Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Interpersonal And Ideological Kindness: A Biocultural Approach, Sally Averitt-Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In accordance with Richard Dawkins’ materialist “selfish gene” theory of human behavior, altruism is a subject matter that is treated conservatively by biologists, whose understanding of the human version of altruism tends toward mutualistic and sometimes reputation-based explanations of charity, kindness, and helping. Trivers (1971) first stated that non-kin altruism could evolve if altruistic behavior is balanced between partners over time, implicating a strictly mutualistic domain for kindness. But kindness herein is defined, beyond mere mutualism or reciprocity, as “the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.” Further, kindness tends to have an action-oriented dimension, as in Goetz et al.’s …

The Salvadoran Struggle: A Transnational Resistance Against Imperialism, Erik Villalobos

Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies Honors Program

No abstract provided.

Guatemalan Youth And Education: Family, Environment, And Dropping Out, Katie Grasso

Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies Honors Program

Guatemalan education, in rural and urban areas throughout the 21^st century, has gone through various fluctuations and has been studied by numerous scholars including Adelman Ainsworth, Bassi et. al, Behrman, Crane, Davis, Rogers, Tumen, and Yount who all study different aspects of education including parental investment, neighborhood life, family life, parental migration, poverty and class issues, and other interdisciplinary aspects of these issues. This project focuses on how sociocultural aspects, like family and environment, effect middle and secondary school dropout rates in both rural and urban Guatemala throughout the 21^st century for children ages 13 to 18. In …

Free Trade Does Not Free People, Ernesto Porcari

Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino Studies Honors Program

The following paper is in attempt reveal, analyze and explain the effects the North American Free Trade Agreement specifically along the US-Mexican border region. Starting with the agreement itself, the ratification, and the elements surrounding its implementation, this paper will then move through analyzing the quantitative and qualitative effects NAFTA has had along the border region of the United States and Mexico. Taking those effects, the comparison enshrined in the title: whether free trade frees people (free as in a better life) will be tested and analyzed for a possible grading the results of NAFTA has had. Finally, the future …

The Legacy Of The Historic Canal System In Central New York: Evaluation Of Cultural Ecosystem Services In The Lower Mohawk River, Ny, Madison Corbeil

Geography and Planning

The canal system of New York State served as a catalyst for industry and generated a significant amount of revenue over the course of its useful life as a public work. However, with the emergence of faster, more efficient methods of transport, much of the canal was abandoned or filled during the early 1900’s.While these portions of the canal no longer offer their former economic value as a trade route, the land they once inhabited continues to serve the surrounding communities in a variety of ways. This paper in particular focuses on the Cultural Ecosystem Services provided by the land …

Are Jurors’ Judgments About Confessions Affected By Juvenile Defendant Race?, Lisa Dobrowolsky

Criminal Justice

This research is focused on understanding jurors’ beliefs about how much weight juvenile defendants’ confessions should be given, especially when the confessions were coerced. This is an important topic because adolescents are vulnerable and at risk for producing false confessions. Because of their age and other developmental factors, they can sometimes be coerced by police during interrogation to admit to crimes they did not commit. Once a confession is obtained, it can be very persuasive to jurors because it is hard for them to believe that someone would admit to a crime they did not commit. This can lead to …

Human Trafficking In The Wake Of Natural Disasters: Is The United States Any Different Than Third World Countries?, Samantha Stout

Accounting Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research compares the impacts of devastating natural disasters on levels of human trafficking in developed countries to the impacts experienced in third world countries. The two disasters selected for this study were Hurricane Isaac in Louisiana and the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia. Factors selected to measure the impacts of the natural disaster include income level, homelessness, and unemployment rates.

Human trafficking is a crime that touches nearly every country around the world. It is known that human trafficking levels are impacted by factors including poverty levels of regions, political unrest, and even natural disasters. There is …

Throughput Of The Strategic National Stockpile Points Of Distribution, Maryann Fenwick

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background and Significance

In the event of a national public health emergency, FEMA has a 48-hour timeline between the declaration of the emergency and the treatment of the last person in need of medical countermeasures (CDC, 2016b; Fisk, 2015; The National Academies of Sciences, 2017). The staff of the health department only is not enough to get the medications dispensed in the 48-hour requirement (CDC, n.d.). Senior nursing students are uniquely suited to fill the gap as they are not currently obliged to report to work as a nurse in emergent times and they have training that qualifies them to …

Cover, Amy Morton

Missouri Policy Journal

No abstract provided.

Nationalize Or Localize: Senatorial Incumbent And Challenger Differences In Issue Prioritization, Joshua Rosenberg

Senior Theses

How do politicians choose which issues to emphasize in an election? Studying campaign behavior is crucial to understanding how political ads target voters and prioritize issues. Senate candidates normally attempt to either nationalize the election or emphasize state issues in their campaigns. How do Senate incumbent and challenger candidates differ in terms of issue prioritization? I hypothesize the challengers attempt to nationalize the election, while the incumbents generally focus their efforts on state issues. Political conventional wisdom indicates challengers typically try to nationalize the election by attempting to criticize the incumbent for either supporting or voting against the current presidential …

Analyzing Housing Demand And Its Role In The U.S. Economy, Irina Ayzenberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the most recent economic downturn, caused by the burst of the housing bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis, the housing market took a direct hit: mortgage default rates were over 10 percent, housing prices fell 35 percent from 2005 to 2009, more than 5 million homes were foreclosed since 2008, and interest rates hit rock-bottom. In response, the U.S. Federal Reserve adopted aggressive expansionary monetary policies to get the economy back on track, some of which are in effect today. In order to really understand the state and direction of the U.S. economy today, we need to better understand …

Essays On The Transmission Of Risk And Volatility Across International Financial Markets, Evan Warshaw

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation consists of three distinct but related chapters studying the behavior of international financial markets. Chapter 1 explores volatility spillovers between European equity and foreign exchange markets from 2009 until 2016. In contrast to traditional empirical methods, this study uses realized volatility estimates to analyze causal linkages across the frequency domain. Volatility spillovers are tested using the CAC 40, DAX, and FTSE 100 equity indices and the USD/GBP, USD/EUR, and GBP/EUR exchange rates. Results show that volatility spillovers are bidirectional and asymmetric across the frequency domain. Daily volatility spillover from equity to foreign exchange markets is significant at high, …

Plant Community Composition And Structure Monitoring At Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, 2017 Data Summary Report, Stephanie L. Rockwood

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract

This report presents the results of vegetation monitoring efforts in 2017 at Agate Fossil Beds National Monument (AGFO) by the Northern Great Plains Inventory and Monitoring Network (NGPN) and the Northern Great Plains Fire Effects Program (NGPFire). This was the seventh year of field work conducted by NGPN at AGFO.

In 2017, crew members from NGPN visited six long-term plant community monitoring (PCM) plots and NGPFire visited eight additional PCM and fire plant community monitoring (FPCM) plots to collect data on the plant communities at AGFO. This collaborative effort is part of a long-term monitoring program established to better …

The Effect Of Idiomatic Language On Event Processing, Katrina Turick

Honors Scholar Theses

Mental representations of object states are necessary to keep track of changing objects in the world. When the object undergoes change and there are two representations, it creates competition between the object states. This is seen in sentences during which an object changes and is then subsequently referred to again (e.g. “The chef will chop the onion. And then, he will sniff the onion.”). When there is a larger degree of change between the states of the object, there is more competition, which is indicated by an increase in reading time when the object is referred to for the second …

A Guide To The Multiple Errands Test, Carly Jessup

Honors Theses

Executive function plays an important role in everyday life skills such as planning, organizing, controlling and sustaining attention, and socializing. Until recently, executive function was measured almost exclusively using laboratory-based assessments. However, many participants would score satisfactorily on those laboratory assessments, while having significant difficulty with activities of daily living. A potential solution to this issue is the Multiple Errands Test (MET), which is an ecologically valid assessment that can help predict performance of everyday life skills. The MET is a flexible assessment that can be modified in order to fit the needs of the setting and patient. Indeed, many …

A Content Analysis Of Lgbt Representation On Broadcast And Streaming Television, Carson Cook

Honors Theses

This content analysis of nine television shows from the 2016-2017 season across broadcast and streaming platforms seeks to understand the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender characters. The study updates a content analysis published in 2006 by Amber Raley and Jennifer Lucas that studied the 2001 television season. This study aims to understand how the representation of LGBT characters on television has changed since 2001, how representation of bisexual and transgender characters differs from homosexual characters, and how representation on streaming platforms differs from broadcast shows. The findings suggest that representation of bisexual and transgender characters has increased since …

Community Strain And Familial Dysfunction: The Influence Of County Characteristics On Child Maltreatment, Katherine Mobley

Honors Theses

Child maltreatment does not happen equally across communities. Instead, in some places it is nearly non-existent (less than 1 out of every 11000 children) while in others it is experienced by nearly 10% of the population. This research examined how demographic factors relate to the rate of child abuse and neglect at the county level and found that a decline in economic stability, lack of post-secondary education, an inability to reach financial stability, and the rate of drug usage in a county significantly contributed to the child maltreatment rate. Durkheim’s Theory of Anomie and Merton and Agnew’s Strain Theories were …

Aging In Beverly, Massachusetts: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin Coyle, Claire Wickersham, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the Beverly Council on Aging and Senior Community Center (hereto referred to as the Beverly Senior Center), to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Beverly’s population of residents who are age 60 and older. The contents of this report are meant to inform the Beverly Senior Center, and organizations that work with and on behalf of older residents of Beverly, for the purposes of planning and coordination of services, but …

Building A Smart Nation: Singapore’S Digital Journey, Siu Loon Hoe

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The journey towards smart city status is a strong global trend as governments around the world strive to harness technology to improve the quality of life for their citizens (United Nations, 2016). The widespread phenomenon of becoming “smart” is a key topic of discussion and research that continues to change as new digital technologies develop (Ishkineeva et al., 2015). The smart cities theme is important because it explores how governments, as providers of public goods, harness digital technologies to improve the lives of citizens around the world in the present and the future.

Understanding The Effects Of Taxi Ride-Sharing: A Case Study Of Singapore, Yazhe Wang, Baihua Zheng, Ee Peng Lim

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper studies the effects of ride-sharing among those calling on taxis in Singapore for similar origin and destination pairs at nearly the same time of day. It proposes a simple yet practical framework for taxi ride-sharing and scheduling, to reduce waiting times and travel times during peak demand periods. The solution method helps taxi users save money while helping taxi drivers serve multiple requests per day, thus increasing their earnings. A comprehensive simulation study is conducted, based on real taxi booking data for the city of Singapore, to evaluate the effect of various factors of the ride-sharing practice, e.g., …

Big Data For Climate Change Actions And The Paradox Of Citizen Informedness, Kustini Lim-Wavde, Robert J. Kauffman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Advanced sensor technology, social media, and other information technologies have provided us with “big data” on climate change. Due to the World Meteorological Organization’s Global Climate Observing System, climate observations and records, as well as discussions on climate-related concerns such as measurement of air temperature, are widely available now. The United Nations’ Global Pulse visualises public engagement on climate change globally, with data such as the volume of climate-related tweets. Big data, data analytics, and the sharing of scientific results in the popular press have created, as a result, an unprecedented level of citizen informedness—the degree to which citizens have …

Representations Of Mainstream And Marginalized Subjects In The Work Of Diane Arbus, Grace Short

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

This thesis considers the photographs of the twentieth-century photographer, Diane Arbus. In America during the 1950s and 60s, Arbus photographed both marginalized and mainstream subjects including dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, debutants, socialites, and celebrities. At one point in her career, she expressed an interest in family portraiture and, indeed, a number of her images depict families.

Scholars who have written about Arbus, such as Susan Sontag, Carol Armstrong, Anthony W. Lee, and John Pultz, have formulated theories about Arbus’s motivations, although their findings focus on individual features of her work. Sontag argued that Arbus exploited her unorthodox sitters whereas Armstrong …

Religious Advisors' Mental Illness Stigma: Pentecostal Attributions, Krista Kirk

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Some individuals, who subscribe to religious beliefs, often prefer to seek help from religious advisors when addressing mental health issues rather than seek help from mental health professionals. Although these religious advisors do not believe they have received adequate training to support individuals with these issues, they will still attempt to counsel them without the help of mental health professionals. One particular issue both types of practitioner face is the increase of the addictive qualities associated with problematic pornography use. The representation of the addictive qualities in problematic pornography use is a widespread concern, especially in religious communities, and mental …

2017 Economic Impact Of Companies Funded And/Or Assisted By The Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurial Service Provider Program, Candi Clouse, Ira Demko, Nicholas C. Zingale

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The 2018 report on the economic impact of companies funded and/or assisted by the Northeast Ohio Entrepreneurial Services Provider Program (ESP) shows findings and evidence of the growth of the supported firms over time. These companies not only have a significant workforce and expenditures, they also have a total of 2,313 issued patents and 6,777 patents pending. In 2017 alone, there were 891 issued patents and 920 patents pending.

The ESP is a collaborative entrepreneurial support network funded in part by Ohio Third Frontier that includes accelerators, incubators, angel funds, and other organizations dedicated to commercializing technologies and fostering promising …

How Public Transit Agencies Maintain Regulatory Compliance While Using Transportation Network Companies, Aaron Vogel

Master's Projects

The recent rise of Transportation Network Companies (TNC) has prompted some public transit agencies to collaborate with them to enhance their mobility options. Agencies around the country in cities like Pinellas Park, Fla., Boston, Mass., Dallas, TX and Livermore, Calif. are using TNCs as a part of their service delivery model to offer paratransit services, first and last mile solutions and general transit. This research focuses on the following questions:

1. How do public transit agencies adhere to regulatory requirements when implementing TNCs into their service plan?
2. Have agencies been challenged by any state or federal regulatory agencies on non-compliance by …

California Redevelopment 2.0: Implementation Of Community Revitalization And Investment Authorities, Christopher Hoem

Master's Projects

This research aims at revealing the challenges and opportunities in implementing Community Revitalization and Investment Authorities (CRIAs) in California.

This study will focus on the implementation of CRIAs, but it is worth examining alternative economic development tools to draw comprehensive comparisons and understand their advantages and disadvantages.

Understanding economic development tools may be valuable for the commercial and industrial growth and prosperity of cities and local governments. It may also be important to increase the number of affordable housing units in an area. Businesses and low-income families alike share the benefits of successful redevelopment. It may be possible to reveal …

San Jose's Walk N' Roll Program: An Evaluation Of School Pedestrian Education Programs, Stephen Ngo

Master's Projects

The City of San Jose has been recognized as among the safest cities in the United States, but an area that the city seeks to improve in is reducing the number of traffic accidents involving pedestrians and bicyclists. As stated by the city, “San Jose’s injury crash rate is about half the national average” (Vision Zero San Jose, 2015, p. 6), but, on average, 40 people are killed annually and 150 are seriously injured on San Jose’s streets. To address this, San Jose is using data, education, and technology to make a shift towards creating streets and roads that benefit …

Smarter Crm From A Customer Service Perspective: A Process Evaluation On The City Of San José'S My San Jose Smartphone Application For City Services, Roxanna Moradi

Master's Projects

This research paper provides background on the City of San José’s smart phone application history and reviews other similar municipal smart phone applications. It also analyzes current literature on implementations of non-emergency service communications and service requests (311). Primarily, this research paper investigates whether the functioning of the My San Jose smartphone application and website platforms are meeting the intended goal of improving the customer experience for city services.

This paper analyzes My San Jose raw service request data to review performance. In addition, this paper analyzes qualitative information gathered from semi-structured interviews of City of San José employees to …

Police Response To Mental Health-Related Calls For Service In The City Of Watsonville: A Process Evaluation Of The City Of Watsonville’S Plan To Assist Their Officers When Responding To Citizens With Mental Health Issues, Joseph Perez

Master's Projects

Police officers respond to a variety of calls for service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including mental-health related emergencies. With deinstitutionalization of individuals with severe mental illness, officers are often the first to be called to contact these individuals when they are in crisis (DeCuir, Lamb & Weinberger, 2002). Yet, few law enforcement officers have adequate training to manage interactions with people in mental health crisis. Officers perceive mental health related calls as very unpredictable and dangerous, which without adequate training in de-escalation, could inadvertently cause them to approach in a manner which escalates the situation (Fulambarker …

Cycling Into The Future: Implementation Of Enhanced Bikeways Along San Fernando Street In Downtown San Jose, Patrick Rubens

Master's Projects

In 2012, the City of San Jose acquired funding from the Transportation for Livable Communities Grant Program and began installing “green striped” enhanced bicycle lanes on a 1.5 mile stretch San Fernando Street between Diridon Station and 10th Street connecting San Jose’s Downtown Train Station to San Jose State University. According to city documents, these enhanced bikeways are intended to “enhance the visibility and safety of this route as a primary bikeway.” An important element of the project was the installation of LED streetlights to improve nighttime visibility. This specific project undertaken by the city falls under the umbrella of …