Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

A Machine Learning Approach To Text-Based Sarcasm Detection, Lara I. Novic

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Sarcasm and indirect language are commonplace for humans to produce and recognize but difficult for machines to detect. While artificial intelligence can accurately analyze sentiment and emotion in speech and text, it may struggle with insincere and sardonic content, although it is possible to train a machine to identify uttered and written sarcasm. This paper aims to detect sarcasm using logistic regression and a support vector machine (SVM) and compare their results to a baseline.

The models are trained on headlines from a Kaggle dataset containing headlines from the satirical news website The Onion and serious news website Huffpost (formerly …

Covert Determiners In Appalachian English Narrative Declarative Sentences, William Oliver

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this thesis, I explore the syntax and semantics of covert determiners (Ds) in matrix subject determiner phrases (DPs) with definite specific interpretations. To conduct my investigation, I used the Audio-Aligned and Parsed Corpus of Appalachian English (AAPCAppE), a million-word Penn Treebank corpus, and the software CorpusSearch, a Java program that searches Penn Treebank corpora. My research shows that Appalachian English contains a linguistic phenomenon where speakers drop the D, replacing overt Ds with covert Ds, in definite specific DPs. For example, where Standard English speakers say The doctor came by horseback, Appalachian speakers may use a covert D …

Financial Openness And Economic Growth, Doo Kyun Wang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

An ongoing controversy in economics relates to the effect of financial openness on economic growth. Despite their longstanding nature, these questions are not easily resolved. Theoretically, capital market liberalization can lower the cost of capital. Given perfect international capital mobility, this can cause factor price equalization and finally accelerate economic growth. In contrast with the strong theoretical argument, empirical studies on the effect financial openness have on growth are still inconclusive.

Given the diverse perspective, the goal of this paper is to further investigate the role and effect of financial openness on economic growth in different time periods and at …

Withdrawal From Voluntary Oral Methamphetamine Reveals Female Specific Susceptibilities To Behavioral Deficits And Neurochemical Perpetuators Of Neurotoxicity And Drug Seeking Behavior, Nicoletta K. Memos

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

MA is a potent, highly addictive psychomotor stimulant known to produce neurotoxic effects on the brain leading to neurological impairments^1-6 characterized by neurodegeneration of dopaminergic fibers, cell bodies and pathways, as well as brain regions such as the hippocampus, frontal cortex, and midbrain^1,5.

In MA addiction, women are more vulnerable to the behavioral and cognitive effects of MA compared to men. Adult human literature reveals gender differences in usage patterns and women demonstrate increased vulnerability to the neurotoxic effects and health effects of MA use. Women begin drug use at an earlier age, escalate drug use quicker, …

Building The Revolution: Ideology, Affect And Gender In Bolivarian Caracas, Andreina I. Torres A.

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

“Building the Revolution: Ideology, Affect and Gender in Bolivarian Caracas,” examines the Bolivarian Revolution (1998-present) as a heterogenous shifting political process, and terrain of struggle in which a multiplicity of actors disputed the meanings and direction of socialism in Venezuela. During three years of ethnographic and archival research in Caracas (between 2014 and 2017) I researched one of the many Campamentos de Pioneros (Pioneer Camps) that was part of the Movimiento de Pobladores y Pobladoras de Venezuela (Venezuela’s Settlers’ Movement). The pioneers sought to “rescue” and occupy centrally located land in the national capital in order to build housing for …

Unraveling The Double-Bind: An Investigation Of Black And Latina Women In Stem, Katlyn L. Milless

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Civil rights activist Robert P. Moses was a driving force in defining equitable dissemination of quality science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education as an act of social justice. My work borrows this frame to highlight access to STEM education as a civil rights issue and to emphasize the importance of taking a social justice approach to interventions for those who experience intersecting systems of oppression (i.e., Black and Latina women), and for whom previous intervention efforts have not adequately addressed. Ameliorating racial and gender disparities through fostering psychological safety (e.g., belonging) in STEM fields has been a substantive focus …

A Solitary Solidarity: Conditions For Attunement In The "Migration Crisis" In Greece, Katherine Sheese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation I draw on ethnographic field work and qualitative interviews with activist volunteers in Greece in 2016 to explore the conditions for ethical and affective attunement in the face of crisis and complicity. I offer a thick description of the multiple injuries to one’s senses and sensemaking capacities and the contradictions, tensions, dilemmas that undermine the capacity for attunement, a term I use to refer to the overlapping abilities to feel, to be moved, and to locate oneself and to connect to others. I begin by developing a contextual analysis of the complex and contradictory machinery of …

Shame On You: The 2018 Senate Race And Gendered Language On Facebook And Twitter, Heather A. Mir

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is a study that determines whether or not new media amplifies gender stereotyping during campaigns. Numerous studies about women and the media, which have been conducted by scholars using traditional media, show that women endure more gender stereotyping then men. More recent studies show that women have made some ground and gender stereotyping is not as prevalent. These studies, however, were conducted using traditional newspapers. This is a study that compares traditional media and online news sources to determine if gender stereotyping is more prevalent in the latter. Another feature of this study is that it contains interviews of …

Exploring The Boundaries Of Queerness From Academia To Activism, Jillian M. (Silvia) Miranda

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper gives a literature review that uses texts at the intersection of queerness, blackness, and/or criminality to explore the ways in which Queer Studies can be useful in the classroom (within critical race theory, quare theory) and on the streets in the fight for black lives.

Stereotypes, Dehumanization, And Disciplining Disability: Psychological Mechanisms That Fuel The School-To-Prison Pipeline, Alexandra Ponce De Leon-Lebec

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The overrepresentation of students with educational disabilities in the school-to-prison pipeline is a crisis of civil rights and social justice in need of a comprehensive explanatory theoretical model. Research has convincingly demonstrated the greater likelihood of students with disabilities to be disciplined and the link from these exclusionary school discipline practices to eventual justice system involvement. Yet, why students with disabilities should receive these punishments at greater rates than non-labeled peers, when procedural safeguards and tenets of reduced culpability would predict otherwise, has never been investigated. The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) and the related Behaviors from Interpersonal Affect (BIAS) Map …

No Excuses Yet No Solutions: The Inherent Anti-Blackness Of The No-Excuses Charter School Model, Tshala A. Pajibo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The No Excuses model of education has routinely been labeled abusive and harmful to students. The No Excuses model has garnered significant pushback from students, families, and stakeholders because of procedures and policies that have caused physical, mental, and bodily harm to young students. While many education stakeholders have examined how No Excuses charters and their policies have harmed Black children, not many have examined why. This paper argues that the No Excuses charter model is completely at odds with Black cultural and educational values. This paper suggests deeper studies of the educational mindsets and opinions of No Excuses …

Why, New York City? Gauging The Quality Of Life Through The Thoughts Of Tweeters, Sheryl Williams

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a resource for social data, Twitter’s platform has been used to measure the quality of life through sentiment analysis. This capstone project explores another methodological technique—querying Twitter data around specific keyword terms to determine dominant topics, word patterns, and sentiment leanings in a geographical area. Focusing on New York City and Los Angeles for comparative analysis, the keyword term “why” will be used to build a Python analysis around topic modeling and sentiment analysis. Using this approach, the analysis reveals social and cultural differences, the overall sentiment of tweets, and subjects of interest to tweeters.

GitHub Repository for all …

Happiness And Policy Implications: A Sociological View, Sarah M. Kahl

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The World Happiness Report is released every year, ranking each country by who is “happier” and explaining the variables and data they have used. This project attempts to build from that base and create a machine learning algorithm that can predict if a country will be in a “happy” or “could be happier” category. Findings show that taking a broader scope of variables can better help predict happiness. Policy implications are discussed in using both big data and considering social indicators to make better and lasting policies.

In The Eye Of The Beholder: A Daily Diary Investigation Of Appraisals Of Illegitimate Tasks, Danielle Robyn Wald

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Traditional research on illegitimate tasks has focused on two dimensions, unreasonable tasks and unnecessary tasks, and has assumed that threat appraisal is the underlying mechanism explaining their effects. This study introduced a revised three-dimensional framework of illegitimate tasks that consists of promoting unreasonable tasks, demoting unreasonable tasks, and unnecessary tasks. Further, it explored the differential relationships of each dimension of illegitimate tasks with three outcomes: emotional exhaustion, organization-based self-esteem (OBSE), and psychological empowerment. Furthermore, it proposed that among the three appraisals, challenge appraisal is the strongest mediator between promoting unreasonable tasks and outcomes, threat appraisal is the strongest mediator between …

Elements Of Social Disorganization And Environmental Criminology: A Spatial Analysis Of Homicides In Villa Nueva, Guatemala, David J. Topel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study seeks to integrate the main spatial theories of crime, social disorganization, and routine activities theories while investigating the spatial dimension of homicides in Villa Nueva, Guatemala. Empirical relationships at a small unit of analysis, the natural cadaster blocks as defined by the municipality offer a more appropriate unit of analysis for the context of the city. While there is a robust body of work in developed nations synthetizing social disorganization and routine activities theories, the exploration of criminological theory integration and the use of the smallest unit of analysis still needs the addition of empirical research in Latin …

Stressors And Coping Of Mexican American College Undergraduates, Jeanette Calvario Perales

Dissertations

Empirical literature indicates that current mental health practices with Mexican American college students are lacking. Mexican American undergraduates have unique challenges that need to be addressed by counselors within the university context and in community settings. This study addressed the dearth of empirical literature on stressors and coping strategies by exploring the experiences of Mexican American students at a predominately White institution (PWI) in the Midwest region of the United States. Through grounded theory, a theory was generated from multiple in-depth interviews using a comparative analysis process to enhance understanding of how Mexican American college undergraduates at PWIs cope with …

The Influence Of Demographic, Social, And Economic Factors On Referral For Heart Failure Services, Catherine Elaine Kelty

Dissertations

Patients with end-stage advanced heart failure must go through an extensive evaluation process before being selected for either heart transplantation or left ventricular assist device (LVAD). This evaluation not only assesses a patient’s medical need for advanced heart failure treatments but also includes an assessment of psychosocial and economic factors that may affect a patient’s success post-treatment. While it is important to allocate scarce resources, such as donated organs, to the patients who will benefit the most, there is also a need for equity in the allocation of and access to healthcare services. This raises the question of whether patients …

June 2022 Table Of Contents Newsletter - Ill, Kayla Birt Flegal, Meghan Tipton

Table of Contents Newsletter

Welcome to the first issue of the Libraries' newsletter, The Table of Contents (TOC). Each month we'll send out a new issue with updates and features about library services, collections, and people. We are six months away from our move back to Roy O. West, which we look forward to daily. While we are out of the building we continue to provide library materials and services. This issue of TOC features Interlibrary Loan, one of the services that allow us to continue providing library stuff while our main collection has been in storage. Read on for more details about ILL.

Nexmif Pathogenic Variants In Individuals Of Korean, Vietnamese, And Mexican Descent, Elizabeth Langley, Laura S Farach, Mary K Koenig, Hope Northrup, David F Rodriguez-Buritica, Kate Mowrey

Student and Faculty Publications

NEXMIF pathogenic variants have been known to produce a wide spectrum of X-linked intellectual disability (ID) in both males and females. Thus far, few individuals from diverse populations have been described with NEXMIF-related disorders. Herein, we report three individuals with NEXMIF pathogenic variants, the first two are the only males of Korean and Vietnamese descent described with this disorder to our knowledge. The last patient is a Hispanic female who harbors the same pathogenic variant as a previously described Caucasian individual, but with differing clinical presentation. These patients present with many classic symptoms of NEXMIF-related disorders including ID, epilepsy, developmental …

Leadership Failures That Lead To Poor Organizational Performance, Brahaspattie Annie Singh

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Our world continues to change rapidly because of globalization and internationalism thus has become more multicultural and diverse that strong and effective leadership was needed in the workforce. The real estate industry has changed as well and continues to change because of multiculturalism. The effects of COVID-19 placed burdensome restrictions and regulations both from the state and city levels that firms must follow in order to function internally and externally to market properties. The effects of COVID-19 will forever change the way business is done as usual, where the general business practice must include a constant of new critical change …

Sole Sourcing Reliance, John Sidney Stammreich

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative research case study investigated the increasing reliance on sole-sourced critical defense components within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) supply chain network. This reliance has resulted in increased risks of operational units not achieving the agency’s minimum operational readiness requirements as presented in the DoD Inspector General’s Top 10 management challenges for the fiscal year 2020. The general problem to be addressed was the increasing reliance on sole-sourcing within the supply chain networks of government agencies and business organizations that have contributed to heightened risks of operational readiness reduction and manufacturing production delays. The purpose of this qualitative …

Who Is Missing? Characterizing The Participation Of Different Demographic Groups In A Korean Nationwide Daily Conversation Corpus, Haewoon Kwak, Jisun An, Kunwoo Park

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A conversation corpus is essential to build interactive AI applications. However, the demographic information of the participants in such corpora is largely underexplored mainly due to the lack of individual data in many corpora. In this work, we analyze a Korean nationwide daily conversation corpus constructed by the National Institute of Korean Language (NIKL) to characterize the participation of different demographic (age and sex) groups in the corpus.

Learnings From A Pilot Hybrid Question Answering System: Cqas: Case Study Based On A Singapore Government Agency's Customer Service Centre, Hui Shan Lee, Shankararaman, Venky, Eng Lieh Ouh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The Singapore Government first released their digital government blueprint in 2018 with the key message for all their agencies to be "digital to the core and served with heart". With this push, agencies are moving towards human-centric digital services, especially for individual citizens. During COVID-19, Singapore government agencies introduced many COVID-19 digital initiatives resulting in more incoming inquiries from citizens to respective agencies. This surge in inquiries created the challenge on the agencies' end to meet service level agreements. One widely adopted solution is the use of chatbot technology that directly interfaces with the customer. However, several organisations have faced …

Imagining New Futures Beyond Predictive Systems In Child Welfare: A Qualitative Study With Impacted Stakeholders, Logan Stapleton, Min Hun Lee, Diana Qing, Marya Wright, Alexandra Chouldechova, Ken Holstein, Zhiwei Steven Wu, Haiyi Zhu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Child welfare agencies across the United States are turning to datadriven predictive technologies (commonly called predictive analytics) which use government administrative data to assist workers’ decision-making. While some prior work has explored impacted stakeholders’ concerns with current uses of data-driven predictive risk models (PRMs), less work has asked stakeholders whether such tools ought to be used in the first place. In this work, we conducted a set of seven design workshops with 35 stakeholders who have been impacted by the child welfare system or who work in it to understand their beliefs and concerns around PRMs, and to engage them …

Diversity As A Condition Of Cultures: Querying Assumptions Of Mainstream And Minorities In Education Policy And Curriculum, Sue Saltmarsh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Highlights

• Discussions of diversity in relation to children’s education are often characterized by binaries of same/different, mainstream/margins, inclusion/exclusion, self/Other.

• Curriculum remains a contested site in educational debate, with differing views about curriculum as reinforcing social norms, beliefs, and values, as addressing the learning and social needs of learners from a variety of backgrounds and worldviews, or as a hybrid of these.

• Policy and curriculum designed or intended to address diversity tend to rest on assumptions of majority or dominant cultures as homogenous and distinct from the cultures of minority Other/s.

• Inequality is often multidimensional, intersecting with, …

Australians Underestimate Social Compliance With Coronavirus Restrictions: Findings From A National Survey, Zoe Leviston, Samantha K. Stanley, Iain Walker

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Objective: We assessed differences between Australians’ perceptions of their own compliance with coronavirus restrictions and their perceptions of community compliance. Methods: We surveyed a national quota sample of 1,691 Australians in August and September 2020. Participants reported their level of compliance with coronavirus restrictions and estimated compliance from others in their state/territory. Results: Overwhelmingly, most people reported complying with restrictions. They believed their fellow community members were much less compliant. Age and other demographics were only weakly associated with self-reported compliance and perceptions of others’ compliance. Conclusions: The results are consistent with prevalent cognitive biases, including the tendency to believe …

Subjective Wellbeing Among University Students And Recent Graduates: Evidence From The United Kingdom, William E. Donald, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This study compares students’ and recent graduates’ perceptions of their subjective wellbeing and offers support mechanisms and resources to enhance wellbeing in higher education. Survey data were collected in September 2021 from 414 UK-based higher education students and recent graduates on their self-perceived subjective wellbeing in March 2020 (before COVID-19 regulations restrictions) and September 2021 (18 months later). Findings showed that subjective wellbeing scores fell for almost three-quarters of university students and recent graduates between March 2020 and September 2021. Interestingly, around one-fifth of participants reported increased subjective wellbeing scores whilst the remaining participants reported no impact. Positive impacts of …

Survival Politics: Regime Security And Alliance Institutionalization, Inwook Kim, Jackson Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What determines states’ willingness to institutionalize alliances? Contrary to conventional emphasis on system-level conditions, we argue that states pay close attention to the domestic political consequences of institutionalizing alliances. This is particularly true for unequal allies. Client regimes are disproportionately sensitive to alliance design, as it affects patron allies’ ability to influence their military, distribute finance and arms, and legitimate preferred political groups. Two factors—power consolidation and political compatibility—determine whether the client views alliance institutionalization as complementary or conflictual with regime survival. The divergent alliance designs North and South Korea chose after the Korean War support our argument. An unresolved …

Helping-Seeking Tendencies And Subjective Well-Being: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of The United States And Japan, Verity Yu Qing Lua, Nadyannam N. Majeed, Andree Hartanto, Angela K. Y. Leung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Help-seeking is commonly conceived as an instrumental behavior that improves people’s subjective well-being. However, most findings supporting a positive association between help-seeking and subjective well-being are observed in independence-preferring countries. Drawing from research demonstrating that the pathways to subjective well-being are culturally divergent, we posit that help-seeking tendencies may be detrimental to subjective well-being for members in interdependence-preferring countries where norms for preserving relational harmony and face concerns are prevalent. This study tested the moderating role of country in the relationship between help-seeking tendencies and subjective well-being using data from 5,068 American and Japanese participants. Results revealed that although help-seeking …

Singapore Elites Must Tackle Sustainability, Alwyn Lim, Kenneth T. Goh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Sociology Alwyn Lim and SMU Assistant Professor of Strategic Management (Education) and Academic Director of the SMU Business Families Institute Kenneth Goh discussed the extent elites extract value and whether they actually create value for society. They shared their views on how Singapore's elites can give back to society by taking the lead on sustainability.