Digital Commons Network^™

Talking About Cancer And Tobacco (Tact) Study With Lgbtq Patients And Their Care Providers, William Bowling

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Due to multilevel factors, including a high prevalence of tobacco use, the burden of some cancers is disproportionately higher in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community than the general population. Evidence-based tobacco treatment delivery with high rates of tobacco cessation would be a powerful tool for secondary cancer prevention in the LGBTQ community, yet few studies have explored this issue. The current study aimed to 1) uncover both positive and negative aspects related to the lived experience and treatment of LGBTQ cancer survivors who use tobacco, 2) elucidate barriers and facilitators of tobacco treatment and cessation, and …

Introducing Education On Modified Bedside Nursing Handoff To Reinforce Patient Safety Across High-Risk Populations: A Quality Improvement Project., Sydney P. Hodgdon

Master's Theses and Capstones

BACKGROUND:

The Modified Bedside Nursing Handoff (mBNH) is a process where nurses exchange patient information and responsibility at shift change, ideally at the bedside. A PRISMA-based literature review showed that mBNH may help improve communication, protect patient privacy, and enhance safety when done thoughtfully—sometimes at the bedside, sometimes just outside the room. This quality improvement project was launched on a busy unit that cares for high-acuity patients from across northern New England, including those recovering from strokes, motor vehicle accidents, and serious falls. The goal was to increase both frequency and how standardization that nurses reported using mBNH by at …

Enhancing Faculty Self-Efficacy In Student Retention Through Teas Reading Comprehension Score Education, Katina A. Ennis

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Student retention remains a persistent challenge for Associate Degree in Nursing (ADN) programs, with significant implications for the nursing workforce amid a national shortage. Faculty self-efficacy in interpreting and utilizing academic readiness data, particularly ATI TEAS reading comprehension scores, is often limited, leading to missed opportunities for early intervention. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project evaluated whether a targeted educational intervention could enhance faculty self-efficacy in using TEAS reading comprehension scores to support at-risk students and improve retention strategies.

The project employed a quantitative pre- and post-intervention design using the validated Teacher’s Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) …

Teacher Professional Development Related To Emergent Bilinguals: Teacher Perceptions And Experiences, Courtney Simko

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As of 2021, the National Center for Education Statistics reports that there are 5.3 million students whose first language is one other than English, or are emergent bilinguals (EBs), in the United States. If teachers are not prepared adequately, they are not able to meet the needs of students appropriately. The following study sought to determine whether or not public school elementary teachers in Southeastern Michigan felt prepared to teach EBs, as well as their perceptions of the training they received. This information is important, as it is necessary to identify gaps in professional learning by determining whether teachers feel …

A Generative Account Of English Exclamatives, Christa Niemann

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Exclamatives are an intriguing case study of the syntax-semantics interface. Despite several attempts to define them and explain their properties, there has not yet been convergence on a general theory of the exclamative sentence type. This thesis aims to unify existing approaches to exclamatives and explain a wider range of data by modifying and extending Zanuttini and Portner (2003). The critical modification allows exclamatives to be formed via operators other than wh-, which, when combined with factivity, ultimately yields exclamativity. The implications of this proposed analysis are investigated for both familiar and previously unexplored data. The modified analysis has several …

Language Barriers In Clinical Trials: Exploring Impacts On Continuity And Participants’ Engagement And Effective Mitigation Strategies, Harsha Ani Das

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Clinical trials are crucial for advancing medical knowledge and developing new treatments. However, language barriers can pose significant challenges for participants, particularly in understanding trial procedures, risks, and benefits. Existing policies, guidelines, and studies from 2020 to 2024 identify key challenges in recruiting and retaining non-English-speaking participants. The lack of data on dropout rates highlights the need for improved language services and culturally sensitive communication methods. Findings demonstrate the importance of addressing linguistic disparities to enhance trial inclusivity and success. Innovative strategies to overcome language-related hurdles include the use of professional interpreters, translated materials, and community engagement initiatives. By addressing …

Self-As-Context Moderation Of Relationship Fusion: A Comparison Of Intimate And Familial Relationship Impact On Weight Concern, Carly Carrasco-Wyant

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored how fusion in important relationships relates to weight concern and whether these effects are moderated by self-as-context perspectives and racial and ethnic background. Grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and relational frame theory (RFT), eight models were constructed to evaluate influence of important others when absent or present and when moderated by self-as-context, racial and ethnic background and in multiple moderation models analyses using data from 1,323 participants. Results indicated that fusion with family was significantly associated with greater weight concern, when family was absent (ß = 0.10, p = .03) and present (ß = 0.12, …

Caregiver Training To Enhance Care Interactions With Persons With Neurocognitive Disorders: An Additive Treatement Study, Samantha J. Killian

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Persons with neurocognitive disorders (NCD) rely on family and friends to help them with everyday tasks, yet informal caregivers might not be aware of the need to scaffold tasks or know how to maximize the care recipients’ engagement. The current study recruited three men who were full-time family caregivers for women (spouses, their mother). The study assessed the care recipients’ need for scaffolding of instrumental tasks and the caregivers’ perception thereof and then trained the caregivers in task analysis and prompting. An additive treatment design examined the differential effects of a two-part training intervention on caregivers’ perceptions of the need …

Latent Classes Of Comorbid Clinical Presentations For Patients With Psychogenic Non-Epileptic Seizures, Joseph W. Tu

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are episodes of motor, sensory, and/or cognitive seizures without detectable epileptic activity. The integrative cognitive model conceptualizes PNES as an activation of learned mental representations of a seizure often combined with concurrent physiological arousal. PNES are not treatable by antiepileptic medications and are often accompanied by psychiatric and medical comorbidities, complicating treatment following diagnosis. Further, individuals with PNES often incur greater medical costs through hospital admissions and emergency department visits. Multidisciplinary care including behavioral health interventions like cognitive behavior therapy have demonstrated initial success at reducing seizure frequency but impacts on healthcare utilization are unknown. Patients …

Agentic Ai Systems In Professional Domains: A Probabilistic Framework For Role Suitability And Legal Accountability, Matthew Veach

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis presents a cross-sector analysis of agentic AI systems deployed in STEM, education, healthcare, and enterprise domains, with a focus on role suitability, orchestration maturity, and legal accountability. It introduces the Bounded Agentic Suitability Envelope, a dual-bound scoring framework that evaluates deployment viability using weighted assessments of agent capability and decomposed role complexity. Through case studies from Fujitsu, Cleveland Clinic, Carnegie Learning, and Duolingo, the thesis demonstrates measurable gains in efficiency, personalization, and compliance. It argues for an augmentation-first strategy, preserving human roles in high-context domains while enabling targeted replacement in low-complexity workflows. To mitigate risk, the thesis formalizes …

Neuropsychological Assessment Accuracy In Diagnosing Early-Onset Alzheimer’S Disease, Elise Thomas

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Early-onset Alzheimer’s disease (EOAD), a progressive neurological condition, is often difficult to diagnose before substantial neuronal damage. Neuropsychological assessments offer a more cost-effective and accessible method for detecting early cognitive decline, yet limited research exists on optimal combinations for EOAD identification. This study analyzed data from 24 clinical studies to determine the diagnostic accuracy of FDA-approved EOAD assessments used in combination. No single combination was found to be superior across all diagnostic metrics. MMSE + MoCA + ADAS-Cog showed the highest sensitivity, MMSE + MoCA + RBANS the highest specificity, MMSE + RBANS the highest AUC value, and MMSE + …

Evaluating Educational Bias In Executive Function Assessments: A Comparison Of Reacstick And The Nih Toolbox In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis, Maura Lane

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigated the influence of educational attainment on executive function performance across two cognitive assessment tools—ReacStick (RS) and the National Institute of Health Cognition Toolbox Cognition Battery (NIH Toolbox-CB)— in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). Participants with confirmed MS diagnoses completed both cognitive assessment tools, and the correlation between years of education and task performance was analyzed to evaluate the presence of educational bias. Results showed that NIH Toolbox-CB scores were significantly associated with education level, whereas RS parameters did not demonstrate this relationship. These findings suggest that RS performance may be less influenced by educational background and could …

Quality Improvement Project: Implementing A Standardized, Structured Preceptor Program For Licensed Nurses In The Ambulatory Care Setting To Improve Preceptor Competence Level, Sibil J. Blee

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Ambulatory care settings demand diverse nursing skills, making effective preceptorship crucial for successful new nurse transitions. However, many preceptors lack formal preceptor training. This quality improvement project implemented and evaluated a structured preceptor training program for licensed nurses in a large metropolitan healthcare system in Southeast Texas, addressing this critical gap. The project, informed by best practices from acute care and the American Academy of Ambulatory Care Nursing’s Preceptor Guide, explored the impact of structured training on ambulatory care nurse competence within eight weeks, compared to no training. Fourteen nurses voluntarily participated, with twelve (85.7%) completing pre- and post-intervention surveys. …

Quality Improvement Project: Empowering Nursing Instructors For Effective Simulation Facilitation, Brittany N. Hilson

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Simulation-based education is vital in nursing education, enhancing clinical skills and decision-making in a controlled environment. The DNP Quality Improvement (QI) project aimed to increase nursing faculty self-efficacy in facilitating simulation-based education by providing targeted training in high-fidelity simulation technology. A needs assessment at the school of nursing project site revealed that the faculty lacked sufficient experience and confidence in using simulation equipment. The impact of the simulation-based intervention was evaluated by applying a paired sample t-test, utilizing pre- and post-assessment data. Following a four-week intervention, the results demonstrated that 69.2% of participants showed a significant increase in self-efficacy, with …

Regenerating Justice: Chatgpt And The Legal Minefield Of Generative Ai, Katie Szilagyi

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper adopts an automation bias lens to cast doubt on the growing claims that GenAI is a transformational tool for legal industry. In this context, automation bias refers to the well-known psychological phenomenon in which human decision-makers unwittingly defer to automated processes, flowing from overreliance on the accuracy of the automation. Even well-meaning individuals aiming to keep a “human-in-the-loop” of any automated decision can fall prey to this well-documented phenomenon, trusting the technology more than it deserves to be trusted. Champions for current GenAI technologies often do acknowledge limitations within the existing landscape of tools, like GenAI’s tendency to …

Differentiation Or Dialectic: Pluralism And Contestation In European Economic Constitutionalism, Paul Linden-Retek, Marija Bartl

Journal Articles

In this contribution we ask how Přibáň’s theoretical choices shape the capacity of ‘European constitutional imaginaries’ to account for the ever more necessary work of recognition and redistribution within European society. While ‘European constitutional imaginaries’ reveal the intricate ideologies at play within European law and politics, as well as their power in motivating dominant currents of European political life, the project remains limited in that it accepts essential tenets of functional differentiation in society, obscuring the conditions of possibility for the formation of differentiated systems. Put differently, ‘European constitutional imaginaries’, both as forms of life and analytic concepts, have difficulty …

Southern Adventist University Adult Degree Completion Catalog 2024-2025, Southern Adventist University

Catalog, Adult Degree Completion

Southern Adventist University's adult degree completion catalog for the academic year 2024-2025.

Introducing A Paper Communication Alternative For Emergency Department Nurse-Technician Delegation To Promote Workflow Efficiency: A Quality Improvement Project, Grant Quinn

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Efficient and high quality communication is paramount in the emergency department setting, especially between registered nurses (RNs) and emergency department technicians. In a fluid and high-octane microsystem, poor communication can lead to missed or delayed delegated tasks, which harm teamwork and patient safety and outcomes.

Purpose: By introducing a low-cost, paper-based communication alternative to this microsystem into the workflow it is expected that perceived ease of use and communication quality will both increase when surveying department staff. This intervention offers an alternative means of communicating with the goal of improving communication overall in the microsystem.

Methods: Through use of …

A Quality Improvement Initiative: Enhancing Knowledge And Confidence In Effective Eclamptic Seizure Management Among Maternity Nurses, Emma C. Donigian

Master's Theses and Capstones

Background: Preeclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E) are leading contributors to maternal morbidity and mortality rates globally. Timely recognition and intervention are essential for improving maternal outcomes. However, evidence indicates that healthcare professionals often lack sufficient knowledge and confidence in managing these conditions, highlighting a critical need for ongoing education to ensure safe, effective care.

Local Problem: At a small maternity unit in Northern New England, nurses expressed concern about their preparedness to manage eclamptic seizures, a rare but high-risk obstetric emergency. Although preeclampsia is commonly encountered, eclampsia occurs infrequently, limiting staff exposure and hands-on experience. This combination of low frequency and …

Dire Straits In The Gulf: Using The Endangered Species Act To Better Protect The World's Rarest Whale From Industrial Threats, Aidan Bodeo-Lomicky

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Front Matter, Colorado Environmental Law Journal

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Towards Multispecies Environmental Justice, Laura Street Cole

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Holding Fossil Fuel Producers Accountable In U.S. And Other Foreign Courts: A Climate Justice Pathway For Sierra Leone, Jamil Sahid Fofanah

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Environmental Cost Of Intelligence: Regulating The Climate Impact Of Artificial Intelligence, Emilee Calvin

Colorado Environmental Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Alcohol Exposome, Nousha H. Sabet, Todd A. Wyatt

Journal Articles: Environmental, Agricultural & Occupational Health

Science is now in a new era of exposome research that strives to build a more all-inclusive, panoramic view in the quest for answers; this is especially true in the field of toxicology. Alcohol exposure researchers have been examining the multivariate co-exposures that may either exacerbate or initiate alcohol-related tissue/organ injuries. This manuscript presents selected key variables that represent the Alcohol Exposome. The primary variables that make up the Alcohol Exposome can include comorbidities such as cigarettes, poor diet, occupational hazards, environmental hazards, infectious agents, and aging. In addition to representing multiple factors, the Alcohol Exposome examines the various types …

Leveraging Transformer-Based Ocr Model With Generative Data Augmentation For Engineering Document Recognition, Wael Khallouli, Mohammad Shahab Uddin, Andres Sousa-Poza, Jiang Li, Samuel Kovacic

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The long-standing practice of document-based engineering has resulted in the accumulation of a large number of engineering documents across various industries. Engineering documents, such as 2D drawings, continue to play a significant role in exchanging information and sharing knowledge across multiple engineering processes. However, these documents are often stored in non-digitized formats, such as paper and portable document format (PDF) files, making automation difficult. As digital engineering transforms processes in many industries, digitizing engineering documents presents a crucial challenge that requires advanced methods. This research addresses the problem of automatically extracting textual content from non-digitized legacy engineering documents. We introduced …

Like Holding Up A Mirror: How I Learned To Teach Restorative Justice, Susan Abraham

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Housing Justice Pipeline: Harnessing Housing Clinics To Transform The Right To Counsel Movement, Erica Braudy, Thomas Honan, Tuhfa Begum

Articles & Chapters

No abstract provided.

Restoring Unanimity To The Alabama Death Penalty, Daniel Butler Friedman

Articles & Chapters

In Alabama, one of the jurisdictions most responsible for executions in the United States, the death penalty statute contains a very unusual provision: juries can sentence defendants to death even if they are not unanimous. This is a surprising fact to many people, including lawyers, who largely believe that the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated non-unanimous juries in 2020. That provision is enormously important to the capital punishment regime in Alabama, where 80% of people on death row were sentenced non-unanimously. The law's history, however, is poorly understood. This article lays out that history, showing it to be part of the …

Racial And Rural Disparities In Financial Toxicity And Healthcare Transitions Among Adolescent And Young Adult Cancer Survivors In Kentucky, Jean S. Edward, Brent J. Shelton, Lauren Corum, Haafsah Fariduddin, Katie Brown, John A. D’Orazio, Kimberly D. Northrip

Physiology Faculty Publications

Introduction: Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors, especially racial/ethnic minorities and rural residents are particularly vulnerable to financial toxicity due to limited healthcare access, socioeconomic disparities, and cultural/language barriers. These social determinants of health compound financial hardship and contribute to poor healthcare transitions from pediatric to adult care, leading to worse outcomes and higher mortality rates. Methods: Our cross-sectional survey study examined racial (Black vs White) and geographic (rural vs urban) disparities in financial toxicity and healthcare transition outcomes among 260 adolescent and young adult cancer survivors through the Kentucky Cancer Registry. Survey data were collected on financial toxicity, healthcare …