Digital Commons Network^™

Kali White Vanbaale Recognized For Literary Excellence, Lindenwood University

Archived Lindenwood Press Releases

No abstract provided.

Ai-Based Walkability Ecosystem: A Personalized, Social And Adaptive Solution To Urban Mobility And Public Health, Diya Singh, Gaurav Nanda, Jaeil Lee, Xinran Lehto, Libby Richards, Mark Lehto

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Urban environments present significant ongoing barriers to physical activity and public health, including motivational challenges, environmental constraints, uniformity of existing fitness apps, and limited opportunities for social engagement. This project proposes an AI-powered Walkability Assistant designed to promote healthier, more active lifestyles through personalized, adaptive, and community-driven solutions.

This study advances past efforts by introducing a novel wellbeing framework that encompasses four dimensions: physical, social, environmental, and psychological wellbeing. To identify user-driven strengths and areas for improvement, we conducted sentiment analysis (positive/negative) and Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modeling on large-scale user-generated data from walking and fitness app reviews, leveraging …

A Foundation For Success: Social Support, Stress, And Resilience, Among Pre-Nursing Students, Leslie A. Jennings, Regina Wilder Urban, Kelle George

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Background: To combat the nursing shortage, universities focus on retention of nursing students; however, more than one-third of U.S. nursing programs report less than a 70% graduation rate.¹ Nursing students encounter many barriers, and these socially imposed forces can impact academic progress. The Social Determinants of Learning (SDOL™) contains six domains that play a role in achieving learning effectiveness and includes psychosocial factors (stress and resilience) and social support.² In nursing students, social support is positively associated with resilience³ and negatively associated with stress.⁴ In pre-nursing students who have not begun formal nursing education training or …

Incorporating Behavioral Health Strategies In Primary Care To Improve Outcomes Of Depressed Patients, Amy L. Brummett

Student Scholarly Projects

Practice Problem: Depression, otherwise known as major depressive disorder, is a mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, loss of interest, sleep disturbances, changes to weight (both gain and loss), difficulty concentrating, and in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts, and/or attempts (Mayo Clinic, 2022). An estimated 8.3% or 21.0 million adults in the United States have experienced at least one episode of depression. Primary care clinicians are often the first to recognize the symptoms of depression. Depression was very prevalent in the clinic where this DNP Scholarly project took place. The owner/nurse practitioner found that she was increasingly treating depressed …

Faculty Perceptions Of Efforts To Address The Underrepresentation Of Minority Full-Time Faculty In U.S. Nursing Programs, Akua Oxendine

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem for this study is that, despite longstanding efforts to promote diversity in higher education, faculty from racial and ethnic minorities remain underrepresented in nursing programs in the United States. Guided by critical race theory, the purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore nursing faculty perceptions of the effectiveness and challenges of institutional efforts to address underrepresentation. Using purposive sampling, 12 nursing faculty members with knowledge of or experience with diversity initiatives were recruited as participants. Data were collected through semistructured interviews. Through a six-phase thematic analysis, nursing faculty identified five critical insights: (a) diversity messaging often …

November 18, 2025 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

Emotional Communication In The Healthcare Industry, Brandon Dolan

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Through conducting interviews with healthcare professionals and the study of data that reviews the role of emotional communication in the healthcare industry, I can conclude that there are several challenges that healthcare professionals experience when communicating emotions. To begin, there is the existence of implicit and explicit feeling and display rules that are demanded by both clients, patients, and organizations. There are expectations and obligations that healthcare professionals must meet in terms of the emotions they experience and the behaviors they express to ensure the functionality of their industry. In response to these feeling and display rules, employees often find …

Child Poverty: Understanding The Emotional Labor Of Social Work Professionals, Aamir Terry

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Child Poverty: Understanding the Emotional Labor of Social Work Professionals by Aamir Terry MSW, Walden University 2019 BS, Central State University 2008 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Social Work Walden University November 2025

Why Some Adventurers Chase Danger To Find Meaning, Jordan Karnbach

University of Mississippi News

OXFORD, Miss. – Climbing mountains or going adventuring in hostile terrain can be dangerous, even life-threatening. But a University of Mississippi marketing professor found the old adage that "with great risk comes great reward" holds clues to why thrill-seeking is so satisfying.

The Impact Of Domed Architecture On The Architectural Character Of Western Desert Oases, Nader Mohamed Gharib, Mo’Men Abdelqader, Yousab Magdy Shafik

Mansoura Engineering Journal

The visual disharmony arising from the indiscriminate and architecturally unplanned integration of curved roofing elements, notably domes, into the built environment of the Western Desert oases has become a significant issue, particularly in the Siwa Oasis, where the adoption of domed architecture was first introduced in the village of Jafar in 1997. This research delves into a detailed study that focuses on how pivotal historical, cultural, environmental, aesthetic, functional, and technical factors have crucially shaped the widespread integration of these iconic curved roofing superstructures in the oases' architectural heritage over generations, contributing to the uniquely recognizable architectural character and sense …

Decreasing Symptoms Of Burnout In Nurses Through Mindfulness Training, Mckenzie Posey

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Background: An important initiative in many healthcare systems is aiming to reduce stress, not only because of the psychological effects, but because of the effect it has on the safety of our patients and their outcomes. Nurses’ stress levels have increased over the years and have an impact on healthcare outcomes, staff satisfaction and retention, and patient safety.

Problem: Patient safety and quality of care are the most important pieces of healthcare, but taking care of our healthcare providers should also be at the top of the list to address this global, national, and local nursing issue. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction …

Developing Interventions To Improve Future Age And Situation Specific Mask Wearing, John Knight, Barbara R. Medvec, Patrick Hammett

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Background: Outcomes from the COVID-19 pandemic indicate that masks lower a person’s exposure to respiratory infections. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to recommend situation-specific mask-wearing to protect oneself from COVID-19 variants and other viruses. Yet, the clinical community continues to struggle with targeting interventions to increase the likelihood of mask-wearing when the risk of virus exposure is higher in the post-pandemic environment. In this study, we applied the Health Belief Model (HBM) to identify the attitudes and beliefs influencing mask-wearing and recommend targeted interventions for low-frequency mask wearers in CDC recommended situations.

Methods: We administered a …

Program Agenda 11-18-25, Angela Brock

Programs Committee (PC)

No abstract provided.

Of Rollercoasters And Resilience: The Role Of Ceos’ Biases And Heuristics For Large Firms’ Technological Innovation, Cristina O. Vlas, Radu E. Vlas

International Journal of Applied Management and Technology

How do CEOs’ personality biases and motivational heuristics influence innovation in large firms? Because large-firm innovation is more common and less risky, overlooked factors—such as narcissism, self-monitoring, and promotion or prevention foci—become pivotal. Drawing on these traits, we found that narcissistic CEOs differ from self-monitoring CEOs in driving innovation. Moreover, the effect of self-monitoring CEOs depends on whether their regulatory focus is oriented toward promotion or prevention. However, this interplay between personality and motivation does not apply to narcissistic CEOs, suggesting that certain characteristics remain relatively fixed. These findings advance the understanding of how CEO traits shape large-firm innovation and …

Ucc Minutes 11-18-25, Angela Brock

UCC Agendas/Minutes

No abstract provided.

Icc Agenda 11-18-25, Angela Brock

Individual Course Committee (ICC)

No abstract provided.

Approved Courses 11-18-25, Angela Brock

Individual Course Committee (ICC)

No abstract provided.

African Americans’ Perceptions Of The Impact Of Childhood Community Violence And Historical Oppression On Parenting, Iyabo Adediran

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have detrimental impacts on lifelong functioning. Although African Americans experience disproportionately higher rates of community violence, one type of ACE, the potential long-term impacts of exposure to such violence and of historical oppression on their parenting practices in adulthood, was little understood. In this qualitative study, an ethnographic approach was used to explore African American parents’ perceptions of how early exposure to community violence (before age of 18) and the intergenerational transmission of historical oppression influenced their current parenting practices. The conceptual framework, which integrated Engel’s biopsychosocial model and Bowen’s family systems theory, provided a …

Middle-Class Black Women, The Strong Black Women Role, And Seeking Treatment For Depression, Kendra Griffin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study explored how middle-class Black women perceive seeking mental health treatment for depression while identifying with the Strong Black Woman (SBW) role. This study investigated how middle-class Black women perceive seeking mental health treatment for depression while identifying with the Strong Black Woman role and how they interpret this role in relation to coping with depression. Guided by a social constructionist framework, the study used a qualitative design. Eight women who identified as middle-class, experienced depression, and endorsed the SBW role participated in semi-structured interviews. Braun and Clarke’s six phase thematic analysis revealed six themes: therapy as cultural …

Stigma Associated With Using Mental Health Services Among The Igbos In Nigeria, Emmanuel Okoye Sr

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study addressed the impact of stigma and cultural beliefs on help-seeking behaviors among the Igbo tribe in Nigeria. The importance of this issue lies in its potential to increase access to mental health services and foster well-being among Igbo community members who might be harmed by stigma and cultural barriers. The study's theoretical framework was the cultural theory of mental illness, which emphasizes how cultural values and beliefs influence how people perceive and express their mental health. This study aimed to offer guidance for interventions and programs that address mental health disparities in the Igbo community by comprehending the …

The Experience Of Modern Day Marriages For Women Who Identify As Strong Black Women, Arielle Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Strong Black Woman (SBW) schema has been explored during the past two decades; however, limited research has been conducted on the phenomenological experiences of Black women who identify with the characteristics of the SBW schema and their impact on Black and African American marriages. The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experiences of married African American women in modern day marriages who endorse the characteristics of the superwoman schema. This qualitative study was an interpretative phenomenological analysis and focused on the lived experiences of this population. Individual interviews of 12 married African American women who identified …

Awareness Of Non-Verbal Communication For Safety In Mental Health Nursing Students, Sheryl Cornelius

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Preparing nursing students for clinical in the Mental/Behavioral Health field is always challenging. Students are often fearful of the experience which narrows their opportunities for learning in the clinical setting. One pre-licensure baccalaureate program in the South East United States (SE US) sought to elay some of those fears through preparation techniques before the clinical experience. One of the techniques was an increase in the awareness of Non-Verbal Communication in clients as to allow the student to be prepared for potential violence.

The students were first given a pre-clinical questionaire to see where their baseline was with knowledge and attitudes …

Lgbt Healthcare Access Experiences - “I Had A Doctor Who Literally Tried To Kill Me", Austin Nation

Biennial Convention (CONV)

PURPOSE: The purpose of this project is to: (a) explore the current experiences and needs of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) population when accessing healthcare services. LGBT individuals are known to experience adverse situations when accessing health care services.

METHODS: Qualitative focus groups were conducted with members of the LGBT community utilizing a cross-sectional convenience sample from two organizations serving the LGBT community. Analysis was done to examine themes and to look for differences and similarities within and between LGBT sub-populations.

RESULTS: Three themes emerged from the analysis including: issues accessing LGBT providers, need for LGBT competency and …

Impact Of A Design Thinking Workshop On Students' Knowledge, Confidence, And Perceived Benefits, Janice Evans Hawkins, Beth Tremblay, Robert Joseph Hawkins

Biennial Convention (CONV)

Background: Design Thinking is gaining recognition as an innovative and creative approach to problem solving. Though nurse leaders need problem solving tools to address health care challenges, Design Thinking concepts are not commonly taught in nursing education. To introduce graduate level nursing students to Design Thinking, we held an educational activity focused on this content as part of required coursework.

Purpose: The purpose of this presentation is to describe and compare outcomes of a Design Thinking educational activity on students' perceived knowledge, confidence, and benefits to nursing practice.

Methods: Graduate level nursing students participated in a 3-hour educational activity. After …

A Qualitative Study Of Therapist Discomfort In The Treatment Of Problematic Pornography Use, Yehudah Alcabes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent that discomfort occurs within therapists’ while treating Problematic Pornography Use (PPU). The study, predicated on the qualitative research design of thematic analysis, utilized semi-structured interviews with a sample of n=15 therapists to explore the following questions: (1) How do therapists describe discomfort in the treatment of PPU? (2) How do therapists experience discomfort in the treatment of PPU? And (3) How do therapists manage discomfort in the treatment of PPU? The findings of this study demonstrate the need to understand the unique nature of therapist discomfort in PPU. This study’s …

Predicting School Readiness In Head Start Children: The Role Of The Home Literacy Environment, Executive Function, And Cumulative Risk Factors, Danielle Davis-Newman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Children from low-income families often begin school behind their more affluent peers, showing delays in cognitive, social-emotional, and academic skills. This study examined how variations in the home literacy environment (HLE) and executive function (EF) contributed to school readiness gaps among children facing multiple risk factors. The purpose was to understand whether the HLE supported children’s EF skills, how cumulative family risk shaped these associations, and whether EF was a pathway linking the HLE to school readiness outcomes. Data were drawn from the 2019 Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES 2019), using a nationally representative sample of 1,482 …

Situated Learning And Social Capital In Rural Appalachia: An Ethic Of Care Among Women, Erika Marie Adams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The purpose of this narrative study was to describe how older women of rural Appalachia learned their cultural ways of care and caregiving. Using Situated Learning (Lave & Wenger, 1999; Lave, 2019), Care Focused Feminism (Noddings, 1984, 2002) and Bonding Social Capital (Putnam, 2000) theories, four women of rural Appalachia narrated stories from all stages of life. Findings supported the presence of Legitimate Peripheral Participation (LPP) (Lave & Wenger, 1991) as the primary method of learning as the women learned types of care and caregiving while in participation with family and friends. Types of care analyzed from the narratives were …

Pedagogical Training And Support Systems For Graduate Teaching Assistants, Alina Zaman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Computer science relies heavily on graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), yet most training available to them is generic, not tailored to CS pedagogy, and rarely responsive to the needs of international GTAs. At the same time, rising enrollments and limited instructional capacity make timely, high-quality feedback on code both essential and difficult to deliver—especially in low-resource departments. This dissertation addresses that problem by pairing programmatic GTA preparation with assistive, human-in-the-loop AI and by empirically mapping where, how, and under what conditions AI can responsibly augment GTA feedback practice. First, I worked with the GTA training team to design and deploy a …

Conflict, Hamdy A. Abdelrahman Hassan

All Works

No abstract provided.

Ethical Tensions In The Ethics Review Of Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning Projects: Revealing Values From A Health Faculty In Aotearoa New Zealand., Amanda B. Lees, Rosemary Godbold, Simon Walters

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This study employed a case study approach to explore ethical conduct in Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research. Originating within biomedical research, the remit of ethics review bodies now commonly extends to assessing SoTL projects. Set within a health faculty at a university in Aotearoa New Zealand, we examined student and academic perspectives on ethical conduct in SoTL research to gauge how their values align with those who decide on ethical standards of research involving them. Drawing on reflexive thematic analysis, our findings reflect tensions between the relational and cultural values of SoTL and the biomedically based values of …