Digital Commons Network^™

Trying To Cover The Sun With Your Thumb: A Critical Ethnography Of Maternity Care Provision In Rural Northern New Mexico, Abigail Reese

Nursing ETDs

Access to maternity care is disappearing for women across rural America. In the state of New Mexico, women often travel long distances to access hospitals and providers that offer childbirth services, as these resources are concentrated primarily in metropolitan areas. Although data on provider distribution is available, very few studies have explored the maternity care access crisis from the perspectives of the midwives and physicians who work in rural areas. The purpose of this critical ethnographic study was to explore barriers and facilitators to the provision of childbirth services from providers’ perspectives with the intent of informing policy debates around …

Oceanographic Drivers Of Marine Mammal And Seabird Habitat-Use Across Shelf-Seas: A Guide To Key Features And Recommendations For Future Research And Conservation Management, S. L. Cox, C. B. Embling, P. J. Hosegood, S. C. Votier, S. N. Ingram

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

No abstract provided.

Beauty And The Beasts: Making Places With Literary Animals Of Florida, Haili A. Alcorn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Place theory examines the relationship between human identity and physical locations, asking how meaningful attachments are formed between people and the spots they visit or in which they live. Literature of place exhibits this relationship and the myriad ways humans connect to their environment through storytelling, both fictional and nonfictional. Florida literature, an emerging and dynamic genre, features characters, cultures, and histories heavily embedded in place. Florida’s places also abound with animal presences, and literature about Florida almost always illustrates significant human-animal interactions that drive plots and character development. Therefore, Florida literature invites consideration of how animals influence human attachment …

Assessing The Cooling Effects Of Urban Vegetation On Urban Heat Mitigation In Selected U.S. Cities, Qiuyan Yu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban Heat Island (UHI) is a growing problem worldwide. Mitigation of UHI is necessary for cities to adapt to climate change and enhance sustainable development at a city scale. Cooling cities with urban vegetation management is a sustainable solution for urban heat mitigation. Urban vegetation influences urban microclimate through the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. The differences in horizontal and vertical structures of urban vegetation determine the shading effect, surface roughness, and evapotranspiration. Enhancing the cooling effect of urban vegetation requires a comprehensive understanding of how vegetation structure affects UHI. The effects of horizontal structure on land surface temperature …

The Urban Archaeological Supersite Paradigm: Integrating Archaeology And Hgis Into Heritage Management, Andrea P. White

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The archaeological heritages of many of the world’s historic cities are at risk. If these urban archaeological resources are destroyed before excavation and documentation using sound archaeological techniques, the material histories of these cities are erased. The Urban Archaeological Supersite Paradigm is presented as means to address some of the threats facing urban archaeological sites.

The urban archaeological supersite paradigm is both an applied and a scholarly research framework useful for examining and interpreting the urban past and for helping to address urban archaeological heritage at risk. It conceptualizes the historic city as a supersite made up of numerous archaeological …

“I Knew What I Was Going To School For”: A Mixed Methods Examination Of Black College Students’ Racialized Experiences At A Southern Pwi, Kamden K. Strunk, Sherry C. Wang, Andrea L. Beall, Cory E. Dixon, Daniel J. Stabin, Betool Z. Ridha

Journal of Critical Scholarship on Higher Education and Student Affairs

Researchers have consistently documented a range of racialized inputs and outcomes in U.S. higher education. Those dynamics appear especially salient, and their consequences especially pronounced in the U.S. region often referred to as the Deep South. This overwhelming body of evidence, including the documented patterns of racial segregation in Deep South higher education, disparate opportunities and advantages, and inequitable outcomes, offers less insight on how Black students make sense of their experiences. This study used explanatory mixed methods to document racialized differences in campus experiences and to understand how Black students made sense of and navigated those racialized experiences. Our …

Faculty Senate Minutes, November 14, 2018, Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Minutes and Reports

No abstract provided.

The Adoption Of Connected Autonomous Vehicles And Other Innovations By Freight Transportation Organizations, Jesse Simpson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This thesis presents a disaggregate market penetration model for freight transportation organizations adopting connected autonomous vehicle (CAV) technology and other transportation innovations. Innovation adoption research has largely ignored organizational adoption, and little work has been done to understand or predict the adoption of innovations by freight organizations. Therefore, numerous innovation adoption theoretical and methodological approaches are examined to determine which strategies are most appropriate for freight organizational adoption, with connected autonomous vehicles as a case study. A cellular automata model is generated using the theory of the diffusion of innovations and the principles of the Bass model. The model allows …

Examining Content Discrepancies Between English And Spanish Language Television News: A Comparative Analysis, Elizabeth C. Rodriguez

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Race, Disability And The Possibilities Of Radical Agency: Toward A Political Philosophy Of Decolonial Critical Hermeneutics In Latinx Discrit, Alexis C. Padilla

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

The present dissertation is a non-empirical methodology project grounded in political philosophy. As a practical exercise, it bridges knowledge workers (e.g., educators, action researchers and other engaged scholars) with activists to explore the situated emancipation possibilities of radical agency at the intersection of blindness and Latinidad. It does so in line with DisCrit and other bodies of literature within critical disability studies, works centered on trans-Latinidades and border-crossing, intersectional decoloniality theorizing, critical hermeneutics, critical race theory and blackness/ whiteness studies. It interrogates performative and movement building spaces for teaching and learning that foster radical exteriority trajectories of decolonial solidarity and …

Early Identification Of Students In Accelerated Curricula With Signs Of Academic And Emotional Risk: Working With Teachers To Identify At-Risk Students, Elizabeth D. Storey

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As part of a comprehensive, multi-tiered system of support for students’ emotional, academic, and behavioral success, effective universal screenings are essential to identify students who may benefit from early intervention and targeted prevention services (Strein, Kuhn-McKearin, & Finney, 2014). Although many screening procedures and methods have been developed and evaluated for general education populations, more research is needed on screening procedures designed for one traditionally underserved population in school-based mental health services—students in accelerated curricula (namely, students in Advanced Placement classes or in the International Baccalaureate program; AP/IB). When teachers are involved in universal screening procedures, regardless of student population …

Perceived Roles Of Academic Advisors In Pursuing Internationalization At Public State And Community Colleges In Florida, Tony W. Long

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research study investigated the perceptions of academic advisors in the Florida College System (FCS) concerning globalization, internationalization, and their role in the process of internationalizing their colleges. Participants in the study included 54 academic advisors from 15 of the 28 colleges in the FCS. The sample was comprised primarily of female advisors with master’s degrees, who had been working in higher education for less than 13 years. This was a nonexperimental, quantitative study and analyses included descriptive statistics, ordinary least squares regression, and Pearson’s product moment correlations.

The results revealed that the responding advisors believe that globalization is inevitable …

Special Feature: Colonialism, Development, & Educational Rights: A "Dialogue Under The Storm", Gustavo Esteva

International Journal of Human Rights Education

No abstract provided.

Arts Of Resistance: Ecologic History And Contemporary Interventions In The Valley Of Mexico, Chloë L. Courtney

Art & Art History ETDs

This thesis analyzes two contemporary artworks concerning Mexico City’s complex socio-ecologic history: the installation The Return of a Lake (2012), by Maria Thereza Alves, and the performance Plan Acalote (2015) by the collective Plan Acalli (Carlos Huitzil and Ehecatl Morales). Mexico City faces land subsidence, flooding, and water shortages. Systemic power imbalances and ongoing efforts to transform a wetland landscape to a city conforming to Eurocentric ideals concentrate these problems in marginal communities. Using strategies of eco-criticism, decolonial thought, and performance studies, I argue that The Return of a Lake and Plan Acalote link broad social and ecologic problems with …

The Anti-Fracking Movement And The Politics Of Rural Marginalization In Lithuania: Intersectionality In Environmental Justice, Diana Mincyte, Aiste Bartkiene

Publications and Research

While the environmental justice perspective focuses on the unequal distribution of environmental risks and benefits across different groups based on race, class, or gender, intersectionality approaches avoid the use of a priori categories to examine marginalization. We argue that intersectionality can broaden the scope of environmental justice studies by examining interactive, historically grounded processes through which categories of difference are produced. To support this argument, we present an illustrative case of the movement in Lithuania that challenged Chevron’s plans to prospect shale resources for potential fracking. We conduct a narrative analysis of public discourses surrounding the formation of the movement …

Nursing & Midwifery: The Key To The Rapid And Cost Effective Expansion Of High Quality Universal Healthcare, Nigel Crisp, Sharon Brownie, Charlotte Refsum

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Nurses and midwives play a central role in all health systems. They support people in every aspect of their health and wellbeing – from health promotion to chronic disease management and specialist services. Together they make up half of the professional health workforce globally and account for about 90 percent of the contacts between patients and health professionals. This report argues that countries that invest in and develop their nursing and midwifery workforce can achieve a rapid, cost-effective expansion of high-quality UHC. This will also help to realize the World Health Assembly (WHA) target of 1 billion more people benefiting …

The Regime Of Innocent Passage In Disputed Waters, Hitoshi Nasu

International Law Studies

The regime of innocent passage is a well-established body of customary international law. However, when there is a dispute over sovereign entitlement to a territorial sea or its outer limit, the applicability and legal effect of the regime are brought into question. This article considers the applicability of the regime of innocent passage and its legal effect in disputed waters by critically examining the relevant jurisprudence of international courts and tribunals that have dealt with territorial and maritime disputes. The efficacy of the findings from this analysis will then be evaluated from a legal policy perspective in the interest of …

Childhood Obesity And Academic Outcomes In Young Adulthood, Igor Ryabov

Sociology Faculty Publications

The present study used nationally representative data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (a.k.a., Add Health) to examine the impact of childhood obesity on young adult educational attainment. In addition to weight status, independent variables included race–ethnicity, immigrant generational status, family socio-economic status (SES), preference for overweight and obese friends in school, school socio-economic and race–ethnic composition, and other important predictors. Educational attainment was measured as a categorical variable with the categories reflecting key educational benchmarks: (1) being a high school graduate; (2) having some college education; and (3) having completed a bachelor’s or higher degree. The results …

Computationally-Enhanced Ecologies, Organisms, And Parasites. Speculative Explorations Of Symbiotic Oscillations, S Didakis

School of Art, Design and Architecture

This paper presents theoretical and practical research related to computationally-enhanced environments, analysing speculative explorations of media technologies that extend our understanding on alternative modes of architectural realities. An analysis is made concerning this transformation of interior spaces that realise immaterial dimensions and hidden layers of information, demonstrating strategies for computationally-enhanced ecologies that become an essential organism of the functions and aesthetics of space. The case studies presented in this work attempt to focus on how technological development and cutting-edge media practices are utilized to create objects and systems within the physical space for augmenting and amplifying creative processes, and exploring …

Determination And Prediction Of Zinc Speciation In Estuaries, Holly B.C. Pearson, Sean D.W. Comber, Charlotte B. Braungardt, Paul Worsfold, Anthony Stockdale, Stephen Lofts

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Lowering of the estuarine Environmental Quality Standard for zinc in the UK to 121 nM reflects rising concern regarding zinc in ecosystems and is driving the need to better understand its fate and behavior and to develop and parametrize speciation models to predict the metal species present. For the first time, an extensive data set has been gathered for the speciation of zinc within an estuarine system with supporting physicochemical characterization, in particular dissolved organic carbon. WHAM/Model VII and Visual MINTEQ speciation models were used to simulate zinc speciation, using a combination of measured complexation variables and available defaults. Data …

Understanding Culture Through Traditional Chinese Fairy Tales: A Study On The Effects Of Chinese Fairy Tale Characters On Audience Perception Of Culture, Bochuan Li

Theses

Classic of Mountains and Seas is probably one of the most ancient books about geography. The history of this book dates back to the Zhou Dynasty (1134 BC to 256 BC) or even earlier. Classic of Mountains and Seas is structured with 18 fascicles and has remained generally unaltered since the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368). This book is not a narrative; it details descriptions of locations in the mountains, seas, lands, and wilderness. The descriptions are usually about medicines, monsters, and geological features. Many of the descriptions are very mundane. Chapters follow the same pattern, and the whole book consists of …

Learn The Terms, Grand Valley State University Libraries

Off the Shelf

No abstract provided.

Language Of The Library, Grand Valley State University Libraries

Off the Shelf

No abstract provided.

Scrutinizing History: Library Research Scholar Pursues Inclusive Inquiry, Jon Jeffryes

Off the Shelf

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Grand Valley State University Libraries

Off the Shelf

No abstract provided.

Who Did It?: A Review On The Possible Causes Of Multiple Sclerosis, Mia Difrancesco

D.U.Quark

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an incurable autoimmune disorder that attacks the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells. Steady demyelination of these cells over time results in painful inflammation and reduced mobility. Genetic abnormalities could be responsible for the onset of this disease. Chromosomal mutations found in MS patients as well as environmental factors influencing the expression of certain genes will be analyzed in this review. Moreover, treatments regulating gene expression in MS patients will be discussed. Further genetic research would not only provide scientists and medical professionals with a deeper understanding of MS and other autoimmune disorders, but also lead to …

Response To Turner 2017, Amy M. Schueller, Robert T. Leaf, Raymond M. Mroch Iii, Geneviève M. Nesslage

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Education For Social Transformation (Est) In The Caribbean: A Postcolonial Perspective, Nigel O.M. Brissett

Sustainability and Social Justice

This paper critically examines the possibilities of education for social transformation (EST) in the context of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). This is a region with a history of colonialism and embodies some of the central dilemmas of globalization, such as inequality and environmental precarity. Thus, conceptually, EST holds great promise for social justice and environmental sustainability. The paper argues, however, that EST can be relevant to the region only if it takes account of the enduring deep-seated legacy of asymmetries of power, exploitation and inequality in the broader society and within the education system resulting from colonialism and now exacerbated …

Tourism And Recreation In A Warmer Indiana: A Report From The Indiana Climate Change Impacts Assessment, Jonathon Day, Melissa Widhalm, Natalie Chin, Leslie Dorworth, Kalim Shah, Sandra Sydnor, Jeffrey Dukes

Tourism Reports

Indiana’s climate and geography make it an attractive place for outdoor tourism and recreation. Many months of each year are ideal for boating, fishing, swimming, hiking, camping, and taking in outdoor sporting events or festivals.

But the world’s climate is changing, and Indiana’s is no exception. Temperature increases already seen over the last hundred years will accelerate, potentially through the end of this century, and precipitation patterns will change. Those changes will affect the many facets of tourism and recreation throughout the state, including the types of tourism the state can offer, the timing of events, and the quality of …

New Book: Thank You, God: From Kids Around The World, Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop

Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop Blog

As Thanksgiving nears, Allia Zobel Nolan's children's book Thank You, God: From Kids Around the World, published by Zondervan, offers an opportunity for children to "discover what their friends in Egypt, Russia, Africa, China and other lands are grateful for - things like koala bears, northern lights, windmills and more."