Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Assessment Of Community Needs In Southeast Louisiana Using Via Link’S 211 Call Data: 2012-2021, Steven W. Mumford, Tosha Shanableh, Andrew Holbein

Political Science Reports, Studies, and Presentations

VIA LINK partnered with researchers from the University of New Orleans (UNO) Master of Public Administration (MPA) program to conduct a community needs assessment for southeast Louisiana based on anonymous 211 call data over the past decade. The research team evaluated call data to pinpoint the greatest needs of those seeking VIA LINK’s services and how needs changed over time, including significant changes during the COVID pandemic and Hurricane Ida. The goal was to help VIA LINK and its partners better anticipate and respond to community needs and help fill gaps in regional resources.

This report shares findings from the …

State Capitalism’S Inability To Alter The Global Power Structure, Michael R. Woods

Student Publications

In the modern day, many nations have instituted State Capitalist policies to grow their economies and increase their international influence. To evaluate the efficacy of this strategy, this paper analyzes the historical impacts of State Capitalism, as well as its effects upon economic concepts, including competition and innovation. This work also analyzes the ways in which State Capitalist policies have negatively impacted the international reputations of nations such as Russia and China and explores the specific national characteristics and circumstances that are required to truly alter the global power structure. Ultimately, the work concludes that state capitalism is unlikely to …

The Effects Of Economic Globalization On Voter Turnout, Patrick L. Mahoney

Student Publications

Over the last 30 years, voter turnout, which is often considered to be an important sign of the vitality of a democracy, has been decreasing throughout the world. Traditional factors that drive voter turnout have not dramatically changed within the same period, suggesting that another factor is potentially at play. I contend that globalization, specifically economic globalization, has played a significant role in driving down voter turnout in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. First, economic globalization limits national autonomy in areas of economic policy by constraining national policymakers in their ability to implement substantive policy change. Second, as …

A Proposed Tourism Cap On The Galapagos Islands: Beyond The Wildlife, Hannah M. Robertson

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

Scientists have pleaded to both Galápagos and Ecuadorian officials to impose a tourism cap on land-based tourism to protect the biodiversity of the Islands. However, these proposals have offered little to no means of addressing the economic concerns or offsetting the impact a tourism cap would have on key revenue-producing industries and locals. Because of this, proposals for land-based tourism caps have gained little traction within Ecuador and the Galápagos.

This Note should serve as a guide for assessing what tourist restrictions are possible and how those restrictions would be implemented. Part I begins with an overview of the environmental …

Decentralizing Sustainably -- How Blockchain Can Benefit Environmental Goals, Logan J. Losito

William & Mary Environmental Law and Policy Review

[...] As presented in this Note, with a lack of clear guidance, disparate legislation from U.S. states continues to form a patchwork approach of policy to the topic of blockchain, with notably little attention paid towards environmentally sustainable practices. While this transpires across the states, sentiments from members of the federal legislative and, most recently, the executive branches of government express priorities in two areas when developing policy on the matter.

As this Note will outline, the concerns are generally over the sustainability of cryptocurrency mining practices and the potential for blockchain innovation to benefit environmental sustainability goals. However, while …

Public Acceptance Of Medical Screening Recommendations, Safety Risks, And Implied Liabilities Requirements For Space Flight Participation, Cory J. Trunkhill

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The space tourism industry is preparing to send space flight participants on orbital and suborbital flights. Space flight participants are not professional astronauts and are not subject to the rules and guidelines covering space flight crewmembers. This research addresses public acceptance of current Federal Aviation Administration guidance and regulations as designated for civil participation in human space flight.

The research utilized an ordinal linear regression analysis of survey data to explore the public acceptance of the current medical screening recommended guidance and the regulations for safety risk and implied liability for space flight participation. Independent variables constituted participant demographic representations …

Thatcherism's Triumph: How Margaret Thatcher’S Neoliberal Policies Brought Prosperity To Britain, Carl J. Demarco Jr.

Student Publications

By 1979, the British economy was in complete and utter disarray. Inflation was at record highs along with unemployment. The post-world war consensus was built off the idea of embedded liberalism, which stressed that the government must play a large and active role in regulating the markets and that it was in the government's interest to keep unemployment at its natural low. Similar to the United States, since the Great Depression the welfare state in Great Britain had been expanding. The post-war consensus proclaimed and exhausted the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes who believed in embedded liberalism and the …

Positive Influences Of Covid-19 On Local Touristic Sites: The Role Of Country Image In Stimulating Tourism In Jordan And India, Nadine Khair, Vimal C. Verma, Sara El-Deeb

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

Tourism took one of the hardest hits during COVID-19 pandemic, especially in Jordan and India, as they are tourism-dependent countries. Despite the restrictions that followed the pandemic, this study identifies the positive influence that this may have caused in enhancing local tourism. The study employed qualitative research methodology in which a sample of 30 interviews were conducted using convenience sampling technique in India and Jordan. Data was analysed using the thematic analysis. Results suggest that countries that have positive country image during the pandemic, may motivate civilians participate in domestic tourism resulting in improving local economy. The issue addressed is …

The Tendency Of The Z Generation To Recreational Activities And Their Leisure Time Attitudes, Aylin Nalcaci Ikiz, Ismail Ozturk

University of South Florida (USF) M3 Publishing

The aim of this study is to determine the tendency of the Z generation to recreational activities and the frequency of participation and to determine their attitude towards leisure time. The participants of the research are students studying at Kırıkkale University in the 2021-2022 academic year. The questionnaire form prepared in accordance with the purpose of the study was applied to university students face to face. Frequency values, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and T test were used in the analysis of the data obtained with the questionnaire forms. While the most preferred recreational activities by the participants in the …

Content Moderation As Surveillance, Hannah Bloch-Wehba

Faculty Scholarship

Technology platforms are the new governments, and content moderation is the new law, or so goes a common refrain. As platforms increasingly turn toward new, automated mechanisms of enforcing their rules, the apparent power of the private sector seems only to grow. Yet beneath the surface lies a web of complex relationships between public and private authorities that call into question whether platforms truly possess such unilateral power. Law enforcement and police are exerting influence over platform content rules, giving governments a louder voice in supposedly “private” decisions. At the same time, law enforcement avails itself of the affordances of …

Looking Through Their Lenses: An Analysis Of Virginia Environmental Nonprofits' Roles And Challenges In Shoreline Management For Coastal Resilience, Taiwo C. Olanrewaju Lasisi

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

Environmental nonprofit organizations have emerged to attend to the environmental needs of individuals and communities. Some of these needs are usually those that have been neglected, given insufficient attention, or cannot be singularly handled by the government. In advocating for coastal resilience, environmental nonprofits have been identified as actors who address coastal issues like sea-level rise, flooding, and shoreline management.

Shoreline management involves building setbacks and formulating short and long-term defense strategies such as building living shorelines, ripraps, bulkheads, and tree plantings. These strategies formed the basis of coastal defense in coastal zones. Shoreline management is a significant area of …

Securing Russia: Seeking Ontological Security In The Arctic, Brian W. Cole

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced an abrupt discontinuity in its sense of identity. This break in identity, and a more profound lost sense of self, creates a strong need to reestablish continuity. The need to regain that sense of self is strong and can supersede other concerns. Ontological security theory proposes that the need to maintain identity can outweigh physical security considerations. This study uses game theory methodology and the Arctic as a contextual example to demonstrate that ontological security-seeking actors are willing to sacrifice physical security. Today, the current conditions in the Arctic reflect a …

From Shared Micro-Mobility To Shared Responsibility: Using Crowdsourcing To Understand Dockless Vehicle Violations In Austin, Texas, Shunhua Bai, Junfeng Jiao

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

In recent years, many progressive U.S. cities have witnessed the rapid popularization of dockless small vehicles as a car-free travel alternative to meet the short distance travel demand. The research gap exists in revealing the social outcome of the massive influx of shared small vehicles on public space. To that end, this study analyzed 4,100 parking violation reports in Austin, Texas, crowdsourced from the Austin 311 non-emergency service request system. The results showed that sidewalk and other public space intrusions were the two most frequently reported violations. Additionally, it found that improperly parked vehicles in parks required the longest time …

The Role Of Village Savings And Loan Associations In Poverty Graduation Programs: A Process Analysis, Noha Abdel Hamid

Theses and Dissertations

Ten percent of the global population live in extreme poverty under $1.90 a day. To combat chronic multidimensional poverty, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC)created the Graduation Approach, which consists of a Big Push effect implemented through a series of interventions including asset transfer, mentoring, saving groups and a series of service provisions, to push ultra-poor households to exit poverty sustainably. Implemented so far in over 50 countries, the model has shown positive results even after ten years of the first interventions. Sawiris Foundation for Social Development partnered with BRAC and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Laboratory (J-PAL) to …

Lawbreaker: An Approach For Specifying Traffic Laws And Fuzzing Autonomous Vehicles, Yang Sun, Christopher M. Poskitt, Jun Sun, Yuqi Chen, Zijiang Yang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Autonomous driving systems (ADSs) must be tested thoroughly before they can be deployed in autonomous vehicles. High-fidelity simulators allow them to be tested against diverse scenarios, including those that are difficult to recreate in real-world testing grounds. While previous approaches have shown that test cases can be generated automatically, they tend to focus on weak oracles (e.g. reaching the destination without collisions) without assessing whether the journey itself was undertaken safely and satisfied the law. In this work, we propose LawBreaker, an automated framework for testing ADSs against real-world traffic laws, which is designed to be compatible with different scenario …

Towards A Definitive Symptom Structure Of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Factor And Network Analysis Of 87 Distinct Symptoms In 1366 Individuals, Matti Cervin, Euripedes C Miguel, Ayşegül Selcen Güler, Ygor A Ferrão, Ayşe Burcu Erdoğdu, Luisa Lazaro, Sebla Gökçe, Daniel A Geller, Yasemin Yulaf, Şaziye Senem Başgül, Özlem Özcan, Koray Karabekiroğlu, Leonardo F Fontenelle, Yankı Yazgan, Eric A Storch, James F Leckman, Maria Conceição Do Rosário, David Mataix-Cols

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Background: The symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are highly heterogeneous and it is unclear what is the optimal way to conceptualize this heterogeneity. This study aimed to establish a comprehensive symptom structure model of OCD across the lifespan using factor and network analytic techniques.

Methods: A large multinational cohort of well-characterized children, adolescents, and adults diagnosed with OCD (N = 1366) participated in the study. All completed the Dimensional Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, which contains an expanded checklist of 87 distinct OCD symptoms. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis were used to outline empirically supported symptom dimensions, and interconnections among the …

Residence In A Latinx Enclave And End-Induction Minimal Residual Disease Positivity Among Children With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Joshua P Muñiz, John P Woodhouse, Amy E Hughes, Sandi L Pruitt, Karen R Rabin, Michael E Scheurer, Philip J Lupo, Jeremy M Schraw

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Racial and ethnic inequities in survival persist for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). In the US, there are strong associations between SES, race/ethnicity, and place of residence. This is evidenced by ethnic enclaves: neighborhoods with high concentrations of ethnic residents, immigrants, and language isolation. The Latinx enclave index (LEI) can be used to investigate how residence in a Latinx enclave is associated with health outcomes. We studied the association between LEI score and minimal residual disease (MRD) in 142 pediatric ALL patients treated at Texas Children's Hospital. LEI score was associated with end-induction MRD positivity (OR per unit increase …

Incidence And 5-Year Survival Of Children And Adolescents With Hepatoblastoma In The United States, Justin A Kahla, David A Siegel, Shifan Dai, Philip J Lupo, Jennifer H Foster, Michael E Scheurer, Andras A Heczey

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: Hepatoblastoma (HB) is the most common pediatric primary malignant liver tumor, its incidence has been increasing worldwide, but recent changes in incidence and outcomes with high population coverage are not well characterized.

Methods: We defined the incidence of HB diagnosed during 2003-2017 from United States Cancer Statistics (USCS) database, and survival during 2001-2016 from the National Program of Cancer Registries (NPCR). Data were stratified by sex, race/ethnicity, age, tumor stage, county population, and diagnosis year. Incidence trends were assessed by calculating average annual percent change (AAPC) using Joinpoint regression. Differences in overall 5-year survival were estimated using Cox regression …

Longitudinal Investigation Of Suicidal Ideation And Associated Factors During Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Chemotherapy, Kimberly P Raghubar, Tiffany Chambers, Ryan M Hill, Olga Taylor, Marilyn Hockenberry, M Casey Hooke, Pauline Mitby, Ida Ki Moore, Austin L Brown, Michael E Scheurer

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Objective: This study describes the prevalence of suicidal ideation (SI) during acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) therapy and investigates the influence of clinical factors and physical symptoms on SI.

Methods: The Children's Depressive Inventory (CDI-2) was administered to ALL patients (diagnosed 2012-2017) at start of consolidation, delayed intensification (DI), maintenance cycle 1 (MC1), and maintenance cycle 2 (MC2) in a multi-site study. SI was present if patients endorsed the item "I want to kill myself." Logistic regression models evaluated associations between SI and sociodemographic factors; depressive symptoms; and below average, average, and above average symptom clusters identified using latent class analysis …

Psychiatric Polygenic Risk Scores: Child And Adolescent Psychiatrists’ Knowledge, Attitudes, And Experiences, Stacey Pereira, Katrina A Muñoz, Brent J Small, Takahiro Soda, Laura N Torgerson, Clarissa E Sanchez, Jehannine Austin, Eric A Storch, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Psychiatric polygenic risk scores (PRS) have potential utility in psychiatric care and prevention, but there are concerns about their implementation. We surveyed 960 US-based practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists' (CAP) about their experiences, perspectives, and potential uses of psychiatric PRS. While 23% of CAP reported that they had never heard of PRS, 10 % of respondents have had a patient/family bring PRS to them and 4% have generated PRS for patients. Though 25% stated they would request PRS if a patient/caregiver asked, 35% indicated that nothing would prompt them to request PRS. Most respondents (54%) believed psychiatric PRS are currently …

The Development And Initial Validation Of The Promis®+Hf-27 And Promis+Hf-10 Profiles, Faraz S Ahmad, Kathryn L Jackson, Susan E Yount, Nan E Rothrock, Michael A Kallen, Leilani Lacson, Karl Y Bilimoria, Abel N Kho, Raja Kannan Mutharasan, Peter A Mccullough, Jeffrey Bruckel, Savitri Fedson, Stephen E Kimmel, David T Eton, Kathleen L Grady, Clyde W Yancy, David Cella

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Aims: Heart failure (HF) is a common and morbid condition impacting multiple health domains. We previously reported the development of the PROMIS®-Plus-HF (PROMIS+HF) profile measure, including universal and HF-specific items. To facilitate use, we developed shorter, PROMIS+HF profiles intended for research and clinical use.

Methods and results: Candidate items were selected based on psychometric properties and symptom range coverage. HF clinicians (n = 43) rated item importance and clinical actionability. Based on these results, we developed the PROMIS+HF-27 and PROMIS+HF-10 profiles with summary scores (0-100) for overall, physical, mental, and social health. In a cross-sectional sample (n = 600), we …

Psychiatric Polygenic Risk Scores: Child And Adolescent Psychiatrists’ Knowledge, Attitudes, And Experiences, Stacey Pereira, Katrina A Muñoz, Brent J Small, Takahiro Soda, Laura N Torgerson, Clarissa E Sanchez, Jehannine Austin, Eric A Storch, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Psychiatric polygenic risk scores (PRS) have potential utility in psychiatric care and prevention, but there are concerns about their implementation. We surveyed 960 US-based practicing child and adolescent psychiatrists' (CAP) about their experiences, perspectives, and potential uses of psychiatric PRS. While 23% of CAP reported that they had never heard of PRS, 10 % of respondents have had a patient/family bring PRS to them and 4% have generated PRS for patients. Though 25% stated they would request PRS if a patient/caregiver asked, 35% indicated that nothing would prompt them to request PRS. Most respondents (54%) believed psychiatric PRS are currently …

The Employment Situation Of Veterans: September 2022, Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

Veteran employment trends and statistics among various demographics during September 2022

T1 Signal Intensity Ratio Of The Pancreas As An Imaging Biomarker For The Staging Of Chronic Pancreatitis, Temel Tirkes, Anil K Dasyam, Zarine K Shah, Evan L Fogel, Santhi Swaroop Vege, Liang Li, Shuang Li, Stephanie T Chang, Carlos A Farinas, Joseph R Grajo, Kareem Mawad, Naoki Takahashi, Sudhakar K Venkatesh, Ashley Wachsman, William E Fisher, Christopher E Forsmark, Phil A Hart, Stephen J Pandol, Walter G Park, Stephen K Van Den Eeden, Yunlong Yang, Mark Topazian, Dana K Andersen, Jose Serrano, Darwin L Conwell, Dhiraj Yadav, Consortium For The Study Of Chronic Pancreatitis, Diabetes, Pancreatic Cancer (Cpdpc)

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: Our purpose was to validate the T1 SIR (T1 score) as an imaging biomarker for the staging of CP in a large, multi-institutional, prospective study.

Methods: The prospective study population included 820 participants enrolled in the PROCEED study from nine clinical centers between June 2017 and December 2021. A radiologist at each institution used a standardized method to measure the T1 signal intensity of the pancreas and the reference organs (spleen, paraspinal muscle, liver), which was used to derive respective T1 scores. Participants were stratified according to the seven mechanistic stages of chronic pancreatitis (MSCP 0-6) based on their …

Characteristics Of Graft-Versus-Host Disease (Gvhd) After Post-Transplantation Cyclophosphamide Versus Conventional Gvhd Prophylaxis, Rima M Saliba, Amin M Alousi, Joseph Pidala, Mukta Arora, Stephen R Spellman, Michael T Hemmer, Tao Wang, Camille Abboud, Sairah Ahmed, Joseph H Antin, Amer Beitinjaneh, David Buchbinder, Michael Byrne, Jean-Yves Cahn, Hannah Choe, Rabi Hanna, Peiman Hematti, Rammurti T Kamble, Carrie L Kitko, Mary Laughlin, Lazaros Lekakis, Margaret L Macmillan, Rodrigo Martino, Parinda A Mehta, Taiga Nishihori, Sagar S Patel, Miguel-Angel Perales, Hemalatha G Rangarajan, Olov Ringdén, Joseph Rosenthal, Bipin N Savani, Kirk R Schultz, Sachiko Seo, Takanori Teshima, Marjolein Van Der Poel, Leo F Verdonck, Daniel Weisdorf, Baldeep Wirk, Jean A Yared, Jeffrey Schriber, Richard E Champlin, Stefan O Ciurea

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Post-transplantation cyclophosphamide (PTCy) has been shown to effectively control graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) in haploidentical (Haplo) transplantations. In this retrospective registry study, we compared GvHD organ distribution, severity, and outcomes in patients with GvHD occurring after Haplo transplantation with PTCy GvHD prophylaxis (Haplo/PTCy) versus HLA-matched unrelated donor transplantation with conventional prophylaxis (MUD/conventional). We evaluated 2 cohorts: patients with grade 2 to 4 acute GvHD (aGvHD) including 264 and 1163 recipients of Haplo and MUD transplants; and patients with any chronic GvHD (cGvHD) including 206 and 1018 recipients of Haplo and MUD transplants, respectively. In comparison with MUD/conventional transplantation ± antithymocyte globulin …

The State Of Latino Education: 2010-2020, Fabián Torres-Ardila, Nyal Fuentes

Gastón Institute Publications

In this report, we will provide a descriptive analysis of the main trends in educational achievement for Latinos in Massachusetts in the period 2010-2022. We highlight areas in which Latino students have made considerable progress since the publication of the 2010 Gastón report “The State of Latinos and Education in Massachusetts: 2010,” along with other areas in which progress has stalled and/or been reversed. The data presented cover only until 2020, before the full effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt. We end with recommendations for further development of a Latino Education agenda.

Good Names Beget Favors: The Impact Of Country Image On Trade Flows And Welfare, Pao-Li Chang, Tomoki Fujii, Wei Jin

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper estimates the effects of time-varying consumer preference bias on trade flows and welfare. We use a unique data set from the BBC World Service Poll, which surveys (annually during 2005–2017 with some gaps) the populations of a wide array of countries on their views of whether an evaluated country is having a mainly positive or negative influence in the world. We identify the effects on consumer preference parameters due to shifts in these country image perceptions and quantify their general equilibrium effects on bilateral exports and welfare (each time for an evaluated exporting country, holding the exporting country’s …

Analysing Impacts Of Urban Morphological Variables And Density On Outdoor Microclimate For Tropical Cities: A Review And A Framework Proposal For Future Research Directions, Shreya Banerjee, Ngai Yan Ching, Sin Kang Yik, Yuliya Dzyuban, Peter Jay Crank, Xin Yi Pek, Winston T. L. Chow

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Modifying urban morphology, defined as mass, density, and orientation of building stock in cities, are well-known heat mitigation strategies addressing urban heat islands (UHI) at various scales and consequent thermal discomfort. However, varying morphological aspects may have divergent effects on Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) in cities. Unlike UHI, which is derived from urban-rural temperature differences, OTC can be quantified by thermal comfort indices considering the objective assessment of microclimatic variables including air temperature (Ta), relative humidity (RH), mean radiant temperature (TMRT), and wind speed (Va), as well as a subjective assessment of individual perception. In Singapore and other tropical cities, …

2022 October, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for October of 2022.

The Geopolitical Impact Of Conflict On Food Security In Nigeria, Charis Riebe

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Nigeria is a country on the rise, and considered the leader of Africa. By 2050, the population is estimated to reach 400 million people, which would make it the third most populous country in the world. However, conflicts and food insecurity threaten the prosperity of the country. Many have heard about these threats to human security, such as Boko Haram, flooding, and the Russian-Ukrainian war. The root causes and contributors to these crises must be investigated, to better understand the direction they are headed. It is important to understand what the main drivers of food insecurity in Nigeria are, as …