Digital Commons Network^™

Technological Disasters: An Investigation Of The Conservation Of Resources Theory On Depression, Brian Gentry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Researchers studying the affects of resource loss following a technological disaster have exclusively investigated the acute period directly after the event occurred. This study applied Hobfoll's (1988, 1989) Conservation of Resources model in order to examine the long term effects of resource loss on depression in Cordova, Alaska a decade after the Exxon Valdez Oil spill. Results suggest that resource loss was a more prominent predictor for depression than demographics, involvement in the on-going litigation, or commercial fishing jobs. The research concludes that certain aspects of resource loss are critical in the development of depression after a technological disaster, and …

The Social Construction Of Claims-Making: Bahamian Anglers Vs. Non-Resident Sports-Fishermen, Sara Neuenschwander

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

On January 1, 2007, the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources in the Department of Marine Resources of the Bahamas promulgated significant revisions to their sports-fishing regulations. While the new laws were designed to benefit the Bahamian fisheries, they caused a vociferous uproar among non-resident anglers who frequent the islands of the Bahamas to sports-fish. Of particular concern are the new regulations that limit the maximum weight and number of fish which non-resident anglers may keep on their boat. My research examines the claims-making activities made by American anglers on four different sports-fishermen/cruising forums. The analysis focuses on the motifs, …

We Are Not Responsible For Our Addictions, But We Are Responsible For Our Recovery": A Qualitative Exploratory Study Of The Li, Rachel Rayburn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is an exploratory, qualitative study of homeless, recovering alcoholics and the problems they encounter maintaining sobriety. Using semi-structured interviews, I analyze the experiences of ten men in their forties, who are in a recovery program designed for homeless men. I ask them how they stay sober without a place to live. Three kinds of problems are inferred from their narrative histories. First, the men have difficulty identifying as alcoholics. They have trouble fully integrating into the AA program. Second, the men struggle to form relationships with others, especially with a sponsor. Third, the process of "working the steps" is …

The Impact Of Religiosity On Sexual Victimization Experiences And Reporting Behaviors Among College Students, Nicole Bauer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between religiosity of female college students and sexual victimization experiences. These experiences include the reporting behaviors that take place subsequent to an act of sexual victimization. The study utilized secondary data gathered from the forth wave of a longitudinal study funded by the National Institute of Justice between 1990 and 1995. The study used multidimensional levels of religiosity to analyze and to assess its impact on the sexual victimization experiences. Findings ascertained that certain behavioral measures of religiosity were consistently found to be a protective factor against sexual victimization. On the other hand, subjective measures …

Brothers & Sisters: A New Impetus For Social Construction And Its Impact On Traditional Cultivation Analysis, Scott Elmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scholars recognize television's ability to influence culture. According to Gerbner, television creates socially constructed realities through the cultivation of its viewers. Television is designed to satisfy the diverse needs of large audiences. The mainstream messages conveyed via television have power to alter perceptions and change culture. Gerbner's theory was constructed from the analysis of crime dramas with single plot lines. Using the ABC television program Brothers & Sisters, this thesis explores the theoretical implications dramas with multiple plot lines have on traditional notions of cultivation theory. Through a content analysis and focus groups, evidence was acquired to suggest that cultivation …

Integrating Key Elements In An E-Learning Curriculum For An Optimum Educational And Interactive User Experience, Heather Stearns

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study determines the particular components that are considered the best practices to use when implementing an e-Learning curriculum. Technical communicators and instructional designers have numerous development options to choose from. However, practices that work in academe do not always integrate well in a corporate setting, and what works for one corporation may not work for another. There is no singular methodology for developers to apply that enables e-Learning to fit every organization's needs. Research shows that to ensure a successful online learning implementation, a sound project management team must be in place at the beginning of the project planning. …

Constructing African American Histories In Central Florida, Katherine Parry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

From the time of their occurrence up to the present, people have constructed and revised narratives about violent racial events in Florida. In the case of the racial violence in Ocoee and the lynching of July Perry, multiple accounts coexisted until one particular group in the 1990's contested earlier conservative white Southern narratives with new public memories containing African American perspectives of the events, demanding racial justice and memorialization of the events. A struggle over the power to construct this narrative resulted in compromises between the two sets of memories. While some goals were attained, the landscape of memorization remains …

Experiences, Attitudes And Beliefs About Interpersonal Violence: A Study On Costa Rican Adolescents, Monica Mendez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in Latin America regarding interpersonal violence and adolescents is rare if not nonexistent. In a collaborative effort with the Costa Rican Ministry of Education and the National Institute of Women (INAMU), qualitative data were collected from three high schools and one after-school program from rural and urban locations of the Central Valley. The discussion groups/open-ended questionnaires were done with a total of 154 students ranging from ages 14 to 17 and grade levels 8th to 12th. Information was obtained concerning students' perceptions, definitions and opinions on issues relating to interpersonal violence and gender roles and rules. The results show …

Is There Such A Thing As “Defended Community Homicide”?: The Necessity Of Methods Triangulation, Ryan Spohn

Center on Children, Families, and the Law: Faculty Publications

Data on homicides in Buffalo, New York, are analyzed to demonstrate the importance of “methods triangulation” for assessing the validity of quantitative measures. Defended community homicides are quantitatively operationalized as acts that occur in the offender’s community against a nonlocal victim. Poisson models provide strong support for the existence of defended community homicide, which is significantly more common in residentially stable and racially homogenous neighborhoods. However, subsequent qualitative analyses of the victim and offender characteristics and motives of these homicides undermine the “defended community” concept. Qualitative analyses are necessary to assess the validity of quantitative measures in criminological research.

Taxation Without Liquidation: Rethinking "Ability To Pay", Sergio Pareja

Faculty Scholarship

This Article proposes a novel way to tax wealth transfers. Specifically, it suggests that we divide all assets transferred by gift or bequest into two classes--illiquid assets and liquid assets. The recipient should include those assets in income but be allowed two options. With respect to illiquid assets, the recipient should be able to avoid immediate income inclusion if he takes the property with an income-tax basis of zero. With respect to liquid assets, the recipient should be allowed a full income-tax deduction if he rolls the gift or bequest into a deductible IRA. The combination of these simple rules …

The Role Of Dignity In Canadian And South African Gender Equality Jurisprudence, Andrew Foster

Dalhousie Journal of Legal Studies

This paper analyzes the use of dignity in the formation of tests for gender equality in the constitutional jurisprudence of Canada and South Africa. Recent gender equality cases in both countries are reviewed and considered in light of various critiques of the notion that dignity is a concept capable of underlying equality and determining instances of discrimination. A comparison between Canadian and South African commentators reveals many of the same concerns about a dignity-centered test for equality, concerns which often transcend national boundaries apply with equal force to gender equality cases in the other jurisdiction. While courts in both countries …

Park Visitors And The Natural Soundscape: Winter Experience Dimensions In Yellowstone National Park, Shelley Walker Saxen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The natural soundscape is becoming increasingly recognized as a threatened park resource. A variety of policies, laws, and regulations have rapidly been established that affect the National Park Service mandate and require the agency and individual parks to protect, preserve, and restore natural sounds. National Parks are grappling with how to manage the newly legitimized natural soundscape resource and this research provides some of the first significant knowledge of visitor experiences of park soundscapes and preferences for management policies. The role of the natural soundscape in visitor experiences was explored through both interview and survey data with the primary goal …

Perceptions Of Borough Incorporation Held By Community Leaders In Delta Junction, Alaska, Michelle Albus Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Regional governments exist in an overwhelming majority of the United States and are often considered a necessary and natural progression of a developing region. Alaska offers a unique opportunity to explore perceptions of regional incorporation, as it is the only remaining state in the Union to have unincorporated area. Thus, after a rural region of Alaska petitioned the state legislature to politically incorporate, I conducted qualitative in-depth semi-structured interviews with local community leaders to explore their perceptions of the proposed incorporation. Existing literature often refers to leaders as either elite, self-interested individuals or as functional, community-interested individuals. This study explored …

Producing A Biblical Atlas, Elizabeth Anne Hertz

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this thesis was to develop a procedure for simplifying the production of a biblical atlas. The atlas was to be designed specifically for those people interested in the geography of the Bible, and looking at the themes and events in the Bible in a spatial way. The procedures used in developing the contents involved the use of interviews with different experts and reviewing different biblical atlases. Telephone and email interviews were given to twelve experts to gain information about producing a biblical atlas. The participants in the interviews were selected based upon their knowledge of the specific …

Human Bonds With Public Wildland Places: Segmenting Communities To Inform Natural Resource Management, Neal A. Christensen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Public land managers must consider a broad range of information to develop effective and equitable plans for addressing contentious management issues. Appropriately designed social science research may contribute to better understanding of public interests regarding resource use, thus reducing conflict and contributing to cooperative solutions. This dissertation describes a social science methodology for developing understanding of human / place bonds using indicators of human expression of behaviors, beliefs, and emotions. The dissertation develops the concept of human / place bonds with a goal to better reflect the publics' views and desires for management of public lands. The purpose of the …

Editorial Statement

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

The Bridge Volume 31 Number 2

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Negotiating Reality With Anekdoty: Soviet Vs. Post-Soviet Humor Lore, Daniela S. Hristova

Russian Language Journal

As a genre, anekdoty have been among the most popular oral narratives in the Soviet as well as post-Soviet era.2 Similar to other folkloric and literary genres, the post-Soviet social and linguistic liberalization has had an impact on Russian humor lore, but to a much lesser degree than it might seem on the surface. Since effective humor narratives impart laughter by way of reacting to significant sociopolitical phenomena, the changed economic and ideological reality in post- Soviet Russia fostered paradigmatic classes of anekdoty that feature new protagonists. The question, however, is whether what made a Soviet anekdot funny differs from …

When Lawyers Fail Innocent Defendants: Exorcising The Ghosts That Haunt The Criminal Justice Systems, George C. Thomas Iii

Utah Law Review

It seems likely that a criminal law specialist system would offer adequate defense at a lower cost than refashioning and putting more money into today’s dysfunctional system. I believe that a combined system would make more efficient use of lawyer time, in part because weak cases would be more likely to be dismissed and in part because leveling the burden between defense and prosecution should facilitate more efficient case disposition. Thus, with a modest increase in the amount currently spent on prosecution and defense, a jurisdiction could adopt a criminal law specialist system and offer better lawyering on both sides …

The Forging Of Races: Race And Scripture In The Protestant Atlantic World, 1600-2000. By Colin Kidd, Armand L. Mauss

BYU Studies

Colin Kidd. The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Values: The Invisible ‘Ante’ In Information Literacy Learning?, Benjamin R. Harris

Library Faculty Research

Purpose: The ACRL Competency Standards related to learners’ values and value systems has not been interrogated in relation to information literacy theory or practice. This paper analyzes the inclusion of values in these and other guidelines and seeks evidence of the development of this topic in the literature.

Design/Methodology/Approach: A comparative review of information literacy standards related to values/value systems was conducted. An analysis of the literature engaging issues related to personal or community values related to information was completed. Suggestions for continued work were based on these findings.

Findings: Competency standards related to values/value systems are out of place …

The Wise Researcher: One Library’S Experience Implementing A Federated Search Product, Yumin Jiang, Georgia Briscoe

Publications

No abstract provided.

Extraterritoriality, Antitrust, And The Pragmatist Style, Justin Deystone

Publications

In the last decades of the 20th century, David Kennedy and Martti Koskenniemi made the case that the modern structure of international legal argument was characterized by "pragmatism." Taking this idea as its baseline, this Article's central argument is that legal pragmatism embodies a dominant style of contemporary legal reasoning, and that as Kennedy and Koskenniemi might have suggested, it is on display in some of the canonical antitrust decisions having an international dimension. The Article also seeks to show that pragmatism's ostensible triumph is best understood as a contest of three distinctly legal pragmatisms: "eclectic pragmatism," as evidenced in …

The Concept Of "Less Eligibility" And The Social Function Of Prison Violence In Class Society, Ahmed A. White

Publications

No abstract provided.

Hearts, Minds, Hands: A Dream Team For Mental Health, Julianne Gold Brunson, Judy Molner, Miriam Nathan Lerner

Articles

Interpreting in a mental health setting with hearing staff members and deaf clientele, the ethical situations fly fast and furious, providing the interpreter with a wealth of war stories with which to regale neophyte students of this dynamic profession. Much has been written to improve the many and varied mental health services being extended to deaf populations. The most commonly described dyads are that of hearing therapist and deaf patient. However, consider the case of a deaf psychologist treating hearing clients. In this instance, the interpreter becomes the liaison between the deaf professional and the hearing patient. When an interpreter …

Community-University Partnerships: Achieving Continuity In The Face Of Change, Linda Silka, Robert Forrant, Brenda Bond, Patricia Coffey, Robin Toof, Dan Toomey, David Turcotte, Cheryl West

Partnerships/Community

A challenge most community-university partnerships will face after having established themselves is how to maintain continuity in the face of change. The problems besetting communities continually shift as new issues bubble up. Similarly, the goals of the university partners often fluctuate. And the partners themselves shift: people working in non-government organizations often move in and out of positions and university partners may change with tenure or shifts in university priorities. In light of all of this flux, can stable community-university partnerships be built and, if so, how?

The Narrowing Of Knowing: What It Means To Be Literate And Learned In Today's Society, Thomas Smith

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Currently, the idea and definition of learning and literacy is being pushed and pulled in competing directions. Current governmental policies, most notably embodied in the No Child Left Behind law, are pushing the definitions to mechanical enterprises aimed at the lowest common denominator. At the same time, the technology race is working to open access to being learned and literate to populations that are traditionally underrepresented in these arenas; however, at the same time, this technology is setting up new barriers that act to limit access. Finally, the student population of schools in the United States is quickly becoming the …

Toward An Ideal Relational Ethic: Re-Thinking University-Community Engagement, Steve Garlick, Victoria J. Palmer

Service Learning, General

This article argues for the importance of developing a relational ethic to guide university-community engagement practices and processes. Our objective is to demonstrate that ethical 'engagement bridges' can be formed to link higher education institutions (HEis), human capital at the community level, and the important global questions of our day that resonate with regional communities. Taking centre place in this triad is the notion of being-for, an ideal form of togetherness put forward by Zygmunt Bauman (1995) in his early work on globalisation and post-modernity. Being-for is presented in this article as a moral aspiration that, if embraced, can tie …

Renaissance 2008, University Of Rhode Island

URI Yearbooks

This is a digitized, downloadable version of the University of Rhode Island yearbook.

Key Concepts In The Finding, Definition And Consideration Of Custom Law In Tribal Lawmaking, Pat Sekaquaptewa

American Indian Law Review

No abstract provided.