Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Failure To Launch: A Study Into The North American Soccer League And The Women’S United Soccer Association And Their Factors Of Failures Through Michael Porter’S Models Of Strategy Formation, Fraser John Boyd

Masters Theses

Many international sports such as soccer and rugby believe the future growth and prosperity of the sport would be secured, if they can become established within the US sports market. However, many sports leagues/organizations have attempted to enter into this competitive marketplace with a good number of them failing to either establish themselves or are no longer in existence.

The purpose of this research study is to investigate the factors of failure behind the North American Soccer League and the Women United Soccer Association utilizing Michael Porter’s Models of Strategy Formation. An analysis of the two failed leagues will be …

Subadult Sexual Dimorphism In The Luís Lopes Collection, Miriam E. Soto

Masters Theses

Previous works on subadult sexual dimorphism have focused on the pelvis, cranium, or dentition. The results of these studies have been inconsistent regarding the existence of significant sex differences prior to puberty. For the most part, subadult long bone dimensions have been ignored in previous studies. This study evaluated subadult sexual dimorphism in long bone dimensions using a sample from the Luís Lopes collection. The results of MANCOVA tests and logistic regressions indicate that subadult long bone dimensions are significantly sexually dimorphic and hold some promise for sex determination. Clavicle measurements proved to be fairly accurate sex predictors for subadults. …

Domestic Violence: Professionals’ Attitudes Toward Its Causes And Intervention, Hannah Katherine Mccreery

Masters Theses

Community organizations work with and provide services for perpetrators and victims of domestic violence on a daily basis. The individuals who work for these agencies have a direct impact on perpetrators and victims. This study investigated the attitudes and perceptions of domestic violence professionals to assess the differentiating effect of gender, occupation within the field, age, education level, and years of experience in the field. Findings revealed significant differences between genders and occupation groups, particularly in attitudes toward interventions and treatment practices and beliefs about the causes of domestic violence. Implications for future research and policy are reviewed.

Love’S Gray Area: A Qualitative Analysis Of Interracial Relationships In Film, 1960s And 2000s, Jodi Lynn Rightler

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which interracial relationships between African Americans (“blacks”) and European Americans (“whites”) came to be represented as “problematic” for mainstream audiences by conducting film analyses of the following four films; I Passed For White, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Monster’s Ball, and Save the Last Dance. The main idea behind this “problem” is the idea of border-crossing, or going from one racial boundary to the next, in terms of understanding one’s identity.

I systematically examined the portrayals of interracial relationships between “blacks” and “whites” within the US film …

Testing The Usefulness Of Pine Stomata As A Proxy In Lake Sediment Cores From Low-Latitude Environments, Brock Andrew Remus

Masters Theses

Paleoecological research, using lake cores to reconstruct past climatic and anthropogenic changes, is a burgeoning field in the circum-Caribbean. The Dominican Republic’s Las Lagunas region is being studied for this purpose using many proxies. One possible proxy for study there is pine stomata. Concentrations of pine stomata in lake sediments have been used in high-latitude and alpine locations to reconstruct tree-line movement and stand invasion, but have never been used in low-latitude environments.

In this thesis I present results of analyses of Pinus occidentalis Swartz (Hispaniolan pine or West Indian pine) stomata concentrations in lake-sediment cores from two lakes in …

Factors Affecting The Use Of Appalachian Children’S Literature Titles In Libraries Located In The Central Appalachian Region, As Offered By Librarians In The Central Appalachian Region, Jamie Lynn Osborn

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research is to describe, with the aid of a survey, the factors Library and Information Science professionals working in the Central Appalachian region believe influence the use of Appalachian Children’s Literature titles in Central Appalachian libraries. Primarily, what do librarians in the region feel affects the use of these titles to their library patrons? To thoroughly examine this issue the following research questions will be explored: Specifically, at what point in their lives, if at all, were librarians in this study exposed to Appalachian Children’s Literature? Did this exposure take place in a K-12 setting or …

Living In The Low Country: Modeling Archaeological Site Location In The Francis Marion National Forest, South Carolina, Jason M. O'Donoughue

Masters Theses

The Francis Marion National Forest, located in the Lower Coastal Plain of South Carolina, has a rich archaeological record generated from years of compliance-based research. Much of the cultural resource management activity in the Forest has been guided by a probabilistic model of archaeological site location. This model is an invaluable tool for Forest Service personnel conducting land-use planning and resource management, but it has seen only limited testing. This study examined the spatial location and environmental associations of the entire sample of archaeological sites in the Francis Marion National Forest to evaluate the extant probabilistic model and develop an …

Examining The Relationship Between Toddler Self-Regulation And Maternal Self-Efficacy, Yu-Chuen Huang

Masters Theses

The present study examined the relationship between maternal self-efficacy and child self-regulation during the toddler years. Using a local database, the current study focused on specific dimensions of maternal self-efficacy in an effort to move beyond global descriptions of the construct. The results showed that maternal self-efficacy was negatively associated with child dysregulation ratings. In addition, the instrumental care dimension of maternal self-efficacy was the most influential predictor of child dysregulation ratings. Moreover, negative emotionality and sensory sensitivity have stronger associations with maternal self-efficacy than the other aspects of child dysregulation. However, this study found no gender or socioeconomic differences …

Holocene Fire History At Laguna Martínez, Costa Rica, Based On High-Resolution Macroscopic Charcoal Analysis Of An 8400 Cal Yr Bp Sediment Record, Jason Elliott Graham

Masters Theses

Macroscopic charcoal proxy records from sediment profiles from lakes and swamps provide valuable information on the role of fire in the world’s varied ecosystems. Macroscopic charcoal is not normally transported long distances, making it a good indicator of local fire history. This study focused on the macroscopic charcoal in an 8400 cal yr BP sediment record from Laguna Martínez, located in northwestern Costa Rica on the Pacific slope of the Miravalles volcano. Prior study of pollen assemblages in the Martínez sediment core revealed the earliest evidence of maize agriculture in Costa Rica at about 5500 cal yr BP. I sampled …

Analysis Of Spatial Distribution Of Hazardous Wastes In Semcog Region, Michigan, Junfang Chen

Masters Theses

This research is devoted to an increasingly recognized issue: environmental injustice, that is, the distribution of environmental risks and/ hazards are disproportionably distributed in the space in terms of the effects on the victims. Specifically, this thesis focuses on an analysis of the spatial distribution of hazardous materials from fixed incidents and the characteristics of neighborhoods living near the incident sites, so as to test the hypothesized relationships that poor people and minority people live near the incident sites. SEMCOG region, Michigan is chosen as the study area due to its frequent occurrence of incidents involving environmental hazards. It is …

Economic Development And The Absence Of Democracy In China, Megan Whipp

Masters Theses

My research will look at the reasons for China's lack of democracy. China has become increasingly developed giving the Chinese people greater wealth, improved education, and better access to healthcare. Based on Seymour Lipset's 1963 study which finds economic development fosters democracy, China should have become democratic. But, China is not a democracy.

The methodology employed in this study is a case study. A case study ensures an in-depth analysis of the relevant factors which could affect China's prospects for democracy. This study advances the understanding of China's continued authoritarian rule finding two factors especially influential. The first factor is …

Mobile Phone Communication Competence (Mpcc): Development And Validation Of A New Measure, Emil Bakke

Masters Theses

More than two billion people around the world have adopted mobile phones for communication. Interpersonal communication research has found that communication competence is an essential human need required to fulfill interpersonal objectives to achieve physical and psychological satisfaction (Spitzberg and Cupach, 1984), however, mobile phone communication competence has yet to be studied. The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a new scale designed to measure Mobile Phone Communication Competence (MPCC); a principal component factor analysis uncovered the structure and dimensionality of the MPCC measure. The results from the factor analysis in this study identified six constructs: asynchronous …

Watching Satan’S Daughters: A Visual Analysis Of Lesbian Pulp Fiction Cover Art, 1950-1969, Carrie Shaver

Masters Theses

This research analyzes the historical social construction of identity through the visual reiteration of the norms of "woman" and "lesbian" as represented on the cover art of lesbian pulp fiction novels from 1950-1969. A subgenre of pulp paperbacks, lesbian pulps were sensationalistic and best-selling, reflecting the public lesbian image in the popular culture of the 1950s and 1960s (Keller, 2005). Their success in large part was due to popular mainstreaming of the fields of sexology, psychology, and psychiatry. The "normality" of female sexual behavior was a subject of great curiosity, especially after Alfred Kinsey's study of female sexuality was released …

A Comparative Analysis Of Pixel-Based And Object-Oriented Image Analysis Methods Using Landsat Imagery, Jason Joseph Delisio

Masters Theses

Pixel-based and object-oriented image analysis methods are two popular techniques for classifying satellite imagery. Pixel-based analysis is typically used for coarser resolution imagery while object-oriented analysis is ideal for high resolution imagery. However, the ability of object-oriented image analysis to segment images based on factors such as shape, color, texture, and spatial attributes suggest that it can perform as well or better than pixel-based analysis in classifying medium resolution imagery. A comparative analysis of the two methods was performed using Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper imagery from September 2006 to classify grassland quality and land cover in Da'erhanmaoming'an (DaMao) Banner, Inner …

Identifying The Most Effective Stimulus To Promote Wayfinding In Elders With Dementia, Allison A. Jay

Masters Theses

When nursing home residents with dementia experience difficulty locating their bedroom, it can create problems for other residents and staff. This study investigated the ability of four elders with severe dementia to recognize various self-referent stimuli (i.e., young adulthood photograph, middle adulthood photograph, current photograph, and printed name). Two of the three participants who were able to complete the assessment recognized their photographs from earlier in life and their printed names but were not able to recognize their current photograph. These two residents then participated in an intervention in which the recognized stimuli were posted outside their bedroom doorway during …

Distribution Of Fluoride In Groundwater In Selected Villages In Northern Red Sea And Anseba Regions Of Eritrea, Filmon Tsegay Fisseha

Masters Theses

The aim of the study is to describe the fluoride concentration of water samples primarily from sources used for household needs in selected villages of Eritrea, with emphasis on the most severely affected parts of the country. Water sample quality data were collected from The Water Resource Department of Eritrea and water quality reports indicated that high levels of fluoride content were found for some villages' groundwater sources. The highest concentration was found in Aquar, 7.7 mg/L; Northern Red Sea region, above the 1.5 mg/L Maximum concentration recommended by The World Health Organization.

Waters with high fluoride concentrations occur in …

Black Women, Beauty, And Labor: Towards An Archaeology Of African-American Women In Indianapolis, Indiana, Genesis M. Snyder

Masters Theses

For two consecutive summers (2002 and 2003), I conducted fieldwork in the Ransom Place Archaeology neighborhood on the near Westside of Indianapolis, Indiana. I found myself increasingly drawn to the material culture left behind by the African-American women who had lived in the area roughly 100 years ago. Such material culture begs many questions: What social and political forces influenced the construction of African-American women's understandings of self in the early twentieth century? Who was responsible for the construction and dissemination of beauty ideals, notions about women's work, and how did those ideals differ across the color line? Using as …

Ferro Ingenio: An Archaeological And Ethnohistorical View Of Labor And Empire In Colonial Porco And Potosi, Brendan J. M. Weaver

Masters Theses

Porco, Bolivia, is known as the source of silver which ornamented the Inca temple of Coricancha, and as the seat of the earliest Spanish mining operations in the Andes. The colonial silver processing site of Ferro Ingenio, on the outskirts of Porco, is comprised of domestic and industrial structures, constructed and used over multiple occupations. Ferro Ingenio is the best preserved and most complete site of its kind in the Porco region and the first Andean stamp-mill ever to be excavated. This investigation uses ethnohistorical and archaeological evidence to examine the organization and the changing social roles of colonial labor. …

Organizational Culture And Change: Understanding The Western Herald's Newsroom Culture, Sarah Ling Wei Lee

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore organizational culture and change in a college newspaper's newsroom. Student journalists often use college newspapers as a means to get editorial experience and also to get published. Even so, the college newspaper newsroom is unlike a typical metropolitan or local community newspaper's newsroom in the way that it experiences change. College newspapers encounter organizational change as part of the newsroom's inner workings constantly because of frequent turnover and other factors. As a result, they are suitable for understanding how staff members make sense of newsroom culture in a dynamic, changing environment. Two …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Cognitive-Behavior And Medication Therapy In The Acute Treatment On Unipolar Mood Disorders: Processes And Case Histories, Alyssa H. Kalata

Masters Theses

The present study sought to investigate two areas of interest: (1) the process issues involved in conducting a randomized controlled trial with low-income individuals being seen at community mental health agencies and (2) patterns in case histories of individuals who participated in depression treatment outcome research at community mental health agencies. This study gives a detailed analysis of conducting a randomized controlled trial for unipolar mood disorders in two community mental health agencies in the Southwestern Michigan region. Process issues at the levels of identification and recruitment of participants, attendance and retention of participants, project implementation, and broader systemic issues …

Effectiveness Of Improving Performance With The Bigger Faster Stronger In-Season Training Program, Alicia D. Crelinsten

Masters Theses

This study investigated the effectiveness of improving performance of adolescents with the in-season Bigger Faster Stronger (BFS) program. Thirty seven high school athletes were divided into three groups; BFS (n=l4 ), traditional weight training (n= l0), and control (n= 13 ). Each participant went through a battery of seven performance pre-tests and post-tests ( estimated 1 ORM incline bench, broad jump, one minute sit-up test, t-test, line drill, 40 yard sprint, 1.5 mile run). Following the pre-testing, the control group continued to participate in their sport. The BFS group participated in the in-season BFS program (30 minute supervised session consisting …

Skin Color Bias In The Immigration Process: A Multi-Methods Approach, Sarah E. Hendricks

Masters Theses

This study looks at the intersection of the literature on immigration and on phenotype and life chances. As immigrant populations in the United States have shifted from European countries of origin to Latin American and Asian countries of origin in recent decades, the phenotype of these populations of immigrants is increasingly distinct from the privileged mainstream U.S. population with European origins. Do darker shades of skin color lead to correspondingly different experiences in the United States immigration system?

This study uses data from the New Immigrant Survey 2003 to explore the relationship between skin color and the duration of the …

Weaver’S Method Reassessed: The Relationship Between Age And The Estimation Of Sex In Juveniles Using The Auricular Surface, Jaymelee Kim

Masters Theses

The purpose of this research was to test Weaver’s method of sex estimation using the auricular surface on neonatal skeletal remains of varying ages. The age of the individual was used to examine whether or not there existed a stronger correlation between age and elevation than sex and elevation. By assessing these relationships, it could be determined if Weaver’s method is more appropriate for individuals of certain ages more than individuals of other ages. Juvenile skeletons (n = 167) ranging in age from fourteen weeks post-conception to twenty years of age were assessed from two skeletal collections, and the results …

The Application Of The Supervisory Options For Instructional Leaders Framework Within The Fields Of Agricultural, Science, Math, And English Education, David A. Little

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine specific types of supervisory methods used in diverse academic subjects to fulfill personal and professional growth in student teachers and interns. The study sought to compare agriculture, science, math and English teacher educator characteristics and the extent to which the three levels of the Supervisory Options for Instructional Leaders (SOIL) Framework—structured, moderately structured, and relatively unstructured—were used. Surveys were collected from 196 student teacher and intern supervisors throughout the United States. The study revealed that demographic associations appeared to have no bearing on the type of supervisory methods used with the exception …

The Impact Of Historic Logging On Woody Debris Distribution And Stream Morphology In The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, North Carolina-Tennessee, Christopher M. Morris

Masters Theses

In the early 1900s, large sections of the Great Smoky Mountains were intensively logged. Since then, most locations have been allowed to naturally become forest-covered again, resulting in areas of secondary growth and old growth forest. To determine whether differences in large woody debris (LWD) loading and channel morphology persist today, I measured LWD, channel widths and depths, and channel bed sediments of streams in old and secondary growth forest in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. LWD pieces in streams in old growth had larger mean diameters and lengths compared to LWD in streams in secondary growth forest. Streams …

Controversy In The Coalfields: Evaluation Of Media And Audience Frames In The Print Coverage Of Mountain Justice Summer, Amanda B. Womac

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the media and audience frames used in print media coverage of Mountain Justice Summer and mountaintop removal. The study synthesizes aspects of framing theory of media effects as described by other media scholars in an attempt to create a working model to evaluate media and audience frames. As this study will show, the media use an overall negative frame in the coverage of Mountain Justice Summer, but also have an overall negative frame in the coverage of mountaintop removal. Based on these findings, the study suggest activists with Mountain Justice Summer helped …

"You Go To War With The Army You Have‟, Not The Army You Might Want Or Need: A Case Study In Army Mediated Crisis Management, Charles M. Spears

Masters Theses

In December 2004, an enlisted soldier challenged the Secretary of Defense on international television and caused a media crisis situation in Kuwait and Washington D.C. that created a historic opportunity for military public affairs professionals to react to the press with electronic news gathering (ENG) technology. This case study examines how the Army responded from Kuwait and subjects these events to models of response generated by Coombs (1995) and Hale et al (2005). The intent is to examine the media crisis response strategies employed by the Coalition Forces Land Component Command (CFLCC) and to compare them with strategies that have …

Comparing The Quality Of Language Samples Obtained Under Three Sampling Conditions From Children With Hearing Impairment, Katie E. Stilwell

Masters Theses

Objective: To determine if there was an optimal language sampling context for children with hearing impairment; specifically, if any well-documented method of obtaining a language sample was superior to the others in describing the areas of language that are known to serve as a foundation for later literacy development.

Participants: Nine children with hearing impairment who used oral language as their primary mode of communication from the University of Tennessee Child Hearing Services clinic were selected to participate in the study. All were from Caucasian families who spoke English as their primary language and with the exception of hearing impairment, …

Newspaper Coverage Of The South Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement: A Framing Analysis, Yeonah Park

Masters Theses

This study compared how four English-language newspapers in the United States and South Korea covered the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA). A content analysis using QDA Miner was conducted for 354 articles from the New York Time, the Washington Post, the Korea Herald, and the Korea Times to determine how each paper framed the topic. Overall the newspapers’ media framing aligned with their national concerns and interests.

The literature review supported the idea that identifying frames in natural language articles and investigating the relative highlighting of issues was important in analyzing news coverage. The two Korean …

On-Air Weather Forecasters' Educational Backgrounds, Vincent Graham Walker

Masters Theses

Weather is important to local television newscasts, so it is becoming important to expand research regarding this area. It is important to understand why certain people are chosen to present the weather on-air. Currently, three different kinds of degrees seem to be the choice for the people who are presenting the weather on television. On-air weather forecasters who work for the local affiliated stations of ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC networks tend to have degrees in meteorology, communications, or broadcast meteorology. Which one of these degree categories is preferred and why?

Two predictors come to the forefront to answer this …