Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Properties Of Curriculum-Based Measurement For Mathematics : An Investigation Of The Average Growth, Variability, And Precision Of Three Forms, Arianna Doss

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

CBM for mathematics assesses growth in accuracy and fluency of basic math skills using content from a student’s curriculum. CBM for mathematics can include single-skill measures (SSM), skill-based measures (SBM), and general-outcome measures (GOM). Past research on growth rates in CBM for mathematics has focused on GOMs and has relied on estimations of weekly growth rates, but more information on expected growth rates and their precision for these measures is needed for practice. The current study addresses this gap in the literature by examining weekly growth rates and their precision for one SSM containing multiplication problems, one SBM containing addition …

The Gaze Of The Consumed : A Lacanian Approach To The Italian Cannibal Films, David Kelly

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

“The Gaze of the Consumed: A Lacanian Approach to the Italian Cannibal Films” not only acts as a brief chronicle of the subgenre of Italian exploitation films centered around cannibals, but as an exploration of the constructs that hold such a subgenre together. With a foundation in Lacanian psychoanalysis, this essay discusses the ramifications of assigning terms such as “savage” and “civilized,” as well as the issue with entering into such a discourse with presupposed Western notions of civility. The Italian cannibal films exemplify the circular nature of the mere anthropophagous act, putting forth the conceptualization of the “Gaze of …

The Acquisition Of Variation In Future Time Expression By High School Student Learners Of Spanish In Upstate New York, Erika E. Clarkin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The present dissertation sets out to investigate the acquisition of variation in future-time expression by English speakers L2 learners of Spanish in a high school setting. I explore the variable use of the morphological future, the periphrastic future, and the present indicative to express the future time in Spanish by the participants. A total of 2,282 tokens were collected at three different times during the school year. The participants were attending year six of Spanish instruction. The study takes into consideration previously published research on the use of future markers by native speakers and by non-native speakers. The present study …

An Investigation Of Open Government Data Utilization And Impact : Influential Factors And Stakeholders, Xiaoyi Yerden

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since 2009, increasing numbers of countries have started their open data development. Through these efforts, they aim to improve government transparency, advocate innovation in public services and business, boost economic development and improve quality of life. In order to achieve these values of Open Government Data (OGD), just making the data open is not enough; OGD has to be actually used by people. Among previous research, there is a limited discussion on the actual utilization of OGD and the generation of OGD impact. Focused on OGD utilization and impact generation, this dissertation is designed 1) to identify research status, gaps …

Tightening Your Grip : The Unintended Consequences Of Export Control Policies, Keon C. Weigold

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the effects that policies instituted to restrict the diffusion of technology between countries have on the development of technology and international relations. Diffusion restrictions such as export controls or strategic trade controls are often instituted for the purpose of increasing the national security of the implementing country. However, this project theorizes that these types of restrictions can have unforeseen effects on the level of technological development in the implementing country and other countries around the world. The implementing country will see a decrease in their relative level of technological development while other countries around the world will …

Organization Change And Institutional Environment : Employee Influence And Financial Management Of Public Retirement Systems In The U.S, Hao Sun

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Previous attempts to understand and examine the employee influence on the financial performance of public retirement systems have produced inconsistent results. There have been different understandings and ongoing debates over the main variables to include in the models and the direction (positive vs. negative) of the association. What are the roles of public employees within the financial management of public retirement systems? What are the main variables that define employee influence? To answer these questions, this dissertation project, based on organization theory, first attempts to construct an exploratory measurement framework of employee influence from three aspects, external environment, perceived influence, …

Predicting Self-Esteem And Depressive Symptoms From Social Skills In Youth With And Without Autism Spectrum Disorder, Emma Wilkinson

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are at increased risk for low self-esteem and depressive symptomatology. Poor social skills may be associated with depression and self-esteem in ASD populations, yet these relationships remain understudied. Previous studies are limited by lack of comparison between youth and parent report of social skills and lack of comparisons to clinically relevant samples. This study seeks to compare predictive relationships between parent and youth-reported social skills, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms across youth with ASD and youth with similar clinical vulnerabilities. Hierarchal regression analyses revealed that youth-reported social skills account for significant variance in self-esteem, parent-reported …

When It Hits The Fan, Does Network Management Matter? : A Study On Policy Shocks And The Production And Delivery Of Public Goods And Services By Service Delivery Networks, Jennie Rhodes Law

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYFor decades public administration and management scholars have conceptualized organizational networks as solutions to failures of markets and hierarchies (see, for example, Goldsmith and Eggers 2005; Osborne and Gaebler 1992). Relationships among organizations or actors within a network are framed positively as channels through which human, financial, and knowledge resources flow to address complex or “wicked” social problems (see, for example, Rittel and Weber, 1973). However, recent scholarship has sought to pull the curtain back and identify the pitfalls of networked arrangements for public service delivery (see, for example, O’Toole & Meier, 2006; O’Toole & Meier, 2004). Such studies …

Implementing 2nd Milk’S Use Of The World Health Organization Standardized Growth Charts To Better Track The Growth And Development Of The Malnourished And Orphaned Infants In Their Supplemental Nutrition Program In Malawi, Allie Wycoff

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

This article considers the history and implications of the World Health Organization (WHO) standardized growth charts as well as the significant impact that growth chart utilization may have on 2^ndMilk’s ability to understand and track the nutritional status of the malnourished orphaned infants in their formula program. Specifically, this literature review examines whether or not the WHO growth charts are a meaningful tool for 2^ndMilk to adopt into their monthly baby assessments. The WHO growth charts are calibrated to express an accepted international “norm” for what an adequately nourished child looks like. In a recent service-learning …

Food Security, Economic Growth And Price Stability Nexus And Conceptual Issues, Park O. Idisi

Economic and Financial Review

A strong argument that encourages analysing food security and food price stability issues is importance to economic well-being. Nigeria is one of the most food insecure countries and highly affected by all three drivers. For one, the country is vulnerable to price instability and successively hit by environmental disasters, that impact people’s livelihoods. Furthermore, its economy is thriving, but around 48.0 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020; World Poverty Clock, 2020). In addition to that, since 2009 northeastern Nigeria is struck by insurgency. Essentially, sustainability in economic growth is dependent on achievement of …

The Healing Landscapes Of Usu: Discovering Spaces Of Potential Mental Restorativeness: A Geospatial Analysis Of Usu Campus, Amelia H. Wilcken

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project focuses on understanding an alternative resource that can be intentionally improved upon to help address the mental health crisis on university campuses. With ample research showing how nature and being outside can help improve, or be restorative for, the mental state of individuals, this project developed an analytical method for understanding the restorative potential within the campus landscape as a whole and within districts. The analysis uses nine separate elements that make up the campus landscape: (1) trees, (2) landscape plantings (grass, planters, etc.), (3) art pieces, (4) benches, (5) water features, (6) sidewalks, (7) roads, (8) parking …

Mental Health And Adolescents: The Impact Of Social Isolation In Adolescents During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gabriella Aguinaldo

Nursing | Senior Theses

In early 2020, the coronavirus pandemic, first detected in late 2019, afflicted the world. The disease associated with the virus became known as COVID-19. COVID-19 was recognized as a highly contagious and deadly disease. In California, United States, COVID-19 was detected in February and the first shelter-in-place orders were ordered by the counties and state, which forced children and adults to stay at home and attend school and work virtually. Shelter-in-place orders were quickly implemented around the world.

As the world began this sudden switch in lifestyle, many were concerned for the mental health and safety of themselves and their …

Economic Opportunities For Refugees: Lessons From Five Host Countries, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Eashita Haque, Md. Irfan Hossain, Joseph Falcone, Ubaidur Rob

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The majority of refugees around the world are in protracted refugee situations, living in exile for at least five years with no sign of a durable solution. There are three possible durable solutions: repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. Repatriation remains the main durable solution, but the circumstances should be conducive for return to the country of origin. In the meantime, local integration gives refugees some certainty about what to do with their lives. Local integration is a process with three interrelated dimensions: legal, economic, and social. This report examines the level and extent of local integration of refugees in terms …

Knowledge And Practice On Pest Management Of Ethnic Potato Farmers In Southern Shan State, Myanmar, Pyae Pa Pa Aung, Supawan Visetnoi

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Potato is cultivated as the main tuber crop which is essential for ethnic farmers’ household income in Southern Shan State, Myanmar. Most ethnic farmers use chemicals widely to enhance crop yield and reduce pests. Overuse and misuse of pesticides could lead to a series of health impacts and environmental issues. The main aim of the study is to explore farmers’ current practices and knowledge level on pesticides in potato production. The participants of 100 farmers were chosen from each village with a cluster and purposive sampling technique using structured questionnaires to collect the data from a village in Kalaw Township. …

Dollar Stores And Supermarket Survivability In Non-Metropolitan Us Communities, Cami Farmer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the growing popularity of dollar stores, concerns have surfaced over the potential relationship between dollar stores and the closures of grocery stores. Healthy food accessibility for consumers, particularly those in rural areas, has additionally become of great interest. This thesis aims to investigate the potential relationship of dollar store presence and grocery store closures. Data used included County Business Patterns, Rural Urban Continuum Codes, American Community Survey, and authorized SNAP retailer data. The spatial distance between grocery stores and the number of dollar stores at various radii were calculated. Following the computation of the number of dollar stores surrounding …

Economic Forecast Of Grand Rapids, Mi, Zachary Fillmore

Honors Projects

The purpose of this report is to analyze the current state of the Grand Rapids, MI economy, as well as provide a ten-year forecast of the city’s economic condition. Economic forecasting is the process of predicting the future condition of an economy using the combination of several indicators. The indicators being used for this report will include population growth, economic production, wages, industry specific production trends, unemployment rates, home values, occupancy rates, rent forecasts, education, and tourism. From intensive research and data analysis, a snapshot of the economic condition of Grand Rapids in ten years will be displayed. Additionally, several …

Crisis Of Hegemony: China’S Rise To Power And The South China Sea, Vanessa Gonzalez

Undergraduate Research Projects

“Let China sleep. For when she wakes, the world will tremble.” This quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte has foreshadowed the international political climate of the twenty-first century. Throughout history, great empires and nations that were sure of their power could not fathom their eventual decline until it came knocking at their door. In many ways, the U.S is facing one of these wake-up calls. Its likely successor? The People’s Republic of China. From trade and technology wars all the way to what many consider the “New Cold War” in the South China Sea: the U.S has met its economic match. …

Impact Of Metropolization On The Crime Structure (Case Study Of Provincial Capitals In Poland), Natalia Sypion-Dutkowska, Michael Leitner, Marek Dutkowski

Faculty Publications

The aim of this study is to verify the hypothesis that the rapid metropolization process that has been taking place in large Polish cities since the beginning of the second phase of post-communist transition in 2000 leads to their socio-economic diversity, which is manifested, among others, in the differentiation of the level and structure of crime. Introduced into the discourse of this paper are subsequent stages of metropolization, which are called potential, initiating, advanced, and mature and which the examined cities have achieved so far. These stages have led to various economic and social effects, which resulted in changes in …

Transfer Of Rights: How Parents, Families, And Caregivers Of Youth With Idd Can Prepare For This Exciting Opportunity, Jennifer Bose, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Allison C. Hall, Cady Landa, Daria Domin

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This brief discusses what research shows about parents’ and youths’ transfer of rights discussions with schools and what parents and caregivers can do to take advantage of the transfer of rights process to position youth with IDD for better transition outcomes.

Supporting Parents Of Transition Age Youths With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: Findings From A Facebook Group Using Tools From Charting The Lifecourse, Jennifer Bose, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons, Allison Hall, John Shepard

All Institute for Community Inclusion Publications

This brief shares findings from a research study conducted with parents of youths with IDD who participated in a six-month transition planning intervention. This intervention was based on content from CtLC’s Daily Life and Employment Toolkit and was delivered via a private Facebook group.

Testing The Relationship Between Confidence And Effort: A Behavioral Finance Perspective On The Problem Of Financial Literacy, Louie Bernard A. Jacob, Miguel Angelo S. Rabago, Hans Erickson A. Tan, Lawrence B. Dacuycuy, Gerardo L. Largoza, Maria Fe Carmen L. Dabbay

Angelo King Institute for Economic and Business Studies (AKI)

This experimental study tested the relationship between confidence and effort with the ultimate objective of discovering how these factors may influence financial literacy. This was done through a modified version of a slider test and ball allocation task. The population consisted of 85 random participants who were primarily approached through social media. A simple OLS regression, along with robustness checks, namely the Tobit model and instrumental variable (IV) regression model using Tobit estimators, were utilized to confirm the causal relationship between confidence and effort.

Massachusetts Community Mediation Center Grant Program: Fiscal Year 2021 Report & Evaluation, Massachusetts Office Of Public Collaboration, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The state of Massachusetts appropriated $2,700,000 in Fiscal Year 2021 for the Community Mediation Center Grant Program to support its endeavors to expand utilization of community mediation across the state. The state’s $2.7 million investment in the program effectively underwrote center initiatives to preserve the option of community mediation services for meeting communities’ conflict resolution needs. Ultimately, Massachusetts as a whole benefited from the Grant Program in FY 2021 by virtue of the estimated $14 million return on the state’s investment in the program.

Senior Center Response To Covid-19: Mid-Year Operations 2021, Ceara Somerville, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Senior centers/COAs in Massachusetts remained largely operational through the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and continued to assist older adults in the community. With the introduction of a vaccine, return to ‘normal’ operations has become more feasible. By mid-2021, senior centers were returning to some in-person operations and continued adaptations for safety, including mask-wearing, limiting capacity, fewer walk-ins, and increased hand sanitization availability.

Linking Creativity And False Memory: Common Consequences Of A Flexible Memory System, Preston P. Thakral, Aleea L. Devitt, Nadia M. Brashier, Daniel L. Schacter

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Episodic retrieval plays a functional-adaptive role in supporting divergent thinking, the ability to creatively combine different pieces of information. However, the same constructive memory process that provides a functional-adaptive benefit can also leave memory prone to error. In two experiments, we employed an individual differences approach to examine the relationship between different forms of creative thinking (divergent and convergent thinking) and false memory generation in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm. In Experiment 1, and replicating prior findings, false recognition was significantly predicted by convergent thinking performance. Critically, we also observed a novel predictive relationship between false recognition and quantitative metrics of divergent …

Using The Cataloguing Code Of Ethics Principles For A Retrospective Project Analysis, Angela Yon, Eric Willey

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

This study uses the recently released Cataloguing Code of Ethics to evaluate a project which explored how to ethically, efficiently, and accurately add demographic terms for African American authors to catalog records. By reviewing the project through the lens of these principles the authors were able to examine how their practice was ethical in some ways but could have been improved in others. This helped them identify areas of potential improvement in their current and future research and practice and explore ethical difficulties in cataloging resources with records that are used globally, especially in a linked data environment.

Assessing Universal Basic Income Proposals: A Comprehensive Analysis Of Established Studies., Zachary Paul Baker

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The development of welfare within western cultures has become incredibly polarized over the last decades. Propositions for ideas such as Universal Basic Income (UBI) has reemerged into the mainstream conversation, with some lofty promises. What is the credibility of UBI as a welfare policy platform? Do the results of the studies on the effects of cash-transfers show the possibility of UBI as a new national program, or do they reveal issues that highlight major structural problems with UBI? This thesis examines over twenty different studies within various categories of cash-transfers to see the positives and negatives revealed by previous researchers. …

The Role Of Embodied Metaphor In The Relationship Between Vestibular Dysfunction, Anxiety And The Self, Kaitlyn Abrams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is considerable evidence that vestibular dysfunction and anxiety are correlated. Clinical and philosophical arguments suggest that a loss of sense of self, experienced through symptoms like derealization and depersonalization, might contribute to this relationship. The present study used a mixed methods approach, including Systematic Metaphor Analysis, to analyze written short answer and quantitative survey data from one hundred and thirteen participants with vestibular disorders. The Systematic Metaphor Analysis revealed several primary metaphor concepts which elucidated the connections between concrete experience and abstract concepts in vestibular dysfunction. These included metaphors of Agency, Stability, Orientation, Self-Object, and Figure-Ground. Primary metaphors for …

Updating Soulful Girls, Hailey Ryan

Senior Honors Projects

The ages of 10-13 are pivotal in the development of self esteem for girls. This is the beginning of the understanding of societal pressures, values and expectations that are placed on women and girls. Girls start to focus on their appearance, avoid activities where they may “fail” and place significant value on their social status. This project strives to counter these ideals and prove to girls that they are wildly capable and innately worthy through weekly workshops provided by The Soul Project. The Soul project is a nonprofit organization dedicated to helping women and girls recognize their innate value and …

The 'Ideal Victim' Of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women: An Examination Of The Impact Of Victim/Offender Relationship Status, Victim Self-Identity, And Observer Gender On Constructing Victim Status, Kelli Dauphinais

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Guided by Nils Christie's (1986) Ideal Victim framework, the current study examines the effect that victim/offender relationship status (casual vs. serious), victim self-identity (as a "victim" or a "survivor"), and observer gender (woman vs. man) have on victim blame attributions. Data were collected from 329 adult students at a large public university in the Southwest United States using an online, experimental vignette design. Three separate one-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) were conducted to test the study's three hypotheses. Results suggest that among the study sample, victim/offender relationship status (H1) and victim self-identity (H2) do not significantly affect victim blame attribution …

Big Five Aspect Personalty Scales And Social Anxiety Severity In A Nonpsychiatric Sample, Samantha Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Personality can be explored hierarchically with higher- and lower-order factors. Recent research suggests the personality hierarchy is comprised of higher-order Big Five traits with two lower-order factors per Big Five trait, termed aspects. There is a lack of research examining the relationship between these lower-order aspects and social anxiety (SA) severity. To better understand these relationships, 443 university undergraduate students (72.2% female; mean age = 20.48, SD = 4.64) completed the Big Five Aspects Scale (BFAS) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory- 23 (SPAI-23), and were retained following exclusionary criteria. Path analysis, covarying for sex, age, and general anxiety …