Digital Commons Network^™

Quality Of Human Resources In Europe Measured By Selected Indicators Of Human Potenti, Slavomir Bucher

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The paper deals with regional differentiation of human resources and its determinants identified by selected indicators of human potential. The selection of correct and relevant indicators has a key role in the identification and measurement of human potential. The aim of the study is to outline causal and determinant relationship (the relation and the level of dependence) in the spatial differentiation of human resources in Europe and approaches to their interpretation. The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the link between human potential and quality or inequality of life and its effect on population from a demographic viewpoint. …

English Language Textbooks In Efl Education: Do They Improve Students’ National, International And Target Culture Familiarity?, Reza Abbasian, Reza Biria

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate English language textbooks of grade 7, 8 and 9 in theIranian Pedagogical curriculum to see to what extent students are exposed to national, international and target cultural familiar content in their classes. As Gurkan (2012) and Ganjabi (2014) say students who are familiar to cultural content of the target language have better reading comprehension scores than those who lack familiarity to target language cultural content. Since culturally familiar content of language in international and target level increases learners‟ comprehension almost in all skills, textbooks are one of their real manifestations in …

A ‘Thick Description’ Genre Analysis Of Death Announcement Notices, Farzad Salahshour

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

As a universally recognized social practice, the discourse of the Death Announcement Notice, henceforth DAN, is subject to macro-cultural and micro-contextual influences, and consequently to various procedural strategies that shape its schematic structure. A ‘thick description’, one which combines outsider theoretical models with insider experiential knowledge was adopted for the analysis of a randomly compiled corpus of 50 DAN texts. Based on Swales’ (1990) model of genre, eight schematic moves were discerned. The researcher’s insider knowledge was employed to yield a deeper understanding of this social practice

A Comparative Analysis Of Geometric Morphometrics Across Two Pseudemys Turtle Species In East Central Virginia, Kristin C. Dillard

Theses and Dissertations

The phylogeny of the turtle genus Pseudemys is poorly understood. In Virginia, many turtles have been found with indicator traits of both eastern river cooters (Pseudemys concinna concinna) and northern red bellied cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris). This study explores morphological evidence for hybridization between the two species across three riverine sites in east central Virginia.

Museum voucher groups for each species were analyzed for relative shell height and plastron length. The shape of the plastral scutes and upper jaw were analyzed using landmark-based morphometric software. These metrics were compared with measurements taken from 188 field-caught Pseudemys specimens. …

A LifeʼS Worth: Reexamining Wergild In The Anglo-Saxon Royal Law Codes (C. 600-1035), Braden Sides

The Expositor: A Journal of Undergraduate Research in the Humanities

In the wide and growing world of Anglo-Saxon scholarship, wergild has an at once ubiquitous and spectral presence.¹ While compensation, blood-money, and the place of the body in “barbarian” law more generally continue to be subjects of much scholarly interest, it is harder to find even a single piece of scholarship dedicated to the topic, let alone specifically as it appears in the Old English material.² What follows is meant to offer a survey of wergild as it appears in the surviving legislation of England’s Anglo-Saxon kings, as well as an attempt to deconstruct the logical underpinning of …

Who Needs Contracts? Generalized Exchange Within Investment Accelerators, Brad Bernthal

Publications

This Article investigates why an expert volunteers on behalf of startups that participate in a novel type of small venture capital (“VC”) fund known as a mentor-driven investment accelerator (“MDIA”). A MDIA organizes a pool of seasoned individuals – called “mentors” – to help new companies. An obvi- ous organizational strategy would be to contract with mentors. Mentors in- stead voluntarily assist. Legal studies of norm-based exchanges do not explain what this Article calls the “mentorship conundrum”—i.e., the puzzling moti- vation of a mentor to volunteer within otherwise for-profit environments. This Article is the first to bridge the insights of …

Design-Based Research Mobile Gaming For Learning Jewish History, Tikkun Olam, And Civics, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

How can Design-Based Research (DBR) be used in the study of video games, religious literacy, and learning? DBR uses a variety of pragmatically selected mixed methods approaches to design learning interventions. Researchers, working with educators and learners, design and co-design learning artifacts and environments. They analyze those artifacts and environments as they are used by educators and learners, and then iterate based on mixed methods data analysis. DBR is suited for any "rich contextualized setting in which people have agency." (Hoadley 2013) such as formal or informal learning environments.

The case covered in this chapter is a mobile Augmented Reality …

Cultural Model(S) Of Society In Western Ukraine, Nadiia Biletska

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines people's implicit assumptions about society in Western Ukraine manifested in discourses on the subject. The discourse data were elicited via in-depth interviews with people from diverse backgrounds in Lviv region. The thesis uses cultural models theory and methods in cognitive anthropology as the primary analytical framework. Specifically, it examines the hypothesis that historically different socially-mediated experiences that resulted from the disintegration of the USSR and subsequent societal developments in independent Ukraine were conducive to differences in mental representations of society among different generational cohorts. Evidence of three distinct conceptualizations---cultural models---of society were found. These models were variously …

Metaphorical, Punitive, And Pedagogical Blindness In Hell, Meghan Henning

Books and Book Chapters by University of Dayton Faculty

What is the role of the blind body in hell? Does it gesture to broader cultural conceptions of physical impairment? Can the blind be healed in places of eternal punishment? Does this ‘healing’ function similarly to the understandings of blindness available in contemporaneous medical texts? This article will examine the depictions of the blind in the extra-canonical apocalypses that describe hell. We will begin with a discussion of the apocalyptic tours of hell that describe blindness, paying special attention to the different roles (metaphorical, punitive, and pedagogical) that blindness plays in each text. We will also consider the impact that …

Review Symposium: Four Perspectives On Karl Rahner's Theological Aesthetics, By Peter Joseph Fritz, Judith Wolfe, Gesa Thiessen, Robert Masson, Mark F. Fischer

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Christology And The Essence Of Catholic Health Care, Conor M. Kelly

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

The Spiritual Senses, Monastic And Theological, Marcus Plested

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Nutritious Meals For The Homeless Population: Challenges And Opportunities, Kayla A. Albrecht

Masters Theses

Objective: Consuming a nutritionally adequate diet is extremely challenging for the homeless population. Though meals are available to the homeless population through soup kitchens and homeless shelters, these settings often do not serve meals that provide essential nutrients. The consumption of energy-dense, low-nutrient foods has led in part to high prevalence of obesity, heart disease, and chronic illnesses among the homeless. The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the challenges that homeless shelters face in providing nutritious meals to guests and (b) investigate the need and interest of nutrition education at homeless shelters.

Methods: Nine homeless shelter directors …

Documenting Indigenous Tagbanua Practices That Support Environmental Conservation In Palawan, Philippines, Shannon E. Thomas

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This research analyzes the relationship between a particular indigenous Filipino tribal society, the Aborlan Tagbanua, and their natural environment. The Tagbanua face issues associated with ancestral land loss and increased environmental degradation as a result of corporate and government interests and the arrival of migrants to their native regions. This research focuses on the ways in which the Tagbanua rely on their surrounding environment through their cultural practices and beliefs. I addressed three key research questions: How is the concept of nature embedded within indigenous Tagbanua culture and society? How have environmental challenges, such as changes in landscape due to …

First World Problems : Neocolonial Discourse In Contemporary American Literature, Tracy Stephens

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation argues that contemporary American literature has a tendency to represent the problems of American life in a manner that mystifies the operation of the global economy and thus perpetuates the American exceptionalist disavowal of US imperialism. I look at a specific set of "first-world problems" described by cultural theorists and depicted within American fiction from 1985 to the present, describing the representation of each problem in multiple texts to emphasize the general trend. These novels focus on first-world experiences and perspectives in isolation from the rest of the world, they decontextualize problems within the US from the neocolonial …

Gang Neighborhood And Youth Criminal Behavior, Uche Eseosa Ekhator

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

I examine the effect of the presence of gangs in a youth's neighborhood on criminal behavior in the United States using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY97) with a Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA) model. There is evidence that the presence of gangs in a youth's neighborhood affects youth arrests, delinquency and substance use taken together for youths born to mothers who are 30 years or older. The negative effect of gangs on incidences of delinquency is larger for youths born to teen mothers than for those whose mothers were 30 years or older when they …

Karen Refugees Resettled In Aurora, Il : Their Identity, Their Resettlement, Their Oral Histories, Karla Findley

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Refugees provide unique subject matter for identity studies as they are not able to continue living in their homeland. Refugees, instead, have been forced to abandon their homes, flee to a different country for safety, and often settle in a third country that is usually an ocean away, both physically and culturally. While concepts of identity are often easy to identify and maintain when a person can be continually surrounded by reaffirming objects, ideas, and people, what about when the refugee is not? This project endeavors to examine the resettlement process of Karen refugees in Aurora, Illinois, and how they …

Participating In Disciplinary Discourse : How Writing Centers Support Graduate Student Writers As Emerging Experts, Jeff Gard

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

As graduate school enrollments increase across the United States, professors from most disciplines lament these students lack writing skills. Previous studies on graduate student writing have stated that students are underprepared to write in their programs and have offered several suggestions for remediating these skills: writing seminars, introductory writing classes, increased faculty feedback, and writing checklists. Most of these studies are based on the perspectives of professors, who act as gatekeepers to determine who is considered an expert in a field. Few studies have addressed how writing centers can help graduate students as emerging experts. Using surveys, document analysis, and …

Prevalence And Transmission Of Cryptosporidium And Giardia Infections Amongst Lemurs, Humans, Domestic Mammals And Invasive Rats In Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar, Laurie Spencer

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Cryptosporidium and Giardia are ubiquitous enteric protozoan pathogens that infect humans, domestic animals, and wildlife worldwide. These pathogens are known to cause gastroenteritis in their hosts, often being fatal in immunocompromised individuals. Both parasites are zoonotic and cross-species transmissions have occurred between humans, wildlife and domestic animals. Cryptosporidium and Giardia infections are reported in young children in Madagascar; however, the extent of these infections throughout the Malagasy population is relatively unknown and unstudied. The rainforest of Tsinjoarivo, Madagascar, contains areas with pristine forests as well as fragmented forests which have been created by human encroachment and deforestation. Since protozoan parasites …

Some Thoughts On God And Spiritual Practice In Yoga And Christianity, Bradley Malkovsky

Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies

I do not approach this topic as an expert historian of the diverse schools of yoga or as a systematician of their teachings or as an exegete of their classical texts.¹ Rather I address the theme of yoga and Christianity as a Christian theologian who has been a practitioner of Iyengar yoga, a prominent method of modern postural yoga, for more than thirty years and who has done some scholarly reading on contemporary and classical yoga and on Patanjali’s Yoga-Sutra (hereafter YS) in particular.² Despite all the controversy that has arisen in recent years about whether or not …

The Treadmill Of Destruction In Comparative Perspective: A Panel Study Of Military Spending And Carbon Emissions, 1961-2014, Alex Stoner, John H. Bradford

Journal Articles

This article analyzes a unique panel data set to assess the effect of militarism on per capita carbon dioxide emissions. We extend previous research examining the effects of military expenditures on carbon emissions by including in our analyses over 30 years of additional data. In addition, we compare our preliminary results to those obtained from other estimation procedures. Specifically, we report and visually illustrate the results of 54 cross-sectional models (one for each year) and 36 unique panel regression models on both balanced and unbalanced panels. We assess how this relationship has changed over time by testing for interactions between …

Thompson, M. J. The Domestication Of Critical Theory 2016 Rowman And Littlefield International 230 Pp. £80.00 (Hardback) £24.95 (Paperback), Alexander M. Stoner

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Living With Marie: Dramatherapy In The Creation Of Performable Theatre, Madelyn James

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Living with Marie is a project aiming to adapt dramatherapy techniques so that they are better suited to the creation of theatre in an attempt to educate audiences of the struggles some individuals cope with while living with mental illness. By using the practices implemented by dramatherapists Sue Jennings, John Casson, R. M. Simon, and Phil Jones, the evolution of my play Living with Marie can be seen as first originating in imagery before progressing to text and finally, performable art. This venture, inspired by my own psychotic struggle, gives audiences a glimpse into the clandestine existence of a nameless …

Evaluating The Potential Of A Geospatial/Geostatistical Methodology For Locating Rain-Derived Infiltration And Inflow Into Wastewater Treatment Systems In The Minneapolis/St. Paul Metropolitan Area, Minnesota, Usa, Vinson Aaron Williams

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

A significant issue facing municipal wastewater treatment infrastructure (WWTI) is how to manage infiltration and inflow (I/I). I/I of rain and ground water permeate into WWTI after precipitation events, periods of groundwater table rise, and percolation from surrounding surface waters. This can create discharges above the infrastructure's flow capacity, increase costs for processing the wastewater and add undesired stress to aging wastewater networks. In an attempt to assess this problem cost and time inefficient approaches have commonly been applied. This study utilizes a new and more radical methodology to try and make WWTI management more efficient. This study applies ArcGIS …

Strategies And Processes For Implementing Financial Analysis For Business Success, Dawn Theona Alexander-Joseph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The early failure of startup businesses is a concern for many local communities, including the Virgin Islands, with about half of startups failing within the first 5 years of their life cycle. Besides the social and economic impact on communities, these failures have a personal effect on small business owners. Grounded in decision-making theory and the theory of financial management, the purpose of this single case study was to explore strategies and processes Virgin Islands retail business managers use to implement financial analysis for decision making to help sustain their operations. Data were collected using company records and semistructured interviews …

Self-Efficacy And Cultural Competency Assessment Of The Associate Degree Nursing Student, Deborah Smith Hartman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Effective nursing care can be threatened when nurses are not culturally attuned with their patients. Associate degree nursing (ADN) students receive information about diverse ethnicities in the nursing curriculum, but it may not be sufficient to provide the expertise necessary to care for patients of various cultural backgrounds. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the 2nd year ADN students' levels of cultural competence and their perceptions of self-efficacy in working with Caucasian, African American, Native American, Hispanic, and Asian ethnicities. The study used a cross-sectional survey design to determine if a relationship existed between the students' reported …

The Andacollo's Mining Community: Ethnographic Work-Based Approach To Corporate Social Responsibility Policies And Practices, Ubirata De Oliveira

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This ethnographic study was designed to explore the phenomenon of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the mining industry. The research addressed the impacts of a problematic, systemic, and ethnocentric (top-down) CSR approach driven by a transnational mining company, and proposed a novel cultural relativist (bottom-up) CSR approach looking at the social needs of the community. Solving the problem stemming from the ethnocentric approach is important for both the mining company and the community affected by the CSR program, as it will alter dynamics between actors and mitigate social conflicts. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that improve …

When ‘Places’ Include Pets: Broadening The Scope Of Relational Approaches To Promoting Aging-In-Place, Ann M. Toohey, Jennifer A. Hewson, Cindy L. Adams, Melanie J. Rock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Aging-in-place is a well-established concept, but discussions rarely consider that many older adults live with pets. In a ‘pet-friendly’ city, we conducted semi-structured interviews to explore perspectives of community-based social support agencies that promote aging-in-place, and those of animal welfare agencies. Applying a relational ecology theoretical framework, we found that pets may contribute to feeling socially- situated, yet may also exacerbate constraints on autonomy experienced by some older adults. Pet-related considerations at times led to discretionary acts of more-than-human solidarity, but also created paradoxical situations for service-providers, impacting their efforts to assist older adults. A shortage of pet-friendly affordable housing …

Explaining Support For Structural Attribution Of Poverty In Post-Communist Countries: Multilevel Analysis Of Repeated Cross-Sectional Data, Nazim Habibov, Alex Cheung, Alena Auchynnikava, Lida Fan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

We examine support for the structural attribution of poverty in 24 post-communist countries (N = 37,307) for the period from 2006 to 2010 by considering: (1) individual-level characteristics, (2) country- level characteristics, and (3) interactions between individual- and country-level characteristics. At the individual-level, adherence to the norms of equity, the market economy, and work ethics all significantly weaken structural attribution of poverty. In contrast, support for the norms of equality, and personal experience with poverty significantly strengthen structural attribution of poverty. At the country-level, GDP growth significantly reduces structural attribution of poverty, while the GDP per capita and poverty rates …

Ancient Egyptian Figurines: An Investigation Into Manufacture, Use, And Culture., Kristina B. Donnally 2455289

UROP Posters

I will analyze the social and religious role of figurines in Egyptian society. I will delve into the differences in the figurines in both manufacture and purpose between the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. I hope to look at religious, political, and other figurines to get a broad spectrum of usage for the artifacts. The main purpose of the research is to identify the time period, purpose, and usage for the figure donated to VCU by Professor Waybright. Questions I have is if the changes in political structure and minute changes in religion between each Kingdom affected the manufacture and …