Digital Commons Network^™

Finding The Win In Wicked Problems: Lessons From Evaluating Public Policy Advocacy, John Sherman, Gayle Peterson

The Foundation Review

· Many of the social issues private foundations and other philanthropies attempt to address — poverty, homelessness, global climate change — are wicked problems. That is, they defy easy definition, lack permanent solutions, and have multiple stakeholders.

· The wicked problems framework helps make explicit the challenging nature of the issue to be addressed, requires an inclusive style of leadership that seeks stakeholder involvement, and demands candid exchange among stakeholders about the nature of the problem and effectiveness of efforts to address it.

· A wicked problems framework provides a set of criteria and questions for evaluators of advocacy efforts …

Leveraging Grantmaking: Understanding The Dynamics Of Complex Social Systems, David Peter Stroh

The Foundation Review

· The nonobvious interrelationships among elements in a complex system often thwart people’s best intentions to sustainably improve system performance.

· The complex, nonlinear problems that most foundations address can be solved most effectively by thinking systemically instead of linearly about these problems.

· Systems thinking offers a range of analytic tools to improve our capacity to think systemically, including ways to distinguish problem symptoms from root causes, reinforcing and balancing feedback, system archetypes, mental models, and system purpose and goals.

· Applying these tools enables us to target highleverage interventions that can lead to sustainable, system-wide improvement.

· These …

Effective Advocacy Evaluation: The Role Of Funders, Johanna Morariu, Kathleen Brennan

The Foundation Review

· This article addresses the role of funders in supporting advocacy and advocacy evaluation work.

· The growth and strengthening of the advocacy evaluation field has lessened the “hard to measure” stigma attached to advocacy grantmaking.

· An increasingly broad array of evaluation designs and methods better capture advocacy data, enable rapid analysis and learning, and foster accountability.

· Based on a study of advocacy grantees and a study of advocacy grantmakers, the authors conclude that supporting evaluation and capacity building, providing multi-year funding commitments and core support, and creating custom reporting requirements and timelines are strategies that funders can …

Tools To Support Public Policy Grantmaking, Martha Campbell, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

· This article provides guidance on how foundations can frame, focus, and advance efforts to achieve public policy reforms.

· Five essential steps for developing public policy strategy are described: choosing the public policy goal, understanding the challenges, identifying influential audiences, determining how far those audiences must move, and deciding how to move them.

· Two tools developed specifically to support foundations during the strategy development process are presented.

Measuring The Impacts Of Advocacy And Community Organizing: Application Of A Methodology And Initial Findings, Lisa Ranghelli

The Foundation Review

· The increasing emphasis by funders on strategic grantmaking and measurable outcomes may be a disincentive to support policy and advocacy work, because of the perception that outcomes can be difficult to assess.

· A tool for measuring impact can reduce the barriers to funding advocacy and policy work.

· The tool draws upon the literatures on evaluating advocacy and organizing, social capital building efforts, and return on investment approaches to evaluation.

· The tool was applied in two sites, where funders found it useful to understand advocacy impacts and learn how advocacy can enhance their grantmaking goals.

The Emerging Dichotomy Of The Educational Institution: Expression And Authority In Public Schools Under Morse V. Frederick, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (2007), Joanna S. Thomas

Nebraska Law Review

Tension has emerged from the United States Supreme Court's review of student speech. This tension, between the importance of protecting the right of the student and the authoritative role of the educator, is emphasized in Morse v. Frederick. The examination of this conflict in light of First Amendment history in public schools is necessary to properly understand how future cases will be affected. The Court has noted that "education is perhaps the most important function of our local governments." The conflict of liberty and social order in education requires a delicate balance of interests. It is not necessarily the Court's …

The Effects Of An Educational Intervention On Nurse -Physician Collaboration And Compliance Rates With Quality Indicators For Cardiac Patients In Critical Care Settings, Sara L. Clutter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Purpose. The purposes of this study were to investigate the effects of an educational intervention on knowledge, nurse-perceived nurse-physician collaboration, and compliance with quality indicators and to assess the relationship between collaboration and compliance. This study also investigated the difference in collaboration and knowledge between and within nurses from intensive care (ICU) and intermediate care (IMCU) settings.;Research questions. Six research questions guided this study. The questions compared knowledge, collaboration scores, and compliance with quality indicators between and within intermediate and intensive care unit nurses before and after an educational intervention. Questions also addressed the relationship between collaboration scores and compliance …

The Role Of Nadph Oxidase In Blood -Brain Barrier Dysfunction Following Stroke In Aged Rats, Kimberly Kelly

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Stroke is the leading cause of long-term adult disability and the third leading cause of death in the United States. More that 72% of stroke victims are over the age of 65, yet most studies utilize young animals. Aged rats suffer exacerbated stroke volume and inflammation, as well as worsened functional outcome when compared to young adult rats. While the blood brain barrier (BBB) remains intact with age, it becomes more susceptible to external factors. BBB permeability in the penumbra appears acutely, 20 min after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) in aged rats. Importantly, BBB permeability is earlier and more …

Investigating Distribution And Treatments For Effective Mechanical And Herbicide Application For Controlling Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus Orbiculatus Thunb.) Vines In An Appalachian Hardwood Forest, Amanda L. Lynch

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This document discusses two exotic-invasive plant species related research studies that were conducted in an Appalachian hardwood forest in north central West Virginia. The first study characterizes the distribution of oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus Thunb.) in a timber harvested area in north central West Virginia. Canopy profiles were used to create a visual picture of distribution of C. orbiculatus vines from the forest edge transition to the interior of the forest. In the second study, the efficacy of herbicides triclopyr and glyphosate were tested using basal bark, cut-stump, mechanical cut, and deer fencing to control C. orbiculatus.

The West Virginia Uncovered Etrainer; Creating An Online Multimedia Training Guide, Jessica M. Rhodes

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This professional project contains an external Web site, which serves as a multimedia journalism training guide for weekly rural newspapers in West Virginia. The training guide focuses on issues that many small rural newspapers face, including small staffs and limited budgets and resources. Small rural weekly newspapers in West Virginia serve as beacons of community journalism within their counties. Through the use of multimedia, they can enhance their Web sites to document the lives of those in their community in ways that are far more diverse than print journalism. This professional project also discusses the issues of social responsibility and …

Examining The Protective Effects Of Sesamol On Oxidative Stress Associated Blood -Brain Barrier Dysfunction In Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Rats, Reyna Vangilder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Many studies point to vascular dysfunction as an underlying cause for the increased incidence of cognitive dysfunction and risk for development of Alzheimer's disease during diabetes. Vascular dysfunction is not an uncommon occurrence in patients with diabetes and microvascular dysfunction commonly leads to clinical complications such as blindness, peripheral neuropathy, and kidney failure. Microangiopathies of the retina, kidney, and peripheral nerves have been well-characterized; however, the effects of diabetes on blood-brain barrier (BBB) function have been understudied.;Pathophysiological changes defining microvascular dysfunction include basement membrane thickening, cytoskeleton rearrangement, and increased paracellular leakage. Increased paracellular leakage of the BBB suggests a functional …

Principal Perceptions Of Their Preparedness And The Preparedness Of Their Staff To Deal With Students Of Poverty In The Classroom, Lisa Anne Donmoyer

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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The Impact Of A Freshman Academy Small Learning Community On Student Achievement And Engagement, Christopher M. Fulco

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Asl, Total Communication And Oralism: Identifying Shared Characteristics Of School-Based Writing Intervention Programs For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students, K-6, Carolyn Mascia Reed

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Nuclear Morphometry In Relation To Tumor Grade In Canine Spontaneous Cutaneous Squamous Cell Carcinomas, Radostin Simeonov

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

In a retrospective study on cytological specimens from 17 dogs with histologically confirmed cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, the morphometric variables were studied and compared to tumors' nuclear grade. The morphometric parameters evaluated in this study were mean nuclear area (MNA, µm2), mean nuclear perimeter (MNP, µm), mean nuclear diameter (D mean, µm), minimum nuclear diameter (D min, µm), and maximum nuclear diameter (D max, µm). Associations between MNA, MNP, D mean, D min, and D max and tumors' grade were assessed using the ANOVA/LSD test (Statistica 6.0, StatSoft, USA) at a level of significance of P < 0.05. The result indicated an increase in the mean values of the nuclear parameters with increasing tumor grade. In the cases examined, significant differences in MNA, MNP, and D mean occurred between tumors in all grades. Besides, no significant differences in D max (between grade I-II and II-III) and D min (grade II-III) were found. In conclusion, nuclear morphometry could be used as an additional tool for differentiating nuclear grade in canine cutaneous squamous cell carcinomas.

Shanghai Suite And Other Poems, Glen Phillips

Research outputs pre 2011

The Shanghai Suite was written during a two month period in early 2004 while I was a visiting professor teaching a course in 'Western' Culture' at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. This was also part of the research for my PhD in Creative Writing. During and after those months, I composed most of the poems about Shanghai and that region of China...

Recent Developments In Aviation Law, Donald R. Andersen

Journal of Air Law and Commerce

No abstract provided.

Female Captivity Narratives In Colonial America, Kathryn O'Hara

The Gettysburg Historical Journal

The female captivity narrative provides a complex view of colonial American history by recounting the experiences of women captured from their colonial homes by Native Americans. Male editors, often family friends or town ministers, generally compiled the experiences of female captives, and separating the voice of the female captive from influence of the male editor presents a challenge. Puritan captivity narratives in particular demonstrate conflict between attempts by Puritan ministers to impose a unified religious message in the sagas and the captives’ individual experiences, which often contradicted Puritan doctrine. During the early colonial era, ministers’ attempts to promote the Puritan …

Love The One And Hate The Other : A Comparative Study Of Financial Peace University And Wealth And Possessions In The New Testament, Nolan Brian Donald

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Power Of 3 : Small Reproducible Discipleship Groups, W. Scott Layer

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Community Ministry On Church Health In The Anglican Churches Of South London, Stephen Hance

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Evangelism Strategies For Reaching Pre-Christians In Upstate New York : A Study Of Three Wesleyan Churches Effectively Reaching Their Cultures, Donald Eugene Lain

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Of Merchants And Missions : A Historical Study Of The Impact Of British Colonialism On American Methodism In Singapore From 1885 To 1910, Andrew Peh Swee Kian

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Reinforcement Magnitude And Session Length On Stereotypical Behavior Of An Adolescent With Autism, Spiro Kotsios

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Functional Analysis is an important component of creating a treatment plan for individuals with autism. A concern of functional analysis is that it might not match the natural environment in which the problem behavior occurs. Dimensions such as varying reinforcement duration and session length may affect response rates during functional analyses in natural settings. This study investigated if varying reinforcement duration and session length during functional analyses would affect the identification of the function of problem behavior across assessors, and the intervention designed based on the functional analyses would be effective in reducing stereotypic behavior and teaching communicative skills of …

Men's Ministry: A Study Of Leadership Development In Churches Of The Oklahoma Conference Of The United Methodist Church, Travis Todd Muse

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Correlates Of Attitudes Toward Behavioral Health Services Among Older Primary Care Patients, Nancy Bridger Lynn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests that more than ten percent of older adults experience behavioral health problems (including mental health problems and/or substance abuse). However, very few actually receive care from a behavioral health care provider or even a primary care provider. One major barrier to accessing and receiving care is the feeling of perceived stigma commonly associated with behavioral health problems. The present study examined the relationships among attitudinal variables, feelings of stigma, and behavioral health outcomes over time in an elderly population with the secondary analysis of data collected for a previously implemented research study, the Primary Care Research in Substance …

A Project For Evangelism By The Churches In The Post-Communist Republic Of Macedonia, Kitan Petreski

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Cavity-Backed Coplanar Waveguide Slot Antenna Array, James W. Mcknight

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, a cavity-backed slot antenna array is designed for relatively wide instantaneous bandwidth, high gain and low sidelobes. The array consists of four, rectangular, slot elements, arranged side-by-side in a linear array and developed around 5GHz. Two feed points, at opposing sides of the printed array, each excite two of the slot elements through a series feed. This bidirectional feed presents symmetry to the design and prevents the tendency of beam-drift versus frequency as is common with many series-fed arrays. While being fed in-phase, the array will maintain boresight at broadside over the entire operating bandwidth. Also, the …

Life Beyond The Launch: Case Studies In Post-Launch Vitality, Adaptation, And Identity Formation Of New Wesleyan Congregations, Duane E. Brown

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Making Connections: An Evangelism Plan For Chicago First Church Of The Nazarene, David A. Baillie

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.