Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Use Of Diary Entries For Qualitative Researchers: Mitigating Challenges When Investigating Sensitive Topics On Indian Women, Pavitra Mishra, Amit Gupta

The Qualitative Report

This study seeks to understand the challenges encountered by qualitative researchers while investigating sensitive topics. We make a valuable contribution to the existing literature on researcher well-being and the mitigation of potential adverse incidents during data collection in studies on sensitive topics. The researchers maintained a comprehensive diary while conducting a study on the sensitive topic of work-family conflict among Indian working women. The analysis of these diary entries revealed three primary categories of challenges: (a) emotional challenges encompassing emotional sustenance, self-awareness, the element of care, building rapport, reciprocity, breaking the connection, preparing for exit, and researcher exhaustion; (b) methodological …

Online Criticism Of Parents After Child Accidents: A Reflexive Thematic Analysis, Kelsi Toews, Jorden A. Cummings, Michelle Mclean, Laura Knowles

The Qualitative Report

When a child is harmed, parents frequently experience condemnation and blame from others. This blame is amplified online. Our online worlds reflect our offline ones, and this negative atmosphere toward parents can influence both parents themselves and societal expectations for parents. Previous research on parental blame has either directly asked people about their blame attributions or utilized hypothetical vignettes. Our thematic analysis expands on this research by analyzing unsolicited online comments left on news stories about two, real-world incidents of child harm: A child who fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, and a child who was killed …

Board Of Directors Meeting Minutes (May 6, 2024), Dmacc

Board of Directors Meeting Minutes

This file contains the minutes from the Des Moines Area Community College Board meeting held on May 6, 2024.

Ras G-Domains Allosterically Contribute To The Recognition Of Lipid Headgroups And Acyl Chains, Neha Arora, Huanwen Mu, Hong Liang, Wenting Zhao, Yong Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Mutant RAS are major contributors to cancer and signal primarily from nanoclusters on the plasma membrane (PM). Their C-terminal membrane anchors are main features of membrane association. However, the same RAS isoform bound to different guanine nucleotides spatially segregate. Different RAS nanoclusters all enrich a phospholipid, phosphatidylserine (PS). These findings suggest more complex membrane interactions. Our electron microscopy-spatial analysis shows that wild-types, G12V mutants, and membrane anchors of isoforms HRAS, KRAS4A, and KRAS4B prefer distinct PS species. Mechanistically, reorientation of KRAS4B G-domain exposes distinct residues, such as Arg 135 in orientation state 1 (OS1) and Arg 73/Arg 102 in OS2, …

Between The Stacks, 05-2024, Anna Swearengen, Michelle Dry

Between the Stacks

The May 2024 edition of the University Libraries monthly newsletter honors the 44 year career of Dr. John Evans, the University Libraries former Executive Director who retired in April. In addition, the newsletter presents information about the UM3D Summer Institute, the Dissertation Writers Retreat Summer Retreat, and other library-related announcements.

Does Point-Of-Care Ultrasound Affect Fluid Resuscitation Volume In Patients With Septic Shock: A Retrospective Review, Enyo A Ablordeppey, Amy Zhao, Jeffery Ruggeri, Ahmad Hassan, Laura Wallace, Mansi Agarwal, Sean P Stickles, Christopher Holthaus, Daniel Theodoro

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Fixed, large volume resuscitation with intravenous fluids (IVFs) in septic shock can cause inadvertent hypervolemia, increased medical interventions, and death when unguided by point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS). The primary study objective was to evaluate whether total IVF volume differs for emergency department (ED) septic shock patients receiving POCUS versus no POCUS.

METHODS: We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study from 7/1/2018 to 8/31/2021 of atraumatic adult ED patients with septic shock. We agreed upon

RESULTS: 304 patients met criteria and 26% (78/304) underwent POCUS. Cardiac POCUS demonstrated reduced ejection fraction in 15.4% of patients. Lung ultrasound showed normal findings in …

Attention Lstm U-Net Model For Drosophila Melanogaster Heart Tube Segmentation In Optical Coherence Microscopy Images, Xiangping Ouyang, Abigail Matt, Fei Wang, Elena Gracheva, Ekaterina Migunova, Saathvika Rajamani, Edward B Dubrovsky, Chao Zhou

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Optical coherence microscopy (OCM) imaging of the

Lifecourse Patterns Of Productive Engagement Among Rural And Urban Older Adults, Peter C. Sun

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Many older adults are engaged in productive activities that have important ramifications for health in later life. However, little is known about rural-urban patterns of productive engagement across the lifecourse. This dissertation used six waves (2008, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018) of the nationally representative Health and Retirement Study to identify patterns of working, volunteering, and caregiving activities over a ten-year period using multichannel sequence analysis and cluster analysis. The antecedents of the patterns were studied using multinomial logistic regression, and the associations of the patterns with longstanding rural-urban disparities in cognitive functioning and self-rated health were studied using multiple …

Architecture Of The Second Sense: Inclusivity For Deaf Students, Lizzy Johnson

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Educational settings in the United States are primarily geared towards hearing individuals, posing challenges for those with hearing impairments. In 2020, 95% of school-age students with hearing loss attended conventional schools, while only 47 schools nationwide catered specifically to the deaf or hard of hearing. This oversight in design leads to issues such as inadequate spatial acoustics and limited sign language space in classrooms. My thesis proposes "Architecture of the Second Sense," advocating for a holistic approach to educational design, particularly targeting pre-kindergarten through 5th-grade schools. Drawing from phenomenological principles and the five key DeafSpace design elements—Proximity, Sensory Reach, Light, …

Interprofessional Curriculum Delivery: Experience Of A Primary Care Education Program, Jessica A Davila, Nancy D Harada, Kathryn Wirtz Rugen, Stuart C Gilman, Shubhada Sansgiry

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Few post-graduate training programs offer a comprehensive curriculum that includes structured clinical experiences to teach interprofessional care. To address this need, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Office of Academic Affiliations funded the Centers of Excellence in Primary Care Education (CoEPCE) from 2011-2019 to provide interprofessional curricula for health profession trainees (HPTs), including physician residents, nurse practitioner residents, pharmacy residents, and psychology residents. We examined changes over time in curricular domains, system impacts, and program practices based on HPT survey data and the qualitative evaluation of narrative feedback. An annual survey was administered to participants. Indirect standardized ratios were …

Projecting The Demand For Workers In The Production Of Lithium-Ion Batteries In The United States, Erik Vasilauskas, Dakota Mccracken, Michael Horrigan

Reports

No abstract provided.

Reimagining Parent And Family Engagement For African American Children And Their Families, Dominique A. Horton

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Achievement gaps and mental health disparities for Black children have been written about extensively and still persist. Closure of these gaps have moved at a glacial pace. These disparities have significant implications for one's sense of agency. Black family voice has remained underutilized. Because of this untapped potential, it may be, that the pathway for more equitable outcomes have not been fully understood. Parent and family engagement is associated with positive outcomes, yet, gaps remain in realizing its full impact. Social work is also uniquely positioned to spearhead efforts to address educational concerns and scholars have begun to call upon …

Reading Mood In The Post-Oslo Palestinian Novel: Shame, Melancholy, Hope, Sayed Qashou

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Modern Palestinian literature was born diasporic. Produced from different positions in the Palestinian diaspora, multilingual Palestinian literature maps itself onto Palestinianess as a state of mind. In dialogue with affect theory, the dissertation supplements this understanding of Palestinianness with an account of mood in post-Oslo Palestinian literature. Specifically, I analyze shame in Ayman Sikseck’s Hebrew novel Tishrin (2016) and melancholia in Adania Shibli’s Arabic novel Minor Detail (2020 [2017]). By “reading the mood,” this dissertation examines how iltizam (commitment) in Palestinian literature registers the social and political ruptures that the collapse of the Oslo accords brought upon the Palestinian experience.

De La Escuela Al Hogar: Centering Latine And Hispanic Student Perspectives On Caregiver Involvement In The Well-Being Promotion Program, Nicole G. Pacateque Rodriguez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Latine students often face systemic barriers to accessing appropriate mental health support, highlighting the importance of culturally responsive school-based interventions to address mental health disparities (Gonzalez et al., 2022; Jackson, 2021). Although many interventions incorporate caregiver involvement, limited research has explored how Latine youth experience and make meaning of caregiver engagement in school-based mental health programs (Hansen et al., 2021; Wildmon et al., 2024). This mixed-methods study centers Latine student voices by examining how Latine students experienced and interpreted caregiver engagement in the Well-Being Promotion Program (WBPP), a school-based positive psychology intervention implemented during the 2023–2024 school year across six …

Place Distress And Job Growth: Are Recent Job Growth Trends Significantly More Favorable For Distressed Counties?, Timothy J. Bartik, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman

Reports

This paper examines whether recent job growth trends have become more favorable toward counties with greater baseline economic distress. Job growth trends are “competitive job growth,” which is defined as growth that exceeds what would be expected based on how a county’s industries are growing nationally. Baseline county distress is measured by the county’s “prime-age employment rate,” the employment to population ratio for 25–54-year-olds. The core findings are fourfold. First, for the most distressed counties, job growth trends have become more favorable since 2019, compared to the 2001–2007 and 2007–2019 periods. The timing of this recent improvement is consistent with …

Essays In Macroeconomics And Financial Economics, José Martínez Gutiérrez

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation consists of three independent articles in the fields of Macreconomics and Financial Economics. Chapter one investigates the determinants of the demand for bonds of different maturities and the relationship with differences in idiosyncratic risk in an heterogeneous agent framework. Chapter two studies the effect of policy instability on the risk-return trade-off of different financial assets. Chapter three studies macroeconomic risk in an incomplete market economy. In the first chapter "Heterogenous Liquidity Demand and the Term Structure of Interest Rates" I study what determines differences in the demand for bonds of different maturities. I focus on the effect of …

Permission To Play: A District's Initiative To Innovate Kindergarten And Promote Developmentally Appropriate Practices, Cristin Mcdonough

Dissertations and Theses

Kindergarten's original purpose was to promote socialization skills for young children using play. However, recent research has shown an increased focus on teaching literacy and math skills, combined with pronounced increases in more advanced academic tasks and activities. Given this shift in kindergarten, as well as a lack of professional development for teachers to assist them in promoting developmentally appropriate practices, the Kindergarten Innovation Cohort was created in the Portland School District to address these needs for both students and teachers. Using findings from interviews and field notes, the current study addresses the question: What does the implementation of the …

Optimizing Customs Efficiency: Detection For Illicit Shipments In Cargo, Ohood Alharbi

Theses

Aim- The study aimed for creating a machine learning algorithm which succeeded customs control procedures through estimating shipments being either illicit or non-illicit. The study aimed at boosting the level of accuracy in determining the critical shipments, which would in turn, increase customs productivity, minimize false positive and false negative, as well as augment security and ensure the smoothness of trade flow, amid a palpable surge in importation rates. Methods- The study implemented the CRISP-DM methodology (Cross-Industry Standard Process for Data Mining), which has a well-structured approach of achieving standard data mining solutions. At the beginning, the efforts have been …

A Hierarchical Decision Model For Evaluating The Strategy Readiness Of Quantitative Machine Learning/Data Science-Driven Investment Strategies, Mohammadsaleh Saadatmand

Dissertations and Theses

Big data and computational technologies are increasingly important worldwide in asset and investment management. Many investment management firms are adopting these data science methods and technologies to improve performance across all investment processes. Researchers actively use these methods to develop more effective systematic investment strategies and produce more reliable outcomes less vulnerable to human decision-making biases. However, the success of such a strategy depends heavily on the scientific rigor applied throughout the process. "Best practices involve understanding how to make better decisions in the research design process. A good question is whether we can make better decisions in developing quantitative …

Mussar And Esotericism In Revolutionary Russia, Martin Zwick

Complex Systems Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper is an introductory comparative look at teachings of two spiritual figures in pre-revolutionary and revolutionary Russia: Rav Yoseph Yozel (Horowitz) and George Gurdjieff. Yozel founded the Novarodok school of Mussar; Gurdjieff founded the spiritual tradition known as “the Work” or “Fourth Way.” There are of course great differences between the Jewish tradition of Mussar, whose literature dates back to the Mishnah but which as a social movement was launched by Rabbi Israel Salantar in the late 19^th century, and the Work, with its affinities to Eastern Christianity, Buddhism, and Sufism but with no apparent connection to Judaism. …

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

Faculty Senate Monthly Packets

The May 6, 2024 monthly packet includes the May agenda, appendices, and the Faculty Senate minutes and attachments from the meeting held May 6, 2024.

Static Reflective Surfaces For Improved Terahertz Coverage, Thanh Le, Suresh Singh

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

LoS (Line of Sight) MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) is considered the best way to deliver high capacity channels for terahertz communications due to the severe attenuation suffered by reflected components. Unfortunately, terahertz links are easily blocked by any obstruction resulting in link breakage. Therefore, it is necessary to provide alternative paths via reflectors. A problem shared by LoS paths and reflected paths (via polished reflectors) is that the channel matrix is rank 1 in the far-field. As a result, the achieved capacity is lower than what can theoretically be achieved in a rich multi-path environment. In this work, we …

Commercial Enablers Of China’S Cyber-Intelligence And Information Operations, Ethan Mansour, Victor Mukora

Military Cyber Affairs

In a globally commercialized information environment, China uses evolving commercial enabler networks to position and project its goals. They do this through cyber, intelligence, and information operations. This paper breaks down the types of commercial enablers and how they are used operationally. It will also address the CCP's strategy to gather and influence foreign and domestic populations throughout cyberspace. Finally, we conclude with recommendations for mitigating the influence of PRC commercial enablers.

Final Design Report: Nuclear Fuel Element Characterization, Max Dumont, Peter Hernandez, Spencer Smith, Jordan Stansfield, Alex Watterson

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 02 was tasked with designing and building a platform and remote positioning system for a High Purity Germanium detector at the Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center. In September 2023, the group began by inquiring with the sponsor, Dr. Bahram Nassersharif, and customer, Rhode Island Nuclear Science Center, to develop a problem definition. The platform must support and integrate the detector, a thirty liter nitrogen cooling tank and a lead collimator. The positioning system must be remotely operable in all three planes so that the detector’s position can be adjusted during a live experiment. Literature and patent searches were conducted, …

Soap Dispensing Machine, Katherine Field, Manny Goncalves, Samuel Greene, Joshua Lehane

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 11 was the Soap Dispensing Machine project, sponsored by the nonprofit organization named The Everyday Eco-Warriors and Dr. Vinka Craver. The goal of the project is to innovate the current machine used in Mexico, the organization that created the machine named EcoTech, and to implement the newer model of the machine in a community in the United States. By creating a new machine that is more customizable, it can be implemented in communities around the world, which is why this is a collaborative project with a group in Ghana named KNUST. The goal of Team 11 is to increase …

Final Design Report: Universal Biaxial Tensile Testing Apparatus, Josh Benros, Kenneth Tobin, Julia Moore, Brett Wotherspoon

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

The goal of our project is to design an attachment compatible with the Instron 5586 Uniaxial Tensile Testing Machine to be used in the mechanical testing lab at the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) to conduct Digital Image Correlation (DIC) testing on hyperelastic materials. The team was tasked with creating an original design that provides simultaneous and equal tension along two axes of the specimen while being subjected to a machine that only provides tension along one axis. To obtain optimal test results using our design, the tensile forces that our design applies need to not only be equal and …

Blind Mating Of Non-Blind Mate Connectors, Constantine Mouyos, Didier Martinez, Yordy Abreu, Narvan Hilliard

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

Team 16 was tasked by Raytheon with the challenge of designing a method that allows for the blind mating of non-blind mate connectors; whether between boards or between a board and a chassis. The general objectives for the project were to ensure precision, repeatability, durability and timeliness. Raytheon set forth these objectives to provide Team 16 with a valuable learning experience in the engineering design process. The project unfolded through various steps, reflecting a commitment to thorough research, innovative problem-solving, and effective project management. In the Fall 2023 Semester, after starting off with extensive literary research, the team examined existing …

Advanced Thermal Lunar Atomic System (Atlas), Jeffrey Hahn, Ryan Macaulay, Sami Akcakil, Steve Sullivan

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

This senior capstone project regards the design and development of a fission based atomic reactor to be used to power a small lunar colony. This reactor must provide sufficient power for several systems including life support, materials mining and processing, and rover charging. It must also be robust, reliable, modular in respect to the base’s power grid (i.e. can be integrated or removed with ease) and must also require little to no maintenance. Research regarding NASA’s plans for such a lunar outpost, review of nuclear reactor literature, and estimated power consumption for sub-systems led to the following design requirements:

1. 100--150-kilowatt …

Nasa Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket, Joel Aubin, Nicholas Caito, Nicholas Colavecchio, Nicholas Defranzo

Mechanical Engineering Capstone Design Projects

This capstone project aimed to design the hydrogen passageways flowing through the Centrifugal Nuclear Thermal Rocket (CNTR). The primary objective was to model an efficient hydrogen path that would ensure optimal heat management and propellant flow. The team created a Solidworks model of the reactor bank, incorporating a moderator block with internal passageways for hydrogen. The top turnaround region was designed to guide gas from the reactor’s outer wall into the turbine, while the shuriken structure at the base ensured each reactor unit had an independent cooling supply.

Using simulation results and analysis, the team developed a modular design that …

Association Between Retinal Microvascular Abnormalities And Late-Life Brain Amyloid-Β Deposition: The Aric-Pet Study, Marco Egle, Jennifer A Deal, Keenan A Walker, Dean F Wong, A Richey Sharrett, Rebecca F Gottesman

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Retinal microvascular signs are accessible measures of early alterations in microvascular dysregulation and have been associated with dementia; it is unclear if they are associated with AD (Alzheimer's disease) pathogenesis as a potential mechanistic link. This study aimed to test the association of retinal microvascular abnormalities in mid and late life and late life cerebral amyloid.

METHODS: Participants from the ARIC-PET (Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities-Positron Emission Tomography) study with a valid retinal measure (N = 285) were included. The associations of mid- and late-life retinal signs with late-life amyloid-β (Aβ) by florbetapir PET were tested. Two different measures of …