Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating The Structural Barriers And Opportunities For End-Of-Life Management Of Agricultural Plastic Waste Within California's Strawberry Industry, Rory M. O'Toole

Master's Theses

Agricultural plastic waste (APW) accounts for a significant and growing share of global plastic pollution, yet no study has documented how APW management functions across a specific crop system from production through end-of-life (EOL). This thesis addresses that gap by examining the structures and valuations that shape current EOL management of plastic mulch (PM) and drip tape (DT) in California's strawberry industry, one of the nation's most plastic-dependent crop systems. Drawing on an ethnographic approach that included 27 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders, as well as site visits, this study traces how APW is produced, valued, and discarded within a structurally …

Development Of A Video-Based Tool To Measure Motor Asymmetry In Infants At Risk For Hemiparesis, Roha Ali

Master's Theses

Congenital hemiparesis is a unilateral motor impairment stemming from brain injury in utero or early postnatally. Hemiparesis can be difficult to detect in early infancy with current clinical tools. Yet, early identification of motor asymmetry could play a key role in the design of effective early intervention and rehabilitation strategies. This thesis presents the development and validation of a video-based tool designed to extract infant limb movement data using DeepLabCut’s (DLC) machine learning network. The pipeline was developed using videos of typically developing (TD) infants and infants with Asymmetric Perinatal Brain Injury (APBI), all at or under 3 months corrected …

(Wp 2026-03) Fomc Forecasts, Constant-Gain Learning, And Optimism/Pessimism, Stephen J. Cole

Economics Working Papers

This paper uses an adaptive learning framework to study FOMC forecasts from the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) dataset. FOMC expectations are modeled as the sum of two components: (1) an endogenous learning part and (2) a sentiment part capturing waves of optimism and/or pessimism. The results include key policy takeaways. FOMC forecasts are responsive to incoming macroeconomic information, consistent with adaptive learning, while sentiment is persistent, correlated across GDP growth and inflation forecasts, and becomes quantitatively more important during and around recessions. FOMC participants also rely more on their endogenous/learning model to form expectations, but sentiment plays a larger …

Reimagining Power And Practice: Grantee Reporting For Greater Impact, Steven Lafrance, Jamae Morris, Lauri Valerio

The Foundation Review

The evaluation of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s (RWJF) Written Reports Alternative Project (WRAP) pilot revealed that Oral and Alternative Reporting (OAR) options offer a practical, values-aligned pathway to equitable, trust-based reporting that reduces burden while improving usefulness with a pathway to scale.

WRAP participants reported strengthened relationships and two-way learning, especially when conversations complemented or replaced written materials.

Recommendations for others considering OAR include: offer and codify choice, center questions that matter, design technology to support multiple formats, compensate grantee time for evaluation or additional learning-related asks, and train staff for relational learning.

RWJF’s experience demonstrates how reporting can be …

Looking Upwards And Out: Comparing Buddhist And Humanist Frameworks For Enlightenment, Mason Mckinney-Best

University Honors Theses

During the Zen Boom of the 1950's, Psychologists, Philosophers, and other western thinkers were exposed to Zen Buddhism and began to harness some of the principles for use in Psychology. In the last 3 decades, Psychologists have renewed their interest in Buddhism, especially as "fourth wave" cultural competence has become an important part of Psychological practice. While work has been done in developing clinical applications of Buddhist practices, more could be found in Buddhism for the person who wishes to become more healthy.

Within Psychology, one figure had exactly that objective: Abraham Maslow. His work on Self-Actualization has been …

Who Keeps Us Safe? Youth Resistance And Security Regimes At The Neoliberal University, Arwen Hansell

University Honors Theses

In a political climate shaped by surveillance, labor precarity, policing, and immigration enforcement, questions of (in)security increasingly organize everyday life. Governments justify security measures through the language of public safety, even as many people experience insecurity surrounding housing, healthcare, employment, and the future itself. Although critical security studies have examined policing, militarism, and surveillance extensively, youth are often overlooked as political actors despite their central role in social movements. This study addresses that gap by focusing on student labor organizers and activists navigating (in)security. Using collaborative ethnography, I conducted fieldwork at protests, labor organizing meetings, workshops, and demonstrations connected to …

Long-Covid And Cognition, Mychael Bruce

Dissertations

COVID-19 is an evolving virus that can harm the body’s respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Directly related to COVID-19 are individuals who do not recover from their initial infection, making them long haulers. Long-COVID is transitioning from a range of isolated phenomena to higher prevalence rates in patients who contracted COVID-19. Many individuals report issues with cognitive function, referred to as ‘brain fog’, that affect memory, attention, and even language skills. This literature review addresses the available research on Long-COVID and how persistent infection correlates with cognitive difficulties. It aims to explain the neurobiology of Long-COVID and how Long-COVID interacts within …

Evaluation Of Neuroplastic Changes In Psychological Intervention And Contemporary Treatments Of Depression, Taylor Severance

Dissertations

Major depressive disorder is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide. There is a vast range of treatment options for depression, with varying levels of effectiveness. Recent treatments for depression have expanded, increasing alternative treatments, and it is unknown which treatments have the largest impact on depression. This research was designed to examine the treatments of depression, with a focus on psychotherapy and contemporary treatments such as ketamine, psilocybin, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. A literature review was conducted to assess treatment outcomes and neuroplastic changes in these interventions, as well as combinations of the interventions. Data were evaluated …

Uplifting Youth Voice Through Multi‑Level Features To Make A Splash For Positive Youth Development, Sylvia Y. Gutierrez, Kellie A. Walters, Jayne A, Fulkerson, Nancy Sherwood, Eydie Kramer-Kostecka

Journal of Youth Development

This study explored how a multicomponent health promotion program for pre-adolescent girls could be adapted to support positive youth development across diverse cultural and community contexts. In summer 2022, trained research staff conducted six focus groups with 27 girls from urban and rural communities in the Midwestern United States. Participants reviewed the original program curriculum and provided feedback on program activities, structure, relationships, and implementation strategies. Sessions were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed thematically using qualitative software and manual review. Girls provided feedback on multiple program components, resulting in 12 themes aligned with eight established features of positive developmental …

Public Acceptance Of Meat-Reduction Policies Across Cultures: Comparing Singapore And Switzerland, Bianca Wassmann, Shu Tian Ng, Mark Chong, Angela K. Y. Leung, Michael Siegrist

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Purpose – As meat-reduction policies are discussed across the globe, many are met with public resistance. Cultural values may help explain this pushback, yet their role in shaping support for food policy remains poorly understood. This study is the first to apply cultural cognition theory to food policy by examining how cultural worldviews shape the acceptance of meat-reduction interventions in Singapore and Switzerland—two economically developed countries with contrasting cultural profiles. Design/methodology/approach – In an online survey, participants (Singapore: n = 357; Switzerland: n = 495) rated their acceptance of 11 meat-reduction interventions (e.g. taxes, subsidies, labelling). We then analysed to …

The City As Showroom: Singapore And The Rise Of The "Urban Solutions" Industry, Sol Andrew Stokols

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article uses the concept of the “city as showroom” to describe an emergent logic shaping urban development that stems from the growing importance of “urban solutions” as an industry. Focusing primarily on Singapore, the article examines how certain urban districts and high-profile sites are conceptualized as “showrooms” for the infrastructure and urban technologies they aim to export around the world. The idea of the “city as showroom” combines aspects of the curation of a city’s image through showcase districts, as well as “testbed urbanism” seen in certain smart-city projects. Singapore's need to reproduce itself as a model of urban …

Well-Being Of University Students In Singapore, Tina Li Yi Ng, Andree Hartanto, William Tov

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Singapore provides an insightful case study for university student well-being due to its national culture of competitiveness. Amid a meritocratic society that valorizes academic success as the path to securing one’s future (Ho et al., 1998), educational attainment is central to Singaporean university students’ well-being (Inter-University Network, 2022). In response to Singapore’s increasing incidence of mental health challenges among young adults (Ministry of Health Singapore, 2022), the government and higher education institutes have sought to destigmatize mental health and improve accessibility to related resources. In this chapter, we review the literature on the well-being of Singaporean university students. We situate …

Uplifting Black Pedagogical Rituals Of Purpose Through Portraits Of Toni Morrison’S Humanistic Education, Darion A. Wallace, Natalie Hibdon, Gabriela Lopez

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

No abstract provided.

Harriet Tubman’S Underground Railroad As Ancestral Technology For Black Futures, Julia Lynch

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This track draws on BlackMothering to frame Harriet Tubman not only as a conductor of freedom but as an architect of ancestral technology, designing strategies of survival that continue to instruct contemporary struggles. Tubman’s praxis—relational, anticipatory, and collective—illuminates the enduring power of Black knowledge systems to chart pathways through systems of violence and oppression. In conversation with Tiffani Marie and Kenjus Watson’s theorization of Apocalyptic Education and what Django Paris and H. Samy Alim describe as culturally sustaining pedagogy, this track explores how Tubman’s Underground Railroad praxis offers a blueprint for Black sustainability using (a) health and survival, (b) spatial …

Black Boys And The New Media Mixtape: Ownership, Aspiration, And Hustle In A Digital Age, Kareem Edouard, Taquan S. Stewart

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

In this track, we explore how “new media” platforms become modern “mixtape” tools for Black boys to remix identity and cultural narratives in the digital age. As Audre Lorde reminded us, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.” Still, we aim to interrogate whether these tools can be repurposed for empowerment. This framework unfolds in three parts: examining ownership and the gatekeeping of cultural narratives, exploring how new media platforms shape aspirations and identities for Black boys, and identifying the tools and pathways for Black boys to both see themselves as creators and access content that reflects them. …

Dancing In The Wake | Like Moss Over Modernity, Simple Ant

Black Educology Mixtape "Journal"

This offering is a meditation on existing and thriving in the wake of civilization. For centuries, we have educated one another to believe in, and glorify, the insatiable desires of our modern way of life. I begin with the premise that what we call “civilization” is a system predicated on death, violence, and exploitation, because it requires the endless extraction and consumption of the living Earth. Living in this way guts the Earth to feed our ideas of “progress” and “prosperity.” The effect now is that our civilization, our society, our way of life is rotting—bringing with it decay and …

The Cultivation Of Public Perception: Cultivated Meat Narratives And Misinformation On Tiktok, Anna M. Balkus

Graduate Masters Theses

Cultivated meat is an emerging tissue engineering technology that has the potential to address major issues threatening food systems, including climate change, rapid population growth, and the spread of disease. Among technical challenges, public perception remains a significant barrier for the widespread adoption of cultivated meat. While social media has transformed communication globally, it has simultaneously contributed to corrupt online environments infected with misinformation—unintentional inaccuracies that differ from disinformation, which is spread with the intent to mislead. The way the public receives and digests information regarding new food technologies, like cultivated meat, will be shaped by their social media environment. …

Accessibility And Daily Cigarette Consumption Among Indonesian Adolescents: A Descriptive Study, Noviana Lathifah, Istiqomah Hanifah Rachman, Anisa Isnaini, Gloria Threesia Piliphinsa Simatupang

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Despite restrictive regulations, Indonesia faces a high prevalence of adolescent smoking, facilitated by easy access to tobacco products. This descriptive study aims to describe cigarette accessibility patterns and daily consumption trends among Indonesian adolescents. A cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the 2019 Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) involving 9,208 respondents. Descriptive analysis was performed to examine the distribution of age at smoking initiation, daily cigarette consumption, and purchasing accessibility. The majority of respondents started smoking at ≥14 years of age. Daily cigarette consumption showed an increasing trend with age, with older adolescents more likely to consume more …

Optimizing Vitamin A Intervention: Strengthening Supplementation With Targeted Biscuit Fortification, Mayfa Yemima Simanjuntak, Nadia Amanda, Yuli Berliana Simanjuntak, Carissa Wityadarda, Lesta Livolina Simamora

Journal of Indonesian Health Policy and Administration

Vitamin A deficiency (VAD) remains a persistent public health challenge in Indonesia, particularly among children under five and breastfeeding mothers. This study aimed to analyze the distribution of vitamin A interventions and assess the potential of biscuit fortification as a complementary strategy. This study employs a literature review using the Health Policy Triangle (HPT) framework, examining policy context, content, key actors, and implementation processes related to vitamin A interventions. The analysis was conducted using secondary data from government reports, international agencies, and peer-reviewed literature published between 2018 and 2025, with comparative evidence from Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Ghana. The findings show …

Old Crimes, New Eyes: Recent Findings From The Scottish Witch Hunts, Carol Lee Campbell

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

^Abstract

^{Most discussions about the Scottish witch trials have been shrouded in a category of superstition, primarily from historians postulating from the era of the Enlightenment one hundred years afterward. Some have distanced themselves from the witch hunts by universalizing the cases within a monolithic framework. But the data shows that the Scottish witch “panic” was disproportionately more intense than other hunts in Early Modern Europe and England.}

^{In the last generation, however, scholars utilizing interdisciplinary approaches have revisited trial records and their supporting documents- such as confessions and testimonies - which appear to reveal more than just trial outcomes. …}

Rethinking The Canon: A Conceptual History Of The Layered Foundations Of Western Politics, Dembael Seidi, Muhammad Andi Firmansyah

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Many accounts of Western political history suggest a direct, straight line from Ancient Greece to modern democracy. This article argues that this “Great Books” narrative is a myth that ignores how political ideas actually change over time. Using Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte (conceptual history) framework, we demonstrate that key terms such as “law” and “citizenship” were not merely preserved but fundamentally transformed as they moved through Greco-Roman, Islamic, and Judeo-Christian civilizations. We call this transformation “conceptual alchemy”: a series of semantic translations through which Greek rationalism was retheorized via Islamic metaphysics and later synthesized by medieval scholasticism. Consequently, rather than a …

Empowering Lifelong Choice: Supporting Older Individuals With Idd To Thrive At Work, Transition To Retirement With Dignity, And Maintain Community Connections, Leslie Quarles

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis addresses the need to support older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their engagement in continued work. The project traces the journey from an initial focus on supporting older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work as long as they wish to an eventual shift toward a phased retirement approach. It considers issues such as a reimagined visualization of the support team structure, integration of tailored job supports and Community Life Engagement (CLE). The author's familial history sparked a sense of injustice that would not stay buried, shaping a career path in disability services and access. …

On The Brink Of Silence: Ethnographic Perspectives On Hunting And Forest Life Among The Awa Guajá In Eastern Amazonia, Uirá Garcia

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

The central theme of this article basically resides in the relationship established by indigenous peoples between their hunting practices and the forest. Indigenous ways of connecting ‘hunting’ and ‘forest’ necessarily pass through other modes of knowing, only marginally – if it all – dependent on vision. On the contrary, sounds, smells and even dreams are, for many South American indigenous collectives, more trustworthy indices than what the eye sees. This article divides into two parts. In the first, I set out the main ideas related to the anthropological study of hunting in Amazonia at a conceptual level. In the second, …

Between The Root And The Stem: On Women-Plant Relations, Predation And Familiarisation Among The Awajún (Upper Amazonas, Peru), Nils Haukeland Vedal

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

What to do with the problem of predation? This is not only a conundrum for anthropologists working in what has become known as animist societies. The gardening activities of the Awajún people of northern Peru’s high jungle are modelled on the teachings of the original mother of cultivated plants, Núgkui, who granted the Awajún their cultivars. Yet gardening is not an easy matter. The manioc sprouts seek to suck the blood of gardeners unless they are treated correctly. This article explores how predation is constantly kept at bay through familiarisation practices in which garden plants are made into the vegetative …

Making Noise Through Law: Indigenous Legal Mobilisation Against A Power Plant In “French” Guiana, Pierre Auzerau

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

In so-called “French” Guiana, or Guyane, the Kali’na village of Atopo Wipi has fought for years against a hydrogen power plant being built on their land. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted between 2023 and 2024 in Guyane and Western Europe, where I collaborated with various stakeholders to support Atopo Wipi’s resistance to the power plant, my research focuses on the legal dimensions of the Kali’na’s struggle to protect their land. Specifically, this article examines how the Kali’na navigated different normative frameworks, including international human rights standards and French law, to fight the project. Through this analysis, I show how the …

“Ese Dia Que Se Va El Patron An Hecho Fiesta”.* Historicities Of Successful Resistance Against Hacienda Bosses Among The Kukama (Peru, 1933-1945), Arno R. Holl

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

This paper analyzes two cases of resistance by Kukama workers within the debt slavery system of habilitación in the Peruvian Amazon during the first half of the twentieth century. It discusses the similarities and differences between the two cases, and positions the workers and their accounts of events and agency within the historical, social and cosmological framework of the time and region. Through the examples studied here, the hierarchies, power dynamics, spirituality, lifestyles, traditions, and cultural changes that shaped Kukama communities at the time become visible from an emic perspective. The paper places special emphasis on how historical events are …

Research To Praxis: Transdisciplinary Skill Development In Graduate Education, Demikia Taylor, Tiffany Drape, Amy Pruden, Todd Schenk, Leigh-Anne Krometis

Journal of Graduate Education Research

This study examines how graduate students' perceptions of transdisciplinary team science evolve as they progress through a graduate training program at a university. Students participated in a series of workshops that built on and reinforced various aspects of training in transdisciplinary team science, including Team Science, Science Communication, Stakeholder Engagement, and International Case Studies in Antibiotic Resistance Monitoring. Students also took accompanying coursework towards a certificate and worked together in collaborative teams in advancing an array of transdisciplinary research projects focused on various dimensions of antibiotic resistance. A qualitative case study approach was taken, systematically examining participants’ reflections following each …

Cognitive Predictors Of Functional Recovery After Traumatic Brain Injury, Disha A. Thakkar, Charles J. Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

This study examined whether the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone (BTACT), administered during acute rehabilitation, improved the prediction of 5-year functional outcomes after traumatic brain injury (TBI) beyond standard demographic and injury-severity variables. Data were obtained from the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems (TBIMS) National Database (N = 6,880; enrolled 2017 onward). Missing data were handled using multiple imputation (20 datasets). Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted with the Functional Independence Measure (FIM) and the Glasgow Outcome Scale–Extended (GOS-E) as outcome measures. Demographics (age, sex, education, race) were entered in Block 1, injury severity indicators (post-traumatic amnesia [PTA] duration, …

Prior Traumatic Brain Injury As A Predictor Of Cognitive Deficits After Moderate-To-Severe Injury, Disha A. Thakkar, Charles J. Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

Prior traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) are common among individuals who later sustain a moderate-to-severe TBI (msTBI), and cumulative injury models suggest repeated TBIs may worsen long-term cognitive outcomes. This study tested whether prior TBI history independently contributes to cognitive performance one year after an index msTBI beyond demographic and injury-severity factors. Data were drawn from the Traumatic Brain Injury Model Systems National Database (N = 6,880 enrolled since 2017). 2,773 participants completed the Brief Test of Adult Cognition by Telephone at one-year follow-up. Hierarchical regression models evaluated whether prior TBI history accounted for incremental variance in overall cognitive status and …

Cv: Lorri Mcmeel (Social Work), Lorri S. Mcmeel

Social Work Department Faculty Curricula Vitae

No abstract provided.