Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Fentanyl Use Among People Who Inject Drugs In Two Large Pacific Northwest Metropolitan Areas., Lauren Lipira, Sara N. Glick, Courtney Moreno, Lalaine Sevillano, Matthew A. Town, Timothy W. Menza

Regional Research Institute for Human Services

Background

We examined fentanyl use and outcomes among people who inject drugs (PWID) in the urban Pacific Northwest (PNW).

Methods We conducted secondary analysis of data from the 2022 National HIV Behavioral Surveillance PWID cycle from Portland, OR and Seattle, WA. We calculated proportions of any fentanyl, injection fentanyl, non-injection fentanyl, and street pill use. Next, we compared characteristics, behaviors, and outcomes by any fentanyl use. Finally, we estimated adjusted relative risk (aRR) of overdose outcomes associated with fentanyl use and injecting less associated with type of street pill use.

Results

Among 835 PWID, 76% reported fentanyl use, 47% injection …

Reared In Disaster: The Long-Run Harm From Childhood Storm Exposure, Lucas Kaplan

Center for Policy Research

I estimate how exposure to natural disasters in childhood shapes earnings and schooling later in life, using newly assembled county-date disaster records dating back to 1951 linked to residential histories in the NLSY79. I compare adult outcomes for children who are born in the same county but due to disaster timing experience different amounts of exposure, finding that severe and repeat disasters reduce earnings. I show that school-age disaster exposure drives long-run harm: exposure between ages 5 and 10 reduces educational attainment, while exposure between ages 10 and 15 reduces adult earnings. Finally, Black individuals suffer larger earnings losses than …

Data Centers In Mountain West Markets, 2026, Cason Noll, Krish Sharma, Maisoon Faris, Olivia K. Cheche, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Transportation & Infrastructure

This fact sheet reports on the distribution and geographic concentration of data centers across the Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah as of March 6th, 2026. Using data from DataCenterMap, this fact sheet examines the number of data centers in each Mountain West state and further analyzes market-level  distribution, defined as cities within each state where data centers are located. The data are used to compare state totals and to rank Mountain West markets from highest to lowest based on the number of data centers operating in that area.

Household Expenditure And Insurance Adoption As Determinants Of Financial Risk In Urban Companion Animal Healthcare, Hong Yun Wu, Chee Vui Wong, Changh Hao Han

Jesselton Journal of Educators and Scholars

Urban households increasingly face financial exposure associated with companion animal healthcare in market-based systems where costs are largely borne out of pocket. This study examines how household expenditure and insurance adoption shape financial risk in urban companion animal healthcare. Using survey data from 500 urban households, the analysis investigates expenditure patterns, predictors of pet insurance adoption, and spatial variation in healthcare spending across urban districts. Regression results show that household income, number of pets owned, educational attainment, and age are significantly associated with variation in annual healthcare expenditure. Logistic regression findings indicate that insurance adoption is driven more by socioeconomic …

Esg, Institutional Investors, And Financing Constraints: Evidence From Chinese Listed Companies, Zhu Yinquan

Student Works (2020-2029)

This thesis examines the relationship between Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and financing constraints, placing particular emphasis on the moderating role of institutional investors in listed Chinese firms. Drawing on information asymmetry theory, the study argues that ESG performance can reduce financing constrains by narrowing informational discrepancies between firms and external capital providers. While prior research has largely focused on the direct effects of ESG on financing, limited attention has been given to the ways in which institutional investors who are both major users of ESG information and active participants in corporate governance shape this relationship. China’s capital market …

Public School-Affiliated Preschool Programs In New Hampshire, 2024–2025 School Year, Tyrus Parker, Kamala Nasirova, Jess Carson

Carsey Publications

In this brief, Tyrus Parker, Kamala Nasirova, and Jess Carson report on the results from the second annual New Hampshire preschool in public schools survey. The authors find that, in the 2024–2025 school year, there were 147 public school-affiliated preschool programs in the state. In total, public school-affiliated preschool programs reported serving 5,471 children statewide, an increase of 7.9 percent compared to reported enrollment in the prior school year. The authors note that these programs can be a valuable option for New Hampshire families in the state's early learning ecosystem.

Insecure Attachment Predicts Poor Sexual Communication Among Emerging Adults, Carson T. O'Leary

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

Sexual communication significantly predicts sexual satisfaction within adult romantic relationships (Byers, 2011). Further, research has demonstrated that relationship satisfaction and relationship outcomes are positively influenced by sexual satisfaction (Anderson, 2012). Research regarding interest in promoting long-term romantic relationships should target sexuality-related concerns in romantic partners. Sexuality research grounded in attachment theory has provided promising results. Attachment theory hypothesizes that individuals develop an attachment style based on early life experiences with their caregiver(s). These styles strongly predict how individuals respond to loved ones, including romantic partners (Bell & Ainsworth, 2023). Research also suggests insecurely attached individuals struggle with effective communication in …

Conjoined Twins And Abortion Restrictions: Navigating 'Ban State' Challenges, A Case Report, Beau Morgan Nrp

Pursuit - The Journal of Undergraduate Research at The University of Tennessee

This case report highlights an unusual scenario of a conjoined twin pregnancy resulting from intrauterine insemination in a state with restrictive abortion laws. Despite a diagnosis deemed not compatible with life, the patient faced legal barriers preventing termination within their home state. Forced to seek care out-of-state, the patient underwent a successful termination at ten weeks and three days after lengthy and expensive travel. This case stresses the complex challenges posed by restrictive abortion laws, impacting patient access to essential medical interventions. The case demonstrates the critical intersections between medical care, medical ethics, legal constraints, and patient outcomes in managing …

The Human Rights Fulcrum: Using Environmental Rights As Leverage For Change, Rebecca Bratspies

Pace International Law Review

“Give me a lever long enough and a firm place on which to stand and I will move the earth." That is how Archimedes famously described the power of levers and the possibility they create for moving something that otherwise seems immovable. His point was that with the use of distance, a fulcrum, and a lever, nothing is really immovable. This same characterization has been applied to human rights law, and its attempts to disrupt patterns of structural dispossession, discrimination and oppression that bedevil human society. Indeed, the metaphor that human rights are a lever for change is relatively common …

From Courtrooms To Classrooms: Experiments In Survival, Justin Surdyka

Journal of Prison Education Research

The transformative powers of college-in-prison programs are known, but students get the grave of continued incarceration—even if we are fully rehabilitated. For the college-in-prison student who spends years in classes, degrees and parole denials are synonymous, especially for those of us who have committed violent off enses. We are educated but not redeemed in the eyes of the system. My classmates and I are the degrees behind the denials, the students behind the degrees, the prisoners behind the students, the human beings behind the prisoners who are the reason higher education in prison is praised for being transformative. Yet we …

From Texas To Tehran: A Multilingual, Irgc-Affiliated Influence Operation On X, Instagram, And Bluesky, Ella Murray, Darren Linvill

Media Forensics Hub Reports

We disclose and analyze a new network of at least 62 accounts affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolu- tionary Guard Corps (IRGC). These accounts can be broadly collected into two groups, one set operat- ed in Spanish pretending to be located in the Americas and one set operated in English pretending to be in the British Isles. Among the first set are accounts claiming to be in Texas, California, Venezuela, and Chile, while the second set of accounts claim to be from Scotland, England, and Ireland. All these accounts systematically amplify politically divisive content and disinformation aligned with IRGC nar- ratives, …

Lindenwood Digest, March 11, 2026, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

• Key Events: The "Rise and Run: Running for School Board-Lunch and Learn" on March 19 features a panel on public service governance; the "Annual Assessment and Planning Summit" will recognize faculty and staff for excellence in data-informed strategies and assessment innovation. 

• Primary Figures: Panelists Karen Bernstein (University City), Jamal Bailey (Ferguson-Florissant), and Sarah Oekle (Francis Howell) will be moderated by former State Senator Jill Schupp; Athletic Coordinator Griffin Manning is recognized for supporting student-athlete travel to beach volleyball. 

• Date/Location: Events are scheduled between March 11 and April 3, 2026, primarily occurring at the Spellmann Center AB Leadership …

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Executive Functioning In Schizophrenia Using A Novel Virtual Reality-Simulated Workplace: Validity, Test-Retest Reliability, And Links To Competitive Employment, Ernest Marek Tyburski, Ewa Zawadzka, Adrianna Bober, Ewa Karabanowicz, Piotr Podwalski, Jerzy Samochowiec, Anna Michalczyk, Shane T. Mueller, Michał Szelepajło, Błażej Misiak, Monika Folkierska-Żukowska, Monika Mak, Michał Harciarek, Krzysztof Wietrzyński, Ashok Jansari

Michigan Tech Publications

Virtual reality offers a promising avenue for the assessment of executive functioning in complex workplace environments. However, its use in schizophrenia remains limited. For that reason, we investigated the validity and test-retest reliability of the Jansari assessment of Executive Functions (JEF©) in individuals with schizophrenia and its associations with competitive employment. A total of 69 participants with schizophrenia and 67 healthy controls completed JEF© and standard tests. A subsample of 58 patients was retested after an 8-week interval. Individuals with schizophrenia performed more poorly than controls on JEF© (p <  0.001) and standard tests (p <  0.05). JEF© scores correlated with standard measures (p <  0.05), except inhibition tests, and with clinician-report of everyday problems (p <  0.001). Total score showed a good test-retest reliability and the practice adjusted RCI indicated 87.9% of patients remained stable over 8 weeks. In logistic regression, higher JEF© total score significantly predicted competitive employment after adjusting for age (p = 0.004) and remained significant when …

How Do Minimum Wages Affect Workplace Injuries?, Michael Davies, R. Jisung Park, Anna Stansbury

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

Interlibrary Loan: From Basics To Current Issues, Jennifer K. Lloyd

Library Faculty Publications

While interlibrary loan has been a core service for health science libraries for decades, changes in policies, software, and workflow are accelerating. This webinar will explain some basics of ILL and its platforms while also focusing on current issues and changes that are confronting libraries.

Quantifying And Integrating Community Hardship Into Two-Stage Stochastic Grid Reliability Optimization With Battery Storage, Fredrica Arthur

LSU Master's Theses

Traditional reliability planning for conventional distribution systems is largely utility-oriented, with a focus on collective system performance metrics like Expected Energy Not Supplied (EENS), where implicitly all unserved energy is considered of equal weight in terms of post-outage economic hardship. Yet, it is well understood that extended outage durations cause an uneven level of hardship to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. This thesis proposes a community-informed reliability planning framework where the hardship caused by outages is explicitly considered in the battery energy storage system (BESS) location and sizing problem. First, a hardship-weighted Energy Not Supplied (WENS) measure is proposed, where income, education, …

Minimum Wages And Workplace Injuries, Michael Davies, R. Jisung Park, Anna Stansbury

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

How do minimum wage changes affect workplace amenities? Using the universe of claims from California, the US’ largest workers’ compensation system, over 2000-2019, we exploit geographic variation in state- and city-level minimum wages and local occupation-level variation in exposure to minimum wage changes to estimate whether minimum wage increases affect the rate of workplace injuries. We find a large adverse effect of raising minimum wages on injuries. A 10% increase in the minimum wage increases the injury rate by 7.2% in an occupation-metro area labor market which is fully exposed to the minimum wage increase. Our results imply an elasticity …

Availability Model To Evaluate Ai Data Centers’ Role In Grid Stability, Troy Mcsimov, Trevor S. Kunz, Jeffrey Billo

SMU Data Science Review

The United States has made it clear; it is imperative that the US wins the global AI race. This paper focuses on one of the most challenging puzzle pieces surfaced at the POWER Data Center conference (San Antonio, Sept. 30.); for Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) the limiting factor is not generation alone but the need to balance generation and load to preserve grid reliability.

The regulatory landscape fundamentally changed with the passage of Texas Senate Bill 6 in June 2025, which mandates new large loads must "contribute to the recovery of the interconnecting electric utility’s costs" (Texas Legislature, …

Social Education In Disruption – From Pressure To Proactive Solutions, Aoife Prendergast

Journal of Social Care

In November 2025, FESET members gathered at the European Parliament in Strasbourg for our seminar, “Under Pressure – Social Education in Disruption.” The choice of venue was a deliberate statement of intent. By anchoring our discussions within the heart of European democracy, we underscored a fundamental truth: social education is not merely a domestic or peripheral concern. It is a vital pillar of social cohesion and the democratic fabric of the European project.

As President of FESET, it is an honour to introduce this collection of insights and research to the readers of the Journal of Social Care, reflecting …

Social Care Workers’ Perspectives About Their Work, Qualifications And Career Progression Opportunities., Shirley Boyle

Journal of Social Care

Delivering high‑quality, person‑centred social care depends on a stable, skilled, and experienced workforce that is appropriately valued. In Northern Ireland, policy rhetoric over the past decade has consistently highlighted the need for sustained investment in the social care workforce. Against this backdrop, the Northern Ireland Social Care Council commissioned this study to ensure that the perspectives of social care workers are central to workforce development initiatives. The study involved a cross‑sectional, population‑based survey of 586 social care workers. The survey explored participants’ experiences of working in social care, their views about qualifications and training, exploring barriers and enablers to qualification …

How To Train Social Intervention Professionals In A Polarised World?, Bruno Michon

Journal of Social Care

This article examines the challenges of training social intervention professionals in an increasingly polarised society. Drawing on theoretical perspectives on political and affective polarisation, it explores how contemporary social divisions shape social work practice. The analysis includes findings from a five-year qualitative study on radicalisation prevention in France, highlighting tensions between security imperatives and the ethical foundations of social work. These tensions often generate mistrust and professional dilemmas for practitioners. The article argues that social work education must address polarisation directly. It proposes three key responses: reaffirming human rights as the ethical foundation of the profession, adopting professional stances that …

Strengthening Emotional Self-Regulation Through Play: An Innovative Simulation Game For Resilience In Health And Social Professions, Amelie Büchler, Bettina Flaiz, Sabine Münzenmay

Journal of Social Care

Healthcare and social work professionals are currently facing a crisis characterised by chronic stress, burnout, and high attrition rates. While the root causes of these issues are often systemic, the emotional burden falls heavily on individual professionals, often leading to maladaptive coping mechanisms such as "cool-out" strategies or withdrawal. This article introduces the Erasmus+ project Simply4Emotions, which addresses this challenge by developing a digital-physical simulation game designed to foster emotional self-regulation and resilience. Grounded in the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping and the Process Model of Emotion Regulation, the game utilises a mountaineering metaphor to create a safe …

How Art You Today? Art, Aesthetics And Creativity In Social Educational Care Work Curricula Under Pressure., Bart Vanhoenacker

Journal of Social Care

Curricula in Social Educational Care Work increasingly face structural pressures shaped by neoliberal logics, managerial priorities and cost-efficiency paradigms. Creative and artistic components, traditionally central in the curricula, are particularly targeted, despite a growing consensus in research and professional practice regarding the indispensable role of art and creativity for personal development, well-being, social connection and inclusion. This article analyses institutional pressures, shifting curriculum priorities and the risks associated with diminished artistic courses and outlines pathways for strengthening art‑based and creative pedagogies in the current challenging context.

Les programmes d'études en travail social éducatif sont soumis à une pression structurelle croissante, …

Dillemas Facing Social Care, Paula Byrne

Journal of Social Care

No abstract provided.

Under Pressure: Stories Out Of Youth Care, Elien Decock, Nele Cox

Journal of Social Care

In this practice‑oriented research we explore how storyweaving can counterbalance the increasingly negative public discourse surrounding youth care. While societal narratives often emphasise staff shortages, aggression, and systemic failure, youth care workers also describe moments of connection, growth, and meaning that rarely enter the dominant conversation. Through nine storyweaving workshops with 79 youth care workers, six duo‑interviews across roles and organisations, and ongoing reflection with a professional steering group, three central themes emerged: the importance of connection and recognition, the shrinking “space in between” where genuine relational work can occur, and the need to focus on process rather than results. …

The Evolving Landscape Of Social Education In The Uk: The Legacy Of Neoliberalism Affecting Uk Children And Those Who Support Them, And The Considerable Value Of Its Potential Counterbalance — Social Pedagogy, Robyn Kemp

Journal of Social Care

This paper examines the erosion of concern for the social and relational in the United Kingdom through four decades of neoliberal policy, and argues for social pedagogy as a principled and urgently needed counterbalance. Drawing on a career spanning public, charitable, and academic practice primarily with children in and on the edges of care, it traces how the introduction of neoliberalism under Thatcher in the 1980s — and its institutionalisation through New Public Management in the 1990s — systematically dismantled the relational, ethical, and communal foundations of work with children. The consequences are documented in stark statistical terms: rising school …

Is Authentic Assessment Our Only Hope? Exploring The Potential Of The Integrative Framework For Social Care To Address Challenges Posed By Generative Ai., Jennifer Mcgarr, Dr. Margaret Fingleton

Journal of Social Care

Social Care education in Ireland is experiencing rapid change, driven by technological advancements and the growing influence of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). While these developments create new learning opportunities, they also raise concerns about academic integrity and the erosion of critical thinking. Educators must simultaneously ensure graduates meet CORU’s regulatory standards and can adapt to the evolving scope of social care practice. CORU is Ireland’s multi-professional state regulatory of health and social care professions. Traditional assessment methods are increasingly questioned for their ability to foster professional competence, prompting interest in authentic assessment approaches that emphasise real-world application and the development …

Practices And Ethics In The Act Of Transmission In Social Work In A Disrupted Environment, Ana-Luana Deram, Ségolène Payan

Journal of Social Care

At the dawn of the 21st century, we are witnessing demographic, sociological, professional and institutional changes that accompany educational policies and transformations in social work training, giving rise to paradoxical demands sometimes being placed on educators. Like a beacon, adherence to an ethic of consideration in transmission through teaching, sharing and comprehension, nourish the reflection associated with the support of today's social work students.

En ce début de XXIème siècle nous sommes témoins des changements démographiques, sociologiques, professionnels et institutionnels qui accompagnent les politiques éducatives et les mutations de la formation en travail social, à l’origine des injonctions paradoxales parfois …

Counseling Satisfaction In Lgbtq Clients: The Roles Of Perceived Counselor Religiosity And Perceived Discrimination, Karen Cain Culbertson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

LGBTQ individuals experience mental health issues more frequently than the heterosexual population (Benz et al., 2019; Hinton et al., 2024; Nakamura & Logie, 2020). It appears that they often face unique challenges when seeking mental health care (Makadon et al., 2015). These may become complex when working with Christian counselors when there are conflicting beliefs between their religious views and their counseling standards (Lane, 2021). Although previous research has identified barriers to care for the LGBTQ community and the psychological impact of non-affirming religious settings, there is little research on how these dynamics unfold specifically within a Christian counseling relationship …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Women Caregivers Of The Sandwich Generation, Keri L. Burns

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe female members of the sandwich generation’s experiences as care providers during and post-COVID-19 in Central Florida. At this research stage, female members of the sandwich generation are understood as women in midlife who occupy dual caregiving roles for dependent children and aging parents, and whose lived experiences offer insight into caregiving experiences during a global pandemic. (Steiner & Fletcher, 2017). As life expectancy has increased and financial insecurity has been a concern for all generations, the sandwich generation caregivers, specifically women, have become more focused on providing varying levels of care …