Digital Commons Network^™

No. 09: Emerging Digital Technologies And Cross-Border Food Remittances Of Zimbabwean Migrants In Cape Town, South Africa, During The Early Covid-19 Pandemic, Sean Sithole, Daniel Tevera, Mulugeta F. Dinbabo

Migration and Food Security (MiFOOD) Network

This paper examines the emerging unexplored synergies between digital-mobile technologies and cross-border food remittances in Southern Africa. Cell phones and apps or applications for smart mobile devices offer migrants new formal ways of sending food remittances. With large volumes of cash and non-cash items flowing through it, the South Africa-Zimbabwe remittance corridor is a priority market for these new fintech companies. However, recent discussions on digital remittances have focused largely on cash transfers. Similarly, limited attention has been paid to food remittances in the broad discussion on remittances, even though cross-border food transfers are crucial for food and nutrition security …

College Readiness In Saudi Arabia Based On High Schools Principals’ Perceptions, Modhi Al Balawi

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The results of thematic analysis generated six themes with fifty-two supportive codes. Each theme was mentioned by at least six principals. Each supportive code was mentioned by at least four different principals. The themes were: high school objectives, college readiness activities, celebrating success, creativity activities, private schools' advantage, and barriers to college success. Within each of themes, at least one code indicated that the school prepared students in key cognitive strategies like critical thinking and creativity. By the same token, each theme included at least one code that indicated that schools prepare students in key academic behaviors like self-monitoring and …

Holy Cross Magazine, Vol. 57, No. 2, Spring 2023, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Magazine

How Women’s Studies Opened Minds and Scholarship at Holy Cross
In 1993, Holy Cross graduated its first students with a concentration in Women’s Studies, a discipline that has since impacted generations of faculty and students.
By Megan Bard

A Professor’s Fascination Leads to a Nationwide Book Smash
Leila Philip’s latest book has struck a chord with readers and reviewers, showcasing how beavers have not just helped shape American history and culture, but also the species’ crucial role in helping humans face environmental challenges.
By Maura Sullivan Hill

The Insider’s Guide to Aspire: Holy Cross’ New Strategic Plan
The hows, whys …

Using Video Storytelling To Transform The Consumer Narrative Of Fashion Into One Of Caretaking: A First Step Towards A Sustainable Fashion Industry, Piumi De Alwis

Masters Theses

This study speaks about today’s apparel industry run by the consumption based “consumer narrative” and will introduce a sustainable alternative of “caretaker narrative,” a consumer oriented way of being to combat toxic practices in the apparel industry. Meanwhile on the other hand in today’s day and age video storytelling is getting extremely popular in the media we daily consume. This study examines how to effectively use video storytelling to popularize the sustainable practice of the “caretaker narrative” in society.

Tennessee State Museum Spring 2023 Newsletter & Calendar Of Events, Tennessee. State Museum.

Tennessee State Museum

No abstract provided.

Political Theory And The Volunteer: Lessons From Kahn’S Ethnography Of ‘Our Unhappy Politics’, Benjamin Berger

All Papers

This article offers a reading of Paul Kahn’s Democracy in Our America that places this intimate “work of local political theory” in a central position in the landscape of his political thought. The article argues that the figure of the volunteer, as it appears in the volume, holds a space for love and meaning—and for political happiness—that secures for it a critical role in the system of beliefs and practices that sustain self-government in the United States. That framing draws the volunteer into relationship with Kahn’s thinking about the family, the veteran, and law. But it also means that the …

An Evolving View Of Host-Microbiome Co-Development In Healthy And Undernourished Children, Robert Yuzen Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Affecting more than 795 million children under the age of 5, childhood undernutrition is one of the greatest impediments to the flourishing of humankind. Current dietary interventions fail to ameliorate many of the long-term sequelae of undernutrition, including immune system dysfunction, impaired vaccine responses, persistent central nervous system (CNS) dysfunction, and early mortality. These shortcomings suggest that our understanding of the biological state of undernutrition is incomplete, and that traditional food therapies fail to target key drivers of undernutrition-dependent pathologies. Recently, work from our lab has provided preclinical evidence demonstrating that impaired development of the distal gut microbiota plays a …

Health Disparities: Ranking Horry County's Most Disadvantaged Communities, Stephen Borders, Jacob Bradley, Mackenzie Cannon, William Hall

Public Health

Horry County is a rapidly growing region in South Carolina, with a diverse population of over 300,000 residents. Despite this growth, the county faces significant health challenges, including high rates of chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity, and a shortage of healthcare providers in certain areas. These challenges are exacerbated by the county's socio-economic disparities, with many low-income residents lacking access to basic health services. Our approach is to address these challenges by identifying the areas within the county with the greatest unmet needs, also known as disadvantaged communities. By identifying the needs of Horry County’s most disadvantaged communities, …

Aligning Investments To Improve Population Health: A Statewide Strategy To Address The Social Determinants Of Health, Michael E. Swack, Sarah Boege, Kevin Barnett

Carsey Publications

In this report, authors Michael Swack, Sarah Boege, and Kevin Barnett discuss the initiative to develop a statewide strategy to address the social determinants of health in New Hampshire. Launched in 2020, this project is a collaboration between the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School of Public Policy at UNH, the Center to Advance Community Health and Equity (CACHE) at the Public Health Institute, the Institute for Health Policy and Practice at UNH, and the New Hampshire Hospital Association/Foundation for Healthy Communities. Michael Swack, director of the Center for Impact Finance at the Carsey School, serves as the …

Characteristics Of Verified And Designated Burn Centers, Jeffrey Carter, Randy Kearns, Elle Lovick, Erica Murata, Bart Phillips

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

55th Annual Meeting of the American Burn Association, ABA 2023, May 16 - 19, 2023, Dallas, TX

The Influence Of The Built Environment On The Community Participation Of Adults Aging With Long-Term Physical Disabilities: A Mixed Methods Approach, Rachel H. Desai

WUSM Theses and Dissertations – All Programs

Adults living with a long-term physical disability experience difficulties living independently and participating in the community as they age. A combination of personal (e.g., fatigue) and environmental (e.g., transportation accessibility) factors influence these restrictions in participation. The impact of the built environment is a key aspect to consider when understanding community participation restrictions for adults aging with long-term physical disabilities (AAwPD) because these factors are often more modifiable. However, the processes by which the built environment impacts AAwPD are not well understood. Interventions targeting these factors to address the community participation needs of AAwPD are limited.

Research informing community-based organizations …

Toxicokinetics And Bioaccumulation Of Silver Sulfide Nanoparticles In Benthic Invertebrates In An Indoor Stream Mesocosm, Pv Silva, Arr Silva, Nathaniel J. Clark, Joanne Vassallo, Marta Baccaro, Neja Medvešček, Magdalena Grgić, Abel Ferreira, Martí Busquets-Fité, Kerstin Jurkschat, Anastasios G. Papadiamantis, Victor Puntes, Iseult Lynch, Claus Svendsen, Den Brink Nw Van, Richard D. Handy, Gestel Cam Van, Susana Loureiro

School of Health Professions

Mesocosms allow the simulation of environmentally relevant conditions and can be used to establish more realistic scenarios of organism exposure to nanoparticles. An indoor mesocosm experiment simulating an aquatic stream ecosystem was conducted to assess the toxicokinetics and bioaccumulation of silver sulfide nanoparticles (Ag2S NPs) and AgNO3 in the freshwater invertebrates Girardia tigrina, Physa acuta and Chironomus riparius, and determine if previous single-species tests can predict bioaccumulation in the mesocosm. Water was daily spiked at 10 μg Ag L−1. Ag concentrations in water and sediment reached values of 13.4 μg Ag L−1 and 0.30 μg Ag g−1 in the Ag2S …

Loneliness And Social Networks Of Older Adults In Rural Communities: A Narrative Synthesis Systematic Review, Basharat Hussain, Mahrukh Mirza, Rebecca Baines, Lorna Burns, Sebastian Stevens, Sheena Asthana, Arunangsu Chatterjee

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction: Loneliness has significant impacts on the health of older adults. Social networks help to improve psychosocial and quality of life outcomes among older adults. A fifth of older adults live in rural communities, where geographic isolation poses challenges to health. The dynamics of social networks of older adults in rural communities has not been explored. Objective: To synthesize the literature related to loneliness and social networks of older adults in rural settings. Methods: A mixed-methods systematic review was conducted through searching six bibliographic databases to retrieve peer-reviewed literature with no time limits. We performed a methodological assessment of each …

The Role Of Rural And Urban Geography And Gender In Community Stigma Around Mental Illness, Shawnda Schroeder, Chih Ming Tan, Brian Urlacher, Thomasine Heitkamp

Indigenous Health Faculty Publications

Empirical evidence describes the negative outcomes people with mental health disorders experience due to societal stigma. The aim of this study was to examine the role of gender and rural/urban living in perceptions about mental illness. Participants completed the Day’s Mental Illness Stigma Scale, a nationally validated instrument for measuring stigma. Directors of Chambers of Commerce in North Dakota distributed the electronic survey to their members. Additionally, distribution occurred through use of social media and other snowball sampling approaches. Analysis of data gathered from 749 participants occurred through examination of the difference in perceptions based on geography and gender. The …

Concealing More Than Your Affairs: A Deep Dive Into The World Of Cryptocurrency And Its Future Influence On Family Law In Ohio, Milica Prica

Cleveland State Law Review

This Note dives into the world of cryptocurrency and family law in Ohio. With its current popularity and dramatic fluctuations, cryptocurrency has created a new legal issue in the family law practice. Specifically, this Note focuses on the concealability of Bitcoin and how that influences division of property, spousal support, and child support in Ohio divorce proceedings and settlements. To tackle this issue, this Note begins with the history of Bitcoin, its value since the beginning, as well as the reason for its fluctuations. This Note also looks into what makes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency forms so concealable. This Note …

Assessment Of Urban Physical Features On Summer Thermal Perceptions Using The Local Climate Zone Classification, Cho Kwong Charlie Lam, Salman Shooshtarian, Inji Kenawy

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Urbanisation has changed local meteorological conditions worldwide. The physical features of outdoor spaces are critical in determining outdoor thermal comfort through changes in meteorological parameters. Past studies comparing subjective thermal perception between local climate zones (LCZ) were mainly conducted in humid subtropical regions. This study aims to investigate this relationship using outdoor thermal comfort survey data collected in three research projects in Melbourne, Australia (temperate oceanic climate) (n = 4717). The physical features investigated included the sky view factor (SVF) and LCZ classification. During Melbourne's summer, people preferred a higher PET value than neutral PET across all LCZs. People in …

The Transparency Dilemma: Competition, Innovation, And Organizational Performance With Corporate Transparency, Xiaoli (Shirley) Tang

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprises three distinct chapters, all centered on the critical phenomenon I term the “transparency dilemma.” This dilemma arises when firms are requested by regulators and stakeholders to reveal proprietary operational information to address externalities created by their business activities. In doing so, they risk losing vital intellectual property or damaging relationships with stakeholders who may benefit from keeping the information confidential. How do firms navigate this dilemma? In Chapter 1, I explore alternative strategies firms employ when disclosure threatens their intellectual property. By focusing on the trade secret provision in chemical disclosures within the hydraulic fracturing sector of …

Haunted Pasts And Contested Presents: Essays On Thai Gothic Fiction, Nationalism And Identity, Anothai Kaewkaen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation takes the form of a suite of six essays (plus a formal introduction and conclusion), each focused on a representative work of Thai Gothic fiction. This corpus spans the late 1950s to the present day, encompassing the entire period known as “modern” Thai history, which takes 1932—the year the absolute monarchy fell and our first author was born—as its starting date. These texts are read not only in relation to their English-language forebears—the Jane Eyres, the Draculas, and Rebeccas that are their progenitors, alongside lesser-known authors like Marie Corelli (1855-1925)—but also for the ways in which they interact …

The Monumentalization Of The Past: German Humanist Patriotism And Source Use, 1488–1582, Justin Meyer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The development of a patriotic discourse among German Renaissance humanists emerged from a humanist desire to memorialize the past by gathering information from the sources of German history and geography. Prevailing scholarly arguments explain the emergence of this discourse as a result of cultural conflict with Italian humanists who reproached the Germans for their barbarity. This explanation, which I call the Conflict Model, is inadequate as a means to explain the phenomenon of this patriotism because it relies on too few sources. This dissertation rests on a far more expansive source base in which cultural conflict is a limited but …

Musical And Spiritual Meaning In The Franciscan Works Of Franz Liszt, Jorge Luis Modolell

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Liszt’s relationship to St. Francis of Assisi was an integral part of the composer’s identity. His devotion to the saint, cultivated from an early age, served as a constant source of spiritual guidance that only grew stronger over time. Texts by St. Francis and anecdotes from the saint’s life provided the artistic incentive for a number of important works, which form the core of the present study. By examining several of these works together, with full analyses and within a broader cultural framework, this dissertation aims to arrive at a true understanding of the messages Liszt took from this figure …

The “Dread Sex Cases:” Community, Citizenship, And The Regulation Of Adult Theaters In The 1970s, Erin Barry

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Through an innovative examination of scale (local, state, and national regulatory structures), space (the location of theaters, the spatial arrangements inside them) and place (the cities and suburbs in which these battles took place), my dissertation on the regulation of adult theaters in the 1970s raises compelling questions about sexuality, space and the various levels at which citizenship is enacted and policed. I utilize three Supreme Court cases, Paris Adult Theater v. Slaton, which dealt with consent and the application of community standards, Erznoznik v. Jacksonville, which addressed bans on nudity and pornography at drive-in theaters, and Young v. American …

Pastoralism As Institutions: Modeling The Pastoral Landscape In Tibet In The Second And First Millennium Bc, Xinzhou Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Previous archaeological research has made significant advances in our understanding of the chrono-spatial patterns of ancient human occupation of the Tibetan Plateau based on archaeobotanical, zooarchaeological, and material cultural analysis. The surge of archaeological data in prehistoric Tibet calls for further analysis of the potential social and environmental forces that shaped the prehistoric landscapes of Tibet. This dissertation presents a synthetic analysis of the role of pastoralism in shaping the economy, materiality, and mobility of Tibetan societies in the second and first millennium BC. Based on both previously published archaeological evidence and my own analysis of newly documented archaeological data, …

Evolutionary History Of Populations Of Pleistocene Homo With A Focus On East Asia, Catherine Mclean

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the evolutionary history of our species is a key objective of paleoanthropology, yet the pattern of hominin evolution in East Asia remains uncertain. This research aimed to evaluate the relationships and evolutionary history of East Asian hominin paleodemes through the Pleistocene. Recent descriptions of Pleistocene East Asian hominins reveal a high degree of morphological variability, mosaics of primitive and derived traits, regionally predominant characteristics, and late surviving archaic morphologies. This study tests two hypotheses explaining the complexity of the East Asian hominin record: 1) Continuity with Hybridization, and 2) the existence of Multiple Hominin Lineages. These models were tested …

Influence Of Environmental Gradients On Genomic Variation In Pediatric Commensals And Pathogens, Sanjam Sawhney

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Microbes interact with humans in a myriad of ways. They come together in the human gut to form complex communities that collectively transform and individually evolve in response to changing environmental conditions. Individual microbes can also cause human infection and escape antibiotic clearance through acquisition and development of novel resistance mechanisms. In this thesis, I chronicle the relationships between microbes and humans across two axes: from complex communities to single isolates, and from targeted studies of pediatric populations vulnerable to microbiome perturbations and pathogen challenge, to broader human and animal cohorts spanning colonizing and diagnostic environments.In Chapter 2, I extensively …

Meltwater Layer Dynamics In A Central Arctic Lead: Effects Of Lead Width, Re-Freezing, And Mixing During Late Summer, Daiki Nomura, Yusuke Kawaguchi, Alison L. Webb, Yuhong Li, Manuel Dall'osto, Katrin Schmidt, Elise S. Droste, Emelia J. Chamberlain, Nikolai Kolabutin, Egor Shimanchuk, Mario Hoppmann, Michael R. Gallagher, Hanno Meyer, Moein Mellat, Dorothea Bauch, Carolina Gabarró, Madison M. Smith, Jun Inoue, Ellen Damm, Bruno Delille

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Leads play an important role in the exchange of heat, gases, vapour, and particles between seawater and the atmosphere in ice-covered polar oceans. In summer, these processes can be modified significantly by the formation of a meltwater layer at the surface, yet we know little about the dynamics of meltwater layer formation and persistence. During the drift campaign of the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate (MOSAiC), we examined how variation in lead width, re-freezing, and mixing events affected the vertical structure of lead waters during late summer in the central Arctic. At the beginning of the …

“They Need To Hear Our Voices:” Youth Dialogue, Participatory Research, And Educational Inequity In Central New York, Lauren Eleanor Ashby

Theses - ALL

While youth are active participants in urban and educational spaces, young people’s lived experiences are understudied in geography. In this study, I investigate the ways that youth in Central New York understand, communicate, and navigate their schools and neighborhoods through ethnography and participatory research. Situating the city of Syracuse contextually, this study uncovers the way that youth know and enact the spaces of their daily lives, and the impacts of external reputations and relational systems on how these spaces are navigated. I investigate these themes through two case studies. The first is the Common Ground Dialogue program, a school-based intergroup …

Contingencies In Classrooms: A Systematic Review Of Contingent Reinforcement For Academic Performance, Taylor Jean Hitchings

Theses - ALL

Contingency-based reinforcement interventions, in which students receive a reward for engaging in desired behaviors, have been used to target various behaviors at school. Previous research studies’ findings suggest that contingency-based reinforcement interventions can be used to target a variety of behaviors, including task engagement, appropriate classroom etiquette, and academic performance across a variety of subjects. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the assessment and intervention practices of 98 studies (from 1969 to 2021) that examined the effects of contingency-based reinforcement interventions when academic performance was directly targeted in the areas of math, reading, writing, spelling, and English …

The Passing Intensities Of A Neighborhood. Sensing Atmospheres In La Boca, Gabriel Tomas O'Rourke

Theses - ALL

The neighborhood of La Boca, located in the city of Buenos Aires, is an urban space burdened with a story and a unique aesthetic that differentiates it from other barrios in the city. In 2022, I visited this area to walk its streets, with the goal of understanding what elements marked this urban area as a distinctive place in the city. Situated within the rhetoric of space and place, this study relies on the concept of atmospheres developed by Gernot Böhme to account for the way the experience of place is constituted by an interplay between bodies, materiality and spaces. …

The Utopian Quest: A Visual And Cultural Exploration Of Ideal Lands, Lingyin Luo

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the concept of utopia across different cultures, analyzing the ideal lands in Eastern and Western societies. The author categorizes utopian ideals into two types: Thomas More-style utopias, which aim for social and political perfection, and Arcadian ideals, which prioritize individual inner peace and escape from society. The author compares the ways of entering, the environments, the lifestyles, and the consequences of leaving mentioned in these stories to identify the visual language involved. These visual elements of ideal lands provide a solid foundation for the author's visual thesis, a video game that allows players to build their own …

The Geopolitics Of Refuge And Reproduction: Maternal Health And Healthcare Of Congolese Refugees In Flight, Displacement, And Resettlement, Julia Mcdaniel-Bouley

Dissertations - ALL

The purpose of this anthropological research is to examine and analyze the intertwined geopolitical complexities of the lived sexual, reproductive, and maternal health and healthcare experiences of female Congolese refugees in flight. These experiences are examined at three pivotal points of refugee flight: during protracted conflict and violence, in displacement, generally in neighboring East African countries, and during resettlement in Western contexts. Data were collected using two anthropological methodologies - targeted life history interviews and semi-structured qualitative ethnographic interviews. Supplemental data from related studies, reports, and literature reviews were also used for population-level information. Collected data were analyzed through the …