Digital Commons Network^™

Volume 10 Issue 9 (May 1912)

The Soul Winner

No abstract provided.

Does Covid-19 Matter: A Growth Curve Modeling Analysis Estimating And Predicting The Growth Trends Of The Accountable Care Organizations (Acos) Preventative Quality Performance During 2016-2020 Period, Christina Bocanegra-Perez

Theses & Dissertations

Does COVID-19 Matter: A Growth Curve Modeling Analysis Estimating and Predicting the Growth Trends of the Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) Preventative Quality Performance During 2016-2020 Period

Christina M. Bocanegra, PhD

University of the Incarnate Word

Abstract

Introduction: CMS aggregates and reports Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs) performance each year, resulting in distributed shared savings to provider participants. The intent is to share benefits with healthcare providers to promote lower costs, better patient experience, and better outcomes. The Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP), in which ACO groups collect data to include the six preventative quality care measures viewed in this study, focuses …

Exploring The Efficacy Of The Comprehensive Institutional Model (Cim) In A Post-Covid-19 Hyflex Higher Education Environment: An Instrumental Case, Pamela Mccray

Theses & Dissertations

This instrumental case study examined the efficacy of the comprehensive institutional model, a pre-existing conceptual framework addressing the challenges of HyFlex teaching and learning in the post-COVID-19 environment at one private university in South Texas. The model was constructed using longitudinal data from a two-year pilot study (2021-2023) and focused on improving teaching effectiveness, investing in instructional technology and infrastructure, supporting graduate students’ academic needs, and executing institutional sustainability actions across three stakeholder groups: administrators, faculty, and graduate students. The study also addressed key gaps in the literature, including the lack of tested HyFlex models in real-world settings. A qualitative, …

The Indiana Statesman, May 1, 2025, Indiana State University

Student Newspaper

Finals Week Schedule; Tips and tricks for finals; Indiana State announces budget reductions

Efficacy Of Neuromuscular Ultrasound In Diagnosing And Treating A Mammogram-Induced Brachial Plexus Injury-A Case Report, Jaime Dougherty, Tyler Pigott, Altamash E Raja

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

A 40-year-old woman presented with chronic left anterior shoulder, upper arm, and axillary pain following a routine mammogram 3 years prior. Despite multiple interventions, her pain persisted significantly affecting her quality of life. Ultrasound examination revealed fascicular edema in the medial brachial cutaneous nerve (MBCN), intercostobrachial cutaneous nerve (ICBN), and a positive sono-Tinel. Ultrasound-guided hydrodissection of these nerves provided complete axillary pain relief and significant improvement in anterior arm pain, sustained for 6 months. This case highlights the diagnostic challenges of cutaneous nerve entrapment syndromes, often overlooked and misdiagnosed, especially without a clear inciting injury. Ultrasound proves superior to electrodiagnostic …

Commencement Program, May 2025, Bemidji State University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Elementary Writing Intervention Implementation Status, Thomas John Petré Wills

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite decades of focus, U.S. students' writing abilities remain below grade-level expectations, highlighting persistent gaps in instructional support and systemic challenges within public education. Barriers include limited instructional time, inadequate teacher preparation in evidence-based writing practices, insufficient resources, and a lack of structured interventions for struggling writers (Applebee & Langer, 2011; National Center for Education Statistics [NCES], 2012). This study employed survey methodology to examine how teacher self-efficacy, classroom supports, and systems-level factors such as response to intervention (RTI) practices influence the implementation of evidence-based writing instruction in grades two through four. A national sample of elementary school teachers completed …

Efficacy Of Pcit In Treating Children With Gad, Sarah Herman

Physician Assistant Scholarly Project Posters

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is a common mental health condition in children that leads to excessive worry, impacting daily functioning and quality of life. As anxiety disorders pose a risk for chronic and resistant presentations if untreated, early and effective interventions are crucial. This literature review evaluates the effectiveness of Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) as an alternative treatment for GAD, comparing it with established Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). A review of seven articles suggests that PCIT may be equally or more effective than CBT in treating childhood anxiety, highlighting the importance of employing evidence-based practices in clinical settings

Feral And Free: The Queering Of Motherhood In Rachel Yoder’S Nightbitch, Cassandra Haskell

Master's Theses

This thesis explores motherhood from a perspective that seeks to inform and challenge the patriarchal definitions of motherhood in order to simultaneously confront its restrictions and create new meanings from its institutionalized definition. The main text that this thesis analyzes is the 2021 novel Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder, as well as the 2024 film of the same name, critiquing how it successfully queers motherhood by questioning, challenging, and defying the impractical expectations placed upon mothers by society. Some secondary scholars whose works that I utilize to support my argument are authors such as Audre Lorde, Jessica Calarco, Adrienne Rich and …

Ialways Perform Bedside Report, Lindsay Kephart

Nursing Posters

The aim was to create a standard tool for handoff that aids nurses and providers to consistently communicate patient information in the inpatient acute care setting.

Key Driver:

• Staff reported confusion surrounding several different acronyms or tools used to discuss patient information across the care team.

Creating Standard Work To Improve Length Of Stay, Jennifer Burris, Patricia Dumonceaux, Lindsay Kephart

Nursing Posters

Plan:

Improve the geometric mean length of stay (GMLOW) from 1.071 to 1.024 by creating and implementing patient flow and throughput standard work.

Do:

Implement standard work for interdisciplinary team members.

• Create a culture of accountability with consistent use of the expected discharge date (EDD) and patient milestones in Epic, during hand offs, and use of My Care Boards.
• Ensure provider to nurse communication occurs daily using ALWAYS, a standardized tool
• Create and ensure beside nurse-to-nurse hand off occurs using a standardized method known as iALWAYS.
• Create and implement patient education tools.
• Enhance discharge readiness tools to improve real-time communication …

The Struggles For Equality And Democracy In Modern China: Which Was More Influential?, Angelina K. Lambros

Publications and Research

This paper analyzes the struggles for democracy and equality in modern China, from the fall of the Qing Dynasty to the Tiananmen Square movement. It considers which struggle was more influential, evaluating the recurring theme of a fight for democracy in China since the New Culture Movement, and a quest for social and economic equality that Mao and the Chinese Communist Party committed themselves to. Ultimately, the paper concludes that the struggle for democratic norms and institutions was always present among the Chinese people, but it did not succeed in pushing the government or the Party to adopt political reforms. …

The Perry Lewis Interview, Shane Hand, John Brundrett

Oral Histories

This is an interview related to the integration of Alvin Community College (ACC), which was called Alvin Junior College (AJC) from its founding in 1948 until 1976. The interview is with Mr. Perry Lewis and takes place on May 7, 2025. The interviewers are Dr. Shane Hand and Professor John Brundrett.

Overview Of Reference Managers, Phillip Elam

AFIT Library Knowledge Base

No abstract provided.

Newsletter, Wku Staff Senate

Staff Council

Newsletter created by WKU Staff Council to report on work accomplished.

Cracking The Gender Code: Quantitative Insights Into Women's Code-Switching Strategies In K-12 Educational Leadership, Morgan Walker

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women in K–12 education find themselves in the majority in the classroom but in the minority in administration positions. Social conditioning has led many to believe that men's characteristics more naturally align with strong leadership. Because of this discrepancy, women find the need to act in an inauthentic way to be perceived as more confident and capable leaders. Code-switching is defined as a transactional social tool utilized in instances of an imbalance of power and in the development of relations and practices that help members of a subordinate group cope with or resist the condition of subordination (Heller, 2020). This …

How God Acts In Healing Miracles: Understanding Special Divine Action As God's Universal Creative Action Through The Theological Approach Of William R. Stoeger, S.J., Herintsitohaina Mahasedra Ratsimbarison

Jesuit School of Theology Dissertations

Mainly addressing secularized Christian communities, we explore how miraculous healing supports the thesis that special divine action is a specific instantiation of divine creative action. While Christians acknowledge Christ’s healing ministry, which is continued in various forms by the Church, a theology of divine action in healing is essential for engaging with contemporary scientific and medical perspectives. The theology of divine action, articulated by William Stoeger and Denis Edwards, provides a framework for understanding special divine action as a particular mode of God’s creative action. We examine three main insights of this theological approach: understanding God as the first cause, …

Running The Summer@Icerm Program, Amanda Harsy, Iris Horng, Adam Schultze, Brittany Stephenson

ACMS Conference Proceedings 2024

No abstract provided.

Challenges Threatening The Sustainability Of School Meal Programs, Anca Tughin

Master of Public Administration

The sustainability of school meal programs is increasingly threatened by procurement challenges, including regulatory constraints, supply chain disruptions, and budgetary pressures. This capstone project examines how values-based procurement (VBP)—which prioritizes local, sustainable, and nutritionally rich food—can be integrated into school meal programs despite these challenges. Worcester Public Schools (WPS) serves as a case study to illustrate the obstacles districts face in implementing VBP and the opportunities available for improving procurement models.

Key findings from this research highlight the following:
• Regulatory Constraints: Federal procurement policies, while intended to ensure fairness, often create barriers for schools trying to source locally or …

Creating The 15-Minute City: Public Engagement Strategies To Move People Away From Cars And Towards A More Walkable Worcester, Sarah Mount

Master of Public Administration

The study of urban planning there has recently been a resurgence in the idea of a 15-minute city. A 15-minute city is a city where vital destinations are within a 15- minute walk or cycle from any resident. These cities flip the current car-centric method of transportation planning on its head, and instead ask planners to prioritize pedestrians and cyclists when designing streets. Previous studies show that 15-minute cities don’t just exist, they will take planning, infrastructure implementation, and possibly most importantly, resident buy-in. It is hard to achieve change in cities without having the support of your residents. Becoming …

Position Utilization And Leadership Of Senior Woman Administrators In The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference, Mattie J. Schimenz

Leadership Education Capstones

This study investigates the utilization and impact of the Senior Woman Administrator (SWA) position within the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC), focusing on job satisfaction and career confidence. Historically, women led collegiate women’s sports, but with the consolidation of men’s and women’s athletics under a single governance structure, female representation in leadership declined. While women make up 44% of NCAA athletes, only 27.2% of athletic directors are women (Statista, n.d.). The SWA role was created to ensure women have a voice in athletic department decision-making. This mixed-methods study explores whether the SWA role is fulfilling its original purpose of promoting …

Creating A Multi-Sensory Room At The University Of Arkansas, Alexandra R. Smith

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Autism Spectrum Disorder, or autism, is a genetic neurological condition that can affect all aspects of an individual’s life, depending on their symptoms. Autistic people tend to struggle most significantly with social and emotional issues, which often results in declining academic success. With such a multifaceted disability, autistic students can struggle to perform at the same standards as their non-autistic peers, mostly due to the complications from their disability paired with limited accommodations. The consequences of these issues can manifest as lower admission rates, higher dropout rates, and higher stress levels for autistic students. This creative and service-learning honors thesis …

The Impact Of Graphic Organizers On Argumentative Writing For Ell Students, Ashley Van Beek

Master of Education Program Theses

This action research project explored the effect that graphic organizers had on argumentative essays written by English Language Learners (ELLs) in a secondary English class. The research participants were nine Junior and Senior ELLs with varying levels of English proficiency. Students wrote a pre-assessment argumentative essay without a graphic organizer, and then later wrote a summative argumentative essay with the help of a graphic organizer designed by the researcher. The researcher compared their pre-assessment scores to the summative assessment scores, which showed both a neutral and positive correlation between using a graphic organizer and improving in score. Findings of the …

Examining Sustainable And Regenerative Viticultural Practices In The Rheinhessen Wine Region Of Germany, Claire Hoffmann

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses’ Perception Of Barriers To Promoting And Supporting Breastfeeding In Primary Care, Devon L. Stubblefield, Allison L. Scott, Carmel Kruse, Marilou D. Shreve, Hope A. Ballentine

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Background: Breastfeeding is the biological way to provide active and passive immunity, as well as necessary nutrients, to infants while concurrently providing multiple health benefits for mothers. Even though evidence is readily available to support the argument to breastfeed, United States’ breastfeeding rates fall below Healthy People 2030 goals. Advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) in primary care settings are in a prime position to give education and create care plans to support breastfeeding mothers to improve breastfeeding rates but literature supports APRNs lack confidence to do so. An APRN is likely to defer care to another provider to address …

Queer X Trans Memoir: In Sight Of An Embodied History, Rhyan Warmerdam

English (MA) Theses

Are queer and trans identities innate or constructed? What constitutes a queer or trans identity? What prompts a person to identify with a particular queer or trans identity category? Prominent queer theorist Judith Butler contends that “There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; that identity is performatively constituted” (Butler, Gender Trouble 34). However, many scholars have claimed that Butler’s theory is “not compatible with lived experience” (McCann & Monaghan 134). This project utilizes the genre of memoir to gain insight into lived experiences to put this theory to the test. Through a mini historical archive of twelve …

Survey Of A Paired Gravity Anomaly Within The Benton Uplift Of The Ouachita Mountains, Isaac B. Prud'homme

Physics Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Benton Uplift west of Hot Springs, AR is underlain by a paired gravity anomaly on the order of 80 mGal. Nicholas & Rozendal (1975) have theorized that the gravitational low is caused by a “downwarp of the crust into the mantle”1 however the cause of the gravitational high is still debated. This paired gravity anomaly within the Benton Uplift follows the Ouachita orogenic belt southwest for 500 miles where it meets the Marathon uplift in southwest Texas. We conducted a gravity survey along a 108-km-long transect east of two previous gravity surveys.2,3 We corrected the data from this transect …

Assessing Biochar And Industrial Hemp To Remediate Heavy-Metal-Contaminated Soil, Sophie W. Sward

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Environmental degradation is becoming increasingly prevalent as global industrialization runs rampant. Anthropogenic activity, such as mining, deposits inorganic pollutants into the environment, leading to potential soil and water contamination. Traditional, engineering-based remediation and containment procedures alter soil structure and aggregate stability and affect the biological function of the area impacted by mining activities. Phytoremediation is a more energy-efficient, and therefore cost-effective, method of environmental restoration. Phytoremediation, on its own, works in soils that are less contaminated so that the selected plant can actually grow. Soil amendments, such as biochar, can be added to improve remediation potential in more contaminated soils. …

Understanding The Lived Experiences And Sense Of Belonging Of Bipoc Lgbtqia+ College Students At Urban Institutions Of Higher Education, Kayla M. Bassknight

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study explores the lived experiences and sense of belonging of college students who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual (LGBTQIA+) at urban higher education institutions. Using Meyer’s minority stress model, Crenshaw’s intersectionality theory, and Strayhorn’s belonging framework, the study investigates how students’ intersecting identities shape their college experiences. Through an instrumental case study design, the research focuses on the unique challenges and opportunities faced by BIPOC LGBTQIA+ students, particularly the role of co-curricular engagement and institutional agents in fostering belonging. Eleven individual interviews and two focus …

Rising Rates Of Autism Spectrum Disorder, Carly Ogilvie

Honors College Theses

While autism spectrum disorder has always been around, the diagnosis rates are skyrocketing. There are many different theories and ideas as to why rates are increasing so rapidly. These theories cover a wide range of ideas such as better tests, side effects of vaccines, and everything in between. The goal of this research is to analyze the statistics on the rising rates of autism spectrum disorder diagnoses and to look into why they are rising. This research will compare diagnosis rates over the past several decades and then evaluate theories on the reason behind the diagnosis rates. Although there is …