Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Development Of Language And Identity: A Sociocultural Study Of Five International Graduate Students Living In The U.S., Alexandra Dema

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this sociocultural study was to analyze the longitudinal process of identity development of international graduate students as their lives unfolded across time and experience in the second languaculture. Furthermore, it was aimed at exploring what role is attributed to second language in this process. The study relied on the mainstream sociocultural perspectives on individual development that originated from Vygotsky’s work and were further elaborated by his followers to address the issues of identity and language development of second language learners. As part of such perspectives, it integrated the unit of perezhivanie into the examination of individual experiences …

Defining The 99%: A Rhetorical Critique Of The Occupy Wall Street Movement, Molly Forgey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Social actors assume a large task when attempting to legitimize their movement and motivate participation. For Occupy Wall Street (OWS) dissidents this task was even greater given that their grievances lie both with government and with large corporations, two of the most influential entities in the United States. Such obstacles sparked an interest in studying the language strategies OWS rhetors employed when attempting to define the movement. This thesis examines these strategies in order to discover how the movement was framed, and how framing processes relate to the collective’s identity. The discourse analyzed includes the initial call to action published …

Corruption And Criminal Sentencing Dispositions In China, Qingting Hu

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Corruption is a prevalent crime worldwide. In China, it is drawing increased attention because the current administration is making intensified efforts to fight corruption. Despite its importance, empirical research on the characteristics and sentencing dispositions of corruption cases is rare. Based on 343 corruption cases, and using the focal concerns theory of sentencing as an interpretive framework, this study examines the main corruption offense and offender characteristics and the sentencing of corruption offenders. It also tests several specific hypotheses linked to the focal concerns theory: (1) If a case has characteristics indicating higher blameworthiness (e.g., higher amount of property involved), …

The Effect Of Sleep On Perceptual Learning And Memory Consolidation, Vanessa Claire Irsik

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

An ability to segregate speech accurately is essential given that most auditory environments contain other overlapping conversations or environmental noise. While perceiving speech among background noise can be difficult in and of itself, those with hearing impairments can experience considerable difficulty. While training has been shown to benefit perceptual segregation of trained sounds, it is unclear how such training transfers to sounds not included in a training regimen. The current study aimed to address this question by training listeners on a portion of sounds during a vowel segregation task, and subsequently testing on both the trained sounds and untrained sounds. …

States And Multicultural Education Policies: An Event History Analysis, Leander D. Kellogg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Multicultural education policies related to K-12 curriculum have been shown to benefit underperforming students. This research found that 10 states have adopted such policies between 1978 and 1994. A unified model of policy innovation and diffusion with a conceptual framework, which included three factors: motivation to innovate, obstacles to innovation, and resources to overcome such obstacles was used to explore demographic, political, and economic conditions along with neighboring states diffusion. Both internal and external determinants were found to significantly influence the adoption of multicultural education. Specifically, states with slightly less education funding were more likely to adopt a policy. Additionally, …

Chinese Soft Power, Africa, And The United Nations General Assembly, Rayna Martinez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sino-Africa relations has become a topic of immense interest within the field of international relations. In particular, China’s use of “soft power” in order to support its peaceful rise in the international arena. Originally coined by American political scientist Joseph Nye (1990) the term “soft power” is the ability for a state to get what it wants without threat or coercion. The application of a Western theory by the PRC is worthy of further study and analysis. Recent scholarship within Chinese and Western academic circles have looked more closely at China’s soft power utility and how it promotes Nye’s pillars …

An Investigation Into Human To Dog Attachment Systems And Their Influence On The Degree Of Aversion Used In Training, Shelly Volsche

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of my Master’s Thesis research is to determine if and what type of relationship exists between owner-to-dog attachment levels and the degree of aversion used in dog training. I also sought to determine if owner characteristics such as parental status, income, gender, and the like influenced the degree of aversion used. My primary hypothesis is that a negative correlation exists between attachment to one’s dog and aversion used in training. That is, as attachment scores increase, aversion scores decrease. In addition to testing this hypothesis, I collected data to determine if there are correlations between the following: gender …

Effect Of Contextual Speech Rate On Speech Comprehension, David Michael Weintraub

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Despite an extensive history of study, the effects of phonetic context are only known to affect small units of speech (e.g., formant transitions, function words). Critical aspects of speech perception, however, occur at larger scales. The series of experiments reported here investigated the effects of contextual speech rate on perception of a large unit of speech, namely sentences. In particular, there was an effect of relative rate on sentence comprehension – the rate of a sentence compared to the average rate of all other sentences within the same conversation-length period of speech – such that relatively slow sentences were better …

What I Wore Today: Gender, Self, And Brand Culture In The Blogosphere, Jennifer Marie Whitmer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Drawing on qualitative research with personal style bloggers, I examine how contemporary social conditions impact the parameters for the presentation of self in gendered ways. I relate these changes to the struggle for recognition in the face of social anxieties and a lack of stable referents for the self. Bloggers are encouraged to think of themselves as brands. The discourse of self-branding promises greater control over one’s image and life chances, but the practice of presenting a cohesive self-brand to an unseen audience destabilizes the self and increases bloggers’ risk of discreditation and invalidation. Bloggers manage their brands through the …

Examining The Factors That Impact Work Life Balance For Executive Chefs, Lisa Nicole Cain

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation served to deepen the theoretical and practical understanding of work life balance in the hospitality industry. Defined as “achieving satisfying experiences in all life domains to a level consistent with the salience of each role for the individual….[that] introduces the possibility of a hierarchy of roles; however… it does not demand that a hierarchy is neither necessary nor desirable for balance” (Reiter, 2007, p.277), the study examined work life balance from a situationist perspective whereby the perspective of the individual determines whether or not balance exists. Further, the relationship between work life balance and callings, employee engagement, organizational …

Creating The Black California Dream: Virna Canson And The Black Freedom Struggle In The Golden State’S Capital, 1940-1988, Kendra M. Gage

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This dissertation examines the black struggle for racial equality in the Golden State’s capital from 1940-1988 and an integral leader of the movement, Virna Canson. Canson fought for nearly fifty years to dismantle discriminatory practices in housing, education, employment and worked to protect consumers. Her lifetime of activism reveals a different set of key issues people focused on at the grassroots level and shows how the fight for freedom in California differed from the South because the state’s discriminatory practices were harder to pinpoint. Her work and the larger black community’s activism in Sacramento also reveals how the black freedom …

Effects Of Human Maternal Placentophagy On Maternal Postpartum Iron-Status, Laura Kathleen Gryder

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recently, human maternal placenta ingestion, known as placentophagy, has emerged as a rare but growing practice among postpartum mothers in industrialized societies, and is currently found in both home birth and hospital birth settings. The practice is purported to result in certain health benefits for postpartum mothers, some of which could be related to the iron content in full-term placenta (e.g., increased energy and an improved and more rapid postpartum recovery, among others). The aim of this research project was to investigate the effect of encapsulated placentophagy on maternal postpartum iron status via a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot study (n=28). …

Retroactive Interference In Recognition Memory: The Effects Of Mental Effort And Similarity On Recollection And Familiarity, Caleb Jordan Picker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Learning new material may retroactively interfere with memory for older material. Retroactive interference research has typically focused on how similarity between old and new material affects recall of old material, which predicts greatest interference when similar material is presented just before test. However, mental effort may be another source of retroactive interference that could disrupt consolidation: Mental effort could cause the most retroactive interference when presented just after study. In Experiment 1, participants engaged in tasks designed to induce mental effort (e.g., solving easy or difficult math problems) at various times between the study and test of an associative recognition …

The Convergence Of Structure And Design Between Video Games And Video Gambling, Daniel Sahl

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study looks at the incorporation of video game design and structure into contemporary slot machines. The investigation was guided by theoretical and empirical works from a range of scholarly fields: gambling studies, video-game studies, digital communication, psychology, and sociology. Two methodological designs were employed. The first phase used a content analysis that identified the distribution of video-game styles and design in the most recent slot games on display at a major industry conference. The second phase employed semi-structured interviews with both experienced and inexperienced slot players to assess the impact of different design elements on their playing experience and …

Sexual Harassment In Las Vegas Nightclub Industry, Ksenia Kondratyuk

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Las Vegas nightclub industry creates awfully ideal conditions for workplace sexual harassment. Considering the history of sexual harassment cases against major Las Vegas nightclub operators, the industry is currently facing the problem of either continuing to follow the “good old days” model of using bottle service girls’ sexuality to attract business or develop safer and more efficient business model to protect themselves and their employees. Analyses of secondary data including academic literature, trade publications and press, showed that similarly to the city itself, Las Vegas nightclub industry expanded and evolved from a boy's town to one of the most visited …

My Father And Erving Made A Number Of Trips To Nevada To Play Blackjack, Dan Cisin

Bios Sociologicus: The Erving Goffman Archives

Dan Cisin, son of Dr. Ira Cisin who taught statistics at the University of California, Berkeley, in the 1960’s, wrote this memoir for the Erving Goffman Archives at the request of Dmitri Shalin and approved posting the present version on the web.

Understanding The Irony: Canadian Gay Men Living With Hiv/Aids, Their Catholic Devotion, And Greater Well-Being, Renato M. Liboro, Richard T.G. Walsh

Psychology Faculty Research

Nine Canadian Catholic HIV-positive gay men were interviewed to obtain a better understanding of why and how they were able to persevere in their faith despite their religion’s teachings against homosexuality and contributions to the stigmatization of HIV/AIDS. By examining the lived experiences and personal perspectives of the participants, the study aimed to explore and elucidate the significant role of Catholicism and the Catholic Church both as a continued source of marginalization and oppression, as well as strength and support, for Canadian gay men living with HIV/AIDS today.

Food Sharing Among Hadza Hunter-Gatherer Children, Alyssa N. Crittenden, David A. Zes

Anthropology Faculty Research

Human prosociality is one of the defining characteristics of our species, yet the ontogeny of altruistic behavior remains poorly understood. The evolution of widespread food sharing in humans helped shape cooperation, family formation, life history, language, and the development of economies of scale. While the behavioral and ecological correlates of food sharing among adults are widely studied, very little is known about food sharing among children. Here, in the first study to analyze the food sharing patterns of hunter-gatherer children, we show that while sharing may be biased towards kin, reciprocity characterizes the majority of all sharing dyads, both related …

Becoming "Smart" About Relationship Building: Foster Care Youth And The Use Of Technology, Ramona Denby Brinson, Efren Gomez, Keith A. Alford

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

Key Findings:

Youth participants reported satisfaction with services and positive feelings about the smartphone.

The youth participants felt that the smartphone gave them a “voice” and control over the people with whom they wanted to talk.

Certain phone restrictions developed by project leadership were unenforceable.

Youth had certain expectations about the phone and its use but when the phone did not work or was “locked” (e.g., for data overuse) it created friction between the youth and their service provider.

Service-providers report that the phones help to create a sense of normalcy for the youth. Youth “were able to be normal …

Mountain Monitor - 1st Quarter 2015, Kenan Fikri, Siddharth Kulkarni

Mountain Monitor Quarterly

This analysis of employment, output, unemployment, and house prices finds that the 10 major metropolitan areas of the Mountain West, despite significant economic headwinds, weathered the first quarter of 2015 with robust economic growth. Eight of the region’s 10 major metro areas advanced on all four metrics of economic performance, and the remaining two metro areas slipped only on a single front.

The national economic slowdown that arrived in early 2015 did not entirely bypass the Mountain West, but the region resisted the drag better than any other. As U.S. economic output contracted by 0.3 percent in the first quarter, …

Disparities In Hospital Services Utilization Among Patients With Mental Health Issues: A Statewide Example Examining Insurance Status And Race Factors From 1999-2010, Viann N. Nguyen-Feng, Hind A. Beydoun, Michael K. Mcshane, James D. Blando

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

There exist many disconnects between the mental and general health care sectors. However, a goal of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) of 2010 is to change this by improving insurance access and the intersection of mental and general health care. As insurance status intersects with race, the present study examines how race, insurance status, and hospital mental health services utilization differ across groups within the state of New Jersey. The present study aims to determine trends in hospital mental health care utilization by insurance status and race from 1999 to 2010. The rate of self-pay for mental health disorders in …

Modeling Bmi, Dietary Habits, And Physical Activity Among Ethnically Diverse Urban College Students, Hollie Jones, Nicholas Freudenberg, Lorraine Mongiello

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Objectives The objective of this research study was to examine the relationship between BMI, physical activity, dietary habits, and student demographic factors (age, ethnicity, income, immigration, and sex). Given the association between overweight and obesity and the inequitable burden of chronic health conditions among ethnic minority populations, a deeper understanding of the socioeconomic, gender, age, and racial/ethnic variation in BMI, physical activity, and dietary habits is needed. The shifting demographics of urban college populations make urban college campuses an important setting for addressing the lifetime health needs of ethnically diverse urban populations.

Methods In this cross-sectional non-experimental study, we used …

Cognitive Features Of Self-Stigmatization Among Juvenile Delinquents, Artyom A. Zinchenko, Mamun Al-Amin, Elena Molchanova

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

The present study investigates cognitive features of stigmatization phenomenon among juvenile delinquents in Kyrgyzstan. It attempts to describe certain peculiarities of juvenile delinquents’ self-schemas and self-stigmatization. The study, additionally, tackles the issue of currently existing stigmas regarding juvenile delinquency in the country. One hundred and fifty four university students were asked to complete a questionnaire that would measure the level of external stigmatization towards juvenile delinquents and those who were once placed into correctional institution. Students showed presence of stigmatization towards people with a criminal record. Fifteen juveniles from the detention school who attended a socio-psychological training as well as …

Metagenome Sequencing Of The Hadza Hunter-Gatherer Gut Microbiota, Simone Rampelli, Stephanie L. Schnorr, Clarissa Consolandi, Silvia Turroni, Marco Severgnini, Clelia Peano, Patrizia Brigidi, Alyssa N. Crittenden, Amanda G. Henry, Marco Candela

Anthropology Faculty Research

Through human microbiome sequencing, we can better understand how host evolutionary and ontogenetic history is reflected in the microbial function. However, there has been no information on the gut metagenome configuration in hunter-gatherer populations, posing a gap in our knowledge of gut microbiota (GM)-host mutualism arising from a lifestyle that describes over 90% of human evolutionary history. Here, we present the first metagenomic analysis of GM from Hadza hunter-gatherers of Tanzania, showing a unique enrichment in metabolic pathways that aligns with the dietary and environmental factors characteristic of their foraging lifestyle. We found that the Hadza GM is adapted for …

Purchasing, Licensing Models, And Delivery Of Streaming Videos For Libraries, Cyrus Ford Zarganj

Library Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

Acquisition, Access, And Discovery Of Streaming Media For Libraries, Cyrus Ford Zarganj, Carol Ou

Library Faculty Presentations

No abstract provided.

The Great Recession And U.S. Safety Nets: The Case Of Temporary Assistance To Needy Families (Tanf), Vicky Albert

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

The Great Recession

• Officially lasted from December 2007 to June 2009
• Most severe recession since Great Depression
• In the first quarter of 2012 about 30% of jobless workers had been unemployed for a year or longer
• From 2007 to 2009, real personal income per capita fell by 8.3 percentage points and many individuals dropped from the labor force

The Safety Nets for Families with Children

• Unemployment Insurance
• Medicaid
• Earned Income Tax Credit
• Supplemental Security Income (SSI)
• Subsidized Housing
• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF)

Mathematical Models Of Games Of Chance: Epistemological Taxonomy And Potential In Problem-Gambling Research, Catalin Barboianu

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Games of chance are developed in their physical consumer-ready form on the basis of mathematical models, which stand as the premises of their existence and represent their physical processes. There is a prevalence of statistical and probabilistic models in the interest of all parties involved in the study of gambling – researchers, game producers and operators, and players – while functional models are of interest more to math-inclined players than problem-gambling researchers. In this paper I present a structural analysis of the knowledge attached to mathematical models of games of chance and the act of mathematical modeling, arguing that such …

Examining The Impact Of Competition On Casino Revenues And Prices In The Mid-Atlantic States, Andrew J. Economopoulos, Uli Luxem

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The expansion of casinos in the Mid-Atlantic States has been motivated by the quest of states to capture the economic and tax revenue benefits of the new industry. The expansion of casinos and the increase in competition, however, has had an impact on revenue growth and prices. This study examines the impact of expansion on the casino revenues in the region from 1997-2012, and the price for gaming in Pennsylvania and New Jersey from 2006-2012. A spatial econometric model was employed to examine the net impact of casino revenues from expansion. Spatial econometrics captures the within state impact of expansion …

Comparing Functional Motor Control And Gait Parameters In Children With Autism To Those Of Age-Matched Peers Who Are Typically Developing, Patricia Stevenson, Samantha Novotny, Jillian May, Christopher Ancell

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this study was to compare motor performance of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to that of age-matched peers who are typically developing (TD) on motor control tasks plus symmetry and variability of gait parameters across four walking conditions. A sample of convenience of children with ASD (n=6) and peers who are TD (n=6) were recruited. Motor control was assessed using initiation and completion times on the Timed Up and Go (TUG) test. Gait parameters were collected using a computerized walkway under four trial conditions: 1) walking at self-selected velocity (SSV); 2) walking during a tray-carrying task …