Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Associated With Hepatitis B Medication Adherence And Persistence Among Underserved Chinese And Vietnamese Americans, Aisha Bhimla, Lin Zhu, Wenyue Lu, Sarit Golub, Chibuzo Enemchukwu, Elizabeth Handorf, Yin Tan, Ming-Chin Yeh, Minhhuyen T. Nguyen, Min Qi Wang, Grace X. Ma

Publications and Research

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection disproportionately affects Asian Amer- icans in the United States, while this population faces low adherence to HBV treatment. Using the information–motivation–behavioral skills model (IMB), the study aims to examine medication adherence and persistence among Chinese and Vietnamese people with HBV. Methodology: Study participants were recruited between March 2019 and March 2020 and were enrolled through multiple recruitment approaches in the Greater Philadelphia Area and New York City. The study is an assess- ment of the baseline data on medication adherence, HBV-related knowledge, motivation of HBV med- ication treatment, self-efficacy about HBV medication treatment, and …

Diagnosis Of Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy From Fluorescein Angiography Using Deep Learning, Yu-Yeh Tsai, Wei-Yang Ling, Shih-Jen Chen, Paisan Ruamviboonsuk, Cheng-Ho King, Chia-Ling Tsai

Publications and Research

Purpose: To differentiate polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) from choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and to determine the extent of PCV from fluorescein angiography (FA) using attention-based deep learning networks.

Methods: We build two deep learning networks for diagnosis of PCV using FA, one for detection and one for segmentation. Attention-gated convolutional neural network (AG-CNN) differentiates PCV from other types of wet age-related macular degeneration. Gradient-weighted class activation map (Grad-CAM) is generated to highlight important regions in the image for making the prediction, which offers explainability of the network. Attention-gated recurrent neural network (AG-PCVNet) for spatiotemporal prediction is applied for segmentation …

Possibilities For Using Visual Drawing With Student-Teachers: Linking Childhood Memories To Future Teaching Selves, Debbie Sonu

Publications and Research

Drawing from memory-work, this study examines the relationship between childhood and the peda- gogical perspectives and practices of 16 pre-service student-teachers enrolled at one large university in the United States. In an analysis of their visual drawings and written narratives of childhood memories, student-teachers link childhood pasts with teaching futures in three distinct ways: 1) intimate con- nections with former teachers, 2) difficult life circumstances involving loss or trauma, and 3) the primacy of family and culture. Each set of memories is tied to a range of responsibilities that student-teachers vow to uphold, leading towards more re!exive practices in teacher …

Edl 805 Syllabus Spring 2022, Harriet Fayne

Open Educational Resources

This syllabus has been designed for the Master of Science in Organizational Leadership. Candidates have the following three major assignments in the course: Needs Assessment; Evaluation Proposal; Grant Proposal. Candidates are expected to complete 10 hours of field work associated with the needs assessment and work in small groups on the grant proposal.

Diagnosis Of Polypoidal Choroidal Vasculopathy From Fluorescein Angiography Using Deep Learning, Yu-Yeh Tsai, Wei-Yang Lin, Shih-Jen Chen, Paisan Ruamviboonsuk, Cheng-Ho King, Chia-Ling Tsai

Publications and Research

Purpose: To differentiate polypoidal choroidal vasculopathy (PCV) from choroidal neovascularization (CNV) and to determine the extent of PCV from fluorescein angiography (FA) using attention-based deep learning networks.

Methods: We build two deep learning networks for diagnosis of PCV using FA, one for detection and one for segmentation. Attention-gated convolutional neural network (AG-CNN) differentiates PCV from other types of wet age-related macular degeneration. Gradient-weighted class activation map (Grad-CAM) is generated to highlight important regions in the image for making the prediction, which offers explainability of the network. Attention-gated recurrent neural network (AG-PCVNet) for spatiotemporal prediction is applied for segmentation of PCV. …

Understanding The Proton Transport In Non-Aqueous Histidine-Based Nanostructures, Jiang Bian

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Over the past two decades, proton transport has been extensively studied because of the many applications to the development of new technological devices. In particular, understanding proton transport permits the design of new materials with desired properties for constructing effective proton exchange membranes (PEM) in fuel cells. Current PEM technology involves biocummulative perfluorinated membranes that operate under hydrated conditions, for which the proton conductivity is limited by the usually high temperature that fuel cells operate. Therefore, it is of great interest to study the alternative systems that have the potential to conduct protons, in particular, those that are able to …

The Development Of Slurs In Violin Bowing During The Italian Seicento: Printing And Rhetoric, Joan Plana Nadal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Venice and Bologna were the leading Italian publishing centers for violin music during the seventeenth century. While composers in other countries circulated their music in manuscript or copper engraving, Italian publishers continued operating with movable type. Although this printing method was cheaper, it was also inadequate when faced with more advanced instrumental music. With the fast rise in popularity of the violin at the beginning of the century and the new stile moderno, composers started adding more technical demands for the violin, including requests that publishers were not always able to add later in print. Some of the most …

Nursing And Interprofessional Relationships On A Labor And Delivery Unit: Ethnography, Tricia A. Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Research regarding interprofessional relationships on a labor and delivery unit is overwhelmingly quantitative, most of it relying on descriptors of the concepts “team” and “teamwork.” However, there is a scarcity of studies that explore the actual interactions that occur among professionals while they provide care to a laboring mother. In a labor and delivery unit at a suburban hospital, over a 14-month period, data was collected through participant observation, casual conversation, extensive field notes, informal interviews, and unstructured, in-depth interviews with 12 healthcare professionals until saturation of emerging themes was achieved. Field notes and transcribed interviews were continuously examined and …

Understanding Species Interactions And Their Impacts In Restored Communities, Jennifer Zhu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Species interactions may mediate the ability of organisms to survive in a community and provide valued services but are rarely fully considered in restoration planning. To address this, I considered how service provisioning will change as restored marsh communities mature and the value of incorporating antipredator training into captive-rearing programs.

For chapter 1, I explored how a facultative mutualism between Atlantic ribbed mussels Geukensia demissa and cordgrass Spartina alterniflora may enhance marsh growth and nitrogen cycling in a eutrophic setting. I created experimental plots in Jamaica Bay, NY, that contained live mussels, mussel shells, or no mussels (control) and measured …

“She Too ‘Omanish’”: Young Black Women’S Sexuality And Reproductive Justice In Bluefields, Nicaragua, Ishan Elizabeth Gordon-Ugarte

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Most never-married young “Creole” (Afro-Caribbean) women in Bluefields, Nicaragua are raised in fundamentalist Protestant families and institutions that emphasize sexual abstinence before marriage. In this context, abstinence is required to maintain social standing and “respectability.” Nevertheless, women in Bluefields, the administrative center of Caribbean Nicaragua, exhibit what Creoles themselves understand to be high rates of sexuality and pregnancy among post-menarche unmarried teenaged women (USAID, 2012; Mitchell et al. 2015). Such young women’s pregnancies occur at an important developmental stage of their lives and have long been associated by social scientists with adverse social, emotional, and health situations. These scholars have …

Strength And Vulnerability In Maurice Ravel’S Sonata For Violin And Cello And Osvaldo Golijov’S Mariel For Cello And Marimba: An Analysis Through Performance And Composition, Andrea Casarrubios

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In order to “stimulate more ambitious performances,” as David Lewin writes in his Studies in Music with Text, this dissertation is meant to provide new perspectives into two preexisting works, Maurice Ravel’s Sonate pour Violon et Violoncelle, and Osvaldo Golijov’s Mariel for cello and marimba, through the active making of two original compositions written for similar instrumentations, La Libertad se levantó llorando for violin and cello, and Speechless for cello and percussion. Taking Lewin’s proposition into consideration, I share performance insights and discuss how the creation of these new compositions have influenced my interpretations of the two respective …

The Effects Of Syrian Refugees On Jordanians’ Political Attitudes, Suna Buse Agkoc

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Syrian Civil War led to a massive influx of refugees into the neighboring country of Jordan. In this paper, I investigate the effect of Syrian refugee arrivals on institutional trust, national pride, and support for authoritarian or democratic regimes among the Jordanian population. Methodologically, I use advanced quantitative techniques (in particular, ”difference-in-differences” and ”instrumental variables”) to identify causal relationships in various survey and census data. The findings suggest that an increase in refugee percentage in Jordanian governorates led to a reduction in political trust and positive attitudes towards having a strong leader (authority). However, an increase in refugee percentage …

A Multilevel Analysis Of Political Risk, Marlon J. Guzman Valdera

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This essay aims to diminish the conceptual fragmentation that exists, in relation to political risk, by introducing a multilevel approach to assess risk. While traditional approaches understand political risk to be a result of the political action of host-states against multinationals, this essay shows that there are other actors, like the host-nation civil society and the international community, that also play a role in the production of political risk. Although traditional approaches assert that political risk can solely target multinationals individually, this paper states that risk can affect a firm at an industrial and country level. I claim that political …

Eukaryotic Initiation Factor 3 Interactions With Structural Elements Of Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus Untranslated Regions Reveal Details Of A New Cap-Independent Translation Initiation Model, Paul S. Powell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Barley Yellow Dwarf Virus (BYDV) is a positive strand RNA plant virus that translates without using a 5′ 7-methylguanosine cap or a 3′ poly-adenosine tail, features that are required for canonical mRNA translation. BYDV’s non-canonical translation relies on RNA structures in the 5′ and 3′ untranslated regions (UTRs) to recruit eukaryotic initiation factors (eIFs) and ribosomes. BYDV’s 3′ translation enhancer (BTE) is a cruciform structure capable of recruiting the cap-binding complex eIF4F, the large scaffolding complex eIF3, and the 40S ribosomal subunit. Together eIF3, eIF4F, and BTE influence factor binding and 40S recruitment on the 5′ UTR and play a …

Novel Strategies For Glutamate Clearance In The Glia-Deprived Synaptic Hub Of C. Elegans, Joyce Chan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

As the major excitatory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain, Glutamate (Glu) is critical for normal neuronal physiology. Disruption in Glu clearance results in hyper-stimulation of glutamatergic circuits, potentially leading to excitotoxic neurodegeneration. The canonical model of brain connectivity describes glutamatergic synapses as well insulated and enveloped by glia. These glia express Glu Transporters (GluTs) which work to clear Glu following synaptic activity. However, critical areas of the brain such as the mammalian hippocampus display poor synaptic isolation, which may result in Glu spillover between adjacent synapses and subsequent loss of circuit specificity. How accurate signal transmission is achieved in these …

A Bird’S Eye View: Large-Scale Tonal Structures In Robert Schumann’S Four Song Cycles (Op. 42, 24, 39, And 48), Peter Kramer

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Some of Robert Schumann’s most notable works are his Lieder for solo voice and piano accompaniment. Schumann's Lieder are considered some of the best compositions in this genre, engendering various interpretations by performers and exciting vigorous debate among musicologists and theorists. Robert Schumann’s early music was almost entirely composed for the piano alone; it wasn’t until 1840 that he started to compose almost exclusively Lieder and song cycles inspired by his predecessors Beethoven and Schubert. This was a prolific year for Schumann compositionally, in part due to his marriage to Clara Schumann who was one of Europe’s most preeminent piano …

Inheritance: A Memoir, Jennifer Skoog

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I was born and raised on a small farm in central Minnesota, the youngest of nine. Our lives centered around a dogmatic faith that banned sex education and birth control in any form. The consequences of these teachings put my life on a tragic course, and I paid dearly for my ignorance. With the help of a therapist and a deep commitment to myself, I left the faith. After I earned a college degree in my early 40s, I began to critically examine my upbringing. Through my educational journey in Black studies, I saw deeply troubling ways in which my …

My Favorite Thing Is Monster Theory: Horror Comics And Demonstrating Difference In Emil Ferris’S "My Favorite Thing Is Monsters", Jennifer Rossberg

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

My Favorite Thing is Monsters (2017) by Emil Ferris opens with the same etymological analysis of the word monster as Rosemarie Garland Thomson’s landmark disability studies article, “From Wonder to Error: A Discourse on Freak Genealogy” (1991). The protagonist of Ferris’s swirling, sketchbook-style thriller, Karen Reyes, is a mixed-race queer adolescent growing up in noirish 1960’s Chicago who longs to be a werewolf so she can bite and save her cancer-afflicted mother. After fleeing an imaginary, pitchfork-wielding M.O.B.—an acronym for “mean, ordinary, & boring” people—Karen explains that, “The dictionary says the word monster comes from the Latin word ‘monstrum’ which …

Blurring The "Bright Line": Examining Age-Related Differences In Jail Incarceration Outcomes Using A Resources-Challenges Model Of Emerging Adulthood, Olive F. Lu

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Jail incarceration represents an early and prevalent point of contact with the criminal legal system. While there is some evidence of age-related differences in jail incarceration outcomes such as rearrest and reconvictions, existing research typically only make comparisons between adults and adolescents. This bifurcation ignores the unique experiences of a third group: emerging adults aged 18 to 25. Evidence from developmental research combined with shifting social and cultural dynamics suggest that 18-25-year-olds, though adults by law, straddle the line between adolescence and adulthood while facing challenges that set them apart.

The current study incorporates a resources-challenges framework of emerging adulthood …

Distributed Partitioning And Processing Of Large Spatial Datasets, Ayman I. Zeidan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Data collection is one of the most common practices in today’s world. The data collection rate has rapidly increased over the past decade and is not showing any signs of decline. Data sources are many; the Internet of Things devices, mobile gadgets, social media posts, connected cars, and web servers constantly report on their users’ interactions and habits. Much of the collected data is spatial data which contains attributes that denote the physical origin of the data. As a result of the tremendous growth in data collection, higher demand for new techniques emerged to efficiently process and extract valuable insights …

Lgbtqia+ Individuals’ Encounters With Police: Contextual Factors, Help-Seeking, And Service Needs, Max Osborn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This qualitative study examines LGBTQIA+ people’s experiences of navigating risk and safety, interacting with law enforcement, and utilizing support services. LGBTQIA+ people experience stigma, social marginalization, and resource access disparities, particularly individuals who visibly transgress gendered norms about appearance and behavior, or whose identities as LGBTQIA+ intersect with other marginalized social categories based in characteristics such as race and socioeconomic status. LGBTQIA+ people also report negative experiences with law enforcement and obstacles to accessing care. These experiences are consistent with the notion that police and other institutional actors maintain social control through the surveillance and targeting of populations seen as …

A “Medieval” Myth For A “Modern” Empire Britain Under The Shadow Of Arthur (1461–1612), Julian Gonzalez De Leon Heiblum

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation studies the use of the Arthurian myth from the fifteenth through early seventeenth centuries, as a narrative that connected a set of political principles for the unification of Britain and its imperial expansion. Joining other competing political myths in the British archipelago, the political significance of the Arthurian myth has nevertheless been overlooked. On the one hand, the myth informed the transformations of kingship in England and Wales from the crowning of Edward IV to the early years of James’ English reign. It did so specifically within the process of institutionalizing a British crown which was intertwined with …

Essays On Empirical Asset Pricing Models, Somayeh Ahmadi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines co-movement across industry return and value and momentum asset price anomalies through a new perspective and uses machine learning and spatial econometrics approaches. The first chapter examines the main approaches developed in the cross-section asset pricing literature for finding risk variables. The second chapter focuses on spatial co-movement across US industry returns. We show that spatial co-movement explains the variance in US industry returns after accounting for exposure to common variables, serial dynamics, and industry sector-specific characteristics using a dynamic spatial panel data model. The results show that an investment strategy that buys industry portfolios with high …

Music Pedagogy In Venezuela’S Plains: Making Space In Alma Llanera, Elaine Sandoval

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation argues that the process of institutionalizing traditional música llanera (plains region music) education in Venezuela is informed by a hierarchical spatialization of the capital, Caracas, and the historically agricultural- and livestock-producing region known as the llanos, or the plains. Drawing on Lefebvre’s The Production of Space (1991), I argue that the representations of space that have defined the llanos region and música llanera often obscure the lived space of music-making and dwelling in the llanos. This dissertation is based on fieldwork in Guárico state between 2016-2018, where I observed the state-funded Alma Llanera program, which had been …

Is Less More? Examining The Effects Of Predictor Method Factors On Mobile Sjt Scores And Test-Taker Reactions, Anne E. Kato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In recent years, job applicants have increasingly taken internet-based pre-employment tests on mobile devices (e.g., smartphones) in addition to nonmobile devices (e.g., computers). This mobile assessment phenomenon introduces new issues into the test design process, such as ensuring consistent assessment outcomes across different device types. Mobile assessment research has focused on device attributes and predictor constructs as explanations for potential differences across device types but has given little attention to predictor methods. Examining the role of predictor methods is important for understanding how to design assessments that perform comparably across device types, particularly for highly modular methods like situational judgment …

Queer And Trans Prison Voices: A Podcast Archive On Prison Abolition, Josefine Ziebell

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is located at the intersection of Critical Prison Studies, Gender Studies, Sound Studies, and American Studies. It highlights the importance of sonic modes of anti-carceral resistance by featuring the recorded voices of incarcerated people through the creation of a sonic archive of prison writings. By integrating that sonic archive into the podcast medium, this project functions as a digital archive for incarcerated voices, consisting of two tracks: a collection of short-spoken readings by queer and transgender incarcerated authors, and podcast-style interviews with activist scholars, organizations, and sound artists working towards prison abolition. In this paper, I establish …

Control, Allegiance, And Shame In Male Qing Dynasty Hairstyles, Carolle Pinkerton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis is about the politicization of hairstyles in imperial China. They indicated conformity with social norms, or rebellion against them. This was especially true under the country’s last dynasty. The Manchu conquerors imposed their own hairstyle, the queue, on their Han Chinese subjects to make their rule palpable to China’s illiterate millions. “Hair martyrs” who refused to accept this “barbarous” hairstyle were ruthlessly eliminated. The Manchus had feared assimilation into the much larger Han population. But the introduction of one uniform male hair style for both Manchus and Han blurred the lines between the two groups. In this way …

Incomplete Neutralization In Articulatory Phonology, Sejin Oh

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Previous studies have found small but significant phonetic traces of underlying distinctions for phonologically “neutralized” contrasts. This phenomenon, often called incomplete neutralization, has been found for final devoicing in many languages, (e.g., German; Port, Robert F. & O’Dell, 1985), but has also been reported for other neutralizing phenomena, including flapping in American English (Herd et al., 2010), monomoraic lengthening in Japanese (Braver & Kawahara, 2016), vowel deletion in French (Fougeron & Steriade, 1997), vowel epenthesis in Levantine Arabic (Gouskova & Hall, 2009), among others.

In my dissertation, I explore the (in)completeness of Russian palatalization in the Articulatory Phonology framework, implementing …

Prime Factors: America’S Prioritization Of Literacy Over Numeracy And Its Relationship To Systemic Inequity, Troy Smith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For much of American history, literacy has been prioritized in K-12 education and society, at large, at the expense of numeracy. This lack of numerical emphasis has established innumeracy as an American cultural norm that has resulted in America not producing a sufficient number of numerate citizens, and ranking poorly on mathematical performance in international comparisons. This paper investigates the decisions and circumstances that led to this under prioritization, along with the public and cultural impact of said actions. Toward this end, literature regarding contemporary and historical influences on American mathematics education (e.g., civic, policy, and parental) was reviewed. The …

The Neighborhood Stories Indexing Project, Elena Abou Mrad

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Neighborhood Stories Indexing Project is part of the Neighborhood Stories project, an oral history initiative by the NYC Department of Records and Information Services (DORIS). My capstone is an attempt to solve the problem of information overload and that of access with an online application that allows DORIS to publicly share their oral history interviews and to make them easily searchable. The purpose of the indexing project is to increase the use of and improve access to the collections, without sacrificing the nuance and complexity of lived experiences in NYC. By allowing users to navigate the interviews as audio …