Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Addressing The Body Mass Index Using A Teaching Math For Social Justice Lens, Riley J. Wolfe

University Honors Theses

Teaching Math for Social Justice (TMSJ) lessons are designed to explain math in social justice contexts. TMSJ leads to better engagement with math content by providing relevant contexts. Because the field is so new, there are math topics not yet covered and areas of social justice that also have gone unaddressed by TMSJ. One of these topics is the problem of weight discrimination. This paper will explain how Body Mass Index (BMI) can be used as a jumping off point to introduce the issue of weight discrimination. Then, a detailed lesson plan is provided which connects the historical origin of …

2022 Top Trends In Academic Libraries, Alex D. Mcallister, Michael Flierl, Thomas R. Caswell, Laura Costello, Anita R. Hall, Cindy Li, Monica Maher, Mary Piorun, Patrice-Andre Prud’Homme, Brian D. Quigley, Gregory Walker

Library Faculty Presentations & Publications

This article summarizes trending topics in academic librarianship from the past two years–a time of tremendous upheaval and change, including a global pandemic, difficult reflections concerning racial justice, and war between nation states. Rapid changes and uncertainty from these events have created a significant amount of shifts to academic libraries, higher education, and society in general. Such shifts have yielded new perspectives and innovations in how librarians approach delivering services, supporting student success, managing staff and physical spaces, embracing new technology, and managing data. This report attempts to provide a snapshot of developments worth noting.

Econometric Analysis Of Asset Price Bubbles, Shuping Shi, Peter C. B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

In the presence of bubbles, asset prices consist of a fundamental and a bubble component, with the bubble component following an explosive dynamic. The general idea for bubble identification is to apply explosive root tests to a proxy of the unobservable bubble. Three notable proxies are the real asset prices, log price-payoff ratios, and estimated non-fundamental components. The rationale for all three proxy choices rests on the definition of bubbles, which has been presented in various forms in the literature. This chapter provides a theoretical framework that incorporates several definitions of bubbles (and fundamentals) and offers guidance for selecting proxies. …

Assessing Information-Seeking Behaviour Of Visually Impaired Students Using Wilson’S Model Of Information Behaviour In Federal College Of Education (Special), Oyo, Taiwo Mujidat Arowosaye, Olubunmi D. Bakare Dr.

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study investigated the information-seekingbehaviourof visually impaired students using Wilson’s model of information behaviour in Federal College of Education (Special), Oyo, with a focus on assessing information needs, adequacy, and satisfaction of the visually impaired students. The study established that the information needs of visually impaired students include educational opportunities, information on personal development, the procedure for performing skills, and information on housekeeping and households. It was also established that preference for Braille has been on the decline in favour of talking book/audio recordings among the young in many countries. Visually impaired users' preference includes e-newspaper and magazine, e-book, interpersonal …

Cloud Computing Application For Accessing E-Resources By University Librarians: Case Study Of University Librarians In Niger Delta Region., Vincent Osamuyimen Ekhaguosa, Gladys Otasowie Otote, Mary Irughe, Efosa Egharevba, Blessings Amina Akporhonor,

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Cloud Computing Application for accessing E-resources by University Librarians: Case Study of University Librarians in Niger Delta Region. Abstract This study investigated cloud computing applications for accessing e-resources by Librarians in university libraries in Niger Delta Region, Nigeria. In this study, the descriptive research design was adopted, and 43 items self-structured questionnaire was used to collect data. In the selection of the university libraries, the researcher used the stratified random sampling technique to select the university libraries. One hundred and fifty (150) librarians from the nine (9) the Niger Delta States were selected from three (3) centrally located states which …

Assessing Level Of Availability And Hindrances To Adequacy Of Ict Facilities For The Provision Of E-Resources Services In University Libraries In Southwest Nigeria, Oluwatosin Okunoye, Oluwatosin Okunoye

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study assessed the level of availability of ICT facilities and hindrances to the adequacy of ICT facilities for the provision of e-resources services in university libraries in Southwest Nigeria. Information and Communications Technology facilities are indispensable tools in the new information and digital environment and e-resources services provision are hampered in academic libraries without them. A descriptive research design was adopted for this study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire administered to 12 seasoned librarians drawn from 12 public university libraries, 11 usable responses to the questionnaire were received. Findings revealed the availability of most …

Student Engagement And Learning Approaches During Covid-19: The Role Of Study Resources, Burnout Risk, And Student Leader–Member Exchange As Psychological Conditions, Melissa Reynell Van Der Ross, Chantal Olckers, Pieter Schaap

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to explore the interplay of psychological conditions that influenced personal engagement among university students. As a theoretical lens through which to investigate this, the study used the job demands-resources model, the study demands-resources model, and the leader–member exchange theory. This study further aimed to explore outcomes that supported students in becoming lifelong learners (i.e., deep-learning approach).

Method: Participants were undergraduate students registered at a South African university. We used a purposive, non-probability sampling strategy and employed a cross-sectional survey research design. This study used Mplus version 8.6 for the statistical analyses.

Results: …

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 …

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. …

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 …

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, …

Navigating College While Homeless: A Phenomenological Inquiry Of The Young Adult Experience, Bertha Fountain

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Purpose: The study aimed to understand the perspectives of students in college who were homeless. The research question guiding this inquiry was: How do young adults describe their experience of being homeless while in college?

Method: Qualitative research using a phenomenological approach guided this descriptive inquiry. Interviews were held with 10 students from three CUNY Community Colleges and the data was analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Resilience theory helped to understand the barriers along with the strengths and adaptive responses of the students.

Results: Students experienced unstable and inadequate sleeping arrangements and food insecurity along with their academic responsibilities. Homelessness …

Exploring The Boundaries Of Queerness From Academia To Activism, Jillian M. (Silvia) Miranda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper gives a literature review that uses texts at the intersection of queerness, blackness, and/or criminality to explore the ways in which Queer Studies can be useful in the classroom (within critical race theory, quare theory) and on the streets in the fight for black lives.

Time And Power: The Will To Temporalize In Digital Culture, Talha Issevenler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I analyze the new forms of temporalization of social media in relationship to arrangements of power through nonhuman agency of the algorithm. The new social media industry refers to the entities that make up its circulatory movement, simply as ‘content’. This suggests that scientific or empirical study of social media should deal with content and analyze this as the data of research through sampling (Manovich, 2020, p. 93-94). Yet the forms and the temporality in which the content is presented not only are open to empirical research but should be central to our understanding of the organization …

Navigating Their Way In: Non-Hispanic West Indians’ Class Of Admission And Neighborhood Settlement, Kenisha J.A. White

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

West Indians in New York City are as segregated today as they were 30 years ago. Not only are they segregated from the city’s Anglo population, but they are also moderately segregated from each other. As of 2019, West Indians were still concentrated in neighborhoods across the North Bronx, Central Brooklyn and South Queens. These were neighborhoods that were regarded as West Indian enclaves back in the 1980s and 1990s. As this project reviews, the experiences of non-Hispanic West Indians in the United States, specifically their neighborhood settlement patterns and the role of race in influencing their integration outcomes, have …

No Excuses Yet No Solutions: The Inherent Anti-Blackness Of The No-Excuses Charter School Model, Tshala A. Pajibo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The No Excuses model of education has routinely been labeled abusive and harmful to students. The No Excuses model has garnered significant pushback from students, families, and stakeholders because of procedures and policies that have caused physical, mental, and bodily harm to young students. While many education stakeholders have examined how No Excuses charters and their policies have harmed Black children, not many have examined why. This paper argues that the No Excuses charter model is completely at odds with Black cultural and educational values. This paper suggests deeper studies of the educational mindsets and opinions of No Excuses …

Why, New York City? Gauging The Quality Of Life Through The Thoughts Of Tweeters, Sheryl Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a resource for social data, Twitter’s platform has been used to measure the quality of life through sentiment analysis. This capstone project explores another methodological technique—querying Twitter data around specific keyword terms to determine dominant topics, word patterns, and sentiment leanings in a geographical area. Focusing on New York City and Los Angeles for comparative analysis, the keyword term “why” will be used to build a Python analysis around topic modeling and sentiment analysis. Using this approach, the analysis reveals social and cultural differences, the overall sentiment of tweets, and subjects of interest to tweeters.

GitHub Repository for all …

Happiness And Policy Implications: A Sociological View, Sarah M. Kahl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The World Happiness Report is released every year, ranking each country by who is “happier” and explaining the variables and data they have used. This project attempts to build from that base and create a machine learning algorithm that can predict if a country will be in a “happy” or “could be happier” category. Findings show that taking a broader scope of variables can better help predict happiness. Policy implications are discussed in using both big data and considering social indicators to make better and lasting policies.

In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Daily Diary Investigation Of Appraisals Of Illegitimate Tasks, Danielle Robyn Wald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional research on illegitimate tasks has focused on two dimensions, unreasonable tasks and unnecessary tasks, and has assumed that threat appraisal is the underlying mechanism explaining their effects. This study introduced a revised three-dimensional framework of illegitimate tasks that consists of promoting unreasonable tasks, demoting unreasonable tasks, and unnecessary tasks. Further, it explored the differential relationships of each dimension of illegitimate tasks with three outcomes: emotional exhaustion, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and psychological empowerment. Furthermore, it proposed that among the three appraisals, challenge appraisal is the strongest mediator between promoting unreasonable tasks and outcomes, threat appraisal is the strongest mediator between …

Perceptions Of Economic Vulnerability And Public Opinion In The United States: A Theoretical, Historical, And Quantitative Approach, Cody R. Melcher

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation combines three related essays that analyze the effect of the perception of economic vulnerability on the social and political attitudes of Americans. Through a heterodox reading of W.E.B. Du Bois’s intellectual work and political career in the latter half of his life, the first essay develops the theoretical thrust of the dissertation. It is argued that Du Bois primarily grounds white supremacy in an elementary feature of capitalism: the fact that survival under capitalism presumes the successful engagement, either directly or indirectly, with the labor market. Due to the historical legacy of slavery, however, labor market competition in …

Strategies Anti-Racist Supervisors Use To Disrupt Racism In Social Work Practice, Sarah Ross Bussey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Addressing racism and bias within social work practice is crucial, given the social justice mandate of the profession and the profession’s history of complicity in oppressive policies. In a time of increased social division, overt bigotry, and pervasive structural violence, social workers have an opportunity to lead the helping professions in meaningful social transformation. Social work supervisors play a central role in developing and guiding ethical social work practice. Yet, little empirically driven scholarship exists providing supervisors with strategies for disrupting racism and bias in the practice of their supervisees. This exploratory qualitative study employs a grounded theory approach to …

Where Gunshots Turn Fatal: A Geographic Examination Of The Spatial Patterning Of Gun Violence, David Hatten

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation contributes fundamental work to the examination of gun violence through an investigation of prevalence, trends, and likely place-based dynamics that explain the spatial patterning of gun violence in Kansas City, MO over a 5-year period (2015-2019). Specifically, this dissertation assesses 1) the degree to which separate shooting typologies (fatal and non-fatal) concentrate in micro-places, 2) whether they co-locate at micro-places, and 3) the likely community characteristics and place-based dynamics that explain these observed patterns. Importantly, the role of place-based dynamics related to the post-incident operational response to gun violence is tested (e.g., a street segment’s proximity to trauma …

Making The Rural Urban: Inter-Class Dynamics To Protect The Environment In The Colombian Countryside, Sebastián F. Villamizar Santamaría

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past thirty years, the small rural town of La Calera in the outskirts of the Colombian capital of Bogotá has received an influx of upper-middle class residents that want to live “in nature.” These ex-urban newcomers arrived in the Andean highlands to live next to the long-time residents, who are descendants of peasants and mining workers that live “off nature.” The different visions of what nature or its uses should create a series of interactions among residents that will decide how will this area’s ecological resources be used in the face of further urban expansion.

Yet, contrary to …

Exploring The Effectiveness Of Multiple-Exemplar Training For Visual Analysis Of Ab-Design Graphs, Verena S. Bethke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In behavior analysis, data are usually analyzed using visual analysis of the graphed data. There are a wide range of methods used to visually analyze data, from a basic ‘textbook’ style approach to the use of visual aids, decision-rubrics, and computer-based approaches. In the literature, there have been some comparisons of the efficacy of different approaches. Visual analysis as a behavior can be taught using a variety of methods, independent of how the skill itself is to be performed. Teaching methods include lecture, online instruction, and equivalence-based instruction. There is not much research on the teaching of visual analysis specifically, …

Protecting Peace? Analyzing The Relationship Between The Protection Of Civilians And Peace In Un Peacekeeping Settings, Jenna Russo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Since 1999, the protection of civilians (POC) has become central to UN peacekeeping, included in the mandates of most multidimensional missions. In 2009, the Security Council designated POC as a priority among mandated tasks, in part because of the assertion that protecting civilians creates conditions that are conducive to peace. Yet, to this point, there has not been a thorough examination of the relationship between the protection of civilians in conflict settings and the broader peace process. The purpose of this research project is to investigate whether protecting civilians from violence serves to shorten conflict duration and/or create more durable …

Tablets As A Vehicle For Imprisoned People’S Digital Connection With Loved Ones, Andrea Mufarreh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The intersection between criminal justice and technology is fairly understudied, despite increasing technological advancements in the world and within the criminal justice system. A rather recent addition to the technological landscape of prison is the adoption of tablets used by imprisoned people for communication and connection with loved ones and other activities, which is particularly important given the context of COVID-19, a virus which caused a global pandemic from 2020-2022. While the use of tablets by imprisoned people appears to be a new trend, the use of tablets in prison both prior to and during the pandemic has remained an …

Streets Of Grievance: Everyday Poetics And Postcolonial Politics In Urban Algeria, Stephanie Victoria Love

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes the intersections of language, settler-colonial and postcolonial politics, and urbanism in North Africa (Algeria). It is an urban and linguistic ethnography of Oran, Algeria’s second-largest city, based on sixteen months of ethnographic, linguistic anthropological, and archival research conducted in Arabic and French. I show how contemporary Oranis mobilize language as a key resource in contemporary urban politics, which are inextricably tied to French colonialism’s material remnants, rubble, and legacies. In contemporary Oran, the connection between the colonial past and the postcolonial present remains palpable, even sixty years after independence; however, while the postcolonial Algerian state has long …

Sunbelt Schooling: Publics And Politics Of Education Advocacy In Phoenix, Arizona, Matthew Chrisler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For the past forty years, public education in the United States has been the target of both neoliberal and conservative education reforms that have imposed austerity and privatization, set limits on racial, gendered, and sexual citizenship, increased school responsibility for social reproduction, and winnowed visions of public education as both a universal social entitlement and site of participatory democracy. These reforms emerged from, and remain powerfully anchored in, the United States Sunbelt, a crescent of metropolitan suburbs spanning southern California to Florida. This region propelled the conservative revolution in American politics but is also the site of progressive organizing that, …

Everything To Lose: Extraction, Racism, And Survival On Wet'suwet'en Land, Anne Spice

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This work critically analyzes the role of extractive industry in the continued colonization of Indigenous peoples and occupation of Indigenous lands, and examines how Indigenous resistance to oil and gas projects augments the damaging effects of fossil fuel extraction and create alternative possibilities for life in the face of catastrophic environmental crises. In Wet’suwet’en territory, in Northern British Columbia, Canada, construction has begun on the fracked gas Coastal GasLink pipeline, despite the opposition of local Indigenous leaders and chiefs. Several Indigenous land reoccupation camps have been set up by Wet’suwet’en people to resist the pipeline’s construction, and the resulting conflict …