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Assessing Flood Resilience In West Virginia Communities: Integrating Physical, Institutional, Socioeconomic, And Environmental Dimensions, Anahita Mahmoudi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Flooding is one of the most frequent and damaging natural hazards in the United States, with impacts expected to intensify under changing climate conditions. In regions such as West Virginia, complex terrain, development patterns along river corridors, and socioeconomic disparities contribute to elevated flood risk. Traditional approaches to flood risk assessment often focus on single dimensions of vulnerability or rely on binary floodplain maps, which do not fully capture the spatial variability and multidimensional nature of flood resilience.

This dissertation develops an integrated, community-scale framework for assessing flood resilience in West Virginia by combining physical, environmental, institutional, and socioeconomic dimensions …

The Differential Impacts Of Internal And External Corporate Social Responsibility Activities On Consumer Trust After Covid-19, Kennadi C. Mccoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores the strategic role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in helping small businesses recover from crises, with a specific focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Different from many traditional studies that highlight the ethical or reputational aspects of CSR, this research will examine its practical effects: how CSR initiatives during crises influence business success by enhancing consumer trust, particularly by examining the differential impact of Internal CSR versus External CSR. The study suggests that, compared with internally focused CSR, external CSR activities will have a greater impact on consumer trust. In addition, the dissertation suggests that this effect is …

White Lies Of Time: Temporal Racialization In 19th-20th Century American Literature, Yu Uchida

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

By examining mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century American literary texts, this dissertation project aims to theorize the ways in which whiteness relies on conceptualizations of time to hegemonize non-white subjects and prescribe their historical representations. Because whiteness is dynamic in its emergence and effects and ubiquitous in sociopolitical and cultural realms, this dissertation holistically turns to white, Black, and Indigenous writers to delineate how whiteness functions throughout the period and how racialized subjects negotiate it. Portraying the nation’s history as lived experience rather than objectified knowledge, the racialized authors I examine undermine the concept of linear progressive time that subtends structural …

The Impact Of Ai Service Workers On Opportunistic Complaint Behavior, Chelsi J. Baker

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Consumer complaint behavior research has traditionally focused on interactions between customers and human employees, leaving open questions about how these behaviors may change when the service agent is artificial intelligence. This research looks at whether customers are more likely to engage in opportunistic complaint behavior when interacting with AI service agents and explores what might explain that behavior. The results show that customers are more likely to behave opportunistically when interacting with AI service agents than with human employees. Perceived morality helps explain this relationship, as more human-like service agents increase the extent to which exaggerating a complaint is seen …

Back To The Office Or Out The Door: The Impact Of Return-To-Office Mandates On Employee Well-Being And Turnover Intention, Charlotte Renee Nelson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The widespread adoption of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered traditional workplace arrangements. As organizations increasingly implement RTO mandates, questions have emerged about how these changes affect employee well-being and turnover intentions. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources framework, this study examined the relationship between RTO mandates and two employee outcomes: employee well-being and turnover intention. The study also tested whether work engagement mediated these relationships and whether perceived organizational support and work stressors moderated the relationship between RTO mandates and work engagement.

A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 229 U.S. employees working …

Mini-Track Introduction: Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality: A Paradigm For Immersive And Collaborative Computing, Christopher Kreider, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

This mini-track focused on Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) technologies which change many of the traditional assumptions about computing while enabling unprecedented capabilities in immersion and collaboration. As these technologies have gained in adoption, understanding how their differences and unique capabilities interact with human users and collaborative process has the potential to shed light on the unique capabilities, and provide direction for future advances in these technologies.

Agentic Ai As A System Within Systems: A Process Model Of Organizational Embedding., Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

The emergence of Agentic AI systems is reshaping organizational processes through continuous adaptation, autonomous coordination, and real-time operational execution. Unlike traditional artificial intelligence applications focused on discrete decision-making tasks, Agentic AI systems operate continuously and interact dynamically with organizational environments. Existing AI ethics literature has primarily emphasized issues such as fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability within static or decision-centric AI contexts. Similarly, traditional AI alignment research has largely focused on ensuring that AI systems pursue intended goals and remain controllable under specified operational conditions. However, these approaches may be insufficient for explaining how ethical risks evolve with continuously operating autonomous …

Genocide And Politicide: The Psychology Of State Terrorism, Clark Mccauley

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

This chapter reviews the psychologies that enable mass killing of civilians by government (politicide). A typology of perceived threats is advanced, with special attention to contamination threat and essentializing the enemy. Three groups of actors are distinguished: perpetrators, leaders, and the mass public that leaders and actors claim to represent. Predictors of genocide are considered, highlighting the importance of means and opportunity.

Two-Pyramids Model Of Radicalization To Terrorism, Clark Mccauley, Sophia Moskalenko

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

This chapter reviews the origins and developments of the Two-Pyramids Model of radicalization, which distinguishes between the radicalization of opinions and the radicalization of actions. The Radicalization of Action Pyramid categorizes individuals from passive (inert) to those committing terrorist acts, while the Radicalization of Opinion Pyramid progresses from neutrality to a personal moral obligation to act violently for a cause. Empirical studies, including the Activism and Radicalism Intention Scales (ARIS), support the model’s distinction between activism and radicalism as separate dimensions. The chapter highlights the importance of group dynamics, diagnostic and prognostic frames, and the role of public opinion in …

Building Interprofessional Competency-Based Education Into Graduate Program Clinical Experiences: A Childhood Apraxia Of Speech And Sensory Processing Disorder Case Study Analysis, Kate Nealon, Zahava L. Friedman

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Supporting interprofessional competency-based education requires embedding educational opportunities within coursework and clinical experiences. This education prioritizes student engagement and learning from, with and about other professionals to support collaboration and communication amongst clinicians (CAIE, 2020). While the provision of interprofessional clinical opportunities is recommended, it is challenging to implement effectively in professional and pre-professional settings. Academic settings have the unique ability to provide interprofessional collaborative clinical experiences for students. This pilot study focuses on Speech Language Pathology (SLP) and Occupational Therapy (OT) clinical assessment experiences, specifically in the context of pediatric motor speech and sensory processing disorders. These disorders often …

In Search Of The Soul Of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, And Meaning In Refractive Collaboration With Generative Ai, Fatima Nazir

Theses and Dissertations

When images can be generated in seconds, what remains uniquely human in the act of creation? In Search of the Soul of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, and Meaning in Refractive Collaboration with Generative AI investigates where authorship, agency, and meaning reside within design practices mediated by generative AI. Rather than using AI to produce predictable results, this research deliberately relinquishes control to observe how generative systems interpret language through their own learned associations. Through a practice-led investigation across four generative models within the Higgsfield platform, user prompts were progressively shortened from full sentences to single words, revealing recurring patterns and cultural …

Calvin Theological Seminary Academic Catalog 2026-2027, Calvin Theological Seminary

Seminary Academic Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Intersectionality Of Sociodemographic Factors And Adverse Childhood Experiences That Impact College Performance, Taylor June Brown

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Success in higher education is influenced by a range of social and economic factors that do not affect all students equally. This thesis examined how Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), socioeconomic status (SES), first-generation college status, minority status, and geographic isolation independently and multiplicatively relate to academic outcomes. Using data from 775 first-year students at a large public university in rural Appalachia, this study assessed whether these factors independently and/or multiplicatively predicted first-year GPA and odds of dropping out. ACEs linearly predicted first-year cumulative GPA and odds of dropping out. A significant ACE x Race interaction emerged for predicting first-year cumulative …

Do Transdiagnostic Factors Predict Emotion Recognition?, Grace L. Wheeler

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

While emotion recognition deficits have been found in several anxiety and related disorders (e.g., social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive), consistent results have not been established. To clarify the relationship between emotion recognition abilities and anxiety, the current study tested if transdiagnostic factors related to anxiety are predictors of emotion recognition abilities. Data was analyzed from participants (N = 188) recruited via CloudResearch; they completed measures of three transdiagnostic factors related to anxiety (e.g., anxiety sensitivity, intolerance of uncertainty, and rumination), followed by an emotion recognition task. Multiple regression analyses revealed higher levels of anxiety sensitivity predicted worse recognition for anger, disgust, …

Dismantling The Whiteness Of Legal Education, Doron Samuel-Siegel

Law Faculty Publications

Whiteness is not merely a racial description. Whiteness operates as allegiance to structural racism. The quiet engine of racial hierarchy, whiteness pervades and shapes traditional legal education, rendering legal pedagogy a structurally racist enterprise. Legal education not only reproduces the racism embedded in the law and legal profession, but also obscures the ways legal doctrine, professional norms, and pedagogical practices normalize, protect, and make invisible the advantages that accrue to whiteness itself. In doing so, itproduces lawyers ill-equipped to dismantle structural injustice.

This Article breaks new ground in the scholarship on legal pedagogy by defining whiteness as it operates within …

Transitioning To Life After Sport: Empowering Former College Varsity Athletes To Live More Healthfully, Linda Piacentine, Taylor L. Wolf, Jacob J. Capin

Physical Therapy Faculty Research and Publications

Introduction: 

The transition out of competitive sport comes with a range of psychosocial challenges for athletes, particularly when retirement is involuntary (e.g., due to injury). Little is known about the health of former athletes who often manage prior injuries and changing biopsychosocial factors.

Purpose: 

Identify the unique experiences of varsity athletes during college and as they transition to life after college sports and determine the facilitators, barriers, and needs of college varsity athletes to engage in a physically active and healthy lifestyle after competitive sport retirement.

Methods: 

Thirty former college varsity athletes (15F, 15M; mean age 23 ± 1 yrs; …

Undermining Discretion: The Selective Attacks On Progressive Prosecutors, Angela J. Davis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Prosecutors are the most powerful officials in the criminal legal system. They decide whether to bring criminal charges and what those criminal charges should be. These decisions are totally within their discretion. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently protected the power and discretion of prosecutors in making these decisions, and legal challenges to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion have been largely unsuccessful.

In recent years, a growing number of individuals have successfully run for chief prosecutor on platforms of reducing the prison and jail populations, consistent with public safety. They pledged to use their power and discretion to implement policies …

Misinformation And The Law, Gustavo Ribeiro

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article bridges critical gaps between the growing body of social science research on misinformation and the persistent challenges jurors face in evaluating potentially unreliable evidence in courtrooms. Misinformation—a pervasive issue undermining decision-making in democratic societies—mirrors the difficulties jurors encounter in distinguishing truth from falsehood amid compelling but unreliable evidence. The consequences of such challenges are dire: wrongful convictions, racial disparities, and the erosion of public trust in the legal system.

This Article is the first piece of legal scholarship to provide a comprehensive discussion of current research on the psychological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to misinformation—such as the illusory truth …

On The Surface: The Mural Of Shireen Abu Akleh As Space For Encounter, Saja Abd El Hai

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis examines a mural of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in the city of Baqa al-Gharbiya as a site of political encounter. Rather than approaching the mural solely as a commemorative image, the study analyzes how it generated a series of interactions through acts of creation, defacement, restoration, performance, and digital circulation. Drawing on scholarship in visual culture, graffiti studies, and political theory, I argue that the mural operates as a gendered space of political encounter through which grief, resistance, and national identity are negotiated in public space. Methodologically, the project combines visual and contextual analysis with rhetorical criticism, …

Examining The Current And Potential Impacts Of Erosion, Flooding, And Permafrost Thaw On Small Businesses In The Lower Kuskokwim Basin, Alaska, Dela Yao Agbagba

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Climate change has intensified hazards such as flooding, erosion, and permafrost thaw in Arctic Communities, threatening small business buildings, disrupting operations, and reducing income. Small businesses are important to these communities because they provide essential goods and services and support local economic activity. Understanding their vulnerability and adaptation needs is therefore important for sustaining communities in the Lower Kuskokwim Basin, Alaska.

This study used GIS spatial analysis and content analysis as its two main methods, supported by a limited number of semi-structured interviews. A spatial database of 78 businesses across seven Alaska Native Communities was developed, and flood susceptibility was …

The Balance Of Power In Ukraine And Deterrence Effectivenes Against Nuclear-Armed Russia, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised several significant questions regarding the impact of deterrence, the European balance of power and the ability of current security frameworks to restrict the actions of nuclear-armed revisionist powers. This paper uses an integrated theoretical framework consisting of deterrence theory, the balance of power theory, the security dilemma and neorealism to analyze the dynamic relationships between Russia, Ukraine and the Western alliance. The primary contribution of the paper is to develop a comprehensive analytical framework to evaluate the relationship between different aspects of deterrence (i.e., to prevent an initial attack, to limit further escalation and …

Nuclear Deterrence And The Security Dilemma In A Complex Multipolar World, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Objectives: The purpose of this research project is to examine how nuclear deterrence intersects with the concept of security dilemma, i.e., when a state takes an action intended to increase its own security it may inadvertently create a risk or threat to another state and contribute to increased levels of tension. Fourth, how nuclear and conventional systems are becoming increasingly interconnected, which will serve to potentially amplify risks associated with these systems.

Methods: Utilizing a qualitative analytical approach of documents such as national strategy documents, defense policy statements and historical records of crises dating from 1945-2025, the study identifies four …

The Contested Kinmen Model, Ian Murphy

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Kinmen County, Taiwan, stands as an anomaly in East Asia- it is an archipelago administered by Taipei but visually and geographically tethered to the coastline of the People's Republic of China (PRC). For over seven decades, these islands have served as the physical frontline of the unfinished Chinese Civil War, functioning first as a kinetic battleground and later as a laboratory for cross-strait engagement. Yet, to view Kinmen as a relic of the Cold War is to miss it's contemporary strategic significance. The region has now become the primary theater for the PRC's "Kinmen Model" (Jinmen Moshi, symbols redacted), …

Are Iowa Pk-12 Schools Prepared For A School Shooting? A Needs Assessment Of Iowa Superintendents, Kurt Mj Devore

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

As school shootings remain a persistent threat to PK-12 education, this quantitative survey study examines the preparedness levels and beliefs of 75 out of 277 Iowa superintendents regarding active shooter events. In the wake of the 2024 tragedy in Perry, Iowa, results indicate a near-universal recognition of risk (97.3%), prompting a shift toward "muscle memory" training and the adoption of the Standard Response Protocol (SRP) to ensure a common language during a crisis. The data reveals a significant move away from high-intensity simulations in favor of trauma-informed tabletop exercises, alongside a definitive rejection of arming educators (0%) due to insurance …

When Does Sexual Image Exposure Constitute Child Sexual Abuse?: Definitional Inconsistencies, Paige B. Kenny

Honors Theses and Capstones

The following review examines how youth exposure to sexual images online is conceptualized and measured as abusive within epidemiological research on online child sexual abuse (OCSA). As digital environments reshape sexual socialization, scholars debate whether and when exposure to sexual content constitutes abuse. To address this issue, this study conducts a qualitative content analysis of 27 survey items drawn from 20 empirical studies of youth online experiences. Survey questions about sexual image exposure were coded across four dimensions: volition, personalization, image or text, and explicitness. Findings reveal significant definitional inconsistency. Many studies rely on ambiguous terms such as “sexual” or …

Intensive Longitudinal Methods: Toward A Psychological Science Of Daily Life, Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Ana M. Digiovanni, Niall Bolger

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Intensive longitudinal methods (ILMs) represent a class of longitudinal designs used to understand the flow of people's thoughts, feelings, physiology, and behaviors in their natural settings. This term encompasses daily diaries, experience sampling, ecological momentary assessment, ambulatory assessment, and related methods. Research on ILMs has grown exponentially, evolving into a core approach that complements more traditional designs. This article builds on this journal's first review on this topic, published in 2003. In the quarter-century since, there have been marked advances in design, technology, and statistical modeling. Three core ideas permeate this review: To build adequate theories of psychological functioning in …

Centering Community Concerns And Recommendations Amid Rapid Policy Changes: Impacts On Social Protection, Well-Being, And Health Access, Kriti Vashisht

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

Rapidly evolving policies on gender identity and expression have highlighted a wide range of public and political perspectives on whether to limit or support demands for gender identification and healthcare services for the LGBTQ+ community. Due to the rise in these pro and against narratives and incidents, there were increased protection risks for this group. Scholars and practitioners working closely with LGBTQ+ members are witnessing increased distress and concerns among them, creating further barriers to care and heightened stigma. This is why community-based scholars and educators initiated an open consultation to create a non-partisan space for dialogue, reflection, and learning …

“Full And Equal Access”: A Socio-Ecological Model Of Healthcare Ableism Experienced By The Blind And The Low Vision Community, Rebecca Fischbein, Rachel Conrad Bracken, Allyson S. Hughes, Rayyan Bhutta, Nazanin M. Heydarian

School of Social Work Faculty Publications

In 2023, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) designated people with disabilities as a population experiencing health disparities, citing “a wide and varying range of health conditions leading to poorer health and shorter lifespan” and “discrimination, inequality and exclusionary structural practices” contributing to pervasive health inequities. As blindness and low vision (BLV) become increasingly common due to an aging population coupled with higher rates of type 2 diabetes, more people who are BLV will require quality care. Yet, people who are BLV face many barriers to care, including healthcare provider and staff (HCP) ableism. In this chapter, we propose a …

Roundtable Discussion: Women Leadership In Business Transformation - Esg As A Catalyst For Sustainable Growth, Center For Entrepreneurship And Innovation

Faculty Journal Articles

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become increasingly prominent in Egypt’s corporate and regulatory landscape, yet its potential as a driver of sustainable growth and business transformation remains underutilized. While disclosure and governance practices have improved, ESG is still largely approached as a compliance and reporting obligation rather than an integrated framework for value creation, resilience, and long-term competitiveness. At the same time, organizations face mounting pressures from climate risk, resource constraints, evolving workforce expectations, and investor scrutiny, making the effective integration of ESG into strategy and operations more urgent than ever. Women’s leadership represents a critical, yet underleveraged, enabler …

Criminal Law: "Legally Magic" Words: The Accessibility Of Fifth Amendment Rights, Kate Weisburd

The Judges' Book

A basic but underappreciated problem pervades Fifth Amendment doctrine (including Miranda v. Arizona): people may know, in a broad sense, that they have the right to remain silent and to counsel, yet a deep disconnect exists between what ordinary people think is required to invoke those rights and what courts demand. Settled Supreme Court case law requires that the right to counsel and silence must be invoked clearly and unambiguously. In practice, those requirements have produced a body of law in which ordinary language and conduct often does not suffice to invoke either right, simply because the suspect did …