Digital Commons Network^™

I Hear A New World, Katie Christ

Theses

“I Hear a New World” is a documentary short film that reflects on the relevance and persistence of nostalgia and tradition during a time of rapid technological advancement and societal change. The film highlights the memories and musings of 8 college students, who were all Class of 2020 high school seniors and whose senior traditions were inevitably brought entirely online due to the Covid-19 global pandemic to varied degrees of success. In rambling, thoughtful delivery, the Gen Z interviewees provide insight into their pre-pandemic internet obsession that led to their teenage reclusivity and how this perspective changed greatly following the …

From Sampling To Simulating: Single-Cell Multiomics In Systems Pathophysiological Modeling, Alexandra Manchel, Michelle M. Gee, Rajanikanth Vadigepalli

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

As single-cell omics data sampling and acquisition methods have accumulated at an unprecedented rate, various data analysis pipelines have been developed for the inference of cell types, cell states and their distribution, state transitions, state trajectories, and state interactions. This presents a new opportunity in which single-cell omics data can be utilized to generate high-resolution, high-fidelity computational models. In this review, we discuss how single-cell omics data can be used to build computational models to simulate biological systems at various scales. We propose that single-cell data can be integrated with physiological information to generate organ-specific models, which can then be …

Rna-Dependent Rna Polymerase Of Predominant Human Norovirus Forms Liquid-Liquid Phase Condensates As Viral Replication Factories, Soni Kaundal, Ramakrishnan Anish, B Vijayalakshmi Ayyar, Sreejesh Shanker, Gundeep Kaur, Sue E Crawford, Jeroen Pollet, Fabio Stossi, Mary K Estes, B V Venkataram Prasad

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Many viral proteins form biomolecular condensates via liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) to support viral replication and evade host antiviral responses, and thus, they are potential targets for designing antivirals. In the case of nonenveloped positive-sense RNA viruses, forming such condensates for viral replication is unclear and less understood. Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are positive-sense RNA viruses that cause epidemic and sporadic gastroenteritis worldwide. Here, we show that the RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) of pandemic GII.4 HuNoV forms distinct condensates that exhibit all the signature properties of LLPS with sustained polymerase activity and the capability of recruiting components essential for viral replication. …

Technology And Language Learning: Exposure To Tv And Radio News And Speaking Proficiency, Taher Bahrani, Tam Shu Sim

Kritika Kultura

Technology has dominated the world by extensive improvements in audio/visual mass media such as TV and radio. TV and radio are not just entertainment tools anymore, but can be used as pedagogically valuable technology that can provide authentic language input for language learning. This study examines the effect of exposure to TV and radio news on improving EFL learners’ speaking proficiency. To achieve this purpose, a speaking proficiency test is administered to 200 language learners, with 60 intermediate language learners selected and randomly divided into Groups 1 and 2. During the experiment, Group 1 participants are exposed to TV and …

Subaltern Planet Of Cultural Studies, Charlie Samuya Veric

Kritika Kultura

A contribution to a mostly unwritten history, the essay provides a preliminary account of cultural studies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from decolonization to globalization. My intention is two-fold, namely, to contribute to the history of cultural studies in the global South and experiment with the writing of planetary history to determine the lessons that can be learned when totality is imagined from below. I argue that whether it is the geopolitics of decolonization in Asia, the politics of indigenization in Africa, or the critique of knowledge-production in Latin America, cultural studies signifies the unfinished task of decolonization.

Primates In Paradise: Critical Possibilities Of The Milieu Movie, Joel David

Kritika Kultura

The use of multiple lead characters in cinema is a fairly recent development, although the strategy (and its resultant variety of structures) had been present for some time in theater and literature. The typical Classical Hollywood action-driven narrative operated most efficiently through a singular hero, allowing the audience to undergo the film experience via the process of singular identification. With the breakdown in identificatory requisites popularized by various New Wave and Third Cinema movements, and the consequent assimilation of this trend starting with the New American Cinema, mainstream Hollywood was ready to embark upon a series of multi-character movies, with …

"Transmedial Aesthetics Is Ordinary": Some Remarks On Victor Eriche's The Spirit Of The Beehive, Jan Baetens

Kritika Kultura

Focusing on Victor Erice’s 1973 movie, The Spirit of the Beehive, this article proposes to rethink the problem of adaptation with the help of the concept of “experience” (freely borrowed from Dewey). The emphasis on the reception of a given work (in this case James Whale’s 1931 Frankenstein, a very particular screening of which is part of the movie’s diegesis) will foreground the importance of the process of intermedialization or “intermediality in action,” an all-encompassing culturally embedded experience, which is more existential than aesthetic.

Sisa's Vengeance: Rizal And The Mother Of All Insurgencies, E. San Juan Jr.

Kritika Kultura

A new appraisal of Rizal is needed today in the light of 9/11, the collapse of finance capital, state terrorism, and neoliberal decadence and barbarism. Rizal’s revolutionary critique can be discovered by shifting the center of inquiry to the Dapitan years and after, the Liga’s resonance, and the Sisa-Maria Clara-Salome nexus. By exposing the limits of Simoun’s romantic idealism, Padre Florentino’s eschatological impulse, and the carnivalesque colonial world bereft of god/nomos, Rizal anticipates the post-capitalist predicament. Women’s vengeance against patriarchal nihilism lies submerged in Rizal’s communicative action to the Malolos collective, mobilizing emergent and residual historical forces in a dialectical …

Childhood And Family In Contemporary Children's Fiction: Resilience, Agency, And Emergence Of New Gender Norms, Rosario Torres-Yu

Kritika Kultura

New awareness of re-thinking childhood in the emergent field of childhood studies inspires production of new discourse on social construction of childhood in literature. This paper looks at contemporary children’s literature in the Philippines from this perspective and within the context of the globalization and transnationalization of care giving. Its interrogation of selected children’s books and literature for young adult reveals that the traditional concept of childhood is now being challenged and resisted. Cognizant of the need to sustain this direction of literary production, this paper posits that children’s literature in the country should mainstream this new thinking so that …

Global Feminisms And The Polish "Woman": Reading Popular Culture Representations Through Stories Of Activism Since 1989, Magdalena J. Zaborowska, Justine M. Pas

Kritika Kultura

This article examines ten interviews with Polish feminist activists conducted by the Women’s Center “eFka” in Kraków and gathered by the Global Feminisms Project at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Employing intersectional and interdisciplinary approaches, it reads this collection in the context of Polish discourses on womanhood and femininity following the post-communist transition of 1989. The interviews offer a unique perspective on gender formations and invite us to think of the Other Europe beyond the clash of approaches to the region that have positioned it between the extremes of …

Where And When Is Modernism, Mark Wollaeger

Kritika Kultura

The paper explores some longstanding definitional problems in literary modernism with specific reference to studying modernism on a global scale: What counts as modernism once we start to look for signs of it across the globe? The author examines the question in the context of his recent editorial project, Global Modernisms, which draws together multiple international and disciplinary perspectives in order to create a discursive space in which a wide range of foreign language productions can be brought into productive dialogue. Raising the question of whether a distinction between “modern” and “modernist” can be sustained, he suggests the need for …

Gpr-185 A Multimodal Approach To Quiz Generation: Leveraging Rag Models For Educational Assessments, Mourya Teja Kunuku

C-Day Computing Showcase

Crafting quiz questions that effectively assess students’ understanding of lectures and course materials, such as textbooks, poses significant challenges. Recent AI-based quiz generation efforts have predominantly concentrated on static resources, like textbooks and slides, often overlooking the dynamic and interactive elements of live lectures—contextual cues, discussions, and interactions—that contribute to the learning experience. In this work, we propose a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) model that processes multimodal inputs by combining text, audio, and video to produce quizzes that capture a fuller context. Our method incorporates Whisper for audio transcription and utilizes a Large Vision-Language Model (LVLM) to extract essential visual data …

Clinical Applications Of Phenomenology: Analysis Of Lived Experience Of Eye Disease, Kimberly Tucker

Graduate Student Research Symposium

This paper presents a phenomenological study that explores the embodied experience of vision loss within the context of eye disease, while also providing a detailed discussion of the methodological approaches utilized in the research. Phenomenology is integrated to address clinical epistemic concerns, particularly the limitations of conventional vision tests in fully capturing perception and the lived experiences of vision loss. This interdisciplinary approach builds on the clinical understanding of eye disease by incorporating the broader dimensions of the lifeworld that intersect with visual impairment in degenerative eye diseases. While standard clinical approaches focus primarily on measurable aspects of visual function, …

Pursuing Distinction: How Chinese Restaurants Leverage Cultural Capital To Ascend The Irish Culinary Hierarchy, Nan Xiang, Brian Murphy

European Journal of Food Drink and Society

Ethnic cuisine is typically positioned at the lower end of Western culinary hierarchy, in contrast to haute cuisine. Research to date has shown that in more recent decades, many ethnic restaurants in London and New York, including those specializing in Chinese cuisine, have successfully managed to transition into the previously unattainable high-end category. What is problematic, however, is the contrast between ethnic and haute cuisine, with ethnic as a restaurant category often being presented as lacking refinement and exuding an overriding sense of cheapness. Neither unrefined nor cheap, many ethnic restaurants, though not quite reaching the high-end, have gained significant …

Neuroqueering As Culturally Sustaining Practice, Nathan Hughes, Meaghan Krazinski

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article explores how neuroqueering can be a complementary component to culturally-sustaining practices (Paris & Alim, 2014), and explores how culturally sustaining frameworks can affirm neurodiversity. Issues such as criminalization of Autistic people of color, and implications of diagnosis disparities and barriers to receiving services are well known (Kearl, 2021). As Gordon (2021) notes, Centering Autistic culture (#BlackAutisticJoy) and ways of being is an important part of affirming Autistic students' identities. Culturally sustaining practices (Paris & Alim, 2014) that seek to provide supportive classroom spaces that affirm students’ culture and identity must also include attention to …

Not The Absentminded Professor: Autistic Experience And Representation In Academia, Martin Brick

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

While there are many facets of a career in academia that may be amendable to autistics, the discipline also presents a number of challenges. These hardships can be exacerbated by misunderstandings or even discrimination from colleagues and administrator with pre-existing assumptions of autistic behavior erroneously based on media representations. This essay will examine literary and television representations of autistics working in university settings to argue that the nature of such portrayals negatively impacts the popular view of autistic scholars. Comedy is frequently used to highlight social awkwardness and other behavioral deviance, perpetuating Damian Milton’s double-empathy problem.

From Margins To Mainstream: Embracing Neurodiverse Needs For An Inclusive Workplace, Ricardo Twumasi, Lewis Burton

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This article critically examines the dominance of neurotypical norms in contemporary workplaces and explores the potential for inclusive, neurodiverse workplaces to move from the margins to the mainstream. We offer a brief scoping review of the existing review literature on neurodivergence at work. Focusing on the more common neurominority differences such as autism spectrum, dyslexia and ADHD we apply the neurodiversity framework to challenge traditional notions of workplace "professionalism" and productivity. By synthesizing current research we propose constructive suggestions for creating truly neurodiverse work environments. Our analysis shows that the research community is calling out for long-term, scientific intervention trials …

Learning To Be An Autistic Therapist: Personal Steps Towards An Autism-Affirming Psychotherapy, Sasha D. Strong

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

How can Autistic therapists understand and support themselves, and how can this help them support their clients? In this paper, I recount my personal journey of healing and growth as an Autistic psychotherapist, 16 months after self-identification. Here is an overview of conceptual frameworks from #actuallyautistic authors, critical theory, queer theory, and social justice that I have found helpful. I also share some of the therapeutic and wellness approaches that have been important to me, including mindfulness and bodyfulness. Organic knowing has been pivotal for me in discerning between masking and aliveness, and regaining a choice around masking behaviors. This …

Communicative Interventions For Autistic Employees In Academic Workplaces, Michaela De Meyer

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

This essay provides an autoethnographic account of my experiences as an autistic employee in academia. By examining organizational communication literature on autism in the workplace, I identify some key issues that autistic employees face in academic workplaces. With research finding approximately 85% of autistic individuals are unemployed, and of those who are employed, only 6% are competitively employed in jobs that utilize their educational training and/or professional skill level, current cultural discourses around diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the workplace provide an opportunity to make organizational challenges for autistic employees more visible. By sharing my own experiences in the …

Website Accessibility In Mississippi Public Libraries, Jennifer Vance, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

The Americans With Disabilities Act was signed into law in 1990, significantly increasing the disabled community’s access to public life. Since then, life has branched out into digital and physical spaces. With this shift came the need to integrate accessibility considerations into web design, in the same way an architect would consider accessibility when drawing up plans for a new building. However, while buildings are usually designed by professionals, websites are often not. Libraries are no exception, as many may not have dedicated staff to design and maintain a website. In cases where they do have dedicated staff, they may …

Lgbtq+ Content In The Ala Top Most Challenged Books, Kaelynn Edmondson, Mlis

SLIS Connecting

2,571 titles were challenged in 2022, double what was recorded in 2021, but it was noted that 45.5 percent of all those titles were LGBTQ+ books (Perfas, 2022). The rise in challenges and the fact that almost half the books contained LGBTQ+ topics indicates that, within recent years, there has been a shift in the type of content and the speed at which challenges are happening in the United States. Books like Obie is Enough by Schuyler Bailar are banned in states that do not allow books that discuss gender identity, and in turn, these books cannot reach the audiences …

Exploring Critical Thinking Of Smartphone Use From Elementary School Students In Kosovo, Muhamet Jahiri, Gëzim Qerimi, Dren Gërguri

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This study examined smartphone usage behaviours of elementary school students and media literacy. Data were gathered from a survey with a sample of 450 students from different schools in seven main regions of Kosovo, aged 10-15. There is no difference between males and females in smartphone access, while there is a slight difference between them in time spent using smartphones. This research clearly shows that elementary school students’ smartphone use is very high, but on the other side, it is not reflected at all in the school curriculum. There is a low level of getting advice from parents and a …

“That’S Plagiarism!”: The ‘Filmed Vs. Found Footage’ Continuum In A Pedagogical Video Composition Teacher Professional Development Program, Nathan Smith Jones

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This paper describes a qualitative case study conducted in the Intermountain Western United States during the Fall of 2020. Though a few years old, the study remains relevant due to its esoteric subject within research on media production professional development education. Study’s purpose was to explore the processes and participants of an independent, pedagogical video composition (PVC––a.k.a. educational filmmaking) teacher professional development (PD) program. The primary sources of data were interviews of staff of the PD program and teacher graduates of the PD program. This paper focuses on a conclusion from the study: an alarming discrepancy between the attitudes of …

Quality Improvement In Healthcare: A Practical Guide For Providers (Part 5), Jeremy Ellis Md

Transformative Medicine

No abstract provided.

Glp-1 Agonists For Weight Loss And Beyond, Connor Quinter, Hanh Motilall, Kelley Maberry

Transformative Medicine

Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists are medications that were originally approved for type 2 diabetes to help improve glycemic control in conjunction with exercise and dieting. One of the beneficial effects of this medication class is weight loss, and recently the FDA has approved a select few for this indication of weight loss. With these medications becoming increasingly more popular, it is imperative that both providers and patients understand the differences in terms of efficacy for these medications and the potential adverse events to make the best decision about initiating therapy. This article summarizes the FDA indications for all the GLP-1 …

Relationship Of Amphetamines In Reducing Substance Abuse Risks Among Adhd Patients, Ashley Deng, Eduardo Espiridion Md

Transformative Medicine

Introduction: Attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects a substantial portion of the global population, influencing cognitive and behavioral function. Current treatments often involve stimulant medications like amphetamines, which are controlled substances due to their addiction potential. Non-stimulant options, such as atomoxetine, are typically considered secondary therapies. This study examines the relationship between ADHD medication use and the subsequent development of psychoactive, stimulant, and cocaine-related substance use disorders. Methods: Using the TriNetX database, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare ADHD patients prescribed amphetamines to those receiving atomoxetine or no medication. Propensity score matching was employed to control for confounding variables, followed …

Translanguaging In Middle Level Education, Helen Brandon, Ellis Hurd

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This case study explores the experiences of two teacher candidates (TCs) in professional development school (PDS) settings with multilingual learners. While valuing multilingual learner’s diverse linguistic backgrounds and language repertoires by drawing from a toolkit of responsive practices, the TCs embraced but struggled with layering translanguaging into their classroom practices. It also examines the middle grades program that these TCs attended while centering asset-based thinking and culturally responsive practices. Overall, this study shows that teacher education programs must include another critical layer to TCs’ experiences: building the toolkit of middle school cooperating teachers (CTs). This study also serves as a …

A Phenomenological Study To Determine How Expert Avid Teachers Use Collaboration To Strengthen Student Metacognition And Student Self-Efficacy And Determine When It Occurs, Megan Hernandez

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to determine how expert AVID teachers from the California Central Valley describe the use of collaboration to strengthen student metacognition and self-efficacy and how they describe the evidence that indicates metacognition and self-efficacy are occurring.

Methodology: Five Central California school districts were chosen to conduct the phenomenological study on expert AVID teachers. One to two AVID teachers from each of the five school districts were chosen in the study for eight participants. The expert AVID teachers were chosen for having at least five years of experience teaching AVID and being up to …

Mechanism Of Impaired Cd8+ T Cell Activation During Ross River Virus Infection, Christopher Bullock

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ross River virus (RRV) is a mosquito transmitted virus endemic to Australia that infects humans and causes acute symptoms of rash, fever, myalgia, and fatigue. Although systemic viral infection subsides within a few weeks, joint pain lingers in many patients for months. Active viral replication is not readily detected in this chronic phase, although persistent viral RNA has been found in the synovial fluid of patients. This can be studied in mice, which can be productively infected with RRV when inoculated in the foot. Like in humans, in the chronic phase of disease, viral RNA is still present in the …

The Case Of The Missing Case: How Neglecting Chisom V. Roemer Leaves § 2 Of The Voting Rights Act Analytically At Sea, James F. Blumstein

William & Mary Law Review Online

This article critiques the Supreme Court's decision in Allen v. Milligan for relying solely on Thornburg v. Gingles and overlooking Chisom v. Roemer, a key precedent interpreting § 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Chisom established that vote dilution claims must be tied to unequal access to the political process, not just electoral outcomes. By ignoring this linkage, the Court risks turning § 2 into a vehicle for race-based electoral entitlements. The author argues that reaffirming Chisom is essential to preserving the statute’s process-focused intent and analytical clarity.

This abstract was written using generative artificial intelligence.