk. A high rate of OOP health …

Three Essays On International Trade And Migration, Yun Wang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation encompasses three different topics on empirical international trade and migration. The first chapter investigates the short run effects of regional trade agreements on trade costs. It is widely accepted that the reinforcement of Regional Trade Agreements (RTAs) aiming at trade costs reduction among trade partners requires time. This paper investigates the effects of RTAs on trade costs over time by using unique micro-price data. We confirm that having an RTA on average lowers trade costs significantly. Furthermore, data shows significant and negative effects of RTAs on trade costs over time. Specifically, besides the initial impact on trade costs, …

Understanding The Organizational Factors That Impact Police-Community Relations, Andrea Marie Headley

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There has been a significant amount of attention refocused on problems surrounding police and communities of color. The most consistent remedy identified has been reforming police departments, which is an organizational-level solution. However, only minimal strides have been made in empirical research to understand the organizational correlates associated with police-community relations. Thus, this research investigated the impact that police departments’ organizational and managerial characteristics have on police-community relations.

The key contributions of this research to the literature are three-fold. First, a composite indicator of police-community relations was developed by compiling a large nationwide dataset of local police-departments. This multidimensional indicator …

Election Administration Within The Sphere Of Politics: How Bureaucracy Can Facilitate Democracy With Policy Decisions, Nicholas S. Martinez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public bureaucracy finds itself in a strange place at the intersection of political science and public administration. Political science finds that, within representative democracy, discretion granted to bureaucrats threatens the nature of democracy by subverting politicians who represent the will of the people – bureaucracy vs democracy. At the same time, public administration holds that, in the interest of promoting democracy, bureaucracy should be objective in its implementation of policy in a way that eliminates the influence of politics from decision-making – politics vs bureaucracy. Those positions are seemingly contradictory in nature. From one perspective, bureaucracy is undemocratic because it …

Social Comparison In Eating Disorder Recovery: A Mixed-Methodological Approach, Jessica Faye Saunders

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines social comparison tendencies in young women during eating disorder (ED) recovery. Study one drew on a photo-elicitation method (“PhotoVoice”) and semi-structured interviews to examine this relation. Thirty U.S. women, ages 18-35, in self-defined recovery from disordered eating, used photography to capture personally-meaningful social and cultural influences on their recovery. Participants then shared these photographs with the research team and described them in detail. Photographs and interviews were examined for social comparisons using thematic analysis, and two broad categories emerged: recovery-promoting and recovery-hindering comparisons. The presence of both “upward” and “downward” comparisons that both support and hinder recovery …

Evaluating Intensive Group Behavioral Treatment For Children With Selective Mutism, Danielle Cornacchio

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Selective mutism (SM), an anxiety disorder most commonly presenting in childhood, is characterized by a failure to speak in certain social situations. Due to its unique presentation (e.g., lack of speech) and low prevalence, expertise in the treatment of SM is scarce, leaving many affected families without access to care. Intensive Group Behavioral Treatment (IGBT) allows families to travel to a specialty clinic to receive a course of treatment in a single week. This study is the first to evaluate IGBT for SM in a randomized controlled trial. 29 children aged 5-9 with SM were randomized to immediate IGBT or …

Self-Regulation As A Transdiagnostic Predictor Of Treatment Response For Preschoolers With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Rosmary Ros

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current work examined the feasibility and initial efficacy of the Summer Treatment Program for Pre-kindergarteners (STP-PreK) for 37 preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Parents and teachers reported on children’s behavior, social/adaptive skills, executive functioning (EF), and emotion regulation (ER). Children completed a standardized achievement and EF battery and an emotion knowledge task. Improvements were reported in parent rated hyperactivity, inattention, aggression, and social and adaptive skills. Children also improved performance across achievement, emotion knowledge, and EF, and were rated by parents as having better EF and ER. Findings highlight the initial efficacy of an …

Fashioning Identity Through Creativity In Multilingual & Multicultural Contexts, Aixa Jb Perez-Prado

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

The workshop will focus on thought as it relates to identity and empathy in multilingual and multicultural contexts. The concept of identity as perceived and expressed through an exploration of language, thought, and meaningful experiences will guide the discussion. Participants will take part in a series of interactive thinking activities designed to bring out aspects of identity and empathy as manifested in different cultural and linguistic contexts. They will then be encouraged to explore how these aspects differ among linguistic and cultural groups while reflecting on their personal experiences. After this interactive process, participants will produce a creative representation of …

Questioning - Fundamental 21st Century Comptence, Teresa Lucas, Gerardo Lucas

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

With the advent of the 21^st Century, scholars, politicians, scientists, educators, entrepreneurs, religious leaders, and parents have looked at the increasing rapidity of change and complexity in the world, and wondered what capabilities are necessary to embrace the challenges facing us. The P21 Partnership cites four basic “C” skills: creativity and innovation; critical thinking and problem-solving; communication; and, collaboration. However, developing the “4 Cs” relies on another attribute – curiosity, the hallmark of which is the ability to formulate good questions. This workshop proposes to engage participants in a lively exercise of asking questions. A brief introduction reviews various …

Self-Coaching With Ai: Developing Thinking Skills, Thinking Dispositions, And Well-Being, Olivier Malafronte, Isla Reddin, Roy Van Den Brink-Budgen

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

Being motivated by the need to address the challenges of our Volatile Uncertain Complex Ambiguous world, we strive to create tools to improve people’s lives and help them become more resilient, resourceful, self-confidant, and successful.

In a digital world, we must understand how to efficiently connect to digital systems. Connecting “with AI” doesn’t mean spending more time on digital devices, but spending time in a deliberate way with purpose and intentional learning outcomes.

As a society, we want to see graduates with emotional intelligence and reflective skills in order to address global economic and social issues. As for jobs …

“Un Poder Transformador”. Creatividad Y Habilidades De Pensamiento Que Nutren La Experimentación De Nuevas Ideas Sustentables”, Vanesa Abadie A. Abadie

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

Si partimos de preguntas tales como: ¿Qué vale la pena enseñar?, ¿Cómo las habilidades de pensamiento promueven prácticas que conducen a la sostenibilidad ambiental y la revitalización?, ¿Cómo promovemos el desarrollo de habilidades de pensamiento que conduzcan al uso del conocimiento, la tecnología y la innovación para promover la sostenibilidad y la revitalización?

Como docentes debemos introducir desafíos en contextos adecuados para así generar en los alumnos nuevas ideas. Tanto la creatividad como el pensamiento crítico son procesos que se nutren con la experimentación de ideas. Ellas pueden surgir a través de una acción, un relato, una imagen, un tópico …

Trash To Treasure, Kim Rizio, Brooke Fatima Yubero, Defne Timurkan, Corey Gildersleeve

ICOT 18 - International Conference on Thinking - Cultivating Mindsets for Global Citizens

Based on research of the “Children Are Citizens” initiative from Project Zero at Harvard University, the Trash to Treasure project will engage and capacitate our preschoolers and lower elementary students to be agents of change in our local community. This interdisciplinary project will bring attention to an important environmental issue within our community. Plastic pollution will be transformed into an interactive exhibit and lead our students from bystanders to advocates. Community-wide beach clean-ups will provide students with the trash to create an original multi-media piece that incorporates movement to engage and communicate our message. The installation of the piece in …