Digital Commons Network^™

Llogaritja E Aftësisë Mbajtëse E Tokës Në Kompleksi Banesor Në Gazi Babë-Shkup, Florijan Qazimi

Theses and Dissertations

Qëllimi i këtij punim bazohet në hulumtimin e vetive fiziko - mekanike të tokës ku do të mbështeten themelet dhe llogaritja e aftësisë mbajtëse të tokës duke shfrytëzuar dy metoda të krahasueshme: Metoda e Terzaku-të dhe Metoda e Mayorf-it. Si objekt për shqyrtim është marrë kompleksi banesor Ilievski Apartmants me lokacion në Komunën e Gazi Babës – Shkup, Maqedonia e Veriut. Një ndër hulumtimet e para që duhet të kryhet para se të fillojë ndërtimi i objektit janë shpimet gjeologo-gjeomekanike për nxjerrjen e parametrave gjeomekanik të cilët na shërbejnë për të konstatuar nëse toka ku do të bëhet ndërtimi është …

A Comparative Study Of The Influence Of Credential Attainment On Employment Outcomes In Rural And Urban Localities, Carrie S. Douglas

Theses and Dissertations

The significance of credentials has heightened considerably in recent decades with numerous federal and state policy initiatives aimed at increasing credential attainment. Various public workforce programs support these efforts, including the federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which provided training to job-seekers from 1998 through 2015. Scholars point to human capital theory to explain how education investments yield economic gains. Screening, signaling, and credentialist theories provide a framework for examining the ways that credentials are used in labor markets. The literature on rural labor markets suggests that conditions are very different from their urban counterparts, with significant challenges existing in terms …

Spooky Stuff, Petra A. Szilagyi

Theses and Dissertations

A real imaginal exploration of the aesthetics of the supernatural.

Recovering Lost Voices: The Rappahannock Tribe And The Jamestown Festival Of 1957, Woodie L. Walker Ii

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis employs the interdisciplinary methodologies of ethnohistory and oral history to examine the legacy of the 1957 Jamestown Festival through the experiences and memories of Rappahannock people. “Recovering Lost Voices: The Rappahannock Tribe and the Jamestown Festival of 1957” adds to the historiography of Virginia Natives by revealing that Rappahannock participation in the Jamestown Festival was the culmination of centuries of cultural preservation, greatly influenced and made immediate by their experiences in “Jim Crow” Virginia during the twentieth century. This research establishes that the enduring legacy of the Festival for the Rappahannock Tribe was political influence, culminating in state …

Environmental Governance For Whom? Examining The Political, Institutional, Fiscal, And Legal Determinants Of State Environmental Agency Budget Policy In The Us, Andrew R. Duggan

Theses and Dissertations

Budgets are a prospective tool of governance, and appropriations are a planning vehicle reflecting: bureaucracies’ values, complex interactions, collective preferences, political influences, and available resources. Research spanning 30 years finds that environmental pollution is a key determinant of environmental budgets in the US, though myriad factors, actors, and subsystems are important to consider. Due to federalism and devolution of responsibilities and authorities, environmental governance falls largely to the states. While the dynamics that shape state environmental budget policy have received scholarly interest, theoretically-driven examinations of environmental appropriations remain limited within the public budgeting and environmental policy literature.

Using panel data …

Assessing Best Practices For The Virtual Onboarding Of New Hires In The Technology Industry, Kaitlyn Pavlina

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the recent virtual onboarding experiences of new hires at companies in the technology industry. The present study sought to answer two research questions: to identify the current practices of technology companies for virtually onboarding new hires and to understanding the self-identified needs of recent new hires in this industry around virtual onboarding. The study found that tech companies focus most heavily on formal orientation sessions, one-on-one meetings, and group meetings when virtually onboarding new hires. Additionally, four key themes emerged when exploring what new hires find most important during virtual onboarding. This study details each of …

Developing Ei: Leadership Journeys In Emotional Intelligence, Erin Bric

Theses and Dissertations

Emotional intelligence (EI) has been deemed a critical competency for leaders in today's world. However, there is little information to help OD practitioners, leaders, and organizations understand how leaders can develop these skills in ways that meaningfully and positively impact their teams and organizations. This study examined the journeys of senior leaders as they developed their emotional intelligence. The study addressed two research questions: how leaders perceive they have developed their emotional intelligence throughout their lifetimes and how leaders are continuing to develop their emotional intelligence in their lives and careers. Key themes emerged out of leader interviews and were …

Harry Potter And The Shy College Classroom Student: A Perceived Sense Of Belonging Through Social Identity And A Hogwarts House, Mickey D. Harrison Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines self-identifying shy college classroom students. Using social identity theory, identified shy students are studied based on their inclusion in a Hogwarts House from the Harry Potter book series. The purpose of this research is to examine how group identity can cultivate and create a sense of belonging for these students and lead them to academic and personal success. The stories shared by these shy learners reinforce the need and importance of belonging to a social identity group to strengthen an individual's sense of self and personal growth. This study encourages the use of a fictional social group—like …

An Investigation Of Elementary School Teachers’ Culturally Relevant Teaching Practices In Two Cultures: A Comparative Study In China And The United States, Alicia R. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Effective teaching is one of the most important factors in student achievement. Throughout the world, there are high expectations for teacher and student performance. Teachers and students need to navigate the demographic and cultural shifts occurring around the world. Teachers’ cultural awareness and knowledge base of culturally relevant teaching practices is critical to their effectiveness. Based on the need to better understand the cultural responsiveness of teachers, this comparative study investigated elementary school teachers’ culturally relevant teaching practices in China and the U.S. through the use of video-cued ethnography. The following findings were revealed from the study: (a) differences in …

Food Park, Houria Boumzairig

Theses and Dissertations

If climate change and population growth progress at their current pace, in roughly 50 years farming as we know it will no longer exist (Despommier, 2009). This means that the majority of people could soon be without enough food or water. But there is a solution that is surprisingly within reach: Move most farming into cities, and grow crops in tall, specially constructed buildings. It’s called vertical farming. “There is a close relation between the beginning of agriculture and the birth of architecture. Our cities were shaped by food” (Precht, 2019). The agricultural revolution ended our presence as hunters and …

Neoliberalism, Violence And Capital Accumulation, Reem M. El Barbary

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation looks into the violent, self-serving legal (neocolonial) order that revolves around wealth accumulation and the defense and sustainability of the status quo. The starting point and core idea that guides my discussion is the “redemptive” ideological framework and commitment to free market economies and profit-making. I thus look into the narratives upon which an alliance between development, progress, human rights and neoliberalism rests, in a manner that limits and restricts involvement and action; and normalizes and legitimizes suffering, ill-doing and irresponsibility through law. I examine the interdisciplinary and multilayered reality of repression that state sponsored, and supported, bodies …

Work Hope And Work Volition: Exploring The Influence Of Community College Students’ Rurality And Socioeconomic Status, Jesse A. Wingate

Theses and Dissertations

Data from a sample of community college students (N = 478) in Virginia were used to examine relations among rurality, socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition. Socioeconomic status, work hope, and work volition were positively associated. However, rurality, measured both as a continuous and categorical variable, was not correlated with work hope or work volition. Additional analyses showed convergence between measures of work hope and work volition confirming construct similarity. Results, limitations, implications, and recommendations for future study are included.

Flooding And Industrial Swine Farming In North Carolina: Implications Of Natech Hazards On The Assessment Of Environmental Justice, Jacob Ramthun

Theses and Dissertations

“Natech” events, in which natural hazards trigger anthropogenic hazards, are becoming increasingly common. Methodologies for measuring the impact of natech events on environmental justice assessments are lacking, particularly in rural scenarios. This study used additive, multiplicative, and z-score threshold methods of combining the density of industrial swine farms in eastern North Carolina and the presence of flood risk to determine whether or not natech risk exhibits emergent socioeconomic indicators and whether areas of high natech constitute environmental injustice. The multiplicative and z-score threshold methods generated variables representing natech risk to compare to socioeconomic indicators, as well as statistically significant hotspots. …

A Gis-Based Risk Assessment For Fire Departments: Case Study Of Richland County, Sc, Tracy Whelen

Theses and Dissertations

Risk assessments enable fire departments to be better prepared for future incidents and to engage in more effective prevention activities. A combination of physical, demographic, and behavioral risk factors combined form a community’s level of risk. This research shows how spatial and nonspatial statistical methods can be used within a GIS framework to create such a risk assessment, with the Columbia-Richland Fire Department in Richland County, SC being used as a case study. Hot spot analysis and thematic mapping of incident rates were used to assess the first research question – what is the spatial variability of structure fires, carbon …

Interspecific Gene Flow Potentiates Adaptive Evolution In A Hybrid Zone Formed Between Pinus Strobiformis And Pinus Flexilis, Mitra Menon

Theses and Dissertations

Species range margins are often characterised by high degrees of habitat fragmentation resulting in low genetic diversity and higher gene flow from populations at the core of the species range. Interspecific gene flow from a closely related species with abutting range margins can increase standing genetic diversity and generate novel allelic combinations thereby alleviating limits to adaptive evolution in range margin populations. Hybridization driven interspecific gene flow has played a key role in the demographic history of several conifer due to their life history characteristics such as weak crossability barriers and long generation times. Nevertheless, demonstrating whether introgression is adaptive …

Cultural Production In Qatar: Design, Dialog And The New Authentic, Asma Derouiche

Theses and Dissertations

Qatar, as a rapidly modernizing Arab country with a highly heterogeneous emergent community, is working to achieve a balance between accelerated development and cultural identity. Qatar’s cross-cultural environment and diverse attributes offer unprecedented opportunity to produce forward-looking, “100% Qatari Products,” that express a New Authentic.

This thesis explores social dynamics governing cultural production in Qatar, and it challenges unproductive manifestations of social hierarchy—particularly related to norms surrounding the default working relationship between designers and artisans. The research highlights and celebrates the inherent diversity of the Qatari artifact, creating a platform and methods wherein designers and artisans collaborate equally and meaningfully. …

Hopeless Heartland: Space And Labor In Virginia, Katrina Hamilton

Theses and Dissertations

In the US, labor market conditions vary by demographics and space. Though space has been shown to be highly related to labor force outcomes, lower-level analyses are under-utilized as statistical workforce analyses tend to rely on national or state-level data. This study addresses variability in labor markets by taking a spatial approach, using cluster analysis and logistic regression to explore variations in labor market variables across census tracts in Virginia. Cluster analysis reveals several hot and cold spots of key labor market indicators: rates of marriage, poverty, educational attainment, and income. In many cases, poor social conditions, such as low …

Cultural Placemaking In Washington’S U Street Corridor: A Catch 22, Maya Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

Placemaking is a tool largely employed in gentrifying cities to create social and cultural character in space. However, the informal placemaking that naturally occurs in communities and public space is often left out of the placemaking planning process. Informal placemaking that existed in space before and after gentrification, often by the working class, may find itself the target of policing from class and racial power structures that new residents now making up the majority bring. Alongside gentrification is its use of placemaking as branding for space, which Black American culture is increasingly being operationalized. Using Washington D.C.’s U Street Corridor …

Is Direct Transport To A Level I Trauma Center Associated With Better Outcomes In Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury Compared To Patients That Are Transferred To Trauma Level I From Other Hospitals, Narad Mishra

Theses and Dissertations

Transferring patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to trauma level I hospital from other lower level hospitals has been shown to increase the mortality compared to when patients are directly transported to trauma centers. Despite the results from studies and the field triage recommendation of transporting the TBI patients to trauma center, nearly half of the TBI cases are transported to other hospitals before transferring to the trauma center. A retrospective analysis of patients with TBI in the state of Virginia was carried out to access if direct transport of patients with TBI to trauma center improves the outcome compare …

Parakupa Vena - Fall From The Highest Point, Mariana Parisca Englert

Theses and Dissertations

This document is a collection of the ideas and research that drive my artistic practice. My research focuses on investigating the power structures, historical roots, and existential implications of the current Venezuelan economic crisis, one of the most drastic economic collapses of modern times. The ideological rifts created in the Cold War era created a deep anti-socialist sentiment that inhibits our ability to responsibly acknowledge global interdependence. I visualize collective belief systems that gain power from their proposed neutrality. I point to the existence of value beyond the parameters and measures of global capitalism that encourage dependence. I see the …

It’S Funny Because It’S True: The Transmission Of Explicit And Implicit Racism In Internet Memes, Tabitha Fairchild

Theses and Dissertations

Video games are traditionally seen as the domain of heteronormative white males. The purpose of this study is to explore how racism is transmitted and reproduced within digital communities, and how humor is being used to frame racist discourse in virtual spaces. Digitally, internet memes are widely used rhetorical vehicles, reaching large and broad audiences. The roles these artifacts play in the reproduction and transmission of racist ideology is often obfuscated by the perception that internet memes are "just jokes." This study analyzes internet memes collected from 16 months of communication between members of Discord servers that self-identify as communities …

Comparing Coastal Storm Impact To Decadal Change In Barrier Island Ecosystems, Philip A. Tuley

Theses and Dissertations

Highly dynamic coastal systems respond to disturbance events with a combination of topographic and vegetative changes. Sea level rise impacts on barrier islands have been quantified, but storm effects on vegetation are limited. Here we quantified barrier island vegetation change in response to an isolated storm event and compared to long-term periods. We hypothesized that disturbance-resisting areas with high woody vegetation cover and/or high foredune elevation would experience minimal transitions after a storm event, whereas disturbance-reinforcing areas with low vegetation cover and low foredune elevation would experience greater transitions between ecosystem states after a storm event. Patterns of dissonance were …

How Many Licks, Ashley Goodwin

Theses and Dissertations

Arts communities are currently reevaluating and restructuring power dynamics within their systems to accommodate a broader range of experience and subjectivity. However, the forces of control are still largely dictated by a broader patriarchal culture. This complicated, tangled dynamic is the focus of my research. Female artists who make work about men or about patriarchy more generally, are consistently subjected to its influence as the dominant cultural experience—the invisible “truth” that everything either is, or acts in reaction to its position. In reality, patriarchy is no longer gender specific. I will be addressing my relationship to it as well as …

Stimulated Growth Response To Sand Burial Of A Coastal Shrub, D. Nicole Keller

Theses and Dissertations

Drivers of vegetation zonation on barrier islands are complex and interconnected. Sand burial is a strong driver in dynamic coastal systems, especially in the foredune community. However, it is not well understood how burial impacts the interdunal swales communities and it is especially difficult to separate the effects of burial from salinity. Climate change is altering the frequency of overwash events as well as expanding the range of the native shrub, Morella cerifera, on the Virginia barrier islands. To accurately forecast island response to climate change it is important to understand how the shrub responds to sand burial. Juvenile …

State Economic Development: Analyzing The Moderating Effects Of Business Climate On Economic Growth, Sean A. Brazier

Theses and Dissertations

States across the country focus intensely on creating jobs, catalyzing capital investment, and stimulating economic output. They pursue different strategies, mixing and matching a variety of tactics in the pursuit of their economic objectives. While scholars have studied the relationship between economic development tactics and economic growth or business climate and economic growth, none to my knowledge have studied the impact of economic development efforts on economic outcomes while accounting for a state’s business climate.

I found economic development spending to be negatively associated with employment growth (other measures, real gross state product and per capita income growth, were not …

The Teacher’S Role In Increasing Student Engagement In High School Social Studies Courses, Quarnitra L. Price

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored (a) how teaching practices of high school teachers influence student engagement levels and performance in social studies classes, (b) how teachers might deliver more student relatable social studies content, (c) how teachers might help students relate to and become more engaged with important social studies concepts, and (d) how teachers can motivate students to become well-informed and fully engaged citizens. This study also examined existing barriers that prevent students from learning or engaging in social studies coursework.

Research findings suggest teachers play essential roles in how students perceive social studies content and respond to lessons …

Unsolvable? Assessing The Accuracy Of Missing Person Case Data, Scott Duncan

Theses and Dissertations

Annually, about 100,000 individuals are reported missing to authorities in the US. Fortunately, the majority of these investigations are resolved quickly with the persons being accounted for and reunited with loved ones. Conversely, the number of cases that remain open represent dilemmas for police as the incidents could be connected to unsolved homicides, other violent crimes, or endangered persons. Despite the commonality of missing persons, research on the topic is scant. Predominantly, published studies on missing persons focus on investigations from European countries. In 2008, the US Department of Justice launched the National Missing and Unidentified Person System (NamUs), a …

Platform And Place: The Digitization Of Gift Economies, Sara A. Peters

Theses and Dissertations

Especially during times of economic and social upheaval, such as COVID-19, people may consider alternative means of acquiring the resources necessary for survival. These lifestyle shifts, or lifestyle movements, are often associated with economic alternatives to capitalism, such as gift economies. In recent years, many of these economies have shifted to digital platforms where members create and coordinate connections for exchanges. Using a case study of The Buy Nothing Project, an international network of local, digital gift economies, this paper explores the geographic and socioeconomic conditions facilitating the presence and activity of digital Buy Nothing Groups in two US states, …

Orbiting Forward (Thoughts On The Nature Of Conflict - Sighs On The Struggles Of Change), Bushra A. Alsughayer

Theses and Dissertations

Today’s world is a wide open hyper-connected sphere where human societies worldwide exist in a complex crossroads of historical conditions, ideologies, and power structures. A pool of constant confrontations, minor or major, between the traditional and the progressive, the local and the international, the materialistic and the transcendent, the pragmatic and the idealistic, and countless layers of meaning. For an individual who exists in such an intense moment of history, it seems almost inescapable to be exposed to, affected by, or even involved in a major conflict. A situation that makes individuals always in a critical position where every role …

The Role Of A Principal In Creating A School Climate In Which New American Students Thrive: An Ethnographic Case Study Of A Midwest Magnet School, Attia Noor

Theses and Dissertations

This ethnographic case study used the lens of multiculturalism to examine the role of a school principal in creating a climate in which New American students can thrive. Three discrete data gathering methods were utilized in this study including policy documents obtained from the school district website and the school, a two week period of in-school observations, and interviews of the principal and school staff members selected through purposive sampling. A focus group interview of parents was also used for data collection. Data were analyzed by using a constant comparative method to explore the meanings educators had attached to their …