Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of Freight Movements In The San Joaquin Valley, Aly Tawfik, Utsav Shah

Mineta Transportation Institute

Freight transportation plays a primary role in supply chains, costs, and availability of goods and is a major part of the economy. This study identifies, assesses, and utilizes different data sources to uncover and understand the patterns and movements of different types of freight in the San Joaquin Valley’s (SJV's) different counties. The San Joaquin Valley region consists of eight counties: San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, and Tulare. This research explored some major datasets with freight information, such as Global Trade Atlas (GTA), Port Imports and Exports Reporting Systems (PIERS), and Streetlight data insights for the year 2019 …

A Race-Police Regime: Nypd Technology And Urban Governance In New York City, Elliott Liu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation draws on three years of ethnographic and archival research to explore the relationship between technology, policing and race at the NYPD. In focusing on the ways problems are constructed and police power enacted, I explore the more-than-human entanglements in the production of race and the governance of cities under racial capitalism. My overarching claim is that urban governance works through contentious techno-political arrangements I call race-police regimes, which sanction and elicit race by enacting forms of exclusion and belonging. Racial capitalism in New York City, I argue, is governed through a technocratic mode of policing which leverages …

Extremism In America: Explaining Variations In Ideologically Motivated Fatal Violence, Celinet Duran

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation uses data from the United States Extremist Crime Database (ECDB) to assess the nature of extremist violence between left-wing, far-right and al-Qaeda and associated movements (AQAM) inspired ideological fatal violence. It extends the empirical literature on extremist violence in three significant ways by: (1) expanding an existing database to provide a comparative component that is both timely and policy-relevant and conveys a more complete picture of the nature of domestic extremism in the U.S.; (2) systematically comparing extremist violence across the left-wing, far-right and AQAM ideologies to better assess the nuances of extremist violence; and (3) applying empirical …

Mediated Locality: Assembling The Independent Music Scene In Brooklyn, New York, Frank Meegan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation investigates how independent musicians, concert organizers, and other scene participants in Brooklyn, New York use digital technology and new media in their artistic practice. It is based on three years of participant observation in Brooklyn from 2016 to 2019, where I attended events at small venues like bars and DIY spaces, and interviewed musicians, concert organizers, independent label runners, and other scene participants. I also observed the online activity of musicians and organizers on public Facebook, Instagram, and Bandcamp pages. I argue that Brooklyn independent musicians use digital media, and are themselves mediated, as their activities at physical …

The Devil Is In The Details: Witchcraft Materiality And Systems Of Belief In Early Modern France, Ryan Evelyn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My approach to the early modern French witch figure, as defined by their materiality, considers the representation of things, objects, and substances in texts. It was inspired by the surge in material culture studies, whose genesis in the 1980s and 1990s spurred theoretical approaches to (re)considering human interactions with objects, the way in which materials can be manipulated to serve various ends, and which objects were deemed culturally significant. I employ this approach to a (re)assessment of the witch figure as illustrated in demonologies, medical texts, and imaginative literature as early as the 14^th century spanning into the early …

John Singer Sargent In Spain: Eluding The Stereotype, Cristina Domenech

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The aim of this thesis is to present John Singer Sargent's unique vision of Spain as well as to analyze this part of his work through the use of methodologies such as Orientalism and Spanish cultural studies, an approach that has not been undertaken to date.

The thesis intends to demonstrate that Sargent's early paintings -along with those of his American counterparts who traveled to Paris- were strongly motivated by the prevailing cultural orientalism of the moment in France, one of those extensions being the so called españolismo that exacerbated the most stereotyped dimensions of Spanish history and culture.

Undoubtedly, …

Naming Venus: An Exploration Of Goddesses, Heroines, And Famous Women, Kavya Beheraj

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Humans have been observing and romanticizing Venus for more than 5,000 years. However, mapping its surface has nearly always been impossible, since the planet is shrouded in thick clouds. A breakthrough came just fifty years ago with the invention of radar imaging, leading to the discovery (and naming) of hundreds of new features in a relatively short length of time.

The rapid naming of Venus is a case study on the impact of planetary nomenclature — the process of naming features on other worlds. While the act of naming streamlines communication and humanizes alien landscapes, it is subject to bias, …

David Versus Goliath: The Power Of Weakness In Asymmetric Warfare—Lessons From History, Nicholas K. Petaludis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Under what conditions do violent nonstate actors (VNA) succeed against states? Why does David sometimes beat Goliath? Since at least the time of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian Wars, the realist narrative in international relations measures power primarily in relative, coercive, and deterrent terms. Strong states should accordingly face fewer constraints and enjoy more options while pursuing their national interests. Unconventional warfare, and its subsets of terrorism and insurgency, should—given these circumstances, end in VNA failure. Sometimes, however, VNAs find success. By comparing the literature on historical and current case studies, I propose that a set of preconditions and two mechanisms …

Transeuntis Mundi, A Nomadic Artistic Practice, Cândida Luiza Borges Da Silva

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

In this practice-led Ph.D. research, I investigate how an artistic practice can respond to the migration phenomena performed by human beings across the planet over millennia ¬– what I refer to as the millennial global human journey. Based on the idea of mobility, I chose to frame this research in the articulation of concepts deriving from the prefix trans: transculture, transhumance and transmediality. This research contributes to studies in art composition by developing the processes and concept of transmedial composition, mainly contributing to the field of New Media Art. This investigation resulted in the work Transeuntis Mundi (TM) Project – …

Race-Ing Antitrust, Bennett Capers, Gregory Day

Michigan Law Review

Antitrust law has a race problem. To spot an antitrust violation, courts inquire into whether an act has degraded consumer welfare. Since anticompetitive practices are often assumed to enhance consumer welfare, antitrust offenses are rarely found. Key to this framework is that antitrust treats all consumers monolithically; that consumers are differently situated, especially along lines of race, simply is ignored.

We argue that antitrust law must disaggregate the term “consumer” to include those who disproportionately suffer from anticompetitive practices via a community welfare standard. As a starting point, we demonstrate that anticompetitive conduct has specifically been used as a tool …

Extending Outbreak Investigation With Machine Learning And Graph Theory: Benefits Of New Tools With Application To A Nosocomial Outbreak Of A Multidrug-Resistant Organism, Andrew Atkinson, Benjamin Ellenberger, Vanja Piezzi, Tanja Kaspar, Luisa Salazar-Vizcaya, Olga Endrich, Alexander B Leichtle, Jonas Marschall

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVE: From January 1, 2018, until July 31, 2020, our hospital network experienced an outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE). The goal of our study was to improve existing processes by applying machine-learning and graph-theoretical methods to a nosocomial outbreak investigation.

METHODS: We assembled medical records generated during the first 2 years of the outbreak period (January 2018 through December 2019). We identified risk factors for VRE colonization using standard statistical methods, and we extended these with a decision-tree machine-learning approach. We then elicited possible transmission pathways by detecting commonalities between VRE cases using a graph theoretical network analysis approach.

RESULTS: …

Multi-Ancestry Transcriptome-Wide Association Analyses Yield Insights Into Tobacco Use Biology And Drug Repurposing, Fang Cheng, Xingyan Wang, Seon-Kyeong Jang, Bryan C. Quach, J. Dylan Weissenkampen, Chachrit Khunsriraksakul, Lina Yang, John Blangero, Joanne E. Curran, Ravindranath Duggirala, Juan M. Peralta

School of Medicine Publications

Most transcriptome-wide association studies (TWASs) so far focus on European ancestry and lack diversity. To overcome this limitation, we aggregated genome-wide association study (GWAS) summary statistics, whole-genome sequences and expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) data from diverse ancestries. We developed a new approach, TESLA (multi-ancestry integrative study using an optimal linear combination of association statistics), to integrate an eQTL dataset with a multi-ancestry GWAS. By exploiting shared phenotypic effects between ancestries and accommodating potential effect heterogeneities, TESLA improves power over other TWAS methods. When applied to tobacco use phenotypes, TESLA identified 273 new genes, up to 55% more compared with …

Wage And Cost Study Of Oregon Assisted Living And Residential Care Providers, 2022, Ozcan Tunalilar, Sarah Dys, Paula Carder, Diana Jacoby

Institute on Aging Publications

Senate Bill 703 directed Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) to conduct a study of licensed residential care (RCF) and assisted living (ALF) facilities, including those with a memory care (MC) endorsement, to evaluate: a) Total cost to provide care to residents, b) the sufficiency of the Medicaid reimbursement paid to facilities to meet the total cost of care, and c) the average compensation paid to direct care workers by the facilities by geographic region. ODHS contracted with the Institute on Aging (IOA) at Portland State University (PSU) to conduct a study to achieve these three objectives. In the fall …

Adoption Ouroboros: Repeating The Cycle Of Adoption As Rescue, Malinda L. Seymore

Faculty Scholarship

Ouroboros—the circular symbol of the snake eating its tail; an endless cycle. As the U.S. recently withdrew from Afghanistan in chaos and Russia invaded Ukraine, the attention of Americans turned, as it frequently has in times of international conflict, to the plight of children in need of rescue. For many Americans, rescue is synonymous with adoption. The history of international adoption began with rescues following America’s wars in Europe and Asia and continues today through other violent upheavals. International adoption is an ouroboros, repeating the pattern of adoption as a response to humanitarian crises. But as human and charitable as …

Establishing A Conditional Driver Permit In Texas, Luz E. Herrera, Taylor Garner, Crystal Hernandez, Lisa Mares

Faculty Scholarship

The article presents supporting data to expand access to state-issued driver permits for Texans who cannot provide the required documents to obtain a driver’s license. Part I examines the unlicensed and uninsured population in Texas that these efforts attempt to address. Part II discusses state jurisdiction to issue driver licenses and permits. It discusses existing Texas statutes that authorize the issuance of driver’s licenses and permits. The section also offers examples of other state statutes that have expanded their right to regulate driving privileges beyond Real ID Act requirements. Part III presents a partial economic analysis illustrating potential economic benefits …

Agritourism Development: Neighborhood And Community Considerations, Jada Lindblom Ph.D.

UNH Cooperative Extension

An increasing number of farms in NH and beyond are incorporating agritourism activities and/or event hosting into their business models. While these can be valuable strategies in terms of community and economic benefits, neighbor/abutter disputes, zoning regulations, and state laws may pose challenges. These presentation slides offer tips from town planners and agritourism operators for navigating potential roadblocks.

Understanding And Advancing The Preservation Trades, Jada Lindblom Ph.D., Scott Slattery, Molly Donovan

UNH Cooperative Extension

Showing a collective interest in the preservation and restoration trades workforce, four statewide preservation nonprofits (representing NY, VT, NH, and ME) joined forces in 2021 to create the Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades. The initiative’s aim is to better understand this issue and develop courses of action to foster a more robust and sustainable preservation trades workforce. In 2022, specialists from UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community and Economic Development team partnered with this initiative to lead a multi-methods research project consisting of a survey, interviews, and focus groups with trades professionals, preservation specialists, workforce development professionals, educators, and other …

Understanding And Advancing The Preservation Trades (2-Page View)), Jada Lindblom Ph.D., Scott Slattery, Molly Donovan

UNH Cooperative Extension

Showing a collective interest in the preservation and restoration trades workforce, four statewide preservation nonprofits (representing NY, VT, NH, and ME) joined forces in 2021 to create the Northeast Regional Initiative for the Preservation Trades. The initiative’s aim is to better understand this issue and develop courses of action to foster a more robust and sustainable preservation trades workforce. In 2022, specialists from UNH Cooperative Extension’s Community and Economic Development team partnered with this initiative to lead a multi-methods research project consisting of a survey, interviews, and focus groups with trades professionals, preservation specialists, workforce development professionals, educators, and other …

Coming-Of-Age Of Teenage Female Arab Gothic Fiction: A Feminist Semiotic Study, Zoe Hurley, Zeina Hojeij

All Works

This feminist semiotic study explores the folkloric imaginary of the jinn in the context of children’s and young adults’ Arab Gothic literature. Across the Middle East, the jinn is a common trope in literature, folklore and oral storytelling who, in diegetic terms, can manifest as the Gothic figure of an aging female, deranged older woman or succubus (known as sa’lawwa in Arabic). In this study, a novel feminist semiotic framework is developed to explore the extent to which the Gothic female succubus either haunts or liberates Arab girls’ coming-of-age fictions. This issue is addressed via a feminist semiotic reading of …

Gender Inequality Against Women Fishers In Indonesia, Ani Purwanti, Dyah Wijaningsih, Muh. Afif Mahfud, Aga Natalis

Indonesia Law Review

This study explores whether or not Law No. 7 of 2016 for the Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Cultivators, and Salt Farmers discriminates against women. This law supports small fishermen since it requires the government to provide them with financial stability through harvest season output guarantees. On the other hand, we discovered that Law No. 7 of 2016, about the Protection and Empowerment of Fishermen, Fish Cultivators, and Salt Farmers, has discriminatory consequences damaging the welfare of female fishermen. Because of sociological and cultural bias, female fishermen are the most neglected segment in the fishing sector. This is in …

Struck By Lightning:The Continuing Arbitrariness Of The Death Penaltythirty-Five Years After Its Re-Instatement In 1976a Report Of The Death Penalty Information Center, Richard C. Dieter

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Reassessing Long-Accepted Truths About Justice John Mclean:His Secret Of Success, Paul Brickner

Ohio Northern University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Challenges Of Documenting Historic Water Systems Integrating Open-Source Water Data With Archaeological Datasets In Utah, Anna S. Cohen, Molly Boeka Cannon, Kelly N. Jimenez

Sociology and Anthropology Faculty Publications

Geospatial research in archaeology often relies on datasets previously collected by other archaeologists or third-party groups, such as state or federal government entities. This article discusses our work with geospatial datasets for identifying, documenting, and evaluating prehistoric and historic water features in the western United States. As part of a project on water heritage and long-term views on water management, our research has involved aggregating spatial data from an array of open access and semi-open access sources. Here, we consider the challenges of working with such datasets, including outdated or disorganized information, and fragmentary data. Based on our experiences, we …

The Construction Of Third Space In Elif Shafak’S Two Novels, Nurul Hanun Asyifa, Bastian Zulyeno

International Review of Humanities Studies

This article analyzes how public spaces—in the forms of two cafes and a tavern—are constructed as a third space in Elif Shafak's two novels, “The Bastard of Istanbul” (2008) and “The Island of Missing Trees” (2021). This research is a qualitative study with an approach in spatiality. The theory used in this study is the theory of Thirdspace by Edward Soja. The results of the study indicate that as the representation of the third space, the two cafes and a tavern in Shafak's two novels promote resistance to the conflicts and their impacts on the two conflicting groups, as well …

Ecological Imperialism In Yvonne Owuor Dust Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o’S Petals Of Blood, Eguvwebere Adanma Anthonia

International Review of Humanities Studies

Modern African Literature grew out of the need for re-identification and reevaluation of the African cultural heritage. Despite that, colonialism and its legacies continue to have a powerful and lasting impact in Africa. Using two literary texts from East Africa, Kenya, reflecting post-colonial and neo-colonial eras, this study examines the validity of the continuation of Ecological Imperialism in Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's Petals of Blood (1977) and Owuor Yvonne Adhiambo's Dust (2013). An analytical appraisal of the texts reveals that the post/neocolonial nation-state, far from embodying the new hope of the masses, is a replica of the colonial master's political system …

The Relationship Between Ethnochemistry Learning Experience And Cognitive Learning Outcomesbased On Gender, Dwi Wahyudiati

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

This study analyzes the relationship between ethnochemistry learning experiences and students’ cognitive learning outcomes based on gender perspective. This quantitative study adopted the survey design. The sample of 60 people (40 women and 20 men) was determined through cluster random sampling. An ethnochemistry-based learning experience questionnaire and student cognitive learning outcomes tests were utilized to collect the data. The collected data were then analyzed by multiple regression test with a significance level of .05. The conclusion drawn based on the results were; 1) the cognitive learning outcomes of chemistry students are higher than the ethnochemistry-based learning experience, and 2) there …

Perceiving Critical Infrastructure With A New Awareness Of Cyber Risk, Duncad Card

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

North America’s critical infrastructure has been the subject of cyber-attack, in various cycles of activity, for many years. In March of 2017, a cyber-attack caused periodic ‘‘blind-spots” for electricity distribution grid operators in the Western US for about 10 dangerous hours. In May of this year, there was panic at the gas pumps across many States in southeastern United States, which has been attributed to a cyber-attack on a major US pipeline that disrupted fuel supplies to the US East coast. US Commerce Secretary Raimondo soon after that attack announced that those sorts of attacks are becoming more frequent and …

The Organization Of Islamic Cooperation (Oic): Opportunities And Challenges For Practicing Culturally-Sensitive Mediation In Intra-Muslim Conflicts, Nirvana Ahmad

Theses and Dissertations

Established in 1969, the OIC sat a unique paradigm in the international order as an intergovernmental organization that claims a religious identity and mandate: working for Muslim unity and interests. In that pursuit, it has assumed the function of the peaceful settlement of disputes as one of its primary roles. Over half a century of its existence, not only did the OIC drift away from its founding principles and commitments; it is now condemned for turning into an arena for polarization among Muslims, where unchecked geopolitical competition has aroused rampant violence of all sorts.
The literature on the OIC extensively …

Estimating Solar Energy Production In Urban Areas For Electric Vehicles, Shaimaa Ahmed

Theses and Dissertations

Cities have a high potential for solar energy from PVs installed on buildings' rooftops. There is an increased demand for solar energy in cities to reduce the negative effect of climate change. The thesis investigates solar energy potential in urban areas. It tries to determine how to detect and identify available rooftop areas, how to calculate suitable ones after excluding the effects of the shade, and the estimated energy generated from PVs. Geographic Information Sciences (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) are used in solar city planning. The goal of this research is to assess available and suitable rooftops areas using …

Revolution In Cuba And Iran: Toward A Unified Theory Of Analysis, Mason Sims

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to fill a small gap in the study of revolution through unifying approaches and theories utilized to explain the complex social phenomenon. To facilitate this, a large portion of the work focuses on revolution literature which has been chosen to represent authors from the earliest generations covering the subject to the more recent. In compiling and reviewing these works, it can be seen that there exist common lines of not just explanation, but also a continuous series of critiques resurfacing within each generation. Within this compilation lies the roots of the theory presented in this thesis, that …