Digital Commons Network^™

A Call To Care: An Investigation Of Rhetorical Inquiry In First-Year Composition Educators, Madison Brooke Naimo

Theses and Dissertations

Throughout colleges and universities across the country, First-Year Composition is known to be a general education course requirement that commonly works to set students up for academic success throughout their postsecondary educational journey and pursuits. This general education course works to focus on developing composition-based skill sets that help students in various academic areas and disciplines of study throughout their undergraduate degree completion (Kinnevay, 1971; The Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2014). While much scholarship in First-Year Composition has focused on student growth and development, there have been minimal practical considerations and examinations of a large stakeholder in this education …

China-Taliban Security Ties: A Reimagining Of South Asia's Security Discourse, Amit Kumar Mr., Veena Ramachandran

Journal of Strategic Security

This article examines how China constructs a distinct security discourse on terrorism through its engagement with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Moving beyond traditional materialist interpretations of security, the study draws on critical security studies to explore how China uses language, representation, and institutional practices to frame terrorism and project itself as a regional stabilizer. The Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has prompted China to expand its strategic presence in South Asia, particularly through economic diplomacy, intelligence cooperation, and regional multilateral and minilateral forums. Through qualitative discourse analysis of Chinese official statements, white papers, SCO documents, and state media narratives, …

Friends Of The Hilton M. Briggs Library, Summer 2025, Hilton M. Briggs Library

Friends of the Hilton M. Briggs Library Newsletters

Volume 10, Issue 3
Features:
Ben Reifel films opening to the public, thanks to Mary Chilton DAR grant
Dean of the Library
Briggs Library Helps SDSU Faculty Save Big on Publishing Fees
Kott retires from Briggs Library
Two Student Assistant Excellence Awards presented in spring semester

The Effect Of An Interdisciplinary Project On Students’ Understandings Of Mathematical Interdisciplinarity: A Qualitative Action Research Study, Jaime Krause

Theses and Dissertations

The siloed nature of education has likely caused some high school students to not recognize the interdisciplinary nature of mathematics, leading them to misunderstand its relationship to other subject areas. A misunderstanding of mathematical interdisciplinarity can cause issues when these students approach interdisciplinary problems later in life. The purpose of this study was to observe, investigate, and analyze the ways in which students understand mathematical interdisciplinarity following a collaborative and interdisciplinary project. I implemented a descriptive qualitative action research approach to determine how a collaborative interdisciplinary project on NASA technology in a high school mathematics course affects students’ understandings of …

Crosssections, Summer 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Physics.

CrossSections

Contents:

A Message from the Department Head, Dr. Paul Shand --- 1
Department Happenings --- 3
Faculty Profile - Takeshi Yasuda --- 7
Student Profile - Brandon Schmidt --- 8
Student Research --- 9
Student Focus --- 10
Physics Education --- 13
Alumni Profile - Roger Burkhart --- 14
Alumni News - Sterling Hartman --- 16
New Physics --- 17

Black Steel In The Hour Of Chaos: Hip-Hop And The Carceral State In The East San Francisco Bay Area, William Maclane Hull

Theses and Dissertations

“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos: Hip-Hop and the Carceral State in the East San Francisco Bay Area” explores the histories of urban redevelopment and deindustrialization, racialized poverty, police and the carceral system, and hip-hop culture in Oakland and other parts of the eastern San Francisco Bay Area. It explores East Bay politics and urban development in the 1900s, which resulted in the flight of industries and wealthy white residents to the suburbs and the erosion of public services. Black community organizations and funk music alike articulated the damages done by these processes in the 1960s. Subsequently, politicians and …

Causal Neuro-Symbolic Artificial Intelligence: Synergy Between Neuro-Symbolic And Causal Artificial Intelligence, Utkarshani Jaimini

Theses and Dissertations

Understanding and reasoning about cause and effect is innate to human cognition. In everyday life, humans continuously engage in causal reasoning and hypothetical retrospection to make decisions, plan actions, and interpret events. This cognitive ability allows us to ask questions such as: “What caused this situation?”, “What will happen if I take this action?”, or “What would have happened had I chosen differently?” This intuitive capacity to form mental models of the world, infer causal relationships, and reason about alternative scenarios, particularly counterfactuals, is central to our intelligence and adaptability. In contrast, current machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) …

Investigating The Ecology Of The Homeless Court: The Promise Of Quasi-Experimental And Statistical Learning Methods, Dylan Wong

Theses and Dissertations

Interactions with the legal system are a crucial factor in maintaining homelessness. Difficulties in addressing legal issues are barriers to accessing services and finding employment and housing. Across the United States, the homeless court is an emerging legal program that has been developed to break this cycle, but they appear to face numerous capacity and coordination problems. Few empirical and systematic investigations have been conducted on homeless court programs. Further, previous studies of homeless courts focus their process and outcome measures on the priorities of the legal system. An investigation into the ecology, or environmental context, of homeless persons would …

Increasing Professional School Counseling Advocacy Skills For The Practicing Secondary School Counselor, Beverly Denise Mccullough

Theses and Dissertations

This problem of practice addresses increasing Professional School Counselor (PSC) advocacy skills for the practicing secondary school counselor. Improvement science is the framework used to help solve this problem. The PSC improvement team consisted of a team of seven licensed professional school counselors, all with career experience in the secondary school setting. The team began their work with the goal of understanding the current system by participating in an initial empathy interview. Immediately after the empathy interview was concluded, each committee member completed an initial assessment of the School Counselor Self Advocacy Questionnaire (SCSAQ) to be used as an initial …

Structure-Activity Relationships Of Isothiourea And Silicon Phthalocyanine Catalysts, Christian J. Harrison

Theses and Dissertations

Efficient organic synthesis often relies on improving catalyst designs and investigating reaction mechanisms to accomplish feats such as high stereoselectivity, low catalyst loadings, and performing sustainable chemistry. Within the field of organocatalysis, intermolecular interactions between a catalyst and a substrate are a large contributing factor to the control of a reaction, including rate and selectivity. Investigating mechanisms can provide information on the type of intermolecular interactions occurring in the reaction, aiding future reaction and catalyst development. This dissertation will explore two recent projects and how probing intermolecular interactions through simple modifications provides information useful for new catalyst designs and properties. …

An Exploration Of The Effect Of Covid Restrictions On Maternity Care In Uganda, Hellen Kyakuwaire, Grace Edwards, Ahmed Mohammed Sarki

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

Background: Uganda responded aggressively to the worldwide spread of COVID-19 by imposing a total lockdown, which forbade movement of the whole population, including pregnant women and other vulnerable groups. This phenomenological study explored pregnant women’s experiences during the total lockdown in Uganda and identified factors that influenced the quality of healthcare for pregnant women during the lockdown.
Methods: Thirty-two newly delivered women were selected across a wide geographical area to represent rural and urban areas. The sample was selected from women who had given birth at the selected health facilities from March 18, 2020, to April 30, 2020. …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Maternity Care Services: Lived Experiences Of Midwives In Indonesia, Mergy Gayatri, Oluwadamilare Akingbade, Indhar Wahyu Wira Harjo, Adepegba Folasade Rebecca, Salako Faith Adebola

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

Background: There have been fundamental changes in global maternity care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic across the globe. However, there are limited studies in Indonesia that have explored the changes experienced by midwives in various health facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Method: A qualitative phenomenological study was conducted among midwives with at least three years of clinical experience in midwifery practice and practicing at different levels of healthcare. Semi-structured interviews were conducted through WhatsApp or Phone calls, as face-to-face interviews were impossible during the pandemic. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis.
Results: In total, 24 midwives …

Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Of Healthcare Workers Regarding Early Childhood Development: A Mixed-Methods Study At Secondary Care Maternal And Child Care Hospitals In Karachi, Pakistan, Sarosh Hirani, Shelina Bhamani, Hajra Malik, Samira Lakhani, Adeeb Kanji, Khairunnissa Hooda

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

Introduction: Early childhood development (ECD) is a critical period that lays the foundation for a child's future growth and overall well-being. Healthcare settings play a significant role in shaping these developmental outcomes. However, there is limited research evaluating healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitude, and practices on ECD in Pakistan. This study aims to assess the awareness, attitudes, and practices of healthcare providers working in secondary hospitals regarding ECD.
Methods: A sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach was used. The study initially recruited healthcare workers, including physicians, nurses, trainees, and midwives from two secondary care hospitals. Participants completed the Caregiver Knowledge of Child Development …

Perceptions Of Risky Sexual Behavior Among Female Students: A Qualitative Analysis Of Contributing Factors, Consequences, And Prevention Strategies, Leila Bozorgian, Fatemeh Ansari, Fatemeh Janipour, Solmaz Mohammadi

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

Background: Risky behaviors among young people are a significant concern for societies worldwide, leading to physical and psychosocial damage. Despite efforts to raise awareness about such risky behaviors over the past two decades, their prevalence continues to rise. Therefore, this study aimed to explain perceptions of the prevalence of risky sexual behaviors among female students.
Methods: A qualitative descriptive study using a conventional content analysis approach was conducted from August to mid-September 2024 in Yasoj, Iran. The study participants were selected using purposive sampling. The data were collected using semi-structured interviews conducted with 18 female students. Data collection …

Development And Validation Of Risk Assessment Tools For Hypertensive Disorder In Pregnancy, Vanitha K, Hepsibah Sharmil, Vijayalakshmi Kandasamy

Journal of Asian Midwives (JAM)

Aims and Background: Hypertensive disorders in pregnancy (HDP) have significant impact on both mothers and newborns leading to complications such as Eclampsia, Preterm delivery, Renal and cardiac problems, Intra Uterine Growth Retardation (IUGR) and Intra Uterine Fetal Death (IUFD). Early screening of hypertensive disorders in pregnancy is essential in the prevention and management of these complications. This research study aims to develop and validate a risk assessment tool for hypertensive disorders in pregnancy.
Materials and methods: A mixed-method research was carried out from December 2023 to December 2024 consisting of two steps. Step one involved the development of …

Implementing A Team-Based Approach To Reduce Blood Culture Contamination Rates In The Emergency Department: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Melissa Lockhart

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Blood culture contaminations (BCC) present significant risks to patients, including adverse drug reactions and the exacerbation of antibiotic resistance. BCC can also result in millions of dollars in financial burdens for hospitals due to the need for follow-up testing, treatment complications, and antibiotic stewardship efforts. At this facility, the contamination rate in the emergency department (ED) consistently exceeds the national benchmark of 3%. Contributing factors include high patient turnover and increased nursing workloads, which can lead to shortcuts in essential practices such as hand hygiene and skin disinfection before collection.

Purpose: This project aimed to evaluate whether implementing a …

National Patient Safety Goals: Reducing Health Care Disparities In Adult Patients With Alcohol Misuse, Jolie M. Carpenter

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: An estimated 76 million people worldwide suffer from alcohol use disorder, accounting for almost two million deaths annually. The Joint Commission has made it a requirement to screen all patients admitted to an inpatient facility for health-related social needs, including alcohol use. By doing so, outpatient resources can be provided appropriately.

Purpose: The facility of interest does not currently have a discharge follow-up protocol. The purpose of this project was to implement an evidence-based protocol to follow-up one week after discharge to determine if patients accessed the community resources provided for alcohol use disorder and to determine whether the …

Unsuitable Underlying Cause-Of-Death Statements: Implementation And Evaluation Of A Structured Process For Healthcare Providers Certifying Natural Causes Of Death In An Outpatient Setting, Naida Rutherford

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Accuracy in death certification is crucial for effective public health initiatives. Inaccuracies in unsuitable Underlying Cause-of-Death (UCOD) statements can distort mortality statistics, influence health policy, and impact resource allocation. In South Carolina, changes in the death registration process and the introduction of an unsuitable cause-of-death list highlighted an urgent need for structured training among certifiers to enhance accuracy in death documentation.

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to implement a standardized training program for healthcare providers certifying natural causes of death and assessing the impact of reducing the unsuitable underlying cause-of-death inaccuracies in an outpatient hospice setting.

Project …

Increasing Colorectal Cancer Screening Rates For Patients Without Insurance, Andrea F. Day

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Colorectal cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States (U.S.), ranking as second most prevalent overall. Despite many initiatives, screening rates remain low, especially among clinic patients without insurance. The lack of an evidence-based screening protocol exacerbates these issues and increases the risk of advanced cancer and death. Initial data showed that 0% of patients were screened according to recommended guidelines.

Purpose: The project implemented a standard screening protocol to increase colorectal cancer screening rates in a rural Alabama free clinic for patients ages 45-64 lacking insurance.

Project Design: This quality improvement …

Improving The Detection Of Refractive Errors In First And Third Graders, Tameka J. Bolden

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Vision is a crucial component of the learning process, with academic tasks being heavily dependent on visual acuity. Undetected or diagnosed visual impairments can significantly alter a student’s educational performance and overall development. Currently, in Alabama, kindergarten, second, and fourth grade students are the only students to receive routine vision screenings; therefore, regular screening for visual acuity and eye issues is critical for school health programs. Early screening, diagnosis, and correction of refractive errors prevent permanent visual impairment and support academic success by reducing educational barriers and delayed cognitive impairment.

Purpose: This project aims to improve the early detection …

Influenza And Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Correlating Adult Immunization With Exacerbation Reduction After Implementation Of The Global Initiative For Obstructive Lung Disease Recommendations In A Rural Clinic, Jessica Semyonova

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may experience exacerbations of the disease, leading to disease progression, decreased lung function, increased mortality, and decreased quality of life. However, one of the clinician’s best tools in preventing exacerbations may be the distribution of annual influenza immunizations.

Purpose: This project aimed to determine whether implementing an influenza vaccination protocol would increase influenza vaccination uptake and decrease COPD exacerbation rates.

Project Design: An influenza vaccination protocol was implemented over an eight-week period. During that time, data was gathered and compared to data from the previous year when a vaccination …

Commit To Sit: Does Purposefully Sitting With Adult Medical-Surgical Patients At A Rural Hospital Impact Patient Satisfaction?, Jolie A. Puckett

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Background: Patient satisfaction surveys encourage patients to provide feedback about their experiences with healthcare organizations, and the surveys also play a critical role in identifying gaps in care that may contribute to patient harm. Effective communication between nurses and patients is crucial for delivering high-quality healthcare; therefore, initiatives to enhance this communication should be explored and implemented.

Purpose: This quality improvement project aimed to evaluate whether sitting with patients improved patient satisfaction scores for a medical-surgical unit within a Northwest Georgia inpatient facility.

Project Design: A pre- and post-design method was utilized to compare patient satisfaction scores before and after …

Investigating Individual Variability In Autistic Identity And Its Moderating Effects On Mental Health And Quality Of Life, Sydney Richelle Terroso

Theses and Dissertations

The autistic community has long voiced the mental health of autistic adults as a key clinical and research priority. Autistic identity, or the recognition and embrace of core autistic traits as integral to an individual's identity as a whole, may be a potential target for therapeutic approaches aimed at supporting well-being and quality of life. The current study investigates individual differences in self-reported autistic identity scores by demographic factors and by features of autism and health history using online survey data from N=225 autistic adults. Additionally, with a subset of the participants who completed an interconnected study of current mental …

Social Comparison Target Selections As Health Information Preferences: Exploring Contextual Influences Among Women In Midlife With Elevated Risk For Cardiovascular Disease, Emmanuel Lapitan

Theses and Dissertations

Insufficient physical activity (PA) heightens the risk of chronic illnesses including cardiovascular disease (CVD), particularly among women in midlife with conditions such as hypertension. Behavioral interventions often use psychoeducation and skills training to increase PA, but how individuals interact with health-relevant information and how this relates to daily PA behavior is unclear. Health information preferences vary between individuals, but whether they vary for the same individual across contexts has been understudied. In particular, the role of contextual factors in predicting social comparison (i.e., evaluating oneself relative to others to obtain information about oneself) are not well understood. The purpose of …

Elisabetta Sirani’S Timoclea: Baroque Agency And The Aesthetics Of Feminine Rage, Shaylen Grace Gardner

Theses

This thesis examines Timoclea Kills the Captain of Alexander the Great (1659) by Elisabetta Sirani as a foundational example of feminine rage within the Baroque period. By framing Timoclea’s violent act not as an outlier or solely reactive gesture, but as a deliberate, composed assertion of power, Sirani constructs a model of feminine agency that defies patriarchal expectations of female submission and passivity. Through interdisciplinary analysis grounded in feminist theory, formal visual analysis, and retrospective cultural studies, this research argues that Sirani’s Timoclea exemplifies the Baroque’s strategic use of socially acceptable iconography to veil explicit challenges to gendered expectations. This …

Predicting Emotions Across Schizotypy Levels, Elyssa M. Barrick, Sarah Hope Lincoln

Student Scholarship

Successfully navigating the social world requires making accurate predictions about others. Individual differences in emotion prediction–the ability to predict someone's subsequent emotion given their current emotional state–can lead to variability in social success. In this study (N = 1024) we found evidence that individuals with heightened schizotypy displayed worse emotion prediction accuracy. This difficulty with emotion prediction was associated with increased loneliness, diminished social support, and smaller social networks, partially mediating some of the social difficulties in individuals with heightened schizotypy. Individuals with heightened schizotypy showed disruptions to key sources of affective information, meaning they had less reliable information about …

Beyond Chatbots: The Emergence Of Autonomous Ai Agents In Libraries, Nikesh Narayanan

All Works

This chapter explores how generative AI and agentic AI are redefining library services through enhanced interactivity, personalization, and scalability of support. The rise of machine learning, and specifically natural language processing (NLP) with large language models, brought a new wave of capabilities to library chatbots. Moving beyond single-turn question-answering chatbots, the concept of autonomous AI agents (or agentic AI) in libraries represents a significant leap in capability. An autonomous agent is an advanced form of AI that can understand and respond to inquiries, then take action without human intervention. When they are given an objective, they can generate tasks for …

The Influence Of Supported Mainstream Classes On High School Special Education Students' Social And Emotional Learning, Clare Murr

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

This study investigated how participation in supported mainstream classes influences social and emotional learning outcomes of high school special education students. The project was a result of the research done to answer the question: When high school special education students participate in supported mainstream classes, how are their social and emotional learning outcomes influenced? A comprehensive literature review revealed that integration of special education students into the mainstream classroom benefits their social and emotional development; however, unsupported inclusion often results in isolation and peer rejection. Effective co-teaching partnerships, that use the combined expertise of general and special education teachers, can …

Using Fables To Enhance Social Emotional Learning, Eric Albers

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The research question guiding this project is: How can we use fables to strengthen SEL connections with our students and families while enhancing the relationship between character development and life skills? The project addresses growing concerns about student anxiety, depression, and social disconnection while recognizing schools' expanding role in mental health. This work builds upon literature on home-school partnerships, bibliotherapy, and culturally responsive pedagogy, including research on fable comprehension, CASEL's SEL framework, and "funds of knowledge" that honor diverse cultural perspectives.The methodology involved developing a curriculum unit that integrates fables into the existing CharacterStrong SEL program through a Universal Design …

Solid Waste Education For Fourth Grade Students In Washington County, Minnesota, Jessica Hall

School of Education and Leadership Student Capstone Projects

The topic of environmental education has grown in recent years, but this study discovered that there is a lack of education focused on solid waste. Four key themes were explored in the current literature: climate anxiety, place-based education, social-emotional learning, and behavior change. This paper is not a research study, but rather a summary of previous research with a discussion of the current situation supporting the need for, and process of, this project’s development. The guiding questions for developing this project are: How can 4th-grade students and teachers in Washington County, Minnesota, perceive the impact of solid waste education lessons …