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A General History And Theory Of Mind Control. Information Design, Commercial Truth And The Disinformation Crisis, Gabriel Isaiah Samandi

Senior Theses

The phrase “mind control” typically sparks the imagination to think of implausible and delusional hysteria; the paranoid schizophrenic who argues the existence of instantaneous and affirmative instructions against one’s own will that can subvert the autonomy of an individual. Since the early 1950s, associations such as the above have provided an illusion of separability between established epistemic concepts and the realm of amateur conspiracy theory “research.” With the invention of the internet, however, and especially after the concerted effort of international disinformation campaigns via social media, such lines have begun to blur. Questions about the interplay between implicit psychological associations …

Orientation And Role Of National Scientific Research Institutions In National Strategic Scientific And Technological Strength, Chunliang Fan, Zhe Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

An important task of enhancing strategic scientific and technological strength is to strengthen national scientific research institutions. From the history of science and the international development, this study discusses the development of the national research institutions and their characteristics as a national strategic strength of science and technology, and discusses the role of Chinese national research institutions in national development, summarizes the achievements and successful experience of the national research institutions for facing the needs of the country, facing the frontier of science and technology, facing the main economic battlefield, and facing the life and health of the people during …

Dysfunctional Warfare: The Russian Invasion Of Ukraine, Rob Johnson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was based on false premises, faulty assumptions, and a weak strategy. As the conflict has unfolded, heavy losses have imposed a strain on available Russian manpower. The Russian army reached a culminating point outside Kyiv and has exhibited little sign of operational learning. By contrast, Ukrainians have fought an existential war, making good use of dispersed light infantry tactics with high motivation levels. Western support has allowed them to compensate for their deficiencies in armaments and munitions. This commentary also shows military and policy leaders how the political context continues to impose limitations on the Ukrainians.

“But For Those Of Us Who Live Here”: Performance Of Work And Community By Women Employed In Rural, Predominantly White, Small-Town Schools, Telena M. Turner

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Rural, small towns are incredibly complex cultural centers. Although rural places are consistently portrayed as unchanging, the operation of cultural and identity within these locations is consistently on the move. Using reflexive interviewing, poetic transcription, autoethnographic writing, this project (re)presents poems on community and identity from five women employed in schools in rural, mostly White, small towns in the Central Appalachian region. Analyzing the poems through concepts in performance studies and work on space and place, this project positions movement and change at the center of small towns and examines how notions of rural place and community are performed through …

Can High School Students Check The Veracity Of Information About Covid-19? A Case Study On Critical Media Literacy In Brazilian Esl Classes, Karin Paola Meyrer, Dorotea Frank Kersch

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In a globalized world, critical media literacy is imperative when selecting the content we consume amid countless offers. Therefore, the purpose of this case study is to analyze which resources 3rd year high school students (16-17 years old) from an English as a Second Language class in Brazil use in the construction of authorial journalistic articles demystifying fake news about COVID-19 and if the interventions conducted previous to the task were helpful in their process of developing critical media literacy. To this end, firstly students analyzed news about COVID-19 from international websites; secondly, they discussed aspects of a video that …

Ua12/2/1 Grad Guide, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald featuring the Class of 2022.

• Crawford, Ashlyn. Dear 2022 Graduates
• Jones, Tea. Survival Guide for Post Graduate Job Prep
• Wilson, Gabby. Time for Your Close-up!
• Wilson, Gabby. Your Grad Book List
• Honeck, Adelle. Taking Risks: Advice to Graduates
• Potter College of Arts & Letters
• College of Health & Human Services
• College of Education & Behavioral Sciences
• Ogden College of Science & Engineering
• Gordon Ford College of Business
• Brush, Bailey. Grad Playlist

Women’S Use Of The Gym Space: How Physical Activity Spaces Communicate Inclusion And Exclusion To Women, Rachel Glaze

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Women are less likely than men to participate in recommended levels of physical activity. As gyms are built around exercise, this research sought to understand if women’s gym participation is limited, due to the space communicating messages of exclusion. Semi-structured interviews with seven women participants led to the discovery of three themes surrounding women’s experiences in the gym setting: Comfort and confidence in the space stem from self-perceived levels of attractiveness, women treat the space as communal to better understand how to navigate it, and organizational spaces can communicate messages of class and socioeconomic differences. Recommendations for future research included …

How The Financial Services Industry Is Utilizing Social Media To Expand Their Client Base, Kristen Stewart

Marketing Undergraduate Honors Theses

Social media is becoming an increasingly important aspect of all companies’ marketing strategies. It is almost imperative for companies to advertise through social media if they want to have a fair chance of reaching the younger generation. In fact, “the majority (97%) of Gen Z consumers say they now use social media as their top source of shopping inspiration; 65% say they use social media to find entertaining content; and 61% of them are specifically interested in watching more video content” (Kastenholz, 2021). This proves that social media can make a significant and lasting impact on a company’s success. Social …

Rural Embodiments Of Femininity: An Autoethnographic Approach To Gender Narratives, Randi Wichman

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The socialization one experiences throughout their lifetime informs their communication behaviors with others around them. Coming of age in a rural, Westernized geography instilled in me a unique sense of femininity that was constructed to complement the narratives significant to the cultural context of Rural America. This research discusses multiple dominant and marginalized forms of gender and these identities’ relationships to the gendered experiences that I had growing up in rural Montana. This autoethnography is composed of narrated experiences, pre-teen assessments, and poetic descriptions of the disciplining I was confronted with throughout my childhood in my small, ranching community. I …

Public Libraries In Rural Arkansas: An Oasis In An Information Desert, Britt Graves

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Public libraries in Arkansas are welcome, but those found in rural Arkansas are almost a necessity. The public uses the library for more than just checking out books or their email: it’s become a community gathering place for all walks of life, regardless of age or economic status. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit the state, libraries also became essential for education, medicine, news, and employment, nearly overloading their resources and shining a spotlight on technology, or the lack thereof, that so many public libraries are needing. With the Arkansas governor planning an upgrade on broadband technology and the federal government …

The Value Of Education: School Policy Decisions During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elika W. Somani

Individually Designed Interdepartmental Major Honors Project

During the COVID-19 pandemic, lacking national U.S. policies, wide variation and conflict over chosen public school policy decisions emerged. What factors and guidelines informed the decision-making process in K-12 public schools during the COVID-19 pandemic and who were the key stakeholders? This study examines three school district types – a large city, medium city, and small-town – across Minnesota as case studies to unpack how policy decisions were made during the pandemic. Stakeholder interviews uncovered that the school decision-making process was a) connected to a district's political opinions, b) made by the superintendent and school board, c) primarily influenced by …

Phenomenological Study On Leaders With Heart: Examining The Effects Of Heart-Led Leadership With Remote Employees, Aries Sanders

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to examine and describe how exemplary leaders of remote teams lead from the heart, using Mark Crowley’s four principles to accomplish extraordinary results in organizations.

Methodology: This qualitative phenomenological study examines and describes how exemplary leaders of remote teams at Fortune Global 500 companies who lead from the heart using Mark Crowley’s four principles accomplish extraordinary results in an organization. The research study is qualitative. The qualitative method was chosen to describe and understand the lived human experience. The study aims to uncover and explain patterns to make a scholarly contribution …

How Exemplary Female Superintendents In Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, And San Diego Counties In Southern California Lead From The Heart, Jeanine Wulfenstein

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe how exemplary female superintendents in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties in Southern California lead from the heart using the four principles of Mark C. Crowley’s work, by demonstrating how they build a highly engaged team, connect on a personal level, maximize employee potential, and value and honor achievement within their organizations.

Methodology: This phenomenological study explored and identified the lived experience of eight California public school superintendents in Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties in Southern California. Study participants were selected for interview participation based …

Policy Approaches To Increase Carbon Sequestration Capacity By Optimizing Layouts Of Ecological Construction, Jie Fan, Hongbing Wang, Daojing Zhou, Ning Ma, Baoyin Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Improving carbon sequestration capacity through ecological construction is one of the important ways to achieve the goal of "carbon neutrality" in China. Based on the analysis of the current situation and trend of ecological carbon sequestration in China, this study summarizes the main challenges in the increment of ecosystem carbon sink in China. The current situation and trend, the significant carbon sequestration capacity of forests, the recovery phase of carbon sequestration capacity of grassland, and the carbon sequestration benefits of major ecological projects are also surveyed. Then, the new challenges of China are analyzed, including the backlog of over-mature forests …

Technological Approaches To Enhance Ecosystem Carbon Sink In China: Nature-Based Solutions, Guirui Yu, Jianxing Zhu, Li Xu, Nianpeng He

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Carbon peak in 2030 and carbon neutralization in 2060 has been established as one of the important strategic goals of China's economic and social development. During 2010-2020, the capacity of terrestrial ecosystems in China to sequester carbon dioxide (CO2) varied from 1.0 to 1.3 Gt/a, with high uncertainty. To enhance the carbon sink capacity of Chinese terrestrial ecosystems, the combination with land space planning and ecological protection is essential. It is necessary to first stabilize the existing carbon storage in these ecosystems, such as forest, grassland, wetland, coast, and others, and then implement some important ecological protection and ecological restoration …

Development Path Of Energy Science And Technology Under “Dual Carbon” Goals: Perspective Of Multi-Energy System Integration, Rui Cai, Hanxiong Zhu, Wangjun Li, Yu Xiao, Zhongmin Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

This study first analyzes the driving factors of China's realization of the "dual carbon" goals from the two aspects of necessity and urgency, and proposes that to achieve the "dual carbon" goals, China shall reshape the energy structure and related industrial systems in a scientific and orderly manner, in which technology innovation plays a crucial leading role. Then, based on the long-term research and deveopment in the energy field of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the scientific and technological development path to lead the realization of the "dual carbon" goals with the concept of "multi-energy system integration" is proposed, and …

Communication Crisis For Librarians On Library Tourism: The Effects Of The Crisis Pandemic Covid-19, Faustyna Tyna -

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper was conducted to find out how librarian crisis communication in recreational activities or library tours at the Muhammadiyah University of North Sumatra was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Problems during the covid-19 pandemic crisis, library services are closed for visits by tourists, lecturers, and students. This is due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, according to the assumption that librarians have not anticipated the crisis. The method used in this paper is descriptive qualitative method with literature study and documentation by observing directly the object of research in the library and then taking data from …

Sex With Robots And Human-Machine Sexualities: Encounters Between Human-Machine Communication And Sexuality Studies, Marco Dehnert

Human-Machine Communication

Sex robots are a controversial topic. Understood as artificial-intelligence enhanced humanoid robots designed for use in partnered and solo sex, sex robots offer ample opportunities for theorizing from a Human-Machine Communication (HMC) perspective. This comparative literature review conjoins the seemingly disconnected literatures of HMC and sexuality studies (SeS) to explore questions surrounding intimacy, love, desire, sex, and sexuality among humans and machines. In particular, I argue for understanding human-machine sexualities as communicative sexuotechnical-assemblages, extending previous efforts in both HMC and SeS for more-than-human, ecological, and more fluid approaches to humans and machines, as well as to sex and sexuality. This …

Energy Literacy In Portugal: A System Map And Framework To Increase Energy Literacy Through The Renewable Energy Transition, Molly S. Fox

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Western society lives with a great dependence and an almost simultaneous ignorance of energy consumption (van den Broek, 2019). The systemic landscape of energy knowledge and dissemination is more critical than ever as Portugal races to meet decarbonization goals. This paper fills a knowledge gap by updating the current social landscape of energy literacy in Portugal through a comprehensive system map and framework to increase energy literacy levels through the renewable energy transition. By conducting a semi-systematic literature review, meta-narratives and themes were identified and used to create theoretical concepts, a framework, and a system map. This research found that …

Louisiana Social Studies: A Look Into The Culture, History And Business Of Our State, Ava Borksey

Honors Capstones

No abstract provided.

How Ultra Firms In Former Soviet And Yugoslav States Became Political Actors, Alex Pelletier

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

When you go to a football match one of the first things that you will undoubtedly notice are the ultras. Their loud coordinated chants and movement fill the stadium with energy that would not be there otherwise, and their tifo and flairs add an artist’s touch to the stands. There are ultras for just about every club, and every city in the world, with each group having their own unique identity. The local standing of football clubs, paired with the devoted and organized structure of ultras has seen them become political and military actors across the world. Ultras based in …

“Power, Poison, Pain & Joy”: Applying A Critical Race Conceptual Model Of Implicit Racial Bias To Narratives Framing Blackness In Black Sports Columns, Black Music, And Black Journalism, Christina Lauren Myers

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a Critical Race Conceptual Model of Implicit Racial Bias to representations of African Americans in mass media to illustrate how stereotypical depictions and racist ideologies arise in media content, including by Black content creators. By bridging the concepts of implicit bias, framing theory and concepts from critical race theory through the conceptual model, I contend that content creators implicitly share racially biased beliefs. Moreover, Black content creators in expressing the authentic experiences of the Black community also do the same. Thus, Black content creators further stereotypes, majoritarian narratives as well as deficit perspectives about the Black community …

Popular Information: An Analysis Of Foi Use And Behavior, A.Jay Wagner

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

A substantial amount of freedom of information research exists, though a majority is focused on U.S. laws' outcomes and FOI's shortcomings. But little is known about who makes requests and why requests are made in the United States. The exploratory study addresses these gaps via a nationally representative survey across key demographic variables of 1116 U.S. residents. Analysis found advanced education to be a strong, positive predictor of FOI familiarity and request submission. Malegender and a belief that FOI improves government accountability were also found to be significant predictors of FOI knowledge and use. The survey sampled U.S. residents, but …

Perceptions Of Race, Status, And Instructional Modality As Predictors Of Degree Attainment For African American Male Community College Students, Roderick C. Lewis Sr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Given the large number of students who begin their college education yet never graduate, it is essential that, as higher education leaders and policymakers develop student success strategies, they consider the persistence and degree attainment dynamics of all populations. This study focuses on the problem of degree attainment from the perspective of male, second-year, African American, community college students. A qualitative narrative case study approach was used to ascertain their perception of race, status attainment, and instructional learning modalities as predictors of degree attainment. Accordingly, those perceptions were then evaluated to determine their utility as predictors of degree attainment. Six …

Prevention Of Violence Against Women And Girls: A Cost-Effectiveness Study Across 6 Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Giulia Ferrari, Sergio Torres-Rueda, Esnat Chirwa, Andrew Gibbs, Stacey Orangi, Edwine Barasa, Theresa Tawiah, Rebecca Kyerewaa Dwommoh Prah, Rozina Karmaliani, Hussain Maqbool Ahmed Khuwaja

School of Nursing & Midwifery

Background: Violence against women and girls (VAWG) is a human rights violation with social, economic, and health consequences for survivors, perpetrators, and society. Robust evidence on economic, social, and health impact, plus the cost of delivery of VAWG prevention, is critical to making the case for investment, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) where health sector resources are highly constrained. We report on the costs and health impact of VAWG prevention in 6 countries.
Methods and findings: We conducted a trial-based cost-effectiveness analysis of VAWG prevention interventions using primary data from 5 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in sub-Saharan Africa …

Digital And Spatial Humanities Mapping: Eurasia-Pacific Early Trade And Belief Linkages, Igor Sitnikov, David Blundell

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The Eurasia-Pacific is a dynamic region of rapid economic growth, cultural awareness, natural resource exploration, and military buildup. The concept of the region is relatively new, featuring contested vast areas of geo-resource space of numerous cultures and languages. The current findings in anthropology and archaeology and even its more specific subfields such as folklore are important contribution to the understanding of periodic environmental changes and technical innovations were the main forces of transformations in social structures that have determined the mechanisms and levels of cross-cultural trade activity across the region. We have traced early trade and belief linkages across Eurasia-Pacific …

Ganges In Indian Sculpture And Literature: Mythology And Personification, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The river Ganges is a symbol of wealth, purity and eternity, and its sacred waters have inspired sages, philosophers, and artists in India who have immortalized its divine imagery. However, it has rarely been understood from a historical point of view, as to how it became so sacred and to view it from a multi-dimensional and interdisciplinary perspective with an accumulation of layers of historical thought and practices, provides a rationale for the living practices around the river. The paper explores the evolution of the concept of sacredness and eternity of River Ganges through art- historical and archaeological evidence. It …

Righteous: What Holocaust Rescuers Can Teach Us About A More Altruistic Society, Jill Bodnar

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Stories about Holocaust rescuers are not well known to the general American public. These unsung heroes were a small subset of non-Jews from across Europe who went against the dark climate of antisemitism and racial cleansing led by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and 40s. As the reality of the Final Solution grew, these rescuers made the moral decision to risk their lives to save innocent Jewish friends, neighbors, and strangers from capture and death. On top of the rarity of their actions, after the war they often did not speak of their work, largely because they did not see …

Thinking With Semiotic-Dialogism: Re-Orientating Augmented Reality And Visual Literacy, Zoe Hurley

All Works

Augmented reality (AR) apps, like Adobe’s Aero, enable users to turn Photoshop layers into interactive AR experiences and are considered promising for higher education. But what we see or do not see are mediated via histories, cultural values, ideologies, social practices and technologies. Simultaneously, the ways we receive knowledge, communicate and learn are more than ever being communicated via visual technologies. Yet, theories of visuality within educational research represent a longstanding gap within scholarship and theorising of visual technologies, including AR, is lacking. This study re-orientates conceptions of AR visual literacy through ‘thinking with’ semiotics, which is the study of …

Lee Isaac Chung, Minari (2020): Having An Amerikorean Life, Nagehan Uzuner

Markets, Globalization & Development Review

Minari by Lee Isaac Chung is a drama which chronicles the life of a Korean family who moves to the USA during 1980s in pursuit for a better life. The acculturation process is experienced differently by family members. Children are mostly bored with their new life in the rural area of Arkansas while their mother, Monica, is terrified of living in a mobile home which is made of a truck trailer in the middle of nowhere. Meanwhile, the grandmother joins the family from Korea to take care of the kids with a more positive approach dealing with their struggles. The …