Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nemo News, Volume 4, Issue 4, Uno Library Science Education

NEMO Newsletter

This issue of NEMO News features announcements, Advice from the Frontlines from Ted Smith, Student Spotlight on Martha Grenzeback, Interview Tips, and Contact Info Farewell.

Kangri In Context: An Areal Perspective, Robert D. Eaton

Linguistics & TESOL Dissertations - Archive

This study is a grammatical description and analysis of the dialect of Pahari known as Kangri, spoken in and around Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India. It presents data for Phonology, Tone, Stress, Morphology, and Syntax and includes feature comparisons with several of the related regional and high domain languages (Hindi, Punjabi, and Dogri), particularly at points where they differ. Special focus is given to issues involving stress assignment and tone. These are shown to be sensitive to different morphological categories, for which the framework of Lexical Phonology is useful in accounting. Various tense/aspect grammatical categories are also discussed, among which there …

Adolescent Values And Exercise Behaviors, Kameron C. Dill

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

In recent decades, there has been a significant increase in adolescent obesity in America (Mayo Clinic, 2006). Given this, there is a corresponding need to develop targeted adolescent obesity interventions. The current study examined how a psychosocially based intervention impacted adolescents' perceived value, frequency, and amount of exercise. Participants included 55 adolescents, (28 male, 26 female) ranging in age from 15-18. Separated by class, the three groups included one control group and two separate intervention groups. All groups completed an Exercise Checklist (Anshel, 2006), measuring the value, :frequency, and amount of exercise prior to any intervention. Classes then received different …

Clearing Murders: Is It About Time?, Wendy C. Regoeczi, John P. Jarvis, Marc Riedel

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Publications

This study uses data from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) to explore the impact of model selection on determining the association of victim-level and incident-level factors to the likelihood of homicide clearance. We compare both traditional operationalizations of clearance rates as well as the time to clearance as dependent variables in examinations of correlates of solvability in homicide cases. Using a different approach than most other analyses of this problem, the results affirm the consistency of some effects but also reveal some important differences when the aspect of time is factored into the model. Implications for analyses of efficiency …

2008 May Newsletter, Nancy Rockey

Human Subject Research Archive

No abstract provided.

Smoothing Local-To-Moderate Unit Root Theory, Peter C.B. Phillips, Tassos Magdalinos, Liudas Giraitis

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A limit theory is established for autoregressive time series that smooths the transition between local and moderate deviations from unity and provides a transitional form that links conventional unit root distributions and the standard normal. Edgeworth expansions of the limit theory are given. These expansions show that the limit theory that holds for values of the autoregressive coefficient that are closer to stationarity than local (i.e. deviations of the form = 1 + (c/n), where n is the sample size and c < 0) holds up to the second order. Similar expansions around the limiting Cauchy density are provided for the mildly explosive case.

Reforming Social Security With Progressive Personal Accounts, John Geanakoplos, Stephen P. Zeldes

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The heated debate about how to reform Social Security has come to a standstill because the view of most Democrats (that Social Security must be a defined benefits plan similar in spirit to the current system) seems irreconcilable with the proposals supported by many Republicans (to create a defined contribution system of personal accounts holding marketed assets). We describe a system of “progressive personal accounts” that preserves the core goals of both parties, and that is self-balancing on an ongoing basis. Progressive personal accounts have two critical features: (1) accruals into the personal accounts would be exclusively in a new …

Sex Differences In The Use And Evaluated Helpfulness Of Premarital Advice, Neal J. Sullivan

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to explore sex differences in the use and evaluated helpfulness of advice received before marriage. In addition, this study explored who typically gave premarital advice. Advice is considered by some to be a form of social support which can be helpful or hurtful to the marriage relationship. The sex of the advice-giver and advice-receiver as well as the relationship quality between them was explored in order to highlight how these variables affect advice use and helpfulness. Utilizing a questionnaire and interviews with individual newlywed husbands (n = 56) and wives (n = …

The Ideal Mormon Woman: An Analysis Of Ensign Articles And Comparison To Lds Women's Perceptions Of Gender Role Expectations, Julie Hollist

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to identify what principles leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints were teaching women about their gender roles and expectations from 2000 through 2007, and to investigate whether age, marital status, or media exposure correlated with women's perceptions of levels of importance of those concepts to both their leaders and to themselves personally. This study used deductive and inductive framing analyses to examine visiting teaching messages and General Conference Relief Society talks published in the Ensign, the official magazine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study built on those …

Mentoring In Marriage And Family Therapy Programs: Graduates' Perspectives, Allison Webber Hicken

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to understand how recent graduates of marriage and family therapy (MFT) master's programs experienced mentoring relationships. Fifteen recent graduates from six different MFT master's-level programs were interviewed about their experiences with mentoring relationships. Graduates shared their experiences regarding forming mentoring relationships, how these relationships affected elements of the program experience, the frequency and duration of contact, and mentors' influence after graduation. All 15 participants reported having at least one mentoring relationship and graduates described the variety of roles that their mentors took within the relationships. Characteristics of mentors are discussed in terms of positive …

Accessing Substance Abuse Treatment: Issues For Parents Involved With Child Welfare Services, Anna Rockhill, Beth L. Green, Linda Newton-Curtis

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The complex issues associated with barriers to treatment entry for parents who are involved with child welfare has not been well explored. Accessing timely treatment is now critical for these parents since the introduction of the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997, limiting the time until a permanency decision is made. Using a longitudinal, qualitative approach, substance-abusing parents from 15 families, their relevant family members, and service providers were interviewed approximately every 3 months over an 18-month period. The experiences of these parents add to our knowledge of the unique barriers this population faces, and expands our understanding of …

Testing The Functional Equivalence Of Retention Intervals And Sample-Stimulus Disparity In Conditional Discrimination, Ryan Ward

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Memory-trace theories of remembering suggest that performance in delayed matching-to-sample (DMTS) procedures depends on a memory trace that degrades with time. By contrast, the theory of direct remembering suggests that increasing the delay between sample and comparison stimuli in DMTS procedures is functionally equivalent to decreasing the disparity between sample stimuli. The present dissertation tested this assumption by assessing the degree to which changes in the frequency of reinforcement for correct choices biased the distribution of choice responses in a conditional-discrimination procedure. Seven pigeons responded under a temporal-discrimination procedure in which temporal sample-stimuli were categorized as being of either short …

A Retrospective Look At A Sample Of Juvenile Sex Offenders From Two Level Six Residential Treatment Centers In Utah: 1998-2007, Miriam Elizabeth Gunn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The study and treatment of juvenile sex offenders (JSOs) has been steadily growing since its separation from the adult sex offender category in the early 1980s. Although many studies concern themselves with one specific research variable, this study looked at the presence of twelve characteristics historically associated with JSOs: sexual abuse, early exposure to sexuality, conduct disorder problems, exposure to crime in the family of origin, personal substance abuse, family substance abuse, school performance difficulties, school behavior problems, mental health difficulties, social skills deficits, changes in family structure, and nonsexual forms of abuse. This was an effort to see if …

Transportation And Quality Adjusted Basis: Does The Law Of One Price Hold For Feeder Cattle?, Chad Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Beef cattle and calves are raised in all areas of the United States. Since beef cattle are scattered throughout the US, there are many different types of cattle with numerous different quality characteristics which are valued differently. Many calves raised until weaning age across the US are then sent to cattle feeding areas primarily located in Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and Nebraska. The prices that are offered for beef calves vary considerably based on quality and location. The theory of the law of one price suggests that prices in areas that trade should not differ by more than the cost of …

Self-Rated Health And Community/Social Relations, Rachel Kingsford

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was done to examine the relationship between self-rated health and social/community relations. Due to advances in modern medicine, multifactorial diseases are more prevalent than acute infectious diseases and a greater understanding of the impact sociological variables has on health is of great importance. In prior research, self-rated health has been demonstrated to be a robust predictor of mortality, even when controlling for other variables known to impact health. Presence of a strong social network and attachments to community have been shown to be protective of self-perceptions of health.

The Health and Living study was conducted in the Bear …

Premarital Preparation Activities And The Level Of Complaints And Perceptual Accuracy In Marriage, Suzette Dalaine Regis Todd

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis examined the influence that premarital preparation had on the level of complaints in marriages and the amount of perceptual accuracy that couples had in their marriage. The data for this thesis were taken from Wave I and Wave II of the Utah Governor’s Commission on Marriage study on newlyweds. The research examined four questions: (1) Do husbands and wives who have reported higher helpfulness of premarital preparation activities have fewer strong complaints in their marriage? (2) Do husbands and wives who have reported the helpfulness of premarital preparation activities have greater perceptual accuracy in their marriages? (3) Which …

Preference, Resistance To Change, And Qualitatively Different Reinforcers, Christopher Aaron Podlesnik

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Preference for one stimulus context over another and resistance to disruption within those contexts are a function of the conditions of reinforcement arranged within those contexts. According to behavioral momentum theory, these measures are converging expressions of the concept of response strength. Most studies have found that preference in concurrent chains and resistance to change are greater in contexts presenting higher rates or larger magnitudes of reinforcement. The present series of experiments attempted to extend behavioral momentum theory by examining whether differences in reinforcer type affect relative response strength with rats lever pressing for different types of food. In Experiment …

Marital Satisfaction And Parental Stress, Jill Hess

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study examined the correlations between marital satisfaction (MS) and parental stress (PS). The Kansas Marital Satisfaction Scale (KMSS) was used to measure marital satisfaction. Parental stress was measured at the same time through the use of the Parent Stress Index-Short Form (PSI-SF). Twenty-seven traditionally married couples were recruited through the CCAMPIS Grant at Utah State University. Minimum criteria were that at least one of the couple needed to be eligible for Pell grants, registered full time at Utah State University, and have at least one child. This study found that MS and PS correlate in many ways, most significantly …

Measuring Unawareness Of Cognitive Decline In A Population Of Elderly Individuals: The Cache County Study, Trevor Buckley

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The metacognitive skills of elderly individuals were examined using a brief, seven-item questionnaire. The construct validity of the questionnaire was examined using two forms of external criteria, the Modified Mini-Mental State Exam (3MS), and informant reports of functional ability. Analysis of Cronbach’s alpha coefficients suggested moderate levels of internal consistency for the questionnaire (alpha = .75). Factor analysis (principal components) revealed two factors, one functional and one cognitive. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that the metacognition questionnaire did not significantly predict 3MS change over a 3-year interval. Logistic regression analyses demonstrated that the metacognition questionnaire significantly predicted informant ratings. The metacognition …

Yoga As An Intervention For Stress Reduction And Enhanced Wellbeing In African American Athletes, Jennifer Fallon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study explored the preventive impact of a brief Hat ha yoga program on stress-reduction and enhanced wellbeing in a sample of healthy African American college athletes. African Americans suffer higher rates of hypertension and sudden cardiac death syndrome, both linked to stress. Study design was single case, with six replications, utilizing comparison of pre- and post-intervention scores on physiological and psychological indicators of distress and wellbeing. Findings were inconsistent across participants and measures, though generally included beneficial increases in positive affect (i.e ., C = 0.567 , Z = 2 071, p < 0.05) and perceived physical health (i.e., C = 0489, Z = 1. 721, …

Balancing Marriage And Friends: The Funeral Of Friendship?, Cora Polsgrove

Sociology Honors Projects

This study examines the effect of marriage on friendship and the way individuals balance their relationships with their spouses and their friends. Data were collected from in-depth interviews with eleven adults from their mid-20s to mid-60s. Analysis revealed that marriage shapes the kinds of friendships people form, but has a less significant effect on friendships that predate marriage. Married people form mutual, activity-based friendships with other couples and maintain the emotionally close, same-gender friendships that they formed before marriage. Data supported the dominant American ideal of spouse as best friend. While marriage did have some influence on friendship patterns, work …

Listen Up: Discovering The Reference And Instructional Applications Of Apple’S Tunes, Bruce Connolly, Gail M. Golderman

Urban Library Journal

Apple’s iTunes software permits people to import music onto their computer where they can listen, compile personalized playlists, and share their music with others, a practice that is ubiquitous among students on college campuses. This article examines the ongoing exploration of the potential applications of iTunes software at Union College ’s Schaffer Library, first, as a subtle but pervasive marketing tool used to raise student awareness of new and existing library resources, and second, as a means of reaching out to the campus population in an environment where students already feel at home. The article also discusses the role that …

It All Started With A Button…, Jill E. Luedke, Sarah K. Laleman Ward

Urban Library Journal

As librarians at an art and design library that is also part of a larger institution, we find it necessary to continually come up with new and innovative ways to make our library a welcoming, appealing, interesting and relevant place. Of particular popularity are the buttons we make using images from resources available at the library. For outreach, we give them away at every opportunity, including orientations (while wearing the “librarian” t-shirts we made) and faculty meetings. We also use them as teaching tools, and as incentive for participation in library instruction sessions. Our student workers and staff members have …

Roving Librarians: Taking It To The Streets, Lisa Lavoie

Urban Library Journal

The idea of the roving librarian on a college campus is not new. This mobile information service allows students, faculty, staff, and community library users access to personalized information service in a variety of areas and promotes library service. A roving librarian project gives librarians the time to focus on serving patrons as individuals rather than on the building as the primary resource. It also allows librarians the opportunity to have formal and informal conversations with students which can enhance information services. Roving may well contribute to the retention of community college students and may also serve to strengthen the …

Thinkertoys: A Handbook Of Creative-Thinking Techniques, Louise R. Fluk

Urban Library Journal

Book review

Creativity: Unconventional Wisdom From 20 Accomplished Minds, Hal Grossman

Urban Library Journal

Book review

Fun Precedes Function: Fostering A Creative Workplace In The Public Library, Tony Tallent

Urban Library Journal

The public library is full of creative people. Many library employees flourish in library systems that encourage them to move forward with their creative muses. A scan of the blogosphere quickly proves the public library attracts many creative minds and innovative thinkers to join its ranks. Once they have signed on to serve, what do we do to keep these creative types inspired, dreaming and channeling this creative energy into crafting experiences that benefit our users? What are we doing to consciously create a workplace that keeps fresh thinkers and risk-takers encouraged and empowered? Gleaned from conversations, interviews (both in …

Using Art To Promote Student Learning And Build Community Partnerships, Lynn S. Mullins, Ann V. Watkins

Urban Library Journal

In his vision for the ”New Museum,” John Cotton Dana advocated placing art close to books and journals, offering arts related programs, and developing an art collection to enhance visual learning. Dana Library, located on the Newark Campus of Rutgers-The State University of New Jersey, has succeeded in implementing these principles through its multifaceted arts program. Rotating fine arts and pedagogical exhibits along with a permanent art collection overrides the language and cultural differences of a diverse student body and the surrounding community. Interactions with the art support learning and self-discovery. The exhibit spaces and accompanying programming draw in New …

External Assessment Of Ddg's Humanitarian Mine Action Programme In Somaliland, Tim Lardner

Global CWD Repository

Danish Demining Group began operations in Somaliland in 1999, responding to a perceived need at the time. Over the following nine years, their operations removed significant numbers of mines and UXO and removed countless communities and individuals from the threat of mines and UXO. As time went on however, the organisation appeared to shift focus from a Danish Demining Group, to an organisation with a different set of objectives. That shift was initially away from mine clearance – understandable given the ongoing removal of landmines – and subsequently away from UXO clearance/removal – again, an understandable decision. This report considers …

Grandmothering And Social Old Age: Aotearoa New Zealand Variations On A Universal Theme, M. Jocelyn Armstrong

Pacific Studies

This paper explores change in definition and relevance of the grandparenting role in a population of young-old (ages sixty-five to eighty) women in urban New Zealand, and compares the experience of European and Maori women. I focus on how becoming and being a grandparent is configured into perceptions of social old age and seniority. New Zealand women of both ethnic groups recognize becoming a grandmother as still commonly considered a key marker of social old age by society at large. Differences are evident in ideas about how the role contributes to today's self-definitions. In women's own definitions, being a grandmother …