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Impetus To Transform: Essential Nursing Leadership Development Through Simulation, Mary J. Mette

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Abstract

A nurse manager’s ability to effect positive change and inspire others to higher levels of achievement is related to his or her leadership style in the practice setting, as well as the culture present in the organization as a whole. The aim of this Doctor of Nursing evidence-based change in practice project was to create an educational modality that supported training nurse leaders through innovation and creative problem solving in today’s acute healthcare setting.

A survey was administered to 48 frontline managers in a Northern California healthcare system to access the gaps and voids in their ability to integrate …

Statistical Power In Meta-Analysis, Jin Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Statistical power is important in a meta-analysis study, although few studies have examined the performance of simulated power in meta-analysis. The purpose of this study is to inform researchers about statistical power estimation on two sample mean difference test under different situations: (1) the discrepancy between the analytical power and the actual power and (2) the influence of unequal sample size and unbalanced design on the power. Results indicated that there are noticeable discrepancies between the estimated power and actual power under certain conditions. In general, unbalanced design decreases the statistical power in the meta-analysis. Recommendations are provided for researchers …

Simulation Of An Axion Search Experiment, Yipeng Jiang

Theses and Dissertations

The resolution of the strong CP problem postulates a new dark matter candidate known as the axion. Axions can couple with photons in the presence of a strong magnetic field. Light shining through wall method (LSW) uses a lead wall inside a cavity with a strong magnetic field to coupled axions with photons then detect axions when the axions cross the lead wall and convert back to photons. The axion signal and thermal noise are simulated and by comparing the simulated signals after they have been rectified and integrated, the sensitivity of the planned experiment was determined.

Failure Simulations At Multiple Length Scales In High Temperature Structural Alloys, Chao Pu

Doctoral Dissertations

A number of computational methodologies have been developed to investigate the deformation and damage mechanism of various structural materials at different length scale and under extreme loading conditions, and also to provide insights in the development of high-performance materials.

In microscopic material behavior and failure modes, polycrystalline metals of interest include heterogeneous deformation field due to crystalline anisotropy, inter/intra grain or phase and grain boundary interactions. Crystal plasticity model is utilized to simulate microstructure based polycrystalline materials, and micro-deformation information, such as lattice strain evolution, can be captured based on crystal plasticity finite element modeling (CPFEM) in ABAQUS. The comparison …

Stella: A Python-Based Domain-Specific Language For Simulations, David Mohr

Computer Science ETDs

Stella is a domain-specific language that (1) has single thread performance competitive with low-level languages, (2) supports object-oriented programming (OOP) to properly structure the code, and (3) is very easy to use. Instead of prototyping in a high-level language and then rewriting in a lower-level language, Stella is embedded in Python, is transparently usable, retains some OOP features, compiles to machine code, and executes at speed similar to C. Stella's source code is compatible with Python, and allows easy integration of C libraries. Its features are focused on the needs of scientific simulations. Other projects to speed up Python focus …

Joint Optimization Of Allocation And Release Policy Decisions For Surgical Block Time Under Uncertainty, Mina Loghavi

Doctoral Dissertations

The research presented in this dissertation contributes to the growing literature on applications of operations research methodology to healthcare problems through the development and analysis of mathematical models and simulation techniques to find practical solutions to fundamental problems facing nearly all hospitals.

In practice, surgical block schedule allocation is usually determined regardless of the stochastic nature of case demand and duration. Once allocated, associated block time release policies, if utilized, are often simple rules that may be far from optimal. Although previous research has examined these decisions individually, our model considers them jointly. A multi-objective model that characterizes financial, temporal, …

A Robust Data Exchange Framework For Connected Vehicle Technology Supported Dynamic Transit Operations, Yucheng An

All Theses

Transit systems are an integral part of surface transportation systems. A connected vehicle technology (CVT) supported transit system will assist the users to manage trips both dynamically and efficiently. The primary focus of this research is to develop and evaluate the performance of a secure, scalable, and resilient data exchange framework. In the developed data exchange framework, a new data analytics layer, named Transit Cloud, is used to receive data from different sources, and send it to different users for a Dynamic Transit Operations (DTO) application. The DTO application allows the transit users to request trip information and obtain itineraries, …

A Simulation Platform For Accurate Prediction Of In-Bin Drying And Storage Of Rough Rice, Houmin Zhong

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural air (NA), in-bin drying and storage of rough rice generally maintains high grain quality, but the associated slow movement and occasional stagnation of the drying front during the process may result in problems of rice quality reduction, mold growth, and mycotoxin development, especially for rough rice in the top layers of the bin. Using modeling techniques to simulate in-bin rough rice drying in typically-encountered field scenarios may provide a tool for rapidly predicting the grain condition as drying progresses. The objectives for this study were to (1) investigate accurate models for predicting equilibrium moisture content (EMC) of rough rice …

Integrated Learning In Simulation: Theoretic Foundations Based On Carper’S Patterns Of Knowing, Shannon Villar

Master of Arts/Science in Nursing Scholarly Projects

Nursing education is a lifelong process. It is dynamic. Nurse educators strive to develop student-centered collaborative teaching strategies. Simulation serves as strategy to teach clinical reasoning skills and prepare students to provide safe, effective patient care. Increasing patient acuity and lack of clinical sites make simulation an essential and integral part of nursing education. This paper demonstrates the value of using Carper’s (1978) fundamental patterns of knowing in nursing as a theoretical foundation for the integration of simulation-based learning experiences in nursing education.

Open Source Toolkit For Reentry Object Modeling, Christopher Lloyd Ostrom Ii

Master's Theses

Predicting the mass, position, and velocity of an object during its reentry are critical to satisfy NASA and ESA requirements. This thesis outlines a 3-D orbit and mass determination system for use on low earth orbit as applicable to general objects, of various material and size. The solution uses analytical models to calculate heat flux and aerodynamic drag, with some basic numerical models for simple orbit propagation and mass flow rate due to ablation. The system outlined in this thesis currently provides a framework for rough estimates of demise altitude and final mass, but also allows for many potential accuracy …

Spare Parts On Demand Using Additive Manufacturing : A Simulation Model For Cost Evaluation., Stefan Jedeck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about the impact of additive manufacturing in the spare part supply chain. A few studies are available, but they focus on specific parts and their applications only. A general model, which can be adapted to different applications, is nonexistent. This dissertation proposes a decision making framework that enables an interested practitioner/manager to decide whether using additive manufacturing to make spare parts on demand is economical when compared to conventional warehousing strategy. The framework consists of two major components: a general discrete event simulation model and a process of designing a wide range of simulation scenarios. The goal …

Heat Transfer Mechanisms In Water-Based Nanofluids., Masoudeh Ahmadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nanofluids are a class of heat transport fluids created by suspending nano-scaled metallic or nonmetallic particles into a base fluid. Some experimental investigations have revealed that the nanofluids have remarkably higher thermal conductivities than those of conventional pure fluids and are more suited for practical application than the existing techniques of heat transfer enhancement using millimeter and/or micrometer-sized particles in fluids. Use of nanoparticles reduces pressure drop, system wear, and overall mass of the system leading to a reduction in costs over existing enhancement techniques. In this work, the heat transfer coefficient is determined experimentally using copper oxide (CuO) based …

The Effects Of Uncertainty In Engineering Data On The Design And Performance Of Automotive Thermal Systems, Ashley Nicole Lehman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study has two purposes: (1) to investigate the effects of uncertainty on thermal design and performance (2) to establish a process to couple the results from uncertainty analysis with Design for Six Sigma (DFSS) to improve robustness. The research was conducted with support from FCA group. The analysis was applied to a component selected by FCA group; however, it is applicable to any system. The effects of uncertainty were investigated using the Fourier Amplitude Sensitivity Test (FAST). The analysis was run on MATLAB software package using estimated uncertainty ranges for each parameter. The parameters with the greatest influence on …

Techno-Economic Analysis Of Protein Concentrate Produced By Flash Hydrolysis Of Microalgae, Alexander Nana Yaw Asiedu

Civil & Environmental Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Process simulation and techno-economic analysis of 95wt.% protein concentrate from microalgae has been performed using SuperPro Designer v. 9.0. This work, first of its kind, is focused on the economic analysis of protein concentrate that includes processes such as microalgae cultivation, harvesting, protein extraction and drying steps. A baseline capacity of 160 MT/day protein concentrate production on commercial basis has been analyzed. This throughput requires 336 MT/day dry algae (54 wt.% protein). The amount of carbon dioxide required to grow this quantum of algae is estimated to be 648 MT/day, which is produced from an in situ 21 MW power …

Modeling And Analysis Of Or Nurse Scheduling Using Mathematical Programming And Simulation, Clayton Tontarski

Theses

Nurse scheduling is a complex problem. The act of assigning each nurse to a specific shift for each day of a scheduling horizon, while ensuring to fulfill the demand of the operating rooms (ORs) is very time consuming. Current methods used in practice often develop solutions that are suboptimal, resulting in low nurse utilization, low nurse satisfaction, patient delays, or overtime pay for nurses. In this paper we propose an approach that utilizes simulation, simulation-based optimization, and mathematical programming as tools for solving complex nurse scheduling problems. We discuss how the simulation-based optimization generates multiple alternative shift plans, defined as …

Tropical Cyclone Wind Hazard Assessment For Southeast Part Of Coastal Region Of China, Sihan Li

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Tropical cyclone (TC) or typhoon wind hazard and risk are significant for China. The return period value of the maximum typhoon wind speed is used to characterize the typhoon wind hazard and assign wind load in building design code. Since the historical surface observations of typhoon wind speed are often scarce and of short period, the typhoon wind hazard assessment is often carried out using the wind field model and TC track model. For a few major cities in the coastal region of mainland China, simple or approximated wind field models and a circular subregion method (CSM) have been used …

Guidelines For Scheduling In Primary Care: An Empirically Driven Mathematical Programming Approach, Hyun Jung Alvarez Oh

Doctoral Dissertations

Primary care practices play a vital role in healthcare delivery since they are the first point of contact for most patients, and provide health prevention, counseling, education, diagnosis and treatment. Practices, however, face a complex appointment scheduling problem because of the variety of patient conditions, the mix of appointment types, the uncertain service times with providers and non-provider staff (nurses/medical assistants), and no-show rates which all compound into a highly variable and unpredictable flow of patients. The end result is an imbalance between provider idle time and patient waiting time. To understand the realities of the scheduling problem we analyze …

Dynamic Vehicle Routing In Emergency Evacuation, Yi Wen

Theses and Dissertations

Since Hurricane Katrina, extensive studies have been conducted aiming to optimize the transit vehicle routing in the event of an emergency evacuation. However, the vast majority of the studies focus on solving the deterministic vehicle routing problem that all the evacuation data are known in advance. These studies are generally not practical in dealing with real-world problems which involve considerable uncertainty in the evacuation data set. In this dissertation, a SmartEvac system is developed for dynamic vehicle routing optimization in emergency evacuation. The SmartEvac system is capable of processing dynamic evacuation data in real time, such as random pickup requests, …

Indigo: An In-Situ Distributed Gossip System Design And Evaluation, Paritosh Ramanan

Computer Science Theses

Distributed Gossip in networks is a well studied and observed problem which can be accomplished using different gossiping styles. This work focusses on the development, analysis and evaluation of a novel in-situ distributed gossip protocol framework design called (INDIGO). A core aspect of INDIGO is its ability to execute on a simulation setup as well as a system testbed setup in a seamless manner allowing easy portability. The evaluations focus on application of INDIGO to solve problems such as distributed average consensus, distributed seismic event location and lastly distributed seismic tomography. The results obtained herein validate the efficacy and reliability …

A Guidance Template For Attack Sequence Specification In Cyber Attack Simulation, Derek Miles Kreider

Theses

Over the past decade the cost and frequency of cybercrime has skyrocketed and is still increasing year over year. Major targets of cyber attacks are financial organizations, energy and utility companies, governmental agencies, and technology companies. However, almost all businesses are at risk. The increasing threat and cost of cyber crime is caused by many factors, including: the increasing reliance on cyber networks, constantly evolving exploitation and cyber attack methods, and insufficient development of defensive mechanisms to predict and prevent cyber attackers. Promising research in the proactive defense against cyber attacks exists in the field of cyber situational awareness (Cyber …

Newly Licensed Registered Nurses' Experiences With Clinical Simulation, Carrie Ann Bailey

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how new graduate nurses perceive the value of simulation in making the transition into professional practice. This study will use a descriptive qualitative approach with a sample of first year nurses. Kolb’s Experiential Learning Model serves as this study’s conceptual framework. For the current study, the sample consisted of 10 newly graduated, female nurses with less than one year of experience working in the hospital setting were interviewed. Data analysis included interviews and transcription by the researcher. Finally, participants were asked about themes to increase rigor. Four themes emerged from this research: …

Thermodynamic And Kinetic Simulation Of Transient Liquid-Phase Bonding, Brad Allen Lindner

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THERMODYNAMIC AND KINETIC SIMULATION OF TRANSIENT LIQUID-PHASE BONDING

by

Brad Lindner

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2015

Under the Supervision of Professor Benjamin C. Church

The use of numeric computational methods for the simulation of materials systems is becoming more prevalent and an understanding of these tools may soon be a necessity for Materials Engineers and Scientists. The applicability of numerical simulation methods to transient liquid-phase (TLP) bonding is evaluated using a type 316L/MBF-51 material system. The comparisons involve the calculation of bulk diffusivities, tracking of interface positions during dissolution, widening, and isothermal solidification stages, as well as comparison of …

Using Stochastic Differential Equations To Model Gap-Junction Gating Dynamics In Cardiac Myocytes, Will Consagra

Theses

The cell-to-cell propagation of the cardiac action potential allows for the electro-mechanical coupling of cells, which promotes the coordinated contraction of cardiac tissue, often referred to as the heartbeat. The main structures that promote electrical coupling between adjacent cardiac cells are pore-like proteins called gap junctions that line the membranes of such cells, allowing a channel for electrically charged ions to travel between cells. It is known that the conformational, and hence conducting, properties of gap-junction channels change as a function of local gap-junctional voltage and local ionic concentrations and are stochastic in nature. Many previous models of gap junctions …

Extraction Of Vegetation Biophysical Structure From Small-Footprint Full-Waveform Lidar Signals, Paul Romanczyk

Theses

The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a continental scale environmental monitoring initiative tasked with characterizing and understanding ecological phenomenology over a 30-year time frame. To support this mission, NEON collects ground truth measurements, such as organism counts and characterization, carbon flux measurements, etc. To spatially upscale these plot-based measurements, NEON developed an airborne observation platform (AOP), with a high-resolution visible camera, next-generation AVIRIS imaging spectrometer, and a discrete and waveform digitizing light detection and ranging (lidar) system. While visible imaging, imaging spectroscopy, and discrete lidar are relatively mature technologies, our understanding of and associated algorithm development for small-footprint full-waveform …

Does Simulation Improve Nursing Student Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes In Identifying Delirium Superimposed On Dementia?, Sheryl A. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts, to be submitted for publication, exploring the use of simulation in geriatric nursing education. The first manuscript is a literature review. Although, a number of articles exist on the use of simulation in nursing education, there is a paucity of research using simulation emphasizing the care of patients with dementia and delirium as a pedagogical strategy or those using a stringent research design.

The second manuscript provides an overview of two conceptual frameworks (National League for Nursing (NLN)/Jeffries Simulation Framework and situated cognition learning framework) and recommends merging them to guide researchers as …

Traction-Separation Relationships For Hydrogen-Induced Grain Boundary Embrittlement In Nickel Via Molecular Dynamics Simulations, Wesley Allen Barrows

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The deleterious effects of atomic and molecular hydrogen on the mechanical properties of metals have long been observed. Although several theories exist describing the mechanisms by which hydrogen negatively influences the failure of materials, a consensus has yet to be reached regarding the exact mechanism or combination of mechanisms. Two mechanisms have gained support in explaining hydrogen’s degradative role in non-hydride forming metals: hydrogen-enhanced localized plasticity and hydrogen-enhanced decohesion. Yet, the interplay between these mechanisms and microstructure in metallic materials has not been explained. Accordingly, for this thesis, the three main objectives are: (i) to develop a numerical methodology to …

A Study Of A Simulated Infectious Disease On Healthcare Workers' Reaction, Knowledge, Attitudes, And Performance Towards Hand Hygiene, Lydia Wigglesworth-Ballard

Health Services Research Dissertations

Problem Statement. The high rate of healthcare worker-patient contact provides many opportunities for exposure to pathogens, which creates challenges in assessing healthcare workers' success at preventing healthcare associated infections caused by these dangerous pathogens.

Methods. This study explored the effects of a simulated infectious disease on healthcare workers' hand hygiene knowledge, attitudes, performance, and reactions using Kirkpatrick's Four levels of Evaluation. The study utilized a mixed method pre-test – 2 post-test design. The dependent variables were hand hygiene knowledge, attitudes toward hand hygiene guidelines, hand hygiene performance, and reaction to the overall experience. Data was collected three times over a …

Computational Analysis Of Flow Around A Scaled Axial-Flow Hydro Turbine, Andrew W. Murphy

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Water power energy harvesting has become an important and growing industry supported by research and significant interest and impetus from the government and commercial sector. Due to waters high power density, marine current energy is an attractive addition to other renewable energy technologies. That said, there is still much to be understood about the design, application, installation, operation, and maintenance of current-driven marine-hydrokinetic devices and with new designs coming out frequently it is imperative to understand the physics and dynamics involved. Recently, testing of the Sandia turbine, designed by University of California, Davis, Pennsylvania State and Sandia National Laboratories, took …

Supporting Simulation With Training: A Study Of Faculty Perspectives, Joseph Patrick Sweeney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Authentic learning is rooted in the idea that learning is situated within a real world context. The learning is then assessed through the performance of a skill or demonstration of applied knowledge (authentic assessment). Using simulation in healthcare education allows students to engage in authentic tasks, and in turn, develop the many skills they need in order to be successful healthcare practitioners. While simulation is not a new concept, advancements in Human Patient Simulators (HPSs) have furthered the possibilities available for the simulation experience, and the use of HPSs continues to grow. Professional development is an important support for undergraduate …

Using Cellular Automata And Lattice Boltzmann Methods To Model Cancer Growth: Analysis Of Combination Treatment Outcomes, Jenna L. Butler

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

In Canada it is estimated that 76,600 people will die of cancer in 2014. Cancer, a collection of over 200 diseases, has differences existing between globally, between individuals and overtime in one individual. Treatment options are similarly varied. These differences make selecting the best possible treatment for every type of cancer very challenging. In addition, with no single cure for cancer, treatments are often combined in different ways to form the best overall option. In an attempt to synthesize the properties of these diseases into a collection of common cellular changes, Hanahan and Weinberg proposed ``the hallmarks of cancer" -- …