Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Presidential Rhetoric: From The War On Drugs To The Battle Over Legalization, Manuel Antonio Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis analyzes the rhetoric executed by different presidents in order to sustain the battle against drugs. The war on drugs is one of the longest battles the United States has fought. From its inception under President Richard Nixon to Barack Obama, the war on drugs has become an institutionalized presidential program responsive to public demands for action against the spread of illegal drugs. Over the airwaves, presidential rhetorical overtures on the matter go hand in hand with the drug war on the streets. However, although presidential rhetoric remained largely consistent on combating and criminalizing drugs over much of the …

The Relative Impact Of Statistical And Anecdotal Evidence In The Evaluation Of The Risk Of Using Emerging Drugs Of Abuse, Kevin Michael Gutierrez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The recreational use of "emerging drugs" of abuse (e.g., Spice, "bath salts") is a growing problem that has taken root in the United States and is increasingly recognized as a public health concern (National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2012). However, there is a gap in knowledge regarding the level of risk that individuals associate with the use of these substances. In addition, there is a critical knowledge gap regarding how young adults utilize anecdotal and statistical information when evaluating the risk of using emerging drugs. The present study addresses these gaps in knowledge in two specific aims. First, the present …

Language Difference Between Peer And Professional Drug And Substance Abuse Counselors: What Can It Tell Us?, Lizzeth Celeste Jensen

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Language studies that explore the human mind are not new. In recent years new techniques have opened new areas of investigation. One such is whether different professional groups do not merely use language in different ways, but a) "think" differently, or b) may be professionally more effective.

This is an exploratory study that uses secondary data analysis to see if difference in approach to providing help by Peer versus Professional substance use counselors, are reflected in differences of language use. For the purpose of this study Peer will stand for those counselors which, during the interview, stated they were ex-addicts …

In Search Of Refuge: Mexican Refugees And Asylum Seekers To The U.S. From 1980 To The Present, Taylor Kristine Levy

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An estimated 130,000 Mexicans have been murdered since 2006, with another 27,000 having been officially "disappeared;" approximately 2-3% of the adult Mexican population has been forced to leave their homes due to this violence, many of whom have entered the United States seeking refuge (Molloy, 2013; Olivares, 2012). These refugees have emigrated using a variety of both authorized and unauthorized channels, with a significant (and increasing) number applying for political asylum in the United States (Lyst, 2013). This Thesis seeks to provide a historic background and comprehensive analysis of the identity and struggles of the four types of modern Mexican …

Factors Affecting Student-Athletes' Perceptions Of Online Privacy Issues On Twitter: A Communication Privacy Management Perspective, Amanda Jo Pulido

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Based on the communication privacy management perspective, this study examined student-athletes' perceptions of privacy issues on Twitter. This study used an online questionnaire survey to survey 5,576 student-athletes within C-USA. A total of 113 valid responses were used in the statistical analyses. Several linear regression analyses found that student-athletes' perceived control of private information flow on Twitter and their perceptions of choice significantly predicted the total months of using Twitter. Perceived control of private information flow on Twitter also predicts how many times they will check Twitter. Finally, student-athletes' perception of boundary ownership/linkage also predicts the total amount minutes spent …

Residential Electricity Demand In Arkansas, Ileana M. Resendez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes residential electricity demand in Arkansas. Explanatory variables utilized include real per capita income, residential electricity price, heating degree days, cooling degree days, and residential natural gas price. The results indicate that the income effect dominates the substitution effect given a real personal income increase and a decline in real electricity rates in the state of Arkansas during the period under study.

The Spillover Effects Of Conflict On Economic Growth Along The U.S.-Mexico Border, Karen Elizabeth Trevino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The violence and insecurity that Mexico has suffered since former President Calderon's war on drugs has come at a grave economic cost to the cities most affected. Businesses and citizens in counties that shared a border with the United States, however, have the ability to move their capital and businesses in search of regaining profits that had been lost due to the insecurity in their cities. These specific counties are considered to be interdependent borderlands, which signify that these borders are in a border region where one nation is symbiotically linked with the border region of an adjoining country. This …

Reinventing The Old West: Concordia Cemetery And The Power Over Space, 1800-1895, Nancy Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Utilizing Concordia Cemetery as a framework, this study analyzes the social and economic development of El Paso County and the surrounding areas after the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-48). The cemetery was a vast commercialized zone before it was a burial ground, and silenced histories, voices, and people that lived and thrived on this land are incorporated into this work. The role of the original owners, Hugh Stephenson and Juana Maria Ascarate, as well as the Mexican networks, intermarriage and Mexican American women, and the presence of ethnic Mexicans are subjects that are also examined. In addition, this Dissertation interrogates the pioneer …

The Development Of The Barriers, Elizabeth Hagelsieb-Escalera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Estimates of undiagnosed diabetics are as high as 50%. Early intervention and management can reduce the complications of diabetes; however, this is possible only after the disease has been diagnosed. A review of diabetes screening literature revealed a dearth of information regarding the diabetes screening behavior of individuals. Unlike barriers to cancer screening, little is known about barriers and facilitators to diabetes screening. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) is a logical theoretical framework to apply for the examination of screening intentions because it allows inference of behavioral predictors via survey item responses. Using the TPB framework, the Barriers and …

Gauging The Alignment Between School And Work: An Activity Theory Analysis Of Police Report Writing Instruction, Marianna R. Hendricks

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation is based on a fifteen-month study of police report writing instruction at one agency, connecting the curriculum at the training academy, field training, and the needs and expectations of multiple report audiences and users. It draws from Rhetorical Genre Studies (Miller, 1984; Russell, 2009), Activity Theory (Engeström, 2008), and Situated Learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991; Dias, Freedman, Medway, and Paré, 1999) to explore how novices learn a new genre through activity, and how this is complicated by a transition between school and work outside of a university context. Specifically, it focuses on the role of andragogical (rather than …

Decollations, Joseph Mcbirnie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following presents the critical preface to the unpublished manuscript, Decollations. Through the tapestry metaphor, the author describes the process of creating the collection through the lenses of aesthetics, psychology and mythology.

Practicing Philosophical Pluralism With `Forrest Gump' A Speech-Act Body-Mind Analysis, Robert Lorenzo Oropeza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This essay looks at three different types of philosophy: Pragmatism and communication, phenomenology and Zen Buddhism. I discuss these philosophies using the film, Forrest Gump as a guide to get through the convoluted ideas and make the concepts easier to understand. We first wade through the waters of analytical philosophy and the language game in communication. We discuss speaker's intention in meaning according to Paul Grice and Forrest's problems with the implicatures of language. In the second chapter I focus on the phenomenology of the characters as well as the perspective of the person viewing the film. How do we …

El Paso Parking Meter Demand, Edward Pallarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This manuscript analyzes the demand for parking meter purchases in El Paso, TX. A demand function is estimated using four independent variables.

An Assessment Of Income Inequality And Administrative Corruption In Less Developed Countries: The Case Of Mexico, Rosa Alicia Garcia Compean

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

N/A

Hispanic Communities And Environmental Justice: A Comparative Study Of Mobility And Exposure To Air Toxics In Houston, Maricarmen Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Environmental justice research has focused too little attention on immigrant communities. This study extends from the premise that themes of immigration and mobility among racial/ethnic minority communities must be more carefully analyzed by environmental justice (EJ) scholars. By clarifying why Hispanic people live where they live, and what factors shape their exposures to cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants, this study aims to contribute to the existing EJ body of knowledge. The analysis employs qualitative methods, implemented as part of a larger National Science Foundation-funded study. In-depth semi-structured phone interviews were conducted with randomly selected Hispanic individuals, some of whom …

An Econometric Analysis Of Retail Gasoline Prices In El Paso, Alan Andres Jimenez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Previous studies show that a variety of different variables influence retail gasoline price fluctuations. In the case of El Paso, Texas, those variables would include wholesale gasoline prices, local economic conditions, weather, and, more uniquely, cross-border economic variables associated with Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua in Mexico. To analyze the contributions of these variables to monthly price movements for gasoline in El Paso, a theoretical model is specified. From the latter construct, a reduced form equation is extracted. That specification is then expressed within an error correction framework to allow accounting for both long-run and short-run behaviors in this metropolitan economy. Results …

What Makes It Moral? Measuring Differences Between Moral And Non-Moral Attitudes, Ciara Katelyn Kidder

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Moral attitudes have unique behavioral consequences. Theory predicts that moral attitudes are uniquely different than non-moral attitudes on a variety of dimensions. Of particular interest to the current study are two cognitive characteristics: objectivity, the belief that one's moral attitudes are factual and universality, the belief that one's moral attitudes ought to apply to everyone. These constructs have only been informally examined by a handful of studies. The aim of the current research was to examine the associations of morality to objectivity and universality using idiographic Implicit Association Tests. There were two primary hypotheses. The first hypothesis was that there …

An Explanatory And Comparative Analysis Of Freight Transportation In Eu And U.S. Highways, Luis Alberto Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis provides resources for data collection regarding road freight transportation in the Unites States and the European Union, as well as an explanatory description of data available at each source. Afterwards, individual analysis of the current state of affairs of the highway freight transportation systems in U.S. and EU are performed. Thereafter, an explanatory and comparative analysis between the two land freight transportation systems is performed in terms of regulatory authorities and associations, trucks volume flow, freight weight and volume flow, major issues affecting the system, infrastructure funding sources, and major logistics hubs. Besides, a correlation analysis was performed …

Short-Run Price Dynamics In Guatemala, Miguel R. Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

An equation is estimated to model short-run price dynamics for Guatemala using ordinary least squares. The data range from 1960 to 2012. Due to the lack of complete data for interest rates, fitted values for the deposit rate are calculated using the discount rate. The aim is to measure how the consumer price index responds to changes in monetary base, real output, interest rates and exchange rates. All coefficients have their expected signs. With the exception of real output, the coefficients are found to be statistically significant at a 5% confidence level.

Si Se Puede: The Effects Of Collective Angst And Identity On Group Activism During The National Immigration Debate, Corin Sue Ramos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The United States is involved in an ongoing debate on immigration. States have passed their own laws intended to enforce federal law. The new controversial laws allow local law enforcement to act as federal immigration agents. Opponents argue these new laws unlawfully target Latinos. Latinos are of interest for politicians and lawmakers, due to their rapid growing population. The current research investigated the effects that anti-immigrant laws have on Latino citizens' American identity, ethnic identity and civic engagement. Preliminary data showed conservative Latinos have low intention of voting when primed with anti-immigrant laws. Absent from the pilot study are the …

Hip Hop Al Estilo Juárez: Organic Intellectuals In Ciudad Juárez?, Daniel Sanchez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis seeks to explore hip hop from Ciudad Juárez, where Mexican hip hop artists (MCs) use their music as an instrument of resistance and protest against the cartel lifestyle and violence that has overtaken their city, and much more than that, their lives. Their lyrics serve as first-person narratives, which touch on daily experiences of living in a city overrun by drug cartels and a corrupt government.

Phonetic Realization Of /P, T, K/ In Spanish-English Code-Switching, Gisela Simental

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The aim of this investigation is to contribute to the relatively unexplored area of phonetic realization of sounds during code switching. The present study will focus on the analysis of voice onset time of voiceless stops in stressed word initial position. Spanish and English are ideal languages to test how bilinguals process and produce the low-level phonetic properties of stops during CS. Both languages have the same set of voiceless stops: /p, t, k/, yet these stops have different phonetic (or acoustic) characteristics in each language. Data was collected from the naturalistic speech of balanced bilinguals who were exposed to …

Acknowledging The Homeless Who Are Not Mentally Ill In The Context Of Medicalized Housing Assistance, Curtis Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis describes the homeless population in El Paso, Texas, and discusses data coming from an adaptation of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) point-in-time (PIT) survey methodology. It improves on previous methods used in homeless counts while allowing social science students to participate in hands-on training. Surveys were collected in "traditional homeless spaces," using convenience sample methods as well as in non-traditional spaces where homeless Hispanics were believed to be more heavily represented. Additionally, snowball techniques were used to find and survey marginally-housed individuals. The number of homeless individuals surveyed exceeded that of the official El Paso PIT count of …

North Korean Supernotes: Nuclear Arms Financed By Counterfeit Currency, Michael Yatskievych

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Michael Yatskievych, University of Texas at El Paso

Abstract of Master's Thesis, Submitted 21 May 2014:

North Korean Supernotes: Nuclear Arms Financed By Counterfeit Currency

The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate whether DPRK is producing high quality counterfeit US currency, supernotes, and has determined to what extent supernotes are financing North Korea's emerging nuclear arms program.

The application of Analysis of Competing Hypotheses, ACH, satisfied this study's purpose by meeting the following objectives: the development of multiple hypotheses in an attempt to explain a supernote-nuclear arms program link, assessing evidence from assorted sources, providing a diagnostic weighing …

Essays On The Digital Divide, Belal Abdelfattah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The digital divide is a phenomenon that is globally persistent, despite rapidly decreasing costs in technology. While much of the variance in the adoption and use of information communication technology (ICT) that defines the digital divide can be explained by socioeconomic and demographic variables, there is still significant unaccounted variance that needs to be explained if the world's population is expected to be brought more fully into the digital age. The present research addresses this need with three cross-country studies. Study 1 primarily investigates the time individuals spend with traditional media sources as a likely explanation for their frequency of …

The Changkufeng And Nomonhan Incidents - The Undeclared Border War And Its Impact On World War Ii, Tobias Block

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nomonhan and Changkufeng

Immediately following the Mukden Incident in 1931 and the founding of Manchukuo, the Japanese supported puppet state in northeastern China, the Imperial Japanese Army found itself again face to face with their old enemy Russia, now the Soviet Union. The border disputes between these two countries would soon become armed conflicts. The Japanese Korea Army as well as the Kwantung Army, stationed in Manchuria, would soon follow a policy of limited war against the Soviet Red Army, here in particular during the battles of Changkufeng, in 1938, and Nomonhan in 1939.

These two battles proved to be …

Higher Education And Foreign Direct Investment: A Study Of Mexican States, Yuyinska Krystal Sanchez-Osio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Factors that attract Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico at the state level are analyzed. Special focus is placed on how human capital promotes growth by attracting more FDI flows in a state. A model that explains the amount of FDI received in Mexico in 2012 is developed at a subnational level. The main independent variable is human capital, and it is measured using percentage of university graduates. The model controls for other possible determinant factors such as population, infrastructure, wages, fiscal incentives, geographic location, ease of doing business, and past experience in attracting FDI. It is tested using ordinary least …

The Argentine Tango As A Discursive Instrument And Agent Of Social Empowerment: Buenos Aires, 1880-1955, Lorena Elizabeth Tabares

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As an indisputable central element of Argentine popular culture, the tango constitutes much more than an artistic expression or a recreational activity. It is the manifestation of a collective ideology and idiosyncrasy. The development of the tango as a song of the people and social history between the 1880's and the first half of the 20th century, was not merely the result of a matter of identification but more importantly, the fact that it, in its `tridimensionality' comprised of music, dance and lyrics, offered the milieu to the existence of the people that identified with it. In other words, the …

The Multicultural Study Of Psychopathy: An Examination Of Latin American Differences, Chelsea Spraberry Tekell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Psychopathy is a personality disorder that is composed of characteristics that include poverty of empathy, lack of anxiety or fear, impulsive actions, and manipulation of others. The definition and measurement of psychopathy has changed over time and remains controversial. Ethnicity is an under researched area of psychopathy. In particular, previous psychopathy research has focused primarily on European American men. Despite increased attention to differences between African Americans and European Americans, Latin Americans continue to be overlooked, with only a small number of studies examining psychopathy among individuals from Latin ethnicities. The current study is among the first to examine psychopathy …

Operational Code And Al-Ikhwan: An Assessment Of The Evolution Of The Muslim Brotherhood's Operational Code And Possible Public Diplomacy Options For The United States, Robert Kevin Thomson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The primary aim of this Thesis is to provide the reader with a firm understanding of the evolution of the Muslim Brotherhood's operational code from the early 2000s to 2013. Specifically, this research will address and analyze the evolution of the Brotherhood's political rhetoric from its historical context to the present. The Brotherhood's political rhetoric will be analyzed utilizing Operational Code Analysis. The secondary aim of this research is to provide a potential framework for policymakers and diplomats to utilize public diplomacy and strategic communication strategies to engage and constrain the influence of the Brotherhood in a globalized society. This …