Digital Commons Network^™

From Waste To Sustainability: Exploring Consumer Purchase Intentions Of Milk Enriched With Upcycled Peanut Skins, Peng Lu, Fan Xu, Jennifer Waldeck, Keith Weber, Hualu Zhou

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Highlights

• National survey investigated consumer acceptance of milk enriched with upcycled peanut skins.
• Developed a conceptual model based on Technology Acceptance Model.
• Identified that consumer attitudes and emotions are essential in the purchase intentions of upcycled foods.
• Identified social influence as a determinator of consumers' attitudes and purchase intentions.
• Inform and advance research, practice, and policy that promotes upcycled food products.

Improving Lunch Break To Enhance Nurse Happiness And Job Satisfaction, Evelyn O. Dumkwu

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Nurses frequently forgo scheduled lunch breaks due to high workload demands, inadequate staffing, and organizational cultures. Consistently skipping breaks has been associated with reduced happiness and lower job satisfaction, which may ultimately compromise the quality of patient care. This quality improvement (QI) project examined whether the structured observance of scheduled lunch breaks enhances nurses’ subjective happiness and job satisfaction. Guided by Lewin’s Change Theory and the Donabedian Theoretical Framework and implemented using the Plan–Do–Study–Act (PDSA) framework, the project employed a quasi-experimental pre–post design during a six-week implementation period. Ten full-time nurses participated in the project. Investigator-designed Subjective Happiness and Job …

Kenyon Collegiate - February 20, 2026

Kenyon Collegiate

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Impact Of Team Culture In High-Pressure Jobs, Such As Investment Banking And Consulting, And How Project Management Can Be Applied, Mayavathi Lal

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Toxic team cultures remain a pressing issue in high-pressure environments such as investment banking and consulting, where long hours, and hierarchical norms often undermine employee well-being and compromise project delivery. Previous studies have documented how workplace stress, exclusionary leadership, and cultural rigidity fuel burnout and turnover. However, limited research has explicitly examined these cultural dynamics through the lens of project management frameworks such as resource management, stakeholder engagement, and agile practices. This study employs a qualitative research approach by leveraging semi-structured interviews with analysts and associates, to capture the lived experiences of culture and its impact on team coordination and …

The Ballot Question: Citizen Initiatives, Institutions, And The Policy Process, Ty Rhoads

Dissertations

State-level policymaking remains undertheorized relative to its federal counterpart, particularly in states where institutionalized direct democracy creates a parallel channel for policy change outside the legislature. This dissertation develops a novel theoretical framework for the state policy process by adapting punctuated equilibrium theory to American state politics, integrating it with party cartel theory and the concept of legislative policy monopolies. The central argument is that citizen initiatives and legislative referrals are structurally distinct policy venues whose ideological profiles, policy magnitudes, and electoral dynamics are systematically shaped by the partisan context of the legislature. Using Missouri as a case study spanning …

Social Support And Mental Toughness As Predictors Of Perceived Stress Among College Kinesiology Students, Jianmin Guan, Wan Xiang Yao, Xiaofen D. Hamilton, Gaofeng Lu

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

Drawing on Lazarus and Folkman’s transactional theory of stress and coping, this study examined the associations of age, gender, three types of social support (family, friends, and significant others), and mental toughness with two dimensions of perceived stress (helplessness and coping inefficacy) among 666 college students majoring in Kinesiology. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis revealed that male college students, as well as those with higher levels of mental toughness and family support, reported significantly lower levels of helplessness and coping inefficacy in managing stress. Additionally, greater support from friends was significantly associated with lower levels of coping inefficacy, while younger students …

Volume Cxlv, Number 14, February 20, 2026, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Research Study Exploring Icu Nurses' Resilience During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Teenu Xavier, Rebecca C. Lee

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

ICU nurses faced numerous demands and adversities during the COVID-19 pandemic that significantly impacted their well-being. Developing strategies to promote resilience was crucial for ICU nurses to overcome these workplace adversities. The purpose of this study was to explore the strategies used by ICU nurses to promote their resilience and cope with the additional stressors brought on by the pandemic. Two theories provided the overarching theoretical framework which guided this study. These are Polk's middle-range theory of resilience A Focused Ethnographical approach provided the overarching framework for this research project. ICU nurses working in adult ICUs who had cared for …

What Matters Most? Novel Findings From An Innovative Measure Of Coworker Interrelations On Nursing Units, Lynn Varagona, Nancy Ballard

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Background: Coworker support improves trust¹ and decreases or prevents nurses’ stress,² anxiety, or burnout.^3,4 Lack of teamwork and cohesion among coworkers can lead to nurses’ stress, burnout, disengagement, and turnover.⁵ The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, a widely used measure, does not capture coworker interrelations. Team virtuousness, a work environment in which virtues and character strengths (routes to displaying virtues) are practiced, supported, and encouraged⁵ improves coworker interrelations. People on virtuous teams feel safe, grateful, positive, and supported by one another;^6,7 view work as more meaningful; are more engaged; and are …

Quality Improvement Project: Effectiveness Of Staff Education On Fall Prevention, Theresa Oahre Okoyomo

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Falls increase injury and mortality rates and decrease patients' quality of life. Hospital falls also incur enormous financial burdens on hospitals. In 2008, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) stopped reimbursing hospitals for fall-related injuries. The problem addressed in this quality improvement project was staff confidence in fall prevention and hospital fall rates. The purpose is to improve staff confidence and reduce fall rates by 95 % within six weeks. The 2025 CDC/STEADI Algorithm for Fall Risk Screening, Assessment, and Intervention was the program of choice because it aligns with the hospital's fall-prevention policy. This project design is …

Gender Differences In College Students’ Physical Activity Self-Efficacy, Social Comparison Beliefs, And External Frames Of Reference, Ken Murfay, Sarah Pyszczynski, Sarah Collins

International Journal of Physical Activity and Health

This study examined whom college-aged individuals believe observing would more likely increase their physical activity self-efficacy (PASE) for a physical skill, whom they are more likely to compare their abilities to within a physical education (PE) class, how often they compare themselves to others in PE, and what students’ PASE scores were. Based on the mean scores for each question, students were more likely to compare themselves to a student than a teacher, friend than a non-friend, and similar or higher skilled peer than a lower skilled peer. To increase students’ confidence for a physical skill, students had higher levels …

Psychological Safety And Prosocial Rule Breaking Within Leader–Member Exchanges In A State Government Agency, Larry Standfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Psychological safety is often insufficiently supported in organizations, leading to strained leader-member exchanges (LMXs), reduced employee well-being, and diminished overall organizational performance. Government agency leaders need to understand this concern as a primary indicator of job satisfaction and organizational effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how employees of a state government agency described leader support of psychological safety and prosocial rule breaking in their LMXs and how these LMX exchanges influenced their psychological safety and organizational performance. Psychosocial safety climate theory and LMX theory provided the grounding for this study. The participants consisted of 10 …

Depressive Symptoms Predict Cannabis Initiation Among Mexican American Young Adults, Srishty Arora, Caroline North, C. Nathan Marti, Seth J. Schwartz, Bara S. Bataineh, Liza Talavera-Garza, Alexandra Loukas, Anna Wilkinson

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Background: Factors contributing to cannabis initiation among Hispanic young adults remain understudied. Methods: We examined the independent and interactive roles of depressive symptoms, family cohesion, and family conflict on cannabis initiation one year later among 616 18-29-year-old cannabis-naïve Mexican American college students in Texas. Results: Mixed-effects logistic regressions indicated that greater depressive symptoms predicted cannabis initiation one year later. Neither family cohesion nor family conflict moderated the depressive symptoms-cannabis initiation association. Conclusion: Mexican American young adults experiencing depressive symptoms may initiate cannabis use to cope with emotional distress. Additional research should examine the factors that drive cannabis initiation in this …

Exploring Moral Distress In Icu Nurse Practitioners: A Descriptive Phenomenological Study, Steven L. Bocchese

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Nurse Practitioners (NPs) working in the intensive care environment experience clinical and operational anxiety, such as moral distress. Moral distress occurs when an individual knows the ethically correct action but cannot take it due to internal or external constraints or violation of their professional core values. Causal factors of moral distress in nursing include inadequate staffing, prolonged patient pain and suffering, ethical conflicts in end-of-life care, lack of transparency and false hope, disruptive or aggressive family, and ineffective leadership. Historically, nurses have experienced moral distress at higher levels than other healthcare professionals, especially those in intensive care units (ICU). Because …

The Beacon, February 20, 2026, Beacon Staff

The Beacon, 2025-2026

Local musicians put stamp on valentine’s day; Perspectives through the decades: 1960s; Joint flute and vocal student recital; Sony continues run of great animation with “GOAT”; “Wuthering Heights” soundtrack more faithful than film; Godzilla concert theme is more than it seems; Senior practicum: social work majors; Club Spotlight: Swing Dance Line Dance; OC sightseeing: Dutch Heritage Museum; Reaching new heights at NW; Why you should play “Dwarf Fortress; Overwatch dominates in 2026 games; Raiders win again as postseason approaches; Raiders finish strong in final indoor meets; The Winter Olympic’s scandals; Apocalypse now: upcoming chapel series on Revelation

Mid-Level Perceptual Features, And Not Ambiguity, Accelerate Access To Awareness, Nadav Amir, Uri Maoz, Liad Mudrik

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Current theoretical accounts of perception and high-level cognition suggest that awareness plays an active role in disambiguating incoming sensory information. However, the relationship between ambiguity resolution and conscious access remains unclear, partially due to a lack of quantifiable measures of ambiguity. Here, we describe a novel paradigm designed for testing whether more ambiguous stimuli would enjoy preferential access to awareness, as indexed by the time it takes them to break interocular suppression in the breaking continuous flash suppression paradigm. In a series of three experiments, we found that stimuli’s mid-level perceptual features (most likely, visual symmetry levels), rather than their …

Association Between Children’S Secondhand Co-Exposure To Tobacco And Cannabis Smoke And Elevated Urinary Cotinine Levels: A Cross-Sectional Analysis, Bradley N. Collins, Stephen J. Lepore, Vincent Berardi, Renee D. Goodwin, Karen Wilson, Mona Baishya

Psychology Faculty Articles and Research

Background Cannabis use is far more common among adults who smoke tobacco than adults who do not, and its use is increasing among people who smoke tobacco with children living in the home. Given the well-established evidence that caregiver smoking is the primary source of children’s secondhand exposures to these products, the increasing trend in caregiver co-use is raising public health concerns about children’s co-exposure. Emerging data indicates that adult co-use is linked to additive health consequences, such as elevated nicotine and other tobacco-related toxicant blood levels, relative to use of only tobacco. It is unknown whether children’s co-exposure leads …

From Waitlist To Activation: Exploring Patient Barriers And Team Interactions In Kidney Transplant Readiness, Judith I. Eguzoikpe

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Kidney transplant candidates frequently experience prolonged inactive waitlist status due to incomplete readiness requirements, yet limited understanding exists regarding how patient barriers and team interactions intersect to influence activation timelines. This transcendental-phenomenological study explored how patient barriers and team dynamics contribute to delays in kidney transplant readiness, guided by Team Theory. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 participants (8 patients, 8 healthcare professionals) between December 2025 and February 2026. Data were analyzed using systematic phenomenological methods to identify patterns that address patient barriers, team interaction effects, and the teamwork improvements needed for earlier activation. Five interconnected themes emerged: Navigating a …

Enhancing Risk Governance In Agile Settings: Toward An Integrated Agile Framework For Strategic Risk Alignment, Mohammed Shaik

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

Agile project management is widely used in dynamic and regulated environments because of its adaptability and iterative delivery (Beck et al., 2001). However, Agile teams often rely on informal risk practices that may limit visibility into enterprise-level risks (Stare, 2014). In contrast, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) frameworks provide structured oversight aligned with strategic objectives (Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission [COSO], 2017), yet they are frequently viewed as fast-paced project settings. This misalignment creates governance challenges for organizations operating in complex environments.

This study examined how Agile practices can be integrated with ERM frameworks to strengthen strategic risk …

2025 And 2026 - Faculty & Staff Research Symposium - Mini, Elizabeth Outka, Lidia Radi

Faculty and Staff Research Symposium Programs

September 26, 2025; November 7, 2025; January 20, 2026; and, February 20, 2026

[Excerpt from the "Welcome"]

"Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the Faculty and Staff Mini-Symposia Series!

As we gather for the fourth and final installment of this year’s Mini-Symposia Series, we are delighted to continue this new chapter of the Faculty and Staff Research Symposium, building on the extraordinary enthusiasm of the past two years. What began as a single day of conversation and exchange has grown into a cycle of events designed to highlight the intellectual and creative work of our community in even more accessible and collaborative …

The Role Of Campus Symbols In College Student Belonging: A Photo-Elicitation And Photovoice Qualitative Study, Abigail W. Bradley-Tyler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the impact of campus symbols on the sense of belonging among second-year students at a public, four-year institution in Florida. This topic is relevant as there is a lack of research about positive or neutral campus symbols. Using sense of belonging and symbolic interactionism as theoretical frameworks, this study investigates how students interpret and emotionally connect with university symbols, including campus mascots, monuments, personnel, and campus traditions and rituals. Using photo-elicitation and photovoice interviews, participants engaged with photographs of official university symbols and captured images representing their campus experience. Using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis, the …

Emotion Differentiation As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Affect And Alcohol Use Among College Students: An Ecological Momentary Assessment, Gaelle El Helou

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use remains prevalent among young adults and particularly college students. Research shows a link between affective states and alcohol consumption, although recent findings appear to be unequivocal on the effect of negative and positive emotions on college drinking. While emotion differentiation (ED) has been associated with alcohol use, previous research has focused mostly on clinical treatment adult populations and / or negative emotions, focusing less on the role that positive emotions play in drinking, particularly among college students. The current study explored the moderating role of negative and positive emotion differentiation (NED / PED) in the association between negative …

Pengenalan Mengenai Penggunaan Jurimetri Dalam Hukum, Ronny Hanitijo Soemitro

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Abstract

Pragmatist Ethics: A Problem-Based Approach To What Matters, By James Jakób Liszka, Myron Moses Jackson

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

Three Deweyan Ideas For Education In The Age Of Diasporas: Social Center, Activity Curriculum, And Teacher Education Laboratory, Leonard J. Waks

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

The Teacher As Investigator: Improving The Education Of Migrant Students, Giuseppe Spadafora

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

The Principles Of John Dewey's My Pedagogic Creed And Its Apllication To Intercultural Issues Of Migrant Students, Teodora Pezzano

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

Dewey On Institutions Of Democratic Art, Emma Fieser

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.

A Decolonial Approach To International Education: Insights From A Cal Poly Global Program In Palermo, Sicily, Elvira Pulitano, Iyad Jamaly

csuglobalaction

This article presents a critical intervention in the current debates about decolonizing international education. It is based on a Global Program in Palermo, Sicily, offered by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in summer 2023. As both program creator/director and student participant in the program, the authors rely on their personal experience and insights along with expertise in coloniality and decolonial theories. The article focuses on a series of pedagogical activities led by a young group of migrants and refugees who, in the city of Palermo, have come together to form two associations designed and structured to offer new contemporary models …

Education As An Intrument For Peace And Democracy: Dewey's Perspective On The Rise Of Nationalism, Chuck Howlett, Audrey Cohan

Dewey Studies

No abstract provided.