Digital Commons Network^™

Toward A Biocommunicable Cartography Of Health Decision-Making In The Amazon Basin Of Ecuador, James Cartwright

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This paper comprises a critical, ethnographic study of health communication in a rural community of Amazonian Ecuador. By synthesizing approaches from anthropology, discourse studies, and public health, the study explores how conversations influence health decisions, how communities understand health systems, and how macrostructural discourse changes the political economy of healthcare in Ecuador. My work draws on the recent theoretical development of ‘biocommunicability’ in anthropology as well as earlier sociological research on knowledge construction. Most importantly, this paper offers a critique of current interventions by NGOs in the region.

Spectator 2014-06-04, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

In Print, Jean R. Norman

UNLV Innovation

• Smyrna’s Ashes: Humanitarianism, Genocide, and the Birth of the Middle East
• Tantivy
• Reproducing Race: The Paradox of Generation Mix
• The Bride Factory: Mass Media Portrayals of Women and Weddings

Aiding Fair Trade Online Through Place Branding, Vivek Shah, Hsun-Ming Lee, Enrique P. Becerra

Communications of the IIMA

With the increased awareness of developed nations about social inequities in the world, fair trade has become in vogue. The Internet provides an opportunity for fair trade organizations (FTOs) to market their goods and take advantage of the desire of customers in developed nations to pay greater than free trade prices to reduce social inequities. FTOs, however, lack resources and knowledge to compete online against established retailers and/or branded products. We argue that through place branding FTOs can maximize their Internet retailing presence and expand their reach while increasing awareness of ethical consumerism. Free trade and place branding are reviewed …

Redesigning A Bachelor Degree In Mexico For Accreditation , Juan Manuel Gomez Reynoso, Estela Lizbeth Muñoz Andrade

Communications of the IIMA

Accreditation is a major issue for Mexican universities. As of February 2009 there were 48 technology-related programs at 31 universities accredited in Mexico, 14 of them in Information Systems (IS). This paper describes some experiences in redesigning an IS program for accreditation purposes that can be helpful to other programs that are thinking about starting an accreditation initiative. This paper describes the four profiles defined by accreditation bodies and compares them to what programs in institutions around the world are teaching.

Knowledge Management And Information Technology: Enablers Of E-Commerce Development, Muhammed A. Badamas

Communications of the IIMA

Information and Communication Technologies provide the platform for development across economic and other sectors. Knowledge and information are interconnected. The effective use of information and knowledge, however, depend on the availability of an efficient information technology. This in turn will accelerate the establishment of e-commerce in developing economies. This paper examines the relationship between knowledge, information, information technology and how they can be enablers for the development of e-commerce in Africa

Exploring The 'Food Motif' In Songs From The Irish Tradition., Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

As-787-14 Resolution On Sustainability, Sustainability Committee And Josh Machamer

Academic Senate Resolutions

That the Academic Senate Sustainability Committee be directed to develop a list of classes based on a revised Senate accepted assessment process that meet the Sustainability Learning Objectives and, by extension, the relevant portion of the University Learning Objectives.

Phylogeography Of E1b1b1b-M81 Haplogroup And Analysis Of Its Subclades In Morocco, Ahmed Reguig, Nourdin Harich, Abdelhamid Barakat, Hassan Rouba

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

In this work, we have analyzed a total of 295 unrelated Berber-speaking men from the northern, center and southern of Morocco, in order to characterize frequency of E1b1b1b-M81 haplogroup and to refine the phylogeny of its subclades: E1b1b1b1-M107, E1b1b1b2-M183 and E1b1b1b2a-M165. For this purpose, we have typed four biallelic polymorphisms: M81, M107, M183 and M165. As results, a large majority of the Berber-speaking male lineages belong to the Y chromosomal E1b1b1b-M81 haplogroup. The frequency ranged from 79.1 to 98.5% in all localities sampled. Then, the E1b1b1b2-M183 was the most dominant subclade in our samples, which ranged from 65.1% to 83.1%. …

Academic Senate - Agenda, 6/3/14, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Food, The Nutritional Product That Fuels The Passing Of Time: How Time And Nutrition Transformed Eating Into Refuelling, Diarmuid Cawley

Dublin Gastronomy Symposium

No abstract provided.

Saudi Aramco And The Politics Of Cultural Heritage, Anahid Hanounik Huth

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Culture Heritage in recent decades has become a catch word within world discourse. It is increasingly receiving generous attention in both money and time form private and public sectors on preservation policy. The application of so-called preservation and restoration projects, the alleged care for Cultural Heritage, has become a motive and battle cry of UNESCO, World Bank, private companies, banks, NGOs, European Council, and Western governments' foreign policy. This leads us to ask what is behind this increasing attention, and whether we should see it as Christina Luke 2013 suggested in her article--is Heritage increasingly being seen as a soft …

Ethnic Language Maintenance: A Case Study Of Second-Generation Iranian Americans In The Northeastern States, Maryam Moeini Meybodi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As a relatively new, highly educated and professional group, Iranian Americans show distinctive language usage patterns. Using data from the American Community Survey (ACS) and 48 interviews with East Coast Iranian Americans, this thesis explores the attitudes and behavior of children of Iranian immigrants and their parents toward learning and preserving their native language: Persian. Although the literature points to the erosion of parental language among the second generation and its extinction by the third generation, the results of this study suggest otherwise, at least for young children. Findings show that parents and children had positive attitude and behavior toward …

Aging Out Of The Spectrum Of Cultural Visibility, Darthea M. Miller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I argue that the valorization of youth and the subsequent quest for agelessness has caused such an explosion of ageism that the elderly have been relegated to a culturally invisible status. The intersection of age and gender is doubly problematic for women due to sexism and the perennial objectification of the female body. Thinking of visibility as a measure of social acceptability, the consequences of cultural disappearance for the aging woman is an important site for investigation and theorizing. This thesis depicts the erasure of aging women from the cultural landscape as an effect of media representation and self-care work …

Provisional Fictions: Discontinuous Selves And The Making Of Meaning, Tara Roeder

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My project is an exploration of trauma-based meaning-making practices and reader response across a variety of sites. By teasing out some of the complex connections among trauma, narrative, and audience that may occur in spaces ranging from non-linear memoir to courtroom testimony to the writing classroom, I engage with the inherently dialogic nature of making meaning from trauma, and examine some of the ways in which women who engage in recursive, embodied rhetorical practices can productively disrupt conventional expectations of the function of trauma narratives. Chapter One examines the formal, linguistic, and philosophical choices made by women memoirists who challenge …

Brothers In Motion: Religious Practice, Political Action, And The Mobilization Of The Early Muslim Brotherhood, Ian Henry Vandermeulen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In light of Randy Martin's proposal to use dance as an analytic tool for understanding social movements, this article seeks to reconstruct the early mobilization of the Muslim Brotherhood as "bodies in motion." Through a re-examination of both primary and secondary source material, this study highlights the ways in which founder Hasan al-Banna appropriated both Islamic and colonial choreographic logics into the Muslim Brotherhood's pious training regimen, scouting programs, political expression, and social welfare projects. I argue that the Muslim Brotherhood was mobilized through al-Banna's revival of traditional Islamic practices concerning the body, reconfigured for the goal not of otherworldly …

Women In Foreclosure: Social Reproduction & Mortgage Strain In The Subprime Era, Amy Baker

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Advisor: Professor Mimi Abramovitz

This research captures the experiences of 31 single female homeowners with risky lending markets and mortgage foreclosure in the city of Philadelphia. In-depth, semi-structured interviewing was employed to build knowledge about single women's experiences with seeking a loan, buying a home, entering default and attempting to stall foreclosure. Thematic analysis of the data demonstrated that risky lending and foreclosure did not mark the onset of financial instability among study participants. Instead, it functioned as a tipping point for single women unable to access upward mobility and asset accrual throughout the lifespan. Women's status as the strongest …

The New Star Of 1572 And The Ascendancy Of The Mathematical Over The Causal Epistemology Of Natural Philosophy, Douglas William Godley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The arrival of the new star of 1572, the first nova recorded in the western canon of natural philosophy startled and challenged the scientific community of the age. As they worked to observe and to understand the nature of this new star, astronomers across Europe quickly discovered that the traditional intellectual tools that they had come to respect and rely upon when observing the heavens were by and large useless in helping them to gather data, and thus to come to conclusions about the star's location, its physical nature and its meaning. In the records that contemporaries have left, modern …

Paris And Havana: A Century Of Mutual Influence, Laila Pedro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation employs an interdisciplinary approach to trace the history of exchange and influence between Cuban, French, and Francophone Caribbean artists in the twentieth century. I argue, first, that there is a unique and largely unexplored tradition of dialogue, collaboration, and mutual admiration between Cuban, French and Francophone artists; second, that a recurring and essential theme in these artworks is the representation of the human body; and third, that this relationship ought not to be understood within the confines of a single genre, but must be read as a series of dialogues that are both ekphrastic (that is, they rely …

The Role Of Water In The Rise, Prominence, And Decline Of Nabataean Petra, Dennis Cummins

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This paper evaluates the rise of Nabataean Petra, its prominence, and eventual decline. The predominant context is effective water management as a pivotal driving factor in the growth of the Nabataean kingdom, which fostered an environment in which its famous incense trade could develop. Rising incense demand was the catalyst for growth from the first century BC through the first century AD; in AD 106 when Rome annexed the Nabataean kingdom, Petra began its gradual decline. In AD 363 an earthquake destroyed much of the city, and Petra did not return to its earlier prominence. From the outset, water played …

How Silently Sheela-Na-Gig Speaks: Memory, Mythos, And The Female Body, Amber C. Snider

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How and why do we destroy female agency, still today? Focusing on some of the mythical foundations and formations found in ancient Celtic and Greek imaginings, the "bodily" aspects in particular, this thesis traces the ways in which some of the modern women intellectuals receive or reject the typical feminist or female elements found in mythologies; the elided nature of the female trinity and the life giver-destroyer circularity inherent in goddesses and archetypes, for instance, appears to mirror our cultural impulse to destroy the female body. It is then not enough to create a new mythology by and for women--we …

Gay And Lesbian Travel Writing: A Present In Need Of A Different Future, Michael Verdirame

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The first half of this thesis will detail the history of travel, as well as the primary reasons why people travel and why it is such a lucrative industry. This will be followed by an account of the history of travel writing, with a specific emphasis on the various types of avenues available to travel writers and the reasons why people feel compelled to write about their travels. The first half will then conclude with a content analysis of three current gay and lesbian travel publications available on different media platforms--Passport Magazine as an online magazine, Man About World as …

Improving E-Readiness Of Sri Lanka With Supplementary Grid Supplied Electric Power, Reggie Davidrajuh, Parwaiz Karamat, Velauthapillai Dhayalan

Communications of the IIMA

This paper focuses on identification of a micro project for improvement of e-readiness of Sri Lanka. First, the proposed strategy by the Government of Sri Lanka is presented. Second, from the proposed strategy, requirement analysis is done to draw a set of requirements, using two approaches: a) E-readiness measurement, b) System analysis using the theory of connection. Third, from the requirements, a micro project is identified that can improve e-readiness of Sri Lanka; the micro project – supplementary grid supplied electric power – is given priority as this project is people-centric, low-cost, and sustainable.

Assessing The Usability Of Union Web Sites, Christpher M. Lowery, Nicholas A. Beadles Ii, Larry H. Faulk Ii

Communications of the IIMA

This study examines the usability of union websites. Unions have suffered steep declines in membership, and some see the internet as a potential ally in the attempt to reverse these declines. However, there are questions concerning unions’ use of cyberspace to revitalize organizing. This study applies the Microsoft Usability Guidelines in a framework developed by Agarwal and Venkatesh (2002) to assess the usability of union websites. The union sites examined in this study scored high in terms of usability, when compared to previously assessed sites, indicating that unions are putting effort into creating useful web sites.

Perfect Information, Michael Hemesath

Administration Publications

No abstract provided.

Mitochondrial Dna Variability Among Six South-American Amerindian Villages From The Pano Linguistic Group, Celso T. Mendes-Junior, Aguinaldo L. Simoes

Human Biology Open Access Pre-Prints

Although scattered throughout a large geographic area, the members of the Pano linguistic group present strong ethnic, linguistic and cultural homogeneity, a feature that causes them to be considered as components of a same “Pano” tribe. Nevertheless, the genetic homogeneity between Pano villages has not been examined before. To study the genetic structure of the Pano linguistic group, four major Native American mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) founder haplogroups were analyzed in 77 Amerindians from six villages of four Pano tribes (Katukina, Kaxináwa, Marúbo, and Yaminawa) located in the Brazilian Amazon. The central position of these tribes in the continent makes them …

Students’ Digital Photography Behaviors During A Multiday Environmental Science Field Trip And Their Recollections Of Photographed Science Content, Victor R. Lee

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Taking photographs to document the experiences of an educational field trip is becoming a common activity for teachers and students alike. Considering the regular creation of photographic artifacts, our goal in this paper is to explore students’ picture taking behavior and their recollections of science content associated with their photographs. In this study, we partnered with a class of fifth-grade students in the United States and provided each student with a digital camera to document their experiences during an environmental science field trip at a national park. We report the frequency of photography behaviors according to which activities were most …

Reorganizing The Relationship Of Digital Library Resources And Physical Learning Environments, Antti M. Rousi, Michael Fosmire, Risto Maijala, Benjamin D. Branch, Nicole Kong

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Introduction. This study examines the theoretical variance of user experience generated by linking digital library resources via QR codes into library learning environments. Methods. A heuristic evaluation was done about the theoretical variance of user experience created by the QR code linking procedure. This evaluation was based on Garrett’s (2003) framework of user experience. The targets of the evaluation were two existing QR code portals of both Aalto and Purdue University Libraries. Results. The existing QR code portals generate variation of varying degrees into all of the elements of user experience. Conclusion. Despite the breadth of variance created, perhaps the …

Library Learning Spaces In The Digital Age, Anne Horn, Bernadette Lingham, Sue Owen

Proceedings of the IATUL Conferences

Students describe the Library as being central to their learning, offering focus and inspiration, enabling access to information and technologies, and collaboration with peers. Deakin University Library’s building redevelopment program has been integral to the Library’s re-imagined value proposition for students learning in the digital age. The introduction of new generation library and learning spaces strengthens the University’s offer to students for a brilliant education where you are and where you want to go through premium cloud and located learning experiences that are personal, engaging and relevant.

The Library’s building projects are distinctive in terms of location and the built …

Advantages, Disadvantages, And Lessons Learned In Conducting Telephone Focus Groups To Discuss Biospecimen Research Concerns Of Individuals Genetically At Risk For Cancer, Alexis M. Koskan, Janique Rice, Clement K. Gwede, Cathy D. Meade, Ivana Sehovic, Gwendolyn P. Quinn

The Qualitative Report

Advances in telecommunication technology allow biomedical researchers to explore new, inexpensive opportunities for conducting focus group research. This article reports our experiences using such technology to engage individuals genetically at risk for cancer about biospecimen research. Telephone-based focus groups were conducted with a total of 40 individuals, and participants were asked about their experiences and perceived benefits and limitations of participating in a telephone focus group about biospecimen research. The lessons learned can effectively be applied to other areas of health research. In particular, this method may be most useful to engage individuals who are less apt to speak in …