Digital Commons Network^™

Unrestricted Versus Regulated Open Data Governance: A Bibliometric Comparison Of Sars-Cov-2 Nucleotide Sequence Databases, Nathanael Sheehan, Federico Botta, Sabina Leonelli

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Two distinct modes of data governance have emerged in accessing and reusing viral data pertaining to COVID-19: an unrestricted model, espoused by data repositories part of the International Nucleotide Sequence Database Collaboration and a regulated model promoted by the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza data. In this paper, we focus on publications mentioning either infrastructure in the period between January 2020 and January 2023, thus capturing a period of acute response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through a variety of bibliometric and network science methods, we compare the extent to which either data infrastructure facilitated collaboration from different countries around …

Strategies To Effectively Manage Hospital Energy Costs With Renewable Energy Technology, Nelli Holtz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High energy costs and hospital financial solvency have become significant problems for hospitals and community leaders. Hospital managers are concerned with knowing the best uses of renewable energy technology to reduce energy expenditures effectively. Grounded in the diffusion of innovation theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to explore the strategies hospital leaders use to reduce costs using renewable energy technology effectively. The participants were eight hospital managers from four large and four small hospitals in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of relevant public records, documents, and literature on renewable …

Open Educational Resources For Community College Health Career Instruction: Identifying Best Practices For Distance Learning, Marybeth Cregger

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem explored in this study is the limited use of Open Educational Resources (OER) by health career community college faculty. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate local community college faculty members’ perceptions about the use of OER in their program classrooms, the barriers to its use, and what resources they need to overcome the barriers. The unified theory of acceptance use and technology (UTAT) pertains to attitude, performance, expectancy, technology self-use efficacy, and facilitating conditions; it will be used as the conceptual framework for this basic qualitative study. This study explored community college faculty perceptions about …

Parents’ Perceptions Of Bullying In A Local Middle School, Clifphene Reid

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bullying is known to have far-reaching negative implications for students and the school community. One important first step toward successfully preventing and addressing school bullying is to ensure that all members of the school community have a common understanding of the nature of bullying. The problem investigated in this study was the significant disparity between substantiated and unsubstantiated bullying reports made by parents, students, and staff in the local middle school. Given that parents at the local middle school had not received ongoing bullying prevention training, the purpose of this study was to investigate parents’ perceptions of bullying and the …

Strategic Succession Planning - Executive-Level Leadership In A Government Agency, Tajah Adams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Candidate Development Program (CDP) is responsible for the training, development, and succession planning of government senior executive service (SES) members. While not all SES must go through this program, the CDP initiative is operational in 10 out of 24 federal agencies governed by the Chief Financial Officer Act. In this quantitative study, the client organization wanted to know the strategies a government agency may use to increase executive-level employee development to prepare them for executive appointments. In the current study, a self-administered web-based survey was distributed to CDP Current Trainees, CDP Graduates, and CDP Agency Representatives. The findings led …

Nontraditional, African American Women College Students’ Lived Experiences, Cheryl Yvonne Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nontraditional African American women continue seeking degrees in higher education graduating despite the challenges they face oftentimes displaying resilience in doing so This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of four nontraditional African American women college students. The theoretical foundation for this study was Garmezy’s resilience theory. The theory capitalizes on the positive aspects or in this case protective factors which foster success in overcoming negative circumstances. This narrative, thematic analysis included data from in-depth interviews to identify key themes related to resilience to determine protective factors used by this population to succeed in college. The results show each participant …

A Correlational Study Of Technical And Social Factors That Affect Agile Software Project Success, Christopher Joel Fry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Agile software development team composition can lead to budgetary and timeline overruns, ultimately affecting software development project success. IT leaders and software development project managers must identify the critical success factors that affect agile software development project success, as unsuccessful project outcomes can make an organization seem inefficient and incapable by stakeholders. Grounded in the critical success factors theory, the purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to examine the relationship between software development team size, experience, the level of effort estimation accuracy, and agile software development project success. Survey data (N = 61) were collected from software development project …

Experiences Of Online Faculty When Peer-To-Peer Incivility Is Observed, Juliet Lockwood

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Incivility in the college classroom distracts from the learning process. Students who are uncivil to their peers often shame and embarrass them in front of others, and uncivil students distract from learning opportunities by arguing with professors and coercing them for grades that were not earned. Incivility by students is counterintuitive to the goals of higher education which include offering a space for meaningful learning. The literature describes incivility by students in the physical classroom, yet lacking from current research is how peer-to-peer incivility in the online classroom affects student learning. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to …

Smart Technology For Enhancing Indoor Air Quality, Abdulaziz Mohammed

Theses

The COP28 emission reduction plan underscores the imperative of transitioning away from fossil fuels to combat climate change. Concurrently, the rapid adoption of Internet of Things technology has emerged as a transformative force in urban governance, offering cities enhanced resilience and operational frameworks through data analytics and real-time monitoring. In response to these trends, the present research focused on leveraging IoT technology to monitor indoor air quality within a “restaurant A” in an urban area in Dubai. Employing advanced data analytics and smart sensor technologies, particularly LoRa, the project aimed to analyze and monitor air quality parameters. Disposing the sensor …

Landscape Influences On Thermal Sensitivity And Predicted Spatial Variability Among Brook Trout Streams In The Southeastern Usa, George P. Valentine, Xinyi Lu, C. Andrew Dolloff, Craig N. Roghair, Jacob M. Rash, Mevin B. Hooten, Yoichiro Kanno

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications

Warming water temperatures as a result of climate change pose a major threat to coldwater organisms. However, the rate of warming is not spatially uniform due to surface-ground-water interactions and stream and watershed characteristics. Coldwater habitats that are most resistant to warming serve as thermal refugia and identifying their locations is critical to regional aquatic conservation planning. We quantified the thermal sensitivity of 203 streams providing current and potential habitat for brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) across nearly 1000 linear km of their native range in the southern and central Appalachian Mountains region, USA, and characterized their spatial variability …

Radiological And Pulmonary Results Of Surgical Treatment Of Severe Idiopathic Scoliosis Using Preoperative Halo Gravity Traction Compared With Less Invasive Temporary Internal Distraction In Staged Surgery In Adolescents, Pawel Grabala, Michael A Galgano, Michal Grabala, Jacob M Buchowski

2020-Current year OA Pubs

No abstract provided.

Targeting Cathepsin C Ameliorates Murine Acetaminophen-Induced Liver Injury, Jessica Raith, Malte Bachmann, Sina Gonther, Hendrik Stülb, Ali A Aghdassi, Christine T N Pham, Heiko Mühl

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Acetaminophen (APAP) overdosing is a major cause of acute liver failure worldwide and an established model for drug-induced acute liver injury (ALI). While studying gene expression during murine APAP-induced ALI by 3'mRNA sequencing (massive analysis of cDNA ends, MACE), we observed splenic mRNA accumulation encoding for the neutrophil serine proteases cathepsin G, neutrophil elastase, and proteinase-3 - all are hierarchically activated by cathepsin C (CtsC). This, along with increased serum levels of these proteases in diseased mice, concurs with the established phenomenon of myeloid cell mobilization during APAP intoxication.

Breaking The Silence: An Inside Look Of The Experiences Of Music Therapists Working With Children Who Have Selective Mutism, Elaine Chen

Theses & Dissertations

Selective Mutism is a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a consistent difficulty to speak in specific social situations, despite being able to speak in other settings. While existing literature has highlighted the efficacy of music therapy as a promising intervention for children with Selective Mutism, there remains a need to explore the experiences of music therapists working with this population. This interpretative phenomenological study aims to explore the experiences of music therapists working with children diagnosed with Selective Mutism. Two board-certified music therapists, selected for their extensive experience in treating children with Selective Mutism, were recruited through social media …

Digital Technologies In The Field Of Outsourcing Logistics Services, Khalikul Shoniyozovich Chariev, Sardor Sobir Ogli Ilkhomov

Technical science and innovation

This article discusses the problems and prospects of the transport and logistics industry. Outsourcing technology is one of the logistics strategies for managing a company, which, in order to improve logistics efficiency, involves transferring some business functions or parts of business processes to a third-party contractor (outsourcing company). The possibilities of using information technologies in the development of digital logistics are studied and scientific, methodological and practical proposals and recommendations are presented. This abstract explores the impact of digital technologies such as blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data analytics on 3PL logistics services. It discusses …

Inglis V. Four Thirty Realty Llc

All Decisions

In an overcharge action involving a building with J-51 tax benefits, tenants sought documents to determine the landlord's alleged fraudulent deregulation scheme. The court discussed common law exceptions to lookback rule and recent legislative changes, finding tenants demonstrating a colorable claim of fraud, entitling them to discovery. Key legal points include elements of fraud and legislative impact on landlord-tenant disputes.

Mending Trust In Ai: Trust Repair Policy Interventions For Large Language Models In Visual Data Journalism, Hangxiao Zhu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Trust in Large Language Models (LLMs) emerged as a pivotal concern. This is because, despite the transformative potential of LLMs in enhancing the interpretability and interactivity of complex datasets, the opacity of these models and instances of inaccuracies or biases have led to a significant trust deficit among end-users. Moreover, there is a tendency for people to personify AI tools that utilize these LLMs, attributing abilities and sensibilities that they do not truly possess. This thesis exploits this personification and proposes a comprehensive framework of trust repair policies tailored to address the challenges inherent in LLM annotations within data journalism …

Characteristics Based Factor Models - Comparison Of Estimation Procedures, Henri Ohl

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Understanding cross-sectional and time series variation of asset returns is fundamental in finance, particularly in asset pricing. This thesis explores the integration of factor theory with machine learning to deepen our comprehension of these dynamics. Characteristics based factor models offer a systematic framework for quantifying an asset's underlying risk-return structure, leveraging time-varying conditional information on model parameters carried by firm-specific characteristics. These models serve as valuable tools for discerning the driving components of an asset's expected excess return. Recent research established a novel methodology for consistent parameter estimation within this framework, only requiring a large cross-section but not a long …

Data-Driven Insights Into Spatial Patterns And Disease Etiologies Of White Matter Hyperintensities, Sugandha Roy

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In this thesis, we have applied Orthogonal Projective Non-Negative Matrix Factorization (opNMF) to identify spatial patterns of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) within UK Biobank's imaging data. Our selection criteria excluded subjects with a history of neurological, mental, and specific cerebrovascular conditions, allowing us to focus on WMH patterns in a healthy aging population. We have interrogated the association of location-specific WMHs with a variety of demographic, clinical, and genetic factors. Our multivariable regression analysis evaluates the strength and nature of the associations between these factors and WMH distribution. The analysis integrates variables such as age, sex, smoking habits, medication usage …

[W]Hole: Journey To Fullness, Joni P. Gordon

MFA in Visual Art

My work raises critical questions about Black history, race, gender, beauty, and privilege. My practice also highlights the intersectionality of colorism and racism. I use materials such as cardboard rectangles with handwritten words, brown paper, doors defaced by scratches, fire, printed images, newspaper, and projected photographs to ask and answer those questions. I also use Work and Travel documents, broom and brush bristle, mop fiber, towels, and audio recordings of oral histories to exhibit invisible scars wrought by racist actions as physical and material manifestations.

My practice began after experiencing racial discrimination for the first time on a US work …

Comprehensive Peripheral Blood Immunoprofiling Reveals Five Immunotypes With Immunotherapy Response Characteristics In Patients With Cancer, Daniiar Dyikanov, Aleksandr Zaitsev, Tatiana Vasileva, Iris Wang, Arseniy Sokolov, Evgenii Bolshakov, Alena Frank, Polina Turova, Olga Golubeva, Anna Gantseva, Anna Kamysheva, Polina Shpudeiko, Ilya Krauz, Mary Abdou, Madison Chasse, Tori Conroy, Nicholas Merriam, Julia Alesse, Noel English, Boris Shpak, Anna Shchetsova, Evgenii Tikhonov, Ivan Filatov, Anastasia Radko, Anastasiia Bolshakova, Anastasia Kachalova, Nika Lugovykh, Andrey Bulahov, Anastasiia Kilina, Syimyk Asanbekov, Irina Zheleznyak, Pavel Skoptsov, Evgenia Alekseeva, Jennifer Johnson, Joseph Curry, Alban Linnenbach, Andrew South, Enjun Yang, Kirill Morozov, Anastasiya Terenteva, Lira Nigmatullina, Dmitry Fastovetz, Anatoly Bobe, Linda Balabanian, Krystle Nomie, Sheila Yong, Christopher Davitt, Alexander Ryabykh, Olga Kudryashova, Cagdas Tazearslan, Alexander Bagaev, Nathan Fowler, Adam Luginbuhl, Ravshan Ataullakhanov, Michael Goldberg

Department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Faculty Papers

The lack of comprehensive diagnostics and consensus analytical models for evaluating the status of a patient's immune system has hindered a wider adoption of immunoprofiling for treatment monitoring and response prediction in cancer patients. To address this unmet need, we developed an immunoprofiling platform that uses multiparameter flow cytometry to characterize immune cell heterogeneity in the peripheral blood of healthy donors and patients with advanced cancers. Using unsupervised clustering, we identified five immunotypes with unique distributions of different cell types and gene expression profiles. An independent analysis of 17,800 open-source transcriptomes with the same approach corroborated these findings. Continuous immunotype-based …

Toward Intuitive 3d Interactions In Virtual Reality: A Deep Learning- Based Dual-Hand Gesture Recognition Approach, Trudi Di Qi, Franceli L. Cibrian, Meghna Raswan, Tyler Kay, Hector M. Camarillo-Abad, Yuxin Wen

Engineering Faculty Articles and Research

Dual-hand gesture recognition is crucial for intuitive 3D interactions in virtual reality (VR), allowing the user to interact with virtual objects naturally through gestures using both handheld controllers. While deep learning and sensor-based technology have proven effective in recognizing single-hand gestures for 3D interactions, research on dual-hand gesture recognition for VR interactions is still underexplored. In this work, we introduce CWT-CNN-TCN, a novel deep learning model that combines a 2D Convolution Neural Network (CNN) with Continuous Wavelet Transformation (CWT) and a Temporal Convolution Network (TCN). This model can simultaneously extract features from the time-frequency domain and capture long-term dependencies using …

Impact Of Renal Cell Carcinoma Molecular Subtypes On Immunotherapy And Targeted Therapy Outcomes, Renée Maria Saliby, Chris Labaki, Tejas R Jammihal, Wanling Xie, Maxine Sun, Valisha Shah, Eddy Saad, M Harry Kane, Soki Kashima, Katherine Sadak, Talal El Zarif, Deepak Poduval, Robert J Motzer, Thomas Powles, Brian I Rini, Laurence Albiges, Sumanta K Pal, Bradley A Mcgregor, Rana R Mckay, Sabina Signoretti, Eliezer M Van Allen, Sachet A Shukla, Toni K Choueiri, David A Braun

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Saliby et al. show that a machine learning approach can accurately classify clear cell renal cell carcinoma (RCC) into distinct molecular subtypes using transcriptomic data. When applied to tumors biospecimens from the JAVELIN Renal 101 (JR101) trial, a benefit is observed with immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-based therapy across all molecular subtypes.

The Crosstalk Between Macrophages And Cancer Cells Potentiates Pancreatic Cancer Cachexia, Mingyang Liu, Yu Ren, Zhijun Zhou, Jingxuan Yang, Xiuhui Shi, Yang Cai, Alex X Arreola, Wenyi Luo, Kar-Ming Fung, Chao Xu, Ryan D Nipp, Michael S Bronze, Lei Zheng, Yi-Ping Li, Courtney W Houchen, Yuqing Zhang, Min Li

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

With limited treatment options, cachexia remains a major challenge for patients with cancer. Characterizing the interplay between tumor cells and the immune microenvironment may help identify potential therapeutic targets for cancer cachexia. Herein, we investigate the critical role of macrophages in potentiating pancreatic cancer induced muscle wasting via promoting TWEAK (TNF-like weak inducer of apoptosis) secretion from the tumor. Specifically, depletion of macrophages reverses muscle degradation induced by tumor cells. Macrophages induce non-autonomous secretion of TWEAK through CCL5/TRAF6/NF-κB pathway. TWEAK promotes muscle atrophy by activating MuRF1 initiated muscle remodeling. Notably, tumor cells recruit and reprogram macrophages via the CCL2/CCR2 axis …

Mammographic Density Mediates The Protective Effect Of Early-Life Body Size On Breast Cancer Risk, Marina Vabistsevits, George Davey Smith, Tom G Richardson, Rebecca C Richmond, Weiva Sieh, Joseph H Rothstein, Laurel A Habel, Stacey E Alexeeff, Bethan Lloyd-Lewis, Eleanor Sanderson

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The unexplained protective effect of childhood adiposity on breast cancer risk may be mediated via mammographic density (MD). Here, we investigate a complex relationship between adiposity in childhood and adulthood, puberty onset, MD phenotypes (dense area (DA), non-dense area (NDA), percent density (PD)), and their effects on breast cancer. We use Mendelian randomization (MR) and multivariable MR to estimate the total and direct effects of adiposity and age at menarche on MD phenotypes. Childhood adiposity has a decreasing effect on DA, while adulthood adiposity increases NDA. Later menarche increases DA/PD, but when accounting for childhood adiposity, this effect is attenuated. …

Corporate Governance Strategies And Survivability Of Microfinance Banks In Nigeria, Dachi Augustine Dajau

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Corporate governance practices are vital for the survival of microfinance banks (MFBs) in Nigeria. MFBs perform a crucial role in providing financial services to underserved communities and contributing to the country’s economic development. As a result, it is essential to comprehend the governance mechanisms that support their resilience and sustainability. A qualitative exploratory multiple-case study was conducted, and 20 in-depth interviews occurred with industry experts who are directors of 20 MFBs located throughout Nigeria. I used Braun and Clarke’s model in the deductive data analysis leading to coding, categorization, and themes identification. The results indicate that a robust corporate governance …

Contribution Of Fluorescent Primary Biological Aerosol Particles To Low-Level Arctic Cloud Residuals, Gabriel Pereira Freitas, Ben Kopec, Kouji Adachi, Radovan Krejci, Dominic Heslin-Rees, Karl Espen Yttri, Alun Hubbard, Jeffrey M. Welker, Paul Zieger

Michigan Tech Publications

Mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) are key players in the Arctic climate system due to their role in modulating solar and terrestrial radiation. Such radiative interactions rely, among other factors, on the ice content of MPCs, which is regulated by the availability of ice-nucleating particles (INPs). While it appears that INPs are associated with the presence of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) in the Arctic, the nuances of the processes and patterns of INPs and their association with clouds and moisture sources have not been resolved. Here, we investigated for a full year the abundance of and variability in fluorescent PBAPs (fPBAPs) …

Agent-Based Modeling And Air Sampling Methods For Studying Aerosol Transmission, Lyndsy Stacy

Masters Theses (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Utilizing Educational Technology For Financial Literacy Learning Outcomes, Eliasz Mccullen

Masters Theses (Archived)

Undergraduate college students were surveyed during education courses at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Texas A&M University- San Antonio, to investigate whether there is a difference in learning objectives of financial literacy between two types of instructional methods: a simple slide show and a more interactive form of instructional technology. The results of the study indicated that there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups, however, the control group fared slightly better on the posttest. Possible explanations for these findings include limitations in the quasi-experimental design and factors related to the sample characteristics. Nonetheless, the study provides valuable insights into …

Mosquito Species Composition And Host Choice At Two Zoological Parks In Texas, Ashley Aguilar

Masters Theses (Archived)

No abstract provided.

A Systematic Review On The Efficacy Of Video Modeling On Social Interactions Among Individuals With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Miguel Cantu

Masters Theses (Archived)

This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of video modeling in increasing social interactions with individuals with ASD (IwASD) in transitional or postsecondary educational settings. The study inclusion criteria included (a) quantitative data must be present, (b) an objective or research question must be stated, (c) video modeling must be an intervention in their study, (d) a minimum of one target behavior must focus on social interactions, and (e) all studies must be published within the last six years. This systematic review analyzed the purpose, sample, methodology, settings, discussion, and results to find the effectiveness of the intervention, resulting …