Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Study Of Seat-Belt Usage In Nevada & Driver's Performance, Atul Sancheti

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), motor vehicle incidents has been reported to be the leading cause of the accidental deaths in the United States accounting for more than 42,000 deaths every year. Distracted driving and Driving under influence (DUI) are the major contributors to these roadway crashes. Moreover, drivers fatigue and drowsiness behind the wheel is another important factor contributing to the high fatality rate. These factors results in significant decline in the driver's abilities of perception, recognition and vehicle control.

It has also been reported by National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that about 292,471 …

Perceptions And Definition Of Infidelity: A Multimethod Study, Sarah Schonian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Most couples in committed relationships have implicit or explicit rules regarding infidelity. However, not all partners view infidelity in the same way, and the discrepancy in opinions can lead to problems in the relationship and can complicate the healing process. The purpose of this study was to better understand how people define infidelity and the variables that influence perceptions about infidelity. A mutlimethod design was used to collect quantitative and qualitative data on participants' perceptions and definitions of infidelity. Quantitative data was collected through participants' answers to questions on a scale about perceptions of potentially unfaithful behaviors that was developed …

Performance Comparison Of Design-Build And Construction Manager/General Contractor Highway Projects, Binita Shakya

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers have conducted numerous studies comparing project performance of design-bid-build (DBB) and design-build (DB) highway projects. However, little research has been done to compare the performance of DB and construction manager/general contractor (CM/GC) highway projects. Therefore, an exploratory study was conducted to compare the performance of 55 DB and 34 CM/GC highway projects from various States Departments of Transportation (DOTs) in terms of cost, change orders, and construction intensity. The results showed that contract award cost growth was significantly lower in DB projects than in CM/GC projects. In contrast to this, the total cost growth of DB projects was higher …

The Role Of Music-Specific Representations When Processing Speech: Using A Musical Illusion To Elucidate Domain-Specific And -General Processes, Christina M. Vanden Bosch Der Nederlanden

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When listening to music and language sounds, it is unclear whether adults recruit domain-specific or domain-general mechanisms to make sense of incoming sounds. Unique acoustic characteristics such as a greater reliance on rapid temporal transitions in speech relative to song may introduce misleading interpretations concerning shared and overlapping processes in the brain. By using a stimulus that is both ecologically valid and can be perceived as speech or song depending on context, the contribution of low- and high-level mechanisms may be teased apart. The stimuli employed in all experiments are auditory illusions from speech to song reported by Deutsch et …

The Perceived Level Of Enjoyment In Sports Violence: An Experiment Examining How Sports Commentary, Fanship, And Gender Affect Viewer Emotions, Sarah Vineyard

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This investigation examines if the independent variables of sports commentary, fanship, and gender affect the viewer's level of perceived enjoyment while watching sports violence through televised professional football and hockey clips. Previous studies have found that these three variables contribute most to a viewer's level of perceived enjoyment. This study aimed to test to see if that was still true, while taking into account new rules regarding violence by the National Football League and the National Hockey League. This thesis addresses all variables in one study, which something past research has failed to do.

Perhaps the most significant finding from …

The Hotel Manager’S Perceived Conflict Of Providing For Hospitality And Security: Can The Two Exist In Harmony?, Silvano Cozzini

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The hospitality industry relies upon regular and repeat customers for its survival. No traveler or visitor will return to a hotel property where a bad incident occurred. Would a diner go back to any restaurant where they were sickened by their meal? Would a hotel guest return to any property where they were a victim of a crime? Bad experiences make us tell ourselves, “I will never go back there again!”

This same psychology holds true for criminals. At places where they have been deterred by a high security presence, it is unlikely that they would return there, either. A …

Media Bias Through Facial Expressions On Local Las Vegas Television News Programs: A Visual Content Analysis, Jessica Zimmerman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Trust in news media has been considered an important base for social order and cohesion in society and is a crucial variable for evaluating news media. Media credibility has been questioned by the audience for some time and the audience's trust in the media has been slowly diminishing over the years. When a news broadcaster communicates a story on local television news, it is possible for his own opinions to leak through nonverbal communication, specifically facial expressions. This thesis explores the six local Las Vegas television news stations' anchors and reporters to visually analyze whether facial characteristics reveal media bias …

What Do They Do In Las Vegas Strip Casinos? An Analysis Of The Attitudes And Behaviors Of Gen Y Casino Customers, Mei Iok Un

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Totaling over 63 million, Generation Y, also known as the Millennial Generation, is the new generation of casino customers (U.S. Department of Commerce, 2011). While there are no specific dates to mark its beginning and ending, individuals born between 1982 and 1994 are generally considered as Millennials or Gen Yers. A survey conducted by the American Gaming Association (2013) revealed that Gen Y casino customers made up the highest casino visitation rate with 39% having visited a casino in the previous year; however, it is also shown that Gen Yers spends more on non-gaming departments and have less intention to …

Interaction Of Parent Pain And Child Empathy On Child Depression: A Pilot Study, Ketlyne Sol

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Children aged 11-17, in their relationships with their parents, are capable of experiencing a negative mood if their parent is in pain. According to the empathy-altruism hypothesis, people that are high on empathy will want to help someone in distress with the ultimate goal of benefitting the other person. Because of this, the empathy-altruism hypothesis proposes that if an attempt to help is not resolved, the person will report more negative mood. Because children are capable of experiencing empathy for their parents in distress and feel a negative mood as a result, it was hypothesized that an interaction between empathy …

Human Action Switching In Hiv, Chinonyere Nzerem

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

We evaluated switching in human action/verb fluency to examine how it associates with other measures of executive functioning and with difficulties in the performance of IADLs in a HIV+ sample. Our sample was comprised of 29 HIV+ participants. All the participants completed measures of phonetic fluency (FAS) and semantic fluency [Animals, Human Actions (HA)] in addition to the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (PASAT), Stroop Color-Word Test (Stroop), Trail-making Test Part B (TMT B), Letter-Number Sequencing (LNS), Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, and the Boston Naming Task (BNT). The first regression model with phonetic and semantic switching produced R2 = .260, …

Predictors Of Addiction Treatment Attrition, Suranee Abeyesinhe

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA’s) National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 23.5 million persons aged 12 or older needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol abuse problem in 2009 (9.3 percent of persons aged 12 or older). Unfortunately, addiction treatment completion rates remain relatively low, looming around 50%. In order for treatment programs to be more effective, it is imperative that risk factors for attrition are identified, and that programs strive to combat these risks through personalized engagement and individually tailored treatment programs. This study aims to identify specific risk factors for …

Preparing Mental Health Professionals For Work In Collaborative Care Settings, Angela G. Hester

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

There has been a significant shift regarding how health and illness are conceptualized. In decades past, the biomedical model predominated. Factors other than biological were not seen as important with regard to the diagnosis and treatment of illness; mind and body were viewed as separate. Engel’s 1977 article challenged the biomedical perspective with the biopsychosocial model, suggesting the reciprocal nature of biological, psychological and social factors on patients’ experience of health and illness, and responsiveness to treatment interventions. While viewing individuals holistically was not a new concept at that time, several factors led the biopsychosocial model to gain wide acceptance …

Family Support: A Buffer For Parenting Stress Among Ethnic Minority Parents Of Children With Dd, Susanna Luu

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Adapting to a new culture is a stressful experience for some ethnic minorities. Lower acculturation in ethnic minorities is related to high levels of stress. Parents of children with developmental delays (DD) typically experience high levels of stress, particularly parenting stress. Therefore, ethnic minority families of children with development delays may be at risk for especially high levels of parenting stress due to the additive stress of adapting to a new culture. Currently, there is uncertainty within the field about the relationship between acculturation and parenting stress given that studies have found both low and high levels of acculturation to …

Student Healthcare Providers' Illness Narratives: Impact On Family-Focused Care, Lindsey Ann Lawson

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

In this study, we interviewed 30 students training for three areas of healthcare: medicine, nursing, and medical family therapy (MedFT). Through grounded theory analysis of these interviews, we looked to understand how these providers connected their own experiences with illness to their clinical work, particularly in including patients’ family members in care. The majority of participants, and especially those in medicine and nursing disciplines, described a tension between their desire to connect with patients and families and their developing definition of professionalism. For others, the impact of students’ personal experiences with illness seemed to provide a different definition of professionalism, …

The Feasibility Study And Characterziation Of A Two-Dimensional Diode Array In “Magic Phantom” For High Dose Rate Brachytherapy Quality Assurance, A Espinoza, B Beeksma, M Petasecca, I Fuduli, C Porumb, D L. Cutajar, S Corde, M A. Jackson, M Lf Lerch, Anatoly B. Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

High dose rate (HDR) brachytherapy is a radiation treatment technique capable of delivering large dose rates to the tumor. Radiation is delivered using remote afterloaders to drive highly active sources (commonly 192Ir with an air KERMA strength range between 20 000 and 40 000 U, where 1 U = 1 uGy m2/h in air) through applicators directly into the patient's prescribed region of treatment. Due to the obvious ramifications of incorrect treatment while using such an active source, it is essential that there are methods for quality assurance (QA) that can directly and accurately verify the treatment plan and the …

A Real-Time In Vivo Dosimetric Verification Method For High-Dose Rate Intracavitary Brachytherapy Of Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma, Zhen-Yu Qi, Xiao-Wu Deng, X Cao, Shao-Min Huang, Michael Lerch, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

Purpose: A real-time in vivo dosimetric verification method using metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) dosimeters has been developed for patient dosimetry in high-dose rate (HDR) intracavitary brachytherapy of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC). Methods: The necessary calibration and correction factors for MOSFET measurements in 192Iridium source were determined in a water phantom. With the detector placed inside a custom-made nasopharyngeal applicator, the actual dose delivered to the tumor was measured in vivo and compared to the calculated values using a commercial brachytherapy planning system. Results: Five MOSFETs were independently calibrated with the HDR source, yielding calibration factors of 0.48 ± 0.007 cGymV. …

Performance Comparison Of Two Compact Multiplexed Readouts With Sensl's Spmarray4 For High-Resolution Detector Module, Yujin Qi, Xiaohui Zhang, Cuilan Zhao, Lihong Chen, Marco Petasecca, Mitra Safavi-Naeini, Michael Lerch, Anatoly Rosenfeld

Michael L.F. Lerch

The purpose of this study was to investigate a compact readout for silicon photomultiplier (SiPM) array in the development of high-resolution imaging detector to reduce the readout channels while maximizing the detectors performance. The detector module was composed of a LYSO scintillation crystal array and a SensL's SPMArray4. The crystal array was coupled to the SiPM array with a 2mm-thick silicone pad to improve the light sharing among the SiPM array elements. Three LYSO crystal arrays of 4x4, 8x8 and 12x12 crystal elements with pixel sizes of 3.2, 1.6 and 1.0 mm were investigated in this study. Two compact multiplexed …

Estimating Age: College Males Versus Convicted Male Child Sex Offenders, Robert Marsh, Sergio Romero, Steven Patrick

Sergio Romero

Two samples, male college students and convicted male child sex offenders, are compared on their abilities to accurately estimate the age group of a series of photographs of a sole female ranging in age from 11 to 29. Both samples tend to overestimate the age group of the subject photos, and no significant difference was found between college students and convicted child sex offenders in their ability to estimate the age of females. Both groups are compared demographically, and only limited differences were found. The implications are discussed in regard to theory and prevention of child sexual abuse.

Brain Drain: Do Economic Conditions “Push” Doctors Out Of Developing Countries?, Edward Okeke

Edward Okeke

Health worker migration is an issue of first order concern in global health policy circles and continues to be the subject of much policy debate. In this paper, we contribute to the discussion by studying the impact of economic conditions on the migration of physicians from developing countries. To our knowledge, this is one of the first papers to do so. A major contribution of this paper is the introduction of a new panel dataset on migration to the US and the UK from 31 sub-Saharan Africa countries. The data spans the period 1975-2004. Using this data, we estimate the …

The Nexus Between Governance Infrastructure And The Ease Of Doing Business In Africa, Research In International Trade

Research in International Trade

Discapacidad Y Desarrollo Humano En México: El Servicio Social Universitario Como Estrategia De Mejora, Ramiro Esqueda-Walle

Ramiro Esqueda-Walle

Immigration Policing And Federalism Through The Lens Of Technology, Surveillance, And Privacy, Anil Kalhan

Anil Kalhan

With the deployment of technology, federal programs to enlist state and local police assistance with immigration enforcement are undergoing a sea change. For example, even as it forcefully has urged invalidation of Arizona’s S.B. 1070 and similar state laws, the Obama administration has presided over the largest expansion of state and local immigration policing in U.S. history with its implementation of the “Secure Communities” program, which integrates immigration and criminal history database systems in order to automatically ascertain the immigration status of every individual who is arrested and booked by state and local police nationwide. By 2012, over one fifth …

Cognitive Parallels Between Moral Judgment And Modal Judgement, Andrew Shtulman, Lester Tong

Andrew Shtulman

A central question in the study of moral psychology is how immediate intuition interacts with more thoughtful deliberation in the generation of moral judgments. The present study sheds additional light on this question by comparing adults’ judgments of moral permissibility with their judgments of physical possibility—a form of judgment that also involves the coordination of intuition and deliberation (Shtulman, Cognitive Development 24:293–309, 2009 ). Participants ( N = 146) were asked to judge the permissibility of 16 extraordinary actions (e.g., Is it ever morally permissible for an 80-year-old woman to have sex with a 20-year-old man?) and the possibility of …

Peasant Farming: Commoning Through Co-Production For Future Generations, Luigi Russi

Luigi Russi

The chapter examines the rift existing between peasant modes of production and the productionist paradigm in agriculture. While the former is based on co-production - i.e. the material negotiation of symbiotic relationships with ecological cycles - the latter attempts to format agriculture so as to make it amenable to a standard of control comparable to that of factory processes. By re-opening developmental possibilities that are closed off by the productionist paradigm, peasant co-production enacts instances of situated counterwork and commoning, through which new forms of ecological intergenerational justice can be attained.

Estimating Age: College Males Versus Convicted Male Child Sex Offenders, Robert Marsh, Sergio Romero, Steven Patrick

Robert L. Marsh

Two samples, male college students and convicted male child sex offenders, are compared on their abilities to accurately estimate the age group of a series of photographs of a sole female ranging in age from 11 to 29. Both samples tend to overestimate the age group of the subject photos, and no significant difference was found between college students and convicted child sex offenders in their ability to estimate the age of females. Both groups are compared demographically, and only limited differences were found. The implications are discussed in regard to theory and prevention of child sexual abuse.

Gender Bias In The Media? An Examination Of Local Television News Coverage Of Male And Female House Candidates, Lesley Lavery

Lesley Lavery

No abstract provided.

Scholarworks Brochure, Charlotte Roh

scholarworks@library.umass.edu

This is a marketing brochure created for ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst, the institutional repository.

The Case Of Performance Measurement In Mobility Management Programs, Sarmistha Majumdar, Lalita Sen, Meredith Highsmith, Linda Cherrington

Sarmistha R Majumdar

The concept of mobility management has gained popularity over the last few decades. It refers to the provision of accessible, affordable, and multimodal transportation for all, including those who cannot or do not drive due to age, disability, or lower income. Mobility management programs can be found in large cities, urban areas, and rural areas. Evaluation of these programs is difficult in the absence of national guidelines. Consequently, many programs have developed their own measures, while others lag in performance measurement. This case study investigates the performance measures used to evaluate some established mobility management programs. Based on analysis of …

Studying Britten: The Current Landscape Of Published Britten Scholarship, Jonathan Manton

Jonathan Manton

Faculty, Students And Social Media: Interpersonal Relationships And Higher Education In The 21st Century, Jennifer Palm

Jennifer Palm