Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating Spatial Heterogeneity In Myocardial Wound Environments To Improve Therapy, Michael Potter

All Dissertations

Heart failure is a broad pathology manifestation categorized by an inability of the heart to successfully pump blood throughout the vast vessel network of the body. Within the United States, heart failure is projected to increase by approximately 46% from 2012 to 2030. Modalities of heart failure are generally related to wall mechanics that are impacted following myocardial infarction events. Interplay exists between the wall mechanics, responding cell populations, and the spatial heterogeneities in the resultant scar. This interplay directs the myocardium towards heart failure modalities governed by overly stiff or compliant states. It is essential to elucidate details underlying …

The Field-Building And Grantee Experimentation Role Of Foundations In Impact Investing As Illustrated By A Gender-Lens Investing Case Example, Courtney Bolinson, Laura Allan

The Foundation Review

This article argues for foundations to play two critical roles in the impact investing ecosystem: to commission and/or support research that helps build more equitable and socially just impact investing and to fund grantee-specific experimentation in areas of impact investing and social enterprise that are nascent or developing.

To illustrate what this can look like, this article presents action research conducted on gender-lens investing, describing in detail a 2019 Mastercard Foundation grant to Engineers Without Borders Canada. The project involved two main goals: testing and developing gender-lens investing tools and processes with seed-stage investees during pre- or post-investment phases and …

Defining Your Double Bottom Line: Philanthropy And The Investment Landscape, Stephane Ligonde, Garrett De Temple, Tuokpe Ajuyah

The Foundation Review

Grantmaking traditionally has been at the heart of philanthropy, whereas impact was the exclusive expectation of any desired result. While there is still a place for this kind of pure push for change, many investors today expect more, leveraging the power of the markets to invest in a way that is both impactful and able to maximize their financial rewards. This is particularly true of foundations with an eye toward supporting the perpetuity of their missions and organizations.

This approach also offers a range of innovative mission-based benefits, including extending the utility of philanthropic capital and generating more capital to …

Donor-Advised Funds And Impact Investing: A Practitioner’S View, Sam Marks

The Foundation Review

Any discussion of foundations embracing impact investing must include some discussion of one of the largest — and growing — sources of philanthropic capital: donor-advised funds. These philanthropic accounts allow donors of all sizes to access many of the functions of a private foundation, including the potential to invest for impact. Sponsors of these funds, however, face unique challenges in catalyzing impact investments.

Like the larger institutional foundations that have led the way as mission investors, sponsors must often educate and inspire governance boards and investment committees. Unlike foundations with professional program staff, decisions regarding philanthropic resources at sponsors of …

Mental Health Needs Among Minority Aviation Students, Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Stacey Mcintire

Publications

Higher education, including science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, benefit our society and economic growth. However, overcoming gender disparity and increasing the retention of underrepresented minorities within these programs is challenging. Mental health across higher education has shown to be on the rise, and when it comes to the mental health needs of aviation students, research shows that underrepresented minorities experience unique challenges in achieving academic success. This paper focused on identifying aviation minority students' unique challenges in a small STEM university. This mixed-methods action research study collected quantitative data using an adapted version of the Counseling Center Assessment …

Death Of A Bacterium: Exploring The Inhibition Of Staphylococcus Aureus By Burkholderia Cenocepacia., Tiffany Brandt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Antimicrobial resistance is a phenomenon of increasing concern as antimicrobial overuse and misuse eliminate current therapeutic options, ushering society into a post-antimicrobial era. Antibiotic discovery and synthesis efforts are urgently needed to counter the increasing burden of antimicrobial resistance. Staphylococcus aureus is a causative agent of a variety of clinical manifestations including bacteremia, endocarditis, soft tissue infection, osteomyelitis, and device-related infections. S. aureus infection presents additional treatment challenges due to its capacity for biofilm formation, which is a mode of growth that confers protection from antibiotics and physical elimination, and the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains, including methicillin-resistant S. aureus …

Bayesian Methods For Graphical Models With Neighborhood Selection., Sagnik Bhadury

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Graphical models determine associations between variables through the notion of conditional independence. Gaussian graphical models are a widely used class of such models, where the relationships are formalized by non-null entries of the precision matrix. However, in high-dimensional cases, covariance estimates are typically unstable. Moreover, it is natural to expect only a few significant associations to be present in many realistic applications. This necessitates the injection of sparsity techniques into the estimation method. Classical frequentist methods, like GLASSO, use penalization techniques for this purpose. Fully Bayesian methods, on the contrary, are slow because they require iteratively sampling over a quadratic …

A New Direction For Public Understanding Of Science: Toward A Participant-Centered Model Of Science Engagement., Christopher Rickels

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Engaging the public with science is not an easy task. When presented, scientific findings, public health recommendations, and other scientific information filter through the personal values, beliefs, and biases of members of the public. Science communicators must contend with these differences in order to be effective in cultivating a public understanding of science. Given the importance of scientific understanding for living well in a complex world, increasing science understanding through science engagement is imperative. The field of public engagement with science is dichotomized by a public information deficit approach and a contextualist approach. The deficit approach prizes the factual content …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Professional Development And Pedagogical Practice: A Study Of A Kentucky Suburban School District., Rachelle Bramlage-Schomburg

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Professional development supports teacher growth and enhances pedagogical practice. Teachers in Kentucky must complete annual professional development hours and districts must develop a professional development plan tied to research that supports high-quality professional development. This qualitative case study takes place in a rural district, Bullitt County, where I investigated the teachers’ perception of a customized professional development, Thinking Focus Cohort (TFC), and its impact on their pedagogical practice. While a body of research exists on high quality professional development, there is a lack of research on the effectiveness of it, in particular a year-long cohort model with curriculum centered around …

Hgf-Mediated C-Met Signaling In Human Corneal Epithelial Cells., Kate Tarvestad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vision is often regarded as the primary sense of humans. The cornea is the main refractive tissue that permits light through to the retina, allowing a clear image. When the cornea sustains damage, it opens a pathway for infection and blindness through fibrotic processes. Healing the corneal tissue is critical for vision restoration and pain alleviation. Growth factors and their cognate receptors are currently under investigation as tools to restore proper corneal physiology. We hypothesize that manipulating the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/ c-Met signaling pathway is one route to promote quality corneal healing. This thesis investigates the signaling, trafficking, and …

Changing Public Perception Of Dementia: The Effect And Credibility Of Three Informational Models., Diana Hedrick

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Since the 1970s, Alzheimer’s disease and dementia have been portrayed in a medicalized, symptom-focused manner to help spread awareness, improve diagnosis, and push for treatment research. In recent decades, there has been movement towards a biopsychosocial, person-centered approach that considers social and psychological factors that interact with biological diseases processes. Common biopsychosocial approaches retain an emphasis on deficits and symptoms. New research has integrated positive psychology constructs and dementia. This integration of positive psychology principles and dementia care and research has the potential to more accurately capture the experience of having dementia. Objectives: This dissertation tested how the portrayal …

Re-Engineering Cardio-Oncology Testing Using Biomimetic Heart Slice Cultures., Jessica Miller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

28% of drug withdrawal from the market are due to unforeseen disruptions in cardiomyocyte contractility and electrophysiology. The most commonly used platforms for drug testing are in vivo animal models and in vitro cell culture models. While both have been of paramount importance for the discovery and detection of many cardiotoxicities and mechanisms of action, they lack the ability to model an intact human myocardium. This work aims to establish cardiac tissue slices, which are 300-micron thin tissue sections taken from the left ventricular myocardium, as an alternative platform for cardio-oncology studies, specifically cardiotoxicity testing. Additionally, this work aims to …

Conflictos Entre Humanos Y Fauna Silvestre En Una Zona De Amortiguamiento De San Ramón, Costa Rica, Rebeca Solano-Gómez, José Manuel Mora

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

“Human-wildlife conflict in a buffer zone in San Ramón, Costa Rica”. Introduction: Currently, biodiversity is mainly managed by protected areas, but proximity with human activities results in conflicts, which are poorly studied in the tropics. Objective: To estimate human-wildlife conflict in the buffer zone of the Alberto Manuel Brenes Biological Reserve, San Ramón, Costa Rica. Methods: We interviewed the owners or managers of 59 farms. Results: We recorded 540 incidents, mostly with mammals (N=479); coyotes (Canis latrans) killed 1 074 animals in 183 attacks at 12 farms. We also recorded conflicts with jaguar, Panthera onca, puma, Puma concolor, ocelot, Leopardus …

Examining The Association Between Facebook Marketing And Applications Received In Graduate Programs At One University, Heather Danielle Campbell

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the technological world continues to grow and expand, the use of social media marketing continues to increase. Graduate programs looking to increase the number of applications received can turn to Facebook to market their programs. This study looks at the use of self-presentation, from a graduate program level of Facebook use, to create content that reaches their target audience. Self-presentation allows graduate programs to control the types of marketing, posts, and content displayed regarding their program in an effort to be seen in a certain light. This study explores six types of Facebook content perceived as favorable in the …

Demarginalizing Black Ordained Women’S Voices In The Black Baptist Church: A Phenomenological Study Of Black Women Ministers’ Lived Experiences When Seeking Cleric Leadership Roles, Angela Mosley-Monts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation sought to understand the living experiences of Black Ordained Women in the Black Baptist Church. The study employs a phenomenological perspective and interviews to gather the voices and lived experiences of ordained Black women ministers who have served in the Black Baptist Church at various times. Womanist Theology and Black Feminism form the theoretical basis of the study. Black ordained women interviewed in this study are currently or formerly associated with the Antioch District Missionary Baptist Association, the Antioch District Congress, and the Regular Arkansas Congress of Christian Education. Although some Black ordained women remain with the Black …

In-Field And Greenhouse Assessments Of A Selection Of Preemergent Herbicides On Newly Planted Blackberries, Kayla Knepp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This field trial assesses some of the preemergence herbicide options available to growers and their effect on newly transplanted blackberries (Rubus L. subgenus Rubus Watson). Weed control has recently been surveyed as a top priority for blackberry growers; however, limited preemergence herbicides are registered for new blackberry plantings. Weed control is an ongoing component of blackberry production and with few in-season postemergence herbicide options available, growers rely on preemergence herbicides to maintain clean fields. The preemergent herbicides assessed in this trial were chosen with the intention to broaden the chemical control options available to growers in new plantings. A two-year …

Using Reinforcement Learning To Improve Network Reliability Through Optimal Resource Allocation, Henley Wells

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Networks provide a variety of critical services to society (e.g. power grid, telecommunication, water, transportation) but are prone to disruption. With this motivation, we study a sequential decision problem in which an initial network is improved over time (e.g., by adding or increasing the reliability of edges) and rewards are gained over time as a function of the network’s all-terminal reliability. The actions during each time period are limited due to availability of resources such as time, money, or labor. To solve this problem, we utilized a Deep Reinforcement Learning (DRL) approach implemented within OpenAI-Gym using Stable Baselines. A Proximal …

A Study On Interactions Between Metal-Organic Frameworks And Biological Materials, Josh Phipps

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal-organic frameworks or MOFs are an extremely useful tool in many areas of applications. Their popularity in recent years has arisen from their high efficiency in catalytic chemical reactions. This is made possible due to their porous interior and the ability of the MOFs components to be functionalized. These same traits make MOFs excellent for use in protein encapsulation or immobilization and have the potential to become excellent drug carriers. Their development in this utilization has been limited dramatically compared to MOFs chemical applications. This is due in part to the nature of biological processes taking longer to study, but …

A Case Study Of Perceptions Of Academic Liaison Librarian Roles In The Instructional Design Process, Brent C. Swearingen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The academic liaison librarian model is evolving and increasingly includes a greater emphasis on collaborative work with other academic professionals. Little is known about how these new roles are viewed either by liaison librarians or their prospective partners. This study explored the evolution of the liaison model, as well as perceptions of academic liaison librarian roles in the instructional design process. Using systems thinking and frames as conceptual frameworks, the study utilized a qualitative, single-site case study for its methodology.

Arkansas Soybean Research Studies 2021, Jeremy Ross

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Arkansas is the leading soybean-producing state in the mid-southern United States. Arkansas ranked 11th in soybean production in 2021 compared to the other soybean-producing states in the U.S. The state represented 3.49% of the total U.S. soybean production and 3.49% of the total acres planted in soybean in 2021. The 2021 state soybean average yield was 52.0 bushels per acre, setting a new state record and surpassing the previous yield record of 51.5 bushels per acre set in 2020. The top five soybean-producing counties in 2021 were Mississippi, Phillips, Crittenden, Poinsett, and Arkansas (Table 1). These five counties accounted for …

Code Of Ethics Quality And Audit Fees, Hong Kim Duong, Giorgio Gotti, Michael T. Stein, Anthony Chen

School of Accountancy Faculty Publications

Using a sample of U.S. firms from 2003 to 2018, we examine the effect of an audit client’s code of ethics quality on audit fees. We find that clients with a lower code of ethics quality pay significantly higher audit fees, suggesting that auditors perceive such clients as riskier and charge greater risk premiums. We also find that such clients have higher litigation risk and auditors spend greater effort when auditing such clients. Our study is among the first to demonstrate the role of a client’s code of ethics quality in audit pricing. Overall, our findings are consistent with …

Non-Traumatic Open Globe Injuries: Presenting Characteristics And Visual Outcomes, Andrew W Gross, James Z Fan, Margaret L Pfeiffer, Alice Z Chuang, Karina Richani, Eric L Crowell

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: To describe clinical characteristics and visual outcomes of non-traumatic open globe injuries.

Setting: A level 1 trauma centre in a large urban medical centre.

Design: Retrospective study.

Methods: Charts of non-traumatic open globe patients admitted to MHH-TMC from 1/2010 to 3/2015 were reviewed for demographics, cause, clinical characteristics, visual acuity (VA) and enucleation.

Results: Thirty eyes were included: 15 (50%) were males with a mean age of 47 (±28) years. All presented with zone 1 injury. Twenty-five (83%) had a perforated corneal ulcer. Presenting VA was count fingers (n = 3, 10%) to NLP (n = 6, 20%). Twenty-four …

Evaluation Of Murine Host Sex As A Biological Variable In Transplanted Human Intestinal Organoid Development, Eoin P Mcneill, Vikas S Gupta, David J Sequeira, Noah F Shroyer, Allison L Speer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Human intestinal organoids (HIOs), when transplanted into immunocompromised mice (tHIOs), demonstrate significant growth and maturation. While both male and female mice are reported to be viable hosts for these experiments, a direct comparison of sex-related differences in tHIO structure and development has not been performed.

Aims: We sought to identify host sex-related differences in tHIO engraftment, morphology, and epithelial and mesenchymal development.

Methods: HIOs were generated in vitro and transplanted beneath the kidney capsule of NSG male and female mice. tHIOs were harvested at 8-9 weeks. Anthropometric measurements were captured. tHIOs were divided in half and histology or RT-qPCR …

An Optimized Cell-Based Assay To Assess Influenza Virus Replication By Measuring Neuraminidase Activity And Its Applications For Virological Surveillance, Mira C Patel, Daniel Flanigan, Chenchen Feng, Anton Chesnokov, Ha T Nguyen, Anwar Abd Elal, John Steel, Rebecca J Kondor, David E Wentworth, Larisa V Gubareva, Vasiliy P Mishin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Year-round virological characterization of circulating epidemic influenza viruses is conducted worldwide to detect the emergence of viruses that may escape pre-existing immunity or acquire resistance to antivirals. High throughput phenotypic assays are needed to complement the sequence-based analysis of circulating viruses and improve pandemic preparedness. The recent entry of a polymerase inhibitor, baloxavir, into the global market further highlighted this need. Here, we optimized a cell-based assay that considerably streamlines antiviral and antigenic testing by replacing lengthy immunostaining and imaging procedures used in current assay with measuring the enzymatic activity of nascent neuraminidase (NA) molecules expressed on the surface of …

Fast Does Not Imply Flawed: Analyzing Emergency Physician Productivity And Medical Errors, Nathan R Hoot, Timothy J Barbosa, Hei Kit Chan, Jonathan G Rogg

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether emergency physician productivity is associated with the risk of medical errors.

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed quality assurance (QA) and billing data over 3 years at 2 urban emergency departments. Faculty physicians working 400 hours or more at either site were included. We measured physician years of experience, age, gender, patients seen per hour (PPH), and relative value units billed per hour (RVU/h). From an established QA process, we obtained adjudicated medical errors to calculate rates of medical errors per 1000 patients seen as the outcome. We discretized numeric variables and used Kruskal-Wallis testing to examine relationships …

Unlimited Central Bank Digital Currency: The Case For A Public Good In The Euro-Area And Its Regulatory (And Deregulatory) Implications For Modern Finance, Iris H-Y Chiu, Christian Hofmann

North Carolina Journal of International Law

No abstract provided.

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Political Signalling And Emissions Trading Schemes In China: Insights From Guangdong Province, Chen Xiang, Terry Van Gevelt

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

China's approach to environmental regulation relies heavily on campaign-style enforcement and blunt-force regulation. While considered effective in the short run, this approach is often inefficient and generates unintended regulatory outcomes in the longer run. At the same time, China continues to experiment with the use of market-based approaches that are theoretically more efficient and have the potential to facilitate sustained reductions in carbon emissions. Arguably the most high-profile example is the Guangdong Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which was launched in 2013 as a national pilot scheme. We construct a synthetic control of Guangdong and analyse 51,076 party-led newspaper reports to …

Toxic Effect Of Fear Of Losing Out On Self-Esteem: A Moderated Mediation Model Of Conformity And Need For Cognitive Closure In Singapore, Sheila Xi Rui Wee, Chi-Ying Cheng, Haelim Choi, Ciping Goh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Kiasu (fear of losing out, FoLO) is considered the single most defining adjective that captures Singapore identity, and it is well-observed in other Asian cultures as well. Despite the widespread endorsement of kiasu in Singapore, there is limited empirical research on the theoretical conception of kiasu as a psychological construct. To empirically investigate kiasu, we validated the construct and measurement of the FoLO mindset in Study 1. In Study 2, we hypothesized and found a negative association between FoLO and Singaporeans’ self-esteem, which was mediated by a higher tendency of conformity. In addition, we hypothesized and found that individuals’ need …

A Qualitative Multi-Disciplinary Analysis Of Employers’ Technology Competency Perceptions For Graduates Readiness To The Workforce, Marcel Maghiar, Christopher M. Brown

Civil Engineering & Construction: Faculty Publications

To fully prepare college graduates to function competently and productively in their career, it is important to examine employers’ views of technology competency and graduates’ readiness. Using a qualitative approach by interviewing employers in South-eastern United States across a range of fields, the authors describe the major functions and dimensions of technology competency, compare similarities and differences across the disciplines, and integrate the results to inform theory and pedagogy. The main purpose of this research is to investigate how well new graduates from selected disciplines can transfer technological skills, how they learned and/or used these skills during their program of …