Digital Commons Network^™

Espoused And Practiced Stakeholder Engagement In Support Of Corporate Social Responsibility Within The United States Healthcare Sector, Jacqueline J. Macias

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study provides a snapshot into what corporations say and what they do with regard to stakeholder engagement in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and considers the difference in the promises made and the actions taken by corporations in the minds of stakeholders. As the research of CSR questions what a corporation is responsible for and Stakeholder Theory (ST) questions whom the corporation is responsible to, CSR and ST provide conceptual frameworks for the study. A genuine commitment to CSR and stakeholder engagement contributes to sustainability, impacting the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) of an organization. According to …

Corporate Real Estate: Strategic And Leadership Challenges, Robert G. Schuur

Theses and Dissertations

The globalization of the business community has intensified the competitive business environment. Corporations now face not only national but also international competition. As corporations strive to both survive and grow, they continuously seek new avenues for both top line revenue growth and expense control. Corporate Real Estate (CRE) is a significant component of corporate costs, often cited as being the second largest cost after payrolls. As a result of these competitive pressures and the desire to control real estate costs, Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) emerged as a recognized management discipline in the 1980s and 1990s. With the relatively recent …

Addressing Stress And Well-Being Among Women Of Arab Descent Living In The United States: Development Of A Training Workshop For Mental Health Professionals, Hoda Abou-Ziab

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing number of persons of Arab descent living in the United States, estimated at over 3.5 million in 2012, there has been a recognized need for a deeper understanding of acculturative, gender, and immigration-related stressors that Arab American women face. In response to this need, a one-day workshop for mental health professionals interested in or currently working with women of Arab descent living in the United States was developed. The workshop focuses on increasing knowledge of the various types of stress (e.g., acculturation, discrimination, gender role strain, parent-child relationships, care giver, familial, cultural expectations, work, school, etc.) …

Stem-Themed Schools: A Case Study Of Its Effect On Student Educational Pathways, Monika R. Mcknight

Theses and Dissertations

As the country looks to increase the STEM workforce it is important to examine the effect of the programs in place, specifically the effect on the students choices in education. The Mathematics & Science Academy (MSA), is a STEM-themed, public magnet school in Southern California whose mission is to increase the nation’s pool of graduates in mathematics and science. It is 1 of the many schools and programs in place to increase the United States (U.S.) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) workforce. This study, designed as a qualitative case study investigated how MSA has influenced female, African American students …

Social Media And Social Learning: A Critical Intersection For Journalism Education, Elizabeth R. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

For the past decade, the profession of journalism has been under intense pressure to adapt to changing business models, technology, and forms of communication. Likewise, journalism education has been under intense scrutiny for failing to keep pace with the industry and inadequately preparing students for a rapidly changing professional environment. Social media has become a nexus for the pressures being experienced by both the profession and academia. This study uses Wenger’s (1998) model of Communities of Practice to consider how a student newsroom functions and how student journalists adapt within a newsroom and on social media. This study used a …

Britain's First War With Kandy: Landscape, Violence, And Conquest In Colonial Sri Lanka, Elizabeth Anne Mjelde

Theses and Dissertations

Accounts of travel to Sri Lanka published during the period of British conquest (1796 through 1818) reveal a consistent yet problematic tendency: despite ongoing military conflict, visual artists constructed representations of the island as a peaceful and orderly place. The contradiction is heightened when travelers’ uniformly tranquil images of Sri Lanka are juxtaposed with documented acts of destruction to land and property, undertaken by troops during Britain’s first war with the inland kingdom of Kandy, a conflict which eventually led to the island’s complete colonization. The present study reconciles this contradiction through analysis of publications by each of five artists …

Major League Baseball Draft Pick Compensation: How To Evaluate The Marginal Revenue Product Of Labor Of Drafted Players, Matthew Peã±A

Theses and Dissertations

The Major League Baseball draft is virtually the only means by which US and US territory born players have access to becoming major league baseball players. As a condition of their initial contracts, players are subjected to initial contract terms, that limit their traditional free market ability to earn a salary commensurate with their actual worth. This research attempts to quantify the difference between what players would earn on the open market, as free agents, and what they earn by being controlled by baseball’s reserve clause, by analyzing the current compensation system established by Major League Baseball, how drafted players …

Avian Haemosporidian Parasites From The Brazilian Amazon, Jeffrey Andrew Bell

Theses and Dissertations

Birds possess the most diverse assemblage of haemosporidian parasites, including three genera, Plasmodium, Haemoproteus, and Leucocytozoon. Currently there are over 200 morphologically identified avian haemosporidian species, although the true diversity is unknown, due to high genetic diversity and insufficient sampling in highly diverse regions, such as the Neotropics. Brazil, specifically the Brazilian Amazon supports the world’s highest avian diversity and expected equally diverse yet undescribed community of avian haemosporidians. This study includes the largest sampling of avian haemosporidians in Brazil, and the first large scale survey of the Brazilian Amazon. A total of 4521 blood samples were collected from 447 …

Shelterbelt Density Dynamics And Their Driving Forces In Grand Forks County, North Dakota, 1962 To 2014, Morgen Walter Victor Burke

Theses and Dissertations

Grand Forks County, ND, has one of the highest concentrations of shelterbelts in the World (Knutson 2011). As these trees aged and reached their expected lifespans, the quality of the shelterbelts has decreased and many have been removed. The rate of tree removal is thought to be increasing, with few shelterbelts being replanted. This raises concerns over possible increases in soil erosion caused by wind, such as was experienced in the 1930s. Using remotely sensed imagery and GIS, historic and recent shelterbelt densities can be measured and changes over time can be recorded. Geographic object-based image analysis (GEOBIA) can be …

Factors That Influence The Adoption Of Geographic Information Systems In A Professional Work Environment: A Study Of The Property Assessment Profession, Daniel J. Fasteen

Theses and Dissertations

The adoption of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technology has been emerging in many professional work environments — including the property assessment discipline. Although many uses of GIS have been thoroughly documented throughout the literature in a variety of disciplines, there has been little research on the perceived factors that influence its adoption in professional work settings. The purpose of this research is to assess factors that influence the adoption of geographic information systems technology in a professional work environment. The work environment being studied is the property assessment profession. An online survey was sent out to property assessment professionals from …

The Small Area Fair Market Rent System In The Richmond Region: An Evaluation Of Current Voucher Concentration, Move To Opportunity Counseling, And Value Capture Planning, Catherine L. Bray

Theses and Dissertations

In June of 2015, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to establish a more effective Fair Market Rent System using Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) in the Housing Choice Voucher Program (HCVP) instead of the current 50^th Percentile FMRs. The 50^th Percentile FMR is currently in use in the Richmond, Virginia region, and the region is likely to be among early adopters of the new SAFMR System. This thesis assesses existing conditions that will affect implementation of the Small Area Fair Market Rent (SAFMR) System. First, it evaluates …

Sounding Appalachian: /Ai/ Monophthongization, Rising Pitch Accents, And Rootedness, Paul E. Reed

Theses and Dissertations

Appalachia, the mountainous region that stretches from northern Georgia to Pennsylvania (ARC, 2015), is a region that has been considered culturally and linguistically unique in the United States. There is a small but growing body of literature that has demonstrated that the language varieties of this region, collapsed under the broad heading of Appalachian English (AE), diverge from Mainstream American English and other Southern American English varieties (Wolfram & Christian, 1976, Montgomery & Hall, 2004, Labov et al., 2006, among others). Much of this literature has focused on vowels and morpho-syntax, but other linguistic aspects have not received much attention, …

Neuro-Fuzzy Classification Of Felsic Lava Geomorphology At Alarcon Rise, Mexico, Christina Hefron Maschmeyer

Theses and Dissertations

The Alarcon Rise is the only submarine oceanic spreading ridge setting where rhyolitic lavas have been found. This intermediate-rate spreading ridge provides a unique natural laboratory for studying the geomorphology of felsic submarine lava flows at oceanic spreading ridges. Seafloor observations of felsic lava indicate the flow morphology differs from typical submarine basaltic lava at the few other oceanic spreading ridges where differentiated compositions have been recorded. Morphologic variation between mafic and felsic lava flows, especially rhyolites, was also observed at Alarcon Rise.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute conducted mapping surveys with autonomous underwater vehicle D Allan B. in …

Valuing Natural Space And Landscape Fragmentation In Richmond, Va, Lee Wyatt Carpenter

Theses and Dissertations

Hedonic pricing methods and GIS (Geographic Information Systems) were used to evaluate relationships between sale price of single family homes and landscape fragmentation and natural land cover. Spatial regression analyses found that sale prices increase as landscapes become less fragmented and the amount of natural land cover around a home increases. The projected growth in population and employment in the Richmond, Virginia region and subsequent increases in land development and landscape fragmentation presents a challenge to sustaining intact healthy ecosystems in the Richmond region. Spatial regression analyses helped illuminate how land cover patterns influence sale prices and landscape patterns that …

A Study About How To Create A Mythical Beast Successfully, Focusing On The Example Of The Nine-Tailed Fox In Eastern Art, Yidan Xie

Theses and Dissertations

Mythical beasts appear in many forms across multiple cultures throughout human history. Their narratives and visual designs express important beliefs and desires of a given culture. By focusing on the aesthetics and history of the nine-tailed fox, a Chinese mythological, this thesis will explore the constructions and artistic techniques that have given shape to the myth. This thesis will also discuss my thesis project named Classic of Mountains and Seas. The ultimate aim of my creative project has been to develop an animation of new mythical beasts, and this paper situates my creations within the much broader history that has …

The Color Of Memory: Reimagining The Antebellum South In Works By James Mcbride Through The Use Of Free Indirect Discourse, Janel L. Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the use of interior narrative techniques such as free indirect discourse and internal monologue in two of James McBride’s neo-slave narratives, Song Yet Sung (2008) and The Good Lord Bird (2013). Very limited critical attention has been given to these neo-slave narratives that illustrate McBrides attention to characterization and focalized narration. In these narratives McBride builds upon the revelations he explores in his bestselling memoir, The Color of Water (1996, 2006), where he learns to disassociate race and character. What he discovers about not only his mother, but also himself, inspires his re-imagination of the people who …

Design Thinking For The Development Of Formal Operations: A Team-Based Middle School Design Curriculum, Stephanie K. O'Dell

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I propose a team-based design curriculum that aligns with the cognitive development of middle school age students. The ability to think abstractly develops at a specific time in development, according to widely accepted cognitive theory. The middle school years are the launching pad of abstract thinking. At this age, students are also primed for learning through social activity. The design process often includes abstract problem solving challenges, and working within a team structure. These ideas build a foundation for a research question—could a team-based design curriculum in middle school strengthen students’ natural cognitive development by providing opportunities …

The Water In Between: Where I Am And Where I Come From, Carolina Aranibar-Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis and project is comprised of a conceptual interwoven practice that addresses exploitation of land and labor, historically from the Spanish colonization and contemporarily through imperialism and global capital. It emphasizes oral storytelling and mythologies from the Andes. It explores socio-cultural events of gender, race, and socio economic issues, particularly in decolonial regions.

Unknowable Terrain, Carli A. Holcomb

Theses and Dissertations

I see the moment of creation as a threshold, a fertile ground where anything is possible. My work combines an interest in science, mythology, cosmologies, and a childlike sense of wonderment to seek the unknowable. I create formless floating worlds that have a seducing, enlightening, and ultimately deceiving presence. Vibrant lusty clusters of candied opulence emphasize the wetness at the beginning of life. Dry folds give way to woozy nests and frenzied organisms while dripping crystalline structures puncture soft unknowable terrains.

Through the process of making I indulge my desire to create an otherworld, one that bubbles, garishly drips, and …

Synthetic Landscapes, Benjamin Thomas Jordan

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores the complex social geography of modern society and the intricate relationship between mankind and the environment. Through this work I explore the past and present lineage of manifest destiny, from its beginnings in Europe to western expansion in America, to forms it has takes in contemporary America. These ceramic forms serve as the conceptual grounds to explore the romanticizing of the western landscape especially from an individual and group perspective. I simultaneously celebrate the history of the pastoral life while questioning the authenticity, and motivations of that lifestyle, and use this platform as a jumping off point …

The Politics And Ethics Of Food Localism: An Exploratory Quantitative Inquiry, Sean T. Doody

Theses and Dissertations

The local food movement has become a prominent force in the U.S. food market, as represented by the explosive expansion of direct-to-consumer (DTC) marketplaces across the country. Concurrent with the expansion of these DTC marketplaces has been the development of the social ideal of localism: a political and ethical paradigm that valorizes artisanal production and smallness, vilifies globalization, and seeks to recapture a sense of place and community that has been lost under the alienating conditions of capitalism’s gigantism. Supporters of localism understand the movement to be a substantial political and economic threat to global capitalism, and ascribe distinct, counter-hegemonic …

Race, Place, And Access To Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention Among Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder In South Carolina, Marissa E. Yingling

Theses and Dissertations

Public funding of early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for the 1 in 68 children who meet criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is rapidly expanding. Evidence indicates that children with ASD experience racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities in access to health care services. However, the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee and the World Health Organization cite disparities in access to early intervention among the most pressing yet understudied areas of research. Currently, ASD service research is dominated by inquiries into the age of diagnosis and enrollment in EIBI. We know little about disparities in the time-lag between diagnosis and treatment onset …

Social Capital And Social Networks: The Importance Of Social Ties For Health Among Residents Of Disadvantaged Communities, Stephanie Child

Theses and Dissertations

Access to social capital via social networks is important for health and may be linked with chronic disease, including obesity and hypertension. Socioeconomic status (SES) may influence access to social capital and social network characteristics, and may also moderate the relationship between social capital, social networks, and health. Yet few studies have explored relationships between social capital, social networks, and chronic disease among resource poor individuals.

Respondent-driven sampling was employed to recruit participants (n=430) from low-income communities in the US South for a household survey as part of the Greenville Healthy Neighborhoods Project. The survey collected information about participants’ SES …

Barriers To Success: Refugee Mobility In The New South Immigrant Gateway City Of Columbia, Sc, Usa, Alysha V. Baratta

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores mobility and service access of refugees who have been resettled in a non-traditional smaller-city immigrant destination of Columbia, South Carolina. I show that delivery of basic refugee social services varies based on support from individual states while federal expectations for refugees to reach economic selfsufficiency are applied equally across the US. I argue that mobility is a major challenge in obtaining these goals, further exacerbated in the context of a smaller resettlement site. Although redistribution to smaller metropolitan areas may provide refugees safer and more affordable housing, less spatial distance to traverse (Mott, 2010), they often lack …

A Culture Of Commodification: Hemispheric And Intercolonial Migrations In The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1660-1807, Neal D. Polhemus

Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in the sixteenth century, as large quantities of produce were unloaded at ports throughout Northern Europe, consumer consumption of West Indies commodities drove demand for captive African labor. As a result, from 1556 to 1867, Europeans transported some 12 million West Africans to the Americas. Based on primary sources from over three countries and more than thirty archives, this study explores the structure and organization of the transatlantic slave trade to analyze the transformation of relationships and the commercial operation of the trade in West Africa, the circum-Caribbean, and more broadly the Atlantic world. This study of the transatlantic …

Multivariate Analysis And Geographic Modeling Of Archaeological Landscapes, J. Christopher Gillam

Theses and Dissertations

Advances in Geographic Information Science (GISci), archaeological databases and statistics enable the development and refinement of spatial applications of multivariate statistics and other quantitative methods for modeling ancient and historical cultural landscapes. Along the Central Savannah River of South Carolina, this research on prehistoric and historic site distributions, their environmental, temporal and cultural context, and geographic modeling explored methodologies for predicting site locations and modeling cultural landscapes to gain a better understanding of the distant and recent past. Methods for testing extant models, detecting changes in land-use through time, and for developing time-sliced and adaptation-based landscape models were demonstrated using …

Uncle Sam’S Jungle: Recreation, Imagination, And The Caribbean National Forest, Will Garrett Mundhenke

Theses and Dissertations

The Caribbean National Forest in Puerto Rico offers a unique lens into the environmental relationship between the United States and the Caribbean. Established by the Spanish and taken under possession by the United States, the forest represents an imagined space constructed as a Caribbean paradise. As environmentally inclined travelers reached the edge of the western frontier, their interests turned South to the tropics. Tourism boosters and the U.S. Forest Service fabricated a message of a uniquely American jungle. Tourism and the rise of the Caribbean vacation from the 1930s to the 1970s transformed the rainforest from a working landscape into …

Synoptic Climatology Of Extreme Snow And Avalanche Events In Southern Alaska, Kristy C. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Snowfall distribution in southern Alaska during large snowfall events (>12 inches/day) is complex and dependent on several small-scale factors. Output from highresolution WRF simulations was used to provide further insight into factors that contribute to differences in precipitation patterns. Common synoptic patterns among large snowfall events and cities were studied to create a snow climatology for seven cities in southern Alaska based on the predominant wind flow at the surface and aloft and the location of the surface low and 500 mb height field. Results aid in understanding the synoptic set-up for large snowfall events in each city and …

Hydrologic Modeling Scenarios In A South Carolina Piedmont Drainage Basin, Parker Douglas Leslie

Theses and Dissertations

Changing land cover can drastically alter the hydrologic processes of a drainage basin. At the same time, the hydrologic processes that occur are governed by weather and climate of the region. The Southeastern United States, and more specifically the Piedmont region of South Carolina, is experiencing significant changes to the landscape and highly variable weather and climate conditions. Few modern hydrologic studies that investigate the impact from these dynamic variables on streamflow and the water balance within the region have taken place and further study is warranted because of the drastic change likely to occur. One objective of this thesis …

Effects Of Sepsis Protocols On Health Outcomes Of Adult Patients With Sepsis, Monika U. Mróz

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis is a condition that arises from the host’s own exaggerated response to an infection, directed towards pathogens, but causing multiple organ failure. Sepsis is one of the most common causes of death, and a considerable absorber of healthcare resources. This frequently fatal condition, despite progress in technology and improving knowledge of pathophysiology, is still poorly understood, carries high mortality and morbidity rates, and survivors are often left with permanent disabilities and poor health outcomes.

Initial presentation of sepsis is often nonspecific, making diagnosis difficult, and causing lifesaving treatment delays. Sepsis guidelines are derived from emerging evidence-based research. While there …