Digital Commons Network^™

Sustainable To The Core: Essays On Strategy And Sustainability, Junghoon Park

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates the intricate relationship between business strategies and sustainability. A growing awareness has emerged among firms about the importance of embracing sustainability—integrating the environmental, social, and economic implications of their actions and decisions into their core strategies—to attain long-term success and competitive advantage. In this context, strategic management research has primarily concentrated on the benefits that firms and their stakeholders can derive from adopting and executing sustainability initiatives. Despite the numerous efforts made by firms to tackle sustainability concerns, pressing issues persist. This situation raises questions about the effectiveness of strategic management research in guiding firms to embed …

Social Media Reactions To Apologies From Public Figures, Brands, And Companies And Its Impact On Reputation, Melissa N. Dolan

Student Theses and Dissertations

Apologies issued by public figures, brands, and companies after a scandal or public perception of wrongdoing are common occurrences that have a significant impact on a brand's overall reputation. The impact on reputation hinges on how apologies are dissected and criticized by audiences on social media, which in turn influences public opinion and perception of the brand, company, or public figure. Furthermore, social media has exacerbated condemnation or support for public apologies, because it provides a platform for public discourse on the matter. Apologies are powerful tools that can be effective if implemented well or can be detrimental to a …

A Study On The Design And Production Of A Desktop Vaccuum Cleaner, Aaryan Manoj Nair, Emanuel Pichardo, Isaiah Ortiz, Naeem Kotadia

Publications and Research

The goal of this project was to design a desk-top vacuum cleaner that is compact, portable, and effective in cleaning desktops and tabletops. Two concepts were proposed and compared using Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and various metrics, including in-use purposes and market, technical feasibility, ease of use, durability, and cost. The two concepts were a lifting design with hydraulics and a differently sized offset wheel design. After thorough analysis, it was determined that the lifting design with hydraulics was the better concept due to its adjustability and ability to reach different heights and angles on tabletops. The proposed product title …

A Statewide Analysis Of The Impact Of Restitution And Fees On Juvenile Recidivism In Florida Across Race & Ethnicity, Alex R. Piquero, Michael T. Baglivio, Kevin T. Wolff

Publications and Research

Whether the imposition of monetary sanctions is related to juvenile recidivism is explored overall and across race and ethnicity. Leveraging a statewide sample, logistic regression was used to predict fees and restitution assignment based on youth/case characteristics, hierarchical linear and logistic random-effects regression examined the association between neighborhood characteristics with fees and restitution, and propensity score matching examined whether fees and/or restitution are related to reoffending. No race/ethnic differences were found in the proportion of youth receiving court fees, yet when fees were administered both black and Hispanic youth received higher fees. Neighborhood characteristics have minimal impact on whether (or …

Leveraging Local Perturbations To Map Allosteric Networks Of Phosphatases, Tamar (Skaist) Mehlman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Allostery is central to regulation of protein function, but our mechanistic understanding remains incomplete. A deeper understanding of how redistributions of conformational states drive allostery in proteins could allow us to better grasp natural regulatory principles in cells and open new doors to therapeutic development. Conformationally dynamic human Protein Tyrosine Phosphatases (PTPs) exemplify the challenges and opportunities associated with allostery. The archetypal PTP, PTP1B, has been highly validated as a therapeutic target but no allosteric inhibitors have been approved for clinical use. This is largely because our understanding of the mechanisms underlying allostery in PTP1B remains limited, despite the discovery …

Urban Space, Genre And Subjectivity In African And Latin American Cinema, Matthew Marcus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project studies twelve African and Latin American films from a range of eras and countries, with an emphasis on their treatment of urban space, their manipulation of genre elements, and their approaches to character subjectivity. The analysis draws on major works of urban theory by Henri Lefebvre, Manuel Castells, David Harvey, Jane Jacobs, and others in order to investigate the relationship between cinema and the urban experience. As the films in the study are mostly set in cities that are not discussed by the theorists, the analysis entails testing their theories against the realities of these other settings, as …

Illuminating The Drivers Of Genomic Diversification In Lamprologine Cichlids Of The Lower Congo River, Naoko P. Kurata

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Freshwater fishes are extraordinarily diverse, considering their available habitats represent a tiny proportion of the earth’s surface. Rivers connect heterogeneous habitats in a linear form and provide excellent simplified models to understand how aquatic biodiversity evolves. In particular, the lower Congo River (LCR) in west Central Africa consists of a dynamic hydroscape exhibiting extraordinary aquatic biodiversity, endemicity, and morphological and ecological specialization. This system is thus an excellent natural laboratory for understanding complex speciation and population diversification processes. In my research, I explore various drivers of diversification, and adaptive evolution in rheophilic lamprologine cichlids endemic to the LCR, including Lamprologus …

Conservative And Cultural Clashes With Comprehensive Sexuality Education, Bryan Z. Anderson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis analyzes the multifaceted debate over the use of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) in United States public schools, while also emphasizing the ways in which withholding CSE is a strategy to uphold the white supremacist patriarchy. The work begins by historically framing the evolution of sexuality education through the United States’ history. This leads to the current discourse around CSE and the ways in which it is the optimal support for American youth today. After setting this foundation, the thesis looks at conservative figures and groups who are seeking to prevent public school adoption of CSE standards, as well …

Entextualización Del Discurso Político En Colombia. Análisis Glotopolítico Del Proceso De Escritura De La Constitución De 1991, Jorge Luis Alvis-Castro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Although constitutions are part of the canon of disciplinary writings, along with grammar books and etiquette manuals, and are also central texts in the processes of formation and consolidation of Latin American nation-states, to date, they have not been sufficiently explored in their social and linguistic processes of discursive elaboration. With a glottopolitical approach, this research examines the social, communicative and ideological components involved in the writing process of the Colombian Constitution of 1991, developed in a context of State crisis and violence aggravated by narco-terrorist attacks. Using the concept of entextualization, which refers to the process of extracting discourse …

Between Concealment And Revelation: Oblique Modes Of Female Self-Expression In Eighteenth-Century Literature And Life Writing, Sophia N. Sunseri

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the social landscape of eighteenth-century Britain as one that was especially inimical to women and analyzes instances in literature and life writing in which female characters and historical figures negotiated the various restrictions they faced in social settings by “hiding in plain sight” and devising alternative strategies by which they might be seen and heard: by engaging in what I am referring to as a play between concealment and revelation. I explore texts where female characters who have been silenced and forced to conceal their presence in social situations craft diffuse strategies through which they express themselves …

Statistical And Biological Analyses Of Acoustic Signals In Estrildid Finches, Moises Rivera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Acoustic communication is a process that involves auditory perception and signal processing. Discrimination and recognition further require cognitive processes and supporting mechanisms in order to successfully identify and appropriately respond to signal senders. Although acoustic communication is common across birds, classical research has largely disregarded the perceptual abilities of perinatal altricial taxa. Chapter 1 reviews the literature of perinatal acoustic stimulation in birds, highlighting the disproportionate focus on precocial birds (e.g., chickens, ducks, quails). The long-held belief that altricial birds were incapable of acoustic perception in ovo was only recently overturned, as researchers began to find behavioral and physiological evidence …

An Analysis Of Feminist Care Networks In The Editorial Intern Position At Women's Studies Quarterly, Angela G. Boscarino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper will detail my experience working as an Editorial Intern at Women’s Studies Quarterly from September 2022 to December 2022. I will begin by examining my onboarding process as a new member of an already-established team. This exploration will allow for my observation of how Women’s Studies Quarterly has been forced to adapt to the challenges of the persistent pandemic, and more specifically the challenges brought by grief in the mourning of the late general editor Dr. Brianne Waychoff. This intervention will be an analysis of how care networks are mobilized in the workplace as an essential element in …

Motor Milestone Acquisition And Sleep-Related Learning And Development In Infancy, Aaron Demasi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this dissertation is to summarize and extend work in the field of infant sleep and motor development. Chapter 1 summarizes what is currently known about typical infant sleep development and the way that sleep impacts learning throughout infancy. Chapter 2 describes two experiments showing the importance of napping and night sleep in the consolidation of gross motor learning. Given that sleep is beneficial for learning throughout human infancy, the remainder of the dissertation investigates how learning (in this case, motor development) impacts sleep. Chapter 3 establishes the possible role of sleep-dependent movement in sleep disruption resulting from …

Becoming George Lucas: From Avant-Garde, Auteur, Independent Artist To Studio Executive, Ryan Thompson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Because of the unprecedented popularity of Star Wars, George Lucas, the creator of the multi-media franchise, is one of the most well-known filmmakers in history. What makes Lucas’s relationship with Star Wars unique is that because the franchise has continually been exploited rather than left as a single unchanging, static text, its artistic value, along with Lucas’s legacy, is in constant flux and is often misunderstood. In other words, depending on Star Wars’s position in the public zeitgeist at a given time, Lucas is either revered, detested, or considered incompetent as a filmmaker. While there is no denying …

Feeling Otherwise: Affective Enactments Of Teaching And Learning Among Youth Researchers And Early-Career Teachers In A Cross-Course University Collaboration, Karen Zaino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study examines a cross-collaboration between early-career teachers enrolled in a graduate action research class and youth researchers taking part in a dual-enrollment youth participatory action research (YPAR) class at the same university. Grounded in critical youth studies, anti-colonial theories of the human, and queer-feminist studies in its approach to relationality, and drawing from transcripts of the combined class sessions and individual follow-up interviews, this critical narrative analysis seeks to understand how participants enact and experience the collaboration, with particular attention to how they understand and engage with one another. This study especially attends to the affective-discursive practices that participants …

Beyond The Songs On The Vistula: Chopin And Poland, A Mythical Construction, Juan Carlos Fernandez-Nieto

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Poland and Chopin are two concepts that cannot be separated, for they form an entity of their own. However, the story of both subjects has often been manufactured to offer a view of the patriotism and the connection of Chopin with his country, which promoted the creation of the nation. At the same time, the circumstances that propitiated the rise of nationalism and the social unrest that ended with World War I were the same that promoted the myth of Chopin. Therefore, this research is focused on the analysis of the facts and the context that created the myth of …

The Persephone Series: Storytelling, Art, And Making Sense Of Myself, Katie M. Frank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

What can I do with what I already have? How can I make of it something beautiful, or useful, or interesting? Over the past two and a half years, I have been creating wall sculptures and collages out of found objects that speak to the history of my family, the way the earth reclaims its space after being used by humans, and how our individual lives have impact beyond our recognition. The people we love, the things we have lost, the garbage and grief we try to bury: it doesn’t go away. It comes back to the surface in shapes …

“Girl Power, Selfies, And Sexiness”: An Investigation Into The Neoliberal And Postfeminist Era Of Influencer Marketing, Amalie A. Werenskiold

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In today’s social media-centered popular culture, fashion, and lifestyle influencers maintain rigid and sexist forms of femininity which are spread to a large consumer base through influencer marketing. Research on postmodern feminism has revealed that the standardized modern woman is supplied with freedom, fun, and sexiness, allowing women to live their lives as they best see fit. Yet not all women are able to experience similar feelings of liberation and gender inequality is still a regular feature of society. This study observes Instagram images, captions, and comment sections of 61 distinct female influencers from the Instagram explore page. The evidence …

Is Gifted Education And Its Program A Brand?, Farzana Begum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The education system has been under constant construction. What will make our students successful has driven education to make a number of changes, and therefore, over the years, the importance of differentiation evolved, mandating the education system to acknowledge that education should not be standardized and that all students learn and retain knowledge differently. As a result, a number of classroom environments and programs have been established to cater to these differences. One example of this is the establishment of the Gifted and Talented Program or Gifted Education in the education system.

Gifted Education provides identified students with a stimulating …

Performance Modeling For Network Anomaly Detection And Sensor Networks, Jie Chu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Computer networks have become one of the fundamental communication infrastructures of the modern world. Data collection and data analysis over computer networks is a broad area of research and is getting more and more complicated as the ever-increasing complexity of the computer networks. In this dissertation, I will conduct performance modeling work for a few network scenarios and applications. In the first part of this dissertation, I will focus on two vital perspectives of the Internet, one from network administrators and the other from network users. Network administrators are key to manage and protect a computer network. I will study …

Applying Linguistics To The Adult Esol Classroom: A Guide For Esol Teachers In Community Centers, Lenore Costello

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Many community centers in urban areas of the United States offer English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) classes to adults. This thesis is intended as a resource for teachers of those classes, so that they may make pedagogical decisions that are informed by Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research findings on how languages are learned. The thesis is designed for teachers with and without formal background in ESOL or linguistics. Each chapter introduces an SLA concept that pertains to instructed SLA: (1) the natural order hypothesis, (2) mental representation and interlanguage, (3) the role of input in acquisition, (4) …

Bi Erasure And Bi Invisibility In Media And Medicine: Moving Beyond, Lacy M. Telles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This project examines the bisexual erasure and invisibility that is found in film, television, literature, and in the field of reproduction. Even though bisexual people make up a large portion of the LGBTQ community, because of bi invisibility, they tend to get lost in the cause. This website offers information about bi invisibility, highlights obstacles faced by bisexuals, provides resources for bisexuals, and includes some fun topics for bisexual people. It also has a page of bisexual testimonies: real bi people with real bi stories. There is evidence of erasure and invisibility, especially in children’s books and the field of …

Mood: A Zine Exploring The Value Of Youth-Oriented Media, Patricia K. Paul

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Media is a constant, persistent force in human lives that informs and influences through published, broadcasted, and digitally mediated formats. Mass media industries produce and distribute content consumed by diverse audiences, though the facilitators represent only a fraction of the demographics they serve.

Youth denote one of the most frequently misrepresented groups, with very few practical opportunities for young people to make decisions about the texts available to them. A jarring absence of youth participation in media creation at all levels suggests cultural contributions through art exclude young people's authentic perspectives and desires. Moreover, media portrayals of youth cannot adequately …

Practices And Attitudes Towards Infant Hearing Protection At Orthodox Jewish Weddings, Rebecca Weiss

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous research has shown that prolonged exposure to noise can cause permanent hearing loss no matter what age, including infants. The impact of noise at orthodox Jewish weddings, where infants are frequently in attendance, can reach extremely high and damaging levels of sound intensity. Because the hearing conservation behaviors and attitudes towards child hearing protection in this population are unknown, the objective of this study is to identify the attitudes and behaviors of orthodox Jewish wedding attendees toward child hearing conservation. A survey was developed and administered electronically to congregants of orthodox Jewish synagogues in the New York City area. …

Reviews Of Applications For Smartphone-Connected Hearing Aids And Implications On Counseling, Rebecca Strong

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With the recent rise of smartphone ownership, more applications have been created that connect user’s hearing aids to their smartphone. One type of application that has become popular is one that allows the user to control hearing aids using a smartphone. While these applications have many benefits for the user, there has been very little research on the experiences of individuals using these applications. In order for audiologists to best help their patients troubleshoot and prepare reasonable expectations for using smartphone-connected hearing aids, they need to understand the patient experience to create effective solutions. One technique that can be used …

Social Capital, Social Support, And Subjective Well-Being Of Older Adults In Ghana And South Africa: The Moderating Role Of Country, Paul K. Ayernor

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The study objective is to test the influence of social capital and social support on subjective well-being. It is also interested in the combined effects of macro-level factors as encapsulated in a macro-level variable - country that exerts influence on micro-level variables such as social capital and social capital. Additionally, the present study is one of the earliest studies to begin to assess the effect of older adults' perception of neighborhood happiness or sadness on the subjective well-being of older adults in a sub-Saharan Africa context.

Data comes from wave 1 of a multi-country Study on Global Ageing and Adult …

Caring For Individuals Who Are Experiencing Homelessness: An Audiologist’S Toolkit, Jenna Marie Sparacio

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

National-level counts for individuals experiencing homelessness have been steadily on the rise. People experiencing homelessness face extraordinary barriers and challenges in accessing health care services, including hearing healthcare. Additionally, there is a high prevalence of self- reported hearing difficulties and hearing handicap among people experiencing homelessness. Hearing loss status and management is often not prioritized in healthcare settings, and treatment plans are not typically modified to best address the hearing needs of individuals who are homeless. This evidence-based toolbox for audiologists was developed to help understand and mediate healthcare barriers that people experiencing homelessness face, as well as to help …

Barriers To Optimal Audiological Care For Members Of The Deaf Community, Joyce Orenshein

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background:

The purpose of this study was to identify the barriers to optimal audiological care for members of the Deaf community from the perspectives of Deaf individuals compared to audiologists. The goal is to help bridge the clinical communication barriers that lie between audiologists and the Deaf community by identifying the perceived gaps in care specifically and by gathering suggestions for improvement. A survey was administered to both audiologists and members of the Deaf community, making the present study unique and essential in that responses from both communities are compared and suggestions for bridging the gap are made.

Methods …

Evidence-Based Practice In The Management Of Tinnitus In Children And Adolescents: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Rivka Deutsch

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Objective: The purpose of this investigation is to conduct a systematic review of the literature to compile and evaluate the known research on the management of tinnitus in children/ The specific aims of this paper are to determine what approaches can be considered best practice for the management of tinnitus in this population, what aspects of adult management (if any) can be adapted for children, and whether the literature supports one management approach over another.

Methods and Results: A comprehensive search utilizing the Medline and Cumulated Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), and Google Scholar databases, accessible via …

The Impact Of Political Affiliation On Performance Judgements, Kajal Patel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The ability to keep politics out of daily organizational life has been severely eroded. With the increasing polarization in American politics and ubiquitous use of social media to express political positions, negative attributions are being made of individuals holding different political positions. Due to its pervasive nature, it is important to understand how politics impacts organizationally relevant decisions that supervisors and others make as a routine part of their jobs. This study examined the influence of similarity and dissimilarity in political affiliation between a rater and ratee on performance judgments. To examine the relationship between political affiliation similarity and performance …