Digital Commons Network^™

The Economic Impact Of Coal And Coal-Fired Power Generation In West Virginia, John Deskins, Brandon Frazier, Brianna Guarnieri, Mason Sheppard, Will Turman

Bureau of Business & Economic Research

No abstract provided.

08 3600 Aluminum Interior Sectional Overhead Doors, Stephanie Weatherbee

Division 08 – Openings

No abstract provided.

08 360 Insulated Exterior Overhead Garage Doors, Stephanie L. Weatherbee

Division 08 – Openings

Specifications for Insulated Exterior Overhead Garage Doors

(No Date) Pca Past Presidents, Pennsylvania Counseling Association

PCA Board of Directors Meetings

No abstract provided.

Universal Sound Separation: Distance-Aware Mixture Simulation, Co-Occurrence Conditioning, And Chain-Of-Inference, Wonjun Park

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Universal Sound Separation (USS) -- the task of disentangling arbitrary sound sources from a single-channel acoustic mixture -- remains an open challenge due to the ill-posed nature of the problem and the distributional gap between synthetic training data and real-world recordings. This thesis addresses three distinct bottlenecks in the USS pipeline: training data realism, inference strategy, and conditioning richness. We first present two knowledge-guided approaches to sound source separation. The first is a distance-aware mixing strategy that leverages Large Language Models (LLMs) to assign plausible loudness relationships between audio sources during training data synthesis. By querying an LLM about the …

Peptide Sequencing Via Protein Language Models, Thuong Le Hoai Pham

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Protein sequencing is fundamental to understanding biological processes, disease mechanisms, and therapeutic developments. Current protein sequencing techniques, primarily relying on mass spectrometry and Edman degradation, face significant limitations in accurately identifying all amino acids within a protein, hindering comprehensive proteome analysis. Recent advances in click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry have enabled the identification of specific amino acids and their positions within a peptide; however, these techniques are still limited by the number of amino acids that can be identified with high accuracy and specificity, resulting in partially known sequences. This thesis presents a novel computational approach that leverages protein language …

Mechanistic Auditing Of Privacy Retention In Llm Summarization, Samreen Begum

Computer Science and Engineering Theses - Archive

Anonymized summarization aims to produce useful summaries while replacing person names with placeholders such as [PERSON]. In practice, privacy is often evaluated by checking that no real names appear in the generated text. However, suppressing a name in the output does not guarantee that the model has removed identity information from its internal computation. This gap is critical in collaborative inference frameworks, where intermediate internal states (ISs) are exposed for safety auditing. We study this question in a controlled setting where a language model reads a document containing a real name and is required to generate a summary that replaces …

An Introduction To Oral Traditions And Poetry Of The Baloches, Emran Dorrazehi

English Dissertations - Archive

There is not much known about the history and literature of the Baloches besides the translation and transliteration of Mansel Longworth Dames. Dames while serving as an official in the region wrote a book, Popular Poetry of the Baloches (1907) in two volumes. Dames translated a series of oral poetry of his subjects. This dissertation utilized 13 poems from Dames’ transliterations and employed a compensatory, creative and restorative translation to recreate their earlier states.  It is the assertion of this dissertation that the poems given to Dames by minstrels were already heavily censored to reflect Islamic, Mongol and Mughal identities. …

Enjoying The Golden Screen Of Asian American Representation In A Colorblind Era: Neoliberalism, Narrative, And Negotiation, Jered Mabaquiao

English Dissertations - Archive

This dissertation contributes to Asian American studies, Cinema and Media Studies, and Critical Theory by interrogating how contemporary Asian American representation is shaped by the intertwined pressures of racial politics, neoliberal market demands, and psychic life. Working across race studies, media studies, psychoanalysis, and phenomenological questions of ontology and being, the project argues that Asian American film and television cannot only be understood  through the language of popular culture representation, narrative progress, media visibility, or political inclusion. Instead, I combine such angles to examine how popular culture media participates in the contradictory production of Asian American subjectivity as culturally present …

Confronting The “Green” Discourse Of Librarianship, Michael Kirby

Publications and Research

Set against the backdrop of resurgent right-wing populism and drawing on Sam Popowich’s critique of democratic discourse in librarianship, this article outlines a crisis of imagination within liberal climate activism—particularly its essentially unquestioned commitment to “green growth,” or the notion that economic expansion can continue indefinitely alongside ecological sustainability. The American Library Association (ALA), despite its progressive public image, uncritically promotes these same market-oriented solutions to climate change and aligns itself with international treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, both of which are grounded in growth-centric frameworks and market mechanisms like carbon credits. These frameworks and …

Enhancing Resilience And Reducing Burnout In Oncology Nurse Practitioners Through The “Three Good Things” Intervention, Ernestine A. Muanya

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background: Burnout among oncology nurse practitioners (NPs) threatens clinician well-being, care quality, and workforce retention. The World Health Organization (2019) defines burnout as a workplace condition caused by chronic unmanaged stress. Nationally, over half of healthcare professionals report burnout symptoms, with high rates in oncology (Deriglazov et al., 2025). In Texas, nearly 48% of advanced practice providers report emotional exhaustion and job-related stress (Patel et al., 2024). Objective: This single-group pre–post quality improvement project evaluated an eight-week, app-based Three Good Things (3GT) intervention to reduce burnout and enhance resilience among 19 breast medical oncology nurse practitioners at a comprehensive …

A Structured Discharge Bundle To Reduce Heart Failure Readmissions, Carolyn Hudson

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background: Heart failure (HF) remains a major contributor to 30-day hospital readmissions, placing strain on patients, healthcare systems, and reimbursement structures tied to quality metrics. Inconsistent discharge practices and gaps in transitional care coordination increase the likelihood of preventable rehospitalizations.

Purpose: This project examined whether implementing a standardized, nurse-driven discharge bundle would improve transitional care outcomes and decrease 30-day readmissions among adults hospitalized with HF.

Methods: A practice-based quality improvement initiative was conducted in a 465-bed regional hospital over a 8-week period. Using iterative Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles, a structured discharge bundle was introduced for eligible HF patients discharged from medical-surgical and …

Nurse-Led Interventions To Reduce Occupational Hand Injuries In Manufacturing, Patti Harter

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Occupational hand injuries cause preventable morbidity, lost productivity, and workers’ compensation costs in manufacturing. Although safety policies and personal protective equipment (PPE) are in place, inconsistent glove use, slow hazard identification, and delayed response still cause injuries. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated an eight-week, nurse-led injury-prevention bundle at a Texas heavy-vehicle manufacturing facility. The intervention required daily glove inspections, Safety Champion participation, real-time electronic hazard reporting, and corrective action within the shift. Injury outcomes were measured using Occupational Safety and Administration (OSHA) rates per 200,000 work hours and percentage change from baseline. After implementation, hand injury rates fell from …

Sexually Transmitted Infections And Screening: An Educational, Evidence-Based, Quality Improvement Bundle, Misty D. White

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background: With sexually transmitted diseases on the rise in central Texas, advance practice providers were not following evidence-based practice recommendations for sexually transmitted infection screening, treatment, and follow-up. Screening for sexually transmitted diseases occurred at a rate of less than one patient every 7.75 days.

Objective: The objective of this project was to develop and implement an advanced practice provider training tool to educate the clinic providers on sexually transmitted infections, collect pre- and post-data for the educational sexually transmitted infection bundle, and collect sexually transmitted infection screening, identification, treatment, and follow-up data generated by the clinic advanced practice providers …

Post Discharge Care Bundle: Reducing Psychiatric Readmissions, Ejemenare Daudu

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Thirty-day post-discharge psychiatric readmission remains a significant challenge, with a reported 24% 30-day readmission rate at a South Texas inpatient psychiatric facility. This eight-week quality improvement project aimed to reduce readmission rates by implementing a comprehensive post-discharge care bundle. The initiative followed the Plan-Do-Study-Act framework. Interventions included standardized discharge planning, medication reconciliation, timely outpatient and telehealth services, weekly follow-up calls for 4 weeks, and coordination of community resources. The PICOTS question examined whether this standardized post-discharge approach, compared to usual care, could lower 30-day readmissions among adults aged 18 and above discharged from an inpatient psychiatric setting. Forty-two patients were …

Implementing An Antibiotic Stewardship Bundle In An Urgent Care Center, Christianah Ogunleye

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Inappropriate antibiotic prescribing for upper respiratory infections (URIs) remains a major contributor to antimicrobial resistance, adverse drug events, and unnecessary healthcare costs, particularly in urgent care settings characterized by high patient volume and rapid clinical decision-making. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement and evaluate a multifaceted antibiotic stewardship program aimed at improving evidence-based antibiotic prescribing practices for URIs in an urgent care setting. A bundled intervention was implemented that included provider education, evidence-based clinical decision guidelines, patient education materials, and audit-and-feedback strategies. Pre- and post-intervention data were collected and analyzed to assess changes in antibiotic prescribing …

Improving Colorectal Cancer Screening Adherence, Albin Abraham

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background

As the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, colorectal cancer (CRC) is a prevalent but highly preventable form of cancer (American Cancer Society National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable [ACSNCCR], 2026; Maratt et al., 2024). Screening for CRC is fundamental to prevention and early detection. Despite advances in screening measures, CRC screenings remain suboptimal (Tonini & Zanni, 2024). In the US, more than one in three adults 45 years or older are not screened as recommended (ACSNCCR, 2026).

Purpose

As a safety-net county health network primarily serving the under-resourced population, the organization is uniquely positioned to impact …

Implementing A Nurse-Led Multimodal Pain Management Toolkit To Enhance Recovery After Outpatient Urologic Surgery, Danielle Cirlos-Valles

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Purpose To evaluate the impact of a nurse-led multimodal postoperative pain management toolkit on recovery outcomes among adults undergoing same-day urologic surgery.

Design Quality improvement project using a pre–post implementation design in an outpatient perioperative setting.

Methods An evidence-based toolkit grounded in Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) principles was implemented over eight weeks, incorporating scheduled non-opioid analgesics, nonpharmacologic strategies (thermal therapy, guided breathing, early mobilization), standardized patient education, and 24-hour follow-up calls. Outcomes included Visual Analog Scale (VAS) pain scores at discharge and 24 hours, escalation pathway utilization, and nurse knowledge competency. Descriptive statistics and paired t tests were used. …

Implementing An Anxiety Management Bundle In Long-Term Nursing Facilities, Sundan G. Bryson

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

There is currently a gap in accurate screening and treatment of anxiety in Long-Term Care (LTC) nursing facilities. The question for this quality improvement project was: Will implementing interventions for long-term care residents aged 65 and older improve anxiety screening, non-pharmacological interventions, and mental health referrals by 10% compared to current practices? Interventions to enhance anxiety screening included the Geriatric Anxiety Scale-Long Term Care (GAS-LTC) tool to assess and score anxiety. In addition, a Non-Pharmacological Intervention (Non-PI) tool was created to evaluate interventions performed by facility staff. Referrals to the mental health care provider were submitted if a resident scored …

Tiny Heart Bundle Qi Project: 3d Modeling To Improve Care Of Cardiac Nicu Patients, Stacy Ranee Harris

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Background—Infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) are being care for in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) by increasing numbers of novice nurses. Understanding complex cardiac anatomy is imperative to novice nurses’ readiness to care. Parents of infants with CHD may not understand their child’s anatomy, which impacts many facets of their care.

Purpose— The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to determine if education, including 3D heart models improved novice nurse readiness to care for NICU patients with CHD and if parental understanding improves after receiving education with 3D heart models.

Methods— This was a plan-do-study-act (PDSA) …

Table Of Contents

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Unspoken Workweek: Understanding The Impact Of Menstruation On Work Experiences, Cherie Kuriakose

Psychology Theses

Menstruation remains an underrecognized factor in workplace well-being, despite affecting a large portion of the workforce. Existing research shows significant gaps in understanding employees’ lived experiences and organizational responses. This qualitative study aims to explore how menstruation influences work life, productivity, and perceptions of support within U.S. workplaces. Thirty menstruating employees were recruited using convenience and purposive sampling to participate in semi-structured virtual interviews, and data were analyzed thematically, guided by grounded theory principles. Findings revealed three central themes: (a) stigma and non-disclosure, shaped by internalized norms and workplace culture; (b) invisible effort and struggles that impact work, including productivity, …

Data-Driven Prediction Of Concrete Bridge Deck Corrosion Using Ground Penetrating Radar (Gpr), Nafisa Shafiullah

Civil Engineering Theses

Corrosion detection remains a crucial factor in the proper maintenance of Reinforced Concrete (RC) structures. While several studies have used Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) for corrosion detection, quantitative models for prediction are still limited. This study presents an approach for the quantitative prediction of rebar corrosion in concrete using GPR data obtained from a prior experimental program involving accelerated corrosion. A total of 36 RC samples were cast, varying in cover depth, rebar diameter, and concrete porosity. The samples were subjected to an impressed current of 0.65 A in a 5% NaCl solution over three phases: 10, 20, and 30 …

Study Of Clustering Technique And Communication Topologies For Cooperative Control-Based Volt-Var Optimization, Gaurav Yadav, Yuan Liao, Dan M. Ionel

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Introducing renewable distributed generation (DG) in the power distribution system causes rapid voltage fluctuations due to its intermittency. This intermittency renders conventional voltage regulation devices such as on-load tap changers (OLTCs) and capacitor banks (CBs) inefficient to regulate rapid voltage changes and leads to reduced equipment lifetime and high operation and maintenance costs. Hence, this calls for non-conventional methods to mitigate such voltage fluctuations. This paper presents a cooperative control-based method aimed to optimally control the reactive power of DG inverters to mitigate the voltage deviations by establishing communication among the DG nodes, and between DG and non-DG nodes. This …

Electromagnetic Formation Flying Using Alternating Magnetic Field Forces And Control Barrier Functions For State And Input Constraints, Sumit Suryakant Kamat, Thomas Michael Seigler, Jesse B. Hoagg

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

This article presents a feedback control algorithm for electromagnetic formation flying with constraints on the satellites’ states and control inputs. The algorithm combines several key techniques. First, we use alternating magnetic field forces to decouple the electromagnetic forces between each pair of satellites in the formation. Each satellite’s electromagnetic actuation system is driven by a sum of amplitude-modulated sinusoids, where amplitudes are controlled in order to prescribe the time-averaged force between each pair of satellites. Next, the desired time-averaged force is computed from an optimal control that satisfies state constraints (i.e., no collisions and an upper limit on intersatellite speeds) …

The Evolution Of News Language In The Digital Age: A Comparative Analysis Of 1996-97 And 2023-24, Keenan Wallace

Theses & ETDs

This paper examines linguistic changes in mainstream written news media in the United States. We compare subjectivity, formality, lexical diversity, and reading complexity from 1996- 97 to 2023-24 across five local and national news publications; the New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post, Hartford Courant, and Chicago Tribune, to determine if there has been a shift towards simpler, more subjective, and less formal language in accordance with the familiarization and potential preference of the audience to shorter, more casual forms of news media prevailing online. We use comparative tests, linear models, and linear mixed models to examine changes in the …

Charting The Distinct Rights Of Sea Workers In European Waters : A Focus On Decent Working Time, María Carrera-Arce, Raphael Baumler, Laura Carballo, Bikram Singh Bhatia

Reports

The document contains three distinct reports:

• The Report 1 ‘Social rights of sea workers in European waters – A Legal study’ discusses sea workers labour regulations in Europe, including cross-sectoral and sector-specific instruments. (pp. 13-68)

• The core of Report 2 ‘Ensuring decent working time for the future – Seafarers under EEA and non-EEA flags’ analyses flags State working-time requirements in the EEA and selected non-EEA jurisdictions. (pp. 69-131)

• The Report 3 ‘A working time comparative analysis – Examples of labour gaps between sea and land workers’ explores in depth working time between sea workers and other occupational …

Capacity-Building Project To Progress The Implementation Of International Instruments To Combat Iuu Fishing (Capfish) : Summer Academy: West Africa, World Maritime University, Korea Maritime Institute, Ministry Of Oceans And Fisheries

Reports

The CAPFISH Project was created in response to an identified need for capacity-building to address illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and related matters - a complex problem affecting aquatic ecosystems, coastal communities, fishers and fish workers, and economic and national security. Over the last five years, the CAPFISH Project has provided training and educational materials on IUU fishing to developing country administrations around the world, most recently with a two-week regional Summer Academy for West Africa. This Academy ran for two weeks and included delegates from fisheries, maritime and enforcement agencies, industry, maritime training institutions, regional fisheries bodies, and …

Library E-Book Licensing And State Law Reform, Kincaid Brown

Law Librarian Scholarship

Libraries don’t “buy” most e-books the way they buy print books; they license them. That reality is at the crossroads of budgetary constraints and patron satisfaction in modern libraries. With print, a library typically pays once, owns the copy, and lends it until it wears out. With e-books, publishers and intermediaries, like platforms such as OverDrive, commonly offer time-limited or loan-limit-ed terms (for example, a license that expires after a set number of checkouts or after a set period), can impose embargoes, and can set prices far above consumer retail. Libraries argue these terms frustrate their public mission and make …

Programming Macrophage Phenotypes And Promoting Ischemic Heart Repair With Precision Immunomodulatory Therapy, Jing Zhang

Dissertations and Theses

Despite significant advances in reperfusion and pharmacological therapies, effective strategies to modulate the post-infarction inflammatory response remain limited, leaving a critical gap in improving cardiac repair and long-term outcomes. Excessive or prolonged inflammation after myocardial infarction (MI) drives cardiac remodeling and fibrosis, impairing myocardial recovery and increasing the risk of heart failure (HF) or recurrent ischemic events. I hypothesize that appropriate immunomodulation after MI may reduce unwanted inflammation and improve heart function. Interleukin‑10 (IL‑10) is a pleiotropic immunomodulatory cytokine with therapeutic promise for limiting excessive inflammation and improving tissue repair in ischemic hearts. However, two translational barriers remain for applying …