Digital Commons Network^™

We Are Not What We Think: Solipsism & The Concept Of Mind, Michael Marcoux

Student Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the persuasiveness of solipsism—understood as skepticism of the existence of anything or anyone outside of one’s own private mental life—rests not on its intrinsic argumentative force, but on the degree of commitment to a certain philosophical dogma. I use the problem of solipsism to tease out this dogma, which I dub the Primacy of Privacy. It is characterized by the conviction that in dealing with what there is and what we know, the mental, be it construed in terms of perceptions or thoughts, is the only certain datum from which most if not all …

No Limits: Exploring The Limitless Possibilities Of Creativity Within Extreme Limitations, Ashley J. Hanson Mr

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This essay examines the exponential evolution of digital music production technology, from the MIDI and sampling revolution of the 1980’s, to the contemporary DAWs, virtual instruments and AI-driven tools that have democratised creativity within the modern discipline. However, it also explores how an abundance of cost-effective tools introduces psychological challenges that inhibit creative potential. It critiques "choice overload," where a multitude of options induce decision paralysis, homogenise outputs and stifle innovation. Countering this, the essay advocates for self-imposed constraints as a catalyst for focused ingenuity and flow states, exemplified by legendary musicians such as Fatboy Slim and David Byrne. Objectives …

Americana Marketing Campaign, Shaela O'Keefe

Undergraduate Theses

Americana World Community Center has served as a beacon of hope and justice within the Louisville, Kentucky community for over 30 years. The nonprofit organization provides “holistic services to Louisville's refugee, immigrant and underserved population to build strong and healthy families, create a safe and supportive community and help every individual realize their potential” (Americana, 2024). Americana creates opportunities for families to thrive through “education, family support, youth achievement, and career & financial development” (Americana, 2024). To further Americana’s mission and assist immigrant families, the organization is currently undergoing the process of gathering narratives of Americana’s impact on their staff, …

Quality Improvement Project: Integrating Depression Screening Into Adult Wellness Visits In A Primary Care Clinic, Nina Denchukwu

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Depression is a prevalent and debilitating mental health condition that remains significantly underdiagnosed in primary care, despite national recommendations for universal adult screening. At the project site, less than 40% of adults completing annual wellness visits had documented depression screening. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate whether integrating the evidence-based Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2 and PHQ-9 into the electronic health record (EHR) would improve completion of depression screening, documentation, and referrals to treatment. The project was guided by Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework. A quantitative pre–post intervention design linked with the …

Quality Improvement Project: Impact Of Faculty Competency And Classroom Application Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai), Clydea Hale

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare has created a growing need for nursing faculty to develop competency in AI to adequately prepare students for modern clinical practice. Despite this need, limited faculty knowledge and low classroom application of AI persist. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project was to evaluate the impact of an evidence-based AI educational intervention on nursing faculty competency and classroom application. Guided by the Stetler Model of Evidence-Based Practice and Lewin’s Change Theory, a quasi-experimental pretest-posttest design was implemented with nursing faculty at a rural community college in …

Promoting Trauma-Informed Practices Through Staff Education, Ediomi Enebong Oduwole

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Front office staff in outpatient psychiatric settings are often the first point of contact for patients experiencing anxiety and emotional distress. However, existing evidence indicates that non-clinical, front office staff often lack formal training in trauma-informed care (TIC). This gap may limit early recognition and response to patient distress. This quality improvement project addressed this gap by evaluating the impact of a trauma-informed educational intervention of staff confidence and documentation of patient distress. The project was guided by Pender’s Health Promotion Model and Lewin’s Change Theory. It used a pre-and post-intervention quantitative design with sample of five front office staff …

Media Framing Of The Bawku Conflict In Ghana: An Analysis Of Cultural Biases, Narratives, And Peacebuilding Implications, Falilatu Saaka

Master of Arts in Media and Communication Plan II Graduate Projects

This research examines the media framing of the Bawku conflict in Ghana, focusing on how cultural biases shape the portrayal of ethnic disputes and influence public perception. Utilizing a qualitative discourse analysis grounded in Framing Theory and Afrocentric critique, the study analyzes ten news reports from major Ghanaian media outlets to identify patterns of bias, narrative construction, and ideological positioning. Findings reveal that media coverage predominantly emphasizes security and stability, often at the expense of addressing deeper political, economic, and historical factors. Language, imagery, and sourcing choices tend to reinforce stereotypes, skewing public understanding towards ethnic dichotomies, particularly between the …

Social Perspective Taking, The Search For Meaning, And A Sense Of Belonging In Emerging Adults, Miranda Joy Powers

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined relationships among social perspective-taking, the search for meaning, and a sense of belonging among college students. Drawing on data from the 2021 Multi-Institutional Study of Leadership, this research tested whether social perspective-taking and the search for meaning predicted higher levels of belonging. Additionally, covariates, including race, religious affiliation, gender, and COVID-19, were analyzed to assess their effects on both the independent and dependent variables. A regression analysis was performed, and as hypothesized, students with higher levels of social perspective-taking and those searching for meaning reported greater belonging. In addition, the covariates race, religious affiliation, COVID-19, and …

Expanding The Pantheon Of “Place-Myth”: Media-Induced Travel In College Students Who Study Abroad, Isabella M. Shevetz

Honors College Theses

Media-induced tourism refers to any travel that is in some part motivated by the consumption of mass media related to that location. Media-induced tourism and mass-tourism have led to nation branding and destination marketing across the globe, two industry phenomena that have worked to skyrocket tourism in places where it was not previously a large driver of the local economy. The expansion of mass media availability and the birth of social media mean the media roles of producer and audience member have blurred. Ordinary people now have the influential power of large media corporations. In destination marketing, the user-generated content …

Supporting Those Who Serve: The Impact Of Peer Support On Law Enforcement Suicide, Emily N. Warren

Honors College Theses

Individuals working in law enforcement face daily stressors that far exceed those experienced by the general population. This elevated exposure to stress has been associated with increased rates of mental health disorders and suicide among law enforcement officers. In response, peer support programs have gained recent attention, with new state and federal legislation promoting peer support as a strategy to address the mental health crisis within law enforcement. This paper examines the impact of statewide peer support programs on law enforcement suicide rates through statistical analysis. A difference-in-differences analysis is used to compare state-level law enforcement suicide rates before and …

Reimagining Musical Improvisation Through Poetic Inspiration: A Creative Practice Investigation, Sean Foran

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This article explores creative practice as research through an innovative approach to musical improvisation and recording that challenges traditional boundaries between music and literature. Working with experienced improvising musicians, this study investigates how poetic texts serve as inspiration and catalysts for new creative processes and musical outcomes. Using a practice-based research framework, the project positions poetry as both creative stimulus and constraint, resulting in a suite of short recorded works. The collaboration with a poet prompts a reconsideration of process, recording, and audience experience, with the final release presenting instrumental music alongside printed poetry, but without spoken narration. The findings …

Velocity: The Shimmer As Methodology, Lola Montgomery

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This article articulates a new methodology, named ‘shimmer’. Shimmer is an embodied, intuitive, temporally irregular, and affectively attuned methodology for creative-practice research. Grounded in feminist philosophy, phenomenology, autotheory, and Csikszentmihalyi’s theory of flow, shimmer names the state in which corporeal knowing precedes cognition and generates theoretical insight. Drawing from lived episodes of illness, performance, lineage-work, and practice-led research, I argue that shimmer functions as an onto-epistemological mode of inquiry: a somatic process that moves between the imaginary, symbolic, and real to produce conceptual clarity with velocity. Against the masculinised tempo of academic grind, shimmer proposes a cyclical feminist temporality of …

Understanding Adult Patients’ Experiences Of Trauma-Informed Care In Outpatient Healthcare, Jayme Aguero

Dissertations (1934 -)

Trauma is recognized as a universal human experience. Well-established evidence demonstrates the negative impact of trauma on health outcomes. In 2014, following a recommendation from SAMHSA, trauma-informed care (TIC) was implemented across human service sectors, including healthcare. While TIC has been in use for the past decade, adults’ experiences of receiving TIC in outpatient healthcare remain largely unknown. The purposes of this study were (a) to explore and describe how adults’ healthcare experiences aligned with the principles of TIC being implemented in outpatient healthcare settings and (b) to understand the perceived usefulness and meaning of TIC for adult patients. A …

Stories Of Stress: Experiences Of Students In A Second-Degree, Graduate-Level, Prelicensure Nursing Program, Holly L. Nerone

Dissertations (1934 -)

This study documented and analyzed through story, the stress-related lived experiences of students in an accelerated, second-degree, graduate-level, prelicensure nursing program. Stress among nursing students has been associated with enduring negative impacts to personal wellness, future professional practice, and patient outcomes. Accelerated, second-degree prelicensure programs are rapid, rigorous, growing in popularity, and associated with the potential to generate high levels of stress among students. Second-degree prelicensure nursing programs have been underrepresented in existing literature on nursing student stress with little research focused on graduate-level options such as Master Entry in Nursing Practice (MENP) and Direct Entry Master of Science in …

The Echo: April 27, 2026, Taylor University

2025-2026 (Volume 113)

No abstract provided.

Transforming Workers' Compensation Into A Workforce Optimization Strategy, Tina Marie Santos, Kathleen Jancek

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Purpose: The personal, physical, and financial toll of workplace injuries on workers is enormous, with many experiencing isolation and depressive symptoms.

Objective: This quality improvement project aimed to improve the Workers' Compensation (WC) program to enhance workforce retention, productivity, team member well-being and reduce liability.

Approach: The project implemented a structured, iterative process grounded in baseline data to inform and refine process improvement and outcomes. Strategies for improvement included: (1) foster professional well-being through an accommodation model that emphasized belonging and meaningful contributions during recovery; (2) creative and flexible solutions leveraging team members' abilities rather than limitations that aligned with …

History Of Florence State Teachers College, Susan Kirkman Vaughn

Documents

The story of the History of State Teachers College in Florence, Alabama.

Improving Drought Science Communication And Accessibility, Lindsay Erin Johnson

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Effective drought management depends not only on the accuracy of scientific data, but also on how that information is communicated and understood by diverse audiences. This dissertation examines drought communication through the lens of science communication, with a focus on improving readability, accessibility, understandability, and usability of drought information. Using a manuscript-style format, three studies investigate how drought information is written, delivered, and applied. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview and outline of this dissertation. Chapter 2 evaluates the readability of the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) national narratives over almost 8 years. Results show that these narratives are consistently written …

Making The Case For Spandex: The Nature Of Re-Novicing And The Merging Of Expertise For Former Elementary And High School Teachers Who Move To Teaching At The Middle Level, Elizabeth K. Boyle

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

As an academic coach in a large, Midwestern middle school, I noticed an influx of teachers with years of prior experience at the elementary or high school levels being hired to work with students in grades six through eight. Because they were already veteran teachers, they were not assigned mentorship, yet there were aspects of working in a middle-school setting that effectively “re-noviced” them (Hanuscin et al., 2020).

Knowing that cookie-cutter approaches to professional development and learning often do not meet the needs of adult learners, I sought information that would guide what professional growth opportunities could be provided to …

Quality Improvement Project: Improving Adn Faculty Professional Development Through Simulation Training, Sharon Haley Peace

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Lack of structured simulation training for nursing faculty, which has been identified as a gap in the literature, can negatively impact the quality of simulation-based education and student learning outcomes. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project was to develop, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based training intervention aimed at improving faculty self-efficacy and competence in simulation facilitation. The project was guided by Lewin’s Change Theory and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory to support faculty development. A quantitative, quasi-experimental pre-post design was used with a convenience sample of nine associate degree nursing faculty at a rural community …

Quality Improvement Project: Improving Provider Workflow And Documentation For Routine Mental Health Screening In An Outpatient Psychiatric Clinic, Sharon Uchechi Joshua

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Depression and anxiety are leading causes of disability and are frequently underdiagnosed in outpatient psychiatric settings due to inconsistent screening and documentation practices. Evidence supports the use of standardized tools, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), to improve early detection and clinical outcomes. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated whether implementing standardized electronic health record (EHR) templates and provider education would improve documentation of PHQ-9 and GAD-7 screenings. The aim was to increase the consistency of screening and documentation among psychiatric providers. The project was guided by the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework and Lewin’s Change …

Enduring Commitment: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Retention Among Veteran Early Childhood Educators In Rural Settings, Erin M. Wirtz

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The retention of teachers has been a challenge, particularly in the field of early childhood education (Downey et al., 2024; Havlicek-Cook, 2012; Markowitz, 2024; Totenhagen et al., 2016). Research on teacher attrition is abundant, yet studies of retention are far less common, and those that exist have largely focused on K-12, novice, and urban educators. This study seeks to address this gap by exploring the experiences of veteran early childhood educators working in rural northern Minnesota. Guided by the framework of Deci and Ryan’s (2000) Self-Determination Theory, the purpose of this study was to examine factors that contribute to sustained …

Foreign Language Experience Effects On L2-Accented Speech Attitudes In College Students, Jordan L. Ellington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study is to test whether knowledge of a second language in college students can affect perceptions and prejudices towards speakers with foreign accents. The testing was completed through both implicit and explicit attitudinal measures in regard to recorded audio stimuli. The explicit attitudinal testing was performed through participant self reporting of attitudes. Participants were presented with first (L1) or second (L2) language accented English samples and then rated that speaker in terms of various characteristics or traits that represented the speaker's solidarity and status. The implicit testing was performed in an Auditory Implicit Associations Test on …

A Rigorous And Ethical Methodological Framework For Navigating Cultural Differences With Police Officers In A South African Rural Community, Masefako Andronica Gumani

The Qualitative Report

Research contexts pose different challenges during research processes, and these challenges may affect the credibility of study findings. This was especially the case when, as a researcher, I interacted with police participants from different cultural backgrounds from my own. This paper reflects on my experience as a female Sepedi‑speaking researcher conducting a Ph.D. qualitative, grounded theory study with male and female South African Police Service (SAPS) officers from the Venda and Tsonga cultural backgrounds. I used a reflexive autoethnographic research design to purposively look at myself as the subject of inquiry and analyze my reflexive journal using reflexive thematic data …

Testimonios De Una Estudiante De Doctorado: Regaining Joy In Graduate School Through Research-Practice Partnerships, Sophia Piral Lee

The Qualitative Report

Through an epistolary critical autoethnography and Latina and Chicana feminist framework, I explore the question of how international graduate students of color can overcome cultural, linguistic, ethnoracial, and social class isolation on predominantly white campuses and in college towns. By writing a letter to my mother (one of my methods for survival in academia), I share my challenges as a Guatemalan, first-time mom, first-generation college student, international student, and non-English native speaker in graduate school during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, this writing helps me recognize how I overcame my isolation and regained my joy and …

Bound By Belief: Exploring The Influence Of Internalized Rape Myths On Survivor Agency And Identity, Arika I. White

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study explored how internalized RMA impacts survivors’ cognitive processing, coping strategies, and psychological agency, as observed by licensed psychotherapists who treat sexual assault survivors. Despite extensive literature on the societal impacts of RMA, less attention has been given to understanding how these cultural myths are internalized by survivors and manifest intrapsychically, influencing self-perception, self-blame, and identity reconstruction following trauma. Using a phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews with therapists provided meta-level insights into how survivors’ narratives reflect internalized cultural stigma and misogynistic beliefs. Thematic analysis was used to identify patterns of maladaptive coping, internalized misogyny, and diminished agency, revealing how …

Service Providers’ Perceptions Of Mckinney-Vento Implementation: Supporting Academic Performance And Attendance In K-12 Students’ Experiencing Homelessness, Darci Mcrae

Honors Projects

In Wood, Lucas, and Ottawa County, Ohio, approximately 2,508 students or 2.6% of total enrollment experience homelessness. The McKinney-Vento Act (MVA, 1987) aims to reduce educational barriers for these students by ensuring access to transportation, school enrollment, school supplies, and additional educational support. Despite these provisions, the effectiveness of MVA implementation varies among school districts due to differences in staff training, funding, procedures, and the diverse needs of students experiencing homelessness. This study examines service providers’ perceptions of how the MVA is implemented in public school districts and how it affects attendance and academic performance among K–12 students’ experiencing homelessness. …

Quantifying Overconsumption In The United States: A Multiple Linear Regression Analysis, Morgan Davis

Honors Projects

This study examines overconsumption in the United States by analyzing how socioeconomic factors influence household spending relative to income. Overconsumption is defined as elevated discretionary spending relative to income, with a focus on categories such as apparel, entertainment, and food away from home. Using 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) data, three multiple linear regression models were created to evaluate predictors of overall consumption, discretionary consumption, and apparel spending as proportions of income.

Results show that income is the most significant predictor across all models, with higher-income households consistently spending a smaller share of their income. Age and household size also …

Barriers Asian Adoptees Face In Screening For Inheritable Conditions Due To A Lack Of Family Medical History, Anna Shea

Honors Projects

Adoption has been increasingly common in the United States, with more than 7.8 million people in the United States adopted (Wexler et al., 2025) and over 280,000 children in the United States adopted internationally (Orr et al., 2024). Despite this, those who are adopted, especially internationally, often face medical disadvantages compared to those biologically related to their family. The differences in treatment between adoptees and those who are biologically related are largely due to the knowledge, or lack of knowledge, of the individual’s family medical history and genetic information. Genetic or inherited disease screening is often only completed or covered …

Moral Emotions Within The Habituation Of Virtue, Hannah Starr Grubbs-Oechsle

Dissertations (1934 -)

In this dissertation, I examine how moral emotions feature within the habituation of virtues. I suggest that their primary role within the moral life is epistemic: emotions grant agents perceptual access to evaluative properties in the world. I argue that their perceptual function within habit formation is normatively indispensable. I proceed through five methodological movements. I begin by presenting the three historical accounts of emotion I take as most influential on contemporary Western beliefs about emotion and as most dominant within the philosophy of emotion. To that end, I trace Stoic and Kantian accounts of emotion as representative of the …