Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of States’ Laws On Youth Physical Activity Participation And Obesity Prevalence, Chae Young Chang

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The alarming prevalence of obesity and lack of physical activity among adolescents led to immediate policy action to address these concerns. Accordingly, many states introduced and enacted their own legislation to encourage physical activity in schools. Few studies have explored the effectiveness of the new legislation, however, especially at the state level. To answer the fundamental question of whether policy is effective and to describe the varying effects of state obesity policies, this study analyzed the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System from 2007 to 2017. Using the difference-in-differences method, this study found that legislative efforts to encourage physical activity had …

Profitable Retail Customer Identification Based On A Combined Prediction Strategy Of Customer Lifetime Value, Yinglu Sun, Dong Cheng, Subir Bandyopadhyay, Wei Xue

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

As a fundamental concept of customer relationship management, customer lifetime value (CLV) serves as a crucial metric to identify profitable retail customers. Various methods are available to predict CLV in different contexts. With the development of consumer big data, modern statistics and machine learning algorithms have been gradually adopted in CLV modeling. We introduce two machine learning algorithms—the gradient boosting decision tree (GBDT) and the random forest (RF)—in retail customer CLV modeling and compare their predictive performance with two classical models—the Pareto/NBD (HB) and the Pareto/GGG. To ensure CLV prediction and customer identification robustness, we combined the predictions of the …

"It's About More Than Just Animals": Environmental Politics Of Zoo-Adjacent Conservation(Ists) In The U.S., Dayton D. Starnes Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

This research explores the influences of diverse environmental politics in shaping zoo-adjacent conservation activities in the United States. Based upon 13 months of multi-sited ethnographic research, conducted with conservation actors across six states, the researcher investigates and documents how conservation professionals—operating in contexts adjacent to zoological institutions—experience and respond to the socio-environmental implications associated with the cascading effects of global environmental change. In the face of current challenges and uncertain environmental futures—shaped by habitat alterations, ecological transitions, and species declines/extinctions—conservationists are undergoing their own processes of reassessment and reconfiguration of their underpinning philosophies and body of practices that inform their …

The Motivation To Volunteer: Understanding Volunteer Motivation At United States Industrial Heritage Museums And Organizations, Cooper Sheldon

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Industrial Heritage Museums and Organizations (IHMOs) in the United States (US) and their volunteers are underrepresented in the literature on volunteerism. The motivation and demographics of volunteers in IHMOs within the US are examined in this paper. Research into this topic is exploratory and little is known, therefore any hypothesis was based on personal observations as an AmeriCorps VISTA member in a variety of US museums. An online survey was sent out to three hundred and eighty-five museums across the US, along with conducting twelve in-person or over-the-phone interviews with museum practitioners and volunteers. This research found that a majority …

Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Marine protected areas (MPAs)—defined geographic areas where fishing and harvesting activity is limited or restricted—have emerged as a popular marine biodiversity and climate resilience strategy worldwide. MPA monitoring efforts often follow MPA designation to help inform the adaptive management of MPAs and MPA networks. In 2012, California completed the largest statewide system of MPAs to date, consisting of 124 MPAs covering 16% of state waters. Following MPA implementation, the state initiated a long-term monitoring program (2019-2022) to help inform the 10-year MPA management review. This two-chapter thesis presents findings from a state-funded project to conduct long-term socioeconomic monitoring for human …

"En Afrique, On N'Oublie Jamais": An Autoethnographic Exploration Of A Tck's Return "Home", Justin B. Hopkins

The Qualitative Report

Many Third Culture Kids (TCKs) struggle to answer the commonly-asked question: Where are you from? In this autoethnographic essay, a continuation of my earlier exploration of TCK experience (Hopkins, 2015), I confront my concept of home in reference to psychological research by Jerry Burger (2011), exploring the phenomenon of adults returning “home,” to place(s) that were important in their early lives. Like Burger’s subjects, I describe my experience of returning to visit, after over two decades away, the remote village in Senegal where I spent many of my childhood years. Following Tessa Muncey’s (2010) methodological lead, I structure my account …

International Tourism As A Threat To Public Health In Thailand, Liam G. Lane

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

From its unique history, Thailand has embraced its independence and benefited from its cultural and natural beauty. Transitioning from an agricultural to industrial economy due to the emergence of a strong tourism industry, Thailand has experienced a period of intensive urbanization that has re-shaped Thai lifestyle. Materializing as regional and social disparities, these consequences of industrialization have seemingly divided Thai society, separating those who benefit from the tourism sector while marginalizing those who do not. Additionally, this transition has threatened public health statuses within Thailand, and considering the current tourism trends seen over the past 20 years there is a …

What Is Environmental Consciousness? A Thematic Cluster, Sophia Perdikaris

School of Global Integrative Studies: Faculty Publications

This essay serves as the introduction to this issue of Ecocene (December 2020, volume 1, issue 2).

First two paragraphs:

For its second issue Ecocene welcomed cross-disciplinary contributions on what it means to be environmentally conscious in the world today, what it might have meant in diverse social-environmental pasts, or indeed what it may mean in our shared futures. The ambition of the cluster has been to engage with some key reassessments of the ways in which ecologies, identities, communities, temporalities, heritage, spatiality, risks, or agencies have been rethought in recent years, or in new waves of research, scholarship, theory, …

Balance On Every Ledger: Kwakwaka’Wakw Resource Values And Traditional Ecological Management, Douglas Deur, Kim Recalma-Clutesi, Chief Adam Dick

Anthropology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter illustrates the core environmental values of the Kwakwaka’wakw (Kwakiutl) people on the Pacific coast of Canada to explore how they manifest in the traditional management of coastal natural resources. The authors’ survey of environmental values is based on the authentic knowledge of Chief Adam Dick, a co-author of the chapter. The chapter argues that talking about Indigenous Knowledge without the broader context of environmental values can lead to serious scholarly misunderstandings and insists that long-term collaborations between academic researchers and specialized knowledge holders from Indigenous communities is necessary in order to represent Indigenous Knowledge accurately.

This chapter illustrates …

Save Water Drink Wine: Challenges Of Implementing The Ethnography Of The Temecula Valley Wine Industry Into Food-Energy-Water Nexus Decision-Making, Zaida E. Darley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study demonstrates the interrelationships of people, food, energy, and water associated with Temecula Valley’s wine industry and reveals contradictions and biases in how people view these resources, which ultimately shape management and policies. The FEW (Food, Energy, and Water) Nexus is an approach increasingly used by policy- and decision-makers to understand the interrelationship of several resources. However, a FEW Nexus approach often lacks in social aspects that influence environmentally and economically sustainable outcomes, especially in the wine and wine tourism industry. When quantitative and qualitative data are available, the other challenge is which assessment to use. Two assessments often …

Gentrification And Racial Transformation In One Neighborhood In The City Of Cincinnati During The Great Recession, Evelyn D. Ravuri

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This article examines the process of gentrification and racial transition in one neighborhood in Cincinnati between 2000 and 2016. Madisonville (Tract 55) was defined as a racially integrated middle-class neighborhood in the 1970s. In the early 2000s, substantial private and public investments in the neighborhood initiated the process of gentrification and an in-migration of wealthier (mostly white) residents. This revitalization of Madisonville coincided with the Great Recession of 2008 and with a massive exodus of the middle-class African American population. Median housing values and median rent in Madisonville increased significantly between 2010 and 2016, indicating that cost of living had …

Colonizationism Versus Abolitionism In The Antebellum North: The Anti-Slavery Society Of Hanover College And Indiana Theological Seminary (1836) Versus The Hanover College Officers, Board Of Trustees, And Faculty, J Michael Raley

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

In March 1836, nine Hanover College and Indiana Theological Seminary students, almost certainly including Benjamin Franklin Templeton, a former slave enrolled in the seminary, formed an antislavery society. The society’s Preamble and Constitution set forth abolitionist ideals demanding an immediate emancipation of Southern slaves with rights of citizenship and “without expatriation.” Thus they encountered the ire of Hanover’s Presbyterian trustees—colonizationists who believed instead that free blacks and educated slaves, gradually and voluntarily emancipated by their owners, should leave the United States and relocate to Liberia, where they would experience greater opportunity, equality, and justice than was possible here in the …

Statement From The Indiana Academy Of The Social Sciences And Board Of Directors, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

100 Years After Suffrage: Just How Far Have Women Come?, Laura Merrifield Wilson

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Women earned the right to vote 100 years ago with the ratification of the 19th Amendment, effectively ending the suffrage movement that had transpired over generations. Their hard-won victory doubled the American electorate and provided women with an essential right of citizenship of which they had long been deprived. Not all women were welcomed at the polling place, though, and the exclusion of women of color, particularly in the Jim Crow South, revealed yet another barrier to eventually be struck down. In the 100 years since women earned their right to vote, they have begun “outvoting” their male counterparts and …

Senior Editor's Note, Kenneth D. Colburn Jr.

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Self-Control Measures And Drug And Alcohol Use Among College Students, Brooke E. Mathna, Jennifer J. Roberts, Marthinus C. Koen

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Research has shown a link between drug and alcohol behaviors and self-control; however, much of the research focuses on only the general theory of crime (Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990), without regard to Hirschi’s (2004) self-control theory. The purpose of the current study is to examine three measures of Hirschi’s self-control theory and to understand the link between Hirschi’s self-control theory and drug and alcohol behaviors. This study draws from a sample of undergraduate college students (N = 640) to examine the role of Hirschi’s self-control in the explanation of drug and alcohol behaviors. The current study uses a previous measure …

A Terror To The People: The Evolution Of An Outlaw Gang In The Lower Midwest, Randy Mills

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The details of the heretofore unexamined Reeves Gang may serve as an important case study of violence and lawlessness in the Lower Midwest in the decades following the Civil War. Unlike the “social bandits” such as the Jesse James and Dalton Gangs of the Middle Border region, most outlaw gangs made little attempt to get along with locals. These groups ruled by fear and typically fell afoul of vigilante hangings and shootings— a one-act play, if you will. The Reeves Gang, the focus of this study, would come to be atypical, their tale turning into a three-act play, moving from …

Documenting Current Practices Of Accommodating Linguistic Needs Of Deaf Defendants, Beau Shine

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Deaf defendants are an underexamined population in criminal justice research, and very few studies have examined their involvement in the criminal justice system. In addition, research on accommodating the linguistic needs of deaf defendants is sparse. Failure to accommodate the linguistic needs of deaf defendants presents several concerns, including disparate treatment and violations of ADA-guaranteed rights that may lead to inadmissible evidence, dismissals of cases, and not-guilty verdicts, as well as lawsuits and litigation, all of which create additional strain on an already overburdened system. The current study combines previous research on deaf defendants with the findings of data gathered …

Diabetes Care In An Urban Indigenous American Community: Challenges And Suggestions For The Future, Margaret Pollak

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Indigenous Americans living with type 2 diabetes in urban areas like Chicago face significant challenges to meeting the care recommendations of their medical providers. Based upon mixed-methods research, including both qualitative and quantitative measures, in Chicago’s Indigenous community, I have found that diabetes-care and -prevention challenges faced by individuals in this community include (1) the high financial and time costs of care, (2) lack of recognition of or response to acute symptoms of high glucose levels, (3) prioritization of other life responsibilities, (4) distrust of western medicine, and (5) fatalistic views about diabetes development and prognosis. If we are to …

Reviewers And Referees, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Authors' Biographical Notes, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 23, Full Contents, Mssj Staff

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

No abstract provided.

Elfrieda Lang: The Difficult Career Path Of A German American Female Indiana Historian, Bruce Bigelow

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

Despite not going to high school, a German American woman became a major published history scholar, an assistant editor of the state history journal, and curator of special collections at a prestigious library in an era of patriarchy in the American history profession.

Michael Lewis’S The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds, David Mcclough

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

The Undoing Project examines the relationship between two psychologists, Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, whose work altered how we understand the functioning of the mind. In this book, Lewis embarks on a journey to understand and explain psychological research to a popular audience. Lewis is an expert writer who knows what sells books. The Undoing Project is an informative, entertaining, and quick read. Lewis has produced a well-researched book that is accessible to a broad audience.

Parish Records And The History Of Philippine Epidemics, Peter Xenos

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

The Philippine epidemic experience suggests a research perspective that is attentive to local spatial variation and also recognizes connections across long periods of time, particularly across the Spanish and American colonial eras and the epidemic experience then and since. Among historical materials that need to be incorporated into the discourse and connected with evidence from modern, spatially disaggregated data systems are parish archival records of births, deaths, and marriages; households; and population changes. This research note outlines the Philippine parish records and presents illustrative results from twenty-eight parishes. Those records include local time series of deaths from which mortality crises, …

Indigenous Animistic Belief Systems And Integrated Science: Perspective On Humans’ Relationship With Nature And The Coronavirus Pandemic, Cesario Garcia

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

This paper explores some perspectives of indigenous animistic belief systems from researchers who have made observations while studying amongst North American tribes. Specifically, it will address indigenous interactions with the natural world and, in particular, their belief that humans are a part of nature. Next, other perspectives, not rooted in Indigenous belief systems, will be discussed that demonstrate how other cultures and individuals across the globe also view humans as a part of nature, including concepts found in Morita Therapy (Morita, 1928), Arne Naess’ (1987) theory of the ‘ecological self’, and nations around the world that are implementing policies that …

“Healthy Country, Healthy People”: Aboriginal Embodied Knowledge Systems In Human/Nature Interrelationships, Liz Cameron

The International Journal of Ecopsychology (IJE)

The relationships between humans and nature require interdisciplinary perspectives to develop expanded understandings at this crucial time for the planet and its inhabitants. A poignant step towards improving the global ecological situation--which includes human survival and flourishing--is to reconnect our human/nature relationships. From an Australian Aboriginal standpoint, human-nature connectedness is integrally embedded in the relationship to the natural world that is termed Country. This term not only illustrates geographical boundaries but encompasses the harmony and balance of all living things within a cultural and spiritual context. At the interface of this knowledge, ways of thinking, feeling and being …

How The Covid-19 Pandemic Is Challenging Consumption, Marine Cambefort

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

COVID-19 has led consumers to question their consumption patterns. Although some management research has already highlighted consumption trends resulting from the virus outbreak, very few studies explore how the current pandemic challenges consumption. Three trends are identified: the downsizing of consumption, emergence of anti-globalization sentiments, and negative consumer reactions to the misconduct of brands/companies. First, the lockdown was an opportunity for people to test a simpler lifestyle by reducing their level of consumption, having realized that over-consumption does not make them happy and questioned its negative impact on the environment. Second, the pandemic may reinforce anti-globalization ideas, leading consumers to …

Many Forms Of Black Death: Coal Extraction, Transnational Activism And The Value Of Life In Colombia, Oscar H. Pedraza Vargas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

After the murder of the president and vice president of the coal union by paramilitaries in the department of Cesár, Colombia, the union is left adrift. Its fragility is only heightened when the person who decides to take over, is killed six months later. The union has been vocal on their critique of environmental destruction produced by coal and argues that their criticism is part of the reasons why they were targeted. Not far from there, in the department of Guajira, the conglomerate in charge of Cerrejón, the largest open-pit coal mine of South America, wants to divert a creek …