Digital Commons Network^™

Literature Review: Improving End-Of-Life Care And Creating A Good Death, Erna Smlatic

Honors Program Theses

The need for quality end-of-life care has increased drastically around the world in the last few centuries due to a surge in life expectancy. As people are living much longer, they are developing and succumbing to chronic progressive diseases which can significantly decrease quality of life. But what exactly does it mean to care for the aging population who are nearing death? Defining quality care at the end-of-life is important but also differs for individuals based on a variety of factors including age, culture, and life experiences. End-of-life care does not come as “one size fits all” and it challenges …

The Influence Of Gain-Loss Framing And Its Interaction With Political Ideology On Social Distancing And Mask Wearing Compliance During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jordan Steffen

Honors Program Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused millions of cases and over half a million deaths in the United States.While health experts urge citizens to adopt preventative measures such as social distancing and wearing a mask, these recommended behaviors are not always followed by the public. To find a way to promote preventative measures, the present study examined the role of gain-loss framing of COVID-19 related messages on social distancing and mask wearing compliance. Moreover, the study also tested potential moderating effects on framing with three individual characteristics: political ideology, subjective numeracy, and risk attitude. A sample of 375 U.S. adult residents …

Converging Artificial Intelligence And Blockchain Technologies For Security And Risk Management In Banking, Van Binh Hai Tran

Honors Program Theses

The focus of this thesis is on understanding the potential applications of blockchain and AI technologies in the banking and finance sector for better risk management and cybersecurity. In this thesis, I will do an extensive literature review of research on AI and Blockchain in the top eight information systems journals and some top-rated computer science journals. The intention is to examine the use of blockchain and AI to enhance remote work security and fraud detection in the Banking and Finance sector.

The Administration Of American Elections During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sydney Wagner

Honors Program Theses

Elazar identifies three main political subcultures that intermingle to form the national political culture: traditionalistic, moralistic, and individualistic. I am using these three political subcultures to see if they offer an insight into each state’s decision regarding election administration. In times of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, will states react differently as they attempt to administer elections and does political culture inform such varied responses? I conducted case studies of Iowa, Georgia, and Pennsylvania and applied a series of variables including the strength of each state’s voter ID law, the voter turnout, state office control, and relevant events. After …

Exploring Voting Habits And Attitudes Of Lgbtq+ College Students In The United States, Jordan Weber

Honors Program Theses

Citizens of the United States are regularly reminded of the importance of voting in elections. However, data shows the youngest voters turnout at the polls in far fewer numbers than older generations. The same cannot be said for marginalized and minority groups, such as members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. Past studies have shown that these individuals are more likely to vote than their peers who are not members of this community. While there is information about voting habits of both the youngest voters and LGBTQ citizens, there has been little research done about the …

Griffiths-Like Phase In Manganese Intercalated Tantalum Disulfide And The 3-Dimensional Ising Model, Paul White

Honors Program Theses

Transition metal dichalcogenides have gained increasing interest due to properties that make them highly attractive for fundamental studies of novel physical phenomena and for applications ranging from nanoelectronics and nanophotonics to sensing and actuation at the nanoscale.^[1] The material described in this work is composed of layers of tantalum sulfide between which manganese was deposited. The number of manganese atoms per tantalum atom is called the concentration, x. In the research that was conducted for this thesis, the Griffiths Phase of crystalline bulk Mn_0.23TaS₂ and the 3-dimensional Ising model was investigated.

Urban School Violence Prevention: A Suggested Intervention Utilizing Liberation Psychology, Meghan K. Hogan

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

In the past decades, numerous programs have been developed in attempts to reduce the rates of violence facing students in American schools. The spotlight on these programs have increased since horrific mass shooting events have taken place throughout the country. Many of these programs have utilized varied methods in their attempt to reduce school-based violence, from the implementation of hardline policies meant to act as violence deterrents to the development of risk assessment teams aimed at identifying and intervening against potential threats; however, few of the existing programs have shown substantial efficacy rates. Additionally, several of the violence prevention programs …

A Culturally And Structurally Sensitive Approach To Working With Suicidal Latinx Individuals: Recommendations For Clinicians, Jessa Navidé

Graduate School of Professional Psychology: Doctoral Papers and Masters Projects

Latinx individuals are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the U.S. and confront numerous challenges living in the U.S. that can impact their mental health. While their overall suicide rates are relatively low compared to non-Hispanic Whites, it is concerning to note suicide rates of Latinx individuals living in the U.S. are significantly higher compared to most countries in Latin America. The predominant approaches to treating suicidal individuals often fail to consider the sociopolitical climate and systemic challenges that exacerbate mental health concerns for Latinx individuals. This paper examines cultural considerations, racial and ethnic identity models, and unique protective and …

Tisagenlecleucel Infusion In Patients With Relapsed/Refractory All And Concurrent Serious Infection., Erin Hall, Dwight E. Yin, Rakesh K. Goyal, Atif Ahmed, Grace S. Mitchell, Shawn D. St Peter, Terrie Flatt, Ibrahim A. Ahmed, Weijie Li, Richard J. Hendrickson, Keith August, Douglas Myers

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: Tisagenlecleucel, an anti-CD19 chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapy, has demonstrated durable efficacy and a manageable safety profile in pediatric and young adult patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) in the ELIANA pivotal trial and real-world experience. Experience from investigator-led studies prior to ELIANA suggests that infections and inflammatory conditions may exacerbate the severity of cytokine release syndrome (CRS) associated with CAR-T cell therapy, leading to extreme caution and strong restrictions for on-study and commercial infusion of tisagenlecleucel in patients with active infection. CRS intervention with interleukin (IL)-6 blockade and/or steroid therapy was introduced late in …

Taxation Of The Digital Economy: Adapting A Twentieth-Century Tax System To A Twenty-First-Century Economy, Assaf Harpaz

Scholarly Works

This Article analyzes the tax challenges of digitalization and the potential solutions to address them. This Article argues in favor of a multilateral approach and proposes applying a new tax nexus based on market thresholds subject to a global de minimis amount. As more companies conduct business online, current international tax law and its principles have failed to adapt to global commercial practices. Digital-tech giants such as Facebook, Google and Amazon have been able to exploit the international tax framework by avoiding a physical presence in the jurisdiction of their consumers. As a result, profits of highly digitalized enterprises can …

Seafaring And Impact On Seafaring Families In The Philippines: A Qualitative Study, Queenie Abad

Public Health Theses

Objective/Purpose: The Philippines is the largest occupational source of seafarers for the international shipping industry. Inherent to this occupation are the recurrent and long duration deployments overseas away from the seafarers’ families and communities which may negatively impact family wellness. In this qualitative study, we explored challenges that Filipino seafaring families face and identified protective factors for family and community well-being.Methods: Participants were selected by purposeful and snowball sampling. Participants were seafarers and their families. We conducted semi-structured interviews which were audio-recorded, transcribed, and loaded on Dedoose to facilitate line-by-line coding. Data was analyzed with a grounded theory approach using …

Prevalence And Health Burden Of Cardiovascular Disease In Older U.S. Veterans: Results From The 2019-2020 National Health And Resilience In Veterans Study, Cailin Arechiga

Public Health Theses

Importance. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and is associated with a range of demographic, military, trauma, and clinical characteristics and physical and mental health conditions. Older military veterans may have an increased risk for CVD, given their advanced age and military experiences. However, the prevalence and health burden of CVD in population-based samples has not been well characterized. Objective. To characterize the current prevalence of CVD, and its association with sociodemographic, military, trauma, and clinical variables in a large, contemporary, and nationally representative sample of older U.S. veterans. Design. Cross-sectional study …

Health Care Utilization And Costs For Dementia Patients In China, Fang Ba

Public Health Theses

The number of people in the world living with Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias (ADRD) continues to rise rapidly, which places a substantial burden on people with dementia (PWD), their families, and the society. Such a burden has been rising faster in low-income and middle-income countries (LMIC) where around two-thirds of PWD live. While prior research documents dementia prevalence in China and indicates its large geographic disparities, no study to date has documented the national pattern of health care utilization, quality and costs in China. The absence of knowledge would largely impede the effective allocation of resources for combating dementia …

Changes To Worship And Perceptions Of The Covid-19 Pandemic By Religion In The Us, Allison Elizabeth Bailey

Public Health Theses

COVID-19 is a recently emerging infectious disease that spreads easily through respiratory droplets and can cause severe illness and death. Individuals can be both infectious and asymptomatic, which makes it difficult to identify those who are at-risk of spreading the disease to others. In the US, shortly after the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic disease, states began to issue lockdown orders encouraging residents to stay inside to reduce the spread of the virus. As a result, many Americans were not able to attend religious gatherings or worship services for several months. A cross-sectional study surveyed religious Americans …

United States Long-Term Trends In Adult Bmi From 1959 To 2018 By Income, Education, And Race/Ethnicity, Julia Banas

Public Health Theses

Obesity prevalence has increased dramatically since the 1950s. While cross-sectional comparisons across racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups are abundant, there is less work on long-term trends. We assessed trends in average adult body mass index (BMI) in the United States by income, education, and racial/ethnic groups from 1959 to 2018 using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which assesses repeated cross-sectional, representative samples of the United States population. Height, weight, income, education, and race variables were extracted from raw data files; income data was converted to constant dollars prior to analysis. BMI was calculated from height and weight measurements. …

Utilizing Covid-19 Models In Humanitarian Crisis Settings, Duane Barksdale

Public Health Theses

Since the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, several researchers and decision-makers have turned to statistical modeling to inform predictions of the severity of the burden of infection and disease in various settings. While it is understood that no model can perfectly describe the transmission of a novel and highly transmissible pathogen, there still lies the potential for models to be useful tools for local and international decision makers to act proactively to mitigate the burden of disease. In Syria, these challenges are compounded by humanitarian crises resulting from the ongoing civil war in the region. This conflict …

Without A Trace: Is Technology The Next Stage In Contact Tracing’S Evolution?, Madeline Bender

Public Health Theses

Contact tracing has become both a buzzword and a priority during the COVID-19 pandemic. Though it was deployed nationwide in the U.S., its success varied regionally. This special project thesis, in the form of a longform journalism article, traces the public health practice back to its roots to explore who contact tracers are, what they do, and what factors contributed to tracing’s limited success in 2020–21, centering around concepts of stigma and privacy. With this foundation, it assesses the promise and perils of incorporating technology into contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Healthcare Provider Perspectives On The Influence Of Cultural Beliefs On Infant And Young Child Feeding Practices Within Ghanaian Refugee Camps: A Qualitative Analysis, Morgan Nadene Veronica Buchanan

Public Health Theses

Adherence to breastfeeding and complementary feeding recommendations is a proven strategy for promoting the well-being of infants and young children and ensuring their proper development. Cultural beliefs inform caregivers’ likelihood to follow these guidelines as they influence caregivers’ thoughts about maternal behavior during the prenatal and lactation periods, child feeding behaviors, and health. Refugee camps or settlements are a unique space to study the coexistence of cultural beliefs held by residents and staff. Understanding the pathways by which cultural beliefs modulate caregiver infant and young child feeding (IYCF) behavior (and therefore impact child health) within these settings is of paramount …

Are We (Americans) All International Realists Now?, Harlan G. Cohen

Scholarly Works

Is American international law distinctly legal realist? The claim is often made, but underexplored. What would it mean for American international law scholarship and practice to be legal realist in its orientation? Where would such an orientation come from, and what do those origin stories mean for current international law work? Are there common realist-inspired approaches within the varied schools of American international law scholarship? Does wielding those approaches produce distinctly American views on international law doctrine, its operation, or its function? And if American international law scholarship and practice is, in these ways, somewhat distinct, what does it mean …

One Child Town: The Health Care Exceptionalism Case Against Agglomeration Economies, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

This Article offers an extended rebuttal to the suggestion to move residents away from dying communities to places with greater economic promise. Rural America, arguably, is one of those dying places. A host of strategies aim to shore up those communities and make them more economically viable. But one might ask, “Why bother?” In similar vein, David Schleicher’s provocative 2017 Yale Law Journal article, Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation urged dismantling a host of state and local government laws operating as barriers to migration by Americans from failing economies to robust agglomeration economies. But Schleicher said little …

Information For The Common Good In Mass Torts, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch, Alexandra D. Lahav

Scholarly Works

In recent years, judges have privileged confidentiality over transparency in discovery, especially in large scale multidistrict litigation such as the Opiate litigation. By uncovering the assumptions underlying our current regime, this Article sheds light on the process that got us here as a first step towards re-envisioning the rules governing information in litigation. We investigate an untold history of discovery’s publicity to show that many of our assumptions about what is public and what is private is historically contingent, even accidental. So too are our assumptions about the best way to arrive at truth.

Accordingly, we suggest that courts ought …

Melanotic Neuroectodermal Tumor Of Infancy, Mohammad H. Almomani, Rebecca M. Rentea

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Melanotic neuroectodermal tumor of infancy (MNTI) is a rapidly growing benign tumor that arises from the neural crest. It typically occurs in infants in the head and neck region. It was described for the first time in 1918 by Krompecher, and since the origin was unknown, it was described as congenital melanocarcinoma. Until 1966, this tumor was characterized by variable names (e.g., retinal anlage tumor, pigmented congenital epulis, melanotic progonoma, pigmented teratoma, atypical melanoblastoma, etc.). However, Borello and Gorlin found that the tumor produces vanillylmandelic acid (VMA), which is produced by other types of tumors that arise from the neural …

Book Review: The Cambridge Companion To The First Amendment And Religious Liberty, Nathan Chapman

Scholarly Works

Review of The Cambridge Companion to The First Amendment and Religious Liberty. Edited by Michael D. Breidenbach and Owen Anderson. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. xii + 461 pp. $39.99 paper.

Constitutional Foundations For Public Health Practice: Key Terms And Principles, Fazal Khan, Marice Ashe

Scholarly Works

This chapter introduces the structure of the government in the United States and the concept of “separation of powers" among the federal, state, and local governments. It introduces core legal principles from the U.S. Constitution that frame the authority of the government to enact and enforce laws to protect and promote the public's health. These Constitutional principles are essential for the health advocate and leader to understand because every federal, state, and local law must comply with them. The core principles include the enumerated powers of the federal government and the broad plenary powers of state and local governments—which we …

From Property Rights To Liberty Rights: We The Corporations, A Review Essay, Laura Phillips-Sawyer

Scholarly Works

A long-standing, and deeply controversial, question in constitutional law is whether or not the Constitution's protections for “persons” and “people” extend to corporations. Law professor Adam Winkler's We the Corporations chronicles the most important legal battles launched by corporations to “win their constitutional rights,” by which he means both civil rights against discriminatory state action and civil liberties enshrined in the Bill of Rights and the Constitution (p. xvii). Today, we think of the former as the right to be free from unequal treatment, often protected by statutory laws, and the latter as liberties that affect the ability to live …

Does The Supreme Court’S Decision In Wayfair Apply Retroactively?, Walter Hellerstein, Andrew D. Appleby

Scholarly Works

A recent decision of the Oregon Tax Court suggests that it may be premature to dismiss the challenging questions raised by the retroactive application of Wayfair as entirely hypothetical. Accordingly, after providing an overview of the case law governing retroactive application of Supreme Court state tax decisions repudiating preexisting constitutional doctrine, we examine the Oregon Tax Court’s opinion in Global Hookah Distributors Inc. v. Department of Revenue, which addressed the question whether Wayfair applied retroactively to the state’s tobacco products tax.

Changing The Student Loan Dischargeability Framework: How The Department Of Education Can Ease The Path For Borrowers In Bankruptcy, Pamela Foohey, Aaron Ament, Daniel Zibel

Scholarly Works

Our nation’s consumer bankruptcy system supposedly gives “honest but unfortunate” individuals “a new opportunity in life with a clear field for future effort, unhampered by the pressure and discouragement of preexisting debt.” Access to bankruptcy’s discharge of debt is especially important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has resulted in a once-in-a-century economic crisis that is projected to increase consumer bankruptcy filings. The people who file bankruptcy will find a system that is already difficult to navigate and has long-recognized racial and gender disparities in access and outcomes. Student loan borrowers will find a system with even more …

The Dysfunctional Criminalization Of Family Violence, Andrea L. Dennis

Scholarly Works

Legal responses to elder, child and intimate partner abuse have developed along similar tracks from civil and regulatory to criminal, employed much of the same mechanisms, and shifted power from victims to law enforcement officers and prosecutors. The siloed evolutionary process leading to the criminalization of the se behaviors has not significantly resolved the problems and criticisms of the behavior. Indeed, thirty years ago, Peter Edelman critiqued the government's role in remediating child abuse and domestic violence. In particular Edelman identified three issues: (1) the failure to recognize the inter-relatedness of different types of family violence; (2) the lack of …

Landscape Genetics Of Iowa's Threatened Black Redhorse, Morganne C. Borsh

Honors Program Theses

The objectives of this study are to:

a. Characterize the genetic diversity of populations of Black Redhorse in Iowa

b. Determine the level of connectivity between populations in Iowa

Overall, this project aims to determine the degree of fragmentation of Black Redhorse populations to better direct conservation strategies. This study utilizes genome-wide Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) to assess the population genetic structure of the Black Redhorse across its range in northeast Iowa.

Reasons For Self-Mutilating Behavior In The 21st Century, Zhiqing Yaw

Honors Program Theses

Self-harm, also known as Self-Mutilating Behavior (SMB) has emerged as a major concern in this era of globalization as the prevalence rate of self-mutilating behavior has increased drastically. The statistic usually depends on self-report as SMB are often done in private. There was a total of one hundred and six participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk (mTurk) and each participant was given $1.00 for their time. The survey was administered via Qualtrics. In the result, 90 participants have reported to be involved in SMB and 67 were males while 28 were females. The age range of the participants were …