Digital Commons Network^™

Southeastern Michigan Firefighters’ Experiences With Their Organization’S Employee Assistance Program, Angela Patricia Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health challenges among first responders require coordinated stakeholder efforts. Although employee assistance programs (EAPs) are commonly offered as workplace benefits, little is known about firefighters’ experiences with these programs and how they can be tailored to meet their unique needs. Existing literature suggested that EAP utilization among firefighters is influenced by program awareness, confidentiality concerns, organizational support, stigma, and the extent to which services are tailored to first responders’ needs. Using a generic qualitative design and policy feedback theory, this study explored southeastern Michigan firefighters’ experiences with EAPs. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 11 firefighters for semi structured …

Antiterrorism Policies And Curbing Youth Involvement In Violent Extremism In Nigeria, Timothy Melaye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nigeria continues to face significant challenges from extremist groups such as Boko Haram, unidentified militia groups, and bandits. The radicalization of youths has played a central role in the country's ongoing violent extremism and general insecurity. Efforts to curb youth radicalization remain largely unsuccessful and pose a major challenge in the country. The existing literature on curbing youth violent extremism focuses on the use of force, while other scholars argue for a complex interplay among economic, social, political, and environmental factors. They also considered that high illiteracy, lack of religious understanding, poverty, unemployment, psychological factors, and unstable family environments contribute …

Trust, Delegation, And Alignment In Human-Ai Decision Making, Erik O. Kimbrough, Brennan Mcdavid, Diba Vazirian

ESI Working Papers

This paper studies delegation to artificial intelligence in a setting where human principals retain the consequences of delegated choices. Participants wrote prompts instructing ChatGPT-4o mini how to choose on their behalf in three canonical economic domains: risky choice, intertemporal choice, and social allocation. We then elicited the compensation participants required to let the AI’s choices count for payment and compared participants’ own choices to choices generated from their prompts. The design produces two central empirical objects: a revealed measure of reluctance to delegate, captured by willingness to accept compensation for AI delegation, and a behavioral measure of alignment, captured by …

Analysis Of Early Menopause And Endometriosis Genetics Merit In Use Of Polygenic Risk Assessments For Prediction, Emily Solomon

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Endometriosis and Early Menopause are reproductive conditions that are under research in women's health. Both conditions impact a woman’s quality of life through severity of symptoms and associated risk factors and are influenced by genetic, hormonal and environmental elements. Both conditions have extensive and growing genetic knowledge that is being used to calculate either an increased or decreased risk of condition development. The array of genetic data shows promises in predicting risk for both conditions, as well as certain symptoms, to contribute to a personalized predictive tool to guide management of care. Endometriosis benefits from a potential polygenic risk assessment …

2026 Focused Update Of The Saudi Heart Association Guidelines On Best Practices In The Management Of Chronic Coronary Syndromes, Owayed Alshammeri, Halia Alshehri, Shukri Alsaif, Mirvat Alasnag, Fatema Qaddoura, Fahad Alqahtani, Yosra Abdulahad A Turkistani, Walid Alharbi, Adel Tash, Mohammad Alshehri, Khalid Al Faraidy, Waleed Alhabeeb

Journal of the Saudi Heart Association

Background: Chronic coronary syndromes (CCS) continue to impose a substantial clinical and economic burden in Saudi Arabia. Since publication of the 2022 Saudi Heart Association (SHA) CCS guidelines, important advances have emerged in diagnosis, pharmacotherapy, cardiometabolic risk reduction, antiplatelet management, and revascularization. This 2026 focused update selectively revises and clarifies key recommendations to reflect these advances within the Saudi context.

Methods: A multidisciplinary SHA expert panel conducted a structured review of randomized trials, meta-analyses, and relevant international guidance published since 2022. Updates were restricted to areas with substantive new evidence or evolving clinical practice. Recommendations were formulated through expert consensus …

Acervos Documentales De Puerto Rico Y El Caribe @ Upr-Río Piedras: On Designing Digital Strategies For Preservation And Access Of Unique Puerto Rican And Caribbean Studies Collections, Mirerza González-Vélez, Mila Aponte-González

archipelagos: a journal of Caribbean digital praxis

This paper documents Acervos Digitales de Puerto Rico y el Caribe @ UPR-Río Piedras, its origins, goals, activities and participants. It reflects on the team engagement with fundamental discussions regarding the use of Omeka in a Caribbean context, that resulted in the articulation and enactment of ethical principles for digital curation, as well as in its commitment for fundamental digital preservation efforts based on minimal technology requirements. The paper also provides an assessment of its continuity as a DH initiative committed to preserving, improving open access, and building capacity for the effective use of unique digitized humanities collections, and poses …

Agreements And Disagreements About The Roll Of Leadership Team Diversity In Strategic Change: A Critical Review Of Measurement And Empirical Inconsistencies, Amy C. Horner

Engaged Management ReView

Research examining the relationship between leadership team diversity and strategic change has produced inconsistent and often contradictory findings. This dissertation digest synthesizes prior research through a meta-analytic review of twenty-five studies representing more than 500,000 observations across multiple industries and countries. The results indicate that relationships between leadership team diversity characteristics and strategic change are generally small in magnitude and highly variable across studies.

Rather than reflecting a clear directional effect, these patterns point to a fundamental challenge in the existing literature: inconsistency in how key constructs are defined and measured. Strategic change is operationalized through a wide range of …

An Information Processing Framework For Lean Intervention Design In Nonprofit Food Bank Operations, Thanh Danh Nguyen

OneUSF Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium

Nonprofit food banks rely on rotating, minimally trained volunteers to make complex food sorting decisions, yet lean operations research rarely accounts for the cognitive limits these volunteers face on their first shift. This study proposes a Volunteer Information Processing Framework, grounded in memory and cognitive load theory, arguing that sorting errors stem from an “encoding gap”: volunteers have no prior long-term memory of category or expiration rules and must decide from scratch under working-memory constraints. Combining literature synthesis with field observation at Feeding Tampa Bay, the study evaluates two zero-cost interventions, dedicated group sorting and laminated visual guides, as external …

Trait Anticipatory Pleasure, Negative Affect, And The Stimulus-Preceding Negativity During Reward Anticipation, Rishana Amar, John L. Shuford, Gavin Heindorf, Harold A. Rocha, Peter E. Clayson

OneUSF Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium

Reward anticipation involves the processes engaged while awaiting a potentially rewarding outcome. The stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) is an event-related brain potential component that becomes more negative while individuals anticipate motivationally significant outcomes. We tested whether greater trait anticipatory pleasure predicted allocation of attention during reward anticipation (i.e., more negative SPN), and whether trait negative affect weakens that relationship. We hypothesized that greater anticipatory pleasure would predict more negative SPN and that this association would be weaker among participants with high trait negative affect. Participants (N = 83) completed the anticipatory pleasure subscale of the Temporal Experiences of Pleasure Scale, the …

Alterations In Intracellular Pathways By Structured Acoustics Across Mammalian Model Systems, Mary B. Holahan, A'Niya Jackson, Jose Rumbaut-Clark, Elaina Schuler, Arnav Chavda, Thanh Mai Nguyen, Junaina Nazneen, Ana Beatriz-Melgar, Sarah Hedenstad, Emily Hernandez

OneUSF Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium

Music can be defined as structured sound that serves as a “universal language” capable of influencing emotion, cognition, and social connectivity in humans. Its formal application into the medical profession began in the 20th century, following World War I and II.  Human subject research involving music therapy has since reported a myriad of health benefits such as those on emotional (e.g., anxiety, depression, and stress), neurological (e.g., cognitive impairment, sleep issues, and dementia), and physical well-being (e.g., pain, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia). However, the impact of such structured acoustics on biological processes at the cellular and molecular level remains unclear. Towards …

When Intensity Becomes Unpleasant: Content-Dependent Effects Of Arousal On Valence, Allison D. Nguyen, Ananya Ranganagoudar, Charvi Koniki

OneUSF Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium

Trait worry is associated with heightened negative interpretation of internal arousal, raising the possibility that individuals higher in worry may evaluate high-arousing experiences less positively. The most unpleasant and pleasant experiences are also the most arousing. However, individuals higher in trait worry may evaluate highly arousing experiences more negatively, depending on the content of the stimulus. This study tested whether trait worry moderates arousal and valence ratings and whether this association depends on image content.

Eighty-seven students passively viewed emotional and neutral images and provided arousal and valence ratings for images. Image content categories were generated by an AI classification …

Evidence-Based Guidance System For Data Science Teams Using Generative Ai Under Uncertainty, Kristoffer Ahlstrom-Vij

Defensive Publications Series

A method for implementing evidence-based guidance for a data science team using generative artificial intelligence under uncertainty is provided. The method includes reviewing existing evidence on generative AI in knowledge work, including empirical literature on productivity effects, cognition and skill formation, and human factors research on automation complacency and cognitive offloading. The method includes evaluating the existing evidence across parallel considerations and deriving a plurality of principles from the existing evidence. The principles include an accountability principle stating that accountability for work cannot be self-certified, an aggregation principle directing to read more but not think less, a writing reservation principle …

The Challenges Of Romantic Relationships In Contemporary Societies, Xavier Pillet

Defensive Publications Series

This document, produced with the assistance of ChatGPT o3, GPT-5 Thinking and Grok, is released under the Apache License 2.0. It is a voluntary defensive publication (prior art) and therefore enters the prior art upon release under the applicable patent statutes : EPC Art. 54(2) (European Patent Convention), French IPC Art. L 611-11 (French Intellectual Property Code), 35 U.S.C. §102(a) (United States Patent Act), Chinese Patent Law Art. 22(5) (両匡丢氡儡吡嘡丣刡氢), and Japanese Patent Act Art. 29(1) (闘旧避). This disclosure details technical systems, methods, and architectures spanning ethical matching, socio-ecological scoring, closed-loop UX, a!ective VR, safety/consent, intergenerational models, community optimization, data …

Exploring Elite Athletes’ Perceptions Of The Practice Of Mindfulness For Mental Health And Optimal Performance, Omar A. Sesay

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Elite athletes experience physical, cognitive, and emotional demands that affect athletic performance and personal well-being, increasing the risk for anxiety, depression, burnout, attentional difficulties, and maladaptive coping strategies. Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been examined for its effect on attentional control, emotional regulation, cognitive flexibility, and stress resilience, but limited qualitative research has examined how elite athletes experience the practice of mindfulness. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore elite athletes’ perceptions of the practice of mindfulness for mental health and optimal performance. The theoretical framework draws from mindfulness theory and MBSR principles. Semistructured interviews were conducted …

Immigration Stress And Inequities Driving Diabetes Distress In Hispanic Adults: A Scoping Review, Rachell Nguyen

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Background: Hispanic adults in the United States experience disproportionately high rates of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and co-occurring mental health conditions. These disparities are intensified by immigration-related stress, acculturation challenges, and minority stress, all of which contribute to heightened diabetes distress and reduced self-management capacity.

Purpose: This scoping review examined how immigration stressors, acculturation processes, and minority stress influence diabetes distress and mental health outcomes among Hispanic adults with T2DM.

Methods: Using Arksey and O’Malley’s six-step scoping review framework and PRISMA-ScR guidelines, a comprehensive search of PubMed, CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE (OVID), and ScienceDirect identified studies published between 2015 and …

“Turn The Faucet”: Right-Wing Hydrosocial Imaginaries Of Irrigation Water In The Western United States, Alexander Reid Ross, Thien-Kim Bui, Alida Cantor

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

The second administration of United States President Donald Trump has taken an authoritarian, centralized approach to governance in the United States. Water management is one area in which the president has attempted to show dominance. This research theorizes President Trump’s concept of water in the United States West as a “hydrosocial imaginary” in which the release of water from rivers and reservoirs indicates virility, action, and power, instead of liberal cautiousness and prudence. By ordering the release of two billion gallons of water from California’s Central Valley into the dry Tulare Basin one hundred miles north of Los Angeles for …

We Don't See Race, We See Blue: A Case Study Of Police Unions As Racialized Organizations, Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

In the late 1960s, police began to unionize. Today, they are the most well-organized labor force in the United States, with 70% to 80% of sworn officers now represented by a union. Though it has been decades, little scholarship has developed about how police unions affect policing. Much of the research that does exist uses race-neutral frames to address an organization steeped in racial history. This study aims to address this gap in scholarship, in part, by introducing race as a motivation for and explanation of organizational output.

This research applies Victor Ray's racialized organizations theory to police unions. I …

God's Will Or Man's? The Power Of Religious Rhetoric In Shaping Wartime Domestic Policy Preferences, Claire E. Brimhall

Undergraduate Honors Theses

How do individuals represent their religious beliefs in the political sphere? Is this impacted by levels of conflict in a given society? In times of war, people of faith often rally behind leaders and policies that diverge from the values upheld by their religious institutions. In fact, in many such cases, religious affiliation and church attendance are among the strongest predictors of support for these political actors.

This thesis examines two such cases where religious voters support policies that contradict the moral teachings of their faith, advancing a theory that a state’s appeals to religion can fundamentally reshape how believers …

Are 2d:4d Finger-Length Ratios Related To Bdsm Power Play Roles? An Exploratory Study, Phoenix R. Crane

Psychology and Neuroscience Faculty Publications

This study explored the relationships between 2D:4D ratio, a biological marker influenced by prenatal androgen exposure, and personality traits among members of the BDSM community. The 2D:4D ratio, calculated by dividing the length of the second (index) finger by the length of the fourth (ring) finger, is a non-invasive measure of prenatal exposure to androgens, with a smaller 2D:4D ratio associated with higher levels of testosterone exposure. Previous, albeit conflicting, research suggests that higher levels of testosterone are associated with dominance, aggression, risk-taking, and sensation-seeking. The present study draws on these findings to propose an androgenization of power play roles. …

Parents’ Perceptions Of Their Children With Disabilities’ Mental Health During The Rapid Transition To Online Learning At The Time Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Arnell Rorie Footman

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted an abrupt shift to online learning, raising significant concerns about the mental health of children with disabilities. Existing research highlights increased rates of anxiety, depression, and social isolation during due to the disruptions in structured routines and in-person support systems. This generic qualitative study, guided by Bronfenbrenner’s EST was conducted to explore parents’ perceptions of the mental health challenges experienced by their students with disabilities during the rapid transition to online learning at the time of COVID-19 pandemic. Data was obtained through semi-structured interviews in which parents voiced their perceptions and experiences concerning their children’s mental …

Using Posters To Increase Vegan Entrées Chosen At Classics In Wmu’S Student Dining Center, Sarah Schneider

Honors Theses

The following experiment tested the use of specifically designed posters to see the effect on eating habits of those who ate entrées from WMU’s food counter called Classics in the Student Dining Center. The independent variable was a poster with humorous and factual elements displayed at the point of choice in the dining center. The primary dependent variable was the percentage of vegan entrees chosen out of the total number of vegan and meat entrees served. The secondary dependent variables were the number of vegan entrees prepped and served, and the percentage of each entree that was served out of …

[Introduction To] The Philosophy Of Taylor Swift, Lindsay Brainard, Ryan W. Davis, Jess Flanigan

Bookshelf

Edited by Lindsay Brainard, Ryan W. Davis, and Jessica Flanigan

• Offers the first book-length philosophical analysis focused exclusively on Taylor Swift's songwriting
• Demonstrates innovative methodologies for treating popular music as a site of rigorous philosophical inquiry
• Features essays by a diverse group of leading philosophers across multiple subfields
• Reveals new interpretive insights for both scholars and Swifties, deepening understanding of themes such as love, morality, and meaning

Mindful Parenting And Toddlers' Food Responsiveness: The Role Of Controlling Feeding Practices, Qingyu Jiang, Holly Wilhite, Natalie A. Williams, Dipti A. Dev, Caron A. C. Clark, Pearl Avari, Sarah B. Ladd

Journal of Extension

Controlling feeding practices may negatively impact children's eating behaviors. Mindful parenting may offer a promising way to reduce the use of these practices. This study examined the mediating role of pressuring children to eat and using food as a reward in the association between mindful parenting and toddlers' food responsiveness. Results indicated that higher levels of mindful parenting were associated with lower pressuring to eat, which was related to lower food responsiveness in toddlers. The results may inform Extension professionals providing mindfulness strategies for mothers of young children to improve feeding practices, ultimately reducing children's unhealthful eating behaviors.

Boss Up/Bake Bread, Jess Flanigan

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Taylor Swift’s “Wi$h Li$t” describes people who “want it all.” There, she declares that, in contrast to those who want it all, she dreams about living a quiet life with a driveway and a basketball hoop. This chapter argues that dreaming about a driveway with a basketball hoop while staying married to the hustle is still a form of wanting it all. Like Swift, and me, many other women today enjoy a degree of autonomy and material abundance that our grandmothers could only dream about. We’re free to boss up or settle down. But still, we have to make trade-offs. …

Embodying Palestinian Freedom: Yogis For Palestine As A Site Of Transnational And Anti-Imperial Feminist Solidarity, Sheena Sood

Gatherings

In a climate marked by the rise of global fascism, yoga is often appropriated toward the reproduction of caste supremacist and ethnonational agendas, colonial and racial capitalist relations, and neoliberal spirituality. Still, it has also been harnessed for collective liberation. We see this through the effort of Gaza-based yoga teacher, Hadeel Al-Gharbawi, using trauma-informed yoga to help the children of Al-Jawad Camp cultivate endurance during a genocide, and the solidarity of practitioners activating yoga toward Palestinian self-determination. This article examines the social and political activities of Yogis for Palestine (YFP), a Philadelphia-based collective whose vision for collective liberation includes unwavering …

Roots That Refuse To Die: Narratives Of Displacement And Solidarity In Palestinian And Chicanx Feminist Traditions, R. H., Lea Colchado-Joaquín

Gatherings

Amidst the recent passing of Senate Bill 17 and increasing restrictions on academic freedom, and efforts to shut down encampments, political tensions have been on the rise at Texas university campuses. As women of color scholars learning to navigate these challenges, we are committed to fostering safe pedagogical spaces that honor minoritized students’ voices. This paper examines interpretations of solidarity narratives between Chicanx and Palestinian feminist authors through a decolonial feminist lens and employs an autoethnographic methodological approach such as autohistoria-teoría to highlight parallels between the authors' lived realities. Authors begin this conversation by using their own narratives of resistance …

Kinship As Ethical Caring In Genocidal Times, Khawla Badwan, Sunny Singh Prof

Gatherings

As the world bears witness to the first live-streamed genocide¹ in history with full collaboration of the so-called free world, whatever ethics had been defined and legally encoded by imperial powers in the aftermath of the Second World War are no longer functioning or indeed relevant. Instead at individual and collective levels, we must develop a more relational and nested approach to ethical caring; one that moves beyond saviourism and distant witnessing. To demonstrate this relationality, we present our thinking through a dialogic genre of creative and critical reflections and interventions. This dialogue draws and builds on entanglements of …

Echoes Of Loss: Exploring Palestine And Feminism Through Art, Alaa Shadfan

Gatherings

My body of work is an exploration of raw human emotion, psychological states, and the resilience of the human spirit, shaped profoundly by the ongoing suffering and resistance of the Palestinian people. Through this series of paintings, I strive to give voice to collective grief, inner struggle, and quiet strength. Much of the emotional palette I draw from grief, fear, resistance, and hope is deeply influenced by witnessing the genocide[1]and systemic oppression in Palestine. The red in my paintings is deliberate, my way of symbolizing standing in solidarity with Palestine, and more specifically, with Palestinian women whose strength, …

Gatherings 3.2 (Complete Issue), Besan Jaber, Asmaa Malik

Gatherings

p. 111: Echoes of Loss: Exploring Palestine and Feminism Through Art / Ala Alshadfan -- p. 117: In-Dialogue as Feminist Praxis: Palestine, Poetry, and Affective Knowing / Besan Jaber and Natalie El-Eid -- p. 130: Kinship as Ethical Caring in Genocidal Times / Khawla Badwan and Sunny Singh --  p.150: Roots That Refuse to Die: Narratives of Displacement and Solidarity in Palestinian and Chicanx Feminist Traditions / R. K. and Lea Colchado-Joaquín -- p.169: A Poem for Palestinian Liberation from Låguas yan Gåni / Ha’åni Lucia Falo San Nicolas -- p. 171: Embodying Palestinian Freedom: Yogis for Palestine as a …

Action Steps Toward Equity In Communication Sciences And Disorders: A Program Evaluation Of Student Self-Efficacy, Monica Bellon-Harn, Lekeitha Morris, Mark Trahan

Teaching and Learning in Communication Sciences & Disorders

Abstract

Purpose: Within communication sciences and disorders (CSD), preparing students for equitable practice requires instruction aligned with social justice principles. Because students’ confidence in engaging in these practices may influence future behavior, this study examined the effects of an asynchronous program, Action Steps toward Equity (ASE-CSD) on undergraduate and graduate CSD students’ self-efficacy for practices aligned with social justice principles.

Method: A pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design was used with undergraduate (n = 16) and graduate (n = 33) CSD students who completed ASE-CSD. Participants completed the Social Justice Scale (SJS; Torres-Harding et al., 2012), which assessed self-efficacy associated with …