Digital Commons Network^™

Students' Preparation For College Through Advancement Via Individual Determination (Avid) Programs And Dual Enrollment, Brian P. Jones

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to identify opportunities to expand access to higher education. The research specifically explored the combination of two interventions that support college readiness: the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program and dual enrollment. Evidence indicated that each of these programs individually improved students’ readiness for college, but there was no research that explored the success of students involved in both programs. This quantitative analysis used the chi-square statistic to compare the proportion of students from a suburban school district who were involved in both programs to students who were not. The analysis evaluated whether participation …

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 11: Wallace, Darwin, Education, & The Class Question, James D. Williams, Charles H. Smith Editor

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

In a recent paper by John van Wyhe (2020), the issue of class was discussed and whether Wallace came from a “working class” background. As a result of class differences could or should Wallace be considered differently from Darwin, who supposedly came from a higher class? An additional “myth” highlighted was whether Wallace left school, aged 14, due to difficult family financial circumstances. Van Wyhe contends that Darwin and Wallace were both middle class, and Wallace left school at the “normal” school-leaving age. This article shows that both contentions are mistaken. Class in the 19th century was complex and difficult, …

The Very Brief History Of Decentralized Blockchain Governance, Michael Abramowicz

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

A new form of blockchain governance involving the use of formal games that incentivize participants to identify focal resolutions to normative questions is emerging. This symposium contribution provides a brief survey of the literature proposing and critiquing the use of such mechanisms of decentralized decision-making, and it evaluates early laboratory and real-world experiments with this approach.

Beneficial Precaution: A Proposed Approach To Uncertain Technological Dangers, Edward L. Rubin

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

As a result of the specialization and cumulation of knowledge in the era of High Modernity, research and development in most technical fields is largely incomprehensible to anyone outside that field. What should policy makers do when technical specialists disagree, and particularly when some predict an oncoming catastrophe and others dismiss the concern? This is the situation with the so-called Singularity, the point at which machines design, build, and operate other machines. Some experts in cybernetics and artificial intelligence argue that this is imminent, while others consign the possibility to science fiction. If the skeptics are right, nothing need be …

Governing Cascade Failures In Complex Social-Ecological-Technological Systems: Framing Context, Strategies, And Challenges, J.B. Ruhl

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Cascade failures are events in networked systems with interconnected components in which failure of one or a few parts triggers the failure of other parts, which triggers the failure of more parts, and so on. Cascade failures occur in a wide variety of familiar systems, such as electric power distribution grids, transportation systems, financial systems, and ecosystems. Cascade failures have plagued society for centuries. However, modern social-ecological-technological systems (SETS) have become vast, fast moving, and highly interconnected, exposing these systems to cascade failures of potentially global proportions, spreading at breathtaking speed, and imposing catastrophic harms. The increasing potential for cascade …

The Future Of The Confrontation Clause: Semiautonomous And Autonomous Machine Witnesses, Brian Sites

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

How should the Confrontation Clause of the Sixth Amendment be interpreted as to machine witnesses? Courts across the country have resisted efforts to cross-examine the human agents who assist machines that generate data used in criminal trials. Such challenges under the Confrontation Clause have been rejected directly and in great number, and the rules of evidence are largely being read to not require the testimony of those who have the best information about the machine's use for the case at hand. This problem arises in an era of machine exceptionalism and widespread use. From increasingly sophisticated forensic lab tools to …

The Fault In Our Stars: Challenging The Fcc's Treatment Of Commercial Satellites As Categorically Excluded From Review Under The National Environmental Policy Act, Ramon J. Ryan

Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment & Technology Law

Mega satellite constellations, such as SpaceX's Starlink, have the ability to connect humans across the globe in a way never before possible. However, the unprecedented deployment of tens of thousands of satellites into orbit around Earth creates the risk of altering the night sky for astronomers and the public for decades to come, as well as the risk of polluting the environment through the use of toxic satellite components. The Federal Communications Commission considers commercial-satellite projects categorically excluded from environmental review despite the National Environmental Policy Act's requirement that federal agencies review projects for their environmental effects. A court would …

Advising The Online Student: A Breakout Of Advising Frequency, Preferences, And Satisfaction Of Online Students, Maeghen Macdonald, Brittani Wyskocil Garcia

University Administration Publications

This breakout study reviews the findings of a 2017 study of Penn State University's World Campus undergraduate online students. The study surveyed students to report demographic, academic, preferences, and satisfaction information and sought to develop relationships between these variables by their levels of academic success. This breakout study focuses on the findings related to three of the study's variables: academic advising frequency, interaction preference, and satisfaction of undergraduate online students.

Drawing Identities: An Ethnography Of Indigenous Comic Book Creators, Melissa Ann Kocelko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the experiences of Indigenous comic creators when making comic books, and I aim to investigate the individual and communal motivations for creating comics. Representations of Indigenous characters and storylines have primarily been told through a white lens in mainstream comics. Within the past five years, this trend has shifted with increased academic and public attention on Indigenous comic books and the rise of comic conventions like Indigenous Pop X. I argue that these comics are acts of decolonization and self-determination where creators use comics as educational tools and as a form of cultural preservation by documenting Indigenous …

Debt Types And Burdens By Family Structures, Jing Jian Xiao, Rui Yao

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine family structure differences in debt types and burdens of American families.

Design/methodology/approach: Data was from the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances. Eight types of family structures, five specific debts, and two debt burden indicators are examined with multivariate logistic regressions.

Findings: After controlling for several socioeconomic variables, multivariate logistic regression results show that married with children families are more likely than five other family types to have any debt. In terms of specific debt, married with children families are more likely than six other types of families to have mortgages, four …

Financial Education And Demand For Debt Counseling Advice, Nilton Porto, Jing Jian Xiao

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to examine potential effects of consumer financial education on demand for debt counseling advice using a large and representative national dataset. Previous research has examined demographic, economic, and financial capability factors on the demand for debt counseling advice. After controlling for these factors and eliminating the effect of bankruptcy, financial education, a variable not examined in previous research, is positively associated with the demand for debt counseling advice. Education attainment is similarly associated with debt counseling. These results suggest evidence of the complementary nature of financial education. Our results indicate that consumers who have …

Disability Type, Financial Capability, And Risky Asset Holding, Jing Jian Xiao, Barbara O'Neill

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Risky financial asset holding is considered an indicator of financial well-being because risky asset holders are likely to accumulate more wealth than nonholders. Like the general population in the United States, many people with disabilities need long-term financial planning services. The purpose of this study was to examine whether disability type and financial capability are associated with risky asset holding of adults with disabilities. Using data from the 2015 National Financial Capability Study, we found that adults with different types of disabilities have different chances of holding risky assets. After controlling for financial capability, income, and other variables in the …

Moral Duties And Divine Commands: Is Kantian Religion Coherent?, Micah Lott

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

God, Horrors, And Our Deepest Good, Bruce Langtry

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

In Defense Of A Latin Social Trinity: A Response To William Hasker, Scott M. Williams

Faith and Philosophy: Journal of the Society of Christian Philosophers

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Pharmaceutical Contamination On Sedment Microbial Communities In Streams, Benjamin Joseph Lorentz

Master's Theses

The objective of this study was to examine the interaction of pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCP) and microbial communities in freshwater ecosystems. This study included two components. The first component consisted of an artificial stream study in which sediment was exposed to environmentally relevant concentrations of three different pharmaceuticals (diphenhydramine, ciprofloxacin, and fluoxetine) individually and as a mixture. Pharmaceutical exposure had no effect on denitrification rates or respiration rates in the sediments, and sediment microbial community composition showed only slight differences between streams dosed with pharmaceuticals and control streams. The second component consisted of a field study in which …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 47 No. 1

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

A Legal Analysis: The Transgender Bathroom Debate, Josselyn Sheer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article examines the current legal battles over transgender bathroom, locker room, and employment rights. In the recent years, there has been a major uproar surrounding the rights of transgender individuals; concurrently, our country is witnessing a shift in the ways in which individuals understand their gender outside of the binary male and female classification. While the word transgender can serve as an “umbrella term encompassing a wide array of identifies,” transgender rights have steadily grown across numerous areas (Buck, 2016, p. 465). However, there have been contentious legal issues that have put transgender individuals rights in the spotlight.

The …

System Of Structural Dependency In The Sudanese Refugee Women Of Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, Jessica Gladden

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many countries facing an influx of refugees have established refugee camps to provide temporary housing. Lacking a solution for the refugee crisis, these temporary facilities become long-term housing for many refugees. As a result, many refugees spend years or even decades in refugee camps. The refugees often are legally prohibited from obtaining employment. They must rely on aid from the United Nations and other organizations for their survival. This study considers some of the impacts of living in a refugee camp and surviving solely on humanitarian aid. In particular, this study examines the structural dependency observed in the Sudanese refugee …

The Social Construction Of Arab Identity In The U.S.: The Historical Complicity And The Modern Responsibility Of Social Work, Suhad Tabahi, Jacob Bucher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper presents the sociopolitical experiences of early Arab migrants in the United States (U.S.) and the process of contradictory and socially constructed racial categorizations favoring white supremacy. While there is much discourse of the racial formation of Arab immigrants since 9-11, the actual racial project started in the early twentieth century, through varies entities including the social work profession where the “othering” process of early Arabs Americans existed in social welfare practice. Examples of the pejorative attitudes towards Arab immigrants from the early social work discourse are examined through proceedings from the National Conference on Social Welfare (NCSW) in …

School Lunch Participation And Youth School Failure: A Multi-Racial Perspective, Shiyou Wu, Kalah M. Villagrana, Siobhan M. Lawler, Renee Garbe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the United States, students from low-socioeconomic status and minority ethnic groups graduate from high school at lower rates than their peers. Limited studies exist about the risk and protective factors that affect the disproportionate graduation rates by income and ethnicity. Using the 2016 Arizona Youth Survey data (N = 32,178), this study aims to explore the relationship between the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) participation and school failure, and other risk and protective factors from a multi-racial perspective. Logistic regressions were conducted on the total sample and the six ethnic subsamples (i.e., White, Latino, Black, American Indian, Asian/Pacific Islander, …

Identifying And Assisting Human Trafficking Survivors: A Post-Training Analysis Of First Responders, Sarah Erwin, Jessie Peter, Rochelle L. Dalla Dr., Virginia Chaidez, Amy Encinger, Lee Kreimer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

First responders and the agencies for which they work face numerous challenges in identifying and assisting human trafficking survivors. This article aims to outline the ways in which first responders in a Midwestern state identify and provide services to human trafficking survivors. Six months after attending a two-day training aimed at recognizing and assisting human trafficking survivors, first responders were invited to participate in a follow-up survey regarding the training that they received. Responses were collected from 270 participants who work at various government, medical, or social service agencies in both rural and urban service areas across the state. Results …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 47, Issue 4

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

No abstract provided.

Speech Inequality After Janus V. Afscme, Charlotte Garden

Faculty Articles

This Article explores the growing divide between the Roberts Court’s treatment of the free speech rights of wealthy individuals and corporations in campaign finance cases as compared to its treatment of the rights of public-sector labor unions and their members. First, it highlights some internal contradictions in the Janus Court’s analysis. Then, it discusses the growing—yet mostly ignored—divergence in the Court’s treatment of corporate and labor speakers with respect to the use of market influence to achieve political influence.The Article has two Parts. In Part I, I explain how the Court reached its decision in Janus before critiquing the decision’s …

Antitrust And Two-Sided Platforms: The Failure Of American Express, John B. Kirkwood

Faculty Articles

Two-sided platforms serve two sets of customers and enable them to interact with each other. The five most valuable corporations in America – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft – all operate two-sided platforms. But despite their growing power, the Supreme Court's American Express decision has made it harder to stop them from stifling competition. This Article systematically exposes the flaws in the Court's reasoning and identifies the principles that should govern future cases. The Court’s most fundamental error was to require plaintiffs in rule of reason cases to make an initial showing of consumer harm that weighs the effects …

Neurodegenerative Modeling: Tau Protein, Degradative Pathways, And Gene Expression Profiling Of Human Ipsc-Derived Neural Precursors And Differentiated 3-D Neural Sphere Versus 2-D Monolayer Cultures, Kyle H. Anthoney

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Human induced pluripotent stem cells offer a model for human brain development and disease by differentiation into brain organoids; however, current neural culture systems lack the microenvironment, neuronal circuits and connectivity, vascular circulation, and immune system that exist in vivo. After differentiation and development of neuronal and non-neuronal cell types within two formats of cell cultures, we can visualize and recapitulate in vivo protein accumulation, gene expression, and degradative processes such as autophagy. Using RNA extraction, purification methods and reverse transcription I compared traditional monolayer cultures and novel 3-D neural sphere cultures via gene expression analysis. This analysis indicated …

Bulletin 2020-2021, Seattle University School Of Law

Viewbooks

No abstract provided.

Strategies For Increasing Employee Productivity In Small Technology Consulting Businesses, Dalinda Yvonne Milne

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Unproductive employees in technology consulting small businesses negatively affect organizational output and profits. Investing in employee productivity is beneficial to ensuring an organization’s ability to improve their profits and sustainability as business leaders have an influential role in identifying and addressing the root causes of employee productivity issues in their organizations. The conceptual framework that grounded this doctoral study was Thomas Gilbert’s behavioral engineering model. The participants in this study consisted of 8 leaders in a Texas technology consulting small business with experience in increasing employee productivity. Data were collected through in-person semistructured interviews and business documents. Methodological triangulation was …

Perceptions Of Teachers' Regarding Barriers To Using Instructional Technology In Egyptian Schools, Radwa El Shafei

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The local K-12 school problem addressed in this study was teachers' underutilization of instructional technology (IT) to improve teaching and student learning. The purpose of this study was to explore teachers' current use of IT, as well as their perceptions of barriers to using IT in classrooms. The technology acceptance model guided the study by emphasizing the importance of perceived ease of use, usefulness, and attitudes in understanding teachers' perceptions about integrating IT. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of their knowledge of how to use IT, barriers to using IT and how it is currently implemented. Using a …

The Need For A Balanced System And More Community-Based Programs And Interventions In Juvenile Justice Reform In Georgia, Ebony R. Bullock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The research problem that this study addressed was the rising juvenile crime in Fulton County, Georgia. Georgia’s juvenile justice system went through a significant overhaul in 2013 that promised to reduce juvenile crime and recidivism, create more community-based interventions and programs, reduce the number of juveniles in out-of-home placement, and save taxpayers money. Despite the efforts put into place by House Bill 242 of 2013 (HB242), there was still an increase in juvenile crime, and there were not many community-based interventions and programs put into place. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of HB242 on juvenile …