Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining Public Opinion About Lgbtq-Related Issues In The United States And Across Multiple Nations, Amy Adamczyk, Yen-Chiao Liao

Publications and Research

Over the last three decades many countries across the world, including the United States, have experienced major increases in support for LGBTQ individuals and related issues. In part related to these changes a number of studies have examined the factors shaping public opinion. In this review we focus on four major areas of research on public opinion in this field of study. We first assess the terms that scholars typically use when examining attitudes and highlight the areas of public opinion research that have received the most attention. We then focus on the data and measurement challenges related to examining …

Let Us Forget This Cherishing Of Women In Library Work: Women In The American Library War Service, 1918-1920, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Marilla Waite Freeman: The Librarian As Literary Muse, Gatekeeper, And Disseminator Of Print Culture, Suzanne Marie Stauffer

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Examining The Interaction Of State And Trait Anxiety On Working Memory Performance, Carly C. Moore

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

Latino Students And The Academic Library: A Primer For Action, Marta Bladek

Publications and Research

As the growth in Latino college enrollment is expected to continue for years to come, academic libraries at Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) and beyond will be serving increasing numbers of Hispanic students. Since Latino educational attainment remains lower than than of other groups and academic libraries’ impact on retention, GPA and related educational outcomes has been well documented, it is crucial that academic libraries actively foster Latino students’ success. A review of the literature on Hispanic students and library use, the article also includes recommendations for practice and offers a local example to illustrate strategies libraries may implement to better …

Gender Competency In Public Administration Education, Nicole Elias, Maria J. D’Agostino

Publications and Research

Sex and gender are evolving identity categories with emergent public policy and administration needs. To respond to the diverse landscape of sex and gender issues in the public sector, greater competency is needed. This research will contribute to the body of work on sex and gender in public administration by asking the following questions: (a) what do graduate students in Master of Public Administration (MPA) programs know about gender competency, (b) have graduate students learned gender competency in their MPA coursework, and (c) how can gender competency in MPA education be further developed and promoted? This study provides a critical …

Bibliometrics For Faculty Evaluation: A Statistical Comparison Of H-Indexes Generated Using Google Scholar And Web Of Science Data, David J. Dunaway

Faculty Publications

The growing need for quantification of research performance for promotion and tenure

and grant funding decisions has lead many to rely on citation metrics. There are many metrics to choose from but one of the most common is the h-index. While the h-index has been criticized by many, the metric itself is not the only concern. The source of the citation information used to calculate the h-index is also important. In this case study the h-index was calculated using citation data from Clarivate’s Web of Science (WoS) and Google Scholar (GS) for a selection of faculty working at a large …

A Proposed Framework For The Evaluation Of Academic Librarian Scholarship, Rachel Borchardt, Polly Boruff-Jones, Sigrid Kelsey, Jennifer Matthews

Faculty Publications

The ACRL Impactful Scholarship and Metrics Task Force has created a framework draft that is designed to help librarians and libraries contextualize their impact within academic librarianship. To create this framework, the task force studied existing disciplinary models, institutional guidelines, and surveyed academic librarians. The task force discovered few standard practices regarding impact measurement from disciplinary societies or in institutional documentation, but did find some larger models outlining distinct impact areas. The proposed framework outlines evaluation in two primary impact areas for academic librarians, scholarly and practitioner impact, with suggested metrics for a range of research outputs in each category. …

Examining Family Hierarchy Through The Eyes Of Former Mac Baller Gang Members, Jerome Lee Rice

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Criminal gang membership is growing, which corresponds to a continued breakdown of the family unit in the United States. Most of the young people who form gangs come from broken families or single-parent-headed households. This study explored the role of family hierarchy on gang membership. A qualitative case study approach was used to gather information on what motivates young people to join criminal gangs. A random sampling technique was used to recruit seven former members of the Mac Baller Brim gang. Ethical concerns were addressed to minimize the risks to the participants. The collected data from interviews were analyzed using …

Family Self-Sufficiency Program In Los Angeles County And Reduction In Welfare Dependency, Erica Hopkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quantitative study explored the impact of the Family Self-Sufficiency (FSS) program on welfare dependency over time, by evaluating participant income 5 years after completing the FSS program. The study was guided using the framework of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, which initiated welfare reform in an effort to decrease dependency on government assistance; and the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act, the law that initiated Public housing reform by reducing the high concentration of poverty. The research question examined whether the FSS Program in Los Angeles County reduced dependency on welfare overtime. The sample size for …

Medical Marijuana Policy Conflicts Within The District Of Columbia Private Workplace, Robert B. Kennedy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The District of Colombia poses a unique challenge to private employers because the passage of a local medical marijuana policy was instituted in a federalized district that is obligated to abide by federal Schedule 1 narcotic laws. Using punctuated equilibrium as the theoretical foundation, the purpose of this case study was to understand how managers maintain compliance and address the conflict between different levels of government. Data were collected from interviews with 8 private industry hiring personnel who operate within the District of Columbia. These interviews were transcribed, inductively coded using a 2 cycle coding procedure, and then subjected to …

Millennials Leaving Religion: A Transcendental Phenomenological Research Study On Religious Disaffiliation, Elizabeth Ann Rainwater

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Religious disaffiliation among Millennials has increased significantly in the past decade alongside rapidly changing social relationships amplified by social media applications. In the United States, many Millennials claim no religious identity with many leaving their religion for a variety of reasons. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of religiously disaffiliated Millennials regarding their psychological health and well-being. Self-determination theory fulfilled the theoretical framework for examining the lived experiences of young adults regarding their well-being after religious disaffiliation. A purposive sample of 12 male and female religiously disaffiliated Millennials was recruited for semistructured interviews. …

Relationship Between Stress Management Self-Efficacy, Stress Mindset, And Vocational Student Success, Minda J. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Due to the passage of the Gainful Employment Rule of 2015, for-profit schools must ensure graduate employability, which forces vocational schools to make student success a priority. The concepts of stress mindset from the cognitive activation theory of stress and stress management self-efficacy from social cognitive theory were used in this study to assess the relationship of each to the employability of graduates. This study utilized a nonrandomized convenience sampling method and a multiple logistic regression with categorical dependent/criterion variables (gainful employment versus not) and continuous predictor variables (stress management self-efficacy, stress mindset) to compare the relationships. Stress mindset levels …

Leadership Issues And Organizational Dynamics That Shaped The 2016 Republican Primaries, Favour Chidex Awuzu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Importance of leadership in fostering cohesion within organizations has received increased scholarly attention. Researchers have shown that leadership can lose its legitimacy by pursuing unpopular policies or negating the common interest of the group. However, researchers have not yet been able to establish the leadership issues that shaped the 2016 Republican primaries as President Trump's victory (despite not having the support of any living past United States president both Republican and Democrat), was indicative of masses' frustration with the political establishment, and desire for change. Using complex leadership theory as a focal lens, the purpose of this phenomenological study was …

Leveraging Nlp And Social Network Analytic Techniques To Detect Censored Keywords: System Design And Experiments, Christopher S. Leberknight, Anna Feldman

Department of Computer Science Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Internet regulation in the form of online censorship and Internet shutdowns have been increasing over recent years. This paper presents a natural language processing (NLP) application for performing cross country probing that conceals the exact location of the originating request. A detailed discussion of the application aims to stimulate further investigation into new methods for measuring and quantifying Internet censorship practices around the world. In addition, results from two experiments involving search engine queries of banned keywords demonstrates censorship practices vary across different search engines. These results suggest opportunities for developing circumvention technologies that enable open and free access to …

Leveraging Library Expertise In Support Of Institutional Goals: A Case Study Of An Oer Initiative At Lehman College, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

Incentivizing faculty adoption of Open Educational Resources (OER) as a method for reducing textbook costs to increase access and affordability of higher education has been an area of development in academic libraries. This manuscript describes the experience at Lehman College, CUNY, the only four-year public college in the Bronx, NY. The OER initiative involves the creation of a new program, which includes assisting faculty with adopting and adapting OER, as well as training and discussion around issues pertinent to OER, such as finding and evaluating OER. The case study explains local conditions and provide an overview of the financial implications …

Engaging The Framework For Information Literacy For Higher Education As A Lens For Assessment In Eportfolio Social Pedagogy Ecosystem For Science Teacher Education, Wesley Pitts, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

This article highlights a case study that assesses how graduate-level, in-service science teachers engage in an ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem to document their growth in knowledge practices and dispositions in information literacy. The ePortfolio social pedagogy ecosystem and this study are situated within the context of the Catalyst Framework. The three modes of interrelated social learning activities include: (1) authoring the written ePortfolio in an online ePortfolio digital media platform, (2) presenting the ePortfolio in the webinar platform, and (3) presenting the ePortfolio in- person in a physical setting. We used case study methodology to systematically investigate how each participant …

Workplace Gender Discrimination And Job Performance In Egypt: The Moderating Role Of Equity Sensitivity, Mohamad Saad Mohamad

English Language and Literature

Workplace gender discrimination is a significant problem in Egypt. However, there is limited research on Workplace gender discrimination and its consequences. The current research tries to examine the relationships between workplace gender discrimination and task and contextual job performances. Moreover, the moderating effect of equity sensitivity on these relationships is also investigated. A convenience sample on 312 working women was drawn from different work settings in Cairo, Egypt. They responded to a three-part questionnaire that assesses workplace gender discrimination, equity sensitivity, and job performance. The results indicated that workplace gender discrimination was negatively associated with both of task and contextual …

Trade Reforms And Integration Of Cocoa Farmers Into World Markets: Evidence From African And Non-African Countries:, Komi Tsowou, Samuel K. Gayi

Journal of African Trade

No abstract provided.

Student Textbook Purchasing: The Hidden Cost Of Time, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

Choice in textbook purchasing has been portrayed as beneficial to students. However, the time spent exploring options for purchasing textbooks takes students away from other obligations in their lives. This research is a study of student textbook purchasing. In this paper, the literature regarding the textbook acquisition process is explored. Students were surveyed regarding their textbook purchasing habits. I found that most students visited multiple stores or websites, but those who purchased textbooks ultimately only purchased from the campus bookstore/bookstore website or Amazon.com. Approximately twenty percent of students reported spending more than two hours purchasing textbooks. The ways in which …

Undoing Gender: An Analysis Of How Women Communicate Within The Agricultural Industry, Shala R. Larson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent history, women have entered more business-like positions in the agricultural industry. This thesis seeks to understand how women in agriculture describe their workplace communication and whether they feel they are part of a muted group. Twelve women were interviewed regarding their experiences as women in agriculture and were asked whether they feel valued in their positions and how they communicate with their male co-workers. Specifically, interviewees were asked if they ever felt the need to alter their communication to complement, emulate, or otherwise adjust to masculine communication styles. The majority of women interviewed reported having to strategically choose …

Exploring Educational Journeys, Barriers, And Motivating Factors Of Tribal College Students Through Capabilities Approach, Francis Arpan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational attainment and success have often been linked to an increase in opportunities in life and when viewed from the lens of lifelong earnings, the greater an individual’s educational attainment, the greater the lifelong earnings. As a population, Native Americans have the highest poverty rate of all racial categories in the United States at 26.2% (Economic Policy Institute 2016). When looking at the connection between education and poverty, it is vital to note that only 14.1% of Native Americans over the age of 25 have a bachelor’s degree or above (US Census 2015). This lack of educational attainment falls well …

The Economic And Social Values Associated With Small South Dakota Lakes, Aaron Patrick Sundmark

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The valuation of small fishing lakes is a vital component in understanding the importance of fishing and of recreational resources, in general. Knowing the values associated with such lakes is essential when prioritizing management activities. The overall value of a lake as a resource for human benefit is estimated as the summation of both instrumental and non-instrumental values. Instrumental values consist of economic and utilitarian values, as well as the values that a lake provides from ecosystem services. Non-instrumental values consider what the lake is worth as a good of its own, such as aesthetic, moral, and spiritual values gained …

Food Assistance Programs In The Us And Their Impact On Childhood Obesity, Jannatul Kawsar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Numerous food assistance programs (FAP) aim to ensure food security among low income American households. However, the literature suggests that participation in food assistance programs may be associated with the US childhood obesity epidemic. The goal of this study is to analyze the association between the number of major food assistance programs children participate in and childhood obesity. The major food assistance programs considered are the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), the National School Lunch Program (NSLP), and the School Breakfast Programs (SBP). This is the first study to …

New Approach For Temporal Stability Evaluation Of Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (Pics), Fatima Tuz Zafrin Tuli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) are one of the most popular methods for in-flight vicarious radiometric calibration of Earth remote sensing satellites. The fundamental question of PICS temporal stability has not been adequately addressed. However, the main purpose of this work is to evaluate the temporal stability of a few PICS using a new approach. The analysis was performed over six PICS (Libya 1, Libya 4, Niger 1, Niger 2, Egypt 1 and Sudan 1). The concept of a “Virtual Constellation” was developed to provide greater temporal coverage and also to overcome the dependence limitation of any specific characteristic derived from …

Empirical Absolute Calibration Model For Multiple Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Sites, Bipin Raut

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work extends an empirical absolute calibration model initially developed for the Libya 4 Pseudo-Invariant Calibration Site (PICS) to five additional Saharan Desert PICS (Egypt 1, Libya 1, Niger 1, Niger 2, and Sudan 1), and demonstrates the efficacy of the resulting models at predicting sensor top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance. It attempts to generate absolute calibration models for these PICS that have an accuracy and precision comparable to or better than the current Libya 4 model, with the intent of providing additional opportunities for sensor calibration. In addition, this work attempts to validate the general applicability of the model to other …

Wellness Policy Awareness Among School Leaders And The Impact On Written Policy Scores, Mariah Reil

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: All schools participating in the National School Lunch Program must possess a written School Wellness Policy (SWP) as mandated by the Healthy, Hunger- Free Kids Act of 2010.1 School officials and leaders play a major role in SWP implementation. It is essential to written SWP implementation that school level officials and leaders in the district are aware of the SWP. However, the association between school leader awareness of SWP and policy quality has not yet been studied.
Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to determine if school leader awareness of a SWP impacts the written SWP quality. …

Evaluation Of An Extended Pics (Epics) For Calibration And Stability Monitoring Of Optical Satellite Sensors, Md Nahid Hasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pseudo Invariant Calibration Sites (PICS) have been increasingly used as an independent data source for on-orbit radiometric calibration and stability monitoring of optical satellite sensors. Generally, this would be a small region of land that is extremely stable in time and space, predominantly found in North Africa. Use of these small regions, referred to as traditional PICS, can be limited by: i) the spatial extent of an individual Region of Interest (ROI) and/or site; ii) and the frequency of how often the site can be acquired, based on orbital patterns and cloud cover at the site, both impacting the time …

Understanding The Use And Non-Use Of Social Communication Technologies By Older Adults: A Qualitative Test And Extension Of The Utaut Model, Michael T. Bixter, Kenneth A. Blocker, Tracy L. Mitzner, Akanksha Prakash, Wendy A. Rogers

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Technology has the ability to foster social engagement, but a sizable divide exists between older and younger adults in the use of social communication technologies. The goal of the current study was to gain a better understanding of older adults’ perspectives on social communication technologies, including those with higher adoption rates such as email and those with lower adoption rates such as social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, Instagram). Semi-structured group interviews were conducted with either users or non-users of social networking sites to gain insight into issues of adoption and non-adoption of social communication technologies. The Unified Theory of Acceptance …

Do Familiar Memory Items Decay?, Timothy J. Ricker, Joshua Sandry, Evie Vergauwe, Nelson Cowan

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

There is a long-standing debate over whether the passage of time causes forgetting from working memory, a process called trace decay. Researchers providing evidence against the existence of trace decay generally study memory by presenting familiar verbal memory items for 1 s or more per memory item, during the study period. In contrast, researchers providing evidence for trace decay tend to use unfamiliar nonverbal memory items presented for 1 s or less per memory item, during the study period. Taken together, these investigations suggest that familiar items may not decay while unfamiliar items do decay. The availability of verbal rehearsal …