Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of The Nlrp3 Inflammasome In Alzheimer's Disease, Ethan S. Terman

UROP Posters

This study examines the consequences of Alzheimer’s in rat and mice test subjects. The goal is to identify the effects of certain NLRP3 inhibiting drugs and to see if there are any noticeable effects in regards to impeding the pathological development of Alzheimer’s disease. The results are visualized by implementing the immunohistochemical process to identify neurodegeneration in the brain and to assess the expression levels of amyloid beta as an indicator of Alzheimer’s pathology. Other tests are also conducted on these transgenic mice to gauge cognitive functioning levels during the onset of their disease, those being behavior tests, but not …

Higher Education Enrollment Crisis: The Importance Of Examining Student’S Choice Of Modality, Loreen Powell, Ronda Mariani, Hayden Wimmer, Carl R. Rebman Jr., Michalina Hendon

School of Business: Faculty Scholarship

As a result of the health pandemic, the United States (U.S.) has experienced a labor shortage and a decrease in higher education retention and enrollment which has many educational institutions in a crisis mode as they rapidly search for guaranteed sustainable long-term student enrollment. Numerous research studies have explored students' viewpoints through surveys or focus groups to investigate their preferences regarding online or in-person courses. However, there has not been a research study that has examined the post pandemic registration process of student enrollment data over a traditional scheduling period to determine their unbiased preference in modality offerings. More specifically, …

Luxury Is What You Say: Analyzing Electronic Word-Of-Mouth Marketing Of Luxury Products Using Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning, Yusuf Oc, Kirk Plangger, Sean Sands, Colin L. Campbell, Leyland Pitt

School of Business: Faculty Scholarship

Many luxury brands are investing heavily in creating dynamic video content to actively engage consumers. While it is straightforward to calculate the views or “likes” from a particular campaign to benchmark performance, analyzing consumers' comments on luxury brands' dynamic video content presents a challenge due to the unstructured nature of natural language and large comment volumes. Previous studies utilizing machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) have not adequately examined the impact of brand types, brand luxuriousness, and consumer diversity. To address this research gap, this article tests a conceptual framework with over 29,000 comments from 88 YouTube campaigns for nine …

Implementation Of A Preconception Health Counseling Program, Emily J. Stidham

DNP Projects

Approximately 75 million women in the United States are of reproductive age, 15-44 years old. Among this group of childbearing-aged women, hypertension, diabetes, obesity, and other chronic health conditions are contributing to maternal morbidity, mortality, and poor infant outcomes (Raghuraman & Tuuli, 2021). The current unintended pregnancy rate in the United States is 48%, higher than the global rate of 41% (Ramos, 2019). To improve women’s health and perinatal outcomes, a shift in the paradigm of healthcare should focus on preventative care rather than reactive care. Preconception health counseling (PCHC) with the patient is a primary prevention strategy that allows …

2023 Portfolio Performance Report: Innovation In Learning, Grand Valley State University

Charter School Portfolio Performance Reports

No abstract provided.

The Laws That Regulate Police: The Wilson Center’S Policing Legislation Database, Brandon L. Garrett

Faculty Scholarship

To better understand lawmaking in response to calls for reform, the Wilson Center for Science and Justice began tracking the introduction of policing-related legislation. This report covers our database tracking policing legislation and our initial findings.

Female College Students’ Knowledge Of Hormonal Contraception Options And The Associated Risks And Side Effects, Erin Burton, Amber Chancellor, Barbara Ezell, Lauryn Hicks, Karla Jernigan

MSN Research Projects

According to Holtzman et al. (2019), 10% of female college students drop out of school due to an unplanned pregnancy. Due to this statistic, it has led many female college students to seek hormonal contraception for pregnancy prevention. Many female college students do not use any form of hormonal contraceptive due to cost or lack of insurance, misconceptions, or access to contraceptive options. Lack of knowledge on hormonal contraceptive options and their associated risks, side effects, and even benefits, may continue to cause a rise in unplanned pregnancies and college dropout rates. Therefore, ensuring that female college students are knowledgeable …

Meeting Children's Needs Through Trauma-Informed Care In A Crisis Nursery Setting, Elizabeth M. Fix

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.

Restorative Pedagogy To Build Community In The Classroom: Autoethnographic Reflections From Faculty, Sheila Mcmahon, Zara Ahmed, Michelle Bemiller

School of Leadership and Education Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Restorative justice (RJ) is a philosophy and set of practices that center harms and needs. Within a classroom setting, an RJ pedagogical approach invites a process of shared learning that attends to critical issues of equity, power, and voice. Utilizing an autoethnographic approach, this manuscript includes critical reflections from three faculty members from diverse disciplines and positionalities about the use of RJ approaches to teaching in our respective classrooms. This paper includes discussion about the intersection of RJ with critical pedagogy, power differentials, and pragmatic issues of classroom structure learning design.

Shared Decision-Making In Multiple Sclerosis Physical Symptomatic Care: A Systematic Review, Aliza Bitton Ben-Zacharia, Jong-Mi Lee, Jennifer S. Kahle, Bonnie Lord

Psychological Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory, demyelinating, and neurodegenerative disease affecting young adults. People with MS are highly interested in engaging in physical symptom management and decision-making but are often not actively engaged in symptom management discussions. Research examining the benefit of shared decision-making in the management of physical MS symptoms is sparse. Objectives: This study aimed to identify and synthesize the evidence on the use of shared decision-making in physical MS symptom management. Design: This study is a systematic review of published evidence on the use of shared decisionmaking in physical MS symptom management. Data sources …

Competition Between Audiovisual Correspondences Aids Understanding Of Interactions Between Auditory And Visual Perception, Laura Getz

Psychological Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

An audiovisual correspondence (AVC) refers to an observer’s seemingly arbitrary

yet consistent matching of sensory features across the two modalities; for

example, between auditory pitch height and visual height or visual size. Research

on AVCs frequently uses a speeded classification procedure in which participants

are asked to rapidly classify the pitch of a sound accompanied either by a

congruent or an incongruent visual object (e.g., high pitches are congruent with

higher/smaller visual objects and incongruent with lower/larger visual objects).

To investigate the strength of these pitch AVCs (height, size, spatial frequency,

brightness, sharpness), trials where the height AVC competed with …

Do Women And Men Compete Equally On A Level Playing Field? An Empirical Investigation Into The 2021 Olympic Shooting Competitions, Nadav Goldschmied, Abraham García-Aliaga, Diego Muriarte Solana, Daniel Mon-López

Psychological Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

Due to physical differences between the genders, it is hard to study whether women also vary from men in their competitive drive in sports. The Olympic committee instituted major rule changes in the sport of shooting in the Tokyo Olympic Games (2021), leveling the playing field. We explored performance in a myriad of competitions including newly established mixed-gender doubles events in this unique sport of very limited physical input. Men performed better than women in events which required “dynamic” qualities (following moving targets) but when the competitions were held most constant (rifle shooting with stationary targets indoors) and regardless of …

Exploring The Ecology: Beyond Cameron And Khanna, Patricia Kowalski, Annette Kujawski Taylor

Psychological Sciences: Faculty Scholarship

In reviewing the Cameron and Khanna project, we find much to be commended. The large diverse sample of researchers and the collection of widespread student misconceptions will help focus students and instructors in the introductory course on teaching and learning the science of psychology. The recommendations we make provide a guide for looking beyond student belief and recognizing factors potentially contributing to and supporting misconceptions. Because teaching psychological science in the introductory psychology course is challenging, it is likely that misconceptions result from misinterpretations of the evidence. Investigating how textbooks and instructors’ perceptions of claims perpetuate misconceptions would be an …

School Improvement Tool: Literature Review, Fabienne Van Der Kleij, Pauline Taylor-Guy, Christina Rogers

School and system improvement

The School Improvement Tool (SIT) identifies practices of highly effective schools and schools which have undergone substantial improvement, based on evidence from the international literature. It is made up of nine inter-related domains, or areas of practice. This literature review presents a thematic synthesis of the research evidence across the nine domains of the School Improvement Tool. This review underpinned the development of the School Improvement Tool, as the Second iteration of the National School Improvement Tool.

The Outsider Within: The Experiences Of Black Francophone African Students In Higer Education, Safietou Sagna

Open Access Dissertations

The research focuses on Black Francophone African international (BFAI) students in the United States. Research on international students is dominated by studies focused on Asian international students. Moreover, the participants in several major studies related to African international students are primarily from Anglophone countries. As a result, the educational experiences of BFAI students are not adequately represented in the bigger narrative about African international students. This multiple case study centers the voices of four BFAI students (3 men and one woman) to gain a better understanding of the factors that positively and negatively affect their educational journeys. The results of …

The Effects Of Nudges In Acquiring New Clients In A Wealth Management Firm, Howard J. Holmes

Open Access Dissertations

Financial Advisors typically have strong backgrounds in finance, investments, and financial planning, but not marketing. Financial Advisors often need help in acquiring new clients and investment assets. To meet this need, businesses have evolved in lead generation and digital marketing, but they fail because they do not relate to the psychological needs of the investor. It is estimated that only 29% (Dickler, 2019; Godbout, 2021) of all investors have a Financial Advisor. This study researches two issues: the psychological impediments to an investor not seeking a Financial Advisor and Behavioral Economic tools such as Nudge to measure the impact of …

Race And Sex Assigned At Birth As Moderators Of Harm Reduction Pharmacobehavioral Treatment Outcomes For Alcohol Use Disorder Among People Experiencing Homelessness, Silvi C. Goldstein

Open Access Dissertations

Among populations experiencing homelessness, alcohol use disorder (AUD) precipitates high rates of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity. Within this population, minoritized race, ethnicity, and sex assigned at birth populations experience disproportionate alcohol-related harm. A four-arm randomized control trial (RCT) of Harm Reduction Treatment with Pharmacotherapy (HaRP) tested the efficacy of harm reduction treatment with extended-release naltrexone (XR-NTX; VIVITROL®) among urban-dwelling adults experiencing homelessness and AUD. The HaRP study included three treatment arms (harm reduction counseling [HRC], XR-NTX + HRC, Placebo + HRC) and a services-as-usual control group. The present secondary study 1) used a mixed methods approach to assess perceptions and …

Executive Functioning Interventions For Individuals With Adhd: A Systematic Review, Lauren Thompson

Open Access Dissertations

Ongoing research regarding interventions for executive functions (EFs), the top-down cognitive processes that guide planning and decision-making behaviors, aims to determine whether intervention programs result in significant improvements in EFs for both neurotypical and neurodivergent populations (Diamond & Ling, 2016). EFs are critical because they predict performance in other daily living domains, including physical health, quality of life, and job performance (Cristofori et al., 2019; Diamond, 2013). Research has found that individuals with a variety of mental health disorders as well as neurodegenerative disease often perform poorly on EF tasks. Particular attention has been devoted to the study of EF …

The Impact Of Peer Specialists On Client Outcomes: An Examination Of Mediational Factors, Esther Maria Quiroz Santos

Open Access Dissertations

Research demonstrates a positive impact of Peer Based Recovery Support Services (PBRSS) facilitated by peer leaders with lived experience of a Substance Use Disorder (SUD) and/or mental health problems, and who are in stable recovery. The purpose of this study was to investigate PBRSS, their impact on client outcomes (e.g., substance use, health), and the factors (e.g., self-efficacy, perceived relationship with and helpfulness of peer leader) which mediate the relationship between these services and outcomes while controlling for important socio-demographic information (e.g., age). Data were collected across 58 sites within 25 agencies that provide PBRSS delivered by certified peer leaders …

Waiting Too Long To Move At Green Lights, Michael Landreth

Open Access Dissertations

A literary critique of the American working-class experience must be accessible to working-class readers if it hopes to impact or perform any service to its intended audience. Due to its ability to interrogate forms of institutional control that maintain the social hierarchy under which working-class Americans live, a formally experimental literary approach proves likely to be the best approach for critiquing the American working-class experience. Unfortunately, because formally experimental literature requires access to the time and resources needed for training in and exposure to a tradition of artistic experimentation, most working-class readers find formally experimental literature inaccessible. The work in …

The (Mis)Formation Of Identity In Joseph Conrad’S Novels: Ideology, Community, And The Self, Youngji Cho

Open Access Dissertations

Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, Nostromo, and The Secret Agent contain two broad themes: on the one hand, they critically portray the dominant influence of society or societal ideologies on the individual from a socio-political standpoint; on the other hand, they focus on the (dis)illusion of the protagonists regarding their own “ideal” identities from a personal standpoint. Rather than addressing one or the other, as many previous studies of Conrad’s novels have done, this dissertation argues for the intimate continuity between socio-political ideologies and personal identity by finding the point of contact between these two seemingly disparate issues. …

A Case Study Of Noncredit To Credit Pathways At Community Colleges, Amy Grzybowski

Open Access Dissertations

A high school diploma is no longer the path to financial stability; a person needs at least a postsecondary degree or credential to earn a median income (Carnevale, et al. 2019). Community colleges need to work to create opportunities for all students, including those that may enter school as an adult, and not straight from high school, to attain a certificate or degree. This study examines two public community colleges in the United States that have both noncredit and credit programs that are in different stages of advancement of clear, articulable pathways. The purpose of this qualitative case study was …

Computational Close Reading: A Critique Of Digital Literary Methodology, Damiano Consilvio

Open Access Dissertations

Computational Close Reading intervenes in digital humanities and American literary scholarship to negotiate a significant institutional and disciplinary problem: the devaluation of close reading and interpretation in digital humanities applications to literary studies in favor of more distant modes of reading. To remedy this issue, I pursue a core question meant to bring the literary and the digital into a more perfect confluence, as a demonstration of possibilities meant to run counter to these preconceptions about computational reading: how “close,” if close at all, can digital technologies bring us to the interpretive elements of literary texts? I argue that they …

“If You Are Trying To Help Students, You Should Probably Ask Them How You Can Help”: Testimonios Of Latina/O/ Hispanic College Students Who Persisted To Graduation, Joise Garzon

Open Access Dissertations

Latinx student enrollment in higher education institutions has been increasing and will continue to rise (McFarland et al., 2018), yet Latinx students have lower degree completion rates than their peers from other racial and ethnic backgrounds (National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). Higher education institutions need to learn directly from the lived experiences of this diverse population of students to better support their college completion efforts (Arbelo-Marrero & Milacci, 2018; Flink, 2018). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of Latinx students who persisted to graduation at a four-year Hispanic Serving Institution by examining two research …

Middle Children Of History: Male-Authored Post-1960s Fiction & The Nihilism Of White Male Protagonists, Emma C. Baughman

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the phenomenon of the white male nihilist as a recurrent character in British and American fiction post-1960. The utilization of this archetype by predominantly white male authors during this time period is symptomatic of the social, political, and economic changes that fundamentally altered the perception of the white masculine mythos in much of the Western world after the end of World War II. Because the perception of whiteness and masculinity is a primary signifier of the period’s changing value, my project approaches fictional texts of white male nihilism as objects of socio-cultural analysis that constitute a genealogy …

Redefining The Narrative Of Women In Leadership: A Qualitative Study Of Latina Leaders In K-12 Education, Casie J. Dimsey

Educational and Organizational Learning and Leadership Dissertations

Even with women outnumbering men in obtaining graduate and professional degrees in educational leadership, the representation between women and men in higher level positions such as principalships, district office executives, and superintendencies remains incongruent. Consequently, this incongruency is further exacerbated when we look beyond women as a monolith and see that women of color, and more specifically Latina women are significantly underrepresented in comparison to their counterparts and the population that they represent. Through using a qualitative phenomenological approach, the researcher explored intersectional factors in relation to the participants multiple identities. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to provide …

Legislated Ableism: Bill C-7 And The Rapid Expansion Of Medical Assistance In Dying In Canada, Isabel Grant

All Faculty Publications

This paper explores the recent expansion of medical assistance in dying to disabled people who are suffering intolerably but are not at the end of their lives. The paper argues that it is impossible to separate suffering caused by an irremediable disability and suffering caused by the impacts of systemic ableism, which include high rates of poverty, social isolation and exclusion for people with disabilities. The paper suggests that this expansion raises constitutional issues under s. 15 and s. 7 of the Charter because it is premised on a view that portrays disability as potentially worse than death and thus …

The Child Vanishes: Justice Scalia's Approach To The Role Of Psychology In Determining Children's Rights And Responsibilities, Aviva Orenstein

Articles by Maurer Faculty

This Article explores how Justice Antonin Scalia’s hostility to psychology, antipathy to granting children autonomous rights, and dismissiveness of children’s interior lives both affected his jurisprudence and was a natural outgrowth of it. Justice Scalia expressed a skeptical, one might even say hostile, attitude towards psychology and its practitioners. Justice Scalia’s cynicism about the discipline and the therapists who practice it is particularly interesting regarding legal and policy arguments concerning children. His love of tradition and his rigid and unempathetic approach to children clash with modern notions of child psychology. Justice Scalia’s attitude towards psychology helps to explain his jurisprudence, …

Exploring Opportunities And Challenges Of Adopting Exoskeletons And Exosuits In Construction: Identifying Facilitators, Barriers, And Potential Solutions To Those Barriers, Dilruba Mahmud

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Exoskeletons and exosuits (collectively termed as EXOs) have the potential to reduce the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) by protecting workers from exertion and muscle fatigue due to physically demanding, repetitive, and prolonged work in construction workplaces. However, the use of EXOs in construction is in its infancy, and much knowledge for driving acceptance, adoption, and application of this technology is still lacking. This paper aims to identify the potential facilitators and barriers to adopting EXOs in the construction industry, along with potential solutions to those identified barriers to fostering the adoption of EXOs in construction workplaces through a …

When Designed Outcomes Are “Unforeseeable”: Proximate Causation In The Opioid Crisis, 56 Uic L. Rev. 259 (2023), Oliver Kassenbrock

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.