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Articles 4681 - 4710 of 8231

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Dopamine Pharmacology Of Vta Gaba Neurons, Brian C. Bingham, Dr. Scott Steffensen Oct 2013

Dopamine Pharmacology Of Vta Gaba Neurons, Brian C. Bingham, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alcohol addiction has destroyed lives and communities for centuries. By understanding the mechanism of how our brain becomes addicted to alcohol we can better solve the problems this addiction creates. The current theory states that dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the midbrain help produce feelings of reward associated with alcohol use. These dopamine neurons are modulated by GABA neurons that form a feedback loop that can be stimulated via a brain structure called the internal capsule. The purpose of this project was to clarify the effect of dopamine (DA) on GABA neuron firing rate and electrical …

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Sucrose Self Administration, Adam Bevan, Dr. Scott Steffensen Oct 2013

Sucrose Self Administration, Adam Bevan, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Alcoholism is a problem that affects almost the whole world. The purpose of our proposed study was to record neuronal activity of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of male Wistar rats during self-administration of sucrose, which is a natural reward for rats. Although sucrose administration seems far from alcoholism, our goal was to see how these neurons act in during a behavior known to be pleasurable since past literature suggested that rats would not self-administer ethanol to dependence. Our research did take a turn, however, and we developed a system where we saw rats self-administer ethanol intravenously. We decided to …

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Testing The Fisher Effect Under Fractional Integration, Mark J. Jensen, Scott G. Murdock Oct 2013

Testing The Fisher Effect Under Fractional Integration, Mark J. Jensen, Scott G. Murdock

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Abstract. In this paper we model inflation and the nominal interest rate as a fractionally integrated, autoregressive, moving average (ARFIMA) process in order to test the theoretical proposition that nominal interest rates move one for one with inflation, thus, leaving the real interest rates unchanged; i.e. the Fisher effect. Using the necessary integration conditions first derived by Fisher and Seater (1993) and extended to fractional orders by Jensen et al. (forthcoming), we test the Fisher effect hypothesis in eleven developed countries; Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Japan, the Netherlands, the UK, and the US.

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Attractive Advertising, Michael Westover Oct 2013

Attractive Advertising, Michael Westover

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The world is inundated with images of highly attractive and underweight models (e.g. Joseph 1982). These models are commonly seen in many types of advertising, endorsing every product imaginable. Thin models create a standard of beauty that many females strive to emulate (e.g. Hebl & Heatherton, 1998). Although the practice of using underweight models is very common, there has been little research to validate its use. Advertising research during recent years has focused on the effectiveness of endorsers (e.g. Ohanian, 1991), but little research has been done to evaluate the relationship between endorser weight and purchase intent. These thoughts lead …

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Religion And Gender In The Impact Of Parental Mediation On Self-Censorship And Attitudes Toward Mediation, Christopher Layton, David Hansen Oct 2013

Religion And Gender In The Impact Of Parental Mediation On Self-Censorship And Attitudes Toward Mediation, Christopher Layton, David Hansen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This article reports the results of a three sample follow-up quantitative study involving 588 participants. Those sampled were students of three institutions of higher education, namely: Brigham Young University, Illinois State University and Texas Christian University. The three samples involved three different religious and non-religious affiliated institutions to evaluate the impact of religious affiliation on mediation strategies and self-censorship in mass media viewing choices. We used a 47-point, cross-sectional survey instrument to operationalize our hypotheses. Surveys were administered by faculty members at each of the universities and by members of our research team to each class. We discovered significant relationships …

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Borrowing The Essentials: A Diachronic Study Of The Semantic Primes Of Modern English, Karen Esther Swan Oct 2013

Borrowing The Essentials: A Diachronic Study Of The Semantic Primes Of Modern English, Karen Esther Swan

Theses and Dissertations

In order for communication to take place, there must be a set of core concepts that are universal to all speakers. Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) has proposed an inventory of these concepts, called semantic primes, and uses them as universal concepts in the explication and exploration of cultural values. The English semantic primes, while the majority are Anglo-Saxon, contain words that have been borrowed from Latin, Old Norse, and French. Borrowing lexical items into core vocabulary has many implications. First, the primes are not entirely stable or immune to foreign influence, even the Anglo-Saxon primes have been susceptible to the …

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Megacities: A Survey And Prognosis, Laina Farhat-Holzman Oct 2013

Megacities: A Survey And Prognosis, Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

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David J. Rosner, Conservatism And Crisi, The Anti-Modernist Perspective In Twentieth-Century German Philosophy., Laina Farhat-Holzman Oct 2013

David J. Rosner, Conservatism And Crisi, The Anti-Modernist Perspective In Twentieth-Century German Philosophy., Laina Farhat-Holzman

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

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Europe As A Civilization: The Revolution Of The Middle Ages & The Rise Of The Universities, Toby E. Huff Oct 2013

Europe As A Civilization: The Revolution Of The Middle Ages & The Rise Of The Universities, Toby E. Huff

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

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Richard Lynn And Tatu Vanhanen, Intelligence: A Unifying Concept For The Social Sciences., Michael Andregg Oct 2013

Richard Lynn And Tatu Vanhanen, Intelligence: A Unifying Concept For The Social Sciences., Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

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Economic Influence On Pediatric Health Care In A Medically Pluralistic Society: An Ethnographic Study Among The Asante People Of Ghana, Kevin Gamett, Dr. Randy Val Johnson, Dr. William Carl Sep 2013

Economic Influence On Pediatric Health Care In A Medically Pluralistic Society: An Ethnographic Study Among The Asante People Of Ghana, Kevin Gamett, Dr. Randy Val Johnson, Dr. William Carl

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There are many factors that influence decisions regarding medical care, including financial, situational, and ideological issues. Families may choose to avoid modern health care facilities because of the costs associated with hospital stays, treatment regimes, transportation, and lost time. Long waiting times, disrespectful treatment from doctors and nurses, and family obligations are also qualitative issues that contribute to the eschewing of modern medicine. Other families choose to go to hospitals and health clinics because they believe that medicines are the ultimate source of healing, following the western paradigms set by principles of physiology, anatomy, chemistry, and internal medicine. In questions …

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Hungarian Health Care: What Is The Cure?, Charlotte L. Rosen, Walter Whipple Sep 2013

Hungarian Health Care: What Is The Cure?, Charlotte L. Rosen, Walter Whipple

Journal of Undergraduate Research

“Hungarians, rise, your country calls you! Meet this hour, whatever befalls you! Shall we freemen be, or slaves? Choose the lot your spirit craves!”1 This was proclaimed by the famous Hungarian poet, Petrofi Sandor, during the Hungarian Revolution of 1948. This battle cry is a taste of the deep-rooted spirit of the Hungarian people that has persisted throughout their tumultuous history. Because of its strategic location in Eastern Europe, Hungary has been conquered and ruled by other countries numerous times. Most recently Hungary was under Communist control until the Iron Curtain fell in 1989. Hungary has many social, economic, and …

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Augustine’S Theory Of Language; Its Integration With His Ontological Thought, John Rather, Dr. James Siebach Sep 2013

Augustine’S Theory Of Language; Its Integration With His Ontological Thought, John Rather, Dr. James Siebach

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the Confessions, St. Augustine writes that his conversion to Christianity was made possible by a prior conversion to philosophy. By the time of his Christian conversion, and for the rest of his life, Augustine’s philosophical and theological views were most deeply affected by Neoplatonism. It was by means of Neoplatonism especially, that Augustine sought to understand and defend his religious beliefs. Although these two ways of thinking seemed naturally conducive to Augustine, and did indeed enable him to defend many doctrines of the Catholic Church against philosophical attack, the combination was not without its resultant conflicts.

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Technology And Pedagogy: The Future Of Less Commonly Taught Languages, Meredith Kersley Coy, Dr. Michael Bush Sep 2013

Technology And Pedagogy: The Future Of Less Commonly Taught Languages, Meredith Kersley Coy, Dr. Michael Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the goals of the BYU Center for Language Studies is to improve the basic Swahili course in order to support the African studies minor. An initial concern in teaching such less commonly taught languages is the lack of qualified teachers. In many cases technology is the solution to this problem. Creating on-line lesson materials that are pedagogically sound facilitates instruction in two ways. First, teachers do not have to be as strictly qualified because much of the burden is shifted to lesson plans that are already completed and available on-line. Second, students receive authentic language exposure and instruction …

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“Through A Glass Darkly”: Portrayal Of The Mormons In Nineteenth-Century American Periodical Literature, Stanley J. Thayne, Dr. Cynthia Hallen Sep 2013

“Through A Glass Darkly”: Portrayal Of The Mormons In Nineteenth-Century American Periodical Literature, Stanley J. Thayne, Dr. Cynthia Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the nineteenth century the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, then known primarily as the Mormon Church, was a subject of great controversy in American periodical literature. Major magazines such as The Atlantic Monthly, Scribner’s, Harper’s, The North American Review, and The Century published articles about the Mormon people. While working as a research assistant for Dr. Cynthia Hallen, documenting literary influences on Emily Dickinson, I came across several of these articles and wondered how the Mormon Church would have been portrayed to readers such as Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and the rest of the nineteenth-century American …

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Spiritual Matter A Mormon Materialism For The 21st Century, Kevin Winters, Dr. Mark Wrathall Sep 2013

Spiritual Matter A Mormon Materialism For The 21st Century, Kevin Winters, Dr. Mark Wrathall

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In May of 1843, Joseph Smith gave a decisive statement against dualism: “There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes; we cannot see it; but when our bodies are purified we shall see that it is all matter” (D&C 131:7-8). This led to a handful of expositions by various leaders and thinkers, such as Orson Pratt’s “The Absurdities of Immaterialism” or, more recently, Truman Madsen’s Eternal Man. But beyond Madsen’s brief treatment and a few other short works on the issue, …

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Illuminating Incompleteness: Teaching Incompleteness In Finite Set Theory, Vanessa Stanfill, Dr. Dennis Packard Sep 2013

Illuminating Incompleteness: Teaching Incompleteness In Finite Set Theory, Vanessa Stanfill, Dr. Dennis Packard

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the 1930s, a 24-year-old mathematician named Kurt Gödel developed a theorem showing that certain mathematical and logical systems, those capable of defining numbers, arithmetic, and multiplication, must be incomplete. These systems are incomplete, he showed, because they can generate certain true, but unprovable, statements. Gödel’s theorem has since become a common concept taught in advanced undergraduate logic courses. Undergraduate philosophy students attempting to understand incompleteness are usually well-grounded in basic Aristotelian and first-order predicate logic, as well as set theory. When they try to tackle Gödel’s proof, however, they are thrown into a dizzyingly unfamiliar new world of notation …

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Micro Enterprise, Development, And The Future Of Women In Lesser-Developed Countries And The United States, Anna Nibley, Dr. Lamond Tullis Sep 2013

Micro Enterprise, Development, And The Future Of Women In Lesser-Developed Countries And The United States, Anna Nibley, Dr. Lamond Tullis

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Introduction: The problem of development and economic disparity does not reside solely in Lesser-developed Countries (LDCs). Micro-credit is at work in forty-three countries, including the United States (New York Times 1997, 8). In the United States, a majority of the country’s poor reside in slums and low-income housing projects. Most of these people do not own the land on which they reside or the apartment or house in which they live and many are dependent on welfare. Because of these factors, many poor people cannot receive loans from traditional lending institutions. Recently, however, organizations like Accion International, a micro lending …

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Gathering Media For A Turkish Language Course, Laura Ann Knight, Dr. Michael Bush Sep 2013

Gathering Media For A Turkish Language Course, Laura Ann Knight, Dr. Michael Bush

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When a person visits another country with which they are unfamiliar, it can be hard to understand both the language and the culture of the people. It can be very useful to learn a bit about a country, its people, and language before visiting it. In this project we developed a multimedia computer based program that could be used by business people, tourists, exchange students, or any person interested in being introduced to life in another country. The specific focus of this project was on Turkey.

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Motivation And Peer Relations In A Second Grade Spanish-English Dual-Immersion Program, Melinda Clement Hardman Sep 2013

Motivation And Peer Relations In A Second Grade Spanish-English Dual-Immersion Program, Melinda Clement Hardman

Journal of Undergraduate Research

While there are many different models for how motivation works and what it is in second language acquisition, Gardner’s model dominated the research for over 30 years and continues to be the most well-known (Oxford 1996). Gardner explained motivation in second language acquisition with what he called the Socio-Educational Model (Gardner 1998). This model distinguished between three levels of motivation which move upward toward a broader and broader degree of motivation. At the first level is integrative orientation (An orientation, according to Gardner and Tremblay 1994, is a group of reasons for studying a language). Integrative orientation deals with having …

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Crossing Bridges Of Understanding: An Interactive Tutorial For Humanities 201, Rebecca Petersen, Dr. Michael Call Sep 2013

Crossing Bridges Of Understanding: An Interactive Tutorial For Humanities 201, Rebecca Petersen, Dr. Michael Call

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My goal in creating this tutorial was to “bring to life” some of the sites and treasures studied in the Humanities 201-202 sequence, stimulating student’s interest in the topics and providing support to the faculty teaching the courses. I feel that the module I completed successfully achieves that goal. I created a module, currently accessible in the Humanities PC Computing Lab, entitled, “Vezelay: A Romanesque Masterpiece.”

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Applying And Evaluating The Astm Standard Guide To Quality Assurance In Translation And Localization, Carina Leticia Klemetz Aceves Sep 2013

Applying And Evaluating The Astm Standard Guide To Quality Assurance In Translation And Localization, Carina Leticia Klemetz Aceves

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The ASTM Standard Guide to Quality Assurance in Translation (the name has been shortened as of late) defines the process of translation, and explains among other things the concept of “translation specifications.” Those are parameters that have to be considered in order to ensure that the product resulting from a translation is such that satisfies all parties. The Guide defines a “quality translation” as one that meets the specifications previously defined and discussed by all parties, as opposed to the traditional concept of “one best translation.” There would, therefore, not be one best translation to any given text but there …

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He Says She Says, Eric Roundy, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale Sep 2013

He Says She Says, Eric Roundy, Dr. Deryle Lonsdale

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The first step in meeting the goals outlined in my proposal was to download the source code for the Festival speech synthesis engine. Festival is an open source modular synthesis engine built on a Scheme backbone. I ported the make files to run with my current version of the GNU compiler collection (GCC) compiler and built and installed the engine.

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Emily Dickinson’S Place Names, Malina Nielson, Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen Sep 2013

Emily Dickinson’S Place Names, Malina Nielson, Dr. Cynthia L. Hallen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During her prolific writing career, nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson produced 1,789 poems. Dr. Cynthia Hallen of the English Language and Linguistics Department has been researching and defining all of Emily Dickinson’s words according to the way Dickinson used them for the forthcoming Emily Dickinson Lexicon.

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The Determinants Of School Attendance On The American Frontier: The Case Of The Territory Of Utah In 1870, Tally Shae Payne, Dr. Clayne L. Pope Sep 2013

The Determinants Of School Attendance On The American Frontier: The Case Of The Territory Of Utah In 1870, Tally Shae Payne, Dr. Clayne L. Pope

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In his study, “Education Among the Mormons,” Frederick S. Buchanan noted that “when we examine development of public schooling in Utah during the half century which elapsed between the initial settlement by Mormon pioneers in 1847 and the granting of statehood in 1896, it is not obvious that a smooth developmental process of growth occurred.”1 Traditional holds that early Mormon settlers were devoted to education and quickly built a strong schooling system for the youth, yet Frederick S. Buchanan’s statement paints a more accurate picture of frontier education in Utah. This economic study used empirical evidence to test the differing …

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English Advertising In Vienna, Tiffany Oaks Sep 2013

English Advertising In Vienna, Tiffany Oaks

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Present day English is enormously influential in the international business world. This is evident in continental Europe, not only in the marketing of products originating from countries whose first language is English, but sometimes also in the marketing of products originating in countries whose first language is not English. In Austria, for example, many Austrian companies give their products English names. The reason behind this deserves some exploration. It might be assumed to be the result of prestige accompanying American English, perhaps conveying associations of ingenuity, dependability and wealth.

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Snapshot Of A Nabataean Tomb, Jean Marie Vance, Dr. David Johnson Sep 2013

Snapshot Of A Nabataean Tomb, Jean Marie Vance, Dr. David Johnson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Nabataean kingdom existed as an independent entity from about 3rd century BC to 1st century AD and continued to exist through the 3rd century AD as a province of the Roman Empire. The Nabataeans flourished as traders and they were able to establish their capital city at Petra. With the development of trade among the Nabataeans came an influx of ideas and technologies among those ideas was stylistic considerations involved with art – in particular frescos.

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Cultural Components Of Infant Mortality In Asante, Ghana, Adriana Matos, Dr. William Olsen Sep 2013

Cultural Components Of Infant Mortality In Asante, Ghana, Adriana Matos, Dr. William Olsen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Among the Asante people of central Ghana, health and healing are conceptualized quite differently than the western biomedical model. Religious cosmology has special significance in relation to healing. Health is thought of holistically; every illness is a product of physical, spiritual, emotional, and cosmological forces. Illnesses manifest themselves in the body, but unlike the biomedical view of health, it is not the bodily affliction that is the root of the problem. In order to cure a disease, the true cause must be discovered and resolved. Although many of the traditional beliefs have been pushed out or reduced by the growing …

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K’Iche’ Kinship Terms And Social Identity, Kristine Kinship Whipple, Dr. John Hawkins Sep 2013

K’Iche’ Kinship Terms And Social Identity, Kristine Kinship Whipple, Dr. John Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

During the summer of 2005, I lived and worked among the indigenous Maya-K’iche’ of the Guatemalan highlands. Prior to leaving, I had anticipated examining kinship terms in a bilingual country and whether the use of K’iche’ terms vs. Spanish terms would indicate a difference in the type of kinship relationship created. Upon arrival, I learned that I would spend the season in a rural, monolingual K’iche’ hamlet. Without my informants knowing any Spanish, I abandoned my bilingual project altogether and studied, instead, the native conceptions of communication and how these conceptions interplayed with their models of kinship and family. Having …

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Fossils As Votive Offerings In The Greco-Roman World, Holly A. Raymond, Dr. David Johnson Sep 2013

Fossils As Votive Offerings In The Greco-Roman World, Holly A. Raymond, Dr. David Johnson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Often archaeologists fail to recognize objects of veneration and cult worship in religious contexts. These objects may at first glance be difficult to identify as votive offerings. Consequently, they are often overlooked because of their seemingly ordinary appearance and functional purpose. Robin Osborne says of votive offerings “… it may be an object made for everyday use and ‘converted’ into an item that might be employed in an exchange with supernatural powers, as a cup or piece of jewelry may be” (Osborne 2004: 2). This type of votive offering may have been more widely employed among those of a non-elite …

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