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Victor Hugo Was Right All Along: Les Misérables, The Tragedy Of A Punitive Parole System, And A Modern Path Forward, Sarah Gerwig

Mercer Law Review

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo’s tragic novel, was published over 160 years ago and yet it continues to capture imaginations and sympathies worldwide. It was made into an award-winning film over a decade ago. But before that, Les Misérables was one of the most popular Broadway musicals ever produced, having been viewed by over sixty million people, even beyond the viewership of other popular renditions in film and television. Despite (or perhaps because of) its heartbreaking themes, audiences sympathize with the main characters’ quest for redemption. How easy, in the story, to see the struggles and barriers Jean Valjean encounters—and …

Different Sides Of The Same Coin: How The Eleventh Circuit Deepened The Circuit Split For An Americans With Disabilities Act Failure-To-Accommodate Claim In Beasley V. O’Reilly Auto Parts, Anna Carr Hanks

Mercer Law Review

Through its decision in Beasley v. O’Reilly Auto Parts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit deepened the split among the circuit courts nationwide by explicitly requiring an adverse employment action in failure-to-accommodate claims under Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Through this opinion, the Eleventh Circuit joined the minority of circuits and suggested that the Supreme Court of the United States may soon need to revisit this issue to resolve the uncertainty stemming from this fundamental disagreement among the circuits.

Identity Crisis: The Supreme Court Of Georgia’S New Framework May Have Widespread Impact On Extended-Stay Motels And Their Occupants, Dawson B. Welsh

Mercer Law Review

Certainty is a trait valued highly by many, and it is perhaps most valued in the world of business where minimizing risk and maximizing profit is the name of the game. Efficiency Lodge, Inc. v. Neason developed what appeared to be a routine fight over occupancy into one of the most important redefinitions of a legal framework in the field of real estate. The Supreme Court of Georgia’s analysis of the relationships provides a legal framework for Georgia courts to apply when attempting to parse out the rights of the parties by specifically providing a new way for courts to …

Art Against All Odds: Creating In Solitary Confinement, Katherine Nikolau

Intertext

No abstract provided.

Examining Elementary English Language Teachers’ Professional Development Of Dispositions, Knowledge, And Skills, Jessica Reese

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine how professional development contributed to the dispositions, knowledge, and skills of elementary English language (EL) teachers. Historically, EL teachers received little professional development and ongoing support within their discipline of English as a Second Language, which led to inconsistencies with how EL teachers perceived their role as a language development expert. Although the literature review identified the necessary dispositions, knowledge, and skills of EL teachers, there was little research about how EL teachers accessed professional development to engage in continuous growth in their field. As part of the study, professional …

Elementary Educators’ Beliefs And Practices Regarding Explicit Math Vocabulary And Language Instruction, Katherine Lee Berlin

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

For the last couple decades, math achievement scores in the United States have remained stagnant or declined. Teachers are searching for ways to improve these scores. Much work has been done on number sense and math talks. But, are these the only tools to consider? What if the very language used to express mathematical knowledge is a key factor in how students gain their learning and ultimately express their thinking? Research has emerged that draws a relationship between explicit math vocabulary instruction and math achievement. While this is well documented, the practice is not commonly seen. Thus, I asked, “What …

Decoding Disease Mechanisms: Unraveling Large-Scale Biological Data For Novel Therapeutic Target Discovery, Yuntao Yang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

This dissertation leverages large biological datasets and data-driven research to enhance our understanding of complex human diseases, deploying a unified narrative across three interconnected bioinformatics studies. Each study targets a different biological level, including genes, proteins, cells, and tissues, to uncover disease mechanisms and speed up the discovery of potential therapeutic targets.

The first study addresses gene-level analysis in the context of bladder cancer. It integrates gene expression data from lab models with clinical survival data to identify new therapeutic targets. This research pinpoints the IL6/JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway as a promising target for treating SMARCB1-deficient bladder cancer, demonstrating how combining …

Artificial Intelligence In Business, Mallory Marsac

Honors Projects

The central focus of this project is to research different types of artificial intelligence that are present and emerging in the world. By looking into the current and future possibilities of artificial intelligence in a business setting, a better understanding of the technology itself, along with the potential benefits and costs associated, can be gained.

Emotionally Harmed? It Might Not Matter: An Analysis Of Cummings V. Premier Rehab Keller And Its Implications For Title Ii Of The Americans With Disabilities Act Of 1990, Sotir Zhupa

Cardozo Law Review

On April 28, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down an opinion that shocked the disability rights community. In Cummings v. Premier Rehab Keller, P.L.L.C., the Court ruled that compensatory damages for emotional distress may not be recovered by claimants who sue for disability discrimination under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (section 504) and section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010..

Cummings involved a woman, Jane Cummings, who is both deaf and legally blind. Because of her disabilities, she communicates through American Sign Language (ASL)—her first and primary language—and cannot communicate …

Accommodations And Resources For Audiologists With Hearing Loss, Joseph Thomas Kraus

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

Hearing loss affects millions of people worldwide. The audiology profession strives to help all individuals achieve their communicative goals and needs, providing support and expertise to a deserving population. Audiologists themselves are not immune to the challenges of hearing differences themselves. This project has two main objectives to identify and discuss needs and challenges faced by audiologists, both within their professional field, as well as their educational upbringing, and to highlight specific accommodations that can enhance their professional success. The research phase of this project aims to develop a resource guide tailored to the needs of audiologists with hearing loss …

Asynchronous Video Directly Observed Therapy To Monitor Short-Course Latent Tuberculosis Infection Treatment: Results Of A Randomized Controlled Trial, Richard S. Garfein, Lin Liu, Javier Cepeda, Susannah Graves, Stacie San Miguel, Antonette Antonio, Jazmine Cuevas-Mota, Valerie Mercer, Mckayla Miller, Donald G. Cantazaro, Phillip Rios, Fredric Raab, Constance A. Benson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background

Observing medication ingestion through self-recorded videos (video directly observed therapy [VDOT]) has been shown to be a cost-effective alternative to in-person directly observed therapy (DOT) for monitoring adherence to treatment for tuberculosis disease. VDOT could be a useful tool to monitor short-course latent tuberculosis infection (LTBI) treatment.

Methods

We conducted a prospective randomized controlled trial comparing VDOT (intervention) and clinic-based DOT (control) among patients newly diagnosed with LTBI who agreed to a once-weekly 3-month treatment regimen of isoniazid and rifapentine. Study outcomes were treatment completion and patient satisfaction. We also assessed costs. Pre- and posttreatment interviews were conducted.

Results …

Consideration For Expanding The Audiology Scope Of Practice To Include Prescription Medication Authority, Erin Grace Gill

Doctoral Scholarly Projects & Capstones

The demand for medical professionals rises in conjunction with the rise of prescriptions written annually in the United States, but there are not enough physicians to meet the demand for patient prescriptions (Mohamadloo et al., 2019). In the United States, 2.4 million healthcare visits for acute otitis externa were recorded in 2007; approximately half were between the ages of 5-14 years old. Healthcare providers were estimated to have spent about 600,000 hours treating acute otitis externa.

Prescriptive authority is the ability of healthcare providers to prescribe specific medications, including controlled substances. Prescriptive authority is legally allocated by federal and state …

The Foreshadow Docket, Bert I. Huang

Faculty Scholarship

Imagine the Supreme Court issuing an emergency order that signals interest in departing from precedent, as if foreshadowing a change in the law. Seeing this, should the lower courts start ruling in ways that also anticipate the law of the future? They need not do so in their merits rulings. That much is clear. Such a signal does not create new binding precedent. Rather, it reflects the Justices’ guess about the future of the law — and what if that guess is wrong?

Yet for a lower court ruling on a temporary stay or injunction, the task seems to call …

The Will To Chaos And Disorder: The Behemoth As A Model Of Political Economy, Bernard E. Harcourt

Faculty Scholarship

The history of political economy is tormented by beasts. The most famous is the Leviathan, the giant serpentine monster that figures in Hobbes’s masterpiece of modern political theory. Robert Fredona and Sophus Reinert spotlight another sea monster, the Kraken, that giant octopus or squid with a particular morphology (i.e., its tentacles) that so fittingly describes the grip of multinational corporations, stateless financial capital, social media, and tech giants today. But there are still other monsters in the bestiary of political economy. In this essay, I highlight the Behemoth, a land monster that captures another critical dimension of political economy: the …

Mindful Movements Matter: Differentiating Active Body Movements In Underprivileged Students’ Learning Of Physics Concepts, Seokmin Kang, Mingtsan Lu, John B. Black, Sungyeun Kim

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

Background

The theory of embodied cognition claims that body interaction with the environment change how we think and constitute cognition. Accordingly, active learning enriches learning experiences which in turn lead to better learning.

Purpose

Although learning by moving one’s body is often regarded as active learning, not all body movements lead to better learning. To investigate the influence of different levels of body movements on learning, we developed embodied learning activities and implemented in elementary afterschool program.

Sample

Twenty-seven fifth graders (12 girls, 15 boys) for Study 1 and forty-eight fifth graders (28 girls, 20 boys) for Study 2 were …

Faculty Senate Monthly Packet April 2024, Portland State University Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The April 1, 2024 monthly packet includes the April agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held April 1, 2024.

The Tiktok Dilemma: Regulating Tiktok For Minors In The Age Of Free Speech, Julia Waters

Brigham Young University Prelaw Review

The influence of social media platforms, particularly TikTok, on the mental health and well-being of adolescents has become a matter of increasing concern. This paper examines the constitutionality of Montana's proposed ban on TikTok, arguing that while well-intentioned, such a ban would infringe upon citizens' First Amendment rights. Instead, the focus should be on addressing the underlying issues of data collection practices and content moderation. The paper proposes federal legislative solutions, including age verification requirements and amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act to hold social media platforms accountable for harmful content. By addressing these issues, policymakers can …

Effects Of Wind Turbine Noise On Songbird Behavior During Nonbreeding Season, Yael Lehnardt, Jesse R. Barber, Oded Berger-Tal

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Anthropogenic noise is one of the fastest growing, globally widespread pollutants, affecting countless species worldwide. Despite accumulating evidence of the negative impacts of wind turbines on wildlife, little is known about how the noise they generate affects ecological systems. Songbirds may be susceptible to noise pollution due to their reliance on vocal communication and thus, in this field study, we examined how songbirds are affected by wind turbine noise. We broadcasted noise produced by one wind turbine in a migratory stopover site during the nonbreeding season. Throughout the study, we repeatedly monitored the acoustic environment and songbird community before, during, …

A Comparison Of Instructional Methods For Teaching Apa Skills, Zachary Hooten

Theses

Writing is highly important for college students, and they will need to conform to the formatting of the writing styles used in their classes. One style required of many students is the American Psychological Association (APA). Students often make errors when formatting references using APA Style. Although various instructional strategies have been used to teach these skills, some methods take a long time to achieve minimal increases or are cumbersome to implement in some learning environments. Behavioral skills training (BST) is an empirically supported method for teaching skills that involves providing the learner with written and verbal instructions, modeling, practice …

How Does Big Data Affect Organizational Financial Performance In Turbulent Markets? The Role Of Customer-Linking And Selling Capabilities, Omar S. Itani, Ashish Kalra, Amin Rostami

Marketing Faculty Publications

The information age provides vast opportunities for organizations to improve their efficiencies by relying on big data-AI empowered analytics (BDA). The purpose of this study is to address the critical question of how BDA-fit affects organizational financial performance, taking into consideration differences between markets and customer change caused by technology turbulence. Using data collected at the firm level and building on Task- Technology Fit Theory and Dynamic Capabilities Theory, empirical results indicate that BDA-fit is important to drive organizational financial performance through the development of customer-linking and selling capabilities. These results vary across markets, with BDA-fit having stronger effects on …

Mandating Trauma-Informed Care Education For Indiana Nurses: A Health Policy Analysis, Lori Hardie

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: The prevalence of trauma exposure poses a significant concern for public health. Extensive research has established the correlation between trauma and adverse health consequences. Studies indicate that adopting trauma-informed care (TIC) can enhance satisfaction, communication, and overall patient health outcomes. However, the current state of TIC education in academic programs and professional practice settings needs to be improved.

Objectives: The goal of this policy analysis project was to devise specific language and strategies to promote the implementation of a TIC education mandate for Indiana nurses.

Methods: The design of this project was an analysis of governmental …

The Impact Of Hypertension Education On Knowledge And Management Of Blood Pressure, Nkechi Onwuemene Msn, Fnp-Bc

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: The low rate of blood pressure management knowledge has been identified as an essential risk factor for uncontrolled hypertension (HTN). Providing an educational intervention for HTN management in a retail clinic setting will allow timely treatment of HTN and decrease the costs of associated health related complications.

Objectives: This project aimed to improve hypertension knowledge and blood pressure management in patients diagnosed with hypertension or patients with blood pressure readings that exceed the guidelines, seeking care in a retail clinic.

Methodology: A pre-post educational intervention was used in this evidence-based project. Following BP screening, 46 participants …

Increasing Early Patient-Centered Advance Care Planning In An Outpatient Oncology Clinic Through A Nurse-Driven Workflow: A Quality Improvement Project, Ellen Legrand Dnp, Rn, Ocn

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Current practice for advance care planning (ACP) in oncology patients does not align with best practice, which is early, repeated, and interdisciplinary.

Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate the process, feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of a nurse-driven ACP workflow in an outpatient breast cancer clinic. The project team further sought to evaluate the impact of the workflow on advance directives and ACP notes.

Methodology: This project followed the Plan-Do-Study-Act quality improvement framework. Breast cancer patients seen by two outpatient physicians received an email to assess interest in completing the Our Care …

Measuring Implementation To Impact: Evaluation Of A Chronic Pain Integrative Medical Group Visit Program, Paula Tomczak Msn, Rn, Lmt, Cph, Cne

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Chronic pain is a public health crisis. Current clinical practice guidelines recommend non-invasive mind-body therapies as a first-line treatment, and studies indicate they can be successfully delivered in group settings using an Integrative Medical Group Visit model. A Federally Qualified Health Center piloted a nurse-led Integrative Chronic Pain Group program for Medication Assisted Treatment patients experiencing chronic pain and opioid use disorder, for which an evaluation was needed.

Objectives: This evaluation examined program quality, value, and significance to provide a progress report toward established goals to inform stakeholder decision-making and improve effectiveness.

Methods: Following the CDC Program Evaluation Framework, …

The Implementation Of The Ahrq Teach-Back Tool Kit On A Same Day Surgery Unit, Hanh Tran

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Patient education is an essential part of caring for patients. Failure to properly educate our patients can result in negative outcomes. To confirm patients have understood their treatment plan healthcare providers use the Teach-Back Method (TBM) to have patients state back in their own words what they need to know or do to take care of themselves.

Aims/Objectives: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project is to provide education for the Same Day Surgery nurses on the TBM to increase confidence and conviction when using the TBM to improve patients’ understanding of discharge instructions. Outcomes for …

Oral Screening Protocol Program: A Doctor Of Nursing Practice Project, Nina Tran Dnp, Fnp-Bc

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: An increasing lack of compliance by Registered Nurses (RN) to perform oral health assessments leads to detrimental health concerns. Despite increase of evidence regarding abnormalities, compliance performing health exams are still compromised. Inpatient medical surgical progressive care unit (MSPCU) are even more compromised due to the patient’s comorbidities. Measures to optimize oral health performed by RNs could decrease oral health detriments.

Objectives: The purpose of this project was to develop, implement, and evaluate a program in order to improve oral care by RNs and identify the abnormalities assessed. The primary aim of this project was to implement …

Improving Self-Care Knowledge: A Nurse-Led Multimedia Patient Teaching Initiative For Hospitalized Patients With Heart Failure, Christine S. Boehm Jd, Bsn,Rn

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Patients must perform self-care after discharge to manage their heart failure. In the project setting, usual care includes a handout for patients with or without verbal teaching. Multimedia education gives patients the ability to learn with a combination of methods - video, verbal and written.

Objective: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to determine if patients with heart failure have a greater increase in self-care knowledge before discharge with the use of multimedia patient education consisting of video, verbal teaching and written materials, compared to the usual care of verbal teaching and written materials.

Methods: This project …

Deprescribing Proton Pump Inhibitors In A Rural Health Clinic, Jason Thomas Barney

Doctoral Dissertations & Projects

Background: Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) have been extensively prescribed for gastrointestinal pathologies, contributing to $14 billion in annual expenditure in the United States alone. Inappropriate PPI prescriptions, affecting 48% of adults, raise concerns about prolonged usage and associated health risks. Addressing these issues is vital, considering the significant impact of PPIs on patient health and healthcare costs.

Local Problem: A Midwestern clinic grapples with inappropriate and unnecessary PPI use among patients. In response, a comprehensive deprescribing intervention combining a provider algorithm with patient education was implemented to reduce PPI usage that was medically unnecessary.

Methods: A literature …

The Ethicality Of Gene Alteration In Human Embryos, Alyssa Scudder

Augustana Center for the Study of Ethics Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Automated Model Building And Protein Identification In Cryo-Em Maps, Kiarash Jamali, Lukas Käll, Rui Zhang, Alan Brown, Dari Kimanius, Sjors H W Scheres

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Interpreting electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) maps with atomic models requires high levels of expertise and labour-intensive manual intervention in three-dimensional computer graphics programs