Digital Commons Network^™

Islamic Da'wa In Korea: A Study Of Koreans' Religious Conversion To Islam Taking Place In The Twenty-First Century, Sungsu Park

ATS Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Only Part Of The Picture: A Response To Professor Tushnet's Worth A Thousand Words, Zahr Kassim Said

Articles

Professor Rebecca Tushnet’s recent article Worth a Thousand Words: The Image of Copyright elucidates a number of difficulties in copyright that flow from judicial failures to treat images consistently and rigorously. She argues that courts both assess copyrightability and evaluate potential infringement in ways that rely on a naïve understanding of the way artists create, and indeed, the way viewers receive works of art. The problem is particularly pronounced with respect to what Tushnet calls non-textual works because copyright law’s default to textuality means that the tools and methods that judges use misalign with the objects of their examination.

In …

The Beef With Big Meat: Meatpacking And Antitrust In America's Heartland, Kelsea Kenzy Sutton

South Dakota Law Review

No abstract provided.

Self Vs. Society: The Essential Antagonism Between Society And The Individual In Adam Bede, The Mill On The Floss, And Daniel Deronda, Meredith Leigh Wilson

Honors Theses

This study focuses on the conflicts between society and the individual in three of George Eliot’s works: Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, and Daniel Deronda. This work analyzes the relationship between the individual and his or her society within these novels and uses its findings to illustrate the mechanism and goal of social evolution as it is depicted in these three works. Research was conducted by reading several primary and secondary texts. The primary texts included the three novels discussed, as well as many of Eliot’s non-fiction essays and Herbert Spencer’s essay The Social Organism, in order to …

An Examination Of Reaching, Teaching, Feeding And Loving People For The Kingdom Of God, Gwendolyn Hill

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this project is to demonstrate the biblically prescribed methodologies and innovative tools for attaining the desirable results of more disciples instead of followers of Christ. It is incumbent on every believer to fulfill the mandate of the Great Commission, to go out into the world and preach the gospel to every ethnos. There are several contributing factors that are conducive to people globally starving holistically mainly due to a deviancy of knowledge imparted and less implementation of discipleship. The inclusion of this thesis is a partial account of interviews with some Christian leaders and selected Disciples of …

Homeschool Participation In Public School Extracurricular Activities In Tennessee: A Case Study, Elizabeth Rockholt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The study describes a qualitative collective case study regarding the possibility of homeschool participation in public school extracurricular activities in West Tennessee. Literature exists on extracurricular activities but not on the effect on the homeschooled student specifically. The research questions addressed: How do homeschool parents in west Tennessee whose children are involved in one or more extracurricular activities outside of the public school system feel about current legislation regarding homeschool students being excluded from participation in public school extracurricular activities other than sports? Why would homeschool parents in west Tennessee allow their child to participate or why would they not …

Predictors Of Resilience Among Hispanic Adults: Stepwise Analyses From Late Adolescence To Adulthood, Katherine Marie Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: The focus of this study was factors that affect resilience as a health outcome among Hispanic adults. Some Hispanics and other members of disadvantaged and vulnerable populations have developed remarkable ways of coping with adversity, such as positive reframing (Farley, Galves, Dickinson, & Perez, 2005). Purpose: This research aimed to examine various ways of coping in response to difficult life situations for Hispanic adults and identify those that are associated with resilient outcomes. Methods: The present sub-study focused on difficult life problem narratives from the semi-structured interviews conducted in Dr. Felipe González Castro's Corazón projects (Castro, Kellison, Boyd & …

Predictors Of Academic Success Between On-Track And Off-Track Students In A Mexican University, Jesus Francisco Hinojos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The main purpose of this study was to assess how predictors of quality of academic effort relate to academic success and student persistence of on-track and off-track students in a higher education institution in Northern Mexico; to investigate the relationship of pre-entry attributes,

family background and academic success as expressed by GPA among on-track, off-track and dropout students. And to examine the relationship between participants quality of effort invested in their own learning and development in six academic areas and four areas of college students' social activities.

This study utilized the College Student Experience Questionnaire (CSEQ) to determine the quality …

Arab Muslim Immigrant Women's Experiences Of Living In The United States: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Maissa Khatib

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Over three million Arab Muslims live in the United States, and more than half are women (Nasser-McMillan, 2003). Little is known about these women in the growing and diverse Arab American Muslim population, and there is limited information available regarding their experiences of living in the U.S. Their experiences influence multiple aspects of their lives, including functioning in mainstream culture, use of resources or agencies, and the decisions they make that shape their acculturation outcome.

Purpose: To describe the experiences of Arab Muslim immigrant women living in the U.S.

Methods: This qualitative study examined the shared experiences of immigrant …

The Development And Validation Of A Domestic Violence Scale Administered To Ged Program Participants To Determine The Effect On Test Performance, Andres Muro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Overwhelming evidence shows that domestic violence is a very serious problem affecting women in the United States. Black et al. (2010) report that approximately 34 million women in the United States, or approximately 30%, have experienced some form of violence including rape, physical, violence, and/or stalking in their lifetimes. Twenty-two percent of the victims have experienced PTSD, 15% have been injured, and 8% have needed medical care. While these statistics show that domestic violence is a serious problem, there are virtually no statistics about the extent to which domestic violence is a barrier to the academic success of Latina immigrant …

The Effects Of Charismatic Leadership And Religion On Decision Making, Brandt A. Smith

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

We examined the effects of leadership and religious priming on decision-making in a resource allocation task involving a decision between funding hydro-fracture mining research and/or solar energy research. We found strong main effects for charismatic v. non-charismatic leadership, and for religious priming v. non-religious priming. Further, we found a significant interaction in that the effects of religious priming on economic decision-making in a resource allocation task was stronger in the non-charismatic condition than in the charismatic condition. Implications of this research and recommendations for future studies are discussed.

Political Corruption: Accountability And Party System Institutionalization, Susan Achury

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Providing a definition built on the agency relationship between voters and public officials, this study presents an institutional approach to the causes of political corruption. I argue that higher levels of political party institutionalization reduce political corruption. Institutionalized political party systems help to overcome collective problems among voters within democracies. By increasing levels of accountability, institutionalized political party systems alter public officials' incentives towards a cleaner exercise of the public power. Focusing on different strategies adopted by political parties, I analyze the effectiveness of the constraints imposed on public officials' corrupt behavior within democracies. On the one hand, institutionalization of …

Substance Abuse And Rehabilitation: Understanding The Issue From First-Hand Accounts, Mauricio Enrique Austin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study clarifies understanding of factors influencing substance abuse and rehabilitation from the perspective of the substance abuser. The data collection and analysis methods employed include single and cross-case analyses, based on data gathered through semi-structured, face-to-face life history interviews with thirteen individuals who had substance abuse histories. In some respects, study results coincide with the extant literature on the subject. For example, most study participants first used drugs and/or alcohol while they were children or adolescents; experienced family and/or peer influence to start using; suffered from illnesses and/or loss of employment in association with their substance abuse; experienced a …

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

Community Fact Sheet: The Changing Face Of Nwa’S Homeless: More Results From The 2013 Homeless Census, Kevin Fitzpatrick, Don Edward Willis, Gail O'Connor

Homelessness

On any given night, it is estimated that over 2,400 adults and youth are without their own place in Washington and Benton Counties. Results from the 2013 Northwest Arkansas Homeless Census of interviewed adults (n=443), revealed that 63 percent were male, 80 percent were White/Caucasian, and 66 percent single. The median age was 43 years of age. This demographic profile mirrors much of what was found in the 2011 Northwest Arkansas Point-in-Time Homeless Census.

Actions, Practices, And Workplace Conditions That Characterize High-Engagement Workgroups In A Hospital Environment, Barbette Weimer-Elder

Dissertations

In the United States a large number of people are not engaged at work. The lack of engagement affects the service outcomes as well as financial bottom line of organizations. The cost of actively disengaged employees in the U.S. is about $300 billion a year. Research cites the importance of examining business units that scored high on employee engagement to learn about actions and practices that drive business outcomes.

Between 2005-2010 The Community Hospital (TCH), part of a Healthcare Corporation in Valley Town, USA (pseudonym), assessed employee engagement using Gallup’s Q12 survey. Some groups scored in the top quartile and …

The Role Of Religious Orientation And Ethnic Identity On Religious Coping Among Bereaved Individuals, Luis G. Cruz-Ortega

Dissertations

Problem: The literature suggests that religious orientation and ethnic identity inform the religious coping process, which is better understood in the context of a particular stressor. However, research on this topic is limited, particularly among ethnic minorities.

Method: A survey was used to collect data on religious orientation, ethnic identity, and religious coping from a sample of 319 adults who had lost a significant other within 36 months of the study. A total of 11 variables were measured using The Means-Ends Spirituality Questionnaire, the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised, and the Brief RCOPE.

Results: A canonical variate labeled "religious engagement" was …

The Vexations Of Aging From The Imagination (A Lot) And Life (A Little) Of Bill Miller, James J. White

Reviews

Bill Miller has done something quite uncommon, possibly singular: he has become a prominent law professor by writing books that have nothing to do with the law. His books do not even have the remote relation to law that books by philosophers or historians can claim. Having studied medieval history before law school and achieved law school tenure by teetering on the edge of law in his work on Icelandic sagas, Miller jumped the fence completely in his books The Mystery of Courage, The Anatomy of Disgust, and Faking It. He has never returned. Presumably, this Review earned a place …

A Guided Tour To (Real-Life) Social Network, Pablo Brañas-Garza, Ramon Cobo-Reyes, Natalia Jiminéz, Giovanni Ponti

ESI Working Papers

Limited attention has been devoted on how (real-life) social networks are elicited and mapped, even less from the viewpoint of mechanism design. This paper surveys the few mechanisms that have been proposed by the experimental literature to this purpose. These mechanisms di er in their incentive structure, as well as in the means of reward they employ. We compare these elicitation devices on the basis of the estimated di erences in the characteristics of the induced networks, such as the number of (mutual) links, correspondence and accuracy. Our main conclusion is that the elicited network architecture is itself dependent on …

Commitment Problems In Conflict Resolution, Erik O. Kimbrough, Jared Rubin, Roman M. Sheremeta, Timothy W. Shields

ESI Working Papers

Commitment problems are inherent to non-binding conflict resolution mechanisms, since an unsatisfied party can ignore the resolution and initiate conflict. We provide experimental evidence suggesting that even in the absence of binding contractual agreements individuals often avoid conflict by committing to the outcome of a conflict resolution mechanism. Commitment problems are mitigated to a greater extent for groups who opt-in to the conflict resolution mechanism, but only when opting-in is costly. Although conflict rates are higher when opting-in is costly than when it is free or exogenously imposed, commitment problems are greatly reduced amongst those groups who choose to opt-in.

You Can’T Put Old Wine In New Bottles: The Effect Of Newcomers On Coordination In Groups, Matthew W. Mccarter, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

A common finding in social sciences is that member change hinders group functioning and performance. However, questions remain as to why member change negatively affects group performance and what are some ways to alleviate the negative effects of member change on performance? To answer these questions we conduct an experiment in which we investigate the effect of newcomers on a group’s ability to coordinate efficiently. Participants play a coordination game in a four-person group for the first part of the experiment, and then two members of the group are replaced with new participants, and the newly formed group plays the …

The Construction Of Gender Occupations In Mexico: Government Issued Elementary Textbooks, Anna V. Haro

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Historically, gender occupational stereotyping has mainly affected women across numerous social areas. Given that political socialization plays a key role in the classroom, analyzing the gendered language and images in textbooks can help determine social expectations and the efficacy of gendered policies. Previous works suggest that elementary textbooks (through gendered words and images) structure children's perceptions of women's and men's occupations. In addition, much work remains with respect to exploring how such depictions may contribute to the gendered stereotyping that continues to permeate across certain Mexican communities, specifically in the private and public sphere. To fill this gap, I conduct …

Deprivation And Hispanic Health Paradox: Neighborhood Effects On Children's Wheezing In El Paso, Texas, Young-An Kim

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the impact of hypothetical health determinants - including objective and relative economic deprivation, as well as foreign-born composition -at the neighborhood-level on respiratory wheezing among Hispanic children in El Paso, Texas while accounting for individual-level covariates based on hierarchical logistic modeling (HLM). Due to El Paso's majority Latino/a population, focus is placed on the so-called "Hispanic health paradox" through analysis of the impact of neighborhood foreign-born composition on Hispanic children's wheezing. Neighborhood-level variables at the census tract-level are derived from US Census data. The percent of families in poverty and the GINI coefficient for income (income inequality) …

Rewriting Revision: A Case Study Of First Year Composition Students, Myshie M. Pagel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This case study focuses on the revision practices of seven first year composition students at a U.S./Mexico border community college. The analysis of revision practices is framed by the negotiation of dissonance between gist and intention. Three types of data were collected: screen captured writing sessions, instructor comments, and participant interviews. The data was analyzed through a grid based on Faigley and Witte's taxonomy grid of revision changes. This included three major categories: surface level, meaning preserving, and text base level changes. As in past studies on revision, the participants in this case study followed a similar trend. A majority …

Life And Health Outside Prison, Tiffany Amorette Young

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the subjective understandings of formerly incarcerated individuals' experiences of health and healthcare prior to, during, and post release. The study incorporates in depth ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and life charting to formulate a holistic understanding of how incarceration has impacted the health and lives of the participants recruited for this study. All participants were incarcerated for a minimum of one year in the U.S. prison system. This interdisciplinary study contributes to the fields of sociology, criminology, and public health, and builds on the literature of race, health, and corrections in the United States.

An Ecological View Of Language Choice In A Bilingual Program: A Dynamic Model Of Social Structures, Katherine Christoffersen

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

The present paper proposes a Dynamic Model of Social Structures as a model of language choice which highlights and synthesizes two significant themes repeated throughout the history of language choice research: agency and function. This model stems from ecological frameworks advanced in the fields of language planning (Hornberger, 2002) and language learning (Lam, 2007). Central to the model is the notion of language as a social structure (Gafaranga, 2005) among infinite other social structures (e.g., broader society, social network, local context, and individual linguistic behaviors). The Dynamic Model of Social Structures integrates the concept of agency and function in demonstrating …

Determinants Of Child Labor In Malawi And Tanzania, Courage C. Mudzongo, Christopher M. Whitsel

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

Using the Malawi Integrated Household Survey of 2009 and the Tanzania National Panel Survey of 2010, this study seeks to understand the factors that increase a child`s likelihood of labor participation. A greater percentage of children in the Tanzania sample than those from the Malawi sample participate in child labor. Logistic regression analyses showed that, as hypothesized, the greatest influence on child labor observed at the individual level is the child`s school enrollment status. Enrollment reduces the likelihood of engaging in child labor in both countries. When tested in the combined model older children in Tanzania remain at higher risk …

Remembering The City: Memory-Images: Part Of The Portfolio Memory City, I Rae

School of Art, Design and Architecture

No abstract provided.

Intersectionality: Mapping The Movements Of A Theory, Devon Carbado, Kimberlé W. Crenshaw, Vicki M. Mays, Barbara Tomlinson

Faculty Scholarship

Very few theories have generated the kind of interdisciplinary and global engagement that marks the intellectual history of intersectionality. Yet, there has been very little effort to reflect upon precisely how intersectionality has moved across time, disciplines, issues, and geographic and national boundaries. Our failure to attend to intersectionality’s movement has limited our ability to see the theory in places in which it is already doing work and to imagine other places to which the theory might be taken. Addressing these questions, this special issue reflects upon the genesis of intersectionality, engages some of the debates about its scope and …

“One Day On The Red Hills Of Georgia”: The Effects Of Immigration Status On Latino Migrants’ Experience Of Discrimination, Utilization Of Public Services, And Attitudes Toward Acculturation, Mikhail Lyubansky, Paul A. Harris, William E. Baker, Cameron D. Lippard

Faculty Articles

This study documents the experiences and identities of undocumented Spanish-speaking migrants in Georgia vis-à-vis their counterparts who have legal status. Structured interviews were used to collect data from 127 adults (49 percent undocumented at their time of arrival and 38 percent undocumented at the time of data collection) regarding their experience of discrimination, utilization of services, identity preferences, mental health, and beliefs in five domains: vulnerability, injustice, distrust, superiority, and helplessness. Significant immigration status differences emerged for education, income, utilization of some city services, and a few of the belief scales. However, the documented and undocumented samples were more similar …