Digital Commons Network^™

Teacher Autonomy In Accountability-Driven Contexts: A Phenomenological Study Of Middle School Mathematics Teachers In East Tennessee, Hollyann Perdue

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore East Tennessee middle school mathematics teachers’ experiences of professional autonomy and how those experiences relate to institutional decision making within the accountability-driven educational environment. This study utilized the Self-Determination Theory (Ryan & Deci, 2017) as a framework to examine how teachers perceived their ability to make instructional decisions while navigating district expectations, pacing requirements, mandated curriculum, and state testing pressures. Data were collected through one-on-one semi-structured Zoom interviews with 12 East Tennessee middle school mathematics teachers representing varying levels of teaching experience, effectiveness ratings, and instructional settings, including both general …

Weathering More Than Storms: Understanding The Mental Health Disparities Of Black Farmers In The Appalachian Region, Aliyah Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black farmers in Appalachia represent a vital and historically marginalized population within one of America’s most economically distressed regions. Black farmers have endured generations of systemic racism, resulting in land loss, economic hardship, and mental stressors. This study examines the intersection of race, agriculture, and behavioral health to illustrate how structural barriers and cultural stigmas shape the mental well-being of Black farmers across Appalachia.

Findings from the analysis will guide the development of a conceptual model based on constructs from the Social-Ecological Model (SEM), Intersectionality Theory, and Critical Race Theory (CRT). This study will use Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) conducted …

A Longitudinal Multi‑Proxy Geospatial Classification Of Peri‑Urban Transitions Across Community Health Units In Coastal Kenya, Prissy Makena, Felix Oluoch, Rosebella Iseme, Fredrick Gudda, Alfred Keter, Jai Das, Zulfiqar Bhutta, Anthony Ngugi

Population Health, East Africa

Background Urbanization is spatially heterogeneous in many sub-Saharan African settings. This complicates community health planning when rural and peri-urban labels are applied informally or updated inconsistently. We assessed whether multiple publicly available geospatial proxies could characterize settlement dynamics and support Community Health Unit (CHU) level classification within the Kaloleni Rabai Health and Demographic Surveillance System (KRHDSS) in coastal Kenya.

Methods We conducted a longitudinal ecological analysis across 10 CHUs in Kilifi County with annual observations from 2017 to 2024. Five geospatial proxy indicators of settlement intensity were summarized within CHU boundaries: Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) nighttime lights radiance, …

Wisdom In Counseling And Psychotherapy: A Conceptual Model For Practice, Mitchell Waters

Papers

Wisdom is increasingly recognized as a critical construct in counseling and psychotherapy, yet it remains conceptually diffuse and underdeveloped for clinical application. This article proposes an integrative conceptual model of wisdom that extends the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) WISE MIND framework by incorporating temporal and self-transcendent dimensions. Wisdom is defined as a dynamic, context-sensitive capacity to coordinate cognitive, affective, temporal, and spiritual processes in response to complex life demands. The model includes four components: (a) cognitive–affective integration, reflecting the synthesis of emotion and reason; (b) temporal integration, involving adaptive coordination of past experiences and future possibilities; (c) self-transcendent orientation, conceptualized …

Efficient Test-Time Retrieval Augmented Generation, Hailong Yin, Bin Zhu, Jingjing Chen, Chong-Wah Ngo

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Although Large Language Models (LLMs) demonstrate significant capabilities, their reliance on parametric knowledge often leads to inaccuracies. Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) mitigates this by incorporating external knowledge, but these methods may introduce irrelevant retrieved documents, leading to inaccurate responses. While the integration methods filter out incorrect answers from multiple responses, but lack external knowledge like RAG methods, and their high costs require balancing overhead with performance gains. To address these issues, we propose an Efficient Test-Time Retrieval-Augmented Generation Framework named ET2RAG to improve the performance of LLMs while maintaining efficiency. Specifically, ET2RAG is a training-free method, that first retrieves the …

Continuous Query For Top-K Maximal Sum Intervals Over Streaming Data, Zhongshuai Zhang, Xiaochun Yang, Baihua Zheng, Rui Zhu, Haomin Li, Bin Wang

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

The continuous identification of top-k maximal sum intervals using a sliding window over a data stream is a critical operation for applications in IoT and beyond. A maximal sum interval is a non-overlapping, contiguous subsequence with the maximal sum in a sequence of signed values. Existing algorithms are ill-suited for streaming contexts: they either exhaustively enumerate all intervals even for small k values, or depend on indexes that require frequent and costly restructuring. We propose a novel partition-based strategy. Our core insight is a partitioning scheme that guarantees that any maximal sum interval is fully contained within a single partition, …

Paperless Society, Paperless Future And Borderless Libraries, Ukoha O. Igwe

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose: This study explores the indispensability of books and physical libraries despite the digital technologies and digital transformation engulfing our lives, work and society.

Design/Methodology: This study used qualitative design and methodology utilizing a systematic review and synthesis of empirical research, institutional reports and documents published between 1978 and 2025 to achieve its objectives. An extensive review of the pertinent literature was undertaken to underscore the journey and permutations of the death of books and libraries. This conceptual review synthesizes the interplay between digital technologies, digital transformation,and libraries in information dissemination. This provided a basis for inferences and extrapolation of …

Borderplex Business Barometer, Volume 10, Number 8, Thomas M. Fullerton, Steven L. Fullerton

Border Region Modeling Project

No abstract provided.

Staff Education On The Implementation Of An Evidence-Based, Suicide-Risk-Assessment Education Program For Psychiatric Staff, Yemurai Emily Dzikiti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicide is a major public health concern, and consistent suicide risk assessment is essential for patient safety in psychiatric settings. This Doctor of Nursing Practice staff education project addressed a knowledge gap in evidence-based suicide risk assessment among psychiatric clinicians in an outpatient mental health setting. The practice-focused question examined whether an evidence-based suicide risk assessment education program would improve clinicians' knowledge from pre- to post-education. The educational intervention consisted of a 60-minute in-person training session on evidence-based suicide risk assessment using the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS) and the Suicide Assessment Five-Step Evaluation and Triage (SAFE-T) framework. Ten psychiatric …

A Mindfulness-Based Stop Technique Training To Improve Nurses’ Knowledge And Self-Efficacy In Stress And Burnout Prevention, Rukiat Abolanle Afinni

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nurse burnout and stress are well-documented occupational concerns in outpatient clinical settings, where high patient acuity and chronic staffing shortages leave nurses with little structured support for proactive self-care. To address this gap, a mindfulness-based STOP (stop, take a breath, observe, proceed) training program was developed and evaluated for outpatient nurses. The evidence-based practice question was: Among nurses in an outpatient clinical setting, what is the impact of a mindfulness-based STOP technique training on nurses' knowledge of stress and burnout prevention and self-efficacy in applying the technique? A one-group pretest-posttest design was used with eight participants. A project-developed questionnaire measured …

The Relationship Between Maintenance And Overhaul Employee Spending, Business Model, Geographic Region, And The Financial Performance Of Commercial Airlines, Naumaan Khalid Sheikh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

After nearly 5 decades of deregulation, commercial airline leaders still lack the capability to improve financial performance by structuring their maintenance operations to gain competitive advantages in highly competitive global markets. Without an effective strategy, airline maintenance affects service and financial performance. Framed with Porter’s competitive advantage theory, this quantitative nonexperimental correlational project was to examine the relationships between airline in-house maintenance and overhaul employee spending, business model, geographic region, and financial performance of global commercial full-service carrier (FSC) and low-cost carrier (LCC) airlines. Longitudinal panel data were collected from 121 LCCs and FSCs operating from 2001 to 2019 in …

Transfusion Intensity In The Icu: Reasons And Triggers, Merijn Reuland, Senta Raasveld, Jimmy Schenk, Claudia Oord, Sanne Bruin, Caroline Schaap, Andrew Flint, Jan Bakker, Maurizio Cecconi, Marcus Lance

Anaesthesiology, East Africa

Background The reasons and physiological triggers for blood transfusion in critically ill patients are not well characterized. Beyond hemoglobin levels, hemodynamic instability is frequently cited, but its role across clinical contexts remains unclear.

Aims (1) To determine whether reasons and triggers for RBC transfusion differ across intensive care unit (ICU) days with varying transfusion intensity. (2) To describe reasons for non-RBC transfusions across these intensity groups.

Methods This sub-study of the prospective International Point Prevalence Study of Intensive Care Unit Transfusion Practices (InPUT) classified ICU days by transfusion intensity: nonmajor (1 RBC unit), major (≥2 units), and massive (≥6 units …

August 2026, Swosu Bulldog Wellness Committee

SWOSU BULLDOG WELLNESS

• National Wellness Month

• Stress Management Tips for Bulldogs

• Bulldog Resources

• Bulldog Wellness Bingo Challenge

Executive Board Annual Summary, 2025-2026, Emeriti Society, University Of The Pacific

Emeriti Society History and Reports

No abstract provided.

The Kdm-Family Inhibitor Jib-04 Sensitizes Aml Cells To Venetoclax By Inducing A Ferroptosis-Like Phenotype, Katharina Wohlan, Dandan Fan, Anna G Guzman, Alexis Quezada, Hyunji Park, Elmira Khabusheva, Farzane Sivandzade, Matthew Wither, Amber Alcorn, Tamara Thevarajah, Steven M Kornblau, Courtney D Dinardo, Jianzhong Su, Margaret A Goodell, Rachel E Rau

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematological malignancy with various molecular and cytogenetic subtypes. Treatment options for older adult patients are limited due to high toxicity of conventional chemotherapy. The B-cell leukemia/lymphoma 2 inhibitor venetoclax is effective in combination with hypomethylating agents or low-dose cytarabine, but ∼30% of patients do not respond to the initial combination treatment. Thus, alternative combinations are needed to sensitize AML cells to venetoclax and overcome resistance mechanisms. Here, we report that targeting histone lysine-specific demethylases induces a ferroptosis-like phenotype driven by oxidative stress in various AML subtypes. In both patient samples and cell lines, …

De Novo Complex Genomic Rearrangement Spanning 2q31.1 In A Proband With Congenital Malformations: Genotype-Phenotype Correlation And Development Of A Cgr Detection Pipeline, Katherine Helle, Jesse D Bengtsson, Mira Gandhi, Christopher M Grochowski, Ming Yin Lun, Neha Sudhir, Shalini N Jhangiani, Fritz J Sedlazeck, Seema R Lalani, Neil A Hanchard, Claudia M B Carvalho

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The 2q31 region is commonly associated with pathogenic alleles of the HOXD cluster leading to various clinical phenotypes related to skeletal development. We present a proband with tetralogy of Fallot and multiple congenital anomalies. Genomic variant screening including an in-house CGR detection pipeline pairing genome sequencing (GS) structural variant calls with read-depth data revealed a de novo complex genomic rearrangement (CGR) spanning 2.7 Mb across 2q31 characterized by a series of duplications and triplications including the HOXD gene cluster. The genomic structure was assembled by applying combined methodologies including short-read and long-read GS, and optical genome mapping (OGM). This in-house …

Future Prospects Of Pediatric Lung Transplantation, Ernestina Melicoff, David Moreno Mcneill, Christian Benden

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

This special issue of the Journal of Heart Transplantation Open is dedicated to Pediatric Thoracic Transplantation. The authors will discuss subjects related to pediatric lung transplantation such as access to donor organs, allograft dysfunction and role of functional status in outcomes.

Multi-Level Disparities In Survival Among Patients Diagnosed With Oral Cavity Cancer In Texas Between 1995 And 2020, Guillermo A Tortolero, Erich M Sturgis, Jose-Miguel Yamal, Melissa F Peskin, Cici Bauer, Caitlin C Murphy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Multi-level factors, including demographic and neighborhood social conditions, related to disparities in oral cavity cancer (OCC) are not fully understood. We examined the association between these factors and survival outcomes among patients diagnosed with OCC.

Methods: We identified 14,416 patients diagnosed with OCC from 1995 to 2020 using population-based data from the Texas Cancer Registry. Neighborhood-level social vulnerability was measured using the 2010 US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Neighborhood Social Vulnerability Index (CDC-SVI). We examined race and ethnicity, CDC-SVI (as sample-based quintiles), and their joint effects with survival outcomes.

Results: Five-year survival probability was 38.6% (95% CI: …

Nutrition Considerations In Youth With Type 2 Diabetes Using Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor Agonists: A Commentary, Maria E Diaz, Grace Kim, Mili Vakharia

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

No abstract provided.

2026-2027 Lindenwood University Graduate Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University Graduate Course Catalog

2026-2027 Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog, Lindenwood University

Course Catalogs

Lindenwood University Undergraduate Course Catalog

Content Appeals And Messaging Used By Tik Tok Influencers Promoting Peptides, Hannah R. Gunter, Jack Dominick, Allison Komosa, Alexis Zeidner, Aida Calo, Richard M. Perloff

Student Scholarship

Peptides, small protein-like molecules that regulate important body functions, have exploded in popularity, in large part due to persuasive appeals on social media and a plethora of online promotions by social media influencers. However, there is large gray market of unregulated peptides that have serious side effects. This timely content analysis thoroughly examines how peptides are promoted on TikTok by prominent and popular male and female influencers. The study sheds light on the strategies influencers employ, and the disturbing fact that a small minority of messages mention side effects that users may confront or other adverse consequences of these supposedly-miracle …

Cultural Values, Norms, And Mental Health Service Utilization Among Young Adult Guyanese Immigrants, Rhonis Alfred

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Young adult Guyanese immigrants living in the United States often face cultural, familial, and social challenges that influence their perceptions of mental health and willingness to seek professional support. Despite growing attention to immigrant mental health, limited research has explored the experiences of this population. This qualitative study aimed to improve understanding of how cultural values, family dynamics, and acculturation stress influence mental health perceptions and help-seeking behaviors. The theoretical framework underpinning this study was acculturation theory. The research explored how participants navigated cultural identity, family expectations, and adaptation to life in the United States. A purposive sampling strategy was …

Student Attitudes And Perceptions Of Proof In Mathematics, Emelin G. Sibrian Marquez

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Traditionally, mathematical proof is viewed primarily as a tool for validation or verification. However, proof holds many other important roles such as discovery, reasoning, explanation, and justification. For many students, these other roles are not always obvious. Those encountering rigorous proof for the first time often find the process abstract, intimidating or disconnected from their previous learning. This disconnect can lead to negative attitudes as students transition from computational mathematics to advanced proof-based mathematics. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, this study examined undergraduate and graduate mathematics students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) in Southern California. We investigated what students perceive the …

Flexible Grazing: Evaluating Stocker Cattle As A Drought Management Tool For Utah Livestock Producers?, Ross Israelsen

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Drought is a persistent concern in the western United States, often leading to reduced forage production, overgrazing, and economic challenges for livestock producers. This study evaluates the economic feasibility of incorporating stocker cattle as a flexible drought management strategy under varying forage conditions across four Utah grazing locations: Park Valley, Nephi, Vernal, and Beaver. The Rangeland Analysis Platform (RAP) was used to estimate annual forage production and stocking rates from 2001 through 2025. Four stocking-rate scenarios (100%, 75%, 60%, and 50% cow–calf stocking rates) were evaluated using a Net Present Value (NPV) framework to compare the economic performance of traditional …

A Focus On Student Needs In German Instruction, Elisa E. Remund

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This portfolio serves as documentation of the author’s professional progress throughout the Master of Science of Second Language Teaching (MSSLT) program at Utah State University, shown through teaching philosophy, hands-on teaching experience and practice, and demonstrates the author’s use of pedagogical strategies and theory, including but not exclusive to comprehensible input, the sociocultural method, dynamic assessment, and the output hypothesis. It details the usage of current research-based strategies to increase classroom engagement and student proficiency, such as the IMAGE Model for teaching culture and language, collaborative learning, and dynamic assessment strategies. Furthermore, the portfolio includes a reflection on the benefits …

2026-08-01 Caudill Connection, Morehead State University. Caudill College Of Arts, Humanities And Social Sciences.

Caudill Connection

Caudill Connection newsletter for August of 2026.

Improving Adherence To Regulatory Standards In A Medicaid-Funded Intellectual And Developmental Disability Setting Through Evidence-Based Nursing Policy Implementation, Waveney R. Lagrone, Ut Health Houston Cizik School Of Nursing

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to improve adherence to health and safety regulatory requirements by implementing an evidence-based nursing policy framework to strengthen documentation consistency and clinical practice in a Medicaid-funded Home and Community-Based Services (HCS) program serving adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Background: A baseline review (January–June 2025) identified documentation and regulatory compliance gaps, including three falls, eight psychotropic medication changes requiring follow-up, two emergency department visits or hospitalizations, and five late or incomplete Comprehensive Nursing Assessments (CNAs), highlighting the need for standardized nursing policies.

Methodology: Guided by the Model for Improvement using Plan-Do-Study-Act …

The Comfort Cart Initiative: A Quality Improvement Intervention To Improve Patient Satisfaction In The Emergency Department, Heidy Cladimir Ayala

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

The Comfort Cart Initiative: A Quality Improvement Intervention to Improve Patient Satisfaction in the Emergency Department

Purpose

The Comfort Cart QI project aimed to improve Emergency Department patient, parent, and guardian satisfaction by 10% over an 8-week implementation period.

Background

In healthcare, patient satisfaction is an important indicator of the quality of care provided, and many literature reviews suggest it is closely associated with patient-centered care.

 Methodology

The Comfort Cart intervention is an evidence-based quality improvement project employing a pre- and post-intervention design, conducted over an 8-week period, in the Emergency Department. The project was guided by Kolcaba's Comfort Theory …

Integrating Music Therapy Into Post-Surgical Care: A Quality Improvement Strategy For Reducing Post-Operative Anxiety, Yosdania Hernandez Benitez

Doctor of Nursing Practice Final Project Abstract

Integrating Music Therapy into Post-Surgical Care: A Quality Improvement Strategy for Reducing Post-Operative Anxiety

Purpose

This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to reduce postoperative anxiety among adult patients after general surgery in the post-anesthesia care unit (PACU) by 30% using nurse-led music therapy in an ambulatory surgical center.

Results

Mean VAS-A scores decreased from 6.9 (SD = 0.5) pre-intervention to 4.0 (SD = 0.5) post-intervention, representing a 2.9-point (41.9%) reduction in anxiety and exceeding the project's target of 30%. Nurse adherence to the intervention protocol was 100%, and the mean patient satisfaction score was 4.6/5.0. All 100 patients completed both …