Digital Commons Network^™

Perceived Discrimination Within The Patient-Provider Relationship And Its Impact On Help-Seeking Behaviors, Lechey S. Hibbler

Dissertations

Racial and ethnic minorities have faced discrimination for hundreds of years. When patients experience discrimination in healthcare settings, help-seeking behaviors decrease. Many patients choose to refrain from seeking treatment until their psychological or physical health issues are unmanageable, often resulting in acute visits to the emergency department. Patients that have experienced previous discriminatory encounters with health care providers are more likely to choose not to seek help for physical or mental health concerns, resulting in overall poorer physical health and mental health outcomes. With the use of critical evaluation of previous studies, this paper has demonstrated that perceived discrimination negatively …

The Impact Of The Transgenerational Cycle Of Prison On Attachment Among Black Individuals, Meagan Scott

Dissertations

This empirical study assessed the impact of incarceration on an individual’s attachment style and explored protective factors that moderate these overall outcomes. The study sought to answer the following questions: (a) Are there differences related to the gender of Black participants and the gender of their incarcerated parent? and (b) Will affective expression and/or sense of community serve as protective factors and mediate the attachment style of Black individuals who have been incarcerated? The sample consisted of 98 adults (45 of whom indicated being a part of the transgenerational cycle of prison) ranging from 18 to 68 years old. Participants …

Respecting The Spectrum: Creating A Gender Inclusive Structured Diagnostic Intake Interview, Natalia Andino-Rivera

Dissertations

Transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people, more than ever, are in need of and actively seeking out services in order to cope with the reality of being transgender in the United States. This includes requiring assistance from local and federal governmental systems that do not provide protections for equal housing, workplace discrimination, and healthcare provisions, much less hate crime investigation and prosecution. In 2011, 75% of transgender people were or had been in therapy in the past, with a further 14% intending to participate in therapy in the future. Recently, the newly elected President Joseph Biden issued an executive order (EO) …

Positive Symptoms Of Schizophrenia And Suicide: A Systematic Review Of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, And Premorbid Iq Variables, Susan Diann Paschall

Dissertations

Schizophrenia is an exceptionally debilitating mental disorder. Its effects permeate all facets of psychosocial functioning and it is associated with premature mortality. As such, suicide is of clinical concern. Positive symptoms such as hallucinations and delusions may influence the risk of suicide among individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, but additional research is necessary, as the limited literature on this topic is dated and includes heterogeneous results. Early recognition of and intervention for suicide risk factors, such as the presence of positive symptoms of psychosis, may reduce mortality rates for individuals with schizophrenia. The present literature review examined the role of gender, …

A Psychological Perspective On Police Brutality: Current Statistics, Characteristics, And Trends Regarding Excessive Use Of Force, Ashley Salter

Dissertations

The purpose of this literature review was to utilize a psychological perspective on police brutality to identify current statistics, characteristics, and trends concerning excessive use of force. There were four fundamental goals of this literature review: (a) examine current statistics, characteristics, and trends regarding excessive use of force by law enforcement officers; (b) examine which populations are most likely to suffer from excessive use of force; (c) examine current methods in training law enforcement officers; and (d) propose a new model for training law enforcement officers. Also included is a discussion of a proposed idea for the training of police …

Colombian Women’S Experiences Of Cosmetic Surgery And Its Relationship To Body Image, Austin Gonzalez-Randolph

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand women’s experiences of cosmetic surgery and its effects on body image on women from the Colombian cities of Bogotá and Pereira. The participants of this study were women of Colombian descent, who reside in Colombia. This was done with the hopes of better understanding how culture impacts views on cosmetic surgery. Colombia appears to have a culture that is very enmeshed with cosmetic surgery. This study provides an initial exploratory and qualitative investigation into the perception of body image as it relates to cosmetic surgery among six young women living in Colombia; …

The Impact Of School Socioeconomic Status On The Effectiveness Of A Statewide Principal Mentoring Program, Michael Portwood

Dissertations

The professional demands on today’s school principal are varied and expansive, and as a result, relevant training and preparation is of utmost importance. Because of these rising demands, principal turnover is not uncommon, especially in low-SES schools. Formalized and strategic principal mentoring, however, has been shown to reduce principal attrition, keeping leaders in their roles and contributing to increased student achievement. This quantitative study examined the responses from school leaders on their experiences in a statewide principal mentoring program and analyzed the connection, in relation to their administrative peers, between their experience as a protégé and their status as a …

Examining Therapist Experience With Resistant Clients, Elisha Ibebunjo

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study involved an exploration of the lived experiences of 10 licensed therapists with substantial encounters with resistant clients. The phenomenon under investigation is relevant to those working in the mental health industry because resistance in psychotherapy is a common challenge. It is not a matter of if a therapist will encounter resistant clients, it is a matter of when. The goal in this qualitative study was to discover how the 10 participants, all of whom were experienced therapists, navigated through resistance; to identify the methods and procedures they used; and to compile their successful approaches and methods …

Increasing Strategies And Programs For The Retention And Graduation Of Black Undergraduate Students At The University Of Central Florida, Carla Sorrells Morris

Dissertations

Abstract of Dissertation

Increasing Strategies and Programs for the Retention and Graduation of Black Undergraduate Students at the University of Central Florida

This study aims to expand the knowledge and understanding of retention and persistence opportunities for Black students at the University of Central Florida. Qualitative research and data were collected and analyzed on six minority students at UCF. The study discovered academic, social, and cultural factors that affect Black undergraduate students' retention, persistence, and graduation at the University of Central Florida.

Analysis of the data revealed the need for minority students to access academic strategies and participate in intervention …

Leader Development Of The Health Information Management (Him) Professional, Theresa Jones

Dissertations

This study contributes to the body of knowledge in leader development by examining how higher education programs in a female dominated profession assist learners in developing person-related characteristics that support leader development. A ten-part online survey was sent to directors of health information management (HIM) programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management (CAHIIM). Results suggest an opportunity for improvement in the curriculum for development of person-related characteristics critical for leadership positions. In the interest of the progression of women these results should be taken into consideration.

The Latina Graduate Experience At Hispanic Serving Institutions, Melanie Flores

Dissertations

Hispanic Serving Institutions are designated as such as a result of meeting the minimum enrollment of 25% full-time, undergraduate Hispanic identifying student enrollment. Though this designation is met solely through undergraduate enrollment, there is a need for services and programming to be expanded to graduate students. This study explores the experiences of Latina graduate students at Hispanic Serving Institutions with the purpose of understanding what support participants needed to persist and succeed and what HSIs are or should be doing to better to increase student outcomes and create a culturally engaging campus community.

Optical Engineering Of Iii-Nitride Nanowire Light-Emitting Diodes And Applications, Ha Quoc Thang Bui

Dissertations

Applications of III-nitride nanowires are intensively explored in different emerging technologies including light-emitting diodes (LEDs), laser diodes, photodiodes, biosensors, and solar cells. The synthesis of the III-nitride nanowires by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) is investigated with significant achievements. III-nitride nanowires can be grown on dissimilar substrates i.e., silicon with nearly dislocation free due to the effective strain relaxation. III-nitride nanowires, therefore, are perfectly suited for high performance light emitters for cost-effective fabrication of the advanced photonic-electronic integrated platforms. This dissertation addresses the design, fabrication, and characterization of III-nitride nanowire full-color micro-LED (µLED) on silicon substrates for µLED display technologies, high-efficient …

Selective Neural Stimulation By Leveraging Electrophysiological Diversity And Using Alternative Stimulus Waveforms, Bemin Ghobreal

Dissertations

Efforts on finding the principle mechanism for selective neural stimulation have concentrated on segregating the neurons based on their size and other geometric factors. However, neuronal subtypes found in different parts of the nervous system also differ in their electrophysiological properties. The primary objective of this study is to investigate the feasibility of selective activation of neurons by leveraging the diversity seen in passive and active membrane properties.

Using both a local membrane model and an axon model based on the CRRSS, the diversity of electrophysiological properties is simulated by varying four model parameters (membrane leakage-Gleak and capacitance-Cm, temperature coefficient-Ktemp, …

Methods For Extending Biomedical Reference Ontologies And Interface Terminologies For Ehrr Text Annotation, Vipina Kuttichi Keloth

Dissertations

Biomedical ontologies and terminologies are a cornerstone in various electronic health record systems (EHRs) for encoding information related to diseases, diagnoses, treatments, etc. Ontologies in general represent entities (concepts) and events along with all interdependent properties and relationships in an efficient way to facilitate easy access, retrieval and sharing. With the landscape of medicine rapidly changing, biomedical ontologies and terminologies need to rapidly evolve to support interoperability, medical coding, record keeping, and healthcare activities in general, and to facilitate interdisciplinary research. Extending ontologies by identifying new and missing concepts plays a vital role in the maintenance of ontologies to keep …

Development Of Deep Learning Neural Network For Ecological And Medical Images, Shaobo Liu

Dissertations

Deep learning in computer vision and image processing has attracted attentions from various fields including ecology and medical image. Ecologists are interested in finding an effective model structure to classify different species. Tradition deep learning model use a convolutional neural network, such as LeNet, AlexNet, VGG models, residual neural network, and inception models, are first used on classifying bee wing and butterfly datasets. However, insufficient data sample and unbalanced samples in each class have caused a poor accuracy. To make improvement the test accuracy, data augmentation and transfer learning are applied. Recently developed deep learning framework based on mathematical morphology …

Optimizing Work Zone Schedules Considering Traffic Diversion With Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm, Celina Semaan

Dissertations

Highway maintenance activities often decrease roadway capacity and intrude traffic movements. The need to finish the project on time and under a specific budget while minimizing the traffic congestion and complying with the emission standards requires an appropriate work zone schedule optimization. The objective of this research is to improve the efficiency of work zone activities and minimize the total project cost including maintenance, user, and emission cost.

While previous studies investigated the work zone optimization problem, they did not consider the implementation of emission standards nor applied a green diversion strategy. This dissertation analyzes the optimization of work zone …

Service Quality Assessment And Improvement Methods And Tools, Kevin M. Moriarty

Dissertations

The nucleus of this research concept and system is being applied to turret lathe and milling machine Computer Numerical Control (CNC) tool systems. The research has a generic application to the service of broad array of sophisticated computer controlled / integrated machines, devices / equipment such as industrial robotics, medical equipment, surgical robots, and similar types of engineered system. Quality design review for quality service systems is a unique concept. Standard product service systems are qualitative and subjective in nature. The quantitative system identifies Key Predictive Attributes (KPAs) and applies quantitative methods to these attributes to develop a systematic process …

Plant-Derived Extracellular Matrix Mimetic Scaffolds For Bone Repair Applications, Jessica Cardenas Turner

Dissertations

Autologous and allogeneic bone grafts are currently used to treat large bone defects or fractures that will not heal. However, for patients with osteoporosis or other conditions that impair the natural bone healing process, such as diabetes, smoking, bed rest, aging, autologous bone graft, which is the patient's own bone, is limited in quantity and its healing potential may be compromised. Allograft bone, or donated bone, lacks the necessary biological activity and has poor integration into defect. There is an urgent need for constructs/grafts capable of promoting bone cell function in fracture healing and large bone defects where the endogenous …

Controlled Reduction Of Graphene Oxide And Graphene Oxide-Carbon Nanotube Hybrids And Their Applications, Samar Azizighannad

Dissertations

Graphene and graphene derivatives are widely used in diverse research and industrial applications. Graphene production on a large scale is carried out by exfoliating graphite oxide and producing graphene oxide (GO), which comprises of graphene sheets with different oxygen-containing functional groups such as hydroxyl, carboxyl, and carbonyl. GO is reduced to reduced graphene oxide (rGO), which has properties that are closer to graphene. Properties of GO and rGO depend upon the oxygen content, and the effect of reducing oxygen content on the aqueous behavior of rGOs is not well understood.

In an effort to understand how properties of rGO change …

Using Fnirs As An Objective Measure Of Susceptibility To Informational Masking, Min Zhang

Dissertations

Resolving complicated auditory scenes is crucial for daily communication where background sound is often present. However, most hearing aid (HA) and cochlear implant (CI) users have difficulties understanding speech when competing sound sources are present, resulting in reduced job opportunities and increased risk for social isolation. Perceptual interference from background sound is called auditory masking. At least two distinct masking phenomena exist, called energetic and informational masking (EM and IM).

In the first masking phenomenon, EM, target and masker energies coincide at the same time and frequency. Computational and physiological models of cochlear auditory processing can reliably predict listeners' performances …

How Does The Market View Share Repurchases: Five Possible Book Values In The Fama-French 3 Factor Model, Jaime Peters

Dissertations

Share repurchase activity has grown significantly over the past twenty years and has emerged as the most popular technique for returning cash to shareholders. Current U.S. generally accepted accounting principles treat share repurchases as a return of capital to shareholders, recording the repurchased shares at market prices and offsetting them against contributed capital accounts. This treatment reduces the recorded book value of the equity of companies. Of course, companies can reissue these shares to fulfill stock option contracts, as consideration in acquisitions, and/or in secondary offerings. These economically relevant uses of repurchased shares suggest that the market may treat share …

The Associations Of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors And Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women, Edna Esquer

Dissertations

The Associations of Chronic Stress, Social Support, Health Behaviors and Metabolic Syndrome Among Hispanic Women

Background: Metabolic syndrome (MetS) prevalence is 25% among Mexican American women 30 – 49 years of age, compared to 22% among non-Hispanic Whites in the United States. Little is known about the additional contributions of chronic stress, social support and health behaviors to the development of MetS among this population.

Purpose: Describe the associations between chronic stress, social support, and health behaviors and the presence of MetS in Hispanic women living in an underserved community.

Methods: A retrospective cohort study design. The Adult Treatment Panel …

Strategies For The Improvement Of Healthcare Through Simulation, Roger Lankheet

Dissertations

Title:Strategies for the improvement of healthcare through simulation

Background: Medical errors continue to plague the healthcare industry. The annual rates of morbidity are approximately 2.69 million (AHRQ, 2019), while mortality rates exceed 400,000 per annum (Makary & Daniel, 2016). There may be no panacea to combat these egregious rates. However, simulation of patient care events may better prepare healthcare professionals to prevent medical errors as it has been proven to be an effective learning strategy (Kirkham, 2018), enhancing skills while gaining experiential knowledge, without risk to actual patients.

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a …

Emergency Department Visits And Hospital Admissions For Adult Cancer Patients Post Outpatient Chemotherapy: Does The Oncology Nurse Navigator Make A Difference?, Sunny L. Stirling

Dissertations

Background: Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States and worldwide. Oncology related hospital visits account for over $88 billion annually; 35% of this cost is attributable to inpatient hospital stays even though most cancer treatments are given outpatient. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services introduced the Chemotherapy Measure which tracks Emergency Department visits and hospitalization within 30 days of any outpatient chemotherapy treatment. The Oncology Nurse Navigator (ONN) has offered some benefit in cancer care, but its role in ED visits and hospital admissions is unknown for adult patients with cancer post outpatient …

Food Insecure Copd Patients And Healthcare Utilization: A Retrospective Study, Kristine Mendoza

Dissertations

Abstract

Purposes/Aims: Despite advances in the recognition and treatment of high-cost users of health care, the incidence of healthcare utilization remains high. Rates of hospital admissions and emergency room visits among chronic disease like COPD have become a targeted group for health management. COPD patients have multiple and complex health and social needs, but the impact of their unmet food needs is not well understood and warrants further investigation. The purpose of this study is to explore the relationships between COPD food insecure patients and healthcare utilization in San Diego County.

Background/Rationale: Government programs targeting patients with high healthcare costs …

The Effects Of Academic Performance, Demographic Characteristics, Work, And Personal Experiences On Admissions To A Clinical Laboratory Science Training Program, Mara Williams

Dissertations

In this study, I sought to discover factors that contributed to candidate success in gaining admission to the San Jose State University Clinical Laboratory Scientist (CLS) Training Program. Social Cognitive Career Theory suggests that the interplay between an individual’s personal characteristics and life experiences lead to self-efficacy expectations, learning experiences, and goal setting which crystalizes their choice of career. To understand these phenomena in the context of CLS candidates, I used quantitative methods to explore the influence of race, gender, age, work, and personal experience on the probability of a candidate gaining an interview or placing for clinical internship in …

When Asca And Mtss Merge: A Case Study On Counselor Capacity And The Implementation And Monitoring Of Tier Two Interventions, Tram "Nikki" Dang

Dissertations

The national average student-to-counselor ratio is currently 477 students to one counselor; almost nearly double the 250:1 ratio that the ASCA National Model (2005) recommends. With the existing ratios as high as 1000 students per counselor, counselors and their respective counseling programs provide minimal impact (Carrell, S. E. & Carrell, S. A., 2006). In the Silicon Valley High School District (a pseudonym), high schools with high student-to-counselor ratios may result in subpopulations of students whose needs are not being served and or met. Although counselors express wanting to incorporate additional Tier Two interventions, counselor participants feel they do not have …

Unresolved Issue In Education: Disproportionate Disciplining Of Hispanic Students In Education, Richard Ruiz

Dissertations

The disproportionate disciplining of Hispanic students has been a reoccurring issue that has persisted for decades. With the rising Hispanic populations nationwide and in the state of California, this issue must be addressed. Therefore, to contribute to the scholarship of this phenomenon, the author critically examined teacher and administrator perceptions and attitudes about students who embody a stereotypical urban street subculture. The purpose of this convergent parallel mixed-methods study was to examine the interplay of race, cultural capital, community, and communication, with the disproportionate disciplining of Hispanic students in schools where they are a minority population. The findings of this …

Perceptions Of The Influence Of Cell Phones And Social Media Usage On Students’ Academic Performance, Anne Tran

Dissertations

Cell phones, ubiquitous in many high schools, are often credited with helpingstudents connect with people and learn new concept. However, literature indicates that problematic cell phone and social media usage are negatively associated with student academic performance and mental well-being. As cell phone technologies continue to evolve, they become an integral part of today’s learning environment. Through the use of the documentary exploratory research method, this dissertation investigates stakeholders’ perceptions of the influence of cell phone and social media usage on high school students’ academic performance. Additionally, this study explores the current policies and practices regarding cell phone use in …

An Evaluation Of Timing Of Discharge Instruction And The Impact On Patient Satisfaction, Donald L. Tanner

Dissertations

Ambulatory surgical patients face unique challenges with discharge instruction comprehension and retention. The volume of information provided to patients, frequently combined with sedatives and narcotics, leads to failure to retain this crucial information needed for home care. At one healthcare facility, this failure to retain was reflected in the Outpatient Ambulatory Surgery- Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (OAS-CAHPS) survey scores which were below the facility goal of 75th percentile nationally. This project implemented a preoperative teaching intervention to provide written and verbal discharge instructions in the preoperative area prior to the administration of anesthetic agents to improve patient …