Digital Commons Network^™

Implementation Of Visual Bed Indicator Lights To Improve Fall Prevention Processes, Andrea Leffew

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Inpatient falls remain a significant patient safety concern associated with preventable patient harm, prolonged hospitalization, and increased healthcare costs. Routine fall bundle validations identified inconsistent adherence to safe bed configuration practices, such as beds left raised and bed alarms turned off.

Context: A 3-month quality improvement project was implemented on a 20-bed medical-surgical telemetry unit within an integrated healthcare delivery system at a 130-bed community hospital in Northern California, which was experiencing an increase in inpatient falls and fall-related sentinel events.

Interventions: Implementation of bed-monitoring technology with visual indicator lights that provided real-time feedback on bed configuration.

Measures: The …

Supporting Students’ Self-Efficacy And Motivation In The Mathematics Classroom, Audrie H. Cox

Masters Projects

This project examines the role of mathematics self-efficacy in supporting student motivation, engagement, and achievement in secondary mathematics classrooms. Through a review of current research, the project identifies instructional practices that strengthen students' confidence in their mathematical abilities, including formative assessments, meaningful feedback, supportive teacher-student relationships, and opportunities for productive struggle. Drawing on these findings, a professional development workshop session was developed to equip secondary mathematics teachers with practical, research-based strategies that promote positive mathematics self-efficacy and improve overall classroom instruction. By translating research into actionable teaching practices, this project aims to support more confident, motivated, and successful mathematics learners.

Evaluating Diagnostic Information Preservation In Weakly Supervised Medical Imaging, Vinceline Bertrand

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Weakly supervised medical imaging models trained with coarse image-level labels often report strong performance on metrics such as accuracy and AUC. This thesis argues that these metrics can be misleading: a model may succeed on a coarse diagnostic task while failing to preserve the fine-grained information needed for consequential clinical decisions. It makes this failure measurable through the diagnostic gap, defined as the divergence between coarse and fine-grained diagnostic preservation, across three connected studies. The first shows that near-perfect ovarian ultrasound accuracy reflects visual separability rather than pathological understanding. The second measures the diagnostic gap in a mammographic pipeline, where …

Algebraic And Topological Methods In Computational Neuroscience, Trong-Thuc Trang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Neural data is incredibly rich in combinatorial, topological, and geometrical information, reflecting the intricate shape and connectivity of neural firing patterns. To decipher these structures, neuroscience increasingly relies on advanced mathematical tools to analyze neural activity. Here we study (1) neural codes within the poset P_Code of neural codes and (2) the connectivity of neural population activity within the insular cortex when responding to interoceptive information. In (1), we establish combinatorial constructions for all upward covering relations based on what we call “isolated subsets” with supporting theorems and give a slight modification of the existing downward covering relations. We …

Decreasing Icu Clabsi Through Improved Central Line Dressing Integrity, Sharmila Reyes Moreno

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Central line-associated bloodstream infections (CLABSIs) are a significant source of preventable patient harm, increased healthcare costs, and prolonged hospital stays. In a 20-bed medical-surgical ICU, CLABSI events increased from one case in 2024 to four cases in 2025, resulting in a standardized infection ratio (SIR) of 1.21, exceeding the organizational target of ≤ 0.87.

Context: Audits of central line dressings identified frequent edge lifting and dressing disruption despite staff awareness of CLABSI prevention practices. These findings suggested a gap between evidence-based recommendations and consistent clinical practice. The project was conducted in a 20-bed adult medical-surgical ICU serving a diverse …

Same-Day Cancellation Reduction In An Ambulatory Surgery Unit, Anthone Dalit Vengersammy

Master's Projects and Capstones

Problem: Same-day surgical cancellations in the outpatient surgery setting remain a significant operational and patient care challenge. Preventable cancellations negatively affect patient experience, operating room efficiency, staff productivity, and healthcare costs. 

Context: A microsystem and organizational culture assessment identified several factors contributing to same-day cancellations, including unclear preoperative instructions, incomplete medical clearance, inconsistent patient education, lack of standardized workflows, unclear staff responsibilities, and communication gaps among interdisciplinary teams. SWOT and gap analyses were used to identify opportunities for improvement and guide intervention planning.

Interventions: Quality improvement interventions were implemented through iterative Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles. Strategies included revising preoperative patient instructions, …

Consumer Behavior In End-Of-Current-Use Electronics: A Multi-Method Approach To Improving Sustainability Outcomes, Payam Saeedi

Theses

The proliferation of network-connected consumer electronics has created a sustained challenge for sustainability and data security at the End-of-Current-Use (EoCU) stage. In the United States, devices accumulate in storage rather than entering reuse or recycling pathways, and a substantial share of devices change hands without proper data sanitization. This dissertation characterizes and quantifies consumer behavior at EoCU of consumer electronics in the U.S., with the goal of supporting the design of interventions that improve sustainability and data security outcomes. A survey of 4,000 U.S. respondents (3,747 after data cleaning) was developed and deployed across 10 categories of network-connected devices, capturing …

Sense Of Purpose As The Guiding Light In Nursing Practice: A Grounded Theory Study, Kathleen Casler

Theses & Dissertations

Problem: As a prosocial profession, individuals may enter the practice of nursing because of an interest in helping and caring for others. However, over time, nurses may be challenged with experiences of burnout that can impact both their relationship with the profession and patient outcomes.

Background/Significance: A sense of purpose has been associated with positive physical, behavioral, and psychological outcomes. In a professional context, a sense of purpose may provide support for navigating complex work environments. It is currently not known what nurses’ experience of sense of purpose may be in relation to nursing practice and how their sense of …

Drivers Of Stopover Distribution Across Two Autumn Migration Routes Of A Long-Distance Afro-Palearctic Migrant, The Common Cuckoo (Cuculus Canorus), Alex Gale, Máire Kirkland, Phil Atkinson, Robert Puschendorf, Chris Hewson

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

Across the globe, many long-distance migratory birds have undergone population declines. Understanding the environmental factors which underly migratory stopover locations can inform conservation strategies for such species. Here, we identify environmental predictors of autumn stopover sites used by UK-breeding male cuckoos (Cuculus canorus) migrating to centralAfrican wintering grounds via two alternative flyways. Between 2011 and 2021, 88 male cuckoos from UK breeding grounds were fitted with <5 g satellite tags connected to the Argos satellite-based tracking system. Filtered stopovers were used to build presence-pseudoabsence distribution models for each flyway, using Boosted Regression Tree and Random Forest algorithms with thirteen climatic, habitat, topographic and anthropogenic variables. Performance was evaluated using 10-fold cross-validation, and weighted ensembles were generated. To assess drought sensitivity, we produced predictions for high- and low-drought years based on Standardised Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Indices (SPEI). Models performed well (AUC=0.79–0.88; TSS=0.50– 0.66) and revealed route-specific environmental predictors. Along the western route, stopover probability was highest in cooler, semi-humid, high-elevation areas with low contemporaneous drought; Iberian mountain ranges emerged as key sites. Along the eastern route, stopover probability was greatest in heterogeneous habitat, with lowlands and uplands favoured over intermediate elevations; the Po watershed appears particularly important. Hunting risk (included to assess anthropogenic threat) was also high at key areas. The spatial extent of stopover regions—and the probability of them being utilised—declined during years ofhigh short-term drought along the western route, and high long-term drought along the eastern route. Whilst Iberian montane stopover regions are sensitive to increasing drought and aridity under climate change, their topographic heterogeneity may provide climatic refuge while limiting intensive land uses. Preference for heterogeneous habitat within the Po watershed highlightsthe need to retain semi-natural habitat within agricultural landscapes. We recommend route-specific conservation measures and higher resolution models using newly available GPS tags to better understand fine-scale site selection within the regions highlighted here.

Acceptability And Impact Of Weight Management Interventions For Adults With Intellectual Disability: Protocol For A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Rohit Shankar, Ananya Ananthakrishnan, Edward Meinert, Rosiered Brownson-Smith

Peninsula Medical School

Introduction Obesity disproportionately impacts people with intellectual disabilities (PwID). Given the challenges that PwID face, such as cognitive deficits, differences in motivation and communication difficulties, the need for tailored interventions for weight management in PwID is recognised. Yet, this population is underserved, with limited weight management interventions for them compared with the general population. Existing reviews suggest that ‘multi-component’ interventions (including physical activity and dietary advice) are impactful at reducing weight in PwID; however, less is known about how these interventions are tailored for PwID, particularly in addressing their cognitive and communication difficulties which may influence how they understand and …

A Prolonged Hydrothermal Past At Santorini Caldera Revealed By Sedimentary Trace Metal And Microbial Signatures, Sofia Della Salla, Vasiliki Papadimitriou, Paraskevi Polymenakou, Steffen Kutterolf, Joost Frieling, David Pyle, Tamsin A. Mather, Stephanos Kilias, Christopher Jones, Tim Druitt, Jonas Preine, Christian Hübscher, Paraskevi Nomikou, Olga Koukousioura, Thomas A. Ronge, Sarah Beethe, Katharina Pank, Carole Berthod, Hehe Chen, Shun Chiyonobu, Acacia Clark, Susan Debari, Ralf Gertisser, Raymond Johnston, Michael Manga, Molly Mccanta, Iona Mcintosh, Ally Peccia, Masako Tominaga, Yuzuru Yamamoto

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Hydrothermal systems in volcanic calderas are critical in signalling volcanic unrest, forming ore deposits, and sustaining chemosynthetic microorganisms. Analysis of a ~3500-year sequence of sediments collected from the Santorini caldera, Greece, during International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 398 reveals the behaviour of a prolonged paleo-hydrothermal system. Sediment geochemical and metagenomic data record vigorous hydrothermal activity and metal fluxes for ~1100 years, within a 2270-year window between two major eruptions. Sediment hydrothermally-derived trace metals are significantly enriched over background (~200-fold for As and Hg, and 10–50-fold for Mn, Sb, Mo, and V), with long-term metal fluxes (9 t yr^{−1 …}

Brown V. Eighteen Properties Llc

All Decisions

Court denied owner's motion to dismiss HP action brought by tenant in an interim multiple dwelling (IMD) subject to the Loft Law, rejecting arguments based on res judicata and collateral estoppel (prior Article 78 was dismissed on procedural, not substantive, grounds), primary jurisdiction of the Loft Board, and the inapplicability of the Housing Maintenance Code to IMDs. Court held Multiple Dwelling Law § 282-a(2) contemplates concurrent Housing Court jurisdiction over housing maintenance enforcement in IMDs.

The Economic Benefits And Costs Of State And Local Incentives For Clean Energy Projects, Timothy J. Bartik, Gerrit Anderson, Brian J. Asquith, Kathleen Bolter, Kyle Huisman, Iryna V. Lendel, Jeremy Morris, Sevrin Williams

Upjohn Institute Policy and Research Briefs

No abstract provided.

The Prophylactic Landscape: Sand And Typhoid On The Merrimack River, Laila Seewang

School of Architecture Faculty Publication and Presentations

“The first municipal water filter of the rapid sand type was built at Somerville, NJ, and thus began its wonderful history.”  By 1917 the rapid sand filter was the standard defense against typhoid epidemics in the United States.

Archaeal Signal Peptide Prediction Through Integration Of Proteomics And Machine Learning, Anjali Kaur

Theses

Signal peptides are short N-terminal amino acid sequences that direct proteins through cellular secretion pathways and play an essential role in protein localization and function. Computational tools such as SignalP are widely used to predict signal peptides. However, prediction accuracy for archaeal proteins remains lower than for bacterial and eukaryotic proteins, likely because relatively few archaeal proteins were available for model training. The goal of this study was to determine whether expanding the archaeal training data used by SignalP 6.0 could improve archaeal signal peptide prediction. Archaeal proteomics datasets from five archaeal species were analyzed to identify proteins with experimentally …

Hematological, Inflammatory, And Oxidative Stress Biomarker Profiles In Substance Abuse Combinations: A Comprehensive Evidence-Based Review, Teif Naif Freeh Alenezi, Samia Soliman Barghash

Saudi Toxicology Journal

A potential risk of polysubstance use in relation to substance abuse can involve the development of intricate pharmacological interactions affecting the immune system and oxidative stress responses of the body. The current review aims to present a synthesis of the existing literature about hematologic, inflammatory, and oxidative stress markers associated with three patterns of polysubstance use: (1) stimulants and cannabis, (2) stimulants/depressants and CNS depressants, and (3) multi-drug complex usage. This review explores markers such as a neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), systemic immune-inflammation index (SII), systemic inflammation response index (SIRI), platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR), monocyte-to-lymphocyte ratio (MLR), eosinophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (ELR), total oxidant …

The Roles Of Adverse And Benevolent Childhood Experiences In Posttraumatic Growth And Social Connectedness Following Interpersonal Trauma, Margaret Poandl, Emily Kitching, Daniel Gutierrez, Yuqi Zhang

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

Interpersonal trauma, such as childhood abuse, neglect, and intimate partner violence, is a prevalent and harmful form of trauma associated with deleterious psychosocial outcomes. Despite its negative impacts, individuals exposed to interpersonal trauma may also experience posttraumatic growth (PTG). While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are known risk factors and benevolent childhood experiences (BCEs) are potential protective factors for adult outcomes, little is known about how combinations of ACEs and BCEs influence PTG. This study examined how combinations of ACEs and BCEs relate to PTG and social connectedness among individuals who have experienced interpersonal trauma. Using cross-sectional survey data from 615 …

Padres Ayudando A Padres: Co-Constructing A Family-Centered Mental Health Intervention Of, By, And For Central American Immigrant Parents, Rachael Goodman, Colleen K. Vesely, Maribel Tohara Nakamatsu, Victoria Stone, Valeria Quintana, Bethany Letiecq, Amigas De La Comunidad

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, our partners in a Central American immigrant enclave reported an increasing need to support parents and children whose mental health was negatively impacted by the confluence of underlying systemic stressors and traumatic experiences. Using our existing family-centered participatory action research (FCPAR; Letiecq, Vesely, et al., 2022) approach and guided by the transcreation model (Nápoles & Stewart, 2018), we co-constructed a mental health intervention in partnership with community members, via our community advisory board (CAB). Essential to this process was building the intervention with the community, ensuring that it was culturally and contextually grounded …

Collective Trauma And Systemic Negligence: Exploring South Korean Disasters Through Media And Cultural Narratives, Jung H. Hyun, Eunae Han

Trauma Counseling and Resilience

Disaster trauma often occurs at multiple levels, with the systemic level highlighting its collective impact on survivors. Betrayal trauma, inflicted by trusted individuals or institutions including the government, further compounds this experience. Drawing on historical and contemporary challenges in modern Korean history and recognizing their collective impact on the Korean population, this paper examines Korean betrayal trauma stemming from disasters, introduces a new concept of political betrayal trauma, and explores how media can serve as a tool for healing. Through a fictional case study, this paper illustrates how collective cultural narratives support both survivors and the broader society in validating …

Provenance-Conditional Arbitration For Self-Supervised Nli Dataset Construction From Regulatory Corpora (Accounting/Tax Domain), Miseong Shawn Kim Mr.

Defensive Publications Series

We disclose a method for automatically constructing and validating Natural Language Inference (NLI) training pairs from unlabeled regulatory corpora in the accounting and tax domain (e.g., accounting standards, standard-setter Q&A, tax rulings, tax-tribunal decisions, audit opinions, regulatory-filing notes). The core is a provenance-conditional arbitration rule that assigns label adoption authority according to the source type of each pair, combined with asymmetric agreement thresholds, structure-relation label derivation, domain antonym contradiction synthesis, and numeric-equivalence pair generation. Publishing this defensively secures freedom to operate and blocks third-party patents on the technique.

Designing And Evaluating A Human-Centered Faq Chatbot For Public Service Delivery: A Case Study Of The Tanzania Ports Authority, Barnabas Masanja, Joel Mtebe, Aron Kondoro

The African Journal of Information Systems

Chatbots are increasingly used in public service delivery, yet many remain difficult to use because their scope, conversational flow and persona are poorly designed. This study evaluates whether a human-centered design (HCD) approach can improve the usability of a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) chatbot developed for the Tanzania Ports Authority (TPA). The chatbot was designed iteratively through stakeholder consultation and expert input, with explicit attention to scope clarity, error handling, multi-turn flow and transparent persona design. Usability was assessed through heuristic evaluation, task-based testing and post-use questionnaires with 15 domain experts. The chatbot achieved a 95.1% weighted task success rate, …

Bekizine: A Zine Featuring Selected Queer Artists And Narratives, Daniel D. Sullano, Alex Ayson, Arianna Atas, Renee Sophia Caponong, Merix Kobi Blancaflor, Fernando R. Lacson

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

Media serves as a powerful medium for shaping cultural norms and self-perception. Despite increasing visibility in Philippine media, LGBTQ+ representation remains dominated by metropolitan-centric narratives and reductive tropes that overlook the nuanced realities of provincial queer life. The study explored how BEKIZINE, a community-centered zine created by and for LGBTQ+ individuals aged 18–30 in Cavite, can serve as alternative media for self-expression, community building, and historical preservation. Adopting a practice-based, mixed-methods approach, the study integrates Queer Theory, Safe Space Theory, and Alternative Media Theory through semi-structured interviews with local queer artists and individuals, followed by zine launch evaluation surveys. Qualitative …

Budol-Budol Time: A Perspective From The Global South On Generation Z’S Digital Status Consumption Through An Interactive Video, Luis Angelo Francisco Lopa, Kateleen Claire Malabag Gonzales, Jaedon Tongol Santos Jats

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

This research critiques the contemporary digital landscape, as social media influencers shape Gen Z's consumer behavior, often driving "status overconsumption," the repetitive purchase of trending goods to enhance social standing. The study investigates the complex relationship between social media exposure and consumption patterns among affluent Gen Z (ages 13 to 28) in Laguna, Makati, Taguig, and Quezon City, Philippines. Its objective is to address the environmental consequences of these behaviors, including excess waste and carbon emissions from production and related industries, which consumers often overlook. Grounded in social comparison and status consumption theories, the research utilizes a sequential mixed-methods triangulation …

Drawn For A Brighter Tomorrow: A Functional Art Workshop As A Path To Livelihood And Skills Development Under The Pasay Social Welfare And Development Department (Pswdd), Liane Oxana V. Estuesta, Giana Margaux D. Bustos, Anne Kirsten Cerish S. Gamayo, Julia Patrish P. Go

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

This study examines how functional art workshops, where creativity results in usable, real-world objects, can be a tool for livelihood and skills development among children in need of special protection aged 7-17 under the Pasay Social Welfare and Development Department (PSWDD). Specifically, grounded in arts-based and qualitative research, the study seeks to understand how exposure to functional art-making can support participants’ confidence, agency, and practical competencies. Data was gathered through primary sources, including a needs assessment survey, semi-structured interviews with youth participants and administrators after the program, and visual documentation of completed artworks. Secondary sources were also used, including published …

Phantoms Of The Self: An Art Installation On The Commodification Of Anik-Anik Culture, Vito Lomod, Minuet Deniña, Jaihzel Failana, Joshua R. Marcial

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

The practice of anik-anik culture remains relevant and prominent among Filipinos, especially among Gen Z. Decorating, collecting, and preserving miscellaneous items as an extension of one’s identity and memory exemplifies the Filipino maximalist aesthetic. In context, Filipinos are naturally inclined to be maximalists, driven by the desire to connect and the tendency to fill empty spaces, hence the aesthetic of Filipino maximalism. Usually, this is evidenced in, but not limited to, consumption and fashion practices. Correspondingly, its current practices have also sparked discussions about the effects of consumerism and the dilution of the origins of anik-anik, which is deeply rooted …

“Shh!” Bleaching As An Auto-Destructive Art Method Of Representing The Silencing Of Women, Kristelle Tenero De Leon

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

This paper discusses the artistic representation of the muffling of women’s voices and the culture of silence through a theoretically auto-destructive method of artmaking—bleaching using mark-making on textile. Through studio art research, the reductive and erasing properties of bleaching agents are used by bleaching printed images of women in fabric to metaphorically represent and articulate the existence of silencing imposed upon women. Guided by the lens of feminism and Gustav Merger’s manifesto of auto-destructive art, this work presents the artistic images of 13 women across Philippine history—from the babaylans to Maria Ressa—on textile, imbued with bleaching effects. Moreover, the work …

Kapwa Beckett: Co-Performance, Pakikipagkapwa, And Relational Meaning-Making In Philippine Stagings Of Samuel Beckett, Christian Gabriel Tolentino

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

This reflective-practice study examines how kapwa and pakikipagkapwa emerged through translation, rehearsal, staging, and reception in three Philippine productions of Samuel Beckett: Endgame (2016), Happy Days (2019), and the devised classroom piece Beckett, Godot & Us Waiting (2023). Using comparative production analysis and a dialogical co-performance orientation drawn from Dwight Conquergood, I analyze rehearsal exercises, adaptation notes, production materials, staging decisions, and remembered performer-audience encounters. The analysis identifies distinct relational practices across the productions: collaborative localization and sensory dramaturgy in Endgame; negotiated media adaptation and mediated intimacy in Happy Days; and devising, Meisner repetition, physical trust, and shared post-pandemic waiting …

Atomos Komiks - Making Learning Fun With Science Entertainment, Jerome Aizpuro Suplemento Ii, Julius Noah Hernandez Sempio

DLSU Arts Congress Conference Proceedings

With portable digital devices imposing themselves on the already precarious attention span of the Filipino youth, and with raising concerns about degrading literacy of schoolchildren, it is imperative to find creative and entertaining means to inspire the young studentry to engage in dedicated educational materials. This paper explains the methods being used by a small group of artists, scientists and writers to create content for “science entertainment” in comics format. By combining principles of conceptual compression, knowledge indexing and low-elaboration persuasion techniques to develop knowledge “anchors”, the team aims to generate participatory engagement among readers and stimulate their cognitive innovation. …

Effectiveness Of The Smart Me-De Digital Program On Health Literacy And Glycemic Control In Newly Diagnosed Type 2 Diabetes, Nongnaphat Rungnoei, Siriporn Kruttakart, Natthapan Phianthanyakam, Pakaporn Klinhom, Umaporn Nokpaet, Jintipa Sirikunwiwat, Burong Jaitham

Journal of Health Research

Background: Individuals newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes often have limited knowledge and self-management skills, leading to poor glycemic control and increased complications. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Smart ME-DE Digital Program in improving health literacy and glycated hemoglobin levels among newly diagnosed individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Methods: A quasi-experimental study was conducted with seventy participants recruited from diabetes clinics at three hospitals in a central province of Thailand. They were selected using simple random sampling and matched by gender, age, and baseline HbA1c levels, and allocated to an experimental or comparison group. The experimental group received …

The Effect Of Spin Polarization On Ion-Acoustic Solitary Waves In Quantum Plasmas, Amirhosein Rezvani, Sedigheh Miraboutalebi, Leila Rajaei, Mahmoodreza Sharifian

Turkish Journal of Physics

The exchange interaction, a fundamentally quantum-mechanical phenomenon, can significantly modify the classical description of cold, overdense plasmas. These quantum effects can be systematically analyzed within the framework of quantum magnetohydrodynamic (QMHD) theory, which enables the use of separate momentum equations for spin-up and spin-down electron populations. In this study, we adopt this approach to incorporate exchange interactions for both spin species and investigate the excitation of ion-acoustic wave (IAW) solitons in the plasma system. Using a perturbative expansion method, the governing equations are reduced to a nonlinear Schrödinger equation (NLSE), which admits solitonic wave solutions. The stability of these solitons …