Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Monitoring Welfare In Captive Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) Using Individual Positional Behavior And Substrate Use Profiles, Joseph Lara

Theses and Dissertations

The welfare of captive chimpanzees partly depends on the structural features present in their enclosure. An individual’s manner of expressing positional behaviors depends on these environmental characteristics and may be reflective of their physical and mental health. This thesis seeks to further the scientific understanding of the relationships between positional behavior, substrate use and captive chimpanzee welfare. In pursuit of this goal, I designed and installed a novel vertical climbing aid onto a climbable platform structure within an enclosure at the chimpanzee sanctuary, Chimp Haven, in an effort to encourage mobility and vertical space use in the enclosure’s residents. Additionally, …

The Role Of Fake And Fraudulent Objects Within The Museum Context: A Case Study Of Tiwanaku Ceramics In The Milwaukee Public Museum Collection, Armando Manresa

Theses and Dissertations

During the 20th century thousands, if not millions, of fake and fraudulent artifacts made their way into museum collections around the world through purchases, donations, and museum exchanges. The growth in Pre-Columbian collections, in particular, was precipitated by the many archaeological discoveries during that time as well as the continued looting of known and unrecorded sites across Latin America. As authentic items flooded the collectors’ market and from there into art and natural history museums, a mass-scale industry in fake and fraudulent artifacts arose to meet the demand. These items were primarily created for tourists, but some artists became so …

The Dehumanizing Violence Index: An Old World/New World Comparison Of Overkill In Archaeological Contexts, Paul Moriarity

Theses and Dissertations

THE DEHUMANIZING VIOLENCE INDEX: AN OLD WORLD/NEW WORLD COMPARISON OF OVERKILL IN ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS

Paul J. Moriarity

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2023Under the Supervision of Professor Bettina Arnold

Extreme forms of violent behavior appear in various cultural contexts throughout human history. This study compares so-called “overkill” sites from the late Central European Neolithic and the Pueblo Period of the American Southwest to develop a systematic approach to distinguishing between the levels of violence exhibited in overkill assemblages, compare and define possible motivations and choices for extreme violent behavior, and determine whether the purposeful use of extreme violence in temporally and …

Three Essays In Health Economics, Sezen Ozcan Onal

Theses and Dissertations

In the first chapter of my dissertation, I examine the effects of the Affordable Care Act Medicaidexpansion on the labor supply decisions of older workers. To investigate this, I employ a triple-differences (DDD) methodology, utilizing variations in individuals’ health insurance status and the expansion choices made by states. The results of my analysis shows that with Medicaid expansion, insured workers without retirement health insurance (RHI) decreased full-time work by 7.06 percentage points relative to those with RHI and those without any employer-sponsored coverage at all. Among those no longer working full-time, 82 percent transitioned to complete retirement. Moving on to …

How Does The Centrality Of A Traumatic Event Affect One’S Emotion Dysregulation?, Jonathan Isaiah Santiago

Theses and Dissertations

Trauma is common and can result in significant longstanding distress. However, not everyone who goes through traumatic experiences develops stress-related forms of psychopathology. There are a lot of factors that can influence the development of psychopathology and understanding what factors following trauma lead to long-term distress would help identify potential targets for treatment. One of those factors is known as centrality of event which is a trauma focused appraisal of a traumatic event that can influence the amount of stress one experiences following a traumatic event. Centrality of event has been linked with PTSD symptoms, and PTSD has been linked …

Dancing Bees, Singing Whales. The Impact Of Idiosyncratic Information On Children’S Attitudes Toward And Moral Reasoning About Animals, Vittoria Sipone

Theses and Dissertations

Research in conservation psychology suggests that the tendency to engage in conservation behaviors develops from the interplay of both knowledge of and affinity toward nature (Schmitz & Rocha, 2018; Berenguer, 2007). The present study explores this connection between knowledge and attitudes by investigating the impact of information on individuals' attitudes and care toward animals. This study focuses on knowledge in the form of idiosyncratic information, due to considerations of potential cognitive strengths as well as the pervasiveness of “fun facts” in everyday life. Idiosyncratic information about natural items is not likely to be found in science textbooks at grade-school level, …

Entangled Conquest: A Study Of Cultural Hybridization And Change In Norman Ireland, Sean Mcconnel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs entanglement theory and new geophysical macro-analytical methods to

examine the spread of Norman culture in late medieval Ireland. The traditional theories of

Anglo-Norman conquest by mass migration, by military conquest, and by political conquest are

reviewed and compared to a more nuanced theory of Normanization, which suggests that

genetically Irish people, who spoke Irish, practiced Irish law, and pursued Irish interests were

primarily responsible for what is considered "Norman" material culture on the Island. This

dissertation presents the idea that adherence to the English king was a necessary and expedient

action on the part of Irish lords …

Breaking Glass: A Pedagogical Approach To Understanding Voice In Media, Casey James O'Ceallaigh

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to examine the remediation of voices in media, specifically focusing on the reproduction of voices across different genres and the pedagogical approaches used to teach writing and media literacy. Much of the extant media is created with practices that historically have excluded minority groups, such as people with disabilities and people who speak other languages in addition to English in the US. This project develops a theory of interstices, which are both physical and metaphorical spaces in genres that can become sites of intervention through the composition process. These interstices are burdened by their many complex relationships …

The Supreme Court's Third Shift: Policy, Precedent, And Public Opinion Via The Shadow Docket, Taraleigh Davis

Theses and Dissertations

The Supreme Court is attracting more attention to its emergency docket – cases decided with neither briefing nor oral argument. These cases, while seemingly focused on immediate, individual problems, could potentially create policy in a way not necessarily intended or approved by Congress. Because the Court is particularly reliant on institutional support for effective policymaking and because we know that people support the Court, at least in part, due to its legalistic nature and its specific procedures, some are concerned that making decisions using this alternative, less public process as well as relying on these hastily decided cases as precedent …

“The Same Information Is Given To Everyone”: Algorithmic Awareness Of Online Platforms, Meghan Lindsey Dowell

Theses and Dissertations

After years of discourse surrounding the concept of “filter bubbles,” information seekers still find themselves in echo chambers of their own thoughts and ideas. This study is an exploratory, mixed methods analysis of platform privacy/data policies and user awareness of the personal and usage data collected and user awareness of how platforms use this data to moderate and serve online content. Utilizing Bucher’s (2018) framework to research algorithms through the black box heuristic, this project learns how users inform themselves about data collection and use policies, and their awareness of algorithmic curation. The algorithmic systems that return search results or …

Let Go And Let God: An Ethnographic Study Of Overeaters Anonymous, Subjectivity, And Extreme Eating Distress, Abby Forster

Theses and Dissertations

Academic discussions regarding eating disorders have been dominated by two frameworks: biomedical and feminist. While the former explains eating disorders as a product of individual pathology, the latter asserts the cause is culture. An aspect of culture that is often suggested is neoliberalism. This ethnographic study utilizes the term “eating distress” to acknowledge the localized idioms that occur outside of the bounds of biomedical settings. The research documents the experiences of many members of Overeaters Anonymous dealing with eating distress within a social context in which their body types are stigmatized. The dissertation examines the relationship between subjectivity, Overeaters Anonymous, …

Special Thanks To Reviewers 2021-2022, Woonsup Choi

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

Sincere thanks are extended to the individuals who reviewed manuscripts for International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research during the period from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2022.

Emojis And Emotion Categories For Fiction: Survey Questions, Wan-Chen Lee, Li-Min Huang, Juliana Hirt

School of Information Studies Faculty Articles

This is the survey instrument and data for a research project on Emojis and Emotion Categories for Fiction. This is an anonymous online survey that collected 64 responses from self-identified fiction readers who are 18 years or older. The questions asked participants to 1) select mood categories (e.g., angry, cozy) that describe the atmosphere/setting, emotion, and tone/narrative of fiction. 2) Select all the emojis that represent the 30 emotion categories provided. The results verify the three families of mood categories for fiction, and create mappings between emojis and mood categories.

Virtual Excavations: Digital Repositories, Data Reuse, And Ethically Accessible Archaeology, Allison Lindsey Densmore

Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations produce massive amounts of data, yet these data are often sequestered by the original researchers or put behind paywalls that restrict access to academic publications. This inaccessibility makes it difficult to justify the destructive nature of archaeology. Open-access digital data management systems such as the Digital Archaeological Record (tDAR) provide archaeologists with new ways to preserve, share, and, most importantly, reuse archaeological data to combat this issue of data sustainability. The goal of this project is to investigate how these digital repositories allow for ethically responsible data access and reuse, thus mitigating the cycle of destruction, hoarding, and …

Reaching Non-Work Destinations: Accessibility And Its Impacts On Travel Behavior, Sai Sun

Theses and Dissertations

As people’s daily activities are diverse, having access to various opportunities is important. However, the existing body of accessibility literature places great emphasis on job accessibility; research on non-work accessibility is limited. To fill the gap, this dissertation examines accessibility to four types of non-work opportunities (healthcare, retail, recreation, and food services) by three transportation modes (automobile, transit, and walking) as well as their impacts on travel in the Milwaukee region. This dissertation examines accessibility disparities across different racial/ethnic groups and income groups in Milwaukee County by comparing weighted average accessibility and overlaying spatial distribution of accessibility with population distributions. …

Acceptability And Feasibility Of Telehealth Delivered Written Exposure Therapy With College Students, Maya Anais Krek

Theses and Dissertations

Full and subthreshold presentations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are both functionally impairing and chronic. Therefore, development of feasible and acceptable treatments for both is imperative. Written Exposure Therapy (WET), a brief five-session in-person PTSD treatment, has the potential to be successfully administered accessibly via a telehealth format due to minimal therapist contact and short duration of treatment. This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of WET delivered via a telehealth format to college students experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms.

Participants (N = 4) were college students who were impacted by at least one traumatic event and had associated posttraumatic stress …

Air Cargo: Carriers, Cost, And Competition, Zoe Laulederkind

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the cost structure of U.S. air carriers participating in the freight transport sector. From 1991 to 2021, events such as the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the global financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic have coincided with various events directly impacting the air freight transport industry. During this 30-year period, air transport has developed and implemented global tracking systems, engaged in labor negotiations, and weathered supply-chain shocks all of which warrant comprehensive evaluation of the U.S. air freight transport industry from the cost perspective. Chapter 1 of this thesis explores existence of natural monopoly and economies of scope among …

The Political Economy Of State Fragility And The Extent To Which It Fuels International Migration Amongst Nigerians., Funmilola Olorunfemi

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the political economy of state fragility and the extent to which it fuels international migration amongst Nigerians and adopt a qualitative research method to critically review 15 articles that was identified using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). The thesis argues that while migration is not a new phenomenon in Nigeria, there is a renewed fervor amongst Nigerians to migrate and that migration amongst Nigerians is in the context of forced mobility. Employing thematic analysis, the thesis demonstrated how state fragility factors which includes economic factors, sociological factors, geographical factors, and unifying factors …

Prior Experiences Of Racial Discrimination Impact Acute Resting-State Connectivity Of The Bnst As A Predictor Of Ptsd In Black Adults, Kevin Petranu

Theses and Dissertations

Altered resting-state activity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) – which mediates anxious arousal and threat monitoring – is implicated in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experiences of racial discrimination can also increase one’s risk for developing PTSD by eliciting chronic states of hypervigilance, which impair essential resting-state processes related to fear extinction. Considering the frequency in which Black Americans experience racial discrimination, the current study investigated acute BNST resting-state functional connectivity as a predictor of future PTSD symptoms, as well as the impact of racial discrimination on the BNST as a predictor of PTSD. …

Prior Experiences Of Racial Discrimination Impact Acute Resting-State Connectivity Of The Bnst As A Predictor Of Ptsd In Black Adults, Kevin Petranu

Theses and Dissertations

Altered resting-state activity of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) – which mediates anxious arousal and threat monitoring – is implicated in the etiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experiences of racial discrimination can also increase one’s risk for developing PTSD by eliciting chronic states of hypervigilance, which impair essential resting-state processes related to fear extinction. Considering the frequency in which Black Americans experience racial discrimination, the current study investigated acute BNST resting-state functional connectivity as a predictor of future PTSD symptoms, as well as the impact of racial discrimination on the BNST as a predictor of PTSD. …

The Evergreen Challenges Of Healing: An Evaluation Of Urban Green Space In Harambee, Kacee Ochalek

Theses and Dissertations

Urban green space initiatives have emerged in low- and middle-income cities as a solution to disinvestment, the production of more positive public health metrics, and a tool of community engagement. While the production of urban greening provides ample room for applause, The City of Milwaukee’s Healing Spaces Initiative model regarding the ongoing construction of green space and the implementation of maintenance creates challenges that perpetuate racist capitalistic notions of the neoliberal project. This paper presents reports from participant observation, document analysis, and 17 qualitative interviews with representatives of the City of Milwaukee, community partners, garden leaders, and residents. The data …

A Course In Legal English And U.S. Law For Undergraduate Japanese Law Students, Leonard George Leverson

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I discuss the design of a Legal English and U.S. Law course for undergraduate Japanese law students visiting for a semester at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s English Language Academy. I review how I went about analyzing the students’ needs and wants and the factors affecting their motivation. I explain my philosophy of second language teaching, in particular, that second language teaching should contain an element of play. I describe how I sought to introduce a play element in the course through such techniques as watching law-related movies, role play activities, Kahoot quizzes, and pronunciation drills. Course design …

Differentiating Human From Nonhuman Bone: Insights From A Medical Examiner’S Collection, Kenosha, Wisconsin, Jordan L. Fourshee

Theses and Dissertations

Forensic anthropologists who work in medical examiner’s offices or similar contexts frequently need to differentiate nonhuman from human skeletal or partially decomposed remains. If we, forensic anthropologists, were more aware of which nonhuman bones were most common in such situations, we might be able to improve our training programs. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Kenosha County, southwest Wisconsin, accumulated over 1,940 nonhuman bones over a period of several years, most likely primarily between 2000 and 2005. These are the focus of this thesis, which presents a quantitative analysis of the most frequently encountered taxa and elements. The …

Policy Uncertainty, Tariff Rate, Monetary Policy And Income Inequality: An Asymmetric Analysis, Mehrnoosh Hasanzade

Theses and Dissertations

This study offers a contribution to the income inequality literature within the traditional Kuznets model and explores the relationship between income inequality and a set of macroeconomic variables such as policy uncertainty, tariff rate, and monetary policy. By implementing a Nonlinear Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model, I aim to identify the possible nonlinear effects of policy uncertainty, tariff rate -as a measure of trade openness-, and monetary policy on income inequality in United States and its 50 states and District of Columbia. The advantage of choosing this methodology is that it helps researchers to explain both long run relationships and …

Exploration Of Older Adults’ Travel Behavior And Their Transportation Barriers, Hamideh Moayyed

Theses and Dissertations

Both the number of older adults and their proportion of the population are increasing rapidly in the United States. By 2040, about 20.7% of the U.S. population will be 65 and older (Harrison & Ragland, 2003a). These dramatic changes in the composition of the population will bring new challenges to the provision of transportation services. This is because the travel patterns and needs of older adults are likely to become more complicated. A growing number of people will find it increasingly difficult to meet their transportation needs. As the life expectancy of older adults is likely to continue to increase, …

The Caretaking Of Eve Online: Institutional Ethics And Enactments At Ccp Games, Joshua William Rivers

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnography examines the Icelandic video game developer CCP Games, the makers of EVE Online—a massively-multiplayer online game (MMO) that takes place in a star cluster far, far away. Through my exploration of CCP Games as an institution over the span of fourteen months, I highlight how corporations are culturally-situated, enacted entities. Simultaneously, I demonstrate that these culturally-located actors who serve as the architects of our digital infrastructures undertake such efforts from their situated vantage points, thereby embedding particular ethical commitments into the digital landscapes they craft and within which we live our social lives. Created with the intent to …

Function And Aesthetic Value: An Analysis Of The Milwaukee Public Museum's Thai Royal Silver Collection, Aislinn Sanders

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes 45 objects from the Thai Royal Silver collection currently housed at the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM). Of these, 41 were donated by a single donor, Dr. Louis Schapiro, who collected the objects during his time working as Medical Advisor for the King of Siam in 1931-1932. Following his death, his son Mark held onto the objects until 1969, when they became a part of the MPM’s collection. The chosen objects include boxes, bowls, and other types of vessels. Through researching this collection, the following questions guided the direction for this thesis: How did the silver industry begin …

Essay In Bayesian Econometrics, Loren P. Wagner

Theses and Dissertations

Bayesian Econometrics is not as popular as the more common frequentists methods. However, there are problems that Bayesian methods can handle that are not amenable to frequentists methods. The essays to follow show two such applications where Bayesian methods offer solutions to problems posed in widely different areas of economics. In the first essay, the predictive posterior distribution is used to calculate a number of economic quantities that often require extensive work arounds using frequentist methods. In the second essay, it is shown that Bayesian estimation techniques can handle situations wherein an independent variable exhibits no variability, a situation that …

Sorokdo: From The Island Of Stigma To The Island Of Historical Reflection, Eun-Hye Choung, Hyun-Jin Cho, Jewon Ryu, Suh-Hee Choi

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

This article focuses on Sorokdo Island (Jeollanam-do, South Korea) as a remnant of the stigmatized landscape reflecting Hansen’s Disease and the Japanese colonial power. Sorokdo began to be stigmatized due to the Japanese colonial rule in the early 20th century when patients with Hansen's Disease were forced to relocate there, suffering from human rights violations and labor exploitation. Isolation and the management of the patients by suppression and control were justified with the logic of modern values of sanitization supported by the colonial rule. Stigma has remained even after the liberation from the colonial power. Continuously recognized by people as …

Virtual Water And Agricultural Exports During Recent Drought In California, Wonsuh Song, Alida Cantor, Heejun Chang

International Journal of Geospatial and Environmental Research

In recent years, the western United States has been experiencing severe droughts. In this paper we focus on the state of California, which has a complex and vast water conveyance and irrigation system to support intensive agricultural production. We examine agricultural production and exports, in particular ‘virtual water’ exports, to better understand whether and how agricultural producers responded to recent drought conditions. We specifically focus on agricultural exports from 2010 to 2019 in order to better understand virtual water export during the recent drought. We show that despite occurrence of severe drought, California growers have largely continued their agricultural production …