Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Potential Chemical Risks From Tattoos And Their Relevance To Military Health Policy In The United States, James D. Blando, Blas A. Guigni

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

We summarize and consolidate disparate sources of information about the practice of tattooing and its potential implications for military population health and policy. Each branch of the United States military has policies about tattoos for service members, but these have varied over time and do not cover health protection. The number of veterans receiving disability payments and the cost of those payments has been rising over time; the broad category of skin conditions accounts for 11% of disability claims. Any additional factor, such as tattoos that may increase the occurrence of adverse skin reactions, can substantially impact veteran benefit expenses …

Nieubuurt On Sloss, 'Tyrants On Twitter: Protecting Democracies From Information Warfare', Joshua Nieubuurt

English Faculty Publications

[First paragraph] Information warfare (IW) in the twenty-first century has become a major issue facing democracies across the globe. In Tyrants on Twitter: Protecting Democracies from Information Warfare, David L. Sloss focuses on how legislation may help stem the tide of nefarious authoritarian state actors. Sloss posits that IW in the twenty-first century is allowing democratic decay and that an allied transnational front based on common legislation is a necessary step in equalizing the playing field. Sloss specifically focuses on state agents of Russia and China, calling for limitations on known state actors and eliminating malevolent agents' ability to …

最低工資有幾低? 貧窮新一代的就業困境報告, 嶺南大學政策研究院, 嶺南大學文化研究及發展中心, 嶺南大學「青年貧窮與就業」研究團隊, Man Kit Chui, Haocheng Yang, Nga Man Wong, Peier Chen, Xinmiao Song, Shi Chi Leung, Ngai Pun

CCRD Research Report

為了解香港青年對就業、貧窮、體面生活、相關政策的看法，以及他們收入和支出的情況，嶺南大學政策研究院、文化研究及發展中心聯合進行一項題為《最低工資有幾低？貧窮新一代的就業困境報告》的調查。結果發現，四成接受深度訪談的青年自認貧窮，而絕大部分已有全職工作的受訪青年認為，最低工資調整幅度太低，自己未能受惠。

嶺大研究團隊從2022年5月至12月，先後透過兩輪深度訪談，訪問了67位18至29歲、收入低於2萬元、有工作經驗的青年。另外，團隊亦透過兩輪問卷調查，分別收集到164份及253份有效回覆。

調查結果發現，絕大部分年輕人覺得自己的工資太低，待遇與工作不相稱。受訪青年的收入來源包括全職工作、兼職工作。深度訪談年輕人的收入中位數為15,200元，而問卷調查的收入中位數結果則是6,000至9,999元。一方面，大部分有全職工作的青年認為自己工時長、部分行業長期低薪，比不上任職其他行業的同輩，而覺得不滿。壓力同時來自高昂的生活成本和遙不可及的人生目標，包括置業。

大約四成接受第二輪深度訪談的青年自認是貧窮，他們對於貧窮有多元化的理解。有青年認為三餐不繼才算得上貧窮，有些人覺得人工未達到港人月入中位數就算是貧窮，亦有人認很多目標未能達成，導致「精神貧窮」。其餘自覺不貧窮的青年部分歸因於家庭支援，可以滿足基本需求以外的消費，例如購物和旅遊。

絕大部分已有全職工作的受訪青年覺得最低工資調整幅度太低，自己未能受惠。無論認為自己屬於中產或基層的受訪者，均有共識，認為即使法定最低工資水平提升至40元依然是太低，與市場脫節，調整幅度不合理。不少人往往將最低工資時薪和「一餐飯」的開支掛鉤，認為最低工資水平要吃得起「一餐飯」才合理。受訪者認為最低工資如有合理升幅及政策檢討，對基層家庭及兼職工作者有很大幫助。

問卷調查結果推算，受訪青年要滿足現時的生活開支水平，時薪應該要達到71.6元。問卷調查的結果顯示青年的個人月均生活支出為16,789元，扣除教育開支，平均每月支出約14,894元，按一個月工作26日，每日8小時計算出時薪水平為71.6元，與目前最低工資水平相距很遠。

研究團隊建議，政府應從多方面著手解決此迫切的社會問題。首先，當局應檢討最低工資政策的定位，使它與其他扶貧政策互相配合，以保障不同需要的群體；第二，當局應透明化最低工資的調整過程，改為「一年一檢」；第三，團隊建議重啟標準工時立法程序，訂明標準工時應為每周40小時，加班工資應為正常工資的1.5倍，每月亦應設有加班和總工時上限，並以此為基礎制定「過勞死」的法律定義，把過勞死定為僱主須按《僱員補償條例》（第282章）作出補償的事故。最後，團隊建議政府主動開展設立失業保障制度的工作，包括探討供款式失業保險、檢討現行失業綜援、遣散費／長期服務金，並重視年輕人對相關政策的意見。

Assessing Functional Biodiversity For The Future Of Plants, Planet, And People, Ali Loker

Doctor of Plant Health Program: Dissertations and Student Research

Biodiversity plays a critical role in supporting life in global ecosystems and its links to ecosystem services and sustainability are recognized by scientific and non-scientific communities. Growing awareness of the importance of biodiversity is accelerated by discussions of its loss, and how to design interventions to conserve and mitigate a biodiversity crisis. Stakeholders are funding and implementing assessment strategies at various scales to help direct conservation efforts. There is also growing interest in measuring and communicating biodiversity outcomes.

Functional biodiversity characterizes the multiplicity of life forms into groups based on their diverse contributions to natural and agro-ecosystems. Assessing functional biodiversity …

The Impact Of Sexual Violence On Women's Dating Lives: Understanding Enjoyment Of Sexualization Among Sexual Violence Survivors, Jaela Hardin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This project seeks to understand the relationship between women’s former experiences of sexual violence and their present relationship with sex. Specifically, this study seeks to identify whether women with a history of sexual violence victimization now experience enjoyment of sexualization by others – most often men - in their daily life, as well as whether these same women also engage in self-objectification. Data from a community sample of single women aged 21-30 was collected online to record women’s responses on a variety of measures related to their sex and dating life. This project also explores whether women’s responses regarding enjoyment …

The Impact Of Parent Math Anxiety On Parent Homework Help Behaviors, Makenzie P. Starlin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Math anxiety is commonly defined as negative feelings toward mathematics or solving mathematics problems (Dowker et al., 2016). Research indicates that math anxiety can influence parenting behaviors during homework interactions, which can involve behaviors that are autonomy supportive, or allow the child to initiate the homework task, or controlling, which does not allow the child to be actively engaged (Retanal et al., 2021) In particular, autonomy support behaviors allow children to work through homework on their own, whereas control behaviors do not allow children to work through the homework on their own and instead involve parents overseeing the homework help …

All Bark And No Byte: A Case Study On Nuclear Weapons' Role In Cyber Deterrence, Phuc Nguyen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In what some scholars consider a marked departure from its traditional policy, the U.S.' 2018 Nuclear Deterrence Posture Review declared that the U.S. would consider the use of nuclear weapons in response to "significant, non-nuclear strategic attacks." However, despite real-world examples of the type of significant cyberattacks on U.S., allied, or partner civilian population or infrastructure alluded to in the Review, the factors that might trigger multidomain escalation remain underexplored, which creates a credibility gap in the U.S.' deterrence policy. This paper explores these factors by providing a case study of the North Korean WannaCry and Russian NotPetya cyberattacks and …

Life Satisfaction And Psychological And Physical Well-Being, V. Krishna Kumar, Jasmin Tahmaseb-Mcconatha

College of the Sciences & Mathematics Faculty Books

A special issue of International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (ISSN 1660-4601). This special issue belongs to the section "Health-Related Quality of Life and Well-Being". It showcases a review and empirical studies on life satisfaction and its related aspects. The studies are from several countries on a wide range of samples including university students, faculty, nurses, entrepreneurs, adolescents, national databases, refugees, and community samples

Prof. Dr. V. K. Kumar
Prof. Dr. Jasmin Tahmaseb-McConatha
Guest Editors

Rethinking The "Phillips Curve" In Nigeria: Assessing The Unemployment-Inflation Nexus In A Non-Linear Framework, Oba Efayema Obukohwo, Hilda Enoh Olele

Bullion

The need to boost economic growth through policies that will simultaneously enhance employment and price stability cannot be overemphasized for a developing economy like Nigeria. This study thus seeks to ascertain the nexus between unemployment and inflation in Nigeria utilizing unemployment, and other control variables between 1980 and 2020 within a nonlinear framework, the study invalidated the inverse relationship. The study thus proposed that government should formulate and implement policies that will stimulate growth through an unemployment-inflation decelerating trajectory.

Great Expectations: Technical Services And The Library Director, David Banush

Faculty and Staff Publications

Discusses challenges and opportunities for technical services in a landscape of shifting scholarly communication, increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, and evolving information acquisitions.

Texas School Social Workers: Who And Where Are They?, George Padilla, Velma D. Menchaca, Astrid Gandaria

Organization and School Leadership Faculty Publications

School social workers have a long history in American education and much research is needed to better understand their role and impact in schools. Texas schools employ one of the highest numbers of school social workers in the country, but there is also little to no research related to their demographics, working conditions, or effectiveness. Only one recent study on Texas school social workers was found in the research literature. This report analyzes Texas state reports, available to the public on the internet or by specific request from the Texas Education Agency, to develop a descriptive and exploratory overview of …

Forging Ahead: Highlights From The 2023 Asma Conference, Marshall Magnusen

Journal of Applied Sport Management

The 2023 Applied Sport Management Association conference took place in Birmingham, Alabama and saw 200 attendees converge on the city to enjoy sport venues, research, and fellowship. It was hosted by Samford University under the direction of Dr. Patrick Marsh and his incredible students. Several highlights from the most recent conference are included in this article.

"Woman, Life, Freedom": A Movement In Progress In Iran, Arastoo Dabiri

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

On September 16, 2022, a new movement began in Iran. It shows the potential to be a serious uprising. The death of an Iranian woman in the street in Tehran, the capital of Iran, due to being beaten by morality police because she was wearing an unappropriated hijab sparked the uprising. Her death was a result of wearing an “inappropriate” hijab. This was an excuse that turned on people’s anger not only because of hijab but also because there are many other combinations of causes to bring out people for protest. This movement was started because people were dissatisfied with …

Iscsc President’S Report: Two Exciting Events Coming Up, Lynn Rhodes

Comparative Civilizations Review

Why was the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations created more than a half century ago by UNESCO and what has guided our comparative civilizations endeavors from then to these days?

Thinking Ahead: The Advent Of New Paradigms In International Relations Theory: “Truth Unfolds In Time Through A Communal Process.” - Carroll Quigley, Vlad Alalykin-Izvekov Phd

Comparative Civilizations Review

International Relations Theory is a branch of Political Science that studies International Relations from a theoretical perspective. Historically, it was dominated by two paradigms — Realism and Liberalism. Recently, though, among other theories and perspectives an influential Civilizational Paradigm has emerged. The paper contains analysis of the roots, significance, as well as discontents of those schools of thought. Looking into the future, the author of this paper proposes the Integralistic Paradigm in International Relations Theory.

The Soul Of Russia And The Soul Of Ukraine, David Wilkinson

Comparative Civilizations Review

This essay addresses the issue of two contemporary state identities — that of Russia and that of Ukraine.

A Comparative Analysis Of Black American Student Experiences And International Student Experiences During The Initial Months Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Leah P. Hollis Edd

Comparative Civilizations Review

The Covid-19 pandemic created an indelible mark on K-12 education — specifically, high school students transitioning to college and career. The global scope of this pandemic presented an opportunity to compare how high school cultures across the world adapted to the emergency. Further, news reports highlighted how communities of color were more susceptible to the pandemic.

To better understand how the Black student experience in middle America compared to that of other students from the global community in responding to pandemic-related educational disruption, I used Krippendorff’s content analysis procedures (2018) and a phenomenological interview process to gather and analyze data …

Book Review: Duane W Roller. Eratosthenes’ Geography: Fragments Collected And Translated, With Commentary And Additional Material, Tseggai Isaac

Comparative Civilizations Review

Duane W. Roller brought back to life the enigmatic and flamboyant Eratosthenes by capturing the rich details of Eratosthenes’ intellectual background, his personal life, Eratosthenes’ Geographika; and how Eratosthenes was received by contemporary and nascent critics in later years and decades. Eratosthenes was practical and controversial in the sense that he seemed to use unorthodox methodology of practical observation combined with creative and inventive scientific and mathematical intricacies to explain, define, and analyze his findings. He was flamboyant and fertile in his discoveries and the breadth of his creative imaginations of unparalleled perspicuity. Roller observed:

The discipline of geography …

Book Review: Katell Berthelot. Jews And Their Roman Rivals: Pagan Rome’S Challenge To Israel, Joseph Drew

Comparative Civilizations Review

This is a magisterial work, one which sets high the bar in the comparative study of civilizations. In it, Prof. Katell Berthelot covers the sweep of 600 years, from the second century, BCE, to the fourth century, CE, as she analyzes the extensive impact of Rome on Jewish ideas of law, religion, and peoplehood and, secondarily, the corresponding impact of their rivals, the Jews, on Roman society and history.

Book Review: Robert Irwin. Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography, Leland Conley Barrows

Comparative Civilizations Review

Robert Irwin (b. 1946), a British historian, novelist, and essayist, became so enthralled by Arabic Muslim society, politics, language, literature, and culture that while reading modern history at Oxford University in the 1960’s, he became a Muslim during his first summer vacation which he spent at a Sufi Alawi foundation in Algeria. In parallel, he developed a fascination for the Tunisian polymath, Wali al-Din ‘Abd al Rahman Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) who has been variously described as the greatest Muslim intellectual, the greatest social scientist of the Middle Ages, the founder of Sociology and the critical study of history, and a …

Family Therapy And Civilization And Its Discontents, Bonnie K. Lee

Comparative Civilizations Review

Myth or history, the origin of civilization was ascribed in the Hebrew scriptures to the first couple, Adam and Eve, and to the intergenerational saga of their descendants. Civilization has been a concern of psychoanalysts since the time of Freud and Jung, the fathers of depth psychology. In their mature years, they applied their theories and observations of human nature to the tumultuous events of the First and Second World Wars.

Taking their cues, the author utilizes key concepts and insights from family therapy on couple conflict as a lens for analyzing international relations, with the goal for finding their …

What Constitutes Evidence For An Historical Explanation?, Kenneth Feigenbaum

Comparative Civilizations Review

What constitutes evidence for an historical explanation? What constitutes evidence for the explanations of the falls and rises of civilization? Better, what constitutes evidence for the best explanation of this phenomenon?

The purpose of this article is to acquaint the readers of the Comparative Civilizations Review with the work of a philosopher of history, Raymond Martin. In particular, I will present his approach on what constitutes how a decision should be made as to which explanation of an historical event is superior to another and why this is so.

Full Issue

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Planning, Preserving, And Increasing Accessibility: A Reflection On Going “Car-Free”, Abigail J. Weizer

City and Regional Planning

This paper studies the accessibility of car-free areas to those with mobility impairments by examining three car-free and car-lite experiments in California. Whether slowly converted to car-free with long-term, careful planning, or expeditiously changed to car-free during the COVID-19 pandemic, these three car-free experiments show the shortcomings of planning for accessibility in car-free spaces, and how instead of improving accessibility, current planning practice often hinders it. This paper offers a deep-dive into the drawbacks and benefits of going car-free and the ethical and legal reasons why urban planners, designers, and policymakers must consider the accessibility of a space before planning …

Increasing Conceptual Clarity Of Act Interventions For Burnout: A Novel Workshop For Women In Ministry, Lydia Hogan

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

The purpose of this study is threefold; to address a gap in the literature concerning mechanism of change of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions for burnout, to create an evidence-based burnout intervention for women in ministry, and to propose a theory of burnout etiology and recovery. Participants in this novel 6-week online ACT-based workshop showed significant improvement in burnout, particularly those who endorsed higher pre-intervention burnout. Change in burnout scores was inconsistently mediated by changes in psychological flexibility across dimensions of personal burnout, work burnout, and client burnout as measured on the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Findings of this study …

A Word From The Writing Team (March 2023), Pam Walter, Mfa, Liz Declan, Ma, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Join us Friday for our writing retreat
• Writing Retreats on First Fridays (Virtual)
• Science Communication Series Science Slam
• Editing and Reviewing Training
• Faculty Days 2023 Deadline

Pakistan's Economy Under Musharraf, Ishrat Husain Dr.

Faculty Research - Newspaper and Magazine Articles

Economic achievements during President Musharraf's regime are often dismissed outright due to abhorrence of military rule, the imposition of emergency in 2007, Pakistan's involvement in the Afghanistan war, open tussle with the judiciary, and the quest to get elected in uniform. This article is an attempt to provide a first-hand, data-driven account of the economic record of the period 2000-2008, covering macroeconomic stabilization through IMF arrangements, debt re-profiling through Paris Club, aggressive privatization yielding $3 billion, financial sector reforms, fiscal consolidation, and trade liberalization that resulted in GDP growth of approximately 6.3 percent per year, poverty headcount falling from 34 …

Exploring The Trajectory And Correlates Of Social Isolation For Veterans Across A 6-Month Period During Covid-19, Adam P. Mcguire, Colby Elmore, Yvette Z. Szabo, A. Solomon Kurz, Corina Mendoza, Emre Umucu, Suzanne K. Creech

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Social isolation is a relevant problem for veterans who are at risk for disengaging from others as a function of transition stress from military life to civilian life, and given high rates of exposure to trauma and psychological distress. Few researchers have examined social isolation in veterans over time, particularly during COVID-19 that led to significant barriers and restrictions on social interactions. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to assess veterans' experience of social isolation and its mental health and social functioning correlates during a 6-month period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants were 188 United States veterans of the …

Classifying Severe And Enduring Anorexia Nervosa: A Literature Review, Phoenix Black

University Honors Theses

Little focus is placed on the subsection of the eating disorder patient population who struggle chronically with their illness. This review synthesizes research on the topic to identify gaps in knowledge and reflect on implications for diagnosis and classification of severe and enduring anorexia nervosa. There was some variability between both clinicians and researchers who focused on this patient population, which is discussed based on different classifying criteria used to include or exclude an individual into the study. This review considers traditional methods used for classifying psychiatric diagnoses in relation to this disorder.

Exploring Perspectives On Social And Emotional Learning Programs In Schools, Gina N. Carruth

University Honors Theses

This study explores different viewpoints on the implementation of social and emotional learning (SEL) programs in schools. Using a literature review approach, information was collected through peer-reviewed and online articles to examine the benefits and potential challenges of SEL programs in promoting students' social and emotional development. The findings reveal that while there is widespread support for SEL programs, there are also concerns about its implementation, effectiveness, and potential unintended consequences. This study contributes to the field by highlighting the need for a more nuanced and critical understanding of SEL programs, and their impact on students as well as insight …