Digital Commons Network^™

Disability Identity: An Investigation Of The Relationship Between Stigma, Quality Of Life, And Psychological Distress, Tyler Ray Anderson

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate disability identity and the role that it may play in moderating the effect of disability-related stigma on both quality of life and psychological distress among persons with disabilities (PWDs). With respect to this purpose, it was hypothesized that disability identity would significantly moderate both the relationship between disability-related stigma and quality of life and the relationship between disability-related stigma and psychological distress. Further, this study aimed to investigate various aspects specific to one's life experience that may impact the presence or absence of disability identity. To this regard, it was hypothesized that …

Lifetime Racism And John Henryism On Cognition And Cardiovascular Health In Black Men, Roy Mitchell

Dissertations

Lifetime racism is a type of chronic stress that is often accompanied by depression. Racism is the experience of many Black men because of several psychosocial stressors such as reduced resources and institutional barriers, to name a few. Active coping is typically utilized by Black men as a consistent means to reduce the negative outcomes linked to racism, however, this up-tempo coping style can contribute to poor cardiovascular health and cognitive impairment over time. The present study aimed to provide data to support the effects of lifetime racism and active coping on cardiovascular health and cognition. There were three hypotheses …

The Relationship Between The Quantum Consciousness And Depression, Yarone Grabiner

Dissertations

Depression is a prominent issue in mental health. This research will attempt to improve the quality of available therapies by offering additional helping options and introducing a new perception of depression. Different fields (psychology, quantum mechanics, and Kabbalah) have been integrated with data collection through personal interviews to support the research hypothesis. The subject sample consisted of five people with Kollel experience or similar educational experience in the present or in the past. All participants were orthodox Jewish men, 30 years old or older, married with children, with a high level of education. Participants presented attitudes, life conduct, and perceptions …

Trauma-Informed Acceptance And Commitment Therapy For Substance Abuse, Whitney Nasse

Dissertations

The high co-morbidity of trauma and substance use disorders has prompted the need for more trauma-informed care within the available substance abuse treatments. The purpose of this research was to dissect and identify the strengths of two empirically studied treatment approaches for trauma and substance abuse. Furthermore, a suggested protocol was defined, showing the integration of these two models as a proposed treatment modality for trauma and substance abuse populations. Implications and recommendations for further research on this topic are also highlighted.

Power, Privilege, And Permission: A Qualitative Study On The Perspectives Of Vocational Rehabilitation Counselors Who Serve Racially Diverse Clients, Cherrelle Singleton

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored the experiences of vocational rehabilitation counselors (VRC) serving racially diverse clients and how VRCs are trained and educated to work with racially diverse clients. VRCs are typically employed by federally funded state or federal rehabilitation agencies. In their role, they aim to provide individualized tools and services that empower people with disabilities by alleviating barriers to being successful when preparing for and maintaining employment and being independent in their adult life (Donnell et al., 2013). Often tasked to work with clients who have marginalized identities including race and disability, VRCs must be able to understand and …

Three Essays On Social Networks And Schools, Yunzheng Zheng

Dissertations

Researchers have been increasingly interested in the phenomenon of social networks in education, a research area that provides more opportunities to study the relationships among individuals or organizations in our educational system. The goal of this dissertation was to understand the effect of various social networks on outcomes by investigating various relationships in the educational system. To achieve the goal, three distinct, but related, essays comprised this dissertation.

In the first essay, I examined the effects of interschool networks on student achievement. By using the data collected from the High Impact Leadership (HIL) program and employing the hierarchical linear model …

A Brief Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Protocol For Alcohol Withdrawal Symptoms: A Randomized Controlled Trial For Inpatient Detoxification Patients, Taylor R. Weststrate

Dissertations

Alcohol detoxification inevitability involves physical and emotional discomfort. Common withdrawal symptoms include experiences of nausea, muscle pain, stomach and headaches, shakiness, restlessness, anxiety, and agitation. Rarer, but more severe, withdrawal symptoms can include hallucinations, seizures, and delirium tremens. Pharmacologic treatment of withdrawal symptoms is the primary, and often only, approach to intervention. The current study examined the incremental efficacy of adding a psychotherapeutic program based in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for individuals struggling with withdrawal during alcohol detoxification in a residential rehabilitation center. This study compared the standard of care, medication management, which was treatment as usual (TAU) at …

Pathways To Success For African American Students At Predominately White Institutions: A Qualitative Study Exploring Academic Readiness, Jeffery Jackson

Dissertations

African American students’ completion of post-secondary education is among the lowest of any other subgroup in higher education (Banks & Dohy, 2019; Broom, 2018; Carter- Francique et al., 2015; Cokley et al., 2016; Dulabaum, 2016; Karkouti, 2016; Moragne-Patterson & Barnett, 2017; Strayhorn, 2017). This study focuses on addressing this problem by exploring the academic and social experiences of African American college students who persisted at a regional predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Midwest and secure information that can be used to improve their graduation rates.

To address this issue, this study is designed to explore initiatives and practices that …

Studying The Synthesis Of 196Hg At Astrophysically Relevant Energies Through The Measurement Of Capture Reaction Cross-Sections Of (P, Γ) (P, N) And (P, Α) Reactions, Khushi Bhatt

Dissertations

Understanding the origin of all the chemical elements is an important question for the nuclear-astrophysics community. There are many unanswered questions like: What astrophysical events are responsible for the synthesis of what particular chemical elements? How many different elements were made in total? What is the abundance of each synthesized element? etc. Currently, scientists are largely depending upon theory and simulations to define nuclear and astrophysical reaction. This makes it critical to have accurate experimental nuclear physics data to input in astrophysical theoretical models. However, out of more than 20000 reactions involved in these calculations, only a very few are …

Peridynamic Modeling Of Crack Propagation In Brittle Materials With Electromechanical Coupling, Semsi Coskun

Dissertations

The bond-based peridynamics (BB-PD) is a widely used peridynamic model in the literature. Despite Poisson's ratio restriction, it still serves as a powerful tool to solve challenging engineering problems with a relatively cheap computational cost. Consider the Poisson ratio of the material does not deviate from the ones that BB-PD can model. In that case, it becomes advantageous to use the BB-PD compared to other PD models in terms of computational cost and simplicity. However, the BB-PD suffers from the so-called surface or skin effect where the material response at boundaries becomes softer than the bulk material points. As a …

Emotional Labor And New Independent School Heads, Seth William Yocum

Dissertations

The most important relationship to the life of an independent school has been the relationship between the head of school and the board of trustees. Still, most independent school heads have found that attending to their relationship with their board of trustees was one of the more challenging aspects of their work. Conventional wisdom and scholarship alike have suggested that this relationship could be especially trying for new independent school heads. The goal of this analytic autoethnographic study was to explore the performed emotional labor of new independent school heads in their relationship with their board of trustees during their …

Principals’ Definition And Identification Of Critical Thinking In Teacher Practices, Carmen Aumber Polka

Dissertations

Principals are teacher evaluators and, therefore, need a clear definition and identification of critical thinking in teacher practices to increase their impact on teacher effectiveness and student critical thinking outcomes. Beyond teacher evaluations, principals are responsible for supporting and developing teachers in their instructional practices (Davis et al., 2005) and for enhancing teachers’ pedagogical skills (Marzano et al., 2011). This instrumental case study explored how 12 principals, who use the Colorado State Model Evaluation System (CSMES) to evaluate critical thinking teacher practices, define critical thinking, and identify critical thinking utilized in teacher practices. Participants were purposefully selected from this Colorado …

Post 9/11 Military Spouse Caregivers: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study, Erin Mcevoy

Dissertations

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, the United States Armed Forces has been involved in military conflicts across the globe. Innovations in battlefield medicine have resulted in the highest battlefield survival rates that America has ever seen. Injured veterans are returning to their homes by the thousands, in need of daily caregiving that encompasses many domains of life. Many times, the spouses of these individuals answer the call and become primary caregivers for their injured servicemember partners. Taking on the identity of military spouse caregiver puts these individuals at increased risk of many physical and mental health concerns …

Lived Experience Of Reintegration Among Involuntarily Separated Operation Enduring Freedom (Oef) And Operation Iraqi Freedom (Oif) Era Veterans, Austin Deshon Hamilton

Dissertations

The present study is the first known attempt to explore what reintegration is like for those who separated from the military against their will. The primary purposes of this study were to (a) assist counseling psychologists, other mental health care providers and administrators who work with involuntarily separated veterans in better understanding the unique difficulties and psychological stressors associated with leaving the military community against one’s will; and (b) highlight potential barriers to accessing mental healthcare among involuntarily separated veterans. Finally, the secondary objective was to identify whether interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner 2005)-related constructs were present among this sample …

A Portraiture Of Two Tribal College Leaders, Jessica Jasmine Buckless

Dissertations

This study explored the lives and self-perceived impacts of two Tribal college presidents in a northwest state of the United States. This qualitative inquiry employed portraiture in which the researcher created a diverse range of stories curated through interviews, observations of participants, and artifacts to formulate a story of each participant’s life. This study shared the unique stories of each Tribal college leader. Their stories were captured through questions about their perspectives and how they felt that they had contributed to their respective colleges. In addition to how they had contributed culturally, follow-up questions addressed how they had attributed to …

Mild-Condition Fractionation Of Woody Biomass And Tandem Preservation Of Lignin And Carbohydrates, Danni Xie

Dissertations

Various fractionation processes like kraft, sulfite, and organosolv, usually need to be carried out in expensive reactors due to high temperatures (e.g., 160-260 °C) and high pressures (e.g., 5-50 atm). During fractionation, conventional chemicals such as mineral acids (e.g., sulfonic acid and hydrochloric acid), aliphatic organic acids (e.g., formic acid and oxalic acid) and alkalis (e.g., sodium hydroxide and potassium hydroxide) are typically used as catalysts, which could cause structural alterations or even losses to the fractionated components. Recently, aromatic sulfonic acids are expected to in situ solubilize the fractionated lignin through the pronounced hydrotropic effect during fractionation, besides acting …

Determining The Effectiveness Of Virtually-Delivered Written Exposure Therapy For Treatment Of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Stephanie M. Haft

Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted individuals with mental health issues (Swendsen, 2020). Although the peak destruction of the COVID-19 pandemic has passed, the psychological fallout remains. Social isolation, home confinement, and travel restrictions have exacerbated mental health issues during the COVID-19 pandemic, contributing to negative psychological distress (Smith et al., 2020). Survivors of trauma have higher vulnerability to prolonged psychological distress than the general population and others with non-trauma-related mental health conditions, which has been exacerbated during and following the COVID-19 pandemic. For these reasons, survivors of trauma may particularly benefit from virtual-delivery of trauma-focused treatments. Mental health providers …

Development Of Smart Wearable Sensory Systems On Flexible And Fabric Platforms For Health Monitoring Applications, Simin Masihi

Dissertations

Wearable sensing technology has recently received an increased attention in both research and commercialization phases and has moved from a vision of science fiction to reality with a wide variety of applications. This incredible growth can be attributed to several factors, such as affordability and ergonomics provided by advances in flexible electronics. The other factors that realized wearable sensing technology include a critical need for more accessible health care services experienced during the recent COVID pandemic, integration to the Internet of Things (IoT), and a growing consumer desire for health awareness. This dissertation presents the fulfillment of three main projects …

Probing The Equation Of State Of Neutron Stars With Heavy Ion Collisions, Om Bhadra Khanal

Dissertations

The equation of state (EOS) is a fundamental property of nuclear matter, important for studying the structure of systems as diverse as the atomic nucleus and the neutron star. Nuclear reactions, especially heavy-ion collisions in the laboratories, can produce the nuclear matter similar to those contained in neutron stars. The density and the momentum dependence of the EOS of asymmetric nuclear matter, especially the symmetry energy term, is widely unconstrained. Finding appropriate constrains, especially at higher densities of the nuclear matter, requires the development of new devices, new experimental measurements as well as advances in theoretical understanding of nuclear collisions …

Application Of Deep Learning For Medical Sciences And Epidemiology Data Analysis And Diagnostic Modeling, Somenath Chakraborty

Dissertations

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence have made significant progress concurrent with new advancements in hardware and software technologies. Deep learning methods heavily utilize parallel computing and Graphical Processing Units(GPU). It is already used in many applications ranging from image classification, object detection, segmentation, cyber security problems and others. Deep Learning is emerging as a viable choice in dealing with today’s real-time medical problems. We need new methods and technologies in the field of Medical Science and Epidemiology for detecting and diagnosing emerging threats from new viruses such as COVID-19. The use of Artificial Intelligence in these domains is becoming more …

Examining P3 And N2 Amplitudes Following Social Exclusion And Provocation In College Students With High And Low Narcissistic Traits, Kathleen Ramsey

Dissertations

Adults with narcissistic traits are prone to reacting aggressively following provocation due to elevations in emotional reactivity and perceived threat to their grandiose self-views. Prior studies have examined event-related potentials (ERPs) measures in college students with narcissistic traits in the context of risky decision making and facial emotion processing; however, no known studies have examined how those with narcissistic traits react to rejection and provocation at the neurophysiological level during an externally valid social rejection task (i.e., Cyberball). For the purposes of this study, it was predicted that participants with higher levels of narcissistic traits (both total narcissism and grandiose …

Using Nudges To Increase Engagement With Suicide Prevention Resources In An Online Sample Of United State Military Veterans, Brian W. Bauer

Dissertations

Suicide rates have continually increased from 1999 to 2019 in the United States, with populations such as military Veterans showing substantially higher suicide death and attempt rates than civilians. Behavioral economics researchers have demonstrated that people regularly make decisions that are not aligned with their own self-interests (i.e., irrational decisions). These irrational decisions often stem from humans having bounded rationality (i.e., limited computational power), which produce reliable cognitive biases that occur outside of people’s awareness and influence the decisions they make. There are many important decisions leading up to a suicide attempt (e.g., whether to engage with suicide prevention resources), …

Lived Experiences Of Male Nursing Students With Caring, Patricia J. Hedrick Young

Dissertations

Fifteen male nursing students from four baccalaureate nursing schools in West Virginia participated in this phenomenological study. The phenomena of interest was the lived experiences of male student nurses related to caring. Demographic data was obtained in the interview process. Semistructured interview questions were used in the individual interviews, which were all audiotaped. The methodology used was based on the Swanson-Kauffman and Schonwald method, which entailed the four step process of bracketing, analyzing, intuiting, and describing.

The Covid-19 Experience: An Intensive Care Nursing Perspective, Adrianna L. Watson

Dissertations

In December 2019, a new virus reared its head and within a matter of months demanded the attention of the world as health care was challenged to full capacity. Frontline healthcare workers struggled to care for the patient after patient with limited knowledge of pathophysiology, risk of contagion, and resources. As the waves of patients became increasingly critical, the task of everyday human connection and care, as well as extraordinary life-saving measures, fell upon the shoulders of intensive care nurses. Little is known about how these nurses understand their experiences caring for patients with the novel coronavirus, or how their …

The Effect Of A Specific Teaching Intervention On The Perceptions Of Self-Regulation In Undergraduate Baccalaureate Nursing Students In Saudi Arabia, Zahra Alnasser

Dissertations

Self-regulation is an important aspect of learning. Students who are capable of self-regulation, plan self-monitoring at different points during the process of knowledge acquisition to increase their likelihood of success and knowledge retention. Using self-monitoring, self-instruction, and self-evaluation processes enables students to become decisive in their learning. Previous studies have confirmed that self-regulated students have great success in college courses, and provided evidence for the positive benefits of self-regulation interventions. Still, nursing education lacks empirical research that focuses on self-regulation quality. The current study explored individual differences in third and fourth-year nursing students' perceptions of self-regulation profiles in Saudi Arabia …

Exploring The Impact Of Simulation Anxiety On Clinical Judgment For Nursing Students, Janet M. Reed

Dissertations

Research literature provides evidence that new graduate nurses are often deficient in clinical judgment (CJ). One way to increase CJ is by using simulations. However, the literature is replete with descriptions of the high anxiety that simulation triggers. It is not currently known how anxiety in simulation affects clinical judgment for undergraduate nursing students. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the effect of different types of anxiety on the clinical judgment of undergraduate nursing students in simulation.

This research project used a one-group repeated measures quantitative design to answer the research questions using the conceptual framework of …

Career Mobility Among Immigrant Registered Nurses In Canada: Experiences Of Caribbean Women, Enid M. Collins

Dissertations

Since the late 1950s, the Canadian nursing workforce especially during periods of nursing shortage has added to its numbers through immigration. Changes in immigration laws since the 1960s have opened doors for increased numbers of immigrants from Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean coming to work in Canada. This qualitative research study investigated the experiences of immigrant women from the Caribbean who are registered nurses (RNs) in Canada. There has been no previously published studies that documented experiences of immigrant women of colour related to career mobility in nursing.

Keeping Nurses In Nursing: Service-Learning As A Means To Enhance Grit, Caitlin M. Lofton

Dissertations

Retention of nurses is a major concern for the profession, especially in light of the nursing shortage; specifically, new graduate nurses are particularly susceptible to this phenomenon. While there are many causes for turnover and attrition within the profession, nurse burnout has been indicated as a central cause. As such, researchers have dedicated much energy and focus into pinpointing approaches that may mitigate the effects of burnout, turning to grit as a possible solution. However, research on grit in nursing is limited, with even less being included on how this trait can be developed. Nevertheless, researchers agree that strategies for …

The Effect Of Implementing A Cultural Change Toolkit On Burnout Among Emergency Nurses, Isabella Nassif

Dissertations

Burnout continues to be a significant problem that negatively affects healthcare providers, especially nursing staff in acute care settings, such as the emergency department. Burnout is the state and experience of continued and prolonged exposure to depersonalization, loss of motivation, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment (Harris & Griffin, 2015; Hutson Hendy, 2016). Burnout is manifested through depersonalization, having a loss of compassion and concern, a decreased sense of personal accomplishment from work, and emotional exhaustion from feeling emotionally drained (Li et al., 2018). The literature on burnout lacks a systemic analysis of evidence-based interventions that can mitigate burnout among …

Designing Dynamic And Degradable Polymeric Materials With Thiol-X Chemistries, Reese Sloan

Dissertations

With plastic production poised to increase in coming years, there arises a need to develop new polymeric materials designed to combat the global pollution crisis. A commonly utilized approach in addressing this challenge is to employ a responsive functional moiety into the polymer architecture. Thiol-X reactions, a commonly utilized class of “click” reactions, have garnered broad implementation in new stimuli-responsive materials. This work specifically focuses on utilizing radical-mediated thiol-ene coupling and base-catalyzed thiol-isocyanate reactions to develop a library of ternary thiol-ene/thiourethane covalent adaptable networks (CANs) and hydrolytically labile poly(thioether ketal) thermoplastics. CANs are a class of network materials capable of …