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Articles 1 - 23 of 23
Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Does Prize Sharing Close The Gender-Based Gap Of Competition In Nepal?, Supriya Adhikari
Does Prize Sharing Close The Gender-Based Gap Of Competition In Nepal?, Supriya Adhikari
Master's Theses
Past research has shown that even when women perform
equally as men, they are less competitive when cash is provided as
incentive. Using the experimental design of Cassar and Rigdon
(2021), where in a real effort tournament a social incentive
motivates women to compete more and closes the gender gap in
competitiveness, we examine if this will be found in a Nepal
sample. Following the evolutionary literature that suggests women
need each other’s support for child care, participants are given an
option to share the prize they win to help them earn friendships and
bonds in a competitive game. Our …
Trajectories Of Adaptive Functioning Among Youth With Spina Bifida: The Influence Of Neurocognitive Functioning And Parental Scaffolding, Adrien Winning
Trajectories Of Adaptive Functioning Among Youth With Spina Bifida: The Influence Of Neurocognitive Functioning And Parental Scaffolding, Adrien Winning
Master's Theses
Youth with spina bifida (SB), a congenital birth defect affecting the central nervous system, are at risk of experiencing an array of psychosocial and functional deficits (Copp et al., 2015; Holmbeck et al., 2003). Indeed, previous research has documented difficulties across the three adaptive functioning domains outlined by the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD): conceptual (e.g., communication, self-direction, functional academics), social (e.g., interpersonal skills), and practical (e.g., self-care, navigating health-care; Copp et al., 2015). Despite this evidence, whether or not children with SB typically acquire skills across development is largely unknown. Additionally, little is known about risk …
The Long-Run Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Infant Mortality, Isabel Miranda
The Long-Run Effects Of Tropical Cyclones On Infant Mortality, Isabel Miranda
Master's Theses
In the United States alone, each tropical cyclone causes an average of $14.6 billion worth of damages. In addition to the destruction of physical infrastructure, natural disasters also negatively impact human capital formation. These losses are often more difficult to observe, and therefore, are over looked when quantifying the true costs of natural disasters. One particular effect is an increase in infant mortality rates, an important indicator of a country’s general socioeconomic level. This paper utilizes a model created by Anttila-Hughes and Hsiang, that takes advantage of annual variation in tropical cyclones using annual spatial average maximum wind speeds and …
First Thirty Days Of Life: Examining Calf Behavioral Development In Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus Leucas) And Pacific White-Sided Dolphins (Lagenorhyncus Obliquidens) At One Zoological Facility, Kendal Smith
Master's Theses
Cetacean development is important for general comparative understanding and the implementation of informed husbandry policies. Due to the inaccessibility of many of these species in the wild, researchers can study managed care populations to better understand basic developmental patterns of cetaceans, as well as to improve husbandry policies for facility animals. However, no previous studies have attempted to observe the behavioral development of Pacific white-sided dolphins (Lagenorhyncus obliquidens). Eight beluga whale calves and four Pacific white-sided dolphin calves were observed for the first 30 days of life to determine the developmental trajectory of several typically monitored behaviors. The …
Development Of Semantic Reference For Location Symbols By Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) Using A Two-Way Communication Keyboard, Alyssa Taylor
Master's Theses
The ability for humans to communicate with another species has been an aspiration and well documented. One example is through training animals to make associations between a designated cue and conditioned response (Pryor, 1986). Two-way communication, however, in which both species can express wants/needs has been predominantly pursued with apes and dolphins. Studies conducted by Louis Herman demonstrated the capabilities of dolphins to comprehend complex semantic and syntactic commands in an artificial language system (Herman, Richards, & Wolz, 1984). Researchers working with primates have used American Sign Language, a computer keyboard system with discrete lexigrams, and a portable lexigram keyboard …
Sweden's Great Escape: Industrialization And The Changing Productivity Cost Of Winter, Charlotte Taylor, Jesse Anttila-Hughes
Sweden's Great Escape: Industrialization And The Changing Productivity Cost Of Winter, Charlotte Taylor, Jesse Anttila-Hughes
Master's Theses
We combine a paleoclimate reconstruction of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO)- a key determinant of Scandinavian winter intensity- with four centuries of historical production data from Sweden, to examine the changing influence of climate variability on production over time. We find the colder, drier winters associated with the negative phase of the NAO led to reduced economic production for much of Swedish history, and that this relationship changed with development: during industrialization, Sweden underwent a transition from ‘level’ effects, where harsh winters lowered average incomes, to ‘growth’ effects, where it reduced growth in improving living standards. Post-industrialization, neither ‘level’ nor …
Planning Cities, Economically Or Communally: A Comparative Study Of Amsterdam And San Francisco, Raina Dawn Whittekiend
Planning Cities, Economically Or Communally: A Comparative Study Of Amsterdam And San Francisco, Raina Dawn Whittekiend
Master's Theses
Globalization has spun “community” off its axis. What once defined community is no longer the current state of the community. Increased economic transactions have led to the instability of communities that once depended on one another at the local level. These communities are now dependent on systems that do not know nor understand their actors. This lack of relationship between development and subject is witnessed and highly scrutinized in developing countries all over the world and has been intensely researched in academic literature. This thesis intends to better understand why in modernized global cities these same processes of development and …
Urbanization, Land Rights And Development: A Case Study Of Waterfront Communities In Lagos, Nigeria., Gideon Olaniyi Omoniyi
Urbanization, Land Rights And Development: A Case Study Of Waterfront Communities In Lagos, Nigeria., Gideon Olaniyi Omoniyi
Master's Theses
The aim of this study is to examine the root causes of forced evictions and displacement through the current urbanization process in Lagos, Nigeria. My particular attention is devoted to the legal complexities and how ethnolinguistic identities shape land laws, influence land tenure, and construct urban citizenship. Through this process, competing claims to land ownership provide fertile ground for forced evictions and displacement. Existing scholars suggest that poor urban residents lack rights to stay in their neighborhoods, while a powerful capitalist class has emerged and dispossessed the poor from their lands. Yet these existing approaches derived from the neoclassical and …
Ambiguity Aversion: Adoption, Uptake, And Trends, Adam Franklin
Ambiguity Aversion: Adoption, Uptake, And Trends, Adam Franklin
Master's Theses
What is ambiguity aversion and what is its role as a determinant of technology adoption? This study develops and implements a novel ambiguity preference instrument in the context of an ongoing RCT pilot program in southwest Uganda promoting adoption of an improved variety of sweet potato. No correlation between ambiguity aversion and crop adoption is observed, although it is suspected that RCT treatment arms including supply- and demand-side information reduced the ambiguity of the new variety, probably overcoming any ambiguity-preference-related constraints and clouding the picture. Methodological lessons learned regarding the development and implementation of an apporopriate ambiguity preference measure point …
Does Infant Formula Availability Reduce Breastfeeding?, Ingvild Madsen Lampe
Does Infant Formula Availability Reduce Breastfeeding?, Ingvild Madsen Lampe
Master's Theses
Abstract: Several key studies highlight the importance of breastfeeding and there is a broad consensus that it plays a crucial role for a child's health and cognitive development. This is especially true for the poor in developing countries, where vulnerable infants' access to proper nutrition is vital. We investigate the effect of introducing infant formula into a market on changes in breastfeeding patterns. Using the Demographic Health Surveys and annual reports from the baby food industry between 1981 and 2002 in 11 tropical countries, we find evidence that import of infant formula significantly reduces breastfeeding duration. The effects are stronger …
Defining Success: The Perspective Of Emerging Adults With Foster Care Experience, Brianna Lynne Anderson
Defining Success: The Perspective Of Emerging Adults With Foster Care Experience, Brianna Lynne Anderson
Master's Theses
Youth with experience in the foster system are often more susceptible to negative outcomes in adulthood due to their high levels of cumulative risk. The present study sought out to re-define the concept of “success” from the perspective of emerging adults with experience in the foster care system and to identify patterns among the characteristics and behaviors of foster families that promote success as these young adults transition out of the foster care system and into adulthood. Participants most frequently defined “success” as achieving personal goals. Additionally, Support and Positive Identity were found to be the most influential Developmental Assets® …
Privatization & Fdi: Examining Growth In Vietnam's Provinces, William T. Clark
Privatization & Fdi: Examining Growth In Vietnam's Provinces, William T. Clark
Master's Theses
Over the past three decades many developing countries have looked toward privatizing investment markets and relying more on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to supply needed capital investment for their emerging private sectors. In their pursuit of foreign capital, developing countries have enacted several changes in economic policy and regulation in hopes of transforming formerly rural and undeveloped countries into highly urbanized centers of global production. This is particularly true for a transitioning economy such as Vietnam, which has seen increasing privatization of industry and investment since the reforms of 1986 known as “Doi Moi.” In this study I …
Beyond The Economic: The Freedoms, Capabilities, And Social Capital Of Latin American Women Entrepreneurs In San Francisco, Melia M. Vilain
Beyond The Economic: The Freedoms, Capabilities, And Social Capital Of Latin American Women Entrepreneurs In San Francisco, Melia M. Vilain
Master's Theses
In light of the scholarly debate surrounding the goals and mixed effects of development programs, particularly in recent years in relation to microfinance, this study investigates the effects of economic development programs on Latin American women entrepreneurs in San Francisco’s Mission District. It demonstrates that microfinance, when combined with education, can provide important non-economic benefits that contribute to increased freedoms and capabilities for immigrant women entrepreneurs. Drawing on qualitative interviews with ten business owners, as well as a review of the existing literature surrounding development, immigration, and gender, this research argues that owning a business in the US can produce …
Cooperative Movement Impacts On Poverty Eradication In Indonesia: 2007-2011 Archival Research, Horohito Norhatan
Cooperative Movement Impacts On Poverty Eradication In Indonesia: 2007-2011 Archival Research, Horohito Norhatan
Master's Theses
Global leaders and institutions expend considerable time, effort, and resources to eradicate poverty in the world. In spite of these efforts, poverty persists worldwide as a trap into which millions of people continue to fall. The cooperative contribution towards poverty eradication has advanced in recent years. Cooperatives can potentially increase the economic well-being, fostering sustainable economic development at the community level (Yusuf & Ijaiya, 2009). The present study is based on a quantitative archival data analysis of cooperatives’ movement progress and poverty eradication efforts in Indonesia. The purpose of this research is to analyze the relationship between the Indonesian cooperative …
The Ontogeny Of Whistle Production In Infant Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) During The First Thirty Days Of Life, Brittany Leigh Jones
The Ontogeny Of Whistle Production In Infant Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus) During The First Thirty Days Of Life, Brittany Leigh Jones
Master's Theses
The manner in which dolphin calves acquire their whistle repertoire is largely unknown. This paper focuses on whistle development in four bottlenose dolphin calves during the first thirty days of life in order to increase our understanding of the early emergence of whistles and whistle-like vocalizations. The acoustic parameters of whistle-type vocalizations (i.e., whistles and whistlesquawks) that coincided with a bubblestream emission from the focal calf and/or its mother were analyzed, as were the behavioral states of the mother-calf pair during the emission of such vocals. Mother and calf whistle rates are inversely related, with the mother whistling more often …
The Fii Model As An Investment In Patience: Exploring Time Preferences In Medellin, Colombia, Jennifer Graham
The Fii Model As An Investment In Patience: Exploring Time Preferences In Medellin, Colombia, Jennifer Graham
Master's Theses
The motivation for this research is to explore the success behind the Oakland based Family Independence Initiative (FII) as a model for poverty alleviation. During the period of June-December 2012, nearly 200 small business owners in Medellin, Colombia participated in a field experiment intended to replicate the FII model by randomizing the treatments of setting goals, receiving conditional payments, and participating in self-help groups, as well as the combinations thereof. The data shows that the subjects in the full FII treatment group achieve more goals and have significantly higher monthly sales than those subjects in any other treatment or control …
Incentives To Improve Economic Conditions: A Field Experiment In Medellin, Colombia, Lauren Skora
Incentives To Improve Economic Conditions: A Field Experiment In Medellin, Colombia, Lauren Skora
Master's Theses
The motivation for this research is to replicate the Oakland based Family Independence Initiative (FII) and to test the components of this model. The FII program claims its success stems from a bottom-up approach structured around setting life-improving goals, mutual support groups, and small monetary incentives to achieve results. As the popularity of this program continues to gain momentum in the United States, we designed a field experiment to measure the impact of incentives on goal achievement and economic conditions as well as the overall impact of the FII model. We enrolled close to 200 small business owners in four …
A Tale Of Two Superpowers: Nigeria And China Relations, Faouziatou Aboudou Kabassi
A Tale Of Two Superpowers: Nigeria And China Relations, Faouziatou Aboudou Kabassi
Master's Theses
The study discusses the historical development of the Sino-Nigerian bilateral relations. The paper provides a detailed view of china's FDI in Nigeria and the diverse challenges faced by the oil rich country to develop its own economy through NEEDS as a result of china's economic power. China’s partnership with Nigeria is ideally for economic growth but practically poisonous to Nigeria’s development goals as China is solely pursuing its own interest and diverting its partner from working toward its NEEDS goal. A deep investigation of the relations should be reviewed for both countries. This will be needed to produce vital economic …
The Multi-Scale Dynamics Of Executive Function, Jason Anastas
The Multi-Scale Dynamics Of Executive Function, Jason Anastas
Master's Theses
Cognitive control is a central issue in developmental psychology. Traditional theories of psychology solve this problem by positing a top-down central executive, which coordinates cognitive resources in pursuit of goals. We propose an alternative explanation: cognitive control arises from physical interactions across many different timescales within the system. College and preschool aged participants were asked to complete a simple executive function task, card sorting. We found that multi-scale physical interactions differed depending on experimental constraints, and that executive function in these cases was driven primarily by flexibility in multi-scale interactions, rather than the dominance of one scale. This suggests that, …
Microfinance Partnerships: A Bridge For Refugees, Megan Fielding
Microfinance Partnerships: A Bridge For Refugees, Megan Fielding
Master's Theses
My thesis examines the extension of microfinance to a refugee community; the objective focuses on economic assistance and a bridge to provide the required basic needs, as reported by the refugee population. With the global growth of refugees, the repositioning of refugees from either being cast aside as a potentially productive society or completely overlooked, is critical. Through my research in Ecuador, my thesis takes the viewpoint that refugees do, in fact, matter, and can become productive contributors to a society. The challenge that is presented in that viewpoint is: how do they become a part of a society?
Divergent Discourses: Development Knowledge And Malian Family Planning, Savannah A. Thompson
Divergent Discourses: Development Knowledge And Malian Family Planning, Savannah A. Thompson
Master's Theses
I propose that in order to approach corrective recommendations for family planning initiatives an examination of initiative fitness is necessary. Using a Foucauldian approach, this analysis identifies the discursive formations (ideologies) at work in centralized family planning in order to elucidate the female normative model for whom initiative programs are constructed. This norm is contrasted with the lived experiences of Malian women in order to determine if the ideology dictating family planning structures is suitable for the local population. When combined with existing analyses of family planning structures and outcomes, this research helps triangulate family planning in a three-dimensional space, …
Intricacies Of Development : The Impact Of Maternal Experience And Isolation On The Social Development Of Juvenile Male Rats, Lillian Maria Christon
Intricacies Of Development : The Impact Of Maternal Experience And Isolation On The Social Development Of Juvenile Male Rats, Lillian Maria Christon
Master's Theses
Reproductive experience induces changes in females. Parity-related differences in maternal treatment of offspring can induce enduring changes in offspring. The relationships between maternal experience, early social isolation, and development were explored in rodents in this experiment. Male rats were weaned from multiparous (MP) and primiparous (PP) mothers and placed into isolation or social housing for four weeks. They were then observed in a social-interaction test. Social behavior and neural oxytocin and vasopressin were assessed post-testing, while corticosterone levels were measured across the four weeks. Weaning was extremely stressful for all offspring. PP- and MP-raised pups exhibited differences in social behavior, …
Modifications Of Nitric Oxide And Sexual Behavior In Prenatally Stressed Male Rats, Stephen D. Miller
Modifications Of Nitric Oxide And Sexual Behavior In Prenatally Stressed Male Rats, Stephen D. Miller
Master's Theses
Normal male sexual differentiation is the culmination of perfectly timed, prenatal gonadal hormone release. Prenatal stress (PS) has a detrimental effect upon this process, obstructing the natural development of brain structures and sexual behavior. Prenatally-stressed male rats exhibit many physiological and neuroendocrinological differences when compared to control males. PS has a particularly harmful effect upon male sexual behavior, to which the neurotransmitter nitric oxide (NO) has been shown to be intimately involved. The present experiment examined whether PS reduces nNOS, the rate limiting enzyme of NO, in the medial preoptic area (rnPOA) of male rats, and whether administration of the …