Digital Commons Network^™

Zoomer Generation: Used Car Automobile Purchasing Behaviors, Scott E. Whitaker, Joe Spencer, Giovanni Calise

AMTP Proceedings 2024

There is a growing trend of online automobile purchasing that is altering the relationship between consumers and automobile dealerships. Consumers are more informed and seek a larger variety of inventory and options when shopping for used vehicles. The online marketplace provides a viable alternative to local dealerships who have hereto dominated much of the market. This research shows the current generation of Zoomers is helping to drive this trend which has significant marketing implications toward the industry. There remains a gap in the academic body of knowledge examining this behavior in relation to large online purchases such as automobiles. This …

Children’S Behavior At Metaverses: Interactions, Digital Identities, And Parent’S Perceptions, Gema Bonales-Daimiel, Belén Moreno-Albarracín, Ainhoa García-Rivero

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Children are considered one of the main user profiles of metaverses, since they get into those digital universes by playing sandbox video games as Fortnite, Minecraft, or Roblox. However, a lack of research focused on the how, why and outcomes of this vulnerable target in metaverses has been noted. This study aims to investigate the behavior of children in the metaverses through their use of video games and the perceptions of their parents, considering them an indirect target. A total of 31 semi-structured interviews were conducted with children aged between six and 12 years old and their parents. Also, a …

More Than Representation Heartstopper: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis, Tracyann Josephine Harmer

Communication & Theatre Arts Theses

This thesis is a multimodal critical discourse analysis of Netflix’s Heartstopper, written with the goal of understanding its methods of representation and queer world creation. Through analysis of the ideology of heteronormativity as it relates to masculinity, internalized homophobia, homophobia, and mental health, I expand upon the significance of queer representation for queer audiences, heterosexual audiences, and producers of queer media. Through a nuanced analysis of these themes, I display how and why Heartstopper has had enormous success and expand upon the cultural phenomena surrounding this media. Finally, this thesis places these nuanced analyses into the real-world reaction to …

Relational Resources: Moving From Plural To Entangled Extractivisms, James Alejandro Artiga-Purcell

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Increasing studies of extractivisms, in the plural, examine the diverse politics that permeate extractive activities. However useful, this appeal to plurality is problematic. Plurality without relationality risks justifying some extractive activities over others, without addressing how they relate. Drawing on anti-essentialist, decolonial, and political ecological scholarship, this article proposes an ontological reframing of extractivisms that troubles the division and comparison that pervade notions of taxonomic plurality, and emphasizes the mutual constitution articulated within the concept of relationality. Analyses of relational resources are better equipped to illuminate the power-laden associations through which supposedly distinct commodity values, extractive geographies, sectors, and governance …

How Has Us Foreign Policy Militarization Affected Political Stability In Africa?, Christopher Korkor

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

US foreign policy toward Africa was minimal during the Cold War. US engagement in the continent was centered on spheres of influence politics, and compared to other regions in the global system, the continent was viewed as a backwater and neglected for several decades despite historical relations between the country and the continent. Scholars of political science, international studies, international relations, and history also relegated the study of US foreign policy toward Africa to a low-level status, instead prioritizing scholarship that focused on traditional security, particularly states in Western and Eastern Europe and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). US …

Developing Intercultural Competence And Cultural Capital: Applying Virtual Reality To Study Abroad Pedagogy, Jenifer Butler

English Theses & Dissertations

As the world becomes increasingly globalized thanks, at least in part, to the ubiquity of digital technology, scholars in discourse and new media must explore the possibility of learning and composition to expand pedagogical practices and opportunities. This project uses study abroad programs and education as a test case for establishing the feasibility of easily incorporating existing virtual reality (VR) technology into the classroom. It examines the theoretical and technological question of whether advancements in virtual reality have achieved the potential for practical pedagogical applications, and if virtual technology can provide responsible, accurate, and educational access to concepts as complex …

An Alignment Of Financial Signaling And Stock Return Synchronicity, Tarek Eldomiaty, Islam Azzam, Karim Tarek Hamed Afifi, Mohamed Hashim Rashwan

Faculty Journal Articles

Financial signaling and stock return synchronicity may not be at crossroads. This paper optimizes the signaling effect of firms’ financial indicators on stock return synchronicity. The ultimate objective is to align firms’ financial signaling and stock return synchronicity, which implies a benefit of hedging against fluctuations in the stock market index. The data cover quarterly periods from June 1992 to March 2022 for the non-financial firms listed in the DJIA30 and NASDAQ100. This paper examines the observed return synchronicity as the dependent variable. The independent variables are classified into six groups namely, Solvency (or Liquidity) ratios, Assets Efficiency ratios, Expense …

Fy24 Usability Program Test #5: User Search Behaviors And Attitudes, Lindsey Skaggs

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

The FY24 Usability Testing Program was designed to iteratively assess user experience at Milner Library. The program gathers data through usability testing of the library's website and discovery layer, as well as survey questions about users' experiences with library services. Test #5 gathers information from library users about their experiences locating and accessing materials. Takeaways and recommendations are included in the report.

Loose Purse Strings, Loose Cultures: How Resource Increase Affects Cultural Tightness-Looseness And Creativity In Large And Small Organizations, Caleb Chun Kwan Chu

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

For over a decade, cultural tightness-looseness (TL) has established itself as a culture construct that is useful in diverse contexts at multiple levels. While most TL research has focused on TL consequences, less attention has been paid to TL antecedents. This dissertation proposes resource increase as a TL predictor and uses a resource-based perspective to review and extend extant TL literature. I empirically examine the effect of resource increase on incremental and radical creativity as mediated by TL at the team level. I also explore the moderating effect of organizational size on these team-level relationships. The data were drawn from …

Identification Of Quality Indicators Of Visual Based Learning Material In Technology Education Programs For Grades 6th - 9th In Greek Schools In Cyclades Aegean Islands, Spyridoula Tsouganatou

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to identify quality indicators for visual based learning material for technology education classes for grades 6th to 9th. This is a three round Delphi study aimed in answering the following research question. RQ: What are the quality indicators that contribute to the successful selection of visual-based learning material that contribute effectively to transmitting pedagogical information in a technology education classroom for grades 6^th -9^th? The quality indicators were determined by the consensus reached by technology education expert panel/educators that have been identified for the contributions and expertise in the field of …

A Rural Return: The Triumphs And Trials Of A School District's Return To In-Person Learning, Jason Alex Wheeler

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

On March 13, 2020, Governor Ralph Northam ordered all public schools in Virginia to close for two weeks due to the on-going global health crisis; this closure was later extended to include the remainder of the academic year. This created a new political, academic, and social landscape for public schools across the commonwealth to navigate. In addition, to the external political landscape schools face, all public schools are saturated with micropolitical implications. Micropolitics, or the political interactions of values, power, organizational structures, and strategies among internal stakeholders, of which the COVID-19 Pandemic exacerbated, is concerned with the internal politics that …

Do Bisexuals Thrive In The Corridor? Liminal Identity, Communication, And Well-Being, Katie Kassler

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

In this dissertation I aim to test direct and moderating associations between bisexual liminal identity, social identity complexity, micro-aggressions and micro-affirmations, and well-being. In Chapter One, I offer my theoretical definition of and position bisexuality as a liminal identity. Next in this chapter, I (a) hypothesize a direct association between bisexual liminal identity and well-being, (b) posit competing hypotheses related to social identity complexity as a positive cognitive appraisal moderator (i.e., social cure perspective) and negative cognitive appraisal moderator (i.e., uncertainty identity perspective) of the main effect, and finally (c) posit hypotheses related to individual- and group-aimed micro-aggressions and micro-affirmations …

Justice And Moral Economies In “Modular, Adaptive, And Decentralized” (Mad) Water Systems, Melissa Beresford, Alexandra Brewis, Neetu Choudhary, Georgina Drew, Nataly Escobedo Garcia, Dustin Garrick, Mohammed Jobayer Hossain, Ernesto Lopez, Elisabeth Ilboudo Nébié, Raul Pacheco-Vega, Anaís Roque, Amber Wutich

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

“MAD Water” systems (modular, adaptive, decentralized infrastructures) will expand to meet human water needs under future climate change, migration, and urbanization scenarios. Yet the use of MAD systems often undermines water justice. Here we argue that identifying and analyzing moral economies for water can allow scholars to understand—and possibly predict—when and why justice in MAD water systems is upheld, breaks down, or becomes unstable. Moral economies are institutional arrangements in which shared understandings of justice normatively regulate the distribution and exchange of basic resources. We review the moral economies concept, explain an operational framework for analyzing moral economies, and use …

Topological Spaces Of Embodied Becoming: Queens, Queerness And (Infra)Structural Subterfuge In Singapore, Orlando Woods

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This paper considers the political potential that emerges when theorizations of the body-as-infrastructure are brought into conversation with theorizations of topological space. It argues that the infrastructural body provides an interface through which structural norms can be destabilized, and the interrelationships between the state, society, and self can be reimagined. These ideas are illustrated through an empirical exploration of drag queens in Singapore. Singapore is a socially conservative Asian city-state in which heteronormative values are passed down by the state, reproduced through the family, and then used to structure societal under- standings of gender and sexuality. By interpreting Singapore’s hegemonic …

“Originally I Came From The Least Of Society”: Making Sense Of International Students’ Understandings Of Social Class Through Emotional Commentaries, Sam Shields, Alina Schartner

Journal of Comparative & International Higher Education

No abstract provided.

Sampling Methods And Sample Size In Church-Based Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

An underlying assumption of most church-based research is that the sample from which the data is collected is representative of a wider collection of church members, church leaders, small groups, churches, denominations, or whatever is the focus of the study. To increase the likelihood that this assumption is met without making the research an impossible undertaking, various sampling strategies are used ranging from random sampling to convenience sampling, each with advantages and disadvantages. After a sampling strategy is chosen, an appropriate sample size should be pursued, depending on the nature of the study. The sample size of quantitative studies seeking …

Expanding Frameworks: Conducting Discourse Analysis In Counseling Research, Chloe Lancaster, Melissa J. Fickling

The Qualitative Report

Discourse analysis encompasses a variety of disciplinary approaches that broadly aim to understand how individuals and groups use language to construct and maintain their psychological and social realities. A central concept in discourse analysis is we all use discourse to accomplish our communication goals despite being unaware of most discourses we evoke. While discourse studies could help counseling professionals to better understand how they deploy discourses to maintain identities, inequalities, and status quo, the method is not well-represented in counseling research in the United States. This methodological guide presents an introduction to discourse analysis and an overview of the analytic …

Civil War In Ancient Egypt? A Case Study Of The First Intermediate Period (Ca. 2120-1970 Bc), Marco Pinfari

Theses and Dissertations

The First Intermediate Period (FIP – ca. 2120-1970 BCE) is often described by Egyptologists as a period of “civil war.” In the Egyptological literature, however, little attention is paid to defining this notion (which was first introduced only in the Late Roman Republic, almost 2,000 years later) and to explaining how it could be applicable to ancient Egyptian history.

This thesis contributes to this debate by analyzing the FIP through the lenses of contemporary approaches to civil war, drawn from political science and other cognate disciplines. It first discusses how if the events of the FIP comply with contemporary definitions …

Community College Engineering Degree Partnerships With 4-Year Universities, Jeffrey Mark Stear

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasing the number of STEM professionals and reducing inequities in STEM are national priorities. Community colleges are important to address these concerns because they represent a higher percentage of underrepresented minority (URM) and women students. However, students starting 4-year STEM degrees in community college have had a lower completion rate. Partnerships between community colleges and 4-year universities have the potential to improve success for community college students, but more research is necessary. The purpose of this ex post facto, quantitative, correlational study was to determine the relationships among participation in different types of partnerships between community colleges and 4-year universities, …

Promoting Diverse Perspectives: Addressing Health Disparities Related To Alzheimer's And All Dementias, Gladys Maestre, Carl Hill, Percy Griffin, Stephen Hall, William Hu, Jason Flatt, Ganesh Babulal

School of Medicine Publications

Dementia research lacks appropriate representation of diverse groups who often face substantial adversity and greater risk of dementia. Current research participants are primarily well-resourced, non-Hispanic White, cisgender adults who live close to academic medical centers where much of the research is based. Consequently, the field faces a knowledge gap about Alzheimer's-related risk factors in those other groups. The Alzheimer's Association hosted a virtual conference on June 14–16, 2021, supported in part by the National Institute on Aging (R13 AG072859-01), focused on health disparities. The conference was held entirely online and consisted of 2 days of core programming and a day …

Loma Linda Nurse - Vol. 31, Loma Linda University School Of Nursing

Loma Linda Nurse

FEATURES

4 | The Next Chapter for LLUSN

8 | 50 Years of West Hall

10 | Dr. Shawn Collins Named New Dean

12 | Dr. Gloria Huerta Named New Associate Dean

14 | Adventist Nursing Theory with Dr. Patricia Jones

LLUSN HIGHLIGHTS

16-23 | ALUMNI NEWS

24-27 | ACADEMICS

28-32 | HOMECOMING

33-35 | FACULTY UPDATES

Varecia Rubra (Red Ruffed Lemur) Diel Activity And Calling At Andranobe, Masoala National Park, Madagascar, Hannah Elena Hilden-Reid

Dissertations and Theses

With respect to the natural variation in abiotic and biotic conditions present between daytime and nighttime periods, many animal species show evolutionary adaptations specialized for diurnality, nocturnality, or crepuscularity. Biologists have traditionally viewed categorizations of this kind as fixed within taxonomic groups, emphasizing how intricately species’ survival is contingent on the ability to adapt to low light, high light, or twilight conditions. However, movement away from such distinct temporal niche categories began within chronobiological studies following the discovery of more flexible patterns of activity in numerous taxa during the late 1970s. This shift generated increased interest in elucidating the complex …

Integration Between Bioinformatics Algorithms And Neutrosophic Theory, Romany M. Farag, Mahmoud Y. Shams, Dalia A. Aldawody, Huda E. Khalid, Hazem M. El-Bakry, Ahmed A. Salama

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

This paper presents a neutrosophic inference model for bioinformatics. The model is used to develop a system for accurate comparisons of human nucleic acids, where the new nucleic acid is compared to a database of old nucleic acids. The comparisons are analyzed in terms of accuracy, certainty, uncertainty, neutrality, and bias. The proposed system achieves good results and provides a reliable standard for future comparisons. It highlights the potential of neutrosophic inference models in bioinformatics applications. Data mining and bioinformatics play a crucial role in computational biology, with applications in scientific research and industrial development. Biological analysts rely on specialized …

The Blurry Line Between Corporation And Cult: A Retrospective Autoethnographic Study, Ernst Graamans

The Qualitative Report

In popular management literature corporations are sometimes loosely compared to cults. The comparison is a severe allegation as it implies the transgression of subordinate employees’ integrity. This paper explores to what extent such comparisons with cults are warranted as well as the implications this has for the practice of corporate culture management. On grounds of the author’s unique, first-hand experience in both corporate and cultic environments a retrospective autoethnographic (RAE) approach was chosen to further explore the supposed resemblance. The comparison is structured along Lifton’s eight criteria of thought reform and reveals that although akin to cults in all aspects …

Juggling Academic Practice And Care: Collaborative Autoethnography Within A Basque University Research Group, Asunción Martínez-Arbelaiz, Aingeru Gutierrez-Cabello, Estibaliz Aberasturi-Apraiz, Jose M. Correa-Gorospe

The Qualitative Report

Many university scholars, including the authors of this article, acknowledge that they feel like they are riding an emotional roller coaster with academic success, as well as many project failures. Except for our PhD thesis, many of us complete our research tasks in relatively established research groups. However, little research has examined the potential these groups might have to mitigate feelings of academic isolation. To fill in this gap, we designed two methodological steps. First, we adopted the Woolfian metaphor of a room of our own, where we composed individual vignettes regarding our feelings of isolation. We read each other's …

Operating Fund Budget/ Expenditure Detail Report 2023-24, Csusb Budget Office

University Budget Office records

No abstract provided.

Responsibilization And Retraditionalization: How Neoliberal Logics Reproduce Gender Inequities Among Women Community Organizers In Chicago, Mary L. Dungy, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Neoliberal capitalism creates a “crisis of care” in which social reproduction—though necessary for society—is undermined by stripping away support for caregivers, who are disproportionately women. “Social reproduction” refers to the reproduction and maintenance of the labor force via childbirth, child rearing, and caregiving for loved ones more generally. This interpretive phenomenological study examines how a crisis of care manifests for women in the workplace. Drawing upon in-depth, semistructured interviews with Chicago-based women who work as community organizers, our findings demonstrate that sexism in the workplace, coupled with the gendering of care work, creates unique difficulties for these women. By integrating …

“I Saw Nothing But Beauty”: Exploring The Zaynab Paradigm In Iranian Aesthetics Of Protest, Kasper Tromp

Regards

This article explores an Iranian aesthetics of protest that, alternative to intervening in the public space as political agent, confers a spiritual agency that aids in recovering a sense of humanity while dehumanizing laws are upheld. The artistic practices under scrutiny occur between rather than during moments of protest and offer more reflective, metaphorical accounts of the injustices of authoritarian rule. I associate this particular aesthetics with the Shiite figure Zaynab bint ‘Ali, who accused tyrants, strengthened the moral resolve of her community, commanded to accept God’s decree and recognize beauty in His works. In so doing, I challenge Hamid …

Centuripe Ceramic Workshops And Their Distinct Funerary Vases, Avery Keys

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Ancient pottery from Centuripe, Sicily made during the Hellenistic period is an outlier when compared to most other red-figure, black slipped ceramics from Magna Graecia. Most Southern Italian and Sicilian vases have a distinct ornate style to them that was not a long lasting design choice in other Greek ceramic workshops. Funerary vases excavated in Centuripe's tombs provide a large collection of elaborate, decorative pottery that is not replicated anywhere else. Centuripean pottery was tempera painted with bright polychromatic colors. This unique quality of the ceramic ware has led scholars to focus on the color palette, the painted subject matters, …

Convergence Or Divergence? An Exploratory Study On Urban Malays And Indigenous People In Kuala Lumpur And Kuching, Syaza Farhana Mohamad Shukri, Mohd Shazani Masri

Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Malaysia has been celebrated as a diverse nation since 1963. However, interethnic relations remain difficult as distrust appears to continue between the majority Malays and minority groups. This is the common narrative in Peninsular Malaysia. In East Malaysia, there is no clear ethnic majority population, which is also the case in Sarawak. Although the government has usually grouped together the Malays and indigenous people for nation-building purposes, it must be noted that the different backgrounds create a heterogeneous “majority” in Malaysia. This diversity may even explain the different views among the Malays in Kuala Lumpur and in Kuching, Sarawak regarding …