Digital Commons Network^™

Essay, Waterskiing Lake Maggiore, Jack E. Davis

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

“Waterskiing Lake Maggiore” is a first-person narrative that recalls Davis' experience waterskiing Lake Maggiore, a body of water that has been polluted by manmade endeavors. The narrative draws parallels between human action, natural consequences, and the desire for a more equitable relationship with nature.

Poem, Maximo Park Picnic, Amanda Hagood

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

Maximo Park Picnic is a sestina (poem) that observes various messages carved into the trees that populate the waterfront park, messages that alternate between youthful and reverential. As a modified natural setting, the park serves as a reflection point for the narrator to remark on what has been, what is, and what is yet to come along the ever-shifting shoreline.

Essay, Oysters, Gary Mormino

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

“Oysters” explores Tampa Bay’s history of oyster harvesting and how this once-revered and plentiful delicacy has suffered from infrastructural expansion and unchecked pollution. The eponymous mollusk oscillates between a readily available bounty and an environmental omen that signals the ecological doom of the region, demonstrating the significance of the oyster regarding the identity of Tampa Bay.

Poem, 1923: A Crowd Of People Swimming In The Water And Walking Through The Sand On Sunset Beach In Treasure Island, Florida, Thomas Hallock

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

1923: A crowd of people… in Treasure Island, Florida is a modified pantoum (poem) that frames the Floridian beach as a space often thought of as frozen in time and insulated from grim consequences. The reality of what can happen at the beach, however, imbues the poem’s tone with the weight of the knowledge that even this conceptual slice of veritable paradise must adhere to the rules of the world beyond the shoreline.

Essay, Lake Legacies, Black And Beautiful, Sheree Greer

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

“Lake Legacies, Black and Beautiful” is a short, observational meditation on the natural surroundings of Lake Rogers Park and other nearby bodies of water as witnesses and repositories of history that reverberate with the identities and deeds of Black families and figures. The observations culminate in a vision of subtropical comfort that simultaneously echoes past lives and assures the respite of the present.

Poem, Water Hyacinths, Gloria Muñoz

Creekshed: Ekphrastic Writing with the Archives

Water Hyacinths is a poem that explores the sights, sounds, and composition of Florida through a synthesis of mythological imagery and theatrical descriptions. The poem presents the state as a natural entity that conceals and reveals itself in both whimsical and dire situations and phrases.

Latino Parent-Daughter Relationships: Educational Motivation And Persistence In High School To Community College Transition, Marlen Vasquez

Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative exploration of the experiences of Latina daughters of immigrant parents during the critical transition from high school to community college. Focusing on the role that Latino parents have in affecting their daughters' educational motivation and persistence, the research employed semi-structured, in-depth interviews with Generation 1.5 (immigrated to the U.S. as children or youth) or second-generation (born in the U.S. to immigrant parents) Latina daughters. The interviews allowed for a comprehensive examination of the complex factors affecting these young women's educational journeys. These experiences did not occur in isolation. In addition to struggling with emergent ethnic, …

Deaf Community, Cochlear Implants, And Language Access, Amelia Segroves

Honors Theses

This thesis looks at how getting a cochlear implant can affect a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing person’s identity, language development, and sense of belonging. It compares people who see deafness as part of a rich culture (big “D” Deaf) with those who see it more as a medical condition (little “d” deaf). By reviewing studies and articles, the research explores how early exposure to language, school environments, and family choices influence how people communicate and see themselves.

This thesis looks at how getting a cochlear implant can affect a Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing person’s identity, language development, and sense of belonging. It …

The Difference In Financial Literacy Between Students Of The Business College And The Rest Of The Student Body At Wmu, Ivane Mkheidze

Honors Theses

This thesis investigates the persistent gap in financial literacy among high school and college students, despite increased emphasis on financial education over recent decades. Drawing inspiration from Lewis Mandell’s studies, including “Financial Literacy: If It’s So Important, Why Isn’t It Improving?”, the research evaluates the effectiveness of financial literacy courses and highlights their failure to produce long-term gains in knowledge or behavioral change. Through a synthesis of academic literature and critique of methodologies, the thesis explores the inefficacy of current teaching models, including overreliance on engagement tools like the Stock Market Game, and the influence of socio-economic factors, motivation, and …

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis Of Aducanumab Versus Placebo For Patients With Mild Cognitive Impairment And Mild Alzheimer’S Disease, Xiaomo Xiong, Gang Lv, Jacob Jordan King, Minghui Li, Jing Yuan, Z Kevin Lu

Faculty Publications

Objectives To assess the cost-effectiveness of aducanumab at its updated price for treating patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and mild Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

Design Cost-effectiveness analysis.

Settings A five-state Markov model was constructed using 10 000 virtual patients to assess the cost-effectiveness of aducanumab from the perspective of the US healthcare system. The model employed a one-year cycle time and a lifetime time horizon. Transition probabilities and mortality rates were derived from a literature review. To address uncertainty and generalise the base case results, both one-way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses were conducted.

Participants 10 000 virtual patients with MCI …

Surgical Smoke Evacuation Quality Improvement Project, Angela Howell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Abstract

Background: Surgical smoke is a byproduct produced during surgical procedures when high-energy producing devices are used to vaporize tissue. This smoke poses health risk to anyone present in the operating room.

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to educate and minimize the exposure of both staff and patients to the hazardous toxic fumes and vapors produced by energy-generating electrocautery devices.

Methods: The intervention based on the Kim Ball Smoke Evacuation Compliance Model was implemented in a large military hospital with 20 operating rooms and three labor and delivery suites. Implementation included formal education strategies, equipment …

The Colby Echo (2025-04-17), Colby College

The Colby Echo

Published by the students of Colby College since 1877, The Colby Echo is the weekly, editorially independent student-run newspaper of Colby College in Waterville, Maine. Published monthly, 1877-1886; semi-monthly, 1886-1897; and weekly during the academic year, 1898-present.

Primary Care Telehealth In A Dynamic Healthcare Environment From Digital Divide To Healthcare Outcomes, Yunxi Zhang, Lincy S Lal, Saurabh Chandra, John Michael Swint

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

With expanded telehealth availability in primary care, its impact on quality of care and associated costs remains debated. Analyzing 199,829 Medicare beneficiaries in Mississippi (2019-2021), we found telehealth utilization associated with significant sociodemographic disparities, reduced inpatient admissions, and lower 30-day readmissions. By accounting for primary care utilization, our findings suggest that the higher absolute costs observed among telehealth users may reflect underlying healthcare needs rather than telehealth utilization.

Inclusive Science Education: High School Biology Educator’S Voice, Experiences, Attitudes, And Challenges Instructing Students With Extensive Support Needs, Jessica Nichole Minton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Students with extensive support needs are moving into inclusive general education science classrooms in higher concentrations. Teachers’ commitment to their students and their attitudes towards their students can influence student success in the classroom and educator experiences or challenges can influence attitudes (Bhatnagar & Das, 2014; Carter & Hughes, 2006; Gonzalez, Henneman, & Schluter, 2019). In this CDT narrative inquiry study, I examined high school biology teachers’ narratives to address the following research questions: (1) What do the narratives of high school inclusive biology teachers reveal about their attitudes regarding the inclusion of students with extensive support needs in the …

Faith In Action: An Evaluation Of An Hiv Stigma Reduction Scale Used In Faith-Based Communities, Andrea Williams Stubbs

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

HIV-related stigma remains a substantial barrier to enhancing access to prevention, testing, and treatment, thereby perpetuating health disparities. Faith-based organizations, which serve as integral components of many Southern communities, possess the capacity to function as influential platforms for addressing this stigma and are pivotal allies in the Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) initiative. These environments, encompassing churches and health clinics, have the potential to cultivate supportive atmospheres for individuals living with HIV (PLWH) and to contribute to stigma reduction initiatives actively. A significant challenge in these efforts lies in the pressing need for more effective measurement tools to assess HIV-related …

Associations Between Family History Of Alcohol Misuse, Drinking Risk, And Alcohol Demand Among Emerging Adults, Destinee M. Cruthird

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Purpose: Individuals with a positive family history of alcohol misuse (FH+) are at an increased lifetime risk for alcohol use disorder compared to those without such a history (FH-). Risk associated with family history may manifest during emerging adulthood, given that alcohol consumption often increases during this period. However, the behavioral mechanisms underlying these risks remain less clear. This study aimed to examine FH status differences in alcohol consumption, alcohol-related consequences, and behavioral economic mechanisms (i.e., alcohol demand) in a sample of emerging adults who reported recent heavy drinking. Method: Emerging adults (N = 569; 29% FH+, 71% FH-; Mage …

A Deep Learning Strategy To Identify Cell Types Across Species From High-Density Extracellular Recordings, Maxime Beau, David J Herzfeld, Francisco Naveros, Marie E Hemelt, Federico D'Agostino, Marlies Oostland, Alvaro Sánchez-López, Young Yoon Chung, Michael Maibach, Stephen Kyranakis, Hannah N Stabb, M Gabriela Martínez Lopera, Agoston Lajko, Marie Zedler, Shogo Ohmae, Nathan J Hall, Beverley A Clark, Dana Cohen, Stephen G Lisberger, Dimitar Kostadinov, Court Hull, Michael Häusser, Javier F Medina

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

High-density probes allow electrophysiological recordings from many neurons simultaneously across entire brain circuits but fail to reveal cell type. Here, we develop a strategy to identify cell types from extracellular recordings in awake animals and reveal the computational roles of neurons with distinct functional, molecular, and anatomical properties. We combine optogenetics and pharmacology using the cerebellum as a testbed to generate a curated ground-truth library of electrophysiological properties for Purkinje cells, molecular layer interneurons, Golgi cells, and mossy fibers. We train a semi-supervised deep learning classifier that predicts cell types with greater than 95% accuracy based on the waveform, discharge …

A Dissertation On Belonging In Occupational Therapy Education With Students From Historically Minoritized Identities, Quinn P. Tyminski

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation provides a comprehensive exploration of the phenomenon of belonging specifically tailored to students with historically minoritized identities (HMIs) within the Washington University Program in Occupational Therapy (WUOT). Employing qualitative methodologies including scoping reviews, theoretical conceptualizations, focus groups, individual interviews, surveys, and participant video diaries, the study delves into the multifaceted nature of belonging within the context of occupational therapy (OT) education. The dissertation is organized into four key articles. The first two articles lay the theoretical foundation by examining the historical context of education as forced assimilation for minority groups and the nuanced use of professional behaviors to …

Development Of A Prototype Awsm-Pet System For Augmented Whole-Body Pet Imaging, Yunlai Chen

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is a critical imaging modality for medical diagnostics, yet its accuracy is often limited by spatial resolution and sensitivity constraints. This dissertation presents the development of Augmented Whole-body Scan via Magnifying PET (AWSM-PET), a novel technique integrating high-resolution auxiliary detectors with a clinical PET scanner to enhance sensitivity and resolution while remaining fully compatible with standard clinical protocols. The study encompasses hardware development, image reconstruction methods, and performance evaluation through imaging studies, including human trials. High-resolution outsert panel detectors were designed, mounted on a mobile cart, and integrated with a Biograph Vision PET/CT scanner. Firmware and …

Senescent Cancer-Associated Fibroblasts Mediate Immunosuppression And Promote Breast Cancer Progression, Jiayu Ye

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Breast cancer is the most frequently diagnosed cancer among women worldwide, and aging is the largest risk factor for breast cancer development. The process of aging is typically accompanied by a progressive accumulation of senescent cells, which are characterized by a series of markers such as p16INKA4 (p16) positivity and a distinctive profile of secretory factors including mitogens, cytokines, and extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins that are collectively recognized as senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Numerous data so far have shown that senescent stromal cells play critical roles in modulating tumor microenvironment and progression. For example, senescent fibroblasts induced in vitro could …

Vocal And Articulatory Speech Control Deficits In Individuals With Post-Stroke Aphasia, Roozbeh Behroozmand, Zeinab Khoshhal Mollasaraei, Vahid Nejati, Ayoub Daliri, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Individuals with post-stroke aphasia exhibit deficits in regulating vocal (i.e., laryngeal) pitch control during speech vowel production; however, it is not determined whether such deficits also exist when they control their supra-laryngeal speech articulators during word production. To address this question, 19 subjects with post-stroke aphasia and 20 controls were tested under an altered auditory feedback paradigm in which they received + 30% shifts in their vowel first-formant frequency during word production. In addition, 17 aphasia subjects and 19 controls from the same groups also completed steady vowel vocalizations while receiving randomized pitch shifts at ± 100 cents. Consistent with …

Historicizing The Prison In The History Of Capitalism, James Parisot

Sociology Faculty Publications

The goal of this paper is to rethink the timeline through which scholars have conceived of the history of capitalism and imprisonment. Scholars including Oliver C. Cox, Fernand Braudel, and Giovanni Arrighi, among others, have presented a story of capitalism centered around the Italian-city states, followed by the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States. Yet discussions on the origins of capitalism and imprisonment, eventually resulting in the invention of the penitentiary as an institution of reform, usually start around the sixteenth century. Incorporating insights from both of these angles, this paper shows the historical ways that different centers of capitalist …

The Geographic Identification Of Elevated Suicide Risk Model: Evaluating A Method For Examining Suicide-Related Behaviors At The Neighborhood Level In Harris County, Texas, Ryan M Hill, Sam C Cacace, Austin Starkey, Tyler Hendley, Jackson Bolner, Angela Cummings, Angie Hayes, Robert J Cramer

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: The 2024 National Strategy for Suicide Prevention has called for the development of community-based suicide prevention resources, and improved existing prevention efforts. In line with such efforts, Hill and colleagues developed the Geospatial Identification of Elevated Suicide Risk model that estimates the relative prevalence of adolescent suicide risk within specific geographical areas. The current study seeks to further evaluate and refine the model for use as a tool to evaluate risk and protective factors at the neighborhood level.

Method: Drawing from multiple sources, data was collected detailing adolescent suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, suicide fatalities, and census tract characteristics. Utilizing …

Dietary Patterns And Their Effects On C-Reactive Protein Regarding Female Reproductive Disorders, Mckenzie Moe

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: Chronic inflammation, as indicated by elevated C-reactive protein (CRP), plays a critical role in women’s reproductive health disorders. CRP is one of the most common biomarkers of inflammation. Dietary components, lifestyle factors, and women’s reproductive health disorders are major components that influence the levels of CRP within the body. Other influential factors include injury, infection, and illness. The purpose of this review is to explore the findings of literature available on nutrition interventions for CRP levels in consideration of women's reproductive disorders.

Methods: This narrative review examines the works of 15 articles, including 10 cross-sectional and five longitudinal designs. …

The Role Of Almonds In Exercise Recovery And Athletic Performance, Kathryn M. Trochman

Theses and Dissertations

Objectives: During exercise, many trained athletes and physically active adults experience symptoms of exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD). The effects of EIMD can cause limitations in athletic performance and increased duration of exercise recovery. Nutritional interventions have shown results in improving the duration of recovery. However, there are few studies completed on common food items. This review aims to examine the role of almonds in exercise recovery and athletic performance. Methods: A literature search was conducted utilizing Google Scholar, PubMed, CINAHL Ultimate, and reference hand searching. The search parameters included the dietary intervention of almonds for trained athletes and physically active …

Intravascular Imaging-Guided Versus Angiography-Guided Percutaneous Coronary Intervention In Patients With Non-St-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction In The United States: Results From Big Data Analysis, Chayakrit Krittanawong, Song Peng Ang, Neil Sagar Maitra, Zhen Wang, Mahboob Alam, Hani Jneid, Samin Sharma

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (NSTEMI) can be managed by ischemia guide strategies or early invasive strategies. Here, we present the findings of an updated contemporary analysis regarding the use of intracoronary imaging (ICI)-guided PCI versus angiography-guided PCI and in-hospital mortality in patients with NSTEMI in the United States using the NIS database from 2016 to 2021. ICI use increased by nearly threefold between 2016 and 2021, without a significant difference in in-hospital mortality, though interestingly, mortality rates compared with angiography guidance were similar and relatively low. In this study, the use of ICI was associated with lower adjusted odds of …

A Nuclear Rna Degradation Code Is Recognized By Paxt For Eukaryotic Transcriptome Surveillance, Lindsey V Soles, Liang Liu, Xudong Zou, Yoseop Yoon, Shuangyu Li, Lusong Tian, Marielle Valdez, Angela M Yu, Hong Yin, Wei Li, Fangyuan Ding, Georg Seelig, Lei Li, Yongsheng Shi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The RNA exosome plays critical roles in eukaryotic RNA degradation, but how it specifically recognizes its targets remains unclear. The poly(A) tail exosome targeting (PAXT) connection is a nuclear adaptor that recruits the exosome to polyadenylated RNAs, especially transcripts polyadenylated at intronic poly(A) sites. Here, we show that PAXT-mediated RNA degradation is induced by the combination of a 5' splice site (ss) and a poly(A) junction (PAJ) but not by either sequence alone. These sequences are bound by U1 small nuclear ribonucleoprotein particle (snRNP) and cleavage/polyadenylation factors, which, in turn, cooperatively recruit PAXT. As the 5' ss-PAJ combination is typically …

Novel Therapeutics For Myeloid Malignancies, Tim Kong

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Myeloid malignancies are a group of heterogenous and clonal disorders that include myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). These blood cancers are driven by characteristic oncogenes and propagated by pro-inflammatory niches; MPNs demonstrate hyperactive JAK-STAT signaling and upregulate cytokines including TNF, IL-6, and IL-8. Current therapeutics such as ruxolitinib targeting JAK2 providing symptomatic benefit to MPN patients but are not curative and do not prevent disease transformation to acute myeloid leukemia (AML). As such, greater understanding of the underlying disease biology is still required with means of uncover cancer dependencies. Here, we utilize a series of multi-omic approaches …

Spectator 2025-04-17, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

Kenyon College - April 17, 2025

The Kenyon Collegian

No abstract provided.