Digital Commons Network^™

Analysis Of Inclusive Practices Using A Co-Teaching Model On English Learners With Disabilities, Shawna Shields

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of general and special education teachers who implemented co-teaching as a model of inclusive instruction for English Learners (ELs) with disabilities in a suburban middle school district. Grounded in Cook and Friend’s (1995) co-teaching framework and informed by sociocultural theory, the study examined how teachers collaborated, negotiated roles, and balanced language development with disability-related supports. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and a Co-teaching Collaboration Survey administered to 12 educators. Thematic analysis revealed that trust and parity support effective co-teaching partnerships, that language-forward scaffolds and interaction-based strategies promote engagement, and …

Impact Of Ncaa Football Bowl Subdivision Reclassification On Universities, Kyle Shaffer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly universities are leaving the lower Football Championship Series (FCS) for the potentially greener pastures of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), but are they really greener? Is bigger always better? Since 2008, there have been 17 universities that have reclassified to the NCAA FBS subdivision. The purpose of this study was to study NCAA FCS to FBS reclassification from 2008 to 2023 to research the athletics and non-athletics related impacts that occurred and what factors most influenced the universities in the sample to choose to pursue reclassification. The study used a quantitative approach to more holistically research the impact of …

Examining The Influence Of Job Demands And Resources On The Psychological Well-Being Of Arkansas Teachers, Amy C. Erstine

Student Theses and Dissertations

Teachers across the United States are experiencing declining psychological well-being due to increasing job demands and insufficient workplace resources. In Arkansas, this imbalance contributes to burnout, attrition, and persistent teacher shortages, affecting not only educators but also students, schools, and communities. Job resources are positively associated with well-being, whereas job demands are negatively associated with well-being. Understanding the job resources and demands influencing teacher well-being is critical to sustaining a stable and effective teaching workforce. The purpose of this non-experimental and predictive study was to examine the influence of job demands and resources on the psychological well-being of currently licensed …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Factors Influencing Novice Special Education Teachers’ Career Decisions, Angela L. Norris

Student Theses and Dissertations

The rising attrition rates of special education teachers, particularly within their first five years of teaching, are a growing concern. The early departure of these educators negatively impacts the academic achievement of students with disabilities, as well as the stability and longevity of these educators’ careers. Little research shows why these educators exit the profession in significant numbers. This qualitative phenomenological study utilized Billingsley’s model of factors influencing the career decisions of teachers as the conceptual framework. Research questions explored the perceptions of novice special education teachers regarding school leadership, professional development, and compensation and their influence on their career …

The Influence Of Leadership Styles On Teacher Motivation And School Climate In Urban Schools From Three South-Central Region States, Jennifer L. Thomas

Student Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored how leadership styles influenced teacher motivation and school climate across three Southern South-Central region states. Through an analysis of 15 interviews, the research explored teachers' lived experiences and interactions with administrators that shaped their motivation, work efficacy, sense of value, and emotional well-being. Three states served as the data pool for the study: Arkansas, Texas, and Tennessee. Seven themes emerged related to motivation and school climate: Teacher Voice, Support, Empowerment, Relational Confidence, Feeling Valued, Emotional Safety, and Building Community. These themes illuminated how leadership behaviors can either strengthen or hinder teachers’ professional commitment, instructional effectiveness, and …

Urban Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Influence Of Their Alternate Route Certification Programs On Their Retention, Jenifer Phillips

Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored how secondary teachers in one urban public school system described their experiences in alternate-route certification programs and how those experiences shaped their decisions to stay in the classroom. As districts continue relying on alternate-route teachers to address ongoing shortages, it is important to understand how teachers interpret their preparation, coaching, and early classroom experiences through the lens of adult learning, or andragogy, and what supports they believe actually helped them succeed with students, particularly in areas such as phonological awareness, classroom management, and foundational instructional practices. A total of 196 teachers met the study’s criteria …

Exploring Teachers' Perceptions Of The Influence Of Social Emotional Competencies On Virtual Students' Academic Success, Melanie Cheyanne Spence

Student Theses and Dissertations

The problem addressed in this study is that the effects of Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies on academic achievement for virtual learners in a Grades 5-8 classroom are not well known. The purpose of this qualitative narrative study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of how the practice of SEL competencies by students influence their academic success in a virtual Grades 5-8 classroom. This qualitative narrative inquiry was based around Social Emotional Learning (SEL), a conceptual framework identified by CASEL as including five competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The target audience was educational stakeholders who are …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Wetland Reserve Easements As Habitat For Birds In The Mississippi Alluvial Valley Of Eastern Arkansas, Colin K. Dobson

Student Theses and Dissertations

Globally, wetland habitats suffered major declines during the 20th century. In the 1990s, the United States government created the Wetland Reserve Program (later consolidated into the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program), to combat the loss of wetlands. Despite success in attracting landowners, minimal monitoring of properties enrolled into the program (easements) has occurred. In this study, we monitored avian communities at easements, compared avian diversity at easements to agriculture and bottomland forests, and quantified microhabitat, site-specific, and surrounding landscape features at easements. We also studied the demographic rates of an indicator species of bottomland forests, the Prothonotary Warbler (Protonotaria citrea) at …

Social Media And Health Information Sharing In Nigeria: Trends In Weight Loss And Cosmetic Procedures, Victoria Ochanya Agbo

Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of social media in facilitating (mis)information on weight loss and cosmetic surgeries in Nigeria. Utilizing the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the study examines information shared by influencers, audience engagements with such messages, and the factors influencing audience receptivity of the messages. Using a qualitative design, a thematic analysis was conducted on influencer posts and audience responses to such posts across major social media platforms. The findings show that influencers frequently framed cosmetic surgery and weight loss as aspirational lifestyle choices and downplayed the medical risks using means such as testimonials, visual transformations, and authenticity cues. …

"Using A Sledgehammer To Crack A Nut" A Proposal To Re-Frame The Media Industry's Perspective On Generative Ai, Reace Barnett

Student Theses and Dissertations

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) continues to be a divisive topic in the media industry and there are concerns about technical challenges that may affect GenAI’s trustworthiness and reliability. As such, fears of degraded public trust in media products and services have arisen, and while we have a tendency to trust machines, it is clear that public attitudes toward automated decision-making are contentious. Previous research on machine cues found that they are associated with increased perceived objectivity and willingness to disclose information. Conversational GenAI may reduce political polarization, yet many people remain worried about risks such as bias, hallucinations, improper attribution, …

American Sign Language Recognition And Analysis Using Deep Learning, Saurabh Kumar Soni

Master’s Dissertations

In this work I build a system that recognizes isolated American Sign Language (ASL) words, and I use it to ask one fairly direct question: when training data is scarce, is it better to look at the video pixels or at the geometry of the signer’s body? To find out, I train two very different models on exactly the same clips. The first is appearance-based. Every frame is run through standard preprocessing and a ResNet50 backbone pre-trained on ImageNet, which turns it into a 2048-dimensional feature vector, and a Bidirectional LSTM then reads that sequence over time. The second model …

Enhanced Embedding For Multimodal Medical Visual Question And Answering, Akash Suna

Master’s Dissertations

Visual Answering of questions in the field of Medical which is called as (VqA) has grown as a dominant area of research that fuse processing of natural language and vision of computer often known as CV or NLP to assist in medical decision-making. However, effective multimodal fusion between medical images and clinical questions remains a significant challenge. This thesis examines the application of the Perceiver IO architecture as an efficient multimodal aggregator for medical VQA. The work has been carried out in multiple directions. First, a classification-based framework is developed by combining Vision Transformer (ViT) and ClinicalBERT alongside a Perceiver …

An Empirical Study Of Rlvr Fine-Tuning For Mathematical Problem Solving In Llms, Rashmi Konnur

Master’s Dissertations

Large language models have shown immense improvement in coding and math performances thanks to reinforcement learning boosted algorithms. However, its true impact on broadening the reasoning and analytical capacities of an LLM is still contended. In this dissertation, we outline the foundations of Large Language Models, and delve into Reinforcement Learning with Verifiable Rewards (RLVR). We discuss various strategies to efficiently manipulate memory during a fine tuning update. We finally perform RLVR fine-tuning techniques on different models with varied use cases and compare their performances, which corroborate the efficiency of RLVR.

Bridging Cultural Gaps In Enhancing Mental Health Support For The Bhutanese Community, Subash Chandra Majhi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Leadership Strategies Healthcare Leaders Use To Improve Organizational Performance, Rushell Latoya Bryce

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Licensed Professional Counselors’ Experiences Of Treating Youth With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jazzmine Dallas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Boundaries Of Belonging: The Role Of Christian Campus Climate In Lgbtq+ Student Suicidality, Madison L. Vaccaro

Clinical Psychology Dissertations

LGBTQ+ students at religiously-affiliated colleges experience unique stressors related to discrimination, campus climate, and stigma, which have been linked to negative outcomes including suicidal ideation. Drawing on sociocultural theories of suicide and minority stress, the present study examined whether internalized LGBTQ+ related stigma mediated the relationships between discrimination, negative campus climate, and suicidal ideation among college students attending religious institutions. Participants (N = 75) included college students who identified as LGBTQ+, recruited mainly within the Pacific Northwest. Participants were majority White, assigned female at birth (AFAB), and diverse in gender identity and sexual orientation. Measures assessed experiences of discrimination, campus …

Operational Feasibility Of Reinforcement Learning For Vehicle Routing Under Heterogeneous Fleet Capacity Constraints, Freddy Giovanny Aviles Moreno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reinforcement learning methods have demonstrated strong performance on vehicle routing benchmarks, yet their behavior under severe capacity constraints remains unexplored. This dissertation investigates whether PPO-based neural routing policies maintain operational viability when vehicle capacity is severely constrained, as occurs in resource-limited rural logistics settings.

Through controlled experiments on synthetic instances and validation on real-world rural healthcare networks in Florida, this research reveals a critical capacity threshold effect. Moderate capacity reductions from 40 to 20 produce negligible performance loss (4.1%), while severe reductions to capacity 10 trigger catastrophic failure with 243% degradation, manifested through degenerate single-customer routing patterns. Convergence analysis identifies …

Hiring Trends In The Hotel Industry Post-Covid-19: Human Resource Professionals’ Perspectives, Anthony Liu

JWU Dissertations & Theses

The U.S. hotel industry experienced severe workforce disruption following the COVID-19 pandemic, including layoffs, employee exits, persistent labor shortages, and shifting employee expectations (Baum et al., 2020; Ghani et al., 2022; Kwok, 2022; Liu-Lastres et al., 2023). Although hotels increased wages, expanded scheduling flexibility, and improved benefits, many hotels continued to experience staffing shortages that affected recruitment, retention, operational efficiency, and service delivery (AHLA, 2024b; Aksoy et al., 2022; Ghani et al., 2022). Existing research has examined employee outcomes and organizational responses; however, limited empirical attention has been given to hotel HR professionals’ experiences and perspectives on post-pandemic hiring …

Fast Radio Bursts From The Nonlinear Evolution Of Low Frequency Plasma Waves In The Magnetosphere Of Magnetars, Dominic Bernardi

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration radio bursts with applications as cosmic probes. However, their physical origins remain largely unknown. Magnetars are natural candidates for producing FRBs due to their compact size, extremely strong magnetic fields, and intrinsically dynamic nature. In this thesis, I develop a model for FRB production grounded in both a concrete triggering mechanism and a viable emission process. This process begins by launching low-frequency plasma waves into the magnetosphere. I show that energetic fast magnetosonic waves can naturally be produced in the magnetosphere, independent of how these waves are launched. Regardless of whether these waves are …

Preparing Adjunct Clinical Instructors For Success: The Impact Of A Structured Orientation Program On Perceived Capabilities As Measured By The Capabilities Of Nurse Educators (Cone) Questionnaire, Amanda Stone

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Adjunct clinical instructors are essential in helping nursing students connect classroom learning to real-world patient care. A needs assessment within an associate degree nursing (ADN) program identified that adjunct clinical instructors received only a brief overview of policies, contributing to role uncertainty and inconsistent preparation for clinical teaching responsibilities. Current literature supports the use of structured orientation and mentorship to better prepare nurses as they transition into clinical educator roles. The purpose of this quantitative, quasi-experimental quality improvement project was to evaluate the impact of a structured orientation program on adjunct clinical instructors’ perceived capabilities. Guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act change …

Staff Education To Enhance Knowledge Of Blood Culture Collection Technique To Reduce Blood Culture Contamination Rates, Whitney Ducharme

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Gold Medal Girl: Media Representations Of Aly Raisman During The Larry Nassar Scandal Through Lenses Of Whiteness, Vulnerability, And "Good" Patriarchy, Anna Mischelle Dean

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This thesis analyzed two media texts about former Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and how these texts constructed her identity during and after the Larry Nassar scandal. I analyzed these texts through the lenses of whiteness, vulnerability, and carceral feminism. Looking at how the media acts as a disciplinary apparatus in this case, I argue that women athletes’ bodies are portrayed as having a vulnerability to abuse that only the "good" patriarchy can address. I seek to show that the media use depictions of women’s vulnerability and need for patriarchal help to remind women athletes that, in cases of abuse, who …

An Untapped Resource: Exploring The Role Of Spirituality In The Psychological Healing Of African Asylum-Seekers From A Counselor’S Perspective, Brittany A. Duncan

Dissertations

This qualitative study explored how counselors perceive and integrate spirituality into the psychological healing of African asylum-seekers, a population facing compounded cultural, legal, and existential challenges. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis, the study examined the lived experiences of eight counselors working with this population. Findings revealed that counselors’ personal sense of religion influenced their comfort and approach in broaching spiritual topics, with both positive (e.g., spirituality as a source of support and community) and negative (e.g., religion as a source of suffering) associations shaping clinical engagement. Many participants reported limited access to trainings geared towards increasing their cultural competence related to …

Driving-Related Challenges For Autistic Youth, Jeong-Heun Kim

ETDs from 2020-2029

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often face barriers to driving. Despite evidence that they have potential to drive safely, some unique challenges exist, manifested in a substantially lower licensure rate than typically developing (TD) peers and restricted driving patterns among this population. Therefore, the overarching goal of this dissertation project was to investigate driving-related challenges that young autistic people face. Both objective and subjective measures were used to comprehensively explore this research topic. The first two papers focused on investigating perceptual, cognitive, and behavioral factors underlying hazard response using data from a total of 34 licensed drivers (17 with …

Investigating The Role Of Centromere Deletion In Chromosome Segregation, Azait Imtiaz

ETDs from 2020-2029

Centromeres are critical genomic regions responsible for ensuring accurate chromosome segregation during cell division. Disruptions in the structural or functional integrity of centromeric DNA could impair kinetochore assembly, leading to chromosome missegregation and chromosomal instability (CIN), a hallmark of various human diseases, including systemic sclerosis (SSc). This study investigated the contribution of centromeric DNA damage and deletion to CIN and explored potential pathogenic mechanisms relevant to SSc. We utilized hTERT-immortalized fibroblast cell lines (CHON-002 and BJ-5ta) to implement two complementary approaches: (i) treatment with bleomycin, a chemotherapeutic agent known to induce DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs), and (ii) targeted deletion of …

A Pilot Study Of The Acute Effects Of Isometric Exercise And Aerobic Exercise For Improving Blood Pressure And Vascular Hemodynamics In Hypertensive Adults, Ayih Cedric Edoh

ETDs from 2020-2029

Hypertension (HTN) is one of the most prevalent and modifiable risk factors for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Aerobic exercise is a well-known method to lower blood pressure (BP), but recently, isometric exercise has been purported to lower BP to a similar or greater extent. There is little known about the effects of isometric exercise on acute BP and 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure (ABP). Therefore, the purpose of this pilot study was to compare the effects of isometric and aerobic exercise on improving vascular hemodynamics and 24-hour ABP in hypertensive adults. METHODS: Seven participants (age 25-65 years) with a diagnosis of …

Altered But Adaptive: Network Integration In Pediatric Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Survivors A Diffusion Mri Graph Theory Analysis, Amanda Cook

ETDs from 2020-2029

Pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors face treatment-related risk for late-emerging cognitive difficulties. Chemotherapy can disrupt white-matter structure leading survivors to experience subtle but persistent challenges with processing speed, working memory, and executive functioning. However, cognitive outcomes vary widely even among survivors with similar treatment exposures. To better understand this variability, this study examines how the brain adapts after treatment and how that adaptation is shaped by the environment. This study used diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) connectomics to characterize white matter network organization in 18 pediatric ALL survivors compared with 20 typically developing controls (ages 10-18). Structural connectomes were …

Epidemiology And Outcomes Of Geriatric Trauma At Uab, Lindy Reynolds

ETDs from 2020-2029

Adults over the age of 65 are the fastest growing portion of the population and account for a growing percentage of the trauma patient volume at trauma centers around the country. Older adults experience longer length of stays, higher mortality and complication rates than their younger counterparts. As a result, there has recently been an increased focus on models of geriatric trauma care, one of which is the addition of geriatric medicine consults for older trauma patients. The primary objectives of this dissertation were to examine the effect of the consult policy on outcomes using an interrupted time series approach, …

A Retrospective Analysis Of Dental Needs Identified By Intraoral Videography In Elderly Patients With Mild To Moderate Dementia In Long-Term Care Facilities: Feasibility Of A Novel Screening Mechanism For Oral Health, Kevin Hahn

ETDs from 2020-2029

This retrospective analysis explores the viability of employing intraoral videography to identify dental needs among long-term care (LTC) facility residents with cognitive impairment and/or mild to moderate dementia. Inadequate oral hygiene in these individuals can lead to dental plaque buildup, oral dysbiosis, gingivitis, dental caries, and periodontitis. Such conditions can impact both oral and systemic health. However, delivering oral hygiene in LTC facilities faces challenges due to care-resistant behavior triggered during mouth care. And many individuals in residential LTC facilities do not have access to dental care outside of severe emergencies due to cost, reimbursement patterns, lack of access to …