Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Exploring Dominican University Nursing Students’ Perceptions Of Economic Barriers To Accessing Essential Women’S Health Products, Annabelle E. Burke

Nursing | Senior Theses

Period poverty is defined as inconsistent or inadequate access to feminine hygiene products, and it has been shown to negatively impact physical and mental health, academic performance, and dignity across diverse populations. Existing research highlights financial strain, social stigma, and insufficient support as key barriers to menstrual equity among individuals experiencing homelessness, adolescents living in low-resource environments, low-income women, and general undergraduate students (Brinkley & Niebuhr, 2023; Dave et al., 2022; Gruer et al., 2021; Lahme et al., 2018; Parkinson et al., 2024; Gilchrist et al., 2024). However, no studies have examined these issues amongst Dominican University nursing students who …

Deterrence Without Peace: Nuclear Weapons And The Rising Threshold Of Warfare, Catie Clarke

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

Nuclear weapons fundamentally changed the international political landscape, leading to the emergence of deterrence theory and the notion of the Long Peace. This paper challenges these claims, arguing that nuclear weapons facilitated a more violent and volatile international system rather than stability. Drawing on constructivist theory, this paper develops the Threshold of Violence framework – a normative model which asserts that nuclear weapons elevated the perceived upper limit of tolerable violence in international politics. This raised threshold generated three trends in the nuclear era: increased frequency of proxy wars, escalating levels of benefactor involvement, and greater severity of conflicts fought …

The Influence Of Hair And Faces On Social Judgments Of Power And Warmth, Sarah E. Swanson, Meryl P. Gardner, Adam W. Stivers, D. M. Kuhlman

Psychology Faculty Scholarship

We explored how faces and hair influence social judgments of power and warmth by altering 40 photos to display only hair (“Hair-only”), only face (“Face-only”), or both (“Whole Picture”). Across conditions, participants’ (N = 195) Face-only judgments strongly correlated with Whole Picture judgments, even when controlling for hair judgments. Although Hair-only judgments did not significantly predict warmth, they were a strong predictor of Whole Picture judgments of power (r = .65, p <  .001), even when controlling for Face-Only judgments (β = .56, p <  .001). The impact of hair judgments on overall power judgments was greater for male than female targets and judges, suggesting that hair plays a prominent role in males’ perceptions of power and how males are judged with respect to power. In contrast, face rating predominately explained warmth judgments (R2 = 0.84, p <  .001), and adding hair ratings did not contribute to additional variance (ΔR2 <  0.01, p = .68). These findings align with theories of impression formation, which propose that warmth judgments rely on involuntary facial cues, while power judgments incorporate controllable appearance features such as hair.

Leveraging Ai-Powered Personalization To Enhance Customer Experience In E-Commerce, Yousef Shelaik

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

This study delves into the complexities of integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into e- commerce, exploring its profound impact on marketing strategies, customer personalization, and decision-making processes. As AI technology rapidly becomes a staple in digital commerce, businesses encounter formidable challenges. These include the hurdles of seamlessly implementing sophisticated AI personalization tools, safeguarding consumer privacy amidst growing ethical concerns, and the daunting task of adhering to evolving regulatory standards. This study aimed to explore how AI-driven personalization influences customer engagement in e-commerce environments. It examined technologies such as recommendation systems and personalized marketing, analyzing their relationship on user interaction. This study …

The Information And Communication Behaviors Of Marcus Garvey And The Universal Negro Improvement Association (Unia), Janet Douglas-Pryce

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Marcus Garvey, social activist and founder of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the early twentieth century, has been widely studied for his Pan-African approach to the social upliftment of Black communities during a period marked by segregation and systemic injustice. His messages of empowerment attracted global attention and supported the growth of a movement that reached more than one million members worldwide. While Garvey and the UNIA have been examined from historical, political, and cultural perspectives, they have not been systematically studied through the lens of information and communication behavior. This study examines the information and communication behaviors …

Talking Black: The Construction Of Blackness In Film, D'Andre M. Person

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Media, such as film, plays a pivotal role in representing marginalized groups to general audiences. The portrayal of Black people in advertisements, novels, art, and film has perpetuated harmful stereotypes which associate Black men and women with negative traits that justify their marginalization, such as the "Coon" stereotype that frames Black men as lazy or the "Mammy" stereotype that positions Black women as subservient. Stereotypes in film are produced through images, but language plays a vital role in constructing general audiences' understanding of Black people as well. Through a rhetorical analysis of seven films released between 2016 and 2026, I …

Western Australia’S Primary Industries: 2023-24 Economic Overview, Dipesh Maharjan, Hue Vuong, Jan Van Staden, Nicholas Thorsager, Saloomeh Akbari, Amir Abadi Abadi Ghadim, P. Mattingley, Manju Radhakrishnan, Tafesse Estifanos

Farm Systems and Economics published reports

The Western Australia’s Primary Industries: 2023-24 Economic Overview (WAPIEO) has been developed by DPIRD. The WAPIEO has a production and trade focus and provides a single source for consistent statistics and insights into observed industry trends.

• The WAPIEO is based primarily on 2023-24 economic indicators from the Department of Treasury and Finance, DPIRD data, and statistics from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), in line with the release cycle dates of final ABS data.
• All values are in Australian dollars. ABS provides production value data in 2 formats - local value (farm gate) and gross value (value at first point …

A Panel Quantile Model Via Correlated Random Effects Approach For Testing Pecking Order Theory, Zongwu Cai, Meng Shi, Wuqing Wu, Yue Zhao

Student Publications

This article investigates the relative importance of internal and external sources of funds in financing activities across different levels of investment activities by proposing a panel data quantile regression model with correlated random effects, accounting for heteroscedasticity in both firm-specific individuals and distribution of investment. A new estimation method, which takes the influence of disturbance into account, is proposed by using the integrated quasi-likelihood function for the conditional quantile model and Laplace approximation. The large sample theory for the proposed estimator and the corresponding asymptotic χ² test are investigated. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to examine the finite …

Recommended Budget, Expenditures By Object And Funding By Source, Fiscal Year 2026-2027, Tennessee. Department Of Finance And Administration

Recommended Budget

In developing the Governor’s budget recommendation, the Division of Budget in the Department of Finance and Administration analyzes agency budget requests and prepares final recommendations at a lower level of detail.

Toward A Speculative Librarianship, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

(Academic) citation is a representational practice of hollow, ruined potential professional accumulation of intellectual capital. Critical librarianship finds itself in the same situation as Saint Anthony: beset by interpretive demons (Freud, Nietzsche, Marx), nearing total evaluative exhaustion, wandering in a theoretical desert of its own creation. “Where am I?” the lonely figure shouts as he’s lifted into the air. Prayer, even as a last resort, seems intolerable. What happens when critique loses its way?

Measuring Civic And Citizenship Education Through Large-Scale Assessments: Insights From The International Civic And Citizenship Education Study (Iccs), Wolfram Schulz, Valeria Damiani

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

This chapter from the open access book ‘Promoting K-12 Civic Learning and Engagement Through Assessment’ edited  by Hamilton, Rikoon and  Kidd, discusses ways of measuring aspects of civic and citizenship education (CCE) cross-nationally with a specific focus on the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) commissioned by the IEA (International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement). The chapter starts with a brief overview of the main characteristics of the study, the legacy with previous IEA surveys of civic education, and the assessment design including a description of the cognitive and affective-behavioral dimensions that are measured in the …

From The Editor, Laura Pitts

Alabama Libraries

No abstract provided.

Guest Editorial For Alabama Libraries: What We Can Learn About Library Instruction From K-12 Education, Summer Upton

Alabama Libraries

No abstract provided.

The Homerathon: A Collaborative Teacher - Librarian Project, Douglas Welle, Dutcha Lawson

Alabama Libraries

This article, co-authored by a high school librarian and a Latin teacher describes a highly successful collaboration at the high school level designed to enhance the curriculum and promote the role of the library as a continuous learning environment. The “Homerathon” read-aloud attracted nearly 140 participants over a four-day period in 2024. Benefits included engaging students in the act of reading, increasing awareness and understanding of a classical work of literature, and highlighting the role of the school library as a vibrant learning hub. Building on the success of the Homerathon, a second read-aloud event was held in 2025 and …

Creating Safe Spaces: A Trauma-Informed Approach In Alabama State University's Special Collections Department, Kashonda Murphy

Alabama Libraries

A trauma-informed library is a library that adopts practices and policies designed to understand, recognize, and respond to the impact of trauma on individuals who use its services. This approach aims to create a safe and supportive environment for patrons who may have experienced trauma, such as abuse, violence, poverty, discrimination, and natural disasters. Key principles of trauma-informed care are promoting safety, trustworthiness, peer support, collaboration, and empowerment in all aspects of library operations and interactions. This article details the approaches taken to initiate trauma-informed principles into the Special Collections Department at Alabama State University.

Sovereign Cat Bonds: Evaluating Issuance, Matthew Sharretts

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Table 3 - Gregoricka & Ullinger 2026, Lesley Gregoricka, Jaime Ullinger

Gregoricka et al. 2026 AJBA

No abstract provided.

Table 2 - Gregoricka & Ullinger 2026, Lesley Gregoricka, Jaime Ullinger

Gregoricka et al. 2026 AJBA

No abstract provided.

Table 1 - Gregoricka & Ullinger 2026, Lesley Gregoricka, Jaime Ullinger

Gregoricka et al. 2026 AJBA

No abstract provided.

Stages Of Being Foreign As Portrayed In Daughter Of Keltoum And Lost Birds, Fran Hassencahl

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use the intercultural communication model, The Stages of Being Foreign, developed by anthropologist Oberg (1960) and modified by Gullahorn & Gullahorn (1963), Lewis & Jungman (1986), and Ward, Bochner, and Furnham (2001) to explain the experience of culture shock. This model describes the stages that individuals experience when they leave, either voluntarily or involuntarily, their home country/culture and must adapt to a new culture. These stages as described by Oberg are a preliminary stage (a spectator stage), an increasing participation stage, the pit of the culture shock stage, the adaptation stage, and for some migrants a …

Research Support Newsletter (Winter 2026), Elizabeth D'Angel

The AC's Research Support Newsletter (Formerly AISR Connections)

Sections

• New Resources & Updates 
• Research Support & Data Management
• Grants & Funding Opportunities
• Writing & Publishing Support
• Design & Presentation Tools
• Research Integrity
• Research Workshops

Three Essays On Extreme Weather, Agricultural Productivity, And Water Resources, Munib Inam

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

As extreme weather events become more frequent and more intense, understanding their effects becomes increasingly important. This dissertation examines those effects and related policy questions across three essays.

The first essay demonstrates that methodological choices in weather data construction can meaningfully affect estimated agricultural impacts of extreme weather. Using corn yields across the U.S. Corn Belt, it shows that constructing nonlinear weather measures after spatial interpolation reduces measured exposure to extreme heat and changes both estimated yield impacts and their downstream economic implications.

The second essay examines how weather exposure affects drinking water quality. It shows that microbial contamination responds …

Unveiling Microplastic Removal And Characteristics In Wastewater From Two Municipal Wastewater Treatment Facilities In Indonesia, Nurul Setiadewi, Prayatni Soewondo, Cynthia Henny

Applied Environmental Research

Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are considered an entrance pathways for microplastic (MP) pollution in aquatic environments. This study reveals the removal and characteristics of MPs in wastewater from two municipal WWTPs in Indonesia. The influent contained 17.1 ± 5.65 particles L-1 (WWTP A) and 15.45 ± 4.31 particles L-1 (WWTP B), whereas the effluent contained 1.41 ± 0.01 and 1.5 ± 0.16 particles L-1. The removal efficiency was 91.75% for WWTP A and 90.32% for WWTP B, with no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). WWTP A employed advanced treatment units, whereas WWTP B used a conventional pond-based system. MPs were …

Assessment Of The Influence Of Human Activities On The Occurrence Of Forest Fires In Thailand Via Multiple Linear Regression (Mlr), Sittipong Ruktamatakul, Jirarat Insuk, Benjaporn Pinwongpet, Sarisa Ruktametakul, Pornpis Yimprayoon

Applied Environmental Research

Forest fires represent one of the most critical environmental challenges in Thailand, with impacts varying depending on forest type, fuel characteristics, terrain conditions, fire intensity, and the frequency of fire occurrence on the same landscape. While forest fires can contribute to ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, and the depletion of natural resources, such effects are not uniformly severe across all forest ecosystems. Understanding the human-induced factors contributing to forest fire occurrence is crucial for developing effective prevention strategies and promoting sustainable forest management. This study aimed to identify the anthropogenic factors influencing forest fire areas in Thailand via multiple linear regression …

Effect Of Chromium Doping On The Uv- And Sunlight-Driven Photocatalytic Performance Of Srtio3, Ro’Ikhatul Jannah, Dianisa Khoirum Sandi, Fahru Nurosyid, Risa Suryana, Didier Fasquelle, Yofentina Iriani

Applied Environmental Research

Chromium (Cr)-doped strontium titanate (SrTiO3, STO) photocatalysts with compositions of SrTi1-xCrxO3 (x = 0, 5, and 10%) were prepared via the coprecipitation method. This study aimed to investigate the effects of Cr doping on structural, morphological, and optical properties. Furthermore, this work aimed to examine the photocatalytic performance of pure and Cr-doped STO against methylene blue (MB) degradation under ultraviolet (UV) and sunlight exposure. X-ray diffraction confirmed the formation of the cubic STO phase and the insertion of the Cr dopant in the STO structures. Furthermore, Cr doping reduced the lattice constant, crystallite size, and average particle size and narrowed …

Fiscal Decentralization, Foreign Capital, And Economic Development In Sub-Saharan Africa, Kwadwo D. Frempong

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been shaped by two transformative policy shifts: widespread fiscal decentralization reforms transferring revenue and expenditure authority to subnational governments, and the pursuit of foreign direct investment to supplement domestic capital. Despite the breadth of these reforms, their effectiveness in promoting sustainable economic development remains empirically contested. This dissertation examines three interconnected questions about fiscal governance and capital flows in Sub-Saharan Africa: what determines the extent to which governments decentralize fiscal authority; how county fiscal composition and revenue autonomy shape subnational economic performance; and how foreign direct investment interacts with domestic investment and growth.

The …

Investigating The Viability Of Fully Online Asynchronous Physics Instruction In Formal Education, Clifton W. Massey-Noel

Physics Dissertations

In this dissertation we present results from two consecutive investigations into the fully online asynchronous modality in Physics Education. We first discuss the efficacy of a fully online asynchronous section of Modern Physics held in Fall 2024. The asynchronous section is compared with four prior partially-flipped sections of the same class, two of which were held in-person, and two of which were held synchronously online. Results suggest that all three modalities can be made to be about equally as effective. We also discuss the efficacy of a fully online asynchronous section of Calculus-Based Introductory Mechanics held in Fall 2025. The …

Conch Gone? Examining Cultural Preservation Through Bahamian Menu Analysis, Adiah J. Saunders

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Social identity theory and acculturation theory expose how cultural practices, such as cuisine, can adapt due to external pressures. In The Bahamas, external pressure from the tourism industry shapes many aspects of public life, by analyzing menus we can see how cultural identity resists or succumbs to change. This study examined how Bahamian cuisine is represented on restaurant menus in Nassau, New Providence amid a dominating tourism industry. Using a stratified random sample of 30 restaurants, 1,155 menu items were coded for cultural origin, cultural language use, promotional features, as well as pricing. The results show that international dishes appear …

Innocence Interrupted: A 25-Year Study Of Reported Filicide Incidents In The United States, 1999 To 2023, Jeffrey A. Walsh, Jessie L. Krienert, Ema Voksic

Faculty Publications - Criminal Justice Sciences

This study examines filicide, the killing of a child by a parent or parental figure, using 25 years of data (1999–2023) from the National Incident-Based Reporting System (N = 3,974). Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze variations in offender, victim, and incident characteristics across four victim age categories: neonaticide (within 24 hr of birth), infanticide (1–364 days), child filicide (1–17 years), and adult filicide (18+ years). Results reveal significant differences in offender age, sex, race, weapon use, and victim demographics. Neonaticide is most often associated with younger female offenders and the use of personal weapons, while adult filicide …

Reading Wars, Don Herzog

Books

Once again, we’re fighting wars over reading. Who gets to read? What do they get to read? These days, the right is obsessed with removing LGBTQ books from school and public library shelves and ensuring students read only the Correct version of American history. The left is obsessed with eradicating right-wing fantasies, not to mention outright lies, from the internet, and with airbrushing or even purging racist texts. You don’t have to stoop to whataboutery to notice a suspicious resemblance. But once again is wrong. We’ve always fought these wars, even if the enemies come and go. In this book, …