Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Use Of Multiliteracies Pedagogy In The Teaching Of English Language In A Secondary School In Koboko District, Uganda: Action Research, Lilian Amaniyo

Master of Education

Pedagogical approaches in educational contexts continue to evolve with emerging global trends in work, social and cultural settings, putting educators to task to choose best practices that are relevant to their learning contexts. The Multiliteracies pedagogy provides a flexible approach that is capable of negotiating the multiple cultural diversities and modes of communication and meaning making in current times. This study explored the use of Multiliteracies pedagogy in the teaching of English language in one secondary school in Koboko District in Uganda. Multiliteracies pedagogy is an approach that seeks to develop broader generic and literacy skills other than linguistic skills …

Use Of Rubric In Assessment To Support Learning, Dennis Odhiambo Ogollah

Master of Education

The study involved an intervention on use of rubrics in assessment with an aim of empowering teachers and students with skills and knowledge that would facilitate implementation of assessment for learning strategies to promote student engagement in learning. This was conducted by adopting quasi experimental design and quantitative approach that involved administering of pretest and posttest to the treatment and control group and the results analyzed using t-test analysis to establish the effect of intervention. A total of 40 students from two form three classes that formed treatment and control group by random selection, participated in the research, with control …

Critical Search: A Procedure For Guided Reading In Large-Scale Textual Corpora, Jo Guldi

History Faculty Publications

Q: What happens when the good, old-fashioned virtues of Liberal Arts education, e.g. "Critical Thinking," enter the age of big data?

A: We teach "Critical Search," a model process for approaching big data research. Critical Search models a way of engaging humanities question, textuality, secondary literature, data, and tools. It is suitable to both the statistician who wishes to make meaning from the past as well as the traditional humanist who browses library catalogs through keywords.

This article presents the concept of "critical search" and offers an exposition of its application to a search for the history of eviction in …

Gene Therapy Reimbursement Models – A Stakeholder Assessment, Aaron Bholé, Matthew Luminais, Msc, B. A. Sillah, Md, Mba

Phase 1

Introduction: The first one-time curative gene therapy was approved in December 2017 with a list price of $850,000, and there is a historic increase in gene therapy clinical trials with 89 having reached phase III as of May 2018. Gene therapy’s high upfront cost will challenge the traditional reimbursement models which are well suited for common, chronic conditions.

Objective: This stakeholder assessment surveys groups to identify existing opinions and generate insights regarding gene therapies and their reimbursement models.

Methods: A 12 question survey was sent to 200 stakeholders with the list generated from author’s contacts. Stakeholder groups targeted were providers, …

Normalized Healthcare Utilization Among Refugees Resettled In Philadelphia, 2007-2016, Kaushal Desai, Mph, Colleen Payton, Phd, Mph, Ches, Kevin Scott, Md, Brandon George, Phd, Ms, Marc Altshuler, Md

Phase 1

Background/Purpose: About 70,000 new refugees are resettled in the United States each year, of which approximately 600 are resettled in Philadelphia. This project seeks to better understand the patterns of healthcare utilization, including primary care, emergency, and hospitalization, among refugees resettled in Philadelphia, PA, between 2007 and 2016.

Methods: Demographic and healthcare utilization data for 1,144 refugees seen at Jefferson Family Medical Associates were compiled from the Jefferson Longitudinal Refugee Health Registry. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographic characteristics of the refugee population. Negative binomial count regressions were used to test for significant correlations between major demographic variables …

Medication Assisted Treatment In The Primary Care Setting: A Prospective Review, Bridget M. Smith, Lara Weinstein, Md

Phase 1

Introduction: Project HOME Health Services (PHHS) initiated a Medication Assisted Treatment program for Opioid Use Disorder in a primary care setting that is the first of its kind in the city of Philadelphia. This study assesses the MAT program by evaluating the Quality of Life (QoL) of the participants as well as their perception of the program.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to assess the QoL of the participants in the MAT program at PHHS and to evaluate the participants’ satisfaction with the program.

Methods: The population includes patients enrolled in the MAT program at PHHS who consented …

Housing First For People With Opioid Use Disorder (Oud), Ashley Katzenstein, Lara C. Weinstein, Md, Mph, Drph

Phase 1

Introduction

Philadelphia’s opioid crisis has subsequently resulted in an increase in unsheltered individuals. Significant barriers in healthcare access exist for individuals experiencing homelessness and substance use disorders, often leading to poor health outcomes and significant disease burden.

Objective

This study’s purpose is to determine the prevalence of physical and mental illness among individuals with experiences of homelessness and OUD upon entry to a permanent supportive housing program through Pathways to Housing PA (PTHPA).

Methods:

This study is a cross-sectional analysis of physical and mental health conditions of individuals who entered PTHPA’s housing program by July 2018. All individuals included had …

Rethinking Emergency Response To Mass Casualty Incidents: Disaster Medicine Education And The Role Of Medical Students, Claire Zurlo, Edward Jasper, Md, Mph

Phase 1

Introduction: The threat of a mass casualty incident (MCI) is one that must be taken seriously and for which hospitals must be prepared. In the wake of a disaster, emergency departments are often taxed beyond their ability to handle the demands of incoming traumas. In response to this, Dr. Edward Jasper, an emergency physician at Thomas Jefferson Hospital, designed the Hospital Emergency Response Team (HERT) to alleviate the pressure on the ED during a MCI. The HERT is a team of nursing and medical students who are FEMA trained to respond in the event of a MCI.

Objective: The primary …

Signs Of Humanity: A Qualitative Exploration Of Panhandling In Philadelphia, Alyssa Tate, Rosemary Frasso, Phd, Msc, Cph, Willie Baronet, Mfa, Katherine Brierly, Steven Buffer, Kaela Edwards, Zach Fusfeld, Jenna Garret, Nisha George, Nichole Holmes, Emily Wei

Phase 1

People who participate in panhandling are those who ask for financial or other assistance on the street. In Philadelphia, it is known that a large portion of people who panhandle also experience housing insecurity or other hardship. Panhandlers are a very visible fraction of a city’s homeless population and their experiences are of particular interest because their cardboard signs can give insight into common hardships such as housing and food insecurity and substance abuse disorders. While panhandlers in Philadelphia have been surveyed in the past, there is not recent literature on their lived experiences and perspectives and information was not …

Seeing Bullshit Rhetorically: Human Encounters And Cultural Values, Leonard Shedletsky

Faculty Scholarship

This essay explores the idea that calling bullshit exemplifi es Mercier and Sperber”s social intuitionist theory. It discusses a range of empirical research related to bullshit, including belief in the worldviews of Individualist vs. Communitarian and Hierarchical vs. Egalitarian with regard to accepting and rejecting ideas. Calling bullshit fits well with using the heuristics of like/not like and cognitive mechanisms of debunking misinformation.

The Trump Effect: Are Politicians Tweeting Like President Trump?, Jaycee Weber

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The social media platform Twitter has become President Donald Trump’s communication channel of choice, possibly contributing to his unexpected win of the presidency. This research examines the impact of Trump's distinctive tweeting style on the discourse of other U.S. politicians. Specifically, this study examines ten senators’ tweets from the Obama era and the Trump era to see if other politicians are currently adopting President Trump’s tweeting style. A simple random sample of tweets from the senators were taken from the two eras. The results showed some changes in the types of posts senators made. The results also revealed that Democrats' …

The Impact Of Clustered Care On Patient Perception Of Sleep Quality And Noise Levels In A Hospital Setting, Christina Perry

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The aims of this study are to identify the effects of the changes made to the environment in the hospital setting and to observe the patient’s perception of noise levels. Other aims include to identify whether or not patients are receiving adequate rest and which activities are preventing them to do so. Ultimately, the goal is to identify whether or not clustering care provided by the lab, nurses and respiratory improve a patient’s perception of their quality of rest. Rounding is done every two hours instead of the usual one hour between the times of 2200 and 0600 when a …

Structural Safety Of Bridge Decks With Variable Rebar Cover, Prem Egade

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Construction defects are common and are difficult to avoid completely. This arises due to improper workmanship, inspection, drawing and specification. On bridge decks, achieving the desired cover is necessary since inadequacy can cause accelerated corrosion in steel and for the most part spalling and delamination which ultimately led to failure. Tolerance provided by different standards and specification also restrict the amount of rebar. So, construction is more focused on increasing cover undermining the loss of strength as consequence. The objective of this research is to check the safety of decks by analyzing bridges for reduction in capacity due to cover …

Minimizing Structural Jitter In Optical Sensor Systems Using Parametric Dynamic Response Optimization, Richard Lynn Scott

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Deployed in manned and unmanned aircraft, military and commercial ground vehicles, and security and monitoring systems, optical sensor systems are ubiquitous. Developing an optical sensor system includes calculating image motion due to structural dynamics—hereafter, “structural jitter”—and adjusting system design to reduce structural jitter and meet requirements. The current process for adjusting the structural design to reduce structural jitter is manual, labor intensive, and driven mostly by engineering judgment. This paper proposes a well-defined optimization process that provides a more explicit approach to the structural design and likely will reduce labor as the process matures. This project focuses on employing dynamic …

Electrospinning Approach For The Improvement Of Mechanical And Dielectric Properties Of Anisotropic Nanofiber Mat By Using A Novel Fiber Alignment Technique, Blesson Isaac

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Many advanced applications, including aerospace, can benefit from materials with superior mechanical and dielectric properties. For these applications, most fiber alignment electrospinning research has focused on either mechanical property improvement or dielectric property improvement, but not both simultaneously. Through an improved apparatus design and system parameter optimization, this work develops an electrospinning apparatus that produces an increased electrostatic force and more tightly controlled discharged particle path to enable a more uniform distribution and higher degree of alignment in deposited electrospun material, which results in simultaneous improvement of both mechanical and dielectric properties. The current state-of-the-art in aligned electrospinning techniques are …

Foil Thrust Bearing With Pocket Grooves And Tailored Bump Stiffness Distribution For Improved Static Performance, Nguyen Thao Latray

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Gas foil thrust bearing is one of few axial bearing options for high speed turbomachinery systems. Its advantages include low cost, light weight, generous allowance for component mis-alignment and runout. However, the bearing has low load carrying capacity comparing to other types such as rigid gas bearing and magnetic bearing. This work explores two non-traditional design aspects to improve gas foil thrust bearing’s static performance. The bearing bump foil is redesigned to tailor to the bearing pressure profile; hence induces a more uniform gas film thickness. Simulation using independent elastic foundation model predicts the new tailored bump foil thrust bearing …

Smartphone And Social Media Use And Its Health Associations, Cory Newell

Psychology Theses - Archive

While mobile phones offer users communication, information, and entertainment almost instantaneously, there is a growing concern about the impact smartphone and social media use has on mental and physical health. This study addressed gaps in the literature by simultaneously measuring objective and subjective smartphone use rather than relying on subjective reports alone, and then assessed how they were differentially related to health. Generally, it was predicted that measures of smartphone use would be reliable and valid, and that higher use would predict worse health. Overall, a diverse sample (39% White, 22.1% Asian, and 16.9% African American) of 136 young adults …

Pros And Cons: Anime Conventions And Cosplayers, Angela N. Barajas

Sociology & Anthropology Theses - Archive

Among the brightly-hued convention (con) halls, people dressed in feathers, foam armor, and spandex pose for pictures with one another as cosplayers. Cosplay is a way for fans to present themselves and their group to the fan community on a con-wide scale. Originally, I planned to investigate how cosplayers navigate their identities as cosplayers and as members of mainstream American society and how do these two identities inform each other. I sought to understand cosplayer’s identities as laborers within their cosplay groups. Using ethnographic research methods, I interviewed eleven participants and conducted participant observations. Cosplay is even more than identity …

Examining Nurses’ Behavior And Attitudes Regarding Opioid Medications And Opioid Educational Resources, Jacqueline Kirby

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Nurses are responsible for the pain assessment and the administration of opioids for their patients. Nurses use pain assessment tools and non-verbal indicators to ascertain the necessity of pain-relieving drugs. To further understand nurses’ behavior and attitudes regarding opioid medications and the resources nurses use to aid them in clinical decisions regarding opioids, a survey was administered to graduate nursing students at a large university. Subjects (n = 332) most commonly reported non-verbal cues and patient requests specific to drug names and doses as significant indicators of drug-seeking behavior. While most of the participants reported that they administer opioids in …

A Qualitative Systematic Review And Narrative Synthesis Of The Effectiveness Of Interventions For Non-Intimate Parter, Scott Sainato

Social Work Dissertations - Archive

Social Workers have an ethical obligation to “monitor and evaluate policies, the implementation of programs, and practice interventions” (National Association of Social Workers, 2017, 5.02A). This study seeks to meet ethical standards for social workers as well as advance the general knowledge base in the area of Non-Intimate Partner – Youth family Violence (NIP-YFV) by conducting the first systematic review and narrative synthesis in the area of NIP-YFV. The following research will identify and explain why certain interventions are most effective in addressing NIP-YFV. Discussion and conclusion will detail the implications this study has on social work practitioners, policy makers, …

Polarization And Nuclear Fear: How Partisan Message Processing Affects Public Trust In Government, Ian Trevor Owens

Political Science Theses - Archive

Scholars have found that an environment that appears increasingly polarized in the United States has been accompanied by a decline in institutional trust over several decades. Scholarship involving partisanship and trust suggests that out-party groups are less receptive to political messages than in-groups. In the wake of the false emergency alert in Hawaii that sent citizens into a panic for 38 minutes, messaging and nuclear issues remain a salient topic for study. This thesis presents the results of an experiment (N = 2,310) investigating how political trust is influenced by the partisan interpretation of a message. Survey respondents were presented …

Online Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry Methods For Analysis Of Small And Large Biomolecules Using One- And Two-Dimensional Liquid Chromatography, Yehia Zakaria Baghdady

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

In recent years, the innovation in biomarkers and biotherapeutics has increased the demand for state-of-the-art analytical platforms to achieve reliable and accurate discoveries and quantitative analysis methods. The challenges in their determinations are not limited to the large number of small and large biomolecules but also involve the great heterogeneity in chemical properties and abundance of those analytes. Liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry have advanced significantly to be the most common platform for analyzing biological samples. However, there are still many unmet challenges that that require application of novel bioanalytical methods to fill many gaps in online sample preparation, chromatographic …

Fundamental Studies On Ultrafast Separations And Development Of Geopolymer Based Base-Stable Stationary Phase Media, Rasangi Madhumali Wimalasinghe K.K.D.G.

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

This thesis consists of two sections. In the first section fundamentals of ultrafast separations is discussed. Ultrafast chromatography is an emerging area of separation science due to its applicability in high-throughput separations and purifications. State of the art superficially porous particles packed short and ultrashort columns are utilized to obtain the amenable speed and chromatographic efficiency required in ultrafast chromatography. Modifications to state of the art HPLC and UHPLC instrumentation required in cases where ultrafast separations are needed. Sub-second liquid chromatographic separations and ultrafast separations of biomolecules and complex mixtures are demonstrated. Fundamentals behind the analytical chromatographic column packing are …

Deep Learning Based Fast Mode Decision In Hevc Intra Prediction Using Region Wise Feature Classification, Shiba Prasad Kuanar

Electrical Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard has achieved best coding efficiency as compared to previous H.264/AVC standard. But the computational time of HEVC encoder has increased mainly because of the hierarchical quad-tree based structure, recursive search for finding the best coding units, and the exhaustive prediction search up-to 35 modes. These advances improve the coding efficiency, but result into a very high computational complexity. Furthermore selecting the optimal modes among all prediction modes are necessary for the subsequent rate distortion optimization process.Therefore we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) based algorithm which learns the region wise image features and …

Defending Neural Networks Against Adversarial Examples, Armon Barton

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Deep learning is becoming a technology central to the safety of cars, the security of networks, and the correct functioning of many other types of systems. Unfortunately, attackers can create adversarial examples, small perturbations to inputs that trick deep neural networks into making a misclassification. Researchers have explored various defenses against this attack, but many of them have been broken. The most robust approaches are Adversarial Training and its extension, Adversarial Logit Pairing, but Adversarial Training requires generating and training on adversarial examples from any possible attack. This is not only expensive, but it is inherently vulnerable to novel attack …

Large-Scale Deep Learning With Application In Medical Imaging And Bio-Informatics, Zheng Xu

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

With the recent advancement of the deep learning technology in the artificial intelligence area, nowadays people's lives have been drastically changed. However, the success of deep learning technology mostly relies on large-scale high-quality data-sets. The complexity of deeper model and larger scale datasets have brought us significant challenges. Inspired by this trend, in this dissertation, we focus on developing efficient and effective large-scale deep learning techniques in solving real-world problems, like cell detection in hyper-resolution medical image or drug screening from millions of compound candidates. With respect to the hyper-resolution medical imaging cell detection problem, the challenges are mainly the …

The Relationship Between Spirituality And Pain Resiliency In Geriatric Individuals Who Are 65 Years Or Older With Chronic Pain In Dallas, Tx, Jonathan Lall

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Although there have been studies conducted on the relationship between aspects of religiosity and spirituality, and pain perception and management, a gap in research becomes evident when considering the relationship between spirituality and pain resiliency, particularly in the geriatric population. Spirituality has been shown to play a fundamental role in overall pain management of a patient. Understanding the relationship between pain resiliency and spirituality can possibly change how we educate patients on resiliency of pain. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to examine relationships between an individual’s spirituality and their resilience to chronic pain. Forty-two subjects from a church …

The Evolution Of Vertebrate Brain Architecture In Response To Divergent Natural Selection: Concerted Vs. Mosaic Evolution?, Sara Stearns

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Extensive variation in the size and structure of the vertebrate brain is well documented. How the architecture of the brain evolves in response to divergent selection remains an open question. One theory states brain structures evolve in concert; a competing theory states components evolve independently in a mosaic pattern. Tests within a single species are nonexistent. A killifish (Rivulus hartii) is found in localities that differ in the presence and absence of fish predators on the island of Trinidad. We showed previously that decreased predation is associated with evolution of a larger overall brain size in male Rivulus. Here we …

Service Learning Education Intervention: Survey Of Knowledge On Parasitic Worms And Hand Hygiene In Northern Belize Adolescents Ages 10-18, Tiffany Kim

2018 Fall Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The purpose of this project is to assess if there is a knowledge barrier concerning hand hygiene and the contraction of parasitic worms in the northern districts of Belize. In countries around the world, hygiene maintenance is an issue. This issue is complicated by factors such as deficient knowledge, poor implementation of hand hygiene, and minimal access to clean water or soap. This lack of consistent hand hygiene practice often leads to higher infection rates. The most prominent infection observed in communities of Belize is of parasitic worms. Hand hygiene and its effect upon infection rates by parasitic worms requires …

Preparation Of Dual Fluorescence Agents-Loaded Nanoparticle And Its In Vitro And In Vivo Application, Hong-Hao Thi Vu

Bioengineering Theses - Archive

There’re many existing imaging tools that composed of different imaging moieties to improve both resolution and sensitivity, however there’s not yet any imaging method that could be effectively utilized in both in vitro and in vivo study. To fill the gap, dual dyes-labeling fluorescent imaging nanoprobes was synthesized to simultaneous carry both visible fluorescent isothiocyanate (FITC) dye and near infra red (NIR) dye, 1,1′,3,3,3′,3′- hexamethylindotricarbocyanine iodide dye agent (HITC). For that, nanoparticles (NPs) was synthesized from 2-Hydroxyethyl methacrylate, styrene, acrylic acid and fluorescein-o-acrylate which contains visible FITC dye. The NPs were then labeled with HITC dye via physical entrapment to …