Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Jimmy Carter’S Post-Presidential Rhetoric: Faith-Based Rhetoric And Human Rights Foreign Policy, Daniel Eric Schabot

Dissertations

Former President James Earl Carter is well known for his rhetorical efforts to promote human rights. Carter’s human rights advocacy is motivated and sustained by his belief that God duty-bounds him to assist those less fortunate than himself. Scholars generally concede, however, that as president, Jimmy Carter’s human rights accomplishments were minimal and that he failed to develop or institute consistent policies. This dissertation compares and contrasts Carter’s presidency and postpresidency with respect to human rights accomplishments, arguing that he was better able to serve an advocacy role when out of office. Carter, free of separation of church and state …

Genetic Associations With Borderline Personality Disorder And Related Traits And Behaviors, Casey Roy Guillot

Dissertations

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and related traits and behaviors have been linked to a number of neurotransmitter systems, including serotonin, norepinephrine, GABA, and dopamine. Because three human single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), COMT rs4680, GABRA2 rs279871, and SNCA rs356195, have been linked to the abovementioned neurotransmitter systems, they may be associated with BPD and related traits and behaviors. The purpose of the current study is to examine associations of COMT rs4680, GABRA2 rs279871, and SNCA rs356195 with both categorical and continuous measures of BPD and with continuous measures of impulse control and self-harm in a nonclinical sample. Healthy volunteers were categorized into …

Evaluating The Interpersonal Nature Of Humor: Mapping Humor Styles Onto The Interpersonal Circumplex, Jessica Erin Vaughan

Dissertations

The present study examined the interpersonal content of the four humor styles outlined in the Humor Styles Questionnaire in order to gather additional information about the interpersonal content of these humor styles. This was accomplished by projecting each of the humor styles onto the interpersonal circumplex. Each of the humor styles possessed significant interpersonal content and demonstrated interpersonal cohesion such that the maladaptive humor styles were located in the Cold-Hearted region and the adaptive humor styles were located in the adjacent octants of Gregarious- Extroverted and Warm-Agreeable. These findings suggest that the adaptive humor styles and maladaptive humor styles possess …

Narcissism And Interpersonal Relationships: Examining The Use Of Prosocial And Coercive Behavior Strategies Among Adolescents In A Residential Setting, Marion Tam'eca Wallace

Dissertations

The association between Machiavellianism and bistrategic control has been demonstrated in children and adolescents (Hawley, 2003). Machiavellianism shares several features with narcissism. The present study investigated whether adolescents with higher levels of narcissism were perceived by peers as engaging in prosocial or antisocial behaviors depending on the phase of the relationship and whether control strategies translated to peers’ ratings of likability. Forty-seven participants (43 males, 4 females) provided data for this study. Overall, individuals who reported higher levels of Machiavellianism also reported using more coercive behavior strategies. Self-reported narcissism was only associated with self-reported use of more coercive control strategies …

Evaluation Of Performance-Based And Pre-Set Conventional Criterion For Reinforcement In Check In-Check Out, Lauren Lestremau Harpole

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of two methods of criterion-setting, performance-based or pre-set conventional, as evidenced by improvements in children’s behavior. Participant behavior was evaluated through teacher reports of appropriate behavior and observed academically engaged behavior as well as decreases in problem behavior and disruptive behavior. Eight elementary school students in a Southeastern town referred for exhibiting behavior problems served as participants in addition to their teachers. The effects of the different methods of criterion setting on the dependent variables were evaluated. Teacher ratings of appropriate behavior were assessed through evaluation of Daily Behavior …

East, West, Or Center? Turkey's Stance Straddling Continents, Pipelines, And Interdependences, Mustafa Kemal Dagdelen

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This thesis concentrates on the international relations of Turkey by studying one of the significant parameters of the world affairs, the Energy Security issue, and Robert 0. Keohane and Joseph S. Nye's Complex Interdependence concept. The research is conducted through two case studies between Turkey and two different neighboring actors, Iran and the European Union. This thesis is a qualitative study with descriptive analyses on the literature of the interdependence and the energy security concepts. By revealing mutual dependences between Turkey, Iran, and the European Union, with different vulnerabilities, the results of this scholarly quest suggest that the interdependent nature …

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are not many SMEs in Singapore which employ independent non-executive directors. SMU Associate Professor of Accounting Wang Jiwei advised that there are immense benefits that a non-executive director can bring to an SME as its business grows. These include the credibility that the person can bring to the management team, including the important and useful contacts, as well as different skill sets and experiences. “Understand your needs and then identify the right type of experienced individuals who possess the necessary expertise or business networks. There is a high possibility that your ‘perfect' non-executive director may be someone you already …

The Role Of A Non-Executive Director In Smes, Jiwei Wang

Research Collection School Of Accountancy

There are not many SMEs in Singapore which employ independent non-executive directors. SMU Associate Professor of Accounting Wang Jiwei advised that there are immense benefits that a non-executive director can bring to an SME as its business grows. These include the credibility that the person can bring to the management team, including the important and useful contacts, as well as different skill sets and experiences. “Understand your needs and then identify the right type of experienced individuals who possess the necessary expertise or business networks. There is a high possibility that your ‘perfect' non-executive director may be someone you already …

Metropolitan Report - August 2012, Division Of Business And Economic Research, College Of Business Administration, University Of New Orleans

UNO Metropolitan Report (1986-2017)

No abstract provided.

Papers Resulting From Research Conducted At Arapaho Prairie, Arthur County, Nebraska, Kathleen H. Keeler, Sue Ann Gardner, Scott Lyell Gardner

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

The Nature Conservancy owns Arapaho Prairie, a 1,298-acre property in Arthur County, in western Nebraska.

On the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Cedar Point Biological Station, Habitats Web page (available at http://cedarpoint.unl.edu/research/habitats/index.shtml), Arapaho Prairie is described: “Arapaho Prairie [is] home to numerous experiments that have shaped our understanding of nature. … Arapaho Prairie, owned by the Nature Conservancy, is two square miles of ungrazed sandhills prairie in Arthur County. It is managed by Cedar Point and was purchased expressly for our researchers and courses. There is a …

Juvenile Delinquency: An Investigation Of Risk Factors And Solutions., Lauren Cardoso

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This article proposes that educational and community based programs can help juveniles stay away from crime and prevent recidivism. A presentation of federal and state statistics, along with an analysis of the risk factors for delinquency, will be provided in order to illustrate the important areas that should be addressed in successful programs. Testimonies, including personal interviews with those who have experience working at the RI Training School, DCYF, Boys' Town, Child and Family Services will be shared as evidence of the research found. Finally, recommendations based on the findings will be proposed.

The Prevention Of Victory: How The U.S. Government Crippled Support For The Iraq War, Jacob M. Petrarca

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

A history of how the beginning stages of the War in Iraq were handled so poorly, from its misleading onset to the ill-fated concept of De-Ba'athification and the horrors at Abu-Ghraib and how the subsequent public out lash led to the impossibility for a positive outcome.

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Spaced Trial Fading On Skill Acquisition: An Analysis Of Transfer Of Stimulus Control, Amanda Nicole Zangrillo Psyd

All Student Scholarship

The purpose of this study was to assess efficacy of spaced trial fading procedures on skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control. Specifically, 3 participants were each taught a set of skills identified from the ABLLS or VB-MAPP. Each set of skills was randomly assigned to a no spaced-trial treatment group or spaced trial fading treatment group. In addition, maintenance and generalization probes were conducted following mastery to assess skill acquisition and transfer of stimulus control 1 week following treatment.

Operational Guidance For Bicycle-Specific Traffic Signals In The United States, Christopher Monsere, Miguel A. Figliozzi, Sam Thompson, Kirk Paulsen

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

The research consisted of two phases: 1) a synthesis of practice and 2) and analysis of cyclist performance characteristics. The synthesis of current practice reviewed the literature, current engineering design and operational guidance documents, and surveyed the jurisdictions about their current deployments of bicyclespecific signals. This report summarizes research of cyclist behavior at signalized intersections in Portland, Eugene, Corvallis, Beaverton and Clackamas County, OR. These signals had both bicycle-specific indications and vehicle-only signals. A total of 4,673cyclists were observed. For each cyclist observed arriving on red, a set of descriptive variables were collected (e.g., age, sex, helmet use, presence of …

Agricultural Disaster Assistance, Bradley D. Lubben

Cornhusker Economics

This issue is the second in a series addressing current drought conditions, economic impacts and resources for Nebraska agriculture.

Making Good Management Choices During A Time Of Crisis, Matthew Stockton

Cornhusker Economics

This issue is the third in a series addressing drought conditions, economic impacts and resources for Nebraska agriculture.

Estimating Willingness To Pay For Continued Use Of Plastic Grocery Bags And Willingness To Accept For Switching Completely To Reusable Bags, Jarod Dunn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis demonstrates a surveying method to collect data to obtain tax levels for plastic grocery bag usage. This data was collected through asking respondents about a hypothetical situation in which they were required to pay a tax for using plastic bags or whether they would instead switch to using reusable bags that could be purchased at the grocery store. The respondents were also asked if they already were using reusable bags, how much would the store have to pay them for them to use reusable bags for all grocery shopping trips. From our analysis, people who use reusable bags …

Juvenile Drug Court: Predictors Of Graduation And Non-Graduation Status, Joshua D. Hoyt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Joshua Hoyt and Dr. David Stein at Utah State University evaluated the differences between juvenile drug court participants who graduate and don’t graduate from the juvenile drug court program in Idaho. Joshua Hoyt and Dr. David Stein coordinated this project with Scott Ronan, Idaho Supreme Court felony sentencing alternative specialist. Dr. David Stein has significant experience in conducting research projects centering on drug courts and will be assisting Joshua Hoyt in the implementation of this thesis project. Further, Scott Ronan has significant experience in working with the juvenile drug court program and has access to data that were used in …

Family Members' Support Approaches Toward Veterans Exhibiting Symptoms Of Ptsd: A First Step Toward Validating The Inconsistent Nurturing As Control Theory Scale, Danielle M. Reed

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study was an initial step toward validating a new quantitative measure, the Inconsistent Nurturing as Control Theory (INCT) Scale, designed to quantitatively operationalize the INCT and assess whether functional family members take a controlling, nurturing, or inconsistent support approach to deal with their veteran’s PTSD behavior. Functional family members (88%) indicated that their veteran relative exhibited signs indicative of PTSD, using the PTSD Checklist (PCL-M). The INCT Scale was then used to determine which support approach family members used to deal with their veteran’s behavior. Results indicated that question items on nurturing and controlling yielded .70 or above internal …

Perceived Anxiety Control And The Contribution Of Gender In Social Anxiety Symptoms Within Latinos, Delia Yazmin Villarreal

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

This study examined the severity of social anxiety symptoms and levels of perceived anxiety control in a Latino sample. It explored how perceived control, over anxiety-provoking events and reactions to those events, contributed to social anxiety symptoms of social interaction fears and performance fears. Potential gender effects were also examined. Gender differences for fear of performance and for levels of perceived anxiety control were found. However, no gender difference was found for social interaction fears. In general, men reported higher levels of perceived anxiety control than women. Low perceived anxiety control significantly correlated with higher social interaction fears and performance …

Comparisons Of Emotional Reactivity In Two Variations Of Schedules Of Reinforcement, Mayra A. Aguillon

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

Operant conditioning is a type of learning in which the frequency of behavior is affected by its consequences (Powell, Symbaluk & Honey 2009).The main focus of the study was to compare two different schedules of reinforcement: gradual group versus the abrupt group (FI-20 sec).Both groups were used to observe emotional reactivity in 8 Sprague Dawley female rats from the Behavioral Neuroscience lab at UTPA. The hypothesis presented was that animals will reveal less emotional reactivity in the gradual than in the abrupt. According to Skinner, behavior is affected more by the consequence that is followed. Results suggested that the abrupt …

Mental Health Factors That May Contribute To Sexual Functioning, Monique Tenay Cano

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The present study investigated the relationship between mental health factors— depression, dysfunctional eating habits, and sexual abuse trauma—and sexual dysfunction. Sexual dysfunction was measured with The Sexual History Form (Nowinski & LoPiccolo, 1979 as cited in Davis, Yarber, Bauserman, Schreer, & Davis, 1998), a self report questionnaire. Depression was measured with the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D Scale) (Radloff, 1977). Dysfunctional eating habits were measured by the Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q 6.0) (Fairburn & Beglin, 2008). Sexual abuse trauma was measured by a subtest—the Sexual Experiences Short Form Version Victimization—of the Sexual Experiences Survey (Koss et al., …

The Patrol Scheduling Problem, Hoong Chuin Lau, Aldy Gunawan

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper presents the problem of scheduling security teams to patrol a mass rapid transit rail network of a large urban city. The main objective of patrol scheduling is to deploy security teams to stations at varying time periods of the network subject to rostering as well as security-related constraints. We present a mathematical programming model for this problem. We then discuss the aspect of injecting randomness by varying the start times, the break times for each team as well as the number of visits required for each station according to their reported vulnerability. Finally, we present results for the …

Toward Large-Scale Agent Guidance In An Urban Taxi Service, Agussurja Lucas, Hoong Chuin Lau

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Empty taxi cruising represents a wastage of resources in the context of urban taxi services. In this work, we seek to minimize such wastage. An analysis of a large trace of taxi operations reveals that the services’ inefficiency is caused by drivers’ greedy cruising behavior. We model the existing system as a continuous time Markov chain. To address the problem, we propose that each taxi be equipped with an intelligent agent that will guide the driver when cruising for passengers. Then, drawing from AI literature on multiagent planning, we explore two possible ways to compute such guidance. The first formulation …

(Hidden) Social Influences In Switching Mobile Service Platforms, Virpi K. Tuunainen, Tuure Tuunanen, Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

During the past few years, the mobile industry has gone through a radical change from business focusing on excellence in device manufacturing and supply chain management to ecosystems around successful focal players, such as Apple and Google, controlling these service platforms. In order to compete in this environment, these firms need to understand what makes a consumer switch between these mobile service platforms. To that end, we conducted an inductive qualitative study with university students from Finland and USA as subjects (142 altogether), delving into how and why consumers switch mobile phones, and what are the factors affecting their decisions. …

German Pows, Biopolitics, & The Piney Woods: Using Foucault To Analyze Resistance At Camp Shelby's Pow Camp During World War Ii, Patricia Lynn Miller-Beech

Master's Theses

Few people realize that during World War II, Camp Shelby in south Mississippi was a detention site for German prisoners of war (POWs) where the United States government engaged in reeducation efforts to de-Nazify soldiers in order to create a democratic Germany after the war. The U.S. War Department hoped the success of this program would create allies and prevent another war in the future. Despite the reeducation program being in all POW camps in the U. S., Camp Shelby was distinctive due to the racial politics of Mississippi during the height of the Jim Crow era. It is also …

Single Liquid-Liquid Extraction Of Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol And 11-Nor-Carboxy-Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol At An Acidic Ph, Meghan Ann Tanner

Master's Theses

Because of the high occurrence of marijuana usage in the workplace and in driving under the influence cases, it is important to test for both delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in order to determine current and recent usage. The laboratory preparation and analysis of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA in urine should be as cost and time efficient as possible. Current extraction of delta-9-THC and delta-9-THCA from urine requires two separate techniques for each. Because delta-9-THC is nonacidic, while delta-9-THCA is acidic, the extractions involve two separate pH levels, while GC/MS analysis requires two separate methods. This separation requires a great deal of time …

The Better-Than-Average Effect In Hong Kong And The United States: The Role Of Personal Trait Importance And Cultural Trait Importance, Kim-Pong Tam, Angela K. Y. Leung, Young-Hoon Kim, Chi-Yue Chiu, Ivy Yee-Man Lau, Al K. C. Au

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

People tend to make self-aggrandizing social comparisons on traits that are important to the self. However, existing research on the better-than-average effect (BTAE) and trait importance does not distinguish between personal trait importance (participants’ ratings of the importance of certain traits to themselves) and cultural trait importance (participants’ perceptions of the importance of the traits to the cultural group to which they belong). We demonstrated the utility of this distinction by examining the joint effects of personal importance and cultural importance on the BTAE among Hong Kong Chinese and American participants. Results showed that the BTAE was more pronounced for …

Examining The Complications Of Global Energy Governance, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article systematically examines fundamental obstacles to effective and efficient global energy governance. The first part of the article defines and conceptualises governance, global governance and global energy governance. It also explores the existing global energy governance architecture, depicting six types of global energy governor – intergovernmental organisations, summit processes, international non-governmental organisations, multilateral financial institutions, regional organisations that involve two or more countries as members and hybrid entities – and a sample of 42 such institutions and organisations currently operating around the world. The second part of the article corrects some emerging misconceptions about global energy governance: that effective …

The Geographies Of Religious Conversion, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The paper reviews the corpus of research that attempts to explain the process of religious conversion, and explores the ways in which geographers can add new perspectives to the discourse. It argues that religious conversion is a phenomenon that goes beyond the reorientation of individual belief, and is instead a process of change that involves the (re)definition of self and other. Five conceptual frames are proposed - (1) conversion of space; (2) spaces of conversion; (3) spaces of negotiation; (4) the (im)mobile convert; and (5) the (dis)embodied convert - which are used to help define the geographies of religious conversion.