Digital Commons Network^™

Impact Of Hospital Virtual Dementia Tour® On Caregivers’ Knowledge And Attitudes Towards People With Dementia, Sarah Cope

Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

The incidence of dementia, associated with poor health outcomes, is rapidly rising. In review of the literature, dementia education is broadly recommended to impact staff knowledge and patient outcomes. This Doctoral project sought to answer the project question: in healthcare workers who care for hospitalized patients with dementia and behavioral disturbance, will the dementia-centered education initiative, the Hospital Virtual Dementia Tour® (HVDT), improve the care team's knowledge and attitudes in caring for people with dementia, particularly behavioral dysregulation, as measured by scores on pre-post Dementia Attitudes Scale (DAS) Assessment?

A quality improvement quantitative pretest posttest pilot study implementing the Hospital …

Review Of High-Intensity Interval Training (Hiit) Protocols For Older Adults With Cardiovascular Diseases: A Systematic Review, Matthew G. Carter, Emma Pole, Elizabeth Buonanno, Abigail Curtis, Nicole Paranich

Student Research Poster Presentations 2025

Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide, with approximately 17.9 million lives lost each year, and has an incidence of 77-80% amongst those 60-80 years old. HIIT is not the initial treatment of choice in those with CVD among physical therapists because of the fear and concern relating to the patient’s response to high-intensity exercise.

Objective: The purpose of this systematic review was to determine the effectiveness of high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on older adults with cardiovascular disease and, if it was effective, find the proper protocol for this population. This systematic review intends to find …

Down The Bay Oral History Project Newsletter - Winter 2025, Center For Archaeological Studies, Mccall Library

Down the Bay Oral History Project Newsletter

Public newsletter sharing information about progress and discoveries during the Down The Bay Project.

This Land Isn’T My Land: How Canonical Literature Has Shaped Representation In The Outdoors, Claire Himmel

American Studies Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

The Filipino Experience Of Kutob: Understanding Culturally-Informed Hyper-Intuition, Carl Lorenz Gaston Cervantes

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies Advance Publication Archive

Kutob is a Filipino concept that usually refers to a sense of what may happen. It is often experienced as an omen of negative events. Despite its apparent ubiquity in everyday conversations, there is a lack of sincere academic reflection surrounding the topic of kutob. Relying on foreign (that is, western) approaches and frameworks to understand this concept may only limit it to certain categories of psychological thought. In this paper, I use the lens of indigenous psychology—in particular, Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino psychology)—to identify the nuances and contexts of kutob. I show how kutob is a function of the dynamic …

Children As Informers And Denouncers, In Children And Violence: Agency, Experience, And Representation In And Beyond Armed Conflict (Christelle Molima Bameka Et Al. Eds., 2025), Mark A. Drumbl, Barbora Holá

Books and Chapters

This chapter explores the use of children in propaganda and informing networks as forms of violence. While this chapter nests in 20th- century Communism in the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, the interface of children with these networks is not unique to these times and places. Indeed, these experiences link to those elsewhere, thereby elucidating the dually manipulated and agentic role of children in a regime’s fight for legitimacy and thereby blending with a number of contributions to this volume including those by Mohamed Kamara and Sylvie Bodineau. The point of this chapter is not to particularise (or pathologise) Soviet and …

Big Data Analytics In Inventory Management In Healthcare Supply Chain, Bailee White

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: As healthcare organizations increasingly have relied on digital transformation to meet growing demands for efficiency and cost reduction, big data analytics have emerged as a key tool for optimizing supply chain performance. Inventory management, which accounted for up to 50% of total hospital operating costs, remained one of the most critical and complex areas in the healthcare supply chain. Traditional inventory methods often led to stockouts, waste, and inefficiencies. The integration of big data tools such as predictive analytics and enterprise resource planning systems presented an opportunity to streamline operations and reduce costs.

Purpose of the Study: …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Teledermatology For Undeserved Populations During And Post-Covid-19, Jakob Gibbs, Sean Hanshaw

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: Teledermatology, a subset of telemedicine, has gained prominence as a means to increase access to dermatologic care while reducing costs and improving patient satisfaction. The swift expansion of teledermatology during the COVID-19 pandemic was driven by the necessity to limit physical contact and adapt to public health restrictions. This technological shift aimed to address longstanding disparities in dermatology access, especially in rural and underserved populations, and to respond to the rising demand for dermatologic services amid provider shortages.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects that teledermatology following the COVID-19 pandemic had …

Panem Et Circenses: Entertainment And Empires In The Hunger Games Series, Sydney G. Hudson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Governments have long employed entertainment as a tool of distraction. Recognized as the concept of panem et circenses or “festivals and spectacles,” governments manipulate entertainment so that citizens often willingly exchange their power for distraction and comfort. In The Hunger Games, author Suzanne Collins revises this narrative and uses entertainment as a tool for education.Achieving wide-reaching popularity, Collins leveraged both print and screen media to empower a generation. Collins warns against the dangers of panem et circenses and underscores the importance of hope as a force that counters societal despair and distraction. I argue that throughout The Hunger Games …

The Impact Of The Wellness Workshop Series On Middle School Students From An Under- Resourced Community, Moira Goodman

Community Engagement Student Work

This capstone project evaluates the impact of the Wellness Workshop Series, a collaboration between Serving Stars and the Merrimack Valley Area Health Education Center (MV-AHEC). The series was designed for middle school students from the under-resourced community of Lawrence, MA, and it aimed to improve students' knowledge of nutrition and fitness habits and confidence in making informed healthy choices. The current literature highlights the significant aspects of after-school programs, as they can address systemic inequities in education and health. Using a mixed-methods approach, the evaluation examined the pre- and post-survey data collected by MV-AHEC. There were 11 survey questions on …

Built On Trust: Decolonizing Cultural Institutions Through Organizational Partnerships, Andy Juele

Community Engagement Student Work

The focus of this capstone is on decolonizing cultural institutions through organizational partnerships in order to make recommendations to other organizations that wish to begin or continue this work. This capstone was a case study that invited seven nonprofit organizations to be interviewed virtually to discuss decolonial methods within their organizational partnerships. Interviews were conducted with cultural institutions and community organizations in the Northeast United States with aims to support the arts, education, community building, and environmental stewardship. This capstone found that cultural institutions with a desire to decolonize their body of work had to build trust with a community …

The Impacts Of Artificial Intelligence In Radiology, Misty Farmer, Wendy Trzyna

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Introduction: There has been significant growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the healthcare industry, especially in Medical Imaging. Radiology has been the clear frontrunner in the adoption of AI in medicine, due in part to the massive amount of digital data available for use in Deep Learning (DL) AI integration has the potential to solve multiple challenges in radiology, address workload issues and transform the field.

Purpose of the Study: The purpose of the research was to evaluate the impact of implementing Artificial Intelligence in radiology to determine if these technologies have had an impact …

Family Engagement And A Rich Home Literacy Environment: The Shaping Of Literacy And Language Development In Early Childhood Children, Jeneara Quintanilla

Community Engagement Student Work

Family engagement is a powerful force in shaping children’s literacy and language development. Research consistently highlights the impact of daily family engagement in creating a rich home literacy environment. Theories such as Sociocultural Theory, Ecological Systems Theory, and the Funds of Knowledge framework illustrate how human development is influenced by social interactions within various environments, with home serving as the first and most important learning environment. Family engagement is shaped by multiple factors, including socioeconomic status, parental beliefs, and access to literacy resources at home and in the community. Family engagement can also help address challenges such as socioeconomic barriers, …

I Think You Think I'M A Virus: Metastereotype Awareness In Asian Americans, Queenie Lam

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Reports of anti-Asian hate during the COVID-19 pandemic are concerning, particularly given that Asian Americans may especially perceive and anticipate being stereotyped by others as virus-carrying foreigners due to their Asian American identity (e.g., increased perpetual foreigner metastereotype awareness). The present study explored metastereotype awareness (MSA) – an individual's belief that someone holds a stereotype about them as a result of their group membership – in a sample of 1.5 and 2nd generation East and Southeast Asian Americans (N = 422). Participants completed an MSA activation paradigm, followed by self-report measures assessing their MSA of the perpetual foreigner, model minority, …

Sexual Identity Development In A Culture Of Shame: The Impact Of Non-Affirming Religious Upbringing And Internalized Homophobia On Sexual Satisfaction In Lgbtq Adults, Rhiannon Ashley Gibbs

Selected Full-Text Dissertations 2020-

Internalized homophobia is a common component of the LGBTQ developmental experience which impacts sexual identity development (Peterson & Gerrity, 2006; Rowan & Malcom, 2003). As well, many LGBTQ people raised in Christian religious communities frequently grow up in environments which are not affirming of their sexualities (Barnes & Meyer, 2012; Boppana & Gross, 2019; Herek et al., 2009; Ream & Savin-Williams, 2005; Rodriquez & Oullette, 2000). While much research considers the impact of these minority stressors on LGBTQ well-being (Frost & Meyer, 2009; Herek et al. 2009; Keating & Muller, 2020), fewer consider the specific impact on sexual well- being. …

The Place Where Souls Rest: Tolkien, Immortality, And Neurodivergence In Frieren: Beyond Journey’S End, Andrew Mayer

4610 English: Individual Authors: J.R.R. Tolkien

No abstract provided.

Engineering Chimeric Autoantibody Receptor T Cells (Caar): A Potential Cure For Graves' Disease, Kimbal Demars, Abigail Cheever, Chloe Kang, Hunter Lindsay, Mackenzie Hansen, Kim O'Neill, Scott Weber

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

• Graves’ Disease (GD) is the 4th most common autoimmune disease in the United States.
• GD is characterized by autoreactive B cells releasing anti-thyroid stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) Ab that bind to TSHR, causing an overexpression of hormones.
• Excessive hormonal release leads to hyperthyroidism, causing a variety of metabolic issues.
• No cure exists, only limited effectiveness of treatments, including chemotherapy, radiation, or thyroidectomy.
• Chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) T cell therapy has been effective in treating blood cancers.
• Modifying this therapy by engineering T cells that replace the antigen as the T cell receptor will selectively target autoreactive B cells, namely chimeric …

End Epilepsy: Human And Rodent Seizures Demonstrate A Dynamic Interplay With Spreading Depolarizations, Daniel Hummel, Jacob H. Norby, Noah Ricks, John D. Rolston, Shervin Rahimpour, Juha Voipio, Andrew J. Trevelyan, Elliot H. Smith, Ryley Parrish

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Affecting more than 50 million people worldwide, Epilepsy is a condition of repeated seizures. Seizures (Sz) occur when brain cells transmit uncontrolled electrical signals, and most often terminate on their own, but how this happens is unknown. A proposed mechanism of Sz termination is a spreading depolarization (SD). A SD is a wave that travels through the brain, suppressing brain activity. Currently, the relationship between SDs and seizures is not well understood. The goal of this study was to understand how the two phenomena interact in both rodent brains, and humans. Better understanding of SDs may lead to the development …

Enabling Better Interoperability And Reusability For Down Syndrome Transcriptomic Datasets, Harrison Oaks, Garrett L. Wride, Stephen Piccolo

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Introduction: Gene expression profiling has become a cornerstone of biomedical research, offering relevant insights into the molecular mechanisms that underlie complex conditions such as Down syndrome (DS), a condition caused by trisomy 21. RNA expression data from individuals with DS have highlighted critical pathways involved in development, immune function, and disease susceptibility. Despite the availability of over 100 publicly shared RNA expression datasets, their potential remains underutilized due to inconsistent metadata, diverse normalization protocols, and varying data quality. Addressing these barriers is vital to enabling researchers to standardize, integrate, and analyze datasets effectively. We do this by creating a data …

Effects Of Predation On Cognition In Brachyrhaphis Rhabdophora, Elizabeth F. Jenkins, Jerald B. Johnson

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Does predation environment affect the cognitive abilities of the tropical fish Brachyrhaphis rhabdophora?

Effects Of Ethanol On G-Csf Sensitivity In The Ventral Striatum, Kaleb Gardner, Rachel Campbell, Camryn Holt, Zachary Valentine, Chase Seiter, Jordan T. Yorgason

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) is a known neuromodulator for dopamine (DA) release in the ventral striatum • Increased peripheral G-CSF levels enhances abused substance effects • The G-CSF mechanism for enhancing release remains unknown • How ethanol affects G-CSF neuromodulation also remains unknown • The present studies examined G-CSF effects on striatal and mesolimbic circuitry and chronic ethanol effects on this system

Effects Of Acute Injections Of Etoh In Cytokine Release In Mice, Alina Svitlana Rodriguez Bezruchko, Alka Gaur, Carlos M. Moreno, Jordan T. Yorgason, Scott Weber

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

To learn the pathway by which the peripheral immune system interacts with dopaminergic neurons and triggers an addiction response, we compared cytokine and chemokine production levels before and after a 20-minute ethanol injection. Since some cytokines and chemokines can cross the blood-brain barrier, their peripheral production may influence neural activity. We had four groups: ethanol, saline, domperidone-ethanol, and domperidone-saline. As domperidone is a dopamine antagonist, we will use it as a control to verify that the change in cytokine production is due to ethanol rather than other factors.

Discovering Diet-Dependent Changes In Amino Acid Metabolism, Benjamin Driggs, Coleman Nielsen, J. C. Price

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

The Price Lab ran a mouse diet experiment to see if we could detect changes in amino acid metabolism according to diet. The diets used were low protein ad libitum (LP AL), low protein CR (LP CR), high protein ad libitum (HP AL), and high protein CR (HP CR). Multiple individuals were randomly assigned to each diet. Extracting D2O labelled samples across several time points allows us to use mass spectrometry to measure both protein concentration and turnover (figure 1) (1). These are measured by analyzing the shift in isotopic peaks (2). Using these changes in isotopic peaks we can …

Digital Vs. In-Person Interaction: Preventing Suicide In Autistic And Socially Anxious Populations, Jacob Griffin, Jared Nielson

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Introduction: Suicide is one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. and the third leading cause of death for individuals from 15 to 29-year-olds world-wide (Suicide Data and Statistics, 2024; World Health Organization: WHO, 2024). As prevalent as suicide is among general populations, statistics have shown that the risk is even greater among certain groups such as autistic populations and socially anxious populations. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurological and developmental disorder which affects communication, behavior, and learning abilities (Autism Spectrum Disorder, 2024). One study reported that individuals with ASD were almost three times more likely to …

Different Phase, Same Results: No Metabolic Variation Across Phases Of The Menstrual Cycle, Grace Loveless, Hadley Peay, Jessica Linde, Kiese Mpongo, Joran Quirante, Arianna Young, Devon Wardell, Audrey Newman, Mohadesah Ahmadi, Gary Mack, Jayson Gifford

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

BACKGROUND: Even with gender parity being achieved in the 2024 Paris Olympic games with 50% male and female athletes(Forbes 2024), female subjects are often excluded from exercise performance research studies. Cowley et al.(2021) found that there was a significant difference between female (34%) and male (66%) participants in sport and exercise research. One reason for exclusion of females in physiology research is uncertainty regarding the impact of the menstrual cycle (MC) on exercise performance and metabolic measures.

Development Of Seed Coating Technologies & Seeding Techniques To Improve Wildlife Habitat In The Sagebrush Steppe, Sage Johansen, Curtis Garlick, Corban Gibson, John Stromberg, Ryan Glover, Nathaniel Adams, April Hulet, Matthew Madsen

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

The sagebrush steppe biome is disappearing at a rate exceeding 500,000 hectares per year. Restoring these degraded areas through the reseeding of native vegetation is essential for preserving wildlife habitat and maintaining critical ecosystem services. However, seeding efforts often end in failure, especially in hotter and drier parts of the sagebrush steppe.

Rangeland seeds typically are sown near the soil surface, where the seed and unemerged seedlings experience high mortality due to factors such as seed predation, drought, freeze-thaw cycles, and pathogens. Seedlings also struggle to emerge from the soil due to soil crusting.

However, if it were possible to …

Developement Of A Rodent Virtual Reality System For Measuring Reward, Aman Malhotra, Joe Davis, Jacob Cecil, Lauren Ford, Daniel-Luke Isemonger, Noah Moffat, Ryan Powers, Cody Siciliano, Ryan West, Jordan T. Yorgason

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Rodent VR is a tool for drug impact studies involving VR and optical imaging on motivation-related circuits using customizable maze creation and a comprehensive analysis program. We are using this combined with a GRINS lens surgical implant to gather real time data.

Competitive Bacteria Inhibiting Yersinia Ruckeri Growth – A Strategy To Prevent Enteric Redmouth Disease (Erm) In Freshwater Fish, Kyler Linton, David Erickson

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Pacific freshwater fish are less likely than Atlantic freshwater fish to exhibit Enteric Redmouth Disease (ERM), or Yersiniosis as caused by Yersinia ruckeri. Based on the hypothesis that these fish may harbor commensal bacteria that inhibit Y. ruckeri growth, we isolated many kinds of commensal bacteria from fish intestines that we have collected from Alaska and local streams. Using co-culture experiments, we have conducted competitive assays to determine if the bacteria found in the gut biomes of these fish inhibit the growth of Y. ruckeri. These may be potential probiotic organisms that could provide resistance to ERM disease.

Comparing Management Strategies For Gray Wolves, Dingoes, And African Wild Dogs: Insights For U.S. Wolf Conservation, Joshua Jewell, Tom Smith

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Europe, Africa, and Australia can provide insights into USA Gray Wolf Management.

Comparative Whole Genome Sequencing Of Cryopreserved And Ffpe Cancer Tissue, Delaney Anderson, Ken Dixon, Ryan Miller, Sangmoon Lee, Jeffrey Okojie, Jared Barrott

Library/Life Sciences Undergraduate Poster Competition 2025

Whole genome sequencing (WGS) determines the DNA sequence of an organism’s entire genome & plays a key role in cancer precision medicine

• Currently, the main preservation method of cancer tissue for WGS is formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue; cryopreserved (CP) tissue is not routinely used in clinical settings
• Previous studies have determined CP tissue yields higher quality & quantity of DNA
• This study aimed to compare the outcomes of WGS in CP & FFPE samples.