Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Collateralizing Ideas: Intangibles In The Credit Market, Paige Stevenson

Economics Honors Projects

Intangible capital comprises an increasing share of total capital assets, and its non-physical nature makes it more difficult to evaluate and secure as collateral for loans. I extend the model of intangible capital presented in McGrattan and Prescott (2010) to include a collateralized credit market in which firms can obtain debt proportional to their capital assets. I consider different cases for the relative collateral value of intangibles under a credit constraint subject to exogenous shocks. For greater collateralizability of intangible assets, the model predicts a stronger negative relationship between intangible investment and credit availability and more stable interest rates. However, …

Modeling Collaborative Research Practices With Zotero, Julian Kilker

UNLV Best Teaching Practices Expo

The early stages of research when students explore topics and evaluate resources are critical. Yet researchers can be overwhelmed by evaluating sources, organizing resources and notes, and working with collaborators. During these stages it is particularly important to model meaningful research relationships to support student success. I address these challenges by having students explore Zotero, a free “research assistant” application and web portal, as they work on structured research assignments. While Zotero is known as a powerful citation manager, my practice focuses on its features that are most relevant to storing, organizing, and sharing resources while working on both informal …

Is It For Me? Alienation, Assimilation, And Ambition In Academia, Niki Fullmer, Brittany Paloma Fiedler

Library Faculty Research

Even though colleges and universities across the United States are implementing strategies to market their commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, students of color, specifically Latinx students, are graduating at a lesser rate than the national average (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). In the academic librarian profession, only 6% of librarians are Latinx while 71% are white (Sweeney & Schonfeld, 2017). Academia and libraries are historically white, and this fact was recognized by many of the Latinx students who participated in a study conducted at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), in the spring …

Municipal Waste In Southern Nevada: Understanding The Obsession With Garbage, Zachary Billot

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

This policy brief will analyze the current state of municipal waste, both residential and commercial, in Clark County Nevada. Southern Nevada’s reliance on inexpensive disposal of waste results in lack of support for sustainable investment in waste diversion programs. Clark County lags significantly behind the US in terms of recycling processing due to problems related to collection of materials and limited programs that divert food waste in a city reliant on casinos that dispose tons of food per day. A multifactor approach which includes education, investment in waste diversion, policy change for waste collection and cost, and management of waste …

A Tool For Digital Bibliotherapy: Fostering Emotional Resiliency Through A Visual Novel, Joy Cooper

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Suicide rates among children have risen over the last three years. In Clark County specifically, the numbers doubled between 2019 and 2021. The research for this project sought to find the benefits of bibliotherapy and create a tool to be used for early intervention in children displaying signs of developmental emotional and behavioral concerns. Additionally, the research focused on determining the benefits of bibliotherapy across various mediums with a particular aim on the accessibility of digital formats. The research concluded that bibliotherapy in a digital format is not only beneficial but has a tendency to produce higher engagement among children. …

From Crescent City To Sin City: African American Neighborhood Transportation Redlining Via Government Highway Projects, Drue Sahuc, Christie D. Batson

Graduate & Professional Student Association Research Forum

My concept of “transportation redlining” will be discussed to describe a form of predatory exclusion applied to African American communities to contain and alienate individuals along racial lines using eminent domain creating generational physical barriers to upward mobility for residents while decimating existing community cohesion.

Project F.O.C.U.S., Pi Peng Chen

Second-Year Seminar Posters (COE 202)

Education is a fundamental right for everyone, including individuals with disabilities. The primary challenge students with disabilities encounter is the lack of accommodation and accessibility in schools. The second challenge is students with disabilities are often subjected to bullying, harassment, and discrimination in schools. Significantly impact students' mental health, self-esteem, and learning ability. There is a pressing need for a more inclusive and supportive learning environment.

The Registration Continuum In Personality Disorder Studies: Theory, Rationale, And Template, Stephen D. Benning, Edward A. Smith

Psychology Faculty Research

Registration is a tool to increase the rigor of personality disorder research and its ability to reduce human suffering through improving people's lives. This article details the problems that exist without registrations, which revolve around a study's outcomes' dependence on the data rather than on the theory being tested. Registrations exist on a continuum underpinned by bipolar timing and unipolar disclosure dimensions, the latter of which poses myriad points of decisions for researchers to register. The registration process provides memory aids and guideposts for researchers through the course of a study, transparently maintains public trust in the scientific enterprise, and …

‘Have They Talked About Us At All?’ The Moral Distress Of Healthcare Social Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Qualitative Investigation In The State Of Texas, Sophia Fantus, Rebecca Cole, Lataya Hawkins, Priyanjali Chakraborty

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Amid the ongoing pandemic, as overburdened and underfunded health systems are requiring health care social workers (HSWs) to assume responsibilities beyond their scope of practice, institutional constraints have undoubtedly heightened encounters of moral distress (MD). MD is the psychological disequilibrium that arises when institutional factors obligate an individual to carry out a task that violates their professional and/or personal ethics. Our qualitative study investigated HSWs’ (n = 43) MD in Texas during the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic. Findings from our study indicate that MD occurs across five levels: (i) patient care decisions; (ii) personal care decisions; (iii) team/unit decisions; (iv) …

Diamond's Hidden Gems - Ucf Rosen Library, Diamond R. Williams

Libraries' Documents

No abstract provided.

Children's Evaluations Of Observable Vs. Unobservable Properties During Scientific Reasoning, Taneisha Vilma

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Science inquiry involves reasoning and drawing conclusions about properties or constructs that may not be directly observed and are not immediately verifiable. Prior scientific reasoning investigations have examined children’s reasoning about observable items and immediately verifiable conclusions. The current investigation examined children’s evaluations of the certainty of conclusions drawn from evidence when reasoning about both immediately observable properties and unobservable properties with the same task. Kindergarten, first grade, third grade, and adult participants (N = 70) were presented with an online experimental procedure. The procedure included two conditions (Observable vs. Unobservable) each involved reasoning about three levels of evidence (conclusive …

Exploration Of The Influence Of Perceived Discrimination And Academic Stress On Dating Satisfaction For College Students Of Color, Jahleel D. Shepherd

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Admission of college of students of color into predominately white institutions (PWIs) is a wide historical phenomenon embarked with continuous research. Yet, there is necessity of discovering a wide variety of challenges students of color face at PWIs. This study examined how academic stress and perceived discrimination influences dating satisfaction for college students of color at PWIs. Interviews from 4 participants with dating relationships lasting one year or longer were analyzed. Through qualitative methods and phenomenology, three themes emerged from the data. Despite academic, social, and partner relationship conflicts, the discussion and clinical implications of this study provide a comprehensive …

Parent Involvement And Student Teacher Relationships In Predicting Student Outcomes, Riley Laffoon

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

As key players in what Bronfenbrenner describes as the mesosystem, parents and teachers interact to play an important and immediate role in child development. While the role of parent involvement and the impact of student teacher relationships are well established in the literature on student outcomes, less is known about how the two function together to impact the student. To expand the literature on this topic, the current study sought to examine how levels of different types of parent involvement (home-based, home-school conferencing, and trust) predict student teacher relationship quality, how parent involvement and student teacher relationships predict student outcomes …

Social Media: Are You Addicted? Examining The Role Of Social Media Platforms On Life Satisfaction, Personality And Generation, Alexzander Ponce

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The rise of social media has led to an increase in social media use and social media addiction. Research has found that social media addiction is influenced by various factors, and this study looks to examine the relation between social media addiction and users' life satisfaction, personality type and age group; and whether the type of social media platform moderates this relationship. This study dispersed survey questionnaires and conducted an ANCOVA to analyze the results. Results found that life satisfaction and social media addiction are negatively related, but the negative relation is larger for Twitter users. Results also found a …

Inclusive Practices In Catholic Education: A Restorative Realignment, Carla Vellutini

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Catholic schools need to examine the barriers to, benefits of, and interventions needed when implementing inclusive practices into their institutions. Catholic schools are experiencing an increase in enrolled students identified with learning and behavioral needs; however, they frequently lack resources and expertise to provide the necessary support for these students and their families to succeed. Research studies identify teacher attitudes and perceptions regarding inclusive practices as vital factors to create successful culture change.

A single group pretest-posttest design, incorporated into this action research study, measured the attitudes and stress of teachers before and after a 14-week long intervention for eight …

Evaluating The Effects Of Feedback On College Students' Self-Reports Of Alcohol Consumption And Standard Drink Free-Pours, Alondra Del Real

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Excessive alcohol consumption is a widespread concern among many college campuses. Most of the data on the prevalence and adverse consequences associated with college drinking are gathered from self-report surveys, which require respondents to have a knowledge of standard drink sizes. Unfortunately, the reliability and validity of these data are questionable because college students are typically unable to define or pour standard drinks. Efforts to improve college students’ self-reported alcohol consumption are warranted. Some researchers suggest that we can improve self-reports of alcohol consumption by providing college students with feedback on the accuracy of their standard drink free-pours (White et …

Analyzing Media Representations Of Rape Investigations And Interrogating The Representation Of Victim Blaming And Rape Myths: A Feminist Rhetorical Critique On The Netflix Limited Series Unbelievable, Kelly N. Hutchison

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The problematic portrayals of rape investigations in televised media reify a culture ofvictim blaming and perpetuate an ideology that is harmful to victims and survivors. This thesis utilizes a feminist rhetorical critique to analyze the gender and socioeconomic representations of rape victims and rape investigators, in the Netflix limit series Unbelievable, to understand the problems in their portrayals. In a world where individuals are consuming media constantly, it is important to be critical of media representations because even seemingly progressive media representations may perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Synergies Between Residents: Evaluating Support And Concerns Of Recreation And Tourism Economic Development Within The Monongahela National Forest Region, Morgan R. Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Tourism has continually been presented as a growing economic sector around the world. Having become an area of increased interest for diversifying rural economies, tourism is an attractive alternative to the declining traditional economic engines of rural communities like agriculture, forestry, and mining. Rural destinations have become increasingly attractive to outside visitors who seek to pursue activities embedded within the local culture and distinctive attractive assets available in rural regions. The USDA has recognized the increasing importance of recreation and tourism economies as an emerging or priority area of national need and an effective means for rural development. Even with …

Giving Power To Corporate Social Responsibility: A Case Study Of The Organization-Public Relationship Between A Public Utility And Its Community Stakeholders, Rhyanna C. Wiethe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research is to examine how, if at all, relationships between public utility companies and their stakeholders changes following a corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, and based on the results, how can companies restructure their initiatives to better serve their publics in order to build stronger, more positive relationships. A multi-method case study using in-depth interviews and two content analyses (a social media analysis and a news coverage analysis) was used to explore the relationship between a public utility company and a community affected by the implementation of a CSR initiative. The findings suggest that the relationship …

Feature Extraction Of Footwear Impression Images For Quality Assessment, Alexandra Hill

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forensic footwear impression analysis is a valuable tool in criminal investigations. Extracting useful features from images of footwear impressions is a critical step in this process. However, the quality of these images can vary widely, making feature extraction challenging. In order to give a quality assessment rating to a footwear impression image, the image should first be analyzed to extract features from the impression. In this paper, we present a method to extract features from a 2D grayscale footwear impression image. A Hierarchical Grid Model implementation has been adapted from use on a 3D dataset to assist in finding features, …

Using Extended Two-Step Floating Catchment Area To Map Children’S Level Of Access To Physical Books In West Virginia, Heather A. Maxey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The state of West Virginia lacked a comprehensive, in-depth analysis of the availability of physical books across the state. Access to reading material is vital to a child’s educational development as well as lifelong learning beyond childhood. To guide policy decisions and planning for outreach which addresses reading levels and beyond, I mapped levels of access stemming from socioeconomic barriers, spatial barriers, and an integrated index of both types of barriers. To map spatial access, I utilized a modified Extended Two-Step Floating Catchment Area model, deriving techniques from Hong et al’s 2023 article addressing access for health care in WV. …

On The Role Of Task Preference And Work Removal For Identifying Escape Functions, Brian Patrick Long

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

On the Role of Task Preference and Work Removal for Identifying Escape Functions

Brian P. Long

Students within the public school system may exhibit severe challenging behavior to escape from academic demands. Procedures to identify the reinforcers that maintain challenging behavior, such as functional analysis, may improve the probability of treatment success. Functional analysis involves manipulating contingencies to determine if positive (e.g., attention following challenging behavior) or negative (e.g., escape from aversive events such as task demands) reinforcers may maintain challenging behavior (Iwata et al., 1982). The absence of evocative tasks could produce inaccurate results when testing for effects …

A Randomized Controlled Trial Comparing Pcit-Toddler, Circle Of Security, And Waitlist Controls To Improve Child And Caregiver Emotion Regulation, Robin Choi Han

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Emotion regulation is an important developmental task during toddlerhood that is associated with positive psychosocial outcomes (Zeman et al., 2006). The development of adaptive emotion regulation during early childhood occurs largely within the context of a supportive caregiver-child relationship (Morris et al., 2007). Thus, parent-mediated interventions are a promising medium through which emotion regulation problems in toddlers can be treated. However, few interventions specifically designed to treat behavioral and emotion regulation difficulties are available for children in the toddler age range, and these interventions have yet to establish a solid evidence base supporting their efficacy. To fill this gap in …

Empowering Elderpreneurs Scommerce For Genx Consignment Store Owners In West Virginia, Joyita Sarkar

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In an ever-evolving digital landscape, this research explores Generation X (GenX) consignment store owners in West Virginia and the transformative power of Social commerce (sCommerce). Despite the ubiquity of Social media platforms, little attention has been given to the impact of sCommerce on the consignment store industry. Drawing from the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT), this study examines the factors influencing sCommerce adoption decisions for GenX consignment store owners.

Through qualitative research, this study uncovers untold stories within this entrepreneurial landscape. Purposeful sampling of 11 women and 20-60 minutes of in-depth interviews reveal the …

An Analysis Of Urban Land Use Land Cover (Lulc) Changes In Lilongwe City, Central Malawi (2002–2022), Zola Manyungwa

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital city, has grown nearly tenfold in the last 40 years with a 4-5% annual population growth rate, and the city’s population is projected to double over the next decade. Rural to urban migration and natural increase are the driving factors of the city’s urban expansion. Characterised by the urbanisation of poverty, Lilongwe is experiencing uncontrolled and unplanned urban expansion that has led to the growth of informal settlements. Urbanisation leads to land use land cover (LULC) changes that negatively impact the quality of life and the environment. Lilongwe faces many challenges, including high levels of poverty, inequality, …

Outdoor Recreation Benefits In Urban Areas: An Importance-Performance Analysis Of Residents' Perception In Morgantown, West Virginia, Zachary D. Cox

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Abstract

Outdoor Recreation Benefits in Urban Areas: An Importance-Performance Analysis of Residents’ Perception in Morgantown, West Virginia

Zachary Cox

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, participation in outdoor recreation has surged in primitive, rural, and even urban settings. Similarly, outdoor recreation studies that focus on residents have continually grown post-COVID-19. Through shared activities and a sense of community, residents have a strong voice in the decisions and improvements of their local environmental spaces. The purpose of this study is to assess the benefits of outdoor recreation among residents in the city of Morgantown, West Virginia. To identify these benefits and perceptions, researchers …

Profiles Of Positive And Negative Risk-Taking Among Asian And Non-Asian American Emerging Adults, Yea Won Park

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Emerging adults can engage in both positive and negative risk-taking. Based on recent previous research that identified various risk-taking profiles (Duell et al., 2022), the current project extends the literature in several ways. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify profiles of risk-taking behavior among US college students, (2) examine how correlates of cognitive values and interpersonal factors relate to risk-taking groups, and (3) investigate the role of cultural values in risk-taking profiles among Asian and non-Asian American college students. The sample was 401 participants recruited from universities in the US. Latent Profile Analyses indicated that 4-profile solution …

Health Behaviors As Mediators Of Caregiver Physical Health, Michaela Clark

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Informal caregivers provide the bulk of care to older adults in the United States (Ali et al., 2021). Informal caregivers include family, friends, and neighbors, many of whom do not have any formal training for this role. There are costs associated with taking on a caregiving responsibility, such as scheduling appointments, helping with medications, household tasks, and even financial support (Rha et al., 2015). Many of these informal caregivers lack the coping skills necessary to manage the challenges associated with caregiving (Xu et al., 2021). Many also take on this role despite the personal costs on one’s own health, time, …

Effects Of Combined Ethanol And Nicotine Administration On Delay Discounting In Male And Female Sprague-Dawley Rats, Rebecca Lillian Chalme

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Ethanol (EtOH) and nicotine (NIC) are among the most commonly used and co-used drugs in the world. Co-use occurs in people who use one or both drugs chronically, but also in people who only consume one or both drugs acutely, often in a “bingeing and chipping” pattern. Given that each drug on its own has previously been shown to affect impulsive choice in delay-discounting procedures, with some indication that drug effects could vary by sex, the purpose of the present experiments was to investigate effects of combined EtOH and NIC at a range of dose combinations on delay discounting in …

Healthcare Provider Uncertainty And Communicative Management Strategies, Katie Benson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Uncertainty exists ubiquitously within provider-patient interactions. Healthcare providers (HCPs) often face uncertainty during patient-provider interactions, for reasons including inconclusive test results, ambiguous communication, and lacking the resources to make diagnoses. When healthcare providers experience uncertainty, their behavior and communication can be negatively impacted. For example, prior research suggests when HCPs experience uncertainty, they may engage in authoritative, prejudiced and assumption-ridden behavior towards patients (Dietta & Rand, 2007; Drewniak et al., 2017: Portnoy et al., 2013; Poteat et al., 2013). To date, research on HCP uncertainty has been limited to specific health conditions and contexts such as cancer, vascular anomalies, and …