Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Relative Responsiveness Of Trade Flows To A Change In Prices And Exchange Rate, Esmaeil Ebadi

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two essays in international trade. In my first essay I consider Orcutt’s (1950) hypothesis in which trade flows respond to changes in exchange rate more quickly than they do to changes in prices. There are several studies, which test the Orcutt’s hypothesis by imposing lag structure on both relative prices and exchange rate. I employ generalized impulse response analysis as an alternative approach to test Orcutt’s hypothesis using the sample of developed and developing countries. The empirical results do not support Orcutt’s hypothesis in most cases. In my second essay I investigate the effects of technological progress …

Predictors Of Texas Police Chiefs’ Satisfaction With Police-Prosecutor Relationships, Brenda I. Rowe

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications

Although strain in police-prosecutor relationships may be built into the criminal justice system’s checks and balances, the administration of criminal justice can benefit from the adoption of practices which improve these working relationships. A first step towards the adoption of such practices can be taken by first adding to the knowledge base regarding this understudied topic. Using a survey of a state-wide sample of Texas police chiefs, this exploratory study identifies which aspects of police-prosecutor interaction styles are predictors of police chiefs’ satisfaction with police-prosecutor relationships. Results indicate that perceived level of police input in prosecutors’ plea bargain and charging …

Needs Assessment For The Topsfield Council On Aging, Jan E. Mutchler, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The Town of Topsfield’s older population grew substantially during the last decade. Increases are expected to continue as the number of seniors increase moving forward, as well as the share of the Topsfield population they represent. In response to these demographic changes, a study was undertaken to generate and organize information on the older residents of Topsfield and the community organizations supporting their well-being. Special focus was placed on needs of older residents along with the capacity of the Topsfield COA to meet those needs. Methods used included description of existing data, key informant interviews, and focus groups aimed at …

From Text To Context: Literacy Practices Of Native Speakers Of Arabic In Arabic And English, Ghada Gherwash

Open Access Dissertations

Previous studies that looked at the written product of native speakers of Arabic in their second language (L2), English, have identified traces of Arabic rhetoric (L1), mainly Classical Arabic, in their writing (e.g., Atari, 1983; Kaplan, 1966; Ostler, 1987). These studies focused primarily on the L2-written texts, where the written product is used to make inferences about the rhetorical structures of the writers’ L1. The results from these studies portrayed the native-Arab writer’s text as highly influenced by Classical Arabic. This was evidenced by “foreign” rhetorical structures that Arab writers employ when producing texts in their L2 that are considered …

Digitalcommons@Cedarville Statistical Report For November 2015, Cedarville University

DigitalCommons@Cedarville Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

Repository Additions, November 2015, Cedarville University

DigitalCommons@Cedarville Monthly Reports

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Mindfulness On Verbal Distress Disclosure, Sara Fleming

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a mindfulness induction on participants’ verbal distress disclosure (as measured by the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and State Disclosure Questionnaire). Participants were 86 undergraduate students enrolled in an Introduction to Psychology course and were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: a mindfulness condition or a control condition. Participants in the mindfulness condition engaged in a 15-minute mindfulness induction prior to disclosing about a stressful experience, while participants in the control condition listened to a neutrally valenced audio excerpt from a podcast about emotions before speaking about a …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Psychological Distress And Risky Sexual Behaviors Among A Treatment-Seeking Opioid-Dependent Population, Hayley M. Smith

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Substance abusing populations are at an increased risk for disease transmission and have higher rates of psychological comorbidity compared to the general population (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012a; Chaudhury & Singh, 2009; Des Jarlais, Semaan, & Arasteh, 2011; Goodwin & Stein, 2013). Numerous studies have implicated the interaction of psychological distress and risky sexual behaviors in the increased risk of disease transmission, however, several studies have not found this association. It has been suggested that there may be curvilinear relationship between psychological distress and risky sexual behaviors but this theory has yet to be tested. The …

Grandiose And Vulnerable Narcissism: Where Do The Emotional Differences Lie?, Katherine E. Wolven

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Narcissism can be conceptualized as existing on a continuum between grandiose and vulnerable phenotypes (Pincus & Lukowitsky, 2010). Previous studies found differences between narcissistic phenotypes in terms of behavioral task performance (Wallace & Baumeister, 2002) and emotional reactions to threatening conditions (Besser & Priel, 2010; Zeigler-Hill, Clark, & Pickard, 2008); however, research on emotion dysregulation was lacking in narcissistic populations. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to explore the subjective and objective emotional differences between the grandiose and vulnerable phenotypes of narcissism. In a laboratory manipulation, participants (N=63) completed self-report questionnaires, read emotionally-evocative vignettes describing achievement failure and …

Psychological Well-Being Of Roman Catholic And Episcopal Clergy Applicants, Shannon Nicole Thomas, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

The current study investigated the psychological functioning of over 200 applicants to the priesthood or diaconate in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal churches, as revealed by the subjects’ scores on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Second Edition (MMPI-2). Results revealed an overall trend of psychological health in the sample population, evidenced by few systematic elevations in indices of psychopathology. Within the Catholic sample, deacons demonstrated lower MMPI-2 scores on several measures, perhaps suggesting slightly better psychological well-being than their priest counterparts.

Innovation In The Library: How To Encourage New Ideas, Create Buy-In, And Serve Our Patrons Better, Julie Evener

Other Topics

Innovation is a much touted concept in the business world. Libraries, too, have felt the need for continuous innovation as we serve ever-changing needs. Leaders can use principles practiced in business to transform academic libraries into cultures of innovation. In a culture of innovation, employees are engaged in their work and excited about the possibilities of it. Leaders help cultivate creativity by promoting growth mind-sets, rewarding experimentation, and practicing discovery skills. Importantly, library leaders in cultures of innovation hone persuasive abilities to create buy-in for implementing innovations in order to serve users more effectively with dynamic solutions to persistent problems.

The Thinker 3.12, Amy Thompson

Library Newsletters

The Thinker newsletter for December 2015

Integrating Freight Into Livable Communities, Kristine M. Williams, Alexandria Carroll

TREC Final Reports

Where livability is a goal of the planning process, freight runs the risk of not being considered except as an afterthought or as something to be excluded. Yet, freight is an integral part of local economic development. Because economic prosperity is a key characteristic of livable communities, freight must be incorporated into the planning process. This study explores the relationship between freight and livability through a comprehensive literature review and case study research. The final report includes a menu of strategies and case study perspectives that highlight the importance of transportation and land use integration, interagency coordination, and context-sensitivity in …

Investigations In Transportation, William G. Becker, Carol Biskupic Knight

TREC Final Reports

The Investigations in Transportation program is an elementary school partnership and curriculum development project that will engage science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals in school-based activities and projects that will bring real-world applications to elementary classrooms for grades 3-5. The Portland Metro STEM Partnership (PMSP) is providing leadership and facilitation to a team of educators from Portland State University, Beaverton School District and Hillsboro School District who will work with volunteers from the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) to design, develop, implement and assess the impact of an in-class unit entitled "Investigations in Transportation". This report presents a study …

Motherhood As Contested Ideological Terrain: Essentialist And Queer Discourses Of Motherhood At Play In Female–Female Co-Mothers’ Talk, Elizabeth A. Suter, Leah M. Seurer, Stephanie Webb, Brian Grewe Jr., Jody Koenig Kellas

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

Framed by relational dialectics theory (Baxter), this investigation considered the meaning(s) of motherhood in female–female co-motherhood. Analysis identified two competing discourses: (1) discourse of essential motherhood (DEM) and (2) discourse of queer motherhood (DQM). Speakers’ invocation of the DEM reinscribes the mainstream US cultural discourse that children can have only one authentic (i.e., biological) mother, whereas invocation of the DQM denaturalizes the DEM’s presumptions of authentic motherhood as biological, interrupts monomaternalism, destabilizes the patriarch, and troubles the equation of biological with moral motherhood. Whereas interpenetrations of the DEM and DQM were typically sites of adversarial discursive struggle, in a few …

The Developmental Stages Of The Acquisition Of Arabic By Adult English-Speaking Learners: Processability Theory And The Formulaic Language, Abdellatif Oulhaj

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this study is to look at the developmental stages of the acquisition of Arabic as a foreign language by adult English learners. Processability theory (Pienemann, 1998, 2005) is adopted to investigate in detail whether the acquisition development will follow the hierarchy as stated by PT. The study targeted agreement within seven grammatical structures. The structures belong to three procedural levels of the hierarchy (stages three to five).

Six adult learners participated in this study. They were tested via different tasks to elicit data either to support the predictions of PT hierarchy, or to disconfirm it. Two participants …

Retrograde Returns Of The American Housewife: Reimagining An Old Character In A New Millennium, Ruth Emelia Wollersheim

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the immensely popular return of the housewife character in the twenty-first century. From films like The Stepford Wives (2004), to television dramas like Desperate Housewives (2004-2012) and The Good Wife (2009- ), to reality shows like Wife Swap (2004- ), Bravo’s The Real Housewives franchise (2006- ), Basketball Wives (2010- ), Mob Wives (2011- ), and most recently on the blogosphere with personalities like The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, the housewife character has reentered our imaginations on a mass scale. This anachronistic character trend is in stark contrast to the urban, working superwoman ideal of the 1980s …

Defining Treatment Response In Trichotillomania: A Signal Detection Analysis, David C. Houghton, Matthew R. Capriotti, Alessandro S. De Nadai, Scott N. Compton, Michael P. Twohig, Angela M. Neal-Barnett, Stephen M. Saunders, Martin E. Franklin, Douglas W. Woods

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

The Massachusetts General Hospital Hairpulling Scale (MGH-HPS) and the NIMH Trichotillomania Severity Scale (NIMH-TSS) are two widely used measures of trichotillomania severity. Despite their popular use, currently no empirically-supported guidelines exist to determine the degrees of change on these scales that best indicate treatment response. Determination of such criteria could aid in clinical decision-making by defining clinically significant treatment response/recovery and producing accurate power analyses for use in clinical trials research. Adults with trichotillomania (N = 69) participated in a randomized controlled trial of psychotherapy and were assessed before and after treatment. Response status was measured via the Clinical …

Rod Library Newsletter: Rod Notes, V8n5, December 2015/January 2016, University Of Northern Iowa. Rod Library.

Library Newsletter

In This Issue:

-- Finals Week Stress Busting
-- MakerSpace to Open in Late January
-- Calling All Artists!
-- Crowdfunding Update

Situating Care In Mainstream Health Economics: An Ethical Dilemma?, John B. Davis, Robert Mcmaster

Economics Faculty Research and Publications

Standard health economics concentrates on the provision of care by medical professionals. Yet ‘care’ receives scant analysis; it is portrayed as a spillover effect or externality in the form of interdependent utility functions. In this context care can only be conceived as either acts of altruism or as social capital. Both conceptions are subject to considerable problems stemming from mainstream health economics’ reliance on a reductionist social model built around instrumental rationality and consequentialism. Subsequently, this implies a disregard for moral rules and duties and the compassionate aspects of behaviour. Care as an externality is a second-order concern relative to …

Leisure, Obesity And Weight Loss: An Exploration Of Leisure, The Public Health Ecological Model Of Obesity And Identity Theory, Weber Player

All Dissertations

Obesity is a global health crisis with complex causal relationships. From the mid 1990s to 2010, obesity related research in the clinical and social sciences has exploded. This expansion has resulted in a proliferation of obesity-related articles published in top-tier journals and the creation of new journals solely devoted to obesity research. In contrast within leisure scholarship, a review of leisure journals reveals that published research on the relationship of leisure, obesity and weight loss is minimal. However, numerous leisure scholarship/theory principles are relevant to obesity prevention and treatment. Similarly, public health officials have developed numerous systems-oriented multilevel framework models …

Examining The Space-Time Constraints Concept On Tourist Behavior For Visitors To The South Carolina Coastal Area Of The United States, Sanghoon Kang

All Dissertations

This dissertation explored three themes with regard to the spatial aspects of tourist behavior, conducting three independent analyses. For these analyses, this dissertation research adapted Shoval's (2012) definition of the space-time constraints concept developed by Hagerstrand (1970): the purpose of trip (i.e., authority constraints), the length of visit (i.e., capability constraints), and the composition of travel party (i.e., coupling constraints). The purposes of the three analyses were to examine the relationships 1) between the space-time constraints and the spatial patterns of travel; 2) between ICT use (i.e., smartphones) and the spatial patterns of travel, space-time constraints, tourists' unplanned destination visits, …

A Framework For Designing Of Electric Vehicle Charging Infrastructure Network, Shengyin Li

All Dissertations

The lack of sufficient public charging stations for electric vehicles has long been recognized as a major hinder for massive adoption of electric vehicles (EV). This dissertation aims to develop a framework for designing charging station infrastructure networks that electric vehicle with limited travel range can be recharge en-route to complete trips to destinations and then would facilitate the adoption of electric vehicles. The rest part of this dissertation is concerned with modeling travel range of electric vehicle and users behavior of deviating from their most preferred routes when siting charging stations. The proposed multi-path refueling location model provides the …

The Impact Of Co-Workers On Safety Outcomes: Comparing Models Of Mediation, Moderation, And Incremental Effects, Anna Mcfadden

All Dissertations

The current study examined the role of co-worker support for safety within the broader context of perceived safety climate predicting safety behavior and outcomes for the mobile worker population of team truck drivers. Namely, the mediation, moderation, and incremental direct effects of co-worker support for safety were tested. The current study examined 366 team truck drivers from a single trucking company. Results indicated that co-worker support for safety did not moderate the relationship between safety climate perceptions and behavior and injury outcomes. However, co-worker support for safety did partially mediate the relationship between safety climate perceptions and safety behavior. Additionally, …

Understanding Group Cohesion Of Festival And Events Attendees Satifaction And Intention To Revisit, Younsuk Kong

All Dissertations

Festivals and events provide a venue for individuals to relax, to spend time with their family, to escape from the daily demands of modern life, to enjoy themselves and to socialize as a way to enhance their quality of life. In addition, many leaders have used festival and events for the economic development of their communities (Getz & Frisby, 1988). However, according to Petrick and Li (2006), this research has been limited to topics associated with marketing, management and economic impact. For example, Finkel, McGillivaray, McPherson, & Robinson (2013) pointed out that scholars have investigated the relationships between festival and …

The Interaction Of Community Size And Perceived Local Political Efficacy Among Low-Income Individuals, Dylan Allen Brugman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the world’s population continues to urbanize, urban studies are increasingly important. Studying the social science behind the rise of the city and its effect on various social phenomena should be a priority for scholars in the field of politics, sociology, and communication, because of the reasonable assumption that the environment of the city alters the way that a person engages people and systems within the city. This is especially true for peripheral and marginalized populations that often lack access to the social institutions necessary to improve their livelihoods. Using Diffusion of Innovation and urban studies theories of Anomie, Gemeinschaft …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald, Vol. 91, No. 26, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

WKU campus newspaper reporting campus, athletic and Bowling Green, Kentucky news.

• Pettway, Shantel-Ann. WKU Seeks Alternative to Noncredit Courses
• Davis, Sydney. Colleagues, Students Reflect on Life of Long-time History Professor – Jack Thacker
• Kast, Monica. Hoverboards Included in WKU Recreational Mobility Policy
• Wright, Samantha. WKU Receives Award for Treatment of Military Students, Veterans – Military Services
• Wright, Samantha. New Advanced Manufacturing Program to Launch December 1 – WKU On Demand, Architectural & Manufacturing Sciences
• Kask, Emily. Live Free – Homeless
• Hardin, Scout. How to Dress This Holiday Season
• King, Jennifer. Editorial Cartoon Go Tops – Football
• Pack the Houch: Football …

Ua12/2/1 Stress Busters, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Archives Records

Special finals week edition of the College Heights Herald.

Creating Trauma Focused Educational Milieus, Theresa Fraser

Faculty Publications and Scholarship

Children and youth who have experienced developmental trauma can be successful in their various life spaces if we - the adults who support them: administrators, teachers, special education teachers, lunch room monitors, Educational Assistants and Child and Youth Care (CYC) practitioners - are cognizant of the need and benefits of creating trauma sensitive if not informed educational milieus. This is especially important if those of us supporting children don’t always have the history of each child in the class room or the child that we meet in the busy hallway. If all adults supporting children learn more about the impact …

Estimating The Water Quality Condition Of River And Lake Water In The Midwestern United States From Its Spectral Characteristics, Jing Tan

Open Access Dissertations

This study focuses on developing/calibrating remote sensing algorithms for water quality retrieval in Midwestern rivers and lakes. In the first part of this study, the spectral measurements collected using a hand-held spectrometer as well as water quality observations for the Wabash River and its tributary the Tippecanoe River in Indiana were used to develop empirical models for the retrieval of chlorophyll (chl) and total suspended solids (TSS). A method for removing sky and sun glint from field spectra for turbid inland waters was developed and tested. Empirical models were then developed using a subset of the field measurements with the …