Digital Commons Network^™

De-Skilling Or Re-Skilling? The Case For Smarter Writing Assignments, John Lande

Faculty Publications

This article challenges the assumption that AI inevitably leads to the de-skilling of law students.  Some faculty understandably fear that students will use AI to bypass critical thinking and avoid meaningful effort.  This article reframes AI as a potential catalyst for improving legal education rather than inherently a threat.

Concerns about de-skilling generally are based on the assumption that faculty will not change traditional writing assignments.  This article analyzes why these assignments often fail to help students develop strong analytical and writing skills. These include limited instruction in basic writing skills, poor design, lack of feedback, and faculty inertia in …

Sharing Patient-Generated Health Data With Electronic Health Record: A Standardised Provenance And Context-Rich Information Model And Clinician Evaluation, Abdullahi Abubakar Kawu

Dissertations

With the advent of Patient-Generated Health Data (PGHD) through wearable, mobile, and home monitoring systems, there is immense potential for ongoing monitoring and patient engagement. But integrating PGHD with Electronic Health Record (EHR) is challenged by sub-optimal support for contextual metadata and its relevant elements, lack of semantic interoperability among disparate systems, poor knowledge regarding the factors that impact clinician acceptance, and absence of globally agreed standards for data exchange. This thesis explores how contextually relevant patient-generated health data can be shared with EHRs through a FAIR standardized information model that ensures semantic and syntactic interoperability.

The study addresses six …

Potential Of Crispr/Cas9 Genome Engineering For Biofuel Production From Economically Relevant Algae, Sundram Kumar, Ankur J. Phillips, Bashir Adelodun, Francesco Di Maria, Suresh Sundaramurthy, Tarun Pal

Arusha Climate and Environmental Research Centre

The worldwide energy demand continues to rise, while reliance on fossil fuels remains unsustainable due to global warming, declining reserves and rising oil prices. This has intensified the search for renewable alternatives. Among these, microscopic algae have emerged as a promising feedstock for third-generation biofuels. Owing to their rapid biomass productivity, high lipid content and ability to generate diverse bioproducts, microalgae offer distinct advantages over terrestrial plants. Lipids derived from algae can be converted into biodiesel, while their biomass yields valuable co-products such as carbohydrates, proteins and polyunsatu- rated fatty acids (FAs). These attributes position algae as critical contributors to …

A Case Of Median Raphe Cysts In 8-Year-Old Male, Christina Guo, Marshall Hall, Garrett Furth, Henry Lim, Olivia Gruver, Dustin Wilkes, Stephen E. Weis

North Texas GME Research Forum 2026

Background: The median raphe cyst is a rare, benign, congenital condition characterized by small, fluid-filled cysts that develop along the ventral midline of male external genitalia. These cysts are usually asymptomatic during infancy and childhood but tend to grow in size as the patient grows. These can become cosmetically concerning or symptomatic due to swelling, irritation, and discomfort. They may also present social and psychological stress to patients and families. We present a case of median raphe cysts in an 8-year-old male.

Case Presentation: An 8-year-old male without a prior medical history who presented to dermatology for penile lesions. He …

Inpatient Dermatology: Dermatology Consults At Medical City Fort Worth, Olivia Gruver, Marshall Hall, Henry Lim, Christina Guo, Garrett Furth, Stephen E. Weis, Dustin Wilkes, Michael Carletti

North Texas GME Research Forum 2026

Background: Inpatient dermatology is an important yet evolving field. There has been a linear decrease in the number of dermatologists providing inpatient care and in the number of medical centers with an inpatient dermatology service. Medical centers with inpatient dermatology services are unevenly distributed geographically, with most in larger metropolitan areas. There is still a great need for dermatologic expertise in the inpatient setting. We aim to examine the utility of the dermatologic consult service, including the most common chief complaints and conditions that prompted consultation over four months at Medical City Fort Worth.

Methods: This was a retrospective chart …

The Effects Of Attending Prediabetes Prevention Workshops On Improving Students' Awareness, Knowledge, And Interest, Madelene Hamann

DNP Research Projects

Abstract

Objective:This DNP project evaluated the effectiveness of a five-week educational intervention on adolescents’ knowledge of prediabetes, awareness, and intentions to adopt healthy lifestyle behaviors. Method and Intervention:Youth aged 13 to 18 years participated in five 40-minute school-based workshops. Outcomes were measured using the Adolescent Diabetes Awareness Test (ADAT), Health Belief Model (HBM), and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) workshop evaluation. Effect sizes and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to determine clinical relevance. Results:The intervention had a large, clinically relevant effect on prediabetes knowledge and awareness measured by the ADAT (Hedges’ g = 1.10) …

Utilizing Youth Mental Health First Aid: A Community-Based Prevention Strategy To Increase Teh Confidence Levels Of Seventh-Day Adventist Adults In Assisting Youth With Mental Health Distress, Sarah Hillebert

DNP Research Projects

Abstract 

Objective: Youth Mental Health First Aid (YMHFA) is an initiative from the National Council for Mental Wellness that trains adults in identifying and responding to adolescents exhibiting mental health distress. This DNP project evaluated the effectiveness of YMHFA in increasing the mental health literacy and confidence scores of Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) adults. Method: quality improvement, pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used. Participants were SDA adults aged 22 to 74 who work with youth in school, church, or camp settings (n=19; Mean age = 48.5 years, SD = 10.5). The quantitative MHFA 2.1 measured mental health literacy and confidence to intervene, …

Improving Pid Control With Bayesian Optimization For Adversarially Robust Federated Learning, Adrian Pena, Sergei Chuprov, Raman Zatsarenko, Leon Reznik

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Federated Learning (FL) often suffers from unstable convergence and reduced robustness under non-IID data and malicious attacks. In this paper, we present FedPIDAvg_tuned, a control-theoretic aggregation framework for improving stability and adversarial robustness in FL. In particular, our approach combines a server-side Proportional–Integral–Derivative (PID) controller with Bayesian optimization to tune controller gains for different data and attack conditions. The PID controller regulates global model updates through feedback on loss dynamics, providing adaptive scaling that improves stability and convergence. The tuned gains are applied within a trust-weighted trimmed-mean mechanism to remove adversarial or outlier updates. Using the Flower framework, we evaluate …

Monitoring, Oversight, And Learning In Medical Ai, W. Nicholson Price Ii

Articles

When medical AI errs, it often goes unnoticed. If there’s a specific patient injury, and the link to AI is obvious, that problem might be reported to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but not always. And many other types of problems, like worse performance on specific groups or ineffective integration into health system workflows, simply don’t fall within the contours of regularized reporting. Even if they are noticed by the health system—far from a given—there’s no obvious way to share that information more broadly. Against this backdrop, there are justified calls for better oversight and reporting. But there’s the …

Junior Public Health Service Officer Mentor Program: Developing New Leaders In The United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps For Workforce Retention, Felecia Annetta Bailey

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Junior Public Health Service Officer Mentor Program: Developing New Leaders in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps for Workforce Retention

Mentorship is a critical tool for preparing junior personnel for senior roles, professional development and retention within organizations; however, formal mentorship is often lacking or insufficiently tailored to the needs of diverse workforces, particularly in organizations comprising uniformed service members and civilian employees. This project was designed to provide targeted mentorship for Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps junior officers and to modify an existing mentoring program that primarily served civilian personnel.

The project aimed to modify the …

Optimization Of Social Determinants Of Health Data With Z Code Utilization In Inpatient Care, Felicia Cordia Alleyne

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

The U.S. healthcare system is characterized as being costly, wasteful, and fraught with inequity, due to historical disparities and contemporary challenges such as the aftermath of the COVID 19 pandemic and recent international policy changes that raise the costs of materials and imports. There is evidence to support that with the use of social determinants of health screening tools that are associated with a standardized data capture approach can contribute to value-added clinical and financial changes, resulting in improve care, reduce healthcare disparities, and reduce healthcare costs. This DNP project piloted the implementation of a training protocol for a social …

Nursing Primary Care To Better Health, Kristen Dulling

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

The national nursing shortage and the rising cost of nursing is threatening sustainability of

the RN role on the care team in ambulatory care settings. There is a critical need to develop a

care model that defines the value of RNs on the primary care team by improving access and

effectively reducing cost by mitigating turnover and role dissatisfaction. This DNP project

developed and implemented a care model across four primary care settings that shifted

workflows for vaccine administration, prior authorizations, and emergency department follow up

calls from RNs to other roles on the care team. Capacity created allowed the …

Addressing Social Determinants Of Health To Reduce Missed Appointments In Primary Care Setting., Omolara Goyea

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Background: Missed appointments impose a significant financial burden on the U.S. healthcaresystem, costing over $150 billion annually, with individual physicians losing an average of $200 per unused time slot (Gier, 2017). Unmet Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), such as transportation barriers, negatively impact primary care services and contribute to missed appointments (Brown et al., 2020; Fiori et al). The missed appointment rate in the United States ranges from 12% to 50% of scheduled appointments (Boone et al., 2023). Objective: This quality improvement project aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate a telehealth protocol specifically tailored for patients who identified transportation as …

The Effect Of Polypharmacy On Nurse’S Workflow And Healthcare Expenditure In Post-Acute Care, Rachel Hudec

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

This DNP project modified a deprescribing initiative to engage frontline nursing staff. The intervention included a comprehensive educational curriculum, clinical guidelines, and a system to track nurse workflow and financial metrics. Guided by Donabedian’s conceptual model, the project was piloted in a large municipal PAC facility. Methods included twelve in-person training sessions for 93 nurses, pre- and post-knowledge tests, a program evaluation, medication pass times, and tracked the costs deprescribed medications over six months.Nursing knowledge significantly improved, with mean test scores rising from 41.39 to 90.64 (p < .001). Medication pass decreased by 18%, reducing the time per resident from 7 to 5.7 minutes. Financially, the initiative saved over $21,000 in six months, with a projected annual savings exceeding $42,000. Integrating nurses as leaders in deprescribing enhances clinical competency and operational efficiency. These findings provide a compelling case for standardizing an interdisciplinary deprescribing program to improve financial sustainability, nursing efficiency and resident safety in the PAC setting.

Nurturing Novice Nurse Development Through The Legacy Mentor Model: Building The Infrastructure And Stabilizing The Workforce In A Healthcare System, Maureen Scanlan

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

There is a historically high nurse turnover rate with a limited supply of experienced registered nurses across healthcare organizations. The retirement of senior nurses, referred to as Legacy Mentors, leaves inexperienced ones without valuable support and guidance. This project aimed to implement and evaluate a mentorship program to improve intent to stay among novice nurses in their first year of practice in an acute care setting. The novice nurses were paired with Legacy Mentors. A total of 32 nurses participated in 16 mentee/mentor pairs. The program consisted of six one-hour sessions over three months, which focused on wisdom sharing, community …

Implementing Hepatitis C Screening And Treatment In Primary Care, Michele Castellano Wetmore

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

AbstractHepatitis C (HCV) is a curable hepatic disease. With direct-acting antivirals, it can be treated in 95% of cases. When left untreated, it can cause severe liver disease, including hepatocellular carcinoma and even death. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal is to eliminate HCV by 2030. This Quality Improvement (QI) project, conducted at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) from 8/4/2025 to 11/4/2025, will address the barriers to elimination and show that providing local services closes gaps. Screening and treating HCV within primary care has become a strategic approach to enhance access to treatment. This involves developing and utilizing a …

The Effect Of Verbal De-Escalation Simulation Training Using Artificial Intelligence On Nurse Leader’S Self-Efficacy, Mary Vitullo

Yale School of Nursing Digital Theses

Per year, rates of verbal workplace violence (V-WPV) are estimated to occur in 38.8 per 100 nurses, which is decreasing leader retention (NIOSH, 2020, Chang, Hsu, & Ouyang, 2022). Increasing the confidence of nurses in handling V-WPV through simulated training programs increases their intent to stay (Ming et al., 2019).

A two-pronged training program allowed nurse leaders to learn de-escalation techniques and then apply that knowledge in a life-like simulated environment. The education included a pre-work module on V-WPV de-escalation and a simulated scenario using an artificial intelligence conversational agent.

The aims of the project were: to develop a model, …

Differences Of Sex Development (Dsd), Children's Mercy Kansas City

Clinical Pathways

No abstract provided.

Challenging And Diagnosing Structured Population Models By Testing Predictions From Stochastic Demography, Stephen P. Ellner, Robin E. Snyder, Daniel T. Blumstein, Dylan Z. Childs, Joshua C. Fowler, Christina M. Hernández, Julien G. A. Martin, María Paniw, Yngvild Vindenes

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

1. Structured population models are parameterized to accurately project expected population sizes, stage/state distributions and population growth rates, but they also predict the variation in outcomes among individuals, such as the variance and skewness of lifetime reproductive output (LRO) and lifespan, the probability of never reproducing, and many other life-history metrics.

2. Testing such predictions about individual outcomes can be very useful model 'stress tests', because they depend on how components of the model (e.g. submodels for survival and fecundity) interact over multiple time steps, not just on the accuracy of the submodels. Because data on among-individual variation is rarely …

Examining The Flow State In College Football, Nicholas R. Reynolds Jr., Selen Razon

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The flow state, first defined by Csikszentmihalyi (1990) as a state of total absorption in an activity characterized by effortless control, heightened focus, and peak functioning, has been well-documented in sport but has received limited attention in the context of college football. This study examined the flow state experiences of varsity football players at West Chester University, including their awareness of the concept, the frequency and subjective nature of their experiences, the strategies they use to reach this state, and their perceptions of its relationship to team success. A researcher-developed survey was administered to team members during the offseason, yielding …

Looking Beyond Minimalist Pedagogies: Rhetorical Listening As A Framework For Ethical Collaboration And Student Empowerment In The Writing Center, Abby M. Samella

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Since its establishment, the Writing Center has strived to solidify its institutional presence as a space of student-centered pedagogy, minimalist directive approaches, and collaborative learning. However, students frequently perceive Writing Centers as the polar opposite of collaboration, frequently seeking out this support for a transactional, ‘remedial’ fix to their writing product. As Writing Centers grapple with this tension that threatens their process-driven pedagogies, scholars recognize a gap in Literature regarding collaborative approaches that empower the student through the implementation of rhetorical listening. Using the foundational framework of Rhetorical Listening as a strategy to reassert the collaborative identity of the Center …

Connecting Classroom Physics To Real-World Research: A Citizen Science Approach In Ap Physics 1, Heather M. Landgarten

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Advanced Placement (AP) Physics 1 emphasizes evidence-based reasoning, quantitative modeling, and scientific inquiry. However, secondary science instruction often remains focused on procedural problem solving and standardized assessment rather than authentic scientific practice. This study examined the integration of citizen science projects into an AP Physics 1 curriculum to provide students with authentic research experiences while reinforcing physics concepts during the post-AP examination instructional period.

Using a classroom-based mixed-methods pre–post design, students participated in citizen science activities through publicly available research platforms, including Zooniverse. Students collected and classified authentic scientific data, analyzed real-world datasets, developed research questions, compared observations with theoretical …

Refining The Fiat: Exploring The Vocations Of Four Women Catholic Educators Through Narrative Inquiry In The Archdiocese Of Philadelphia, Kaitlyn A. Rodgers

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Catholic education in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia has a long history of integrating faith and education. While research often focuses on school efficacy and Catholic identity, less attention has been given to the educators who sustain these institutions. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored how Catholic faith shapes the professional identities and vocational commitments of four women educators in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. Guided by Catholic Social Teaching and feminist theology, the study examined how participants understood their vocation, or “fiat,” through personal and professional narratives. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with both vowed religious and lay educators.

Three themes emerged. First, …

The Role Of Growth Mindset As A Mitigating Factor On Teacher Burnout In The Secondary Math Classroom, Grant Butler

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This mixed methods sequential explanatory study examined how secondary mathematics teachers’ mindsets relate to burnout tendencies, and how schools can support staff mindset to prevent burnout. Using a two-phase design, Phase 1 gathered survey data from 94 secondary math teachers, measuring mindset and burnout with descriptive statistics, correlations, chi-square tests, and regression analysis to quantify associations between mindset orientation and burnout risk. Phase 2 employed semi-structured interviews with a subsample of teachers and open and axial coding to explain and contextualize the quantitative patterns. Quantitative analyses revealed that teachers with more fixed mindset tendencies reported significantly higher burnout scores across …

Beyond The Game: Career Readiness Development At The Nirsa Championship Series, Samantha A. Wary

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Understanding the students' perceptions of the career readiness skills they develop and how they develop is critical in higher education. This allows campus recreation professionals to better understand and create opportunities for student development related to career readiness. A convergent mixed-methods design was employed to investigate students’ perceptions of the career readiness development of student officials who have participated in the NIRSA Championship Series flag football tournaments. Informal and Incidental Learning Theory and Experiential Learning Theory guided the study. The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career readiness competencies were used as a standardized tool to define career readiness. …

Updating Order Set Review Policy To Improve Adherence To Evidence-Based Practice In A Multi-Hospital System, Corynne Lurie

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Ensuring that clinical order sets reflect current evidence-based practice is essential to delivering safe, high-quality, and consistent patient care across health systems. In multi-hospital organizations, maintaining alignment across facilities presents additional challenges, including variability in workflow, stakeholder involvement, and policy adherence. This quality improvement project evaluated the existing order set review process within a three-hospital health system to determine whether current policies effectively support system-wide needs and promote best practices. Guided by Lewin’s Change Theory, a qualitative descriptive design was used to assess current workflows and gather feedback from stakeholders involved in order set development and review. Survey data, with …

Seeing Through Their Lenses: Perspectives Of Kindergarten Teachers On Implementing Purposeful Play For Children’S Academic And Developmental Learning, Subarna Basu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the kindergarten teachers’ perceptions of using purposeful play for children’s academic and developmental learning, and the benefits and challenges they perceive in implementing purposeful play. The study utilized a qualitative, visual arts-based, participatory action research (PAR) design, in the form of Photovoice methodology. This qualitative study focused on the kindergarten teachers’ lived experiences and voices on the importance of implementing purposeful play and employed Paulo Freire’s Critical Pedagogy and Constructivist theories. Utilizing this methodology, six kindergarten teacher participants collected photographs based on photo prompts, provided narratives to their photographs, and reflected and …

Say Gay: Increasing Preservice Teacher Confidence Using Participatory Theatre, Sarah Maxime Hyson

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Research Design: Research shows a lack of LGBTQ+ instruction in teacher preparation programs. This social justice mixed methods study evaluates effectiveness of participatory theatre for increasing confidence in preservice teachers. Research Questions: RQ 1: How does student self-rating of confidence change after participatory theatre experiences that examine issues concerning LGBTQ+ individuals and materials? RQ 2: What do preservice teachers’ writing, sketching, and discussion about their participatory theatre experience reveal about their evolving confidence regarding LGBTQ+ individuals and issues? RQ 3: What do the instructor’s experiences and reflections reveal about the effectiveness ofparticipatory theatre pedagogy to increase confidence in preservice teachers …

Examining The Stories Of Early-Career Student Affairs Professionals And Free Speech Issues On College Campuses, Kimberly C. Farrer

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This qualitative research study explored the stories of early-career student affairs professionals on their experiences responding to free speech issues on college campuses. Additionally, this studied explored how they were prepared for those responses. This study was important because early-career student affairs professionals are managing free speech issues on college campuses but lack the training and preparation to do this (Duran Leftin & Duran, 2021; Harris & Ray, 2014). This study utilized both authentic leadership theory (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner et al., 2005; Luthans & Avolio, 2003; May et al., 2003; Northouse, 2025) and Kohlberg’s (1976) theory of moral …

Case Report: Suspected Rupture Of A Papillary Thyroid Tumor In A Patient With Graves' Disease Who Experienced Airway Narrowing Without Respiratory Distress., Daniel Goodman, Samuel Bosco, Bradford Davison Smith

Otolaryngology (ENT) Resident Research

This case report describes a 55-year-old woman presenting with acute dysphagia and neck swelling after a "popping" sensation in her neck. CT and MRI revealed a large retropharyngeal cystic mass and a left thyroid lobe mass, causing airway displacement. Despite significant effacement of the oropharyngeal and supraglottic airway on flexible nasopharyngolaryngoscopy, the patient remained asymptomatic regarding respiratory distress. Subsequent ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy diagnosed malignant papillary thyroid carcinoma. Concurrently, previously undiagnosed Graves' disease was identified. The clinical presentation was attributed to suspected rupture or hemorrhage of the malignant thyroid tumor, leading to a serosanguineous fluid collection and inflammatory edema. …