Digital Commons Network^™

Studying Extreme Weather Event Impacts For Transit-Reliant Unhoused Populations, Costanza Rampini, Serena Alexander, Jeff Wootton, Amruta Ashish Gandhi

Mineta Transportation Institute

No abstract provided.

The Perceived Benefit Of A Degree Requirement In Emergency Medical Services Education And Success, Joseph H. Wood

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Introduction: This study sought to assess how graduates of Wallace Community College's paramedic program impacted their readiness for the NREMT Paramedic examination and entering the workforce, specifically comparing those who completed an associate degree to those who completed the certificate program. Methods: This qualitative study analyzed the perspectives of graduates from the paramedic program using a phenomenological approach. Using a purposive sampling technique, nine graduates were chosen for one-on-one interviews, and six were selected for a focus group. Results: Analysis of participant responses revealed three main themes: the perceived value of a degree, student preparedness for the NREMT exam and …

Planetary Defense As The Ethico-Legal Gateway For International Space Security, Evie Kendal

Space and Defense

Following the news in late 2024 that there was a city-killer asteroid on a possible collision course with Earth, many members of the public were shocked to learn there was no reliable global plan for managing such asteroidal and cometary impact hazards. While calculations of Asteroid 2024 YR4’s trajectory were further refined to exclude the previously reported 2-3% chance of collision in 2032, this event highlighted a major security threat: the lack of a globally coordinated, appropriately resourced, and politically supported planetary defense strategy (Gibney, 2025). In so doing, it also provided an opportunity for security experts to consider the …

Building Wellbeing Through Nature And Adventure For Justice-Involved Youth, Lewis Kogan, Meagan Ricks, Janna Coulter, Miranda Margetts, Lori Butterfield, Ben Ukoh-Eke

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

Justice-involved youth often experience elevated levels of stress, mental health challenges, and reduced access to positive developmental opportunities. A nature- and adventure-based youth development program designed to strengthen resilience, self-efficacy, nature-connectedness, and well-being among justice-involved youth was piloted in 2025 to address these challenges. Pilot findings indicated improvements in resilience, self-efficacy, hopefulness, and connectedness to nature.

Authoritarianism, Hostility And Threat: An Analysis Of American Political Podcasts Surrounding The 2024 Presidential Election, Noah D. Cohen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Political rhetoric surrounding key events has seen sharp increases in emotionally affective speech, intergroup sentiment, and rhetoric unbecoming of democratic societies in recent years. Similarly, semi-democratic and ideologically driven speech has become increasingly normalized within an era of political polarization and hardline beliefs in modern media. Within this economy of outrage, sensational and largely unmoderated media formats, particularly podcasts, have become a mainstay of political information and discourse. This raises an important question: how does rhetoric surrounding political events construct intergroup sentiment and authoritarian rhetoric within political media, particularly American political podcasts? Further, given political podcasts’ growing social influence in …

Utahns' Views On Data Centers - Statewide Sample Descriptive Report, Jessica Schad, Gina Gilson, Stacia Ryder, Elizabeth Long-Meek, Alexandrea Sherman

Utah People and Environment Poll (UPEP)

As data center development accelerates in the western U.S, there are growing concerns about impacts to land, water, and air. This is especially true in rural communities, where development is rapidly increasing and communities have fewer resources. Broadly, data centers increasingly face vocal opposition from siting communities, who are concerned about water use, energy demand, and air quality. However, the impacts of data centers are highly context specific and localized, depending on regional energy availability, cooling technologies, and, increasingly, state-specific regulations.

Over the last year, Utah policymakers have increased efforts to monitor data centers and mitigate their impacts. However, such …

Towards Human-Centered Digital Health Interventions, Kristin M Kostick-Quenet, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

This article discusses the potential of digital health interventions (DHIs) in mental health care, emphasizing the importance of designing them to foster genuine humanistic care. It highlights current challenges in measuring engagement and outcomes, advocating for integrating human-centered endpoints such as dignity, autonomy, and therapeutic alliance into evaluation frameworks. The authors call for mechanistic research to identify effective engagement strategies and context-specific implementation approaches. Ultimately, successful DHIs should demonstrate both clinical efficacy and the preservation of humane, person-centered care, ensuring ethical and meaningful mental health support through technology.

Religion And Economics: The Economic Views Of Catholicos-Patriarch Ilia Ii Of Georgia, Giuli Giguashvili

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The paper examines the impact of religion on a country’s economic development, analyzing how religious values and institutions influence economic behavior. The research employs a qualitative, comparative, and historical approach based on the systematic analysis of primary and secondary sources. Religion can promote economic growth by strengthening work ethics, education, and social order. Still, it may also hinder development through inefficient resource allocation and regulatory influence. In the context of the 1700th anniversary of Christianity in Georgia, the study highlights the relationship between Orthodox teaching and economic thought. Drawing on the epistles and sermons of the Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, …

Cost Analysis Of Rheumatoid Arthritis In Insured Patients And Its Determinant Factors: Data From A National Referral Hospital In Indonesia, Rudy Hidayat, Fara Fauzia, Mochammad Alfansyah Dhifanra, Aries Maulana

Kesmas

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) leads to progressive functional impairment and considerable economic burden. This study estimated the annual (12-month) cost per patient among patients with RA and its determinant factors. A descriptive cross-sectional economic study of RA patients who had been treated for at least one year at the outpatient clinic of a national referral hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia, and met the 2010 ACR–EULAR criteria. Data collected from January 2023 to December 2024 were obtained from medical and billing records for demographic characteristics, direct medical costs, and DAS28-based disease activity, whereas non-medical and indirect costs were collected through structured patient interviews. …

Illinois Model Programs Of Study Guide: Education (Draft For Public Comment), Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

This draft was available for public comment through September 30, 2026. A final version will be released in October 2026.

Illinois Model Programs Of Study Guide: Digital Technology (Draft For Public Comment), Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

This draft was available for public comment through September 30, 2026. A final version will be released in October 2026.

Illinois Model Programs Of Study: Overview Guide (Draft For Public Comment), Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

This draft was available for public comment through September 30, 2026. A final version will be released in October 2026.

Illinois Model Programs Of Study Guide: Physical Health (Draft For Public Comment), Education Systems Center

Practitioner Toolkits and Resources

This draft was available for public comment through September 30, 2026. A final version will be released in October 2026.

Nihilistic Violence Aesthetics In Public Online Communication, Heath Nicholas Landress

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Public online communication has increasingly included violence-related content that is meme-based, ironic, visually stylized, multimodal, and only partially ideological. This comprehensive literature review synthesized research on online extremism, extremist memes, toxic multimodal content, dehumanizing digital communication, nihilistic violent extremism, warning behaviors, platform affordances, and youth-facing online environments. The purpose was to clarify what the literature had established; identify where the scholarship remained fragmented; and map research domains relevant to social, behavioral, public safety, and human services scholarship. The review used a structured, comprehensive literature review strategy supported by integrative synthesis procedures. The final corpus contained 34 scholarly sources, including 32 …

Environmental Perspective For System Dynamics Modeling Of Stunting Mitigation To Achieve The Sustainable Development Goals In West Sumatra, Indonesia, Elsa Yuniarti, Nabila Azzahra, Yulhendri Yulhendri, Heldi Heldi, Mery Delvina, Saskia Putri Azeli

Kesmas

This study developed a system dynamics model to simulate stunting reduction in West Sumatra Province, Indonesia, by integrating infant and toddler health, maternal health, and environmental determinants. Secondary data from 2020–2024 on low birth weight, immunization, malnutrition, exclusive breastfeeding, maternal chronic energy deficiency, iron and folic acid supplement distribution, sanitation, and safe drinking water access were compiled from West Sumatra Provincial Health Office and Statistics Indonesia, and validated through consultation with five stakeholder institutions. Causal Loop Diagrams mapped feedback relationships among determinants and were translated into Stock Flow Diagrams using Powersim Studio 10. The model was validated through structural verification, …

Principals’ Experiences With Implementation Practices For School Board Policies In An Urban School District, Andrea J. Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Effective policy implementation is crucial for improving educational outcomes and ensuring equitable learning environments. While existing literature has shown that policy implementation is influenced by factors such as leadership capacity, stakeholder engagement, communication, resource availability, organization context, and accountability, there is little known about how K-12 urban principals narrate, interpret, and make meaning of their experiences to implementing board-mandated policies. This study addressed this gap by exploring how principals in an urban school district in Ohio navigated the complexities of implementing school board policies amid resource limitations, stakeholder resistance, and accountability pressures. The purpose of this qualitative narrative inquiry study …

Middle Class Affordability In The Mountain West, 2023, Kian Parikh, Krish Sharma, Mohit Pande, Kristian Thymianos, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2023 data on the share of middle-class households that can afford basic necessities in the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The Brookings Institution report, “In every corner of the country, the middle class struggles with affordability,” provides metropolitan-level estimates across all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. This fact sheet focuses on middle class affordability data for the largest metro area in each Mountain West state and, where available, explores middle class affordability by race and ethnicity.

Gendered Precarity, Informality And Survival Among Cambodian Women Migrants In Thailand, Sokha Eng

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Migration scholars have long assumed that women migrant laborers move as individuals, leave family behind, are governed by labor migration policies, and are employed full-time. However, in the context of South-South migration, many workers migrate as families, with husbands, wives, and sometimes even children. Some engage in the informal economy, serving as casual and on-call workers. These types of employment fall outside the scope of standard labor migration policies and therefore receive less attention. As a result, migrants’ experiences in such work arrangements remain underexplored. This study examines the experiences of Cambodian migrant women in Thailand by examining the case …

From Structure To Experiences: How Facility Capacity And Staffing Shape The Adoption And Impact Of Lgbt-Affirming Policies In Long-Term Care, Andrew Alberth

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Long-term care (LTC) settings – including nursing homes (NHs) and assisted living facilities (ALFs) – provide necessary care for individuals with extreme health and functioning limitations. Sexual and gender minority (LGBT) older adults report challenges receiving effective, person-centered care LTC. Some LGBT older adults may hide their sexual orientation and gender identity when entering LTC settings or delay seeking needed LTC fearing discrimination from staff and other residents. Furthermore, staff in LTC settings indicate little awareness of LGBT-residents and possess inadequate LGBT-cultural competency necessary for providing person-centered care. Therefore, LGBT-residents LTC experiences remain underexplored in the broader research. Adopting LGBT-affirming …

Our Claims Matter: Latin American Migrants’ Nonviolent And Everyday Resistance Across Transnational Spaces, Pryanka Penafiel-Cevallos

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines how Latin American migrants engage in nonviolent resistance across transnational spaces in Ecuador, challenging dominant narratives that portray migrants primarily as passive actors or humanitarian subjects. Focusing mainly on Venezuelan, Colombian, and returned Ecuadorian migrants, the study places migrants’ political agency at the center of analysis. It asks how migrants resist, for what purposes, and under which conditions they mobilize nonviolent and everyday resistance practices to claim rights, dignity, and human security in a host country marked by both legal innovation and growing exclusion.

Drawing on civil resistance theory, everyday resistance approaches, and migration scholarship, the research …

Governing Climate Change For Sustainable Food Security In The Busoga Region Of Uganda, James Kintu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Busoga, Uganda's most sugarcane-intensive sub-region, hosts seven mills and an expanding outgrower economy, yet remains among Uganda's most food-insecure areas, with over half of its households food-insecure. This study examined how governance of climate change and sugarcane expansion shapes capabilities for food access, land tenure, and decision-making among women, youth, and land-poor households in Jinja and Buyende.

The study developed an integrated CA-CEP-RFS framework, combining the Capability Approach, Comparative Environmental Politics, and the Resilient Food Systems framework, with Sen's Entitlement Framework bridging capabilities to production, trade, own-labor, and transfer entitlements. A qualitative case study drew on a documentary review, 27 …

The Effect Of State Policy On Individuals With Mental Illness In Nursing Homes: A Multilevel Analysis, Adrita Barooah

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECT OF STATE POLICY ON INDIVIDUALS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN NURSING HOMES: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

August 2026

Adrita Barooah, B.Sc., University of Delhi, India

M.S., University of Massachusetts Boston

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Boston

Directed by Professor Pamela Nadash

The proportion of individuals living with a mental illness in U.S. nursing homes has grown substantially over the past few decades (Fashaw et al., 2020), raising serious concerns about care quality, resource adequacy, and costs to both nursing homes and government payers. The lack of adequate resources and knowledge has resulted in sub-par mental health care (O'Connor et al., …

Level Of Discrimination Experienced By Gender In Athletic Trainers And Professional Athletic Training Students, Emily Ghaussy, Seungyeon Kim, Jennifer Xu, Emily Madrak

Clinical Practice in Athletic Training

Context: Although women make up the majority of the athletic training field, gender-based discrimination continues to exist in the profession. Previous research exists; however, more current research on gender discrimination in the workplace is limited. This cross-sectional study examined level of perceived gender-based discrimination experienced by credentialed women athletic trainers and athletic training students in comparison to men athletic trainers and athletic training students. Four hundred forty-six cisgender men and women athletic trainers and athletic training students participated in our study. The median age was 28 years among cisgender women and 35 years among cisgender men.

Methods: Participants completed a …

“When I’M Not Heard, I Feel Like I Don’T Matter”: Advancing Equity In Disability Policy Through Critical Participatory Action Research With People With Intellectual Disability, Cris Marchionne

Student Theses

People with intellectual disability deserve a system that offers flexible, timely, and person-centered support — one that is innovative, sustainable, and holistic in enabling them to live fulfilling lives. This qualitative study, grounded in Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR), examines how people with intellectual disability experience participation in decision-making within New York State's disability service system. By centering lived experience, the study identifies factors that facilitate or hinder participation in decision-making and examines structural, social, and policy-related barriers that limit agency. Through six focus groups and a Photovoice project with self-advocates receiving OPWDD services, participants described systemic barriers that limited …

Parameters Autumn 2026, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Green Accounting In Achieving Sustainable Development Through The Quality Of Accounting Information: An Empirical Study Of Iraqi Industrial Companies, Ahmed Neamah Abed, Anmar Adnan Khudhair, Farqad Mohammed Bakr Al Saadi

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

The goal of this study is to highlight the role of green accounting, both direct and indirect, via the quality of accounting information, in achieving sustainable development goals in industrial companies in Iraq. The methodology was done based on data obtained in 2026 through a questionnaire sent to a random sample of 110 employees (accountants, heads of finance departments, finance managers and internal auditors) in industrial companies listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was used to test the hypotheses and pathways by applying AMOS software. Furthermore, the results indicated that the green accounting is positively and …

The Mediating Role Of Production Process Efficiency Through Lean Production In Enhancing Institutional Excellence: An Applied Study At The Maysan Oil Factory, Asst. Lect. Wasan Jawad Kadhim

Muthanna Journal of Administrative and Economics Sciences

This study aimed to analyze the mediating role of production process efficiency in the relationship between lean production and organizational excellence, through an applied study at the Maysan Oils Factory. This was done within the framework of efforts to improve operational performance and enhance the competitiveness of industrial enterprises. The study’s significance stems from its highlighting of lean production as a modern strategic approach and its showcasing of the role of production process efficiency as an intermediary mechanism that contributes to achieving organizational excellence in the industrial environment. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach. The study population consisted of employees …

Socioeconomic Determinants Of Malaria Infection Among Pregnant Women In Cameroon, Sub-Saharan Africa, Arnold Akosah Muluh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Malaria during pregnancy is a significant public health issue in Cameroon, affecting maternal health and birth outcomes. Despite preventive measures, disparities exist among socioeconomic groups and between urban and rural areas. The study was guided by the social-ecological model and explored how socioeconomic factors and geographic location influence malaria infection in pregnant women. Specifically, the impact of wealth index, maternal education, and healthcare access on infection rates, considering maternal age, parity, and residence, was examined. Quantitative data from the Cameroon DHS Phase 8 were used (N=1204). The sample included pregnant women with valid malaria test results. Chi-Square tests and binary …

Connecting Families Through Cash Transfers And An Enabling Environment In Colombia, Mexico, And The Philippines: A Qualitative Study, Johanna K P Greeson, John Gyourko, Sarah Wasch, Kristin Mallory, Lory Fehlig, Cesar Jácome, Nestor David Lara Yanes, Fátima Areli Ruiz Gutiérrez, Dennis Guamos, Adele R. Lehman

Faculty Scholarship

Nearly 700 million people worldwide live in extreme poverty, and almost half of the world’s population lives below the poverty line. Cash transfer programs are increasingly used to address poverty’s effects on family well-being, yet less is known about how families experience programs that combine cash transfers with peer-driven mutual aid. Children International’s (CI) Community Independence Initiative (CII) provides conditional cash transfers and promotes family-led goal setting, mutual support, and shared learning. This qualitative study explored how families in Colombia, Mexico, and the Philippines experienced CII and made meaning of its material and relational components. We conducted focus groups with …

Mentor Evaluation Of A Black Male Youth Mentoring Program, Kenneth Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study was an exploration of how Black male mentors perceived organizational practices, culturally responsive mentoring, relational safety, and systems level barriers shaping their effectiveness and continued participation. The purpose was to examine early mentor-mentee match dissolution and low mentor retention in a nonprofit youth mentoring through the lens of the ecological systems theory and program evaluation framework. The practice-focused research questions were: How do volunteer mentors and program staff perceive the organizational practices and culturally responsive strategies that influence mentor effectiveness and retention in youth mentoring programs, and what organizational and systemic challenges do Black male mentors encounter in …