Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Rajesh Voddiraju, Margaret Von Steinen

International Alumni

Serial entrepreneur and angel investor are two labels that describe the significant contributions WMU alumnus Rajesh Voddiraju, a native of Hyderabad, India, has made to the computer science industry since completing his master’s degree at Western Michigan University in 1993. He was honored in October 2014 by WMU’s Department of Computer Science when he was selected as the recipient of the department’s annual Computer Science Alumni Excellence Award.

Deepak Ravindra, Margaret Von Steinen

International Alumni

Dr. Deepak Ravindra became a business owner at the same time he completed his Western Michigan University doctoral degree through a unique collaboration with a faculty researcher focused on developing methods to cut extremely hard and brittle materials.

Ala Al-Fuqaha, Margaret Von Steinen

International Faculty Researchers

A wide range of road safety and driver assistive applications— Intelligent Transport Systems—could result from a collaborative research project that Dr. Ala Al-Fuqaha, WMU professor of computer science, is working on with Dr. Elyes Hamida at the Qatar Mobility Innovation Center and Dr. Bharat Bhargava at Purdue University.

Wmu International News Spring 2015, Haenicke Institute

WMU International News

• New sensor to monitor impacts on the gridiron
• Dominican Republic Ph.D. candidate a leader in green manufacturing at WMU
• Delivering fuel efficiency and reduced emissions key for Ford engineer
• Electrical engineer seeks new semiconductor for optoelectronics
• Improving communication systems drives computer science researcher
• CEAS alumnus improves health care commerce
• Degree research evolves into new company for WMU alumnus
• Roundabout ways to improve transportation captivate Tanzanian fellow
• Raspberry Pi focus of undergraduate research project
• Comparative learning key in WMU’s Engineering in China program
• ESL courses first step for future Congolese engineer

The Socializer-Spring 2015, Department Of Sociology

The Socializer

Spring 2015 Sociology departmental newsletter.

Storage Structures, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 2. Military and Commercial Storage Buildings

Domestic Structures - 2, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 5. Eighteenth Century Domestic Architecture in the St. Joseph River Valley

Domestic Structures - 1, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 5. Eighteenth Century Domestic Architecture in the St. Joseph River Valley

Military Fortifications, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 4. Fortifications and Military Buildings in New France

Special Purpose Structures, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 3. Special Purpose Structures: Places of Rituals and Daily Practice

Structures Introductory Panel, Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project, Michael S. Nassaney

Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project

Panel 1. Seeking Shelter from the Storm; Architecture in Eighteenth Century New France

Horses: How Saddle Style Defines A Culture And The Skeletal System, Brandy Morgan

Honors Theses

This paper examines the way in which various parameters affect injury type and prevalence in horse eventing. The human-horse relationship has a long history that has continued to evolve, and their relationship is still strong today, especially in the role of sports and entertainment. In equestrian sports, horseback riding has been found to be extremely dangerous in terms of prevalence and severity of injury. This paper evaluates how saddle style, the sex of the rider, rider experience, and nature of event impacts injury patterns specifically within horse eventing which utilizes an English styled saddle.

Horses: How Saddle Style Defines A Culture And The Skeletal System, Elizabeth Brandon

Honors Theses

Throughout history different cultures have been greatly impacted by horses and their uses. Today horseback riding is still a very popular sport, and though it is more dangerous than other forms of transportation, such as motorcycle riding, horseback riding is still used in entertainment, occupational, and leisure activities. Saddles have long been an important piece of equipment for riding. As the horse became a mode of transportation, many cultures had their own saddle style, but today there are two prominent saddle styles, the western and english styles. The western saddle style is used more for leisure, occupational, and rodeo riding. …

Rural Land Rights And Security In Cultivated Highland Ethiopia: Incremental Reform But Persistent Uncertainty, Tesfaye Teklu

International Journal of African Development

There are important improvements in tenure stability and security of land rights over the years in administratively allocated land. These gains are due to the private efforts of individual landholders, and incremental policy and legal measures. However, there are still unmet demands for certainty in land rights because of inherent instability in tenure associated with rising excess demand pressure for land, temporal decay in value of use rights certificate, deficiency in design and practice of land expropriation and compensation laws, and weakness in land governance and rural of law.

Governance Of Land And Natural Resource For Sustainable Development In Botswana: Possible Lessons For The Agricultural And Tourism Sectors, David Sebudubudu, Patricia M. Makepe, Kgomotso Montsi, Keratilwe Bodilenyane

International Journal of African Development

Realizing sustainable development is a major challenge for most African countries. Economic growth in most African countries is largely centered on the extraction of natural resources, particularly minerals. Rather than facilitate development, the extraction of natural resources in most countries, has been a source of adverse outcomes. That is, natural resources led to ‘the resource curse’, partly because of bad governance and leadership. Through governance and leadership, Botswana emerged differently. The country transformed itself to a middle income status through the prudent utilization and management of mineral (non-renewable) resources; making Botswana one of the few resource rich countries that have …

Good Governance For Achieving Food Security In Ethiopia: Challenges And Issues, Mussie Ybabe, Sisay Asefa

International Journal of African Development

Although rice technologies have been introduced in Fogera district over the last two decades, farm household’s food demand was not met as expected. Sustained, intensified and coordinated rice research is the key to curb the problem but impaired due to lack of good governance coupled with weak institutional capacity. This has resulted snowballing effects like little or no discussion among/with farmers on good practices, successes/failures of technology adoption and input delivery; poor linkage of small farmers to market and knowledge gap in Development Agents. Therefore, this study identified and evaluated potential determinants of household food security with basic emphasis to …

The Significance Of Whole Grain Teff For Improving Nutrition: From Injera To Ready To Eat Porridge By Using Extrusion Cooking Technology, Helen T. Zewdie, Mammo Muchie

International Journal of African Development

Teff (EragrostisTef) is a fascinating grain, ancient, minute in size, packed with nutrition and used for centuries as the principal ingredient of the Ethiopian population diet. The micro- and macronutrients level of teff grainis apparently higher than that of barley, wheat and sorghum and the amino acid composition comparable to that of egg protein, except for its lower lysine content. In Ethiopia, it has been using as a staple food by making flat bread called Injera. Teff can be diversified from its current provision of Injera to other forms like instant porridge to improve the nutritional quality and it may …

The Impact Of Agriculture On African Civilization In The 21st Century, Andrew S. Targowski

International Journal of African Development

The purpose of this paper is to define the impact of agriculture on African Civilization in the 21^st century. The methodology is based on an interdisciplinary big-picture view of the African Civilizations. The multifaceted layers of civilizations will be analyzed as interdependent with the agricultural development of African societies. Among the findings are: Sub-Saharan Africa falls short of meeting its agricultural needs. Only one of two individual Africans has access to clean and enough water. Energy and supply of electricity are woefully inadequate and unreliable. Agriculture as a foundation for development and modernization for Africa is too limited. Environmental …

Governance And Private Investment In Sub-Saharan Africa, Idrissa Mohamed Ouedraogo, Pascal T. Kouman

International Journal of African Development

Africa is one of the world regions whose development potentials are particularly important. But despite this situation, Africa is one of the continents where poverty exists on a large scale. More than 44 % of the African population lives below the poverty line. Yet, various forms of development strategies have been designed and implemented in the African countries. In 1992, in its publication Governance and Development, the World Bank refers to the quality of government as the cause of the failure of several of these strategies. Attention is henceforth focused on how governments organize the management of state and …

Editorial Note, Sisay Asefa

International Journal of African Development

No abstract provided.

International Journal Of African Development, Vol. 2, Issue 1

International Journal of African Development

Complete issue of International Journal of African Development, Volume 2, Issue 1.

Critical Self-Reflection Questions For Professsionals Who Work With Grandfamilies, Megan L. Dolbin-Macnab

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

One of the reasons that grandparents raising grandchildren may not receive needed services is because they perceive professionals as being judgmental or holding negative attitudes toward them. As such, it is important for human service professionals to critically examine their opinions and attitudes toward grandfamilies, within the context of larger social structures, for the purposes of identifying those views that might interfere with the delivery of high quality services. This practice brief provides an overview of critical self-reflection questions that can be used, in a variety of ways, for training purposes. By utilizing these critical self-reflection questions, professionals can discover …

Practice Recommendations For Mental Health Professionals: Perspectives From Grandparents And Their Adolescent Grandchildren, Kendra A. O'Hora, Megan L. Dolbin-Macnab

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Although grandfamilies are consumers of a variety of mental health services, less is known about what these families, particularly the grandchildren, want from practitioners. To gain insight into how practitioners can best meet the needs of grandfamilies, 40 custodial grandmothers and their adolescent grandchildren were interviewed. Results of a qualitative analysis indicated that grandmothers and grandchildren did not make clear distinctions between various types of services and service providers. Grandchildren, in particular, emphasized the need for mental health professionals to facilitate mentoring and to provide opportunities for grandchildren to socialize with other grandchildren who have been through similar circumstances. Grandmothers …

The Experience Of Grandparents Raising Grandchildren, Deborah Sampson, Katherine Hertlein Ph.D.

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the experiences of grandparents and the challenges they face raising their grandchildren. This study was conducted through qualitative interviewing, where participants responded to open-ended questions regarding the challenges of raising their grandchildren. Themes and patterns were identified through an open-coding process. The five themes discussed include: characteristics of everyday life, parenting experiences, lack of resources, managing negative emotions, and social changes. Implications for clinical practice and further research are discussed.

Using Kinship Navigators To Assess The Needs Of Kinship Caregivers, Suzanne T. Sutphin

GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy

Kinship care is a viable alternative to foster care for many children, however, the proper supports and services must be in place for the families. This article describes a kinship navigator program for children and kin caregivers involved in Child Protective Services in-home treatment cases. The program was piloted over a three-year period to assess and address the service needs of kinship caregivers. Using the Family Needs Scale as a measurement tool, the results of the evaluation are provided along with a discussion of the need to support caregivers to provide the best outcomes for children in kinship care.

Using Streaming Video In E-Learning Or In The Classroom, Michele D. Behr

University Libraries Faculty & Staff Presentations

This workshop presents an overview of using videos in classroom teaching as well as e-learning classes. WMU Libraries collections of streaming videos can be easily used in face-to-face classes, and embedded in e-learning. Instructional video DVDs are also available. The workshop also covered the process of embedding videos and video clips in websites and classes in D2L.

Thinking Ahead: Dissertations & Theses, Maira Bundza

Hacking the Stacks: The Inside Scoop on Library Resources for Graduate Level Research

Thinking Ahead: Dissertations & Theses

• Find other dissertations in their field from the U.S. and internationally
• Understand depositing options for their dissertations in ProQuest and in ScholarWorks, the WMU institutional repository

Hidden Gems Of The Library, Maria A. Perez-Stable

Hacking the Stacks: The Inside Scoop on Library Resources for Graduate Level Research

Hidden Gems of the Library

• Become more conversant with searching library catalogs, especially for books and electronic books
• Select and explore relevant databases in their respective disciplines
• Do more thorough literature searches on their topic by using advanced features and techniques

Hacking The Stacks: The Inside Scoop On Library Resources For Graduate Level Research From Wmu's Research Experts, University Libraries

Hacking the Stacks: The Inside Scoop on Library Resources for Graduate Level Research

Flier for workshop with schedule and description of sessions.

Citation Management & Avoiding Plagiarism, Kate Langan

Hacking the Stacks: The Inside Scoop on Library Resources for Graduate Level Research

The Ethics of Writing & Citation Management

• Identify the benefits and usefulness of citation management software (CMS)
• Learn how to get the most out of CMS to organize different research projects
• Define plagiarism and various forms it takes and where to go to help avoid plagiarism
• Discuss the ethics of writing, plagiarism in particular, and how CMS can help you
• Learn how to fold ethical writing practices into your research in order to avoid plagiarism