Digital Commons Network^™

Racial Bias In Collateral Report Of Adhd Symptom Endorsement, Teresa Mejia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently diagnosed mental health condition among children in the United States. However, prevalence rates in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD are unequal across populations. Specifically, the literature has demonstrated consistent variability in symptom endorsements and diagnosis dependent on a child’s demographic factors (i.e., race, gender, age). A diagnosis of ADHD requires that the diagnostic criteria be met in at least two aspects of a child's life, usually the school and home environments. As such, teacher reports are commonly used in the assessment of ADHD for children and adolescents. Given the challenges in obtaining …

Concentration Or Coincidence? Rethinking Random Effects In Spatial And Spatiotemporal Concentration Of Burglary Through A Target-Based Approach, Yichao Gao

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Studies of crime and place have long asked how much random processes contribute to the spatial and spatiotemporal concentration of crime. Traditionally, simulations assume that crime incidents occur randomly across microgeographic units—such as block groups, street segments, and parcels—by selecting geographic units at random with replacement. This dissertation takes a different approach, modeling crime incidents as random selections among potential targets, also with replacement. In this framework focusing primarily on burglary, simulated patterns reflect the spatial distribution of potential targets (i.e., properties). This dissertation relies on burglary data from San Antonio, Texas (2017–2019), and measures available burglary targets as individual …

Building Fiscal Resilience And Enhancing Social Equity In Disaster Mitigation At The Local Level, Hyoeun Kim

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

As climate-related disasters are becoming more frequent and severe, local governments face growing pressure to manage disaster-related fiscal shocks. Although disaster mitigation and preparedness are widely recognized as cost-effective strategies for reducing future losses, local governments often lack the financial, political, and technical capacity to invest in them. Despite the importance of pre-disaster investment, mitigation and preparedness efforts continue to lag at the local level, and concerns remain that federal mitigation funding is not distributed equitably across communities. This has important implications for both equity and resilience because unequal access to mitigation resources can reinforce existing vulnerability to future natural …

A Moderated Mediation Analysis Of Mental Health Literacy, Personal Stigma, And Gender On Help-Seeking Intentions In College Students, Anna M. Gentile

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Although many college students experience mental health challenges, help-seeking rates remain disproportionately low relative to reported need (Abelson et al., 2022). Identifying factors that facilitate help-seeking is critical for improving access to mental health support in this population. Prior research has identified mental health literacy as a significant predictor of help-seeking behavior and intentions among college students (Gorczynski et al., 2017; Smith & Shochet, 2011), whereas personal stigma, which is defined as a person’s negative attitude towards people with mental health concerns (Griffiths et al., 2006), has been consistently associated with reduced help-seeking (Abelson et al., 2022). Grounded in the …

Perceptions Of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy And Standard Interventions For Nicotine Cessation, Philip Kamilar-Britt

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Clinical trials suggest potential therapeutic utility of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) for nicotine cessation. In response to promising outcomes, research into PAP for nicotine dependence is growing. However, attitudes towards PAP among the general public, especially daily nicotine users, remains understudied. To address this knowledge gap, we recruited daily nicotine users (N=534) to complete an anonymous online survey with questions on demographics, nicotine use, prior history with psychedelics, and attitudes towards PAP and standard interventions for nicotine cessation. As hypothesized, daily nicotine users were more familiar with standard interventions and rated them more favorably than PAP. Despite differences in treatment attitudes, …

Advancing Data Extraction Workflows For Single-Case Design Meta-Analysis Using Large Language Models, Yaosheng Lou

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Single-case experimental designs (SCEDs) are a form of longitudinal research that is particularly valuable for studying marginalized and underrepresented populations. Meta-analysis plays an essential role in synthesizing evidence across studies and enhancing the generalizability of findings. However, as interest in SCEDs grows and the evidence base expands, conducting meta-analyses has become increasingly labor-intensive and time-consuming. This dissertation addresses these challenges by examining the applicability of large language models (LLMs) for data extraction and meta-analytic dataset compilation in the context of SCED meta-analysis. Because LLM performance is influenced by model selection, prompt design, and the specific materials being extracted, this dissertation …

When Helpfulness Becomes Harmful: Jailbreaking Llms For Malicious Code Generation, Noelle Capodieci

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLMs) have made large strides in coding task capabilities, with many software developers integrating agentic engineering into their workflow. While GenAI has largely benefited professional software engineers who can automate their work, it has also created room for those with little coding expertise to also create fully fledged programs and applications. It is commonly noted that GenAI is trained with two major goals in mind: to be as helpful as possible, and be as harmless as possible. There exist moments where helpfulness may be prioritized over harmlessness when these goals conflict. LLMs may …

Psychometric Assessment Of The Facilitative Systemic Intervention Skills Rating System– Spanish Version, Sarah J. Crosky

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Despite the growing understanding of therapist factors in client outcomes, there remains limited understanding of the skills that distinguish effective family therapists. The aim of the present study was to assess the interrater reliabilities and factorial structure of a Spanish version of the Facilitative Systemic Intervention Skills (FSIS; Jones et al., 2023a), an observational rating system for evaluating the skillfulness of family therapists in delivering systemic interventions. The FSIS includes eight empirically and theoretically informed systemic therapy skills (Inclusiveness, Empathy for Relational Difficulties, Responsiveness to Safety Concerns, Collaborative Stance, Conceptualizing Family Problems Systemically, Responsiveness to Disparate Goals, Focus on Family …

The Predictability And Verification Of Precipitation From Landfalling Tropical Cyclones Using An Object-Based Framework, Melissa Piper

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Precipitation from landfalling tropical cyclones (TCs) poses a significant risk to life and property in both coastal and inland communities. Early warning systems can help mitigate the impacts of TC-induced flooding; however, this requires accurate quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPFs). Forecasting precipitation from landfalling TCs is a challenge, as the intensity, duration, and location of precipitation can be dependent on numerous storm-related and environmental factors. Previous studies have attempted to identify and correct NWP model deficiencies and reduce forecast uncertainty by applying traditional and advanced verification metrics to TC QPF. However, these studies have mostly used gridpoint verification metrics, limited samples …

Cognate Awareness Training For Novice L2 Learners: Orthographic And Phonological Routes To Vocabulary Learning, Jennifer M. Martin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Within the study of cross-linguistic influence, research on cognate facilitation has consistently shown that proficient bilinguals process cognates (e.g., English “sock” and German “Socke”) more efficiently than non-cognates. However, less is known about how novice adult learners may benefit from these similarities during the earliest stages of second language acquisition or how instructional interventions might facilitate this process. This dissertation addressed this gap through experiments with English-speaking adults learning German. A series of experiments examined the effects of cross-linguistic similarity and explicit cognate awareness training on vocabulary acquisition. Experiment 1A found robust similarity effects in written recall and …

Sorting By Income And Housing Subsidy Status: Residential Attainment, Unit Turnover, And The Mobility Process Among Renter Households, Sarah A. Mccarthy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The aim of this dissertation is to identify differences in the mobility process and residential attainment across different types of renters with different incomes and by housing subsidy status. More specifically, I compare subsidized renters to unsubsidized, low-income renters as well as unsubsidized, moderate-income renters. The guiding question of this dissertation is, “what processes around mobility help or hinder subsidized households in attaining residential outcomes?” The motivations for addressing this question and the related gaps in the literature are discussed in Chapter 1.

Using data from the American Housing Survey (AHS), I address this question over three analytical chapters in …

Weather-Related Road Condition Detection Using Co-Developed Machine Learning Methods, Carly Sutter

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Transportation agencies make critical operational decisions during hazardous weather events, including assessment of road conditions and resource allocation. In this study, machine learning models are developed to provide additional support for the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) by automatically classifying road conditions across the state. Convolutional neural networks and random forests are trained on NYSDOT roadside camera images and weather data to predict road surface conditions. This task draws critically on a labeled dataset of 22,000 camera images containing six road surface conditions (severe snow, snow, wet, dry, poor visibility, and obstructed) generated from an iterative hand-labeling process …

The Impact Of Downdraft Ventilation On Tropical Cyclone Intensity And Structure Using Aerial Reconnaissance Observations, Nicholas E. Johnson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Tropical cyclone (TC) intensity can be challenging to predict since it is modulated by many physical processes. One of these processes is ventilation: the injection of relatively cool, dry environmental air into the warm core of a TC that acts as “anti-fuel”, inhibiting intensification and increasing uncertainty with intensity forecasts. While ventilation has been examined in numerical modeling studies, there have been a limited number of observational studies investigating ventilation. The two primary objectives of this dissertation are to develop methods for measuring downdraft ventilation from aerial reconnaissance observations and to use those observations to better understand how ventilation affects …

Dynamic Effects Of Economic Shocks Under Uncertainty, Seojin Jung

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation studies the dynamic effects of economic shocks under uncertainty across three self-contained essays.

The first essay introduces a two-stage model averaging estimator for impulse response functions that flexibly combines local projection (LP) and vector autoregression (VAR) methods, as well as different statistical paradigms (Bayesian or frequentist). In the first stage, we compute weights within the LP and VAR groups. A second-stage weight then integrates the two groups by accounting for their structural differences and incorporating their respective strengths. Monte Carlo simulations illustrate a typical bias-variance trade-off: LP-based estimators tend to exhibit lower bias, whereas VAR-based estimators display lower …

Implementing The Lung Donor (Lundon) Acceptability Score In U.S. Donor Management And Transplant Decision-Making: A Multi-Aim, Mixed-Methods Protocol, Nikki E. Rossetti, Su-Hsin Chang, Yan Yan, Graham Jaensch-Frie, Charles R. Liu, Nahom Y. Seyoum, Meghna Katta, Arvind Kumar, Zhizhou Yang, Christian Oncken, Christy Hamilton, Kyle Stumbaugh, Brendan Heiden, Sarah Peskoe, Varun Puri, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Despite advances in transplantation science, a persistent shortage of donor lungs continues to limit access to life-saving lung transplants. The Lung Donor (LUNDON) Acceptability Score is a validated tool that predicts donor lung utilization and post-transplant recipient outcomes, but integration into practice remains limited. This study will evaluate determinants of LUNDON score adoption, its impact on clinical decision-making, and develop tools to support its implementation.

METHODS: This is a multi-aim mixed-methods pre-implementation study that will be conducted across U.S. Organ Procurement Organizations (OPOs) and lung transplant centers. Aim 1 will identify barriers and facilitators of LUNDON score adoption through …

How Do African American Alumni At Private Predominantly White Institutions Describe And Interpret The Influence Of Culturally Responsive Support Spaces On Their Sense Of Belonging, Academic Persistence, And Long-Term Professional Development With The Institutional Context, Karen Williams-Blackman

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how African American alumni at a private, predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Midwest described and interpreted the influence of culturally responsive support spaces on their sense of belonging, academic persistence, and long-term professional development. Culturally responsive support spaces are defined as environments that affirm identity, provide protection, and foster community, offering relational and cultural validation beyond traditional institutional diversity or compliance-based initiatives. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Validation Theory (VT), this research examined how alumni interpreted their interactions with these support spaces and how such experiences influenced their academic trajectories and enduring …

Knowing Danny, Suzanne Darrow-Kleinhaus

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Why Constitutional Argument Matters, Philip C. Bobbitt

Faculty Scholarship

The program for this symposium promised that I would be discussing the “descriptive grammar of constitutional law.” To put my purpose less benignly, I should say that I mean to attack the practice of limiting what I will call “modal analysis” to its descriptive virtues. Part of that attack will be the claim that courts and their commentators should pay closer attention to the modal requirements of the fundamental forms of constitutional discourse, but not because straying from this is a kind of grammatical faux pas. After all, if the system I have urged for constitutional analysis — the system …

Assessment Of In-Frame Indel Variants In An Unsolved Cohort Of Inherited Retinal Diseases Using Machine Learning, David E Rauch, Meng Wang, Muhammad Jafar Hussain Hafiz, Daniel C Brock, Yumei Li, Molly Marra, Mark E Pennesi, Paul Yang, Everett Lesley, Irma Lopez, Robert Koenekoop, Edward Ryan Collantes, Joanne Bolinao, Rui Chen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The standard for in silico pathogenicity prediction of in-frame insertions and deletions (indels) is less established compared to other types of variations. We aimed to systematically assess the performance of in silico machine learning (ML) tools on a patient cohort with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs). The performance of four ML tools (CADD, FATHMM-indel, VEST4, and MetaRNN-indel) was compared. Among them, MetaRNN-indel showed the best overall results. MetaRNN-indel was then applied to 1013 unsolved IRD patients, identifying two likely pathogenic causal variants in two unrelated IRD patients by confirming clinical phenotypes. Hence, our findings indicate that reliable prediction of the pathogenicity …

Therapeutic Potential Of Hookworm Proteins In Promoting Regulatory Immune Responses To Modulate Trypanosoma Cruzi Induced Liver Inflammation And Oxidative Stress, Maria Jose Villar, Cristina Poveda, Bin Zhan, Maya Gonsoulin, Kathryn M Jones

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Chronic Trypanosoma cruzi infection causes significant liver pathology, and current antiparasitic treatments often worsen hepatic damage. Hookworm-derived proteins have shown immunomodulatory effects in inflammatory diseases, including T. cruzi-induced myocarditis.

Objective: This study evaluates recombinant hookworm proteins AIP-1 and AIP-2 for treating liver inflammation in a murine model of chronic Chagas disease (CD).

Methods: Female BALB/c mice infected with T. cruzi were treated with AIP-1 or AIP-2 (1 mg/kg) for seven days. Controls were untreated or received aspirin (25 mg/kg) for 14 days. Liver tissues were analyzed for parasite burden (quantitative polymerase chain reaction - qPCR), histopathology (H&E, Picrosirius Red), …

A Firm’S Operational Risk: Data Set And Empirical Evidence, Vivek Astvansh, Joseph J. Simpson

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

Problem definition: A firm’s stakeholders would benefit from a quantitative measure of the managerial disclosure of its operational risk and the implications of this disclosure. However, a quantitative and scalable measure of a firm’s disclosed operational risk is unavailable. Thus, the firm’s stakeholders remain unaware of its disclosed operational risk and the risk’s implications. Methodology/results: U.S. law requires a public firm to textually disclose its operational and nonoperational risks in Item 1A of its annual report (i.e., Form 10-K). We train 64 transformer models on U.S. public firms’ Item 1A text to score 131,920 firm-years (16,959 firms, 2005 to 2024) …

Making Words Count: Computational Linguistics In Management Research, Joseph J. Simpson, Richard A. Hunt, David M. Townsend, Judy Rady, Elham Asgari, Mohammad Rady, Daniel J. Beal

International Business and Entrepreneurship Faculty Publications

In recent years, a rapidly growing number of management scholars are using computational linguistics (CL) to analyze vast corpora of naturally occurring organizational language. Yet the rapid adoption of CL methods has outpaced the development of shared standards for linking theoretical constructs, linguistic data, and computational measurement. We synthesize 353 articles published in leading management journals for 2013–2025, identifying four recurring challenges shaping the credibility of CL-based research: misalignment between constructs and textual corpora, unnecessary model complexity, the opacity of large language model workflows, and insufficient transparency in reporting. Building on these patterns, we develop four integrative design principles—construct-language fit, …

Beyond Exposure: Belief In Police Misinformation, Media Consumption, And Support For Policing Reform, Linda Balcarova Dietz

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In today’s post-truth era, misinformation has become a central feature of modern society. While not a new phenomenon, the 2024 Presidential election demonstrated what a serious problem it represents, as public perceptions were driven more by information they received (true or false) than by objective social conditions. Policing is one of the most debated topics in criminal justice, dividing public opinion along partisan and racial lines. Studies show that the information people receive about police shapes their attitudes, yet criminologists have largely overlooked how misinformation may influence those views. This dissertation fills that gap by experimentally testing how exposure to …

Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Foundations In Physics And Image Acquisition: An Innovative Hands-On Active Learning Workshop, Cherie Tator, Saul Flores, Alan Riley, Kiyetta Alade

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Introduction: We developed an innovative, active learning workshop to introduce foundations of point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) physics and instrumentation. The workshop design aimed to reduce cognitive load and encourage learner-centered engagement through hands-on exploration that reinforces key principles and connects theory to practice.

Methods: First-year medical students participated in small-group, student-driven exercises to explore POCUS machine controls, transducers, and image acquisition skills. Each group was supported by a faculty member to guide activities and ensure accuracy. Students scanned pickles, hard-boiled eggs, and olives with pits; these items were selected for their low cost, sonographic characteristics, and recognizability. Later in the semester, …

Reduced Threat-Related Neural Efficiency: A Possible Biomarker For Pediatric Anxiety Disorders, Julia O. Linke, Reut Naim, Simona P. Haller, Parmis Khosravi, Beck Scheinberg, Meghan E. Byrne, Anita Harrewijn, Ellen Leibenluft, Melissa A. Brotman, Anderson M. Winkler, Daniel Samuel Pine

School of Medicine Publications

Objective: Pediatric anxiety disorders are common and predict adult psychopathology, yet current treatments, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), produce lasting remission in less than 50% of affected youths. To support the search for improved, mechanistically grounded interventions, this study evaluated neural efficiency, defined as similarity in functional connectivity between a threat task and rest, as a potential biomarker. The study evaluated neural efficiency in relation to anxiety diagnosis and treatment response.

Methods: The authors compared 103 youths with an anxiety disorder diagnosis (mean age, 12.5 years [SD=2.91], 62% female) to 103 youths with no psychiatric diagnosis (mean age, 13.4 years …

Memory And Authority Of Failed Constitutional Amendments, Julie C. Suk

Faculty Scholarship

When the original public meaning of any constitutional provision is enforced, guarantees of rights that were adopted before women were included in legal rights may appear illegitimate and inadequate for a 21st-century democracy. Originalists have long pointed to Article V amendment as the legitimate path to changing the Constitution. Jack Balkin’s Memory and Authority points to the importance of expanding American constitutional memory if women and minorities are to be included in the transhistorical “We the People.” This Essay illustrates how the memory and authority of failed constitutional amendments can challenge originalists’ reliance on amendment as the path to democratically …