Digital Commons Network^™

An Exploration Of Sleep Experiences Among Family Caregivers Of Older Adults With Alzheimer’S And Related Diseases, Caroline Bollettiero

Dissertations

As we age our sleep experiences decline in quality and our sleep disturbances increase with chances of full effective sleep diminishing. Older adults do not sleep as well as younger adults, with many older adults lacking an effective circadian rhythm. This lack of a proper circadian rhythm has been known to affect cognition and cause an increase in memory impairment. For older adults (OA) with Alzheimer’s and related disorders (AD) poor sleep affects not only their memory impairment and cognition but often impacts family caregivers (FGCs) sleep experiences. FCGs of community dwelling OA with AD are faced with a variety …

Evolution Of A New Strategic Orientation In The Ai Era: Exploring The Determinants Of Ai Orientation, Sreelakshmy Geethakumari

Dissertations

The field of AI has undergone significant evolution over the past few decades. While AI is heralded as one of the most transformative technologies, scholars caution that its strategic impact may still not be fully realized. Given the strategic importance of AI in today's firms, it is essential to consider AI as a strategic orientation and understand its determinants in detail. Our study examines AI Orientation, defined as a firm's deliberate application of AI technologies to achieve its strategic objectives. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, this study investigates the determinants that shape a firm’s AI orientation. This study employs a …

Enhancing Early Sepsis Detection: Outcomes Of An Educational Program In An Emergency Department, Courtney Mettes

Dissertations

Systemic inflammatory response syndrome progressing to sepsis presents a significant challenge in emergency departments (ED), where delayed recognition and treatment increase morbidity, mortality, and costs. This project evaluated whether implementing the Evaluation for Severe Sepsis Screening Tool (SSST) alongside an existing sepsis best practice advisory (BPA) could reduce the interval from sepsis BPA alert to initiation of lab work and treatment in adult patients (18 years and older). A quasi-experimental design compared retrospective control data (n = 81, Group 1) with prospective project data (n = 34, Group 2) over eight weeks. ED nursing staff received specific education on …

Increasing Pediatric Hpv Vaccination Rates, Brooke A. Nicholas

Dissertations

Increasing Pediatric HPV Vaccination Rates

Abstract

Problem: The human papillomavirus (HPV) is a sexually transmitted infection that affects more than 80% of the population within the United States (Eisenhauer et al., 2020). HPV can develop into cervical, anogenital, and oropharyngeal cancers (Eisenhauer et al., 2020). About 4,000 individuals die from cervical cancer alone each year (O’Leary, 2022). The HPV vaccine, though recommended by the ACIP and AAP, is below national vaccination rates in comparison to other vaccines (O’Leary, 2022).

Methods: This quality improvement project is a non-randomized controlled trial that observed HPV vaccine dose completion rates for patients aged 9-14 …

Problems In Extremal Graph Theory And Spectral Graph Theory, Fareeha Jamal

Dissertations

Spectral graph theory is a subfield of algebraic graph theory that studies the matrices associated with graphs. It lives at the nexus of Linear Algebra and Combinatorics. Many intriguing results in the domains of Matrix Theory and Combinatorics have come from studying the eigenvalues of graph matrices; in fact, several open problems in both areas have been resolved. Beyond its theoretical appeal, spectral graph theory has found meaningful applications in theoretical chemistry, particularly in the mathematical classification of chemical graphs. These classifications underpin quantitative structure–property relationships (QSPRs), facilitating the prediction of physicochemical properties such as enthalpy of vaporization, molar refractivity, …

How Do Emirati University Students Develop Their Academic Biliteracy? A Mixed-Method Study, Eman Kamel Rababa

Dissertations

Framed by Hornberger’s continua of biliteracy model, this study investigated the developmental dynamics of academic biliteracy among Emirati university students. The research employed a sequential mixed-methods design, conducted across three public universities in the UAE. In the initial qualitative phase, interview data were collected from 30 students. Informed by these findings and the extant literature, a quantitative survey was then developed and administered to a sample of 299 students from various disciplines. The qualitative data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, while the quantitative data were examined using advanced statistical analyses, including structural equation modeling. Three primary themes emerged from …

Virtual Reality In Esl Teaching And Learning In A Hybrid Learning Environment In The United Arab Emirates, Basma Abdulla Abri

Dissertations

This study examines the impact of Virtual Reality (VR) on the oral proficiency of EFL learners in the UAE context, with exploring the instructors and students’ perspectives on using VR as a language learning tool. The study involved 44 Emirati higher education students enrolled in an English Communications Program divided into a control group using traditional methods, and an experimental group using VR tools for communicative activities. Data collection employed mixed-methods research through questionnaire surveys involving college students and interviews with EFL instructors over a ten-week period. According to the findings, the experimental group demonstrated higher oral proficiency than the …

Trustworthy Federated Learning Framework For Secure, Efficient, And Quality-Aware Distributed Ai, Asadullah Tariq

Dissertations

Federated Learning (FL) emerged as a significant advancement in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling collaborative model training across distributed devices while maintaining data privacy. As the importance of FL and its application in various areas increased, addressing trustworthiness issues in its various aspects became crucial. In the FL process, clients contribute updates computed on their local datasets, which the server aggregates to iteratively refine the global model. However, not all client data may be relevant to the learning objective, and incorporating updates from irrelevant data can harm the model's performance. The selection of training samples significantly impacts model …

Development And Characterization Of Sustainable Aluminum Metal Matrix Composites With Date Palm Agro-Residues As Reinforcement, Ansar Kareem

Dissertations

Aluminum Matrix Composites (AMCs) are extensively used in various industrial applications owing to their exceptional mechanical, material, and tribological properties. This led to the development of AMCs with every possible aluminum alloy as matrix, incorporated with various reinforcement materials to achieve desired material properties. There has been an increasing trend in the utilization of agricultural and industrial waste products as reinforcement material in AMCs. Date palm trees produce huge quantity of agricultural waste in different forms. Usually, these wastes are burned or disposed of in landfills which cause environmental pollution. Date palm agro-wastes can be incinerated to produce date palm …

Institutional Belonging And College Success In A Neoliberal Environment, Alicia C. Figueroa

Dissertations

As higher education evolves in response to various pressures, adult learner graduate students, particularly women who are mothers, find themselves navigating a complex landscape shaped by neoliberal ideals of belonging. This research aimed to explore the multifaceted notions of belonging within a neoliberal environment and provide insight into a growing sector of this college student population. The project sought to illuminate the unique experiences of female adult learner graduate students, especially mothers, as they increasingly return to college post-COVID-19. Employing a qualitative phenomenological research design, this study gathered diverse narratives from this sub-population. The methodology utilized purposeful sampling for semi-structured …

Exploring The Experience Of Nursing Students During Their Community Health Nursing Clinical Placement At Schools, Lina Ghosn Nouwayhed

Dissertations

Community health nursing is an exciting, challenging, and evolving field that creatively integrates various areas of nursing practice with public health knowledge (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2016). Learning in practical settings is invaluable for student nurses; that is why clinical placements account for 50% of nursing curriculum requirements (Henderson, 2011). At Makassed University of Beirut, the community nursing practicum takes place in schools, with school nurses serving as mentors during these placements.

This research study aims to:

• Explore the experiences of student nurses during community clinical practice.
• Develop guidelines to enhance learning during community clinical practice.

The study sample consisted of …

Ai-Enabled Multi-Layer Security Operations: A Combined Siem, Ids, And Threat Intelligence Model For Adaptive Cyber Defense, Mohamad Khayat

Dissertations

This dissertation presents a comprehensive framework for the evolution of Security Operation Centers (SOCs) through the integration of advanced artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, and optimization techniques. Motivated by the increasing complexity of cyber threats and the limitations of traditional reactive SOC strategies, this work begins with a systematic literature review that identifies critical gaps in current SOC operations. Based on these insights, a reference architecture is proposed to guide the integration of intelligent components into SOC environments. To address the challenge of secure and trustworthy information sharing, a blockchain-based threat intelligence platform is developed, leveraging Byzantine Fault Tolerance and Zero-Knowledge …

Analyzing Sea Level Rise Scenarios Impact On The Mobility, Infrastructures, Environment Of Abu Dhabi And Defining Solutions By Creating A Digital Twin Using Gis And Game Engine, Justine Sylviane Lucie Sarrau

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the potential impact of future sea level rise (SLR) scenarios on the city of Abu Dhabi. With climate change, many coastal towns are at risk of experiencing this type of natural hazard. Currently, no precise scenario simulations have been developed, mainly due to the use of low spatial resolution elevation data. Additionally, the difficulty in understanding the real impacts persists when analyses rely solely on traditional cartography and GIS methods. This dissertation aims to advance the field by offering a new approach, which involves creating a comprehensive dynamic 3D simulation with dynamic flowing water. This model, defined …

Jet Impingement And Vortex/Swirl Cooling Of Different Inlet And Outlet Geometrical Configurations For Turbine Blade Leading Edge Cooling, Irfan Ahmad Sheikh

Dissertations

Gas turbine blades operate in extreme environments, exposed directly to high-temperature combustion gases that cause severe thermal stresses, weaken material integrity, and may lead to structural failure. Proper cooling is crucial to lower blade temperatures, reduce thermal stresses, prevent failure, and improve overall engine efficiency. This work presents a detailed numerical study of various cooling configurations by applying two advanced leading-edge cooling methods, jet impingement and swirl cooling, across different inlet mass flow rates and jet Reynolds numbers (Rej) ranging from 1,000 to 20,000 to evaluate their cooling performance.

Several advanced leading-edge cooling configurations are proposed and compared with the …

Exploring The Relationships Between Childhood Emotional Neglect, Attachment, Perfectionism, And Adult Mental Health Struggles Across The Socioeconomic Spectrum, Jordan Biedrzycki

Dissertations

This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study investigated the associations between childhood emotional neglect, perfectionism, attachment insecurity, and internalizing symptoms (depression and anxiety) among adults from varying socioeconomic (SES) backgrounds. Participants (N = 210) aged 18 years or older completed five validated self-report instruments for the quantitative analyses and answered two optional open-ended questions that yielded qualitative data. Data from the self-report measures were analyzed using independent samples t-tests, linear regressions, and moderation analyses conducted with the PROCESS macro. Three hypotheses were tested in this study. First, participants from high-SES backgrounds reported experiencing emotional neglect more frequently than other maltreatment subtypes (t = …

Experiences With Social Media Social Comparison In Women Ages 18-28: A Qualitative Study, Olivia Oakley Dr.

Dissertations

This qualitative study aimed to understand young women’s experience using social media and their reported mental health connections, such as self-esteem and comparison. As inferred in recent research, a wide range of social media content is being produced and consumed, from promoting the “thin ideal” to newer campaigns advocating for body positivity (Cohen et al., 2019, Grabe et al., 2008; Groesz et al., 2002). In a time where there is so much online content to consume, it is important to continue to evaluate the lived experiences of those using social media. This phenomenological qualitative research captured the lived experiences of …

Understanding Middle Managers In Community Colleges, Mason Salazar

Dissertations

This dissertation explores the lived workplace experiences of non academic middle managers at community colleges, a group often overlooked in higher education research. Using a phenomenological approach, this study draws on semi-structured interviews with eleven directors and managers to highlight how these professionals navigate their campus environments, operational demands, and student needs. Framed by Max Weber’s theory of bureaucracy, the findings underscore the dual roles middle managers play, as organizational lynchpins and leaders and as advocates for students, all while operating within constrained organizational structures. Key themes include varied levels of institutional knowledge, differential access to professional development, and constrained …

Give People Money: The Effect Of Perceived Inequality In Everyday Life And Previous Cash-Transfer Programs On Support For Universal Basic Income, David Thomas Igliozzi

Dissertations

Economic inequality is a global concern with many adverse consequences for people across class divides. These consequences vary in scope—from negative effects on individual’s physical, mental, and social health to large-scale economic shifts which result from climate change (Galbraith & Hale, 2008; Hiesh & Pugh, 1993; Kaplan et al., 1996; La Ferrara & Alesina, 2000; Solt, 2008; Vilhjalmsdottir et al., 2016; Wilkinson & Pickett, 2007). Policy solutions meant to address the negative effects of economic inequality include government redistribution of wealth. Universal Basic Income (UBI), a specific and actionable policy of government redistribution, is a promising method of economic inequality …

Cyclical Matters: Black Labor, Temporality, And The Incomplete Reconstructions Within African American Literature, Courtney Walton

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role literature plays in understanding black life post-reconstruction and post-civil rights movement. Specifically, I explore the continuation of injustices and mistreatment for black workers, the role black labor plays during the first and second post-reconstructions, and how literature can be used in framing this discussion. The similarities between these periods help us to better understand the cycle of racist societal expectations and the challenges black workers face integrating into society, discriminatory mandates required of black workers, the unfair job market, and forced labor. These periods interact cyclically in that the second post-reconstruction models the first post-reconstruction. …

“The Wonderful Swiftness Of The Soul”: Mental Movement And Religious Ethics In Medieval English Literature, Abigail Palmisano

Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes conceptual metaphors of psychological motion and stability in medieval English religious literature. I trace how language itself structures cultural approaches to epistemology, spiritual knowing, and virtue. Chapter One examines Alfred’s translation of Neoplatonic metaphors of psychological movement in the OE translations of The Consolation of Philosophy and Augustine’s Soliloquies. I argue that the reconfiguration of these metaphors into images of stability reveals an epistemology centered on certainty. Chapter Two compares the omission of motive psychological metaphor in Cynewulf’s Juliana and Ælfric’s “St. Agatha and St. Lucy” in process of translation. While Cynewulf’s depiction of virtue through stability …

Instrument Development And Psychometric Testing Of The Capstone-Experience Preceptor Preparedness Scale: The Cap-Express Study, Lisa Eyring Guthrie

Dissertations

Preceptors are relied upon to prepare nursing students during their capstone experience as novice, generalist nurses. There is currently no instrument that measures the preceptor’s level of preparedness. The purpose of this study was to psychometrically test a 67-item instrument, the Cap-ExPresS developed during a pilot study, which evaluated the level of self-perceived confidence preceptors reported when working with capstone students.

The Development And Validation Of The Measure Of Critical Reflection, Yea Jin Chang

Dissertations

Critical reflection, a component of critical consciousness, is defined as a metacognitive ability that is engaged when identifying, critiquing, and transforming social oppression. This study developed and validated the Measure of Critical Reflection, with items that assess participants’ cognitive ability to critically reflect and are framed to be generalizable across time and social contexts. Items were generated through literature review and interviews with critical consciousness educators and data was collected across two samples for factor structure analysis (N = 300) and replication and validation (N = 286). Results confirmed that a unidimensional model was most appropriate to represent the data …

The Social Aesthetics Of Recognition, Italo Alves

Dissertations

The history of social philosophy is a history of suspicion toward the aesthetic (1). However, since we apprehend social reality fundamentally through its aesthetic appearances, an account is needed of how “the aesthetic” must enter the social-philosophical discourse, particularly in reconstructive models of social critique. I call this account “social aesthetics.” Social aesthetics illuminates how certain social experiences generate normative claims even in the lack of discursive articulation. (2) I argue that the philosophy of recognition, concerned with this relationship between social experience and normative claim-making, contains an unacknowledged aesthetic dimension, which I uncover through a critical reading of Axel …

“This Is The Job Now”: A Phenomenological Study Of Meaning Making In University Faculty Regarding Role Expectations In Response To Student Crises, Leslie Watland

Dissertations

In recent years, faculty members in higher education found themselves at the intersection of rising student mental health concerns and increasing institutional expectations regarding student support. While universities traditionally framed faculty as educators and researchers, faculty roles now require engagement in emotional labor and crisis management—often without corresponding training. This dissertation explores how instructors at one university navigate these expanding expectations, examining their self-understanding, institutional positioning, and the broader implications of compliance care work. Compliance care work is a term developed in this study to describe the bureaucratization of faculty involvement in student well-being. It is an institutionalized response to …

More Than Trauma: The Story Of Intergenerational Survival, Tiffany Fang

Dissertations

Parental trauma can have a profound effect on children. The process of passing along traumatic experiences, known as the intergenerational transmission of trauma (IGT) and the process of passing along adaptations to these adverse circumstances, known as the intergenerational transmission of resilience (IGR), have been explored in populations such as survivors of the Holocaust and war refugees (Danieli et al., 2017; Kellermann, 2001; Sangalang & Vang, 2017). This study sought to extend findings to Chinese American immigrant families, many of whom experienced trauma in the form of war, sociopolitical violence, and poverty in 20th-century China. Despite the presence of these …

Exploring General Education Teachers' Awareness Of Ableism In Elementary School, Hana Elizabeth Polachek

Dissertations

Ableism, or prejudice and discrimination on the basis of dis/ability is of growing interest to both practitioners and researchers (Branco et al., 2019; Friedman & Awsumb, 2019). In the United States, there are federal laws that protect public education as a fundamental right regardless of a student’s ability status. Prior researchers found that educators can hold biases with respect to a student’s disability label (Bassey et al., 2020; Donohue & Bornman, 2015; Freer, 2018; Gifford & Knott, 2016; Ko & Boswell, 2013; Lucas, et al., 2009; Nah & Tan, 2021; Pachiţa & Gherguţ, 2021; Röhm et al., 2022; Wüthrich & …

Adolescent Social Media Use And Complete Mental Health: Examining The Intersections Of Identity, Social-Emotional Skills, And Social Support, Reese Hyzer

Dissertations

Social media and technology use have become ubiquitous for today’s adolescents. With the rise in technology use, mental health disorder diagnoses have also increased. Despite the increase in concern for both adolescent social media use and mental health, many schools, parents, and youth service clinicians do not have the knowledge or resources to intervene effectively. The current study explores two research questions. The first is to evaluate the moderating effect of social-emotional skills and social support on the relationship between social media use and mental health through structural equation modeling (SEM). The second research question is to explore whether this …

Perverse Convergences: Aelred Of Rievaulx And The Queerness Of Waiting, Zaccary A. Haney

Dissertations

ABSTRACT Using Aelred of Rievaulx’s (1110-1167) treatise Spiritual Friendship and his fundamental insight, “God is friendship,” this dissertation seeks to understand how the divine arrives woven into the dynamics of human relationships. I bring together social media research, critical theories of language, queer phenomenology, queer temporalities, and liberation theologies into a cross-temporal erotic narrative between Aelred and me. The first part establishes the imaginative distemporal space of Sodom, based on a shared homosexual identity. It critiques historical and theological disciplines as familiarizing discourses that compel arrivals of the other through structures authentication and the social magic of professionalization. In the …

The Influence Of Defects: Oxidation Of Non-Planar Transition Metal Model Catalysts, Maxwell Gillum

Dissertations

Metal-catalyzed oxidation reactions are a major application of heterogeneous catalysis and are a widely applied synthetic route for the production of chemicals and reagents essential to modern society. However, as the intricacies of heterogeneous surface catalysis are slowly being unraveled, minute details of the catalytic environment have been revealed to play outsized roles in the catalytic activity of the surface. The experiments herein further investigate the interplay between surface geometry and the formation oxygen-induced surface structures. Understanding how defects influence surface reactivity is a necessary step in gaining the ability to accurately model heterogeneous catalytic environments. Two different aspects of …

Special Education Disproportionality In Illinois: What Are We Doing?, Kaelyn Chanel Green

Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined special education disproportionality in Illinois to determine current trends, root causes, and responses to significant disproportionality as reflected in Comprehensive Coordinated Early Intervening Services (CCEIS) plans. Quantitatively, repeated measures analyses of risk ratios over a five-year span revealed that although many districts had reduced overall risk ratios, racial and disability-based disparities persisted. Qualitatively, inductive content analysis of 32 CCEIS plans identified four primary root causes—deficiencies in Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) and Response to Intervention (RTI), inadequate Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) supports, cultural and linguistic barriers, and vague or misaligned problem statements. Most action plans …