Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Residents’ Perceptions Of Use On Community Interface Areas At Protected Areas’ Boundaries: A Comparison Between Users And Non-Users, Louis Santiago Brevan

All Theses

Over the past fifty years, Protected Area (PA) management has gradually transitioned from the traditional top-down approach toward a more collaborative and participatory management model, which integrates the needs and perspectives of local communities. This quantitative study used a questionnaire to assess the perceived constraints of visitation, the attitudes toward tourism development, and the level of involvement in decision-making among community members residing near a community interface area on a PA’s boundaries. Structural constraints were the most prominent barrier to visiting (i.e., the poor state of the road and facilities). Residents indicated strong support towards tourism development and nearly half …

Quantifying Hurricane Effects On Housing: Evaluating Damage, Loss, And Shelter Demands Using Historical And Simulated Storm Tracks, Adish Deep Shakya

All Theses

This research introduces an advanced framework which employs parametric wind field models for peak wind speeds, and building fragility curves, loss functions, and demographic data to estimate for estimating housing damage and loss. The uninhabitable units immediate displaced households, short-term and long-term shelter need households are determined. with a particular focus on those eligible for FEMA assistance. The framework's validity is reinforced by a high correlation in the analysis of recent hurricane events between estimated numbers of displaced households and actual FEMA aid recipients, where FEMA aids about 20-60% of the predicted long-term displaced households. A novel application of the …

The Post Pandemic Learner: How Spatial Dynamics & Accessibility Impact The Learning Experience, Erikka Misrahi

All Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic had unprecedented impacts on Generation Z (Gen Z) in regard to mental wellbeing and learning impacts. While the world shut down in March 2020, the majority of students who have since entered college were forced to attend some portion of high school using remote learning platforms. This transition, while necessary at the time, has had repercussions that are still being felt in higher education. These impacts, combined with the challenges that Gen Z were already experiencing due to the pressures of social media, and the impacts that technology has had on attention spans, have changed their learning …

The Catalyst For Preservation: Assessing The Impact Of Historic Tax Credit Leverage On Surrounding Property Values In The State Of South Carolina, John Sutton

All Theses

The historic rehabilitation tax credit, in its many forms, is the single greatest driver of historic preservation investment in the United States. Despite this, very little research has been done regarding the secondary effects of historic tax credit leverage. The goal of this thesis is to assess the impact that substantial historic tax credit projects have had on the value of the properties that surround them in the state of South Carolina. Property tax assessment records were solicited from three different county governments within South Carolina to analyze the change in the assessed value induced by the introduction of tax …

Impact Of Socioeconomic Inequalities On Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Adrd Incidence Rate In South Carolina, Noor Nishan

All Theses

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Do Unions And Collective Bargaining Impact Economic Inequality In Oecd Nations?, Brady D. Crosby

Political Science Theses and Capstones

The decline of unionization has coincided with a dramatic increase in income and wealth inequality within countries across the world. Many theories in the existing literature have been proposed to explain both trends, including technology/automation, globalization and shifts in public policy. I analyze the impact of collective bargaining rates and union density on economic inequality. To test the connection between collective bargaining, labor unions and inequality, I use a series of statistical tests, including basic correlation tests, as well as a series of linear regression tests with Gini, union density, collective bargaining among other variables. The results show a moderately …

How Ignoring The Fundamental Causes Of Maternal Morbidity/Mortality Impedes Progress Toward A Reproductive Justice Model Of Contraceptive Counseling, Andrea Bertotti, Skye A. Miner

Sociology & Criminology Faculty Research

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recently published guidance promoting a reproductive justice model of contraceptive counseling that prioritizes patient preferences rather than centering effectiveness (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, Citation2022c). However, practitioners may be hesitant to follow these new guidelines if they do not understand how maternal morbidity and mortality are rooted in fundamental causes like racism. If practitioners believe that pregnancy is innately dangerous, they may prioritize effectiveness in the name of patient safety. Taking a reproductive justice perspective, we assess how contraceptive counseling guidance portrays maternal morbidity/mortality by qualitatively examining 25 authoritative gynecology publications. …

Investigating The Experiences Of Evangelical Couples Coping With Painful Intercourse During Early Marriage, Arielle L. Leonard Hodges

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

Women who internalize evangelical purity messages face heightened risk for persistent pain or difficulty with penile-vaginal intercourse. Drawing on research in communication, psychology, and sexual medicine, the aim of this multilevel qualitative study is to increase understanding of how evangelical couples communicatively cope with painful intercourse and the memorable messages they believe contribute to their experiences of coping. This study involved conducting qualitative interviews with 20 evangelical married couples (40 total spouses) who currently or recently experienced a wife’s persistent pain during (attempted) penile-vaginal intercourse and 16 female clinicians (pelvic floor physical therapists and mental health professionals) who regularly work …

An Examination Of Missing Person Social Media Engagement Through Data Mining And Experimentation: An Application Of The Crisis And Emergency Risk Communication Model, Cailin M. Kuchenbecker

Communication (PhD) Dissertations

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), approximately 600,000 individuals are reported missing each year in the United States (2022). When missing person cases do not meet alert (e.g., AMBER) criteria, law enforcement often utilize social media to crowdsource information to ultimately return the missing home. Therefore, guided by the crisis and emergency risk communication model (CERC; Reynolds & Seeger, 2005) and its recently clarified propositions (Miller et al., 2021), the purpose of this dissertation was to (a) identify strategies law enforcement use to crowdsource missing person information and (b) experimentally test message characteristics that facilitate prosocial sharing of …

A Spatiotemporal Analysis Of Violent Crime In Little Rock, Arkansas From 1999-2022, Nicole Rogers

Data Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Little Rock, Arkansas is not only the capital and largest city in Arkansas, but it has one of the highest crime rates amongst cities with over 100,000 people in the country. According to the US Census in 2020, Little Rock had a population of 202,591. In the same year, Little Rock Police Department recorded 3,567 cases of violent crime, leading to a violent crime rate of 1,805 violent crime occurrences per 100,000 people. For perspective, Chicago’s violent crime rate was approximately half of that of Little Rock during the same time period. Crime, like other social phenomena is unevenly distributed …

Comparative Analysis Of Sensory Attributes, Acceptance, And Evoked-Emotions Between Gluten-Free And Gluten-Containing Cookie Products, Shaelyn Frauenhoffer

Food Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The demand for gluten-free products has increased over the past few decades as more people have been diagnosed with gluten-related dietary restrictions. Although there has been much research into certain gluten-free food products, there remains a gap in understanding the sensory attribute differences between traditional and gluten-free cookies. The aim of this study was to determine differences in sensory attributes and consumer acceptance of gluten-free versus gluten-containing chocolate chip cookies. Twelve chocolate chips across 11 brands were used in this study with 7 being gluten-free and 5 containing gluten. Eighty-nine participants were involved in the two-day study, with six cookies …

Evaluating “Grit” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) Groups At The Highland Church Of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement Of Small Group Community Life, Beth Ann Fisher

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT This project, Evaluating “GRIT” (Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied) at the Highland Church of Christ: An Intergenerational Enhancement of Small Group Community Life is a response to the request for intergenerational partnership in worship, fellowship, and ministry by the university students at Highland Church of Christ in Abilene, Texas. The church’s robust small group life was a logical place to create a vehicle in which intergenerational partners could ride for a determined period in pursuit of their common goals of furthering Highland’s mission and vision. The “Genuine Relationships, Intergenerationally Tied” or GRIT groups were formed by combining existing small groups …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

2024 Gla Advocacy Division Update, Angela Stanley, Angela Cortellino

Georgia Library Quarterly

Updates from the Georgia Library Association's Advocacy Division, including Print Day at the Capitol and Legislative Updates.

Examining The Effects Of Menstrual Cycle Phase And Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Women's Sleep, Charles Ethan Coombs

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Women overrepresent men for sub-optimal sleep, a consequence of hormone fluctuation in the menstrual cycle affecting sleep regulatory pathways. While research has examined the prevalence of sub-optimal sleep through cycle phases, little research has examined how hormonal contraceptives (HC’s) could similarly affect women’s sleep, while also neglecting to utilize subjective sleep measures. In this study, we examine subjective sleep quality among naturally cycling (NC) women, women using different HC types, and between active and inactive phase pill users by subjecting 463 women to a subjective sleep battery. We hypothesized that HC users would report more sub-optimal sleep than NC women. …

The Cognitive Implications Of Literary Devices And Perspective-Taking On Reading Time, Amelia Ward

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The study of literary devices in the context of published fiction is unusual in psychology; however, some research has suggested that reading time may be influenced by cognitive challenges that come with the extra work that may be necessary to understand the meaning behind an author’s usage of literary devices (Miall & Kuiken, 1994; Egen et al., 2019). Jumping off of this suggestion, this present study aimed to answer the question of whether reading time is influenced by factors such as narrative perspective, the usage of literary devices, a person’s print exposure, and a person’s need for cognition, as well …

Functional Biases Toward Formidable Men In Legal Domains, Bridget O'Neil, Mitch Brown

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

The recurring threat of physical aggression throughout human evolutionary history presented a selection pressure that favored perceptual acuity threatening people. One heuristic of threat is men's formidability, often indexed by upper body strength. Although functional, such responses could be mismatched with demands of the U.S. legal system. The demands of a fair legal system could be at odds with ancestrally informed motives that serve to mitigate harm, a bias that has previously been demonstrated to increase sentencing length based on features deemed aggressive. This study extends previous findings by focusing on men's upper body strength while assessing how specific motivations …

Persistent Identifiers And The Next Generation Of Legal Scholarship, Aaron Retteen, Malikah Hall-Retteen

Faculty Scholarship

This article discusses the importance of the most common persistent identifiers in scholarly communications—the digital object identifier and the ORCID identifier—to legal scholarship. Persistent identifiers help preserve and disseminate academic content and data-driven services that leverage this information standard are now integrated into the publication process. Because legal publishers have not widely adopted persistent identifiers, the legal discipline cannot enjoy the benefits offered by this system. This article looks at barriers to implementing persistent identifiers among legal publishers and provides an anecdotal example of creating a sustainable workflow between the law library and student-run law journals.

Heavy Is The Arm That Wears The Cgm: An Investigation Of A Social Support Group Of Emerging Adults At A Type 1 Diabetes Camp, Mackenzie Dawes

All Theses

Type 1 Diabetes (T1D) is a chronic illness that can be profoundly isolating. T1D often fosters a sense of 'otherness' that is difficult for those without T1D to understand, due to the persistent necessity to monitor blood sugar levels, administer insulin injections, and navigate the ever-present risk of severe health complications if the T1D is mismanaged. For many young adults with T1D, the sense of isolation is magnified amidst the numerous life transitions characteristic of emerging adulthood. Establishing a community of peers with T1D can help mitigate the negative mental and physical consequences. Through semi-structured interviews, this study examines these …

Detection And Assessment Of Targets In Mock Digital Breast Tomosynthesis Images Using Computer-Aided Detection Systems, Katharine Sabo

All Theses

Radiologists use computer-aided detection (CAD) systems to assist with detecting and assessing breast cancers in mammograms, digital breast tomosynthesis (DBT), and other types of breast imaging; however, the usefulness of such automation aids has been debated since their implementation. Initial studies on CAD systems had mixed results, while more recent studies have shown that they can improve diagnostic outcomes (i.e., greater sensitivity and fewer false alarms) and decrease the reading time required for images. Three CAD types are currently in use: binary, analog, and interactive CAD. However, studies rarely explore the differences between the CAD methods. Additionally, recent work has …

Unmasking Justice: Racial Disparity Trends In Sentencing Before And After The Covid-19 Pandemic, Noah Samuel Reynolds

All Theses

The advent of the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly impacted every facet of the United States justice system, disrupting traditional systems and introducing a new era of virtual alternatives. This unprecedented crisis provides a unique opportunity to empirically study the interplay between health risks, shutdowns, and uncertainty and the foundational value of fair and impartial justice. Using North Carolina sentencing data from 2016-2022, this study delves into the consequences of the pandemic on sentencing outcomes after the virus was declared a national emergency in March 2020. Framed within the Focal Concerns (FC) theory, I expect judges to be more lenient in their …

Online Political Participation Among Younger Generations: A Case Study Of The Nigerian Presidential Election, Bowale Odukale

All Theses

The 2023 presidential elections in Nigeria represented a significant milestone in the nation's democratic progression, capturing the interest of observers both within the country and abroad. This study identifies the key online opinion leaders who participated in the electoral discourse, their generational affiliation, and the role of social media in facilitating youth engagement throughout the political process. Using Sprinkl, an online monitoring tool to harvest publicly available tweets containing the hashtag #NigeriaDecides2023 from February 11 to March 15, coupled with interviews, the study identified the prominent opinion leaders with significant influence, their types of messages and the motives behind youth …

Understanding The Traditions And Experiences Of African American Hunters, Ezekiel Adesawe

All Theses

Hunting is a significant cultural, economic, and wildlife management activity in the United States. However, African Americans remain underrepresented among hunters, with limited research to understand their perspectives and experiences. Hence, this study employed an exploratory focus group method design to profile African American hunters' real and perceived experiences, traditions, and needs. The interviews were conducted with 67 African American hunters from all regions across the country. The interview data were analyzed through thematic coding to construct key themes. Key findings from this study revealed that hunting is a strong tradition within African American communities that has been passed down …

Assessing Equitable Distribution Of The Urban Tree Canopy At The Neighborhood Scale In Greenville, South Carolina., April Riehm

All Theses

We are living in an era that necessitates adaptation and resilience. The Earth is warming. Our climate has changed (EPA, 2016). Our planet is also rapidly urbanizing. It is predicted that 68% of people will live in cities by 2050. The City of Greenville is a rapidly growing city in South Carolina that has been losing its tree canopy to development(City of Greenville, 2023). The Urban Tree Canopy (UTC) is a community asset that provides many quality-of-life benefits including improved air quality, stormwater management, carbon sequestration, mental and physical well-being, increased mobility and access, aesthetics, a reduction in energy costs, …

My Risk Or Theirs? An Experimental Investigation Of Character-Driven And Plot-Driven Engagement As Explanations For Risk Perceptions, Emma Cox

All Theses

Two distinct bodies of research examine means of increasing people’s health- related risk perceptions through persuasive message design. First, Construal Level Theory (CLT) posits that reducing perceived psychological distance from a health risk can increase people’s perceived relevance of the health issue. Second, models of narrative persuasion posit that narratives elicit audience engagement, which reduces counter- arguing and increases risk perceptions. So and Nabi’s (2013) Risk Convergence Model (RCM) was proposed to merge the two bodies of research: the model posits that viewers’ engagement with narratives diminishes perceived social distance from characters, resulting in a convergence of risk between characters …

An Economic Analysis In Relation To Aspects Of Kale And Rice Agricultural Production In South Carolina And The Broader Southeastern U.S., Shane Behler

All Theses

Agriculture has been crucial to the economic and cultural well-being of South Carolina throughout the state’s storied history. This importance has not diminished in our contemporary world. Agribusiness, which includes the agriculture and forestry sectors, is the largest industry in the state, providing nearly 260,000 jobs and 51.8 billion in annual economic impact. Almost 25,000 working farms encompass 4.8 million acres of land in South Carolina .

It is no stretch to claim that South Carolina’s agricultural industry affects almost every individual in the state. If not directly involved in the agriculture industry, it is nearly certain all residents have …

Assessing Undergraduate Nonprofit Management Education Programs: Combining Industry And Student Perspectives, Benjamin Walworth

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Given the role of the nonprofit sector in the U.S. economy, as well as the growth of nonprofit management education (NME) programs, there is a need to specifically assess undergraduate NME programs. This study addresses the current research gap by examining the undergraduate nonprofit studies minor at the University of Arkansas. An assessment of the minor was conducted by surveying three groups: nonprofit professionals, current students pursuing the nonprofit studies minor, and alumni of the minor. These groups were surveyed to understand why students pursue the minor, what students want or gain from the experience, as well as what skills …

Second Language Acquisition In The Era Of Technology And Artificial Intelligence: Exploring New Frontiers, Mimoun Akhiat

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This portfolio is the capstone project of the Master of Second Language Teaching program. It offers perspectives and insights into major themes of importance to the writer. It begins with a general introduction pertaining to the writer’s education and teaching background, his goals for joining the program and an overall reflection of this experience. Following this is the writer’s teaching philosophy comprised of a description of professional environment and a teaching philosophy statement centered on the principles of multimodality, authenticity, and collaboration. The second section of this portfolio is entitled hands-on teaching experience where the writer presents and reflects on …

The Politics Of Gender Affirming Healthcare: A New Battleground For Morality Policy?, Reaves Robinson

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Morality policy as a discipline saw its peak during the transformative years at the turn of the 21^st century; however, there has been very little scholarship to follow new social policy issues that have arisen in the past two decades. Anti-transgender policy, specifically, can be considered under the morality policy scope following years of LGBTQ+ scholarship that fell under the morality policy umbrella. In 2023 alone, more than 200 pieces of anti-transgender legislation were introduced in state legislatures across the nation. A trend among the increasingly popular policy realm can be seen from gender affirming healthcare bans, where almost …

Vice President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller And The Death Of Liberal Republicanism, Anthony Sterba

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller once stood as one of the most prominent figures in the Republican Party, standing as a champion of liberal Republicanism. But from the heights that he achieved with his ascension to the vice presidency, he fell from grace, not being re-nominated for the post alongside President Gerald Ford in 1976. This thesis seeks to explain why this occurred. In explaining this, Rockefeller's previous primary campaigns, vice presidential actions, and ideology are all explored to show the conservative opposition that rallied itself against him. In light of this, Ronald Reagan's challenge of Gerald Ford in 1976 for the …