Models and Methods Commons^™

Developing A Climate-Adaptive Public Service Framework For Sustainable Agriculture: Preliminary Evidence From A Disaster-Prone Village In Indonesia, Susila Susila, Rizky Aditya Surya Pratama, Muhammad Daud Yusuf, Diah Apriliani

Jurnal Wacana Politik

Artikel ini bertujuan mengkaji bagaimana pelayanan publik tingkat desa dapat diintegrasikan dengan Climate-Resilient Agriculture (CRA) untuk mendukung kapasitas adaptasi petani di kawasan rawan bencana hidrometeorologi di Jawa Barat, Indonesia, serta mengidentifikasi dimensi kandidat bagi kerangka Climate-Adaptive Public Service for Sustainable Agriculture (CAPSSA). Menggunakan desain studi kasus kualitatif eksploratif yang dilandasi tinjauan literatur terstruktur dan analisis dokumen kebijakan, penelitian ini menghimpun wawancara semi-terstruktur dengan empat informan di Desa Cibiru Wetan, Kecamatan Cileunyi, Kabupaten Bandung—Kepala Desa, Kepala Dusun, Ketua RW, dan anggota kelompok tani setempat—disertai kajian dokumen kebijakan kebencanaan dan pertanian tingkat kabupaten dan provinsi yang tersedia untuk publik. Analisis awal menemukan …

Welcome Tilly Norwood: Forecasting Hollywood’S Ai Policy Futures, Samuel P. Rooker

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

In late 2025, weekly trade publication Variety Magazine reported on the announcement of a new acting talent in Hollywood: Tilly Norwood. Norwood is an industry outsider and the pet project of Eline Van der Velden, who unveiled the actress’ existence to the world at the Zurich Film Festival. The announcement quickly gained media coverage while Van der Velden has since faced cyclical backlash from Hollywood trade unions, which does not seem entirely without reason. Tilly Norwood is a digital persona, a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) program, designed by Van der Velden’s novel AI talent studio, Xicoia, to become the next …

A Plague On Both Your Houses: Archetypes Of Political Choice, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

In times of political polarization, we are well-advised to heed Spinoza’s injunction, “Not to lament, not to curse, but to understand.” Understanding can be facilitated by ideas about the archetypal structures of political choice. This paper offers a systems theoretic analysis of a set of such archetypes focusing solely on their structures and not advocating any specific political positions. The primary question that must be answered is whether available or desirable political choices are dyadic or triadic, and if dyadic, whether the two alternatives of the dyad should be viewed as good versus bad or as complementary.  Various modes of …

Religion As Political Influence: Representation, Rhetoric, And Advocacy In American Politics, Andrew G. Tate

All Dissertations

Religion has long been recognized as a central force in American political life, shaping patterns of representation, public opinion, and policy advocacy. At the same time, the contemporary religious landscape is characterized by declining denominational attachment, increasing religious diversity, and growth in non-denominational and unaffiliated populations. These changes raise questions about whether religion continues to influence politics through traditional mechanisms such as clear denominational alignment or whether its political effects now operate through more indirect or restructured pathways. This manuscript addresses this question through a multi-level analysis of religion’s political role, integrating three studies that examine descriptive representation, organizational political …

Money And State Politics: State Legislature Partisan Dynamics And Ideology Outcomes Following Citizens United V. Fec, Jillian E. Pastore

Bates College Journal of Political Studies

What effect has Citizens United v. FEC had on state-level partisanship and the policy outcomes that follow from it? Scholarship on the influence of corporate and union spending in political campaigns has largely centered on federal elections. In this paper, I extend the analysis to the state level, leveraging the fact that Citizens United created a natural experiment across the states. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, roughly half of the states prohibited corporate and union independent expenditures in state elections (including for governor, state senate, state house, and state supreme court races). The Citizens United decision effectively nullified these …

The Expanding Digital Border: Ai, Surveillance, And The Fight For Justice, James Chesser

Immigration and Human Rights Law Review

As artificial intelligence transforms the mechanisms of immigration control, the modern border has become a digital filter—one governed less by geography and more by code. This Article examines the legal, technical, and ethical implications of AI-driven systems now central to global border enforcement, including biometric surveillance, algorithmic risk scoring, and predictive profiling. It explores how states use these technologies not only to manage irregular migration, but to compete for global talent—constructing migration regimes that reward capital and compliance while eroding transparency, due process, and equality.

Through an international and comparative lens, the piece highlights the expansion of algorithmic decision-making across …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

The Jokowi Effect On The Victory Of Prabowo: Do People Vote For Continuity?, Cakra Yudi Putra, Dyah Ayu Febriani, Andri Tantyo Cahyo Nugroho, Teguh Dartanto

Economics and Finance in Indonesia

The 2024 Indonesian presidential election marked a striking realignment as Prabowo Subianto—a former opposition leader—secured victory with the tacit endorsement of outgoing President Joko Widodo (Jokowi). This study investigates how the enduring popularity and policy achievements of Jokowi shaped voter preferences in favor of Prabowo, effectively positioning the election as a referendum on political continuity. Building on theories of economic voting and retrospective performance evaluation, the analysis explores the impact of district-level economic indicators, social media penetration, ideological orientation, social assistance distribution, and sociocultural characteristics on electoral outcomes. Employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression on data from 481 administrative regions, …

Enhancing Client Intake Efficiency In The Removal Defense Program: A Nursing-Led Quality Improvement Initiative, Johnny Linares, Julia Tran Ngo, Daniel Orea, Atheana Yadira Lopez

Master's Projects and Capstones

This quality improvement project focuses on optimizing the intake process for the Removal Defense Program at a nonprofit immigration legal office serving asylum-seeking clients. The existing intake relied on unstructured, phone-call-based intake interviews that gathered incomplete information, leading to inconsistent documentation, reduced efficiency, and significant client processing delays. A structured, multilingual, and multiplatform new-client admission protocol coupled with the implementation of a client-facing resource guide for waitlist clients were co-developed and implemented using the Lippitt Change Theory framework. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, the study involved staff interviews and observational assessments with staff members from the program. Baseline intake process …

Political Turbulence And Aviation Safety: A Cross-National Analysis Of Political Stability's Effects On Aviation Accidents, Léa Faure, Lilliam Maria Cáceres Malachowski

Journal of Aviation/Aerospace Education & Research

To what extent does political stability affect aviation safety? This research aims to link domestic political conditions and public safety through the consideration of aviation accident frequency. Political instability can indeed have profound effects on reducing overall public safety in a variety of domains through its influence on public policies. Reduced regulations and governance efforts can appear in contentious contexts for less-prioritized fields. This could influence the reemergence of technical aviation risk factors like crew training and performance, maintenance issues, infrastructure problems, human errors, etc. This would highlight a correlation between such political instability and weaker aviation safety regulations, investments …

Healing Communities With Police Divestment: Seeking Abolition Through Transformative Reform And Community-Government Collaboration, Jessica E. Gillson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Concerns about the efficacy and sustainability of the U.S. carceral system have persisted throughout the country’s history, recently fueling renewed activism and bipartisan calls for reform. However, proposed solutions remain divisive. This thesis first defines the current status of our prison systems, then explores collaborative alternatives to incarceration and policing that support communities and break cycles of incarceration.

Focusing on partnerships among local governments, community organizations, justice-involved individuals, and law enforcement, this study examines holistic approaches to crime prevention, reentry, and reintegration. Using an interdisciplinary framework incorporating restorative justice, community resilience, and systems theory, it investigates how community-based strategies can …

The Position Of The United States Of America Vis-A-Vis The Question Of Western Sahara: Assessing The Role Of Think Tanks In The Conflict, Hamid Baadeche

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ABSTRACT

The Position of the United States of America Vis-à-vis the Question of Western Sahara: Assessing the Role of Think Tanks in the Conflict

Hamid Baadeche

Think tank organizations, particularly in the United States, have become a prominent feature of the political landscape. They act as advocates for specific policies that they consider beneficial for the country or a particular societal group. They function as a primary source of information, which they then aim to transform into well-informed policies and sound decisions. They are referred to as "the revolving doors," "idea brokers," and "idea factory." As such, their foremost objective …

Reducing Food Scarcity: The Benefits Of Urban Farming, S.A. Claudell, Emilio Mejia

Journal of Nonprofit Innovation

Urban farming can enhance the lives of communities and help reduce food scarcity. This paper presents a conceptual prototype of an efficient urban farming community that can be scaled for a single apartment building or an entire community across all global geoeconomics regions, including densely populated cities and rural, developing towns and communities. When deployed in coordination with smart crop choices, local farm support, and efficient transportation then the result isn’t just sustainability, but also increasing fresh produce accessibility, optimizing nutritional value, eliminating the use of ‘forever chemicals’, reducing transportation costs, and fostering global environmental benefits.

Imagine Doris, who is …

Commonalities And Differences In Governments’ Covid-19 Public Health Responses Around The World, Olga Shvetsova, Andrei Zhirnov

Political Science Faculty Scholarship

As the world enters the era of increased frequency of global health crises and natural disasters, with climate change looming as an ever-present threat, how we govern ourselves matters for the ways in which we will live through these difficult times. The authors in this volume provide observations backed by mixed methods of analysis on the many ways in which government organization and political realities affect crisis response and crisis management. In this chapter, we further strengthen the validity of their findings with large N global sample analyses where the timing and stringency of the adoption of public health policies …

Review Of Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, Ava L. Corey-Gruenes

Feminist Pedagogy

Making Livable Worlds: Afro-Puerto Rican Women Building Environmental Justice, by Hilda Lloréns, highlights Black Puerto Rican women’s efforts to create equitable futures for their communities in the face of capitalism, racism, colonization, and ecological collapse. This review covers key concepts in Making Livable Worlds, including matriarchal dispossession, decolonizing ethnography, the myth of a homogenous Puerto Rico, and myths of inherent economic self-interest. Analyses of these concepts through an absence lens are suggested to enrich formal and informal feminist learning spaces.

Reforming Illinois K-12 Public Education Through A Four-Pronged Approach, Seth Brooks

Senior Honors Theses

Public education in the United States has produced lackluster results in the past decades. Various forms of school choice have emerged in recent years to combat the poor results seen in the public education system, but these private schools are financially unattainable for many Americans. Bureaucratic overload, city corruption, inequities in funding, and frequent teachers’ strikes have certainly contributed to the destitute state of Illinois’ public education. In this thesis, the attainability of fiscal relief for Illinois families who choose alternative education and the necessity of the state in permitting such alternatives is discussed.

Current school choice policies in the …

Impact Of Social Media  On Public Perception Of Government Covid-19 Response Efforts, Taher Taher

Theses and Dissertations

This research aims to understand this phenomenon to provide insights into how governments can perform better in times of crisis regarding social media and its impact on public opinion. This research aims to understand how social media impacts public perception of government COVID-19 response efforts by studying Facebook comments, likes, and reactions (emoticons).

The study was based on data gathered from Facebook comments on the daily infographic COVID-19 statistics from the official site of the Ministry of Health and Population. The sampling frame is the 52 weeks of 2020, January to December, through random sampling resulting in 546 comments. The …

Dilemmas And Suggestions On Market-Based Data Allocation, Jinzhao Liu, Shouyang Wang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Big data is the primary engine for advancing the development of the digital economy, and market-based data allocation is a crucial method for promoting the development of China's digital economy. However, the current issues of "unclear ownership", "difficult pricing", and "imperfect transaction mechanisms" have severely constrained the market-based allocation of data. The study begins with a discussion of the dilemma of data rights delimitation, pricing, and trading. Then review the strategic initiative of international data market construction and the development of China's data trading market. Finally, based on the practice of China's big data market construction, the study proposes some …

Research On Market Allocation Efficiency Of Data Elements, Han Qiao, Zhuolun Li

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Promoting the market allocation of data elements is the key to realize the value of data resources, which drives the high-quality development of digital economy. Based on the literature review, this study first analyses the theoretical process of market allocation of data elements, and divides the whole process into two stages: market-based construction and value-based allocation. According to the proposed theoretical model, this study designs the network DEA model with additional intermediate inputs to calculate the market allocation efficiency of data elements of 30 provincial administrative regions in China from 2019 to 2020. Moreover, by Malmquist index analysis, we further …

Promoting Safe And Orderly Flow Of Cross-Border Data To Lead Development Of Globalization Of Digital Economy, Yongmiao Hong, Ming Zhang, Ying Liu

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

While cross-border data flow considerably improves the effectiveness of cross-border collaborations, it also faces issues of data sovereignty, national security, conflict of interest, privacy protection and data regulation. It has become a link to the global economy and the center of the game of the new order. First of all, this study analyzes the role of cross-border data flow in economic globalization from the perspective of the economic impact of data elements. It then analyzes the constraints of cross-border data flow in the global context and lists the benefits and drawbacks of China’s data element market construction. In the end, …

Promote Market-Oriented Allocation Of Data Elements, Accelerate Release Of New Drives Of Digital Economy—Preface On Special Column “Market-Oriented Allocation Of Data Elements”, Shouyang Wang, Yongmiao Hong, Han Qiao

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

No abstract provided.

Research On Measurement Of Digital Economy Growth And Data As Production Factor, Xianchun Xu, Yaru Hu, Meihui Zhang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Research on measurement of digital economy growth and data as a production factor are important research topics under the background of digital transformation. This study firstly combs the concept, scope, and classification of digital economy, and elaborates the calculation method of digital economy growth. Then, it discusses the concept, characteristics, and classification of data, as well as the concept and value measurement of data assets. Furthermore, it puts forward relevant suggestions on the challenges faced by the measurement of digital economy growth and the data as a production factor. This research is expected to provide references for promoting the measurement …

Thoughts On National Unified Data Asset Registration System, Lihua Huang, Mengke Guo, Zhiqing Shao, Xuan Qin, Qifeng Tang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Data asset registration is a vital component of data factor market system. Recently, several Chinese regions and institutions have begun to work on data asset registration, but problems persist for the unclear concept of data asset registration and the deficiency of registration and service systems. By virtue of summarizing the active typical registration system in China, this study puts forward the concept of data asset registration and the "seven unifications" principle of registration. The new data value chain is established based on the perspective of factor flow, and the concepts of resource-based and operational data assets are proposed. Moreover, this …

On Building Data Market Based On Supply Side, Chaochun Huang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

Data market is the foundation of digital economy. Following General Secretary Xi Jinping's thought on promoting the classification, grading and separation of data, defining the rights and ensuring proper use of data, this study focuses on the main theoretical and practical issues of building data market by answering three questions which are why to build it, what to build, and how to build. It finds that the digital economy shows three-stages of development. With the enterprise data becoming dominant, it puts forward realistic requirements and offers development opportunities for data market. To overcome the obstacles in the way of building …

A Geographically Targeted Approach For A Preceptor Tax Incentive Using Primary Care Health Professional Shortage Areas (Hpsas), Julia Mattingly, Sarah Belcher, Samuel C. Kessler

Commonwealth Policy Papers

Years before the COVID-19 pandemic brought on a health care shortage in Kentucky, its rural areas were already struggling to obtain and attract primary care medical practitioners. Even though the number of medical school graduates in the U.S. has steadily increased throughout the years, there is a general disinterest in rural or small-town practice, and legislators throughout the country have pondered ways to address this issue plaguing communities. Versions of Preceptor Tax Incentive legislation in Kentucky have been proposed in the General Assembly to address care shortages in the state, however, all have been unsuccessful at truly targeting rural areas …

Mental Health In Massachusetts Prisons, Jeffrey Yung

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

In November of last year, former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division released the findings of an investigation of the Massachusetts Department of Corrections (MDOC). They found several violations of prisoner’ constitutionals rights for mental health cases under the Eighth Amendment. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishments for criminal defendants. The findings reveal a lack of structured mental health care for MDOC prisoners, untrained employees, and unnecessary abuse of restrictive housing for prisoners designated under a mental health watch program.

An Inferentially Robust Look At Two Competing Explanations For The Surge In Unauthorized Migration From Central America, Nick Santos

Dissertations

The last 8 years have seen a dramatic increase in the flow of Central American apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol. Explanations for this surge in apprehensions have been split between two leading hypotheses. Most academic scholars, immigrant advocates, progressive media outlets, and human rights organizations identify poverty and violence (the Poverty and Violence Hypothesis) in Central America as the primary triggers responsible. In contrast, while most government officials, conservative think tanks, and the agencies that work in the immigration and border enforcement realm admit poverty and violence may underlie some decisions to migrate, they instead blame lax U.S. immigration …

Water Elites’ Perceptions Of Water Security In The Middle East And North Africa Region, Ghaleb Akari

Dissertations

The Middle East and North African region continues to face significant water security challenges. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a deeper understanding of water elites’ perceptions of water security in the MENA region. It is not meant to generalize the findings. Instead, the intention for the research is to identify, explain, and analyze by national elites' contrasting perceptions in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Tunisia.

The study examines water elites’ perceptions in four areas: current knowledge level of water security, water resource management, water service delivery, and water-related risk mitigation. These elites’ perceptions of water security will help …

Predicting And Measuring Support For Populism, Jay Rumas

Senior Honors Projects

Through reading the most recent research and case examples, I have discovered that the conventional wisdom on how political actors appeal to voters is rather obsolete. I have done my best to establish a profile of the “populist voter” and predict which parties they may be inclined to support. Cas Mudde, an expert on populist movements, labels populism as the use of a narrative that constructs the struggle of “the people (the majority) vs “the elite'' for political purposes. It has neither a positive or negative connotation. Populist movements often appeal to those among groups that feel as though they …

Victimes Ou Criminelles: A Historical And Comparative Analysis Of Sex Work Policy In France, Carver Wolfe

International Relations Honors Papers

This research examines the evolution of sex work policy in France from a regulatory regime during the nineteenth century to an abolitionist stance after World War II to the 2016 adoption of the Nordic model penalizing the purchase of sex. I investigate the ongoing debate between preservationists and abolitionists and examine the arguments raised by each side, making the case that abolitionism has adverse consequences for sex workers. I look at the nineteenth century’s regulatory regime of controlling prostitution through a chapter written in French. I then shift into an analysis of the state’s transition to abolitionism over the course …