Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Constructivist Inquiry Of Church-State Relationships For Faith-Based Organizations, Jon Eric Singletary

Theses and Dissertations

Faith-based initiatives have the potential to alter church-state relationships as they remove barriers to the public funding of human services in organizations that promote the role of values, beliefs, and other characteristics of faith. In seeking to "level the playing field" for these faith-based organizations, faith-based initiatives suggest moving away from past practices, where "religious" organizations utilized public funding for the delivery of "secular" human services, and toward the public funding support of organizations whose human service activities are based on faith in a more thoroughgoing manner.This research inquires into meanings assigned to opportunities and risks related to the public …

Costs Of Feeding Guinea Pigs In Two Meat-Producing Populations In The Field And Experimental Station, Sara Taborga Galindo

Theses and Dissertations

The cost of feeding has been pointed out as the most trascendet investment inside a guinea-pig production. The present work carries out with the purpose to determine and to quantify feeding costs, total costs of production and profitability of Tamborada and MEJOCUY guinea-pig populations. In the stage of suckling period, breed and gestation, experimental station and field. The result of feeding cost was 0.05 and 0.03 $US in suckling period (14 days) for Tamborada and MEJOCUY population, in breeding (42 days) it was 0.14 $US in both populations and in gestation (67 days), it was 0.42 and 0.40 $US. In …

Implementacion And Strengthening Of Family Orchards For The Diversification Of The Diet And To Improve The Consumption Of Vegetables And Available Fruits In The Communities Of The Rinconada And Cuambo In The Period 2001-2002, Guido Arellano

Theses and Dissertations

The general objective of this investigation was to implement and strengthen family orchards for the diversification of the diet and improvement of the consumption of vegetables and fruits available in the communities of the Rinconada and Cuambo. They collaborated in the implementation and strengthening of the family orchards and by means of focal group techniques determined the readiness, seasonal variance, and alimentary habits of the available vegetables and fruits. They made 10 nutritive preparations in each community in participating shops with the foods that were harvested in the orchards and with the help of consistent educational material as 2 three-page …

Recovery From Substance Abuse: The Role Of Unsupportive Social Interactions, Michelle Marie Schmitt

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACTRECOVERY FROM SUBSTANCE ABUSE: THE ROLE OF UNSUPPORTIVE SOCIAL INTERATIONSBy Michelle M. Schmitt, M.A., M.S. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.Virginia Commonwealth University, 2003Major Director: Kathleen M. Ingram, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology It has been estimated that over 20 million individuals struggle with substance abuse and/or dependence each year. Theories of addiction and recovery have long incorporated the notion of social support and helping relationships to facilitate adjustment. However, the literature investigating the role of social support is fraught with contradictions. In addition, in …

Homeownership Of Latinos In Richmond: An Evaluation Of The Homeownership To Community Participation Model, Coleman Eppes Rose

Theses and Dissertations

Over the decades of the last century, home ownership in the U.S. has become a major institution and part of the American dream. Many arguments have developed that tout the benefits of homeownership: benefits both for the individual, and for the larger society. This study examines one such argument, considering the effects for Latino immigrants of homeownership on community participation. As this is the first study to consider this model for an immigrant population, it is also the first to introduce to this model the concepts of acculturation and assimilation. Studying Latinos in Richmond, Virginia is particularly interesting as Latinos …

Parental Reports Of The Development Of Autism In Their Children: The Relevance Of Regression, Comorbidity, And Genetics In The Detection Ofearly Characteristics, Robin Page Goin

Theses and Dissertations

Early detection of autism plays an important role in enhancing developmental outcomes for affected children. Identifying potential characteristics of the disorder evident during infancy and toddlerhood aids efforts to screen for such symptoms, which may lead to earlier and more accurate diagnoses; however, it is unclear to what extent certain factors encourage or impede early detection. Because parents are responsible for making decisions on behalf of their children based upon their perceptions of children's developmental progression, caregivers were queried in terms of their beliefs about the development of autism characteristics in their children. Participants included 393 caregivers of children with …

The Reversibility Of Differential Rearing In Rats, Leann M. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Two groups of rats were raised in two different environments for 75 days beginning at 25 days of age. One group was raised in an enriched condition (EC), and one group in an impoverished condition (IC). At 91 days of age, all rats were tested on a spatial reversal learning task to determine if their early environments had affected their learning ability (Test 1). After Test 1 was completed, the rats were then placed in the opposite environment for another 75 days, with a second testing (Test 2) beginning at 165 days of age to determine if the new environment …

Effects Of Domestic Violence Exposure In Colombian Adolescents: Pathways To Violent And Prosocial Behavior, Roberto Mejia

Theses and Dissertations

A multidimensional model of associations between domestic violence exposure and risk of violence and prosocial behavior was tested in a sample of Colombian adolescents, with attention to impulsivity and substance use problems as mediators of these associations. A representative sample of 1,152 school youths and a convenience group of 148 juvenile offenders aged 11-19 years was recruited from Medellin, the second largest city in this South American country. Assessment was carried out in classrooms in the school sample and in correctional institutions for juvenile offenders. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the conceptually derived models. Similarly, multisample analyses …

Moments Of Trust: Sibling Responses To The Disclosure Of A Sister's Lesbian Identity, Ryan Walter Mckee

Theses and Dissertations

To better understand the responses of siblings to the disclosure of a sister's lesbian identity, eight pairs of siblings, each consisting of one lesbian participant and one of her siblings, were interviewed. Both lesbian and sibling participants were asked to discuss family relationships before disclosure (coming out), the actual disclosure, sibling reactions, parental reactions, and family relationships since disclosure. Notable results include "closeness" in sibling relationships and high levels of "trust" as strong predictors of supportive sibling responses. Siblings were also found to take on the role of confidant and counselor for their parents as they negotiated their daughters' newly-disclosed …

Evaluation Of The Production Yield In Two Guinea Pig Populations Under Field Conditions And Project Mejocuy Cages, Elbert Alan Estevez Siles

Theses and Dissertations

The breeding of the guinea pig in Bolivia has always been important for the inhabitants of rural areas. Nevertheless, in recent years there has been broader acceptance for consumption of the guinea pig in the urban middle class, beginning to grow the market of the meat of guinea pig in the Departamentos of Bolivia, because the good flavor and high degree of nutrition of this meat, therefore offering a good option to improve nutrition in the diet of Bolivians. Currently the type of breeding found of the valleys of Bolivia in the great majority of the communities is family-based, with …

Red Series Reference Values In Healthy People From 15 To 60 Years Old Who Live Between 1700 And 1850 Meters Above Sea Level (Coroico - Nor Yungas - La Paz, 2001), Maria Eugenia Quispe Nina

Theses and Dissertations

This study occurred in the area of Coroico at 1700 meters above sea level and in the community of Carmen Pampa, situated at 1850 meters above sea level. Coroico is the capital of Nor Yungas province, department of La Paz. This study hopes to contribute information on reference values for erythrocyte numbers, hemoglobin values, and hematocrits for people between 15 and 60 years old that live between 1700 and 1850 meters above sea level, with the goal of facilitating precise diagnosing of anemia. The study used samples of healthy people, residents with more than two months in Coroico, of middle …

Design And Application Of A Nutrition Education Program Based On A Test Of Improved Practices For Pregnant Women And Women Of Childbearing Age In La Rinconada And Cuambo, Odila Nicaragua

Theses and Dissertations

This study was done with the objective of designing and applying a nutrition education program based on a test of improved practices for pregnant women and women of childbearing age in the rural communities of Ibarra canton: La Riconada and Cuambo. For this, information was collected on knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding the eating habits of pregnant women. These results were used to identify content and recommendations to reinforce and/or instruct about eating during pregnancy. Nutrition education was based on the methodology of the improved practices test, which consisted of testing the recommendations in families' homes before recommending them …

Case Study To Evaluate Effectiveness Of A Treatment Approach For Comorbid Anxiety And Depression, Maria Brent

Theses and Dissertations

This case study evaluates the effectiveness of supportive-expressive therapy combined with aspects of cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of an adult female who has breast cancer and is diagnosed with comorbid Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Major Depressive Disorder. The subject had many psychosocial stressors. The subject voluntarily participated in outpatient individual psychotherapy received in a private counseling facility based on the twelve-step model of Alcoholics Anonymous. She completed various formal assessments of anxiety and depression periodically during the course of treatment, as well as a satisfaction survey following the termination of treatment. The literature review, which explored empirically supported treatments …

Chief For Life: Harold Breier And His Era, Ronald Howard Snyder

Theses and Dissertations

Harold Breier served as Milwaukee's Chief of Police from 1964 until 1984. His tenure occurred during a time of cultural upheaval in the United States, marked by the turmoil of the civil rights movement, the peace movement, and a youth rebellion against traditional societal values and norms. Many people perceived Breier as an opponent of cultural or political change. He was accused of tolerating excessive police force, especially when minority citizens or counterculture youth were involved, and presiding over a racially segregated police department. Others credited him with making Milwaukee one of the safest cities in the country and protecting …

Ossetian: Revisiting Inflectional Morphology, Bela G. Hettich

Theses and Dissertations

Ossetian, a language of the Northeastern group of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European stock of languages, has not received as much linguistic attention as it deserves. A few major studies on Ossetian were written in the 19th and 20th centuries, most of them in Russian. While these works are a solid foundation in the study of Ossetian, its description is not complete.

The present work, written in English, offers Ossetian to a wider international audience. Relying on new developments in linguistic theory, it reexamines phenomena in the inflectional morphology of Ossetian.

The preliminary chapter on phonology provides an overview …

Deception Detection: Study Of Information Manipulation Through Electronic Identity Theft-Email Forgery In The U.S. Military, Roy V. Rockwell

Theses and Dissertations

This research describes the results of a field experiment which examines the effects of warnings on system trust and individual awareness in government computer systems through the use of email forgery. The experiment consisted of forging a trusted government email account and trying to get government computer users to reply to a forged email address. The results revealed that warning individuals about possible email forgery did not increase their awareness or reduce their level of system thrust in the email system nor did it increase their ability to detect email forgery. The results did determine that government computer users are …

The Awara Verbal System, Susan R. Quigley

Theses and Dissertations

Awara is a language in the Wantoat family spoken by the Awara people of Papua New Guinea. Though it has been mentioned in papers written about the Finisterre-Huon languages and about the Wantoat language (another language in the Wantoat family), it has not been described in depth.

This paper presents a description of the verbal system of the Awara language. The major grammatical constructions described are 1) the verbal morphology, 2) serial-verb constructions, 3) clause chaining, and 4) subordination.

Interesting aspects of the language shown here are 1) the variety of clause types based on the type of subject-indexing suffix, …

Valence Change And Oroko Verb Morphology (Mbonge Dialect), Lisa Friesen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the valence changing processes that are indicated by Mbonge verbal morphology. Mbonge (Mbóñgá) is a dialect of Oroko (Orókó), an agglutinative Bantu A language of Cameroon with very rich morphology. After a brief overview of the structure of Mbonge verbs, attention is concentrated on the verbal suffixes which affect valence. Five suffixes—passive, stative, reflexive, reciprocal, and anticausative—are used to decrease valence. Five other suffixes—causative, indirect agent causative, indirect effector causative, applicative, and instrumental—are used to increase valence, as is the syntactic combination of bola 'do/make' plus another verb.

Suffixes which do not affect valence are also briefly …

Oroko Orthography Development: Linguistic And Sociolinguistic Factors, Dan T. Friesen

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the variety of linguistic and sociolinguistic factors that need to be considered in order to develop a good Oroko orthography. Oroko is a Bantu A language of the Southwest Province of Cameroon, Africa. The thesis starts with an overview of the Oroko's location, population, classification, and language development status. The linguistic factors discussed are based largely on analyses of two lists: a 118-word list of nine Oroko dialects and an 821-word list of four Oroko dialects (included in the appendix). Consistent phonetic and phonemic alternations are examined in detail. The next chapter discusses the sociolinguistic issues that …

A Case Study In The Use Of Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Of Emotional And Behavioral Symptoms Related To A Traumatic Brain Injury, Urszula Kobylinska

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques with traumatic brain injury (TBI) individuals using a case study format. The subject of this study was a 54-year-old woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury in an automobile accident. For the purpose of this study, she was seen over a six-month period beginning in January 2002. Major emphasis was on reducing depression and anxiety related to TBI and increasing her social and vocational functioning. Anxiety and depression were pre- and post-tested using the Beck Depression Inventory and Sheehan Anxiety Scale. Post-testing suggested significant decreases in …

Minor League Basketball Organizations: Making Them Work, Derek Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Minor league basketball organizations have wilted under the competition's spotlight. These leagues tried to present fans with an entertaining alternative to professional sports.

Minor league basketball's efforts to entertain fans have been unsuccessful. This study examines why these organizations have not succeeded. Through interviews, research and survey results potential solutions have been discovered.

Eighty surveys were distributed to teams and executives from basketball organizations. The surveys obtained information on ticket prices, attendance and reasons why minor league basketball has struggled.

The study revealed that minor league basketball suffers from a lack of leadership, fan interest and financial stability. Suggestions were …

The Marketing Of Major League Soccer, Bruce G. Hummer Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

For the past six years, Major League Soccer has tried to penetrate American homes with its brand of soccer. Television advertisements and in-house surveys have been made to encourage people to view soccer as a spectator sport. The league, though, has been on decline since its first year and the question still remains why soccer has a hard time being a spectator sport in America. This study examined how Youth Soccer parents perceive the league.

The author went to various Youth Soccer games and registrations and used an intercept survey of the soccer parents. The parents were asked if they …

A Study Of The Continuing Library Education Patterns Of Public Librarians In New Jersey, Mathew J. Freund

Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to (a) ascertain the strengths and weakness of the continuing library education practices of New Jersey public librarians; (b) determine the frequency of continuing library education of New Jersey public librarians; (c) determine if certain types of librarians participate in continuing library education at higher frequencies; (d) determine which continuing library education topics are participated in most frequently and which continuing library education topics need to be addressed; and (e) ascertain which agencies are offering these continuing library education experiences for New Jersey public librarians.

The population of the study consisted of all public …

A Combined Adaptive Tabu Search And Set Partitioning Approach For The Crew Scheduling Problem With An Air Tanker Crew Application, Todd E. Combs

Theses and Dissertations

This research develops the first metaheuristic approach to the complete air crew scheduling problem. It develops the first dynamic, integrated, set-partitioning based vocabulary scheme for metaheuristic search. Since no benchmark flight schedules exist for the tanker crew scheduling problem, this research defines and develops a Java™ based flight schedule generator. The robustness of the tabu search algorithms is judged by testing them using designed experiments. An integer program is developed to calculate lower bounds for the tanker crew scheduling problem objectives and to measure the overall quality of solutions produced by the developed algorithms.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of A Treatment Program With A Latency-Aged Male Child, Michael Calavetta

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of a therapeutic treatment program for a latency-aged male child. This eight-year old child presented with several problem areas. These included poor academic performance, attention difficulties, symptoms of depression and acting out behaviors. The client also had a long standing history of family dysfunction and instability. The client participated in a multimodal treatment program consisting of individual and family counseling, as well as a school-based partial care intervention program. The client also received Adderall and Zoloft. The Connor's ADHD Scales, Children's Depression Inventory, and a Patient Satisfaction Survey were administered …

Assessment Of Problem-Solving Therapy, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy And An Ssri In The Treatment Of A Single Subject Presenting With Major Depressive Disorder And Dysthymia, Jennifer Miller

Theses and Dissertations

After diagnosis, a review of the literature was conducted to determine empirically supported treatments for depression. Based upon this review, this study examined and evaluated the effectiveness of various treatments determined in the current literature to be the best practice in treating depression in adults. The subject was a 44 year old Caucasian woman who initiated treatment voluntarily following a referral made by her primary care physician. This study was conducted in a community-based agency. A diagnosis of depression and dysthymia was reached through an initial intake interview and use of the DSM-IV. Best practice methodology was determined through an …

Evaluation Of A Treatment Program For An Adult Outpatient Client At A Community Mental Health Center, Kristi A. Baese

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to review the literature and determine what treatment modality would best work for the client chosen with the diagnosis of Dependent Personality Disorder. While reviewing the literature, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) appeared to be the treatment that worked the best. This 39 year-old Caucasian female presented with a number of complaints, including difficulties in forming non-abusive relationships, low self-esteem and possible depression, possible panic attacks and difficulty relating to and parenting her 12-year-old daughter. A treatment plan was developed and the client attended weekly sessions with the therapist. CBT was used to work on …

Legislating Citizenship In The United States: The Impact Of State Building On Woman Sufferage Legislation, 1848-1918, Eric C. Dahlin

Theses and Dissertations

This is a state-level analysis of the impact of state building on woman suffrage legislation in the United States. This study examines all states in which state legislatures were conferred the power to submit a constitutional amendment to the electorate for approval. I use a sequential random-effects logistic regression model to estimate the effects of state building on legislative outcome. Legislative outcome is measured in three stages: whether or not a bill is introduced in either the House or the Senate during a legislative session, whether or not a bill is voted on in either the House or the Senate …

Survey Attitudes Toward Stem Cell Research, Ejinkonye C. Anekwe

Theses and Dissertations

In the following research study, a self-administered questionnaire was utilized to assess opinions regarding embryonic stem cell research based on three objectives: willingness to accept stem cells, educational background, and religion. A total of 1 13 fixed-alternative questionnaires were distributed to a diverse group of respondents. Nonprobability sampling using the accidental approach was performed. Support of stem cell research was dependent on Question 9, which asked what people thought about the cloning of human embryonic stem cells. The data revealed that most respondents from all groups surveyed opposed stem cell research. Neither education nor religion was a major determinant in …

The Relationship Of Corpus Callosum And Cingulate Gyrus Surface Areas With Intelligence Scores In Persons With Early Hydrocephalus, Heather Gerschler

Theses and Dissertations

This study served as a pilot study of cingulate gyrus surface areas and their relation to intelligence in individuals with hydrocephalus. Surface areas of the corpus callosum and cingulate gyrus regions were compared between individuals with early hydrocephalus (n = 9) and controls (n = 7). Subsequently, the surface areas were correlated with full-scale intelligence scores and the verbal and nonverbal discrepancy scores. Corpus collosum surface areas were significantly smaller in participants with hydrocephalus. These areas also robustly correlated with full-scale intelligence scores. Although the cingulate gyrus did not differ significantly between the groups, the cingulate gyrus regions were increasingly …