Digital Commons Network^™

Women Leaders In Healthcare: Emotional Intelligence, Job Satisfaction, And Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Kuan-Yin T. Timothee

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this nonexperimental quantitative correlational study was to explore the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), organizational citizenship behavior (OCB), and job satisfaction among women in nonclinical leadership roles within the U.S. healthcare sector. As healthcare organizations adapt to technological, social, and economic transformations, they must increase their focus on cultivating EI and promoting OCB, especially in leadership roles (Bowling & Sessa, 2021; Herr et al., 2022; Marstand et al., 2021). Additionally, research has shown that EI facilitates business development and diminishes obstacles to organizational sustenance. Although prior research has established a link between EI and OCB, there is …

Hilltopics: Volume 20, Issue 2, Hilltopics Staff

Hilltopics

Poetry and Art:

Art by Anastasiya Shyvilka

Fear by Manha Ahmad

Breathe by Gabriela Barrientos

Experiences:

The Sun of Southern France: A Semester Abroad in Aix-en-Provence by Anastasiya Shyvilka

Beyond the Hilltop: Why SMU Students Should Study Abroad by Kernell Slack

Remembering the Kalavryta Massacre by Alexandra Lahiri

Analysis:

Communication Analysis: Greta Gerwig’s Barbie Monologue by Megan Watson

LOFI by Capri Woss

The Rise 37 Years in the Making A Retrospective on SMU’s Death Penalty by Ryan Musho

Energy Insights from an SMU Alumna A Reflection on New Ideas about Sustainability by Alejandra Torres

In Dreams: A Retrospective of David …

From Molecular Crystals To Catalytic Surfaces: Computational Approaches To Complex Systems, Thiago Henrique Da Silva

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Understanding and modeling complex systems is one of the core challenges in modern science. Whether it be the intricate interactions within molecular crystals, the evolving mechanisms of bacterial resistance, or the dynamics of catalytic surfaces, accurately representing these systems is essential for scientific progress. This dissertation addresses these challenges by focusing on advances in computational modeling, demonstrating how various methods such as Density Functional Theory (DFT), machine learning, and custom-developed methods can simplify and help predict complex behaviors across multiple domains. By applying and understanding the scope of these methods to each field, this work underscores how computational modeling bridges …

Empirical Models For The Prediction Of Lattice Constants In Perovskite Materials, Bryan Wright

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Perovskites are a class of materials famous for their many functional properties and are envisioned as a material that will pave the way for scientific advancement in the fields of renewable energy, high tech sensors, lasers, catalysis, computer chips, and many others. This wide variety of applications is not the result of a single fantastic property of perovskite materials but rather stems from the perovskite structure’s ability to display a host of functional properties. One area where there is room for significant improvement is in the rate of perovskite discovery. The high stability of the perovskite structure is responsible for …

Random Processes With High Variance Produce Scale Free Networks, Josh Johnston

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The degree distribution of a real world network --- the number of links per node --- often follows a power law, so some hubs have many more links than traditional graph generation methods predict. For years, preferential attachment and growth have been the proposed mechanisms leading to these scale free networks, exemplified by the Barabási–Albert model. This dissertation provides an alternative model using a randomly stopped linking process, showing that mixtures of geometric distributions can lead to power laws, an intuition suggested by the Central Limit Theorem for distributions with infinite variance. Having a collection of Bernoulli trials with high …

Cdc’S Core Elements To Promote Diagnostic Excellence, Andrea Bradford, L Clifford Mcdonald, Preeta K Kutty

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Nearly a decade after the National Academy of Medicine released the "Improving Diagnosis in Health Care" report, diagnostic errors remain common, often leading to physical, psychological, emotional, and financial harm. Despite a robust body of research on potential solutions and next steps, the translation of these efforts to patient care has been limited. Improvement initiatives are still narrowly focused on selective themes such as diagnostic stewardship, preventing overdiagnosis, and enhancing clinical reasoning without comprehensively addressing vulnerable systems and processes surrounding diagnosis. To close this implementation gap, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released the Core Elements of …

Simulation-Guided Pan-Cancer Analysis Identifies A Novel Regulator Of Cpg Island Hypermethylation Heterogeneity, Xianglin Zhang, Wei Zhang, Jinyi Zhang, Xiuhong Lyu, Haoran Pan, Tianwei Jia, Ting Wang, Xiaowo Wang, Haiyang Guo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

CpG island hypermethylation, a hallmark of cancer, exhibits substantial heterogeneity across tumors, presenting both opportunities and challenges for cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. While this heterogeneity offers potential for patient stratification to predict clinical outcomes and personalize treatments, it complicates the development of robust biomarkers for early detection. Understanding the mechanisms driving this heterogeneity is essential for advancing biomarker design. Here, simulation-based analyses demonstrate that tumor purity and the high prevalence of low epi-mutation samples significantly obscure the identification of negative, rather than positive, regulators of CpG island hypermethylation, limiting a comprehensive understanding of heterogeneity sources. By addressing these confounders, we …

The Effects Of Micromanagement Behavior On Employee Turnover Intention In Hybrid And Remote Work Environments, Christopher S. Mendoza

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The existing literature extensively documents the prevalence of micromanagement in traditional organizational structures. However, there is a notable gap in research regarding its impact on daily operations within non-traditional work environments, such as hybrid and remote settings. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between micromanagement and turnover intention in these evolving workplace models. A sample of 25 participants who had experienced micromanagement in hybrid and remote work environments was selected for this study, with no additional selection criteria imposed. Findings indicated that 24 participants experienced declines in morale, directly contributing to increased turnover intention. Furthermore, financial …

Succession Planning: Lessons From A Qualitative Single Case Study Of Ceo Behaviors Within A Small To Medium Enterprise Hospitality Industry Organization, Denise Mazzei

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

For hospitality organizations to innovate in every direction and attract, engage, and retain their most potential internal talent, the CEOs of their organizations must prioritize succession planning within their organization’s strategic plans. In small to medium enterprise hospitality organizations, some CEOs overlook succession planning as a strategic imperative. Within the context of SME hospitality organizations, this qualitative method single case study research project focused on answering three questions to illuminate why some CEOs do not prioritize succession planning among the multiplicity of their responsibilities. The first question explored whether there is a need for CEO succession planning. The second question …

Letters From The Periphery: L.E. Faulkner’S Crusade Against Communism, Cameron Melendez

Honors Theses

This thesis explores L.E. Faulkner’s political activism. Faulkner, a railroad executive from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, launched a number of anti-communist crusades throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Utilizing his personal correspondence, political articles, and newspapers, this thesis argues that anti-communist networks were influential and powerful tools used by Faulkner and other local activists to shape the national discourse around anti-communism. Faulkner created an interconnected web of anti-communists that linked protestant fundamentalism, capitalist advocacy, racial politics, and Americanism. His 1943–1944 civic education campaigns with Rotary International and Kiwanis International and his 1954 opposition to the World Council of Churches serve as case studies …

Analysing Bell Experiments Through Test Factors: Applications To Randomness And Strength Of Nonlocality, Soumyadip Patra

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This work presents practical tools to analyse Bell experiments---experiments demonstrating correlations that defy classical explanations and proving that nature violates local realism. We begin by showing that in the Bell scenario specified by n parties with each party having a choice of m binary-outcome measurements---the (n,m,2) scenario---projecting weakly-signalling settings-conditional outcome distributions onto the smallest-dimensional affine subspace (containing the no-signalling set) via an L^2-distance-minimising map preserves correlators. This result ensures that Bell inequalities written in terms of correlators remain invariant under such projections, and we provide an efficient construction method for the projection operator that avoids computationally costly steps such as …

Toward Robust Semantic Segmentation In Levee Infrastructure Monitoring: Enhancing Accuracy With High-Fidelity Synthetic Data And Ensemble Learning, Padam Jung Thapa

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Abstract: Levees serve as critical flood protection structures, but failures due to inadequate maintenance and extreme water pressures have led to devastating events such as Hurricane Katrina. Manual inspections are slow, labor-intensive, and prone to human error, necessitating the development of automated solutions. This study proposes an AI-driven framework for levee inspection utilizing deep learning-based semantic segmentation to detect rutting and enhance the identification of sand boils. To address dataset limitations, high-fidelity synthetic images are generated using DreamBooth for fine-tuning, while ControlNet adds structural constraints to enhance realism and consistency. A semi-automatic convex hull annotation technique enhances labeling efficiency, and …

Experimental And Computational Investigation Of Using Passive Sweeping Mist Jet Film Cooling Via Fluidic Oscillators In The Gas Turbine Application, Mohammad Javad Mohaghegh Kojidi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

As the energy industry transitions to cleaner fuels like hydrogen, the resulting higher flame temperatures pose significant challenges for gas turbine cooling. Mist-enhanced film cooling using sweeping jets, generated by passive fluidic oscillators, offers a promising solution by providing wider and more uniform coolant coverage. This study combines computational and experimental (using Particle Droplet Phase Analyzer) approaches to evaluate sweeping mist jet performance.

Simulations were conducted under laboratory conditions to investigate the influence of droplet wall boundary conditions—reflect, trap, and wall-film—on cooling effectiveness and droplet dynamics. The wall-film model, motivated by observed liquid streaks, demonstrated the best agreement with experiments. …

Analysis Of Hydrological Model Uncertainty In The Response Of Farmers' Decision Models: A Case Study From The Lower Mississippi River Basin Region, Aayush Khadka

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Ever since human have evolved on planet earth, they have been dependent on water resources for almost every aspect of their lives. From food production to industry, water has been an integral part of the ever-growing human civilization. Increasing reliance on water has resulted in development of effective and sustainable management strategies. However, water management has remained a complex task due to different human and natural stressors. Hydro-economic models are powerful tools that have been widely used to study water resource systems, management options, economic values, and infrastructures. They have been used to analyze the Water-Energy-Food nexus, climatic interactions, and …

Investigating The Feasibility Of Developing A Fully Solar-Driven Combined Cycle Design, Mazdak Gorji

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the feasibility of a thermal solar-only combined cycle power plant, a concept rarely investigated despite its potential to outperform photovoltaic systems in energy efficiency. Unlike typical hybrid models that use solar energy as a supplement to fuel, this research focuses on a solar-only system that operates a true Brayton-Rankine combined cycle for continuous 24/7 power generation. The study established an efficiency benchmark, comparing eighteen solar generation scenarios across different storage and power block configurations to assess whether the concept was worth pursuing, which it proved to be. Following this, the research focused on simulation, validating ThermoFlex software …

Effects Of Mississippi River Borrow Area Design On Riverine Sediment Transport Using Delft 3d, Kiara B. Horton

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This research uses a Delft3D model to investigate the impacts of Mississippi River borrow areas on the Mississippi River navigation channel. The largest navigation concerns for the Mississippi River are operation and maintenance costs down; this includes costs of transportation and dredging. Borrow areas are created to supplement beneficial use of dredge material in various projects. Borrow areas are designed to a standard set of guidelines, according to Coastal Protection and Restoration authority (CPRA), and consider impacts to the navigation channel by requiring and minimum distance from the navigation channel. This study models the total sediment transport and amount of …

Foodways As Agentive Response To Disaster In Colonial New Orleans: The French Quarter Fires Of 1788 And 1794, Helen V. Bouzon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Disasters have plagued the City of New Orleans since its foundation in 1718. This year marks the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. Most locals have personal memories of Hurricane Katrina or have friends and family who experienced the storm. The effects of Hurricane Katrina were far-reaching and often life-changing. However, Hurricane Katrina is not the only major disaster to have left an indelible mark on the landscape and culture of New Orleans. Two fires in the eighteenth century destroyed significant portions of the colony and left approximately seventy percent of the population homeless. And yet, we know very little about …

Ai-Powered Inspection: A Computer Vision System For Efficient Defects Detection In Underground Infrastructures, Rasha Alshawi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Undetected defects in culverts and sewer pipes pose significant risks to public safety, leading to infrastructure collapses, flooding, and transportation disruptions. Traditional manual inspections are time-consuming, costly, and prone to human error, while existing automated methods struggle with occlusions, irregular defect shapes, class imbalances, and high computational demands. To address these challenges, this dissertation develops advanced semantic segmentation systems that automate defect detection, significantly improving efficiency and accuracy.

This research introduces a series of innovative models designed to overcome these challenges in underground infrastructure inspection. Using dual-attentive mechanisms, sparsely connected blocks, and depth-separable convolutions, these models improve segmentation performance and …

Precooling Ventilation Air For Hospital Operating Rooms And The Affects On Terminal Box Reheat, Joel F. Luke Jr

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates the impact of climate on the energy performance of two HVAC system configurations—AL1, a conventional air handling system, and AL2, which incorporates a pre-cooling coil and discharge air temperature (DAT) reset strategy. Using EnergyPlus simulations, each system was modeled across multiple U.S. cities representing a wide range of climate zones. Results show that AL2 significantly reduces plant energy consumption, with an average energy savings of 66.61\% compared to AL1. These savings were nearly evenly split between reductions in heating and cooling demands.

A weather normalization analysis using cooling and heating degree days (CDD65 and HDD65) revealed a …

Life After Leaving College: A Phenomenological Exploration Of Senior-Year Transition And Future Self Ideation For Cisgender Women In A Post-Dobbs Sociopolitical Context, Abigail Lukens

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

The Senior-Year Transition, first named by Gardner and Van der Veer (1995), is defined as the final period of the undergraduate experience before transitioning into graduate school or the workplace. Few studies have investigated gender differences in this transition, and additional research is needed on women’s Senior-Year Transition experiences and the impact of context on experience. This is especially relevant as women and other pregnancy capable people navigate a new, post-Dobbs sociopolitical context in the United States with implications for their reproductive health and future family or life planning. Using a qualitative, interpretive phenomenological research design with a modified …

English Literacy Instruction In The Early Elementary Years: An Ecological Grounded Theory Of Teacher Decision Making In American Jewish Day Schools, Margaret Elizabeth "Maggie" Madere

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Jewish Day Schools are mission-driven institutions tasked with providing both secular and Judaic education, ensuring the survival of Jewish faith and culture while teaching general academic subjects. Teachers in these schools face the challenge of balancing the need to foster Jewish culture with the requirement to provide a complete secular education, including foundational literacy skills in English for early elementary students. With limited time dedicated to general studies, teachers must make complex decisions about curriculum priorities. This grounded theory study explored how general studies teachers in early elementary grades (kindergarten through third grade) at American Jewish Day Schools decide on …

Animal Burrow Detection In Levee Systems Using Res-Net 34, Christopher D. Moore

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Animal burrow detection is a time-consuming and costly task for levee inspectors. Annual budgets run up to approximately $16 million per state. The inspectors typically will have to travel to the inspection sites using government-assigned transportation. Depending on the distance to the site, it may take minutes or hours to arrive before any productive inspections occur. Once at the site, the inspectors were subject to human error, overgrown foliage, severe weather, or prohibitive landscaping that would make any human inspection impossible. Also, animal burrows could be small enough or overgrown, so the human inspector misses the problem areas. We aimed …

Overlapping Clinical Phenotypes In Patients With Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia Or Activated Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Delta Syndrome, Adam J Shapiro, Eveline Y Wu, Deborah J Morris-Rosendahl, Kenneth N Olivier, Sharon D Dell, Scott D Sagel, Cullen M Dutmer, Ricardo A Mosquera, Markus Rose, Michael G O'Connor, Chi A Ma, Gulbu Uzel, Timothy J Vece, Maimoona A Zariwala, Michael R Knowles, Margaret W Leigh, Stephanie D Davis, Thomas W Ferkol

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Primary ciliary dyskinesia and activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta syndrome type 1 present similarly, with recurrent respiratory infections and reduced nasal nitric oxide levels. When diagnostic confirmation of primary ciliary dyskinesia with genetic testing and/or ciliary electron microscopy is inconclusive, activated phosphoinositide 3-kinase delta syndrome type 1 and other inborn errors of immunity must be investigated.

Digital Twins, Synthetic Patient Data, And In-Silico Trials: Can They Empower Paediatric Clinical Trials?, Joseph Hagan, Nima Aghaeepour, Josef Neu

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Randomised controlled trials are the gold standard to assess the effectiveness and safety of clinical interventions; however, many paediatric trials are discontinued early due to challenges in patient enrolment. Hence, most paediatric clinical trials suffer from lack of adequate power. Additionally, trials are expensive and might expose patients to unproven therapies. Alternatives to overcome these issues using virtual patient data—namely, digital twins, synthetic patient data, and in-silico trials—are now possible due to rapid advances in digital health-care tools and interventions. However, such digital innovations have been rarely used in paediatric trials. In this Viewpoint, we propose using virtual patient data …

Approaching The Uno Volumetric Piv, Dugan Ewelt-Mcauliffe

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis provides necessary background, theory, set-up procedure, and processing recommendations for the correct operation of the University of New Orleans Bosie Bollinger School of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering tomographic particle image velocimeter (PIV). PIV is a useful tool for the fluid dynamitist, and the College’s PIV is a state-of-the-art example able to make high precision 3D fluid velocity measurements within a fluid volume. Using the PIV is hardly easy though. It takes a dedicated effort to set-up, precise calibration, and an understanding of how the system works to be able to properly run an experiment. This paper details …

Challenges And Opportunities Of Acquiring Cortical Recordings For Chronic Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation, Wayne K Goodman, Aysegul Gunduz, Wolf-Julian Neumann, Nicole R Provenza, Maryam M Shanechi, Sameer A Sheth, Philip A Starr, Alik S Widge

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Deep brain stimulation (DBS), a proven treatment for movement disorders, also holds promise for the treatment of psychiatric and cognitive conditions. However, for DBS to be clinically effective, it may require DBS technology that can alter or trigger stimulation in response to changes in biomarkers sensed from the patient's brain. A growing body of evidence suggests that such adaptive DBS is feasible, it might achieve clinical effects that are not possible with standard continuous DBS and that some of the best biomarkers are signals from the cerebral cortex. Yet capturing those markers requires the placement of cortex-optimized electrodes in addition …

Interplay Between Skeletal Muscle Catabolism And Remodeling Of Arteriovenous Fistula By Yes-Associated Protein 1 (Yap1) Signaling, Yongdong Wu, Tae Hoon Lee, Owen H Cheng, Eric K Peden, Qingtian Li, Jun Wang, Fengzhang Huang, Marites P Melancon, David Sheikh-Hamad, Tao Wang, Luan Truong, William E Mitch, Ming Liang, Jizhong Cheng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Key Points:

1. Atrophied muscle–derived myostatin stimulated mesenchymal stem cell differentiation and adverse arteriovenous (AV) fistula remodeling through yes-associated protein 1 (YAP1) activation.

2. Treatment with myostatin peptibody inhibited muscle wasting and blocked mesenchymal stem cell activation and AV fistula fibrosis.

3. A light-sensitive drug-release strategy was engineered for the periadventitial delivery of verteporfin to improve AV fistula patency.

Background: Arteriovenous (AV) fistulas are the preferred access for dialysis but have a high incidence of failure. The aim of this study was to understand the crosstalk between skeletal muscle catabolism and AV fistula maturation failure.

Methods: Skeletal muscle metabolism and AV fistula maturation …

Nanoparticle Contrast-Enhanced Computed Tomography And Magnetic Resonance Imaging Of Vascularization Of A Subcutaneous Niche For Islet Transplantation, Renuka T R Menon, Rohan Bhavane, Gabrielle E Rome, Laxman Devkota, Ketan B Ghaghada, Ananth V Annapragada, Corrine Ying Xuan Chua, Andrew A Badachhape, Alessandro Grattoni

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Revascularization plays a critical role in the successful engraftment of transplanted pancreatic islets, which are inherently rich in capillaries to meet their high metabolic demands. Innovative islet encapsulation strategies such as the NICHE (neovascularized implantable cell homing and encapsulation), generate a prevascularized transplantation site that allows for direct integration of the graft with the systemic circulation. Timing the transplantation is key to maximizing islet engraftment and survival, especially in diabetic individuals, who exhibit impaired wound healing. Therefore, in this study, we explored different methods to assess vascular development within NICHE in vivo in a non-invasive fashion. We effectively tracked neoangiogenesis …

Development Of A Probabilistic Interaction Rule And Failure Pressure Model For Pipelines With A Colony Of Corrosion Defects, Kiswendsida J. Kere, Qindan Huang

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

The interaction effect originating from a defect colony can pose a higher pipeline failure risk than the case when such possible interaction is not considered. Recognizing the limitations in existing models that can lead to inaccurate pipeline integrity assessment, the goal of this study is to develop a probabilistic interaction rule and predictive burst failure pressure model for pipelines with a colony of corrosion defects. First, a comprehensive database of burst failure pressure for pipes with a colony of corrosion is established that encompasses a wide range of influencing factors (e.g., spacing, defect sizes, and material properties) on the defect …

Understanding The Breadth And Impact Of The Ias [President’S Message], Ayman El-Refaie

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.