Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

War Of Words: Framing Of The United States In Selected Belarusian Newspapers In 2009, Natalie Manayeva

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the peculiarities of framing of the United States in selected Belarusian newspapers during first six months of the Obama administration. The concepts of anti-Americanism, authoritarian model of mass media and framing were chosen as a theoretical framework. This study was focused on the two main questions: first, what is the difference in how Belarusian state-run and independent newspapers frame the U.S., and second, what is the mechanism of creating negative image of the U.S. in Belarusian newspapers. In order to provide comprehensive answers to both questions the multi-method approach (involving methods of …

Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area Market Analysis, Joshua Chapman

Master's Theses

The following Market Analysis is an analysis of the Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area. The analysis is divided into the following four sections: ♦ Planning Context ♦ Real Estate Market Conditions ♦ Emerging Market Opportunities & Case Studies ♦ Conclusion The report serves as an opportunity to aide stakeholders of the Franklin Boulevard Redevelopment Project Area. Stakeholders include residents, business owners, the City of Sacramento, County of Sacramento, Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency (SHRA), and the North Franklin District Business Association (NFDBA). The stakeholders are continually searching for data and creative examples of how to transform the area into a …

The Geometric Field Of View And Speed Perception In A Driving Simulator, Richard Goodenough

All Theses

Particularly in the health and rehabilitation sector where cost and space are constraints, practitioners need smaller driving simulators. Because these small-footprint driving simulators have a limited projected field of view (PFOV) it is desirable to extend the virtual or geometric field of view (GFOV) beyond that natively afforded by the PFOV. Changing the PFOV/GFOV ratio has been shown to alter perceived speed. In order for driving simulation to produce realistic experiences, drivers‟ perception of speed should correspond with real world experiences. The purpose of the current research was to better understand the relationship between speed perception and the GFOV/PFOV ratio …

Analyzing The Restricted Phase Of The Graduated Driver's Licensing System: The Effect Of Driving Experience, Christopher Graham

All Theses

Beginning in 1996, states began adopting what is known as the graduated driver's licensing system (GDL) in an attempt to reduce traffic hazards for teenagers. This was a response to previous literature which suggested teens had an elevated risk for motor vehicle hazards, compared to all other age groups. The GDL system is split into three separate stages, in an attempt to ease the teenagers into the driving process. These stages are known as the permit stage, the restricted stage, and the unrestricted stage. While much of the past literature has focused on whether or not the GDL system is …

Style And Electronic Communication: The Accommodation Of Scientific Risks In The Sierra Magazine, Erin Dalton

All Theses

This thesis focuses on how style accommodates scientific risks for public audiences in Magazine articles. Language has previously been unexplored in risk communication; in accommodation research, style has not been investigated. Responding to these gaps in research, this study combines two unexplored dimensions--risk communication and accommodation--to show how syntax, diction, and metaphor resituate technical language and ideas in scientific risk studies for readers. First, interviews with editors and writers will provide a rich understanding of how their editing and composition practices influence accommodation processes. From there, an electronic communication analysis will illustrate how this medium can accommodate beyond text to …

Neurochemical Effects Of Amyloid-Beta Oligomers In Rats, John J. Panos

Dissertations

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss and cognitive decline. Although the symptomology of Alzheimer’s disease is well defined, its precise etiology remains elusive. Animal models are invaluable for understanding the pathogenesis of this devastating disease. Knowledge of the neurochemical actions of amyloid-β oligomers in specific brain structures is essential for validating animal models of Alzheimer’s disease and for determining the most appropriate behavioral assays of memory. The specific aim of this project was to investigate the neurochemical effects of direct intracerebral infusion of amyloid-β oligomers in the rat. Experiment 1 investigated direct infusions of synthetic …

A Qualitative Exploration Of African American Womanhood: Implications For Counseling And Counselor Education, Nikita Murry

Dissertations

The disciplines of counseling and counselor education have expressed a commitment to greater multicultural competence. Existing research points toward greater study of Black American females; however, for some the call for equity and change in the societal perceptions of Black women has largely gone unanswered. For others, emerging research has started to change the perception of Black American women. Current counseling literature is limited in the exploration of gender identity development from a Black woman's perspective. This study fills a gap in the literature concerning gender identity development for Black American females by exploring the phenomenon of womanhood and how …

Shock Rhetoric, David Robert Nelson

Dissertations

Social movements create a public perception of themselves through rhetorical messages and demonstrations. In order to gain the public's attention, some radical groups use any rhetorical means necessary, including offensive remarks and conduct. Groups, such as the Westboro Baptist Church and Bash Back!, rhetorically challenge the boundaries of prudence. The purpose of this study is to identify, depict, and provide insight regarding shock rhetoric. This study will compare protest methods, visual imagery, and language choices used by Bash Back! and the Westboro Baptist Church. This dissertation helps illuminate why and how groups or individuals use shock rhetoric.

Racial Uplift And Self-Determination: The African Methodist Episcopal Church And Its Pursuit Of Higher Education, Shannon A. Butler-Mokoro

Educational Policy Studies Dissertations

The African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, like many historically black denomination over the years, has been actively involved in social change and racial uplift. The concepts of racial uplift and self-determination dominated black social, political, and economic thought throughout the late-eighteenth into the nineteenth century. Having created many firsts for blacks in America, the A.M.E. Church is recognized as leading blacks in implementing the rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination. Racial uplift was a broad concept that covered issues such as equal rights, moral, spiritual, and intellectual development, and institutional and organizational building. The rhetoric of racial uplift and self-determination …

Frequency And Severity Approaches To Indexing Exposure To Trauma: The Critical Incident History Questionnaire For Police Officers, Daniel S. Weiss, Alain Brunet, Suzanne R. Best, Thomas J. Metzler, Akiva Liberman, Nnamdi Pole, Jeffrey A. Fagan, Charles R. Marmar

Psychology: Faculty Publications

The Critical Incident History Questionnaire indexes cumulative exposure to traumatic incidents in police by examining incident frequency and rated severity. In over 700 officers, event severity was negatively correlated (rs = -61) with frequency of exposure. Cumulative exposure indices that varied emphasis on frequency and severity-using both nomothetic and idiographic methods-all showed satisfactory psychometric properties and similar correlates. All indices were only modestly related to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Ratings of incident severity were not influenced by whether officers had ever experienced the incident. Because no index summarizing cumulative exposure to trauma had superior validity, our findings suggest that …

A Psychometric Investigation Of The Young Adult Social Behavior Scale (Yasb), Michelle Rene Augustin

Dissertations

Aggressive behavior is a serious public health concern that has resulted in several problems in contemporary society. Despite a considerable body of literature on human aggression, both popular and scientific, a focus on overt physical aggression has obscured other forms of aggression. As a result, considerably less is known about other, more subtle forms of aggression, such as relational aggression. Moreover, research on relational aggression, particularly among older adolescents and adults, has been hindered by the lack of psychometrically sound measures. Research in this area would be enhanced by the availability of such a measure, facilitating comparison of data across …

The Allocation Of Time And Goods: Three Essays On American Household Shopping Behavior, Jing Cai

Dissertations

Consumers’ shopping behavior connects market goods expenditure with the out of- market time allocation in their daily time use. This study is composed of three essays. In the first essay, data are collected from the American Time Use Survey and it is found that an individual’s time devoted to shopping is positively determined by opportunity cost of time. Grocery shopping and other shopping, as two distinct types of shopping, react differently to a series of individual and household characteristics as well as by seasons. The corresponding marginal effects also differentiate between shopping time, leisure time, and home production time. In …

From Reproduction To Consumption: The Economic Deterioration Of Families In The United States After World War Ii, Michael David Gillespie

Dissertations

The United State's “great recession,” beginning in December 2007, is the latest indicator of the economic decline of middle- and working-class families. This research questions why the economic condition of U.S. families deteriorated after World War II. To address this research question, social structure of accumulation theory is used to examine the changing role of the family as an institution in capitalist society.

First, a qualitative institutional analysis of federal welfare, labor, and financial regulatory policies from the New Deal to the present is conducted. This analysis shows that, initially, the family was vital to the capitalist economy as the …

Mainstreaming Evaluation: Four Case Studies Of Systematic Evaluation Integrated Into Organizational Culture And Practices, Amy M. Gullickson

Dissertations

Following a literature review, a researcher generated a descriptive theory of evaluation mainstreaming, the integration of systematic evaluation into the culture, systems, and job responsibilities of organizations. She then explored the validity and generalizability of the theory in the National Science Foundation’s grant-funded Advanced Technological Education Program using mixed methods research. Four centers were chosen based on quantitative survey responses which suggested that the organizations were likely to be mainstreaming evaluation. For each center, the researcher conducted a site visit, interviews, and document review to understand (i) the processes by and extent to which evaluation became part of everyday operations; …

The Interface Of Breastfeeding And Work: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experiences Of White Low-Income Women, Jessica A. Kerby

Dissertations

Vocational psychologists have been called to expand the traditional discourses related to work and career to address the actual work experiences of individuals, especially those of the working class. Breastfeeding rates are on the rise among employed women and mothers of low-income, but little is known about women of low income who seek to concurrently work and breastfeed. Work-family interface theories suggest employed mothers of low-income may experience conflict and/or enhancement through multiple roles. The purpose of this research was to answer the call to vocational psychologists, give voice to the narratives around breastfeeding and work among lowincome mothers, and …

Operation Opera: An Ambiguous Success, Joshua Kirschenbaum

Journal of Strategic Security

To assess the efficacy of Israel's strike on Osirak, one must determine Israel's strategic objectives and their material effects on Iraqi capabilities. The capacity of the facilities to produce fissionable material without detection remains in dispute. So, too, does the timeline—and therefore the imminence—of Iraqi acquisition of a nuclear option. The political cost-benefit equation in this case requires a fair dose of subjective judgment. How much did the Israelis delay the program? How much did Iraqi motivation increase post facto? Is military counter-proliferation a viable strategy? Was the potential Iraqi bomb worth risking a bold, unprovoked attack that inevitably drew …

Xpath-Based Template Language For Describing The Placement Of Metadata Within A Document, Vijay Kumar Musham

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

In the recent years, there has been a tremendous growth in Internet and online resources that had previously been restricted to paper archives. OCR (Optical Character Recognition) tools can be used for digitalizing an existing corpus and making it available online. A number of federal agencies, universities, laboratories, and companies are placing their collections online and making them searchable via metadata fields such as author, title, and publishing organization. Manually creating metadata for a large collection is an extremely time-consuming task, and is difficult to automate, particularly for collections consisting of documents with diverse layout and structure. The Extract project …

Measurement Equivalence Of The Wong And Law Emotional Intelligence Scale Across Self And Other Ratings, Nele Libbrecht, Filip Lievens, Eveline Schollaert

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

There exist a variety of measurement instruments for assessing emotional intelligence (EI). One approach is the use of other reports wherein knowledgeable informants indicate how well the scale items describe the assessed person's behavior. In other reports, the same EI scales are typically used as in self-reports. However, it is not known whether the measurement structure underlying EI ratings is equivalent across self and other ratings. In this study, the measurement equivalence of an extant EI measure (Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale [WLEIS]) across self and other ratings was tested. Using multiple group confirmatory factor analysis, the authors conducted …

Policy Transfer, Diffusion, And Institutional Change Under Uncertainty: The Role Of Policy Ideas, Yooil Bae

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

From Peasants To Farmers: Peasant Differentiation, Labor Regimes, And Land-Rights Institutions In China's Agrarian Transition, Q. Forrest Zhang, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The development of factor markets has opened Chinese agriculture for the penetration of capitalism. This new round of rural transformation—China’s agrarian transition— raises the agrarian question in the Chinese context. This study investigates how capitalist forms and relations of production transform agricultural production and the peasantry class in rural China. The authors identify six forms of nonpeasant agricultural production, compare the labor regimes and direct producers’ socioeconomic statuses across these forms, and evaluate the role of China’s land-rights institution in shaping these forms. The empirical investigation presents three main findings: (1) Peasant differentiation : capitalist forms of agricultural production differentiate …

Reconciling Modernity And Tradition In A Liberal Society, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Many modern liberals have been eager to tout the virtues of diversity, but many have equally found it difficult to tolerate customs or traditions that do not conform to liberalism’s deepest commitments to equality and individual liberty. The distinction between traditional and modern is not a very useful one for understanding the problems confronting liberal society, or for working out how to address them because the contrast does not pick out a tension or conflict about which we can usefully generalise. Chandran Kukatahs suggests that as the tension in question is not one that is capable of resolution, the best …

Religion In The Abortion Discourse In Singapore: A Case Study Of The Relevance Of Religious Arguments In Law-Making In Multi-Religious Democracies, Seow Hon Tan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The article discusses the social issue on religion in the abortion discourse in Singapore. It mentions the relevance of religious arguments in law-making in multi-religious democracies. It notes that laws on abortion vary across different jurisdictions, like prohibiting abortion under all circumstances to freely allowing it without restriction as to reason.

Two Contrasting Approaches In The Interpretation Of Outdated Statutory Provisions, Yihan Goh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Some statutes in operation today were passed a long time ago. Inevitably, through the passage of time, social norms at the time of enactment may now be unrecognizable. Two recent cases show contrasting approaches towards the interpretation of outdated statutory provisions. The first approach is seen in the Singapore High Court case of WX v.WW. That case concerned the interpretation of section 114 of the Evidence Act, a decidedly ancient statutory provision. The second approach was adopted by the Singapore Court of Appeal in AAG v. Estate of AAH, deceased. In that case, the Court of Appeal had to interpret …

Crime And Punishment: Insitutional Sanctions And Other Characteristics That Effect Campus Crime, Aldon Givens

All Theses

Crime, has and continues to be, a major issue in the world of institutions of higher education. Colleges and universities are constantly working on ways to prevent and improve crime on their respective campuses, which in most occasions includes collecting and reporting crime data to law enforcement agencies and the general public. By setting up punishment schemes and sanctions to deter criminal activity at their institution, administrators and faculty are looking for better, more efficient ways to influence the behavior or their students and steer them away from a life of criminal activity.
By studying existing literature, crime definitions, and …

Reading Your Counterpart: The Benefit Of Emotion Recognition Accuracy For Effectiveness In Negotiation, Hillary Anger Elferbein, Maw Der Foo, Judith White, Hwee Hoon Tan, Voon Chuan Aik

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Using meta-analysis, we find a consistent positive correlation between emotion recognition accuracy (ERA) and goal-oriented performance. However, this existing research relies primarily on subjective perceptions of performance. The current study tested the impact of ERA on objective performance in a mixed-motive buyer-seller negotiation exercise. Greater recognition of posed facial expressions predicted better objective outcomes for participants from Singapore playing the role of seller, both in terms of creating value and claiming a greater share for themselves. The present study is distinct from past research on the effects of individual differences on negotiation outcomes in that it uses a performance-based test …

The Effects Of Action, Normality, And Decision Carefulness On Anticipated Regret: Evidence For A Broad Mediating Role Of Decision Justifiability., Jochen Reb, Terry Connolly

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Two distinct theoretical views explain the effects of action/inaction and social normality on anticipated regret. Norm theory (Kahneman & Miller, 1986) emphasises the role of decision mutability, the ease with which one can imagine having made a different choice. Decision justification theory (Connolly & Zeelenberg, 2002) highlights the role of decision justifiability, the perception that the choice was made on a defensible basis, supported by convincing arguments or using a thoughtful, comprehensive decision process. The present paper tests several contrasting predictions from the two theoretical approaches in a series of four studies. Study 1 replicated earlier findings showing greater anticipated …

Automobile Exhaust Gas Detection Based On Fuzzy Temperature Compensation System, Zhiyong Wang, Hao Ding, Fufei Hao, Zhaoxia Wang, Zhen Sun, Shujin Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A temperature compensation scheme of detecting automobile exhaust gas based on fuzzy logic inference is presented in this paper. The principles of the infrared automobile exhaust gas analyzer and the influence of the environmental temperature on analyzer are discussed. A fuzzy inference system is designed to improve the measurement accuracy of the measurement equipment by reducing the measurement errors caused by environmental temperature. The case studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. The fuzzy compensation scheme is promising as demonstrated by the simulation results in this paper.

Talking To Strangers: The Use Of A Cameraman In The Office And What It Reveals About Communication, Sarah C. Stockslager

Senior Honors Theses

In the television mock-documentary The Office, co-workers Jim and Pam tell the cameraman they are dating before they tell their fellow co-workers in the office. The cameraman sees them getting engaged before anyone in the office has a clue. Even the news of their pregnancy is witnessed first by the camera crew. Jim and Pam’s boss, Michael, and other employees, such as Dwight, Angela and others, also share this trend of self-disclosure to the cameraman. They reveal secrets and embarrassing stories to the cameraman, showing a private side of themselves that most of their co-workers never see. First the term …

Medicinal Plant Use And Health Sovereignty: Findings From The Tajik And Afghan Pamirs, Karim Aly Kassam, Munira Karamkhudoeva, Morgan Ruelle, Michelle Baumflek

Sustainability and Social Justice

Medicinal plants are indicators of indigenous knowledge in the context of political volatility and socio-cultural and ecological change in the Pamir Mountains of Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Medicinal plants are the primary health care option in this region of Central Asia. The main objective of this paper is to demonstrate that medicinal plants contribute to health security and sovereignty in a time of instability. We illustrate the nutritional as well as medicinal significance of plants in the daily lives of villagers. Based on over a decade and half of research related to resilience and livelihood security, we present plant uses in …

Recognition Of Posed And Spontaneous Dynamic Smiles In Younger And Older Adults, Nora A. Murphy, Jonathan M. Lehrfeld, Derek M. Isaacowitz

Psychological Science Faculty Works

In two studies, we investigated age effects in the ability to recognize dynamic posed and spontaneous smiles. Study 1 found that both younger and older adult participants were above-chance in their ability to distinguish between posed and spontaneous younger adult smiles. Study 2 found that younger adult participant performance declined when judging a combination of both younger and older adult target smiles, while older adult participants outperformed younger adult participants in distinguishing between posed and spontaneous smiles. A synthesis of results across the two studies showed a small-to-medium age effect (d = −0.40) suggesting an older adult advantage when …