Digital Commons Network^™

Risky Business: Ceo Risk Tolerance And Non-Gaap Earnings, Johnna Murray

Dissertations

CEO influence on non-GAAP earnings is a growing area of research. Risk-taking by CEOs is one way to gauge the extent of CEO influence on firm outcomes, especially non-GAAP earnings. This research examines the association between CEO sports hobbies, a proxy for CEO risk-taking, and their company’s non-GAAP earnings. In addition to the risk-proclivity of the CEO, non-GAAP earnings are the result of firm size, equity, return on assets, and changes in revenue. The extent of CEO influence was evaluated by a regression analysis of non-GAAP earnings using firm characteristics with CEO risk-taking measures and control variables such as CEO …

A Magnet System Implementation Of The Hester Davis Fall Reduction Program, Debra A. Bauer

Dissertations

A Magnet-recognized academic hospital system experienced an increase in patient falls and patient falls with injury after transitioning to a new electronic health record. The purpose of the project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a system-wide quality improvement practice change. The practice-focused question addressed a Magnet model implementation of a standardized, system-wide, evidence-based Hester Davis Scale (HDS) fall risk assessment and intervention tool and the impact on the nursing-sensitive indicators of patient fall rates and fall rates with injury. Successful implementation and sustained, correct use of the HDS fall risk assessment and targeted fall-prevention-intervention tools added to the evidence …

Factors Affecting The Success And Persistence Of Pre-Nursing Students, Leslie A. Jennings

Dissertations

This article-based dissertation consists of two manuscripts related to factors affecting the success and persistence of pre-nursing students. The first manuscript was a matched cohort study that compared selected academic variables between two groups of pre-nursing students admitted to a pre-licensure baccalaureate nursing program via two different routes. The purpose of this study was to determine if there were any differences in academic performance between these two groups of students in the first semester of a formal nursing program. Analyses of the data revealed a difference in semester grade point average (GPA), but no significant differences in the RN Fundamentals …

A Delphi Study Of Effective Strategies For Addressing The Most Significant Challenges To Creating Gender-Balanced High School Career Technical Education (Cte) Pathways, Jon Black

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify what expert high school Career Technical Education (CTE) administrators see as challenges to creating gender-balanced classes across all high school CTE pathways, to rate the significance of the identified challenges according to the experts, and to describe the most effective strategies for addressing the five most significant challenges identified in creating balanced CTE enrollment across all high school pathways. Methodology: This study used a three-round Delphi method to collect data from expert high school CTE administrators. In Round 1, the expert panel was asked to identify challenges to creating gender-balanced …

With A Little Help At Home: The Impact Of Romantic Partner Support On Daily Burnout And Workplace Incivility, Matthew Aplin-Houtz

Dissertations

With rude and discourteous encounters in the workplace becoming more common, Workplace incivility (WI) is at an all-time high. As such, workers experience levels of burnout from these negative social interactions. The literature concedes that the results of these interactions lead to mounting burnout, causing negative physical and emotional outcomes at the individual and organizational levels. Considering that the literature also supports that employees have the potential to recover from burnout symptoms through rest, obtaining the perception of control of their circumstances, and cognitive reframing, the time and activities a worker spends at home carry the potential for minimizing burnout …

Assessment Of The Cultural Competence, Dementia Attitude, And Alzheimer's Disease Knowledge Among Tertiary Healthcare Providers, Jo Ann Pelaez-Fisher

Dissertations

Alzheimer's disease has made a significant impact on healthcare delivery in the acute care facilities. Tertiary healthcare providers are challenged by the needs of patients diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease while ensuring safe delivery of technical and specialized care in a fast-paced setting. There have been extensive research on informal caregivers and the consequences of providing care to patients with Alzheimer's disease. Few studies have queried tertiary healthcare providers and the influence of culture, attitude, or knowledge on Alzheimer's disease care. No study to date has investigated the elements of high quality Alzheimer's disease care which include cultural competence, positive attitudes, …

Healthcare Needs And Factors Related To Non-Use/Underutilization Of Veterans Healthcare Administration (Vha) Health Services Entitlements By Post 9/11 Women Veterans, Teresa A. Parsons

Dissertations

Women are the fastest growing population in the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA), but only in recent history. U.S. military shift to an All-Volunteer Force (AVF) in 1973 resulted in a dramatic spike in women serving in the military. During the transition from active military to Veteran status, Veterans are eligible to apply to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for benefits, including healthcare. In 2020, the VA estimated that over two million Women Veterans (WV) were living. The VA estimates the percentage of WV will rise to over 18% of all Veterans by 2046. In a report to Congress …

It Is What It Is...Enduring The Never-Ending: The Lived Experiences Of Parenting Adult Children With Developmental/Intellectual Disabilities, Siri Gurunam Kaur Khalsa

Dissertations

The parental home is the predominant place of residence for adults with developmental disabilities/ intellectual disabilities (DD/ID) (Heller et al., 2007). More than 75% of the adult population with DD/ID, living in the US, continue to have their basic needs provided by parents (Williamson & Perkins, 2014). This is based on the estimated statistic of 1.0 to 1.58% of the entire U.S. adult population has a developmental disability (Anderson et al., 2019; Fox et al., 2015). About 2.9 million adults with DD/ID live with a parent 55 years (Byun et al, 2006), with more than 25% of these parents older …

Feasibility Of A Telehealth-Delivered Breathing Intervention For Patients With Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, Aubree Carlson

Dissertations

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a debilitating chronic lung disease that affects approximately 100,000 individuals in the United States (US), with 30,000 to 40,000 new cases diagnosed each year. Dyspnea is experienced by 90% of patients with IPF and is correlated with reduced quality of life, anxiety, depression, and decreased survival time in this patient population. Breathing management techniques such as pursed lip and diaphragmatic breathing can reduce perceived dyspnea, however this symptom management strategy is not readily taught to patients outside of inpatient hospital settings and pulmonary rehabilitation programs, the latter of which only being accessed by 3% of …

Exploring Nurse Faculty Decisions Related To Virtual Simulation During A Global Pandemic: A Quantitative Descriptive Study, Karen Braccialarghe

Dissertations

This research evaluates academic nurse faculty' decisions while implementing virtual simulation as a teaching method before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Secondary purposes of this study were to explore nurse faculty perceptions of the effectiveness of virtual simulation, the barriers and challenges faced while implementing virtual simulation, and perceived effectiveness of student learning outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic while utilizing virtual simulation. A survey, the Virtual Simulation Implementation Evaluation Tool (Braccialarghe, 2021) was developed by the researcher to answer the research questions. The tool was sent to nine simulation experts to rate content validity.

A convenience sample of nurse faculty …

What’S The Big Fat Deal?: The Experience Of Fat Students In College, Andrea Marie Melrose

Dissertations

Weight-based discrimination is considered the last acceptable form of discrimination in the United States. Fat bias and stigma are present in healthcare, employment, and education. This dissertation study explores the experiences of fat students on college campuses, examining their experiences of anti-fat bias and discrimination. Additionally, this study explores policy and practice implications for improving the experiences of fat college students and supporting body diversity on campus. This dissertation has four overarching research questions that focus on the following topics: fat students’ experiences of weight-based stigma and discrimination in college, the limitations of physical space on college campuses, perceptions of …

Investigating The Differences Between Neuropsychological And Physiological Markers In A Ptsd-Only Group Among Vietnam Veterans, Ashtan Madsen

Dissertations

Individuals diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have demonstrated extinction-resistant symptoms and long-lasting impacts on the brain’s functional activity (Krystal et al., 2017; Stark et al., 2015). PTSD illustrates a strong relationship with cognitive functioning, and research has found lower parietal and hippocampal volume and deterioration in brain function and structure, resulting in executive dysfunction, attentional deficits, mood dysregulation, and memory difficulties (Krystal et al., 2017; Stark et al., 2015; Weiner et al. 2017). Sleep has been investigated to better understand its contribution to AD pathologies as well as its impact on PTSD treatment and prognosis. Although sleep’s functions are …

Predictors Of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy In Nfl Players: A Meta Analysis Review, Eisha Vora

Dissertations

Chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that emerges as a result of repetitive mild traumatic brain injury and has been studied within athletes of all sports. Repetitive blows to the brain are associated with many pathological changes and an emergence of tau pathology, all of which can lead to presentation with cognitive dysfunction, behavioral changes, and further motor decline in the later stages. After passing the inclusion criteria, a meta-analysis comprising four articles was computed using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis Version 3. Two hypotheses were examined: (a) the earlier the age of exposure to football, the greater the likelihood …

Advanced Traffic Video Analytics For Robust Traffic Accident Detection, Hadi Ghahremannezhad

Dissertations

Automatic traffic accident detection is an important task in traffic video analysis due to its key applications in developing intelligent transportation systems. Reducing the time delay between the occurrence of an accident and the dispatch of the first responders to the scene may help lower the mortality rate and save lives. Since 1980, many approaches have been presented for the automatic detection of incidents in traffic videos. In this dissertation, some challenging problems for accident detection in traffic videos are discussed and a new framework is presented in order to automatically detect single-vehicle and intersection traffic accidents in real-time.

First, …

Learning Representations For Effective And Explainable Software Bug Detection And Fixing, Yi Li

Dissertations

Software has an integral role in modern life; hence software bugs, which undermine software quality and reliability, have substantial societal and economic implications. The advent of machine learning and deep learning in software engineering has led to major advances in bug detection and fixing approaches, yet they fall short of desired precision and recall. This shortfall arises from the absence of a 'bridge,' known as learning code representations, that can transform information from source code into a suitable representation for effective processing via machine and deep learning.

This dissertation builds such a bridge. Specifically, it presents solutions for effectively learning …

Fortifying Robustness: Unveiling The Intricacies Of Training And Inference Vulnerabilities In Centralized And Federated Neural Networks, Guanxiong Liu

Dissertations

Neural network (NN) classifiers have gained significant traction in diverse domains such as natural language processing, computer vision, and cybersecurity, owing to their remarkable ability to approximate complex latent distributions from data. Nevertheless, the conventional assumption of an attack-free operating environment has been challenged by the emergence of adversarial examples. These perturbed samples, which are typically imperceptible to human observers, can lead to misclassifications by the NN classifiers. Moreover, recent studies have uncovered the ability of poisoned training data to generate Trojan backdoored classifiers that exhibit misclassification behavior triggered by predefined patterns.

In recent years, significant research efforts have been …

Program Analysis For Android Security And Reliability, Sydur Rahaman

Dissertations

The recent, widespread growth and adoption of mobile devices have revolutionized the way users interact with technology. As mobile apps have become increasingly prevalent, concerns regarding their security and reliability have gained significant attention. The ever-expanding mobile app ecosystem presents unique challenges in ensuring the protection of user data and maintaining app robustness. This dissertation expands the field of program analysis with techniques and abstractions tailored explicitly to enhancing Android security and reliability. This research introduces approaches for addressing critical issues related to sensitive information leakage, device and user fingerprinting, mobile medical score calculators, as well as termination-induced data loss. …

Colloidal Behavior Of Nanobubbles And Their Application In Enhancing Plant Growth: Mechanisms Of Nanobubble Interactions With Microbial And Soil Species, Shan Xue

Dissertations

Climate change has resulted in increasing uncertainties of water resources and disturbance on agricultural activities. For example, the shortage of water resources, land erosion and pollution from runoff significantly affect agricultural sustainability. This dissertation research focuses on the fundamental studies of nanobubble (NB) water and explores the benefits for irrigation to enhance plant germination and growth. Unlike bulk bubbles, NBs exhibit prolonged stability in water and possess large surface areas that facilitate efficient mass transfer and potential tailored reactions (e.g., disinfection). However, the enhancement mechanisms for NBs on seed germination and plant growth remain elusive.

This research first evaluated the …

Data-Driven 2d Materials Discovery For Next-Generation Electronics, Zeyu Zhang

Dissertations

The development of material discovery and design has lasted centuries in human history. After the concept of modern chemistry and material science was established, the strategy of material discovery relies on the experiments. Such a strategy becomes expensive and time-consuming with the increasing number of materials nowadays. Therefore, a novel strategy that is faster and more comprehensive is urgently needed. In this dissertation, an experiment-guided material discovery strategy is developed and explained using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) as instances. The advent of 7r-stacked layered MOFs, which offer electrical conductivity on top of permanent porosity and high surface area, opened up new …

Variable Resolution Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics Schemes For 2-D And 3-D Viscous Flows, Francesco Ricci

Dissertations

Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics (SPH) is a Lagrangian particle-based method for the numerical solution of the partial differential equations that govern the motion of fluids. The main aim of this thesis work is to better enable the applicability of SPH to problems involving multi-scale fluid dynamics. In the first part of the thesis, the capability of the SPH method to simulate three-dimensional isotropic turbulence is investigated with a detailed comparison of Lagrangian and Eulerian SPH formulations. The main reason for this first investigation is to provide an assessment of the error introduced by the particle disorder on the SPH discrete operators …

Local Labor Markets Exposure To Artificial Intelligence, Greg Call

Dissertations

As more evidence builds that artificial intelligence (AI) is a new general-purpose technology driving a fourth industrial revolution, scholars have begun to consider its potential impact on labor markets. The current debate among researchers is centered on whether AI will ultimately produce net new job gains or losses and what type of workers will benefit or be displaced. While no consensus has developed yet within the literature on AI’s predicted net employment impact, a majority of studies are forecasting that a skill-biased technological change will occur.

This exploratory study contributes to the current literature by operationalizing Webb’s objective patent-based AI …

Advocating For Social Change: How A Human Service Nonprofit Organization Makes Sense Of Its Advocacy Successes And Failures, Megan Pontes

Dissertations

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are uniquely positioned to play a vital role in social change, and many integrate advocacy in their efforts. This dissertation examined how one human service nonprofit organization working to help the unhoused engaged in advocacy and advocacy evaluation using formal and informal methods. Through an in-depth case study of Think Dignity, a San Diego-based NPO engaged in the day-to-day work of social change, this research revealed how it developed its advocacy efforts, collaborated with partners, and assessed its successes and failures. Informed by the framework of social change leadership, the researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with Think Dignity. …

Assessing Threats To Plant Populations: Linking Pollinator Differences To Patterns Of Plant Fitness And Population Genetics, Rieka Yu

Dissertations

Land use change is a major driver of biodiversity loss and consequently has led to the loss of genetic diversity in many plant populations due to declines in population sizes and an increase in spatial isolation. However, not all plant populations respond similarly to land-use change, suggesting there are additional mechanisms mediating plant population genetic patterns. Here, I examine the role of pollinators as this mediating factor. In Chapter 1 I conducted a meta-analysis to investigate how different types of pollinators drive changes in gene flow for plant populations in disturbed habitats, finding that different types of pollinators mediate different …

A Correlational Study Of Work Environment Factors And Organizational Commitment In Southern California Staff Nurses, Rosemary Haggins

Dissertations

The main purpose of this quantitative, correlational study was to examine the association between work environment factors and organizational commitment in staff nurses working in southern California hospitals. Data were generated from 136 of the 205 (66%) purposely selected nurses attending a Sigma Theta Tau research conference.

Successfully Scaling Digital Technology Ventures: An Empirical Study Of The Strategic Choices That Maximize Firm Value, Scott Morris

Dissertations

Our study aims to understand the choices managers working for subscription-based digital ventures must make at arguably the most critical juncture of their firm’s lifecycle. With few slack resources to repair mistakes, managers at these scaling firms must make decisions that are larger in scope and scale than in the start-up phase. Tradeoffs are often required as decision-makers face choices such as investing more resources in sales and marketing to drive growth or in product development to improve quality and add new products or features. In many instances, the question is whether to forego some growth opportunities to maximize profitability …

Exploring Relationships Between Practicing Registered Nurses (Rns) Pharmacology Knowledge And Medication Errors, Coleen Kumar

Dissertations

Medication errors result in significant negative patient outcomes and major costs to the health care system. Registered nurses (RNs) assume a major role in the medication administration process demanding high-level knowledge and skills.

This study aimed to determine if there was a relationship between practicing RNs' pharmacology knowledge and medication error occurrence.

Teaching Professional Accountability In Nursing: A Phenomenological Investigation Of Faculty Experiences, Lorretta C. Krautscheid

Dissertations

Professional nursing organizations and nursing education credentialing agencies describe accountability as an essential attribute underpinning professional practice. Although accountability is foundational to nursing practice, little is known about how nurse educators teach accountability. The purpose of this qualitative research was to understand and describe socially constructed meanings nurse educators attribute to the phenomenon of teaching accountability. This study brought out of concealment the real-world teaching experiences of nurse educators. Participants (n=6) were nurse educators who taught accountability in baccalaureate academic classrooms. Data collection occurred via face-to-face semi-structured interviews. An interpretive phenomenological design was utilized throughout data collection and …

Implementation Of A Cauti Toolkit For Hospitalized Patients, Barbara Mauger

Dissertations

Catheter-associated urinary tract (CAUTI) infections can be a serious complication during a hospital stay. The project site noted a lack of an evidence based intervention for CAUTI prevention and a solution was sought. The purpose of this quantitative quasi-experimental quality improvement project was to determine if the implementation of the translation of the research by Gould et al. using the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's Guideline for Prevention of Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections would impact the number of CAUTIs among hospitalized adult patients. The project took place in an acute care hospital intensive care unit in urban California over …

Baccalaureate Nursing Student And Faculty Views Of Effective Teaching, Kelley Noll

Dissertations

This study aimed to determine baccalaureate nursing student and nursing faculty views of effective teaching. Using the Teacher Behavior Checklist (TBC), a psychometrically sound tool, participants were sent an email containing a link to an online survey (Keeley, Smith, & Buskist, 2006). Baccalaureate nursing students (n=353) and nursing faculty (n=26) were sent the email with a response rate of 25.2% (n=89) and 69.2% (n=18) respectively. Participants were asked to rank order the top 10 qualities and associated behaviors they perceived as effective to nursing education.

Planned Happenstance: Career Decision Making And Executive Leaders In The California Community College System, Rita Soultanian

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how community college leaders responded to unpredictable events and opportunities that affected their career decisions using the five elements of planned happenstance theory (Mitchell et al., 1999). A second purpose was to understand how California community college leaders perceived that career planning enhanced or hindered their career decision-making. A further purpose was to identify recommendations community college leaders believed will advance the career trajectories of future leaders.

Methodology: This study used a qualitative approach to understand the lived experiences of vice presidents of student services to provide insights to inform …