Digital Commons Network^™

An Open Conversation: Deliberating Perceptions Of Power Through New Media, Abigail Barnes

Dissertations

This research aims to investigate aims to critically assess how mediated participants utilize new media spheres deliberate upon perceptions of power through rhetorical criticism and critical discourse analysis. Since the conception of social media, users have utilized the platforms to network, negotiate, and dissent from controversies through mediated public deliberation. The present study aims to nuance how Habermas’ original conception of deliberative rhetoric has transformed through new media deliberation. To exemplify this change in deliberative rhetoric, the present study will also critically evaluate online social movements through the case study of the AOC Tik Tok Challenge, responses to online controversies …

Managerial Competence And Inventory Management In Sme Financial Performance: A Hungarian Perspective, A. Ramadan, D. Alkhodary, M. Alnawaiseh, K. Jebreen, A. Morshed, Ahmad B. Ahmad

Journal of Statistics Applications & Probability

This study examines how managerial skills and inventory management affect the financial performance of SMEs in Hungarys Business Products and Services sector. It employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative research through semi-structured interviews with 73 inventory and financial managers, alongside a quantitative survey involving 210 participants representing various SME experiences. Qualitative methods like thematic and hermeneutic analysis are used to explore participant experiences deeply, while the quantitative survey assesses specific variables. The findings reveal a consensus among participants on the pivotal roles of managerial competence and advanced inventory management practices. Managerial competence encompasses data-driven decision-making and adaptability, while advanced inventory …

Cross-Cultural Management In Dublin: An Analysis Of The Practices And Challenges Faced By Managerial Staff In Irish Businesses., Ayala Lopes Carneiro De Oliveira

MA in International Business

Cross-cultural studies are gaining increasing relevance in both academia and the corporate world (Arslan, 2001; Chrobot-Mason, et al., 2007; Molinsky, 2013; Meyer, 2014). Ireland, with its immigration policies and incentives for multinational companies, is attracting skilled individuals, leading to a growing diversity in the country. Local businesses frequently hire foreigners, enriching teams with diverse perspectives and creativity. According to the Irish Census (CSO, 2023), over 420,000 immigrants aged 15 and over were employed in Ireland in 2022, surpassing the number of employed Irish nationals.

Highly culturally diverse workplaces necessitate specific management practices to address challenges arising from cultural misunderstandings, unclear …

Spectacles Of Security: Deconstructing Visual Narratives Of Operation Lone Star, Terry Kincer

Theses & Dissertations

Operation Lone Star was a border security initiative launched by Texas Governor Greg Abbott in March 2021. Serving as the intermediary between the military and the public, the Texas Military Department's YouTube channel, TMD Operation Lone Star, produced news-style short digital videos aimed at documenting and promoting increased security along the U.S.-Mexican border. Drawing on Peter Andreas's (2022) concept of the border as a symbolically manipulated site, this study deconstructed these videos to analyze the visual strategies employed in depicting the migrant crisis as a threat to the United States. Through an examination of thematic categories such as massification, …

Memories Of Gimjang_김장: And Performance As The Practice Of Freedom, Chung Park

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Memories of Gimjang_김장: and Performance as the Practice of Freedom reflects my response to a feeling of isolation as a Korean American MFA graduate student living in Northwest Arkansas for the last three years. This experience led me to an endless search for identity and place, compelling me to reach into my past and cultural history in relation to the present. To satiate a sense of home in this world, I turned to an artistic intervention to translate the indecipherable, which brought to life my thesis performance, Gimjang_김장:. Gimjang_김장: allowed me to reveal multitudes of experiences and imagined a possibility …

Passages, Arden Carlson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Passages is a collection of wood sculptures and drawings by Arden Carlson, exploring a mesh of southern intimacies and queer musings; underpinned by the logics of belief, grief, and love. The result is a tender field of angelic birds fixed in flight over gnawed surfaces of grain and graphite. The following dissertation details the artist’s logic during the construction of the visual art thesis exhibition, Passages. The writing is composed in an autoethnographic format, backed by supporting anecdotes and creative methodologies that help to route the operational modes used. Near the end of this writing, you’ll find an additional addendum …

Linguistic Heritage In Digital Landscape: A Collective Memory Of Indigenous Script, Sumi Limbu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present-day digital world reflects the historical structures of power, as evidenced by the dominant presence of specific languages in online spaces. Globalization, post-colonization, and language preferences on digital platforms also present significant dangers to indigenous languages, resulting in their gradual disappearance in both online and offline settings. The insufficient provision of typographical support and acknowledgment worsens the marginalization of indigenous languages by hindering their inclusion in digital spaces. The script plays a vital role in visual design by effectively delivering information. Language serves as the primary means of communication, which enables knowledge production. This study aims to look into …

The Banner - V. 159, No. 5 - (May 2024), Christian Reformed Church In North America

The Banner

No abstract provided.

Uterine Fibroids: A Silent Crisis, Diana Mwikisa

Communications Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Black women in the United States are three times more likely to have uterine fibroids compared to any other ethnicity. Existing studies estimate that about 80 to 90 percent of Black women will develop fibroids by age 50. Uterine fibroids are “non-cancerous tumors found in the uterus” (Orellana et al., 2022, p.1184). The exact cause of uterine fibroids is not fully understood, and more research is needed to gain insight into the causes of this debilitating disease (Yu et al., 2018). The purpose of the study is to gain an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of Black women with …

Putting Forward Sustainability As A Model For Journalism Education And Training, Nancy Booker, Bruce Mutsvairo, Dinesh Baliah, Theodora Dame Adjin-Tettey, Lars Tallert, Jean Mujati

Graduate School of Media and Communications

African journalism practice presents unique opportunities and challenges that require journalists to be equipped with the necessary skills, knowledge, and values to engage in sustainable journalism. Training institutions play a critical role in ensuring that journalists are not only professionally-ready to execute their mandate but also that they can safeguard and promote ethical values in their everyday work. Some of these values include “truth telling, independence, objectivity, fairness, inclusivity and social justice” (Gade, Nduka, and Dastger 2017, 10). Africa, like other regions of the Global South, has several journalism training institutions that provide an opportunity to challenge “hegemonic epistemologies and …

Something Underneath: Modernism(S), The Arts, And The Dance Of The Critical I, Harry Burgan '24

Honor Scholar Theses

What is the mission of the liberal arts?

“Knowledge emerges only through invention and reinvention, the restless, impatient, continuing, hopeful inquiry beings pursue with the world and with others.”— Paulo Freire (72)

The liberal arts teaches a variety of ways of knowing, oriented not toward the development of hard skills; but united, powerfully, across disciplines, under the eclectic methodology of critical thinking, toward the broader story of the human soul.

The liberal arts curriculum can and often does teach you the skills to do well in the workplace; as is well-documented, liberal arts students, liberated from the means- ends logic …

The Relationship Between Basic Psychological Needs, Novelty, And Transformative Experience: A Cross-Cultural Study, Yousef T Dh Kh T Alardhi

Dissertations

Alardhi, Yousef T Dh Kh T. The relationship between basic psychological needs, novelty, and transformative experience: A cross-cultural study. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2024. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) categorizes motivation into two different types: intrinsic and extrinsic (Ryan & Deci, 2000a, 2017). Intrinsic motivation refers to engagement in learning activities for personal meaning and satisfaction (Ryan & Deci, 2017). According to SDT, in order for individuals to be intrinsically motivated, their basic psychological needs of autonomy, relatedness, and competence should be satisfied. Additionally, previous research has shown that satisfaction of basic psychological needs not only supports …

Crafting Culturally Responsive Research: Part Ii, Maria K. E. Lahman

Webinars

This is the third webinar in a three-part webinar series featuring Maria K. E. Lahman, Ph.D., Professor of Qualitative Methodology at UNC. Lahman is renowned for her expertise in qualitative research and her latest book, "Ethics in Social Science Research: Becoming Culturally Responsive."

Through this three-part webinar series, Lahman challenges researchers to join the author in considering culturally responsive research. Foundations of culturally responsive qualitative research, reflexivity and ideas for enhancing the quality of qualitative research enhanced. While all webinars are stand-alone experiences, engaging with all three invites readers into deeper dialogue in an area that is contested, swiftly shifting …

Characterization Of Mitochondrial Morphology In Drosophila: Early Embryogenesis Description Via Confocal Microscopy, Kendall Miller

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mitochondria are not static organelles, but instead are dynamic networks that undergo rapid changes in subcellular distribution, organization, and activity in response to external stimuli. Notably, mitochondria can undergo fission and fusion, collectively known as mitochondrial dynamics. Mitochondrial fusion creates assembled networks of mitochondria that are maximally efficient at generating ATP through oxidative phosphorylation. Conversely, mitochondrial fission leads to network fragmentation and a shift towards glycolysis, which is the dominant mode of ATP generation in oxygen-limiting and stressed conditions. While mitochondrial dynamics have been intensively studied in isolated cells under stressful conditions, much less is known about how mitochondria behave …

Real To Reel: The "Third Gender" Narratives And Queer Identity In Rituparno Ghosh's Bengali Films, Manjima Tarafdar

Film and Media Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis critically explores the third gender space that Rituparno Ghosh created in his later films, where he either featured and/or directed the films. The Bengali filmmaker, Rituparno Ghosh was one of the very few filmmakers in India who consciously and vocally spoke for the sexual minorities and represented them in his films. Focusing on the films, Arekti Premer Golpo, Memories in March and Chitrangada: The Crowning Wish, the thesis looks at the films that negotiated through the in-betweenness of gender identity, not solely lying within the binary of gender. Through this representation of the third gender space, …

Educating Queerness: An Exploration Of Identity Construction Through The Schooling Experiences Of Transgender And Non Binary Adults, Miruna Ouatu-Lascar

Education (PhD) Dissertations

Transgender people and youth have been disproportionately denied their civil and human rights in educational and societal institutions. At the foundation of these actions and legislations that deny transgender people their rights is the rooted belief in the gender binary as a naturally occurring, accurate, system of defining gender which is pre prescribed at birth based on sex. It is imperative to explore the ways in which the gender binary has been socially constructed like other constructed identities such as race and ability in the effort to continue to eradicate transphobia and transphobic practices. This study explored the experience of …

Posthumanism In Literature: Redefining Selfhood, Temporality, And Reality/Ies Through Fiction, Eileen Kelley Pierce

English (MA) Theses

While fictional novels are often seen as a way to escape reality, their relation to reality and the ways in which they distort or reinforce our understandings of reality can provide significant insights into our cultural values and beliefs. Using posthumanist theory, I examine how understandings of selfhood and its relations to time and reality are complicated within three works of fiction and how those complications represent and articulate a societal shift in meaning and knowledge that is supported by posthumanist ideologies. The three works, No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood, Wolf in White Van by John …

Plastic Alternatives And Substitutes In The Packaging Sector – A Uk Consumer Perspective, Sohvi Nuojua, Sabine Pahl, Richard C. Thompson

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Alternative and substitute materials to conventional plastic packaging offer a range of potential opportunities to help reduce the environmental impacts of single-use plastic. Policymakers and industry stakeholders are currently debating measures to address the plastic pollution crisis globally, but successful implementation of new policies or packaging technologies will require understanding of consumer perspectives and consumer acceptability. The present study aimed to examine consumer perceptions around plastic alternatives and substitutes by employing a life cycle approach. The Kano model of consumer satisfaction was used to investigate how UK consumers (n = 1177) responded to a variety of environmentally relevant attributes and …

Concerning Classification: American Alternative Classification Systems 1930 - Today, Sasha Frizzell

Library Scholarship

Library of Congress Classification (LCC) and Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC) have been widely used in American libraries for over 100 years. Since their adoption, librarians have been interrogating the structure of these classification schemas and finding that these systems will not equitably represent the resources in their collections. One solution to this problem is creating an alternative classification system that modifies the existing schema or creates a wholly new alternative.

This presentation will explore two different types of alternative classification systems: those built for special libraries and those constructed to improve access to resources by and about historically marginalized groups. …

Violently Peaceful: Unpacking Portrayals Of Black Lives Matter Protests, Cynthia Tuzo

Honors College Theses

Black Lives Matter (BLM) is an international activist organization that aims to fight racial inequality and injustice in America. During the summer of 2020, many American citizens utilized their First Amendment right to protest against the killings of unarmed Black people in association with the BLM movement. BLM emphasized the use of nonviolent tactics to fight injustice. Contrary to their emphasis, the protests associated with BLM were portrayed as both violent and peaceful depending on the political beliefs of the reporter. In my research, I consider what it means for a protest to be peaceful and whether the Black Lives …

Political Orientation And Its Effect On Engagement And Perception Of The Arts, Parker Robert Mckenzie

Communication Studies

Utilizing the Symbolic Interactionism Theory (Gusfield, 2011), this study explored the relationship between political orientation and one’s engagement with and perception of art forms. The study utilized qualitative methods analysis to analyze similarities between participant responses. Findings from participants revealed the following themes: engagement with history leading to a more profound understanding of art, art causing real-life inspiration, and engagement with art leads to the formation of sub-cultures. Additionally, interviews revealed that people choose not to engage with certain art based on political orientation, people who consider themselves to be “spiritual” engaged with art differently, and many people’s perception of …

The Role Of Oncomodulin In The Central Nervous System Inflammation, Evan Paltjon

Honors Theses

Acoustic overexposure in mice leads to an excess of calcium influx in outer hair cells (OHCs) and causes permanent hearing loss due to death of OHCs. Oncomodulin is a parvalbumin calcium buffering protein located in OHCs of the cochlea. Early pilot studies indicate that genetic deletion of OCM results in immune-related pathology throughout the cochlea. Why and how this occurs is unknown. Studies in wild type (WT) and OCM knockout (KO) mice demonstrate greater numbers of immune cells are associated with noise exposure in an OCM knockout than in WT. Expression of toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) leads to the recruitment …

Amadeusz’S Prosper: Effective Reintegration Of Adults Facing Firearm-Related Charges In Ontario, Canada, Ardavan Eizadirad, Tina-Nadia Gopal Chambers, Sheena Blake Brown

Education Faculty Publications

This study evaluates the impact of Amadeusz’ Prosper program which supports individuals with firearm-related charges between the ages of 18 to 29 in Ontario, Canada. Prosper offers intensive case management through caseworkers who co-create tailored support plans with participants based on their immediate needs and long-term goals. The program supports individuals during incarceration and post-release once back in community. This study engaged 44 participants through interviews conducted between October 2022 and April 2023. Participants included program beneficiaries (n=29), family members (n=8), community partners (n=4), and caseworkers (n=3). Intersectionality and Critical Race Theory paradigms were applied as part of data analysis …

The Divine Comedy: A Work Of Medieval Mythology, Jamie Alexander

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Prior to The Divine Comedy (1308-1321), ideas about Purgatory were in the early stages of development. Purgatory had loose rituals surrounding its existence and it lacked depiction in written works. Yet in the following centuries, the fear of Purgatory and the practices of penance and indulgences reached a fever pitch, ultimately leading to the Protestant Reformation. Purgatory as a celestial location, and not just the “purgatorial fires” of the Bible, only began to develop in the twelfth century, but its fearful description and imagery in The Divine Comedy not only solidified previously nebulous understandings of Purgatory, but also increased anxiety …

Coping With Stress In Caregiving Among Korean Immigrant Parents Of A Child With Adhd, Jinhee Koo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Parents of children with ADHD were found to struggle with additional demands in caregiving. Immigrant populations reported acculturative stress as they encountered immigration stressors, including language barriers, cultural differences, lack of social support, discrimination, and so forth. Belonging to both social groups, Korean immigrant parents of children with ADHD are likely to face numerous stressors and undergo a great deal of stress. Nevertheless, little has been known about how they experience stress and coping. It is important to identify their experiences because the knowledge can be used to support their well-being and quality of life. To fill this gap, this …

Is The Language Surrounding Current Punk Culture Signaling A Watering Down Of Dissent? Culture Mapping The Signifying Language Of Present-Day Punk Against Original Punk To See If It Is Still Addressing Societal Issues And Challenging The Status Quo., Marie Lena Tupot

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Punk, originating from the economic turmoil of 1970s Britain, has transitioned into the digital realm, shedding its traditional symbols of rebellion while posing questions about contemporary dissent, such as: Are Punk ideals still addressing societal issues and challenging the status quo, or are they becoming more superficial or commercialized? Or are expressions of dissent genuine and rooted in lived experiences, or are they being appropriated for commercial gain? This study delves into the language of the shifting subcultures of Punk, silently thriving online through Cyberpunks, Cypherpunks, Anarchists, Anarcho-capitalists, and Cryptopunks. Each subgroup expresses rebellion uniquely: Cyberpunks through hacking, Cypherpunks through …

Reclaiming Tremé: A Design Research Thesis, Tori Dunston

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

Reclaiming Tremé explores the potential for design to support the well-being of the oldest African American neighborhood divided by urban highway projects in the US. This comprehensive thesis that seeks to improve the well-being the neighborhood using precedents, historical context, and the quantifiable architectural goals of WELL v2, to present a design solution for Tremé. Through understanding the current communities needs and having historical context of the area, the design strategy focuses on creating a vibrant cultural core that enhances the community's well-being. By integrating new structures and amenities, preserving cultural heritage, and enhancing physical and social infrastructure, the project …

Towards Sustainable Development: Civic Architecture As Material Banks, Kathleen O'Gara

Masters in Architecture Program: Theses

This thesis posed the question, “How can buildings be designed to be disassembled and reused to reduce construction and demolition waste and reduce our unsustainable reliance on raw materials?” Designing for disassembly and reuse has the potential to dramatically increase the life of building materials, thus decreasing construction and demolition waste relating to architecture. When designing with deconstruction and reuse in mind, designers must consider the next life of these materials. The thesis was further narrowed to push the adaptability of these materials by designing a structural kit of parts. The structure system is often seen as a stable and …

Protocols For Enhancing The Role And Value Of Spiritual Care Resources In The Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, Garrett Harper

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the assessment of innovative practices in police chaplaincy. The purpose of the project intervention is to develop protocols that can guide police chaplains through an assessment process. The intervention relies on practical theology as exemplified through the ministry of chaplaincy. This ministry comprises police chaplains offering spiritual comfort to persons encountering critical incidents involving violence, accident, or other trauma-intensive events and situations. Adoption of innovations can allow police chaplains to be more effective in fulfilling many outward-focused tasks such as delivery of death notifications. I conclude that: (1) police chaplaincy is amenable to use of protocols to …

The Fans Have Spoken: Understanding Survivor Fandom Through Semi-Structured Interviews, Ben Katarzynski

All Theses

Survivor is an American competition-based reality television show in which contestants compete with and against one another in physical and social challenges while being stranded in remote parts of the world. In the end, the last contestant standing is awarded a one-million-dollar grand prize. Since premiering in 2000, Survivor now has over 40 completed seasons in its catalogue which has allowed for the show to develop many fans over the past two and a half decades. However, not every Survivor fan thinks or behaves in the same way. For this thesis I paired Henry Jenkins and Janet Staiger’s fan action …