Digital Commons Network^™

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder In Childhood Is Associated With Cognitive Test Profiles In The Geriatric Population But Not With Mild Cognitive Impairment Or Alzheimer's Disease, N. Ivanchak, Erin L. Abner, S. A. Carr, S. J. Freeman, A. Seybert, John Ranseen, Gregory A. Jicha

Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Faculty Publications

The frequency of ADHD in the aging population and its relationship to late-life cognitive decline has not been studied previously. To address this gap in our understanding, the Wender-Utah ADHD Rating scale (WURS) was administered to 310 geriatric subjects with cognitive status ranging from normal cognition to mild cognitive impairment to overt dementia. The frequency of WURS-positive ADHD in this sample was 4.4%. WURS scores were not related to cognitive diagnoses, but did show nonlinear associations with tasks requiring sustained attention. The frequency of ADHD appears stable across generations and does not appear to be associated with MCI or dementia …

Voices Of Latino/A Immigrants In Southeast Michigan: Beyond The Criminal/Victim Dichotomy, Maya Barak

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Following humanitarian, social justice, and labor organizing traditions that readily incorporate Latino immigrants’ voices into their work, and drawing upon postmodern, feminist, and activist schools of thought, this study illuminates the history of immigration policy and discourse in America and the Latino community’s knowledge and expertise about life as an undocumented Latino immigrant in Southeast Michigan. The development of increasingly restrictive immigration policies is traced, paying special attention to the adaptation of a criminal justice/enforcement models to the realm of immigration control and the concurrent criminalization of undocumented immigrants. The effects of current immigration and immigrant-specific policies on criminal offenses …

Filles Éveillées: Programme Pour Les Adolescentes Employées De Maison—Guide Du Mentor, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Ce curriculum est une composante du programme «Filles Éveillées» de renforcement des compétences et de création d'espaces sûrs pour les adolescentes migrantes engagées comme employées de maison dans les zones urbaines du Burkina Faso. L'approche du programme consiste à donner aux filles, un espace sûr qui leur est spécialement dédié et où elles peuvent rencontrer des amies et apprendre des sujets importants sous la direction d'un mentor de sexe féminin. Les séances sont conçues pour être réalisées dans l'ordre indiqué, en commençant par les compétences de vie courante, avant de passer aux capacités financières, puis à la santé et l'hygiène, …

Addressing The Needs Of Girls At Risk Of Early Marriage And Married Adolescent Girls In Burkina Faso, Sarah Engebretsen, Gisele Kaboré

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

Early marriage occurs frequently in rural areas of Burkina Faso and curtails girls' ability to complete their education and fulfill their potential. Once married, girls tend to be less mobile and have limited social networks compared to unmarried girls, and married girls are expected to begin childbearing almost immediately. Given their young age, pregnant adolescents may be at risk of complications during childbirth. Despite the large number of married girls and girls at risk of early marriage in Burkina Faso’s rural areas, few programs address the issue of early marriage directly. Furthermore, the country lacks services tailored to their needs. …

Conception D'Un Programme Centré Sur Les Filles : Boîte À Outils Pour L'Elaboration, Le Renforcement Et L'Expansion De Programmes Destinés Aux Adolescentes, Karen Austrian, Dennitah Ghati

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

“Conception d’un programme centré sur les filles: Boîte à outils pour l’elaboration, le renforcement et l’expansion de programmes destinés aux adolescentes” est un ensemble d’outils et de directives pour renforcer les programmes destinés aux adolescentes dans les zones urbaines du Kenya. Basée sur les discussions d’une réunion de 2010 du Kenya Adolescent Girls’ Brain Trust, organisée par le Centre Binti Pamoja et le Population Council, la boîte à outils s’adresse à toute personne désireuse de travailler avec des adolescentes de 10 à 24 ans. Elle peut être utile au concepteur ou à l’exécutant d’un programme, à la personne chargée de …

Survey Of Young People In Egypt (Sype) 2009—Final Report, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

This document contains the Final Report for SYPE 2009. Responding to a dearth of data on youth in Egypt, the Population Council conducted a comprehensive situation analysis of Egyptian adolescents and young people: the Survey of Young People in Egypt (SYPE) 2009, which covered a nationally representative sample of 15,029 young people aged 10-29. SYPE collected data on the five key life transitions of education, work, family formation; health; and civic and political participation. SYPE follows up an earlier survey conducted by the Population Council in 1997, The Adolescence and Social Change in Egypt (ASCE) survey. SYPE updates the results …

Female Genital Mutilation Practices In Kenya: The Role Of Alternative Rites Of Passage. A Case Study Of Kisii And Kuria Districts, Habil Oloo, Monica Wanjiru, Katy Newell-Jones

Reproductive Health

This research was undertaken by the Population Council to better understand female genital mutilation (FGM) as currently practiced by the Kuria and Kisii communities in Kenya. The study investigated current attitudes and practices in relation to FGM, awareness and attitudes toward the alternative rite of passage (ARP), and factors which encourage individuals to make decisions to abandon FGM. The findings show that FGM is still a celebrated public event among the Kuria, whereas in Kisii, it is a private family affair. The study suggests that the success of ARP as an approach to abandoning FGM is strongly dependent on the …

The Role Of Ad-36 And Its E4orf-1 Protein In Modulating Glycemic Control, Emily Jane Dhurandhar

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current treatment strategies for Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) include a range of anti-diabetic drugs, supplemented by lifestyle modifications to reduce dietary fat intake and body fat. However, for their anti-diabetic action, most drugs recruit insulin signaling pathways, which are already impaired in T2DM. Also, compliance and success in achieving sustained improvements in diet or obesity over the long term is marginal. Therefore, an agent that improves diabetes independent of insulin signaling or lifestyle changes may be highly useful. Human adenovirus Ad36 offers such a model. Ad36 improves glycemic control in chow-fed mice or rats and attenuates diabetes and hepatic …

Boundaries And Breaches: Complexities And Strategies Down On The Farm, Debra S. Kershaw

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Employing a wide range of theoretical and methodological tools, practitioners within an array of disciplines have attempted to gain new understanding about the structural changes in the agricultural system in the United States and around the world. From Agricultural Economists to Sociologists, quantitative and qualitative research has attempted to shed light on structural change in agriculture and its implications for the real lives of farmers, their families, and consumers of their goods. The current research adopts a comparative-historical approach to examining the particular affects of structural change in six counties in central Nebraska. The general theoretical frame on which this …

Chinese Influence On Western Women's Dress In American Vogue Magazine, 1960-2009, Yao Zeng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Chinese culture has dramatically influenced Western women’s fashionable dress over many centuries. Researchers have studied Chinese dress and its influence on Western women’s dress in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century. However, no research has systematically examined Chinese dress influences on Western women’s dress from the time that China reopened its door to the West in the 1970s and into the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study is to trace Chinese influence in Western women’s dress from 1960 to 2009 in American Vogue magazine. The specific aims of this study are to identify and record the influence of …

Anthoethnography: Emerging Research Into The Culture Of Flora, Aesthetic Experience Of Plants, And The Wildflower Tourism Of The Future, John C. Ryan

Research outputs 2011

How does anthoethnography contribute to the development of understandings of aesthetic experiences of wild plants and wildflower tourism? As exemplified by the quintessentially aesthetic industry of wildflower tourism, the culture of flora represents diverse engagements between people and plants. Such complex engagements offer further avenues for research. The critical methodology of anthoethnography has been one such approach to circumscribing the values, practices and rhetoric of wildflower tourism. Interviews have revealed perceptual phenomena such as the orchid and everlasting effects as two counterpoised examples of the differences between visual aesthetic values occurring in the region. For appreciators such as Tinker, botanical …

Selling Sin: How Culture Influences The Sale Of Firearm Suppressors In Australia And New Zealand, Martin Maccarthy, Martin O'Neill, Helen Cripps

Research outputs 2011

This paper is a summary of a 2011 academic study commissioned by the New South Wales Government (Game Council) investigating the possible legalizing of firearm sound moderators for hunting and shooting. The study examined the pragmatic advantages and disadvantages of this product in the event it could be made available to the general public in Australia. A comparison between Australia and New Zealand vis-à-vis public access to sound moderators highlights not only the opposite ends of the continuum adopted by two similar countries, but also the arbitrary nature of how attitudes influence product acceptability and availability. Advantages of de-criminalisation in …

Review Of Indigenous Offender Health [Journal Article], Jocelyn Grace, Ineke Krom, Caitlin Maling, Tony Butler, Richard Midford

Research outputs 2011

This review provides an overview of health issues facing the Indigenous offender population, including some of the social and historical factors relevant to Indigenous health and incarceration. In doing so, it is important to first understand how Indigenous people conceptualise health. Health as it is understood in western society is a fairly discrete category, which differs from the traditional Indigenous perspective of health as holistic [1]. This is made explicit in the 1989 National Aboriginal health strategy that states 'health to Aboriginal peoples is a matter of determining all aspects of their life, including control over their physical environment, of …

Preparing The Young Offender For Return To Society: A Theoretical Evaluation Of Guyanese Juvenile Delinquents' Narratives Based On General Treatment Models, Bertlyn Gretna Reynolds

Wayne State University Dissertations

The site of the study is a co-educational detention center known as the New Opportunity Corps (NOC), located in a former British colony of South America, now known as Guyana. Forty- eight detainees of this institution, which is also legally designated a training school, were interviewed about their backgrounds, daily activities and plans for the future. These structured interviews were used to test the central tenets of Sociological theories with some bearing on crime. Some of the findings are presented in the form of narrative analysis which includes discussion of various factors likely to have caused their juvenile delinquency. Family …

Reality Television And Its Impact On Women's Body Image, Ayarza Manwaring

Online Theses and Dissertations

Previous research has found that both print media and television may affect the body image of young women. Tiggerman and Pickering (1996) found that it was not just the amount of television viewed, but the viewing of appearance focused shows that affected body image. Schooler, Ward, Merriwether and Caruthers (2004) came to the conclusion that women's viewing of shows with predominantly white casts lead to greater body dissatisfaction. To date, no investigations have looked at a new and popular genre, categorized as, `reality television'. The purpose of this study was examine the effects of viewing this new genre and its …

From Fur Baby To Chick Magnet: A Sociological View Of Dogs And Their People, Ariel Teresa Leigh Petersen

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Since their domestication, dogs have played an important role in human society. People put them to work hunting game, herding livestock and guarding the home, and also keep them as companions. As dogs increasingly occupy a meaningful position in the lives of their owners, the startling lack of research on dog-human interaction becomes increasingly apparent.

This research discovers different ways people relate to their dogs, and the meaning dogs hold for their owners. While conducting observations, I identified and interviewed owners who exhibited an emotionally meaningful attachment to their dogs. I then used Glaser and Strauss’ grounded theory approach to …

Decapitating Power, Ladelle Mcwhorter

Philosophy Faculty Publications

In “Society Must Be Defended” Foucault examines 17th century race war discourse not so much in order to understand 20th century racism or concepts of race but primarily because it constitutes an historical example of an attempt to think power without a head or king. This essay examines his account of race war discourse and the sources he used to construct it. It then takes issue with his claim that early race war discourse can be separated from 18th and 19th century racisms. Finally, it returns to the question of power and argues that the effect of the 1976 lecture …

Hector's Helpers Program: Project Compendium, Hector's Helpers

Anti-littering Programs

The Final Project Report reflects activities and accomplishments that occurred during the course of the Task Agreement within BLM Youth Initiative Hector’s Helpers: Youth Combating Litter and Desert Dumping. The project was funded by the Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Nevada State office, on behalf of the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). The agencies have jointly worked together for several years under the Great Basin Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit (GBCESU) master agreement FAA060058 in order to develop a strategic plan to combat litter and desert dumping.

The Hector’s Helpers program provides an opportunity to bring environmental …

2011-2012 Unlv Mcnair Journal, Cyndy Anang, Sajar Camara, Pamela Cornejo, Carla Antonieta Farcello, Ilse Anahi Garcia, Natiera Magnuson, William L. Mccurdy, Lorena Munoz, Maxym V. Myroshnychenko, Ricardo Rios, Theodore Waldeck, Barbara Wallen, Ana Zuniga, Brenda M. Aguilar, Tiffany Alexandra Alvarez, Daniel N. Erosa, Paige C. Espinosa, Carla Antonieta Farcello, Julienne Jochel Paraiso, Nathaniel Derek Phillipps, Carmen Vallin, Jacent N. Wamala, Ernesto Zamora-Ramos

McNair Journal

Journal articles based on research conducted by undergraduate students in the McNair Scholars Program

Table of Contents

Biography of Dr. Ronald E. McNair

Statements:

Dr. Neal J. Smatresk, UNLV President

Dr. Juanita P. Fain, Vice President of Student Affairs

Dr. William W. Sullivan, Associate Vice President for Retention and Outreach

Mr. Keith Rogers, Deputy Executive Director of the Center for Academic Enrichment and Outreach

McNair Scholars Institute Staff

Interpretations And Anxiety During Initial Encounters In A Formal Business Networking Setting, Justin Hunter

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Many business professionals explore opportunities to develop relationships with others in their industry during coordinated business networking functions to potentially increase their clientele and strengthen their presence in their respective industry. This study analyzes initial interactions among business professionals during a business networking function utilizing symbolic interactionism and the theory of anxiety/uncertainty management. Both theories have been separately implemented in an abundance of theses over several decades to analyze the nature and implications with interpersonal communication among strangers; however, there is a significant lack of research dedicated to how strangers engage during initial business interactions at networking functions. This study …

The Stigmatization Of Deathcare Workers, Shannon Rose Simone

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has indicated that Funeral Directors and Embalmers are stigmatized for their work. Studies have shown that, although the decay of dead bodies is a stigmatized process in American culture, these particular deathcare workers are able to shift the focus of their services from the dead to the living. However, there remains a lack of research regarding deathcare workers who are not employed as Funeral Directors or Embalmers— those whose positions are not as obvious to the general public. This research explores how, why, and to what degree stigma is placed on those individuals who spend the majority of their …

The Vegetarian Social Movement An Analysis Of Withdrawal And Backsliding, Jaime Deborah Hecht

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The vegetarian social movement is a “new” social movement based in lifestyle and cultural change. New social movements hold a strong emphasis on collective identity and social networks as a means to sustain participation. The majority of the social movement literature remains focused on movement engagement and mobilization while a large gap exists regarding disengagement. This project explores the barriers to vegetarian maintenance. The primary question answered is, why do some vegetarians and vegans backslide and withdraw from the practice? Fourteen individuals were interviewed to discover the social and cultural factors inherent in vegetarian instability. Over the course of the …

The Fundamental Question When Applying The Welfare Principle: "Who Will Be The Better Parent Or Guardian"?, Siyuan Chen

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The welfare principle – that is, when making a custody-related decision, the best interests of the child form the first and paramount consideration – is probably one of the cardinal principles of family law in many common law jurisdictions. While the welfare principle is generally considered a wide concept with no exhaustive definition or list of factors, it is submitted that there is an important question – sometimes neglected or misunderstood – that should actually feature most prominently when applying the welfare principle, particularly when joint or no order custody orders seem impossible. The question is simply that of “who …

Cultivating Youth Earth Connections Summer Internship Program (Yec): A Hands-On Environmental Justice Focused Farming Program At The High School Level, Samuel Lewis

Pomona Senior Theses

YEC’s main goal was to open dialogue with high school students from under resourced communities about environmental injustices and to create and explore positive alternatives. The summer program, which was funded by the 2010 Davis Projects for Peace and the Pomona College Summer Undergraduate Research Project Award, included a group of 11 high school students from Pomona, Montclair, La Puente, and Chino Hills, CA. The students were paid to participate in the program for 6 weeks in the summer of 2010, five days a week, for 30 hours each week. The program was designed to consistently connect movements for food …

Parental Precaution: Neurobiological Means And Adaptive Ends, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Colin Holbrook, Martie G. Haselton

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Humans invest precious reproductive resources in just a few offspring, who remain vulnerable for an extended period of their lifetimes relative to other primates. Therefore, it is likely that humans evolved a rich precautionary psychology that assists in the formidable task of protecting offspring. In this review, we integrate precautionary behaviors during pregnancy and postpartum with the adaptive functions they may serve and what is known of their biological mediators, particularly brain systems motivating security and attachment. We highlight the role of reproductive hormones in (i) priming parental affiliation with young to incentivize offspring protection, (ii) focusing parental attention on …

Maternal Defense: Breastfeeding Heightens Aggression By Reducing Stress, Jennifer Hahn-Holbrook, Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Colin Holbrook, Sarah M. Coyne, E. Thomas Lawson

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Mothers in numerous species exhibit heightened aggression in defense of their young. This shift typically coincides with the duration of lactation in nonhuman mammals, which suggests that human mothers may display similarly accentuated aggressiveness while breast feeding. Here we report the first behavioral evidence for heightened aggression in lactating humans. Breast-feeding mothers inflicted louder and longer punitive sound bursts on unduly aggressive confederates than did formula-feeding mothers or women who had never been pregnant. Maternal aggression in other mammals is thought to be facilitated by the buffering effect of lactation on stress responses. Consistent with the animal literature, our results …

Culture For Sale? An Exploratory Study Of The Crow Fair, Thomas D. Bordelon, Marie Opatrny, Wendy G. Turner, Steven D. Williams

The Qualitative Report

This paper describes an ethnographically-oriented participant-observation study conducted during the annual Crow Fair, held in south central Montana. Data collected included audio-recorded interviews with participants, participant observations, photographic and video recordings. Narrative interviews were transcribed and analyzed using the constant comparison method. Multiple data sources improved the veracity of this study through triangulation, and four themes emerged from the data: commercialization, alcohol abuse, spirituality, and community. The researchers discuss these themes and their conclusions regarding the "selling" of Native American culture as a form of cultural transmission. Theme analysis revealed the researchers recognized that the principal researcher had changed his …

Youtube As A Qualitative Research Asset: Reviewing User Generated Videos As Learning Resources, Ronald J. Chenail

The Qualitative Report

YouTube, the video hosting service, offers students, teachers, and practitioners of qualitative researchers a unique reservoir of video clips introducing basic qualitative research concepts, sharing qualitative data from interviews and field observations, and presenting completed research studies. This web-based site also affords qualitative researchers the potential avenue to share their reusable learning resources for all interested parties to use.

Studying Rape Through A Theorectical Lens: The Development Of A Serial Rape Model Using Fbi Data, Brooke Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The current study assessed whether there is an empirical foundation for different theories of rape including the feminist, evolutionary, social disorganization, psychopathy, and rapist type theories. Using a data set from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on serial rapists collected in the early 1990's, the study included two phases. The first phase assessed whether FBI data supported the previously mentioned theories of rape by analyzing associations between individual variables that are thought to support each theory. Support was demonstrated for the evolutionary and psychopathy theories. Using MPlus statistical software to accommodate the multi-level nature of the data, the second …

Perceptions Of Disabilities Amongst The Tarahumara In Northern Mexico, Carolyn Raynor Trussell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on the perceptions of disability amongst the Tarahumara, known amongst themselves as the Rarámuri, in the Sierra Madre region of Northern Chihuahua. This population of individuals has typically lived in isolated areas in communities in the Sierra Madre where medical and specialized educational services were rare. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions, knowledge and beliefs related to disabilities, as well as the access and beliefs related to educational and medical services.

The study focused on the individual and the society to examine how bodily conceptions influence perceptions of others. The target group for …