Digital Commons Network^™

Himalayan Health Exchange: Kargiakh Medical Expedition, Rachel Oldfather

Posters

Medical expedition to remote Himalayan villages involving high-altitude treks, improvised clinics, and immersion in the local Buddhist culture.

Global Health Elective - Philippines, Hannah Ho

Posters

Provides an overview of experiences working in the Philippines as a pediatric resident.

Expanding The Winter Warmth, Sarah Gwazdacz

Posters

Reviews the efforts to expand collection of winter apparel for refugee families in Kansas City.

Healthcare In Under-Resourced Areas, Gabrielle Fleming, Ryan Northup, Bill Houseworth, Lori Housworth

Posters

Describes pediatric resident's experience working in the inpatient unit, ER, PICU, and NICU in Cambodia.

Brightpoint Community College: Effective Enrollment Anti-Melt Strategies, Michael J. Forder, Ismael J. Betancourt Velez, Adrian Petway, Juan Espinoza

Doctor of Education Capstones

Community colleges strive to provide affordable and accessible educational opportunities to all. Tuition revenue plays a significant role in college operating budgets and is critical for supporting academic functions. Student dropout threatens the fiscal security of community colleges while running counter to the mission of educating communities. This exploratory case study set out to understand the student melt issue due to non-payment at Brightpoint Community College taking place between enrollment and the start of classes. The research team aimed to understand how students engage with the current payment process, what are the underlying factors leading to missed payments, and what …

Combating Chronic Absenteeism: A Practical Approach To Improving Attendance In A Mid-Sized Virginia School Division, Alissa Fraser, Caroline Goddard, Brian Raska, Michael Sidebotham

Doctor of Education Capstones

Chronic absenteeism poses a significant public health challenge in the United States, impacting educational outcomes and student well-being. This research explores strategies to address chronic absenteeism within Client Public Schools (CPS) before and after the COVID-19 pandemic (2015-present). Using a mixed-methods approach, the study integrates a literature review, quantitative analysis of CPS attendance data, and qualitative insights from focus groups and interviews. Findings reveal disparities among student groups, increased absenteeism post-pandemic, and multifaceted barriers to attendance, including school-related challenges and non-school-related factors. The study underscores the necessity for a unified strategy to track attendance data, consistent implementation of the Multi-Tiered …

Reimagining On-Campus Student Employment As A Foundation For Career Readiness: Student Employment In Virginia Commonwealth University’S Division Of Student Affairs, Jaedda Hall, Mary Lee Magee, Sean D. Mays, Kimberly C. Young

Doctor of Education Capstones

Many undergraduate students participate in on-campus employment while pursuing their academic programs. Increasingly, institutions of higher education recognize student employment not only as a resource to address institutional workforce needs or students’ pressing financial needs, but also to promote students’ overall learning, development, and success. To better understand on-campus undergraduate student employment in the context of Virginia Commonwealth University’s (VCU) Division of Student Affairs (DSA), this descriptive study employed a mixed-methods approach using surveys, interviews, focus groups, secondary data analysis, and artifact analysis. These methods were applied to explore the perspectives of multiple stakeholders, including undergraduate student employees, supervisors of …

Safe Schools: A Descriptive Study Examining How To Prevent Peer-To-Peer Sexual Misconduct In K-12 Schools, Crystal R. Bell, Kristine Herakovich-Curtis, Elizabeth Terrier, Leah Wiedenhoft

Doctor of Education Capstones

In response to a problem of practice presented by the non-profit Stop Sexual Assault in Schools (SSAIS), this study examines what training and resources K-12 Title IX Coordinators and school administrators need to prevent and effectively address peer-to-peer sexual harassment and assault. Grounded in Improvement Science, we partnered with SSAIS to address a real-world dilemma. Through the theoretical lens of the Social-Ecological Framework, a descriptive study was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methodologies to study changes needed to reduce peer-to-peer sexual misconduct in schools. Data were collected through focus group interviews and a Nearpod questionnaire with a national sample. Relying …

The Impact Of School Nurses: A Program Evaluation Of K-12 School Nursing In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Clarence D. Collins, Edwina Mcneill-Simaan, Lyons Hardy, Amber M. Butler

Doctor of Education Capstones

Since the early 1900s, the provision of school nursing and school health services in the K-12 educational setting has been an important component of supporting student academic success, reducing student absenteeism, and promoting positive health outcomes in the United States. The Commonwealth of Virginia was historically one of the first states in the U.S. to employ school nurses. K-12 schools in Virginia have continued to support the practice of school nursing for over 100 years; however, the Virginia state legislature has not formalized a requirement for school nurses in the state code. The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) is responsible …

A Mixed Methods Program Evaluation Of Chronic Absenteeism Interventions At Caroline High School, Amanda M. Harper, Dana L.G. Chen, Melissa A. Bugaj, William J. Pettus, Patrick H. Simmons

Doctor of Education Capstones

This mixed methods program evaluation examines interventions targeting chronic absenteeism at Caroline High School, where being absent for 10% or more of the school year impacts student success. Combining student surveys, parent interviews, and a staff focus group, the study identifies absenteeism trends and evaluates interventions related to student attendance attitudes and behaviors. Findings indicate these interventions have significantly reduced chronic absenteeism, with emphasis on positive reinforcements. The research illustrates absenteeism's complexities, which then in turn require diverse strategies that address both individual student and systemic factors. This Capstone offers insights and recommendations for tackling chronic absenteeism and aims to …

Bottling The “Secret Sauce”: Capturing The Heart Of The East End At Peter Paul Development Center, Melissa E. Abban, Melissa Buckley, Marie Garrenton, Latonja Y. Wright

Doctor of Education Capstones

Peter Paul Development Center (Peter Paul) submitted a Request for Assistance (RFA) to obtain support from a Virginia Commonwealth University Doctorate of Educational Leadership (EdD) Capstone team with documenting programming and principles and evaluating them consistently. To address this request, the team analyzed the context and problem of practice through document review, empathy interviews, partner discussions and site visits. The literature review helped the team design and conduct research, fieldwork, and data analysis to support Peter Paul in standardizing procedures and programs, fostering a culture of institutional knowledge, and effectively communicating impact to stakeholders. The team used a Convergent Parallel …

Best Practices For Community Outreach For The Virginia Eviction Reduction Pilot, Callie B. Houghland

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The purpose of this plan is to understand best practices for community outreach for the VERP program and provide materials to aid future outreach efforts. This plan has five parts. First, this plan will review characteristics that contribute to housing vulnerability, such as race or number of children, and consider which vulnerabilities should be prioritized in outreach. Then, this plan will identify how VERP grantees are currently conducting community outreach and who is being served through the program. Next this plan will look to understand who is missed between those who are most vulnerable and who are actually served across …

Flood Resiliency And Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan, Cigdem Parlak Hancer

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Health-Based Urban Design And Planning Interventions; Maximizing Harmony, Vitality, And Wellness In Hopewell, Virginia, Suzanne K. Yeats

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Urban planners as practitioners work to create a more progressive future while simultaneously redressing the past. This tension is found in many cities, including the City of Hopewell, Virginia where city planners, managers, economic developers work passionately for positive change. In Hopewell, there has been almost no population growth since 1970 and existing health outcomes are alarming. In every determinant of health category (medical, psychological, or social), this city falls below the state and national average. This health-based urban design and planning intervention capstone challenges the status quo by flipping the paradigm and placing the health of all residents first …

Tension Between Construction And Conservation : Dutch Gap Conservation Area Park Access Design, Colleen Campbell

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

The goal of this plan is to create a site-specific design as well as investigate the best practices to use to aid in mending the tension between conservation and construction especially in conservation areas. This comes in response to legislation passed by the Virginia General Assembly in 2019. Using literature, expert surveys, and public input a design will be created to aid the public in accessing the Dutch Gap Conservation Area. Many challenges are present in conservation areas and this plan will help to address which challenges are most important as well as the best way to mitigate these challenges. …

Assessing Impact: Equitable Community Development, Rose M. Lewis

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This plan explores strategies to advance equitable community development outcomes and enhance the understanding of impact analysis to improve economic well-being and quality of life across the Fifth District. By examining historical and current community development practices, along with relevant laws, regulations, and policies, the plan identifies actionable recommendations to address systemic inequities and foster inclusive growth. Grounded in Asset-Based Community Development and Equitable Development Planning principles, the approach emphasizes leveraging community assets, fostering collaboration, and promoting cultural competence to create sustainable frameworks for impactful development.

To address challenges in measuring outcomes, the plan introduces the Community Development Impact Self-Assessment …

Plenty Of Room At The Inn: Strategies For Gentle Densification Of Cleveland Park, Woodley Park, Van Ness, And Forest Hills, Dc, Harrison M. Hyde

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

This capstone focuses on expanding housing opportunities, through the implementation of Gentle Density, in high-resource, single-family neighborhoods in Washington, D.C. The tangible outcomes of this study were be: a set of design guidelines, proposed changes to the Zoning Code of 2016, and an analysis of the co-benefits of densification. The co-benefits analysis examined any potential changes ridership changes for the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority, as well as changes in the potential customer bases for local businesses in each neighborhood. These analyses were done for a maximum build-out Scenario A, a less dense Scenario B, and a do-nothing Scenario C. …

A Business Model For Communication Design Enterprises, Con Kennedy

Articles

Several international reports and studies indicate that the Communication Design sector has a skill deficit in entrepreneurship and business management, and a greater understanding of these topics is needed. Some authors advocate applying existing business models for design enterprises. However, the skill deficit prevails. It is worth noting that these reports discuss the entrepreneurship deficit in general terms without an explanation of the causes of this deficit or how to remedy the issue. Therefore, this paper explores the development of a Business Model specific for Design Entrepreneurs for deployment in Communication Design enterprises.A theoretical framework for a specific business model …

Action Recognition For Human–Robot Teaming: Exploring Mutual Performance Monitoring Possibilities, Shakra Mehak, John D. Kelleher, Michael Guilfoyle, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

Human–robot teaming (HrT) is being adopted in an increasing range of industries and work environments. Effective HrT relies on the success of complex and dynamic human–robot interaction. Although it may be optimal for robots to possess all the social and emotional skills to function as productive team members, certain cognitive capabilities can enable them to develop attitude-based competencies for optimizing teams. Despite the extensive research into the human–human team structure, the domain of HrT research remains relatively limited. In this sense, incorporating established human–human teaming (HhT) elements may prove practical. One key element is mutual performance monitoring (MPM), which involves …

Analyzing Operator States And The Impact Of Ai-Enhanced Decision Support In Control Rooms: A Human-In-The-Loop Specialized Reinforcement Learning Framework For Intervention Strategies, Ammar N. Abbas, Chidera W. Amazu, Joseph Mietkiewicz, Houda Briwa, Andres Alonso Perez, Gabriele Baldissone, Micaela Demichela, Georgios C. Chasparis, John D. Kelleher, Maria Chiara Leva

Articles

In complex industrial and chemical process control rooms, effective decision-making is crucial for safety and efficiency. The experiments in this paper evaluate the impact and applications of an AI-based decision support system integrated into an improved human-machine interface, using dynamic influence diagrams, a hidden Markov model, and deep reinforcement learning. The enhanced support system aims to reduce operator workload, improve situational awareness, and provide different intervention strategies to the operator adapted to the current state of both the system and human performance. Such a system can be particularly useful in cases of information overload when many alarms and inputs are …

Position Specific Injury Patterns In Male Developmental Academy Soccer Players, Andrew Donaldson, Catharine Kral, Shannon Margherio, Mckeenna Noe, Brian S. Harvey

Presentations

Background: Despite the availability of high-quality evidence describing injury patterns in European professional soccer players, there is a paucity of data regarding American athletes. This disparity is accentuated for elite youth athletes. Our study identifies position-specific injury patterns occurring in elite youth male soccer players. Hypothesis: We hypothesize that there are injury types, locations, and specific injuries that occur most frequently in elite youth soccer players and that certain positions have a higher frequency of these injuries than others. Methods: Data from a retrospective review of the IRB-approved Male Academy Soccer Registry from August 1, 2019 through June 30, 2022 …

Democratic Backsliding In Poland In Light Of Rule Of Law Accountability To The European Union, Caterina Chiopris, Monika Nalepa

Emory Law Journal

In 2015, Poland began to gradually dismantle institutions of the rule of law that had been carefully put in place after its governmental transition. Moreover, this process has been underway largely with the electorate’s support. This is puzzling because only several years earlier, the rule of law seemed to be all but guaranteed by the country’s accession to the European Union. As Poland is still a member of the European Union, and the European Union is noticing erosion of the rule of law and sounding the alarm, why are “eroders” still being elected? We propose an explanation based on the …

Building A Reciprocal Partnership: A Case Study Of The Relationship Between The University Of South Dakota And Its Privately-Owned Sorority And Fraternity Housing, Kelli L. Susemihl

Dissertations and Theses

Higher education institutions with Greek systems have different models of sorority and fraternity housing. There are two primary models incorporated into this study; some institutions have Greek housing incorporated into their on-campus residence halls, while other Greek housing is privately-owned by local House Corporation Boards or by the chapter’s national headquarters. The University of South Dakota follows the latter model, with each of their eleven chapters having a privately-owned chapter house. Research shows that with privately-owned Greek housing, there is an increased risk of substance abuse and sexual activity, while there are benefits of increased student involvement and leadership development. …

Climate, Clarity, Controversy: A Constitutional, Statutory, And Policy Analysis Of The Sec’S Proposed Climate Disclosure Rules, Astoneia O. Moss

Emory Business Law Review

The burgeoning ESG movement has heightened investors’ interest in how companies steward the environment in which they operate; manage their human capital; and implement strategies to effectively manage and fulfill the desires of stakeholders. As a result, the SEC has sought to implement a mandatory climate-related disclosure regime to provide investors with public companies’ climate-related data to assist in the investment decision-making process. The proposed climate-related disclosure rule has faced criticism from businesses, politicians, and legal scholars on constitutional, statutory, and policy grounds. This Comment concludes that based on the statutory language of the Securities Act of 1933 and Securities …

The Rise Of Labor Issues As An Antitrust Priority, Richard Dagen, Maryanne Magnier

Emory Business Law Review

No abstract provided.

Access To Justice: A Roadmap To Creating And Launching Consumer Bankruptcy Experiential Programs In Law Schools, Ishaq Kundawala

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Just Consumer Financial Protection: Prevention Or Cure, Andrea J. Boyack

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

No abstract provided.

Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return Is A Rare Cause Of Pulmonary Arterary Hypertension, Ahmed Ali, Wesam Hritani, Farrah Ibrahim, Abdul Hritani

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

Urinothorax: A Unique Case Of Exudative Pleural Effusion, Ahmed Ali, Jesse Faulk

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster

A Unique Case Of Primary Pulmonary Cryptococcosis Presenting With Bilateral Lung Nodules, Soumyadeep Bag, Farrah Ibrahim, Ali Hachem, Zohra Chaudhry

UAB Huntsville Research Day - All Presentations

2024 clinical vignette poster