Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University
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Everyday Exposure: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Gun Violence on the Lives of DePaul Students
Get PDFThis study examined a novel data source: the contents of letters that students wrote to local, state, or national politicians about gun control for a class assignment in order to collect evidence of the impact of direct and indirect gun violence on the lives of DePaul students. For the study, we coded and analyzed 83 de-identified student letters for themes pertaining to the experience of exposure to gun violence and mass shootings. Our findings include a high prevalence of student exposure to direct incidences of gun violence; strong negative emotions surrounding the fear of gun violence intruding into students’ daily lives; and an emergent theme of a ‘right to safety’ from gun violence expressed by some of the students in the study
Postweaning Skull Growth in Living Didelphid Marsupials: The Case of Gracilinanus agilis and Cryptonanus chacoensis
Get PDFOntogeny is described as the history of an organism through its lifetime including development, growth, and allometry. The ontogenetic approach in cranial dimensions has proved useful in interpreting evolutionary patterns. Among the largest Didelphidae family of Neotropical marsupials, the species of Gracilinanus agilis and Cryptonanus chacoensis are poorly known. In this study, we address three questions; Is there sexual dimorphism in these species? What is the pattern of allometry? Which allometric patterns best describe the patterns in the skull and mandible? We applied geometric morphometrics to describe and test these differences using MorphoJ. A discriminant function analysis was performed to explore the comparisons between males and females on the ventral, dorsal, lateral, and mandible views of the skull. The analysis included the difference between means using the Mahalanobis and Procrustes distance, and permutation tests (n = 1000 permutation runs). Evidence of sexual dimorphism in G. agilis was not found, contrary to C. chacoensis where males and females differ the most at the parietal, occipital, and width of the temporal bones, the corpus, and three processes of the ramus. Age dimorphism was found in the cranium and mandible of both species, where the adults and juveniles differed the most in the parietal and occipital bones, the corpus, and the three processes of the ramus. In summary, we are closing the gap between two poorly understood species in South America. These findings will be important to better understand the ecology and evolution of these marsupials and other closely related species
Detection and Quantification of Acetaminophen in Aquatic Samples From Cádiz, Spain
Get PDFPharmaceutical contaminants in water are becoming increasingly prevalent. This could have potentially harmful effects on human health and aquatic environments, even at low concentrations. Acetaminophen, the active ingredient of Tylenol ®, was the target compound for this study, and the aim was to determine is presence and concentration in various aquatic samples in and around the city of Cádiz, Spain. It was predicted that acetaminophen would be detected in low concentrations in river water, drain outflow, University of Cádiz saltwater flow, and lagoon water, but undetectable in the University of Cádiz sink water and fountain water. The presence and concentration of acetaminophen in various water samples was determined through Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography (UP-LC) and Mass Spectroscopy (MS). Acetaminophen was detected at a concentration between 0.01 to 0.5 mg L-1 in each sample analyzed. This suggests that filtration mechanisms are not effective enough to remove pharmaceutical contaminants from water. The concentration was highest in the saltwater flow at the University of Cádiz and was at the lowest concentration in the public fountain water. These results convey that pharmaceuticals may be present in aquatic samples at higher concentrations than originally believed, and even sources of filtered water may contain pharmaceuticals
Can Travel Pledges Influence Tourists’ Sustainable Travel Behavior?
Get PDFEnvironmental awareness is growing and understanding the impact of sustainability pledges on tourist behavior is crucial. This study investigates the effectiveness of such commitments in shaping eco-friendly travel choices. Through a comprehensive analysis of data collected from 475 participants, we examine the influence of sustainability pledges on environmental knowledge, tourist inspiration, and connectedness with nature. Furthermore, our findings highlight the key role of environmental concern in shaping attitudes towards sustainability travel pledges. Practical implications from these findings offer actionable strategies for industry practitioners to promote sustainable tourism, emphasizing the integration of sustainability pledges into promotional materials, the design of inspiring nature experiences, tailored engagement strategies, and implementing practical initiatives and incentives. By fostering collaboration with local communities and conservation organizations, stakeholders can collectively contribute to advancing sustainable tourism practices, ensuring a positive impact on both the environment and the tourism industry\u27s long-term viability
Talking to Strangers: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Study of an Intercultural Intervention
Get PDFThe globalized nature of the world we live in, and the rapidly evolving technologies we have become accustomed to, have resulted in a highly interconnected worlds where meeting persons hailing from different cultural backgrounds is not only possible but highly probable. Consequently, intercultural communication is an important and prized competence which allows for meaningful encounters that lead to better relationship outcomes. An important context wherein these dynamics often play out are educational institutions given their active recruitment of international students. Despite such a trend and the resulting greater likelihood of intercultural encounters, most students lack intercultural communication and relationship building skills. Such lack of intercultural competence often results in discrimination and misunderstandings between persons with significantly different cultural identities.
The present study evaluated an intercultural intervention held at a mid-size college in a Midwestern state in the United States of America. Utilizing the embedded approach within mixed methodology, the study assessed whether and how intercultural intervention achieved its goals in improving intercultural communication in its participants as well as fostering friendships between participants and international students.
The quantitative component ascertained three hypotheses, namely that; 1) participants’ post personal report of intercultural communication apprehension (PRICA: Neuliep & McCroskey, 1997) scores were statistically lower post intervention; 2) that friendship across several dimensions had increased as a result of the intervention; and, 3) that there were no statistically significant differences in post-intervention PRICA scores throughout the various years the program was offered. A paired samples T-test assessed Hypothesis 1, while a Wilcoxon signed rank analysis was utilized to analyze differences in friendship, and an ANOVA was utilized to identify any significant differences in mean post-intervention PRICA scores over the years. Results indicated that there were no significant differences between pre and post reports for intercultural communication apprehensions, as well no incremental differences in rates of friendships. Additionally, there were no statistically significant differences between the post scores for intercultural communication apprehension between the different years. Such a result indicated that our hypotheses were rejected.
In the qualitative component, a second study, 14 former participants within the program were interviewed to understand the impact of the program on their intercultural communication and friendships with international students. Utilizing a thematic analysis, transcripts of the interview were analyzed in an open-coding format to create codes. Once the codes were identified, they were categorized in themes and sub-themes and the transcript re-analyzed using the new themes and sub-themes. Four themes emerged from the analysis, namely: 1) coming into the program; 2) how the program achieved its goals; 3) impacts; and, 4) obstacles. Results indicated that overall improvement in intercultural communication was achieved but that friendship with international students was not meaningfully achieved. Participants offered several categories of reasons why this was the case, including cultural, logistical, programmatic, Covid-19, and demographic barriers.
Despite an imperfect convergence, results indicated that while a positive impact on intercultural communication was achieved through various events and the work culture of the program, the friendship with international students’ objective was not achieved. Implications and recommendations were discussed
Parent-Child Cultural Values (Mis)Matches and Youth Mental Health among Latinx Families
Get PDFWhen compared to youth from other ethnic backgrounds, Latinx youth present with higher levels of mental health problems (e.g., internalizing). Various heritage cultural values, such as affiliative obedience, have been found as protective against mental health problems in Latinx youth. These findings, however, have not been ubiquitous, have not often included parent or combined parent and child perspectives, and have been limited by design and methodological shortcomings (e.g., single reporters, difference scores). The Acculturation Gap Distress – Expanded (AGD-E) model was used as the guiding theoretical framework to examine parent-child heritage cultural value endorsement patterns and their association to youth mental health and other child and parent correlates. This study included 295 Latinx children (Mage= 11.45, SD = 0.95), slightly more females (n = 163; 55.3%) than males, and their parents of predominately low income and Mexican American backgrounds. Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed a three-profile solution. Two groups were in values mismatches profiles: HY_MP (high youth, moderate parent) (n = 74; 25%), MY_HP (moderate youth, high parent) (n = 70; 24%), while the third and largest group was in a values match profile, HY_HP (high youth, high parent (n = 151; 51%). Cross-sectional (but not longitudinal) findings showed that youth in the MY_HP profile had higher levels of externalizing problems than the HY_MP profile, χ2 (2, N = 295) = 7.91, p \u3c 0.01, and the HY_HP profile χ2 (2, N = 295) = 16.64, p \u3c 0.01. Youth in the MY_HP profile had higher internalizing problems than youth in the HY_HP profile χ2 (2, N = 295) = 4.45, p \u3c 0.05. No differences were found across profiles in youth acculturative stress or parental depression. Findings suggests the potential benefits of parent-child cultural value congruence. Individual-, family-, and society-level implications are discussed
Democratization of custom, high quality large language models
Get PDFLarge Language Models (LLMs) have shown exceptional performance in several natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Customizing LLMs boosts their performance in domain specific tasks but typically requires substantial resources and effort for training, such as supervised fine-tuning. This research proposes methods to achieve significant accuracy improvements given minimal resources, particularly focusing on open-ended question answering with a given piece of context. We utilize an LLM’s self-generated training data to fine-tune the LLM and partial fine-tuning with on-demand GPU to reduce practitioner training costs. The research shows that these methods give significant performance gains in a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) based system on the Stanford Question Answering Dataset (SQuAD)
Thai Parents’ Reasons for Sending Their Children to Premium-Fee International Schools: Strategies for Establishing International Schools
Get PDFThe study investigates the factors influencing Thai parents’ decisions when selecting international schools in the Bangkok Metropolitan Region. It examines how parents’ preferences for educational outcomes shape their choice among UK, US, or IB programs. Key findings reveal that dissatisfaction with Thai public schools drives many families to enroll their children in international schools. These institutions are valued for their supportive community atmosphere, opportunities for foreign college placements, and superior infrastructure. Preferences for different programs reflect distinct priorities: UK programs are preferred for their extracurricular activities, punctuality, and academic reputation; US programs for their emphasis on critical thinking, multiculturalism, and flexible teaching methods; and IB programs for their global perspectives, trilingual approach, and rigorous academics. The study also includes a SWOT analysis designed to help school leaders leverage strengths, address weaknesses, seize opportunities, and manage risks associated with international schools. Additionally, it explores significant contradictions and tensions, such as those between academic rigor and holistic development, global versus Eurocentric curricula, multilingualism versus subtractive bilingualism, cultural competence versus assimilation, Western versus Eastern communication styles, and competitive versus non-competitive parenting approaches. Addressing these issues is crucial for promoting cultural sensitivity within international school environments. The conclusion offers recommendations for school leaders on how to use these findings to develop and enhance strategies for international schools
A Quantitative Study of Microaggressive Characteristics and Culturally Relevant Sounding Black Names Within Context of Math Word Problem-Solving Vignettes: Is There A Relationship Between Culturally Relevant Black Sounding Names and Potential Microaggressive Sentences Within The Context of Math Word Problem-Solving Vignettes?
Get PDFThe aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between culturally relevant Black American-sounding names and potential racial microaggressions within problem-solving scenarios in mathematics. Often, marginalized groups are unfairly characterized in society, leading to biased perceptions. Initially, I hypothesized that there would be no association between culturally relevant Black American-sounding names and the presence of microaggressions in math textbooks. Random selection was used to choose publishers for the study, and the population units (s-PU) and sample units (s-SU) were drawn from three finalists. Employing quantitative methods, I analyzed the data using the Chi-square Test of Independence and Cramer\u27s V statistical package to explore this potential relationship. Upon analyzing the data, I rejected the null hypothesis based on the statistical results of the Chi-square test: X2= 112.625, df= 16, p \u3c .001, and accepted the alternative hypothesis, which stated that there is a significant relationship between culturally relevant Black American-sounding names and potential microaggressions within math word problem-solving scenarios
More Than Just a Paycheck: Campus Student Employment as High-Impact Practice
Get PDFInstitutions of higher education have a unique opportunity to support their students’ holistic development by incorporating elements of high-impact practice into campus jobs. High-impact practices ask students to dedicate significant time and energy to meaningful work, which channels students’ efforts toward productive activities that deepen their learning and is correlated with higher levels of learning outcome achievement and persistence. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, nearly half of today’s college students are employed, which can distract from their ability to be successful in school. Using features of high-impact practice, universities can leverage campus jobs to offer students employment opportunities that support and integrate their classroom learning rather than detracting from it. This dissertation examined one such work environment that incorporates the eight features of high-impact practice into student employees’ jobs. Guided by the National Survey of Student Engagement and large-scale studies on campus employment environments that demonstrate elements of high-impact practice, this dissertation surveyed students who tutor in a university writing center to determine how often their job incorporates elements of high-impact practice into their day-to-day work. It also asked students to describe what they perceived to be the important elements of their work environments. Findings revealed: (1) the writing center in question offers one model for how elements of high-impact practice can be regularly incorporated into student work; (2) student employees frequently indicate that elements of high-impact practice are important to them in their work environment. The most important elements that student employees identified were regular, substantial, one-on-one check-ins with supervisors about their progress and development; opportunities to build skills and knowledge that serve them in other academic and professional contexts; and interactions with a broad diversity of people and ideas. This dissertation offers guidance for how student employment practitioners can create a campus employment experience that provides students with more than just a paycheck by supporting their holistic, long-term development and success. Keywords: high-impact practice, student employment, campus employment, working student dilemma, student engagement, writing center, writing center tuto