Digital Commons Network^™

The Cultural Adaptation Of Abstract Expressionism In The Middle East, Solmaz Shoukohi

MA Theses

Abstract Expressionism emerged in post-WWII New York as both an artistic revolution and a tool of cultural diplomacy. This thesis examines how that ostensibly “American” art movement was adapted and transformed in the Middle East from the 1950s through the  1980s. Chapter 1 outlines the rise of Abstract Expressionism amid Cold War politics, highlighting how the style was promoted globally as a symbol of freedom. It discusses the role of U.S. institutions in exporting avant-garde art – famously described by Eva Cockcroft as a “weapon of the Cold War” – through touring exhibitions and covert sponsorship. Chapter 2 then traces …

About Witch Hunt: Feminist And Political Agency In Contemporary Art, Rana Sumerler

MA Theses

The Witch Hunt exhibition conjures a powerful dialogue between history, identity, and empowerment, bringing together sixteen international artists to channel the spirit of the witch. This show traces a vast genealogy of women—from the 15th century witch hunts to Californian artistic legacies of the 1970s, to the exhibitions opening in 2021, and into present day. The participating artists emerge as symbols of resistance through their creations which transform domesticity, sexuality, and labor into sites of inquiry all while grappling with the intersectional concerns of womanhood.  In a moment marked by political upheaval, the exhibition is particularly resonant in its exploration …

“What Is In Vogue?” A Critical Study Of Photography, Psychology, And Power In Vogue Magazine, Hannah Eve Osinoff

MA Theses

Capitalizing on our obsession with beauty and power, this thesis examines, through psychological and art-historical lenses, how Vogue’s use of photography increased the public’s fascination with elitist culture. Using archives and secondary sources, this thesis aims to prove that photography was so powerful that it compelled readers to covet what they did not have. Accordingly, Vogue serves as a key example of how photography informed cultural perceptions of beauty and class. Ultimately, photography has and continues to impact fashion and media, as exemplified by Vogue’s early dominance of this medium and the resulting change in culture.

Echoes Of A Country In Question: Visualizing And Constructing Lebanese Identity Through Contemporary Artistic Practice At The Venice Biennale, Anoush Manoukian

MA Theses

Historically (and presently) riven by sectarianism, struggling with massively degraded infrastructure, and seething with starkly apparent class divisions, Lebanon has long been tied up with bloody postwar politics, paralyzed by innumerable crippling setbacks on its path to recovery. During war, images of conflict have been plastered across media stations, firming the country’s place in the global conversation and imagination; everyone had heard about Lebanon, and people from the art world were attracted to the work being produced in Beirut: a localized body of work that was thematically interesting, formally unique, aesthetically neoconceptual and allegorical in approach. Unresolved conflicts have long …

Complete Issue, Christopher Tremblay, Patrick J. O'Connor Phd, Laura Owen, Diana Camilo, Moya Malcolm

Journal of College Access

No abstract provided.

Ai In Pk-12 Education: Implications For Teaching And Learning, David Naff, Meleah Ellison, Casey Bailey, Tzu-Wei Wang, Kiana Bradford

MERC Publications

This research and policy review from the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) explores the implications of artificial intelligence (AI) for teaching and learning in public PK-12 education. It is part of a two part series with a companion report focused on AI implications for PK-12 policy. The report explores two questions:

1. How is AI shaping teaching and instructional practice?
2. How is AI shaping student learning and development?

It concludes with a series of key takeaways and recommendations for PK-12 policy and practice.

Dupilumab For Patients With Allergic Fungal Rhinosinusitis, Amber U. Luong, Joshua M. Levy, Sarah K. Wise, Joseph K. Han, Mamoru Yoshikawa, Luo Zhang, Rodney Schlosser, Prerna Ranganathan, Paula Dakin, Jennifer Maloney, George D. Yancopoulos, Andrew P. Fontenot, Neelam A. Phadke, Lacey R. Robinson

Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) Faculty Publications

Background

Allergic fungal rhinosinusitis (AFRS) is a severe subtype of chronic rhinosinusitis characterized by fungal hypersensitivity and accentuated type 2 inflammation. Dupilumab-a fully human monoclonal antibody blocking interleukin-4/13, approved for type 2 inflammatory diseases, including chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps-may benefit patients with AFRS.

Objective

We sought to understand the effect of dupilumab in AFRS

Methods

In this phase 3 trial, patients with AFRS aged ≥6 years were randomized to dupilumab or matched placebo for 52 weeks. The primary end point was Lund-Mackay computed tomography (LMK-CT) score, quantifying sinus opacification, at 52 weeks. Secondary end points were multiplicity-controlled and hierarchically …

Front Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

The State Of The State: Teacher Edition, Rena Lesué

The Utah English Journal

Mr. Cox clears his throat.

Do we have someone who can take the minutes?

Mrs. Weber? Please?

She tap-taps some papers into order

and pauses to peer down at

a dirty sketch on the surface

of the student desk she occupies.

One hand snakes into her canvas tote

and retrieves a hanky.

She spits into it and smudges

the drawing

into a grotesque

fingerprint.

Book Review: All The Noise At Once, Shalece Garff

The Utah English Journal

All the Noise at Once depicts the life of two incredibly close brothers. The eldest is the star quarterback and is being headhunted by universities across the nation (Brandon), while the other is living with autism and difficulties that come with it (Aiden). Unfortunately, many of the activities that he and his brother are involved in (school and football) are almost always crowded and filled with commotion, which sometimes leads Aiden to experience meltdowns when he is overstimulated with touch and noise. Being seen as different puts him on the outs with the other football players, who regard him as …

The Future Of The English Class Essay: Reimagining Multimodal Composition In The Chatgpt Era, Taylor Rose-Dougherty, Christy Goldsmith

The Utah English Journal

As English teacher educators, we are on the frontlines of navigating the technological elephant in the 2025 writing classroom: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) technologies like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini that can produce pages of text in mere seconds. English teachers’ philosophies on GenAI are as diverse as their preferred novels or their favorite poets. But, as the two dozen publications in major English education journals1 in the past two years suggest, what is at stake is not the end of high school English (Herman, 2022), but the opportunity to give it a makeover (Herman, 2023) by reimagining what writing experiences …

Building Classroom Community With Picturebooks, Deborah Dean

The Utah English Journal

I started my first teaching job in January, after my 7th- and 8th-grade students had had a series of substitute teachers for the entire first semester of the school year. It was rough. An administrative problem that took months to resolve left these students feeling as if no one cared about them. And the series of subs, as well-meaning as they might have been, had not had long-term connections to ensure that these students learned or even paid attention. I tried a lot of ways to get and keep students engaged in those first weeks. A lot. But the first …

Incorporating Texts With People With Disabilities Amidst Scripted Curricula, Kayleigh Kearsley

The Utah English Journal

As I prepare for student teaching this spring, the topic on my and my peers’ minds is scripted curriculum. For emerging teachers, it can be intimidating to determine how to balance the best teaching practices developed in coursework with scripted curriculum, while simultaneously fostering an authentic learning community within my classroom walls. With the rise of scripted curriculum across the state and nation (Kang, 2016), this is becoming an increasingly complex situation to navigate. These curricular resources affect teacher choice, requiring educators to become that much more intentional with the choices they make. An important way to ensure we are …

Teaching Students To Write For The Future By Writing For The Present, Amber Jensen, Meridith Reed

The Utah English Journal

“When you get to eighth grade, you’ll need to know how to write a topic sentence.”

“The five-paragraph essay will prepare you to write in high school.”

“College professors expect you to accurately cite your sources in MLA format.”

“When you graduate from college, you need to be able to write a professional email.”

Perhaps you heard messages like these from your writing teachers as you moved through middle school, high school, college, and into your careers. We certainly did. And perhaps, like we have, you have been a writing teacher in a middle school, high school, or college classroom …

Challenging The Stereotypical Latina In Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land And The Poet X, Victoria Olsen Yates

The Utah English Journal

Book banning has become a trigger phrase in the United States, and schools have become book-banning hubs. In the 2023–2024 school year, PEN America recorded 10,046 book bans. Among the most commonly banned books, 44% included people of color (BIPOC) and 39% included LGBTQ+ individuals (Meehan, Baêta, Markham, & Magnusson, 2024). Banning books harms marginalized youth because they will not see themselves in literature, causing them to have a distorted view of the world. Rudine Sims Bishop (1990) explains this further in her idea that books can serve as mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Bishop illustrates how books can …

After All, Megan Russell

The Utah English Journal

After all the voices of the day have quieted down,

I think.

After all the pencils have been lost, some sharpened

to nubs, others scattered through the hall,

I wonder.

After all the paper has been crumpled and used up,

I ponder.

Limitations Of Plasma Exchange In Yellow Phosphorus-Induced Acute Liver Failure: A Case Report, Vihitha Vunnam, Swathi B.S

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Yellow phosphorus is a highly toxic compound commonly used in rodenticides and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality following ingestion. Toxicity typically evolves through an initial gastrointestinal phase, a deceptive latent period, and a final phase characterized by fulminant hepatic failure and multiorgan dysfunction. We report the case of an 18-year-old male who intentionally ingested two tubes of Ratol containing 3% yellow phosphorus. After initial vomiting and transient clinical stability, he developed rapidly progressive acute liver failure with severe coagulopathy, conjugated hyperbilirubinemia, hepatic encephalopathy, acute pancreatitis, pancytopenia, acute kidney injury, metabolic derangements, and recurrent hypoglycemia. Serial laboratory trends demonstrated …

Do More Sexually Active Men Have Less Bothersome Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Of Benign Prostatic Hypertrophy? – A Prospective Cross-Sectional Study, Sharad Kumar Sahai, Puneet Aggarwal, Satya Prakash Tripathi, Pushkar Mendiratta, Madhamshetty Ranjith

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Objectives:

Lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) are common in adult males with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) being a common cause, with significant effect on the patient’s quality of life and sexual function. Studies show that sexual dysfunction increases with increasing severity of LUTS. The present study aimed to analyse whether the severity of BPH symptoms assessed using scoring system had any association with ejaculation frequency and erectile function.

Methods:

This was a prospective cross-sectional study done over a period of 18 months. All consecutive patients reporting to the surgical department with BPH and meeting the inclusion criteria were enrolled for …

Status Of Mental Health Of Children And Sociodemographic Factors Associated With It Three Years Following Covid-19 Pandemic, Dr Dhanyatha T S, Dr Mithila Das Mazumder, Dr Likitha A C

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Background: COVID-19 disrupted every aspect of life, particularly affecting the mental well-being of children. Prolonged school closures, isolation, and lifestyle changes significantly impacted emotional and behavioral development.This study evaluated the mental health status of children three years after the pandemic and analyzed the influence of sociodemographic factors.

Objectives:

1. To assess the current status of mental health among children 7–15 years, three years after  COVID-19.
2. To evaluate the sociodemographic factors associated with mental health outcomes.

Methods:

 A cross sectional study was conducted from June2023 to December 2024 among 125 children aged 7–15 years at our institute.The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) was …

Family Mental Health – A Case Report, Vikrant Arora, Medha Kosireddy, Mathumitha Ananth, Kishor M. Manohar Rao

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Psychiatric illness in India is estimated to be 15% as per National Mental Health Survey 2015-16.  Mental health challenges within families, especially depression, anxiety disorders that are not common and when unaddressed exert cascading effects on all members, disrupting emotional cohesion, relational functioning, and socioeconomic stability. There are few case reports on entire family presenting to psychiatry department.

With informed consent a city-based middle-class family of non-consanguineous origin, where the 40-year-old female, presented with intractable limb pains and health anxiety, she had multiple consultation in last few months and her 48-year-old husband also had with episodic pains, irritability and her …

Biomedical Waste Management Practices In A Rural Health Training Centre In Southern India: A Cross-Sectional Facility Audit Using Kayakalp Guidelines, Mathivathani Palaniyappan, Kathiravan Rajendran

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Background

Effective biomedical waste management (BMWM) is essential to prevent environmental contamination and health hazards in healthcare settings. In India, regulatory frameworks like the Biomedical Waste Management Rules, 2016, mandate proper handling, but compliance varies, particularly in rural facilities. This study evaluated BMWM practices at a rural health training centre using the Kayakalp assessment tool.

Methods

A cross-sectional audit was conducted from April to June 2024 at a rural health training centre affiliated with a medical college in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India. The Kayakalp checklist for primary health centres was employed, encompassing 10 measurable elements with 20 checkpoints scored as …

Dietary Micronutrients And The Risk Of Gestational Diabetes: Evidence From A Tertiary Care Setting In India, Sujatha Mahadevarao Premnath, Moneesh Sivasoupramaniane, Maghida S

Digital Journal of Clinical Medicine

Background: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is a significant health concern in India, affecting nearly 22.4% of pregnant women. While macronutrient roles are well explored, the impact of micronutrients on GDM risk, particularly with the Indian ethnic phenotype, requires exploration

Objectives: To compare the micronutrient intake between GDM and non-GDM pregnancies and evaluate the association between specific dietary micronutrients and GDM risk

Methods: An observational cross-sectional study was conducted among 115 South Indian pregnant women. Dietary history was taken using 24-hour recalls on two occasions and analysed via the Indian Food Composition Table (IFCT). GDM was diagnosed using International Association of …

Student Centered Approaches To Analyzing Engagement And Discourse, Kamil Hankour

Theses and Dissertations

Student engagement and participation in classroom discourse are widely recognized as powerful predictors of meaningful science learning, yet students’ own perspectives on the factors that shape their engagement and participation are currently underexamined. Prior research has established strong links between engagement, discourse and outcomes such as academic achievement (Bae & DeBusk-Lane, 2019; Fredricks et al., 2004; Sedova et al., 2019), but less is known about how students understand and interpret their experiences across individual, group-level and classroom contexts, particularly within historically marginalized populations (Cook-Sather, 2013; Schaefer et al., 2024). This three paper dissertation advances a line of inquiry integrating a …

Tangled Up In Blues, Clara B. Deweese

Theses and Dissertations

Martin Buber’s philosophy teaches us that when our masks fall and our armor’s unveiled, we discover humanity shared. Tangled Up in Blues unpacks the snapshot photographic practice I’ve had for years, which documents my mutually uplifting relationships, and is presented for my thesis exhibit through a painterly technique that deconstructs and reconstructs  the images onto wood panels using laser transfer. As we navigate a distracted and fragmented society made of greed and bigotry, cherishing the deep connections and shared memories brings us optimism.

Sensory Constellations, Madaline K. Gardner

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis situates neurodiversity within the field of fine arts by integrating disability studies, institutional critique, and material practices in painting and printmaking. Through visual analysis and studio-based research, the project examines how tactile engagement, color relationships, and repetitive mark-making can articulate embodied experiences of neurodivergence. It challenges dominant institutional frameworks that pathologize neurodivergent behaviors by reframing stimming as a generative and communicative practice. The resulting body of work includes both image-making and the creation of tactile objects designed to facilitate sensory interaction. The thesis proposes alternative ways of understanding artistic practice and accessibility within art institutions.

Comorbid Psychosis In The General Population, Mariam Sankoh

Theses and Dissertations

Psychosis is a complex psychiatric phenotype characterized by substantial heterogeneity in symptom presentation, psychosis diagnosis, comorbidity patterns, and genetic architecture across diverse populations in the general population. Despite advances in psychiatric epidemiology and genomics, important gaps remain in understanding how psychosis symptoms and psychosis-related diagnoses manifest across racial and ethnic groups and how evolutionary genomic factors may contribute to disease risk and cross-ancestry genetic prediction. This dissertation, Characterizing Comorbidity in Psychosis in the General Population, integrates epidemiological, psychometric, and evolutionary genetic approaches to examine psychosis across diverse populations.

Aim 1 examined racial and ethnic differences in psychosis comorbidity patterns …

From Cultural Binaries To Coexistence: A Graphic Autoethnography Of Individualism And Collectivism In An International Context, Shahad Alsubaie

Theses and Dissertations

This arts-based autoethnographic study investigates individualism and collectivism, specifically through my study-abroad experience traveling from Saudi Arabia to the United States. Through arts-based reflective practice, I depicted the diasporic experience of being ontoepistemologically collectivistic while navigating a primarily individualistic society. I use the medium of a graphic memoir to illustrate and develop frameworks of confluence that embrace the two distinct cultural orientations simultaneously. This arts-based self-study not only contributes to the body of transnational scholarship but also serves as a reference for international students, researchers, and educators to use arts-based subgenres and data analysis methods to gain better insights into …

24-H Circadian Rest-Activity Rhythms And Physical Frailty In Older Adults: A Biopsychosocial Perspective On Sex Differences And Social Capital, Jisu Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Physical frailty is a prevalent geriatric syndrome characterized by age-related decline across multiple physiological systems. Physical frailty is associated with an elevated risk of adverse health outcomes, including chronic disease progression and all-cause mortality, representing a significant and growing public health concern. Disrupted circadian rest-activity rhythms (RARs) are increasingly recognized as clinically meaningful markers of physical frailty in older adults. However, the extent to which biological sex and social determinants of health (SDoH), particularly social capital, contribute to or modify the associations between RARs and physical frailty remains underexplored.

Therefore, this dissertation summarizes the existing literature on age-related changes in …

Comparison Of Artificial Intelligence Vs Human Observer For Periapical Radiolucency Detection, Adam J. Pink

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the performance of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) program (OverJet AI) with that of experienced endodontic residents, endodontists, a radiologist, and dental students in detecting periapical radiolucencies using radiographic images.

Methods: One hundred and fifty periapical radiographic images were analyzed using the OverJet AI software to determine the presence/absence of a periapical radiolucency as well as the size (small 1-3mm, medium 4-6mm, and large 6+mm). The unaltered images were also evaluated by two endodontic residents, two practicing endodontists, an oral radiologist and two 4th year dental students.

Results: Agreement between the AI …

Sex In Plants: Birth, Death, And Trying To Survive In Changing Climates, Elena M. Meyer

Theses and Dissertations

Plant mating systems are key determinants of fitness. Angiosperms exhibit a wide variety of reproductive strategies, including self-fertilization (or selfing), outcrossing, and mixed mating. It has been estimated that up to 43% of plant species are capable of selfing, and selfing has been hypothesized to provide reproductive assurance where opportunities for mating may be limited, such as in marginal environments. However, questions regarding the overall distribution of selfing rates across angiosperms, the maintenance of mixed mating in the face of inbreeding depression, and the impact of self-fertilization on diversification rates remain incompletely resolved. Here, we explore the dynamics of self-fertilization …