Digital Commons Network^™

Editor's Page, Paula Butler

Bird Observer

No abstract provided.

Joke, Holly Butler

Bird Observer

No abstract provided.

Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning In The North Shore Area Of Massachusetts, William Forward

Bird Observer

No abstract provided.

Decreasing Surgical Complications In Diabetic Patients, Bandana Mahato

DNP Qualifying Manuscripts

Executive Summary

Objective: This manuscript aims to determine if controlling diabetes prior to undergoing low back surgery could decrease complications and disability.

Contexts: Despite the overwhelming information on the complications of uncontrolled diabetes, patients continue to have elevated HgA1C before having surgery. Furthermore, there is a plethora of data showing uncontrolled diabetic patients will have higher complications after surgery, yet patients continue to have elective surgery despite having unchecked diabetes. There are no clear guidelines for primary care providers or surgeons on when they should allow patients to have elective surgery. Therefore, it is vital that HgA1c needs to be …

The Development And Evaluation Of Nurse-Created Video Modules To Encourage Healthy Behaviors Among Women With Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (Pcos), Rebecca Akers

Doctoral Projects

Problem Statement: Women with PCOS have a higher prevalence of overweight and obesity, a problem that is directly linked with many of the symptoms and long-term health problems experienced by these individuals. Research studies indicate that lifestyle modifications, including dietary changes and increased physical activity aimed at promoting weight loss, are often the initial approach to treatment, but many women fail to adopt those health-promoting behaviors, which may be due to insufficient teaching and support provided by healthcare professionals.

Purpose: Utilize Pender’s Health Promotion Model to develop and evaluate a set of educational video modules focused on encouraging women with …

Reconceptualizing Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Evolutionary Concept Analysis And Clinical Guide, Jessica Livingston

Doctoral Projects

Conflicting models of how trauma manifests into identifiable symptoms have been a source of controversy and perplexity among practicing mental health clinicians and diagnosticians. Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is now an internationally recognized diagnosis since its inclusion in the 11^th version of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) in 2018. The American Psychological Association (APA) does not share this recognition of CPTSD as an individual diagnosis and instead opted to update the diagnostic criteria for PTSD to include DSO and a 4^th category of dissociative features rather than include CPTSD as a separate …

Endometriosis And Its Effect On Women's Lives, Haley Duncan

Psychology Student Publications

My paper is about women with endometriosis, and its effects on women's lives. I discussed the disease itself, as well as its psychological and physical impacts it has on not just affected women, but their partners as well.

1756 Evaluating The Impact Of Prophylactic Intrathecal Chemotherapy In Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma (Dlbcl) Patients With High Central Nervous System International Prognostic Index (Cns-Ipi) Scores: A Comprehensive Review And Meta-Analysis, Kadhim Al-Banaa, Alfarooq Alshaikhli, Shyam Poudel, Shiva Shrotria, Can Wang, Paul Hanona, Swathi Gopishetty, Precious Idogun, Daniel Ezekwudo, Ishmael Jaiyesimi

Conference Presentation Abstracts

No abstract provided.

The Worrying Doesn't Stop, Shayla Rickford

Psychology Student Publications

This paper is all about anxiety and anxiety disorders. Within the paper I list some examples and feelings that I have had myself, as I struggle with anxiety. With use of scientific articles, I discuss a lot of what anxiety is, anxiety disorders, how people with anxiety feel, the causes of anxiety and treatment for anxiety.

Are Animals The Best Therapists?, Debra Bigelow Davis

Psychology Student Publications

Scientific Communication Paper

What Even Is Occupational Therapy, Malia Mckenzie

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

How Does Coloring Affect Your Mental Health?, Adriana Iverson

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Mind Matters: Unveiling The Dynamics Of Mental Well-Being In Adulthood Through Exercise, Madison Ahlers

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Keeping A Secret Isn't Hard! Just Lie About It!, Noelle Martin

Psychology Student Publications

This paper analyzes the negative effects of secrecy and how a person can avoid lying about unnecessary things. It uses examples from real world situations in which people lie often, creating a more relatable discussion.

Caregiving Relations To Psychology: How Respite Makes An Impact On The Community, Jada Anderson

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding College Aged Men And Eating Disorders, Katie Pierskalla

Psychology Student Publications

Eating disorders, sexual assault, and the stigma of speaking about and using resources related to mental health occur in college aged men. There are present correlations between these struggles and ways to acknowledge these patterns in order to better serve men's mental health.

The Role Of Social And Personal Competencies In Quality Teacher Instruction, Jane Blair Laoo

Ed.D. Dissertations

Despite the appropriate and high level of concern about providing high-quality core instructional practices and educating the whole child, teacher stress and inability to understand and manage emotions stood in the way of making progress. Teaching is a highly stressful profession. Researchers highlighted the need for interventions to enhance teacher abilities and promote student success, particularly in understanding social and personal competencies. The purpose of my qualitative, interpretive study was to explore elementary school teachers’ perceptions of social and personal competencies in public K-12 rural Tennessee schools to determine how schools supported teacher social and personal competencies as a way …

Predictive Looking And Predictive Looking Errors In Everyday Activities, Sophie Su

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

People spontaneously segment continuous streams of experiences into distinct episodes. Prediction errors are theorized to drive segmentation. However, existing studies exploring the relationship between prediction error and event segmentation lack a continuous measure of prediction error during naturalistic perception and often fail to distinguish between prediction error and prediction uncertainty. Do moment-by-moment fluctuation of prediction errors, not prediction uncertainty during naturalistic event perception correlate positively with segmentation probabilities? To tackle this question, we harnessed the predictive nature of eye movements and introduced a predictive looking model. In this model, individuals’ prior gaze patterns act as predictors for critical features in …

Sirtuin 6 Activation Rescues The Age-Related Decline In Dna Damage Repair In Primary Human Chondrocytes, Michaela E. Copp, Jacqueline Shine, Hannon L. Brown, Kirti R. Nimmala, Oliver B. Hansen, Susan Chubinskaya, John A. Collins, Richard F. Loeser, Brian O. Diekman

Department of Orthopaedic Surgery Faculty Papers

While advanced age is widely recognized as the greatest risk factor for osteoarthritis (OA), the biological mechanisms behind this connection remain unclear. Previous work has demonstrated that chondrocytes from older cadaveric donors have elevated levels of DNA damage as compared to chondrocytes from younger donors. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a decline in DNA repair efficiency is one explanation for the accumulation of DNA damage with age, and to quantify the improvement in repair with activation of Sirtuin 6 (SIRT6). After acute damage with irradiation, DNA repair was shown to be more efficient in chondrocytes from …

Emotions And Achievements: How To Be Your Most Successful Self, Mackenzie Amerman

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

Auditory Hallucinations, Gavin Eback

Psychology Student Publications

This is a paper providing basic information on the event of Auditory Hallucinations in a casual format. It provides information about possible causes and how auditory hallucinations function

Stress And Anxiety In College Students, Meaghan Macho

Psychology Student Publications

No abstract provided.

The Influence Of Stress On Human Behavior, Ethan Johnson

Psychology Student Publications

This paper evaluates what stress is, and the effect of stress on decision-making and relationships. This study evaluates how stress is relevant in college students.

Diet And Nutrition In Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Review Of The Literature, Scott Manski, Nicholas Noverati, Tatiana Policarpo, Emily Rubin, Raina Shivashankar

Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology Faculty Papers

Diet is thought to contribute to the development of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and may act as a mediator of inflammation in patients with IBD. Patients commonly associate their diet with symptoms and inquire about dietary modifications to manage their IBD. Without clinical guidelines and well-established nutritional data, healthcare providers managing patients with IBD may find it difficult to provide recommendations. Strong evidence for enteral nutrition, particularly in the pediatric population, has been established in Crohn's disease (CD) as a therapeutic option. Enteral nutrition may also serve as an adjunct to an exclusion diet. Recent studies such as the randomized …

Cm-Ii Meditation As An Intervention To Reduce Stress And Improve Attention: A Study Of Ml Detection, Spectral Analysis, And Hrv Metrics, Sreekanth Gopi

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Students frequently face heightened stress due to academic and social pressures, particularly in de- manding fields like computer science and engineering. These challenges are often associated with serious mental health issues, including ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), depression, and an increased risk of suicide. The average student attention span has notably decreased from 21⁄2 minutes to just 47 seconds, and now it typically takes about 25 minutes to switch attention to a new task (Mark, 2023). Research findings suggest that over 95% of individuals who die by suicide have been diagnosed with depression (Shahtahmasebi, 2013), and almost 20% of students …

Clean Energy & Sustainable Environment By Carbon Dioxide Mitigation Strategies, Md Fahim Shahriar

Mechanical Engineering Theses

Dissolution trapping is one of the most dominant mechanisms for secure storage of CO₂ injected in porous subsurface formations saturated with brine. This study uses a 2D visual Hele-Shaw cell to investigate and visualize the impact of CO₂ injection locations, reservoir dipping angle, permeability heterogeneity, and brine with different initial ionic concentrations on the density-driven convection during CO₂ dissolution (Chapter 2). Also, the role of complex heterogeneity, i.e., irregular permeability distribution in CO₂ dissolution, is investigated using a novel experimental approach to create medium permeability heterogeneity in Hele-Shaw cells (Chapter 3). We observed that the presence …

Beyond Scale-Free Networks: Integrating Multilayer Social Networks With Molecular Clusters In The Local Spread Of Covid-19, Kayo Fujimoto, Jacky Kuo, Guppy Stott, Ryan Lewis, Hei Kit Chan, Leke Lyu, Gabriella Veytsel, Michelle Carr, Tristan Broussard, Kirstin Short, Pamela Brown, Roger Sealy, Armand Brown, Justin Bahl

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

This study evaluates the scale-free network assumption commonly used in COVID-19 epidemiology, using empirical social network data from SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant molecular local clusters in Houston, Texas. We constructed genome-informed social networks from contact and co-residence data, tested them for scale-free power-law distributions that imply highly connected hubs, and compared them to alternative models (exponential, log-normal, power-law with exponential cutoff, and Weibull) that suggest more evenly distributed network connections. Although the power-law model failed the goodness of fit test, after incorporating social network ties, the power-law model was at least as good as, if not better than, the alternatives, implying …

Biophysical Study Of The Von Willebrand Factor Via Optical Tweezers—Investigating The Collagen Binding Force Profile To Distinguish Types Of Von Willebrand Disease, Leigh Hardin

Honors Theses

von Willebrand disease (vWD) is a genetic disorder due to quantitative or qualitative abnormalities of the von Willebrand factor (vWF). There are three main types of vWD in addition to acquired von Willebrand syndrome. Type 1 is due to a deficiency of vWF, while Type 3 is due to a complete absence of vWF. Type 2 is due to malformed factors and broken into four subtypes: 2A, 2B, 2M, and 2N. Each subtype corresponds to different abnormalities of the protein that affect its binding to other proteins such as collagen, Factor VIII, platelets, etc. Therefore, determining a patient’s type and …

Knowledge Of School-Based Occupational Therapists: Role In Concussion-Related Visual Impairments, Elise Cassidy, Kailyn Ebeling, Brenda O'Connell, Mackenzie Rutz, Alyson Snyder, Carla Floyd-Slabaugh

Masters Projects

Background: This study examined knowledge of school-based occupational therapists (SBOTs) regarding current concussion-related vision impairment practice patterns. There is a lack of literature on how SBOTs treat students who sustained a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), also known as a concussion.

Method: A mixed-methods survey was distributed online to SBOTs to understand what assessments and interventions are used for concussion-related visual impairments, the perceived role of SBOTs, and difficulties faced treating students with mTBIs.

Results: There were 124 potential participants that started the survey, and 35 (28.23%) completed the survey. Assessments and interventions used amongst therapists differed …

Fully-Automated, Ct-Only Gtv Contouring For Palliative Head And Neck Radiotherapy, Skylar S Gay, Carlos E Cardenas, Callistus Nguyen, Tucker J Netherton, Cenji Yu, Yao Zhao, Stephen Skett, Tina Patel, Delali Adjogatse, Teresa Guerrero Urbano, Komeela Naidoo, Beth M Beadle, Jinzhong Yang, Ajay Aggarwal, Laurence E Court

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Planning for palliative radiotherapy is performed without the advantage of MR or PET imaging in many clinics. Here, we investigated CT-only GTV delineation for palliative treatment of head and neck cancer. Two multi-institutional datasets of palliative-intent treatment plans were retrospectively acquired: a set of 102 non-contrast-enhanced CTs and a set of 96 contrast-enhanced CTs. The nnU-Net auto-segmentation network was chosen for its strength in medical image segmentation, and five approaches separately trained: (1) heuristic-cropped, non-contrast images with a single GTV channel, (2) cropping around a manually-placed point in the tumor center for non-contrast images with a single GTV channel, (3) …