SHAREOK Repository
Not a member yet
49261 research outputs found
Sort by
SOCIALLY SUSTAINABLE TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE RESILIENCE FOR MAJOR DISASTERS: VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENTS, INTERDEPENDENCY MODELING & NETWORK INTERVENTIONS
No full textThe critical functionality of infrastructure systems is imperative for the sustenance of societal lifelines and productivity. Nonetheless, these systems are susceptible to external perturbations and subsequent cascading failures. These infrastructures, encompassing social and physical domains, such as communities, transportation networks, and water management systems, do not operate in isolation but as part of a vast and complex connected network. The functional and geographical interdependencies among these systems introduce additional dimensions of risk, vulnerability, and uncertainty, thereby undermining resilience in the face of a changing climate. Despite the growing body of advanced research on the critical interconnectedness of infrastructure systems and intertwined socio-technical systems, there is still a limited grasp on effectively utilizing these intricate relationships to improve operational efficiency in disaster situations, especially under conditions of combined risk events. This research endeavors to explore such interdependencies between critical infrastructure systems, with a particular emphasis on natural disasters, aiming to reinforce community resilience through both engineered and policy-driven interventions.To achieve this objective, the study delineates six primary aims. First, this study explores the interdependencies present in physical infrastructure systems, with a specific focus on transportation and stormwater systems in the context of flash flood vulnerability. It employs a multi-layer network analysis to explain the geographic interdependencies between these systems. The study suggests that the joint vulnerability of such interconnected infrastructure networks can be explained through their topological characteristics integrated with the operational metrics such as daily traffic and water flow rates. Second, the research develops a modeling framework to examine systems’ interdependencies in the context of cascading failures, integrating physical and operational properties with interdependency relationships to monitor spatiotemporal damage propagation. This is achieved through the Susceptible-Exposed-Flooded-Recovered (SEFR) modeling framework in the transportation and water systems, applied during urban flash flooding events, and supported by hydrologic and traffic models to articulate the systems' physical dynamics. Both theoretical and empirical validations affirm the model's broad applicability. Third, the study explores interdependency relationships within socio-physical systems for risk and vulnerability assessments during compounding disaster events. It examines risk communication within communities, highlighting the challenges posed by rapid and diverse communication in social networks, alongside the limited mobilization capacity and operational constraints of physical infrastructures. Utilizing extensive datasets from social media concerning the October 2020 ice storm in Oklahoma, the study employs advanced computational techniques to translate social media narratives into quantifiable metrics of infrastructure risk and vulnerability assessments, thereby uncovering the impacts on vulnerable communities and infrastructures in compounding risk events. Fourth, the research focuses on interventions within transportation infrastructure to enhance disaster resilience, specifically through the development of innovative roadway reconfiguration techniques. By integrating multi-criteria decision analysis, machine learning, and network science metrics, this approach enables transportation planners to make informed decisions regarding roadway configurations, thereby improving both efficiency and resilience. Fifth, this study investigates how public perception, and social dynamics influence transportation policies by integrating socio-demographic, economic, and travel behavior data. Data-driven analyses and case studies reveal that community sentiment significantly impacts network performance and policy effectiveness. The findings suggest the need for community-centric transportation planning will ensure socially acceptable solutions to enhance resilience of the transportation system. Sixth, the study introduces a Digital Twin (DT) framework aimed at enhancing resilience within interdependent socio-physical infrastructure systems. This involves modeling community risk perception behaviors related to infrastructure risk and vulnerabilities during multi-hazard events and developing an interface to incorporate such behaviors and physical system components through an agent-based modeling framework. This framework considers population diversity and equity in infrastructure prioritization and offers a holistic tool that empowers decision-makers to optimize responses to both immediate disasters and long-term planning challenges. The contributions of this study are threefold: theoretical, methodological, and practical. Theoretically, it bridges the gap in understanding the spatiotemporal dimensions of infrastructure interdependency by characterizing networks’ topological credentials, uncertainties, and the cascading nature of failures. Methodologically, it introduces novel approaches for translating community crisis narratives into insights for critical infrastructure impact assessment during compounding disasters, as well as for evaluating roadway configurations to enhance operational performance under normal and emergency conditions. Practically, the development of the decision support framework (i.e., the DT) enables the examination of how different policy measures and schemes may affect communities and infrastructures, providing valuable insights for policymakers focused on strengthening the resilience of essential infrastructure systems
Sensitivity to the Ethics of Operations
No full textEthical wrongdoing in organizations is ubiquitous and costly for organizations, their members, and the people they serve. Despite attempts to address wrongdoing through legal, structural, and social means, much work still needs to be done before scholars can begin to prescribe long-term solutions for these problems. Organizational learning scholarship seeks to identify the antecedents and consequences of rapidly detecting and correcting errors in organizations. Conceptually, errors are similar to the problems generated by ethical wrongdoing. Organizational learning frameworks, when applied to moral errors, may provide insight into the nature and solutions for ethical wrongdoing in organizations. This study utilizes ethically reliable organizing (ERO) theory, a communication ethics theory of organizational moral learning, to hypothesize relationships between an organization’s cultural sensitivity to the ethics of its operations, communicative predictors of this sensitivity (e.g., upward ethical dissent and leader listening), and ethics-related organizational outcomes (e.g., moral learning behaviors, ethical safety organizing, incivility, and deviance). After scale development and validation for a measure of sensitivity to the ethics of operations, data were collected from a cross-sectional sample of US-based working adults. Results indicated that prosocial and repetition forms of upward ethical dissent and employee perceptions of leader listening positively predict sensitivity to the ethics of operations, which, in turn, positively predicts moral learning behaviors and ethical safety organizing and negatively predicts incivility. Additional results from path modeling are provided. Implications for ERO theory, organizational dissent, organizational listening, and organizational ethics are discussed. Limitations and future research directions are included
Scrolling Through the Streets: Examining Women's Gang-Related Digital Identities
No full textPast research examining the online presence of urban street gangs found that around 74% of urban street gang members identify themselves as active on internet platforms. Studies seeking to understand the function of online interactions between gang members have concluded that spaces, such as social media, operate like a “virtual street corner” and allow for performances of collective identities. However, there is little research examining how girls and women in gangs conduct themselves on these “virtual street corners.” This study aims to examine the behavior of girls and women engaging in online gang spaces to understand how they navigate these hypermasculine spaces and identify common styles of engagement. The data from this study was collected through the web-scraping of a public Facebook page dedicated to Latina/o gangs in Chicago. From this data I created a subset of 2,312 comments and replies from girls and women posted January 2015 to November 2016 and performed a thematic analysis of the comments. My findings show that the women engaging with this Facebook page fall into four categories of engagement styles: Observational, Confrontational, Regulatory, and Adaptive
EARLY PALEOINDIGENOUS PROJECTILE POINTS IN THE UPPER GUNNISON BASIN, COLORADO: INSIGHTS FROM PRIVATE AND PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
No full textAlthough Folsom and subsequent Paleoindigenous groups are well-represented in theintermountain basins of the Rocky Mountains' western slope, Clovis has sometimes eluded archaeologists in those resource-rich environments. The Upper Gunnison Basin (UGB) of Colorado’s southern Rocky Mountains is one such place where Clovis exists only in whispers and not in formal archaeological records. This thesis presents the findings of a study of early Paleoindigenous projectile points from private collections in the UGB that suggests that this “absence” is not caused by a lack of Clovis artifacts but instead by archaeologists failing to leverage data contained in the display cases and shoe boxes of the residents most familiar with the landscape. Through collaboration with those residents, I confirmed anecdotal reports of two Clovis points and established solid proveniences for them. In addition, I documented numerous later Paleoindigenous projectile points, with at least rudimentary proveniences. By integrating data from both private and public collections, I developed a well-rounded perspective on the Paleoindigenous record in the UGB. This study shows that surveys of private collections are an effective means for uncovering rare archaeological signatures, particularly in privately owned and archaeologically underexplored landscapes. Although private collections are an often-overlooked resource that can help address a broad range of research questions, they can also foster community and archaeologist collaboration, which provides archaeologists with an opportunity to encourage responsible cultural resource stewardship in a manner that is engaging and productive for all involved
WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE OF SHIGA TOXIN-PRODUCING ESCHERICHIA COLI AND SHIGA TOXIN SUBTYPES IN OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA DURING SUMMERS OF 2021 TO 2023
No full textEscherichia coli is one of the first human gut colonizers acquired after birth, and a fundamental participant in the human microflora. However, there are different pathogenic forms of E. coli that can produce intestinal diseases. Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) is a pathogenic variant that has been shown to damage intestinal epithelial, induce bloody diarrhea in hosts, and can progress to kidney failure, an often lethal condition known as Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS). A key distinction between STEC and other forms of pathogenic E. coli involves the presence of the Shiga toxin (stx) component, an AB toxin that inhibits protein synthesis in gastric/renal tissue and may lead to fatal organ damage. Being a gastrointestinal pathogen shed in human stool; it is a prime target for wastewater-based epidemiology. In this study, we collected influent composite wastewater samples from four wastewater treatment plants in the Oklahoma City (OKC) region at least once a week for the summers of 2021, 2022 and 2023, and developed biomolecular assays to quantify four genes that are closely related to STEC pathogenicity: eae, tir, stx1,and stx2. A total of 29 stx1 and 31 stx2 wastewater samples were successfully sequenced for stx targeted Illumina sequencing, where the relative abundance of toxin subtypes was analyzed and compared to clinical reports in OKC as well as summer trends reported by the CDC. Results revealed consistent presence of all four targets in wastewater. The intimin receptor gene tir was consistently higher in concentration than the intimin gene eae but the concentrations were correlated as expected given the cooccurrence of these genes in the LEE pathogenicity island. Illumina sequencing indicates a high variety of stx subtypes in the OKC area for both types of the toxin. Thus, this study presents evidence of persistent STEC in the OKC population, counter to reported cases, and that not just one STEC subtype is continuously circulating in the population, but instead different STEC subtypes fluctuate in the population over time
AN EVALUATION OF TRAUMA INFORMED TEACHING PRACTICES IN AN URBAN MIDDLE SCHOOL
No full textDissertation AbstractSince the mid 1990’s, businesses around the world have implemented trauma informed practices into the fabric of their day to day operations. School districts across America have increased investments in trauma informed teaching programs to assist students experiencing trauma, and the administrative staff that interact with students on a daily basis. Although studies have sought to discover the effectiveness of trauma informed teaching, more research is needed to build proper parameters for success that are applicable throughout the many different forms of trauma implemented practices. The purpose of this study is to discover the effectiveness of trauma informed teaching in an urban middle school. This mixed methods study acquired information over a three year span to analyze changes within the six following outcomes during the implementation of trauma informed teaching: Methods in which teachers are integrating trauma informed practices in their classrooms and how often are teachers using said practices, student safety, sense of belonging, suspension rates, behavioral referral rates, and Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) scores, which include reading and mathematics. Quantitative data from a second middle school is utilized to discover if the students learning environment, behavior, and grades are benefited by the implementation of trauma informed practices. In this study, it was discovered that teachers believe that trauma informed practices improve the learning environment for students. Over the three year time period, the student suspension rates and behavior referral rates fell, while sense of belonging and safety declined. Reading and mathematics test scores rose slightly. This study adds to existing literature by documenting the assessment of the implementation and effectiveness of trauma informed teaching with documented, structural data based evidence. Current data suggests that trauma informed teaching is successful upon implementation, but how success is measured is vague at best in current literature. Keywords. trauma informed, urban schools, implementation, teachin
EL ALMA DE FLORES - THE SOUL OF FLORES
No full textThis doctoral project presents El Alma de Flores, an original fantasy for solo violin and orchestra based on selected songs by José Asunción Flores (1904–1972), the creator of the Guarania, a Paraguayan musical genre in 6/8 meter, known for its slow tempo, lyrical melodies, and profound emotional depth. While rooted in the Paraguayan polka, Guarania is distinguished by its melancholic character and evocative expressiveness, often centered on themes of nostalgia, national identity, and nature.The composition El Alma de Flores is a personal artistic response to this repertoire, reimagining iconic melodies such as Mburicao, India, Ne Rendápe Aju, Nde Ratypykua, Ñemity, and Gallito Cantor through a symphonic lens. Rather than presenting a disconnected suite, the work adopts the fantasy form to create a unified musical narrative that transitions organically between songs, offering expressive and technical challenges for both soloist and orchestra. This dissertation focuses on the analysis of the author’s own arrangement, addressing the interpretive, structural, and orchestration decisions involved in transforming Flores’ vocal and folk material into a concertante work for violin. The project emphasizes the use of violin-specific techniques—not only for virtuosic display but as expressive tools that embody the emotional spirit of Guarania. Guarania remains underrepresented in the North American academic and concert landscape. This study seeks to bridge that cultural gap, positioning Paraguayan music within the broader context of violin performance and composition studies. It advocates for a more inclusive repertoire and highlights the creative potential of engaging with Latin American traditions in academic settings
NEW HORIZONS IN ANCIENT DNA RESEARCH: OVERCOMING PRESERVATION CHALLENGES TO STUDY ANCIENT HUMAN AND ANIMAL INTERACTIONS
No full textThe reconstruction and understanding of past environments is essential to anthropological research, as humanity and the environment have shaped and been shaped by each other. Anthropological questions—such as human land use (Ellis et al., 2010, 2021) or responses to environmental changes (Islebe et al., 2022; Jeong et al., 2014)—utilize paleoecological data and approaches. Similarly, archaeological data is critical for paleoecological research (Crabtree & Dunne, 2022; Crumley, 2021; O’Brien, 2001), firmly intertwining the two disciplines. Paleoecological research employs numerous methodological approaches, and paleogenomics has become a critical aspect of paleoecology in recent years as the development of novel laboratory and bioinformatic approaches has led to an exponential increase in production of paleogenomic data. In this dissertation, I optimize cutting-edge laboratory and bioinformatic to maximize the paleogenomic potential of these faunal remains and address diverse, human-focused paleoecological questions. The first chapter provides background concerning the challenges and advancements of ancient DNA research and the value of faunal genomics in anthropology. Chapter two uses paleogenomics to question how sacrificed golden eagles (Aquila chrysaetos) were procured in the Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan before sacrificial events. This chapter also features extensive laboratory experimentation to maximize aDNA yields. Chapter three is methodologically focused and is an attempt to recover DNA from late Pleistocene asphaltic remains from the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, California. Here we explore the taphonomic conditions in asphalt seeps and excavation methods that can affect the preservation and recovery of DNA. The fourth chapter is a genomic identification of rockfish from archaeological contexts along the Pacific coast, from the Aleutian Islands to Southern California. With remains spanning the last 5,000 years, this project features an iterative approach to species identification. The final chapter unpacks the broader conclusions and future directions of these projects. It recenters this research in the wider fields of ancient DNA, paleoecology, anthropology; and proposes new paths for future research. Taken together this research explores what can be learned at the outer limits of DNA preservation, and the breadth of research possible in anthropolog