Digital Commons Network^™

Structured Education To Reduce Medication Errors In A Group Home Setting A Quality Improvement Project, Alicia Abate

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Introduction: Medication errors in residential group homes contribute significantly to preventable morbidity and mortality amongst a vulnerable population.

Evidence Review: A review of the literature demonstrated that initial and ongoing structured education, continuous monitoring help and enhanced communication strategies improve medication administration safety, thereby reducing the incidence of medication errors.

Purpose: The purpose of this DNP project was to reduce medication administration errors among direct care staff in a residential group home setting through implementation of structured, individualized medication administration education modules following medication errors.

Methods: Guided by the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) model, this project evaluated the feasibility, …

Examining Moral Susceptibility In Ai Vs. Human-Assisted Decision-Making, Seth James Fogle

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems are increasingly integrated into decision-making contexts, yet their influence on ethical judgment remains unclear. This study examines whether advice from an AI advisor, compared to a human advisor, affects moral susceptibility in a consumer decision-making scenario. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects experimental design (advisor type × price condition), this research tests whether personal agency, perceived objectivity, and diffusion of responsibility operate as psychological mechanisms underlying ethical decision-making.

Results indicate that advisor type did not significantly influence moral susceptibility, nor did it significantly affect the proposed mediators. Additionally, the price condition did not moderate these relationships. …

Deep-Learning-Based Generation Of Synthetic Contactless Fingerphotos, Christopher Harry Burton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The collection of biometric data is a labor-intensive, high-resource process that presents significant logistical, privacy, and cost barriers for researchers and developers. To address these challenges, the biometrics community has increasingly turned to generative models capable of producing synthetic datasets that reflect the statistical properties of real data. While substantial progress has been made in synthetic fingerprint generation for contact-based modalities, the contactless fingerphoto domain has remained largely underserved. This work presents a deep learning-based approach to synthetic contactless fingerphoto generation using a Stable Diffusion model guided by multimodal conditions (text and image). The dataset used for training was collected …

Preference Of Smiling Esthetics By Caucasian And Chinese Orthodontic Professionals, Tamana Spingher

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background and Objectives: Comprehensive orthodontic treatment aims to achieve optimal facial esthetics, which is guided by established norms that have shown variability across different ethnic and gender groups. There is a paucity of literature comparing the esthetic preferences of Chinese and Caucasian orthodontic professionals regarding smiling esthetics. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceived smiling attractiveness ratings between Chinese and Caucasian orthodontic professionals. Methods: One Chinese and one Caucasian lateral smiling photograph generated by artificial intelligence (AI) were used in this study. The maxillary central incisor position was digitally manipulated to simulate variations in anteroposterior (AP) position …

Contesting Conservatism: Neoconservatives, Evangelicals, And Foreign Policy In The Reagan Era, Emily B. Kissel

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores how foreign policy shaped and destabilized the conservative coalition during the Reagan era. Although historians often portray the conservative movement of the 1980s as unified by anti-communism, this study argues that foreign policy debates exposed significant ideological divisions between neoconservatives, evangelical Christians, and the broader conservative base. These groups shared common goals but disagreed over the moral and strategic direction of American foreign policy. Neoconservatives and evangelical Christians wanted the same muscular assertion of American power abroad, but the factions framed foreign policy differently to appeal to their supporters. These policies and aggressive anti-Soviet rhetoric struck widespread …

Contesting Conservatism: Neoconservatives, Evangelicals, And Foreign Policy In The Reagan Era, Emily B. Kissel

All Master's Theses

This thesis explores how foreign policy shaped and destabilized the conservative coalition during the Reagan era. Although historians often portray the conservative movement of the 1980s as unified by anti-communism, this study argues that foreign policy debates exposed significant ideological divisions between neoconservatives, evangelical Christians, and the broader conservative base. These groups shared common goals but disagreed over the moral and strategic direction of American foreign policy. Neoconservatives and evangelical Christians wanted the same muscular assertion of American power abroad, but the factions framed foreign policy differently to appeal to their supporters. These policies and aggressive anti-Soviet rhetoric struck widespread …

The Geomorphology And Hydrogeology Of Pre-Restoration West Fork Teanaway River, Wa, Usa, Shana M. Egan

All Master's Theses

The West Fork Teanaway (WFT) River in Kittitas County, WA is an entrenched bedrock river channel with disturbed floodplain geomorphology and degraded riparian ecology. Two stream restoration approaches, “stage 0” valley bottom reset and engineered logjam installation, will be installed at the WFT in summer 2026 by collaborators at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group. The objective of this study was to constrain the pre-restoration geomorphic and hydrologic conditions of the WFT. The WFT has an unconsolidated floodplain aquifer of predominantly coarse-grained fluvial deposits. Monitoring of groundwater and surface water levels began in …

Understanding The Cost Of Catastrophe: Wildfire Suppression Costs Drivers By Fire Size Class, Stephanie Overla

All Master's Theses

While most wildfires burn less than 100 acres, the western United States experiences much larger fires annually, placing increasing pressure on suppression resources. Changes in weather patterns, fuel composition, and the spatial complexity of human development have rapidly altered historic fire regimes, increasing both the frequency of large wildfires and the challenges of managing them. This study compares two wildfire classes—Fires of Unusual Size (FOUS, >90,000 acres with at least one rapid growth event), and Large Fires (LF, 25,000–90,000 acres), —to identify differences in how size- and growth-based fire classes influence wildfire suppression costs. Suppression cost data for 60 …

Exploring Students' Perceptions Of Active Learning Practices And Their Role In Critical Thinking Development In Undergraduate Biology Education, Kwame Kyeremah

All Master's Theses

As the global landscape becomes increasingly complex and undergoes more rapid changes than ever before, critical thinking has become an indispensable skill for addressing challenges in society, science, and the workplace. Despite its widespread adoption in undergraduate STEM education, active learning remains poorly understood from the student's perspective. This study investigated how undergraduate biology students perceived active learning in a ten-week biostatistics course (BIOL 213) at Central Washington University, and whether those perceptions aligned with critical thinking gains measured by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test with Numeracy (CCTST-N). A convergent mixed-methods design integrated student perception and mindset survey data …

Examining The Effects Of Virtual Nature Exposure And Video Immersion On State Hope With Nature Relatedness As A Covariate, Zachary Arneson

All Master's Theses

Previous work in the field of environmental psychology has shown that virtual nature exposure can produce many psychological benefits for the viewer. Within this literature, however, there has been no examination of the effects of virtual nature exposure on levels of state hope, a goal-directed positive psychological construct made up of two types of thought: agency and pathways. Additionally, there has been no direct examination of the effect of immersion level of the virtual nature exposure on psychological measures. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study examined the effects of virtual nature exposure and video immersion on …

Gis Is A Tool, Not The Story: The Journey Towards An Ethnographically Informed Gis Analysis Of Frenchman Coulee, Eastern Washington, Joseph T. Gambino

All Master's Theses

Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have seen increased use in ethnographic and archaeological studies over the last several decades. Though revolutionary in their ability to predict and document sites of archaeological or cultural significance, they remain limited in their capacity to communicate the full extent of potential values certain geographies offer to both cultural specialists and their communities. These limitations are amplified when attempting to represent how the landscape is experienced within GIS’s statistical framework. In this manuscript I present different approaches to GIS modeling that attempt to identify some of the advantages Frenchman Coulee could have offered to the Indigenous …

Religion, Death, And Journalism In The Christian Science Monitor, 1908-1918, Natalie Hammill

All Master's Theses

The Christian Science Monitor was created in 1908 by the Christian Science Church and its founder, Mary Baker Eddy, with the goal to “injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” The question arises, how does a religion that does not believe in physical reality produce a newspaper, and how does that newspaper treat subjects like sin, sickness, and death, subjects Christian Science teaches its adherents to ignore? This thesis argues that the Christian Science Monitor used the inherent flexibility of Christian Science beliefs around physical reality in combination with popular ideas about non-sensationalism and “clean journalism” as the basis …

“Allied In Character”: U.S. And British Relations During The Russian Intervention, 1918 - 1919, Zachary J. Rubino

All Master's Theses

In 1918, the newly proclaimed Soviet Union signed a separate peace with Germany to remove itself from World War I and attend to a brewing civil war. Great Britain, France, the United States, and other Allied nations, in the thick of fighting in the West, sent a coalition force into Russia. The Allied forces would be led by the British, who hoped to force the new Soviet government to reopen the Eastern Front. The United States joined the coalition reluctantly. Consistent with his policy of national self-determination, President Wilson restricted the 339^th US Infantry Regiment to non-combat roles. However, …

Factors Affecting The Knowledge Of Women On Traditional Hand-Woven Fabric Products In Hongsa District, Xayabouly Province, Laos, Kitsana Chanthakhoun, Khanthavanh Phomlasaboud, Vongpasith Chanthakhoun, Phutthisun Kruekum, Nakarate Rungkawat, Saisakul Fongmul

Journal of Urban Culture Research

This study aimed to investigate the knowledge of traditional hand-woven products and the factors influencing this knowledge among 184 farmers in Hongsa District, Sayabouly Province, Laos. Data were collected through questionnaires and knowledge tests and analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple regression analysis. The results showed that over 62.5% of the participants—most of whom were women—had a moderate level of knowledge about traditional hand-woven products. Several factors had a statistically significant positive relationship with knowledge (p < 0.05), including income earned from weaving, frequency of contact with neighbors, education level, and time spent on weaving activities. Conversely, age was found to have a significant negative effect on knowledge levels. These findings suggest that younger, better-educated individuals who are more socially connected and spend more time weaving tend to have higher levels of knowledge. Therefore, interventions aiming to sustain and conserve traditional hand-weaving practices should focus on strengthening knowledge-sharing among community members, improving access to education, and offering targeted training programs. Such efforts could enhance local income opportunities and support the long-term preservation of traditional cultural practices.

Reviewing Tourism And Urban Development In The United Arab Emirates, Adriaan De Man, Robert Bridi, Sérgio Guerreiro

Journal of Urban Culture Research

Cities are emerging as tourist hubs and heritage-based leisure is central to economic diversification strategies that improve conditions to residents and visitors. Within this context, urban tourism has gained prominence in the international travel market. Considering the expansion of tourism in the Arabian Gulf States, it is important to reflect on the role it can play in the expansion strategies of cities, building on global practice. This paper explores a particular aspect of this reality, namely the incorporation of heritage elements and their commodification in the urban setting of the United Arab Emirates. It elaborates on recent sources and addresses …

Student Perceptions Of Clinical Psychology Workforce Diversity, Ogochukwu Obi

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Clinical psychology remains a predominantly White field, with more than four in five current clinical psychology academics and practitioners being White. Increased racial representation in the field could contribute to more culturally responsive treatment research and practice and improved treatment outcomes. Barriers to increasing racial representation exist across all levels of psychology education and careers. The current study focuses on a potential barrier to pursuing a clinical or counseling psychology doctorate for Black undergraduate psychology majors. Research on social identity theory, perceived identity compatibility theory, and social-cognitive career theory show students’ identities can influence career aspirations, educational experiences, and sense …

(2026) Desegregating The Community Of Inquiry In Philosophy For / With Children: A Dialogue On Racism, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Darren Chetty

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

This dialogical article examines persistent challenges in engaging racism, colonialism, and white supremacy within the theory and practice of Philosophy for/with Children (P4/wC). Framed as a mutual interview between two long-standing colleagues, the dialogue revisits formative encounters in the P4/wC community and situates them within broader intellectual traditions, including American pragmatism, deliberative democracy, and Africana philosophy. Drawing on personal experience, archival material, and critical scholarship, the authors interrogate the metaphilosophical assumptions underpinning the “community of inquiry,” particularly its commitments to reasonableness, consensus, and democratic dialogue. Concepts such as the “gated community of inquiry,” white ignorance, nonideal theory, and insurrectionist ethics …

(2026) Three Traditions Of Philosophical Dialogue, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Collected Papers of Maughn Rollins Gregory

This chapter distinguishes and interrelates three major traditions of philosophical dialogue: inquiry, political, and contemplative. Inquiry dialogue, exemplified by the “community of philosophical inquiry,” emphasizes collaborative reasoning aimed at forming the most reasonable judgments about contested concepts. Political dialogue, exemplified by the story circle, shifts the focus toward democratic transformation, highlighting how discourse is shaped by power, ideology, and the need for emancipatory critique and action. Contemplative dialogue, exemplified by lectio divina, foregrounds self-awareness, ethical disposition, and attentive presence as conditions for meaningful exchange. Across these traditions, dialogue is presented as a normative practice that simultaneously cultivates the self and …

The Jurisprudence Of Baseball: Private Versus Public Litigation, Ahmed E. Taha

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Like every sport, baseball operates as a legal system, complete with laws that govern play and a process for resolving disputes that occur during the game. The large majority of these laws are enforced through a type of public litigation: umpires are responsible for detecting infractions and imposing the mandated penalties. However, unlike in every other sport popular in the United States, certain laws are enforced through a type of private litigation: the appeal play. Umpires do not declare those infractions unless the other team appeals to an umpire that the infraction occurred. A substantial body of legal scholarship explores …

From Privacy To Profit: The Evolution Of Name, Image, And Likeness Rights And The Revolution In College Athletics Toward Collegiate Capitalism, Donald M. Remy

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The story of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights in American law is one of adaptation, transformation, and ultimately, revolution. What began as a modest recognition of personal dignity in the late 19th century has evolved into a multibillion-dollar framework that has fundamentally altered the landscape of college athletics. The journey from Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis’s seminal articulation of the “right to be let alone” to the June 2025 approval of the House v. NCAA¹ settlement represents not merely a doctrinal evolution but a profound shift in how American society conceptualizes the relationship between identity, commerce, and fair …

Name, Image, Likeness And The Great American Pastime, Barbara Lauriat

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The ability of high-profile athletes to commercialize name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights is at the center of many current controversies about the future of college sports in the United States. This Article describes how what we call NIL protection— largely based on publicity rights doctrines developed in the mid-20th century—is historically recent, conceptually unstable, and insufficiently scrutinized, even though it now underwrites major entertainment markets in sports. Just as baseball is a sport particularly identified with the United States, there is also a peculiarly American approach to the protection of persona. Using baseball as the central case study, the …

Losing Your Driver’S License; Just What The Doctor Ordered?, Shawna Traver

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Having a medical scare or living with a chronic medical condition is a common experience for many people in the United States. But should you go to a doctor in Pennsylvania and tell them of your condition or experience, a little-known law may force the doctor to report you to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation— without your knowledge. Once the report is received, the Department can recall your license. You can attempt to restore your license by attending a hearing, though you are fighting an uphill battle. Essentially, Pennsylvania drivers may be blindsided by a license recall merely because they …

Sustainable Safety Planning On Two-Lane Highways: A Random Forest Approach For Crash Prediction And Resource Allocation, Fahmida Rahman, Cidambi Srinivasan, Xu Zhang, Mei Chen

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

During the safety planning stage, accurate crash prediction tools are critical for prioritizing countermeasures and allocating resources effectively. Traditional statistical approaches, while long applied in this field, often depend on distributional assumptions that may introduce bias and limit model accuracy. To address these issues, studies have started exploring Machine Learning (ML)-based techniques for crash prediction, particularly for higher functional class roads. However, the application of ML models on two-lane highways remains relatively limited. This study aims to develop an approach to integrate traffic, geometric, and critically, speed-based factors in crash prediction using Random Forest (RF) and SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) …

Forward Chaining And Emotion Regulation: Exploring The Effects Of Forward Chaining On Emotion Regulation Skills, Celoine Akouri

Masters Essays

Emotion dysregulation places the quality of life for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at risk. The current research on emotion regulation teaching strategies after emotion recognition training is limited. This study explored the effectiveness of forward chaining on teaching emotion regulation skills to an adult with ASD who engaged in a long history of self- injurious, property destruction, and screaming behaviors. The emotion regulation intervention used forward chaining procedures to teach a three-step sequence of behaviors to the participant in their adult day program setting using a multiple baseline across time design. The results showed that as the participant’s …

A Comparison Of Using Token Economy With Differential Reinforcement Procedures In Increasing Compliance In Children With Autism, Jada Keyes

Masters Essays

Compliance, or engaging in an adult-delivered instruction, is a prerequisite skill for following daily routines in school-aged children. Noncompliance, engaging in any other behavior than the directed activity or task, is a common barrier among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Behavioral interventions, such as token economy and differential reinforcement, have been implemented to increase compliance among children with ASD. However, limited research has compared the effectiveness of combining token economy with different types of differential reinforcement interventions. Thus, this study compared the effects of using token economy with differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) versus differential reinforcement of other …

Comparative Analysis Of Serum-Free Culture Conditions On Cell Proliferation And Extracellular Vesicle Production By Adipose-Derived Stem Cells, Ayna Ghulldu

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) are promising candidates in regenerative medicine due to their proliferative capacity, self-renewal, and secretion of extracellular vesicles (EVs) that mediate intercellular communication. Serum-free media has been increasingly explored for MSC culture as it eliminates xenogeneic components, improving human therapeutic suitability. However, comparative evaluation of distinct serum-free formulations on ADSC proliferation and EV output simultaneously remains limited. This study compares a serum-containing medium to three proprietary serum-free media prototypes differing in composition, including the presence or absence of extracellular matrix proteins, to inform the optimization of culture conditions for clinical use. Proliferation, EV characteristics, and gene expression …

Guideline For A Burnout Bundle For Nurses In Psychiatric Mental Health Units, Festus Irabor

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Abstract

Problem: Burnout among nurses, especially in psychiatric mental health units, significantly impacts both their well-being and the quality of patient care. Despite its severity, with approximately 30% of nurses worldwide affected and contributing to a 31.5% nurse turnover rate (Ge et al., 2023), there are limited formal guidelines specifically targeting nurse burnout prevention in the mental health setting. The issue is particularly acute in the United States, where 91.1% of psychiatric nurses report experiencing burnout, compared to 79.9% of other healthcare professionals (Anger et al., 2024). In the local unit 38.05% have experienced burnout.

Purpose: The PICOTS for this …

Caught In The Web: The Resolution Of The Internet Service Provider Contributory Copyright Infringement Split, Olivia F. Johnson

Cybaris®

No abstract provided.

Are Courts Developing A Consistent Standard For Sanctioning Attorneys Who Misuse Genai In Legal Filings?, Natalia Borges

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines whether Florida courts are developing an emerging statewide standard governing attorney use of generative artificial intelligence in litigation and whether this trend supports the need for formal statewide codification. This study addresses growing concerns about fabricated citations, unverified legal research, attorney sanctions, and inconsistent disclosure practices as generative artificial intelligence becomes integrated into legal drafting and research. This research reviews the Florida Rules regulating the Florida Bar, ethics guidance on generative AI, Florida procedural certification requirements, disciplinary actions, and administrative orders from Florida judicial circuits that require disclosure and verification of artificial intelligence use in court filings. …

Beyond Full Fine-Tuning: The New Playbook For Adapting Deep Neural Networks, Cristian S. Mcgee

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Fine-tuning is the process of teaching and specializing a pre-trained neural network on a downstream task. Fine-tuning is a rapidly growing topic in artificial intelligence domains; however, many fine-tuning endeavors are highly specialized without a coherent framework connecting them. This work presents a unified perspective on fine-tuning methods and performance metrics. Our perspective organizes the methods in terms of how they are applied to fine-tuning. This framework showcases methods that (i) update effective subspaces of the pre-trained model, (ii) change the adaptation optimization procedure, and (iii) alter the representations of the embedded input. Additionally, we present unconventional metrics such as …