Digital Commons Network^™

Can Financial Inclusion-Based Interventions For Poverty Alleviation Build Sustainable Livelihoods? Voices From Mutual Solidarity Groups (Muso) In Haiti., Meera R. Bhat

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Scholars, policymakers, changemakers, and social workers have attempted to define, understand, and eradicate poverty. Its endurance raises the prospect that these efforts may be incomplete or faulty. This thesis will probe this concern by examining poverty and poverty alleviation programs through the lens of a holistic intervention-based framework known as the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF). The first paper introduces the SLF and uses it to undertake a conceptual analysis comparing demand and supply driven poverty alleviation interventions that are based on financial inclusion. Next it uses the SLF as a methodological tool to compare financial inclusion programs, as operationalized by …

Climate Change In The Local News: The Role Of Community Characteristics In Shaping Themes And Diversity, Hyerim Jo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Despite widespread recognition of climate change and its localized impacts, research on how local media cover this topic remains limited. The first study of this dissertation analyzes 15,788 opinion articles published from 2013 to 2020 by 391 local newspapers in the United States to examine their volume, topics, and thematic emphases. Using automated text analysis methods, including Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Analysis of Topic Model Networks (ANTMN), the study identifies 11 topics and three overarching themes. Findings indicate that the volume, topics, and themes evolved over time, likely influenced by the severity of climate-induced hazards and political and socioeconomic …

Territory And Border Dynamics Among Small Pre-Hispanic Polities In Western Chiapas, Mexico, Antonio Martinez Tunon

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the concept of territory in premodern polities, challenging modern assumptions that territory is a static or obsolete notion in the face of globalization. It critiques the conventional Westphalian model of state sovereignty, emphasizing that premodern political entities often exhibited flexible, overlapping territorial arrangements rather than fixed, linear boundaries. By analyzing territorial organization in premodern societies, this research explores the historical evolution of territoriality, identifying continuities and transformations over time.

Drawing from archaeology, anthropology, and historical geography, the research investigates how different societies have defined and maintained territorial control based on factors such as political authority, economic resources, …

Macroeconomics, State Action, Civic Trust, And Homicide: The Causes And Consequences Of Interpersonal Violence In Latin America, Guillermo Escano

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent 8 percent of the global population but about one-third of global homicides, yet interpersonal violence in the region receives limited attention in the English-language literature. This dissertation contains three distinct studies of the causes and consequences of crime and violence in LAC. The first study examines the predictive effects of inflation on robbery, burglary, and homicide rates in Argentina, which possesses one of the highest robbery rates worldwide and has endured high inflation – and, at times, hyperinflation – for years. I obtained annual crime data for 1973-2022 from the National Criminal Information …

Large Landlords, Code Violations, And Eviction Filing: Evidence From Albany, Ny, Andy Kaier

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Eviction is a major contributor to cycles of urban poverty, and a growing body of research has documented eviction’s harmful effects. This study finds that landlord size and the number of code violations associated with the landlord’s portfolio both predict higher numbers of eviction filings. Using eviction filing data and newly available code violation data from Albany, NY in 2023 and 2024, this study examines landlord characteristics and their association with eviction filing. This study also examines public housing, finding that the Albany Housing Authority is the largest eviction filer in Albany in the study period. These findings are concerning …

Mobile Air Quality Assessment Using Public Transportation: A Community-Focused Study In The Capital Region, Allen Pronith Reddy Yeddula

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The monitoring of air quality plays a crucial role in establishment of concentrations of air pollutants over space and time in relation to human health, urban planning, and environmental conservation. This research offers a new strategy of monitoring the air quality in the Capital Region of New York State utilizing public transit buses as air quality moving sampling platforms. To assess the level of pollutants, a Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA) bus network was used across the urban, suburban, and rural areas thus filling a research gap where public transit has most of the time been disregarded as a mobile …

Student And Teacher Perceptions Of Student Capabilities And Their Relationships To Learning Experiences In A High-Poverty Rural School, Amanda J. Zullo

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background and Purpose. This study was designed to identify, delineate, and explain the significant factors contributing to high school students’ relatively better graduation outcomes in a high-poverty rural region in New York State. Emphasis was placed on identifying key characteristics of the relationships between students’ and teachers’ perceptions of student capabilities and the qualities of student learning experiences. This study drew upon secondary data from a two-phase study of positive outlier schools identified as having significantly better graduation rates than other schools with similar demographic profiles. Informed by Mindset Theory and Authentic Learning Theory, the study examined how personal, social, …

Diversity Within Species: Mechanisms, Evolution And Implications In Bacterial Disease, Kathryn R. Piper

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli are ubiquitous commensal and opportunistic pathogens. In humans, S. aureus is commonly found on the skin and mucus membranes, and is known to cause infections in the skin, bloodstream and brain. E. coli is a normal part of the gut microbiota in humans and can cause intestinal and extraintestinal infections alike. S. aureus and E. coli pose global threats to public health, due to the high morbidity and mortality of invasive strains. The wide range of infections they cause in humans and other animals are exacerbated by the presence …

Unseen Connections: A Storymap Exploring Case Studies In Water-Energy Transitions And Environmental Justice, Alida Cantor, Elizabeth Bartholomew, Kate Berry, James Blair, Dustin Mulvaney, Nancee Hunter

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Climate change is one of the most important challenges in the world today. Communities and decision makers at many levels, from local to international, are working to ensure that energy, water, and other societal infrastructures can transition and adapt to address climate change (IPCC, 2023). One major mitigation strategy involves the decarbonization of energy systems (Rockström et al. 2017). Despite wide recognition of the need to decarbonize globally, renewable energy infrastructures and technologies are often locally controversial, involving claims of environmental injustice and disputes over land and water (Cantor, Turley, and Maxfield 2023; Jerez, Garcés, and Torres 2021; Turley et …

Thermal Regimes Of Beaver-Impacted Stream Reaches In The Tualatin River Basin, Oregon, United States, Miles Mayer, Heejun Chang

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

As beavers are increasingly used in stream restoration, interest in their potential to mitigate stream degradation has grown. However, the impacts of beaver dams on stream temperature remain inconsistent across studies, often due to differences in spatial scale and methodology. We investigated summer thermal regimes at multiple spatial scales in three beaver-impacted streams within the Tualatin River Basin, Oregon, using fiber-optic distributed temperature sensing. Substantial variability in thermal regimes was observed among the three stream reaches and around individual beaver dams within each reach. This variability was primarily influenced by geomorphic changes in stream depth associated with beaver dams and …

Collaborative Governance And Hydrosocial Territorialization: Reaching Consensus On Salmon Restoration Goals In The Columbia River Basin, Thien-Kim Bui, Rebecca Mclain

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Across the Cascadia bioregion, salmon and steelhead are ecological and cultural keystone species that contribute to and illustrate riverine health. Due to complex social, economic, and ecological relations over the past 150 years, many Columbia River Basin salmon and steelhead populations are now listed as threatened or endangered in the United States. This research uses the 2017–2020 Columbia Basin Partnership Task Force as a case study to understand how this collaborative governance effort of sovereign entities and nonsovereign stakeholders navigated competing water claims to reach consensus on aspirational qualitative and quantitative goals for salmon and steelhead restoration. Using semistructured interviews …

The Lawyer's Obligation As Public Citizen, Gene R. Nichol

Faculty Publications

This essay by Gene R. Nichol examines the lawyer’s duty as a “public citizen,” drawing from the ABA Model Rules’ preamble and historical, civic, and religious touchstones to argue that legal professionals bear a unique obligation to sustain democracy, the rule of law, and public confidence in justice. Situating the discussion in contemporary struggles—particularly in North Carolina—the essay details court-documented gerrymandering, voter suppression, and politicization of the judiciary, and laments the comparative silence of the institutional legal community, including bar associations, law schools, and leading firms.

Nichol juxtaposes today’s reticence with past episodes of vocal resistance (and support) from the …

The Relationship Between Food Insecurity And Low Birthweight Across Us Counties And Related Racial Disparities, Marissa A. Beldon, Shondra L. Clay, M. Courtney Hughes, Kathryn Mazurek

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Objective

To explore the relationship between low birthweight (LBW) and food insecurity across US counties and determine whether this relationship differs between Black and White women.

Methods

LBW data was derived from the 2013–2019 National Center for Health Statistics and National Vital Statistics System Birth Files. Food insecurity data was derived from Feeding America’s 2013–2019 Map the Meal Gap project. Analyses included descriptive statistics and regression models.

Results

Data were available for 3037 US counties. Food insecurity significantly predicted county-level LBW (t(3035) = 44.48, P <  .001) and explained 39.46% of the variance in LBW (F(13,035) = 1978.03, P <  .001, R = .63). Food insecurity predicted LBW for …

Unseen Connections: A Storymap Exploring Case Studies In Water-Energy Transitions And Environmental Justice, Alida Cantor, Elizabeth Bartholomew, Kate Berry, James Blair, Dustin Mulvaney, Nancee Hunter

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

No abstract provided.

Finding Floral And Faunal Species Richness Optima Among Active Fire Regimes, Zachary L. Steel, Alissa M. Fogg, Raphaela Floreani Buzbee, Kate Wilkin, Brandon M. Collins, Ryan Burnett, Marc D. Meyer, Amarina Wuenschel, Scott L. Stephens

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Changing fire regimes have important implications for biodiversity and challenge traditional conservation approaches that rely on historical conditions as proxies for ecological integrity. This historical-centric approach becomes increasingly tenuous under climate change, necessitating direct tests of environmental impacts on biodiversity. At the same time, widespread departures from historical fire regimes have limited the ability to sample diverse fire histories. We examined 2 areas in California's Sierra Nevada (USA) with active fire regimes to study the responses of bird, plant, and bat communities to a broad spectrum of temporal, spatial, and severity patterns of fire. Bird and plant species richness peaked …

Relevance And Reciprocity: Fostering Meaningful Inquiry In The Social Studies Classroom, Christy Cartner

Theses and Dissertations--Curriculum and Instruction

This dissertation investigates the factors contributing to students' perceptions of meaningful inquiry. After using the C3 Framework and designing instruction using the Inquiry Design Model for a decade, I wanted to better understand the students' experience to fine-tune how I implement inquiry in the classroom.

Article 1 was written for Social Education and describes the year of IDM blueprints that I designed to loop the concept of equality through units spanning the social studies disciplines of sociology, history, civics, geography, and economics. Through designing and facilitating these inquiries, I discovered my problem of practice, which was how to better engage …

The Role Of Cooperative Extension In Community Development: A Study Of Success Stories And Leadership Practices, George Grant

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

The Cooperative Extension System (CES) plays a vital role in community education and development across the United States. CES agents and specialists work directly with community members to identify needs, mobilize existing assets, and empower action. Despite the overlap in the fields of CES and community development, few studies have systematically analyzed the specific practices used by extension personnel who act as facilitators of change within communities. To address this gap in knowledge, a qualitative study was conducted using directed content analysis of CES success stories published through the University of Kentucky to identify practices used among two integral positions …

Crossing Borders, Breaking Barriers: The Transformative Journey Of First-Generation Students Abroad, Stephen Farley

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

First-generation students are underrepresented in study abroad programming, both nationally and at the University of Kentucky. To address participation barriers and the resulting opportunity gap for first-generation students, the University of Kentucky designed and implemented an innovative study abroad program for first-generation students titled “Explore First: Careers, Cultures, and Connections.” This specially-designed program sought to provide participants with the academic, social, and professional benefits associated with education abroad experiences, including greater self-efficacy, sense of belonging, intercultural competence, and career exploration and preparation. This mixed methods study examines these intended outcomes of Explore First. Drawing from quantitative surveys administered pre-, mid- …

Bridging Awareness And Access: Outdoor Recreation And Physical Activity In Eastern Kentucky, Timothy Mckay

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

Physical inactivity remains a pressing challenge in Appalachian Kentucky, where high obesity rates intersect with limited access to structured exercise facilities. This dissertation investigated the extent to which participation in outdoor recreation supports adherence to physical activity (PA) recommendations and explored community awareness of local public lands. Surveys from 52 adult participants in Knox County revealed strong engagement in outdoor activity, with participation significantly predicting compliance with national PA guidelines. Educational attainment was also associated with higher rates of PA compliance, pointing to the influence of literacy and awareness in health behaviors. Reliability testing of the Outdoor Physical Activity Attitude …

Scholars And Schisms: A History Of Antebellum Conflicts Over Slavery At Central Kentucky Liberal Arts Colleges, Wyatt M. Driskell

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This dissertation explores how debates about slavery impacted constituents at four early liberal arts colleges (Berea, Centre, Georgetown, and Transylvania) in antebellum central Kentucky. In addition to focusing on how these colleges participated in, responded to, and helped shape regional debates over slavery, this study also explores how college leaders’ consideration of slavery was intertwined with religion, politics, and the financial pressures inherent in operating a 19th-century institution of higher education. From archival research, I argue that these constituents were not passive participants in this process. In addition to considering slavery from religious, moral, or political perspectives, leaders advanced positions …

Growing An Inquiry Practice: A Case Study Of Teacher Change In Social Studies Classrooms, Alicia Michelle Saccomanno

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This exploratory case study examines how a group of social studies teachers refined their inquiry-based instructional practices over a school year. Research questions included: 1. How do teachers grow their use of questions, tasks, and sources? 2. What obstacles do teachers face when implementing inquiry? How do they work to overcome those obstacles? 3. How do teachers learn to trust the inquiry process, trust themselves to implement it, and trust their students to collaborate, deliberate, and produce meaningful work? This study examined teachers' design and instructional choices as well as their responses to student outcomes …

The Curious Case Of The Law Review Editor: A Study Of Higher Education's Peculiarly Powerful Students, David R. Wright

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

Many law students in their second or third year enroll in student-led, high-impact co-curricular programs such as law journals, moot court teams, and trial competition teams. Law journals particularly demand significant portions of students’ time and energy, especially for students holding Editor-in-Chief positions on a journal. Much has been written about law journals as institutions or about their utility in modern legal education; but little is known about the actual expectations and experiences of the students leading them. Few, if any, studies exist examining the student experience in law journal leadership. How student editors spend their time running their journal …

Competent Readers’ Online Multimodal Reading Strategies Use, Hyoju Ahn

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

As reading spaces evolve, it is imperative to identify and describe the strategies and skills used in constructing meaning. I examined online multimodal reading strategies, those used in constructing meaning from multimodal information sources (e.g., images, audio, written words) on the Internet. Participants read online multimodal texts from a laptop screen and provided verbal reports as they read to learn a scientific topic. Through verbal protocol analysis, I cataloged and described their multimodal reading comprehension strategies. Complementing retrospective interviews, reader-computer interaction videos, and written pre- and post-knowledge reports accounted for how they read strategically. Strategies were coded to provide insights …

Conservation Benefits Of A Large Marine Protected Area Network That Spans Multiple Ecosystems, Joshua G. Smith, Cori Lopazanski, Christopher M. Free, Julien Brun, Clarissa Anderson, Mark H. Carr, Joachim Claudet, Jenifer E. Dugan, Jacob G. Eurich, Tessa B. Francis, David A. Gill, Scott L. Hamilton, Kristin Kaschner, David Mouillot, Peter T. Raimondi, Richard M. Starr, Shelby L. Ziegler, Daniel Malone, For Full Author List, See Comments Below

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely implemented tools for long-term ocean conservation and resource management. Assessments of MPA performance have largely focused on specific ecosystems individually and have rarely evaluated performance across multiple ecosystems either in an individual MPA or across an MPA network. We evaluated the conservation performance of 59 MPAs in California's large MPA network, which encompasses 4 primary ecosystems (surf zone, kelp forest, shallow reef, deep reef) and 4 bioregions, and identified MPA attributes that best explain performance. Using a meta-analytic framework, we evaluated the ability of MPAs to conserve fish biomass, richness, and diversity. At the …

Contraceptive Use Among Transgender Men And Gender Diverse Individuals In The United States: Reasons For Use, Non-Use, And Methods Used For Pregnancy Prevention, Juno Obedin-Maliver, Ava Snow, Sachiko Ragosta, Laura Fix, Jen Hastings, Micah E. Lubensky, Matthew R. Capriotti, Zubin Dastur, Annesa Flentje, Mitchell R. Lunn, Heidi Moseson

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Objectives: To describe contraceptive use for pregnancy prevention among transgender men and gender diverse (TGD) individuals assigned female or intersex at birth (AFIAB) and explore whether contraceptive use differs by testosterone use. Study design: We analyzed data from a cross-sectional, online survey of N = 1694 TGD individuals AFIAB recruited in 2019 through a community-facing website and a national community-engaged cohort study of sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) adults in the US. Descriptive and regression analyses characterized the current and ever use of contraceptive methods for pregnancy prevention, stratified by testosterone use, and described reasons for contraceptive use/non-use. Results: Most …

Early Electronic Journals: A Preservation Survey, Nick Szydlowski, Rosa Salangsang, Daniella Kate Corpuz

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In 1994, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) published a print directory containing information on every electronic journal that could be identified, anywhere in the world. Thirty years later, this study surveys the current availability and preservation status of those 443 journals. While a significant number of these journals are no longer available, the results indicate that independent preservation efforts by individuals and small groups were a major factor in preserving many of the remaining publications. This study uses the preservation survey method to assess the preservation environment for these journals, and also to build an online directory of the …

Modeling Of Precipitation Over Africa: Progress, Challenges, And Prospects, A. A. Akinsanola, C. N. Wenhaji, R. Barimalala, P. A. Monerie, R. D. Dixon, A. T. Tamoffo, M. O. Adeniyi, V. Ongoma, I. Diallo, M. Gudoshava, C. M. Wainwright, R. James, K. C. Silverio, A. Faye, S. S. Nangombe, M. W. Pokam, D. A. Vondou, N. C.G. Hart, For Full Author List, See Comments Below

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In recent years, there has been an increasing need for climate information across diverse sectors of society. This demand has arisen from the necessity to adapt to and mitigate the impacts of climate variability and change. Likewise, this period has seen a significant increase in our understanding of the physical processes and mechanisms that drive precipitation and its variability across different regions of Africa. By leveraging a large volume of climate model outputs, numerous studies have investigated the model representation of African precipitation as well as underlying physical processes. These studies have assessed whether the physical processes are well depicted …

How Smart City Growth Principles Can Be Adopted In The Uae To Solve The Local Housing Problems?, Shaima Abdulla Alblooki

Theses

Shaikh Zayed Housing Program “SZHP” is the governmental program that is responsible for local housing in the UAE. The program’s main aim is to offer a variety of housing services such as loans, grants, and ready-to-move houses. However, both the continuously growing urban population and liveability challenges are impeding the program to meet its goal. As mentioned on SZHP’s official website “We should continue to explore new ways to establish informed dialogue with different groups of society and to ensure adequate housing for national families, in achieving stability and community development by meeting future needs” (SZHP, 2022 ). Accordingly, this …

Determinants Of Profitability In Uae Banks (2019-2023): An Analysis And Forecast For The Next Five Years, Rashed Aljanahi

Theses

This study aims to analyze the factors that led to the banks' profitability in UAE from 2019 to 2023 based on factors such as capital adequacy, asset quality, and liquidity. With these factors and Return on Assets, the study seeks to determine the link between the variables affecting financial performance in the banking sector. The study relies on quantitative data from UAE banks to include statistical analysis and construct predictive models. The relationships between the variables are established using Multiple Linear Regression. At the same time, Random Forest Algorithms explore Non-Linear Interactions and Time Series Analysis using ARIMA models to …

Inclusive Design Archive, Roblyn Powley

Theses

The Inclusive Design Archive (IDA) is a conceptual research and design project that responds to the ongoing reliance on Eurocentric, male-dominated narratives in design education. Many art and design curricula continue to exclude underrepresented creators, movements, and methodologies, limiting students’ exposure to the full scope of global design practice. Even well-intentioned educators often lack accessible tools to bring diverse perspectives into the classroom in a structured, research-supported way. IDA offers a solution in the form of a contextual search application that helps educators and students explore topics through three intersecting lenses: Broader Perspectives, Intersectional Approaches and Alternate Narratives, and Concepts, …