Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

E-Waste Recycling: The Dirty Trade Between The United States And China, Laura Edwards

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis explores the environmental and public health damages associated with the informal e-waste recycling industry in China and provides an overview of Chinese policies regulating e-waste. Furthermore, the thesis examines how the United States has contributed to these ecological and human health damages by exporting e-waste to China and failing to regulate the US e-waste recycling industry.

How Can We Have A Better Public Transportation System? –An Exploratory Agent Based Model, Boyu Liu

Pomona Senior Theses

Public transportation plays an integral part in a city's development, but transportation professionals disagree about whether it is feasible to increase the capacity of public transportation systems at a reasonable cost; and if it is, how. This study develops an agent based model that aims to answer this question and provide a framework to compare the effects of improvements in different aspects of the public transportation service. The results of this study show that it is possible to increase ridership enough to compensate for the increased operational cost, but only in certain circumstances. Interesting phenomenon that might have showed up …

The Effect Of Inversion And Motor Expertise On Body Compatibility, Harrison M. Goodall Iii

Pomona Senior Theses

Previous studies have established that when a subject’s attention is directed to a specific body part, the subject is able to move that body part faster than a body part their attention was not drawn to. This is known as the body compatibility effect, and it has been shown that this effect only occurs when viewing upright images of the human body. In this study, we presented control subjects and expert acrobats with inverted and upright stimuli. We hypothesized that the amount of time the acrobats spent inverted would result in the acrobats exhibiting body compatibility effects for both upright …

Folk Songs And Popular Music In China: An Examination Of Min’Ge And Its Significance Within Nationalist Frameworks, Belinda Li

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis examines the function of music within different theories of nationalism and the appropriation of folk music within the genre of min’ge. Min’ge, a term in Chinese which directly translates to “folk songs”, has generally been defined as oral musical traditions. However, due to the increased politicization of popular music since the 1930s, the nature folk music has fundamentally changed, reflecting its new significance within Chinese nationalism. Through the years, min’ge has become more useful to promoting the goals of the state than representing the musical traditions of the many different ethnic groups in China. This transformation …

Colombia, The Resilient Survivor: Ddr, Elusive Peace, And The Politics Of Post-Conflict, Laura Pico

Pomona Senior Theses

This thesis aims to study Colombia’s post-conflict processes and peacemaking politics. Over the years, the numerous attempts at peace lacked solutions prioritizing a sustainable process for peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction. Yet since 2003, the government has implemented and prioritized a three-pronged policy known as Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration (DDR) in an attempt to bundle the disparate elements that appear to be necessary components for long-term peace.

Chapter one evaluates the turbulent history of peacemaking, focusing on the factors rendering peace elusive, examining the failed peace attempts, and chronologically arriving at DDR. Chapter two provides an in-depth analysis of the “R” …

Altruism, Alexander J. Field

Economics

Altruism is reflected in actions by one individual that benefit another, even when there is no expectation of reward. Altruism is often equated with selflessness and contrasted with selfishness, or alternatively, altruism is seen as other-regarding as opposed to self-regarding behavior. The latter usage is sometimes preferred because of difficulties in classifying behavior for which the individual acting altruistically receives a "warm glow" from helping others. The question raised in this instance is whether such an individual is actually selfish and, if so, whether there is any behavior that, after the fact, could not be interpreted as selfish.

The need …

Public Libraries And Political Participation, 1870-1940, Michael J. Kevane, William A. Sundstrom

Economics

The public library movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries fostered a rapid increase in the number and quality of public libraries in cities and towns across the United States. One important argument for libraries was that they would enhance American democracy by promoting virtues of citizenship and enabling access to information. This paper examines how voter turnout was affected, in the short-term, by the establishment of public libraries, using a county-by-election year panel. Our empirical strategy exploits the founding dates of public libraries as discrete events that should have influenced subsequent voting behavior. Over the wide range …

Reading Fiction And Economic Preferences Of Rural Youth In Burkina Faso, Michael J. Kevane

Economics

This paper presents results from a reading program for youth living in villages in south-western Burkina Faso. Standard experimental games were used to measure the effects of increased reading of fiction on several attitudes and preferences important for economic development. After six months of access and encouragement to read appropriate young adult fiction, there were few differences in any of four measured outcomes (trust, contribution to public goods, risk, and patience) between those participating in the reading program and the control group. Since the rise of mass-distributed novels in the 1800s, many have hypothesized that fiction would have significant effects …

State Promotion Of Local Public Goods: The Case Of Public Libraries, 1880-1929, Michael J. Kevane, William A. Sundstrom

Economics

The public library movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to a significant expansion of library services across the United States. We study the impact of state-level institutional development on the creation of local public goods. State library commissions were modestly funded state entities charged with helping localities establish libraries. State library associations were voluntary organizations with a similar mission, having as members the librarians of existing public libraries. Library-enabling legislation clarified the legality and taxation possibilities for local government entities such as towns, municipalities and counties to support libraries. Employing panel data drawn from a series …

Beautiful People Are Better, At Least Online: Associations Between Photo Attractiveness And Text Attractiveness In Women's Online Dating Profiles, Collette Celani-Morrell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Do physically attractive individuals truly possess a multitude of better characteristics? The current study aimed to answer the age old question, "Do looks matter?" within the context of online dating and framed itself using cursory research performed by Brand and colleagues (2012). Good Genes Theory, Halo Effect, Physical Attractiveness Stereotype, and Social Information Procession theory were also used to explore what function appearance truly plays in online dating and how it influences a user's written text.

83 men were surveyed and asked to rate 84 women's online dating profiles (photos and texts) independently of one another to determine if those …

One Of Our Own: Pawnee Bill's Life As Viewed By Bloomington Residents, Eric Willey

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Article examining how William Gordon Lillie, native of Bloomington, Illinois, was viewed by residents of the town through newspaper reports and other sources. Lillie achieved considerable fame as Wild West showman Pawnee Bill and was often associated with other legends of the American West.

A Study Regarding Organizational Health, Leadership Styles And Practices And Job Satisfaction In The Associacao Central Amazonas Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Church According To The Perception Of The Pastoral Ministry, Sergio Alan Alves Caxeta

Master's Theses

Problem

Due to the perceived partial insatisfaction on the part of the district pastors and local church leaders in the Associação Central Amazonas (ACeAm) based on the amount of work added to the annual planning and the Organization activities calendar, it was decided to investigate the health organization, the leadership practices and styles, as well as the job satisfaction accrding to the perception of the ACeAm pastoral ministry which may be at the basis of the problem

Method

The study was conducted among AceAm 59 pastors divided in three leadership categories described as Top Leadership, Management and Work Force according …

A Study Regarding Organizational Health, Leadership Styles And Practices And Job Satisfaction Within The West Central Brazil Union Mission Of Seventh-Day Adventist Church According To The Perception Of The Employees Of The Administrative Office, Alijofran Lima Brandao

Master's Theses

Problem

Evaluations done at the West Central Brazil Union Mission office in 2015 found that the items related to proactive attitude and job satisfaction of the employees had the lowest score. Both the general evaluation and the self-evaluation revealed that creativity, conflict resolution, praises and rebuke, and self-development were the least developed items. It was assumed that the above described situation may reflect leadership practices and styles within UCOB.

Method

The study was conducted among 48 UCOB’s administrative office employees divided in three categories as described by the OLA research instrument (Top Leadership, Management and Work Force), which analyses the …

Pragmatic Quality Assessment For Automatically Extracted Data, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Scott N. Woodfield, Stephen W. Liddle, Tae Woo Kim, David W. Embley, Christopher Almquist

Faculty Publications

Automatically extracted data is rarely “clean” with respect to pragmatic (real-world) constraints—which thus hinders applications that depend on quality data. We proffer a solution to detecting pragmatic constraint violations that works via a declarative and semantically enabled constraint-violation checker. In conjunction with an ensemble of automated information extractors, the implemented prototype checks both hard and soft constraints—respectively those that are satisfied or not and those that are satisfied probabilistically with respect to a threshold. An experimental evaluation shows that the constraint checker identifies semantic errors with high precision and recall and that pragmatic error identification can improve results

The Relationship Of Intelligence And Psychopathic Traits To Premeditated And Impulsive Aggression, Elizabeth Witt

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Psychopathy encompasses two distinct factors, Factor 1 and Factor 2 (Hare, 1991, 2003). Factor 1, is characterized by affective-interpersonal traits of psychopathy (Benning, Patrick, Hicks, Blonigen, & Krueger, 2003 ; Hare 1991, 2003) while Factor 2, is characterized by impulsive antisocial behavior (Benning et al., 2003; Hare 1991, 2003). Research abundantly shows that males tend to score higher on personality traits associated with Factor 2 (Hare, 1991), but there are inconsistencies in the literature regarding females relationship to the psychopathy subtypes. Research shows that there is a significant negative correlation between psychopathy scores and intelligence (O'Kane, Fawcett, & Blackburn, 1996). …

Seeing As Understanding: The Importance Of Visual Mathematics For Our Brain And Learning, Jo Boaler, Lang Chen, Cathy Williams, Montserrat Cordero

Psychology

A few weeks ago the silence of my Stanford office was interrupted by a phone call. A mother called to tell me that her 5-year old daughter had come home from school crying because her teacher had not allowed her to count on her fingers. A few weeks afterwards, when I told my undergraduate mathematics class that visual mathematics was really important, one of them asked: but it is only for low levels of math, isn’t it?

The Heritage Journal Winter 2016

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

Letter From The Editor, Victor Terry

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

On The Whiteness Of Biracial Folk, Jordan Mann

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Black Male's Quest For Identity As Illustrated Through Native Son, Martez Files

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

My American Dream, Victor Terry

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

Acknowledgements And Call For Papers

The Heritage Journal

No abstract provided.

Developmental Trajectories Of Working Memory From Age 6 Through 25 Years, Kristin L. Roberts

Theses and Dissertations

Working memory (WM) has been shown to be closely related to measures of achievement and intelligence, as well as attention, illustrating the critical role WM plays in the learning process. Understanding the typical developmental trajectory of WM is essential if professionals are to recognize and intervene when a child’s WM development shows signs of delay. The current study evaluated the development of WM in a crosssectional sample of 303 children, adolescents, and adults from ages 6 through 25 years. The study utilized a comprehensive measure of WM, assessing verbal, static visualspatial, and dynamic visual-spatial WM capacity across various processing demands. …

Leaders In Search Of The Bomb: Institutional Incentives For Nuclear Decisions, Paige Price Cone

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear weapons hold a strong allure for many leaders. These weapons are more than tools of national security; rather, they represent international normative symbols of modernity and national identity. This symbolic power presents a strong incentive to proliferate. However, beginning a nuclear weapons program (“proliferating”) is a costly endeavor, one that requires a significant amount of resources and time. A leader who chooses to proliferate must balance the preferences of his or her domestic audience with the significant resources required to proliferate in an international system that opposes nuclear proliferation to new states. In order to understand the paradox of …

Attention Control And The Effects Of Online Training In Improving Connected Speech Perception By Learners Of English As A Second Language, Burcu Gokgoz-Kurt

Theses and Dissertations

One of the aspects of L2 English phonology which poses a challenge for L2 learners is learning how to decode the language, especially as spoken by native speakers. This difficulty may be due to the way the native speakers speak by ‘draw[ing] [the sounds] together’ (Clarey & Dixson, 1963), which results in realization of consonants and vowels differently than when uttered in isolation. This process is referred to as connected speech (e.g., pronouncing ‘want to’ as [wɑnə], and ‘going to’ as [ɡʌnə]). The challenge in teaching and learning these forms is that they lack perceptual saliency, requiring extra attentional resources …

Promoting Progress To Assist Youth With Disordered Eating In School Mental Health, Bryn Elizabeth Schiele

Theses and Dissertations

Disordered eating has become a significant issue among children and adolescents; nearly 14% of all youth displaying disordered eating patterns. Despite the prevalence of these disorders amongst school-age students, there is a deficit of empirical literature on the integration of eating disorder support services in schools, as well as a lack of knowledge and training of school mental health (SMH) professionals regarding the appropriate interventions for this population. While eating disorders have previously been considered as outside of the school mental health domain of practice (e.g., Judge, 2001), this view has changed and there exists a significant need to provide …

Race, Place, And Access To Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In South Carolina, Marissa E. Yingling

Theses and Dissertations

Public funding of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for the 1 in 68 children who meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is rapidly expanding. Evidence indicates that children with ASD experience racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities in access to health care services. However, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and the World Health Organization cite disparities in access to early intervention among the most pressing yet understudied areas of research. Currently, ASD service research is dominated by inquiries into the age of diagnosis and enrollment in EIBI. We know little about disparities in the time-lag between diagnosis and treatment onset …

Building Resiliency In Response To Sea Level Rise And Recurrent Flooding: Comprehensive Planning In Hampton Roads, Joshua G. Behr, Rafael Diaz, Molly Mitchell

VMASC Publications

[Introduction]

Over the past few decades, the Hampton Roads region, with its extensive coastline, has been experiencing more frequent flooding from surges and precipitation caused by tropical storms, nor’easters and heavy thunderstorms (Figure 1). Recurrent flooding is “flooding that occurs repeatedly in the same area over time due to precipitation events, high tides or storm surge.”¹ The recurrence of tidal/surge flooding in Hampton Roads has increased from 1.7 days of “nuisance” flooding per year in 1960 to 7.3 days per year in 2014.² Although there is no definitive region-wide data to document the increases in precipitation-induced flooding, there …

Integrating A Simple Traffic Incident Model For Rapid Evacuation Analysis, Andrew J. Collins, R. Michael Robinson, Peter Foytik, Craig Jordan, Barry C. Ezell

VMASC Publications

Road transportation networks are a segment of society's critical infrastructure particularly susceptible to service disruptions. Traffic incidents disrupt road networks by producing blockages and increasing travel times, creating significant impacts during emergency events such as evacuations. For this reason, it is extremely important to incorporate traffic incidents in evacuation planning models. Emergency managers and decision makers need tools that enable rapid assessment of multiple, varied scenarios. Many evacuation simulations require high-fidelity data input making them impractical for rapid deployment by practitioners. Since there is such variation in evacuation types and the method of disruption, evacuation models do not require the …

Multivariate Analysis And Geographic Modeling Of Archaeological Landscapes, J. Christopher Gillam

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in Geographic Information Science (GISci), archaeological databases and statistics enable the development and refinement of spatial applications of multivariate statistics and other quantitative methods for modeling ancient and historical cultural landscapes. Along the Central Savannah River of South Carolina, this research on prehistoric and historic site distributions, their environmental, temporal and cultural context, and geographic modeling explored methodologies for predicting site locations and modeling cultural landscapes to gain a better understanding of the distant and recent past. Methods for testing extant models, detecting changes in land-use through time, and for developing time-sliced and adaptation-based landscape models were demonstrated using …