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Examining Spatiotemporal Change In Neighborhood Crime Using Social Disorganization As A Theoretical Framework: A 10-Year Analysis Of Homicide In The City Of Richmond, Va, Suleyman Demirci

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates both space and time aspects of neighborhood crime distributions using social disorganization as a theoretical framework in the City of Richmond, VA. Neighborhood crime, in this study, might be considered as any type of index crime aggregated to neighborhood level. For the purpose of the present study, however, neighborhood crime only includes "homicide" categorized as an index crime in the Uniform Crime Report (UCR). Homicides in neighborhoods have been realized as rare events, and have become problematic to establish robust statistical models in the literature. With the focus of neighborhood homicide, this study questions the consistency of …

The Influence Of Childhood Factors On The Public Perceptions Of The Appropriate Consequences For Young Offender, Penny Hyde

Theses : Honours

With changes in policy relating to juvenile offenders being heavily influenced by the perceived public opinion of juvenile crime, the opinion of the public on the appropriate punishment for young offenders is important within contemporary society (Mukherjee, 1997). Public opinion research suggested that while society remains unsatisfied with current methods used to punish juvenile offenders, they believe a juvenile's punishment should be proportionate to the crime and that rehabilitation should be the main goal of juvenile punishment (Barber & Doon, 2004). This research further suggested that ignorance of both the juvenile's circumstances and the perceived prevalence of juvenile crime may …

Effects Of Stress Management Training Of Self-Image Perception Of The Visually Impaired Individuals, Mike Eniola, A.O. Busari

Essays in Education

This study investigates the effects of stress management training on self-image perception of the visually impaired individuals. The participants were thirty-three (33) purposively selected visually impaired students of Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria with age ranging between 18 and 27 years. The research instrument used for data collection was visually impaired stress Questionnaire (VISQ). ANCOVA was the method of data analysis employed. The results of the treatment indicates that there was significant difference between the subjects exposed to treatment and the control group. The results also confirmed that there was significant difference in the level of stress experienced …

Functional Neuroimaging And The Law: Trends And Directions For Future Scholarship, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

Under the umbrella of the burgeoning neurotransdisciplines, scholars are using the principles and research methodologies of their primary and secondary fields to examine developments in neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and psychopharmacology. The path for advanced scholarship at the intersection of law and neuroscience may clear if work across the disciplines is collected and reviewed and outstanding and debated issues are identified and clarified. In this article, I organize, examine and refine a narrow class of burgeoning neurotransdiscipline scholarship; that is, scholarship at the interface of law and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

Psychiatric Restraint And Seclusion: Resisting Legislative Solution, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

The use of restraint and seclusion in the American psychiatric setting has a rich history - rich in medical, ethical, legal, and social controversy. For centuries, mental health care providers used movement restrictions and solitary confinement to manage psychiatric patients. Superintendents of eighteenth and early nineteenth century insane asylums and other institutions of confinement believed that strait-waistcoats, "tranquilizer chairs," "maniac beds," chains, shackles, and "quiet rooms" deescalated agitation and promoted self-control. Reforms beginning in the nineteenth century helped make some psychiatric institutions more humane, in part because staff members were trained to find ways to calm potentially violent patients without …

Designing Classroom Management Training For Basic Course Instructors, Kevin R. Meyer, Cheri J. Simonds, Brent K. Simonds, John R. Baldwin, Stephen K. Hunt, Mark E. Comadena

Basic Communication Course Annual

Since many basic course training programs fail to adequately address classroom management issues, most graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) enter the classroom unprepared to confront student misbehaviors. However, literature suggests that by incorporating classroom management issues into training pro­grams, GTAs will be better armed to establish the instructional climate of the classroom and confront stu­dent misbehaviors. In this study, GTAs who had not received classroom management training (CMT) were given a survey containing closed and open-ended questions regarding typical student misbehaviors, possible classroom responses to those behaviors, and preferences for classroom management information during training. The results of this study identify …

Creating Sites For Connection In The Classroom: Dialogism As A Pedagogy For Active Learning, Melissa A. Broeckelman

Basic Communication Course Annual

Public speaking pedagogy should be based in communication theory, but as a whole, our discipline has failed to integrate theory and praxis in the classroom. Dialogism is a good starting point for developing the­ory-based pedagogical strategies and is further supported by Vygotsky’s zones of proximal development, Dewey and Bruner’s call for experience-based learning, and research on collaborative learning. Here, I propose four specific strategies for incorporating dialogism into the pedagogy of public speaking courses: (a) use detailed grading rubrics to create a shared meaning of expectations before, during, and after the speech-building process, (b) give instructor feedback on outlines prior …

Learning Communities In The Basic Communication Course: Exploring Students’ Perception Of Power And Use Of Compliance-Gaining Strategies, Natalie J. Kussart, Stephen K. Hunt, Cheri J. Simonds

Basic Communication Course Annual

This study compared students’ use of behavior alteration techniques (BATs) and power based upon whether they were enrolled in learning community or traditional sections of the basic communication course being taught by graduate teaching assistants (GTAs). The results of the present study reveal no differences between learning community and regularly enrolled students’ perceptions of power. However, learning community students reported using more prosocial, antisocial, and neutral compliance-gaining strategies compared to traditionally enrolled students. Overall, this study addresses the utility of incorporating learning communities into the pedagogy of the basic communication course and devotes special attention to the training needs of …

The Influence Of Diaphragmatic Breathing To Reduce Situational Anxiety For Basic Course Students, Marlina Marie Howe, Karen Kangas Dwyer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Researchers in physiology and health fields have reported a significant impact from using diaphragmatic breathing (DB) to help individuals reduce anxiety. However, few communication researchers have explored the use of this simple DB technique to help basic course students reduce communication apprehension (CA). Thus, this investigation explored the use of diaphragmatic breathing (DB) in helping students moderate CA. Respondents completed McCroskey’s (1982) Personal Reports of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24) and the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) after each of four formal classroom speeches. Results indicated the experimental group using DB reported a significant decrease in state anxiety from speech the first two …

Presentation Skills: An Assessment Of University And Career-Related Presentations, Lesa A. Stern, Melissa Hailer

Basic Communication Course Annual

Two studies were conducted to assess the frequency and types of presentations students encounter across the curriculum and whether these presentations parallel those they will encounter in their chosen career. The first study was a content analysis of sixty portfolios (containing a total number of 1360 courses) to find evidence of presentation assignments across the curriculum. Results indicate students encounter one or two classroom-presentation learning experiences per year during their time at the university, and most of these presentations were group and informative oriented. The second study was a survey of faculty to assess the types of presentations required in …

Submission Guidelines

Basic Communication Course Annual

No abstract provided.

Gay Marriage In Rhode Island: A Big Issue In A Small State, Joan Catherine Bohl

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Personal And Clinical Utility Of Psychiatric Advance Directives: A Qualitative Perspective, Mimi M. Kim, Richard A. Van Dorn, Anna M. Scheyett, Eric E. Elbogen, Jeffrey W. Swanson, Marvin S. Swartz, Laura A. Mcdaniel

Faculty and Staff Publications

Psychiatric advance directives (PADs) are legal tools that allow competent individuals to declare preferences for future mental health treatment when they may not be capable of doing so as a result of a psychiatric crisis. PADs allow individuals to maintain self–determination during times when they are most vulnerable to loss of autonomy and in need of assistance to make their preferences known and honored. This article describes the content of twenty–eight open–ended, semi–structured qualitative interviews of adults with PADs who have experienced psychiatric crises. The qualitative analysis revealed three major themes from the interviews: (1) PADs as tools for empowerment …

Taking The Right To Abortion In Croatia Seriously - One Of The Basic Constitutional Rights Or A Rudiment Of The Right To Reproduction?, Dalida Rittossa

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Domestic Violence And Legal Reforms In Nigeria: Prospects And Challenges, Itoro Eze-Anaba

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article examines the challenges and prospects of legal reform aimed at addressing domestic violence against women in Nigeria. It highlights the inadequacy of current laws, the cultural and societal barriers that discourage victims from seeking redress, and the need for comprehensive legal and systemic changes to protect women's rights. The analysis emphasizes the importance of addressing economic, cultural, and educational disparities to create a more just and equitable legal framework.

Confronting "Unwelcomeness" From The Outside: Using Case Theory To Tell The Stories Of Sexually-Harassed Women, Margaret Moore Jackson

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article critiques the legal requirement that sexual harassment plaintiffs must prove the conduct was unwelcome, arguing that this element perpetuates cultural biases against women and undermines their ability to challenge discrimination. It proposes using case theory and storytelling to counter these biases, framing clients' stories in ways that preserve their dignity and challenge stereotypes.

Annotated Legal Bibliography On Gender

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Reducing Homework Problems In Adhd Adolescents: A Comparison Of Two Self-Management Interventions, Valerie Paasch

LSU Master's Theses

Self-managed interventions can be especially beneficial during the adolescent years, as expectations of a child’s academic independence increase. Self-monitoring, a type of self-managed intervention, has been used to assess problem behaviors, evaluate treatment effectiveness, promote behavior change, and increase homework production. Goal-setting, another form of self-management has been associated with improvements in behavior, academics, and homework. However, no known studies have compared the effectiveness of self-monitoring and goal-setting homework interventions in ADHD adolescents. The current study compares two self-managed interventions, goal-setting and self-monitoring, in an attempt to determine their effectiveness with ADHD adolescents with problematic homework behavior. Participants were trained …

Equine Obesity-Related Hyperleptinemia, Nan Killen Huff

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Plasma leptin concentrations in obese adult horses have been shown to vary widely, and horses tend to fit into two groups: low leptin (<10 ng/mL) and hyperleptinemic (10 to 50 ng/mL). Observations over time revealed that the hyperleptinemic condition was consistent, possibly indicating a relatively permanent underlying cause. Based on these observations, three experimental approaches were used to further study equine obesity-related hyperleptinemia. The first experiment determined the prevalence of hyperleptinemia among postpartum, lactating mares, evaluated its consequence on their re-breeding success, and investigated correlations between leptin levels in lactating and non-lactating mares. Postpartum mares (n = 198) and non-foaling mares (n = 31) were categorized based on their leptin status: normoleptinemic or hyperleptinemic. Leptin in the lactating mares averaged 4.8 ng/mL, and 11 of the 198 (13%) displayed hyperleptinemia. Leptin in the non-lactating mares averaged 7.5 ng/mL, with 9 mares (29%) displaying hyperleptinemia. Of the 198 lactating mares bred, 81% became pregnant; there was no effect of leptin status on re-breeding success. To study one possible cause for hyperleptinemia in well-fed horses, a second experiment explored polymorphism(s) within exon 2 of the equine leptin gene. The DNA from five hyperleptinemic and five normal mares of high body condition was used to analyze exon 2 of the leptin gene for polymorphisms. Based on the 10 mares tested, there was no polymorphism in exon 2 of the equine leptin gene; therefore, polymorphism is not a likely explanation for the high vs. low leptin difference. The third experiment explored the possible effects of hyperleptinemia on the endocrine and immune systems. Endotoxin was given to mares and geldings to investigate the role and/or regulation of leptin in the pro-inflammatory cytokine response. Of the endpoints measured, only platelet count differed between normal and hyperleptinemic horses. Endotoxin infusion caused the expected pro-inflammatory cytokine and endocrine responses, but leptin status was not a significant factor for any endpoint. It is concluded that hyperleptinemia in mares is not associated with polymorphism in exon 2 of the leptin gene, does not affect re-breeding rates of foaling mares, and does not alter the endotoxin-induced responses of the endocrine and immune systems.

Towards A Diagnostic Framework For Understanding Complex Situations, José J. Padilla, Andres Sousa-Poza, Arturo Tejada, Samuel Kovacic

VMASC Publications

This paper presents a theoretical framework for the concept of understanding and how it can be used for assessing complex situations. Understanding is presented as a cognitive process on how an individual perceives and represents a complex domain based on his/her own predispositions, and how he/she selects knowledge or what may not be knowledge based on the same predispositions towards finding a set of solutions for the situation. Predispositions, in this case, are based on his/her epistemological, ontological and teleological biases while the domain is represented by irreducible and transient conditions. The final outcome is the match or mismatch of …

Using Measures Of Print To Predict Reading Ability And Children At-Risk For Reading Disabilities In Spanish-Speaking Second Language Learners, Amy K. Grant

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Due to the changing nature of Canadian society, there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of literature focusing on second language reading acquisition. In this particular study, Spanish-speaking students learning English as a second language (L2) were compared to students who speak English as a first language (L1) on various measures of reading ability and specifically on measures of print exposure, which assess extracurricular reading. Past literature on print exposure has found that print exposure questionnaires serve as significant predictors of variance in reading comprehension, word reading, among other variables (e.g., Cunningham & Stanovich, 1993). The current study …

The Importance Of Symbolic Play As A Component Of The Early Childhood Curriculum, Sheila Reed

Essays in Education

Educational research has linked the quality of early childhood education programs to a reduction in special education enrollment and later academic success (Smith, 2004). High quality programs offer curriculums with academics and socialization. Russian developmental psychologist and social constructivist, Lev Vygotsky, believed culture and social interaction guide cognitive development. He, also, suggested that play stimulates the development of abstract thought (Santrock, 2006). The purpose of this literature review was to determine the importance of Symbolic play as an early childhood curriculum component for the development of cognitive and social skills.

Rubin (as cited in Umek & Musek, 2001) identified role …

Student Teachers’ Experiences With Math Education, Joakim Samuelsson

Essays in Education

Student teachers who are studying to teach math in early elementary school in Sweden today have studied less math in secondary school than student teachers in the late 1980´s and the 1990´s. To be able to address the problems of this new group of students, we need to understand and analyze their experiences. The instruments of inquiry were students’ letters about their experiences in school math. The starting point of the analysis was to find the student teachers’ experiences of certain subtopics aspects of school math. In the second step, relationships between different aspects of school math were identified. These …

The Expert Ceiling In Epistemological Beliefs, Lucy Barnard

Essays in Education

Paulsen and Wells (1998) stated that, “it seems unlikely that substantial differences in epistemological beliefs across domains would persist in studies of faculty or other more advanced experts,” (p. 380). This statement implies the existence of an upper limit or ceiling effect in the epistemological beliefs among experts. Faculty members are ostensibly considered experts in their fields of study. The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the epistemological beliefs of faculty members as a matter of gender and academic discipline while controlling for years of experience in higher education so as to discern whether the hypothesis that …

Parental Involvement Unlocks Children’S Educational Potential, Christine Seda

Essays in Education

To succeed in any profession, one must thoroughly research the nature of the profession itself as well as its interactions with other components of society. A decision to enter the teaching profession must also follow this methodology. One question that deserves further investigation can be phrased as, “Is parental involvement in the schools positively correlated to student achievement, and if so, then what can be done to facilitate this involvement?”

Throughout the history of the United States, the positive and negative impacts of parental involvement in the schools have been widely debated. In the twentieth century, however, this debate entered …

Understanding Hope: A Review Of Measurement And Construct Validity Research, Lisa M. Edwards, Kevin L. Rand, Shane J. Lopez, C. R. Snyder

College of Education Faculty Research and Publications

Hope has been discussed by philosophers, theologians, educators, and scientists, to name but a few groups of people, over the preceding two millennia. During the last 15 years, C. R. Snyder and his colleagues at the University of Kansas have developed a theory and associated measures of the hope construct that have received extensive, detailed attention both within and outside the field of psychology. In this chapter, we describe Snyder's hope model and some of the research findings that have supported the validity of this construct. Beginning with a conceptual definition of hope, we move to relevant findings about the …

Approaching Chinese Culture: Strategies American Expatriates Adopt For Learning Chinese Culture, May Hongmei Gao, Deanna F. Womack

Faculty Articles

It is generally believed that cultural sojourners have diffi culties adapting to a wide range of business, academic, and social situations in a host culture. They need to adopt certain strategies to learn a foreign culture. Building upon existing literature on intercultural learning, adaptation, and perception, this research investigates American professional expatriates’ experience of coping with cultural others in China. In particular, this research investigates communication strategies that the American expatriates adopt in learning Chinese culture. Twenty in-depth interviews were conducted in China to collect data from multiple perspectives on how American professional expatriates adapt themselves from home (American) culture …

Turn-Taking And The Local Management Of Conversation In A Highly Simultaneous Computer-Mediated Communication System, Jeffrey F. Anderson, Fred K. Beard, Joseph B. Walther

Faculty Articles

Ongoing inquiry in communication technology research includes the questions of whether and how users adapt communication to the relatively restricted codes provided by text-based computer-mediated communication (CMC). This study proposes that adaptations may be affected by the level of simultaneity in messaging that CMC systems afford users. This suggestion is examined through an analysis of the particular conversational management strategies afforded by a fully synchronous computer-mediated communication system in which message transmission is keystroke-by-keystroke. Conversation analyses performed on the transcript of a three-person online conversation suggest several conclusions: Despite the novelty of the system, the CMC users appropriated and adapted …

Student Social Workers' Attitudes About Domestic Violence And Implications For Social Work Education, Vonnie L. Hawkins

LSU Master's Theses

This descriptive, correlational and exploratory study used the Domestic Violence Blame Scale and Domestic Violence Myth Acceptance Scale, with questions suggested by the literature, to examine attitudes about domestic violence, knowledge and self-reported preparedness of a purposive sample of student social workers (N=236) in a southern state. An anonymous online web-based survey was used for data collection, and universities distributed the survey hyperlink directly to their students. Response rate was approximately 22% out of an estimated 1060 students who were reported to have received the hyperlink by their universities. Lower victim blame and myth acceptance scores were observed in students …

Competency In Forensic Examinations: What Variables Predict Restoration?, Devan R. Guidry

LSU Master's Theses

Competency to Stand Trial (CST), also known as adjudicative competency, remains an important issue for both judicial and mental health systems, and much effort is invested in research designed to define, assess and determine what factors are most relevant for restoring CST. The purpose of this study was to provide information that might improve the ability to predict which individuals would eventually become competent. Archival data were reviewed for 79 inpatient defendants referred for competency restoration treatment. Although information was incomplete, comparisons were made between those who remained incompetent (IST; n =15) and those who were restored to competency (CST; …