Digital Commons Network^™

Analysing M. Avium-Macrophage Interactions And Establishing A Long-Term Infection In A Novel And Realistic Model Of Lung Alveolar Macrophages, Max Planck Institute Cells, Sanduni Avishka Thantri Hewage Peiris

Other Faculty of Health Theses

Mycobacterium avium Complex (MAC) are species of the non-tuberculous branch of the Mycobacteria family that is responsible for the development of pulmonary lung disease in immunocompromised individuals. One of the first lines of defence from the host involve a specialised group of tissue macrophages that reside in the lung alveolar space called alveolar macrophages (AM). They have specialised functions that are suitable for recognition of foreign invaders and the ability to tackle these threats though means of a robust immune response. Alternatively, they also feature as key components in a fairly destructive uncontrolled inflammatory response which is the root cause …

The Role Played By Non-Formal Education In The Lives Of Iraqi-British Citizens: A Study Of Three Iraqi-British Cultural Institutions And How Non-Formal Education Empowers Individuals And Communities, Nadeem Al-Abdalla

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

This thesis highlights the role played by non-formal education in the lives of Iraqi community members who participate in the activities offered by London’s Iraqi-British cultural centres. The key aims of this thesis were; to research, document and analyse London’s Iraqi community and their experiences of non-formal learning within Iraqi cultural centres; and to establish the extent to which they found their participation in this non-formal learning empowering, both at an individual and community level. Many studies have been conducted into the lives of newly arrived communities. Generally, these studies tend to focus on their early years in the UK …

University Sustainability In Times Of Uncertainty: The Impact Of Brexit On Eu Staff And Students, Diane Stanley

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The Brexit referendum in June 2016, which led to the UK’s decision to leave the European Union (EU), generated significant concern and anxiety within the United Kingdom's (UK) Higher Education (HE) sector. The potential impact on EU student and staff recruitment, EU research funding, and collaborations with Europe was uncertain, as many Brexit policies and procedures had not been considered by the government when the Leave outcome was announced. EU staff and students working and studying in UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) were left contemplating their future in the UK. This thesis examines the impact of Brexit through Charles Wright …

Collaboration In Higher Education: Theorising Co-Creation For Inclusive Learning And Teaching Praxis, Sandra Abegglen

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

In the last ten years UK Higher Education has undergone radical processes of reconstruction by focusing on output and value for money, thereby reinforcing the myth of meritocracy. Together with still prevalent notions of developmental learning and pyramidical teaching, this has heightened a culture of individualism. Despite an ostensible emphasis on partnership, isolation and ‘silo-isation’ are evident today with lecturers and students experiencing increased pressure to produce and perform alone, leading to little time for thinking and doing together. This situation was exacerbated by COVID-19 with social distancing measures and remote instruction, which have further increased workloads and loneliness, accompanied …

'Man's Forgotten Friend': Dogs Appointed As Domesticated Companions And The Coronavirus Pandemic, Rebekah Gregory

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences Theses

The metaphorical confinement of national lockdowns saw the egocentric adoption of dogs appointed as domesticated companions. While public approval of ‘animal’ welfare legislation and the growing popularity of ‘green’ theory and industry has grown, ‘animals’ are still victim to the consumer and the anthropocentric cultures which promote individual, economic, social, and specifically ‘human’ advancement at all costs. Even though the reasons why ‘animals’ are victimised has been researched, how the pandemic has impacted upon this treatment and consumer culture’s/anthropocentrism’s influence has been somewhat absent within academic discussion. In fact, how the global events of COVID-19 have impacted upon dog treatment, …

Emotional Eating, Nutritional Knowledge, And Socioeconomic Status As Predictors Of Body Mass Index, Tifani Buss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity is an ill-health condition that can lead to other ill-health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, asthma, type 2 diabetes, and some types of cancer. Obesity is also a condition that does not discriminate regarding age, gender, or race/ethnicity. In light of obesity’s status as a global epidemic, efforts for prevention and intervention treatments are needed to improve individuals’ health and quality of life. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine emotional eating, nutritional knowledge, and socioeconomic status, as predictors of body mass index (BMI). These factors were examined through the lens of general strain …

A Case Study Of Russian Cyber-Attacks On The Ukrainian Power Grid: Implications And Best Practices For The United States, Miles Pollard

Pepperdine Policy Review

This paper examines the rise of cyber warfare affecting power grid security, focusing on the vulnerabilities exploited in the Ukrainian power grid infrastructure by programs like BlackEnergy and CRASHOVERRIDE. It extends this analysis to similar vulnerabilities that may be in critical command and control systems of the United States' power grids. The Sandworm and Electrum cyber-attacks on Ukraine's grid are dissected, revealing the escalating threat to industrial control systems. Detailed exploits of the Radmin command-and-control software such using the plugin tool Mimikatz with NTLM and Kerberos for static and dynamic analysis, the CVE-2008-3431 DSEFix exploit, and the Win32/SSHBearDoor trojan are …

Addressing The Impact Of Covid-19 On Virginia’S Education System: Empowering Solutions Through Expanded School Choice, Connor Merk, Darren Borsini

Pepperdine Policy Review

The students in the Commonwealth of Virginia suffer from the COVID-19-spawned learning loss, like many other students across the country and the world. This study analyzes the policy implications of remote and hybrid learning models on student achievement as measured by test scores and the number of students enrolled in homeschooling. The results demonstrate a significant decline in student achievement across all subject areas and a sharp increase in homeschool enrollees starting in 2020. As a result of complex educational dynamics and a consideration of various policy options, this paper proposes a school choice policy with education savings accounts (ESAs) …

China-Venezuela Relations In The 21st Century And A Proposed U.S. Policy Response, Noah Jackson

Pepperdine Policy Review

In light of the Biden Administration’s 2023 decision to lift sanctions on Venezuela, and Venezuela’s failure to comply with the US conditions for relief, this paper analyzes China-Venezuela relations and how US policy toward Venezuela affects both Venezuela and China. Venezuela has been China’s strongest ally in the Americas since 2000. This alliance led to Chinese loans of over $40 billion, a majority of China’s investment in the continent. When Venezuela’s economy collapsed, China was left with the decision to cut ties, but chose to defend its Latin partner as the west criticized the Maduro regime. Recently, Venezuela has failed …

The Rise Of Isis: A Growing Threat To The World, Grace Ralstin

Pepperdine Policy Review

ISIS has inflicted terror onto civilians in several ways, through ransoms, kidnapping, beheadings, mass shootings, and bombings. These acts of terror are funded through the internet. They use this tool as a mechanism to spread online propaganda and radicalize people, in addition to terrorizing civilians with cyberterrorism to collect money. This analysis also compares ISIS to other terrorist organizations, specifically in their online propaganda tactics and funding. Further, it will posit policy recommendations that are aimed at helping policymakers combat online terrorist activity. The goal should be making cyberspace safer for the public and increasing challenges for terrorists to conduct …

An Examination Of The Visual And Textual Influences On The Anthology Of American Folk Music, Ben Collier

History Theses

The Anthology of American Folk Music is a collection of eight-four selections of southern vernacular recordings made for commercial record labels in the 1920s and 1930s and assembled into a unified collage by Harry Smith. Smith was an experimental filmmaker, painter, and self-taught anthropologist with a deep interest in renaissance hermeticism and mysticism who worked with Moe Asch in 1952 to release the six-record set and accompanying handbook on Folkways Records. The release was heralded by musicians and critics as an essential piece of influence on the folk music revival. Despite this, the Anthology sold poorly and quickly faced legal …

Labembryocam: An Opensource Phenotyping System For Developing Aquatic Animals, Ziad Ibbini, Maria Bruning, Sakina Allili, Luke A. Holmes, Ellen Tully, Jamie Mccoy, Benjamin Larsen, Tony Wilson, Guy Ludford, Jack Barrett-Kelly, John I. Spicer, Oliver Tills

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Phenomics is the acquisition of high-dimensional data on an individual-wide scale and is proving transformational in areas of biological research related to human health including medicine and the crop sciences. However, more broadly, a lack of accessible transferrable technologies and research approaches is significantly hindering the uptake of phenomics, in contrast to molecular-omics for which transferrable technologies have been a significant enabler. Aquatic embryos are natural models for phenomics, due to their small size, taxonomic diversity, ecological relevance, and high levels of temporal, spatial and functional change. Here, we present LabEmbryoCam, an autonomous phenotyping platform for timelapse imaging of developing …

Mapping Success: Swot Analysis Of Roots Millennium University Libraries In Pakistan, Muhammad Kabir Khan, Hafiz Muhammad Tahir Aleem, Arslan Sheikh, Mohamad Noorman Masrek

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose - The primary goal of this research is to measure the present status of Roots Millennium University Libraries in view of its user’s points of view about the utilization of libraries and their services.

Research Design – Quantitative research was used in this study and data was collected from students through a survey using a structured questionnaire.

Findings - This study evaluates the internal and external conditions of Roots Millennium libraries through SWOT analysis. The undergraduate student’s opinions were taken into consideration to know the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of Roots Millennium University libraries. The investigators evaluated the …

Web 3.0 Tools Employed In Private High School Library Media Centres In Zimbabwe: The Case Of Bulawayo Metropolitan Province, Elton Tafataona Moyo, Takawira Machimbidza

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study was carried out to gain insight into the Web 3.0 technologies used by high school library media specialists in private schools around Bulawayo Metropolitan Province in Zimbabwe. The study adopted the interpretivist paradigm with a qualitative approach and a multiple-case study research strategy. The population of this study comprised of school library media specialists from ten private high schools in Bulawayo Metropolitan Province. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. Data were analysed using content analysis. Findings reveal that school library media specialists use a cocktail of Web 3.0 tools which include WhatsApp, Google Classroom, Facebook, Zoom, wikis, …

The 3rs And Non-Human Animals In Biomedical Research: The Next 65 Years, Paul Locke, Richelle Romanchik, Breanne Kincaid, Emily Golden

Animal Law Review

It has been 65 years since the publication of Russell and Burch’s “The Principles of Humane Experimental Technique,” which established the ‘3Rs’—refinement, reduction, and replacement—as the key principles applicable to decision making about, and the use of, non-human animals in laboratory settings. The 3Rs are universally accepted by responsible scientists throughout the world and form the basis for many national legal and regulatory systems governing animal use in laboratories. This Article will discuss broadly how the 3Rs have evolved over the past seven decades since the publication of Russell and Burch’s seminal work, and examine the 3Rs in light of …

De-Myth-Ifying Laboratory Animal Law: The Truth Behind Four Commonly Misunderstood Facts In Laboratory Animal Welfare Law, Rebecca Critser

Animal Law Review

The subspeciality of laboratory animal law presents unique difficulties because it requires familiarity with two highly specialized fields: law and science. Consequently, it is not surprising that some aspects of laboratory animal law have been misunderstood. This Article highlights four such misunderstandings surrounding laboratory animal law and provides an explanation of the truth behind each myth. The myths discussed include: (1) the AWA is the only federal law applicable to laboratory animals; (2) states are preempted from regulating the laboratory animal space; (3) birds, rats, and mice are not covered under federal law; and (4) the 3Rs are explicitly required …

Fda Modernization Act 2.0: The Beginning Of The End For Animal Testing In Drug Development, Julia Williams

Animal Law Review

Historical drug testing protocols utilized animal testing to determine whether drugs were safe and effective for use in humans. However, recognizing that testing drugs on other species is potentially dangerous for humans, troubled by failures, unnecessarily expensive, and time consuming, the FDA Modernization Act 2.0, passed in December 2022, removed animal testing as a requirement for new drug applications. While this was an important step forward, a notable failure of that Act is that it did not go far enough to end animal testing. Accordingly, this Article proposes an FDA Modernization Act 3.0.

The FDA Modernization Act 3.0 would ensure …

My Identi T: Improving Mental Health Outcomes Through Group Support In Pre-Treatment Transgender Teens, Jill Day

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Transgender youth (TGY) are at an increased risk for depression, anxiety, and suicidality; delaying transition can worsen this. Nationally, gender programs have waitlists beyond a year. In conservative states, providers are fewer in number, and legislation may prohibit services. Thus, gender programs rely on mental health and primary care providers to assist youth who express a strong desire to be a gender other than that assigned at birth, and who endure protracted wait times to start treatment. This DNP project developed and implemented an evidence-based, gender-affirming peer support group to improve patient experience and mental health outcomes by providing information …

Moral Distress: The Importance Of Support For Black And Brown Nurses After Encountering Racism From Patients And Peers In The Acute Care Setting, Marsha Sinanan

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Purpose: This DNP project developed and implemented an online training program to support Black and Brown nurses’ post-racism encounters in the acute care inpatient setting. Background: Nationally, it is estimated that 25% of nurses experience mistreatment by patients each year, but many fail to report these episodes (Campbell, 2016). The retention of Black and Brown nurses is essential, as cultural congruence or shared experiences among patients and members of their healthcare team can, be an important bridge for promoting safety and the best clinical outcomes (Moceri, 2014). Methods: Approximately 400 RNs were invited to participate in a 15-minute online training …

Data Security And User Authentication In Public Cloud Computing Environments, Nelson Vasconcelos Soares Dos Santos

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Cloud computing has become a prevalent paradigm for organisations and individuals, offering a range of services and resources that enable the efficient management, processing and storage of large quantities of data. However, despite its numerous advantages, cloud computing also presents significant challenges related to data security and user authentication. The distributed nature of cloud environments, coupled with the relinquishment of control over data to cloud service providers, has raised concerns regarding data vulnerability to various types of attacks, such as data breaches, malware injection, and denial of service. Moreover, traditional password and token-based authentication methods have been shown to be …

Personalized Bayesian Inference For Explainable Healthcare Management And Intervention, Utkarshani Jaimini, Krishnaprasad Thirunaravan, Maninder Kalra, Robin Dawson, Amit Sheth

Publications

Chronic healthcare conditions such as Asthma re- quires constant monitoring and managing of symptoms and their triggers for better quality of life. Each asthma patient reacts very differently to potential triggers. Hence, there is a need to develop a explainable personalized framework for each patient to capture susceptibility to asthma triggers. We developed a personalized knowledge-based probabilistic model to predict asthma exacerbation for different environmental factors utilizing patient generated health data from pediatric asthma patients. Further, the personalized model provides a metric, called Health Coefficient, to quantify the health of a patient for varying environmental factors. We demonstrate the predictive …

Proknow: Process Knowledge For Safety Constrained And Explainable Question Generation For Mental Health Diagnostic Assistance In The Age Of Large Language Models, Kaushik Roy, Manas Gaur, Misagh Soltani, Vipula Rawte, Ashwin Allen, Amit P. Sheth

Publications

Current Virtual Mental Health Assistants (VMHAs) primarily offer counseling and suggestive care but do not assist with patient diagnosis due to their lack of training in safety-constrained and specialized clinical process knowledge, referred to as ProKnow. In this work, we define ProKnow as an ordered set of information aligned with evidence-based guidelines or categories of conceptual understanding used by domain experts. We also introduce a new dataset of diagnostic conversations guided by safety constraints and Pro- Know, known as ProKnow-data. We develop a method for natural language question generation (NLG) designed to interactively gather diagnostic information from patients, termed ProKnow-algo. …

A Comprehensive Survey On Rare Event Prediction, Chathurangi Shyalika Jayakody Kankanamalage, Ruwan Wickramarachchi, Amit Sheth

Publications

Rare event prediction involves identifying and forecasting events with a low probability using machine learning (ML) and data analysis. Due to the imbalanced data distributions, where the frequency of common events vastly outweighs that of rare events, it requires using specialized methods within each step of the ML pipeline, i.e., from data processing to algorithms to evaluation protocols. Predicting the occurrences of rare events is important for real-world applications, such as Industry 4.0, and is an active research area in statistics and ML. This paper comprehensively reviews the current approaches for rare event prediction along four dimensions: rare event data, …

Zürich Ii Statement On Per- And Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (Pfass): Scientific And Regulatory Needs, Jamie C. Dewitt, Juliane Glüge, Ian T. Cousins, Gretta Goldenman, Dorte Herzke, Rainer Lohmann, Mark Miller, Carla A. Ng, Sharyle Patton, Xenia Trier, Lena Vierke, Zhanyun Wang, Sam Adu-Kumi, Simona Balan, Andreas M. Buser, Tony Fletcher, Line Småstuen Haug, Jun Huang, Sarit Kaserzon, Juliana Leonel, Ishmail Sheriff, Ya-Li Shi, Sara Valsecchi, Martin Scheringer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are a class of synthetic organic chemicals of global concern. A group of 36 scientists and regulators from 18 countries held a hybrid workshop in 2022 in Zürich, Switzerland. The workshop, a sequel to a previous Zürich workshop held in 2017, deliberated on progress in the last five years and discussed further needs for cooperative scientific research and regulatory action on PFASs. This review reflects discussion and insights gained during and after this workshop and summarizes key signs of progress in science and policy, ongoing critical issues to be addressed, and possible ways forward. Some …

Front Matter

Journal of Contemporary Water Research and Education

No abstract provided.

Participatory Video As A Capacity-Building Tool On Disaster Risk Reduction Management: The Case Of A Philippine Rurban Youth Group In Bay, Laguna, Trina Leah T. Mendoza, Benjamina Paula G. Flor

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

This study aimed to explore a youth-led participatory video (PV) process as a strategy for building the capacity of youth in disaster risk reduction management (DRRM) in a Philippine urban community. The study’s main research problem is: What constitutes a youth-led PV process? Specifically, it aimed to 1) describe a youth-led PV production process, 2) identify emergent characteristics of a youth-led PV process, and 3) examine features that explain how a PV process capacitates youth in DRRM. A series of DRRM and PV training workshops were conducted from January to March 2019 with a selected group of youth in Barangay …

The Body Positivity Movement: Improving Female College Students Mental Health And Body Appreciation, Emilie Conners, Lucy Matthews, Diane R. Edmondson

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Body image concerns among college-aged women continue to be an immense issue across many college campuses. As technology advances, it has become more common for young girls and women to edit their social media photos and focus more on their flaws. Body image has a significant impact on mental and physical health; therefore, it is vital that these concerns are addressed and fought. One movement recently used as a possible way to combat this concern is the body positivity movement. However, more research is needed to understand the impact of this movement on young women. Survey data was collected via …

The Black Lives Matter Movement: A Systemic Crisis That Expands Crisis Response Theory, Pam Richardson-Greenfield, Alyssa Reynolds, Ryan Cruz, Monique Bell

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Relevance to Marketing Educators, Researchers, and/or Practitioners – In response to George Floyd’s death, a variety of organizations posted messages against racism and some began to openly support Black Lives Matter, often by name, in their corporate communication initiatives. With promises of financial commitments to uplift Black communities, calls for action, and initiatives to support internal change—large and small companies, non-profits and universities—could be perceived as courageous for establishing new protocols to support such a warranted change. However, in the era of “woke washing,” or inauthentic social justice messaging, the need to assess the authenticity of corporate statements of support …

Creating The New Normal: A Historical Approach To Understanding Marketing Agility And Its Implications Across Business, Healthcare, And Social Welfare In A Post Pandemic World, Elan Burton, Delancy Bennett, Linda Burton

Atlantic Marketing Journal

The purpose of this article is to expand our understanding of how marketing agility shapes business, healthcare, and social welfare policy and societal responses to global pandemics. We set the stage for this discussion by presenting an historical exemplar case of marketing agility during the 1918 Influenza pandemic in the US. Next, we outline a necessary conceptual revision and update to previous treatments of marketing agility relative to historical pandemics considering the recent COVID-19 pandemic. Our novel conceptualization focuses on a firm’s (business, healthcare, social welfare) prompt response to dynamic and turbulent circumstances beyond the control of the firm (Araújo …

Healthcare Marketing Communication: Media Usage And Psychographic Profiles For Baby Boomer, Gen X, And Millennial Consumers, Terry Damron, Joe Cangelosi, David Kim, Ed Ranelli

Atlantic Marketing Journal

Abstract

Purpose Preventive health care information (PHCI), which functions as a cost-effective or cost-saving means of reducing mortality and improving life quality, also fuels consumer demand for otherwise underutilized preventive medical services, thereby improving profitability for service providers. This study provides healthcare marketing professionals with media usage insights and psychographic profiles useful for developing effective PHCI communication strategies.

Design This research is based on questionnaire responses (n = 813). Analysis of the variance (ANOVA) was used to assess and compare the importance consumers assigned to online PHCI sources. Factor analysis was used to determine whether attitude patterns tended to …