Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Governmentality/Animacy/Mythology: A Biopolitical And Rhetorical Mosaic Of Hiv Stigma In A Time Of Prep-Aration, Brendan Geoffrey Aaron Hughes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since 1981, roughly 35 million people have died from the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the end stages of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), and an estimated 39 million are living with HIV today. While various factors such as poverty, lack of education, and poor access to treatment and healthcare compound the epidemic across the world, the endemic in the industrialized west faces specific communication-based challenges to slowing the spread of HIV. Now classified as a "chronic manageable condition", an HIV diagnosis is no longer the death sentence of the early outbreak in the 1980's. A major factor in the …

Preclinical Assessment Of Immunocal® As A Preventative Treatment For Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi) In A Mouse Model Of Closed Head Injury, Elizabeth Eugenia Ignowski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the past three decades, traumatic brain injury (TBI) has been considered a "silent epidemic" and recognized as an emergent public health problem by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). TBI is defined as a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Due to the debilitating effects and prevalence of TBI, novel preventative treatment regimens are highly desirable in at risk populations. According to the CDC groups disproportionately affected by TBI include athletes, people aged 75+, and service men and women, among others. Here, we investigated a unique whey protein …

Selfhood, Historical Consciousness, And The State In International Relations Theory, Edinson Oquendo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work seeks to examine the role of the state in international relations. While international relations treat states as institutions endowed with agency, they lack any means of explaining how the state can gain agency, autonomy, and rationality.

My dissertation seeks to reorient the theoretical assumptions of international relations in two ways. I develop a theory of the of the state that seeks to explain the mechanisms by which individuals are able to form collective social institutions and to endow them with authority and agency. I examine the relationship of the individuals to collective bodies such as states that can …

A Comparative Study Of Culture And Cultural Heritage In Humanitarian Aid Efforts: Post-Earthquake Haiti And Post-Tsunami Aceh, Natalie K. Ruhe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how cultural knowledge, beliefs, and practices affected the humanitarian aid response to disasters in Haiti and Aceh Province, Indonesia. It examines the importance of local knowledge in post-disaster response situations and how aid workers' "expertise" interplays with local knowledge, decision-making structures, and leadership. I questioned how knowledge of cultural practices could contribute to a more effective humanitarian aid approach and identified housing, social institutions and local leadership, economic systems, religious belief and practice as primary focuses. Examples detail how cultural beliefs and practices - as well as cultural heritage - may be vehicles for social stability and …

The Dynamics Of Community Museums And Their Communities: Museo De Las Americas' Spanish Happy Hour Fostering Social Inclusion For The Latino And Denver Metro Area Communities, Maritza Hernandez-Bravo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many museums are now aspiring to collaborate and engage with Latino communities and the community as a whole. Due to Museo de las Americas status as a community museum, I predicted that I would find a collaborative effort already occurring between the institution and their community, which can aid in creating a sense of social inclusion by being committed to including diverse voices by having clarity of purpose that makes sense both within the context of the community and the institution itself. I used staff, volunteer and visitor interviews and observations of the program to evaluate the degree of collaboration …

The Viability Of Profit-Loss Sharing Models To Finance Small And Medium Enterprises: The Case Of Saudi Arabia, Alhanoof Alghamdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study aims to explore the role of profit-loss sharing (PLS) models to alleviate access to finance for small and medium enterprises in Saudi Arabia, in the light of the stringent requirements of traditional financial institutions, to ensure the growth and development of the SME sector. A central question of this study is the extent to which Islamic banks can adopt profit-loss sharing modes to finance SMEs. The main results present the barriers preventing Islamic banks from the application of profit-loss sharing that increase incidence of agency problems for such institutions. High asymmetry of information and the nature of Islamic …

Urban Children's Experience Of A Natural Place Outside Of Denver, Corey J. Martz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, a common and ingrained perception is that humans are separate from nature. Over the last several decades, urbanization, the increasing presence of technology, and progressively busier schedules contribute to a growing concern over a disconnect between children and nature. In light of this potential disconnect, I explored how urban children experience a natural place outside of the city. In this study, I investigated the "sense of place" of 27 children living in Denver, Colorado; sixteen of these children had experienced a natural place at a summer camp outside of the city. The children created photo-story maps …

Aztec Human Sacrifice As Entertainment? The Physio-Psycho-Social Rewards Of Aztec Sacrificial Celebrations, Linda Jane Hansen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human sacrifice in the sixteenth-century Aztec Empire, as recorded by Spanish chroniclers, was conducted on a large scale and was usually the climactic ritual act culminating elaborate multi-day festivals. Scholars have advanced a wide range of theories explaining the underlying motivations and purposes of these abundant and regulated ritual massacres. Recent scholarship on human sacrifice in ancient Mexico has observed far more complexity, nuance, and fluidity in the nature of these rituals than earlier mono-causal explanations. Several recent examinations have concentrated their analysis on the use of sacred space, architecture, movement, and embodiment in these festivals. As an extension of …

An Integrated Archaeological Investigation Of Colonial Interactions At A Seventeenth-Century New England Site, Maeve E. Herrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is the ways in which interactions between Indigenous peoples and English settler-colonists were manifested in the landscape at a seventeenth-century site in South Glastonbury, Connecticut. Magnetometry and ground-penetrating radar allowed for the location of anthropogenic and geological features on the landscape, and for the seventeenth-century landscape to be recreated. This reconstruction indicated that Europeans and Indigenous peoples may have been cohabitating the site. Archival research helped to uncover what types of interactions may have been occurring at the site. Excavations uncovered "Indigenous" artifacts in a "European" context, leading to the reconsideration of the prevailing perspectives …

Meta-Analyses Of The Relationship Between Depression And Nine Dimensions Of Perfectionism, Gabriel Lynn Hottinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perfectionism has been shown to be related to depression, but perfectionism is multidimensional. Some dimensions are related to positive psychological characteristics and outcomes and other dimensions are related to negative psychological characteristics and outcomes. This study reports results of nine meta-analyses performed to investigate the association between each of nine subscales of perfectionism and depression to determine which dimensions of perfectionism are most strongly associated with depression. The two subscales that were used from the Hewitt and Flett (1991b) Multidimensional Perfectionism scale were Self-Oriented Perfectionism (SOP) and Socially-Prescribed Perfectionism (SPP). The five subscales that were used from the Frost et …

Dimensions Of State Fragility: Determinants Of Violent Group Grievance, Political Legitimacy, And Economic Capacity, Jason Christensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

State fragility has severe political implications. In the literature, fragile states have been referred to as "chaotic breeding grounds" for human rights violations, terrorism, violent extremism, crime, instability, and disease (Patrick 2011, 3-4). International organizations have also expressed concern regarding the potential of "fragile states" to disrupt collective security as threats such as transnational terrorism and human displacement from violent conflict have the potential to permeate borders (Patrick 2011, 5). This research project aims at extending our understanding of state fragility by examining three distinct dimensions of state fragility proposed in the literature: i) state authority, ii) state legitimacy, and …

The Use Of Alcohol And The Impact On The Use Of Threats In Domestic Violence Cases, Amanda Zammit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Domestic Violence is a public health issue that is affecting millions of people annually. Police reports can give a unique aspect of cases that involve domestic violence because the narrative is a firsthand report of the violent incident. Using domestic violence case reports gathered from a law enforcement database at a county Sheriff's office in Florida, the current study examines whether alcohol use in domestic violence incidents influences threats that the victim receives during the incident. Logistic regression analysis indicates that alcohol use does not significantly impact threats that the victim receives during a domestic violence altercation. However, the study …

The Relationship Between Orientation To The U.S. Culture And Affect Among Chinese International Students, Jiquan Lin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Emerging literature suggests that ideal/desired emotions vs. actual emotions represent an important aspect of subjective emotional experiences that may be particularly important for cross-cultural research, as culture may influence the subjective experience of how individuals value certain emotions and to what extent they actually experience them. The current research conducts two studies to examine cultural differences in ideal and actual affect, and to test its association with acculturation and depressed mood within a sample of Chinese international students. Specifically, Study 1 recruited 152 Chinese international college students and 108 U.S. college students to test differences in their ideal and actual …

The Ethics Of Representation: Muslim Women Reenacting And Resisting Whiteness, Haneen Al Ghabra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Muslim women's performances and embodiment of White femininity. It addresses invisibility/visibility and problematic rhetorical constructs for re-securing and replicating White femininity, which in turn reasserts White masculinity as the dominant ideological structure in service of Whiteness. To be exact, the aim is to specifically focus on how Whiteness travels globally through Muslim bodies and subjects who speak the language of the imperialist and not the vernacular. This language of the imperialist is also the language of heteronormativity, class, and educational privilege. These intersections are not stand-alone categories but instead seep into one another in the service of …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of Sport And Fandom Through Hans-Georg Gadamer And Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alexander Regina

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to uncover the phenomenological and communicative roots of sport fandom from the fan perspective, taking into account the many ways in which fans come to contact sport and integrate corresponding experiences into their own lives and sense of being in the world. Hans-Georg Gadamer and Maurice Merleau-Ponty are used to understand the conventions of play that manifest in sport, leading not only to the co-creation of the game experience due to the intertwining of spectators and players but also to the interplay of temporal realms that leads to what Gadamer calls the fusion of horizons. Through …

The First Life Journey Of Many: The Lived Experience Of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning Individuals Who Were Raised Within The Catholic Church On Their Coming Out Process, Michelle Colarusso

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning (LGBTQ) adults encounter societal challenges, pushback from religious organizations, and discrimination from lawmakers which interfere with their ability to come out as their true selves. This qualitative, phenomenologically oriented study explored the LGBTQ identity and practicing Catholic religious beliefs in an attempt to develop a rich description and understanding of the experience of LGBTQ individuals’ coming out process in relation to the practice of Catholic religious beliefs. The central research question that guided this inquiry was the following: What are the lived experiences of persons who identify as Catholic and who have come out as …

En Boca Cerrada No Entran Moscas. Flies Don't Enter Closed Mouths: A Grounded Theory Study Of Latinas' Testimonios Of Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure, Nivea Castaneda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite countless studies demonstrating a high prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) and low rates of disclosure in the Latinx community, research exploring Latinx CSA disclosure is scant in family communication studies. This study explores how Latinas choose to disclose and/or conceal their experience(s) of CSA as well as explores the Latinx cultural constructs that impact disclosure. Using the Indigenous methodology of testimonio, grounded theory, and communication privacy management theory as a sensitizing theory, the study examined six Latinas' testimonios collected in one-on-one interviews. In an effort to stay true to testimonio, the overarching themes are presented through …

Moral Psychology And Political Campaigns, Joel Andrew Hanel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Theories of moral psychology suggest that American partisans rely on different moral domains to inform their political decision making (Haidt 2012; Lakoff 1996). This project addresses the use of moral framing, language, and traits in American political campaigns. It first examines the language of campaigns to ascertain if Democratic and Republican candidates use moral language in line with moral theories and then attempts to understand if using this language can affect the public in a meaningful way. Overall, the research suggests that campaigns frequently use moral language, though it does not strictly conform to the predictions of existing moral theory …

Ask Your Doctor About Exposure Therapy!: Direct-To-Consumer Marketing Of Empirically Supported Psychological Treatments For Anxiety, Joshua C. Fulwiler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite efforts to disseminate Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions (EBPIS) to mental health practitioners, most individuals with psychological disorders do not receive any form of treatment, and many others who do seek treatment do not receive EBPIS. The success of the pharmaceutical industry in effectively marketing prescription drugs directly to consumers is considered as a model for advancing dissemination of EBPIS. Utilizing undergraduate students as participants, the current study examined how potential consumers of mental health services respond to internet-based marketing information about EBPIS. Participants vieinformation about anxiety disorders and a specific type of treatment (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy) in both text and …

Integrating Forgiveness Therapy And The Treatment Of Anger: A Randomized Controlled Trial, Michael Schaefer Ballard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although the costs of uncontrolled anger are well-known, interventions for anger are less frequently studied and less effective than interventions for either depression or anxiety (NAMA, 2012). One hundred eighty-seven patients requesting anger management treatment at an outpatient counseling center in Denver participated in this study. They were randomly assigned to one of two treatments: an experimental treatment integrating forgiveness therapy and anger management, or anger treatment as usual. Treatment consisted of twelve 90-minute sessions held once a week in small groups led by group facilitators. Participants in both treatment conditions reported clinically significant decreases in state anger and increases …

Crafting Craft Beer Brands: An Examination Of Identity, Community, And Growth In Orlando Area Craft Breweries, Dylan Fehribach

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beer is a commodity that has been produced and consumed by humans for millennia. Within the U.S., the craft beer industry has grown considerably over the last decade, accounting for 19% of all beers sales in 2014. Despite this increased market presence, craft beer marketing and production has received little anthropological consideration. To address this dearth of case studies, I consider the local craft brewery scene, or area of activity, in Orlando Florida. My 2016 ethnographic research reveals that the local craft brewery scene exhibits both variation in identity and community locations. Interactions among breweries present opportunities for local breweries …

Calibrating A System Dynamic Model Within An Integrative Framework To Test Foreign Policy Choices, Carlos Kavetsky

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Political science uses international relations (IR) theory to explain state-actor political behavior. Research suggests that this theoretical framework can inform a predictive model incorporating features of systems dynamics (SD) and agent based (AB) modeling. The Foreign Policy Model (ForPol) herein applies Alexander Y. Lubyansky's (2014) SD model for macro-political behavior to represent behaviors between real systems and mental models. While verifying and validating the resulting SD/AB/IR holistic model requires an extensive comprehensive research agenda, the present work will take a closer examination at input parameter calibration and conducting typical runs of the SD portion of the model as a first …

From Tunnel Vision To Bird's-Eye View: The Development Of A Broad Harassment Construct, Lindsay Dhanani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on workplace harassment has increased in recent years, resulting in a large body of evidence suggesting that perceiving harassment at work leads to a host of negative outcomes (Jones, Peddie, Gilrane, King, & Gray, 2016; Pascoe & Richman, 2009; Triana, Jayasinghe, & Pieper, 2015; Willness, Steel, & Lee, 2007). However, despite calls to broaden the conceptualization of workplace harassment, the dominant approach in the literature has been to study a single, discrete form of harassment in isolation. The current paper addresses this limitation by simultaneously assessing multiple forms of harassment (i.e., ethnic harassment, sexual harassment, age harassment, heterosexist harassment, …

Getting The Work Out Of Workouts: Evaluating The Effectiveness And Outcomes Of A Physical Exercise Motivational Intervention For Older Workers, Brandon Sholar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To mitigate their estimated $300 billion in annual health-related losses, many companies have instituted workplace wellness initiatives designed to promote physical activity among their employees, improving the overall health of their workforce. Though middle-aged and older workers may potentially enjoy the greatest physical, stress and cognitive benefits from regular exercise, workplace wellness programs have been less successful in attracting such employees. This study developed and tested a 6-week exercise motivation intervention designed to meet the needs of sedentary, older working adults and to determine what non-physical benefits might result from increased levels of physical exercise. The intervention, based primarily on …

Not Woman Enough Harassment: Scale Development And An Integrated Model From Antecedent To Outcome, Amanda Wolcott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The rise of research on workplace mistreatment in the past twenty years can be attributed to the realization that workplace mistreatment is associated with a host of deleterious outcomes for both the individual targets of the mistreatment and the organizations in which they work. However, the extant literature is failing to capture the full range of sex-based mistreatment that people may experience through a tendency to focus solely on sexual harassment and sex discrimination, which are very specific types of behavior based on one's sex and gender stereotypes. In this dissertation, I introduce the construct of Not Woman Enough Harassment, …

The Role Of Accounts And Apologies In Mitigating Blame Toward Human And Machine Agents, Kimberly Stowers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Would you trust a machine to make life-or-death decisions about your health and safety? Machines today are capable of achieving much more than they could 30 years ago—and the same will be said for machines that exist 30 years from now. The rise of intelligence in machines has resulted in humans entrusting them with ever-increasing responsibility. With this has arisen the question of whether machines should be given equal responsibility to humans—or if humans will ever perceive machines as being accountable for such responsibility. For example, if an intelligent machine accidentally harms a person, should it be blamed for its …

Performance Of The Producer Accumulator In Corn And Soybean Commodity Markets, Chad Te Slaa

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research quantifies risk reduction and performance of the producer accumulator contract in corn and soybean markets. To quantify performance, we use three alternative theoretical pricing models to estimate historical producer accumulator contract specifications in corn and soybean markets. We then compare the performance of the producer accumulator to eight alternative agricultural marketing strategy portfolios that are also used in new generation grain contracts. The performance measures we compare are: average bushel price that would be received by the producer, daily portfolio risk, and the Sharpe ratio. The period we examine performance was between 2008 and 2017. We investigate performance …

The Effects Of The Dodd-Frank Act On Community Banks, Hoanh Le

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I study the effects on community banks of seven final rules associated with the Dodd-Frank Act. I use quarterly data on US bank holding companies from 1991 through 2016 to test working hypotheses that several bank performance measures—including pretax returns on assets, loans per employee, changes in the number of employees, and salaries to assets—responded to the passage of these seven final rules in ways that reflected regulatory burdens that these rules imposed on banks. I find that these seven final rules affected banks differently according to their scale. Taken together, my results imply that these seven …

Using Remote Sensing To Estimate Crop Water Use To Improve Irrigation Water Management, Arturo Reyes-Gonzalez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Irrigation water is scarce. Hence, accurate estimation of crop water use is necessary for proper irrigation managements and water conservation. Satellite-based remote sensing is a tool that can estimate crop water use efficiently. Several models have been developed to estimate crop water requirement or actual evapotranspiration (ETa) using remote sensing. One of them is the Mapping EvapoTranspiration at High Resolution using Internalized Calibration (METRIC) model. This model has been compared with other methods for ET estimations including weighing lysimeters, pan evaporation, Bowen Ratio Energy Balance System (BREBS), Eddy Covariance (EC), and sap flow. However, comparison of METRIC model outputs to …

Assessment Of Watershed Condition And Vulnerability To Forecasted Land-Use/Land-Cover Change In The Northwestern Great Plains Of Western South Dakota, Aaron Suehring

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A projected increase in global population by mid-century will likely further intensify agricultural practices given future demand for food, increasing the strain on the nation’s aquatic resources. Extensive water quality monitoring will be important in agriculturally dominated regions. The main objectives of this effort were to develop an approach to assess watershed condition and watershed vulnerability to land-use/landcover (LULC) change under multiple scenarios of future development. We used U.S. EPA’s Analytical Tools Interface for Landscape Assessment (ATtILA) to analyze landscape spatial data to determine the condition of wadeable, perennial stream watersheds in the Northwestern Great Plains level III ecoregion of …