Digital Commons Network^™

Factors Affecting Nurses’ Intention To Leave Their Primary Nursing Position, Scott P. Kaye

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The United States is facing an imminent nurse staffing crisis. An aging workforce, an increasing elder population, and new staffing legislation have added to existing difficulties in retaining nurses. Retaining nurses is a priority in emergency departments, one of the few specialty departments that exceed the national average turnover rate, with an average of 95% of the nursing staff leaving their positions every five years. This dissertation used dual-factor theory, dimensions of nursing surveillance, and intersectionality as theoretical frameworks; employed secondary analysis of the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses (2018) dataset; and utilized hierarchical regression Modeling to examine the …

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 …

Usability Of Health-Related Websites By Filipino-American Adults And Nursing Informatics Experts, Kathleen Begonia

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Filipino-Americans are an understudied minority group with high prevalence and mortality from chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Facing barriers to care and lack of culturally appropriate health resources, they frequently use the internet to obtain health information. It is unknown whether they perceive health-related websites to be useful or easy to use because there are no published usability studies involving this population. Using the Technology Acceptance Model as a theoretical framework, this study investigated the difference between website design ratings by experts and the perceptions of Filipino-American users to determine if usability guidelines influenced the perceived ease …

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 …

Hudson Yards: Hybrid Capital's New Home, Massimo D. Scoditti

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis focuses on the material and metaphysical aspects of the Hudson Yards, the largest private development in US History. With its roots in the administration of Michael Bloomberg, the site is representative of neoliberal ideology. It is also one in which cultural production is central. This is in terms of the rationalization and mythos of the building of the space itself and the dreamworlds created to obscure the mechanisms of extraction and accumulation that make such a complex possible. The Hudson Yards is particularly interesting because, as Cindi Katz might suggest, topography lines connect it to transnational capital. And …

Attitudes Towards Wearing Masks Among Young Adults, Diana Saiki, Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Jay Kandiah

Publications and Research

The purpose of this study was to investigate attitudes about mask characteristics among young adults. Research questions included the following: (1) How do attitudes about: Do practical characteristics of masks influence mask-wearing? and (2) Does mask style and extrinsic characteristics influence mask-wearing? A mixed-methods approach was used. In December 2020, a survey was distributed online to fashion classes in the Midwest(rural) and Northeast (urban). The questionnaire contained a demographics section, open-ended questions about participants’ attitudes about masks, questions on mask-wearing behaviour, and a list of garment characteristics. The open-ended questions were analyzed for themes. The Likert scale questions were analyzed …

Run, Hide, Or Fight?: Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder And Lockdown Drills, Melissa A. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Lockdown drills have become a regular practice in schools across the United States. These drills are currently carried out with little guidance and encompass a general plan with no differentiation for children with disabilities. This is concerning for young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), since the skills needed to participate in a lockdown drill may be difficult for them. In the absence of evidence-based interventions, these children and the educators who support them are vulnerable in the event of a real emergency. It is important to understand what training practitioners need to design empirically sound lockdown drill interventions and …

Interest Groups, Local Politics, And Police Unions, Daniel Disalvo

Publications and Research

Police unions raise issues of great importance for political scientists. Yet, the field has neglected them. This essay argues that political scientists should see police unions as important interest groups, empowered by state collective bargaining laws, that are important players in local politics and shapers of the criminal justice system in America. The organizational properties that make police unions important interest groups are described. The important political questions that arise once we consider police union as interest groups are examined. The existing research on police unions—especially their impact on government costs and police behavior—is detailed. Ultimately, the study of collective …

Me2b Alliance Validation Testing Report: Consumer Perception Of Legal Policies In Digital Technology, Noreen Y. Whysel, Karina Alexanyan, Shaun Spaulting, Julia Little

Publications and Research

Our relationship with technology involves legal agreements that we either review or enter into when using a technology, namely privacy policies and terms of service or terms of use (“TOS/TOU”). We initiated this research to understand if providing a formal rating of the legal policies (privacy policies and TOS/TOUs) would be valuable to consumers (or Me-s). From our early qualitative discussions, we noticed that people were unclear on whether these policies were legally binding contracts or not. Thus, a secondary objective emerged to quantitatively explore whether people knew who these policies protected (if anyone), and if the policies were perceived …

Hematologic Involvement As A Predictor Of Mortality In Covid-19 Patients In A Safety Net Hospital, Luis F. Gonzalez-Mosquera, Sandra Gomez-Paz, Eric Lam, Diana Cardenas-Maldonado, Joshua Fogel, Vishnu Adi, Sofia Rubinstein

Publications and Research

Introduction: COVID-19 affects the hematologic system. This article evaluated the impact of hematologic involvement of different blood cell line parameters of white blood cells including absolute neutrophil count (ANC), hemoglobin, and platelets in COVID-19 patients and their association with hospital mortality and length of stay (LOS).

Methods: This was a retrospective study of 475 patients with con- firmed positive COVID-19 infection and hematologic abnormalities in the metropolitan New York City area.

Results: Elevated absolute neutrophil count (OR: 1.20; 95% CI: 1.02-1.42; p < 0.05) increased days of hematologic involvement (OR: 4.44; 95% CI: 1.42-13.90; p < 0.05), and persistence of hematologic involvement at discharge (OR: 2.87; 95% CI: 1.20-6.90; p < 0.05) was associated with higher mortality. Higher hemoglobin at admission (OR: 0.77; 95% CI:0.60-0.98; p < 0.001) and platelets peak (OR: 0.995; 95% CI: 0.992-0.997; p < 0.001) were associated with decreased mor- tality. Patients with higher white blood cell peak (B = 0.46; SE = 0.07; p < 0.001) and higher hemoglobin at admission (B = 0.05; SE = 0.01; p < 0.001) were associated with higher LOS. Those with higher hemo- globin nadir (B = -0.06; SE = 0.01; p < 0.001), higher platelets nadir (B = -0.001; SE = < 0.001; p < 0.001), and hematologic involvement at discharge or death (B = -0.06; SE = 0.03; p < 0.05) were associated with lower LOS.

Conclusions: These findings can be used by clinicians to better risk- stratify patients with hematologic involvement in COVID-19 …

A Call For The Library Community To Deploy Best Practices Toward A Database For Biocultural Knowledge Relating To Climate Change, Martha B. Lerski

Publications and Research

Abstract

Purpose – In this paper, a call to the library and information science community to support documentation and conservation of cultural and biocultural heritage has been presented.

Design/methodology/approach – Based in existing Literature, this proposal is generative and descriptive— rather than prescriptive—regarding precisely how libraries should collaborate to employ technical and ethical best practices to provide access to vital data, research and cultural narratives relating to climate.

Findings – COVID-19 and climate destruction signal urgent global challenges. Library best practices are positioned to respond to climate change. Literature indicates how libraries preserve, share and cross-link cultural and scientific knowledge. …

Zines And Acquisitions: Adventure And Conundrum, Lauren E. Devoe

Publications and Research

Chapter 7 in the book "Zines in Libraries: Selecting, Purchasing, and Processing." This chapter focuses on workflows for the acquisitions of zines in libraries.

Their homegrown and esoteric aesthetic make zines important cultural and historical objects. Including them in library collections is a perfect way to amplify underrepresented voices. But the road from acquisition to cataloging these underground, self-published, and often fragile items can be difficult. This resource smooths the path forward, offering top-to-bottom guidance for collection development and acquisitions staff, administrators, catalogers, and access services librarians in understanding and processing zines for library collections.

Policy Effects On New York City Early Education Centers: Ecological Case Studies, Maria S. Mavrides Calderon

Theses and Dissertations

NYC’s universal Pre-K (PKFA) was implemented through New York Early Education Centers (NYCEECs) and public schools, without considering compensation parity across settings. This study investigates the impact of unequal compensation policies on the experiences of directors, teachers, and parents affiliated with NYCEECs, and how they compare or contrast with the policymakers’ discourse around those policies. While other studies have investigated the PKFA implementation (Akaba et al., 2019; Falk & Souto-Manning, 2020; Fuller & Leibovitz, 2021a; Reid et al., 2019), none have privileged the ecology of those working at and attending NYCEECs. Through critical policy analysis, this study utilized Bronfenbrenner's (1979) …

Glycocalyx Mechanotransduction Mechanisms Are Involved In Renal Cancer Metastasis, Heriberto Moran, Limary M. Cancel, Peigen Huang, Sylvie Roberge, Tuoye Xu, John M. Tarbell, Lance L. Munn

Publications and Research

Mammalian cells, including cancer cells, are covered by a surface layer containing cell bound proteoglycans, glycoproteins, associated glycosaminoglycans and bound proteins that is commonly referred to as the glycocalyx. Solid tumors also have a dynamic fluid microenvironment with elevated interstitial flow. In the present work we further investigate the hypothesis that interstitial flow is sensed by the tumor glycocalyx leading to activation of cell motility and metastasis. Using a highly metastatic renal carcinoma cell line (SN12L1) and its low metastatic counterpart (SN12C) we demonstrate in vitro that the small molecule Suberoylanilide Hydroxamic Acid (SAHA) inhibits the heparan sulfate synthesis enzyme …

Water Bearer, Whitney Harris

Theses and Dissertations

My work explores fantasy and mythological archetypes. The exhibition features works on paper depicting mermaids, and a fountain featuring two figures submerged in water, one spitting into the other's mouth. I use black ink and glazes to create variegated surfaces. In these works, I reimagine ideas about power and intimacy.

Tom Clancy: Creating A Sense Of Place A New York Sculptor’S Approach To Site 1960–87, Marina Gluckman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contextualizes the sculptural work made by American artist Tom Clancy (b. 1933) in New York between the 1960s and 1980s. Discussing Clancy’s approach to indoor and outdoor sites, it emphasizes the reasons the artist’s work should be considered within the history of the downtown New York art scene.

Original Intent: Brown Vs. Board Of Education, White Backlash, & The Enduring Power Of De Facto Segregation, Aaron Brand

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the factors and outcomes surrounding Brown v. Board of Education of 1954. The events that predated it and the resistance that followed determined the chain of consequences from this perceived victory over racial bias. The calculated and persistent backlash against integration obscured Brown’s intent of educational opportunity.

"Nothing ‘Personal’ To Lose": Alice Notley’S “I” And The Poetics Of Encounter In Disobedience, Christina T. Baulch

Theses and Dissertations

Though the lyric-I has often been perceived as an isolated ego, Alice Notley's "I" in her long poem Disobedience (2001) necessitates plurality through what I call a "poetics of encounter." In response to the 1978 Language poetry manifesto "Aesthetic Tendency and the Politics of Poetry," and to the larger well-rehearsed debate about vocal homogeneity and persona centrism in poetry, this paper argues that Notley's poetics of encounter brings the "I" of Disobedience into continual and complex conversation with material history, politics, and mass culture, thus situating it within, and not sequestered from, the world and its mediation.

Gloria Naylor’S Conversation With The Tempest, Kelly Mcavoy-Giarrusso

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on how Gloria Naylor used Caliban from Shakespeare's The Tempest as inspiration for her character George, and how her evolution of the character reveals issues within the literary and academic community at the time of her writing. George fulfills Caliban’s limitations in that he has more power and autonomy than Caliban, but the tragedy of his death reveals that he has lost part of himself in order to gain that power. This idea that education and society can cause a loss of self is personal for Naylor, who encountered only white male authors in school and struggled …

Opportunities For Wonder In A Public Park, Alexander Butler

Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests unstructured play is important to a child's mental and physical development, and the natural world provides excellent opportunities for formative experiences. Urban environments, however, present challenges to finding and enjoying wild spaces. The potential role of public parks, supported by a small survey of college students, is discussed.

Unesco, Heritage Preservation, And Photography: Balthazar Korab’S “North Yemen: Land And Buildings” And Mario Cresci’S Matera: Immagini E Documenti, Sarah M. Wolberg

Theses and Dissertations

I explore two architectural photo-essays that engage with (reflecting, rebutting, questioning) the concepts of cultural heritage, particularly with regard to preserving vernacular architecture in cities with UNESCO World Heritage status—Balthazar Korab’s photo-essay “North Yemen: Land and Buildings” (1978–81) and Mario Cresci’s 1975 Italian photobook Matera: Immagini e documenti.

Steve Mcqueen, The Filmmaker, And Kant’S Sensus Communis, Livia Melamed Margon

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reflects on the ways in which art reinforces community and reduces political polarity by stimulating shared feelings, namely through Kant's idea of sensus communis. To illustrate its argument, this thesis analyzes the work of Steve McQueen, a politically aware, ethically engaged, and broadly recognized filmmaker and artist.

Play Among The Shadows, Xiong Wei

Theses and Dissertations

This article elaborates Xiong Wei's inspiration and experience from different cultural, political, social systems and art environment as a Chinese artist living in the United States, and the logic and methodology of how he went from a social realist sculptor to a contemporary artist.

A Liquid Line, Sofía Del Mar Collins

Theses and Dissertations

My practice searches for fertility amidst cultural and material detritus. This paper outlines flows embedded in becomingness. My thesis exhibition included Liquidscapes, a series of suspended and wall hung paintings on plastic, Nursery of the Brave, a group of hanging vessels shaped from waste textiles, and Glass City, a video.

Dream/Reality, Mercedes Llanos

Theses and Dissertations

Mercedes llanos explores the surreal aspect of dreams as they concern with waking life issues, mainly focusing on power-roles in domestic partnerships embedded in a South American patriarchal upbringing. In her dreams, she subconsciously navigates the repression of freedom firsthand experienced, and that of the transgenerational woman collective.

A Slippery Slope Of Resemblances, Lauren Clark

Theses and Dissertations

My studio has become an ecosystem. Plastics, linens and found objects are transformed with both “natural” and “artificial” dyes, pigments, and aggregates, until there is a co-corruption akin to an ecology. I am searching for an alternate relationship between phenomena, wonder and knowing.

Detritus And The Icon, Brian Madonna

Theses and Dissertations

Detritus and the Icon highlights the relationship between the figure and the monument, contrasting between the gravity of earth and the lightness of the Divine. My thesis exhibition of seven paintings, comprised of thirty seven panels, brings the banal into conversation with the age old endeavor of monument building.

Trees And Trees And Trees In Me, Areum Yang

Theses and Dissertations

Painting is a recording of my current psychology, and a window through which I can visualize my inner self. My painting won't make my anxiety go away, but it will allow me to work with my emotion and put it in a specific place, so it doesn't control my life.

Covid-19 Challenges And Firm Responses: Analysis Of A City-Wide Census In A Developing Country, Bryan S. Weber, Toan Luu Duc Huynh

Publications and Research

We use the unique data set of 16,300 firms' responses for the large‐scale census survey in an urban area at Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam) to study how firms perceived their problems and responded to during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We provide estimates of 65 cross‐associations between a firm's challenges during the pandemic and their responses. We find several firm characteristics that suggest increased likelihood of pandemic response, including some, such as state ownership, which are typically associated with being slow to respond to market conditions. A theoretical model is posited that matches with the rapidly declared survey response.

Thrombospondin-1 Expression And Modulation Of Wnt And Hippo Signaling Pathways During The Early Phase Of Trypanosoma Cruzi Infection Of Heart Endothelial Cells, Ashutosh Arun, Kayla J. Rayford, Ayorinde Cooley, Tanu Rana, Girish Rachakonda, Fernando Villalta, Siddharth Pratap, Maria F. Lima, Nader Sheibani, Pius N. Nde

Publications and Research

The protozoan parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, causes severe morbidity and mortality in afflicted individuals. Approximately 30% of T. cruzi infected individuals present with cardiac pathology. The invasive forms of the parasite are carried in the vascular system to infect other cells of the body. During transportation, the molecular mechanisms by which the parasite signals and interact with host endothelial cells (EC) especially heart endothelium is currently unknown. The parasite increases host thrombospondin-1 (TSP1) expression and activates the Wnt/β-catenin and hippo signaling pathways during the early phase of infection. The links between TSP1 and activation of the signaling pathways and …