Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of The Psychological Impacts Of Code-Switching, Cristina Culler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an interpretative phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of four Black American adults who have frequently engaged in code-switching. Historically, code-switching has been perceived as a necessary skill that helps marginalized folx adopt the norms and practices of the dominant culture. As a result, code-switching has become a routine practice specifically for Black Americans who often occupy white spaces. Since code-switching has been perceived as a skill, the oppressive origins of code-switching often go unnoticed. Therefore, this dissertation examines code-switching through a critical lens that deems this practice a product of racist ideologies that prioritize whiteness. Through …

Predictors Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Strength-Based Teaching Practices With Els (English Learners), Stephany M. Panza

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing number of English learners (ELs) in U.S. school classrooms highlights the importance of utilizing pedagogical approaches that build upon their preexisting cultural and linguistic strengths. Strength-based teaching practices, grounded in positive psychology represent a systems-levels approach to promoting positive academic and socio-emotional outcomes for ELs. In this study, a sample of 21 pre-service teachers attending Northeastern teacher preparation programs completed a series of surveys identifying their EL teaching experience, EL coursework, multicultural attitudes, and intercultural self-efficacy. These predictors were examined to determine their cumulative impact and unique contributions to an adapted Strength-Based Practices Inventory (SBPI), which captured pre-service …

Guest Editor’S Introduction: Liah Greenfeld And The Future Of Comparative Civilizational Studies, Monika Monika, Guest Editor

Comparative Civilizations Review

Every scholarly life leaves behind unfinished questions. Professor Liah Greenfeld was acutely aware of this. Throughout a career spanning more than four decades, her research never settled into the repetition of established arguments. Each major work emerged from the unresolved problems of the previous one, enlarging both the scope of its inquiry and the range of disciplines with which it engaged. Nationalism led her to questions of modernity (Greenfeld, 1992) and the foundations of economic development (Greenfeld, 2001). The growth of the modern economy and the emerging new forces of globalization, in turn, raised broader questions about the self and …

Constructing Executive Presence Within The Double Bind: Women’S Experiences Of Leadership Communication, Sydney Anne Shumaker

Communication Studies

Women in executive leadership often face a gendered double bind, expected to be warm and approachable, while also appearing competent and confident. This qualitative study examines how women executives develop executive presence and navigate these workplace expectations. Drawing on Warmth-Competence Theory and Impression Management Theory, the study explores how women leaders adapt their communication, manage self-presentation, and balance perceptions of warmth and competence in professional settings. This study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with four women in corporate executive-level roles. Thematic analysis of participant responses revealed five key themes: adaptive communication, varied experiences with gendered workplace expectations, the importance of credibility …

Using Assessments Intentionally With Consideration For English Language Learners, Elizabeth Ropp

Masters Projects

Assessment systems in the United States are failing English Language Learners (ELLs), and it has become apparent that action must be taken to try and right this injustice. There is a wide achievement gap between native English speakers and non-native English speakers when it comes to performance on state, local, and classroom assessments. Unfortunately, many teachers report that they do not feel adequately prepared to support ELLs both on classroom assessments and on mandatory state or local tests. With an ever-growing increase in ELL enrollment in American schools, it is imperative that teachers are given tools to help them better …

Secure And Compassionate Dementia Care: Non-Intrusive Remote Monitoring Of Falls, Wandering, And Agitation, Awan-Ur- Rahman

Master's Theses

Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) present significant safety challenges, as affected individuals may experience falls, wandering, agitation, and a progressive decline in independence. Although continuous monitoring can enable timely intervention, many existing systems rely on cameras or wearable devices, which may introduce concerns related to privacy, comfort, and sustained use. This thesis explores privacy-preserving and non-intrusive remote monitoring through two complementary studies. The first study presents an ambient Wi-Fi channel state information framework for recognizing agitation and eight daily activities. The proposed approach translates behavioral and physiological markers commonly captured by wearable sensors into the Wi-Fi sensing domain. The …

Secondary Biology Teachers’ Understandings Of Growth Mindset, Kathryn Chapman

Dissertations

This case study investigates how high school biology teachers understand and apply growth mindset principles in their daily instruction. Using surveys, semi‑structured interviews, and focus groups, the study examines how biology teachers interpret mindset, how they attempt to enact it, and how curriculum demands shape their efforts. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs about intelligence strongly influence their feedback, expectations, and instructional decisions. Teachers described biology as a subject in which struggle is highly visible, emotionally charged, and often tied to students’ prior knowledge, making mindset work both necessary and challenging. Results also indicate that students’ mindsets are shaped by broader …

Gaming The Marketplace: Consumer Opportunism And Beliefs About Societal Hierarchy, Shilpa Madan, Aparna Labroo, Constantine S. Katsikeas

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Consumers often behave opportunistically, taking more than what fair marketplace exchange warrants (e.g., taking excess samples, returning used items). While each individual transgression may be minor, cumulatively they can undermine firm profitability. Thus, addressing consumer opportunism is an important managerial concern. We identify a novel antecedent of consumer opportunism: consumers’ acceptance of societal hierarchy (i.e., power distance belief [PDB]), including firms’ higher position in it than consumers. Nine studies (plus two supplementary studies) employing archival, correlational, and experimental data provide converging evidence that, in marketplace interactions, this belief evokes a need to feel clever (i.e., to feel smart and knowledgeable …

Friends Of The Library Newsletter, Summer/Fall 2026, Hillary Richardson

Fant Library News and Reports

No abstract provided.

Exploring Public Perceptions Of Genetic Risk In Substance Use Disorders, Brooke A. Goodenow

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines genetic risk perception, with specific emphasis on substance use disorders (SUDs), through a collection of three manuscripts. The dissertation examines genetic risk perception for hereditary diseases in existing literature, describes a methodological framework for capturing genetic risk perception across social media discourse, and identifies themes and emotional tone associated with genetic risk perception for SUDs across two major social media platforms (X and Reddit).

Combined, these three manuscripts expand and support previous findings about genetic risk perception and its role in shaping health beliefs and associated behaviors. The dissertation findings reveal numerous similarities in genetic risk perception …

Student Motivation In Social Studies Classes At The Public Museum High School: A Dissertation, Benjamin Kruid

All Dissertations

Students tend to behave differently in different classroom settings. Many factors contribute to the change in behavior, including motivation. Research suggests a tendency for student motivation to decrease as students move from elementary to middle to high school. However, motivation in students is not uniform and is dependent on factors like the subject, and time of day, for example. This dissertation examines student motivation in social studies classes at a public high school in Michigan using Situated Expectancy-Value Theory (SEVT) as a framework for understanding motivation, and student impulsiveness as understood through the lens of Delay Discounting (DD). This research …

When Your Neighbours Are A Reminder Of Your Ageing, Cynthia Tan, Yi Wen (Chen Yiwen) Tan

ROSA Journal Articles and Publications

In a commentary, Cynthia Tan, a retired senior corporate leader, and Tan Yi Wen, a Senior Research Fellow at SMU’s Centre for Research on Successful Ageing (ROSA), questioned whether the low demand for community care apartments is because seniors do not want only other seniors for company. They noted that most older people do not spend their days dwelling on ageing until everyone around them reminds them that they are growing old. They added that prolonged exposure to such an environment may carry subtle emotional and psychological consequences. Citing a national survey by ROSA, the writers mentioned that eight in …

Broadening Participation In Computing: Retention Pathways For Supporting Underrepresented Students, Oluwafemi Osho

All Dissertations

The computing sector's rapid growth has intensified demand for computing professionals, yet undergraduate computer science (CS) programs continue to lose substantial numbers of students, often within the first two years, before they reach degree completion. Attrition is not evenly distributed: women and other underrepresented minority (URM) students remain less likely to persist in CS despite broader increases in enrollment. These persistent disparities suggest the need to understand not only how to broaden entry into computing but also how students' experiences within programs shape retention over time. In this dissertation, I address this critical challenge by focusing on identifying inclusive strategies …

Witchcraft Dialogues : Anthropological And Philosophical Exchanges, George Clement Bond, Diane M. Ciekawy

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Witchcraft Dialogues analyzes the complex manner in which human beings construct, experience, and think about the occult. It brings together anthropologists, philosophers, and sociologists, from diverse social and cultural backgrounds, to engage the metaphysical properties of witchcraft and sorcery and to explore their manifestations in people’s lived experiences.

While many Africanist scholars shun the analysis of witchcraft as an appropriate domain of investigation, the experiences, thoughts, activities, and powers that witchcraft encompasses have become increasingly the source of interest and debate. Concepts of witchcraft and the phenomena to which they are applied express something fundamental to the human condition and …

Disrupting The Demand For Commercial Sex To Combat Sex Trafficking And Destabilise Organised Crime Networks, Johan Van Graan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Sex trafficking persists as a lucrative form of organised crime, sustained by ongoing demand for commercial sex. Using Rational Choice Theory, this article reframes sex buyers as active perpetrators and financial drivers of trafficking networks rather than peripheral actors. The article examines how buyers weigh risks and benefits when purchasing sex, especially in contexts with weak law enforcement. By analysing 53 active trafficking cases from 2021 and 36 prosecuted cases in South Africa (2007–2022), the research identifies clear patterns in buyer behaviour, network operations, and law‑enforcement responses. A central finding is the near-total absence of buyers in prosecutions, which reinforces …

Impunity: A Case Study Of Sex Trafficking In Nevada Brothel Prostitution, Christen Price

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

It is well-documented that legalization and other forms of official protection for prostitution lead to an increase in sex trafficking, including by encouraging demand for prostitution. This paper will consider the relationship between official protection, organized crime, and sex trafficking in pro-prostitution legal regimes, both historical and contemporary. Prostitution is legal in rural counties in Nevada that have fewer than 700,000 residents, if prostitution occurs within a brothel. There is significant overlap between sex trafficking and legal brothel prostitution in Nevada, as well as a nexus to corruption and organized crime, illustrating the normalization of coercion that occurs within legalized …

Disrupting Transnational Human Trafficking Networks: A Practitioner's Perspective On Intelligence-Driven, Offender-Focused Strategies, Rochelle Keyhan

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This article examines human trafficking through the lens of organized crime and explores how this perspective can be applied to contemporary trafficking cases in the United States. While trafficking is often prosecuted as an isolated criminal act, many incidents are linked to larger transnational and domestic organized crime networks. The discussion highlights the activities of notorious syndicates, including international cartels, street gangs, and well-funded networks of sex buyers, demonstrating how these entities exploit vulnerable populations for profit. Reframing human trafficking as a sector within organized crime shifts investigative and prosecutorial strategies away from victim-dependent models, which often require survivors to …

The Confluence Of Conflict-Induced Vulnerability, Organized Crime, And Sex Trafficking In Receiving States: A South African Civil Society Perspective, Monique Emser

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The crime-conflict nexus has been well-documented in conflict-affected and post-conflict states. Criminal networks make use of manifold methods and strategies to exploit individual and structural vulnerabilities, particularly those affected by war, displacement, and precarious migration journeys, forming the backbone of most conflict-induced trafficking ecosystems, whether in countries of origin, transit, or receipt. This article examines the intersection of sex trafficking, diaspora communities, and organized crime within South Africa as a receiving state from a civil society perspective. It underscores the deficiencies in traditional, reductionist, enforcement-based approaches to counter-trafficking by the state, where nested subsystems, such as those produced by endemic …

The Nature Of Human Trafficking Enterprises: Analysis Of U.S. And International Prosecutions--And The Path Forward, Jay Albanese

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The primary objective of this research is to develop a description and typology of the nature of serious cases of human trafficking and how traffickers, their victims, and consumers (the demand) overlap and interact across locations. This study examines known human trafficking enterprises for which sufficient evidence has been obtained to result in prosecution. These are also serious cases because US federal and international prosecutions result when the offenses are interstate or international in scope. Using a sample of US cases prosecuted over three calendar years (2021-2024), combined with an international sample of cases, an effort is made to develop …

Sex Buying, Sex Trafficking, And Organized Crime: Introduction To A Special Issue, Marcel Van Der Watt, John A. Winterdyk

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

No abstract provided.

Disrupting The Bonded Economy Of Sex Buying, Sex Trafficking, And Organised Crime Through Policy Change, Dellene Clark

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

Emerging criminological research underscores how the economic drivers of trafficking for sexual exploitation reinforce organised criminal markets while reproducing the structural vulnerabilities of those in prostitution. Using South Africa as a case study, this article argues that evidence-based legislative reform is necessary to confront the systemic conditions that enable exploitation. It contends that achieving substantive equality requires recognising the criminogenic role of sex‑buyer demand in sustaining trafficking pipelines and criminal profitability. The Swedish/Nordic demand‑reduction model illustrates how asymmetrical criminalisation can suppress demand, reduce reliance on trafficked persons, and diminish the financial incentives that underpin organised crime. Such an approach reorients …

Leveraging Technology To Measure The Strength Of Demand For Commercial And Trafficked Sex, Michael D. Shively, Bob Rodgers, Courtney Furlong, Brooke Ruffin

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

The article examines Transaction Intercept (TI), an artificial‑intelligence platform designed to reduce sex trafficking by disrupting the revenue streams that draw organized crime into the market. Transaction Intercept deploys decoy online ads that appear to offer commercial sexual exploitation or prostitution. Automated "decoy" personas connect to individuals who click on these ads and engage them in text conversations. These exchanges can remain fully automated, ending with deterrence messages, or be transferred to police for potential enforcement action or to trained volunteers who attempt to discourage further attempts to buy sex. Transaction Intercept generates extensive, real‑time data on local demand for …

Behind The Screen: Online Sex Buyer Networks And The Organized Criminal Promotion Of Exploitation, Ava Kamdem, Vanessa Bouché, Ben Silver, Nick Freeman, Justin Euteneier

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

This study investigates the extent to which online sex buyer communities in the United States function as organized criminal networks pursuant to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime’s definition of organized criminal groups. Drawing from theories of organized crime, social network analysis, and digital ecosystems, we conceptualize sex buyers not as isolated actors but as participants in coordinated, mutually reinforcing networks that share information to facilitate exploitation, mitigate risk, and sustain criminal behavior. To test this framework, we scraped over 1.2 million posts from a publicly accessible sex buyer forum, comprising 72,974 unique users and nearly 800,000 direct …

Balancing War And Peace In Taekwondo Athlete Development: A Multi-Criteria Coaching Decision Support Framework Using Leadership Scale For Sports And Fuzzy Ahp, King Harold A. Recto, Hazel Jade L. Antonio, Jhyrald Anthony P. Dalida

Electronics, Computer, and Communications Engineering Faculty Publications

Coaching effectiveness is frequently evaluated through competitive outcomes, with the assumption that coaching behaviors directly influence athlete performance. This study examined the relationship between perceived coaching behaviors and individual win percentage among collegiate Taekwondo athletes using the Leadership Scale for Sports (LSS). Descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, and regression analysis were conducted across five coaching dimensions: Training and Instruction, Democratic Behavior, Autocratic Behavior, Social Support, and Positive Feedback. Results showed that none of the coaching dimensions demonstrated a statistically significant relationship with win percentage. Although coaching behaviors did not significantly predict win percentage, the findings suggest that athlete development is shaped …

Collegiate Athletes’ And Coaches’ Communicative Constitution Of Resilience: A Case Study, Lillian B. Feder

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Resilience processes are communicative in nature and vital to the wellbeing and success of athletic personnel and organizations. However, the communicative components of resilience-building are largely ignored in sport scholarship and practice. This study seeks to bridge that gap by using the communication theory of resilience as a sensitizing concept to develop a thorough understanding of communicative resilience-building processes in athletics. Semi-structured in-depth interviews with members of a Division I college baseball team were analyzed using thematic co-occurrence analysis. Findings indicate that collegiate athletes and coaches experience resilience-building as a combination of mental toughness (i.e., persistence and discipline) and resourcefulness …

Visually Guided Foraging In Virtual Worlds: Domain-General Properties Of Search Behaviour, Sarah Salo, Alastair Smith

School of Psychology

Everyday human behaviour involves economically driven search for visually relevant targets in complex three-dimensional environments. However, psychological research has typically examined visual search and foraging mechanisms separately, with insights into search emphasising attentional efficiency, and accounts of foraging highlighting decision-making and cognitive control. In order to more closely examine the interrelation between these processes in fully motile environmental search, we devised a novel virtual reality paradigm that required participants to physically explore a large-scale 3D environment and collect multiple visually defined targets. The search environment was organised in patches, with search arrays presented across multiple tables. In single feature search, …

2026 August, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for August of 2026.

Telling Their Intensive Stories: Black/African American Intensive Care Unit Nurses And Their Perceived Encounters With Icu Workplace Racism, Sharon M. Butler

Theses & Dissertations

The 2022 American Nurses Association (ANA) study on racism and racial inequality within the nursing profession both acknowledges the presence of racism in nursing and provides evidence of the diverse negative social and psychological effects of racism on minority nurses. Although the 2022 ANA study sets a precedent and shows evidence of racism’s effects across the broader professional nursing workforce, there is limited nursing research literature that offers a focused presentation and understanding of the lived experiences of minority nurses and their personal perceptions of workplace racism. There is also limited nursing research on how workplace racism impacts cultural and …

The Effect Of Cerebellar Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation On Anxiety, Shivangi Bhardwaj

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders in the U.S. Individuals of all ages are affected by anxiety. Therefore, research into anxiety and its potential treatment has constantly been an area of interest. Newer approaches to managing anxiety include non-invasive stimulation techniques, such as Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), because of its accessibility and effectiveness. Past tDCS work typically focused on regions in the frontal lobe. However, tDCS over the cerebellum has not received as much attention compared to the cerebrum, despite recent work demonstrating cerebellar involvement in emotion processing. Thus, a better understanding of how cerebellar …

The Impact Of State Insulin Copayment Caps On Diabetics In The United States, Ryan C. Meyer

All Theses

Insulin is a life-saving medication for people with diabetes that helps regulate blood glucose levels throughout the body. A Type 1 diabetic cannot survive without insulin, and a Type 2 diabetic’s quality of life greatly diminishes without access and use of this drug. Currently, many diabetics skip, ration, or abstain from insulin due to financial barriers. As of June 2026, 29 states have enacted insulin copayment caps for state-regulated commercial health insurance plans to reduce the financial burden of insulin costs. This study examines the impact of these caps on all commercially insured diabetics in the United States, particularly on …