Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Youth Learning Outcomes Of Travel Programs Through Storytelling, Gary Ellis, Parisa Paymard, Dottie Goebel, Darlene Locke, William F. Zanolini, Emily Catalan, Kelley Ranly

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

We conducted two studies to evaluate strategies that Extension educators may use to enrich youth travel program experiences. Study 1 evaluated the effects of telling stories about attractions before site visits on youth experiences and learning outcomes on site. Seventeen youth in a 4-H program designed to promote cultural understanding visited eight attractions in Costa Rica. The evening before visiting three sites, youth were told a fictional or cross-fictional story about the sites. The stories elicited imaginary travel to the site (narrative transportation). After visiting the sites, the youth reported the extent to which they felt like they were in …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Relationship Education For Latino Adolescents, Joshua J. Turner, Esra Şahin, Kay Bradford, Brian J. Higginbotham

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

Adolescent romantic relationships are often characterized as exploratory and fleeting; however, they have lasting impacts on individual well-being and relationship quality during and beyond adolescence, shaping future relationship expectations and quality (Collins, 2003; Madsen & Collins, 2011). Adolescent relationship education is an important programmatic feature under the broader umbrella of family life education (Simpson et al., 2018). Previous evaluative studies document positive outcomes in educating adolescents on how to build and recognize healthy relationships (Bradford et al., 2023; Kerpelman et al., 2010); however, research remains limited in addressing potential benefits for adolescents from historically underrepresented groups. This study addresses this …

Teaching Leadership In The Context Of Crisis: Connecting Organizational Leadership And Crisis Competencies In A Faculty Leadership Education Program, Caitlin Lunzmann, Nicole Lamee Perez Stedman, Matthew Sowcik

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

This research focused on enhancing leadership instruction in colleges of agriculture. A multi-institutional research team initiated a program to teach agricultural and natural resource faculty how to create leadership-oriented case studies for undergraduates. Forty faculty members participated in an online training academy centered on Bolman and Deal’s Organizational Frames and case study writing. Following the academy, these faculty members participated in field experiences in the southeastern U.S. to gather data on natural disasters, which they used to write case studies about leadership in agriculture. Though the program focused on organizational leadership, it also discussed leadership in the context of natural …

The Wisdom-Ing Of Academia: A Servant-Leadership Perspective, Kathleen Patterson, Jeffrey Brauch, Don Finn, David Wallace, Jeffrey Anderson, Dorothy Hargett

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

This article looks at the wisdom-ing of academia as more faculty members choose to delay retirement, continue working in varied ways, and are vibrant to the academy. Robert K. Greenleaf (1998), who is best noted as the Father of Servant Leadership, called aging the ultimate test of spirit. The authors represent Regent University’s Faculty Senate and look at this wisdom-ing, or graying, of faculty members through a Servant Leadership lens, a Biblical perspective, and then cognitive considerations, to provide insight into higher-education at large. We, the Regent University Faculty Senate, then share insights we learned from anecdotal casual conversations with …

Reviving Civil Discourse: A Leadership Imperative In The Age Of Polarization, Katie Herritage

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

This paper examines the current erosion of civil discourse as a pressing leadership challenge in an era defined by polarization and distrust. Civil discourse, the respectful and constructive exchange of ideas, underpins democratic societies yet is increasingly undermined by hostile rhetoric and deepening societal divides. Drawing on servant-leadership and relational leadership theory, this study explores how leaders can counteract this decline by fostering trust, empathy, and open dialogue. The discussion is grounded in the philosophical contributions of bell hooks, Friedrich Nietzsche, Viktor Frankl, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, Jr., whose ideas illuminate pathways for revitalizing civil discourse through compassion, …

Dei And The Servant-Leader, Carmen Dela Cruz

International Journal of Servant-Leadership

After the June 2023 Supreme Court decision eliminating race as a consideration in college admissions, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in higher education became a target. As a result of the Supreme Court’s decision, some states began closing or renaming their DEI offices even before President Trump’s reelection. Since President Trump began his second term, his administration has made dismantling DEI initiatives a top priority. So, now is a crucial time to continue the work of civil rights and social justice in the United States. It is essential that we have leaders that are willing to carry out DEI …

Chapter 4 Slides: Core Competencies In Rehabilitative Health Sciences, Lisa Dunkley

Internship, Practicum, and Capstone: A Guide for Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Chapter 8 Slides: Self-Care, Stress, And Safety In Rehabilitation Professions, Lisa Dunkley

Internship, Practicum, and Capstone: A Guide for Health Sciences

No abstract provided.

Examining Social Determinants Of Perceived Discrimination Among Refugees In The United States, Macy M. Hoff

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Refugees face a range of challenges as they integrate into a new culture, which can significantly impact their individual lives. This paper examines the impact of discrimination on refugees and how these experiences shape their rights, opportunities, and overall integration. It explores how institutional practices and public attitudes contribute to unequal treatment in employment, housing, education, and overall health. Consistent with previous studies, the study highlights the connection between perceived discrimination and negative outcomes for refugees, including social exclusion, limited participation within their new society, and poorer mental health. Results reveal that discrimination acts as a barrier to successful assimilation …

A Mixed-Methods Design-Based Research: Study Of Teacher Self-Efficacy And The Implementation Of Social Emotional Learning In The High School Classroom, Avia Brown

Dissertations

The escalating mental health crisis among adolescents, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, positioned schools as critical intervention sites for supporting student well-being (K. McNamara, 2020). However, teacher capacity and self-efficacy in implementing social-emotional learning (SEL) competencies remain significant barriers to effective, sustainable practice. This mixed-methods design-based research study examined the efficacy of professional development and instructional coaching in enhancing teacher self-efficacy and supporting the implementation of SEL competencies in high school classrooms.

The researcher employed a comprehensive, five-stage design thinking framework (empathize, define, ideate, prototype, test) to develop and evaluate a structured eight-week professional development and coaching intervention targeting SEL …

Full Issue, The Mcnair Team

McNair Scholars Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Rotunda - Vol 105, No 3 - Dec 1, 2025, Longwood University

Rotunda

No abstract provided.

The Path To Better Always Requires Something Different, An Nguyen Dds, Mph

Metro Denver Dental Society Articulator Magazine

Dr. An Nguyen examines dentistry’s shift toward the Complete Health Era, where oral health is fully integrated into chronic disease management and whole-body wellness. She outlines the interdisciplinary skills, including medical mindset, behavioral science, quality improvement and meaningful measurement, needed for dental teams to thrive in this new landscape. The article makes a compelling call for embracing fresh approaches, partnerships and mindsets to advance dentistry’s role in comprehensive health care.

Error Reduction Methodology And Data Simulation For Interval Data, Ranik Christopher Jelinek

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive condition affecting hundreds of millions of individuals worldwide. However, clinical datasets often record continuous laboratory measurements as categorical intervals rather than precise numerical values. This interval-censored structure presents methodological challenges for standard regression-based classifiers. This study compares three strategies for handling interval-valued predictors prior to fitting a logistic LASSO model: (1) midpoint imputation, which replaces each interval with its arithmetic center; (2) ordinal encoding, which maps intervals to integer ranks; and (3) a Monte Carlo simulation approach, which repeatedly samples uniformly from each observed interval and averages predictions across replications. Using a 10-fold …

White Horse Village: A Northern Utah Ufo Narrative, Melissa Petersen

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

In the early 1960's a group of UFO believers, called Christ Brotherhood Inc., established themselves in Smithfield Canyon, UT and called their commune White Horse Village. A main house was built where the leader of the group lived and two or three smaller cabins were erected for the believers. Without running water they used an outhouse among them and built a small church where they would meet for lectures. Their beliefs centered around the popular movement of New Age spirituality of the time, which included scientific explanations for Christian beliefs including a belief in benevolent aliens as modern angels. Their …

An Exploration Of Factors Associated With Sport Fan's' Choice Of Ticketing Platforms., Jacob Owsley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined key experiential and demographic factors associated with sport consumers’ choice of online ticketing platforms. The research applied the technology acceptance model (TAM) to examine how trust, official sponsorship, user interface design, and price consciousness are associated with consumers’ choice between different online ticketing platforms.. Data were collected from 312 adult sport consumers in the United States through an online survey distributed across six Reddit communities focused on ticketing or research activities. Participants included individuals who bought tickets to professional sports events and attended these events during the last 12 months. The expert review process and two …

What Will It Take To Keep You? A Phenomenological Investigation Of Teacher Career Decisions In Title I Elementary Schools., Tonya Nicole Holt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the factors influencing teachers’ decisions to remain in or leave Title I elementary schools in Kentucky. Grounded in Herzberg’s Motivation–Hygiene Theory, the study examined the interplay of intrinsic motivators and extrinsic conditions that shape teacher satisfaction, commitment, and attrition. Twelve current Title I teachers participated in semi-structured interviews designed to capture their lived experiences and perceptions of work in high poverty contexts. Analysis revealed a balance of pull factors—such as purpose, relationships, and supportive leadership—and push factors—including workload, resource limitations, and inadequate administrative support. Leadership quality emerged as the central variable mediating these forces. Teachers …

Acceptance And Commitment Therapy As A Transdiagnostic Approach To Improve Quality Of Life Among Adults Living With A Physical Chronic Health Condition, Marissa L. Donahue

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The research contained in this dissertation presents rationale and empirical support for the application of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a transdiagnostic approach in improving quality of life for adults living with chronic health conditions (CHCs). The first study consists of a systematic review that aims to examine (1) the current state of evidence of ACT for adults living with a CHC, (2) how outcomes are being characterized within this population, (3) the methodological quality of the included trials, as well as (4) summarizing the health conditions in which ACT has been evaluated for. The second study examines the …

The Equity Implications Of Pecuniary Externalities On An Electric Grid, Charles Sims, Gasser G. Ali, J Scott Holladay, Tim Roberson, Chien-Fei Chen, Islam H. El-Haddad

Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

The adoption of rooftop photovoltaic (PV) systems can create upward pressure on retail electricity rates as utilities are forced to spread their fixed costs of generation and transmission across a smaller customer base. Since high-income households are more likely to purchase PV systems, low-income households may be disproportionately impacted by these rate increases. Using a novel combination of agent-based computational economic modeling and a choice experiment of rooftop solar adoption, we show how this pecuniary externality between low- and high-income customers increases low-income electricity bills by 10% in an area with some of the highest poverty rates in the United …

The Sexual Objectification Experiences Of Amab Non-Binary People, Lee Rosemary Pradell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The current study combines two narrative-based methods to understand how AMAB non-binary people experience sexual objectification. Sexual objectification is the process of being treated as an object instead of as a whole person while also being sexualized. Individual people can sexually objectify others (i.e., catcalling, asking “What gender are you really?”, repeatedly asking female people about when they’re giving birth); institutions and systems can also objectify people (i.e., listing sex on driver’s licenses instead of gender; providing binary bathrooms, sports teams, and schooling; labeling female reproductive care “women’s health”).

The current study employed a process chart task that guided participants …

Examing Fear Conditioning/Extinction And The Role Of The Amygdala In Human Neuroimaging., Olivia Cook

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fear plays a crucial role in survival but can lead to psychological disorders when dysregulated. Fears can be innate due to evolutionary relevance or learned through associative processes, where predictive accuracy of threat is pivotal. Disruptions in fear neurocircuitry contribute to anxiety disorders, characterized by heightened activation and impaired learning. Fear conditioning and extinction paradigms based on classical Pavlovian conditioning have been used to study mechanisms underlying fear learning. Using this experimental model, fear networks in rodents have been described in detail with clear distinction between conditioning and extinction neural functioning. Yet, there is no consensus on the neurobiological processes …

Risk And Protective Factors For Suicidal Thoughts And Behaviors For Black Adolescent Males With Exposure To Adverse Experiences Post-Covid 19 Pandemic: Findings From The 2023 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey., Amanda Minogue

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Suicide is the second leading cause of death among adolescents aged 10-24 in the United States. In 2022, 784 Black adolescent males died by suicide. Recent studies have found that traditionally common associations of risk factors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors are not experienced by Black adolescents, challenging how to determine and detect risk. This dissertation reviewed the variables in the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey that closely align with risk and protective factors of suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and the interaction between these and adverse experiences in Black adolescent males. Results of this study found that among the 9 …

Residential Segregation And Breast Cancer In Louisville: Impact Of Race And Contextual Factors On Advanced-Stage Diagnosis, Delayed Treatment, And Disease-Specific Mortality., Toheeb Ajani Mustapha

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Female breast cancer (BC) remains the most commonly diagnosed non-skin cancer and the second leading cause of cancer death among U.S. women. Despite advances in detection and treatment, substantial inequities in BC outcomes persist, driven in part by structural forces such as residential segregation. This dissertation examined the relationship between residential segregation, BC outcomes, and key contextual factors in Louisville, Kentucky. Using data from the Kentucky Cancer Registry, American Community Survey, CDC’s Population-Level Analyses and Community Estimates, and the National Neighborhood Data Archive, the study tested two hypotheses: (1) higher Black/low-income segregation is associated with elevated risks of adverse BC …

A Multilevel Analysis To Evaluate Variability In Sdoh Clusters Within Rurality And Its Effects On Cancer-Specific And All-Cause Mortality In The Us., Stephie Ann Abraham

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social determinants of health (SDOH) factors have consistently been shown to impact all-cause and cancer-specific mortality. Area-level SDOH factors that coexist to form “high-risk” clusters are more prevalent in rural than urban areas. However, heterogeneity within rural and urban areas may contribute to variations in SDOH factors that could influence higher mortality rates and is not considered in other studies. The primary objective of this study was to utilize ecological and individual-level data to determine if the composition of SDOH clusters within counties in the rural-urban continuum contributes to differences in all-cause (AC) and cancer-specific mortality rates of lung and …

Perceived Organizational Support Of High-Performance Support Staff Members In Professional Soccer Organizations., Erica B. Thompson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore perceived organizational support among high-performance support staff (HPSS) within professional soccer organizations. Specifically, this study examined how HPSS define organizational support, identified factors that shape their perceptions, explored organizational challenges they experience, and analyzed how those challenges intersect with their perceptions of support. Organizational Support Theory (OST) and its central construct, Perceived Organizational Support (POS), served as the theoretical framework guiding this study. OST assumes employees form global beliefs about the extent to which their organization values their contributions and cares about their well-being. To address the study’s purpose, a basic interpretive …

The Important Of Female Coaches: What Barriers They Face, Why They Stay, And What Can Be Done To Attract More., Hayley E. Yourous

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After the passage of Title IX, there has been an increase in the number of females participating in sports; however, the same cannot translate to women in coaching or leadership positions (Acosta & Carpenter, 2014; Hart et al., 1986; LaVoi & Baeth, 2018). The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of females who had served as head coaches in the high school setting with at least eight years of experience as a head coach. The NCAA (2022) reported in 2020 that female coaches accounted for 41.3% of female teams' head coaches, both intercollegiate and …

Articulator Volume 31, Issue 4

Metro Denver Dental Society Articulator Magazine

The 4^th Quarter 2025 of the MDDS Articulator Magazine offers a preview of the 2026 Rocky Mountain Dental Convention, taking place January 22–24 in Denver. The collection spotlights RMDC speakers and the future of dentistry, from the rise of AI and the shift toward integrated whole-health care to the hidden challenges of chronic illness, and a commitment to preserving natural dentition. The articles challenge dental professionals to rethink assumptions, embrace interdisciplinary collaboration and adopt more personalized and evidence-driven approaches to care.

Hkc03 - Leading A Horse To Water: Understanding The Potential Consequences Of Ordeals In Subsidized Tariff Pricing, Evan Plous Kresch, Carlota Loran Lopez

Oberlin College Kasper Economics and Business Working Paper Series

Water utilities attempting to balance widespread network access with financial stability in providing services often employ Increasing Block Tariffs (IBTs), where volumetric rates increase nonlinearly with water consumed. The widespread adoption of IBTs by utilities across the world is partly attributed to their ability to cross-subsidize smaller monthly users; however, this often leads to the undesirable outcome that large poor households are shifted into higher tariff blocks. To address this, water utilities often adopt a“social tariff”, with significantly lower rates specifically targeted at poor households. However, most of these social tariff policies require households to opt-in or apply to the …

Implementation Of The Modified Severity Assessment Scale (Msas) For Alcohol Withdrawal In An Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, Grace R. Lindsey

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Background: Alcohol withdrawal is a potentially life-threatening condition frequently seen in psychiatric inpatient settings, especially among individuals with co-occurring alcohol use disorder and mental illness. The Clinical Institute Withdrawal Assessment for Alcohol Scale-revised, while widely used, depends on patient self-report, making it less effective for individuals with altered mental status or psychosis.

Purpose: This quality improvement project implemented the Modified Severity Assessment Scale, an objective, observation-based alcohol withdrawal protocol, in an inpatient psychiatric setting to improve safety, treatment accuracy, and care standardization.

Objectives: The project focused on ensuring full staff adoption of the protocol, reducing intensive care unit transfers …

Implementation Of An Information Sheet For Pediatric Patients With Autism Spectrum Disorder In An Inpatient Setting To De-Escalate Aggressive Behaviors And Reduce Seclusion Rates, Megan R. Castro

Doctor of Nursing Practice

Introduction: Research shows that most seclusion events in pediatric psychiatric settings involve pediatric patients with neurodevelopmental disorders, particularly autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A lack of provider expertise contributes to elevated seclusion rates, highlighting the need for evidence-based, ASD-informed care.
Purpose: To reduce seclusion events within a pediatric psychiatric facility in South Texas, by implementing an evidence-based intervention upon admission that could decrease aggressive behaviors and the likelihood of requiring seclusion. Evidence summary: Literature and guidelines underscore the importance of identifying sensory triggers and calming strategies at admission. Collaborative care and personalized interventions, such as a patient information sheet that identifies …