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Texas Library Workers on Censorship in the State: Implications for Practice for LGBTQIA+ Collections
No full textCensorship efforts, especially when geared to fight against censorship of materials for minority sexuality and gender identities, are often hindered by social, cultural, religious, administrative, and political resistance. LBTQIA+ collections within libraries face resistance, which can come in the form of overt or covert challenges. This study examines Texas libraries experiences with materials and book challenges through a survey conducted in summer 2023 to discover the policies and responses to censorship attempts. Implications for practice regarding material challenge policies and proactive approaches to intellectual freedom are also discussed
WMU - Touch HL1466.
No full textMaterials related to the Teaching Others Using Christian Happiness (TOUCH) program at First Baptist Church Lubbock
Bankruptcy and Commercial Law
No full textThis article reviews recent developments in Texas bankruptcy and commercial law. The article analyzes key federal and state court decisions that affect creditors' rights, debtor protections, and commercial transactions. Henry highlights emerging trends in bankruptcy litigation and statutory interpretation, with a focus on how Texas courts are addressing complex financial disputes. She provides practical insights for practitioners navigating evolving legal standards in both business bankruptcy and commercial law contexts. The article serves as a valuable update for legal professionals seeking to stay informed on significant changes in this dynamic area of law
Improvement on Design of RC Beams Strengthened in Shear with Externally Bonded FRP Composites
No full textThis dissertation presents the shear behavior of reinforced concrete (RC) beams strengthened with externally bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites. The research combines experimental data analysis, finite element modeling, and design code evaluation to better understand the complex interactions between FRP, concrete, and internal reinforcement. Emphasis is placed on refining current methods for estimating effective FRP strain, effective bond length, and size effect, with a focus on different FRP wrapping schemes to improve predictions of shear capacity in strengthened beams. The findings contribute to understanding FRP behavior in strengthened RC beams, bridging experimental insight and computational modeling for practical application in structural engineering design
Mapping Motivations: Integrating Cluster Analysis with Means-End Chain Theory for Strategic Agricultural Communications
No full textDecisions surrounding food choice are highly personal and vary based on factors like age, personal health, budgets, pre-existing attitudes, and cultures. With so much nuance surrounding this topic, it is important to group individuals based on the characteristics they share so communication efforts appeal to and address their unique considerations and product-purchasing motivations. This study addressed the complex consumer landscape through a two-phase approach to define actionable audience segments and inform value-based communication strategies.
In phase 1, we drew from the elaboration likelihood model to conduct a two-step hierarchical cluster analysis to identify response patterns and group audiences in smaller, more similar categories of participants. We sought to address modern grocery shoppers’ demographic and psychographic diversity and the factors that influence their food and beef product choice. Four key audience segments emerged. Audience segments varied significantly in terms of age, gender, income, trust towards the beef industry, and personal values. Each target audience indicated they were most active on Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. When on these platforms, they primarily seek engaging content. We discuss approaches to engage each audience in central route processing based on their attitude and involvement for each facet of beef. This study reinforces the importance of understanding the unique characteristics of audiences and provides communicators with recommendations to explore psychographic characteristics to inform crafted and tailored communication to appeal to diverse audiences.
In phase 2, we explored consumer purchasing priorities and their connections to values. Consumers exhibit a variety of priorities and preferences for beef. Because of the nuance behind beef choice, it is important to develop communication strategies that take a value-based communication approach to addressing consumers’ unique motivations. To inform value-based communication strategies for beef consumer audiences, this study applies means-end chain theory and hard laddering to identify the most common attribute selections for beef and how consumers connect product selections to their personal values. We found each audience group varies in their product preferences and drivers for beef purchases. While freshness and affordability were dominant drivers behind beef choices, each audience had unique motivations for the selections they made. Additionally, responses highlighted the importance of family health and well-being to drive purchasing decisions. Overall, we encourage communication about beef to use a strategic values-based approach to engaging consumer audiences and leverage the dominant consumer motivations or consumer values of family-health and well-being, living a long and healthy life, or pleasure and enjoyment. These intricate findings are further discussed in detail, along with implications and recommendations for research, practitioners, and academia
Psychological Safety in Higher Education Faculty
No full textWomen’s underrepresentation in higher education leadership is a well-documented international phenomenon. While incremental growth has been seen in some areas, there is evidence that women faculty are leaving academia at higher rates than men which may be part of the challenge in diversifying leadership. As gaining tenure is an important steppingstone towards further leadership roles in academia, this exploratory factor analysis focused on faculty and discovering whether gender was related to psychological safety or likelihood of voluntary departure. Using quantitative survey data from 425 faculty at flagship universities in the U.S., findings revealed that gender identity played a statistically significant role in faculty psychological safety when interacting with peers but not with leadership. Likelihood of voluntary departure showed a relationship to psychological safety with leadership as well as sense of belonging. Participants who scored moderately high to high psychological safety with leadership were 37 times more likely to report being satisfied with their institutional environment and were almost three times less likely to report wanting to voluntarily depart
Using mosquito and arbovirus data to computationally predict West Nile virus in unsampled areas of the Northeast United States
No full textPredicting and projecting risk of West Nile virus (WNV) to humans in areas without mosquito surveillance data is a key limitation of many WNV surveillance programs. To better inform risk of WNV, we analyzed 20 years (2001–2020) of point-level mosquito surveillance data from Connecticut (CT), United States, using machine learning methods to determine the most informative weather variables and land cover classes associated with monthly Culex pipiens collections and WNV detections in mosquitoes. All training models were assessed based on explained deviance, root mean square error, and parsimony of included variables then optimized using a backward selection process. We used these training models to create a predictive mapping framework that could spatially extrapolate the monthly risk of WNV activity in mosquitoes across the entirety of the Northeast United States (CT, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont) at a 4 × 4 km resolution. We then validated WNV detection probabilities against observed human cases at the town level in CT and the county level for northeastern states using generalized linear (mixed effects) models. Our predicted town- and county-level WNV detection probabilities in mosquitoes were significantly associated with the odds of a human case occurring within the town and/or county. This methodology increases the utility of point-source mosquito surveillance data by creating a flexible workflow for predicting risk of WNV to humans across the Northeast United States using easily accessible online data sources.This publication was supported in part by the American Mosquito Control Association (2022 Research Fund) number 2022-02 and Cooperative Agreement Number U01CK000509, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the American Mosquito Control Association, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Department of Health and Human Services. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
First Among Equals: An Analysis of the Relationship between the Russian Nation and the Soviet State, 1929-1953
No full textThe Soviet Union initially regarded Russian nationalism as a serious obstacle to the country’s social cohesion and took measures to undermine it. However, the state later utilized it as a tool to advance its interests. Between 1929 and 1953, Russian national expression underwent periods of both stigmatization and promotion, demonstrating that the Soviet Union was not a rigid or static state. Rather, the regime demonstrated great ideological adaptability and flexibility throughout Stalin’s rule, especially during times of crisis like the Second World War.
As a Marxist state rooted in a revolutionary proletarian ideology, Russian nationalism, viewed as a vehicle for chauvinism and imperialist exploitation, was considered antithetical to the Soviet Union’s values and goals. But in the face of major crises such as war, the Soviet regime under Stalin gradually came to embrace it as a valuable asset in its propaganda arsenal. This thesis aims to trace this evolution by means of an eclectic range of material, which will be analyzed through the thematic lens of nationalism vs internationalism, religion vs state, and Stalinist revisionism vs Leninist orthodoxy.
Through a synthesized study of periodicals, propaganda, film, speeches, and other state material from this period, this thesis argues that Soviet Union was ultimately a committed Marxist regime that nevertheless retained a significant Russian character. Though the Soviet Union failed to wholly abandon its distinctly Russian identity, the state’s Marxist identity remained paramount in shaping state policy. The Soviet Union was neither wholly Marxist nor Russian, but a unique state whose varied and complex nationality policy reflected a tense partnership that was both, depending on the situation, adversarial and symbiotic. The regime tried with mixed success to reconcile its ideology with the realities of national identity.
In essence, the Stalinist regime did not have a consistent policy towards Russian nationalism. The state, though initially hostile to Russian nationalism as a relic of tsarist imperialism, eventually, though gradually, came to embrace it as a means to shore up its support, justify territorial acquisitions, and project an image of power and legitimacy abroad. This shift was reflected not just through state material such as propaganda posters, newspapers, and public speeches, but also made itself manifest through the culture. Russia’s rich and storied martial history in particular was emphasized and celebrated through a variety of media including film, music, and art. Ultimately, Russian nationalism was little more than one of many tools the state employed to serve its interests, which both complemented and contradicted state ideology in equal measure