Digital Commons Network^™

Voices, Anna Kennedy Shock

Honors Theses

Voices is a creative collection of fictional short stories based on perspectives from people residing in various locations worldwide. Research by way of historical documentaries, literature, and personal observation contributed to the completion of this project. Within this collection, multiple social justice issues are explored. These include but are not limited to the following: poverty, sex trafficking, educational opportunities, and malnourishment. Each individual story possesses its own set of characters, plot, and theme, but there are continuous thematic and structural consistencies throughout the collection. A few of these themes are desperation and survival, pain and suffering found in the human …

Crime And The Business Cycle In Mississippi, Taylor Thrasher

Honors Theses

This thesis examines the relationship between crime and the business cycle in Mississippi. Working with a theoretical model of the individual's decision to commit a crime, I show that an increase in legal income decreases an individual's propensity to commit crime. I then use regressions to estimate the long-run and short-run income elasticities of violent crime, burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft. The long-run empirical model shows how income growth effects crime growth, and the short-run empirical model shows how income variability effects crime variability. In the long run, I find that as income increases (decreases), both burglary and larceny decrease …

Women In The Chilean National Identity: How Futbol And Consumption Cultures Affect The Public Sphere, Madeleine Hall Carpenter

Honors Theses

In the past thirty years, Chile has experienced dramatic political, social, economic, and cultural changes. A constant source of national identity, pride, and comfort through this tumultuous period was (and continues to be) fútbol. Chileans follow the sport relentlessly and it is a key part in the construction of local, regional, and national identities. My thesis work aims to answer the following question: how do the relationships between consumption cultures and football create/delineate/eliminate space for women in the overarching social public sphere of national belonging? In order to answer this question, I utilize a mixed methods approach to investigate how …

Attitudinal Changes In Experiential Learning Via Poverty Simulation, Madison E. Bandler

Honors Theses

More than 10% of people living in the United States are impoverished. These human beings are subjected to poor living conditions, experience increased mental and emotional stress, lack basic necessities, and are more susceptible to many health conditions. Lack of poverty awareness and understanding has contributed to the spread of misconceptions, the majority of which are damaging to the impoverished community. These misconceptions affect how impoverished individuals are viewed by health care professionals and influence the quality of medical treatment they receive. The Missouri Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) is an experiential learning tool that requires participants role-play a low-income …

Attitudes Towards Plastic Surgery In College Men And Women, Margaret Rose Hovan

Honors Theses

The aim of this study is to determine whether exposure to extreme makeover based reality television programs is related to the attitudes of college-aged individuals towards the acceptability of obtaining plastic surgery procedures and how students view plastic surgery itself. Interviews consisting of closed- and open-ended questions measured the possible influence that exposure to plastic surgery reality television programs, familial experience with plastic surgery and parental attitudes towards plastic surgery, among other factors, have on one's attitudes towards plastic surgery. The data collected were then entered into Qualtrics and analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) or coded …

Marketing Strategies To Increase Sales In Small Family-Style Restaurant Businesses, Tammira Lucas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Small business owners understand the advantages of using social media as a marketing tool; however, some of these owners do not leverage social media marketing strategies to increase sales. Small business owners who fail to implement social media marketing strategies minimizes the potential to gain new customers; thus, negatively impacting sales. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore social media marketing strategies used by five small family-style restaurants in Maryland. Berry's relationship marketing theory was the conceptual framework for this study. Data collection included semistructured interviews, documents pertaining to social media marketing strategies, and social media …

Mujeres Modernizadas: Defining The Implications Of Modernization For Basque Working Women, Natalie Gagliano

Honors Theses

While studying abroad in Bilbao, my daily routine consisted of morning classes, tea at the café next to the Guggenheim museum, leisure time with friends in the late afternoon, and finally coming home at 9 pm to a dinner cooked every night by my host dad. The entire day, I was surrounded by the immense pride that the Basque people had for their region, history, and culture. The region is in a state of impressive transformation into a more modern society, while it still maintains the historical aspects of the region that its people take such pride in. Among these …

The Evolution Of Trade And Labor Laws In China, Sarah Catherine Hearn

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the long-term evolution of legislation that contributed to the shift of China from a command economy to an economic powerhouse in the capitalist world economy. Few have discussed whether the concept of neoliberalization, defined as the process of adapting fiscal conservative and expert oriented policies, explains the longer-term trend of Chinese development. Therefore, this thesis sets out to make a determination whether China is evolving towards or away from the neoliberal model. To answer this question, this thesis analyzes two areas of legislation crucial in a free market: China's trade and labor laws since the 1970s. More …

Teachers' Perspectives Of Low Student Achievement Within Social Promotion Practices, Denise Monifa Connor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have reported the positive and negative effects of social promotion and retention. The problem at a large elementary school in the southeastern United States was inadequate achievement scores of 70% of socially promoted students in grades 3 through 5 on mandated state tests. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perspectives of teachers on social promotion, grade retention, and how to improve achievement in grades 3 through 5. Tomlinson's differentiated instruction was used as the conceptual framework. Twelve teachers from Grades 3 through 5, who had been at the school at least 1 year and represented …

Development And Implementation Of A Ministry Program To Reconnect Former Adventists Within The Waitara Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Roger Govender

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The membership data from the Waitara Church revealed a gain of 1.33% in baptisms and professions of faith. However, attendance data collected indicated that the weekly attendance numbers in the Waitara Church, within the Greater Sydney on any given Sabbath; did not add up to the numbers found on the local church membership roll. This disparity in membership numbers raised questions regarding the whereabouts of those who do not attend church any longer but continue to claim to be Seventh-day Adventists, this is a member retention problem that needs attention.

Method

Reconnecting ministry strategy was developed in order to …

Contract Governance In Small World Networks: The Case Of The Maghribi Traders, Lisa Bernstein

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

This Article revisits the best known example of successful private ordering in the economics literature: the Maghribi Jewish merchants who engaged in both local and long-distance trade across the Islamic Mediterranean in the eleventh century. Drawing on a case study of over 200 Maghribi merchant letters, it develops a network governance-based account of the way that private ordering might have supported exchange among the Maghribi traders with little or no reliance on the public legal system. The analysis reveals that a particular type of bridge-and-cluster configuration of ties among traders and trading centers--known as a “small-world network”—can have strong reputation-based …

A Regulatory Classification Of Digital Assets: Toward An Operational Howey Test For Cryptocurrencies, Icos, And Other Digital Assets, M. Todd Henderson, Max Raskin

Coase-Sandor Institute for Law & Economics Research Paper Series

Digital assets are hot right now. Whether cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, or initial coin offerings and tokens, this new asset class has captured the imagination of American investors. While it remains to be seen if this phenomenon has staying power, there is no doubt that these assets and their promoters have attracted the attention of the Securities and Exchange Commission. But neither Congress nor the SEC has formally elucidated which digital assets are securities and which are not.

This Article seeks to provide clarity in determining which digital assets are securities. It proposes two tests that operationalize the Supreme Court’s test …

Twenty Years Of Spayvac® Research: Potential Implications For Regulating Feral Horse And Burro Populations In The United States, Ursula S. Bechert, Mark A. Fraker

Human–Wildlife Interactions

There are currently >75,000 feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) and burros (E. asinus ) on U.S. public lands, yet the Appropriate Management Level (AML) is set at just under 27,000. Wildlife managers, conservation biologists, and livestock ranchers are concerned about the impacts that these free-ranging horses have on shared rangelands. Immunocontraceptive vaccines may have the greatest potential to regulate horse population numbers once AML is reached; however, the vaccine must have multi-year efficacy to be both technically feasible and cost-effective. Immunocontraception based on porcine zona pellucida (PZP)-specific antigens is highly tissue-specific, targeting the ova, and blocking sperm binding through antibody …

Sentiment Of The Union: Analyzing Tone In Presidential State Of The Union Addresses, Chase Rydeen

Honors Theses

As the machine learning and data science craze sweeps the nation, the implications and implementations are vast. This paper takes a look at both of them through the lens of a topic of national importance, at the very least for the United States. This topic is the words used by past Presidents of the United States, which are being pulled from their State of the Union Addresses. The focus of this research is on Natural Language Processing (NLP) and it's applied processes. Natural Language Processing allows for effective analysis of text-based data. Using NLP, a sentiment analysis was conducted on …

Rocky Mountain High: An Investigation Of Downhill Snow Sports And Marijuana Use, Silas Phillips

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

What comes to mind when you imagine a ‘stoner?’ Most stereotype the term– some couch-bound, chip-munching slouch with a foggy gaze (and perhaps a goofy grin). Marijuana and its chemical effects hold an increasing presence in American minds. With full legalization of recreational use in 8 states and various degrees of medical legality in 18 others, the substance is caught up in a cultural shift. Our society is tackling the ethicality of marijuana, and the stigmas built around the drug are changing. What was once cited for ‘reefer madness’ is becoming (to some) a medical treatment, or just another way …

Environmental Activism Of Teacher-Scholars In The Neoliberal University, Wendy Highby, Sarah T. Romano

University Libraries Publications

This article takes a case study approach to examine social justice-oriented environmental activism of faculty in the context of neoliberalism. As an evolving trend, university corporatization places new economic burdens on universities and their students and has contributed to a tenuous landscape for faculty in terms of academic freedom and job security. In particular, we examine a faculty-led response to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley, Colorado. Drawing on participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and campus-wide survey data, we document this response as a “tempered grassroots leader-ship” approach to workplace inquiry and activism. We discuss …

Doc 2018-01 Human Sexuality Studies Certificate, Lee J. Dixon, Leslie H. Picca, Andrew Slade, Rebecca Whisnant, Kristen Altenau Keen

Senate Documents

Legislative Authority; Art. III. B. 1-7; DOC 2015-04

Nirsa Championship Series Volunteerism: The Perceived Impact On Professional Development, Jacob K. Tingle, Randall J. Griffiths, Dan Hazlett, April Flint

School of Business Faculty Research

The National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association (NIRSA) Championship Series (Series) has developed into the primary organization for governing extramural/sport club collegiate recreational tournaments. As NIRSA professionals describe it, the Series has also evolved into a platform for professional development. To date, however, no study has attempted to link professional growth and advancement to volunteerism at Series events. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine skills and competencies that could be correlated with volunteering at Series events. Using Astin’s Input-Environment-Outcome (I-E-O) model the research team explored the environmental impact of the volunteer experience by collecting data in two phases …

Searching Through Debris: A Mass Analysis From The Carter Robinson Mound Site In Lee County, Virginia, Robert Capps

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippian period is one of the most widely studied periods in the prehistoric Southeast, but there are areas such as the Mississippian frontier that have not been explored in great detail. Carter Robinson is a Mississippian chiefdom located on the frontier in southwest Virginia during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. To better understand the people living at this site a mass analysis was conducted to examine the lithic debris left behind by the people living there. The purpose of this thesis is to identify the degree of tool production at Carter Robinson and to identify areas of tool production, …

Language Attitudes In Algeria, Kamal Belmihoub

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Comic Counterfactual: Laughter, Affect, And Civic Alternatives, Don Waisanen

Publications and Research

This project contributes the comic counterfactual to the critical lexicon of rhetorical studies. Using a range of examples from political comedy, this paper offers six distinguishing features and several temporal functions of this concept. I argue that the comic counterfactual invites audiences to critically reflect upon the political, social, and performative consequences of historical events by bringing affective, sensory weight to alternative visions, moving unaccountable private interests into public culture, targeting the subtle determinisms that can easily creep into communication, and creating plausible ways to reworld the status quo. I discuss the limitations of the comic counterfactual in the political …

Cheikh Anta Diop’S ‘Two Cradle Theory,’ Racism And The Cultural Realities Of African Descended People In America, Karanja Keita Carroll

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Who Will Regulate American Forensic Science?, Simon A. Cole

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

การเปลี่ยนผ่านสู่ชีวิตในเรือนจำของ "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา, สุพรรณี อ่วมวงษ์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

งานวิจัยเรื่องการเปลี่ยนผ่านสู่ชีวิตในเรือนจำของ "แพะ" ในคดีอาญาเป็นการวิจัยเชิงคุณภาพ (qualitative research) การศึกษาครั้งนี้มีวัตถุประสงค์ 1) ศึกษากระบวนการปรับตัวของ "แพะ" ในคดีอาญาก่อนถูกคุมขังและระหว่างถูกคุมขังในเรือนจำ 2) ศึกษาปัญหาในการเข้าถึงกระบวนการยุติธรรม "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา 3) ศึกษาผลกระทบของ "แพะ" และครอบครัวของ "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา เป็นการวิจัยเชิงคุณภาพ (qualitative research) โดยใช้วิธีการสัมภาษณ์เชิงลึก (in-depth interview) เป็นเครื่องมือหลักในการรวบรวมข้อมูล โดยเป็นการศึกษาวิจัยผ่านเรื่องเล่า (narrative) ของผู้ตกเป็น "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา ศึกษาปัญหาในการเข้าถึงกระบวนการยุติธรรม และศึกษาผลกระทบของผู้ตกเป็น "แพะ"และครอบครัวของผู้ตกเป็น "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา จากการศึกษาวิจัย มีข้อค้นพบดังต่อไปนี้ (1) กระบวนการปรับตัวของผู้ตกเป็น "แพะ" ในคดีอาญา มีองค์ประกอบ 2 ประการ ได้แก่ 1.1 ความเป็นชนชั้นและการปรับตัวสู่เรือนจำ ซึ่งประกอบด้วย ชนชั้นของผู้มีฐานะทางสังคมและผู้ที่มีฐานะทางสังคมที่ด้อยกว่า จุดเปลี่ยนสำคัญที่ทำให้บริสุทธิ์ตกเป็น "แพะ" ในคดีอาญาโดยมีจุดเปลี่ยน 3 ประการ ได้แก่ การเข้าไปอยู่ในสถานที่เกิดเหตุ การรู้จักกับผู้กระทำผิดหรืออาชญากร และการตกเป็น "แพะ" จากความบกพร่องของกระบวนการยุติธรรม ความวิตกกังวลก่อนเข้าสู่เรือนจำเกิดขึ้น 2 ประการ คือ ความวิตกกังวลต่อตนเอง ความวิตกต่อสมาชิกในครอบครัว 1.2 สภาพแวดล้อมในเรือนจำที่ส่งผลต่อการปรับตัว ได้แก่ มิติเชิงพื้นที่ คือ พื้นที่ภายในบริเวณเรือนจำเนื่องจากมีผู้ต้องขังเป็นจำนวนมากทำให้รู้สึกแออัดทางร่างกายและจิตใจ มิติการปฏิสัมพันธ์ซึ่งเป็นการสนทนาระหว่างผู้ต้องขังรายอื่นมีการเล่าประสบการณ์ของแต่ละคนอาจทำให้ลดความวิตกกังวลและทำให้ไม่สามารถลดความเครียดลงได้เช่นกัน กฎระเบียบที่เคร่งครัด ผู้ที่ตกเป็น "แพะ" และผู้ต้องขังรายอื่นต้องปฏิบัติตามกฎอย่างเคร่งครัดซึ่งกฎระเบียบมีทั้งผลดีและผลเสีย ซึ่งผลดีคือการทำให้เกิดความสงบในการอยู่ในเรือนจำส่วนผลเสียก่อให้เกิดความเครียด ความกดดันในการใช้ชีวิตอยู่ในเรือนจำ และกิจกรรมภายในเรือนจำ ซึ่งทุกเรือนจำจะมีการจัดกิจกรรมให้ผู้ตกเป็น "แพะ"ได้เข้าร่วม ได้แก่ กิจกรรมตามเทศกาลต่างๆ กิจกรรมทางศาสนา ทำงานตามกองงานต่างๆ ซึ่งการทำงานในกองงานนั้นเพื่อเป็นการใช้เวลาว่างให้เป็นประโยชน์ มีจิตใจที่สงบ ไม่ฟุ้งซ่าน และทำให้ร่างกายแข็งแรง (2) กระบวนการปรับตัวระหว่างถูกคุมขังในเรือนจำ มีองค์ประกอบ 8 ประการ ดังนี้ 2.1 ปัจจัยที่ส่งผลต่อกระบวนการปรับตัว …

All The Protestors Fit To Count: Using Geospatial Affordances To Estimate Protest Event Size, Austin Choi-Fitzpatrick, Tautvydas Juskauskas, Md. Boby Sabur

School of Peace Studies: Faculty Scholarship

Protest events are a hallmark of social movement tactics. Large crowds in public spaces send a clear message to those in authority. Consequently, estimating crowd size is important for clarifying how much support a particular movement has been able to garner. This is significant for policymakers and constructing public opinion alike. Efforts to accurately estimate crowd size are plagued with issues: the cost of renting aircraft (if done by air), the challenge of visibility and securing building access (if done by rooftops), and issues related to perspective and scale (if done on the ground). Airborne camera platforms like drones, balloons, …

Effects Of Sustained Attention On The Social Skills Of Assertion, Cooperation, Self Control, And Peer Competence, Amy Jean Burns

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The current study explored the relation between sustained attention and the social skills of assertion, cooperation, self-control, and peer competence and whether sex moderated this relation. Data from the National Institute of Child Health and Development – Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development were analyzed. Structural equation models were used to test the possibility of sex as a moderator for each relation. Results suggest sex moderates the relation between sustained attention and assertion skills. Additionally, results suggest sex moderates the relation between sustained attention and cooperation skills. However, results suggest sex did not moderate the relation between sustained …

Roles Of Parents’ Capitals In Children’S Educational Opportunities, Liping Pan

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Bourdieu, the French sociologist, proposed some significant concepts (e.g., habitus, capital and field) to help to explain how social agents play roles in social occurrences. Among his theories, Bourdieu’s trilogy of economic capital, social capital and cultural capital has now been used as a powerful theoretical framework to explain class reproduction and education equity. Over the past decades, his theories have begun to be introduced and recognized in Chinese academic world. And this research attempts to see whether this western theory works in the Chinese educational context.

Shanghai, one of the biggest cities in China, has a huge migrant population. …

Age & Dementia Friendly Cape Ann: A Regional Needs Assessment, Caitlin Coyle

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of SeniorCare, Inc. (hereafter referred to as SeniorCare), to learn about the age- and dementia-friendliness of the region of Cape Ann, including the Massachusetts municipalities of Essex, Gloucester, Manchester-by-the-Sea, and Rockport. The contents of this report are intended to inform SeniorCare for the purposes of planning and implementing the Age & Dementia Friendly Cape Ann (ADFCA) Initiative. The ADFCA Initiative builds on ten Areas of Focus, which are essential components of a livable …

Aging On Nantucket: A Community Needs Assessment, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes efforts undertaken by the Nantucket Center for Elder Affairs, Inc. (NCEA), in partnership with the Center for Social & Demographic Research on Aging within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The purpose of these efforts was to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Nantucket’s older residents. The focus of this report is on the cohort of Nantucket’s residents age 60 and older. The contents of this report are intended to inform NCEA, the Saltmarsh Senior Center, the Council on Aging, the Town of Nantucket, and organizations that provide services to older residents, …

Corporate Culture And Competition Compliance In East Asia, Jingyuan Ma, Mel Marquis

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.