Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Food Insecurity In The Working Poor, Carol L. Haines

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

Food insecurity in the working poor impacts many stakeholders other than the individuals unable to obtain enough healthy food. These stakeholders include employers, care providers, insurance companies and the government. Although there are some programs available to improve food insecurity conditions, more can be done by bringing together these varied stakeholders. This dissertation examines the opinions of many stakeholders to understand if novel ideas would improve food insecurity in the working poor.

Because the causes for individuals suffering from food insecurity are dissimilar, food insecurity is a complicated problem which can only be improved by applying many different solutions. A …

Transitioning Residents Out Of Public Housing, William Franklin Myles

Full-Text Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examined the transition low-income residents out of federally subsidized housing. Housing programs are important because they provide decent, safe, and sanitary housing to millions of individuals who are economically disadvantaged. In some research, it has been determined that people from public housing experience difficulties in gaining access to resources that would enable them to transition out of public housing successfully. This becomes an added hurdle faced by those who desires to transition out of public housing. Understanding their experiences, their feelings, and their belief system provides a level of education into why it becomes difficult for individuals to …

Extended Cross-Referenced Analysis Using Data From The Landsat 8 And 9 Underfly Event, Garrison Gross

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Landsat 8 and 9 Underfly Event occurred in November 2021, where Landsat 9 flew beneath Landsat 8 in the final stages before settling in its final orbiting path. An analysis was performed on the images taken during this event, which resulted in a cross-referenced with uncertainties estimated to be less than 0.5%. This level of precision was due in part to the near-identical sensors aboard each instrument as well as the underfly event itself, which allowed the sensors to take nearly the exact same image at nearly the exact same time. This initial calibration was applied before the end …

Simulating The Impact Of Emissions Control On Economic Productivity Using Particle Systems And Puff Dispersion Model, Najam Khan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A simulation platform is developed for quantifying the change in productivity of an economy under passive and active emission control mechanisms. The program uses object-oriented programming to code a collection of objects resembling typical stakeholders in an economy. These objects include firms, markets, transportation hubs, and boids which are distributed over a 2D surface. Firms are connected using a modified Prim’s Minimum spanning tree algorithm, followed by implementation of an all-pair shortest path Floyd Warshall algorithm for navigation purposes. Firms use a non-linear production function for transformation of land, labor, and capital inputs to finished product. A GA-Vehicle Routing Problem …

Another Covid Causality: Media Landscape In Bangladesh, Ershad Komal Khan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

This study seeks to understand the pressure from both advertisers and the Bangladesh government on the local mass media between March 2020 and December 2021 concurrent with the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, this study aims to explore whether the local mass media compromised more with advertisers amid the COVID recession to earn advertising-based revenue and whether the Bangladesh government mounted more pressure on the press during the period as well as to analyze the influence of the aforementioned factors on newsrooms. To guide this work, this study employs the Market Theory of News Production (McManus, 1994), the Authoritarian …

A Black Prometheus Among The Gods: Illuminating African American Literary Tradition In Sam Greenlee's The Spook Who Sat By The Door, Kenneth L. Rainey Iii

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In his hard-hitting novel The Spook Who Sat by the Door Sam Greenlee aims to help his target African American audience to succeed and thrive as their true selves with the novel functioning as a guide to resisting the ever-present physical and spiritual threat faced daily. On the one hand the novel functions as a manual for civil uprising, but underneath that surface, Greenlee argues that true African American resistance comes through nurturing self-determination, self-love, and self-esteem. This project also argues that Spook ought to be located closer to the center of the African American literary canon and provides comparisons …

Negative Social Media And Its Influence On Athlete's Performance, Bernd R. Huber

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This study aimed to investigate the potential impact of negative social media content on athletes' cortisol levels and subsequent performance. The study focused on the change in cortisol levels and differences in free throw performance, based on previous research findings. We hypothesized that negative social media postings would increase the stress experienced by student-athletes, resulting in elevated cortisol levels and decreased performance. Additionally, participants (n = 8) completed a questionnaire to examine the interaction between preexisting fear and the biological stress response. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant change in stress response, and negative postings did not have …

Flying Blind: Exploring The Visual Cues Used By Helicopter Pilots In Degraded Visual Environments, Brandon Dreslin, Molly C. Mersinger, Shivani Patel, Alex Chaparro

Publications

Helicopter pilots rely on visual cues from the environment and instrument displays during critical phases of flight – particularly final approach and landing – to safely land. However, the specific visual cues pilots rely on and how they integrate those cues to make anticipatory inceptor inputs or corrections are not well understood. Importantly, those cues may be degraded under nighttime and brownout/whiteout conditions where the downwash of a helicopter’s rotors cause loose dirt/snow to be projected into the air, resulting in the obfuscation of the pilot’s vision outside the aircraft. The lack of visual cues in these conditions means that …

Cognitive Processing Disruptions Affecting Flight Deck Performance: Implications For Cognitive Resilience, Sam J. Holley, Mark D. Miller

Publications

The flight deck of a commercial aircraft has become progressively digitized and operates in multiple modes with displays and indicators that require increasing levels of comprehension. Examining several aspects of cognitive processing is important to understand how threats to safety might occur and what actions might be taken to reduce severity or to eliminate the threat altogether. This paper presents the elements of cognition to consider, relevant characteristics of working memory and cognitive processing speed, types of disruptions and how they are addressed, results from overload or confusion, and the need for effective cognitive resilience to recover and repair the …

Teaching Justice Through Literature: How Higher Education Informs Ethics And Identity, Kami Mittlestadt

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis argues that literature is a valuable tool in examining issues of justice, and teaching ethics through literature is a way to build critical thinking skills and awareness of the world. In this thesis, I examine research and teaching methods that have already been studied and implemented in the teaching of ethics and justice in companionship with literature, and use these resources to propose my own syllabus for a community college class on Ethics in Reading. The syllabus is broken into 7 units: an overview of justice in literature, five specific justice issues (race, feminism, queer studies, eco-criticism, and …

How Sleep Disturbances Affect Those With Borderline Personality Disorder And The Implications For Treatment, Molly L. Schmanke

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis argues that there is limited research on Borderline Personality Disorder’s comorbidity with sleep disorders, and by pointing out the gaps in knowledge this will encourage researchers and doctors to consider this topic as important in the health care field. Sleep disorders can be anything from reduced total sleep time, fragmented sleep, and changes in sleep architecture, and all of these can cause and be caused by disruption of the circadian clock. There are various ways in which circadian clock disruption can cause diseases, cancer, and mental disorders through genes, sleep, and the environment. Borderline Personality Disorder comorbid with …

Cultivating Health, Not Wealth In The United States' Healthcare System: Comprehensive Revisions For The Orphan Drug Act Of 1983, Kayla Smith

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis explores the way in which the Orphan Drug Act of 1983, originally instituted in response to a lack of treatments for rare diseases in the United States of America, has failed to achieve its initial objectives in the 40 years since its implementation. In evaluating various successful examples of government subsidization programs designed to intervene in private industry, this thesis composes the criterion required for funding-based legislation which maximize market outcomes while minimizing tax-payer burden. An analysis of the synthetic organic chemistry industry – and a case study into the production of a particular orphan treatment for a …

The Neuroscience Of Art: An Examination Of Uniqueness, Risa Davis

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The field of Neuroaesthetics has an overwhelming potential for helping us to understand the world and human behavior through consideration of both neuroscience and art. Looking at the production of art across human history, it is clear we have evolved with art as every culture has developed some style and desire for art without influence of other peoples. The intriguing and undeniable psychological phenomenon of pareidolia raises the question of why the visual system might be set up in a way that leads to illusions and visual suggestions. The amygdala is also involved as the nuclei’s reaction to perceived or …

Ecocentric Consumption: : Integrating North American Indigenous Agricultural Practices Into Western Agribusiness Across The U.S., Eva Siath

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Humanity’s displacement from nature is overwhelmingly prevalent in the United States due to centuries of westernization and colonialism, and it largely dwells in the idea of anthropocentrism. While anthropocentrism is often characterized by entitlement to the resources that nature provides, causing massive displacement from the necessary interdependence between humanity and nature, ecocentrism promotes reciprocal interactions between humanity and nature and restores the dynamic exchange necessary for thriving ecosystems. Through comparing North American Indigenous and Westernized European agricultural practices in the United States, this thesis seeks to find the intersection between preconceived ethical obligations to nature and the agricultural interactions and …

Is Disney Making A Man Out Of You - Exploring Trans And Non-Binary Representation In Disney, Mandy L. Colburn

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Disney movies are meant to create magic in the lives of young people, but is this really what they are accomplishing? Does leaving trans and nonbinary identities out of children’s media impact the way that children understand gender? This thesis seeks to explore and understand how power and privilege impact the desire for minority gender identities to be given space on a large scale media platform such as Disney. The Meaning Maintenance Model as well as Critical Race Theory are used to explain why minority identities could be overshadowed by identities held by the majority and thus how power and …

How Refugees Can Be Integrated Into Development In Malawi Through An Entrepreneurship Approach, Desire Patience Iraguha

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The study examines the potential of entrepreneurship as a means to effectively integrate refugees into the economic and social development of Malawi. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research incorporates interviews with refugees and key stakeholders, a survey of refugee entrepreneurs, and a comprehensive literature review on entrepreneurship and refugee integration. The findings underscore the transformative power of entrepreneurship in facilitating economic self-sufficiency for refugees and promoting their integration into the host community. The study identifies various challenges confronted by refugee entrepreneurs in Malawi, such as limited access to financial resources, language barriers, and legal obstacles to business establishment. To address …

Jurisprudence And Animal Protection, Carlos Montemayor

Animal Sentience

Jurisprudence is based on normative principles that go beyond instrumental reasoning and practical goals concerning what is convenient. It concerns justice and truth. The empirical evidence justifies the legal protection of various species on legal grounds. Given the risks we face regarding climate degradation, international legal agencies must expand the framework of human rights and environmental law in order to effectively protect animals and their environments.

Plant Sentience? Between Romanticism And Denial: Science, Miguel Segundo-Ortin, Paco Calvo

Animal Sentience

A growing number of non-human animal species are being seriously considered as candidates for sentience, but plants are either forgotten or explicitly excluded from these debates. In our view, this is based on the belief that plant behavior is hardwired and inflexible and on an underestimation of the role of plant electrophysiology. We weigh such assumptions against the evidence to suggest that it is time to take seriously the hypothesis that plants, too, might be sentient. We hope this target article will serve as an invitation to investigate sentience in plants with the same rigor as in non-human animals.

Language Matters, Teya Brooks Pribac

Animal Sentience

The term sentience tends to be associated with affective valence along with affectively neutral sensory states. In the absence of evidence for affectively laden states in plants, the use of the term sentience in the exploration of plant sensory and behavioral complexity is misleading and ethically problematic for its potential to trivialize animal sentience.

Appraising Evidence For Valence, Víctor Carranza-Pinedo

Animal Sentience

I make some remarks about whether evidence of valenced responses constitutes evidence of valenced states, and therefore of sentience, in organisms.

Perceptions Of Trail Safety In Humboldt County, California: An Analysis Of Safety Concerns, Factors That Impact Trail Use, And The Value People Place On Trails, Natalie C. Arroyo

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Trails in Humboldt County, California that are used for both transportation and recreation have myriad community benefits. However, people’s concerns about feeling safe can affect trail use, design, and development, as well as how trails are valued and perceived by residents. There has been a lack of information in Humboldt County about trail safety perceptions despite it being a factor that repeatedly arises in infrastructure planning and funding conversations. My research was focused on answering the following questions: (1) How do Humboldt County trail users perceive their safety on and near trails? (2) What factors affect these perceptions about safety, …

Portrayals Of Family Resilience In Webcomics During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Thematic Analysis, Claire Catherine Heaney

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Families and couples were challenged with stresses unlike any other as individuals faced adversities from lockdowns, as well as fears derived from the coronavirus. During the pandemic, trends of webcomics became more popular, particularly comics that depicted characters in romantic relationships dealing with “the new normal.” In this project, I suggest that social media webcomics incorporated topics of coping. The purpose of this study was to examine webcomics that documented daily life situations during lockdowns and stress-buffering skills found in couples’ interactions when dealing with concerns. Utilizing Braun and Clarke’s (2006) thematic analysis, 585 romantic relationship webcomics posted from March …

Three Essays On Health, Food, And Agricultural Economics, Saber Feizy

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation comprises three distinct but interrelated projects that explore the intersection of agriculture, nutrition, and economics. The first project investigates the impact of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) food programs on the health outcomes of its participants. Using fixed effects models and a matching algorithm, the study finds that while conventional fixed effects models indicate a significant effect of CSA participation on diet-related medical expenditures, our modified time-heterogenous fixed effects model did not find a meaningful effect. The results of the matching method are consistent with those of our modified model.

The second project examines racial disparities in the prevalence …

Comparing Indirect Assessment Results To A Direct Function Focused Preference Assessment To Identify Potential Reinforcers To Increase Task Completion In A School Setting, Kailee Joy Matthews

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

In the present study, a concurrent operant analysis (COA) was conducted for one elementary aged student in a publicly funded school to determine if the results yielded an interpretable outcome to identify a potential reinforcer to increase work completion. A simultaneous treatments design was used during the COA to assess choice making behavior. The results of the COA indicated the student’s choice making behavior was maintained by access to attention. An indirect measure of motivation was used as a secondary assessment to identify a potential reinforcer to increase work completion and to determine if the results would align with the …

Comparing The Efficacy Of Interventions Derived From Concurrent Operant Analysis And Indirect Assessment, Lane Marquardt

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

In this study, a simultaneous treatments design was used to conduct a concurrent operant analysis (COA) to evaluate the choice making behavior of one elementary aged student. The COA results were used as a possible reinforcer for one of the conditions for the intervention to increase work completion. An indirect assessment, Questions about Behavioral Function (QABF), was used identify a hypothesized function to the student’s lack of task completion behavior. The results from thee QABD were used as a possible reinforcer for one of the conditions for the intervention to increase work completion. An alternating treatments design (ATD) was used …

Effects Of Video Modeling With Voice-Over Narration Versus No Voice-Over Narration, Kennedy Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

In the current study, the effects of video modeling with voice-over narration (VMW) was compared to the effects of video modeling with no voice-over narration (VMN) when learning the acquisition of a vocational skill. Four high-school students within a public school who spent most of their school day in a special education classroom participated in the study. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the VMW and VMN conditions and then a best alone condition was conducted for each participant that used the video modeling procedure that demonstrated superiority during the comparison. A modification of the inclusion of …

Exploring The Distinction Between Support And Enabling In Families With Substance Use Disorder, Krystal N. King

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Substance use disorders (SUD) are a pervasive public health problem facing families in the United States. Although families are frequently urged to support loved ones who have SUD and cautioned against enabling them, there is a dearth of literature that distinguishes between supporting and enabling. Through qualitative interviews, this phenomenological study examined the experiences of eight parents with adult children with SUD who were currently in recovery. Five themes emerged from the data including: (a) living in despair, (b) addiction and recovery knowledge, (c) support group philosophy, (d) coping with addiction, and (e) differentiation. The results from this study suggest …

Gambling On Growth: An Analysis Of The Early Impact Of Historical Horse Racing On Kentucky’S Thoroughbred Industry, Barrett W. Kerr

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

With a continuous decline in on-track wagering on Thoroughbred racing, racetrack operators are exploring alternative revenue sources to fund purses and create better quality racing. Historical Horse Racing (HHR), which represents one of the most recent advancements in parimutuel wagering, has become a popular system used by many states to offset the live wagering decline. Proponents of HHR suggest that this alternative wagering option will benefit the live racing industry. Using data from Kentucky racetracks from 2002 – 2021, this study examines the relationship between HHR wagering and key industry metrics, such as purses, on-track wagering, sales prices, and foal …

Two Essays On Industrial Hemp Firms In The United States, Abraham Olakunle Ajibade

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

After a long absence from American fields, industrial hemp was reintroduced to growing fields starting with state pilot programs in 2014 and received the green light for commercial cultivation in the US through the 2018 Farm Bill. Being an industry in its resurgence, investment is crucial for growth and the stock market and over-the-counter markets help US hemp firms get these much-needed funds for growth and expansion. This thesis consists of two essays on US hemp firms.

The first essay uses descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and the Kruskal-Wallis Test to investigate how US hemp stocks compare to mid-cap and large-cap …

"We Give Them The Most Important Thing Possible. We Give Their Dreary Lives Excitement”: Toward A Theoretical Model Of Narrative Parasocial Engagement, Dominic Delbert Meyers

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video game narratives and characters are some of the most enjoyable and persuasive components of the video game industry. While narratives and character relationships within video games have been examined separately, there is no working model and little research attempting to bridge the connection between narratives and character relationships. This research combines Narrative Paradigm Theory and Parasocial Relationships to understand how narratives and character relationships influence each other in video game environments. This was done through rhetorical field methods, utilizing a focus group and narrative rhetorical analysis on the transcript of the focus group. Results provide a working model coined …