Digital Commons Network^™

"What Do You Mean By...?" The Role Of Plain Language In Jury Instructions, Jamie L. Vega

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Extant literature indicates there are significant problems related to how jurors comprehend instructions. Cognitive fluency literature explains that when information is presented in plain language, it enhances cognitive fluency by reducing the cognitive load on the reader or listener. Therefore, utilizing a quantitative experiment, this study sought to explore the use of plain language and its role when presenting instructions to jurors. A total of 212 participants were randomly assigned to one of the two jury instruction conditions and one of the six case facts, where they were asked to read a hypothetical self-defense case scenario followed by the corresponding …

Effects Of Language Differences On Healthcare Barriers Experienced By Arab Americans, Abigail Yazdiya

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study analyzes the effects of language differences on healthcare services for Arab Americans. The research specifically investigates the subpopulation of ESL (English Second Language)/bilingual Arab Americans, in order to learn about the effect of a lack of interpretation services and therefore the use of family translators on healthcare treatment. There has been a lack of research on this growing population in the United States. Language barriers can hinder the already difficult process of healthcare. These barriers, combined with other barriers, such as cultural factors, can negatively affect healthcare treatment and outcomes. This study uses surveys to reach people in …

Exploring Hypervigilance Among Trans+ People Navigating Cisgendered Healthcare, Emma M. Tukdarian

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This thesis uses the limited research on LGBTQ+ specific hypervigilance and queer battle fatigue to explore the prevalence of hypervigilance and fatigue in trans+ medical experiences, even when emotions aren't centered in their narratives, while also using participants' narratives and minority stress theory to suggest changes to the American medical system. Data was taken from a previous study of in-depth interviews on healthcare experiences of 60 trans+ young adults ages 18-24. Analysis of the data was done in NVivo using line-by-line coding for mentions of emotional responses linked to hypervigilance within interview transcripts. Results show that 67% of participants shared …

Graduate School : Dissertation Manual

Academic Affairs – Policy Library

No abstract provided.

Mobile Payment, Financial Behavior And Financial Anxiety: A Multi-Group Structural Equation Modeling Study, Ting An, Jing Jian Xiao, Nilton Porto, Luiz Cruz

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: This study aims to examine the association between mobile payment usage and financial anxiety, and explores the mediating role of financial behavior. Moreover, this research also compares the moderating effects of financial education and financial knowledge.

Design/methodology/approach: A sample of 18,584 consumers from the 2021 National Financial Capability Study in the U.S. was analyzed. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to explore indirect associations between mobile payment usage and financial anxiety. Two undesirable financial behaviors, overspending and over-indebtedness were used as mediators between mobile payment and financial anxiety. Moreover, multi-group analyses was conducted for two financial knowledge …

Evaluation Of Dietary Fiber Technologies In Sow Diets, Garrin Shipman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Various technologies and alternative ingredients are being developed to increase the nutrient value of fibrous feedstuffs, improve animal performance, and promote sustainable swine production. Fiber-degrading enzymes have been extensively studied in growing pigs, with few studies focused on gestating sows. When considering gestating sows have greater energy digestibility of fibrous feedstuffs than grower pigs, the efficacy of fiber-degrading enzymes needs to be determined for implementation in commercial sow diets. As fiber inclusion in gestation diets benefits sow performance, corn dried distiller grains with solubles (DDGS) are a candidate fiber source for gestation alternative energy ingredient. Functional fibers, such as yeast …

Effects Of Storage Regimes On Chemistry, Functional Properties, And Vitamin Profile Of Different Varieties Of Chickpea, Shirin Kazemzadeh Pournaki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chickpea (cicer arietinum) samples from five distinct varieties (crown, royal, orion, sierra, and frontier) were subjected to varying storage conditions to investigate the impact of temperature and relative humidity (rh) on their chemical, functional, physical properties, and vitamin b profile. over 360 days, samples were stored at two temperatures (21°c and 40°c) and three rh levels (40%, 55%, 65%), with collections made every 90 days. initial observations focused on key chemical properties including moisture, protein, fat, and total starch content. subsequently, protein and starch fractions were isolated for further analysis, employing techniques such as sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (sds-page) …

Artificial Intelligence And Image-Based Phenotyping For Monitoring Morpho-Physiological Dynamics In Grapevines, Prakriti Sharma

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plant phenotypic features are essential for determining the structure, composition, and function of plants. These traits are controlled by both environmental variables and genetic makeup. Conventional manual methods of phenotyping, although time-consuming and not very accurate, have laid the foundation for more modern approaches such as high throughput phenotyping (HTP). HTP utilizes imaging, sensor networks, robotics, and data analytics to automate the process of collecting and analyzing data. This study utilizes hyperspectral and digital imaging techniques to quantify physiological, biochemical, and morphological characteristics in grapevines. Hyperspectral imaging was leveraged to collect spectral data for evaluating physiological factors, whereas digital imaging …

Effects Of Isoacids Supplementation In Lactating Cows’ Diet Varying In Forage Fiber Level On Performances, Feed Efficiency, And Milk Fatty Acids Profile, Sumon Ahmed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Soil Sensors To Assess Soil Health And Investigating Cover Crops Impact On Methane Emission, Shailesh Pandit

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil health is influenced by climate change, cultural practices, topography, crop rotations, cover crops, soil parent materials, and soil biota. Interactions between these factors can improve or reduce soil health. This thesis investigates two topics, using soil sensors to provide a rapid assessment of soil health, and the impact of cover crops on soil biological activity and greenhouse gas emissions. Chapter 1 explores the use of two types of sensors to measure apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) and provides examples on the use of these sensors. Even though both sensors measure ECa using different processes, they provide useful information about temporal …

Simulation Of Reacting Supersonic Flow In A Cavity Flameholder, Mohamed Benjelloun Touimi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scramjet engines, or Supersonic Combustion Ramjets, are pivotal for achieving and maintaining hypersonic flight speeds. These engines leverage the high-speed airflow to compress and mix air and fuel for combustion. A significant challenge in Scramjet engine design is ensuring stable and efficient combustion within this high-speed environment. Cavity flameholders are crucial components that stabilize the combustion process by creating a subsonic region where the fuel-air mixture can ignite and sustain combustion. This research simulates this supersonic flow within the combustion chamber to accurately model and analyze the combustion dynamics. Various turbulence models, including RANS, and DES, are evaluated for their …

Evaluating The Impact Of Perceptual Loss In Generative Adversarial Models And Diffusion Models For Document Image Enhancement, Farzaneh Karimpour

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Documents often suffer from various types of degradation which make them difficult to read and restrict OCR performance. This study investigates the effectiveness of perceptual loss in enhancing document image cleanup by comparing a GAN-based model and a diffusion model. In our experiments, we utilized the DE-GAN model as a GAN-based model and the NAF-DPM model as a diffusion model, both enhanced by incorporating perceptual loss. We then compared the results of both models and evaluated them by using the DIBCO 2013, DIBCO 2017, and H-DIBCO 2018 datasets revealed that our approach consistently outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods. Results showed that …

Reimagining Hunting Through Women's Decision Space, H. Nash Jackson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Approximately 14.4 million people hunt in the United States, yet only 3.1 million (22%) of these hunters are women. To enhance women’s participation, many state natural resource agencies aim to reduce barriers and create pathways for women to hunt. Previously, researchers surveyed women to understand and describe barriers to their full participation in hunting. However, this methodology often just quantifies the different barriers without describing the interconnectedness and how the complexity of barriers can impact women’s participation in hunting. This thesis instead took an inductive research approach with the goal of better understanding women’s perspectives when faced with complex barriers. …

Comparative Analysis Of Deep Learning-Based Anomaly Detection Models For Gps Spoofing Detection, Hasan Mirzakhaninafchi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As autonomous vehicles (AVs) become integral to modern transportation, their susceptibility to cyber-attacks, particularly GPS spoofing, presents a serious security threat. This study addresses these challenges by applying a suite of deep learning models to enhance the detection of anomalous GPS signals. Focusing on autoencoder-based architectures, the proposed models such as long short-term memory-based variational autoencoder (LSTM-VAE), LSTM-based autoencoder (LSTM-AE), multilayer perceptron-based variational autoencoder (MLP-VAE), MLP-based Autoencoder (MLPAE), Stacked LSTM-based variational autoencoder (Stacked-LSTM-VAE), stacked LSTM-based autoencoder (Stacked-LSTM-AE), memory-augmented-LSTM-VAE (Mem-LSTM-VAE), and time-series-anomaly-detection-generative-adversarial-networks (TadGAN) were trained exclusively on authentic GPS data. This unsupervised learning approach which used for the above-mentioned models enables …

Beef Hot Carcass Weight Influences Proteolysis, Clay J. Carlson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis was to determine the influence of beef hot carcass weight on proteolysis to better understand early postmortem proteolysis. Beef tenderness formation is influenced by various factors, such as temperature decline and proteolysis. Limited focus has been given to the effects of carcass weight on proteolysis. This study aimed to investigate the influence of increased beef hot carcass weight (HCW) on proteolysis of four muscles (serratus ventralis, longissimus thoracis, longissimus lumborum, and semitendinosus) during early postmortem aging times. Beef steers (n =12) were harvested and categorized into two weight groups: lightweight (LW; HCW = 349 ± …

The Potential Of Humor To Joyously Dismantle Ableism+: Considerations For Social Workers, Mia Ocean

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social workers are often well-positioned but not adequately equipped to disrupt, unsettle, or counteract ableism. Humor is one approach to disability justice work that can move the social work profession forward in a novel way. Within this practice brief, I use first-person narrative to illustrate the potential and limitations of humor to dismantle ableism+ in everyday interactions between social workers, clinical social work practice, and policy transformation. First, I share an example of how to use humor as a direct, call-in strategy to confront social worker-initiated ableist interactions. Second, I describe how a mixed disabled/abled couple can laugh together at …

A Path Wayward: Resisting “Evidence-Based” Discourse In Favor Of Critical Access, Engaged Relational Pedagogy And A Politicized Somatics, Erin Elizabeth Hipple, Nev Jones

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In contemporary MSW programs in the United States, clinical and mental health coursework frequently centers evidence-based practices (EBPs), communicates and explains problems of living (“psychopathology”) through the narrow lens of the APA Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), and rarely provides students with a deeper critique of the recalcitrantly medicalized mainstream of psychiatric services and interventions. In spite of a rich history of ecological thinking in social work, these increasingly dominant approaches foreground diagnosis and biopsychological treatments, stripping experiences of distress and/or mental diversity of their sociocultural contexts and promoting practices that implicitly locate primary problems at the level of the …

Call To Action: Disability Justice As A Framework To End Punishment Of And Advance Liberatory Education For Disabled Students, Jacy Hornsby, Jelena Todic

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The absence of disabled students in higher education, including social work, is a problem not only because of the missed educational opportunities and adverse effect on their earning potential but because disabled people’s knowledge, lived experiences, and skills can enhance social work services, advance innovation in knowledge production, and contribute to transformative organizational and movement leadership. School punishment, including suspensions, expulsions, and arrests, contributes to the absence of disabled people in higher education and begins as early as preschool. However, even for disabled students who graduate from high school and enroll in higher education, punishment continues covertly throughout higher education. …

Counting Is Hard! A Theory Of Doctrinal Expansion, Kip Hustace

Faculty Articles

We conventionally see pleading as liberalized, with leeway for inconsistent claims and expansive choice among theories of relief, or counts. Yet procedure scholars have shown how heightened pleading post-Twiqbal constricts liberality, turning us back toward 19th Century fact-intensive code pleading. This Article theorizes a further constriction: proliferating and ossifying counts. While affording pleading latitude, doctrinal expansion forces hard strategy decisions and represents an inversion of the maxim that procedure shapes substance. Expansion increases system complexity, making localized strategy and discretion more impactful and amplifying opportunities for juridical manipulation. The result: doctrines complexifying toward a tipping point, beyond which we make …

Characterizing Mountainous Bedrock Groundwater Systems Across Gradients In Topography And Lithology In Western Montana, David L. Baude

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Mountain aquifer groundwater systems remain one of the least understood hydrologic systems in upland hydrology. In this study, we aim to characterize bedrock groundwater system dynamics and bedrock-saprolite interactions across a variety of landscape positions and lithology. We investigate groundwater hydraulics, recharge temperature and elevation, residence times, and bedrock recharge rates across two mountainous headwater catchments in west central Montana. We used a suite of environmental tracers (³H, CFCs, SF₆, and ⁴He) and residence time distribution models to estimate groundwater mean residence times over a range of timescales from decades to millennia. Tracers were sampled …

Forbidden Substructure Problems In Graphs And Hypergraphs, Van Miller Magnan

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Measuring Real-Time Medication Effects From Electroencephalography, William Bosl, Aarti Sathyanarayana, Rima El Atrache, Michele Jackson, Sarah Cantley, Latania Reece, Claire Ufongene, Tobias Loddenkemper, Kenneth Mandl

Nursing and Health Professions Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

N Y State Dent J January 2024

The New York State Dental Journal

In the January 2024 issue, the reader will find the following feature articles:

• When One Door Closes, Another Opens
• Oral Manifestations of Metastatic Diseases: A Clinical and Histologic Analysis of Seven Cases
• Dentistry Transformed: An Overview of Artificial Intelligence’s Role in Dental Care
• Unlocking the Future of Dentistry: A Summary of AI and Augmented Intelligence in Dentistry from ADA’s White Paper
• Diagnostic Detail: Understanding the Impact of Tooth Rotation in Correcting Mucogingival Defects

This issue includes regular columns with regional news impacting the New York membership including: editorial and perspectives columns, legal, association activities, component news, continuing education opportunities, and …

Complexation Of Diserinol Isophthalamide With Phosphorylated Biomolecules In Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry, Madeline Schultz, Neil A. Ellis, Nwanne D. Banor, Daniel A. Thomas

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Electrospray ionization (ESI) enables gentle transfer of biomolecules from solution to vacuum, facilitating the study of biomolecular structure under highly controlled conditions. However, biomolecules are desolvated during the ESI process, and the loss of ionic hydrogen bonds to solvent molecules can drive structural rearrangement, most prominently at solvent-exposed charge sites. Microsolvation reagents can bind to these bare charge sites in ESI mass spectrometry (ESI–MS) experiments, providing alternative intermolecular interaction partners. Previously, 18-crown-6 was shown to be an effective reagent for binding to cationic monoalkylammonium residues. More recently, diserinol isophthalamide (DIP) was reported as an analogous anionic microsolvation reagent, primarily for …

Acceptability Of Anal Human Papillomavirus Home Self-Sampling And Clinician Sampling Among Sexual And Gender Minority Individuals In Milwaukee, Wisconsin: The Prevent Anal Cancer Self-Swab Study, Jenna Nitkowski, Anna R Giuliano, Tim Ridolfi, Elizabeth Chiao, Maria E Fernandez, Vanessa Schick, Michael D Swartz, Jennifer S Smith, Alan G Nyitray

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Anal cancer has disproportionately high incidence among sexual minority men. We compared acceptability of home versus clinic human papillomavirus (HPV) anal swabbing.

Methods: The Prevent Anal Cancer Self-Swab Study recruited sexual and gender minority individuals in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Eligible participants were randomized to a home or clinic arm. Home participants received a mailed anal HPV self-sampling kit. Clinic participants attended a clinic appointment where a clinician collected an anal HPV swab. We examined acceptability (overall thoughts, comfort with method, pain, and future willingness to swab) of home versus clinic swabbing using postswab survey responses.

Results: A total of 191 …

Human Papillomavirus (Hpv) Vaccination In Males: Associations Of Hpv-Related Knowledge And Perceptions With Hpv Vaccination Intention Among Korean Mothers Of Boys, Jihye Choi, Paula Cuccaro, Christine Markham, Sooyoun Kim, Irene Tamí-Maury

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates among males are suboptimal worldwide. In South Korea, little is known about parents' intention to vaccinate boys against HPV. Therefore, we examined the associations of HPV-related knowledge and perceptions with vaccination intention among Korean mothers of boys.

METHODS: From August to December 2021, eligible mothers were surveyed about HPV-related knowledge, perceptions, and intention to vaccinate their sons against HPV. Mothers were categorized into no intention, contemplating, and intention to vaccinate groups. Using analysis of variance, we compared the groups' scores on the scales measuring HPV-related knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs. We conducted a multinomial logistic …

A Randomized Controlled Study Of Auricular Point Acupressure To Manage Chemotherapy-Induced Neuropathy: Study Protocol, Nada Lukkahatai, Michael V Nguyen, Jingyu Zhang, Yu-Min Cho, Chitchanok Benjasirisan, Heijingzi Monica Jia, Claudia M Campbell, Jennifer Kawi, Hulin Wu, Hongyu Wang, Rupsikha Bora, Johannes Thrul, Constance M Johnson, Thomas J Smith

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: Chemotherapy-induced neuropathy (CIN) significantly impacts cancer patients, leading to functional disability, diminished quality of life, and increased healthcare costs amid the ongoing opioid crisis. Auricular point acupressure (APA), a non-invasive and non-pharmacological alternative, has shown potential for alleviating the pain, numbness, and tingling associated with CIN. This study aims to assess the efficacy of APA for CIN symptoms and physical function and to examine the mechanisms underlying APA's effects on CIN.

Methods: This is a three-arm randomized controlled clinical trial protocol. Patients aged 18 and older who are experiencing CIN are randomly assigned to one of the three groups: …

Beside Marriage Equality: Conversations On Supriyo, Danish Sheikh, Rupali Samuel

Socio-Legal Review

This case comment takes the form of an epistolary exchange between the authors as they reflect on the Indian Supreme Court’s 2023 judgment in Supriyo @ Supriya Chakraborty & Anr v Union of India, which denied the existence of a constitutional right to marriage and deferred the responsibility of legalising same-sex marriage to the legislature. Through a staged conversation, the comment explores personal subject positions, legal frameworks, and the intricate entanglements of intimacy and state recognition. The authors consider how the law leaves imprints on our bodies and, in turn, how our embodied lives reshape the law through acts …

Cultivating Attentiveness To Law In India Through Legal Anthropology, Deepa Das Acevedo, Jahnavi Chamarthi

Socio-Legal Review

This Article reviews and analyses scholarship at the intersection of anthropology and law. The first half of the Article provides context for understanding the boundaries, animating concerns, and tensions that have characterised the anthropology of law as an area of interdisciplinary inquiry. We focus especially on the subdiscipline’s Anglo-American history and show how a promising early period of engagement dissipated as both anthropologists and legal scholars lost enthusiasm for each others’ insights and methods. Then, we expand our analysis outward. Because legal anthropology belongs within, and is increasingly attentive to, the broader field of law and society scholarship, we explore …

Neurodevelopmental Vulnerability To Gestational Ozone Exposure, Vishnupriya Alavala, Sarah E. Brent, Christopher G. Canal, Joseph Wang, Russell P. Hunter, Matthew J. Campen, Andrew K. Ottens

UROP Posters

Ambient air pollution accounts for about 4.2 million premature deaths annually per the World Health Organization. Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive air pollutant found in smog and is implicated in cellular damage leading to organ dysfunction. Ambient air pollution is associated with neurodevelopmental, behavioral, and cognitive disorders though ozone’s role is unknown. Studies here look at ozone exposure shortly after implantation vs. shortly before term to evaluate differences in neurodevelopmental susceptibility over time.

To inquire on the effects of ozone on the fetal brain, pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed once to 0.3 ppm of O3 or filtered air (FA) …