Digital Commons Network^™

A Computer Vision Approach To Analyzing Taxane Effects On Prostate Cancer Cells, Diana Elizabeth Dancea

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Actin is a family of proteins that help create the structure of the cytoskeleton, which gives shape to the cell. In many chemotherapy treatments, researchers target actin because it controls the cell division process. Therefore, if they are able to understand the actin fibers, that may help in formulating methods to stop or slow down cancer cells from reproducing. Another important protein is PAK6, which regulates actin. In our research, a collaborative effort with Prof. Michael Lu’s lab at Florida Atlantic University, we use machine learning techniques to analyze cells which had their PAK6 protein knocked out, and compare them …

2025 Tennessee Rail Transit State Safety Oversight Program, Annual Report Calendar Year 2025, Tennessee. Department Of Transportation.

Rail Transit State Safety Report

No abstract provided.

Black Women Library Leaders: Challenges And Considerations For Inclusive Advocacy, Aisha Johnson, Shaundra Walker, Tamika Barnes, Tina D. Rollins

Library Faculty Scholarship

Black women leaders face unlimited challenges navigating the complex landscape of leadership, balancing race and gender dynamics that often intersect to create unique obstacles. The intersectionality of our identities compounds the hurdles we encounter, making our leadership journey particularly challenging. Research indicates that Black women leaders frequently grapple with systemic racism and gender bias in both professional and societal spheres.1 Additionally, we encounter stereotypes and preconceived notions that affect perceptions of our competence and authority.2 We strive to break through the glass ceiling while confronting structural barriers and limited representation at executive levels, exacerbating an uphill climb.3 The impact of …

Building Connections For Care: A Practical Guide For Novice Nursing Professional Development Practitioners, Debra Hunt

Student Dissertations

Building Connections for Care is a practical textbook designed to support novice Nursing Professional Development Practitioners (NPDPs) as they transition from expert bedside clinicians to educational leaders within complex healthcare systems. Grounded in the Association for Nursing Professional Development (ANPD) practice model, the book integrates ethical foundations, communication strategies, leadership frameworks, and inquiry methods to build confidence and competence in the NPDP role. Chapters trace a developmental pathway from role transition and Benner’s novice-to-expert model through ethics and just culture, incivility and workplace culture, and communication skills including feedback, SMART goals, SBAR, and professional digital conduct. Subsequent chapters expand NPDP …

Strategic Digital Adaptation Among Small And Medium-Size Enterprise Leaders In Grenada For Implementing Digital Technologies To Achieve Long-Term Sustainability, Competitive Advantage, And Scalability, Devon Junior Charles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) leaders in Grenada struggle to implement digital technologies effectively, which limits business sustainability, competitive advantage, and scalability. This issue is particularly concerning for SME leaders, as ineffective digital implementation threatens business survival, workforce stability, and economic resilience in small island developing states (SIDS). Grounded in a composite conceptual framework integrating the technology–organization–environment framework and dynamic capabilities theory, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore strategies SME leaders in Grenada used to implement digital technologies to achieve sustainability, competitive advantage, and scalability. The participants were six SME leaders in Grenada with at …

Strategies Of Cultural Integration In Successful Merger-Companies, Achmad Supriyanto, Burhanuddin

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

This research aimed to discover strategies in integrating a new culture within the merger companies. The strategies have elements including values, phases, leader role, and the system of cul- tural integration construction. This research used a meta-analysis with an expose facto research de- sign. Findings indicate new cultural integrations were carried out by many companies through demon- strating internal and external values. Integrations are implemented through ‘pre, process, and post- merger’. The most important in the preliminary stage is started by benchmarking, leading entire stages, and keeping a balance of collaboration between human and non-human aspects as well as leader …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes April 13, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - March 16, 2026
• University Business
• Faculty Senate Business
• Reports
• Strategic Enrollment Management Annual Report
• Student Success Annual Report
• Committee on Committees Annual Report
• Calendar Committee Annual Report
• Information
• Additional Business
• Adjourn: 4:30

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda April 13, 2026, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:00 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - March 16, 2026
• 3:05 University Business
• 3:20 Faculty Senate Business
• 3:35 Reports
• Strategic Enrollment Management Annual Report
• Student Success Annual Report
• Committee on Committees Annual Report
• Calendar Committee Annual Report
• 4:00 Information
• EPC Report - April 2, 2026
• 4:15 Additional Business
• President-Elect
• Adjourn: 4:30 pm

New Graduate Nurse Retention Strategies Toolkit For Managers And Leadership, Taryn Ryan

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem:

Nurse retention has been a persistent issue for over a decade, with increasing turnover among new graduate nurses. Many new nurses leave the profession due to inadequate preparation for clinical roles and responsibilities.

PICOT:

The PICOT question that guided this project was: For nurse managers and leaders supporting new graduate nurses (P), how does the development of a best-practice retention toolkit (I), compared to existing retention practices (C), guide evidence-based strategies to improve nurse retention (O)?

Evidence:

Evidence indicates that new graduate nurses often feel insufficiently prepared for patient care responsibilities, compromising patient safety (Haddad et al., 2023; …

Three-Dimensional Imaging Of Neuronal Activation Patterns In Chronic Neuropathic Pain And Opioid Pharmacology, Madeline Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Chronic neuropathic pain severely diminishes quality of life, yet the supraspinal neural circuits that sustain pain perception and mediate analgesic relief remain incompletely characterized. While peripheral and spinal pain pathways are well established, relatively few studies have mapped pain- or opioid-related neuronal activation across the entire brain. This dissertation employed activity-dependent genetic labeling (TRAP2/Ai9), whole-brain tissue clearing, light sheet microscopy, and graph-theoretic network analysis to characterize brain-wide activation patterns across chronic pain and analgesic conditions in mice.

In Chapter 1, we mapped supraspinal neuronal activation in a bilateral spared nerve injury model of chronic neuropathic pain. Although no individual region …

Optimizing Project Success In Civil Engineering: Assessing The Impact Of Integrating Agile Methodologies In Large-Scale Construction Projects., Sameerullah Sheik

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Building and civil engineering projects face numerous challenges during their lifespans. A study was conducted to investigate the use of Agile and hybrid methodologies for improving project performance. The contingency theory was applied to determine the impact of Agile on cost, schedule, quality, and stakeholder engagement. It also explored obstacles and factors in successful implementation. The study used qualitative research design and interviewed 15 construction project professionals from different sectors. The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis to extract information about Agile and hybrid methodologies. The major findings showed that these methodologies were not used in their pure form. Instead, …

The Impact Of Emotional Intelligence In C-Suite Executives On Employee Motivation And Voluntary Turnover In Medium-Sized Healthcare Organizations In The United States, Pujan Desai

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This quantitative study sought to determine whether emotionally intelligent behaviors exhibited by C-suite executives in medium-sized US healthcare businesses were linked to increased employee motivation and decreased retention related outcomes rates. Employee burnout, staffing shortages, and workforce instability were just a few of the persistent issues facing healthcare businesses that highlighted how crucial good executive leadership was to be fostering organizational sustainability. Few empirical studies had examined emotional intelligence's influence at the C-suite level in healthcare organizations, even though it was widely acknowledged as a crucial component of good leadership. Research on the function of executive emotional intelligence and how …

Leading Through Stability: How Relational Leadership And Stability Transformed The Culture Of Boone Middle School, Luke P. Thuston

Dissertations

Principal turnover remains a persistent challenge in American education, yet limited research has examined the long-term cultural consequences of chronic leadership instability or the mechanisms through which schools recover. This convergent mixed-methods case study investigated how leadership stability and intentional relationship-building practices influenced the transformation of school climate and culture at Boone Middle School, a suburban middle school in Missouri with a sustained history of administrative turnover. Between 2001 and 2022, the school experienced seven principals and fifteen assistant principals, contributing to normalized instability, diminished relational trust, and skepticism toward organizational change. This study examined the period of leadership stabilization …

Essays On Effect Of Remote Work Opportunities On Migration And Gender Gap, Aghairza Mammadov

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how the expansion of remote work has reshaped key dimensionsof labor market behavior in the United States. By relaxing traditional constraints on where and how people work, remote job opportunities (RJOs) have the potential to alter both geographic mobility and labor market inequality. The first chapter focuses on how remote work affects internal migration patterns, while the second chapter examines its implications for gender differences in employment and wages.

Chapter 1 examines how the expansion of remote job opportunities shapes internal migration patterns in the United States. The expansion of remote job opportunities has decoupled employment from …

Exploring Ethnomethodology: A New Framework For Analyzing Human Resource Practices, Fajar Azmi Kurniawan, Imam Mukhlis, Arief Noviarakhman Zagladi, How Shwu Pyng

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

This article presents a literature study that examines the use of ethnomethodology as an approach in qualitative research, specifically within the context of human resource management (HRM). Employing the Systematic Literature Review (SLR) method, this study explores, identifies, investigates, evaluates, and interprets existing research to uncover how ethnomethodology addresses challenges in HRM. The findings reveal that ethnomethodology offers a valuable lens for understanding complex issues within HRM by analyzing the everyday interactions and practices of individuals in the workplace. This approach enables researchers to uncover underlying problems in HRM and provides insights that can inform strategies for problem-solving. By highlighting …

The New Norm For Sales Professionals: Impact Of Technology During Environmental Turbulence, Michael Rodriguez, Stefanie Boyer

Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings

No abstract provided.

Sidestepping Implicit Bias Through Website Design, Bethany Sycamore

Instructional Psychology and Technology Graduate Student Projects

This design project redesigned the website for a private medical practice with the intention of improving user experience and decreasing the impacts of implicit bias against one of the practice's physicians.

Effective Postmerger Strategies To Enhance Shareholder Value In The Banking Industry, Olajide Farouq Adenrele

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Bank mergers continue to produce unintended declines in shareholder value, posing risks to financial stability, customer confidence, and long-term competitiveness in the southeastern United States. This challenge is especially critical for senior banking leaders, who must ensure that postmerger activities strengthen rather than undermine institutional performance. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to examine the business strategies used by bank leaders in the southeastern United States to mitigate the unintended negative effects of postmerger activities on shareholder value. The study, grounded in agency theory, involved six senior bank leaders responsible for merger integration in the region. Data from …

Morality Meets Education: Transactional And Transformational Leadership Of Business Students, Arthur L. Conyers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

In an era where ethical failures in business can destabilize markets and damage public trust, understanding how future leaders develop moral clarity is becoming increasingly urgent. Transformational leadership highlights relational influence and purpose, while transactional leadership provides structural clarity that supports organizational operations. Morality, broadly defined as adherence to a standard of righteousness, remains essential for leadership in commerce, policy, and organizational contexts. This qualitative phenomenological study looked into how business and management students experience leadership development, moral decision-making, and faith integration in their academic and personal lives. Students enrolled in accredited colleges and universities were interviewed, and transcripts were …

The Correlation Between Leadership Performance And Personality In Virtual Technology Workers, Henry C. Mullins

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative correlational study examined the relationship between leadership performance and personality traits among leaders in the technology sector, who work across the spectrum of virtuality. Personality traits were measured using the Big Five model: extraversion, openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism, using the IPIP-NEO-60 instrument. Leadership performance was measured using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and interpreted through both the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) and Transformational Leadership theories. Holistically this is viewed through a Transformational Christian worldview. This study also examined the role of virtuality, defined as the extent to which an individual works from an office or remotely. Participants were …

The Effectiveness And Adaptability Of Servant Leadership Among Project Managers Managing Highly Complex Projects In Emerging Technology Domains, Fernand R. Baldonado

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative multiple case study explored the effectiveness of servant leadership practiced by project managers while managing highly complex projects in emerging technology domains. These domains included artificial intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, and information technology (IT). Servant leadership was associated with positive team outcomes, but its application in high-uncertainty and high-risk environments, such as projects in these emerging technology domains, had remained underexplored. Data were collected from 25 mid- to senior-level project managers in public- and private-sector organizations using semi-structured interviews, document review, and field notes. Thematic analysis produced 12 themes, including guided empowerment, psychological safety as a form of risk …

The Successful Transition Of Military Veterans To Higher Education: A Phenomenological Study, Kenneth Hollis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of student veterans as they transition into 4-year universities in the southern region of the United States. The problem guiding this work is that student veterans often face significant challenges in achieving academic and personal success during the transition from military service to civilian campus life. The theory guiding this study was Schlossberg's transition theory, as it provides a framework for understanding the factors that influence individuals' experiences during change and transition how veterans navigate the academic, social, and psychological dimensions of this pivotal life change. The …

Professional Development In West Virginia's Rural Public Schools Relating To Secondary Math Teacher Retention: A Phenomenology Through The Lens Of Andragogy, Tanya L. Cooper

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative transcendental phenomenological study was to explore the perceptions of factors related to professional development that influence the retention of secondary math teachers in West Virginia’s rural public schools. The theory guiding this study was adult learning theory, specifically Knowles’ andragogy, as it explains the perceptions of secondary math teachers from their perspective as adult learners. The Central Research Question was: What are rural secondary math teachers’ perceptions of factors related to professional development that influence retention? This phenomenological study was conducted in rural areas of West Virginia, examining the perceptions of ten secondary math teachers …

The Role Of Psychological Need Satisfaction In Prosocial Rule-Breaking: Examining Leadership Moderators In The Financial Services Industry, Lucas Augustine

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This quantitative study examines the relationship between the satisfaction of basic psychological needs- autonomy, competence, and relatedness, and prosocial rule-breaking among employees in the financial-services industry, as well as the moderating effects of transformational and transactional leadership styles. Guided by self-determination theory and full range leadership theory, the study explores how intrinsic motivation and leadership context jointly influence ethical decision-making within highly regulated environments. Data were collected from 102 financial-services professionals through an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling (SEM). Results indicate that autonomy was a strong positive predictor of PSRB, relatedness demonstrated a negative relationship, and competence’s …

Career And Technical Education Faculty Members' Attitudes Toward Assessment: A Case Study, Cecelia R. Brewer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this case study was to understand career and technical education (CTE) faculty members’ attitudes toward assessment at a community college in Kansas. This study explored how faculty members perceived and engaged with outcomes assessment, including their beliefs about its effectiveness, their level of influence in assessment-related decisions, and their sense of being valued within a culture of assessment. The research questions were: 1) What are faculty members’ attitudes toward various assessment methods in career and technical education, including the assessment of both knowledge and skills?, 2) How much do faculty members believe assessment contributes to improving teaching …

Ideal Leadership And Marketing Strategies During Times Of Transition, Kaia S. Thomson

Atlantic Marketing Association Student Proceedings

This study investigates the effects of transitional leadership in an organization on marketing strategies. The qualitative research, gathered through semi-structured interviews with four leaders at different stages of transition, highlights key themes such as the development of trust, adaptability, relationship-building, and the importance of gradual change. The results suggest that the most successful leaders in transition prioritize humility, respect the history of the firm, and focus on developing relationships with stakeholders. Further, these leaders focus marketing strategies on the core products or services of the organization to better understand customer preferences and create long-tern relationships. The study indicates that successful …

Histologic And Histomorphometric Assessments Of Provisionally Restored Dental Implants, Myron Nevins, Stefano Parma-Benfenati, Primo Galletti, Lucrezia Parma-Benfenati, David M. Kim

Journal of Dental Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Principal Preparation Program Components On Self-Efficacy Development In Aspiring School Leaders, Michelle Price

Theses and Dissertations

Leaders with high self-efficacy demonstrate greater persistence when facing adversity, implement organizational change more readily, and establish higher goals for themselves and their organizations. This qualitative study examines which components of principal preparation programs most strongly contribute to self-efficacy development among aspiring school leaders in Utah, specifically in instructional leadership and management for learning. Through semi-structured interviews with 19 recent graduates from three Utah universities, the research explores how program components influence candidates' confidence to lead schools effectively. Grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the findings reveal that while cohort-based models and faculty characteristics provide foundational support for overall efficacy development, …

The Impact Of Ai Visual Marketing On Customer Engagement And Purchase Intention In The Luxury Fashion Industry, Joumana Elkady, Rana Alfahed, Youssef Mohamed, Doaa Ayoub

Business Administration

ABSTRACT

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become prominent in Visual Marketing with rapid integration into Digital Marketing practices. AI-driven visuals, such as Augmented Reality, Virtual Influencers, and Generated Imagery, have all influenced Consumer Behaviour, specifically Customer Engagement and Purchase Intention of Luxury Fashion Customers, by enhancing product visualization, evoking emotional reactions, and reducing purchase uncertainty. Although the impact of AI-generated visuals is primarily notable in online environments, it also offers an enhanced experience within offline settings. AI-generated visuals enable immersive and personalized experiences that transform traditional marketing practices. Correspondingly, potential concerns like over automation, data privacy breaches, and perceived authenticity loss …

Evaluating Impact Of Sustainability Practices And Operational Efficiency On Firm Value In Indonesia’S Mining Sector, Erika Windyasari, Yosman Bustaman

Journal of Environmental Science and Sustainable Development

Sustainability practices are increasingly prominent in investor assessments of firm value Nevertheless, empirical evidence regarding which specific environmental practices are incorporated into capital market valuations remains inconclusive, particularly within mining sectors in emerging markets. This study investigates the correlation between sustainability practices energy efficiency, water management, waste management, renewable energy adoption and environmental quality (PROPER rating) together with operational efficiency and firm value in Indonesian listed mining firms. The analysis uses panel data for 23 firms over 2017–2023. Firm value is measured by Tobin’s Q, while operational efficiency is measured using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The correlation is estimated using …