Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Of Rats And Men, Thomas S. Walsh

Capstones

This capstone is a data-driven investigation into New York City's rat problem. By using publicly available government data to map rat activity in NYC, I identified several socio-economic variables that correlate with rat populations at the community district, borough, and city-scale. I used these findings (mainly that rat problems are linked to lower incomes) as the basis of an investigation, which includes interviews with residents, experts, and city officials. Prof. Bobby Corrigan, urban rodentologist and formerly with the NYC Department of Health criticizes the city's efforts for the first time on the record.

https://thomasseiyawalsh.wixsite.com/ratstone

Improving Service Level Of Free-Floating Bike Sharing Systems, Aritra Pal

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bike Sharing is a sustainable mode of urban mobility, not only for regular commuters but also for casual users and tourists. Free-floating bike sharing (FFBS) is an innovative bike sharing model, which saves on start-up cost, prevents bike theft, and offers significant opportunities for smart management by tracking bikes in real-time with built-in GPS. Efficient management of a FFBS requires: 1) analyzing its mobility patterns and spatio-temporal imbalance of supply and demand of bikes, 2) developing strategies to mitigate such imbalances, and 3) understanding the causes of a bike getting damaged and developing strategies to minimize them. All of these …

Statistical Modelling, Optimal Strategies And Decisions In Two-Period Economies, Jiang Wu

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Motivated by some real problems, our thesis puts forward two general two-period pricing models and explore optimal buying and selling strategies in two states of the two-period decision, when buyer/seller's decisions in the two periods are uncertain: commodity valuations may or may not be independent, may or may not follow the same distribution, be heavily or just lightly influenced by exogenous economic conditions, and so on. For both the example of buying laptops and the example of selling houses, the connections between each example and the two-envelope paradox encourage us to explore optimal strategies based on the works of McDonnell …

Models And Policies Of Port Carbon Emission Reduction: A Case Study Of The Port Of Dalian, Jiaqiong Zhao

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Social Network Analysis On Wisconsin Archival Facebook Community, Jennifer Stevenson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how Wisconsin archives are using Facebook (Wisconson archives Facebook community, WAFC). Few archive studies use quantitative measurements to draw conclusions from social media application use. Quantitative data is needed in order to identify the various ways that social media is being used in an archive. Without the data behind the assumptions, it is impossible to improve service and outreach to the archive users. This study proposed a mixed methods approach to aid in the process, using social network analysis, inferential statistics and thematic analysis. This study measured the effects of implementation of …

A Cross-Sectional Exploration Of Household Financial Reactions And Homebuyer Awareness Of Registered Sex Offenders In A Rural, Suburban, And Urban County., John Charles Navarro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As stigmatized persons, registered sex offenders betoken instability in communities. Depressed home sale values are associated with the presence of registered sex offenders even though the public is largely unaware of the presence of registered sex offenders. Using a spatial multilevel approach, the current study examines the role registered sex offenders influence sale values of homes sold in 2015 for three U.S. counties (rural, suburban, and urban) located in Illinois and Kentucky within the social disorganization framework. Homebuyers were surveyed to examine whether awareness of local registered sex offenders and the homebuyer’s community type operate as moderators between home selling …

Incorporating Place And Space: A Hierarchical Spatial Approach To Exploring Preventable Congestive Heart Failure Hospitalizations In New York City, Rachael Weiss Riley

Dissertations and Theses

Background: Faced with rising medical care costs, increasing prevalence, and widening health disparities, preventing congestive heart failure (CHF) hospitalizations is a central public health concern. Despite evidence of geographical clustering in preventable CHF admissions, there is a lack of research designed to examine spatial patterning of CHF and the local area neighborhood determinants that contribute to this variability. This study sought to assess and evaluate the importance of both space and place in analyzing preventable CHF hospitalizations and readmissions by applying appropriate statistical techniques, clarifying the assumption inherent in each method, and interpreting the findings within the context of existing …

Effects Of Ankle Weights On Metabolic Response And Muscle Activity On A Lower Body Positive Pressure Treadmill 2017, Saige Hupman

Master's Theses

Lower body positive pressure (LBPP) treadmills are growing in popularity for rehabilitative use, as the benefits of exercising at partially supported body weight may induce faster recovery. It is unknown if there are certain practices that increase exercise intensity while maintaining positive effects of LBPP. Adding ankle weights when walking or running could increase intensity of rehabilitation programs while maintaining the comfort of supported body weight. PURPOSE: To measure metabolic response (VO2, RER, HR, Caloric expenditure), RPE, and lower limb electromyography (EMG) amplitudes of LBPP treadmill walking and running with and without ankle weights. METHODS: Sixteen participants (Age: 21.94 ± …

Ethnic Party Bans And Civil Unrest: A Measurement Modeling Approach To Predicting Effects Of Constitutional Engineering, Kelly Gleason

Theses and Dissertations

Political representation through exclusively ethnic parties has long been thought to create, or enforce, social cleavages leading to conflict. To gain support and mobilize ethnic constituents, ethnic party leadership has incentive to exaggerate differences between, or even antagonize, members of other ethnic groups through the process of ethnic outbidding. Classic political theory cautions that the exclusive nature of ethnic parties can also produce a dangerous zero sum game between ethnic groups that cannot be solved by compromise via democratic institutions. Several institutional solutions have been proposed to counter the problem of instability ethnic divisions create for new democracies, encountering varying …

Assessing The Relationship Between Change Blindness And The Anchoring Effect, Melissa Schoenlein

Honors Projects

A lack of consideration for all aspects of a question prompts fragmented decision making. These decisions, as they leave out fundamental information, repeatedly then lead to a potentially problematic reaction to the target question or stimuli. The anchoring heuristic propels one to make a decision, usually an estimate, based on a presented “fact”, often ignoring additional background and environmental clues. Reducing the rate of occurrence of the anchoring bias is thought to lead to an increase in holistic decision making. To promote this reduction, the purpose of this research was to affirmexamine the relationship between the susceptibility to change blindness …

Modelling Cash Crop Growth In Tn, Spencer Weston

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

A Tournament Approach To Price Discovery In The Us Cattle Market, Jeffrey Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cattle price discovery is a process of determining the price in the market through the interactions of cattle buyers (packers) and sellers (ranchers). Locating the price discovery center or market, and estimating price interactions among the regional fed cattle markets and also among feeder cattle markets can help define a relevant fed cattle procurement market. This research identifies that the U.S. cattle markets is discovered in the futures markets, feeder cattle futures and fed futures.

An Evaluation Of Critical Realignment Theory: Comparing Bayesian And Frequentist Approaches, Tara A. Rhodes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Prior to this study, critical realignment theory, which presupposes eras of substantial and sustained swings in American political party dominance, had only been evaluated using the classical, frequentist approach to modeling. However, potential for more information concerning these electoral phenomena exists given a shift in the design and approach to realigning elections. This study sought to explore those options through one particular alternative to the classical approach to statistics--in this particular case, the Bayesian approach to statistics. Bayesian methods differ from the frequentist approach in three main ways: the treatment of probability, the treatment of parameters, and the treatment of …

Consumers' Perceptions Of Voluntary And Involuntary Deconsumption: An Exploratory Sequential Scale Development Study, Kranti K. Dugar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory sequential mixed methods study of scale development was conducted among baby boomers in the United States to render conceptual clarity to the concepts of voluntary and involuntary deconsumption, to explore deconsumption behavior under the tenets of the attribution theory of motivation, and to examine the components, structures, uses, and measurement properties of scales of voluntary and involuntary deconsumption. It was also an attempt to reiterate the importance of the baby boomer segment(s) for marketing practitioners based on growth, economic viability, and the power of influence, and to establish a deep understanding of the deconsumption processes, which could enable …

Meta-Analyses Of The Relationship Between Depression And Nine Dimensions Of Perfectionism, Gabriel Lynn Hottinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perfectionism has been shown to be related to depression, but perfectionism is multidimensional. Some dimensions are related to positive psychological characteristics and outcomes and other dimensions are related to negative psychological characteristics and outcomes. This study reports results of nine meta-analyses performed to investigate the association between each of nine subscales of perfectionism and depression to determine which dimensions of perfectionism are most strongly associated with depression. The two subscales that were used from the Hewitt and Flett (1991b) Multidimensional Perfectionism scale were Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP) and Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP). The five subscales that were used from the Frost et …

A Multi-Method Exploration Of The Genetic And Environmental Risks Contributing To Tobacco Use Behaviors In Young Adulthood, Elizabeth K. Do

Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco use remains the leading preventable cause of morbidity and mortality in both the United States and worldwide. Twin and family studies have demonstrated that both genetic and environmental factors are important contributors to tobacco use behaviors. Understanding how genes, the environment, and their interactions is critical to the development of public health interventions that focus on the reduction of tobacco related morbidity and mortality. However, few studies have examined the transition from adolescent to young adulthood – the time when many individuals are experimenting with and developing patterns of tobacco use. This dissertation thesis seeks to provide a comprehensive …

Weighted Networks: Applications From Power Grid Construction To Crowd Control, Thomas Charles Mcandrew

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Since their discovery in the 1950's by Erdos and Renyi, network theory (the study of objects and their associations) has blossomed into a full-fledged branch of mathematics.

Due to the network's flexibility, diverse scientific problems can be reformulated as networks and studied using a common set of tools.

I define a network G = (V,E) composed of two parts: (i) the set of objects V, called nodes, and (ii) set of relationships (associations) E, called links, that connect objects in V.

We can extend the classic network of nodes and links by describing the intensity of these associations with weights. …

Predictive Modeling Of Adolescent Cannabis Use From Multimodal Data, Philip Spechler

Graduate College Dissertations and Theses

Predicting teenage drug use is key to understanding the etiology of substance abuse. However, classic predictive modeling procedures are prone to overfitting and fail to generalize to independent observations. To mitigate these concerns, cross-validated logistic regression with elastic-net regularization was used to predict cannabis use by age 16 from a large sample of fourteen year olds (N=1,319). High-dimensional data (p = 2,413) including parent and child psychometric data, child structural and functional MRI data, and genetic data (candidate single-nucleotide polymorphisms, "SNPs") collected at age 14 were used to predict the initiation of cannabis use (minimum six occasions) by age 16. …

Juvenile Remains: Predicting Body Mass And Stature In Modern American Populations, Erin F E Pinkston

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

There are increasing numbers of unidentified persons in the U.S. and abroad. To generate positive identifications, forensic anthropologists and others working in the medicolegal field employ a variety of methods to produce biological profiles to match to case files and missing persons databases. Body mass, and stature are two important components of a biological profile, and both can be estimated using regression formulae derived from skeletal metrics. In cases of unidentified juvenile remains, these are particularly important metrics, as it is difficult or impossible to determine sex in prepubescent remains, and the quality of ancestry estimation is currently under debate …

Development Of A Variogram Approach To Spatial Outlier Detection Using A Supplemental Digital Elevation Model Dataset, Zane Daniel Helwig

Masters Theses

"When developing a ground water model, the quality of the dataset should first be evaluated. Spatial outliers can lead to predictions which are not representative of actual conditions. In order to isolate misrepresentative points, a method is presented which examines the experimental variogram of a ground water elevation dataset. To define a threshold variance between pairs of ground water elevation measures, ground elevation values from a digital elevation model (DEM) are used to determine a maximum reasonable variance expected to occur on the experimental variogram. To determine appropriate DEM parameters, a separate study was also done which observed characteristic behavior …

Statistics-Bierce Library Study, Tyler J. Hushour

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This is a report from two surveys that I created and administered to students and faculty at Bierce library who came to the Circulation Desk or the Tech Desk, as well as some of my other findings when periodically looking around the library to see where students like to study or hang-out. There was a written survey given at the Circulation Desk, and a different survey given at the Tech Check-Out Desk. The project is for Melanie Smith-Farrell, the head of Access Services, and is based on a similar study Ian McCullough did in the science library. While this is …