Language As Resistance: An Exploration Of The Use And Implications Of Spanish In Three Memoirs By Female Chicana Authors, Ella Ross Franzoni

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

How Management’S Response To Fraud Affects The Likelihood Of Future Fraud., Adam Garrity

Honors Theses and Capstones

This article studies the effect of two parts of deterrence theory: sanction certainty and sanction swiftness, on their ability to prevent and deter embezzlement within companies. I will use an experiment, a research instrument, survey questions, and SPSS and ANOVA software to determine if sanction certainty and sanction swiftness have significant effects on how a fictional company is perceived by participants. Participants will be given a scenario that has a combination of a slow or swift punishment and a high or low detection rate. In the experiment, deterrence theory’s effect will be measured by dependent variables such as organizational attractiveness, …

Investigation Of The Function Of Protein Acyl Transferases Using Crispr-Cas9 To Create Null Mutants, Claire E. Christopher

Honors Theses and Capstones

24 Protein Acyl Transferases (PATs) have been identified in the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana. Despite knowing the enzymatic function of these genes (palmitoylation), the specific subcellular pathways, protein targets, and cellular activities of these proteins remain unknown. To investigate the pathways that PAT genes are involved in, deletion mutations were created in several genes and the phenotype of the organisms carrying homozygous mutations was observed. To introduce mutations, the CRISPR/Cas9 system was inserted into the plant’s genome using Agrobacterium tumefaciens to cause deletions in PAT genes of interest. To date, no CRISPR-induced pat mutants have a noticeable phenotype. These …

Engineering Analysis Of Siege Engines In The First Crusade, Ian G. Lindberg

Honors Theses and Capstones

The First Crusade was a critically important period in European and Middle Eastern history, and in nearly a millennium since its conclusion, many have sought to understand the military campaign that formed the heart of the Crusade. Crucial to understanding this campaign that saw the Crusaders defeat the Muslim forces in the Levant is understanding the sieges which made up the majority of decisive engagements. Previous analyses on these sieges have been missing an important component: an accurate understanding of the siege engines that the Crusaders successfully used to turn the sieges in their favor. During the summer of 2022, …

The Clinical Observations Of Nursing Students And Recent Graduates Caring For Lgbtq+ People, Emily E. Roy

Honors Theses and Capstones

Objective: The next generation of nurses have increased educational preparation to provide affirming care to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people, but an evaluation of the effectiveness of this teaching has not been performed. The purpose of this study was to identify nursing student and recent nursing graduate observations of affirming and non-affirming care of LGBTQ+ people in healthcare settings during clinical experiences. We also sought to understand how those experiences affect their ability and willingness to provide affirming health care to LGBTQ+ people.

Methods: Participants filled out a mixed methods Qualtrics survey that was distributed through school …

Understanding The Personality Of A Coworker, Alyssa S. Hall

Honors Theses and Capstones

The concept of personal intelligence (PI) refers to an individual's capacity to accurately reason about personality and personality-related information in themselves and others (Mayer, 2008). Understanding personal intelligence has various practical applications, including the workplace, where it has been shown that individuals with higher PI exhibit lower levels of counterproductive work behavior and perceive their work environments as more supportive (Mayer et al., 2018). In a recent study by Peters and colleagues (2021), participants were asked to describe their interactions with difficult coworkers, and their sophistication in the narratives was evaluated by judges. The study found that there was a …

Weltpolitik Und Weltkrieg: Second International Socialism And Imperialism (1907-1914), Luke P. Taylor

Honors Theses and Capstones

The outbreak of World War I tore apart the Second Socialist International (1889-1914) as the forces of nationalism overcame international solidarity. By 1917, the global socialist movement was split between reformist social democracy and revolutionary communism. Before this dramatic schism, tensions between a reformist right, a radical left, and a moderate center defined the contours of social democratic politics. Contemporary to the Second International, imperialism and competition between the great powers represented a global crisis that exploded into a worldwide conflict. While not initially responsible for the schisms that tore apart the Second International, debates over imperialism reflected, reconfigured, and …

The Global Minimum Tax: Hurdles To Implementation Of An Effective Tax, Eric H. Mrozek

Honors Theses and Capstones

As a part of an international effort to end tax avoidance, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development proposed a global minimum effective corporate tax rate of 15 percent for large multinational corporations. This research examines the obstacles that will need to be overcome to implement this legislation. More specifically, will this legislation ever be enacted in the countries where it matters? If so, when? Can the world unite to implement the largest global tax overhaul in recent memory? Who will it affect? Will corporations change where they do business because of this new tax? How will tax firms deal …

Identification Of Novel Biosynthetic Gene Clusters Encoding For Polyketide/Nrps-Producing Chemotherapeutic Compounds From Marine-Derived Streptomyces Hygroscopicus From A Marine Sanctuary, Hannah Ruth Flaherty

Honors Theses and Capstones

Nearly one out of six deaths in 2020, around ten million people, were caused by cancer, making it a leading cause of death worldwide (WHO, 2022). This major public health issue, in addition to the rise of multidrug-resistant (MDR) pathogens, provides a high demand for the discovery of new pharmaceutical drugs to be used clinically to treat these conditions. The Streptomyces genus accounts to produce 39% of all microbial metabolites currently approved for human health, indicating its potential as an important species to study for antimicrobial and anticancer agents. The long linear genome of Streptomyces contains specialized sequences known as …

Assessing Parental Conversational Overlap In A Museum Setting And Its Correlation With Child Language Skills, Madison Gould

Honors Theses and Capstones

Research has identified the importance of quality interactions with parents, caregivers, and peers in the promotion of language acquisition. We question how certain aspects of parental language, primarily repetition, expansion, and extension, correlate with child language skills. There is limited research available regarding the impact of conversational overlap on a child’s language development at a singular time point, with most studies being longitudinal, especially when assessing conversations between children and their caregivers in different settings, such as a museum exhibit. Our findings suggest that children need less parental recasting as they age and as their language skills are bolstered.

Examining The Interest Of Business School Students And The Gender Gap In Careers Of Data Science And Analytics, Logan M. Lopus

Honors Theses and Capstones

Professionals in the data science and analytics field are in high demand. Recently, business schools have introduced various academic programs to train students in those fields. However, what makes business school students interested in these career fields is not entirely known. Research questions such as who the major influencers are for business school students' career choices or whether there are any differences between genders in terms of their awareness, readiness, and interest in data science and analytics careers remain to be answered. Therefore, this study examines the segmentation of business school students in how they prepare for careers, drivers of …

General-Purpose Planning Algorithms In Partially-Observable Stochastic Games, Bryan Mckenney

Honors Theses and Capstones

Partially observable stochastic games (POSGs) are difficult domains to plan in because they feature multiple agents with potentially opposing goals, parts of the world are hidden from the agents, and some actions have random outcomes. It is infeasible to solve a large POSG optimally. While it may be tempting to design a specialized algorithm for finding suboptimal solutions to a particular POSG, general-purpose planning algorithms can work just as well, but with less complexity and domain knowledge required. I explore this idea in two different POSGs: Navy Defense and Duelyst.

In Navy Defense, I show that a specialized algorithm framework, …

Reducing Blood Culture Contamination Rates Through Staff Education: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Kirsten M. Mutuberria

Honors Theses and Capstones

BACKGROUND: Blood cultures are a widely utilized tool that aids in diagnosis and treatment plans. Contaminated cultures are incredibly costly, resulting in increased length of stay, opportunistic infections, pharmacy costs, repeated laboratory tests, and decreased reimbursements. Evidence suggests higher incidence rates of blood culture contaminations (BCCs) are seen in emergency departments (ED) compared to any other unit within a hospital system. The internationally accepted threshold of 3% is not often met, although recent studies suggest a lower rate is possible, even in critical care environments. A literature review resulted in data showing that educational-based interventions focusing on adherence to facility …

N-Gram Text Classification On Standard Croatian, Bosnian And Serbian, Kegan Messmer

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study attempts to use three different kinds of n-gram text classification models to differentiate the standard forms of Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian. These three languages, along with Montenegrin, were once considered one language, collectively termed “Serbo-Croatian”. These languages share a common South Slavic ancestry, and there is an argument to be made that their novel status as distinct languages is due to non-linguistic factors, such as culture and politics. This study uses 300,000 sentences from each language, sourced from Wikipedia pages written in the standard forms of each language. Three different classifiers were used: one unigram, one bigram, and …

Determining Deuterium Polarization Via Nuclear Magnetic Resonance, Nicholas Muche

Honors Theses and Capstones

Dynamic Nuclear Polarization (DNP) is a method by which the spins of electrons are specifically targeted by microwaves at resonance frequency in order to induce spin flips. Occasionally, the electron spins couple with nuclear spins and nuclear spin flips are induced. The relaxation time of the electron is significantly lower than that of the nuclei, which allows for large polarization. The main goal of the Slifer Lab is to utilize specifically prepared crystalline structures in order to separate the convoluted energy transitions ("Batman Peak") in the deuterium's nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signal, which would allow for tensor enhancement of deuterium. …

Implementing Universal Suicidality Screening In A Critical-Access Emergency Department, Delaney M. Kjendal, Kerry Nolte, Sara Robinson, Kimberly Force

Honors Theses and Capstones

Background: Implementation of a universal suicidality screening is considered best practice as it is associated with improved the detection of occult, or latent, suicide risk and can reduce subsequent risk. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluates the implementation of the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) to screen patients over the age of twelve at a regional healthcare system.

Methods: The QI project was conducted at Littleton Regional Healthcare (LRH) emergency department, a critical-access hospital in Littleton, New Hampshire that serves about 206 patients per week. Implementation of suicidality screening was of interest to LRH to promote mental health in the …

Revolutionary Advances In The Treatment Of Genetic Disease, Emma Kaitlyn Carrigan

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Mpacts Of Parental Incarceration On Child's Well-Being And Interventions To Support Them, Anna Stacey Roberge

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study reviews the effectiveness and impact of current interventions for children who have incarcerated parents in New Hampshire. The negative impacts of parental incarceration have led to the need for these intervention strategies. Recently psychologists and behavioral experts have conducted their studies which show that children who have incarcerated parents are more likely to display delinquent behaviors. Additionally, studies have shown that parental incarceration can lead to the experiencing of several more psychological difficulties, such as depression, anxiety, and learning disorders (Kremer et al., 2020). Several communities have worked to implement interventions that will help these children avoid falling …

Cardiorespiratory And Metabolic Responses To Low-Intensity Blood-Flow Restricted Running, Violet E. Sullivan, Amanda P. Ares, Summer B. Cook Ph.D.

Honors Theses and Capstones

Low-intensity (LI) aerobic exercise with blood-flow restriction (BFR) increases heart rate (HR), oxygen consumption (VO₂), and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE), sometimes to similar levels as high-intensity (HI) exercise. Distance runners may benefit from LI-BFR running in periods of reduced volume or intensity, possibly due to injury. PURPOSE: To compare HR, VO₂, blood lactate (BLa), and RPE during LI-BFR running and HI running without BFR. METHODS: Fifteen female distance runners (age 23+4yrs, height 1.67+0.50m, body mass 57.6+5.7kg, VO₂max 51.0+4.5mL•kg^-1•min^-1) completed three randomized 12-minute running conditions: LI control (40% VO_{2 …}

Studying Us Iranian Immigrant Parents Negotiating Movements Toward Future Belonging, Fatemeh Hajnaghizadeh

Doctoral Dissertations

In this dissertation, I reflect on how my work with Iranian immigrant parents in the US is informed by my lived experiences and research as a member of the minoritized group both in post-revolutionary Iran and the US. I recognize these experiences as informing my research on diasporic parenting throughout different stages, from designing the methodology to curating the theoretical framework and analyzing data.The desire to engage with minoritized ways of being and knowing beyond static essentializing viewpoints informs my approach to designing methodological processes that centralize confusion/disagreements with dominant practices and ideologies. In my study’s methodology, I use stories …

Clarifying The Role Of Microorganisms And Their Traits In Soil Organic Matter Formation, Emily Whalen

Doctoral Dissertations

Soil organic carbon (C), the largest actively cycling reservoir of C on earth, is ultimately derived from plant photosynthesis. Once in soils, a significant proportion of this C is processed by microbial communities prior to its incorporation into soil organic matter (SOM) pools, and microbial-derived organic matter inputs are increasingly recognized as a dominant source of SOM. Conceptual theory therefore posits that microbial physiological traits (e.g., growth efficiency) are central controls on SOM formation and stabilization. However, recent observations are mixed, and the specific traits that promote the formation and retention of different SOM functional pools (e.g., total vs. stable …

Use Of Seaweeds, Direct-Fed Microbial, And Nitrate To Mitigate Enteric Methane Emissions And Improve Health And Performance Of Dairy Cows, Diana Carolina Reyes Gomez

Doctoral Dissertations

Enteric methane (CH4) emissions from ruminants contribute significantly to global warming and represent a loss of dietary energy for the animal. Dietary manipulation is a promising approach for CH4 mitigation. Nitrate can effectively reduce CH4, but it can also be toxic in non-adapted ruminants. Supplementing with Paenibacillus fortis, a denitrifying probiotic strain, is a potential strategy to prevent toxicity. The interest in using macroalgae to mitigate CH4 emissions while improving animal health and production in ruminants has increased in recent years. The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate nutritional-based strategies to mitigate enteric methane emissions and improve the …

Implementation Of A Standardized Process To Increase Promotion Of Family Presence During Resuscitation, Eileen Hollis

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Family Presence During Resuscitation (FPDR), has been studied and recommended as an important and relevant practice for decades, yet it remains controversial with frequent barriers to implementation. The benefits of this practice are numerous; and to truly embrace shared decision making, nurses and providers must encourage patients and families to participate in all aspects of care, even during resuscitation events. As evidence supporting the emotional and psychological benefits of FPDR began to grow, however, a global pandemic brought family presence to an abrupt halt.

METHODS: This quality improvement project’s focus was to standardize a process for offering and allowing …

Facilitating Palliative Care In A Critical Access Hospital System: Implementation Of Screening And Educational Interventions, Michele Lovell

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: The United States health care system faces the dual challenge of an aging population with a concomitant increase in the presence of chronic and serious illness, the care of which accounts for the nation’s largest expenditure of burgeoning healthcare costs. Palliative care is specialized care for people with serious illness aimed at reducing suffering, optimizing quality of life, and enhancing medical decision making. An ample evidence base demonstrates that palliative care increases both quality of care and patient and family satisfaction while also reducing associated costs. The aim of this quality improvement project was to facilitate palliative care services …

Development Of An Evidence Based Surgical Site Infection Bundle In Patients Undergoing Colorectal Surgery: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Jessica Mcbee

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Surgical site infections (SSI) are among the leading healthcare-acquired infections that negatively impact patient outcomes and increase total cost of healthcare and the patient’s length of stay. At a community hospital in West Virginia, trends in SSI rates and the standardized infection ratio (SIR) increased for patients undergoing colorectal surgery. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to identify and implement permanent evidence-based practice changes to reduce SSI rates in colon surgery patients.

METHODS: Baseline rates of SSI and the SIR for the facility was calculated from October 2021 to September 2022. Colon surgery SSI reduction …

Evidence-Based Suicide Assessment And Managment Training For Mental Health Professionals, Clara Abit

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Suicide is a significant public health concern both nationally and globally. While the suicide rate has been decreasing in recent years, evidence shows that the rate of suicide among teenagers and adolescents has been on the rise. Teenage suicide accounts for 14% of all deaths by suicide in the United States, calling for effective interventions in various settings. However, inadequate knowledge of the potential signs and risk factors of suicide hinders mental healthcare professionals' ability to recognize at-risk patients.

Purpose: The project's objective was to evaluate the effects of the intervention on mental health workers' knowledge, skills, and screening …

Gnss-Based Accurate One-Way Latency Characterization Of Transcontinental And Transoceanic Internet Paths, Lizhi Xu

Master's Theses and Capstones

One-way latency is a non-trivial aspect of network quality that can reveal more about network performance than other quantities that are easier to measure. One-way latency is the amount of time from transmission of a packet along a network path to its reception. To measure one-way latency, transmission and reception times must be measured in the same time base. Thus the most important precondition for accurate one-way latency measurement is time synchronization between the transmitting and receiving nodes on the network.

Our research is designing a feasible method for measuring accurate one-way latencies using the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS). …

Implementation Of Point-Of-Care Tick-Borne Disease Powerplan™ And Algorithm For Early Detection And Treatment Of Tick-Borne Diseases, Ashley Pinkham

DNP Scholarly Projects

Abstract

Local Problem: The Concord Hospital system, serving 30+ communities, is situated in the heart of New Hampshire surrounded by densely wooded forests, lakes, and mountains and is a mecca for camping, vacationing, and sightseeing, doubling its population of 1.6 million residents during spring, summer, and fall months. Despite the serenity, there is a predator that lingers among the hiking trails and lake shorelines. From January 2021 through August 2022 there were a total of 41 hospitalizations from tick-borne diseases, some with life threatening symptoms. Unfortunately, nearly half (43%) of patients presented to their primary care provider first where the …

Improving Provider Retention Through Addressing Burnout At A Federally Qualified Health Center: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Emily Grattan

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Primary care providers employed by federally qualified health centers (FQHC) working with underserved populations experience high levels of burnout as patients are often medically complex, face healthcare disparities and societal stigmas. The aim of the project was to alleviate burnout and improve provider retention through introduction of organizational support measures. Participants involved were healthcare providers, as well as nurse management and senior leadership.

Methods: The quality improvement approach for this project utilized the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle and a driver diagram to guide the selected interventions. Interventions were based on categories from Mayo’s Clinic’s Nine Organizational Strategies to Promote Engagement …

Improving Mental Health Psychiatric Nurse Practitioners’ Knowledge And Confidence To Assess Decision-Making Capacity In Geriatric Psychiatric Patients In Acute Settings, Lolita Brown

DNP Scholarly Projects

Abstract

In this quality improvement project, I aim to enhance the knowledge and confidence of psychiatric mental health nurse practitioners (PMHNPs) in completing Decisional Capacity Mental Assessments (DMCAs). I use qualitative and quantitative methods to measure the intervention’s success, emphasizing PMHNPs’ role in ensuring ethical DMCAs while maintaining patient autonomy. The education-based intervention significantly improves PMHNPs’ knowledge and confidence levels following the pre-education survey. These findings highlight the significance of DMCA training for health-care professionals, underscoring the necessity of standardized assessments alongside improved dialogue during capacity evaluations. Limitations include limited sample sizes and dependence on self-reported measures, which may introduce …