Digital Commons Network^™

Coalition For Prisoners' Rights Newsletter, Vol 47-D, No. 5, Coalition For Prisoners' Rights

Coalition for Prisoners' Rights Newsletters

More Things That Don't Make Sense

Juvenile Incarceration

The Cost of Elderly Prisoners

"Justice Reform Coalition"

Asesinada de una Incursion Israeli

The Least Read Part of the Newsletter

Correction of April 2022 Issue errors

The Letter, 1968 (timely then & now)

The Mailguard Program Stopped

"The Rage of Innocence", Kristin Henning

Office Of Community Engagement Newsletter, May 2022, University Of Northern Iowa. Office Of Community Engagement.

Community Engagement Newsletter

Contents:

--- UNI Engaged: Stories of Impact
--- Award Recognition
--- Service-Learning Institute
--- Civic Action Plan 2.0 - Input Requested
--- Upcoming Events
--- In Other News

The Importance Of Process Documentation In The Workplace, Alisha Chatlani

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper focuses on the benefits of process documentation in the workplace and how individuals can go about creating documentation that best suits their business needs. The author of this paper explains how they went about researching, developing, and creating process documentation for a team at J.B. Hunt Transport Services and the methodology behind the entire process through an internship.

Business Plan: Refuge Coffee, Zachary Lewandowski

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Refuge Coffee will be the premier vendor of high-quality and sustainably sourced specialty coffee in Springdale, Arkansas. Its mission is to improve lives by providing a space that reflects the community—a space in which ideas, beliefs, attitudes, and values can be exchanged, with coffee acting as a common denominator. Refuge Coffee will offer specialty coffee beverages, locally baked goods, and merchandise to consumers. We intend to partner with Canopy NWA, a refugee resettlement organization that aims to welcome and equip refugees with all they need to build new lives, through the means of employment for refugees and the continuous donation …

An Evaluation Of Esg Funds And Their Performance, Mason Hook

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

Over the past decade, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) oriented funds have seen a dramatic increase in inflows and many investors have chosen to replace traditional holdings with sustainable ones. Within 5 years, it is projected that ESG exchange traded funds and mutual funds will exceed $53 trillion. Many fund managers claim that ESG funds will outperform traditional funds in the long run. If this claim is accurate, many asset managers would have a fiduciary duty to invest in ESG products. While there is often a non-financial benefit to investing in ESG funds, this paper challenges the claim that they …

Exploring The Impact Of Stock Market Performance On The Real Estate Market, Jake Taylor

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper goes on to analyze the impact of stock market performance on the real estate market. This is done through the analysis of the recent performance of the stock market, real estate market, and key indicators of both markets. The goal of this paper is to inform the reader of potential trends in the real estate market based on key indicators that play a large role in the stock market’s performance in order to make more knowledgeable investments.

Altering Overdraft Fee Policies To Promote Consumer Financial Health, Nadia Barbarawi

Finance Undergraduate Honors Theses

The objective of this study is to describe the traditional overdraft practices, explain the reaction of the banking industry from the pressure coming from consumers, regulators, and innovative companies to reduce or eliminate overdraft fees to promote consumer financial health.

The Effect Of A Health Educational Program On Sleep Related Health Outcomes, Swetha Sirigineedi

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sleep quality has effects on both physical and mental health. Because of this, sleep hygiene is an important health goal. Participation in health programs promoting healthy behaviors has helped people reach their health goals and elicited positive behavior change. Because of this, it was of interest to determine if participation in a virtual, multi-media health education program improved health and wellbeing outcomes of Arkansans. The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of a 20-week behavior and health educational program on the ability of participants to achieve their health goals and improve their health behaviors related to …

Life After Death – Does Carcass Biodiversity Scale With Carcass Body Size?, Troy Warfield

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Mammals play a large role in the ecosystems where some, especially large-bodied mammals, act as ecosystem engineers. Mammal carcasses, particularly those of large body mass act as a temporary island of dense nutrients that support other organisms, including other mammal species, for an extended period. Research in this field currently focuses on the link between mammal carcass size and nutrient availably or on non-mammalian size and biodiversity, but little is available on the correlation between mammal carcass size and its influence on ecosystem biodiversity. Here we ask, does the available biomass (i.e., body size) of the carcass affect its role …

Seasonality Of Orthohantavirus Seroprevalence In Northwest Arkansas Rodents, Amy Schexnayder

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Zoonotic viruses are viruses that can be transmitted from animals to humans. Rodent species are likely to be reservoirs for zoonotic viruses, and particular rodent-borne viruses, such as orthohantaviruses, may greatly threaten human health. Orthohantaviruses are a group of rodent-borne viruses that are at risk for spillover to human populations. Many aspects of orthohantaviruses have been well-researched, yet the seasonality of orthohantaviruses has not yet been thoroughly examined, especially in the southern United States. In this study, we captured 616 rodents trapped over 5953 trap nights across 13 grassland sites in Northwest Arkansas. Rodents were trapped for two consecutive nights …

Effect Of Larval Rearing Environment On Female Bicyclus Anynana Mate Choice, Adriana Beruvides

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Around eighty percent of animals go through metamorphosis or drastic phase changes at some point in their life. We know that juvenile interactions can influence adult behavior and mate choice in species that don’t go through metamorphosis, but we know very little about how social interactions during early life stages of animals who go through metamorphosis affect mate choice. To fill this knowledge gap, I used the butterfly Bicyclus anynana to assess whether female butterflies raised in complete isolation from the beginning of their lives exhibit the same mate preference as butterflies raised in normal social conditions. To test this, …

Root Phenotyping Of Peptide-Treated Glycine Max, Salem Jackson

Biological Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Plant elicitor peptides (Peps) – endogenous chains of amino acids involved in natural plant defense – have been shown to decrease damage from herbivores and pathogens by inducing an immune response, increasing the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCS), transcripts, and metabolites. Exogenous treatment of soybean seeds with plant elicitor peptide GmPep3 has been shown to induce these broad-spectrum defenses and offers a new method for increasing crop yield. However, the effects of GmPep3 on indicators of soybean health – root characteristics, growth stages, etc. – have not been fully realized.

Using the root-phenotyping platform RhizoVision Explorer, several root traits …

Academic Advising Support Tool: An Optimization Approach, Spencer Loper

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

More than ever, a college education is necessary to remain competitive in the job market. Therefore, colleges are dedicating numerous resources to ensure student success. Nonetheless, one of the most important factors of student success is proper academic advising. Students at the University of Arkansas and more specifically within the department of Industrial Engineering department are fortunate to have access to fantastic advising. However, given the volume of students, academic advisors do not have the time to talk through the nuance of every student’s long-term academic plan. The department does provide an eight-semester plan; however, students who have deviated from …

Recommendations For Effective Documentation In Regional Anesthesia: An Expert Panel Delphi Consensus Project, Hassan M Ahmed, Benjamin P Atterton, Gillian G Crowe, Jaime L Barratta, Mark Johnson, Eugene R. Viscusi, Sanjib Adhikary, Eric Albrecht, Karen Boretsky, Jan Boublik, Dara S Breslin, Kelly Byrne, Alan Ch'ng, Alwin Chuan, Patrick Conroy, Craig Daniel, Andrzej Daszkiewicz, Alain Delbos, Dan Sebastian Dirzu, Dmytro Dmytriiev, Paul Fennessy, H Barrie J Fischer, Henry Frizelle, Jeff Gadsden, Philippe Gautier, Rajnish K Gupta, Yavuz Gürkan, Harold David Hardman, William Harrop-Griffiths, Peter Hebbard, Nadia Hernandez, Jakub Hlasny, Gabriella Iohom, Vivian H Y Ip, Christina L Jeng, Rebecca L Johnson, Hari Kalagara, Brian Kinirons, Andrew Kenneth Lansdown, Jody C Leng, Yean Chin Lim, Clara Lobo, Danielle B Ludwin, Alan James Robert Macfarlane, Anthony T Machi, Padraig Mahon, Stephen Mannion, David H Mcleod, Peter Merjavy, Aleksejs Miscuks, Christopher H Mitchell, Eleni Moka, Peter Moran, Ann Ngui, Olga C Nin, Brian D O'Donnell, Amit Pawa, Anahi Perlas, Steven Porter, John-Paul Pozek, Humberto C Rebelo, Vicente Roqués, Kristopher M Schroeder, Gary Schwartz, Eric S. Schwenk, Luc Sermeus, George Shorten, Karthikeyan Srinivasan, Markus F Stevens, Kassiani Theodoraki, Lloyd R Turbitt, Luis Fernando Valdés-Vilches, Thomas Volk, Katrina Webster, T Wiesmann, Sylvia H Wilson, Morné Wolmarans, Glenn Woodworth, Andrew K Worek, E M Louise Moran

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

Background and objectives: Documentation is important for quality improvement, education, and research. There is currently a lack of recommendations regarding key aspects of documentation in regional anesthesia. The aim of this study was to establish recommendations for documentation in regional anesthesia.

Methods: Following the formation of the executive committee and a directed literature review, a long list of potential documentation components was created. A modified Delphi process was then employed to achieve consensus amongst a group of international experts in regional anesthesia. This consisted of 2 rounds of anonymous electronic voting and a final virtual round table discussion with live …

Memory T Cell Populations In Human Leukemia, Sara Mcelroy, Fang Tao, John Szarejko, John M. Perry

Posters

Background Incorporating the immune system into cancer management is an area of robust research. Treatment modalities aimed at activating cytotoxic T cells against malignancies include immune checkpoint inhibitors, bispecific T-cell engagers, and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) tumor-specific T cells. Most anti-cancer T cell research is narrowly focused, but knowledge about the nature of diverse sub-populations of T cells in cancer, particularly memory T cells, is vital prior to potential incorporation into therapies. T memory stem cells (Tscm) are of interest due to their longevity and powerful abilities of self-renewal and creating the full spectrum of memory CD8+ T cells, including …

Sedation Services Offered At Pediatric Dental Offices In The United States As Reported On Publicly Available Practice Websites, Stefanie Curtis, Jane Witt, Brenda S. Bohaty, Robin Onikul, Amy Burleson, Jenna Sparks, Neena Patel

Posters

Background: As early childhood caries impacts children throughout the United States, restorative dental procedures are often needed. The literature indicates that due to a variety of factors, parents may research their child’s dental condition and try to find options for care that they perceive as least traumatic for their children. These options frequently include sedation and general anesthesia. This background research is typically completed via the internet on public websites. Purpose: The purpose of this investigation was to identify if information regarding specific types of sedation/anesthesia services offered by pediatric dental providers are available on practice websites and to determine …

Better Leveraging Of Processies And Internal Procedures For Public Forms Used By Planning Departments, William J. Munson

City and Regional Planning

A survey was sent to 517 planning and community development departments across California inquiring about how they use interactive PDF files for forms and applications. 139 cities and counties responded, providing invaluable feedback, with 98% stating that their online forms and applications are in PDF format, 62% confirmed that some or all their PDF's are interactive, and over 72% retype the information in the completed PDF forms they receive in a database or spreadsheet program. Why retype data that has already been typed into an interactive PDF in order to enter it into their tracking systems?

Based on the survey …

Gamification Of Education And Learning: Heuristic Elements, Player Types, And Learning Outcomes For Art History Games, James L. Hutson Jr.

Theses

The technology of virtual reality (VR) and the gamification of education and learning has had proven educational benefits, especially in secondary education. However, there remains little to no research on the heuristic elements and mechanics that contribute to learning at the postsecondary level of education. Most research conducted has been refined to science programs, but even in these instances, a study of the effects and interests of different demographics has yet to be considered. Given the visual nature of how the discipline of art history has traditionally been taught, there are a number of virtual reality (VR) applications to assist …

Accurate Or Aspirational? A Rhetorical Analysis Of One University's Representation Of Student Diversity, Kristen Coady Spaeth

English Theses - Archive

When approaching diversity within higher education, colleges and universities champion diversity initiatives as significant goals. Prospective students may choose colleges based on the aspirational role model, which inspires individuals who see themselves in visual representations (Allen & Collison, 2020). A 2013 Journal of Marketing for Higher Education study analyzed how 165 higher education institutions each portrayed racial and ethnic diversity of their student population. The study found that a majority of institutions presents inflated images of diversity to prospective students who were significantly different from the current student body (Pippert et al., 2013). This data is representative of findings from …

Identifying The Distinct Adaptive And Plastic Gene Expression Patterns And Microbial Indicators That Mediate Coral Disease Resistance, Nicholas James Macknight

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Infectious diseases are an increasing threat to coral reefs, resulting in altered community structure and hindering the functional contributions of disease susceptible species. While forecasting disease outbreaks based on environmental factors has progressed, we still lack a comparative understanding of susceptibility among coral species that would help predict disease impacts on coral communities. This dissertation compared the phenotypic, microbial, and coral host gene expression responses of seven diverse Caribbean coral species after exposure to white plague disease. Disease incidence and lesion progression rates were evaluated over a seven-day exposure. Coral microbiomes and RNA were sampled after lesion appearance or at …

Quantitative Non-Destructive Evaluation Of Rebar Corrosion In Concrete, Khadiza Binte Jalal

Civil Engineering Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT: Corrosion of rebar is considered the leading cause of deterioration in concrete structures. When steel rust, it occupies larger volume and creates pressure on the concrete, leading to cracking and spalling. As the cross-section is being compromised, the structural capacity of the reinforced concrete structure is reduced. Corrosion is a slow natural electrochemical process that affects the long-term performance. However, sometimes premature catastrophic failure occurs due to corrosion, especially in chloride environments. Moreover, the cost of repair and replacement of deteriorated structures has become a major liability for management agencies. Consequently, it is important to determine the level of …

The Timing Of Insider Trading And Management Forecast Credibility, Xiaozhe Gu

Accounting Dissertations - Archive

In this paper, I study how past insider trading patterns affect management forecast credibility. I first hypothesize and find that, due to litigation concerns, executives are unlikely to use a “pump-and-dump” strategy to maximize trading profits. Instead, they issue more accurate and conservative management earnings forecasts before insider sales. I then document that insider sales after forecasts have signaling content. Specifically, firms where a higher fraction of insider sales occurs shortly after the forecast enjoy higher forecast credibility in the future. This effect is more pronounced when firms are difficult to value and less pronounced when firms show traces of …

Pearl Chase And Thomas More Storke: Two Community Builders In Twentieth Century Santa Barbara, California, Jacqueline M. Zeledon

History Dissertations - Archive

Pearl Chase (1888-1979) and Thomas More Storke (1876-1971) are the main protagonists in this dissertation which analyzes Santa Barbara, California, and its twentieth- century development. These two individuals dedicated their lives to improving, maintaining, and preserving their unique city, as they supported—and often led—many architectural, civic, educational, environmental, and infrastructural projects. Chase and Storke were selected to headline this dissertation because they were excellent examples of community builders whose prolific endeavors resulted in many achievements. Some of these accomplishments have become Santa Barbara icons for which the city is known, such as its picturesque architectural style and a University of …

Biomechanical Properties Of Porcine Neonatal Epidermis From Forelimb Tissue In The Longitudinal And Circumferential Directions, Neaz Almir

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

In adult humans, it is common to replace damaged tissues and epidermal tissues of smooth muscles on internal organs with porcine xenografts during a surgical procedure. However, there is little research on the usage of neonatal porcine tissues because of the difficulty in performing mechanical testing and obtaining samples from neonatal pigs due to the delicate property of the tissues. By performing mechanical testing on tissues obtained from stillborn pigs, we can calculate the amount of stress and strain these tissues undergo and how these tissues can be used to replace epidermal tissues in limbs of human infants. Using a …

Scalable And Reliable Sparse Data Computation On Emergent High Performance Computing Systems, Zheng Miao

All Dissertations

Heterogeneous systems with both CPUs and GPUs have become important system architectures in emergent High Performance Computing (HPC) systems. Heterogeneous systems must address both performance-scalability and power-scalability in the presence of failures. Aggressive power reduction pushes hardware to its operating limit and increases the failure rate. Resilience allows programs to progress when subjected to faults and is an integral component of large-scale systems, but incurs significant time and energy overhead. The future exascale systems are expected to have higher power consumption with higher fault rates. Sparse data computation is the fundamental kernel in many scientific applications. It is suitable for …

Selected Interdiction Games With Uncertain, Risk-Averse, And Simultaneous Play Considerations, Di H. Nguyen

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines two network interdiction problems: a shortest-path interdiction problem under uncertainty and a network interdiction problem in a simultaneous game. Both problems happen in two stages over a directed network, and involve a leader and a follower who have opposing interests.

In the first problem, the leader acts first to lengthen a subset of arcs, and a follower acts second to select a shortest path across the network. The cost for a follower’s arc consists of a base cost if the arc is not interdicted, plus an additional cost that is incurred if the arc is interdicted. The …

Policy Complementarities Between And Within Jurisdictions: The Case Of Alcohol Consumption And Driving, Tabitha Knott

All Dissertations

Federalism allows multiple levels of government, such as counties, states, and nations, to control the same territory. The result is often differentiated policies across smaller jurisdictions, which inevitably create spillovers when goods can be purchased in one locality and not in another. The first chapter discusses how each of the subsequent chapters are related using this context.

The second chapter investigates how one jurisdiction's policy may diffuse across neighboring jurisdictions to mitigate spillover effects using evidence from Texas. Texas is one of 34 states that allow local jurisdictions to determine alcohol policies and regulations via local option referenda. A force …

Reactive Thin Film Polymers And Thin Film Composite Membranes For The Rapid Screening Of Uranium Isotopes, Abenazer W. Darge

All Dissertations

Traditional radiochemistry approaches for the detection of trace-level alpha-emitting radioisotopes in water require lengthy offsite sample preparations and do not lend themselves to rapid quantification. Therefore, a novel platform is needed that combines onsite purification, concentration, and isotopic screening with a fieldable detection system. My dissertation research objective was to develop novel reactive thin polymer films and thin film composite membranes for the selective separation of uranium from environmental water followed by direct isotopic analysis by alpha spectroscopy. Chapter 1 reviews progress made on uranium separation from aqueous matrices and discusses methods used for the determination of isotopic composition.

Chapter …

An Investigation Into The Roles Of Aldose Reductase And Acetate Kinase In The Metabolism Of Entamoeba Histolytica, Matthew B. Angel

All Dissertations

Entamoeba histolytica is an amoebic parasite that infects an estimated 90 million people worldwide and causes approximately 100,000 deaths per year. As the causative agent of amoebic dysentery, this food- and water-borne pathogen represents a significant public health burden worldwide, particularly in areas with poor sanitation. While treatments for amoebiasis exist, they are often limited in their effectiveness. Thus, efforts to better understand the biology and physiology of this organism are vital to the development of novel treatments for this disease.

E. histolytica lacks the enzymes for many common metabolic pathways such as the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosphorylation …

Light Harvesting And Electrically Conducting Metal-Organic Frameworks, Monica Gordillo Varela

All Dissertations

Composed of metal clusters nodes and organic linkers, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as versatile platforms with unparalleled chemical and structural tunability, synthetic facility, permanent porosity, and size-selective guest encapsulation capability. These features make them potential candidates for a variety of applications such as gas storage,drug delivery, catalysis,and sensing. In recent years, the introduction of redox- and photoactive components have yielded stimuli-responsive electronic and photonic MOFs and expanded their utility in molecular electronics and energy storage devices/technologies.

Chapter one describes the light-harvesting ability of a porphyrin-based MOF. Herein, we have demonstrated spontaneous solvothermal growth of [100]-oriented uniform pillared-porphyrin framework-11 (PPF-11) …