Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Scholarworks As A Digital Publishing Platform, Marilyn S. Billings

Marilyn S. Billings

This presentation demonstrates how the University Libraries at UMass Amherst are using their Digital Commons IR ScholarWorks to provide digital publishing programs for UMass Amherst.

Documenting And Promoting Engagement Using Scholarworks, Umass Amherst’S Digital Repository, Marilyn S. Billings

Marilyn S. Billings

The University of Massachusetts Amherst scholarly community is exploiting new digital technologies to showcase campus engagement initiatives. This session shows how a new partnership between the Outreach Division and the University Libraries has created opportunities for dissemination, institutional tracking, and understanding engagement as a vital component of teaching and scholarship.

Designing The Personal Data Stream: Enabling Participatory Privacy In Mobile Personal Sensing, Katie Shilton, Jeffrey A. Burke, Deborah Estrin, Ramesh Govindan, Mark Hansen, Jerry Kang, Min Mun

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

For decades, the Codes of Fair Information Practice have served as a model for data privacy, protecting personal information collected by governments and corporations. But professional data management standards such as the Codes of Fair Information Practice do not take into account a world of distributed data collection, nor the realities of data mining and easy, almost uncontrolled, dissemination. Emerging models of information gathering create an environment where recording devices, deployed by individuals rather than organizations, disrupt expected flows of information in both public and private spaces. We suggest expanding the Codes of Fair Information Practice to protect privacy in …

Information & Communication Technologies And Digital Government: The Turkish Case, Turhan Mentes

National Center for Digital Government

The technological innovations of the last decades have opened the doors to a new and different world for businesses and governments. As access to the Internet penetrates more populations each day, ICTs continue to shape societies all over the world. This presentation will explore the development of ICTs and e-government in Turkey. It will include significant figures and statistics about e-government in Turkey and discuss the social consequences of such developments.

Hack Your Blog (Lightning Talk), Laura Quilter

Laura Quilter

A short 101-level lightning talk on "hacking your blog" for Software Freedom Day, Boston, 2009.

Tenure And The Future Of The University, Dan Clawson

Dan Clawson

No abstract provided.

Response-Tenure, Dan Clawson

Dan Clawson

No abstract provided.

Ethical Issues In Graduate Research, William J. Frey

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

(Caution! This module is being published in an incomplete, preliminary version. Later edited and fuller versions will follow.) "Graduate Education in Research Ethics for Scientists and Engineers" is a project funded by the National Science Foundation (SES 0629377) to design a pilot program in research ethics for graduate students in science and engineering. This project is built around three workshops: (1) a Graduate Awareness Workshop introduces students to fundamental ethical issues in research, (2) a Moral Deliberation Workshop acquaints students with the skills of moral deliberation, (3) a Case Analysis Workshop uses realistic scenarios to allow students to practice decision-making …

Program Schedule: The University's Role In The Dissemination Of Research & Scholarship, A Call To Action, Marilyn S. Billings, Marla Michel

Digital Quadrangle Series

Scholarworks at UMass Amherst has made great progress in improving the campus's dissemination of research and scholarship, But, is it enough? The 4th Annual Digital Quadrangle series will be devoted to discussing the university's role in this process. Featured will be Harvard's Stuart Shieber and MIT's Ann Wolpert, two authors of a recently released report by the AAU, ARL, CNI, and APLU entitled, "The University's Role in the Dissemination of Research and Scholarship - A Call to Action." Provost James Staros and members of the faculty will respond with what the campus is doing and how it is working. The …

Essays On Environmental Policy And Markets, Linus M. Nyiwul

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of two theoretical papers on market-based environmental policy. The first paper exploits the correlation between the environmental performance of firms and their economic performance to show that financial markets can be used to help enforce environmental policy and to design more efficient regulations. The results indicate that when markets punish firms for not complying with environmental standards, environmental regulators can exploit this by setting stricter standards. In fact, it is possible for the regulator to use market-driven enforcement to reduce a firm’s emissions and monitoring of the firm simultaneously. The second paper provides a theoretical analysis of …

Formulating Older Driver Licensing Policy: An Evaluation Of Older Driver Crash History And Performance, Heather A. Rothenberg

Open Access Dissertations

This research sought to understand the relationship between licensing policy and the opportunity for the development of a scientifically-based approach to identifying high risk older drivers based on prior driving history. This research focused on five tasks: 1) review of the literature, 2) compilation of information on licensing policy for use by decision-makers, 3) assessment of charges and payer source for older driver crashes using linked crash and hospital data , and 4) the development and 5) validation of an older driver crash prediction model. There is relatively little available in the way of information for policymakers regarding licensing, and …

Natural Selection And The Syntax Of Clausal Complementation, Keir Moulton

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the syntax and semantics of clausal complements. It identifies semantic underpinnings for some syntactic properties of the arguments of propositional attitude verbs. The way clausal arguments compose with their embedding predicates is not uniform and semantic differences emerge from the syntactic context clausal arguments appear in. Three case studies are taken up: clausal arguments of nouns, dislocated clausal arguments (sentential subjects and topics), and infinitival complements with overt subjects (AcI constructions). Chapter Two assembles evidence to support Stowell’s (1981) claim that the clausal complements of nouns are modifiers. It is shown that the clausal complements of nouns …

Essays On Financial Behavior And Its Macroeconomic Causes And Implications, Soon Ryoo

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three independent essays. The first essay, “Long Waves and Short Cycles in a Model of Endogenous Financial Fragility,” presents a stock flow consistent macroeconomic model in which financial fragility in firm and household sectors evolves endogenously through the interaction between real and financial sectors. Changes in firms’ and households’ financial practices produce long waves. The Hopf bifurcation theorem is applied to clarify the conditions for the existence of limit cycles, and simulations illustrate stable limit cycles. The long waves are characterized by periodic economic crises following long expansions. Short cycles, generated by the interaction between effective …

The Emergence Of Dp In The Partitive Structure, Helen Stickney

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a first look at English-speaking children’s acquisition of the syntax of the partitive. It presents four experiments that contrast three types of structures and examines how they interact with adjectival modification: the partitive, the pseudopartitive and complex nouns with prepositional adjuncts. The experimentation investigates whether children recognize that the Determiner Phrase (DP) in the partitive is a barrier to adjectival modification. The partitive is contrasted with the pseudopartitive –a minimal pair structure that lacks an internal DP. The data shows that children under the age of six do not distinguish between the partitive and the pseudopartitive. They …

A Blog-Mediated Curriculum For Teaching Academic Genres In An Urban Classroom: Second Grade Ell Students’ Emergent Pathways To Literacy Development, Dong-Shin Shin

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines the academic and social goals that three second-grade English language learners in a U.S. urban school bring to their blog-mediated academic writing practices, and the interrelated nature of those goals. This study aims to bridge the dichotomy between approaches to studying computer-mediated language and literacy development that are oriented toward academic goals inside school, and those that are oriented toward social goals outside school. The study also aims to investigate connections between language use and language development by highlighting linguistic features of semiotic choices that the students made for their texts. This builds upon recent research studies …

Skill Mismatch And Wage Inequality In The U.S., Fabian Slonimczyk

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is an empirical investigation into the distributive effects of overand under-education, defined as market outcomes such that some workers possess skills over or below those required at their jobs respectively. This type of market failure can arise in assignment and search equilibrium settings, as well as in the presence of asymmetric information regarding workers' performance on the job. The existence of permanent and sizable mismatch rates means that returns to education are depressed for over-educated workers and in ated for under-qualified workers. Thus, irreversible decisions to invest in human capital are made in a context of uncertainty regarding …

Two Types Of Definites In Natural Language, Florian Schwarz

Open Access Dissertations

This thesis is concerned with the description and analysis of two semantically different types of definite articles in German. While the existence of distinct article paradigms in various Germanic dialects and other languages has been acknowledged in the descriptive literature for quite some time, the theoretical implications of their existence have not been explored extensively. I argue that each of the articles corresponds to one of the two predominant theoretical approaches to analyzing definite descriptions: the `weak' article encodes uniqueness. The `strong' article is anaphoric in nature. In the course of spelling out detailed analyses for the two articles, various …

Cross-Age Peer Tutoring In Dialogic Reading: Effects On The Language Development Of Young Children, Itsuko Jamie Udaka

Open Access Dissertations

There are certain ways of reading to young children that are more effective than others in increasing language, vocabulary, and building early literacy skills. Dialogic reading is a method to enhance shared book reading by providing a context for dialogue and interaction between the adult and the child. Dialogic reading has been shown to have positive effects on young childrens’ early literacy and language skills. Thus far, parents and teachers have used these techniques in the home and school in one-on-one or small group settings. However, results have been variable due to inconsistent implementation. The purpose of this study was …

Seeing Lesbian Queerly: Visibility, Community, And Audience In 1980s Northampton, Massachusetts, Susan E. Mckenna

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates the transitioning terms of lesbian visibility and identity in the distinctive spatio-temporal context of Northampton, Massachusetts in the 1980s. Drawing on interviews with a diversified sampling of lesbian-, bisexual-, and queeridentified participants, I consider the coalescing of two lesbian communal formations – a social community and a social audience – as mediating sites for the interrelations between subculture and dominant culture. Informed by the literatures and methods of queer theory, cultural studies, and feminist film criticism, I examine the 1980s queer crossover from lesbian subcultural separatism to mitigated assimilation by the end of the decade. The 1980s …

Metacognition: Developing Self-Knowledge Through Guided Reflection, Kathryn Wiezbicki-Stevens

Open Access Dissertations

Metacognitive self-knowledge has been identified as a crucial component of effective learning. It entails students recognizing their learning strengths and weaknesses, styles and preferences, and motivational beliefs. The present study explored a method for the development of metacognitive self-knowledge and in doing so, was also a means for discovering what academic experiences students perceive as influential in their development as learners. Twenty-seven college students, all senior psychology majors, produced written narratives in response to a guided reflection activity. A qualitative research approach employing analytic induction was used. Themes of academic experiences as described by participants provided support for neuroscientific findings …

Labor Turnover In The Child-Care Industry: Voice And Exit, Lynn A. Hatch

Open Access Dissertations

What relationship exists between working conditions and teacher turnover in child-care (early care and education) programs? Research has shown high staff turnover is a major factor affecting the quality of care. Using a new survey and data set I designed of union and randomly selected non-union programs in Massachusetts, I examine factors other than compensation that might be related to lower teacher turnover. Focusing on different institutional settings, including unionization and regional unemployment, I use economist Albert Hirschman’s theory of exit, voice and loyalty to see if “voice” alternatives to quitting are an effective method of reducing exits. “Voice” alternatives …

The Role Of Motivation To Change In The Treatment Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Christopher M. Spofford

Open Access Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to examine the role of motivation in the treatment of individuals hospitalized for severe OCD, specifically, the extent to which an individual’s motivation for treatment and motivational orientation (intrinsic or extrinsic motivation) predict OCD treatment response. The sample consisted of 142 individuals diagnosed with severe treatment-refractory OCD participating in an intensive treatment program. Patients completed a measure assessing overall motivation and motivational orientation at admission (TSRQ), and measures assessing depressive severity (BDI) and OCD symptom severity (Y-BOCS) at admission and discharge. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were performed in which admission levels of overall …

Optionality And Variability: Syntactic Licensing Meets Morphological Spell-Out, Cherlon Ussery

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores case and verbal agreement in Icelandic. Case and agreement generally pattern together, but there are exceptional instances in which case and agreement come apart. In Icelandic, verbs agree with Nominative DPs. However, in some constructions, agreement with a Nominative is optional. In the standard account of case and agreement (Chomsky 2000), both types of features are determined simultaneously via the same syntactic operation. The standard theory, therefore, predicts that case and agreement should pattern the same way, and that neither should be optional. Moreover, based on fieldwork conducted at the University of Iceland, I present data that …

City Marketing And Gated Communities: A Case Study Of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, Carlos A. Suarez-Carrasquillo

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the dynamics of gated communities with attention to the municipality of Guaynabo, Puerto Rico. Despite the growing numbers of gated communities worldwide, research on this matter remains scarce. I argue that a “gated community consensus” has emerged in Puerto Rico. The hypothesis is that in Guaynabo, the municipality facilitates the emergence of gated communities in order to change the face of the city and reap an economic windfall. Interviews demonstrate the municipality’s commitment to facilitating the construction of new communities and lending support to older communities. Most of these gated communities respond to high end income …

The Impacts Of Casino Development On Demographic And Land Use Changes Over Time: Planning For Palmer Massachusetts, Erin E. Wilson

Landscape Architecture & Regional Planning Masters Projects

This project uses spatial analysis tools to examine the impact of casino development on the demographic make-up of local communities. This was conducted in order to inform future casino communities as to how their communities may be impacted by casino development. First, this project uses Geographic Information System (GIS) based methods of descriptive spatial analysis to analyze demographic changes over time to see what, if any, economic and demographic impacts may likely occur around a casino. Second, this project also interviews key local officials in casino communities to gain on the ground incite regarding the impacts of casinos. While the …

Doing Gender Difference Through Greeting Cards: The Construction Of A Communication Gap In Marketing And Everyday Practice., Emily West

Emily E. West

Greeting card communication reflects the highly gendered division of both emotional and domestic labor in American culture. It’s generally thought that American men do not take as much responsibility for sending greeting cards as women, or display competence in this mode of communication, and both survey data and field work with greeting card consumers confirm this overall pattern. For many women, greeting card communication is part of a feminized habitus that includes kinship work as well as routine provisioning for the household. For men, taking an interest in greeting cards can seem like discrediting behavior for heterosexual masculinity, and so …

Professional Ethics-Responsible Conduct Of Research Training: Making Sense Of Complex Problems, Michael D. Mumford, Shane Connelly, Ryan P. Brown, Lynn D. Devenport, Stephen T. Murphy, Alison L. Antes

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

General Course Abstract

This two-day seminar format course exposes students to the complexities involved in real-world ethical decision-making. It provides students with strategies, or tools, for understanding and thinking through ethical problems to arrive at a decision. Students practice working with these strategies by applying them to realistic, complex cases.

Day 1 Abstract

During the first day of the course, guidelines and principles for ethical research practices are discussed. It is emphasized that students must apply guidelines in a context to arrive at a decision, and the course provides guidance on this decision-making process. Next, students learn about the personal …

Epigenetic Control Of Sexual Differentiation Of The Bed Nucleus Of The Stria Terminalis, Geert De Vries, E. K. Murray, A. Hien, N. G. Forger

Geert De Vries

The principal nucleus of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNSTp) is larger in volume and contains more cells in male than female mice. These sex differences depend on testosterone and arise from a higher rate of cell death during early postnatal life in females. There is a delay of several days between the testosterone surge at birth and sexually dimorphic cell death in the BNSTp, suggesting that epigenetic mechanisms may be involved. We tested the hypothesis that chromatin remodeling plays a role in sexual differentiation of the BNSTp by manipulating the balance between histone acetylation and deacetylation using …

Federal Register: National Science Foundation, Responsible Conduct Of Research, National Science Foundation

Ethics in Science and Engineering National Clearinghouse

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is announcing its implementation of Section 7009 of the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMPETES) Act (42 U.S.C. 1862o–1). This section of the Act requires that ‘‘each institution that applies for financial assistance from the Foundation for science and engineering research or education describe in its grant proposal a plan to provide appropriate training and oversight in the responsible and ethical conduct of research to undergraduate students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers participating in the proposed research project.’’

[Abstract by author]

Potential Gains From Capital Flight Repatriation For Sub-Saharan African Countries, Hippolyte Fofack, Léonce Ndikumana

Léonce Ndikumana

Despite the recent increase in capital flows to Sub-Saharan Africa, the region remains largely marginalized in financial globalization and chronically dependent on official development aid. And with the potential decline in the level of official development assistance in a context of global financial crisis, the need to increase domestic resources mobilization as well as non-debt generating external resources is critical now more than ever before. However, the debate on resource mobilization has overlooked an important untapped source of funds consisting of the massive stocks of private wealth stashed in Western financial centers, a substantial part of which left the region …