Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Isotopic Assessment Of Late Prehistoric Interregional Warfare In The Southcentral Us, John R. Samuelsen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Skull burials are found all over the world. The cause of such ancient Native Americans deposits often lead to disagreement among scholars torn between warfare and ancestor veneration. One skull-and-mandible deposit, representing at least 352 people (A.D. 1253-1399), was uncovered at the Crenshaw site, a multiple-mound Caddo ceremonial center in southwest Arkansas. Most previous research suggested they were victims of interregional warfare from the Southern Plains or Mississippi Valley. One previous study hypothesized that this was a Caddo burial practice which expanded during the Middle Caddo period (A.D. 1200-1500) due to the adoption of maize as a staple and a …

Relational Uncertainty In Romantic Relationships: The Influence Of Attachment And Relational Maintenance Behaviors, Jay Cruz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the influence of attachment and relational maintenance behaviors on relational uncertainty. Ninety individuals currently involved in romantic relationships completed measures assessing their attachment (i.e., secure, preoccupied, dismissive, fearful), relational uncertainties (i.e., self, partner, relationship), and relational maintenance behaviors (i.e., shared tasks, shared networks, positivity, openness, assurances). Findings demonstrated that both secure attachment and fearful attachment were not significantly associated with self, partner, or relationship uncertainty. In addition, dismissive attachment was negatively associated with partner uncertainty and positively associated with relationship uncertainty. Preoccupied attachment was positively associated with both partner and relationship uncertainty. Furthermore, secure attachment was positively …

Effects Of Lasalocid And Energy Supplementation On Forage Intake, Energy Metabolism, And Performance Of Cattle Grazing Wheat Pasture, Autumn Tayler Pickett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cattle grazing wheat pasture have the potential to gain BW exceptionally well, but excessive nitrogen intake results in increased excretion and increased greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Supplemental concentrates with the addition of an ionophore given to ruminants grazing wheat is a potential practice for producers to increase nitrogen efficiency while decreasing GHG emissions. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to quantify the effects of energy (2.95 kg/d) and lasalocid (200 mg/hd/d) supplementation on nutrient intake, energy metabolism, respiratory gas fluxes, and performance of grazing cattle. Methane emissions were not affected (P = 0.58) by treatment, hence methane intensity (P …

The Effects Of Group Fitness Classes On Self-Efficacy, Katherine Dalton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-efficacy is one of the largest predictors of behavior, when related to exercise studies have shown that self-efficacy can predict drop-out rates within six months of being an exercise program (Middelkamp, et. al., 2016; Sallis, et. al., 1988). College students have the biggest decline in physical activity when compared to other stages of life (Buckworth, 2001; Grubbs & Carter, 2002). University recreation centers provide group fitness classes for students to promote physical activity. Minimal research has been done to show the impact that group fitness classes has on student life. This study aimed to show the impact of group fitness …

The Stigmatization Of Hunger: The Impact Of Social Stigma On Arkansas Youths’ Food Security, Emily Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Arkansas, 26.3% of children are food insecure, meaning they do not have enough or lack the ability to obtain enough food for adequate nutrition (Miller 2019). In recent years, a new phenomenon has been taking place called lunch shaming where children are sometimes forced to wear signs or handstamps that say the child’s lunch account is overdue. This research analyzes how the media frames food insecurity and how perceived social stigmas affect a student’s willingness to seek out help when struggling with food security.

Practitioner Use Of And Attitudes Toward Video-Conferencing For The Delivery Of Evidence-Based Telemental Health Interventions, Kathryn Parisi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Compared to telehealth delivery of interventions for physical health issues, the implementation of evidence-based psychosocial interventions using technology has less support. Video-conference delivery (VCD) has the potential to increase accessibility to effective treatments, although its use remains limited and understudied. This study employed a mixed methods approach in surveying mental health practitioners about their attitudes regarding the use of video-conference methods to deliver evidence-based interventions. One hundred and eleven practitioners were sampled from several national and regional practice organizations and administered quantitative surveys about their use of and attitudes towards VCD of evidence-based interventions. The relationship between clinician-level technology access, …

Ser Americano: The Cost Of Being American, Alejandra Campos

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over a decade ago, the Dreamer movement began, led by young undocumented Latinx youth. These activists became known as "Dreamers" who continue to advocate for a pathway to citizenship for all immigrants. Through media, speeches, and artwork, Dreamers use the cultural narrative of the "American Dream" to create the boundaries of their American identity. Traditionally, American Identity is studied through 4 schools of thought: ethno-culturalism, liberalism, civic republicanism, and incorporationism. I offer an analysis of two concepts of American identity, meritocracy, and hyperdocumentation, that are mostly missing from the American identity literature. Additionally, I propose social citizenship as a theory …

Associations Among Beef Cattle Genotypes, Neospora Caninum Infection, And Reproductive Performance, Ryan James Page

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reproductive performance is crucial for sustained financial success in the beef cattle industry. This dissertation includes a population study that quantified the incidence of Neospora caninum infections in the central region of the United States and tested its relationship with reproductive performance in beef cattle. Trial one of that study concluded that 6.9% of open, replacement heifers (n = 1306) tested seropositive. The second trial in that project found that 9.6% of the breeding age females (n = 500) tested were seropositive for Neospora caninum; and that state in which the cattle lived and age impacted (P < 0.05) infection rate. Breed composition, number of farm dogs on the ranch, and use of total mixed rations were not associated (P > 0.1) with seropositive …

An Interdisciplinary Study To Understand Treatment Seeking Behavior Among Female Survivors Of Anorexia Nervosa, Meaghan Victoria Tipton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was done to examine what psychosocial factors influence treatment seeking behavior among female survivors of eating disorders. This study uses a mixed methods survey consisting of open-ended item questions regarding treatment experience and social environment, and close-ended items to measure constructs from the Health Belief Model. Fourteen participants were recruited for this study to retrospectively detail their experiences of treatment during their eating disorder. All fourteen participants identified as Caucasian, thirteen identified as female, one identified with other gender, each with a history of medically diagnosed anorexia nervosa. The mean of age of current participants was 29.46, and …

Spatial Analysis Of Soil Creep Rates On Mount Sequoyah, Fayetteville Arkansas, Amy Suzanne Morris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mount Sequoyah in Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a part of the Boston Mountains, which are considered a deeply dissected plateau. The area is prone to mass wasting, which is the general downslope movement of sediments, soils, and rock through different processes that cause instabilities along a hillslope, and in its soil and loose rubble mantle. For this study, we looked at soil creep, which is the small-scale movement of soil downhill because of gravity, wetting and drying cycles, and heating and cooling cycles.

By measuring the tilt of utility poles, we determined multiple causes of soil creep. The variables that are …

Gynocentric Apuleius: Female Agency In 'The Golden Ass', Kelsey Schalo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through a close reading of Apuleius’ Golden Ass, I argue that characters such as Byrrhena, Photis, and Psyche function as positive examples of female sexual authority and autonomy and effectively challenge the phallocentric theories commonly applied to Greek and Roman gender and sexuality, the Penetrative Model associated with Foucault, and structuralism, associated in classics with French historians Marcel Detienne, J-P Vernant, and Pierre Vidal-Naquet. While still penetrated, many of these women actively claim their agency in sex through pleasure and narrative. Additionally, in correlation with Julia Kristeva’s theory of the abject, while Apuleius’s female witches behave in horrific and chaotic …

Doctoral-Level Students Experience Adopting Gatekeeping Roles And Responsibilities Within Counselor Education, Evan Smarinsky

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In counselor education and supervision, the term gatekeeping is used to describe the ongoing process of monitoring, evaluating, and remediating a student through their professional identity as a counselor. Gatekeeping is an ethical responsibility of counselor educators and supervisors, both faculty and doctoral-level students who supervise master’s-level students and is often identified as being one of their most difficult responsibilities. Doctoral-level supervisors play an important role in gatekeeping, although they are not involved in formal gatekeeping decisions and have not typically been the focus of research. Researchers have suggested there is a need to develop a better understanding of how …

Under The Radar: The Everyday Resistance Of Anarchist Punks In Bandung, Indonesia, Steve Moog

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amidst a current resurgence of hypernationalism across the globe, resistance movements and counterhegemonic ideologies are becoming increasingly visible and more common elements of broader socio-political discourses. While high-profile protests have ignited public interest in resistance movements—turning relatively unknown groups such as Antifa and Black Bloc into household names—little attention has been paid to the behind-the-scenes networks undergirding many of these organizations. Translocal do-it-yourself (DIY) punk rock networks are spaces in which alternative and subversive ideologies are enacted through the everyday implementation of anarchist philosophies and DIY ethics. Here, ‘under the radar’ modes of resistance are found in the lived realities, …

Lesioning Of The Nucleus Of The Hippocampal Commissure Followed By Food Deprivation Stress In Birds Demonstrates Simultaneous Involvement In Both The Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis And The Hypothalamo-Pituitary-Thyroid Axis, Michael Thomas Kidd Jr.

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the regulatory system for the neuroendocrine stress response within vertebrates. Within the HPA axis corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) is a major regulator and driving hormone. A structure named the nucleus of the hippocampal commissure (NHpC) has been found to contain CRH neurons and also these neurons respond to early food deprivation stress significantly prior to the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), the major driving nucleus of the classic neuroendocrine HPA axis. The objective of this study was to perform a knock down of the NHpC via electrolytic lesioning, thus eliminating a significant portion of its population of …

Locating Emergency Shelters While Incorporating Spatial Factors, Justin Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the immediate response phase of a natural disaster, local governments and nonprofit agencies often establish shelters for affected populations. Decisions regarding at which locations to open shelters are made ad hoc based on available building inventory, and may result in high travel impedance to reach shelters and congestion. This thesis presents a shelter location optimization model based on the two-step floating catchment area (2SFCA) method. The 2SFCA method creates a shelter accessibility score for each areal unit (e.g., census block group) which represents the ability for persons in the unit to access shelter capacity with low travel impedance, relative …

An Evaluation Of Unmanned Aircraft Systems' Ability To Assess Stripe Rust In Large Wheat Breeding Nursies, Jamison T. Murry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stripe Rust (Puccinia striiformis f. sp. tritici) is a foliar disease that significantly impacts global wheat production, and resistant cultivars provide the most efficient method of control. High-throughput phenotyping using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) offers a potentially more efficient method for field-based phenotyping compared to visual assessment. Here we tested the ability of remote sensing to predict stripe rust severity in a diverse population of 594 soft red winter wheat lines, planted in single-rows, and evaluated them by visually rating stripe rust intensity and remotely using the dark green color index (DGCI), normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and blue NDVI. …

Conceptualizing Social Capital As Access To Social Network And Mobilization Of Network Resources: A Study Of Workplace Literacy Programs And Low-Income Somali Refugee Workers, Angela Uchechukwu Nwude

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a substantial body of literature on the economic benefits of workplace literacy programs, and much less empirical studies on the social or non-economic outcomes of workplace literacy programs, particularly in the context of low-income refugee workers. Adopting a social network approach, this study examines the impact of workplace literacy programs on the social capital development of Somali refugee workers. Social capital can be defined as the network of relationships possessed by an individual or social group that facilitates their access to emotional, instrumental, or informational resources, essential for their daily survival, stability, or upward mobility. This study takes …

Effect Of The Prospect Of Transport On Captive Tiger Behavior And Fecal Cortisol In Naïve And Experienced Tigers, Callan Lichtenwalter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With close to 5,000 captive tigers in the United States, it is vital to ensure that these tigers are receiving adequate welfare whether they are in an accredited facility, or privately owned. The goal of this study was to assess whether captive tigers at a rescue facility with experience being transported outside of the facility would respond differently to the presentation of their transport vehicle than their naïve counterparts who had only been transported within the facility. The behavior of 5 naïve and 7 experienced tigers (n = 12) located at Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge in Eureka Springs, Arkansas was …