Digital Commons Network^™

Connected And Automated Vehicles: Their Implication On Capacity Of A Basic Freeway Section And Impacts On Walkway Safety, Sia Macmillan Lyimo

Dissertations

Autonomous vehicles have recently gained the attention of researchers due to their expected potential benefits on highway traffic streams, such as improving roadway capacity, among others. It is imperative to investigate how these expected benefits can be leveraged in the transportation sector. Understanding the safety and operational benefits helps the concerned transportation agencies and other key stakeholders to make necessary infrastructural and policy adjustments to accommodate such future traffic operation changes. The main goal of this dissertation is to study the impact of connected and automated vehicles on freeway capacity. The simulated environment was created to emulate autonomous vehicle behaviors, …

Mechanisms And Applications Of Improved Protein Analysis By Desorption Electrospray Ionization Mass Spectrometry (Desi-Ms), Roshan Javanshad

Dissertations

Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) is a soft ionization technique that allows detection of macromolecules, such as intact proteins, by the formation of multiply charged ions from solutions. Desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (DESI-MS) is an ambient ionization technique that directly samples analyte from a surface during ESI-MS analysis. Although DESI-MS is highly accomplished at the analyses of metabolites, lipids, and other small molecules, it is far more limited when it comes to protein analysis. While most of the field in ambient ionization MS has moved towards primarily applications, our approach has been to explore the use of DESI-MS and …

Parametric Characteristics Of The B6omsi-Re, Sarahelizabeth Janemarie Baguhn

Dissertations

Orientation and mobility specialists for young children who are blind or visually impaired have relied on informal assessments or commercially available tools designed for sighted children to track developmental progress. When Bradley-Johnson (1994) literally wrote the book on assessment in blindness, the sharing and refinement of common tools led to professionals working in teams to sift and winnow the checklists, and move the best available tools into wider circulation. This has led to the evolution of the practitioner made tools becoming the published tools, although they have not yet had statistical evidence to support their efficacy. This three-paper dissertation aims …

Advanced Risk Models To Predict Surgical Site Infections Using Machine Learning Approaches And Risk-Adjusted Control Charts, Rabia Emhamed Al Mamlook

Dissertations

Even though most infections are treatable with antibiotics, Surgical Site Infections (SSIs) remain a significant healthcare problem as they increase hospital stays, require additional treatments, reduce a patient’s quality of life, and increase morbidity and mortality. To reduce the risks and to encourage the highest quality healthcare, it is important to measure, predict, and monitor the risk of SSIs. Preoperative prediction of SSIs is essential to facilitate the implementation of preventative strategies for high-risk patients. The overarching goal of this dissertation is to investigate new opportunities of using machine-learning (ML) to improve the accuracy and use of pre-operative prediction models …

The Experience Of Nursing Care For Female Medicaid Recipients, Sara K. Kaylor

Dissertations

This phenomenological study is guided by a feminist-informed critical theory for the purpose of exploring the experiences of nursing care for female Medicaid recipients. The goals of this research were to understand how nurses' attitudes and behaviors towards female Medicaid recipients influence the ways in which these patients receive and act upon their health care, and to consider what those understandings suggest for nursing education. Semi-structured interviews with female Medicaid recipients were conducted to understand their experiences of nursing care, and a focus group interview with nurse educators was conducted to consider what those understandings suggest for nursing education.

Current …

Experiencing Narrative Pedagogy, Wendy S. Bowles

Dissertations

The role of the nurse has changed dramatically in the past twenty years with increasing complexity of patient care and a rapidly changing health care environment. In addition to the challenges noted regarding patient care, problems with increasing medical errors were noted in the literature specific to graduates in their first year as a nurse. Research in particular to nursing education provides a way for nurse educators to become more astute at addressing problems pervading the role of the new nursing graduate. Narrative Pedagogy was identified as a research-based nursing pedagogy and has been researched and enacted for more than …

National Council Licensure Examination For Registered Nurses (Nclex-Rn®) Success: Perceptions Of Accelerated Second-Degree Bachelor Of Science In Nursing Students, Vicki L. Brzoza

Dissertations

Most of the 50 states in the United States (U.S.) will experience a significant nursing shortage by the year 2030. Research finds that a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) workforce is associated with better outcomes, fewer adverse events, and lower patient mortality than associate or diploma prepared nurses. BSN-prepared nurses are in great demand, and the accelerated second-degree bachelor of science in nursing (ABSN) programs may meet this need. This study investigates how to be successful in these ABSN programs. The purpose of this study was to describe the ABSN students' perceptions and experiences of what they believe to …

Reducing Violence In The Emergency Department, Improving Perception Of Safety: An Aggression Prevention Team Approach, Marilyn Riley

Dissertations

Acts of aggression towards nurses has reached never-before-seen levels in Emergency Departments (ED) across the United States (US), and it increases by 15% or more every year. Nurses and ED staff are subjected to violent patients, daily. Nurses often do not feel they have the skills to intervene safely when patients become aggressive, and these behaviors can escalate to harmful levels. Nurses must have a safe environment to practice; therefore, it is imperative violence stops. This DNP project implements an Aggression Prevention Team (APT) to respond in the ED when patients or visitors become aggressive and to improve the nurses' …

Be Resilient: Examining The Relationship Between Staff Nurse Incivility And Undergraduate Nursing Students' Sense Of Belonging To The Nursing Profession, Sarah E. Patel

Dissertations

Sense of belonging is essential for nursing students to develop and grow within the nursing profession. Unfortunately, incivility threatens the sense of belonging in nursing students.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study is to determine the relationship between staff nurse incivility and undergraduate nursing students' sense of belonging in nursing school, describe the presence of incivility in minority undergraduate nursing students, and determine how semester in the nursing program and weight are associated with incivility and sense of belonging. Baumeister and Leary's (1995) need to belong theory was chosen as the framework for this study.

The Impact Of Cancer Caregiving On Cancer Caregivers: Stories Of Lives In Transition, Cynthia M. Steinwedel

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of cancer caregiving on primary caregivers, exploring their personal narratives looking back on the entire experience from diagnosis, through treatment, and beyond. Caregiving is associated with exacerbation of stress-related disorders such as hypertension and heart disease and may also be associated with increased mortality rates. Transitions theory served as the conceptual framework for the study.

A Grounded Theory Study Of Nurse Advocacy In Health Policy, Marilyn Longo Dollinger

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore how effectively nurses function as advocates in the federal health policy process, understanding their perspectives, their strategies, and tactics. This study examined how nurses in legislative and administrative positions advance health policy or regulatory issues that are important to health care or the nursing profession. Although nurses have a long history of social and political activism, little is known about their effectiveness in achieving favorable policy outcomes. The researcher interviewed 11 registered nurses who had experience as staff in government offices, committees, or federal agencies to learn what processes, tactics, and strategies …

The Lived Experience Of Giving Spiritual Care, Belinda J. Deal

Dissertations

Health care researchers have suggested a correlation between better mental and physical health and a person's spirituality or religious practices (Koenig, 2002). Indeed, using spiritual and religious resources gives patients and families strength to cope during a crisis (Kloosterhouse & Ames, 2000). Given that little is known about nurses' experiences with spiritual care, one wonders how spiritual care is given (Taylor, 2005), what the experience means to nurses, and how the experience affects nurses and their future actions. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore nurses' lived experience of giving spiritual care in order to know more about …

Native Hawaiian Women And Breast Cancer: Stories Of Transformation And Transcendence, Phyllis Joanne Eide

Dissertations

Review of breast cancer incidence and mortality rates for Native Hawaiian women reveal a distressing picture of disproportionate representation when compared to other minority groups in Hawaii. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to gain insight into the lived experience of Native Hawaiian women who have been diagnosed and treated for breast cancer through analysis of the narrative stories that participants shared with the principal investigator. An additional aim was to explore the cultural themes that emerged from this analysis, investigating whether such themes may have affected decisions about treatment. Three "contexts" emerged from the analysis process, predicated …

Experiences Of African American Students In Pre-Licensure Schools Of Nursing: A Qualitative Descriptive Study, Barbara Jean White

Dissertations

Despite more than 40 years of research and governmental support, African Americans continue to be underrepresented in the nursing profession compared to the population it serves. Though some progress has been made over the past 20 years, the American Nurses Association (ANA), American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN), National Black Nurses Association (NBNA) and Institute of Medicine (IOM) continue to identify increasing diversity as a disciplinary priority. Further understanding of the experiences of African American nursing students is needed to inform decisions about recruitment, retention and successful matriculation of these students. This qualitative descriptive study focused on understanding the …

Complementary And Alternative Modalities Used By Women With Female-Specific Cancers, Valerie S. Eschiti

Dissertations

In this cross-sectional, retrospective, explanatory secondary analysis of the 2002 National Health Interview Survey, complementary and alternative modality (CAM) use and high-risk CAM use by women with female-specific cancers is described. Review of CAM literature was employed to compare CAM use by these women to other groups. Based on a purposive sample of 689 women in the United States with female-specific cancers, this sample is representative of 4,128,720 women. Of these, 3,341,373 (80.9%) used CAM therapies. There were 1,030,941 women (25%) who used high risk CAM therapies, such as herbs and megavitamins, which may interact negatively with Western biomedical treatments. …

Teaching The Esl Nursing Student: The Relationship Between Nurse Educator Background Attributes, Beliefs Concerning The Esl Nursing Student And Instructional Strategies Used By Nurse Educators, Bonnie L. Fuller

Dissertations

As the U.S. population quickly moves toward linguistic diversity, it is essential that sufficient numbers of linguistically diverse nurses be available to provide care, and nurse educators play a significant role in the preparation of these nurses. Little information was found in the literature about factors that influence the practices of the nurse educator related to teaching the nursing student who has English as a second language (ESL). The purpose of this research study was to investigate the factors related to teaching ESL nursing students from the perspective of the nurse educator. A pilot study was conducted to validate the …

Phenomenological Study Of Nurses' Perceptions And Lived Experiences Of Quality And Safety, Conchita Sunico Freitag

Dissertations

Maintaining quality and safety has become one of the major problems of healthcare organizations affecting patient satisfaction scores. Nurses are essential in promoting quality and safety. To achieve quality and safety, nurses tend to focus on clinical aspects of care and place personal needs of patients as least priorities. However, literature showed that patients perceive quality care as meeting their personal needs and demands rather than their clinical conditions. There were limited studies that considered nurses' perceptions of quality and safety, most studies were patients' perceptions and satisfactions focused. Conflicting opinions from nurses' and patients' perspectives as well as limited …

The Influence Of Selected Societal, Institutional, And Individual Characteristics On Nurses' And Physicians' Pain Management Knowledge, Judith A. Spross

Dissertations

Most pain can be relieved safely and effectively, yet undertreatment of acute and cancer pain persists. This gap between knowledge and practice is due, in part, to clinicians' lack of pain management knowledge, the absence of institutional standards for monitoring pain management, and societal factors. Although there are many separate studies of clinicians' pain management knowledge, few have jointly examined nurses' and physicians' knowledge. No studies have asked nurses and physicians what they need to know to improve their care of patients in pain. Finally, little is known about the influence of societal and institutional factors on nurses' and physicians' …

Social Work Junior Faculty Perceptions Of Their Doctoral Level Teaching Preparation, Marissa Hardwrict

Dissertations

Each year, hundreds of students graduate with a terminal degree. Many have aspirations to teach at a college or university. This includes graduates of social work programs. However, little information is known about the experiences of teaching readiness of social work Ph.D. graduates. The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of social work junior faculty and their perceptions of readiness to teach. Literature reporting on the curriculum in Social Work Ph.D. Programs are linked to students being developed and heavily engulfed in research activities (Acquavita & Tice, 2015; Dinerman et al., 1999; Reneau, 2011). Since many programs …

The Leader In Me And Its Effects On School Culture And Leadership, Amber J. Sainz

Dissertations

The Leader in Me is a school transformation process that focuses on teaching and embedding Stephen Covey’s (2004) seven habits into the school day. The seven habits are a framework and process for transforming school culture but are not taught as a scripted curriculum (Covey et al., 2014). This mixed-methods study was designed to analyze the perceptions of elementary teachers, counselors, and principals regarding the Leader in Me process and to look at its effects on school culture and leadership. Surveys were sent to teachers and counselors in three Missouri elementary schools who had implemented the Leader in Me for …

Surfing Without Water: College Students Who Experience Homelessness, Melissa Scheer, Deidra C. Thomas-Murray

Dissertations

This study explores the educational experiences and needs of college students experiencing homelessness from the St. Louis metropolitan area. Research has shown that youth experiencing homelessness have difficulties entering college, remaining in college, and graduating from college (School House Connections, 2020). Difficulty accessing services and support coupled with prejudice, discrimination, and lack of knowledge can be detrimental to the homeless students’ academic performance (Svokos, 2015). The purpose of this study is to investigate issues of homelessness in higher education as experienced by independent college students identified as homeless in high school and explore the types of support universities offer via …

Barriers Teaching Environmental Justice Education, Jodi Devonshire

Dissertations

The idea of freedom in education has its roots in the social justice movements of the 1950s and 60s. Civil rights groups coalesced independently of other marginalized groups and movements of its time. While similar in nature, environmentalism and civil rights issues rarely crossed paths. As environmentalism made its way into science education and curriculum, social justice issues were restricted to historical perspectives in education. This research initially sought to create an understanding of purpose driven, social justice conscious, Environmental Education as it is related to marginalized learners and identify the barriers of creating and implementing culturally relevant environmental education …

The Response Of A Rural Missouri Middle School To The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Case Study Of Instruction, Communication, And Access To Technology, Christian Scott Meier

Dissertations

The doors of a rural Missouri middle school were closed in mid-March for what turned out to be the remainder of the 2019‒2020 school year (Schremp Hahn, 2020). Many schools were unprepared for the swift nature with which the shutdowns occurred (Bernhard, 2020a). The purpose of this case study was to examine the opinions and perceptions of parents, teachers, and the principal at a Missouri middle school regarding the school’s response to the COVID-19 closure to determine the best possible strategies for mitigating learning loss during future extended closures. The summer slide was the lens through which the study was …

The Relationship Between Number Of Instructional Minutes And Science And Mathematics Achievement In Elementary Schools, Gwendolyn Randolph

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core Mathematics Standards were created to assist U.S.A. school districts in providing the rigorous instruction needed to equip all students for college and career readiness and citizenship. Many minority students in the U.S.A. specifically, those in disadvantaged communities are still showing deficits in mathematics and science. The relationship between the number of instructional minutes and science and mathematics achievement of fourth grade students on the Northwest Education Association (NWEA) assessment was explored. Research questions addressed the degree of mathematics and science integration in school programming, number of minutes allocated to science …

Cognitive Ecology Of Color Vision In Orchid Bees, Andreia Queiroz Santos A Figueiredo

Dissertations

Animals interact with their environment and acquire information from it. Information can be processed by their sensory systems and influence behavior, often mediated through mechanisms of decision-making and learning. Animal pollinators acquire information from flowers and use this information to make decisions about the flowers they visit. My research aimed to understand the role of color vision in a tropical pollinator, the orchid bee Euglossa dilemma. Chapter 1 is a review exploring pollination through the lens of prepared learning. Prepared learning proposes that animals learn some associations better than others due to an evolved match with the environment. I …

The Formation Of Proxy Force And External State Relationships: Prospect Theory And Proxy Force Decision Making, Brandon Temple

Dissertations

Proxy war is a common tactic employed by great powers as a safer alternative to direct conflict, especially in the era of nuclear weapons. While proxy war is common, there is a lack of research on the formation of proxy-external state relationships. Previous research has typically examined the phenomena of proxy war through the perspective of the external state power, leaving a gap in the literature. This dissertation fills that gap by assessing the conditions under which armed groups enter into proxy relationships with external states. Using prospect theory as a framework for understanding more clearly armed group decision making …

Evaluation Of Lifestyle Modification Program For Polycystic Ovary Syndrome In Infertile Women, Kelly Batton

Dissertations

Abstract

Problem: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) affects a large proportion of the female population worldwide. PCOS can have a wide variety of health implications for the woman including difficulty achieving pregnancy.

Methods: A retrospective chart review of 368 patient records were assessed for inclusion criteria yielding 163 patients with PCOS suffering from infertility. Demographic and health data were gathered for each patient to provide a baseline comparison between the first two quarters of 2019 and the first two quarters of 2020.

Results: The results of the study were mixed. Patients who lost weight did have a higher positive pregnancy rate. …

Meaningful Inclusion Of Students With Disabilities In Jewish Supplementary Schools, Zeena Goldenberg

Dissertations

This basic qualitative research study describes how Jewish supplementary school directors and educators define inclusion, include students with disabilities in their religious school education programs, identify different components of the schools that benefit inclusion, and understand barriers that impede inclusion. Through in-depth interviews with Jewish supplementary school directors and educators, the study explored three important goals. The study first explored how Jewish supplementary school directors and educators define meaningful inclusion, and how they perceive their inclusive classrooms enable students with disabilities to have meaningful access to both academic information and socialization with their same-age peers who do not have disabilities. …

Exploring The Influence Of Industry 4.0 Technology On Buyer-Supplier Relationships (Supplier Transparency) And Supply Chain Agility, Honey Zimmerman

Dissertations

Constantly evolving technologies enable supply chains around the world to thrive and become progressively more sophisticated and responsive. Industry 4.0 (I4.0) technologies connect supply chain networks like never before. Still, anecdotal evidence suggests that few firms have implemented such technologies enterprise-wide. Therefore, to investigate the value created from the implementation of such technology, the focus of this study was on buyer-supplier relationships (BSR) and firm supply chain agility (FSCA) in the context of I4.0 technologies. Using mixed methodologies within a single-case study, we set out to answer the research question: Does I4.0 technology influence buyer-supplier relationships and firm supply chain …

Optimizing Vaccine Supply Chains With Drones In Less-Developed Regions: Multimodal Vaccine Distribution In Vanuatu, Deng Pan

Dissertations

In recent years, many less-developed countries (LDCs) have been exploring new opportunities provided by drones, such as the capability to deliver items with minimal infrastructure, fast speed, and relatively low cost, especially for high value-added products such as lifesaving medical products and vaccines. This dissertation optimizes the delivery network and operations for routine childhood vaccines in LDCs. It analyzes two important problems using mathematical programming, with an application in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu. The first problem is to optimize the nation-wide multi-modal vaccine supply chain with drones to deliver vaccines from the national depot to all health zones …