Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying Neuron Clusters Controlling Movement Vigor, Jay A. Strabinick

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease that progressively decreases dopaminergic function. Lower amounts of dopamine may cause an innate motivational shift that decreases movement vigor when performing difficult tasks. In PD patients, bradykinesia, the slowing of movement, is characteristic of this decrease in vigor. The movement vigor hypothesis proposes that dopamine neurons modulate performance aspects of movement, like speed and persistence. This paper proposes a series experiments utilizing neuron recording techniques in zebrafish that would test the movement vigor hypothesis by determining whether in fact there is a distinct group of dopamine neurons that modulate movement vigor. Core elements …

A Survey On The Status Of Acceptance And Commitment Training In Rural Northern California, Jacqueline A. Morris

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The interest in acceptance and commitment training (ACT) from within the applied behavior analysis (ABA) community has increased as evidenced by recently published literature addressing the need to examine the acceptability and utilization of ACT within ABA. However, there is limited literature on the perspectives of those working in the field of ABA on the use of ACT. In the present study a survey was conducted of ABA practitioners working in rural northern California to evaluate their level of interest in ACT, their perceptions of ACT being within the scope of practice of ABA, and any perceived challenges in developing …

Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Marine protected areas (MPAs)—defined geographic areas where fishing and harvesting activity is limited or restricted—have emerged as a popular marine biodiversity and climate resilience strategy worldwide. MPA monitoring efforts often follow MPA designation to help inform the adaptive management of MPAs and MPA networks. In 2012, California completed the largest statewide system of MPAs to date, consisting of 124 MPAs covering 16% of state waters. Following MPA implementation, the state initiated a long-term monitoring program (2019-2022) to help inform the 10-year MPA management review. This two-chapter thesis presents findings from a state-funded project to conduct long-term socioeconomic monitoring for human …

Caution Fatigue: Group Identification And Disgust Provide Protection In The Covid-19 Pandemic, Logan F. Ashworth

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The current Coronavirus pandemic has yielded an abundance of concerns regarding the psychological effects of isolating a highly social species through widespread lockdowns and enhanced social distancing. Research show that many are suffering from mental health crises, while also refusing to isolate (Brooks et al., 2020; Czeiler, et al., 2020). These behaviors combine to increase risk of viral infection. An emerging term to explain this paradox is “Caution Fatigue”. Yet, there is no research that outlines its specific underlying mechanisms. The goal of this paper is to propose a series of models that delineate caution fatigue through the effects a) …

The Influence Of Body Image On Intervention With Breast Cancer Patients, Jessica N. Cooling

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Body image poses a significant issue for breast cancer patients and survivors. While a wide array of research has been done examining the effect of breast cancer diagnosis and treatment on body image, little research has focused on creating interventions specifically for body image among this population. This paper reviews the literature that shows how breast cancer can affect a woman’s body image, including several cultural considerations as body image ideals vary between cultures. Furthermore, the literature shows breast cancer affects young women (typically defined as aged 35 years or less) differently than it does middle-aged and older women. Thus, …

The Poverty-Conflict Nexus And The Activities Of Boko Haram In Northeast Nigeria, Emmanuel Tiku Agbormbai

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Abstract:

In recent years Northeast Nigeria has experienced violence carried out by Boko Haram. Previous research studies on the conflict in Northeast Nigeria have not focused on the experiences and perceptions of those affected by the conflict. This study was an exploration of the poverty-conflict nexus and the activities of Boko Haram in Northeast Nigeria as seen through the experiences and perceptions of those impacted by the violence. Benet’s polarities of democracy was used as the theoretical framework to examine those experiences and perceptions. The research questions addressed how the people of Northeast Nigeria attacked by Boko Haram perceive the …

Development Of An Analytical Method And Sample Preparation Technique For The Analysis Of Sulfur-Containing Fentanyl Analogs By Uplcmsms, And The Application To Forensic Science, Amber D. Budmark

Master of Science in Forensic Science Directed Research Projects

In February 2018, the US DEA Agency released a statement of the emergency scheduling (Schedule 1) of all fentanyl analogs not already regulated by the CSA due to an alarming increase in overdose deaths linked to synthetic opioids. Fentanyl analogs are pharmacologically similar to fentanyl, but often more potent. This increased potency can create problems with proper dosing of fentanyl analogs leading to untoward effects including an increase in overdoses and deaths. Since 2018, there has been a 38.4% increase in illicitly manufactured fentanyl overdose deaths leading the CDC to make available the FAS Kit and Emergent Panels containing previously …

(Wp 2021-01) Counterfactual Thinking And Attribute Substitution In Economic Behavior, John B. Davis, Theodore Koutsobinas

Economics Working Papers

This paper discusses how counterfactual thinking can be incorporated into behavioral economics by relating it to a type of attribution substitution involved in choices people make in conditions of Knightian uncertainty. It draws on Byrne’s ‘rational imagination’ account of counterfactual thinking, evidence from cognitive science regarding the forms it takes, and identifies types of attribution substitution specific to economic behavior. This approach, which elucidates the reflective stage of causal reasoning, is relevant for the explanation of hypothetical causal rules suitable for diverse tasks such as planning, expectations and mental simulations and for behavioural change interventions, which take into account people’s …

Rwanda’S Coffee Industry: Colonialism And The Impact Of Fair Trade Coffee, Sydney Daniels

Oswald Research and Creativity Competition

Undoubtedly, coffee is a treasured commodity shared by people across the globe. One country where coffee takes a particular importance is in Rwanda, a land-locked country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Historical evidence suggests that colonization centered on gaining access to the economic rents produced by the coffee agricultural sector which deepened Rwandan economic and social divides. Following the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, the national coffee industry was restructured to transition to premium, Fair Trade grade coffee. An increase in the number of coffee cooperatives provided opportunities for decreasing ethnic tension and for women to join the labor force. However, the economic impact …

How Does Occupational Licensing Affect Entry Into The Medical Field? An Examination Of Emts, Aaron Yelowitz, Samuel J. Ingram

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary suspensions of many occupational licensing laws, especially for health care professionals, in an effort to manage surges in health care demand. The crisis highlights more general concerns about occupational licensing laws, yet convincing empirical evidence on the degree to which such laws have inhibited entry into health care professions is scarce because most studies must rely on cross-sectional variation to identify such effects. In this study, we indirectly examine how occupational licensing affects the choice to become an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) by exploiting the demand-side shock from the Affordable Care Act (ACA). …

“It’S The Only Thing We Have”: Whisper Networks Among Women Theatre Actors, Richard Edward Carter

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Women who secretly warn one another via informal communications about men in their environment who may engage in some kind of misconduct are participating in a whisper network. This dissertation employs the narrative paradigm to understand how these networks function in the context of professional actors. Interviews conducted with actors who have worked in a variety of communities were analyzed in order to better understand how whisper networks function as warning systems that must be created because conventional means of protection may not exist or be trusted in their industry.

Exploring Health And Risk Information Seeking In The Context Of Covid-19: Testing The Comprehensive Model Of Information Seeking And Risk Information Seeking And Processing Model As Competing Explanatory Models, Xianlin Jin

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Facing a pandemic caused by a novel coronavirus (COVID-19), the public feels uncertainty and fear. To cope with the pandemic and reduce uncertainty, the public needs accurate and prompt information. By theoretically and empirically comparing the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) and the Risk Information Seeking and Processing Model (RISP), this dissertation aims to unpack the core mechanism of health and risk information seeking. Built on the two models, the author proposed an Integrated Model and explored which variables are the significant predictors of health and risk information seeking.

The author recruited 729 adult participants and analyzed 394 completed …

A Thematic Analysis Of Library Association Policies On Services To Persons With Disabilities, Heather Hill

FIMS Publications

Purpose

Library association policies and guidelines are important to study because they reflect consensus values of the profession. As such, they can shape the association, itself, and set the tone for the values of its individual members in their professional practice. From the titles alone, these documents proclaim themselves to be guides for the development of individual library policy. Additionally, as library and information science (LIS) graduate education programs are accredited by national associations, LIS schools pay attention to association policies and guidelines to help shape professional and continuing education. In these ways, they have a role in shaping professional …

Altering The Distance: Using Construal Level Theory To Examine Conciliatory Policy Support, Brandon Reinkensmeyer

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Distancing—a cognitive reappraisal strategy—increases conciliatory policy support (i.e., policies redressing inequity) by reducing anger. Related but distinct research has used construal level theory (CLT), which explains the relationship between psychological distance and mental representations (e.g., events and attitudes), to explore intergroup relations. CLT demonstrates increased psychological distance induces abstract thinking, which leads to high-level construal (HLC) mindsets. HLC mindsets, like distancing, decrease political polarization and prejudice toward out-groups. As both distancing (an appraisal technique) and HLC mindsets (a potential outcome of appraisal techniques) may decrease political polarization and prejudice toward outgroups, across two experiments, the present work investigated whether …

Integrating The Generalized Other Into Theories Of Difference: Balancing And Bridging In Symbolic Interactionism, Thomas E. Janoski, Chrystal Grey, Darina Lepadatu

Sociology White Papers

Symbolic interactionist theories need to use the generalized in order to explain difference, but this essential term has been neglected. A "sense of group position" has been used to focus on difference, but this term is too structural. To bridge this gap in symbolic interactionism, we show that a generalized other is socially constructed through framing; this process of social construction involves internalization or externalization; multiple generalized others routinely exist and they create multiple selves; generalized others may be positive or negative; generalized others are ranked in terms of importance to the self; and difference springs from these different rankings.

A Synthetic Theory Of Political Sociology: Bringing Social Networks And Power Dependence To Power Resources Theory In City Politics, Thomas E. Janoski, Adam Jonas

Sociology White Papers

It is well established that power is connected to networks, yet structural theories of power in network analysis fail to satisfy political sociologists. Centrality is generally put forward as a measure of power, but this is not enough for political sociology. This article puts forward a theory of power that brings power resources and power dependency theory to the study of social networks concerning political coalitions in an urban polity. Within this theory of power resources, we embed power theories based on dependence (exchange theories) with power being based on the inverse of the expected value of alternative courses of …

Why Won’T Grandma Cross The Road? Neighborhood Perceptions And Walking Behavior Among Older Adults In Lexington, Kentucky, Sadie Middleton

Theses and Dissertations--Urban and Environmental Design

Many urban places contain subtle details that can unintentionally deter pedestrian activity. These details can be assessed through six themes: safety, comfort, pedestrian infrastructure, aesthetics, proximity, and ease of navigation. Adults over age 65 may have more concerns about walking in urban settings than people in other age groups. This study identifies urban design elements that encourage and discourage walking among older adults and makes recommendations for design improvements. Study participants (n= 67) completed an online survey about walking behaviors, perceptions of health and community, and perceptions of seven unidentified scenes of pedestrian environments in Lexington, Kentucky. Findings suggest that …

"Then What Are We Fighting For": Securitizing Religion In The Ukrainian-Russian Conflict, Viktor Yelenskyi

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

With the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, religion has shifted from a sphere of great importance in inter-state relations to the national security domain, where the sides in the conflict perceive religion as potentially posing the utmost threat and have resorted to extraordinary measures to securitize it. The author argues that at the core of the Ukrainian securitizing move was the struggle for the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, which allowed weakening Russia's influence not only on the Orthodox milieu but also on Ukrainian society as a whole. Russia, viewing the loss of control over Ukraine …

Assimilating The Dominican Tourist: What Maps Tell Tourists In Puerto Plata About The Processes Of Capitalism And Imperialism, Amy Duncan

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The tourism industry in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic is dominated by foreign enterprise. Given the history of colonization in the Dominican Republic, the social dynamics in the tourism industry are imperialist by nature. This thesis seeks to understand how tourist maps are used to assimilate tourists into the social dynamics of Puerto Plata. To do this, it unravels existing literature on tourism in the Caribbean, the nature of the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic as well as its foreign benefactors, and foundational works on the sociological aspects of tourism.

The findings of this paper are that tourist maps seek …

Policing In An Era Of Sousveillance: A Randomised Controlled Trial Examining The Influence Of Video Footage On Perceptions Of Legitimacy, Megan Mohler, Christopher M. Campbell, Kelsey S. Henderson, Brian Renauer

Criminology and Criminal Justice Faculty Publications and Presentations

Controversial incidents of police-citizen interactions, coupled with advancements in internet media technology has created a new dynamic of how public perceptions of the police might be influenced. This paper reports results of an experiment examining how videos of police-citizen interactions found on social media platforms might influence civilian perceptions of legitimacy and procedural justice. Using 173 randomly assigned participants and a pre/post-test design, we compare perceptual effects of positive, negative, and neutral depictions of police-citizen interactions. Results indicate all media had an effect on perceptions of legitimacy, with negative content yielding the largest effects, significantly diminishing global perceptions of legitimacy, …

Employee Perceptions Related To Specific Work Processes Within The Crime Control Model Known As The Stratified Model, Robert William Steinkraus

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure employee perceptions of satisfaction as they relate to specific work processes and products within the Stratified Model. The Stratified Model is a crime-reduction model that was developed and gradually implemented first within the Port St. Lucie Police Department between 2004-2011. The full implementation of this crime-reduction model occurred in 2012. The Port St. Lucie Police department has since achieved greater reductions of the overall crime rate than other cities in Florida consisting of similar populations. In 2019, Port St. Lucie had the 7th largest population in Florida.

Currently, it is unknown how …

Student Perspectives And Standardized Patient Feedback On An Innovative Simulated Patient Encounter, Kimberly S. Mollo, Tina M. Deangelis, Maclain Capron, Sierra Wells

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

This retrospective survey analysis sought to explore student perspectives and application of therapeutic use of self during a simulated standardized patient encounter (SSPE) with standardized patient actors portraying serious mental illness (SMI). Researchers collected retrospective data from post SSPE student surveys dating between 2009 and 2019 and standardized patient actor surveys dating between 2017 and 2019. Students’ level of expertise with therapeutic use of self and self-perceptions of the SSPE were analyzed for response categories. Descriptive analysis was conducted on all items. Student survey responses were organized into response categories. Standardized patient actor surveys were analyzed for frequencies of yes/no …

A Hybrid Unsupervised Clustering-Based Anomaly Detection Method, Guo Pu, Lijuan Wang, Jun Shen, Fang Dong

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

In recent years, machine learning-based cyber intrusion detection methods have gained increasing popularity. The number and complexity of new attacks continue to rise; therefore, effective and intelligent solutions are necessary. Unsupervised machine learning techniques are particularly appealing to intrusion detection systems since they can detect known and unknown types of attacks as well as zero-day attacks. In the current paper, we present an unsupervised anomaly detection method, which combines Sub-Space Clustering (SSC) and One Class Support Vector Machine (OCSVM) to detect attacks without any prior knowledge. The proposed approach is evaluated using the well-known NSL-KDD dataset. The experimental results demonstrate …

Towards A More Effective Bidirectional Lstm-Based Learning Model For Human-Bacterium Protein-Protein Interactions, Huaming Chen, Jun Shen, Lei Wang, Yaochu Jin

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The identification of protein-protein interaction (PPI) is one of the most important tasks to understand the biological functions and disease mechanisms. Although numerous databases of biological interactions have been published in debt to advanced high-throughput technology, the study of inter-species protein-protein interactions, especially between human and bacterium pathogens, remains an active yet challenging topic to harness computational models tackling the complex analysis and prediction tasks. In this paper, we comprehensively revisit the prediction task of human-bacterium protein-protein interactions (HB-PPI), which is a first ever endeavour to report an empirical evaluation in learning and predicting HB-PPI based on machine learning models. …

H∞ Delayed Tracking Protocol Design Of Nonlinear Singular Multi-Agent Systems Under Markovian Switching Topology, Xiangli Jiang, Guihua Xia, Zhiguang Feng, Zhengyi Jiang

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

© 2020 Elsevier Inc. The consensus tracking of singular multi-agent systems (MASs) with Lipschitz-type nonlinearities and exogenous disturbances is researched in this paper. Governed by a Markov chain, the network interaction randomly switches in a directed graph set, where the directed spanning tree is not contained in each graph while exists in the union rooting at the leader node. By utilizing a collection of in-neighbors’ information that involves communication delay, the intention is to design a protocol such that the resultant consensus error system is stochastic admissible with an H∞ disturbance attenuation level. Based on algebraic graph theory, stochastic admissibility …

Mlc Tracking For Lung Sabr Is Feasible, Efficient And Delivers High-Precision Target Dose And Lower Normal Tissue Dose, Jeremy Booth, Vincent Caillet, Adam Briggs, Nicholas G. Hardcastle, Georgios Angelis, Dasantha Jayamanne, Meegan Shepherd, Alexander Podreka, Kathryn Szymura, Doan Nguyen, Per Poulsen, Ricky O'Brien, Benjamin Harris, Carol Haddad, Thomas Eade, Paul Keall

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Background and purpose: The purpose of this work is to present the clinical experience from the first-in-human trial of real-time tumor targeting via MLC tracking for stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) of lung lesions. Methods and materials: Seventeen patients with stage 1 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) or lung metastases were included in a study of electromagnetic transponder–guided MLC tracking for SABR (NCT02514512). Patients had electromagnetic transponders inserted near the tumor. An MLC tracking SABR plan was generated with planning target volume (PTV) expanded 5 mm from the end-exhale gross tumor volume (GTV). A clinically approved comparator plan was generated …

Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement: Relationships Between Student Evaluation Scores And Perceived Learning, Sasha Nikolic, Thomas Suesse, Kosta Jovanovic, Zarko Stanisavljevic

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Contribution: This article provides evidence that perceived learning has a relationship and influences the way students evaluate laboratory experiments, facilities, and demonstrators. Background: Debate continues on the capability and/or reliability of students to evaluate teaching and/or learning. Understanding such relationships can help educators decode evaluation data to develop more effective teaching experiences. Research Question: Does a relationship exist between student evaluation scores and perceived learning? Methodology: Perceived learning across the cognitive, psychomotor, and affective domains was measured using the Laboratory Learning Objectives Measurement (LLOM) tool at an Australian (344 students) and Serbian (181 students) university. A multilevel statistical analysis was …

Electrospun Nanofibers For Efficient Adsorption Of Heavy Metals From Water And Wastewater, Maryam Salehi, Donya Sharafoddinzadeh, Fatemeh Mokhtari, Mitra Salehi Esfandarani, Shafieh Karami

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

Heavy metals (HMs) are persistent and toxic environmental pollutants that pose critical risks toward human health and environmental safety. Their efficient elimination from water and wastewater is essential to protect public health, ensure environmental safety, and enhance sustainability. In the recent decade, nanomaterials have been developed extensively for rapid and effective removal of HMs from water and wastewater and to address the certain economical and operational challenges associated with conventional treatment practices, including chemical precipitation, ion exchange, adsorption, and membrane separation. However, the complicated and expensive manufacturing process of nanoparticles and nanotubes, their reduced adsorption capacity due to the aggregation, …

Infinitesimal Knowledges, Rodney Nillsen

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

The notion of indivisibles and atoms arose in ancient Greece. The continuum—that is, the collection of points in a straight line segment, appeared to have paradoxical properties, arising from the ‘indivisibles’ that remain after a process of division has been carried out throughout the continuum. In the seventeenth century, Italian mathematicians were using new methods involving the notion of indivisibles, and the paradoxes of the continuum appeared in a new context. This cast doubt on the validity of the methods and the reliability of mathematical knowledge which had been regarded as established by the axiomatic method in geometry expounded by …

Hygrothermal Performance Of Vapour-Permeable Wall Membranes In Cooler Australian Climates: Comparative Modelling And Sensitivity Analysis, Alan Green, Paul Cooper

Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences - Papers: Part B

This research project was carried out under the auspices of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Research Hub for Australian Steel Innovation (IH200100005) and follows on from earlier experimental and numerical research that explored the thermal and hygric performance of walls with ventilated cavities [1]. The new research described below extends our earlier work, with an aim to:

1. Simulate and compare the hygrothermal (heat and moisture) performance of case study walls with ‘Class 3’ reflective and ‘Class 4’ non-reflective membranes located in Australian NCC Climate Zones 6 and 7; and
2. Investigate the sensitivity of such hygrothermal simulations to modelling assumptions