Digital Commons Network^™

Short-Term Tillage Effects On Greenhouse Gas Emissions And Global Warming Potential From Soybean In Southeast Arkansas, Lauren Gwaltney, Kristofor R. Brye, Della Lunga Diego, Jonathan B. Brye, Trenton Roberts, Samuel B. Fernandes, Michael B. Daniels

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

Reduced tillage (RT) is a common conservation agriculture practice, generally regarded to be a valuable greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation approach through increasing soil carbon (C) stocks. However, direct GHG measurements from RT compared to conventional tillage (CT) treatments can vary greatly depending on site-specific soil properties and management practices. The objective of this study was to evaluate the short-term effects of RT on soil-to-atmosphere carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) fluxes and emissions, global warming potential (GWP), yield, and emissions intensity (EI) throughout the 2024 soybean (Glycine max) growing season in a southeast Arkansas production field. Bulk …

Exploring Anxiety And Noticing Within Virtual Reality Nursing Simulation, Janet M. Reed

Sigma Foundation for Nursing Research Grant Reports

The overall objective of this pilot study was to explore how anxiety affects students’ noticing of key information within a virtual reality nursing simulation. The aims of this study were to 1) distinguish simulation anxiety into facilitating and debilitating components by using the Alpert and Haber (1960) Achievement Anxiety Test (AAT) for novel use in VR simulation for undergraduate nursing students; 2) Describe the relationship between debilitating and facilitating anxiety and noticing in VR simulation; and 3) Describe the psychometric properties for the AAT when used to describe anxiety in nursing simulation.

The Challenges Of International Maritime Treaty Enforcement: Examining Outcomes Of The South Sea And Red Sea Dispute, Sofia Roshan Hope Gellada

Senior Theses

The challenges of enforcing international treaty obligations are explored through the lens of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and its newly introduced addendum, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement. Through a detailed analysis of two case studies—the South China Sea Dispute and the Red Sea Dispute—this paper highlights the significant obstacles to treaty enforcement, particularly in contexts of power imbalances. Both disputes, arbitrated by the Permanent Court of Arbitration, reveal a troubling pattern of non-compliance by stronger states, such as China and Eritrea, despite legally binding rulings. These findings underscore the limitations of …

The Feasibility Of Transaldolase Inhibitors As Anti-Cancer Therapeutics, Daniel Scot Baer

Chemistry and Biochemistry

Metabolism was a major focus of cancer research 100 years ago, but its prevalence declined in the latter part of the twentieth century. In the last several decades, however, it has become clear that cancer cells frequently modify their metabolic programs to enable both their survival and rapid proliferation. Transaldolase (TA), an enzyme within the pentose phosphate pathway, contributes to these outcomes when its activity is increased, yet for a variety of reasons inhibition of the enzyme has remained comparatively understudied. Since TA flux enables nucleotide production and high levels of NADPH synthesis, aberrant, cancer-causing signaling pathways often increase expression …

Framing Of Immigration In The News And Its Effects On Social Media Discourse On The Southcoast Of Massachusetts, Mariel Surprenant

Political Science Undergraduate Theses

Why do immigrant communities often express anti-immigrant sentiment? This study will focus on examining what political discourse about immigration dominates the news ecosystem of the Southcoast of Massachusetts, and what effect that discourse has. Immigration in the U.S. has become an increasingly politicized issue, dominating political discourse, motivating voter behavior, and shaping regional political identities. This study will use content analysis of Southcoast newspapers to examine how the local news frames immigration and discourse analysis to examine the opinions of everyday citizens revealed as by their social media comments on posts about immigration by the same local news sources. The …

The Dismissive Avoidant Attachment Style: Its' Detrimental Effects On Romantic Relationships, Ella Schlinger

Psychology Student Publications

This essay explores how the dismissive avoidant attachment style --rooted in emotional neglect during childhood--negatively impacts romantic relationships. It explains how initial excitement often fades as emotional intimacy becomes threatening, leading to poor communication, unproductive arguments, and eventual relationship breakdown. Ultimately, the paper concludes that without professional intervention, this attachment style can prevent the formation of healthy, lasting romantic bonds.

The Perception Of Therapists About Compassion Fatigue And Burnout After Working With Victims Of Domestic Violence, Bernadine Edwards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative study involved gaining a better understanding of the perceptions of therapists who work with domestic violence victims, and how the therapists’ work may contribute to the development of compassion fatigue and burnout in the treating therapists. The goal was to gather firsthand data regarding the lived experiences of therapists. This study involved conducting semi-structured interviews with six counselors, listening to lived experiences, reading transcriptions, taking and reading notes in a journal during and after interviews, and analyzing data. The social ecological theory guided the study. The research identified 11 key themes highlighting the significant stress associated with this …

The Relationship Between K-12 Public School Funding, Per Pupil Expenditures, And Student Achievement, Regina R. Frazier-Bagley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Public school district leaders are challenged with funding K-12 education that creates the desired student academic performance. Grounded in student-based budgeting theory, this quantitative ex post facto study aimed to investigate the relationship between K–12 public school funding, per-pupil expenditures, student achievement, and graduation rates in Georgia. The study included secondary data from 51 North Georgia public school districts for the 2018–2019 school year. Multiple regression analysis was completed to examine the relationship between the independent variables—state funding, per-pupil expenditures, and academic achievement in math, science, and language arts—and the dependent variable: graduation rates. The results of the analysis were …

Reducing The Use Of Erythropoiesis-Stimulating Agents In Hemodialysis Patients, Myriamme Neree

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This Doctor of Nursing Practice project was a quality improvement (QI) initiative. Nephrologists were inconsistent in ordering iron studies and sometimes delayed the initiation of erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESAs) on admission to the inpatient site. These delays often led to suboptimal outcomes. The practice-focused question guiding the project asked whether a nurse-driven iron protocol would improve adherence to anemia management guidelines. The project’s purpose was to evaluate the impact of the evidence-based nurse-driven protocol. I used descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis. Findings demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in the timely completion of iron studies and in intravenous (IV) iron …

Secondary Education Teachers’ Perspectives On School-Based Mental Health Resources, Madison Rose Litterell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Approximately one in six youth ages 6 to 17 years old in the United States have a mental health disorder, such as depression and anxiety. Out of the 119,000 youth in Michigan in that age group, roughly 57.8% are not receiving proper mental health support services. Students are at school for a large majority of their day, so it is important that they have access to school-based services. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to understand the perceptions of secondary education teachers in Wayne County, Michigan, on school-based mental health support services. Using the community level and the …

Effective Strategies To Reduce Burnout For Employees With High Workload Demands, Michelle Healy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective strategies to reduce burnout for employees can decrease productivity and quality of work, and can increase turnover. Event industry leaders who struggle to reduce burnout of employees with high workload demands are at risk of employee turnover. Grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model, the purpose of this qualitative, pragmatic inquiry research project was to explore effective strategies to reduce burnout for employees with high workload demands. The participants were eight event industry leaders who had effectively implemented strategies to reduce burnout. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and a review of public websites and documents. Using thematic analysis, …

Microbial Communities Of Selected Regions Of The Deep Springs Lake Aquifer System, Rania Zaki, Emma Bourne, Andrew Storino, Jay Nadeau

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Deep Springs Lake is a small, isolated, highly alkaline soda lake in Inyo County of Eastern California, USA. It is a seasonally filled salt lake or playa, and is part of a closed aquifer system. Such closed systems are globally rare, occurring only in arid zones where annual evaporation is greater than annual rainfall. Deep Springs Lake’s hydrology and geology have been well studied, and it is home to a unique toad species, but its microbiome remains unexplored. Here we perform 16S, 18S, and ITS amplicon sequencing of the lake water, dried salt crust at the edges the lake, and …

Can Deep Reinforcement Learning Help Robots Avoid Unexpected Obstacles?, Rachel Lewis

Computer Science

As the utilization of deep reinforcement learning (DRL) for mobile robotics increases, it is vital to ensure that agents can navigate safely in their environments. As these robots are often costly and fragile, a key part of this task is examining path planning and collision avoidance. This project focuses on the behavior of several DRL agents such as Soft-Actor Critic (SAC) and Proximal Policy Optimizer (PPO) in dynamic environments, particularly with intermittent obstacles—those that may not always pose a threat to the agent. This project does not include training with agent sensors to detect moving hazards. Rather, this work was …

Postoperative Anaemia: The Unseen Challenge In Cardiac Surgery, Matthew A. Warner, Jacob Raphael

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

Postoperative anaemia is an overlooked complication of cardiac surgery that is associated with adverse clinical outcomes. Although small clinical trials suggest that postoperative treatment with i.v. iron improves haemoglobin recovery and reduces transfusion utilisation, appropriately powered randomised controlled trials are necessary to definitively evaluate the efficacy of treatment on clinical outcomes of importance to patients, clinicians, and healthcare systems. A comprehensive approach to perioperative anaemia management demands a renewed focus on both prevention and treatment to improve patient outcomes.

Beliefs And Practices Of Filipino Bilingual Senior High School Students On Language Learner Autonomy, Japhet E. Manzano, Zachi Einna R. Orquijo, Giovanni C. Duran

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

The concept of learner autonomy (LA) has been investigated mostly from the perspective of language teachers, whereas students’ views regarding this notion have received less attention in recent decades. In line with this, the present study aimed to examine the beliefs and practices of Filipino bilingual senior high school students enrolled in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HumSS) and Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) strands. A total of 148 students from two Philippine public schools in Metro Manila participated in an adapted survey questionnaire containing Likert-scale items on beliefs, desirability, and feasibility of LA, along with an open-ended question …

Discourse, Power, And Pedagogy In Ai And Human-Designed Efl Lesson Plans: A Clil And Systemic Functional Linguistic Perspective, Christian D. Libunao, Vincent A. Morales

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

The integration of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) into English language teaching (ELT) raises important questions about how AI-generated lesson plans shape pedagogy, interaction, and ideology compared to human-designed materials. This study examines how ChatGPT-generated lesson plans converge with or diverge from those published by the British Council, with particular attention to teacher and learner roles, classroom power dynamics, and pedagogical scaffolding. A triadic framework combining systemic functional linguistics (SFL), critical discourse analysis (CDA), and content and language integrated learning (CLIL) was applied to three British Council lesson plans and three thematically matched ChatGPT outputs. Findings reveal that both sets of …

Beyond The Standard: A Sociolectal And Probabilistic Turn In Philippine English Phonology, Teri An Joy G. Magpale

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

This article advocates for probabilistic approaches as a key framework for understanding Philippine English (PhE) phonology, arguing that they reveal socially conditioned variation that traditional descriptive models overlook. Tracing five decades of research, it critiques early standardization efforts and studies centered on scripted speech and elite norms, and highlights the sociolectal turn initiated by Tayao (2004). The discussion foregrounds recent methods that combine instrumental phonetics with constraint-based frameworks, including Optimality Theory (OT) and Maximum Entropy grammar (MaxEnt), to model gradient variation across acrolectal, mesolectal, and basilectal speakers. By synthesizing findings on segmental features, phonotactic patterns, and speech rhythm, the article …

Investigating The Polygenic Relationship Between Heavy Cannabis Use And Schizophrenia In The All Of Us Research Program, Isabelle Austin-Zimmerman, Hayley H A Thorpe, John J Meredith, Jibran Y Khokhar, Tian Ge, Marta Di Forti, Arpana Agrawal, Emma C Johnson, Sandra Sanchez-Roige

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Decades of research have identified a strong association between heavy cannabis use and schizophrenia (SCZ), with evidence of correlated genetic factors. However, many studies on the genetic relationship between cannabis use and psychosis have lacked data on both phenotypes within the same individuals, creating challenges due to unmeasured confounding. We aimed to address this by using multimodal data from the All of Us Research Program, which contains genetic data as well as information on SCZ diagnosis and cannabis use.

METHODS: We tested the association between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and SCZ polygenic scores (PGSs) with SCZ and heavy cannabis …

Evaluating The Feasibility Of Digital Twin Adoption For Mep Systems, Tejas Adana

Theses

MEP systems dominate building operational costs, yet facility teams continue battling reactive maintenance cycles that result in unexpected equipment failures, emergency callouts, and continuous energy inefficiencies. Digital twin technology presents a practical solution by creating live virtual replicas that shift operations from firefighting breakdowns to anticipating issues before they escalate. However, adoption remains limited due to fragmented implementation guidance, short-term validation studies, and minimal research addressing emerging market contexts. This research employs a grounded approach combining systematic literature analysis, candid discussions with MEP engineers and facility managers across UAE commercial properties, and practical prioritization frameworks assessing real-world impact against implementation …

100 Years: The Uniform System Of Accounts For The Lodging Industry (Usali) 12th Revised Edition, Agnes Defranco, Raymond S. Schmidgall

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

No abstract provided.

A Play-Based Stoic Intervention: Preventive Pedagogy For Childhood Resilience, Ross William Podyma Mr

International Journal of Playwork Practice

Rates of reported childhood mental health difficulties have risen markedly in recent years, prompting a policy emphasis on early identification and rapid referral to clinical services. While such responses are vital for acute and complex presentations, there is growing concern that they may contribute to an over-pathologising of normative developmental experiences. Everyday challenges that once functioned as opportunities to build resilience are increasingly framed as early symptoms of mental disorder. This risks undermining children’s ability to cope adaptively with adversity, inadvertently fostering reliance on external intervention.

Since its inception in 2012, Sporting Communities CIC has been embedded in schools and …

The Play Cycle, Outside School Hours Care And Autistic Children, Jennifer Cartmel, Fiona Mackay

International Journal of Playwork Practice

Autistic children use Outside School Hours Care Services (OSHC) on a regular basis. However, they experience many barriers to a fully inclusive experience. This study examined whether the use of the Play Cycle (King, 2020) held any value as a means of reducing those barriers to access. Four educators from an OSHC service in Brisbane, South East Queensland, Australia who were using the Play Cycle and Play Cycle Observation Method in their practice were interviewed to gain their perspectives on the ways in which the play cycle was valuable to them when working with autistic children. The responses were analysed …

Teachers’ Views About School Playtime: A Systematic Literature Review, Misbah Khan, Cathy Atkinson

International Journal of Playwork Practice

School playtime exists in varying forms across the world, and there is an extensive evidence-base pointing to its beneficial effects on children. The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) recognises these benefits and provides clear guidance to international organisations, including schools, on protecting children’s right to play. However, legislative and societal pressures have led to teacher practices which facilitate the erosion of school playtime. Teachers’ beliefs and their practices are considered to be interlinked and therefore the aim of this systematic literature review is to consolidate existing research on teachers’ views about playtime and consider how …

The Conditional Nature Of The Value Premium: Interaction And Cross-Sectional Evidence Across Market Regimes, Samuel L. Klein

Honors Thesis

This thesis examines why value-based investment strategies generate strong returns in some environments yet weaken or collapse in others. Regressions test whether the performance of the book-to-market ratio depends on the investor’s perception of financial health as defined by F-Score and accruals. Across additive regressions, interaction models, cross-sectionals, and heatmap visualizations, a consistent mechanism emerges. The book-to-market effect is strongest when financial information is neither highly reliable nor severely distressed. In these “moderate-quality” environments, investors struggle to fully distinguish the transitory components of earnings from their persistent counterparts. This makes valuation ratios particularly influential. Accrual intensity and financial strength jointly …

Acer 2024-2025 Annual Report, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

ACER Annual Reports

For more than 95 years, ACER has been driven by a single purpose – to improve learning for all. Founded in 1930, ACER began as a small team of researchers determined to bring rigour and evidence to education and assessment. Over the decades, that commitment has evolved into a global mission – combining world-class assessment and research to help learners, educators and systems understand what works in education, and why.

Using Rhizobia Seed Coatings And Soil Amendments To Combat Herbicide Toxicity For Native Legume Establishment, Ryan Matthew Glover

Theses and Dissertations

Dryland ecosystems face widespread degradation from historical mismanagement, climate change, and invasive species proliferation. Although herbicides effectively control invasive annual weeds, they often suppress the establishment of desirable perennial species, limiting restoration success. Legumes enhanced with rhizobia inoculants offer a promising approach to overcome these challenges by facilitating nitrogen fixation, improving soil microbial communities, and potentially mitigating herbicide stress. We conducted paired greenhouse and field experiments to evaluate whether rhizobia seed coatings improve the establishment of three legume species Astragalus cicer (Cicer Milkvetch), Onobrychis viciifolia (Sainfoin), and Medicago sativa (Alfalfa), in soils treated with imazapic and glyphosate. In the greenhouse, …

Evaluating The Performance Of The Primary Heat Exchanger In A Sco2 Brayton Cycle While Firing Solid Fuels, Brian Jeffrey Schooff

Theses and Dissertations

The sCO2 closed-loop Brayton cycle is an alternative to the standard steam-Rankine cycle for generating electrical power from a heat source. The sCO2 Brayton cycle is advantageous because it can be more efficient, use less water, and have smaller turbomachinery than the steam-Rankine cycle. While there are several research groups advancing the technology necessary to utilize the sCO2 Brayton cycle on an industrial scale, none of these groups use solid fuel combustion as the heat source. A Brigham Young University-led project developed and tested a pilot-scale sCO2 Brayton cycle unit (1.6 MWth) using natural gas, pulverized coal, and pulverized biomass …

The ‘For Youth’ Page: Analyzing Tiktok Content Feeds For College-Aged Users, Hadiyah Mohamed

Honors College Theses

This study analyzes the content college-aged users encounter on TikTok’s “For You” page to understand the ways platform design and user-generated content shape prolonged engagement. Existing research frames doomscrolling largely as a compulsive behavior driven by algorithmic design, often overlooking the role of content itself and why it resonates with young adults. Through qualitative content analysis, 150 videos were collected across three TikTok accounts: scrolling from a personal account, a neutral new account, and a new account under the #CollegeTok tag. Videos were rigorously coded in a spreadsheet for narrative descriptions, topics, captions, hashtags, and tone to capture the themes …

Drones And The Changing Character Of War, Erik A. Davis

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Cheap drones have transformed the character of war by creating a “mass effect” that challenges traditional principles of force concentration. Unlike commentary focused on offense-defense debates or ethics, this article explains how Jevons’s Paradox, the Red Queen Effect, and models like Lanchester’s Laws and Hughes’s Salvo Equations underpin this shift. Drawing on lessons from Ukraine, historical theory, and production trends, it explains why the production of cheap “precision mass” is expected to accelerate. For military and policy practitioners, the analysis offers urgent guidance for adapting tactics, procurement, and doctrine to a battlefield dominated by ubiquitous, low-cost drones—before adversaries exploit this …

Visible And Invisible Empires: The Revival Of The Ku Klux Klan 100 Years Ago, Christian Molina

Theses

Hatred and violence breed division, and division breeds more hatred and more violence. In an America where our politics has become name-calling, finger-pointing, scapegoating, and whataboutisms, and violence, unfortunately, it is safe to say our nation has entered this self-perpetuating cycle. A place for malicious groups concerned with growth, power, and profit to capture the angry, the stressed, and the less informed in their webs of elaborate lies and misleading, misinterpreted numbers the way they have in decades past.