Digital Commons Network^™

Classification, Service Provision, And Early Academic Skills Of Early Elementary School Students Who Received Services As A Preschool Student With A Disability, Meghan Conboy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Youth with disabilities benefit from coordinated supports and services, particularly during early childhood when they are developing foundational abilities that will influence their developmental trajectory (Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, 2015; Sandall et al., 2005). Preschool-aged students who enter kindergarten with adequately developed pre-academic skills are more likely demonstrate high performance levels in academic domains throughout compulsory education compared to peers with low pre-academic skills (Christensen et al., 2020; Fitzpatrick, 2017; Hair et al., 2006; Tavassolie et al., 2022). However, despite the knowledge that both preschool programs and high-quality and effective early intervention benefit children across their lifetime, limited research …

Academic Satisfaction Of Graduate Students In Mental Health Professions: Mediating Roles Of Burnout And Engagement, Yu Ying Li

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Academic satisfaction for students is as critical to their retention and well-being as job satisfaction for working adults; however, it has received limited empirical attention particularly among graduate students in mental health-related programs. One of the barriers to mental health trainees’ satisfaction with their academic training is burnout. The current study evaluated the applicability of Study Demands-Resources (SD-R) framework (Lesener et al., 2020) to trainees. Specifically, this study examined the relations between study demands (i.e., perceived stress), study resources (i.e., supervisory alliance and social support), student burnout, student engagement, and academic satisfaction. It also tested if student burnout and engagement …

School Leaders’ And Teachers’ Sensemaking Of Performance-Based Learning And Assessment Reform Initiatives, Kate Jarrard

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Educational leaders occupy a difficult position in the landscape of reform, as they are at times charged with initiatives that conflict with existing guidance and core instructional work. Effective change requires more than program redesign; it demands shifts in people’s behavior. For school leaders, the challenge is not simply understanding a new initiative, but making personal sense of it and then communicating it coherently to staff in ways that generate genuine commitment, all while navigating the gap between standard and innovative practice, bridging from policy intent to classroom-level implementation.

In the case of school performance, standardized testing has long anchored …

Bioinformatic Identification And Analysis Of Shared Splicing Errors In Myotonic Dystrophy Type (Dm1) And Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (Fecd), Carter I. Wilkins

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is an autosomal dominant form of muscular dystrophy, and it is the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. The disease is the result of CTG trinucleotide repeats (TNR) in the 3’UTR of the dystrophia myotonica protein kinase (DMPK) gene. This produces toxic RNA hairpin structures by CUG repeat expansions that sequester proteins–most relevantly muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL)–that regulate alternative RNA splicing. The missplicing of a wide variety of genes results in the symptoms such as myotonia (rigidity of the muscles), atrophy, and cardiac failure.

Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD) is characterized by progressive loss and …

Systematic Literature Review: Elevating Black Voices Through Universal Social-Emotional Learning Interventions, Natasha J. Hogg

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This systematic literature review examined the outcomes of culturally responsive universal Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) interventions for Black students in K-12 school settings addressing mental health, racial trauma, and racial disparities. Following the PRISMA protocol, a comprehensive search was conducted across PsycINFO, EBSCO, and five academic journals by April 2025. Results yielded 11 peer-reviewed articles with 2,246 Black participants published between 1994 and 2024. Exclusion criteria included sole focus of Tier 2 or 3 interventions, lacking Black student populations, or lacking outcomes aggregated by race. Seven SEL interventions were identified with risk of bias assessed by a secondary reviewer. Thematic analysis …

Reviving Southern Divides: Multilevel Explorations Of Gentrification’S Role In School Resegregation In Tallahassee, Florida From 1999 – 2015, Ola U. Kalu

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines whether neighborhood gentrification in Tallahassee reshaped Title I elementary schools by improving academic outcomes, changing who enrolled, or both, from 1999 to 2015. Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model as a conceptual scaffold, the study situates schools within their neighborhood and district contexts across three nested analytical levels. A two-wave panel design using 2010 and 2015 school-year observations is linked to a 2000 Census baseline to connect school data with spatially weighted neighborhood change indicators. Mixed-effects multilevel models and fixed-effects robustness checks estimate the associations between neighborhood change indicators and two continuous dependent variables: standardized ELA achievement and …

Multifunctional And Adaptive: Tracking How Fibroblasts Respond To Tissue Injury And Facilitate Tissue Remodeling, Joey R. Tavarez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Fibrosis is characterized by an accumulation of proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM) that results in altered tissue architecture and reduced organ function. In the salivary glands, fibrosis leads to loss of saliva, dysbiosis of the oral microbiome, an increase in oral infections, difficulty in digestion of food and an overall reduction in the quality of life. Understanding the progression of fibrosis and how it affects human health is a crucial step for designing effective therapeutics. Understanding fibroblast function is integral to advancing the field due to the many roles they play in maintaining the ECM. To perform preliminary analysis, …

Constructing The Political “Other”: Affective Polarization And Cross-Ideological Portrayals On Instagram, Amanda M. Novellin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Instagram has frequently been characterized by users as a platform that permits the circulation of hostile and adversarial political content due to comparatively limited moderation practices. In January 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced changes to content moderation policies on Facebook and Instagram, including the removal of third-party fact-checking mechanisms. These platform-level changes further reshaped the political information environment in which online discourse occurs. However, even prior to these policy changes, Instagram had established itself as a prominent space for highly polarized political expression across the ideological spectrum.

This thesis examines how political polarization in the United States is reflected …

Barriers And Corridors: Timber Rattlesnake Habitat Connectivity In New York, Lauren Rose

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Habitat fragmentation poses a significant threat to species that rely on landscape connectivity for movement in search of food, water, and mates. The timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), listed as a threatened species in New York State, travels an average of 1.5 miles—and up to five miles—from permanent denning sites to reach habitat suitable for gestation, foraging, basking, and overwintering. Ongoing development in the lower Hudson Valley has increasingly fragmented these critical habitats, restricting movement between den populations. This thesis evaluates landscape barriers that contribute to population isolation and identifies opportunities to restore connectivity among timber rattlesnake metapopulations.

Using …

Moderators Of Subjective Distress And State Body Image During Open And Blind Weighing, Danielle E. Peters

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Objective: Body image disturbances are central to eating disorder (ED) pathology and are often addressed through exposure-based methods, such as open weighing. Open weighing is recommended in evidence-based ED treatments, but many clinicians and patients prefer blind weighing. It may be that pre-treatment patient characteristics may influence how distressed they feel by open and blind weighing. As such, the present study aimed to 1) compare how open and blind weighing impact subjective distress and state body image, and 2) examine whether self-weighing tendencies, body avoidance, body checking, body checking-related beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty, and ED psychopathology moderate the relationship between …

Inflammation In Early Borrelia Burgdorferi Skin Infection, Ariana Nobles

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) is the causative agent of approximately 476,000 cases of Lyme disease in the United States and rising. Bb is spread through infected saliva of the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, to the host. Patients infected with Bb experience short-term symptoms, such as erythema migrans (EMs), fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairment. If left untreated, Bb infection will cause long-term health complications, like Lyme neuroborreliosis and Lyme arthritis. It is postulated that symptoms associated with Lyme disease are driven in part by inflammation.

My thesis focuses on the skin as it holds significant immunological importance in the …

Racial Bias In Collateral Report Of Adhd Symptom Endorsement, Teresa Mejia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most frequently diagnosed mental health condition among children in the United States. However, prevalence rates in the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD are unequal across populations. Specifically, the literature has demonstrated consistent variability in symptom endorsements and diagnosis dependent on a child’s demographic factors (i.e., race, gender, age). A diagnosis of ADHD requires that the diagnostic criteria be met in at least two aspects of a child's life, usually the school and home environments. As such, teacher reports are commonly used in the assessment of ADHD for children and adolescents. Given the challenges in obtaining …

Academic Drift In Indonesian Islamic Higher Education: An Empirical Study Of The State Islamic University Of Mataram, Ade Alimah

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Many higher education institutions imitate one another to achieve upward movement, a phenomenon known as academic drift. While this trend is widely acknowledged, the existing academic literature primarily focuses on developed nations. This research aims to investigate how academic drift occurs in Indonesian Islamic higher education, particularly through institutional transformations that involve institutes transitioning to universities.

This qualitative study examines academic drift at the State Islamic University of Mataram, Indonesia. To gather extensive data, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from this university, representatives from two leading public Islamic universities, and senior officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Our …

Becoming-With The Earth: Contemplative Practice As A Critical Onto-Epistemic Resource For Planetary Belonging, Care, And World-Making, Megan M. Fowler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In an era of accelerating planetary crisis, social work is called to reimagine its theories, methods, and practices beyond anthropocentric frameworks that separate human wellbeing from the health of the Earth and its resplendent living systems. Working in the space of transformative eco-social work, a growing chorus of voices contends that eco-centric responses require broadening the scope of health, welfare, justice, and care to extend beyond the human, to include the more-than-human world upon which all life intimately depends—understandings resonant with Indigenous and other relational knowledge systems long marginalized by colonialist-capitalist-modernity. Drawing from eco-feminist, eco-queer, decolonial, and post-anthropocentric lineages of …

Development And Applications Of Fluorescence Microscopy Protocol To Investigate Borrelia Burgdorferi Immune Interactions In The Skin, Rebecca V. Landry

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The skin is an immunological organ that acts as the hosts’ first line of defense against infectious agents. Infectious disease vectors like ticks breach this barrier by feeding on hosts, transmitting pathogens like Borrelia burgdorferi in the process. Uncleared infection with B. burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States. Previous research has explained many elements of Lyme disease pathogenesis and immunity including the dissemination of the spirochete, innate immune cells performing phagocytosis, the production of antibodies by the humoral response, and the impact of prophylactic treatment with monoclonal antibodies. A remaining gap in the …

A Moderated Mediation Analysis Of Mental Health Literacy, Personal Stigma, And Gender On Help-Seeking Intentions In College Students, Anna M. Gentile

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Although many college students experience mental health challenges, help-seeking rates remain disproportionately low relative to reported need (Abelson et al., 2022). Identifying factors that facilitate help-seeking is critical for improving access to mental health support in this population. Prior research has identified mental health literacy as a significant predictor of help-seeking behavior and intentions among college students (Gorczynski et al., 2017; Smith & Shochet, 2011), whereas personal stigma, which is defined as a person’s negative attitude towards people with mental health concerns (Griffiths et al., 2006), has been consistently associated with reduced help-seeking (Abelson et al., 2022). Grounded in the …

Perceptions Of Psilocybin-Assisted Psychotherapy And Standard Interventions For Nicotine Cessation, Philip Kamilar-Britt

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Clinical trials suggest potential therapeutic utility of psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP) for nicotine cessation. In response to promising outcomes, research into PAP for nicotine dependence is growing. However, attitudes towards PAP among the general public, especially daily nicotine users, remains understudied. To address this knowledge gap, we recruited daily nicotine users (N=534) to complete an anonymous online survey with questions on demographics, nicotine use, prior history with psychedelics, and attitudes towards PAP and standard interventions for nicotine cessation. As hypothesized, daily nicotine users were more familiar with standard interventions and rated them more favorably than PAP. Despite differences in treatment attitudes, …

Essays On Nursing Home Closures And Disparities In Post-Acute And Long-Term Care, Hyeonwoo Do

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the consequences of nursing home closures for access to care, local economic conditions, and resident health in the United States. As the long-term care system shifts toward home- and community-based services and the nursing home sector contracts, facility closures have become an increasingly important policy concern. Although closures may reflect necessary market restructuring in some settings, they may also reduce access, weaken local economies, and place pressure on surviving facilities. Across three essays, this dissertation shows that the consequences of nursing home contraction are uneven and depend on racial and ethnic composition, rurality, local market concentration, and …

A Comprehensive Investigation Of Service Utilization In Innovative Models Of Hepatitis C Care And Treatment For Persons Who Inject Drugs In New York State, Amanda C. Sue

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is the most prevalent blood-borne infection in the United States and is primarily transmitted through the sharing of unsterilized drug injection equipment. With surges in opioid overdose deaths, there has been an increase in people diagnosed with HCV that can be attributed to persons who inject drugs (PWID) in the United States. PWID have therefore been identified as a priority population to achieve the goal of eliminating HCV as a public health threat. Despite the availability of safe and effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapies that can cure people with HCV, uptake of HCV treatment in PWID …

Victimized And Criminalized: The Intertwined Narratives Of Trauma And Offending, Caitlin Maria Udas

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

How do pathways between childhood victimization, drug use, and offending behavior vary for recordholders of different races and genders? Prior literature and theory indicates that there are distinct processes that can link childhood victimization to drug use and other offending behavior. These processes are rooted at least partially in experiences of racism/discrimination, placement relative to sociocultural power structures, and norms established over one’s childhood through peer and familial influences. However, less is known about how these differ by race, gender, and the intersection thereof. This dissertation examines the intersectional differences in narrative pathways that link childhood victimization, drug use, and …

Analysis Of Vertical Tropospheric Atmospheric Profiles Associated With Extreme Rainfall Events Over KauaʻI, HawaiʻI, Amanda Maria Maminimini

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Extreme rainfall is a persistent hazard in the Hawaiian Islands, where steep terrain and short catchments convert heavy rain into damaging floods with little warning. The trade wind inversion, a subsidence-driven stable layer that caps the marine boundary layer over the subtropical North Pacific, limits the depth of convection and is therefore expected to govern whether available moisture can be converted into extreme rainfall. Previous work has characterized the inversion climatologically and has related the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Pacific-North American (PNA) pattern to Hawaiian rainfall totals, but the behavior of the inversion on the specific days when …

Sorting By Income And Housing Subsidy Status: Residential Attainment, Unit Turnover, And The Mobility Process Among Renter Households, Sarah A. Mccarthy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The aim of this dissertation is to identify differences in the mobility process and residential attainment across different types of renters with different incomes and by housing subsidy status. More specifically, I compare subsidized renters to unsubsidized, low-income renters as well as unsubsidized, moderate-income renters. The guiding question of this dissertation is, “what processes around mobility help or hinder subsidized households in attaining residential outcomes?” The motivations for addressing this question and the related gaps in the literature are discussed in Chapter 1.

Using data from the American Housing Survey (AHS), I address this question over three analytical chapters in …

Through Our Eyes: An Exploration Of Hope Among Opportunity Youth, Judith L. Fenlon

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Opportunity youth—young people aged 16–24 who are disconnected from both school and employment—experience significant barriers to successful transitions into adulthood. Existing research has largely focused on deficits, risk factors, and outcomes associated with disconnection, often overlooking the strengths, resilience, and aspirations of these young people. Hope has been identified as a critical factor associated with educational achievement, psychological well-being and future orientation; however, little research has explored how opportunity youth experience hope in the context of systemic inequities. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of hope among low-income opportunity youth and to examine the factors …

Reflections From A Community Capacity Building Forum To Support People Bereaved By Suicide, Colleen Carlon, Jacquie Tarrant, Marie Eckersley, Priscilla Vindin

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

An estimated half the population may be impacted by suicide loss. The combination of grief and trauma makes the experience particularly complex. Recognised as the most stigmatised of all sudden losses people bereaved by suicide are in sociocultural contexts that disrupt constructive grief processes and create barriers for help seeking and supportive responses. Effecting change in this context poses a significant health promotion challenge. Social workers in the South West Region of Western Australia sought to develop and deliver a unique postvention approach aimed at strengthening the self-support capacity of people bereaved by suicide while building broader community capacity for …

A Comprehensive Review Of Cyber Security And Current Practices In Global Mining Critical Infrastructure, Abu Barkat Ullah, Wanli Ma, Mohiuddin Ahmed, Bazlur Rashid, Munir Ahmad Saeed, Omer Arshad, Utkarsh Raghav

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The purpose of the study is to explore the reasons behind the low uptake of Information Security Management Standards (ISMS), Asset Management, and Business Continuity Plans despite increasing cyber threats to the mining sector. Mining companies need to modernize and automate to keep up with the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’, driven by disruptive technology, forcing systems and technologies to become more integrated, increasing cyber attack threats. To address this, we conducted a literature review analyzing the mining industry across various regions. The research is based on a qualitative analysis of diversified literature. The results highlighted factors behind the low uptake of …

Antecedents Of Emergency Services’ Street Level Bureaucrats’ (Slbs) Delivery Of Public Value: An Exploratory Study, Yvonne Brunetto, Ben Farr-Wharton, Aglae Hernandez Grande, Fleur Sharafizad, Matthew Richman

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Street Level Organisations (SLOs) determine the Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC) in their workplaces and we examine pathways from SLBs’ PSC and Public Service Motivation (PSM) to discretionary power, work stress, wellbeing and the subsequent delivery of public value. The structural equation modelling results from 195 Australian police, fire, ambulance, and emergency services workers indicate that PSC had a more significant role in explaining SLBs’ delivery of public value compared with PSM. The implication is that SLOs’ management must ensure psychosocially safe and supportive workplaces conducive to building SLBs’ wellbeing, because that is the pathway for delivering public value.

Christianity As Coping Mechanisms For Migrants With Mental Health Challenges In Australia: Social Work Implications, Obed Adonteng-Kissi, Nnaemeka Meribe, Kathomi Gatwiri, Lillian Mwanri, Agness Tembo, Frank Darkwa Baffour, Edith N. Botchway-Commey, Aunty Kerrie Doyle, David Chisanga, Ahmed A. Moustafa, Uchechukwu Levi Osuagwu

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Christian religion may be a powerful resource that can serve as a coping mechanism to resolve challenges and provide comfort to African migrants confronted with mental health challenges. We aimed to explore the coping strategies among African migrants in Australia. We undertook semi-structured interviews online with 11 participants with African backgrounds, comprising six mental health clinicians and five migrant service users living in Australia for at least the past 12 months. Literature exploring religious coping mechanisms, social support and acculturation was drawn on. The interviews were undertaken online via Teams, WhatsApp call, and zoom with participants whom we recruited through …

Delirium In The Acute Care Setting From The Families Perspective: A Scoping Review, Amber Mclean, Beverley Ewens, Amanda Towell-Barnard

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: To explore the existing literature on delirium within the acute care setting from the family members' perspective and summarise key findings. Design: A scoping review guided by Arksey and O'Malley's methodological framework and refined by the Joanna Briggs Institute. Review Methods: The Population, Concept, and Context framework recommended by the Joanna Briggs Institute's scoping review protocol identified the main concepts in the primary review question. The inclusion criteria focused on primary research studies from any chronological date that explored the family members' experience of delirium within the acute care setting. Following screening by two independent reviewers, data extraction was …

Nation, Nature And Childhood In Five Curricula: Towards Earthly Education, Zsuzsa Millei, Katarzyna Gawlicz, Lucy Hopkins, Camilla Eline Andersen, Danielle Ekman Ladru

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article explores the relations between nation, nature and childhood in five early childhood education curricula in the Nordic, post-socialist and settler-colonial states with the focus on the role education plays in the face of the climate crisis. The authors identify three interconnecting themes in which nation, nature and childhood are entangled in these curricula: 1) national nature as an object of learning; 2) nature and home/birth land and Country; and 3) stewardship for national nature. Exploring these themes from the perspective of alternative pedagogies developed to address the child–nature relations during the Anthropocene, the authors argue that these notions …

I Am Still Concerned About Them: Grandmother Kinship Caregivers And The Challenge Of Abuse By Children In Their Care, Hajara Bentum, Vicki Banham, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Research evidence has shown that adverse occurrences within the kinship caregiving environment, such as the grandparents' experiences of violence and abuse, may introduce new stressors or exacerbate existing aged-related challenges, leading to adverse impacts on grandparent kinship carers. Yet no research has explored the impact of abuse and violence experienced by grandparent kinship caregivers from children in their care. This study involved narrative interviews with 31 grandmother kinship caregivers in Ghana to explore the adverse effects of the abuse they have experienced from children in their care. The study findings revealed the following impacts on grandmothers: (1) high blood pressure, …