Digital Commons Network^™

Behavior Of Frp Pedestrian Bridges Under Human Induced Excitation, Laura Schmidt

Open Access Master's Theses

The prediction of the dynamic response of pedestrian bridges under human-induced excitation is a challenge in the design of pedestrian bridges, caused by the wide range of variables and the complex interaction effects. The use of new, lightweight materials, like FRP, and the trend to design long span and slender constructions lead to structures more sensitive to dynamical impact, which caused some vibrational problems at newly built bridges in the recent past. This brought increased attention to this topic.

The present thesis aims to analyze the dynamic properties of the new material fiber reinforced polymer (FRP), to estimate the changes …

Exploration Of Classifying Sentence Bias In News Articles With Machine Learning Models, Martha Bellows

Open Access Master's Theses

Sentiment analysis within the Natural Language Processing (NLP) field is an active area of research that attempts to classify pieces of text in terms of the opinions expressed. A sub-specialization in this area focuses on classifying or identifying biased text and is growing more important in the era of “fake news.” There are many methods used across researchers so it can be difficult to find a entry point into the field. Not only are there different machine learning methods applied, text embedding techniques have grown in recent years making it difficult to determine the correct avenue to use in research. …

Attitudes And Behavior For Sustainable Team Performance, Md. Hasan Shahriar Simanto

Open Access Master's Theses

As climate change in conjunction with the fourth wave of industrialization necessitates the world to move toward a sustainable future, research needs to focus on the intertwined connection between team work and sustainability. Currently, it is unknown whether teams that are successful at accomplishing sustainability-related tasks have different team composition than the teams who are not. This research explored the composition of teams performing sustainability-related tasks in regard to the individuals’ pro-environmental attitude, individuals’ self-reported pro-environmental behavior, individuals’ pro-environmental identity and team cohesion. Data was collected on real-world teams at the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Decathlon, which is a …

Grungewave: The Authenticity Of Neo-Tribes, Elizabeth Beasley

Open Access Master's Theses

Neo-tribes are characterized by fragmented identities, noncommittal membership, fascination with style and image, and social connections between members. They are often confused with subcultures due to sharing characteristics with subcultures. This has resulted in the authenticity of neo-tribes to be questioned. The confusion between neo-tribes and subcultures could be from the lack of detailed study on the use of apparel and style in neo-tribe identity. Previous studies on neo-tribes have incorporated the visual of apparel and style, however; these studies do not focus on the logistics of identity creation and authenticity through apparel and style of its members.

This study …

Perspectives From Select Women Working In Alaskan Commercial Fisheries, Berenice Yang Gonzalez

Open Access Master's Theses

Women have a long history of being actively involved in fisheries worldwide. Despite this fact, the popular image of fishers still assumes a male identity. An understudied yet important factor is women’s involvement in the commercial fishing beyond the family unit. This research was exploratory in scope, taking a thematic analysis approach, which allowed for the identification of patterns and themes within the qualitative data. Through eighteen interviews with women who have experience working in various sectors and segments of the Alaskan commercial fisheries, this thesis identifies: some of the women’s roles; the unique challenges that women face to break …

The Study Of Multicultural Students Perception Of Professors’ Nonverbal Behavior In The Classroom, Jacqueline Britto

Open Access Master's Theses

This study examined Nonverbal communication which consists of construction of meaning via non-word codes that are comprised of various forms such as intrinsic, iconic, and arbitrary. Intercultural communication occurs when there is communication within cultures. When considering environment, culture can have an influence. However, culture is not principally geographical, political, or racial. Culture is behaviors, perceptions and values that are learned and passed on from one group to another. Higher education is essential when it comes to producing economic growth and stability. In the US, the multicultural student population in higher education has been challenged with student affective learning and …

Photography And Mourning: Excavating Memories Of My Great-Grandmother, Eva Weiner

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores how photographs have affected mourning processes in the past and how photo-technology may be able to change the way in which we mourn in the future. It includes an overview of the history of post-mortem photography and discusses the perspectives of well-known media theorists such as Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag. It engages with psychologists by including their perspectives on the effect that photographs have on the mourning process. A project was created to investigate how photo-technology can affect the bereaved. The project places photographs of a mother into pictures of her children taken after she had …

Why Weight? Zines As Effective Health Communication Tools Against Fat Phobia, Evelyn Gonzalez

Scripps Senior Theses

The current models for health care hold at their core a pathologization of fat bodies informed by discriminatory methods and ideologies leading to an explicit lack of quality medical care for those who fail to meet normative standards of health and size. This project is interested in examining alternative public health models that provide interventions into those systems. Specifically, this work will seek to understand how the grassroots movement, Health at Every Size (HAES), serves to interrupt current limited understandings of health and weight. HAES individualized, weight-neutral approach to health and wellness exists in seeming opposition to contemporary ideas around …

Men's Receptivity To Mental Health Help Seeking Intervention Messages: The Effects Of Message Sender Gender And Message Content, Faye Lafond

Scripps Senior Theses

Men are much less likely to seek out mental health care services than women, despite having equally significant mental health related needs. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of the construction and delivery of intervention messages designed to encourage men to seek help for mental health concerns. 225 men in the United States were randomly assigned to one of 4 vignette conditions featuring a pro-mental health help seeking message, varying based on the gender of the sender of the message (male vs. female) and based on the inclusion of information concerning misconceptions about therapy (inclusion vs. …

"This Sacred Land Is Our Shield": Deploying The Sacred In Indigenous Art And Activism, Charlotte Jones

Scripps Senior Theses

My art historical and sociological thesis will take Cheyenne-Arapaho artist Edgar Heap of Birds’ Defend Sacred Mountains print series as the point of departure for examining the interventions of Native artists and grassroots activists in their decolonizing campaigns. Heap of Birds’ exhibition of sixty-four mono-prints, to be exhibited at Pitzer College Art Galleries in January 2018, calls attention to the ongoing injustices committed against four indigenous sacred sites across the United States: Bear Butte, South Dakota; Bear’s Lodge, Wyoming; San Francisco Peaks, Arizona; and Mauna Kea, Hawaii. Heap of Birds’ monoprints address and allude to indigenous struggles to undermine insensitive …

Analysis Of Newspaper Coverage Of Offshore Wind Energy In The United States, Christine Gilbert

Open Access Master's Theses

The Block Island Wind Farm (BIWF) is the first operational offshore wind farm in the United States. Two different theoretical frameworks are applied in an attempt to understand the nature of media coverage about offshore wind energy in the United States. Chapter 1 utilizes gatekeeping theory (Shoemaker & Vos, 2009) in comparing the local and regional newspaper coverage of the BIWF. Specifically, chapter 1 is focused on understanding the use of sources. The data from chapter 1 suggests that the gatekeeping processes at regional and local outlets are more similar than different, but business sources are more dominant than has …

Living With No: Political Polarization And Transformative Dialogue, Erik Cleven, Robert A. Baruch Bush, Judith A. Saul

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

We argue that dispute resolution processes should not be seen as a substitute for the political process, but rather a complement that can help strengthen it. Based on this view, and on the authors’ experience with dialogue work in the former Yugoslavia, as well as in urban and rural settings in the United States, we argue that transformative processes, specifically an approach we call Transformative Dialogue, are best suited to addressing the challenges of political polarization both in the United States and internationally. This is because the primary goal of transformative processes is not to reach agreement or find common …

Unusual: The Death Penalty For Inadvertent Killing, Guyora Binder, Brenner M. Fissell, Robert Weisberg

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

Can a burglar who frightens the occupant of a house, causing a fatal heart attack, be executed? More generally, does the Eighth Amendment permit capital punishment of one who causes death inadvertently? This scenario is possible in the significant minority of American jurisdictions that permit capital punishment for felony murder without requiring a mental state of intent to kill or reckless indifference to human life. Thus far, Eighth Amendment death penalty jurisprudence has required a culpable mental state of recklessness for execution of accomplices in a fatal felony but has not yet addressed the culpability required for execution of the …

Exchanging Deficit For Affordance: Developing Preservice Teachers’ Capacity To See Emergent Bilingual Students’ Resources, Aaron T. Wilson, Hyung Won Kim, M. Alejandra Sorto

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

We present a Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research project aimed at helping pre-service teachers to grasp the importance of their emergent bilingual students' bilingualism and cultural backgrounds as resources to serve them in apprehending mathematics instruction and explaining their mathematics to others.

Corporate Governance As Privately-Ordered Public Policy: A Proposal, Lynn Stout, Sergio Alberto Gramitto Ricci

Hofstra Law Faculty Scholarship

In this Article, we show how our society can use corporate governance shifts to address, if not entirely resolve, a number of currently pressing social and economic problems. These problems include: rising income inequality; demographic disparities in wealth and equity ownership; increasing poverty and income insecurity; a need for greater innovation and investment in solving problems like disease and climate change; the "externalization" of many costs of corporate activity onto third parties such as customers, employees, creditors, and the broader society; the corrosive influence of corporate money in politics; and discontent and loss of trust in the capitalist system among …

Machismo Predicts Prejudice Toward Lesbian And Gay Individuals: Testing A Mediating Role Of Contact, Michiyo Hirai, Serkan Dolma, Jason R. Popan, Mark H. Winkel

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

This study examined the relationship between traditional machismo and prejudice toward lesbian and gay individuals as mediated by contact in a Latino college sample. Gender was examined as a potential moderator. Undergraduate students from a public university in South Texas (128 males and 447 females; mean age = 22.1. SD = 4.75) completed online measures of prejudice toward lesbian and gay individuals, machismo, and contact experience with lesbian and gay individuals. Contact significantly mediated the relationship between machismo and anti-gay prejudice, yet this indirect effect was relatively small. Significant direct and indirect effects of machismo on prejudiced attitudes toward lesbian …

Factor Structure And Administration Measurement Invariance Of The Beliefs Toward Mental Illness Scale In Latino College Samples: Paper-Pencil Versus Internet Administrations., Michiyo Hirai, Laura L. Vernon, George A. Clum

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The psychometric properties of the paper–pencil and online versions of the Beliefs Toward Mental Illness Scale (BTMI) were examined in two studies with Latina/o individuals. In Study 1, 316 Latina/o participants completed the BTMI in a paper–pencil mode. The original three-factor model was found to be a poor fit model for the sample. Subsequent exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified a four-factor model as the best fitting model for the sample. The identified factors were Dangerousness, Social Dysfunction, Incurability, and Embarrassment. In Study 2, the identified best fit model was tested with 280 Latina/o participants who completed the BTMI online. …

A Gender Invariant Model Of Disgust Propensity In Blood-Injection-Injury Phobia In Latina/O Individuals, Michiyo Hirai, Laura L. Vernon, Serkan Dolma

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Latinas/os have been underrepresented in research investigating the role of disgust propensity in phobias. The current study was the first to examine associations between disgust propensity and Blood-Injection-Injury (BII) phobia, when acculturation was controlled for, in Latina/o Americans (n = 376). A structural model was developed with a BII fear latent variable consisting of fears of injection, blood, and sharp objects (causing injuries). The disgust propensity latent variable was formed with three domains of core, animal reminder, and contamination disgust elicitors. In the model, disgust propensity predicted BII fear when controlling for acculturation. A series of measurement and structural invariance …

Cognitive Language Development And Birth Order In Non Affected Siblings Of Children With Autism, Cecilia Montiel-Nava, Esther Bromberg, Zoila González, José A. Chacín

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

The study aims to explore cognitive and language development in siblings of children with autism, and to compare younger and older siblings on all the measures. 36 siblings of children with autism, between the ages of 2 years, 6 months and 15 years (x=8.67; SD=3.91) were assessed using the PPVT for the receptive language abilities, the WPPSI-III or WISC-III as an estimation of IQ, the VABS as a measure of adaptive functioning, and SCQ was used to assess autism-related symptoms. 72% (n=26) of the children were older than the affected sibling, whereas 28% (n=10) were younger. PPVT scores were below …

Preparing Women In Academic Psychology For Their First Compensation Negotiation: A Panel Perspective Of Challenges And Recommendations, Laura D. Seligman, Raeann E. Anderson, Thomas H. Ollendick, Sheila A. M. Rauch, Wendy K. Silverman, Sabine Wilhelm, Douglas W. Woods

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Successfully landing and then negotiating for your first position is an exciting and challenging task. In this article, we use a narrative review to present the literature on gender and negotiation with a focus on academic psychology work contexts. We highlight important differences between factors that are within the individual’s control versus factors at the institutional or societal level. Drawing directly from the research literature, we make several recommendations for women trying to manage negotiation in contexts that are likely biased against them at the institutional and cultural level. For example, we recommend that women take steps to reduce situational …

Rethinking The Mathematics Worksheet In Higher Education: Embracing The Application Of Spaced And Interleaved Practice, Deirdre Casey, Clodagh Carroll, Julie Crowley

Irish Journal of Academic Practice

Existing research in cognitive and educational psychology warns against overlearning and promotes spaced and interleaved practice. However, the practice of blocked overlearning is still the standard design of student practice in mathematics in higher education. This is despite the fact that transitioning to spaced interleaved worksheets would require only the resources already in place for traditionally designed blocked worksheets. Consequently, changing to spaced interleaved worksheets provides a straightforward, time-effective way in which higher education mathematics educators can implement evidence-based practice. This paper is a literature review with the intention of making explicit the educational benefits of a worksheet redesign in …

Aligning And Combining: Using Webinars For Feedback In An Online Module In Postgraduate Up-Skilling For Construction Professionals, Simon Mcguinness, Barry Ryan

Irish Journal of Academic Practice

The investigative case study presented here is an exploration of an online, multi-disciplinary, professional up-skilling module that seeks to understand how participants perceived an online delivery, feedback and constructively aligned assessment strategy. Initially a validated survey, and subsequently a purposefully selected group of four participants informed the outcomes of this study. The findings, in brief, noted that the structure of the online course was well received by the learners; with the key emergent themes focussing on the aligned approach to content, assessment and feedback as well as the flexibility the online (a)synchronous learning offered participants. Conversely, the use of webinars …

Teaching The Welcoming Of Diversity And Difference In A Contemporary Australian University, Lekkie Hopkins, Lucy Hopkins

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Reimagining an Australia where diversity and difference are welcomed rather than feared holds particular challenges for academics charged with the task of educating new undergraduate students who have been raised on a diet of conservative binary discourses and fear-inducing political slogans. This paper reports on the thinking we have done and on the practices we adopt to create a one-semester undergraduate unit on working respectfully and inclusively across diversity and difference. The unit is designed for delivery to students who will be working as professionals in contemporary Australia. Although our unit is currently being taught to students in the human …

Do Same-Demography Mentoring Programmes Make Any Difference To Mentees’ Learning Outcomes? Reflections On The Top Up Programme, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Peer mentoring is considered an effective vehicle for addressing anti-social behaviours and improving students’ academic achievement and retention. Consequently, discussions on the subject have received considerable traction in the education literature in recent times, most of which depicts its usefulness as well as factors that contribute to successful design and implementation. One issue that has not received adequate attention in the peer mentoring literature, which this reflection paper seeks to address, relates to whether demographic attributes such as gender, race and ethnicity influence mentoring outcomes for mentors and mentees. Drawing on the Top Up mentoring programme at Edith Cowan University, …

Movement Economy In Soccer: Current Data And Limitations, Filippo Dolci, Nicolas H. Hart, Andrew Kilding, Paola Chivers, Ben Piggott, Tania Spiteri

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Soccer is an intermittent team-sport, where performance is determined by a myriad of psychological, technical, tactical, and physical factors. Among the physical factors, endurance appears to play a key role into counteracting the fatigue-related reduction in running performance observed during soccer matches. One physiological determinant of endurance is movement economy, which represents the aerobic energy cost to exercise at a given submaximal velocity. While the role of movement economy has been extensively examined in endurance athletes, it has received little attention in soccer players, but may be an important factor, given the prolonged demands of match play. For this reason, …

Efficacy Of The Aussie Optimism Program: Promoting Pro-Social Behavior And Preventing Suicidality In Primary School Students. A Randomised-Controlled Trial, Clare M. Roberts, Robert T. Kane, Rosanna M. Rooney, Yolanda Pintabona, Natalie Baughman, Sharinaz Hassan, Donna Cross, Stephen R. Zubrick, Sven R. Silburn

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

The efficacy of an enhanced version of the Aussie Optimism Program (AOP) was investigated in a cluster randomized controlled trial. Grade 6 students aged 10–11 years of age (N = 2288) from 63 government primary schools in Perth, Western Australia, participated in the pre, post, and follow-up study. Schools were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Aussie Optimism with teacher training, Aussie Optimism with teacher training plus coaching, or a usual care condition that received the regular Western Australian Health Education Curriculum. Students in the Aussie Optimism conditions received 20, 1-h lessons relating to social and interpersonal skills and …

Some Approaches To Representing Sound With Colour And Shape, Lindsay Vickery

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

In recent times much of the practice of musical notation and representation has begun a gradual migration away from the monochrome standard that existed since the emergence of printed Non-Western music in the 16th century, towards the full colour pallet afforded by modern printers and computer screens. This move has expanded the possibilities available for the representation of information in the musical score. Such an expansion is arguably necessitated by the growth of new musical techniques favouring musical phenomena that were previously poorly captured by traditional Western musical notation. As time-critical form of visualisation there is a strong imperative for …

Neurosensitivity: Implications For Cognition And Creativity., David Bridges

School of Psychology Theses

Sensory-processing sensitivity, or neurosensitivity, is a biologically-based personality dimension with implications for personality, creativity and cognition. This thesis focuses on sensitivity and its cognitive implications using recent state-of-the-art sensitivity and creativity assessments with an aim to identify objective cognitive tests of sensitivity that can supplement self-report measures, whilst providing insight into the brain basis for creativity. In Chapter 1, we review literature on creativity and sensitivity. Chapter 2 presents new evidence that positive-affect-related dimensions of sensitivity benefit creativity independently and/or interactively with Big-Five openness. Factor analysis in Chapter 3 provides important evidence that multiple dimensions of sensitivity are distinct from …

Families And Workplaces, E. Jeffrey Hill, Erin K. Holmes

Faculty Publications

In order to survive and thrive, every family must both provide for and nurture its members. This is true regardless of the particular structure, size, ethnicity, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, or cultural background of the family. Physical needs of families are most frequently met through paid labor in workplaces. Nurturing needs of individuals are most commonly met by family members in the home. Learning how to simultaneously provide for and nurture one's family in harmony is of interest to everyone but very difficult to achieve. It is not wonder that research on the interface between families and workplaces has exploded …

Sleep Disturbances And Depression Severity In Patients With Parkinson’S Disease, Daniel Kay, Jared J. Tanner, Dawn Bowers

Faculty Publications

Objectives: Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a multisystem movement disorder associated with sleep disturbance and depression. Sleep disturbances and depression severity share a bidirectional association. This association may be greater in individuals who are more vulnerable to the deleterious consequences of sleep disturbance and depression severity. We investigated whether the association between sleep disturbances and depression severity is greater in patients with PD than in matched controls (MC).

Materials and Methods: The study sample (N = 98) included 50 patients with idiopathic PD and 48 age-, race-, sex-, and education-matched controls. Sleep disturbances were assessed using self-reported total sleep time (TST) …