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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

A Preliminary Study Of Perceptions Of Community Hospitals In Cairo, Egypt: Towards Healthy Environmental Design, Veronica Iskander Feb 2023

A Preliminary Study Of Perceptions Of Community Hospitals In Cairo, Egypt: Towards Healthy Environmental Design, Veronica Iskander

Theses and Dissertations

Hospitals are a place that people dread and often avoid. Negative experiences in hospitals can contribute to pain and suffering, as well as to stress, loss of control and overall discomfort. While architecture has the power to heal when designed and maintained, it also has the power to harm if not done right. Each architectural element then has the potential to either reduce stress or contribute to it. From the location of the hospital to the colors used, there are many factors that work together to create a safe welcoming space promoting healing for all. In this study, a checklist …


Security Governance Strategies: Comparing Rebel Groups In Lebanon And Syria, Nourhan Samir Ibrahim Jan 2023

Security Governance Strategies: Comparing Rebel Groups In Lebanon And Syria, Nourhan Samir Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

The prevalence of civil wars especially after the end of the Cold War led to the rise of rebels who control parts of national states in the absence or weakness of the central government. Therefore, scholars who are interested in studying civil wars started to give more attention to how these rebels function after controlling a territory. It is substantial to study rebels who govern since they influence the post conflict peace-building. This study aimed at exploring the different factors that contribute to the sustainability of rebel governance during civil wars, and how this sustainability might lead to inclusion in …


Natural Capital Value Of Fisheries Under Environmental Stressor: A Case Of Blue Crab Under Hypoxia In The Gulf Of Mexico, Shelby Leigh Brewer Aug 2022

Natural Capital Value Of Fisheries Under Environmental Stressor: A Case Of Blue Crab Under Hypoxia In The Gulf Of Mexico, Shelby Leigh Brewer

Theses and Dissertations

Environmental threats to fisheries are a rising concern for fishery managers. Gulf of Mexico hypoxia is particularly concerning. In order to properly manage Gulf fisheries, the sustainability of species stock and its natural capital values should be analyzed. As an empirical effort, I use blue crab in Louisiana waters as a case study to build a bioeconomic model of blue crab under hypoxia. I apply the natural capital valuation approach to estimate the blue crab value function under hypoxia in order to assess blue crab sustainability. I find that blue crab management in Louisiana under hypoxia is not sustainable, being …


Critical Incidents In Sustaining A Behavior Management Level System With Special Education Students In A Self-Contained School, Stephanie Johnson Apr 2022

Critical Incidents In Sustaining A Behavior Management Level System With Special Education Students In A Self-Contained School, Stephanie Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

Level systems provide systematic support for teachers and students who need additional behavior support. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perspectives of faculty members from a self-contained school, for special education students with severe behavior needs, which has sustained the use of a school-wide, behavior management level system for nearly 30 years. A total of 11 faculty members were interviewed using the critical incident technique, a qualitative methodology used as an exploratory tool in early stages of research. Interviews detailed the observable behaviors and specific events, critical incidents, that helped or hindered the sustainability of their school's …


Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty Jan 2022

Evaluating Long-Range Transportation Plans For Mainstreaming Of Climate Adaptation Among Virginia Mpos, Sebastian L. Shetty

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the strides made towards addressing climate change through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction strategies, it has become increasingly apparent that attempting to mitigate the crisis in such a manner alone is insufficient. This thesis joins a growing body of research on how our societies must adapt to a changing climate, contributing more evidence on common barriers to adaptation and how they might be overcome. Through an attempt to evaluate the progress made towards mainstreaming, or integrating, climate change concerns into five Virginia MPOs’ long-range transportation plans (LRTPs), this study provides support for prior hypotheses around the potential for MPOs …


Is Egypt On A Sustainable Path Of Debt Repayment: Evidence From Imf Framework And Fiscal Reaction Function, Maha Rashied Jun 2021

Is Egypt On A Sustainable Path Of Debt Repayment: Evidence From Imf Framework And Fiscal Reaction Function, Maha Rashied

Theses and Dissertations

Fiscal policy is the starting point for an economy to achieve solid economic and social objectives through macroeconomic stability. Risks associated with excessive borrowing and the required fiscal adjustments are threatening especially to developing countries whose debt to GDP ratios are on the rise. Those countries’ fiscal policies’ sustainability is questioned; hence this research aims at testing for Egypt public debt sustainability and assessing the method capitalized on by the Egyptian authorities; the IMF Approach. By comparing the IMF Debt Sustainability Analysis Approach to the fiscal reaction function with ARDL and VAR as estimation methods, the results of both methods …


Can The Circular Economy Concretize Sustainability? A Construal Level Approach To Encourage Sustainable Consumption., Jolie Gutentag Jan 2021

Can The Circular Economy Concretize Sustainability? A Construal Level Approach To Encourage Sustainable Consumption., Jolie Gutentag

Theses and Dissertations

Despite a growing awareness and understanding of the impact our lifestyles have on the environment, most people have not adequately changed their consumption patterns. One possibility for the disconnect is the perceived abstractness of sustainability. Drawing on construal level theory, this research proposes that framing environmental sustainability as circularity, using the principles of the circular economy, reduces the perceived abstractness of sustainability. Four studies investigate the effects of circular framing on sustainable consumption behavior, including the moderating role of consumers’ chronic level of construal, an innate mindset reflecting a tendency to view information more concretely or abstractly. Findings provide initial …


An Interplay Between Formal And Informal Development:A Case Study Of Two Neighborhoods In The Tenth Of Ramadan City, Mennat Allah Mohamed Awad Mansour May 2020

An Interplay Between Formal And Informal Development:A Case Study Of Two Neighborhoods In The Tenth Of Ramadan City, Mennat Allah Mohamed Awad Mansour

Theses and Dissertations

The over-congestion of the Nile valley and Delta region led to the political conclusion that new desert cities were necessary to attract the ever-growing population and reduce the pressure on existing Nile Valley cities. The new desert cities that were meant to house a total population of 12 million people, today, four decades after the initiative started, only house a fraction of this target population, failing to attract residents in spite of the countless housing units left vacant. It is important to study the underlying factors that led to this urban problem and population gap to inform the planning process …


Temporal Discounting And Sustainable Behaviors, Natalia Piskorski May 2020

Temporal Discounting And Sustainable Behaviors, Natalia Piskorski

Theses and Dissertations

An experimental study was conducted (N = 175) to test for differences between thinking about the future and the present when it came to sustainable behavior and attitudes. Previous studies show temporal discounting can be overcome at least in the short term to alter current behaviors; however, there is a gap in the literature in regards to sustainable behaviors. This study used similar techniques to determine whether environmentally protective behavior can be altered by having an individual imagine themselves in the future. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups, a current other, current self, or a future-self group. …


Behavioral Antecedents Of Fuel Efficiency, James A. Cotton Mar 2020

Behavioral Antecedents Of Fuel Efficiency, James A. Cotton

Theses and Dissertations

The US Department of Defense is the largest institutional petroleum consumer in the world. In addition to the financial cost of petroleum-based fuels, the US DoD generates more CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases than the entirety of modern, industrialized nations like Sweden and Norway. Other dangers and externalities arise from the fuels supply chain, like toxin risks to fuel handlers, and human costs to transport fuel in-theater. Within the DoD, the USAF alone often rivals or exceeds the consumption of all other services combined. While the USAF prefers technical, hardware-based solutions to problems, and has given increasing attention to logistical …


Economically Empowering Women As Foreign Policy: A Phenomenological Study On Building Peace In Northern Uganda Through Social Enterprise, Lisa Liberatore Maracine Jan 2020

Economically Empowering Women As Foreign Policy: A Phenomenological Study On Building Peace In Northern Uganda Through Social Enterprise, Lisa Liberatore Maracine

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation advocates for the role of social enterprise in building sustainable peace by giving women agency and power in their communities. It examines this phenomenon through the lens of a social enterprise non-governmental organization, 31 Bits, that offers a valuable case study in the post-conflict Northern Uganda town of Gulu where over 100 women have been employed in the last ten years in a five-year training program that equips them to become fully self-sustainable through the creation of jewelry handmade from recycled paper. The holistic approach moves beyond the nonprofit model of charity and survival to giving their beneficiaries …


Culture As Sustainability: The Case Study Of Govardhan Ecovillage And Vedic Culture In India, Danielle Lella Bartolone Feb 2019

Culture As Sustainability: The Case Study Of Govardhan Ecovillage And Vedic Culture In India, Danielle Lella Bartolone

Theses and Dissertations

This project investigates the relationship between sustainability and Vedic culture of India. The ethnographic research at Govardhan Ecovillage seeks to understand how sustainability is embedded in culture. I employ grounded theory for my research methodology which reveals three key themes explaining fundamental and interrelated dimensions of Vedic culture as sustainability.


Climate Change And Threatened Heritage: Archaeology's Burden, Barry R. Gordon May 2018

Climate Change And Threatened Heritage: Archaeology's Burden, Barry R. Gordon

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change and archaeology are currently intertwined, as more and more archaeologists around the world must deal with the effects it causes on the sites they work on. Threatened cultural resource sites are being swept away at alarming rates, and excavation projects are becoming more and more like salvage digs.


Establishing Sustainable Community Garden Interventions With Aid From Health Promotion Organizations, Rachel Joann Buenemann Jan 2017

Establishing Sustainable Community Garden Interventions With Aid From Health Promotion Organizations, Rachel Joann Buenemann

Theses and Dissertations

Community garden interventions provide policy, system and environmental change at the community level to establish health behaviors, which act in contest to obesity risk factors. Limited research examines factors, which influence the sustainability of community garden interventions. Therefore, in this study, a sample of 10 Midwestern community gardens associated through funding from a health promotion organization in 2013, collected data through the interviewing and surveying of 10 garden administrators and surveying of 12 garden volunteers. The study identified garden benefits perceived by garden administrators and volunteers to include contributions to social justice, continued education, enhanced social cohesion, increased access to …


E-Waste In Relation To Geopolitical Forces: A Case Study Of The United States - Mexico Border Region, Michael A. Hicks Dec 2016

E-Waste In Relation To Geopolitical Forces: A Case Study Of The United States - Mexico Border Region, Michael A. Hicks

Theses and Dissertations

Analysis deconstructs the electronic waste industry and its interconnectedness to geopolitical forces and economic development in the border region between San Diego, California and Tijuana, Mexico. A symbiotic business relationship exists between informal e-waste collectors, non-profit collection sites, and for-profit recyclers. Fieldwork data is analyzed from a slow/structural violence perspective.


Adopting Sustainability Innovations In Restaurants: An Evaluation Of The Factors Influencing Owner-Managers’ Decisions In Richmond, Virginia, Anna Salzberg Jan 2016

Adopting Sustainability Innovations In Restaurants: An Evaluation Of The Factors Influencing Owner-Managers’ Decisions In Richmond, Virginia, Anna Salzberg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the factors influencing restaurant Owner-Managers’ decisions to adopt sustainability innovations in restaurants. A cross-sectional survey research design is used for this study, which entails distributing a survey to restaurants in the City of Richmond, Virginia, to gain an understanding of the factors influencing sustainability innovation adoption. Drawing from both the innovation adoption theory and the theory of planned behavior, the researcher contributes a baseline of the restaurants’ sustainability and the Owner-Managers’ intrinsic motivations. By integrating innovation adoption theory’s perceived innovation characteristics and measuring restaurants’ past sustainability behavior, this study increases the overall …


Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg Jan 2015

Expanding Eco-Visualization: Sculpting Corn Production, Jennifer E. Figg

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation expands upon the definition of eco-visualization artwork. EV was originally defined in 2006 by Tiffany Holmes as a way to display the real time consumption statistics of key environmental resources for the goal of promoting ecological literacy. I assert that the final forms of EV artworks are not necessarily dependent on technology, and can differ in terms of media used, in that they can be sculptural, video-based, or static two-dimensional forms that communicate interpreted environmental information. There are two main categories of EV: one that is predominantly screen-based and another that employs a variety of modes of representation …


The Status Of Csr In Corporate America: A Content Analysis Of The Organizations With The Top-Performing Csr Programs Within The Fortune 500, Laura C. Thomas Jun 2014

The Status Of Csr In Corporate America: A Content Analysis Of The Organizations With The Top-Performing Csr Programs Within The Fortune 500, Laura C. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Corporate social responsibility has become an accepted part of business for organizations of any size. Organizations are not only expected to be profitable and successful, but they are also expected to be responsible global citizens. However, though this has become an accepted part of business, there remain many areas of CSR research that are under researched. This study examined the top 16 CSR programs of organizations headquartered in the United States to better understand what they communicate about their programs, their relationship with both the news media and government entities, which issues they address the most, and where they implement …


The Sustainability Of Lean Manufacturing As A Competitive Advantage, Louis G. Jones Jul 2013

The Sustainability Of Lean Manufacturing As A Competitive Advantage, Louis G. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Since the early 1990s lean manufacturing has been employed by companies looking to reduce costs, increase efficiencies and improve quality. Academic studies of the financial benefits of lean manufacturing are mixed in their results, where some show benefit and others do not. The objective of the current work was to confirm a financial benefit of lean manufacturing, while also establishing whether such a financial advantage was sustainable. Financial data was collected for a large number of companies in the manufacturing sector, over the period from 1990 to 2010. The data were used to show correlation between inventory turns and return …


Impact, Sustainability, And Dependency: The Case Of Empower Playgrounds, Inc., Ammon B. Franklin Aug 2011

Impact, Sustainability, And Dependency: The Case Of Empower Playgrounds, Inc., Ammon B. Franklin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis studies impact, sustainability, and dependency in the nonprofit sector. Empower Playgrounds, Inc. (EPI) is a nonprofit organization working to improve educational conditions in Africa through educational recreation, lighting for education, and hands-on science labs. A social impact assessment I performed for EPI in 2008 creates the context for discussion of EPI's sustainability. Dependency results from a lack of sufficient conditions for sustainability—resources, capability, and opportunity—which I elucidate in a framework of corresponding theories of capital. Using this sufficiency framework I analyze the resources, capabilities, and opportunities required for EPI program sustainability, determine unmet conditions, and propose solutions to …


Unintended Social And Economic Consequences Resulting From The Implementation Of New Construction Technologies In The Developing World, Andrew J. South Jul 2011

Unintended Social And Economic Consequences Resulting From The Implementation Of New Construction Technologies In The Developing World, Andrew J. South

Theses and Dissertations

One of the key components of international development is to provide adequate shelter for citizens of developing countries. This is often accomplished by governmental, non- governmental, and private organizations that seek to lower the cost, increase the quality, and expand the availability of safe, sustainable housing through the use of innovative technologies. These new technologies can affect the social and/or economic structure within communities. This paper is a case study resulting from the construction of a seventy-one-home village, including infrastructure, near Yogyakarta, Indonesia by a foreign, aid-based non-governmental organization (NGO). The village was relocated less than two kilometers from its …