Digital Commons Network^™

Literacy Hubs: Human-Centered, Coordinated Approach Towards Advancing Adult Literacy In A Community, Alexandria M. Marzolf

Masters Projects

Low adult literacy skills have been a pervasive and persistent challenge in the United States for more than a century. One in five adults (21%) possesses low literacy skills (National Center for Education Statistics, 2026), a finding consistent with statistics reported by the National Literacy Institute (2024). Despite decades of educational reform, many adults continue to experience limited access to coordinated, community-based literacy support. The purpose of this master's project was to develop a community-based Literacy Hub framework designed to increase access to adult literacy learning opportunities through coordinated partnerships and community engagement. An extensive review of educational research, community …

Sustaining Clabsi Prevention Through Central Line Bundle Compliance: A Focus On Iv Tubing Labeling, Visual Cues And Peer Support, See Elizabeth Vang

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract  

Problem: Inconsistent IV tubing labeling compliance on a telemetry unit was identified as a gap in central line maintenance practices that could affect adherence to the CLABSI prevention bundle.

Intervention: A quality improvement project reinforced existing IV tubing labeling practices through a visual job aid, staff education, and peer verification during Nursing Knowledge Exchange (NKE) bedside handoff.

Outcome Measure: The primary outcome measure was IV tubing labeling compliance, with a goal of increasing compliance from 86.5% to at least 95% on 24 bed Telemetry unit.

Results: The project did not achieve the desired improvement in compliance. Multiple concurrent quality …

Application And Development Of Continuum Treatments In Photodetachment Of Anions, Pratichhya Adhikari

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to provide deeper insight into understanding the dynamics of the photodetached electrons and the nature of the parent species. The dissertation provides examples of quasi-bound states of the anion embedded in the continuum of states associated with the neutral species, and shows how they manifest in experimental data, deviating from expectations of direct detachment. This dissertation is primarily computational and applies and develops electronic-structure and continuum models, respectively, and a newly implemented physical dipole treatment of the photoelectron to account for these resonances and to interpret experimental photoelectron imaging data. The content of the dissertation is divided …

Threads Of The Frightening: The Uncanny, Alienation, And Horror In Otsuichi's Fiction, Kathryn Lawhon Stephens

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The “J-horror boom” of the 1990s and early 2000s saw the international success of films like Nakata Hideo’s Ring (1998), bringing considerable and laudable attention to Japanese horror in the realm of film and media studies. Yet even Ring’s Sadako, one of the most popular contemporary figures in Japanese horror, first appeared as a literary character years before her debut on screen. The average layperson’s unfamiliarity of such a famous horror icon’s literary origins illuminates the comparative lack of literature-centric scholarship on major writers and figures of Japanese horror that this dissertation seeks to rectify.

First interrogating the fluidity …

Implementing A Standardized Counting Process, Paula M. Mbye

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

Background: In a Northern California medical center with 11 operating rooms, two retained foreign object (RFO) events occurred following surgical procedures in 2025.

Problem: Surgical teams rely on manual counting processes to prevent retained foreign objects. Variability in counting practices among registered nurses and surgical technologists, combined with workflow interruptions and environmental distractions, can increase the risk of counting discrepancies and missed items. Standardizing the counting process may improve count accuracy and reduce the risk of RFOs.

Interventions: This quality improvement project implemented a standardized surgical counting process based on Association of periOperative Registered Nurses (AORN) guidelines within …

Enhancing Patient Understanding: Standardizing Cardiac Medication Education Using Teach-Back For Heart Failure, Nicole Valerie Hediger

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: The transition from hospital to home places heart failure (HF) patients at risk for medication errors, nonadherence, deterioration, and rehospitalization. In a 28-bed medical-surgical telemetry microsystem, Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) scores indicated an opportunity for improvement: “Communication About Medicines” composite score of 47.9%; 62.5% of patients reported being informed about the medication purpose, and 33.3% reported that staff described potential side effects.

Context: A cohort of HF patients was selected to test teach-back methodology and improve patient understanding. Nurse champions volunteered for a 5-month improvement project.

Interventions: Teach-back methods were implemented. Nurse leader rounding …

Closing The Gap In Offshore Wind Environmental Evidence Chains: A Workshop-Derived White Paper, Jiaxin Chen, Lilian Lieber, Matthew Palmer, Dan Lear, Deborah Greaves

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Offshore wind development is accelerating at a time when environmental assessment is increasingly required to support timely consenting, cumulative-effects understanding, nature recovery, regional planning, floating offshore wind deployment and public trust. The workshop underpinning this White Paper was convened in recognition that the sector's central challenge is no longer simply a lack of data, but the weak connection between data, monitoring approaches, models, uncertainty, governance and decision-making.Environmental monitoring often remains project-specific and receptor-focused, while models remain component-specific or scenario-specific. Data systems are similarly fragmented across owners, repositories, formats, access arrangements and project lifecycle stages. Yet regulators and statutory advisers require …

Th17 Effector Cytokines Induce Shared And Distinct Microglial And Endothelial Cell Responses In A Mouse Model For Post-Streptococcal Encephalitis, Charlotte Wayne, Uğur Akcan, Travis Faust, Violeta Durán-Laforet, Danny Jamoul, Luca Bremner, Nicole Ampatey, Büşra Akcan, Sarah Ho, Bogoljub Ciric, Shannon Delaney, Wendy Vargas, Susan Swedo, Vilas Menon, Dorothy Schafer, Tyler Cutforth, Dritan Agalliu

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Group A Streptococcus (GAS) infections cause neuropsychiatric complications in children, but the mechanisms linking peripheral infection to brain dysfunction remain unclear. Using mouse genetics, single-cell RNA sequencing, and spatial transcriptomics, we show that GAS infections induce inflammatory transcriptional programs in microglia and brain endothelial cells (BECs), accompanied by loss of blood-brain barrier (BBB) gene expression in female mice. Spatial transcriptomic analyses reveal that GAS-responsive microglia localize near infiltrating CD4+ T cells. Several microglial chemokines induced in mice are elevated in sera from affected patients. Deletion of GM-CSF in CD4⁺ T cells partially reduces microglial chemokine gene expression, without restoring BBB …

Moving Forward, Looking Back: How Mormon Women Sought To Carry Their Polygamous Past Into A Progressive Future Article, Evan Janis

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

The influence of woman is fully recognized.” These words, spoken by Emily S. Richards, echoed the shared mission of Utah women at the World’s Congress of Representative Women: to overturn the public perception of them as ignorant, crude, and barbaric. After decades of legal and social campaigns against the so-called “second barbarism” of polygamy, the reputation of Mormon women had been one of its greatest casualties. Cast as too homely to marry a respectable man, too naive to resist deception, and too submissive to think for themselves, the Utah delegation to the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair sought to redefine their …

Narrating The Bucolic South: How Southern Living Reflected And Shaped The South In The 1990s, Krista C. Wright

The Thetean: A Student Journal for Scholarly Historical Writing

In December 1995 at a company Christmas party, previous editor Gary McCalla spoke with Emory Cunningham, sitting president and chair who oversaw the transition from the practical Progressive Farmer to a lifestyle magazine for the “New South.” Looking around the room, Cunningham remarked, “These young people have no idea where we came from.” McCalla recalled a memo he and John Logue, creative director of the magazine, had written in the early days, outlining “what we believed had to be done to save Southern Living.” At that moment, the two noticed the song playing in the background— “History” by Michael …

Se(3) Touchdown Dynamics With Multi-Joint Landing Legs And Regolith-Dependent Contact For Autonomous Tip-Over Risk Prediction, Rithika Nagarajan

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This project develops an SE(3)-based touchdown dynamics framework to study how lunar landers can remain stable during landing on sloped and uncertain terrain. Safe lunar landing is challenging because uneven load redistribution, slip, and asymmetric sinkage can push the vehicle’s center of mass outside its support polygon, increasing tip-over risk. The purpose of this work is to extend a fixed-leg touchdown model to a multi-joint landing leg system while also examining how varying regolith properties affect landing stability. The method combines coupled rigid-body translation and rotation with per-foot unilateral contact, compliant normal force response, and Coulomb-limited friction to simulate touchdown …

Design And Implementation Of A Synchronized Data Acquisition System For An Ihlp Cessna 182 Testbed, Celso Ferreira De Moura, Mariano Chavez Rangel

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

This work presents the design and implementation of a fully integrated data acquisition system for a full scale Integrated High Lift Propulsion testbed based on a Cessna 182Q, with emphasis on hardware integration, sensor reliability, and time synchronization. A centralized architecture was developed in LabVIEW to acquire, process, and store data from both analog and digital sensors, including air data systems, inertial measurement units, control positions, and propulsion instrumentation. Analog sensors were carefully calibrated to ensure accurate conversion to engineering units, while digital sensors were incorporated into a unified framework to maintain consistency across all measurements. All ADC, GPS, INS, …

Cars Imass - Comparing Llm Vs Human Operator Effectiveness In Multi-Agent Swarm Coordination, Gatlin Nelson

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Title: Dual-Perspective Risk Analysis for Human-LLM Decision Comparison in UAV Swarm Navigation   Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) swarms operating in low-altitude wireless network environments encounter localized disruptions that degrade positioning and navigation metrics. These disruptions are modeled as geographic failure zones with defined boundaries. A UAV discovers a zone by entering it and observing degraded performance on its onboard systems. This work assumes that affected UAVs can autonomously retreat to safety using onboard sensors and focuses on the subsequent rerouting decision. Once recovered, the system generates candidate repositioning points surrounding the vehicle, each scored using Conditional Value-at-Risk (CVaR). A human operator …

A Survey On Machine Learning Applications For Operating System Fingerprinting, Siri Siqveland

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

In the modern age of computers and interconnected networks, cybersecurity and cyber-attackers are evolving in tandem to exploit each other’s vulnerabilities. One technique used by both parties is Operating System Fingerprinting (OSF): with the knowledge of what Operating System a target system is running, innate vulnerabilities can be identified and patched or exploited. Historically, OSF utilizes two main methods: passive and active—the former trades accuracy with undetectability while the latter is generally more detectable but more accurate. However, recent work has combined OSF with Machine Learning (ML) to improve accurate identification. The work presented here is a survey for the …

Additive Manufacturing Of Metals: Mechanical Properties And Their Implications, Sean Chih

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Additive manufacturing of metals is a relatively new and groundbreaking approach to manufacturing high-performance components. However, variability in mechanical properties from the process creates a barrier before this manufacturing technique can be widely applied. Understanding when and where to use this manufacturing is also important to create components with efficiency and without harmful defects. The objective of this research is to evaluate the effects of build orientation, printing parameters, internal defects, thermal history, and residual stresses, post-processing heat treatments, and fatigue behavior on additively manufactured components. Literature-based research is conducted on commonly used metals for additive manufacturing, such as stainless …

Stress-Triggered Automation Reliance, Jazmin Elek

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Automation is widely used in complex systems and includes any process that replaces human motor, sensory, or cognitive functions with machines or computers (Norman, 1996). As automation becomes more common, understanding how humans trust and interact with these systems is critical. Trust can be measured by whether users override automation or blindly follow its prompts (Norman, 1996).   Artificial intelligence (AI) introduces additional complexity by enabling systems to learn patterns from data it generates. AI performs tasks with the ability to learn from experience (NASA, 2024). AI builds internal databases that can mimic human-like responses (Norman, 1996). However, AI systems can …

A Feedback Loop Control To Automate Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma Based Additive Manufacturing, Arineh Shahbazi

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Currently, nanoparticle annealing based additive manufacturing process requires high temperatures, making them unsuitable for a broad range of applications. By lowering the temperature and developing a process to use Cold Atmospheric Pressure Plasma (CAPP) for annealing, many more doors are opened to a wide range of materials, films, and environments for space, communication, and microelectronics. CAPP-based additive manufacturing technology is continually evolving, making projects like nanoparticle annealing more feasible. In this work, we designed a CAPP jet printer assembly consisting of a 0.25-inch outer diameter glass tube connected to a 3D printing nozzle. The flow of Argon gas in the …

Fall Hazard Prevention: A Zero-Fatality Goal For Health, Safety, And Well-Being On Construction Sites, Alena Richardson, Chaidaliz Minguela Alicea, Nicola Kaehler, Charlene Weaver

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Jobsites face hazards like falls, which threaten the health, safety, and well-being of construction workers. Falls are the leading cause of all accidents and fatalities in construction, accounting for approximately 40% of all worker deaths in 2023. While achieving a zero-accident rate for falls is inherently challenging, prioritizing a zero-fatality objective represents a practical and impactful starting point. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recommends a six-step action approach for the prevention and control of hazards like falls. Of particular interest, the State of Florida is consistently ranked among the highest for construction fall fatalities, often attributed to insufficient …

Analysis Of Non-Thermal Plasma’S Effects On Melanoma: A Biological Examination, Violet Ochrietor, Mia Nilsen, Arden Rodriguez, Ally Schwennesen

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Melanoma is a serious form of skin cancer that may present as a real and increased risk during long-term spaceflight due to radiation exposure and limited treatment options. Non-Thermal Plasma (NTP) has emerged as a promising therapeutic tool due to its ability to generate reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) that affect cellular functioning without causing temperature related damage to surrounding tissues. This project investigates the effects of NTP on melanoma cells through a biological examination of exposure time, frequency of plasma, and cellular growth conditions. Human melanoma cells and keratinocytes will be cultured and exposed to the …

Improving Diabetes Self-Management Through A Partnership Between Clinical Providers And Community Educators In Appalachian Communities, Soghra Jarvandi, Lydia Hoskins, Karen Carver, Andrew May

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: The burden of diabetes is an increasing public health challenge, especially in the Appalachian Region.

Purpose: This study assessed the impact of a community-based diabetes education program on glycemic control.

Methods: Health Extension for Diabetes (HED) is a 4-month diabetes education program offered by Extension educators in collaboration with clinical providers. Participants’ data were collected via phone interviews at baseline and after completing the program. Assessments included self-reported HbA1c, socio-demographics, diabetes knowledge, self-efficacy, and self-management behaviors. Data were analyzed by SAS software using paired analyses.

Results: Of the 105 participants in the program, 87 (83%) completed the post-assessment. Among …

School-Centered Tobacco Retailer Exposure And Neighborhood Opportunity Across Urban And Rural Tennessee, Sima Namin Dr, Jacob Black, Jennifer Ferris, Robert E. Heidel Dr

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Tobacco retailer availability contributes to youth tobacco use, and retailers are concentrated in socioeconomically disadvantaged communities. However, few studies have examined how school-centered retailer exposure intersects with neighborhood opportunity in a predominantly rural Appalachian state.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to assess the association between neighborhood opportunity and school-centered tobacco retailer exposure across Tennessee (TN), including differences by rurality and Appalachian status.

Methods: We constructed a tract-level, school-centered youth tobacco exposure index for TN using tobacco retailer locations and public and private K-12 school data. The index incorporated retailer proximity, density, and distance-decay accessibility measures. Child Opportunity …

Deaths Of Despair Among Cancer Survivors In Rural/Urban Appalachia (2000-2022), Jason Semprini, Anders Erickson, Nosa Osazuwa-Peters

Journal of Appalachian Health

Introduction: Rising deaths of despair (premature deaths from suicide, overdose, alcohol, and violence) in adults under age 65 persist across the United States, especially in Appalachia. People diagnosed with cancer may face elevated risks of such deaths due to pain, psychosocial distress, and financial hardship.

Purpose: Deaths of despair trends were compared among adults with cancer across Appalachian and non-Appalachian regions, stratified by sex and rurality.

Methods: Analyzing SEER-21 Incidence-Based Mortality data (2000–2022), deaths caused by suicide, cirrhosis of the liver, or accidents (includes overdose) were identified among adults aged 20–64 years. Annual mortality rates per 100,000 total population were …

Simulating Pacemakers And Heartbeat Recovery Through Mathematical Modeling, Thomas Estrada, Jayla Edwards

Discovery Day - Daytona Beach

Title: Simulating Pacemakers and Heartbeat Recovery Through Mathematical Modeling   This study utilizes the Fitzhugh-Nagumo model to simulate cardiac electrical activity and the regulatory role of pacemakers through ordinary differential equations (ODEs). By defining the rate of change for membrane voltage, 𝑑𝑣/dt, and a recovery variable, 𝑑𝑤/dt, the model captures the heart's excitability and resting states. Central to the analysis is the stimulus current parameter, which represents the "kick" provided by a pacemaker to correct flatline conditions or weak heartbeats. Using Euler’s method for numerical integration, the research compares unstable cardiac rhythms against corrected periodic oscillations. Additionally, the project implements vector …

Exploring The Motivations Of Undergraduate Sport Management Students, Kyle J. Brannigan, Tyler J. Hajek

The COSMA Journal

This study explored the motivations of undergraduate sport management in four university programs. Convergent mixed-methods research through the theoretical framework of Self-Determination Theory was incorporated with an adapted questionnaire of the Academic Motivation Scale and semi-structured interviews through Thematic Analysis. Ninety-six surveys with nine interviews were deemed usable across four regionally focused, vocationally minded, and accessible universities. Overall, students reported higher levels of extrinsic motivation than intrinsic motivation. The findings suggested intrinsic motivation to know and extrinsic motivation through regulation for identification scored highest with the participants. No significant differences were found between classes and ethnicities. However, male students experienced …

Simulations Of Phugoid Motion Of Jal 123, Dereth J J. Drake Scheuermann

Georgia Journal of Science

Airplanes rely on a balance between the four forces of flight: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. If these forces are balanced, the airplane will remain stable. However, if structurally or systematically compromised, the motion can rapidly become unstable. In the aviation industry, mistakes in repairs and aircraft design can lead to accidents causing the loss of life in some cases. In this article, we will be analyzing what happened 70 Japan Airlines flight 123 and how the flight’s motion deteriorated due to a defective repair. More specifically, we will discuss the aerodynamic effects of phugoid motion and how it developed …

The Shorthorn: August 1, 1984

The Shorthorn Newspaper Collection: 1980s

No abstract provided.

Keeping The Problem Alive: Curriculum, Problematisation And The Eyfs, Claire Walsh

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This paper explores how problems are understood in debates about England’s Early Years Foundation Stage (Department for Education [DfE], 2025). Discussions of the EYFS often focus on identifying what is wrong with it and proposing ways to improve or replace it, including both critical perspectives and alternative approaches to early childhood education. While these positions appear different, the paper argues that they share a common tendency: they treat problems as things to be solved. The paper introduces the concept of solution-binding to describe this habit.

Rather than offering another critique or alternative, the paper asks what happens if problems are …

Toward A Standard Of Identity In Ai Interaction, Brian Harber

Defensive Publications Series

Systems are increasingly capable of producing outputs that appear complete and actionable. These outputs are frequently evaluated as though they fully represent the processes that produced them. This paper argues that where identity is not explicit at the interaction boundary, interpretation necessarily relies on inference. Inference enables interaction but leaves residual uncertainty regarding what participated in producing that interaction.

The paper proposes identity as a structural property of interaction rather than an inferred property of behavior or presentation. It defines the interaction-boundary condition under which identity becomes relevant and examines the implications of that condition for evaluation. The contribution is …

Breaking The Parallax: Big Tech In India, Dr. Pratiksha Ashok

National Law School Business Law Review

This paper examines the role of Big Tech in India through the conceptual lens of parallax, understood as the analytical distortion that arises when platform power is assessed from shifting institutional, legal, and geopolitical vantage points. Existing scholarship and policy debates tend to frame Big Tech in India either through Global North regulatory paradigms emphasizing monopoly power, market foreclosure, and the need for ex-ante constraints or through a domestic developmental narrative that positions digital platforms as engines of innovation, inclusion, and infrastructural expansion. This paper argues that neither perspective, taken in isolation, adequately captures the legal and political economy of …

Acute Effect Of Honey-Sweetened Green Tea On Blood Glucose, Blood Pressure And Heart Rate In Healthy Female Subjects: A Preliminary Randomized Controlled Study, Esther Oluwasola Aluko, Patience John Okon, Mary Emmanuel Etim, Ernest Etim Akpan

Asian Medical Journal and Alternative Medicine

Introduction: Green tea contains bioactive catechins associated with antioxidant and cardiometabolic benefits, while honey is a natural sweetener rich in phenolic compounds with potential health-promoting properties. However, limited data exists on the combined physiological effects of green tea sweetened with honey.

Objectives: This study assessed the acute effects of honey-sweetened green tea on blood glucose, blood pressure, and heart rate in healthy young adult females.

Methods: Thirty healthy females aged 18–25 years participated in this randomized controlled study conducted over three consecutive days. Participants were randomly assigned into three groups: control group (250 mL warm water), green tea group (250 …