Digital Commons Network^™

Stress And Burnout Among Icu Nurses, Jaspreet Kaur

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Burnout is a significant occupational hazard for Intensive Care Unit (ICU) nurses. High patient acuity, staffing shortages, and long shift hours increase stress and diminish well-being among nurses, affecting patient care outcomes. This study examined the prevalence of stress and burnout among ICU nurses to identify contributing factors and potential interventions. An anonymous online survey was conducted among 110 ICU nurses, utilizing the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and the Perceived Stress Scale(PSS). Findings revealed that 42.5% of nurses reported high emotional exhaustion, while 37.5% felt they had little to no control at work. The most frequently cited workplace stressors were …

Maternal Depression And Covid-19: A Secondary Analysis Comparing Postnatal Depression Rates During And Before The Covid-19 Pandemic, Amanda A. Berney

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The COVID-19 pandemic created increased psychological vulnerability across the globe through isolation, fear of infection, and misinformation from various sources, including social media. Women giving birth during the pandemic, therefore, may be extremely vulnerable psychologically. Per the World Health Organization, the years 2020 to mid 2021were designated as an intense time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the objective of this secondary analysis was to compare depression scores among women giving birth during these intense years and women giving birth before 2020. However, due to a small window of time and sample size, statistical analysis failed to find a correlation between …

Health Care Delivery Of Asthma In Health Care Systems Across The World: A Comparison Of Three Health Systems, Megan T. Hui

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Asthma remains a significant health concern globally, with healthcare delivery varying across different systems. This study aims to compare asthma care within three healthcare system: the Beveridge model (United Kingdom), the Bismarck model (Switzerland), and the National Health Insurance model (Canada) focusing on cost, quality, and accessibility. This study used a systemic review, gathering published evidence from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Data Explorers that explicitly met eligibility criteria for asthma treatment and outcomes. Evidence from government reports, public health databases, and peer-reviewed literature were analyzed. Kissick’s Iron Triangle framework was applied to assess the inherent trade-offs …

Strengthening Governance In Esg Reporting: Enhancing Transparency And Accountability, Paulene Cayla Tongol

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

As corporate sustainability becomes a growing priority, Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting has gained significant importance in the ability to assess the impact and accountability of a company. However, governance-related challenges such as conflicts of interest, transparency gaps, and weak accountability structures continue to undermine the reliability of ESG disclosures, which are intended to provide stakeholders and investors with a clear, standardized view of a company’s sustainability practices. This study explores how governance failures impact ESG reporting effectiveness and examine strategies for improvement. Through conducting a systematic literature review, this research synthesizes findings from academic studies and industry articles …

Cuegen: Customizing Sensor Captions For Neon Bending Tutorials, Gunnika Kapoor

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Methods of knowledge transfer that rely primarily on visual and/or auditory formats do not effectively convey context-specific or implicit skills, known as tacit skills. This limits knowledge transfer. In this work, the use of customizable pitch captions and spatial audio vibration captions is proposed to aid in conveying this tacit knowledge for neon glass bending video tutorials. Such a system is designed to provide users with greater control and support, which may maximize the information they obtain from, improve the autonomy they have with, and experience they have with a learning tool. As such, a system interface was developed that …

Design And Implementation Of A Notification System For The Purpose Of Improving Communication Between Nurses And Patients, Aindrila Bhattacharya

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Communication is an important part of how nurses administer treatment to their patients. Without proper communication, it is difficult for the nurses to connect with their patients and vice versa. This paper will be going into some previous literature about communication between patients and nurses in general, communication with respect to pediatric patients and how notification systems have been implemented in the past. It will then discuss the methodology and implementation of a notification system for a medical app. The medical app is meant to facilitate communication from the side of the patient to the nurse, while the notification system …

A Comparative Analysis Of Small Nuclear Rna Sequences In Spinacia Oleracea, Arabidopsis Thaliana, And Homo Sapiens, Nhi T. Nguyen

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

In eukaryotes, the structure and function of the Sm core and its associated small nuclear ribonucleoproteins (snRNPs) play a significant role in pre-mRNA splicing. These snRNPs exhibit a high degree of conservation. While plants also utilize alternative splicing, the conservation of plant snRNAs and other non-coding RNA such as snoRNA and scaRNA, which assemble the Sm core, remains largely unexplored. In this study, plant sequences were compared with human sequences using the multiple sequence alignment program Jalview to determine the conservation of snRNPs in other non-coding RNA. Sequences analysis showed that the Sm site in Spinacia oleracea and Arabidopsis thaliana …

Controlling A Mobile Inverted Pendulum And Optimizing Leaning Angle To Apply Force Using Reinforcement Learning, Aryan Mediratta

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Reinforcement Learning is a Machine Learning paradigm that involves simulating learning through rewards and penalties in intelligent systems. This technique is often employed in robotics when traditional control methods are insufficient or when human intuition does not provide a good solution on how to control robot systems, This project involves training a Segway-style Mobile Inverted Pendulum (MIP) robot to balance and push a box forward. The BeagleBone Blue board is used that includes a built-in Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and encoder ports. These sensors enable the system to measure its current state. The goal is to find the optimal leaning …

Integration Of Notes Section With Access Management, Inshaad Merchant

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This research explores the development of a notes section with access management, specifically designed to assist Computer Science and Engineering students to revisit and revise all the notes and key points highlighted in their tutoring sessions. While the senior design project focuses on the CSE Student Success Center application that allows students to schedule tutoring sessions, manage appointments, and manage their profiles within this application, the Honors capstone project adds on a specific section for students to save all their notes and important video links and attachments to continue their learning outside of the tutoring sessions. A centralized platform for …

Tutortech: A Web App For A Smarter And More Efficient Tutoring System, Smarika Pathak

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department faces challenges with managing its tutoring services, especially tracking attendance, booking sessions, and overall management of the tutoring system - all of which severely limits the ability for tutors to connect and engage with students. To help overcome these issues, TutorTech, a web-based application that provides improved management of the tutoring system and supports more engaging learning experiences between students and tutors was designed. Through this project, the aim was to optimize the TutorTech search capabilities - assisting students to find tutors based on skills, while also considering the effect of user interface …

Generating Motivational Messages For Behavior Change: Encouraging Users To Be More Physically Active, Hananeel Pankaj

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

High levels of sedentary lifestyles can cause adverse effects in individuals’ health. This has prompted researchers to analyze ways to increase physical activity, including the use of Large Language Models (LLMs) to generate motivational messages. While research has found LLMs to be feasible for this task, the findings are limited in availability and scope given that the research focuses on a conversational, chatbot setting—which is not ideal in the real world. This research assesses OpenAI’s GPT-4o mini’s (one of several models powering ChatGPT) ability to tailor messages towards a user. This is done by passing user health data to the …

The Golden Ratio In Classical And Contemporary Design Merges: Transitions In User Experience Through Architectural Styles, Shreya Bandi

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

The Golden Ratio, often called the “divine proportion,” is a mathematical phenomenon found in nature that has significantly influenced artistic and architectural aesthetics. It notably altered the Greek Classical Period, where it advanced the idea of structural harmony. This research examines how the ratio evolves through Contemporary and Post- Modern Architecture as it merges classical style design elements with user-centric adaptations. By analyzing Cullinan Hall and Sainsbury Wing, which represent the convergence of old and modern styles, this study explores the Golden Ratio through golden rectangle identification and proportional sectioning techniques. The results indicate that the ratio evolves through user …

Elucidating The Role Of Transposable Element Derived Gene, Dplg3, In Drosophila Melanogaster, Kaisy A. Martinez

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

A big fraction of most eukaryotic genomes is comprised of transposable elements (TEs). TEs are mobile genetic sequences often causing deleterious effects as they increase in copy number. On rare occasions, TEs can undergo molecular domestication, where the TE proteins are co-opted by the host to serve cellular functions. In Drosophila melanogaster, domestication from PIF/Harbinger TEs has resulted in five Drosophila PIF-Like Genes (DPLG1-4 and 8). This study focuses on investigating the function of DPLG3. In DPLG3 knock out lines, DPLG3-KO, a fraction of the progeny shows an abnormal gonad phenotype. We sought to confirm …

Wild West Healthcare: Addressing Healthcare Disparities In Rural Texas, Alexis K. O'Neal

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Rural communities in Texas face significant barriers to healthcare access, including geographic isolation, limited healthcare facilities, and shortages of healthcare providers, which exacerbate health disparities and contribute to poorer health outcomes (Bennett et al., 2019; Jafri et al., 2024). This study examines healthcare access disparities between rural and urban areas in Texas, focusing on the role of telehealth and its impact on vulnerable populations, such as older adults and cardiovascular patients. Regions of Texas were categorized into rural, metropolitan, and metroplex areas to analyze variations in healthcare outcomes and access. Rural areas, defined as those with populations under 200,000, struggle …

Development Of A Cost-Effective Daq For Measuring Brake Performance In Race Cars, Adrin Alias

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project explores the feasibility of creating a cost-effective data acquisition (DAQ) system for high-speed, real-time brake performance testing of Formula SAE racecars. The research addresses the limitations of the current MoTeC DAQ system currently employed by the team, which is costly and time-consuming to set up for on-car testing. The team will use a brake dynamometer for steady-state comparisons of different brake pad compounds (senior design project), but evaluating real-world performance requires on-car testing. By systematically comparing various hardware platforms, sensors, communication protocols, and storage solutions, this project aims to balance cost-efficiency with reliability and performance. The research evaluates …

Understanding The Impact Of Language Barriers And Visit Duration On Caregiver Satisfaction In Pediatric Primary Care, Gavin Miller

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Background: Children from households that speak languages other than English (LOE) face barriers in accessing healthcare, leading to poorer health outcomes. Language barriers contribute to these disparities, often resulting in diminished communication between providers and families. Visit duration may play a key role in facilitating effective communication and improving patient satisfaction.

Purpose: This study examines how language barriers affect caregiver satisfaction in pediatric primary care, and whether visit duration mediates this relationship. We hypothesized that caregivers from LOE households would have comparable visit durations to English-preferring caregivers but report lower satisfaction due to receiving less information within that time. …

Surviving Their Stripes: Quality Of Life And Coping For Individuals With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Julianna L. Breazeale

Health, Human Performance and Recreation Undergraduate Honors Theses

Hypermobile type Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) is a subtype of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a genetic connective tissue disorder with complexities involving joint hypermobility, tissue fragility and severe pain. Patients with hEDS often experience misdiagnosis, medical dismissal and years of waiting for a diagnosis. This study aims to evaluate the quality of life and diagnostic journey for patients living with hEDS. Qualitative, cross-sectional and semi-structured interviews were conducted in this study using a descriptive, phenomenological methodological approach. The specific phenomenon is the experience of the hEDS diagnosis and how that diagnosis further impacts patient life. The two primary research questions that we aimed …

The Rise Of Fitspiration: An Examination Of Social Media Influence, Body Image Concerns, And Online Harassment, Mary Owen

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The fitspiration movement on social media has raised concerns about potential body image satisfaction issues and body standard internalization. The potential negative effects of body image dissatisfaction include disordered eating, excessive exercise, anxiety, depression, and a risk to online harassment victimization. This dissatisfaction from fitspiration is reinforced by pressures from family and friends. Relying on data from 347 respondents, the present study explores the potential relationship between fitspiration content consumption, body image dissatisfaction, social pressures, and experiences of online harassment. Bivariate correlations and regression analysis were employed to examine the connections between the variables. Results indicated that there was a …

Examining The Lasting Impacts Of Covid-19 On College Students And Professors, Honor S. Luna, Alexia Angton

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study analyzes the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health, academic performance, and socialization of college students, as well as college professors’ perceptions of their own mental health, workload, and observed changes in students. University of Arkansas undergraduate students were surveyed online about their pandemic experiences, and faculty members were interviewed on similar topics. Students reported a noticeable decline in mental health, primarily due to isolation, being confined to their homes, and reduced contact with friends. Faculty faced stress from the rapid shift to virtual learning, decreased student engagement, and the challenge of balancing work and family while maintaining …

The Different Rhetoric Between Upholding And Overriding Disability Rights Inside The United States Supreme Court, Shane Egan

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to explain the rhetoric the U.S. Supreme Court uses when deciding disability cases, specifically when the Court upholds or overrides disability rights. The paper attempts to show how when the Court upholds disabled rights they use passive and weak rhetoric, and utilizes active and enforcing rhetoric when overriding disability rights. This paper analyzes this rhetoric inside education, healthcare, and employment cases heard by the Supreme Court.

Archival Research Project: History Of Suny Cortland Varsity Sports, 1950-2024, Maria Deraco, Ashley Schappi

Transformations: Presentation Slides

Students in History and Philosophy of Physical Education and Sport classes conducted archival research to compile a history of varsity sports at SUNY Cortland from 1950-2024. Student groups of three to four chose their topic from a list prepared by professor Nancy Kane. Working with the Cortland Memorial Library Archivist Brian Jirout and Cortland Sport Information Director Fran Elia, students created a spiral-bound collection of research papers detailing sports, facilities, and funders who have made the Cortland Varsity Sports program a SUNY success story. The project was begun and completed during the fall semester of 2024. Students met with the …

When 'Weird' Means 'Dangerous': Viruses And Firewalls In Affective Polarization, Nathan J. Locke

All Theses

As traditional sources of epistemic authority face declining trust, alternative narratives have gained prominence - often leveraging the emotional and cultural resonance of seemingly simple terms. In the 2024 election cycle, the term “weird” emerged as a potent meme in American political discourse. Using a memetic perspective that incorporates elements of framing theory and Social Judgment Theory, this thesis investigates the use and reaction to “weird” and its role in shaping perception of Donald Trump, his political allies, his followers, and his opposition during and immediately after the 2024 Presidential election. The memetic perspective, which views ideas as units of …

Resiliency Training For Music Therapy Students During Fieldwork Experiences, Crystal Weaver

Dissertations

All music therapy undergraduate and equivalency students in the United States must complete 1,200 hours of fieldwork experience to obtain degree conferment from an accredited and approved higher education program (American Music Therapy Association, 2023b, p. 1). While engaging in fieldwork had several benefits for music therapy students, such as the opportunity to build practical experience and refine skills, the experience also involved several challenges (Forinash, 2019; Tien & Trang, 2020). A challenge not yet thoroughly examined by faculty and staff within higher education music therapy programs was student mental health. To date, researchers had not examined the prevalence of …

Dr. Olga Poliakova Earns First ‘Student Advocate Of The Year’ Award From Division Of Student Success, Office Of University Communications

Gardner-Webb NewsCenter Archive

The Gardner-Webb University Division of Student Success has created a new award, “Student Advocate of the Year.” Given annually, this award will recognize the contributions of faculty and staff toward helping to support students. The recipient personifies the mission of Student Success, which is to provide resources and support to educate, equip, and empower all students to succeed academically and personally in their unique college journeys.

Investigations Of Musical Constructs: An Analysis Of Graphic Scores And Their Spatial Relationships, Garrett J. Henderson

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project seeks to understand, through creative production, how graphic scores and their purpose as a medium can be applied to architectural design. Graphic scores are an abstract representation of musical notation; they utilize unfamiliar concepts and shapes to illustrate musical ideas through unconventional means. Discovering how one can reverse-engineer these works of notation can allow architectural designers to rethink the representation of spaces and the underlying inspirations that form them. Research into broader artistic overlap, historical context, and precedent analysis culminated into a set of drawings that illustrate such concepts through an architectural lens. The production of these drawings …

Uncovering The Evolutionary Origins Of Neo-Sex Chromosomes In The Insect Family Membracidae, Mary Kumah

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This research explores the evolution of the neo-XX/XY sex chromosome system of Amblyophallus exaltatus, a treehopper insect in the family Membracidae. Neo-XX/XY sex chromosome systems can evolve from an XX/X0 sex chromosome system via fusion events between the X chromosome and an autosome. Although cytological work has indicated the presence of a neo-XX/XY system within A.exaltatus, the chromosomal identity of the fused autosome and the molecular drivers behind this chromosomal fusion remain poorly understood. By performing a coverage analysis with whole genome sequence data, the parts of the A.exaltatus genome that fused with the X chromosome will be better …

Examining The Portrayal Of The Acculturation Of The Korean Diaspora In Texas, Uijin Chang

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project examined the acculturation of the Korean diaspora in Texas, focusing on how the diasporic group shapes intercultural interactions. Drawing from the concepts of Berry’s acculturation model and diasporic histories, the study explored how Korean immigrants navigate identity, cultural adaptation, and social belonging in Texas. Employing a visual analysis methodology, a coding framework identified recurring themes and symbolic representations of the acculturation of the Korean diaspora. Ninety-nine images were collected based on three groups: business group, church group, and women's group. By categorizing denotative and connotative themes, this study searched for implicit and explicit meanings embedded within portrayals of …

Why You're Gayhee For Jaehee: How Dating Sims Promote Queer Self-Discovery, Amira Elliby

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Dating simulators are a video game sub-genre in which the player’s primary goal is to romantically pursue their favorite love interest through in-game interactions. While some dating sims present situations that encourage heterosexual female players to question, explore, and even accept possible queer identities for themselves, there is little research on what specific game elements foster this exploratory behavior. This project examines player responses and in-game content from two dating sims, Chrono Days Sim Date and Mystic Messenger, to determine which game aspects women found most helpful in encouraging them to question their own sexualities. Out of five key …

Navigation Of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Using Computer Vision In Raytheon Drone Competition, Joseph R. Pavlik Iii

2025 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

A major problem with using GPS to navigate an unmanned aerial vehicle is that GPS signals do not accurately work while inside a building. This work presents the usage of the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping library, ORB-SLAM2, in C++ to solve this issue. By using the camera attached to the unmanned aerial vehicle, a map of the area covered by the drone will be created, and landmarks in area will be utilized to navigate throughout the interior of the building without the GPS. Based on previous studies, this navigation method should be viable. Preliminary tests show that this method will …

The Barriers Preventing Generational Diversity In The Workplace: A Design-Based Research Study On Generational Diversity In The Workplace, Bryan T. Benke

Dissertations

Generational diversity poses numerous challenges within organizations, primarily as workplaces can now encompass up to five generations (BasuMallick, 2020). The scholar-practitioner explored various facets of generational diversity, highlighting barriers that impact the work environment, employee behavior, communication, knowledge transfer, technology adoption, management decisions, employer obligations, and cultural disparities. Despite increasing recognition of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), entrenched biases persist, perpetuating stereotypes and marginalizing different generational cohorts (Fasbender & Gerpott, 2022; Gates, 2023; Renstrom, 2020; St. Aubin, 2019). Research revealed deficiencies in emotional intelligence (EI) among apprentices, particularly in self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, alongside challenges in achieving …