Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Urban Accessibility Measurement And Visualization — A Big Data Approach, Yuqin Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

Accessibility measurement has always been an important question in different areas including transportation, urban planning, politics, and sociology. However, how to measure transportation accessibility in different areas have been limited to data availability and technology. Recently, with increasing availability in public transportation data, we found a gap between current methods and large volume of data now available. This thesis developed a new method to measure multi-mode transportation data, including taxi, bus, and subway. Based on this measurement, we can visualize and understand the spatiotemporal patterns of accessibility in New York City (NYC). With historical travel records and public transit schedule, …

Academic Library Behaviors And Perceptions Of A Community College’S Distance Learners, Cantrell Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Over 1,200 community colleges nationwide enroll over ten million students each year, with more than one in four of these students taking some of their courses at a distance. Many of these post-secondary institutions also struggle to retain and graduate students enrolled as distance learners. In a continuing effort to address college completion gaps, research attempts to identify barriers to success and provide insights on how to decrease college completion gaps. Given post-secondary education’s increased focus on students’ use of resources beyond the classroom, a logical line of exploration is the link between academic library usage and library aptitudes and …

A Conceptual Framework On Self-Employment In Later Life: Toward A Research Agenda, Cal J. Halvorsen, Nancy Morrow-Howell

Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Older adults consistently have a higher rate of self-employment than their younger counterparts, and the rates of self-employment among workers continue to rise as age increases from the “young old” to the “old old.” However, we know relatively little about why older adults decide to pursue self-employment in later life, the self-employment experience itself, and the individual and societal outcomes of this growing type of work. Additionally, we know very little about how age itself is a factor in the decision to pursue this type of work in later life, how age impacts the type of self-employment pursued and its …

Veteran Care In New Hampshire: Analysis Of Interest Group Theory, Samantha D. Leiper

Honors Theses and Capstones

Veteran care in New Hampshire, while comparatively adequate, is a policy field that deserves additional attention. This thesis discusses some of the struggles of this population, and how efforts by a variety of actors, such as government agents, charities, and benevolent individuals, aim to help. The successes of these actors are evidenced through an analysis of interest group theory, which depicts the importance of collaboration in policy-making. Additionally, the political climate of New Hampshire is explored as a platform of change, based upon characteristics of strong Senatorial involvement, robust healthcare and non-profit infrastructure, and first-in-the-nation primary status.

Collaborative Practices Among Professionals In Special Education Workplaces, Shannon Lynne Coughlin

Honors Theses and Capstones

The aim of this study is to examine collaborative relationships existing among professionals working in special education and specifically the relationships between school-based speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and elementary school classroom teachers. A survey was administered to classroom teachers in New Hampshire. The first part of the survey asked teachers their opinions regarding the extent to which SLPs should be collaborating with teachers. The second part of the survey asked teachers to estimate how often they engaged in collaborative practices with the SLP currently working in their school. Results indicated that teachers would prefer SLPs to spend significantly more time in …

More Than Food: An Analysis Of Multidimensional Relationships In Our Food System, Jessica Erin Newnan

Honors Theses and Capstones

Food is an integral part of everyday life for human beings, thus meriting particular attention from research and education. Looking further in depth at the factors that influence food, it becomes apparent that this is a complex topic that is related to several systems within the constructs of society. Here, the food system is approached with the understanding that several systems influence food consumption options and decisions including the agricultural, economic, education, energy, health, and political systems. To identify the relationships more closely, a three-dimensional model was built to represent the food system and depict several key factors, their relationships, …

Boldness And Natural Behaviors In The African Lion (Panthera Leo): How Are They Related?, Courtney M. Kamyk

Honors Theses and Capstones

The African lion (Panthera leo) population is diminishing rapidly, approximately 43% since 1993 (Bauer et al., 2016. The species is currently listed as vulnerable by the IUCN (Bauer et al., 2016). With numerous threats to current populations including human conflict, prey depletion and habitat loss the African lion is in danger of becoming endangered or even critically endangered in the near future. Ex-situ conservation is a proposed method of restoring populations. The current study focuses on correlations of boldness with natural behaviors and sociality to further understand individual personality in hopes of connecting it with success after reintroduction. …

What Can Research On Nonhumans Tell Us About Human Dissonance?, Jennifer Vonk

Animal Sentience

Zentall’s thoughtful review of the literature on cognitive dissonance in nonhumans helps to highlight the common finding that similar outcomes in humans and nonhumans can be attributed to different underlying mechanisms. I advocate a more fully comparative approach to the underlying mechanisms, avoiding the assumption of shared processes in humans and nonhumans.

Choice-Induced Preference: A Challenge For Contrast, Benjamin R. Eisenreich, Benjamin Y. Hayden

Animal Sentience

In his target article, Zentall asks: “to experience cognitive dissonance is it necessary for one to have conflicting beliefs or even beliefs at all?” He then argues that a simple behavioral process, the Within Trial Contrast Effect, may be sufficient to explain observed cognitive dissonance effects in nonhuman animals and possibly humans as well. We agree with Zentall that this effect is sufficient to explain many reported cognitive dissonance effects in nonhuman animals, but question its sufficiency for primate behavior (both monkeys and humans).

Reductionism And Accounts Of Cognitive Dissonance, Kent D. Bodily

Animal Sentience

Zentall (2016) proposed within-trial contrast as an alternative account of cognitive dissonance with greater parsimony and generalizability between human and nonhuman species. This commentary describes forms of reductionism, categorizes several competing accounts of cognitive dissonance phenomena, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses according to the reductionist form each account takes. A focus on functional relations may make explanation more parsimonious while bridging theoretical divides between human and nonhuman research programs.

To Identify All The Relevant Factors Is To Explain Feeling, Arthur S. Reber

Animal Sentience

Several additional comments on Reber (2016a) have appeared. Like those addressed in Reber (2016b), they reflect points of agreement and disagreement on various elements of my Cellular Basis of Consciousness (CBC) model. Some, however, seem to have missed key points. I'm willing to take some responsibility for this. Perhaps I was not clear about some of the more radical points of the model. Hopefully the case-by-case review here will help.

Extending Time Series Forecasting Methods Using Functional Principal Components Analysis, Isaac Michael Wagner-Muns

Masters Theses

"Traffic volume forecasts are used by many transportation analysis and management systems to better characterize and react to fluctuating traffic patterns. Most current forecasting methods do not take advantage of the underlying functional characteristics of the time series to make predictions. This paper presents a methodology that uses Functional Principal Components Analysis (FPCA) to create smooth and differentiable daily traffic forecasts. The methodology is validated with a data set of 1,813 days of 15 minute aggregated traffic volume time series. Both the FPCA based forecasts and the associated prediction intervals outperform traditional Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) based methods"--Abstract, …

Facebook And Value Congruence, Andrew James Eyberg

Masters Theses

"The current discussion on the use of social networking sites (SNS) in personnel selection is mixed at best. The present research utilized participant's Facebook profiles to determine if raters can correctly - and accurately evaluate work value dimensions as a measure of person-organization fit. Similar research was successful in capturing personality dimensions via SNS (Buffardi & Campbell, 2009). Additionally, the value dimensions of the current measure used -- the Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) (O'Reilly et al., 1991) has been correlated with aspects of personality. Rater participants (N=105). Every five raters were randomly assigned five profiles to rate, for a total …

Communicating With Customers On Social Media In The United States And South Korea: An Analysis Of Four Companies' Practices, Yeonkyung Lee

Masters Theses

"In this study, I analyzed four companies' Facebook and Twitter posts to study the similarities and differences of American and Korean businesses' communication practices on social media. The study used a qualitative research method: each Facebook and Twitter post was assigned as a unit and coded. Southwest Airlines, General Electric, Asiana Airlines, and Samsung Electronics were selected, and a total of 402 Facebook posts and 465 Tweets from July 6 to September 5, 2016, were collected. Each post was coded by two coders under three coding categories: post-content, medium, and Aristotle's pisteis. After the data was coded, I analyzed each …

Perceptions Of Transgender Populations: An Educational Module To Increase Knowledge And Reduce Negative Attitudes, Dacia Kay Oberhelman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Individuals who identify as transgender experience subtle and direct forms of negative attitudes and discrimination. These attitudes and discrimination remain despite the large improvement in attitudes toward sexual minorities over the last few decades. Recent research related to transgender populations largely focuses on examining the existing attitudes, rather than attempts to reduce these negative attitudes. In the current study, we aimed to increase knowledge about transgender populations and reduce negative attitudes (e.g., Social Distance, Negative Affective, and Attitudes Toward Transgender Populations) by employing an online psychoeducational intervention module. This study assessed a 25-minute online psychoeducational module designed to increase knowledge …

Estimating Energy Fluxes And Evapotranspiration Of Corn And Soybean With An Unmanned Aircraft System In Ames, Iowa, Áthila Gevaerd Montibeller

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a key hydrological variable and has been studies to plan irrigation schedule, understand surface-atmospheric interactions, assess crop sensitivity to droughts, etc. On top of that, ET is a proxy for evaluating water availability in trees canopies and assess soil moisture content. The recent advent of the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) has presented new opportunities and challenges in mapping ET at a much finer scale and under various atmospheric conditions. In this research, we integrate traditional remote sensing techniques with the novel UAS technology to estimate ET and surface energy fluxes for a corn and soybean field near …

Gender Differences In Cognitive Dissonance Reduction Strategies For Partner's Physical Attractiveness, Lijing Ma

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Physical attractiveness is an important standard for mate selection for both men and women (Langlois et al., 2000). However, men may care more about their partners’ physical attractiveness than do women (Feingold, 1990). This study applied cognitive dissonance theory (Festinger, 1957) to physical attractiveness in mate selection. Not everyone can find a partner who is as attractive as he or she would ideally like, so this may create cognitive dissonance between their attitudes and behavior. Cognitive dissonance theory suggests that people try to reduce uncomfortable feelings caused by the differences between their attitudes and behaviors (Festinger, 1957). Because men care …

Virtual Collaboration Effectiveness In Multi-Organization Projects: Tool Usability, Task Alignment And Team Connectivity, Zhaojun Yang, Jun Sun, Yali Zhang, Ying Wang

Information Systems Faculty Publications

As mobile instant messaging (IM) has become the fastest-growing social media (e.g. WeChat, WhatsApp), this study investigates the use of it as a virtual collaboration tool in multi-organization projects. The understanding of the relationships among tool, task and team in technology-facilitated collaboration leads to the integration of technology acceptance model, task-technology fit model and network externality framework into a research model. Tool usability, task fit and team connectivity are hypothesized to have direct and indirect effects on virtual collaboration effectiveness. The results based on survey observations collected from multi-organization project teams using WeChat in China support most of the hypothesized …

Process-Based Modelling Shows How Climate And Demography Shape Language Diversity, Michael C. Gavin, Thiago F. Rangel, Claire Bowern, Robert K. Colwell, Kathryn R. Kirby, Carlos A. Botero, Michael Dunn, Robert R. Dunn, Joe Mccarter, Marco Tulio Pacheco Coelho, Russell D. Gray

Biology Faculty Research

Aim

Two fundamental questions about human language demand answers: why are so many languages spoken today and why is their geographical distribution so uneven? Although hypotheses have been proposed for centuries, the processes that determine patterns of linguistic and cultural diversity remain poorly understood. Previous studies, which relied on correlative, curve-fitting approaches, have produced contradictory results. Here we present the first application of process-based simulation modelling, derived from macroecology, to examine the distribution of human groups and their languages.

Location

The Australian continent is used as a case study to demonstrate the power of simulation modelling for identifying processes shaping …

La Representacion De “Raza” En La Literatura Escolar Y Juvenil Norteamericana Del Siglo Xix, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

Este documento relata cómo las razas angloamericana, amerindia y negra estuvieron representadas en libros de texto de la escuela primaria y na literatura juvenil en el siglo XIX. Una muestra de textos de geografía, historia y lectura, y revistas juveniles y infantiles publicadas entre 1790 y 1890 fueron examinadas para determinar cómo se representaron las tres razas. También se presenta información adicional de publicaciones para adultos y científicas para proporcionar un contexto para las opiniones expresadas en los libros de texto y la literatura relacionada. Con base en la información transmitida en las publicaciones, se identificaron y discutieron brevemente conceptos …

Dual Task Testing Of The Adaptive Combination View In Spatial Reorientation, Donald G. Sullens

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

If an organism is trained to approach a location within an enclosure the organism will approach the correct location and it’s geometrically identical location within the environment upon removal of any features. This phenomenon has been turned spatial reorientation, and further studies on how, and to what, organisms reorient have conducted in the last several decades. In the reorientation literature, two theories have surfaced to fill the void left by the rejection of the initial reorientation theory, the Geometric Module theory. I attempt look to discern if the synonym judgement dual task will hinder reorientation in a similar or different …

Savannah's Ethnic Irish Neighborhoods In The Nineteenth Century: A Historical Multimethod Examination, Sarah A. Ryniker

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to identify residency patterns and neighborhoods for Savannah-Irish immigrants in the mid-nineteenth century. Using a multimethod approach, this thesis explores historical, social, and economic factors that influenced settlement patterns and cultivated the conditions for an Irish-American identity, particularly in two neighborhoods, Old Fort and Yamacraw. Guided by Yancey et al.’s (1976) emergent ethnicity theory, this study uses archival materials, as well as chi-square tests for association, and the 1860 Federal Census of Chatham County, Georgia, to geolocate Irish immigrants. With an emphasis on County Wexford, Ireland, the results suggest residency was associated with Irish …

Rrh Library Newsletter, January 2017, Libraries At Rochester Regional Health

Rochester Regional Health authored publications and proceedings

Newsletter sections include: Human Trafficking

Development Of The Framework For A Lean, Energy Efficient, And Environmentally Friendly Port: Umm Qasr Port As A Case Study, Safaa A.J. Alfayyadh

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

The research focus is to examine rigorously how the implementation of Lean within the Umm Qasr Port improves the operation processes and to explore the Lean impact on environment improvement and energy efficiency management. In this research, the ROPMEE model has been developed by the researcher to evaluate the service quality in the cargo delivery process in the Port of Umm Qasr as it covers all the functional and non-functional areas in the cargo delivery process compared to other quality dimensions. The findings confirm that the process quality dimension is the most influential factor in service quality in the Port …

Virtual Aids To Navigation, R. Glenn Wright

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

There are many examples of master, bridge crew and pilot errors in navigation causing grounding under adverse circumstances that were known and published in official notices and records. Also dangerous are hazards to navigation resulting from dynamic changes within the marine environment, inadequate surveys and charts. This research attempts to reduce grounding and allision incidents and increase safety of navigation by expanding mariner situational awareness at and below the waterline using new technology and developing methods for the creation, implementation and display of Virtual Aids to Navigation (AtoN) and related navigation information. This approach has widespread significance beyond commonly encountered …

บทบรรณาธิการ, บรรณาธิการ

Journal of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

ยุทธศาสตร์ความมั่นคงญี่ปุ่นกับความยืดหยุ่นในกรอบเครื่องมือเดิม: การจับคู่ตีความใหม่สมัยหลังสงครามเย็น, ธีวินท์ สุพุทธิกุล

Journal of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Decolonial Epistemology And The Future Of Thai Ir Theory, Chyatat Supachalasai

Journal of Social Sciences

This article aims to propose decolonial epistemology derived from an intellectual development of critical Latin American thinkers by suggesting it as a crucial lesson for the future development of Thai International Relations (IR) theory. It begins by addressing the limitations of postcolonial theory, and arguing that postcolonial theory does not connect its intellectual implications to the traumatised beings, either human beings or non-human beings, globally. Arguably, postcolonial theory is not instrumental for the construction of non-Western IR theories, including Thai IR theory. Therefore, the article deviates from postcolonial theory to highlight what Ramón Grosfoguel calls 'decolonial turn', a decolonisation from …

เส้นทางตอนใต้ของผู้อพยพชาวเกาหลีเหนือ: พลวัตและปัญหา, อักษราภัค ชัยปะละ

Journal of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

ความหลากหลายกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์กับการพัฒนาเศรษฐกิจชายแดนในอำเภอแม่สาย จังหวัดเชียงราย, ปรีชา อุปโยคิน, พลวัฒ ประพัฒน์ทอง, ภัทรา ชลดำรงค์กุล

Journal of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.