Digital Commons Network^™

An Examination Of Small And Midsize Defense Business Corporate Lobbying, Gene Moran

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Large companies lobby U.S. Congress in more significant numbers than small companies and gain a clear advantage in funding acquisitions. But little is known about what conditions influence or disincentivize small and midsize businesses, those with revenues of $5 million to $1 billion, from participating in congressional lobbying. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the gap in the research literature by focusing on small and midsize defense company executives who address the conditions surrounding congressional lobbying. The study’s theoretical framework was Benet’s polarities of democracy, emphasizing polarity relationships of participation and representation and diversity and equality. The …

Public Trust And Citizen Engagement As Tools Of Democrcay For Good Governance In Nigeria, Olukayode Gilbert Ojo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSince Nigeria gained independence in 1960, political leaders' and elected officials' behavior and actions have contributed to a decline in public trust and people's engagement with the democratic system. It is currently unknown whether the concepts of public trust and citizen engagement can be democratic tools for good governance in Nigeria, with its diverse religions, ethnicities, and cultural values. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the Yoruba people’s perceptions of the barriers to and facilitators of public trust and citizen engagement in the Nigerian democratic system. The theoretical framework was polarities of democracy theory, espoused by …

Experiences Of Teachers Using Student-Centered Approaches In China, Raven Roytblat

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Schoolteachers in China are required by the government to transition from teacher-centered to student-centered instruction. Researchers have shown the challenges of and successes in implementing the instructional changes; however, a gap exists surrounding the challenges and successes of reforms from the perspective of teachers. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to better understand the experiences of Chinese schoolteachers as the system of education in China transitions from teacher-centered to student-centered classroom instruction. The conceptual framework for this study included Schön’s concept of the reflective practitioner and Liu and Hallinger and Knapp et al.’s work on the role of …

The Imperatives Of Political Will For Revenue Diversification In Delta State Nigeria, Benson Chukwuweike Ojoko

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Proceeds from crude oil export account for about 90% of the revenue of the federal, state, and local governments in Nigeria. Given the vagaries of the international oil market, scholars have advocated the need for the government to look beyond oil for other revenue sources with little or no success to date. Despite the plethora of research on the phenomenon of political will, there is no research on how the construct affects revenue diversification at the subnational level. This study examined how central political will is in the design of expansionary revenue policies in Delta State, Nigeria. Developing an understanding …

Legislative Efforts And Community Change To Combat Female Genital Mutilation In Egypt, Maryam Berkshire

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Female genital mutilation is recognized as a violation of human rights as it violates the bodily rights of young girls by cutting part of their bodies without their consent and leaves long term psychological, physical and sexual harm to women who were exposed to the practice. The World Health Organization estimates that 130 million girls and women are subjected to Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C) in African and Middle Eastern Countries. According to a UNICEF 2020 report, Egypt will not meet the SDG goal of eradicating FGM as the decrease in the practice is too slow despite the policy and community …

A Process Evaluation Of Intelligence Gathering Using Social Media For Emergency Management Organizations In California, Alan Barner

Master's Projects

When responding to an emergency, correct and timely information is often the difference between a successful response and a potential disaster. The information that emergency managers in California receive from the public often dictates how agencies respond to emergencies. The emergence of social media has presented several benefits to emergency managers regarding intelligence gathering during the emergency response process. Simultaneously, the emergence of social media has raised several concerns for the stakeholders involved. One major issue involves inaccurate information circulating on social media platforms during ongoing disasters. If emergency managers cannot discern incorrect information from correct information, disaster response may …

Task Force Rattlesnake: A Cost Analysis Of Fire Crew Base Pay In California, Galen R. Yusufzai-Boggs

Master's Projects

Wildfire management in California is an expensive program totaling over $3 billion in 2020, where the state provides two-thirds of the budget from the general fund (Peters et al., 2020). California has consistently used the state military to assist in wildland fire mitigation efforts; however, for the first time it has created a year-round team to reduce fuels to clean up the state’s forests. Further analysis would determine if Task Force Rattlesnake is an effective use of the state’s budget for wildfire mitigation.

An Analysis Of Kindergarten Childhood Disease Vaccination Rates And Practices In Bay Area Counties, Janice Zelaya

Master's Projects

Immunizations are the most effective method for preventing communicable diseases, especially among children. Ensuring that children are vaccinated is of the utmost importance but remains a challenge due to misinformation and the growing anti-vaccination movement. With a population of 39.5 million people as of 2020 (Census Bureau, n.d.), California is the most populous state in the United States. In 2020, the San Francisco Bay Area, which includes the counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, and Sonoma, is home to 7.7 million of those people (Census Bureau, 2021). This research will explore how …

A Comparative Study Of Immigration Integration Programs For Selected City Governments In California, Oregon, Washington, And Texas, Christelle Lorenzana

Master's Projects

Over the last eight decades, immigration into the United States has increased and has become a prominent political issue in the United States (Pew Research Center, 2015). Although the federal government is responsible for enforcing immigration laws, municipalities work with immigrants directly in a more supportive role. Currently, no national policy focuses on integration or welcoming immigrants to the urban community. In recent decades, the federal government has focused on immigration enforcement, border control, and what to do about the influx of undocumented immigrants entering the U.S. However, cities are working to develop their own programs, tools, and policies to …

Covid-19 In The Bay Area: The Impact Of A Pandemic On Different Demographics In Selected Counties From 2020 - 2021, Maria Del Rosario Rodriguez Lomeli

Master's Projects

The world experienced a novel coronavirus disease outbreak in Wuhan, China in December of 2019 (Dhillon et al., 2020). Within months it spread worldwide, becoming a pandemic known as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV2 or COVID-19 (Hunter, 2020). COVID- 19 continued to spread, with public health officials worldwide urging countries to enact stay-at-home orders that could decrease the fast spread of the virus. The Chinese government's official report states that the virus originated in the Huanan Seafood Market located in Wuhan in October of 2019 (Dhillon et al., 2020). The World Health Organization (WHO) was alerted of the virus within a …

Assessment Limitations And The Disparate Impact Of Tax Policy On Minoritized Communities, Michael Fouassier

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Public policies that limit assessment increases have created a system where more valuable homes are taxed at lower rates than less valuable homes. This tax regressivity is found not only between neighborhoods but also within neighborhoods such that lower-value homes in wealthier areas are also taxed at higher rates. The research presented in this dissertation, just one line of inquiry that adds to the ongoing discussion of tax equity, provides evidence that minoritized communities will not experience the greatest benefits of assessment caps. The legislative intent of New York State Senate Bill S7000A was to protect homeowners. What has occurred, …

J Mich Dent Assoc January 2022

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

Monthly, The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association brings news, information, and feature articles to our state's oral health community and the MDA's 6,200+ members. No publication reaches more Michigan dentists! In this January 2022 issue, the reader will find the following original content:

• A cover feature, “Eating Disorders in Adolescents: Facts and Recommendations for the Oral Health Team”
• An introduction to the Pediatric Health Series, “Psychosocial Factors of COVID-19 Impact Oral Health”
• A DEI Feature, “Inclusion of the Mobility Impaired in Our Community”
• A 10-Minute EBD, “Factors Impacting Gingival Margin Position Following Esthetic Crown Lengthening”
• News you need, an …

Putin's Invasion Of Ukraine: What's Religion Got To Do With It?, Mark R. Elliot

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Summary

• As of February 24, 2022, as Russian air strikes, missiles, and tanks began pouring into an outmatched Ukraine, the Byzantine calculus of symphonia, of a mutually interdependent church and state, devolved into an unholy alliance joining at the hip a predatory Putin and a sycophantic Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kyrill.
• Especially over the past decade Patriarch Kyrill has tied the fate of his church to that of his patron Putin, the same tragic mistake made by the same church in its defense of tsarist Russia in its death throes.
• Since his accession in 2009, and emphatically since Russia’s moves against …

Improving Egypt’S Access To Vaccines And Medicines: Communication During Covid-19 / تحسين إتاحة الوصول إلى اللقاحات والأدوية في مصر: سياسة توعية الجمهور خلال أزمة فيروس كورونا, Alaa Abdel-Rahman, Sarah Attef, Helen Gabrah, Reem El-Sayed, Sarah El-Lithy

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Egyptian government has been following protocol as best as possible when it comes to responding to the needs of the health and economic sectors amid difficult times. From lockdown measures to the WHO’s recommended practices in terms of isolation of cases and treatments, Egypt has been lauded as one of the fastest and most effective countries in terms of COVID-19 emergency response. Authorities have implemented several awareness campaigns directed at citizens to inform them about the pandemic, how to prevent infection, what to do if infected and how to act accordingly. Authorities …

A Unified Health Information System Framework For Connecting Data, People, Devices, And Systems, Wu He, Justin Zuopeng Zhang, Huanmei Wu, Wenzhuo Li, Sachin Shetty

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the necessity for pervasive data and system interoperability to manage healthcare information and knowledge. There is an urgent need to better understand the role of interoperability in improving the societal responses to the pandemic. This paper explores data and system interoperability, a very specific area that could contribute to fighting COVID-19. Specifically, the authors propose a unified health information system framework to connect data, systems, and devices to increase interoperability and manage healthcare information and knowledge. A blockchain-based solution is also provided as a recommendation for improving the data and system interoperability in healthcare.

Analysis Of Non-Conventional Radiological Terrorism, James N. Padgett

Theses and Dissertations

Nuclear terrorism has been a risk since the dawn of the first atomic bomb. Though state sponsored nuclear weapons development is of concern for countries, non-state sponsored terrorism with radiological material can be of even greater concern. This stems from the fact that the material is under less stringent or no safeguards and can readily change hands between different terrorist groups or innocent civilians may accidently come into contact with the material.

Within this paper an analysis of previous accidents using orphan radiological sources, malicious use of orphan radiological sources, and how these sources could be used by terrorists is …

Barangay Assembly: A Citizen-Led Reinvigoration Of Political Discourse And Civic Engagement In The Philippines, Michael Henry Yusingco

Ateneo School of Government Publications

The Filipino indigenous custom of collective action known as bayanihan is institutionalized in the Barangay Assembly; a community forum where citizens can directly influence local governance. However; it is not widely utilized because many barangay officials are co-opted by local political dynasties. Results of the 2019 elections reveal that political dynasties continue to dominate the electoral process; making genuine political competition virtually impossible. This piece will present the strategy of using the Barangay Assembly as a citizen-led reinvigoration of political discourse and civic engagement. It will expound on the inherent value of the Barangay Assembly as a venue for purposeful …

Adapting The Human Factors Analysis And Classification System For Commercial Fishing Vessel Accidents, Peter Zohorsky, Holly Handley, Ronald Boring (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The commercial fishing industry is frequently described as one of the most hazardous occupations in the United States. The objective, to maximize the catch, is routinely challenged by a variety of elements due to the environment, the vessel, the crew, and how they interact with each other. This study developed and evaluated a version of Wiegmann and Shappell’s (2003) Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS), specifically for commercial fishing industry vessels (HFACS-FV), using data from ten years of fatal fishing vessel accidents. For this study, the accident investigation information was converted into the HFACS-FV format by independent raters and …

2022 January, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for January of 2022.

The Ashrae Great Energy Predictor Iii Competition: Overview And Results, Clayton Miller, Pandarasamy Arjunan, Anjukan Kathirgamanathan, Chun Fu, Jonathan Roth, Young June Park, Chris Balbach, Krishnan Gowri, Zoltan Nagy, D. Anthony Fontanini, Jeff Haberl

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In late 2019, ASHRAE hosted the Great Energy Predictor III (GEPIII) machine learning competition on the Kaggle platform. This launch marked the third energy prediction competition from ASHRAE and the first since the mid-1990s. In this updated version, the competitors were provided with over 20 million points of training data from 2,380 energy meters collected for 1,448 buildings from 16 sources. This competition’s overall objective was to find the most accurate modeling solutions for the prediction of over 41 million private and public test data points. The competition had 4,370 participants, split across 3,614 teams from 94 countries who submitted …

Empowerment By Design: Classroom Innovation And Inquiry Through Design Thinking And Action Research, Cory Rayala

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly standardized and assessment-driven educational systems are failing to meet the needs of many students, replacing their love of learning with a fear of failure. Importantly, the fear of failure is a common mindset of not only students but also teachers, administrators, and policymakers. This qualitative, action research study is situated in a design thinking/growth mindset conceptual theory that posits that the design thinking process can serve as a meaningful growth mindset opportunity for teachers and students. The prototyping mindset inherent in design thinking may mitigate the fear of failure by focusing on rapid iteration rather than striving for perfection. …

Climate Change And Sustainability In Asean Countries, David K. Ding, Sarah E. Beh

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The ASEAN region is one of the most susceptible regions to climate change, with three of its countries—Myanmar, the Philippines, and Thailand—among those that have suffered the greatest fatalities and economic losses because of climate-related disasters. This paper reveals that the ASEAN’s environmental performance is sorely lagging other regions despite evidence of its cohesive and comprehensive efforts to mitigate emissions and build up adaptive capacity to climate-related disasters. Within the ASEAN, there exist gaps in environmental performance between each country. This suggests that increased cooperation between individual ASEAN countries is pertinent for the region to collectively combat climate change. In …

Investigating The Impacts Of Monetary Policy On Income Inequality In Developed Nations: Case Study Of The Euro Area, Japan And The United States, Hector Martinez Garcia

Masters Theses

This paper tries to evaluate the effect that unconventional monetary policy has had on income inequality for the set of Eurozone countries, the United States and Japan using an unbalanced panel data model over the period from 1980 to 2021, first jointly and then individually, using different regressions for each case. Based on the regression model analyzed, the study attempts to analyze the relationship between money supply and income inequality as measured by the Gini index using fixed effects and random effects for our panel data model. The study reveals the importance of the money supply variable in reducing inequality …

Toward Socially Equitable Conditions: Change In Complex Regulatory Systems, Katherine A. Hoffman

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this qualitative participatory action research was to explore how complexity is engaged and experienced in complex regulatory systems, and to understand how cannabis might be regulated in ways that lead to socially equitable conditions. This was accomplished by studying the lived experiences of governmental leaders charged with the responsibility of establishing regulatory frameworks for legalized cannabis where none previously existed. Using the learning history methodology, the study deeply explores the ways that complex systems coexist by capturing the lived experiences of research participants and enhance theoretical understanding of complex regulatory systems. Data collection occurred through reflective interviews, …

Lemonade: A Racial Justice Reframing Of The Roberts Court’S Criminal Jurisprudence, Daniel S. Harawa

Scholarship@WashULaw

The saying goes, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. When it comes to the Supreme Court’s criminal jurisprudence and its relationship to racial (in)equity, progressive scholars often focus on the tartness of the lemons. In particular, they have studied how the Court often ignores race in its criminal decisions, a move that in turn reifies a racially subordinating criminalization system.

However, the Court has recently issued a series of decisions addressing racism in the criminal legal system: Buck v. Davis, Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado, Timbs v. Indiana, Flowers v. Mississippi, and
Ramos v. Louisiana. On their face, the cases teach …

Ocean Science Diplomacy - The All-Atlantic Ocean Research Alliance Case, Andrei Polejack

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

Science diplomacy, the interlinkage between research and foreign affairs, is a recent field of research, albeit being claimed to be an ancient practice in international relations. Science diplomacy practices generally include the influence of scientific advice during international negotiations, the bridging of communities (or even conflicting nations) through joint research projects and the promotion of science by diplomatic channels, just to name a few. Largely identified today by mainstream intergovernmental policy-makers as a beneficial practice, science diplomacy is promoted as being rooted in the universality and cooperative nature of science and as a means for peaceful and uncontested international interactions. …

Nā Pua Makani Wind Farm: The Shifting Winds Of Renewable Development In HawaiʻI, George Webster Ross Iv

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In 2015, Hawaiʻi set the most ambitious renewable energy portfolio goal in the nation by vowing to reach 100% renewable energy by 2045. Since then, many renewable energy development projects in Hawaiʻi have been met with strong community opposition, including the Nā Pua Makani wind farm (NPM) in Kahuku. The aim of this project is to analyze the process timeline of NPM to identify factors in the development process that contributed to organized protest, and to offer recommendations for improving the process. In order to get a full picture of the events throughout the Nā Pua Makani project’s timeline, my …

Coastal Housing Recovery In A Postdisaster Environment: A Supply Chain Perspective, Rafael Diaz, Joshua Behr, Beatriz Acerp

VMASC Publications

In coastal cities, the damage stemming from hurricanes and severe tropical storms may reduce housing stock. Accelerating the reconstruction of housing stock becomes crucial in minimizing the time that residents are displaced. It is critical to understand how to better coordinate all available resources for an effective and balanced reconstruction where nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), government agencies, volunteers, and many other complex resources converge. This study combines Monte Carlo and beta models to assess supply, costs, and recovery times. The models capture the immediate and long-term costs of reconstruction activities under highly uncertain conditions using embedded stochastic components on projected materials, …

Which Transportation Technologies Do We Want?, Michael Lewyn

Scholarly Works

A review of Todd Litman's book, New Mobilities- Smart Planning for Emerging Transportation Technologies

Theory Of Prioritarianism, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

This chapter provides theoretical foundations for the Prioritarianism in Practice volume, by clarifying the features of prioritarian social welfare functions (SWFs). A prioritarian SWF sums up individuals’ well-being numbers plugged into a strictly increasing and strictly increasing transformation function. Prioritarian SWFs, like the utilitarian SWF, fall within the “generalized-utilitarian” class of SWFs.Generalized-utilitarian SWFs are additive and, hence, especially tractable for purposes of policy analysis. The chapter reviews the axiomatic properties of generalized-utilitarian SWFs and, specifically, of prioritarian SWFs. Prioritarianism satisfies the Pigou-Dalton axiom (a pure, gap-diminishing transfer of well-being from a better-off to a worse-off person is an ethical improvement), …