Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Utilization Of Mental Health Services Among Undergraduate Nursing Students On College Campuses In The Mississippi Delta, Deidra Michelle Byas

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Over recent years, concerns about the mental health of nursing students in the Mississippi Delta have increased. However, research indicated that many nursing students do not utilize mental health services. This population has received little research attention, creating a gap in the literature and leaving counselor educators and supervisors ill-equipped to prepare counselors to meet the needs of nursing students. This quantitative study examined whether attitudes toward mental health services, social and cultural stigmas, and demographic characteristics explained the variance in nursing students’ willingness to seek help. Guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study focused on three areas: …

A Content Analysis Of Podcasts Exploring The Experiences Of Nba Players And Mental Health, Joanna D. Hedin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Black male athletes are at a greater risk of not seeking treatment for their mental health issues due to cultural stigmas and expectations. The purpose of this qualitative secondary data research study was to understand the experiences of Black NBA players regarding their mental health and the sociocultural factors that influence their decision making regarding participation in mental health services, as revealed through podcast appearances. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was applied in this study to suggest that learning is an integral part of the social process and that culture contributes to how and what one learns. This study asked about what …

Difference In High School Geometry End-Of-Year State Exam Scores Between Three Different Retake Time Frames, Christina Noel Walton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A grading policy was implemented in a Northeastern suburban public school district that left it to curriculum teams to define the amount of time between the original test and its retake resulting in a slight decrease in high school students’ geometry end-of-year state exam scores. Guided by Bloom’s theory of mastery learning, the purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to investigate if there were statistically significant differences between high school students’ geometry end-of-year state exam scores or between high school students’ geometry math growth scores when controlling for the preassessment score differentiated by three schemes of retake timing: short-term, …

Strategies To Use Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion Programs To Increase Employee Performance And Profitability, Kecia Bailey Alexander

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A lack of effective strategies for implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs to increase employee performance and profitability is a concern for leaders in the education industry. This problem is significant to educational leaders because, without effective strategies for implementing DEI programs, they cannot address the gap in practice that hinders improvements in employee performance and organizational profitability. Grounded in Ajzen’s theory of planned behavior, this qualitative pragmatic inquiry identified and explored the effective strategies educational leaders used to successfully implement DEI programs to increase employee performance and profitability. Participants were six leaders from both for-profit and non-profit educational …

Class A Biosolids Production Using Conventional And Low-Cost, Low-Tech Processes At Small Water Resource Recovery Facilities: A Multidimensional Sustainability Assessment, Janna Brown, Robert Handler, Eric Seagren, Jennifer Becker

Michigan Tech Publications

Producing Class A biosolids is a beneficial way to reuse wastewater treatment solids, but most conventional processes are energy-intensive and expensive. There is growing interest in the use of low-cost, low-tech (LCLT) Class A biosolids treatment processes, especially at small water resource recovery facilities (WRRFs). This study used a holistic sustainability assessment to examine the environmental, economic, and social sustainability of conventional and LCLT processes at small WRRFs. The technologies studied were Direct Heat Drying, Composting, Lagoon Storage, Air Drying, and Temperature-Phased Anaerobic Digestion (TPAD). Environmental impacts were determined by conducting life-cycle assessments for all technologies, which is described in …

Ski Resort Cybersecurity, Nathan Clark

All Student Scholarship

By comparing ski resorts to other industries, such as beach resorts, infrastructure, and live events, this study aims to establish a foundation of understanding for ski hills. Through an analysis of data collected from state-level data breach lists and corporate filings required by the SEC, the study utilizes this broader scope to identify the primary cyber concerns facing the ski industry. The study aims to identify the unique cybersecurity challenges faced by ski resorts and compare them in terms of security concerns with those in large-scale events and the tourism industry.

Low Beta Anomaly In Some European Emerging Markets, Tadeusz Winkler-Drews, Mateusz Mogilski

Journal of Banking and Financial Economics

The aim of the study was to identify the low beta anomaly and analyse the causes of its occurrence in five European emerging markets that were components of the MSCI Emerging Markets Europe index in the period 2010–2019. It was hypothesized that the determinants of the low beta anomaly in the analysed markets are factors from at least two of the three categories of variables. Using the Betting Against Beta model proposed by A. Frazzini and L. H. Pedersen (2014), we found that this phenomenon was not identified in three markets, but occurred in the remaining two markets, for which …

Adapting Publishing Principles And Best Practices For Repository-Hosted Journals: Sustainable Ideas For Enhancing Local Open Access Publishing, Andrea A. Wirth

Library Faculty Research

This poster addresses the question: How can librarians and administrators working with repository-hosted journal editors incorporate best practices into hosted journals without taking on the role of publisher and without overextending themselves?

The "Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing" (COPE, DOAJ, OASPA, WAME, 2022) provides foundational guidance for journal publishing. The guidelines cover a robust suite of topics such as authorship, peer review, funding sources, author cost transparency, and licensing and copyright. Publishers with staff who support a suite of journals (whether 10 or 1000) may be able to evaluate and adopt such guidance relatively quickly and …

Anti-Tumor Activity Of Camptothecin Analog Conjugate Of An Rspo4-Based Peptibody Targeting Lgr4/5/6 In Preclinical Models Of Colorectal Cancer, Yukimatsu Toh, Ling Wu, Jianghua Tu, Zhengdong Liang, Adela M Aldana, Jake J Wen, Li Li, Sheng Pan, Julie H Rowe, Martha E Hensel, Carolyn L Hodo, Rick A Finch, Kendra S Carmon, Qingyun J Liu

The Brown Foundation: Institute of Molecular Medicine

Background: Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are a significant advancement in targeted cancer therapy, but none are approved for colorectal cancer (CRC). LGR4/5/6, highly expressed in most CRCs, are promising targets. While LGR5-targeting ADCs show strong anti-tumor effects, their efficacy is limited by LGR5 loss in some CRC cells. RSPO4, a natural ligand for LGR4/5/6, binds all three receptors with high affinity. This research develops RSPO4-based peptibody drug-conjugates (PDCs) to simultaneously target LGR4/5/6, offering a novel therapeutic approach for CRC.

Methods: LGR4/5/6 expression in CRCs was analysed using RNA-seq datasets and Western blot. Peptibody binding affinities were measured, conjugated to camptothecin analog, …

Insights Regarding The Role Of Administrative Support And Teacher Retention In A Suburban Arizona School District, Kristen Louise Tiffany

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem that was addressed through this study is that teachers are leaving the profession in an Arizona high school district (AHSD, a pseudonym), which might be due to a lack of administrator support. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of reasons they chose to remain in their positions as well as administrators’ perceptions on the support they provide to encourage teacher retention at AHSD. Grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory, semistructured interviews were conducted with six administrators and 10 teachers from AHSD. Saldana’s pattern coding was used with the following themes emerging: Teachers …

Using Exercise To Treat Anxiety In Adult Patients With Addiction, Emmanuella N. Nnadozie

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Summary In this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project, I selected a staff education as the best intervention to improve staff knowledge in using exercise to treat anxiety disorders in adult patients at a recovery clinic for addiction. Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent among individuals undergoing substance abuse treatment, often exacerbating withdrawal symptoms and increasing relapse risks; thus, integrating the use of exercise in addition to existing standard care for anxiety treatment in individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) will lead to decreased anxiety, decreased alcohol use and drug cravings, improved quality of life and affect, increased abstinence, and improve …

Reconciling Harm Reduction Philosophy And Approaches Among Abstinence-Only Substance Abuse Treatment Professionals, Amy Rose Ashton-Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Historically, substance use disorder (SUD) treatment in the United States has been firmly grounded in abstinence-only treatment approaches. Harm reduction as a treatment model has gained additional traction. With increased rates of opioid use, overdoses, and advancements in medications for SUDs, harm reduction treatment approaches are becoming more important to improve lives of people who use drugs. Little is known about how counselors who have been educated, trained, and deliver abstinence-based SUD treatment reconcile use of harm reduction into their practice. To address this gap in literature, a generic qualitative study was conducted using the social constructivism theory. A purposive …

Enhancing Social Determinants Of Health Education In Home Health Care Including Social Determinants Of Health In Assessments And Care Plans For Home Health Clinicians, Emilia Mbanwite

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This staff education-focused doctor of nursing practice (DNP) project addressed the critical practice problem of one southern health care facility staff’s knowledge on the integration of social determinants of health (SDOH) into home health care plans. Despite SDOH screening, clinicians lacked standardized training to effectively assess and intervene on factors such as housing, transportation, and food insecurity, contributing to preventable hospitalizations, particularly in vulnerable populations. The practice-focused question addressed whether an evidence-based education module could improve home health nurses’ knowledge and application of SDOH in assessments and care plans. The project’s purpose was to develop, implement, and evaluate this training …

Ambient Fungal Spores As Short-Term Predictors Of Respiratory Virus Incidence And Mortality In Puerto Rico: Evidence From Machine Learning And Time-Series Modeling, Felix E. Rivera-Mariani, Armando J. Borrero-Aponte, Benjamín Bolaños-Rosero

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

This poster presentation, which was a Late-Breaking Abstract, demonstrates that outdoor fungal spore concentrations, unlike pollen, serve as effective short-term environmental predictors for surges in both incidence and mortality of influenza and COVID-19 in Puerto Rico’s San Juan-Metro and Caguas regions, particularly during the fall season. Machine learning and time-series analyses indicate that integrating fungal spore data can enhance respiratory virus surveillance and help guide timely public health interventions.

A Potential New Sea Surface Temperature Proxy Based On Isomeric Highly Branched Isoprenoid Lipid Biomarkers: Ez25, Simon T. Belt, Lukas Smik, Katrine Husum, Jochen Knies

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Two tri-unsaturated and isomeric (E/Z) highly branched isoprenoid (HBI) diatom lipid biomarkers were quantified in 228 water column samples collected from the English Channel, West Svalbard (Arctic), the Scotia Sea (Southern Ocean) and East Antarctica. We found that the relative amounts of the two HBIs correlate well with water temperatures taken at the time of sampling. Based on these findings and some other HBI data reported previously, we suggest that the proportion of the HBI E-isomer (termed EZ25) may serve as a new proxy for palaeo sea surface temperatures, including in the polar regions. Next steps will involve determination of …

Simulated Emergency Room Sign-Outs: What They Tell Us About Diagnostic Accuracy And Opportunities For Improvement, Roni Matin, Brent R King, Amit M Mehta, Susan H Fenton, Nathan R Hoot, David J Robinson, Charles L Maddow, Amy Franklin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: Emergency department (ED) sign-outs provide continuity of care for patients at shift changes. However, these periods have been associated with communication breakdowns and medical errors. We explored information factors (stage-of-the-case and the explicitness of the sign-out narrative) to determine their impact on clinicians' diagnostic accuracy and confidence.

Methods: Clinicians from 2 academic ED sites reviewed patient vignettes sign-out narratives (N=69). Using a within-subjects experiment, the explicitness of the sign-out information (i.e., broad statement about labs versus stating each test) and the patient's stage in the diagnostic process (e.g., labs pending, treatment occurring, etc.) at the time of sign-out varied. …

The Impact Of Mental Health Courts On Public Attitudes Held Toward Justice-Involved Individuals With Mental Illness, Maeve Porter

Student Theses

Prior research has established that mental health court programs play an important role in reducing recidivism and mental health symptoms of defendants. However, there is a lack of understanding of the stigma that justice-involved individuals may encounter upon release from mental health court into the community, and the extent to which the general public is aware of mental health court programs. The present study sought to address public perceptions regarding mental health courts, their efficacy, and their participants based on the awareness and availability of these specialized courts in two similar states (New York and New Jersey), one in which …

Applying Machine Learning To Developmental Psychopathology, Robert Jesus Jirsaraie

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Psychopathology arises from a combination of many contributing factors, which can include genetic predispositions, family history, environmental stressors, developmental processes, and psychosocial dynamics. Each of these contributing factors has been researched for decades, and their influences on mental health have been well documented. In recent years, there has been a growing enthusiasm for integrating these risk factors using machine learning. However, there are a wide array of data-driven frameworks that have been implemented, and the relative strengthens of each approach is not clear. Through of series of four research studies, we examined each data-driven approach in terms of its potential …

Spectral Mixture Analyses Of Hematite-Rich And Clay-Bearing Terrains In Meridiani And Oxia Planum, Mars, Thomas Jake Condus

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Minerals have characteristic absorption features in the visible and near-infrared wavelength range, which can be detected in remotely sensed observations using methods such as spectral parameter maps or modeled via spectral mixtures. My dissertation uses both methods on orbital and ground-based single-scattering albedo data to assess the surface compositions of Meridiani Planum and Oxia Planum, regions of Mars that are rich in secondary minerals. A probabilistic approach to spectral unmixing was adopted to account for the nonuniqueness of model solutions, with endmember abundance and grain size maps being produced for Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM) orbital images. For …

The Psychology Of Sharing Experiences, Hyebin Kim

Olin Business School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

From dinners with family to parties with friends, consumers frequently spend time with and share experiences with other people. Sharing consumption with other people can uniquely shape people’s decisions and experiences, often in ways that differ from when individuals are on their own. In my research, I examine what kinds of experiences consumers like to share with other people, and how being the one who organizes gatherings for other people influences consumers’ decisions and experiences during shared consumption. In Chapter One, “When Sharing Experiences with Others, People Prefer Novel Experiences,” I examine how the social context of an experience, in …

A Control Theoretic Approach To The Stochastic Multi-Armed Bandit Problem With Applications In Hyperparameter Optimization, Jonathan Gornet

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Decision-making under uncertainty is a fundamental problem encountered frequently in many real-world applications. This challenge has been rigorously formulated as the Stochastic Multi-Armed Bandit (SMAB) problem, which consists of a learner interacting with an environment. For each interaction, the learner selects an action and then receives a reward from the environment based on the chosen action. The learner's objective is to maximize the accumulated reward over a set number of rounds. This thesis addresses the SMAB problem by leveraging the field of Control Theory and dynamical systems. We specifically focus on a SMAB environment where the rewards are the output …

A Mechanistic Understanding Of Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Kara Michelle Donovan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) offers great potential as a noninvasive neuromodulation technique with expanding therapeutic potential across a range of neurological and systemic indications. Yet despite strong clinical interest, the mechanistic foundations of taVNS remain incompletely understood. In contrast to the invasive form of vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), taVNS has seen more limited parametric characterization, with many studies relying on parameters adopted from invasive protocols without systematic validation at the noninvasive level. This dissertation focuses on developing a more comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms of taVNS. It extends existing literature by leveraging intracranial electrophysiology to directly quantify …

Spatial Patterns In Electronic Health Record Data-Based Predictive Modeling: A Case Study Of Prenatal Care And Preeclampsia, Abigail Lewis

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The electronic health record (EHR) documents interactions between patients and healthcare systems and is widely used for secondary research on health outcomes due to broad adoption. While EHR data support efficient clinical informatics research, they are subject to biases stemming from healthcare seeking behavior, health system attributes, and individual or environmental characteristics. Place-based characteristics, in particular, strongly influence when and how patients access care and shape health outcomes. These biases in EHR data can affect predictive modeling pipelines which leverage them, contributing to variation in model performance across groups. In healthcare, where predictive models are increasingly used to guide care, …

Harnessing Metabolic Modeling And Artificial Intelligence For Next-Generation Bioproduction, Zhengyang Xiao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Bioproduction in microbial hosts faces two main challenges: (1) unique metabolism of each species is difficult to generalize, and it requires precise quantification before metabolic engineering. (2) Past experiment data are fragmented in different studies, making it difficult to combine these non-standardized data for future experiment design. These challenges lead to high costs and risks in scaling up biomanufacturing processes, where R&D requires substantial budgets and iterative experiments are expensive. This thesis addresses both challenges through two research pillars. Part I uses 13C metabolic flux analysis (MFA) and genome-scale model (GSM) to investigate metabolic limitations in bioproduction hosts. In Escherichia …

Multimodal Representation Learning For Geospatial Soundscape Mapping, Subash Khanal

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Sound is one of the fundamental senses that helps us reason about our environment. There exists an intricate relationship between the visual appearance of a location and the distribution of sounds present there. We propose leveraging this relationship to formulate the task of soundscape mapping—predicting the most probable distribution of sounds that could be perceived at a given geographic location, as observed in its overhead imagery. To support research on this task, we curated a comprehensive dataset, GeoSound, which consists of geotagged audio recordings from various sources, paired with both low- and high-resolution overhead imagery. We approach the soundscape mapping …

Faster, Higher, Stronger: Modern Methodologies For The Calibration, Exploration, And Utilization Of Agent-Based Models, David O'Gara

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Increases in computing power and availability have led to the widespread use and adoption of agent-based models (ABMs) in the physical, biological, and social sciences. At their core, ABMs represent a novel paradigm for scientific inquiry: their micro-level specification allows for the simulation of the individual components of a system which yields a deeper understanding of dynamic processes such as contagion and adaptive decision-making when used appropriately. However, several hurdles exist when attempting to use ABMs to their full potential. In this thesis, we will explore and address several challenges in designing and utilizing ABMs, with a focus on applying …

Accounting Comparability And Value Relevance Of Accounting Information: Evidence From A Change In Revenue And Expense Recognition Rules, Brandon Ater, Emrah Ekici, Thomas Noland, Christian K. Sobngwi

School of Accountancy Faculty Publications

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the accounting comparability and value relevance implications of the changes in the accounting for freight services in-process introduced through the adoption of EITF No. 91-9.

Design/methodology/approach: This is an empirical archival research paper using financial statement data and stock price information for the US transportation companies.

Findings: The results indicate that following the adoption of EITF No. 91-9, there is an increase in the level of accounting comparability for firms in the US transportation industries. This paper also finds that the reduction in the number of reporting options for revenues and …

Smartphone Attachment In Emerging Adults : Impacts On Mental Health Through Basic Psychological Needs, Jialin Xiao

Lingnan Theses (MPhil & PhD)

In the digital era, smartphones have become integral to daily life, fulfilling various emotional needs. Mirroring human attachment, past studies have found people can develop three types of attachment to smartphone: secure (comfortable, dependable connection), anxious (intense emotional reliance with separation anxiety) and avoidant (preference for independence from one’ s phone) attachment. However, little is known about how these types of smartphone attachment relate to mental health over time. Moreover, the mechanism underlying the relationship between smartphone attachment and mental health is unknown. To fill these gaps, based on the attachment theory, this study examined the longitudinal associations between smartphone …

Cover And Contents

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

No abstract provided.

A Decision Model For Enhancing Reaction Yield: Pd(Ii) And Pt(Ii) Metal Insertion To Free Porphyrin, Özay Özaydin, Emel Önal

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Chemical synthesis experiments are crucial for developing new materials, yet their inherent complexity and variability often lead to suboptimal results, causing significant resource and time wastage. This study proposes a novel decision support model to enhance the success rate of macromolecule synthesis experiments for sensor applications. The model leverages principles of experimental design and decision-making. We identified synthesis alternatives through a literature review and expert consultations, narrowing it down to 6 alternatives for metal salts, 3 for reactant mole ratios, 5 for organic solvents, 3 for reaction temperatures, and 4 for reaction times. Considering the time and cost constraints, this …