Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

African American Parent-Teen Communication Regarding Dating, Sex, And Risk Of Stis, Deborah T. Ellerbe

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if, when and how African American parents discussed health issues and sexual risks with their teenagers. Interviews were conducted with thirty African American families connected to the South Side of Syracuse. The participants had connection to the South Side of Syracuse through either residency, employment, or church membership. I explore the context in which these conversations take place. When it came to teenage sexual relationships, discussions included other influences in the teenagers’ lives, as well as, how the information received outside of the home compared to what they were hearing from …

"I Am Not A Hijra": Transgender Women Claiming Citizenship In South India, Liz Mount

Dissertations - ALL

Through an 18-month ethnographic study conducted with hijras (gender non-conforming people assigned male at birth), newly emerging transwomen, and Dosti, a large NGO in Bangalore, India, this dissertation argues that transgender women claim citizenship by drawing distinct borders between themselves and hijras and positioning hijras as undeserving of the rights of citizenship, thus bolstering their own citizenship claims. This exploration of gender non-conforming people’s citizenship claims in the global South responds to a call for queer studies scholars to consider how citizenship operates among sexual and gender variant people in global South contexts (Richardson 2017). While the identity rubric of …

The Source Of List Strength Effect Within The Retrieving Effectively From Memory Framework: The Level Of Competition, Yanxiu Chen

Theses - ALL

To study episodic memory in a laboratory, we study interference within a list of stimuli. With list strength paradigm, we study how such interference is affected by how well stimuli are encoded, and the encoding strength of other items in the list. A stimulus can be weak or strong, and it can be in a pure list, composed of all weak or all strong stimuli, or a mixed list, composed of both weak and strong stimuli. A list strength effect (LSE) refers to the interaction between stimulus strength and list type. In free recall, where the cue used at test …

Improving The Longitudinal Assessment Of Adhd In Pediatrically And Psychiatrically Referred Samples, Jun He

Dissertations - ALL

The assessment and diagnostic process for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is beset with complications relating to the subjectivity of symptom reporting, the nonspecific and dimensional nature of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity, the high prevalence of psychiatric comorbidities, and the shifting expression of symptoms and impairment due to developmental changes from childhood to adolescence and adulthood. Actual diagnostic practices may also differ from recommended best practices. These challenges have led to the proliferation of several clinical guidelines, many of which recommend various diagnostic practices and assessment instruments. Nonetheless, relatively little is presently known about the diagnostic efficiency of these various instruments used …

Whiteness Interrupted: Examining The Impact Of Racialized Space On White Racial Identity, Marcus Bell

Dissertations - ALL

What does it mean to be white? This fundamental question stands at the heart of the interdisciplinary field of critical whiteness studies. Critical whiteness studies (CWS) epistemologically and theoretically upends traditional approaches to the study of race and racial inequality by averting the critical gaze from racially subordinate groups and focusing it upon the racially dominant group. Although insightful and highly influential, CWS has not sufficiently incorporated racialized space as a theoretically meaningful concept. Far too often, critical whiteness scholars speak of racial categories and racial experiences in board, spatially generalized terms. My dissertation moves beyond the general question of …

Knowledge Requirements, Gaps And Learning Responses In Smart Grid Adoption: An Exploratory Study In U.S. Electric Utility Industry, You Zheng

Dissertations - ALL

The U.S. electric utility industry is facing a number of challenges today, including aging infrastructure, growing customer demand, CO2 emissions, and increased vulnerability to overloads and outages. Utilities are under greater regulatory, societal and consumer pressure to provide a more reliable and efficient power supply and reduce its carbon footprint. In response, utilities are investing in smart grid technologies. Despite various definitions of smart grid, it is characterized by employing a set of sophisticated sensing, processing and communicating digital technologies to enable a more observable, controllable, and automated power supply.

Yet, the adoption of smart grid technologies presents significant knowledge …

Contentious Politics In The Arab Middle East: Jordanian Salafism And The Social Appropriation Of Tradition, Massimo Ramaioli

Dissertations - ALL

In which ways do intellectuals affect social and political mobilization? How do they impact the trajectory of contention – the kind of mobilization and its developments - through their ideological work? Prominent intellectuals seem to play a relevant role in contentious politics, yet this role is still undertheorized. In this project, I analyze this question in the context of contemporary Arab Salafism, a particularly literal interpretation of Sunni Islam. I seek to unpack the processes by which prominent Islamist intellectuals impact and shape two Salafi currents originating and operating across Jordan during the 1990s and beyond. The first current is …

Interaction Effects Between The Cumulative Genetic Score And Psychosocial Stressor On Drinking Urge And Attentional Bias For Alcohol: A Human Laboratory Study, Jueun Kim

Dissertations - ALL

Stressful life events have been positively associated with alcohol use and misuse in young adults; however, individual differences in the association suggest the presence of moderators. Findings from observational studies suggest that the effects of stressful environments on drinking behavior may differ as a function of diverse single monoamine genes regulating serotonin and dopamine neurotransmission. However, research has not utilized an experimental design to examine whether the monoamine genes collectively are associated with the degree to which exposure to stressors affects alcohol endophenotypes. The current study examined whether the effects of an experimentally manipulated psychosocial stressor on drinking urge and …

Research Brief: "Reproductive Health Of Active Duty Women In Medically Austere Environments", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief is about the use of contraceptives, the unintended pregnancy rates, and birth defects among active duty servicewomen as compared to the civilian population. In policy and practice, servicewomen and female veterans should use reproductive and health services provided by local VA medical centers and discuss environmental exposures to their healthcare provider, who should conduct full exams with patients and discuss healthcare needs while the servicemembers are deployed; the DoD should look into the use of portable medical equipment and how to support all servicemembers, and policymakers may consider funding DoD programs for counseling about women's reproductive healthcare options. …

Creating A Culture Of Research Reputation Through Research Information Management Systems, Scott Warren, Anne E. Rauh

Librarian Publications

Research institutions have increasingly strong needs to manage the reputations of their research portfolios. From primary investigators, to awarded grants, scholarly output and related media mention, universities need to be able to retrieve and integrate information about their research endeavors in order to successfully showcase impact at an institutional level. However, all too often this information is siloed and not easily discoverable, retrievable, or reusable. Syracuse University Libraries traditionally provide research reputation services to individual researchers, but recently collaborated with the Office of Research to expand this work in a systematic, scalable manner throughout the university via a pilot implementation …

Research Brief: "Creating Hope: Assisting Veterans With Job Search Strategies Using Cognitive Information Processing Theory", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study highlights research on common challenges veterans face during their career search, and presents recommendations for meaningful change. The employment needs of veterans can be addressed through cognitive information processing, a career problem solving and decision making theory that involves defining goals, understanding options, ranking options, making a choice, and reflecting on the decided choice. In practice, considering entering the civilian job market after military service can have challenges, and veterans should consider discussing their employment seeking experiences with other veterans who are experiencing similar struggles or who have successfully entered the civilian job market. In practice, the Department …

The Complexities Of Coexisting: Foreign Aid Organizations And East African Governments, Lynsey Cooper

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

When initiating projects, foreign aid organizations cannot simply go into another territory and begin their work. On top of the normal procedures of nongovernmental sector organizations and insitutitons, those from outside the domestic borders face additional measures. These measures are typically put in place by governments, typically on a national level. This paper explores the types of tensions and/or partnerships that may exist between foreign aid organizations and governments when crossing paths in this manner.

To narrow the scope of this broad topic, this paper focuses on developmental aid enacted by foreign aid organizations in East Africa through a case …

Saudi Arabia And Iran: Sectarianism, A Quest For Regional Hegemony, And International Alignments, Victoria Chen

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Saudi Arabia and Iran are two of the most influential countries in the Middle East. They have often clashed with each other for a number of reasons. Although Riyadh and Tehran frequently espouse their sectarian differences as an explanation and justification for their regional confrontations, sectarianism is only one variable of the complex relationship between the two countries. Therefore the main question for this research concerns the non-sectarian sources of contention between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and the ways in which Saudi and Iranian leaderships frame this confrontation around sectarianism. As the first step, using constructivist framework, this paper analyzes …

All Politics Is Local: How The South Became Republican, Alexander Amico

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

From 1876 until 1964, the Democratic Party held virtual dictatorial control over the American South. Beginning after the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and that year’s presidential candidacy of anti-Civil Rights Act Republican Barry Goldwater, the South shifted reliably into the Republican column for presidential elections. Democrats still held a majority of all other offices in the region until the mid-1990s. This paper examines public opinion data in the American South, as well as partisan change in four Southern states, with an emphasis on the first time each state elected a Republican governor. I find that in …

International Intervention In Bosnia-Herzegovina And Macedonia From The 1990'S Through The 2000'S, Katherine Brisson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This study researches international intervention and what makes it successful and unsuccessful. The analysis of the Bosnian and Macedonian interventions from the 1990’s through the 2000’s provides clues as to what makes intervention more successful for other international actors considering intervention. These two interventions are a great analytic tool because of their similar situations yet divergent outcomes and studying the successes and mistakes of each intervention is helpful in deciding what should be emphasized in future interventions. Bosnia and Macedonia were the two most multiethnic republics in Yugoslavia before their independence, each had forces from the United Nations and other …

Proxy Conflict Turned Civil Crisis: Understanding Syrian Political Movements To United States Foreign Policy, Katherine Barymow

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Syrian crisis in terms of its crimes against humanity has surpassed most politicians’ wildest expectations: it seems that with every passing news cycle the west is informed of new atrocities commited against innocent Syrian civilians, in addition to violence perpetrated by Syrian Islamists themselves against westerners in ill-advised cries for help. The extent of bloodshed can be both horrifying and mystifying to the average American. How is it possible that the international community allows these crimes to proliferate and self-perpetuate in this modern day-in-age? Hearts sink with every image of a child in dire straights as a result of …

Politics Of Exclusion: An Analysis Of The Intersections Of Marginalized Identities And The Olympic Industry, Emily Bonzagni

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

“Politics of Exclusion: An Analysis of the Intersections of Marginalized Identities and the Olympic Industry” analyzes the policing power of the Olympic governing bodies and the media on marginalized athletes in the Olympic Games and the ways in which this system constructs norms of gender, race, class, and sexuality. By employing intersectional, Black feminist, research methods in four case studies over the span of Modern Olympic history, this research centers the stories and experiences of Babe Didrikson, Tidye Pickett, Caster Semenya and Chris Mosier to expose the discriminatory and exclusive practices of the Olympic Industry. The case studies reveal the …

Pregnancy Medicaid Expansions And Fertility: Differentiating Between The Intensive And Extensive Margins, Lincoln H. Groves, Sarah Hamersma, Leonard M. Lopoo

Center for Policy Research

The theoretical and empirical links between public health insurance access and fertility in the United States remain unclear. Utilizing a demographic cell-based estimation approach with panel data (1987-1997), we revisit the large-scale Medicaid expansions to pregnant women during the 1980s to estimate the heterogeneous impacts of public health insurance access on childbirth. While the decision to become a parent (i.e., the extensive margin) appears to be unaffected by increased access to Medicaid, we find that increased access to public health insurance positively influenced the number of high parity births (i.e., the intensive margin) for select groups of women. In particular, …

Research Brief: "Aiming High: Earning Advantage For Female Veterans", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This brief summarizes a study on how veteran status influences earnings for working-age American women.

Research Brief: "Training And Educational Development For “Vetrepreneurs"", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This research discusses the types of programs available to veterans, and presents a framework for evaluating the performance of veteran entrepreneurship programs. In practice, veteran entrepreneurs should continue taking advantage of available programs and veteran entrepreneurship program directors, and managers should consider reviewing the eight outcomes provided by the National Council for Graduate Entrepreneurship (NCGE) in the UK. In policy, the VA might continue supporting veteran-owned businesses through its many programs and services, and the SBA might continue offering courses, training, and funding to support veteran entrepreneurs. Suggestions for future research include evaluating what learning outcomes veterans should develop after …

Return To Religion? Predictors Of Religious Change Among Baby-Boomers In Their Transition To Later Life, Merril D. Silverstein, Vern L. Bengtson

Aging Studies Institute

Evidence suggests that engagement in meaningful activities in later life produces a variety of benefits to physical health, mental health, longevity, and overall quality of life (Levin, 1993; McFadden, 1995; Krause, 2003; Hill, Burdette, & Idler, 2011). Religion represents a key activity domain in which older adults participate at relatively high levels, particularly in the United States where religion plays an outsized role compared to other developed countries. Religious involvement operates at both personal and institutional levels. At the personal level, religion provides for many a belief system and moral philosophy, as well as a framework for approaching difficult and …

Labor Unions And Occupational Safety: Event-Study Analysis Using Union Elections, Ling Li, Shawn Rohlin, Perry Singleton

Center for Policy Research

This study examines the dynamic relationship between union elections and occupational safety among manufacturing establishments. Data on union elections come from the National Labor Relations Board, and data on workplace inspections and accident case rates come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The results indicate that union elections improved occupational safety. First, workplace inspections trended upwards before the election, then decreased immediately after the election, due almost entirely to employee complaints. Second, accident case rates were relatively stable before the election, then trended downwards after the election, due to accidents involving days away from work, job restrictions, and job …

Financing Central Cities: The Economics Underlying Fiscal Strategy Options, Michael Wasylenko

Center for Policy Research

A consortium of Syracuse City and Onondaga County governments along with a number of local area non-profit organizations have recently organized a commission on Local Government Modernization for the Syracuse area. The Report makes three major recommendation to strengthen the local public sector in the Syracuse region: seek opportunities to share public services across local jurisdictions to reduce costs, adopt the Minneapolis region model for sharing revenues from new commercial and industrial development across localities, and work toward merging Syracuse City government with Onondaga County government. At the same time, current non-city residents would not have responsibility for the city …

Economic Integration In East Africa: The Case Of Ethiopia And Kenya, Dawit Ayalew Alemneh

Theses - ALL

Abstract

This study answers the question of which of the four economic integration areas, that is, trade, security, roadways, and energy, can help both Ethiopia and Kenya to speed up their integration more effectively. It hypothesizes that trade and security accelerate integration more than roadways and energy. The results of this study support this hypothesis. However, empirical evidence about the road that connects Ethiopia and Kenya modify somewhat the hypothesis by revealing that roads have contributed more than expected, to the integration of the two countries.

Even though the volume of trade is quite small and there are many more …

Three Essays In Urban Policy, Judson E. Murchie

Dissertations - ALL

The papers in this dissertation share a common theme of measuring policy effects in urban markets. Though focusing on different outcomes – access to rental housing, property values, and school enrollments – the desire to understand how policy influences the composition of an urban ecosystem provides the link. A particular emphasis is placed on housing, because housing is simultaneously and a basic requirement for humans to thrive and the primary source of most local finance in the U.S. When policy affects housing, be it directly or indirectly, it can have important and far-reaching consequences. Understanding the intended and unintended consequences …

Healthy Immigrants? Exploring Country Of Origin, Pre-Immigration Experiences, And Acculturation In Relationship To U.S. Immigrants’ Health, Ynesse Abdul-Malak

Dissertations - ALL

Immigrants belonging to some racial/ethnic minority groups might not be benefitting from the healthy migrant effect. With data from the New Immigrant Survey (2003), which includes immigrants from Mexico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Jamaica, I examine the odds of three health outcomes, chronic conditions, depressive symptoms, and fair or poor self-rated health using a series of logistic regression analyses. I draw on segmented assimilation and the cumulative inequality theories to understand and explicate the extent to which immigrants’ demographic characteristics, pre-immigration experiences, and acculturation in the U.S. might have an impact on immigrants’ health outcomes. Compared to Mexican immigrants, …

Dual-Thin Marriage And Labor Markets: Location Choices And Employment Outcomes For Ph.D. Workers, Xirui Zhang

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation comprises two papers that examine the employment outcomes and location choices of Ph.D.-trained individuals that often face dual-thin marriage and labor markets. The first paper investigates the degree to which single Ph.D.-trained workers, both domestic and foreign-born, face trade-offs between marriage and labor market opportunities. When job markets are not geographically overlapping with marriage markets, single PhDs may be forced to choose between metropolitan areas (MSAs) that offer better employment opportunities versus better marriage markets. I find significant evidence of a “sorting” effect – the local marriage market is a location-specific consumer amenity for which highly trained foreign-born …

The Impact Of Environmental Policies And Innovation On The Investment In And Use Of Natural Gas-Fired Combined Cycle Generators In The Us Electricity Sector, Kelly Ann Stevens

Dissertations - ALL

Developments over the past thirty years have contributed to increased natural gas generation in the US electricity sector. As a result, natural gas generation surpassed coal for the first time in history in 2016. In addition to low natural gas prices, developments with the natural gas-fired combined cycle generator (NGCC) have contributed to the rise of natural gas. In the 1990s, technological innovations led to substantial efficiency gains for NGCC, rendering these generators cleaner and more efficient than other widely available sources of power generation during that period. In the early 2000s, the US experienced the largest short-term increase in …

All The King's Men: Slavery And Soldiering At The Cabrits Garrison (1763-1854), Zachary James Mccray Beier

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates the archaeology of Atlantic world wars and slavery on the island of Dominica during the Age of Revolution (c. 1774-1848). Using archival and archaeological evidence from households at the Cabrits Garrison occupied by lower status personnel in the British army, including enslaved laborers and soldiers of African descent, this study attempts two broad goals: (1) to critically examine the anthropological phenomena of African-Caribbean social formation through a study of settlement patterns and material culture, and (2) to write an archaeological history describing the everyday lives of subordinate groups living within the walls of this fort. My analysis …

Increasing Cessation Motivation And Treatment Engagement Among Smokers In Pain, Emily L. Zale

Dissertations - ALL

Tobacco smokers are at increased risk for the development and progression of chronic pain, and smokers with co-occurring pain tend to report greater difficulty and less confidence in quitting. Smokers in pain face unique cessation challenges and may benefit from tailored interventions that address smoking in the context of pain. This pilot study is the first to test the effects of an intervention tailored for smokers with co-occurring pain on motivation to quit and engage cessation treatment. Smokers with chronic pain (N = 76, 57.9% Female, 52.6% White, Mcpd = 17.64) were randomly assigned to either the tailored or control …