Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Tone System Of Acatepec Me'paa, Kevin Cline

Theses and Dissertations

The tone system of Me'phaa, an Otomanguean language (or group of languages) spoken in the eastern part of the state of Guerrero, Mexico, is quite complex, largely due to the complex agreement systems used with nouns and verbs. Aspects of the tone system have been described to some degree for the Malinaltepec and Azoyú varieties, but little has been documented about tone in other varieties. This thesis focuses on the tone system of a less-documented variety, Acatepec, with the goal of broadening the understanding of the tone systems of other Me'phaa varieties.

The thesis follows the methodology set forth in …

Toward A Further Understanding Of The Extensibility Of Sign Languages, Jason Hopkins

Theses and Dissertations

Sign language video recordings have limited extensibility when compared with live, face-to-face communication by signers. In an effort to improve the extensibility of video recordings this study explores the possibility of leveraging a common meaning negotiation technique, depictional signing, to increase understanding of recorded texts. In an effort to gauge the understanding of depictional signing compared to lexical signing a Recorded Text Test was devised using two texts, one with a high number of visual depictions, the other with a high number of lexical signs. While a comparison of the results of the two tests did not substantiate the hypothesis …

The Mouthing Of Verbs In Japanese Sign Language, Mark Penner

Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing four publicly available stories told by Japanese Deaf people, this paper shows that verbs are mouthed in natural Japanese Sign Language roughly 20% of the time, whereas other word classes are mouthed roughly 46% of the time. More than half of mouthed verbs are always or nearly always mouthed as one of their lexical properties. Abstract verbs tend to be mouthed more frequently than concrete verbs. When a Japanese Sign Language verb corresponds to a word that is not a verb in Japanese, it is far more likely to be mouthed. Verbs in headed relative clauses are mouthed whenever …

The Politics Of Fertility: Population And Pronatalism In Ladakh, Jennifer Aengst

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

In India’s northwestern region of Ladakh, the linkage between reproduction, politics, and fertility is both complicated and contested, evident in increasing population discourses and the re-emergence of a Buddhist pronatalist movement. This paper examines the impacts of population discourses and pronatalism on women’s reproductive decision-making, as well as on the delivery of healthcare throughout Ladakh. Population discourses currently circulating produce two reproductive subjects—the “hyper-fertile Muslim woman” and the “vulnerable Buddhist”—both of which have been central in revitalizing Buddhist pronatalism. Data collected through a hospital-based survey and interviews shows that fertility behavior is shaped by religious interpretations, political mobilization, and pressure …

Meaning And Spirituality In Adolescence : Practices And Perspectives Of School Counselors, Jill Elizabeth Schwarz

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Adolescence is a crucial life stage involving aspects of identity development and decision-making that have potential life-long consequences. Researchers have found that a sense of meaning and purpose is related to a number of beneficial factors during adolescence, including resilience, healthy self-esteem, academic engagement, and overall well-being. Spirituality is a main avenue through which many individuals find a sense of meaning and purpose and may be one of the mediating factors between adolescent meaning-making and well-being. Despite this knowledge, there is a lack of research involving the use of meaning-based counseling in the schools. There is also evidence that students …

Stereotype, Structure, And The Job Interview : Do Explanations Make A Difference?, Emily Fritzky

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Two Studies On Childhood Obesity: Effect Of Obesity On Academic Achievement And Effect Of Food Store Access On Diet Quality, Gaogao Yu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis includes two studies on childhood obesity. This first study investigates whether childhood obesity rates affect their academic achievement scores by using a school-level panel data set on Arkansas 4th and 6th grades. The main results indicate that childhood obesity rates do not significantly affect academic achievement scores. Controls for education inputs such as library volume, educational expenditures per student and teacher salary show consistently significant positive relationship to students' test scores in both whole sample and in subsample analyses by socio-economic and minority status. The second study examines the effect of a neighborhood food environment feature, specifically food …

The Material Culture Of Migrant Life At The U.S./México Border, Consuelo Helen Cano Crow

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Material culture is the aggregate of physical objects or artifacts used by or discarded by a past culture or society. Contemporary unauthorized migration at the U.S./México border has left thousands of pounds of migrant goods in what are referred to by United States Border Patrol as "lay-up sites". Since the late 1990's, undocumented migrants attempting to cross the Sonoran Desert of Arizona have been exposed to a distinctive set of material culture. This rapidly-evolving material culture is specific to the phenomenon of border-crossing, and it reflects and shapes the experience of migrants attempting the crossing. Migrants Stations, also known as …

The Effects Of The Bi-Partisan Campaign Reform Act On The Process Of The Campaign Finance In The Presidential Nomination Process, Karen Sebold

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act increased the individual donor limit to $2,000 per candidate per election and indexed the limit for inflation every two years. The primary research question guiding this study is how has the increase in the donor limit affected donor behavior. Answering this question should allow a determination to be made about how donors have responded to the increased donor limit. Understanding how donors responded to the doubled limit is important because it provides evidence on the intersection of wealth inequality and political influence. To answer the research question this study considers how the increased donor limit …

The Geographic And Social Distance In Finance, Liping Ma

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our research interests lie in studying the economic behavior, choices, and actions of individuals given their geographical and Social proximity to others, and analyze the consequences of such decisions to the financial health and survival of households, firms, and the macro economy. Network analysis and spatial econometrics take account of information spill-overs and constraints of behaviors as consequence of the geographical and Social distance between and among individuals. In this research, we apply those techniques to analyze aspects of corporate governance and explanations for the recent housing crisis.

The literature on principle-agent problems has devoted most of its attention to …

The Confounding Effects Of Ability, Item Difficulty, And Content Balance Within Multiple Dimensions On The Estimation Of Unidimensional Thetas, Ki Lynn Matlock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

When test forms that have equal total test difficulty and number of items vary in difficulty and length within sub-content areas, an examinee's estimated score may vary across equivalent forms, depending on how well his or her true ability in each sub-content area aligns with the difficulty of items and number of items within these areas. Estimating ability using unidimensional methods for multidimensional data has been studied for decades, focusing primarily on subgroups of the population based on the estimated ability for a single set of data (Ackerman, 1987a, 1989; Ansley & Forsyth, 1985; Kroopnick, 2010; Reckase, Ackerman, & Spray, …

Initial Development And Validation Of The Mexican Intercultural Competence Scale, Lucas Torres

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The current project sought to develop the Mexican Intercultural Competence Scale, which assesses group-specific skills and attributes that facilitate effective cultural interactions, among adults of Mexican descent. Study 1 involved an exploratory factor analysis (N = 184) that identified 5 factors including Ambition/Perseverance, Networking, the Traditional Latino Culture, Family Relationships, and Communication. In Study 2, a confirmatory factor analysis provided evidence for the 5-factor model for adults of Mexican origin living in the Midwest (N = 341) region of the United States. The general findings are discussed in terms of a competence-based formulation of cultural adaptation and include …

Contesting Sustainability: Bikes, Race, And Politics In Portlandia, Amy Lubitow, Thaddeus R. Miller

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite decade old calls for a "just sustainability," urban sustainability policy and practice remains oriented toward environmental outcomes and eco-lifestyle projects. Notions of equity, justice, and inclusion continue to be marginalized in favor of technological solutions, such as green buildings, that are visible, easy to implement, and help to promote economic development. By examining a controversy over a bikeway development project in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood in Northeast Portland, Oregon, this article explores how despite apolitical appeals to broadly shared values or visions of what a sustainable city ought to look like, sustainability projects can be—and perhaps should be—hotly contested. …

Introduction To Gis Using Open Source Software, 4th Ed, Frank Donnelly

Open Educational Resources

This tutorial was created to accompany the GIS Practicum, a day-long workshop offered by the Newman Library at Baruch College CUNY that introduces participants to geographic information systems (GIS) using the open source software QGIS. The practicum introduces GIS as a concept for envisioning information and as a tool for conducting geographic analyses and creating maps. Participants learn how to navigate a GIS interface, how to prepare layers and conduct a basic geographic analysis, and how to create thematic maps. This tutorial was written using QGIS version 1.8 "Lisboa", a cross-platform (Windows, Mac, Linux) desktop GIS software package.

Protecting And Promoting Traditional Knowledge: A Tool For Economic Development In The Pacific, Douveri Mavaru Henao

Pacific Studies

With dwindling natural resource receipts for pacific government coffers, developing alternative revenue sources and economic activities is paramount. One sector that may provide sustainable revenue flows, a high participation rate of Pacific Islanders, and stable market demand is the utilization of the traditional knowledge (TK) sector. Significant challenges remain in establishing a stable and predictable policy and legal framework in which operators can confidently commercialize TK products. However, as will be seen in this paper, governments in the Pacific have taken the bold step to do this, which proves that there are opportunities beyond fish, rocks, and timber in Oceana.

Challenges Of Copyright Laws For Education In A Fiji University, Shareeni Kala, Ruwani Somaratne

Pacific Studies

Globalization poses new questions regarding the relation between copyright law and education. In an Information Communication Technology (lCT) environment, a key issue is how education can best benefit from the educational resources available while still observing laws such as copyright. Changing trends and the digitalization of resources has added new challenges in the area of education, especially in the Pacific Island Countries. The use of Internet search, online database, and electronic resources has grown with the advancement of these technologies. This paper illustrates some of the challenges that exist in smaller nations such as Fiji, by reporting on some empirical …

Regulation Of Access To Genetic Resources And Associated Traditional Knowledge: Approaches And Challenges In The South Pacific, Yuri Suzuki

Pacific Studies

Regulatory frameworks regarding access to genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge (TK) with access and fair and equitable benefit sharing (ABS) are of international significance because of their social, economic, and cultural implications for local communities in general and the South Pacific countries in particular. This has led to development of an international regime specifically addressing ABS and to regional and national initiatives in countries including Vanuatu. The main aim of this paper is to examine the current position of regulatory frameworks that address the issue of access to genetic resources and associated TK in Vanuatu. This paper will highlight …

The Application Of Geographic Information Technology And Ground-Penetrating Radar In The Study Of The Evolution Of The Charles River Basin, Lars E. Anderas

Graduate Masters Theses

A two-part study was conducted on the evolution of the shoreline of the Charles River basin on a city-wide scale as well as in finer detail in Magazine Beach Park, along the Cambridge shore of the river. Both parts of the study utilized geographic information technology (GIT) to integrate and analyze data from modern and historical sources, including maps, digital elevation models (DEMs), and orthographic and oblique photography. The city-scale portion of the study produced estimates of the total area of new land made within the study area since Boston's founding in 1630, 14.3 km², of which 6.5 …

Staffing And Organizational Assessment Of The Public Works Department Of The Town Of Watertown, Ma, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

This report presents the results of the management assessment of the Watertown Public Works Department (the “Department”) conducted by the Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston (“the Center”). This first section introduces the analysis, outlining principal objectives and how the analysis was conducted, and it offers a summary of the recommendations described in detail later in the document.

The project team conducted a comprehensive organizational and management analysis of the Department’s existing operations, service levels, infrastructure management, organizational structure, and staffing levels.

The Effects Of Foreign Direct Investment And Official Development Assistance On The Human Development Index In Africa, Christina R. Tamer

Graduate Masters Theses

Africa is a changing continent. Although it is home to some of the world's most impoverished nations, over the last ten years Africa has seen tremendous economic growth and many organizations contributing to this change. International development organizations and governments alike are seeking the best ways in which to accelerate these accomplishments to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. As such, this study seeks to update the literature on the effects that two of the largest foreign funding mechanisms have on the development of the continent. Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to the continent reached $42 billion dollars in 2011, while …

A Phenomenological Investigation Into The Self-Efficacy Beliefs Of Teachers Who Have Persisted In The Teaching Profession, Shana Market Norton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study investigated the lived experiences of 12 secondary school teachers from public secondary schools in northern Georgia regarding their feelings about self-efficacy and why they have persisted in the teaching profession. The research questions centered around their perceptions on how self-efficacy influences the academic achievement of their students, on what personality characteristics they feel teachers add to their positive or negative self-esteem in teaching, and on what factors they identify as influencing their professional self-efficacy in teaching. Teacher self-efficacy, the belief in oneself to succeed at completing a task, is a key factor in retaining teachers. Four data …

Insulin, Central Dopamine D2 Receptors, And Monetary Reward Discounting In Obesity, Danuta M. Gredysa

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Let There Be Light! Indexing Items From Digital Commons In Apache Solr Via Oai-Pmh, Graham Hukill

Library Scholarly Publications

To increase visibility and discoverability of assets in our Digital Commons repository, we have created a fully automated, regularly scheduled utility that, using the OAI-PMH protocol, indexes items from Digital Commons in the powerful, open-source search platform Apache Solr. Indexing metadata of items from Digital Commons allows us to support cross-collection, cross-database, and cross-platform searching for our patrons by integrating Digital Commons search results in library created search interfaces. This poster will provide a brief overview of Solr, outline the mechanics of this utility, and suggest how other institutions could harness this technique.

Parenting And Attachment Among Low-Income African-American And Caucasian Preschoolers, Casey A. Dexter, Kristyn Wong, Ann M. Stacks, Marjorie Beeghly, Douglas Barnett

Psychology Faculty Research Publications

Despite a plethora of research on parenting and infant attachment, much less is known about the contributions of parenting to preschool attachment, particularly within different racial groups. This study seeks to build on the extant literature by evaluating whether similar associations between parenting and attachment can be observed in African American and Caucasian families, and whether race moderates them. Seventy-four primary caregivers and their preschool children (51% African American, 49% Caucasian, 46% male) from similar urban, low income backgrounds participated in two visits four weeks apart when children were between four and five years of age. Attachment was scored from …

Therapy Dogs August 19th, 5-6:00pm, Georgia Southern University, Zach S. Henderson Library

Library Publications (1999-2023)

• Therapy Dogs August 19th, 5-6:00pm

Overlooked Destinations: Suburban Nodes, Centers, And Trips To Strips, Nico Larco, Robert Parker

TREC Final Reports

This study looks at travel to typical suburban commercial strips by residents living within one-third of a mile of the strip by focusing on six sites – four in the Portland, OR., metro area and two in the Atlanta, GA., metro area. The study mapped pedsheds around the commercial strips in these sites and found significant increases in network extents when formal and informal pedestrian paths were added to street centerline data. Informal networks such as goat paths through vacant land and cuts in fences were widespread and suggest a pent-up demand for route directness. Travel surveys of residents found …

Library Organizational Charts

Library Organizational Charts (1995-2018)

No abstract provided.

Perceived Cultural Proximity And Perceived News Source Credibility In Puerto Rico, Camila Espina

Media Studies - Theses

This study examines the relationship between interaction with the United States, perceived cultural proximity between Puerto Rican and American culture, and perceived source credibility of American news media. Existing literature on media credibility, cultural proximity, and acculturation was used to design an online survey. The sample of this study consists of three hundred and seventy two Puerto Ricans that resided in Puerto Rico at the time of data collection (N=372).

Data analysis procedures involved paired samples t-test as well as Pearson's Correlation Coefficient. The current study yielded three key findings. The first finding demonstrates that respondents perceive American news media …

Reasonable Persons, Reasonable Circumstances, Christopher Jackson

San Diego Law Review

The reasonable person test is a common thread that runs through the fabric of Anglo-American law. It has become such a common trope in legal discourse that it scarcely receives much attention in its own right. This Article analyzes one facet of the test that will yield significant benefits in understanding the subject as a whole: how we ought to go about determining which circumstances are relevant to the reasonable person inquiry. The Article will argue that the circumstances that ought to be part of the test will vary based on one’s underlying theoretical commitments: the reasonable person test is …

Persuasion In Political Discourse: Tunisian President Ben Ali's Last Speech As A Case Stud, Soufien Jarraya

Theses - ALL

Within a discourse analysis framework, this research investigates persuasion in political discourse in the last speech of the former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, delivered one day before he left the country in the middle of the Tunisian Revolution that sparked the so-called Arab Spring.

Sentences are analyzed to check their illocutionary force in light of Searle's typology of Speech Act Theory. Then, an analysis of agency is carried out to investigate the persuasive dimension of the use of deictic pronouns to construct the self-image as well as the image of the Other. The speech is also examined …