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2008

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The "Evolution" Of Media: The Influence Of A Media Literacy Campaign On Self Esteem And Body Image, Vasiliki D. Dremonas '08 Jan 2008

The "Evolution" Of Media: The Influence Of A Media Literacy Campaign On Self Esteem And Body Image, Vasiliki D. Dremonas '08

Honors Projects

For decades, society has criticized the media for instigating many of the physical, social, and psychological maladies that affect females of all ages. However, recent advertising approaches, namely the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, endeavor to sell products by responsibly endorsing attainable beauty ideals. The present study seeks to empirically evaluate whether campaign efforts like Dove's are successful at reducing negative female body image, or whether they are instead counterproductive to their goal due to what social psychologists term "sleeper effect" processes. 102 female undergraduates were either exposed to the Dove commercial Evolution in its entirety, Evolution in part, or …

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Behavioral Responses To Predictable And Unpredictable Competitors And C-Fos Expression In The Amygdala And Nucleus Accumbens, Jennifer Schnupp '08 Jan 2008

Behavioral Responses To Predictable And Unpredictable Competitors And C-Fos Expression In The Amygdala And Nucleus Accumbens, Jennifer Schnupp '08

Honors Projects

The present study examined the effects of the presence of a competitoron the behavior of individual rats in a foraging paradigm as was done in Farmer-Dougan, Dougan, Knight, Toelle, and Chandrashekar (2007). Rats foraged for food in a large open field, with pellets delivered in one patch on a Variable Interval schedule (VI). During alone conditions, each rat foraged by itself. During the unpredictable competitor condition, a competitor rat was introduced on an unpredictable basis on the last day of foraging. In this condition, the rats displayed avoidance behavior and were significantly undermatching as was observed in Farmer-Dougan et al. …

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Increasing Condom-Related Behavioral Intentions, Motivation, And Willingness Via Social Ties In Advertisements, Marylee Richardson '08 Jan 2008

Increasing Condom-Related Behavioral Intentions, Motivation, And Willingness Via Social Ties In Advertisements, Marylee Richardson '08

Honors Projects

Although researchers have identified factors associated with increased condom use, STI prevalence rates are still high, and condom use rates are still low. Various advertising techniques have been implemented to increase condom use, but these techniques are largely self-focused. Based on research in exercise adherence and cognitive interdependence, this study used advertisements targeting social ties to increase condom use. One hundred forty-seven Illinois Wesleyan University students viewed one of six critical advertisements--a self-focused condom advertisement, a relationship-focused condom advertisement, a friendship-focused condom advertisement, a self-focused sunscreen advertisement, a relationship-focused sunscreen advertisement, or a friendship-focused sunscreen advertisement. Participants then completed measures …

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The Effects Of The Norepinephrine Agonist, Guanfacine, On Scopolamine-Induced Memory Impairments In The Rat, Andrew P. Tharp '08 Jan 2008

The Effects Of The Norepinephrine Agonist, Guanfacine, On Scopolamine-Induced Memory Impairments In The Rat, Andrew P. Tharp '08

Honors Projects

Cognitive deficits associated with Alzheimer's disease are known to result from decreases in acetylcholine within the cholinergic system ofthe medial septal area, which projects to the hippocampus. Recent studies have proposed that increasing levels ofthe neurotransmitter norepinephrine may help to decrease the cognitive impairments associated with Alzheimer's disease and aging. The present study measured the effects that Guanfacine, an alpha-2 noradrenergic agonist, has on memory deficits produced by the acetylcholine antagonist, Scopolamine. Memory ability was assessed using an object recognition task and a socially transmitted food preference task. Following administration of Scopolamine, memory ability was significantly impaired from baseline levels …

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Promoting Environmentally Responsible Behaviors Using Motivational Interviewing Techniques, Sarah L. Tribble '08 Jan 2008

Promoting Environmentally Responsible Behaviors Using Motivational Interviewing Techniques, Sarah L. Tribble '08

Honors Projects

An experimental design was used to determine whether environmentally responsible behaviors (ERBs) could be promoted by exposing participants to two motivational interviewing techniques-provision ofinformation and engagement in a decisional balance exercise. We hypothesized (a) a main effect of the information manipulation such that provision ofbasic as well as normative information about the current state ofglobal warming would be more effective than basic information only at promoting ERBs, which would in turn be more effective than a control information group and (b) a main effect ofthe decisional balance manipulation such that engagement in a decisional balance activity would be more effective …

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Rethinking The Organisational: From ‘Form’ To ‘Forming’, Paul Donnelly Jan 2008

Rethinking The Organisational: From ‘Form’ To ‘Forming’, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

The organisational theory literature has identified the emergence and evolution of organisational forms as a critical issue to be addressed, yet new ways of looking at organisational form have yet to be addressed and there are concerns about the largely ahistorical and aprocessual character of much organisational theorising. Most “new” theories that have been put forward continue to view form as something already formed, as an essence, with the attention focused on what constitutes form. Further, extant organisational theories, from the original Weberian ideal type through all other theories, be they in appearance ahistorical (i.e., contingency) or historical (i.e., ecological) …

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Media Literacy And The Public Sphere: A Contextual Study For Public Media Literacy Promotion In Ireland, Brian O'Neill, Cliona Barnes Jan 2008

Media Literacy And The Public Sphere: A Contextual Study For Public Media Literacy Promotion In Ireland, Brian O'Neill, Cliona Barnes

Reports

This research documents the background to the development of media literacy as a matter of public policy, both within the European Union and internationally, and examines considerations that may be important in the emerging Irish debate on media literacy.

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Socioeconomic Factors And Illicit Drug Demand, Elizabeth Taylor '08 Jan 2008

Socioeconomic Factors And Illicit Drug Demand, Elizabeth Taylor '08

The Park Place Economist

How do we help to control the social dilemmas that are results of drug abuse? By investigating and better understanding the relationship between drug demand and socioeconomic status, much can be done to improve illicit drug control and regulation. This paper examines the relationship between socioeconomic status and demand for illicit drugs.

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How Does Advertising Articulate The Tropes Of The Posthuman That Exist In Contemporary Culture?, Norah Campbell Jan 2008

How Does Advertising Articulate The Tropes Of The Posthuman That Exist In Contemporary Culture?, Norah Campbell

Doctoral

The posthuman is a concept that has accrued much currency in disciplines as diverse as legal theory, artificial life science and philosophy. This thesis explores the meaning of the concept by initially examining what it means to be human, finding that art and science have so far failed to provide a long-lasting definition of humanness. Instead of a temporal “coming-after” stage of humanity, posthumanism might be more usefully seen as a concept that draws attention to the cracks that have always existed in the apparently water-tight description of the human- how the “human” has changed radically and continues to change …

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The Influence Of The Servicescape On Post-Consumption Processes, Daire Hooper Jan 2008

The Influence Of The Servicescape On Post-Consumption Processes, Daire Hooper

Doctoral

The physical and atmospheric cues in service environments have long been accepted as potent contributors to consumers’ overall evaluations of their service experiences. Theoretical frameworks conceptualising how these environmental cues impact on both emotional and cognitive processes have been put forward, yet the empirical work supporting these theories has become highly disjointed with a great deal of confusion regarding what should be classified as an environmental stimulus. By integrating the extant literature, this dissertation attempts to overcome theoretical ambiguities and proposes a second order factor model of service environments, also known as the servicescape, which is subsequently tested using a …

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Interaction Of The Legitimate System And The Shadow System In Organisations, Caroline Halpin, Philomena Hanlon Jan 2008

Interaction Of The Legitimate System And The Shadow System In Organisations, Caroline Halpin, Philomena Hanlon

Conference papers

This research examines the relationship between the Legitimate and the Shadow Systems in organisations: an interaction that can result in bringing an organisation into a state of bounded instability, and therefore increased creativity and innovation. The Legitimate System consists of the formal hierarchy, bureaucracy, rules, controls and communication patterns in an organisation. A properly functioning Legitimate System is vital for the conduct of business in an organisation in order to ensure its survival and efficiency. The Shadow System is a term coined by Stacey (1997) to describe the informal network of relations within the organisations that are evident in casual …

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Two Tribes Go To War: An Examination Of Social Interactions At Irish Football Games, Niamh Kirwan Jan 2008

Two Tribes Go To War: An Examination Of Social Interactions At Irish Football Games, Niamh Kirwan

Masters

research is to explore social life and interaction in sporting space. Despite the growing interest in the field of sport consumption, the experiences of supporters have not been adequately theorised. Studies acknowledging the sport supporter tend to focus supporters as lone individuals or as rigid groups of homogenous individuals that fit into a typology. In this study, I examine the distinct ways in which supporters in small groups interact in the sporting space through mutual relationships and interdependent social networks. Maffesoli (1996) is the original proponent in the study of tribal consumption groups. Maffesoli’s (1996) work has not been used …

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Foreward To Bruffee, Kenneth A. A. Short Course In Writing Composition, Collaborative Learning, And Constructive Reading, Harvey Kail, John Trimbur Jan 2008

Foreward To Bruffee, Kenneth A. A. Short Course In Writing Composition, Collaborative Learning, And Constructive Reading, Harvey Kail, John Trimbur

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

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Multi-Modal Task Instructions To Robots By Naive Users, Joerg Christian Wolf Jan 2008

Multi-Modal Task Instructions To Robots By Naive Users, Joerg Christian Wolf

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis presents a theoretical framework for the design of user-programmable robots. The objective of the work is to investigate multi-modal unconstrained natural instructions given to robots in order to design a learning robot. A corpus-centred approach is used to design an agent that can reason, learn and interact with a human in a natural unconstrained way. The corpus-centred design approach is formalised and developed in detail. It requires the developer to record a human during interaction and analyse the recordings to find instruction primitives. These are then implemented into a robot. The focus of this work has been on …

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Organizational Forming: Re(Dis)Covering Hybridization, Paul Donnelly Jan 2008

Organizational Forming: Re(Dis)Covering Hybridization, Paul Donnelly

Conference papers

The topic of organizational form has gained increased attention in the scholarly literature over the past couple of decades or so. Scholars have identified the emergence and evolution of new organizational forms as a critical issue to be addressed. The increased interest and relevance of this topic is often portrayed as ‘new times’ driving the need for new forms, however, what is more evident in the literature is that the need for new ways of looking at organizational form has yet to be addressed. In general, it is my argument that the problem of “organizational form” cannot be addressed by …

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Activity Systems Within Blended Problem-Based Learning In Academic Professional Development, Roisin Donnelly Jan 2008

Activity Systems Within Blended Problem-Based Learning In Academic Professional Development, Roisin Donnelly

Journal Articles

Blending face-to-face and online problem-based learning environments presents opportunities for both learners and lecturers to take part in collaborative knowledge construction. Activity theory is a suitable framework to investigate such environments and the learning processes that both sets of participants experience when engaging in these complementary environments. This paper attempts to map out the potential for activity systems using a blended problem-based learning approach through the exploration of an accredited academic staff development programme in Ireland. Firstly, an analysis of tool use and the discourse that participants and tutors engage in is presented. Secondly, tutor reflections about the evolution of …

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Encouraging Student Creativity In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly, Terry Barrett Jan 2008

Encouraging Student Creativity In Higher Education, Roisin Donnelly, Terry Barrett

Journal Articles

This chapter focuses on how teachers encourage the development of creative states of flow in their students and in themselves. The chapter aims to stimulate educators in higher education to think freshly about creativity and to widen their range of strategies for encouraging student creativity.

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Linguatag: An Emotional Speech Analysis Application, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis Jan 2008

Linguatag: An Emotional Speech Analysis Application, Charlie Cullen, Brian Vaughan, Spyros Kousidis

Conference papers

The analysis of speech, particularly for emotional content, is an open area of current research. Ongoing work has developed an emotional speech corpus for analysis, and defined a vowel stress method by which this analysis may be performed. This paper documents the development of LinguaTag, an open source speech analysis software application which implements this vowel stress emotional speech analysis method developed as part of research into the acoustic and linguistic correlates of emotional speech. The analysis output is contained within a file format combining SMIL and SSML markup tags, to facilitate search and retrieval methods within an emotional speech …

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Revenue Maximisation; An Examination Of The Influences Of Heuristics And Biases On The Yield Management Decision Process In Dublin Hotels, Tony Kiely Jan 2008

Revenue Maximisation; An Examination Of The Influences Of Heuristics And Biases On The Yield Management Decision Process In Dublin Hotels, Tony Kiely

Conference papers

Yield management in hotels has been described as a method of profitably managing fixed room capacity. A critical element of yield management is the decision strategy employed, as this determines the degree to which optimum financial solutions are generated. Recent research has indicated that the use of technology assisted decision optimising models, specifically the management science model of decision making, would greatly improve decision optimisation, by minimising the need to employ guesswork in achieving financial goals. However, despite this assurance, yield management remains couched in uncertainty through being inextricably associated with forecasting future demand for a perishable product in an …

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Poverty, Social Exclusion And Holidaying: Towards Developing Policy In Ireland, Bernadette Quinn, Kevin Griffin, Jane Stacey Jan 2008

Poverty, Social Exclusion And Holidaying: Towards Developing Policy In Ireland, Bernadette Quinn, Kevin Griffin, Jane Stacey

Reports / Surveys

This qualitative research investigates how promoting access to annual holidaying can help combat social exclusion for children and families experiencing poverty. It aims to stimulate debate on the need for developing social tourism policy. To this end, it discusses a range of policy rationales and reviews developments in policy and practice in other EU states. Specifically, its objectives include: to demonstrate how access to annual holidaying benefits people, particularly children, living in poverty; and to produce an evidence-based case to stimulate the development of government policy, and the investment of state and private sector resources, in the area. The study …

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The Reflective Science Educator, Caroline Anne Scheidel Jan 2008

The Reflective Science Educator, Caroline Anne Scheidel

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Reflection is synonymous with quality teaching. Though teachers reflect, the domains of reflections vary from teachers in different curriculum areas. Teachers of science have their own interesting characteristics to reflection. The art of reflection contains several unique aspects such as the logistics of reflections, the influence of the reflection, the content, and the perception one has on reflection. These aspects are described through the eyes of a science teacher to better understand their relationship to reflection. Though the research within reflections of teachers is plentiful, there is little on science teacher's reflections. The focus of this study is to determine …

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The Class Of 2008, Florence Soyinka Jan 2008

The Class Of 2008, Florence Soyinka

The Park Place Economist

No abstract provided.

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Extending The Reach Of The State Into The Post-Sentence Period: Section 26 Of The Criminal Justice Act 2007, Mary Rogan Jan 2008

Extending The Reach Of The State Into The Post-Sentence Period: Section 26 Of The Criminal Justice Act 2007, Mary Rogan

Articles

The Criminal Justice Act 2007 heralded a plethora of changes to Irish criminal law and procedure. The law on sentencing was also affected by its provisions. The focus of this article is on section 26 of that Act which introduces a general power on a court to make an order while passing sentence which will take effect on the expiration of a sentence of imprisonment. Under section 26 a court can impose two such orders, the “monitoring” order and the “protection of persons” order. The author assesses the background to the introduction of these dispositions and the potential application and …

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Digital Radio Policy In Canada: From Analog Replacement To Multimedia Convergence, Brian O'Neill Jan 2008

Digital Radio Policy In Canada: From Analog Replacement To Multimedia Convergence, Brian O'Neill

Articles

Digital radio policy in Canada has moved from a position of seeking to migrate all radio broadcasting onto a single digital transmission system (Eureka-147) to a multi-platform, cross-media and multimedia approach. The most recent digital radio policy of 2006 suggests a range of new possibilities for radio broadcasting, including multimedia broadcasting, but as a result has compromised the early adoption of the Eureka-147 standard. This paper contrasts the different policy contexts of 1995 and 2006 and argues that the competing technological options for digital audio delivery now pose significant dilemmas for broadcasters and policy makers.

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That's Life:An Examination Of The Direct Consequences Of Life-Sentence Imprisonment For Adult Males Within The Irish Prison System, Clara Geaney Jan 2008

That's Life:An Examination Of The Direct Consequences Of Life-Sentence Imprisonment For Adult Males Within The Irish Prison System, Clara Geaney

Dissertations

Although Ireland compares relatively well in terms of international crime rates, there has been an increase in the number of prisoners serving life-sentences in the Republic. The current system for managing life-sentence prisoners in this jurisdiction is that they are likely to earn their temporary release after having served about fifteen years in prison. However, there is limited research in Ireland on the effects of imprisonment, and certainly for life-sentence prisoners, criminology in the Republic has failed to examine the issues faced by this group at all. Very little is understood about the coping mechanisms specific to life-sentence prisoners; the …

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Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse, Links To Subsequent Sexual Exploitation And Prevention/Treatment Programmes: A Literature Review, Kevin Lalor, Rosaleen Mcelvaney Jan 2008

Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse, Links To Subsequent Sexual Exploitation And Prevention/Treatment Programmes: A Literature Review, Kevin Lalor, Rosaleen Mcelvaney

Reports

Evidence that the sexual abuse of children is universally widespread, and is most frequently perpetrated by family members, neighbours and others known to the child or adolescent is indisputable. Studies have consistently found that victims are vulnerable to subsequent sexual revictimization in adolescence and adulthood. They are also more likely than non-victims to engage in potentially harmful and damaging high-risk sexual behaviours, such as early age at first intercourse, multiple partners, low contraception use and prostitution. Ecological models, which incorporate explanations at the individual, family, community and societal level help explain this link. Interventions in the area of prevention of …

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Marketing First Impressions: Academic Libraries Creating Partnerships And Connections At New Student Orientations, James G. Rhoades Jr., Arianne Hartsell Jan 2008

Marketing First Impressions: Academic Libraries Creating Partnerships And Connections At New Student Orientations, James G. Rhoades Jr., Arianne Hartsell

Libraries Faculty & Staff Publications

Academic libraries look for successful marketing strategies to promote positive perceptions among students. To do this, librarians need to find venues and partnerships outside the library. Florida State University Libraries discovered that participating in new student orientation networking sessions creates opportunities to generate lasting first impressions among incoming freshmen and their families. After analyzing three years of successive student and family evaluations, which measured presentation rankings and attendance, the library was able to determine the utility and effectiveness of participating in the orientation program. Related literature and an analysis of the evaluations both indicate that universities and students benefit when …

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Acting For Peace – The Effectiveness Of Drama And Theatre As A Tool For Promoting Peace-Building And Reconciliation, Mary Moynihan Jan 2008

Acting For Peace – The Effectiveness Of Drama And Theatre As A Tool For Promoting Peace-Building And Reconciliation, Mary Moynihan

Books/Book Chapters

This research booklet examines the effectiveness of drama and theatre practice as a means to promoting peace building and reconciliation within the Irish context. The research considers five drama and theatre projects in Northern Ireland and border counties, which have been designed and delivered to contribute towards peace building and reconciliation.

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Child Sexual Abuse And Hiv Transmission In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kevin Lalor Jan 2008

Child Sexual Abuse And Hiv Transmission In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kevin Lalor

Articles

The purpose of this paper is to examine the risks of HIV transmission to children through sexual abuse and exploitation in sub-Saharan Africa. The paper is based on a review of pertinent literature. Child sexual abuse in this region must be defined broadly enough to encompass widespread coercion or violence in early sexual relations in some regions, the practice of ‘transactional sex’ and constructions of masculinity, emphasising multiple sexual partners and power over women and girls. The high HIV prevalence in SSA is briefly described. Research evidence showing the link between child sexual abuse and HIV transmission is reviewed, although …

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Young Irish Adults In Civil Society: Volunteering, Reflexive Identity Work And Social Capital, Geoffrey Robert Weller Jan 2008

Young Irish Adults In Civil Society: Volunteering, Reflexive Identity Work And Social Capital, Geoffrey Robert Weller

Doctoral

This thesis seeks to explain how young Irish adults are capable of achieving identities as episodic volunteers. Participation in civil society in Ireland is changing, with new forms of volunteering emerging (Donoghue et al 2006). Issues of identity and identity construction appear to be symptomatic of these changes (Beck and Beck-Gernsheim 2002). This research focuses upon young Irish adults identity work as they discursively construct their episodic volunteering (Macduff 2005). The research uses a discourse analysis lens (Wetherell 1998; Wetherell and Edley 1998, 1999; Edley and Wetherell 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999; Edley 2001). It is based upon 17 intensive interviews …

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