Jack Kerouac

Kerouac emerged as one of the brightest stars in the firmament of American letters due to the success of his 1957 novel, On the Road, but this fame would contribute to his undoing. Despite the fact that he had devoted himself to literary success for many years, Kerouac was unprepared for either the hostility leveled at his experimental style or the adulation of fans. He was in some ways famously shy, too self-conscious or insecure even to read his recently completed volume of poetry, Mexico City Blues, at the now famous 1955 Six Gallery reading. He assumed a leading role in the Beat movement that sprang largely from the Six Gallery reading and On the Road, but he repeatedly distanced himself from the Beats. Kerouac found it increasingly difficult to establish a spiritual foundation for his work and life. The alcoholism that had plagued him from youth lead to his early demise in 1969. Beat to him, however, had always meant something beautiful. Perhaps he said it best, mere months before his death, [the Beat movement] was pure in my heart.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/beat_exhibit/1003/thumbnail.jp

Kids Killing Kids: Mental Illness, Adolescence, and Mass Murder

Are rates of mental illness higher in adolescents who commit mass violence compared to other adolescents? Are rates of mental illness higher among adolescents who commit mass murder compared to adults who commit mass murder

Essays in Directed Technical Change

This dissertation takes the position that a scientific theory ought to be general and parsimonious and apply this rule to Daron Acemoglu\u27s theory of directed technical change to show that the theory provides useful structure for our knowledge of human capital and wages. The first chapter estimates the shape of labor demand and the strength of technical bias by age group in the US while taking account of changes in directed technology that shift relative demand for worker age groups. The data are consistent with demand shifts produced from the theory of directed technical change when the elasticity of substitution between worker age groups in the United States is slightly above 2, the threshold for strong technical bias. Instrumenting for labor supplies with lagged populations gives similar results. The report illustrates how ignoring technical bias can produce higher estimates seen in past work. The second chapter proposes a new macroeconomic mechanism for generating concavity in age-earnings profiles based on directed technical change. The mechanism does not depend on changes in the human capital of the individual as proposed by Ben-Porath and Mincer; rather changes in the relative human capital of age groups affect the profitability of age-specific technologies, biasing innovation toward improving the productivity of younger workers. Using new data, I estimate that on average a worker at the beginning of the career can expect a yearly wage increase of 6.2% while a worker at the end of a career with 40 years of experience can can expect a yearly wage increase of 2.1%. The theory generates maximal earnings at a later age than observed by some past work with macroeconomic data but is consistent with some micro estimates. The theory should be taken as supplemental to (rather than replacing) human capital-based theories of age-earnings profiles

Kids Killing Kids: A Look into Mental Illness, Adolescence, and Mass Murder

Violence in America has been on a decline since the 1990’s. Active shooters have seemed to be on the rise and ever present in the media (See Figure 1). Society searches for the cause of these acts of violence. Typical answers to violence may not be sufficient to answering for violence on this scale. One hypothesis is mental illness. Mental illness is not normally linked to violent behavior (Stuart, 2003). However, with differences in brain development and lack of literature, mentally ill adolescents may be an exception. With this in mind, researchers ask the following questions; Are rates of mental illness higher in adolescents who commit mass violence compared to other adolescents? Are rates of mental illness higher among adolescents who commit mass murder compared to adults who commit mass murder?https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/fsrs2018/1007/thumbnail.jp

An Evaluation of Web-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Dementia Caregivers

With increased prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, family caregivers are providing up to ten years of unpaid care. Informal dementia caregivers are frequently exposed to behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD) that can cause distress. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically tested subset of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy shown to improve caregiver depressive symptoms, use of positive coping skills, and management of role demands. Caregivers face barriers to accessing face-to-face therapy because of factors that delay seeking help until post-crisis. Online ACT is easily accessible, navigable, and free, and has been demonstrated to improve mental health indicators in other populations. Program evaluation will consist of extant data from a pilot study of the first web-based ACT for dementia caregivers, conducted in Utah. Pre-, post-, and four-week follow-up post-tests were conducted, which 46 participants successfully completed all 10 sessions and tests, which is an appropriate sample for a pilot study. To be evaluated are which ACT skills are most helpful in decreasing BPSD distress and in increasing valued-based living (a central goal of ACT), and whether factors of perceived helpfulness and reported effort of practicing ACT skills moderate those outcomes. Correlation analyses will be performed on individual ACT session-related variables and regression analysis will evaluate predictor and outcome variables relating to all ACT sessions. Predictor variables include perceived helpfulness of practicing ACT skills between sessions, reported effort on those practice activities, and use of five ACT skills since intervention completion. Outcome variables include caregiver stress reactions to BPSD and progress toward values-based living

Predicting Success in Shorthand I

The purpose of this study was to find the best predictors and best combination of predictors of shorthand success. Those used were the Educational Research Corporation Stenographic Aptitude Test and its subtests, I.Q. scores, a Self-Success Rating, and the Digit Symbol subtest taken from the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Students enrolled in Shorthand I at Sky View High School were the subjects used in this study. The criteria of shorthand success were the final dictation speed and the final grade. The best single predictor of shorthand dictation speed was the total E.R.C. Stenographic Aptitude Test. The best combination of predictors were the total E.R.C. Stenographic Aptitude Test, and the E.R.C. Phonetic Spelling. The best single predictor of final grade was the E.R.C. Phonetic Spelling subtest. The best combination of predictors of final grade were I.Q., total E.R.C. Stenographic Aptitude Test, E.R.C. Word Discrimination, E.R.C. Phonetic Spelling, and E.R.C. Dictation

Report by Cragun to the Three Affiliated Tribes Regarding the Fort Berthold Claims, January 12, 1954

This report, dated January 12, 1954, from John Cragun to the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Reservation gives an update on the status of the Tribes\u27 claims to the Indian Claims Commission. The report reiterates that Crogun\u27s firm expects the Claims Commission to rely on the outcome of the Blackfeet case to decide the Fort Berthold claim. The report also summarizes the Three Affiliated Tribes\u27 claim, which has to do with damages sustained due to the delay between the time their lands were taken and the time the Court of Claims awarded them payment. The letter concludes by saying that the firm expects a decision from the Court of Claims soon. See also: Report by Wilkinson, Boyden, Cragun, and Barker on the Status of the Fort Berthold Claims, June 22, 1953 Letter from Mrs. John Sitting Crow to Representative Burdick Regarding Fort Berthold Claims, February 25, 1954https://commons.und.edu/burdick-papers/1022/thumbnail.jp

Effects of lower ages of majority on oral contraceptive use: Evidence on the validity of The Power of the Pill

With the Australian Family Project and 1970 National Fertility Survey, this paper uses between-states variation in the timing of youth consent laws in Australia and the US in the 1960s and 1970s to show that women in Australia who had never used the pill were 2 percentage points more likely to start at age 19 under an age of majority of 18 instead of 21 (from a base rate around 2%). Women living under liberalized youth consent and legal access to the pill in the US were 10 percentage points more likely to start the pill at age 20

Quaternary Evolution of the Colorado River at Lees Ferry, Arizona

A well-exposed suite of Colorado River fill terraces preserved at Lees Ferry records the oscillating history of this major river superimposed on its overall downcutting of the Colorado Plateau. Detailed mapping, sedimentology, cross-sectional surveys, and the use of two geochronometers have been used in order to establish a detailed chronostratigraphy for the area. Eight distinct deposits have been identified along the Colorado River (Ml -M7, and S3), and four deposits have been identified along the Paria River (Pl -P4). Geochronology of six of these deposits using optically stimulated luminescence and cosmogenic 10Be exposure techniques indicates a long-term average bedrock incision rate of 290 to 470 m/my. These incision rates are approximately two to three times higher than others reported in Grand Canyon and the upper Colorado River basin, but are similar to the recently reported high incision rates near Glen Canyon and along the Fremont River. These results suggest that there is a region of faster incision along the Colorado River in the central Colorado Plateau in the vicinity of Lees Ferry and Glen Canyon. This apparent increase in central plateau Pleistocene incision rates may be caused by either epeirogenic uplift due to tectonics and erosional isostatic rebound, or transient waves of incision in response to original drainage integration. In addition to recording the incision history of the Colorado River, the well-preserved Pleistocene fluvial terraces provide evidence regarding the timing and processes of terrace formation at Lees Ferry. Chronostratigraphic analysis indicates that aggradation was occurring at - 20 ka (M2), - 70 to 40 ka (M3), - 115 to 90 ka (M4), and - 130 ka (MS). Aggradation and incision along the Paria River appears to be occurring at the same time as that on the Colorado River. Deposits at Lees Ferry are generally younger than correlative deposits in headwater catchments and in eastern Grand Canyon. ln addition, the most prominent deposit in the Lees Ferry area (M4) correlates to MIS stage 5b-c, a time in which no glaciations have been reported in headwater drainages. Data from this study indicate that fluvial responses at Lees Ferry are a complicated integration of signals from climate change in headwater catchments and sediment production from local hillslopes and tributaries