Digital Commons Network^™

Systemic Racism, The Government’S Pandemic Response, And Racial Inequities In Covid-19, Ruqaiijah Yearby, Seema Mohapatra

All Faculty Scholarship

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal and state governments have ignored racial and ethnic minorities’ unequal access to employment and health care that results in racial inequities in COVID-19 infections and deaths. In addition, they have enacted laws that further exacerbate these inequities. Consequently, many racial and ethnic minorities are employed in low-wage essential jobs that lack paid sick leave and health insurance. This lack of benefits causes them to go to work even when they are sick and prevents them from receiving appropriate medical treatment. As a result, racial and ethnic minorities have disproportionately been infected and died from …

From Mandates To Governance: Restructuring The Employment Relationship, Brett Mcdonnell, Matthew T. Bodie

All Faculty Scholarship

Employers are saddled with a dizzying array of responsibilities to their employees. Meant to advance a wide array of workplace policies, these demands have saddled employment with the burden of numerous social ends. However, that system has increasingly come under strain, as companies seek to shed employment relationships and workers lose important protections when terminated. In this Article, we propose that employers and employees should be given greater flexibility with a move from mandates to governance. Many of the employment protections required from employers stem from employees’ lack of organizational power. The imbalance is best addressed by providing workers with …

Disparities In Health Care: The Pandemic’S Lessons For Health Lawyers, Danielle Pelfrey Duryea, Nicole Huberfeld, Ruqaiijah Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

Population-level disparities in health and health care came to the forefront of U.S. public consciousness in 2020. As the racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic stratification of COVID-19 infection and death rates emerged with chilling clarity, the Black Lives Matter protests of the summer focused millions of Americans on the complex, structural nature of inequity and its long-lasting effects.

Access to quality health care is a “social determinant of health,” meaning that it is one of the “non-medical factors that influence health outcomes . . . the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set …

Lessons Learned: Strengthening Medicaid To Address Health And Economic Emergencies, Nicole Huberfeld, Sidney Watson

All Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 has disproportionately harmed low-income people, especially Black and Latino populations, seniors, and people with disabilities. Medicaid plays an essential role in providing coverage and access to care for these populations. As COVID-19 disrupted employment, earnings, and insurance coverage, Medicaid enrollment increased, in part because Congress offered states increased Medicaid funding in return for maintaining eligibility and enrollment for the duration of the public health emergency (PHE). At the same time, many states expanded eligibility and streamlined enrollment to assure that people could secure and keep coverage. Such policies resulted in more than 5.3 million more Americans having Medicaid coverage …

Gaps In Worker Protections That Increase Essential Workers’ Exposure To Covid-19, Ruqaiijah Yearby

All Faculty Scholarship

States and localities designated more than 55 million Americans as essential workers. Essential workers not only comprise those employed by the health care and food and agriculture industry, but also include teachers, grocery store workers, transit and airline workers, mail and delivery workers, energy sector and utility workers, and domestic workers (Petition for Emergency, 2020). Racial and ethnic minorities are disproportionately employed as essential workers, with Black Americans the most likely to be essential workers (Petition for Emergency, 2020). Essential workers have been left vulnerable to workplace COVID-19 infections and deaths in large part due to the federal and state …

Editor, Ethical Challenges In Discharge Planning: Stories From Patients, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

This symposium includes twelve personal narratives from patients and their caregivers who have navigated challenges in planning for discharge from the hospital and transition to care at home, a rehabilitation facility, long-term care facility, or hospice. Three commentaries on these narratives are also included, authored by experts and scholars in the fields of medicine, bioethics, and health policy with particular interest in vulnerable populations. The goal of this symposium is to call attention to the experiences of patients during transitions in care and to enrich discussions of ethical issues in discharge planning.

New York’S Proposed Mark-To-Market Tax Decouples From Federal Tax, Henry Ordower

All Faculty Scholarship

A proposal decouples NY from federal tax computations to tax billionaires on unrealized appreciation. If enacted, the proposal generates basis discontinuities across borders but enhances state revenue and may prove attractive to many states. The article reviews how states seek to enhance revenues and considers issues of cross-border taxation and the fundamental right to travel.

Covid-19 Employee Health Checks, Remote Work, And Disability Law, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, about 61 million individuals in the U.S. The law’s protections in the workplace are especially important during COVID-19, which has worsened pre-existing disparities experienced by people with disabilities. The ADA also applies to new strategies to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infection in the workplace. This Chapter will focus on two strategies that impact individuals with and without disabilities – employee health screening, testing and vaccination policies, and new or expanded remote work programs.

“One Of The Greatest Human Tragedies Of Our Time”: The U.N., Biden, And A Missed Opportunity To Abolish Immigration Prisons, Lauren E. Bartlett

All Faculty Scholarship

Children in cages, rampant sexual abuse, lack of access to life-saving medical treatment, and more. These human rights violations continue to occur in immigration prisons in the United States today, and given the scope, many, including the United Nations, are pushing the United States to abolish immigration prisons altogether. However, the Biden administration has demonstrated that is not interested in supporting the abolition of immigration prisons, not even in the international human rights arena.

After providing a brief overview of international human rights law prohibiting immigration prisons, this essay explores U.N. recommendations on immigration prisons from each of the Universal …

Comments On Rights To Federally Funded Inventions And Licensing Of Government Owned Inventions, National Institute Of Standards And Technology (Nist), United States Department Of Commerce, Notice Of Proposed Rulemaking. 86 Fr 35. Agency/Docket Number: 201207-0327, Joshua D. Sarnoff, Liza Vertinsky, Yaniv Heled, Ana Santos Rutschman, Cynthia M. Ho

All Faculty Scholarship

This letter is written in response to the notice of proposed rulemaking published in the Federal Register on January 4, 2021, seeking public comments on the revised regulations proposed by NIST to the University and Small Business Patent Procedure Act of 1980 (the “Bayh-Dole Act”). We submit this letter as academics who engage in research on patent law and biomedical innovation. The arguments also reflect practical knowledge that one of us has acquired from a decade of working with U.S. universities and biotech companies in the process of technology transfer as a lawyer practicing in two highly regarded Boston law …

Vaccine Clinical Trials And Data Infrastructure, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

We find ourselves at a momentous turn in the history of vaccines. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a quasi-global vaccine race that not only compressed vaccine research and development (R&D) timelines, but also paved the way for the administration of a new type of vaccine technology – mRNA vaccines, which work in substantially different ways from the vaccines in use before the pandemic.

While the process of bringing emerging COVID-19 vaccines to market has taken place in an unusually short timeframe, it was largely predicated on the same scientific and regulatory processes that govern the development, approval and deployment of new …

Social Media Self-Regulation And The Rise Of Vaccine Misinformation, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

This essay examines the main characteristics and shortcomings of mainstream social media responses to vaccine misinformation and disinformation. Parts I and II contextualize the recent expansion of vaccine information and disinformation in the online environment. Part III provides a survey and taxonomy of ongoing responses to vaccine misinformation adopted by mainstream social media. It further notes the limitations of current self-regulatory modes and illustrates these limitations by presenting a short case study on Facebook—the largest social media vehicle for vaccine-specific misinformation, currently estimated to harbor approximately half of the social media accounts linked to vaccine misinformation. Part IV examines potential …

Intellectual Property As A Determinant Of Health, Ana Santos Rutschman

All Faculty Scholarship

Public health literature has long recognized the existence of determinants of health, a set of socio-economic conditions that affect health risks and health outcomes across the world. The World Health Organization defines these determinants as “forces and systems” consisting of “factors combin[ing] together to affect the health of individuals and communities.” Frameworks relying on determinants of health have been widely adopted by countries in the global South and North alike, as well as international institutional players, several of which are direct or indirect players in transnational intellectual property (IP) policymaking. Issues raised by the implementation of IP policies, however, are …

Estrogen Disruption Of Hypothalamic Neural Activity, Princess Dickson

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The brain is highly dependent on the endocrine system for proper neurodevelopment, as it plays a key role in many biological processes. Bisphenol A is a chemical found in plastics that has the potential to mimic the effects of Estrogen in the body, at least weakly. People interact with plastic that contains BPA regularly, and people are at risk for exposure even before being born. The abundance of BPA, along with other exogenous estrogens, makes examining the relationship between early exposure and changes in brain activity imperative. The current study aims to establish a relationship between disrupted estrogen function and …

The Intersection Of Empathy, Social Identity, And Threat, Samantha E. Gardner

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Empathy is a tool we can use to feel and understand other’s emotions and circumstances. The social identity perspective posits that we are motivated to protect and promote the groups we belong to, and that we feel emotions on behalf of the group. Further, intergroup threat theory (found within the social identity framework) postulates that perceived threat to one’s group leads to intergroup tension, breeding prejudiced attitudes and discriminatory behavior. To investigate the relationship that identity and threat have on participant’s empathy for outgroups, I measured: how much participants identified with the White American identity; their White privilege awareness; their …

Satellite-Based Phenology Analysis In Evaluating The Response Of Puerto Rico And The United States Virgin Islands' Tropical Forests To The 2017 Hurricanes, Melissa Collin

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The functionality of tropical forest ecosystems and their productivity is highly related to the timing of phenological events. Understanding forest responses to major climate events is crucial for predicting the potential impacts of climate change. This research utilized Landsat satellite data and ground-based Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) plot data to investigate the dynamics of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands’ (PRVI) tropical forests after two major hurricanes in 2017. Analyzing these two datasets allowed for validation of the remote sensing methodology with field data and for the investigation of whether this is an appropriate approach for estimating forest …

Assessing California Commercial Fishing Community Well-Being In The Context Of Marine Protected Area (Mpa) Formation, Samantha Cook

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Marine protected areas (MPAs)—defined geographic areas where fishing and harvesting activity is limited or restricted—have emerged as a popular marine biodiversity and climate resilience strategy worldwide. MPA monitoring efforts often follow MPA designation to help inform the adaptive management of MPAs and MPA networks. In 2012, California completed the largest statewide system of MPAs to date, consisting of 124 MPAs covering 16% of state waters. Following MPA implementation, the state initiated a long-term monitoring program (2019-2022) to help inform the 10-year MPA management review. This two-chapter thesis presents findings from a state-funded project to conduct long-term socioeconomic monitoring for human …

The Americanization Of Sport For Development And Peace: Examining American Sdp Intern Experiences, Michael S. Dao, Jessica W. Chin

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

This study expands the Sport for Development and Peace (SDP) research focusing on the impact of national values and ideas on SDP program implementation. As SDP interns are instrumental in implementing many SDP programs, it is important to identify how their national values and ideas affect their work in the field. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of Americans who had worked as SDP interns. Through the lens of Americanization, we examine the reproduction and distribution of values and ideas of American SDP interns working abroad. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 former American SDP …

Sent Out Or Sent Home: Understanding Racial Disparities Across Suspension Types From Critical Race Theory And Quantcrit Perspectives, Yolanda Anyon, Kathryn Wiley, Ceema Samimi, Miguel Trujillo

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Although in-school suspensions may be viewed as less severe than out-of-school suspensions, both discipline consequences limit students’ access to learning opportunities and are negatively associated with a range of educational outcomes. Moreover, if sending students out of class perpetuates the same racial disparities as sending them home, this practice does not realize the equity goals of discipline reforms over the last decade. Our study draws on Critical Race Theory and QuantCrit to understand racial discipline gaps across in-school and out-of-school suspensions using data from students and schools in one large district. Results of multilevel regression models indicate similar racial disparities …

Bypassing The Blood-Brain Barrier: A Physical And Pharmacological Approach For The Treatment Of Metastatic Brain Tumors, Samuel A. Sprowls

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation (a) provided an in depth literature review of methods to disrupt the BBB/BTB and improve therapeutic distribution to brain tumors, (b) evaluated the use of azacitidine as a single agent therapy for the treatment of brain metastasis of breast cancer and a potential molecular mechanism by which brain tropic cells are sensitized to hypomethylating agents, (c) determined the impact cannabidiol has on P-glycoprotein mediated efflux at the blood-brain barrier and its potential for use as a single agent treatment for metastatic brain tumors, (d) developed a preclinical radiation therapy protocol for use in small animals and in vitro …

Determination Of Effectiveness Of Energy Management System In Buildings, Vivash Karki

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) are computer-based systems that aid in managing, controlling, and monitoring the building technical services and energy consumption by equipment used in the building. The effectiveness of BEMS is dependent upon numerous factors, among which the operational characteristics of the building and the BEMS control parameters also play an essential role. This research develops a user-driven simulation tool where users can input the building parameters and BEMS controls to determine the effectiveness of their BEMS. The simulation tool gives the user the flexibility to understand the potential energy savings by employing specific BEMS control and help …

Differences In Smoking Behaviors And Readiness To Change For Patients With Copd And Differing Categories Of Depression, Jessica M. Floyd

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the world. Depression is a common comorbidity of COPD and affects patient outcomes and smoking cessation. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe factors influencing smoking behaviors and readiness to change in patients with comorbid COPD and depression.

Aims: The research question that guided this study was, “What are the relationships among smoking, COPD, and depression?” The following aims stemmed from the research question: to describe the characteristics of a convenience sample of people living with COPD and differing categories of depression who …

Making Sense Of And Giving Sense To Management Research On Social Evaluations And Ethical Decisions: A Three Essay Dissertation, Alanna M. Hirshman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Organizations, whether private or public, are subject to evaluations by their stakeholders and society. While positive social evaluations can help organizations build their reputation and social capital, negative evaluations can cause significant social and economic distress. In both cases, stakes are high for organizations. Thus, understanding how social evaluations are formed and taken into account during firms’ strategic decision-making is paramount. This three-essay dissertation builds on the sensemaking and sensegiving literature in order to explain positive and negative social evaluations in the context of ethical decision-making. Specifically, the following three questions are addressed: a. Which types of sensemaking and sensegiving …

Evaluation Of Population Structure, Age, Growth, And Mortality Of Blue Catfish And Flathead Catfish Within The Robert C. Byrd Pool Of The Ohio And Kanawha Rivers, Joseph Vincent Siegel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The Ohio River is continuing to recover from a long history of anthropogenic impacts. Blue Catfish were considered locally extirpated from the West Virginia sections and have been reintroduced through fingerling stockings beginning in 2002. Flathead Catfish are naturally sustaining in the pool and combined with Blue Catfish provide two popular recreational fisheries. The Blue Catfish and Flathead Catfish studies shared similar objectives: (1) evaluating size structure, (2) estimating growth rates, and (3) estimating annual mortality. From 2017 to 2020, we collected catfish annually through low frequency electrofishing and trotline surveys at 10 fixed locations. Electrofishing catch rates for Blue …

The Effects Of Dementia Knowledge On Dementia Worry, Attitudes, Social Comfort, Empathic Concern, And Personal Distress, Alexandria Rose Ebert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The present study examined the effects of different types of dementia knowledge on attitudes and affective reactions towards persons with dementia. Work has demonstrated that individuals with higher levels of personhood-based knowledge have lower levels of personal dementia fear and higher levels of social comfort. However, to our knowledge, work has not examined dementia attitudes more broadly or differentiated causal relations among different forms of dementia knowledge and attitude outcomes. Participants (N = 334) aged 19-78 (M = 44.53, SD = 16.57) were randomized into one of five experimental conditions: (1) biomedical-knowledge (BK; read biological and medical facts about …

Implications Of Fraud Detection Decisions, Marie Rice

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation is comprised of three studies that examine the implications of fraud detection decisions. The first study examines whether auditors’ mindfulness practices influence their ability to accurately detect fraud risk factors. The second study evaluates whether organization type influences whether and how perpetrators are punished. The third study evaluates whether management’s decision to increase controls when fraud occurs has unintended negative consequences for other employees. Together, these studies contribute to accounting literature related to fraud detection.

Employing Exoglycosidase And Transferase Enzymes In Capillary Nanogel Electrophoresis For The Determination Of N-Glycan Linkages And Enzyme Michaelis-Menten Constants., Lloyd Bwanali

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

As a post translational modification protein glycosylation plays a crucial role in protein signaling, binding, kinetics and folding. In disease diagnosis and prognosis, monitoring glycosylation has been identified as a biomarker. Sialylation and sialic acid linkage in N-glycans are markers of cancers including liver, pancreatic and kidney cancer. Quantification of sialic acid linkage is analytically challenging because of the diverse linkages and the presence of heterogenous branching. A capillary electrophoresis method is reported that integrates a unique combination of enzymes and lectins to modify sialylated asparagine-linked glycans (N-glycans) in real time in the capillary so that N-glycan structures containing α2–6-linked …

Effect Of Fecal Egg Count Estimated Breeding Value On Antibody Production In Katahdin Lambs, Kelsey L. Bentley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

With current pressures to seek out genetic solutions to combat antimicrobial resistance, genetic resistance to the gastrointestinal nematode Haemonchus contortus may reduce need for prophylactic antibiotic use. The Katahdin breed has effectively utilized post-weaning fecal egg count estimated breeding value (PFEC EBV) to reduce parasitism within their flocks, but there still remains significant opportunity for selection within breed. In a previous study, Katahdin sheep sired by low PFEC sires had greater survivability to weaning than lambs sired by high PFEC rams and preweaning was caused by other diseases than parasitism. Those data lead to the hypothesis that selection for PFEC …

Tree Species Influence On Microbial Functional Gene Abundance And N Cycling In Riparian Soil, Elizabeth Matejczyk

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Little is known about how above-ground vegetation may differentially influence the below-ground microbial community structure, abundance, and function. Abundance of soil microbial N cycling genes responsible for nitrification (amoA), denitrification (nirK and nirS), and nitrous oxide reduction (nosZ) may vary with tree species and increasing N availability, and these variables may be used to predict production of NO₃^- and N₂O from soil. Variability of nitrification and denitrification rates have also been linked to tree mycorrhizal associations, with soil beneath tree species associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) exhibiting greater denitrification rates …

Soil Microbial Nitrogen-Transforming Genes Influenced By Tree Species And Fertilization In An Appalachian Hardwood Forest, Emma G. Fox-Fogle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Many forest ecosystems have been receiving elevated nitrogen (N) deposition due to human activity. Increased ecosystem N threatens soil fertility, water and air quality, and modifies the soil microbially-mediated N cycle in complex ways. The current study investigates how the abundance of key functional N cycling genes within soil bacteria is altered by N deposition and further mediated by different dominant tree species at the Fernow Experimental Forest, WV. Soils were analyzed from two watersheds, where watershed 3 (WS 3) has been receiving experimental applications of N fertilizer that are 2x historic ambient N deposition and 5x the current ambient …