Religion and Third Parties: The 2016 Presidential Election in Utah

Third parties in the United States face a litany of obstacles to electoral success. Duverger’s Law explains that single-member, plurality-based elections will favor a two party system. However, on rare occasion a third party candidate is able to do abnormally well, even winning elections on occasion. Evan McMullin presents a unique success story among third party campaigns. He is without the name recognition, strong financial backing, or political experience that most successful third party candidates have. Despite these challenges, he became the second most successful third party presidential candidate in the history of the state of Utah. Evan McMullin’s success is hypothesized as a defection of active members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, due to a Republican Party candidate selection failure. This short term major party failure revealed cleavages between this religious voting bloc and the Republican Party at large. Based on this research, analysis of other voting blocs traditionally loyal to either major party could be examined, and other potential defections from the party in the future could be predicted

The Effects of Goal Setting and Task Selection on Perceived Competence, Intrinsic Motivation, and Spelling Performance of a Group of Students with Learning Disabilities

The intrinsic motivation, spelling performance, and perceived competence of students with learning disabilities was examined. Eight students with learning disabilities decided which and how many words they would attempt on weekly spelling test.s and chose the practice activity they would complete each day. Each student -set a goal of how many of the words attempted would be correct on the spelling test (i. e., .perceived competence). Harter \u27s.Scale of . Intrinsic Versus Extrinsic Orientation in the Classroom was administered as a pretest . and posttest. No significant difference in mean scores was found on the Harter scale. ·Average spelling test scores, however, increased during .the intervention phase. The perceived competence of some.. subjects also increased

Presence of Late 8 Phonemes among Adolescents and Young Adults with Down syndrome

The purpose of this study was to describe the phonetic repertoire of late 8 phonemes among adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome and then determine the relationship between age and presence of the latest developing phonemes as well as their impact on intelligibility. This study also described the stimulability profile for those late 8 phonemes that were produced in error. The Arizona Articulation and Phonology Scale was administered to individuals with Down syndrome between the ages of 12 – 21;11 to obtain a phonetic profile. Among those participants included in the study, on average, 87.5% of the late 8 phonemes were present. Seven of eight participants were stimulable for all phonemes that were misarticulated. Results did not indicate a significant correlation between either age or intelligibility and the presence of late 8 phonemes

Benefits of Using Primary Sources in the High School United States History Classroom

History textbooks have not traditionally included the perspectives of the whole of society. The contributions of non-whites, women, the poor and the illiterate are consistently forgotten or ignored in the history classroom. When the stories of these groups are present, the content is incomplete and minimal, due to the resources available to the teacher within the curriculum provided by the textbook manufacturers or the school districts. Primary sources, or first hand accounts of history, can be used to supplement gaps in the curriculum, allowing students to construct a more authentic and complete knowledge of history. This project includes practical supplemental lesson plans and resources for the high school United States history classroom, as well as research on the topics of the benefits and weaknesses of primary sources, the necessity of including the voices of the disenfranchised in history, and the usefulness of artifacts in the constructivist-based classroom

Contributions to Household Work by Children in Two-Parent/Two-Child Families in Utah

The purpose of this study was to investigate children\u27s contributions to household work and to determine what factors affected the amount of time children spent in household work activities. Data for the study came from the Utah portion of the Interstate Comparison of Urban/Rural Families\u27 Time Use which involved 210 two-parent/two-child families in Utah. Data were collected through interviews with the homemakers in each family using time diaries and an information questionnaire.Time use was recorded for two 24 hour days for all family members over the age of five . For the present study an analysis was made of the time contributions to household work by 200 children (87 girls/113 boys) from 114 families. Ninety- s ix of the children were from rural families and 104 were from urban families. Factors considered included sex; place of residence; children\u27s time in school, paid employment, and organizational activities; children\u27s time in social and recreational activities; hours of parental employment; and parents; time in household work. Statistical analysis was done using either a partial correlation coefficient to control for age or a t test of the differences between means. Findings revealed that the amount of time children contribute to household work activities varies widely. Some children contribute little or no time to household work while others put in several hours per day. Rural children were found to contribute more time to household work than urban children. Girls did not contribute a significantly greater amount of time to household work than boys, but boys and girls did contribute time to different types of household work activities. Girls were more likely to spend time performing traditionally feminine household tasks and boys were more likely to spend time performing traditionally masculine household tasks . Hours of parental employment and parents\u27 time in household work did not make much impact on children\u27s contributions to work in the home, but it does seem clear that children\u27s time in household work does not substitute for that of adult family members

Toward a Poetics and Pedagogy of Sound: Students as Production Engineers in the Literature Classroom

Pairing students to be recorders and production editors of poetry readings results in a collaborative assignment that embodies students’ experience of reading through media

Examining macro-level correlates of farm equipment theft : a test of routine activity theory and social disorganization theory.

This dissertation explores the potential for routine activity theory and social disorganization theory to explain incidence of farm equipment theft at the county level. Relatively few attempts have been made to discern the factors that contribute to such theft. Most are relatively dated, and all focus upon the relationship between victimization risk and the characteristics of individual farms. Accordingly, the current study represents the first attempt to examine the influence of macro-level processes and characteristics upon the problem. Data are gathered for 306 counties housed within four Southeastern States. Counts of farm equipment theft are collected from the 2011-2012 iterations of the National Incident Based Reporting System, and attributed to the county in which they occurred. The routine activity measures employed are based upon the findings of micro-level studies, and drawn primarily from the 2007 version of the Census of Agriculture. Social disorganization measures are created in line with past attempts to explore the applicability of the theory to crime problems outside of metropolitan areas. These measures are derived from the 2010 version of the United States Census. Negative binomial regression analysis suggests that both theories have applicability to our understanding of farm equipment theft incidence. Agricultural characteristics aggregated to the county level appear to condition the number of opportunities available to motivated offenders. Moreover, counties featuring structural characteristics conducive to disorganization appear to experience higher incidence of theft than those that would be considered “more organized.” Based upon these findings, implications for each theoretical framework are addressed. In addition, policy implications are covered, with a specific focus upon strategies designed to reduce opportunities for theft and improve levels of informal social control in rural areas. The dissertation concludes with a brief discussion of limitations associated with the study, directions for future research, and concluding remarks

Repair Priorities

The nation's roads are deteriorating, contributing to a looming financial problem. When we released the first edition of Repair Priorities in 2011, the poor condition of the nation's road network was a direct reflection of decades of decisions to underinvest in repair. In the years since, policymakers continue to pay lip service to the notion of prioritizing repair and "fix-it-first," yet we have little to show for the rhetoric. The latest data in this report shows that the conditions of our roadways have not improved, perpetuating a costly backlog of roads in poor condition. Congress provides states with billions in formula funding that they are free to use for maintenance. Yet, despite the backlog, states continue to spend a significant portion of funding to build new roads, creating costly new maintenance liabilities in the form of new roads and lane-miles. We need to take much stronger action as a nation to reverse the deterioration of our infrastructure. We need a different set of priorities—not simply a higher level of overall investment. We now have years of evidence that simply increasing funding for highways does not solve the problem—the same spending patterns persist: underinvestment in repair and overinvestment in expanding a highway system that we cannot afford to maintain