Digital Commons Network^™

Breastfeeding In Public And The Impact Of Mass Media On Breastfeeding: An Expanded Literature Review, Hannah Underwood

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing Undergraduate Honors Theses

The choice a mother makes to breastfeed or to formula feed is a hotly debated topic in the United States today. The benefits of breastfeeding for both mother and baby are undeniable, but breastfeeding is difficult for some due to a plethora of barriers, notably a lack of social support. This literature review evaluates attitudes towards breastfeeding in public and how varying mass media formats can impact perceptions of breastfeeding and potentially breastfeeding implementation. Twenty articles with both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained from Medline Complete EBSCO Host and PubMed for a comprehensive analysis. Among 283 total articles retrieved, …

Food Security, Economic Growth And Price Stability Nexus And Conceptual Issues, Park O. Idisi

Economic and Financial Review

A strong argument that encourages analysing food security and food price stability issues is importance to economic well-being. Nigeria is one of the most food insecure countries and highly affected by all three drivers. For one, the country is vulnerable to price instability and successively hit by environmental disasters, that impact people’s livelihoods. Furthermore, its economy is thriving, but around 48.0 per cent of its population lives below the poverty line (World Bank, 2020; World Poverty Clock, 2020). In addition to that, since 2009 northeastern Nigeria is struck by insurgency. Essentially, sustainability in economic growth is dependent on achievement of …

The Effects Of Social Determinants On Renal Care Among Eskd Patients In The Philippines: Rural Vs. Urban Areas, Melanie Rojas

Nursing | Senior Theses

From a Public Health Nursing (PHN) perspective, populations who are diagnosed with chronic disease or illness are the most vulnerable to end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or end-stage renal disease (ESRD). The International Society of Nephrology (ISN) states that the mortality rate for ESKD amounts to roughly 7 million individuals worldwide. In examining causes of ESKD throughout both history and the lifespan, high mortality rates are attributed to the lack of access to life-sustaining therapies such as dialysis or transplantation. The lack of access to therapy or healthcare services has been an immense Public Health crisis in the last few decades. …

Discerning The True Dilemma Of Diabetes Among Hispanics, Ramon Ponce

Nursing | Senior Theses

There is a common misconception that the primary role of nurses is to follow doctors’ orders and treat patients who are currently suffering and experiencing pain. Chronic illnesses such as diabetes can be prevented and better managed if the population who is greatest at risk is better informed and educated on the disease. Different cultures and ethnicities have different foods that unfortunately puts them at risk to get diabetes. Hispanics typically follow a diet that is high in carbohydrates, saturated fats, and sugars that greatly contribute to the development of diabetes. Often, Hispanics are not educated enough to comprehend the …

Ceramic Skin, Carlene English

The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.

Annual Report Of Birds Banded In The Ibba Region, 2020, Mark Shieldcastle

North American Bird Bander

No abstract provided.

Economic Opportunities For Refugees: Lessons From Five Host Countries, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Abdullah Al Mahmud Shohag, Eashita Haque, Md. Irfan Hossain, Joseph Falcone, Ubaidur Rob

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

The majority of refugees around the world are in protracted refugee situations, living in exile for at least five years with no sign of a durable solution. There are three possible durable solutions: repatriation, local integration, and resettlement. Repatriation remains the main durable solution, but the circumstances should be conducive for return to the country of origin. In the meantime, local integration gives refugees some certainty about what to do with their lives. Local integration is a process with three interrelated dimensions: legal, economic, and social. This report examines the level and extent of local integration of refugees in terms …

Knowledge And Practice On Pest Management Of Ethnic Potato Farmers In Southern Shan State, Myanmar, Pyae Pa Pa Aung, Supawan Visetnoi

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Potato is cultivated as the main tuber crop which is essential for ethnic farmers’ household income in Southern Shan State, Myanmar. Most ethnic farmers use chemicals widely to enhance crop yield and reduce pests. Overuse and misuse of pesticides could lead to a series of health impacts and environmental issues. The main aim of the study is to explore farmers’ current practices and knowledge level on pesticides in potato production. The participants of 100 farmers were chosen from each village with a cluster and purposive sampling technique using structured questionnaires to collect the data from a village in Kalaw Township. …

Measuring Foundation Course Modulus Using Falling Weight Deflectometer, Light Weight Deflectometer, And Dynamic Cone Penetration, Bruce Barrett, Kellie Troxel, Brady Dresselhaus, David Hansen

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

Phase I results showed that FWD, LWD, and DCP provided valid results and trended with each other at the stations all three tests were run. This gives confidence that any test method is reliable when used on an exposed bituminous foundation course.

The results of Phase I and Phase II indicate that using FWD testing after concrete is built does not provide an accurate modulus of the foundation course. As demonstrated through the statistical analysis, foundation course moduli cannot be reliably calculated by using FWD on top of doweled concrete pavements and back-calculated using Darwin software or ME Design. Additionally, …

Speech Regulation By Algorithm, Enrique Armijo

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

The rapid convergence of speech and technology on social media platforms means it is likely the case that, either now or soon, more expressive activity will be regulated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) than by any legislature, regulator, or other government entity. Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly told Congress and other audiences that AI is the key to resolving Facebook's content moderation challenges, envisioning a moderation regime where algorithms detect and take down speech infringing Facebook's Community Standards ex ante, that is, prior to its public posting and before it reaches other users. According to Zuckerberg, this would eventually replace its initial …

Table Of Contents (V. 30, No. 2)

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

No abstract provided.

Ballots In An Unfamiliar Language And Other Things That Make No Sense: Interpreting How The Voting Rights Act Undermines Constitutional Rights For Voters With Limited English Proficiency, Abigail Hylton

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

This Note will argue that the current federal scheme for determining the baseline resources that a state must provide to voters with limited English proficiency is unconstitutional. Specifically, the Voting Rights Act neglects to require adequate translation and interpretation services for many voters with limited English proficiency. Such failure to adequately support this group of citizens throughout the election process effectively excludes them from the democratic process and deprives them of their constitutional right to vote. Whether this group of voters has access to translated materials currently hinges on the language they speak, their nationality, and their geographic location; the …

Unusual Catchment Runoff In A High Alpine Karst Environment Influenced By A Complex Geological Setting (Northern Calcareous Alps, Tyrol, Austria), Karl Krainer, Gerfried Winkler, Sabine Pernreiter, Thomas Wagner

KIP Articles

Garber Schlag (Q-GS) is one of the major springs of the Karwendel Mountains, Tyrol, Austria. This spring has a unique runoff pattern that is mainly controlled by the tectonic setting. The main aquifer is a moderately karstified and jointed limestone of the Wetterstein Formation that is underlain by nonkarstified limestone of the Reifling Formation, which acts as an aquitard. The aquifer and aquitard of the catchment of spring Q-GS form a large anticline that is bound by a major fault (aquitard) to the north. Discharge of this spring shows strong seasonal variations with three recharge origins, based on δ 18 …

Crisis Of Hegemony: China’S Rise To Power And The South China Sea, Vanessa Gonzalez

Undergraduate Research Projects

“Let China sleep. For when she wakes, the world will tremble.” This quote attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte has foreshadowed the international political climate of the twenty-first century. Throughout history, great empires and nations that were sure of their power could not fathom their eventual decline until it came knocking at their door. In many ways, the U.S is facing one of these wake-up calls. Its likely successor? The People’s Republic of China. From trade and technology wars all the way to what many consider the “New Cold War” in the South China Sea: the U.S has met its economic match. …

Psychometric Properties Of The Contextual Body Image Questionnaire For Athletes: A Replication And Extension Study In Female Collegiate Athletes, Tiffany Stewart, Lisa Kilpela, Nicole Wesley, Kate Baule, Carolyn Becker

Population and Public Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: Although the link between body dissatisfaction and eating disorder (ED) pathology is well-established in general female samples, less is known about contextual body image (CBI) among female athletes. CBI refers to female athletes’ body image concerns in two contexts: sport and daily life. The Contextual Body Image Questionnaire for Athletes (CBIQA) measures four dimensions of body image (Appearance, Thin-Fat Self-Evaluation, Thin-Fat Others’ Evaluation, and Muscularity) in both contexts. In a sample of female collegiate athletes, this study sought to A) investigate the psychometric properties of the CBIQA, B) examine the cross-sectional relation of CBI with ED pathology and negative …

Gasification Based Waste Tire Integrated Energy Conversion Systems, Karah Powell

Honors Theses

The objective of this study was to evaluate the operating parameters impacts on the performance of a gasification-based waste tire integrated energy conversion system. In this system, the waste tires are put into a downdraft gasifier that is providing fuel for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The system is evaluated by the syngas production, power generation, and overall efficiency under various operating conditions. A hybrid 1-D model was adopted to perform a parametric study of the tire gasification and calculations were done to estimate the integrated system power generation and overall efficiency using MATLAB. Three parameters were studied: the …

Examining An Intersection Of Environmental Justice And Covid-19 Risk Assessment: A Review, Ashley Ellis

Honors Theses

This study views the risks associated with the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) as an environmental injustice issue due to the connection between existing environmental disparities and the disproportional negative impacts brought upon by the virus. The social and health determinants attributed to those environmental disparities have traditionally been evaluated as individual risk factors, an approach that fails to gauge the complexity of an environmental injustice issue. This study employs the emerging theory of intersectionality, a belief that phenomena cannot be linked to one principal cause but instead an interconnected web of influences, in order to synthesize the multitude of factors believed …

The Role Of A-Layer In Polyunsaturated Fatty Acid (Pufa)-Mediated Effects On Aeromonas Salmonicida Subsp. Salmonicida, Allen Lin

Honors Theses

Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida is a Gram-negative bacterium that infects salmonids and non-salmonids worldwide leading to an infection known as furunculosis, which is characterized by skin lesions and hemorrhages of the fish epidermis. This infection is carried out by a A+ (virulent strain) of A. salmonicida containing an important virulent factor known as the A-layer, which is a 2D paracrystalline structure that binds to the basement membrane and functions to promote adherence to host membranes and resistance to host defense. The purpose of this study was to examine the ability of the A+ A. salmonicida to incorporate exogenous fatty acids …

Gut Permeability And Osteoarthritis, Towards A Mechanistic Understanding Of The Pathogenesis: A Systematic Review, Giorgio Guido, Guido Ausenda, Veronica Iascone, Emanuele Chisari

Rothman Institute Papers

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common condition affecting human joints. Along with mechanical and genetic factors, low-grade inflammation is increasingly supported as a causal factor in the development of OA. Gut microbiota and intestinal permeability, via the disruption of tight junction competency, are proposed to explain a gut-joint axis through the interaction with the host immune system. Since previous studies and methods have underestimated the role of the gut-joint axis in OA and have only focussed on the characterisation of microbiota phenotypes, this systematic review aims to appraise the current evidence concerning the influence of gut permeability in the pathogenesis …

Formalizing An Obstetrical Program For High-Risk Patients: Focus—Diabetes During Pregnancy, Valeria Jimenez

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Within the last 10 years, the number of pregnant women with gestational diabetes increased 56%, and the number of women with Type 1 or Type 2 diabetes before pregnancy increased 37% (CDC, 2018). The management of a pregnancy complicated by diabetes involves a multidisciplinary approach, medical nutrition therapy, glycemic control, and occasionally, pharmacological therapies (Nurain et al., 2019). In 2017, the total cost of diabetes in the United States was $237 billion (Riddle & Herman, 2018). The purpose of this DNP project was to standardize a Federally Qualified Health Care’s (FQHC) High-Risk Obstetrical (OB) Initiative, which attempted to provide in-person …

Quality Improvement Project: Communication Guidance During And Following Maternal Hemorrhage, Kathleen Giramur

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Background. Maternal hemorrhage is a significant cause of worsening maternal morbidity and mortality in the United States. If timely, effective, and compassionate communication is not provided during and following traumatic birth events, negative mental health problems may result that affect maternal well-being, bonding with the baby, and family relationships. A gap analysis carried out at the clinical site showed that a written, evidence-based guidance on communication with patients and families during and after a maternal hemorrhage event was needed. Compliance through documentation is required by the Joint Commission. Trauma-Informed Care is an evidence-based communication approach that incorporates principles of safety, …

Improving The Early Detection And Management Of Peripheral Artery Disease In Patients With Diabetes Within The Primary Care Setting, Julyssa Amanda Rodriguez

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Background. Diabetes is a significant risk factor for peripheral artery disease. Individuals with diabetes, greater than 50 years of age, having at least one other risk factor should be screened for peripheral artery disease with an ankle brachial index. Purpose. Improve detection and management of peripheral artery disease in persons with diabetes within primary care. Evidence. Individuals with diabetes and peripheral artery disease have an increased risk of adverse cardiac and limb events, impairing the patient’s quality of life and causing long-term disability (Berger & Newman, 2020). Methods. During a 10-week period, these processes were implemented: (a) screening all patients …

The Workings Of Liquidity Lines Between Central Banks, Saleem Bahaj, Ricardo Reis

Documents

No abstract provided.

Why So Negative? Street Literature And Its Negative Effects On The African American Psyche, Lilly Lamia Simone

Theses (2016-Present)

Urban literature, more widely known as street lit is a genre of literature that glorifies and exaggerates drugs, violence, and sex in the lives of its African American characters. Through Street lit readers are introduced to the black man as a figure of power through illegal activity in his community, and black women as either overly aggressive or figures in need of protection. These novels choose loyalty over family, drugs, and athleticism over education, and money and power over morality. These novels and their glorifications cause African American people to see dream lives in goals that are not only unattainable …

Baseline Studies On Sex-Disaggregated Statistics Of Members And Gender Roles Of Officers Among Recognized Uplb Student Organizations, Jickerson P. Lado, Marcelina C. Miranda, Katrina Joy M. Abriol-Santos, Charlotte H. Hagosojos, Jimby E. Casquete, Marites E. Mojica, Nina M. Cadiz

Journal Article

The sex disaggregated statistics of members of recognized UPLB students organizations for five academic years were determined. Furthermore, the prevailing gender roles in elected key positions were identified. This is the first attempt to create and profile reorganized UPLB student organizations in terms of sex-disaggregated data (SDD) that could translate to effective policies and campaign strategies to enable a harmonized and gender-sensitive culture in UPLB. It sought to identify the assess the SDD of members among recognized UPLB student organization using both qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. In a preliminary study, the data submitted by an average of 170 …

Building Action Sets In A Deep Reinforcement Learner, Yongzhao Wang, Arunesh Sinha, Sky C.H. Wang, Michael P. Wellman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

In many policy-learning applications, the agent may execute a set of actions at each decision stage. Choosing among an exponential number of alternatives poses a computational challenge, and even representing actions naturally expressed as sets can be a tricky design problem. Building upon prior approaches that employ deep neural networks and iterative construction of action sets, we introduce a reward-shaping approach to apportion reward to each atomic action based on its marginal contribution within an action set, thereby providing useful feedback for learning to build these sets. We demonstrate our method in two environments where action spaces are combinatorial. Experiments …

Early Prediction Of Hate Speech Propagation, Ken-Yu Lin, Roy Ka-Wei Lee, Wei Gao, Wen-Chih Peng

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Online hate speech has disrupted the social connectedness in online communities and raises public safety concerns in our societies. Motivated by this rising issue, researchers have developed many machine learning and deep learning methods to detect hate speech in social media automatically. However, most of the existing automated solutions have focused on detecting hate speech in a single post, neglecting the network and information propagation effects of social media platforms. Ideally, the content moderators would want to identify the hateful posts and monitor posts and threads that are likely to induce hate. This paper aims to address this research gap …

Efficient Reinforcement Learning In Resource Allocation Problems Through Permutation Invariant Multi-Task Learning, Desmond Cai, Shiau Hong Lim, Laura Wynter

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

One of the main challenges in real-world reinforcement learning is to learn successfully from limited training samples. We show that in certain settings, the available data can be dramatically increased through a form of multi-task learning, by exploiting an invariance property in the tasks. We provide a theoretical performance bound for the gain in sample efficiency under this setting. This motivates a new approach to multi-task learning, which involves the design of an appropriate neural network architecture and a prioritized task-sampling strategy. We demonstrate empirically the effectiveness of the proposed approach on two real-world sequential resource allocation tasks where this …

Writing Myths: Interpreting And Translating Meaning, Naomi Robinson

Postgraduate

Myths and stories are integral communication devices that cross both lived and shared experience while manifesting through internal and external meaning-making processes. To determine the nature of myths in and as popular culture, this project sought to use practise-led methods. In addition to storytelling and thematic analysis, this project involved the interpretation and adaptation of an ancient myth into a modern television series. By considering television shows as conduits of socio-political agendas, the creative process culminating in this exegesis highlighted how the perpetual influence of myths through knowledge, reference, and experience can be manipulated to drive cultural change.

As an …

Healing Rites : A Performance Autoethnography, Auryn Rotten

Postgraduate

The following is an exegesis that accompanies a performance in film. Together they reveal an autoethnographic journey of a researcher-filmmaker that contributes to the open-ended examination of the human experience through the language of art. The study explores a disruptive, trauma-informed healing ritual of “wounding while healing”. The artistic and scholarly practice is guided by the theoretical principles of art-based research throughout the process. Centring around the lived experience of the researcher as a survivor of sexual assault; the knowledge generated through the work is motivated by a political and personal desire to provoke change. Correspondingly, the film performance interrupts …