Digital Commons Network^™

Trump’S Lasting Impact On The U.S. Presidency, Imer Kj Cespedes-Alvarado

Political Science Student Research

The first presidency of Donald J. Trump had a lasting impact on the American Presidency, expanding executive power through robust assertions of constitutional power, unconventional communications, and an unprecedented disregard for political norms. The two terms further blurred the line between governance and personal branding, cultivating this new model of leadership that depends on constant public exposure and polarization among the American people. This research examines how Trump's executive power and political tactics during both of his presidencies redefined expectations of presidential behavior and accountability by consolidating executive authority, reorganizing federal institutions, and placing even greater emphasis on loyalty and …

Decoding Teen Slang: A Simulation Model For Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Education, Kristen M. Vandenberg

Biennial Convention (CONV)

In the rapidly evolving world of teen and young adult slang, staying current with the latest terminology is crucial for healthcare professionals working with this demographic. For providers in psychiatric and mental health fields, an understanding of this evolving language can facilitate improved communication and foster trust, thereby enhancing clinical outcomes.

This study introduces a simulation model specifically designed for nurse practitioner students in a psychiatric mental health program, aiming to bridge the communication gap between providers and young clients. Grounded in a conceptual framework of cultural competence and communication theory, the simulation seeks to improve student understanding of adolescent …

Postgraduation Ngn Preparation Lived Experiences Of Baccalaureate Nursing Graduates, Kristy P. Ludy

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore baccalaureate nursing graduates’ lived experiences of preparing for the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) after graduation.

Background and Problem: The American Nurses Association (ANA) projects that by 2030, there will be approximately 194,000 nurse vacancies (American Nurses Association, 2023). Nursing programs must adequately prepare students for practice and to be successful on the licensure examination to address the nursing shortage. The newer licensure examination format of the Next Generation NCLEX (NGN) evaluates clinical judgment, an essential aspect of decision-making in patient care. (Nunn-Ellison et al., 2020). With the implementation of the NGN, …

The Nurses Climate Challenge For Sigma Chapters: Our Calling ~ Our Climate!, Daria Waszak, Kathy Burlingame, Michelle Dephillips, Kelly A. Kuhns, Michelle Y. Gilbert

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Background: As a trusted voice, nurses are in an opportune position to advocate for climate action and its related impacts on health. However, many curricula lack focus on the effects of climate change on health. The Nurses Climate Challenge, a campaign of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE) and Healthcare Without Harm, was launched in 2018 to provide turnkey resources for nurses to influence climate and health. Connecting Sigma and this important initiative creates an opportunity to amplify to more than 600 chapters and 100,000 nurse members globally - across homes, nursing schools and healthcare organizations across the …

Estimated Impact Of 2022–2023 Influenza Vaccines On Annual Hospital Burden In The United States, Kaiming Bi, Shraddha Ramdas Bandekar, Anass Bouchnita, Annalise Cramer, Spencer J Fox, Rebecca K Borchering, Matthew Biggerstaff, Lauren Ancel Meyers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

During the COVID-19 pandemic early years, infection prevention measures suppressed transmission of seasonal influenza and other respiratory viruses. The early onset and moderate severity of the US 2022-2023 influenza season may have resulted from reduced use of nonpharmaceutical interventions or lower population immunity after 2 y of limited influenza virus circulation. We used a mathematical model of influenza virus transmission that incorporates vaccine-derived protection against both infection and severe disease to estimate the impact of influenza vaccines on healthcare burden. Assuming reported levels of past vaccine effectiveness (VE) against infection and hospitalization, we estimate that influenza vaccines prevented 69,886 (95% …

Spartan Daily, November 18, 2025, San Jose State University, School Of Journalism And Mass Communications

Spartan Daily, 2025

Volume 165, Issue 36

"It's Really The Support System That Makes It" Expanding Infant-Toddler Child Care Options In New York, Voices From The Field, Mark K. Nagasawa

Straus Institute for Thriving Children & Families

This report discusses findings from a small, exploratory study of early childhood educators' experiences working to expand access to high quality child care for infants and toddlers. Because of who participated in the study, it takes a particular focus on the federally-funded Early Head Start-Child Care Partnership program. The study's contribution lies in surfacing fine-grained policy issues that complicate expansion efforts from the perspectives of professionals who live within a fragmented early care and education (ECE) system every day. This "non-system" (1) makes it difficult to provide continuity of care to children and their families; (2) lacks appropriate space(s) to …

The George-Anne Daily, Georgia Southern University

George-Anne Media Group: Newsletters & Magazines

No abstract provided.

Convergent Critical Technologies Part 1: The Integrative Transformation Of Warfighting, James Giordano

Strategic Insights

This commentary examines how the Department of War’s six designated Critical Technology Areas: Applied Artificial Intelligence, Biomanufacturing, Contested Logistics Technologies, Quantum and Battlefield Information Dominance, Scaled Directed Energy, and Scaled Hypersonics are collectively transforming military operations. Rather than focusing only on the individual capabilities of these technologies, the author argues that their most strategic value lies in convergent integration across domains and conflict phases. When combined, these technologies can accelerate decision-making, sustain forces in contested environments, enhance sensing and strike capabilities, and optimize operational logistics. The article highlights how integrated technology effects can reshape both kinetic and non-kinetic warfare, challenge …

Predicting School Readiness In Head Start Children: The Role Of The Home Literacy Environment, Executive Function, And Cumulative Risk Factors, Danielle Davis-Newman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Children from low-income families often begin school behind their more affluent peers, showing delays in cognitive, social-emotional, and academic skills. This study examined how variations in the home literacy environment (HLE) and executive function (EF) contributed to school readiness gaps among children facing multiple risk factors. The purpose was to understand whether the HLE supported children’s EF skills, how cumulative family risk shaped these associations, and whether EF was a pathway linking the HLE to school readiness outcomes. Data were drawn from the 2019 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2019), using a nationally representative sample of 1,482 …

Improved Understanding Of Microplastic Transport In Agricultural Farms And Its Environmental Impact, Alireza Bakhshaee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The global escalation of plastic production has led to widespread microplastic (MP) contamination across terrestrial and aquatic environments, posing a growing environmental challenge. MPs, defined as plastic particles smaller than 5 mm, originate from the degradation of larger plastics as well as from direct inputs such as synthetic fibers, biosolids, and agricultural mulching films. Despite their ubiquity, limited knowledge exists regarding their behavior in soils and their influence on soil–water–plant interactions. This dissertation addresses this gap through an integrated series of controlled laboratory experiments and modeling analyses that examine how MPs modify soil–water–plant dynamics, how they are transported through infiltration …

Pedagogical Training And Support Systems For Graduate Teaching Assistants, Alina Zaman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Computer science relies heavily on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), yet most training available to them is generic, not tailored to CS pedagogy, and rarely responsive to the needs of international GTAs. At the same time, rising enrollments and limited instructional capacity make timely, high-quality feedback on code both essential and difficult to deliver—especially in low-resource departments. This dissertation addresses that problem by pairing programmatic GTA preparation with assistive, human-in-the-loop AI and by empirically mapping where, how, and under what conditions AI can responsibly augment GTA feedback practice. First, I worked with the GTA training team to design and deploy a …

Assessing Culinary Education With A Gardening Component In Children Ages 7-13, Cassy Tigner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Abstract Background Culinary education with a gardening component teaches individuals how to cook and grow their own food. The findings of this study are intended to assess the effectiveness of culinary education in children on healthy eating patterns and lifestyle changes. Objective The research aims to determine how effective Camp Chef, a culinary education camp with a gardening component, is at changing the lifestyle habits of children aged 7-13. Study Design Children in Shelby County, Tennessee completed one week of Camp Chef. Their healthy lifestyle habits were surveyed before and after camp. Participants There were 48 children, ages 7-13, that …

Quality Assessment Of Pathology Board-Exam-Style Mcqs Produced By Chatgpt3.5: A Comparative Study, Arianna B. Morton, Zunaira Naeem, Allison F. Goldberg, Alexis R. Peedin, Joanna Chan

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Residents preparing for pathology board exams frequently use multiple-choice questions (MCQs) from question banks (QBs) like PathDojo and PathPrimer, which can be costly. ChatGPT, a free tool, has been used to generate MCQs for other tests like the SAT. This study compared the quality of pathology MCQs created by ChatGPT versus commercially available study questions for the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) certifying exams. A rubric adapted from the National Board of Medical Examiners’ (NBME) question writing guide was validated by two pathologists using commercially available pathology board exam questions. This rubric was then used to evaluate MCQs from commercially …

Effects Of Photo-Oxidized Crude Oil On Gulf Killifish Early Life Stages, Charles Campbell

LSU Master's Theses

Photo-oxidation of spilled crude oil generates polar compounds that can heighten toxicity to marine fish embryos. We investigated the effects of photo-oxidized crude oil on early life stages of Gulf killifish (Fundulus grandis) by exposing embryos under flow-through conditions to water-accommodated fractions of four oil treatments: fresh oil unexposed to either sunlight or weathering referred to as dark control (DC), a UV-light oxidized whole oil (LT), the polar fraction extracted from LT (Pol) and the remnants after extracting the Pol from LT (NP). Oil loadings of 0.38–3.00 g oil/kg water were tested. Total PAH concentrations and chemical profiles …

Two Unrelated Pseudomonas Aeruginosa Phages Require The Exopolysaccharide Psl For Infection, Kristen Amyx-Sherer, Leila C Awasthi, Amanda Zheng, Anna Johannesman, Michele Leroux, Courtney Reichhardt

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Bacteria commonly protect themselves from a variety of threats by forming biofilms, which are communities of bacteria that are tightly packed together within an extracellular matrix. Biofilm formation has generally been thought to protect bacteria from phage infection. The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa produces biofilm matrices that can contain three distinct exopolysaccharides that contribute to the difficulty in treating infected patients. Here, we demonstrate that two diverse P. aeruginosa phages have evolved to exploit this biofilm matrix to access the bacterial cells by both binding to and degrading a major biofilm exopolysaccharide, Psl. We examined the effect of these phages …

Depth-Variant Deconvolution Applied To Widefield Microscopy For Rapid Large-Volume Tissue Imaging, Daniel D Lee, Kevin A Telfer, Mark A J Koenis, Yim K Lee, Kevin W Namink, Brian T Saunders, Heyun Lee, Hailey Kelley, Heather S Ruiz, Joseph P Gaut, Gwendalyn J Randolph, Bernd H Zinselmeyer

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Innovations in 3D tissue imaging have revolutionized research, but limitations stemming from lengthy protocols and equipment accessibility persist. Widefield microscopy is fast and accessible but often excluded from 3D imaging workflows due to its lack of optical sectioning. Here we combine tissue clearing with a commercial depth-variant deconvolution approach that we optimized for large-volume widefield imaging. By implementing prefiltering with z-brick splitting, we achieve subnuclear axial resolution in tissues to a depth of 500 µm in multi-tile scan images. We illustrate the utility of this method in a model of ileitis and to gain a 3D perspective in thick brain …

Teacher Dexiotita And Student Literacy: Building A Literacy Ecosystem In Elementary Schools In East Kupang Sub-District, Kristina E. Noya Nahak, Lanny Isabela Dwisyahri Koroh

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

The declining trend of Indonesian students' literacy competence has prompted researchers to examine how teachers' Dexiotita (competence) fosters literacy ecosystems within educational institutions. This inquiry also explores the relationship between students' Dexiotita (competence) literacy and teachers' Dexiotita (competence). A descriptive qualitative method, employing a case study approach, was utilized to examine phenomena in three schools located in the Kupang district of East Kupang sub-district. These schools were selected based on their representation of a diverse sample, with three schools each having a principal, 18 classroom teachers, and 225 students.The data collection process involved interviews, observations, and documentation, with the data …

Building Consensus For School Librarian Collaboration: A Delphi Study, Pamela C. Harland, Susan D. Ballard, Rachel V. Small

Learning Hub

This Delphi study engaged 38 national experts in school librarianship to develop a consensus-based model of school librarian collaboration (SLC) that reflects current practice. Through three iterative rounds the panel achieved strong consensus on a definition of SLC, a framework representing a continuum of collaborative practice, and necessary conditions for success. The resulting definition of SLC is "an educator-to-educator partnership to enhance student learning through complementary expertise that develops over time and is built on mutual trust, shared goals, and open communication." The seven levels continuum of SLC are: Autonomy, Curation, Contribution, Coordination, Integration, Partnership, and Assurance. These levels allow …

Ai In Action: Hands-On With Copilot And Chatgpt, Michael Ciurca, Becky Vasquez

AI Summit

No abstract provided.

Preparing Tomorrow’S Professionals: Industry-Informed Ai Integration, Brent Terwilliger, John Faraca

AI Summit

Context and Rationale

• AI reshaping aviation, aerospace, and UAS education

• Workforce readiness requires AI proficiency

• Perspectives from students, educators, employers

Belonging Without Borders: A Missionary Kid Reflects On Nursing School, Julia Beth Stamp

Wisdom & Compassion: The LUSON Journal

This reflective essay examines the experience of pursuing a nursing degree while living far from home as a Missionary Kid. It explores how the absence of close family ties during nursing school intensified feelings of loneliness, challenged motivation, and strained emotional well-being. Interwoven with personal narrative and supported by recent literature, the reflection highlights the way that community— through peers, mentors, and faculty— emerged as a vital source of resilience. The essay argues that resilience in nursing education is not the product of individual grit alone but grows from interdependence and the willingness to seek and receive support. Through recounting …

Why Indigenous Children's And Young Adult Literature Matter

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

The Healing Power Of Diverse Voices, Brian Lee Young

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Native And Non-Native Teachers In Selecting Children’S Literature By Native Authors, Trisha Moquino, Katie Kitchens, Laini Szostkowski, Tiffany Jewell, Debbie Reese

Occasional Paper Series

Our contribution to the Occasional Paper Series is driven by the editors request for articles that will provide readers with an opportunity to learn how to use Indigenous Children’s and Young Adult Literature (ICYAL) texts responsibly. In our experience, children encounter far too much anti-Indigeneity in literature, and therefore the classroom.. Before using a book, a teacher must select the book they plan to use in the classroom. If the teacher is seeking to “provide opportunities for students to develop interpersonal relationships between real live kids and those who live only on the page,” (Leitich Smith, 2020) we think it …

Utilizing And Creating Indigenous Children’S Literature To Reclaim The Endangered Hoche Language, Jue Wang

Occasional Paper Series

Stemming from a large ethnographic study exploring young Indigenous children’s literacy and language practices in and out of school in a Hoche elementary school in rural Northeast China, this paper focuses on the navigation of Indigenous literature, language, and literacy learning of young Hoche children. Particularly, this reflective paper challenges the efficacy of Hoche language education in the oppressive context of the public schooling system, inviting Indigenous and non-Indigenous educators in China and across the world to rethink the urgency of reclaiming this endangered language and the power of Indigenous literature in understanding Hoche Indigenous ways of knowing, belonging, and …

“I’M From The Federal Government And I’M Here To Help”: An Examination Of How Firekeeper’S Daughter Educates About Settler Colonialism, Robert Petrone

Occasional Paper Series

This essay offers an examination of various ways Angeline Boulley’s best-selling, award-winning Indigenous Young Adult novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter attends to and educates about settler colonialism. At the core of this analysis is the guiding question: In what ways does Firekeeper’s Daughter illuminate the ongoing social structure of settler colonialism within the context of what is currently known as “The United States”? Specifically, this analysis focuses on the topics of Native identity, including colonial mechanism of blood quantum; and the ways institutions such as the FBI operate from values and epistemologies of compartmentalization and deficit notions of Native Peoples. Across this …

Why Indigenous Children’S Literature Matters: A Native Hawaiian Perspective, Julie Kaomea

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Making Connections To The Local: Exploring The Role Of Indigenous Literature In Early Childhood Education, Lori Huston, Dr. Jan Hare, Ashleigh Janis, Leigh Kweon

Occasional Paper Series

Indigenous children's literature is a vital resource for nurturing cultural understandings and appreciation from an early age for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous children. This paper presents insights gathered from a workshop titled "Nurturing Indigenous Childhoods Through Themed Picture Books: Making Connections to the Local," which emerged as a culmination of our collaborative work on a massive open online course (MOOC) centered on Indigenous pedagogy in early childhood education. We curated a list of Indigenous children's books and engaged in discussions on the significance of Indigenous literature in nurturing cultural identity and literacy learning. In doing so, we aspired to create …

The Legacy Of Language: Indigenous Language In Children’S Fiction, Christine Hartman Derr

Occasional Paper Series

Generally speaking, storytelling is an honored tradition in many Native communities. I use the term generally with a disclaimer. There are currently 574 federally recognized tribal Nations on the land presently known as the United States of America. There are additional Native Nations recognized at the state level and tribal Nations left unrecognized. Each Nation has its own culture, language, traditions, and beliefs. The statements made in this paper could not be universally applicable to all Indigenous communities. There is no monolithic Native perspective that could adequately represent every Native Nation, nor should there be. We celebrate our differences as …