Digital Commons Network^™

Movement For Quality Government In Israel V. The Knesset, Esther Hayut, Yael Willner, Alex Stein, Gila Canfy-Steinitz, Yechiel Meir Kasher, Noam Sohlberg, David Mintz, Yosef Elron, Isaac Amit, Ruth Ronnen, Uzi Vogelman, Khaled Kabub, Anat Baron, Ofer Grosskopf, Daphne Barak-Erez

Translated Opinions

Movement for Quality Government v. Knesset concerns challenges to Amendment No. 3 to Basic Law: The Judiciary (the “reasonableness amendment”). In view of the controversy surrounding the amendment and the fundamental constitutional question it raised in regard to the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction to review Basic Laws, the Court took the unprecedented step of sitting en banc. We translate here Chief Justice Hayut's majority opinion.

On January 1, 2024, a majority of the Court (12 of 15 justices) held that the Court held the authority to conduct judicial review of Basic Laws and to intervene in exceptional, extreme cases in …

Examining The Impact Of Registered Nurse Engagement In Medical Assistant Clinical Competency Development And Team Effectiveness In Ambulatory Care, Colleen Burckin

Doctoral Projects

Background

As ambulatory care grows in complexity, there is a growing need to ensure that staff possess a high level of competence and team effectiveness to provide safe, efficient, and cost-effective care. Leveraging the expertise and leadership skills of Registered Nurses (RN) to support the team of unlicensed, Medical Assistants (MA) will be incentivized. With limited knowledge of MA preparation to meet the rapidly changing demands, managers will struggle to build effective teams and look to the impact of RN- supported MA onboarding to bridge skill gaps.

Purpose

To examine this issue, a quasi-experimental, quality improvement study was done to …

2024 Conference Program, Georgia Southern University

SoTL Commons Conference

Conference program for 2024

Protecting The Innocent: How To Prevent The Consequences Of Misidentification And Doxing By Volunteers Helping With Open Source Investigations, Leigh M. Dannhauser

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

Individuals performing open source investigations can misidentify alleged perpetrators and dox innocent parties online, which can subsequently lead to threats and harassment against innocent parties and their loved ones. For example, threats were made against Sunil Tripathi’s family after he was wrongly identified as one of the Boston Marathon bombers and doxed on Reddit and Twitter. In 2020, the Berkeley Protocol on Digital Open Source Investigations was published as a guide, and it includes a set of principles to govern open source investigations. However, the Berkeley Protocol is limited to open source investigations performed by those working for organizations. It …

Far-Field Passive Wireless Sensors Composed Of Electroceramic Materials For Harsh Environment Applications, Kevin M. Tennant

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The demand for high temperature sensing technologies in industrial applications has been steadily increasing, driven by the need for precise monitoring and control in extreme environments. This thesis presents an investigation into the development and optimization of passive wireless sensors for high temperature sensing applications. The research focuses on overcoming the challenges associated with traditional sensing methods by leveraging passive wireless sensor technology, offering advantages such as reduced complexity, improved reliability, and enhanced flexibility.

A passive wireless high temperature sensor for far-field applications was developed for stable temperature sensing up to 1000 °C. The goal is to leverage the properties …

Irreconcilable: Mcdonnell Douglas And Summary Judgment, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Publications

The McDonnell Douglas framework is the most important analytical structure in employment discrimination law. Scholars and judges have regularly criticized the three-part burden-shifting test. Despite decades of criticism, a central feature of the framework remains unexamined - its second step is incompatible with the summaryjudgment standard.

In employment discrimination cases courts often grant summaryjudgment in the employer's favor. Scholars have offered various accounts of why this happens, including docket pressures and published case law that focuses on grants of summary judgment. The second step of the inquiry has largely escaped scrutiny because it appears to be a quirky, but somewhat …

Individualized Ideological Enclosures: The Generative Ai Crisis And How Consumers Can Reclaim Their Feeds, Sydney Rose

Catholic University Journal of Law and Technology

No abstract provided.

Examining U.S. National Trends In Adult Mental Illness And Naturalistic Psychedelic Drug Use, Daniel Grossman

All ETDs from UAB

Psychedelic drugs have gained prominent attention in recent years for their therapeutic potential in treating mental illness in clinical settings. Concurrently, population studies show increasing prevalence and notable demographic changes among naturalistic psychedelic users, as well as mixed associations between different types of naturalistic psychedelic use and mental health. However, despite this ongoing cultural shift, little is known about temporal changes in the mental health profiles of naturalistic psychedelic users at the population level. This thesis examined national trends in the association between past year naturalistic use of LSD, MDMA, and DMT/AMT/Foxy and past year mental illness among US adults, …

Erosion Of Trust In Healthcare Leadership: An Analysis Of Anomie And Social Exchange During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ashleigh Allgood

All ETDs from UAB

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted healthcare systems worldwide, posing profound challenges for healthcare professionals. This study examined how the pandemic affected healthcare workers' trust in their leaders, comparing the acute 2021 phase and more managed 2022 period. Objective: To investigate how healthcare workers' experiences of moral distress, organizational change, belongingness, and perceived organizational support influenced trust in supervisors and senior leaders across two pandemic phases. Methods: Anonymous survey data were analyzed from healthcare professionals at a Southeastern U.S. academic medical center in 2021 (n=2,991) and 2022 (n=2,581). Ordinal logistic regression examined relationships between trust and experiences of moral distress, discrimination, …

Insulin Responses, Diet Composition, And Fat Loss, Amanda Finn

All ETDs from UAB

Some but not all studies show participants who have higher baseline insulin responses lose more weight on a low glycemic load compared to a high glycemic load diet. Most prior research tested the relationship between insulin and weight changes with only one insulin response variable, such as insulin from an orally or intravenously (IV) administered metabolic test. We tested whether insulin responses (IV or oral) predicted changes in body fat among participants undergoing diet-induced weight loss. This study was a secondary analysis of a clinical trial. In the parent study, participants were randomized to either a reduced carbohydrate (ReducedCHO) or …

Motor Development Of Individuals Referred For An Asd Evaluation, Timothy Gary Hilty

All ETDs from UAB

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is neurodevelopmental disorder that affects 1 in 36 children. Fine motor skill delays and deficits are a common occurrence among autistic individuals. Fine motor delays tend to present in toddlerhood and deficits tend to persist into adulthood. However, fine motor skill delays and deficits are not a component of the diagnostic criteria for an ASD diagnosis. While fine motor differences between autistic and typically developing individuals are well established, it remains unclear if these differences exist between autistic individuals and those with other neurodevelopmental disorders and whether they provide additional insight into diagnosing ASD more accurately. …

Does Ceo Education Matter? The Relationship Between Doctoral-Educated Hospital Ceos And Organizational Performance, Kofi Ali Cash

All ETDs from UAB

One of the most pressing issues in healthcare strategic leadership research is identifying which hospital chief executive officer (CEO) characteristics possess a significant and favorable relationship to organizational performance. However, little is known about the relationship between hospitals led by doctoral-educated CEOs and organizational performance. This study adds to our knowledge by examining the relationship between doctoral-educated hospital CEOs and selected financial and patient safety outcomes. UET served as the theoretical framework and guided the examination of the relationship between the selected dependent and independent variables. This study’s population included 509 acute-care hospitals across nine states, requiring a minimum four-year …

Diagnostic Imaging Approaches: Pet Imaging In Monitoring Immune Responses In Oncology And Tuberculosis, Chanelle Hunter

All ETDs from UAB

Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agents play a transformative role in personalized medicine through their application in disease diagnosis and immunotherapy monitoring, focusing on chemokine receptors, TH1-activated immune cells, and tuberculosis (TB) diagnostics. In immuno-oncology, accurately assessing TH1-activated immune cells in the tumor microenvironment (TME) is vital for evaluating cancer immunotherapy efficacy. Chemokine receptors, crucial in cellular signaling and inflammatory reactions, play a significant role in TH1 responses, thus serving as a potential area of interest in elucidating these anti-tumor responses. Through our work a novel CXCR3-targeting immunoPET probe, [89Zr]DFO-αCXCR3, was developed to detect and quantify these cells. This probe …

Teachers' Perspectives On The Impact Of Interactive Read Aloud Strategies For Comprehension Skills Of Saudi Kindergarten Students: A Mixed Method Study, Riham Alsultan

All ETDs from UAB

Reading comprehension is a very integral element of encouraging lifelong learning amongst kindergarten students. The main objective of this research is to investigate teachers’ perspectives on the effectiveness of interactive read-aloud (IRA) in improving reading comprehension skills amongst kindergarten students in Saudi Arabia. The study's overarching aim was to determine how interactive reading-aloud strategies employed by Saudi kindergarten teachers during interactive read-aloud time impact Saudi kindergarten students' overall comprehension skills through the perceptions of teachers regarding the effectiveness of these strategies. To achieve this objective, the researcher employed a mixed-method research design, a combination of both quantitative and qualitative strategies. …

Predictive Modeling Using Clinical Data And Compositional Microbiome Data, Li Zhang

All ETDs from UAB

This dissertation focuses on developing predictive modeling using data from two areas: clinical data and microbiome data. Compositional data in real life are mainly represented by relative proportions. With the advancement of next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology, researchers can now collect a large volume of metagenomic sequencing data, which is valuable for investigating associations between the microbiome and host diseases. Current methods for dealing with such data are either constrained by generalization or limited by application. In the first part, to address this, we propose Bayesian compositional generalized linear models for analyzing microbiome data (BCGLM). This model incorporates a structured regularized …

Using The Social Ecological Model To Assess The Correlates Of Unprotected Sex Among African American Emerging Adults, Shirlacia S. Gray

All ETDs from UAB

USING THE SOCIAL ECOLOGICAL MODEL TO ASSESS THE CORRELATES OF UNPROTECTED SEX AMONG AFRICAN AMERICAN EMERGING ADULTS SHIRLACIA S. GRAY DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY ABSTRACT Background: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that HIV diagnoses for Black/African American men and women are 8x and 15x higher than white individuals, respectively. While the social determinants of health largely influence HIV transmission rates, reducing risky behaviors can lower the risk for HIV. This current study used the Social Ecological Model to investigate correlates of unprotected sex. Methods: Participants were recruited through respondent-driven sampling. Participant's demographics (age, gender, years of education, financial …

3d Microtissue Model Of The Aged Ovarian Tumor Microenvironment, Peyton Clark

All ETDs from UAB

Ovarian cancer is the 5th leading cause of cancer deaths for women, primarily due to treatment resistant and/or recurrent disease. Most cases of ovarian cancer are not diagnosed until distant metastases have formed, which drastically reduces overall survival. The median age at diagnosis is 63 and most cases occur in patients who are peri- and post-menopausal. There is a critical gap between the clinical presentation of ovarian cancer and the preclinical models used to study the disease. Most preclinical in vivo investigations use mice who are between 6 and 12 weeks old, which corresponds to roughly a 20-year-old human. Therefore, …

Comparative Enzymatic Analysis Of Different Isoforms Of Group A Streptococcal Bacteriophage H4489a Hyaluronidase, Urvi Prakash Rawal

All ETDs from UAB

The Hyaluronate Lyase derived from Group A streptococcal bacteriophage H4489A gene (HylP) is known for cleaving the glycosidic bonds of high molecular weight hyaluronic acid (HMWHA), a substance often overexpressed in certain types of cancer cells. This enzymatic action produces HA oligosaccharides. Previous research, conducted by our team, has demonstrated that these oligosaccharides play a significant role in reducing the invasion, migration, and proliferation of breast cancer cells. This effect occurs through the disruption of Erk1/2 activation and RhoA expression. This bacteriophage hyaluronate lyase (HylP), a 40kDa protein, possesses a unique collagen-like sequence, consisting of 30 amino acids in a …

Shakespeare’S Tragic Heroines: Personality And Status Versus Gender, Ryann Grace Howard

All ETDs from UAB

Readings of Shakespeare’s female characters as presentations of ideals – such as innocence – or as characters limited by the innate nature of their gender fail to understand the full personalities and challenges these characters have. The chosen characters are discussed in the pairings of Cordelia and Cleopatra (queens) and Desdemona and Juliet (high-status ladies) to show how this thesis’s chosen female characters are presented through their individual statuses and personalities rather than their genders.

Impact Of Federally Qualified Health Centers (Fqhc) And Look-Alikes (Fqhc Lal) Participating In The 340b Drug Pricing Program, Shannon Burger

All ETDs from UAB

The 340B Drug Pricing Program intends to enable community health providers to deliver care more easily to vulnerable populations. Safety net providers were designated as eligible entities through an act of Congress and were allowed access to prescription drug savings. Existing studies have focused on hospital participation in the program, overlooking the impact of Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) and FQHC Look-alikes (FQHC LAL) and legislative intent. This study aimed to fill this gap by comparing the effectiveness of FQHCs and FQHC LALs participating in the 340B Drug Pricing Program. Specifically, the study examined the influence of the status of …

Mixed Martial Arts, Meaning, And Behavioral Peace: Examining Social Relationships In A Diverse Environment, Dana Dawson

All ETDs from UAB

This thesis investigates the manifestation of behavioral peace within the diverse subcultures of mixed martial arts (MMA) gyms, drawing from the operational definition provided by peace ethology, which encompasses more than just the absence of violence. Peace ethology investigates how behavioral peace is achieved through mutual interests, tolerance, helping, sharing, and the avoidance of aggressive confrontation. This thesis explores how behavioral peace manifests in environments characterized by controlled violence and vulnerability, focusing on three MMA gyms in Alabama. Employing an ethnographic and ethological framework, the methodology blends autoethnography with participant observations and semi-structured interviews to comprehend the cultural, environmental, and …

Investigating Impacts Of Caregiving On Cognitive Function: Role Of Social Support, Lu Tian

All ETDs from UAB

Study Aim: Using the stress process model as a framework, this dissertation aims to investigate the role of social support on the influence of informal caregiving on cognitive function of caregivers aged 50 years and older and to look at potential gender and racial differences in this association. Method: Leveraging data from the 2016 to 2020 waves of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), this research employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analysis to examine the influence of caregiving on the cognitive function of older adults. To comprehensively understand the pathways through which caregiving impacts cognitive outcomes, I use mediation …

Catecholamines And Catecholamine Resistance In Animal Models Of Metabolic Syndrome, Robert Follett Rosencrans

All ETDs from UAB

The sympathetic nervous system is a key regulator of energy homeostasis, in part, through the control of white adipose tissue lipolysis. Sympathetic nerves modulate adipose tissue physiology through the release of catecholamines, particularly norepinephrine, onto alpha- and beta-adrenergic receptors (a-AR; B-AR). Lipolysis refers to the breakdown of triglycerides into glycerol and free fatty acids, often in response to activation of B2/3-AR. Beta adrenergic activation of lipolysis is widely known to be impaired in patients with metabolic syndrome and animal models thereof (catecholamine resistance). Recent studies have demonstrated that catecholamine regulation of adipokine release is also disrupted, suggesting that catecholamine resistance …

The Resilient Regiment Digest 2024-25 Vol 1, Department Of Emergency Medicine

Department of Emergency Medicine Archives

The inaugural volume of The Resilient Regiment, the Emergency Department’s digest at Aga Khan University Hospital, highlights team achievements, departmental milestones, educational initiatives, and the EMERGE conference, alongside creative and academic contributions.

Rehabilitating Workers Aged 55 And Over: Professionals’ Perspectives And Solutions, Marie-José Durand, Marie-France Coutu, Alexandra Lecours, Guillaume Léonard, Valérie Lederer, Iuliana Nastasia, Junie Carrière, Marie-Andrée Paquette

Études primaires

Purpose: Work disability affects a growing number of workers aged 55 and over (W55 +). While rehabilitation programs have demonstrated efficacy for workers with an average age of 42, they often have not been designed to meet unique needs of aging workers. This study aimed to describe the difficulties encountered by work rehabilitation professionals and explore their solutions for improving services offered to W55 +. Methods: This study used a simple descriptive design with purposive sampling. Occupational therapists, physical therapists, and psychologists were mainly recruited in private clinics. An interview guide based on the Work Disability Paradigm was piloted and …

Diversity And Inclusion In Historical White Church: The Great Experiment, Deborah J. Roberts-Carter

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research project addresses the concern of minorities receiving spiritual growth from church leaders. This research project presents how a church accepted the challenge of removing segregation within the church's wall and moving towards integration into the spirit and teaching of Jesus Christ. The research project also has incorporated the book of Galatians, focusing on the Apostle Paul, reminding the Jews and the Gentiles that to fulfill the spirit and teachings of Jesus Christ, you have to Love your neighbor as yourself. The research project presents the methods the church has implemented, such as diversity and inclusion training and additional …

Barriers And Facilitators For The Reduction Of Illicit Opioid Use In The Peripartum Period, Jennifer L. Botelho, Jounia S. Saint-Juste

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: There has been a steady rise in the incidence of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) in pregnant women in the past decade, becoming a leading cause of maternal morbidity and mortality and prompting the need for a deeper understanding of challenges and strategies for improving care. The purpose of this integrative review is to identify barriers and facilitators for sobriety in individuals with opioid use in the peripartum period. Methods: An initial online search from CINAHL, PubMed, ScienceDirect, and PsychInfo was conducted with Boolean operators that yielded 1159 articles to be reviewed and uploaded to Covidence for screening. Original research …

Differentiated Instruction And Student Learning In Primary Classrooms, Xiaojing Zhou

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Differentiated instruction is crucial for meeting the varied needs of students by tailoring teaching methods, materials, and assessments to individual abilities, readiness and learning styles. Supported by theoretical foundations, this thesis focuses on the investigation of how differentiated instruction impacts primary students' learning outcomes and motivation, focusing on the effectiveness of different strategies, such as flexible grouping, in improving performance and understanding in subjects like mathematics and reading comprehension. It is also integrated into a range of teaching approaches such as project-based learning and school wide enrichment model. In international schools, differentiated instruction must be implemented with cultural sensitivity, taking …

Underrepresentation Of English Language Learners In Gifted And Talented Education, Carrie J. Webber

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For many years in the United States of America, as the number of students who speak a language other than English in the home has increased, the representation of these students in gifted and talented programs has been lacking. Research shows that although close to ten percent of all students are multilingual learners, typically only 2-4 percent of these students are represented in gifted programs. Since the percentage of gifted students overall is the same across all languages and cultures, it would make sense that the percentages of gifted students would be representative of that same percentage, however, there is …

The Intersection Of Health And Education: How School-Based Health Centers Address Health Disparities To Promote Learning, Sophie A. Koloski

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through a review of studies and literature, this thesis examines the role of school-based health centers (SBHCs) in addressing disparities in health and education among student populations. By integrating public health services within educational settings, SBHCs aim to enhance both student well-being and academic achievement. This comprehensive review explores the history, services, and funding models of SBHCs, alongside their impact on physical and mental health, school connectedness, and academic outcomes. Findings reveal that SBHCs significantly improve access to preventive and intervention-based health care, reduce barriers to education, and foster environments that support student engagement and success. Furthermore, the review discusses …