Digital Commons Network^™

Bodies Of Resistance: On (Not) Naming Gender In The Medieval West, Alexander V. Baldassano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation considers the genres of historiography, romance, hagiography, Chaucerian poetry, and court transcripts. While there are no extant manuscripts depicting transgender-like people’s accounts of themselves, literature of the Middle Ages is replete with fictionalized depictions of ambiguously or transgressively gendered individuals who are meant to symbolize or represent something other than themselves. By investigating how a variety of genres depicts sensationalized and transgressively gendered embodiments, I examine the presentation of transgender-like subjectivity as a manipulation of rhetoric. Viviane Namaste critiques theory such as Marjorie Garber’s Vested Interests, claiming that it reduces the transvestite figure to a rhetorical trope …

Thule Iron Use In The Pre-Contact Arctic, Eileen Colligan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the use of iron by the Thule people, a Neoeskimo culture that lived in the North American Arctic between approximately 1000 AD and 1400 ̶ 1500 AD. The study takes a pan-Arctic perspective to bring together research that has usually been done on a more-limited geographical scale. This viewpoint shows the Thule culture from a view that corresponds to their world.

The study focuses on: (1) revisions in the accepted chronology of the Thule and how these have affected the explanations for the Thule Migration from Alaska to Greenland; (2) new understandings about the iron that was …

Capture And Abandon: Social Reproduction And Informal Land Tenure In Jamaica, Rachel Goffe

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Capture and Abandon: Social Reproduction and Informal Land Tenure in Jamaica examines how ongoing policy development to curtail squatting is shifting state capacity away from a project of land reform and towards one of land management. Scholarship about informal settlements elsewhere tends to understand dispossession as a project of the neoliberal state. I argue that it is strategically necessary to elucidate the ways in which the production of durable but insecure access to land is not novel, but is imbricated in the historical production of a Black labor force that is self-sufficient and yet ready at hand, reproducing themselves through …

Natural History Collections: Teaching About Biodiversity Across Time, Space, And Digital Platforms, Anna K. Monfils, Karen E. Powers, Christopher J. Marshall, Christopher T. Martine, James F. Smith, L. Alan Prather

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Natural history collections offer unique physical and virtual opportunities for formal and informal progressive learning. Collections are unique data in that they each represent a biological record at a single place and time that cannot be obtained by any other method. Collections-based experiences lead to an increased understanding of and substantive interaction with the living world. Global biological diversity and changes in that diversity are directly tracked through specimens in collections, regardless of whether changes are ancient or recent. We discuss how collections, specimens, and the data associated with them, can be critical components linking nature and scientific inquiry. Specimens …

Determinants Of Firm-Level Domestic Sales And Exports With Spillovers: Evidence From China, Badi H. Baltagi, Peter H. Egger, Michaela Kesina

Center for Policy Research

This paper studies the determinants of firm-level revenues, as a measure of the performance of firms in China's domestic and export markets. The analysis of the determinants of the aforementioned outcomes calls for a mixed linear-nonlinear econometric approach. The paper proposes specifying a system of equations, which is inspired by Basmann's work and recent theoretical work in international economics and conducts comparative static analyses regarding the role of exogenous shocks to the system to flesh out the relative importance of transmissions across outcomes.

Impact Of Introduced Parasitoid Cotesia Vestalis (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) On Plutella Xylostella (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) And Its Parasitoid Guild On Kale In Semi-Arid Areas In Kenya, Ruth Kahuthia-Gathu, Brigitte Nyambo, Sevgan Subramanian

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Cotesia vestalis was introduced into Kenya from South Africa in March 2003 for biological control of Plutella xylostella with initial release in 2004. To confirm establishment, the rate of spread beyond the release sites and parasitism rates by C. vestalis were assessed between October 2011 and April 2012 in eastern and southeastern Kenya (Kitui, Mwingi/Yatta and Loitokitok areas). Monthly observations on kale infestation by diamondback moth, damage scores, parasitism and parasitoid guild were undertaken on 20 randomly selected plants in farmer-managed kale farms. Sampled larval and pupal stages were placed in containers and taken to the laboratory for parasitoid emergence. …

Section 6: Election Law Panel, Institute Of Bill Of Rights Law, William & Mary Law School

Supreme Court Preview

No abstract provided.

Academic Department Indicators 2016-2017, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

Program Review

The audience is the Academic Planning Council (APC), college and department heads, and faculty. The purpose is to report instructional productivity measures useful for making comparisons and observing trends. Selected departmental information in this report is submitted annually to the Delaware Study, a National Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity.

This Instructional Productivity information corresponds to the UNO state- and tuition-funded budget. The Supplemental Information at the end of the document provides counts and statistics for campus wide programs embedded in most colleges. Only Dual Enrollment instruction is excluded from the productivity report since it is a fee-based instructional program …

Castor Canadensis Fall 2017, Jedediah Smith Society

Castor Canadensis - Jedediah Smith Society

Newsletter of the Jedediah Smith Society

Thermal Radiation Anomalies Associated With Major Earthquakes, Dimitar Ouzounov, Sergey Pulinets, Menas Kafatos, Patrick Taylor

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Recent developments of remote sensing methods for Earth satellite data analysis contribute to our understanding of earthquake related thermal anomalies. It was realized that the thermal heat fluxes over areas of earthquake preparation is a result of air ionization by radon (and other gases) and consequent water vapor condensation on newly formed ions. Latent heat (LH) is released as a result of this process and leads to the formation of local thermal radiation anomalies (TRA) known as OLR (outgoing Longwave radiation, Ouzounov et al, 2007). We compare the LH energy, obtained by integrating surface latent heat flux (SLHF) over the …

A Spatial Critique Of Intellectual Property Law And Policy, Peter K. Yu

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Nonprofit Hospital Community Benefit Requirements: An Exploration Of National Health Policy Models, Justin P. Swearingen

Dissertations and Theses

Introduction: Nonprofit hospital organizations are public charities with complete tax immunity. Such exemptions are worth $24.6 billion and impact the health of hundreds of millions of people, yet what these charities must do to meet the current “community benefit standard” to maintain their tax-exempt status remains a policy debate. To help inform policymaking, an evaluation of four national requirement models was performed: Tax Value Requirement (at least the value of the tax exemptions must be spent on community benefit), Grassley Requirement (at least 5% of revenue must be spent on community benefit), Expense Requirement (at least 3% of expenses must …

Teacher Perceptions On The Utilization Of School-Based Mentoring As A Targeted Intervention For Secondary Students Identified As At-Risk, Allison Bradley, Wilnic Gideon

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of secondary teachers who participated in school-based mentoring programs and their perspectives on the impact this targeted intervention may have on students identified as at-risk. Participants included a total of fourteen secondary teachers with previous school-based mentoring experience at secondary schools located in the southeastern United States. The study was conducted in two phases and the data analyses included transcriptions from audio-taped interviews and statistical analyses from a qualitative questionnaire. The findings of the study indicated secondary students identified as at risk participating in a school-based mentoring program may improve …

Charting A Pathway Forward: Redesigning And Realigning Supports And Services For Maine's Older Adults, Eileen Griffin Jd, Elizabeth C. Gattine Jd

Disability & Aging

The current growth of the population age 65 and older is one of the most significant demographic trends in the history of this country and is especially significant for Maine, where the number of people age 65 and older is growing even faster than the rest of the nation. By 2025, over a quarter of Maine’s population is expected to be age 65 and older. Because the cost of long term paid support is out of reach for many Mainers, public financing—particularly Medicaid financing—is an essential tool for addressing the long term support needs of older adults. But Medicaid is …

Peace Like A River: Institutionalizing Cooperation Over Water Resources In The Jordan River Basin, Philip A. Williams

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Historical Practices And Modern Interpretations: Understanding The Wai Khru Ceremony As A Thai Educational And Cultural Tradition, Ryan V. Guffey, Anothai Kaewkaen

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

While working in Thailand, education professionals from Western backgrounds often remark on a certain social eminence accorded to teachers by Thais, and many will also experience, especially in abridged form, the rituals of the Wai Khru, or Homage to Teachers, ceremony. However, it could be that few without direct cultural orientation can appreciate these traditions to the depth such long-standing cultural practices deserve. More detrimentally, they may not be aware of the social expectations these traditional views place on educators within Thai society. Drawing on primary sources from Thai literature and media and their own experiences as educators in Thailand, …

Tracking State Trends In Environmental Public Opinion, Luke Fowler

Public Policy and Administration Faculty Publications and Presentations

Trends in state-level public opinion on the environment within the U.S. are examined, using data from the General Social Survey (GSS) from 1976 to 2008. Multilevel Regression and Post-Stratification (MRP) approach estimates public support for environmental spending at the U.S. state-level over three decades. This allows for an analysis of inter-state homogeneity of environmental public opinion, over the latter half of the twenty century. The findings indicate state-level trends mirror those at the national-level, but state-level public opinion is becoming more analogous over time.

Tropical Cyclones Disrupt The Relationship Between Tree Height And Species Diversity: Comment, Teng-Chiu Lin, Lixin Wang, Chengyang Zheng, Ryan W. Mcewan, Chung-Te Chang, Jyh-Min Chiang, Chung-Hao Chi

Biology Faculty Publications

In a recent report on the patterns of tree species richness in eastern and western North America, Marks et al. (2016) claimed to have identified an operational indicator of environmental harshness (maximum tree height) and concluded that environmental stressors that limit tree height also act as ecological filters on species richness. Marks et al. (2017) attributed the positive association between species richness and maximum tree height to both the direct effects of environmental harshness on species richness and the indirect effects of environmental harshness on species richness as mediated by maximum tree height.

This finding overlooked the fact that many …

[Review Of] Pedagogues And Protesters: The Harvard College Student Diary Of Stephen Peabody, 1767-1768. Edited By Conrad Edick Wright., John R. Thelin

Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Jacobsville Sandstone: A Candidate For Nomination For “Global Heritage Stone Resource” From Michigan, Usa, William I. Rose, Erika C. Vye, Carol A. Stein, David H. Malone, John P. Craddock, Seth A. Stein

Faculty Publications - Geography, Geology, and the Environment

Information mainly collected decades ago, during and following its quarrying years, is here reviewed for the Jacobsville Sandstone, a well-known red bed sandstone of Neoproterozoic age from Upper Michigan, USA. This formation is here proposed as a suitable “Global Heritage Stone Resource”. The Jacobsville is an excellent example of a heritage stone as it was used extensively all over Eastern North America from 1880 to 1920 in hundreds of prominent buildings in major cities and many small towns, including the famous Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. It was extensively mined from several quarry sites near Jacobsville, Michigan in …

Military Force And Mass Migration In Europe, Matthew N. Metzel, John M. Lorenzen

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Continental-Scale Homogenization Of Residential Lawn Plant Communities, Megan M. Wheeler, Christopher Neill, Peter M. Groffman, Meghan Avolio, Neil Bettez, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Rinku Roy Chowdhury, Lindsay Darling, J. Morgan Grove, Sharon J. Hall, James B. Heffernan, Sarah E. Hobbie, Kelli L. Larson, Jennifer L. Morse, Kristen C. Nelson, Laura A. Ogden, Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne, Diane E. Pataki, Colin Polsky, Meredith Steele, Tara L.E. Trammell

Geography

Residential lawns are highly managed ecosystems that occur in urbanized landscapes across the United States. Because they are ubiquitous, lawns are good systems in which to study the potential homogenizing effects of urban land use and management together with the continental-scale effects of climate on ecosystem structure and functioning. We hypothesized that similar homeowner preferences and management in residential areas across the United States would lead to low plant species diversity in lawns and relatively homogeneous vegetation across broad geographical regions. We also hypothesized that lawn plant species richness would increase with regional temperature and precipitation due to the presence …

Social Capital, Health Literacy, And Access To Healthcare : A Study Among Rural And Urban Populations In Ghana, Padmore Adusei Amoah

Lingnan Theses

There is ample evidence supporting the association between social networks, and health and well-being. However, existing research and policies to address health-related inequalities in Ghana, have largely neglected this critical nexus. To address the knowledge gap, this study uses the concept of social capital (social relationships and the resources embedded in them) to investigate how and to what extent social relationships influence healthcare access and health literacy among selected rural and urban people. The study also examines how the stock of social capital, and the forms it takes, can influence implementation, and sustenance of local level pro-poor health policies. One …

Clustered And Distinct: A Taxonomy Of Local Multihospital Systems, Patrick D. Shay, Stephen S. Farnsworth Mick

Health Care Administration Faculty Research

Despite their prevalence and power in markets throughout the United States, local multihospital systems (LMSs)—also referred to as hospital-based “clusters”—remain an understudied organizational form, with studies instead primarily focusing either upon individual hospitals or viewing hospital systems collectively without distinguishing the local “sub-systems” that comprise larger regional or national hospital chains. To better understand these organizational forms, we develop a taxonomy specifically devoted to LMSs, applying taxonomic analysis methods to a sample of LMSs in six U.S. states while accounting for LMSs’ geographic arrangements and non-hospital-based service locations. Our analysis identifies five distinct LMS categories, with forms clearly distinguished according …

Information In The Ecosystem: Against The “Information Ecosystem”, Timothy B. Norris, Todd Suomela

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The “information ecosystem” metaphor is widely used in academic libraries and has become nearly ubiquitous when speaking of the information systems that support scholarly communication and varied forms of data sharing and publication. The trending use of this language arises from non-academic applications — for example in big data (the Hadoop ecosystem) or software development (the node.js ecosystem) — and there remains little critical examination of the use of this metaphor. Indeed, the definition of ecosystem as the set of relations between living organisms and their surrounding non-living environment is apparently not directly a part of the metaphor. This paper …

A Splendid Torch: Learning And Teaching In Today’S Academic Libraries, Jodi Reeves Eyre, John C. Maclachlan, Christa Williford

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

In the winter of 2015, a handful of current and former CLIR postdoctoral fellows gathered at a small restaurant in Washington, D.C., to celebrate publication of The Process of Discovery: The CLIR Postdoctoral Fellowship Program and the Future of the Academy. In typical CLIR fellowship alumni fashion, it took about an hour of relaxation before we began to look at one another and ask, “Now what?” Over fried pickles, barbecue brisket, and vegan spare ribs, we decided to recreate the Collaborative Writing Group (CWG) experience that fostered the collection of essays about what we had learned from our work in …

Confronting School And Housing Segregation In The Richmond Region: Can We Learn And Live Together?, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Brian Koziol, John V. Moeser, Taylor Holden, Thomas J. Shields

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

White children now account for less than half of all births. At the same time, we are seeing stagnation in the earnings of the middle class and a widening gap between the poor and the rich. These changes matter, and they are impacting K-12 schools in our region. This report examines the changing nature of segregation in the metro-Richmond area, which is now far more multiracial than it was in the past. It seeks to:

• Pay central attention to segregation in housing and K-12 education
• Understand the mechanisms of educational inequality by examining data on the segregation of …

Chinese Dream And Middle Way Limits, Boyan Ivantchev

Journal of Global Business Insights

Until 1978 China had a class struggling model of development. After years of bad experience, it was only natural to leave that model and to focus on the economical development of the country The Ruling party of China decided to take The Middle Way of economical development, combining the leading role of the communist party and capitalistic market economy. Chinese people were used to The Middle Way because of ancient history, local psychology and the prevailing mixture of Daoist and Confucian philosophy. The philosophical and psychological tendency of Chinese people to tend to find a Middle Way and reasoning, is …

Financial Literacy In Developing Countries, Melike Kokkizi, Kamer Karakurum-Ozdemir, Gokce Uysal

Topics in Middle Eastern and North African Economies

As global funds flow at unprecedented rates, consumers in developing countries have increased access to financial markets and find themselves handling more complex financial tools. In such a setting, consumers may be overexposed to financial risks. In this respect, increasing financial literacy levels of consumers has become essential, and assessing the financial literacy of the population is a key ingredient of any policy to do so. Using an international survey, we study financial literacy in Mexico, Lebanon, Uruguay, Colombia and Turkey. After establishing financial literacy levels, we identify the least financially literate groups in each country to facilitate targeting of …

Impact Of Habitat Degradation On Species Diversity And Nest Abundance Of Five African Stingless Bee Species In A Tropical Rainforest Of Kenya, Nkoba Kiatoko, Suresh Kumar Raina, Frank Van Langevelde

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Natural habitat degradation often involves the reduction or disappearance of bee species. In Africa, stingless bees are hunted for honey, which is used as food, for medicinal purposes, and for traditional rituals. Severe habitat degradation due to human settlement is hypothesized to have a negative impact on the species diversity of the African stingless bee species. In this paper, we assess the impact of habitat degradation on the diversity of five stingless bee species across different habitats in the tropical rainforest of Kenya (indigenous forest, mixed indigenous forest) and its neighbouring landscape (grassland, village) in western Kenya. The species fauna, …