Digital Commons Network^™

Does Acupuncture Have A Role As An Analgesic In The Emergency Setting?, Andrew Jan

Theses

Background: Pain is a feature of most emergency department (ED) presentations. Exacerbation of chronic pain comprises 40% of pain presentations, with the remainder being a mix of recurrent or one-off painful conditions. Opioids are the mainstay treatment for moderate to severe pain but have both short- and long-term adverse effects, including recurrent use, abuse and death. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are also a concern, especially in older patients with comorbidities. Thus, emergency physicians are highly motivated to seek alternatives for pain management. Acupuncture is frequently used in outpatient settings that offer nonpharmacological treatments and has gained acceptance in postoperative analgesia; …

Challenges On The Mission Field: A Phenomenological Exploration Of The Experience And Impact Of Traumatic Events On Christian Missionaries, Julie Nixon

Theses

There is a long and rich, albeit at times complex, history of Australian Christian mission work abroad. Missionaries have been motivated to enter the field by a desire to support the local church and other indigenous communities to attain a range of social, economic, and socio-developmental improvements for individuals and groups alike. However, this work is not without risk for the missionaries, especially when exposed to traumatic events and experiences that may adversely affect their physical, psychological, and or spiritual health and well-being. Understanding the impact of such experiences from the missionaries' perspective is important, particularly in the context of …

Journeying Through Uncharted Territory: The Role Of Humour In Adaption Of Undergraduate Nursing Students In Their First Year Of Study, Marie-Josée Boulianne

Theses

Newly graduated nurses adapting to their professional role have been studied, mainly in their first year of practice. The development of coping strategies, acculturation and other adaptations to the nursing world begin at the onset of the educational journey. Understanding how these manifest early in the formative years can enable educators to tailor nursing programs to assist the future nurse to develop positive coping mechanisms and help pave the way to a successful transition into practice. This research aimed to identify elements conducive to positive adaptation and wellbeing of nursing students during their first year of nursing studies, including the …

Martuwarra First Law Multi-Species Justice Declaration Of Interdependence: Wellbeing Of Land, Living Waters, And Indigenous Australian People, Anne Poelina

Theses

The thesis is comprised of experiential research, poetry, film and peer reviewed publications, and book chapters culminating in twelve chapters and two appendices. The study is in the Kimberley region of northern Western Australia. The study used an Indigenous decolonising research paradigm. It calls for a powerful policy and investment approach to the planning and development of regional governance. The author engaged ‘cooperative participative inquiry’ with leaders from six independent Indigenous Nations. These Nations are connected through Warloongarriy, the First Law for Martuwarra, the Fitzroy River.

First law is the spirit that connects all things and promotes multispecies justice through …

Gender, Role Models, Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy And Career Intentions: Implications For Entrepreneurial Education, Ciara Marie Lavelle - O Brien

Theses

This thesis explores gender, role models, entrepreneurial self-efficacy and career intentions of secondary school students in Ireland. Most prior research includes entrepreneurial education as an important factor in the decision to start a business. Few studies include the importance of entrepreneurial perceptions, role models, self-efficacy, and career intentions combined and what implications this may have for entrepreneurial education. Previous studies cite the importance of role models for potential entrepreneurs but ignore how the role model is perceived or who the role models of this generation (Gen Z) are. This study used a semistructured questionnaire and the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) …

Lighting Up The Black Box –Digital Transformation In German Lobbying, Kathrin Barabara Stürmer

Theses

Digital transformation, alongside social media channels, influences policymaking. The aim of this research is to build knowledge of the consequences of digital transformation on lobbying at German federal level. This analysis uncovers how digital lobbying works in Germany and how it changes classic communication within the political sphere. Taking a grounded theory approach, the study addresses both communicating sides: lobbyists, on the one hand, and members of the German Bundestag and their employees, on the other. A profound understanding of, and differentiation between, lobbying and digital lobbying is gained through a first data-gathering step of 15 interviews with representatives of …

An Exploration Of The Experiences Of Modern Marketers: Skills Gaps, Mindset, And The Role Of Career Stage, Tim Crowley

Theses

The digitalisation of marketing is the greatest change that the marketing profession has experienced (Kähler & Magnusson, 2018) and digital technologies now sit at the forefront of modern marketing (Thomas & Thomas, 2018). Digital marketing has numerous benefits (Kumar, 2015; Malar, 2016), however, digitalisation is disruptive (Mgiba, 2019) and has resulted in mismatched skills and an increased need for reskilling and upskilling (Bajpai & Biberman, 2019). Accordingly, skills gaps are evident (Crush, 2011; Day, 2011; Hege, 2020; Quinn et al., 2016; Royle & Laing, 2014; Wood, 2011). Notwithstanding, there is a scarcity of research in this area (Raghuraman, 2017; Royle …

Investigating The Antioxidant, Immunomodulatory And Anti-Obesogenic Propertiesof Novel Bsg-Derived Extracts And Their Potential As Ingredients In Functional Foods For Older Adults, Suzanne O Brien

Theses

Brewer’s Spent Grain (BSG) represents a substantial waste product of the brewing industry, with 39 million tonnes generated globally every year. To date the primary use of BSG is as animal feed but there is significant interest in identifying alternative uses for this agro-industry by-product. BSG is rich in protein and fibre and is known to contain health-promoting bioactive compounds, thus one application would be in the area of functional foods. People are living longer and as the older adult population continues to increase globally so too is the prevalence of age-related chronic conditions. Diet plays an essential role in …

Ergonomic Assessment Of A New Back Table For Perioperative Nurses, Ketan Prakash Thakur

Theses

Perioperative nurses use back tables (BT) to set up instruments for surgeries consisting of a single surface requiring repetitive lifting due to the stacked trays of surgery tools. Since such actions lead to increased physical (heavyweight of trays) and cognitive (reduced visibility and increased access time) demand, the new DinamicOR table (DT) has been developed. DT has the height adjustment capability and can add up to two shelves providing an extra working area for nurses. We evaluated DT vs. BT by conducting a laboratory experiment involving 16 participants, estimating the kinematics, kinetics, and collecting their subjective feedback, NASA task load …

Social Isolation, Fear Of Missing Out, And Social Media Use In Deaf And Hearing College Students, Conor Lake

Theses

This study investigated the relationships between social isolation, fear of missing out, self-esteem, and social media usage, and whether these relationships are different in deaf and hearing college students. Data were collected from 191 individuals (46 Deaf/Hard of Hearing, 145 hearing) via an online survey. Variables included number of social media accounts, time spent (in hours) on social media, number of times per day social media is accessed, FOMO, social media use, hearing status/identity, self-esteem, social isolation, and social media disorder. Correlational tests were conducted separately for hearing and for Deaf/HH participants. The groups had an unequal distribution of gender, …

Automatic Pain Assessment Through Facial Expressions, Ilham Seladji

Theses

Pain is a strong symptom of diseases. Being an involuntary unpleasant feeling, it can be considered as a reliable indicator of health issues. Pain has always been expressed verbally, but in some cases, traditional patient self-reporting is not efficient. On one side, there are patients who have neurological disorders and cannot express themselves accurately, as well as patients who suddenly lose consciousness due to an abrupt faintness. On another side, medical staff working in crowded hospitals need to focus on emergencies and would opt for the automation of the task of looking after hospitalized patients during their entire stay, in …

Personal Branding Strategies Of Female Entertainment Influencers On Tiktok, Shaofu Wang

Theses

This thesis employs quantitative content analysis to investigate the strategies used by female entertainment influencers (FEI) on TikTok to attract followers. The study investigated the six FEIs with the most followers on the TikTok and Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok), three each from both platforms. This study focuses on the visual framework strategy as the theoretical basis to analyze female entertainment influencers’ videos (N=90). The results show that FEIs tend to wear casual clothes and shoot videos with simple backgrounds. Most shooting angles are half-length or full-body shots, which do not display multiple feminine movements in videos.

Regression analyses were …

Impact Of Professional Sports’ Twitter Content On Their Fans, Gianna Sarkis

Theses

Professional sports organizations have begun to utilize social media to create an online community for fans. These organizations have partnered with companies to create monetary value for the team and the companies, which has led sponsorship from traditional advertising in the arena or venue of the professional sports organization to their team’s Twitter account. I investigated how fans of the professional sports organization recognized sponsored content on the organizations' Twitter pages concerning the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI). I then compared the sponsored and organic contents' interaction rates to see if there were similarities or differences between those rates. The …

Combating Human Trafficking: Assessing Justice Systems Response, Carly Stephens

Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to examine and assess justice system efforts in combating human trafficking; more specifically sex trafficking. The goal was to understand how efforts of combating human trafficking started, how they progressed, and to explore where efforts remain at this time. Additionally, the goal was to identify and understand what is working in law enforcement, human trafficking courts, and policy. This included identifying issues such as disparity in law enforcement reporting, lack of recognition of sex trafficking, and outdated policies. To assess these issues, this project utilized human trafficking data available through the FBI Uniform Crime …

Suicide By Cop: A Secondary Analysis Using Open-Source News Data, Mckayla Nolan

Theses

Suicide by cop (SBC) has recently become a known phenomenon in the United States, Canada, Australia and parts on the United Kingdom as another way to complete suicide (Patton & Fremouw,2015). SBC refers to when an individual creates a scenario in which law enforcement agencies are called and have to use deadly force in order to protect themselves and the people around the individual who is attempting to take their life (Mohandie, Meloy, & Collins, 2009). The term suicide by cop was originally coined by a police officer and psychologist Karl Harris in 1983 and is the term that is …

Effects Of Eye Imagery On Criminal Justice And Forensic Students Cheating In Online Testing, Kortni Larue

Theses

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is a well-established subsection of environmental criminology in which aspects of the environment are altered in order to prevent crimes before they happen. This is primarily accomplished in two ways: physical and psychological. CPTED strategies often utilize both in order to prevent crime, but there is a lack of primarily psychologically based research in circulation. This includes the manipulation of the biopsychological response to gaze detection in order to increase prosocial behavior. Additionally, there is a lack of studies indicating if CPTED strategies are effective in a classroom setting and even less concerning online …

Freedom Of The Light, Kyle R. Padden

Theses

Freedom of the Light is a feature length script that follows the heir to a highly religious kingdom on her journey of self discovery and revelation. Amalye Alsean has spent her entire life in the isolationist kingdom of Caelios, being told that the other inhabitants of the continent are merciless barbaric savages. It is only when she defies her father and experiences the continent herself that she is able to see the lies she has been fed. With her newfound power and knowledge, she must confront her father and enlighten her people. The script explores the relationships between father and …

Using Advanced Technologies To Connect Communities Through Shared Experiences, Shauna Cross

Theses

Lack of interactions within a shared community creates relationship barriers resulting in isolation, disconnected work teams, missed collaboration opportunities, and an overall shortage of peer connections. Community members feel connected when associations are built on perceived similarities, and the associated experiences have common features. Therefore, it is critical to understand how visually identifying and presenting associations advances opportunities to unite and remedy untapped success within a shared community.

Associations are often distinguished by similarity, contrast, and closeness. It is assumed similar stimuli evoke similar reactions, and therefore assumptions of association and connection are based on (or AKIN to) this. AKIN …

Mental Illness Campaigns, Yiming Cui

Theses

The target population of the research is people with mental diseases. It aims to study the symptoms of their illnesses and to understand the pain they encounter from the perspective of these patients. Based on that, this research combines with strong visual design and creative layout, presents art posters with impact and influence. The purpose of the research is to give mental patients recognition, encouragement and care to a certain extent through the art form of posters. This series consists of five posters, each poster describes the five most common mental illnesses in the United States, which are anxiety, obsessive-compulsive …

The Role Of Ai & Big Data In Habit Formation, Jingyu Cao

Theses

Forming habits are not easy for everyone. It requires professional methods and strong perseverance, which people usually feel hard to do by themself. However, people are eager to form good habits to have a better life.

This study aims to determine how AI & big data could help people to form habits. There are many applications on the market that already use this method to study user behavior in order to provide better service. My research has focused on how to conduct the personal plan and its effects on the action.

In this context, Marvelous is defined as the AI …

An Examination Of Meat Consumption As A Pro-Environmental Behavior And Its Weak Correlation To Delay Discounting, Sarah Parkinson

Theses

This study presented meat consumption as an environmentally relevant behavior (ERB) and examined how the delay to an environmental loss might affect peoples’ decisions to eat meat. Participants completed a delay discounting survey where they selected what percentage of meat they would eliminate from their diet based on varying delays to rising sea levels flooding of their neighborhood. After watching a brief educational video, participants completed the survey a second time to examine whether the video had any influence on discounting rates in the post-survey. Participants also completed the 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ; Kirby & Marakovic, 1996) in order …

The Effect Of Nutritional Programming On Gut Microbiota In Broodstock And Progeny Fish, Samuel Patula

Theses

Aquaculture is currently the fastest growing animal production sector. Because the aquaculture sector is growing at rapid rates, certain materials for feed, specifically marine protein sources, are becoming increasingly expensive and unsustainable. To counteract the reliance on fishmeal (FM) and other marine protein sources in the industry plant protein (PP), specifically soybean meal (SBM), has been investigated to replace FM as a protein source. Unfortunately, SBM when given in high quantities (greater than 30%) has been shown to negatively affect fish performance including retarded growth, intestinal inflammation, reduction of spawn quality, as well as dysbiosis in the gut microbiome, most …

Churches Can Increase Membership Among Millennials And Generation Z By Using Social Media, Deja Erin Mcghaw

Theses

This project examines how churches can increase membership among Millennials and Generation Z on social media. The final deliverable is a 45-minute webinar offering tips for churches to create effective and relevant content online. This webinar will be housed on a website created called Social Media for Churches. It features many videos and resources to help churches with social media such as trends, recommendations, practical tips, and free tools for content creation. Doc

Exploring The Visual Arts With Rog: A Four-Part Series, Roger Heuberger

Theses

This project report addresses the research which led to the choice of content, formatting of curriculum, delivery system, and video conference management. The combined art appreciation and art history classes are innovative as they are built around high-interest key art events or movements instead of linear chronologies or systematic reviews of art elements. The research for this Thesis II project extended beyond art historical materials. The literature review and analysis additionally explored educational theories which could be adapted for use with the target audiences of 65+ aged seniors and lifelong learners. The original project submitted in mid-2019 was for in-class …

Roll Back, A User Experience Design To Help People Recall Memories, Haotian Sun

Theses

This article introduces a user experience design of recalling memories. People take numerous photos in their whole lives, so they need a powerful tool to help them organize and review all those pictures in an interesting way. After having interviews with target users, most of them have problems with organizing massive digital photos. This process costs them a lot of time and makes them feel boring. In this article, a mobile app named “Roll Back” is designed to solve this problem, users can review their memories randomly by solving a simplified Rubik’s Cube game, their photos will display on the …

Coaching Yourself Through: Exploring The Relationship Between Positive Self-Talk And Resilience, Ian T. Mosier

Theses

In this study, I investigated the relationship between positive self-talk, autonomy, and resilience in a sample of adults residing in America (n=177). Forty percent of American adults (n=1031) report daily stressors (Almeida, Wethington, & Kessler, 2002). Even comparatively minor life stressors can have a negative impact on one’s well-being over time (Almeida, 2005). Resilience, the ability to manage and recover from stress, may be an important factor in long-term health and well-being (Almeida, 2005). Positive self-talk has been identified as a possible target for resilience building interventions. However, positive self-talk appears to benefit some people more than others. One possible …

Flow- Digital Gestural Expression, Senjal Pandharpatte

Theses

Overwhelming emotions affect the performance, productivity, and mental well-being of an individual. This has been a rising trend in highly sensitive young adults. To maintain well-being one can work towards developing emotional intelligence. With a higher emotional intelligence (EQ) the capacity to be aware of, control and express one’s emotions is better [1]. We lack an engaging way to communicate self-expression that feels in sync with us. The main problem being addressed here is to help people recognize their own emotions, by themselves, and then effectively communicate them to other people. Flow is an interactive creative outlet that allows highly …

Impact Of Stoplight Policies On Urban Traffic System Emissions, Jessica Pimentel Almonte

Theses

With increasing urban populations (Boyd 2015), also comes higher land resource demands and more concentrated pollution levels. Increasing the efficiency of transportation systems is key to fostering sustainable urban development because it can decrease urban pollution levels, better meet the social demands of its residents, and decrease vehicle fuel consumption – encompassing the three pillars of sustainability: social, environment, and economic. This study aims to better understand the environmental impact of traffic light coordination and their timing policies in a randomly generated traffic network on an urban area. We focus on the effect of three different stoplight policies on emission …

Wait., Kayla Cantu

Theses

Wait explores concepts of discomfort and acceptance through the use of the human body, glass, and honey. The artwork and this thesis both use personal experience of physical insecurities and scholarly investigations into psychology related to unruly bodies. The work and research allude to the material qualities of glass such as its malleability, susceptibility, and softness to draw a parallel between the materials and the human identity. Parallels between glass and body create conversations investigating acceptance of identity and questions ideas about resistance of unruly bodies.

Lightsup: Modern Organization For The Modern Living Room, Fang-Yi Lin

Theses

Studies show a cluttered home makes people feel anxious, helpless and overwhelmed. Home should be a place where people can relax and live comfortably. A messy house can lead to negative behavior, making people impatient and argumentative. An organized house can not only make people be in a good mood but also encourage harmonious relationships in a family. This paper puts forth how design can help people be more organized in their homes thus creating a relaxing environment. The research shows how clutter affects people’s behaviors, emotions and relationships; why people do not organize; and the importance of finding a …