Digital Commons Network^™

Bigger Dreams, Majolyn N. Nunez

Publications and Research

While at the day program, my new care manager came to me with an application for the Melissa Riggio Higher Education program, and it changed everything for me. Today, I’m 30 years old and a junior at Hostos Community College. I have classes two days a week in education and history and I still live with my sister. I think being an older student has helped me because I’m more mature and independent. I changed. I’m more understanding, and I’m learning to depend on myself.

Asian Americans And The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Multi-Lingual Survey In Greater Boston, Carolyn Wong, Ziting Kuang

Institute for Asian American Studies Publications

This report on Asian Americans and the Covid-19 Pandemic describes lessons from a multilingual survey administered in Greater Boston during the Fall, Winter, and early Spring of 2020-21. The Institute for Asian American Studies (IAAS) at UMass Boston designed and administered the IAAS Covid-19 Survey on the health, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic for Asian Americans. The IAAS Covid-19 Survey was designed to fill significant gaps in data available from a previous Spring 2020 survey, Living in Boston During Covid-19, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and administered by UMass Boston’s Center for Survey Research …

Search For An Axionlike Particle In B Meson Decays, J. P. Lees, V. Poireau, V. Tisserand, E. Grauges, A. Palano, G. Eigen, D. N. Brown, Yu. G. Kolomensky, M. Fritsch, H. Koch, T. Schroeder, R. Cheaib, C. Hearty, T. S. Mattison, J. A. Mckenna, R. Y. So, V. E. Blinov, A. R. Buzykaev, Milind Purohit, Jeffrey R. Wilson, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

Axionlike particles (ALPs) are predicted in many extensions of the standard model, and their masses can naturally be well below the electroweak scale. In the presence of couplings to electroweak bosons, these particles could be emitted in flavor-changing B meson decays. We report herein a search for an ALP, a, in the reaction B ^±→K ^± a, a →γ γ using data collected by the BABAR experiment at SLAC. No significant signal is observed, and 90% confidence level upper limits on the ALP coupling to electroweak bosons are derived as a function of ALP mass, improving current …

Juvenile Solitary Confinement And The Eighth Amendment, Taylor R. Graves

Honors Thesis

This literature review examines the practice of juvenile solitary confinement, applies the United States Supreme Court’s Eighth Amendment jurisprudence, argues that the practice should be declared unconstitutional as a violation of the Eighth Amendment, and calls for a categorical ban. The Cruel and Unusual Punishment Clause of the Eighth Amendment states, “nor [shall] cruel and unusual punishments [be] inflicted.” U.S. Const. amend. VIII. Juvenile solitary confinement is cruel and unusual, in violation of the Eighth Amendment, because juveniles are different. The United States Supreme Court has long recognized that juveniles should not be held to the same standards of …

A Document Analysis Of Political Rhetoric In 2021-22 South Dakota Higher Education, Carson M. Sehr

Honors Thesis

This study is a document analysis in an attempt to understand political rhetoric from four main players from the end of the 2021 South Dakota Legislative Session to the end of the 2022 Legislative Session. These four players are 1) Governor Noem, 2) the Board of Regents, 3) the South Dakota Legislature, and 4) the Argus Leader. One-hundred eight documents from these sources were analyzed, and deemed “rhetorically political” by presence of the phrases “fairness in women’s sports,” “critical race theory,” or “opportunity center,” or deemed “rhetorically apolitical” by the absence of these phrases. The rates of rhetorically political documents, …

The Fed's International Dollar Liquidity Facilities: New Evidence On Effects, Linda Goldberg, Fabiola Ravazzolo

Documents

No abstract provided.

Never Mind Betrayal: America’S Indifference To The Kurds Is A Strategic Blunder, Jonathan Honigman

Journal of Strategic Security

Although they have proven themselves to be loyal and capable U.S. partners, America has refused to endorse either independence for Iraqi Kurds or autonomy for Syrian Kurds. That policy has been academically underscored by several Realism-based concepts including an offshore balancing approach to the Middle East. This paper argues that America can adjust to new realities in the region without having to forsake its worthwhile Kurdish partnerships. I first compare and contrast the costs of American support for Kurds and then refute the notion that Kurdish independence in Iraq or autonomy in Syria would cause instability or be nonviable. I …

Cultural Intelligence In The Study Of Intelligence, Brian L. Alcorn, Beth Eisenfeld

Journal of Strategic Security

Intelligence officers often interact in culturally diverse settings different from the settings in which they grew up. Yet, there is a lack of academic research about the integration of culture and the study of intelligence. Researchers have made Cultural Intelligence (CQ) measurable via the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and successfully applied it in the business world as a predictor of success in multi-cultural environments. This article describes an application of the CQS, using the Observer Report questionnaire to assess the memoirs of three successful intelligence officers to ascertain the degree that CQ applies to the success of officers in United …

Capital Of Spies: Intelligence Agencies In Berlin During The Cold War. By Sven Felix Kellerhoff And Bernd Von Kostka. Translated By Linden Lyons. Philadelphia And Oxford, Casemate Publishers, 2021., Edward J. Hagerty

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Policing In France. Edited By Jacques De Maillard And Wesley G. Skogan. New York And London: Routledge, 2021., John P. Sullivan

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of The "Mexican Drug Violence: Hybrid Warfare, Predatory Capitalism And The Logic Of Cruelty" And "The Rise Of The Narcostate (Mafia States), Daniel Argomedo Weisz

Journal of Strategic Security

No abstract provided.

Total Wreck, Bianca Arroyave

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Bianca is the baby of her large Colombian/Puerto Rican family. She will use that and her spitfire personality to her advantage any chance she gets. A heated debate is her love language and sarcasm, the enemy. A lover of surreal worlds, Bianca thinks of herself part of her own Colombian crime family. Growing up on a healthy diet of campy black comedies and deep crime dramas, Bianca fuses the two in a new way. She would say her disability is the least interesting thing about her, but it does serve to give her a unique perspective on writing disabled characters. …

Differences Between First-Generation And Continuing-Generation College Students In Psychological Need Fulfillment, Academic Engagement, And Retention, Cole A. Holt

All NMU Master's Theses

First-generation college students (FGCS) often struggle to find academic success unlike continuing-generation college students (CGCS) who often obtain higher GPA by the end of the semester. Using self-determination theory (SDT) as a lens, differences between FGCS and CGCS both at the beginning and end of the semester were investigated. Measures included psychological need fulfillment (autonomy, competence, relatedness), academic self-regulation (relative autonomy index), stress, academic engagement (learning involvement), academic performance (GPA), and retention. Between groups t-tests were used to assess differences in FGCS and CGCS, whereas multiple regression analyses were conducted to test relationships among the measured variables. FGCS reported …

Nicholas Temperley, Edward Loder, And Retrospect Opera's Raymond And Agnes, Justin Vickers

Faculty Publications - Music

This review-essay chronicles nineteenth-century music specialist Nicholas Temperley's discovery of the obscure score and the long road to the present recording by Retrospect Opera, which navigates Loder's composition of Raymond and Agnes in spite of the puzzling complexities of Edward Fitzball's libretto.

Facemasks: Perceptions And Use In An Ed Population During Covid-19, Vidya Eswaran, Anna Marie Chang, R. Gentry Wilkerson, Kelli N. O'Laughlin, Brian Chinnock, Stephanie A. Eucker, Brigitte M. Baumann, Nancy Anaya, Daniel G. Miller, Adrianne N. Haggins, Jesus R. Torres, Erik S. Anderson, Stephen C. Lim, Martina T. Caldwell, Ali S. Raja, Robert M. Rodriguez

Emergency Medicine Articles

STUDY OBJECTIVE: Facemask use is associated with reduced transmission of SARS-CoV-2. Most surveys assessing perceptions and practices of mask use miss the most vulnerable racial, ethnic, and socio-economic populations. These same populations have suffered disproportionate impacts from the pandemic. The purpose of this study was to assess beliefs, access, and practices of mask wearing across 15 urban emergency department (ED) populations.

METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of a cross-sectional study of ED patients from December 2020 to March 2021 at 15 geographically diverse, safety net EDs across the US. The primary outcome was frequency of mask use outside the …

The Possibility Of Special Verdicts By Court-Martial Panels, Christopher D. Carrier

Montana Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Being A Chi O To A Fraternity Boy Is The Greatest Thing That Could Happen”: Reputation, Heterosocialization, And Status Among Sorority Women, Anne Elizabeth Harrington

Honors Theses

Since their establishment, National Panhellenic Conference sororities have existed to maintain traditional white femininity and womanhood in an age of women’s higher education. A central aspect of this traditional womanhood was marriage, so sororities focused heavily on appealing to and socializing with men, called “heterosocialization.” Drawing on in-depth interviews with 19 women affiliated with 8 National Panhellenic Conference sororities at Mississippi State University, I examine how a woman’s reputation and status – and thus her access to heterosocialization opportunities - in the Greek system is still dependent on her appeal to fraternity men. There is a clear and consistent, but …

Does Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Amd) Treatment Influence Patient Falls And Mobility? A Systematic Review., Hannah Garrigan, Jacquelyn N. Hamati, Parth Lalakia, Rosemary Frasso, Brooke Salzman, Leslie Hyman

Student Papers, Posters & Projects

PURPOSE: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of irreversible blindness, increases fall risk through impaired central vision. Falls place an enormous economic burden on healthcare systems. We hypothesized that AMD treatments may reduce patients' falls risk. This systematic review (ID #: 172623) synthesized the current understanding of wet and dry AMD treatments' impact on patient falls and mobility, connecting these two public health issues.

METHODS: On April 17, 2020, PubMed, Scopus, CINAHL, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials were queried. Clinical trials and observational studies were included, while non-English and non-primary studies were excluded. Two authors screened, …

The Original Meaning Of “Due Process Of Law” In The Fifth Amendment, Max Crema, Lawrence B. Solum

Faculty Scholarship

The modern understanding of the Fifth Amendment Due Process of Law Clause is dramatically different from the original meaning of the constitutional text. The Supreme Court has embraced both substantive due process—a jurisprudence of unenumerated rights—and procedural due process—a grab bag of doctrines that touch upon almost every aspect of administrative and judicial procedures. We demonstrate that the original meaning of the Clause is much narrower. In 1791, “due process of law” had a narrow and technical meaning: the original sense of the word “process” was close to the modern sense that the word has when used in the phrase …

Evaluating Legal Needs, Luz E. Herrera, Amber Baylor, Nandita Chaudhuri, Felipe Hinojosa

Faculty Scholarship

This article is the first to explore legal needs in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas––a region that is predominantly Latinx and has both rural and urban characteristics. There are few legal needs assessments of majority Latinx communities, and none that examine needs in areas that are also U.S. border communities. Access to justice studies often overlook this area of the U.S. and this segment of the population despite their unique qualities. Latinos are projected to constitute the largest ethnic group in the country by 2060, making it imperative that we study access to justice-related assets, needs, opportunities, and barriers …

Sheriffs, State Troopers, And The Spillover Effects Of Immigration Policing, Huyen Pham, Pham Hoang Van

Faculty Scholarship

As the Biden Administration decides whether to continue the 287(g) program (the controversial program deputizing local law enforcement officers to enforce federal immigration laws), our research shows that the program has broader negative effects on policing behavior than previously identified. To date, debate about the 287(g) program has focused exclusively on the policing behavior of law enforcement agencies like sheriff’s offices that sign the agreements, and on concerns that these signatory local enforcement agencies (“LEAs”) engage in racial profiling. Our research shows that the agreements also negatively affect the behavior of nearby, nonsignatory law enforcement agencies. Using 18 million traffic …

The Long And Winding Road To Effective Copyright Protection In China, Peter K. Yu

Faculty Scholarship

In November 2020, China adopted the Third Amendment to the Copyright Law, providing a major overhaul of its copyright regime. This Amendment entered into effect on June 1, 2021. The last time the regime was completely revamped was in October 2001, when the Copyright Law was amended two months before China joined the World Trade Organization. While U.S. policymakers and industry groups have had mixed reactions to the recent Amendment, the new law presents an opportunity to take stock of the progress China has made in the copyright reform process. This Article begins by mapping the long and winding road …

Transplanting Anti-Suit Injunctions, Peter K. Yu, Jorge L. Contreras, Yu Yang

Faculty Scholarship

When adjudicating high-value cases involving the licensing of patents covering industry standards such as Wi-Fi and 5G (standards-essential patents or SEPs), courts around the world have increasingly issued injunctions preventing one party from pursuing parallel litigation in another jurisdiction (anti-suit injunctions or ASIs). In response, courts in other jurisdictions have begun to issue anti-anti-suit injunctions, or even anti-anti-anti suit injunctions, to prevent parties from hindering the proceedings in those courts. Most of these activities have been limited to the United States and Europe, but in 2020 China emerged as a powerful new source of ASIs in global SEP litigation. The …

Immersivepov: Filming How-To Videos With A Head-Mounted 360° Action Camera, Kevin Huang, Jiannan Li, Maurício Sousa, Tovi Grossman

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

How-to videos are often shot using camera angles that may not be optimal for learning motor tasks, with a prevalent use of third-person perspective. We present immersivePOV, an approach to film how-to videos from an immersive first-person perspective using a head-mounted 360° action camera. immersivePOV how-to videos can be viewed in a Virtual Reality headset, giving the viewer an eye-level viewpoint with three Degrees of Freedom. We evaluated our approach with two everyday motor tasks against a baseline first-person perspective and a third-person perspective. In a between-subjects study, participants were assigned to watch the task videos and then replicate the …

Learning Scenario Representation For Solving Two-Stage Stochastic Integer Programs, Yaoxin Wu, Wen Song, Zhiguang Cao, Jie Zhang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Many practical combinatorial optimization problems under uncertainty can be modeled as stochastic integer programs (SIPs), which are extremely challenging to solve due to the high complexity. To solve two-stage SIPs efficiently, we propose a conditional variational autoencoder (CVAE) based method to learn scenario representation for a class of SIP instances. Specifically, we design a graph convolutional network based encoder to embed each scenario with the deterministic part of its instance (i.e. context) into a low-dimensional latent space, from which a decoder reconstructs the scenario from its latent representation conditioned on the context. Such a design effectively captures the dependencies of …

Resil: Revivifying Function Signature Inference Using Deep Learning With Domain-Specific Knowledge, Yan Lin, Debin Gao, David Lo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Function signature recovery is important for binary analysis and security enhancement, such as bug finding and control-flow integrity enforcement. However, binary executables typically have crucial information vital for function signature recovery stripped off during compilation. To make things worse, recent studies show that many compiler optimization strategies further complicate the recovery of function signatures with intended violations to function calling conventions.In this paper, we first perform a systematic study to quantify the extent to which compiler optimizations (negatively) impact the accuracy of existing deep learning techniques for function signature recovery. Our experiments show that a state-of-the-art deep learning technique has …

On Size-Oriented Long-Tailed Graph Classification Of Graph Neural Networks, Zemin Liu, Qiheng Mao, Chenghao Liu, Yuan Fang, Jianling Sun

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The prevalence of graph structures attracts a surge of investigation on graph data, enabling several downstream tasks such as multigraph classification. However, in the multi-graph setting, graphs usually follow a long-tailed distribution in terms of their sizes, i.e., the number of nodes. In particular, a large fraction of tail graphs usually have small sizes. Though recent graph neural networks (GNNs) can learn powerful graph-level representations, they treat the graphs uniformly and marginalize the tail graphs which suffer from the lack of distinguishable structures, resulting in inferior performance on tail graphs. To alleviate this concern, in this paper we propose a …

Chatbot4qr: Interactive Query Refinement For Technical Question Retrieval, Neng Zhang, Qiao Huang, Xin Xia, Ying Zou, David Lo, Zhenchang Xing

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Technical Q&A sites (e.g., Stack Overflow(SO)) are important resources for developers to search for knowledge about technical problems. Search engines provided in Q&A sites and information retrieval approaches have limited capabilities to retrieve relevant questions when queries are imprecisely specified, such as missing important technical details (e.g., the user's preferred programming languages). Although many automatic query expansion approaches have been proposed to improve the quality of queries by expanding queries with relevant terms, the information missed is not identified. Moreover, without user involvement, the existing query expansion approaches may introduce unexpected terms and lead to undesired results. In this paper, …

The Impact Of Language Attitudes On The Bilingual And Bicultural Self-Perceptions Of Fifth-Grade Latino Students, Abigail Winnes

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the impact of language attitudes on the bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions of fifth-grade Latino students. The research questions posed in this study included: 1) What are the language attitudes (specifically toward English, Spanish, and Spanish-English bilingualism) held by Spanish-speaking English learners in Fifth Grade? and 2) How do these attitudes interact with students’ developing bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions? The literature review includes research related to heritage language maintenance; societal attitudes toward minority languages and their speakers; Latino language attitudes; language attitudes in multilingual educational settings; and the development of bilingual and bicultural self-perceptions. Participants in this study …

Factors Of Persistence In Multilingual Abe Secondary Credential Participants, Sherry Smith

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Theses and Dissertations

The research question addressed in this study is What factors contribute to multilinguals’ persistence in adult secondary credential programs? ABE participants in general have a high rate of stopping out of programs. For those trying to earn a secondary credential in a second language, the goal of earning a secondary credential may be more complex. There was little research focusing on this population of ABE participants with this goal. This mixed methods retrospective case study examines which factors supported the persistence of three multilingual participants in Adult Basic Education (ABE) who earned their GED®. The supports are categorized into individual, …