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How Veterans Can Benefit from Skills-Based Hiring
Get PDFThere are many advantages for veterans when employers enact a skills-based employment strategy. Veterans bring unique skills and attributes to the workforce, many of which are critical today and expected to be increasingly sought after in the future of work. Skills-based employment opportunities can benefit both employers and veterans. This data brief summarizes key insights from the IVMF report The Skills-Based Business Case for Hiring Veterans
Wearing Space
No full textThis talk explores how wearable technologies reshape our relationship with space, blurring the lines between architecture, the body, and digital systems. It considers how devices like phones and health trackers introduce a new architectural typology one that we inhabit as much as we wear
SCROLLING THROUGH CHAOS: EXAMINING TIKTOK FOR SENSEMAKING AND RESILIENCY INFORMATION BEHAVIORS DURING LEBANESE CRISES
Get PDFThe rise of the video-sharing application TikTok was rapid during the COVID-19 pandemic, as government-mandated isolation drove many to find comfort and fun indoors. Originally, the application was known for its entertaining content but has grown to be a space where conversations about critical, international events occur. With its unique application structure and behavior norms comes the opportunity to examine the application as a source of crisis discourse. This dissertation leverages a sociotechnical perspective and mixed methods analysis to investigate multimodal crisis discourse and information behaviors on the application concerning two recent Lebanese crises: the August 4, 2020, Port of Beirut explosion and the ongoing Economic Crisis. Combining visual social semiotic, content, statistical, and other analyses to investigate TikTok videos posted about these two events, this study analyzes how two major information behaviors relevant in crisis studies - sensemaking and resiliency - materialize within the application’s structure. The results of the analysis reveals patterns of behavior that do and do not contribute to sensemaking and resiliency, such as information sharing, information negotiation, sharing hardship, and defending political sectarianism. Discourse regarding both crises revealed intersemiotic dissonance - the tension arising from clashing semiotic meanings - highlighting the risk of presenting crisis discourse multimodally. Additionally, discussion on the impact of affordances, influencers, and Middle Eastern creators is provided. Recommendations for combatting crisis misinformation to improve the efficacy of crisis sensemaking and a comparison of the uses of various social media platforms are included
Advancing Sustainability and Pandemic Resilience at Airports: A Framework for Technology Adoption in the Post-COVID-19 Era
No full textAirports Council International and the global air transport industry have set a net-zero carbon goal for airports by 2050, emphasizing the need for innovation and a sustainable recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving this goal requires a deeper understanding of how U.S. airports perceive and implement sustainability and resilience initiatives in the post-pandemic landscape; an area that remains underexplored. This dissertation addresses this gap by investigating airport sustainability and resilience management practices and examining the role of emerging technologies in advancing these objectives. To support this research, interviews with consultants and solution providers were conducted alongside a nationwide survey of 74 geographically diverse airports, with responses categorized by airport size. Statistical analyses, including the Fisher’s exact test and Chi-squared test were employed to examine the relationship between airport size and technology adoption patterns. Findings indicate that while some airports have made progress, most lack a structured strategy for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Although many airports implemented COVID-19 mitigation measures, a significant number do not have long-term resilience plans, and the majority face challenges in technological readiness for future disruptions. To bridge this gap, this study proposes a 5-component framework to guide sustainable and resilient technology adoption in airports. The first component, Benchmarking, establishes a foundation for assessing an airport’s current sustainability and resilience maturity. By evaluating existing practices and comparing them with industry best practices, airports can identify gaps and prioritize areas for improvement. The second component, Key Objectives for Technology Integration, defines ten critical objectives that drive technology adoption, including operational efficiency, cost efficiency, resilience to disruptions, and sustainability. This component also incorporates cross-matching with the Envision Framework established by the Institute of Sustainable Infrastructure (2024), ensuring that technology adoption aligns with recognized sustainability and resilience credit categories. The third component, A Structured Process for Technology Adoption, outlines a systematic approach that begins with gap identification, followed by an assessment of existing solutions, feasibility analysis, pilot trials, and ultimately full implementation. The fourth component, Strategies to Accelerate Adoption, details ten internal and external strategies to facilitate technology implementation. Internal strategies focus on organizational initiatives such as cross-functional teams and workforce development, while external strategies emphasize collaborations with industry stakeholders, academic institutions, and cross-industry partnerships. Finally, the fifth component, Leveraging the Envision Framework, realigns the selected technology with the Envision credit categories, ensuring that sustainability and resilience principles are fully integrated into the adoption process. This step involves reassessing the technology to identify additional synergies and Envision credits that may have been overlooked in the initial phases to maximize the sustainability and resilience benefits of their chosen solutions. Collectively, these components provide a structured and actionable approach for airports to adopt innovative solutions that enhance sustainability, resilience, and overall operational performance. To refine and validate the framework, a series of interviews with airport sustainability managers and directors was conducted, incorporating expert insights to enhance its utility and practical applicability. Additionally, a nationwide survey of airport sustainability and resilience managers confirmed its relevance and usability in real-world decision-making. To assess the reliability and consistency of the validation responses, Cronbach’s Alpha, Spearman’s rank-order correlation, and Kendall’s’ Tau-b coefficient were calculated, all of which demonstrated high internal consistency and strong inter-item relationships across key dimensions of the framework. This study provides actionable insights for airport decision-makers, enabling the adoption of technologies that enhance sustainability and pandemic resilience. It also equips middle management with a structured approach to vet emerging technologies, strengthening their ability to present well-evaluated solutions to upper management. More broadly, this research contributes to the field by improving the understanding of sustainability and pandemic resilience challenges in airports, identifying Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for monitoring progress, outlining airport recommendations, and addressing drivers and barriers to technology adoption. Most notably, it introduces a validated framework that supports sustainable and resilient technology adoption, offering a structured pathway for airports to enhance operational efficiency, future preparedness, and environmental performance
DECISIONS FROM EXPERIENCE: BEYOND THE GAP
Get PDFAcross the risk and uncertainty literature, a particular focus has been made on the description-experience gap (DE Gap). The DE Gap creates figurative and literal gaps between description and experience-based choices. Researchers claim that these DE Gaps are problematic for classic models in decision-making research, such as Cumulative Prospect Theory (CPT; Kahneman & Tversky, 1992). This has led to a focus on experience-based models instead. However, following a literature review on CPT and the DE Gap, I aimed to test these claims. In fact, throughout three experiments, I demonstrate that the description-based theories need not be tossed away wholly. Instead, the researchers should conduct studies with critical tests that challenge specific aspects of these models. In experiment 1, I reexamined CPT’s inability to account for risk attitudes in experience. I demonstrate that the issue with CPT’s capability here is related to an auxiliary assumption on the utility function rather than a core assumption of the model. Beyond this, in experiments 2 and 3, I discuss how description-based research can extend existing theories and better explain the data. In experiment 2, CPT with a two-source weighting function captures how ambiguity might influence choices in experience. In experiment 3, a memory-based judgment model is used to extend CPT. While this memory-based CPT fails to outperform other models, it does suggest ways in which experience-based research can inform future description-based designs
SILENCING CRITICAL JOURNALISM: THE POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SECURITY THREATS FACING JOURNALISTS AND THE RESORT TO SELF-CENSORSHIP.
No full textThis research draws on the broad frameworks of the Hierarchy of Influences model (Shoemaker & Reese, 1996) and Political Economy of media to investigate the state of press freedom in Ghana. Specifically, it focuses on factors contributing to Ghana’s decline on the global press-freedom index as measured by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and how those factors have influenced journalistic role enactment and self-censorship. Through in-depth interviews of 28 Ghanaian journalists and a critical analysis of Ghana\u27s constitutional and legal protections for journalists, the study explores the overarching question: What are the factors contributing to Ghana’s steady decline on the global press freedom index and how can we understand this decline in relation to journalistic roles and the Political Economy of media? Key themes emerged from the interviews including the political, economic, security and the legal influences on press freedom and journalistic editorial independence. Also of concern to the participants is the growing influence of traditional forces such as chiefs on the freedoms of journalists and media institutions to operate independently. By contextualizing the Hierarchy of Influences model as well as the Political Economy of the Ghanaian media through journalists editorial freedoms, this research expands on these theories in the Ghanaian context and provide a greater understanding of the decline of press freedom in Ghana. It also examines local and international policies governing the media in arriving at an explanation of the state of the Ghanaian media. By amplifying the voices of Ghanaian journalists via an analysis of the legal, institutional, sociocultural as well as international factors shaping the media landscape, the study highlights areas for improvement and potential policy interventions to safeguard press freedom in the country
Biodegradable and Bioactive Polyurethane Foams to Improve Traumatic Wound Healing
No full textEvery year, 1.5 million people die from uncontrolled bleeding in traumatic wounds, such as gunshot wounds. Gauze dressings have remained the gold standard of treatment for traumatic wounds, but gauze must be removed, resulting in wound rebleeding. Furthermore, gauze removal within an approved time frame is not always possible in remote settings, like on a battlefield, presenting a critical need for a safe and effective dressing that can control bleeding over prolonged periods. To overcome these limitations, this work focuses on a novel biomaterial to be used as a permanent dressing to stop bleeding and facilitate healing. In previous work, polyurethane (PUr) foam dressings demonstrated effective bleeding control in a lethal pig liver injury model, with increased pig survival after PUr foam treatment compared to the clinical treatment options. Ideally, these PUr foams can safely remain in a wound and degrade, eliminating the need for removal. Their degradation rate should match wound healing rates to support new tissue formation. This work improves upon the traditionally slow degradation rate of PUr foams by incorporating linkages that are susceptible to breakdown by water and oxygen that are present in blood and tissue. Additionally, a biodegradable foam dressing can provide the framework for cells and tissue to migrate on, ultimately providing new, healthy tissue with no remains of the applied dressing after healing. Incorporating bioactive, naturally derived proteins like gelatin and collagen can drive these cell interactions on an otherwise entirely synthetic material. To that end, this work aimed to (i) increase PUr foam degradation rates to match the rate of traumatic wound healing (~12 weeks) and (ii) incorporate bioactive gelatin and collagen into the foams to further promote healing. A library of biodegradable polythiols was made from hydrolytically labile esters and oxidatively labile thioethers synthesized via a rapid click-chemistry reaction. Then, these polythiols were incorporated during foam fabrication to produce a library of PUr foams with varying amounts of the degradable groups. The degradable linkages significantly increased the rate of foam degradation, with almost complete degradation within 12 weeks, compared to the control PUr foam without these linkages, which had ~80% mass remaining at 12 weeks. Additionally, gelatin and collagen were physically or chemically incorporated into the foams, and their effect on blood- and cell-material interactions was assessed to determine their clotting and healing capacity. The incorporation of procoagulant gelatin and collagen significantly increased blood and protein interactions with the foams, helping to induce a stable clot to stop bleeding faster. Furthermore, gelatin and collagen increased cell attachment, spreading, and proliferation on the foams, which are important for new, healthy tissue formation. This work significantly improves upon previous work to increase the degradation rates of PUr foams. The degradable linkages are made via a simple, rapid, solvent-free reaction that can easily be scaled up for future commercialization to broaden access to a safe, effective wound dressing. Furthermore, the increased bioactivity of the PUr foams increases cell interactions on the scaffold, which can facilitate long-term healing. Ultimately, a comprehensive biodegradable and bioactive foam dressing can improve traumatic wound healing outcomes to reduce morbidity and mortality in millions of patients each year
“Because I Felt Like We Weren\u27t Chained Down Anymore”: The Experiences of Families of Students with Intellectual Disability Who Revoke Consent for Special Education Services
Get PDF“Because I Felt Like We Weren’t Chained Down Anymore” investigates a rarely discussed yet profoundly consequential choice: families of students with intellectual disability who revoke consent for special education services. Drawing upon Disability Studies in Education (DSE), Disability Studies and Critical Race Theory (DisCrit), and Critical Whiteness Studies (CWS), this dissertation situates revocation of consent within a larger struggle against entrenched ableism, racism, and segregation in American schools. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, I explore the lived experiences of five families who navigated and resist the special education system, clashed with segregated placements, and ultimately decided their children would be better off stepping away from services intended to support them. The findings illustrate how parents work tirelessly to humanize their children, resisting deficit-laden narratives that reduce students with intellectual disability to “burdens” requiring containment rather than learners deserving equitable education. Families describe encountering an unyielding machinery of special education—often mired in rigid bureaucracies and low expectations—and make the wrenching decision to relinquish formal supports in favor of more genuinely inclusive spaces. Far from acting impulsively, these parents marshal their social, financial, and cultural capital to challenge schools. Yet, these very acts of resistance are shaped by inequities, with whiteness granting some parents the privilege to withdraw from the system more easily. Ultimately, the research reveals how revoking consent is both an indictment of special education’s segregating practices and a testament to the resilience of families who refuse to accept a system that undervalues their children. This dissertation offers urgent implications for policy, practice, and teacher education: reimagining support structures, disrupting the racialized assumptions underpinning special education, and centering the voices of families who dare to envision schooling as liberation. By amplifying these stories, we are invited to question not only what special education is, but what it could—and should—be for all learners
Reproductive Justice in Motion: Community Doula Work in Central New York
Get PDFMy research is focuses on the role of Black Community-Based Doulas (CBDs) and CBDs of color and the ways in which their work shifted reproductive and maternal health experiences for Black birthing people and birthing people of color in Central New York. Through ethnographic research, I concentrated on two CBD organizations in Syracuse, NY, Village Birth International (VBI) and Doula 4 a Queen (D4Q). Methodologically, I implement participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and digital ethnography to foster consideration and support the continuing efforts of community-based solutions to maternal and reproductive inequities communities of color face in the United States. I focus on CBDs who are working to transform the narrative about Black and Brown birth by centering their clients\u27 experiences, providing access to various resources, and recognizing how larger systems of oppression influence birth. By centering doulas in the United States, this research contributes to anthropological knowledge in three aspects. First, doulas are becoming a meaningful nonmedical addition to pregnancy and childbirth support in different regions across the globe. This study illuminates the practices of CBDs, enriching anthropological understandings of the socio-cultural patterns of nonmedical labor and delivery attendant. Second, my research showcases the childbirth experiences of marginalized women to demonstrate the interaction between race, gender, class, and health care. This research is timely, as many discussions in the United States are considering ways to address maternal mortality and poor reproductive health outcomes, particularly for Black women. The findings offer insights into how CBDs function as birth workers, activists, and community organizers, and how childbirth is approached in urban United States. While social structures limit agency, resistance is found through community care for these CBDs and clients
The Monumental Challenges of Pastmaking
Get PDFPastmaking is a process in which agents exercise power to make or use documents depicting a past that can be given or taken as historical truth. Such documents often possess narrative elements perceived for use in heritage formation, collective remembering, and identity maintenance practices such as storytelling. Pastmaking encompasses the performative creation of historical knowledge. The implications of pastmaking prompt considerable pause about: (1) who gets spoken for in (re-)tellings of prior events, (2) how agents arrive at consensus to determine what is historically known, and (3) how knowledge is lost or gained when historical narratives get (re-)written, a particularly salient disciplinary issue in light of conceptual developments on epistemicide and epistemic injustice in library and information science (LIS). In response, the research question of this dissertation asks: How are epistemicide and pastmaking related through storytelling? This dissertation addresses this question by undertaking comparative case studies of two commemorative monuments using critical discourse and narrative analysis, abductive content analysis, and document phenomenological insights: (A) Columbus Circle in Syracuse, NY, and (B) The Place of Remembrance at Syracuse University. A literature review of storytelling, epistemicide, and pastmaking is conducted. Narrative documentality is conceptualized as the guiding framework to describe the interplay between narratives and documents. This critical qualitative investigation reveals how commemorative monuments subject to performative agencies of giving and taking afford or deny experiences of historical narrative through their use in constructions of the past. Findings enable three distinct contributions, including: a relational model of pastmaking; the assessment of relevance as a performative process; and demonstrating instances of document-dependent truth. Theoretical, empirical, practical, and curricular implications of pastmaking for LIS are discussed