Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Mitigating The Risk: Identifying Strategic University Partnerships For Compliance Tracking Of Research Data And Publications, Andrea Payant, Betty Rozum, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Correspondence, Josh Marble

Staff Council

Email sent to all WKU staff regarding book scholarships.

Building A Pathway To Engineering For Our Daughters – Brick By Brick, Ali P. Gordon

UCF Forum

As a father of young elementary and middle school-aged kids, I’m also curious to know exactly how my undergrad students came to be interested in mechanical engineering. An exchange with a UCF student might go like this: “You did a great job on the exam. Congrats! By the way, how did you get interested in mechanical engineering, anyway?” I mentally log the answers for my kids’ future benefit.

Integrative Approach For Inference Of Gene Regulatory Networks Using Lasso-Based Random Featuring And Application To Psychiatric Disorders, Dongchul Kim, Mingon Kang, Ashis Kumer Biswas, Chunyu Liu, Jean Gao

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Background

Inferring gene regulatory networks is one of the most interesting research areas in the systems biology. Many inference methods have been developed by using a variety of computational models and approaches. However, there are two issues to solve. First, depending on the structural or computational model of inference method, the results tend to be inconsistent due to innately different advantages and limitations of the methods. Therefore the combination of dissimilar approaches is demanded as an alternative way in order to overcome the limitations of standalone methods through complementary integration. Second, sparse linear regression that is penalized by the regularization …

Practical Wired Digital Communications Link Analysis, Raymond Matthew Schmelzer

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis deals with the analysis of a Wired High Speed Serial Data Link (PAM2) which is commonly used throughout the data-communications and tele-communications industry. The goal of this study is to build a scalable simulation tool using Matlab that ultimately uses Receiver Bit Error Ratio (BER) as the metric for data link health. This study is also designed to aid in link specification development.

The Matlab and theoretical development is broken up into three sections being Transmitter (TX), Channel (Hs) and Receiver (RX). Realistic noise impairments can be added to each section along the signal path creating signal stresses …

Cuyahoga Countywide Housing Study: County Planning, Kathryn W. Hexter

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

For many communities in the industrial Midwest, the changing economy has resulted in population loss. Combined with changes in population settlement, housing preferences, and demographics, Cuyahoga County is now faced with an oversupply of housing mismatched to the needs of current and future households. To address this disparity, the County is performing a housing study that will address the full needs of our communities: new construction where warranted, rehabilitation where feasible, and demolition where necessary.

Feats And Failures Of Corporate Credit Risk, Stock Returns, And The Interdependencies Of Sovereign Credit Risk, Uche C. Isiugo

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprises two essays; the first of which investigates sovereign credit risk interdependencies, while the second examines the reaction of corporate credit risk to sovereign credit risk events. The first essay titled, Characterizing Sovereign Credit Risk Interdependencies: Evidence from the Credit Default Swap Market, investigates the relationships that exist among disparate sovereign credit default swaps (CDS) and the implications on sovereign creditworthiness. We exploit emerging market sovereign CDS spreads to examine the reaction of sovereign credit risk to changes in country-specific and global financial factors. Utilizing aVAR model fitted with DCC GARCH, we find that comovements of spreads …

Habitat Suitability Modeling For The Mississippi Sandhill Crane, Grus Canadensis Pulla, Linda C. Salande

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I modeled the suitability of habitat on the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge for the federally endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis pulla). Habitat type and suitability changed over time due to seasonality of vegetation and succession in the absence of burning. Cranes used highly suitable habitat more in the non-growing than in the growing season, and may have been more constrained by resource availability during winter months. Cranes used some less-suitable areas including cypress drains, which provide roosting sites, and supplemental food plots. The mismatch between predicted quality and crane use suggests that …

Coastal Louisiana: Adaptive Capacity In The Face Of Climate Change, Tara Lambeth

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Extreme weather events can result in natural disasters, and climate change can cause these weather events to occur more often and with more intensity. Because of social and physical vulnerabilities, climate change and extreme weather often affect coastal communities. As climate change continues to be a factor for many coastal communities, and environmental hazards and vulnerability continue to increase, the need for adaptation may become a reality for many communities. However, very few studies have been done on the effect climate change and mitigation measures implemented in response to climate change have on a community’s adaptive capacity.

This single instrumental …

Exposing The “Shadow Side”: Female-Female Competition In Jane Austen’S Emma, Melissa M. Lyman

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Many critics have examined the shifting nature of female friendship in Jane Austen’s Emma from cultural and historical angles. However, a comprehensive scientific analysis of female-female alliance and competition in the novel remains incomplete. The Literary Darwinist approach considers the motivations of fictional characters from an evolutionary perspective, focusing primarily on human cognition and behaviors linked to reproductive success, social control, and survival. While overt physical displays of male competition are conspicuous in the actions of the human species and those of their closest primate relatives, female aggression is often brandished psychologically and indirectly, which makes for a much more …

Neural Mechanisms Of Action Switching Moderate The Relationship Between Effortful Control And Aggression, Eric L. Rawls

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Aggression and violence are social behaviors that exact a significant toll on human societies. Individuals with aggressive tendencies display deficits in effortful control, particularly in affectively charged situations. However, not all individuals with poor effortful control are aggressive. This study uses event-related potentials (ERPs) to decompose the chronology of cognitive functions underlying the link between effortful control and aggression. Specifically, this study investigates which ERPs moderate the effortful control - aggression association. We examined three successive ERP components (P2, N2 and P3) for stimuli that required effortful control. Results indicated that N2 activation, but not P2 or P3 activation, moderated …

Spice: A Software Tool For Studying End-User’S Insecure Cyber Behavior And Personality-Traits, Anjila Tamrakar

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Insecure cyber behavior of end users may expose their computers to cyber-attack. A first step to improve their cyber behavior is to identify their tendency toward insecure cyber behavior. Unfortunately, not much work has been done in this area. In particular, the relationship between end users cyber behavior and their personality traits is much less explored. This paper presents a comprehensive review of a newly developed, easily configurable, and flexible software SPICE for psychologist and cognitive scientists to study personality traits and insecure cyber behavior of end users. The software utilizes well-established cognitive methods (such as dot-probe) to identify number …

Surviving In The Land Of Opportunity: Outcomes Of Post-Crisis Urban Redevelopment In The United States, Brianna D. Foster

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

How we develop cities in the twenty-first century remains a subject of contentious debate worldwide. As neoliberal strategies are implemented in redevelopment projects, public safety nets are reduced and low-income communities of color in declining urban neighborhoods become particularly vulnerable. This multiple case study seeks to understand the experiences of post crisis urban redevelopment for low-income communities of color in 5 major U.S. cities. The data I analyzed include 101 short videos from the interactive documentary platform Land of Opportunity, documenting the process of post-crisis urban redevelopment in New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Detroit, and San Francisco. In doing so, …

Furthering Sustainable Energy: Lauber Martins Joins The Physics Faculty

Andrews Agenda: Campus News

This article introduces Lauber De Souza Martins, who joined Andrews University’s Department of Physics as an assistant professor in January 2016. He specializes in thermodynamics and sustainable energy. He is researching "how to use fuel cells as a backup system for stationary applications, like schools or hospitals".

Strengthening Resource Sharing Through Community Driven Development And Innovation, Shannon W. Pritting, William E. Jones Iii, Michael C. Mulligan

Milne Library

Resource sharing is an area in libraries with intense focus on cooperation and innovation. Libraries dedicate themselves to sharing collections to enhance access far beyond what any one library could offer. Resource sharing involves connecting not only users to collections, but connecting many different library technologies. An effective and innovative resource sharing group requires both a commitment to community, but also a commitment to developing technology that can help achieve the group’s goals. The IDS Project is a community-based resource sharing development cooperative whose members are tightly connected through professional development and high-level support initiatives such as the Online Learning …

Is Your Future Employer Homophobic Or Racist? Career Readiness Through Corporate Culture Research Workshops For Eop And Glbtqiia Students, Mark Bieraugel

Library Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Spatial Attention To Social Cues Is Not A Monolithic Process, Samuel M. Harding, Ty W. Boyer, Bennett I. Bertenthal

Psychology: Faculty Presentations (2009-2022)

Social stimuli are a highly salient source of information, and seem to possess unique qualities that set them apart from other well-known categories. One characteristic is their ability to elicit spatial orienting, whereby directional stimuli like eyegaze and pointing gestures act as exogenous cues that trigger automatic shifts of attention that are difficult to inhibit. This effect has been extended to non-social stimuli, like arrows, leading to some uncertainty regarding whether spatial orienting is specialized for social cues. Using a standard spatial cueing paradigm, we found evidence that both a pointing hand and arrow are effective cues, but that the …

Inducing Application Of Interdisciplinary Frameworks: Experiences From The Domains Of Information Literacy And Responsible Conduct Of Research, Anne E. Leonard, Jean E. Hillstrom

Publications and Research

Constructivist frameworks for information literacy and research ethics can be developed and nurtured in the context of an interdisciplinary course. Using the frameworks of two disciplines, students went on an experiential journey in support of ethics foundations through guest lectures and active learning exercises. This study describes the development and content of the responsible conduct of research and information literacy modules and discusses the role of each in an interdisciplinary course. Learning goals for both modules were evaluated by examining student responses in a free-writing exercise at the end of the semester, concluding with a discussion of the structural and …

Is Cortex Necessary?, Sean Allen-Hermanson

Animal Sentience

A key contention of Klein & Barron (2016) is that consciousness does not depend on cortical structures. A critical appraisal suggests they have overestimated the strength of their evidence.

Who Is A Person? Whoever You Want It To Be, Gwen J. Broude

Animal Sentience

Rowlands provides an expanded definition of personhood that preserves the requirement of unity of mental life from the orthodox definition but argues that implicit unity of mind is sufficient for conferring personhood. This allows more or all animals to be considered persons. Implicit unity of mind may be a bridge too far for those who endorse the orthodox account of personhood, and for good reasons. More fundamentally, who gets to decide what personhood entails or that personhood per se matters to such other issues as who receives legal or moral status and consideration? Perhaps we should worry less about definitions …

B.E.I.B. And Financial Inclusion In Northwest Cameroon, Kareen Ngendape Atchala

Capstone Collection

The Bee Effect Initiative Bank uses an integrated approach to foster financial inclusion in the North West region of Cameroon. This paper has several services under three main themes; economic wellbeing, capacity building, and insurance. Its theory of change and objectives while seeking to make profit centers on creating social change. The mechanics in the paper seek to evoke sustainable economic change in cross sectors- savings, credit, capacity building, and insurance with ROSCAs as target clientele.

Combustion, Catriona Sandilands

The Goose

Match, wood, flame. Pyrocultures, settler colonial pyrophobia. Internal combustion. Wildfire. Petrocapitalist immolation. This short photo essay reflects on fire as simultaneously a sensuous phenomenon of everyday life and an entity that, because of both its presence and its absence in particular formations, makes worlds. To be aware, both corporeally and politically, of our involvement in pyric practices and regimes allows us to begin to imagine what it might mean to understand and change our relations to fire as part of a larger project of energetic transformation: bodily, socially, politically.

Associations Between Mental Health And Ebola-Related Health Behaviors: A Regionally Representative Cross-Sectional Survey In Post-Conflict Sierra Leone, Theresa S. Betancourt, Robert T. Brennan, Patrick Vinck, Tyler J. Vanderweele, Dayo Spencer-Walters, Joshua Jeong, Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Phuong Pham

Publications and Research

Background

Little attention has been paid to potential relationships between mental health, trauma, and personal exposures to Ebola virus disease (EVD) and health behaviors in post-conflict West Africa. We tested a conceptual model linking mental health and trauma to EVD risk behaviors and EVD prevention behaviors.

Methods and Findings

Using survey data from a representative sample in the Western Urban and Western Rural districts of Sierra Leone, this study examines associations between war exposures, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, depression, anxiety, and personal EVD exposure (e.g., having family members or friends diagnosed with EVD) and EVD-related health behaviors among 1,008 …

Factors Contributing To The Economic Self-Sufficiency Of At-Risk Foster Youth Who Have Aged Out Of Care, Alexzandra M. Hust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Foster youth aging out of care encounter many struggles upon transitioning into adulthood, resulting in an increased risk of homelessness and adverse social, health, and financial outcomes. This study aimed to determine if various factors (environmental factors: education, mental health service, social support and personal factors: incarceration, substance abuse referral, and unplanned parenthood) were associated with indicators of economic self-sufficiency (full-time and part-time employment, housing stability, and use of financial, food, and housing assistance). Multiple logistic regressions were conducted to explore risk and predictive factors of each indicator of economic self-sufficiency with a sample of 265 19 year old foster …

Sensory Processing Specificity In Autism, Jannessa Kitchin

Ursidae: The Undergraduate Research Journal at the University of Northern Colorado

Currently, autism is defined at the behavioral level. Although much has been learned about the genetic, environmental, structural, and neuropsychological etiologies of autism much more research must be conducted to reach a full comprehensive definition of the disorder. At the behavioral level, a significant portion of individuals with autism have some level of sensory processing deficit, studies report 100% prevalence in this population. The goal of many researchers in the autism field is to identify how abnormal sensory response patterns differentiate this group from those with other developmental disorders as well as those who are typically developing. Findings show atypical …

The Right To Learn: Preparing Early Childhood Teachers To Work In High-Need Schools, Julie Diamond, Fretta Reitzes, Betsy Grob

Occasional Paper Series

Three teacher educators trained in the 1960's reflect on how to ensure educational equity in high-needs schools of today. The article starts with a description of the education the writers want for all children, and outline the processes and practices needed to sustain it. This is followed by a discussion on how schools of education can equip teachers with the values, understandings, and strategies they will need to achieve these goals.

Terror On Twitter: A Comparative Analysis Of Gender And The Involvement In Pro-Jihadist Communities On Twitter, Eric W. Witmer

MA Research Paper

Social media has become the milieu of choice to radicalize young impressionable minds by terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State. While a plethora of research exists on the recruitment and propaganda efforts by terrorist organizations there is limited number of quantitative studies that observe the relationship of gender and the involvement in online radical milieus. This current research will build upon prior studies through the comparative analysis of 750 unique Twitter accounts supporting the IS and the affiliates of al-Qaeda that were non-randomly sampled between January and September of 2015. The research aimed to address the …

Hidden Costs And Deadweight Losses: Bundled Parking Andresidential Rents In The Metropolitan United States, C. J. Gabbe, Gregory Pierce

Environmental Studies and Sciences

There is a major housing affordability crisis in many American metropolitan areas, particularly for renters. Minimum parking requirements in municipal zoning codes drive up the price of housing, and thus represent an important potential for reform for local policymakers. The relationship between parking and housing prices, however, remains poorly understood. We use national American Housing Survey data and hedonic regression techniques to investigate this relationship. We find that the cost of garage parking to renter households is approximately $1,700 per year, or an additional 17% of a housing unit’s rent. In addition to the magnitude of this transport cost burden …

Katie Muchmore For Wku Staff Council, Katie Muchmore

Staff Council

Campaign email soliciting votes for Katie Muchmore.

Julia Johnson For Wku Staff Council, Julia Johnson

Staff Council

Campaign email soliciting votes for Julia Johnson.