Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Evaluating The Relationship Between Middle Eastern Governments And Political Opposition Groups, Estee Ward, Dr. Donna Lee Bowen

Journal of Undergraduate Research

There is a growing consensus among scholars that “social science research on the Middle East has, as of yet, scarcely dealt with political opposition as an independent subject of analysis.” Most scholars consider the role of opposition as one way to facilitate the growth of democracy in developing states. They find a good starting point with the concept of alternance, which is defined as the expectation that in a democracy government and opposition compete to gain public support to form a government. In liberal democracies, alternance allows various parties the opportunity to become the higher authority through free and fair …

Economy, Democracy And Its Reflection On Presidential Rhetoric, Damian Rosas, Dr. Darren Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Political rhetoric in Latin America has reflected the trends that different countries in the region have experienced during their democratic history. There are several factors that may influence the contents and attitudes towards democracy of presidential speeches. The most influential factor is likely to be the economic situation of the country. In an effort to integrate the economic and political knowledge that I acquired as an International Relations major I developed my research project in an interaction of these two disciplines.

Security In South Africa: The Perceptions Of Women, B. Macrae Mcdermott, Dr. Valerie Hudson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I recently completed the data collection portion of the research project entitled “Security in South Africa: The Perceptions of Women.” With the aid of my faculty mentor, I developed a mixed method, ethnographic field study in order to gain a greater understanding of women’s perceptions of safety and security in South Africa. From May through November 2010, I lived in East London, Eastern Cape, South Africa in order to conduct this study.

The Effect Of Sex And Race On Letter Responses From The U.S. Congress And State Legislatures, Josephine Borich, Dr. Chris Karpowitz

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Because of changing demographics in the United States, the way legislators respond to minority constituents and to women is becoming more important. My ORCA grant focused on the relationship between constituents who ask immigration related questions to federal and state legislators through letters.

Does Donor Transparency Matter In Foreign Aid?, Zarchary Christensen, Dr. Daniel Nielson

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Development scholars are currently debating whether or not the trillions of dollars given as foreign aid to developing countries have done any good. Some donors have heeded the contested advice from some scholars to reduce the amounts of aid they give to poorly governed countries. Now, many development advocates have begun challenging the quality of governance in donor agencies themselves. One of the biggest complaints is that donors are not transparent enough about their activities. My research seeks to measure the effects of donor transparency on recipient countries.

An Observation Of Public Behavior Among Ecuadorian Orphans, Emily Miller, Dr. Charles Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Identity within a social structure is easily analyzed when found in a culturally traditional setting. However, when physical and mental handicaps, parental figure transience, and varying levels of familial contact become factors the social structure and the roles within that structure are not as easily defined. Research for this study was performed at an Ecuadorian orphanage where many of the children have mental and physical handicaps and where the adults they interact with change quite frequently. Based on this study, it can be concluded that a child’s role within this society and the type of interactions that child has with …

Aboriginal Cultural Resilience: A Community Ethnography In Utopia, Jaren Meldrum, Dr. Todd L. Goodsell

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Most rural indigenous communities in Australia have an abnormally high frequency of tobacco and alcohol use, domestic violence, and gambling, the prevalence of which can be seen as a result of an anomic loss of cultural identity in the postcolonial era (O’Connor 1984; Johnston and Thomas 2008). Decades of national-level statistics describe a shorter life expectancy, less education, and an overall decreased quality of life for indigenous Australians compared to their non-indigenous peers. Recently, the issue of Australian Commonwealth policy to close the “Aboriginal achievement gap” has gained increased attention, particularly due to Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s 2008 landmark “Sorry …

Community Development In Rural Mexico: Observations On Leadership And Community, Matthew Cox, Dr. Ralph Brown

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Within the field of community development, there are various opinions of what qualities or characteristics define a developed community. Each of these definitions varies depending on the academic or professional sector in which it is found. This research began based on the hypothesis inherent in Flora and Flora’s Community Capitals Framework (CCF), which posits that a community’s connections to resources such as people, organizations, and physical resources within seven capital areas endows it with greater potential for development. Therefore, this research attempted to outline the connections present in a handful of rural communities in central Mexico, in order to determine …

The Growth Of Women’S Clinics And Hospital Based Women’S Services 1980-2000, Jessica Callahan, Dr. Marie Cornwall

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The 1960s showed marked improvements in the realm of decreasing the inequality gap between men and women. However, in the area of healthcare, women felt that there was a disconnect between themselves and the way that their bodies were being treated. Doctors spent little time with their patients and did not believe in sharing vital health information with their patients; doctors often thought that if they did so, their patients would fantasize health problems that they did not actually have as side effects of treatment (Morgen 2002).

Defining And Measuring Infant Habituation, Denise Free, Dr. Ross Flom

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Although we arguably know very little about the actual process of infant habituation, in assessing infant conditioning, controlled habituation is the procedure used most often. It may be that how infants habituate could vary as a function of their age. In addition a perceived “inability” at one age may reflect instead an incomplete period of familiarization or habituation. Most studies have used the same criterion for infants of different ages, and it may be more appropriate to vary the criterion of habituation or familiarization as a function of infant age.

The Mediated Effects Of Moral Identity On Religiosity And Prosocial Behaviors, David Rackham, Dr. Sam Hardy

Journal of Undergraduate Research

The proposed project sought to examine moral identity as a mediation of relations between religiosity and positive and negative behaviors among emerging adults. Upon receipt of the ORCA grant in February 2010, Dr. Hardy and I began the data analysis. The analysis was performed on a large (n=3,000) national data set of college age students. It was hypothesized that moral identity will be found to be a significant mechanism of religiosity and various outcome variables. Originally, structural equation modeling was going to be used to test a model whereby moral identity is a mediator of relations between religious commitment and …

Market Defending Medicine: When Physicians And Midwives Compete For Patients, Angelyn Fairchild, Dr. Joseph Price

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Patients trust that their medical provider will help them receive the best care possible even when this may involve referring them to another provider. However, transferring patients to other providers represents a transfer of income between the health care providers, thus creating a strong profit incentive for physicians to retain patients in their care. In order to examine how physicians respond to competitive threats to their income, we exploit changes in insurance laws that increased competition in the market for labor and delivery by expanding policies to cover midwives as well as physicians.

The Absent God: Do Implicit Biases Influence Current Prayer Research?, Chase O'Gwin, Dr. Brent Slife

Journal of Undergraduate Research

In a recent article Dr. Slife and Reber (2009) make an argument that there is a pervasive bias against theism in psychological research. They state that in the effort to remain neutral towards religious thinking, including Christian theism, the science of psychology has become implicitly biased. This bias is masked by an attempt at neutrality; psychologists assume that God is not required in science, but if a theist wishes to insert a God, nothing is changed. The implicit bias against theism is made manifest because for the theist God is required in all things, and when science informs the theist …

An Evaluation Of The Clinical Use Of Phenytoin For Preventing Early Post-Traumatic Seizures In Traumatic Brain Injury Patients, Sierra Debenham, Dr. Erin Bigler

Journal of Undergraduate Research

I evaluated the Montreal General Hospital’s use of the anti-seizure medication phenytoin in all traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients admitted to the hospital over the course of 2 years. I then evaluated the information to evaluate how effective the phenytoin treatment was in preventing early TBI.

Medical Pluralism And Women’S Health: Ayurveda And Allopathy In A Changing Andhra Pradesh, Rachel Owen, Dr. John Hawkins

Journal of Undergraduate Research

My research took place in Andhra Pradesh, South India, in Vishakhapatnam, or Visag, for short. I studied the interaction between Allopathy (Allopathy is one of the terms used to describe western medicine, or biomedicine) and Ayurveda(Ayurveda is the traditional Hindu medicine system used in India for over 2000 years). I was originally interested in how this interaction affected midwives and pregnant mothers in the small fishing village on the edge of the city. As with most ethnographic, qualitative research, my focus changed during the first few weeks as challenges presented themselves and I had to adapt based on the resources …

We Are Widows, We Are Women: On The Oral Histories Of Low-Caste Indian Widows And How They Maintain A Sense Of Self In The Face Of Social Role Change, Suzanne Powell, Dr. Charles W. Nuckolls

Journal of Undergraduate Research

As a student of anthropology, my ORCA grant enabled me to work on analyzing and writing up my results from a field study trip I took during the Fall 2009 semester to Visakhapatnam, India. My study focused on collecting oral histories of Hindu windows living in a fishing village just outside of the city limits. While there, I focused on understanding their lives previous to and after widowhood, what being a widow meant in that society, and how they felt about and reacted to the changes that came into their lives with the deaths of their husbands.

Academic Salary Compression: Are You In Danger?, Jeff Sorensen, Dr. James Mcdonald

Journal of Undergraduate Research

Salary compression is common in many fields with high demand for or low supply of a specific type of labor. In order to attract new recruits in such fields, employers sometimes must offer them wages higher than those of more senior employees. Unlike in most labor markets, there is evidence that returns to seniority for college professors are negative. Ransom (1993), along with many others, found a negative correlation between the number of years at the university and salary after controlling for total workforce experience, research activity, and other variables. He developed a model in which universities act as a …

Evaluating The Impact Of Health Information Technology Resources On Quality Of Patient Care, Evans Thomas, Dr. Mark Showalter

Journal of Undergraduate Research

With issues ranging from controlling insurance availability and coverage to management of healthcare infrastructure and costs, healthcare is an inflationary topic of national debate today. Much of the publicized argument, such as the healthcare reform bill recently passed in Congress, has centered on how to restructure the reimbursement system in order to contain costs. However, within provider organizations the question also focuses on maintaining and improving patient welfare. Many in the healthcare industry believe that technological resources can also help healthcare providers to cut costs by automating complex, repetitive processes while improving quality of care. With this goal in mind, …

An Emergent Approach To Analogical Inference, Paul Thibodeau, Stephen J. Flusberg, Jeremy J. Glick, Daniel A. Sternberg

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

In recent years, a growing number of researchers have proposed that analogy is a core component of human cognition. According to the dominant theoretical viewpoint, analogical reasoning requires a specific suite of cognitive machinery, including explicitly coded symbolic representations and a mapping or binding mechanism that operates over these representations. Here we offer an alternative approach: we find that analogical inference can emerge naturally and spontaneously from a relatively simple, error-driven learning mechanism without the need to posit any additional analogy-specific machinery. The results also parallel findings from the developmental literature on analogy, demonstrating a shift from an initial reliance …

Diffusion Of Innovation Across A National Local Health Department Network: A Simulation Approach To Policy Development Using Agent-Based Modeling, Mark Orr, Jacqueline Merrill

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

The network that local health officials use to communicate about professional issues is sparsely connected, which may limit the spread of innovative practices. We used agent-based simulation modeling to find out if a policy to promote more connections improved the network’s capability to diffuse innovation. We found that unanticipated effects could result, depending on the requirements of the policy and the proportion of health officials involved. With carefully crafted assumptions and reliable data it is possible to untangle complex processes using simulation modeling. The results represent how the world might actually work which may provide useful decision support for policymakers …

Community Health Assessment By Local Health Departments: Presence Of Epidemiologist, Governance, And Federal And State Funds Are Critical, Gulzar H. Shah, Barbara Laymon, Julia Joh Elligers, Carolyn Leep, Christine B. Bhutta

Frontiers in Public Health Services and Systems Research

Using the data from the National Association of County and City Health Officials’ (NACCHO) 2010 Profile of Local Health Departments (LHDs) our study investigates whether or not infrastructural characteristics of LHDs were associated with completion of community health assessment (CHA). Our results show that local and shared LHD governance, greater share of revenue from federal and state sources, smaller population size in LHD jurisdiction, and having an epidemiologist significantly increased the odds of CHA completion in the past, after controlling for community characteristics and other independent variables. These findings have important implications for LHDs, PHAB and its partners.

Outsized Profit Expectations Harm Education News, Richard E. Day

EKU Faculty and Staff Scholarship

It appears that former Herald-Leader and Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll was on to something when he predicted, in 2006, that outsized profit expectations in the newspaper industry would have a destructive effect on journalism. Seven years and several rounds of newsroom layoffs later — all in the service of maximized profits — its effects can be seen in education reporting on the [pages of the Herald-Leader].

Outsized Profit Expectations Harm Education News, Richard E. Day

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty and Staff Scholarship

It appears that former Herald-Leader and Los Angeles Times editor John Carroll was on to something when he predicted, in 2006, that outsized profit expectations in the newspaper industry would have a destructive effect on journalism. Seven years and several rounds of newsroom layoffs later — all in the service of maximized profits — its effects can be seen in education reporting on the [pages of the Herald-Leader].

Biofouling : A Means Of Aquatic Species Transfer, Anne Bouyssou, Josefin Madjidian

NSBWO

Ships carry seawater in their ballast tanks when they are not fully loaded with cargo, in order to maintain adequate trim, draught and stability, adjust list and limit stresses on the hull. It is now well documented that the water pumped into the ship contains aquatic organisms – which can also sink to the sediments at the bottom of tanks – and that these organisms are thereby transferred from the port of origin to the destination. But it is seldom mentioned that aquatic organisms are also found on the outside of ships, attached on their hulls and appendages, as a …

The Effect Of Household Financial, Time And Environmental Constraints On Very Low Food Security Among Children, Helen H. Jensen, Oleksandr Zhylyevskyy

University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research Discussion Paper Series

Food insecurity is detrimental to children’s well-being. A better understanding of factors contributing to low and very low food security among children in the United States can guide the design of food assistance programs. We analyze the effects of household characteristics and local food environment attributes, including food prices and availability of food stores and eating places, on children’s food insecurity. We also investigate the effects of these characteristics and attributes on food preparation time. Using Becker’s household production approach, we propose an economic model that formalizes the use of constrained financial and time resources in the household. The model …

2012-13 Arkansas Test Results, Michael L. Crouch, Gary W. Ritter

Policy Briefs

In early August, the Arkansas Department of Education (ADE) released the 2012-2013 test score results. The following brief will highlight the results of these tests, compare achievement scores over time, and provide a glimpse of regional achievement results for the following exams:  Benchmark Exam (Grades 3-8)  End-of-Course Exam (Algebra I, Geometry, Biology, and Grade 11 Literacy).  Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Grades 1-9)

Communiqué, August 12, 2013, Lindenwood University

Communiqué

The Communiqué was the faculty/staff newsletter for Lindenwood University/College from 1982 to 2016.

A Note On Pigs’ Knowledge Of Hidden Objects, Christian Nawroth, Mirjam Ebersbach, Eberhard Von Borell

Memory Collection

Object permanence is the notion that objects continue to exist even when they are out of observer’s sight. This ability is adaptive for free ranging animals who have to cope with a dangerous and highly changeable environment and allows them to be aware of predators sneaking in their proximity or to keep track of conspecifics or food sources, even when out of sight. Farm animals might also benefit from object permanence because the ability to follow the trajectory of hidden food or objects may lead to a higher predictability of subjects’ environment, which in turn might affect the level of …

Puppy Mill Closure: The Economic Impact On A Local Community, The Humane Society Of The United States

PUPPY MILL REPORTS

When a substandard dog-breeding facility (a puppy mill) closes, removing the dogs can drain the financial resources of a community, local animal welfare entities, and large humane organizations. Towns rarely derive any benefit from puppy mills, as they employ few staff, often don’t pay required taxes or license fees, generate much animal waste and pollution, and cause unpleasant odors and noise. Once a major puppy mill enterprise is discovered, many communities don’t have the necessary resources to handle the situation. Prevention is the key, and communities should discourage large scale breeding facilities from locating in their area.

Out Of The Night, Riley Gryc

SURGE

I did not graduate.

After four years of college, waiting for the day I could shake President Riggs’ hand, receive my diploma, and depart our campus with pride and honor, that day never came. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was watch from the back row of the audience as everyone I had attended school with for the last four years, my classmates, my friends, all received their diplomas and moved on without me. The stares from teachers I knew, the surprised looks from underclassmen, the careful tact with which everyone avoided the subject of not …