Digital Commons Network^™

Sudan: A Nation Divided, A People Displaced, Talmiz Ahmad

The Journal of Social Encounters

Sudan’s civil war nears its second year, with 150,000 dead and 12 million displaced. Yet, the prospects for peace remain bleak and distant.

Introduction: The Continuing Saga Of Darfur And Sudan, Mawa Mohamed, Ron Pagnucco

The Journal of Social Encounters

No abstract provided.

Public Surveillance And Human Rights: The Chilling Effect Of Surveillance Technologies And Legal Debates In Europe, Anna Calabrese

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

The rapid advancement and intense deployment of surveillance technologies pose a profound threat to fundamental human rights and render the balance between national security and rights and freedoms guarantees even more challenging. This paper interrogates the menace that digital tracking such as IMSI-catchers and other sophisticated tools represent to contemporary democracies with a specific focus on their potential to introduce a “chilling effect” to deter individuals in political and social communities from exercising their freedoms of speech, expression, association, thereby endangering the core values of all democracy. This analysis offers an overview of the state-of-the-art in Europe and highlights recent …

The Importance Of Keeping The Constitutional Foundation Strong, Ellie Shoemaker

Helms School of Government Spring Public Policy Conference

A house with a weak foundation will inevitably fall. Foundations are essential to the rise and longevity of everything built. From architecture to ideas, governments are no different. They need strong foundations to guide laws and to shape the nation’s future. America’s foundation is its Constitution; it is the cornerstone for the Liberty American citizens enjoy and the Justice system that maintains law and order, it outlines what the founding fathers desired for the country, laying down the framework for the rights of citizens for generations to come. Every law must align with the Constitution as it continues to provide …

Eastern Strategic Thought And Its Connection To Confucianism, Taoism And Chinese Buddhism Compared To Christianity In Western Strategic Thought, Joshua Harden

Helms School of Government Spring Public Policy Conference

Belief, whether religious in origin or the culmination of experiences and wisdom is part of the foundation for strategic intent. Personal decisions, situational leadership, and character are derived from the foundational worldview of the individual and this individual is characterized by a multitude of principles that make up their worldview. This can be extrapolated to explore the philosophical underpinnings of eastern strategic thought in comparison to that of western strategic thought. Eastern strategic thought is heavily influenced by Taoism, Confucianism and Chinese Buddhism but to what degree and to what end have these mechanisms influenced eastern strategic thought. On the …

Designing Field Courses To Teach Few Concepts Effectively, Eunice L. Blavascunas

National Collaborative for Research on Food, Energy, and Water Education (NC-FEW)

How do students learn complex systems FEW concepts in field courses? An overview of field-course practices in the Yakima Valley of Washington State.

Welfare In Area Of Rehabilitation In Nigerian Correctional Centers: A Study Of Ikoyi Custodial Center, Ejiroghene Lisa Numa

African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies

The Nigeria Correctional Service is an agency of the criminal justice system (CJS), saddled with the responsibility of safe custody and rehabilitation of persons remanded. This paper examined the welfare and rehabilitation of inmates in Nigeria correctional centers, focusing on the Ikoyi Custodial Center, Lagos state. For rehabilitation to occur, certain conditions must be necessary, including the welfare of inmates in recreational activities and vocational training/skill acquisition. Data was collected using structured questionnaires administered to one hundred and fifty (150) inmates and in-depth interviews. Results from the study showed a significant positive relationship between recreational activities and rehabilitation. It also …

A Feedback-Guided Analysis Of Environmental, Health And Socio-Economic Factors Affecting Drivers’ Willingness To Shift To E-Jeepneys, Charlotte Kendra Gotangco Gonzales, Katrina Abenojar, Carlos Rosauro Manalo, Melliza Templonuevo Cruz, Maria Obiminda L. Cambaliza, James Bernard Simpas, Imee Delos Reyes, John Wong, Bernell Go, Krizelle Cleo Fowler, Rene Marlon Panti, Emma E. Porio, Jean Jardeleza Mijares

Environmental Science Faculty Publications

The Jeepney Modernization Program involves the replacement of traditional jeepneys with more efficient alternatives, including modern enclosed electric vehicles, alongside operational improvements to the public transportation system. This study aims to assess the environmental, health and socio-economic factors impacting drivers’ willingness to shift to e-jeepneys. Feedback-Guided Analysis was used as a framework for designing an interdisciplinary approach towards understanding the decision-making paradigms of drivers plying a specific route in Quezon City, Metro Manila. Measurements of drivers’ exposure to PM2.5 and associated health parameters were complemented by key informant interviews delving into income, expenses, valuation of benefits and decision-making paradigms. A …

2025 March, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for March of 2025.

The Legal Framework Of Foster Care In Egypt: A Gender Analysis Of Alternative Families And Patrilineal Structures, Amira Fadel

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis explores women’s legal representation and agency over their non-biological children, and how the foster care system in Egypt either reinforces or deconstructs existing gender roles. Hence from a sociological perspective, it accounts for foster and alternative care laws in Egypt and the amendments thereof, to examine social relationships against the backdrop of more conventional, biological families, and kinship relations. In simple terms, studying foster and alternative care laws in Egypt is crucial to grasp how non-biological families are shaped in comparison to the more conventional bonds within biological families and traditional kinship relations, while accounting for the Christian …

Analysis Of Covid-19 Prevention And Control Policy Implementation In Islamic Boarding Schools In Dki Jakarta, Dickha Adi Wibowo, Fajar Ariyanti

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Indonesia, as one of the countries affected by COVID-19, has implemented various efforts to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. One effort that can be implemented is the implementation of COVID-19 prevention protocols. Apart from that, according to the COVID-19 Handling Task Force, Islamic boarding schools are locations with high mobility. This research aims to determine the implementation of policies related to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in Islamic boarding schools in the DKI Jakarta Province. This research used descriptive research with a qualitative approach, with the number of respondents being three Islamic boarding school leaders and students. The results …

“K-Pop In Public”: Vietnamese Youth Using Dance To Queer The Public Space, Ha Bich Dong, Thuy Bich Dong

Peace and Conflict Studies Journal Conference

In Vietnam, where public protests are criminalized (Kerkvliet, 2022), young people continue finding creative ways to advocate for their rights through different venues, particularly the arts. This research combines digital ethnography and duoethnography to examine K-pop dance covers in Vietnamese public spaces as a platform for youth to explore their gender identities, connect, and visibilize queerness.

K-pop is a music genre, pop culture, and cultural phenomenon that emerged in South Korea and has gained significant popularity and influence around the world (Aini, 2020). We, two researchers (one is a K-pop dancer), began the research by using digital ethnography (Zorn, & …

Critical Approaches To Climate-Induced Migration Research And Solutions, Rosalyn Negrón, David Hernández, Hossein Ayazi, Pablo Shiladitaya Bose, Nyingilanyeofori Brown, Elora Chowdhury, Janelle Knox-Hayes, Rajini Srikanth, Banu Subramaniam, Farhana Sultana, Patrick Sylvain, Carlos Vargas-Ramos, Charles Venator-Santiago

Sustainable Solutions Lab

In this commentary we explore the confluence of factors shaping climate-induced migration and the need for comprehensive solutions grounded in historical and systemic understandings. We argue that climate change, colonial legacies, and geopolitical policies significantly influence migration patterns, particularly for historically marginalised communities. We call for scholars to develop holistic frameworks that consider environmental, political, historical, and economic factors while advocating for the legal recognition and protection of migrants and people displaced by climate impacts. Drawing on examples of internal migration and displacement in the United States and refugee camps globally, we highlight the complexities of resettlement. We propose integrated …

Precipitation, Perceptions, And Participation: An Analysis Of Individual Perceptions Of Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority's Cloud Seeding Pilot Program And Suggestions For Public Outreach And Communications, Rachel A. Rowlee

Pitzer Senior Theses

Cloud seeding is a form of weather modification intended to increase the amount of precipitation by introducing a seeding agent. The Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) has implemented a four-year cloud seeding pilot program utilizing silver iodide as a seeding agent during rain storm events. Over the last year, SAWPA received various feedback, much of which exists in the social media realm. This research consists of open-ended interviews with water resource managers, SAWPA employees, and individuals expressing disapproval of the program on social media and Instagram comment analyses. Interview and comment analyses are put into conversation with the theory …

Assessing Best Practices Of Facilitation Of The Free Exercise Of Religion By Army Chaplains Utilizing The Success Case Method, Geoffrey N. Bailey Phd

Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined how U.S. Army chaplains experience and facilitate the free exercise of religion. The research explored compelling narratives of best-case facilitation experiences, identified leadership qualities associated with successful religious support, and analyzed similarities and differences between best and worst-case scenarios. Using Brinkerhoff's Success Case Method, the study distributed a quantitative survey to 1,478 active-duty chaplains (achieving a 23% response rate) followed by twelve guided interviews with participants representing diverse ranks and faith traditions. The research revealed six major themes: significant gaps in education for pluralistic ministry, tension between personal religious convictions and professional duties, crucial impact of …

Military Forensic Archaeology: The Process And Recovery Of U.S. Missing-In-Action (Mia) Service Personnel, William Belcher, Luann Wandsnider, Ella N. Axelrod, Finn Kennison, Alicia Lawson

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

The United States (U.S.) Department of Defense's (DoD) Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) is the largest skeletal identification laboratory in the world and receives several hundred cases per year for identification related to Missing-in- Action (MIA) U.S. service members. While there are various sources for these accessions, by far the largest source is through unilateral or bilateral (done in cooperation with another governmental entity or nongovernmental organization) as well as public-private partnership excavations. While the DPAA-style military forensic archaeology follows archaeological principles and recording standards, the work is goal-oriented, evidence/trace-driven, and time-constrained— a common occurrence with cultural resource management sites …

The Media Framing Of India’S Nuclear Weapons Discourse, Sitakanta Mishra, Hely Desai

International Journal of Nuclear Security

The Indian media has had an immense role in framing public perceptions of nuclear weapons within the Indian subcontinent. Examining the largely nationalistic tone of news coverage helps analyze how the media has shaped India’s idea of its status as a nuclear weapon state. Examining the sociocultural discourse around the bomb, this paper analyzes the major influence that the Indian media has in information distribution and how that influence translates to the formation of the atomic attitudes of the masses. In situating the Indian media’s approach to nuclear weapons at large, this work studied the framing of domestic nuclear weapons …

Identifying Intangible And Biocultural Heritage Elements Toward Environmental Understanding: Engaging Stakeholders Through Art, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Grounded in a case study in Barbuda in the Caribbean, this research examines sustainability from the perspective of what arts and heritage can contribute to community engagement and local and broader understandings about the environment. This article documents a growing body of literature recognizing the role of arts and culture, including local knowledge and traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), in climate change endeavors. Art and TEK present expansive world views. Contextual information situates research done on the island of Barbuda pre- and post-Hurricane Irma. Visual arts workshops engaged community members in mixed methods research. Results documented cultural elements, particularly intangible and …

Shore Leave : Rare, Brief And In Danger Of Extinction, Maria Carrera-Arce, Raphael Baumler, Bikram Singh Bhatia, Lei Du

Reports

Shore leave for seafarers is generally accepted as a custom, if not a right, essential for well- being and pressure relief from the responsibilities of life on board. However, it is clear that the ability of seafarers to take shore leave has been seriously eroded and may even be facing extinction.

The combination of workload on board and limited time in port make it virtually impossible for seafarers to make time for shore leave. Commercial pressures have increased, and there is a serious risk that facilities available for seafarers will decline due to a lack of demand.

The culprits are …

The Predictors Of Self-Censorship On College Campuses, Henry I. Long

CMC Senior Theses

Across U.S. colleges, speech climates are poor. Self-censorship and discomfort expressing views are common. At the same time, we find wide variation in speech climates across different institutions. This study is the first to identify factors that predict variation in speech climates. Drawing on data from multiple sources, including a survey of 58,807 undergraduates across 257 colleges and universities from the Foundation from Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), this study constructs a first-of-its-kind dataset to test three core theories of self-censorship found in the literature—student-centric theories, faculty-centric theories, and administrator-centric theories. We find moderate evidence to support each theory. Overall, …

Invisible No More: Looking And Listening Locally To Build Conflict-Related Sexual Violence Resilience, Anjali Thakore

CMC Senior Theses

The ubiquity of sexual violence, with its devastating physical and psychological consequences, has rendered conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) one of the most effective and enduring “invisible crimes” of war. Despite receiving growing attention across academic, political, and activist circles, wartime sexual violence remains pervasive in contemporary conflict zones. Against the backdrop of these frequent and recurring violations, this thesis explores the dissonance between high-level rhetorical commitments to preventing and punishing CRSV and on-the-ground realities. What soon emerges is a troubling pattern in which gendered violence—and women’s lived experiences more generally—while increasingly visible in theory, remains marginalised in practice. By investigating …

Land Back To Right Of Return: Proposing Paths Forward In Palestine, Melanie Kallah

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis presents a parallel case study of the settler colonial histories of Canada and Palestine. The Land Back Movement was first analyzed to determine what conditions enabled the success of Indigenous land restitution in Canada. Subsequently, a cross-analysis with Palestine was conducted to ascertain whether the same enabling conditions could facilitate Palestinian land restitution, known as the Right of Return.

Fire History, Ecological History, And Historical Human-Environment Interactions In The Northern Great Plains, James Victor Benes

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation explores the spatiotemporal signatures of fire in North American grassland ecosystems. In three chapters, I explore different aspects of fire history in the northern Great Plains. Chapter 1 is an introduction. Chapter 2 focuses on the Euro-American Settlement Period (ca. 1850–1950 C.E.). Fire histories from six different lakes in the Nebraska Sandhills are compared with two periods of historic drought and the establishment of United States Post Offices. Five of the six records show increased levels of biomass burning during the initial phases of Euro-American Settlement. Chapter 3 is a long-term (ca. 15,000 years), high-resolution fire history and …

Cultivating Hegemony: Cultural Engineering And The Art Of Power Maintenance In Military Movies, Samuel Lockridge

Theses and Dissertations--Arts Administration

This research explores how the United States military’s assistance to film productions can be better classified and understood as a form of cultural policy. There is a significant gap in the existing cultural policy research concerning interventions into the arts and culture by the military aimed at influencing the thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes of the population. The degree to which the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) long partnership with the film industry should even be considered “cultural policy” remains an open, and largely unexamined question. This dissertation presents an exploratory multiple case study of two films which received DoD production …

Overcoming Obstacles To Equitable Energy Transitions And Promoting Energy Sovereignty For Us Tribal Nations, Don Lee

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation explores the potential of equitable energy transitions guided by the tenets of energy justice with a focus on Tribal energy sovereignty through renewable energy development. It contributes to the literature on the social acceptance of energy systems, public perceptions of renewable energy transitions, the ramifications of US federal Tribal law on Tribal energy development and sovereignty, and the implications of conforming to capitalist logics in the energy justice literature.

To understand the importance of building reciprocal and collaborative relationships, our team of researchers and Tribal members collaborated on the development of a methodology to survey respondents in a …

From Cyclones To Cybersecurity: A Call For Convergence In Risk And Crisis Communications Research, Ann Marie Reinhold, Ross J. Gore, Barry Ezell, Clemente I. Izurieta, Elizabeth A. Shanahan

VMASC Publications

Effective risk and crisis communication can improve health and safety and reduce harmful effects of hazards and disasters. A robust body of literature investigates mechanisms for improving risk and crisis communication. While effective risk and crisis communication strategies are equally desired across different hazard types (e.g., natural hazards, cyber security), the extent to which risk and crisis communication experts utilize the “lessons learned” from scientific domains outside their own is suspect. Therefore, we hypothesized that risk and crisis communication research is siloed according to academic disciplines at the detriment to the advancement of the field of risk communications research writ …

More Than Players, More Than Coaches: Institutional Agents And Youth Development In Urban And Suburban Minority-Majority Neighborhoods, Rainah N. Folk

Theses and Dissertations

Institutional agents play a crucial role in shaping youth development. While the institutional agent framework is well established in postsecondary research, less is known about its role during mid-adolescence. Using relational ethnography and responsive interviewing, this study compares an urban and a suburban high school in minority-majority neighborhoods in Cook County, Illinois, to explore how development is influenced through relationships between sport coaches and high school athletes. Athletes in both contexts face significant challenges tied to neighborhood conditions and socioeconomic status. In response, coaches form deeply caring and supportive relationships, though their roles diverge in ways shaped by their urban …

Perceptions And Treatment Decisions For A Drug Offender Based On Social Class, Cocaine Type, Personal Characteristics, And Compassionate Love: A Vignette Study, Yasmin A. Odeh

Theses and Dissertations

Problem: The shift from a focus on rehabilitation to the more punitive, “tough on crime” approach to illegal behavior in the U.S. has been enacted in no small way by policies connected to the use and abuse of drugs. The disparities between crack and powder cocaine—two chemically similar substances—have headlined this shift (Vagins and McCurdy 2006). However, research is scarce on laypeople’s approval of deterrence approaches for drug offenses, including as a function of types (e.g., powder vs. cocaine possession). This study examined people’s perceptions of prosecutorial decisions for drug offenders—whether they are punished, rehabilitated, or both—and whether people perceived …

Match Accuracy Of Burned Teeth: A Pilot Study Of Allied Dental Professionals, Brenda T. Bradshaw, Marsha A. Voelker, Samantha C. Vest, Sinjini Sikdar

Dental Hygiene Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this pilot study was to assess allied dental professionals' match accuracy of burned teeth; a skill required by disaster victim identification (DVI) team members.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used a convenience sample of registered dental hygienists (RDH) (n=15) and dental assistants (DA) (n=15) to assess their match accuracy of burned teeth with simulated antemortem (AM) and postmortem (PM) images. Fifteen human teeth were heated at 400°C for 15 minutes. Prior to and following heat alteration, each tooth was photographed and radiographed. Images were presented to participants in randomized order, and they were instructed to correctly match …

Examining The Adjustment, Acculturation, And Well-Being Of International Arab Students In The United States: Implications For Policy And Practice, Hassan A A Kh A A Arab

Wayne State University Dissertations

This paper explored Arab international students studying in the United States to see whether they face acculturation stress, adjustment, or well-being issues. I found that my sample (N=95) experienced moderately high well-being distress and acculturative stress. However, the sample showed resilience and positive adjustment in all aspects, psychological (M=34.7), social (M=38.5), and academic (M=37.4). Moreover, well-being score from a modified GHQ survey came with high SD, indicating some students were dealing with serious mental issues, while others were doing well (M=42.92, SD=5.52). The majority of my participants were males (74.7%), single (75.8%), and graduate students (50.5%). Chi-square analysis found a …