Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Serious Tourism And Consumer Preference For Sustainable Tourism Certifications, Richard Lacher

All Dissertations

Demand for sustainability oriented vacation options is on the rise as consumers become more aware of the negative effects that their travel may have on various destinations. Certifying tourism businesses as sustainable (much in the way organic food or fair trade coffee is certified) has been proposed as a means to ensure that ecotourism operations actually follow the principles of sustainable development. This study uses a serious tourism framework and a stated preference choice modeling approach to evaluate consumers' preferences for different types of sustainable tourism certifications. Additionally, willingness to pay (WTP) for different types for certifications is important so …

Sources Of Variance In Bite Count, Jenna Scisco

All Dissertations

The obesity epidemic affects millions of individuals worldwide. New tools that simplify efforts to self-monitor energy intake may enable successful weight loss and weight maintenance. The purpose of this study was to examine predictors of the number of bites recorded by the bite counter device during daily meals in natural, real world settings. Participants (N = 83) used bite counters to record daily meals for two weeks. Participants also recorded their daily dietary intake using automated, computer-based 24-hour recalls. Predictors of bite count were explored at the meal-level and individual-level using multilevel linear modeling. A positive relationship between kilocalories and …

Ambiguous Science And The Visual Representation Of The Real, Curtis Newbold

All Dissertations

The emergence of visual media as prominent and even expected forms of communication in nearly all disciplines, including those scientific, has raised new questions about how the art and science of communication epistemologically affect the interpretation of scientific phenomena. In this dissertation I explore how the influence of aesthetics in visual representations of science inevitably creates ambiguous meanings. As a means to improve visual literacy in the sciences, I call awareness to the ubiquity of visual ambiguity and its importance and relevance in scientific discourse. To do this, I conduct a literature review that spans interdisciplinary research in communication, science, …

Essays On Effects Of Illness And Supplemental Security Income On Employment, Sarmistha Pal

All Dissertations

The first and second chapters examine the disincentive effects of the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program's generosity on the employment decisions of prime age blind and/or deaf individuals. Using an individual-level model with state and time-fixed effects and the Difference-in-Difference method, I find only small impacts of an increase in monthly SSI benefits. Grouping all blind and deaf individuals together, the estimated impact of a $100 increase in monthly maximum SSI benefits (about a 17% increase) is only a 0.4 percentage point reduction in labor force participation. The estimated effects from separate analysis by demographic groups, however, suggest larger reductions …

Dispositional Resilience And Person-Environment Fit As Predictors Of College Student Retention, Melissa Waitsman

All Dissertations

As more students drop out of college and the cost of leaving school without a degree rises, it becomes increasingly critical to help match students to a school that will educate them and facilitate graduation. While the college student retention literature has formulated a number of ideas and theories about how this may be accomplished, the current study uses an idea from the psychological literature, person-environment fit, in order to understand the role of an individual's fit with their college environment on student success. The current study examines individual differences in resilience as well as those in preferences for the …

Transnational Leisure And Travel Experience Of Second-Generation Chinese-Americans, Wei-Jue Huang

All Dissertations

In the past, international migration often required immigrants to uproot themselves completely from their old society in order to build a new home, start a new life, and pledge allegiance to a new country. However, new transportation and communication technologies allow contemporary immigrants to live in two worlds and maintain virtual and physical contact with their homeland through leisure and tourism. The purpose of this study is to understand the lived experience of second-generation immigrants as they engage in transnational leisure activities and trips to their homeland, as well as explore the relationship between second-generation immigrants' transnational homeland attachment and …

They Were Framed! The Development And Validation Of Context-Specific Measures Of Individual Culture, Amber Schroeder

All Dissertations

Early personality research often described behavior in terms of individual dispositions or stable behavioral tendencies (Allport, 1937; Cattell, 1957; Guilford, 1959), thus taking a context-independent view of personality. However, a recent review of thousands of empirical studies illustrated that even seemingly superficial changes to contextual variables can have a large impact on study results (Richard, Bond, & Stokes-Zoota, 2003). Yet, the use of non-contextualized measures of individual culture still remains the norm in cross-cultural research. Thus, utilizing a sample of more than 1,000 participants across two studies, work and nonwork measures of two cultural variables (i.e., individualism and collectivism) were …

The Strength Of Hispanic Adolescents' Level Of Ethnic Identification And Their Parents' Level Of Self-Differentiation And Ethnic Identification To Predict Second Generation Hispanic Adolescents' Level Of Self-Differentiation, Nizel Fernandez

All Dissertations

During adolescents individuals develop many lasting features of their identity (Erikson, 1950, Bowen, 1978, Phinney, 1992, 1996, 2005) including the development of self-differentiation and multi-group ethnic identification. Bowen's (1978) theory of differentiation of self and Phinney's (Phinney, 1992) theory of multi-group ethnic identification provided the theoretical and measurement bases for the study. The purpose of this study was to examine the strength of Hispanic adolescents' level of multi-group ethnic identification and their parents' level of self-differentiation and multi-group ethnic identification in predicting second generation Hispanic adolescents' level of self-differentiation. One hundred two (102) Hispanic adolescents, ages 13 to 18, and …

The Relationship Between Changes In Business Structure And Tourism Growth And Development In Charleston, South Carolina, 1899-1999, Katharine Sparks

All Dissertations

The dissertation investigates how a medium-sized U.S. city (Charleston, SC) transformed itself from an old depressed port, with a predominance of manufacturing industries, to one that is a popular international tourist destination. The research seeks to answer the following questions:
* What urban processes have been most influential in shaping the tourism product?
* Can Butler's Tourism Area Life Cycle (TALC) model be used as a basis for measuring tourism growth in the Tourism Business District of a U.S. city?
* Is the change in a city's business structure related to the growth of the tourism industry?
* What measures …

Access, May 2012, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Access Magazine

No abstract provided.

Neighborhood Disadvantage And Perceptions Of Neighborhood As Predictors Of Aggression In Urban African American Youth: A Multilevel Analysis, Edna Y. Romero

Theses (1 year embargo)

The link between aggression and criminal activity in urban, low-income African American neighborhoods has resulted in many studies examining the predictive role of individual and neighborhood characteristics in the development of aggressive behaviors. Factors such as neighborhood violence, poverty, perceptions of neighborhood danger have consistently been linked to poor behavioral outcomes in urban youth (Colder, Mott, Levy, & Flay, 2000; Sampson, Raudenbush, & Earls, 1997), whereas perceptions of neighborhood cohesion have been associated with reduced externalizing behavior in children (Silk, Sessa, Sheffield Morris, Steinberg, & Avenevoli, 2004). The purpose of this paper was to examine, through the use of multilevel …

Microfinance: A Tool For Poverty Reduction?, Kirsten Leikem

Senior Honors Projects

I never expected my first experiences with course content related to my majors to be so traumatic. A young 19 year old, it seemed that every class I attended accosted me with the existence of yet another problem. War, government, education, climate change… The problems were massive and all seemed intractable. One particular “problem” that plagued me was global poverty; how could one billion people in this world live on less than one dollar a day? The theories were numerous, and the classroom discussion seemed a far cry from the reality of so many people living in extreme poverty. I …

American Propaganda, Popular Media, And The Fall Of Jacobo Arbenz, Zachary Carl Fisher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In June 1954, President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman of Guatemala resigned in the face of a coup led by Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas. While the United States publicly denied involvement, the coup was in fact the culmination of a plan called PBSUCCESS (CIA codeword), led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Although PBSUCCESS lived up to its namesake, it was aided (both intentionally and unintentionally) by various U.S. media outlets. For the duration of Arbenz Guzman's regime, he and his country had been the subject of U.S. suspicions of undue Communist and Soviet influence. A general anti-Communist attitude permeated virtually all …

A Flower Blooms In The Desert: Managing For Collaboration, Josphine Gatti Schafer

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This is a dissertation about local, regional and federal agencies charged with the development of parks, trails and natural areas in Southern Nevada. The context for the delivery of this service is a network. Networks are an increasingly common context for service delivery in the United States; however, their value for constituents has been questioned. Some suggest that the advantages of capacity building and social capital that are expected when organizations work across their typical boundaries are not as significant as expected. This dissertation provides knowledge to add to this debate.

The dissertation is an in-depth case study that evaluates …

Adaptive Behavior Malingering In Legal Claims Of Mental Retardation, Renee M. Kadlubek

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In 2002, the Supreme Court ruled that it is unconstitutional to put people with mental retardation to death for capital crimes (Atkins v. Virginia, 2002). Justice Scalia dissented, suggesting that mental retardation is a condition easy to feign. The current study examined whether participants provided with the definition of mental retardation and adaptive behavior ("informed malingering group") are any better at malingering having mental retardation than participants not provided with the definitions ("malingering group"). Three groups of participants participated in this study: the control group, the malingering group, and the informed malingering group. All participants completed an intellectual assessment and …

Measuring Spillover Effects Of Residential Amenity Improvements Using Spatial Hedonic Approach, Shruti Bishan Tandon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this dissertation is to develop a methodology for the estimation of the appropriate welfare benefits in the presence of spillover externalities. The ability to capture influences of the not so easily observed variables allow spatial lag models to measure the direct and indirect spillover effects. The direct effect measures the value of the property in question and the indirect captures the influences of neighboring properties, through a spatial multiplier effect.

Kim et al. (2003) through a path breaking approach estimated welfare benefits of air quality improvement. Their methodology captured spillover effects of amenity changes that lump both …

Perceptions Of Barriers That Inhibit African American Women And Adolescent Girls From Participation In Physical Activity, Sonya Daniels Walker

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the barriers to leisure time physical activity for African American women and their adolescent daughters. Six mother-daughter dyads were interviewed who have access to physical activity opportunity. Three of the dyads participated in a follow-up focus group. A qualitative research design that utilized a grounded theory approach identified two themes for the women and two themes for the girls. Themes for the women include influence of culture and low physical activity IQ. Sub-themes of influence of culture are (a) hair and (b) body image. Sub-themes of low physical activity IQ are (a) mommy guilt, (b) perception of …

A Study Of The Determinants Of Transfer Fees For French Ligue 1 Soccer Players, Reid Barrett Taylor

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In light of the increasing flow of millions of dollars into the sports industry during the last two decades, notably the international soccer market, the repercussions from the wave of economic activity have come under scrutiny by economists. In France alone, while the real Gross Domestic Product for the country has grown at an annualized rate of 2.75%, the soccer industry in France has experienced a 500% growth in ticket sales, 3,300% growth in sponsorship income, 122,000% increase in income from television contracts overall during the same time period (Bourg and Gouget, 2005). Sports have become such a pivotal facet …

Asia In The Middle East: The Internationalization Of Singapore Private Firms Into The Gcc, Caroline Yeoh, Wilfred How, Sharmaine Si Min Neo

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Reporter Gender On Print News Coverage Of The 2008 Dole–Hagan U.S. Senate Race In North Carolina, Courtney Hunt Munther

College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses

Four reporters covered the 2008 U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole and Democrat challenger Kay Hagan – two male and two female – all of whom worked for the same news organization. This study analyzed the coverage the four reporters produced about the Dole-Hagan race, looking specifically at story structure, topic selection, descriptive language used, tone and source selection. Due to study limitations, no clear relationships were established between reporter gender and the news coverage of the Dole-Hagan race that reporters produced.

Advisor: John Bender

Reclaiming The Sacred Within The Legal Pluralism Phenomenon: Ndigenous People's Rights Over Cultural Property, Angela Mae C. Buenafe

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Indigenous Peoples’ (IPs’) collective rights over their sacred and cultural properties are inherent human rights recognized in international declarations like the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN-DRIP) and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The incorporation of these international declarations’ standards within the United States (US) and Philippine federal laws conflicts with the attainment of Indigenous Peoples’ collective rights to protect and preserve Indigenous Peoples’ sacred cultural properties. Through a critical and Indigenous methodological framework of legal pluralism, this study describes how the Omaha sacred (medicine) bundle and the Ifugao sacred bulul …

Characterization Of The Vasotocin Receptor Subtype 4 (Vt4r) In The Brain And Pituitary Gland Of The Chicken, Gallus Gallus, Rajamani Selvam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the distribution of the vasotocin subtype four receptor (VT4R) in brain and pituitary gland of the chicken, Gallus gallus. The anterior pituitary cell types associated with the VT4R were also determined. Two polyclonal antibodies were raised in rabbit against a cocktail of peptides, 15 amino acids from the amino terminal region and 17 amino acids from the carboxy terminal region of VT4R receptor. The antibody was validated utilizing the Western blot and immunocytochemistry. A single band at 47KDa utilizing membrane protein extracts of chicken brain and pituitary tissues was shown for the VT4R antibody. A peptide …

News From Kazakhstan - Christians In Kazakhstan Take Position On Changes To Law On Religion, The Union Of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches In Kazakhstan

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The quarterly magazine Aquila (Oct-Dec. 2011) carried the following open letter in German translation. It is the communication arm of a relief organization, also named Aquila, begun in the 1980s, which maintains relief and missionary assistance for its partner churches in central Asia and Siberia, and also prints historical documents and reports for the Russian-Germans who emigrated from the USSR to Germany (1987-1993). The open letter, printed below, is unusual, but signals the degree to which legislation on religion in Kazakhstan that recently went into effect, also creates great concern among Evangelical Christian Baptist churches who have maintained a legal …

Two Open Letters From Hungary, David Baer

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Essays In Public Economics, Kathleen Player

All Dissertations

The first two chapters of this dissertation are closely related and pertain to small business reactions to income tax changes. The final chapter investigates the value consumers place on residential community associations.
Small businesses file taxes in accordance with the personal income tax code because they are considered flow-through entities. Thus, personal income tax reforms directly affect the incentives small business owners face regarding employment and operations. I use the changes in personal income-tax rates during the 1993 and 2001-2003 reforms and micro-level data to estimate the effect of statutory tax-rate changes on small-business employment decisions. I add two contributions …

An Examination Of The Relationships Between Autonomous Motivation And Situational Constraints With Job Attitudes, Intention To Leave, And General Stress: A Job Demands-Resources Approach, Kalifa Oliver

All Dissertations

The Job Demands- Resources (JD-R) model suggests that working conditions can be distinguished using two broad categories: job demands and job resources. This study examined the concurrent and longitudinal effects of perceived situational constraints (seen as a demand) and autonomous motivation (seen as a resource) on job attitudes, intention to leave, and general stress using an applied work setting. Data were collected by administrators at a midsized university campus over two time periods, separated by one year. Staff members were asked to complete an online survey that included a modified version of Ryan and Connell's (1989) Self-Regulation Scale for employees …

Applying Visual Attention Theory To Transportation Safety Research And Design: Evaluation Of Alternative Automobile Rear Lighting Systems, Scott Mcintyre

All Dissertations

This experiment applies methodologies and theories of visual search and attention to the subject of conspicuity in automobile rear lighting. Based on these theories, this experiment has four goals. First, it is proposed that current research methods used to investigate rear lighting are inadequate and a proposed methodology based on the visual search paradigm is introduced. Second, demonstrate that current rear lighting on automobiles does not effectively meet the stated purpose of regulators. Third, propose a more effective system for increasing the conspicuity of brake lamps. A fourth goal is to validate and extend previous simulator research on this same …

Hedonic Prediction And Likeability Effects In Evaluating Biodata For Selection, Peggy Tyler

All Dissertations

Employees involved in the selection process for new co-workers are conventionally thought to be acting as agents for the interests of the hiring organization. But do individuals act as effective surrogates or are they making emotional predictions about their own personal compatibility with a potential colleague that influence their subsequent judgments? Three interlinking studies examined this question. First, a meta-analysis of the relationship between likeability and hireability was conducted in order to determine the effect size for the relationship between likeability and hiring. A corrected effect size of .60 indicated that likeability was a substantial factor in hiring, but there …

The Influences Of Syndication On Broadcast Programming Decisions, Christina Whitehead

All Dissertations

Syndication is a major factor in the market for television programming. These papers analyze the effects of the off-network syndication market on prime time programming decisions that are made by broadcast networks. The first paper investigates the effects of the off-network syndication (rerun) market on the optimal number of seasons for a prime time television series. The theoretical model predicts that syndication could potentially either increase the number of seasons if the price elasticity of demand for syndication is elastic or vice versa. The empirical analysis consists of a duration model and estimates the effects of first run ratings and …

Nature-Based Recreationists' Perceptions Of Climate Change And Attitudes Towards Climate Change Mitigation In Natural Environments, Matthew Brownlee

All Dissertations

Novel biophysical impacts from a rapidly changing climate are influencing resources in many parks and protected areas that host nature-based recreation. In addition to climate impacts, renewable energy initiatives (e.g., wind farms) aimed to mitigate climate change are increasingly converging with nature-based recreation areas. Climate impacts and climate change mitigation efforts in nature-based recreation areas have the capacity to influence individual and collective experiences, attitudes, and potentially behaviors. However, little is known about nature-based recreationists' interactions with climate-influenced resources, and how these interactions may influence perceptions of climate change and attitudes towards mitigation efforts. This dissertation addresses this lack of …