Digital Commons Network^™

Axial Symmetry Tests Of Milky Way Disk Stars Probe The Galaxy's Matter Distribution, Austin Hinkel

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

In Galactic dynamics, various assumptions have been employed for mathematical ease. These assumptions are approximately valid, but departures reveal perturbations on our Galaxy. In this dissertation, we select a complete, Gaia DR2 data set, and using this data, we find evidence for axial symmetry breaking in the Galaxy, away from the spiral arms and the Galactic bar. This asymmetry is compatible with a prolate dark matter halo tilted with respect to the disk, with a long axis pointing in the direction of the Magellanic Clouds, and this matches an inventory of nearby torques. These asymmetries vary North and South of …

Business Week Program, March 22-25, 2021, Illinois State University, College Of Business

Business Week

No abstract provided.

Voices Of Chinese International Students: A Critical Understanding Of Their Experiences In The United States, Shudao Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated the lived experiences of Chinese international students in the United States. It focused on their academic learning, sociocultural relationship, self-reflection and their identity development. This study addressed the active role of international students as participants who can manage cross-cultural difficulties as well as make new interpretations of their life in the host country. This study adopted three theoretical frameworks - transnationalism, transformative learning theory, and social identity theory - to present the intricate educational and social context in study abroad. Through in-depth interviews with eight Chinese students at a private university in California, together with the …

Interests Served And Interests Converged: A Mixed-Methods Critical Policy Analysis Of The California Math Placement Act, Chalesea Schuler

Doctoral Dissertations

The California Mathematics Placement Act was created to eliminate bias within math placement and increase advanced math enrollment, particularly for subgroups who have been historically excluded. Using a Critical Race Theory lens, this study compared the stated goals of policy proponents with whose interests are actually served, and whose are not served, by the policy. This study used a mixed-methods research design to conduct a critical policy analysis of the California Math Placement Act. The qualitative portion of this study used archival document analysis to determine the origins of the act and the interests that converged to pass it. The …

Effects Of Microcystis Aeruginosa On New Jersey Aquatic Benthic Macroinvertebrates, Stephanie Beck

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

As increases in anthropogenic eutrophication and climate change contribute to more severe and frequent cyanobacterial harmful algal blooms in freshwater ecosystems worldwide, understanding the effects and consequences cyanobacterial blooms have on aquatic organisms is crucial. Microcystis aeruginosa is one of the most common cyanobacteria taxa found in cyanobacterial blooms, producing a number of toxins including Microcystins. This study examined the effects of Microcystis aeruginosa on aquatic benthic macroinvertebrates, specifically the pollution intolerant taxa Ephemeroptera, the pollution moderately intolerant taxa Zygoptera, and the pollution tolerant taxa Chironomidae. In a controlled lab environment, macroinvertebrates were exposed to approximately 100,000 cells/ml of Microcystis …

Bipartite, Size, And Online Ramsey Numbers Of Some Cycles And Paths, Eliyahu Schudrich

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The basic premise of Ramsey Theory states that in a sufficiently large system, complete disorder is impossible. One instance from the world of graph theory says that given two fixed graphs F and H, there exists a finitely large graph G such that any red/blue edge coloring of the edges of G will produce a red copy of F or a blue copy of H. Much research has been conducted in recent decades on quantifying exactly how large G must be if we consider different classes of graphs for F and H. In this thesis, we explore several Ramsey- type …

Double Pulse Mosfet Tester, Craig Simpson

Electrical and Computer Engineering

The Double Pulse MOSFET tester is a system used to characterize losses in Silicon-Carbide (SiC) high-power MOSFET semiconductor devices.

• Improve characterization of SiC switching losses
• Allow for better educated design decisions for power converters using these devices
• Perform automated sweeps of operating conditions across voltage, current, and temperature

Objectives:

• Test switching losses for SiC XM3 half bridge MOSFET modules
• Improve understanding of losses in SiC MOSFETs
• Allow for more informed decisions for power converters using these devices

A Survey Of Overlapping Surgery Policies At U.S. Hospitals, Margaret B. Mitchell, Catherine Hammack-Aviran, Ellen W. Clayton, Alexander Langerman

Law Faculty Scholarship

The authors surveyed hospitals across the country on their policies regarding overlapping surgery, and found large variation between hospitals in how this practice is regulated. Specifically, institutions chose to define “critical portions” in a variety of ways, ultimately affecting not only surgical efficiency but also the autonomy of surgical trainees and patient experiences at these different hospitals.

Front Matter

SMU Law Review

No abstract provided.

Howdy, Partner: Challenges With State Takeovers And Charter Partnerships In Texas School Districts, Hannah Luke

SMU Law Review

Since President Johnson passed the first federal education legislation in the 1960s, lawmakers at both the state and federal level have been searching for effective ways to hold public schools accountable. The 2015 amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act gave states increased flexibility to implement their own innovative accountability measures, and with this newfound authority, Texas passed two laws: House Bill 1842 (HB 1842) in 2015 and Senate Bill 1882 (SB 1882) in 2017. The stringent measures in HB 1842 threaten struggling schools with state takeover if they consistently fail to meet standards, while SB 1882 incentivizes schools …

Electric Roller Blades, Nathan Burk, Joshua Hatch

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Electric Roller Blades are designed to allow for fast and convenient transportation!

• The hope for the electric roller blades is to give college students and others walking through their city a way to quickly get from point A to B. Electric Skateboards and One Wheels are heavy and bulky. The Electric Roller Blades are meant to be a less cumbersome electric vehicle. As the majority of the time users will not be commuting, the electric roller blades are more convenient then One Wheels as they can be attached to a backpack.
• People traveling from one destination to another frequently, as …

Public Library-Based Social Work Field Placements: Guidance For Public Libraries Planning To Become A Social Work Practicum Site, Elizabeth A. Wahler, Jacob D. Ressler, Sarah C. Johnson, Colleen Rortvedt, Tasha Saecker, John Helling, Michael A. Williams, Danielle Hoover

Publications and Research

Public libraries are increasingly faced with patron psychosocial needs, including mental health problems, substance use, homelessness, or poverty-related needs. Since library staff are often not trained to address these needs, many are choosing to host on-site social work practicum students to provide information and referrals for patrons presenting with psychosocial needs. However, little existing guidance is available about initiating a social work practicum placement, which can leave libraries unprepared and often “reinventing the wheel”. This manuscript provides guidance on the steps that should be considered by libraries intending to host their first social work practicum student.

Feminist Abolitionist Nursing, Martha Paynter, Keisha Jefferies, Leah Carrier, Lorie Goshin

Publications and Research

The converging crises of COVID-19 and racist state violence in 2020 shifted public discourse about marginalization, public health, and racism in unprecedented ways. Nursing responded to the pandemic with heroic commitment and new politicization. But public engagement with systemic racism is forcing a reckoning in nursing. The profession has its own history of racism and of alliance with systems of state control with which to contend. In this article, we argue nursing must adopt an ethics of abolitionism to realize its goals for health and justice. Abolitionism theorizes that policing and prison systems, originating from systems of enslavement and colonial …

The Effect Of Support Systems On Delinquency, Elizabeth S. Bohrer

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

There are many reasons why adolescents and young adults turn to delinquent behaviors, much of which result from the environment they are residing in. Copious research has been done on the effects that parent, teacher, peer, and partner relationships have on delinquency, but very little focuses on support systems as a whole. Support systems create positive or negative modeling behaviors for people to follow and individuals will allow these models to influence their own personal behavior patterns. The goal of this study is to assess how a possible change in support systems affects delinquent tendencies in a study group of …

Tracking The Racial Validity Of Placement By Probability, Annie M. Del Principe, Lesley Broder, Lauren Levesque

Publications and Research

Any placement decision is a gamble on the validity of the mech- anism used. The better the placement mechanism matches the actual pro- ficiencies required for success in a future, real-life context, the more accu- rately it will place students into the best classes for them and the more valid it will prove to be. But what happens if the most obvious, commonsensical approaches to placement that would appear to have the strongest validity— writing tests for placement into writing classes—prove unreliable? Rather than accurately placing students into the “right” class for them, we now know that writing placement tests …

How/Can Gestalt Therapy Promote Liberation From Anti-Black Racism?, Michelle Billies

Publications and Research

Anti-Black racism is an interruption of contact that often takes place out of awareness, and is continuously enacted through innumerable fixed gestalts at every level of human experience. Gestalt therapy as a movement does not leverage its great potential for undoing fixed gestalts of anti-Black racism, or supporting fluid gestalts of racial liberation; this article explores GT theories and practices that do so. I first discuss how concepts of the field, ground, awareness, consciousness, and contact can be informed by ideas such as intersectionality and double consciousness from Black liberation history as well as theorists such as Crenshaw, DuBois, Fanon, …

Stress And Coping Among Surgery Residents In A Developing Country, Qamar Riaz, Syeda Kausar Ali, Muhammad Rizwan Khan, Abdul Rehman Alvi

Department for Educational Development

Objective: Stress during residency training in surgical disciplines not only hampers professional development but can also compromise patient care and personal health. The purpose of this study was to measure the stress level among the surgical residents, identify factors within the learning and work environment that cause stress, and identify different strategies that the residents use habitually to cope with these stresses.
Methodology: This mix method study was conducted in the department of Surgery at Aga Khan University, Pakistan. Residents' stress level was measured using Perceived Stress Scale (PSS); focus group discussions (FGDs) with faculty and residents explored stressors during …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of 'Mcq Development Workshop Using Cognitive Model Framework: A Pre-Post Study, Rahila Ali, Amber Shahmim Sultan, Nida Zahid

Department for Educational Development

A workshop on MCQ development using cognitive model framework was conducted for health educators from Aga Khan University (AKU) and other academic institutions. The aim was to develop the skill of preparing MCQs for assessing higher cognitive levels. A pre-post study was conducted, participant satisfaction was evaluated and pre-post test scores were used to assess learning capability of the workshop participants. Out of the 19 who attended the workshop, 16 participated in the pre- and post-tests and were included in the study through convenience sampling. The total duration of the study was six months. There was a significant difference in …

Graduate Nurse Transition Programs Pivotal Point Of Participants’ Practice Readiness Questioned During The Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis: A Scoping Review, Kylie Russell, Dianne Juliff

Nursing Papers and Journal Articles

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic requires an accessible, practice-ready nursing workforce to assist with the increase in health service delivery. Graduate nurse transition programs are the entry point for most graduates into professional practice, and this review focused on both empirical studies and gray literature to identify at what point practice readiness occurs and what can assist graduate nurses’ transition to become practice ready.

Method: A scoping review was conducted using the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review framework.

Results: Consensus purports supportive environments, ideally in formal structured graduate transition to practice programs, to enhance graduate nurses’ clinical skills and confidence development. …

Multichannel Mixture Models For Time-Series Analysis And Classification Of Engagement With Multiple Health Services: An Application To Psychology And Physiotherapy Utilization Patterns After Traffic Accidents, Nazanin Esmaili, Quinlan D. Buchlak, Massimo Piccardi, Bernie Kruger, Federico Girosi

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Motor vehicle accidents (MVA) represent a significant burden on health systems globally. Tens of thousands of people are injured in Australia every year and may experience significant disability. Associated economic costs are substantial. There is little literature on the health service utilization patterns of MVA patients. To fill this gap, this study has been designed to investigate temporal patterns of psychology and physiotherapy service utilization following transport-related injuries.

Method: De-identified compensation data was provided by the Australian Transport Accident Commission. Utilization of physiotherapy and psychology services was analysed. The datasets contained 788 psychology and 3115 physiotherapy claimants and 22,522 …

Coronary 18f-Sodium Fluoride Pet Detects High-Risk Plaque Features On Optical Coherence Tomography And Ct-Angiography In Patients With Acute Coronary Syndrome, Kamran Majeed, Jamie W. Bellinge, Steele C. Butcher, Richard Alcock, Jon Spiro, David Playford, Graham S. Hillis, David E. Newby, Trevor A. Mori, Roslyn Francis, Carl J. Schultz

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background and aims: ¹⁸F-Sodium Fluoride Positron Emission Tomography (¹⁸F–NaF PET) non-invasively detects micro-calcification activity, the earliest stage of atherosclerotic arterial calcification. We studied the association between coronary ¹⁸F–NaF uptake and high-risk plaque features on intra-coronary optical coherence tomography (OCT) and CT-angiography (CTCA) and the potential application to patient-level risk stratification.

Methods: Sixty-two prospectively recruited patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) underwent multi-vessel OCT, ¹⁸F–NaF PET and CTCA. The maximum tissue to background ratio (TBRmax = standardised uptake value (SUV)max/SUVbloodpool) was measured in each coronary segment on ¹⁸F–NaF PET scans. High-risk plaque features on OCT …

Could "The Wonder Equation" Help Us To Be More Ethical? A Personal Reflection, Margaret Somerville

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

This is a personal reflection on what I have learnt as an academic, researching, teaching and participating in the public square in Bioethics for over four decades. I describe a helix metaphor for understanding the evolution of values and the current “culture wars” between “progressive” and “conservative” values adherents, the uncertainty people’s “mixed values packages” engender, and disagreement in prioritizing individual rights and the “common good”. I propose, as a way forward, that individual and collective experiences of “amazement, wonder and awe” have the power to enrich our lives, help us to find meaning and sometimes to bridge the secular/ …

Diagnosing Death 50 Years After The Harvard Brain Death Report, Francis J. O'Keeffe, George L. Mendz

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

More than 50 years after the publication of the Harvard Committee Report that sought to define death according to whole-brain function criteria, this document continues to generate a diversity of opinions regarding how death should be defined. The various perspectives show that doubts linger regarding when brain death should be diagnosed, the criteria to pinpoint the occurrence of death, and the alignment of medical practices seeking to establish human death with these criteria. This study reviews and assesses three perspectives that have made significant contributions to the debate. Attention is also given to definitions of death that depart from the …

Ejection Fraction And Mortality: A Nationwide Register-Based Cohort Study Of 499 153 Women And Men, Simon Stewart, David Playford, Gregory M. Scalia, Philip Currie, David S. Celermajer, David Prior, Jim Codde, Geoff Strange

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Aims: We investigated the sex-based risk of mortality across the spectrum of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) in a large cohort of patients in Australia.

Methods and results: Quantified levels of LVEF from 237 046 women (48.1%) and 256 109 men undergoing first-time, routine echocardiography (2000–2019) were linked to 119 232 deaths (median 5.6 years of follow-up). Overall, 17.6% of men vs. 8.3% of women had an LVEF P< 0.001] in women and 1.21 (95% CI 1.05–1.39; P = 0.008) in men. In women, an LVEF of 60.0–64.9% was also associated with a HR 1.33 (95% CI 1.16–1.52; P< 0.001) for cardiovascular-related mortality. These associations were most striking in women and men aged

Conclusions: Among patients investigated for suspected or established cardiovascular …

Essentials Of A New Clinical Practice Guidance On Familial Hypercholesterolaemia For Physicians, Gerald F. Watts, David R. Sullivan, David L. Hare, Karam M. Kostner, Ari E. Horton, Damon A. Bell, Tom Brett, Ronald J. Trent, Nicola K. Poplawski, Andrew Martin, Shubha Srinivasan, Robert N. Justo, Clara K. Chow, Jing Pang

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) is a common, heritable and preventable cause of premature coronary artery disease. New clinical practice recommendations are presented to assist practitioners in enhancing the care of all patients with FH. Core recommendations are made on the detection, diagnosis, assessment and management of adults, children and adolescents with FH. Management is under-pinned by the precepts of risk stratification, adherence to healthy lifestyles, treatment of non-cholesterol risk factors and appropriate use of low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol-lowering therapies including statins, ezetimibe and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9) inhibitors. The recommendations need to be utilised using judicious clinical judgement and shared …

Exported Plasmodial J Domain Protein, Pfe0055c, And Pfhsp70-X Form A Specific Co-Chaperone-Chaperone Partnership, Tanima Dutta, Harpreet Singh, Jason E. Gestwicki, Gregory L. Blatch

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Plasmodium falciparum is a unicellular protozoan parasite and causative agent of a severe form of malaria in humans, accounting for very high worldwide fatality rates. At the molecular level, survival of the parasite within the human host is mediated by P. falciparum heat shock proteins (PfHsps) that provide protection during febrile episodes. The ATP-dependent chaperone activity of Hsp70 relies on the co-chaperone J domain protein (JDP), with which it forms a chaperone-co-chaperone complex. The exported P. falciparum JDP (PfJDP), PFA0660w, has been shown to stimulate the ATPase activity of the exported chaperone, PfHsp70-x. Furthermore, PFA0660w has been shown to associate …

Transfer Learning Artificial Intelligence For Automated Detection Of Atrial Fibrillation In Patients Undergoing Evaluation For Suspected Obstructive Sleep Apnoea: A Feasibility Study, Nestor Gahungu, Afsin Shariar, David Playford, Christopher Judkins, Eli Gabbay

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background: Individuals with obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) experience a higher burden of atrial fibrillation (AF) than the general population, and many cases of AF remain undetected. We tested the feasibility of an artificial intelligence (AI) approach to opportunistic detection of AF from single-lead electrocardiograms (ECGs) which are routinely recorded during in-laboratory polysomnographic sleep studies.

Methods: Using transfer learning, an existing ECG AI model was applied to 1839 single-lead ECG traces recorded during in-laboratory sleep studies without any training of the algorithm. Manual review of all traces was performed by two trained clinicians who were blinded to each other's review. Discrepancies …

Examining The Potential For Coronary Artery Calcium (Cac) Scoring For Individuals At Low Cardiovascular Risk., David Playford, Christian Hamilton-Craig, Girish Dwivedi, Gemma Figtree

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Atherosclerosis is the commonest cause of death in Australia. Cardiovascular (CV) risk calculators have an important role in preventative cardiology, although they are are strongly age-dependent and designed to identify individuals at high risk of an imminent event. The imprecision around “intermediate” or “low” risk generates therapeutic uncertainty, and a significant proportion of patients presenting with myocardial infarction come from these groups, often with no warning. This highlights a conundrum: “Low” risk does not mean “no” risk.

A fresh approach may be required to address the clinical conundrum around CV preventative approaches in non-high-risk individuals. While probabilistic calculators do not …

Birthing In Regional Australia: Women's Decision Making Surrounding Birthplace, Alexa Seal, Emma Hoban, Annette Panzera, Joseph Mcgirr

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Objective

Although there is some research on women’s choice of birthplace, most of this research has been conducted overseas. This study explored factors influencing the decision to use public or private maternity services within regional Australia.

Methods

This cross-sectional study consisted of a community-based, anonymous, online questionnaire focused on factors influencing a woman’s choice of birth location and included adult females who had given birth in the past 2 years within two regional areas. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse demographic characteristics and factors influencing decisions regarding birthplace. Pearson’s Chi-squared test was used to compare public and private births for …

Cardiac Damage Staging Classification Predicts Prognosis In All The Major Subtypes Of Severe Aortic Stenosis: Insights From The National Echo Database Australia, Afik Snir, Martin Ng, Geoffrey A. Strange, David Playford, Simon Stewart, David S. Celermajer

Medical Papers and Journal Articles

Background

There are currently no established prognostic models for “low-gradient” severe aortic stenosis (AS), including those with low-flow, low-gradient (LFLG) or normal-flow, low-gradient (NFLG) severe AS. The “cardiac damage staging classification” has been validated as a clinically useful prognostic tool for high-gradient severe AS but not yet for these other common subtypes of severe AS, LFLG and NFLG.

Methods

The authors analyzed data from the National Echo Database of Australia, a large national, multicenter registry with individual data linkage to mortality. Of 192,060 adults (mean age, 62.8 ± 17.8 years) with comprehensive ultrasound profiling of the native aortic valve studied …