Digital Commons Network^™

Analytical Methods For Monitoring Traumatic Brain Injury Biomarkers/Treatment And Pharmaceutical Residual Solvents, Olajide Philip Adetunji

Doctoral Dissertations

"The development of highly sensitive and efficient analytical methods utilizing advanced instrumentation is necessary to help improve disease diagnosis and therapeutics. A major neuro-consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) is oxidative stress from the generation of reactive oxygen species and the depletion of antioxidant defenses. Alteration in concentrations of certain small molecules also occurs with the disease progression and can help understand TBI pathophysiology. Two analytical methods employing liquid chromatography with tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) were developed and validated to monitor the potential small-molecule TBI biomarkers at sub-ppb levels. Subsequently, the neuroprotective effect of an antioxidant prodrug, N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), …

Examining The Antecedents Of Return Policy Leniency In Ecommerce, E. Mitchell Church, Richelle Oakley Dasouza, Olajumoke A. Awe

Finance and Economics

As eCommerce has become widespread, the challenge of successfully navigating the returns process has grown perilous. The product returns issue is even more difficult for microenterprises that sell unique or custom products with fewer resources. The authors examined the impact of the antecedents of return policy leniency, specifically economic and social success factors. Using a web crawler over a 24-week period, the authors collected and analyzed data for a sample of 781 shops from Etsy, an eCommerce platform. Results indicate that the well-studied factor of sales, in addition to a new social factor – community dialogue – impacts an Etsy …

Examining The Antecedents Of Return Policy Leniency In Ecommerce, E. Mitchell Church, Richelle Oakley Dasouza, Olajumoke A. Awe

Management and Decision Sciences

As eCommerce has become widespread, the challenge of successfully navigating the returns process has grown perilous. The product returns issue is even more difficult for microenterprises that sell unique or custom products with fewer resources. The authors examined the impact of the antecedents of return policy leniency, specifically economic and social success factors. Using a web crawler over a 24-week period, the authors collected and analyzed data for a sample of 781 shops from Etsy, an eCommerce platform. Results indicate that the well-studied factor of sales, in addition to a new social factor – community dialogue – impacts an Etsy …

Examining Parents’ And Teachers’ Support To Early Learning Through Local Play, Case Of Selected Early Learning Center In Arua City, Uganda., Driciru Ketty

Master of Education

This research study investigates parental and teacher support to early learning through Local Play. While play-based learning is widely recognized as essential in Early childhood care and education (ECCE), the integration of Local Play into formal early learning settings faces challenges, particularly in Uganda, due to insufficient support from parents and teachers. Drawing on sociocultural perspectives of early learning, this action research study focuses on one ECCE center in Arua City to explore how increased support affects learner engagement and skill development. The research questions examine how parents and teachers support and facilitate Local Play activities both at home and …

Knowledge Construction And Multiple Realities: Global Health Collaborations, Development Practices, And Face Masks In The Context Of Covid-19, Linan Zhang

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

This thesis is inspired by a global health collaborative programme named GRASPIT and by my own desire to do something good which can benefit the people in need as well as reduce suffering. The GRASPIT collaboration intended to improve post-operative outcomes, but the programme failed to deliver the expected result. Preliminary analysis by the GRASPIT team identified issues with knowledge sharing as one of the contributory causes of its failure. This prompted the reflection in this thesis upon apparent asymmetries when knowledge is shared. Quite soon after the research began, the global pandemic COVID-19 revealed the issue of having inconsistent …

Lipin1 As A Therapeutic Target For Respiratory Insufficiency Of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, Alexandra Brown, Brooklyn Morris, John Karanja Kamau, Ryan J Rakoczy, Brian N Finck, Christopher N Wyatt, Hongmei Ren

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), diaphragm muscle dysfunction results in respiratory insufficiency which is a leading cause of death in patients. Mutations to the dystrophin gene result in myocyte membrane instability, contributing to the structural deterioration of the diaphragm muscle tissues. With previous works suggesting the importance of lipin1 for maintaining skeletal muscle membrane integrity, we explored the roles of lipin1 in the dystrophic diaphragm. We found that the protein expression levels of lipin1 were reduced by 60% in the dystrophic diaphragm. While further knockdown of lipin1 in the dystrophic diaphragm leads to increased necroptosis, restoration of lipin1 in the …

Missiological Challenges And Implications Of African Traditional And Christian/Western Approaches To Health And Wholeness, Olaotse Obed Gabasiane

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

So often, African traditional approaches to health and wholeness are misconstrued, scorned, dismissed, if not treated as passé. There are two important entities—for the purposes of this article— which are diametrically at odds to African traditional approaches to medicine. The first is Western Medicine (WM), which because of its advances in medical, laboratory, and pharmaceutical technology, tend to ignore African Traditional Medicine (ATM) as archaic, superstitious, and non-scientific. The second is mainstream Christian religion which (largely in the past), tended to see everything demonic in the practice of African Traditional Medicine. But is it true that as far as ATM …

Intercultural And International Communication In The Surrogacy Industry, Jessica Baker

Undergraduate Scholarship

Understanding the relationship between intercultural communication, international communication, and the proper way to discuss sensitive topics (infertility, surrogacy, LGBTQ+) in the surrogacy industry leads to strong communication. When communicating internationally or interculturally, there may be challenges such as language barriers, cultural differences, and cultural taboos. In order to avoid uncomfortable situations or miscommunication, knowing how to change the way we communicate with Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) is a necessity to navigate important conversations. In the surrogacy industry, knowing how to communicate interculturally and being culturally competent about sensitive topics such as infertility or loss can determine the success of a …

Underuse Of Pragmatic Markers Among Non-Native English Speakers: Causes And Suggestions For Interventions, Arwa Abdullah S. Alqahtani

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Pragmatic markers (PMs)—those optional markers used in conversations to facilitate communication—have been gaining attention among researchers in the field of pragmatics in the past three decades or so. Proper use of PMs contributes to the success of any interaction in real-life conversations. However, they are often underused by non-native English speakers (NNSs). This paper critically reviews the existing research literature to investigate the causes of the underuse of PMs among NNSs, focusing on linguistic and extralinguistic factors that might contribute to the limited use of PMs. The findings of this study show that the distinctive nature of pragmatic development in …

Cartographies Of Black Diaspora And Foster Care Diaspora: Arguments Toward Abolition In The Aftermath Of Partus Sequitur Ventrem, Alicia Boyce

CGU Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation I argue that global foster care and adoption systems should be abolished because they are trauma inducing and grief producing state apparatuses that cyclically act to destabilize Black and “Other” subaltern populations from one generation to the next. Global foster care and adoption systems have become as common sensical as enslavement and chattel slavery all were as these systems are considered widely socially acceptable, common modes of domination and methods for controlling Black and “Other” populations. I coin a diaspora of community and cultural destabilization called the foster care diaspora (FCD), a theory and framing device that …

The Controversy Of Teaching World Literature And The Importance Of Translation In The Field Of English Studies, Samirah Almutairi

English Faculty Publications

For literary texts to be taught in World Literature courses in the Departments of English Literature, they must be translated into English as a general rule. Some scholars advocate for translating literary texts, and others believe that translation as a methodology does not do justice to these texts. This study aims to lay out the arguments for each position and evaluate them. The significance of this study is to show that World Literature remains an essential field and to highlight the importance of translation. This study questions the modes and purpose of translating literary texts. The result of this study …

Community Building At The Programmatic Level: Arguing For The Implementation Of The Pars Model In A Distance Learning Graduate Program, Julia Romberger

English Faculty Publications

Distance learning graduate programs in technical communication can work at building community at the programmatic level as well as the course level. This work might be best done by leveraging the position of the faculty member tasked with administering the program, often called the Graduate Program Director. Through the scholarship on community of practice, this article makes a case for the GPD to take on this role and recommends as a starting point the PARS – personal, accessible, responsive, and strategic – framework developed by Borgman and McArdle (2019) for community building in distance learning courses.

The Flesh And Silicon Mesh: A New Materialist Conception Of Advanced Digital Machines, Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

Digital machines, including artificial intelligence (AI), have long been held as potential agents of social change. From their binary role in cultural productions to the real-world implementation of such, digital machines have typically been considered within the Heideggerian “readiness-to-hand” category of Being. This paper seeks to alter conceptually this dynamic through the use of new materialism and Morton’s concept of the “mesh” to provide a new understanding of the social and pragmatic roles advanced digital machines play in ecologies in which they dwell and continue to emerge. Through briefly tracing the complex intermingling of advanced digital machines in the realms …

香港影視業勞工狀況終期研究報告2024, 嶺南大學政策研究院, 嶺南大學文化研究及發展中心, 嶺南大學「青年貧窮與就業」研究團隊, 潘毅, 梁仕池, 楊皓鋮, 蔡美琦, 鄧立賢

CCRD Research Report

推動影視業發展是港府近年的文創政策重心。影視業較為人注目的是黃金年代後票房積弱和創作自由的議題；而銀幕背後，從業員的處境則容易被忽略。本研究報告兼用定量和定質的調查，深入淺出地分析本地投身電影、電視、廣告、網片等影像製作的從業員的勞動條件，探討不合理待遇的成因，並按研究結果提出政策及行業倡議。

本研究以問卷調查了212為從業員的工作狀況，與44名從業員進行深度訪談，得出以下主要發現：

1）影視業以自由工作者為主，他們的僱傭型態零散，普遍沒有明文及完整合約便要開工，並容易面臨拖糧和其他形式的剝削（詳見第5部分）：

• 影視從業員以自由工作者為主，缺乏保障，面對多種危脆性（見p.26）
• 多數從業員開工前不會簽署正規協議（見p.35）
• 業內實際工作協議的完整度，比從業員理想的完整度有很大落差（見p.38）
• 行業零散度高，導致拖糧問題普遍（見p.47）
• 從業員容易面臨壓價和被資方轉移商業風險（見p.53）

2）影視業的生態和文化令從業員面對不公的操作和「行規」亦難以改變。這些因素包括：行業以人脈為重、行內層級文化較強、從業員願意為創作犧牲待遇、行內較缺乏團結及行動意識（詳見第6部分）：

• 從業員極度依賴人脈接觸工作機會。遇到不合理待遇時，顧慮到自己形象和開罪前輩的可能性，很多人都會忍氣吞聲，避免被行家覺得麻煩、小器，導致不獲重用。這無疑是製造了灰色地帶，讓掌握工作機會的人士和單位可以刻薄對待和剝削勞工，而毋須被問責（見p.58）
• 行內論資排輩的文化仍然存在，底層從業員要對前輩服從，表現出「肯捱」、願意「跟師傅學嘢」、甚至「任砌」等特質，難以反駁不合理要求，勞動尊嚴受損（見p.62）
• 從業員對藝術創作抱有熱誠，在商業製作中亦未必完全以金錢衡量自己的付出，因此容易陷入甘願「自我犧牲」的心態，導致被剝削（見p.64）
• 從業員若遇到不公平待遇，普遍不傾向團結行家一起尋求改變。主流的做法是在個人網絡傳播、私下聯絡對方追討、或放棄追究。多名受訪者歡迎行內發展出爭取權益導向的工會，惟他們認為現時並未有足夠條件推動（見p.65）

3）影視製作市道不佳，令製作預算壓縮，令長工時、職安意識不足問題亦更難有資源應對（詳見第7部分）：

• 拍攝現場有不少職安隱患，頗多從業員曾經歷或目睹工傷發生。從業員工時長、經常在疲勞狀態下工作；拍攝節奏趕急；現場未必有專業人員把關安全，僅靠經驗判斷安危等，都是造成職安隱患的原因（見p.77）
• 從業員連續多日超時工作的情況非常嚴重。受訪從業員認為行內有必要對作息時間有合理的規範，不應犧牲從業員健康（見p.74）
• 從業員認同需要專人負責監察片場安全，但對於如何實行並無共識（見p.81）
• 從業員普遍認為政府對行業的支援資源不足、不到位，應邁向更開放、不以商業效益為主要考量的方向改善（見p.84）

基於研究結果，我們對香港影視行業及政府提出以下倡議（詳見第8部分）：

保障自由工作者基本待遇（見p.87）

• 業界引入標準合約，推廣開工前先簽訂完整協議的文化
• 政府透過資助影像製作項目，推廣勞工友善措施
• 業界規範工時，減低超時、高強度工作的情況

改善工作條件及職業安全（見p.89）

• 業界和政府合作，設定適用於影視製作的職安課程、認證系統、作業指引
• 政府改善職安執法
• 從業員自我組織，維護及推動權益

支援業界發展（見p.92）

• 政府改善資助制度，支援各規模、多元創作
• 增加畢業生支援，輔助院校新晉人才與業界接軌

Mass Accommodations: Signposts To A Hidden Jurisprudence, Shirley Lin

Emory Law Journal

In the early years of COVID-19, our willingness to swiftly modify workplaces, classrooms, and other commons generated access at unprecedented scale. These de facto accommodations belied conventional thought about whether institutions can dismantle environments, structures, and practices known to exclude or harm. Decision-makers nationwide improvised under traditional disability law—even if unevenly—generating mass accommodations that represented tens of millions of people problem-solving, experiencing structural access and safety, and intensively collaborating on organizational design over a concerted period. This Article’s argument is two-fold. First, by applying an experiential analysis, legal and non-legal audiences may understand them as disability-informed phenomena that spanned diverse …

Paths To Belonging: How Chinese Parachute Kids Construct Identity Across Borders, Huiying Chen

Pitzer Senior Theses

Chinese parachute kids, defined as unaccompanied minor who study in foreign countries alone while their parents remain in China, represent a unique segment of international students.This research specifically focusing on Chinese parachute kids studying in the U.S. Grounded in interviews with nineteen individuals who were once parachute kids, this study challenges the popular view that all international students have monolithic experiences especially within the assimilationist framework.

I propose a typology of three orientations (the heritage, the instrumental, and the global) and argue that Chinese parachute kids’ orientation determines their sense of belonging and their approaches to embeddedness in American educational …

Corporate Influence At Public Universities: Upholding The Conventional Agricultural Paradigm, Michaela Jones

Pitzer Senior Theses

The agriculture sector is responsible for feeding the planet but faces many growing threats as climate change worsens. Conventional agriculture practices, which are widespread, are both contributing to climate change and likely to become less feasible in future years. Regenerative agriculture provides a possible path forward but is not widely studied at public and land grant universities where much agricultural research takes place, in part because of significant corporate influence at these schools. Corporate influence can take many forms, and can include research funding by individual companies or industry groups, philanthropic giving in the form of buildings, research centers, and …

Between Two Worlds: Navigating Bicultural Identity, Jesus Diaz

A with Honors Projects

This essay explores biculturalism, third culture identity, cultural hybridity, acculturation, and cultural dissonance to articulate my experiences as a second-generation immigrant and connect with others on similar journeys.

Hollins University: Living History Project, China Moore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Hollins Community is a local Virginian African diaspora whose histories are intertwined with the legacy of the Hollins University campus itself. A condition not unique in consideration of the various African diasporic communities within the United States and abroad. How can the legacies of colonialism be addressed in this community? How can healing be prompted in a community whose memories of injustice persist? How can restorative justice persist when the histories of a community were left from published records?

Through the application of practices utilized by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Post-Apartheid South Africa, this thesis seeks actionable …

Negotiating Quotidian Justice In The Science Classroom, Christopher Irwin, Joshua Ellis

Faculty Publications

In this conceptual paper, we explore how science teachers might enact social justice through their everyday science instruction. Drawing on empirical literature and our own K-12 teaching experience, we develop a heuristic for mapping classroom discourses to engage in action and reflection to change both the world of the classroom community, and the world beyond the school. We suggest how this heuristic can be used for justice-oriented science teaching independently of (or as a supplement to) any existing frameworks for science teaching to promote social justice. Our proposed model for social justice through disciplinary science teaching frames justice not as …

Binding Norms: Three Essays On The Effect Of Cultural Tightness On Consumer Behavior, Shashi Minchael

Marketing Dissertations - Archive

Cultural Tightness-Looseness reflects the variability in how different cultures mandate strict adherence to social norms and allow deviation from the social norms reflected in sanctions on norm violations. The three-essay dissertation aims to advance our understanding of the effect of cultural tightness (vs. looseness) and the resulting societal emphasis on norm adherence on consumer behavior. Specifically, the proposed research examines the effect of differences in societal norms regarding consumer frugality, system justification, and beliefs regarding the malleability of the world and individuals on consumer decision-making. In essay 1, I study the effect of societal norms regarding frugality in tight (vs. …

Writing White Women: White (Supremacist) Feminism In American Literature And Culture, Post Suffrage To Post Hillary (1920–2020s), Jannell C. Mcconnell Parsons

Theses and Dissertations--English

Recent critical texts by Jessie Daniels, Mikki Kendall, and more frame the histories of mainstream white feminism in ways that highlight its ongoing complicity with white supremacy and its maintenance of racist structures and systems. In conversation with these current scholarly as well as mainstream cultural conversations about white feminism that have been happening with more frequency since 2016, this project turns to post-suffrage narratives of white womanhood to historicize the modern narratives we tell about feminism’s history. Each chapter of this project considers a 1920s or 1930s literary narrative alongside current literary and cultural narratives as I explore the …

Maternal-Adolescent Communication About Sex And Risky Sexual Behaviors: A Cross-Cultural Comparison Of Czech, Spanish, And Taiwanese Youth, Mckinley Hall

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

This present study aimed to test the relationship between perceived maternal-adolescent communication about sex and risky sexual behaviors, while also considering the links between perceived maternal-adolescent closeness and maternal-adolescent conflict with risky sexual behaviors, across three culturally distinct countries, namely the Czech Republic (N=878, mean age of 17.93), Spain (N =1024, mean age of 18.79), and Taiwan (N =1443, mean age of 16.48). Samples of adolescents from each country were used and statistical analyses were conducted to test the hypothesized relationships. Based on path analysis carried out on each sample, the results revealed that Czech adolescents reported the highest levels …

Dordt University 2024-25 Catalog, Dordt University. Registrar's Office

Academic Catalogs

Academic Catalog for 2024-25

Positioning Paperback Books As Americana: Cultural And Historical Impacts Of The Wadle Pocket Book Collection, Jake Volk

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The first book in the form of a codex was bound around 300 BCE, but the earliest material used to record writing appeared around 3000 BCE. From these documents recording proto-writing of human history, people have sought to analyze and preserve writing, which continues as a contemporary work of scholars across multiple disciplines to form the field of the history of the book. As the book changed physical form from illuminated manuscripts on vellum to cheaply produced, paperback books, which appeared in the early 1800s, historians have documented these changes; however, more analysis is needed to categorize and interpret how …

Narratives Of Identity: An Autoethnographic Exploration Of Biracial Identity Construction And Performance In Family, Education, And Media, Eboni Springfield

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis explores the complex construction and performance of biracial identity within the context of the United States, delving into the historical and ongoing impacts of race and racism, and the pervasive influence of white supremacy. Through an autoethnographic approach, this study investigates how personal narratives illuminate the processes of biracial identity construction, expression, and negotiation across three social institutions: family, education, and media. The findings reveal the intricate and intersecting interactions that contribute to identity formation, highlighting the expansive nature of intersectionality. The analysis demonstrates that biracial identity is continuously shaped in response to white supremacy, which complicates efforts …

Collecting And Classifying Data On Audience Identity: The Cultural Background Of Festival Audiences, Katya Johanson, Hilary Glow, Mark Taylor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article investigates the issues and tensions involved in collecting data from audiences to describe their diversity. It uses data collected as part of a survey of festival audiences to examine (1) how people choose to describe their identity in an open-text question and (2) how classifying complex responses to questions about ethnic or cultural background has implications for analysis. First, data provided through an open-text question in the festival survey were used to establish two classification systems. The results show patterns in the relationship between how people choose to identify themselves and their arts knowledge and appetite. It also …

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Among Individuals Of Hispanic And Latin American Ancestry: Cultural Considerations For Assessment And Psychotherapy, Olivia J Morris, Andrew D Wiese, Caitlin M Pinciotti, Rosa Pacheco, Mayra C Martinez Mallen, Ethan J Schweissing, Keaton J Soileau, Latin American Trans-Ancestry Initiative For Ocd Genomics (Latino), Brazilian Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Work Group (Gttoc), James J Crowley, Eric A Storch

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Research specific to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) among individuals of Hispanic and Latin American (H/L) ancestry is limited, as are culturally relevant assessment and treatment recommendations. This article discusses the implications of underrepresentation of H/L populations in OCD research and emphasizes the need to consider issues related to assessment, treatment, and structural barriers that hinder delivery of culturally appropriate first-line psychotherapy. Recommendations for assessment and treatment are provided to aid clinicians in distinguishing culturally normative thoughts and behaviors from OCD, as well as to inform the implementation of psychotherapeutic interventions with cultural humility. This manuscript offers recommendations for future research to …

Grid Culture, Eliot Bates, Arseni Troitski

Publications and Research

In this essay, we provide our initial ethnographic research about lines, which at a superficial level can be considered a platform, but which is also synonymous with a community of 8800 users, and with 606k unique posts authored by these users that in aggregate constitute a discourse network (Aufschreibesysteme, see Kittler 1990). lines—as platform, community, and discourse network—is primarily designed to support the development, documentation and user-generated code efforts specific to a set of hardware synthesis-related objects (the two we will focus on are called Norns and Grid; we’ll discuss what they are and what they do through the subsequent …

Friendship, Connection And Loss: Everyday Digital Kinning And Digital Homing Among Chinese Transnational Grandparents In Perth, Australia, Catriona Stevens, Loretta Baldasar, Raelene Wilding

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This chapter explores how practices of digital kinning and digital homing enacted through smartphones shape the experiences of Chinese older adults in Perth, Australia. Transnational grandparent carers must balance the risks of diminished social networks with the benefits of providing intergenerational care. Some form strong friendships in Perth, but many yearn for a leisured life with their friends in China. Findings illustrate the central role of digital migration practices in transnational families and friendships, not only sustaining distant support networks, but also building new communities in host settings. However, for some, the co-presence afforded through WeChat may intensify feelings of …