Digital Commons Network^™

Book Review: Was Yosef On The Spectrum By Samuel J. Levine, Ian Hale, Ph.D.

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

The “Step-Child Of Scholarly Investigation”: Preliminary Observations About The Origins Of Academic Jewish Law Scholarship, David Hollander

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

How Actions Affirm: Reflections On The Question Of Affirmative Action, Doron Menashe

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Two-Session Information Literacy Program Effectiveness For Rural First-Year Undergraduates, Del Duke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A small rural university in the southern United States was unsure if its first-year student information literacy (IL) program was effectively preparing its rural students for the university’s IL learning goals. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine if the IL program is effective for rural students. Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process (ISP) theory was used, which identifies key stages that students experience when solving information problems. The overarching research question for the study examined the effectiveness of the university’s IL program on incoming rural first-year students’ IL knowledge and skills. The study used archive pre/post assessment data …

Life In A Harsh Environment: The Effects Of Age, Sex, Reproductive Condition, And Season On Hair Cortisol Concentration In A Wild Non-Human Primate, P. A. Garber, A. Mckenney, Evelyn Elizabeth Bartling-John, J. C. Bicca-Marques, M. F. De La Fuente, F. Abreu, N. Schiel, A. Souto, Kimberley A. Phillips

Psychology Faculty Research

Hair cortisol concentration (HCC) provides a long-term retrospective measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis activity, and is increasingly used to assess the life history, health and ecology of wild mammals. Given that sex, age, season and pregnancy influence HCC, and that it may indicate ongoing stress, we examined HCC in common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) naturally inhabiting a hot and dry semi-desert like habitat, Caatinga, in northeastern Brazil. We trapped, measured, weighed, marked and collected shaved hair from the back of the neck of 61 wild marmosets during the wet and dry seasons. Using enzyme immunoassay, we found that HCC was …

Food Insecurity And Eating Disorders: A Review Of Emerging Evidence, V. M. Hazzard, K. A. Loth, L. Hooper, Carolyn Black Becker

Psychology Faculty Research

Purpose of Review: This review summarizes emerging evidence for the relationship between food insecurity and eating disorder (ED) pathology, outlines priorities for future research in this area, and comments on considerations for clinical and public health practice.

Recent Findings: Among adults, food insecurity is cross-sectionally associated with higher levels of overall ED pathology, binge eating, compensatory behaviors, binge-eating disorder, and bulimia nervosa. Evidence for similar relationships among adolescents has been less robust; however, compared to studies of adults, there have been substantially fewer studies conducted in adolescents to date.

Summary: Emerging evidence consistently indicates that food insecurity …

Increasing Access To Interventional Pain Management Therapies For Palliative Care Patients With Cancer Through Referral System Improvement, Ewelina Karolina Gibek

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Introduction: The need for palliative care increases as the number of patients continues to grow due to the aging population and rising cancer rates. Pain management is one of the essential components of palliative care. Anesthesia providers are well-positioned to become active members of palliative care teams and to provide pain management services, including regional and interventional therapies to patients in the acute care setting. Due to lack of awareness of the need, there have been few referrals for these services. Consequently, despite anesthesia providers’ knowledge of pain management and anesthesia care delivery, they have not been consistently involved in …

The Student Experience Of Final Year In An Undergraduate Degree Programme In Education Studies., Roisin Donnelly, Julie Ui Choistealbha, Marian Fitzmaurice

Journal Articles

This case study explores the student experience of the final year of a four-year undergraduate degree in ‘Education Studies’, with a focus on the perceived impact of curriculum design of the programme. The context is an Irish college of education, and the programme structure has been designed to allow for flexibility to accommodate varying student interests and professional pathways. As the first full iteration of the programme came to a close, it was considered an opportune time to ascertain if the programme was meeting its curriculum design objectives in terms of preparation for the chosen professional pathway post-graduation from both …

Evaluating The Impact Of The In-Store Programming And Outreach Coalition (Ipoc) On Increasing Access To Healthy Food And Healthcare Services In Paso Del Norte Region: First-Person Account Of Stakeholders' Perspective, Dennis Nyachoti

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Grocery stores can provide a conducive environment for interventions targeting healthy eating and access to health services, particularly in low-income communities. Nationally, several organizations have implemented grocery store interventions and have shown impact on perceptions of purchasing nutritious food, especially by raising awareness of fruits and vegetables. However, most of those programs have not been implemented in a coordinated manner despite being delivered in the same location. Collaboration of local health promotion organizations with grocery stores could increase consumers' access to and selection of healthy foods, as well as access to and use of services.

This evaluation of the In-Store …

Analyzing Voter Participation In El Paso County, Texas, Samantha Romero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis seeks to analyze and understand voting patterns in El Paso County, Texas, based on a study of voter turnout in the November 2015 Uniform Election and three key research objectives. The first objective is to provide a systematic statistical evaluation of a local endeavor, the Student Voter Initiative (SVI), to increase voter turnout among youth, specifically 18-year-olds, in the November 2015 Uniform Election. The second objective is to estimate voter turnout by age group (generation) and investigate whether younger voters were underrepresented in the November 2015 Uniform Election compared to older generations, based on generational categories defined by …

Understanding The Association Between Routine Activities, Social Bonds, Violent Victimization, And Violent Offending, Caleigh D. Lynch

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Statement, Winter 2020, Office Of Communications & Marketing, Morehead State University.

Morehead State Alumni Association Publications

Statement Magazine of Morehead State University from the Winter of 2020.

Civil Statutes Of Limitation For Child Sexual Abuse And Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking, Emma Hetherington, Melina D. Lewis, Brian Atkinson, Brittany Blanchard, Kevin Tyler Dysart, Chase Lyndale, Devin Mashman, Charles Lawson Turner

Scholarly Works

The Wilbanks Child Endangerment and Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) Clinic is a teaching and research clinic at the University of Georgia School of Law. The clinic represents survivors of childhood sexual abuse and exploitation in civil and juvenile dependency proceedings. Since opening its doors in 2016, CEASE has assisted over 100 survivors in the state of Georgia through legal representation, legal advice, and/or referrals. Law and masters of social work students work in the clinic and participate in a seminar covering best practices in representing survivors, relevant laws and policies, and practical legal and social work skills. Law students represent survivors …

Networks Of Empathy, Thomas E. Kadri

Scholarly Works

Digital abuse is on the rise. People increasingly use technology to perpetrate and exacerbate abusive conduct like stalking and harassment, manipulating digital tools to control and harm their victims. By some accounts, 95% of domestic-abuse cases involve technology, while a sizeable chunk of the U.S. population now admits to having suffered or perpetrated serious abuse online. To make matters worse, people often trivialize digital abuse or underestimate its prevalence. Even among those who do appreciate its severity, there remains ample disagreement about how to address it.

Although law can be a powerful tool to regulate digital abuse, legal responses are …

Tools For Regulators In A Changing Climate: Proposed Standards, State Policies, And Case Studies From The Western Grid, Adam D. Orford

Scholarly Works

With climate change a present reality, governments are confronting the need to adapt their regulatory planning processes to withstand new and uncertain climate risks. This Article provides three new resources to support this essential work. First, it develops a new standard for assessing the quality of climate adaptation decisionmaking, focusing on defining the problem, quantifying adaptation benefits, and evaluating equitable distribution of risk. Second, it reviews California's climate adaptation policy development efforts between 1988 and 2018-from the state's early efforts to study the problem, to later attempts at statewide strategic planning, until more recent work to integrate adaptation into existing …

Predicting Competency In Motivational Interviewing Through An Objective Empathy Task, Kylah Moneek Clark

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In the process of disseminating motivational interviewing (MI) it is important to identify who benefits from initial workshops and which trainees would benefit from an extended training model that involves coaching and performance feedback, which has recently been advocated. Prior research attempting to determine who benefits from training has failed to show associations between baseline self-reported empathy and training outcomes. However, the use of an objective empathy task may address the shortcoming of prior research. The purpose of the present study was to predict competency in motivational interviewing skills following training using an objective empathy task. In addition, we investigated …

Testing A Culturally Tailored Intervention To Promote Hpv Vaccination Intentions In Latina Young Adults, Erica Landrau

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States and a known risk factor for cervical cancer. Several HPV vaccines have been approved as a primary prevention option. Vaccination rates remain low among Latinas, despite a disproportionately high rate of cervical cancer rates of among this population. Few culturally tailored interventions to promote HPV vaccination have been developed for Latina young adults. The first objective of the present study was to test the efficacy of a culturally-tailored fotonovela to increase intention to vaccinate among Mexican American female young adults. The second objective was to …

The Development Of The Rapport Scales For Investigative Interviews And Interrogations, Observer Version (Rs3i-O), Justin Loren Magee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rapport between an interviewer and a source is a vital component of successful investigative interviews and interrogations. Accurate measurement of rapport in these interactions is crucial to understanding its development and maintenance. The Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations, Source version (RS3i-S; Duke et al., 2018) was developed to measure sources' perception of rapport, but no tool has been developed to measure rapport from a third-party observer's perspective. The primary purpose of this study was to develop the Rapport Scales for Investigative Interviews and Interrogations, Observer version (RS3i-O), a tool that allows observers to rate the rapport generated in …

Further Validation Of The Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire For Assessing Motivations For Responsible Drinking: A Test Of Self-Determination Theory, Dylan Richards

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Alcohol protective behavioral strategies (PBS) are cognitive-behavioral strategies used before, during, and/or after drinking to reduce alcohol use and alcohol-related problems. Self-determination theory (SDT) provides a potentially useful framework to understand motivations for responsible drinking, which is operationalized in the present study as PBS use. In the present study, the relation of motivations for responsible drinking, as assessed by the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire (TSRQ), with other SDT constructs (psychological need satisfaction and dispositional autonomy) and PBS use, alcohol use, and alcohol-related problems were examined among college students drinkers. A sample of 507 college students who reported consuming alcohol at least …

Bio-Inspired Method For Close-Proximity Operations On A Near-Earth Asteroid, Rene Alberto Valenzuela Najera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Space maneuvers in the vicinity of small celestial bodies and achieving a soft landing over the surface of small celestial bodies are essential movements to advance the status of exploration, collection of geographical data, measurement of physical properties among other on-orbit tasks. Before a spacecraft reaches hovering position over an asteroid in order to perform orbital tasks, close-proximity operations must be done. Since the movements of the spaceships depend on the acceleration forces provided by the thrusters and external disturbances forces, the correct planning of execution of the close-up trajectories on the celestial body orbit and trajectory to land on …

Assessing The Severity Of Health States Based On Social Media Posts, Shweta Yadav, Joy Prakash Sain, Amit P. Sheth, Asif Ekbal, Sriparna Saha, Pushpak Bhattacharyya

Publications

The unprecedented growth of Internet users has resulted in an abundance of unstructured information on social media including health forums, where patients request healthrelated information or opinions from other users. Previous studies have shown that online peer support has limited effectiveness without expert intervention. Therefore, a system capable of assessing the severity of health state from the patients’ social media posts can help health professionals (HP) in prioritizing the user’s post. In this study, we inspect the efficacy of different aspects of Natural Language Understanding (NLU) to identify the severity of the user’s health state in relation to two perspectives(tasks) …

Music Notation-To-Color Synesthesia And Early Stages Of Music Education: A Grounded Theory Study, Eduardo Sola Chagas Lima

Dissertations

Problem

Synesthesia is a neurological condition characterized by over-abundant neural connectivity between commonly highly specialized areas of the brain. The developmental form of the condition often results in automatic and consistent cross-sensory associations between perceived stimuli and commonly unrelated brain regions. This research contemplates the specific form of music notation-to-color synesthesia and its impact on early stages of music education. Synesthetes with this mode of the condition tend to involuntarily yet consistently associate music-notational concepts with colors, thus rendering their assimilation of these concepts unique and individualized. The purpose of this study is to determine the extent of these individualized …

Choice Of God/Higher Power, Perceptions Of God/Higher Power, Religious Beliefs And Behaviors, And Social Support As Predictors Of Length Of Sobriety, Satisfaction With Life, And Quality Of Life Among People Recovering From Alcohol Addictions In Three Midwestern States, Carlton Martin

Dissertations

Problem

An estimated 12.7% of the US population meet the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria for Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD). The annual cost to the society, including emergency room visits, lost days at work, and accidents on the road is in the billions. The impact of this disorder on the family, the community, and the individual is immeasurable. A growing body of literature supports an association between religious and spiritual beliefs and behaviors and recovery from alcohol addiction. This project is an investigation of this association. The goal is to offer some …

Mother-Infant Attachment: Path Analysis Of The Predictive Role Of Trauma Therapy And Select Demographics On Mother's Cognitive Responses, Nicole D. Knapp

Dissertations

Problem

The best outcome for attachment when an infant is born would be a secure attachment, but this is not always the case. Insecure attachments are likely to be formed when the mother has experienced domestic violence given the right environment (Huth-Bocks et al., 2011; Theran et al., 2005). A previous study showed that changes to attachment due to postnatal intervention are based on external behaviors rather than internal though processes (Theran et al., 2005). Because of this, the purpose of this study is to compare therapy categories and each of the observable attachment factors.

Method

Participants completed a survey …

Preservice Teachers' Preferred Definitions Of Intelligence, And Related Demographics (Age, Gender, Educational Level, Academic Domains And Educational Psychology Enrollment), As Predictors Of Their Implicit Beliefs Of Intelligence, Michelle A. Bacchiocchi

Dissertations

Problem

Just as teachers help their students bridge their prior knowledge to new understandings of ideas including conceptions of intelligence, preservice teachers as future teachers are undergoing the same training and work environment. Preservice teachers' implicit beliefs and their preferred definitions of intelligence are important, since as persons of authority they influence children and their beliefs about ability. For future teachers, there is limited empirical evidence exploring preservice teachers' implicit beliefs about intelligence and how they define intelligence.

Method

A survey was used to collect data on implicit beliefs about intelligence and definitions of intelligence from a sample of 262 …

Spiritual Coping As A Mediator Of Distress And Posttraumatic Growth Among Adult Female Survivors Of Sexual Abuse By Religious Leaders, Angela R. St. Hillaire

Dissertations

Problem

Posttraumatic growth has been defined as the positive psychological and behavioral changes that come about in the aftermath of a struggle with traumatic life events. The literature notes the existence of posttraumatic growth among survivors of intimate partner violence, childhood and/or adult sexual abuse, bereavement, terrorism, and other events. This study explored posttraumatic growth in a sample of female survivors of sexual abuse by religious leaders by examining how distress, spiritual coping, and posttraumatic growth were related in this population. This study examined the mediatory role of spiritual coping between distress and posttraumatic growth.

Method

Surveys that measured spiritual …

Ethnic Identity Salience, Socioeconomic Status, And Attitudes Toward Seeking Mental Health Treatment As Predictors Of Receptivity To Community-Based Psychoeducation Among African American Men, Hadiya Suzanne Dubose-Smith

Dissertations

Problem

Distrust and socioeconomic barriers are widely recognized as contributors to disparities in the healthcare system, particularly as it relates to mental health care (Lindinger-Sternart, 2015; National Alliance on Mental Illness, n.d.). African Americans continually experience societal pressures to disassociate with African American culture and to assimilate into mainstream culture. Perhaps accessing mental health services via a counselor is an extension of that pressure. In this way, the traditional counseling model for mental health intervention is a culturally counterintuitive approach for developing mental health among African American men. Men are a subset of the African American community that tends to …

High Stakes Testing And School Characteristics: A Comparative Study, Kelsey M. Dailey

Dissertations

Problem

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to better understand the relationship between the 2016 Grade 10 ISTEP+ English passing rate and 2018 graduation rate amongst 290 Indiana high schools and the following variables: school size, average SAT reading score, percentage of students passing advanced placement (AP) exams, percentage of special education students, percentage of free or reduced lunch students, percentage of English Language Learner students, and percentage of minority ethnic group students.. The results of the research may further evaluate how 2016 school characteristics are related to the Grade 10, 2016 ISTEP+ English which may suggest future …

A Study Of Nones In Brazil And The Usa In Light Of Secularization Theory With Missiological Implications, Jolive R. Chavez

Dissertations

The growth of those who declare themselves to be Nones, or religiously unaffiliated, in Brazil and the USA has been continuously higher than that of the general population. In Brazil, they are the third-largest group in the religious field, behind only Catholics, and Pentecostal evangelicals. In the USA, they are the second largest group, after Protestants as a whole. The Nones, in their diverse groups, are more represented among the youth in both cultures, and reflect the modern and postmodern influences of contemporary secularism, being a product of the process of changing human thought.

This work studies the Nones, in …

Coaching And Being Coached: A Qualitative Study Of The Experiences Of Education Leaders In The Florida Conference Of Seventh-Day Adventists, Arne P. Nielsen

Dissertations

Problem

The Florida Conference of Seventh-day Adventists administration was concerned about its effectiveness as an evangelistic organization due to changes in societal norms. They felt a need for a paradigm shift to keep ministry relevant to its membership and to find new methods to reach people for Christ. There was an intentional focus on developing a model for effective ministry by equipping pastors and educators with new and different skills for the purpose of effecting personal and organizational transformation. For change to occur, it was decided to put in place a support system for leaders utilizing co-active coaching as the …