Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Dating Across Difference: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Interracial Same-Sex Relationships In Targeted Media Outlets, Victor Santana-Melgoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine how interracial same-sex relationships are constructed and communicated within gay themed media outlets, specifically magazine publications, and the possible effects such construction may have on various consumer populations through the frame of cultivation theory. I studied three major gay publications and surveyed 90 articles for both textual content and visual representation. Categories were then created and articles were grouped by relevance to each category. Through iterative processes, the number of useable articles fell to 68. Articles were mainly captured using online sources. Through this medium of online reading, other access points were …

Tiger Shell, Christopher Sinnett

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Poetry is everything. A poem is a shell filled with a sliver of poetry. Life goes in, life comes out. These shells are filled with what we know, and deep inside, what we do not know. The ocean goes in and out. Art is in the shell. The poet enters, does not perform, does not act, does not do. The poet is.

Effective Number Of Parties And Mass Political Behavior In Europe, Jakub Pawel Zajakala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Participation is perhaps the most essential component of democracy, as its humane facet, people, is indispensable for it to occur. However, some aspects of this phenomenon have been disregarded in the existing literature. A discernible decrease in the quality and quantity of democratic participation is deemed to endanger the representative capacity of democracy, and consequently, stability of parliamentary and presidential regimes. Using Prais-Winsten regression, the condition of democratic institutions, with an emphasis on the number of parties, is examined by looking at all the European democracies between 1946 and 2014. This Thesis posits that the number of effective actors on …

A Bridge To Truth: The Life Of Glenda Wildschut Of South Africa, Maggie Thach Morshed

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

Glenda Wildschut is a South …

Tell Them Our Names: The Life Of Pauline Dempers Of Namibia, Jenna Barnett

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

Pauline Dempers is a human …

They Danced In Windowless Rooms: The Life Of Najla Ayubi Of Afghanistan, Gabrielle Clifford

Kroc IPJ Research and Resources

In the following pages, you will find narrative stories about a Woman PeaceMaker, along with additional information to provide a deep understanding of a contemporary conflict and one person’s journey within it. These complementary components include a brief biography of the peacemaker, a historical summary of the conflict, a timeline integrating political developments in the country with personal history of the peacemaker, a question-and-answer transcript of select interviews, and a table of best practices in peacebuilding as demonstrated and reflected on by the peacemaker during her time at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.

Judge Najla Ayubi of Afghanistan …

Altrusim, Fact Or Fiction?: An Exploration Of Altruism And Egoism In The Context Of Religion And Service Learning, Sarah Pawlicki

A with Honors Projects

This research paper questions the existence of true altruism, by discussing social psychological, philosophical, and theological theories regarding altruism and egoism. The author then discusses her findings in the context of two service learning projects which involved volunteering at the Champaign County Humane Society and Salt and Light, A Christian ministry that provides job counseling, computer access, a thrift and food store. She concludes that, rather than questioning the existence of true altruism exists, the focus should be on doing good for others, regardless of motives.

Brics And The New Development Bank: Impact On The U.S. Economy And The Dollar, Valeria Rohde

A with Honors Projects

The BRICS nations and the New Development Bank have been a topic of interest among economists for the past years. The BRIC acronym, which is what it was named originally, was created by Jim O’Neill from investment bank Goldman Sachs back in 2001 in his paper titled, “Building Better Global Economic BRICs.” Since then, a letter has been added to the acronym, which is now known as BRICS and stands for the countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The reason for these countries being noticed in the world economy is due to their superior growth in GDP …

Occupational Burnout And The Causes, Predisposing Factors, Consequences, And Prevention Strategies, Kelsey D. Howard

A with Honors Projects

Occupational burnout is a common dilemma for employees working in long term careers. It is characterized by exhaustion, cynicism, and lowered efficiency, and it progresses through three stages. Burnout is caused by the increase of demands and the loss of resources. Sleep impairment is also significantly associated with burnout, and also has been shown to hinder the recovery. Lack of balance between work and personal life, as well as perception of stressful events can lead to developing feelings of burnout. External regulation has been associated with a person being more susceptible to develop burnout. Other personal characteristics, such as inability …

Arthur: Where Did He Go?, Siddarth Palaniappan

A with Honors Projects

This essay discusses the historical and mythological origins of King Arthur. Concludes that, while there is enough evidence to identify individuals in history that correlate with the legend of Arthur, a preference toward romanticized Aurthurian tales was created through repeated use in both Christian institutions and British politics to promote financial and political agendas.

Personal Space At Parkland College, Latianna Dumas

A with Honors Projects

Through three observations of social cues of students in a community college lounge area, the author concludes that personal space is not mutually exclusive with rudeness. Rather, allowing others their personal space is a way of showing respect.

Subgroup Analyses Of The Long-Term Effects Of An Early Intervention Treatment Program For Acute Tmjmd Patients, Celeste Noelle Sanders

Psychology Dissertations

Most researchers suspect that anywhere from 5% to 12% of Americans suffer from Temporomandibular Joint and Muscle Disorders (TMJMDs), which impair jaw functioning and can promote various complications, particularly for people with myogenous TMJMD. Fortunately, past research has established that an early intervention is effective for TMJMD patients in that it not only relieves symptoms but also provides long-term benefits. It was suspected that an investigation of treatment effects on diagnostic subgroups of TMJMD patients would clarify such findings. However, to my knowledge, long-term treatment effects had not been evaluated in an acute TMJMD population by subgroups of diagnoses. Therefore, …

An Experimental Test Of The Reformulated Contact Model, Lauren Elizabeth Coursey

Psychology Dissertations

Intergroup contact is generally accepted as an effective means of reducing negative outgroup attitudes. However, the nature of the psychological processes underlying the effects of contact is a point of much debate. In an effort to solve this debate, much research has been devoted to investigating (re)categorization strategies involved in intergroup contact. Three popular strategies are decategorization, salient categorization, and superordinate categorization. In the current study I provide an experimental test of Pettigrew’s (1998) reformulated contact model. The reformulated contact model poses a specific time-ordered sequence for the presentation of each of these three categorization strategies. Through computer-mediated contact, the …

An Annotated Bibliography Of Materials Recommended For Middle School Classrooms Regarding The Multiple Perspectives On The Causes Of The American Civil War, Emma Folland

Graduate Research Papers

The Civil War is a topic that is taught at the middle school level. However, teachers are not necessarily teaching from both the Northern and Southern perspectives. They are also not always looking at the causes of the Civil War beyond slavery. The purpose of this project was to create a selective annotated bibliography of recommended resources for middle school teachers to use when teaching about the causes of the Civil War from both the Northern and Southern perspectives. The researcher considered what resources were available for teaching middle school students about the different causes of the Civil War from …

Impact Of Health Insurance Expansions On Nonelderly Adults With Hypertension., Suhui Li, Brian K. Bruen, Paula M. Lantz, David Mendez

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

Introduction

Hypertension is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD), the leading cause of death in the United States. The treatment and control of hypertension is inadequate, especially among patients without health insurance coverage. The Affordable Care Act offered an opportunity to improve hypertension management by increasing the number of people covered by insurance. This study predicts the long-term effects of improved hypertension treatment rates due to insurance expansions on the prevalence and mortality rates of CVD of nonelderly Americans with hypertension.

Methods

We developed a state-transition model to simulate the lifetime health events of the population aged 25 to …

Understanding Rights Reversion: When, Why, & How To Regain Copyright And Make Your Book More Available, Nicole Cabrera, Jordyn Ostroff, Brianna Schofield

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Are you an author who would like to increase your book’s availability? Have you already entered into a publishing agreement for your book? If you answered “yes” to both of these questions, then read on! This guide addresses the needs of authors who wish to make their works available to a wider audience in ways that may be prohibited by the terms of their existing publishing agreements.

For example, this guide will help authors who want to do things like: • Bring their out-of-print books back into print • Publish digital versions of their books • Make their books openly …

The Oligopoly Of Academic Publishers In The Digital Era, Vincent Larivière, Stefanie Haustein, Philippe Mongeon

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The consolidation of the scientific publishing industry has been the topic of much debate within and outside the scientific community, especially in relation to major publishers’ high profit margins. However, the share of scientific output published in the journals of these major publishers, as well as its evolution over time and across various disciplines, has not yet been analyzed. This paper provides such analysis, based on 45 million documents indexed in the Web of Science over the period 1973-2013. It shows that in both natural and medical sciences (NMS) and social sciences and humanities (SSH), Reed-Elsevier, Wiley Blackwell, Springer, and …

Increased Attention And Memory For Beloved-Related Information During Infatuation: Behavioral And Electrophysiological Data, Sandra J. E. Langeslag, Jamie R. Oliver, Martine E. Köhlen, Ilse M. Nijs

Psychology Faculty Works

Emotionally salient information is well attended and remembered. It has been shown that infatuated individuals have increased attention for their beloved. It is unknown whether this attention bias generalizes to information related to the beloved. Moreover, infatuated individuals report to remember trivial things about their beloved, but this has not yet been tested empirically. In two studies, we tested whether infatuated individuals have increased attention and memory for beloved-related information. In a passive viewing task (Study 1), the late positive potential, an event-related potential (ERP) component reflecting motivated attention, was enhanced for beloved-related vs friend-related words/phrases. In a recognition task …

Semantic Shift To Pragmatic Meaning In Shared Decision Making: Situation Theory Perspective, M. Canan, A. Sousa-Poza, S. F. Kovacic

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The way humans establish communication depends on the generation and conveyance of meaning. Linguistically, meaning in information is dependent on the meaning that is ascribed to signifiers in the context of the communication. These signifiers can include items such as words, phrases, signs, and symbols. Conveyance of meaning may, however, imprecise and prone to error. The meaning of information in communication may arise from a change in the context in which a signifier is placed (intrinsic), or a change in the paradigm with which the signifier and context are perceived (extrinsic). In simple situations, where paradigms are reconcilable, semantic shift …

Learning By Doing - Energy Systems Management, Nima Shahriari, Adrian V. Gheorghe

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

Climate change concerns have confronted energy policy makers by unprecedented challenges in the 21st century. Revolution of renewable energy technologies, as well as more efficient energy systems, has been promising in the context of global warming. However, these technologies are not maturing and chaning. Consequently planning for development of these resources requires dealing with various multidisciplinary research questions such as financial feasibility of renewable energy projects. Nevertheless, there is considerable lack of education programs offering multidisciplinary approach for addressing the current energy challenges. Based on the 21st evolving energy landscape, an interdisciplinary graduate certificate course work was designed at Old …

Reducing Uncertainty In Technology Selection For Long Life Cycle Engineering Designs, Halil I. Ozdemir, C. Ariel Pinto, Resit Unal, Charles B. Keating, Colin Britcher, Sila Çetinkaya (Ed.), J. K. Ryan (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The best capabilities are usually achieved by having the latest technologies in defense systems. However, including the new, usually immature, technologies in a system design does not always easily result in achieving the capabilities at the right level, at an affordable cost, and in a timely manner. Many programs have suffered from immature technologies as cost overruns, late or no deliveries, and poor performance levels. Another impact of technology selection appears as obsolescence after the deployment of systems, or even before the deployment of the system. As the technologies of a system become obsolete, the cost of maintaining the system …

Creating A Foundation For The Causal Relationship Between Libraries And Learning: A Proposed Application Of Nursing And Public Health Research Methods, Marcia A. Mardis, Sylvia K. Norton, Gail K. Dickinson, Shana Pribesh, Allison Cline, Sue Kimmel, Jody Howard

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Thomas Cook, a renowned causal research expert and professor of sociology, psychology, education, and social policy at Northwestern University (USA), called for school library researchers to parallel causality determination efforts in health-related fields. In this paper, we respond to Dr. Cook’s challenge with a proposed research design centered on Mixed Research Synthesis (MRS) as part of process validated by the U.S. Department of Education and National Science Foundation’s Common Guidelines for Education Research and Development. MRS studies, often used in nursing and public health research to develop causal theories, enable researchers to develop evidence summaries; identify and adjudicate rival and …

"What Kind Of Place Do We Want To Live In?" Place, The Humanities, And Public Policy In Maine, Carol Norstrom Toner

Maine Policy Review

Carol Toner explores the intersection of the humanities, public policy making, and quality of place. In 2014, a local protest against the site of a potential new landfill in rural Maine demonstrates how citizens can draw from their history and culture when considering public policy and quality of place. In this case, the humanities informed the making of public policy to benefit the greater good. Maine enjoys a participatory public policy process that depends on informed public input. The humanities, especially history, literature, and philosophy, help prepare citizens for this important role by teaching critical thinking, imagination, and compassion. Maine …

The View From Augusta: Developments Growing Out Of The Speaker’S 2013 Round Table Discussions And 2014 Aging Summit, Mark Eves, Jessica Maurer

Maine Policy Review

Mark Eves and Jessica Maurer describe the significant progress made in Maine since 2013 in addressing aging-related issues through collaboration between legislative and community-based efforts. The Maine Aging Initiative, formed in 2014 and coordinated through the Maine Council on Aging and the House Speaker’s office, plays a significant role in supporting these efforts.

The Future Is Now: Legal Planning For Elders, Jennifer Eastman

Maine Policy Review

Legal planning for elders focuses on protecting retirement income and finding ways to pay for long-term health care. Jennifer Eastman discusses estate and tax planning and planning for retirement income, Social Security issues, and asset preservation. She notes that protecting elder adults requires planning and advocating for (or against) policy changes that could adversely affect elders.

The Aging And Developmental Disabilities Networks: Can The Silos Be Dismantled?, Lenard W. Kaye, Lucille A. Zeph, Alan B. Cobo-Lewis

Maine Policy Review

The authors discuss the service networks for aging and developmental and physical disabilities, which have traditionally functioned in distinctly separate camps. They present the case for greater crossover between these networks and endorse increased alignment of the aging and disability networks in all arenas, including policy making, program development, education, and research.

Visual Attention To Emotional Stimuli In Individuals High On Psychopathic Traits: Evidence From Eye Tracking, Donna M. Crossman

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

Researchers have described psychopaths as callous, cold-hearted individuals who show reduced empathic response to their victims. It is suggested that the inability to identify negative emotions, specifically fear, in individuals is what allows psychopaths to offend/take advantage of other people as they do not recognize the fear in victims that may otherwise deter victimization. This is the first study to examine how non-incarcerated individuals high on psychopathic personality traits process emotions. Additionally, eye-tracking technology was used to provide a more fine-grained assessment of attention. In contrast to hypotheses, the high psychopathic group did not differ from the low psychopathic or …

The Breakup Project: Using Evolutionary Theory To Predict And Interpret Responses To Romantic Relationship Dissolution, Craig E. Morris

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The formation and maintenance of romantic pair bonds is a well-represented topic in human evolutionary sciences. This extensive body of work, drawn mostly from the field of evolutionary psychology, has proposed mechanisms for attracting a mate (e.g., resource display, physical cues), attaining a mate (e.g., intrasexual competition), and keeping a mate (e.g., competitor derogation, emotional manipulation). However, this evolutionary model of human pair bonding has not fully addressed relationship termination. If we accept that we have an evolved suite of behaviors that encourage and facilitate pair bonding, then we must also look to breakups and ask whether evolution has played …

Ceramics Of Aztec North And The Terrace Community, Aztec Ruins National Monument, Michelle I. Turner

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on a ceramic analysis of nearly 1500 surface-collected potsherds from five unexcavated sites on the river terrace at Aztec Ruins National Monument, including the Aztec North great house. I conducted a detailed attribute analysis and mean ceramic dating.

The mean ceramic date for Aztec North is AD 1104±39, while other terrace sites have later mean dates. Based on these dates, it appears that Aztec North was constructed before or contemporaneously with Aztec West, and it might have been the first structure in the Terrace Community. These data support the theory that, even at this earliest moment, Aztec …

The Role Of Cultural Climate, Racial Identity, And Mentoring Relationships On African American College Success, Kia-Rai Michelle Prewitt

Dissertations

African American undergraduate students face numerous challenges in higher education including adjusting to college-level work, a new environment, increased responsibilities, building new relationships, and experiences with discrimination. The dissertation study examined whether cultural climate, racial identity, and mentoring relationships predicted academic success for African American undergraduate sophomores attending four-year colleges and universities. The researcher analyzed these constructs using data from the 2012 national data set of the Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership (MSL) survey, an instrument containing over 400 items and scales measuring student demographic information, pre-college knowledge and experiences, college experiences, and educational outcomes. Results of a hierarchical multiple regression …