Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Use Of Laja In Construction In Ancient Mesoamerica: A View From The Southern Gulf Lowlands Of Veracruz, Mexico, Lauren Smith

Honors College Theses

The archaeology of the southern Gulf lowlands of Veracruz, Mexico is notable for its research pertaining to the Olmec culture (Jaime-Riveron 2016; Loughlin 2012; Pool 2006). The region was home to the Colossal Olmec Heads: large, easily identifiable sculptures crafted from the volcanic rock of the Tuxtlas Volcanic Field. The use of volcanic resources in such grand presentations may instill a bias in the research of some archaeologists, but it is important to consider how these and other volcanic resources might have been used in everyday life (e.g., Jaime-Riveron 2016: 86). The consolidated volcanic ash in this region is referred …

The Atlanta University Center’S (Auc) Robert W. Woodruff Library’S Growing Partnerships And Outreach To Support Its Annual International Games Day, Patrice Williams, Bryan A. Briones

Georgia Library Quarterly

International Games Day (IGD) is one of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Robert W. Woodruff Library's most popular annual outreach events. The library's IGD transformed from a one-day event for its AUC community members to come visit, socialize, and play a few rounds of table-top card and board games into a two-day event with broader gaming and e-sports networking opportunities which has been very well-received.

Royston Public Library Receives National Grant To Make The Library More Accessible To Patrons With Disabilities, Maggie West, Darcy Calia

Georgia Library Quarterly

The Royston Public Library has been awarded a prestigious $10,000 grant as part of the Libraries Transforming Communities: Accessible Small and Rural Communities initiative, spearheaded by the American Library Association (ALA). This grant aims to enhance accessibility and community engagement for individuals with disabilities in small and rural libraries. The Royston Library plans to host community conversations to gain direct patron input into the best use of these funds. Ideas include utilizing the grant to develop tailored programs, including Sensory Storytime sessions and Quieter Storytime sessions with interactive elements. Furthermore, the library could improve physical accessibility by enhancing the garden …

News Briefs Spring 2024, Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

Length Of Time Differences Between Genders In Factors Of Movement From Suicidal Ideation To Suicidal Action, Carina Anderson

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

While women are more likely to take suicidal action, men are more likely to die of it. This difference has been partially, but not completely explained by the methods of suicide generally chosen by men and women. While this and other factors have been explored, there is no conclusive answer for the difference in death rates. Research suggests that men and women make decisions differently, and if these differences contribute to variations in their movement from suicidal ideation to suicidal action, we might expect to see these differences reflected in the amount of time it takes men and women to …

"As Long As You're South Of The Canadian Border—You're South!": The Rise Of Black Power In North Omaha, Nebraska, William Odell Burney

Theses (2016-Present)

The objective of this master’s thesis is to configure a socio-historic narrative in such a way that it clearly illustrates how and why much of North Omaha’s Black American collective transitioned from a mundane migratory movement to that of the Black Panther Party. To wholly comprehend the essence and relevance of Black Power one must understand its lesser-known evolution in locales such as Omaha, Nebraska, in the Midwest. Hopefully, this research will enhance a pre-existing trove that other historians may pull from to consider similarities and juxtapositions of causal dynamics that underpinned Black Power in different regions of the United …

Communication And Marketing In Historically Black Colleges And Universities (Hbcu) Sports, Philip Reynaldo King

Theses (2016-Present)

This study's objectives are to evaluate the impact that communication and marketing efforts have on the attendance and revenue of HBCU sporting events; identify and explain potential challenges and obstacles to effective marketing and communication initiatives; analyze the effectiveness of current communication and marketing efforts; and examine and identify strategies for improving communication and marketing efforts in HBCU sporting events. The current state of communication and marketing in HBCU athletics will be analyzed through an analysis of the existing body of literature. Best practices will be identified, and the research will investigate strategies to optimize communication and marketing efforts in …

Microwave Emission Model Parameter Tuning For Surface Soil Moisture Retrieval Using Uav-Mounted Dual Polarization L-Band Radiometer, Santiago Hoyos Echeverri

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Surface soil moisture retrieval from L-band brightness temperature has been developed for the past decades due to multiple beneficial characteristics of 1-2 GHz frequency bands for remote sensing of the environment. Numerous microwave emission models have been proposed for tower and satellite-based operations with successful retrieval of surface soil moisture and vegetation water content. As a result of the development of cost-effective and low-mass microwave L-band radiometers such as the Portable L-band Radiometer (PoLRa), surface soil moisture surveying traditionally developed by satellite missions SMOS and SMAP can now be developed at local scales, bringing these operations to commercial small unmanned …

Mate Guarding Against Strong Men Displaying Affiliative And Aggressive Humor, Jacob Pauley

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mate retention behaviors serve to discourage partner defection from a current pairbond. Such behaviors are oftentimes more prevalent toward intrasexual rivals exhibiting physical and behavioral cues implicating that rival as an optimal mate. Among these features in men are their upper body strength, a feature diagnostic of heritable fitness, and men's ability to produce humor, a cue to their social competence. This study considered the intersection of these desirable features in shaping men's mate retention behavior toward an intrasexual rival. After learning of a hypothetical interloper exhibiting high or low upper body strength while similarly using humor in an affiliative …

The Effect Of Hormonal Contraceptive Use On Dominance And Prestige Tactics, Carson Chappell

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between hormonal contraceptives and prestige and dominance status-seeking tactics. Existing literature has examined how the hormones estrogen and progesterone, especially in relation to the fertile window of the menstrual cycle, are associated with prestige and dominance but has yet to look in depth at how hormonal contraceptives might alter this impact. The current study asked participants to complete a 22- item questionnaire assessing dominance and prestige. I hypothesized that women on hormonal contraceptives would have lower scores for prestige and dominance compared to women who are naturally cycling. The results did not …

Amendment 80 And The Effects On Arkansas Supreme Court Elections, Sydney Kincaid

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

In 2001, Amendment 80 was implemented into the Arkansas Constitution. One part of this Amendment was changing statewide judicial elections from being partisan to nonpartisan. This research project seeks to analyze the impact of Amendment 80 on Arkansas Supreme Court elections. The research considers how three components of elections have been impacted by the Amendment which are diversity of candidates, level of competition, and voter turnout. Data collection was conducted for all Arkansas Supreme Court elections from 2002-2022. The information that was collected includes election records as well as descriptive characteristics of candidates including race, gender, raw vote, opposed versus …

Investigating The Relation Between Family Income And Barriers For Black Caregivers Of Autistic Children, Leah Gelfand

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Black caregivers and families of autistic youth experience racial barriers (e.g., racial microaggressions, stigma;) and practical barriers (e.g., cost of treatment, long waitlists), when seeking treatment and diagnostic services (Lovelace et al., 2018). The current study aimed to ascertain whether family income influenced the racial and practical barriers experienced by a sample of Black caregivers of autistic youth (N = 101). Overall and item-level analyses were conducted to explore the relationship between racial and practical barriers experienced across Lower (below 39,693; n=32), Lower-Middle ($39,693-$59,540; n=28), Middle-Upper ($59,540 to $119,080; n=21), and Upper income groups ($119,080 and …

Storytelling For Social Change: Using Victim Narratives From Social Media To Disrupt Rape Myth Acceptance Among College Students, Grace Carmack

Journalism Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study employed a narrative intervention experiment aimed at challenging college students' acceptance of rape myths (RMA). Rape myths are erroneous beliefs that shift blame for sexual violence (SV) from perpetrators to victims and encompass stereotypical misconceptions about women. Three authentic narratives, shared anonymously on social media by college victims of sexual violence, were selected for their varying levels of graphic detail and situational context. The study's objective was not only to interrogate RMA among college students but also to discover which of the three narratives was most effective in reducing RMA among readers, utilizing the Transportation Theory as a …

Assessment Of Western Farmers’ Use, Knowledge, And Acceptance Of Cover Crops And The Agri-Environmental Schemes That Support Their Use, Lauren Golden

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Agri-environmental schemes (AES), which pay farmers to adopt conservation practices, are increasingly important environmental and agricultural policy tools. Despite large budgetary shares allocated to these programs, studies identify lower-than-expected environmental outcomes. In the U.S. reasons for low environmental outcomes include low participation rates, lack of program awareness, and poor targeting levels. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the largest conservation program in the U.S. highly promotes cover crops, as this practice has many benefits to water, air, and soil quality. The Western U.S.is a large cropping region where data on cover crop use and AES participation are lacking. Using a …

Promoting Successful Industry Academic Partnerships For Curriculum Development: Integration Of Multiple Streams Framework And Stakeholder Theory, Jennifer D. Gudapati

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There is a widening gap between traditional higher education and the needs of the industry workforce. Higher education has lately been criticized for having too few voices playing a role in most curricula development, with the voices being used consisting largely of career academics (Nature Editorial, 2023). Both industry and academia have found a disconnect between academic training and preparedness to enter the labor market (Jackson et al., 2016). Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) and Stakeholder Theory (ST) have been offered as potential frameworks for guiding elements of policy or strategy development and implementation in this context. However, in this dissertation, …

Narratives On Homelessness: Investigating The Connections Between Organizational Language And Learning, Lantz Mcginnis-Brown

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The increasing privatization of government and the associated growth of the nonprofit sector means that the delivery of public services is increasingly taking place outside of the traditional domain of government. Variation between nonprofits now significantly shapes the range of public experiences with ‘government’. The type of feedback process that a nonprofit employs with a particular stakeholder group may shape that group’s experiences in an organization’s “action situation” - the “social spaces where individuals interact, exchange goods and services, solve problems, dominate one another, or fight” (Ostrom, 2011, p.11). Nonprofits with poor feedback processes, and accordingly poor conceptions of client …

Witnessing Bullying And Defending Behavior Among Elementary And Middle School Students, Matt Peck

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three individual articles that explore the relationship between witnessing bullying and defending behavior among students who are bystanders of bullying. Chapter One provides the rationale and purpose of this dissertation and an overview of the three articles that comprise it. Chapter Two employed a cross-sectional analysis to examine the moderating effect of gender on witnessing bullying, defending behavior, and internalizing symptoms while controlling for previous experiences with bullying perpetration and victimization. Results indicated that students who witness bullying and utilize defending behavior exhibit different internal symptoms based on gender. In a longitudinal study, Chapter Three expands this …

The Anthropology Of Self: How Achieving Greater Self-Concept Clarity Impacts Individual Behavior, Relationships, And Cooperation, Thomas Anthony Voccola

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the Passion & Purpose™ experience as a model for enhancing self-concept clarity (SCC) and its influence on personal and professional life. Traditional theories suggest self-concept forms unpredictably, possibly leading to pathologies that undermine well-being and interpersonal connections. Contrary to this, the study argues that deliberate interventions like Passion & Purpose™ can significantly improve SCC, promoting better mental, emotional, and relational health.

Adopting an anthropological perspective, which is rare in SCC research, this study uses ethnographic methods to delve deeper into self-knowledge. Passion & Purpose™, already implemented in various U.S. organizations, presents an innovative method for developing SCC. …

The Opioid Epidemic In Virginia: Comparing Case Studies Of County-Level Implementation Of Opioid Response Plans, Sydney Elyse Fox

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This project entails a mixed method review of the implementation of opioid policies in the 133 cities and counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia using van Meter and van Horn’s (1975) Model Theoretical Framework as a guide. This study focuses upon understanding how the characteristics of successful implementation intersect with the components of opioid policy, controlling for education, poverty, and health insurance coverage, and how that interaction may lead to reduced overdose deaths. According to van Meter and van Horn, political agreement is necessary to create a policy with an administrative mechanism to implement. This administrative mechanism, along with resources, …

Word Choice, Deep Core Beliefs, And Unlikely Alliances: Increasing The Distance Traveled By The Narrative Policy Framework, Dalten Warren Fox

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands the use and capabilities of the Narrative Policy Framework (NPF) by utilizing the framework across three projects that address prevailing knowledge gaps. Since 2010, the NPF literature has produced significant evidence for the importance of understanding the roles of narrative language in public policymaking. Moreover, the NPF’s creators have consistently called upon other policy narrative scholars to challenge, refine, and expand the framework. To contribute to this endeavor, this collection of studies examines language components previously unconsidered by the NPF, leverages the framework in untested belief areas, and examines atypical policy subsystem dynamics using the framework. The …

“Bona Fide And Sincerely-Held”: How Deep Core Beliefs Inform And Influence Policy Engagement At The Institutional Level, Grant Miller

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Developing, fine-tuning, and implementing policy in a pluralistic society includes several potential pitfalls as policy actors engage and represent divergent interests. While much work has been done to explore the possible benefits to the policy process that could come from understanding the intrinsic motivations of individual policy actors, this study is an effort to account for the impact of the core beliefs of institutions as a whole when they engage in the policy process. Drawing from the concepts of the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF) regarding deep core beliefs, this study applies Moral Foundations Theory to process and analyze the language …

E-Government In Idaho’S Small Cities: Factors Of Adoption, Implementation, And Growing Organizational Capacity, Jeffrey Adam Skinner

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Over the last few decades, a growing body of academic research has focused on e-government in incorporated cities. Much of this research has focused on large and medium sized cities, with most researchers neglecting the study of small cities due to antiquated assumptions and assertions regarding population size and fiscal resources. This has created a digital divide in the literature, which impacts small cities and the citizens they serve. However, recent, and rapid changes have made e-government technology more widely available at a relatively lower cost. This, along with the punctuating events of the COVID-19 pandemic, indicate that e-government in …

Exploring Creative Economy Policy Change In United States Cities: An Interconnected Theoretical Approach Framing An Emerging Field And Practice, Matilda Rose Bubb

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The creative economy is a relatively new policy arena focusing on the consumption and production of culture and cultural products, urban development and placemaking, intellectual property protection, entrepreneurship and innovation, tourism, sustainability, and social impact. Despite its documented growth in U.S. cities in the past twenty years, we know very little about how these policy innovations spread, or about who advocates for them. To contribute to public policy research and the creative economy sector, I ask the following overarching question: How are emerging creative economy policy innovations spread, adopted and implemented in cities identified as highly creative in the United …

Digital Rite Of Passage: The First Social Media Kids, Julia Kennedy

Honors College Theses

Through a combination of academic research and creative storytelling, this thesis delves into the largely undocumented experiences of the “first social media kids,” an entire generation of tweens who grew up using social media in the 2010s before it was heavily moderated or imbued with age restrictions. While stories about this age of social media have been traded consistently in conversations between peers who are currently in their early twenties, there is a clear lack of academic work focused on early social media and the young users who explored it. Through the medium of an episodic and investigative podcast titled …

Shale Investment Dashboard In Ohio Q1 And Q2 2023, Andrew R. Thomas, Mark Henning, Samuel Owusu-Agyemang

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

This report presents findings from an investigation into shale-related investment in Ohio, looking at up, mid and downstream activities. The investment estimates are for January through June of 2023. The report also includes an estimate of cumulative investment in shale in Ohio from 2012 through June 2023. Prior biannual investments are included in previously posted reports that are available from Cleveland State University.

The Places Of Innovation: A National Review Of Innovation Districts, Molly Schnoke, Kristen A. Blazek, Izzy Esler, Shannon Driscoll

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

Innovation is an important economic driver and should be cultivated. Innovation is the spark that drives economic growth and development. At its most basic, innovation is defined by the "new" and the "improved". More specifically to those concerned with economic growth, innovation concerns, new products and economic growth. It is distinct from the invention in that innovation encompasses the "entrepreneurial function" of putting new ideas into commercial practice.

Innovation is an important economic driver and should be cultivated. Innovation is the spark that drives economic growth and development. At its most basic, innovation is defined by the "new" and the …

Adventist Human Subject Researchers' Association Research Conference: May 22-25, 2024, Andrews University

Human Subject Research Archive

Program Book

An Integrated Transformational Teaching Model For Empowering Undergraduate Psychology Students To Cultivate Self-Awareness, Wellness Practices, And Resilient Mindsets During Their Undergraduate Careers, Summerrae L. Arcemont

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This Narrative inquiry explored psychology students’ perceptions of self-awareness interventions and wellness training in undergraduate psychology coursework. Participants included seven undergraduate psychology majors who completed a psychology health and wellness course in the Fall 2023 semester at a regional university in the Southeast. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and examined to identify themes in the students’ stories regarding their journeys through the wellness course. The use of reflexive thematic analysis helped determine the following five overarching themes from the data: Roadmap for Navigating Wellness, Group Experience, Newfound Insight, Personal Growth and Transformations, and Moving Forward. The results of this study highlighted …

Exploring Auditory Thalamocortical Pathways In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Caitlin Dyer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Thalamocortical tracts related to language have rarely been examined in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN), Heschl’s gyrus (HG), and planum temporale (PT) volumes, and the connections from MGN to HG and MGN to PT, using MRIs from 39 children with ASD (20 with receptive language impairment, 19 without) and 20 typically developing controls, aged 5-17 years. In children with ASD without language impairment, MGN volume was positively correlated with receptive language scores. Additionally, the thalamus was smaller in children with ASD with language impairment, correlating negatively with receptive language scores in this group. Left …

Homelessness, Trauma, And Drug Use As Contributing Factors To Increased Sentencing, Elise N. Whitlock

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Mass incarceration has been a pervasive issue in American society with longstanding effects on individuals and their communities. Several factors have been shown to intensify these effects and contribute to the cycle of recidivism, such as homelessness, trauma, and drug use. The current study investigated the association between these and several other factors and the number of sentences an individual had received in their lifetime. A cross-sectional sample (N= 24,808, 25% female) of adult inmates from the periodic Survey of Prison Inmates was used to test these hypotheses. Exploratory factor analysis and subsequent regressions indicated a significant association between higher …