Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Fused Deposition Modeling (Fdm) Three-Dimensional Printing Tablet Design Options For Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms, Guluzar Gorkem Buyukgoz

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the use of Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) based three-dimensional (3D) printing approach for developing patient-specific dosage forms and addressing related technical challenges in such drug delivery systems. The first main objective is to explore pharmaceutical tablet design options using novel FDM 3D printing technology as the drug delivery platform such that drug form and tablet properties are tailored by considering patient age-specific formulations and dissolution control. Of the five different design options, two proposed options meet the main objective of providing similar drug release, whereas the popular option of fixed drug concentration but differing tablet size could …

Novel Statistical Modeling Methods For Traffic Video Analysis, Hang Shi

Dissertations

Video analysis is an active and rapidly expanding research area in computer vision and artificial intelligence due to its broad applications in modern society. Many methods have been proposed to analyze the videos, but many challenging factors remain untackled. In this dissertation, four statistical modeling methods are proposed to address some challenging traffic video analysis problems under adverse illumination and weather conditions.

First, a new foreground detection method is presented to detect the foreground objects in videos. A novel Global Foreground Modeling (GFM) method, which estimates a global probability density function for the foreground and applies the Bayes decision rule …

The Effect Of Choice Programs On Student Achievement, David Whitham

Dissertations

Educational choices provide unique learning opportunities for all children to have access to and allow parents to be the decision-makers for their child’s education (Valant & Lincove, 2018). Brown v. Board of Education (1954) of Topeka sparked the creation of choice programs in the United States to end the segregation of students and empower families to be direct stakeholders in their child’s education (Brown v. Board of Education, 1954). This study focused on a school district in the Midwest region of the United States, which investigated the expansion of learning options available to the community. The purpose of this study …

The Influence Of Gender, Weight, And Age On Osa Progression In Rem And Nrem Sleep, Alan M. Jones

Dissertations

In the United States, it is estimated that obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), which greatly increases the risk of many adverse health conditions, affects over 25 million adults with prevalence rates that have drastically increased over the last two decades, likely due to the obesity epidemic. Research has identified several explanatory variables of OSA, but studies have indicated that OSA incidence and severity is mainly determined by three variables: gender, weight and age.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects and importance of gender, weight, and age on OSA levels (as measured by respiratory disturbance index (RDI) values) …

An Explanatory Sequential Study Of Cadet Commitment At The United States Air Force Academy, Justin Pendry

Dissertations

Character and leadership are the essence of the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA). USAFA’s mission is to develop leaders of character responsible for defending this nation. Our country has the most lethal Air Force this world has ever known. The men and women entrusted with protecting its citizens must be committed to the highest standards of ethical leadership. To accomplish this, USAFA provides a robust education and training program with extensive opportunities for cadet development. However, achieving USAFA’s vision of creating the nation’s best leaders of character relies upon cadet trust in the process and commitment to their development …

Using Visual Storytelling To Design Solutions-Based Approaches To Homelessness, Peggy Peattie

Dissertations

Despite millions of dollars spent over several decades on assistance programs, the nation’s homeless population has increased for the last four years in a row. The number of people reporting as homeless for the first time doubled in San Diego between June 2019 and June 2020. Trying to impose a one-size-fits-all model of care on a population comprised of unique individuals has resulted in many homeless opting for the street rather than subjugating themselves to rules they feel do not treat them with respect and dignity. Yet, the perspectives of homeless individuals are excluded from decision-making dialogue around policies and …

Exploring Perspectives Of Legal Nurse Consultants As Entrepreneurs: A Case Study, Evelyn H. Bell

Dissertations

Entrepreneurial opportunities exist in the nursing profession for nurses who are seen as innovative, forward thinkers, and have a desire to work independently. Entrepreneurship as a legal nurse consultant is a career choice that allows for that independence while supporting the legal community. Legal nurse consultants use training and clinical experience to provide expert opinions related to practice standards of care and damages. In this exploratory qualitative case study, the researcher explored the perceptions of legal nurse consultants regarding the journey to become entrepreneurs. The problem that was the focus of this study was absence of sufficient and applicable research …

Nursing Faculty Perceptions About Peers With Physical And Sensory Disabilities, Tammy C. Killough

Dissertations

Nursing faculty perceptions of peer faculty with sensory and physical disabilities is an important topic for research, as the review of literature indicates that this topic has not been adequately investigated. Current research related to nursing faculty with disabilities has been primarily focused on nursing students with disabilities. This study explored nursing faculty's perceptions about nursing peers with disabilities. A descriptive qualitative research design was selected to best reflect the viewpoints of the participants and to allow for a more holistic open view of participants' perceptions about the research questions. The participants participated in an online survey using Survey Monkeyâ„¢. …

Simulated Clinical Experience: An Investigation Of Emotion Understanding And Management, Neena W. Jones

Dissertations

Many investigators have documented that lack of emotional intelligence (EI) in professional nursing correlates with patient dissatisfaction, negative patient outcomes, and litigation. However, much less information is available to nurse educators for an effective instructional strategy to increase EI skills, specifically emotion understanding and management (the most influential branches of EI) in nursing students. Grounded in the theory of EI and the theory of simulation, the purpose of this quantitative quasi experimental study was to introduce educational technology as a useful strategy for influencing EI in a convenience sample of 88 second semester students in a baccalaureate program. Research questions …

Decreasing Pre-Procedure Anxiety In School-Aged Patients In An Outpatient Surgery Setting Using A Video Prior To Anesthesia Induction, Michelle Charette

Dissertations

Anxiety occurs when a human feels a threat in response to a situation. Having surgery can heighten this psychological reaction, especially in pediatric patients undergoing anesthesia. Many children fear anesthesia for they do not understand what is expected of them nor what to expect when entering an operating room. When anxiety and fear are elevated, it can lead to behavioral changes, increases in postoperative pain, delays in wound healing, and postponement of discharge. Eliminating or reducing anxiety can result in positive outcomes for patients with pain, healing, and discharge. Literature supports the use of an educational video to aid in …

Effects Of Neuraxial Anesthesia On Readiness For Ambulation Following Total Knee Arthroplasty, James Thomas Papesca

Dissertations

Total knee arthroplasty (TKA) is the most commonly performed inpatient surgical procedure within the USA and is estimated to reach 3.48 million procedures annually by 2030. An aging population with multiple health conditions coupled with value-based care initiatives focusing on the trend toward outpatient care and patient satisfaction, has prompted healthcare providers to develop and implement an anesthetic approach to enhance TKA outcomes. The American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons acknowledges the movement toward outpatient TKAs emphasizing minimal complications and maximizing patient safety. A review of current literature identifies causative factors delaying hospital discharge following TKA ranging from postoperative …

The Student Voice: Experiences Of First-Generation, Adult, Latino Male Tutees Learning Within A Peer Tutoring Environment, Shawn M. Carney

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative, single-site case study was to identify and describe the lived experiences of first-generation, adult, Latino male tutees utilizing peer tutoring services within the Solano Community College (SCC) learning assistance center (LAC), concerning readiness, challenge, support, and balance as they applied to motivation to learn and personal academic growth.

Methodology: Fifteen participants were selected through a purposeful sampling process, and data were collected and analyzed through semi-structured, open-ended interviews to develop common themes with tabulated results presented via frequency tables.

Findings: First-generation, Latino, male tutees (1) sought tutors who were confident in the subject matter, …

Relationship Between Perceptions Of Home Discharge Readiness And Parental Health Literacy (Phl) Of Nicu Parents Of Black Preterm Infants, Mia K. Waldron

Dissertations

The United States (U.S.) ranks last among western nations in overall infant mortality rates and ranks second highest in rates of preterm birth among the same nation group (MacDorman, Matthews, Mohangoo & Zeitlin, 2014). The U.S. infant mortality data show that Black infants have the highest incidence among all groups (Ely, Driscoll & Matthews, 2018; Murphy, Xu, Kochanek & Arias, 2018). Infants born prematurely are among those at highest risk for infant death with Black women delivering premature infants at rates higher than all other U.S. groups (Ely, Driscoll & Matthews, 2018; Murphy, Xu, Kochanek & Arias, 2018; Xu, Murphy, …

Perceptions Of Associate Degree Nursing Students Regarding The Effects Of Pervious Work Experiences On Their Academic Progress, Latifah Davis

Dissertations

The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore how ADN nursing students eligible to graduate, with prior or concurrent healthcare work experience, describe their academic experiences and progress in an associate nursing degree program. The theoretical framework was Kolb's (1984) experiential learning theory and Knowles's (1980) adult learning theory. ADN students from three community colleges in the South Atlantic region of the United States were asked ten questions via face-to-face and telephone interviews. Three themes arose from the data analysis, valued work experience, financial obligations, and faculty support. All students verbalized that future nursing students should have some …

The Impact Of Breathing Retraining Education On Adults With Asthma For Improving Quality Of Life, Symptom Control And Reducing Short-Acting Beta-Agonist Inhaler Use In A Primary Care Setting, Danny Barazi

Dissertations

Quality of life related to asthma is negatively impacted when asthma is uncontrolled, which is characterized by frequent symptoms and rescue inhaler use which lead to limitations in normal daily activities. The goals of asthma therapy include infrequent use of short-acting beta-agonist (SABA, rescue) inhalers, prevention of acute and chronic symptoms while maintaining normal activity levels. While these goals of therapy employ infrequent use of SABA inhalers as the primary metric of effective asthma symptom management, measuring quality of life is also recommended as an important outcome of therapy and an approach to promote self-management in patients with asthma. One …

Increasing Breast Cancer Screenings Of African American Black Women, Marlene A. Griggs-Warner

Dissertations

Research shows that African American Black women have a high breast cancer mortality rate due to lack of breast cancer screenings. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated if culturally-appropriate materials/education increased breast cancer screening rates of African American Black women living in a community in the southern portion of NJ. Kurt Lewin's theory of change encouraged African American Black women to change to healthier lifestyles by encouraging breast cancer screenings. Research also shows that the use of culturally-appropriate tools in clinical settings can improve patient outcomes for this population. Leininger's theory of culture care promoted clinical awareness of the African …

Lived Experience Of Being An Obese Registered Nurse: A Phenomenological Inquiry, Trina Rodgers

Dissertations

Research has shown obesity is a significant problem affecting the general-public and is increasing in prevalence among health care providers. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to understand the lived experience of being obese as a registered nurse. One-on-one interviews with 15 registered nurses, who had a personal experience with being obese as a registered nurse, were conducted. Data were collected through in-depth interviews, which were taped and transcribed verbatim. The data analysis was conducted manually to gain the true essence of the participant's lived experiences. The responses were analyzed, coded, and themed using Colaizzi's method of data …

The_Instaprep_Project: A Social Marketing Intervention On Instagram To Increase Oral Hiv Prophylaxis In Black Men Who Have Sex With Men, James Q. Simmons

Dissertations

Incidence of HIV diagnoses is higher in Black men who have sex with men (BMSM) than any other socio-demographic population in the United States. BMSM account for 26% of all new HIV diagnoses in the U.S. yet make up an estimated 1% of the U.S population. In 2017, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicted 50% of BMSM would be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetime. Oral HIV pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) medications developed to prevent sexual transmission of HIV are 95-99% effective. However, Blacks represent only 10% of PrEP prescriptions. Targeted Social Marketing initiatives on Instagram need to be …

Identifying Transfer Of Care Gaps: Electronic Health Record Capture Of Perioperative Handoff Communications, Sharon Giarrizzo-Wilson

Dissertations

Transitions in patient care are held together by interdisciplinary handoff communications intended to coordinate the patient's ongoing care requirements. Patients with complexity in care encumber the transfer of care process requiring a higher level of care coordination between the interdisciplinary team (Coleman, 2003; Naylor et al., 2004). While the literature is abundant on the characteristics and quality of handoff communications, it is limited on the requirements of what data is necessary for ongoing care following transfer communications (Galatzan & Carrington, 2018).

Clinical Factors That Influence Nurse Responsiveness In Activating Rapid Response Services, James Tormey

Dissertations

This study advances the understanding of essential clinical knowledge skillsets that nurses need to identify and respond to early signs of patient deterioration. The identification of critical thinking and assessment skills that nurses require may support professional practice through improved nursing education curriculum or additions of necessary critical care skillsets. The purpose of this study, which was framed by Benner's novice-to-expert model, was to identify and measure critical thinking skills that influence a nurse's ability to detect deterioration in patients and call the rapid response system (RRS). The research questions addressed the relationship between a nurse's clinical or reasoning skill …

Investigation Of A Checklist To Reduce Medication Errors Among Pre-Licensure Baccalaureate Nursing Students, Mary Agoglia

Dissertations

This experimental pilot study was aimed at the development of a quality standard to facilitate medication administration error detection, prevention, and reporting among pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing students. Based on both the literature review and peer review, sequential steps of the medication administration process were identified, bundled, and anchored in the mnemonic, C-MATCH-REASON, to form a new inquiry-based paper checklist that pairs clinical reasoning with rule adherence. The Checklist (independent variable), for nursing student utilization, was accompanied by an error tracking instrument (Observation Form) for nursing faculty (raters) to measure medication errors committed, recovered, and reported. Reason's (1990) error theory was …

Retention, Structural Empowerment, And Dialysis Nursing: Integrating Kanter's Theory And The Refined Nurse Worklife Model, Richard C. Scepura

Dissertations

During this two-phase project, factors that dialysis nurses experience contributing to stress, retention, and the intentions of staying were examined. The theoretical frameworks of Kanter's Theory of Structural Empowerment (KTSE) and The Refined Nurse Worklife Model (NWLM) were utilized in the creation of a learning module regarding structural empowerment. In phase one this was reviewed by an expert dialysis nurse focus group from seven different states with experience in dialysis from seven to forty years. During phase one, the expert panel gave high-frequency domain input including access to support, resources, and the need for strong leadership. The module was adjusted …

Ensemble Data Fitting For Bathymetric Models Informed By Nominal Data, Samantha Zambo

Dissertations

Due to the difficulty and expense of collecting bathymetric data, modeling is the primary tool to produce detailed maps of the ocean floor. Current modeling practices typically utilize only one interpolator; the industry standard is splines-in-tension.

In this dissertation we introduce a new nominal-informed ensemble interpolator designed to improve modeling accuracy in regions of sparse data. The method is guided by a priori domain knowledge provided by artificially intelligent classifiers. We recast such geomorphological classifications, such as ‘seamount’ or ‘ridge’, as nominal data which we utilize as foundational shapes in an expanded ordinary least squares regression-based algorithm. To our knowledge …

Identification Of Cultural Differences And Their Effects On International Relations: A Novel Approach, Stephen W. Jones

Dissertations

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference.

Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact …

This Was The World And I Was King: Land And Identity In Scottish Children's Literature Of The Golden Age, Rodney Fierce

Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on Scottish cultural identity and its erasure in nineteenth-century British children’s literature as successful Scottish authors became known as British authors, and British children’s literature was canonized as the genre’s first Golden Age. Specifically, it explores the ways that Catherine Sinclair, George MacDonald, R. M. Ballantyne, Robert Louis Stevenson, J. M. Barrie, and Helen Bannerman—six popular nineteenth-century Scottish authors—maintain a sense of Scottishness in their adventure fiction. By reading the texts in the historical context of the authors’ biographies, I demonstrate that the land in their works and the benevolent colonizers allowed to control it in some …

Physical Education Teachers' Instructional Adaptations To Teach Motor Skills To Children With Language Disorders, Kristen Morgan

Dissertations

Children with language disorders have a unique blend of impairments related to communication, memory (Gray et al., 2019; Montgomery et al., 2019), executive functioning (Kapa & Plante, 2015), motor skills (Hill, 2001), imitation, gestures (Wray et al., 2017), and reaching early motor milestones (Diepeveen et al., 2018). These deficits may negatively affect learning motor skills in physical education (PE). Instructional adaptations to overcome these learning impairments in PE has not been greatly explored in the literature. Nor has teachers’ level of self-efficacy in providing adaptations to children with language disorders. The purpose of this study was to examine instructional adaptations …

Semantics-Driven Large-Scale 3d Scene Retrieval, Juefei Yuan

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Vision Based Activity Recognition Using Machine Learning And Deep Learning Architecture, Sarbagya Shakya

Dissertations

Human Activity recognition, with wide application in fields like video surveillance, sports, human interaction, elderly care has shown great influence in upbringing the standard of life of people. With the constant development of new architecture, models, and an increase in the computational capability of the system, the adoption of machine learning and deep learning for activity recognition has shown great improvement with high performance in recent years. My research goal in this thesis is to design and compare machine learning and deep learning models for activity recognition through videos collected from different media in the field of sports.

Human activity …

Honor And Duty: The Collegiate Education Of A Yeoman Farmer’S Son In Antebellum Mississippi, David Taylor

Dissertations

This endeavor reviews the mindsets and ideologies emerging from the South in the era known as "King Cotton," a time which predated the American Civil War and in which cotton was the primary export of the South. It is historically relevant to Higher Education in that it views this mindset through the eyes of young, white, single males and in particular, one male, a student of Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi. This description will focus on the years from 1850 to 1860 and this male population. This in no way degrades or neglects the contribution or inclusion of women in …

The Asymmetric Effect Of Sentiment On Equity Returns, Mishal Ahmed

Dissertations

In the first chapter titled “The Asymmetric Effect of Sentiment on U.S. Equity Returns”, we test the asymmetric impact of investor sentiment, proxied by the Baker-Wurgler (2007) investor sentiment index, on expected stock returns in the U.S. We regress sentiment on market and economy-wide fundamentals, use the residuals as a measure of excess sentiment and estimate long-horizon return regressions using positive and negative components of excess sentiment as predictors. We hypothesize that excessive optimism leads investors to make significant portfolio changes whereas excessive pessimism makes investors more cautious about investing, due to loss aversion. Primary results confirm our hypothesis with …