Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Farming Between Love And Money: Us Midwestern Farmers' Human-Nature Relationships And Impacts On Watershed Conservation, Yuki Yoshida, Courtney G. Flint, Mallory K. Dolan

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

US Midwestern farmers are direct actors in managing nitrogen fertilizers and key to remediating water quality problems in agricultural landscapes. As farmers’ relationships with nature offer insights into their decisions and conservation practices, surveys and interviews with farmers in two Illinois watersheds explored their human–nature relationship perspectives and linkages to conservation practices. While domineering “Master” perspectives theorized as a cause of human-induced environmental problems were found, farmers spoke of obligations to the land and closeness to nature, emphasizing ecologically oriented partnership and stewardship ideals as motivating their conservation efforts. However, production-oriented pressures of the agricultural industry and livelihood and humanitarian …

A Model Integrating Social-Cultural Concepts Of Nature Into Frameworks Of Interaction Between Social And Natural Systems, Andreas Muhar, Christopher M. Raymond, Riyan J.G. Van Den Born, Nicole Bauer, Kerstin Böck, Michael Braito, Arjen Buijs, Courtney G. Flint, Wouter T. De Groot, Christopher D. Ives, Tamara Mitrofanenko, Tobias Plieninger, Catherine Tucker, Carena J. Van Riper

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Existing frameworks for analysing interactions between social and natural systems (e.g. Social-Ecological Systems framework, Ecosystem Services concept) do not sufficiently consider and operationalize the dynamic interactions between people's values, attitudes and understandings of the human-nature relationship at both individual and collective levels. We highlight the relevance of individual and collective understandings of the human-nature relationship as influencing factors for environmental behaviour, which may be reflected in natural resource management conflicts, and review the diversity of existing social-cultural concepts, frameworks and associated research methods. Particular emphasis is given to the context-sensitivity of social-cultural concepts in decision-making. These aspects are translated into …

An Evaluation Of U.S. National Wildlife Refuge Planning For Off-Road Vehicle Use, Robert L. Fischman, Vicky J. Meretsky, Katie Freeman, Alexi Lamm, Leah Missik, Scott Salmon

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Off-road vehicles (hereafter, ORVs) rank high among public-land management challenges because they are popular, often impair environmental conditions, and may cause conflicts with other recreational users. Unit-level planning for federal lands increasingly translates broad, system-wide objectives, such as maintenance of ecological integrity, into place-based limitations on ORV use to minimize and mitigate adverse impacts on wildlife. We reviewed 176 planning documents covering 313 National Wildlife Refuges (hereafter, Refuges) to understand how planning supports or undermines ORV recreation management. These plans offer an important perspective on ORV management because the Refuges are a large, diverse system of conservation lands where recreation …

Charting Communication: Assessment And Visualization Tools For Mapping The Communication Patterns Of Cataloging And Metadata Units, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott, Andrea Payant

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Capturing Voices In The Heat Of The Moment: Election Reflections 2016, Randy Williams, Liz Woolcott, Jennifer Duncan

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

At Utah State University Libraries, we have a tradition of community-driven oral history efforts aimed at bringing the voices of the underserved and underheard communities into our Special Collections & Archives for preservation and presentation. This effort is called Northern Utah Speaks.

Outside In: Retooling Cataloging Outreach Efforts, Andrea Payant, Becky Skeen, Liz Woolcott

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

No abstract provided.

Facebook Live’S Violence Problem, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

On the evening of Easter Sunday, 74-year-old Pennsylvania resident Robert Godwin was enjoying a walk through his neighborhood after a holiday meal with his family when he was approached, at random, by self-described “monster” Steve Stephens. Stephens, who was given the moniker “The Facebook Killer” by the media, blamed what was about to happen to Godwin on his broken relationship with his girlfriend, before shooting Godwin in the head, killing him instantly.

Walking Behavior Of Individuals With And Without Disabilities At Right-Angle Turning Facility, Nirdosh Gaire, Mohammad Sadra Sharifi, Keith M. Christensen, Anthony Chen, Ziqi Song

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

To accommodate the needs of pedestrians, urban designers need to carefully consider pedestrian walking behavior in different walking environments. Detailed studies of the walking behavior of pedestrians have been conducted and used for pedestrian simulation models. A right-angle turning facility (RATF) is found in many built environments. Hence the study of pedestrians' walking behavior in RATFs is important to build pedestrian simulation models. Previous studies have failed to address the walking behavior of individuals with visual and mobility disabilities even though they comprise a significant portion of the population in the United States. The purpose of this paper is to …

Stitching Codeable Circuits: High School Students' Learning About Circuitry And Coding With Electronic Textiles, Breanne Krystine Litts, Yasmin B. Kafai, Debora A. Lui, Justice T. Walker, Sari A. Widman

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Learning about circuitry by connecting a battery, light bulb, and wires is a common activity in many science classrooms. In this paper, we expand students’ learning about circuitry with electronic textiles, which use conductive thread instead of wires and sewable LEDs instead of lightbulbs, by integrating programming sensor inputs and light outputs and examining how the two domains interact.We implemented an electronic textiles unit with 23 high school students ages 16–17 years who learned how to craft and code circuits with the LilyPad Arduino, an electronic textile construction kit. Our analyses not only confirm significant increases in students’ understanding of …

Women's Leadership Aspirations, Lynne E. Devnew, Ann Berhout Austin, Marlene Janzen Le Ber, Mary Shapiro

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Although it is quite easy to identify women leaders, men continue to occupy the vast majority of leadership roles in the world. It has been argued that one of the reasons for this differential is women's aspirations for leadership are less than men's. Women's leadership aspirations are defined in this chapter as girls' and women's longing for and intentional seeking after a future that catalyze their visions, goals, or calling for themselves into reality, whether or not they use the term leadership to describe their aspirations.

Alcohol Laws In Utah: Drunk With Power?, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

The United States has long struggled with a set of deeply divided attitudes toward alcohol. To be sure, alcohol can be quite dangerous, so it is certainly reasonable to be cautious and concerned about its use in certain contexts. On the other hand, one of the clear lessons taught by our experiment with Prohibition is that individuals feel that restrictive alcohol policies constitute unwarranted violations of their autonomy.

No Really, We Can Help With This: Librarians Facilitating Research Assignment Design, Rachel Wishkoski, Kacy Lundstrom, Erin Davis

Library Faculty & Staff Presentations

Premises:

• Students need scaffolded, authentic opportunities to practice and develop research skills.
• Interdisciplinary faculty collaboration on assignment redesign facilitates peer feedback that isn't usually available.
• Bringing librarians to the assignment design table establishes stronger connections with and among teaching faculty and promotes deeper learning opportunities for students.

Key principles:

• Reflect on where students get stuck.
• Make the implicit explicit.
• Scaffold the research process.
• Offer formative assessment and opportunities for peer learning.
• Consider authentic, "renewable," or public-facing end products.

Hearing And Vision Screening In Pediatric Primary Care And The Sharing Of Results With Early Care And Education Programs, Susan J. Macary, Lisa Honigfeld, Margaret W. Berry, Dorothy B. Wakefield

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention: Volume 9 Issue 1, pages 1-53

This study explores the extent to which pediatric primary care (PPC) providers share hearing and vision screening results with early care and education (ECE) programs and report being unable to assess hearing and vision among pre-kindergarten children. Reports of hearing and vision screening are assessed to explore whether national support for early hearing detection and intervention has similarly promoted vision screening in PPC. We evaluated the reporting of hearing and vision screening data from 4,119 Early Childhood Health Assessment records, which were obtained from licensed ECE programs in Connecticut. Records were stratified by age group into younger or older per …

Homelessness In Utah, Desperately Seeking A Backyard, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

For more than 60 years, the sprawling Utah State Prison sat nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountain range in Draper, Utah. The prison was home to such notorious inmates as serial killers Ted Bundy and Gary Gilmore, and serial pedophile and cult leader Warren Jeffs. Utah was the first state to reinstitute the death penalty after the Supreme Court’s moratorium ended in 1973, and the state has since executed 51 people. In 2015, the Utah legislature made the decision to relocate the prison to West Salt Lake City. In its place, Draper Mayor Troy Walker proposed to house …

Justice On A Conveyor Belt: The Death Penalty In Arkansas, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In March and April of this year, the state of Arkansas made national headlines for its plan to execute eight prisoners over the course of 11 days. The speed involved is striking, especially when compared with national annual execution averages; only 20 people were executed nationwide in 2016.

Community Supported Agriculture At Indian Creek Nature Center's Sugar Grove Farm: Sustainable Farming For Iowa, Erin Anzalone

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Agriculture is the largest revenue source for the state of Iowa and the state’s two priority crops are corn and soybeans. Farming practices that emphasize monoculture production of these crops can reduce biological diversity and habitat for all-important pollinators, and exacerbate runoff and erosion that sends nutrient-rich soil, herbicides, and pesticides into streams and rivers. The industrial agriculture model is lucrative now, but unsustainable for Iowa over the long run. Sugar Grove Farm, a subset of Indian Creek Nature Center (ICNC), plans to grow a variety of food crops on a large-scale, economically sustainable farm, and support low-income households in …

Same Revolution, Different Outcome: Why Did The Syrian Regime Survive The Arab Spring?, Adam Alrowaiti

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

The Arab Region faced a wave of massive public demonstrations in 2011. People across the region demanded freedom, justice, and equality. That movement overthrew some of the region’s dictatorship regimes that had been in power since decades. In Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen the regimes collapsed in the face of the people’s revolution. However, public demonstrations and opposition could not overcome the Al-Assad regime in Syria. This thesis seeks the reasons behind the survival of the Syrian regime when other regimes collapsed. The thesis analyzes the case of Syria by comparing it to the case of Libya, since Libya went …

Mountain Bike Use On The Tahoe Rim Trail: An Analysis Of Management Practices In Restricted Use Areas, Christopher M. Binder

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This project presents research into the historic and contemporary use of mountain bikes in restricted use areas on the Tahoe Rim Trail and examines management approaches to increase compliance with existing regulations and advisories. Data from geomagnetic trail counters is utilized to gain insight into where and when such use occurs, while archival and contemporary sources of information are consulted to establish the context of mountain bike use on the trail. The project concludes with specific, actionable recommendations for trail managers, with information regarding likely outcomes and costs included in the analysis.

Making Connections Across Language Barriers, Aaron Salgado

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This compilation of academic papers is a portfolio designed to invite the reader to explore the author’s beliefs and ideas concerning effective second language learning and teaching. Divided into three main parts, this portfolio addresses: 1. expressing the author’s teaching philosophy while putting his position into the context from which it formed, 2. exploring the research perspectives that drive the author to continue participating in this academic field, 3. and chronicling the process of studying the academic material that inspired the previous two sections. Major topics include a macro view of the U.S. government’s and its education system’s dance together …

Measuring The Adaptive Response To Drought, Kyle Eagar

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Scientific evidence suggests that future climate change has the potential to bring about an increase in both the frequency and duration of drought in some regions of the world (United Nations, 2012). Economists have theorized that at least some of the adverse effects of these droughts will be mitigated through various adaptive responses by agricultural producers. The effectiveness of any adaptive response to climate change will depend on how quickly producers can recognize a change in climatic patterns and respond accordingly. The following paper investigates the relationship between a specific climate signal (prolonged drought) and the land use decision of …

The Impact Of High School Extracurriculars: Similarities And Differences In Sense Of Community Among Competitive, Performance, And Participatory Activities, Erica M. Hawvermale

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Extant research links high sense of community in adolescence to adaptive outcomes such as enhanced motivation, self-efficacy, and coping ability (Battistich, Solomon, Watson, & Schaps, 1997; Vieno, Perkins, Smith, & Santinello, 2005; Henry & Slater, 2007), as well as reduced stress, anxiety, and depression (Chipuer, Bramston, & Pretty, 2002). In light of these findings, the present study was designed to assess the relationship between high school students’ participation in extracurricular activities and their perceptions of sense of community, enjoyment, and commitment, as well as the aspects of these organizations that help to facilitate feelings of community. Study 1 participants (N= …

Assessment Of The Impact Of The Premarital Interpersonal Choices And Knowledge (Pick) Program On Adolescents, Raquel R. Boehme

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was conducted to determine if the information from the Premarital Interpersonal Choices and Knowledge (PICK) program How to Avoid Falling for a Jerk/ette helped positively change adolescents’ attitudes about relationships. The program was taught to 9,130 high school students (ages 14 -18) from 35 different high schools in a Western state.

Surveys were given at the beginning of the first class (pretest) and at the end of the final class (posttest). In addition to demographic information, students rated (1) their attitudes about what it takes to get to know a potential partner, (2) their belief that love alone …

Symbolic Versus Sustainable: Tracking The Apparel Industry’S Response To Crisis Over Time, Sadell R. Crabb

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this study I investigate the impact different director types have on firm commitments to voluntary labor regulation. Using an author-constructed dataset of eight focal firm’s boards of directors for a nineteen-year period, I examine the impacts of gender and racial diversity, as well as the inclusion of independent interlocking board members on firm commitments to voluntary labor regulation following a legitimacy crisis in the 1990s. Framing firms’ responses within a chronological approach to institutional theory, I test how trends for these three director types varied for firms most and least committed to voluntary labor regulation, as well as for …

Attitudes And Experiences Of Close Interethnic Friendships Among Native Emerging Adults: A Mixed-Methods Investigation, Merrill L. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Members of small minority groups like Natives, along with other minority groups that are rapidly growing in population are increasingly receiving research focus. With 1 in 3 U.S. residents identifying with racial or ethnic minority groups, close interethnic relationships are likely to increase as well. It will be important to understand processes of close friendship development between racially-different friends, along with the factors that help establish and maintain these close interethnic friendships. This information will be especially important for members of small minority groups, such as Natives.

We investigated Native friendship development and factors of close friendship with non-Native emerging …

Utah Elementary School Principals’ Preparation As Technology Leaders, Nathan L. Esplin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The rapidly expanding use of technology in education has brought about the need for principals to be prepared as technology leaders. Although, there is a need for principals to be prepared as technology leaders, many currently are not prepared for this role. It is crucial that principals are prepared in order ability to lead their school in successful technology integration. The primary purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the perceived level of technology leadership preparation of Utah elementary principals using the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards for Administrators.

In addition to the study’s primary purpose, …

Public Opinion On Renewable Energy: The Nexus Of Climate, Politics, And Economy, Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This dissertation research examines the factors underlying public opinion toward renewable energy in the United States. U.S. citizens in general support the continued development of renewable energy, yet opposition has been widely observed toward a variety of renewable energy facilities at the local level. Previous research on public responses to renewable energy has focused on one or a small number of communities experiencing renewable energy development. In this research I examine public views more broadly, in communities with and without renewable energy development, and also using nationally representative opinion data. I ask the following questions:

What local experiences influence how …

International Policy Diffusion And Religious Freedom, 1990-2008, Allison R. Hale

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Why do governments restrict religious freedom? As more and more governments have adopted restrictive policies over the past thirty years, scholars have traditionally examined internal domestic factors—such as the role of democratic governance, economic growth, or internal competition—that may influence government choices. I build on this literature by extending the discussion to external factors, arguing that some policies may also spread from one government to another. This process, identified by scholars as the idea of policy diffusion, may occur in several ways.

While previous research has focused on the spread of policies that are generally considered positive (i.e. the spread …

Misconduct-Related Discharge From Active Duty Military Service: An Examination Of Precipitating Factors And Post-Deployment Health Outcomes, Emily Brignone

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

U.S. military service members who are discharged from service for misconduct are at high risk for mental health and substance use disorders, homelessness, mortality, and incarceration. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the pre- and post-discharge experiences and characteristics of this highly vulnerable population in order to inform improved prevention and intervention strategies.

Administrative data from the Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration for veterans of recent conflicts were used to conduct 3 related retrospective cohort studies. These included (1) an evaluation of the demographic and military service characteristics and service-connected disabilities associated with discharge for misconduct; …

How High School Records And Act Scores Predict College Graduation, Lianqun Sun

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The primary purpose of this study is to assess the degree to which ACT scores and high school records predict success in college. I used large public university admission and graduation panel data in order to address the following questions: (1) Are high school records (class rank, high school grade point average (GPA), and Advanced Placement (AP) test credits) better predictors of college success than ACT scores, and which is the best predictor among high school records and ACT scores? (2) Is there any heterogeneity in these effects across race, sex and residency (state or non-state students)?

By answering these …

A Tournament Approach To Price Discovery In The Us Cattle Market, Jeffrey Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Cattle price discovery is a process of determining the price in the market through the interactions of cattle buyers (packers) and sellers (ranchers). Locating the price discovery center or market, and estimating price interactions among the regional fed cattle markets and also among feeder cattle markets can help define a relevant fed cattle procurement market. This research identifies that the U.S. cattle markets is discovered in the futures markets, feeder cattle futures and fed futures.