Digital Commons Network^™

Abuse, Neglect, And Abandonment: The Need To Protect Immigrant Minors Through Standardized Definitions, Bailey Morris Gurr, Lila Bird Williams

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS) applications are inconsistently adjudicated across states due to varying definitions of abuse, neglect, and abandonment. This inconsistency creates geographic disparities in protection, leaving vulnerable immigrant minors at risk of deportation; in the worst-case scenario, children who meet the criteria in one state may be denied in another and sent back to unsafe or life-threatening conditions. This paper argues for federal oversight to standardize SIJS criteria by amending the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) to establish unambiguous definitions of abuse, neglect, and abandonment, ensuring fair and consistent adjudication nationwide. Legal scholars widely recognize the …

Full Issue

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

No abstract provided.

Offering Alternatives To Biblical Literalism May Be The Key To Increasing The Public’S Acceptance Of Evolution, Jamie Jensen, Dalton Bourne, Kenneth Harrington, Grant Rousseau, Jessica Abele, Daniel Ferguson

ScholarsArchive Data

These are data from two cohorts: a nationwide dataset, and a BYU-specific student dataset. We gathered information on evolution acceptance (using the I-SEA), biblical literalism (using the EALS) and religiosity (using the Sethi and Seligman instrument).

Fifty Years Of Exponent Ii, Karen Glenn, John Murphy, Bethany Budge

Faculty Publications

Drawing from the Exponent II Records (MSS 1527) in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections, this exhibit featured photographs, writings, and records that document the first fifty years of the periodical Exponent II, a publication dedicated to Latter-day Saint women's voices. Display items included letters, original and draft publications, advertising materials, and scrapbook pages.

The exhibit illustrates that Exponent II has played a significant role in preserving and amplifying the voices of Latter-day Saint women for five decades.

Exploring Teacher Perspectives Of Literacy Instruction For Students With Behavioral Needs, Lauren Dalton Astle

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the perceptions of elementary teachers who have implemented effective literacy instruction strategies to enhance the reading skills of students with significant behavioral challenges in general education classrooms. Recognizing that students with behavioral issues often face amplified academic and social difficulties, the study highlights the necessity of robust literacy instruction to foster academic success. Nineteen teachers, whose students achieved at least 85% student progress in reading as assessed by the Acadience Learning assessments, were interviewed to gather their perceptions of effective instructional practices. The findings identified four critical themes: teacher efficacy, instructional design, an intentional learning environment, and …

Latest Research (Academic Summaries): Partnerships And Collaboration, Erica Bassett, Lakell Archer, Sumaya Ali, Emma Indart

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

This section focuses on summarizing the latest research in partnerships and collaboration in the nonprofit sector. This section can be considered a literature review of the latest studies.

Full Issue: Joni March 2025, Partnerships And Collaboration, Angie Holzer

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Leading Nonprofit Success Through Collaboration And Partnerships, Lakell Archer, Erica Bassett

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Abstract

Nonprofit organizations play a crucial role in addressing societal challenges, yet they often operate in a competitive environment with limited resources. To maximize impact and long-term sustainability, strategic partnerships and cross-sector collaborations have emerged as essential approaches. This paper explores the benefits of nonprofit collaboration, emphasizing its role in creating strategic advantages, improving service delivery, fostering innovation, and ensuring long-term resilience. The discussion highlights how collaborative leadership is key to overcoming barriers such as competition for funding, misaligned objectives, and trust deficits among partners. By examining real-world examples, the paper illustrates how effective partnerships enhance resource sharing, streamline operations, …

Enhancing Accountability And Transparency In Nonprofit Organizations: Examining The Impact Of Limited Regulatory Oversight In Africa Sub-Saharan Africa, Barnabas Iwia Suva

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Nonprofit organizations continue to positively impact society by playing a vital role in addressing social, economic, and humanitarian challenges worldwide. Governments in sub-Saharan Africa attract nonprofits by having less strict regulatory requirements. One of the unintended outcomes of operating in a less stringent regulatory framework is that transparency and accountability standards may be compromised. Inadvertently, having less stringent regulatory requirements may create governance gaps, information asymmetry, mission drift, donor mistrust, and sustainability challenges. Accountability and transparency are essential for fostering trust, continuous improvement, measuring impact, gaining stakeholder confidence, and achieving sustainable impact even with the scarcity of resources. Transparency can …

Poor Cancer Prevention And Detection In Zimbabwe, Kenyon C. Chipman

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Abstract

In the aftermath of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Sub-Saharan Africa, particularly Zimbabwe, has witnessed a surge in noncommunicable diseases such as cancer. Despite the decline in HIV/AIDS and other cancer-associated illnesses like HPV, these diseases have set the stage for a growing cancer epidemic. Key contributing factors to this rise include a lack of knowledge about cancer among both patients and health professionals, the prevalence of cancer-associated communicable diseases, and limited accessibility to early detection and prevention services and resources. These factors have led to late diagnoses, increased burden on the healthcare system, and adverse effects on individuals and families. …

Ballard Brief And Joni: A Collaborative Partnership, Becca Linford

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

Sustainability Reporting On Nonprofit Organizations: A Perception Study On The Level Of Indicator’S Adequacy In Social Action Entities, Ainhoa Saitua Iribar, Javier Corral Lage, Noemi Peña Miguel, Izaskun Ipiñazar Petralanda

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

The information reported by Nonprofit Organizations (NPO) is a fundamental signal to obtain financing of donors and also legitimacy of its activities in a stakeholder approach. But nowadays, companies and other types of entities are more obliged to provide information on their sustainability performance and risks. By means of a survey in a region of Spain, the purpose of this study is to select the main indicators that apply to Social Action Entities from the Third Sector (SAETS) to hold them accountable for the impact of their activity in social, environmental, and good governance terms. The results will contribute to …

Child Malnutrition In Argentina: An Examination Of It Root Causes, Effects, And Innovations To Intervene, Brooklyn Richins

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Abstract:

Child malnutrition rates in Argentina have been on the rise, driven by factors such as income inequality, harsh climatic conditions, and geographic isolation, leading to an increased reliance on highly processed, nutrient-poor foods. This escalating issue has wide-ranging health and educational implications, including poor neurocognitive development, higher rates of hypertension, and greater risks of obesity and diabetes. Particularly in impoverished regions, like Jujuy, malnutrition exacerbates disparities in child health outcomes and educational achievement. Though international organizations like UNICEF and Bountiful Children’s Foundation are working to address malnutrition through supplements, education, and screenings, gaps in program implementation persist, especially in …

Becoming A Network Of Networks: G20 Interfaith Forum, Marianna Richardson

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

No abstract provided.

"Very Important Stuff For The Ladies": Examining Gender Differences In Celebrity Journalism, Payton E. Pingree

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores gender differences in celebrity journalism by analyzing 44 YouTube video interviews from the Oscars red carpet between 2014 and 2024. Using framing theory and feminist theory, the study examines how interviewers interact with male and female celebrities, focusing on four key behaviors: infantilizing, ambivalence, sexualization, and heteronormativity. Through qualitative thematic analysis of interview transcripts, the research reveals that female celebrities are often sexualized through questions about their appearance and subjected to heteronormative expectations when discussing their fashion choices and familial roles. These patterns suggest persistent sexism in celebrity journalism, potentially influencing public perceptions of women in the …

Imu-Mechanized Discrete Error-State Kalman Filtering With Lie-Group Pose Representations, Daniel P. Koch

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates methodologies for consistent Kalman filtering with Lie-group based representations of the vehicle pose. Early results are centered around the relative navigation framework, which maintains filter observability and consistency by only tracking the state relative to the latest keyframe of an odometry system such as visual odometry or laser scan matching. A detailed derivation of a relative multiplicative extended Kalman filter, using a quaternion parameterization of the attitude state, is presented for application to multirotor vehicles. The remainder of the dissertation focuses on Kalman filtering using a Lie-group SE(3) pose representation, which improves filter consistency by correctly modeling …

Transgenerational Impacts Of Covid-19: Exploring The Epigenetic Impacts Of Sars-Cov-2 Infection On Parental Reproductive Health And Offspring Development, Isaac Mckay Stirland

Theses and Dissertations

The mechanisms and consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection, including clinical manifestations, immune response, pathogenicity, long-term sequelae, etc., have been studied in detail following the 2019 pandemic however, very little has been done to explore the interplay between SARS-CoV-2 and host DNA methylation. Given the role of DNA methylation in genetic regulation, genomic imprinting, and induction of transgenerational effects, an understanding of viral interaction(s) with the host methylome is imperative in promoting reproductive and developmental health. Numerous reports describe infections with similar pathogenicity to SARS-CoV-2 and their correlation to altered host tissues at the epigenetic, physiologic, and macroscopic level. These reported epigenetic …

The Effectiveness Of Dialogic Reading Workshops For Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Jessica Driskill

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of dialogic reading workshops in improving at-home reading behaviors of both parents and their preschool-aged children. A focus of the study is to understand the dialogic reading experiences of parents with children who have developmental disabilities. Thirteen parents of children at a local preschool participated in one or more phases of the study. Phases included completing a pre-survey, attending the workshop, completing a post-survey, and participating in an interview. Five parents of typically developing children and four parents of children with developmental disabilities participated in the interviews. Participants noted an …

The Confidence Trap In Pr Academia: Barriers And Solutions For Female Professors, Kailey R. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the career barriers female public relations professors face through the lens of Brubaker et al.'s (2025) theoretical model of "The Confidence Trap." While existing research has explored gender disparities in the PR industry, limited scholarship has investigated the challenges faced by women in PR academia. This qualitative study utilizes in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 22 female public relations professors currently on the tenure track or who have earned tenure at R1 and R2 research institutions in the United States. Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed that traditional barriers--such as the glass ceiling, sticky floors, maternal walls, and sexism--manifest …

Intermittent Pneumatic Compression And Heart Rate Variability, Bethany Elisabeth Hartwell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Intermittent Pneumatic Compression (IPC) technology has historic use in promoting fluid movement throughout the body, specifically the legs following surgery. When used in athletics and sports performance training, IPC boots help athletes recover faster and reduce soreness in the lower legs. Research has demonstrated that these boots can significantly shorten recovery times after use. However, the specific mechanisms through which these boots promote recovery remain unclear. One possibility is that IPC boots enhance parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity, which may reduce physiological stress; however, this hypothesis has not yet been formally tested. Heart rate variability (HRV) is a measure of …

Data-Driven Fusion Of Earth Observation And Hydrologic Data To Forecast Flood Extents At Regional To Continental Scales, Kel N. Markert

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate and timely flood inundation forecasts are crucial for mitigating the devastating impacts of floods, which affect 1.47 billion people globally and cause significant economic losses. While traditional flood forecasting methods, such as hydrologic and hydrodynamic models, have limitations in providing comprehensive and spatially explicit inundation information, recent research has focused on leveraging Earth observation data and machine learning for enhanced flood prediction. This dissertation advances the state-of-the-art in data-driven flood inundation forecasting by exploring the capabilities and scalability of the Forecasting Inundation Extents using Rotated Empirical Orthogonal Function (FIER) framework. This dissertation focuses on investigating different aspects of FIER …

A Century Of Depicting Characters With Disabilities In Newbery Award And Honor Books, Merna Kay Raines

Theses and Dissertations

A Century of Depicting Characters With Disabilities in Newbery Award and Honor Books Merna Kay Raines Department of Counseling Psychology and Special Education, BYU Educational Specialist Between 1922 and 2021, 426 books received the Newbery Award, with 64 books featuring characters with disabilities. However, it was not until 1931 that the Newbery Honor Award was given to recognize the author of a book featuring a character with disabilities. Newbery Award-winning books are considered quality literature and are found in most libraries and classrooms. Understanding the portrayal of characters with disabilities is important because students easily access these books. This content …

Do Esgs Do Any Good? The Problem Of Aggregation In Corporate Social Responsibility Literature, Gloriana Guillermo

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) ratings are used to evaluate corporate social responsibility performance for years. This review is looking to see if ESG ratings’ “do any good” meaning have an impact beyond the financials. This review investigates the impacts and effects of ESG ratings by evaluating literature based on the level of aggregation used in each study as aggregation can hide differences in the data. I evaluated these papers and sorted them based on a theoretical framework into four distinct positions based on the level of aggregation used for the ESG rating and the dependent variable. I also looked …

“It Is Now In Flames, But It Will Never Burn Down”: A Conservation Of Resources Perspective On Resilience In The Yugoslav Wars, Sarah Denton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The genocides, sieges, and brutal longevity of the Yugoslav Wars profoundly affected the lives of millions of people across the Balkans. Here, the theory of Conservation of Resources (COR) has been applied to contextualize the trauma and regrowth of survivors of these wars. COR theory suggests that people work to protect, maintain, and expand their resources, such as material assets, desirable personality traits, and religion. The threatening or actual loss of these resources induces stress. In environments that threaten or deplete many resources—such as war—other resources become essential for survival and healing. Applying this theory to the memoirs and oral …

Exploring The Effects Of Red-Light Camera System Policy On Intersection-Related Crashes, Nicholas O'Connor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The number of traffic-related fatalities in the United States is 2.3 times higher than the average rate of 28 other high-income countries (Yellman 2022). Some municipalities have implemented Red Light Camera Systems (RLCSs) to improve intersection safety. However, the effectiveness of these cameras is a topic of ongoing debate, and recent policy shifts have resulted in their widespread removal (Ebeling, 2013). This study investigates the causal impact of a statewide ban on RLCSs in Texas, focusing on how the deactivation of these cameras affects intersection-level crash frequency. Utilizing a difference-in-differences framework, we compare intersections impacted by the ban with those …

Regulation Of Cell Cycle Proteins At The Extremes Of Copy Number Variation In Cancer, Hannah Tran

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Copy number variation is one of the main forms of genomic alteration in cancer genomes. The amplification of oncogenes or deletion of tumor suppressors commonly drives tumor formation. Average copy number variation events vary across cancer types; ovarian cancer has the highest average number of copy number changes, and pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has the least. With the copy number differences between cancer types, it is likely that different mechanisms of producing copy number changes exist. We propose that a possible mechanism is cell cycle reversal, which was recently shown to potentially occur during the G2 phase of the cell cycle …

Improvement Of A Novel Motorized Quinoa Washer For Single-Family Farmers, Brooklyn Olson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Quinoa is an important crop in the Andean region of South America and is often grown by single family farmers. Before eating, quinoa must be washed to remove its saponin coating. The BYU GEO team has developed a quinoa washer to aid these farmers in washing their quinoa. This paper explores areas of needed improvement in the current quinoa washer based on feedback from individual farmers and focus groups. Areas explored include the motor, washer operations, parts and sourcing, and cleaning and use. Results include a promising motor alternative in the form of a powered drill, which decreases cost and …

Hoping For A Better World: Utopian Performatives In Jez Butterworth's "The Hills Of California", Lily Jensen

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Jez Butterworth’s 2024 play, The Hills of California, tells the story of the Webb sisters—Joan, Gloria, Ruby, Jillian—and their mother, Veronica, in 1950s and 1970s Blackpool, England. In 1976, it is the hottest summer on record in Blackpool, and Veronica is dying of cancer. Jillian, Gloria, and Ruby have gathered together to wait for her to die, with the hope that Joan (who has supposedly been living a fabulous life in America for 20 years) will come back to say a last goodbye to their mother. The play flips back and forth between the 70s and the 50s. We …

More Than A Vessel: Presentations Of The Mother In Lucie Delarue-Mardrus’ Marie, Fille-Mère; Pagu’S Parque Industrial; And Nella Larsen’S Quicksand, Sophie Hirtle

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores portrayals of the pregnant female mind in early 20th-century literature completed by female authors in the francophone, lusophone, and anglophone tradition. The three cited authors—Lucie Delarue-Mardrus, Pagu, and Nella Larsen—have each produced novels which include explicit references to childbirth and maternity, as well as veiled references to the mother’s mental state before, during, and after pregnancy. A close analysis of these scenes reveals an underlying discourse of the effects of pregnancy on cognition and mental health, suggesting that the contemporary discourse on the self-sacrificing mother was over-simplistic and placed women within strict categories of “good mother” or …

The Efficient Judges Hypothesis: Testing The Role Of Public Sentiment In Alj Decisions, James Hamilton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Administrative law judges (ALJs) play a significant role in the appeal process of the United States Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program. This paper tests whether ALJ decisions are ”efficient” - based solely on case characteristics - or influenced by other factors, such as public review. Leveraging the random assignment of cases to ALJs within hearing offices, I analyze variation in ALJ award rates over time. The results show that while case characteristics influence ALJ decisions, they do not fully explain the decisions, suggesting the presence of additional explanatory factors.

I explore the impact of public review on ALJ decisions …