Digital Commons Network^™

Project Management Communication Strategies To Engage Stakeholders And Improve Project Performance, Joshua Ukoha Ukoha

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Project managers’ ineffective stakeholder communication strategies lead to unsuccessful project performance. Project managers who fail to implement appropriate communication strategies can experience less engagement of their stakeholders, reduced project performance, and decreased sustainability. Grounded in the stakeholder theory, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the communication strategies project managers use to engage stakeholders and improve project performance. Participants were five project managers who successfully used communication strategies to engage stakeholders and improve project performance. Data were collected from semistructured interviews, company archival documents, and field notes and were analyzed using thematic data analysis. Four themes …

Management Motivation Strategies And Their Impact On Motivating Healthcare Employees, Ifechi Emmanuel Umeh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractHealthcare employee motivation is essential in achieving quality healthcare service delivery and mid-level healthcare managers are key sources of potential motivation for employees to achieve organizational goals. The management problem was that mid-level healthcare managers might not use the best strategies to motivate their employees. The focus of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was the lived experiences of mid-level healthcare managers and their current use and knowledge of motivational strategies as they relate to the motivation of their employees in Dallas, Texas. Using Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s theory of motivation, 15 mid-level healthcare managers working in hospital systems …

The Efficacy Of Juvenile Treatment Program Services As Evidenced By Posttreatment Re-Offenses, Michelle R. Valenzuela

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe determination of whether juvenile intervention programs are effective in the reduction of future delinquency has been an ongoing research concern among scholars for over a century. Researchers have established that intervention programs are helpful for some juveniles but have not determined if intervention treatment outcomes continued beyond adolescence. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address the efficacy of services provided within juvenile intervention programs. This study addressed these gaps in previous research, focusing on the services provided within the intervention program and outcomes of continued delinquent behaviors beyond 3 years using multiple regression analysis. Social control theory …

Barriers In Quality Healthcare Delivery In The Veterans Healthcare Systems, Kelly A. Walker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The VHA and Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) have been labeled negligent in providing healthcare for U.S. veterans. Strategies to resolve the problems included legislative changes, watchdog responsibilities, and removal of top officials within the VA. The case studies presented underscore reported problems within Veterans Healthcare Systems. The present research was conducted to determine if the negligence was the result of a toxic work environment and whether the problems continue to affect healthcare delivery to U.S. veterans. Beccaria’s Rational Choice Theory served as the theoretical basis of the research. A mixed method, transformative design was used to conduct the study. …

Guidelines For Managing Dysautonomia Dysfunction, Angela Coleman Webb

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Dysautonomia dysfunction (DD) is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system. Over 70 million people suffer from some type of DD, and the average length of time from symptoms to diagnosis is 6 years. Most facilities and providers choose not to treat DD due to the number of symptoms and the difficulty of being able to diagnose correctly. The purpose of this project study was to create guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment, and management of DD. The research question addressed the effectiveness of these guidelines to help nurses and providers caring for patients with DD provide better care. Watson’s theory …

The Connection Between Positive Coping Skills And Cutting For Young Adults In Adolescence, Nicoletta Weide

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

According to recent studies, the instances of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) in adolescents have sharply risen in recent years. Cutting is the most prevalent form of NSSI in adolescence which leads to scarring, social stigma, and an increased risk of suicide. NSSI and cutting are considered maladaptive coping skills. The purpose of this general qualitative study is to explore how positive coping skills and self-regulation impacted their instances of cutting. Self-regulation theory was used to analyze if having positive alternative skills was enough to regulate the behavior and have an impact on their instances of cutting. This general qualitative research study …

The Effects Of Authentic Leadership On Individual Occupational Well-Being, Tedd Allen Wheeler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders play a critical role in an organization, and their presence and behavior significantly affect nonmanagement employee work performance, behavior, and well-being. Authentic leadership has a positive effect on an organization. The problem was nonmanagement employees spend so much time at work and desire meaningful experiences and relationships during the workday to counter feelings of uncertainty and a lack of job satisfaction. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to identify and report the lived experiences of nonmanagerial employees of the architect, engineer, and construction (AEC) industry located in the Northeastern United States about work-related well-being defined as people’s …

Strategies To Enhance Leadership Development Of Midlevel Managers, Elizabeth Wiebe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational executives annually invest more than $50 billion in leadership development worldwide. Nonetheless, human resources (HR) managers are concerned that leadership development initiatives prove inadequate in delivering learning outcomes equal to the investment, leaving midlevel managers ill-prepared to lead. Guided by experiential learning theory, this qualitative multiple-case study was conducted to explore strategies HR managers use to enhance the leadership development of midlevel managers. A purposeful sample included three HR managers from three organizations located in a west coast metropolitan area in Canada who successfully implemented leadership development strategies. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and organizational documents. Informed by …

Military Emergency And Critical Care Nurses’ Lived Experiences Of Resilience, Carla Ann Wiese

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Resilience has been studied across a myriad of populations. Many resilience studies have focused on military service members, including military healthcare personnel, specifically nurses. Although many quantitative resilience studies have been conducted, there have been few qualitative studies in this area. Qualitative studies have focused solely on spiritual resilience, although mixed methods studies have identified other resilience characteristics. The aim of this descriptive phenomenological study was to identify resilience characteristics through rich description within the situational and philosophical patterns of resilience and gain a better understanding of how emergency and critical care military nurses honed resilience in the face of …

Weight Management Clinical Practice Guidelines For The Obese, Pre-Diabetic, And Diabetic Population, Dawn Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractDiabetes is among chronic or lifestyle-related illnesses posing health care challenges at epidemic proportions, pressuring health care systems infrastructure for positive outcome-driven practices and sustainable costs, as continued research suggests that obese people are up to 80 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. In June 2021, a weight-loss and wellness center serving this high-risk population established recommended guidelines for Hemoglobin A1C (HbA1C) screening and education. During the initial 3 months of implementation, data findings captured 37% in a total of 220 with elevated HbA1C levels. The gap in practice is that the Wellness Center did not have a …

Exploring The Behavioral Health Clinician Shortage At A Rural Midwestern U.S. Agency, Tracy L. Wilson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Behavioral health clinician shortages are a significant and ongoing problem in the United States, especially in rural areas, which have higher rates of homelessness, suicide, substance use, and violence rates than urban areas. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore factors contributing to the behavioral health clinician shortage in a rural midwestern U.S. public health department. The goal was to gain a better understanding of this shortage and explore strategies and solutions for recruiting and retaining behavioral health clinicians at the agency’s facilities. The Baldrige excellence framework undergirded the investigation. Data sources included interviews with three administrative …

Fidelity Of Implementation Of A Balanced Literacy Program In The Elementary Classroom, Shalonda Young

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe local problem is that literacy in the target school district continues to rank below the state average and the fidelity of implementation (FOI) of balanced literacy (BL) has not been addressed since BL was initiated in 2014 to address student literacy achievement. Teachers reported limited professional development (PD) and lack of motivation to implement BL as designed. The purpose of this basic qualitative research study was to explore elementary English language arts (ELA) teachers’ and support staff personnel’s perceptions of the FOI of a BL program in the target school district ELA classrooms to determine in what ways the …

Smoking Cessation: Factors That Determine Cigarette Smokers Lived Experiences To Quit, John F. Zogbo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractSmoking is a serious public health problem because of its close link to health conditions such as lung cancer. Smoking cessation has received significant attention in research that contributes to successful quitting, but not much is known about smokers’ reasons for and experiences of quit attempts. This qualitative phenomenological study explored factors that contribute to failed quit attempt experiences among adults 18–40 years old. The researcher recruited 30 participants, 22 males, and eight females, who had participated in a cessation program with the Indiana Department of Health, but failed to quit, or had successfully quit but who had returned to …

Elementary Teacher Perceptions Of Blended Learning In The Digital Classroom, Sarah Cummings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Blended learning is an instructional model in which instruction is delivered using a combination of traditional teaching methods and online learning materials such as digital textbooks, virtual textbooks, and teacher-made videos. The problem was that elementary teachers in local schools were not implementing blended learning as intended by the school’s improvement plan. The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of elementary teachers in Grades 3-5 who have experience using blended learning. The framework for the study is the complex adaptive blended learning system (CABLS) because it helps examine the blended learning elements and the changes that result …

Claudia Donoso, Juan Ochoa

Latinx Civil Rights

Dr. Donoso discusses a variety of topics centered around immigration. She highlights the immigration process and lack of adequate resources for immigrants while also going into depth about political and economic factors. Dr. Donoso shares both personal and professional perspectives of immigration.

Centering Educational Resilience On Mission Through Research, Professional Development, And Collaborative Teaching, Anneris Coria-Navia Phd, Glynis M. Bradfield

Faculty Publications

External triggers such as the global pandemic have inevitably caused paradigm thinking shifts. These challenging times present opportunities to reimagine the possibilities of Seventh-day Adventist Education in the areas of research, professional development, crisis management, differentiating instruction, collaborative learning, and holistic student service in person and online. Supported by action research, this presentation reviews effective teaching frameworks and best practices that education in varied contexts can leverage to transform the challenges into opportunities for philosophical realignment spurring renewal of mission and improvement of practice. Through the study and reflection of our own educational experience through crisis, we present lessons learned …

Seguindo O Dinheiro, Fabiana Turino, Gabriella Barreto Soares, Gabriella B De Castro, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira

Gastón Institute Publications

Este artigo analisou a atuação das organizações sociais de saúde (OSS) no Sistema Único de Saúde (SUS) e o uso dos contratos de gestão e dos termos aditivos como instrumentos de privatização. O objetivo foi compreender os processos que legitimam a privatização, a partir da quantificação dos valores financeiros repassados por meio de contratos de gestão e termos aditivos para as organizações que firmaram contratos com a Secretaria Municipal de Saúde do Rio de Janeiro (SMS-RJ), Brasil, entre 2009 e 2018. Foi desenvolvido um estudo descritivo e exploratório com abordagem mista para analisar os valores repassados às OSS. Trabalhou-se com …

Connecting Implementation Science Community Engaged Research, Shoba Ramanadhan, S T Donaldson, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, Vish Viswanath

Gastón Institute Publications

The Outreach Core of the U54 Partnership between the Dana-Farber/Harvard Cancer Center and the University of Massachusetts Boston created a new model for addressing cancer inequities that integrates implementation science, community- engaged research, and health promotion. Key elements of the approach include engaging a Community Advisory Board, supporting students from underrepresented minority backgrounds to conduct health promotion and community-engaged research, increasing the delivery of evidence-based cancer prevention programs to underserved communities (directly and by training local organizations), supporting research-practice partnerships, and disseminating findings. Our model highlights the need for long-term investments to connect underserved communities with evidence-based cancer prevention.

Outcome Measure Of Female Inmates In West Amazon, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, Luiz C De Abreu, Italla M Pinheiro Bezerra

Gastón Institute Publications

Introduction: the prison system in the Brazilian state of Acre, located in the Western region of the Amazon, is a branch of the criminal justice system that has been suffering from issues such as overcrowding and growth in internal organized crime. The prevalence of these matters directly affects the resocialization of prisoners and inhibits the successful re-engineering of their social values and beliefs. Objective: to analyze the epidemiological profile of jailed women in the State of Acre, Brazil. Methods: in a cross-sectional descriptive study, 129 participants were recruited from female penitentiaries in the state of Acre. Conducted between August and …

Internalization Of Appearance Ideals And Not Religiosity Indirectly Impacts The Relationship Between Acculturation And Disordered Eating Risk In South And Southeast Asian Women Living In The United States, Sonakshi Negi, Erik M Benau, Megan Strowger, Anne Claire Grammer, C Alix Timko

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Objective: Studies that examine disordered eating in samples of Asian individuals living in the United States frequently combine all individuals of Asian descent into a single group, which can obscure important differences between groups and their experiences of acculturation. The goal of the present study was to establish the relation of acculturation, internalization of appearance ideals, and religiosity as predicting body dissatisfaction and disordered eating in women of South and Southeast Asian (SSEA) descent.

Method: Women of SSEA descent (

Results: Direct paths from acculturation to both body dissatisfaction and disordered eating were not significant. Thin ideal internalization completely accounted …

Advances In Understanding Interferon-Mediated Immune Responses To Enteric Viruses In Intestinal Organoids, Lila S Nolan, Megan T Baldridge

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Interferons (IFN) are antiviral cytokines with critical roles in regulating pathogens at epithelial barriers, but their capacity to restrict human enteric viruses has been incompletely characterized in part due to challenges in cultivating some viruses

Fadu Head And Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma Induces Hyperexcitability Of Primary Sensory Neurons In An In Vitro Coculture Model, Megan L Uhelski, Aysegul Gorur, Ted Shi, German Corrales, Kim N Du, Yan Li, Moran Amit, Claudio E Tatsui, Laurence D Rhines, Patrick M Dougherty, Juan P Cata

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: Currently, cancer pain is viewed as a process orchestrated by the release of pronociceptive molecules and the invasion of neural structures, referred to as perineural invasion (PNI). Cancer pain resulting from PNI is well-documented, but the mechanisms leading to peripheral sensitization because of tumor growth are not fully known.

Methods: A retrospective study was used to examine how the use of anti-inflammatory medications affected preoperative pain in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma cancer. We then used an in vitro coculture model in which dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons were incubated together with Fadu human head and neck squamous …

Serglycin Is Involved In Tgf-Β Induced Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition And Is Highly Expressed By Immune Cells In Breast Cancer Tissue, Marta Tellez-Gabriel, Xavier Tekpli, Trine M Reine, Beate Hegge, Stephanie R Nielsen, Meng Chen, Line Moi, Lisa Svartdal Normann, Lill-Tove R Busund, George A Calin, Gunhild M Mælandsmo, Maria Perander, Achilleas D Theocharis, Svein O Kolset, Erik Knutsen

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Serglycin is a proteoglycan highly expressed by immune cells, in which its functions are linked to storage, secretion, transport, and protection of chemokines, proteases, histamine, growth factors, and other bioactive molecules. In recent years, it has been demonstrated that serglycin is also expressed by several other cell types, such as endothelial cells, muscle cells, and multiple types of cancer cells. Here, we show that serglycin expression is upregulated in transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) induced epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). Functional studies provide evidence that serglycin plays an important role in the regulation of the transition between the epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes, …

Semi-Quantitative Assay To Measure Urease Activity By Urinary Catheter-Associated Uropathogens, Jesus M Duran Ramirez, Jana Gomez, Chloe L P Obernuefemann, Nathaniel C Gualberto, Jennifer N Walker

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) are one of the most common healthcare-associated infections in the US, accounting for over 1 million cases annually and totaling 450 million USD. CAUTIs have high morbidity and mortality rates and can be caused by a wide range of pathogens, making empiric treatment difficult. Furthermore, when urease-producing uropathogens cause symptomatic CAUTI or asymptomatic catheter colonization, the risk of catheter failure due to blockage increases. The enzyme urease promotes catheter blockage by hydrolyzing urea in urine into ammonia and carbon dioxide, which results in the formation of crystals that coat the catheter surface. If CAUTI is …

Loss Of Function Of Wfs1 Causes Er Stress-Mediated Inflammation In Pancreatic Β-Cells, Shuntaro Morikawa, Lindsey Blacher, Chinyere Onwumere, Fumihiko Urano

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Wolfram syndrome is a rare genetic disorder characterized by juvenile-onset diabetes mellitus, optic nerve atrophy, hearing loss, diabetes insipidus, and progressive neurodegeneration. Pathogenic variants in the

Diabetic Retinopathy As A Predictor Of Cardiovascular Morbidity And Mortality In Subjects With Type 2 Diabetes, Joan Barrot, Jordi Real, Bogdan Vlacho, Pedro Romero-Aroca, Rafael Simó, Didac Mauricio, Manel Mata-Cases, Esmeralda Castelblanco, Xavier Mundet-Tuduri, Josep Franch-Nadal

2020-Current year OA Pubs

This study aimed to evaluate the predictive value of diabetic retinopathy (DR) and its stages with the incidence of major cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) persons in our large primary healthcare database from Catalonia (Spain). A retrospective cohort study with pseudo-anonymized routinely collected health data from SIDIAP was conducted from 2008 to 2016. We calculated incidence rates of major cardiovascular events [coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, or both-macrovascular events] and all-cause mortality for subjects with and without DR and for different stages of DR. The proportional hazards regression analysis was done to assess the …

Low Cancer Incidence In Naked Mole-Rats May Be Related To Their Inability To Express The Warburg Effect, Pedro Freire Jorge, Matthew L Goodwin, Maurits H Renes, Maarten W Nijsten, Matthew Pamenter

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Metabolic flexibility in mammals enables stressed tissues to generate additional ATP by converting large amounts of glucose into lactic acid; however, this process can cause transient local or systemic acidosis. Certain mammals are adapted to extreme environments and are capable of enhanced metabolic flexibility as a specialized adaptation to challenging habitat niches. For example, naked mole-rats (NMRs) are a fossorial and hypoxia-tolerant mammal whose metabolic responses to environmental stressors markedly differ from most other mammals. When exposed to hypoxia, NMRs exhibit robust hypometabolism but develop minimal acidosis. Furthermore, and despite a very long lifespan relative to other rodents, NMRs have …

Immune Deconvolution And Temporal Mapping Identifies Stromal Targets And Developmental Intervals For Abrogating Murine Low-Grade Optic Glioma Formation, Amanda De Andrade Costa, Jit Chatterjee, Olivia Cobb, Elizabeth Cordell, Astoria Chao, Suzanne Schaeffer, Andrea Goldstein, Sonika Dahiya, David H Gutmann

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Brain tumor formation and progression are dictated by cooperative interactions between neoplastic and non-neoplastic cells. This stromal dependence is nicely illustrated by tumors arising in the Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) cancer predisposition syndrome, where children develop low-grade optic pathway gliomas (OPGs). Using several authenticated

METHODS: A combination of bulk and single-cell RNA mouse optic nerve sequencing, immunohistochemistry, T cell assays, and pharmacologic and antibody-mediated inhibition methods were used in these experiments.

RESULTS: We show that T cells and microglia are the main non-neoplastic immune cell populations in both murine and human LGGs. Moreover, we demonstrate that CD8

CONCLUSIONS: Collectively, …

Tourette Syndrome Research Highlights From 2021, Andreas Hartmann, Per Andrén, Cyril Atkinson-Clement, Virginie Czernecki, Cécile Delorme, Nanette Marinette Debes, Natalia Szejko, Keisuke Ueda, Kevin J. Black

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We summarize selected research reports from 2021 relevant to Tourette syndrome that the authors consider most important or interesting. The authors welcome article suggestions and thoughtful feedback from readers.

Deep Learning Auto-Segmentation Of Cervical Skeletal Muscle For Sarcopenia Analysis In Patients With Head And Neck Cancer, Mohamed A Naser, Kareem A Wahid, Aaron J Grossberg, Brennan Olson, Rishab Jain, Dina El-Habashy, Cem Dede, Vivian Salama, Moamen Abobakr, Abdallah S R Mohamed, Renjie He, Joel Jaskari, Jaakko Sahlsten, Kimmo Kaski, Clifton D Fuller

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background/purpose: Sarcopenia is a prognostic factor in patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). Sarcopenia can be determined using the skeletal muscle index (SMI) calculated from cervical neck skeletal muscle (SM) segmentations. However, SM segmentation requires manual input, which is time-consuming and variable. Therefore, we developed a fully-automated approach to segment cervical vertebra SM.

Materials/methods: 390 HNC patients with contrast-enhanced CT scans were utilized (300-training, 90-testing). Ground-truth single-slice SM segmentations at the C3 vertebra were manually generated. A multi-stage deep learning pipeline was developed, where a 3D ResUNet auto-segmented the C3 section (33 mm window), the middle slice of the …