College of Behavioral & Social Sciences

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2009 Phase II Archaeological Investigations in the Riversdale (18PR390) Garden, Prince George’s County, MD
(2009) Gadsby, David A.; Shackel, Paul A.
In the fall of 2009, archaeologists and students from the University of Maryland’s Center for Heritage Resource Studies, in conjunction with the Archaeology Program, Maryland National Capital Parks and Planning Commission, conducted phase II archaeological testing of a portion of the garden at the Federal-period Riversdale Mansion (18PR390). The goal of the excavation was to evaluate the impact of ongoing erosion on archaeological resources in the project area. Excavators dug a total of 4 units measuring five-foot square and another half-unit measuring 2.5-feet by five-feet. They recovered 4280 objects ranging in date from the early 19th century through the twentieth century. They also unearthed the remains of a large garden wall erected around 1805 as well as the foundation of a brick structure built before 1830. This report details the project activities, and recommends that M-NCCP continue to monitor the effects of erosion on these resources. It also suggests future research questions, should additional excavations prove necessary.
30+ YEARS OF LAND COVER AND LAND USE CHANGE IN SOUTH AMERICA
(2020) Zalles Ballivian, Viviana; Hansen, Matthew C.; Geography; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
The modification of the Earth’s surface constitutes the most impactful way in which humans affect their surrounding environment, with broad and lasting consequences. Changes in land cover accelerate biodiversity loss, contribute to climate change, and affect the provisioning of ecosystem services. Such negative environmental impacts can have important effects on human health and livelihoods. The South American continent, in particular, has undergone significant transformations over the past decade, due in large part to the conversion of natural land to more economically productive land uses, such as crops, pastures, and tree plantations. The agricultural commodities produced in South America are traded and consumed globally, and land will likely continue to be converted if demand for these commodities continues to rise. Despite the environmental and commercial importance of land cover and land use change dynamics in South America, the extent and rates of land change have not yet been thoroughly characterized and quantified. This dissertation aims to advance scientific knowledge on the extent and rates of change of important land covers and land uses, especially as they relate to the production of agricultural commodities, by leveraging the 34-year Landsat archive of Earth observation data. The general approach employed throughout follows a two-step process of mapping and sampling, in order to provide spatially explicit information on the patterns of land cover/land use change, as well as associated unbiased area estimates. This approach is first employed for the use-case of Brazilian cropland expansion from 2000 to 2014, and results show a near doubling of cropland area, the majority of which (80%) came about through the conversion of existing pastures. The methodology is then repeated at broader thematic, temporal, and geographic scales, resulting in area estimates of changes in cropland, pasture, plantation, natural tree regrowth, semi-natural land, tree cover and degraded tree cover from 1985 to 2018. Altogether, these changes amount to a 60% increase in human impact on natural land over the study period. Finally, an analysis and evaluation of the methodology employed for mapping and sampling when there is a multitude of target classes instead of a single one is provided as an assessment of methodological approaches.
A 30+ Year AVHRR LAI and FAPAR Climate Data Record: Algorithm Description and Validation
(MDPI, 2016-03-22) Claverie, Martin; Matthews, Jessica L.; Vermote, Eric F.; Justice, Christopher O.
In- land surface models, which are used to evaluate the role of vegetation in the context of global climate change and variability, LAI and FAPAR play a key role, specifically with respect to the carbon and water cycles. The AVHRR-based LAI/FAPAR dataset offers daily temporal resolution, an improvement over previous products. This climate data record is based on a carefully calibrated and corrected land surface reflectance dataset to provide a high-quality, consistent time-series suitable for climate studies. It spans from mid-1981 to the present. Further, this operational dataset is available in near real-time allowing use for monitoring purposes. The algorithm relies on artificial neural networks calibrated using the MODIS LAI/FAPAR dataset. Evaluation based on cross-comparison with MODIS products and in situ data show the dataset is consistent and reliable with overall uncertainties of 1.03 and 0.15 for LAI and FAPAR, respectively. However, a clear saturation effect is observed in the broadleaf forest biomes with high LAI (>4.5) and FAPAR (>0.8) values.
A Comparative Study of Certain Personality Characteristics of College Women Participating in Basketball and Modern Dance
(1965) Bird, Anne Marie; Johnson, Warren R.; Health Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
Twenty-five college women attending the University of Maryland during the spring semester of 1963 were studied in an effort to determine whether or not there were any identifiable personality characteristics among those (14) who chose to participate in basketball, as compared to those (13) who chose to participate in modern dance. The subjects used in this study voluntarily chose the activity in which they participated. The California Psychological Inventory was used to evaluate the personality characteristics of the subjects. Analysis of the data showed that the basketball group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the community scale. The modern dance group scored significantly higher, at the 5 percent level of confidence, on the scales measuring flexibility and femininity. A comparison of the group means for all other scales proved insignificant at the 5 percent level of confidence.
A Comparison between Support Vector Machine and Water Cloud Model for Estimating Crop Leaf Area Index
(MDPI, 2021-04-01) Hosseini, Mehdi; McNairn, Heather; Mitchell, Scott; Robertson, Lauren Dingle; Davidson, Andrew; Ahmadian, Nima; Bhattacharya, Avik; Borg, Erik; Conrad, Christopher; Dabrowska-Zielinska, Katarzyna; de Abelleyra, Diego; Gurdak, Radoslaw; Kumar, Vineet; Kussul, Nataliia; Mandal, Dipankar; Rao, Y. S.; Saliendra, Nicanor; Shelestov, Andrii; Spengler, Daniel; Verón, Santiago R.; Homayouni, Saeid; Becker-Reshef, Inbal
The water cloud model (WCM) can be inverted to estimate leaf area index (LAI) using the intensity of backscatter from synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors. Published studies have demonstrated that the WCM can accurately estimate LAI if the model is effectively calibrated. However, calibration of this model requires access to field measures of LAI as well as soil moisture. In contrast, machine learning (ML) algorithms can be trained to estimate LAI from satellite data, even if field moisture measures are not available. In this study, a support vector machine (SVM) was trained to estimate the LAI for corn, soybeans, rice, and wheat crops. These results were compared to LAI estimates from the WCM. To complete this comparison, in situ and satellite data were collected from seven Joint Experiment for Crop Assessment and Monitoring (JECAM) sites located in Argentina, Canada, Germany, India, Poland, Ukraine and the United States of America (U.S.A.). The models used C-Band backscatter intensity for two polarizations (like-polarization (VV) and cross-polarization (VH)) acquired by the RADARSAT-2 and Sentinel-1 SAR satellites. Both the WCM and SVM models performed well in estimating the LAI of corn. For the SVM, the correlation (R) between estimated LAI for corn and LAI measured in situ was reported as 0.93, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.64 m2m−2 and mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.51 m2m−2 . The WCM produced an R-value of 0.89, with only slightly higher errors (RMSE of 0.75 m2m−2 and MAE of 0.61 m2m−2 ) when estimating corn LAI. For rice, only the SVM model was tested, given the lack of soil moisture measures for this crop. In this case, both high correlations and low errors were observed in estimating the LAI of rice using SVM (R of 0.96, RMSE of 0.41 m2m−2 and MAE of 0.30 m2m−2 ). However, the results demonstrated that when the calibration points were limited (in this case for soybeans), the WCM outperformed the SVM model. This study demonstrates the importance of testing different modeling approaches over diverse agro-ecosystems to increase confidence in model performance.
A Disease Control-Oriented Land Cover Land Use Map for Myanmar
(MDPI, 2021-06-13) Chen, Dong; Shevade, Varada; Baer, Allison; He, Jiaying; Hoffman-Hall, Amanda; Ying, Qing; Li, Yao; Loboda, Tatiana V.
Malaria is a serious infectious disease that leads to massive casualties globally. Myanmar is a key battleground for the global fight against malaria because it is where the emergence of drug-resistant malaria parasites has been documented. Controlling the spread of malaria in Myanmar thus carries global significance, because the failure to do so would lead to devastating consequences in vast areas where malaria is prevalent in tropical/subtropical regions around the world. Thanks to its wide and consistent spatial coverage, remote sensing has become increasingly used in the public health domain. Specifically, remote sensing-based land cover/land use (LCLU) maps present a powerful tool that provides critical information on population distribution and on the potential human-vector interactions interfaces on a large spatial scale. Here, we present a 30-meter LCLU map that was created specifically for the malaria control and eradication efforts in Myanmar. This bottom-up approach can be modified and customized to other vector-borne infectious diseases in Myanmar or other Southeastern Asian countries.
A Framework for Defining Spatially Explicit Earth Observation Requirements for a Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM)
(MDPI, 2015-01-29) Whitcraft, Alyssa K.; Becker-Reshef, Inbal; Justice, Christopher O.
Global agricultural monitoring utilizes a variety of Earth observations (EO) data spanning different spectral, spatial, and temporal resolutions in order to gather information on crop area, type, condition, calendar, and yield, among other applications. Categorical requirements for space-based monitoring of major agricultural production areas have been articulated based on best practices established by the Group on Earth Observation’s (GEO) Global Agricultural Monitoring Community (GEOGLAM) of Practice, in collaboration with the Committee on Earth Observation Satellites (CEOS). We present a method to transform generalized requirements for agricultural monitoring in the context of GEOGLAM into spatially explicit (0.05°) Earth observation (EO) requirements for multiple resolutions of data. This is accomplished through the synthesis of the necessary remote sensing-based datasets concerning where (crop mask, when (growing calendar, and how frequently imagery is required (considering cloud cover impact throughout the agricultural growing season. Beyond this provision of the framework and tools necessary to articulate these requirements, investigated in depth is the requirement for reasonably clear moderate spatial resolution (10–100 m) optical data within 8 days over global within-season croplands of all sizes, a data type prioritized by GEOGLAM and CEOS. Four definitions of “reasonably clear” are investigated: 70%, 80%, 90%, or 95% clear. The revisit frequency required (RFR) for a reasonably clear view varies greatly both geographically and throughout the growing season, as well as with the threshold of acceptable clarity. The global average RFR for a 70% clear view within 8 days is 3.9–4.8 days (depending on the month), 3.0–4.1 days for 80% clear, 2.2–3.3 days for 90% clear, and 1.7–2.6 days for 95% clear. While some areas/times of year require only a single revisit (RFR = 8 days) to meet their reasonably clear requirement, generally the RFR, regardless of clarity threshold, is below to greatly below the 8 day mark, highlighting the need for moderate resolution optical satellite systems or constellations with revisit capabilities more frequent than 8 days. This analysis is providing crucial input for data acquisition planning for agricultural monitoring in the context of GEOGLAM.
A Mapping Framework to Characterize Land Use in the Sudan-Sahel Region from Dense Stacks of Landsat Data
(MDPI, 2019-03-16) Sedano, Fernando; Molini, Vasco; Azad, M. Abdul Kalam
We developed a land cover and land use mapping framework specifically designed for agricultural systems of the Sudan-Sahel region. The mapping approach extracts information from inter- and intra-annual vegetation dynamics from dense stacks of Landsat 8 images. We applied this framework to create a 30 m spatial resolution land use map with a focus on agricultural landscapes of northern Nigeria for 2015. This map provides up-to-date information with a higher level of spatial and thematic detail resulting in a more precise characterization of agriculture in the region. The map reveals that agriculture is the main land use in the region. Arable land represents on average 52.5% of the area, higher than the reported national average for Nigeria (38.4%). Irrigated agriculture covers nearly 2.2% of the total area, reaching nearly 20% of the cultivated land when traditional floodplain agriculture systems are included, above the reported national average (0.63%). There is significant variability in land use within the region. Cultivated land in the northern section can reach values higher than 75%, most land suitable for agriculture is already under cultivation and there is limited land for future agricultural expansion. Marginal lands, not suitable for permanent agriculture, can reach 30% of the land at lower altitudes in the northeast and northwest. In contrast, the southern section presents lower land use intensity that results in a complex landscape that intertwines areas farms and larger patches of natural vegetation. This map improves the spatial detail of existing sources of LCLU information for the region and provides updated information of the current status of its agricultural landscapes. This study demonstrates the feasibility of multi temporal medium resolution remote sensing data to provide detailed and up-to-date information about agricultural systems in arid and sub arid landscapes of the Sahel region.
A meta-analysis of the relation between hippocampal volume and memory ability in typically developing children and adolescents
(Wiley, 2022-03-17) Botdorf, Morgan; Canada, Kelsey L.; Riggins, Tracy
Memory is supported by a network of brain regions, with the hippocampus serving a critical role in this cognitive process. Previous meta-analyses on the association between hippocampal structure and memory have largely focused on adults. Multiple studies have since suggested that hippocampal volume is related to memory performance in children and adolescents; however, the strength and direction of this relation varies across reports, and thus, remains unclear. To further understand this brain–behavior relation, we conducted a meta-analysis to investigate the association between hippocampal volume (assessed as total volume) and memory during typical development. Across 25 studies and 61 memory outcomes with 1357 participants, results showed a small, but significant, positive association between total hippocampal volume and memory performance. Estimates of the variability across studies in the relation between total volume and memory were not explained by differences in memory task type (delayed vs. immediate; relational vs. nonrelational), participant age range, or the method of normalization of hippocampal volumes. Overall, findings suggest that larger total hippocampal volume relates to better memory performance in children and adolescents and that this relation is similar across the memory types and age ranges assessed. To facilitate enhanced generalization across studies in the future, we discuss considerations for the field moving forward.
A Method for Landsat and Sentinel 2 (HLS) BRDF Normalization
(MDPI, 2019-03-15) Franch, Belen; Vermote, Eric; Skakun, Sergii; Roger, Jean-Claude; Masek, Jeffrey; Ju, Junchang; Villaescusa-Nadal, Jose Luis; Santamaria-Artigas, Andres
The Harmonized Landsat/Sentinel-2 (HLS) project aims to generate a seamless surface reflectance product by combining observations from USGS/NASA Landsat-8 and ESA Sentinel-2 remote sensing satellites. These satellites’ sampling characteristics provide nearly constant observation geometry and low illumination variation through the scene. However, the illumination variation throughout the year impacts the surface reflectance by producing higher values for low solar zenith angles and lower reflectance for large zenith angles. In this work, we present a model to derive the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) normalization and apply it to the HLS product at 30 m spatial resolution. It is based on the BRDF parameters estimated from the MODerate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance product (M{O,Y}D09) at 1 km spatial resolution using the VJB method (Vermote et al., 2009). Unsupervised classification (segmentation) of HLS images is used to disaggregate the BRDF parameters to the HLS spatial resolution and to build a BRDF parameters database at HLS scale. We first test the proposed BRDF normalization for different solar zenith angles over two homogeneous sites, in particular one desert and one Peruvian Amazon forest. The proposed method reduces both the correlation with the solar zenith angle and the coefficient of variation (CV) of the reflectance time series in the red and near infrared bands to 4% in forest and keeps a low CV of 3% to 4% for the deserts. Additionally, we assess the impact of the view zenith angle (VZA) in an area of the Brazilian Amazon forest close to the equator, where impact of the angular variation is stronger because it occurs in the principal plane. The directional reflectance shows a strong dependency with the VZA. The current HLS BRDF correction reduces this dependency but still shows an under-correction, especially in the near infrared, while the proposed method shows no dependency with the view angles. We also evaluate the BRDF parameters using field surface albedo measurements as a reference over seven different sites of the US surface radiation budget observing network (SURFRAD) and five sites of the Australian OzFlux network.
A New Set of MODIS Land Products (MCD18): Downward Shortwave Radiation and Photosynthetically Active Radiation
(MDPI, 2020-01-03) Wang, Dongdong; Liang, Shunlin; Zhang, Yi; Gao, Xueyuan; Brown, Meredith G. L.; Jia, Aolin
Surface downward shortwave radiation (DSR) and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR), its visible component, are key parameters needed for many land process models and terrestrial applications. Most existing DSR and PAR products were developed for climate studies and therefore have coarse spatial resolutions, which cannot satisfy the requirements of many applications. This paper introduces a new global high-resolution product of DSR (MCD18A1) and PAR (MCD18A2) over land surfaces using the MODIS data. The current version is Collection 6.0 at the spatial resolution of 5 km and two temporal resolutions (instantaneous and three-hour). A look-up table (LUT) based retrieval approach was chosen as the main operational algorithm so as to generate the products from the MODIS top-of-atmosphere (TOA) reflectance and other ancillary data sets. The new MCD18 products are archived and distributed via NASA’s Land Processes Distributed Active Archive Center (LP DAAC). The products have been validated based on one year of ground radiation measurements at 33 Baseline Surface Radiation Network (BSRN) and 25 AmeriFlux stations. The instantaneous DSR has a bias of −15.4 W/m2 and root mean square error (RMSE) of 101.0 W/m2, while the instantaneous PAR has a bias of −0.6 W/m2 and RMSE of 45.7 W/m2. RMSE of daily DSR is 32.3 W/m2, and that of the daily PAR is 13.1 W/m2. The accuracy of the new MODIS daily DSR data is higher than the GLASS product and lower than the CERES product, while the latter incorporates additional geostationary data with better capturing DSR diurnal variability. MCD18 products are currently under reprocessing and the new version (Collection 6.1) will provide improved spatial resolution (1 km) and accuracy.
A Sample-Based Forest Monitoring Strategy Using Landsat, AVHRR and MODIS Data to Estimate Gross Forest Cover Loss in Malaysia between 1990 and 2005
(MDPI, 2013-04-15) Giree, Namita; Stehman, Stephen V.; Potapov, Peter; Hansen, Matthew C.
Insular Southeast Asia is a hotspot of humid tropical forest cover loss. A sample-based monitoring approach quantifying forest cover loss from Landsat imagery was implemented to estimate gross forest cover loss for two eras, 1990–2000 and 2000–2005. For each time interval, a probability sample of 18.5 km × 18.5 km blocks was selected, and pairs of Landsat images acquired per sample block were interpreted to quantify forest cover area and gross forest cover loss. Stratified random sampling was implemented for 2000–2005 with MODIS-derived forest cover loss used to define the strata. A probability proportional to x (πpx) design was implemented for 1990–2000 with AVHRR-derived forest cover loss used as the x variable to increase the likelihood of including forest loss area in the sample. The estimated annual gross forest cover loss for Malaysia was 0.43 Mha/yr (SE = 0.04) during 1990–2000 and 0.64 Mha/yr (SE = 0.055) during 2000–2005. Our use of the πpx sampling design represents a first practical trial of this design for sampling satellite imagery. Although the design performed adequately in this study, a thorough comparative investigation of the πpx design relative to other sampling strategies is needed before general design recommendations can be put forth.
Abortion Escorts and Democratic Participation
(2008-04-16) Maloney, Steven Douglas; Alford, Charles F; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
My dissertation explores the theoretical value of political participation. I argue that some acts of political participation, such as abortion escorting, constitute "political action" as Hannah Arendt used the term. These acts do not fall under the umbrella of either civil society or activism. A more nuanced account of political participation is needed. This account must include participatory, deliberative, and republican ideals, and it must take political action more seriously than the predominant procedural, communicative, or economic visions of liberalism currently do. Here, abortion escorts exemplify the type of political participation that Hannah Arendt argued was missing at Little Rock Central High School during the period of integration. Arendt called for citizen escorts during integration, and abortion escorting provides a positive example of this behavior today. Arendt confessed she was moved to write her essay only from a photograph that she saw, and she was criticized for her lack of fieldwork. However, I went into the field to observe abortion escorting. Moreover, while Arendt's factual statements about integration and American racial politics have been somewhat discredited, I argue there are still important theoretical insights in her essay--and in Arendt's theoretical work more broadly--that need resuscitating even if her empirical account is troubled at times. As such, I use abortion escorts as an example--a means of rescuing Arendt's theory of political action and integrating it into a contemporary body of American political theory that has been both inspired by Arendt and unsettled by her contributions
Abusive and Supportive Leadership Effects on Masculinity & Aggression towards Women
(2020) Epistola, Jordan; Hanges, Paul J; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
Masculinity is a highly-valued but elusive status in society. This is due to its socially conferred nature. While masculinity is associated with good traits, it is also associated with negative traits such as aggression against others. Negative masculine traits occur when males lose masculine status and seek to reestablish it. While research has identified contexts that elicit masculinity loss, research to date has not focused on the role leaders play in shaping followers’ interpretations of such contexts. The present study sought to address this by examining the effect of supportive versus abusive leadership on followers’ experience of masculinity in potentially threatening contexts. Dahl, Vesio & Weaver’s (2015) research method for threatening masculinity was expanded upon to test this. Results revealed significant differences in public discomfort and anger between supportive and abusive leadership. Leadership also impacted followers’ hostility towards women through changes in masculinity loss stress. Surprisingly, Dahl et al.’s (2015) method for threatening masculinity could not be replicated. Potential explanations, as well as theoretical and empirical implications are discussed.
Accounting for Information: Case Studies in Editorial Decisions and Mortgage Markets
(2014) Bandeh-Ahmadi, Ayeh; Rust, John; Economics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
I measure information on distinct facets of quality from a corpus of reviews and characterize how decision-makers integrate this information present in text with that available through other channels. Specifically, I demonstrate that referee comments at a scholarly journal contain information on submissions' future citation impact above and beyond information available in referee scores. I measure this signal on future citation impact and show that it does not enter into editorial decision-making directly but rather through an interaction that amplifies the information content of referee scores: the more citations a low- or mediocre-scoring paper is likely to get the less likely it is to be published. Secondly, I describe referee comments that are highly predictive of greater citations. Papers that referees say have access to unique datasets, or are written on topics of relevance to ongoing debates or government applications receive greater citations on average. Third, I show the appearance of favoritism amongst editors who accept a higher share of papers that cite themselves is partly a reflection of an ability to draw and select for papers that receive more citations. Finally, I characterize budget constraints on publication space and referee capital and provide some guidance on what types of information editorial systems could capture to promote transparency in future analyses while protecting privacy of authors or referees. A second chapter introduces a theoretical framework for assessing the empirical discussion of asymmetric information amongst mortgage lenders and adds the idea of lender competition into this framework.
Acoustic Correlates of Auditory Object and Event Perception: Speakers, Musical Timbres, and Environmental Sounds
(Frontiers Media, 2019) Slevc, L. Robert
Human listeners must identify and orient themselves to auditory objects and events in their environment. What acoustic features support a listener’s ability to differentiate the great variety of natural sounds they might encounter? Studies of auditory object perception typically examine identification (and confusion) responses or dissimilarity ratings between pairs of objects and events. However, the majority of this prior work has been conducted within single categories of sound. This separation has precluded a broader understanding of the general acoustic attributes that govern auditory object and event perception within and across different behaviorally relevant sound classes. The present experiments take a broader approach by examining multiple categories of sound relative to one another. This approach bridges critical gaps in the literature and allows us to identify (and assess the relative importance of) features that are useful for distinguishing sounds within, between and across behaviorally relevant sound categories. To do this, we conducted behavioral sound identification (Experiment 1) and dissimilarity rating (Experiment 2) studies using a broad set of stimuli that leveraged the acoustic variability within and between different sound categories via a diverse set of 36 sound tokens (12 utterances from different speakers, 12 instrument timbres, and 12 everyday objects from a typical human environment). Multidimensional scaling solutions as well as analyses of item-pair-level responses as a function of different acoustic qualities were used to understand what acoustic features informed participants’ responses. In addition to the spectral and temporal envelope qualities noted in previous work, listeners’ dissimilarity ratings were associated with spectrotemporal variability and aperiodicity. Subsets of these features (along with fundamental frequency variability) were also useful for making specific within or between sound category judgments. Dissimilarity ratings largely paralleled sound identification performance, however the results of these tasks did not completely mirror one another. In addition, musical training was related to improved sound identification performance.
Acoustic-Lexical Characteristics of Child-Directed Speech Between 7 and 24 Months and Their Impact on Toddlers' Phonological Processing
(Frontiers, 2021-09-24) Cychosz, Margaret; Edwards, Jan R.; Ratner, Nan Bernstein; Eaton, Catherine Torrington; Newman, Rochelle S.
Speech-language input from adult caregivers is a strong predictor of children's developmental outcomes. But the properties of this child-directed speech are not static over the first months or years of a child's life. This study assesses a large cohort of children and caregivers (n = 84) at 7, 10, 18, and 24 months to document (1) how a battery of phonetic, phonological, and lexical characteristics of child-directed speech changes in the first 2 years of life and (2) how input at these different stages predicts toddlers' phonological processing and vocabulary size at 2 years. Results show that most measures of child-directed speech do change as children age, and certain characteristics, like hyperarticulation, actually peak at 24 months. For language outcomes, children's phonological processing benefited from exposure to longer (in phonemes) words, more diverse word types, and enhanced coarticulation in their input. It is proposed that longer words in the input may stimulate children's phonological working memory development, while heightened coarticulation simultaneously introduces important sublexical cues and exposes them to challenging, naturalistic speech, leading to overall stronger phonological processing outcomes.
Acting Against Reason? Explaining Minority Group Decision Making
(2004-08-30) Johns, Michael Kim; Tismaneanu, Vladimir; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This study examines why minority groups choose to employ or not to employ militant strategies when dealing with the state. It examines four cases in Europe: the Corsicans in France, the Basques in Spain and the Russian speaking minorities in Estonia and Latvia. While it is generally assumed that minority groups who are accommodated by the state remain peaceful and groups who face discrimination are more likely to use violence, these cases were chosen specifically for the reason that they have chosen the opposite path. Through the use of primary elite interviews, survey data and secondary sources four hypotheses are tested. The role of economic discrepancy, the international community, culture and the institutionalization of culture are examined. The institutionalization of culture is further broken down into three parts: the impact of geographic isolation, time and repertoires. The study finds that while economics appears to be a sufficient condition for a group choosing violence, it is not a necessary one. The international community, however, appears to be extremely important. When the international community is engaged in a country the minority group sees it as an 'ombudsmen' and remains quiet. Conversely, groups ignored by the international community feel isolated and seek to bring attention to their cause. Culture also plays an important role. The culture of some groups is more accepting of violence than others. Groups with cultures that do not accept violence are much less prone to use it than groups who see violence as an acceptable strategy. Geographic isolation appears to be a way for culture to be institutionalized. Groups who must interact with other groups are less likely to use violence than those who remain physically distant. While time appears to have some role, the more important factor appears to be the time period when the group is in conflict with the state. Certain ideologies are acceptable at different times in history, this impacts the groups available choices. Finally, the use of repertoires also appears to be a factor. Once violence is used it is difficult to stop.
Activist Globalization: How Markets, Societies and States Empower Cause-Oriented Action in Transnational Relations
(2011) Pinto, Rodrigo G.; Conca, Ken; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
This study examines how transnational conditions of markets, societies and states empower civic groups, social movements, advocacy networks or resisters to participate in cause-oriented action that connects two or more polities. Preliminary theses infatuated with the latest and thickest wave of globalization have blown back into a solidified antithesis. Under this influential antithesis, international interactions between states create more opportunities for transnational activism than do global flows between societies or markets. The evidence analyzed here suggests a refutation of that prevalent antithesis. Instead, it supports the synthesizing hypothesis of this study: The more markets and societies globalize and the more states interact, the more transnational activism occurs. The research conducted here develops on a promising explanatory typology that is the best attempt to answer the main question about activism in international relations (IR) studies at present. This dissertation builds on such theory, moderating short-range and statist imbalances in conventional IR and cross-national (comparative) research on the consequences of interstate regimes and political opportunity structures, respectively. The study goes on to make this prior scholarship more accurate, comprehensive and reflective. First, tests of the prime theory over a longer history, which predates 1945, here elevate globalism toward a favorable condition that is as consequential as internationalism for activism across borders. Second, this study conceptualizes four explanatory processes--or chains of causal mechanisms--that link activism mainly to encouragement from globalization. These original models expose a grand, causal theory to have outpaced its necessary processual, mechanismic bases. Finally, the study addresses the spatial transnationality and transnationalization of activism. It extends the typology of explanatory processes to distinguish the primary scale of activist actions from the locus of activist causes, along a domestic-foreign frontier. The extension renders as unexamined a conventional assumption that activism transnationalizes through a one-dimensional globalization from local toward global proportions. The dissertation uses qualitative, case-study and process-tracing, methods to compare and generalize beyond two transnational activist campaigns. These campaigns are situated temporally from the 1860s to the 1950s, geographically through inclusion of actors based in Brazil, and thematically via incorporation of biodiversity in activist deed or discourse.
ADAN Symposium
(2012-01-03) Leone, Mark P.

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