Digital Commons Network^™

Strategies Managers Used To Mitigate Constraints For Project Success, Teela Washington

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Persistent project failures result in significant financial losses and reduced project management efficacy. Project managers who struggle to complete projects to scope, on time, and on budget risk reducing business performance and organizational value. Grounded in change management theory and theory of constraints, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry research project was to identify and explore effective strategies project managers employ to mitigate constraints and improve project success. Participants were 10 project managers who effectively mitigated constraints. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and publicly available documents. Thematic analysis yielded four key themes: leadership, resource management, stakeholder engagement, and …

Enhancing Surgical Team Readiness: Simulation Training For Power Failure Response In Robotic Procedures, Heather Marie Sorton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project, I used a quality improvement design to implement and evaluate a simulation-based education aimed at improving perioperative staff knowledge related to robotic power-loss events. A practice gap was identified in staff preparedness for robotic system failures due to limited education on emergency protocols, communication, team roles, and Association of PeriOperative Registered Nurses (AORN)-aligned response processes, impacting patient safety during robotic-assisted procedures. I examined whether implementation of a simulation-based educational intervention improved staff knowledge related to robotic power-loss management. The purpose of the project was to improve staff knowledge and standardize responses to …

Scale-Dependent Drivers Of Demographic Change For American Pikas (Ochotona Princeps) In Glacier National Park, Montana: Local Habitat Characteristics Vs. Regional Climate Trends, Danielle M. Owens

Biology ETDs

Climate change is shifting thermal environments globally, driving range contractions, upslope movement, and poleward shifts across taxa. However, these changes are not uniform: microclimates, shaped by topography, can amplify or decouple operative temperatures from regional trends. The American pika is an ideal model for studying climate-driven population change given its strong site fidelity and thermal sensitivities. We re-surveyed 173 sites in Glacier National Park, originally surveyed in 2007-2010, using an AIC-based model selection to test competing local and regional hypotheses driving three demographic processes: persistence, colonization, and within-patch density change. Pika occupancy increased over the 15-year period, with a net …

Using Temporal Genomic Data To Uncover Patterns Of Genetic Diversity And Signatures Of Selection For Management Of A Threatened Minnow Species, Erika A. Dunn

Biology ETDs

The Little Colorado River (LCR) spinedace persists only in three isolated watersheds within the LCR Basin in Arizona. This imperiled minnow faces ongoing pressure from habitat alteration, climatic shifts, and invasive non-native predators. Over the past two decades, managers have translocated spinedace within watersheds to increase abundance and expand habitat occupancy. We sequenced a reference genome and analyzed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 475 individuals over their geographic range. DNA samples were obtained from a previous study in the mid-1990s and compared with samples from 2024 and 2025, allowing us to track genetic diversity, effective population size, population structure, and …

The Fourth Trimester: Enhancing Postpartum Depression Detection In Primary Care Through Early Screening And Patient Education, Riley Goldschmidt

DNP Projects

Background:
Postpartum depression (PPD) is a common and often underrecognized complication, with many cases going undetected due to inconsistent screening practices in primary care. Delayed identification can negatively impact maternal well-being, infant bonding, and overall family health outcomes. This quality improvement project aimed to improve early detection of PPD by implementing routine screening and patient education during newborn visits in a primary care clinic.

Methods:
The intervention integrated the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) into the existing newborn visit workflow and introduced an evidence-based educational toolkit containing information on PPD symptoms, guidance for seeking care, and a QR code for …

Improving Outpatient Provider Preparedness Through Simulation-Based Training: A Quality Improvement Project, Kristina Weyer

DNP Projects

Introduction:
Simulation-based training is an effective educational strategy, particularly for high-acuity, low-frequency events such as patient decompensation in outpatient settings. However, there is a gap in both literature and practice regarding provider participation in simulation, as competing clinical demands often limit engagement. Local organizational leaders identified limited opportunities for outpatient providers to practice management of acute decompensating patients. The purpose of this project was to evaluate provider competence and confidence in managing a decompensating patient in the outpatient setting and to assess perceptions of the value of time spent in simulation.

Methods:
This quality improvement project evaluated providers who participated …

Bridging The Gap: Development And Implementation Of A Caregiver Educational Guide For Post-Lung Transplant Caregivers, Megan Aller

DNP Projects

Background: Caregivers of post-lung transplant recipients play a critical role in postoperative recovery, as patients require continuous support during the first three months after transplant. Despite this responsibility, caregivers frequently experience burden, stress, and challenges adapting to the complex demands of the caregiving role.

Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a tailored caregiver education and support guide for caregivers of lung transplant recipients.

Local Problem: Within the local transplant program, caregiver education primarily relied on verbal instruction with limited caregiver-specific take-home resources.

Methods: This quality improvement project used a two-group pretest–posttest design to evaluate the …

Integrated Construction Uncertainty Quantification Framework Icuqf, Felix Delmonte

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study develops ICUQF, an integrated uncertainty framework for digitally instrumented construction megaprojects that unite probabilistic simulation, fuzzy reasoning, Bayesian networks, AI-driven anomaly detection, BIM-linked digital twins, and organizational learning into a single operational architecture. The framework classifies uncertainty into aleatory variability, epistemic gaps, data-centric and model-centric risks, and cognitive or cultural sources, mapping each class to computational treatments such as Monte Carlo engines for stochastic variability, fuzzy intervals and p-boxes for imprecise expert judgments, and hierarchical Bayesian models for coherent evidence aggregation and online updating. ICUQF specifies data pipelines that connect IoT sensing, edge processing, cloud storage, and Common …

Genocide In Gaza? Social Media Discussions Of Violence In Israel And Gaza, Timothy Williams, Andreas Dafnos

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article conducts social network and topic analyses of German-language posts on X that discuss genocide and terrorism in Israel and Gaza in the first six months after the October 7 attacks and compares these to broader English-language discourses on the platform. The comparison reveals subtle differences in how Israeli violence and governance and Palestinians are discussed and who is seen as complicit in supporting violence. Markedly, German-language posts discuss what constitutes antisemitism more and employ a more restrained language towards Israel as a state and its political actors than English-language posts. We tie these findings back to the idiosyncrasies …

Nurse-Led Quality Improvement Asthma Self-Management In Primary Care, Jolene Steinert-Abderhalden

DNP Projects

Background:
Poorly controlled asthma contributes to preventable morbidity, yet many adults lack consistent self-management support. Local Problem: Baseline assessment at a rural Midwestern clinic revealed limited asthma knowledge, inconsistent action-plan use, and low confidence among adults with Asthma Control Test (ACT) scores below 20.

Methods:
This quality improvement project used a pre- and post-intervention design guided by Lean methodology and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework. Interventions: Registered nurses delivered standardized asthma education, inhaler-technique review, and action plan reinforcement with monthly structured follow-up for 16 weeks.

Results:
Among four enrolled participants, three completed follow-up. Mean ACT scores improved from 17.5 at baseline …

Evaluating Preoperative Education Modalities For Orthopedic Surgery Patients, Hannah Johnson

DNP Projects

Effective preoperative education is essential as total joint arthroplasty (TJA) procedures shift to outpatient care, yet traditional education methods may not be meeting patients’ diverse learning styles. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aimed to evaluate the impact of multimodal preoperative education (in-person, virtual, hybrid video modules, or a combination) on patient-reported anxiety and discharge readiness, as well as length of stay (LOS), surgical site infections (SSIs), and 30-day readmissions. The in-person portion could not be implemented due to staffing constraints. The pre-post evaluation was conducted with a sample of 273 patients undergoing elective hip and knee arthroplasty (pre …

Registered Nurse Procedural Sedation In Operating Room: An Analysis Of Patient Safety And Nurse Confidence Efficacy Of 2 Years Post Implementation, Cassandra Fredrickson

DNP Projects

Background
A Midwest hospital implemented a registered nurse (RN) procedural sedation program to provide safe, cost-effective sedation for selected operating room procedures under physician supervision, improving patient access while optimizing anesthesia resources.

Methods
A retrospective descriptive program evaluation examined 1,117 patients who received RN-administered procedural sedation for vascular and neurovascular procedures during 2022 and 2024. Outcomes included anesthesia consultation, anesthesia takeover, reversal agent use, and adverse events. Patient demographics and procedure duration were analyzed. Six procedural sedation nurses completed a self-efficacy survey assessing confidence in sedation-related competencies. Descriptive statistics and qualitative review of adverse event narratives were performed.

Results
Among …

A Multi-Method Investigation Of Social Media Use In Adolescent Girls: Examining Emotion, Emotion Regulation, And Effects By Depression, Alison Tuck

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents experience emotional instability, challenges in emotion regulation, and increased risk for the onset of psychopathology, including depression. Adolescents also engage in more social media use (SMU) than any other age group. There is significant interest inside and out of the scientific community regarding how SMU is implicated in healthy versus unhealthy adolescent emotional well-being during this developmental shift in emotional experiences, particularly among girls, who may be most vulnerable. Although research on how adolescent girls’ emotional well-being may be associated with their SMU has increased over the past decade, findings have been largely mixed and inconclusive. This may be …

Medical Recommendations And Bmi Among Black And Hispanic Adolescent Females, Dorothea Polk

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adolescent obesity persists as a critical public health challenge in the United States, with Black and Hispanic adolescent females experiencing elevated rates. Adolescent obesity contributes to serious long-term health risks, but provider counseling may support body mass index (BMI) management. Guided by the social-ecological model, this study examined whether receiving medical recommendations to control or lose weight was associated with BMI among Black and Hispanic adolescent females aged 16–19 years and whether meal preparation habits and food security status moderated this association, controlling for age, household income, and race/ethnicity. This quantitative, cross-sectional secondary analysis used multiple linear regression analyses to …

Womanhood On The Veranda: Maternalism And The Expansion Of American Women's Public Life, Abigail J. Swanson

History ETDs

Motherhood and child welfare became central organizing principles for reform during the United States Progressive Era.  From these guiding principles, the government formed the United States Children’s Bureau. It was the country's first governmental agency that focused solely on the welfare of children. Mothers writing to the federal government for motherhood advice was a phenomenon that was completely new to twentieth century mothers. Women took pride in their roles as mothers, particularly when it came to child health matters. To the generation of mothers who came before these early twentieth century letter writers, asking the government for advice on child …

Investigating Nanoparticle Capture By Condensed Phase Coacervates And Their Mixtures, Sanjna A. Bhakta

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

The thermoresponsive polymers elastin-like polypeptides (ELPs) and poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) (PNIPAM) have served as a programmable bioseparation tool for applications in nanoparticle capture due to biocompatibility and tunable properties. This work investigates how the polymer composition of ELP and PNIPAM coacervates influences their phase behavior, structural morphology, and nanoparticle recruitment. In addition, the influence of interfacial interactions in nanoparticle recruitment using Tween 80 as a mechanistic probe was also investigated. Different mixtures of ELPs E1.40, E1.80, and E3 with PNIPAM14 and PNIPAM20 were used to characterize their phase behavior and analyze structural morphology using turbidity measurements and microscopy, respectively. Nanobead recruitment using …

Spherical Video–Based Vr Training For Nurses' Workplace Violence Management, Wen-Chii Tzeng, Yen-Yin Lin

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Workplace violence is a major global public health concern that undermines the physical safety, psychological well-being, and professional performance of nurses. Effective responses require increased sensitivity to environmental cues and interpersonal dynamics. However, nurses' workplace violence management cannot be cultivated through classroom instruction or text-based materials alone. This gap necessitates innovative, sustainable, and immersive learning approaches.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility, effectiveness, and acceptability of a spherical video–based virtual reality training programme aimed at helping nurses manage workplace violence.

Methods: A convergent mixed-methods study was employed. This study included nurses from a tertiary medical centre in Taiwan. The training …

Developing And Validating A Nursing Leadership Competency Framework For Hospital Nurse Managers, Wen-Chii Tzeng, Ling-Yu Chien, Yao-Mei Chen

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Nursing leadership competencies are essential for ensuring care quality, organizational performance, and professional advancement. However, in Taiwan, leadership development has been limited by the absence of a validated, tiered competency framework that reflects both local practice contexts and global standards.

Purpose: To develop and validate a nursing leadership competency framework for hospital nurse managers in Taiwan.

Methods: A three-phase design was employed. Phase 1 involved a systematic review of international and domestic literature to generate preliminary competency domains. Phase 2 used focus group interviews with nurse executives, managers, and educators to refine and contextualize the framework. Phase 3 conducted …

Impact Of Bullying Workshops Among Southern California Registered Nurses, Veronica Santos Timple, Lina Najib Kawar

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of bullying workshops offered to Southern California Registered Nurses within an integrated healthcare delivery system to mitigate bullying and improve work environment.

Background: Bullying is an aggressive, repetitive undesirable behavior that is a common problem in many disciplines including nursing. This was a follow up study on the “Assessment of bullying among nurses in Southern California” research that was conducted in 2020. Previous study revealed that registered nurses (RNs) experienced bullying or incivility and many considered leaving their positions.

Methods: An intervention mixed method study was conducted with 148 RNs. Participants from …

Assessing Nursing Students’ Palliative Care Competence To Inform Course And Curriculum Design, Wen-Wen Li, Jung Eun Kim, Derrick Huang

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Purpose: This project evaluated undergraduate nursing students’ competency and knowledge in palliative care (PC) before a semester-long course. Findings informed curriculum design to strengthen students’ understanding and application of PC concepts in clinical practice.

Background/Significance: Palliative care is vital in nursing education, yet integration into undergraduate curricula remains inconsistent (Lippe & Becker, 2021). Developing PC competence enhances patients’ and families’ quality of life (Alhaddar et al., 2025). Assessing students’ baseline knowledge helps identify learning gaps and align curricula with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing [AACN] CARES Competencies (AACN, 2021) in PC education.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted …

Save A Pulse: Bridging Nurse Confidence And Team Performance Through In-Situ Simulation, Kimberly Morrison, Anna Oh, Zainab Alzawad, Staeci Morita, Sean Garvey, Soo Young Lee

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

High-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) directly influences cardiac arrest survival, yet many hospitals struggle to achieve consistent performance. Although simulation-based training is widely used, confidence may not reliably align with proficiency for physically demanding CPR skills. Save a Pulse, a Rapid Response nurse-led in-situ simulation program, was developed to strengthen nurses' cardiac arrest response using structured team training and objective feedback. This study aimed to assess nurses' confidence and CPR performance using a multimethod assessment of self-reported confidence, facilitator observations, and SimPAD® metrics.

This 13-month pretest-posttest study occurred across 23 inpatient units at a large academic hospital. Shockable and nonshockable scenarios …

Synergizing Crowd Collaboration: Enhancing Crowdsourcing Matching Via Integration Of Matching Theory And Coalition Games, Rowan Aengus Kinney

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This paper tackles the challenges inherent in crowdsourcing dynamics by introducing the CROWDMATCH mechanism. Aimed at enabling crowdworkers to strategically select suitable crowdsourcers while contributing information to crowdsourcing tasks, CROWDMATCH considers incentives, information availability and cost, and the decisions of fellow crowdworkers to model the utility functions for both the crowdworkers and the crowdsourcers. Specifically, the paper presents an initial Approximate CROWDMATCH mechanism grounded in matching theory principles, eliminating externalities from crowdworkers’ decisions and enabling each entity to maximize its utility. Subsequently, the Accurate CROWDMATCH mechanism is introduced, being initiated by the outcome of the Approximate CROWDMATCH mechanism, and employing …

Usa V. Brandon Mcintyre

2026 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

Notch Signaling Regulates The Secretion Of Pro-Metastatic Factors In Extracellular Vesicles In Liposarcoma, Menchus Quan, Yi-Kai Liu, Ying Zhao, Madeline Kay, Kai Sun, Timothy P Gavin, Raphael E Pollock, W Andy Tao, Shihuan Kuang

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Notch signaling is an emerging regulator of liposarcoma (LPS), but its role in mediating communication with the tumor microenvironment (TME) is unclear. Here, we investigate how Notch activation (NICD overexpression) alters the proteomes of LPS-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs). We used quantitative mass spectrometry to profile the EV proteome in multiple contexts: cultured LPS cells, LPS tumor, circulating EVs of LPS-bearing mice, and human LPS samples. We found that Notch signaling increases the secretion of EV proteins that favor tumor progression and metastasis but suppresses immune responses in murine LPS cells. Overlapping murine and human LPS data identifies 18 proteins that …

The Relationship Between Strength Training And Burnout, Maddie R. Barrientos

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to comprehensively examine the relationship between strength training and burnout to assess whether consistent engagement in strength training would be associated with lower levels of burnout. Results of an online survey administered to 119 participants revealed that those who did strength train versus those who did not did not significantly differ in their levels of burnout, but among those who did strength training, there were significant differences in levels of burnout with how they engaged in strength training. The greater frequency of strength training participation and the greater number of muscle groups trained were …

Ophthoevidence Report: Comparative Effects Of Prophylactic Strategies For Post-Intravitreal Injection Endophthalmitis: Protocol For A Systematic Review And Network Meta-Analysis, Maryam Ghadimi, Dena Zeraatkar, João Pedro Lima, Jinhui Ma, Sunir J. Garg, Peter Kaiser, David Steel, Tien Yin Wong, Sobha Sivaprasad, Charles Wykoff, Varun Chaudhary

Wills Eye Hospital Papers

BACKGROUND: Endophthalmitis is a rare but serious complication of intravitreal injections (IVI). To mitigate the risk of post-injection endophthalmitis (PIE), retinal specialists use different strategies, combining various prophylactic measures. However, existing systematic reviews have evaluated the effects of these measures in isolation, which does not consider their concurrent use in practice. A trustworthy systematic review with network meta-analysis (NMA) by providing a framework for simultaneous comparisons of different prophylactic combinations is essential to guide decision-making.

OBJECTIVES: To present a protocol for addressing the comparative effects of different strategies for the prevention of PIE.

METHODS: We will search Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane …

Ai-Powered Resume Screening, Sang Suh, Numery Zaber

Faculty Publications

Traditional resume screening is manual, slow, and susceptible to bias, and it struggles to keep pace with today’s application volumes. This paper presents a dual-engine, AI-powered resume screening system designed for transparency and reproducibility. The primary (classical) pipeline encodes resumes and job descriptions using Sentence-BERT (SBERT), computes a resume–job match score via cosine similarity, classifies candidates into 25 job categories using XGBoost, and provides model interpretability through SHAP. In parallel, a prompted large language model (LLM) baseline (GPT-4o/4o-mini) outputs a match score and predicted category for comparative analysis. A Streamlit-based interface integrates both engines to support recruiter workflows and human-in-the-loop …

Inoculation Interventions, Prebunking, And Media Literacy Education Are Not The Same, Author Information Removed

JMLE Submissions Open for Review

Inoculation theory-based interventions, prebunking, and media literacy education are often discussed together because all three can help people resist harmful information. Their overlap, however, does not make them interchangeable. This essay argues that clearer distinctions are needed, especially between inoculation and prebunking. Inoculation theory centers on threat-motivated resistance to influence, whereas prebunking is more accurately understood as refutational preemption. Media literacy education is a broader educational context in which either approach may be used. I focus in particular on the difference between forewarning and threat, arguing that forewarning may reasonably support inferences about threat in some contexts but should not …

How Misinformation Literacy Relates To Political Participation: An Extended Communication Mediation Model, Author Information Removed

JMLE Submissions Open for Review

This study examines how misinformation literacy is associated with political participation in digital environments through psychological and behavioral pathways. We extend the Communication Mediation Model (CMM) by integrating it with media literacy scholarship and locus of control theory. Rather than treating media literacy as a single formal theory, we conceptualize it as a scholarly framework that specifies the competencies through which individuals access, analyze, evaluate, create, and act on media messages. Within this framework, misinformation literacy refers to applied competence in recognizing, evaluating, resisting, and responding to false or misleading information. Using survey data from 499 U.S. adults, the analysis …

Beyond Technical Proficiency: A Multidimensional Analysis Of Digital Citizenship And Civic Engagement Among South Korean College Students, Author Information Removed

JMLE Submissions Open for Review

This study investigates how specific sub-dimensions of digital citizenship predict civic engagement among South Korean college students (N=497). Using hierarchical multiple regression with gender and SNS usage time as covariates, this research analyzes four subdimensions of digital citizenship—digital literacy, participation, critical perspective, and ethics—alongside three layers of civic engagement: sense of community, social responsibility, and sociopolitical participation. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that while digital literacy functions as a baseline competency, digital participation and digital ethics serve as the most consistent predictors of civic engagement. Notably, digital participation was strongly associated with sociopolitical action, suggesting a meaningful spillover effect, while a …