Digital Commons Network^™

Living Pedagogy: Redesigning The First Year Writing Classroom, Ella Johnson

Online Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis the writing pedagogies of process, critical literacy, and multimodality are used as a framework for redesigning the physical layout and aesthetics of the first-year writing classroom. The idea of embracing a fully embodied ‘living’ pedagogy is also explored as a means to develop and sustain professional identity as a college writing instructor. An examination of process pedagogy reveals a natural materiality of writing and the role of physical environment. The pedagogy of critical literacy is used to determine how issues accessibility and representation can be answered by classroom design. Current practices of multimodality in classroom design are …

Pleural Empyema: Etiology And Pathogenesis, Daniel M Musher, Sherwood Gorbach, Joshua Fierer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Staff Education To Improve Depression Management Using Mindfulness Meditation Intervention, Ndubuisi Chimezie Obioha

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Executive Summary: Staff Education Project Staff Education to Improve Depression Management Using Mindfulness Meditation Intervention by Ndubuisi Obioha MSN, Walden University, 2021 BSN, Grand Canyon University, 2017 Executive Summary Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University November 2024 Summary The problem of poor depression management guided this quality improvement staff educational project due to treatment nonadherence issues. The providers at the project site had minimal knowledge of self-help interventions that can be used to assist individuals with depression who often face treatment barriers. Failing to address the problem could result …

Artificial Christmas Trees More Popular Than Real Trees In Maine; Majority Expect White Christmas 12/17/2024, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Maine residents prefer having artificial Christmas trees rather than real trees, while more than a quarter of Mainers say they will not have a tree at all this year. Two-thirds of Mainers prefer to say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays". Just over half of Mainers expect a white Christmas where they live, particularly those living in Central Maine.

No Snow, Fake Trees In The Granite State For Christmas 12/17/2024, Unh Survey Center

All UNH Survey Center Polls

Mild weather in the Granite State is dampening expectations for a white Christmas and more people will have artificial than real Christmas trees. Granite Staters increasingly prefer to say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays", though many say it does not matter to them which term businesses use.

Pathways From Socioeconomic Factors To Major Cardiovascular Events Among Postmenopausal Veteran And Nonveteran Women: Findings From The Women's Health Initiative, Hind A Beydoun, May A Beydoun, Rebecca L Kinney, Simin Liu, Rona Yu, Matthew Allison, Robert B Wallace, Qian Xiao, Longjian Liu, Philippe Gradidge, Su Yon Jung, Hilary A Tindle, Shawna Follis, Robert Brunner, Jack Tsai

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains a leading cause of death for women in the United States, with veterans being at potentially higher risk than their nonveteran counterparts due to accelerated aging and distinct biopsychosocial mechanisms. We examined pathways between selected indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) such as education, occupation, household income, and neighborhood SES and major CVD events through lifestyle and health characteristics among veteran and nonveteran postmenopausal women.

METHODS AND RESULTS: A total of 121 286 study-eligible WHI (Women's Health Initiative) participants (3091 veterans and 118 195 nonveterans) were prospectively followed for an average of 17 years, during which …

Probate Standing, David Horton

Michigan Law Review

Few topics in civil justice have sparked as much criticism as the standing doctrine. The U.S. Constitution and some of its state counterparts require plaintiffs to allege that they suffered an “injury-in-fact” that the defendant caused and that a court can redress. A veritable ocean of commentary argues that this requirement [is confusing, ahistorical, and unmoored from its objectives.

Yet a different manifestation of the standing doctrine has long lurked in obscurity. Standing issues are also common in state probate courts, where the transmission of assets from the dead to the living can affect a variety of parties. But in …

Staff Education To Improve Depression Management Using Mindfulness Meditation Intervention, Ndubuisi Chimezie Obioha

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Executive Summary: Staff Education Project Staff Education to Improve Depression Management Using Mindfulness Meditation Intervention by Ndubuisi Obioha MSN, Walden University, 2021 BSN, Grand Canyon University, 2017 Executive Summary Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University November 2024 Summary The problem of poor depression management guided this quality improvement staff educational project due to treatment nonadherence issues. The providers at the project site had minimal knowledge of self-help interventions that can be used to assist individuals with depression who often face treatment barriers. Failing to address the problem could result …

The Lived Experiences Of Poverty Among Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups In A Rights-Based Anti-Poverty Programme In Jharkhand India, Monimala Sengupta

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

This research explores poverty and social exclusion among Primitive Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in India using T. H. Marshall's concept of social citizenship. With evidence showing a disproportionate burden of poverty in the Global South, indigenous groups are even overrepresented among the poor. India, home to one of the largest Indigenous populations, accounts for 70% of South Asia's impoverished, but the specific nature of poverty within these communities remain poorly understood.

Over the past two decades, India's national response to poverty has shifted towards rights-based, inclusive policies targeting marginalised communities such as Dalits, Scheduled Castes, and Scheduled Tribes, historically subjected to …

Ethnic Group Affiliation And Perceptions Of Ethnic Russians In Lithuania, Morgan Lindsay Hassell

Theses and Dissertations

There are many factors that influence language acquisition and use, particularly in multilingual environments. The ethnic group affiliation (EGA) of speakers, or the degree to which a speaker identifies with their native language or culture, has been shown to have a significant impact on language use (Gatbonton, Trofimovich & Segalowitz 2009, Zabrodskaja 2015). EGA can also impact the judgments of and attitudes toward these speakers by others (e.g., Trofimovich & Turuševa 2020). Lithuania is a multilingual state with a complex political and linguistic history, particularly in relation to the Russian language and people. In this study, 150 native Lithuanians and …

Developing A New Liquefaction Ejecta Prediction Model Considering Soil Properties Of Non-Liquifiable Surface Layers Using New Large Database From The 2012 Emilia Romagna, Italy Earthquakes, Jonah Bradley Dundas

Theses and Dissertations

The presence of a non-liquefied crust overlying a liquefied layer has been found to have a significant effect on sand ejecta and surficial liquefaction damage, as observed by Ishihara (1985). Following the 2010-2011 Canterbury seismic sequence in New Zealand, almost no foundation deformation occurred in areas with liquefaction susceptible soils overlain by at least a 3 meter thick crust [1]. In contrast, the 2012 Emilia-Romagna earthquake in Italy provided surface evidence of liquefaction despite 6+ meter thick crusts. Several researchers have proposed liquefaction prediction models [e.g. LPI [2], Ishihara Curves [3], LSN [4], LPIISH [5] and the methods proposed by …

Co-Inhibition Of Tgli1 And Gp130 Using Fda-Approved Ketoconazole And Bazedoxifene Is Synergistic Against The Growth And Metastasis Of Her2-Enriched And Triple-Negative Breast Cancers, Sara Manore, Chuling Zhuang, Mariana K Najjar, Grace L Wong, Shivani Bindal, Kounosuke Watabe, Jiayuh Lin, Hui-Wen Lo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Breast cancer stem cells (CSCs) are resistant to most cancer therapeutics and contribute to tumor recurrence and metastasis. Two breast CSC-promoting transcription factors, truncated glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1 (tGLI1) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3), have been reported to be frequently co-expressed in HER2-enriched breast cancer and triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), undergo protein-protein interactions for gene regulation and activation, and functionally cooperate to promote breast CSCs. STAT3 can be activated by activated interleukin-6 receptor/glycoprotein-130 (IL-6R/GP130). Co-targeting of tGLI1 and IL-6R/GP130 has not been investigated in breast cancer or any tumor type. Here, we report that tGLI1 and …

Combining Alaska Forage Fish Data From Research Surveys And Predator Diets To Assess Forage Fish Response To Climatic Regime Shifts, Lindsay Turner

Fisheries

Forage fish play a crucial role in the marine ecosystems of Alaska through the transfer of energy from lower trophic levels to marine predators. Understanding and quantifying Alaskan forage fish responses to rapid climatic shifts is needed to inform adaptive management strategies under a warmer and more variable future in Alaska. However, data on the occurrence and abundance of forage fish in Alaska are limited due to the diversity of life history strategies and patchy distribution that make their capture in fisheries-independent surveys difficult. In this thesis, I address current gaps in the data available on forage fish through the …

Salmon, Stewardship, And Indigenous Livelihoods: Bridging Knowledge Systems And Reshaping Research Relationality In The Kuskokwim Region Of Southwestern Alaska, Janessa Esquible

Fisheries

This dissertation research is situated in southwestern Alaska, in the communities of Kongiganak, Quinhagak, Bethel, Aniak, and McGrath, spanning the Kuskokwim Bay and Kuskokwim River, and with Alaska Native Peoples (primarily Yup'ik and Athabascan fishing families) who have been salmon peoples and stewards of their ancestral homelands since time immemorial. This Indigenous-led project documented historical and current ways in which Yup'ik and Athabascan Peoples have served as salmon stewards, and the values and governance mechanisms pertaining to salmon stewardship. We utilized a participatory approach by involving Tribal governments, communities, and Indigenous local youth in all aspects of our research. We …

Analysis Of Dense Metals Accumulation In Shikaripara Stone Mines, Gopinath Gorai, Nirajan Kumar Mandal

Makara Journal of Science

This study aimed to measure the amount of dangerous substances in the cultivated area of the Shikaripara stone mines in Jharkhand, India, which are well known for their stone quarrying. Sixteen soil samples were collected at varying dis-tances from the Shikaripara stone mines in the Dumka District of Jharkhand. The metals found in these samples in-clude Pb, As, Zn, Mn, Cd, Cu, Fg, and Fe. The combined amount of the elements was calculated by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Enrichment factor, accumulation index, contamination factor, pollution load index (PLI), Nemerow index, and ecological risk index (RI) were employed to assess …

Silent Stories: Exposing The Controversial Themes Behind Banned And Challenged Books, Catherine Chipongian

Masters Theses (Archived)

This study, titled Silenced Stories: Exposing the Controversial Themes Behind Banned, and Challenged Books, captures the recurring themes of characteristics in books that have been banned or challenged in various contexts. The research dives deep into the cultural and socio-political aspects that target censorship; many of the challenged and banned texts include I Am Jazz, The Lorax, and The Name Jar. The study identifies the common themes that have been perceived as controversial or improper, such as LGBTQ Identities, Cultural Heritage, Stereotypes among children’s books, and Social Justice. These themes have been censorship targets and are examined due to their …

Experimental Pain Sensitivity And Parental Pain Catastrophizing, Gourav Banerjee, Joel Brown, Alana Mcmichael, Arbi Ben Abdallah, Sarah Buday, Deanna M Barch, Thomas Baranski, Simon Haroutounian, Jacob Aubuchon, Hadas Nahman-Averbuch

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Variability in biopsychosocial factors can explain the interindividual variability in pain. One factor that can impact pain is the pain catastrophizing level. Interestingly, parental pain catastrophizing is related to the severity of the clinical pain of their children. This study explored whether parental pain catastrophizing is also associated with their children's experimental pain sensitivity.

METHODS: Forty-five healthy girls (mean age 12.07 ± 1.47 years) and one of their parents participated in this study. Parents completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS) about their child's pain (PCS-Parent

RESULTS: No significant relationships were found between the experimental pain sensitivity measures and either …

Climate Variability, Trends, And Impacts On The Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta With Insights Into Relationship-Building To Enhance Climate Science, Amy Sakura Hendricks

Atmospheric Sciences

Climate change impacts in the Arctic and Alaska vary widely, providing opportunities to study regional complexities. This thesis, guided by insights from Yup'ik Elders from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, explores the significant impacts of climate change and examines four key topics: climate-vegetation connections, shifting hydroclimate regimes, the role of large-scale climate patterns in tundra wildfires, and fostering community relationships. The first paper investigates tundra vegetation productivity trends which have decreased in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta despite increasing temperatures during the growing season, contrasting with other Arctic tundra regions. Using available long-term climate datasets, a coherent multi-decadal pattern involving spring sea-ice concentration in …

Towards A Global Civil Liability Regime For Nuclear Damage: Potential Selected Consequences Of Poland’S Accession To The Convention On Supplementary Compensation For Nuclear Damage (Csc), Patrycja Nowakowska

internetowy Kwartalnik Antymonopolowy i Regulacyjny (internet Quarterly on Antitrust and Regulation)

The purpose of this paper is to present the development steps of the international regime of civil liability for nuclear damage, by recalling the most important stages of this process, and considering the reasons for the changes that led the international community to adopt specific legal acts in this area. The central point of the analysis is to show the moment of the conclusion of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage (CSC) in 1997. The article imparts the most important assumptions of the CSC Convention, leading to the analysis of the potential consequences of Poland’s accession to this …

The Imposition Of Power: Modernity And Nature In Hemingway And Mccarthy, Danielle Ball

Honors College Theses

This thesis focuses on the role of nature in opposition to modernity in Ernest Hemingway's “The Last Good Country” and “The End of Something” as well as Cormac McCarthy’s The Orchard Keeper. Each author places the forces of modernity, such as the logging industry or the introduction of the railroad, at odds with the untouched state of the natural world. Specifically, I emphasize the different portrayals of the natural world from each author. Hemingway’s nature is very closely tied to Romanticism, as nature is a spiritual and healing force for those who choose to commune with it. However, McCarthy portrays …

Does Emotion Regulation Capacity Moderate Social Anxiety Risk Given Experiences Of Racial Microaggressions In Black/African American Undergraduate Students?, Alisha M. Sylvester

Honors College Theses

Racial microaggressions are intentional or unintentional slights toward members of a marginalized community that may come in the form of verbal, behavioral, or environmental insults. Black/African Americans experience racial microaggressions frequently, and these experiences threaten mental health. Specifically, experiencing more racial microaggressions is linked with a risk for social anxiety. However, not all individuals within the community go on to experience social anxiety. Therefore, the present study sought to identify which individuals are more vulnerable to social anxiety given experiences of racism. Poorer emotion regulation (i.e., the ability to manage emotions) is a known risk factor for anxiety. Thus, I …

Gene-Environment Interactions In Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: Insights From Mexican American Populations, Eron G. Manusov, Vincent P. Diego, Marcio Almeida, Jacob Galan, Auwal A. Bala, Marco Arriaga, Natasha Garcia-Rodriguez, Renee Hernandez, Satish Kumar, John Blangero, Sarah Williams-Blangero

School of Medicine Publications

Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) is a prevalent and complex condition influenced by both genetic and environmental factors. This chapter explores the genotype-by-environment interactions that contribute to the development and progression of NAFLD in the Mexican American population. Using advanced genetic epidemiology and bioinformatics approaches, we investigated how specific genetic variants interact with environmental factors such as depression, acculturation stress, and social determinants of health, to influence NAFLD risk and severity. Our findings reveal significant genotype-by-environment interactions for key NAFLD-related traits, including HbA1c, AST/ALT ratio, and steatosis-controlled attenuation parameter (CAP). We also discuss the application of cutting-edge proteomic and transcriptomic …

Large-Scale Crispr/Cas9 Deletions Within The Wfdc Gene Cluster Uncover Gene Functionality And Critical Roles In Mammalian Reproduction, Katarzyna Kent, Kaori Nozawa, Rachel Parkes, Laura Dean, Frey Daniel, Mei Leng, Antrix Jain, Anna Malovannaya, Martin M Matzuk, Thomas X Garcia

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite 96 million years of evolution separating humans and rodents, 11 closely related reproductive tract-specific genes in humans—SPINT3, WFDC6, EPPIN, WFDC8, WFDC9, WFDC10A, WFDC11, WFDC10B, WFDC13, SPINT4, and WFDC3—and the 13 reproductive tract-specific orthologous genes in mice, form highly conserved syntenic gene clusters indicative of conserved, combined critical functions. Further, despite significant progress toward a nonhormonal male contraceptive targeting the protein encoded by one of these genes, epididymal peptidase inhibitor (EPPIN), and associations found between mutations in EPPIN and an increased risk of male infertility, neither EPPIN nor …

Skin Lesions, Weight Loss, And Facial Swelling After A Hand Injury, Yuriko Fukuta, Cindy Qinyang Wu, Todd Michael Lasco, Abdul Hafeez Diwan

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

Improving Clinical Information Extraction From Electronic Health Records: Leveraging Large Language Models And Evaluating Their Outputs, Kriti Bhattarai

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Accurate extraction of clinical entities and phenotypes from unstructured electronic health record (EHR) text is crucial for various clinical research tasks, including cohort identification, tracking temporal patterns in disease progression and deciding treatment course. However, this task remains challenging due to the complexity and ambiguity of medical language. This dissertation explores the application of advanced generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models, such as GPT-4, GPT-3.5-turbo, Llama-3.1, Llama-3 and Flan-T5, for clinical entity and phenotype extraction from EHRs. Building upon these findings, this dissertation also investigates a hybrid approach where integration of external knowledge sources, such as Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) …

Understanding Sequence Determinants Of Functional Protein Dynamics Using Biophysical Simulations And Experiments, Upasana Lakshmi Mallimadugula

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Mutations in the sequence of proteins associated with a disease often increase its risk or severity. They can also be a barrier to developing effective therapeutics for such diseases. One way in which mutations affect function is by altering dynamics that elude structural studies. Observing these changes requires methods that can report on movements of the protein on various timescales and is an ongoing challenge in biophysics and biochemistry. In this study I will use both experimental and computational techniques that can report on such dynamics to explore how small sequence changes shift the conformational landscape and consequently the function …

When Not Remembering Is Memorable: How Confidence Reveals Subjective Distinctiveness Heuristics Through A Double Test Paradigm, Eylul Ardic

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the influence of confidence ratings during recognition decisions using a novel double-test paradigm through three experiments. Under this paradigm, all the recognition probes during the first test (hit, correct rejection, false alarm, and miss trials) are retested for recognition (along with a new set of lures) during an immediate second test. Consistent with predictions of signal detection theory (SDT), data demonstrated that the confidence of Test 1 hits positively correlated with both Test 2 recognition accuracy and confidence. However, SDT failed to account for the behavior of correct rejections. Specifically, SDT predicts that confidence during Test 1 …

N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (Nmda) Receptors Control Calcium Signaling In Striatal Neurons To Guide Value-Based Learning, Alex Legaria Macal

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) play an essential role in neuronal function. Activation of NMDARs leads to calcium influx into postsynaptic neurons, which regu?late many fundamental aspects of neuronal physiology including synaptic plasticity, gene expression, and excitability. In the striatum, the input region of the basal ganglia, NM?DAR activity has been shown to regulate physiological function of striatal neurons, such as synaptic plasticity and excitability, and they also modulate behavior, particularly op?erant learning. However, there are many fundamental questions about the signaling and effects of NMDARs in vivo that have yet to be resolved. Moreover, the link between the physiological and behavioral …

Avian Adaptation To Thermal Gradients, Justin Wheeler Baldwin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Life on Earth has adapted to extremely different temperatures worldwide. However, across distant branches of the tree of life, animals in similar temperature environments often share similar phenotypic traits. Specifically, traits that bear on the ratio between an individual’s surface area (e.g. appendage length) and its volume (e.g. body size) are particularly important for temperature regulation and are codified in canonical biogeographical rules. Although these global patterns of finding larger-bodied (Bergmann’s Rule) and shorter-limbed (Allen’s Rule) animals in colder regions are widely upheld, they also show substantial variation. It remains poorly understood why some animals conform to these biogeographical rules …

Sustainable Plastics From Plastic Metabolisms: Leveraging Purple Non-Sulfur Bacteria For Polyhydroxyalkanoate Synthesis, Eric Michael Conners

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Purple non-sulfur bacteria (PNSB) are a taxonomically diverse group of gram-negative bacteria representing some of Earth’s most metabolically versatile life, with many genera capable of switching between the four major metabolic modes – chemoheterotrophy, chemoautotrophy, photoheterotrophy, and photoautotrophy. Today, we exploit this diversity to explore fundamental questions about microbial metabolism. At the same time, many researchers are eager to use PNSB as tools for biotechnological innovations. Yet there exists a gap between fundamental biology and applied science. Part of the challenge is that we rely on a handful of model organisms – namely, members of the genera Rhodopseudomonas and Rhodobacter …