Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Women’S Participation And Globalization, Madeline R. Buerle

Student Publications

What effect does women’s participation in national legislatures have on the levels of globalization, specifically economic and social globalization? I contend that women’s participation in national legislatures will have differing effects on economic and social globalization. I expect that higher levels of women’s participation in national legislatures will have a negative effect on levels of economic globalization and a positive effect on levels of social globalization. I demonstrate the plausibility of these relationships through an analysis of 194 countries between the years 1990 and 2017. Interestingly, my findings suggest that women’s participation in national legislatures has a positive and statistically …

The Consent Of The Governed, Carter A. Hanson

Student Publications

The Consent of the Governed is a Kolbe Fellowship project investigating gerrymandering through the lens of mathematics, Supreme Court litigation, and the potential for redistricting reform. It was produced as a five-episode podcast during the summer of 2020; this paper is the transcription of the podcast script. The project begins with an analysis of the impact of gerrymandering on the composition of the current U.S. House of Representatives. It then investigates the arguments and stories of Supreme Court gerrymandering cases in the past twenty years within their political contexts, with a focus on the Court's reaction to different mathematical methods …

Strategic Planning: Plan-To-Plan Documentation, Kristin Meyer, Scarlet Galvan, Kristin Kerbavaz, Kim Ranger, Annie Bélanger

Library Reports and Communication

As part of the strategic planning process begun in 2020, the Grand Valley State University Libraries Strategic Planning Team developed a collection of planning-to-plan documentation to support the development of a new strategic planning framework. This documentation includes descriptions of the project and scope, the strategic planning team and their roles, and the timeline for the planning process. It also outlines the design principles that will guide the planning process and the ways that the team will incorporate methodologies like SOAR, North Star, and Design Thinking.

A Spatial Analysis Of Student Safety And Perception, University Of Arkansas-Fayetteville, Casey Goodman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this research lies within a community's effects upon, reactions to, and perceptions towards safety in their inhabited landscapes during various periods of the day. Through cognitive and spatial research, we can construct bridges between individuals' perceptions and reality. This study pertained to a student population sample and their views of public safety on the University of Arkansas campus in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Questions were asked as to why they felt unsafe, and where they felt the most unsafe (or safe). The student perceptions were compared to reported crimes on the University of Arkansas campus to ascertain gaps in …

Student-Run Agencies: A Guideline For Agency Survival, Brooke Borgognoni

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to study 110 student-run agencies (including advertising, public relations, integrated/digital marketing, communications, and graphics and/or design) in the U.S. by analyzing how they currently operate, what practices exist in the agencies for learning, growth, and continuation and how leadership roles of students and advisors influence the agency. This project built upon past studies of student-run agencies and expanded on the topic using the evolutionary theory of a firm by analyzing factors that determine whether it appears that a student-run agency might dissolve or last. This was determined by measuring the faculty advisor involvement level, …

Relationship Marketing And Intercollegiate Sport Promotion, Alison Fridley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first article, a case study on a NCAA Division I Power Five university in the southeastern United States, employed a case study framework, explored target markets and exposure techniques through both the planned behavior theory and social identity theory theoretical lenses. This study aimed to better understand how university students and booster club members identify as a social group. The data emerged into four distinct themes, including communication, social interaction, connection, and hospitality. The findings suggested booster club members are primary fans and help the team generate fan interest. The importance of sociability was clear and the implications for …

Merchants Without Borders: Qusman Traders In The Arabian Gulf And Indian Ocean, C. 1850-1950, Mansour Alsharidah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a history of the economic, social, and political life in Arabia, the Arabian Gulf, and the Indian Subcontinent from the mid-nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries. It draws on materials from al-Qasim, Kuwait, Bahrain, Karachi, Bombay, Calcutta, and London, in addition to travelers’ accounts. These materials and accounts are used to explore the extent and significance of al-Qasim’s international trade between Arabia and India through the Arabian Gulf. It further examines how Qasimi merchants mobilized commodities and traded in the port cities of the Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, taking advantage of changing regional and global political …

Distress Tolerance In Relation To Treatment Persistence, Engagement, And Improvement In An Exposure-Based Treatment For Sexually Abused Incarcerated Women, Ilana S. Berman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Incarcerated populations are disproportionately affected by traumatic experiences and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many effective treatments for PTSD utilize exposure-based techniques which require engaging with emotionally distressing content. However, individuals with PTSD and low distress tolerance (DT) are more likely than those with PTSD and higher DT to engage in avoidant coping behaviors and have relatively high treatment attrition rates in general. This study explored relations between DT and treatment persistence, engagement, and improvement in incarcerated women (N = 85) enrolled in an 8-week exposure-based sexual assault recovery group at a minimum-security prison. I hypothesized lower baseline levels …

The Attracting Intelligent Minds Conference: An Assessment Of Graduate Diversity Recruitment, Alfred T. Dowe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate student recruitment is one of the most important factors in growing university enrollment. Unlike undergraduate recruitment, graduate recruitment is a coordinated effort facilitated between graduate faculty and program coordinators and graduate recruiters who often work outside of the department. An essential element in graduate recruitment is the effectiveness with which underrepresented minorities are identified and recruited. Graduate schools are commonly using initiatives known as intervention strategies to help enhance their traditional recruitment strategies and campus visitation programs have become a popular recruitment tool within those strategies.

Since the 1990’s, the University of Arkansas (UA) has employed various intervention strategies …

Beauty Is Not Black And White: A Content Analysis Of Black Women’S Body Image In Television Media, Alexis Hubbard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There are few bodies of literature that look at Black women’s body image in television media. When Black women were studied most research (Falconer & Neville, 2000; Jhally & Kilbourne, 2010; Smith, 2014; Shearon-Richardson, 2011;) compared them to White ideals. However, this study did a content analysis of Black women in predominantly Black or ethnically diverse television shows using qualitative studies that suggest a Black ideal. The researcher examined lead character(s) body shapes, comments about their body, hair texture and comments about their hair. This research looked at protective factors (aspects Black life that allow for more body satisfaction) like …

Remote Sensing And Gis Study Of Hazards And Risks In East Africa, Hafid Nanis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

East Africa encompasses numerous developing countries and involves one of the most active continental rifts on Earth; namely, the East African Rift System. This region is prone to diverse geohazards due to its geographical location at the plate boundary. Several damaging events had happened across the region and more are predicted to occur in the near future. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate, assess, and forecast natural hazards and potential risks in the region. In this dissertation, remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS) were employed to conduct three independent studies focused on assessing geohazards in east Africa. Each study …

Using Soil Geospatial Properties And Environments To Explore Microbial Diversity, Sharon Faye Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Soil microorganisms help maintain nutrient cycling, control carbon sequestration, impact plant productivity, and influence several soil chemical and physical properties; yet, the processes that control the microbial composition of soil and how environmental changes may affect the composition and activity of these organisms at different scales remains a difficult and intriguing puzzle for soil scientists, ecologists, and modelers. Wetlands are endangered and important ecosystems that provide several services, which are directly linked to soil function. However, few wetland assessments consider the soil environment and microbial ecology. Linking soil microbial community composition and distribution patterns to soil physio-chemical properties would provide …

Within-Person Variability Of Internal And External Sexual Consent, Malachi Willis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Sexual consent is often conceptualized as an internal willingness to engage in sexual activity, which can be communicated externally to a sexual partner. Preliminary evidence indicates that people’s sexual consent varies from day to day. Study designs that assess sexual consent at multiple time points (e.g., experience sampling methodology [ESM]) are needed to better understand the within-person variability of sexual consent; however, extant validated measures of sexual consent are not appropriate for ESM studies, which require shorter assessments due to the increased burden this methodology has on participants. As such, the goal of this dissertation was to develop valid …

Consumer Food Socialization In The School And Home, Ashley Deutsch Cermin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumer socialization literature has focused on individual socialization agents and their isolated effects. However, as John (1999) pointed out, children do not grow up in a social vacuum. Instead, the multitude of agents socializing children find their narratives interacting and their effects continually shaped and co-created. To understand how school-age children learn about food, I interrogate the complexity of socialization in three essays.

In the first essay, I take an ethnographic approach to investigate the interactive effect peers and adults, namely service workers, have on children’s food socialization in a public-school lunchroom. By combining a Loseke’s (2007) layered narrative model …

Increasing Female Enrollment In High School Computer Science Education, Zenovia Brown Frazier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Women have played a vital role in the field of computer science and information technology (IT), developing some of the most essential components of modern IT” (Purdue University Global, 2018). Despite their prominence and achievements in these career fields, computer science has experienced a noticeable decline in the representation of females in industry and in programs of study. This is not a phenomenon reserved for the college classroom and/or the world of work, but is a situation present across schools in the P-12 arena, to include ZBF High School. As such, the purpose of this work was to examine the …

The Relationship Between Leadership Practices And Organizational Commitment Of Telecommunicators, André Lanier

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The performance of 9-1-1 telecommunicators can mean the difference between life and death for the person on the other end of a phone. Effective leadership is critical to the success of the public safety answer point (PSAP) and the organizational commitment of the 9-1-1 telecommunicator. Bass and Riggio’s (2006) Full Range of Leadership Theory (FLRT) is the basis for the current study. The FRLT covers leadership styles from laissez-faire to transformational (Matikainen, 2019).

The purpose of conducting the study was to identify and describe the 9-1-1 telecommunicator’s organizational commitment based on the PSAP leadership categories. The study made use of …

Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles: Determination Of Metabolizable Energy Values Using Regression-Based Assays And Their Correlation With Chemical Composition, Kenia Mitre

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The inherent variability and lack of standardization of in vivo assays to determine the metabolizable energy (ME) of DDGS has led to inconsistent values and limited its potential to use in broiler diets. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to characterize the content of nitrogen-corrected ME (MEn) in 11 DDGS sources obtained from various ethanol plants using a regression-based broiler assay and to attempt to develop equations to predict MEn based on its chemical composition. In experiment 1, the objectives were to determine the influence of inclusion level and feed intake on the resulting ME and MEn values of a single …

The Impact Of Dietary Egg Intake On Metabolic Health In Food Insecure Households, Sam Walker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food Insecurity (FI) is defined as a condition in which individuals lack access to adequate food due to limited financial resources. FI is estimated to impact 12% of households in United States. Adults and children who experience FI are an increased risk for developing metabolic disease such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. The negative health outcomes associated with FI are multi-factorial, however, many of them may be caused by limited nutritional intake and poor diet quality. Efforts to better understand the obstacles food insecure populations face is critical in order to improve nutrient intake and minimize …

Nutritional Strategies For Feeding Broiler Breeders On Hen And Progeny Performance, Antonio Beitia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last 60 plus years, broiler breeders have been under an incredible amount of genetic pressure. This genetic pressure comes from the continually increasing consumer demand for poultry products. The objective of this dissertation is to understand the effects of different nutritional and management practices on broiler breeder’s performance. The first series of experiments investigate the impact of broilerization on hen and early progeny performance. Broilerization is a process only used by genetic companies. The results from these experiments showed the adverse effects of broilerization on chick quality and hen performance. Follow up trials were performed to determine the …

Social Distancing: The New Professional Civility, Benjamin Hunt

Graduate Research

As a naturalistic paradigm dictated by dialectal practices, culture must be understood in relation to a time and place in order to make ethical sense of society. Similarly, culture cannot be appropriately measured and studied without a reference to prior historical and geographical contexts. Naturalism is a dialectic that manifests as a type of evolution within our society. This cultural phenomenon allows human beings to reflect on those constructs through empirical means in order to understand the world, and to best prepare a society for how to move forward. The actions of the United States Government in regard to social …

The Macedonian Orthodox Church At The Crossroads Between The External Denials And Internal Challenges, Maja Angelovska, Ruzhica Cacanoska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The purpose of this article is to provide an insight into the challenges the Macedonian Orthodox Church has faced since the independence of the Republic of Macedonia in the 1990s until today. In doing so, some of the more essential events were considered, such as the dispute with the Serbian Orthodox Church, as well as the request sent in 2017 by the Macedonian Orthodox Church to the Bulgraian Orthodox Church to act as a mother church of the MOC. In terms of internal affairs, special attention has been paid to several key aspects such as religious education, revitalization of monasticism, …

Identifying Facets Of Reader-Generated Online Reviews Of Children’S Books Based On A Textual Analysis Approach, Yunseon Choi, Soohyung Joo

Information Science Faculty Publications

With the increasing popularity of social media, online reviews have become one of the primary information sources for book selection. Prior studies have analyzed online reviews, mostly in the domain of business. However, little research has examined the content of online book reviews of children’s books. Book reviews generated by book readers contain different aspects of information, such as opinions, feedback, or emotional responses, from the perspectives of readers. This study explores what aspects of the books are addressed in readers’ reviews, and then it intends to identify categorical features or facets of online book reviews of children’s books. We …

Long-Term Behavioral Health Care Unbundled: The Impact Of Comorbidity And Aggression On Caregiver Strain And Service Costs For Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities, Kristine Tevis

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Individuals with intellectual disabilities represent a unique population with an array of needs. High rates of comorbid mental and physical health conditions as well as the presence of disruptive behaviors pose significant challenges to service providers and funding entities. Existing cost models may underestimate these specialized needs and limit access to required services. Through secondary analysis of archival health data from individuals with intellectual disabilities at one agency in Nebraska (N=73), the current study examines how individual characteristics and aggression influence cost and caregiver strain from a systems theory perspective. Bivariate comparisons revealed that more severe aggression and more frequent …

The Orientalizing And Lucanian Tombs From Loc. De Santis I At Pontecagnano By Margit Von Mehren (Book Review), Marshall Joseph Becker

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Book Review Of The Orientalizing And Lucanian Tombs From Loc. De Santis I At Pontecagnano, By Margit Von Mehren, Marshall Joseph Becker

Anthropology & Sociology Faculty Publications

Von Mehren’s impressive volume provides one means of gauging the progress that has been made in studies of ancient cemeteries in the region surrounding the Gulf of Naples. The author has undertaken the daunting task of publishing funerary data that had been recovered decades earlier, during a period when physical anthropology in Italy remained a research area largely separated from mainstream classical archaeology. The information available to von Mehren had been collected during a four month “rescue project” in 1967–1968 at the Località De Santis I, after which the field notes and artifacts were held in storage. The area excavated …

Factors Influencing Intention To Introduce Accessibility In Makerspace Planning And Implementation, Heather Moorefield-Lang, Ana Dubnjakovic

Faculty and Staff Publications

Makerspaces continue to grow in popularity in public, academic, and school libraries. As makerspaces are included in library services, accessibility for all users is important. What motivates a school librarian to implement a makerspace accessible to all learners? Are they more likely to invest in accessibility if provided the necessary resources? In this study, researchers discuss which Theory of Planned Behavior (Ajzen 1985) variables significantly predict school librarians’ intentions to implement accessible makerspaces. Researchers also delve into how attitude towards accessibility in makerspaces influence the intention to implement accessible makerspace. Findings indicate identifying perceived behavior control is the principal predictor …

Vocational And Life Skills Monthly Data Update: July 2020, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Katelynn Towne

Reports

Grantees use an online data management system to submit data on participants served under their Vocational and Life Skills programming. This data is due monthly and reflects all services provided during the previous month to participants. Evaluators at the Nebraska Center for Justice Research work with grantees directly to manage data entry errors on an ongoing basis during update calls and site visits.

The current data derives from an active database, from which data is being entered and updated daily. Data values, including previously submitted information, may fluctuate depending on the duration of lag between service delivery and data entry. …

Using Spatial Methods To Better Understand Food Insecurity And Snap Under-Participation In Texas, Ryan Ramphul

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

The overall objective of this research is to use spatial methods to better understand food insecurity and SNAP under-participation in Texas. Paper 1 assesses whether a sample of community dwelling Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, who screen positive for food insecurity at healthcare locations in Harris County, exhibit a spatial pattern in terms of where they live. In other words, it tests whether or not there are statistically significant neighborhood hot spots or cold spots of food insecurity against a null hypothesis of complete spatial randomness. This approach is novel because it uses address-level data on patients who report being food …

Physician Burnout: Slowing The Burn Through Positive Deviance Strategies, Swapna Reddy

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Introduction: Affecting 42% of physicians in the United States, “physician burnout” is considered a public health crisis with adverse impacts for personal providers, patients and organizations. Though much research has been devoted to the existence and causes of burnout, to date few studies have been conducted to identify factors associated with physician fulfillment. Aims: This dissertation research was intended to increase and improve knowledge of factors effective in contributing to physician professional fulfillment utilizing a Positive Deviance based approach. To that end, two studies were conducted: the first, a narrative review of the literature to identify specific correlates of physician …

Bayesian Modeling Of Censored Data With Application To Meta-Analysis Of Immunotherapy Trials, Xinyue Qi

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

My dissertation builds on a systematic review of 125 clinical trials reporting on treatment-related adverse events (AEs) associated with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors published from 2010 to 2018. The motivating dataset contained the following study-level components extracted from each publication: trial name, number of treated patients, selected immunotherapy drug, dosing schedule, cancer type, number of AEs within each category, and the pre-specified criteria for AE reporting. The number of AEs were reported based upon all-grade (Grade 1-5) and Grade 3 or higher (Grade 3-5) severity. My overall objective was to increase our understanding of the toxicity profiles of five most common cancer …