Digital Commons Network^™

Moodboard: A Digital Solution For The Work-Life Balance In An Advertising Agency, Shalaka Shantaram Haldankar

Theses

The long working hours prevalent in the advertising industry is a well-known fact. It has become a common practice in agencies for quite a while now, leading to work-life imbalance for employees. The advertising agencies follow this practice, not because of its effectiveness, but because that’s what everyone else does. They completely ignore the fact that short breaks from work can increase productivity. A common belief of the industry is that the more nights/weekends you spend at work, the more productive you are. Research proves such work stress affects your personal life and health.

The goal of this thesis is …

Experimental Design And Robust Regression, Pranay Kumar

Theses

Design of Experiments (DOE) is a very powerful statistical methodology, especially when used with linear regression analysis. The use of ordinary least squares (OLS) estimation of linear regression parameters requires the errors to have a normal distribution. However, there are numerous situations when the error distribution is non-normal and using OLS can result in inaccurate parameter estimates. Robust regression is a useful and effective way to estimate the parameters of a regression model in the presence of non-normally distributed residuals. An extensive literature review suggests that there are limited studies comparing the performance of different robust estimators in conjunction with …

The Easy Wrap Orthopedic Cast, Rana Rezaei

Theses

The orthopedic professionals and physicians believe in a safer and faster method to replace the existing application and removal of the orthopedic cast. They also believe that the orthopedic treatment process has much more room for improvement. The Easy Wrap orthopedic cast has several benefits. First, it enhances the application and removal procedure. Second, it replaces the existing casting process to reduce the injuries to patients and physicians. Finally, it decreases the number of lawsuits against hospitals and clinics caused by cast injuries.

Background: Using a cast removal saw creates burns and cuts on patient’s skin. This medical saw is …

3d Hybrid Model For New Product Development, Nataraj Munoli

Theses

Peter Thiel, in his book Zero to One, mentioned the importance of going from zero to one over one to infinity. The value of innovation and creating a unique product will always hold a higher value than doing something that has already been done. The author explains how the businesses that are unique or have very few competitors tend to be more successful when compared to businesses that offer similar services or products as offered by numerous other businesses. To achieve this edge over the contemporaries, there is a growing need to introduce new products to the market by exploiting …

Regulation Of Early Zebrafish Embryogenesis By Calcium Signaling And Dachsous1b Cadherin, Jiakun Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Early animal embryogenesis entails a dynamic combination of embryonic cleavages, axial patterning, and gastrulation movements to shape a basic body plan. The underlying molecular signaling responsible for regulating this process remains poorly understood. In this thesis work, I first review recent progress in understanding of gastrulation movements in various model organisms brought by advances in imaging techniques. The externally developing and optically translucent zebrafish embryo is an ideal model organism to study vertebrate embryonic development by in vivo imaging. The objective of my thesis research is to leverage experimental advantages in the zebrafish model to uncover novel regulators and elucidate …

Knowledge Driven Approaches And Machine Learning Improve The Identification Of Clinically Relevant Somatic Mutations In Cancer Genomics, Benjamin John Ainscough

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

For cancer genomics to fully expand its utility from research discovery to clinical adoption, somatic variant detection pipelines must be optimized and standardized to ensure identification of clinically relevant mutations and to reduce laborious and error-prone post-processing steps. To address the need for improved catalogues of clinically and biologically important somatic mutations, we developed DoCM, a Database of Curated Mutations in Cancer (http://docm.info), as described in Chapter 2. DoCM is an open source, openly licensed resource to enable the cancer research community to aggregate, store and track biologically and clinically important cancer variants. DoCM is currently comprised of 1,364 variants …

Shirley A. Carter

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

A Novel Model Of “Remedy And Elimination Of Tuberculosis”, Akanksha Mishra

Master's Theses

Tuberculosis (TB), is one of the top ten causes of death worldwide. TB is commonly linked to poverty and creates poverty as it is the single largest cause of death in the 15-49-year-old age group in South-East Asia (WHO, 2017). It is also linked to the HIV population, and its leading cause of death. TB is effected by socio-economic factors, cultural factors, and health policy. My goal of this dissertation is to identify systematic approaches that shall support the mission set by World Health Organization (WHO): to eliminate TB globally by the year 2050. Measures might include addressing social barriers …

Tastes Of Faith: Jewish Eating In The United States, Leah Hochman

The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review

"Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are," wrote the 18th Century French politician and musician Jean Brillat-Savarin, giving expression to long held assumptions about the role of food, taste, and eating in the construction of cultural identities.

Foodways—the cultural, religious, social, economic, and political practices related to food consumption and production—unpack and reveal the meaning of what we eat, our tastes. They explain not just our flavor profiles, but our senses of refinement and judgment. They also reveal quite a bit about the history and culture of how food operates and performs in society. …

Response Of Appetite And Appetite Regulating Hormones To Acute Hypoxia, Morgan Busboom, Robert Shute, Dustin Slivka

Journal of Human Performance in Extreme Environments

AIM: To determine the acute response of appetite and appetite regulating hormones after exposure to simulated altitude. METHODS: Seven males and five females (height: 178.9 ± 2.3 cm; weight: 77.3 ± 7.2 kg; body fat: 18.4 ± 1.7%) participated in two, three-hour trials in a hypoxic (5000 m) and normoxic (350 m) environment. Blood samples were collected prior to and immediately following three hours of exposure for the measurement of leptin, adiponectin, and acylated ghrelin. Appetite, acute mountain sickness, heart rate, blood oxygenation, tissue oxygenation, respiration rate, and whole body gases were also measured. RESULTS: Leptin was not different between …

Characterization Of Structural Dynamics Of The Human Head Using Magnetic Resonance Elastography, Andrew Arun Badachhape

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In traumatic brain injury (TBI), the skull-brain interface, composed of three meningeal layers: the dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater, along with cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) between the layers, plays a vital role in transmitting motion from the skull to brain tissue. Magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) is a noninvasive imaging modality capable of providing in vivo estimates of tissue motion and material properties. The objective of this work is to augment human and phantom MRE studies to better characterize the mechanical contributions of the skull-brain interface to improve the parameterization and validation of computational models of TBI. Three specific aims …

Abiotic- And Biotic-Formation Of Manganese Oxides And Their Fate In Environmental Systems, Haesung Jung

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Manganese (hydr)oxide (Mn (hydr)oxide) minerals are ubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial environments. These minerals have high surface areas and are highly sorptive and redox active. From decades of accumulated knowledge about natural redox cycling, we have found that Mn (hydr)oxides play critical roles as electron donors and acceptors in elemental geochemical cycling and biological metabolisms in nature. Thus, Mn (hydr)oxides have garnered increasing interest to understand natural systems. Considering the variety of redox reactions with Mn (hydr)oxides in nature, it is also expected that there should be diverse pathways to form Mn (hydr)oxides through abiotic and biotic processes. Previous studies …

Two-Component Hydrogel As Biomimetic Vitreous Substitutes, Sruthi Santhanam

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The vitreous humor of the eye is a biological hydrogel principally composed of fibrillary collagen interspersed with semi-flexible polyelectrolyte, hyaluronic acid (HA). Certain pathological conditions necessitate its removal and replacement. Current vitreous substitutes, such as silicone oils and perfluorocarbons, are hydrophobic, do not resemble the properties of the vitreous, and have known complications. An ideal vitreous substitute should have properties of the natural vitreous, perform its functions, and be biocompatible in the eye. Inspired by the structure and composition of the natural vitreous, we used bio-mimicry to develop an injectable two-component hydrogel. The hydrogel is composed of a fibrillary gellan, …

Characterizing Anisotropy In Fibrous Soft Materials By Mr Elastography Of Slow And Fast Shear Waves, John Larson Schmidt

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The general objective of this work was to develop experimental methods based on magnetic resonance elastography (MRE) to characterize fibrous soft materials. Mathematical models of tissue biomechanics capable of predicting injury, such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), are of great interest and potential. However, the accuracy of predictions from such models depends on accuracy of the underlying material parameters. This dissertation describes work toward three aims. First, experimental methods were designed to characterize fibrous materials based on a transversely isotropic material model. Second, these methods are applied to characterize the anisotropic properties of white matter brain tissue ex vivo. Third, …

Prodigal Father, Robert John Exley Jr

Capstones

Prodigal Father tells the story of one man’s journey from teenage drug addiction to joining one of the most violent white supremacist gangs in the country and now, nearly 20 years after turning his life around, he is dealing with the aftermath of a lifetime of bad decisions.

Bobby Exley, a former Nazi Low, spent most of his adult life in prison or on parole battling a 20-year heroin addiction. His wife, Rhonda, stuck by his side throughout his many incarcerations while raising their eight children. The Prodigal Father, told through the eyes of namesake son, filmmaker, Robert Exley Jr., …

Probing Consciousness, Samia Bouzid

Capstones

For centuries, the study of consciousness remained the purview of philosophers, spiritualists and religious leaders. But in the 1980s, the co-discoverer of the double-helix, James Crick, initiated a quest for a scientific explanation for consciousness — in a secret club. In the decades that followed, consciousness gained ground as a respectable area of scientific study, in fields such as neuroscience, artificial intelligence and physics. Yet, the more scientists learn about consciousness, the more it calls into question our fundamental assumptions about the way the world works. https://samiabouzid.atavist.com/probing-consciousness

Refugees Of New York/ Exilio En Nueva York, Lidia Hernandez

Capstones

Refugees of New York is a multimedia series about three people who fled their countries to find a new home in New York: a Guatemalan woman, a young Russian philosopher and a Syrian journalist. New York City is known as a welcoming place for immigrants and refugee seekers. But at the same time that they do find protection, they also struggle through long legal processes that may last for years. They experience cultural shock while adjusting to their new way of life. This story focuses on the personal experiences that brought these people from different nationalities and backgrounds, and aims …

The Vibe, Sarah P. Douglass

Capstones

The Vibe is a long-form narrative about where tech is taking the female orgasm. The piece concludes that physiological research is a required next step when creating the climax of the future.

http://sarahpdouglass.com

A Closer Look At Water Quality, Illegal Dumping And Community Engagement In The Coney Island Creek, Molly Nugent

Capstones

According to data science and policy blog I Quant NY, the Coney Island Creek is one of the dirtiest waterways in the city. It’s filthier than the Newtown Creek or the Gowanus Canal, which are both designated as federal superfund sites. The creek is a sanctuary for residents who want it to be cleaner and want to be in the know when it comes to dangerous levels of bacteria in the water.

What my reporting partner and I, Kyle Mackie, found was that the community has largely been kept in the dark. The DEP has been investigating both small and …

Breadcrumbs: Privacy As A Privilege, Prachi Bhardwaj

Capstones

Breadcrumbs: Privacy as a Privilege Abstract

By: Prachi Bhardwaj

In 2017, the world saw more data breaches than in any year prior. The count was more than the all-time high record in 2016, which was 40 percent more than the year before that.

That’s because consumer data is incredibly valuable today. In the last three decades, data storage has gone from being stored physically to being stored almost entirely digitally, which means consumer data is more accessible and applicable to business strategies. As a result, companies are gathering data in ways previously unknown to the average consumer, and hackers are …

Indian Sovereignty, General Federal Laws, And The Canons Of Construction: An Overview And Update, Bryan H. Wildenthal

American Indian Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Boosting Chinese Esl Students' Active Participation In Classrooms In The U.S.: A Handbook For Teachers, Cuiying Rhodes

Master's Projects and Capstones

American language schools face a lot of challenges with Chinese students that stem from these students’ cultural beliefs and educational backgrounds. This field project is focused on addressing Chinese ESL students’ biggest learning obstacles in American schools, namely to participate in class and overcome cultural differences. This handbook is for American ESL educators which consists of four key units. In each unit, a specific learning obstacle faced by Chinese students is introduced along with suggestions for certain activities to overcome those challenges. This field project provides an overview of major cultural differences between China and America from a foreign student’s …

"All Set Togo Home":Improving Discharge Planning For Patient's Safe And Timely Discharge, Jasmin Milana

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

The project focuses on the improvement of the discharge planning for patient’s safe and timely discharge in the medical oncology and telemetry unit at the county hospital. The facility has 54-bed capacity with an average daily census of 35 to 40 specializing in cancer, end-stage diseases, cardiac issues, HIV/AIDS, sepsis, palliative and comfort care, diabetes, respiratory diseases, psychiatric and placement patients. The unit has no discharge coordinator. Nurses are responsible for the quality and safe discharge of patients. These nurses experience frustrations due to fragmented system of the discharge process, nurses’ heavy workload, and prioritizing patients with higher acuity. …

Improving Early Sepsis Identification, Stephanie Senda

Master's Projects and Capstones

Sepsis is a serious complication which is initiated by the body’s extreme response to an infection. If sepsis is not identified and treated promptly, it can rapidly lead to tissue damage, organ failure and death. Accounting for high morbidity and mortality rates in the United States, sepsis has become an area of focus within the healthcare spectrum as it is frequently unrecognized and undertreated. The focus of this project is for the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) students to evaluate the policies and processes in place within a large metropolitan hospital as well as the hospitals ability to recognize and treat …

The Law Code Of Hammurabi: Transliterated And Literally Translated From Its Early Classical Arabic Language, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book, which includes new translations of the old Babylonian laws of Hammurabi, is the second book by the author examining, from a historical Arabic linguistic perspective, a major Akkadian document. The first book offered new translations of three tablets from a literary work, the Epic of Gilgamesh, written in a late Babylonian language. The pioneering methodology used by the author to decipher the ancient Mesopotamian texts in both documents involves the primary utilization of old etymological Arabic manuscripts written by hundreds of accomplished scholars more than a thousand years ago. Using this methodology does not only provide more accurate, …

Sexual Health Education In New Mexico Public Secondary Schools, Elizabeth Dickson

Nursing ETDs

Previous research has shown that comprehensive sexual health education (SHE) can significantly reduce risky sexual behavior and can increase protective behavior in adolescents. While an important component for all adolescents, this is particularly important for adolescents at high risk for adverse health outcomes, such as unplanned adolescent pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. The aims of this descriptive study were to explore the content and delivery of SHE in New Mexico and to describe influences on decisions pertaining to implementation of state SHE policy. The social ecological model (SEM) was used as a theoretical framework to better understand levels of influence …

Coping With Labor Education For Nurses, Donna Vo

Master's Projects and Capstones

The “Coping With Labor Education for Nurses” education plan is substantiated by data from the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative (CMQCC) vaginal birth initiative toolkit and other research. Evidence-based data from multiple sources indicates that improving how labor support is offered at the bedside for the laboring patient can potentially decrease cesarean rates, reduce expenses, and increase savings. The objectives of this plan are to improve patient advocacy and the level of labor support interventions labor and delivery nurses will provide for patients to improve patient satisfaction score above 80%, decrease or maintain cesarean rates below 24.9%, and improve patient …

Reducing Intraventricuar Hemorrhage, Nakia Green

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Global Aim:

Between September 2017 and September 2018 we aim to reduce the rate of grade III and grade IV intraventricular hemorrhage (IVH) in infants less than or equal to 32 weeks gestation, or less than or equal to 1500 grams from 11% to 5%.

Project Aim:

Develop a best practice bundle for the Prevention of Intraventricular Hemorrhage with implementation of best practice of midline head positioning for infants less than or equal to 32 weeks gestation or less than or equal to 1500 grams by October 2017.

Setting:

Level III, 64 bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Quality …

Surgical Site Infection Reduction Through Nasal Decolonization Prior To Surgery, Melissa S. Schmidt

Master's Projects and Capstones

Surgical site infections (SSIs) are the most common and expensive healthcare-acquired infection. The objective of this nurse-driven process improvement project was to implement a cost-effective and practical decolonization protocol to improve outcomes for high-risk veteran populations undergoing surgery at a large veteran’s hospital in the Pacific Northwest. Prior to the implementation, a decolonization protocol was used for cardiac and orthopedic preoperative patients. The process involved screening for methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) colonization via nasal swab preoperatively and treating positive patients with mupirocin ointment to nares BID and chlorhexidine showers for five days prior to surgery. Adherence to the protocol was …

Teaching Efl/Esl College-Level Learners Through Current Global Topics: Integrated Lessons For Efl/Esl Teachers, Chaiyeon Sylvia Lee

Master's Projects and Capstones

The importance of educating effective English users competent in communicating and interacting in a variety of social settings is highlighted in today’s highly globalized world. Being able to understand and discuss complex global topics related to current cultural, social, and business issues and events has become an integral skill of English learners to achieve greater international connectivity. Unfortunately, many EFL/ESL college-level students, specifically Korean EFL students, do not seem to have sufficient preparation to build English communicative competence and cultural awareness necessary to cope with various situations in which they need to communicate meaningfully and purposefully as effective English users. …