Digital Commons Network^™

Detection Of Fecal Bacteria In Watersheds Impacted By Acid Mine Drainage, Claire Addison Mcdonald

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Escherichia coli, a fecal coliform, is an essential component of water quality monitoring, entering waterways through sewage deposits, agricultural land and livestock, and wildlife. Various fast and user-friendly methods for quantifying E. coli make it the principal indicator bacteria for fecal contamination. The most common methods for E. coli quantification are culture-based and involve cultivating samples onto nutrient agar and counting the visible colonies. However, E. coli can enter a viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state in stressful environments. Bacteria in a VBNC state are still alive but reduce key metabolic activities that typically encourage growth and division, allowing them …

Educating Nurses On The Progression Of Chronic Kidney Disease, Andrea Georgia Mignott

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

AbstractThe increasing prevalence and incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major healthcare burden in developed and developing countries. A gap in nursing practice was identified in a teaching and referral hospital located in Jamaica. Nurses in the organization lacked requisite knowledge and current evidence-based practice guidelines on CKD and therefore could not teach patients diagnosed with CKD. The purpose of this project was to educate nurses regarding the progression of CKD, with the aim of slowing the disease process. This Doctor of Nursing Practice project explored whether educating nurses on the progression of CKD would increase their knowledge …

Jurors' Perceptions Of Child Sexual Abuse Disclosure Patterns, Hannah Elias

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The process of child disclosure of sexual abuse can be complex. Children often disclose abuse consistently across settings (continuous disclosure), though there is research to support that children may deny abuse or recant their allegations despite the abuse having truly occurred (London et al., 2008; Bradley & Wood, 1996; Malloy, Lyon, & Quas, 2007). In this study, data was collected from voluntary MTurk users (N = 688). Mock jurors responded to a survey assessing perceptions of child credibility, defendant guilt, and child susceptibility to external influence in response to each CSA disclosure pattern (continuous disclosure, denial, recantation). Additionally, expert …

Using Distributed Leadership At The Middle School Level To Improve Academic Outcomes For Students With Disabilities, Kalisha Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The achievement gap between students with disabilities and their nondisabled peers continues to be a major issue in most school systems across the United States, with this gap expanding as students move from elementary to middle school. Using the distributed leadership framework, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore middle school principals’ perspectives on leadership practices within their instructional leadership teams that improved the academic achievement of students with disabilities. Researchers have demonstrated that distributed leadership is embodied through the collaboration of school leaders, followers, and their situation to influence organizational and instructional changes. The research question …

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus Dolomieu) Population Characteristics And An Evaluation Of Management Responses In Two West Virginia Watersheds, Jacob D. Harrell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) population characteristics were examined within the Tygart and Cheat River watersheds of north-central West Virginia. Growth, mortality and recruitment were examined for each individual population prior to modeling potential effects of various management schemes. Smallmouth Bass were sampled for total length and weight, aged using sagittal otoliths and sexed through observations of gonadal or ovarian development. Growth for each population was examined using von Bertalanffy growth models and assessed for variation among populations. Population demographic characteristics differed between and among populations, most noticeably between riverine and lacustrine habitat, whereby growth, mortality and recruitment were higher …

Workforce Development Strategies That Impact Reentry Of Released Females In New York City, Shonae L. Mills

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Formerly incarcerated women often find it difficult to reintegrate into their communities after release. For this population, adjustment to changes directly impacts their reentry success in all areas of life. Previous research has identified significant gaps in social services for formerly incarcerated females (FIFs). Service providers' perspectives about practices and policies to address the problem are inadequate, and as a result, service provisions suffer. Therefore, this qualitative study was used to examine the shared experiences of 15 workforce development professionals who assist FIFs during their reentry process to evaluate and assess the most effective methods or policies that assist this …

Assessment Of The Geographic Distribution And Tools To Assist With Conservation Of Spotted Turtles (Clemmys Guttata) In West Virginia, Joel Leal Mota

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Turtles are one of the most globally threatened vertebrate groups, largely due to habitat loss, commercial exploitation, climate change, disease, and invasive species. In the United States, the spotted turtle (Clemmys guttata) is among over 50 amphibian and reptile species recently petitioned to be listed under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service subsequently determined the spotted turtle to be a candidate species for listing. Historically, spotted turtles were known to occur at a few locations in the eastern panhandle region of West Virginia. However, previous attempts to determine the distributional extent …

Strategic Management Practices For Responsible Mining In Artisanal And Small-Scale Mining Projects, Cornelius Mireku-Antwi

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Irresponsible management practices in the Artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) industry result in wasteful mineral resource recovery and utilization. The lack of ASM managers' ability to implement responsible mining inhibits the ability to grow revenues and profits. Grounded in Mckinsey’s 7S framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies ASM managers use to establish responsible mining while also improving revenues and profits. The participants were five ASM managers from five ASM companies in Ghana. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and company public documents such as published annual reports. The four themes from the thematic …

Passive Self-Ligating Brackets Vs. Conventional Brackets: Is There A Difference In The Transverse Dimension? A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Justin Scott Tenbrook

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background and Objectives:

Self-ligating brackets have risen in popularity in clinical orthodontics, but many claims made by their manufacturers have been made without substantial evidence. Any differences among the bracket types are very small when consulting new peer reviewed literature testing their differences. Nevertheless, self-ligating brackets are still purported to be able to increase the dental transverse dimension more effectively than conventional brackets. In 2018, Yang et al. performed a systematic review on the transversal changes, space closure, and efficiency of conventional and self-ligating appliances. Since then, there were several clinical trials published in the literature comparing the mandibular arch …

From Evaluating The Performance Of Approximations In Density Functional Theory To A Machine Learning Design, Pedram Tavazohi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Density-functional theory (DFT) has gained popularity because of its ability to predict the properties of a large group of materials a priori. Even though DFT is exact, there are inaccuracies introduced into the theory due to the approximations in the exchange-correlation (XC) functionals. Over the 50 years of its existence, scientists have tried to improve the design of the XC functionals. The errors introduced by these functionals are not consistent across all types of solid-state materials. In this project, a high throughput framework was utilized to compare the theoretical DFT predictions with the experimental results available in the Inorganic Crystal …

Overeating As A Coping Response To Workplace Gender Discrimination: The Role Of Resilience And Social Support, Rosemarie Charmain Mitchell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Gender discrimination in the workplace continues to be a persistent source of stress for women even after 5 decades of antidiscrimination legislation in the United States. Women are more likely than men to cope with stress by overeating, which is a risk factor for chronic illnesses and obesity. Much less is known about the protective factors that could weaken the association between perceived stress and overeating. The purpose of this quantitative study was to address this gap in the literature by examining whether resilience and social support are moderators of the overeating response for women who have experienced gender discrimination …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Causes Of Academic Difficulties Experienced By Students Who Are Culturally And Linguistically Diverse, Courtney D. Miller

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of the study was to identify in-service general and special educators’, counselors’, and English as a Second Language educators’ perceptions of the cause of academic difficulties for students who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was used to initially collect quantitative data though an online survey with more in-depth qualitative data collected through subsequent focus groups. This design allowed the researcher to better interpret and explain the quantitative data by exploring general and special educators’, counselors’, and ESL teachers’ perceptions of the causes of academic difficulties experienced by students who are CLD, to …

Borderlands And Mestiza Consciousness In Appalachia: Latina Undergraduate Experiences In A Predominantly White Institution, Susana Mazuelas Quirce

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative phenomenological study explores the experiences of eight undergraduate Latinas in a Predominantly White Institution in the Appalachian region using Gloria Anzaldúa’s insights on Borderlands and Mestiza consciousness. A vast majority of the studies focused on the Latinx college student population that takes place in states and tertiary institutions with a dense concentration of Latinx population, leaving rural areas—especially the Appalachian region— unexplored. There is, as well, a scarcity of studies in research focused on four-year-degree-granting institutions in which Latinx are highly underrepresented. A substantial number of studies continue presenting Latinx students as a homogenous group despite their heterogeneity …

Global Engagement Model For Land-Grant Universities, A Grounded Theory., Lorena Ivonne Ballester

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study is to examine how land-grant universities engage with the public in the era of globalization; to explain the institutionalization of engagement processes accounting for the global context; and, to integrate this analysis into a Global Engagement Model for Land-Grant Universities (GEM) implementing a grounded theory research methodology.

GEM’s foundation is both theoretical and empirical. Applying the intensity sampling method, the universities selected for the empirical base were: The University of California, Davis, Michigan State University, and The Pennsylvania State University. Rather than an exact representation of individual universities’ engagement models, the model is the researcher’s …

The Most Common Vocal Fault In The Baritone Voice, Matthew Derek Cyphert

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this research project is to create an approachable guide to avoiding the most common vocal fault found in the baritone singing voice. The specific fault being discussed has been coined the “baritone swallow.” This document will explore the history of the baritone singing voice along with information regarding vocal fach identification, an in-depth study of this common vocal fault frequently experienced by baritone singers, and a fault-specific guide to identifying and addressing the “baritone swallow.”

An Exploration Of Male Ex-Offenders' Experiences Of Postsecondary Education And Reentry, Marvin Lee Moore, Jr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The research problem addressed in this study is postsecondary education in prisons, ex-offenders, and the issues surrounding their reintegration into society. The primary focus is on ex-offenders who had received postsecondary education in prison, their experience obtaining a credential, and their ability to cease criminalistic behavior. After time served and education acquired, lack of inclusion within society perpetuated the problems ex-offenders faced when reentry occurred. This study includes an exploration of the experiences of ex-offenders who had received postsecondary education while in prison. The theoretical frameworks for this study were Leibrich’s desistance theory and Bandura’s self-efficacy theory. The generic qualitative …

Self-Reported And Behavioral Perseverance Associated With The Maintenance Of Health Behaviors, Alivia Kay Frazier

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research has shown that positive psychological traits, such as perseverance, may be associated with the maintenance of health behaviors aimed to prevent commonly fatal diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, stroke). Although there is limited research in this area, the current study examined whether there was an association between self-reported perseverance, behavioral perseverance, and distress tolerance with various health behaviors (e.g., sleep, physical activity, nutrition, vaping, alcohol use, general health status, and COVID-19 behaviors). A novel methodology was implemented for this study that employed using the online mirror tracing task as a measure of behavioral perseverance.

A sample of young adult participants …

Development Of Computational Methods For Electronic Structural Characterization Of Strongly Correlated Materials: From Different Ab-Initio Perspectives, Uthpala K. Herath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The electronic correlations in materials drive a variety of fascinating phenomena from magnetism to metal-to-insulator transitions (MIT), which are due to the coupling between electron spin, charge, ionic displacements, and orbital ordering. Although Density Functional Theory (DFT) successfully describes the electronic structure of weakly interacting material systems, being a static mean-field approach, it fails to predict the properties of Strongly Correlated Materials (SCM) that include transition and rare earth metals where there is a prominent electron localization as in the case of d and f orbitals due to the nature of their spatial confinement.

Dynamical Mean Field Theory (DMFT) is …

Ecology Of Black-Legged Ticks (Ixodes Scapularis) At Fort Drum Military Installation, New York, Lucas Eli Price

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The number of confirmed cases of Lyme disease in the United States of America has risen from 12,801 cases reported in 1997, which is the earliest year these data are available, to 23,453 confirmed cases in 2019. In the eastern United States, black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are the primary vector of Lyme disease, which is caused by the spirochete bacterium, Borrelia burgdorferi. Tick abundance tends to be highest in dense forest habitats and where wildlife diversity is low. Because wildlife species have varying levels of competency as reservoir hosts, sources of tick bloodmeals influence Lyme disease ecology. …

Performance Enhancement Of Organic Light-Emitting Diodes By Electronic Doping, David A. Shelhammer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Since the invention of organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) nearly 40 years ago, significant effort has been put into realizing their full potential. OLEDs exhibit several properties that make them ideal candidates for applications in displays as well as solid-state lighting: low power consumption, high contrast ratios, mechanical flexibility, and wide viewing angles. However, the low electrical conductivity and poor stability of organic materials remain critical factors that limit device performance. The focus of this work is OLED performance improvement through the introduction of novel inorganic dopants into organic charge transport layers. The results show a significant reduction in operating voltage …

Business Strategies For Small Business Survival In Competitive Environments, Wangtzu Moualawtoua

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The majority of small business auto dealerships in the United States close due to business failure within the first 3 years of operation. Small business auto dealership owners who lack business strategies risk financial loss resulting in business failure. Grounded in the resource-based view theory, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies small business auto dealership owners used to sustain organizations beyond 5 years. There were six participants, including owners and managers from three small business auto dealerships in Sacramento, California, who used strategies to sustain business operations beyond five years. Data were collected through …

Representation Of Muslims In Time Magazine: A Corpus Linguistic Study, Constantia Rhinehart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis sought to explore the representation of Muslims in US-American

Press. In order to do this, the Time Magazine Corpus was used to observe words that collocate with the word “Muslim” in Time Magazine. The frequency of the word “Muslim” was observed for each decade and coded to determine the semantic prosody of each token. The 1960s-2006 were observed in order to provide a more comprehensive view of Muslim representation in Western media and how this representation has changed over time. The majority of collocations were considered to be neutral, however, a large number of collocations were considered …

Family Childcare Providers’ Perspectives On Participating In Quality Improvement Using National Association For Family Child Care Accreditation, Mary Muhs

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Few family child care providers attain accreditation in the research state and little research existed as to why family childcare providers make the decision to participate or not in National Association for Family Child Care Accreditation (NAFCC). The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore perspectives and experiences of family childcare providers, in the research state, regarding the decision-making process related to their participation in NAFCC Accreditation. The conceptual framework consisted of both andragogy and growth mindset; guiding the research questions to explore providers’ perspectives and experiences about the decision-making process related to participating in quality improvement initiatives and …

Survival Rate Of Dental Implants Placed In Alveolar Ridge Preservation Sites - Systematic Review, Sravanthi Papisetti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Introduction: It is not known so far performing Alveolar Ridge Preservation (ARP) in a freshly extracted socket with intact walls would improve clinical outcomes of implants placed in these sites. It is not known whether different biomaterials and techniques would affect the survival of dental implants.

Aim: The current systematic review is undertaken to assess the survival rate of dental implants placed in these sockets and to assess different socket graft materials as well as techniques of ridge preservation with regard to the survival of implants.

Material methods: Search for relevant articles was done in Medline (PubMed). No …

Nursing Education For Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections In Intensive Care Units, Carren Sandra Mullings

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Central line associated blood stream infections (CLABSIs) are the most acquired hospital infection in the United States. CLABSI is caused by bacteria that enter the bloodstream through a central line. In the United States, CLABSI has a mortality rate of 18%, and every year 250,000 people are infected. Of these, 30,000 patients die due to CLABSI infections, hospital stays are prolonged, and hospital costs are increased. Patients in an intensive care unit (ICU) are more exposed to CLABSI because of procedures that break tissues and skin, such as the insertion of a central line. A gap in practice was identified …

How Teachers Support Students' Nutrition And Healthy Choices To Reduce Childhood Obesity, Angela Munns

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Obesity is an issue that negatively effects the health and wellbeing of children across theU.S. The problem addressed by this study was the increasing percentage of obesity among elementary students in a southeastern school district. Guided by Bandura’s social learning theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions of elementary teachers about increasing student obesity and the challenges they faced in teaching students about health issues in the local school setting. Ten elementary teachers who had knowledge of nutrition and awareness of the student obesity and overweight issues at the study site participated in semistructured …

Screen Media Use Among Children And Adolescents – Applications Of Supervised And Unsupervised Machine Learning And Sentiment Analysis, Yifan Zhang

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Screen media has become increasingly pervasive in our everyday lives and has profoundly changed the way people communicate and interact with each other. However, we are still unclear about the long-term influence of screen media use on our physical health, mental health, and social wellbeing. Children and adolescents are in an important stage of brain development and are susceptible to the environmental influence that screen media possess. This dissertation pursued three aims to address research gaps related to screen media use among children and adolescents: 1) identify topics and knowledge gaps in screen media use research among children and adolescents …

Project Management Strategies For Success—The Case Of Zambia, Ngoza Chilonga Munthali

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Construction project managers who fail to implement infrastructure projects successfully negatively impact organizational performance and profitability. Grounded in the contingency management conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore strategies Zambian construction project managers use to avoid infrastructure project failure. The participants comprised five construction project managers in Lusaka, Zambia, who reduced infrastructure project failures. Data were collected from semistructured interviews and a review of organization project documents. The Marshal and Rossman seven-step process was used to analyze the data. The following themes emerged: effective project planning, execution, and closure; effective communication; and effective collaboration …

Quantifying Water Security In West Virginia And The Potomac River Basin, Eric Carl Edvard Sinius Sjostedt

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

All healthy ecosystems, communities, and economies are founded on access to clean, adequate water sources to support ecosystem services, provide clean drinking water, and allow the production of water-intensive goods and services. The state of available water resources must be analyzed through the lens of water security, defined as the capability to safeguard sustainable access to adequate quantities of acceptable quality water for people, the economy, and ecosystems. Mountain regions are sources of freshwater resources for downstream regions, which produce disproportionately higher runoff than downstream regions. As a result, mountain regions are often referred to as natural water towers …

Thermochemical Water-Splitting Using Novel High-Entropy Perovskite Oxides, Hector Alexis De Santiago Hernandez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this project, we designed, synthesized, and tested the transformative (La_0.8Sr_0.2)(Mn_[1-x]/3Fe_[1-x]/3Co_xAl_[1-x]/3)O₃ (0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0) high-entropy perovskite oxides (HEPOs) as redox active oxygen carriers for thermochemical hydrogen production with improved stability, kinetics, and H₂ yield. The developed HEPOs form an R3c (hexagonal) phase and were successfully synthesized using both the Pechini and solid-state reactions with the latter synthesis being the primary source for testing. These innovative perovskites demonstrated an improved kinetics with oxygen surface exchange coefficient, k, greater than 7.5 x 10^-4 cm/s, …