Digital Commons Network^™

Peacock Competency Model For Online Library Instruction, Rebeca Peacock

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Academic librarians are an integral part of academia offering niche expertise that benefits faculty and students alike. But they often lack specific guidance on developing competencies for the online teaching that is increasingly expected of them. This article addresses the lack of field specific guidance for academic librarians' online teaching by proposing a competency model grounded in expert practice. The study used semi-structured interviews with 18 academic librarians to address this gap asking: what knowledge, skills, and attitudes are needed for academic librarians to be successful in providing effective online library instruction?

2026 Jan Term Course Catalog, Saint Mary's College Of California

Jan Term Course Catalog

No abstract provided.

The Protective Power Of Psychological Resources In Mitigating Burnout And Enhancing Flourishing, Dylan R. Polkinghorne, David J. Radosevich, Deirdre M. Radosevich, Dianne D. Murphy, Laken James, Sue S. Craver

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

This study explores how burnout mediates the relationships between critical psychological resources, specifically resilience, flow and self-efficacy, and flourishing in contemporary work environments.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 374 participants, including undergraduate students at a regional comprehensive university in the Midwest and full-time working adults in the USA, were analyzed using mediation analysis in MPlus 8.11 to assess the indirect and direct effects among burnout, psychological resources and flourishing in a work environment.

Findings

Results indicate that self-efficacy significantly predicts lower burnout levels and higher flourishing. Resilience and flow were negatively associated with burnout, reducing its impact; however, the direct effects …

Review Of Theology And Catholic Higher Education: Beyond Our Identity Crisis, Joseph Simmons

Theology Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Student And School Technology Adoption On Student Reading Achievement In The United States: The Case Of Pisa 2018, Mikah J. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

This study examined the relationship between student and school-level information and communication technology (ICT) factors and reading achievement using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2018 in the United States. In an increasingly digital world, reading and information literacy are essential skills, yet significant gaps in digital competencies persist. This study investigated how ICT access, use, and perceptions relate to reading achievement in the context of student and school background factors.

A two-level hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) framework was employed to account for the nested structure of students within schools. The sample included approximately 4,000 students across …

Act Thompson Garden Project: Proposal And Accessibility Recommendations, Craig A. Condella, María Barragan, Olivia Costa, Kate Markowski, Sophiabella Nebroski

ENV 334 Environmental Justice

As a community oriented environmental justice project, the authors researched community gardens in school settings to make recommendations regarding the building of a community/school garden at Thompson Middle School in Newport, RI.

National Security And Statecraft: A Case Study Of Sweden's Political Discourse Surrounding The Civilian-Military Geostrategic Nexus And The Application For Membership In Nato, Martina Sprague

Ph.D. Dissertations (Open Access)

This dissertation examines Sweden’s political discourse on NATO membership following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. While Sweden had long cooperated with NATO, a broad political consensus historically favored neutrality/non-alignment to maintain the country’s role as an impartial peace mediator. Right-leaning parties generally supported closer NATO ties, whereas left-leaning parties opposed membership, citing over 200 years of peace. Yet even conservative leaders like former Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt cautioned that joining NATO could escalate tensions. Russia’s invasion prompted a reassessment of Sweden’s security policy and ignited intense debate. Party positions were shaped by security concerns, ideological traditions, and domestic politics. Some …

Rhode Island Extremist Group Activity: Threat Levels And Trends, Robert J. Hehl, Gabrielius Bazikas, Daniel Brien, Rebecca Morrison

CJC 450 - Criminal Justice and Criminology Capstone

This Capstone Research Assessment (CRA) will focus on extremist group threats to public safety in Rhode Island. This paper will analyze regional trends in extremist group activity and recent demonstrations and conclude with recommendations for policies and procedures to mitigate the potential for future violent demonstrations.

The Nature Of The National Security Threat To Key Rhode Island Maritime Industrial Defense Sector Companies, Robert J. Hehl, Isabella Gannon, Madelyn Hudson, Patrick Malpass, Samantha Ronci

CJC 450 - Criminal Justice and Criminology Capstone

This Capstone Research Assessment (CRA) will assess the nature of the national security threat to Key Rhode Island maritime industrial defense sector companies posed by domestic and foreign capital investors. Through identification, evaluation and risk assessment of these domestic and foreign investors, this CRA will identify probable threat actors and the key technologies they may be targeting. This CRA will conclude with recommendations for preventing future domestic and foreign infiltration of sensitive US maritime defense industrial sector companies in protecting United States defense technologies and capabilities, strategic defense planning and overall national security.

Not On My Zoning Board: Achieving Mass Transit Development Despite Nimby Pushback, Brian J. Koluch

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Within the political discussion on local, state, and federal levels, all politicians seem to agree that U.S. Interstates are a crucial lifeline for many. Conjointly, city planners and scholars understand that we have a logistics issue in cities that can’t seem to handle highway congestion. When prompted with mass transit solutions, some community members protest them for altering the neighborhood in a presumably negative way, leading to the phrase; “Not in my back yard.” Thus, local governing bodies seem paralyzed to take the actions needed to move forward with these implementation strategies. Local governments, in order to circumvent the socially …

“Good Don’T Listen”: Application Of Situational Crisis Communication Theory To Online Cancelation, Teresa R. Sacchinelli

ENG 490 Senior Seminar Capstone

The cancel culture movement forces organizations to learn how to address a new kind of online crisis. Corporations use Situational Crisis Communication Theory (SCCT) to alleviate the reputational threat from an ongoing crisis. This study examines SCCT potential application in addressing cancelation through analysis of pop star The Weeknd’s response to backlash regarding his HBO show The Idol (2023). Findings revealed use of SCCT strategies in The Weeknd’s tweets, interviews, and press conference during the cancelation, but failure to follow theory guidelines, resulting in an ineffective reputation recouperation. Thus, the study finds possible application of the theory for cancelation if …

Challenges To Export Control Regimes (Itars) And Project Shield America (Psa), Robert J. Hehl, Colleen Faucher, Magaret Guidone, Joseph Salute, Marchello Delucia

CJC 450 - Criminal Justice and Criminology Capstone

This Capstone Research Assessment (CRA) will review the challenges to enforcement of export controls (ITARs) regimes and the challenges to the Department of Homeland Security program, Project Shield America, in protecting United States proprietary information and property from foreign threats.

Intelligent Audio‑To‑Indian Sign‑Language And Sign‑To‑Audio Translation System Using Mediapipe, Tensorflow, Whisper And Google Tts, N. Pothanna, T. Kusuma, S. Haindavi, T. Sreeja, Shaik Shaheem Taj

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Communication barriers between the Deaf community and the general public remain a persistent challenge, particularly in multilingual settings where Indian Sign Language (ISL) is the primary mode of interaction. We propose a real-time bidirectional translation framework integrating MediaPipe for hand landmark extraction, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier built with TensorFlow/Keras for gesture recognition, OpenAI Whisper for robust multilingual speech-to-text transcription, and Google TTS for naturalistic speech synthesis. The system achieves 93% classification accuracy across 35 ISL classes (alphabets A–Z and numerals 1–9) on a dataset of 42,700 images, with macro and weighted F1-scores of 0.93. Deployed as a Flask …

Impact Of Trauma-Informed Models In Schools, Amber R. Clinton

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores trauma-informed models in schools and the impact on students in different educational settings. Trauma-informed models are systemic changes that support all students in school, but it is especially important for students who have experienced trauma. This model helps them feel safe in the school environment. This paper reviews literature on how trauma-informed models impact student behaviors, academics, and learning within traditional educational approaches and special education settings. The research also reviews gaps, for instance it is unclear what parts of trauma-informed models contribute to positive outcomes for students in school. The gaps also revealed the need for …

Disproportionality: The Impact Identifying Students For Special Education, John M. Bradford

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the topic of disproportionality as it relates to the special education population. Disproportionality is an area of interest for this researcher, who wanted to explore and learn more about disproportionality, the true numbers behind it, the consequences of overrepresentation, and the consequences of our current system for addressing it. Some populations of students have been seemingly overidentified for special education, and current thinking suggests that these services may have negative consequences for the groups that are overidentified. Disproportionality data were reexamined, along with the concept of whether proportional representation in special education should be expected. Additionally, …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Burrowing And Subterranean Locomotion In The Sand Lance Using A Transparent Sediment, Issei Fujita, Makoto Tomiyasu, Jun Yamamoto, Yasuzumi Fujimori

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Sand lances (Ammodytes spp.) rely on rapid burrowing into sediment for predator avoidance. Although their sediment grain-size preferences are well documented, the biomechanics underlying burrowing success remain unclear because natural substrates are opaque. Using a transparent-sediment system, we directly visualized and quantified burrowing kinematics to: (1) test the effect of body size (total length, TL) on burrowing success; (2) examine entry mechanisms (e.g., swimming speed, entry angle); and (3) describe locomotion within sediment. Logistic regression on the full dataset (N = 28 fish) identified TL as the primary determinant of success, with larger individuals exhibiting significantly higher success …

Cruise Network Design Under Sequential Duopolistic Entry, Ta-Hui Yang, Ching-Hui Tang, Wan-Tien O

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study addresses the network design for international cruise services in a duopolistic market, where carriers enter and make decisions sequentially. The leader, who makes the first move, makes decisions as there is no competitor in the market. The follower, who makes decisions later, has to design their network considering the existing leader’s network. The leader’s model is a mixed integer linear problem while the follower’s model is a mixed integer nonlinear problem. Therefore, a heuristic is proposed to solve the problem. The commercially available general algebraic modeling system is used in conjunction with its different solvers to solve the …

Effect Of Heat Treatment On The Corrosion And Wear Behavior Of 17-4 Ph Stainless Steel For Marine Applications, Syuan Tai, I-Kon Lee, Ming-Yuan Lin, Kang-Yu Liao, Chin-Chun Chang, Hung-Bin Lee

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study explores the tribocorrosion behavior of conventionally cast 17-4 PH stainless steel under real seawater conditions, focusing on the effects of three heat treatments (Solution, H900, H1100). Electrochemical tests, tribocorrosion experiments, SEM, XPS, and quantitative analysis were used to establish a three-stage tribocorrosion mechanism. Results show that H900 exhibits superior corrosion and wear resistance, while H1100 suffers increased material loss and surface cracking at high potentials. Elemental analysis revealed NbC migration forming third-body particles, which, although briefly reducing friction, induced local stress concentration and crack initiation. The findings highlight the critical influence of microstructure, passive film stability, and third-body …

Enhancing Underwater Imagery And Organism Detection Using Reinforcement Learning, K. Arul Deepa, P. Ramya, Karpaga Vinodha, Dharmaraja C

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Underwater environments pose significant challenges in assessing image quality and organism detection due to light scattering and absorption, which limits visibility and color fidelity. Existing solutions often fail to effectively address these challenges, resulting in suboptimal image quality and hindering organism identification. This paper examines the problem through a dual-focused approach: enhancing underwater images and detecting organisms using the Underwater Image Enhancement Benchmark (UIEB) dataset. The first step introduces a state-of-the-art method for image enhancement by applying reinforcement learning (RL) principles. By formulating the enhancement process as a Markov Decision Process (MDP)—where states are represented by image features and actions …

Intentional Reflection Of Student Experiences During Graduate Nursing Education, Laura Gray Phd, Steven Busby, Aine O'Connor, Julie Honey

Funded Scholarship

Background: Nurse practitioners can help fill needs for primary care providers but first must successfully transition from registered nurse through graduate education, which presents challenges and opportunities for growth.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe experiences of nurses during the first semester of graduate school. Methods: Reflections of 23 students were analyzed by nursing faculty using qualitative descriptive methods.

Results: Five main concepts were identified by students: Academic performance, Challenges, Emotions, Linking coursework to future role, and Support.

Conclusion: Reflective journaling may help students process and adapt to challenges of graduate school.

Hear Me Out: A Lesson In Civil Discourse, Cheryl Black

Funded Scholarship

This article describes an innovative and engaging lecture and class exercise designed to 

teach students how to think critically about issues from different perspectives and communicate effectively with those who disagree with them. The interactive lecture and class exercise introduce a civil discourse framework to encourage constructive dialogue. Developed for business law and ethics courses, the civil discourse framework enhances any curriculum that addresses controversial topics or different perspectives on complex issues. The lecture and class exercise offer a concrete, replicable model to teach civil discourse

Launching A Neonatal Resuscitation Escape Room To Combat High Infant Mortality Rates, Ellen Marie Campos, Kathryn L. Dambrino, Jennifer Sternberg, Taryn Mccoy, Shelby L. Lea, Kendell Natt, Lyn S. Prater, Weiming Ke, Leena Lourduswamy, Sheela Victor, Vernonsiya Kirubha, Beth Hallmark, Julie Honey

Funded Scholarship

Background: In South India, infant mortality rates are high, and nurses require advanced training to respond to infants in infant distress. Evidence shows that improved nurse competency in neonatal resuscitation (NNR) and the ability of students to recognize and respond to distressed infants have led to decreased infant mortality rates.

Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to design and implement a simulated escape room to improve NNR outcomes among undergraduate students in South India.

Methods: This quality improvement project used a quantitative descriptive design. Undergraduate nursing students from 6 schools in South India completed an asynchronous maternal–fetal …

(Not So) Common Courtesy, Michael Saba

Journal of the Macomb Dental Society

This article features a monthly column from the Macomb Dental Society's editor, Dr. Michael Saba. This month Dr. Saba shares a story that reminds readers to both be courteous and to enforce it early with patients.

Amyloidoma Of The Palate, Philip Bacigalupo D.D.S., Nora Odingo B.D.S., D.M.D., M.P.H.

The New York State Dental Journal

There have been 17 reported cases of isolated amyloid deposition (amyloidoma) of the hard palate (Table 1). We present an 18th case, with a review of the literature on amyloidosis. Systemic conditions, such as multiple myeloma, must be ruled out when amyloid deposition is present. However, localized amyloidoma of the palate is rare, and there are few cases reported in the literature.

Going Green: Can We Save Teeth And The Planet?, Stuart Segelnick Dds, Ms

The New York State Dental Journal

You might not think you have a role to play in combatting climate change, but dentists can make a difference by reducing plastics in their offices.

No Need To Travel The Road To Licensure Renewal Alone, Brenda Turner

The New York State Dental Journal

NYSDA has the Tool to Support Dentists Every Step of the Way

Ips Subperiosteal Implant For The Maxilla And Mandible, Tal Sastow, Ian Mark, Edward Woodbine, Jared Miller, Erik D. Gilroy, Harry Dym

The New York State Dental Journal

This two-case report presents the use of the Individual Patient Solutions (IPS) Implants® Preprosthetic system in two patients with distinct clinical needs.

Case #1 involves a 69-year-old male with significant unilateral maxillary bone loss and a residual oroantral communication (OAC) following the failure of both conventional implants and sinus lift procedures. Case #2 involves a patient with a severely atrophic, edentulous mandible. These cases present two distinct and challenging clinical scenarios where both traditional endosseous and zygomatic implants were not feasible. Both cases were successfully managed with a custom-designed IPS subperiosteal implant.

This innovative approach involves a rigidly fixated, stable …

Network Leasing Or Dental Insurance Fleecing?, Stuart Segelnick Dds, Ms

The New York State Dental Journal

Let’s put an end to dental insurance billing surprises.

Oral Myeloid Sarcoma: Rare Presentation Of Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia With Adverse Molecular Profile, Lauren A. Musial, Naomi Ramer Dds

The New York State Dental Journal

Myeloid sarcoma is a rare extramedullary presentation of acute myeloid leukemia and is especially uncommon in the oral cavity. The presence of myeloid sarcoma may be the initial manifestation of an underlying hematolymphoid disorder or may indicate relapsing disease. We report a case of a 48-year-old male with refractory acute myeloid leukemia who presented with a painful, yellow, plaque-like ulceration on the buccal mucosa. Incisional biopsy demonstrated ulcerated squamous mucosa with a dense infiltrate of large, atypical immunoblastic cells admixed with a prominent population of morphologically atypical eosinophils. These findings were consistent with myeloid sarcoma in the context of the …

N Y State Dent J June 2026

The New York State Dental Journal

In the June/July 2026 issue, the reader will find the following feature articles:

• HIV Screenings in Dental Settings: Feasibility, Challenges and Opportunities
• Oral Myeloid Sarcoma
• Generational Differences in Dentistry and Dental Practice

This issue includes regular columns with regional news impacting the New York membership including editorial and perspectives columns, legal, association activities, component news, continuing education opportunities, and classifieds.