Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Multi-Dimensional Assessment Of Transit System Efficiency And Incentive-Based Subsidy Allocation, Xin Li

Theses and Dissertations

Over the past several decades, contending with traffic congestion and air pollution has emerged as one of the imperative issues across the world. Development of a transit-oriented urban transport system has been realized by an increasing number of countries and administrations as one of the most effective strategies for mitigating congestion and pollution problems. Despite the rapid development of public transportation system, doubts regarding the efficiency of the system and financing sustainability have arisen. Significant amount of public resources have been invested into public transport; however complaints about low service quality and unreliable transit system performance have increasingly arisen from …

Functionally Distinct Pools Of Calcineurin Contribute To Depotentiation-Like Synaptic Changes In The Lateral Amygdala During Auditory Fear Extinction, Elena Kay Rotondo

Theses and Dissertations

Until recently, auditory fear extinction was not thought to modify substrates involved in the storage of the original auditory fear memory. Evidence now suggests that extinction results in the reversal of the fear conditioning-induced potentiation of thalamic inputs to the lateral amygdala. However, little is known about the molecular mechanisms that support this depotentiation of synaptic strength. Here we present behavioral and molecular evidence in support of the contribution of two distinct pools of the protein phosphatase calcineurin to depotentiation-like changes in lateral amygdala AMPA receptor trafficking during auditory fear extinction. Calcineurin protein that exists prior to the onset of …

Transitioning Into Adulthood: Exploring The Educational Trajectories Among Undocumented Latinos, Michelle G. Parisot

Theses and Dissertations

The following qualitative study used semi-structured qualitative interviews to investigate the educational trajectories of five undocumented Latinos who were either in the process of transitioning into a college program or had recently enrolled in a college program. An initial interview was conducted with each of the participants followed by a follow-up interview about 3-months after the initial interview was conducted. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach was used to carry out this research study. Therefore, collaboration with participants and key community members was essential throughout the entire research process. A research team was created to perform thorough data analysis and …

Human Selection And Digitized Archival Collections: An Exploratory Research Project About Choice Of Archival Materials Digitized For Online Public Availability, Randy Nelson Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Our collective memory, the history that is cultivated through reflection, documentation, and consensus of historical data, is predicated upon the citizenry having access to the historical materials that society has created. Digitization has enabled greater public access to those materials. However, are items being scanned or digitally photographed to create surrogates that are then not made available to the world? The impetus for this study is to delve into whether or not intentional or unintentional personal choices play a role in determining which items archivists transform into digital surrogates; both in the decision of what to digitize and what to …

Relative Responsiveness Of Trade Flows To A Change In Prices And Exchange Rate, Esmaeil Ebadi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two essays in international trade. In my first essay I consider Orcutt’s (1950) hypothesis in which trade flows respond to changes in exchange rate more quickly than they do to changes in prices. There are several studies, which test the Orcutt’s hypothesis by imposing lag structure on both relative prices and exchange rate. I employ generalized impulse response analysis as an alternative approach to test Orcutt’s hypothesis using the sample of developed and developing countries. The empirical results do not support Orcutt’s hypothesis in most cases. In my second essay I investigate the effects of technological progress …

Baby Boomers And Technology: Factors And Challenges In Utilizing Mobile Devices, Renee K. Bennett- Kapusniak

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory dissertation study reports an investigation of Baby Boomers utilizing mobile technology to determine how Baby Boomers were utilizing mobile devices and if there were any types of challenges and affecting factors some Baby Boomers could face when searching for information in an online mobile environment. Fifty Baby Boomer participants were recruited by a purposive snowball sampling method and were divided into two groups, twenty-five Younger Boomers and twenty-five Older Boomers to look for comparisons and differences among the Baby Boomers in regards to mobile technology usage, search activities, environmental context, frequency and duration of search activities, as well …

The Developmental Stages Of The Acquisition Of Arabic By Adult English-Speaking Learners: Processability Theory And The Formulaic Language, Abdellatif Oulhaj

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to look at the developmental stages of the acquisition of Arabic as a foreign language by adult English learners. Processability theory (Pienemann, 1998, 2005) is adopted to investigate in detail whether the acquisition development will follow the hierarchy as stated by PT. The study targeted agreement within seven grammatical structures. The structures belong to three procedural levels of the hierarchy (stages three to five).

Six adult learners participated in this study. They were tested via different tasks to elicit data either to support the predictions of PT hierarchy, or to disconfirm it. Two participants …

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

Incorporation Of Latino Police Officers Into The Milwaukee Police Department: How A Group Of Latino Police Officers Shed The "Blue Shield" For A Latino Identity, Antonio G. Guajardo Jr

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

INCORPORTATION OF LATINO POLICE OFFICERS INTO THE MILWAUKEE POLICE DEPARTMENT: HOW A GROUPS OF LATINO POLICE OFFICERS SHED THE “BLUE SHIELD” FOR A LATINO IDENTITY

by

Antonio G Guajardo Jr.

The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Joe Rodriguez

This study examines the issue of ethnic identity and its importance to the Latino police officers in the MPD. The study also explores the relationship between these officers and Milwaukee’s Latino communities, analyzing historical incidents of activism within these communities meant to pressure the Department into hiring Latino officers. It also examines the officers’ experiences and …

Collecting In Context: A Study Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's French Paleolithic Faunal Collection, Rebecca Fetzer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the history of collecting practices of individual collectors and

museums of French Paleolithic archaeological material between 1869 and 1945. During this time period, thousands of French archaeological artifacts were dispersed to museums throughout North America, many with scant provenience. National agendas and the social and economic factors of the time greatly affected their dispersal. The individual agendas of the collector also played a role. This in turn had impacts on the overall understanding of these collections as well as the contemporary construction of archaeological knowledge relating to the study of early humans.

A sizable French Paleolithic faunal …

Distinguishing Venereal Syphilis From Other Treponemal Infections On The Human Skeleton, Antoinette Elizabeth Fafara-Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

The Treponemal diseases of yaws, endemic and venereal syphilis are capable of producing skeletal lesions during the late stages of infection. Due to the relatedness within the Treponema species all three diseases produce similar skeletal pathologies, making the classification of one specific treponemal disease versus another extremely difficult. This study investigates the skeletal pathologies associated with the treponemal infections of yaws, endemic and venereal syphilis in order to determine the skeletal lesions limited to only venereal syphilis. This study concludes that in order to distinguish treponemal diseases one must look beyond just the skeletal lesions and take into account the …

The Sickle's Edge: An Experimental Use-Wear Approach To Investigating Sickle Deposition In Bronze Age Europe, Barbara Ellen Mcclendon

Theses and Dissertations

Prehistoric hoards—containing items such as precious metals, tools, ornaments, and weapons—have long fascinated archaeologists and the general public alike. The practice of intentional wealth deposition in hoards was particularly prolific during the European Bronze Age; however, the motivations behind this practice remain unclear. Comparisons of the contents of hoards through space and time can yield valuable data regarding the purpose and process of deposition, but one of the most common items found in Bronze Age hoards—bronze sickles—remains understudied. In order to generate a standardized approach to the comparative analysis of prehistoric sickles in a variety of contexts, I propose a …

Land Use Analysis Of The Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds: A Chronological And Spatial Depiction Of Cultural Change, Sarah Klingman-Cole

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses GIS analysis of spatial data and historical documentation to determine land use change in the Milwaukee County Institutional Grounds (MCIG) located in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. This chronological and spatial land use analysis specifically examined aspects of the grounds in relationship to historically documented changes taking place during MCIG operations from 1850 to 1980. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a more accurate account of the grounds throughout the timeframe. This thesis, featuring a GIS model, includes a series of digitized maps that provide for a more accurate account of the grounds throughout the timeframe studied. Results …

Effects Of Reinforcement Duration And Duration-Correlated Stimuli On Preference In Pigeons, Michael James Harman

Theses and Dissertations

Pigeons were trained in a two-key, concurrent chains choice procedure with equal initial and terminal links. Across conditions, the durations of reinforcement in the terminal links were either equal (3-s vs 3-s) or unequal (3-s vs 6-s), and these durations were either uncued by hopper lights (both white) or cued (3-s: white; 6-s: colored). The pigeons’ choice responding leading to the longer duration of reinforcement was generally in the range of indifference with nondifferential hopper lights, but favored the longer duration with differential hopper lights. Taken together, the data suggest that differential hopper lights facilitated the discrimination of the longer …

A Preliminary Museological Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Euphrates Valley Expedition Metal Collection, Jamie Patrick Henry

Theses and Dissertations

Destruction of ancient sites along the Euphrates River in northern Syria due to the construction of the Tabqa Dam resulted in excavations conducted between 1974 and 1978 by the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) at the site of Tell Hadidi, Syria, by Rudolph Dornemann. The hundreds of thousands of artifacts at the MPM have never been completely published. This preliminary analysis presents an inventory and analysis of the 941 metal artifacts as well as new archival information about the Tell Hadidi/ Euphrates Valley Expedition, whose publication has recently become critical, in order to make the material more useful for future research.

A Case Study: The Role Of Women In Creating Community On The Dakota Frontier, 1880 To 1920, Ruth Page Jones

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

A CASE STUDY: THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CREATING COMMUNITY

ON THE DAKOTA FRONTIER, 1880 TO 1920

by

Ruth Page Jones

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Genevieve G. McBride

During the Dakota Boom years of 1878 to 1887, Dakota Territory welcomed droves of new families, adding close to 400,000 people in the 1880s. Creating new homes on the treeless prairie, many people faced the challenge of sustaining life without the benefit of an established community. The conditions were too harsh, the weather too unpredictable, and the economy too fragile for anyone to live in …

Using Video Modeling To Teach Parents To Use The Natural Language Paradigm, Brittany Ann Leblanc

Theses and Dissertations

There is paucity of research examining the use of video modeling to train parents to implement formats of early intervention such as Naturalistic Environmental Training (NET). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of video modeling to train parents to implement the Naturalistic Language Paradigm (NLP), a specific format of NET, with their children diagnosed with or suspected of having autism spectrum disorder. All three parents demonstrated accurate performance of the components of NLP with an adult confederate and met the mastery criterion in two or three video modeling sessions. We measured the parent’s accurate implementation …

Islands In The Making: National Investment And The Cultural Imagination In Taiwan, Krista-Lee Meghan Malone

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography looks closely at the Taiwanese company UrIsland, makers of Talking Island (TI) - an MMORPG to teach children English - in order to illuminate the increasingly important meeting point between technology, education, and games. At the level of national economic policy, companies like UrIsland have been at the focal point of the Taiwanese government’s hopes for their tech industry. With TI, UrIsland intended to create a revolution in ESL education. Despite compulsory ESL classes many Taiwanese struggle with English, and educational experts claim that the classes stress reading and writing too much, leaving many people’s listening and speaking …

Regional Perspective Of Recuay Mortuary Practices: A View From The Hinterlands, Callejón De Huaylas, Peru, Victor Manuel Ponte

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of burial chambers in the north-central highlands of Peru constitute the corpus of this thesis. Most of the stone structures correspond chronologically and culturally to the Recuay Tradition, a time span of 100 to 800 CE. The study area is located in the Cordillera Negra of the Callejón de Huaylas basin (Ancash Department). CRM projects developed in the impact zone of the Pierina mine have contributed valuable information on the mortuary practices of a Recuay agro-pastoral community. This thesis relied on grave goods inventories, osteological analysis, and types of stone architecture in the burial chamber. Data from this …

Developing Interpretation Training For Modifying Thought-Action-Fusion Associated With Obsessive-Compulsive Symptoms, Stephan Gordon Siwiec

Theses and Dissertations

In obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), obsessions are in part caused by the belief that simply having a thought can increase the chance of an event occurring or represents a person’s morality. This phenomenon is Thought-Action-Fusion (TAF) and is common in OCD. Challenging these beliefs through Interpretation Training (IT) has been used in past research to modify negative interpretations, and lessen the distress and grief associated with them. The current study examined whether three sessions of computerized IT, challenging TAF obsessional thoughts, can impact TAF strength and OC symptoms. Thirty-nine non-clinical students were randomized to either: (1) an active condition (TAFMOD), where …

Entheses And Activities: The Multivariate Mechanisms Of Entheseal Change For Individuals Represented By The 2013 Excavations Of The Milwaukee County Institution Grounds Cemetery, Jessica L. Skinner

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

ENTHESES AND ACTIVITIES: THE MULTIVARIATE MECHANISMS OF ENTHESEAL CHANGE FOR INDIVIDUALS REPRESENTED BY THE 2013 EXCAVATIONS OF THE MILWAUKEE COUNTY INSTITUTION GROUNDS CEMETERY

by

Jessica L. Skinner

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Fred Anapol

The analysis of the features that mark tendon and muscle insertion sites on bone has been used in an attempt to reconstruct past life activity patterns of individuals and populations represented by skeletal remains. Many of these analyses have focused on comparing evidence from these individuals with known musculoskeletal and biomechanical data. Recent experimental tests have illustrated that defining these …

Interrupting The Conspiracy Of Silence: Historical Trauma And The Experiences Of Hmong American Women, Ia Xiong

Theses and Dissertations

The Hmong have endured a history of oppressive and traumatic experiences. The Secret War was particularly significant as it resulted in genocide, dislocation, and oppression for the Hmong. In addition, the Hmong experience and their involvement as U.S. allies remained largely a secret for several decades. Current research suggests that Hmong Americans experience a high prevalence of mental health issues including depression, anxiety, and substance abuse as well as other health disparities. The purpose of this project was to explore how a history of massive group trauma and secrecy maintained about the Hmong may contribute to the current conditions of …

Exploring Community Reentry After Incarceration With Recently Released American Indian/Alaska Native Persons, Holly Wohlers

Theses and Dissertations

American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) persons comprise 1.7% of the population in the United States (U.S.), 1.1% of the population in the state of Wisconsin (WI), and represent immense diversity with over 566 federally recognized Sovereign Nations. Despite their relatively small numbers, AI/AN persons suffer a wide variety of extreme biopsychosocial disparities. In Wisconsin, this includes the highest incarceration rate of any ethnic group. Building upon a community partnership, the project examined the areas of challenge and support for AI/AN persons in Wisconsin who sought reintegration into an urban community after incarceration. Via the Extended Case Method, the project explored the …

Head And Shoulders Above The Rest: Birch-Bark Hats And Elite Status In Iron Age Europe, Cara Melissa Reeves

Theses and Dissertations

As competition between Celtic elites increased in Iron Age continental Europe (c. 800-25/15 BC), ornamentation of the head figured prominently in status displays across the Celtic world. Mortuary and iconographic contexts reveal that headgear made of both metal and organic materials marked elite status, but materials varied regionally by gender and age throughout the Iron Age. The purpose of this project was to capitalize on the rare opportunity provided by birch-bark hats from west-central European elite burials to investigate organic headgear and the possibility that different types of headgear may have marked different social positions within the elite class. Birch-bark …

A Machine-Aided Approach To Generating Grammar Rules From Japanese Source Text For Use In Hybrid And Rule-Based Machine Translation Systems, Sean Michael Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Many automatic machine translation systems available today use a hybrid of pure statistical translation and rule-based grammatical translations. This is largely due to the shortcomings of each individual approach, requiring a large amount of time for linguistics experts to hand-code grammar rules for a rule-based system and requiring large amounts of source text to generate accurate statistical models. By automating a portion of the rule generation process, the creation of grammar rules could be made to be faster, more efficient and less costly. By doing statistical analysis on a bilingual corpus, common grammar rules can be inferred and exported to …

The Lived Experiences Of An Injured Athlete And Members Of A Performance Management Team During Injury Rehabilitation: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Courtney Wynne Hess

Theses and Dissertations

In response to an ever growing understanding of the biopsychosocial nature of health and well-being, multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches to rehabilitation have grown in acceptance over the past decade. Studies that have explored the effect of these two approaches have found them to be effective in improving rehabilitation outcomes (McAlister et al., 2001; Tur et al., 2003). Although they have been shown to be objectively effective, the impact that these approaches have on the lived experiences of the team employing them, and the athlete or patient they serve, is not well understood. As such, the purpose of the current study …

Institutional Influence On Documentary Form: An Analysis Of Pbs And Hbo Documentary Programs, Mark Joseph Irving

Theses and Dissertations

INSTITUTIONAL INFLUENCE ON DOCUMENTARY FORM - A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF PBS and HBO DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMS

by Mark Irving

The University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Michael Z. Newman

Beginning in the 1980s, the documentary genre has undergone a transformation to accommodate modes of stylistic expression and subjective thematic exposition previously not evident in the genre. This deviation from the form’s traditional modes of expression typically associated with fact-based, journalistic pursuits can be attributed to the institutional underpinnings of media outlets that exhibit documentary programming. These institutional factors, a consequence of an evolving marketplace and shifts …

Bus Route Operational Efficiency Evaluation In Milwaukee County, Ebtesam Hazbavi

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

BUS ROUTE OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY EVALUATION IN MILWAUKEE COUNTY

by

Ebtesam Hazbavi

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Yue Liu

Public transit systems are expanding in the majority of cities in the United States due to the increasing numbers of people who use public transportation as their main commute facility. Evaluating the efficiency of public transit systems results in providing better services for the residents on one hand and reduces the unnecessary costs on the other hand.

In this research, the efficiencies of bus routes options in County are evaluated. After reviewing different literature, Fuzzy AHP …

Welfare Queens To Childcare Queens: The Political Economy Of State Subsidized Childcare In Milwaukee, Wisconsin (2009-2012), Anika Yetunde Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Through the privatization of childcare in Wisconsin, thousands of impoverished, under-educated and low skilled African-American women became micro-enterprising entrepreneurs. In 2006 through the instituting of Wisconsin Shares (Shares), Wisconsin’s low-income childcare program, the average family daycare provider in Milwaukee County earned over $50,000 a year (Pawasarat and Quinn 2006). Drawing on neoliberal ideas of micro-enterprising entrepreneurship, these women were successful, but this success appeared to not align with the architects of Shares. Loic Wacquant (2009, 2012) argues that neoliberalism should not be viewed as market strategies or exercises, but rather, it should be viewed as a quintessential political project that …

Enacting Place: A Comparative Case Study, Anna Grosch

Theses and Dissertations

As a community-based art educator, I advocate for an arts-based educational environment that embraces postmodern tenets and encourages individuals to reflect on self and society in relation to the places in which they dwell and learn. This thesis is a dialogue on emplaced community-based art education. Issues of urban education, social justice, and critical pedagogy are considered in relation to participants’ enactments of place within two distinct community-based educational settings. In order to investigate the connections between a culture of place, place-based education, and the community-based programs of each site, the role of art and artifacts was carefully considered in …