Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing Regional Impact Of Caregiving On Obesity Prevalence Among U.S. Adults, Myra Callis Johnston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Historically, sparse research efforts have focused on informal caregiving as a possible risk factor for developing chronic illnesses across the United States. Identifying additional subgroups at higher risk of becoming obese could provide insights into where public health practitioners, the health care community, and policy makers can direct limited resources through a more targeted approach. The theoretical foundation for the current project was the social cognitive theory. In this secondary correlational analysis using the 2018 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data set, the relationship between …

Emotional And Spiritual Intelligence, Psychological Ownership, Burnout, And Well-Being’S Effect On College Counselor Self-Efficacy, Lola Nixon Johnston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

College counselors provide individual and group counseling, consultation and educational outreach services, and supervision for counseling interns as well as serving on committees. As a result, college counselors are at risk of burnout, which could affect self-efficacy. The purpose of this quantitative study was to assess the roles of emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, psychological ownership, burnout, and well-being in predicting counseling self-efficacy of college counselors, as emotional intelligence, spiritual intelligence, and psychological ownership have been shown to reduce burnout by enhancing well-being. Using Neuman’s system model as a theoretical guide, this study used a quantitative approach using a cross-sectional survey …

A Narrative Inquiry Into The Daily Challenges To The Business Growth Of Women’S Microenterprises In Rural Kenya, Priscilla Nyoroka Kaimathiri

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A literature gap exists on the daily challenges faced by women microentrepreneurs (MEs) in rural Kenya beyond access to financing, which impedes business growth. The purpose of this qualitative, narrative inquiry study was to gain a deeper understanding of the daily challenges for business growth faced by women MEs in rural Kenya after microfinance accessibility. The narrative inquiry method was used to address the problem and answer the research question using interview data from 10 women MEs in rural Kenya. This study was framed by two key concepts aligning with the purpose of the study: (a) Muñoz and Kimmitt’s concept …

Impact Of Leadership Style On Employee Performance In A Call Center Environment, Edwinna Joy Lashley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Call center representatives' performance may impact the operational costs and the level of quality provided to the customer. The specific management problem is the need to ensure that the organizational performance goals are met month after month by employees to reduce costs and increase the organization's efficiency. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between quality evaluation scores and average handle times of call center representatives for each of three leadership styles of front-line managers at transportation call centers in the United States. This study included the theoretical foundation of transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership theories. …

Mentoring Strategies To Enhance Employee Engagement In The Retail Industry, Cynthia June Moss

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

High levels of employee disengagement can lead to high attrition rates that impact customer satisfaction. Retail industry leaders who lack mentoring strategies can experience a decrease in productivity because of employee disengagement. Grounded in transformational leadership theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore mentoring strategies used by three retail industry leaders in the state of Virginia, who have improved employee engagement. Data were collected through semistructured interviews and the review of organizational documents that included a mentoring guide, company newsletter, and mentee core assessments. The themes that emerged from the thematic analysis were mentoring practices, …

The Relationship Between A Supervisor’S Emotional Intelligence, Employee Engagement, And Turnover Intention, Sloan Leane Rawhoof

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employee turnover costs employers billions of dollars annually, negatively impacting an organization’s bottom line. Business leaders must align employee engagement and supervisor emotional intelligence to reduce turnover and improve profitability. Grounded in employee engagement theory, the purpose of this quantitative correlational study was to examine the relationships between employee engagement, supervisor emotional intelligence, and turnover intention. Data were collected from 74 hourly employees and seven supervisors in a manufacturing company in Georgia using two paper surveys for hourly employees and one online survey for supervisors. Multiple regression analysis was performed on the data, assumptions were evaluated, and no violations were …

The Impact Of Assertiveness And Religiosity On The Expression Of Dissent Among U.S. Immigrant Nigerian Workers, Peter Osiabia Azorji

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractScholars have studied dissent in general, but few have focused on the impact of cultural contexts and characteristics on dissent. Literature on the influence of cultural factors on expression of disagreement in organizations, by immigrant Nigerian workers in the US has not received adequate attention. There is therefore a compelling need to bridge this gap. This quantitative nonexperimental correlation study examined the impact of assertiveness and religiosity (variables that may be influenced by culture), on expression of minority dissent among Nigerian immigrant workers in the United States. The inquiry was based on two theoretical models: Bourhis et al.’s interactive acculturation …

Teachers' Use Of Third Grade Reading Benchmark Assessment Data, Dana Bartlett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Third grade reading teachers at the local setting are not consistently using formative benchmark data to improve student reading performance, creating a gap in practice. This gap in practice may be due to teachers' lack of capacity to use the data to make changes to their instructional practices. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how third grade reading teachers are using data from reading benchmark assessments to improve student reading performance. This project study was guided by two research questions (RQs). RQ 1 addressed how third grade teachers are using reading benchmark assessment data to improve student …

Examining Clinicians' Perspectives Screening For Depression In Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Vickie Lavette Bland

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States has a significant diabetes problem. This chronic disease affects the body physically and mentally. One of the emotional effects of diabetes is depression. Depression is often present in individuals with diabetes, chiefly in those with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). While depression is common in T2DM and can interfere with treatment adherence, clinician screening for depression in T2DM patients is low. The purpose of this study was to examine clinicians' attitudes, behaviors, and perceptions concerning screening patients with T2DM for depression. Through a qualitative case study approach centered on reasoned action theory, 3 physicians and 5 nurse …

Knowledge And Perceptions Of Antibiotic Resistance Stewardship Among Prehealth And Agriculture Students, Claudia Maria Da Silva Carvalho

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The global threat of antibiotic resistant infection has resulted in health organizations to compile an antibiotic stewardship program, in which the education of current/future medical prescribers and farmers is central for the preservation of current and future antimicrobial treatments. The purpose of this study was to assess and compare the knowledge and perceived threat of antibiotic and antibiotic resistance, as well as the perceived benefit of antibiotic stewardship, among undergraduate students in biology and agriculture at a state university in Kansas. Framed by the health belief model, a cross-sectional study was conducted using a structured online survey of 136 undergraduate …

Exploring The Influences Of Culture On Hand-Hygiene Beliefs Of Foreign-Born Healthcare Workers, Sheila Blanche Davis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe hand-hygiene practices of nonadherent health care workers (HCWs) are a major threat to patient safety and thus continue to be a concern for healthcare leaders and administrators worldwide. Healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), which are linked to HCWs' unclean hands, are prevalent throughout global healthcare settings. Global migration in the nursing profession and intercontinental travel among direct patient care providers make it challenging for healthcare leaders to sustain HCWs' adherence to hand-hygiene practices. The purpose of this grounded study was to explore the influence of the cultural beliefs about hand-hygiene practices of foreign-born HCWs. The theory of planned behavior was used …

Middle School Classroom Teachers' Use Of Technological Tools To Teach Scientific Inquiry, Victoria Gamble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study focused on middle school science teachers' experiences in using technological tools to teach scientific inquiry skills in the middle school science classroom. Technological tools have been increasingly used in middle schools, but knowledge is lacking as to which tools are efficient in teaching scientific inquiry skills. The purpose of this study was to gather information about the technological tools that could be adopted to make the teaching of scientific inquiry skills in middle school science classrooms more meaningful and gainful to students. The conceptual framework applied in the study was the technological, pedagogical, content knowledge (TPACK) model, as …

Stress Perceptions And Verbal Commands For Law Enforcement In High-Stress Situations, John Kenneth Gibson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Acute stress can have a negative effect on the physiology and cognitive performance of peace officers when they are engaged in high-stress situations. This could lead to injury or loss of life if a mistaken perception occurs or incorrect decision is made by the officer or suspect. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of stress for peace officers who issue verbal commands to an aggressive role-playing suspect in a use-of-force scenario. The theoretical framework was Lazarus and Folkman's transactional theory of stress and coping. Data were collected from observations, field notes, and semi-structured interviews …

Trauma Barriers To Substance Abuse Treatment Engagement Among Formerly Incarcerated Males, Eleonora Vlasta Juliana

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study explored treatment engagement among formerly incarcerated adult males in a community-based substance abuse treatment program who experienced barriers related to sexual and violent trauma histories. Fully engaging in treatment requires a readiness to become and remain sober, and for those who suffer from trauma, such readiness may be absent, and continued substance use may be their way to cope with pain. This study explored a gap in the literature concerning how sexual and violent trauma might play a role as barriers to engaging in substance abuse treatment among formerly incarcerated males. Understanding how such traumas impact treatment engagement …

The Art Of Concession In General Lotto Games, Rahul Chandan, Keith Paarporn, Dan Kovenock, Mahnoosh Alizadeh, Jason R. Marden

ESI Working Papers

Success in adversarial environments often requires investment into additional resources in order to improve one’s competitive position. But, can intentionally decreasing one’s own competitiveness ever provide strategic benefits in such settings? In this paper, we focus on characterizing the role of “concessions” as a component of strategic decision making. Specifically, we investigate whether a player can gain an advantage by either conceding budgetary resources or conceding valuable prizes to an opponent. While one might na¨ıvely assume that the player cannot, our work demonstrates that – perhaps surprisingly – concessions do offer strategic benefits when made correctly. In the context of …

Partnership, Democracy, And Self-Rule In Jewish Law, Daniel J.H. Greenwood

Touro Law Review

Liberal political theory has long relied on a metaphor of contract: autonomous adults coming together to agree, by unanimous consent, on the basic structure of a just society. But contract is a strange metaphor with which to explain society. Contract law is based on a morality of strangers acting at arms-length. In contrast, decent societies and the governments they set for themselves must be based on a commitment of mutual responsibility. What makes us fellow citizens—fellows of any variety—is accepting that we are all in this together. Jewish legal and midrashic traditions can be a useful corrective to the atomistic …

Development And Psychometric Examinations Of A Simplified Chinese Mandarin Translation And Adaptation Of The Adjustment Scales For Children And Adolescents, Gary L. Canivez, Yi Ding, Paul A. Mcdermott

Archives of Assessment Psychology

An absence of empirically validated scales limits the assessment of youth psychopathology in Chinese schools. The present study reports on the development and initial assessment of psychometric properties of a simplified Chinese Mandarin translation and adaptation of the Adjustment Scales for Children and Adolescents, a teacher-report behavior rating scale with a representative U.S. standardization sample. Comparisons of a large sample (n = 554) of Chinese elementary school students (Grade 1-6) with an age and grade matched sample (n = 709) from the ASCA standardization data found similar base rates of positive behaviors, rare problem behaviors, and common problem behaviors, suggesting …

Patient-To-Nurse Sexual Harassment, Erin Frances Micale

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Patient to nurse sexual harassment is an issue that can have significant effects on nurses physical and mental health, occupational function, and patient outcomes. It is an under-researched and often unaddressed issue, leaving many nurses unsure of what sexual harassment by a patient is and how to respond to it. This paper reviews the literature related to patient to nurse sexual harassment and the development and effectiveness of a webinar on recognizing, preventing, intervening, and coping with patient to nurse sexual harassment. The webinar is a two-hour educational program that covers topics related to what sexual harassment is, risk assessment …

Evaluation Of A Nursing-Led Telephonic Self-Management Program For Patients With Copd On Health Care Utilization, Esther Pavlovsky

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

In 2010, it was estimated that the U.S. spent approximately $50 billion to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Nurse-driven interventions are essential in value-based care. The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project is to reduce the number of preventable COPD-related admissions and emergency department (ER) visits by implementing a telephonic nurse-led evidence-based COPD self-management program. A 50-patient pilot has been initiated. A pre-and-post test will be used to evaluate the effect on preventable hospitalizations and ER visits. If the outcomes of the program are unfavorable, a root cause analysis will be conducted to obtain nursing feedback on perceived …

Preventing Recurrent Falls In Elderly Home Bound Health Plan Members, Debra Sylvester

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Falls have become a major public health concern. As the population ages, the prevalence of falls among older adults continues to increase, as does mortality and morbidity. Evidence-based assessment and intervention tools are widely available, though in practice, providers experience challenges utilizing them. Homebound older adults are at particular risk since they have mobility and transportation barriers that prevent access to community fall screening and primary care sites. This project focused on the provision of fall assessment, interventions, and coordination of fall-prevention services for community-dwelling, homebound older adults covered by a managed health plan. A standardized fall assessment and intervention …

Designed And Biologically Active Protein Lattices, Shih-Ting Wang, Brian Minevich, Jianfang Liu, Honghu Zhang, Dmytro Nykypanchuk, James Byrnes, Wu Liu, Lev Bershadsky, Qun Liu, Tong Wang, Gang Ren, Oleg Gang

Advanced Science Research Center

Versatile methods to organize proteins in space are required to enable complex biomaterials, engineered biomolecular scaffolds, cell-free biology, and hybrid nanoscale systems. Here, we demonstrate how the tailored encapsulation of proteins in DNA-based voxels can be combined with programmable assembly that directs these voxels into biologically functional protein arrays with prescribed and ordered two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) organizations. We apply the presented concept to ferritin, an iron storage protein, and its iron-free analog, apoferritin, in order to form single-layers, double-layers, as well as several types of 3D protein lattices. Our study demonstrates that internal voxel design and intervoxel encoding …

Breakdown Of Universal Scaling For Nanometer-Sized Bubbles In Graphene, Renan Villarreal, Pin-Cheng Lin, Fahim Faraji, Nasim Hassani, Harsh Bana, Zviadi Zarkua, Maya N. Nair, Hung-Chieh Tsai, Manuel Auge, Felix Junge, Hans C. Hofsaess, Stefan De Gendt, Steven De Feyter, Steven Brems, E. Harriet Åhlgren, Erik C. Neyts, Lucian Covaci, FrançOis M. Peeters, Mehdi Neek-Amal, Lino M. C. Pereira

Advanced Science Research Center

We report the formation of nanobubbles on graphene with a radius of the order of 1 nm, using ultralow energy implantation of noble gas ions (He, Ne, Ar) into graphene grown on a Pt(111) surface. We show that the universal scaling of the aspect ratio, which has previously been established for larger bubbles, breaks down when the bubble radius approaches 1 nm, resulting in much larger aspect ratios. Moreover, we observe that the bubble stability and aspect ratio depend on the substrate onto which the graphene is grown (bubbles are stable for Pt but not for Cu) and trapped element. …

Interpretive Entrepreneurs, Melissa J. Durkee

Scholarly Works

Private actors interpret legal norms, a phenomenon I call "interpretive entrepreneurship." The phenomenon is particularly significant in the international context, where many disputes are not subject to judicial resolution and there is no official system of precedent. Interpretation can affect the meaning of laws over time. For this reason, it can be a form of "post hoc" international lawmaking, worth studying alongside other forms of international lobbying and norm entrepreneurship by private actors. The Article identifies and describes the phenomenon through a series of case studies that show how, why, and by whom it unfolds. The examples focus on entrepreneurial …

Originalism From The Soft Southern Strategy To The New Right: The Constitutional Politics Of Sam Ervin Jr, Logan E. Sawyer Iii

Scholarly Works

Although originalism’s emergence as an important theory of constitutional interpretation is usually attributed to efforts by the Reagan administration, the role the theory played in the South’s determined resistance to civil rights legislation in the 1960s actually helped create the Reagan coalition in the first place. North Carolina Senator Sam Ervin Jr., the constitutional theorist of the Southern Caucus, developed and deployed originalism because he saw its potential to stymie civil rights legislation and stabilize a Democratic coalition under significant stress. Ervin failed in those efforts, but his turn to originalism had lasting effects. The theory helped Ervin and other …

One Child Town: The Health Care Exceptionalism Case Against Agglomeration Economies, Elizabeth Weeks

Scholarly Works

This Article offers an extended rebuttal to the suggestion to move residents away from dying communities to places with greater economic promise. Rural America, arguably, is one of those dying places. A host of strategies aim to shore up those communities and make them more economically viable. But one might ask, “Why bother?” In similar vein, David Schleicher’s provocative 2017 Yale Law Journal article, Stuck! The Law and Economics of Residential Stagnation urged dismantling a host of state and local government laws operating as barriers to migration by Americans from failing economies to robust agglomeration economies. But Schleicher said little …

The Settlement Trap, Lindsey Simon

Scholarly Works

Mass tort victims often wait years for resolution of their personal injury claims, but many who successfully navigate this arduous process will not receive a single dollar of their settlement award. According to applicable bankruptcy and state law, settlement payments may be an asset of the estate that the trustee, exercising its significant authority, administers and distributes to creditors instead of a claimant who had filed for bankruptcy. This distribution power maximizes repayment, a critical counterbalance to the robust protections and benefits that debtors receive in bankruptcy.

Setting aside the perceived unfairness of taking desperately needed money from tort victims, …

The Relationship Between Sexual Orientation Outness, Heterosexism, Emotion Dysregulation, And Alcohol Use Among Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Emerging Adults, Lillianne Villarreal, Ruby Charak, Rachel M. Schmitz, Claire Hsieh, Julian D. Ford

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Introduction

Research demonstrates that both proximal personal characteristics (e.g., outness, emotion dysregulation) and distal stressors (e.g., heterosexism) may be associated with harmful alcohol use among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. No study has systematically examined the factors linking LGB identity outness to harmful alcohol use. The current cross-sectional study bridges this gap by testing a sequential mediation model wherein heterosexist experiences (HE) and emotion dysregulation (ER) were hypothesized to mediate the relationship between outness and alcohol use.

Method

Participants were 264 LGB emerging adults in the age range of 18-29 years (M/SD = 25.46/2.74; 16.7% lesbian, 23.1% gay, …

State Of The University Annual Report - 2020-2021, Office Of The President, East Tennessee State University, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

Office of the President State of the University Annual Report

No abstract provided.

Optimization And Assessment Of Phytoplankton Size Class Algorithms For Ocean Color Data On The Northeast U.S. Continental Shelf, Kyle J. Turner, Colleen B. Mouw, Kimberly J.W. Hyde, Ryan Morse, Audrey B. Ciochetto

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

The size structure of phytoplankton communities influences important ecological and biogeochemical processes, including the transfer of energy through marine food webs. A variety of algorithms have been developed to estimate phytoplankton size classes (PSCs) from satellite ocean color data. However, many of these algorithms were developed for application to the global ocean, and their performance in more productive, optically complex coastal and continental shelf regions warrants evaluation. In this study, several existing PSC models were applied in the Northeast U.S. continental shelf (NES) region and compared with in situ PSC estimates derived from a local HPLC pigment data set. The …

On The Road To Translanguaging In A Dual Language Classroom: Teaching Math And Science In Mandarin And English, Xiaodi Zhou

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications

This article examines the evolving instructional practice of one Chinese dual language instructor in the US as she employs a translanguaging-inspired approach in her math and science Mandarin medium classes. Contrary to the school language allocation policy requiring 90% Mandarin in her Chinese classes, she encourages the utilization of English as well as Mandarin in her instruction. This offers comprehensible input to learners, also making possible greater student participation. Findings from observations and interviews reveal how a focus on meaning-making in instruction resulted in the gradual evolution of bilingual language use and effective communication of content by students and the …