18525 research outputs found
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Investigating the role of comfort and mental health in information-seeking behavior during prenatal appointments
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Analyzing Transfer Student Success Between Central New Mexico Community College & The University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management
No full textLeadership and Learning in Organizations capstone projectThis project analyzed the transfer efficiency between Central New Mexico Community College (CNM) and The University of New Mexico Anderson School of Management. Several CNM transfer students experienced significant credit hour loss upon transferring to the university. Credit loss derives from completing transferrable, but not bachelor's degree applicable, credits at the community college. The purpose of this project was to propose a quality improvement plan, with the intent of reducing credit hour loss through a Transfer Student Capital conceptual framework
Essays on Tax Subcidies and Foreign Direct Investment
No full textIn my dissertation, I study the cost and benefits of some FDI-preferential policies. I focus on a Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) preferential policy in China that provides a corporate tax reduction for firms with foreign equity shares of no less than 25%. In the first chapter, we investigate the policy under a partial equilibrium and find that a massive number of small firms in China bunch their foreign ownership share at the tax notch. This bunching behavior increases those firms’ average FDI shares by 20.8%, decreases the government’s tax revenue collected from the joint ventures by 19.38%, and leads to a production loss that is about 10% of the firm’s annual sales. In the second chapter, we expand the analysis to a general equilibrium and show that the policy effect depends on the supply elasticity of the foreign partner’s input. We find modest effects indicating that this policy helps China win over other countries in competing for more foreign inputs and bringing them into the Chinese market, which justifies the policy. The third chapter investigates the impact of the policy on technology transfer in China. We investigate firms’ innovation input measured by R&D intensity, the quantity of firms’ invention patent filings, and the value of firms’ invention patents measured by the number of forward citations received by the patent and the patent’s family size. The results suggest that this policy has a limited impact on joint ventures’ technology transfers and does not attract the most innovative firms to participate. In addition, we find evidence suggesting that foreign investors keep those technologies with greater value to themselves while transferring less valuable technologies through joint ventures
Children's and Adults' Concepts of Disabilities
No full textPersons with disabilities are a sizable minority in the United States, yet, there is sparse work on children’s and adults’ concepts of disability. Study 1 of this dissertation investigated children’s evaluations of and reasoning about classroom accommodations for children with physical and cognitive disabilities. Children saw stories where characters engaged in accommodation-related behavior (e.g., doing less classwork than other kids), evaluated how fair the behaviors were, and provided their reasoning about the behaviors. Nine-year-olds evaluated accommodations as significantly fairer than 5- and 7-year-olds. Across the age range, mentioning characters’ needs was associated with evaluating accommodations as fairer. Study 2 tested children’s and adults’ intuitions about intra-sensory dynamics for persons with a sensory impairment. In Study 2A, adults read vignettes about persons who varied in the strength of their vision or hearing, and rated the strength of those persons’ other senses. Participants demonstrated compensatory intuitions; e.g., persons with total or moderate vision loss were expected to have heightened hearing, and vice versa. In Study 2B, 5- to 10-year-olds’ intuitions about intra-sensory dynamics were investigated with vignettes (similar to Study 2A), as well as stories in which an object goes missing in the dark and children chose between a character who cannot see or a typically sighted character to find the object. Preliminary results suggest that, unlike adults, children demonstrated modest halo effects—characters with visual impairments were expected to have other sensory impairments and were less often selected to find missing objects
Defining a Role for Prostanoid Receptor EP4 in the Developmental Programming of the Ductus Arteriosus
No full textThe ductus arteriosus (DA) is a muscular artery which helps to define the fetal pattern of the circulatory system. After birth, the DA undergoes muscular constriction and remodeling which establish the adult division between the pulmonary and systemic circulation. Fetal DA patency requires acute vasodilatory signaling via the prostaglandin (PGE2) receptor EP4. However, in humans and mice, disrupted PGE2-EP4 signaling in utero causes unexpected persistent patency of the DA (PDA) after birth, suggesting another chronic role for EP4 during development. It is likely that sustained PGE2 signaling via EP4 is responsible for directing the proper development of the DA to enable its closure after birth. This is mediated through highly ordered developmental processes, likely representing a developmental program that is heretofore an unstudied paradigm for DA formation and function
Optimizing NewSchools’ Impact Metrics for Students with Learning Differences
No full textLeadership and Learning in Organizations capstone projectNewSchools Venture Fund (NewSchools) is a nonprofit venture philanthropy organization that has greatly invested in early-stage ventures to engender positive change in the K-12 education landscape, especially with students with learning differences. While NewSchools is demonstrating success in moving towards its goals, NewSchools is grappling with how to measure its investments' impact effectively. This study used a mixed methods approach through benchmarking, evidence-based validation, and documentation review and determined that, while NewSchools’ current structures to collect data have informed strategy changes in the organization, they lack ways to measure impact for students with learning differences effectively. Additionally, NewSchools has not named standardized approaches across different investment areas to strategically streamline operational efficiency and name metrics that would provide key information about these investments' impact on students with learning differences. This study outlines key recommendations NewSchools can take to align measurement approaches with industry standards and strengthen current surveying tools in NewSchools’ new strategy
Adolescent Antiracist Development: Constructs, Emotions, and School Socialization
No full textYoung people have long played an important role in challenging and dismantling racism and white supremacy. However, little is known about what explains how some adolescents come to hold antiracist attitudes and engage in antiracist action. This three-paper dissertation seeks to contribute to an emerging body of literature providing insight into this question.
The first study explores the relationships among constructs of an antiracist person. First, drawing on definitions of antiracism, I identify seven components of these definitions and then translate them into constructs that describe a person. Then, I ask how these seven constructs are related to one another and for whom. To answer these questions, I use two complementary analytic approaches: structural equation modeling and latent class analysis. Results suggest that a person-centered approach best describes the data, such that, rather than a singular universal set of relationships, there are multiple meaningful ways in which the components are related. Additionally, these different ways are not entirely explained by racial identity.
The second study examines the relationships between the antiracist constructs, anger towards racial injustice, and adolescents’ use of emotion regulation skills. While research has emphasized the presence and role of emotions in shaping antiracist outcomes, I argue that what one does with their emotions (i.e., regulations) is an important part of this story connecting emotions to antiracism. Results illustrate the complexity of these relationships. Whereas cognitive reappraisal strategies function as promotive of antiracist outcomes, aligning with existing literature, the use of non-acceptance is also promotive of antiracist attitudes and outcomes, conflicting with existing research that suggests non-acceptance is maladaptive.
Finally, the third study brings together emerging research on school racial socialization by examining how five different types of school messages—cultural competence, cultural socialization, color-evasive, mainstream, and critical consciousness—may be related to components of antiracism, and how these relationships may vary by one’s racial identity. Results emphasize that, generally, messages of cultural competence are negatively related to antiracism, mainstream messages are positively related, color-evasive and cultural socialization messages have mixed relationships depending on one’s racial identity, and critical consciousness messages are neutral
Empowering Gifted Minds Through Enrichment Programs and Ensuring Program Sustainability
No full textLeadership and Learning in Organizations capstone projectThis two-pronged study aims to explore the potential growth of the Garwin Family Foundation (GFF) Student Sponsorship Program (SSP) for Talented Students in Arts, Sciences, and Math by assessing its impact on leadership, academic performance, and professional success. The program, managed by a small team, is crucial to Southern Illinois youth, a region facing economic challenges. The GFF has two interconnected problems that impact its longevity and trajectory: How does the SSP increase participant student success, and conversely, how will it transition from its family-run structure to a traditional nonprofit? Talented child education is central to the SSP and the board’s mission. Student learning comes from interacting with their environment, equipping gifted students with essential academic and socio-emotional skills. Conceptually, boards learn similarly. The team used a mixed-methods approach, collecting data from current and former scholarship recipients and board members through pre- and post-digital surveys and interviews. Key findings among SSP recipients included increased academic and social skills/self-efficacy. The GFF leadership recognized the need to expand its governance and leadership, secure additional resource development, optimize finances, and, most importantly, maintain a warm and inclusive family culture. Our recommendations include investing in alumni engagement, formalizing succession planning, and enhancing resource development
Legacy in Transition: Enhancing Intergenerational Engagement at a Heritage Philanthropy During Times of Change: A Mixed Method Study on Progressive Membership Recruitment Amidst Societal Shifts
No full textLeadership and Learning in Organizations capstone projectAn established heritage philanthropy in the United States was examined for factors relating to gaps in its marketing and branding strategies that negatively affected its recruitment and retention of a younger demographic of membership. I sought to research and develop improvement models for long-term growth that could arrest decline and ignite sustainability for the organization’s mission centered brand positioning. This philanthropy historically supports the concept of Zionism, cultural preservation, and healthcare advocacy, but evinces a pressing need to forge connections with younger generations to ensure longevity and relevance amidst shifting national attitudes towards its brand and mission. In response, this study analyzed membership trends, national polling data on attitudes towards Zionism, and surveys +focus groups of generational cohorts, to inform strategic development of tailored solutions to the membership deficit. Findings revealed a generational divide in engagement, with older members displaying more consistent involvement than their younger counterparts, as well as a chasm in perspectives between those who represent a more orthodox view of the concept of Zionism and those who seek modernized and flexible participation avenues with a more nuanced view of the meaning of Zionism. The results suggest that the organization must broaden its narrative towards acceptance of more fully represented Jewish identity, adopt a stance of unifying ideas and nuanced language in the face of contemporary political connotations of Zionism, and demonstrate empathy to connect genuinely with younger demographics