Digital Commons Network^™

You Haven’T Been Forgotten: Driving Improvements In Trust, Transparency, And Accountability Through A Patient-Centered Communication Initiative In The Emergency Department, Ellie Mead

Master's Projects and Capstones

Objective: In Spring 2026, the Emergency Department (ED) at Hospital X identified difficulties securing high levels of patient satisfaction. Over one third of patients did not feel adequately “informed about delays,” and observation of nurse-patient interactions in front-end care areas confirmed these communication gaps: in 87% of interactions, nurses did not explain next steps to the patient, and in none of the 51 interactions observed did nurses proactively inform patients about possible delays. Aim: This quality improvement initiative sought to improve the patient experience in the ED and drive a 10% increase in Press Ganey patient satisfaction survey results relating …

Topology-Aware Graph Neural Network With Spatiotemporal Encoding And Contrastive Learning For Scalable Dynamic Network Representation, Wassan S. Hayale, Rasha S. Ali, Raghda Abd Ul Rab Abd Ul Hasan, Lateef Abd Zaid Qudr, Safwan Nadwe, Nitin S. Solke, Ravi Sekhar, Pritesh Shah, Reyad Omran Essa

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

Recently, Dynamic Graph Neural Networks (DGNNs) have become a potent candidate to model time-changing graphs, although other solutions, including Temporal Graph Networks (TGN), Evolving Graph Convolutional Networks (EvolveGCN), and Dynamic Self-Attention Networks (DySAT), still have significant barriers to scalability, computational efficiency, and temporal embedding drift. To overcome these drawbacks, this paper presents a Topology-Aware Graph Neural Network (TAGNN) model capable of incorporating graph-topology encoding and the spatiotemporal memory mechanisms into the learning process of dynamic node representation. The proposed framework includes three key components: (i) returns global and local structural data such as graph Laplacian-based feature transformations and position encodings, …

Protecting America’S Critical Infrastructure: A Shared Responsibility In An Era Of Escalating Cyber Threats, Alan Saquella

Publications

The recent cyberattacks targeting municipal water facilities across multiple U.S. states serve as another reminder that America’s critical infrastructure remains under constant attack. According to the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), attackers successfully compromised operational technology (OT) devices, including programmable logic controllers (PLCs), by exploiting Internet-connected systems, changing administrator credentials, and disrupting normal operations. Fortunately, local operators responded quickly by isolating affected systems, restoring backups, and preventing what could have become a significant public health crisis.

While these incidents focused on water treatment facilities, they represent a much larger national security issue. …

Deciphering The Rules Of Odor-Driven Learning In The Fruit Fly Olfactory System, Cole B. Hanan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Odorant identity is encoded by patterns of activity across olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs) and their corresponding glomeruli in the antennal lobe (AL). An odorant's valence can be modified by experience, allowing animals to associate previously neutral odors with appetitive or aversive outcomes. However, some odors appear resistant to such reassignment, and the factors determining whether an odor can acquire learned valence and whether that association generalizes to chemically related odors remain poorly understood. This thesis uses Drosophila melanogaster to address this question using a fully automated proboscis extension reflex (PER) conditioning assay. Odorants are presented via a computer-controlled olfactometer, reward …

Machine Learning Applications To Physical Processes, William Charles

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis demonstrates how machine learning techniques can solve computationally challenging problems across diverse areas of physics, from high-energy astrophysics to condensed matter systems, accelerating traditional computation. My first contribution addresses the computational expense of Monte Carlo calculations for radiative processes in relativistic plasmas. I develop a neural network sampling method that enables fast sampling from an arbitrary probability density, and demonstrate the method on inverse Compton scattering, achieving a speedup of up to an order of magnitude beyond standard methods. My second contribution addresses the structure and radiation of neutron star magnetospheres. I use physics-informed neural networks to model …

X-Ray Emission From V1674 Her (Nova Her 2021) And Characterization Of Cebr3 Detectors For Gamma-Ray Spectrometry, Tekeba Olbemo

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Novae are thermonuclear explosions on the surface of the white dwarf in a close binary system. They are multi-wavelength transients emitting across the electromagnetic spectrum from radio to gamma-rays. This thesis primarily focuses on the X-ray emission from one particular nova, V1674 Her. V1674 Her (Nova Her 2021) is known for its ultra-fast decline time of ��2 ∼ 1 day. This under normal circumstances implies massive white dwarf potentially approaching the Chandrasekhar limit. We test this for V1674 Her by measuring its mass via X-ray spectroscopy method. The method calculates X-ray emission from physically motivated model of post-shock accretion column …

Staff Re-Entry Plan — Indian Trail, Flett, Woodridge, Travis Schulhauser

Spokane Wildfire Academic Consortium Repository

Following the downgrade of Level 3 Evacuation orders at Flett Middle School and Indian Trail and Woodridge elementary schools on Aug. 9, district staff worked with Fulcrum Environmental Consulting to conduct visual inspections and air-quality testing at these sites. More than 100 interior and exterior locations were tested, with indoor air quality within the Good-to-Moderate range under the EPA Air Quality Index. Inspectors also found no indication of unusual ash, soot or other settled particulates inside or outside the buildings.

2026 August 13 - Tennessee Weekly Drought Summary, Tennessee Climate Office, East Tennessee State University

Tennessee Climate Office Weekly Drought Summaries

No abstract provided.

A Functional Ultrasound Imaging (Fusi) Pipeline For Investigating Brain-Wide Hemodynamics During Torpor-Like Hypothermia, Owen J. Culver

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Torpor is a regulated state of reduced metabolic demand that enables animals to conserve energy under unfavorable environmental conditions. The controlled induction of a similar state, termed synthetic torpor, has potential applications in ischemic protection, organ preservation, cancer treatment, radiation protection, and long-term spaceflight. Although neuronal populations within the preoptic hypothalamus have been shown to initiate hypothermic and hypometabolic states, the distributed cerebral hemodynamic dynamics accompanying their induction and maintenance remain poorly understood. In this thesis, we developed an accessible functional ultrasound imaging (fUSI) acquisition and analysis pipeline and applied it to investigate cerebral hemodynamics during chemogenetic activation of the …

Effective Strategies For Implementing Artificial Intelligence To Improve Businesses’ Value Chains, Jehan Forsythe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational leaders are increasingly adopting artificial intelligence (AI) to improve business operations; however, leaders of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continue to face challenges associated with AI adoption. Understanding strategies for effective AI integration may facilitate AI adoption in SMEs, helping to enhance organizational value and improve competitive positioning. Grounded in Porter’s value chain framework, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry project was to identify and explore effective strategies that U.S. SME leaders use to integrate AI into their value chain to increase organizational value and gain a competitive advantage. The participants were six U.S. SME leaders who led …

Prekindergarten Teachers' Perspectives On Coaching Following Professional Development On Early Childhood Programs, Donna Renee Morton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Coaching is recommended for prekindergarten (PK) teachers following professional development (PD) to increase implementation of instruction practices with fidelity in early childhood (EC) programs. The problem addressed in this study was PK teachers were challenged to engage in coaching experiences after PD to implement instructional practices with fidelity in a large EC program located in the Mideastern United States. Framed by Knowles’s adult learning theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore PK teachers’ perspectives on coaching experiences after receiving PD to implement instructional practices with fidelity. Semistructured interview data were collected from eight PK teachers who …

Staff Education To Improve Staff Knowledge On Fall Prevention, Nginjoh Presilia Njofang

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Patient safety risks associated with falls are a major issue in adult inpatient medical-surgical environments because nursing inconsistencies with regard to fall risk assessments, individualized fall prevention interventions, and documentation could impede adherence to best practices. To overcome this knowledge gap among RNs in the selected environment, a DNP education project aimed at standardized fall-prevention staff education was initiated. The question for the practice was whether standardized staff education would increase knowledge among nurses regarding fall-risk assessments, preventive measures, and documentation requirements, based on pretest and posttest results. In the course of a one-hour educational session conducted face-to-face, twenty RNs …

Staff Education To Improve Early Identification Of Behavioral Escalation And Timely Clinical Intervention In An Adult Group Home Setting, Gayduo Barr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) staff education project addressed a gap in staff knowledge regarding the early identification of behavioral escalation and timely intervention in an adult group home setting. The practice-focused question was: Does staff education about early identification of behavioral escalation and timely clinical intervention improve the knowledge of staff working in an adult group home setting? The purpose was to improve staff knowledge of behavioral escalation, triggers, trauma-informed care, and intervention strategies. I delivered a structured educational intervention to 14 house managers. Educational content included behavioral escalation stages, triggers, de-escalation techniques, trauma-informed care, documentation, and …

Fellowship Graduates’ Perceptions Of The Professional Competencies Developed In A Local Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy Program In The Southern United States, Margaret Elaine Lonnemann

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Orthopedic manual physical therapy (OMPT) fellowship programs focus on improving clinical skills and professional development in physical therapy. OMPT fellowship programs are 1–3-year postprofessional subspecialty training programs in manual physical therapy requiring prior orthopedic clinical experience. The problem that was addressed in this study is that professional competencies are not adequately assessed after program completion of an OMPT fellowship in the Southern United States. Grounded in Dreyfus’s skill acquisition model, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore OMPT fellowship graduates’ perceptions of the professional competencies developed and recommendations for assessing these competencies in future graduates. Data were …

Postsecondary Experiences And Impact On Career Choices And Employment Status For Cisgender Women With Autism, Maureen Bell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Cisgender women with autism remain underrepresented in research on postsecondary education and career development despite experiencing distinct barriers within these systems. This qualitative study examined how cisgender women with autism perceived the impact of their postsecondary education experiences on career choices and employment navigation. Guided by the social model of disability and intersectionality theory, nine postsecondary participants formally diagnosed with autism and who self-identified as cisgender completed semistructured interviews exploring their educational and employment experiences. Thematic analysis identified seven interconnected themes. Findings indicated that academic success often masked significant internal distress, suggesting that performance did not reflect accessible environments. Participants …

Kindergarten Classroom Educators’ Perceptions Of Social Emotional Learning Implementation, Thomasina A. Millner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was that research on social emotional learning (SEL) has largely focused on student outcomes, program effectiveness, and implementation practices, but limited research has examined kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of implementing SEL. Grounded in the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning framework, the purpose of this study was to explore kindergarten classroom educators’ perceptions of SEL implementation. For this basic qualitative design, semistructured interviews with nine kindergarten educators who had at least 1 year experience implementing SEL were conducted. Through thematic data analysis the following five themes emerged: Educators noted (1) that SEL is …

Effect Of Rangeland Quality On Rumen Development Of Angora (Mohair) Goat Kids And Bucks, Betül Zehra Sariçi̇çek

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

This study was conducted to determine the effect of rangeland quality on the rumen development of Angora goat kids and bucks. Twenty male singleton Angora goat kids with similar birth dates and birth weights were selected from each farm in an area with three different rangeland quality levels (good, medium, or poor) in Ankara Province. The kids were weaned at 60 days of age and then grazed completely on rangeland until slaughter. Rumen volumetric and papillary development of animals slaughtered at 4 and 7 months of age were determined. Empty rumen length, width, and weight were affected by rangeland quality …

Bc-Xaia: A Blockchain-Based Recruitment Framework With Explainable Ai And Smart Contract Integration, Heba Allah Adel, Sayed Abdelgaber, Wessam H. El-Behaidy

Computer Science

Ensuring transparency and security in digital recruitment systems remains a critical challenge. This study proposes BC-XAIA, a unified framework that integrates blockchain, smart contracts, explainable artificial intelligence (XAI), and agile methodology to enable consistent, secure, and traceable recruitment decision-making. Smart contracts, implemented in Solidity and deployed using the Remix Ethereum IDE, automate key processes such as identity verification, data access control, and behavior monitoring, reducing reliance on centralized intermediaries. To support intelligent decision-making, multiple machine learning models, including Random Forest, Logistic Regression, and Support Vector Machine (SVM), were trained and evaluated on a recruitment dataset, with Random Forest achieving the …

Gw240925 And Gw250207: Astrophysical Calibration Of Gravitational Wave Detectors, A. G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, F. Acernese, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Raul Alberto Espinosa Perez, J. Lawrence, Francisco Llamas Villarreal, Soma Mukherjee, Gaukhar Nurbek, Volker Quetschke, Miriam Ramos Arevalo, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

GW240925 and GW250207 are two loud gravitational-wave signals from binary black hole coalescences observed with network signal-to-noise ratios ∼32 and ∼69, respectively, by the LIGO Hanford-LIGO Livingston-Virgo network. Gravitational-wave signals from coalescing binaries have characteristic phase and amplitude evolution predicted by general relativity. These signal waveforms, together with measured instrumental calibration uncertainties, are used to infer source parameters. However, for sufficiently loud detections, it is possible to constrain the calibration of the detectors directly using the signals themselves. We present the first informative astrophysical measurements of gravitational-wave detector calibration. For GW240925, we verify the inference of Hanford calibration from the …

Sharp Inhale In The Shadow Of A Monument, Pauline Lacanilao Arnould

Kritika Kultura

No abstract provided.

Non-Violent Re-Articulation Of Masculinities: Art, Youths, And Peace Preservation In Post-Conflict Ambon Island, Wening Udasmoro, Leo Marai, Russell Soaba, Philip Aratiso, Jemmy Talakua

Kritika Kultura

Art as a mechanism for fostering peace in conflict resolution and peace maintenance can be found in different social experiences. The Ambon conflict that occurred in 1999 following the fall of Indonesia’s New Order government ended in 2002, but the potential for inter-religious and inter-ethnic conflicts is still a concern for many members of the Ambon community in Maluku Province. In an effort to maintain peace, various elements of the Ambon society continuously engage themselves in various activities to preserve peace. One consistent element in these peace preservation efforts is the youth of Ambon, who employ art as a means …

Building Ties, Connecting Islands: Api Kartini's Longing For An Affective Community During The Cold War, Asri Saraswati

Kritika Kultura

This article discusses the inter-class and cross-oceanic ties envisioned by socialist women’s organization Gerakan Wanita Indonesia (Indonesian Women Movement or Gerwani) through an analysis of their magazine, Api Kartini (AK). The magazine published fiction and non-fiction writings that reveal their affective impulse to build connection as they shared their observations of the women’s movement and labor in Indonesia and abroad. The magazine addressed middle-class women and wives, connecting them emotionally with women of the working class and women organizations across the oceans in their rejection to colonialism and feudalism and their fight for equal rights. This article aims to understand …

Between Spectacle And Struggle: Representations Of The Sea In Indonesian Popular Visual Culture, Susanne A. H. Sitohang, Teguh Prasetyo

Kritika Kultura

Indonesia is a maritime nation, consisting of 17,500 islands—one-third of its geographical area is ocean. Thus, Indonesia declares its identity as an archipelagic nation and actively promotes the geographical facts mentioned above as maritime nationalism. However, the sea remains “secondary” compared to the land and it is frequently misrepresented in Indonesian popular visual culture. This article offers an analysis on how the sea is constructed across three popular visual texts, namely Wonderland Indonesia, a music video series produced by Alffy Rev; the film Budi Pekerti (2023); and The Bajau, a documentary, produced by Watchdoc. The analysis draws on Stuart Hall’s …

“Tian Mimi” (Sweet Like Honey): Critical Nostalgia, Hauntological Melancholia, And Cold War Narratives In S. Leo Chiang’S Island In Between, Li-Hsin Hsu

Kritika Kultura

This essay examines the cinematic representation of Kinmen (also known as Quemoy or Jinmen), the frontier island of Taiwan, as a critical island space of nostalgia in the recent Oscar-nominated short film Island in Between (2023) by Taiwanese-American director S. Leo Chiang. By analyzing the depiction of Kinmen as a Cold War outpost, this essay rethinks the affective positionality of Chiang’s work. The first section integrates archipelagic thinking and critical nostalgia to explore the theoretical complexity of the film’s geo-techno-affective liminality, examining how the film’s archipelagic aesthetics are embedded within a cross-strait narrative and how Svetlana Boym’s typology of nostalgia …

Island As Mechanism: Island Narrative And Affective Landscapes In Ng Kim Chew’S “Fish Bones” And “Allah’S Will”, Chi Miao, Shu Li

Kritika Kultura

This article reframes Sinophone Malaysian (Mahua) literature through the perspective of island studies, foregrounding Malaysia’s cross-island configuration. We propose negative islandness as an operational category: a structurally produced negative affect of suspension, deferral, and dread generated by the island–sea regime’s simultaneous openness and boundedness. We argue that, in Ng Kim Chew’s “Fish Bones” and “Allah’s Will,” the island operates as a mechanism that interstitializes perspectives and tidalizes narrative time, thereby converting arrival into an unfinished passage and relocating trauma into embodied, material rhythms. Through close readings, we develop two interrelated strands: First, an interstitial perspective with the temporality of tides …

Neoliberal Postmodernism, The Cultural Logic Of Buji’S Storytime: A Case Study On The Political Economy Of The Commodified Influencer, Ma. Rosa Cer Bragais

Kritika Kultura

With the ubiquity of social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, influencers or “digital content creators” have taken current Filipino popular culture by storm, spurring an enormous volume of discourse and becoming trendsetters and role models. This paper focuses on the case of professional influencer Buji Babiera, a bicycle advocate turned storyteller who shares random narratives, such as urban legends and slice-of-life anecdotes, on his main platform Storytime on TikTok. I sought to answer how underlying neoliberal political economic structures, as embedded in Storytime’s production processes, relate with the distinctively postmodern character of its content. Guided by Marxist political economy …

Beauty Is What Hurts: Eka Kurniawan And The Dialectics Of Postmodernism In The Wake Of Authoritarianism, Reuven Pinnata

Kritika Kultura

Since Suharto’s resignation in 1998, Indonesian writers and intellectuals have been preoccupied with recovering and rearticulating suppressed voices to contest the New Order’s dual ideology of capitalist developmentalism and anticommunism. This critical endeavor often draws on postmodernism’s valorization of non-totalizable multiplicity against any form of metanarrative. While this strategic adoption is understandable in its historical conjuncture, it tends to simplify New Order anticommunism into an antagonism between the state and the people, leaving undertheorized the more ambiguous relationship between the people and the world market that the New Order state was established to usher in the first place. This essay …

Tally’S Spatial Criticism: Following Jameson And Going Beyond, Ying Fang

Kritika Kultura

As a celebrated Marxist literary theorist and cultural critic, Fredric Jameson has been very influential and highly acclaimed in China’s academia for about forty years. One of his former undergraduate students, Robert T. Tally Jr., is now widely regarded as an inheritor of Jameson’s thoughts as well as his impact on China’s literary studies. Tally is especially valued for his spatial criticism, which, characterized by its distinct terminology and methodologies, builds upon Jameson’s intellectual legacy while also significantly moving beyond it. In the first place, Tally’s notion of space inherits Jameson’s view of history and space while also drawing on …

Reconfiguring "National Allegory" In A Critique Of The Philippine Neocolonial Experience, Epifanio San Juan Jr.

Kritika Kultura

With appropriate adjustments, Jameson’s theory of national allegory can serve as a serviceable frame to interpret Filipino texts. Allegory as figuration or image-thinking aims to resolve conceptual blockage or theoretical dead-ends. Analyzing an exemplary story by Lualhati Bautista, this essay seeks to demonstrate how the author’s mode of representation captures the effect of combining feudal-archaic and capitalist modes of production in the lives of typical characters. Private thoughts and feelings conflict with public norms in the predicament of two uprooted protagonists caught in the crisis of a disaggregated polity. The Philippine social formation as a dependent entity exemplifies the mix …

The Reception Of Jameson’S Works In China, South Korea, And Japan, Mingming Li

Kritika Kultura

An examination of data from the academic databases CNKI, DBpia, and CiNii indicates that the reception of Fredric Jameson’s works in China, South Korea, and Japan can be traced back to the early 1980s. Shaped by their distinct historical and political contexts, each country has developed its own academic discourse surrounding Jameson’s theories. In China, Jameson’s intellectual presence began in 1986, marked by Tang Xiaobing’s article “Postmodernism: Commodification and Cultural Expansion—An Interview with Fredric Jameson.” Since then, over 1,100 research documents on Jameson have been published in China, covering a wide array of topics such as Marxism, postmodernism, globalization, and …