Digital Commons Network^™

Clinicians’ Reflections On Explainable Ai (Xai) In Counselor Education And Diagnostic Training: An Exploratory Qualitative Study, Kuo Deng, Xiaomeng Ye, Yi Li-Brown, Cara Miles, Angelina F. Pennino

Journal of Technology in Counselor Education and Supervision

Current approaches to teaching clinical diagnosis in counselor education and supervision often

rely on self-reports, brief vignettes, and supervisors’ recollections—methods that can be resource- intensive and prone to bias, contributing to diagnostic inaccuracy among trainees. While artificial

intelligence (AI) has gained traction in healthcare, many machine learning (ML) models function as “black boxes,” limiting transparency and educator trust. Explainable AI (XAI), which focuses on making AI processes interpretable, offers a potential solution for counselor training. This exploratory qualitative study examined eight licensed psychologists’ reflections after viewing a live demonstration of an original XAI model trained to predict depression. Using Reflexive …

The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik, Gerrit Anderson, Brian J. Asquith, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman, Iryna V. Lendel, Jeremy Morris, Sevrin Williams

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Extreme Heat And Its Impact On Public Transit Ridership In Nyc, Craig Denton

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the connection between extreme heat events and public transit ridership patterns in New York City, with a particular emphasis on low-income communities. It investigates the intersection of socioeconomic factors and heat-related challenges, analyzing how extreme temperature periods influence overall transit use and why certain routes or neighborhoods experience greater declines in ridership during these events.

Utilizing existing literature, NYC-specific transit and climate datasets, and the broader context of transit equity, this research aims to inform strategies that strengthen climate resilience within urban transportation systems. The study’s findings are intended to support policy development and planning initiatives that …

Green Extractivism And The Discursive Legitimization Of Deep-Sea Mining In The Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Kaitlyn Maritan

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critically examines deep-sea mining as an example of green extractivism, constructed through narratives of responsible mining practices. A content analysis assesses the discursive tactics of four actors in the emerging industry; how they collectively legitimize deep-sea mining and manage the contradictions of sustainability and extractivism.

The Introduction Of High-Speed Rail And Its Impact On Mode Choice The Case Of Morocco’S Al Boraq, Michael Stewart

Theses and Dissertations

Morocco's Al Boraq, Africa's first high-speed rail line, reshaped mode choice along the Casablanca-Tangier corridor. Drawing on ONCF ridership data, 234 rider surveys, and nine months of fieldwork, this ex-post assessment finds accelerated passenger growth, substantial induced demand, and mode shift from automobiles, informing Global South HSR development.

Applications And Insights Of The Use Of Ethnographic Research In A Local Context Of Nepal, Dipak Raj Rai, Sunita Dangol, Megh Raj Dangal

The Qualitative Report

This paper expounds on ethnographic research in comprehending the cultural, economic, and social nuances in the Nepali local community. The paper also emphasizes the significance of ethnographic research in providing profound insights into the daily lives, traditions, and interactions of cultural groups. This writing aims to describe the historical concept of ethnography, its philosophical standpoint, types of ethnography, fields of ethnographic research and commonly used methods for collecting ethnographic data. The main idea of the paper is to present the methods employed such as participant observation, ethnographic interviews, self-reporting, and artifacts that enable the researcher to obtain the true lived …

Mono Gold: An Informal Account Of The Geology, Production, And History Of Mono County Gold And Silver Mining Districts, D. D. Trent

Eastern Sierra History Journal

Mono Gold explores the mining production, technology, and history of the Eastern Sierra, with a special focus on Mono County. Author Dee Trent, a geologist, spent decades visiting, researching, and photographing each of the mining operations discussed in this book-length monograph.

Explaining The Relationship Between Trust And Dependence: The Unexplored Interactive Effect Of Workload And Individual Differences In Cognitive Abilities, Connie Ku

All Dissertations

Trust is often treated as a key driver of automation use, with the assumption that higher trust leads to greater dependence. Yet findings have been inconsistent, with trust-dependence correlations ranging from negative to positive, and some studies finding no relationship at all. One factor that may explain this inconsistency is mental workload, which has received little attention as a moderator. This research examined whether workload moderates the trust-dependence relationship, and whether attention control, working memory, and fluid intelligence further shape this moderation.

Study 1 used a web-based AI chatbot quiz to test whether workload moderated the trust-dependence relationship. Trust was …

Book Review: The Nature Of Pain: Roots, Recovery, And Redemption Amid The Opioid Crisis, Justin J. Mueller

Georgia Library Quarterly

No abstract provided.

The Family As A Mechanism Of Civilizational Continuity: Absorption, Localization, And Rejection Of Modern Values In The Indic Case, Monika Monika

Comparative Civilizations Review

Contrary to the common view that the family socializes the individual into a given culture, this paper insists that the family performs a far more profound, indeed, a constitutive function. It is not simply the first school of civilizational values; it is the primary institutional site through which a civilization reproduces its symbolic order and, in so doing, acts as the gatekeeper of civilizational continuity and change. It is here that a civilization’s foundational principles are first internalized; and it is here, too, that modern values, or new norms thrust upon it by encounters with alien civilizations ⎯ are first …

Nh Ece Research Agenda, Jess Carson, Evan England, Rachel Filippone, Tyrus Parker, Harshita Sarup

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

The New Hampshire Early Care & Education (NH ECE) Research Consortium’s statewide research agenda identifies questions NH most needs answered to build, strengthen, and sustain its ECE system. The agenda is designed to help researchers, state leaders, funders, advocates, and community partners align work around shared priorities, avoid duplication, and make better use of high-quality evidence to guide policy, practice, and systems change. The Consortium will maintain this agenda as a living resource, updating it as the field’s needs and evidence base evolve. This agenda is meant to support coordinated action, not simply list possible research topics. Partners can use …

Spatiotemporal Assessment Of Coastal Urban Heat In Buenos Aires Using Satellite Landsat Lst, Noah Morales, Lleyton Naar, Dan Macchiarella, Kevin Adkins, Ronny Schroeder

Student Works

Coastal urban environments exhibit complex surface temperature patterns driven by interactions among water, vegetation, and built infrastructure. This study investigates land surface temperature (LST) variability along a coastal-to-urban transect in Parque de los Niños, Buenos Aires, by integrating multi-year satellite Landsat LST with high-resolution thermal data collected from an uncrewed aircraft system (UAS). Landsat provides the temporal depth necessary to assess seasonal and interannual variability in surface temperature, including responses to extreme summer conditions. However, their spatial resolution limits the ability to resolve fine-scale thermal gradients near shoreline boundaries and within heterogeneous urban landscapes. UAS thermal observations address this limitation …

Issue 26: Labour, Poverty, And Health Concerns Of Migrant Women And Girls Working As Kayayei In Ghana's Urban Centres, Comfort Baidoo, Robert Mcleman

International Migration Research Centre

Over the past four decades, growing numbers of women and girls have left northern Ghana for the country's cities, drawn by the promise of work, independence, and a chance to support their families. Many end up as kayayei, head porters who carry goods through Accra's crowded markets for a negotiated fee. Their labour keeps the informal economy moving, yet it comes at a steep personal cost: unpredictable earnings, punishing physical strain, unsafe housing, and a healthcare system that too often leaves them out. This brief draws together the available evidence on the economic and health conditions of kayayei in Greater-Accra. …

The Arc Of Crisis: Geopolitical Shifts In The Horn Of Africa And Beyond, Hamdy A. Hassan

All Works

No abstract provided.

More Than A Profession: A Calling In Social Work, Paulette Lingle

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

A Novel Edge-Based Accuracy Assessment Framework For Target Detection From Remotely Sensed Images, Yingfan Zhang, Weiyi Hou, Lyndon Estes, Rui Lu, Shijie Zhu, Aiyin Zhang, Zhou Shi, Su Ye

Geography

Accuracy assessment is critical for evaluating map quality and improving algorithms for target detection in remotely sensed images. Traditional methods for assessing a target-detection task were often performed by estimating the relative pixels of correct and incorrect identifications (e.g., F1 score). However, this approach only considers the pixel-by-pixel agreement and ignores important aspects of positional errors and target object quality. To provide comprehensive diagnostic information, we propose a novel edge-based accuracy assessment framework. This framework firstly applied a newly proposed assessment tool, Dynamic Epsilon-band Accuracy Function (DEAF), which is a linear fitting function from a series of edge accuracies associated …

Nasa Earth Exchange HawaiʻI Downscaled Climate Projections Cmip6 (Nex-Hidcp-Cmip6) Dataset, Bridget Thrasher, Ian Brosnan, Abby Frazier, Kristen Sanflippo, Matthew P. Lucas

Geography

Hawaiʻi’s complex topography, pronounced microclimates, and geographic isolation make coarse-scale global climate model output inadequate for local planning, and high-resolution climate projections tailored to the state have until now been lacking. To address this gap, we introduce the NASA Earth eXchange Hawaiʻi Downscaled Climate Projections CMIP6 (NEX-HIDCP-CMIP6), a new archive of downscaled historical and future climate projections based on output from Phase 6 of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP6) over the State of Hawaiʻi. The dataset covers the years 1950–2100 and includes three variables (maximum temperature, minimum temperature, and precipitation) from five CMIP6 experiments (the historical experiment and the …

Essays On Opioid Prescription Limit Policy Diffusion, Evaluation, And Opioid Use Disorder Treatment Utilization, Md Ashiqur Rab

All Dissertations

The drivers of the opioid epidemic in the United States include the oversupply of prescription opioids, the availability of illicit drugs, under-resourced healthcare settings, and several socio-economic factors. Federal and state-level initiatives, including policy interventions to curb the oversupply of prescription opioids, providing access to healthcare, prevention and recovery support services, and community-level engagement, have been adopted to combat the opioid epidemic. Motivated by the need to better understand the policy and recovery efforts to address the epidemic, this dissertation examines opioid prescription limit policy diffusion, evaluation, and treatment utilization patterns. This dissertation comprises three manuscripts that offer a comprehensive …

Global Prevalence Of Depression Among University Students: A Comprehensive Umbrella Review, Gilda Yun Kai Sam, Xun Ci Soh, Harshitha Balaji, Gabriel X. D. Tan, Shu Fen Diong, Meilan Hu, Andree Hartanto, Nadyanna M. Majeed

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Depression has become a major concern for educational institutes due to its increasing incidence and detrimental impacts on students’ well-being. However, its global prevalence in the context of tertiary education remains unclear. This umbrella review summarised existing meta-analyses and systematic reviews to examine the worldwide prevalence of depression among university students. Several sociodemographic and methodological factors, including differences in depression prevalence before, during, and after COVID-19, were examined as moderators. Structured and exhaustive searches were conducted in five bibliographic databases and five journals, alongside two sources of grey literature. A total of 61 meta-analyses and systematic reviews were included in …

Transgender And Gender-Diverse Healthcare Through Virtual Social Networking, Francis Peter Furmanek Iii

PhD of Social Work

This study examined the behavior of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) utilizing virtual social networking (VSN) to address their healthcare needs. Presently, the TGD community has been facing discrimination in policy and social structure across the United States. Accepting safe spaces are vital to survival and growth of TGD people, and the current wave of anti-trans legislation seeks to eliminate these spaces. This phenomenological mixed-methods study examined mechanisms that TGD people use to address healthcare needs in virtual spaces alongside a backdrop of negative healthcare experiences in traditional settings. Informed by Intersectional theory, Minority Stress Theory, and considering Andersen’s Behavioral …

Barriers To Access: Examining Nonprofit Service Delivery In Rural Communities, Elizabeth Knight

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Nonprofit Studies Capstone Projects

Around sixty-six million Americans live in rural communities; however, the research on what accessibility barriers exist for rural residents accessing nonprofit services is limited. Rural communities often face persistent barriers to accessing essential services, including transportation challenges, geographic isolation, and financial hardship. Nonprofit organizations employ strategies to respond to these barriers; however, organizational capacity constraints make it difficult for nonprofits to alter their service delivery strategies. This study uses semi-structured interviews with nonprofit leaders to identify what nonprofit accessibility barriers can currently be seen in rural Virginian communities. Findings also explore how nonprofits navigate these barriers and what they do …

Opportunities For Leadership In Indigenous And Tribally Engaged Research At The University Of New Mexico, Sharon Hausam

Faculty Publications

This is a working paper produced as part of National Science Foundation project #2115169, “Transforming Rural-Urban Systems: Trajectories for Sustainability in the Intermountain West,” known as the “Intermountain West Transformation Network” (TN), led by the University of New Mexico with institutional partners at three additional universities in New Mexico, two in Arizona, and one each in Utah, Colorado, and Washington. The TN’s Indigenous and Tribal engagement was supported through a contract with Dr. Sharon Hausam, additional work by Aaron M. Canter, coordination with Dr. Lani Tsinnajinnie, and an Advisory Committee on Indigenous Information Needs primarily comprised of Indigenous representatives in …

Sari-Sari Stores As Community Pharmacies? A Qualitative Exploration Of Sari-Sari Stores Selling Medicines In The Philippines, Melissa Louise M. Prieto, Gamaliel P. Galigao, Ana Rica S. Navarra-Cruz, Louise Gabriel R. Jimenez, Gideon Lasco

Medical Anthropology

Background and Objective. Despite laws prohibiting the sale of pharmaceuticals outside licensed pharmacies, sari-sari stores continue to informally sell medicines, bridging access challenges especially in remote areas. The study explores the roles and perceptions of sari-sari stores as informal medicine providers. Methods. The study draws on ethnographic insights from key informant interviews with fourteen (14) sari-sari store owners or tinderas, probing into medicines sold in sari-sari stores and their perceived effectiveness. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results. Sari-sari stores serve as informal yet critical points of access to common medicines for everyday illnesses, especially in remote areas where …

Using A Social-Ecological-Technological Systems Approach For Assessing Vulnerabilities Downstream Of Dams, Michael J. Englert

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Dam failure is rare, but when it occurs the consequences can extend far beyond the structure of the dam itself. This project assessed vulnerabilities downstream of Utah’s 189 state-regulated, high-hazard dams using a Social-Ecological-Technological Systems (SETS) approach. The purpose of the project was to look beyond engineering and structural risk alone and identify the people, protected ecosystems, critical infrastructure, and land cover types located within mapped dam inundation zones.

Potential inundation zone maps were obtained from the Utah Division of Water Rights Dam Safety Section. They were processed using ArcGIS Pro and integrated with publicly available nationwide geospatial datasets to …

Tales, Traditions, And Tides: The Little Logan River And Its Role In Cache Valley's History, Culture, And Conservation, Emily A. Kovacic

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Little Logan River (LLR) plays a vital role in the cultural, historical, and ecological landscape of Cache Valley, Utah. Amid growing concerns raised by the Logan River Watershed Project (LRWP), which threatens to alter the river’s environment, this project seeks to understand the significance of the LLR as a cultural and recreational asset through collected oral histories. Building on folkloric perspectives of place-based storytelling, this thesis introduces the idea of vivus locum, or “that place which is alive,” through the example of the LLR to the study of folkloristics. The concept of vivus locum emphasizes the importance of …

Faculty Perspectives On Career And Technical Education Programming For Prison And Other At-Risk Populations: Implications Of A Human Centered Design Focus, Taija R. Jackson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The purpose of this quantitative, cross-sectional, quasi-experimental study was to examine the perceptions of career and technical education (CTE) faculty regarding their familiarity with human-centered design (HCD), perceptions of the value and worth as a framework for program and curriculum design and willingness to teach in correctional education settings. The survey was administered to postsecondary CTE employed at public community and technical colleges in Utah and Colorado (N = 37). Participants were randomly assigned to either a treatment condition, in which they viewed a six-minute-long video vignette illustrating HCD in practice, or a control condition without exposure to the …

Developing A New Uas Method For Estimating Heat Exposure On Western Us Trails, Jared Young

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Heat exposure and the risks to human health that stem from it have been studied extensively in the context of urban and occupational settings. Less studied however, is the effect of heat exposure in a recreational setting such as on hiking trails. What makes this fact more surprising is that recreation, especially in the Western US, is extremely popular, with national parks such as Zion and Arches bringing in hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. With millions of recreationists exposed to the hazard of heat every year, it is critical that recreationists are made aware of the dangers they …

Transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice: A Distant Comparative Study Of Nepali And U.S. Environmental Policies And Counter-Archives In Technical Communication, Shankar Paudel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how institutional communication, state bureaucracy, and Indigenous sovereignty intersect within Rhetoric and Writing Studies (RWS) and Technical and Professional Communication (TPC). Current TPC research increasingly focuses on social justice; however, the field still lacks ethical frameworks to deal with the complicated dynamics of transnational Indigenous Environmental Justice Communication (IEJC). This study addresses this gap by examining how two distinct Indigenous communities - the Tharus of Chitwan, Nepal, and the Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Tigua Indians of El Paso, Texas - communicatively navigate, contest, and resist state environmental policies.

Grounded in decolonial Distant Comparativism, Mestiza Consciousness, Rhetoric of …

Casual Killing In The Home: Ecological Citizenship And The Micro-Geopolitics Of Mosquito Cohabitation, Orlando Woods, Junxi Qian

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article explores how the visceral acts of being bitten by and killing mosquitoes can underpin the formation of ecological citizenship. This form of citizenship is premised on human-nature entanglement and raises questions concerning how the rights and responsibilities stemming from such entanglement become distributed across the public and private domains. As a space in which mosquito cohabitation is contested daily, the home is a key site through which ecological citizenship can be forged and theoretical debates concerning urban political ecology can be extended. Human-mosquito entanglements in the home can reveal the limits of public pest management strategies, the partiality …

When Work Is Not Enough: Food Insecurity Among Employed Latinos Receiving Snap In Massachusetts And The Burden Carried By Latina Women, Phillip Granberry, Rafael M. Pérez Medina, Florita Coto Tristán

Gastón Institute Publications

Across Massachusetts, many SNAP recipients are workers, caregivers, parents, elders, people with disabilities, and families navigating low wages, unstable work schedules, high housing costs, and limited access to wealth building opportunities. Many of these workers held jobs that were labeled “essential” during the COVID-19 pandemic: food service, caregiving, cleaning, healthcare support, retail, transportation, construction, and other service sector jobs. Yet the public recognition of their essential labor has not been translated into adequate wages, benefits, or economic security.