Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Information Technology Organizational Design In Firms' Ability To Innovate, Hassan S. Halimi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Information technology (IT) organizations have become an integral part of many firms, with increasing strategic significance. Consequently, investments in IT represent a significant percentage of a firm's expenditure. Despite the investment, the business value of IT has been difficult to quantify, creating uncertainty about a firm's investments in IT innovation. The purpose of this nonexperimental study was to examine relationships between a firm's innovativeness and 3 IT organizational design factors: knowledge creation, dynamic capabilities, and communication structures. The research questions addressed the relationships between a firm's ability to innovate and specific design elements of the IT organization. The study was …

Lived Experiences Of Military Personnel Reintegrating With Their Preschool Aged Children, Rob Atchison

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have indicated that school-aged children with a caregiver who had been deployed were more likely to exhibit emotional and behavioral problems. These problems were impacted by the ability of the parent at home to manage emotions so as to utilize appropriate parenting skills with the child. However, there remained an important gap in the literature regarding the experiences of the military personnel reintegrating with their preschool aged child. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological study was to address the experiences of military caregivers with their preschool-aged children through semistructured interviews to better understand the variables that impacted the ability …

Cultural Backgrounds Influencing Virtual Team Performance, Vyacheslav Semenovich Lerner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Virtual teams improve organizational performance and competitiveness because they reduce business travel and allow team members to work from anywhere, anytime, using the Internet to complete projects. Although researchers have identified benefits of using virtual teams, knowledge about how cultural backgrounds influence virtual team performance is limited. Illuminating this relationship may help leadership improve team performance. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of team members with different cultural backgrounds to understand their effect on team performance. The research questions were based on the conceptual framework of organizational cultural theories developed by Schein and Trompenaars …

Port Security: The Terrorist Naval Mine/Underwater Improvised Explosive Device Threat, Peter Von Bleichert

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Terrorist naval mines/underwater improvised explosive devices (M/UWIEDs) are a threat to U.S. maritime ports, and could cause economic damage, panic, and mass casualties. The purpose of this case study was to examine this threat and propose reforms that improve port security management. The study aligned with the mission area analysis objective of identifying and assessing potential terrorist threats in order to preempt and prevent attacks. Von Bertalanffy's general systems theory was the framework for research questions, which focused on improvements in port security management to mitigate the threat of terrorist M/UWIEDs. Data collection included a document content analysis of open …

A Case Study Investigating Secondary Science Teachers' Perceptions Of Science Literacy Instruction, Phyllis Ann Blackmon

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project study addressed the lack of inclusion of discipline literacy pedagogy in secondary classrooms in a rural school district in eastern North Carolina. Discipline literacy practices are recommended in the Common Core Standards for History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. The district had implemented content area reading strategies across content areas, yet no significant progress in secondary students' reading abilities had been demonstrated in statewide or national assessments. The conceptual framework that drove this study was disciplinary literacy, founded by the literacy research of Shanahan, Shanahan, and Zygouris-Coe. Within a qualitative case study method, this investigation of 8 secondary …

Survival Analysis Of Total Therapy 3 In Newly Diagnosed Multiple Myeloma, Scott Edward Bowman Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Multiple Myeloma (MM) is a hematologic malignancy that accounts for approximately 1% of all adult cancers. This study investigated the impact of patient distance traveled to MM care sites, which was not considered in previous research on any disease-specific staging or prognostic schema despite evidence suggesting that distance impacts patient outcome. This study investigated the impact of patient distance from the site of care on survival outcomes using a group of 480 clinical trial participants. Andersen's behavioral model of health services use functioned as the theoretical model for this study. The independent variable was patient travel distance, controlling for established …

The Barriers Encountered In Telemedicine Implementation By Health Care Practitioners, Olantunji Obikunle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Patients in rural areas in the United States do not have adequate health care facilities for illnesses and injuries not serious enough for emergency care, but telemedicine could have a positive impact both economically and medically to control rapidly rising health care costs, which is a significant percentage of the gross national product. The purpose of this case study was to explore the barriers physicians encountered in telemedicine implementation. Participants included 4 physicians who took part in face-to-face interviews in a clinical setting in Ohio to explore strategies used in implementing telemedicine. The results of these interviews, coupled with observations …

Stigmas Associated With Black American Incarceration Through An Afrocentric Lens, Wylie Jason Tidwell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Although extensive quantitative research has been conducted on Black American incarceration rates, to date, there has not been a study from an Afrocentric (Black American) perspective in the field of public policy. Using Dillard's conceptualization of Afrocentric theory, this study added to the field of public policy by examining how the stigmas associated with mass incarceration have reduced political and economic opportunities for Black Americans born 1965 - 1984. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to provide an Afrocentric voice by which the members of the Black American community are the center of the data collection on the stigmas …

The Secret Economy Of Charitable Giving, Allison Anna Tait

Law Faculty Publications

Charitable giving is big business. In 2009, the Internal Revenue Service reported close to 100,000 private foundations, almost double the number from fifteen years earlier. Some of these charitable trusts, like the Gates Foundation, are multi-billion dollar enterprises. Trust instruments and other governing documents set forth the terms that control these gifts. Because charitable trusts can exist in perpetuity, however, changing circumstances sometimes render the terms difficult to fulfill. Courts can apply cy pres, a doctrine that allows for the modification of gift restrictions, but in the past courts have tended to apply cy pres narrowly and privilege donor intent …

Judicial Bias: The Ongoing Challenge, Kathleen Mahoney

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article calls for a renewed commitment to judicial education on the roles that gender, race, class and other biases can have on judicial decisions and impartiality. This article also calls for the appointment of a more representative and diverse judiciary. An explosion of activity occurred for about a decade between the late 1980s until the late 1990s to promote and implement social context education for judges to help judges understand the realities of people most unlike themselves, and to appoint judges to be more representative of the population of Canada. But this trend has diminished to the point that …

Why Collegiate Athletes Could Have The Ncaa, Et Al. Singing A Different Tune, Amber Jorgensen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Undergraduate 2015, Saint Mary's College Of California

The Undergraduate Spectrum

No abstract provided.

Did Multicultural America Result From A Mistake? The 1965 Immigration Act And Evidence From Roll Call Votes, Gabriel J. Chin, Douglas M. Spencer

Publications

Between July 1964 and October 1965, Congress enacted the three most important civil rights laws since Reconstruction: The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Immigration and Nationality Act Amendments of 1965. As we approach the 50th anniversary of these laws, it is clear that all three have fundamentally remade the United States; education, employment, housing, politics, and the population itself have irreversibly changed.

Arguably the least celebrated yet most consequential of these laws was the 1965 Immigration Act, which set the United States on the path to become a "majority minority" nation. In …

Draft Provincial/Territorial Legislation To Implement A Regulatory Framework For Medically-Assisted Dying Consistent With Carter V. Canada (Attorney General) 2015 Scc 5 And The Final Report Of The Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group On Physician-Assisted Dying, Jocelyn Downie

Reports & Public Policy Documents

On February 6, 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously declared that the Criminal Code prohibitions on physician-assisted dying (both assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia) violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. They immediately suspended the declaration for 12 months thus allowing the government time to craft new legislation. This paper is a contribution to the project of meeting that deadline -- it presents draft provincial/territorial legislation. This draft legislation is based on: 1) a thorough review of existing legislation in all permissive regimes throughout the world (reviewed through a "lessons learned" lens); 2) the requirements for constitutional validity …

Women On The Line: A Qualitative Study Of Women's Experience Of Work In The Meat Industry, Jessica Jacques

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the experiences of women who work in the meat industry. Drawing from symbolic interaction and standpoint theory frameworks, this research focuses on how gender, race, and nationality influence work experiences and family life for women in comparison to men in the meat industry. This study is based on 15 in-depth interviews with men and women who work in management positions and in the processing rooms of meat companies where non-human animals are disassembled in the production of food. Data collection and analysis were performed using grounded theory methods of inquiry. Participants' stories highlight women's experience in adapting …

Specters Of Kurdish Nationalism: Governmentality And Counterinsurgent Translation In Turkey, Nicholas S. Glastonbury

Publications and Research

This essay examines translations of the Kurdish epic poem Mem û Zîn into Turkish, tracing the logics behind these state-sponsored translations and examining how acts of translation are also efforts to regulate, translate, and erase Kurdish subjectivities. I argue that the state instrumentalizes Mem û Zîn’s potent nationalist currency in order to disarm present and future claims of Kurdish national autonomy. Using translation as a counterinsurgent governmental tool, the state attempts to domesticate Kurdish nationalist discourses even as it reproduces them, thereby transforming Kurdish nationalism into a specter of itself. Attending to this specter, however, allows us to see how …

Preface: Climate Extremes And Biogeochemical Cycles In The Terrestrial Biosphere: Impacts And Feedbacks Across Scales, M. Bahn, M. Reichstein, K. Guan, J. M. Moreno, Christopher A. Williams

Geography

No abstract provided.

Unanticipated: Healthcare Experiences Of Gender Nonbinary Patients And Suggestions For Inclusive Care, Hannah Mogul-Adlin

Public Health Theses

Transgender populations face substantial barriers to healthcare access, exacerbated by a lack of inclusive research. The health needs of those who are gender nonbinary or genderqueer, identifying outside the binary of man and woman, are especially poorly understood. Using a primarily qualitative online survey, data on gender identity, health access, and healthcare experiences were collected from 81 gender nonbinary participants, and analyzed using a mixture of quantitative and qualitative methodologies. A number of interesting findings emerged, including that 90% of participants across age groups began identifying as gender nonbinary within the last 6 years, 77% reported interest in some aspect …

Leptospira In The Environmental Reservoir: Quantification And Persistence Of The Pathogen In An Urban Slum Setting Of Endemic Transmission, Andrew Gustav Schneider

Public Health Theses

Introduction

The ecology of Leptospira, the spirochete agent for leptospirosis, in its environmental reservoir is poorly understood. We quantified the presence of pathogenic leptospires in soil and sewage from a high-risk slum community for leptospirosis, and characterized its persistence in this environment.

Methods

We collected soil and sewage samples from three sites within a slum community in the city of Salvador, Brazil, and measured the concentration of leptospires using real-time quantitative PCR targeting lipL32, a gene exclusively present in pathogenic Leptospira. Additionally, we investigated the persistence of L. interrogans serovar Copenhageni, the agent for urban leptospirosis, in soil and sewage …

Critical Review And Stratified Meta-Analysis Of Lung Cancer Risk In Petroleum Refinery Workers, Sherman Selix

Public Health Theses

Several publications have proposed a workplace risk of lung cancer in petroleum refineries, with asbestos as the potential agent. To examine the associations between petroleum refinery work and lung cancer related to occupational asbestos exposure, in addition to smoking and other concurrent occupational exposures, a systematic review and stratified meta-analysis was employed. Cochrane-Mantel-Haenszel statistics were used to combine SMR/SIR data separately for all male and female refinery workers, as well as SMR/SIR and RR/OR measurements for the subset of male maintenance workers, who were exposed to higher levels. Of 219 studies identified in the literature search, 78 studies were selected …

Pm2.5 And Ambient Air Pollution: Effects On Medicaid Spending And Hospitalizations, Joshua William Wei

Public Health Theses

Rationale: Fine particulate matter (<2.5 um), or PM2.5, and Ozone has been linked to a number of respiratory and cardiovascular conditions and is a known trigger for acute events. Though previous studies have addressed these correlations, few have examined PM2.5’s acute effects on inpatient admissions and health care costs, by utilizing narrower time intervals than other research projects.

Objectives: To identify whether trends in hospitalization spending in short time-intervals is associated with PM2.5 measures, and to create a predictive model for spending based on two major categories of outcomes: selected CV conditions and respiratory conditions known to be associated with PM2.5 exposure that we will identify by Medicaid charge codes. We also attempt to model inpatient admissions altogether as an alternative outcome.

Methods: We link Medicaid charge information for all procedures in Texas to daily air-quality data sourced from 63 EPA sites in the state (providing more comprehensive geographical and temporal coverage) and …

Strategies For Recruiting Representative Samples Of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, And Pacific Islanders For Population-Based Studies, Celeste Wong

Public Health Theses

There is limited data on effective methods for recruiting ethnically and culturally diverse populations into population-based studies. For case-control studies in particular, appropriate selection and successful recruitment of representative control subjects remain a challenge. In a population-based case-control study assessing novel risk factors for breast cancer among Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AANHPIs), we utilized a unique combination of population-based sampling, community-based recruitment methods, and internet- and media-based approaches for recruiting controls who were frequency matched to cases identified through a population-based cancer registry in the San Francisco Bay Area. We characterized the populations drawn from each recruitment …

Lost In The Noise: A Comparison Of Interference In Radio Spectrum To Water And Nuisance Law, Alexander Koral

Colorado Technology Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Comment On Loris Caruso/2: Inaudible Politics And The Crisis Of Democracy, Mark Davidson

Geography

The term "post-politics" captures the paradox of contemporary democracy; that a system designed to enable popular social movements access to power has, in fact, closed down that very possibility. We are left with a system, as Caruso [2015] demonstrates, whereby elites manufacture a seemingly "open" democratic process only to assert their control over political institutions when necessary. The challenge for today's social movements is therefore how to navigate a political system that is, at its core, illegitimate. Do they circumvent or ignore post-political regimes? Or do they attempt to re-engage with the democratic state to rediscover its very purpose: To …

Grassroots Austerity: Municipal Bankruptcy From Below In Vallejo, California, Mark Davidson, William Kutz

Geography

Austerity appears to be a globally coordinated restructuring process, where international and national governments cooperate to stymie economic crisis and socialize the costs of systemic economic failure. However, austerity is also shaped from the bottomup. This paper examines the 2008 bankruptcy of Vallejo, California. This city of under 120 000 people became the first municipal bankruptcy in the Great Recession period. We explore how it became the first to fail. In doing so, we outline the finances of a city whose entrepreneurial activities continued to flounder, making it a good candidate for austerity reforms. However, we also find the city …

Mining, Risk And Climate Resilience In The 'Other' Pacific: Latin American Lessons For The South Pacific, Anthony J. Bebbington, Jeffrey Bury, Nicholas Cuba, John Rogan

Geography

We suggest the value of considering Pacific Latin America and the South Pacific in relationship to each other in contexts of climate change and investment in extractive industry. The paper explores the interactions between extractive industry, climate change and environmental governance through the lenses of double exposure, double movements, resilience and risk. The first part of the paper addresses the nature and scope of investments in extractive industries in this 'other Pacific'. The geography of these investments is changing the actual and perceived distribution of exposure and risk in the region. The nature of this risk is also being affected …

Large Carbon Release Legacy From Bark Beetle Outbreaks Across Western United States, Bardan Ghimire, Christopher A. Williams, G. James Collatz, Melanie Vanderhoof, John Rogan, Dominik Kulakowski, Jeffrey G. Masek

Geography

Warmer conditions over the past two decades have contributed to rapid expansion of bark beetle outbreaks killing millions of trees over a large fraction of western United States (US) forests. These outbreaks reduce plant productivity by killing trees and transfer carbon from live to dead pools where carbon is slowly emitted to the atmosphere via heterotrophic respiration which subsequently feeds back to climate change. Recent studies have begun to examine the local impacts of bark beetle outbreaks in individual stands, but the full regional carbon consequences remain undocumented for the western US. In this study, we quantify the regional carbon …

Interactions Among Spruce Beetle Disturbance, Climate Change And Forest Dynamics Captured By A Forest Landscape Model, Christian Temperli, Thomas T. Veblen, Sarah J. Hart, Dominik Kulakowski, Alan J. Tepley

Geography

The risk of bark beetle outbreaks is widely predicted to increase because of a warming climate that accelerates temperature-driven beetle population growth and drought stress that impairs host tree defenses. However, few if any studies have explicitly evaluated climatically enhanced beetle population dynamics in relation to climate-driven changes in forest composition and structure that may alter forest suitability for beetle infestation. We synthesized current understanding of the interactions among climate, spruce beetles (Dendroctonus rufipennis) and forest dynamics to parameterize and further advance the bark beetle module of a dynamic forest landscape model (LandClim) that also integrates fire and wind disturbance …

Charter Eviction: Litigating Out Of House And Home, Margot Young

Journal of Law and Social Policy

The case of Tanudjaja v Attorney General (Canada) takes up the cause of housing rights under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms in a novel and complex way. The government actions and inactions cited as constitutional breaches and the broad remedial requests reflect the “pixelated” picture of housing concerns necessary to understanding Canada’s housing security crisis. In dismissing the challenge at a preliminary stage, the Ontario Superior and Appeal Courts risk rendering the Charter irrelevant to the deep social justice concerns that cross our country. More specifically, formulaic judicial invocation of concerns about positive rights and justiciability leave the …

Pinching Pennies, Costing Dollars: Michigan's Offender Re-Entry System, Crystal A. Dussia

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

The current state of incarceration is a burden that every taxpayer bears. Through effective offender re-entry services, the financial, social, and physical burdens such as high crime rates, high recidivism rates, and the high cost of incarceration can be lessened for all citizens. Historical context establishes a foundation to be able to understand the current state of re-entry in Michigan as a small representation of the nation. The financial expenditures, social costs, and lack of evidence of past practice are explored. The content of this thesis is focused on Michigan within a national context of prison re-entry programs, history, and …