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Articles 5011 - 5040 of 8231

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Sustainable Development And Good Cheese: An Evaluation Of Choice Humanitarian And Hispanics In Philanthropy’S Goat Cheese Project In Tamaula And Huaricho, Mexico, Jeffrey Swindle, Dr. Tim Heaton Aug 2013

Sustainable Development And Good Cheese: An Evaluation Of Choice Humanitarian And Hispanics In Philanthropy’S Goat Cheese Project In Tamaula And Huaricho, Mexico, Jeffrey Swindle, Dr. Tim Heaton

Journal of Undergraduate Research

CHOICE Humanitarian and Hispanics in Philanthropy (HIP) partnered to support a local project proposal by villagers in Tamaula and Huaricho, Mexico to create small goat cheese factories in each of the villages. The goal of the project was to create jobs for villagers so that their communities develop despite their structural poverty and reliance on remittances.

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The Relationship Between Women’S Clinics And Hospitals Offering Women’S Services 1960-2000, Hayley Darchuck Aug 2013

The Relationship Between Women’S Clinics And Hospitals Offering Women’S Services 1960-2000, Hayley Darchuck

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The 1960s showed marked improvements in the realm of decreasing the inequality gap between men and women. For example, government acts called for equal pay and protected women against discrimination. However, in the area of healthcare, women felt that there was a disconnect between themselves and the way that their bodies were being treated. For instance, doctors were mainly male at this time, and in 1970, women only made up 7.6% of doctors in the United States (Weisman 1998). These doctors spent little time with their patients and did not believe in sharing vital health information with their patients; doctors …

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Maternal Education And Child Nutritional Status In Africa: Mediating Mechanisms, Kiira Fox, Dr. Renata Forste Aug 2013

Maternal Education And Child Nutritional Status In Africa: Mediating Mechanisms, Kiira Fox, Dr. Renata Forste

Journal of Undergraduate Research

While previous research indicates child stunting rates have decreased in the aggregate over the last few decades, malnutrition continues to account for over half of annual child deaths and the stunting of 226 million (Neumann et al.). As national inequality persists, even increasing in certain areas, higher rates of stunting have become concentrated within already disadvantaged populations (Minujin and Delamonica, 2004). Africa, for instance, has particularly low educational attainment, high rates of poverty, a lack of infrastructure and experiences stunting rates as high as 60% in certain areas (Neumann et al.). Although earlier studies have identified many dimensions of disadvantage …

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Infants’ Intermodal Perception Of Canine (Canis Familairis) Facial Expressions And Vocalizations, Jacob Jones, Dr. Ross Flom Aug 2013

Infants’ Intermodal Perception Of Canine (Canis Familairis) Facial Expressions And Vocalizations, Jacob Jones, Dr. Ross Flom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Several studies have shown that in the first months of life, infants discriminate faces and speech sounds under a diverse range of conditions. These results suggest that infants’ capacity to discriminate faces and speech sounds changes over the course of development: Younger, but not older, infants discriminate a wider range of speech sounds and faces. Finally, studies have also shown that if infants do not continue to receive exposure to a particular language or the faces of a given species, infants may lose the ability to discriminate those speech sounds or faces. (Kuhl, Williams, Lacerda, Stevens, & Lindblom, 1992; Werker …

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Moral Conceptions And Parent-Adolescent Congruence: What Does It Mean To Be A Moral Person?, Ryan James Funk, Dr. Sam Hardy Aug 2013

Moral Conceptions And Parent-Adolescent Congruence: What Does It Mean To Be A Moral Person?, Ryan James Funk, Dr. Sam Hardy

Journal of Undergraduate Research

When I began working with Dr. Sam Hardy, I started in a simple data entry position. I would spend ten hours a week entering responses to survey questions into a computer program. As I spent more and more time in Sam’s lab doing data entry, I began to have more and more questions about the research. “What is this measure for?” I wondered and “How does it help us investigate adolescent moral development?” In weekly meetings with Sam’s lab, I had a chance to ask these questions and Sam answered them by involving me more and more in the research. …

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Using Behavioral And Physiological Measures Of Anxiety In Autism, Katherine Taylor, Dr. Mikle South Aug 2013

Using Behavioral And Physiological Measures Of Anxiety In Autism, Katherine Taylor, Dr. Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of my study was to examine behavioral and physiological measures of anxiety in an effort to understand the appearance of anxiousness in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). With the help of my mentor, Dr Mikle South, and his other research assistants, I modified Ned Kalin’s (e.g., 2003) human intruder paradigm for monkeys, originally based on Ainsworth’s “Strange Situation” (Ainsworth & Bell, 1970) for use with children. The phases of the experiment proceeded as follows:

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After-School Violence In Samoa, Devan Stevens Aug 2013

After-School Violence In Samoa, Devan Stevens

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the Polynesian Islands of Samoa, there is a prevalence of after-school violence associated with school rivalries that is of serious concern to the local governments and community members. There is a paucity of research done in Samoa concerning adolescent aggression. Thus, the need for research is great. Samoan newspapers frequently report inter-school violence and a plethora of acts of aggression amongst the Samoan adolescents (e.g. Samoa Observer April 12, 2010). These acts of violence are often planned and executed by the students of several different school districts, unbeknownst to school officials. Although rarely do these scuffles involve guns, it …

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Effects Of Chronic Ethanol On Vta Gaba Neuron Synaptic Activity, Stephanie Sandoval, Dr. Scott Steffensen Aug 2013

Effects Of Chronic Ethanol On Vta Gaba Neuron Synaptic Activity, Stephanie Sandoval, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The mesocortico limbic system is implicated in drug reward. An important substrate underlying chronic effects of ethanol on Dopamine (DA) neurotransmission in the mesolimbic pathway is gamma aminobutyric acid (GABA) neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA)(Ludlow et al. 2009). VTA GABAergic interneurons are the primary inhibitory regulator of DA neurons and a subset of GABA(A) receptors may be implicated in the switch from heavy drinking to dependence. Previous studies have shown that chronic ethanol results in a significant down regulation in the expression of D2 receptors in ethanol consuming rats versus the controls. This possibly results from persistent DA …

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Effects Of Acute Ethanol On Gaba Neuron Synaptic Responses, Kyle Ellefsen, Dr. Scott Steffensen Aug 2013

Effects Of Acute Ethanol On Gaba Neuron Synaptic Responses, Kyle Ellefsen, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The nucleus accumbens is a midbrain structure which is thought to influence pleasure and reward. The physiology of this area is also thought to be altered in a state of addiction, including alcoholism. The nucleus accumbens receives most of its dopaminergic input from another midbrain structure, the ventral tegmental area (VTA). The purpose of my research was to characterize the effects of acute ethanol administration on the firing rate of those VTA dopamine neurons by analyzing the change in the electrophysiological properties of inhibitory GABA neurons in the VTA, which are thought to directly regulate VTA dopamine firing rate.

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The Efficacy Of Using Animal-Assisted Therapy To Decrease Maladaptive Behaviors In Children With Reactive Attachment Disorder, Trisha Markle, Dr. Gary Burlingame Aug 2013

The Efficacy Of Using Animal-Assisted Therapy To Decrease Maladaptive Behaviors In Children With Reactive Attachment Disorder, Trisha Markle, Dr. Gary Burlingame

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study is currently still in progress. We are in the final stages of a pilot study that was supported by this ORCA grant. A new and funded version of the study will begin in January based upon the findings of the pilot. As noted in our IRB, our pilot study was conducted as a quality improvement project at Utah State hospital (USH).

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Effects Of Chronic Alcohol Intoxication On The Dopaminergic Reward Pathway, Brian Hoyt, Dr. Scott Steffensen Aug 2013

Effects Of Chronic Alcohol Intoxication On The Dopaminergic Reward Pathway, Brian Hoyt, Dr. Scott Steffensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research project studied the effects of chronic alcohol intoxication on the brain’s pleasure center (the mesocorticolimbic system). I worked with JungJae Park (M.S. in neuroscience) and three other undergraduate students. Because rats dislike the taste of alcohol, we injected the alcohol directly into their abdominal cavity. This was done under isoflourane anesthesia to avoid any discomfort for the animals. We injected three experimental rats an intoxicating dose of alcohol twice daily for three weeks. Three other rats were used as control subjects (received saline injections twice daily).

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Effects Of Mood On Error Processing, Alexander Gray, Dr. Michael Larson Aug 2013

Effects Of Mood On Error Processing, Alexander Gray, Dr. Michael Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study will help us to better understand the neurophysiological correlates of error processing–the cognitive function of detecting mistakes. Also, this study will help clarify the potential generation process of this neurophysiological correlate, specifically called the error-related negativity (ERN).

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The Influence Of Positive Affect On Working Memory, Brenna S. Adams, Dr. Michael J. Larson Aug 2013

The Influence Of Positive Affect On Working Memory, Brenna S. Adams, Dr. Michael J. Larson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Positive affect, or positive emotion, is associated with improvements in most cognitive abilities, such as creative problem solving (Isen, Daubman, & Nowicki, 1987), the integration of information for strategic decision-making (Estrada, Isen, & Young, 1997), and verbal fluency (Phillips, Bull, Adams, & Fraser, 2002). However, recent studies report that positive affect also fosters increased distractibility, impairing working memory (Dreisbach, 2006; Dreisbach & Goschke, 2004). Working memory refers to the neural system involved in “temporary maintenance and manipulation of information” (Baddeley, 2002, p. 85).

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The Gunpowder Behind Ghana’S Cocoa Boom: Examining How International Market Pressure And British Colonial Policies Created Ghana’S Cocoa Market, Chase Arnold, Sheila Bibb Aug 2013

The Gunpowder Behind Ghana’S Cocoa Boom: Examining How International Market Pressure And British Colonial Policies Created Ghana’S Cocoa Market, Chase Arnold, Sheila Bibb

Journal of Undergraduate Research

At the turn of the 20th century, British imperialism renewed with remarkable vigor. The British Empire was expanded, its borders defined, and greater effort was invested into making each of its distant lands more profitable for Crown and country. A remarkable, yet often overlooked, portion of this colonial narrative belongs to the Republic of Ghana in West Africa, which was then known as the British Gold Coast. For several centuries following the first European encounters, the Gold Coast was primarily tied into the Atlantic slave trade, serving as a lucrative market where Africans could be both bought and sold for …

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Saving The Maya Civilization – Ancient And Living, Landon John Hansen, Dr. Donald Forsyth Aug 2013

Saving The Maya Civilization – Ancient And Living, Landon John Hansen, Dr. Donald Forsyth

Journal of Undergraduate Research

One of the most significant finds of Mayan archaeology in recent years has been the elaborate stucco frieze discovered in the Central Acropolis of the ancient Mayan city, El Mirador. The frieze is significant not only because of its remarkable preservation and beautiful artistic representations, but also because of its age. The frieze, which is proposed to be depicting a scene from the Popul Vuh, predates all other known sources of the Popul Vuh mythology by more than a millennium. In fact, much speculation has been done in the past regarding the level of Spanish influence in the Popul Vuh …

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Long-Term Income Stagnation Among The Bankrupt, Daniel Sullivan, Dr. Frank Mcintyre Aug 2013

Long-Term Income Stagnation Among The Bankrupt, Daniel Sullivan, Dr. Frank Mcintyre

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Past research has documented a wide array of personal risk factors for declaring bankruptcy, such as a loss of income, medical debt, excessive credit card debt, and large mortgages. These factors fall into two broad categories: adverse events, such as an acute income shock (e.g., job loss), and internal decisions, like budgeting failures where a household’s consumption exceeds income for some time.

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Deriving Movie Revenues How Mpaa Ratings Effect Film Profits, Jared Shores, Dr. Joseph Price Aug 2013

Deriving Movie Revenues How Mpaa Ratings Effect Film Profits, Jared Shores, Dr. Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I have always been drawn to the arts. Growing up I was continually playing and writing music. As I grew older my interested broadened into visual arts, specifically film. Although I am an economics major, I have continually looked for opportunities to apply what I was learning to the film industry. The idea for this project started after my Price Theory II class in the spring of 2009. My professor, Dr. Price, encouraged my desire to investigate why so few family friendly films were being created when it was arguably the largest film market. This simple conversation led to some …

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The Effects Of Sleep On Academic Achievement In Adolescents: A Quantile Regression Analysis, Brent Jensen, Dr. Eric Eide Aug 2013

The Effects Of Sleep On Academic Achievement In Adolescents: A Quantile Regression Analysis, Brent Jensen, Dr. Eric Eide

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Education is a growing area of study in the area of economics and it is often difficult to find objective answers to the questions and problems that educators and policy makers face each day. For my research, I used economic theory to try and determine if there is a causal relationship between sleep and academic achievement for students between the ages 5 and 18 and to see if that relationship is significant.

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What’S Moral About Moral Reasoning: Dealing With Personal Versus Contrived Dilemmas, Lacey Nielson, Dr. Terry Olson Aug 2013

What’S Moral About Moral Reasoning: Dealing With Personal Versus Contrived Dilemmas, Lacey Nielson, Dr. Terry Olson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Moral reasoning is commonly assessed using the Defining Issues Test (DIT) by James Rest which correlates with Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development. The DIT presents contrived moral dilemmas with issue statements. In our study, we wanted to see if moral reasoning in real life situations, or lived experience, was qualitatively different in content from moral reasoning regarding DIT dilemmas.

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Transformative Processes In Marriage: Effects On Father-Adolescent Relationships, Brandon Mcdaniel, Dr. Erin Holmes Aug 2013

Transformative Processes In Marriage: Effects On Father-Adolescent Relationships, Brandon Mcdaniel, Dr. Erin Holmes

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Researchers suggest that marital processes and the father-child relationship are linked (Holmes, Duncan, Bair, & White, 2007). Unfortunately, much of this work focuses on negative marital processes. For example, low marital satisfaction, emotional distance between spouses, and high marital conflict undermine father involvement by increasing risk for divorce (Clements, Stanley, & Markman, 2004), lowering parenting quality (Erel & Burman, 1995), and decreasing child adjustment (Grych & Fincham, 2001).

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Parental Stress As A Mediator For Relationship Satisfaction And Child Well-Being Between Two Adult Developmental Groups, Heather Perkins, Dr. Brian Willoughby Aug 2013

Parental Stress As A Mediator For Relationship Satisfaction And Child Well-Being Between Two Adult Developmental Groups, Heather Perkins, Dr. Brian Willoughby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In the last 15 years, a new body of research has emerged looking specifically at the development of individuals between the ages of 18 to 25. Historically, this developmental period has been marked by the emergence of new responsibilities such as marriage and parenthood that are much less likely to occur for individuals of that age group today. Recent trends have shown that people are getting married and having children at later and later ages; using this time period instead as a time to gain an education, and form a self-identity (Arnett, 2010; Arnett, 2000; Arnett, 2007; Tanner book). Although …

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Two And A Half Men In A World Of Warcraft: Sexual And Violent Media’S Influence On Relationship Outcomes, Kaylee Dunn, Dr. Dean Busby Aug 2013

Two And A Half Men In A World Of Warcraft: Sexual And Violent Media’S Influence On Relationship Outcomes, Kaylee Dunn, Dr. Dean Busby

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this study was to discover whether viewing higher levels of sexual and violent television and video games, negatively influences relationship quality with a significant romantic partner. Additionally we addressed the mediating effects of pornography behaviors and attitudes and individual characteristics to this association.

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The Use Of Antimicrobial Textiles In Heath Care, Mary Kent, Dr. Catherine Burnham Aug 2013

The Use Of Antimicrobial Textiles In Heath Care, Mary Kent, Dr. Catherine Burnham

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Antimicrobial textiles are on the cutting edge of fiber nanotechnology and are a new concept in the textile industry. Antimicrobial textiles are fabrics covered in a unique silver finish that helps to prevent infection. Research has repeatedly shown their effectiveness to prohibit growth of microorganisms, such as bacteria, fungi, and algae. This particular effect makes them applicable and very useful in the healthcare industry, and several different products such as dressings, masks, and gowns have been developed for healthcare use. Despite their shown effectiveness, before I started my own research, there was a dearth of information showing whether health care …

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Implications Of The Ratification Of The Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Alyssa Brown, Dr. Jenet Erickson Aug 2013

Implications Of The Ratification Of The Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Alyssa Brown, Dr. Jenet Erickson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is a United Nations treaty declaring the government’s duty to protect children and to provide for their material and immaterial needs, essentially seeking to protect children’s rights. On a worldwide scale this treaty has been greeted with open arms as it has been ratified by 193 UN States Parties. Surprisingly, only two countries, the United States and Somalia,1 have not ratified the CRC so there is considerable international pressure for the United States to increase its involvements in human rights through ratification.

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“We Don’T Need No Education” Aid: The Effects Of Education-Specific Foreign Aid On School Enrollment In Low-Income Countries, Dustin Homer, Dr. Daniel Nielson Aug 2013

“We Don’T Need No Education” Aid: The Effects Of Education-Specific Foreign Aid On School Enrollment In Low-Income Countries, Dustin Homer, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

We use AidData to assess the effectiveness of education aid. Focusing on the subset of the world’s poorest nations, we empirically evaluate the effects of educational foreign aid on primary school enrollment rates over the period 1975-2005. While past literature suggests that aid has had positive effects on education, this new and more comprehensive database allows a broader evaluation of aid’s impact in poor countries. Our findings – subjected to a variety of robustness tests – indicate that education aid dollars have, at best, mixed effects and, at worst, no significant impact, on school enrollments in less-developed nations.

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Empathy In Autism, Oliver Johnston, Dr. Mikle South Aug 2013

Empathy In Autism, Oliver Johnston, Dr. Mikle South

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder with primary deficits in social communication. The purpose for this research was to investigate whether difficulties with empathy – the ability to feel what others feel – might contribute to the core social difficulties. This paper outlines the process used over the last year to study empathy in autism and to identify the brain processes associated with empathy in autism.

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Modern-Day Conceptions Of Marriage In Visakhapatnam, India: “Bridging The Gap” Between Globalized Young Women And Their Parents, Courtney Petersen, Dr. Charles W. Nuckolls Aug 2013

Modern-Day Conceptions Of Marriage In Visakhapatnam, India: “Bridging The Gap” Between Globalized Young Women And Their Parents, Courtney Petersen, Dr. Charles W. Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The city of Visakhapatnam hugs the shoreline of the Bay of Bengal on the East coast of Andhra Pradesh, India. Once a small collection of fishing villages, this city is now a bustling metropolis housing businesses, universities, travelers, students, and families from both metropolitan and rural backgrounds. As with most growing cities in India, Visakhapatnam is bombarded with outside influences from the western world in the form of media, global businesses, and travel as it develops as a city. This advancement in technology and interaction with global society benefits the people in Visakhapatnam by introducing them to opportunities that will …

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Experiences Of Work/School/Family Conflict: A Qualitative Exploration, Sarah June Carroll, Dr. E. Jeffrey Hill Aug 2013

Experiences Of Work/School/Family Conflict: A Qualitative Exploration, Sarah June Carroll, Dr. E. Jeffrey Hill

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Most college students take on responsibilities and roles beyond full-time school work. Nearly three quarters of undergraduates work an average of 25.5 hours a week while attending school (NPSAS, as cited by Dundes & Marx, 2006). Between work and school, the working hours of a student may be longer than working professionals. The relationship between paid work and personal life has been addressed as it relates to working professionals (see Byron, 2005). Few researchers, however, have examined the work-family interface among the unique population of students.

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Modeling Urban Forest Biomass Using Aisa+ Hyperspectral Data, Brian Bunker, Dr. Ryan Jensen Aug 2013

Modeling Urban Forest Biomass Using Aisa+ Hyperspectral Data, Brian Bunker, Dr. Ryan Jensen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Urban forests are trees and other woody vegetation growing in an urban environment. Urban forests have been shown to have economic, aesthetic, and ecological benefits (Gatrell & Jensen, 2002; Nowak & Crane, 2002). Monitoring the health of Urban Forests is important to maintain a healthy environment for humans in their principal habitat. Our research focused on developing methods to monitor urban forest biomass using remote sensing data.

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Predicting Dyadic Congruence In Retirement Plans Among Middle Aged Couples: Examining The Roles Of Marital Quality, Education, And Expected Reliance On Social Security, Benjamin Malczyk, Dr. Jeremy Yorgason Aug 2013

Predicting Dyadic Congruence In Retirement Plans Among Middle Aged Couples: Examining The Roles Of Marital Quality, Education, And Expected Reliance On Social Security, Benjamin Malczyk, Dr. Jeremy Yorgason

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Although there are many studies examining couple’s financial preparation for retirement, there are relatively few examining how couples expect to use their time in retirement. This does not undermine the importance of how coupes plan to use their time. Research has shown that leisure time usage was a bigger challenge than finances for retired couples (Henry, Milller, & Giarrusso, 2005). Our research examined how middle-aged couples planned to spend their time in retirement and to answer three specific questions: 1. What do midlife couples plan to do when they retire? 2. Do wives and husbands have the same plans about …

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