Digital Commons Network^™

E-Waste In Relation To Geopolitical Forces: A Case Study Of The United States - Mexico Border Region, Michael A. Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Analysis deconstructs the electronic waste industry and its interconnectedness to geopolitical forces and economic development in the border region between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. A symbiotic business relationship exists between informal e-waste collectors, non-profit collection sites, and for-profit recyclers. Fieldwork data is analyzed from a slow/structural violence perspective.

Riding The Wave: How The Philanthropic Revolution Will Impact Museums In The United States And Canada, Sarah M. Mackey

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone project explores the history of philanthropy from 1970 to the present, and presents a strategy for museums to leverage contemporary trends in nonprofit giving. The methods proposed in this project are specifically targeted at engaging new community leaders and the family members of legacy donors. I have researched and created an updated job description and hiring plan for a Transformational Gift Officer. This person would be responsible for identifying, cultivating, and stewarding the donor portfolio outlined in this project. The individual who will be successful in this role will be able to move past institutional silos and collaboratively …

Slavery, Migration, And Local Development In The Western Us, Colin Q. Sharpe

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the effects of migration from eastern slave states in the 19th century on the subsequent development of counties in the Western US. I find that increased migration from slave states has a large, statistically significant negative effect on 2010 income, and no significant effect on racial inequality or overall income inequality. These findings are robust to a variety of specifications, including controls for geographic factors, state fixed effects, and various county level social and economic conditions. Data on individual migrants suggest that the cause of the negative income effect is the lower average human capital endowment of …

Retirement Reboot: A Website Redesign, Christina Gillen

Honors Projects

A website could be created with the latest technology, but after a few years it will still need to be updated. This is what happened to Swanton Health Care and Retirement Center’s website. This project is designed to remedy the problem by creating an entirely new website with updated content, images, and interactive features to bring Swanton Health Care’s online presence back to life.

Rail: African & African American Labor And The Ties That Bind In The Atlantic World, Benjamin David Wendorf

Theses and Dissertations

As was intended, the construction of railways transformed the landscape and societies of the Atlantic World. Great fortunes and forces emerged in the directions of the tracks, sufficient to create structures of economy and organize communities in ways that persisted long after a railway’s use had diminished. In this dissertation, the author argues that the connections and reorganization effected by railway construction created new economic paths in the American South, Panama, and Gold Coast West Africa; the transformations were marked by struggles for power along racial lines, enslavement and coercion in labor, and the interchange between communities and their existing …

The Role Of Hif1alpha And Hif2alpha In Muscle Development And Satellite Cell Function, Shiqi Yang

Open Access Theses

Hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are central mediators of cellular responses to fluctuations of oxygen, an environmental regulator of stem cell activity. Muscle satellite cells are myogenic stem cells whose quiescence, activation, self-renewal and differentiation are influenced by microenvironment oxygen levels. However, the in vivo roles of HIFs in quiescent satellite cells and activated satellite cells (myoblasts) are poorly understood. Expression analyses indicate that HIF1α and HIF2α are preferentially expressed in pre- and post-differentiation myoblasts, respectively. Interestingly, double knockout of HIF1α and HIF2α (HIF1α/2α dKO) in embryonic myoblasts results in apparently normal muscle development and growth. However, HIF1α/2α dKO in postnatal …

The Effect Of Foreign Direct Investment, Foreign Aid And International Remittance On Economic Growth In South Asian Countries, Nikhil Joshi

Culminating Projects in Economics

The total amount of money sent from the developed world to the developing world has always been increasing with no signs to slowing down. Foreign aid and remittance are at its highest levels ever recorded. Even with these large sums of money transfer, there still seem to be no consensus among economists regarding the effectiveness of external development finance and foreign exchange earnings (Foreign Direct Investment, foreign aid or remittance) in promoting economic growth. This paper attempts to identify an econometric model that properly portrays this relationship and analyze the effect of external development finance and foreign exchange earnings on …

Language Brokering Consequences As A Function Of Development, Brent M. Gage

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Language brokering can be defined as a child mediating linguistically for a parent or other adult figure, either in spoken or written communication. This situation is a common occurrence among migrant and refugee families as children tend to acquire a new language at an accelerated rate in comparison with adults. As the immigrant and refugee populations continue to grow in comparison with native groups within the United States, it is increasingly important to understand the phenomenon of child language brokering. Moreover, it is particularly relevant to understand how the expectations for and consequences of language brokering may help to shape …

The Development Of An E-Learning Usability Scale For Higher Education, Zoroayka V. Sandoval

Theses and Dissertations

In order to measure usability in higher education online courses, the E-Learning Usability Scale for Higher Education was developed in this study. After an extensive review of literature, the E-Learning Usability Evaluation Questionnaire developed by Zaharias (2009) was the closest instrument found to be free and available. However, this instrument was designed to measure usability for corporate settings and an adaptation of the items was required for online courses in higher education. The purpose of this study was to design a usability instrument for online courses in higher education from an original instrument designed for corporate settings, and to determine …

Distribution And Population Dynamics Of Ungulates In The Mongolian Gobi, Buuveibaatar Bayarbaatar

Doctoral Dissertations

The Mongolian Gobi is one of the most spectacular and important regions in Central Asia, comprising the largest area of intact grassland in the world. In recent years, a growing human population, expanding exploitation of natural resources, and the development of infrastructure in the region place increasing pressure on these species and their habitats. This dissertation has focused on three species of ungulates such as Mongolian saiga (Saiga tatarica mongolica) in western Mongolia, and Asiatic wild ass (Equus hemionus), and goitered gazelle (Gazella subgutturosa) in Southern Gobi. The study on endangered saiga antelope in …

Infants' Reasoning About Agents' Identity: The Case Of Sociomoral Kinds, Hernando Taborda

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent studies in development psychology suggest that early on infants are able to distinguish characters who display a cooperative behavior from characters who display an antisocial behavior. The current research builds on these findings and aims at determining the extent to which infants possess the sociomoral distinction of “good” and “mean” agents. In particular, we propose that infants represent sociomoral behaviors through kind-based categories. This hypothesis was tested in the current research across 5 different experiments by investigating how infants represent the identity of agents in sociomoral situations. Experiment 1 used a looking-time paradigm to demonstrate 11-month-old infants’ bias to …

The Political Economy Of Smallholder Incorporation And Land Acquisition, Alfredo R. Rosete

Doctoral Dissertations

Of late, development institutions and economists have argued that one way to accomplish the modernization, and thus, poverty alleviation in the rural sector is through smallholder incorporation- partnerships between agribusiness firms and smallholders in order to cultivate high valued export crops. Smallholders in developing countries often face numerous challenges that result in low incomes, and limited opportunities. As a result of these challenges, smallholders in developing countries continue to cultivate subsistence crops, or, use less technologically intensive techniques. Thus, many are unable to maximize the use of their holdings. Agribusiness firms may provide the material inputs, infrastructure, and transport needed …

Effects Of Adolescent Alcohol Binge Drinking On Prefrontal Myelin, Wanette M. Vargas-Rodriguez

Doctoral Dissertations

Alcohol binge drinking is highly prevalent in teenagers and is associated with various harmful health effects and social problems. During adolescence, brain regions such as the prefrontal cortex (PFC) are still undergoing active development, characterized by increases in white matter volume. While the morphological details and the cellular and molecular sequences governing adolescent white matter development are not fully known, it is known that this development process is sensitive and can be disrupted. Although consumption of alcohol in a binge drinking pattern has been linked to lower white matter integrity in humans, it is important to determine if alcohol is …

Colonial And Post-Colonial Origins Of Agrarian Development: The Case Of Two Punjabs, Shahram Azhar

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores the colonial and post-colonial origins of agrarian development by looking at the role of historical institutions, class formations and the state (ICS) in shaping the process. It contributes to the “divergence debates” in economics, which make an attempt to explain the ‘fundamental causes’ of divergence between countries. While one strand of the divergence literature presents the process as being functional to ‘geography’, a second strand focuses on the institutional legacies of colonialism; what is common to both sets of explanations, however, is the view that future outcomes are completely pre-determined by one or another time-invariant factor, leading …

Neural Correlates Of The Development Of Cognitive Flexibility, Dina R. Dajani

Open Access Theses

One aspect of executive function, cognitive flexibility, is necessary for implementing the appropriate and efficient adaptation of cognitions in the face of changing environments. In a recently proposed framework, cognitive flexibility is thought to involve multiple component functions: stimulus-driven attention and two related executive functions, working memory and inhibition. These executive functions commonly recruit the frontal, cingulate, and parietal brain regions, but it is unclear whether cognitive flexibility and its component functions arise from specific connectivity profiles within this superordinate fronto-cingulo-parietal network. The objectives of this study were to 1) index behavioral changes in attention, working memory, inhibition and cognitive …

The Educational Experience: Understanding The Voices Of Students With And Without Specific Learning Disorders, Morgan A. Wood

Honors Theses

Elementary school is a pivotal time during a child’s development in cognition, social behaviors and relationships, and development of self. For students who may have significant academic disabilities, resulting in a diagnosis of a Specific Learning Disorder, this time can be more difficult than their “typical” learning peers. Intervention techniques have been developed and implemented; however, academic success is defined as increased standardized test scores. Little research has been done regarding these students’ emotional and social success within their prescribed intervention technique. It is the aim of this study to strive to understand the voices of students with specific learning …

Observational Assessment Of Empathy In Parent-Child Verbal Exchanges And Their Influence On Child Behavior, Patty Carambot

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Empathy, the ability to both experientially share in and understand others’ thoughts, behaviors, and feelings, is vital for human adaptation. Deficits in empathy development have implications across the lifespan for the development of prosocial behavior, social functioning, mental health disorders, and risk for antisocial behavior (e.g., Guajardo, Snyder, & Petersen, 2009; Moreno, Klute & Robinson, 2008). In light of these societal and individual burdens, it is imperative to foster and strengthen the development of this ability early in life to prevent or ameliorate such negative outcomes. This type of prevention can take a variety of forms, but parent and child …

Leadership Development And Ethnic Identity Of Latina/O Students At Rowan University, Andrew Montanez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influences of leadership and ethnic identity among selected Rowan University Latina/o undergraduate students. More specifically, the study replicated Oldham’s (2008) research, which was based on Erikson's Identity Development Theory (1980) and the Leadership Identity Model of Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, and Mainella (2005). In addition, the study probed how Latina/o Rowan University undergraduate students viewed their ethnicity using Phinney’s (1992) Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM).

Students were surveyed randomly via an electronic version of the instrument on Rowan’s Volvici survey software, and by convenience sampling through paper formatted surveys gathered at the …

Characterizing Headwater Stream Hydrology And Nitrogen Export During Storms Across A Gradient Of Watershed Development, Jason Sauer

Master's Theses

Nitrogen (N) is a critical element for aquatic ecosystem function that can degrade water quality and cause eutrophication if in excess of natural levels. Anthropogenic nonpoint sources contribute more than 90% of total N added to major watersheds in the U.S, in excess of natural levels, and they are increasing with land development. Storms mobilize N from anthropogenic sources and generate periods of high N export to aquatic ecosystems. In this thesis, I explore how a gradient of watershed development affects the volume-weighted load, composition, and timing of N exported from first-order streams in New England during storms. I find …

Implementation And Evaluation Of A Charge Nurse Development Project Bundle, Kathy L. Rose

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Charge nurses play pivotal roles in healthcare organizations. Yet, studies related to charge nurse development programs are presently limited. The purpose of this project bundle was to develop, implement, and evaluate interventions to enhance charge nurse leadership skills in a 250-bed acute care hospital. Although the interventions did not result in measurable changes in leadership practice ratings by the charge nurses, the manager and observer leadership practice ratings improved, which were statistically significant.

Identification And Characterization Of The Molecular Determinants Of The Anterior-Posterior Axis In The Sea Urchin Embryo, Lingyu Wang

Open Access Dissertations

How the embryonic body axis emerges from a seemingly symmetrical egg and is subsequently patterned during embryogenesis is one of the most fundamental questions in developmental biology. It is now clear that localized activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays a conserved role in primary body axis formation and/or endoderm/endomesoderm specification during embryo development of phylogenetically diverse animal species. In sea urchin embryos, recent experimental evidence has shown that Dishevelled (Dsh), a central hub protein in the Wnt/β-catenin pathway, is asymmetrically enriched and differentially modified in a vegetal cortical domain (VCD) of the unfertilized egg. Experimental evidence has also shown …

Perceived Emotional Invalidation In A Developmental Context: Does Gender Matter?, Brian B. Johnson

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Emotional invalidation is the dismissal, minimization, or punishment of an individual’s emotional experience (Linehan, 1993). Although it has been sparsely studied, the research that has been conducted indicates that it is likely implicated in a multitude of psychopathology and adjustment issues. The current study had three main objectives. The first of these was to investigate the current perceptions of emotional invalidation in a peer interaction for emerging adults and how that is predicted by gender, perceptions of childhood emotional invalidation via caregivers, and gender of the caregivers. The second objective of this study was to investigate the propagation of emotionally …

Reflexivity: A First Demonstration, Melissa Jane Swisher

Open Access Dissertations

Currently, the emergent relation of reflexivity after training a set of baseline relations has not been demonstrated with any animal—human or nonhuman. True reflexivity can only be demonstrated if no identity (i.e., physically matching stimulus) relations are trained. In six experiments, the emergence of reflexivity and its opposite, anti-reflexivity, were explored. Pigeons received concurrent successive matching training on two or three arbitrary tasks: AB hue-form and BC form-hue (and AC hue-hue) matching. Once they had acquired these tasks, they were tested for BB (form-form) reflexivity or BB’ (form-form) anti-reflexivity matching. Most (10 of 13) pigeons that received three arbitrary tasks …

Remittance Behavior Of Us Immigrants, Nathan Edward Trombley

Masters Theses

Remittances, the sending of a portion of an immigrant’s income to friends and family, have become an undeniable and significant part of the global economy. This is especially true in some common immigrant sending regions where remittances make up a dominant portion of the local economy. The New Immigrant Survey has released the second wave of data in its cohort study of immigrants recently achieving Lawful Permanent Residence status in the United States. In light of this newly available information, this study seeks to highlight demographic and background characteristics of immigrants that have a statistically significant relationship on their sending …

Deconstructing The Diagnosis: Making The Case For A New Discourse On Childhood Cancer, Jessika Carmen Boles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Childhood cancer is both a medical ailment and a cultural phenomenon created within dominant discursive notions of childhood/adulthood, health/illness, and life/death binaries. Research to date on the learning and development of children with cancer has primarily focused on quantifying the knowledge they possess about their illness and treatment and recommendations for medical staff based on the child's assumed capabilities and limitations. Little is known about how children with cancer actively negotiate discursive beliefs in this context. Therefore, the purpose of this Foucauldian (1970) post-structural case study research was to deconstruct the ways in which children with cancer learn about their …

Predictors Of Language Outcome For Children In The Ontario Infant Hearing Program, Olivia M. Daub

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Ontario Infant Hearing Program (OIHP) provides early interventions (i.e., hearing aids) to children who are hard of hearing (CHH) because research consistently demonstrates their benefit to language outcomes. The impact of pre-fitting language abilities on these outcomes are not well understood.

This retrospective cohort analysis examined the performance of OIHP children on the Preschool Language Scale-4 at the time of (n=47), and after (n=19), initial hearing aid intervention. Regression analyses revealed that, before amplification, hearing loss severity predicted language abilities. However, after amplification, severity of hearing loss did not uniquely predict language achievement, but rather …

Managing The Agricultural Biotechnology Revolution: Responses To Transgenic Seeds In Developing Countries, Alper Yagci

Doctoral Dissertations

There has been heated debate over transgenic or genetically modified (GM) crops in agriculture. Advocates and critics argue over possible economic, environmental, public health implications of this technology. This study examines varying policy approaches to regulating GM crop cultivation in four developing countries where the technology has large potential application. Why have some countries banned GM crop cultivation in their territory while others encouraged it? In countries where GM crops were allowed, why have varying systems of intellectual property rights (IPR) protection been constructed? To investigate these questions I comparatively examine the policy experience (1995-2015) of Argentina, Brazil, Turkey relying …

The Effects Of Amphetamine Exposure On Neurodevelopment And Behavior In Early Life Stages Of Danio Rerio, Jennifer D. Bullard

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Amphetamines are frequently prescribed to young children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Due to the recent rise in ADHD diagnoses and the resulting increase in amphetamine intake in children, we investigated how amphetamine exposure impacts the development of stereotyped behaviors and the neural circuit that governs these behaviors. The zebrafish (Danio rerio) was used as our model organism because of the extensively studied developmental milestones these fish provide. Using escape responses as a behavior model, we exposed embryos to three doses of amphetamine (10 μg/ml, 20 μg/ml, and 30 μg/ml) environmentally during the first 48 hours of …

Developmental Changes In Response To Music-Evoked Emotion Among Children And Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Kevin G. Stephenson

Theses and Dissertations

Significant symptoms of anxiety in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may arise due to impaired emotion recognition. In light of reports showing ASD-specific developmental changes in amygdala volumes, we expanded a previous study of recognition of music-evoked emotions in ASD versus typical controls (CON). We explicitly compared both behavioral and psychophysiological response to music-evoked emotions of children (ages 8-11) and older adolescents (ages 16-18). A total of 91 participants (42 ASD) listened to segments of instrumental music that had been previously validated to evoke happy, sad, or scary emotional valence. We measured accuracy and reaction time while also …

Development Of Pressure Swing Adsorption (Psa) Processor Co2 Capture From Flue Gas, Md. Atikur Rahman

Theses and Dissertations

Reducing the anthropogenic CO2 emissions and lowering the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere has become one of the most important environmental issues of recent times. To this end, the development of a cost effective pressure swing adsorption (PSA) process, utilizing commercially available 13X zeolite as the adsorbent, is underway to remove and concentrate CO2 in the flue gas of a coal-fired power plant. This systematic development effort has been carried out so far at the bench scale. It has included the following studies that defined and validated this PSA process both experimentally and via a PSA process model. …