Digital Commons Network^™

Alone: A Dataset For Toxic Behavior Among Adolescents On Twitter, Thilini Wijesiriwardene, Hale Inan, Ugur Kursuncu, Manas Gaur, Valerie L. Shalin, Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Amit P. Sheth, I. Budak Arpinar

Publications

The convenience of social media has also enabled its misuse, potentially resulting in toxic behavior. Nearly 66% of internet users have observed online harassment, and 41% claim personal experience, with 18% facing severe forms of online harassment. This toxic communication has a significant impact on the well-being of young individuals, affecting mental health and, in some cases, resulting in suicide. These communications exhibit complex linguistic and contextual characteristics, making recognition of such narratives challenging. In this paper, we provide a multimodal dataset of toxic social media interactions between confirmed high school students, called ALONE (AdoLescents ON twittEr), along with descriptive …

Preventing A Boondoggle: Assuring A Short Term Research Abroad Activity Is An Educative Experience, Kelly George, Aaron D. Clevenger

Publications

At Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, an annual short-term, research abroad non-credit program was created in 2012 as a core component of the undergraduate research initiative that achieves learning outcomes in a meaningful way. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Freedom Triumphant: Embracing Joyful Freedom But Facing An Uncertain, Perilous Future, Thomas L. Tacker

Publications

The newly freed slaves had almost nothing—no money, no education, and no strong social institutions, including marriage which had often been prohibited, rarely supported by slaveholders. Discrimination was rampant and government was often the worst discriminator. Yet, somehow, they triumphed. They built marriages that were actually slightly more stable than those of white families. The newly free went from virtually zero literacy to at least 50% literacy in a generation. They worked incredibly hard and increased their income about one third faster than white workers. The newly free, anchored in their strong faith, were amazingly forgiving and optimistic. Economics Professor …

That Uplifting Tweet You Just Shared? A Russian Troll Sent It, Darren Linvill, Patrick Warren

Publications

Internet trolls don’t troll. Not the professionals at least. Professional trolls don’t go on social media to antagonize liberals or belittle conservatives. They are not narrow minded, drunk or angry. They don’t lack basic English language skills. They certainly aren’t “somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds,” as the president once put it. Your stereotypical trolls do exist on social media, but the amateurs aren’t a threat to Western democracy

Professional trolls, on the other hand, are the tip of the spear in the new digital, ideological battleground. To combat the threat they pose, we must first understand …

Adolescents’ Perception Of The Threat Of Sexual Harassment: The Development Of An Index, Hussein Soliman, Jennifer Koran, Amal Abdelmonem,

Publications

In Egypt female adolescents are on a daily base victims of various forms of sexual harassment as young females re unable to justify their feelings, thoughts and behaviors toward such violent and hostile activities. Therefore, this study develops an adolescents’ sexual harassment index (ASHI), which measures female adolescents’ perception of the threat of sexual harassment based on cultural, environmental and societal aspects. A total of 874 adolescents age 17–18 in Egypt participated in a survey consisting of 65 items of 7 variables: threat of SH, exposure, society awareness, child’s characteristics, social engagement, religiosity and the effect of the media. Using …

It’S All About Trust And Respect: Cultural Competence And Cultural Humility In Mobile Health Clinic Services For Underserved Minority Populations, Arelis Moore De Peralta, Melinda Gillispie, Catherine Mobley, Lynette M. Gibson

Publications

To explore participants' perceptions of cultural competence and cultural humility in mobile health clinic (MHC) service delivery, using the Cultural Competence Model (CCM) as an organizing framework. Methods. We conducted five focus groups with an ethnically diverse group of English-and Spanish-speaking men and women, ages 20–67, residing in five underserved neighborhoods in a Southeastern U.S. city. Data analysis followed a thematic approach and iterative qualitative content analysis. Results. Participants expressed a desire for well-trained and caring staff who practice cultural humility. Conclusions. By applying the CCM's five-pronged constellation of cultural abilities, health care personnel could ultimately be more responsive to …

History Of St. Peter Claver Church, Kelli Johnson

Publications

History of St. Peter Claver Church, written by Sandra Clements

Snowedout Atlanta: Examining Digital Emergence On Facebook During A Crisis, Andrew S. Pyle, Meredith Morgoch, Brandon C. Boatwright

Publications

Individuals in emergencies form spontaneous, emergent groups to respond and recover. With the rise of social media use in crises, academics and professionals must be aware of how groups digitally coordinate emergent response efforts. This paper examines digital emergence through the case of SnowedOut Atlanta, a Facebook group formed during the 2014 ice storms in Atlanta. The posts and actions of the group members are in line with those of traditional emergent groups. For example, group members shared informational, material, and emotional support. The findings also provide implications for practitioners and insight into the communication of such groups. In …

Rising Rural Body-Mass Index Is The Main Driver Of The Global Obesity Epidemic In Adults, Con Burns, Tara Coppinger, Janette Walton, Et Al

Publications

Body-mass index (BMI) has increased steadily in most countries in parallel with a rise in the proportion of the population who live in cities1,2. This has led to a widely reported view that urbanization is one of the most important drivers of the global rise in obesity3,4,5,6. Here we use 2,009 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight in more than 112 million adults, to report national, regional and global trends in mean BMI segregated by place of residence (a rural or urban area) from 1985 to …

Looking For Age Differences In Self-Driving Vehicles: Examining The Effects Of Automation Reliability, Driving Risk, And Physical Impairment On Trust, Ericka Rovira, Anne Collins Mclaughlin, Richard Pak, Luke High

Publications

Purpose

Self-driving cars are an extremely high level of autonomous technology and represent a promising technology that may help older adults safely maintain independence. However, human behavior with automation is complex and not straightforward (Parasuraman and Riley, 1997; Parasuraman, 2000; Rovira et al., 2007; Parasuraman and Wickens, 2008; Parasuraman and Manzey, 2010; Parasuraman et al., 2012). In addition, because no fully self-driving vehicles are yet available to the public, most research has been limited to subjective survey-based assessments that depend on the respondents’ limited knowledge based on second-hand reports and do not reflect …

A Roundtable For Victoria M. Grieve, Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood In The 1950s, Thomas Field Jr., Julia L. Mickenberg, Lori Clune, Mary Brennan, Donna Alvah, Victoria M. Grieve

Publications

Dr. Thomas Field introduces a roundtable discussion of Victoria M. Grieve's Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood in the 1950s, providing a synopsis of reviewer critiques before the reviewers expand on their views and the author responds.

“We Weren’T Raised That Way”: Using Stigma Management Communication Theory To Understand How Families Manage The Stigma Of Substance Abuse, Sydney O'Shay-Wallace

Publications

While people who abuse substances experience widespread health and social consequences stemming from their substance use, these consequences also extend to their family through stigmatization. Such stigma has implications for families’ mental and physical health, as well as their overall quality of life. This study seeks to fill a gap in research surrounding the stigma experienced by families with a history of substance abuse by investigating how affected family members experience and communicatively manage stigma messages relating to their family member’s substance abuse. Fifteen people whose families include a person who uses substances (PWUS) participated in semi-structured interviews where they …

Biological Determinants Of Physical Activity Across The Life Course: A “Determinants Of Diet And Physical Activity” (Dedipac) Umbrella Systematic Literature Review, Katina Aleksovska, Anna Puggina, Luca Giraldi, Christoph Buck, Con Burns, Greet Cardon, Angela Carlin, Simon Chantal, Donatella Ciarapica, Marco Colotto, Giancarlo Condello, Tara Coppinger, Cristina Cortis, Sara D’Haese, Marieke De Craemer, Andrea Di Blasio, Sylvia Hansen, Licia Iacoviello, Johann Issartel, Pascal Izzicupo, Lina Jaeschke, Martina Kanning, Aileen Kennedy, Fiona Ling, Agnes Luzak, Giorgio Napolitano, Julie Anne Nazare, Camille Perchoux, Tobias Pischon, Angela Polito, Alessandra Sannella, Holger Schulz

Publications

Background: Despite the large number of studies and reviews available, the evidence regarding the biological determinants of physical activity (PA) is inconclusive. In this umbrella review, we summarized the current evidence on the biological determinants of PA across the life course, by pooling the results of the available systematic literature reviews (SLRs) and meta-analyses (MAs). Methods: We conducted an online search on MEDLINE, ISI Web of Science, Scopus, and SPORTDiscus databases up to January 2018. SLRs and MAs of observational studies that investigated the association between biological determinants of PA and having PA as outcome were considered eligible. The extracted …

Invisible Memories: Black Feminist Literature And Its Affective Flights, Jamie Ann Rogers

Publications

No abstract provided.

Nebraska’S Youth And Education Governance, Josie Gatti Schafer, Tara Grell

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No abstract provided.

Sylvia C. Ridgeway Binder, Sylvia C. Ridgeway

Publications

This collection of materials showcases the life of Sylvia C. Ridgeway. Some of the items included in these materials include biographical data, family history information, photos and ephemera of family life, documentations of missions trips, some of her accomplishments with the NAACP, and letters of recommendation written by others.

Rethinking Consumer Protection: Escaping Death By Regulation, Thomas L. Tacker

Publications

This book is designed to appeal to anyone who is at all interested in topics related to making life better and safer—for all us consumers. Our current approach to consumer protection is extremely flawed; sometimes costing lives rather than saving them. There are better ways to protect ourselves and the people we love.

Love, Anger, And Social Change, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

Emotions matter to social movement activists—including social movement lawyers. Emotions motivate activism and emotions sustain the long hard work of social change. Movement activists and lawyers know that from their own lived experiences. Further, when we listen to movement activists talk about their work, we hear them speak commonly about two emotions in particular—love and anger. To be a social movement activist (whether lawyer or non-lawyer) means to have passion about one’s cause, and to have a fire in the belly to keep going despite setbacks and slow progress. We hear activists and movement lawyers talk about how the love …

Passive Voter Suppression: Campaign Mobilization And The Effective Disfranchisement Of The Poor, Bertrall L. Ross Ii, Douglas M. Spencer

Publications

A recent spate of election laws tightened registration rules, reduced convenient voting opportunities, and required voters to show specific types of identification in order to vote. Because these laws make voting more difficult, critics have analogized them to Jim Crow Era voter suppression laws.

We challenge the analogy that current restrictive voting laws are a reincarnation of Jim Crow Era voter suppression. While there are some notable similarities, the analogy obscures a more apt comparison to a different form of voter suppression-one that operates to effectively disfranchise an entire class of people, just as the old form did for African …

“Blind Trust Is Not Enough”: Considering Practical Verifiability And Open Referencing In Wikipedia, Cal Murgu

Publications

The authors have made a preprint available for convenience. The article is forthcoming in 2019. Please contact authors if you intend on citing for accurate page numbers.

Infographic: Stem All-Stars, Mckenna James, Leroy Long Iii

Publications

In this infographic, professional athletes with degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) are displayed. For a variety of sports, the achievements, awards, and degrees of professional athletes are shown. Each of these professional athletes prove that students can study STEM while also being a successful athlete. Whether they studied mathematics, psychology, or aerospace engineering, these athletes from various racial/ethnic backgrounds rose to the challenge and achieved greatness in the classroom and in their sport. Due to the lack of female professional sports, the representation of professional female athletes is not shown. This infographic is meant to encourage youth …

Cardiorespiratory Fitness Is Positively Associated With Waist To Height Ratio And School Socio Economic Status In Irish Primary School Aged Children, M. O'Leary, E. Rush, Seán Lacey, Con Burns, Tara Coppinger

Publications

Background; The purpose of this paper is to examine any association between cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and markers of health among 6 and 10 year old Irish children. Methods; A total of 917 children (6 year olds, N=459; 10 year olds, N=458) from 11 primary schools in Cork (Ireland) participated. Body composition, blood pressure (BP), CRF (550-metre distance run) and school socio-economic status (SES) were assessed. Children were classified as low or high fitness based on run-time standard deviation scores (SDS). Physical activity (PA) determined over 1 week by accelerometry was collected from a sub sample of 700 children (76.3%). Results; …

From Hybrid Space To Dislocated Space: Mobile Virtual Reality And A Third Stage Of Mobile Media Theory, Michael Saker, Jordan Frith

Publications

Research in the field of mobile communication studies (MCS) has generally moved away from focusing on how mobile phones distract users from their physical environment to considering how the experience of space and place can be enhanced by locative smartphone applications. This article argues that trajectory may be complicated by the emergence of a new type of mobile technology: mobile virtual reality (MVR). While an increasing number of handsets are specifically developed with MVR in mind, there is little to no research that situates this phenomenon within the continuum of MCS. The intention of this paper is accordingly twofold. First, …

Leveraging Engagement Through Diversity, Gordon Haley

Publications

• Through dialogue and interaction, members begin to characterize their world. They may see it as malleable or fixed, filled with opportunities or threats. As with external adaptation, there are important issues.
• These include a series of membership issues: Who is a group member, what behavior is acceptable, who is a friend?

A Field Study: Managers’ Work Behavioral Styles, Thomas G. Henkel

Publications

Over the years, personality assessment tests have allowed employers and managers to discover the personal types regarding strengths and weaknesses of their employees and themselves. This includes how they process and organize information, make decisions, and interact with team members and other stakeholders (PMBOK, 2017). The present research study explored the applicable work behavioral styles of experienced managers attending an advanced leadership educational program. Seven hundred and fifty-three experienced managers agreed to reveal their results, and descriptive statistics were conducted to determine their behavioral work styles. The results may provide a better understanding of managers’ behavioral work styles, which characterize …

Reimagining Icarus: Ethics, Law And Policy Considerations For Commercial Human Spaceflight, Sara M. Langston

Publications

Commercial human spaceflight presents an area for engaging novel human activity and objectives, to include space exploration, entertainment, transportation and extraterrestrial resource acquisition. The inherent dangers and lack of scientific and medical certainty involved however raise interrelated questions of ethics, bioethics, law and public policy. This is particularly the case with spaceflight participant (SFP) screening, selection, and commercial human spaceflight activities where regulations are currently silent or lacking. In the absence of established law, ethics can play an important role by informing industry standards, policies and best practices. Understanding the fundamental ethical values at stake in the application of new …

Coming Together Around Hashtags: Exploring The Formation Of Digital Emergent Citizen Groups, Andrew S. Pyle, Brandon Boatwright

Publications

It has been well established that during and after crisis or emergency events, groups of citizens come together to help one another, solve problems, and manage recovery or cleanup. These groups are called emergent citizen groups. They form organically and often disband when the emergency is managed. This study proposes that similar types of groups now form in digital spaces during and after crises. The authors studied conversation on Twitter that used the hashtag “#PrayforUSC” after the murder-suicide that took place at the University of South Carolina in 2015. Initial results indicate that hashtags can function as focal points or …

Contributions Of Mean And Shape Of Blood Pressure Distribution To Worldwide Trends And Variations In Raised Blood Pressure: A Pooled Analysis Of 1018 Population-Based Measurement Studies With 88.6 Million Participants, Majid Ezzati, Bin Zhou, James Bentham, Mariachiara Di Cesare, Honor Bixby, Goodarz Danaei, Kaveh Hajifathalian, Cristina Taddei, Rodrigo M. Carrillo-Larco, Shirin Djalalinia, Shahab Khatibzadeh, Charles Lugero, Niloofar Peykari, Wan Zhu Zhang, James Bennett, Ver Bilano, Gretchen A. Stevens, Melanie J. Cowan, Leanne M. Riley, Zhengming Chen, Ian R. Hambleton, Rod T. Jackson, Andre Pascal Kengne, Young Ho Khang, Avula Laxmaiah, Jing Liu, Reza Malekzadeh, Hannelore K. Neuhauser, Maroje Sorić, Gregor Starc, Johan Sundström, Tara Coppinger, Janette Walton, Con Burns, Mark Woodward

Publications

Background: Change in the prevalence of raised blood pressure could be due to both shifts in the entire distribution of blood pressure (representing the combined effects of public health interventions and secular trends) and changes in its high-blood-pressure tail (representing successful clinical interventions to control blood pressure in the hypertensive population). Our aim was to quantify the contributions of these two phenomena to the worldwide trends in the prevalence of raised blood pressure. Methods: We pooled 1018 population-based studies with blood pressure measurements on 88.6 million participants from 1985 to 2016. We first calculated mean systolic blood pressure (SBP), mean …

Motivations For Remittances And Philanthropy – Lessons From A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Of Literature, Sabith Khan, Daisha M. Merritt Ph.D.

Publications

Why do people send remittances? Also, what are the motivations for diaspora philanthropy? While each of these questions have been addressed by scholars in different way – with the most influential theories suggesting that ‘identification’ is the key theme that explains each of these phenomenon, we contend that there is much more than purely ‘identification’ with the recipients that is at play. In this study, based on synthesis of various theories and some empirical studies, we propose a new ‘mid-range’ theory, that seeks to explain the motivations for giving – both remittances and philanthropy. We explain how the motivations in …

Recreation In Families With Children With Developmental Disabilities: Caregivers’ Use Of Online And Offline Support Groups, Iryna Sharaievska, Brooke Burk

Publications

The purpose of this study was to explore what role online and offline support groups play in the lives of families with children who have developmental disabilities. Eight semi-structured individual interviews were conducted with married mothers who had one to five children. The study revealed that caregivers saw online and offline support groups as playing important but different roles in their lives and the lives of their families. Online support groups were particularly appreciated during the initial steps of learning about a child’s disability when caregivers felt isolated and eager to learn more. During that stage, online support groups offered …