259890 research outputs found
Sort by
David Ferguson Oral History Interview
No full textPastor David Ferguson reflects on his education at the Rosenwald School in East Altamonte, where strong community ties and dedicated teachers fostered academic success despite limited resources. He credits the school for shaping his values and future. Ferguson describes the shift to an integrated school in the seventies as a loss of community cohesion, requiring adjustment to unfamiliar teachers and peers. Despite resource disparities, he emphasizes that Rosenwald’s supportive environment provided a strong educational foundation, highlighting the lasting impact of culturally connected schooling
Guiding Principles for Teaching about Genocide and Other Difficult Pasts
No full textThis article outlines guiding principles for teaching “difficult pasts”—episodes of large-scale, identity-based violence such as genocide, crimes against humanity, colonialism, and enslavement—in ways that promote peace, human rights, and the prevention of future atrocities. Drawing from the fields of Holocaust and Genocide Education (HGE), Global Citizenship Education (GCED), Peace Education (PE), and Human Rights Education (HRE), it argues that instruction should move beyond the memorization of historical facts toward developing students’ socio-emotional and behavioral capacities to recognize and resist processes of othering, discrimination, and violence. The brief presents three main areas of guidance: curricular content, emphasizing conceptual understanding over rote knowledge and the exploration of violence as a process; pedagogical methods, advocating for interdisciplinary approaches, active learning, and schools as inclusive civic communities; and educational policy, highlighting the need for teacher training, mandated curricula, and integration within broader human rights and peace frameworks. Recognizing the political sensitivities of confronting local histories, the brief proposes multiple levels of engagement—from local to international cases—allowing educators to tailor content to context. Ultimately, teaching difficult pasts offers a transformative opportunity to equip young people with the knowledge, empathy, and agency needed to build more just and peaceful societies
Jeff Schorner Oral History Interview
No full textJeff Schorner recounts his childhood in New Jersey and Florida and his early experiences fishing along the Atlantic coast and the Indian River Lagoon. He describes commercial and recreational fishing practices, vessels, gear, and target species, as well as weather events, regulatory changes, and environmental conditions affecting fisheries. Schorner also discusses his work balancing fishing with operating a citrus business in Fort Pierce, Florida
Cultural Continuity and Identity Preservation in Diaspora: The Role of African Pentecostal Churches in Maintaining Traditions within African Communities in the United States
No full textThis study explores the role of African Pentecostal churches in preserving cultural traditions andshaping identities among African diaspora communities in the United States, focusing specifically on Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) and Pentecost International Worship Centre (PIWC) in Tampa, Florida. Through detailed participant observation and in-depth qualitative interviews, this thesis examines how rituals, religious practices, and community engagement within these churches facilitate cultural continuity and identity negotiation among Nigerian and Ghanaian immigrants. Findings reveal that these religious institutions serve as critical sites for resisting cultural erasure, navigating the complex tensions between maintaining African heritage and adapting to American society, and providing essential socio-economic support. Moreover, the study uncovers nuanced dynamics of gender roles, transnational connections, and perceptions of authenticity among diaspora congregants relative to homeland churches. This research contributes anthropologically by illuminating the intricate interplay of religion, culture, and migration, offering insights into how diasporic communities actively reconstruct and reaffirm their identities within multicultural communities
Finding Solutions to Missed Appointments and Leveraging Virtual Technology in the Healthcare Setting
No full textThe healthcare community faces numerous challenges concerning patients and their ability to attend appointments as scheduled. Reports indicate that annually, between 23% and 34% of appointments are missed. This challenge creates a cascading effect of wasted time, resources, and valuable appointment slots in an already strained environment. The investigation of this phenomenon is not new and has been extensively researched in the operations management literature. While numerous solutions have been proposed over the past decade, there remains a need to continually advance this research. Beyond merely recognizing missed appointments and potential modalities to alleviate this issue within the care framework, we often overlook the behavioral aspects related to the patient. This research examines various attributes that could be integrated into the reminder system to enhance its relevance to patients and improve healthcare access utilization. Primarily, we explore the adaptive nature of reminders based on the patient’s preferences and the frequency of those reminders. Following this examination, we investigate the implementation of enhanced technological infrastructure that supports the incorporation of virtual healthcare mechanisms, commonly known as telemedicine. Through this perspective, we propose that such a robust modality within the healthcare setting enables a more convenient care structure tailored to specific patient demographics, while also helping to reduce overhead and complexity within the patient population. To study both phenomena, we utilize an extensive proprietary dataset containing over two million observations gathered over eight years, providing insights into the dynamics of appointment reminders and telemedicine utilization. Finally, we extrapolate these findings and focus on an underserved community within the mental health sector to apply our previous results and assess how, when leveraged, we can enhance care for patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within the Department of Defense. We aim to understand the use of virtual care within this patient community, which leads to a higher propensity of multiple diagnoses. For this analysis, we draw on data collected from 12 different clinics and hospital settings within the Department of Defense over eight years, yielding 107,000 observations for evaluation. In summary, this dissertation will provide new and valuable information to build upon existing knowledge. It does not fill a gap but enhances the current understanding of multiple phenomena. Through this dissertation, I contribute to the information systems literature regarding information technology use and the operations management literature, particularly addressing the persistent issue of missed appointments in healthcare
The Impact of Visual Brand Identity on Consumer Response in Rebranding: A Case Study of Burger King
No full textThis case study investigates consumer perceptions of rebranding through the lens of visual brand identity (VBI) and brand associations, focusing on Burger King’s recent rebranding. Using the Aaker Model as the theoretical framework, the study analyzes how brand awareness and associations influence consumer responses to visual identity changes. The research involves two focal areas in which comparative study will be applied by: (1) analyzing rebranding awareness by evaluating media coverage of Burger King’s new branding; (2) examining consumer-brand relationships through social media interactions to understand responses to the rebranding and to measure emotional and associative responses to visual elements. Through content analysis as a method, this case study offers a holistic view of Burger King’s rebranding campaign and its impact from the consumer’s perspective after the launch. Beyond qualitative data, quantitative research is also applied to analyze the frequency and mentions of key terms such as nostalgia and appeal within both news media and social media content. The results answer the three research questions, which show how consumers bond with brands through visual identity and associational appeal. The study evaluates the efficacy of rebranding by interpretating consumers’ perceptions, while also understanding how brands can build connections through rebranding efforts attending consumer expectations and preferences in visual communications. The findings highlight the importance of post-campaign evaluation and continuous consumer engagement in rebranding strategies. The study is relevant to the communication and marketing segment, so that brands can be strategic in long-term brand-consumer relationships and use this study as best practices for future research and industry implementation to define key elements to their own businesses when facing visual identity change in decision-making attitudes, such as rebranding
Evaluating a Web-Based Training to Teach Behavioral Analysis Students to Implement Behavioral Skills Training
No full textResearchers have found that behavioral skills training (BST) is often an effective strategy when teaching safety skills to children and adults with and without developmental disabilities. Despite BST being an effective intervention to teach safety skills, it requires substantial time from trained behavior analysts to implement with fidelity. Trainee-implemented BST may allow many children to access high-quality safety skills training while not requiring the presence of a behavior analyst. A web-based module may be a cost-effective and easily accessible option for parents, teachers, or Registered Behavior Technicians to teach children these safety skills. The researcher used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based training to teach behavior analysis students to implement BST to teach medication safety skills to children with developmental disabilities. The web-based training was effective at increasing treatment fidelity of one student up to at least 90% fidelity across three consecutive sessions, while two other participants required feedback to reach mastery criterion
Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) Sensing Trend Among Novel 2D/3D Materials
No full textVolatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) present significant health risks to both humans and animals. Long term exposure to certain VOCs belonging to certain chemical classes can cause both short- and long-term effects including nausea, damage to the central nervous system, and cancer. VOCs can be found in various everyday products like varnishes, paints, cooking items, cleaning products, nail polishes etc. Because of their ubiquitous nature, health concerns and risks regarding VOC exposure have become even more pressing. In this study, the VOC sensing capabilities and trends of novel 2D, and 3D materials (perovskite, and phthalocyanines) have been explored through electrochemical and thin-film fashion. Methylammonium lead iodide (MAPbI3) perovskite has been tested at first, against acetone, ethanol, isopropanol, and methanol, both under dark and illuminated conditions. MAPbI3 showed a good degree of selectivity toward methanol under illuminated condition. The work later focused on phthalocyanines; results indicate that copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) exhibits exceptional selectivity toward formic acid (FA), with a sensitivity of 0.643 µA/ppm. The nitrogen atom of CuPc macrocycles had been protonated by formic acid which led to this enhanced sensitivity toward FA. The material was tested against three other carboxylic acids (acetic acid, benzoic acid, and trifluoroacetic acid) with varying Pka in a 3-electrode fashion to confirm the protonation hypothesis. In the later phase of the work, 6 phthalocyanines (5 metalated, and one metal-free) had been tested against 4 analytes (acetone, acetic acid, ethanol, and isopropanol) in a thin-film fashion, fabricated on interdigitated Au electrodes. Among the metalated phthalocyanines, one has an alkaline earth metal (magnesium phthalocyanine: MgPc), and the rest are transition metal phthalocyanines (TMPcs), namely: cobalt phthalocyanine, (CoPc), copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), iron phthalocyanine (FePc), and zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc). The responses of the metalated phthalocyanines (MPcs) were compared with that of the metal-free variant (H2Pc) to assess the effect of the metalation in identifying VOC responses. Comparative investigation suggests that even in the absence of the metal cores, the Pc thin-film conductivity changes upon exposure to the VOCs, however, the responses cannot be distinguished from one another, suggesting that the metal core may not be the dominant factor in identifying particular VOC signature. Test results suggested that the conductivity changes were governed by adsorption mechanism, which had been verified by 3-probe electrochemical tests. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that an appropriate choice of the materials according tothe target analytes’ chemical class can solve the problem of identifying VOC signatures responses for ensuring a safer environment
Automated Data Analysis for Concussion Patient Records: A Flutter-Based Desktop Application
No full textConcussions are a prevalent and complex medical condition requiring careful clinical assessment and data-driven insights for effective management. This thesis presents the development of an automated data analysis system for concussion patient records, integrating Flutter-based desktop application development with SQL-driven data processing. The system provides a streamlined, interactive interface for clincians and researchers to upload, visualize, and analyze patient data efficiently.
The proposed solution automates data cleaning, preprocessing, and statistical analysis, ensuring robust and reliable insights into demographic, clinical, and recovery-related factors. Key analyses include sex-based differences injury mechanisms, prior head injury impact, mood disorder correlations, and time-to-treatment variations. The system employs Levene’s Test, standard and Welch’s t-tests, ANOVA, and post-hoc analysis to derive meaningful statistical conclusions.
By leveraging Flutter for cross-platform development, the application offers an intuitive user experience while enabling real-time data exploration. The integration of SQL automates query execution and statistical processing, minimizing manual intervention and improving reproducibility. The system provides visual analytics to support clinicians in evidence-based decision-making, ultimately enhancing personalized treatment strategies for concussion patients
Exploring Religious Leaders’ Perspectives on Genetic Counseling, Testing, and Related Technologies
No full textReligion significantly influences healthcare decisions, including those related to genetic testing, by shaping ethical and emotional considerations. While some religious groups provide formal stances on genetic testing, others lack clear guidelines, leaving both patients and healthcare providers without consistent resources for navigating faith-informed decisions. Understanding religious leaders’ perspectives is critical to bridging this gap and supporting diverse patient needs. This study aimed to examine religious leaders’ perspectives on genetic testing, genetic counseling, in vitro fertilization (IVF), gene therapy, stem cell research, and abortion. These topics were explored to understand the role of religious beliefs in healthcare decisions, and to develop a resource for healthcare providers supporting faith-informed choices. A comprehensive literature review identified official stances on genetics-related topics among major U.S. and global religious groups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with religious leaders from Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and Islamic traditions. Demographic surveys were also sent to all participants after the interview. Interview transcripts were de-identified and analyzed with support from ChatGPT-4 to identify key emerging themes. Religious leaders demonstrated varying levels of adherence to official denominational stances when available, with some strictly following doctrine while others relied on personal ethical reasoning and pastoral discretion. Most supported genetic counseling and genetic testing for medical purposes, though ethical concerns arose regarding reproductive interventions, embryo use, and genetic enhancements. Many leaders expressed limited familiarity with genetics-related topics and were unaware of their faith’s official stance on certain issues. Leaders also emphasized the importance of collaboration with healthcare professionals, acknowledging that clergy often lack the scientific background to advise on complex genetic issues. The findings emphasize the need for collaboration between clergy and healthcare providers. Given the study’s limitations, future research should expand to include additional religious traditions, assess intra-denominational differences, and explore the influence of clergy guidance on patient decision-making. Refining AI-assisted qualitative methods may also improve thematic accuracy and efficiency in future studies