Digital Commons Network^™

Perspectives Of Asian/Pacific Islanders On Lung Cancer Screening In Philadelphia: A Qualitative Study, Melissa Chai, Kristine Pham, Mph, Rickie Brawer, Phd, Mph, Mches

Phase 1

Introduction: Even though rates of smoking, the leading cause of cancer, are lower in Asian/Pacific Islanders (API), the rates of lung cancer deaths are still one of the highest compared to those of other minority groups in the US. However, little is known about the beliefs and attitudes that influence lung cancer screening behaviors of APIs.

Objective: The objective of this study is to better understand the current beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge of APIs in Philadelphia towards lung cancer and lung cancer screening.

Methods: Six in-depth interviews were conducted with key informants, who all had extensive experience working with the …

Total Body Skin Exams: Sensitivity, Specificity, And Number Needed To Screen, Shayan Waseh, Michael Bui, Audra Hugo, Alexander Sherban, Elizabeth Jones, Md

Phase 1

Introduction: Skin cancer, the most common form of cancer worldwide, has one of the highest cure rates among cancers if diagnosed and treated early in its course. The Total Body Skin Exam (TBSE) is the primary modality used to screen for skin cancers. Currently, few studies have characterized the effectiveness of the TBSE in contemporary populations.

Objective: Characterizing the number-needed-to-screen (NNS) to diagnose a case of skin cancer through TBSEs will make it possible to better understand its effectiveness as a screening modality and its utility in an increasingly population health-based healthcare system.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of 3155 …

Economic Impact And Health Disparities Of Firearm Injuries Treated Within The Thomas Jefferson University Health System, Christina Wohler, Stanton Miller, Md

Phase 1

Introduction:

Firearms are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. In 2015, firearms killed over 36,000 Americans (CDC, 2017), and in 2013 were responsible for $229 billion in healthcare and other costs (Cerdá 2016). On an average day in Philadelphia, 4 people are injured or killed by firearms (Beard 2017). This purpose of this project is to further investigate these trends in the context of the Thomas Jefferson University Health System.

Objective:

To date, no research exists to examine firearm violence within the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital (TJUH) System. The purpose of this study is to …

Mining For Voices: Reframing Hydraulic Fracturing As A Public Health Issue, Benjamin Chipkin, Ms, Pouné Saberi, Md, Mph

Phase 1

Introduction: Hydraulic fracturing extracts fossil fuels from rock formations by injecting chemicals underground. While 80% of studies demonstrate risks or actual harms to health from fracking, Pennsylvania does not require chemical disclosures. Fracking accelerates climate change, a phenomenon linked to increases in health emergencies. With 1.6 million Pennsylvanians living within 1 mile of active oil or gas development sites, there is considerable risk. In 2012, Pennsylvania banned physicians from discussing health impacts of fracking, an order struck down in 2016. Following the gag order, deficits in physician knowledge and urgency may remain around fracking. Outlining a precautionary approach to fracking …

Burning Libraries: A Community Response, Thomas H. Mcgovern

Publications and Research

Archaeology is increasingly seen as a global change science as well as a provider of community heritage resources. Rapid climate change is destroying archaeological sites at an unprecedented rate, and community- based response is urgently needed.

The Pain In Spain: Examining Andalusia's Youth Unemployment Crisis, Bianca D. Lennon

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

This paper examines the youth unemployment crisis in the autonomous community of Andalusia by assessing employment policies that are currently in place. Since the economic crisis nearly a decade ago, there has been very little change in the high rates of Andalusian youth unemployment, which as a whole, has left the region, the country and the European Union at risk due to a lack of inefficient policies. By utilizing anecdotal evidence paired with facts and figures released by the European Union, recommendations to adjust employment policies such as the Youth Guarantee and PRAEM are given in order to shine a …

The Single Contract Basis Of International Corporate Taxation: A Review Of Saipem V Firs, Okanga Ogbu Okanga

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Nigeria's principal corporate tax legislation, the Companies Income Tax Act 1961, stipulates as a basis for the taxation of a nonresident company deriving income in Nigeria, what it terms a “single contract.” This, according to the statute, entails a contract that embodies the activities of surveys, deliveries, installations or construction (common features of what is in common parlance termed a “turnkey project”). A major challenge with the application of the provision lies in the comprehension of the pivotal term, “single contract.” A diversity of views on the import of the term paints a telling picture of ambiguity and underlies the …

A Conversation With The Honorable Rosalie Silberman Abella And Dean Matthew Diller, Rosalie Silberman Abella, Matthew Diller

Fordham Law Review

DEAN MATTHEW DILLER: This year we are leading up to our celebration of 100 Years of Women at Fordham Law School. In September 1918, the Fordham Law faculty voted to admit women, and we are planning to celebrate that in style. But tonight perhaps is a bit of a teaser for that. Justice Rosalie Silberman Abella is a woman of firsts. She is the first Jewish woman to sit on the bench of the Supreme Court of Canada, and before the Supreme Court, when she was appointed to the Ontario Family Court in 1976, she became the first Jewish woman …

Revolution In Crime: How Cryptocurrencies Have Changed The Criminal Landscape, Igor Groysman

Student Theses

This thesis will examine the ways in which various cryptocurrencies have impacted certain traditional crimes. While crime is always evolving with technology, cryptocurrencies are a game changer in that they provide anonymous and decentralized payment systems which, while they can be tracked in a reactive sense via the blockchain, are seen by criminals as having better uses for them than traditional fiat currencies, such as the ability to send money relatively fast to another party without going through an intermediary, or the ability to obscure the origin of the money for money laundering purposes. Every week there are new cryptocurrencies …

Analysis Of Synthetic Opioids In Postmortem Blood, Vitreous Humor, And Brain Tissue, Rachel K. Chesser

Student Theses

In the United States, the use of new synthetic opioids (e.g. fentanyl and derivatives) has become an increasing health issue with thousands of overdose deaths being observed since 2013. With the high mortality rate associated with these substances, postmortem analyses and interpretation of synthetic opioids has become extremely important. However, due to the novelty of these compounds, the available data is limited and provides challenges to toxicologists. The focus of this project was to examine the postmortem distribution of new synthetic opioids in blood, vitreous humor, and brain tissue. New methods were developed and validated to quantify 13 synthetic opioids …

A Leak In The Pipeline: College In Jail From The Participants’ Perspective, Kathy Mora

Student Theses

Offering college-level coursework to people in correctional facilities has proven to be a good investment in reducing recidivism and violence, however, how incarcerated students evaluate ‘prison to college pipeline’ programs, and how they access education after release is less understood. This study is a participant-observation approach with semi-structured surveys of a college class in Rikers Island that aims to answer the question: How do incarcerate students describe their experience with college in jail and their post-release plans to continue their education? This study uses 25 surveys of persons who participated in a college program in Rikers Island. A significant theme …

Differences In Psychopathy And Associated Traits By Police Officer Rank, Rosanne Libretti

Student Theses

Most psychopathy research focuses on its manifestation in forensic populations, however these results may not generalize onto noncriminal, or “successful,” psychopaths. Lykken (1995) conjectured that socialization may enable “heroes,” like law enforcement, to utilize the interpersonal and affective aspects of psychopathy in a manner that benefits society. Previous research (Falkenbach et al., 2018a) suggests that psychopathy and its correlates differ between police recruits and individuals in the community. It is necessary to continue this work with other groups in the police force to see if the patterns found in these studies generalize to veteran officers who have worked in law …

Detection Of In Utero Cannabis Exposure By Umbilical Cord Analysis, Jiyoung Kim

Student Theses

According to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 7.1% of pregnant women smoked marijuana in the past month in 2017. Although this prevalence is expected to increase as a growing number of states and countries are now considering legalization, there are scarce data on effects of in utero cannabis exposure. For the monitoring of fetal cannabis exposure, two methods are employed; self-report and the analysis of biological matrix. Due to inaccuracy of self-report, the analysis of neonatal matrixes such as meconium, hair, and urine is perferred. Although umbilical cord is becoming a useful objective tool to detect in …

Bumbling In The Dark: The Effect Of The Dark Triad, Online Dating, And Gender On Risky Sexual Behaviors, Rebecca Boudreau

Student Theses

The Dark Triad is used to describe three distinct yet related personality traits: psychopathy, narcissism, and Machiavellianism, which share several characteristics such as manipulation, exploitation, emotional coldness, and lack of empathy. The Dark Triad has been associated with several negative behaviors including infidelity and risky sexual behavior, however most of the current research focuses only on males high on the Dark Triad traits. The present study seeks to expand the literature by studying how the Dark Triad traits and online dating usage relate to the composite score of risky sexual behaviors. Further, we seek to examine if gender moderates this …

The Bully And The Beast: Correlations Between Psychopathic Traits And Bullying In A Sample Of University Students, Nascha Streng

Student Theses

Bullying is a concept mostly investigated in children, teenagers, and adults within the workplace. While there is research on bullying in college in general, gaps in the literature remain considering how personality characteristics in bullies relate directly to psychopathy and specific psychopathy traits. Although the literature suggests bullies have a tendency towards psychopathic traits such as violence, impulsivity, egocentricity, manipulativeness, rule-breaking, and intolerance, researchers have yet to assess the connection between college students who bully and psychopathy. The research on psychopathy suggests that those high on psychopathic traits may be more prone to use bullying as an apathetic means to …

Construction Of Efl Teacher Educators’ Knowledge Base In A Teacher Education Program In Nicaragua, Angel María Dávila

Dissertations

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand and describe the sources of Nicaraguan EFL teacher educators’ knowledge base, the types of knowledge and skills that constructed their knowledge base, and the relationship of this knowledge base and classroom practices in a teacher education program at a Nicaraguan University. This study presents a literature review on the sources of knowledge and knowledge base of EFL teacher educators in the field of language teacher education. I used a purposeful sampling technique to select both the research site and the six EFL teacher educators who …

Documentary Production As A Site Of Struggle: State, Capital, And Precarity In The Contemporary Chinese Documentary, Jiachun Hong

Dissertations

Documentary filmmakers have been considered artists, authors, or intellectuals, but rarely as labor. This study investigates how the nature of work as well as life is changing for those who work in the expanding area of TV documentary in China, in the midst of China’s shift towards a market-based economy. How do documentary makers reconcile their passion for documentary making with the increasingly precarious conditions of work? And, how do they cope with and resist the pressures of neoliberalism to survive in increasingly competitive local and global markets? Based on data gathered through the interviews with 40 practitioners from January …

Experimental Study On The Influence Of Slickwater On Shale Permeability, Zhonghua Liu, Baojun Bai, Zheyu Zhang, Jing Tang, Shunpeng Zeng, Xiaogang Li

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

There are two diametrically opposite views of the influence of slickwater on shale permeability among scholars at home and abroad. We used the shale outcrops rock samples from the Lower Silurian Longmaxi Formation in Sichuan Basin. The permeability of these dry samples before and after immersion in different solution systems were tested by pulse attenuation method. The experimental results show that the impregnation of different slickwater components and standard salt solution can promote the increase of the permeability of shale samples. The stress sensitivity of shale samples after liquid immersion is medium weak to weak. The sample stress sensitivity is …

The Making Of Secular Islam In Yugoslavia And Reis Ul-Ulema Džemaludin Čaušević, Muhammed Al-Ahari

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

"The 1920s and 1930s was labeled the Golden Age of Bosnian Islam. Arabic, Persian, and Turkish were widely used by Bosnian Muslim scholars and there were several attempts to modernize and Europeanize Bosnian Islam. Among them were attempts to develop a separate Bosnian Muslim identity linked to the history of Muslims in the Balkans and changes in the education system for Muslims in the area that would become Yugoslavia."

Il-1Α Blockade Reduces Immune Suppression In The Early Tumor Micro-Environment, Brenda Melendez

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

IL-1α Blockade Reduces Immune Suppression in the Early Tumor Micro-Environment

Brenda Melendez, B.S.

Advisory Professor: Gregory Lizee, PhD.

Immunotherapy against melanoma has shown great promise in the clinic for treating advanced-stage patients. However, a major barrier against effective T cell mediated cytotoxicity is immunosuppression in the tumor micro-environment. It has been described that tumors secrete pro-inflammatory cytokines capable of modulating immune responses that favors the growth of tumor cells. Specifically, IL-1 plays a critical role in myeloid cell recruitment and activation, which can in turn inhibit T cell activity in vivo. Moreover, IL-1 is also known to up-regulate immune inhibitory …

Biogeography And Natural History Of Tiger Moths And Spongillaflies Of Intermountain North America With Experimental Studies Of Host Preference In The Lichen-Feeder Cisthene Angelus (Insecta: Lepdioptera: Erebidae: Arctiinae And Neuroptera: Sisyridae), Makani Layne Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

The Intermountain West is comprised of impressive land formations, numerous ecoregions, and a unique biota. The area has many flora and fauna that have been investigated, but the region is generally considered undersampled when it comes to insects. However, I propose the matter to be a lack of shared experience in identifying key insect species and the underutilization of professional and personal collections. These impediments are highlighted by two insect groups in the Intermountain West: spongillaflies and tiger moths. Spongillaflies can be difficult to recognize for the general entomologist and have rarely been recorded in the Intermountain West. My colleagues …

Promoting Second Language Learning Through Oral Asynchronous Computer-Mediated Communication, Eric H. Young

Theses and Dissertations

Learning to speak a foreign language (L2) can be a challenging feat, made all the more challenging when done in only 50 minute, daily increments in class. Oral asynchronous computer-mediated communication (ACMC) provides learners with opportunities to practice spoken communication and evaluate their practice outside the classroom. In this dissertation, I explore methods for classroom integration of oral ACMC, linguistic traits developed in previous oral ACMC studies, methods for determining the effectiveness of oral ACMC, learner beliefs about the effectiveness of oral ACMC activities, and the effects of learners' deliberate practice in a series of oral ACMC activities on 3 …

A Flexible Service-Oriented Approach To Address Hydroinformatic Challenges In Large-Scale Hydrologic Predictions, Michael Antonio Souffront Alcantara

Theses and Dissertations

Water security is defined as a combination of water for achieving our goals as a society, and an acceptable level of water-related risks. Hydrologic modeling can be used to predict streamflow and aid in the decision-making process with the goal of attaining water security. Developed countries usually have their own hydrologic models; however, developing countries often lack hydrologic models due to factors such as the maintenance, computational costs, and technical capacity needed to run models. A global streamflow prediction system (GSPS) would help decrease vulnerabilities in developing countries and fill gaps in areas where no local models exist by providing …

Are Experienced Principals More Likely To Implement The Attributes Of The Three-Minute Walkthrough Program Than Less-Experienced Principals?, Trent Mosley

Dissertations

Today, in this era of accountability, school improvement rests heavily on the shoulders of building principals. Apart from being managers of school operations, disciplinarians, and community leaders, these individuals are also expected to be strong instructional leaders (Crum & Sherman, 2008). Principals now must engage in strategies that will lead the cycle of continuous improvement. One such strategy that has emerged is classroom walkthroughs (Cervone & Martinez, 2007). Classroom walkthroughs serve as a vehicle through which principals can engage teachers in a process that can lead to positive effects on teaching strategies through instructional conferences (Blasé & Blasé, 1998; King, …

The Effect Of Item Stem And Response Option Length On The Item Analysis Outcomes Of A Career And Technical Education Multiple Choice Assessment, Tina M. Koepf

Dissertations

Critical decisions in Career and Technical Education (CTE) can be based on assessment outcomes, requiring an essential focus on continuous improvement initiatives to provide increased multiple choice (MC) assessment validity. Previous research has determined that the presence of flawed test items negatively impacts student success; therefore, an MC taxonomy has been established and used in the assessment industry. While rigorous and successful Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs that enroll high-level academic students exist, many CTE programs enroll students with a wide spectrum of academic ability. Because many CTE students often have inferior reading skills, it is necessary to take …

“I’Ve Always Identified With The Women:” How Appalachian Women Ballad Singers’ Repertoire Choices Reflect Their Gendered Concerns, Sara Lynch-Thomason

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how contemporary Appalachian women’s gendered experiences influence their choices of ballad repertoire. This inquiry is pursued through a feminist analysis of interviews with six women ballad singers from Madison County, North Carolina. In evaluating the women’s choices of ballads and their commentary on the songs, this thesis draws upon narratological theories as well as concepts from Appalachian traditional music studies.

This study finds that women’s repertoire preferences reveal contemporary female concerns for physical safety and political agency. The singers also extract hidden transcripts from ballad texts and use ballads to educate audiences about women’s historic oppression. However, …

Political Competition And Predictors Of Hate Crime: A County-Level Analysis, Eaven Holder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research on hate crime has tended to utilize sociological frameworks to best explain the incidence of such offending, but little research has been conducted to determine whether political factors may play a role. Although Olzak (1990) touched upon the relationship between racial violence and third-party politics during the American Progressive era (1882-1914), the research did not fully articulate how political competition may influence the commission of hate crime. The current study seeks to fill this gap, while also extending concepts associated with social disorganization theory and the defended communities perspective. It does so by utilizing a longitudinal research design to …

The Effects Of Using An Information Literacy Model On The Information Seeking Behavior Of Sixth-Grade Students, Jessica L. Kohout-Tailor

All Dissertations

This action research study describes how teaching an information literacy model affects the information behavior of sixth-grade students. The theoretical framework that supported this study was Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process or ISP (1989). This study used a sequential mixed-methods design to examine the following questions: “How will teaching the Simple Four information literacy model (Alewine, 2006) to sixth-grade students affect their information seeking behavior?” The study also explored the effects the model had on students’ affective behavior through the second research question: “How will teaching the Simple Four information literacy model (Alewine, 2006) to sixth-grade students affect their confidence …

Exploring Dynamics And Performance Of International Education (Ie) And Senior International Officer (Sio) Through A Lens Of Complexity And Network Theories, Po Hu

All Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore the nature of complex adaptive systems (CAS) and network dynamics in international education (IE) programs in a U.S. higher education institution. I analyze the IE programs through a lens of complexity and network theories and ask how measures of engagement in complex networks affect performance in the IE system. This study presumes that today's international education programs in the U.S. higher education institutions are complex adaptive systems and that traditional leadership is no longer adequate to address the overwhelming opportunities and challenges posed by global education. A two-stage quantitative research design is …

Systems To Attract And Feed Pollinators In Warm-Season Lawns, Michelle Wisdom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pollinating insects are responsible for the production of many agricultural crops and they require floral resources to fulfill their life-cycle. Ideally, pollinating insects will encounter a diversity of floral resources across their entire season of activity, and those floral resources can include both herbaceous and woody plant species. Managed turfgrass areas have been identified as potential locations for creating pollinator-friendly habitats. In the transition zone, where both warm- and cool-season turfgrass species are present, the persistence of herbaceous plants in warm-season turfgrasses such as bermudagrass (Cynodon spp.) and buffalograss (Buchloe dactyloides), may be affected not only by the competitive nature …