Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Relationship Between Historical Redlining And Place-Based Reproductive Health Inequities: A Qualitative Gis Approach, Kristi L. Roybal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individual-level risk factors and characteristics do not fully explain racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic inequities in preterm birth in the United States, and evidence suggests that medical advancements, increased access to prenatal care, and high per-capita spending on health care have done little to reduce these inequities. Health inequities research has shifted its attention from individual-level factors that influence health outcomes to the social determinants of health. Neighborhoods, considered an important upstream social determinant of health, can influence health outcomes through their social, service, and physical environments, and have been consistently linked to birth outcomes. Despite increased attention to neighborhood influences …

Healthy Communities: Flooded With Injustice?, Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute, Virginia Commonwealth University, Mel Borja, Krystle Dorsey, Tiffany Garner, Edgar Greer, Denise Harrington, Paula Robinson, Jalesha Smith, Dominique Thaxton, Jeffery Wilson Phd

The Grace E. Harris Leadership Institute Publications

"HB1276 Comprehensive plan; Healthy Communities Strategy" authorizes defined localities to incorporate a healthy communities strategy into the next iteration of their local comprehensive plan and to engage the public in the process. In the absence of a predetermined definition, this report adopts the American Planning Association (APA) guidance as a standard, that a healthy community is a place where “all individuals have access to healthy built, social, economic, and natural environments that give them the opportunity to live their fullest potential regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, income, age, abilities, or other socially defined circumstance.”1 This report will discuss how …

Mobility Of Older Adults In Mexico City: A Mixed Methods Approach, Jessica Villena Sanchez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation covers the topic of the mobility of older adults in Mexico City using a mixed methods approach. First, I looked at the literature to uncover what is known about elderly mobilities coming from the Global South. Second, I analyzed the 2017 Household Origin Destination Survey to reveal travel behavior patterns and transport mode choice of older adults in Mexico City. Third, I revealed mobility experiences from older adults living in different neighborhoods in Mexico City by conducting twenty two telephone interviews. Lastly, I created joint displays that included both previous results to better understand how the findings from …

The Glorious Past And The Ecologically Modern: A Guided Journey Through Reconstructions Of China In Rural Shanxi, Melinda Herrold-Menzies

EnviroLab Asia

The article traces an EnviroLab Asia research trip designed to learn how “traditional” music and “folk” dance had been used to transform a loose configuration of farms into an integrated organic agricultural cooperative. This trip was second part of a multi-pronged case-study project looking at music, agriculture and sustainability in Indonesia and China. The importance of this research trip was to build collaborative relationships with our colleagues in Shanxi so that we will be able to produce interdisciplinary research with multinational partners in the future.

Unpacking The Census, Sarah Murtaugh, Kyle Redican

Other Publications

Unpacking the Census, a partnership between the Virginia Center for Inclusive Communities and the University of Richmond’s Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, School of Professional & Continuing Studies, and Spatial Analysis Lab, examines structural inequality through census research. Data for the charts, tables, and maps are the most recent from the U.S. Census, American Community Survey (ACS), 2016-2020, Five-Year Estimates.

Navigating Urban Spaces: Indoor & Outdoor Wayfinding Technology For Vision-Impaired People, Martin Swobodzinski, Amy T. Parker

TREC Project Briefs

Navigating an unfamiliar place is uniquely challenging for people with disabilities. People with blindness, deafblindness, visual impairment or low vision, as well as those who use wheelchairs, can travel more independently in urban areas with the aid of effective wayfinding technology. A new report from the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC) explores how to leverage low-cost methods to enable people to more easily move through public, urban indoor and outdoor spaces.

The study, led by Martin Swobodzinski and Amy Parker of Portland State University, used focus groups, two case studies, and an in-person structured wayfinding experience on the …

Jue Insight: Migration, Transportation Infrastructure, And The Spatial Transmission Of Covid-19 In China, Bingjing Li, Lin Ma

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper evaluates the impacts of migration flows and transportation infrastructure on the spatial transmission of COVID-19 in China. Prefectures with larger bilateral migration flows and shorter travel distances with Hubei, the epicenter of the outbreak, experienced a wider spread of COVID-19. In addition, richer prefectures with higher incomes were better able to contain the virus at the early stages of community transmission. Using a spatial general equilibrium model, we show that around 28% of the infections outside Hubei province can be explained by the rapid development in transportation infrastructure and the liberalization of migration restrictions in the recent decade.

Wages For Climate Stewardship?, Sayd Randle

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

IN 1996, environmental historian Richard White published an essay with a title borrowed from a pissed-off bumper sticker: “Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?” White used the frictions between loggers and spotted owl advocates in the Pacific Northwest to show readers exactly how US-based environmentalism had come to be seen as orthogonal to productive labor. “Work,” he asserted, is in fact “where we should begin” when we talk about environmentalism. Set aside idealized images of natural spaces as best suited for leisure, he counseled. It’s only “[i]n taking responsibility for our own lives and work, …

Struggling For Security: The Complexity Of Nato Burden-Sharing, Tad Schnaufer Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Since the founding of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), US administrations have criticized their European allies for not meeting security burden-sharing goals. This study aims to gain insight into what factors motivate alliance members to contribute to the burden-sharing objectives they have agreed to achieve. From a US perspective, the need for its European allies to reach these goals will allow the United States to shift resources to more pressing strategic challenges like the rise of China. Informed by Mancur Olson's theory of collective action and Glenn Snyder's concept of the security dilemma in alliances, this project tests the …

The Effects Of Federal Funding Reductions On Emergency Shelters In Urban U.S. Sanctuary Cities., Venice Hylton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractWhen the U.S. federal government reduces funding to urban sanctuary cities because of those cities’ refusal to cooperate with federal law enforcement agents this affects the services offered by the municipalities to their residents. The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding of the effects that withdrawal of federal funds from urban sanctuary cities have on people experiencing homelessness. The social exchange theory provided the theoretical foundation for the study, which featured a qualitative exploratory case study design and involved interviews with four shelter administrators in three mid-Atlantic states. The participants described (a) the effects of reduced …

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, …

Religion, Education, And Peace: Proceedings Of An Online International Conference Held In March 2021, Jon Armajani, Wilbert Van Saane

Peace Studies Faculty Books

This volume contains the proceedings of the international online conference entitled Religion, Education, and Peace, which was organized by Haigazian University in Beirut, Lebanon, and the Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning at Saint John's University in Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, and was co-sponsored by the Peace Studies Department at the College of Saint Benedict I Saint John's University in Minnesota.

The conference took place on March 4 and 5, 2021. The chapters in this volume analyze religion, education, and peace in various parts of the world in a variety of settings including secondary schools, colleges, universities, governmental agencies, and nonprofit …

Moving From Harm Mitigation To Affirmative Discrimination Mitigation: The Untapped Potential Of Artificial Intelligence To Fight School Segregation And Other Forms Of Racial Discrimination, Andrew Gall

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Exact Algorithms For Practical Instances Of The Railcar Loading Problem At Marine Container Terminals, Manwo Ng, Dung-Ying Lin

Information Technology & Decision Sciences Faculty Publications

With the growth in global trade and its environmental footprint, sustainable modes of freight movement are increasingly important in today’s globalized world. This study focuses on on-dock rail, where the rail terminal is located within the marine container terminal. On-dock rail has in recent years become an essential mode of transportation to move containers out of congested marine container terminals. This study contributes to the literature by presenting tailored exact solution algorithms for a recently proposed optimization model to optimize the loading of double-stack trains. In particular, a 3-stage solution framework is presented for the case when rail cars have …

Perceived Social And Environmental Impacts Of The Maya Train Project On The Yucatan Peninsula Of Mexico: A Case Study Of Puerto Morelos, Emely Hernandez Yac

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

The Maya Train Project (MTP) is a new national megaproject in Mexico, meant to connect the perimeter of the Yucatan Peninsula, and facilitate easier transportation for tourism, industry, and agriculture. Given the region’s dependence on tourism, the train will accelerate the growth, as well as the social and environmental impacts of tourism in the region. Globally, the tourism industry has resulted in inequitable social and environmental impacts for the local communities and there is concern that this new Maya Train Project will serve to accelerate uneven development in the region. This project focused on the coastal tourist city of Puerto …

Three Essays On Governance, Inequality, And Social Equity, Sarah Ausmus Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Comprised of three essays, my dissertation is linked by a common focus: the relationship between state or local governance arrangements and inequality or facets of social equity. I draw upon a range of literatures to motivate my research questions and inform my methodologies—welfare and social policy, public economics, intergovernmental relations, public finance and management.

In the first essay, I ask: does localizing welfare governance impact geospatial access to the social safety net? This is an important question because proximity is highly salient to program utilization. I geocode the location of human services nonprofits from tax filings in eight states using …

Evaluation Of Aquatic Plant Survey Methods For Efficacy In Invasive Species Detection, Izaac Cooper

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Aquatic invasive plants can often be ecologically devastating to ecosystems where they are introduced. This devastation has been widely apparent in the United States, including many locations in New York State over many decades, following anthropogenic transport of species from their native ranges. Due to the difficulty involved in eradicating these plants once they have become fully established, there is keen interest in strategies for early detection to assist with prevention and monitoring to mitigate future management costs. Invasive species detection research aims to find methods for detecting new invaders more effectively. I evaluated three detection methods for their effectiveness …

Morbid Curiosity: Exploring The Ethics Of Dark Tourism, Kristina Garlick

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

The role of government in dark tourism is currently unclear. Public sector employees find themselves in a challenging position where they must establish how to deal with locations that have a dark history. Should these places be condemned, have minimal government interference, or have active involvement from government officials? By examining visitor motivation, the aim is to uncover the connection between government and dark tourism from a postmodern perspective with ethical undertones.

A mixed-method approach was utilized with both open and closed-ended questions during the survey process. The quantitative data was run through SPSS, and the way the queries are …

Factors Contributing To The Success Of Rising Latino Leadership In Central California, A Qualitative Inquiry, Yammilette Rodriguez

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

This research study is a qualitative inquiry into Latino public servants in Central California. Drawing from the knowledge of 60 Central Valley Latinos, the study provides details of their inside accounts of their public service paths and political journeys. The public servants shared personal stories of successes and barriers from their experiences and lessons learned through in-depth interviews and focus groups. The findings translated into recommendations for potential Latino leaders to seek public life as volunteers or to run for political office. The themes of political ambition and social networks and capital arose with subthemes of policies, gender politics, leadership …

Lincoln Vital Signs, 2022 Report (Version 1.2), Stacey Hoffman, Alyssa Sloane, Taylor Smith

University of Nebraska Public Policy Center: Publications

Executive Summary

Since 2014, Lincoln Vital Signs, authored by the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center, has been a community-wide data resource. The 2022 Lincoln Vital Signs report is sponsored by Lincoln’s and Nebraska’s largest public and private charitable organizations. Lincoln Vital Signs 2022 continues the tradition of providing credible, reliable information about Lincoln, compared to its recent past and to other communities in the United States. Data from the report are used by organizations and individuals to inform decisions, spark connections, and spur collaboration. You can view the report, along with new interactive graphs, at https://www.lincolnvitalsigns.org. Lincoln Vital …

"Ethnic" Some Days, White The Rest: Whittier, Ca As A Case Study In Mexican-American Racialization And Assimilation In Los Angeles County, Maria Gutierrez-Vera

CMC Senior Theses

Per the U.S. Census Bureau, the Latino population in the United States stands at 60.5 million. This thesis tells the story of a few hundred-thousand Mexican-Americans in Southeast Los Angeles County’s suburbs, who live in a region nicknamed the “Mexican Beverly Hills.” This is a unique site of middle-class ethnic affluence, but also a place where questions of “Hispanic” racial identity, assimilation, and belonging are played out. The Mexican Beverly Hills promises residents the fulfillment of their own (Mexican-) American Dream, but also plays into tropes of model minorities, demands assimilation and ethnic betrayal from its residents, and is the …

2022 Greater Nebraska Youth Survey Executive Summary, Josie Gatti Schafer

Publications

In January 2020, Nebraska Community Foundation began work with Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha to co-create a survey designed to explore young people’s perceptions of their Nebraska hometowns. Now, after three years, more than 3,200 students have participated in our youth surveys. In 2022, over 700 students responded to the online survey which was administered in rural communities of varying sizes and geography between January and May 2022. The results of the Youth Survey begin to reveal the priorities, values, and desires of these individuals as well as factors that may influence their …

2022 Poverty In Nebraska, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

Publications

After years of declining poverty, the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the well-being of Nebraskans in many ways, including an increase in poverty. According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates for 2020, the official overall poverty rate in Nebraska is 10.4%, or 193,820 persons. Sheridan, Thurston, and Pawnee Counties experience poverty at the highest rates. Comparatively, Nebraska’s poverty rate is lower than average across the United States.

Demographics, Workforce And Housing Review Of South Omaha, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

Publications

Data was compiled and analyzed by the University of Nebraska at Omaha Center for Public Affairs Research, a partner with the U.S. Census Bureau’s State Data Center program. The mission of the Center for Public Affairs Research is to collaboratively produce and disseminate high quality public scholarship on topics that impact the lives of Nebraskans. This brief provides data on demographics, the workforce, and housing in South Omaha. The majority of the data presented comes from the American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau for the year 2020. Other data sources and years used in the analyses are notated. …

Us Strategic Culture, Homeland Ballistic Missile Defense, And Mutual Vulnerability, Jacob T. Blank

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Strategic scholars have long understood the indispensable linkage between culture and security policymaking. By shaping the perceptions through which decision-makers formulate security policy, strategic culture analysis adds vital context to the perilously difficult science of understanding and predicting state security outputs. One area where this analytical framework fails to generate the expected result is American missile defense policy. Salient themes of US strategic culture, including an optimistic and problem-solving mindset, positive role of machines, and ahistorical exceptionalism, are reflected in the American way of war – a technologically driven, leadership casualty averse, moralistic, apolitical, and firepower focused enterprise. These factors …

Fig Leaves, Pipe Dreams, And Myopia: Too-Easy Solutions In Environmental Law, Albert C. Lin

University of Colorado Law Review

Much of environmental law and policy rests on an unspoken premise that accomplishing environmental goals may not require addressing the root causes of environmental problems. For example, rather than regulating risks directly, society may adopt warnings that merely avoid risk, and rather than limiting plastic use and reducing plastic waste, society may adopt recycling programs. Such approaches may be well-intended and come at a relatively low economic or political cost. However, they often prove ineffective, or even harmful, and they may mislead society into believing that further responses are unnecessary.

This Article proposes the concept of "too-easy solutions" to describe …

Structural Violence & Small Victories: Political Epidemiology Of Hiv Among Msm In Nigeria, 2000-2010, Debbie A. Dada

Harvey M. Applebaum ’59 Award

No abstract provided.

The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (Raft) As An Approach For Incorporating Equity Into Coastal Resilience Planning And Project Implementation, Juita-Elena (Wie) Yusuf, Tanya Denckla Cobb, Elizabeth Andrews, Sierra Gladfelter, Gray Montrose

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

As coastal communities across the U.S. and worldwide undertake efforts to enhance their resilience to coastal hazards, they must do so while ensuring that all voices are heard, addressing and preventing disparate impacts, and, ultimately, increasing resilience in an equitable way. The Resilience Adaptation Feasibility Tool (RAFT) assists coastal communities in incorporating equity into resilience planning and implementation of projects to increase resilience. The RAFT includes social and economic dimensions in assessment of resilience and focuses on how localities can build resilience equitably. The RAFT process has three phases -- a scorecard assessment, development of a resilience action checklist that …

Covid-19 And Advanced Course Enrollment: Kentucky High Schools, Jessica Thomas

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In Kentucky governments, districts, and schools made decisions about school closures and mode of learning that would impact community health as well as student achievement. Within those schools, students themselves were also making decisions that could impact their futures academically. In spring 2020, students were choosing their courses for the following year. Vast uncertainty about what the 2020/2021 school year would look like had the potential to impact those decisions. Disruptions to spring 2020 classes could also impact whether a student felt they had learned the prerequisite skills needed to pursue advanced coursework. This study found that advanced course enrollment …

The Occurrence Of Cross Border Riverboat Casino Gambling Between Illinois And Indiana, Andrew N. Jenkins

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Casino and sports gambling implementation has been a hotly debated topic in recent years as several states have passed legislation allowing it. Most states have had some form of gambling in their state for years even if it is the lottery; however, riverboat gambling is legal in six states. These casinos offering table and electronic gaming are legal as long are they remain moored on the shoreline. For example, table games take the form of poker or blackjack and electronic gaming takes the form of slots. While the introduction of casino gaming produces large annual tax payments, players do not …