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Background- Bullying victimization, both physical and electronic, has been associated with health risk behaviors such as smoking and substance use; and chronic conditions such as obesity, depression and sleep disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine the association between bullying victimization and risky sexual behavior. Failure to use condom in last sexual intercourse was used as an indicator of engagement in risky sexual activities. Methods- Data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS), a biennial nationally representative survey of 9-12 grade students (N=15,624) were used. After cleaning and re-coding the data set, a total of 5,037 students who reported ever having sex in their lifetime were included in the analyses. The explanatory variable included in the multiple logistic regression analysis was bullying victimization. Marijuana use and feeling of sadness or hopelessness in a row for two weeks or more during past twelvemonths were included as covariates. The analyses were adjusted for age and race, and odds ratios were stratified by gender. Results- No significant association was found between being a bullying victim at school property and not using condom in last sexual intercourse for both male (OR: 1.08, 95% CI: 0.71-1.65) and female (OR: 0.98, 95% CI:0.65-1.47) students. This finding was consistent for both male (OR: 1.80, 95% CI: 0.89-3.65) and female (OR: 1.04, 95% CI: 0.70-1.55) victims of electronic bullying. Failure to use condom in last sexual intercourse was found to be associated with male students who were sad or hopeless in a row for two weeks or more during past 12 months (OR: 1.49,95% CI: 1.13-1.96). Conclusions- Failure to use condom in last sexual intercourse was not found to be significantly associated with bullying victimization. Other risky sexual behaviors such as having multiple sex partners, use of protective methods other than condom and use of drugs or alcohol before engaging into sexual relationship should be examined in further studies.

The poetry, prose, and personality of Walt Whitman have attained a truly global circulation, and scholarship continues to reveal his complex and lasting impact on literature, art, and politics around the world. This dissertation reveals Walt Whitman's extensive appropriation by the Latin American avant-garde, an artistic current that encompassed dozens of regional, national and transnational vanguardia movements across the Americas from roughly 1918 through the late 1930s. My work tells the story of how these pugnacious literary and artistic communities used Whitman as the raw material for a self-consciously "modern" art, as they circulated, adapted, and repurposed the US poet and his texts. The dissertation moves from south to north, beginning in Chile, proceeding to Nicaragua and Mexico, and ending with Latino writers in the United States. "Out of Place: Walt Whitman and the Latin American Avant-Gardes" argues that the literary and political appropriation of Whitman becomes a part of these movements' active participation in the hemispheric and global conversation of their day. What these aggressive avant-garde groups find useful, provocative, or generative in Whitman, then, offers us a unique perspective that cannot be left out of American literary studies. For as they wrestle with Whitman and the concept of "America," as they adapt Whitman into their notions of art, of nation and of language, and as they read him against the backdrop of globalization and modernity, a new Walt Whitman emerges, a vanguardista Whitman who sheds new light on the enduring relevance of his own radical project of making a poetry for the Americas.

Using Facebook from a theater of war provides a particularly unique vantage point from which to study the broader shift in our communication environment. While many communication technologies began in warzones for mission purposes--connecting planes to the ground, connecting and coordinating strikes and ambushes, reporting needs for medics, and so on, warzones are not known for connecting the war front and the home front. Thus the culture of perpetual contact ushered in by social media technologies like Facebook collides with a situation quintessentially associated with a lack of contact. Surprisingly this point has received little scholarly attention. This dissertation examines the way US troops use Facebook from a theater of war to narrate their experiences to their civilian network members, to each other, and to themselves. The project explores how US troops define and are defined by existing discourses of war; how they shape and are shaped by technological advancements, and how all these relationships are changing what "war" means in this millennium. Data include 20 semi-structured in-person interviews, which took place on active bases in Okinawa, Japan and Camp Pendleton, California. Data also include the field notes from those visits as well as field notes and screen captures of Facebook observations.

This research project is designed to understand the relationship between states and Nongovernmental Organizations (NGOs), especially how they influence one another. In this study, I argue that the theoretical relationship between states' foreign policy behaviors and the behavior of NGO is dynamic and conditional, with the influence of NGOs on states' behaviors depending on the host states' regime type and the age of the influencing NGOs. I also argue that NGOs influence states' foreign policy behaviors toward other states both directly and indirectly, functioning as information providers, lobbying groups, agenda setters, and norm generators. By applying these theoretical arguments to the field of international development, the influence of NGOs on states' decisions about foreign aid is analyzed with the case of the United States. A new time-series cross-sectional dataset of the activities of US-based NGOs in developing countries is constructed by utilizing annual reports of NGOs, websites, and through personal communication with NGO officers. In addition, another new dataset is constructed about the number of New York Time articles. With constructed datasets, the quantitative studies are conducted. The quantitative studies show that as number of US-based NGO field operations in developing countries increase, that country is significantly more likely to receive higher amounts of aid from the United States. NGOs that have longer operations in developing countries are also more effective at lobbying the United States to provide more foreign aid. Furthermore, empirical analyses show that as number of US-based NGO activities increase in a country, the media coverage of that country increases. The qualitative analyses of NGOs' influence on states' foreign policy behaviors are also conducted. Interviews with NGO workers, governmental officials, and a reporter from the New York Times provide insight about how NGOs interact with the US government. In addition, these interviews show that NGOs function as information providers, lobbying groups, agenda setters, and norm generators. The theoretical understand of NGO-state relationships will contribute to the study of NGOs and NGOs' interaction with states. In addition, empirical analyses with newly constructed dataset and interviews with people in the field will become an important asset to social scientists in this field. The study also has a great potential to be expanded by including more NGO data, issue areas, and other countries' NGOs.

Leader mentoring in the military has not been well researched, especially that involving cross-gender pairings. A phenomenological study was conducted to gain insight into the perceptions, thoughts, and feelings of military officers regarding their decision to engage in mentoring, to include with members of the opposite gender. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 20 male and 20 female U.S. Army senior commissioned officers to collect information regarding mentoring selection perspectives and decisions and to examine emerging themes, concepts, and patterns, using NVivo 11 Pro Plus. Negative themes that emerged among both male and female participants concerned adverse perceptions of members within the organization, including perceptions of inappropriate relationships, sexual contact, unprofessionalism, rumors, mal-intent, and concern for impact on spouses. Positive themes among both male and female participants included feelings regarding success, career progression, promotions, opportunities, sharing, leadership, developing, and increased potential. Participants also expressed their amenability to mentoring officers of the opposite gender, with varying degrees of expectation for success. Understanding how military officers perceive, think, and feel regarding mentor selection will provide U.S. Army leadership with useful information that can promote positive social change among the officer ranks and will help leaders better understand the mentor and mentee relationship. This will have a positive impact on the U.S. military's efforts to ensure that all female officers receive effective mentoring and socialization.

acase@tulane.edu