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Department Of Economics Newsletter, V12, Winter 2005, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Economics.

Department of Economics Newsletter

Inside This Issue:

--A Message From the Department Head

--Scholarship News

--New Scholarships

--Alumni News

--Another Field for Economists: The Football Field

--Economics Scholarship Contributors

--Alumni-In-Residence

--Reflections from Melissa, '99

--Reflections from Tom, '86

--How my Economics Major Served me in my Career and in Life

--Nicholas Sly, ‘04

--State Support and Higher Education

--The Economics Club

--Comments from Club President

--Janet Rives on Being Retired

--Departing Faculty...and New Faculty

--From Our Emeritus Faculty

--The Russia Trip - 2005

--Faculty Notes...as they report it!

--Center for Economic Education

We Are Everywhere! [Flier], University Of Northern Iowa. Gender & Sexuality Services, Uni Proud.

UNI Proud Documents

A flier promoting We Are Everywhere event.

An Examination Of Tag-Questions And Ellipsis In English And Spanish, Tiffany Judy

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

In this paper, I will examine how tag-questions function in English and test if they function in the same way in Spanish. Then, I will compare the differences between the two languages and propose a structure and method for forming tag-questions in each language. Also, I will examine how ellipsis functions in each language and how it supports the analysis of the tag-questions. Finally, I will show that a few of the apparent differences between the two languages are incorrect and I will give my proposed solution.

Push And Pull: Using Regression Models To Study The Influence Of Economic Variables On Net Migration In Iowa Counties, Andrea White

Presidential Scholars Theses (1990 – 2006)

Migration is an intensely personal decision, but mathematical models are useful for quantifying the larger, economic aspects of it. The goal of this research is to use spatial and multiple regression models to study the influence of economic variables on net migration rates in Iowa counties. To achieve this data for many variables was collected from several sources and centered on the year 2000. S-plus software was used to create neighborhood structures, run spatial correlations and regressions, and run multiple regressions and residual diagnostics. The results showed that it is possible to develop a good regression model of migration using …

A Case Study: The Thoughts On Pleasure Reading For Children Diagnosed With Adhd, Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type; Adhd, Predominantly Inattentive Type; Or Adhd, Combined Type, Heather Whitman

Graduate Research Papers

Children diagnosed with attention difficulties may face increased reading difficulties and may choose not to read for pleasure. Research questions used to explore this issue focused on what difficulties these students face in learning to read and how these affect their attitudes on reading and school performance. A second set of questions asked whether these children enjoy reading and how watching television relates to their reading? The third set of questions asked about parents reactions to any difficulties their children had in learning to read and their thoughts involving their children and reading for p)easure? The fourth set of questions …

Personality And Individual Differences In Health-Promoting Behaviors, Benjamin J. Bristow

Honors Program Theses

University students (N = 100) completed a self-administered questionnaire with scales assessing health attributions, dispositional optimism, and health behaviors. Health-promoting behaviors were calculated using a questionnaire measuring six components: health responsibility, physical _ activity, nutrition, spiritual growth, interpersonal relations, and stress management. Optimism was correlated with higher self-reported physical and emotional health, internal locus of health control, reliance on God through passive and active spirituality, and health-promoting behaviors. Internal locus of health control was correlated with emotional health promotion. Spirituality was correlated with both physical and emotional health promotion. Health promotion was correlated with higher scores of self-reported physical and …

Psychometric Characteristics Of The Multidimensional Anxiety Scale For Children In Adolescent Samples, Nicole Carlson

Honors Program Theses

Most children and adolescents, on any given day, experience some levels of anxiety. They worry about school, about friendships, and about their physical appearance. For most children and adolescents, these worries are considered a normal part of growing older. ln some cases, these worries take control over the child's life and seriously affect the normal developmental process. When the symptoms of anxiety become excessive and debilitating, a person may be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. ln the child and adolescent literature, the three primary internalizing disorders are anxiety disorders, somatization disorders, and depressive disorders. This paper focuses on the anxiety …

Factors Affecting Judicial Decision Making, Brooke Marie Hansen

Honors Program Theses

The U.S. court system relies on the discretion of judges for most sentencing decisions. Even when there are sentencing guidelines, the judicial decision making process requires judges to use their discretion to determine the actual sentence. Personality characteristics play a role in juror decision making, as shown by studies of the effect of authoritarianism on verdicts (Narby, Culter, & Moran, 1993). Little research has focused on the personality characteristics of judges and what role they play in sentencing decisions. Judicial decision making is a debated topic as demonstrated by the fact that the Supreme Court heard the case Blakely v. …

Come Out, Stay Out, Stand Out: Eight Stories Of Gay And Lesbian High School Students, Nicholas J. Pace

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Existing research, though limited, portrays a bleak picture for gay and lesbian students. The majority of the literature is of a quantitative nature and often reveals many challenges for gay.and lesbian students, including verbal and physical harassment, low self-esteem, poor grades, and a particularly high risk of suicide, among other dangers. As a result, many gay and lesbian students remain "in the closet."

In 2000 a scholarship was established in honor of Matthew Shepard, a University of Wyoming student who was the victim of an anti-gay murder. The Matthew Shepard Scholarship is a privately-funded award given annually to openly gay …

"Second-Class Families": Media Portrayal Of Adoption In America, Jennifer Ellen Struve

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Despite legal recognition of adoption as a legitimate family form, research suggests that adoptive families face a special set of circumstances revolving around the societal stigma involved with adoption. Additionally, adoptees admit to experiencing legal, social, and institutional discrimination because of their adoptive status. Although there have been many celebrations of adoption (such as Dave Thomas), there are cultural norms regarding the family that discipline us to see adoption negatively. Researchers acknowledge that the language surrounding adoption is negative, but do not pursue what that language is or where it appears. Thus, the purpose ofmy study was to determine how …

Perceptions Of Luck And Gambling Patterns, Dustin Daugherty

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Current research examining situations that elicit gambling behaviors have tended to focus on many structural features such as the "near miss" phenomenon. This is the idea that individuals will play longer on a slot machine that almost lands on a jackpot symbol than one that does not. Until now this research has focused mainly on a near "win" situation and ignored what will be called a near "loss" situation. Previous findings indicate that by experiencing a near loss, a participant will perceive that he/she has more personal good luck than those individuals who experience a near win. The study presented …

We're Not "Free-Loading Jocks" : The Presentation Of The Self In The Everyday Lives Of The Collegiate Level Student Athlete, Katie Leanne Sorrell

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Student-athletes live complex lives because they are expected to maintain a number of master statuses. According to Goffman (1959), individuals perform in frontstage. However, other scholars, building from Goffman, state that this is more complex than this. The backstage also has performance elements in it. These regions for student-athletes can become complicated because they have to manage their impressions depending on their social situation. I conducted 18 in-depth, semi-structured interviews to explore the presentation of self in the everyday lives of collegiate level student athletes. Myths abound surrounding college athletes, such that athletes are surrounded with limitless opportunities, or that …

Food Preferences Between Diverse Ethnic Groups In A College Population, Enrique Gallegos Covarrubias

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Obesity and its psychosocial and medical consequences are costing the United States billions of dollars per year. Many factors such as lack of physical activity, changing lifestyles, and unhealthy eating behaviors contribute to the increasing prevalence of obesity. In the present study, food preferences among college-aged students were measured from two different geographical locations (Texas and Iowa). Gender (men vs. women), ethnicity (Hispanic vs. Caucasian), and Body Mass Index scores (normal vs. overweight) were utilized as dependent variables to measure food preferences. Participants were required to rate four menus, which included important nutritional information. Ratings were obtained to measure how …

Correlates Of Health Promotion: Meaning In Life, Religiosity, And Christian Identification, Daniel Melvin Huber

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The relationships among meaning in life, religious orientation, Christian identity, health locus of control, and health promotion behaviors were assessed using 206 Christian students from a public university. Six areas of health promotion (physical activity, interpersonal relations, nutrition, health responsibility, spiritual growth, and stress management) were measured using the Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile-II. Predictions included (1) intrinsic religiosity, meaning in life, Christian identity, internal health locus of control, and God control will be positively associated with health promoting behaviors; and (2) intrinsic religiosity and internal health locus of control will be positive predictors of health promoting behaviors. Meaning in life …

The Spring Break Effect: The Relationship Between Individual Self-Objectification And Physical Fitness Behavior, Brett Dobesh

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Research findings focusing on the theoretical foundation for self-objectification suggests that women are more likely to have high levels of objectification for a variety of reasons. To extend this body of research the purpose of this investigation is two-fold: (1) to assess the influence that spring break attendance may have on levels of self-objectification for fraternity and sorority members, and (2) to observe the connections between SO levels and increased levels of physical fitness. This study consisted of (n = 153) college students actively involved in the Greek System at two Mid-west universities. The students were asked to complete three …

Monitoring Spatial And Temporal Water Quality Changes In Iowa Lakes Using Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery, Nathan Robert Green

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified more than 20,000 water bodies across America as polluted mainly due to agricultural non-point source pollution. Current techniques for monitoring and assessing the quality of waters in streams, reservoirs, lakes, and estuaries involve on site measurements and/or the collection of water samples for subsequent laboratory analyses. While this approach yields accurate measurements for a point in time and space, it is expensive, laborious, and cannot provide a temporal or spatial overview of water-quality trends. To overcome this liability, state and local agencies are seeking alternative and more cost effective methods. A …

Sticks, Stones, & Stigmas: A Social-Cognitive Account Of Stereotype Threat Mechanisms, Michael C. Philipp

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Stereotype threat effects have been a popular domain of much psychological inquiry over the past decade. A number of psychological dispositions (e.g., high levels of stigma consciousness, high levels of social dominance orientation, and high levels of domain identification), situational factors (e.g., out-group presence and task difficulty), and physiological characteristics ( e.g., levels of circulating testosterone) have been identified as factors that determine one's susceptibility to the performance debilitating effects of negative stereotype activation. Although each of these variables has been found to be important in eliciting underperformance under threat, no attempts have yet investigated the relationships between these variables. …

Collaboration In Human Services: A Case Study Of An After-School Program, Erin Rebekah Cebula

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Collaboration is promoted as a solution to providing more efficient and effective human services. The process of collaboration is not well understood, however, and the literature on the subject does not tell practitioners how to go about collaboration. One model of collaboration is presented that conceptualizes the process of collaboration. The model of collaboration proposes five supports for collaboration: interdependence, newly created professional activities, flexibility, collective ownership of goals, and reflection on process. This study sought to further refine and develop the definitions of these supports by studying data from the ECHOES after-school collaboration in the Cedar Valley. The results …

An Evaluation Of Crash Cluster Identification Methodologies: A Case Study Of Iowa, Leonard Sitji Bombom

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the US, crashes are a leading cause of death and disability. To effectively counter this problem, measures are aimed at locations with high crash risks. One common method to determine these "hazardous" locations is to identify clusters of crashes, also referred to as hotspots or blackspots. Several methodologies have been developed to achieve this aim. However, there is no consensus as to what method(s) is "correct." This study evaluates some of the methodologies in the CrimeStat statistical program that are used to cluster crashes with the aim of determining those most suitable for certain crash types (younger drivers, failure …

Russian Immigration To The Usa, 1990-2003, Alexandra Mikhailovna Bozheva

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The last decade of the 20th century was marked by an important event on the European political map, the USSR's disintegration and the formation of new states. The collapse of the Soviet Union and consequent changes in the economic and social lives of its former population caused an increase in migration between former republics, and migration flow abroad. Regarding the Russian Federation, international emigration from its territory was directed mostly toward three countries: Germany, Israel and the USA. The period 1990-1991 can be called the starting point of a new wave of Russian emigration, and this is true in relation …

Parental Marital Status Relationship With Adult Children’S Marital Status, Susan Barbara Frommelt Czerniak

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this quantitative study is to examine the question does parental divorce during childhood influences the marital status of the child in adulthood? The data used in the present study come from a random representative national sample and was originally collected by Bumpass and Sweet (1988) for national use. The total sample size for the present study is 5027. It is hypothesized for this study that parental divorce will influence a child's martial status in adulthood. It is also expected that gender, race, and cohabitational history will interact with parental marital status and influence the marital status of …

The Implications Of Anger And School Violence, Ronda Hilbert

Graduate Research Papers

A series of highly publicized school shootings in the Untied States generated the misperception of an epidemic of school violence. Fears of school violence stimulated an ill-advised expansion of zero tolerance school discipline policies and the widespread distribution of profiles or warning signs of potentially dangerous students for use by school administrators. This paper presents that little is known about student threats of violence, although students in special education tend to commit disciplinary violations at a higher rate than regular education students according to some studies. Threats of violence pose a dilemma for educators, who must balance federal requirements, the …

Writing In Math And Distributive Learning In Math Problem Solving, Mary Jo Metz

Graduate Research Papers

Many teachers, parents and students have questions about single sex classrooms. Are there gender based strategies that can be used in single sex classrooms and coed classrooms?

The purpose of this study was to investigate a possible difference in the perceptions of boys and girls in their math problem solving ability, and to determine if writing in math and distribution of curriculum would be effective strategies in math problem solving. The researcher conducted a classroom study to determine the effects of writing in math and compare the impact on males and females. In addition, another study investigated the distribution of …

Emotional Intelligence As A Protective Factor For Risk Behavior In Adolescence, Nicole Renee Skaar

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Emotional intelligence is a concept developed by Salovey and Mayer in 1990. Since the first published work on emotional intelligence, others have modified the original idea by adding personality-like traits to the model of emotional intelligence. Consequently, there is a split in the conceptualization of emotional intelligence and the measurement of emotional intelligence; ability model assessment and mixed or trait model self-report assessment. The ability model of emotional intelligence has stood up to tests of discriminant validity over personality traits, unlike the mixed model of emotional intelligence. It is also distinguishable from cognitive intelligence, yet correlates moderately and therefore is …

Cameras In Court: A Utilitarian Ethical Approach, Kylie L. Greene

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Cameras in Court: A Utilitarian Ethical Approach is a theoretical discussion that establishes ethical guidelines for journalists and judges concerning cameras in court. Using utilitarian and deontological ethics the research will show that the current professional codes for journalists and judges are not sufficient and that a more utilitarian approach is necessary. Although still cameras were allowed in courtrooms in the early 1900s, it was the 1995 trial of football star O.J. Simpson that many say forever changed the way journalists, judges, and the public viewed cameras in court. Today, many judges are restricting camera access in high-profile cases, while …

Extraction Of Transportation Infrastructure From Hyperspectral Remote Sensing Data, James Paul Gerjevic

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The goal of this study was to extract transportation infrastructure features from hyper-spectral imagery using data from the high resolution Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS). A "Minimum Noise Fraction" (MNF) and a classification and regression tree (CART) were used to reduce the number of spectral dimensions to be analyzed. Then, hyperspectral classifiers such as the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM), Mixture-tuned matched filtering (MTMF) and mixture-tuned matched filtering combined with classification and regression tree (MTMF-CART) were used to extract the transportation infrastructures from the image using different image processing software such as ENVI and ERDAS IMAGINE. Finally, WinTopo software was used …

What Do Board Members Think School Librarians Do? Perceptions Of School Librarians By Iowa School Board Members, Lori R. Minnard

Graduate Research Papers

School board members may make personnel and other budging decisions without being aware of the roles and contributions of school library media programs to student learning. This study demonstrated the levels of knowledge school board members in a small K-12 school in Northwest Iowa have about their school library programs. The board members in this study are the five members of a small school in Northwest Iowa with a student population of approximately 600.

The survey was given in two parts. For the first part of the survey, the participants were instructed to write down the top five professional tasks …

Media Reality Versus Lived Reality: The Application Of Cultivation Theory To A Film Audience’S Perceptions Of Romantic Relationships, Nicholas Jensen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Cultivation theory was only applied to the realm of media violence in previous academic studies, thus research needs to address the impact of this particular phenomena on a different sub-genre within society. Hence, romantic relationships and the application of intra-psychic or cultural scripting from Hollywood film, to peoples' interpersonal relationships in their lived realities. This research sets out to answer various questions relating to the broad topic of film audiences' perceptions of romantic relationships and as to whether they apply or act out what they have seen on the silver screen. This research aims to investigate such phenomena as: Do …

A Conceptual Framework For Gateways, Jerry V. Caswell

Library Faculty/Staff Publications

The complexity of today's information environment is resulting in the creation of unified front ends to library resources called gateways. A gateway. consists of a set of interrelated tools that enables library users to identify and locate materials relevant to · their study and research. The tools are presented in a common structure or framework that facilitates the rapid identification of and navigation to the material. A gateway may include the catalog, supplemental databases to online resources, tools that link citation databases with online content, real time assistance, and help or user guidance components.

Eleventh Annual Csbs Student Research Conference {Program] April 24, 2004, University Of Northern Iowa

INSPIRE Student Research & Engagement Conference Programs

A program for the INSPIRE conference where undergraduate and graduate students present their research, internship, volunteer and study abroad experiences, club activities and creative performances.