Digital Commons Network^™

Bundled Approach To Improve Colorectal Cancer In Primary Care, Elizabeth Reddiar

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Abstract

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, despite being preventable through timely screening. National guidelines recommend regular screening for adults aged 45 to 75; (American cancer Society (ACS), 2025) however, screening rates remain suboptimal, particularly in primary care settings serving diverse and high-volume populations. Local Problem: At the project site, a community-oriented primary care clinic in North Texas, baseline data revealed CRC screening completion rates were below benchmarks set by the organization. Barriers included limited patient awareness, inconsistent provider reminders, and workflow challenges in distributing and tracking fecal immunochemical test …

Implementing The Gad-7 Screening Tool In An Adult Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic, Elizabath George

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Abstract

Background: Anxiety disorders are among the leading causes of disability worldwide and the most prevalent mental illness in the United States. Despite affecting 6.8 million adults annually, fewer than half with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) receive treatment. Many patients present with somatic complaints, leading to underdetection. Standardized screening tools such as the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 item (GAD-7) can improve identification and outcomes.

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project implemented the GAD-7 screening tool in an adult outpatient psychiatric clinic in North Texas and evaluated its impact on identifying patients with GAD, compared to the prior year without structured screening. …

Portable Magnetic Resonance Imaging Safety, Comfort, And Compatibility With Mobile Vehicular Platforms, Jacob Howard

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) has evolved rapidly since its early days of imaging vials of water and mice when it was known as “zeugmatography”. As advancements in semiconductors increase computational power and algorithmic techniques stretch what we can do with this power, MRI capability is advancing beyond the conventional restraints of room-bound scanners. Low-field magnetic resonance imaging (LF-MRI) that utilizes magnets typically 1/10th the size of traditional magnets has opened the door to mobilizing this imaging modality and increased flexibility in scanner design. With these developments, a new generation of portable MRI (pMRI) is beginning its use in the hospital …

Sharing Unexpected News After Traumatic Death: A Modified Delphi Study, Kirsten Lalli

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

BackgroundGlobally, violence against healthcare workers in Emergency Departments (EDs) is alarmingly common and increasing in prevalence. While workplace violence is possible in any patient encounter, disclosure of traumatic deaths to family and friends may be uniquely high-risk.

Research AimsThe objective of this study is to establish consensus guidelines with multidisciplinary staff to improve safety in the emergency department of a large, urban, Level I trauma center when disclosing traumatic deaths.

HypothesisInterdisciplinary professionals in an emergency department can create consensus around best practices to improve safety in the ED when disclosing traumatic deaths.

MethodsWe conducted this study using a modified Delphi …

Little Problems: Photosynthetic Textile Treatments As A Source Of Oxygen, Morgan Campbell

Open Access Master's Theses

During human space travel, oxygen (O2) must be stored and carried aboard the shuttle for the entire journey; compressed O2 is highly flammable and combustible, thus doing so puts the crew’s lives at risk in the event of a fire (Mandel, 2019). By creating O2 onsite, the necessity of compressed O2 canisters and the associated risks can be reduced or erased entirely. Photosynthesis, the process through which plants convert atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) into O2, is one method of creating O2 (Lorch, 2020). The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has experimented with photosynthetic O2 systems since its inception but …

The Influence Of Gender On Perceptions Of Warmth And Competence In Leaders, Atticus Carroll

Open Access Master's Theses

Humans rely on stereotyping to simplify and process a complex world. The Stereotype Content Model (SCM) identifies two main dimensions of stereotyping known as warmth and competence. Previous literature has focused on perceptions of cisgender men and cisgender women, referring to those whose gender identity aligns with their sex assigned at birth, along these dimensions. However, nonbinary individuals reject the traditional gender binary, and it is not known how warmth and competence perceptions will be applied to this demographic. This study investigated whether a nonbinary leader would be rated lower on warmth, competence, and desire to have as a boss …

Metabarcoding-Biomass Relationships And Internal Standards For Quantitative Dna Metabarcoding, Frances Webber

Open Access Master's Theses

DNA metabarcoding has been widely adopted due to its power in investigating the composition of protistan communities, accurately identifying even small and cryptic taxa. However, the compositional nature of DNA metabarcoding results, and the distortion of natural abundances due to variation of the often-used 18S rRNA gene copy number over several orders of magnitude, renders these results semi-quantitative at best, limiting the application of DNA metabarcoding to ecological study. Here, we constructed mock communities from uni-algal cultures of taxonomically diverse phytoplankton and conducted metabarcoding using multiple primer sets and both DNA and cDNA as PCR templates. For each culture, chlorophyll …

A Systematic Review Of The Role Of Emotion Regulation In Predicting Behavioral Inhibition Symptoms Among School-Aged Youth, Anne C. Nields

Open Access Master's Theses

Mental health challenges represent a key construct to focus on in support of childhood and adolescent well-being. Mental health challenges represent the leading cause of disability among children and adolescents. Recent research on critical periods in brain development shows that early childhood and adolescence mark times in which behavioral, neurodevelopmental, and mental health features arise. Anxiety disorders, which involve the excessive presence of fear and anxiety, are among the most common psychiatric disorders affecting youth and adults today. Emotion regulation (ER) and behavioral inhibition are important constructs correlated to anxiety which may be leveraged to predict and intervene on the …

Predicting Evapotranspiration, Quick Flow, And Recharge In The Contiguous United States Through 2100, Paige Aldenberg

Open Access Master's Theses

Groundwater pumping has more than doubled since 1950 across the United States and now accounts for more than 50% of water use in much of the country. These high pumping rates have exceeded recharge in many aquifers, especially in the dry Western United States. As a result, water levels are declining, increasing water scarcity for humans, and causing various adverse ecosystem impacts. So, predictions of future groundwater recharge rates, especially in the face of changing climates, are necessary for informing future water management practices. While historical groundwater recharge rates have been estimated across broad geographic regions, high-resolution predictions of future …

Analyzing Manual Careful And Destructive Disassembly Using Decision Trees For Consumer Electronics Battery Cells, Ivy Ozuna

Open Access Master's Theses

In a world increasingly powered by portable electronics, the amount of battery waste produced and how to process the waste is paramount. An important component of these devices is the lithium-ion (Li-ion) cylindrical batteries, which store the power essential to their function. Cylindrical Li-ion cells - particularly the 18650, 21700, and 26650 formats - are among the most widely used battery types due to their standardized design, durability, and high energy density. Their cylindrical shape provides structural integrity, making them resistant to mechanical stress and thermal fluctuations. Additionally, their widespread adoption in industries like consumer electronics (CEs), electric vehicles (EVs), …

Masthead & Table Of Contents

Dalhousie Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Hardware Implementation Of An Efficient Frequency Comb Generator For Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors, Frank Atobrah Danso

Open Access Master's Theses

The frequency comb generator is an essential component in the readout of superconducting detectors. This component is responsible for generating the resonant frequencies necessary to detect photon interaction with the detectors. This component however has not received the much needed attention in terms of readout systems optimization. Conventional implementations rely on either inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) engines, which scale poorly in power with increasing frequency resolution requirement but allow flexible tone updates, or lookup tables (LUTs), which demand large memory for high frequency resolution.

Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs) are superconducting detectors which have gained significant interest for cryogenic …

Impact Of Adverse Childhood Experiences And Hostile Attribution On Adult Romantic Relationship Dynamics, Richeila Lora

Open Access Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine whether experiencing ACEs and hostile attributions led to engaging in conflict behaviors in adult romantic relationships. Additionally, it was examined whether hostile attributions served as a moderator in the relationship between experiencing ACEs and engaging in conflict behaviors. Participants were adults (N = 3.684) from the German Family Panel dataset. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the associations between experiencing ACEs, hostile attributions, and conflict behaviors. It was found that both experiencing ACEs and hostile attributions were related to engaging in conflict behaviors. However, hostile attributions did not serve as …

Diet Quality And Quality Of Life Among People With Parkinson’S Disease, Elizabeth Tierney

Open Access Master's Theses

Poor diet quality (DQ) and reduced quality of life (QoL) are concerns for people with Parkinson’s disease (PwPD). Non-motor (NMS) and motor symptoms (MS) significantly impact the DQ and QoL of PwPD which can be alleviated through diet intervention. This study examined the relationship between DQ and QoL in PwPD and investigated participant perspectives to identify themes related to nutrition care. This was a secondary data analysis of EMPOWER PD. Diet intake was assessed via the Dietary Screening Tool (DST). Quality of life was assessed by the Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire-39-item (PDQ-39). Participant perspectives were collected through 1:1 interviews. Nineteen participants …

Herbivore Kairomones Affect Germination Speed, Seedling Growth, And Herbivory, Brooke Pellegrini

Open Access Master's Theses

Seeds and seedlings are particularly vulnerable to herbivory. Unlike mature plants, which can wait until herbivory is experienced to induce defense, seeds and seedlings face mortality if they wait. Slug mucus functions as a kairomone, a non-attack-related substance emitted by consumers that is detected by a prey species (in this case, plants). While snail mucus has been shown to induce defense in seedlings, it is not widely confirmed whether slugs have the same effect and whether seeds can also detect and react to such herbivore cues. We investigated how exposure to Arion subfuscus mucus affected growth and defense in Brassica …

Financial Factors And Relationship Satisfaction: A Systematic Review Using The Tccm Framework, David Gardner

Open Access Master's Theses

Relationship satisfaction is critically important for the overall health of the relationship and is therefore inherently desirable for anyone who wants to maintain a long-term romantic relationship. Financial factors have been associated with relationship satisfaction in past research, demonstrating a need for systematic exploration. The purpose of the study is to systematically explore how financial behaviors, values, and macroeconomic systems are connected to relationship satisfaction. The current systematic review follows the PRISMA framework for exclusion and identifies 30 articles studying financial factors and relationship satisfaction from Scopus, PsychInfo, and Web of Science. The analysis followed the Theory, Context, Characteristic, and …

Comparative Study Of Physiological Signals Between The Embraceplus And The Shimmer3 Gsr+, Cassidy Considine

Open Access Master's Theses

Understanding team dynamics and their physiological impact is essential across high-stakes industries such as healthcare, aviation, and defense. In stressful environments, optimizing team performance requires not only assessing communication but also monitoring physiological indicators of stress. Electrodermal activity (EDA) and heart rate variability (HRV) are commonly used to capture autonomic responses, offering insight into emotional arousal and cardiovascular regulation.

This pilot study compares a commercial wearable device, the EmbracePlus, with a research-grade device, the Shimmer3 GSR+, to evaluate differences in physiological signal acquisition. Twelve participants completed a five-phase experimental protocol while wearing both devices simultaneously on the non-dominant wrist/forearm. EDA …

Evaluating Yield And Quality Of Heat-Tolerant Broccoli Varieties For Rhode Island Farmers, Calla Pederson

Open Access Master's Theses

In the United States, broccoli is a popular vegetable, important for its nutrition and economic contributions alike. However, its future production is at risk as broccoli prefers cooler climates, with an optimal temperature range of 15 - 23°C (59 - 73°F) for growth, especially in the weeks leading up to harvest. Temperatures above this threshold lead to failure to develop, damage, and unmarketability. There has also been an emphasis on bringing broccoli production back to the East coast from California, as climate events threatened Californian agriculture and local food has become popular, necessitating outside of season broccoli production during times …

Optical-Link-Aware Online Waypoint Planner For Asv-Auv Systems, Ansel R. Austin

Open Access Master's Theses

The growing demand for ocean mapping and survey missions has increased interest in reliable AUV-ASV platforms. In such systems, reliable communication between the AUV and ASV is critical for monitoring the AUV's status and offloading large data products such as multi-beam sonar point clouds. While the range of acoustic telemetry can span several kilometers, its bandwidth is inadequate for transmitting high-volume data streams (such as images and point clouds). Underwater optical communication modems, in contrast, provide a relatively high bandwidth but are hindered by rapid attenuation in turbid water and a narrow field of view. This thesis introduces an online, …

Investigation Of Csld And Pme Genes In Cell Division And Expansion In Physcomitrium Patens, Lia Bozza

Open Access Master's Theses

Cellulose Synthase-Like Ds (CSLDs) are cellulose synthase known to participate in cell plate formation and cell wall remodeling. In the moss model, Physcomitrium patens, double csld2/6 knockout (KO) mutants were previously shown to have gametophore leaf phenotypes that are consistent with defects in cytokinesis, including irregular cell shape, cell separations, and incomplete midrib formation (Wu et al., 2023a). When these mutants were grown on ammonium-free medium to promote gametophore development, the severity of the phenotype was more extreme, including incompletely formed cell plates and multinucleated cells (A. Roberts, personal communication). It was also reported that expression of several enzymes …

Women And Medieval Literary Culture: From The Early Middle Ages To The Fifteenth Century Edited By Corinne Saunders And Dianne Watt, Melissa Elmes

Medieval Feminist Forum: A Journal of Gender and Sexuality

No abstract provided.

Pathogen Surveillance Of Viruses And Antimicrobial Resistance Through Wastewater Based Epidemiology, William Strike

Theses and Dissertations--Biomedical Engineering

Pandemic surveillance is a cornerstone in public health safety, as it enables identification of pathogens circulating within a community before they become widespread outbreaks. Wastewater based epidemiology has blossomed in recent years due to its success in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but this form of public health surveillance has a global equity problem. A large majority of the wastewater-based surveillance work has been done in large metropolitan cities with access to advanced testing infrastructure, which poses a challenge as we consider where pandemics have historically emerged. Therefore, there is a need to identify, adapt, and develop workflows to meet the needs …

Earthquake Wrangler: Leveraging Ios Technology For Earthquake Detection And Early Warning Application To Enhance Public Safety., Luis F. Salome

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Earthquakes are devastating natural phenomena and generate secondary hazards such as tsunamis, landslides and fires. Their catastrophic impacts span both developed nations including the United States, Japan, Turkey, and Italy and developing countries such as El Salvador, Haiti, Nepal and the Philippines, where disparities in early warning infrastructure remain important. Seismic events start with stress waves generated by tectonic plate motion, with body waves (P- waves and S-waves) and surface Rayleigh and love waves that carry energy through the earth. While some regions have adopted advanced early warning systems based on seismic hazard models and strong ground motion analysis, others …

Augmenting Machine Learning Technique Through Natural Language, Tasmia Tasrin

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

While artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have proven effective at addressing many of the challenges that we face in our everyday lives, there are many situations in which these methods struggle. Examples include environments where AI or ML systems must perform complex behaviors or those where rewards are difficult to calculate. To address this limitation, interactive machine learning (IML) techniques have been introduced, which incorporate machine-understandable human feedback into traditional ML approaches. This feedback is often given as a discrete, positive or negative numeric value. This feedback is typically provided as often as possible to convey a dense …

Preserving Nature: Mapping Patriarchal And Imperial Control In Victorian Fiction, Hannah Schultz

Theses and Dissertations--English

In Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles, a group of fallen women see “themselves and surrounding nature forming an organism of which all the parts harmoniously and joyously interpenetrated each other” (65). As relational, boundary-dissolving, ecological subjects, these women are empowered above society’s judgment, made “sublime as the moon and stars” (65). By analyzing such representations of ecological relationality in Victorian fiction, my dissertation reveals new forms of agency for women and racialized others. While many ecofeminists have historically disavowed the nature-gender link as reinforcing the shared oppression of nature and marginalized groups, I depart from this standpoint, as …

Lust, Labor, & Legitimacy: Visibility And Precarity In Platformed Sex Work, Sable J. Augustyn

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis examines the labor of platformed sex workers, positioning their experiences as a site for understanding the entanglement of multiple intersecting economies. Through qualitative interviews, it explores how sex workers navigate platform infrastructures, manage audience engagement, and contend with visibility as both an economic necessity and a site of risk. Drawing on theories of emotional labor, visibility labor, and platform governance, the project highlights how sex work on digital platforms is shaped by overlapping systems of economic extraction, technological constraint, and cultural regulation. Platformed sex work emerges here as a layered and context-specific practice—embedded within creator ecologies, attraction economies, …

Spatializing The Tax Code: Using Property Records To Locate The Fiscal Face Of Rentiership, Michael J. Mccanless

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This dissertation analyzes how the tax code shapes housing financialization in mid-sized US cities. Employing a mixed-methods approach that integrates critical computational analysis with qualitative fieldwork in Memphis, I examine the role of public rent-seeking in shaping housing financialization in U.S. cities. The first article analyzes the property tax appeal strategies of corporate landlords and their implications for public revenues and municipal budgets. The second article explores how the IRS 1031 exchange provision—which allows for capital gains deferrals when the proceeds of a property sale are reinvested in a ‘like-kind’ property—facilitates the movement of capital from high-cost coastal markets into …

The Houston Climate Justice Museum As A Catalyst For Environmental Justice: Exploring The Intersection Of Art, Activism, And Creative Placemaking In Houston, Texas, Aylin Castro

Theses and Dissertations--Geography

This thesis explores how the Houston Climate Justice Museum (HCJM) functions as a site for environmental/climate justice education through art and community engagement. Drawing on interviews, participant observation, and document analysis, this research examines how the museum’s curating practices generate new understandings of environmental in/justices, fosters local partnerships, and creates a welcoming space for community dialogue. Findings show that the HCJM does more than exhibit art, it demonstrates how art can be leveraged to advance both activist and educational projects. This study positions the HCJM as a model for how local and justice orientated museums and cultural spaces can contribute …

Yaoi Lesbians: Media, Identity, And Desire, Olivia Marquardt

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Media consumption reflects aspects of identity while also assisting in identity formation (Koller, 2008; Zemmels, 2012; Wu, 2006). This thesis examines the phenomenon of lesbians who engage with men-loving-men (MLM) media. The practice seems odd due to the contrast of lesbians desiring women for their social, platonic, romantic, and sexual relationships, but this thesis finds that repeated consumption of media that display men and their desires can index lesbianism. This practice helps lesbians construct their identities through three processes of indexicality: indexical disjuncture, indexical bleaching, and indexical denial (Barrett & Hall, 2024). Through a discourse analysis of five semi-constructed interviews …

Trashing Gender Scripts: Indexical Misrecognition In The Zine "Galatea's Naked", Jules Blank

Theses and Dissertations--Linguistics

Zines, short for ‘fanzines’ or ‘magazines,’ refer to physical, printed, self-published creations that can consist of a single sheet of paper or many, fastened together. These artifacts are rich with meaning—and, thus, can be read as tangible manifestations of the ideologies and identities of the creator(s).

This thesis focuses on the way zines are used as tools of resistance. Additionally, it shows that the creation and circulation of zines are highly pragmatic acts that solidify social bonds and enable individuals to perform and reinforce their emergent identities within a collective—explicitly making a claim about who they are and what they …