Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Emergency Response To The Active Shooter With Nims, Edwin A. Vazquez

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the following study is to identify components of the National Incident Management System (NIMS) that can be used to improve first responder deployment in critical incidents, such as in the occurrence of an Active Shooter (AS) and Active Deadly Threat (ADT). The Incident Command System (ICS), a component of NIMS, is the on-scene emergency management organization designed to aid in managing resources during planned and unplanned catastrophic events. An AS/ADT incident is typically planned by the perpetrator and unexpected to first responders, leaving them with limited time to respond to and neutralize this type of threat effectively. …

Lost In The System: Child Sex Trafficking In Foster Care, Jennifer L. Monaghan

Theses and Dissertations

“The true character of society is revealed in how it treats its children.” – Nelson Mandela Human trafficking has always existed. It spans the globe and has always been an epidemic. It is often referred to as a crime hidden in plain sight. The sexual exploitation of children in foster care is a topic within the field of sex trafficking that has not been explored enough in research. This research study focuses on the question, “How can placing a child in foster care make them susceptible to becoming a victim of child sex trafficking?” This research study has 132 female …

Beyond The Border: Analyzing The Role Of Unjust U.S Policies In Shaping The Migrant Crisis In New York City., Elvita Bouzy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how unjust and dysfunctional U.S. immigration laws have shaped the migrant crisis in New York City, particularly during the 2022-2024 influx of migrants, through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT). It explores how racialized immigration policies, systemic inequities, and rising nativism have intensified challenges faced by migrants from Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, and other marginalized regions. The study examines political opposition and media portrayals since the mid-1980s that hindered immigration reform, exposing a flawed system lacking adequate legal pathways. This inadequate framework has fueled discrimination and worsened asylum seekers' hardships. Driven by nativist sentiment and …

Mujeres Hispanas Y Latinas: Influencias Culturales Y Religiosas En El Uso De Métodos Anticonceptivos, Paola Martinez

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper analyzes the importance of sexual and reproductive health for women’s overall wellbeing, focusing on how religious and cultural factors significantly influence contraceptive use in Hispanic and Latina communities. Religious affiliation, particularly within Catholicism and evangelical Christianity, promotes values that may discourage contraception, impacting STI prevention and family planning. Sociocultural constructs like machismo and familism reinforce these barriers, limiting women’s autonomy. Additionally, a lack of sexual education and distrust in healthcare systems contribute to unplanned pregnancies and increased STI risks. The analysis suggests that culturally sensitive educational programs could improve access to reliable information and empower women to make …

Poner En Práctica Las Regulaciones Federales: Habilitando A Los Pacientes Dominio Limitado Del Inglés, Caitlyn Gailey

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper examines the gaps in the U.S. healthcare system that affect the Hispanic community, focusing on language barriers and cultural competence. It highlights the challenges faced by Limited English Proficiency (LEP) patients, who may struggle with medical terminology, leading to misdiagnosis and improper treatment. The paper advocates for culturally sensitive language services, including qualified interpreters, translated documents and signage in order to improve communication, patient satisfaction, and reduce medical errors. It calls for systemic changes to ensure equitable care for all patients, regardless of language or cultural background.

Los Inmigrantes Indocumentados Y Su Pelea Para La Salud Medica En Los Estados Unidos, Alejandro Del Rello

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This essay explores the critical issue of healthcare access for undocumented immigrants in the United States. Despite contributing significantly to the economy through labor and taxes, undocumented immigrants face systemic barriers to medical care, including lack of insurance, fear of deportation, and economic troubles. These barriers result in untreated illnesses, mental health struggles, and increased use of emergency services, which generate higher long-term costs. The paper argues for inclusive healthcare policies, such as Medicaid expansion and protections for patient privacy, to improve public health, reduce disparities, and enhance economic stability. Drawing from U.S. and international examples, the essay demonstrates that …

El Uso De Las Prácticas Curativas No Occidentales En Lugar De Y Dentro De La Cultura Biomédica, Lynda Gulledge

World Languages and Cultures Senior Capstones

This paper explores the difficulties that the Hispanic community faces when accessing healthcare in the United States, which emphasizes the use of biomedical culture. Topics such as cultural and linguistic barriers, past and present healthcare policies, and the use of non-Western medical practices are examined. Furthermore, this paper explores the history and use of curanderismo as an accessible and culturally appropriate form of healthcare. Lastly, the integration and acknowledgement of curanderismo in biomedical culture is explored and encouraged in order to create a more holistic healthcare experience for the Hispanic community.

This Needs More Time!: Considerations For Improving Partnerships Between Communities And Institutions In Folklore, Sarah M. Gordon, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Junious Lee Brickhouse, Ashley Minner Jones, Naomi Sturm-Wijesinghe

Art Faculty Publications

From 2021 to 2023, the authors convened a series of discussion forums at the annual meetings of the American Folklore Society to discuss the challenges of community-institutional partnerships in the field of folklore. This perspectives piece presents the outcomes of that series of panels with the goal of advancing adaptability in institutional practices to better support community-engaged work. We seek to promote practices that better respond to community needs in collaborative partnerships through disciplinary norms and institutional bureaucratic mechanisms.

Help-Seeking For Problematic Alcohol Use: Stigma, Shame, & Guilt, Olivia G. Chapell

2025 Honors Symposium

Stigmatization is a prevalent barrier to help-seeking behaviors in problematic alcohol users, especially among college-aged students. By using a cross-sectional electronic survey method, the relationship between personal or immediate family experience with substance-related treatment and perceptions of stigmatization was assessed.

Promoting Caregiver-Child Attunement: Social Emotional Wellness Through Yoga, Gianna R. Delfino

Entry Level Occupational Therapy Doctoral Capstone Projects Class of 2025

This doctoral capstone program, Social-Emotional Wellness Through Yoga: Promoting Caregiver-Child Attunement, aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a family-centered occupational therapy (OT) program designed to enhance emotional connection, co-regulation, and wellness in caregiver-child dyads at a pediatric outpatient clinic. This project was guided by a systematic review of literature on the effects of yoga on the mental health of children 3-10 years old, which suggests that yoga has positive outcomes on the mental health and wellbeing of children (Khunti et al., 2022). Grounded in neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, and strengths-based care, the 10-week group was designed for children ages 3–11 and their …

Nsu Outreach, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Digital: Communiversity

No abstract provided.

Nsu Communiversity Outreach, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Digital: Communiversity

No abstract provided.

Is There An Association Between Living In A Rural Area And The Incidence Of Postoperative Complications Or Hospital Readmissions Following Left Ventricular Assist Device (Lvad) Implantation, Compared To Urban Lvad Recipients? A Systematic Review., Samrat Gollapudi, Abhiram Gollapudi, Sri Banala, Sheraj Singh, Kiran Tadi

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

BACKGROUND: Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are utilized as a therapeutic option for patients with end-stage heart failure. While LVAD implantation can enhance survival rates and quality of life, the procedure has its risks, and postoperative complications are common. This review aims to investigate whether there is an association between living in a rural area and the incidence of postoperative complications or hospital readmissions following LVAD implantation, compared to urban LVAD recipients.

METHODS: A comprehensive literature review examined studies that compared postoperative outcomes between rural and urban LVAD recipients. Data on adverse events, hospitalizations, and mortality rates were extracted, focusing …

Ua19/16/1/1 2025 Hilltopper Baseball Media Guide, Wku Athletic Media Relations

WKU Administration Documents

2025 baseball media guide produced by WKU Athletic Media Relations, includes athletic records and statistics, photographs, schedule and information regarding opponents.

Research Report: Insights Into Community, Heather Akin, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel, Mary Emery, Katelyn Larson, Bradley Lubben, L. J. Mcelravy, Timothy Meyer, Rebecca J. Vogt

Nebraska Rural Poll

Rural Nebraskans are more positive about the current change in their communities this year but are less positive about its future. Starting three years ago, the proportion believing their community changed for the worse was more than the proportion believing it had changed for the better (similar to what occurred in 2003 and 2009). However, last year that trend reversed back to the typical pattern and continued this year. This year, more people believe their community has changed for the better than has changed for the worse. When asked about what they expect ten years from now, this year more …

Insights From The Second Scarborough Charter Inter-Institutional Forum: Attendee Demographics And Program Perceptions, E. J. Hennessey, C. Wilson, J. Thompson, Y. Wallace, S. Brown, M. Tetui, R. Costa, K. Hogarth, V. Oliver, T. Kayode, J. Wilson, H. Mistry

Scarborough Charter Inter-Institutional Forum

The Scarborough Charter (2022) on Anti-Black racism and Black inclusion in Canadian Higher Education steering committee invited signatories to attend a two-day inter-institutional forum hosted in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada in May of 2024.

The Scarborough Charter Inter-institutional Forum was organized under the theme ‘Bridging Black,’ emphasizing the need to bridge the gaps in both learning and action and to build better connections between senior administration, faculty, staff, students, and Black communities at higher education institutions.

This gathering was the second forum in the series, and the first to conduct an evaluation of organizers and attendees.

The feedback garnered from surveys …

Theorizing Gender And Social Movements Beyond The Binary, Nancy Whittier

Sociology: Faculty Books

This innovative Handbook examines how gender shapes social activism and is shaped by activism. With a unique interdisciplinary focus, it explores the effects of the gender binary on experiences of activism, considering how different movements negotiate and, at times, challenge these traditional conceptions. It then moves beyond the binary to explore how gender is challenged by contemporary movements.

Expert authors discuss the impact and limitations of the gender binary, using examples such as the MeToo movement to demonstrate how viewing men and women as separate, monolithic categories results in countless differences being overlooked. Chapters present a range of global and …

Statistical Abstract, Fiscal Year 2025, Tennessee. Department Of Correction

Annual Statistical Abstract

This document is the annual statistical report for the Tennessee Department of Correction during the fiscal year.

Introduction: Beyond Hollow Materialism, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth, Zada Komara

Art Faculty Publications

This introduction to the special issue, “Transformative Approaches to Materiality in Appalachian Studies,” provides theoretical background and examples that demonstrate applications of new material culture and materiality theory to key Appalachian studies themes. It offers new directions for the study of material entanglement in social relationships by reviewing the history of material culture studies in the Appalachian context, fundamental theoretical propositions emerging from the “material turn” in social theory, and examples drawn from ethnographic and archaeological research into the patterns of use of material culture in the timber country of West Virginia and coalfields of eastern Kentucky. Finally, this introduction …

Stigmatization In The Pre-Death Interactions Of Family And Friends Bereaved By A Drug-Related Death, Joshua H. Stout, Benjamin Fleury-Steiner

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

As part of a larger analysis focused on family members and adult peers bereaved by a drug-related death (DRD), the present study explores how stigmatization is experienced in pre-death interactions. Respondents were asked about the decedent’s history of substance use, experiences with addiction treatment, and the events leading up to the DRD through 35 semi-structured qualitative interviews. Findings reveal several themes related to stigmatization experienced before, during, and after addiction treatment. These include experiences of difficulty accessing treatment, pains of separation and isolation involving facilities out of state, and increased hopelessness with repeated relapses following treatment. Conversely, some respondents described …

Preventing Suicide In Jails: Examining Community, Facility, And Individual Differences, Mijin Kim, Victor J. St. John, Jason Szkola

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Suicide remains the leading cause of death in U.S. correctional facilities, underscoring the importance of identifying factors contributing to elevated risk. Drawing on national data on jail fatalities from 2011 to 2019, this study examines suicide risk across macro-level (community infrastructure), meso-level (facility characteristics), and micro-level (individual vulnerabilities) domains. Multivariate regression analyses indicate that, at the micro-level, being young, White, male, unconvicted, or serving a short length of stay increases suicide likelihood. Rural isolation is associated with higher suicide rates, whereas overcrowding is linked to lower rates. Interaction models further demonstrate that rural jails without overcrowding experience the highest suicide …

“…They’Re Still Blaming It On The Person Being Lazy”: Stigma In The Lives Of Precariously Housed And Unhoused People, Brenna Jones, Brian Pitman

Graduate Research - Criminal Justice Sciences

Housing is increasingly a market exploited by corporations and what Samuel Stein calls the Real Estate State. Consequently, the state continues to target those impacted by these policy choices with removal and further stigmatization to clear the way for profit-making, which is tied to the housing market. The process of removal is accomplished through various forms of stigmatization and dehumanization, first at the public and institutional level. These stigmas then trickle down to intra-community and self-stigmatization. In all, these stigmas serve to justify and maintain the evolving status quo of homelessness and precarious housing, deflecting the blame of this “crisis” …

Examining Equifinality And Multifinality Using Outcome-Partitioned Person-Centered Analyses: A Proof-Of-Concept With Youth Developmental Assets And Health, Luke Russell, Todd M. Jensen, Jonathon J. Beckmeyer, Chang Su-Russell

Faculty Publications - Family and Consumer Sciences

Early general systems theorists proposed a key difference between living systems and physical systems is the widespread presence of equifinality and multifinality among living organisms. That is, in living systems, there are often variable pathways to the same outcomes (equifinality), or the same starting conditions can lead to disparate outcomes (multifinality). Family scientists, however, frequently use methods (adapted from the physical sciences) that fail to reflect these characteristics within their statistical models. In this paper, we propose and provide a preliminary proof-of-concept of how an outcome-partitioned set of person-centered analyses might be used to develop alternative models that more comprehensively …

Carceral Consequences And Perverse Perks: Care And The Disciplinary Alternative School, Kaitlyn J. Selman

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

Drawing on in-depth interviews with current and former students, parents, teachers, and staff members connected with three alternative schools in one Kentucky, USA school district, this work contributes to the theorization of carceral care. Instead of reducing the alternative school, its processes, and its functions down into a dichotomized question of good or bad, productive or violent, we come to see the dialectical nature of carcerality and the logics of care. Specifically, the negative consequences that students are subjected to are justified and internalized by the (perverse) benefits of attendance, thus dissipating from the realm of critique. As such, I …

The Role Of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners: Addressing The Shortage And Its Implications For Healthcare, Isabel Mary Mccarthy

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background: Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANE) are registered nurses specifically trained to perform forensic examinations and provide medical and emotional support to sexual assault victims. Many nursing programs lack formal education on SANE practices, which can hinder students' preparedness to address such cases in their future careers.

Method: A mixed-methods, three-phase approach to evaluate the effectiveness of a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) training module within the Dominican University of California Nursing Program. 40- 60 nursing students will be separated into two separate community health classes with one given module in SANEs nursing and the other not. Both classes …

The Economics Of Crime: Exploring The Impact Of Psychedelics, Gun Liability Insurance, And Zero-Bail Policies On Crime, Victor Olu Kilanko

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the intersection of public health and criminal justice by empirically evaluating the effects of three distinct policy reforms: psychedelic decriminalization, firearm liability mandates, and zero cash bail, on crime outcomes in California. It aims to inform evidence-based policymaking by leveraging quasi-experimental methods to identify the causal impact of each intervention. A growing number of U.S. jurisdictions have decriminalized psychedelic substances, and there are attendant theoretical expectations that such reforms could promote desistance from crime through the rehabilitative potential of psychedelics. This study examines the causal impact of psychedelic decriminalization on violent and property crime rates using monthly …

Co-Creating A Socio-Technical Framework For The Design And Evaluation Of Crime-Reporting Mobile Apps In Urban Residential Communities, Olalekan Oluwaseun David-Banjo

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Although mobile applications (apps) for crime reporting can enhance safety and foster social cohesion in urban communities, adoption of existing crime-reporting apps remains low because they overemphasize technological features at the expense of social realities. To address this problem, the study builds on socio-technical systems theory to addresses this problem by developing a Socio-Technical Evaluation Framework (STEF) in partnership with urban residents that can be used to guide the design and evaluation of these apps. The study combines qualitative (focus groups, interviews, app review analysis, and co-creation workshops) with quantitative methods (surveys and structural equation modeling) to identify and validate …

Living Networks: Reimagining Social Capital Beyond Institutions, Meghna Pamula

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the decline of social capital in the United States and explores how community connection can be rebuilt outside of traditional government institutions. Motivated by the question of whether social capital can be rebuilt within bureaucratic structures, the research evaluates the role of alternative, agile models such as local volunteer organizations, mutual aid networks, third spaces, and NGOs. Using a comparative case study approach and qualitative analysis, I examine initiatives across different cultures that foster social trust and connection beyond the limitations of formal systems. The findings illustrate that adaptive models of social capital that are not based …

Genetic Relative-Finder Services: A Qualitative Study Of Consumer Experiences, Sarah A. Sciba

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Genetic genealogy is an emergent topic in sociology. To date, over 41 million individuals worldwide have tested with the top four direct-to-consumer genetic testing (DTCGT) companies: AncestryDNA, FamilyTreeDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritageDNA (Glynn 2022). These tests provide consumers with ethnicity estimates, a list of DNA cousin matches, or both. Despite the popularity of DTCGT, there is a lack of data on consumer experiences with genetic relative-finder services (GRF) in the sociological literature. Methodology: I conducted exploratory, qualitative research in the form of in-depth interviews with eight adult women who have used GRF. I gathered data about their motivations for participation …

Breaking Barriers: A Delphi Study On Strategies Military Women Of Color Use To Advance Into Senior Leadership In The California Air National Guard, Michelle Leon Carrasco

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to determine what strategies military women of color (in ranks of E–8 and above or O–4 and above) used to overcome workplace barriers to advancement in the California Air National Guard (CAANG), to rate the importance of the strategies identified in Research Question 1, and to determine the methods by which they employed the top five most important strategies.Methodology: This study used a three-round Delphi method to collect data from women of color senior leaders in the CAANG. In Round 1, the expert panel identified strategies to overcome workplace barriers to advance …