Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Predicting Multiple Target Tracking Performance For Applications On Video Sequences, Juan Esteban Tapiero Bernal

Dissertations (1934 -)

This dissertation presents a framework to predict the performance of multiple target tracking (MTT) techniques. The framework is based on the mathematical descriptors of point processes, the probability generating functional (p.g.fl). It is shown that conceptually the p.g.fls of MTT techniques can be interpreted as a transform that can be marginalized to an expression that encodes all the information regarding the likelihood model as well as the underlying assumptions present in a given tracking technique. In order to use this approach for tracker performance prediction in video sequences, a framework that combines video quality assessment concepts and the marginalized transform …

Introduction To The Special Section: Positive Developmental Strategies For Engaging Emerging Adults And Improving Outcomes, Janet S. Walker, Celeste Seibel, Sharice Jackson, John D. Ossowski

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

As compared to any other age cohort in the US population, young people in late adolescence and early adulthood have a higher rate of unmet need for mental health services. Not only are these young people (from about 16 to 25 years old, and referred to here as “emerging adults”) more likely to experience a serious mental health condition (SMHC), but they are also less likely to engage in services. Furthermore, when emerging adults do engage in services, they face multiple barriers to service continuity, particularly as they come up to “milestone” ages at 18, 21, and 24.

There is …

Medium As King: Social Media & The Political Campaign, Isaac Shea

Masters Theses

There is a growing need for a greater understanding of the intersection between great content, effective targeting and proper media usage in mediated communication and especially in American politics. As more campaigns move their efforts online in an attempt to reach a rapidly growing digital constituency, more content will continue to be less visible. The major quest for this study will be to challenge the long-standing idea that “content is king” which Bill Gates termed at the inception of the internet. A theoretical background of Marshall McLuhan and Kathleen Hall Jamieson will not only allow us to answer this question, …

The University As The Victim: How To Respond To The Media’S Allegations Of Sexual Assault On Campus, Elizabeth Juran

Masters Essays

No abstract provided.

Youth Empowerment For Conflict Resolution, Madhawa Palihapitiya

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

Participants were trained in conflict resolution and invited to share their everyday experiences through photos.

Effects Of Vlogger Race On Perceived Credibility, Self-Efficacy And Behavioral Intentions Towards Weight Loss, Mengmeng Tang

Dissertations - ALL

Abstract

Spokesperson race and expertise have exhibited an impact on audiences. This study examines the effect of race congruency between vlogger and audience in regards to weight loss. Using social psychology and communication theories, including Elaboration Likelihood Model, spokesperson effects, the Theory of Planned Behavior, social cognitive theory, and self-efficacy theory, the current study features independently produced vlogs (video blogs) discussing weight loss strategies. The race and expertise of the vloggers in the videos were manipulated to test the effects on perceived message and source credibility, self-efficacy towards exercising and dieting, and behavioral intentions towards exercising and dieting.

Results reveal …

What Can Parents Do? Examining The Role Of Parental Support On The Negative Relationship Between Racial Discrimination, Depression, And Drug Use Among African American Youth, Tamika C. B. Zapolski, Sycarah Fisher, Wei-Wen Hsu, Jessica Barnes

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

African American youth who experience racial discrimination are at heightened risk to use drugs as a coping response to distress. Based on the buffer-stress hypothesis, we proposed that parental support would attenuate this effect. Participants were 1,521 African American youth between 4th and 12th grade. As hypothesized, a mediation pathway was observed among racial discrimination, depression symptoms, and drug use. This effect was observed for both genders, although the pathway was partially mediated for males. In addition, as hypothesized, parental support buffered the negative effect of depression symptomatology on drug use as a consequence of discrimination. Our findings highlight the …

A Corpus-Based Comparison Of The Academic Word List And The Academic Vocabulary List, Jacob Andrew Newman

Theses and Dissertations

Research has identified the importance of academic vocabulary (e.g., Corson, 1997; Gardner, 2013; Hsueh-chao & Nation, 2000). In turn, many researchers have focused on identifying the most frequent and salient words present in academic texts across registers and presenting these words in lists, such as The Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 2000). Gardner and Davies (2014), recognizing the limitations of the AWL, have developed a new list known as The Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). This present study examines the appearance of the 570 AWL word families and the top 570 AVL word families in the Academic Textbook Corpus (ATC) – …

Taking Charge 2016: A Study Of The Strategic Budgeting Priorities Of The Residents Of Lincoln, Nebraska, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Addison Fairchild

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

This report presents the results of the 2016 Taking Charge initiative sponsored by the City of Lincoln. This initiative included an online survey and a half-day, face-to-face, Community Conversation. Most previous Taking Charge activities have focused more narrowly on the immediate concerns of an impending budget proposal (e.g. which specific programs should be funded or discontinued to maintain a balanced budget). This year’s efforts also focused on specific items relevant to the City’s future budget policy priorities. As usual, residents were also given the opportunity to rate the City’s performance and City officials on a variety of performance characteristics.

A …

Crowdsourcing Management Education Assessment, Owen P. Hall Jr, Charla Griffy-Brown

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Assessment is now at the center of the new business education zeitgeist. This focus is the direct result of feedback from the business community regarding the growing gap between their needs and graduates from many business schools. Recently this divide has fallen under even closer scrutiny because of increasing student debt and the growing controversy over return-on- investment. Today business leaders are looking for web-savvy, problem-solving graduates. To this end, AACSB and regional accrediting bodies are calling for the adoption of comprehensive collaborative learning strategies to better align graduates’ skill sets with the real needs of business. Crowdsourcing, which is …

Towards A Taxonomy Of Challenges In An Integrated It Governance Framework Implementation, Mathew Nicho, Suadad Muamaar

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

The rapid adoption of IT governance (ITG) frameworks in organizations worldwide, along with the subsequent need to select and integrate overlapping ITG frameworks has presented practitioners with challenges in choice and integration of frameworks. In this respect, the purpose of this study was to explore the ITG frameworks integration (ITGFI) challenges faced by organizations worldwide; develop and test a theory-based integrated ITG challenges (IIC) taxonomy model created from extant literature; and validate and compare these with those empirically extracted from three case studies in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The results present the audience with a taxonomy of a prioritized …

Comparative Empirical Analysis On Computer Software Piracy Behaviors Between China And The United States: An Exploratory Study, Xiang Fang, Sooun Lee

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Using the data collected from several universities in China and the United States, which have drastically different piracy rates, economic development stages, income levels, and national cultures, this study aims to identify which demographic factors affect software piracy significantly. Totally, the dataset includes 600 valid responses. Multivariate data analysis, supported by Multivariate Analysis of Variance and Turkey’s test, reveals that among various factors, country difference and gender most significantly influence software piracy. In addition, this study offers recommendations on how to curb software piracy effectively.

Characteristics Of Cannabis-Only And Other Drug Users Who Visit The Emergency Department, Susan I. Woodruff, Cameron T. Mccabe, Melinda Hohman, John D. Clapp, Audrey M. Shillington, Kimberly Eisenberg, C. Beth Sise, Edward M. Castillo, Theodore C. Chan, Michael J. Sise

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Emergency department (ED) settings have gained interest as venues for illegal drug misuse prevention and intervention, with researchers and practitioners attempting to capitalize on the intersection of need and opportunity within these settings. This study of 686 adult patients visiting two EDs for various reasons who admitted drug use compared daily cannabis-only users, nondaily cannabis-only users, and other drug users on sociodemographic and drug-related severity outcomes. The three drug use groups did not differ on most sociodemographic factors or medical problem severity scores. Forty-five percent of the sample was identified as having a drug use problem. ED patients who used …

Wartime Construction Project Outcomes As A Function Of Contract Type, Ryan M. Hoff, Gregory D. Hammond, Peter P. Feng, Edward D. White

Faculty Publications

The United States has spent more than $23 billion on construction in Afghanistan since 2001. The dynamic security situation created substantial project uncertainty, and many construction projects used cost-plus-fixed-fee contracts (CPFF) instead of the firm-fixed-price (FFP) norm. Using a dataset of 25 wartime construction projects managed by the Air Force Civil Engineer Center, the authors sought to confirm that both contract types yield project outcomes consistent with the established literature. As expected, they found CPFF contracts had greater cost and schedule growth than FFP. However, they did not find differences regarding as-built quality. Additionally, the authors sought to determine whether …

"(Don’T You) Wish You Were Here?”: Narcissism, Envy And Sharing Of Travel Photos Through Social Media: An Extended Abstract, David G. Taylor

WCBT Faculty Publications

Consumers are increasingly relying on user-generated content on social media for their awareness and subsequent decisions regarding travel destinations. This user-generated content – photos, comments, narratives and stories – is perceived by consumers to be more trustworthy and reliable compared to traditional sources of tourism information. ). Thus, understanding consumer motivations for sharing their travel through social media may provide tremendous advantage for tourism marketers.

Performing Ourselves At The Center, Shawn(Ta) Smith-Cruz

Publications and Research

This interview sits alongside an extended version edited for Amanda Curreri’s solo exhibition, The Calmest of Us Would be lunatics, which took place from January 21–May 8, 2016, at Rochester Art Center, in Rochester, Minnesota. Curreri dug through the archival collection of the Daughters of Bilitis, the first lesbian organization in the country, and their journal, The ladder, at the Tretter Collection in LGBT Studies at the University of Minnesota. The exhibition is titled after a line in Emily Dickinson’s 1877 letter to Elizabeth Holland which reads, “Had we the first intimation of the Definition of Life, the calmest of …

Evidence For Deviations From Uniform Changes In A Portuguese Watershed Illustrated By Corine Maps: An Intensity Analysis Approach, Zara Teixeira, João C. Marques, Robert Gilmore Pontius

Geography

We apply a method to evaluate the strength of the evidence for deviations from uniform land change in a coastal area, in the context of Intensity Analysis. The errors in the CORINE maps at 1990 and 2006 can influence the apparent change, but the errors are unknown because error assessment of the 1990 map has never been released, while the error of the 2006 map has been checked for only some countries. The 1990 and the 2006 maps of a coastal watershed in Portugal served as the data to compute the intensities of changes among eight categories. We evaluate the …

Collaborative Research Praxis To Establish Baseline Ecoacoustics Conditions In Gitga'at Territory, Max Ritts, Stuart H. Gage, Chris R. Picard, Ethan Dundas, Steven Dundas

Geography

This paper combines methodological discussion and scientific analysis to convey the results of an effort by the Gitga'at First Nation and academic partners to construct an acoustic baseline in Gitga'at Territory (aka. British Columbia, CA). Between June 2013 and 2014, we collected 257,327 field-recordings from eight sites as part of the Gitga'at Ecological and Cultural Monitoring Program. Our goals were: (1) to develop an acoustic baseline in a portion of Gitga'at Territory prioritized by local decision-makers, (2) to advance Gitga'at research capacity through the collaborative and reflexive structure of our approach. We argue that reorienting ecological knowledge production as praxis-based …

From Offline To Online: How Health Insurance Policies Drive The Demand For Online Healthcare Service?, Yue Yu, Qiu-Yan Mei, Qiu-Hong Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online healthcare service has gradually become a significant part of healthcare services, especially in emerging economy with shortage in medical resources and wide coverage in the Internet usage. This paper studies how health insurance policies affect the demand for online healthcare consultation by using longitudinal online healthcare and offline medical services datasets of a major city in China. The two policies we study are the integration of health insurance systems in urban and rural regions and the integration of health insurance systems between pairwise-cities. The empirical results show that both policies significantly affected the demand for online consultation. Our study …

Response To Sbp-Brims Data Challenge: Agent-Based Approach To Human Migration Movement, Lin Junjie, Larry, Kathleen M. Carley

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In this work, we attempt to address the social question of international migration, and the resulting shifts in country populations. This is achieved through the development of a country-level agent-based dynamic network model to examine shifts in population given network relations among countries, which inuences overall population change.

Behavioral Economic Analyses Of Reinforcement In The Experimental Analysis Of Human Behavior, James Allen Chastain

Theses and Dissertations

Evidence-based advances in the field of Behavior Analysis have begun to demonstrate ways in which behavioral-economic methods may provide a coherent understanding of responding and consumption of reinforcers. This dissertation extends the literature to behavioral-economic analyses of programmed video reinforcement in the experimental analysis of human behavior (EAHB), as well as a novel reinforcement arrangement for reduction of in-session duration. Three aims served to guide this study: (a) demonstrate the feasibility and utility of behavioral-economic assessments of reinforcement in EAHB, (b) extend economic predictions of unit price to video reinforcement arrangements, and (c) evaluate the utility of an exponential model …

Contributions Of Fatigue, Pain, And Functional Limitation To Future Depression In Cancer Survivors, Thomas Santo Recine

Theses and Dissertations

This study expanded upon Green (2014)’s study and examined the unique contributions of fatigue, pain, and functional limitation to future depression (depression measured at a later point in time) in cancer survivors. The findings demonstrate that functional impairment and fatigue are both strongly associated with subsequent depression. These findings follow from and are consistent with Green’s (2014) study, and demonstrate that functional impairment and fatigue strongly impact ongoing and future depression, with higher levels of functional impairment and fatigue being associated with higher levels of future depression. As a whole, the findings of this study are commensurate with prior research. …

Pathologies Of Development Practice: Higher Order Obstacles To Governance Reform In The Pakistani Electrical Power Sector, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Development actors are regularly aware of the shortcomings of governance interventions before, during, and after development assistance is introduced, yet those programmes continue and are even revisited. Why? This paper uses the Pakistani experience with power sector reforms to illustrate how the donor-led reform agenda had readily apparent shortcomings. A new wave of development thinking responds to such failures by drawing on complexity theory and moving toward more local, iterative and experimental approaches. However, by highlighting how the awareness of problems with reforms isn't sufficient to avoid them, this paper points to a higher order of obstacles which remain unaddressed.

My Own Private Library: A Peek Inside The Personal Library Of A Librarian, Amy Mcgee

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Frontmatter, Paul B. Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Historical And Cultural Implications Of Bogomilism, Maja Angelovska, Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Bogomilism represents a spiritual manifestation, dualistic in nature, of a religious expression, and a social and philosophical orientation. The essence of Bogomilism can be followed on the basis of several key postulates, such as dualism, a specific theological and dogmatic characteristic, the support of ethical principles within their social life, and finally the political dimension of teaching the determinants which rise from the overall social and political processes in medieval times. The aim of this article is to present the historical and cultural aspects of this movement, which left visible traces in the spiritual culture of Macedonia, Balkans, and Byzantium.

Review Of Sergeev's "Theory Of Religious Cycles: Tradition, Modernity, And The Bahá’Í Faith", Maria Kaplun

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Temperament And Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia As Contributors To Externalizing Behavior Among Early Adolescents, Tyler Laney Ph.D.

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

The current study examines the relationship between temperament and physiological models of externalizing behavior to externalizing behavior in a community sample of early adolescents. The psychophysiological component of vagal tone, as measured by respirator sinus arrhythmia (RSA), is used with an emphasis placed on distinguishing between its function as a state versus trait measure of parasympathetic nervous system activity. Negative affectivity (NA) is proposed as a general risk factor for psychopathology. Emotion regulation, as indexed by effortful control (EC) and basal RSA, is hypothesized to function as a mediator between NA and externalizing behavior. A moderated mediation model is then …

Un/Desirable Subjects: South Asian Racialization In The Age Of Terror, Santhosh Chandrashekar

Communication ETDs

This dissertation examines South Asian racialization in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. Using a comparative racialization framework, it proposes South Asian racialization as entangled with neo-orientalism, anti-Blackness, and settler colonialism which Andrea Smith (2006, 2012) has called the three pillars of white supremacy and undergirded by heteropatriarchy. An examination of the Oak Creek shooting and the discourses surrounding it demonstrated that neo-orientalism rendered Sikh Americans as interchangeable with Muslims by constituting them as 'Muslim-looking' (Ahmad, 2004), even as it coerced the former to instantiate their difference from Muslims through an aggressive performance of heterosexual patriotism and by reducing …

Pengentasan Orang Miskin Di Indonesia: Peran Modal Sosial Yang Terlupakan, Sofyan Yamin, Teguh Dartanto

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

The government has a dominance role and heavily focused on economic approach in poverty alleviaton in Indonesia. Poverty rate has been reduced, but not in significant way. Revitalization of poverty alleviation programs by promoting non-economic such as social capital becomes important. This study aims to analyze the role of social capital related to the bonding and bridging dimension in promoting poverty alleviation and protecting the poor from vulnerability. Based on the study, the bonding and bridging dimension has showed the significant effect to decrease the vulnerability and pulled out the poor from the poverty line.