Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

2013 Tsu Undergraduate Research Program, David Owerbach

Office of Research Institutional Research and Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Capturing Fire: Rxcadre Takes Fire Measurements To Whole New Level, Gail Wells

Joint Fire Science Program Digests

Models of fire behavior and effects do not always make accurate predictions, and there is not enough systematically gathered data to validate them. To help advance fire behavior and fire effects model development, the Joint Fire Science Program is helping fund the RxCADRE, which is made up of scientists from the U.S. Forest Service and several universities who orchestrate and collect data on prescribed burns in the southeastern United States. The RxCADRE-prescribed burns are yielding a comprehensive dataset of fire behavior, fire effects, and smoke chemistry and dynamics, with measurements taken systematically at multiple, cascading scales. RxCADRE data will help …

What Stick Figures Tell Us About Irish Politics, Sharon Feeney, John Hogan, Paul F. Donnelly

Conference papers

This paper forms part of an ongoing research project using the technique of freehand drawing to study how students entering university in Ireland perceive the state of Irish politics and the wider society. By sidestepping the cognitive verbal processing routes through the use of freehand drawing, we find that students tend to present a more holistic, integrated and clearer understanding of the pertinent issues from their perspective.

Don't Ask, Don't Tell: A History, Legacy, And Aftermath, Alexis Wansac

HIM 1990-2015

Though many believe some of the greatest military leaders of all time - from Alexander the Great to Julius Caesar - have engaged in sex acts with other males, and though certainly a very different political climate from that of ancient Greece or Rome, the United States military has historically never accepted homosexual sex acts within its own military, nor has the United States military accepted open homosexuals either until recently. This thesis focuses on the evolution of United States military policy towards homosexuals and the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (DADT) policy of the United States military in order to …

The Negative Feelings That People Want To Avoid: Cultural Differences And Consequences For Compassion, Birgit Koopmann-Holm

Psychology

Previous research has documented cultural differences in the positive states that people desire. Less research, however, has examined whether cultural differences exist in the negative states that people want to avoid feeling ("avoided negative affect"). Using a multimethod approach, we examined cultural differences between Americans and Germans in avoided negative affect and whether they are related to different responses to suffering, or compassion. In Study 1, using survey methods, we assessed whether avoided negative affect differs from related constructs, and based on an existing literature, tested our hypothesis that Americans want to avoid negative affect more than do Germans. As …

Effects Of Online Reputation Mechanisms On Perceived Credibility And Health Decision Making, Drew Link

All Theses

Reputation mechanisms and credibility are methods of adding additional information to forum posts, and are becoming more commonplace in online health forums. These systems provide users of forums additional information which can be used to evaluate the trustworthiness of the information being disseminated in community-run websites. The goal of the following studies is twofold. First, it is necessary to identify which elements of reputation systems and credibility participants use to make assessments of the trustworthiness, perceived credibility, and perceived accuracy of answers to health-related questions on a simulated web forum. Once the reputation mechanisms and credibility systems have been identified, …

Real Effective Exchange Rate And Unemployment Rate: The Difference Between Re-Exporting And Non-Re-Exporting Countries, Xiaolong He

All Theses

In this paper, I examine the relationship between unemployment rate and real effective exchange rate in several countries from 1994 to 2009. The analysis shows that most of countries have a negative relationship between those two factors, which implies increase of exchange rate can improve employment rate in an economy. However, re-exporting countries like the Netherlands, Singapore and Hong Kong has a less negative relationship than other countries. I hypothesize that those results are caused by the different elasticity of demand for imports.

Community Embeddedness And Core Self-Evaluations As Predictors Of Job Search And Stress During Unemployment: Perceived Employability As A Moderator, Lauren Ellis

All Theses

The loss of a job is a stressful life event that can cause people to lose economic stability, membership in a community, or a piece of their self-identity. Joblessness is an increasingly salient experience for American workers, as the national unemployment rate hovers between 8% and 9% (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). Existing research suggests that unemployment is related to decreased levels of wellbeing. In addition, there is support that job search behaviors are strongly related to self-esteem and that those behaviors can function as a coping mechanism to combat the stress experienced during unemployment.
In the current study, …

Empathy And Threatened Egotism In Men’S Use Of Violence In Intimate Relationships, Jessica H. Turner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study was undertaken to explore the relationship between self-esteem, narcissism, and empathy with intimate partner violence perpetration among men in 2 samples: college students and inmates. The sample was analyzed both as an aggregate and separately. A negative relationship was hypothesized between intimate violence perpetration and both self-esteem and empathy. A positive relationship was expected between intimate violence perpetration and narcissism. A 2-way interaction was examined between self-esteem and narcissism as a test of threatened egotism, defined as high self-esteem coupled with high narcissism, which was not expected in the current study. Empathy was hypothesized to moderate the …

Paying It Forward, Giving It Back: The Dynamics Of Mentoring, Jennifer A. Bartlett

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

This "New and Noteworthy" column focuses on selected recent literature concerning career mentoring in libraries.

Library Services For Creating And Publishing Student Research Journals, Adrian K. Ho

Library Faculty and Staff Publications

Theme: Planning and implementing student research journals

Highlighted Services: Journal consulting, publishing and technical support

Resources: Sample journal staff organization models, checklists to support planning, staffing, and production

Study Of Feasability For Phase Difference Extraction Using Software Defined Radio In Location Analysis, Paul Miller

Masters Theses

Here is a method for using the phase of an HF radio signal for use in location analysis. This computation is implemented in a software defined radio processing block in the GNU Radio environment. The signals analyzed are received by an Ettus Research USRP SDR. We created a phase analysis system called WMU Rootsync, which compares the roots of a received signal to the roots of a generated reference signal for the phase analysis. This research describes a prototype method for phase analysis only. Future projects may use these ideas differently than presented here. We intend for future projects to …

Nine Legends: Sketches Of Remarkable People Based On Personal Relationships, Thomas Vail

Cleveland Memory

During my 42 years in the newspaper business, 28 of them was spent as publisher and editor of The Plain Dealer in Cleveland Ohio, I was able to meet one on one with many world leaders, heads of state (including nine American presidents) and others of remarkable abilities.

The following personality sketches of some of the legendary figures I have met include a few geniuses as well. ...

I hope my readers will enjoy these personal observations about some of the people who have shaped events to a greater or lesser degree during the latter half of the 20th …

Charleston Contradictions: A Case Study Of Historic Preservation Theories And Policies, David Payne

All Dissertations

The philosophy, policies, and practices of historic preservation are currently struggling with how to incorporate Modern architecture, as many of these buildings are reaching the threshold to be considered historic. Since one of the movement's original goals was to counteract Modernism, it is ironic that many of the buildings initially opposed by historic preservation are now forcing the profession to consider their designation and preservation. The potential preservation of many of these buildings raises important philosophical and practical contradictions for the profession that require further study and resolution.
This study presents the results of a case study of three Modern …

Better Safe Than Sorry: Personality-Based And Overt Predictors Of Workplace Safety, Christine Pusilo

All Dissertations

The current study explores the role of selection in predicting workplace safety using an applied sample of applicants and incumbents in a grocery store chain located in the Southeastern United States. Namely, both personality-based and overt selection assessments, a distinction drawn from the integrity testing literature, were used to predict on-the-job safety performance and safety outcomes. Both types of assessments were hypothesized to predict two forms of safety performance (compliance and participation), which, in turn, were expected to predict both objective (i.e., work days missed, restricted work days, and micro-accidents) and subjective (i.e., near-miss, minor injuries, and musculoskeletal pain) safety …

Route Segment Level Analysis Of Bus Safety Incidents, James G. Strathman, Sung Moon Kwon

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper analyzes collision and non-collision incidents that occurred on TriMet’s bus system over a near two-year period. The bus route network was decomposed into stop and line haul segments, and a typology of models was estimated from segment level incident, risk exposure, and roadway feature data. The frequency of non-collision incidents – mainly slips, trips and falls – was estimated to be primarily related to associated risk exposure variables. The frequency of collision incidents was also estimated to be related to risk exposure variables, as well as a number of roadway design variables. The findings serve as an initial …

Demographic Changes In Developed And Developing Countries, Sarah Sax

All Theses

I will be observing demographic changes across both developed and developing countries and noting whether or not some developing countries follow the same trends as developed countries. This information can provide insight as to why some countries are so poor and help determine where to focus their attention in order to improve their standards of living. I will be performing a regional and country-specific analysis in order to determine which trends each developing country follows in accordance with the developed countries. I will suggest some policy solutions, which impoverished countries can use in order to improve their circumstances.

Afriat From Maxmin, John Geanakoplos

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Afriat’s original method of proof is restored by using the minmax theorem.

Identification And Estimation In Two-Sided Matching Markets, Nikhil Agarwal, William Diamond

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We study estimation and non-parametric identification of preferences in two-sided matching markets using data from a single market with many agents. We consider a model in which preferences of each side of the market are vertical, utility is non-transferable and the observed matches are pairwise stable. We show that preferences are not identified with data on one-to-one matches but are non-parametrically identified when data from many-to-one matches are observed. The additional empirical content in many-to-one matches is illustrated by comparing two simulated objective functions, one that does and the other that does not use information available in many-to-one matching. We …

Collateral Equilibrium: A Basic Framework, John Geanakoplos, William R. Zame

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Much of the lending in modern economies is secured by some form of collateral: residential and commercial mortgages and corporate bonds are familiar examples. This paper builds an extension of general equilibrium theory that incorporates durable goods, collateralized securities and the possibility of default to argue that the reliance on collateral to secure loans and the particular collateral requirements chosen by the social planner or by the market have a profound impact on prices, allocations, market structure and the efficiency of market outcomes. These findings provide insights into housing and mortgage markets, including the sub-prime mortgage market.

Optimal Sup-Norm Rates And Uniform Inference On Nonlinear Functionals Of Nonparametric Iv Regression, Xiaohong Chen, Timothy M. Christensen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper makes several important contributions to the literature about nonparametric instrumental variables (NPIV) estimation and inference on a structural function h0 and its functionals. First, we derive sup-norm convergence rates for computationally simple sieve NPIV (series 2SLS) estimators of h0 and its derivatives. Second, we derive a lower bound that describes the best possible (minimax) sup-norm rates of estimating h0 and its derivatives, and show that the sieve NPIV estimator can attain the minimax rates when h0 is approximated via a spline or wavelet sieve. Our optimal sup-norm rates surprisingly coincide with the optimal root-mean-squared rates for severely ill-posed …

Towards Decrypting Attractiveness Via Multi-Modality Cue, Tam Nguyen, Si Liu, Bingbing Ni, Jun Tan, Yong Rui, Shuicheng Yan

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Decrypting the secret of beauty or attractiveness has been the pursuit of artists and philosophers for centuries. To date, the computational model for attractiveness estimation has been actively explored in the computer vision and multimedia community, yet with the focus mainly on facial features. In this article, we conduct a comprehensive study on female attractiveness conveyed by single/multiple modalities of cues, that is, face, dressing and/or voice; the aim is to discover how different modalities individually and collectively affect the human sense of beauty.

To extensively investigate the problem, we collect the Multi-Modality Beauty (M²B) dataset, which is …

The Role Of Children In A Mixed-Socioeconomic Community Development Model: A Quantitative Study Of Grand Rapids, Michigan Housing Projects, Phillip R. Dawson

Master's Theses - Politics and Government

This thesis analyzes the relationship between parental social capital and child-based activities in public housing programs.

The Effect Of Value Congruence On Work Related Attitudes And Behaviors, Wing Man Leung

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Research has demonstrated that value congruence has the potential to influence work-related outcomes such as turnover intention (Amos & Weathington, 2008). However, few studies have evaluated the variables that may mediate the relationship between value congruence and work outcomes. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effects of job satisfaction and organizational commitment on the relationship between work value congruence and employee behaviors. An advertisement was placed on social networking websites to invite individuals to complete the questionnaire. The results revealed that job satisfaction and normative commitment mediated the relationship between work value congruence and turnover intention. …

Using Normative Messages And Incentives To Improve Organizational Performance, Anna L. Conard

Masters Theses

While social norms have been a popular area of study among social psychologists, they have yet to receive much consideration from an Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) standpoint. Much of OBM research has focused on consequences and the utilization of incentives to improve organizational performance. Such research has shown incentive systems to have sustaining, long-term effects on behaviors. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the impact of normative messages and lottery incentives on organizational performance. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: a) Standard Message with Lottery Incentive, b) Standard Message without Lottery Incentive, c) …

Is Being "Spiritual" Enough Without Being Religious? A Study Of Violent And Property Crimes Among Emerging Adults, Sung Joon Jang, Aaron B. Franzen

Faculty Publications

While prior research tends to confirm a negative association between religiousness and crime, criminologists have been slow to incorporate new concepts and emergent issues from the scientific study of religion into their own research. The self-identity phrase “spiritual but not religious” is one of them, which has been increasingly used by individuals who claim to be “spiritual” but disassociate themselves from organized religion. This study first examines differences in crime between “spiritual but not religious” individuals and their “religious and spiritual,” “religious but not spiritual,” and “neither religious nor spiritual” peers in emerging adulthood. Specifically, we hypothesize that the spiritual-but-not-religious …

Ledesma Guest Edits Award-Winning Journal Issue, Samantha Snively

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

Look For The Helpers, Susan E. Murray

Lake Union Herald

No abstract provided.

The Application Of Smart Phone, Weight-Mile Truck Data To Support Freight-Modeling, Performance Measures And Planning, Katherine E. Bell, Miguel A. Figliozzi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oregon is one of the few states that currently charge a commercial truck weight-mile tax (WMT). The Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) has developed a data-collection system – Truck Road Use Electronics (TRUE) – to simplify WMT collection. The TRUE system includes a smart phone application that collects and records Global Positioning System (GPS) data. The TRUE data has enormous advantages over GPS data used in previous research due to its level of geographic detail and the potential to also integrate trip origin and destination, vehicle class, and commodity-type data. This research evaluates the accuracy of the TRUE data and …

Multiple Motherhoods: An Examination Of Mother Status On Life Satisfaction And Psychological Distress, Kayla M. Pritchard

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Motherhood represents a status that has substantial cultural meaning. The ways in which people think about motherhood, however, tend to be limited to biology. Among partnered or married women, this study seeks to compare variations in motherhood by recognizing women as biological mothers, stepmothers, and double mothers. Double mothers are a previously unexamined category of motherhood that refers to women who are both biological and stepmothers. Using the National Survey of Fertility Barriers, I assess potential differences in life satisfaction and psychological distress across these three mother statuses and two types of non-mothers (voluntary childfree and involuntary childless women). Factors …