Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Stability Of Neurocognitive Abilities In Heterogeneous Subgroups Of Schizophrenia, Megan L. Becker Wright

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Considerable work has been devoted to characterizing the latent structure of cognition in schizophrenia (SZ) to understand important clinical outcomes associated with generalized or specific deficits but findings are limited in a number of ways. Previous work has not assessed bifactor and other complex models of cognition in SZ, which might provide a better understanding of the structure of cognitive abilities. It is also unclear whether the latent structure of cognitive abilities is similar between men and women with SZ or whether the latent structure of cognitive abilities is stable over time with repeated assessment. These limitations must be addressed …

The Influence Of Technostress On Hotel Guests, Samuel Lee

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The implementation of technology in the hospitality sector is rapidly growing. Although there are practical, economic, and experiential benefits of hospitality technology, the increased adoption of guest service technologies such as digital room keys, check-in kiosks, and service robots can also introduce friction points in a guest’s hotel experience. Technostress is any form of stress induced by the usage of technology and this study is among the first to apply this concept to consumer behavior. Based on the transactional model of stress and coping and social cognitive theory, this dissertation examined the effects of technostress on hotel guests, using a …

Cognitive Testing For Sport Concussion: The Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment And Cognitive Testing (Impact), Julia E. Maietta

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Sport concussion is among the most common injuries for an athlete to experience during sport participation. Because of the complex pathophysiological process that affects the brain during and after concussion, symptoms can be heterogeneous in presence and severity. Although most acute symptoms (e.g., headache, slowed processing speed, loss of consciousness, irritability, depression, anxiety) resolve within seven to 10 days for most athletes, there is evidence that higher initial symptom burden and other genetically based differences can lead to longer symptom duration and complicated recovery post-concussion. Because structural changes that commonly occur as a result of concussion (e.g., diffuse axonal injury) …

To Report Or Not To Report: Student Reporting Behaviors Of Violent Crimes In Schools, Heather Monaghan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

School-based violence is a criminal justice topic that often captures the attention of the media and the public. As a result, measures - such as school security strategies, safety personnel, and teacher training - are put into place to help combat school-based violence. These measures are not only costly and time consuming, but also have inconclusive research findings to support them. However, violence in schools can still be prevented. Research has found support for the role that student reporting has in preventing violence. However, many students may choose not to report violent crimes. Using a modified version of Sykes & …

Awareness And Knowledge On Aging And Hiv-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder: Service User And Provider Perspectives In Southern Nevada, Brandon C. Ranuschio

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

HIV-Associated Neurocognitive Disorder (HAND) is a condition that can affect up to 50% of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and present as a cluster of neurocognitive difficulties in domains such as attention, memory, concentration, language, information processing, decision-making, problem-solving, and even motor skills. The current study intended to identify awareness and knowledge of HAND among middle-aged and older PLWH and their healthcare or service providers in Southern Nevada. Using a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, participants from the community were recruited to complete a survey that assessed awareness and knowledge of HAND. The survey also assessed the personal experiences of PLWH …

What You See You Perceive: Public Opinions Of Potential Negative Consequences And Support For Officer Body-Worn Cameras, Jordyn Marian Sanders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Officer-body worn cameras (BWCs) are used in policing to provide visuals from the perspective of the officer during interactions with the community. BWCs are often promoted for the ability to improve the relationship between the community and police by providing accurate and transparent accounts of the interactions. Millions of dollars have been spent to distribute BWCs to police departments across the Unites States, with an estimated 80% of departments implementing the devices through various policies and procedures (White & Malm, 2020). Most studies on BWCs have provided empirical evidence showing the potential benefits of the devices in policing (Lum et …

An In-Depth Examination Of The Literature On Early Pubertal Timing And Disordered Eating In Women And Girls: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Megan Marie Shope

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Objective: Extant data indicate that earlier onset of puberty increases risk for disordered eating symptoms in girls and women. However, whether earlier pubertal timing is predictive of all disordered eating symptoms, or whether it exerts differential effects across distinct symptoms (e.g., body dissatisfaction versus binge eating), remains unclear given inconsistencies in the literature and the lack of a systematic analysis. A meta-analytic approach can overcome these limitations by providing pooled estimates of early pubertal timing on disordered eating symptoms and testing for methodological moderators (i.e., disordered eating outcome/symptom type, measurement of pubertal timing, age of sample, type of sample, study …

Repeating Patterns: Does Emotional Child Abuse Lead To Intimate Partner Abuse?, Kathryn R. Henry

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Childhood abuse and intimate partner abuse (IPA) are serious issues in the United States This study examines the correlation between emotional childhood abuse and IPA. Anyone regardless of gender, race, or socioeconomic status may be a victim of childhood abuse or IPA. One in seven children are victims of childhood abuse, which results in a lifetime cost of $428 billion. The costs of IPA are even higher and estimated by the CDC (2020) to be near $3.6 trillion as 25% of women and 20% of men have been victims of IPA. Previous research has found a connection between childhood maltreatment …

Understanding The Role Of Identity Salience In The Relationship Between Experience Of Ethnic/Racial Discrimination And Mental Health Symptomatology, Michelle Strong

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Ethnic identity salience is shown to be a protective factor in the negative impact of discrimination on mental well-being in BIPOC. However, the extent to which ethnic identity salience is a protective factor in specific BIPOC is unclear. The current study examined whether ethnic identity salience would be equally protective against the negative effects of discrimination on depression and anxiety symptoms in LatinX/Hispanic, Black/African American, and AAPI groups. It included N =168 ethno-racially diverse college students (e.g., AAPI n = 59, Hispanic/LatinX n = 72, and Black/African n = 37 American college students). Hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine …

The Effects Of Supplemental Dietary Chitosan On Broiler Performance And Myopathic Features Of White Striping, Mary F Love, Andrea Nicole Brooks, Sonya D Cox, Munachi Okpala, Gail Cooksey, Audrey Sarah Cohen, Anjail Z Sharrief

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction

Stroke, a life-threatening stressor, often negatively impacts stroke-survivor (SS) quality of life (QoL). Annual age-adjusted incidence and death rates for stroke are significantly higher among Black Americans than among White Americans. Racism, a significant stressor, occurs at structural, cultural, and interpersonal levels and contributes to health disparities for Black SS. Resilience, a dynamic process of positive adaptation to significant stress, is impacted by factors or resources both internal and external to the individual. This study aims to examine the effects of experiences of racism and resilience on Black SS QoL during early stroke recovery. This article presents the study …

A Comparison Of Psychological Stress And Sleep Problems In Undocumented Students, Daca Recipients, And U.S. Citizens, Andy Torres, Jordan Kenemore, Grant Benham

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Amidst the uncertainty of a shifting political landscape, our study examined stress and sleep problems experienced by both Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) undergraduates and non-DACA undocumented immigrants in an undergraduate population, in relation to students who were US citizens. We surveyed 969 students (93% Hispanic; 69% female) in 2017 or 2019 using established measures of stress, sleep quality, and insomnia. Collapsed across years, undocumented students reported significantly greater stress than citizens and DACA students, but DACA students did not differ from citizens. No differences were found in sleep for either quality or insomnia. Additionally, DACA student stress was …

Teaching Dbt Skills To Daca Recipients And Their Families: Findings From An Echo Program, Frances Morales, Oscar F. Rojas Perez, Michelle Silva, Manuel Paris, Luz M. Garcini, Melanie M. Domenech Rodriguez, Alfonso Mercado

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) offers temporary administrative relief from deportation for undocumented immigrant adolescents and young adults who were brought as children to the United States. Accordingly, DACA has contributed to creating a different landscape of opportunities for this group. However, DACA has been and continues to be highly contested in the national political climate. Threats to DACA give rise to considerable anxiety, fear, and distress among its recipients, who face significant barriers to accessing mental health care services. Thus, a group of psychologists partnered with a leading immigrant rights advocacy organization and formed a reciprocal collaboration to …

The Cryptocurrency Participation Puzzle, Ran Duchin, David H. Solomon, Jun Tu, Xi Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We show that ongoing zero portfolio weights in cryptocurrency are surprisingly difficult to generate in a standard Bayesian portfolio theory framework. With ten years of prior data, equity market investors would need very pessimistic priors on mean returns to justify never having bought cryptocurrency: -10.6% per month for Bitcoin, and -19.6% per month for a diversified portfolio of cryptocurrencies. Moreover, most priors that involve never purchasing cryptocurrency imply that investors should short cryptocurrency. Optimal absolute weights are generally small but non-trivial (1-5%), frequently positive, and fairly smooth despite returns being volatile. Under a wide range of priors, the certainty equivalent …

Implications Of Ancestry Estimation: An Analysis Of Identification Rates In Unidentified Persons Cases, Gabrielle Mace

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Recently, attention has been drawn to the biases present in the methodologies employed by Forensic Anthropologists, and in the medicolegal system, towards People of Color throughout the identification process. As one of the important contributors to the medicolegal system, it is essential that forensic anthropologists understand the impact of their analyses on the identification rate of marginalized unidentified decedents. Thus, through the utilization of positive identification records from Wayne and Ingham Counties in Michigan, U.S., this research investigated the disparities in identification rates between decedents reported as White and those reported as People of Color (POC). The data indicated that …

Does The Financial Experience Of Sec Regional Directors Impact Sec Investigations Into Reporting Entities?, James Justin Blann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The SEC’s Division of Enforcement is frequently criticized for its lack of oversight effectiveness, and certain vocal critics attribute this to a lack of financial experience within the SEC. Using hand-collected data on SEC regional directors, I find that the majority of these SEC officials lack financial experience. I then examine whether the financial experience of SEC regional directors impacts SEC investigations into reporting entities. Consistent with financial experience equipping directors to better process complex financial transactions and reports, I find that directors with financial experience open public company investigations 29 percent more often and conduct these investigations 34 percent …

Inflation Expectations Can Be A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy, Aurobindo Ghosh, Khyati Chauhan, Muskan Bagrodia

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In a commentary, SMU Assistant Professor of Finance (Education) Aurobindo Ghosh, SMU postgraduate student and Research Assistant for the SInDEx Project Muskan Bagrodia and International Monetary Fund Economic Research Assistant Khyati Chauhan weighed in on why inflation expectations matter as much as economic data. They discussed how inflation expectations can be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and shared the key takeaways of the quarterly DBS-Sim Kee Boon Institute’s Singapore Index of Inflation Expectations (DBS-SKBI SInDEx) survey. They concluded that effective communication on inflation control measures, in addition to credible policy decisions, will help consumers feel assured and refrain from basing purchasing decisions …

Dynamic Stochastic Matching Under Limited Time, Aouad Ali, Omer Saritac

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

In centralized matching markets such as carpooling platforms and kidney exchange schemes, new participants constantly enter the market and remain available for potential matches during a limited period of time. To reach an efficient allocation, the "timing"of the matching decisions is a critical aspect of the platform's operations. There is a fundamental tradeoff between increasing market thickness and mitigating the risk that participants abandon the market. Nonetheless, the dynamic properties of matching markets have been mostly overlooked in the algorithmic literature. In this paper, we introduce a general dynamic matching model over edge-weighted graphs, where the agents' arrivals and abandonments …

A Comprehensive Examination Of The Cross-Validity Of Pareto-Optimal Versus Fixed-Weight Selection Systems In The Biobjective Selection Context., Wilfried De Corte, Filip Lievens, Paul R. Sackett

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The article presents evidence for the cross-validity potential of fixed-weight (FW) versus Pareto-Optimal (PO) selection systems in biobjective selection situations where both the goals of diversity and quality are valued and the importance of the goals is undecided a priori. The article extends previous research by also studying the cross-validity potential of selection systems in the practically most important sample-to-sample cross-validity scenario. We address three research questions: (a) Do different PO systems show comparable levels of relative (i.e., proportional) achievement upon cross-validation? (b) Do PO systems achieve higher levels of relative achievement upon cross-validation than FW selection systems?, and (c) …

Where We Are From Matters: Assessing The Impact Of Immigrants On Firm Environmental Performance, Narae Lee

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This study examines the impact of immigrant populations on firm environmental performance. Leveraging a longitudinal dataset of more than 11,000 manufacturing facilities in the US in which I match the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) facility toxic emissions data with the location’s census immigration data, I document the negative impact of local immigrant populations on a facility’s environmental performance, which strengthens as heterogeneity among immigrant increases. I argue that this is because a more heterogeneous community is less cohesive and hence less capable of organizing effective pressures against pollution. Further, I show that because co-nationality links create unique bonds between the …

Public Readiness Index Entering New Normal Period Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic As Exposure Effect To Social Campaigns, Wahyuni Pudjiastuti

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

Indonesian people will face daily activities that are no longer the same as conditions before the corona-19 virus pandemic, which is then termed as New Normal. This policy is communicated in the form of a social campaign. Policy implementation should be a solution to improve welfare. But often, support from the public is still lacking. Therefore, it is necessary to study the level of public readiness (public readiness index) in accepting a policy and the effectiveness of the social campaign that the government has carried out.

The research aims to describe the public readiness index for implementing the new normal …

Diversity Of Gay Identity And Gender Expression On Social Media, Nadissa Fadhila

JURNAL KOMUNIKASI INDONESIA

The purpose of this research is to provide perspective on being a gay in Indonesia and his point of view on how he tries to express his diverse identities through social media Instagram. Also, how he tries to be unattached from the negative profiling and imagery of being a gay that exists in society in Indonesia. The focus of this research is the practice of posting and uploading content on Instagram from Magistus Miftah, an Indonesian fashion designer. This research is qualitative research with descriptive design and social semiotics analysis. This research concludes that the gender expression that Magistus Miftah …

Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion: Three Essays In The Educational Context, James D. Paul

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many universities and K-12 public school systems express a significant, formal commitment to the ideals of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Relative to the emphasis on DEI in America’s educational institutions, however, there has been little research describing DEI trends and evaluating the efficacy of DEI bureaucracies. This three-chapter dissertation examines DEI trends that have been the subject of much discussion—but rarely studied empirically.

For example, chapter one analyzes how universities promote DEI when hiring new faculty. I audit a subset of academic job postings and present the first evidence on how many require DEI statements, as well as the …

Using Condensed Tannin To Mitigate Tall Fescue Toxicosis, Ally Jo Grote

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Endophyte-infected (Neotyphodium coenophialum) tall fescue, [Schedonorus arundinaceus (Shreb.)] produces ergot alkaloids. Condensed tannins could bind to ergot alkaloids and render them ineffective. The first objective was to improve the health of sheep offered endophyte-infected tall fescue by binding toxins in the rumen with condensed tannins. Non-toxic novel-endophyte infected tall fescue (NE) or toxic endophyte-infected tall fescue forage was harvested, baled at targeted moisture of 55%, wrapped within 8 hours of baling with 2 layers of net wrap and 20 layers of plastic, and ensiled for at least 60 days. Prior to feeding, forages were chopped and packed into plastic trash …

The Buzz Behind Alcohol Advertising: A Study Of How Alcohol Advertisements On Social Media Impact Behavior, Alexis Morgan Campbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol advertisements are known to be appealing and memorable, and several researchers have investigated what makes these advertisements so attractive. Several trends have emerged regarding the content within alcohol advertisements: themes of parties, celebration, and social success within television, magazines, and social media since the 1970s. Recently, several studies found that new themes in alcohol ads have been found to be popular, especially in social media advertisements (Campbell & Chung, 2022). The elaboration likelihood model (ELM) provides insight into why a person’s attitude could be more susceptible or why their behavior could be more easily influenced by certain types of …

Wind Tunnel Modeling Of Jack Rabbit Ii Mock Urban Environment Gas Concentration Measurements, Sami S. Fares

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 2015 Jack Rabbit (JR) II field trials were conducted to improve understanding of the denser-than-air dispersion of chlorine in an urban environment. The field study involved five large-scale, outdoor release trials of chlorine in a mock urban environment (MUE) at Dugway Proving Ground (DPG). Various instrumentation was deployed, including JazTM Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) point sensors capable of measuring gas-phase chlorine concentration throughout the mock urban array.

The Chemical Hazards Research Center (CHRC) was tasked by the Chemical Security Analysis Center (CSAC) with the Mock Urban Wind Tunnel (MUWT) program to study the 2015 JR II Trials at wind tunnel scale. …

The Effects Of Consumer Loan Application Formats And Advertised Terms On Consumer Borrowing Decisions, Alicia M. Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Consumers continue to demonstrate a willingness to accrue more debt. They are also more accepting of increased repayment risk via the acceptance of longer loan terms. Extant research on consumer borrowing consists primarily of experiments designed to assess consumer choices and understand how consumers evaluate loan attributes in relation to one another within consumer borrowing contexts (Kamleitner, Hoelzl, and Kirchler 2012; Ranyard et al., 2006). Thus, prior research examines consumer responses to loan information rather than the generation of loan parameters at the time of financing. With important implications for consumers, marketers of financial products, academic researchers, and federal regulators, …

The Social Ontology Of Psychiatry: Psychiatric Diagnosis As An Ontogenetic, Interpellative Speech Act, Ashton Sorrels

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Psychiatry is the study, evaluation, and treatment of mental disorders – disorders that affect the behavior and cognition of individuals and which are associated with underlying dysfunctions in the brain and nervous system. Though psychiatry is a medical and scientific discipline, it also takes place within a social context that modifies its effects, particularly in its application of diagnostic categories to individuals. In this thesis, I argue that, because of this context, psychiatric diagnosis can be modeled as an ontogenetic, interpellative speech act. A speech act is an utterance or sign that constitutes an action through its performance, called an …

Digital Commons@Tmc, Alice Sherwood

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

DigitalCommons@TMC is an open-access resource with more than 7,450 articles, making almost all full-text content accessible worldwide. If you are affiliated with a TMC institution when the work is created, and you own the copyright of the research publication, you can contribute to this repository. Most research can be submitted electronically, you would need a Bepress account prior to submitting your research. Some publications may not allow authors to submit directly, and there is also generally a 12-month embargo period for dissertation submission.

Welcome New And Returning Students, Beatriz Varman

TMC Library Newsletter (2015-)

The TMC Library provides the following services to assist students with their research.
Do you have an assignment that requires searching the library databases, but you are not sure where to start? We are here to help. The Student Services page has the information you need to get you started.

Investigating Toxicity Changes Of Cross-Community Redditors From 2 Billion Posts And Comments, Hind Almerekhi, Haewoon Kwak, Bernard J. Jansen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This research investigates changes in online behavior of users who publish in multiple communities on Reddit by measuring their toxicity at two levels. With the aid of crowdsourcing, we built a labeled dataset of 10,083 Reddit comments, then used the dataset to train and fine-tune a Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT) neural network model. The model predicted the toxicity levels of 87,376,912 posts from 577,835 users and 2,205,581,786 comments from 890,913 users on Reddit over 16 years, from 2005 to 2020. This study utilized the toxicity levels of user content to identify toxicity changes by the user within the …