Digital Commons Network^™

Latino Male College Students' Identities, Psychological Stress, And Coping Mechanisms, Ana E. Ramirez

Dissertations

Latino male college students’ identities impact their personal experiences, academic achievement, and well-being. This qualitative study uses a narrative inquiry approach to research Latino male college students’ racial and ethnic, gender, and academic identities and to investigate how these identities impact their psychological stress and the coping mechanisms they implement to manage their stress. Latino males undergo an identity development in which they engage in negotiating their gender identities in order to prioritize higher education academic requirements. When Latino males are determined to achieve a college degree, they are able to adjust their familism gender role expectations and shift their …

Horizontal Cybersurveillance Through Sentiment Analysis, Margaret Hu

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Essay describes emerging big data technologies that facilitate horizontal cybersurveillance. Horizontal cybersurveillance makes possible what has been termed as “sentiment analysis.” Sentiment analysis can be described as opinion mining and social movement forecasting. Through sentiment analysis, mass cybersurveillance technologies can be deployed to detect potential terrorism and state conflict, predict protest and civil unrest, and gauge the mood of populations and subpopulations. Horizontal cybersurveillance through sentiment analysis has the likely result of chilling expressive and associational freedoms, while at the same time risking mass data seizures and searches. These programs, therefore, must be assessed as adversely impacting a combination …

A Comprehensive Evaluation Of Feature Selection For Gait Recognition Using Smartwatches, N Al-Naffakh, Nathan Clarke, P Haskell-Dowland, Fudong Li

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Activity recognition that recognises who a user is by what they are doing at a specific point of time is attracting an enormous amount of attention. Whilst previous research in activity recognition has focused on wearable dedicated sensors (body worn sensors) or using a smartphone’s sensors (e.g. accelerometer and gyroscope), little attention is given to the use of wearable devices – which tend to be sensor-rich highly personal technologies. This paper presents a thorough analysis of the current state of the art in transparent and continuous authentication using acceleration and gyroscope sensors and an advanced feature selection approach to select …

Learning From Zũni War Gods Repatriating Alternative Dispute Resolution For Practice And Research, Alexandra Crampton

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

This article applies lessons learned from the Zũni people of the southwestern United States about successful and sustainable intervention as a metaphor to address common tensions among alternative dispute resolution (ADR) scholars and practitioners. These tensions are found in professionalisation, institutionalisation and identification of best practices. Through example of Zũni efforts to repatriate sacred artefacts known as Ahuy: da, I argue that ADR is an intervention that works best through direct and ongoing dialogue rather than rigid adherence to a set of standards. The problem lies in how such adherence can limit and distort rather than inform or support best …

Examining The Role Of Arts Education Partnerships In Sustaining Arts Programs In California Elementary Schools, Marie-Helene Bauguil

Dissertations

This study investigated three arts education partnerships in California elementary schools. The research questions that guided the inquiry were exploratory in nature and intended to reveal the day-to-day functioning of these partnerships, the challenges they faced, and the factors that contributed to their success, through the recounted experiences of the various institutional actors involved. The participants (n=21) comprised school principals and teachers, arts organizations administrative staff, and teaching artists. Qualitative inquiry methods (in-person interviews, classroom observations, and review of relevant documents) were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that the schools’ administrators and faculty appreciated the arts residencies, …

Reducing Turnover Time To Improve Efficiency In The Operating Room, Myrna Jafari

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to improve efficiency by reducing turnover time in the operating room (OR) that can consequently enhance patients’ and physicians’ satisfaction, promote teamwork, and decrease the cost of operating room delays. The increasing trend of turnover time (TOT) requires attention for microsystem improvement in the OR of Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. The intervention to improve efficiency is to educate the OR team members on roles and responsibilities to establish a standard workflow which can promote accountability and teamwork during the turnover process. Havelock’s theory of change is used as a framework for the action …

Improving Nurses' Proficiency And Confidence In The Use Of Aromatherapy For Patients In The Hospice Setting, Erika Bigwood-Keaton

Master's Projects and Capstones

The Institute of Medicine noted patient centered care as one of the six priority areas of improvement for the U.S. healthcare system. Recognizing that patients in hospice require specialized care to address the physical, emotional and spiritual needs that are associated with a terminal illness, the focus of this project is to improve the hospice nurses’ knowledge of and confidence in the use of aromatherapy for symptom management. There is recognition within the field of healthcare that patients are interested in having options for treatment. With little to no side effects, aromatherapy has been shown to be an effective alternative …

Pregnancy Loss In The Emergency Department, Gudrun Reiterhiltebrand

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The aim of this project is to improve the care for patients experiencing pregnancy loss in the emergency department (ED). Objectives are to enhance understanding of staff about the patients’ experience and their knowledge on how to best care for emotional needs, thus improving quality of patient care, work satisfaction, knowledge, confidence and comfort levels, while decreasing experienced stress. The project was implemented in a midsized community hospital with 117 beds, which discharged 74 patients with “interrupted pregnancies” over the previous year from the ED. The project was directed toward nurses, doctors, care partners, chaplains, and social workers. The …

Data Aggregation Reporting Tool For Implementation In Home Health Fall Reduction Program, Jose Alberto Cruz

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Falls are a major preventable problem in healthcare that affects people of all ages but disproportionately affects the frail and elderly. Fall reduction programs play a significant role in reducing falls and fall related injuries and are a critical component in Home Health settings. This project takes place in a home health and hospice services agency. The purpose of the project consisted of aggregating fall data for benchmarking metrics to bring the agency’s Fall Reduction Program closer to compliance with state and national fall prevention guidelines. Two hundred and three fall event reports were analyzed and a problem arose …

A Roadmap For The Journey Home - A Supplemental Tool Guiding Patients From Hospital To Home, Michelle Basco

Master's Projects and Capstones

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) have recognized readmission rates as a public health problem. CMS incentivizes hospitals to reduce readmission rates and reduce payments for hospitals with high readmission rates (Berry et al., 2013). Patient education and discharge planning are associated with decreased readmission rates. I gained fieldwork experience at Children’s Health System of Texas in Dallas. Children’s Health, a pediatric non-profit, is the 8th largest pediatric health care provider in the U.S. Prior to discharge patient education occurs on topics related to their diagnosis, plus patients are provided discharge instructions including their diagnosis, medications, and simple instructions for …

Nonprofit Hiring And Retention Practices And The Representation Of Women Of Color In Museum Leadership, Breanne Batara

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

This museum studies capstone project centers on the nonprofit hiring and retention practices with an emphasis on the lack of representation of women of color in museum leadership. The literature review encompasses peer-reviewed literature on nonprofit leadership and management and peer-reviewed literature from the museum field as well as secondary sources that encapsulate anecdotal sentiments on this issue. I propose a comprehensive recruiting program that would take place in museums in Oakland, California as one step to attracting people of color, and specifically women, to the museum field.

Keywords: Diversity, Gender, Hiring, Human Resource Management, HRM, Inclusion, Minority, Museum …

Development Of A Formalized Mentorship Program, Rozlyn Bauer

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this project is to help increase retention of newly licensed registered nurses (NLRN) at a large community medical center. The medical center loses approximately 20 NLRNs per year which is costly for the medical center. The loss of NLRN can be attributed to decreased job satisfaction, poor nursing competence and lateral violence between the nursing staff. Evidence shows that mentorship is a proven, evidence-based approach to solving these issues and more (Hodgson & Scanlan, 2013).

Not only can mentorship help increase retention, address lateral violence, increase job satisfaction and nursing competence but, it can also help enhance …

Jackie Kay, Trumpet (1998), Marie Hologa

Studies in Scottish Literature

Argues that Kay's acclaimed novel about a celebrated black jazz trumpeter, who is transgender, presents "an alternative construction of masculinity to the stereotypical Scottish 'hard man' of tartan noir, " dealing with "questions of identity that go beyond Scottishness," and unmasking "the emptiness of normative categories like gender, sexuality, ‘race’ and ethnic origins in a postmodern ... society."

Tom Scott As Religious Poet: 'The Paschal Candill' In Context, Richie Mccaffery

Studies in Scottish Literature

Discusses the religious beliefs and writings of the Scottish poet Tom Scott (1918-1995), both as a continuing concern and during a period of explicitly Catholic belief in the 1950, examining in detail his Catholic poem 'The Paschal Candill' in relation to his much more widely-recognized political comments.

A Comparison Of Two Treatment Approaches For Agrammatic Broca's Aphasia: Script Therapy Vs. Verb Network Strengthening Treatment, Maureen Costello-Yacono

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Background/Introduction: Individuals with agrammatic Broca’s aphasia frequently are treated at single word level, verb priming, or simple sentence structure treatments. In this study, an impairment specific treatment such as Verb Network Strengthening Treatment (VNeST) was explored as well as a social functional approach such as Script Therapy. These two approaches were assessed by the outcome measures of rate of speech, subject-verb-object production, and error rates during probe tasks.

Objective: To examine the impact of two treatment approaches: Script Therapy and Verb Network Strengthening Treatment for two individuals with chronic agrammatic Broca’s aphasia.

Method: A single subject multiple baseline …

The Murder Of Innocence, Milana Vinn

Capstones

New York statute of limitations gives victims of child sexual abuse until 23 to seek legal action against the perpetrator -- one of the shortest statutes of limitations in the country. The majority of survivors come forward years later, on average at the age of 42. They say they never get justice and their offenders live freely. Child advocates and survivors have not been successful trying to raise the New York's statute of limitations. Party because the Catholic Church spent $2.2 million in the past ten years lobbying to keep the deadline in place.

https://readymag.com/u12921503/nychildabuse/

When Stigma Kills: Why Abortion In India Is Lethal Even Though It’S Legal, Mallory Moench

Capstones

Tanvi and Meera both went to get abortions this year, but only one survived. Even though abortions before 20 weeks have been legal since 1971, as many as three women die every day from unsafe abortions, government data shows. Half of all pregnancies in India are unwanted, resulting in more than 15 million abortions a year. Many go unreported, taking place in the shadows because of stigma. Although a new generation in India is growing more open about sexuality, getting pregnant outside of marriage can still ruin a woman’s reputation, shame her family and damage her future prospects. Even if …

Tropes Trump Politics, Aaron Berkowitz

Capstones

This critical essay examines the use of tropes and themes in modern comic books and how they are used to protest President Donald Trump’s policies, actions and supporters. It begins with a detailed history of tropes used in comic books and how some of the first superhero comic book writers created these tropes in order to protest the social injustices of their times. It shifts to the first trope, the “compromised hero” where a hero is turned evil. It is used in “Secret Empire,” a book where Captain America turns evil and takes over the presidency. His rise to power …

The New Threat To Journalists: Robots, Annie Nova

Capstones

NEWSPAPERS, television studios and news websites across the world have swapped out human reporters for robots. In just a few weeks, I’ll be in a cap and gown at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. I have dedicated the last 18 months of my life to learning how to report and write. Here is where people are transformed into the so-called East Coast elite members of the media. No small amount of money, energy and time went to this effort. Had I learned to do anything a robot couldn’t?

https://medium.com/@annie.nova/the-new-threat-to-journalists-robots-f0f8865e09af

Half A Mile To Hope, Ryan Kelley

Capstones

When you first see the football team from Frederick Douglass Academy in East Harlem, you can tell they have an edge. A certain swagger that says this team has something to prove. Their athleticism is scrappy, their personalities are animated, and their motivation is a dirt field, half a mile from the school.

That’s where they walk every day in the fall to practice. Instead of a football field, it’s a city park with a softball infield in each corner. The outfield grass in the middle is torn up from the team’s cleats. A cloud of dust is kicked up …

Is The Free Tibet Movement A Lost Cause?, Tsering D. Gurung

Capstones

China's growing economic influence, internecine rivalries, and over-reliance on the West have hurt the decades-old Tibetan independence movement.

tseringgurung.atavist.com/freetibetmovement

In Brownsville, A Struggle For Revitalization Without Displacement, Katherine Warren

Capstones

As many parts of Brooklyn buzz with a startling rate of economic resurgence, Brownsville seems like a neighborhood left behind.

Struggling with poverty, poor health statistics, unemployment and high crime rates, and with the highest concentration of public housing in the city, it has not seen the same commercial and real estate revival as Williamsburg, Bushwick, Crown Heights and other areas of Brooklyn.

“In Brownsville, which has had challenges battling negative perceptions of this community, most of the residents are lower income and investors in the past have deemed this community as not being as good as an investment as …

Inside The Grassroots Money Machine, Elizabeth Tung

Capstones

In the year since Donald Trump’s election, grassroots canvassing groups have generated millions of dollars for nonprofits like Planned Parenthood and the ACLU. These groups’ growing profile correlates with a post-election spike in liberal giving, and the rise of face-to-face fundraising in the US. But despite their progressive affiliations, several groups have come under fire for abusive labor practices and a lack of financial transparency. This piece looks at two of the biggest players in the canvassing industry, the Fund for the Public Interest and Grassroots Campaigns. Both groups are headed by the same person - a man named Doug …

New York's Daily Foster Care Reimbursements, Mariah Brown

Capstones

Foster parents in New York say financial support from the government to care for the state’s most vulnerable kids has lagged, impacting the care they are able to provide.

In Philadelphia – a nearby city with a significantly lower cost of living -- foster parents get more government aid than in New York. Philadelphia officials raised the city’s foster care reimbursement rates by a third this year.

New York foster families have been fighting for raises for years. And there is some hope. A coalition of foster care agencies sued the state in 2010 in federal court in Brooklyn alleging …

Hazmat Storage Near Nyc Waterways Endangers Communities, Brett E. Dahlberg, Nicole Acevedo

Capstones

New York City has 520 miles of shoreline--that’s more than Miami and Los Angeles combined. These waterfronts are home to some of the city’s most polluted sites because major part of it is zoned for industrial use. Dozens of industrial plants in this area store toxic chemicals in flood zones: substances that are hazardous to our health, like Benzene, which is used in rocket fuel, toluene, a paint thinner, and lead a neurotoxin. In a flood, these chemicals can easily get caught up in moving waters and pollute entire neighborhoods.

That’s exactly what happened when Hurricane Sandy hit in 2012. …

Spotlight On Superfund: How Are New York’S Most Toxic Waste Sites Doing Under Trump’S E.P.A?, Sarah Stein Kerr

Capstones

No matter where you venture in New York City, you are never far from toxic pollution. And if you are in Brooklyn or Queens, you may be a stone’s throw from a federal Superfund, our nation’s most polluted sites.

For New York City’s Superfunds– Newtown Creek, the Gowanus Canal and the Wolff-Alport Chemical Company in Ridgewood, Queens – change is underfoot.

In February, President Donald J. Trump appointed former Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency.

Pruitt, who made a career for himself suing and attacking the E.P.A, has already instituted sweeping changes as part of …

Youth Sport Development Pathways And Experiences Of Ncaa Division I Women's College Soccer Players, Emily Hardell

Master's Theses

As youth sport has become increasingly professionalized, many believe that the route to elite level play is through early specialization. Early specialization is a contentious issue, and many risk factors have been associated with high levels and intensities of training in youth. Youth today participate in highly competitive sport in pursuit of elite levels of play, recognition, and financial gain. Early specialization is thought to be a requirement for advancement, yet little is known about the early experiences of team sport athletes who grew up in the US. This is the story of 15 elite female athletes who “made it” …

Authentication And Encryption Of Aerial Robotics Communication, Maojie Han

Master's Theses

As designed to accept custom modules, autonomous aircrafts has developed into a fast-paced industry. The remote-control system of aerial robotics is typically based on wireless communications methods, such as 2.4 GHz, 5.8 GHz, or Wi-Fi. Because the services vary with the communication method, users face different kinds of cybersecurity challenges. This thesis provides an innovative solution for the authentication and security methods in proposed aerial robotics communication network. The thesis begins with an introduction to RF drone communications. After a discussion of the MAV Link communication protocol, the thesis will focus on the differences between the existing one-to-one network and …

Hmong In America: An Emergence Of The American Identity, Nkauj Hli Melinda Lo

Master's Theses

The historical background of the Hmong ethnic group and immigration in regards to how the emergence of the American identity has impacted their cultural identity is examined in this thesis. A qualitative study was conducted to better understand the impacts of immigration and the reasons that younger generations have pushed to be one with the American identity. Drawing upon 10 in-depth interviews of second-generation children of Hmong immigrants, the findings show that the Hmong identity has lost its preservation through the Hmong ethnic group’s experiences in the United States. The researcher found that the American identity affects the Hmong cultural …

Effect Of Land Use Types On The Distribution Of Carnivore Species In Santa Clara County, Ca., Logan Thompson

Master's Theses

Anthropogenic pressures such as habitat loss and hunting pressures have caused terrestrial mammalian carnivores to decline by 95–99% in many regions of the world. These species are especially susceptible to fragmented habitats and a diminishing food supply because of their slow reproductive rates and high metabolic demands. In biodiversity hotspots such as California, understanding the range of human impacts to species is critical. This project assessed carnivore species distribution and occupancy by placing remote camera traps in a protected Reserve, agricultural, and developed land use types. Mountain lions were only detected in the protected Reserve, and because of this coyotes …