Digital Commons Network^™

Utilizing Health Literacy Universal Precautions And The Teach-Back Method To Improve Hospitalized Patients' Experience With Medication Education: A Quality Improvement Project, Kathleen Meyer

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Patients, especially the elderly, are at high risk for post hospital complications related to poor medication adherence. Addressing health and medication literacy limitations during their inpatient encounter closes critical gaps in a patient’s understanding of their medication regimen. The project goal was to improve the patient experience related to communication about medicines during their inpatient encounter. The intervention implemented was the introduction of health literacy universal precaution concepts and teach-back methodology for medication education.

METHODS: Interdisciplinary educational sessions were created and implemented for nurses, hospitalists, and respiratory therapists. Additionally, at the elbow support was provided throughout the implementation phase …

Peer Support To Enhance Safe Alcohol Use In University Students: A Quality Improvement Project, Kerri Reynolds

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: College is a period of transition to adulthood where many students experiment with alcohol consumption. Peer educators can bring access to evidence-based alcohol consumption education through student-centric strategies. This quality improvement project aimed to implement an evidence-based training program for college peer educators followed by the delivery of campus alcohol education in a six week period. Feasible ideas for sustainable college peer educator training were generated at this medium-sized public university. The impact of training on six peer educators’ self-reported professional leadership skills, knowledge, and confidence was measured.

METHODS: The Certified Peer Educator (CPE) training program (NASPA) was used …

Evaluating The Impact Of Simulation On Perceived Knowledge And Confidence Of New Graduate Nurses (Ngns) In Maternal-Newborn Care, Disa Seymour

DNP Scholarly Projects

Abstract

Background: Nursing education worldwide varies in duration and training process, with nurses often facing rapid immersion into patient care complexities when entering the workforce. While new nurses contribute significantly to the nursing community with contemporary knowledge, their transition to practice can be daunting, necessitating support for both competence and retention. As specialty care settings integrate more new graduate nurses (NGNs) to address workforce shortages, collaboration between leaders and educators becomes crucial. Simulation emerges as a vital tool in building confidence while learning, offering a safe space for skill development and growth of confidence.

Purpose: This project’s objective was to …

Scares: A Clinician Guide To Spinal Cord Awareness, Response, And Emergency Support Creation And Implantation Of Scares Protocol Among Hospitalist Advanced Practice Providers, Brittany Biega

DNP Scholarly Projects

While they are more common in patients with oncological disease and trauma, SCE still exist among patients without these comorbidities. Less has been established regarding care protocols in this population. The absence of standardized procedures has been linked to preventable, adverse patient outcomes, including cases of permanent damage due to delayed treatment. This project employs Lean Six Sigma methodologies and Johns Hopkins Evidence- Based Practice to devise a robust SCE protocol, aimed at standardizing care and improving patient outcomes. A multidisciplinary team including general medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, and neuroradiology developed “Spinal Emergency Management Guidelines” protocol, which was implemented within the …

Effectiveness Of Diversion Tube On Peripheral Blood Culture Contamination Rates From Intravenous Catheters In A Community Hospital Emergency Department, Anne Meginniss

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Obtaining blood cultures is routine care for patients who are suspected to have sepsis. Contaminated blood cultures can lead to increased healthcare costs for patients suspected of sepsis. Reducing contaminated specimens could improve the quality of care delivered as well as increase patient satisfaction.

AIM: This quality improvement project aimed to reduce the number of contaminated blood cultures in a community hospital emergency department by using an initial specimen diversion tube to meet the new national benchmark of below 1% contamination rate.

METHODS: Twenty-seven diversion specimens were collected over an eight-week period via initial intravenous catheter insertion in a …

Impact Of Personal Continuous Glucose Monitor Use During Hospitalization On Rates Of Hypoglycemia And Provider Confidence, Rebecca Longo

DNP Scholarly Projects

Continuous Glucose Monitors (CGMs) are an essential tool for managing diabetes in the outpatient setting, helping individuals achieve glucose goals. However, CGMs are not currently FDA-approved for use in the hospital setting. Despite this limitation, many individuals continue using their personal CGM during hospitalization or begin using them prior to discharge if the care team believes the technology will support glucose management during and after leaving the hospital.

This project aimed to evaluate whether individuals using personal CGMs during hospitalization experienced less hypoglycemia and whether reviewing CGM data could improve provider confidence in insulin dosing. While initiating CGM use during …

“Slaves Of The State:” The Exploitation Of Women Through Convict Leasing, Beth F. Newton

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Exploring Lexical Stress Perception: An Investigation Across Varied Listener Experience With Prosody, Olivia J. Pride

Honors Theses and Capstones

Prosody is a characteristic of speech that allows others to understand emotion, emphasis, and meaning of language more deeply. Perceptual accuracy by speech-language pathologists is critical to diagnosing speech disorders. This study examined perceptual abilities of three different groups in identifying lexical stress across groups. Four SLPs, 6 SLP graduate students, and 6 untrained listeners listened to 396 audio files elicited in a prior study using the lexical stress tasks from the Prosodic Profiling Elements of Prosody in Speech-Communication (PEPS-C) and the naturalistic lexical stress (NLS) tasks. Listeners were asked if syllable stress was on the first syllable, second syllable, …

Social Workers In Human Resources, Alexandra H. Pogany

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Investing In Love: The Finances Of Getting Married, Allison Frances Ivers

Honors Theses and Capstones

In attempts to examine the influence vendors have on consumers within the wedding industry, this study investigates the emotional and financial extremes brides will achieve to attain their definition of a “perfect” day. Additionally, the research shows the relationship between consumer behaviors related to wedding spending. The findings highlight the economic impacts associated with the bridal industry and the trends that define it. Couples value their wants and needs with their desire to be married. Although vendors can dictate their margin of the market, the couples getting married hold the purchasing power. During the search for secondary research, there was …

Inclusivity Of In Vitro Fertilization Clinic Websites, Erin Donahue

Honors Theses and Capstones

In the world, many people cannot naturally conceive children. They may be infertile, lack an intimate partner, or be in a same-sex relationship. Artificial reproductive technologies (ARTs) are catered to the aforementioned population. ARTs are fertility treatments that assist people with the fertilization of gametes and/or implantation of embryos. One of the most popular ARTs is in-vitro fertilization (IVF). IVF is a medical procedure in which an egg is fertilized by sperm in a lab so it can develop into an embryo. That embryo can then be implanted directly into the uterus. This quality improvement project aims to determine the …

Investigation Of Charge Density Waves And Layer Stacking In Niobium Ditelluride, Gavin J. Smith

Honors Theses and Capstones

NbTe₂ is a layered transition metal dichalcogenide which exhibits charge density waves (CDWs) and superconductivity in the bulk. Previous scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy experiments suggested that Fermi-surface nesting and reciprocal lattice reconstruction are important in the formation of CDWs in NbTe₂. These experiments focused on spectroscopy of pristine regions. We will present low temperature scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments examining the 3x1 CDW in NbTe₂ at 10K. We found a crystalline step and multiple neighboring 60º and 120º CDW domain boundaries. We examined the electronic structure across these domain boundaries and in neighboring domains using scanning …

Alpaca Assisted Activities In The New England Alpaca Industry: A Possible Solution To Farm Profitability And Participant Mental Health, Ashley Michele Masse

Honors Theses and Capstones

The high operating costs of the New England alpaca industry were putting the majority of alpaca farmers in this region in a state of financial loss. On a separate note, American communities were experiencing a prevalence of anxiety and depression. What if a single solution could help improve the outcome of both these challenges that seem to have little to do with each other? Alpaca Animal Assisted Activities (alpaca AAAs) was a possible solution. This study explored New England alpaca farm profitability and alpaca AAAs in a way no other research study has done before. A Farmer Survey was mailed …

Equine Rescue Success In The United States: A Statistical Analysis, Carly J. Cave

Honors Theses and Capstones

The high inflation that has characterized the post-pandemic period in the United States has increased the costs of horse ownership for private owners and equine rescue organizations, which are facing critical pressures. Over 200,000 equines are at risk for neglect or slaughter in the United States each year, which far exceeds the capacity to house these equines at rescue organizations. While demand on these organizations is high, their ability to afford appropriate resources for their care is insufficient. This study examined geographical and economic factors that impact equine rescues’ success in taking in at-risk equines and adopting them to forever …

Alpaca Assisted Activities In The New England Alpaca Industry: A Possible Solution To Farm Profitability And Participant Mental Health, Ashley Michele Masse

Honors Theses and Capstones

The high operating costs of the New England alpaca industry were putting the majority of alpaca farmers in this region in a state of financial loss. On a separate note, American communities were experiencing a prevalence of anxiety and depression. What if a single solution could help improve the outcome of both these challenges that seem to have little to do with each other? Alpaca Animal Assisted Activities (alpaca AAAs) was a possible solution. This study explored New England alpaca farm profitability and alpaca AAAs in a way no other research study has done before. A Farmer Survey was mailed …

Do Duckweeds Adapt To Water And Microbes?, Ava M. Rose

Honors Theses and Capstones

Organisms in their home environment sometimes outperform transplanted individuals native to other areas, in a phenomenon termed local adaptation. While local adaptation is traditionally considered to be driven by the abiotic factors of an environment, scientists have recently increased consideration of biotic factors. Specifically, of interest to many is host-associated microbiomes, which can alter host trait expression. As the desire to commercialize microbiome treatments for agriculture and medicine grows, it is important to analyze the potential value of local microbiomes, which may be adapted to their hosts, or to which local hosts may have adapted. Using Lemna minor (duckweed) as …

A New Industry For Student- Athletes: An Analysis Of Nil Implications On Well-Being And Team Dynamics, Jamison W. White

Honors Theses and Capstones

As of June 2021, college athletes are allowed to benefit from selling their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by engaging in contracts with sponsors and businesses. Even though this law was passed to allow athletes to earn a fair pay for their hard work though utilizing their popularity and engaging with fans, its potential effect on athletes remains uncertain. This research examines the effects of NIL agreements on student-athletes’ well-being and team perceptions. More specifically, does the adoption of NIL place additional stress on student- athletes or disrupt their team dynamics? If so, what support can be granted to allow …

The Lighthouse Keepers Daughter: The Life And Work Of Celia Laighton Thaxter, Haley J. Parker

Honors Theses and Capstones

Living on the edge of the American empire, Celia Thaxter explored the dimensions of her life in ways that transcended, yet never fully abandoned traditional gender boundaries by cultivating her lifelong relationship with nature through creative expression. The lighthouse keeper's daughter constructed her identity based on the experiences that shaped her on the very edge of civilization. Coming of age on the Isles of Shoals, Celia reveled in flexibility and unrestricted freedom of her natural environment isolated from the cultural spheres on the mainland that reinforced the ideology of domestic femininity. This ideology was dominant in the 19th century in …

Judging Our New Judges: Why We Must Remove Artificial Intelligence From Our Courtrooms Now, Kieran Duffy Newcomb

Honors Theses and Capstones

In this paper, I explore some of the ways in which artificial intelligence might enhance the sentencing process through recidivism prediction technology. Notably, this technology can increase the accuracy of risk predictions and the speed with which sentencing decisions are reached. I then show, however, that the recidivism prediction technology is likely to turn into what data scientist Cathy O’Neil calls a Weapon of Math Destruction. The potential harmfulness of this technology is due not to the inherent nature of the technology, but the symbiotic relationship it will have with our already harmful criminal justice system. I argue that the …

Artificial Intelligence And The Entertainment Industry, Caroline Rae Mccarthy

Honors Theses and Capstones

Artificial intelligence is a fast-growing technology that is quickly taking over many industries, such as the entertainment industry. Artificial intelligence has the capability to replicate voices, create fake videos and photos, called deepfakes, of just about anything, and can practically bring people back to life. This technology, as it stands now, is similar to the wild west because in the vast majority of places, it’s lawless. Artificial intelligence is growing so rapidly that lawmakers haven’t had a chance to keep up. This paper explains more of what AI does in everyday life, and how its abilities can impact the entertainment …

Developing A Gender Diverse Stimulus Set For Emotion Expressions, Amir Robertson

Honors Theses and Capstones

Much past research has demonstrated that gender plays an important role in emotion perception, such that gendered stereotypes about emotion seem to shape how we perceive and interpret the emotion expressions of men and women. However, the stimulus sets that are typically used in the vast majority of this research have been based on binary ideas of gender, and purposefully limit common elements of gender presentation, with models posing with limited accessories or personal aesthetic choices. In everyday life, however, individuals’ gender and gender presentation are not limited in these ways and likely contribute in important ways to how we …

Implementation Of Stronger Community Resilience In The United States Before Natural Disasters Strike, Andrew J. Widdekind

Honors Theses and Capstones

Since 2000, the United States has not sustained viable mitigation and preparedness solutions to combat the frequent and intense onset of natural disasters; more must be done on how communities can adapt and withstand them. Instead, environmental and human-induced factors have exacerbated the likelihood of these threats, which has caused billion-dollar weather events to occur more often. This paper focuses on how congressional policymakers would have to incorporate new mitigation/preparedness approaches into current emergency management methodology by creating a new federal statute known as the National Resiliency Act (or similar). A policy like this would strengthen the overall resilience of …

An Updated Outline For Clearing And Staining Of Preserved Specimens, Sadie E. Smith

Honors Theses and Capstones

This protocol outlines a enhanced clearing and staining procedure for persevered specimens, focusing on the visualization of cartilage and bone in small taxa. With origins from O. Shultze's diaphonization methodology in 1897, the process of clearing and staining improves the clarity and contrast of intricate tissues. It is essential for studies in developmental biology, histology and anatomy. This protocol covers the key steps of the process while detailing the materials, solutions and estimated timeline for each step pertaining to specific taxa. The aim of the protocol is to standardize and provide guidance for procedures in the Biological Sciences department at …

Evidence Of A Thick Heliopause Boundary Layer Resulting From Active Magnetic Reconnection With The Interstellar Medium, Drew L. Turner, Adam Michael, Elena Provornikova, Marc Kornbleuth, Merav Opher, Stefan Eriksson, Benoit Lavraud, Parisa Mostafavi, Matthew E. Hill, Pontus Brandt, Ian J. Cohen, Joseph Westlake, John D. Richardson, Nathan A. Schwadron, David J. Mccomas

Faculty Publications

Voyager 1 and 2 data from the vicinity of the heliopause and very local interstellar medium are reexamined to better understand the confounding lack of rotation in the magnetic field (B-field) across the heliopause observed by both Voyagers, despite their very large spatial separations (>100 au). Using three estimates for the orientation of the B-field in the pristine interstellar medium and four models of the heliosphere, we calculate draped interstellar B-field orientations along the model heliopauses and compare those estimates to the Voyager observations. At both Voyagers, expected draped B-fields are inconsistent with the observed B-field orientations after the boundary …

X-Ray Polarized View Of The Accretion Geometry In The X-Ray Binary Circinus X-1, John Rankin, Fabio La Monaca, Alessandro Di Marco, Juri Poutanen, Anna Bobrikova, Vadim Kravtsov, Fabio Muleri, Maura Pilia, Alexandra Veledina, Rob Fender, Philip Kaaret, Dawoon E. Kim, Andrea Marinucci, Herman L. Marshall, Alessandro Papitto, Allyn F. Tennant, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Martin C. Weisskopf, Kinwah Wu, Silvia Zane, Filippo Ambrosino, Ruben Farinelli, Andrea Gnarini, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stefano Bianchi, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simne Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Enrico Costa, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Javier A. Garcia, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Alberto Manfreda, Frédéric Marin, Alan P. Marscher, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Michela Negro, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O’Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, Ajay Ratheesh, Oliver J. Roberts, Roger W. Romani, Carmelo Sgrò, Patrick Slane, Paolo Soffitta, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Fei Xie

Faculty Publications

Cir X-1 is a neutron star X-ray binary characterized by strong variations in flux during its eccentric ∼16.6 day orbit. There are also strong variations in the spectral state, and it has historically shown both atoll and Z state properties. We observed the source with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer during two orbital segments, 6 days apart, for a total of 263 ks. We find an X-ray polarization degree in these segments of 1.6% ± 0.3% and 1.4% ± 0.3% at polarization angles of 37° ± 5° and −12° ± 7°, respectively. Thus, we observed a rotation of the polarization …

‘Routines’ And ‘Formulaic Language’ In Conversation Analysis, Danielle Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

Though the field of conversation analysis (CA) was founded upon examinations of interactional “routines” such as conversation openings and closings, conceptualizing and categorizing communicative phenomena as “formulaic” is anathema to CA. This chapter details how, since its inception, CA work has empirically elucidated how participants to recorded episodes of naturally occurring social interaction actively and collaboratively accomplish conversational activities as ‘routine’ or not by selecting from available action alternatives, spontaneously coordinating their selections vis-à-vis one another. Taking a multimodal CA approach, this chapter reviews state-of-the art literature on how people open and close in-person and telephone conversations, showing the immense …

‘Routines’ And ‘Formulaic Language’ In Conversation Analysis (Author's Extended Data), Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

Though the field of conversation analysis (CA) was founded upon examinations of interactional “routines” such as conversation openings and closings, conceptualizing and categorizing communicative phenomena as “formulaic” is anathema to CA. This chapter details how, since its inception, CA work has empirically elucidated how participants to recorded episodes of naturally occurring social interaction actively and collaboratively accomplish conversational activities as ‘routine’ or not by selecting from available action alternatives, spontaneously coordinating their selections vis-à-vis one another. Taking a multimodal CA approach, this chapter reviews state-of-the art literature on how people open and close in-person and telephone conversations, showing the immense …

Asynchronous Movement Patterns Between Breeding And Stopover Locations In A Long-Distance Migratory Songbird, Theodore Zenzal, Andrea Contina, Hannah Vander Zanden, Leanne Kuwahara, Daniel Allen, Kristen Covino

Faculty Publications

The species-specific migratory patterns and strategies of many songbirds remain unknown or understudied, as research in animal ecology is biased toward the breeding period, with the fewest studies on the migratory period across taxa. Identifying large-scale spatiotemporal migratory patterns is challenging, as individuals within a species may vary in their migratory behavior and strategies. The Yellow Warbler (Setophaga petechia) is a Nearctic-Neotropical migrant that is relatively well studied during the breeding season, but its species-wide migratory patterns remain understudied. Our aim in studying Yellow Warbler movement ecology was to characterize temporal migration patterns during fall migration. We sought to determine …

X-Ray Polarization Of The Eastern Lobe Of Ss 433, Philip Kaaret, Riccardo Ferrazzoli, Stefano Silvestri, Michela Negro, Alberto Manfreda, Kinwah Wu, Enrico Costa, Paolo Soffitta, Samar Safi-Harb, Juri Poutanen, Alexandra Veledina, Alessandro Di Marco, Patrick Slane, Stefano Bianchi, Adam Ingram, Roger W. Romani, Nicolò Cibrario, Brydyn Mac Intyre, Romana Mikus̆Incová, Ajay Ratheesh, James F. Steiner, Jiri Svoboda, Stefano Tugliani, Iván Agudo, Lucio A. Antonelli, Matteo Bachetti, Luca Baldini, Wayne H. Baumgartner, Ronaldo Bellazzini, Stephen D. Bongiorno, Raffaella Bonino, Alessandro Brez, Niccolò Bucciantini, Fiamma Capitanio, Simone Castellano, Elisabetta Cavazzuti, Chien-Ting Chen, Stefano Ciprini, Alessandra De Rosa, Ettore Del Monte, Laura Di Gesu, Niccolò Di Lalla, Immacolata Donnarumma, Victor Doroshenko, Michal Dovčiak, Steven R. Ehlert, Teruaki Enoto, Yuri Evangelista, Sergio Fabiani, Javier A. García, Shuichi Gunji, Kiyoshi Hayashida, Jeremy Heyl, Wataru Iwakiri, Svetlana G. Jorstad, Vladimir Karas, Fabian Kislat, Takao Kitaguchi, Jeffery J. Kolodziejczak, Henric Krawczynski, Fabio La Monaca, Luca Latronico, Ioannis Liodakis, Simone Maldera, Frédéric Marin, Andrea Marinucci, Alan P. Marscher, Herman L. Marshall, Francesco Massaro, Giorgio Matt, Ikuyuki Mitsuishi, Tsunefumi Mizuno, Fabio Muleri, Chi-Yung Ng, Stephen L. O'Dell, Nicola Omodei, Chiara Oppedisano, Alessandro Papitto, George G. Pavlov, Abel L. Peirson, Matteo Perri, Melissa Pesce-Rollins, Pierre-Olivier Petrucci, Maura Pilia, Andrea Possenti, Simonetta Puccetti, Brian D. Ramsey, John Rankin, Oliver J. Roberts, Carmelo Sgrò, Gloria Spandre, Douglas A. Swartz, Toru Tamagawa, Fabrizio Tavecchio, Roberto Taverna, Yuzuru Tawara, Allyn F. Tennant, Nicholas E. Thomas, Francesco Tombesi, Alessio Trois, Sergey S. Tsygankov, Roberto Turolla, Jacco Vink, Martin C. Weisskopf, Fei Xie, Silvia Zane

Faculty Publications

How astrophysical systems translate the kinetic energy of bulk motion into the acceleration of particles to very high energies is a pressing question. SS 433 is a microquasar that emits TeV γ-rays indicating the presence of high-energy particles. A region of hard X-ray emission in the eastern lobe of SS 433 was recently identified as an acceleration site. We observed this region with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer and measured a polarization degree in the range 38%–77%. The high polarization degree indicates the magnetic field has a well-ordered component if the X-rays are due to synchrotron emission. The polarization angle …

Evidence Of A Thick Heliopause Boundary Layer Resulting From Active Magnetic Reconnection With The Interstellar Medium, Drew L. Turner, Adam Michael, Elena Provornikova, Marc Kornbleuth, Merav Opher, Stefan Eriksson, Benoit Lavraud, Parisa Mostafavi, Matthew E. Hill, Pontus Brandt, Ian J. Cohen, Joseph Westlake, John D. Richardson, Nathan A. Schwadron, David J. Mccomas

Faculty Publications

Voyager 1 and 2 data from the vicinity of the heliopause and very local interstellar medium are reexamined to better understand the confounding lack of rotation in the magnetic field (B-field) across the heliopause observed by both Voyagers, despite their very large spatial separations (>100 au). Using three estimates for the orientation of the B-field in the pristine interstellar medium and four models of the heliosphere, we calculate draped interstellar B-field orientations along the model heliopauses and compare those estimates to the Voyager observations. At both Voyagers, expected draped B-fields are inconsistent with the observed B-field orientations after the boundary …