Digital Commons Network^™

Weekly Team Validation Rounding Focused On Chlorhexidine Gluconate Bathing And Bath Completion And Documentation Compliance, La-Toya Therese Fong

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This quality improvement project evaluated whether weekly team validation rounding improved chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) bath completion and documentation compliance among eligible adult inpatients, with particular attention to differences in compliance outcomes between Pod 5C and Pod 4B. Background. Hospital-acquired infections continue to increase morbidity, mortality, length of stay, and healthcare costs. Although CHG bathing is an evidence-based strategy for reducing infection risk and the transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms, inconsistent documentation at the practicum site limited accurate monitoring of compliance across validation data, electronic medical record documentation, and DOMO reports. Method. Participants included eligible adult inpatients admitted within the previous 24 …

Fellowship Graduates’ Perceptions Of The Professional Competencies Developed In A Local Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy Program In The Southern United States, Margaret Elaine Lonnemann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Orthopedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) fellowship programs focus on improving clinical skills and professional development in physical therapy. OMPT fellowship programs are 1–3-year postprofessional subspecialty training programs in manual physical therapy requiring prior orthopedic clinical experience. The problem that was addressed in this study is that professional competencies are not adequately assessed after program completion of an OMPT fellowship in the Southern United States. Grounded in Dreyfus’s skill acquisition model, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore OMPT fellowship graduates’ perceptions of the professional competencies developed and recommendations for assessing these competencies in future graduates. Data were …

Postsecondary Experiences And Impact On Career Choices And Employment Status For Cisgender Women With Autism, Maureen Bell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cisgender women with autism remain underrepresented in research on postsecondary education and career development despite experiencing distinct barriers within these systems. This qualitative study examined how cisgender women with autism perceived the impact of their postsecondary education experiences on career choices and employment navigation. Guided by the social model of disability and intersectionality theory, nine postsecondary participants formally diagnosed with autism and who self-identified as cisgender completed semistructured interviews exploring their educational and employment experiences. Thematic analysis identified seven interconnected themes. Findings indicated that academic success often masked significant internal distress, suggesting that performance did not reflect accessible environments. Participants …

Kindergarten Classroom Educators’ Perceptions Of Social Emotional Learning Implementation, Thomasina A. Millner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that research on social emotional learning (SEL) has largely focused on student outcomes, program effectiveness, and implementation practices, but limited research has examined kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of implementing SEL. Grounded in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework, the purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of SEL implementation. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with nine kindergarten educators who had at least 1 year experience implementing SEL were conducted. Through thematic data analysis the following five themes emerged: Educators noted (1) that SEL is …

A Phq-9 Depression Screening Staff Education Program For Outpatient Nurses, Kaliym Hassaan Howell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was an educative project to improve staff knowledge of the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) in an outpatient behavioral health unit. The PHQ-9 is a nine-item depression screening scale to evaluate depressive symptoms presence and severity (Ford et al., 2020; Negeri et al., 2021; Stanyte et al., 2023). One identified practice issue was a knowledge gap in administration, scoring, and interpretation of PHQ-9 among nurses, which was noted by inconsistencies in the interpretation and use of the tool. Since nurses are essential in PHQ-9 administration and interpretation, systematic education was needed to enhance competency. …

Protecting America’S Critical Infrastructure: A Shared Responsibility In An Era Of Escalating Cyber Threats, Alan Saquella

Publications

The recent cyberattacks targeting municipal water facilities across multiple U.S. states serve as another reminder that America’s critical infrastructure remains under constant attack. According to the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), attackers successfully compromised operational technology (OT) devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), by exploiting Internet-connected systems, changing administrator credentials, and disrupting normal operations. Fortunately, local operators responded quickly by isolating affected systems, restoring backups, and preventing what could have become a significant public health crisis.

While these incidents focused on water treatment facilities, they represent a much larger national security issue. …

Topology-Aware Graph Neural Network With Spatiotemporal Encoding And Contrastive Learning For Scalable Dynamic Network Representation, Wassan S. Hayale, Rasha S. Ali, Raghda Abd Ul Rab Abd Ul Hasan, Lateef Abd Zaid Qudr, Safwan Nadwe, Nitin S. Solke, Ravi Sekhar, Pritesh Shah, Reyad Omran Essa

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

Recently, Dynamic Graph Neural Networks (DGNNs) have become a potent candidate to model time-changing graphs, although other solutions, including Temporal Graph Networks (TGN), Evolving Graph Convolutional Networks (EvolveGCN), and Dynamic Self-Attention Networks (DySAT), still have significant barriers to scalability, computational efficiency, and temporal embedding drift. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper presents a Topology-Aware Graph Neural Network (TAGNN) model capable of incorporating graph-topology encoding and the spatiotemporal memory mechanisms into the learning process of dynamic node representation. The proposed framework includes three key components: (i) returns global and local structural data such as graph Laplacian-based feature transformations and position encodings, …

Deep Sequencing Analysis Of Mitochondrial Dna Heteroplasmy Transmission And The Genetic Bottleneck Effect In Mother-Daughter Pairs, Mayyahi Mohammed T. Jaber, Sarah Talib Al-Mofarji, Zahraa Mustafa Al-Jumaa, Nisred Klichkhanov

Muthanna Medical Journal

The inheritance pattern of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) from mother to offspring is well known, but the dynamics of heteroplasmy, the coexistence of more than one type of mtDNA molecule per cell, as well as the influence of the Genetic Bottleneck on the Variant Allele Frequency (VAF), are still under active research investigation. This study was conducted with the objective of detecting and analyzing the inheritance pattern of low levels of heteroplasmy across the Whole Mitochondrial Genome (WMS) within 100 phenotypically normal mother-daughter pairs. Blood DNA samples were used for extracting DNA, followed by Whole Mitochondrial Genome Sequencing with a depth …

Molecular Characterization Of Pasteurella Multocida Capsular Type A Strains Isolated From Different Regions Of Anatolia, Türkiye​, Adam Bashir Tawor, Osman Ergani̇ş, Asli Balevi̇, Suliman Mohamed Yousof Sadam

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

Pasteurella multocida serotype A is an important pathogen that causes respiratory illness in both farm animals and poultry, leading to severe economic losses worldwide. This study aimed to isolate P. multocida capsular type A (capA) as well as investigate the virulence-associated genes (VAGs) within the isolates. Samples (n = 250) were collected in the Anatolia region from cattle (n = 130), sheep (n = 70), goats (n = 45), and pet birds (n = 5) with clinical respiratory signs. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays were conducted using kmt1 and capA primers for P. multocida species identification and capsular serogroup A …

Effect Of Rangeland Quality On Rumen Development Of Angora (Mohair) Goat Kids And Bucks, Betül Zehra Sariçi̇çek

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

This study was conducted to determine the effect of rangeland quality on the rumen development of Angora goat kids and bucks. Twenty male singleton Angora goat kids with similar birth dates and birth weights were selected from each farm in an area with three different rangeland quality levels (good, medium, or poor) in Ankara Province. The kids were weaned at 60 days of age and then grazed completely on rangeland until slaughter. Rumen volumetric and papillary development of animals slaughtered at 4 and 7 months of age were determined. Empty rumen length, width, and weight were affected by rangeland quality …

Arterial Architecture Of The Goat Spleen (Capra Hircus) Revealed By Corrosion Casting And Scanning Electron Microscopy, Baran Erdem, Sevi̇nç Ateş, Meryem Karan

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

The spleen is an essential organ involved in hematopoietic and immune functions. A comprehensive understanding of its anatomy, including vascular topography and segmentation, is essential for the accurate diagnosis and treatment of splenic diseases, and the minimization of complications during surgical procedures. Detailed knowledge of the vascular architecture also supports the accurate prediction and management of hemorrhage severity in cases of splenic rupture. The spleen’s microvascular system has a unique and complex organization that is distinct from other organs, and its elucidation is critical for understanding splenic function. In the present study, the spleens of 20 hair goats were examined. …

Hard Palate Morphology In The Anatolian Water Buffalo (Bubalus Bubalis), Mehmet Can, Şükrü Hakan Atalgin, Mehmet Faruk Aydin, Soner Bekmezci̇

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

This study aimed to examine the morphological and histological features of the hard palate in the Anatolian water buffalo through light and scanning electron microscopy, complemented by gross and morphometric evaluations. Eight hard palates were used in the study. A total of eight Anatolian water buffalo heads from healthy adult female water buffaloes were collected immediately after slaughter from various slaughterhouses in Balıkesir, Türkiye. After analyzing and identifying the obtained hard palate samples, measurements were taken and documented through photography. The papilla incisiva, located in the middle of the caudal concave edge on the ventral surface of the pulvinus dentalis, …

Non-Violent Re-Articulation Of Masculinities: Art, Youths, And Peace Preservation In Post-Conflict Ambon Island, Wening Udasmoro, Leo Marai, Russell Soaba, Philip Aratiso, Jemmy Talakua

Kritika Kultura

Art as a mechanism for fostering peace in conflict resolution and peace maintenance can be found in different social experiences. The Ambon conflict that occurred in 1999 following the fall of Indonesia’s New Order government ended in 2002, but the potential for inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts is still a concern for many members of the Ambon community in Maluku Province. In an effort to maintain peace, various elements of the Ambon society continuously engage themselves in various activities to preserve peace. One consistent element in these peace preservation efforts is the youth of Ambon, who employ art as a means …

Building Ties, Connecting Islands: Api Kartini's Longing For An Affective Community During The Cold War, Asri Saraswati

Kritika Kultura

This article discusses the inter-class and cross-oceanic ties envisioned by socialist women’s organization Gerakan Wanita Indonesia (Indonesian Women Movement or Gerwani) through an analysis of their magazine, Api Kartini (AK). The magazine published fiction and non-fiction writings that reveal their affective impulse to build connection as they shared their observations of the women’s movement and labor in Indonesia and abroad. The magazine addressed middle-class women and wives, connecting them emotionally with women of the working class and women organizations across the oceans in their rejection to colonialism and feudalism and their fight for equal rights. This article aims to understand …

Neoliberal Postmodernism, The Cultural Logic Of Buji’S Storytime: A Case Study On The Political Economy Of The Commodified Influencer, Ma. Rosa Cer Bragais

Kritika Kultura

With the ubiquity of social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, influencers or “digital content creators” have taken current Filipino popular culture by storm, spurring an enormous volume of discourse and becoming trendsetters and role models. This paper focuses on the case of professional influencer Buji Babiera, a bicycle advocate turned storyteller who shares random narratives, such as urban legends and slice-of-life anecdotes, on his main platform Storytime on TikTok. I sought to answer how underlying neoliberal political economic structures, as embedded in Storytime’s production processes, relate with the distinctively postmodern character of its content. Guided by Marxist political economy …

Reconfiguring "National Allegory" In A Critique Of The Philippine Neocolonial Experience, Epifanio San Juan Jr.

Kritika Kultura

With appropriate adjustments, Jameson’s theory of national allegory can serve as a serviceable frame to interpret Filipino texts. Allegory as figuration or image-thinking aims to resolve conceptual blockage or theoretical dead-ends. Analyzing an exemplary story by Lualhati Bautista, this essay seeks to demonstrate how the author’s mode of representation captures the effect of combining feudal-archaic and capitalist modes of production in the lives of typical characters. Private thoughts and feelings conflict with public norms in the predicament of two uprooted protagonists caught in the crisis of a disaggregated polity. The Philippine social formation as a dependent entity exemplifies the mix …

Blue Humanities Currents: Ruth Ozeki’S A Tale For The Time Being And Kim Stanley Robinson’S New York 2140, Simon C. Estok

Kritika Kultura

Literary representations of ocean currents are important in a time such as ours when the patterns of the global water cycles are changing. Ruth Ozeki’s A Tale for the Time Being and Kim Stanley Robinson’s New York 2140 each, in different ways, imagine personal impacts of global water patterns. For Ozeki, the interconnections between oceanic and terrestrial processes manifest along the shores of the Pacific Northwest in the wake of the March 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan. For Robinson, the changes in ocean currents are clearly an effect of climate change, and we witness a kind of …

The Effects Of Using Home Language Vs English In Teaching Safety Skills, Emma Ruiz

Thesis Projects

Cultural competence and cultural awareness are terms that have started to become more widely used when discussing how therapists impact their clients. The push for cultural competence and awareness has started to create new questions about how a client’s culture can be intertwined with the services that they are receiving. The purpose of this study was to teach a combination of basic safety skills and identify if language impacted behavior. This study utilized one participant who did not acquire the skill to stop in either language. During the experiment, a third language was added to measure control; however, responding remained …

A Study Of Opinions Of Covell Students About The Adjustment Process To American Culture, Maria Victoria Ramirez

Elbert Covell College

No abstract provided.

Full Issue, Volume 14, Number 1., Donna J. Peterson Dr., Scott Cummings, Elizabeth Gregory North

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

No abstract provided.

Adaptive Health Monitoring For Runtime Safety Assurance​ Of Advanced Air Mobility Applications, Michael Budihartono, Francisco Bustamante, Gabriela Gavilanez

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This work proposes a comprehensive, adaptive framework for abnormal condition detection and flight envelope prediction in complex systems. The approach integrates data reduction techniques, including principal component analysis and lower-dimensional projections, to efficiently distinguish between nominal and abnormal operational states while maintaining computational efficiency through metacognitive interventions. A hybrid detection architecture combines bio-inspired real-value negative selection algorithms with support vector machines, augmented by generative machine learning models to synthesize failure data and support training through digital twin environments. Online fault trend analysis enables continuous monitoring of system degradation, while the system dynamically adapts to operational variations by minimizing offline training …

Impact Of Acute Flight Training Stress On Cardiovascular Health: A Pilot Study, Toni Butler

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Impact of acute flight training stress on cardiovascular health: A pilot study  Toni C. Butler, Carolina R. P. Ferreira, Bryan W. Hinton, Noah J. Robbins, Sophia R. Vaden, Andrew H. Schneider, Scott K. Ferguson, Ph.D.   Cardiovascular conditions are among the most common medical issues in certificated pilots and a major source of certification scrutiny. Student pilots experience unique acute stressors during flight training that may influence both physiological and psychological health. Acute stress is known to affect cardiovascular function, including vascular endothelial health; however, the impact of flight training–related stress on cardiovascular function remains poorly characterized. This pilot study tested …

The Effects Of Hypoxia On Balance Systems, Samuel Drescher Drescher, Heather Bond, Allysa Hayden, Victoria Cornaro, Brandon Ibarra, Noah Clark, Frank Cunningham Iv, Carolina Ferreira, Sierra Martinez, Katie Stubits

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Hypoxia, a condition characterized by insufficient oxygen availability to body tissues, is known to impair physiological and cognitive function, particularly at high altitudes above 15,000 ft. However, the effects of mild hypoxia (10,000–15,000 ft) remain less well understood. This study, conducted by the department of Human Factors and Behavioral Neurobiology at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, investigates the impact of mild hypoxia at 12,000 ft on human balance systems. Specifically, it examines the three primary components of balance: visual, proprioceptive, and vestibular systems. Participants complete nine balance tasks under both normoxic and hypoxic conditions. Tasks are structured to progressively limit sensory input: …

A Narrative-Restorative Framework For Addressing School Bullying, Tristan Patel, Michelle Myers, Daniel Stewart

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Bullying in schools is often addressed through punitive deterrence practices, solution-focused counseling, or restorative conferencing. These approaches often fail to recognize or account for the power imbalance that ultimately sustains bullying. This article discusses a narrative-restorative intervention to address bullying as a relational and communal issue, rather than relying on isolation or deterrence practices. The limitations of the dominant models discussed highlight the role of power in shaping bullying dynamics and connect legal and ethical responsibilities of narrative-restorative practices. Situated within the framework of California education law and professional ethical standards, at its core, undercover anti-bullying teams aim to redistribute …

Antimicrobial Responses Of Staphylococcus Aureus In Simulated Spaceflight Conditions, Mikayla Dutkiewicz, Yegor Bushnev

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Microbial persistence in confined environments, such as spacecraft, can pose challenges to astronaut health and habitat maintenance. This project investigates Staphylococcus aureus, a Gram-positive bacterium commonly associated with human microbiota and opportunistic infections, in spaceflight-relevant environmental conditions. Further, this project will assess the influence of the antimicrobial/antioxidant compound quercetin to assess its effects on bacterial growth and virulence under standard Earth gravity and simulated International Space Station (ISS) conditions. This approach will assess whether spaceflight-relevant stressors, including microgravity and radiation, alter treatment efficacy by influencing microbial physiology and antimicrobial susceptibility. Data collection and analysis are ongoing, and results are expected …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Mental Health: Perceptions Of Ai Therapists, Ulker Yusupova

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This study explores how people perceive Artificial Intelligence (AI) therapists compared to human therapists, focusing on differences in empathy, effectiveness, and competence. As AI tools like ChatGPT and mental health chatbots become more commonly used for emotional support, it is important to understand how users evaluate them in comparison to human professionals. To begin addressing this, in the first part of the study, participants reviewed therapist-client conversation transcripts and identified whether they believed the therapist was human or AI-generated, helping us validate the materials for the main study. Notably, initial findings suggest that participants frequently relied more on surface-level language …

The Effects Of Acute Dietary Nitrate Supplementation On The Inspiratory Muscle Metaboreflex In Young Healthy Adults, Sabrina Ehrenfort, Riley Dienna, Ben Kerns, Hannah Lyons, Rachel Phillips

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Increased work of breathing (Wb) triggers the inspiratory muscle metaboreflex, which elevates systemic blood pressure in response to diaphragmatic fatigue. To counteract this, dietary nitrate could act as a source of nitric oxide, which is known to improve muscle power and efficiency (Jones et al., 2018). This study examines the hypothesis that acute nitrate supplementation would attenuate this response. Utilizing the KH2 device from PowerBreathe, 20 healthy participants (mean age: 21.1 ± 2.5 years; range: 18–30 years) underwent a resistive breathing task (RBT) for a total of three minutes at 60% of their maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP). All 20 participants …

Environmental Ethics Of Plastics And Microplastics Manufacturing: Balancing Industrial Production And Ecological Responsibility, Arindam Gupta

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

The global production of plastics has increased dramatically over the past several decades, providing substantial economic and societal benefits while simultaneously generating complex environmental and ethical challenges. A growing body of research has identified microplastics—plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters—as persistent pollutants that accumulate in aquatic ecosystems, soil systems, and the atmosphere. These particles originate both from the degradation of larger plastic products and from direct industrial production processes used in plastics manufacturing. The ethical implications of plastics and microplastics production raise important questions about environmental responsibility, regulatory oversight, and the balance between economic development and ecological sustainability. This project …

Environmental Ethics And Impact Of Artificial Intelligence Data Centers, Jacky Yang

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Data centers, including artificial intelligence (AI) facilities, serve as the backbone for many modern digital services and products. With the rapid digitization of society, the expansion of these centers in the United States has accelerated significantly. From an anthropocentric and utilitarian perspective, they provide economic benefits, supporting employment and generating public revenue. However, they can also create a significant amount of environmental and societal challenges. From an ecocentric and environmental justice perspective, AI data centers has contributed to increased competition for the limited resources, such as water, electricity, and land and has been linked to rising utility costs, noise pollution, …

Assured Learning For Intelligent Dynamic Systems: A Metacognitive Framework, Rocio Jado Puente, Michael Budihartono, Eduar Cabrera Gaspar

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Assured Learning for Intelligent Dynamic Systems: A Metacognitive Framework   Advanced Air Mobility systems, including electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft and autonomous drone platforms, require increasingly high levels of autonomy and safety. Meeting these demands calls for intelligent systems that can adapt in real time to uncertainty and changing environmental conditions. However, traditional certification methods are not well suited to rigorously measure or quantitatively verify the performance of online learning components because of their non-deterministic behavior.   This work introduces a novel runtime safety assurance method based on a metacognitive architecture (MCA) that supervises and regulates learning-enabled components. The approach …