Digital Commons Network^™

Liberalis, Fall 2016, Utah State University

Liberalis

Freedom to Think, Discover, and Create. The alumni magazine for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University.

Water Management Decision Making In The Face Of Multiple Forms Of Uncertainty And Risk, Morey Burnham, Zhao Ma, Joanna Endter-Wada, Tim Bardsley

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

In the Wasatch Range Metropolitan Area of Northern Utah, water management decision makers confront multiple forms of uncertainty and risk. Adapting to these uncertainties and risks is critical for maintaining the long‐term sustainability of the region's water supply. This study draws on interview data to assess the major challenges climatic and social changes pose to Utah's water future, as well as potential solutions. The study identifies the water management adaptation decision‐making space shaped by the interacting institutional, social, economic, political, and biophysical processes that enable and constrain sustainable water management. The study finds water managers and other water actors see …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, September 19, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Items - September 2016
• Honors Program
• Libraries Advisory Council
• Parking Committee
• Student Code of Conduct

Educational Policies Committee Program Proposal, College Of Agriculture And Applied Sciences, September 16, 2016, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

The Climate Science Degree (CSD) program in the Department of Plants, Soils and Climate is focused on understanding the nature and change of the climate system by applying the basic principles of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. The CSD program will train the next generation of global leaders in climate and climate change sciences while promoting a citizenry informed on the science behind the important environmental and hazard issues of the time. This undergraduate degree program emphasizes the scientific study of the behavior of weather and climate, and applications to the important practical problems of climate prediction and weather forecasting for …

Huntsman Scholar Alumni, Usu Jon M. Huntsman School Of Business

Jon M. Huntsman School of Business News Collection

A list of USU Alumni from 2007-2015, and their current occupations and life events.

How Do Children Become Workers? Making Sense Of Conflicting Accounts Of Cultural Transmission In Anthropology And Psychology, David F. Lancy, Christopher A.J. Little

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This article uses children’s work as a lens to examine methodological concerns in the study of cultural transmission and children’s learning of useful domestic and subsistence skills. We begin by providing a review of the relevant literature concerning cultural transmission in the context of the ethnographic record, as well as more recent studies originating largely from psychology. We then offer an ethnographic case study concerning Asabano (PNG [Papua New Guinea]) childhood to make an important methodological contribution in the interdisciplinary study of cultural transmission. The case study centers on the paradox that Asabano parents, in interviews, claim that their children …

The Utah Statesman, September 1, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, August 29, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• FSEC Role
• Research and Graduate Studies
• Financial integrity: Section 406.1 through 406.6: Program Discontinuance, Financial Exigency and Financial Crisis
• Where do we stand with left over items at PRPC?
• Modification of Policy 369.2.3. under proposed change, this will affect non-tenured faculty

General Catalog 2016-2017, Utah State University

University Catalogs

This catalog contains information on the Academic Departments and Programs as well as Course Descriptions for the above school year at Utah State University. To avoid large file downloads, the Academic Departments and Programs information is located in this file. The Course Description information is located in the secondary file.

Teaching: Natural Or Cultural?, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In this chapter I argue that teaching, as we now understand the term, is historically and cross-culturally very rare. It appears to be unnecessary to transmit culture or to socialize children. Children are, on the other hand, primed by evolution to be avid observers, imitators, players and helpers—roles that reveal the profoundly autonomous and self-directed nature of culture acquisition (Lancy in press a). And yet, teaching is ubiquitous throughout the modern world—at least among the middle to upper class segment of the population. This ubiquity has led numerous scholars to argue for the universality and uniqueness of teaching as a …

Build It, But Will They Come? A Geoscience Cyberinfrastructure Baseline Analsys, Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld, Karen S. Baker, Nicholas Berente, Dorothy R. Carter, Leslie A. Dechurch, Courtney G. Flint, Gabriel Gershenfeld, Michael Haberman, John Leslie King, Christine Kirkpatrick, Eric Knight, Barbara Lawrence, Spenser Lewis, W. Christopher Lenhardt, Pablo Lopez, Matthew S. Mayernik, Charles Mcelroy, Barbara Mittleman, Et Al.

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Understanding the earth as a system requires integrating many forms of data from multiple fields. Builders and funders of the cyberinfrastructure designed to enable open data sharing in the geosciences risk a key failure mode: What if geoscientists do not use the cyberinfrastructure to share, discover and reuse data? In this study, we report a baseline assessment of engagement with the NSF EarthCube initiative, an open cyberinfrastructure effort for the geosciences. We find scientists perceive the need for cross-disciplinary engagement and engage where there is organizational or institutional support. However, we also find a possibly imbalanced involvement between cyber and …

The Role Of Cultural Discontinuity In The Academic Outcomes Of Latina/O High School Students, Amanda Taggart

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study examined the impact of cultural discontinuity on the academic outcomes of Latina/o high school students. Hierarchical multiple regression was utilized to (a) investigate the significant differences between the characteristics and academic outcomes of high school students who do and do not experience cultural discontinuity between their home- and school-based learning and social experiences based on Eurocentric cultural values, and (b) examine the contribution of demographic variables, socio-cultural variables, academic experiences, and cultural discontinuity to students' cumulative grade point average (GPA) and standardized test scores. Data were collected from two high schools in South Central Texas. Findings revealed that …

The Socioecology Of Territory Size And A "Work-Around" Hypothesis For The Adoption Of Farming, Jacob Freeman

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

This paper combines theory from ecology and anthropology to investigate variation in the territory sizes of subsistence oriented agricultural societies. The results indicate that population and the dependence of individuals within a society on “wild” foods partly determine the territory sizes of agricultural societies. In contrast, the productivity of an agroecosystem is not an important determinant of territory size. A comparison of the population-territory size scaling dynamics of agricultural societies and human foragers indicates that foragers and farmers face the same constraints on their ability to expand their territory and intensify their use of resources within a territory. However, the …

Addressing Cultural Humility And Implicit Bias In Information Literacy Sessions, Twanna Hodge, Alfred Mowdood

Library Instruction West 2016

Learning cultural humility and bias-reducing strategies for those who work with diverse populations is critical for students and librarians. Our profession can play an important role in introducing these concepts and strategies. However, addressing implicit bias and cultural humility in information literacy classes can be difficult. Library staff may be unfamiliar with the concepts or uncertain about how to incorporate them into classes, have little control over class content, or have little time to address these topics. In this session, we describe how we incorporated concepts of cultural humility and implicit bias over five information literacy sessions per course in …

Fear Of Fa(I)(L)Ling: Abandoning Old Assessment Footholds For New Ground, Sarah Crissinger, Cara Evanson, Jayme Sponsel

Library Instruction West 2016

In order to reach an authentic approach to assessment, we sometimes need to retreat from an entrenched position in our teaching and programming. At Davidson College, we recently faced this reality when re-evaluating our library orientation. The idea of sacrificing established methods of assessment threatened our continuity, but also inspired us to think about the measures that are truly impactful to student learning. This session will explore the costs and benefits of surrendering old assessment plans for new techniques and present strategies for developing authentic assessments, specifically assessment of students' conceptions about research via case studies in surveys and discussion …

New Studies Of Children’S Work, Acquisition Of Critical Skills, And Contribution To The Domestic Economy, David F. Lancy

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

In spite of the fact that the very earliest ethnographers who paid any attention to children took note of the “precocity” displayed by children in both learning the household (e.g., caring for a younger sibling) and subsistence (harvesting and processing grain), tasks characteristic of the societies under investigation, the first synthesis and cross-cultural compilation of this large body of descriptive material is quite recent. This first, introductory, article in this collection reviews those efforts to systematize the study of children’s work and leads the reader through a catalog of the major conclusions or generalizations that have emerged from this analysis. …

Utah State University Commencement, 2016 – Main Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

129^th Annual Commencement of Utah State University.

Conversational Alignment: A Study Of Neural Coherence And Speech Entrainment, Kristen M. Jensen, Stephanie A. Borrie, Breanna E. Studenka, Ronald B. Gillam

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Conversational alignment refers to the tendency for communication partners to adjust their verbal and non-verbal behaviors to become more like one another during the course of human interaction. This alignment phenomenon has been observed in neural patterns, specifically in the prefrontal areas of the brain (Holper et al., 2013; Cui et al., 2012; Dommer et al., 2012; Holper et al., 2012; Funane et al., 2011; Jiang et al., 2012); verbal behaviors such acoustic speech features (e.g., Borrie & Liss, 2014; Borrie et al., 2015; Lubold & Pon-Barry, 2014), phonological features (e.g., Babel, 2012; Pardo, 2006), lexical selection (e.g., Brennan & …

The Role Of Man's Best Friend: Assessing The Cultural Liminality Of The Canis Lupus Familiars And Its Influence On Human Societies, Julianne L. D'Amico

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project combines history and folklore to illuminate the concept of liminality and the human-dog relationship as it has evolved since the species domestication. The lore highlights the permanent liminality of the dog, the use of the species as remedies in Folk Medicine, and the dog's shift from secondary participant to active agent in contemporary medical fields. The informant data and the context of the lore provide the basis for a historical analysis on how the human-dog relationship has evolved, from the past to the present, and inform how this relationship will progress into the future. Furthermore, the lore supports …

Student Satisfaction At Utah State University Regional Campuses, Taylor K. Adams

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This research examined the difference between what undergraduate students at Utah State University (USU) regional campus locations perceive as important to their education and how satisfied students are with those education-related priorities. As institutions offer more distance education coursework, enrollment of nontraditional students is increasing. However, few studies examine satisfaction, which is a proven predictor of retention, of the student population described in this study.

The results of this study showed the highest discrepancies between priorities and satisfaction of undergraduate students at USU related to academic advising, course scheduling and registration; and finances including student fees, tuition, and financial aid …

Exceptionally Cleared Cases In Intimate Partner Violence: A Comparison Of Same-Sex Couples Versus Heterosexual Couples, Clarice Ambler

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Most of the literature regarding intimate partner violence (IPV) focuses on heterosexual couples, with little emphasis on how same-sex couples are specifically and uniquely affected by IPV, especially in terms of how such cases are treated by the criminal justice system. The purpose of this study is to identify factors that influence the odds of intimate partner violence (IPV) cases being exceptionally cleared. This study analyzed 207,008 incidents of IPV that occurred in 2013. Using logistic regression, this study determined how weapon use, injury severity, and drug use affected the likelihood of a case being exceptionally cleared across heterosexual and …

The Relationship Between Water Shortage Concern And Age In Utah, Viviane S. Baji

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

It is unclear whether current water supplies in Utah will be able to accommodate the needs of the future. Population in the state is expected to double by 2050 and climate change models predict declines in water availability in the region. Public perceptions of the adequacy of the water supply (and concerns about potential shortages) are key factors that could influence water use behaviors and support for public policy interventions. This paper explores the research question: "Are young people in Utah more concerned about water shortages than older cohorts?" It was expected that young people would be more concerned about …

Interaction With Water: Water-Based Outdoor Recreation And Water Quality Perception And Concern Among Residents Of Utah, Matthew J. Barnett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

There are a large number of impaired water bodies in Utah, and population trends indicate that water quality impairment will become an increasingly important issue in the future. Because of education and management implications, an understanding of the social processes that drive water quality perception and concern is a matter of interest and importance. Sociodemographic characteristics and outdoor recreational activity have both been associated with environmental concern in the past. Using a Generalized Linear Modeling approach, this study explores the relationship between water-based outdoor recreation and water quality perception and concern. It is found that participation in water-based outdoor recreation …

Institutional Constraints Limiting Social Services For Immigrants, Grant Alan Holyoak

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This study advances the literature by identifying the factors that constrain the resource provision activities of social service agencies for immigrants. We consider whether and how coercive, mimetic and normative constraints shape organizational practices in this field. Drawing on twenty-five in-depth interviews with social service providers in Utah, we find that despite providers' commitment to serving immigrants, organizations remain significantly constrained due primarily to external coercive constraints including restrictive state laws and increasing competition over limited funding. We conclude by exploring the implications of our findings for policy and practice.

Perception Of Real And Perceived Anger In Various Races, Mikelle Hymas

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Research of emotional expressions has suggested that facial expressions of emotions are universal between cultures (Ekman, 1989). However, because of in-group biases, misidentification of emotions in other races can predictably occur. The misidentification of facial expressions of emotions can lead to predictable and specific racial biases. One important instance of this is that groups of White individuals often make the error of perceiving anger in an African American who is actually experiencing fear. This has important implications of accidental discrimination. The current study aimed to determine whether a brief training in accurate identification of various facial expressions would improve accuracy …

Qualities That Influence Guardian Ad Litem Effectiveness, Ilana Kornfeld

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The use of Guardians ad Litem (GALs) in child abuse and neglect cases has become increasingly common throughout the world. It has, in fact, become standard procedure in child welfare proceedings in the United States. GALs are charged with presenting children's best interests in court and ensuring that each child has a voice in the process. Ideally, GALs are consistently effective in doing so. However, GALs have extremely high caseloads that potentially limit the time they can spend with their children. In addition, little research has been done on what qualities make an effective GAL. Knowing what qualities increase GAL …

Impact Of Participation In A Small Music Group On The Academic Achievement Of Primarily Hispanic Youth, Danielle Juliana Keaton

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The purpose of the present study was to explore the effects of participation in a children' s violin instructional music program, The Young Violinists from St. Thomas Aquinas (YVSTA), on the primarily Hispanic participants' academic achievement. Data collection involved obtaining YVSTA attendance records and participants' academic records: their standardized test scores, attendance records, and academic transcripts. The participants were 5 boys and 14 girls ranging in age from 6 to 14, enrolled in Kindergarten to eighth grade. Children attended the YVSTA between 9 and 57 times, representing 36.36% to 86.36% attendance. All children but one were identified as being Hispanic; …

The Intersection Of School Ethnic Composition And Structure: Predicting Social And Academic Outcomes Among Latino Students, Benjamin Pierce

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is a persistent gap between the outcomes of Latino students and those of students from other ethnic groups in American schools. In part, this may be due to schooling practices in the American education system that have traditionally failed to cultivate positive contexts for ethnic diversity. Research studies involving focus groups, one-on-on interviews, and small samples of participants have suggested that sentiments of being unfairly treated by teachers and peers, of being stigmatized as low-achievers, and of cultural “incongruence” in schools are common among Latino students. However, quantitative studies involving large samples and sophisticated statistical techniques have produced few …

Geologists And The British Raj, 1870-1910, Aja B. Tolman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The British Raj (1858-1947) hired geologists from both India and Great Britain to find valuable resources in India, such as coal. The geologists worked to convince the government to enact policy changes regarding museum ownership, conservation, railway construction, education, and industrialization. But the geologists had different goals based on whether they were Indian or European. The Indian geologists wanted India’s independence from Britain, so their education and industrial policy proposals were geared towards making India self-sufficient and globally competitive. The British geologists’ goal was to enrich the empire. The British were able to convince the government to accept most of …

The Role Of Sexual Communication In Committed Relationships, Adam C. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this Master's thesis, I describe a study to understand the role that sexual communication plays within committed couple relationships. I used data from a sample of 142 couples who completed an online survey consisting of a battery of quantitative assessments measuring relationship satisfaction, sexual satisfaction, communication processes, and sexual communication.

Through path analysis, a statistical tool that tests relationships between variables, I observed the impact that sexual communication has within couple relationships. In my findings, I highlight the differences between the "what" and "how" behind couples' communications about sex. I examined these findings by gender and found important differences …