Digital Commons Network^™

Learning About Street Harassment On Transit: A Survey Instrument For Transit Agencies, Asha Weinstein Agrawal, Jon Canapary, Carol Anne Caroll, Tam J. Guy, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris

Mineta Transportation Institute

This study was conducted in accordance with California Senate Bill 1161 (2022), legislation that directed the Mineta Transportation Institute to develop a reliable, easy-to-use survey instrument for collecting information from public transit passengers about the extent, location, and characteristics of any street harassment they experience. Although the legislation is focused on large California transit agencies, the study findings are equally relevant to smaller agencies and agencies outside the state. To develop the recommended questionnaire, we reviewed literature about street harassment, analyzed transit passenger surveys to explore the questions asked about safety and harassment, received feedback on iterative drafts of the …

Deep Learning, Machine Learning, Or Statistical Models For Weather-Related Crash Severity Prediction, Abimbola Ogungbire, Panick Kalambay, Hardik Gajera, Srinivas S. Pulugurtha

Mineta Transportation Institute

Nearly 5,000 people are killed and more than 418,000 are injured in weather-related traffic incidents each year. Assessments of the effectiveness of statistical models applied to crash severity prediction compared to machine learning (ML) and deep learning techniques (DL) help researchers and practitioners know what models are most effective under specific conditions. Given the class imbalance in crash data, the synthetic minority over-sampling technique for nominal (SMOTE-N) data was employed to generate synthetic samples for the minority class. The ordered logit model (OLM) and the ordered probit model (OPM) were evaluated as statistical models, while random forest (RF) and XGBoost …

Shaping Policy And Practice: Analyzing The Reach Of Highly Cited And High Altmetrics Publications For Broader Impact On Physical Activity, Andrea Ramírez Varela, Natalicio Serrano, Juliana Mejía Grueso, Anita Nguyen, Deborah Salvo, Ross C Brownson, Adrian Bauman, Rodrigo Reis, Pedro Hallal, Michael Pratt

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: A significant gap remains between the availability of physical activity (PA) evidence-based interventions and their application in real-world settings in policy and practice areas. This study aims to describe highly cited and high altmetrics publications in PA research and explore their impact on PA policy and practice.

METHODS: Mixed-methods sequential explanatory study including the identification and description of the top highly cited and high altmetrics PA publications from the last 10 years (including study design, population, type of PA study, number of citations, and altmetrics score), and interviews with key informants regarding research dissemination and implications on PA policy …

The Octofoil, October/November/December 2023, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

De-Colonizing Media Literacy: An Indigenous Positive Deviance Case Study Of A Guam-Texas Community Empowering Civic Education For Inafaâ??Maolek Self-Determination, Roque Aguon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

ABSTRACT

DE-COLONIZING MEDIA LITERACY: AN INDIGENOUS POSITIVE DEVIANCE CASE STUDY OF A GUAM-TEXAS COMMUNITY EMPOWERING CIVIC EDUCATION FOR INAFA’MAOLEK SELF-DETERMINATION

This case study delves into the realm of civic and media education within varied municipalities in Guam and Texas, which, to date, have been underexplored by contemporary Indigenous social science researchers within the dominant white culture. The investigation focuses on elucidating how influencers from diverse cultural groups employ education and propaganda in the municipal public policy-making process, contributing to holistic community development, democratic citizenship education, and social transformation. The primary aim of this study is to underscore the imperative need …

The Perpetuation Of Hiv Risk In Latinx Immigrations: A Cross-National Perspective, J. M. Aleman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research indicates that migration is a social determinant of health that increases the risk of acquiring HIV. What is less understood, however, are the pathways through which immigration influences HIV risk. This study employed a cross-national perspective and utilized a social determinants of health framework to understand how structural factors, such as economic conditions and immigration policies and their enforcement, influence HIV risk among migrants. While mobility, migration and displacement are associated with increased HIV risk, they are not inherently the cause but rather a condition under which vulnerability is increased indicating that other distal, upstream, or structural forces are …

Analysis Of Travel Behavior At International Border Crossings: Application Of Travel Surveys, Jennifer Areli Moreno Escamilla

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Transportation planning provides an insight into the demand and traffic distribution of existingconditions of a region and helps identify future transportation needs. The results generated from forecasting models influence many decisions on the selection of transportation projects and funding allocations. Thus, forecasting models require up-to-date trip information to represent trip patterns and generate representative traffic demand analysis in a such complex areas as binational regions. The purpose of this study is to provide an analysis on travel survey methodology applied to collect trip information at international border crossings. Based on the results of the survey, an analysis on trip pattern …

Stories Of Challenge In South Africa: Changes In The Enabling Environment For Nutrition Among Young Children (1994–2021), Scott Drimie, Mara Van Den Bold, Lisanne Du Plessis, Laura Casu

Student Publications [Scholarly]

Despite important nutrition-related policy and programmatic improvements in South Africa, rates of stunting among young children remain unacceptably high, while rates of overweight and obesity in this same population group are simultaneously on the rise. This study sought to examine the changes in the enabling environment for nutrition aimed at young children in South Africa by drawing on a literature review, policy mapping, and stakeholder interviews, for the time period from the end of apartheid in 1994 to 2021. The study focuses on changes and drivers of change at national level but also in three provinces: Western Cape, North West, …

Front Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Teresa R. Behrens

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Widening The Aperture: A Case Study Of Widening The Definition Of Evidence For Strategy, Jennifer James, Sandra Hilliard

The Foundation Review

The need to “widen the aperture” to consider different types and sources of evidence is paramount to sharpening grantmaking strategies that are in service of those we seek to serve. This article describes an underlying process of identifying and applying equity considerations in the evidence considered for strategy development in the context of a large, national foundation.

The aim was to develop a “common evidence base” — the core of which was a database library — and what was understood from the evidence was synthesized to bring together what was currently known, the edges of the foundation’s understanding, and emerging …

The Landscape Of Community-Based Giving Days In The United States, Abhishek Bhati, Andrew Burk

The Foundation Review

Within the last decade there has been an exponential growth of community foundation- led giving days, credited in general to the ease afforded by online giving, the social media presence of nonprofits, and the sense of community these events widely impart. However, current academic literature on these events remains sparse. This article addresses this gap with a longitudinal examination of the growth of community foundation-led giving days from 2009 to 2022.

The study found only two giving days led by community foundations in 2009, peaking at 78 in 2020, and plateauing to 71 giving days in 2022. In 2020, the …

Philanthropy’S Uneasy Journey Into Mental Health Grantmaking, Mallet R. Reid, Robert J. (Bob) Reid, Ximena Murillo, Anna Bobb

The Foundation Review

The increasing prevalence of mental illness and addiction in the United States has drawn considerable attention from grantmakers, which could catalyze the development and delivery of innovative approaches to these complex and difficult-to-treat behavioral health disorders. Relatively little is known, however, of the perspectives of these funders on how best to undertake this work.

To assist foundations in meaningful engagement with the field of behavioral health, this article shares the responses of 17 highly experienced behavioral health grantmakers to two research questions: What are the experiences of foundations that have funded behavioral health initiatives? What issues should be considered by …

A Year Of Learning: Educating The Philanthropic Community About Racialized And Stigmatized Nonprofits, Shariq Siddiqui, Rafeel Wasif, Abdul Samad

The Foundation Review

Islamophobia and a lack of legitimacy heavily impact Muslim-led nonprofits and limit their relationships with philanthropy in the United States, resulting in an anemic, continually underfunded sector. This article explores that disconnect within a discussion of the Year of Learning, a unique series of virtual workshops that brought together foundations and nonprofits serving the Muslim American community.

Among the barriers to more effective relationships that emerged from the workshops were the presence of Islamophobia within society at large and philanthropy in particular, a hesitance among U.S. foundations to fund faith-based work, and a lack of capacity among Muslim-led nonprofits. Also …

Why Foundations? The Theory And Strategy Of The General-Purpose Foundation, Samsher (Sam) Singh Gill

The Foundation Review

As foundations increasingly grapple with the penetration of socioeconomic dissension into every facet of our country’s public culture, it has become difficult to evade the moral salience of whether philanthropic wealth aggregation and allocation reflect or even entrench the structures of material accumulation many now see at the root of declining support for liberalism across advanced economies.

This essay argues that contrary to growing internal and external anxieties about the role and legitimacy of general-purpose foundations in the United States, there is a sound theoretical expression of them as an essential institution in a liberal democracy. The core principle of …

Executive Summaries

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Risks In Grantmaking: A Study Of Australian Foundations, Daniel Archibald, Reza Tajaddini, Mary Dunkley

The Foundation Review

In the pursuit of more effective giving, the nonprofit sector has been increasingly advocating for foundations to take on more risk in their grantmaking. This article investigates the risk experience in the charitable funding process and the approaches taken to mitigate unwanted risks. Failure to adequately manage such risks can negatively influence the legacy of a foundation and the effectiveness of the programs and projects it funds.

Particularly, this article contributes to the improvement of managing the risks that arise in the grantmaking process by identifying those key risks faced by different types of foundations, thus helping to prioritize the …

Full Issue Vol. 15 Issue 4

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Reconciling Philanthropy’S Role In Disruption And Revolution: Hard Lessons From A Community-Driven Power-Building Strategy To Achieve Health Equity, Kien S. Lee, Courtney Ricci, Mia Ramirez

The Foundation Review

This article shares The Colorado Trust’s experience with Community Partnerships for Health Equity (CPHE) after initiating a resident-led strategy for systems change and encountering the myriad challenges to its implementation that ultimately led to exiting the initiative.

The CPHE strategy intended to fund community members directly instead of working through the nonprofit sector in the state, and thereby shift power from nonprofit organizations to residents. It eventually involved more than 20 communities across Colorado and created change in certain communities — from filling service gaps and creating local partnerships to shifting local systems.

The Trust had good intentions in its …

Coopen: An Open Innovation Process Triggering Collaboration Between Ngos And Innovators In Africa — The Case Of Fondazione Cariplo And Fondazione Compagnia Di San Paolo, Fulvio Bersanetti, Alessandro Masciadri, Ilaria Caramia, Cristina Toscano

The Foundation Review

This article explores how the two main Italian foundations of banking origin, Fondazione Cariplo and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, are internationally contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals agenda through Coopen, a cross-fertilization process between nonprofit organizations and the innovation ecosystem.

Guided by the United Nations 2030 Agenda’s Sustainable Development Goals, which identify innovation as a focal point in SDG 9, the foundations recognize the value that product, process, and methodological innovation can bring to Italy’s international development cooperation sector and its partnerships.

Coopen encourages the development and implementation of innovative solutions in Africa to respond to specific …

Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Place-Based Philanthropy With An Adaptive Lens: Actively Balancing Community-Driven And Foundation-Driven Orientations, Douglas Easterling, Tanya Beer, Kristen Burwell Naney, Mina Silberberg, Laura Gerald, Adam Linker

The Foundation Review

With place-based philanthropy, a foundation provides extensive, long-term support for a comprehensive mix of programs within specific communities, with the expectation that this will produce benefits at a communitywide level. One of the key questions in designing a place-based initiative is how much the foundation will control local decision-making.

In some initiatives, the foundation dictates the issues that community groups must address and/or the nature of the planning process that will be used to develop solutions. This sometimes produces ineffective or irrelevant solutions. In contrast, other initiatives allow local groups considerable discretion in naming the issues and choosing the solutions, …

Social Media And Mental Health: The Public Health Impact And Future Policy Directives, Renae A. Merrill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between social media use among young people and the increasing concerns of mental health problems in the U.S. and globally is on systemic agendas. Furthermore, research on social media use and mental health indicate reasons to suspect a causal relationship, but more work needs to be done. Therefore, this three-article dissertation seeks to explore (1) associations between social media use, personality, and depression; (2) associations between social media emotional support, anxiety, and personality; and (3) the relationship between social media use and mental health using Deborah Stone’s causal stories framework. Findings from this study provide an improved understanding …

2023 December, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for December of 2023.

Neural Airport Ground Handling, Yaoxin Wu, Jianan Zhou, Yunwen Xia, Xianli Zhang, Zhiguang Cao, Jie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Airport ground handling (AGH) offers necessary operations to flights during their turnarounds and is of great importance to the efficiency of airport management and the economics of aviation. Such a problem involves the interplay among the operations that leads to NP-hard problems with complex constraints. Hence, existing methods for AGH are usually designed with massive domain knowledge but still fail to yield high-quality solutions efficiently. In this paper, we aim to enhance the solution quality and computation efficiency for solving AGH. Particularly, we first model AGH as a multiple-fleet vehicle routing problem (VRP) with miscellaneous constraints including precedence, time windows, …

Vision Paper: Advancing Of Ai Explainability For The Use Of Chatgpt In Government Agencies: Proposal Of A 4-Step Framework, Hui Shan Lee, Shankararaman, Venky, Eng Lieh Ouh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper explores ChatGPT’s potential in aiding government agencies, drawing from a case study based on a government agency in Singapore. While ChatGPT’s text generation abilities offer promise, it brings inherent challenges, including data opacity, potential misinformation, and occasional errors. These issues are especially critical in government decision-making.Public administration’s core values of transparency and accountability magnify these concerns. Ensuring AI alignment with these principles is imperative, given the potential repercussions on policy outcomes and citizen trust.AI explainability plays a central role in ChatGPT’s adoption within government agencies. To address these concerns, we propose strategies like prompt engineering, data governance, and …

Chinatown Outreach - Targeted Resources For The Unhoused Population, Jesus Herrera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Addressing housing insecurities is one of The Epicenter’s pillars while utilizing a new federal grant. The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program is the division implementing the project that will consist of outreach through a mobilization team. Housing insecurities are not only a city issue but a statewide one and YHDP is designed to help reduce those insecurities and improve a client’s quality of life while providing food, clothing, hygiene packs, and resource information to improve their livelihood. To assess the effectiveness of our deliverables it consisted of tallying, informal dialogues, and data analysis. The most important measure is that we were …

Improving Mental Health In Hispanic Communities, Paola Vargas

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

AIM Youth Mental Health is advocating for children who are suffering from lack of resources, guidance, and clinical research. The division implementing this project is the outreach program. The intern and team will passionately work together to make this event successful by creating bilingual fliers that share information about the agency's programs and training. Depression and suicide are the most common issues occurring in Monterey county as of today and has been affecting many families. Providing these resources will unite and educate professionals, parents, and students about school programs available for youths and measures for adults as well. The most …

Pathways To Success: A Career Insights Event For Youth And Parents, Kendall Perez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Partners for Peace (P4P) is a nonprofit organization in Monterey County focused on enhancing parent-child relationships by offering parent education classes and a youth mentorship program. They serve over 432,000 Monterey County residents, composed of a diverse demographic with a predominantly Hispanic population. The young adults in Monterey County face challenges in transitioning to independent adulthood and achieving self-sufficiency. The contributing factors include underfunded educational systems, low educational attainment, and low financial literacy among youth, undoubtedly resulting in ungainful employment, mental illness, and dependence. P4P's "Pathways to Success" career exploration fair endeavors to boost career awareness and confidence among youth …

Development, Voice, And Vulnerability: A Rhetorical Analysis Of The Policy-Making Discourse Regarding The Paris Agreement As An Organizational Response To Climate Change, David Almanza-Canas

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

On December 12, 2015, the Paris Agreement was officially ratified by 196 sovereign entities. This treaty represents a global call to action to ameliorate the impact of human activities on our environment, and it creates a means of cooperation through financial support and transparent industrial practices with the goal of promoting accountability across the world. This treaty and the discourse surrounding it present fertile ground for the academic understanding of persuasive practices in policy-making. By examining the rhetorical implications of the Paris Agreement as a global policy, scholars can gain new insight about the communities represented in the conversation as …