Digital Commons Network^™

Limited Australian Clinical Guidelines For Pain Assessment In Hospitalized Older Adults With Cognitive Impairment: Implications For Safe And Quality Care, Rosemary Saunders, Kaoru Nosaka, Seng Giap Marcus Ang, Natasya Raja Azlan, Aaron Alejandro, Rohini Sharma Bhardwaj, Olivia Gallagher, Irene Ngune, Amineh Rashidi, Yan Hui Celestine Wee, Nilufeur Mckay

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Introduction – Pain assessment remains challenging in healthcare settings in patients who are unable to self-report their pain. More than 50% of individuals with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment (CI) experience pain daily. However, pain is frequently overlooked and inadequately assessed by healthcare professionals due to their lack of knowledge and guidelines to inform pain assessment. Pain is also a leading cause of hospital presentation and inappropriate pain assessment can impact on pain management and compromise safe and quality care. Evidence-based guidelines that inform appropriate pain assessment and management are therefore essential. This scoping review aimed to explore …

Incretin-Based Medications In Women And Reproduction: A Systematic Scoping Review And Consensus Guidelines For Clinical Practice, Kate Maslin, Jill Shawe, Sinead Blowers, Michael Ceulemans, Kathryn Hart, Sam Schoenmakers, Amihai Rottenstreich, Heather Hopper, Mojca Jensterle, Angela C. Flynn

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Introduction: Pregnancy concurrent with incretin-based medications is contraindicated due to unknown risk of teratogenicity, as is breastfeeding. The aim of this systematic scoping review was to investigate potential risks and benefits of incretin-based medications in relation to preconception, pregnancy, and postnatal health, and to propose expert guidelines for clinical practice.Methods: An international expert multidisciplinary group was formed. Research questions relevant to women's reproductive health and incretin-based medications were refined collaboratively, utilizing a lifecourse approach. A systematic search was undertaken on July 23, 2025, across several databases and grey literature sources. Primary data from human studies were prioritized above animal studies. …

Book Review: Unmasking (New) Maternal Realities: Pregnancy, Childbirth, Postpartum In Global Literature, Cinema, And Media, Julie Glickman

Journal of International Women's Studies

No abstract provided.

Relational Knowledge In The Women’S Majlis: Towards A Culturally Grounded Qualitative Methodology In The United Arab Emirates, Gareth Davey, Suaad Al Oraimi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women-centered qualitative research in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) requires methodological approaches attentive to the places and practices through which Emirati women produce, share, and interpret knowledge. While feminist, decolonial, and participatory methodologies have challenged research approaches centered around men that are adapted for use in the UAE, comparatively little attention has been paid to grounding research in the everyday epistemic practices and social worlds of Emirati women. In this article, we develop a majlis-based relational methodology as a women-centered qualitative approach in the UAE. Our approach is centered on the women’s majlis—an Arabic term meaning a communal gathering place …

Recent Femvertising And The Flying Kick To Patriarchy: A Cross-Cultural Interpretation Of South Asian Media, Saheeh Shafi

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study bridges a critical gap in scholarship on “femvertising”—advertising aimed at women that promotes women’s empowerment—by shifting the focus from the Global North to South Asia’s under-researched media landscape. Using an explanatory sequential mixed-method design, the quantitative phase of the research analyzed 145 femvertising advertisements from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and other international campaigns using chi-square tests to examine associations between gender portrayals and three empowerment types: woman-to-woman (solidarity among women), man-to-woman (patriarchal negotiation), and woman-to-self (self-determination). The qualitative phase employed semi-structured interviews with twenty women consumers to explore how they interpret, experience, and respond to these empowerment narratives. Findings …

Career, Self-Worth, And The Need For Self-Care: Understanding Urban Indian Women’S Journeys From Career Break To Re-Entry, Prabha Masilamani, Priya Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

Women often take career breaks as a response to major life events such as marriage, childbirth, and migration; nevertheless, the emotional complexities and nuanced decision-making attached to these events are hardly discussed. This study explores the lived experiences of twenty-two urban Indian women from the information technology sector who took career breaks and then returned to work. Using an interpretivist phenomenological approach and reflexive thematic analysis, five themes were identified across the three phases of career transition: before, during, and after the career break. Drawing on feminist frameworks including Kabeer’s (1999) agency within constraints and Kandiyoti’s (1988) patriarchal bargaining, the …

The Unseen Burden: A Rural Indian Woman’S Resistance To Political Marginalization And Mankeeping, Suraj Kumar Verma

Journal of International Women's Studies

This qualitative study examines how “mankeeping”—invisible emotional labor— undermines women’s political autonomy and sense of belonging in rural India, despite the implementation of gender equality policies. Women often perform unrecognized emotional, interpretive, and relational labor to maintain intimate relationships and community cohesion. Drawing on contemporary concepts of intersectionality, epistemic injustice, testimonial injustice, hermeneutical injustice, and the “third shift,” this study systematically employs a reflexive, narrative inquiry approach focused on Varsha, a forty-five-year-old lower-caste woman from Uttar Pradesh, India. The study reveals how her daily care work, such as caregiving, managing household dynamics, and navigating community expectations, affects her access to …

Workplace Cultures And Gender Dynamics In The Uae: Emirati And Expatriate Perspectives, Maxime Jaffré, Tatiana Karabchuk, Asna Kozhikkattil

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study examines the moral regulation and institutional structure of the gendered division of labor in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a rapidly modernizing society characterized by demographic imbalance and state-led economic diversification. Drawing on Durkheim’s theory of moral regulation and Weber’s concept of rationalization, the paper analyzes how women’s empowerment and Emiratization policies reshape workplace cultures across gender and citizenship lines. The analysis is based on original survey data collected between 2019 and 2024 (N=10,100), comparing Emirati citizens and expatriate residents. Descriptive findings reveal overwhelming support for women’s right to work and for gender parity in political representation, indicating …

Beyond The Double Burden: A Gendered Analysis Of E-Commerce, Unpaid Care Work, And Financial Resilience In Indonesian Msmes, Mia Ajeng Alifiana, Mamduh M. Hanafi, Bowo Setiyono

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study challenges the narrative of e-commerce’s potential for empowering women in the Global South by exploring the structural barriers that women entrepreneurs face in Indonesia, both as paid and unpaid workers. The study also challenges the notion of “techno-optimism,” which suggests that digital entrepreneurship inherently empowers women, by highlighting the obstacles women face in economic engagement due to a “second shift” of domestic labor. Through a systematic review and bibliometric analysis of 158 articles indexed in Scopus and Web of Science, we map the intellectual structure of the literature on e-commerce and the financial performance of micro, small, and …

A Comprehensive Analysis Of Government Initiatives And Microfinance Performance: Economic Empowerment Of Women Through Self-Help Groups In India, Diganta Sarkar, Dileep Kumar Gupta, Shipra Gupta

Journal of International Women's Studies

This study is anchored in feminist understandings of empowerment as a relational process shaped by gendered power hierarchies within households, communities, and financial institutions. We offer a comprehensive analysis of governmental efforts, bank linkages, and economic empowerment of women through micro-finance in Self-Help Groups (SHGs). Although the National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) data only provides aggregate financial indicators, we interpret the trends in savings, borrowing, and repayment in dialogue with feminist and intersectional scholarship on microfinance in India. The study provides insights into the role of microfinance in SHGs and the magnitude of support for women’s empowerment, …

Home As A Workplace: Gender, Labour, And Domesticity In Homestays In Kerala, India, P P Anjusha, Prachi Thakur, Toney K Thomas

Journal of International Women's Studies

Tourism homestays are increasingly presented as an opportunity for women’s empowerment and inclusion around the world. However, this study argues that the focus on homestays as entrepreneurial opportunities for women obscures the persistence of patriarchal structures that limit women’s agency when their labour is commercialised. Grounded in theories of “doing gender” (West & Zimmerman, 1987) supplemented by role theory and critical feminist perspectives, the study highlights how gender is enacted and reproduced daily in homestays. This research draws on qualitative interviews with women hosts in the state of Kerala, India to explore how the gendered division of labour operates within …

Rural-To-Urban Migration And Household Reconfiguration In China: Lived Experiences Of Muslim Migrant Women Workers In Jinan, Ila Joshi

Journal of International Women's Studies

Rural-to-urban migration in China has profoundly reshaped Chinese society since 1979, resulting in separated families, so-called “left-behind children,” and socio-economic inequalities as part and parcel of the migration process. This paper examines the impact of rural-to-urban migration by focusing on the experiences of migrant women belonging to the Muslim (Tatar/Hui) community in Jinan, Shandong province of China. Despite the relaxation in restrictions on migration in the post-reform era, migrants—especially women migrants—face persistent legal and emotional challenges. Through ethnographic fieldwork, this study analyses the experiences of eight migrant women employed in formal, semi-formal, and informal work sectors. These in-depth interviews are …

Exploring Predictors Of Student And Parent Attendance In A Tier 2 School-Based Program: Implications For Optimizing Attendance In The Coping Power Program, Heather Mcdaniel, Alexa C. Budavari, Belinda E. Hernandez, Elise T. Pas, Catherine P. Bradshaw

Faculty Publications

There is growing interest in the use of multi-component Tier 2 preventive interventions to help address youth behavior problems in schools, yet parent and youth attendance at sessions can be suboptimal, and, if not optimized, can compromise outcomes. The current study explored baseline predictors of parent and youth attendance at the school-based Early Adolescent Coping Power (EACP) program, a preventive intervention for middle schoolers with externalizing problems. Data come from the 375 seventh graders (62% male, 72% Black) who were in the 20 middle schools randomized to receive the EACP intervention and their parents. We identified two latent profiles of …

Recovery Through Connection: The Role Of Positive Social Interactions In Early Alcohol And Opioid Recovery Outcomes, Hannah Avery Carlon

Psychology ETDs

Recovery from substance use disorder (SUD) is influenced by both positive emotional functioning and social connectedness. However, empirical research has yet to examine how these two protective factors interact to influence recovery. The present study aimed to address this gap by exploring positivity resonance, or the shared experience of positive emotions, in the first year of recovery. In Aim 1, we examined change trajectories of positivity resonance and recovery capital over the first year of recovery among adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD; n=470) and opioid use disorder (OUD; n=61), the associations between these change trajectories (1a), and …

Regenerative Writing: The Rhetorics Of Indigenous Futurisms As Pedagogical Praxis, Madeline R. Mendoza

English Language and Literature ETDs

This dissertation explores how land-based writing and Indigenous Futurisms can reshape writing pedagogy in higher education, focusing on English courses at the University of New Mexico. At the center of this project is the Land Memoirs assignment, which I designed to encourage students to engage land as a living relative and active participant in the learning process. Through the frameworks of Indigenous Futurisms, Land as Pedagogy, Rhetorical Sovereignty, and Pueblo understandings of marking, I analyze the rhetorical choices across student multimodal narratives, reflections, and interviews to examine the assignment’s pedagogical impact. My findings reveal epistemic differences in how Indigenous …

Keeping Communities Safe Through An Alternative First Response Model: Predictors Of Civilian First Responders’ Self-Efficacy In Handling Crisis Situations, Jasmine Desiderio

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The expansion of civilian alternative first responder models reflects a national shift toward community-based approaches to crisis intervention. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, this study examined the extent to which demographic characteristics are associated with crisis self-efficacy, explored how perceptions of the responder role relate to confidence, and identified supports necessary for effective crisis response. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed with civilian first responders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Quantitative data were collected with the Crisis Self-Efficacy Scale, and semi-structured interviews gathered qualitative data. Exploratory regression analyses (n=31) were not reliably associated with crisis self-efficacy, while role …

Transforming Faculty Development: Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Arts-Based Design, And Communities Of Transformation In Stem Education, Kristen L. Ferris

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

This dissertation investigates the relational conditions enabling institutional transformation and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) within STEM higher education. Despite needs for systemic change, sustaining faculty engagement remains difficult due to entrenched power dynamics, lack of pedagogical training, and political repression. To address these barriers this research introduces Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) as an analytic lens and functional infrastructure for change.

Through three papers, this study 1) establishes OCB via a systemic literature review as an actionable metric for faculty development; 2) details the design of a cross-institutional Community of Transformation (CoT) as a design case; and 3) Presents …

Interpretable Case-Control Inference Through Log-Linear General Location Models, Zacharia Stuart

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This dissertation analyzes one of the few publicly available NFL injury datasets to study field type and non-contact lower-limb injuries. Field type is studied jointly with other risk factors to understand how these factors interact to affect injury risk. The data were gathered through a case-control sampling scheme, which limits direct inference on absolute injury probabilities. While not the most common approach for case-control data, this dissertation models the retrospective distribution directly through Log-Linear General Location Models (Log-Linear GLOMs). Through a log-linear structure placed on a log-odds-ratio reparameterization, the model provides directly interpretable marginal and interaction contributions to injury log-odds …

Mitigating Cancer Therapy-Related Cognitive Impairment By Targeted Activation Of Undruggable Phosphatase., Zhimeng Yao, Yuhua Meng, Huanyi Li, Yinhui Jiang, Xiaona Lin, Mengyuan Hu, Qing Liu, Xiaofu Qiu, Hongzheng Ren, Yunlong Pan, Bin Pan, Zexiong Guo, Shuyao Zhang, Dianzheng Zhang, Li Yang, Shegan Gao, Weijing Deng, Jianfan Chen, Hao Zhang

PCOM Scholarly Works

Cancer therapy-related cognitive impairment (CTRCI) is a debilitating neurotoxic condition adversely impacting cancer patients during and post-cancer treatments. The cancer treatments linked to CTRCI include chemotherapy, hormone therapy, targeted therapy, and immunotherapy. Despite CTRCI severely affecting the psychological and social, cognitive functions, and the overall quality of life of cancer survivors, no effective medications are available currently. Our prior studies have indicated hippocampal tyrosine phosphatase protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type O (PTPRO) as a putative target for CTRCI. However, phosphatase is historically considered undruggable, and delivering drugs across the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is challenging. Here, we developed a novel delivery …

Under Pressure: Negative Urgency And Disordered Eating In The Context Of Parental Differential Support, Hamide Gozu, Jenna K. Rieder

College of Humanities and Sciences Faculty Papers

Disordered eating behaviors are prevalent in emerging adulthood and may be shaped by family dynamics. This study examined associations among maternal and paternal differential support, weight-shape concerns, and binge eating and compensatory behaviors in emerging adulthood, while testing the moderating role of negative urgency. Participants were 517 emerging adults from across the United States (ages 18-29; M = 22.60, SD = 3.81; 76% female). Participants reported on parental differential support, weight-shape concerns, eating behaviors, and negative urgency. Using moderated-mediation analyses, we found that weight-shape concerns mediated associations between differential support and eating behaviors. Unequal maternal support and paternal favoritism showed …

Targeted Nursing Bootcamps For Critical Access Hospital Nurses: A Program Evaluation., Nicholas Popp

DNP Projects

Background: Registered Nurses employed in critical access hospital settings are required to care for patients across the lifespan with varying levels of acuity. The registered nurse (RN) must be competent in providing medical, surgical, pediatric, obstetric, and intensive care-level services. However, the additional training they receive to care for their patients may be minimal or nonexistent, leading them to seek employment at other facilities due to safety concerns. Leadership within the organization believed that implementing targeted monthly nursing skills boot camps could increase nurses’ competence, confidence, and retention in critical access hospital settings.

Aims: This program evaluation project aimed to …

Bridging The Gap: Development And Implementation Of A Caregiver Educational Guide For Post-Lung Transplant Caregivers, Megan Aller

DNP Projects

Background: Caregivers of post-lung transplant recipients play a critical role in postoperative recovery, as patients require continuous support during the first three months after transplant. Despite this responsibility, caregivers frequently experience burden, stress, and challenges adapting to the complex demands of the caregiving role.

Aim: To evaluate the feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a tailored caregiver education and support guide for caregivers of lung transplant recipients.

Local Problem: Within the local transplant program, caregiver education primarily relied on verbal instruction with limited caregiver-specific take-home resources.

Methods: This quality improvement project used a two-group pretest–posttest design to evaluate the …

Integrated Construction Uncertainty Quantification Framework Icuqf, Felix Delmonte

Mechanical and Civil Engineering Faculty Publications

This study develops ICUQF, an integrated uncertainty framework for digitally instrumented construction megaprojects that unite probabilistic simulation, fuzzy reasoning, Bayesian networks, AI-driven anomaly detection, BIM-linked digital twins, and organizational learning into a single operational architecture. The framework classifies uncertainty into aleatory variability, epistemic gaps, data-centric and model-centric risks, and cognitive or cultural sources, mapping each class to computational treatments such as Monte Carlo engines for stochastic variability, fuzzy intervals and p-boxes for imprecise expert judgments, and hierarchical Bayesian models for coherent evidence aggregation and online updating. ICUQF specifies data pipelines that connect IoT sensing, edge processing, cloud storage, and Common …

Full Issue 20.1

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Genocide In Gaza? Social Media Discussions Of Violence In Israel And Gaza, Timothy Williams, Andreas Dafnos

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article conducts social network and topic analyses of German-language posts on X that discuss genocide and terrorism in Israel and Gaza in the first six months after the October 7 attacks and compares these to broader English-language discourses on the platform. The comparison reveals subtle differences in how Israeli violence and governance and Palestinians are discussed and who is seen as complicit in supporting violence. Markedly, German-language posts discuss what constitutes antisemitism more and employ a more restrained language towards Israel as a state and its political actors than English-language posts. We tie these findings back to the idiosyncrasies …

Evaluating Preoperative Education Modalities For Orthopedic Surgery Patients, Hannah Johnson

DNP Projects

Effective preoperative education is essential as total joint arthroplasty (TJA) procedures shift to outpatient care, yet traditional education methods may not be meeting patients’ diverse learning styles. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project aimed to evaluate the impact of multimodal preoperative education (in-person, virtual, hybrid video modules, or a combination) on patient-reported anxiety and discharge readiness, as well as length of stay (LOS), surgical site infections (SSIs), and 30-day readmissions. The in-person portion could not be implemented due to staffing constraints. The pre-post evaluation was conducted with a sample of 273 patients undergoing elective hip and knee arthroplasty (pre …

Bridging The Gap: Empowering Primary Care Providers With Nonpharmalogical Strategies For Adhd Management, Grace Sawyer

DNP Projects

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects many adults and children and is commonly managed with pharmaceutical drugs. Although evidence supports the use of nonpharmacological, many providers may not know or have the confidence to use these modalities to incorporate these into practice. This educational gap could contribute to an overreliance on medication when there are other options available for comprehensive ADHD care.  This quality improvement pretest-posttest design aimed to bridge the gap in provider knowledge and confidence regarding evidence-based nonpharmacological ADHD management at two college health clinics.  The intervention consisted of four pre-recorded modules delivered over four weeks that focused on exercise, …

Evaluating An Educational Intervention On Penicillin Allergy De-Labeling Among Graduate Nursing Students, Allison Desmond

DNP Projects

Background
Approximately 10% of patients report a penicillin allergy; however, up to 90% of these individuals are not truly allergic. Inaccurate penicillin allergy labels contribute to inappropriate antibiotic use, increased healthcare costs, and antimicrobial resistance. Education on penicillin allergy testing remains limited among future Family Nurse Practitioners (FNPs).

Methods
A quantitative quality improvement project using a pretest-posttest design was conducted among second- and third-year Doctor of Nursing Practice–Family Nurse Practitioner (DNP-FNP) students enrolled in Pharmacology II or Advanced Practice Nursing III at a Midwestern liberal arts college. Participants completed a 15-minute voiceover PowerPoint educational intervention on penicillin allergy testing and …

Registered Nurse Procedural Sedation In Operating Room: An Analysis Of Patient Safety And Nurse Confidence Efficacy Of 2 Years Post Implementation, Cassandra Fredrickson

DNP Projects

Background
A Midwest hospital implemented a registered nurse (RN) procedural sedation program to provide safe, cost-effective sedation for selected operating room procedures under physician supervision, improving patient access while optimizing anesthesia resources.

Methods
A retrospective descriptive program evaluation examined 1,117 patients who received RN-administered procedural sedation for vascular and neurovascular procedures during 2022 and 2024. Outcomes included anesthesia consultation, anesthesia takeover, reversal agent use, and adverse events. Patient demographics and procedure duration were analyzed. Six procedural sedation nurses completed a self-efficacy survey assessing confidence in sedation-related competencies. Descriptive statistics and qualitative review of adverse event narratives were performed.

Results
Among …

A Multi-Method Investigation Of Social Media Use In Adolescent Girls: Examining Emotion, Emotion Regulation, And Effects By Depression, Alison Tuck

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Adolescents experience emotional instability, challenges in emotion regulation, and increased risk for the onset of psychopathology, including depression. Adolescents also engage in more social media use (SMU) than any other age group. There is significant interest inside and out of the scientific community regarding how SMU is implicated in healthy versus unhealthy adolescent emotional well-being during this developmental shift in emotional experiences, particularly among girls, who may be most vulnerable. Although research on how adolescent girls’ emotional well-being may be associated with their SMU has increased over the past decade, findings have been largely mixed and inconclusive. This may be …