Digital Commons Network^™

“Pride Runs Through Our Veins”: A Qualitative Investigation Of Black Parents’ Ethnic-Racial Socialization Practices Among Black Youth With Disabilities, Nicole A. Telfer, Danielle J. Allen, Noreen Yazejian, Iheoma U. Iruka

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

While ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices are crucial in Black/African American families, little is known about ERS practices in Black families of Black children with disabilities. In the current study, we investigated ERS practices among Black/African American parents’ who are raising children with disabilities and how this may influence children’s outcomes. A total of N = 8 Black/African American parents were invited for semi-structured interviews to explore more deeply their ERS practices among their children with disabilities. Several themes emerged from the data, which highlights ERS practices from a DisCrit lens, as well as the overall experiences of parents and their …

Judaism And Catholicism: Possibilities Of An Inter-Spiritual Dialogue, David Neuhaus

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article examines the possibilities of an inter-spiritual dialogue between Catholics and Jews. Describing the transformation of the Catholic attitude to Jews andJudaism in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, moving from a teaching of contempt to one of respect, it analyses the far-reaching reformulations of Catholic theology that promote an interreligious dialogue. After centuries of traumatic history, Jewish reactions have been hesitant. However, the past decades have led to a burgeoning relationship that can indeed flower into a mutual inter-spiritual dialogue that deepens the faith of both Catholics and Jews.

Jainism And Catholicism – Dialoguing Spiritually, Bryan Lobo

Journal of Global Catholicism

The inter-spiritual dialogue between Jainism and Catholicism lends itself towards discovering similarities and dissimilarities between the two spiritualities. Recognizing this discovery, this paper, without claiming to be exhaustive as regards the spiritual themes, discusses the chosen themes to facilitate greater reflection and potential to re-discover elements that can help the growth of understanding and practicing the preferred spirituality.

Islam And Catholicism: Theology And Practice Of Inter-Spiritual Dialogue, Felix Koerner

Journal of Global Catholicism

This article explores foundations, preconditions, aims, persons, groups, practices, methods, texts, and criteria of Muslim–Christian inter-spiritual dialogue. In-ter-spiritual dialogue thrives within the network of other dialogical forms: dialogue of life and collaboration, of theological and practical understanding. This article argues that the spiritual dimension of dialogical encounter may itself constitute a critical site of moral reflection, enabling participants to perceive injustice more clearly and to respond to it more responsibly. Nevertheless, the integrity of in-ter-spiritual dialogue depends upon the cultivation of trust, candor, and a shared orientation toward mutual enrichment and spiritual purification. Where dialogue is subordinated to extrinsic strategic …

The Dialogue Of Spiritual Experience In Buddhist-Christian Encounter, S Mark Heim

Journal of Global Catholicism

Can one learn more about one’s own religion through the practices of another? My positive answer to this question is illustrated in this paper by reflection on aspects of the Buddhist practice of emptiness, in specific connection with Christian under-standing of our lives as creatures. The Buddhist meditative practices I have in mind have several things in common. They are introspective (activated in one person’s inner consciousness) and premised on the Buddhist understanding of emptiness (specifically “no self ” teachings). Buddhist introspective practice takes at least three broad forms. One of these is a meditative analytical awareness of the contents …

A Comparative Study Of Aging And Cortical Folding In Chimpanzees And Olive Baboons, William D. Hopkins, Angela M. Achorn, Michele M. Mulholland, Elizabeth R. Magden, Steven J. Schapiro, Courtney L, Fults, Jean‐Francois Mangin, Adrien Meguerditchian

Anthropology Faculty Publications

In light of the evidence that nonhuman primates naturally develop Alzheimer's disease neuropathologies, there is a renewed interest in research on the comparative biology of aging, including neurological changes across the age groups in species with diverse lifespans. In this paper, we examined age‐related differences in two measures of cortical folding, mean depth and fold opening, in a sample of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and olive baboons (Papio anubis). We found significant species differences in the slope and pattern of age‐related changes in cortical folding. As predicted, chimpanzees showed negative linear associations between age and mean depth and …

Crustal Structure Of The Vøring Plateau And Vøring Spur From Joint Refraction And Reflection Travel-Time Tomography, Anika Nawar Mayeesha

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Crustal architecture of the Vøring Plateau and Vøring Spur in the mid-Norwegian continental margin remains debated because the geophysical data in the area do not uniquely constrain whether the crust is continental, oceanic, or transitional. This study reanalyzes wide-angle ocean-bottom seismometer data from Profile 11-03 across the Vøring passive continental margin using joint travel-time tomography of crustal refractions and Moho reflections. A total of 6,760 first-arrival picks and 542 PmP picks from sixteen instruments were inverted for P-wave velocity and reflector depth. Three starting models were inverted independently to test sensitivity to the initial crustal configuration. The first two used …

Systematic Errors In Judging The Performance Of Others, Michael J. Benson

Psychology ETDs

The well-documented tendency of people to be poor estimators of their relative abilities can be problematic in real life. These errors in are highly asymmetric: the worst performers dramatically overestimate their relative ability, whereas the best performers underestimate theirs (Kruger & Dunning, 1999). There are two possible causes of this misjudgment of relative ability: 1) participants are poor estimators of their own performance, or 2) participants are poor estimators of the comparison group’s performance. Kruger and Dunning (1999) attributed overestimation in the worst performers to the former problem but attributed the underestimation in the best performers to the latter problem. …

Rural Business Development Corporation Annual Report 2025-26, Department Of Primary Industries And Regional Development, Western Australia

Reports

Overview

In this report, the Rural Business Development Corporation is referred to as ‘the Corporation’ or ‘the RBDC’. The RBDC is an independent statutory authority of the Government of Western Australia (WA), established under the Rural Business Development Corporation Act 2000 (Act). The Act preserved and continued the body corporate established by the Rural Adjustment and Finance Corporation Act 1993.

What we do

The RBDC administers approved assistance schemes on behalf of the WA Government for the benefit of rural industry and regional communities. Approved schemes may provide financial assistance by way of loans, grants, or other financial incentives. The …

Fast Online Inference On Semiparametric Models, Xiaohong Chen, Elie Tamer, Qingsong Yao

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper develops a framework for fast online inference on semiparametric models with large sample sizes and possibly many covariates. The computational algorithm itself is the object of statistical study: after a globally consistent warm start in the first phase, the path of averaged online iterates generated in the second phase automatically delivers estimators with optimal convergence rates and valid confidence sets. Both phases require only a single pass over the data stream and are well suited to streaming data or to settings with storage/privacy constraints. For semiparametric monotone index models, the averaged trajectory of the second phase lead to …

The Risk Protection Value Of “Moral Hazard”, Angie Acquatella, Victoria Marone

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Health insurance lowers the out-of-pocket price of healthcare, and it is well-established that this leads to higher utilization of care. This manifestation of “moral hazard” is typ ically viewed as a social cost of insurance. Within a standard model, this paper shows that a consumer’s ability to change her behavior in response to insurance can also play a central role in the ability of insurance to protect her from risk. We provide a theoretical characterization of this channel and quantify its importance empirically. Under stan dard parameterizations and estimates in the literature, we find that insurance-induced healthcare utilization can account …

Data-Driven Characterization Of Counties In The Prison Industrial Complex Using Clustering Analysis, Riley N. Tuccio

Capstone Projects

This project investigates the complex relationship between counties that house prisons in the United States and the rurality associated with them. The central research question explores how both county characteristics, such as variables corresponding to cost of living and demographics of a county, and prison characteristics, such as programming available to inmates and staffing levels, differ across the census-designated rural-urban distinctions. Furthermore, the study examines whether modern data science methods can more accurately define and distinguish these characteristics, providing a nuanced understanding of the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) and its manifestation across various American communities. The motivation for this research …

Needs Assessment For Evaluation Competencies Among Extension And Outreach Professionals, Mariah K. Awan, Hui-Hui Wang, Rama Radhakrishna

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

We conducted an extensive literature review to develop an assessment tool with both quantitative and qualitative items that can be used to conduct a statewide needs assessment of professional development needs in program evaluation for Extension educators and similar non-profit organizations. This tool can be used to identify priority topics for evaluating professional development trainings and materials. It can be easily distributed via Qualtrics. The results of the literature review and the needs assessment survey instrument are shared.

Culturally Responsive Evaluation In Extension Programs For Indigenous Youth, Sara M. Tomis, J.C. Bunch, Amy Harder, T. Grady Roberts

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Indigenous communities, deserving and in need of salient Extension services, experience disparity in programming and culturally responsive evaluation because of historic and current social and financial barriers. An exploration of culturally responsive evaluation practices in Extension programs serving Indigenous youth audiences is warranted to identify areas for improvement. A focus group of Extension professionals was conducted to investigate evaluation practice within a federally funded Extension program. Findings indicated that Extension professionals were committed to operating and evaluating in ways that respected Indigenous culture, but improvements in culturally responsive practice are needed among both university and federal partners.

Made In America, Hidden By Ai: Ai Shopping Chatbots Reveal How Amazon And Walmart Hurt American Manufacturers And Deceive Shoppers, Erie Meyer, Zachary Harris

Center for Law and the Economy

This article investigates the capabilities of two AI shopping agents — Alexa for Shopping and Sparky, operated by Amazon and Walmart respectively — to identify country of origin for products on their respective platforms and flag potential “Made in USA” misrepresentations — where products with “Made in USA” in their title or listing have another country or “imported” listed as their country of origin. This article finds that (1) Amazon and Walmart have the technical capability to detect and flag “Made in USA” fraud; (2) “Made in USA” fraud appears to be common on both Amazon and Walmart; (3) Amazon …

Nebraska And The Midwest Agtech Ecosystem: Benchmarking Innovation Investment And Translation Gaps, Ankit Chandra, Ishani Lal, Brennan Costello

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Presentations and White Papers

Agricultural innovation is central to the sustainable transformation of food systems, yet the capital that finances it is unevenly distributed relative to where food is produced. This paper develops a diagnostic framework for measuring this mismatch and applies it across the U.S. Midwest from 2021 to 2025, with particular emphasis on Nebraska's structural position within this landscape. Drawing on venture capital deal-flow data, 17 stakeholder interviews, and a novel strength-weakness-opportunity-gap (SWOG) ecosystem mapping methodology, we document $736 million in tracked Midwest AgTech funding across eight states (Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota). We introduce three …

Reconciling Faith And Academic Identity: Evangelical Christian Identity And Ontological Confusion In Sport Studies, Sean Burke

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

This paper investigates the interplay of ontological confusion and Evangelical Christian identity within the context of qualitative sport studies research. Employing a reflexive autoethnographic method, I explore my personal experiences as an Evangelical Christian and as a social scientist who grapples with the complexities of paradigmatic confusion. Personal vignettes highlight the influence of sporting spaces and figures such as Tim Tebow and Kurt Warner in shaping my faith, identity, and framework for understanding reality. The analysis delves into the challenges posed by competing paradigmatic orientations, including positivism and social constructivism. These paradigms reveal the inherent difficulty of aligning scholarly inquiry …

Female Athletes With Differences Of Sex Development (Dsd): A Christian Perspective On Fairness And Compassion, Angela M. Robles

Movement and Being: The Journal of the Christian Society for Kinesiology, Leisure and Sports Studies

One of the most significant controversies in elite women’s sport relates to the participation of female athletes with differences of sex development (DSD), as demonstrated by recent Olympic debates surrounding athletes like Imane Khelif and Caster Semenya. Today, a complex challenge continues to evolve at the intersection of DSD and competitive sports, and it requires careful consideration. The central argument of this paper is that DSD athletes are worthy of compassionate treatment grounded in their inherent dignity, and is founded on the understanding of what it means for humans to be created in the image of God (imago Dei). The …

Unwilling Consent Or Ravishment? Sexual Violence In Late Seventeenth-Century London, Susan Hernandez

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Common Cybersecurity Attack Types And Zeek-Based Detection Strategies In Iot Networks, Christofer Piedra, Alain Edwards

Florida Atlantic Undergraduate Research Journal

As cybersecurity threats increase in scale and complexity, the ability to distinguish hostile traffic from benign network activity is essential. This research examines five prevalent cyberattack categories that impact IoT environments and outlines detection strategies utilizing the open-source Intrusion Detection System (IDS) Zeek. This study provides practical detection methods designed for scalable, real-time environments by classifying five commonly encountered attacks, namely: Reconnaissance, Denial of Service (DoS) and Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), Brute Force, Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) and Spoofing, and Botnet and Malware Behavior. For each attack, we analyze the prevalence, operational impact, and associated indicators. We also present Zeekbased pseudocode …

Assessment Of Information Literacy Instruction In Reference: Applying Vanscoy’S Conceptual And Procedural Framework In Practice, Vanessa Arce

Publications and Research

The instructional aspect of reference work has long been acknowledged, especially in academic libraries. The current RUSA guidelines include helping users develop information literacy as a goal of reference. In this context, investigating the presence and nature of information literacy instruction can be used to assess the quality of reference services. This study applied Amy VanScoy’s conceptual/procedural framework for point-of-need instruction to a sample of chat reference transcripts at Lehman College, City University of New York. One of the assessment’s goals was to determine the prevalence of instruction and type of knowledge addressed in reference interactions. Another goal was to …

Impact Of Baseline Cognition On Dual-Task Performance: Tracking Verbal Accuracy And Fluency In Adults At Risk For Alzheimer’S Disease, Rebecca Nicole Frederichs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is increasing in prevalence as life expectancy continues to rise, highlighting the need for sensitive measures to detect early cognitive changes. This study examined the effects of baseline cognitive status on dual-task performance over time, in terms of dual-task cost, verbal fluency, and verbal accuracy in older adults at risk for AD. This study utilized a quantitative secondary analysis of the longitudinal dataset, the Digital, Cognitive, Multi-Domain Alzheimer Risk Velocity (DC-MARVel) study (Gray et al., 2022). Participants were categorized into low, medium, or high cognitive tertiles based on baseline Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status …

I Can’T Fight This Feeling Anymore: Investigating The Influence Of Cognitive Emotion-Related Impulsivity On Behavioral Impulsivity Through The Lens Of Emotion Regulation In Daily Life, Dylan Shelton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Emotion-related impulsivity is a transdiagnostic risk factor that is seen across a wide range of psychiatric disorders. Traditionally, emotion-related impulsivity has been studied at the trait level, reflecting that it is something that someone has rather than something that they do. However, recent studies have highlighted the importance of viewing emotion-related impulsivity as a dynamic process that occurs in response to momentary emotional experiences. However, it is less clear about the influence of attentional and evaluative processes on downstream behavioral responses that may be aimed at rapidly regulating emotion. This study aimed to investigate emotion-related impulsivity through the lens of …

A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial Examining The Efficacy Of Group-Based Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (Pcit) For Autistic Youth: A Mixed-Method Design, Julia L. Kiefer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Caregivers of autistic children experience a myriad of barriers when seeking psychotherapy for their children including a lack of family-based treatment options, lengthy waitlists, and limited access to specialized therapists. As the demand for both accessible and affordable mental healthcare for autistic youth increases, group-based interventions may be a useful alternative to more time intensive individual treatment options – allowing for multiple clients to be seen at once. The present study examined the efficacy of an adapted evidence-based intervention, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, to be delivered in a brief, group-based format with families of autistic youth. Driven by input from a …

Essays In Whistleblowing, Crime, And Experimental Economics, Danielle Nickeisha Purcell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three essays on how institutional strength, enforcement practices, and cognitive load affect behavior. The first essay presents a laboratory experiment that varies the extent to which an individual in a position of authority can interfere with the outcome of whistleblowing, holding all other monetary incentives fixed. Strengthening institutions raises whistleblowing rates, lowers theft, and reduces the rate of bribe offers, while leaving authorities’ acceptance of bribes unchanged when they face no punishment for accepting them. The second essay studies the end of stop and frisk in Chicago following the 2015 ACLU-CPD settlement agreement, which cut annual investigatory …

Tales Of The Empathic Support Provider: How Emerging Adult Women Make Sense Of Providing Empathic Support To Female Friends, Emma R. Eslinger

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The current study explored the stories and reflections of 33 emerging adult women who made sense of their empathic support provider (ESP) identity in the context of female friendships. From the standpoint of the retrospective storytelling heuristic, within communicated narrative sense-making theory, participants told stories about their ESP identity, including how they provide support to others and reflect on the benefits of drawbacks of serving in this role (CNSM, Koenig Kellas, 2022). Under Proposition 1 of CNSM theory, meanings, values, and beliefs (MVBs) that ESP women expressed in this role were depicted as key takeaways gathered. Findings illuminated how ESP …

Doctor Decision Making And Patient Outcomes, Janet Currie, W. Bentley Macleod, Kate Musen

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Doctors often treat similar patients differently, which affects health outcomes and medical spending. We assess the recent literature on doctor decision making through the lens of a model that incorporates diagnostic and procedural skills, beliefs, incentives, and differences in patient pools. Decision making is affected by beliefs, training, experience, peer effects, financial incentives, and time constraints. Interventions to improve decision making include providing information, guidelines, and technologies like electronic medical records and algorithmic decision tools. Economists have made progress in understanding doctor decision making, but applications of that knowledge to improving health care are still limited.

Analisis Environmental Kuznets Curve Dan Foreign Direct Investment Di Sulawesi, Fadel Firmansyah, Meity Ferdiana Paskual, Laendatu Paembonan, Musdayati Musdayati, Muhammad Ichsan

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

This study examines the relationship between economic growth, foreign direct investment (FDI), and environmental quality across the six provinces of Sulawesi within the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) framework. Using panel data for 2015–2024, the study applies the Panel Autoregressive Distributed Lag (Panel-ARDL) model with the Pooled Mean Group (PMG) estimator. The results confirm a long-run EKC relationship, indicating that environmental quality initially deteriorates and subsequently improves as income increases. Meanwhile, FDI has a negative but statistically insignificant effect, while short-run dynamics remain heterogeneous across provinces due to differences in economic structures, investment characteristics, and environmental management

Religiosity And Female Autonomy In Indonesia, Milda Irhamni

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

This study estimates the effect of religiosity on married women’s autonomy within households in Indonesia using panel data from the 2007 and 2014 rounds of the Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS4 and IFLS5). Women’s autonomy is measured by the wife’s decision-making power relative to her husband across eighteen household decisions, complemented by indirect proxies such as asset ownership and contraceptive use. Applying household fixed-effect and IV estimation to control for endogeneity, the analysis finds little robust evidence that religiosity systematically reduces female autonomy, suggesting that any negative association is weak and sensitive to specification.

Mengukur Capaian Dan Identifikasi Konvergensi Pembangunan Infrastruktur Antarprovinsi Di Indonesia, Ressa Isnaini Arumnisaa', Aisyah Fitri Yuniasih

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

Indonesia’s economic challenges are characterized by stagnant economic growth and regional development disparities. This study analyzes the achievement and convergence of infrastructure development across provinces in Indonesia during 2011–2021 through the construction of an Infrastructure Development Index (IPI). The study employs panel data from 33 provinces, using factor analysis to construct the IPI and the First Difference Generalized Method of Moments (FD-GMM) to examine convergence and its determinants. The results show that many provinces still have IDI scores below the national average. Furthermore, the FD-GMM model shows that σ-convergence and β-convergence occur in Indonesia. In addition, GRDP per capita, inflation, …