Digital Commons Network^™

Social Creatures: The Impact Of Solitary Confinement On Psychophysiological Health And How Inmates Percieve Their Humanity And Social Well-Being, Julia Austin

Honors Projects

This paper will define and examine the use of solitary confinement within the United States prison system and review its mental, physical, and social impacts. As social creatures, human mental and physical well-being depends on meaningful social interactions absent in segregation units. As it currently stands, vulnerable populations, including racial minorities, LGBTQIA+ individuals, and those with developmental disabilities or psychological disorders, are at risk of irrevocable harm and abuse within these facilities from staff as well as other inmates. With a rotating 80,000 inmates held in solitary confinement every day, the current structure of the prison system deemphasizes rehabilitation and …

Healthcare Employees’ Perceptions On The Effects Of Internal Audits, Jeremy Mason

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

With limited research on the perceptions of internal audits, this study was

able to add more literature to the subject. The study’s aim was to survey

employee perceptions of the effects of internal audits. This study will provide organizations with results pertaining to how employees perceive the usefulness of internal audits. The study team conducted a single-site study and invited the healthcare organization's employee population to participate in the study. The survey captured 40 responses from 361 invitees (11%). The survey explored the perceptions on six categories of internal audits: Efficiency, Ethical Behavior, Effectiveness, Auidotr-Auditee Relationship Exchange, Learning from Audit, …

Colorism, Colonial Mentality, And Dating And Relationships For Filipino American Women, Gabrielle A. Abrazaldo

Senior Theses

As a consequence of a long colonial history under Spain and then the United States that lasted over 300 years, Filipinos have internalized a sense of cultural and ethnic inferiority known as ‘colonial mentality.’ When it comes to Filipino women, who have historically entered into romantic or sexual relationships with their colonizers, in which they were often mistreated, degraded, and discriminated against, colonial mentality continues to have an impact on their dating behaviors, attitudes, and experiences. This paper reviews a variety of literature, drawing particularly on qualitative sources such as personal narratives and interviews, to build case studies that effectively …

Gender Inequality And Economic Decline: A Comparative Analysis Of Gender Roles And Its Impact On Economic Development In Egypt And Iran, Kayla E. Joyner

Senior Theses

This thesis will demonstrate that increasing female labor force participation in Iran and Egypt will facilitate overall economic growth, reduce poverty rates, and increase family investment in education and health. There are three critical factors that I will examine that are significantly deterring female participation in the labor force in these two countries specifically: sociocultural values, legal barriers, and economic policies. By refusing to mobilize the increasing potential female labor force, Iran and Egypt are hindering the nation’s social and economic development.

Patriotism And The Mass Line: Ccp Ideology From Mao To Xi, Anne Elizabeth Weston

Senior Theses

China’s modern ideology and political environment have shifted over time, as lessons learned from various mass movements and policies have been incorporated into its ideological construction. Analyzing these elements and their impact on modern CCP ideology is key to understanding CCP ideology and the role it plays in Chinese politics. This paper will construct a timeline of significant movements and policies throughout modern Chinese history and examine how CCP ideology was shaped by these events.. The CCP’s ideology combines Maoist ideas, such as the mass line, with ideas of patriotism and nationalism to create governmental compliance within China. It attempts …

Fighting For Change In The 21st Century: An Examination Of Social Activism And The Role Of Social Media In The Us And France, Emily V. Cooper

Senior Theses

This thesis explores in-depth the role of social media in the efforts of contemporary social activism in the 21st century by focusing upon activism movements in the United States and France. By studying the ‘#MeToo,’ Black Lives Matter, and BLM-inspired movements of the two countries, this study attempts to evaluate the ability of social media-based activism to initiate substantive social change. The case studies do this by evaluating the history of each movement, the quantitative and qualitative role of social media in disseminating information, and the impact of each movement upon its respective society’s public opinion. The research concludes that …

The Politics Of The Northern Ireland Question: From The Good Friday Agreement To Brexit, Nora A. Hayes

Senior Theses

The Northern Ireland question still remains unanswered in 21st century politics in the British Isles. While the 1998 Good Friday Agreement largely brought an end to the decades long sectarian conflict known as the Troubles, the ethno-national debate still heavily underscores the region’s politics. After the Agreement, a period of normalization of the Irish-British-Northern Irish relationship began guided by the Agreement’s new system of government. However, the Brexit referendum of 2016 posed a new challenge for Northern Ireland and Ireland as the possibility of a return to a hard border between the two regions threatened decades of fragile peacebuilding. The …

Financial Literacy: The Basics To Learn In High School, Christopher J. Wisely

Honors Projects

Humans are capable of not only understanding but operating with certain levels of autonomy to prepare for future circumstances, a fact pivotal to many problems facing society in today’s world. Among these problems is the issue of both poverty and financial instability, consequences in part due to a lack of understanding of personal finances in many adults. A partial solution being presented to this issue is the integration and teaching of eight significant finance related concepts to promote healthier financial decision-making, improve autonomy, and increase long-term happiness in individuals. Rather than covering specific teaching methods, the intent is to demonstrate …

Interactions Between Marine Megafauna And Plastic Pollution In Southeast Asia, Lucy C.M. Omeyer, Emily Duncan, Neil Angelo S. Abreo, Jo Marie V. Acebes, Lea A. Angsinco-Jimenez, Sabiqah T. Anuar, Lemnuel V. Aragones, Gonzalo Araujo, Luis R. Carrasco, Emilyn Q. Espiritu

Environmental Science Faculty Publications

Southeast (SE) Asia is a highly biodiverse region, yet it is also estimated to cumulatively contribute a third of the total global marine plastic pollution. This threat is known to have adverse impacts on marine megafauna, however, understanding of its impacts has recently been highlighted as a priority for research in the region. To address this knowledge gap, a structured literature review was conducted for species of cartilaginous fishes, marine mammals, marine reptiles, and seabirds present in SE Asia, collating cases on a global scale to allow for comparison, coupled with a regional expert elicitation to gather additional published and …

Union Pacific Railroad Company Strategic Audit, Alison Steger

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Union Pacific Railroad Company (Union Pacific, UP, UPRR) is a freight railroad based in Omaha, Nebraska, servicing 23 states in America, with additional ports and country interchanges. The 160-year history of this railroad began with Abraham Lincoln and continues into 2023, with the recent announcement of CEO Lance Fritz’s departure. A PESTEL analysis provides an in-depth look at UP's external operating environment, and Porter’s Five Forces industry analysis assesses the industry's competitive environment. Analyses of Union Pacific's competitive advantages, essential resources, and projected roadblocks are followed by strategic recommendations for UP to remain a Class I freight railroad industry leader.

Contryman Associates, P.C. Strategic Audit, Macy Baldwin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Contryman Associates, P.C., is a small accounting firm located in central and western Nebraska. After its founding in 1939, the firm has expanded to seven locations servicing accounting, auditing, tax, business advising, and financial planning needs. A PESTEL analysis was done to analyze the external environment. Porter’s Five Forces analysis guided the analysis industry forces. Current strategy, competitive advantages, resources of Contryman Associates, and any major issues of the firm are also discussed. This information recommends Contryman Associates to keep working to expand if possible while passing industry knowledge to future generations.

Boosting Adversarial Training Using Robust Selective Data Augmentation, Bader Rasheed, Asad Masood Khattak, Adil Khan, Stanislav Protasov, Muhammad Ahmad

All Works

Artificial neural networks are currently applied in a wide variety of fields, and they are near to achieving performance similar to humans in many tasks. Nevertheless, they are vulnerable to adversarial attacks in the form of a small intentionally designed perturbation, which could lead to misclassifications, making these models unusable, especially in applications where security is critical. The best defense against these attacks, so far, is adversarial training (AT), which improves the model’s robustness by augmenting the training data with adversarial examples. In this work, we show that the performance of AT can be further improved by employing the neighborhood …

Inconsistencies And Values As Signs Of Paradigmatic Change: Researchers’ Language In Research Articles On Feedback, Stefan Sellbjer

The Qualitative Report

The aim is to contribute to scientific research development in the field of feedback. More specifically, the purpose is to illustrate how researchers, even though they are devoted to the constructivist model, still use expressions with their roots in the transfer model, and to demonstrate researchers’ use of value statements in favor of the constructivist model thus distancing themselves from the transfer model. The examples are taken from research articles on feedback mainly focusing on higher education. The empirical material is analysed using concept analysis. The result is discussed in relation to theories of metaphors and folk-theories as well as …

Construction Of World-Class Universities With Chinese Characteristics Is An Effective Practice Of Integrating Education, Technology, And Talent Training—Taking University Of Science And Technology Of China As An Example, Xinhe Bao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Integrated deployment of education, technology, and talent training provides a guarantee for Chinese universities on the new journey to construct themselves into world-class universities with Chinese characteristics and indicates the direction for them to march on. The implementation of the “double first-class” (building a world-class university and first-class subject) strategy is a major strategic decision made by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. It is of great significance for improving China’s education development level, enhancing the country’s core competitiveness, and laying the foundation for the long-term development. In this context, universities should take …

Preface On Special Column “Connotation And Implementation Of Broad Science Popularization Strategy”, Hongjun Gao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Serving National Strategic Needs, Cultivating Top Innovative Talents—Institutional Logic And Developing Practice Of University Of Chinese Academy Of Sciences In Running Integration Of Scientific Research And Education, Yueliang Wu, Yanfen Wang, Zuomin Xiao, Jianming Miao, Guoqiang Yang, Haoran Li, Zhongping Xu, Xiaoli Niu, Jichang Dong, Depeng Jin, Hui Huang, Xiao Lin, Ji’An Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China regards “invigorating China through research and education and developing a strong workforce for the modernization drive” as a special chapter, and particularly emphasizes that “education, science and technology, and human resources are the foundational and strategic pillars for building a modern socialist country in all respects”. The integration of research and education is an important way to achieve the integrated development of education, technology, and talents. This study traced back to the origin and development of the integration of research and education, analyzed three specific manifestations of …

Strengthen Basic Research And Consolidate Foundation For Self-Reliance And Self-Improvement In Science And Technology, Xian-En Zhang, Weihua Wang, Xiyun Yan, Jiaofeng Pan

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Deepening Integration Of Research And Education, Cultivating Future Leading Talents In Science And Technology, Yanfen Wang, Ji’An Liu, Yueliang Wu, Zuomin Xiao, Jianming Miao, Guoqiang Yang, Haoran Li, Zhongping Xu, Xiaoli Niu, Jichang Dong, Depeng Jin, Hui Huang, Xiao Lin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The new era has put forward new and higher requirements for innovative talents in terms of their moral qualities, knowledge structure, and professional abilities. In this context, the practice to cultivate innovative talents in science and technology world-wide has presented new trends, including multidisciplinary collaborations, coherent processes, open coordination among education, research and industry sectors, and empowerment through digital transformation. Relying on the advantages of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in scientific and technological innovation, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS) is exploring educational laws to cultivate high-quality innovative and entrepreneurial talents, especially leading talents in science …

Discussion On Essential Characteristics And Construction Path Of Modernization Of Popular Science, Jiaofeng Pan, Biao Shi, Guanghui Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

This study starts with the new requirements for the popularization of science put forward at the 20th National Congress of the CPC, and proposes the development ideas for modernizing the popularization of science. It is deeply analyzed the dialectical relationship between the popularization of science and modernization with Chinese characteristics, sorted out how the popularization of science has strongly supported and promoted modernization with Chinese characteristics in history, studied the new situation and problems facing scientific innovation and popularization in the current process of modernization, and put forward the direction for innovative development of the popularization of science in the …

Thoughts On Popularization Of Science And Future Development Of China, Yuliang Yang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Science is a great cause for human beings to pursue truth. Popularization of science is an important basic work for achieving innovative development. Throughout the history of scientific development, human beings have realized the opening and sharing of knowledge system, the application and promotion of production technology, the inheritance and development of scientific culture, and the enlightenment and education of civilization and rationality through scientific popularization. This study analyzes the role and value of science popularization, and points out that science popularization is conducive to promoting the benign interaction between science and technology and society, improving the efficiency of science …

Several Thoughts On Information Technology Driving Future Industries, Yungang Bao, Miao Liu, Pinyan Lu, Xipeng Qiu, Jiang Xu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Research On Rule Of Law In Science Popularization To Guarantee Implementation Of Broad Science Popularization Strategy, Siguang Zhang, Xiaowei Xiang, Jianzhong Zhou

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The construction of the rule of law in science popularization is of great importance to guarantee the implementation of the “Two- Wing theory” and the Broad Science Popularization Strategy. This study systematically reviews the development, status quo, effectiveness and problems of the legal and institutional construction of science popularization in China, and examines the situation, problems and challenges faced by the construction of the rule of law in China’s science popularization in the light of current development situation. Finally, this study puts forward proposals to strengthen the construction of the rule of law in science popularization under the direction of …

State-Organized Research (Sor): Chinese Innovation Eco-System To Meet Shift Of World’S Three Major Centers, Jianxun Chu, Chenyang Wang, Zhe Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The coordinated development of education-S&T-talent integration (ESTTI) has pointed out the direction for promoting China’s construction of a world science center, a world higher education center, and a world talent center. The study proposes the concept of “state- organized research” (SOR) based on the trend of “100-year change of centers” of the world’s three major centers and the strengths and weaknesses of China in building the world’s three major centers. The study suggests that the implementation of SOR is the way to transfer the world’s three major centers into China, and puts forward relevant suggestions to build the national innovation …

What Is The Innovativeness Of Innovative Research-Oriented Universities?—Practice Of Shanghaitech University, Jie Yin

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, it is emphasized that upholding the principles that science and technology constitute the primary productive force, talent is the primary resource, and innovation is the primary driving force is of utmost importance. The deep implementation of strategies such as the strategy for invigorating the country through science and education, the strategy for strengthening the nation through talent development, and the strategy for driving development through innovation is emphasized. Furthermore, the need to explore new domains and pathways for development, and continuously shape new dynamics and advantages …

Several Thoughts On Empowering High Quality Industrial Development In China Through S&T Innovation, Yiming Wang, Guojie Li, Baichun Zhang, Yongmiao Hong, Yong Geng

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Strengthen Construction Of National Science Popularization Capacity, Serving National Strategic Needs Of The New Era, Ting Wang, Weiying Wang, Lihui Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

The national science popularization capacity of the New Era is reflected in the comprehensive strength of one country, which contains the capacity to continuously provide science popularization products and services to the public, improve the scientific literacy of the whole people, cultivate social culture, promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, then support the national innovative development. Based on the theoretical research and construction practice of China’s science popularization capacity , this study analyzes the deficiencies in the current construction of China’s science popularization capacity and the development direction of national science popularization capacity to serve the national development …

Thinking And Suggestions On Practice Of Science Popularization By Academicians In Broad Science Popularization Strategy, Xiu Wei, Liang Xi, Qiang Ma, Yongfeng Yang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

As one of the two wings of innovation and development, science popularization has become one of the most fundamental factors determining the level of material culture development and national creativity. Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering (Academicians for short), as outstanding role models of China’s scientific and technological community, have actively borne social responsibility for science popularization and played an important role in different development periods. Entering a high-quality development stage, promoting the transformation of science popularization concepts, achieving high-quality science popularization supply, constructing a large-scale science popularization pattern, and planning a large-scale …

Path And Required Environment For Growth Of Innovative Talents In The New Era, Tao Dai, Jie Song, Bo Zhang, Weiqiang Chen, Kaihua Chen

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Shedding Light On Racial Realist Parent Engagement Through The Experiences Of Black Families And Othermothers, Rebecca Rogers, Kelly Byrd

The Qualitative Report

As educator-scholars committed to building family learning communities rooted in principles of educational liberation, McCarthy Foubert’s book Reckoning with Racism in Family-School Partnerships caught our attention because of its promise to expose the challenges of systematically racist ideologies about family-school partnerships, to confront these issues during a toxic time in race relations and elucidate the narratives of Black racial realist parents. Our reading and discussion of the book were informed by our own experiences as an inter-racial reviewing team with shared commitments to anti-racist family engagement.

Methodological Challenges In Interviewing Elite Women In A Patriarchal Society, Amira Firdaus Dr., Iffat Aksar Dr., Mahmoud Danaee Dr., Jiakun Gong, Nasrullah Dharejo Mr

The Qualitative Report

The current article reflects on the challenges of selecting and accessing participants from societies where power relations are gender-based. The paper discusses the methodological difficulties of gaining research access to professionally and educationally elite women in Pakistan's patriarchal society and suggests a strategy of "referral in-group" for recruiting interview participants. Drawing on the author's purposive sampling-based research in Pakistan, this article proposes a methodological strategy to recruit an elite population to participate in research interviews on a culturally sensitive subject, namely, patriarchal control over Pakistani women's digital lives. Furthermore, coupled with purposive sampling, this article contributes to the existing literature …