Digital Commons Network^™

Insights From A Global Engineering Outreach Course, Randy S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

A two-semester multi-disciplinary Global Engineering Outreach (GEO) course was initiated in 2007 to provide an opportunity for junior and senior-level engineering and technology students to design and implement humanitarian-based engineering projects in developing communities. Recently, the course was integrated with a sociology course to enhance the educational opportunities between social scientists and engineers. During the GEO course, students work on small-scale projects that are selected in conjunction with members of the developing communities. Students regularly interact with community members during project development. Following the GEO course, students participate in a two-week implementation trip. Learning outcomes associated with the course are …

Sustainability Pedagogies For The Business Language Classroom, Margaret Gonglewski, Anna H. Helm

Global Business Languages

Heightened urgency about the question of the earth’s survival has generated increased attention to how to teach sustainability across the curriculum. The business language course, positioned at the nexus of business and the humanities, is the ideal environment for bringing to bear perspectives from multiple disciplines on questions around sustainability. This article examines the notion of “sustainability pedagogies” framed within three key aspects of sustainability education noted in the scholarship: interdisciplinarity, transformative learning, and experiential learning. In each of these areas, we provide an example of how the sustainability pedagogies can be implemented in business language courses.

The Value Of Balanced Growth For Transportation, Kirby Date, Jacqueline M. Jenkins, Wendy A. Kellogg, Kathryn W. Hexter, Suzann Rhodes

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

The Ohio Balanced Growth Program is a voluntary, locally-driven, incentive-driven program which aims to encourage compact, nodal development patterns. The Ohio Department of Transportation provided support for this research to evaluate potential links between Balanced Growth-type policy, land use and development patterns, and transportation benefits.

A literature review was completed to understand the existing body of knowledge regarding the connection between policy, land use, and transportation. This included a scan of Balanced Growth-type programs across the US. Twenty-six US Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) were selected and reviewed for general geographic and policy characteristics. Land use and transportation outcome data were …

Understanding Connections Between Rural Communities And Family Well-Being, Cynthia Fletcher

Carsey Publications

In this report, author Cynthia Needles Fletcher explores the role of "place" in shaping rural residents'-and in particular low-income residents'-futures. The analysis draws from interviews with residents and community key informants in Hampton, Iowa in an original study in 1997 and again in 2012-13

Ua45/6 Commencement Program, Wku Registrar

WKU Administration Documents

Commencement program listing graduates.

Implementation Of A Helicobacter Pylori Test And Treat Program In Rural Nepal Facilitated By A Nurse Practitioner Doctor Of Nursing Practice Comprehensive Project Report, Shelley Bloom

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

There are 30 million people in Nepal, 85% live in rural areas and have access to 15% of health care resources. This deficit in health care resources is supplemented by services provided by non-governmental organizations who organize short-term medical missions. At a rural Nepalese health post 45% of the patients complained of abdominal discomfort. As the prevalence of helicobacter pylori is 50-90% in Southeast Asia, the patients believed that they had helicobacter pylori.

In resource-poor communities, there is a gap between best practices and the care delivered. To decrease the gap in one rural Nepalese health post, a Nurse Practitioner …

Urban Garden Survival, Phoebe Ferguson, Rachel Martin

Biology Presentations

Urban gardens are community led plots designated for agricultural purposes in residential and urban areas. Greenville County has seen a recent growth in urban gardens with the assistance of non-profit groups like Gardening for Good. The current total in Greenville County stands at 79 with new gardens added every year. While the growth is encouraging, some gardens have failed. This study uses GIS to explore the social and ecological factors that correlate with urban garden survival in an effort to provide garden managers with information that will help them develop gardens that thrive and persist.

Influence Of Affluence On Sustainable Housing: A Contextual Study Of Mysore, India, S Basavapatna Kumaraswamy

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This inter-disciplinary research draws understanding from the socialcultural and economic studies to define the values and aspirations of the middle class demographic and its implications on the sustainable housing. Shared spaces have traditionally played a key role in passive cooling strategies and the maintenance of socially sustainable communities. Changes in social conditions, practices and lifestyle can be traced by the way they identify, demarcate and celebrate their boundaries. This research points to the importance of the external boundary of the site and the edge of buildings in terms of aligning meaningful sustainable design strategies with the concerns and aspirations of …

Levels Of Household Chaos Tied To Quality Of Parent-Adolescent Relationships In Coös County, New Hampshire, Corinna J. Tucker

Carsey Publications

In this brief, author Corinna Tucker examines Coös County adolescents’ reports of household chaos using data from the Coös Youth Study and discusses whether socio-economic and parenting differences are related to adolescents who experience household chaos. Tucker reports that household chaos—characterized by high levels of environmental noise, crowding, disorganization and instability—is generally low in Coös County, but there is variability in the extent of adolescents’ experiences with chaos. Household chaos was greater in households with lower socio-economic status than those with average and higher socio-economic status. The finding that household chaos was related to adolescents’ reports of lower quality relationships …

Annual Report Of Research And Creative Productions By Faculty And Staff, January To December, 2014, Research And Creative Productions Committee. Morehead State University.

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Reports and Publications

Annual Report Of Research and Creative Productions by Faculty and Staff from January to December, 2014.

Evaluating Current Management Of Drug-Resistanttuberculosis In Mumbai, India, Meryl Kus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research was aimed at analyzing the current state of drug resistant tuberculosis in Mumbai and how effectively different actors in the realm of public health are managing DR-TB. The methods for this project involved a variety of semi-structured interviews as well as field observation. Key findings show a very present and largely negative private sector influence, effective NGO models for disease control, a burden of DR-TB/HIV comorbidity, and a rapid increase to transmission-based spread of DR-TB. Key implications of conclusions include the necessity of increasing the private sector’s compliance with WHO standards, adaptation of community and education based NGO …

A New Transit Safety Narrative, Todd Litman

Journal of Public Transportation

Public transportation is, overall, a relatively safe (low crash risk) and secure (low crime risk) transport mode. Transit travel has about one-tenth the traffic casualty (injury or death) rate as automobile travel, and residents of transit-oriented communities have about onefifth the per capita crash casualty rate as in automobile-oriented communities. Transit also tends to have lower overall crime rates than automobile travel, and transit improvements can help reduce overall crime risk by improving surveillance and economic opportunities for at-risk populations. Despite its relative safety and security, many people consider transit travel dangerous and are reluctant to use it or support …

Mining And Sustainable Communities: A Case Study Of The Red Dog Mine, Bob Loeffler

ISER Articles

Politicians and planners work to attract economic development because of the desire to provide jobs and income for residents, and to find tax revenue to fund government services. Their focus is usually statewide: jobs, income, and taxes for Alaskans. This article is about the impact of one remote development project on nearby, Native communities. It is about the community effects of the Red Dog Lead and Zinc Mine in northwest Alaska. 2014 was the 25th anniversary for the mine, which began operation in 1989. This case study evaluates the mine’s effects on the communities after 25 years of operation. It …

Leadership In Building Communities: Carillon And Edgemont, Fitz Center For Leadership In Community, University Of Dayton

Dayton Neighborhood Studies

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Higher Education In Rural Community Development, Anita Faye Thompson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher education institutions commonly play a role in community development. Rural communities may be even more dependent on the university's investment. As higher education has looked to meet demands of stakeholders calling for greater accountability, it has become necessary for universities to be able to justify the effectiveness of these efforts. The purpose of this study was to determine the elements necessary for successful rural community development in Western Oklahoma. Utilizing the Delphi research method, 20 community development experts in rural Western Oklahoma participated in the three-round survey process. In the initial survey, participants collectively submitted a list of 41 …

Why Environmental Laws Fail, Jan G. Laitos, Lauren Joseph Wolongevicz

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Although governments have deployed an array of environmental protection laws, our planet continues to experience unprecedented environmental “crises,” including climate change, resource depletion, species extinction, ecosystem damage, and toxic air-water-land pollution. Despite universal acknowledgment and recognition of these serious environmental issues, and despite a growing list of laws designed to address these issues, the reality is that these adverse Earth-based environmental changes continue, and may even be worsening. Environmental protection laws have often failed because they usually include certain problematic characteristics: they are anthropocentric, in that their goal is to protect and benefit humans, not the environment in which humans …

Predicted Performance Of A Skytherm North, A Highly Insulated Building Envelope System And A Frost Protected Shallow Foundation, Kitrina Ann Stratton

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

How do you design a durable, sustainable, and financeable Net Zero Energy house for a cold weather climate using little or no external energy that is also affordable? Reviewing all of the factors that would influence the design and materials selection of an appropriate response to the issues, the perfect system for housing people, whether it is in response to affordability, durability, comfort, cultural sensitivity, appearance or being locally appropriate, is using some kind of straw bale construction system with an integrated frost protected shallow foundation and a SkyTherm North design.

The focus and intention of this research is to …

An Lntegrated Approach (Remote Sensing, Gls, Engineering, Datamining) For Modeling, Assessing And Mitigating Slope Stability Hazards In Mountainous Environments, Racha El Kadiri

Dissertations

Mountainous areas are quite often subjected to hazards related to their steep relief and intense precipitation events. These hazards (e.g., debris flows, mudflows, rockfalls) pose serious threats to settlements and structures that support transportation, agriculture, tourism, and other economic activities.

This study applies and develops a wide range of methodologies and tools that take advantage of readily available remote-sensing datasets, geographic information system technologies, and artificial intelligence techniques. The developed approaches allow the characterization of both spatial and temporal conditions that controlled mass movement occurrences and use these characteristics to model and mitigate future occurrences. The Jazan area in the …

Bibliography For Work In Ecocriticism, Zümre Gizem Yılmaz

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Rebuilding Social Organization In Low-Income Neighborhoods: The Influence Of Habitat For Humanity, John Lattimore

All Dissertations

Research has linked neighborhoods of concentrated poverty with high crime, low employment, poor health, and low educational achievement. Because of these linkages, federal housing policy over the past few decades has often tried to 'deconcentrate' or disperse the poor from these neighborhoods into more affluent neighborhoods with the hope that better institutions and better neighbors will motivate these families to improve their lives. However research on large mobility programs such as Gautreaux and Moving to Opportunity (MTO), has found mostly mixed results and criticized the programs for having a small impact. Race and income have also proven to be significant …

The Significance Of Comunidade Sabiaguaba Within The Developing City Of Fortaleza, Ce, Katherine Davis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The city of Fortaleza, Ceará has experienced rapid population growth and development over the last century, especially concentrated in the last fifty years. Today, this growth results in the creation of a beautiful tourist destination that many wish to visit, but also a dangerous and unequal city in which many have to live. Many state planners view this growth in infrastructure and tourism as the solution for the economic hardships of Fortaleza. However, many residents are unsatisfied with this development plan, and feel that there is a disconnect between the needs of the people and the plans of the state. …

The Black Baptist Denomination Of South Carolina: A Social Capital Analysis, Sheila Snoddy

All Dissertations

The question of the Black church's relevancy, power, and influence has been at the forefront of theological and social debates since the Civil Rights era. The continuation of these debates in the 21st century has postulated that today's Black church has become less theologically grounded and less vision-driven in initiatives and movements and is becoming ineffective advocates in addressing the social ills and challenges that cripple the upward mobility of individuals and communities. This study attempts to support the hypothesis that the Black church still possesses the relevancy, power, and influence as a vital and progressive community institution for positive …

A Quantitative Assessment Of Livability Principles For Neighborhood-Level Analysis, Kelsey Elizabeth Ford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The Partnership for Sustainable Communities, which includes the United States Department of Transportation (DOT), Housing Urban Development (HUD), an the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has established six principles of livability. The principles are defined in a qualitative way, and limited research exits to establish a quantitative measurement of livability goals. This research develops a quantitative metric to assess the six livability principles and applies the metric to measure the livability of Memphis, Tennessee neighborhoods. The results are compared to existing residential survey data for the Memphis area to determine how well the defined livability principles align with residential stakeholder perceptions …

Crowdsourcing Extension: Communities Of Practice Provide Rapid Response, Brian Raison, Julie M. Fox, Phil D’Adamo-Damery

Journal of Extension

This article provides an example of how you can use eXtension's Communities of Practice for crowdsourcing information rapidly and thoroughly. It contends that unlike traditional Google or Yahoo searches, asking colleagues within eXtension provides a depth of discovery with multiple layers of vetting already built in. In addition to that, it's free. The example herein stems from a recent inquiry to the Community, Local and Regional Food Systems (CLRFS) Community of Practice and provides excerpts from the responses.

An Unfinished Joruney: Arctic Indigenous Rights, Lands, And Jurisdiction?, Tony Penikett

Seattle University Law Review

The indigenous rights movement has been defined as a struggle for land and jurisdiction. Over the last forty years, American and Canadian governments made much progress on the land question in the Arctic and sub-Arctic; however, from an irrational fear of the unknown, politicians in Washington, D.C. and Ottawa have effectively blocked the pathways to aboriginal jurisdiction or self-government. During the late-twentieth century in the Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, as well as in Nisga’a territory, indigenous governments negotiated local government powers, but continent-wide progress on the question of indigenous jurisdiction has stalled. This Article considers the formation and implementation …

Vol.42 N.17 November 20th 2014, Voice Media Ventures

Black Voice News

No abstract provided.

A Comparison Of Emissions-Reduction Strategies To Improve Livability In Freight-Centric Communities, James Lewis Mersereau

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In 2009, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development entered into an interagency “Partnership for Sustainable Communities” to cooperatively increase transportation mode choices while reducing transportation costs, protecting the environment, and providing greater access to affordable housing through the incorporation of six principals of livability (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2014a). This study focuses on strategies to reduce vehicle emissions and improve livability along the Lamar Corridor in Memphis, Tennessee, a location that was designated by the U.S. Government in 2010 as an area to be targeted for livability …

Basic Principles And Applications Of Community-Based Participatory Research To Advance Nursing Science In Hiv Prevention, Adeline Nyamathi, Deborah Koniak-Griffin

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Session presented on Sunday, July 27, 2014:

This session introduces participants to Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and provides case illustrations of research applying this approach. Participants learn how CBPR, also known as community-partnered research, differs from traditional research; the rationale for using the approach and historical grounding in nursing; fundamental principles of how CBPR is conducted; and strategies to facilitate the planning of research in collaboration with the communities. The workshop also includes information on establishing effective community advisory boards. Guidelines are provided for implementation and evaluation of CBPR. The Anderson Community Partnership Model is presented with its process phases …

University Professors’ Perceptions About The Impact Of Integrating Google Applications On Students’ Communication And Collaboration Skills, Jacqueline L. Cahill

Journal of Research Initiatives

A qualitative research study was conducted and data were collected by interviewing university professors on their perceptions about the impact of integrating Google Apps, as a means of classroom instructional delivery, on students’ communication and collaboration skills. The participants consisted of eight university professors from a major university, who integrate, or had previously integrated at least two Google Apps Education Edition collaborative tools into their instructional strategies. The result of this study has the potential to benefit universities that are debating on whether utilizing teaching collaborative technology skills, as an instruction tool, would engage students and enhance their communication skills. …

Integrating Community Service Into Scholarship: Youth Engagement By Active Participation Case Study Of Ruwwad, Eunjee Anna Koh

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project applies Asset-Based Community Development theory to Ruwwad, a community-based organization in Al-Natheef. As a marginalized community, the approach to community development must be investigated to ensure that it does not worsen the community dependency. Through the Myoub Khorma Youth Education and Empowerment Fund, Ruwwad provides scholarships for youth from the neighborhood and surrounding areas. The impact of the scholarship on youth was investigated through conducting student interviews and collected material culture published by the organization. Ruwwad exemplifies an example of asset-based community development in the Middle East and youth have shown that they feel empowered through an …