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Usa V. Michael Moran

2025 Decisions

USDC for the Western District of Pennsylvania

Intersectionality, Epistemic Injustice, And Silencing: The Operationalization And Reification Of Intersectionality In Academic Research And Institutional Practices, Emery Lockwood

Theses - ALL

Intersectionality is a powerful analytic tool that can be used to better understand the role that oppression plays in society and how it shapes the way people affected by multiple systems of oppression interact with society. Recently, the unit of analysis for intersectionality has started to shift from intersecting systems of oppression to overlapping identities, which has changed intersectionality from being a tool used to analyze systemic oppression to individual’s experiences. This work explores the implications this shift has on academic research and the practice of several disciplines. Using a lens of epistemic injustice through theories of hermeneutical bastardization (Drury, …

Novel Origin Of Sperm Heteromorphism In The Drosophilidae, Karan Bhatt

Theses - ALL

Sperm heteromorphism, the production of two or more discrete sperm types or morphs within a single testis, occurs in diverse taxa. This phenomenon is believed to represent a division of labor by male gametes, with only one morph (the "eusperm") participating in fertilization and the other morph(s) specialized to perform some other (typically unknown) function within the female reproductive tract. One of the most intensively investigated systems is the Drosophila obscura species group, for which sperm heteromorphism evolved once in the common ancestor to the group, with all examined descendent species exhibiting sperm length heteromorphism. The absence of additional sperm …

Operational Context's Impact On Cockpit Behavior: Case Studies In Aviation, Nick Mehrdad Loghmani

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis examines instances where pilots in a tightly regulated environment, the modern airline cockpit, exhibit diverging responses when presented with identical information. Despite explicit standardization of procedures, instrumentation, and Crew Resource Management, observable patterns of operational divergence persist. The study adopts distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995) as the primary lens and analyzes the crew–procedures–artifacts system using cockpit transcripts and flight data. Operational context is the evolving set of roles, procedures, cognitive artifacts (including automation), constraints, and environmental conditions, while the operational configuration denotes its time-indexed instantiation at moment t. Within this frame, the thesis documents when cues do—and do not—propagate …

Editor's Note, Tim Hunt

Jeffers Studies

No abstract provided.

Linden 305 Llc V. Miller

All Decisions

In this licensee holdover, the tenant moved to disqualify the landlord's counsel, arguing a conflict of interest because one of the firm's attorneys previously represented the tenant in a substantially related prior proceeding. The court found that a presumption of disqualification arose, but the landlord rebutted it by demonstrating that the attorney lived out of state, was not involved in the current proceeding, did not possess material information, and the firm had established an ethical wall. The court denied the tenant's motion but prohibited the firm from discussing the case with the attorney in question.

Policies Of Pain: Neoliberal Rhetorics Of The Opioid Epidemic In Culture And Policy, Gina Arlene Stinnett

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation outlines and examines the Neoliberal rhetorics of choice and responsibility, and how these rhetorics are utilized in policy and culture related to the Opioid Epidemic in the United States. Through this examination of neoliberal rhetorics in policy and culture, I unpack the circular influence these two have on each other—i.e., cultural assumptions inform policy decisions, and established policy can slowly influence cultural assumptions. The key area in which these two influence each other is through rhetoric, therefore I argue that in addition to an economic and cultural structure, neoliberalism is a rhetorical structure—it shapes our society specifically through …

Assessing The Gender Differences In Mental Health Access And The Intersectionality Of Depression, Anxiety, Stress Between Black Men And Black Women During Covid-19, Turquoise Ef'e Pipes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic, which emerged in the past five years, has had a particularly severe impact on well-being, mental health, and access to care for Black communities. Therefore, the purpose of this quantitative study, grounded in intersectionality theory was to assess gender differences between Black women and Black men confronted with depression, anxiety, stress symptoms and mental health access during the crisis of COVID-19, which has been under researched within this demographic. The study sample included participants from various cities across the United States who lived through the COVID-19 pandemic from March 2020 to March 2023 (n= 104). A MANOVA …

Leadership Strategies For Capturing And Transferring The Knowledge Of Experienced Workers In Canadian Higher Education Organizations, Dean Allan Bulloch

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Higher education institutions face a risk of knowledge loss when they fail to implement strategies for transferring knowledge from experienced to less experienced employees. Canadian higher education managers are particularly concerned about the adverse impact of losing explicit and valuable tacit knowledge. Grounded in the socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization model, this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study identified and explored successful strategies employed by eight Canadian higher education managers to capture and transfer knowledge from experienced employees, thereby sustaining performance. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and a review of public documents, including strategic plans, annual reports, and accountability statements. Through …

Intercultural Communicative Competence (Icc) Among Efl Learners And Teachers And The Potential For Ai As A Guide, Zeynep Saka

Theses - ALL

This study investigates the Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students and instructors in Turkey by examining both perceived and observed aspects of ICC, as well as the potential role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in supporting intercultural communicative competence education. Guided by Byram’s (1997) model and informed by Speech Act Theory (Searle, 1969) and Politeness Theory (Brown & Levinson, 1987), the study adopted a mixed-methods design including 89 students and 46 instructors from nine state universities. Data were collected through a 25-item ICC questionnaire and a series of Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) completed under self-guided …

Study On Creep Mechanical Properties And Constitutive Models Of Silty Clay With Different Compaction Degrees, Li Mingchao, Wu Gangrong

Journal of China & Foreign Highway

In order to ensure the smooth construction and long-term stable operation of silty clay sections in the Zhoukou –Pingdingshan highway project,this paper conducted one-dimensional creep tests on silty clay samples with different compaction degrees under different stress levels and studied the effect law of compaction degree on its long-term creep mechanical properties.By establishing the corresponding creep constitutive models,a theoretical basis was provided for the prevention and control of creep failure in silty clay subgrades in engineering practice.Research results show that:① Under the same stress level,with the increase of compaction degree,the instantaneous strain,creep strain,and total strain of the samples all decrease …

Phospholipid Scramblase 1 (Plscr1) Regulates Interferon-Lambda Receptor 1 (Ifn-Λr1) And Ifn-Λ Signaling In Influenza A Virus (Iav) Infection, Alina Xiaoyu Yang, Lisa Ramos-Rodriguez, Parand Sorkhdini, Dongqin Yang, Carmelissa Norbrun, Sonoor Majid, Sanghyun Lee, Yong Zhang, Michael Holtzman, David F Boyd, Yang Zhou

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Phospholipid scramblase 1 (PLSCR1) is an interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) that has several known anti-influenza functions. However, the mechanisms in relation to its expression compartment and enzymatic activity have not been completely explored. Moreover, only limited animal models have been studied to delineate its role at the tissue level in influenza infections. Our results showed that influenza A virus (IAV)-infected

Building Bridges: Industrial Trade Unions In A Changing Climate, Nicole Möller

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines how German industrial trade unions and workers in the automobile and coal industries navigate the profound challenges of the green transition. Workers’ experiences are situated within a broader political-economic context shaped partly by market-led decarbonization efforts, welfare retrenchment/austerity, erosion of progressive institutions in society, and global competition, as well as a global restructuring of value accumulation. The analysis critically engages with unions’ current responses to a market-led transition and their implications for labor’s future. The dissertation develops its argument across three empirical chapters. Chapter 2 investigates workplace-level changes in coal mining and automobile production, analyzing how workers …

Effects Of Π-Rich Solvents And Nickel And Cobalt Dopants On The Synthesis And Properties Of Cesium Lead Halide Nanocrystals, Tsung-Hsing Chiang

Dissertations - ALL

Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals feature unique properties like quantum confinement, tunable band gaps, and high surface-to-volume ratio; and have been proven as prominent materials in applications such as light-emitting diodes, sensors, lasers, solar cells, etc. Optoelectronic properties of semiconductor nanocrystals are highly associated with their sizes, morphologies, and compositions. Understanding the growth mechanism can lead to the ability to control the size, morphology, and composition of nanocrystals. In this thesis, growth and b-site doping of perovskite, cesium lead halide (CsPbX3), nanocrystals are discussed. Solvent effects in the growth of cesium lead bromide were first investigated from the aspect of plumbates in …

Robust Security Assurance In Cyber-Physical Systems: From Attack Diagnosis To Attack Resilience, Zifan Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) have become integral to critical infrastructure, from autonomous vehicles to industrial control systems. However, their increased connectivity and sophistication introduce new vulnerabilities, making security a paramount concern. This dissertation presents a comprehensive pipeline for enhancing CPS security, focusing on accurate diagnosis of trustworthy time frames and subsystems, followed by system resilience measures to restore safe states. The foundation of system resilience lies in an advanced checkpointing protocol for real-time multi-process systems. A novel three-step approach uniquely addresses both logical and timing correctness, which are crucial for modern CPS applications. By partitioning processes into directed acyclic graphs, implementing …

Model Inference And Sparse Network Analysis: Machine Learning In The Gene Regulatory Network Framework, Youchuan Wang

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis explores sparse network inference from high-dimensional, noisy, and underdetermined data—a fundamental challenge in many scientific domains. We focus on the development of evolutionary computation methods for discovering underlying network structures that are both interpretable and biologically plausible. Our methods are applied to the domain of Gene Regulatory Network (GRN) inference, where sparsity, indirect interactions, and limited observations pose significant hurdles. The framework models both steady-state and time-series gene expression data, with particular emphasis on biological sparsity and regulatory dynamics. We approach the problem from three perspectives: (1) edge-level analysis using transitive reduction to distinguish direct from indirect regulation; …

Developing Best Practice Fabrication For Niobium Superconducting Devices, Jadrien Timothy-Henke Paustian

Dissertations - ALL

Superconducting qubits are a leading platform for scalable quantum computation. This platform offers high gate speeds and can make use of readily scalable complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication techniques. However, superconducting qubits are susceptible to a variety of losses that arise in systems with superconductors, such as due to ubiquitous two-level systems, quasiparticles, and more. Designing fabrication processes to mitigate and manage these loss sources is critical to achieving scalable quantum computation. However, many of these loss sources are set during fabrication processing, of which there can be many different steps, each with its own parameter space. Exploring this space …

Association Between Vitamin D And Cholesterol In Post-Acne Hypertrophic Scars And Keloids: A Cross-Sectional Study, Yuli Kurniawati, Yulia Farida Yahya, Sarah Diba, Rina Novriani, Hasbiallah Yusuf, Ekta Martgaredta

Journal of General - Procedural Dermatology and Venereology Indonesia

Background: Post-acne hypertrophic scars and keloids result from abnormal wound healing within the pilosebaceous unit. Ruptured microcomedones create wounds that can lead to prolonged inflammation, increased collagen synthesis, and fibrinolysis inhibition, resulting in elevated scar tissue in acne lesions. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to prolonged inflammation and damage to dermal collagen. High total cholesterol levels can lead to excessive sebum production, exacerbating inflammation and fibrosis. This study aimed to determine the association between serum vitamin D and total cholesterol levels with scar severity in patients with post-acne hypertrophic scars and keloids.

Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study was conducted at …

Synthesis, Characterization, Antioxidant Content And Antibacterial Study Of New Ligand And Its Complexes From Sulfonic Acid And 2-Phthalaldehyde, Mawlood Khalid Mawlood, Wurood Ali Jaafar

Baghdad Science Journal

The research includes preparation of a new Schiff base from the condensation of sulfonic acid with 2-phthalaldehyde by dissolving (0.2 g, 0.346 mmole) of the ligand (L) in (10 ml) of absolute ethanol, then 0.06 g of potassium hydroxide (KOH) dissolved in 10 ml of distilled water added to it and reacting the product with some binary metal salts (Mn, Co, Ni, Cu, Cd, Zn, Pt, Hg). The biological study was conducted against two types of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, Staphylococcus. aureus and Escherichia coli, and the fungus Candida albicans was also used. All the prepared complexes showed …

Dysconscious Ableism In The Public Library Advancing Disabled Patron And Staff Experiences Toward More Inclusive Programs And Services, William N. Myhill

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates the operation of dysconscious ableism in public librarianship and its impact on disabled patrons and staff. Drawing on critical disability studies, critical theory, and ethnographic methods, the study explores how public library policies, practices, and professional beliefs perpetuate ableist norms and marginalize disabled individuals. The research is grounded in three central questions: (1) How does dysconscious ableism operate in public librarianship? (2) What are the lived experiences of disabled patrons and staff in public library spaces? (3) What strategies can disrupt dysconscious ableism and promote a more inclusive, anti-ableist praxis? Data were collected through interviews with librarians …

The Profile Of Skin Cancer Patients At Dr Pirngadi Hospital Medan: A Retrospective Study, Febrina Dewi Pratiwi Lingga, Aisya Indira, Remenda Siregar

Journal of General - Procedural Dermatology and Venereology Indonesia

Background: Skin cancer is among the most common malignancies, including basal cell carcinoma (BCC), squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), and malignant melanoma. In Indonesia, it ranks third after cervical and breast cancer. This study aimed to analyze the demographic, clinical, and treatment patterns of skin cancer cases at Dr. Pirngadi General Hospital, Medan, Indonesia from 2019 to 2023.

Methods: A retrospective descriptive study was conducted using medical record data of all skin cancer patients treated from 2019 to 2023. Variables analyzed included age, sex, occupation, lesion site, skin cancer type, and treatment modality. Data were analyzed using univariate statistics and presented …

Twas-Ctl: A Robust And Efficient Method For Multi-Tissue Transcriptome-Wide Association Studies Using Cross-Tissue Learners, Md Mutasim Billah, Hairong Wei, Fengzhu Sun, Kui Zhang

Michigan Tech Publications

The advent of transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) has expanded the classical genome-wide association study (GWAS) framework by integrating gene expression with genetic variation to identify trait-associated variants. While multi-tissue TWAS approaches improve statistical power over single-tissue models, existing methods often lose information during result aggregation and require intensive computation. Here, we present TWAS-CTL (Cross-Tissue Learner), a novel framework that leverages heterogeneous gene expression across tissues by adaptively reweighting and optimizing multiple single-tissue learners. Simulations demonstrate that TWAS-CTL achieves higher statistical power than the leading method, UTMOST, while maintaining proper type I error control and reducing computational time by over half. …

Performance Of Digital Economic Indicators During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Payment System Case Of Indonesia, Darjana Darjana, Yanti Rusmawati

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

We explore the performance of digital payment system instruments during both the pre-COVID-19 period and during the pandemic. We focus on four main digital economic indicators in Indonesia; namely, electronic money, Automated Teller Machine (ATM), digital banking, and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) transactions. Using monthly data covering the period 2013:01 to 2023:04 obtained from Bank Indonesia, we employ the Difference-in-Differences method to assess the impact of the pandemic on digital economic indicators. The results show that during the pandemic, generally, the transaction value of electronic money, digital banking and RTGS are continuously upward trending, while the number of electronic …

A Comparative Study Of Conceptual Metaphors In Indonesian And Chinese Economic Headlines, Hendy Yuniarto

Bahasa dan Seni: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra, Seni, dan Pengajarannya

This study examines how economic concepts are metaphorically constructed in Indonesian and Chinese news headlines. Employing the Lakoff and Johnson's framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory, the study analyzes and compares conceptual metaphors in economic news headlines from CNBC Indonesia and China Business Network published between January and April 2025. Employing a qualitative methodology guided by MIPVU, the study mapped conceptual economic metaphors in a corpus of 500 economic news headlines. The investigation demonstrates a significant overlap in the conceptualization of economic events in both languages: economic actions are physical movements, business is a natural force, economy is a competition, money …

Organic And Inorganic Carbon Drives Zooplankton Composition In Tigris River Within Baghdad, Mohammed Hamdan, Batool Kadhim

Baghdad Science Journal

Increasing availability of organic and inorganic carbon in aquatic ecosystems became a common phenomenon that was influenced by manmade activities and ongoing climate change, which could influence zooplankton communities. Zooplankton composition in Tigris River under the effects of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon inputs (DOC and CO₂) has not been studied yet. Hence, we studied those impacts by taking three locations that were distributed in Tigris River within Baghdad City. Eighty-four taxa of zooplankton have been recognized during the study. These taxa were divided into three main groups that are: Rotifera forms 69.04% and Cladocera forms 16.66%, while …

Mental Health First Aid Certification's Impact On Filipino Nurses' Ability To Increase Personal Help-Seeking Behaviors, Self-Awareness Of Health Changes, And Improved Self-Connection, Maria Elena Holguin, Brenda Marshall, Faith Atte, Katherine J. Roberts

School of Nursing Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background

Post COVID-19, almost 50% of nurses reported severe depression, and over 30% moderate to severe anxiety. Nurses from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, including Filipino nurses, accounted for more than 54% of COVID-related deaths, despite comprising only 24.1% of the nursing workforce. Filipino nurses, making up only 1% of the U.S. population, comprise 4.5 % of the nursing workforce and face significant barriers to seeking mental health services, including stigma, a sense of shame, and adherence to cultural values that view mental illness as unacceptable.

Aim 

To assess the impact of Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) certification among Filipino …

Revisiting The Quiet Life Hypothesis In The Indonesian Banking Industry, Samuel Sumartoyo, Chaikal Nuryakin

Bulletin of Monetary Economics and Banking

This study explores the Quiet Life Hypothesis (QLH) in different bank groups based on market-dominant and state ownership. The instrumental-variable regression results confirm the quiet life hypothesis at the industry level. At the group level, there is no different tendency to act quiet life between the dominant and non-dominant banks. On the other hand, the State-Owned Banks (SOBs) show a more potent act of quiet life than private banks. While the results for SOB were backed by theory and previous empirical studies, they raised the question of why the private banks conduct such “lazy” behavior.

Family Cohesion As A Mediator Of The Impact Of Internal Locus Of Control On Students' Career Maturity: A Path Analysis, Rina Sangadah, Dwi Yuwono Puji Sugiharto, Heru Mugiarso

Buletin Konseling Inovatif

This study investigates the function of family cohesion as a mediator between internal locus of control and career maturity among vocational high school students. The primary aim of this study is to examine how individuals' ideas regarding their power over their life (internal locus of control) affect their preparedness to make career decisions and the degree to which familial harmony and support mediate this relationship. This study employs a quantitative methodology via a survey approach. Data were gathered from 381 twelfth-grade vocational high school students in Purbalingga Regency, Indonesia, selected through purposive sampling methods. The utilized instruments included the internal …

From Essays To Embodiment: Reimagining Student-Centered Assessment Through Creative Practice, Rory Bester, Carla Lever, Bongani Kona, Mona Hakimi

Turning Toward Being: The Journal of Ontological Inquiry in Education

This essay explores the experience of implementing podcast-based assessment in ‘Feeling History, Making History,’ a semester-long course at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa. The course is designed to cultivate broad-based critical and interdisciplinary skill sets in first-year Humanities students. Through pedagogical reflection across three consecutive iterations of this course, we investigate how creative assessment practices such as podcasting both enabled our students to bring their whole “selves” into the academy and productively challenged our own preconceived notions about effective, decolonial pedagogy.

“The Being Of Being Creative” In Assessment: Learning From The Creative And Performing Arts, Eliana Elkhoury

Turning Toward Being: The Journal of Ontological Inquiry in Education

Assessment design shapes not only what students learn, but who they become as learners. In the era of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), where information is abundant and recall is easily outsourced, higher education assessment must move beyond memorization and toward authentic tasks that cultivate deeper learning and ontological growth. This conceptual, reflective paper argues that assessment should be grounded in students’ mode of being, rather than restricted to knowing, having, or doing. Drawing on Barnett’s ontology of higher education, Biesta’s subjectification, and Su’s epistemological distinctions, this paper positions assessment as a formative site where agency, ownership, identity, and self-understanding can …