Digital Commons Network^™

Demographic Analysis Of Recovery Act Supported Jobs In Massachusetts, Quarters 1 And 2, 2010, David Sparks, Paige Ransford, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Christian Weller, Meryl Thomson, Robert Turner

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Massachusetts policy makers decided to go beyond existing ARRA federal reporting requirements and collect additional data in order to gauge the effectiveness of ARRA’s fiscal policy by counting the number of individuals who have received an ARRA-funded paycheck. In addition, policy makers wanted to look at some of the demographic characteristics of this population. This report provides an in-depth analysis of the data that the MA Recovery Office collected during the first and second quarters of 2010, with a particular focus on job creation and retention by race, ethnicity, gender, disability status, and geographic location.

Highlights of the report include: …

Christian Students' Worldviewsand Propensity For Missionteaching, Richard Patrick Dolan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The research conducted sought to find evidence to answer the following questions: Do students in teacher preparation programs who feel called to enter the Christian mission field as general education teachers have a worldview that is more closely aligned with biblical principles than other teacher groups? Is there a correlation between the worldview of mission general education teachers and propensity to volunteer for the field? What do students consider as influence in their decisions to commit to the Christian mission service profession? The data gathered indicated that participants who intended to volunteer at mission schools had significantly higher scores in …

Quality In Higher Education: Systems And Lifeworlds In Collision, Jeff Aper

International Education

Questions abound about the quality and purpose of American higher education in the early 21st century. Solutions have tended to be framed in terms of economic production and manufacturing quality control models, and these terms increasingly characterize state and federal systems of authority over colleges and universities. As Habermas theorized, system logic, left to its own devices, will ultimately overpower, or “colonize,” the day to day meaning making culture or “lifeworld” of the campus. This colonization runs at counter purposes to the essential foundation of meaning for authentic education. A solution is proposed, suggesting that a deeper base to higher …

Imperfect Alternatives: Networks, Salience, And Institutional Design In Financial Crises, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

With the benefit of hindsight — and some aspiration to foresight — it is useful to consider the type of regulatory regime that might best address financial crises. What could policymakers have done to prevent the recent crisis? And once the crisis started, what interventions might have alleviated it? These questions have been widely debated, with an eye to both substantive policy and the design of effective regulatory institutions. This Article speaks to the latter project — one of comparative institutional analysis — though with a framework that implicates our substantive policy choices as well. It begins with an account …

The Visible Hand: Coordination Functions Of The Regulatory State, Robert B. Ahdieh

Faculty Scholarship

We live in a coordination economy. As one surveys the myriad challenges of modern social and economic life, an ever increasing proportion is defined not by the need to reconcile competing interests, but by the challenge of getting everyone on the same page. Conflict is not absent in these settings. It is not, however, the determinative factor in shaping our behaviors and resulting interactions. That essential ingredient, instead, is coordination.

Such coordination is commonly understood as the function of the market. As it turns out, however, optimal coordination will not always emerge, as if led “by an invisible hand.” Even …

Residential Landscape Water Check Programs: Exploring A Conservation Tool, Diana T. Glenn

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In response to drought and regional growth in the arid western United States, urban water demand management is increasingly important. Single family residences use approximately 60% of their water consumption to irrigate landscapes often in excess of plant water requirements. This study utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate outdoor water consumption and assess the effectiveness of a landscape water check conservation program. Study objectives included describing a contextualized landscape system to reveal variables influencing water use, identifying better ways to evaluate landscape water use, and more effectively targeting and delivering water conservation programs.

The study was conducted during the 2004 …

Acknowledgements, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Out Of The Frying Pan, Into The Fire: Trauma In The Lives Of Homeless Youth Prior To And During Homelessness, John Coates, Sue Mckenzie-Mohr

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anecdotal evidence from those who work with homeless youth indicates that trauma permeates these young people's lives. This paper presents the findings from a study of 100 homeless youth regarding the presence of trauma in their lives, both before and during homelessness. Participants living in the Maritime Provinces volunteered to take part in a semi-structured interview lasting one to two hours. The interview questionnaire was conducted by a trained interviewer, and was composed of standardized and adapted survey instruments, as well as questions regarding demographics, experiences prior to becoming homeless, assistance received while dealing with stressors, and current needs. The …

A Model Of The Information Seeking And Decision Making Of Online Coin Buyers, Donald O. Case

Information Science Faculty Publications

Introduction. The Everyday Life Information Seeking approach suggests that much information behaviour takes place in non-work settings, for example in the pursuit of leisure activities such as hobbies. This study focuses on a community of collectors to examine how they gather information to decide whether to purchase an item for their collection when the target item has an ambiguous or deficient description.

Method. Manual scanning of eBay and other online discussion board for coin buyers led to 187 postings indicating an attempt to reach a purchase decision, or to authenticate a purchased coin, through solicitation or posting of advice.

Analysis. …

An Exploratory Study Of First-Semester Student Attrition In A Community College., Ophelia Turner Scott 1953-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine if student background variables (age, gender, race, academic preparation); student status (part/full-time student), and student circumstances (commuting distance, independent/dependent financial student status) could predict fall-to-spring attrition (2006-2007) in a sample of 542 first-time, first-semester students at a community college in Southern Indiana. This study also included the results from an exit survey administered in the spring semester by the college. The sample consisted of 403 students who persisted to the next semester, and 121 students who did not persist to the next semester. Demographic variables, COMP ASS math and reading scores, …

The Multilevel, Multicultural, And Multi-Temporal Ecosocial Framework Of Population Health : How Neighborhoods, Culture, And History Impact Health Outcomes And Produce Health Disparities, Lawrence Tarves Brown

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

According to findings in the field of genetics, it has now been established that the impact of race on health is mostly a function of a people's lived experience, not their genetic make-up. Due to this, the role of race in the study of health outcomes and health disparities has traditionally been specified improperly in statistical models due to confounding with ethnicity. Additionally, the role of geography or the impact of neighborhoods on health is often not specified properly.

Thus, the author proposes a multilevel, multicultural, and multi-temporal ecosocial framework that explains the impact of neighborhoods on health and the …

Bridgewater Review, Vol. 29, No. 2, December 2010

Bridgewater Review

No abstract provided.

Whalesong 2010-12-01 (V.29 No.4), Randi Spray, Mallory Millay, Megan Johnson, Seth Griffin, Pat Race

Whalesong

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Race And Poverty, M. Faye Hanson

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Mexican Immigrants In Cleveland, Ohio: An Exploratory Case Study Of New Immigration Patterns And Reception, Daniel Wagner

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Redemptive Suffering And Christology In African American Christian Theology, Nathaniel Holmes Jr.

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

In this paper, based on a presentation delivered at the 2009 Annual Meeting at the Atlanta University Center, Holmes engages the debate over the redemptive nature of suffering in Christianity. Are evil, suffering, and oppression redemptive, thereby bringing us closer to the divine? Or, are suffering and oppression detrimental to the salvific nature of Christ’s liberation? Holmes explores the religious and philosophical literary tradition of redemptive suffering, especially as interpreted in African American religious thought, and shows us that the answers to these questions are complex and multifaceted.

Cyprian Davis’S Contributions To The Study Of African American Catholic History: Articles In The U.S. Catholic Historian, Christopher J. Kauffman

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

In celebration of Father Cyprian Davis’s eightieth birthday, the BCTS invited his friend and fellow historian, Dr. Christopher Kauffman to reflect on the meaning of Father Cyprian’s articles published in the U.S. Catholic Historian from 1986 to 2006. Dr. Kauffman pays special attention to the relationship of these articles to Father Cyprian’s 1990 study The History of Black Catholics in the United States, to his inspirational writings, and to his ongoing research and writing of Black Catholic history.

Review — M. Shawn Copeland, Enfleshing Freedom: Body, Race, And Being, Kimberly Flint-Hamilton

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

No abstract provided.

Racial Attitude Effects In The 2008 Presidential Election: Examining The Unconventional Factors Shaping Vote Choice In A Most Unconventional Election, Herbert F. Weisberg, Christopher J. Devine

Political Science Faculty Publications

Every election has unique elements, but the 2008 U.S. presidential race had it all: an African-American presidential candidate who won his party’s nomination by defeating a former first lady, an historically unpopular outgoing president, two ongoing wars, a failing economy, and a war hero running for president with a female vice-presidential running mate. With so many unique elements to account for, disentangling their independent effects to identify the dominant factors shaping the 2008 election is a tremendous challenge. This paper explores a wide variety of factors potentially influencing the 2008 vote, but it devotes particular attention to two exceptionally relevant …

Economic And Risk Factors Associated With Sexual And Reproductive Health, Julio Cesar Hernandez-Correa

Dissertations

This dissertation is intended to evaluate the effects of economic and risk factors on three aspects of sexual and reproductive health: maternal mortality, prenatal care demand, and contraceptive use. The first study of this dissertation discusses the effects of risk factors and socioeconomic determinants on maternal mortality. This research uses a unique, nationwide panel of counties to analyze maternal mortality in Madagascar. Factors like health environment and access to health services were controlled for. The results indicate that female literacy and wages decrease maternal mortality. Other factors related to health infrastructure, and diseases can represent a burden to women's health. …