Digital Commons Network^™

The Carbon Frame: Lobbying For Renewable Energy In The European Union, Kyle S. Herman

Master's Theses

This paper demonstrates how using the word "carbon" within global warming debates severely impedes lobbyists in favor of building stronger renewable energy policies in the European Union (EU). Within the EU, carbon is widely used to speak about many of the perils of climate change, global warming, energy policy, and contingent subject matters. In political circles, media outlets, and public debates, carbon acts a the pillar for many policies, discussions, and ideas related to fundamental errors of transferring energy from fossil fuels and nuclear sources. At the same time, however, limiting carbon does not necessarily preclude fossil fuels, such as …

Using Pen Source Data Inputs To Map Food Insecurity In Cumberland County, Maine, Daniel Wallace

Muskie School Capstones and Dissertations

In 2010, Mapping Food Insecurity’s Project Director (PD) participated in “The Campaign to Promote Food Security in Cumberland County, Maine.” The Campaign drew together a 60 member coalition to address rapidly increasing food insecurity challenges in the county. It produced a report with a series of recommendations grouped under six strategic community goals. One of the recommendations called for the use of ‘mapping and connectivity software to determine location of vulnerable populations and services in order to plan best future delivery and use of food access services in Cumberland County

Rethinking A Carbon Tax In An Era Of Budget Deficits, Chad Covert

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Political Communication In A Digital Age: 2011 Tea Party Senators And Social Media, Kaitlyn M. Barrett

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Mandatory Hiv Testing During Pregnancy: A Review Of Its Considerations, Ethics & Precedents, Abigail C. Beaudette

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Every year, in the United States, between 100-200 babies are infected prenatally with HIV. With the use of antiretroviral medications, elective cesarean section and formula feeding, the risk of vertical transmission can be reduced to less than 2%. In this paper I analyzed whether or not state governments should mandate HIV testing for all pregnant women in order to reduce vertical transmission of HIV. By looking at the cases for and against mandatory testing, as well as looking at states such as Connecticut who have implemented mandatory testing, I will present the case for why the benefit of mandatory testing …

Organizational Support, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, And Perceived Performance Analysis Of Crime Scene Investigation Units Of Turkish National Police, Aykut Tongur

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Policing is more difficult than ever before in today’s world since types of crime and criminal profiles change as a result of technological development and globalization. Police organizations should review their organizational and operational strategies to improve the fight against contemporary crimes and criminals. Behaviors and performance of police officers are very important in fighting crime. In this struggle, especially today, officers should exhibit organizational citizenship behaviors and perform better. One of the most important factors affecting these two concepts in organizations is organizational support. The literature stresses the social exchange cycle and reciprocity rules in the relationships of organizations …

Personal Perceptions And Organizational Factors Influencing Police Discretion The Case Of Turkish Patrol Officers' Responsiveness, Hidayet Tasdoven

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Police officers make decisions at the street level in a variety of situations that have direct impact on quality of life, justice in society, and individual freedom. These decisions inherently involve the exercise of discretion, since successfully performed police tasks are linked to the officer‘s choosing among alternative courses of action. Appropriateness of unsupervised decisions taken under street contingencies remains questionable in terms of police-behavior legitimacy. Law enforcement agencies seek ways to control excessive discretion to avoid undesired consequences of police discretion and maintain organizational legitimacy. Traditionally, organizations developed reward and sanction structures that aimed to shape officer behavior on …

Occupational Stress And Work-Related Wellbeing Of Turkish National Police (Tnp) Members, Sedat Kula

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Previous studies suggest that the organizational dynamics of police organizations and the nature of police work contribute to law enforcement stress, which in turn reduces job satisfaction and increases burnout. It is also well documented that undesirable organizational factors are more hazardous to the well-being of employees than are the stressors due to nature of police work. The present study examines whether, and to what degree, organizational and operational stresses in law enforcement are associated with job satisfaction, work-related burnout, and supervisor support, holding the effects of age, rank, education, gender, tenure, and shift type constant in the analysis. A …

Determinants Of Productivity In Hospital-Based Rural Health Clinics A Growth Curve Modeling Approach, Abiy T. Agiro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 expanded rural Medicaid and Medicare coverage. However, different vehicles of delivering care (e.g., hospitals, health clinics, etc.) have differing organizational capacity that may or may not enable them to overcome the challenges of expanded provision. Consequently, this research employed structural contingency and organizational performance models to investigate the impact of organizational factors on productivity growth, while recognizing that contextual factors also affect the delivery of care. Latent growth curve modeling was used to study a national panel of 708 U.S. hospitalbased Rural Health Clinics for the years 2005 to 2008. Productivity …

Determinants Of Interpersonal Trust, Organizational Commitment For Performance Within Kyrgyz National Police, Erlan Bakiev

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Improving organizational performance is an essential goal for any type of organization. This process involves varieties of methods, polices and strategies. One of the important elements of organizational performance is trust-building process which deeply depends on leadership efforts of ranked employees and managers. Literature has enough empirical evidence on influence of trust and trusted work environment on organizational performance. Aftermath of recent riots and clashes in Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyz National Police (KNP) officers are demoralized by the actions of both previous and current governments which bear corruption, bribery and clan type of ruling. These facts led to untrustworthy environments and relationships …

Understanding Collaboration, Its Antecedents And Perceived Outcomes In Service Partnerships Of Community-Based Organizations, Maritza Concha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to assess the motivations of community-based organizations (CBOs) staff to participate in service partnerships and their influence on collaboration practices and perceived outcomes of collaborative efforts. This study uses structural equation modeling to assess the relationships between exogenous variables (motivational factors) and endogenous variables (inter-organizational collaboration and perceived outcomes). This study also uses qualitative methods to address perceptions on collaboration not captured by the survey instrument. A total of 538 service partnership staff (supervisors and front liners) received the survey's link or a copy of the survey to participate. Out of the 538, 217 …

The Impact Of Organizational Goal Convergence, Information-Communication Technology Utilization, And Inter-Organizational Trust On Network Formation And Sustainability The Case Of Emergency Management In The United States, Vener Garayev

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the increase of severity and scope of disasters, collaborative networks have become the main tool to tackle with complex emergencies. Networks, however, are mostly effective to the extent they are maintained over time. This study analyzes whether organizational goal convergence, information-communication technology utilization, and inter-organizational trust impacts network sustainability. The main research questions of the study are: (1) How are organizational goals, technical/technological capacity of organizations, and trust among organizations of a network are related to the sustainability of collaborative network relationships? (2) Which of the above-mentioned factors plays the most significant role in affecting network sustainability? Covering the …

The School Resource Officer In Public Schools: Perceived Deterrent Effect On Campus Crime, David A. Rhinehart

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine student perceptions of the deterrent effect of School Resource Officers on crimes that may occur on school campuses and the factors that may influence those perceptions. The first school resource officer (SRO) program was implemented in 1953 and gained popularity in the 1990s. This study (conducted in 2008) reveals that the majority of students perceive that school resource officers are a deterrent to specific crimes and the overall crime rate on school campuses. The results of the survey indicated that the crimes of rape (74.1%), homicide (73.7%), aggravated assault or threat with …

Identification Of Factors Influencing The Commission Of Burglaries, Mustafa Donmez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As in many countries, burglary is a very serious crime in Turkey. Scientific methods and techniques are needed to solve complex burglary cases. This study is completed in the Bursa Police context since they classified many crime data conducive to scientific studies under a project called BEMTAP. The main purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing the commission of burglaries, using an epid-criminological perspective. It can be argued that factors leading to the commission of a crime are important for formulating preventive strategies in the community. In this study, the contributing factors are categorized into three main …

Effects Of Hospital Structural Complexity And Process Adequacy On The Prevalence Of Systemic Adverse Events And Compliance Issues A Biomedical Engineering Technician Perspective, Beth Ann Fiedler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Active interdepartmental participation of the biomedical engineering technician (BMET) with clinicians is an opportunity to reduce systemic events guided by empirical evidence that 1) establishes adverse events with medical equipment and 2) associates nursing effectiveness with access to functioning equipment. Though prior research has documented interdependency in nurse-physician relationships (and in such non-clinical health support services as laboratory and pharmaceutical departments), few studies in mainstream literature on quality have related medical professional interdependencies to the BMET. The promotion of National Patient Safety Goals, federal legislation (the Safe Device Act of 1990), and recommendations from agencies— The Joint Commission and the …

State Legislatures Diversity, Innovation, And Policy Adoption, Janna Souvorova

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The question of policy origination is the very essence of state public policy analysis. This study provides an overview of the previous research on innovation, as defined by Rogers (1962, 2003) and Walker (1969), and determinants models of state policy formulation, as they relate to innovation and policy adoption on the state level. The literature review indicates that previous research mostly focused on the internal state characteristics such as political and socioeconomic variables to explain state differences in policy adoption. The literature also indicates a general lack of empirical research relating diversity to innovation and policy adoption. State governments have …

Is Mine Risk Education (Mre) Having A Significant Effect And Long-Lasting Impact On Attitudes Towards Uxos At The Community Level?, Phounsy Phasavaeng

Capstone Collection

For over 30 years, UXO (Unexploded Ordnance) contamination in Laos has affected the ability of the population to maintain suitable livelihoods in a number of provinces. This constraint is a significant challenge to community development as well affecting National Social Economic Development. UXOs are the cause of many accidents in Laos, the casualties are often children and farmers who are involve in agricultural activities and scrap metal collection.

UXO-LAOS is the key UXO clearance agency in Laos. Other UXO clearance agencies have also tried to address the problem by providing the clearance work as well as Mine Risk Education (MRE) …

The Emergence Of Women City Managers In Texas In The Late 20th Century And The Early 21st Century, Helen Kay Godbey

Public Affairs Dissertations

The first generation of women city managers in the late 20th Century and early 21st Century have one thing in common: all were initially mentored and promoted by men. Like survivors of a Texas tornado that huddle in the closet and then peek out to see what is left of the world around them, these few women who became the first generation of assistant or city managers began to look around for other women who had also done so. Even though there were just a few, they began to mentor each other. I would propose that an enlightened public administration …

Socioeconomic Background And Parental Values: An Examination Of Approaches To Bureaucratic Discretion At The Street-Level, Jesse R. Booher

Public Affairs Theses

Scholarly literature on policy implementation at the street-level generally focuses on how workers act in response to external pressures. Pressures can include policy rules, organizational culture, and the identities of the clients. Academia has produced scant work, however, examining how the identities and backgrounds of street-level bureaucrats influence their approach to the discretion inherent in their jobs. This study seeks to fill that literary gap. Using semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats in North Texas, the study yields two strong relationships. First, a relationship exists between the participants' socioeconomic backgrounds as children and how they approach discretion inherent to street-level bureaucracy. …

Cultural And Historic Preservation Planning In Small Cities And Suburbs: A Study Of A Cultural Asset Inventory Of Kennedale, Texas, Gregory S. Collins

Public Affairs Theses

This thesis examines how smaller communities, which often lack the financial resources and the so-called "high culture" or marketable culture found in larger cities, can overcome challenges and develop cultural and historic preservation programs that perform the social function of unifying a community while also providing economic development opportunities that are connected to the community. The paper discusses "authenticity," and how this stated goal of city planners is actually a complex and contested concept rather than an objective standard that can be used to evaluate cultural planning programs. The paper reviews a number of cultural planning methods discussed in the …

Data Sharing Between Transportation Planning And Public Health: Issues And Opportunities Using A Regional Eco-Logical Framework, Michele Berry

Public Affairs Theses

Transportation planning has been shown to strongly impact public health yet collaboration and data or information sharing between the two communities is lacking. The Eco-Logical approach is a potential solution designed to advance transportation planning through an integrated planning process that includes other stakeholders. However, since the Eco-Logical approach provides no guidance on forming collaborations, network theory will be used to fill this hole. Both the Eco-Logical approach and network theory place heavy emphasis on information sharing and data exchange. This study will examine the current status of data sharing between transportation planning and public health through an analysis of …

Examining Income Polarization Indices In The Context Of `World City Thesis': An Analysis Of Large U.S. Metropolitan Areas, Chawana Mwangeka

Public Affairs Dissertations

For more than three decades, the `global city thesis' or the `world city thesis' has attracted scholarly contributions from urban planners, geographers, sociologists and urban political economists interested in socioeconomic and spatial polarization in mega cities. Although with limited empirical evidence, these scholars in general are in agreement that globalization is an underlying factor of growing income inequalities and socio-spatial polarization found in these urban areas. On the other hand, the field of welfare economics has traditionally associated income inequalities with factors that have attracted an avalanche of literature since 1950s. In the face of growing income inequalities which some …

Mitigating Climate Change At The Municipal Scale: American Urban Planning At A Crossroads, Kent L. Hurst

Public Affairs Dissertations

The failure of international negotiations toward a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol to limit global greenhouse gas emissions has highlighted not only the problematic associated with a global agreement on such a scientifically and politically complex issue, but also the importance of sub-national action in lieu of such an agreement. This is especially true in the United States where any national climate protection framework seems unlikely in the foreseeable future. In the absence of any such policy leadership from Washington, it is increasingly falling to states, regional organizations, and municipalities to craft emissions reduction strategies that will contribute meaningfully …

Closing The Gap In Higher Education: African American Male College Students Perceptions Of Advising At A Two Year College, Terry L. Aaron

Public Affairs Dissertations

The attrition of minority students is fast becoming a salient issue in higher education. Academic advising has long been viewed as a determinant of participation, persistence and success. Persistence focuses on retention. Participation and success are two objectives of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's initiative "Closing the Gap." This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine African American male college students' (AAMCSs) perceptions of advising center practices, advisor practices and affinity factors and their influence on participation and persistence. Data collected from a sample of 225 AAMCSs was analyzed to determine if academic advising was indeed a tool …

High School Influences On College Enrollment And College Graduation Of Dallas Independent School District 2002 Graduates, Linda K. Johnson

Public Affairs Dissertations

The overarching goal for American education under President Barack Obama has been to increase college enrollment and completion rates. The pressure to achieve this goal has been keenly felt in the postsecondary community, especially as federal and state funding have become increasingly tied to achieving higher college completion rates. Yet the adequate preparation of students lies primarily in the secondary system, and the literature contains many statistics that support the view that few students are adequately prepared, especially those who are educated in urban public school systems. The challenge was to determine actions that can be implemented by school districts …

Law And Politics In Public-Private Partnerships: Transparency, Conflict Of Interest, And Renegotiation In Concession Arrangements, Samuel A. Roach

Public Affairs Dissertations

Many states and local governments have begun to use the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) vehicle as a policy tool in the area of highway transportation infrastructure development. A particular type of PPP, sometimes referred to as a "concession," can involve a state or local government's grant of concession rights, which typically includes the right to collect toll revenues on a roadway, to a private entity in exchange for the private entity's development and management of the roadway. As highway concession practice in the U.S. is a recent phenomenon, policymakers and other interested observers can benefit from a greater understanding of these …

Engaging Over-Age Participants In Urban Learning And Work Environments: An Empirical Demonstration Of Macro-Level Efficiency Through Effective At-Risk Student And Teacher Recovery, J. Randall Farmer

Public Affairs Dissertations

This study reviews data-driven appraisals of No Child Left Behind (2001) as well as the nation's at-risk student- and teacher dropout problems. Little, if any, evidence is found that troubled, over-age teens or struggling, first-year educators are overly concerned with the enhancement of federal and state accountability measures, rigorous performance standards, college preparatory curricula, or formative or summative assessments - let alone the academic credentials, continuing education credits, or even combined years of work experience of their teachers and colleagues. Rather, at-risk students and teachers in the nation's urban learning and work environments are most concerned with their want and …

Closing The Gap In Higher Education: African American Male College Students Perceptions Of Advising At A Two Year College, Terry L. Aaron

Public Affairs Dissertations

The attrition of minority students is fast becoming a salient issue in higher education. Academic advising has long been viewed as a determinant of participation, persistence and success. Persistence focuses on retention. Participation and success are two objectives of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's initiative "Closing the Gap." This study used quantitative and qualitative methods to examine African American male college students' (AAMCSs) perceptions of advising center practices, advisor practices and affinity factors and their influence on participation and persistence. Data collected from a sample of 225 AAMCSs was analyzed to determine if academic advising was indeed a tool …

High School Influences On College Enrollment And College Graduation Of Dallas Independent School District 2002 Graduates, Linda K. Johnson

Public Affairs Dissertations

The overarching goal for American education under President Barack Obama has been to increase college enrollment and completion rates. The pressure to achieve this goal has been keenly felt in the postsecondary community, especially as federal and state funding have become increasingly tied to achieving higher college completion rates. Yet the adequate preparation of students lies primarily in the secondary system, and the literature contains many statistics that support the view that few students are adequately prepared, especially those who are educated in urban public school systems. The challenge was to determine actions that can be implemented by school districts …

Socioeconomic Background And Parental Values: An Examination Of Approaches To Bureaucratic Discretion At The Street-Level, Jesse R. Booher

Public Affairs Theses

Scholarly literature on policy implementation at the street-level generally focuses on how workers act in response to external pressures. Pressures can include policy rules, organizational culture, and the identities of the clients. Academia has produced scant work, however, examining how the identities and backgrounds of street-level bureaucrats influence their approach to the discretion inherent in their jobs. This study seeks to fill that literary gap. Using semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats in North Texas, the study yields two strong relationships. First, a relationship exists between the participants' socioeconomic backgrounds as children and how they approach discretion inherent to street-level bureaucracy. …