Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Cross-Country Investigation Of Social Image Motivation And Acceptance Of Lab-Grown Meat In Singapore And The United States, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Verity Lua

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This research has three goals. First, it sets out to compare consumer acceptance of lab-grown meat in the U.S. and in Singapore. Second, it seeks to explain the difference in Americans' and Singaporeans' acceptance of lab-grown meat by examining their eating motivations. Specifically, we focused on social image motivations – the motivations to present oneself positively in social contexts. Third, this study also aims to assess if exposure to information about lab-grown meat communicated by celebrity versus expert social media influencers (SMIs) can impact people's acceptance of lab-grown meat products. Our analysis showed that Singaporean participants had greater acceptance of …

Narrating Agricultural Resilience After Hurricane María: How Smallholder Farmers In Puerto Rico Leverage Self-Sufficiency And Collaborative Agency In A Climate-Vulnerable Food System, Abrania Marrero, Andrea Lόpez-Cepero, Ramón Borges-Méndez, Josiemer Mattei

Sustainability and Social Justice

Climate change is a threat to food system stability, with small islands particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events. In Puerto Rico, a diminished agricultural sector and resulting food import dependence have been implicated in reduced diet quality, rural impoverishment, and periodic food insecurity during natural disasters. In contrast, smallholder farmers in Puerto Rico serve as cultural emblems of self-sufficient food production, providing fresh foods to local communities in an informal economy and leveraging traditional knowledge systems to manage varying ecological and climatic constraints. The current mixed methods study sought to document this expertise and employed a questionnaire and narrative interviewing …

A Consistent Specification Test For Dynamic Quantile Models, Peter Horvath, Jia Li, Zhipeng Liao, Andrew J. Patton

Research Collection School Of Economics

Correct specification of a conditional quantile model implies that a particular conditional moment is equal to zero. We nonparametrically estimate the conditional moment function via series regression and test whether it is identically zero using uniform functional inference. Our approach is theoretically justified via a strong Gaussian approximation for statistics of growing dimensions in a general time series setting. We propose a novel bootstrap method in this nonstandard context and show that it significantly outperforms the benchmark asymptotic approximation in finite samples, especially for tail quantiles such as Value-at-Risk (VaR). We use the proposed new test to study the VaR …

Assessing Public Health Benefits Of Replacing Freight Trucks With Cargo Cycles In Last Leg Delivery Trips In Urban Centers, Jennifer C. Hartle, Ossama (Sam) A. Elrahman, Cara Wang, Daniel A. Rodriguez, Yue Ding, Matt Mcgahan

Mineta Transportation Institute

Increased urbanization, population growth, and demand for time-sensitive deliveries means increased freight movement in cities, which contributes to emissions, noise, and safety concerns. One innovative mode gaining widespread attention for urban deliveries is cargo cycles—bicycles adapted for freight delivery. Despite the recognized potential and possible success of transporting at least 25% of freight via cycle, research remains limited. This research investigates the potential of cargo cycle delivery for last mile freight in Oakland, California, with a focus on the West Oakland neighborhood. The data collection included interviews, focus groups, vehicle field observation and counts, and traffic simulation modeling. The traffic …

Evaluation Of Sustainability Determinants To Develop A Sustainability Rating System For California Infrastructure Construction Projects, Joseph Kim, Patricia Mccarthy

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study evaluates the important sustainability determinants that affect factors’ success in meeting their sustainability goals when conducting infrastructure construction projects in California. The study implemented the online survey method to evaluate the sustainability characteristics that infrastructure industry professionals currently are aware of under the current situation in California. A data set of 25 validated survey responses is used for statistical data analysis using analysis of variables, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and two sample t-tests. The analysis results showed that the median response values for the six major sustainability categories do not show any significant difference. The results also showed that no …

Influence Of Level 1 And Level 2 Automated Vehicles On Fatal Crashes And Fatal Crash Occurrence, Hardik Gajera, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sonu Mathew

Mineta Transportation Institute

Connected and automated vehicles (CAVs) are expected to improve safety by gradually reducing human decisions while driving. However, there are still questions on their effectiveness as we transition from almost 0% CAVs to 100% CAVs with different levels of vehicle autonomy. This research focuses on synthesizing literature and identifying risk factors influencing fatal crashes involving level 1 and level 2 CAVs in the United States. Fatal crashes involving level 0 vehicles—ones that are not connected and automated—were compared to minimize unobserved heterogeneity and randomness associated with the influencing risk factors. The research team used the fatal crash data for the …

Balancing Learning And Enjoyment In Serious Games: Kerbal Space Program And The Communication Mediation Model, Sonny Rosenthal, Rabindra A. Ratan

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

When designed well, serious games can support effective learning. This study used the communication mediation model to examine the process and outcomes of playing serious games, in this case, the science-themed game, Kerbal Space Program. During a 4-h research session, 241 undergraduate students played through the game's tutorial missions and completed surveys to measure variables of interest. Results of structural equation modeling showed that game progress was positively related to self-efficacy in computer gaming (β = 0.26) and ordinary science intelligence (β = 0.13). Knowledge acquisition was positively related to game progress (β = 0.21) and positively predicted experiential attitude …

Aldi++: Automatic And Parameter-Less Discord And Outlier Detection For Building Energy Load Profiles, Matias Quintana, Till Stoeckmann, Young June Park, Marian Turowski, Veit Hagenmeyer, Clayton Miller

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Data-driven building energy prediction is an integral part of the process for measurement and verification, building benchmarking, and building-to-grid interaction. The ASHRAE Great Energy Predictor III (GEPIII) machine learning competition used an extensive meter data set to crowdsource the most accurate machine learning workflow for whole building energy prediction. A significant component of the winning solutions was the pre-processing phase to remove anomalous training data. Contemporary pre-processing methods focus on filtering statistical threshold values or deep learning methods requiring training data and multiple hyper-parameters. A recent method named ALDI (Automated Load profile Discord Identification) managed to identify these discords using …

Evaluation Of Polymer Binder Technisoil G5® In Concrete Mixture, Shadi Saadeh, Pritam Katawal

Mineta Transportation Institute

Plastic is everywhere, and with its increasing use in so many everyday materials, the production and demand of plastic has skyrocketed. Unfortunately, this has resulted in the accumulation of a mammoth amount of plastic waste and adverse effects on the environment. To optimize the huge amount of materials required by the pavement industry each year and reuse recycled plastics, the use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) has been common practice. This research studied the use of a binder completely made from recycled waste plastic named Technisoil G5® and compared it with performance grade PG 70-22 mix containing virgin aggregates and …

Transportation Utility Fee To Fund Transit In California, Shishir Mathur, Ralph Robinson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Public transit is a key tool to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to combat climate change; improve safety for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers; and expand accessibility and mobility for all. However, we can only realize this potential by making sufficient investments to provide transit service levels that attract and retain greater ridership. To help with this needed investment, a handful of local governments have turned to transportation utility fees (TUFs), primarily collected as a monthly charge on customers' utility bills or property tax bills. While more widely used to support street maintenance, this study identifies six case studies where TUF …

Modeling And Predicting Geospatial Teen Crash Frequency, Sonu Mathew, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sarvani Duvvuri

Mineta Transportation Institute

This research project 1) evaluates the effect of road network, demographic, and land use characteristics on road crashes involving teen drivers, and, 2) develops and compares the predictability of local and global regression models in estimating teen crash frequency. The team considered data for 201 spatially distributed road segments in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, USA for the evaluation and obtained data related to teen crashes from the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) database. The team extracted demographic and land use characteristics using two different buffer widths (0.25 miles and 0.5 miles) at each selected road segment, with the number of …

Risk Factors Associated With Crash Injury Severity Involving Trucks, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha, Sarvani Duvvuri, Sonu Mathew

Mineta Transportation Institute

Nearly 499,000 motor vehicle crashes involving trucks were reported across the United States in 2018, out of which 22% resulted in fatalities and injuries. Given the growing economy and demand for trucking in the future, it is crucial to identify the risk factors to understand where, when, and why the likelihood of getting involved in a severe or moderate injury crash with a truck is higher. This research, therefore, focuses on capturing and exploring risk factors associated with surrounding land use and demographic characteristics in addition to crash, driver, and on-network characteristics by modeling injury severity of crashes involving trucks. …

Impact Of Dedicated Bus Lanes On Intersection Operations And Travel Time Model Development, Stephen Arhin, Babin Manandhar, Kevin Obike, Melissa Anderson

Mineta Transportation Institute

Over the years, public transit agencies have been trying to improve their operations by continuously evaluating best practices to better serve patrons. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) oversees the transit bus operations in the Washington Metropolitan Area (District of Columbia, some parts of Maryland and Virginia). One practice attempted by WMATA to improve bus travel time and transit reliability has been the implementation of designated bus lanes (DBLs). The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) implemented a bus priority program on selected corridors in the District of Columbia leading to the installation of red-painted DBLs on corridors of H Street, …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of Sub-Chronic Ketamine Exposure On Rodent Memory As Assessed By The Odor Span Task In Female Rats, Angela Marie Thomas

Dissertations

Though numerous studies have been undertaken to explore the mechanisms of action of antidepressant medications, little is known about the origins of the disorders they treat. Recently, the therapeutic value of ketamine as a treatment for depression was recognized by the Food and Drug Administration. Historically, ketamine has been used in the laboratory setting to induce ‘schizophrenia-like’ symptomology in humans and animals to allow for further study of those symptoms in a controlled environment; a correlation between ketamine use and deficits in memory and cognitive function has been suggested. This study evaluated the impact of sub-chronic sub-anesthetic ketamine on performance …

A Comparison Of Fixed Pay, Piece-Rate Pay, And Bonus Pay When Performers Receive Tiered Goals, Alejandro Ramos

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the performance of participants under three pay systems when all were given five tiered goals. Seventy-one undergraduate students were randomly assigned to receive either fixed pay, base pay with bonuses, or piece-rate pay. Over the course of six 45-minute sessions, one of which served as a covariate, participants engaged in a computerized simulated medical record data entry task. The primary dependent variable was the average number of correctly completed medical records per session. An increasing relationship was expected to be found between the three groups with respect to the number of correctly …

Three Essays In The Economics Of Education, Md Ohiul Islam

Dissertations

This dissertation explores three distinct topics in the economics of education. These topics explore the relationship between factors such as race, gender, national origin, and educational and labor market outcomes. Educational attainment in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) areas receives a major focus in this dissertation; a college-level specialization in STEM areas generally leads to high incomeyielding career tracks. Below I briefly explain the research objectives and findings of each chapter.

The first chapter focuses on the impact of teacher-student demographic mismatch on student success in classrooms at the high school level. When students, particularly those of disadvantaged …

Factors In Graduate Student Resilience And Intention To Persist During Doctoral Study, Amber Mosley

Dissertations

Attrition is a major problem for the doctoral education system and in particular for underrepresented groups. Research has proposed several reasons for students dropping out that include both personal and programmatic variables. A review of the literature identified several factors that overlap in the research on attrition, resilience, and intention to persist however, there have also been varied results across studies and very few studies focused specifically on doctoral students. Doctoral education can be considered in three phases of the education process, each with its own stresses and challenges. Factors and variables that could be the most helpful for universities …

Patterns Of School Victimization And Problem Behaviors: Longitudinal Associations With Socioeconomic Well-Being And Criminal Justice Involvement, Ryan D. Heath, Kevin Tan, Jennifer S. Guzzy, Briyana R. Henry

Social Work - All Scholarship

BACKGROUND: Middle school victimization and problem behaviors often co-occur, but little is known about patterns of co-occurrence, or how long effects persist into adulthood.

OBJECTIVE: Drawing on general strain theory, this study aimed to identify sex-specific profiles of victimization and problem behaviors during middle school, and their association with socioeconomic, violence, and criminal justice outcomes in young adulthood.

METHODS: Latent class analyses was conducted on data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth - 1997, including subsamples of seventh grade females (n=529) and males (n=494).

RESULTS: Two classes were identified for females: (1) low-risk and (2) high-risk; these classes were …

Buen Vivir Under Correa: The Rhetoric Of Participatory Democracy, The Reality Of Rentier Populism, Paul W. Posner

Political Science

This article seeks to understand the relationship between populism and participatory democracy through analysis of Rafael Correa's left populist regime in Ecuador (2007-2017). It argues that rather than adhering to its own standard for participatory democracy, what the Correa regime referred to as the Socialism of Buen Vivir, it employed the rhetoric of participatory democracy in the service of populist rule. As a result, the Correa regime failed to promote the participatory form of democracy and citizenship promised in Buen Vivir, its version of twenty-first-century socialism. Accordingly, analysis of the Correa regime demonstrates how the concentration of top-down executive power …

Being The Newbie: How To Support The Successful Integration Of A New Librarian, Dymond Bush

Library Staff Publications, Presentations & Journal Articles

Transitioning to a new career is difficult but doing so amid a global pandemic presents a unique set of challenges. This session will provide a brief overview of the experience of being new to this field from recruitment to retention. In this session, the presenter will discuss how they navigated health and safety concerns, job searching, imposter syndrome and more. The presenter will discuss how they built a support network and leveraged resources to successfully begin a new position in an academic library. This session will share tools for new professionals, seasoned professionals, and managers. Attendees will develop strategies for …

Connecting For Equitable Climate Adaptation: Mapping Stakeholder Relationships In Metro Boston, Rosalyn Negrón, Antonio Raciti, Rebecca Herst, Patricio Belloy, Katsyris Rivera-Kientz, Gabriela Boscio Santos, Ashley Smith

Sustainable Solutions Lab

Climate change is already disproportionately impacting historically marginalized populations. Without intentional interventions, adaptation efforts will amplify existing social and economic inequities. At the same time, society will mobilize massive resources to address increasing climate-related threats. This means that climate change also presents opportunities to address persistent and systemic inequities. However, equitable adaptation efforts are impeded by multiple factors. For example, many frontline communities do not have the capacity to work on adaptation efforts if it means diverting attention from addressing existing inequities. Even as policymakers, practitioners, and planners increasingly prioritize climate adaptation, frontline communities are not brought into the process …

Investigación Arqueológica: Sitio Buen Suceso, Comuna Dos Mangas, Provincia De Santa Elena. Informe Preliminar. Temporada 2019, Sarah M. Rowe, Guy S. Duke, Daniela Balanzátegui

Anthropology Faculty Publications

Preliminary report on the 2019 excavation season at Bun Suceso, a Valdivia site located on the coast of Ecuador. Report submitted to the Region 5 Office of the Instituto Nacional de Patrimonio Cultural, Guayaquil, Ecuador.

Nh Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment Program (Dsrip): Key Findings From The Summative Evaluation Report, Mary Lindsey Smith Phd, Deborah Thayer Mba, Katie Rosingana Ba, Rachel M. Gallo Mph, Catherine Mcguire Bs, Evelyn Ali Mph, Katharine Knight Mph, Chinonye Anumaka, Tyler Egeland Ba, Mark Richards Bs, Karen Pearson Mlis

Substance Use Research & Evaluation

Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs are part of the broader Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Section 1115 Waiver programs and provide states with significant funding to support system transformation efforts. CMS approved New Hampshire’s five-year Building Capacity for Transformation Section 1115(a) Medicaid Demonstration Waiver in 2015. The overall goal of the DSRIP Demonstration is to improve the care for New Hampshire’s Medicaid Beneficiaries with behavioral health disorders by addressing workforce and infrastructure shortages, improving care transitions, and integrating physical and behavioral health. This condensed report highlights key findings from the NH DSRIP summative evaluation report. For …

Summative Evaluation Report By The Independent Evaluator For The New Hampshire Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (Dsrip) Program, Mary Lindsey Smith Phd, Deborah Thayer Mba, Katie Rosingano Ba, Rachel M. Gallo Mph, Catherine Mcguire Bs, Evelyn Ali Mph, Katharine Knight Mph, Chinonye Anumaka Od, Mph, Tyler Egelund Ba, Mark Richards Bs, Karen Pearson Mlis, Ma

Substance Use Research & Evaluation

Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) programs are part of the broader Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Section 1115 Waiver programs and provide states with significant funding to support system transformation efforts. CMS approved New Hampshire’s five-year Building Capacity for Transformation Section 1115(a) Medicaid Demonstration Waiver in 2015. The overall goal of the DSRIP Demonstration is to improve the care for New Hampshire’s Medicaid Beneficiaries with behavioral health disorders by addressing workforce and infrastructure shortages, improving care transitions, and integrating physical and behavioral health. This report is the final summative evaluation report on New Hampshire's DSRIP program. For …

Making Friends Wherever We Go: International Librarian Networking, Michelle Colquitt, Diana Pukite

Presentations

No abstract provided.

What I Learned...At Ala, Rodger Eugene Bishop, Michelle Colquitt, Amanda Mcleod, Renna Redd, Edward J. Rock, Alydia Sims

Presentations

No abstract provided.

Into The Unknown: Working Together To Forge A New Department In A Library Reorganization, Michelle Colquitt, Renna Redd, Chris Vidas

Presentations

Although libraries regularly change in response to personnel turnover, budget constraints, and user needs, a full-blown library reorganization can be a process full of uncertainty and anxiety. This poster will discuss an ongoing reorganization at an R1 university that merges the E-resources Team, the Continuing Resources and Government Documents Team, the Collection Management Team, and Resource Sharing Team into one department of 17 employees. The poster will demonstrate how the three supervisors of these teams are working with their respective groups to mindfully engage with the change process at hand with the goal of mitigating some of the stress involved …

Is The Phq-9 A Unidimensional Measure Of Depression? A 58,272-Participant Study, Renzo Bianchi, Jay Verkuilen, Sharon Toker, Irvin Sam Schonfeld, Markus Gerber, Elmar Brähler, Kurt Kroenke

Publications and Research

The PHQ-9 has become a measure of reference in depression research and clinical practice. However, the issue of the PHQ-9’s unidimensionality has not been fully elucidated, and the usability of the PHQ-9’s total score requires clarification. In this study, we examined the dimensionality, scalability, and monotonicity properties of the PHQ-9 as well as the scale’s total-score reliability. We did so based on exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) bifactor analysis and Mokken scale analysis (MSA). We relied on a total of 58,272 participants (63% female; Mage = 43, SDage = 13) from 29 samples involving seven different countries (e.g., Germany, the …

Spatial Panel Data Models: Unbalanced Panel, Threshold Effect And Network Structure, Xiaoyu Meng

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

This thesis studies the estimation and inference problems for spatial panel data models when the panels are unbalanced, when the panels contain threshold effects, or when the panels contain time-varying network structures. These three scenarios divide the thesis naturally into three chapters.

The first chapter considers estimation and inferences for fixed effects spatial panel data models based on unbalanced panels that result from randomly missing spatial units. The unbalanced nature of the panel data renders the standard method of estimation inapplicable. In this chapter, we proposed an M-estimation method where the estimating functions are obtained by adjusting the concentrated quasi …

Using Social Media In Kenya To Quantify Road Safety: An Analysis Of Novel Data, J. Austin Lee, Lyndsey Armes, Benjamin Wachira

Emergency Medicine, East Africa

Background: Road trafc injuries are a large and growing cause of morbidity and mortality in low- and middleincome countries, especially in Africa. Systematic data collection for trafc incidents in Kenya is lacking and in many low- and middle-income countries available data sources are disparate or missing altogether. Many Kenyans use social media platforms, including Twitter; many road trafc incidents are publicly reported on the microblog platform. This study is a prospective cohort analysis of all tweets related to road trafc incidents in Kenya over a 24-month period (February 2019 to January 2021).

Results: A substantial number of unique …