Digital Commons Network^™

Moms Support Group: Lack Of Support To Moms Postpartum, Brooke C. Labit

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

This service learning project is centered on organizing and running a mom support group regularly to provide moms with the chance to assist one another in a safe atmosphere for their recovery following childbirth. Additionally, I created a social media page on the platform found on Instagram for this support group so that moms may communicate frequently and follow and interact to join for upcoming events. The project will benefit the moms by helping them make more meaningful connections and feel more supported during this time. Navigating parenting while maintaining all aspects of your life can be difficult. Going through …

Insourcing The Smart City: Assembling An Ideo-Technical Ecosystem Of Talent, Skills, And Civic-Mindedness In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Tim Bunnell, Lily Kong

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This article examines an alternative model of smart city formation, one based on the principle of insourcing technical competencies and capabilities to those responsible for city governance. This model counters the logic of technological outsourcing upon which many assumptions and critiques of the smart city rest, and thus reveals ways in which a more generative discourse can be forged. Drawing on a series of in-depth interviews with senior stakeholders from public and private sector organizations, we develop a case study of Singapore’s Smart Nation initiative. Through coordinated efforts to reorganize the public sector’s technological functions, develop nation-wide skills upgrading programs, …

Care Labour Shortage Needs A Cure, Not More Band-Aids, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Asian Management Insights

Retaining care workers will become more difficult for Asia’s ageing economies.

Future-Proofing Healthcare Systems, How Choon How

Asian Management Insights

This includes tackling climate change challenges too.

Capstone 2023: The Bond Of Learning, Mckinzee D. Goodwin

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The learning that is done between the ages of 2-5 years old provides for lifelong learning. Basic knowledge of the alphabet, numbers, and colors used to be expected before a child steps foot into the public school setting, however as time has passed children have been increasingly behind in those steps. A recent study found that for every ten children that arrive at kindergarten each fall only four of them are prepared. Those six who are not prepared struggle in a continuous catch-up cycle (Livingstone, 2015). My capstone project was to show others who might be worried about the readiness …

Organizing The Process, Erika Arellano

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The capstone project that I chose to complete for this semester is program organization. Our developmental preschool program offers services for children with disabilities from three to five years of age. Having a well-organized and structured program is a foundational must as so much time is consumed with paperwork and meetings. As a first-year preschool teacher, I started the school year with more questions than answers, and answers that confused me even more. The way it is currently set up is with piles and piles of loose files stacked up on a desk, and post-it notes with all sorts of …

Naturalization Workshop: A Capstone Project, A. H. Diaz

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The capstone project I embarked on focused on the naturalization process and how I could create a plan to better prepare immigrants that are going to begin the process, as well as how I could instill a grandiose sense of confidence in them that will not falter throughout the process. My plan of action consisted of creating a workshop for immigrants that would implement a lesson plan that would prepare and then help improve whatever knowledge of the English language and the tests that come with the naturalization process. A majority of the resources came from the USCIS ``Start a …

Improving Childhood Literacy, Amy Williams

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

This paper discusses my approach and solution to the problem of declining literacy rates among children in recent years. While there are many contributing factors, COVID lockdown and the reliance on technology have played a part. The approach to this problem was to start within my own community by building a Little Free Library. This library gave children the opportunity to have increased access to reading materials that interest them, free of charge. The children were also incentivized to read by the initiation of a summer reading program that included prizes for completion of a reading log. By generating interest …

Transition A Squadron To Microsoft Teams, David C. Methvin Jr.

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

Over the past six weeks, I have embarked on a quest to increase my squadron's productivity by addressing continuity, communication, and file storage. The method by which I addressed these issues is by transitioning the squadron to Microsoft Teams. The transition to Teams required planning, as we have four major sections of the squadron, all working different shifts because we operate 24/7. It required creativity, not only because of the 24/7 ops but also because utilizing Teams was different from the traditional way in which we would solve these sorts of problems. It also required me to get out of …

Aging In Berlin: A Community Needs Assessment, Mary Krebs, Caitlin Coyle

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA) within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the Town of Berlin. The goals of this project were to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Berlin residents age 18 or older by engaging the community regarding their experiences and needs relevant to the Social Services alongside the Council on Aging’s objectives to serve the needs of all Berlin citizens 60 and older. The contents of this report are meant to inform the Town of Berlin, the Berlin …

Conducting Oral History: Background And Methods, Katrine Barber

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This chapter-length essay describes the practice of oral history through real world examples: the steps to conducting oral history interviews, things to consider when developing a project or an interview plan, and ethical considerations. How oral history has enlarged the historical record and changed scholarly interpretation of the past are highlighted.

Latinos In Massachusetts Selected Areas: Fitchburg, Phillip Granberry, Victor Luis Martins, Michelle Borges

Gastón Institute Publications

Fitchburg is a city of 41,946 residents, including 12,608 (30.1%) who identify as Latino or Hispanic, according to the 2020 Decennial Census. Statewide, Latino residents contribute 12.6% of the total population. In Fitchburg, Whites make up the majority (54.6%) of the city, while Blacks and Asians account for 6.1% and 3.6% of the population, respectively.

Between 2010 and 2020, the Latino population grew by 44.5% and was only outpaced by Blacks (59.8%). With these two populations outpacing Fitchburg's 4.0% population growth during the decade, the White population experienced a 16.7% decrease. By comparison, the White population in Massachusetts declined by …

Digital Media, Ageing And Faith: Older Sri Lankan Migrants In Australia And Their Digital Articulations Of Transnational Religion, Shashini Gamage, Raelene Wilding, Loretta Baldassar

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

To date, older adults have received little attention in the newly emerging technological narratives of transnational religion. This is surprising, given the strong association of later life with spiritual and religious engagement, but it likely reflects the ongoing assumption that older adults are technophobic or technologically incompetent. Drawing on ethnographic interviews with older Sinhalese Buddhist migrants from Sri Lanka, living in Melbourne, this paper explores the digital articulations of transnational religion that arise from older migrants’ uses of digital media. We focus on how engagements with digital media enable older Sinhalese to respond to an urgent need to accumulate merit …

Oral Histories Of The Silver Valley In Northern Idaho, Bobbie-Jo Stepro Bighill

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

The purpose of my capstone project is to preserve the oral histories of the people who grew up in the Silver Valley of Northern Idaho. It was once an area known as the Silver Capital of the world. More Silver was produced in the small towns in this area nestled between the Connection of Highway 3 and the Montana border on I-90. It earned its name as the Silver Capital of the world before most of the mines closed in the 1980s. At that time, they had produced more Silver than anywhere else in the world. Now there are several …

Swing With Me, Daniel Kyle

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

This is my Capstone Project for IPS introducing my business plan for Swing with Me, a country swing dance business me and my girlfriend Chelsea are going to start here in Ontario!

Change The World One Worm At A Time!, David C. Goff

IPS/BAS 495 Undergraduate Capstone Projects

My Capstone Project aims to blend the old with the new. It's about taking tried-and-true farming practices and breathing new life into them with innovative, sustainable solutions. It seeks to balance making a living from the land and caring for it for future generations.

The project's core revolves around Organic Worm Tea, a natural product we've been developing and testing. This process involves rolling up our sleeves, getting our hands dirty, and observing the tea's effect on various farms, including those run by immigrant farmers who bring unique farming traditions from their home countries.

But this project isn't just about …

Three Years Of Record High Mortality And Low Fertility Leave Many States With More Deaths Than Births, Kenneth M. Johnson

The Carsey School of Public Policy at the Scholars' Repository

In this data snapshot, Senior Demographer Kenneth Johnson reports that with Covid-induced mortality at record highs and continuing low fertility during the past three years, U.S. births exceeded deaths by the smallest margin in more than a century. Such widespread natural decline is unprecedented. At least 22 states had a natural decline in each of the three pandemic years. Prior to the pandemic, the most states with more deaths than births in a year was 5 in 2019. There will be fewer states with more deaths than births in 2023 if the recent reductions in Covid deaths persist. But many …

Lived Experiences Of Academic Librarians Of Color: A Bibliography, Jody Condit Fagan

Libraries

The scholarship in this bibliography offers wisdom for all academic library workers about the experiences of academic librarians of color. My initial purpose in exploring the literature was to combat my own ignorance and to help me be a better colleague to non-white librarians in predominantly white academic institutions. These works also inform diversity, equity, and inclusion programming in academic libraries, especially when primarily theory-based approaches might fall flat for a given audience.

I have tried to provide links to open access full-text where possible. Where a book chapter has no open access online, I provide a link to the …

Oregon Tribal Land & County Population Projections By Race & Ethnicity, Population Research Center, Portland State University, Neal Marquez, Ethan Sharygin, Deborah Loftus, Huda Alkitkat, Gilbert Montcho, David Swanson, Joshua Wilde

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Oregon House Bill 2003 from the 2019 legislative session (HB 2003) prioritizes equitable planning to address past and ongoing disparities in access to affordable housing, and Executive Order (EO) 20-04 (2020) declared a priority to address differential vulnerability to natural hazards by race and ethnicity. These priorities and Goal 10 of the Oregon Department of Land Conservation and Development (DLCD) collectively identify an unmet and growing need for population projections with race and ethnicity detail, disability status, and for American Indian tribal lands in Oregon.

House Bill 5006 from the 2021 session (HB 5006), appropriated funds to study and make …

Students’ Knowledge Of And Attitudes Toward Dairy Production: A Survey Methodology Report, Heather Akin, Babatope Akinyemi, Julia Mcquillan, Tami Brown-Brandl

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

This report presents findings from a pilot survey conducted among undergraduate and graduate students (N = 410) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about students’ perspectives on technology usage, consumption, and sustainability in dairy production systems. An interdisciplinary research team developed the survey instrument and report. The main purpose of this pilot study was to create and administer survey items to support further research on experiential education and outreach opportunities related to robotics in small-scale dairy production and rural economic development. Descriptive findings indicated that most students had some familiarity with dairy production and the nutritional aspects of dairy products …

Human Ecology News, Georgia Southern University

Human Ecology News (2012-2023)

• Congratulations Trent Maurer, Ph.D. and Emily Cabay on recent publications

Archivo Y Memoria: Una Mirada A Tres Historias De Mujeres Esclavizadas En El Virreinato De La Nueva Granada De Finales Del Siglo Xviii, Luisa Carolina Julio Gomez

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Colonial documents preserve information that allows us to know the local Andean history of the Viceroyalty of New Granada. These manuscripts reveal forms of violence that shaped the subjectivities of the time and the resistance of oppressed women. This dissertation examines the effects of slavery and the response of three enslaved women to that colonial violence. This analysis seeks to better understand and make visible how the intersection between racism and patriarchy impacted the lives of three racialized women in the colonial context.

This dissertation focuses on the experiences, struggles, and resistance of three women present in the manuscripts consigned …

Neighborhood Disadvantage And Pediatric Inpatient Opioid Prescription Patterns, Ashley W. Kranjac, Dinko Kranjac, Zeev N. Kain, Louis Ehwerhemuepha, Candice Donaldson, Brooke N. Jenkins

Sociology Faculty Articles and Research

Background

To explore the role of children's residential environment on opioid prescribing patterns in a predominantly Latinx sample.

Methods

We connected geocoded data from electronic medical records in a diverse sample of pediatric patients to neighborhood environments constructed using latent profile modeling techniques. We then estimated a series of multilevel models to determine whether opioid prescribing patterns vary by residential context.

Results

A stepwise pattern exists between neighborhood disadvantage and pediatric opioid prescription patterns, such that higher levels of disadvantage associate with a greater likelihood of opioid prescription, independent of the patient's individual profile.

Conclusion

In a largely Latinx sample …

Working Paper No. 78, On Lenin, And The State As A Necessary Tool, J.P. Trafford

Working Papers in Economics

In his The State and Revolution [1918], Vladimir Illich Ulyanov—also known as Lenin—singles out the organ of the “State” as the institution essential for realizing a successful communist revolution. Lenin’s draws his thinking on the State from Karl Marx, who in his writings expresses the view that a State emerges in order to mitigate class conflicts. From this perspective, the State becomes an organ for class rule. History teaches us that the State occupies a position above society and is utilized as a special coercive force for exerting the wills of members of the ruling class upon the working class. …

Working Paper No. 76, An Inquiry Into The Foundations Of Primary Socialist Accumulation, Jason Mcghee

Working Papers in Economics

This inquiry seeks to establish that author and economist Evgenii Alekseevich Preobrazhenskii provided a substantial theoretical foundation for the Soviet “Grand Experiment.” What Preobrazhenskii sought to address were identifiable contradictions inherent in a nascent socialist system surrounded by capitalist countries. This inquiry focuses on Preobrazhenskii's contributions during the implementation of the New Economic Policy (NEP) at the start of the 1920s and to an area in the field of the “History of Economic Thought” known as “The Soviet Industrialization Debates.” Efforts are made to highlight key ideas advanced in his article On Primary Socialist Accumulation [1926]. In addition, this inquiry …

“I Don’T Want To Die”: A Qualitative Study Of Coping Strategies To Prevent Fentanyl‑Related Overdose Deaths Among People Who Inject Drugs And Its Implications For Harm Reduction Policies, Roberto Abadie

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Background Fentanyl and fentanyl-related analogues are the main drivers of overdose death in the USA, particularly among people who inject drugs (PWID). Despite the fact that non-Hispanic whites exhibit higher population rates of synthetic opioid mortality, overdose deaths have increased among African American and Latinos in urban areas. Yet little attention has been paid to the introduction of fentanyl among rural PWID in Puerto Rico.

Methods We conducted N = 38 in-depth interviews with PWID in rural Puerto Rico to document participants’ experiences of injection drug use after the arrival of fentanyl and the strategies they implemented to manage overdose …

Spotlight On Innovative Recruitment Strategies: Northwest Ohio Fellowship Program, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development (Qic-Wd)

Other QIC-WD Products

Ohio is a county-administered children services (formerly known as child welfare) system. Like many other states, Ohio is experiencing a shortage of child protective services (CPS) workers. County leaders report that this is due to high rates of turnover compounded by rising wages and competition from outside employers. Traditional recruitment techniques and programs, including traditional partnerships with universities with social work programs, are not adequate to meet the current level of need for new children services workers. Although social work majors come to children service agencies with a training set that allows faster onboarding, social work majors make up less …

Irish Farm Crime Survey, Nicola Hughes Dr, Matt Bowden

Reports

No abstract provided.

Digitalization Of Library Resources In Pakistan: A Case Of Academic Libraries, Abdullah Jamil, Rustum Ali, Bilal Ahmad

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study has been designed to examine the digitalization of resources in academic libraries in Pakistan. The world continues its flow of digitalization through the internet such as people starting jobs online, online selling and purchasing businesses, online shares, and investment during the time of Coronavirus. Hence, the digitalization of libraries has no exemption. A purposive sampling technique has been employed to select 16 participants (8 students and 8 library professionals) from the academic library of the University of Gujrat. Further, an interview guide has been developed to conduct case studies. The data collection process takes place within ten working …

Parabens Promote Protumorigenic Effects In Luminal Breast Cancer Cell Lines With Diverse Genetic Ancestry, Jazma L. Tapia, Jillian C. Mcdonough, Emily L. Cauble, Cesar G. Gonzalez, Dede K. Teteh, Lindsey S. Treviño

Health Sciences and Kinesiology Faculty Articles

Context

One in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime. Yet, the burden of disease is greater in Black women. Black women have a 40% higher mortality rate than White women, and a higher incidence of breast cancer at age 40 and younger. While the underlying cause of this disparity is multifactorial, exposure to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) in hair and other personal care products has been associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Parabens are known EDCs that are commonly used as preservatives in hair and other personal care products, and Black women are disproportionately exposed …