Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mwdl Training Resources Task Force Committee Report, Andrea Payant, Ken Rockwell, Lindsey Memory, Liz Woolcott, Paula Mitchell

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

✓ Gather existing training resources and workflows from our own institutions

✓ Assess viable resource types

✓ Survey MWDL for:

◦ Training resources needs

◦ Desired platforms

◦ Training resources to contribute

✓ Establish a platform

✓ Populate platform with gathered material

✓ Collect training resources from MWDL participants

Social Media Use And Preferences Of Visitors To Crater Lake National Park: Data From A 2014 On-Site Survey, Rosemary B. Keane, Jordan W. Smith

Browse all Datasets

These data describe the use, and preferences for, social media among visitors to Crater Lake National Park (Oregon, USA)

Attendance Trends Threaten Future Operations Of America’S State Park Systems, Jordan Smith, Emily J. Wilkins, Yu-Fai Leung

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

This research examines how the operating expenditures of America’s state park systems will be affected by a continued growth in attendance consistent with observed trends as well as potential climate futures. We construct a longitudinal panel dataset (1984–2017) describing the operations and characteristics of all 50 state park systems. These data are analyzed with a time-varying stochastic frontier model. Estimates from the model are used to forecast operating expenditures to midcentury under four different scenarios. The first scenario assumes annual attendance within each state park system will continue to grow (or decline) at the same average annual rate that it …

A ‘Culture Of Assessment’ Planning Toolkit: Blueprints To Organically Grow Assessment Capacity And Support, Lindsay Ozburn

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

A well-rounded Culture of Assessment was crucial for success.

The new position provided opportunities to explore a wide range of prescripted and organically grown assessment initiatives.

The primary goal was to build assessment capacity and support, and break down silos that caused communication to collapse.

'Capitol'izing On Opportunities: Creating Collaborative Library Spaces Through Partnerships With Campus Organizations, Lindsay Ozburn, Jen Kirk, Teagan Eastman

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

With the formation of a new Library Spaces Committee we had a choice to maintain the status quo of:

Decision-making based on budget, timing, and previous choices.

One-time projects.

Or forging a new path of collaboration.

Associations Between Masculine Norms And Health-Care Utilization In Highly Religious, Heterosexual Men, Josh R. Novak, Terry Peak, Julie A. Gast, Melinda Arnell

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to use focus groups to explore married men’s avoidance of health-care utilization. Five focus groups of 8 to 10 married, heterosexual, male participants (N = 44) were conducted and analyzed using grounded theory methods. Several important themes emerged connected to how masculine norms were associated with health-care utilization at several domains including at the organizational level (perceptions of doctors), interpersonal level (past family context and current family context), and individual level (illness severity, money concerns). These themes were all connected with the societal theme of masculine norms …

Select Metrics Describing The Operations Of America's State Park Systems, Jordan Smith, Yu-Fai Leung

Browse all Datasets

This dataset contains annual descriptive statistics characterizing the operations of each of the 50 state park systems in the United States between 1984 and 2017.

Fixing What We’Ve Broken: Geoengineering In Response To Climate Change, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

Extending over 1,200 miles, the Great Barrier Reef is the largest reef system on the planet. It is the only system of living beings visible from space and is one of the seven wonders of the natural world. The reef is home to countless living beings, many of which live nowhere else on the planet.

Multilevel Analysis Of Socio-Demographic Disparities In Adulthood Obesity Across The United States Geographic Regions, Baksun Sung, Amin Etemadifar

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

Objectives

The objective of this study was to examine the socio-demographic disparities in obesity among US adults across 130 metropolitan and micropolitan statistical areas.

Methods

This study used data from the 2015 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and Selected Metropolitan/Micropolitan Area Risk Trend of 159,827 US adults aged 18 years and older. Data were analyzed using the multilevel linear regression models.

Results

According to individual level analyses, socio-demographic disparities in obesity exist in the United States. Individuals with low socioeconomic status were associated with a higher body mass index. The participants from the Midwest United States tend to have higher …

The Innovation Delta: A Model For Collaborative Decision Making, Mitchell Colver

Publications

In a fast-paced, high reward professional environment, it is easy to engage in haphazard, if not well-meaning, solution seeking. While there are many resources that aid the decision-making process, it is all too common to fall back on our own perceptions and biases as an exclusive decision-making tool, leading to ill-formed solutions.

The Innovation Delta reminds the decision maker to rely on at least three sources of information to triangulate on a viable solution: personal Reflection, formal and informal Evaluation practices, and Emulation of others who have already discovered solutions that may be appropriate.

Crowdsourcing Metadata Practices At Usu, Anna-Maria Arnljots, Andrea Payant, Becky Skeen, Randy Williams

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Beyond Books: Cataloging Special Format Items, Nicole Lewis, Alison Mccormack, Becky Skeen, Rebecca A. Wiederhold

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Cultural Models Of Raça: The Calculus Of Brazilian Racial Identity Revisited, Henri J. François Dengah Ii, Jason A. Gilmore, Marcus Brasileiro, Anna S. Cohen, Elizabeth Bingham Thomas, Jenni Budge Blackburn, Mckayle Law, Jae Swainston, Richard Thomas

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Nearly 50 years ago, Marvin Harris published a seminal paper that examined how Brazilians create taxonomic categories of racial identity. In the intervening decades, new cognitive theories and analytical approaches have enabled researchers to investigate cultural domains with increased sophistication and nuance. In this paper, we revisit, replicate, and extend Harris’s research by utilizing modern cognitive anthropological approaches such as multidimensional scaling and cultural consensus analysis. Utilizing the same facial portraits as in the original study, we ask a contemporary sample of 34 Brazilians to identify and sort these images by racial identity. We then compare Harris’s original data, reanalyzed …

The Medicalization Of Sleeplessness: Results Of U.S. Office Visit Outcomes, 2008–2015, Mairead Eastin Moloney, Gabriele Circiurkaite, Robyn Lewis Brown

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Previous analysis of U.S. physician office visits (1993–2007) indicated that the medicalization of sleeplessness was on the rise and had potentially negative implications for population health. Our study asks if the medicalization of sleeplessness at the level of patient-physician interaction has persisted over time. Using the most recent years available (2008–2015) of the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey we calculated nationally representative estimates for four sleeplessness-related outcomes of physician office visits: sleeplessness complaint, insomnia diagnosis, and prescription of benzodiazepine and non-benzodiazepine sedative-hypnotics (NBSH). To test for the significance of the linear trajectory, we ran a series of bivariate linear models. …

Bringing Forecasting Into The Future: Using Google To Predict Visitation In U.S. National Parks, Matt Clark, Emily J. Wilkins, Dani T. Dagan, Robert Powell, Ryan L. Sharp, Vicken Hillis

Environment and Society Student Research

In recent years, visitation to U.S. National Parks has been increasing, with the majority of this increase occurring in a subset of parks. As a result, managers in these parks must respond quickly to increasing visitor-related challenges. Improved visitation forecasting would allow managers to more proactively plan for such increases. In this study, we leverage internet search data that is freely available through Google Trends to create a forecasting model. We compare this Google Trends model to a traditional autoregressive forecasting model. Overall, our Google Trends model accurately predicted 97% of the total visitation variation to all parks one year …

Communicating Computational Concepts And Practices Within High School Students’ Portfolios Of Making Electronic Textiles, Debora Lui, Justice T. Walker, Sheri Hanna, Yasmin B. Kafai, Deborah A. Fields, Gayithri Jayathirtha

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Portfolios have recently gained traction within computer science education as a way to assess students’ computational thinking and practices. Whereas traditional assessments such as exams tend to capture learning within artificial settings at a single point in time, portfolios provide more authentic opportunities to document a trajectory of students’ learning and practices in everyday contexts. Furthermore, because communication itself has been defined as an important computational thinking practice, portfolios give students a place to practice this skill in the classroom. In this study, we report on the implementation of a digital portfolio with a class of 21 high school students …

A Question Of Motivation: Moral Reasons And Market Change, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

For thousands of years, the practice of hunting whales was exceptionally common. The animals were killed for meat, and, later, for blubber that could be converted into oil—an increasingly valued commodity during the industrial revolution. While whaling provided tremendous benefits to human beings, the practice was, of course, devastating to whale populations and to individual whales. Arguments against the practice were ready at hand. A number of species, such as grays and humpbacks, were being hunted into near extinction. The reduction of the whale population led to changes in aquatic ecosystems. What’s more, the practice was cruel—whaling equipment was crude …

“Get Tough!”: A Case Study On The Development Of The Sport Ethic In Youth Lacrosse, Ross Budziszewski

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

While participation in youth sport is often linked with positive psychosocial and physical outcomes (Holt et al., 2017), this context can also cultivate ideals that lead to the development of unethical beliefs as well as unsafe sport practices (Al-Yaarbi & Kavussanu, 2017). The sport ethic is described as the deviant overconformity by an athlete to fit societal expectations of a sport’s high-performance culture (Hughes & Coakley, 1991). Strong beliefs in the sport ethic can lead to moral disengagement, antisocial behavior, and viewing sport like warfare (Shields, Funk, & Bredemeier, 2015). Although the sport ethic has been examined in competitive adult …

The Introduction Of Bitcoin Futures: An Examination Of Volatility And Potential Spillover Effects, Benjamin M. Blau, Ryan J. Whitby

Economics and Finance Faculty Publications

Theory in Stein (1987) suggests that introducing derivative contracts, such as futures, can destabilize underlying asset prices if the contracts attract enough speculative traders. This paper examines how the introduction of Bitcoin futures influences the underlying Bitcoin market. Consistent with Stein (1987), we find that that Bitcoin's volatility increases significantly during the post-introduction period. Perhaps more importantly, however, we observe significant spillover effects into related markets. For instance, in other cryptocurrencies, the increase in volatility in these markets is greater than the post-introduction increase in Bitcoin.

Alternative Futures For Dalton Wells, Mary Oliver

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Visitation to the Moab region has increased significantly in recent years, causing campgrounds near town to be consistently full. The Dalton Wells area, a recreation area off Highway 191 just north of Moab, has become an especially popular place for dispersed camping, as it is free and in close proximity to town. Dalton Wells does not have the infrastructure or management necessary to support the current number of visitors, straining the site’s fragile desert ecosystem. The site also hosts a dinosaur quarry and the foundations of a historic CCC camp. These resources are unmaintained and at risk of pillaging and …

Altruism Or Self-Interest? Exploring The Motivations Of Open Access Authors, Robert Heaton, Dylan Burns, Becky Thoms

Library Faculty & Staff Publications

More than 250 authors at Utah State University published an Open Access (OA) article in 2016. Analysis of survey results and publication data from Scopus suggests that the following factors led authors to choose OA venues: ability to pay publishing charges, disciplinary colleagues’ positive attitudes toward OA, and personal feelings such as altruism and desire to reach a wide audience. Tenure status was not an apparent factor. This article adds to the body of literature on author motivations and can inform library outreach and marketing efforts, the creation of new publishing models, and the conversation about the larger scholarly publishing …

Children With Autism In The Somali Population: Exploring The Inter-Relatedness Of The Somali Immigrant And Refugee Experience Navigating Speech-Language Pathology Resources, Rebecca Houston

Undergraduate Research and Creative Opportunities (URCO) Grant Program

Approximately 15,711 Somali immigrants resettled in Minnesota in 2016 (Rush, 2016). According to the Rochester Post Bulletin, the Med City ranks fourth place in number of Somali immigrants, 333, behind Minneapolis at 3,450, St. Cloud at 1,393, and St. Paul at 960 (Post Bulletin, 2017). In a study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health in 2008, the most common services needed by Somali families was first housing, followed by speech therapy second (Minnesota Department of Health, 2014). In a study conducted by the Minnesota Department of Health in 2008, the most common family or individual challenges associated with late …

Minimum Quotation Size And Market Quality: Evidence From The Modern Otc Markets, Kemerey Thompson

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

I examine the effects of a change in the minimum quotation size on liquidity and volatility in the modern over-the-counter (OTC) markets. On November 12, 2012, the Financial Industry Regulatory Agency (FINRA) introduced a pilot program to adjust the minimum quote sizes for securities transactions in the OTC markets. I find that an increase in the minimum quote size decreases OTC market quality as spreads widen and volatility increases. In contrast, I find that a decrease in the minimum quote size improves OTC market quality, but the results are sensitive to the price of the security. These results offer important …

Experience Of Microaggressions: White Bystanders’ Physiological And Psychological Reactions, Alexandra K. Reveles

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The negative impacts of discriminatory events to the physiological and psychological stress of the recipient has been thoroughly documented. However, there is little to no evidence about the impacts to bystanders of these events, particularly White bystanders. Psychological impacts may emerge through academic achievement, which has implications for educational institutions and their diversity initiatives. This study examined the impact of witnessing discriminatory events on academic achievement, biological markers of distress, and emotional distress.

Academic achievement was negatively impacted for participants in the microaggression and blatant racism conditions when compared to a control condition. Study participants also experienced negative emotional impacts. …

Death Ends A Life Not A Relationship: The Embodied Mourning And Memorializing Of Pets Through Material Culture, Gemma N. Koontz

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Many individuals develop strong bonds with their pets, viewing them as close “furry” friends or family. When these beloved companions die, both their relational and physical absences are deeply felt. Lacking socially recognized rituals to mourn and memorialize their pets, owners turn to and adapt traditional “human practices,” primarily that of keeping meaningful or significant items of the deceased.

Using both personal experiences and perspectives from multiple fields, this thesis discusses the life-cycle of the human-animal bond, examines the types of items owners keep or create, and how these are used to facilitate both mourning (the outward expression of grief) …

The Use Of A Values Affirming Intervention: Does It Impact Math Scores And Semester Grade Point Averages In A Student Support Services Population, Amy L. Debruler

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

College students who are from low income families, have disabilities, or are the first in their family to attend college are more likely to struggle socially and academically in a college setting. Promoting college graduation within these disadvantaged populations is critical for increased life wellness. Previous researchers studied to see if when students wrote about their personal beliefs if it would lead to higher levels of academic confidence and better academic performance (as measured by grades). This study expanded upon those previous studies to look specifically at whether a values-affirming writing intervention provided to at risk students in a federally …

The Effects Of Demographic Changes On State Fiscal Balances In The U.S., Patrick Nartey

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The share of the population that is 65 or older keeps on rising over the years in the U.S. According to the 2017 US population projection, the rate of growth of older population is much faster than other age groups. The growing aging population will affect the economy in many ways, especially in fiscal balance of regional governments. The main goal of the study is to examine the fiscal implication of increasing old-age population in U.S states. The old-age dependency ratio is used to measure aging population, which derived by diving the population 65 years and over by the 18 …

The Value Of Farmland: Mapping Assessor Data To Understand Land Use Change, Lyndi Perry

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ideas developed by regional economists have potential applications within the urban planning field. One potential application is toward conserving farmland, and within this thesis this topic is examined for the study area of Utah County, Utah. Using assessor data, a land value map is created and further used to develop a regional economic model and spatial models that were analyzed for patterns of land use change.

Findings show that representing land value as continuous surface maps is a useful approach. The maps reveal that Utah County has densified as its population increased while farmland loss still occurred in agriculturally-important areas. …

The Effect Of "Drought Tolerant" Labeling On Consumers' Preferences And Willingness To Pay For Ornamental Plants, Susanne Tábara Cenador

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah’s water resources are endangered by low rainfall rates, high per capita water consumption and a strong projected increase of residents. The irrigation of ornamental plant landscaping is estimated to account for 60% of residential water use, and is, therefore, a target of education programs in the effort to promote water conservancy. The water-wise “Yellow Tag” program developed by the Utah Division of Water Resources seeks to provide retail nurseries with free tags for labeling plants which are considered low water use with the objective of promoting water conservation. The objective of this study is to determine consumer preferences for …

The Impact Of Immigration On Financial Markets, Jesse Baker

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This paper studies the impact of immigration policy on financial markets. I estimate the cumulative abnormal returns surrounding two events the effective start date of the Immigration Act of 1990 and the implementation of the Temporary Protected Status (TPS) of Nicaragua and Honduras in 1999. Focusing on agriculture, construction, and manufacturing firms, I find that the CARs surrounding the events are indeed positive and significant, suggesting that the market anticipated growth among industries that are likely to hire Central American immigrants.