Digital Commons Network^™

Smu Adds Another Sustainable Building To Its City Campus, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University (SMU) today officially launched a new seven-storey multi-use building that adds over 12,700 square metres of teaching, learning, research and faculty space to its footprint. The ceremony was officiated by Guest-of-Honour Mr Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, in the presence of 250 guests and SMU faculty, staff, students and alumni.

A Destabilized World: The Effects Of Climate Change On Armed Conflict And International Humanitarian Law, Chase Doctor

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The effects of climate change are becoming more pronounced, and they will have an increasingly destabilizing effect on societies around the globe. This research paper utilizes primary source material (e.g. interviews with field experts) and secondary source material to analyze the relationship between climate change and armed conflict, and the response of international humanitarian law. The consequences of climate change, like changing weather patterns, will increase global migration and strain the resources of host communities. This phenomenon, in addition to other climate-induced factors, may increase the likelihood of armed conflict breaking out. The case studies of the Darfur conflict in …

What’S At “Steak”: The Drivers Of Deforestation In The Brazilian Amazon And Potential Multilateral Solutions, Soleil Gaylord

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper examines the contemporary drivers of deforestation in the Brazilian Legal Amazon and how multilateral solutions can be employed to bring forest loss to zero. Insights from the scholarly literature and five expert interviews allow a critical assessment of how the rise of unilateralism presents a novel threat to the Brazilian Legal Amazon and, by proxy, those relying on the region’s raw resources and ecosystem services. Integrating analyses of both Brazilian institutional structures and global environmental governance frameworks, this study examines the primary historical and contemporary factors driving accelerated deforestation rates observed under Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro. In identifying …

Shifting Relations: How Spain And Morocco’S Bilateral Relationship Affects Violence At The Border, Elizabeth Driscoll

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Morocco is a key transit country for many migrants trying to reach Europe, due to its shared land border with Spain, and Spain’s initiation into the European Union in 1986. Through informal interviews, current literature, Moroccan and Spanish news articles, and migrants’ stories, it can be seen that the changing bilateral relationship between Spain and Morocco creates violence at the border. Spain and Morocco’s unequal relationship is built upon economic dependency and colonialization. Spain wants to control Ceuta and Melilla border, the physical representation of “othering,” to cling to its “superior” identity, while Morocco hopes to further develop its economy …

Monuments As A Lens To Understand Climate Change: A Survey Of Altered Indian Architecture, Mckenzie Davis

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

My project is asking in what ways climate change is impacting monuments in the developing world using case studies in India? The project will be a survey of sites occupying different positions in environment, religion, and history in order to assess the multitude of threats on cultural heritage created and/or exacerbated by climate change. The Taj Mahal (17th century) will be assessed in order to discuss the impacts of air pollution associated with an urban environ ment and drought along the Yamuna river, using a widely known icon of India to serve as a visualization of slow violence taking place …

Predictors Of Student Knowledge Of Counselor Identity: Human Services & Related Mental Health Courses, Cortny Stark, Kylie Rogalla, Heather Cook, Joseph D. Wehrman

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Professional organizations and the field at large have made great strides towards solidifying the professional identities of mental health professionals. Despite these efforts, public knowledge of different types of helping professionals remains limited. Public understanding of helping professionals’ identities is critical to mental health literacy, and has a significant impact on health outcomes. Post-secondary education provides many students with exposure to information regarding types of helping professionals, and their scope of practice. This expansion study engages students completing college-level courses to clarify those variables that predict student knowledge and perceived scope of practice of a variety of counselors.

Association Of Prior Periodontal Disease With Cancer – Exploring Epidemiologic Evidence Of Periodontal Exudate-Exposed Site Cancer Risk Versus Remote Gastrointestinal Sites, Asma Alzahrani

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Periodontal disease, a chronic bacterial infection of the gums, if untreated, causes chronic inflammation over years and eventual tooth loss. The associations between periodontal disease (measured by missing teeth) and certain sites of cancer have been established, in epidemiological studies, and attributed to systemic inflammatory impacts causing carcinogenic change over decades. Because periodontal exudates are toxic, containing locally bioactive bacteria and toxins, this study hypothesized and studied the potential higher cancer risk of anatomic sites exposed to oral exudates (exudate-exposed site cancers (EEC); head and neck, oral, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, stomach). The study studied the risk of exudate exposed …

Gis Analysis Of Housing Delinquency After Repeated Flooding In Horry County, South Carolina, Andrew White

Theses and Dissertations

How communities react and change after disaster has been well-studied in recent decades. Knowledge around time scales, spatial scales, and specific facets of the built environment, such as housing recovery, have all developed largely around the opportunities that disasters have provided in understanding societal functions. This research has given policy makers and institutions insights into shortcomings of disaster specific recoveries, but these shortcomings are generalized beyond the scope of the originally studied areas. This thesis adapts this body of knowledge to a GIS methodology to help localize understanding to the coastal South Carolina context of Horry County. This low-lying area …

Understanding Teacher Reported Experiences Of Trauma Professional Development/Training, Mayra Alejandra Gaona

Dissertations

trauma informed education, trauma informed practices, trauma informed schools, trauma professional development

A Comparison Of Education In Post-Revolutionary Mexico And Post-Independence India, Yver Alonso Melchor-Hernandez

Dissertations

Comparison, Education, History, India, Mexico

Covid-19 And The College Student Experience, Benjamin Cochran

Senior Theses

In March of 2020, COVID-19 consumed the globe, affecting individuals’ physical and mental health. Physical health disparities among states of different political affiliations became clearer as the pandemic continued unrelentingly, but mental health disparities were not. This thesis attempted to note any mental health disparities among college students in states of both political affiliations across the country through an online survey. The 23-question survey was completed by 97 undergraduates at six universities - three in liberal states and three in conservative states. Respondents at universities in the liberal states rated their university and the state in which it is located …

Constructing Planetary Citizens Through Ecopedagogy In U.S. Social Studies Standards, Madeline Anne Rainey

Master's Theses

The world is in the age of the Anthropocene, where humans are impacting the environment to disastrous effects. The capitalist economy, promoting neoliberal policies of mass consumption, has exacerbated the world's environmental deterioration and social inequity. The rights and responsibilities people hold have been rapidly changing with the fourth industrial revolution. Globalization and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have further expanded notions of citizenship. While there have been numerous attempts to bring the environment into schools, it has not emphasized what this crisis deserves. Ecopedagogy, as a critical theory, explicitly examines the interplay between environmental and social problems and challenges …

Selective Iga Deficiency In Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats With Gut Dysbiosis, Piu Saha, Blair Mell, Rachel M Golonka, Venugopal R Bovilla, Ahmed A Abokor, Xue Mei, Beng San Yeoh, Peter A Doris, Andrew T Gewirtz, Bina Joe, Matam Vijay-Kumar

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR) is extensively used to study hypertension. Gut microbiota dysbiosis is a notable feature in SHR for reasons unknown. Immunoglobulin A (IgA) is a major host factor required for gut microbiota homeostasis. We hypothesized that inadequate IgA contributes to gut microbiota dysbiosis in SHR.

METHODS: IgA was measured in feces, cecum, serum, liver, gut-associated lymphoid tissue, and milk from SHR and Wistar Kyoto rats. IgA regulatory factors like IgM, IgG, and

RESULTS: Compared with Wistar Kyoto rats, SHR displayed remarkably near-deficient IgA levels accompanied by compensatory increases in serum IgM and IgG and gut-liver

CONCLUSIONS: …

Human Activity Recognition (Har) Using Wearable Sensors And Machine Learning, Chrisogonas Odero Odhiambo

Theses and Dissertations

Humans engage in a wide range of simple and complex activities. Human Activity Recognition (HAR) is typically a classification problem in computer vision and pattern recognition, to recognize various human activities. Recent technological advancements, the miniaturization of electronic devices, and the deployment of cheaper and faster data networks have propelled environments augmented with contextual and real-time information, such as smart homes and smart cities. These context-aware environments, alongside smart wearable sensors, have opened the door to numerous opportunities for adding value and personalized services to citizens. Vision-based and sensory-based HAR find diverse applications in healthcare, surveillance, sports, event analysis, Human-Computer …

Belonging In Context: An Exploration Of Sense Of Belonging Among College Students, Ladonna L. Gleason

Theses and Dissertations

Feeling a sense of belonging is essential to human health and functioning and has been well documented in the literature. However, questions of context remain. Research in belonging has focused on social aspects of belonging, leaving broader contextual frames unexplored. There has been little work in identifying and differentiating the contexts in which belonging is experienced or in developing an understanding of how the experience of belonging differs across contexts. Current belonging theory lacks this important contextual perspective that could inform the ways in which belonging is constructed and reconstructed through disruption. With the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic, new …

In Lockstep With Père Charles Duparquet— Synodality As The Catholic Missionary Insertion Within Novel Sociality, Elochukwu Uzukwu Cssp

Spiritan Horizons

No abstract provided.

Post-Rift Geomorphological Evolution Of A Passive Continental Margin (Paraíba Region, Northeastern Brazil): Insights From River Profile And Drainage Divide Analysis, Fabio Corrêa Alves, Martin Stokes, Sarah J. Boulton, Fátima Rossetti D De, Morisson Valeriano M De

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

The post-rift erosional history of elevated passive continental margins (EPCMs) has been considered of low-rate tectonics across many regions worldwide. However, research in the northeastern Brazilian passive continental margin suggests variations in the post-rift tectonic styles, timing and rates. This is especially the case of the Paraíba region, where there are reports of uplift affecting Quaternary strata. However, transient fluvial features potentially developed during this event remain to be investigated. In this study, we document transient responses of a fluvial landscape promoted by variations in Quaternary tectonic uplift in the Paraíba region, where outcrops are scarce. The aim was to …

Constraining A Model Of Punctuated River Incision For Quaternary Strath Terrace Formation, Jesse R. Zondervan, Martin Stokes, Matt W. Telfer, Sarah J. Boulton, Anne E. Mather, Jan Pieter Buylaert, Mayank Jain, Andrew S. Murray, Mhamed A. Belfoul

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

In the small fraction of Earth's surface with the highest erosion rates such as the Alps and Himalayas quantifying rates of incision, rock uplift and inferring climatic controls on the landscape can be relatively straightforward once the ages of river terraces cut in bedrock (strath terraces) are constrained. However, in many mid to lower relief settings that are more typical of mountain belts worldwide, periods of net river incision and riverbed lowering are relatively short (punctuated), interrupted by long periods of sediment aggradation or stasis. We define a conceptual model of punctuated river incision and strath terrace formation for the …

Riding Off Into The Sunset: Dual-Class Structure In The Age Of Unicorns Going Public, Hao Liang, Junho Park, Wei Zhang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The increasing adoption of dual-class shares (DCS)—an ownership structure that gives corporate insiders greater voting power than other shareholders—among newly listed companies has raisedsignificant governance concerns. We investigate the decision to adopt the DCS structure and itsvalue implications in the recent U.S. IPOs. Using founder cultural traits and Silicon Valley lawfirms as instrumental variables, we find significant post-IPO outperformance by firms adopting DCSwith a sunset clause, especially incapacity-based sunset which stipulates that the DCS will ceaseafter founders’ death, incapacitation or departure, compared to non-DCS firms and DCS firms without sunsets. This outperformance is more pronounced for high-tech firms, after Google’s …

Recommendations For Establishing A Market For Invasive Green Crabs In New England, Eve Fischer, Jesse Minor, Marissa Mcmahan

All Faculty Scholarship

Green crabs are one of the most invasive marine species in the world. Their populations in New England have grown significantly due to climate change, increasing their environmental and socioeconomic impacts. Green crabs are voracious predators of soft shell clams, and have had a detrimental impact on the region’s valuable clam fisheries. They also prey on juvenile lobsters and other shellfish and compete with native crab species for resources. Green crabs burrow into and damage eelgrass beds, which are a vital habitat for many marine species and an important “blue carbon” sink. Due to their rapid rate of reproduction as …

A Century Of Drought In HawaiʻI: Geospatial Analysis And Synthesis Across Hydrological, Ecological, And Socioeconomic Scales, Abby G. Frazier, Christian P. Giardina, Thomas W. Giambelluca, Laura Brewington, Yi Leng Chen, Pao Shin Chu, Lucas Berio Fortini, Danielle Hall, David A. Helweg, Victoria W. Keener, Ryan J. Longman, Matthew P. Lucas, Alan Mair, Delwyn S. Oki, Julian J. Reyes, Stephanie G. Yelenik, Clay Trauernicht

Geography

Drought is a prominent feature of Hawaiʻi’s climate. However, it has been over 30 years since the last comprehensive meteorological drought analysis, and recent drying trends have emphasized the need to better understand drought dynamics and multi-sector effects in Hawaiʻi. Here, we provide a comprehensive synthesis of past drought effects in Hawaiʻi that we integrate with geospatial analysis of drought characteristics using a newly developed 100-year (1920–2019) gridded Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) dataset. The synthesis examines past droughts classified into five categories: Meteorological, agricultural, hydrological, ecological, and socioeconomic drought. Results show that drought duration and magnitude have increased significantly, consistent …

Are There Transit Deserts In Europe? A Study Focusing On Four European Cases Through Publicly Available Data, Yefu Chen, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Public transit has been proven as an affordable travel method, while the inequitable distribution is a rising concern among practitioners and researchers. A transit desert, based on the demand and supply concept in measuring the mismatch in allocating the level of public transit service, has proved its ability to be applied in cases across countries. According to this concept, this study investigated transit deserts in four cases in Europe. Results indicate that the public transit system in Grand Paris and Madrid are superior due to a smaller population living in areas where public transit cannot meet the demand. Moreover, we …

2022 October, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for October of 2022.

The State Of Latino Education: 2010-2020, Fabián Torres-Ardila, Nyal Fuentes

Gastón Institute Publications

In this report, we will provide a descriptive analysis of the main trends in educational achievement for Latinos in Massachusetts in the period 2010-2022. We highlight areas in which Latino students have made considerable progress since the publication of the 2010 Gastón report “The State of Latinos and Education in Massachusetts: 2010,” along with other areas in which progress has stalled and/or been reversed. The data presented cover only until 2020, before the full effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt. We end with recommendations for further development of a Latino Education agenda.

Why We Should Remember The Soviet Information Age?, Ksenia Tatarchenko

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

How to navigate the rapidly changing digital geopolitics of the world today? How do we make sense of digital transformation and its many social, political, cultural, and environmental implications at different locations around the world?

Looking Beyond The 'Middle Class' For Other Chinas, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There are high hopes for China’s middle class. Thanks to their rising disposable income, this group of Chinese is expected to unleash a consumer revolution in the domestic market. However, I argue that the ‘middle class’ as a concept provides at best a partial understanding of the Chinese consumer population; at worst, it can even provide a misleading perspective that brings us to erroneous conclusions about its profile and size. Instead, I propose the notion of ‘three Chinas’ as an alternative way to make sense of China’s consumers. ‘First China’ comprises residents in medium and large-sized cities, ‘Second China’ consists …

From Pulau To Pulo: Archipelagic Perspectives On Southeast Asian Chinese Ethnicity From The Philippines And Indonesia, Josh Stenberg, Chien-Wen Kung, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Southeast Asia is an important region for working through ques-tions of Chineseness. It is, however, a notoriously heterogeneous region, and conclusions derived from some parts of it can be of limited applicability elsewhere. This special issue offering empiri-cally-grounded, multi-disciplinary research engages with and expands on existing scholarship on Southeast Asia’s Chinese. By focusing on Indonesia and the Philippines, the articles in this special issue investigate diverse models of being Chinese in Southeast Asia and depart from the familiar paradigms offered by Singapore and Malaysia, where ethnic Chinese populations are in the highest proportions and hold significant political power, and where …

From Shared Micro-Mobility To Shared Responsibility: Using Crowdsourcing To Understand Dockless Vehicle Violations In Austin, Texas, Shunhua Bai, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In recent years, many progressive U.S. cities have witnessed the rapid popularization of dockless small vehicles as a car-free travel alternative to meet the short distance travel demand. The research gap exists in revealing the social outcome of the massive influx of shared small vehicles on public space. To that end, this study analyzed 4,100 parking violation reports in Austin, Texas, crowdsourced from the Austin 311 non-emergency service request system. The results showed that sidewalk and other public space intrusions were the two most frequently reported violations. Additionally, it found that improperly parked vehicles in parks required the longest time …

Securing Russia: Seeking Ontological Security In The Arctic, Brian W. Cole

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced an abrupt discontinuity in its sense of identity. This break in identity, and a more profound lost sense of self, creates a strong need to reestablish continuity. The need to regain that sense of self is strong and can supersede other concerns. Ontological security theory proposes that the need to maintain identity can outweigh physical security considerations. This study uses game theory methodology and the Arctic as a contextual example to demonstrate that ontological security-seeking actors are willing to sacrifice physical security. Today, the current conditions in the Arctic reflect a …

Network Thermodynamics-Based Scalable Compartmental Model For Multi-Strain Epidemics, Joseph Pateras, Ashwin Vaidya, Preetam Ghosh

Department of Mathematics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

SARS-CoV-2 continues to upend human life by posing novel threats related to disease spread and mutations. Current models for the disease burden of SARS-CoV-2 consider the aggregate nature of the virus without differentiating between the potency of its multiple strains. Hence, there is a need to create a fundamental modeling framework for multi-strain viruses that considers the competing viral pathogenic pathways. Alongside the consideration that other viral pathogens may coexist, there is also a need for a generalizable modeling framework to account for multiple epidemics (i.e., multi-demics) scenarios, such as influenza and COVID-19 occurring simultaneously. We present a fundamental network …