Digital Commons Network^™

A New Pipeline: Building A Transformative Leadership Pipeline For Formerly Incarcerated Individuals, Jackie Aguilar

Master's Projects and Capstones

While developing leadership roles for employers is critical to running an effective organization, building a bridge for those who have directly lived experiences regarding its mission is critical. Bringing back community members you have served to your organization is highly recommended and essential. This capstone research report will focus on building a leadership pipeline for formerly incarcerated individuals within the nonprofit sector. Returning community members can often be tokenized and are never given the tools and resources to develop as a leader. This report will outline the barriers formerly incarcerated individuals face while providing a foundation on the importance of …

Investment Without Displacement: A Study Of The Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Initiative In East Oakland, Jeremy Mack

Master's Projects and Capstones

This Capstone interrogates the teleology of neoliberal community development – does investment in historically disinvested working-class urban neighborhoods inevitably lead to gentrification? Learning from the Better Neighborhoods, Same Neighbors Initiative (BNSN) in Deep East Oakland as a case study, the Capstone uses a Transformative Justice (TJ) framework to make the case for an ethical approach to community development: one in which working-class urban residents are the authors and architects of their own neighborhood’s future, community needs are centered, and long-term residents are able to continue to age-in place. This approach utilizes the lens of Black-centered community development, integrating an understanding …

Commencement 2023: Dean G. Marcus Cole’S Charge To The Graduating Class, Marcus Cole

Commencement Programs

Joseph A. Matson Dean and Professor of Law G. Marcus Cole delivered this charge to Notre Dame Law School’s Class of 2023 during the Law School’s Hooding Ceremony on May 20, 2023, in Purcell Pavilion.

Detecting Ai Generated Text Using Neural Networks, Jesus Guerrero

Masters Theses (Archived)

For humans, distinguishing machine generated text from human written text is men- tally taxing and slow. NLP models have been created to do this more effectively and faster. But, what if some adversarial changes have been added to the machine generated text? This thesis discusses this issue and text detectors in general.
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/="/">The primary goal of this thesis is to describe the current state of text detectors in research and to discuss a key adversarial issue in modern NLP transformers. To describe the current state of text detectors a Systematic Literature Review was done on 50 relevant papers …

Security Challenges In Cloud Computing, Sashikumari Ramayan Singh

Masters Theses (Archived)

No abstract provided.

Serum Metabolomic Signatures Of Fatty Acid Oxidation Defects Differentiate Host-Response Subphenotypes Of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome, Tomeka L Suber, Stacy G Wendell, Steven J Mullett, Benjamin Zuchelkowski, William Bain, Georgios D Kitsios, Bryan J Mcverry, Prabir Ray, Anuradha Ray, Rama K Mallampalli, Yingze Zhang, Faraaz Shah, Seyed Mehdi Nouraie, Janet S Lee

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Fatty acid oxidation (FAO) defects have been implicated in experimental models of acute lung injury and associated with poor outcomes in critical illness. In this study, we examined acylcarnitine profiles and 3-methylhistidine as markers of FAO defects and skeletal muscle catabolism, respectively, in patients with acute respiratory failure. We determined whether these metabolites were associated with host-response ARDS subphenotypes, inflammatory biomarkers, and clinical outcomes in acute respiratory failure.

METHODS: In a nested case-control cohort study, we performed targeted analysis of serum metabolites of patients intubated for airway protection (airway controls), Class 1 (hypoinflammatory), and Class 2 (hyperinflammatory) ARDS patients …

Parent Perspectives Of School/Daycare Experiences In Young Children Newly Diagnosed With Diabetes, Alexa Stern, Brenda Duran, Randi Streisand, Christine H Wang, Carrie Tully, Lauren Clary, Katherine Gallagher, Fran Cogen, Lefkothea Karaviti, Maureen Monaghan, Marisa E Hilliard

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

OBJECTIVE: A central part of family adjustment to a new diagnosis of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is integrating T1D management into the child's school/daycare. This may be particularly challenging for young children who rely on adults for their diabetes management. This study aimed to describe parent experiences with school/daycare during the first 1.5 years following a young child's T1D diagnosis.

METHODS: As part of a randomized controlled trial of a behavioral intervention, 157 parents of young children with new-onset (<2 >months) T1D reported on their child's school/daycare experience at baseline and at 9- and 15-month post-randomization. We used a mixed-methods …

Integrating Tobacco Treatment Into Oncology Care: Reach And Effectiveness Of Evidence-Based Tobacco Treatment Across National Cancer Institute-Designated Cancer Centers, Sarah D Hohl, Alex T Ramsey, Li-Shiun Chen, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Quitting smoking improves patients' clinical outcomes, yet smoking is not commonly addressed as part of cancer care. The Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I) supports National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers to integrate tobacco treatment programs (TTPs) into routine cancer care. C3I centers vary in size, implementation strategies used, and treatment approaches. We examined associations of these contextual factors with treatment reach and smoking cessation effectiveness.

METHODS: This cross-sectional study used survey data from 28 C3I centers that reported tobacco treatment data during the first 6 months of 2021. Primary outcomes of interest were treatment reach (reach)-the proportion of patients identified …

Implementation Of Cellular Neural Network In 5-Transistor Active Pixel Sensors, Aditya Ramesh, Eric M. Schwartz

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

A concept for a CMOS image sensor architecture with real-time parallel analog signal processing is presented in this paper. Cellular Neural Networks (CNN) enables image processing in the analog domain using circuit elements such as capacitors, resistors, and nonlinear voltage-controlled current sources. Utilizing CNN for pre-processing in the analog domain allows for real-time feature extraction, noise removal, or other basic image processing, including edge and corner detection. Implementing CNN on a camera requires modification to the CMOS active pixel sensor architecture.

Live Audiovisual Remote Assistance System (Laras) For Person With Visual Impairments, Zachary Frey, Nghia Vo, Varaha Maithreya, Tais Mota, Urvish Trivedi, Redwan Alqasemi, Rajiv Dubey

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

According to "The World Report on Vision" by World Health Organization (WHO) [1], there are more than 2.2 billion people who have near or distant vision Impairments, out of which 36 million people are classified as entirely blind. This report also emphasizes the importance of social and communal support in enabling individuals with vision impairments to integrate into society and reach their full potential. While performing daily activities and navigating the environment, people with visual impairments (PVIs) often require direct or synchronous assistance [2]. Consequently, there is a growing need for automated solutions to assist in this regard. However, existing …

Toward Mutual Recognition: An Investigation Of Oral Tradition Evidence In The United States And Canada, Kalae Trask

Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice

United States (“U.S.”) courts have long failed to recognize the value of oral traditional evidence (“OTE”) in the law. Yet, for Indigenous peoples, OTE forms the basis of many of their claims to place, property, and political power. In Canada, courts must examine Indigenous OTE on “equal footing” with other forms of admissible evidence. While legal scholars have suggested applying Canadian precedent to U.S. law regarding OTE, scholarship has generally failed to critically examine the underlying ethos of settler courts as a barrier to OTE admission and usefulness. This essay uses the work of political philosopher, James Tully, …

Making Bad Decisions With Toxic Emissions: Exploring The Prosecution Of Companies For Superfund Crimes, Dr. Melissa Jarrell Ozymy, Dr. Joshua Ozymy

Washington Journal of Social & Environmental Justice

Marginalized communities in the United States bear the brunt of toxic pollution from Superfund sites. Criminal provisions in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund, allow prosecutors to seek penalties for environmental crimes involving significant harm and/or culpable conduct, but we know little about how companies have been prosecuted for Superfund crimes. We utilize content analysis of 2,728 environmental crime prosecutions stemming from U.S. EPA criminal investigations from 1983-2021, and select cases of companies prosecuted for Superfund crimes. We found that across 41 prosecutions, 126 defendants were prosecuted, resulting in 68 years of probation …

Digital Waves: Communicating Feminist Movements, Shauna M. Macdonald

Feminist Pedagogy

Online learning provides opportunities for pedagogical growth and innovation. When tasked with teaching an undergraduate Gender and Communication class during a virtual semester (amid the COVID-19 pandemic), I sought ways to engage students through online technologies rather than working against or despite them. The Digital Waves (DW) assignment, one that asks students to research and then create digital representations of a particular “wave” of feminism, was one of several strategies I adopted; it quickly evolved into a favorite.

“Civil Dialogue” As Feminist Pedagogy: Engendering Material And Symbolic Movement, Sarah E. Jones

Feminist Pedagogy

In the United States, we are socialized to think in Western dualisms, and these patterns of communication characterize discussion of social issues. Consequently, discussion becomes debate and dominant approaches to inquiry are privileged over experience with persuasion being the end goal. Fostering agency, cultivating empathetic understanding, and facilitating critical thought are made more difficult—outcomes that are neither productive nor edifying in the college classroom. This original teaching activity resists hierarchical forms of debate in favor of visibility and solidarity in discussions of gendered violence. Grounded in principles of invitational rhetoric and provocation, the activity uses a “Civil Dialogue” format to …

Moving Students Toward Activism: Microblogging About Gender-Based Violence To Channel Emotion And Encourage Action, Janell C. Bauer

Feminist Pedagogy

For students in gender studies courses, a unit on gender-based violence can be jarring. However, faculty can reflect on how to help students engage their emotions to enhance their learning and participate in gender activism. Students also benefit through the opportunity to reflect on their feelings and engage their emotional experience as part of their learning. In this assignment, I share how I’ve used a microblogging assignment to channel students’ emotions about gender-based violence into action-oriented digital activism content.

Creating A Strong Group Culture, Tianyi He

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This book review of The Culture Code summarizes three significant skills that contribute to creating a highly successful group. These skills include building safety, sharing vulnerability, and establishing purpose. Audiences are encouraged to appreciate the book for two reasons. First, it conveys that the approaches to strong group culture are multiple. Second, culture is one of the significant factors that policymakers should consider. By reading The Culture Code, readers can better understand how culture can help society be more inclusive and dynamic.

The Application Of Policy Theory To Covid-19 Stimulus Checks, Michael Mchenry

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This paper analyzes COVID-19 stimulus checks in a variety of public policy frameworks. Punctuated equilibrium theory is useful in explaining the development and implementation of this policy action. Narrative policy framework provides context for how the stimulus checks were perceived by the public and how that perception influences future policy. The stimulus check policy is also analyzed from the perspective of both a rationalist and critical policy analyst. These three policy frameworks interact with one another to create a feedback loop that informs future crisis policy.

More Money Fewer Problems: Increasing The Minimum Wage, Eleanor I. Leonard

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This policy brief examines the minimum wage in North Carolina, its effect, and ways to increase the wage for the betterment of citizens. The minimum wage at its current level of $7.25 is not enough money for citizens to pay for all of their basic needs such as clothing, rent, food, and healthcare. Additionally, with increased inflation in almost all aspects of life, this minimum wage has not increased since 2008 making it even more difficult for individuals to survive. While a wage increase to $15 seems to be the most talked about in the media it can be costly …

Does Child Care Works Work? An Exploration Of Pennsylvania’S Child Care Subsidy Program, Samantha J. Martin

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This article explores the theory and implementation behind Child Care Works, Pennsylvania's child care subsidy program. The article then studies and evaluates the policy through three criterion: effectiveness in providing families with low cost but high quality child care, efficiency in how it uses resources dedicated to childcare in the state, and the equitable distribution of access to childcare. Child Care Works has the potential to increase access to childcare and employment in Pennsylvania, but the current budget does not allot enough money to the program for it to be as helpful as it could be.

Delta Airlines – A Carbon Neutrality Pact To 2050 And Beyond A Public Policy White Paper, Drew P. Lemon

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

As part of a new global climate initiative, the United States very one Atlanta based Delta Airlines has recently announced to the world they will be embarking on an initiative to provide a never-before-seen technique of air travel; Completely carbon-neutral air transport and net-zero carbon emissions across all operational sectors of their fleet by 2050. Delta Airlines has now become the first official United States-based airline to promise net-zero carbon flying to the entire public within the next few decades, and the airline is set on being the catalyst in generating positive change for the United States aviation industry and …

Argument For H.R. 82 "The Social Security Fairness Act", Troy Domini M. Ayado

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

This paper analyzes H.R. 82 "The Social security Fairness Act" of 2021 by using SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. The paper focuses on the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset provisions of the social security Act. When social security was initially passed, pension benefits were not extended to public sector employees until the reforms in 1950s. However, in the 1970s the Supreme Court declared that men were no longer required to prove that they were reliant on their spouses to be eligible for spousal or widower's benefits, thereby making thousands of male retirees eligible to receive benefits. …

A Unified Voice: The Us-Taliban Peace Deal, Matthew Feldstein

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

The United States signed a peace deal with the Taliban on February 29^th, 2020 that would result in the complete withdrawal of US forces from the country at the end of a fourteenth month period, assuming the Taliban holds up their end of the deal. This would mark the end of one of the longest wars in United States history, lasting nearly two decades. The purpose of this paper is twofold, to determine if there is a presence of bias or misinformation by five major public policy think tanks in the United States and to examine the United …

Gettysburg Journal Of Public Policy 2023

The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy

Complete Issue of The Gettysburg Journal for Public Policy 2023

Cataloging And Interlibrary Loan: Cross Sections In Service, Presley Dyer

OVGTSL 2023: Ongoing Challenges, Creative Solutions

Cataloging and Interlibrary Loan? Together? That's an interesting combo. After undergoing departmental reconstruction, Tennessee State University Library did exactly that. By combining two services that were often not housed together, new findings and issues emerged, allowing Cataloging to use unfilled ILL requests as a foundation for cleaning up the catalog and verifying its WorldCat holdings. Such findings have also ensured better ILL fill-rate accuracy and discovery. Most importantly, this presentation showcases how both services check and balance each other with outcomes worth paying attention to and solving together in a new workflow.

Looking Through The Prism: Changing From Collection Development To Collection Strategy, Catherine Seago

OVGTSL 2023: Ongoing Challenges, Creative Solutions

The University of Kentucky has long seen itself as the flagship University of the state and its Libraries have a collection development policy geared toward just in case collections and trying to be comprehensive in a world deluged with information and data. With all the changes in terms of moving instruction more online, budget challenges, and collecting more perspectives and viewpoints (DEI), the University of Kentucky is shifting towards a model of collection strategy based on core values and the mission of the Libraries and Institution. This shift affects how Acquisitions manages the budget and handles requests from users and …

Flexible Magnetic Skin Sensor Array For Torsion Perception, Lucja Stawikowska, Erik D. Engeberg

Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics

Prosthetic hands help upper limb amputees and people who were born without hands. Currently, these prostheses are rather rudimentary and do not provide adequate sensing capabilities compared to a human hand. People use their natural hands to perceive complex tactile phenomena such as shear and torsion using thousands of mechanoreceptors in their fingertips. The capability to detect torsional loads at the fingertips is a notable gap in prosthetic hand sensation. Flexible tactile sensors are a promising new technology that would be ideal for prosthetic hands since they allow for stretching and movement like human skin without damage to the sensor. …

(Closing Keynote) A New Read Deal, Aj Boston

OVGTSL 2023: Ongoing Challenges, Creative Solutions

The time to re-shape how libraries subscribe to e-journals is here. With the Big Deal out and the Nelson Memo in, libraries should re-evaluate how we gain value on behalf of those within our institutions and ensure equity of access for those outside our institutions. In this keynote, Boston will outline an understanding of the present moment and propose a path for what might come next in library-publisher negotiations.

Prospects Of Digital Information Services In Nigerisn Public Libraries, Kelechi Okafor

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

This paper explores prospects of digital information services in Nigerian public libraries. The paper identified potential advantages of digital library system as a tool for modern information services. It observes that public library services will not be successful without the adoption and use of digital technologies such as hardware and software components that improve library services. The paper analyzes the concept of digital library, role of public library in digital environment and training need for public librarians in digital service delivery as well as constraints to digital information services in Nigerian public libraries. It provides workable recommendations on how …

A Methodology For Context—Specific Information Systems Design Theorizing, Muluneh Atinaf, Salehu Anteneh, Mesfin Kifle

The African Journal of Information Systems

Prescriptive knowledge constitutes one of the important contributions of information systems design theorizing in information systems (IS) research. Existing methods for IS design theorizing apply kernel/reference theories as sources of justificatory knowledge that serve to justify and validate the knowledge produced. This has gaps in guiding how specific contexts of stakeholders and their practices can be entertained in the design process. This research attempts to address the above void, taking a socio-technically complex agricultural extension information service and the contexts that define it into account. The research builds on an existing IS design theory framework and shows how it can …

An Evaluation Of The Privacy Policies Of Library Vendors, Daniel W. Jolley

Dover Library Faculty Professional Development Activities

This project aims to evaluate the degree to which various library vendors are taking the privacy of library users into account. In 2018, the Library Freedom Project put together a Vendor Privacy Scorecard analyzing the privacy policies of twelve major vendors, but no follow-up study seems to have been conducted by the Project since then. I intend to conduct my own updated privacy policy audit of these and other significant library vendors (particularly those used by NC LIVE) to gain a better understanding of how well these vendors are accounting for and protecting the privacy of individual library users today. …