An Exploratory Study on Institutional Belonging and Its Effects on Mental Health Outcomes and Academic Success

BACKGROUND Belonging in higher education is a growing field of research, however there is limited available literature. Institutional belonging encompasses many factors of the college campus environment such as social relationships, extra-curricular activities, academics, institutional support and how they affect a college student’s sense of belonging (Hausmann et al., 2007). The purpose of this exploratory study is to further understand institutional belonging and its relationships with mental health and academic success. METHODS This study utilized data from the ACHA-NCHA III, Spring 2020 survey that was randomly given to undergraduate and graduate students (N=5,000) attending a Northwest regional state university. The dataset was used to assess if institutional belonging is associated with GPA and three mental health outcomes: stress, psychological well-being, and loneliness. Additionally, the dataset was used to assess if GPA is associated with the three mental health outcomes and if institutional belonging moderates this association. The dataset was analyzed using multiple methods including MANOVA, ANOVA, ANCOVA, and Multiple Regression. RESULTS Institutional belonging was significantly associated with all three mental health outcomes: stress, psychological well-being, and loneliness. Furthermore, institutional belonging was significantly associated with GPA. These two relationships remained significant after including the covariates: first-generation status and biological sex. GPA was significantly associated with psychological well-being and belonging did not significantly moderate this relationship. CONCLUSIONS Institutional belonging had a significant effect on mental health and academic success. Although institutional belonging did not have a moderating effect on the relationship between GPA and the mental health outcomes, this study still presents implications for the use of institutional belonging in early intervention programs on college campuses. Implications for future public health practices and future research are also discussed

Egypt’s encounter with the West: Race, Culture and Identity

The present study is an investigation into the processes involved in interpreting ethnic identity in the ancient world. Specifically, it focuses on the various “Libyan” groups currently found in Egyptological literature who are attested in ancient Egyptian sources from the dawn of Egyptian civilization. Set within the broader theoretical discussion of identifying social and cultural differentiation in the ancient world, this thesis will explore the manner in which the identity of “Libyan” groups has been interpreted by modern scholars; the way in which the ancient Egyptians interpreted the identity of these groups; and the degree to which self-expressed “Libyan” identity is still visible in the iconographic, epigraphic and archaeological records of ancient Egypt. Historically, this thesis will trace the interaction which the ancient Egyptians alone record between themselves and the various groups currently aggregated under the term “Libyan.” Through art, text and archaeology, this thesis will outline this interaction from the earliest appearance of these groups in Egyptian records in the Fourth Millennium BC, through the resettlement of some of these groups in Egypt during the Twelfth Century BC and continued references to these groups living in diaspora within Egypt during the first half of the First Millennium BC. Following a strict methodological approach which emphasizes chronology and context as key factors in understanding ancient ethnic groups, this thesis will explore how the projections of internal group identities evolve over time and the manner in which these identities have been observed by both ancient (Egyptian) and modern (Egyptological) outsiders

An Anthology of Enterprise Policy in Ireland

Ruane and Gorg (1996: 37) remarked that \u27any careful comparison of the Irish economy with other economies in the European Union immediately focuses on two key features of Ireland\u27s pattern of industrial development: the enormous significance of foreign direct investment (FDI) and the very high export ratios in the Irish manufacturing sector among foreign-owned companies. These two features have not developed by accident, but are directly related to the industrial strategy which Ireland has pursued over the past forty years, namely, of promoting export-led growth in Irish manufacturing through various incentives and of encouraging foreign companies to establish manufacturing plants in Ireland, producing specifically for export markets\u27

The Proposed U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA): Provisions and Implications

On June 30, 2007, United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab and South Korean Foreign Trade Minister Kim Hyung-chong signed the proposed U.S.-South Korean Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA) for their respective countries. If approved, the KORUS FTA would be the largest FTA that South Korea has signed to date and would be the second largest (next to North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA) in which the United States participates. South Korea is the seventh-largest trading partner of the United States and the United States is South Korea’s third largest trading partner. Various studies conclude that the agreement would increase bilateral trade and investment flows. The final text of the proposed KORUS FTA covers a wide range of trade and investment issues and, therefore, could have wide economic implications for both the United States and South Korea. The KORUS FTA includes issues on which the two countries achieved early agreement, such as the elimination on tariffs on trade in most manufactured goods and the partial liberalization in services trade. The agreement also includes provisions on a number of very sensitive issues, such as autos, agriculture, and trade remedies, on which agreement was reached only during the final hours of negotiations. If the agreement is to enter into force, Congress will have to approve implementation legislation. The negotiations were conducted under the trade promotion authority (TPA), also called fast-track trade authority, that the Congress granted the President under the Bipartisan Trade Promotion Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-210). The authority allows the President to enter into trade agreements that receive expedited congressional consideration (no amendments and limited debate). The White House has not indicated when it will send the draft implementing legislation to Congress. (The TPA sets no deadline for the President to do this.) While a broad swath of the U.S. business community supports the agreement, the KORUS FTA faces opposition from some groups, including some auto and steel manufacturers and labor unions. In addition, the agricultural community and some Members of Congress have withheld support for the agreement until South Korea lifts its restrictions on imports of U.S. beef. Some U.S. supporters view passage of the KORUS FTA as important to secure new opportunities in the South Korea market. Opponents claim that the KORUS FTA does not go far enough in opening up the South Korean market and is a lost opportunity to resolve long running concerns about South Korean barriers. Other observers have suggested the outcome of the KORUS FTA could have implications for the U.S.-South Korean alliance as a whole. Differences between the White House and the Democratic leadership in the Congress over the implications of the KORUS FTA have made the timing and even the likelihood of the President’s submission and the Congress’s subsequent consideration of implementing legislation uncertain. This report will be updated as events warrant

Impact Of Mad Money Stock Recommendations: Merging Financial and Marketing Perspectives

This article relies on advertising and persuasive communications theories to uncover persistent variations in investor response to television stock recommendations targeting naive investors. The authors use an event study methodology to determine the size of the next-day abnormal market reaction to recommendations on Mad Money with Jim Cramer. Although viewers are actively looking for recommendations, the results show that any individual recommendation is still subject to many of the same communication challenges as traditional advertisements. A regression analysis finds that traditional advertising variables, such as message length, recency-primacy effects, information clutter, and source credibility, influence the size of the market reaction to a buy recommendation. The authors discuss implications for marketers, managers of public companies, and those interested in public policy aspects related to televised stock recommendations

Ten-Year Analysis of Tropopause-Overshooting Convection over the Eastern United States using NEXRAD Data

Mass-exchange across the tropopause can have a substantial impact on the composition, radiation, and chemistry of the Upper Troposphere and Lower Stratosphere (UTLS). Convection that penetrates the tropopause (overshooting convection) can rapidly transport air from the lower troposphere to the lower stratosphere and can potentially mix stratospheric air into the upper troposphere. To improve our understanding of overshooting convection, this study conducts a 10-year statistical analysis of overshooting convection for the May-August period of 2004 to 2013 over the continental United States, east of the Rocky Mountains. Using 104 radars from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Next Generation Weather Radar (NEXRAD) network, echo-top altitudes are derived from radar reflectivities that are merged into hourly, high-resolution, three-dimensional, gridded synoptic analyses. Echo-top altitudes are then compared to lapse-rate tropopause heights calculated from the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting ERA-Interim reanalysis to determine the frequency, timing, magnitude, location, and interannual variability of overshooting convection. The results of this study are obtained from analyzing only the ‘storms’ identified to protrude at least 2 km into the lower stratosphere. Overshooting convection is most common in the high plains of the United States, with a weak secondary maximum observed along the east coast. There is a strong diurnal cycle with maximum overshooting occurring consistently between 2200 and 0200 UTC (late afternoon to early evening local time). The number of events per year varies by about a factor of two with 2011 having the most and 2005, the least. The total overshooting volume for each year follows a similar pattern as the occurrences. The tropopause height is found to play an important role in controlling overshooting. There are more overshooting events observed in May and June when the tropopause height is low than in July and August. The highest number of overshooting storms have echo-top heights ranging from 15 km in May to 18 km in August. The number of storm occurrences also decreases exponentially with height above the tropopause and none are observed to extend over 8 km into the stratosphere. In this study, over 70% of individual overshooting storms have echo-tops with potential temperature values at or above 380 K, suggesting that the impact of overshooting over the United States could extend beyond the mid-latitudes and potentially into the tropical lower stratosphere