Living My Dissertation Out Loud: Experiences Of Minnesota K-12 Asian School Administrators: A Qualitative Study, Quyen Phan

Culminating Projects in Education Administration and Leadership

The goal of this study was to investigate how individuals who identify as Asian descent develop into K-12 administrators, their individual experiences, and life histories. The information gained will benefit Asian communities and K-12 schools in their efforts to develop Asian leaders. As the anticipated findings can direct beneficial social change, this research can continue to advance professional growth within educational systems (Denmark & Klara, 2010).

The collected literature reviews were focused on a variety of subjects, including (a) Asian Assumptions and Stereotypes, (b) Asian Identity, (c) Asian Communities and Family Expectations, (d) Asian Experience in K-12 Education, and (e) …

How Sleep Disturbances Affect Those With Borderline Personality Disorder And The Implications For Treatment, Molly L. Schmanke

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis argues that there is limited research on Borderline Personality Disorder’s comorbidity with sleep disorders, and by pointing out the gaps in knowledge this will encourage researchers and doctors to consider this topic as important in the health care field. Sleep disorders can be anything from reduced total sleep time, fragmented sleep, and changes in sleep architecture, and all of these can cause and be caused by disruption of the circadian clock. There are various ways in which circadian clock disruption can cause diseases, cancer, and mental disorders through genes, sleep, and the environment. Borderline Personality Disorder comorbid with …

The Neuroscience Of Art: An Examination Of Uniqueness, Risa Davis

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The field of Neuroaesthetics has an overwhelming potential for helping us to understand the world and human behavior through consideration of both neuroscience and art. Looking at the production of art across human history, it is clear we have evolved with art as every culture has developed some style and desire for art without influence of other peoples. The intriguing and undeniable psychological phenomenon of pareidolia raises the question of why the visual system might be set up in a way that leads to illusions and visual suggestions. The amygdala is also involved as the nuclei’s reaction to perceived or …

Chasing Traps In Tiny Worms: Uncovering The Presence Of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps In Caenorhabditis Elegans, Diego Carrasco

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Since 2020, the immune system has become humankind’s most powerful weapon to the challenges we have faced during the Covid-19 pandemic. Subsequently, scientists throughout the world have combined their brilliant minds to explore how spectacular our immune system is, and we have found new components of its mechanism(s) and pathways. Among those components, Neutrophil Extracellular Traps (NETs) stand out for their important contribution to humans’ innate immune system. NETs have revolutionized the way scientists approach treatments for viral and bacterial infections. To understand NETs, I experimented with the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans to provide a better explanation and evidence on why …

Robotic Team High Reliability Organization’S Communication Evaluation Tool, Joanne F. Mercurio

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Multidisciplinary team communication in robotic surgery presents several safety considerations for the intraoperative surgical patient. It is an important consideration since the surgeon and the operating room team are geographically distanced with the surgeon at the console, and the other team members situated at the patient bedside. Scrubbed team members are performing such functions as positioning the robotic arms as well as exchanging instruments, while the remaining interprofessional team members are coordinating multiple patient care activities. It therefore becomes imperative that the recognition of the potential for miscommunication is of paramount importance, and strategies need to be generated that will …

Stress Reduction Programming For Nurse Educators, Nikki Runnels

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Abstract

This DNP project was created to implement mindfulness training and programming to nursing school educators within the East Texas regional area to increase their recognition and the importance of self-care through mindfulness. This DNP project entailed the crucial aspects of concern from the DNP student’s perspective regarding the significant increase in nursing academic faculty stress levels, along with burnout, and the detrimental causes that would occur if left unexamined. This project utilized a convenience sampling style approach gathered via snowball procedures of nursing school educator participants within the East Texas regional area. Participants were provided with mindfulness education and …

Infant Safe Sleep Initiative, Heather Kuisle

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Abstract

Background: Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID), which includes sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), is one of the leading causes of infant deaths in the United States and a significant health issue. Although there has not been a distinct single cause found for SIDS, it has been determined that there are several risk factors identified that increase the risk of an infant dying from SIDS. Infant Safe Sleep Education as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics is essential for healthcare professionals to educate new families on infant safe sleep.

Objective: The objective of this project was to create and …

Companions To Combatants:, Jude M. Horning

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

This thesis uses the narrative of Charles Sumner's Caning to examine the shift in national public perceptions of patriotism and the disconnect in the late Antebellum period between North and South. Using the metrics of presidential action, national and state newspaper stories, and social thought, this paper traces the 50 years between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, looking specifically at the development of localist politics in the end of the period.

Ms Environmental Biology Capstone Project, Matthew Berta

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

MS ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY CAPSTONE PROJECT 2023

Machine Learning Framework For Real-World Electronic Health Records Regarding Missingness, Interpretability, And Fairness, Jing Lucas Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) techniques have shown promising results in healthcare applications using Electronic Health Records (EHRs) data. However, their adoption in real-world healthcare settings is hindered by three major challenges. Firstly, real-world EHR data typically contains numerous missing values. Secondly, traditional ML/DL models are typically considered black-boxes, whereas interpretability is required for real-world healthcare applications. Finally, differences in data distributions may lead to unfairness and performance disparities, particularly in subpopulations.

This dissertation proposes methods to address missing data, interpretability, and fairness issues. The first work proposes an ensemble prediction framework for EHR data with large missing …

Peer-To-Peer Energy Trading In Smart Residential Environment With User Behavioral Modeling, Ashutosh Timilsina

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Electric power systems are transforming from a centralized unidirectional market to a decentralized open market. With this shift, the end-users have the possibility to actively participate in local energy exchanges, with or without the involvement of the main grid. Rapidly reducing prices for Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs), supported by their ease of installation and operation, with the facilitation of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Smart Grid (SG) technologies to make bidirectional flow of energy possible, has contributed to this changing landscape in the distribution side of the traditional power grid.

Trading energy among users in a decentralized fashion has been referred …

Practical Ai Value Alignment Using Stories, Md Sultan Al Nahian

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

As more machine learning agents interact with humans, it is increasingly a prospect that an agent trained to perform a task optimally - using only a measure of task performance as feedback--can violate societal norms for acceptable behavior or cause harm. Consequently, it becomes necessary to prioritize task performance and ensure that AI actions do not have detrimental effects. Value alignment is a property of intelligent agents, wherein they solely pursue goals and activities that are non-harmful and beneficial to humans. Current approaches to value alignment largely depend on imitation learning or learning from demonstration methods. However, the dynamic nature …

The Discovery And Characterization Of Novel Potent 5-Substituted 3, 3’, 4’, 7-Tetramethoxyflavonoid Dna Triplex Specific Binding Ligands, Vanessa Marie Rangel

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Chemotherapy works by killing fast dividing cells. Unfortunately, these drugs are not specific to cancer tissue and can damage normal cells. Chemotherapy is like taking poison and hoping it kills the cancer cells before it kills you. As an alternative, many researchers have investigated the use of antigene therapy to selectively target cancer causing genes to avoid off target effects. Although promising, the theory is limited by the stability of the triplex structure. Here, we report the discovery of potent triplex binding ligands derived from the natural product quercetin. Chemical derivatives of 5-substituted 3, 3’, 4’, 7-tetramethoxyquercetin derivatives were characterized …

Program Evaluation Of A Community-Based Model For Driver Off-Road Assessment In Post-Acute Abi, Eugenia R. Herbst

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: Social conditions from the pandemic forced changes to outpatient rehabilitation programs, necessitating pre-driving assessment be administered via telehealth, an alternative model of OT service-delivery. As a result, Shepherd Pathways adapted the clinical pre-driving program for telehealth service delivery. Program outcomes had not been formally assessed.

Purpose:

The purpose of this Capstone project was to conduct a formal program evaluation to collect, analyze, and use data to evaluate effectiveness and efficiency of a clinical return to drive program delivered via telehealth (CDC, n.d.; The university of Kansas toolbox, n.d.). The program evaluation examined the OT process and scope of services …

A Pretest-Posttest Survey Study Of Parent Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Occupational Performance Coaching On Caregiver-Child Play Occupations, Hailee B. Lewis House

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: When the COVID-19 pandemic and telehealth was utilized, it was apparent that most client families did not have occupation-based play objects in the home due to having to drive 30 minutes to the closest store, difficulty affording toys, or did not know age-appropriate toys for their child.

Purpose: The study explored home program education strategies, and the relationships between store access, socioeconomic status, and parental education levels on having age-appropriate play-based occupational items in the home.

Theoretical Framework. Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC) is a coaching intervention that helps parents to recognize and implement changes for more successful occupational performance …

Asynchronous Online Telehealth Training: Occupational Therapist’S Perceptions Of Knowledge And Confidence, Breanna L. Campbell

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Telehealth was not a typical practice in occupational therapy prior to the pandemic (Allen-McHugh & Schleg, 2022; Douglass et al., 2023; Wittmeier et al., 2022). Understanding OT clinician knowledge and confidence in the delivery mode has progressed as a result (Allen-McHugh & Schleg, 2022; Douglass et al., 2023; Soba et al., 2022; Wittmeier et al., 2022). The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an asynchronous online training module in increasing self-reported knowledge and confidence in occupational therapy clinicians utilizing telehealth with the pediatric population. A pre-experimental pre-posttest quantitative design was used to measure therapist’s perceived knowledge …

Skilled Nuring Facilities Therapists' Experiences With Acquiring Wheelchairs For Their Clients, Vincent Campbell

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

The United States (U.S.) population is aging resulting in an increase in Skilled Nursing Home (SNF) residents. A larger proportion of SNF residents rely on wheelchairs for mobility. Currently there are no studies that determine the processes, which therapists utilize to correctly fit their clients for wheelchairs. Poor fitting wheelchairs can have a negative impact on the residents’ ability to participate in occupational activities. Residents may also suffer physical or psychological consequences from an ill-fitting wheelchair. Therapists in SNFs often have no established criteria in providing wheelchairs for their clients. There can be institutional barriers to providing appropriate wheelchairs for …

Don’T Forget The Importance Of Leisure Occupations For The Community Dwelling Elder, Susan Witt

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Leisure exploration is important to the community dwelling elder (CDE) as research indicates that social and leisure activities correlate with well-being in this population (Adams et al., 2011). This research project aimed to gain insight on the CDE’s perspective on leisure as they age in place and the role occupational therapists play in leisure promotion for this population. This mixed method study included quantitative data from the Activity Card Sort (ACS) assessment which provided data on how leisure and activities of daily living have changed with aging. Qualitative data was gained through semi-structured interview and explored the perspectives of the …

The Perception Of Stroke On Iadl, Paula O. Buari

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: Residents in a skilled nursing home receiving rehabilitative services following a stroke may value instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) tasks more than ADL tasks. This research investigates the impact of IADL tasks on quality of life (QoL). Purpose: The research questions were: How do individuals post-stroke and receiving occupational therapy services in a skilled nursing facility perceive their participation, or lack of participation, in IADL, and how does this impact their perceived QoL? Theoretical Framework. The theoretical framework that guided this project was the Model of Human Occupation. Methods. A phenomenological research-based qualitative approach designed to understand …

Occupational Therapy Practitioners’ Perceptions Of Workplace Stressors In One Nursing Home Post Pandemic, Owen T. Tabelisma

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Executive Summary

Background:

Multiple stress-related issues brought on by the pandemic affected healthcare staff, including occupational therapists. Nursing home settings were particularly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to understand how occupational therapy practitioners in nursing home settings managed stress during the pandemic and how they perceived stress after it passed.

Purpose:

The purpose of this qualitative study was to evaluate occupational therapy practitioners ’perceptions of workplace stressors in one nursing home during the pandemic and to understand how these stressors may have changed post-pandemic.

Theoretical Framework:

The Occupational Adaptation (OA) model was the theoretical framework that served …

Experiences Of Individuals With Spinal Cord Injury And Return To Work: A Scoping Review, Soofia Naqvi

Occupational Therapy Doctorate Capstone Projects

Background: Participation in productive work after a traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI) can often be a challenging experience. This experience is unique to each individual and is often impacted by personal and environmental factors as well as government policies. Previous studies have aimed to identify the factors associated with promoting successful return to work after SCI, but often the perceptions of those who experience SCI are excluded from these studies. This study aims to gain insights regarding the experiences of persons with SCI and participation in productive employment. Purpose: To analyze existing literature about the perceptions of persons with (SCI) …

An Exploration Of The Lived Experiences Of Individuals Living With Hiv/Aids In Rural Uganda, Godfrey Ddungu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

HIV/AIDS is the most stigmatized health condition globally, yet there are limited studies that have examined the needs of rural Ugandans diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. At a time when Ugandan voices could assist in the development and implementation of prevention and intervention strategies to reduce the spread of the virus, these voices remain unheard and silenced. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of HIV-positive men and women in rural Uganda. A transcendental phenomenological approach provided the framework and design. This research used eight participants who were attending an AIDS health care center in Uganda. In-depth …

Homophobia In Jamaica And Its Impact On The Victimization Of Homosexual Adult Males In Montego Bay, St. James, Dr. Shahila D. Edwards-Grey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractJamaica has been listed among the most unfriendly nations for homosexual males. Previous research indicated that due to the biopolitical and sociocultural norms of the Jamaican society, homosexual males continued to be targets of various forms of discrimination based on their sexual orientation. However, research reflecting the lived experiences of homosexual males in Jamaica is sparse. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to provide details on the encounters of victimization due to homophobia of adult homosexual males in the parish of St. James, Jamaica. Data were collected through observations and in-depth interviews with eight men who identified as …

Employee Engagement Strategies In Manufacturing Organizations In Nigeria, Mofoluwaso Ilevbare

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee engagement is a major concern for business leaders in the manufacturing sector due to the constantly shifting labor market and the demanding nature of the manufacturing work environment. Manufacturing leaders who lack effective strategies to improve employee engagement risk losing valuable employees, which can pose significant threats to productivity and business profitability. Grounded in Kahn’s engagement and disengagement theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study was to explore strategies manufacturing leaders in Nigeria use to increase employee engagement. Using semi-structured interviews, company business reports, and employee survey action plans and reports, data were collected from eight manufacturing leaders …

Emotional Intelligence Among Nigerian Construction Project Leaders During Periods Of Uncertainty, Ibrahim Hassan Mashi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some construction project leaders in Nigeria have exhibited leadership ineffectiveness during periods of uncertainty due to a lack of emotional intelligence (EI) engagement. This has led to poor performance of construction projects in Nigeria. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the engagement of EI in enhancing leadership effectiveness among construction project leaders in Nigeria during periods of uncertainty. Fifteen participants involving construction project leaders were selected through purposeful sampling from five construction firms in Abuja, Nigeria. The target participants were specifically chosen for their expertise and experience to ensure that the information created is relevant …

Exploring Ph Gradient Phenomena In Non-Linear Electrokinetic Microfluidic Devices, Azade Tahmasebi

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Electrokinetic microfluidics is a versatile technology utilized within lab on a chip (LOC) devices for diagnostic and analytical applications; advantages include reduced resource demands, flexibility, and simplicity of use. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) is a precision nonlinear electrokinetic tool utilized within microfluidic microdevices to induce polarization and control bioparticle motions for applications that range from hemoglobin separations to cancer cell isolation and detection. Despite promising results, undesired side phenomena can occur in electrokinetic systems which impede reproducibility and accuracy. These unfavorable phenomena have not been comprehensively explored in the literature. Prior preliminary research suggests the fundamental phenomena originate from microelectrodes utilized in …

Tropical Plant Physiological Responses To Experimental Warming And Hurricane Disturbance, Robert Tunison

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Tropical forests exchange more carbon with the atmosphere than any other biome, but their responses to climate change are largely understudied. The work presented in this dissertation uses a tropical understory warming experiment that was hit by a hurricane disturbance to investigate how plant physiology responds to multiple types of climate change pressures. We measured the potential for root respiration, leaf photosynthesis & respiration, and leaf thermotolerance acclimation to experimental warming while recovering from hurricane disturbance. We found there was thermal acclimation via decreased ecosystem root respiration, increased photosynthetic thermal niche breadth, and decreased quantum efficiency for some species at …

Multiscale Molecular Modeling Studies Of The Dynamics And Catalytic Mechanisms Of Iron(Ii)- And Zinc(Ii)-Dependent Metalloenzymes, Sodiq O. Waheed

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Enzymes are biological systems that aid in specific biochemical reactions. They lower the reaction barrier, thus speeding up the reaction rate. A detailed knowledge of enzymes will not be achievable without computational modeling as it offers insight into atomistic details and catalytic species, which are crucial to designing enzyme-specific inhibitors and impossible to gain experimentally. This dissertation employs advanced multiscale computational approaches to study the dynamics and reaction mechanisms of non-heme Fe(II) and 2-oxoglutarate (2OG) dependent oxygenases, including AlkB, AlkBH2, TET2, and KDM4E, involved in DNA and histone demethylation. It also focuses on Zn(II) dependent matrix metalloproteinase-1 (MMP-1), which helps …

Finer Details Of Language Modeling: Text Segmentation, Working Within Resource Limits, And Watermarking, Evan Gordon Lucas

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Language modeling is a vast sub-field of natural language processing and this work focuses on solving some specific problems within that field. Technically, the work falls into a number of sub-categories within natural language processing; how to segment texts, improving sparse transformer performance for summarization tasks, character level models for dialect determination, watermarking of large language models, and a general method of incorporating minimal human feedback for continual or online learning. Despite touching on many small areas, they all connect as being related to the very general problem of handling sequential data. Language and text can be thought of as …

Comprehensive Analysis Of Seismic Signals From Pacaya Volcano Using Deep Learning Event Detection, Jessica L. Devlieg

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Pacaya volcano located 30 km SW of Guatemala City, Guatemala, has been erupting intermittently since 1961. Monitoring of seismicity is crucial to understanding current activity levels within Pacaya. Traditional methods of picking these small earthquakes in this noisy environment are imprecise. Pacaya produces many small events that can easily blend in with the background noise. A possible solution for this problem is a machine learning program to pick first arrivals for these earthquakes. We tested a deep learning algorithm (Mousavi et al., 2020) for fast and reliable seismic signal detection within a volcanic system. Data from multiple deployments were used, …