Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Circadian Entrainment In Rice Blast Disease, Ciaran Griffin

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

A circadian clock is present in some capacity in almost all forms of life, and is useful for a wide array of traits, but crucially allows organisms to predict future conditions and adapt their behaviour to synchronise with, and thrive under, their dynamic environment. Accordingly, plant environmental stress responses are gated in a circadian manner, including that for pathogenic defence and immunity. Comparatively less work has been carried out on the plant pathogens, but there are increasing reports of pathogens capable of rhythmically altering their behaviour and virulence-related traits. Magnaporthe oryzae, the fungal pathogen responsible for the destruction of enough …

Management Of Non-Indigenous Species In The Mediterranean Sea With An Emphasis On Lionfish (Pterois Miles), Periklis Kleitou

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

The 21st century faces a global challenge; understanding the ecosystem changes and regulating fish resources is essential to provide food for humankind and to preserve the oceans. Marine ecosystems are being increasingly altered because of global, regional, and anthropogenic stressors such as climate change, Non-Indigenous Species (NIS), pollution, fisheries, eutrophication, and habitat loss. In an era of escalating transformations of marine ecosystems, the Mediterranean Sea is recognized as a hotspot of global biotic and abiotic changes. In recent decades, human-mediated introductions of NIS have notably reshaped the marine ecological structures and processes of the region. The Suez Canal (constructed in …

Unravelling And Understanding Local Perceptions Of Water Quality In The Santa Basin, Peru, Sally Rangecroft, Dextre R Maria, Isabel Richter, Bueno Cv Grados, Claire Kelly, Cecilia Turin, Beatriz Fuentealba, Hernandez M Camacho, Sergio Morera, John Martin, Adam Guy, Caroline Clason

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Water quality is an integral part of water security. Measuring the physico-chemical indicators for water quality can provide an objective picture of water health, but it does not provide information on lived experiences related to water quality, expectations of water resources, nor how the quality of water affects its usage. Perceptual information and traditional ecological knowledge on water quality can help to understand interactions between water and people, and thereby support locally appropriate sustainable water resource strategies. Accordingly, our project sought to collect and synthesise insights from local perspectives on water quality in the upper Santa River basin, Peru, a …

Investigating The Security And Accessibility Of Voyage Data Recorder Data Using A Usb Attack, Avanthika Vineetha Harish, K Tam, K Jones

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Voyage Data Recorders (VDR) or 'black boxes' for ships hold critical navigational and sensor data that can be used as evidence in an investigation. These systems have proven extremely useful in determining the cause of several previous shipping accidents. Considering the importance of the VDR and the increasing number of cyber-attacks in the maritime sector, the likelihood of it being attacked is high. This paper examines the security and accessibility of VDR data through a malicious USB device. A USB device is used after a series of tests, detailed in this paper, found it to be a viable way to …

The Appellate Body Crisis: Consent Within The Dispute Settlement Body Of The World Trade Organisation, Diana María Beltrán-Vargas, Mariana Puentes-Jaramillo, Pablo Andrés Aponte-González, Maria Alexandra Ortíz-Cabrera

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

No abstract provided.

International Investment Agreements And Regulation Of Utilisation Of Water Resources In Africa, Dominic Npoanlari Dagbanja

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

African constitutions and domestic water legislation provide for the human right to clean and safe drinking water. This right is also sourced from international human rights treaties and declarations to which African states are parties or signatories. Both municipal law and public international law impose the duties of protection and fulfilment of the right to safe drinking water on states. Domestic water laws and regulations require African states to regulate and manage the utilisation of water resources including by approving the grant of rights, concessions, or contracts in respect of the exploitation of water resources. These laws also require the …

Unilaterally Altering The Bargain: Trips, Section 107a, And The Regulatory Review Exception Under Indian Patent Law, Eashan Ghosh, Afzal B. Khan

Indian Journal of International Economic Law

In 2003, Section 107A of the Patents Act wrote a regulatory review exception into Indian law. Its beholden purpose is to enable patent-protected pharmaceutical products to be brought to Indian markets quicker and in large numbers. Emboldened by a WTO decision brake-testing a similar Canadian statute, Indian pharmaceutical manufacturers have consistently claimed Section 107A benefits from domestic courts. Lately, the economic trail of these benefits has grown to implicate entities abroad. Pushback to this trend from patentees has duly arrived. It has culminated in a stack of Delhi High Court decisions in Bayer v. Union of India. Bayer writes three …

Resistant Drug-Eluting Stent Restenosis And Resurrection Of Intracoronary Brachytherapy: The Lazarus Of Contemporary Coronary Intervention, Michael P. Savage, David L. Fischman

Division of Cardiology Faculty Papers

No abstract provided.

A Real-Time Infodemiology Study On Public Interest In Mpox (Monkeypox) Following The World Health Organization Global Public Health Emergency Declaration, Akshaya Srikanth Bhagavathula, Jacques E. Raubenheimer

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Faculty Publications and Presentations

Google Trends (GT) is a useful real-time surveillance tool for epidemic outbreaks such as monkeypox (Mpox). GT provides hour-by-hour (real-time) data for the last seven days of Google searches. Non-real-time data are a random sample that encompasses search trends from 2004 and up to 72 h. Google Health Trends (GHT) API extracts daily raw search probabilities relative to the time period and size of the underlying population. However, little is known about the utility of GT real-time surveillance and GHT API following the public health announcements. Thus, this study aimed to analyzed Mpox GT real-time, non-real-time, and GHT API data …

Case Report: Peptide Receptor Radioligand Therapy In Metastatic Pediatric Neuroendocrine Tumors, Khanyisile Hlongwa, Olumayowa Kolade, Abdulilah Alnabulsi, Rachelle Steyn, Anita Brink, Vikas Prasad, Stuart More

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are not commonly diagnosed in children. Metastatic NETs tend to have poor outcomes, and this is seen in adult and pediatric populations. The role of somatostatin receptor imaging using [

Impact Of Multi-Source Data Augmentation On Performance Of Convolutional Neural Networks For Abnormality Classification In Mammography, Inchan Hwang, Hari Trivedi, Beatrice Brown-Mulry, Linglin Zhang, Vineela Nalla, Aimilia Gastounioti, Judy Gichoya, Laleh Seyyed-Kalantari, Imon Banerjee, Minjae Woo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

INTRODUCTION: To date, most mammography-related AI models have been trained using either film or digital mammogram datasets with little overlap. We investigated whether or not combining film and digital mammography during training will help or hinder modern models designed for use on digital mammograms.

METHODS: To this end, a total of six binary classifiers were trained for comparison. The first three classifiers were trained using images only from Emory Breast Imaging Dataset (EMBED) using ResNet50, ResNet101, and ResNet152 architectures. The next three classifiers were trained using images from EMBED, Curated Breast Imaging Subset of Digital Database for Screening Mammography (CBIS-DDSM), …

Masthead & Table Of Contents

Dalhousie Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Cyberscience Undergraduate Faculty And School Official Perspectives Of The Innovation And Implementation Of Curriculum For Inclusion, Robert Gerald Nordan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractA disproportionate number of European American male students are enrolled in cyberscience undergraduate degree programs, despite attempts to attract diverse student populations in the field. The purpose of the basic qualitative study was to gain a better understanding on how cyberscience academic experts perceive the challenges related to the disproportionate number of European American male students enrolled in cyberscience degree programs nationwide and how to attract college students from diverse backgrounds for cyberscience programs. Using Rogers’s diffusion of innovation, the research questions explored cyberscience academic expert perceptions of the challenges of enrollment in cyberscience programs and attracting students from diverse …

Challenges With Multicultural Leadership For Project Managers: A Qualitative Multiple Case Study, Harrison Nnaemeka Nnaji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Culturally diverse teams are becoming the norm with the rising trend of globalization. The phenomenon has been associated with a rise in the number of multicultural teams with diversified team members. The central problem addressed in this study relates to inadequate understanding of challenges posed to project managers of multicultural software development teams operating in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore challenges faced by this population. Avruch’s theory of culture, the Human needs theory by Burton, and the cross-cultural adaptation theory by Kim were the conceptual frameworks for this study. Participants included 15 project …

Employer Perceptions Of The Skills Gap In College Graduates’ Written Communication, Julie Minnaugh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

U.S. employers have reported that many college graduates are underprepared in written communication when hired and that lack of preparedness hinders these graduates’ employment success. Higher education institution (HEI) administrators need information regarding which writing skills should be taught across the curriculum to improve student outcomes. The purpose of this study was to investigate employers’ perspectives on the written communication skills gap that hinders college graduates from being successful in their professional practice. Swales’s six characteristics of a discourse community provided a conceptual lens for the study, as graduates commencing employment represent newcomers to a discourse community. A basic qualitative …

Intersectionality Of Black Women Managers' Experiences With Gendered Racism In Corporate Finance, Venessa Marie Perry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Experiences of Black women with gendered racism remain a challenge in corporate America. Limited studies explore how Black women experience gendered racism due to the intersectionality of their dual identities. Black women experience chronic stress, burnout, and racial trauma. Disparities among Black women in management positions have gained traction and increased awareness; however, they remain underrepresented in corporate America. This qualitative study involved understanding Black women managers’ experiences with gendered racism in corporate finance. The generic qualitative study used intersectionality theory to illuminate the challenges of the intersecting identities of being a Black woman in corporate finance. Thirteen participants were …

Mindfulness Skills And Retention Risk In First-Generation Undergraduate Students, Tim Morenz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

First-generation college students experience more negative emotional states and higher stress levels than their continuing generation peers, take approximately two years longer to complete undergraduate degree programs, and are less than one percent likely to re-enroll in college. Mindfulness skills have been reported to alleviate anxiety and stress, improve adjustment to college, and improve academic performance, but a gap in the literature existed specific to first-generation college students. Guided by the theory of planned behavior and the monitor and acceptance theory, the purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between trait mindfulness skills and retention risk in …

Fathers’ Perceptions Of Stress And Resiliency In Raising Children With Down Syndrome: A Qualitative Study, Latanya M. Randolph

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Little was known about how fathers perceived stress and resiliency when parenting children diagnosed with Down syndrome. Therefore, the purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore perceptions involving stress and resiliency among fathers whose children had been diagnosed with Down syndrome and understand how stress and resiliency affected the parenting skills of those fathers who resided in Prince George's County, Charles County, or St. Mary's County in Maryland. This involved recruiting eight participants who completed semi-structured interviews where they were asked the same 10 open-ended questions. This study involved using a qualitative thematic analysis, was guided by the …

University Interdisciplinary Linked Block Schedules And Developmental Student Success, Linda S. Reeves-Wymer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developmental education is the starting point for many 1st-year college students, especially from underrepresented, low-income, and first-generation populations. One such 1st-year program linked block-scheduled academic skill-development courses with a required interdisciplinary general education science course where instruction was provided simultaneously in a lecture format to college-ready nondevelopmental students and developmental students in three skill-development courses: reading, writing, and combined reading/writing. Although this program had existed for over 20 years, the effectiveness of the program, meaning whether the linked skill-development courses were associated with academic success, had not been assessed. Guided by Tinto’s integration theory, a causal comparative design with the …

Personal Resilience As An Interventional Strategy To Reduce Physician Burnout, Towahna D. Rhim

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractPhysician burnout is prevalent in healthcare today. Contributing factors include emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a sense of loss of autonomy. Physician burnout negatively affects a physician’s ability to provide high quality patient care. Physician burnout indicators include poor behavior, mental decline, depression, narcotics and alcohol abuse, suicidal ideation, and suicide completion. Given the negative impact of physician burnout, it is necessary to understand what can counter this phenomenon. Through lived experiences of physicians who self-identified as burned out, the purpose of this study was to explore personal resilience as an interventional strategy to reduce physician burnout. Personal resilience is adapting …

Strategies For Promoting Inclusion And Employee Engagement To Improve Remote Teams’ Performance, Bruce Edward Richardson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

External factors such as the pandemic have forced organizational leaders to embrace flexible work structures. Differences in remote versus collocated workplaces escalate the importance for company leaders to uncover strategies to maintain employee engagement and performance. Grounded in the organizational support theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies leaders of remote, diverse teams with high engagement and inclusion use to achieve high team performance. Data were collected using semistructured interviews from a purposeful sampling of five nationally distributed managers. A thematic analysis uncovered three themes: flexible leadership behavior, fair execution of human resource policy and …

Heterosexual Male Sexual Assault Victims Experience Of Challenges In Reporting Their Victimization, Jessica Lynn Rundle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify the gender specific challenges male sexual assault victims face when they report their victimization. Researchers can use their knowledge of these challenges reduce the stigmatization that is correlated with being a male sexual assault victim. The theoretical basis for this study was Joseph Pleck’s sex role strain paradigm, also known as the gender role strain paradigm. The research questions pertained to the psychological challenges that male sexual assault victims encounter when they begin seeking out services. The sample for this study consisted of eight heterosexual male participants who are sexual assault …

Strategies To Improve Hospital Patient Satisfaction To Increase Performance-Based Reimbursements, Celso G. Silla Iii

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) created the hospital valued-based purchasing (VBP) program focused on controlling cost, inefficiencies, and quality-of-care. Hospital leaders are incentivized or penalized based on meeting quality outcomes and risk millions of dollars in reimbursement if they do not meet the quality-of-care standards specified in the CMS hospital VBP program. Grounded in the transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies hospital leaders used to improve patient satisfaction to increase VBP performance-based reimbursements. Participants included eight hospital leaders from seven hospitals in California who successfully implemented …

Clinical Research Principal Investigators’ Perspectives Of Improving The Diversity Of Clinical Research Participants, Nadine Hyacinth Spring

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Clinical trials are needed to make new medications, devices, and diagnostic tools available. Participants in these clinical trials have historically come from a homogeneous group, and there is a recognized need for increased diversity and representation in these clinical research studies. The absence of diversity in clinical trials makes it difficult for clinicians and researchers to know which medications and devices are safe and effective for specific populations. This basic qualitative phenomenological study was conducted to explore the experiences of clinical research principal investigators regarding diversity in clinical research studies and how to improve it. The theoretical framework for this …

Perceptions Of Teachers In A Private Residential Juvenile Treatment Facility, Douglas E. Stevenson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe problem for this study was the lack of research about what teachers consider to be the successes, the risks, and the potential dangers of working in a school prison setting. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teacher perceptions about successes, risks, and potential dangers of teaching in a prison school setting. This research study was guided by Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory, which presents a framework for the study of human motivation and personality. The research question examined teachers’ perspectives about the successes, the risks, and dangers of working in a private residential juvenile treatment facility. …

How Elementary Teachers Implement The Eureka Mathematics Curriculum To Improve Mathematics Outcomes, Shannell A. Swan-Clarke

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many states use research-based mathematics curricula as an instructional tool to improve mathematics performance outcomes on state assessment scores. The problem was that despite the implementation of a research-based curriculum, students at XYZ Elementary School (pseudonym) had underperformed on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers standardized mathematics tests since 2018. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to discover the implementation practices of teachers using the Eureka Mathematics Curriculum to improve student outcomes at XYZ Elementary School. Dewey’s experiential learning theory was used to support and explore ideas involving the influences of curriculum implementation on …

Nurses’ Experiences With Trauma-Informed Care In Patients With Psychological Trauma, Ade J. Vinton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic increased the need for research and discussions about trauma, trauma-informed care (TIC), and care delivery processes. Little is known about how nurses recognize, assess, treat, and support patients who experience trauma although knowledge of TIC is important for delivering care to trauma survivors. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore nurses’ perceptions of TIC principles and their experiences delivering care to patients with psychological trauma. Harris and Fallot’s TIC theory was used to guide the study. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit ten nurses for individual semi structured interviews using open-ended questions conducted via …

Preschool Teachers’ And Parents’ Perspectives Regarding Factors That Affect Kindergarten Readiness, Ebony Catrice Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

When children enter kindergarten, they are expected to demonstrate an interrelated set of skills and competencies including pre-academic skills, cognitive abilities, socioemotional well-being, and physical health. The problem that was the focus of this study was that many students who complete prekindergarten are not ready for kindergarten. Guided by Garcia’s kindergarten readiness framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to increase understanding of the perspectives of parents and prekindergarten teachers regarding their role in developing kindergarten readiness, and the factors they believe support or hinder their efforts. Eight prekindergarten teachers and 8 parents of prekindergarten students from one …

Effective Succession Planning And Organizational Development For Behavioral Health Leadership, Amanda Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High turnover rates can challenge an organization's ability to provide quality care to clients, maintain a safe environment, and achieve strategic goals. Effective retention strategies can allow the organization to grow and develop to continue to provide services for those in need. The focus of this study was identifying how an organization can improve its retention strategies, create succession plans, and decrease turnover to encourage organizational growth. The Baldrige Excellence Framework was used to guide the study, focusing on leadership, workforce, operations, and management. Data were collected through multiple sources. Semi structured interviews were used to gather data through open-ended …

U.S. Navy Senior Enlisted Women Career Barriers To Success, Angela Campbell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Active-duty military, senior female enlisted leaders in grades E7-E9 are underrepresented in the Navy due to navigating organizational, social, and cultural barriers. The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenology study was to explore the lived experiences of U.S. Navy retired senior enlisted women who served in pay grades E7-E9 in the United States, overcame career barriers, and achieved success in a male-dominated organization. This transcendental phenomenological study’s research questions focused on the experiences of U.S. Navy senior enlisted women who overcame career barriers and achieved career success in a male-dominated organization. The career resilience framework was used to assess the …