Digital Commons Network^™

Strategies Higher Education Leaders Use To Improve Job Satisfaction Among Administrative Staff, Jerrod Jaquii Pass

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Organizational change initiatives in higher education often lead to decreased job satisfaction among administrative staff. Higher education leaders are concerned with maintaining employee job satisfaction during such periods because disengagement among administrative staff can reduce performance and increase turnover. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore strategies higher education leaders use to improve administrative staff job satisfaction during organizational change. Lewin’s change management theory served as the foundation for the capstone research project. Data were collected through semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of six higher education leaders in the United States who had implemented change initiatives …

Examination Of The Hiring Process: Bias In Selection, Conor Johanson

Honors Theses

Racial discrimination in the hiring process remains a persistent problem despite decades of anti-discrimination legislation and widespread bias-awareness training. The present study examined whether resume quality and candidate race jointly influence hiring evaluations among human resource professionals, a population with formal training in equitable selection practices. Using a 2 × 2 between-subjects design, 129 HR professionals recruited through Prolific were randomly assigned to evaluate a high- or low-quality resume attributed to either a Black or White candidate. Participant evaluations were assessed across warmth-related and competence-related dimensions derived from the Stereotype Content Model, with Aversive Racism Theory guiding predictions about when …

Patient Perception Of Pain Following Extraction And Bone Graft With Or Without Preemptive Ibuprofen: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Samah Rady

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Objective: The purpose of this randomized clinical trial is to investigate the effects of preemptive analgesia on postoperative pain following extraction and ridge preservation and to evaluate the association between dental care-related fear and anxiety, health literacy, fear of pain, and pain catastrophizing with post-operative pain and swelling perception as well as Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). Materials and Methods: Ibuprofen 600mg (test; n=9) or placebo (n=13) were randomly given one hour prior to extraction and ridge preservation. Preoperatively, patients completed the following questionnaires: Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), Oral health-related quality of life (OHIP-14), Fear of Pain (FPQ-III), Pain …

Dementia De-Escalation Staff Education Program, Gretchan Edwards

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD), including agitation and aggression, present significant challenges in acute care settings and contribute to increased staff injury risk and inconsistent patient care. The purpose of this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project was to evaluate the impact of a structured dementia de-escalation education program on staff knowledge, confidence, and perceived ability to manage dementia-related behaviors. The guiding PICOT question asked: In acute care staff, how does participation in a structured de-escalation training program that incorporates environmental modifications and organizational support, compared with no formal de-escalation training, affect staff knowledge, confidence, and perceived impact …

Health Awareness And Relative Energy Deficiency In Ultra-Endurance Female Athletes, Myshel Rodenbeck

Doctorate in Kinesiology

Ultra-endurance (UE) participation among female athletes has increased substantially, yet research examining health awareness and physiological risk in this population remains limited. Excessive training combined with inadequate energy intake places ultra-endurance female athletes at elevated risk for the Female Athlete Triad (FAT) and Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S), both driven primarily by chronic low energy availability (LEA) and associated with menstrual dysfunction, impaired bone health, metabolic disturbances, and reduced performance.

This mixed-methods, cross-sectional study examined awareness of overall health, fueling behaviors, menstrual health, and recognition of FAT and RED-S among ultra-endurance female athletes over 25 years of age. Participants …

Education To Increase Students’ Knowledge, Perceptions, And Interest In Occupational Therapy, Brooke Hineman

Capstone Projects

In response to the declining program fill rates across all levels of occupational therapy (OT) education, this Doctoral Capstone Experience (DCE) aimed to promote the field through development of informational resources and delivery of educational sessions for high school and undergraduate students. The primary objective was to foster deeper understanding, accurate perceptions, and career interest among participants. A thorough literature review and needs assessment exploring current OT knowledge, promotion efforts, student characteristics, and underrepresented groups revealed a need for intentional education to address gaps in student knowledge regarding the field of OT among all students, especially those without exposure to …

Advocacy, Outreach, And Expansion Of The Michigan Occupational Therapy Association Mental Health Special Interest Section, Isabel Evola

Capstone Projects

The history of occupational therapy (OT) is rooted in supporting mental health, emerging in the United States during World War I. Over time, the practice of OT has evolved in its scope and emerging specialties. The role of OT in mental health is underutilized and misunderstood by professional organizations. However, OT remains a vital service in supporting mental health in psychiatric and non-psychiatric settings. The focus of this doctoral capstone experience (DCE) was to address this gap by advocating for the presence and understanding of OT in mental health through the expansion of the Michigan Occupational Therapy Association (MiOTA) Mental …

Strengthening Leadership And Expanding Engagement: Enhancing Volunteer, Participant, And Donor Involvement In Michigan Victory Games, Abbey Smith

Capstone Projects

This doctoral capstone experience (DCE) addressed organizational development and community engagement within the Michigan Disability Sports Alliance (MiDSA), an adaptive sports nonprofit serving individuals with physical disabilities. The project is relevant to occupational therapy (OT) through its focus on promoting participation, health, and inclusion in meaningful occupations such as sport. A key gap identified was the lack of structured resources to support leadership, inconsistent outreach methods, and limited strategies to reduce barriers for participants, volunteers, and donors.

The objectives of this DCE included developing a centralized data management portal, creating a standardized community outreach presentation, establishing clear board role frameworks, …

Our Stories: Black Parents’ Experiences At K-12 Predominantly White Institutions, Jason Thompson

Dissertations

Black parents of Black children attending K–12 predominantly White institutions (PWIs) often experience stress as they navigate school environments where they may be perceived as uninterested, combative, or “token” members of the school community. These deficit-based perceptions can cause Black parents to limit school interactions, question whether their perspectives will be valued, and develop distrust toward school personnel. Although research has examined Black students’ experiences in PWIs, fewer qualitative studies have centered on Black parents’ stories. Capturing these experiences in parents’ own words helps challenge harmful stereotypes and offers schools, especially school counselors, deeper insight into strengthening relationships with Black …

Divergent Paths Towards Belonging: A Comparative Analysis Of Latina/O/E Domestic And International Student Experiences At A Pwi, Sebastian Lema, Rita Kagaju

25th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2026)

In this study, we examine how undergraduate international students from Latin America and domestic Latina/o/e students experience belonging and inclusion at a Predominantly White Institution (PWI). While existing research highlights systemic barriers and microaggressions faced by domestic Latina/o/e students, we address a critical gap by exploring the distinct challenges faced by international Latin American students. We ask how these groups’ experiences of inclusion, microaggressions, and support systems differ within a PWI context. Using qualitative interviews with 55 students (40 domestic, 15 international), we employed grounded theory to analyze themes such as classroom dynamics, feelings of inclusion/belonging, and institutional support. Our …

Hope College Abstracts: 25th Annual Celebration Of Undergraduate Research And Creative Activity, Hope College

25th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2026)

The 25th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity was held on April 17, 2026 in the Richard and Helen DeVos Fieldhouse at Hope College and featured student-faculty collaborative research projects. This program is a record reflective of those projects between the 2025-2026 academic year.

Effect Of Peppermint Oil Inhalation On Swim Performance In D3 Swimmers, Brynn Conklin, Ashlea Swingewood, Brianna Johnson, Katie Eggleston, Miriam Czaja

25th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2026)

Peppermint essential oil has long been a topic of research for its effects on exercise performance. Although there are mixed results within the current body of literature, some studies propose that it allows for bronchodilation and increased alertness which lead to performance improvements. The purpose of this research was to determine if peppermint oil inhalation has an effect on time to completion, heart rate (HR), rate of perceived exertion (RPE), forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced expiratory reserve volume in one second (FEV1) during a 100-yd swim in D3 swimmers. A group of twenty D3 swimmers (M=12, F=8) volunteered to …

The Storied Life: Biblical Metanarrative And The Human Experience, Samantha Jones

25th Annual A. Paul and Carol C. Schaap Celebration of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity (2026)

The storytelling animal. This eclectic title was coined by Alasdair MacIntyre in his famous philosophical work After Virtue. Notice MacIntyre does not call man “the working animal who also tells stories,” nor the “rule following animal who enjoys the trivial pursuit of narrative.” He calls man the storytelling animal because he has discovered that stories are not the just one characteristic of the human experience, they are so much more. To be a human is to be a storyteller, and to be a storyteller is to be human. This claim is not specific to philosophers like MacIntyre, but is an …

Developmental Underpinnings Of The Other Race Effect Using Fmri, Aquilla Denise Copeland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

It is well established that perceptual experience with own-race faces is associated with faster and more accurate recognition of own-race compared to other-race faces — a phenomenon known as the other-race effect (ORE). Previous fMRI research has shown that adults generally exhibit more robust face-sensitive responses than children in the core face-processing areas, especially to own-race versus other-race faces. Although much is known about the neural underpinnings of the ORE in adults, little is known about this phenomenon in children. The present experiment aimed to examine face-sensitive fusiform and occipital regions in 8- to 10-year-olds and adults as they engaged …

Evaluating Measurement Invariance Frameworks: A Comparison Of Mg-Cfa, Alignment Optimization, & Bayesian Approximate Measurement Invariance Using The Brigham Young University Counseling And Psychological Services Client Satisfaction Survey, Heidi Lula Lindsey

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers must establish measurement invariance (MI) before comparing latent constructs across groups to ensure construct validity. However, traditional multi-group confirmatory factor analysis (MG-CFA) may impose overly strict equality constraints in applied settings. Alternative MI frameworks are less familiar to researchers, which limits their use. This study compares MG-CFA, alignment optimization (AO), and Bayesian approximate measurement invariance (BAMI) using archival data from the Brigham Young University Counseling and Psychological Services Client Satisfaction Survey (N = 1,278). Participants completed an exit survey after receiving individual (n = 1,063), couple (n = 83), or group (n = 132) therapy, answering 16 five-point Likert …

Agentic Hallucination Risk Scoring For Medical Llms Via Uncertainty Quantification And Clinical Knowledge Injection, Mayank Kapadia, Mohammad Masum

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Large Language Models (LLMs) have witnessed significant adoption across numerous domains since 2020, but their proclivity to hallucinate creates unacceptable dangers in high-risk environments like healthcare, where wrong outputs can directly jeopardize human safety. While present systems focus on pre-generation mitigation strategies, they cannot ensure the safety of individual outputs during inference. We provide a post hoc Hallucination Risk Scoring (HRS) methodology that intercepts questionable outputs before they reach patients via an agentic pipeline. Given a medical question, a domain-specific LLM generates an initial response from which five complimentary uncertainty signals are computed, which are then separated into a decision …

Assessing Readiness, Perceptions, And Behaviors Of Midlife Adults To Adopt A Dietary Pattern Associated With Cognitive Benefits, Meghan E. Sullivan

Theses

Objective:  To explore the barriers and facilitators for following a brain-healthy dietary pattern by assessing readiness, cognitive dietary adherence, eating competence, quality of life, and health beliefs in midlife adults. Design: Quantitative cross-sectional online survey. Participants: Adults aged 30-60 years (N=189) recruited through social media, flyers, email, and text. Main outcome measures: Readiness to adopt a brain-healthy dietary pattern, eating competence, health beliefs, quality of life, and dietary adherence to a brain-healthy pattern such as the MIND diet. Analysis: Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, Chi-Square, and correlations were conducted to explore associations among readiness, eating competence, health beliefs, quality of life, and …

Enhancing The Well-Being Of Refugees With Disabilities Through Equitable Access To Essential Services: A Participatory Qualitative Study In The United States, Mustafa Rfat

Brown School Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Access to services for refugees with disabilities (RwDs) is critically important for improving their well-being and enhancing their integration. This population often faces prolonged exclusion that begins in their country of origin and often continues to worsen during displacement, leading to accumulated disparities. Because the United States (U.S.) refugee program is structured around rapid employment, refugees who do not fit the fast-track employment criteria are often left behind. RwDs are often considered unemployable, which automatically shifts resources and services away from them. Abandoning RwDs during the critical period of resettlement puts them at heightened risk of increased and long-term exclusion. …

Update Mechanisms In Event Models: Boundary Effects And Dimensional Influences, Xing Su

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

People construct working event models to comprehend dynamic, multimodal information such as movies and narratives, but how these models update remains debated. Two mechanisms have been proposed: incremental updating, which selectively modifies specific dimensions while preserving others, and global updating, which discards the existing model entirely to construct a new one. This dissertation investigated how event boundaries influence which updating mechanism people employ. Across two experiments, participants read narratives about everyday activities while we measured recognition memory response times and self-paced reading times. Participants also completed event segmentation tasks to identify perceived boundaries. Results revealed a consistent dissociation opposite to …

An Emerging Approach To Ibd Treatment: Personalized Nutrition Through Gut Microbiome Optimization., Kafayat Yusuf, Thomas M. Attard, Mazin Al-Kasspooles, Shahid Umar

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the gastrointestinal tract characterized by relapsing and remitting disease activity. Despite decades of research, a definitive cure for IBD remains elusive, as cycles of remission and flare-ups mark the disease course and often relies on long-term pharmacologic and supportive strategies. Increasing evidence indicates that diet and nutrition play an important role in modulating the outcomes of IBD. Although a wide range of dietary interventions has been explored, no universally effective approach has been established. Investigations have also proven that different dietary interventions can significantly affect clinical outcomes by altering gut …

Structured Discussions About Professionalism As Trust, Deborah Simpson, Tricia La Fratta, Kristin Ouweneel, Will Lehmann, Jacob Bidwell, Jessica O'Brien, Kathryn Agard, Nicole Salvo, Esmeralda Santana, David Hamel, William Macdonald, Kirtan Patel, Suzette Caudle, Leah Delfinado, David Irby

Aurora GME

Introduction: Unprofessional behavior in health professionals adversely affects patient care quality, safety and experience as well as teamwork and the individual enacting the behavior. If unaddressed and resolved early, the unprofessional behavior continues independent of whether it starts in medical school, residency, or practice. Yet conversations about professionalism can have limited impact on behavior change.

Aims: To reframe the ability to analyze and discuss professional behavior as entrustment focusing on consequences of adverse behaviors on patient care, teamwork, and one’s own growth and development.

Methods: Using reported behaviors perceived as unprofessional we designed a 30-90 min interactive session for medical …

The Fungus Among Us: Latency, Reactivation, And The Expanding Clinical Spectrum Of Coccidioidomycosis, Sumeet Bhardwaj, Arushi Tewari, Rishima Tewari, Simona Kogan

Student Publications

Coccidioidomycosis is a serious fungal infection that can produce a wide range of clinical manifestations, from mild, self-limiting pulmonary disease to severe, disseminated infection that can involve nearly any organ system, including the skin. Coccidioidomycosis may also affect patients at the psychiatric level. Its clinical relevance has increased markedly in recent years, as incidence continues to climb, geographic distribution widens, and emerging presentations challenge traditional assumptions regarding fungal latency and host immunity. A notably important and developing area of study is the concept of late reactivation. A narrative review of the literature was conducted using PubMed, MEDLINE, and Google Scholar. …

Daily Stressors On Sleep, Matisyn Brockway, Jessica Difillippo, Ana Gutman

Fisher Showcase 2026

As part of our PSYC362-02, Sleep Lab, our group collected data on weekly schedule, stress regarding that schedule, and sleep using an online survey. The goal was to determine if there was a relationship between the stress of daily activity and a variety of sleep characteristics.

Glossip’S Road Map To Nowhere, Vida Johnson

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Glossip v. Oklahoma was heralded as a victory for the defense. This essay argues that the 2025 Glossip decision does little to fix the myriad problems that led to Mr. Glossip’s wrongful conviction. While ultimately the Supreme Court reached the correct outcome this time, the ordinary judicial process and its purported safeguards were not what saved Mr. Glossip’s life. Rather, it was random chance that came to Mr. Glossip’s aid.

Ten years earlier, the Supreme Court, with many of the same Justices on the bench now, paved the way for Mr. Glossip’s execution. The …

Enhancing Learning Outcomes Through The Utilization Of Digital Comics, Sri Mastiah, Rita Novita, Muli Putra, Syarfuni Syarfuni, Jonni Sitorus, Xiu Wen Tay

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

Student completeness in learning mathematics is still low and interest in learning is relatively low, because the learning media is less varied and less interesting, and there are still students who have not achieved learning outcomes above the minimum completeness criteria. The purpose of this study was to analyze the use of digital comics in improving mathematics learning outcomes. The research approach used is qualitative and the type of research used is a literature study or literature review. The stages used in this literature study research design include the focus of scientific articles, data collection, data analysis, and conclusions. Based …

Exploring Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety: A Case Study Of Pre-Service Teachers Professional Education Program, Elmiatun Nafiah, Hutkemri Zulnaidi, Utami Widiati, Nanang Zubaidi

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety (FLTA) is a significant concern among pre-service teachers, particularly in the Indonesian educational context. This study explores the key factors contributing to FLTA, the coping strategies employed by teachers, and the role of the Teacher Education Program (PPG) in alleviating teaching-related stress. Using a case study design, interviews were conducted with two in-service teachers who had completed the PPG program, and the data was analyzed thematically based on the Foreign Language Teaching Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, 1996). Findings indicate that students' lack of enthusiasm and teachers' self-perception of language proficiency are primary sources of anxiety. In response, …

Implementing Power Strategy Combined With The Animated Film To Improve The Writing Ability In Narrative Text For Junior High School, Muhari Muhari, Utami Widiati, Furaidah Furaidah

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

This study aimed to improve students' narrative writing by implementing POWER strategy combined with the animated film at class VIII of SMP. It was CAR design conducted in 2 cycles. The findings showed an improvement in writing ability in which 29 students achieved the minimum passing grade and the rest 6 students were in fair level of writing, and the result of teaching and learning process showed that 82.5% respond positively

Improving Students Reading Comprehension Ability Through Integrated Thematic Learning With School Literacy Movement Support, Ryan Dwi Puspita, Dadang Sunendar, Bachrudin Musthafa, Rully Agung

Jurnal Pendidikan Humaniora

PISA's findings reported that Indonesian elementary school students (IESS) achieved their average reading comprehension ability which were below the standard set by OECD. This research proposed school literacy movement (SLM) as an apparatus to cultivate IESS reading and writing skill habit. This study applied quasi-experimental method with employed sample of 126 IESS of 5th and 4th graders and their teachers serving in four schools. This study showed that there was significant effect of ITL to improve IESS reading comprehension ability of 5th graders.

Empathy Is Hard, Replication Is Harder, Kylie R. Springfield

Undergraduate Research Conference

My classmates and I got the opportunity to further our research experience over the course of this semester by conducting a research study. The purpose of our study was to investigate if people would choose to empathize if they were given a choice. Our study was a replication of a prior widely cited study. The replication crisis in psychology is important to understand because if studies cannot be replicated, then it undermines their credibility. Furthermore, the participants in our study were given a choice between two card decks that showed images of refugee children. One of the decks asked the …

The Quiet Strength Of Empathy, Jourden J. Whitfield

Undergraduate Research Conference

This study is a replication of a well-known experiment by Cameron on empathy. We want to see how people decide to engage with tasks that require thinking and emotional effort. In the study, participants were shown scenarios where they could choose to see more or less detail about a person, like their age, gender, or how they were feeling. After reading, participants answered questions about how hard or mentally tiring the task felt. We also collected basic demographic information. The goal is to test if the original findings hold true and see how they apply to the W campus community. …