Digital Commons Network^™

Necessary, But Insufficient: School Counselors’ Informal Learning Experiences With Writing Letters Of Recommendations, Mandy Savitz-Romer, Tara Nicola, Julius Dilorenzo, Jen Ha, Amy Desiderio, Sebastian Munoz Galvez, Matthew O'Brien

Journal of College Access

Submission of recommendation letters from high school counselors is a requirement for undergraduate admission at many selective colleges. However, there has been limited research to-date examining these critical application components and the front-line professionals who generate them. This study examines how high school counselors, who are key actors in holistic admission practices, learn how to craft recommendation letters. Given previous research has found that counselors have limited training in college admission counseling, understanding the learning processes that shape their letter writing is a critical first step for improving the quality of letters and their utility for student success in the …

Authoritarianism And Conspiracism Around The World, Valerie Capraro, Folca Panizza, Joseph A. Vitriol, Mikey Biddlestone, Andrè Krouwel, Yordan Kutiyski, Alberto López Ortega, Ana Ebert, Max Wan, Praveen Kujal, Karen M. Douglas, Christopher M. Federico, Jolanda Jetten, Sander Van Der Linden, Flávio Azevedo

ESI Working Papers

Authoritarian leaders frequently deploy conspiracy narratives to justify power concentration and delegitimize opponents, yet the link between authoritarianism and conspiracism remains underresearched. Integrating data across six studies from multiple international surveys (N=63,403; 20 countries), expert-coded party systems (71 countries; 14 datasets), and longitudinal panel studies, we demonstrate that individuals with stronger authoritarian orientations are consistently more prone to conspiracism across diverse cultures, political contexts, and time. These results remain robust when controlling for populist attitudes and multiple political, psychological, and demographic variables. The link between authoritarianism and conspiracism appears to constitute a durable and generalizable psychological relationship. This may help …

Caring For Post Icu Patients: Knowledge And Attitude Among Nurses Working In General Wards, At Tertiary Hospitals, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania, Nazahed Mkiramweni, Kahabi Isangula, Masunga Iseselo, Dickson Mkoka, Emmanuel Mlay

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Introduction: Caring for patients from the Intensive Care Unit (post-ICU) in general wards iscritical in determining patient outcomes. As primary caregivers, nurses provide hour-to-hour care and are essential in monitoring and addressing any signs of deterioration during this crucial transition period. Adequate knowledge and a positive attitudeare vital for ensuring the timely identification and management of complications. This study aimed to assess the knowledge and attitudes of nurses caring for post-ICU patients in general wards.

Methods: A hospital-based descriptive cross-sectional study wasconducted from May to August 2021 at Muhimbili National Hospital (MHN), Muhimbili Orthopedic Institute (MOI), and Jakaya …

Reproductive Justice, Law & Stillbirth, Kimberly Mutcherson

Vanderbilt Law Review En Banc

No abstract provided.

Uncertain Search With Knowledge Transfer, Woonghee Tim Huh, Michael Jong Kim, Meichun Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We consider a sequential search over a group of similar alternatives. The individual value of an alternative contains two components, an observable utility and an idiosyncratic value. Observable utilities share an unknown population distribution, which captures the similarity across the alternatives and allows for knowledge transfer within the group. Once a decision maker encounters an alternative, its utility is revealed immediately, whereas the idiosyncratic value is unobservable and needs to be learned by sampling. The goal is to select an alternative with the highest individual value while accounting for the sampling and search costs. A novel feature of this problem …

Striatum Volume And Affective Symptomatology Are Associated With Sleep In Schizophrenia, Alia R Warner, Xiaoming Du, Yizhou Ma, Kyle R Noll, Si Gao, Bhim Adhikari, Bruno Kluwe-Schiavon, Alina Siatka, Anya Savransky, Peter Kochunov, L Elliot Hong

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Sleep dysfunction is common among individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSD). Sleep duration and other sleep quality metrics are associated with worse patient clinical and social outcomes. We examined if accumulative stress, gray matter structural volume measured with high-resolution structural brain MRI, diffusion tensor imaging measures of white matter microstructure, and psychopathology (for the schizophrenia group) may act as predictors of sleep quality and compared individuals with SSD (N = 101) and healthy controls (N = 86). We created an adjusted Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI-A) score to measure sleep quality and account for abnormally long sleep duration as dysfunctional. …

The Concept Of Environmental Injustice In Allergy And Asthma, Ekta Perera, Christopher Codispoti, Mahboobeh Mahdavinia

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose of review: This review examines how environmental injustice contributes to disparities in allergic diseases, including asthma, allergic rhinitis, and atopic dermatitis. It focuses on the role of social, geographic, and economic inequities in shaping disease prevalence, severity, and access to care among underrepresented racial and ethnic communities.

Recent findings: Recent studies emphasize the persistent exposure of low-income and racially marginalized populations to environmental hazards such as air pollution, substandard housing, and climate-related changes, factors that are linked to increased prevalence and severity of allergic diseases. While environmental policies have led to overall improvements in air quality, disparities in exposure …

Markvcid2 Consortium For Clinical Validation Of Biomarkers Of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: Validation Framework And Baseline Characteristics, Steven M Greenberg, Marylin S Albert, Hongyu An, Konstantinos Arfanakis, Arnold M Evia, Arvind Caprihan, Andria L Ford, Myriam Fornage, Gregory S Day, Jason D Hinman, Gregory A Jicha, Amir H Kashani, Joel H Kramer, Christian Lachner, Jin-Moo Lee, Peiying Liu, Hanzhang Lu, Pauline Maillard, Ronald C Petersen, Bruce M Psaty, John M Ringman, Gary A Rosenberg, Claudia L Satizabal, Sean I Savitz, Julie A Schneider, Sudha Seshadri, Prashanthi Vemuri, Danny J J Wang, Donna M Wilcock, B Gwen Windham, Rong Zhang, Carissa Tuozzo, Herpreet Singh, Sue Moy, Vilma Okey-Ewurum, Courtney B Page, Hillary Mulder, Pia Kivisäkk, Deborah Blacker, Lidiya Mazina, Karl G Helmer, Kristin Schwab, Lisa M Wruck, Roderick A Corriveau

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: To establish a framework for validating candidate biomarkers of cerebral small vessel diseases (SVD) associated with cognitive impairment and characterize individuals enrolled by the MarkVCID2 consortium under this framework.

Methods: Participants age 60 to 90 years were enrolled across 17 MarkVCID2 sites. Recruitment was targeted to enrich in cognitive symptoms (mild dementia, mild cognitive impairment, subjective cognitive decline), defined risk factors (diabetes mellitus, advanced hypertension), and Black/African American, White, and Hispanic/Latino subgroups. Enrolled participants underwent baseline visits that included cognitive testing, multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and biofluid collection. Provisional risk for SVD-related cognitive decline was estimated primarily by …

Stimulated Cytokine Production, Attachment, And Emotional Well-Being In Dementia Spousal Caregivers, Daniel L Argueta, Sarah Roberts, Kelly N Brice, E Lydia Wu-Chung, Vincent D Lai, Jensine Paoletti-Hatcher, Bryan T Denny, Charles Green, Samantha Henry, Luis D Medina, Paul E Schulz, Jennifer Stinson, Cobi Heijnen, Christopher P Fagundes

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Proinflammatory cytokine production may be related to poor emotional adjustment in dementia spousal caregivers. People who display attachment insecurity may be at increased risk for adverse caregiving experiences and poor psychosocial outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to understand whether proinflammatory cytokine production was associated with anticipatory grief, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms and whether those relationships were stronger for caregivers higher on attachment anxiety or avoidance.

Method: A sample of 103 dementia spousal caregivers provided self-report data on demographics, health information, and psychosocial outcomes. We also determined lipopolysaccharide-induced whole-blood interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-10 production and combined …

Humanitarian Hospitality: A Framework For Ethical Encounters In Crisis Tourism, Georges El Hajal, Rodney Westerlaken, Erwin Losekoot

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This paper introduces humanitarian hospitality as a conceptual framework for understanding relational ethics and care practices in crisis-affected tourism. While volunteer tourism, disaster recovery travel, and solidarity-based travel bring individuals into crisis-affected destinations, the hospitality that unfolds in these non-commercial encounters remains under-theorised. Drawing on philosophical perspectives and exploratory qualitative insights from 145 Red Cross and Red Crescent volunteers and aid workers, the study examines how emotional labour, ethical care, and informal hosting are enacted in contexts of conflict and displacement. The findings both parallel and complicate conventional host–guest dynamics, highlighting the ethical and emotional complexities of providing care under …

Personal Resources Among Pre-Service Teachers: An Examination Of Links With Subjective Vitality And Occupational Commitment, Helena Granziera, Rebecca J. Collie, Caroline Mansfield

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The retention of pre-service teachers presents persistent and significant challenges for education and society alike. An emerging body of research suggests that the cultivation of personal resources may serve as a means to foster PSTs wellbeing, which is integral to fostering positive experiences within teacher education. We sought to examine this potential association in a sample of 664 Australian teachers by investigating the associations between five personal resources - adaptability, workplace buoyancy, psychological detachment, optimism, and social self-efficacy - and two teaching-related outcomes: subjective vitality at work and occupational commitment. Using structural equation modelling, analysis of data collected from PSTs …

The Powerful Teacher: A Power Hypothesis For The Benefits Of Learning-By-Teaching, Sarah Shi Hui Wong, Stephen Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Why does teaching others enhance one's learning? This study advanced a novel power hypothesis of learning-by-teaching: When assuming the role of a teacher, students experience a heightened sense of power in influencing others, which increases their own learning. University students (N = 242) studied a scientific text using one of three learning methods: notetaking, explaining, or teaching. The notetaking group prepared to be tested and wrote study notes about the topic; the explaining group prepared to explain and wrote an explanation about the topic as how they would write a textbook for their peers; the teaching group prepared to teach …

How Consistent Friendlike Conversation With Ai Companions Influences Our Attitudes And Perceptions Toward Ai: An Exploratory Experiment, Qi Hui Jerlyn Ho, Meilan Hu, Adalia Yin Hui Goh, Emma Jane Pragasam, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite skepticism and distrust in artificial intelligence (AI), it is increasingly integrated into daily life, with its potential benefits drawing interest. Yet little is known about the attitudinal and psychological effects of human–AI interactions, and whether consistent interactions with AI chatbots can change users’ attitudes and perceptions. Our within-subjects experiment (N = 52) investigated how five days of socially oriented, friendlike interactions with an AI chatbot, versus a journaling control, influenced changes in attitudes and perceptions of AI. Participants’ attitudes towards AI, trust, perceived empathy, anthropomorphism, animacy, likeability, perceived intelligence and safety, dependency, and exploratory well-being indicators were recorded. Results …

Beyond Resilience: The Case For Regenerative, Restorative Cities, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In a commentary, SMU President Professor Lily Kong mentioned that at the City Dialogues event, co-convened by SMU and Urban Innovation Vienna, participants agreed that cities must equip their residents to withstand shocks and thrive in an evolving urban environment. Prof Kong said resilient cities anticipate, adapt and respond effectively to disruptions, which involves attention not only to physical infrastructure, but also to social cohesion and institutional foresight. She said that embedding sustainability into urban design is fundamental to ensuring cities flourish in a world of climate uncertainty and resource constraints. She added that the value of urban resilience lies …

American Women's Clubs In The Nineteenth Century: The Case Of The Female Relief Society Of Nauvoo (1842-1844), Adithi Nythruva

Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History

Throughout the nineteenth century, women’s clubs provided American women with the space to influence the patriarchal-dominated public sphere and venture beyond their traditional domestic roles. This paper demonstrates that the Relief Society women developed a more nuanced relationship with feminist agency through their initiatives. Through an analysis of 33 sets of meeting notes from the society’s early years, this paper argues that the Relief Society women established feminist agency by exercising female authority, addressing scandals and injustices, and building a sisterhood. Additionally, through feminist agency, the Relief Society paralleled, and pre-dated the activities of many popular women’s clubs during the …

Role Of Childhood Trauma In Interoception And Alexithymia In Schizophrenia, Samantha Narvaez, Krista Wisner, Alina Siatka, L Elliot Hong, Joshua Chiappelli

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Childhood trauma (CT) is a notable risk factor for schizophrenia. Separately, CT has been associated with alexithymia, referring to difficulties in identifying and describing one's own feelings, as well as disturbed interoception, referring to difficulties sensing and responding to signals that originate from within the body. Both self-perception impairments have been observed in schizophrenia; however, the role of CT in these observations in schizophrenia is unclear. To address this gap, interoception was assessed using the Multidimensional Assessment of Interoceptive Awareness (MAIA), alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and CT was measured using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) …

Cultural Influences On Camouflaging And Autistic Burnout: Examining The Experiences Of Latino Autistic Young Adults, Antonio F Pagán, Katherine A Loveland, Ron Acierno

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The present study explored the relationship between camouflaging, autistic burnout, and cultural factors in Latino young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While autistic burnout and camouflaging have been widely studied in general ASD populations, limited research has focused on Latino individuals, who may experience unique pressures due to cultural values such as collectivism, familism, and traditional gender roles. Participants (N = 56) from the ¡Iniciando! la Adultez therapy program completed measures assessing burnout, camouflaging, acculturation, and cultural values. Results indicate that participants reported moderate to high levels of autistic burnout, with the highest levels observed in heightened self-awareness …

How To Search For The Engram: Optogenetics And Network Dynamics, Claudia Garcia Jou

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Memories are thought to be encoded by ensembles of neurons called "engram cells", because their artificial activation with optogenetics leads to the behavioral expression of a memory. However, the physiological mechanisms that mediate this process remain unknown. In this thesis, I investigate how optogenetic stimulation of memory-tagged cells changes neuronal firing, spatial coding, and the geometry of neural manifolds. I used an active place avoidance task and a foraging task to label engram cells in the dorsal hippocampus with Channelrhodopsin2 (ChR2). I then recorded the hippocampal activity response to optogenetic stimulation in mice under anesthesia, head-fixed, or freely moving. I …

Conspicuous Technique: Black Avant-Garde Poetry And The Politics Of Aesthetics, Ryan Gato

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study is comprised of two essays on the politics of aesthetics in postwar American black experimental poetry. Within the domain of contemporary poetry scholarship, this study serves three distinct yet interrelated purposes: 1.) to intervene within ongoing debates about the relation—or purported lack thereof—between black artistic practices and those of the historic and American avant-gardes by emphasizing the politics of aesthetics; 2.) to offer a critique of the usage of the discourses of postmodernism and of black aesthetics in the field by elucidating the historicity of their conceptual frameworks; and 3.) to provide an alternative to contemporary scholarship’s narrow …

Somatosensory Cortex Responses To Illusory Touch In A Visual-Tactile Integration Task, Aditi Surendra Pawar

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Perceptual illusions arising from multisensory integration reveal how the brain constructs subjective experience from sensory input, and provide a powerful means of allowing the investigation of neural processes that track perceptual interpretation rather than physical stimulation alone. While visual illusions induced by auditory or tactile stimuli have been fairly well studied, the neural mechanisms underlying visually-induced illusory touch remain unclear. This study investigated whether illusory tactile perception engages the somatosensory cortex in a manner similar to veridical touch. Twenty healthy adults participated in an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study while performing a tactile numerosity judgment task. Each trial …

Filling The Gaps: Maiti Nepal And Anti-Trafficking Governance In Nepal, Sushmita Lamsal

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Human trafficking in Nepal is closely linked to labor migration, gender inequality, and weak state capacity. In this context, non-governmental organizations play a key role in anti-trafficking efforts. This capstone project examines Maiti Nepal’s approach to prevention, rescue, and rehabilitation, with focus on its work at border points and internal facilities provided to human trafficking victims. The study analyzes how Maiti Nepal functions as a quasi-state actor by addressing gaps in Nepal’s anti-trafficking framework, highlights challenges associated with limited inconsistent funding, uneven resource distribution, and support for survivors. The study argues that Maiti Nepal’s significance lies not only in its …

The Experiences Of The Transfer Of Learning Path: Msw's Perceptions Of Organizational Influences, Alexis Howard

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Public child welfare agencies make substantial financial and organizational investments to support workforce members returning to school to obtain advanced degrees, most notably the Master of Social Work (MSW); however, challenges remain in ensuring that newly acquired knowledge and skills are effectively and continuously applied into practice settings, a process known as transfer of learning. The work environment plays a critical role in shaping organizational conditions that either support or impede successful transfer of learning, yet empirical research remains limited in guiding public child welfare organizations to develop strategies that sustain educational investments and contribute to improved outcomes for children, …

Open To The Public(S): Privatized Public Space, Technology, And Aspirational Wealth At Hudson Yards, Troy Simpson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Using the publicly accessible plaza at the Hudson Yards development in New York City as a backdrop, this dissertation provides an examination of mechanisms by which public spaces—already under pressure from a range of factors including privatization and securitization—are further transformed via processes associated with the notion of smart cities initiatives, or platform urbanism. Following a literature review and presentation of relevant contextual background related to the history and configuration of the site, the data chapters present a range of operational and material mechanisms that cumulatively establish a class-based strategic provision of narrow boundaries for visitor access and activities oriented …

Reimagining Safety And Justice: Experiences Of And Resistance To Police Sexual Violence In New York City, Priscilla Bustamante

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the era following both Black Lives Matter and #MeToo, police sexual violence (PSV) currently constitutes the second most commonly reported police complaint after excessive force. Police across the U.S. are caught for some form of sexual misconduct once every five days, with on-duty officers found to commit sexual assaults at more than double the rate of the general population. The gendered and racialized perpetration of sexual violence extends far beyond policing; however, it has been intensified within the masculine, militarized carceral structures designed to legally control and punish.

Accordingly, this dissertation utilizes an interdisciplinary, multi-method approach to offer what …

A Critical Lens On Emotions And Learning: Shame, Loneliness, And Alienation In Community College, Mike Rifino

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores how community college students make sense of and navigate their emotions related to learning. Community colleges are two-year public higher education institutions that primarily serve working-class and students of color, enrolling almost half of all current undergraduates in the United States, yet their experiences are rarely addressed by researchers. Drawing on critical theories (e.g., feminist politics of emotions, Black feminist/queer women of color theorizing), emotions in this study are conceptualized as socio-politically situated, shaped by institutions and ideologies distributed through power across intersecting social identities. Although emotion research in higher education has grown substantially in the past …

Less Self, Less Fear: Manipulation Of The Self Using Virtual Out-Of-Body Experiences To Alter The Conscious And Unconscious Experience Of Emotion, Dillon Freed

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study investigated whether adopting an out-of-body perspective in virtual reality (VR) reduces subjective and physiological emotional responses to vicarious pain stimuli compared to inhabiting a first-person embodied avatar. Twenty-four participants experienced two counterbalanced VR conditions: (1) Avatar Embodiment (AV), in which they inhabited a photorealistic avatar from a first-person perspective, and (2) a Virtual Out-of-Body Experience (vOBE), in which they observed their avatar from a displaced third-person perspective. In both conditions, participants viewed a standardized series of vicarious pain images while electrodermal activity was recorded and self-report measures of embodiment (AV) and disembodiment (the vOBE state), emotional intensity (a …

Good Mothers: Black Disabled Mothers & The Family Policing System, Siobhan Pokorney

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Good Mothers: Black Disabled Mothers & the Family Policing System is a qualitative study utilizing 16 in-depth individual interviews with mothers who broadly identified as Black, disabled mothers who had at least one interaction with the family policing system as adults in or around NYC. The study examines the work these mothers engage in to navigate their identities and strategically present themselves as good mothers while facing state surveillance and oppressive systems (specifically the family policing system) which automatically frame them as “unfit mothers.” It traces their experiences and the identity work that they engage in through the anticipatory trauma …

Calculated Risks: The Power Of Predictive Risk Models To Regulate Families Of Color, Ashleigh Washington

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines predictive risk modelling (PRM) in New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS), specifically exploring AI-enabled design features, practices, and encoded and racialized assumptions about risk in child welfare prevention services. Guided by Critical Race Theory and the Algorithmic Ecology framework, this study traces how PRM in ACS evolved from a service termination tool into a broader, largely internal surveillance apparatus that leverages families’ personal information, including health information, to assess risk of future maltreatment and to evaluate contracted service providers. Drawing on analysis of public records and in-depth interviews with Black parents, the findings describe how …

Conditions Of Vulnerability: Interpreting Social Condition Discrimination, Colleen Sheppard, Geneviève Plumptre, Hannah Reaburn

Dalhousie Law Journal

At a time of deepening structural inequality, it is important to develop human rights categories that respond to the needs of diverse social groups living in conditions of vulnerability. One source of protection, aimed at countering the exclusion and maltreatment of people who are socially or economically disadvantaged, is the addition of “social condition” as a prohibited ground of discrimination. Québec, the Northwest Territories, and New Brunswick have such protection in their anti-discrimination laws. In this article, we argue that the social condition ground is an important tool for redressing intersectional, group-based vulnerabilities that do not fit readily into traditional …

Demographic And Other Correlates Of Non-Prescription Drug Use Among College Students During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Subi Gandhi, Sidketa Fofana, Md Rafiul Islam, Tamer Oraby

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Background and objectives: Substance use among college students in the U.S. remains a pressing concern and may have intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic due to increased stress, uncertainty, and academic disruptions. This study investigates the relationship between non-prescription drug use and various demographic, mental health, and behavioral factors among college students during the pandemic's early stages.

Methods: Data were collected through online and in-person surveys in the summer semester of 2021. Behavioral health was assessed using validated instruments: the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) for depression and the Drug Abuse Screening Test-20 (DAST-20) for substance use. Demographic and behavioral variables were …