Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Corruption In Uganda, Jared Saxton

Ballard Brief

Corruption in Uganda accounts for ½ of government expenditure and mainly benefits the rich and well connected. Due to weak and unspecific laws, corruption is often not enforced in the nation. Additionally, when there are adequate laws in place, enforcement agencies often benefit from corruption and are therefore unmotivated to take action against it. Cultural factors mean that corruption is socially acceptable in many cases and is common throughout the nation. Foreign aid props up corrupt government expenditure because funding comes from an external source, and thus, the government feels less accountable to its citizens. Corruption results in poor service …

Inadequate Wash Infrastructure Among Rural Populations In The Pacific Islands, Olivia Wallgreen

Ballard Brief

Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) are key aspects for development that allows families to five clean and healthy lives. However. many regions of the world. including the Pacific Islands Region. do not have proper facilities and funding to build or maintain WASH infrastructure. especially in rural areas. About 45% of rural Pacific Islanders lack access to adequate sanitation and 13% lack access to basic drinking water. Natural disasters. climate change, insufficient government action. and difficult geographic features make developing WASH infrastructure challenging. Inadequate WASH infrastructure increases the prevalence of disease and negatively affects the ecosystems of the islands. While these …

Inadequate Maternal Health Care For Women In The United States, Rebecca Stull Zundel

Ballard Brief

Although insufficient maternal health care has seen improvements in most developed countries, it is still a rising issue in the United States. This insufficiency may partly be due to the accessibility barriers that both rural and urban women face in reaching adequate care. Additionally, the expenses of maternal care or gender discrimination within medical establishments may dissuade women from seeking the care that they need. Women who receive inadequate care are at a higher risk for maternal mortality, the death of their unborn or newly born infant, and having a low-birth weight child, which comes with many issues of its …

Deficiencies Within Guatemalan Criminal Justice Institutions When Detecting And Prosecuting Sextortion Crimes, Julia A. Bolotovsky

Student Theses

Sextortion is a form of corruption involving sexual exploitation, in which requests for monetary bribes are replaced by requests for sexual acts. Within Latin America, this crime is especially pertinent in Guatemala. Therefore, this study aims to identify which factors contribute to the occurrence of sextortion within Guatemala, while also analyzing the larger realm of violence against women. Based on semi-structured interviews with local experts and civil society activists, this study argues that sextortion is enabled by deficiencies within Guatemalan criminal justice institutions when detecting and prosecuting this crime. In order to effectively counter sextortion, more emphasis needs to be …

Food Insecurity During Covid-19 In Nyc: Inefficiencies Of Governmental Responses, Jannet Musleh

Student Theses

Due to its status as a liberal welfare state, the United States has largely relied on charities to provide food assistance to its citizens. This reliance on charity became a particular issue in the context of COVID-19 as the charities were unable to efficiently feed food insecure households. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the issue of food insecurity within New York City and shown the cracks within the food emergency distribution network. There is limited research on food insecurity nested in welfare state theory that scrutinizes the failures of government. The overall aim of this paper is to explore the …

Female Students’ Perception Of Stem Identity At Utrgv, Kristen L. Hallas

Honors Theses

Despite the increase in representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate programs, they are still underrepresented in the workforce. Recent statistics published by the National Science Foundation show that the rate of females and Hispanic/Latina females earning degrees does not match the rate in which they earn STEM occupations, especially advanced degrees. Moreover, out of early career doctorate holders, women are less likely to hold post-doctoral scholar positions and are more likely to hold an academic, non-tenure track position. In response to these disparities, I sought to identify the strongest motivators driving the ambition of female …

Nord Stream 2: The Gas Curtain Of Europe, Sarah Elizabeth Nelson

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The debate over the 1,200 kilometer Nord Stream 2 pipeline, capable of delivering 110 billion cubic meters of liquified natural gas (LNG) under the Baltic Sea directly from Russia to Germany, has received global attention since its declaration of intent in 2015. The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is not only significant for the contestation it has created within the European Union but for the divisions it has deepened in the U.S.-German transatlantic alliance. Specifically, many European countries, with an emphasis on Ukraine, and the United States view the pipeline as a Kremlin-instigated operation to exploit Europe’s vulnerability to energy demand …

Rape, Consent, And The U.S. Military, Siris Fernandez

Institute for the Humanities Theses

The military’s sexual assault prevention and response program is unable to effectively eliminate or even minimize occurrences of sexual assault in the service. This program focuses primarily on the elimination of sexual assault through yearly mandatory education on the current policies and procedures that occur when a victim comes forward. The Sexual Assault Prevention and Response (SAPR) program is reactionary and unequipped to tackle a culture that continues to promote a climate in which sexual assault and harassment exist without fear of retaliation. This thesis explores these issues and provides suggestions for changes in future revisions of the SAPR program. …

Investigating Psychological Capital As A Moderator In The Relationship Between Incivility And Stem Students' Major Embeddedness, Kristen Denae Eggler

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Increasing the number of students who graduate from science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors is a national priority in the United States as there is a need for more STEM employees in the labor force. However, less than half of students who initially declare a major in STEM graduate college with a STEM degree, in part because of the unwelcoming climate in STEM. The aim of the current study was to understand how incivility may undermine a student’s embeddedness within their undergraduate major and whether the individual difference of Psychological Capital could assuage the undermining effects. The presence of …

The Impact Of First-Person Perspective Text And Images On Drivers’ Comprehension, Learning Judgments, Attitudes, And Intentions Related To Safe Road-Sharing Behaviors, Alexandra Bryson Proaps

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Drivers and cyclists lack an alignment of road sharing knowledge, attitudes, and expectations, resulting in unnecessary fatalities. Educational countermeasures need to present information that captures drivers’ interest by being personally relevant, facilitate elaboration and synthesis of new information with existing knowledge, and change attitudes, intentions, and behavior. Well-documented health-related communication methods were employed to determine their effectiveness in a transportation domain. Health countermeasure designers use first-person perspective to improve narrative instruction outcomes, based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Exploring narrative perspective-taking as a design tool requires the integration of multiple disciplines.

Our design case stems …

"Quality-Less” Higher Education: Relationship And Neocolonialism In International Development In Afghanistan, Wolayat Tabasum

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This study aimed to explore the internal quality assurance and accreditation (QAA) policy at University X in Afghanistan. A single case study and document review methods were chosen to examine the policy implementation process and its perceived effectiveness at a single university. This case study also explored faculty members' perceptions toward QAA, the policy's impact on teaching and learning, and the opportunities and challenges it might offer. The findings of the study produced unexpected and expected results. The expected findings were tailored around social relationships, labor division, the hierarchy of labor, incompatibility of the policy, and their impact on the …

Complex Thought For Complex Work: Preparing Cognitively Complex Counselors For Work In Diverse Settings, Alexandra C. Gantt

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Counselor education researchers have explored the need for high levels of cognitive complexity (CC) in mental health counselors due to its relationship with high quality counseling skills and counselor ways of being (e.g., Castillo, 2018; McAuliffe & Lovell, 2006; Ridley et al., 2011; Welfare & Borders, 2010b). In these studies, researchers have called for continued study of means of enhancing CC in counselors in training (CITs) through andragogical efforts (e.g., Castillo, 2018; Duys & Hedstrom, 2000; Welfare & Borders, 2010a). However, we do not have an understanding of minimally acceptable CC for graduating CITs. In this study, I explored counselor …

Negative Appraisals And Experiences Of Thriving And Burnout At Work And School During The Covid-19 Pandemic: The Moderating Effect Of Embeddedness, Kate Noel Warnock

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The current study examines the effects of negative appraisals of COVID-19 on thriving and burnout, and whether embeddedness moderates these effects. Specifically, I examined whether negative appraisals of COVID-19 at work and school are related to less thriving and more burnout in the respective domains, and whether the predicted effects of negative appraisals of COVID-19 on thriving and burnout were stronger among those who reported more embeddedness in their job or major compared to those who are less embedded. Additionally, I investigate potential spillover effects of negative COVID-19 appraisals in one domain into the thriving and burnout in the other …

Serendipityblah, Amanda Linn Kunkel

English Theses & Dissertations

So, you’ve stumbled upon my neck of the woods, where the weird and fantastical reside. Wit and humor may save you here but beware of what draws near. Beneath the bright and smiling facade, you may find the danse macabre. Within these pages you’ll find magic and wonder, darkness, and failure. The setting is post-March 2020 in Norfolk, Virginia. An urban city at the heart of Hampton Roads where the lines between reality and otherworldliness blur. Witches protect ghosts in a downtown Abbey. The fae break new ground in the art district of Ghent. Even Death stalks the halls of …

Nonprofit Organizational Performance Measurement And Accountability: Funders Vs. Clients/Missions, Mavis Mansah Agbakpe

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations have funders and clients as their stakeholders whose needs, expectations, or demands might vary. A means through which nonprofit organizations portray their accountability to these stakeholders is through performance measurement. The purpose of this research is to examine what performance metrics human services nonprofit organizations use by way of demonstrating accountability and explore the extent to which funders’ demands or clients needs and organizational missions are considered in measuring performance. In this study I sought to understand how human services nonprofits balance the stakeholders’ needs and expectations through their performance measurement. The overarching research question is: To what …

Blood Lead Levels In Minority Children: A Case Of Environmental Racism, Erick Rivera

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Racial minorities in the United States have suffered from being disadvantaged. Among these disadvantages is environmental racism. This includes minority communities being ‘sacrifice zones’ for toxic waste and being exposed to lead poisoning. The purpose of this study is to examine differences in blood levels between white children and children of color. This research will follow a bivariate model for the first research question, “Do youth of color (under the age of 18) have higher BLLs than white children?” The bivariate model will look at the relationship between ethno-racial group and BLLs. Specifically, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) will be …

A Phenomenological Investigation Of School Counselor Antiracist Social Justice Practices, Stephanie Deonca Smith-Durkin

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Decades after the landmark United States Supreme Court decision of Brown v. The Board of Education of Topeka in 1954, the push continues to make schools a safe and welcoming environment for Black and Brown students. Black students in particular are continuing to be oppressed and marginalized in PK-12 educational settings. Accounting for approximately 15% of public PK-12 students, Black students comprise 13.7% of all students who receive out-of-school suspensions in 2017, are 16% of the special education student population, and are more likely to attend a school with less resources (National Center for Educational Statistics [NCES], 2021; Ramsey, n.d.). …

Tiktok As A Digital Activism Space: Social Justice Under Algorithmic Control, Brittany Haslem

Institute for the Humanities Theses

TikTok, a video sharing application, has become the center of viral internet culture. The app has risen in popularity so quickly that scholarly literature investigating its vast societal impact is still nascent. TikTok is not only used to discuss popular culture topics and create trends, but also being utilized as a tool for social justice activism in the United States in the wake of a tumultuous year with major events such as the coronavirus pandemic, a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and the 2020 presidential election. TikTok activism is not without critiques, ranging from concerns of foreign government …

Data-Driven Framework For Understanding & Modeling Ride-Sourcing Transportation Systems, Bishoy Kelleny

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Ride-sourcing transportation services offered by transportation network companies (TNCs) like Uber and Lyft are disrupting the transportation landscape. The growing demand on these services, along with their potential short and long-term impacts on the environment, society, and infrastructure emphasize the need to further understand the ride-sourcing system. There were no sufficient data to fully understand the system and integrate it within regional multimodal transportation frameworks. This can be attributed to commercial and competition reasons, given the technology-enabled and innovative nature of the system. Recently, in 2019, the City of Chicago the released an extensive and complete ride-sourcing trip-level data for …

Addressing Public Perceptions About Cell-Based Meat And Cellular Agriculture Through Metaphors, Yvette Emma Hubbard

English Theses & Dissertations

Today’s food movement places organic, holistic, and natural foods as priority. The idea aims for better human health, a farm-to-table community, and environmental sustainability. Soon a new meat alternative will become part of the ongoing food movement. What is it? Cell-based protein. It is a protein alternative to livestock protein. It is real protein from a real breathing animal. Cell-based beef for example is grown in a lab with cells from a living cow that does not have to die or be slaughtered. It is destined to become the new protein architecture on the horizon. Parts of this paper are …

How Will God And The Church Fit Into The Metaverse?, Grace Rose

Comm-entary

In this paper, I tell a story about the argument over whether God and the Church will be part of our coming “metaverse.” While we can be pretty sure that the metaverse will be good for the full range of “congregations,” good, reasonable citizens disagree about whether the metaverse will be just a tool in God’s creation or whether the metaverse will move us past traditional notions of God. In this story, I introduce some of the characters who engage in and contribute to this argument. My story also animates some of the argumentative moves that these characters make.

Tiger King: A Case Study In Environmental Media Representation And Effects, Ashley White

Comm-entary

Over the past decades, tiger populations have drastically fallen worldwide to the point where most tigers are listed as endangered or critically endangered. Furthermore, there are currently more tigers living in captivity in the US than in the wild. In this paper, the relationship between the environmental issue of conservation and the effects of mass media productions is explored through a critical analysis of Tiger King. Specifically, the purpose of this paper is to answer the following questions. First, does Tiger King perpetuate or disrupt existing models of documentary narrative and cinematography? (Q1) Second, to what extent is Tiger King …

Rhetorical Analysis Of Setting: Boston Children’S Hospital, Aimee Rothman

Comm-entary

This paper sorts out the architectural and interior design of the hospital. It treats the place as an important aspect of the broad range of messages the hospital sends to its various publics.

Equity Vs. Equality: How Differing Viewpoints Choose To Portray History, Sara Donatello

Comm-entary

This paper explores the themes of equity and equality, defining the terms and applying them to projects done by civil rights activists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Robert Woodson, and a government commission created by Donald Trump. The 1619 Project, founded by Hannah-Jones, pushes the narrative of equity, following the idea of the politics of difference. 1776 Unites, founded by Robert Woodson, provided a counterargument to the 1619 Project, and follows the politics of universalism and equality, holding everyone in the same esteem. Finally, the 1776 Commission, created by Donald Trump, is not associated with 1776 Unites but follows the same narrative …

The Resurrection Of Yik Yak, Lily Neher

Comm-entary

In this paper, I discuss the impact of the app Yik Yak on college campuses, after it returned as a platform in 2021 post 2017 removal. The key aspects of the app include its location-based nature, anonymity, and user moderation system. I discuss advantages and disadvantages of the culture that it fosters, as well as greater social, political, and philosophical implications of Yik Yak as a hybrid space, or a space that permits communication both online and in the real world.

Covid-19 Conversation Analysis, Luca Tosi

Comm-entary

In this paper, I present the findings from an empirical project completed for a college-level Communication Analysis class. These findings, while containing scholarly terms and nomenclature, are highly applicable to any day-to-day interactions had between any multitude of participants. It is my goal, throughout this paper, to provide readers with a more in-depth look at the ways in which our words and actions convey our messages in ways we didn’t even consciously mean.

The Impact Of Upzoning On Housing Construction In Auckland, Ryan Greenaway-Mcgrevy, Peter C. B. Phillips

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

There is a growing debate about whether upzoning is an effective policy response to housing shortages and unaffordable housing. This paper provides empirical evidence to further inform debate by examining the various impacts of recently implemented zoning reforms on housing construction in Auckland, the largest metropolitan area in New Zealand. In 2016, the city upzoned approximately three quarters of its inner suburban land to facilitate construction of more intensive housing. We use a quasi-experimental approach to analyze the short-run impacts of the reform on construction, allowing for potential shifts in construction from non-upzoned to upzoned areas (negative spillovers) that would, …

The Environmental And Nutritional Dilemma Of Beef Production And Consumption, Hannah A. Swilling, Stefano De Rosmini, Brooke Lovan

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Based on previous studies, it has been stated that beef production and consumption in the United States is detrimental to the environment. However, in depth studies analyzing the change of beef production and consumption, the environmental impacts, the external costs, the lifestyle implications as well as the nutritional, the social and the cultural aspects of beef have not been conducted. The goal of this study is to analyze the multiple aspects of the dilemma over beef production and consumption. This was done through an analysis of beef production and consumption data over the past 60 years to determine how it …

College Student Utilizing Dating Apps During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah Boll

Communication Undergraduate Honors Theses

The following study explores the effect of the global COVID-19 pandemic on the initiation and development of human relationships. During the early days of the pandemic, governments forced shutdowns of businesses and workplaces, and public health officials created social-distancing and facial covering mandates to protect the health of citizens. However, long periods of isolation can foster negative emotions and feelings, such as loneliness, anxiety, and depression. According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, humans have an innate need for love and belonging, but the health risks of contracting the virus and social-distancing enforcements significantly threatened the “normal” methods of satisfying this …

Improving Depression Screening And Follow-Up Care In Underserved Populations, Alicia D. Hankins

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Depression is a substantial source of financial, emotional, and physical burdens to patients and their families worldwide. It also disproportionately affects economically disadvantaged populations. To combat the depression crisis, The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published guidelines to boost depression screenings of all patients presenting for healthcare services. A review of literature and the completed needs assessment confirmed low rates of depression screening in the rural primary care sector. This project took place in an outpatient primary care facility in rural Arkansas, where current depression screening tools were not being used. The goal was to increase the percentage …