Digital Commons Network^™

The Intersection Of Social Desirability And Cultural Competence In Counselors: Broaching Sexual Topics With Sexually Minoritized (Lgb) Clients, Jareb Kinney

Dissertations

Mental health counselors increasingly work with sexually minoritized clients, yet limited understanding exists regarding how social desirability shapes counselors' perceived cultural competence and their willingness to broach sensitive sexual topics in therapeutic settings. This gap can obscure the subtle ways personal conditioning and professional performance pressures influence clinical practice. This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore how social desirability influences mental health counselors' experiences and perceived cultural competence when discussing sex-related topics with sexually minoritized clients. Guided by symbolic interactionism, the study employed a purposive and snowball sampling strategy to recruit ten mental health counselors with direct clinical experience serving …

We Are Each One Second Away From Being Someone Else's Patient, Paul B. Freeman Od

Optometric Clinical Practice

Editorial

Socio-Informed Policing: Applying Bourdieu To Mandatory Police Reform Training, Neil T. Shelton El

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Contemporary U.S. police reform policies rely on officer training as a primary mechanism to address issues of law enforcement legitimacy and accountability. Yet, despite legitimacy-based curricula such as procedural justice, research indicates that this training struggles to produce durable changes in police practice. This qualitative study used a phenomenological approach to examine officers’ perceptions of mandated reform-oriented training. Drawing on Bourdieu’s theory of practice, the study conceptualized police training as a sociological process shaped by habitus, forms of capital, and the policing field. Data were collected from six officers in a large urban police department to examine how they internalize, …

The Relationship Between Culturally Based Mentoring And Academic Persistence In African-American And Latino Male Community College Students, Corey M. Williams

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Men of color, particularly African American and Latino males, continue to experience disproportionately low rates of persistence and degree completion in community colleges. While prior research has often focused on individual deficits, less attention has been given to the institutional conditions and relational supports that shape student success. This study examines how culturally grounded mentoring influences persistence, student involvement, and overall student success among men of color in a community college context. Grounded in Tinto’s theory of student persistence and Astin’s theory of student involvement, this qualitative phenomenological study explores the lived experiences of participants engaged in a structured mentoring …

University Oral Hygiene Behaviors Compared To The National Population, Noura Naami, Jordan Monteiro, Trisha Jois

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Maintaining optimal oral health is essential for preventing dental caries, periodontal disease, and systemic complications. However, the combined effects of brushing, flossing, and mouthwash, which are common oral practices, remain incompletely understood. While each practice has been studied individually, there is limited data existing that evaluates how different brands and the frequency of use interact to influence the oral environment. In this study, we use a cohort of 40 university aged individuals to examine oral hygiene behaviors compared to the general U.S. population. In regard to flossing, national data suggests that this behavior is the least consistently utilized method of …

The Effects Of Gender Crime Congruency On Jurors' Decisions And Confidence, Elizabeth Avila

Undergraduate Student Symposium

A basic principle of the U.S. court system is that every individual has the right to a fair and unbiased trial. While this is the ideal, it is not always reality. Jurors come in with their own beliefs and attitudes before the trial starts. These preconceived beliefs can jeopardize the integrity of the trial. An example of these beliefs is gender stereotypes. Gender stereotypes can influence a juror's attitude towards a defendant, to either have a more negative or positive view on whether the defendant's gender matched the nature of their crime. This is called gender crime congruency. In this …

Edu 40 Field Work Seminar, Tonya L. Johnson

Open Educational Resources

The syllabus for EDU 30 contains a course description, course objectives, course readings divided by week and links to OER textbooks and ZTC readings.

Exposome In Relation To Psychopathology And Physical Pain In Adolescence, Alexsia E. Newman

Honors Scholar Theses

The overall well-being of adolescents is dependent on a variety of factors during development, including both mental and physical health. Mental health, or psychopathology, which includes internalizing and externalizing problems, represents a common and persistent concern among youth. Physical pain is another important aspect of adolescent well-being. Although prior research has examined associations between mental health and pain, less is known about how these relationships unfold over time, and few studies have considered the role of multilevel environmental factors. This honors thesis explores the predictability and bidirectionality of mental health and chronic pain in developing adolescents, and tests associations of …

From Feelings To Function: An Occupational Therapy Perspective On All Things Regulation, Caroline Travaglin

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Social-emotional learning (SEL) and self-regulation are essential components of childhood development that support participation in daily activities, social interactions, and overall well-being. While SEL is commonly addressed in school-based settings, there is a gap in the carryover of these skills into the home environment; where caregiver understanding and implementation play a critical role. This doctoral experiential capstone project, From Feelings to Function: An Occupational Therapy Perspective on All Things Regulation, aimed to address this gap through the development and implementation of a caregiver-focused educational program in an outpatient pediatric mental health setting.

The project involved the creation of online modules …

Aiding Our Heroes: Addressing Gaps In Care For U.S.A. Veterans With Disabilities In Low-Income Areas, Marisa E. Gabriel

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Veterans with disabilities living in low-income areas must overcome significant obstacles to access affordable rehabilitative care. These challenges alongside physical and mental health concerns severely impact their independence, social participation, and overall quality of life. Following military service, many veterans experience additional physical and mental health difficulties that contribute to financial burdens and stressors and increase the demand for community resources. However, inflated healthcare costs and limited service availability leave many veterans without the support they need despite existing resources. Many veterans, particularly those in underserved regions, face further barriers due to geographic isolation, financial constraints, and lack of transportation …

Transforming The Future Of Accessibility In Healthcare For The Hearing-Impaired Population, Loredana Randazzo

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Healthcare is continually evolving to meet society's changing needs; however, accessibility remains a persistent challenge for individuals with hearing impairments. This doctoral capstone project, Transforming the Future of Accessibility in Healthcare for the Hearing- Impaired Population, identified gaps in current healthcare systems through scholarly publication reviews, rounds of needs assessments, AOTA critical appraised topic, and individual interviews. Collected evidence informed the development of educational workshops for current students enrolled in healthcare-related degrees who will shape the future of healthcare practice. Workshops highlighted etiology and functional implications of hearing impairments within healthcare settings, informed participants of existing healthcare gaps, provided evidence-based …

Impact Of Occupational Therapy–Led Education On Adaptive Snow Sports Staff And Volunteers Working With Individuals With Diverse Diagnoses, Olivia L. Hall

OTD DEx Reports - College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

This doctoral experiential capstone project, titled “Impact of Occupational Therapy–Led Education on Adaptive Snow Sports Staff and Volunteers Working with Individuals with Diverse Diagnoses,” was developed to address a gap in educational training for adaptive snow sports instructors. Notably, there is limited research examining the education and training provided to staff and volunteers within adaptive sports programs, further emphasizing the need for this work. The project was implemented at Wachusett Mountain Ski Area and included three instructors participating in the adaptive program. Educational sessions were delivered through a combination of group-based and individualized formats, conducted live and synchronously via Zoom. …

Exploring How Parental Involvement Impacts Police Encounters And Delinquent Behaviors Among Black Adolescent Girls, Danielle Porter, Elizabeth A. Otto, Dyamon Brown, Jasmine Alli, Robyn Douglas, Noni Gaylord-Harden

Presentations

Adolescents’ contact with police is a complex outcome that is influenced by both individual behavior and the broader social context. Specifically, while delinquent behavior can lead to more police contact (Crutchfield et al., 2012), hyper-surveillance often occurs in marginalized communities, increasing unjustified police contact for youth of color (Campos-Manzo et al., 2020; Geller, 2021). Indeed, racial disparities in police contact during adolescence persist even after accounting for delinquent behavior (Campos-Manzo et al., 2020; Crutchfield et al., 2012). Thus, it is important to identify factors that may protect Black youth from contact with police. Parental involvement refers to parents’ active and …

Discovery And Genome Annotation Of Tuti And Charminar: Two Newly Discovered Gordonia Rubripertincta Bacteriophages

Undergraduate Student Symposium

As the most abundant organisms, bacteria are both beneficial and harmful, highlighting the significance of regulating their growth. Bacteriophages (phages) are ubiquitous viruses that require a host bacterial organism for replication, making them an essential component of the microbial ecosystem and used as tools for killing bacteria. Since their discovery in 1915, phages have been used in real-world applications including alternatives to antibiotics, diagnostic agents, pest control in agriculture, wastewater treatment, and bioremediation. Since bacteriophages remain mostly undiscovered, continued isolation and genetic characterization of novel phages are essential for advancing scientific knowledge and potential applications. Through Nova Southeastern University's SEA-PHAGES …

Exercise As An Intervention Against Neuroinflammation During Binge Drinking Withdrawal, Shaina Binu, Ellie Wind, Ariana Hernandez, Iliana Uribe, Victoria Pulido-Correa

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Binge drinking, a public health concern in the United States, is associated with negative emotional and cognitive effects during alcohol withdrawal. These effects are believed to result from changes in brain regions involved in stress regulation, emotion, and decision-making, including the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus. Alcohol exposure has been shown to increase neuroinflammation in these regions, which may contribute to anxiety-like behaviors and difficulty regulating emotions during withdrawal. In contrast, aerobic exercise is a promising non-pharmacological intervention that has been shown to reduce anxiety and support brain health. This project investigates how exercise can reduce withdrawal-related anxiety-like behaviors, following …

Proximal Power Gains In Football: Position-Specific Adaptations Revealed Through Compositional Data Analysis, Isabella Estrada Hernandez, Alyana Andal

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Training-induced adaptations in joint power distribution during speed running may enhance performance, but how these changes manifest across different American football position groups remains poorly understood. We investigated the influence of training and player position on joint power composition among players training for the National Football League draft. Forty-eight draft-eligible players performed pre- and post-training camp running trials at 23.4 km/h. We used motion capture software and MATLAB to calculate bilateral peak hip, knee, and ankle joint power. Compositional data analysis (CoDA) was used, in which positive/generated and negative/absorbed power compositions were expressed as isometric log-rations: hip versus knee + …

Baseline Emotional Valence Predicts Subsequent Executive Function Task Performance, Andrea Fajardo Aguilar, Alyssa Harris, Isidora Varas-Sanchez, Julia Ribeiro, Dylan Kuni

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Executive functioning (EF) supports goal-directed behavior and is influenced by affective state. While prior research has largely focused on the effects of emotional valence during task performance, less is known about the influence of pre-task self-reported valence on subsequent EF performance. Our ongoing study will examine whether self-reported ratings of emotional valence assessed prior to the start of a task will predict performance. Participants will report valence ratings during a resting baseline period before performing two EF tasks: the Vertical Stroop and the Go/No-Go. Performance will be assessed using reaction time and accuracy. Regression analyses will be conducted to …

Comparison Of Bacteria From Varied Soils With Potential Antimicrobial Activity, Nicole Nesterovitch, Nyobi Fleming, Andrew Sourial

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Antibiotic resistance is increasing at a rate that surpasses the discovery and development of new antimicrobial compounds, creating a widening resistance-innovation gap that poses a global public health concern. To address this need for new antibiotic-producing organisms, we partnered with Tiny Earth, a global initiative that engages students in antibiotic discovery through soil sample collection, bacterial isolation, and antimicrobial screening. We isolated bacteria from local soil in Davie, Florida as well as soil from the White River Badlands, South Dakota with the hypothesis that distinct soil conditions may yield different antimicrobial producers with varied activity and chemical profiles. 42 unique …

Assessing Recovery In Collegiate Swimmers Through Wearable Technology, Sara Quintero

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Collegiate swimmers face extreme physiological demands during high-intensity training phases like "Hell Week," a winter training intensive loading microcycle, that makes recovery monitoring critical for maintaining performance. This study investigated the relationship between sleep quality and recovery markers. Specifically, Heart Rate Variability (HRV) and Resting Heart Rate (RHR), in nine female collegiate swimmers (ages 19-23) across all collegiate years. Participants included sprinters, mid-distance, and distance swimmers, leading to varied total yardage across training groups. Over an eight-day period (seven training days and one rest day), data was collected via screenshots from Garmin (n=4) and WHOOP (n=5) wearable devices. Metrics included …

Developing New Digital Methods To Study And Improve Eyewitness Testimony, Isabella Ryan, Brianna Munoz, Adam Durnin, Tanya Schrader, Joana Vinagre

Undergraduate Student Symposium

Witnesses play a crucial role in criminal investigations. However, their ability to recall important details is influenced by cognitive processes such as memory. To improve eyewitness testimony, psychologists developed science-based interviewing techniques, such as the Cognitive Interview, which are used by police to elicit accurate accounts. We also created new retrieval strategies, namely the Category Clustering Recall (CCR), which has been implemented by agencies such as the Los Angeles Police Department. However, research supporting the use of these techniques predominantly used the mock-witness paradigm, where participants observed a mock-crime on a two-dimensional (2D) screen and recalled it in a controlled …

Group Differences In Conflict Processing Between Bilinguals And Monolinguals, Isidora Varas-Sanchez, Dylan Kuni, Julia Ribeiro, Andrea Fajardo Aguilar, Alyssa Harris

Undergraduate Student Symposium

There is an ongoing debate in the literature on the existence of a bilingual advantage on tests of attention. Hypothetically, bilinguals have an advantage over monolinguals on tests of attention because both attention and language control share the same inhibitory mechanism. Because bilinguals engage this mechanism more often than monolinguals, inhibitory control is believed to be stronger and confer an advantage. However, research findings on the bilingual advantage are inconsistent and attempts to reproduce prior results have sometimes failed. The argument is that studies may have failed to capture the important aspects of language linked to attention. Prior research from …

Interventions For Reducing Barriers To Future Employment Success In First-Generation College Students., Kellie M. Burke

Doctor of Social Work Capstone Projects

First-generation college students (FGCS) comprise a significant and diverse segment of the U.S. undergraduate population, yet they remain disproportionately vulnerable to barriers that impede both academic achievement and career advancement. These challenges, rooted in intersecting factors (e.g., race & gender), are amplified by institutional structures that inadequately address the realities faced by FGCS. Despite the proliferation of career development programs, internship participation, and subsequent employment, among FGCS remains notably low, revealing persistent gaps in support, access, and program efficacy.

This qualitative study evaluates the Rising Leaders Program, an agency-driven intervention designed to promote career readiness for FGCS at Kentucky universities …

Assessing The Relationship Between Professional Discipline And Perceptions Of Team Functioning Within Hospital-Based Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams., Nikki Roth

Doctor of Social Work Capstone Projects

Abstract

Assessing the Relationship Between Professional Discipline and Perceptions of Team Functioning Within Hospital-based Multidisciplinary Child Abuse Teams

Nicolle Roth

04/03/2026

The multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach, professionals from various disciplines collaborating to solve a problem, has been used for decades in both child welfare and medicine. Benefits of the multidisciplinary approach have been documented through studies in both in the field of child abuse and the medical field and include improved outcomes, shortened intervention timelines, and economic advantages. Although multidisciplinary teamwork has been shown to be effective, not all professionals have the same level of skill in working within a …

Soft-Floor Auctions: Harnessing Regret To Improve Efficiency And Revenue, Dirk Bergemann, Kevin Breuer, Peter Crampton, Jack Hirsch, Yero S. Ndiaye, Axel Ockenfels

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

A soft-floor auction asks bidders to accept an opening price to participate in a second-price auction. If no bidder accepts, lower bids are considered using first-price rules. Soft floors are common despite being irrelevant with standard assumptions. When bidders regret losing, soft-floor auctions are more efficient and profitable than standard optimal auctions. Revenue increases as bidders are inclined to accept the opening price to compete in a regret-free second-price auction. Efficiency improves because a soft floor allows for a lower hard reserve, reducing the frequency of no sale. Theory and experiment confirm these motivations from practice.

Early Childcare Attendance And Cognitive Skills In Adolescence, Ingvild Almas, Nina Drange, Costas Meghir, Henrik Daae Zachrisson

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

This paper examines the impact of early childcare on academic achievement for children in grade 5 and grade 9, based on a 2003 policy expansion that created quasi-random variation in slot availability for children aged 1–2. Starting childcare one year earlier increases math scores by 9.7% of a standard deviation (SD) in grade 9. Children whose mothers do not hold a high school diploma benefit by a significant 0.28% of a SD at grade 9, reducing the math achievement gap from children of higher-educated mothers by about one third. We also present evidence of strong improvements for children of immigrants.

Training Language Models For Bilateral Trade With Private Information, Dirk Bergemann, Soheil Ghili, Xinyang Hu, Chuanhao Li, Zhuoran Yang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Bilateral bargaining under incomplete information provides a controlled testbed for evaluating large language model (LLM) agent capabilities. Bilateral trade demands individual rationality, strategic surplus maximization, and cooperation to realize gains from trade. We develop a structured bargaining environment in which LLMs negotiate via tool calls within an event-driven simulator, separating binding offers from natural-language messages to enable automated evaluation. The environment serves two purposes: as a benchmark for frontier models and as a training environment for open-weight models via reinforcement learning. In benchmark experiments, a round-robin tournament among five frontier models (15,000 negotiations) reveals that effective strategies implement price discrimination …

Evolving Humanity: Educational Leadership And Research In A Technological Age, Winona State University, Matthew G. Howard, Kari J. Johns, Peter Johnson, Kateri J. Johnson, Kelly Muller, Kate Glogowski, Niesha Conley, Sara Welch, Kristin E. Brendt, Cody B. Henrichs, Lance Davis, Kate Macdonald, Jody Shong, Oscar Uribe Mardones, Stacy L. Schilling, Allison R. Grainger, Kristen Fenlason, David E. Kline, Rachel Nihart, Rebecca R. Simataa, Steven M. Baule

Education Doctorate Books

The essays in this book are selected from Winona State University (WSU) doctoral students as part of the 2025 summer  WSU Doctoral Residency course. The residency course is a core portion of the WSU Education Doctorate Program.

Quote from the back of the book:

Our Doctoral students and doctoral graduate faculty are community members sharing experiences, asking questions, exploring our world, celebrating successes, and learning from missteps. We build and reconstruct our community as we learn, but never forgetting the end goal. We are together on this journey. This is the exciting part of learning. - Rhea Walker, Professor, WSU …

Embodied Horror: Women And Medical Authority In Video Games, Jocilynn Denise Colombo

Comparative Literature M.A. Essays

Through a critical analysis of interactive horror, this paper argues that video games can function as ethical diagnostic narratives that uniquely expose systemic failures surrounding women’s bodies and medical authority. Focusing on Silent Hill 3 (2003) and Alice: Madness Returns (2011), I examine how these games render harm legible through player participation. By requiring players to move characters through hostile environments and make decisions within systems that simultaneously grant and restrict control, these games foster identification and complicity by positioning players directly within the structures they critique.

While feminist horror scholarship—notably from Julia Kristeva and Barbara Creed—has explored societal anxieties …

Beyond Parallel Programmes: A Roadmap For Operational Integration Of Family Planning And Nutrition In Low- And Middle-Income Countries, Marleen Temmerman, Samuel Ojong

Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Corporate Venture Capital On Financing And Innovation In Academic Entrepreneurial Firms, Tingting Luo

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

Amid the ongoing advancement of China’s innovation-driven development strategy, the effective transformation of scientific research into industrial impact has become a central concern. Corporate Venture Capital (CVC), as a strategic investment mechanism connecting industrial capital with entrepreneurial ventures, is increasingly viewed as a critical external resource for high-technology start-ups. At the same time, Academic Entrepreneurship Firms (AEFs), characterized by their deep research capabilities and original technological trajectories, play a distinctive role as knowledge suppliers in uncertain, emerging industries. However, whether AEFs can effectively attract CVC support and convert it into innovation performance remains an open empirical and theoretical question.

This …