Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Model-Based Analysis Of Electric Drive Options For Medium-Duty Parcel Delivery Vehicles, Robb A. Barnitt, Aaron D. Brooker, Laurie Ramroth

Publications (T)

Medium-duty vehicles are used in a broad array of fleet applications, including parcel delivery. These vehicles are excellent candidates for electric drive applications due to their transient-intensive duty cycles, operation in densely populated areas, and relatively high fuel consumption and emissions. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) conducted a robust assessment of parcel delivery routes and completed a model-based techno-economic analysis of hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) configurations. First, NREL characterized parcel delivery vehicle usage patterns, most notably daily distance driven and drive-cycle intensity. Second, drive-cycle analysis results framed the selection of drive cycles used …

The Effect Of Adult Sportsmanship And Pro-Social Behavior Modeling On Child Self-Competence In Youth Football Programs, Bryan Scott Wilson

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Youth sports are viewed as a prime venue for teaching social values and life skills. By virtue of their organizing and leadership positions, adults play a critical role in communicating these lessons. Although there is little debate on the criticality of positive sportsmanship, there has been a serious trend in increasingly unsportsmanlike behaviors at youth events. In response, many organizations have implemented programs designed to increase positive adult sportsmanship communications and pro-social behaviors. While studies have shown that training does result in increased sportsmanship, less information is available on the impacts of such programs beyond increasing the “fun factor.” This …

Barriers To Computer Use And Internet Competency Among Homeless Women And Low-Income Women At Risk Of Becoming Homeless, Sondra L. Wildman

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

As our society relies more and more on digital communication methods, the consequences of not having access to computers and the internet will further erode the ability of homeless women to effectively navigate mainstream venues for social and economic interaction. This study strives to explore the barriers that prevent homeless women, and low-income women at risk of becoming homeless, from optimizing their access to computer and internet resources. A group of fifty homeless women was observed using a computer lab at a daytime shelter, and of this group, five women were interviewed. The theoretical framework of the study utilizes Pierre …

Hispanic Males And Declining Enrollment In Higher Education, Julie A. Hecimovich

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

Hispanic males, 18 to 35-years, have declining enrollment in institutions of higher learning, falling behind their female counterparts and males in most large ethnic groups in the United States. Why are so many young, Hispanic males not enrolling in higher education? To learn why, surveys were given to Hispanic males, parents, and grandparents to ascertain their educational opinions of and needs for higher education. As viewed through the Hispanic culture and lenses of symbolic interactionism, the third-person effect, and the two-step flow of communication theories; findings were 1). marketing efforts to attract young, Hispanic males to higher education must address …

Performing Impressionistic Autoethnographic Narrative In Text And Pixels To Explore Fear Of Death In End-Of-Life Care-Giving Contexts, Dena M. Rosko

Communication & Leadership Dissertations and Theses

This study explores fear of death in end-of-life caregiving contexts via impressionistic autoethnographic narrative as performed on a blog with photographs and poems. This study relies on ethical assumptions for communicating dialogue, confirmation, and a performance narrative ethos in end of life. This study employs Terror Management Theory to identify a gap in existing empirical fear and death studies, and fills that gap by embedding its framework and method in the psychotherapeutic tradition to foster creative freedom and psychological safety and so break the cultural silence shrouding grief. Key findings show that the blog coordinated a therapeutic process to assuage …

Early Childhood Abuse And Neglect: Exploring The Consequences, Effects, And Treatment, Kimberly Friedman

Psychology and Child Development

With the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in our nation and around the world, the theories of why these types of maltreatment occur are a relevant topic for all to explore. Researchers are interested in how child abuse and neglect affect the individuals who were victims as well as the use and efficacy of treatment procedures. In this project, significant research is examined, detailing the various models of abuse and neglect and how the models are perpetuated through development, as a result of exposure to various environments or social relationships. The consequences of experiencing these forms of maltreatment are …

What Motivates People To Volunteer: A Case Study Using Coastal Cleanup Day In San Luis Obispo, California, Kristine M. Liddie

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Global Demographic Challenges: Case Study Women, Madeline Fox

Social Sciences

Half of the world lives on less than $2 a day. Everywhere men, women and children live in extreme poverty and suffer. Anthropogenic climate change has intensified famines, droughts, floods, hurricanes and other natural disasters. Modern civilization has altered nature and nature has responded to these alterations. Every year approximately 80 million people are added to the
planet, increasing pressure on the land. These added numbers of people require increased food and land resources and produce more pollution. While populations grow, arable lands with high yields do not. It is essential to reduce global consumption of all commodities and reduce …

The Experiences Of Teen Text Messaging In The Context Of Family Communication, Relatedness, And Connection: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Jackie Thayer Craft

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This study is a phenomenological inquiry of teenagers' text messaging in the context of family communication, relatedness, and connection. Interviews with teenagers and parent are conducted to investigate the experience of text messaging within the family context. Journal entries are also used as sources of data for this study. Transcripts of the audio recordings for the interviews are analyzed for thematic data. Additionally, the participants and two reviewers evaluated the transcripts and interpretations for accuracy. The data for the teenage interviewees is examined next to the data of the parent interviewees for comparative purposes.

Quantitative Template For Subtyping Primary Progressive Aphasia, Marsel Mesulam, Christina Wieneke, Emily Rogalski, Derin J. Cobia, Cynthia Thompson, Sandra Weintraub

Faculty Publications

Objective—To provide a quantitative algorithm for classifying primary progressive aphasia (PPA) into agrammatic (PPA-G), semantic (PPA-S) and logopenic (PPA-L) variants, each of which is known to have a different probability of association with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).

Design—Prospectively and consecutively enrolled 16 PPA patients tested with neuropsychological instruments and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

Setting—University medical center. Participants—PPA patients recruited nationally in the USA as part of a longitudinal study.

Results—A two-dimensional template, reflecting performance on tests of syntax (Northwestern Anagram Test) and lexical semantics (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test), classified all 16 patients in concordance with a …

Who's To Blame? Elaborating The Role Of Attributions In General Strain Theory, John P. Hoffmann, Karen R. Spence

Faculty Publications

Agnew’s general strain theory (GST) has motivated dozens of criminological studies over the past two decades. Borrowing in part from Cloward and Ohlin’s model of delinquency, Agnew claimed that anger, a key component of GST, occurs when adolescents externalize blame for their adversity. This implies that adolescents who blame strain on an external causal agent (e.g., a parent, a teacher, economic disadvantages) are more likely to get angry and thus lash out through delinquent acts. However, this essential characteristic has been largely neglected in studies of GST. The purpose of this article is to show that external attributions of blame …

Lsuhsc Facilities Daily Update: December 2010, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates: 2010

LSUHSC Facilities Daily Updates from December 2010.

On the original documents, the daily update for Thursday, December 2, 2010 is misdated as Thursday, November 2, 2010; and the daily update for Thursday, December 9, 2010 is misdated as Thursday, December 10, 2010.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

Lsuhsc Facilities Biweekly Update: December 2010, Lsuhsc Property And Facilities Management

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates: 2010

LSUHSC Facilities Biweekly Updates from December 3 and 17, 2010.

These updates describe damage and a timeline of repairs at the LSU Health Sciences Center - New Orleans campus due to Hurricane Katrina which made landfall August 29, 2005.

The Geometric Field Of View And Speed Perception In A Driving Simulator, Richard Goodenough

All Theses

Particularly in the health and rehabilitation sector where cost and space are constraints, practitioners need smaller driving simulators. Because these small-footprint driving simulators have a limited projected field of view (PFOV) it is desirable to extend the virtual or geometric field of view (GFOV) beyond that natively afforded by the PFOV. Changing the PFOV/GFOV ratio has been shown to alter perceived speed. In order for driving simulation to produce realistic experiences, drivers‟ perception of speed should correspond with real world experiences. The purpose of the current research was to better understand the relationship between speed perception and the GFOV/PFOV ratio …

Buffering Effects Of Positive Mentoring On Mentor Burnout: Generative Concern And Perceived Organizational Support As Moderators, Meline Schaffer

All Theses

Burnout among employees has personal and organizational consequences. Negative effects of burnout include lowered individual adjustment as well as disengagement from the organization. Given this, both psychologists and practitioners may benefit from understanding ways to decrease this factor among employees.
One organizational experience that has the potential to decrease burnout is mentoring. While the advantages of mentoring relationships for protŽgŽs are well-documented, this study examines the potentially beneficial effects of positive mentoring relationships for the mentor, focusing on the reduction of burnout as a dependent variable. While benefits of mentoring may lead to reduced burnout, recent research suggests that negative …

Complex Decision Support For Older Adults: Effects Of Information Visualization On Decision Performance, Margaux Price

All Theses

Older adults are faced with complex decision tasks that impose high working memory demands. A representative task is choosing a prescription drug plan from a multitude of options that must be evaluated along many factors. The combined effect of the quantity of complex information, and reduced working memory capacity puts older adults at a disadvantage. However, research with younger adults suggests that the working memory burden of decision tasks can be reduced using well-designed, graphical decision aids (i.e., environmental supports). The current study examined the use of environmental supports to support complex decision-making for older adults. Two experiments were conducted; …

Style And Electronic Communication: The Accommodation Of Scientific Risks In The Sierra Magazine, Erin Dalton

All Theses

This thesis focuses on how style accommodates scientific risks for public audiences in Magazine articles. Language has previously been unexplored in risk communication; in accommodation research, style has not been investigated. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two unexplored dimensions--risk communication and accommodation--to show how syntax, diction, and metaphor resituate technical language and ideas in scientific risk studies for readers. First, interviews with editors and writers will provide a rich understanding of how their editing and composition practices influence accommodation processes. From there, an electronic communication analysis will illustrate how this medium can accommodate beyond text to …

Crime And Punishment: Insitutional Sanctions And Other Characteristics That Effect Campus Crime, Aldon Givens

All Theses

Crime, has and continues to be, a major issue in the world of institutions of higher education. Colleges and universities are constantly working on ways to prevent and improve crime on their respective campuses, which in most occasions includes collecting and reporting crime data to law enforcement agencies and the general public. By setting up punishment schemes and sanctions to deter criminal activity at their institution, administrators and faculty are looking for better, more efficient ways to influence the behavior or their students and steer them away from a life of criminal activity.
By studying existing literature, crime definitions, and …

Neurochemical Effects Of Amyloid-Beta Oligomers In Rats, John J. Panos

Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss and cognitive decline. Although the symptomology of Alzheimer’s disease is well defined, its precise etiology remains elusive. Animal models are invaluable for understanding the pathogenesis of this devastating disease. Knowledge of the neurochemical actions of amyloid-β oligomers in specific brain structures is essential for validating animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and for determining the most appropriate behavioral assays of memory. The specific aim of this project was to investigate the neurochemical effects of direct intracerebral infusion of amyloid-β oligomers in the rat. Experiment 1 investigated direct infusions of synthetic …

Breaking The Ice: Prospects For Canadian-American Institutional Change In The Governance Of The Northwest Passage, Jeffrey Parkey

All Dissertations

This study assesses four institutional approaches to governing the use of the Northwest Passage, including the current rules in use. The assessment is conducted through the use of expert interviews, a review of the theoretical literature, and an examination of comparative cases. Because of significant environmental changes underway in the Arctic region, institutional change for Northwest Passage management is receiving increased attention. Due to the potential environmental and security impacts of regularized ship transits through the Northwest Passage, a number of informed observers have discussed the need for considering alternative means of governing the waterway. The advantages and disadvantages of …

Need-Based Moderators Of Relational And Resource Concerns And Their Relationship To Procedural Justice, Jonas Johnson

All Dissertations

The current study assesses how needs influence the relationship between resource and relational concerns and procedural justice. Previous research has examined antecedents of procedural justice but often omits a consideration of individual needs in this analysis. Tyler (1994) found that the variables trust, neutrality, and status recognition were related to procedural justice because they contained variance related to relational concerns. Further research by Heuer, Penrod, Lafer, & Cohn (2002) also found that trust, neutrality, and status recognition were related to procedural justice based on resource concerns as well as relational concerns. However, no studies have examined the extent to which …

An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Service Quality, Transaction-Specific Satisfaction, And Overall Satisfaction In Predicting Golfers' Revisit Intentions, Joon Choel Lee

All Dissertations

ABSTRACT
Every year, approximately 37 million people play golf and use golf course facilities with friends or family, and each group's perception of satisfaction differs. It is important and worthwhile to examine the variables that influence golfers' perceptions of service quality and satisfaction. Understanding which variables best predict behavioral intentions to revisit certain facilities is an important issue in the tourism industry, but few studies have investigated the relationships between service quality, transaction-specific satisfaction, and overall satisfaction in predicting revisit intention.
The purpose of this study is to compare and investigate conceptual frameworks that represent the relationship between golfers' perceived …

Multilevel Antecedents Of Economic Stress, Mark Zajack

All Dissertations

Much of the literature on economic stress focuses on outcomes. This study assessed the antecedents that precede employee perceptions of economic strain. A multilevel framework of economic antecedents was proposed. The framework included objective indicators of the macroeconomic context as well as individual-level objective and subjective economic antecedents. It was hypothesized that antecedents within each of these categories of economic stress can fall into one of two dimensions: employment- or finance-related. Indicators of the macroeconomic context were gathered from the American Community Survey (ACS). Over 2,000 union employees of a large U.S. Midwestern retail chain provided individual employee-level economic information …

Deadly Discourse: Negotiating Bureaucratic Consensus For The Final Solution Through Organizational And Technical Communication, Mark Ward Sr

All Dissertations

The Final Solution was largely accomplished in eleven months; its executors, the Nazi SS, faced the constant problem that as killing and plunder escalated so did internal competition and corruption; and the SS deliberately cultivated an intensely competitive and polycratic organizational culture that fit the Nazi worldview of life-as-struggle. By tying these three observations together—that the Final Solution was punctuated, entropic, and polycratic—the problem arises: How did SS organizational communications manage, just barely long enough, to create a temporary social reality that regulated the internal contradictions of its genocidal project and fragmented bureaucracy? This study contends that through its organizational …

Development Of Guidance For States Transitioning To New Safety Analysis Tools, Priyanka Alluri

All Dissertations

With about 125 people dying on US roads each day, the US Department of Transportation heightened the awareness of critical safety issues with the passage of SAFETEA - LU (Safe Accountable Flexible Efficient Transportation Equity Act - a Legacy for Users) legislation in 2005. The legislation required each of the states to develop a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and incorporate data-driven approaches to prioritize and evaluate program outcomes: Failure to do so resulted in funding sanctioning. In conjunction with the legislation, research efforts have also been progressing toward the development of new safety analysis tools such as IHSDM (Interactive …

Army Supply Chain Management: Trends And Parellels With Industry, Matthew C. Olson

Honors Theses

Documents assembled as part of a supply chain management study to compare the tools and concepts used by private industry with the public sector, specifically the Department of Defense and the United States Army.

The Preservation Of Archaeological Records And Photographs, Kelli Bacon

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Substantive and organized research about archaeological records and photograph preservation, especially those written by and for archaeologists, are few. Although the Society for American Archaeology has a code of ethics regarding archaeological records preservation, and the federal government has regulations regarding the care and preservation of federally owned archaeological collections, there is a lack of resources. This is detrimental to archaeology because not all archaeologists, given the maturity of the discipline, understand how important it is to preserve archaeological records and photographs. Without documents and photographs from projects, irreplaceable information is lost. This thesis adds to the existing body of …

Relationship Between Inflation And Stock Market Returns: Evidence From Nigeria, Omotor G. Douglason

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

The linkage between stock prices and inflation has been subjected to extensive research in the past decades and has arouse the interests of academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers globally, particularly since the 1990s. The issue has been the apparent anomaly of the negative relationship between inflation and stock market returns as most studies in the industrialized economies have shown. This paper investigates this relationship using monthly and quarterly data of Nigeria for the period 1985 to 2008. The findings of this paper seem to suggest that stock market returns may provide an effective hedge against inflation in Nigeria.

Is The Stock Market A Leading Indicator Of Economic Activity In Nigeria?, Alvan E. Ikoku

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

In an effort to address the lacuna in leading indicator studies of African economies and Nigeria in particular, this paper examines the causal relationships among stock market prices, real GDP and the index of industrial production in Nigeria, using quarterly data from 1984Q1 to 2008Q4. Granger causality tests indicate bidirectional causality between stock prices and GDP but no causality between stock prices and industrial production or between GDP and industrial production. Stock prices and GDP are found to be cointegrated, leading to the estimation of vector error correction models. Out-of-sample forecasts constructed with AR(1), ARIMA, structural ARIMA, and VEC models …

Monetary And Fiscal Policy Interactions In Nigeria: An Application Of A State-Space Model With Markov-Switching, Chuku V. Chuku

CBN Journal of Applied Statistics (JAS)

This paper uses quarterly data to explore the monetary and fiscal policy interactions in Nigeria between 1970 and 2008. As a preliminary exercise, the paper examines the nature of fiscal policies in Nigeria using a vector autoregression (VAR) model. The simulated generalized impulse response graphs generated from the VAR estimation provides evidence of a non-Ricardian fiscal policy in Nigeria. Further, the paper analyzes the interactions between monetary and fiscal policies by applying a State-space model with Markov-switching to estimate the time-varying parameters of the relationship. The evidence indicates that monetary and fiscal policies in Nigeria have interacted in a counteractive …