Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Wild Nyc: Building Biodiversity In Fresh Kills And City Parks, Melissa Zavala

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is an anthropological field study of the work of urban ecological maintenance being conducted in New York City through the analysis of the reclamation and biotic restoration of the Fresh Kills landfill, located in the borough of Staten Island. This landfill was once the largest urban dump in the United States. Its 2,200 acres of trash buried in four mounds have polluted an area historically noted for its natural beauty as a collection of marshes and woodlands bordering the Kill Van Kull, a tidal strait that flows into the New York Harbor. The current plan for park and …

Bass In Your Face: A Case-Study Exploration Of Networked Culture, Samantha Phyllis Kretmar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using dubstep DJ Bassnectar as a case-study example, this thesis explores the impact of social networks and mobile connectivity. As evidenced by Bassnectar's digitally based approach to experiencing, distributing, and consuming music, these developments have contributed to the shift to a new model I describe as Networked Culture.

Figure 1 is a video highlighting the Bassnectar concert experience. Figure 2 is an audio clip illustrating the "drop" in dubstep. Figure 3 is another audio clip demonstrating the dubstep sound. Figure 4 is an image of an Ableton Live sound library. Figure 5 is an image of Ableton Live's functionality. Figure …

The Economic Causes And Consequences Of Overweight And Obesity In The United States, David Alan Lempert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Obesity is a serious public health issue, associated with increased risks of premature death, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, breathing problems, arthritis, reproductive complications, and other diseases. There are economic causes and consequences of overweight and obesity. Researchers have recently suggested that the inability of Body Mass Index to appropriately distinguish between body fat and non-body fat components may lead to inaccurate results when analyzing the economics of obesity. I use Percentage Body Fat, defined as Body Fat divided by the sum of Fat-Free Mass and Body Fat, as the primary measure of body composition.

A growing body of literature explores …

The Degree Of Certainty System In Written Spanish In Mexico, Jaseleen Ruggles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Practitioners in threat assessment have considered direct threats as being high-level threats of future violence (O'Toole 2000: 9), but empirical studies testing the predictive validity of direct threats have contradicted this intuition (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al. 1991; Smith 2006). Studies that include analyses of the deployment of English verbal roots (such as kill, hurt, etc.) have failed to show significant correlations between lexical choices and the occurrence of realized outcomes (Dietz, Matthews, Martell et al. 1991; Scalora, Baumgartner, Zimmerman et al. 2002a: 1360; Scalora, Baumgartner, Zimmerman 2002b: 46, Smith 2006). This analysis focused on inflectional affixes, rather …

What Was Squatting, And What Comes Next?: The Mystery Of Property In New York City, 1984-2014, Amy Starecheski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Framing property as a socio-historical process and squatters as situated actors within that process, this dissertation seeks to understand how a relatively stable and hegemonic property regime, such as private property in the United States, works and changes. Squatting is an ideal lens for understanding the complex transformation of private property, as it leads us to the times and places where the political and moral economies of property are actively contested and renegotiated. Squatters who make successful claims on property draw our attention to disjunctures between the moral economy and the legal system of property. Squatters had a complex and …

Effects Of Phonological Neighborhood Density On Lexical Access In Adults And Children With And Without Specific Language Impairment, Diana Almodovar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The present study was designed to examine how adults, children with typical language development (TLD), and children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) process words from sparse and dense phonological neighborhoods, using the Cross Modal Picture-Word Interference Paradigm. The participants were asked to label a picture presented on a computer screen, while ignoring auditory distractors (interfering words or IWs) presented over headphones. The target items were manipulated according to neighborhood density (high and low density words), and the auditory distractors were either identical to the target, a neutral distractor (good), phonologically related (by rhyme), or unrelated to the target item. The …

"If She Can Do It, So Can I": An Ethnography Of A Supportive Living Environment For Women In The Criminal Justice System And Their Children, Regina Cardaci

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

There are now more women in prisons and jails than at any time in United States history. A large number of these women will be returning to the community. Women returning to the community after release from prison or jail face numerous challenges to successful reentry, e.g., securing housing and employment. In addition, following separation and care of their children by others, women with children struggle to resume their roles as mother.

This dissertation is an exploration of a program that assists women transitioning from incarceration to the community. This program helps women by helping to develop job skills and …

Integration Or Interrogation? Franco-Maghrebi Rap And Hip-Hop Culture In Marseille, Jenna Catherine Daley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper focuses on rap and hip-hop music that is produced from Franco-Maghrebi communities living in Marseille. The discussion revolves around the question of how rap music helps these communities to assimilate into French culture. The conclusion is two-fold. Marseille, as a city whose urban planning promotes physical assimilation of immigrants with French-born citizens, performs as an integrative force for these communities. Additionally, rap simultaneously assists Franco-Maghrebis in integrating into and subverting from French society. Franco-Maghrebi rappers integrate by becoming a part of mainstream French culture. Yet, they also subvert by extraordinarily placing race and discrimination at the forefront of …

Lgbtq Experiences With The Courts: The Role Of Gender Nonconformity And Assertiveness, Alexis Forbes

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) and non-LGBTQ participants, a pair of studies explored the influence of LGBTQ identity and gender nonconformity (GNC) in experiences of discrimination in court settings. A one-way ANOVA tested whether LGBTQ participants were more likely to score low on the treatment in court scale. Additionally, two separate multiple regression analyses tested whether high scores on the Gender Nonconformity Scale (GNCS; Forbes & Nadal, under review), were associated with low scores on a measure of treatment in court. It was discovered that LGBTQ identity did not have a statistically significant effect on factor in …

Motivating Students Through Classroom-Based Service Learning: Toward Adoption And Impact, Anne S. Robertson, Amanda Moore Mcbride, Saras Chung, Allison Williams

Center for Social Development Research

Motivating Students Through Classroom-Based Service Learning: Toward Adoption and Impact

Position Change: Sonya Shepherd To Be New Director Of Library Services At Gordon State College, Georgia Southern University, Zach S. Henderson Library

Library Publications (1999-2023)

• Position change: Sonya Shepherd to be new Director of Library Services at Gordon State College

Stories Of Success: Understanding Academic Achievement Of Hispanic Students In Science, Amanda Harris

Dissertations and Theses

A review of the literature shows that there is much evidence to suggest the challenges facing Hispanic students in American public schools. Hispanic enrollment in K-12 public schools has increased from 6 to 19% in the last thirty years, yet schools have not made adequate adjustments to accommodate this changing population. Issues such as remedial tracking and cultural differences have led to low high school graduate rates for Hispanic students and inequities in schooling experiences (Gay, 2000). Particularly in the area of science, Hispanic students struggle with academic success (Cole & Espinoza, 2008). Despite these obstacles, some Hispanic students are …

A Girl Power Study: Looking And Listening To The Role Of Emotions And Relationality In Developing Critical Consciousness, Jennifer Wallin-Ruschman

Dissertations and Theses

The concept of critical consciousness centers on the capacity for involvement in social change efforts. Its development has been the aim of many recent social movements (e.g., the consciousness raising groups of the women's movement). In this work, critical consciousness is defined as the highest level of socio-political-cultural (SPC) consciousness development. SPC consciousness is characterized by the linking of the personal and the political so that structures and discourses of oppression are not only understood but also lead to critical action and transforming relations of domination. Additionally, critical consciousness includes the ability to tolerate ambivalence and conflict as well as …

Will The U.S. Velocity Of Money Step Up Again? New Evidence From The Random Walk Hypothesis, Anh Thu Tran Xuan

Undergraduate Economic Review

The recent decrease in U.S. money velocity raises debates about its unit root behavior. This paper revisited the random walk hypothesis (RWH) of the U.S. money velocity in 1960-2010 and two sub-periods 1960-85 and 1986-2010 by applying the Variance Ratio methodologies, including new nonparametric tests by Wright (2000) and Belaire-Franch and Contreras (2004). The results suggested that the velocity would likely increase, and the U.S. monetary policy will soon stimulate GDP and employment. Furthermore, past velocity is important to predict the future outcomes, and changes in financial structural could alter the empirical characteristics of the velocity series.

Lanthorn, Vol. 48, No. 61, June 2, 2014, Grand Valley State University

Volume 48, July 1, 2013 - June 2, 2014

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Communiqué, June 2, 2014, Lindenwood University

Communiqué

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

Perfect Information, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Mitochondrial Dna Variability Among Six South-American Amerindian Villages From The Pano Linguistic Group, Celso T. Mendes-Junior, Aguinaldo L. Simoes

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Although scattered throughout a large geographic area, the members of the Pano linguistic group present strong ethnic, linguistic and cultural homogeneity, a feature that causes them to be considered as components of a same “Pano” tribe. Nevertheless, the genetic homogeneity between Pano villages has not been examined before. To study the genetic structure of the Pano linguistic group, four major Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) founder haplogroups were analyzed in 77 Amerindians from six villages of four Pano tribes (Katukina, Kaxináwa, Marúbo, and Yaminawa) located in the Brazilian Amazon. The central position of these tribes in the continent makes them …

Editor's Introduction, Jr. Aguilar

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

How Portable Is Level-0 Behavior? A Test Of Level-K Theory In Games With Non-Neutral Frames, Shaun Hargreaves Heap, David Rojo Arjona, Robert Sugden

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We test the portability of level‐0 assumptions in level‐k theory in an experimental investigation of behavior in Coordination, Discoordination, and Hide and Seek games with common, non‐neutral frames. Assuming that level‐0 behavior depends only on the frame, we derive hypotheses that are independent of prior assumptions about salience. Those hypotheses are not confirmed. Our findings contrast with previous research which has fitted parameterized level‐k models to Hide and Seek data. We show that, as a criterion of successful explanation, the existence of a plausible model that replicates the main patterns in these data has a high probability of …

Students’ Digital Photography Behaviors During A Multiday Environmental Science Field Trip And Their Recollections Of Photographed Science Content, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Taking photographs to document the experiences of an educational field trip is becoming a common activity for teachers and students alike. Considering the regular creation of photographic artifacts, our goal in this paper is to explore students’ picture taking behavior and their recollections of science content associated with their photographs. In this study, we partnered with a class of fifth-grade students in the United States and provided each student with a digital camera to document their experiences during an environmental science field trip at a national park. We report the frequency of photography behaviors according to which activities were most …

Collaboration Success In The Dataverse Libraries As Digital Humanities Research Partners, Sue Owen, Deb Verhoeven, Anne Horn, Sabina Robertson

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

At Deakin, the Humanities Networked Infrastructure project (HuNI), has paved new ground for facilitating the effective use and re-use of humanities research data. HuNI is one of the first large-scale eResearch infrastructure projects for the humanities in Australia and the first national, cross-disciplinary Virtual Laboratory (VL) worldwide.

HuNI provides new information infrastructure services for both humanities researchers and members of the public. Its development has been funded by the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR) and undertaken by a consortium of thirteen institutions led by Deakin University. A Deakin University Library team with skills in data description, curation, …

Library Design In The Age Of Technology Planning For A Changing Environment, Sharon Bostick, Bryan Irwin

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

This paper explores university library design that is user-centered and inclusive. We will look at the need to create a strong, compelling vision. Discussion will include an overview of types of spaces and the need to connect libraries to the external environment to enhance the design and usability. It will look at the evolution of the library and considerations for contemporary library design which include issues of mobility, determining the role of collaboration between users, accessibility, and process. It will include examples of university library buildings, both new construction and renovations.

The Curious Instance Of The Library's Travelling Poll: Determining Obstacles In The Research Process, Lucia Schoombee

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

The role of libraries in co-facilitating timeous and successful completion of postgraduate studies and increased research output is accentuated in the current, competitive academic environment. Faced with this challenge, libraries need to probe new territory, expand boundaries of service delivery and collaborate with academic support services. This paper describes an unconventional, visual method to explore service needs of researchers and research students. The method consists of an interactive poll which visually depicts the research lifecycle and allows respondents to point out arduous aspects in the research process. The poll is a collaborative project between the Library and the Information Technology …

Library Spaces Designed With Students In Mind: An Evaluation Study Of University Of Queensland Libraries At St Lucia Campus, Neda Abbasi, Richard Tucker, Kenn Fisher, Robert Gerrity

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

This paper identifies the design qualities of library spaces that matter the most for university students. Drawing upon the data from an online survey made available to students from the University of Queensland, Australia, a number of design-related considerations are examined including: acoustics, furniture, interior architecture, lighting, and thermal comfort. 1505 students completed the survey, which aimed to assess how effective and responsive library spaces are in meeting students’ needs and supporting their learning experiences. The survey included ‘Likert scale questions’ requiring students to rate their levels of satisfaction with different aspects of library spaces and ‘open-ended questions’ asking students …

Using Citation Data For Purchase Decisions: Analysing Citing Patterns And Journal Holdings At The Royal Institute Of Technology, Cecilia Heyman Widmark

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

This paper describes how citation data can be used for identifying gaps in journal holdings and in that way form a foundation for acquisitions. Citation data was matched against e-journal holdings using Web of Science™ and export files from a central knowledge base. Data for three years (2010-2012) was used, in total from 6 246 publications containing 130 090 references to 5 216 journals.

Furthermore, impact factors from Journal Citation Reports™ were added as well as information about publisher and if the journal was open access or not. The journals were also enriched with subject headings. The latter information was …

Minimal Resources With Maximum Impact: Low-Cost And Sustainable Means For Library Promotions, Karryl Kim A. Sagun

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

While it is a generally shared fact around the globe that funding for library promotion (and in most cases, libraries in general) be rendered as a pressing concern, the fact remains that this challenge is truer in developing countries such as the Philippines. Librarians in charge of promoting the library can either choose to fight--defend their “rights” for a slice of the budget pie, or take flight--just do away with library promotion altogether. However, results of a low-cost and sustainable marketing strategy employed by the Rizal Library of the Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines prove that there is …

Reorganizing The Relationship Of Digital Library Resources And Physical Learning Environments, Antti M. Rousi, Michael Fosmire, Risto Maijala, Benjamin D. Branch, Nicole Kong

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Introduction. This study examines the theoretical variance of user experience generated by linking digital library resources via QR codes into library learning environments. Methods. A heuristic evaluation was done about the theoretical variance of user experience created by the QR code linking procedure. This evaluation was based on Garrett’s (2003) framework of user experience. The targets of the evaluation were two existing QR code portals of both Aalto and Purdue University Libraries. Results. The existing QR code portals generate variation of varying degrees into all of the elements of user experience. Conclusion. Despite the breadth of variance created, perhaps the …

Library Assistant - Improving The Student Experience Of Oxford Libraries Through A Mobile Library Induction, Oliver Bridle, Angela Carritt

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

A student’s first week at University is an overwhelming experience with important information being delivered by many different parts of the institution. High student numbers and severe time constraints on contact time between librarians and students means that libraries struggle to effectively communicate advice about services and resources. This issue is further compounded at the University of Oxford by the complexity of the local library system; the second largest in the UK. Research undertaken with Oxford students to ascertain their views on library inductions revealed that, although inductions were valued, they could be poorly timed and leave students overloaded with …

Access To Research Data: Addressing The Problem Through Journal Data Sharing Policies, Paul Sturges, Marianne Bamkin, Jane Anders, Azhar Hussain

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

There is a growing consensus in the broader research community, including libraries and other information repositories, that sharing of research data is vital both for transparency and possible reuse. Logically the sharing should be in the form of data held in suitable repositories which is linked to effective access points such as library catalogues. The journals in which the research appears have a central role in this process. The JoRD Project atNottinghamUniversityinvestigated the current state of journal data sharing policies through a survey of sample titles, and explored the views and practices of stakeholders including the research community and its …