Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

P04. Settlement Information Needs And Services: A Pilot Study With Bangladeshi Immigrant Women In Canada, Nafiz Zaman Shuva

Western Research Forum

Background: This study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the information seeking behaviour of Bangladeshi immigrant women in Canada.

Methods: In February 2015, semi-structured interviews were conducted with twenty-two women residing in the Greater Toronto Area to investigate the everyday life information practices, settlement information needs, and barriers faced accessing and using various information.

Results: Participants needed various pre-arrival and post-arrival information including information about important documents to bring, mental preparedness, employment information, childcare, and health. There was evidence of a high dependency on informal information networks (e.g., family members, friends) to meet diverse information needs. The study …

P25. Psychological Well-Being In Sport: Examining The Construct Validity Of A Modified Version Of The Scales Of Psychological Well-Being, Despina Kouali, Craig Hall, Paige Pope

Western Research Forum

Background: Participation in sport can contribute in individuals' physical health, psychological well-being (PWB), and general quality of life (Coakley, 2007). In the sport literature, the majority of studies have failed to distinguish between general well-being and well-being specific to the sport context (Lundqvist, 2011). This is partly because of a lack of sport specific PWB measurement tools; thus the purpose of the present study was to adapt an existing PWB global instrument (i.e., Scales of Psychological Well-Being; Ryff, 1989) for the sport context and examine the construct validity of the modified version of the instrument.

Methods: Nine experts assessed the …

P06. The Western Archive Of Dialects And Languages, Michael Iannozzi

Western Research Forum

Traditionally, once fieldwork in a community was complete, the researcher left, and the participants never saw what became of those recordings and digitized materials. The Western Archive of Dialects and Languages (WADL) is a new project between the author and Western Libraries to ensure that the community of research directly benefits from sharing their stories, materials, and time.

The materials, dialect, and stories are preserved in a permanent and accessible, online archive. This ensures that future generations, wherever they live, will be able to access the heritage and history their family members shared with researchers.

I have already digitized, and …

P10. Road Cracking Area Percentage Evaluation Using Airborne Hyperspectral Imagery, Boyu Feng

Western Research Forum

Background:

Although the airborne platform is efficient and economic compared to the popular ground vehicles in road condition survey (RCS), studies on applying it in RCS are limited. A former study on airborne hyperspectral imagery (AHI) tried to tie a band ratio to pavement condition index. Its result proved the value in AHI, yet pointed out the difficulty in quantitative evaluation.

Methods:

This study further explored the application of AHI in RCS, and fully took advantage of the entire spectrum shape, rather than a ratio. Aiming at the cracking area percentage (CAP) on the asphalt paved arterial road system in …

P14. Estimating The Effects Of File-Sharing On Movie Box-Office, Zhuang Liu

Western Research Forum

Background:

File-sharing and on-line piracy have caught great public attention. There is a public debate on whether or not we should close torrenting sites like Piratedbay.com. Copyright holders argue yes and claim substantial loss due to filesharing while Pirates claim that file-sharing is welfare-improving and the effects on sale are negligible. Right now no consensus has been reached on how file-sharing affects industry revenue in economics literature.

Methods:

Using a novel dataset of downloads from Bit-Torrent network, this paper quantifies the effects of file-sharing on movie box-office revenue. I estimate a random coefficient demand model of movies to …

P24. The Birds And The Beats: Perception Of A Beat In An Avian Model, Brendon Samuels

Western Research Forum

Background: Beat perception is a complex cognitive skill that enables humans to “feel” the beat in music, and is an essential component of synchronization of behavior and dance. The mechanisms in the human brain that facilitate beat perception are not entirely understood, and have only been studied thus far using non-invasive techniques. Some animals, such as songbirds, also seem to be able to detect a beat in rhythms, though this has never been formally tested independent of motor synchronization.

Methods: An operant experiment is used to assess if European starlings, a type of songbird, are capable of categorizing …

P29. Basic Skills Or Major-Specific Knowledge? Sources Of Wage Penalties For Working Outside The Major Field Of Study, Yuki Onozuka

Western Research Forum

Background: This paper examines the sources of wage penalties for working outside the major field of study. Recent research shows that workers in a job unrelated to their major field of study experience significantly lower wages than those in a related job. A substantial amount of human capital may be underutilized. Identifying the sources of the wage penalty is important in terms of how to decrease the inefficient use of human capital, students' college major choice, and type of human capital accumulated in college.

Methods: I use the 1993 National Survey of College Graduates and the O*NET to divide the …

P05. Team Interdependence: Construct And Measurement Challenges, Natasha E. Ouslis, Natalie J. Allen Phd

Western Research Forum

Background:

Teams are “interdependent collections of individuals who share responsibility for specific outcomes” (Sundstrom et al., 1990; p. 120), and they are used in work organizations to achieve difficult and complex goals. Indeed, the degree to which teams are interdependent serves an important role in team research. However, researchers use varying measures of interdependence (see Pearce, 1993; Staples & Webster, 2008; van der Vegt et al., 2001) that have received little systematic construct validation. Given the criticality of the interdependence construct in teams, the fact that there is conceptual and methodological confusion in this area is troublesome.

Methods:

In this …

P01. Examining The Community Food Environments For Elementary School-Aged Children In The City Of London And Middlesex County, Ontario, Catherine Dubreck

Western Research Forum

Background: Childhood obesity is a growing public health issue. In Canada, one in four children/youth are overweight or obese. Research suggests diet plays a crucial role in childhood obesity, and that prevalence rates of overweight or obesity among children in a neighborhood may relate to area socioeconomic characteristics and other environmental factors. The community nutrition environment (e.g., the type, location, and accessibility of food outlets) can influence dietary habits.

Methods: Using ArcGIS, public and private elementary school addresses were geocoded, food outlets were mapped, and both junk food outlet density and the modified retail food environment index were …

P34. The Effects Of Standing Desks On Classroom Performance Of University Students, Siobhan Smith

Western Research Forum

Background:

It is well established that there are many health risks associated with prolonged sedentary time.¹ Unfortunately, research conducted on university students is limited but yet they experience excessive periods of sitting time during class and while studying.

Methods:

Recently, we investigated the effect of sitting, dynamic sitting, and standing desks on classroom performance of university students.² Participants performed three 3-minute classroom simulations, one for each of the three desks. The order of the desks and simulations were randomized. Each of the simulations included a different typing and memory task.

Results:

Results showed no significant difference in the …