Digital Commons Network^™

Washington Report: Aicpa Tax Recommendations To Aid Small Business, Kenneth F. Thomas, William R. Stromsem, American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants. Federal Tax Division. Small Business Taxation Subcommittee

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Examination Of The Irs’S Voluntary Disclosure Policy, Jerome S. Horvitz, Henri L. Tallichet

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Tax Clinic, Frank J. O'Connell Jr.

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Simplified Employee Pensions: The New-Sty!E Ira, Barbara Crooks, James H. Boyd

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Estate Planning: Planning For The Transfer Of A Personal Residence, Thomas M. Porcano

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Common Paymaster Rules Of Secs. 3121(S) And 3306(P): An Analysis Of The Final Regs, Timothy J. Mccormally

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Keynote: Still Perilous, Still Fair: Perspectives On The Legacy, Or How (Not)Éowyn And (Not) Galadriel Made The Magic Work, Leslie Donovan, Janet Brennan Croft

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

No abstract provided.

Welcome And Announcements, The Mythopoeic Society

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

Join us for a screening of the Welcome and Announcements video and have a cup of coffee before we get started!

Evaluating Virtual Group Coaching’S Impact On Self-Determination In Spinal Cord Injury, Alana Scalzo, Ms, Otr/L

Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate Culminating Presentations

Introduction: Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a lifelong condition that requires effort and adjustment for managing physical, psychological, and social well-being to have the ability to engage in meaningful activities. As people living with SCI have higher rates of isolation and social disconnect, it is important to study group level approaches for addressing mental health.

Objectives: To determine the impact of virtual group coaching to enhance occupational performance, satisfaction, self-efficacy and relationship closeness in people living with SCI.

Methods: A quasi-experimental single-group pre/post-test design was used. Adults with SCI were recruited through online flyers, social media, newsletters, support groups, clinics, …

Investigation Of The Boulder Porphyry Prospect Jefferson County, Montana, Everett Labudda

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

With increasing demand for domestic sources of base, precious, and critical metals, previously underexplored mineral systems in the United States are gaining attention. The Boulder Porphyry project (BPP), located 15 miles north of Butte, in Jefferson County, Montana, represents a concealed and underexplored copper-molybdenum porphyry system that shares a similar geologic setting with the world-class mining district in Butte, Montana. This thesis applies a combination of traditional and modern exploration techniques to better understand the nature of hydrothermal mineralization at the BPP. Short-wave infrared (SWIR) analysis of drill core, coupled with bulk rock geochemistry, is used to characterize hydrothermal alteration …

Correlation Measures In Metagenomic Data: The Blessing Of Dimensionality, Alessandro Fuschi, Alessandra Merlotti, Thi Dong Binh Tran, Hoan Nguyen, George M. Weinstock

Faculty Research 2025

Microbiome analysis has revolutionized our understanding of various biological processes, spanning human health and epidemiology (including antimicrobial resistance and hor- izontal gene transfer), as well as environmental and agricultural studies. At the heart of microbiome analysis lies the characterization of microbial communities through the quantification of microbial taxa and their dynamics. In the study of bacterial abundances, it is becoming more relevant to consider their relationship, to embed these data in the framework of network theory, allowing characterization of features like node relevance, pathways, and community structure. In this study, we address the primary biases encoun- tered in reconstructing networks …

The Efficacy Of Virtual Group Coaching On The Self-Determination Of People With Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Janine E. Rajauski, Ms, Otr/L

Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate Culminating Presentations

INTRODUCTION
The Ehlers-Danlos Syndromes (EDS) are a family of 13 genetic connective tissue disorders that affect negatively physical and psychosocial health which in turns have been found to decrease their quality of life and self-determination (Baeza-Velasco et al., 2019; Bennet et al., 2021; Estrella & Fraizer, 2024; Tinkle et al., 2017; Palomo-Toucedo et al., 2020). Limited supports and services, including occupational therapy, are available for those with EDS (Estrella & Frazier, 2024; McDonald et al., 2023; Reychler et al., 2021). Those with EDS have requested better services to support their self-determination (Estrella & Frazier, 2024). Coaching has shown positive impacts …

Caregiver Attitudes Of Risky Outdoor Play For Toddlers With Developmental Delays And Disabilities In St. Louis, Missouri: A Socio-Ecological Perspective, Emily Korte-Stroff, Ot/L

Post-Professional Occupational Therapy Doctorate Culminating Presentations

Abstract: Risky outdoor play fosters autonomy, emotional regulation, and resilience in early childhood, yet caregivers of toddlers with developmental delays and disabilities often face unique barriers to supporting such play. Limited research has examined how caregivers perceive the factors shaping these decisions, particularly in the United States context. This mixed-methods cross-sectional study explored how caregivers in the St. Louis, Missouri metropolitan area perceive the socio-ecological factors shaping their attitudes toward risky outdoor play for children aged 13 to 47 months with developmental delays or disabilities. The project sought to first explore caregivers' perceptions of how interpersonal and individual factors, shape …

Restoration At The Intersection Of Science And Outreach-The Working Woods Learning Forest, Katharine L. Stuble, David J. Burke, Samuel C. Harbol, Chad Knisely, Jessica Miller Mecaskey, Alexa S. Wagner, Michael Watson, Kevin E. Mueller

Biological, Geological, and Environmental Faculty Publications

Botanical gardens and arboreta have enormous (if often under-realized) potential to increase understanding of restoration as a predictive science while simultaneously serving as platforms promoting large-scale restoration by public and private stakeholders. Public gardens often have deep histories of both research and outreach and, increasingly, engagement in restoration efforts. As a team of researchers and practitioners, we share our experiences using a forest management manipulation at the Holden Arboretum for both research and outreach. Forest management is a key tool for enhancing biodiversity and ecosystem services in young forests. Known as the Working Woods Learning Forest, this restoration simultaneously serves …

Staff Education To Enhance The Use Of Alternatives To Restrictive Interventions When Managing Aggressive Behaviors, Anthony Obinna Madu

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This is a DNP staff education project executive summary aimed at increasing staff knowledge on the use of alternatives to restrictive interventions when managing aggressive behaviors in an inpatient psychiatric unit.

Enhanced Nanomechanical, Tribological And Electrical Properties Of Ni-Cr Coatings Via Max Phase Reinforcement And Metallic Interlayers, Mohammad Ashikul Alam

Theses and Dissertations

Nickel-Chromium (Ni-Cr) coatings are widely used in industrial applications due to their resistance to oxidation, thermal stability, and adjustable electrical and mechanical properties. However, achieving improved multifunctional performance across various use cases ranging from extreme tribological environments to microscale device integration remains a significant challenge. This thesis explores two complementary strategies for enhancing the performance of Ni-Cr coatings in both thick and thin film configurations, aiming to address limitations in wear resistance, durability, adhesion, and electrical conductivity. For thick coatings, Ni-Cr was reinforced with Ti3SiC2 MAX phase particles and processed using selective laser sintering (SLS) with optimized parameters. The addition …

Impact Of Firefighters' Work Schedule On Cardiovascular Disease Risk, Wellbeing And Safety In Firefighters: Protocol For The Swift Study, A Multidisciplinary Prospective And Cross-Sectional Study, Walaa F. Abdelmoaty, Shelby L. Watkins, Aanuoluwakiitan Ayeni, David A. Hurtado, Andrew W. Mchill, Jeremy J. Biggs, Kurt T. Hegmann, Steven A. Shea, Todd Bodner, Nicole P. Bowles

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Firefighters face frequent physical and psychosocial stressors, increasing their risk for hypertension. Rising call volumes with a stable workforce have heightened occupational burdens. To meet their occupational demands while increasing time off-duty, fire departments across the country have switched from a 24 hours on 48 hours off (termed ‘24/48’) work schedule to one that increases the number of consecutive days off (eg, 1 day on, 3 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off (termed ‘1/3/2/3’) or 48 hours on 96 hours off (termed ‘48/96’)). However, these schedule changes come at the expense of increasing time on-duty, which may have …

Enhancing Novice Nurse Educator Success: A Comprehensive Orientation And Mentorship Program, Emily R. Luther

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Nursing education programs face challenges from faculty shortages, high turnover, and limited onboarding support for new educators. This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) project assessed the effectiveness of a structured orientation and mentorship program aimed at improving competency, job satisfaction, and retention among novice nurse educators within a mid-sized nursing program in the southeastern United States. The project addressed gaps in existing onboarding processes that left new faculty unprepared, which contributed to dissatisfaction and attrition. A mixed-methods pre- and post-intervention design was utilized. Quantitative data were gathered through the Self-Assessment of Nurse Educator Competencies (SANE-C), the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ), …

How People With Borderline Personality Disorder Experience Addiction During The Process Of Treatment, Michael Paul Onesto

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study explored the lived experience of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and substance use as a maladaptive coping mechanism during recovery, raising the question of whether recovery itself fosters comorbidity. The study was grounded on several theories, including Linehan’s biosocial model, the Cox and Klinger alcohol motivation model, the affect regulation model, and the self-medication hypothesis. These theories argue that substance use arises from emotional vulnerability, invalidating environment, and affect regulation efforts. The study employed a phenomenological qualitative approach to guide data collection and analysis. Interviews from 20 BPD patients and mental health care providers were completed. The thematic analysis …

The Challenges Faced By Postrelease Offenders In Rural Mississippi, Whitney Starks

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Reintegration after incarceration has long been a subject of scholarly inquiry, particularly regarding barriers to employment, housing, and mental health services. However, limited research addresses the reintegration experiences of postrelease offenders in rural regions, where access to essential resources is often restricted. This qualitative single case study is an exploration of the challenges and service needs of formerly incarcerated individuals living in rural Mississippi. Using purposive and snowball sampling, six participants were selected based on residency in rural counties, a nonviolent criminal history, and at least one year of successful community reentry. The conceptual framework was guided by the assess, …

The Experience Of Living With Infertility Among Women Of Color, Claudia Calvario

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Infertility affects individuals across all cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds; however, the lived experiences of women of color navigating infertility remain underrepresented in research, health care, and policy. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to explore the lived experiences of infertility among women of color. The specific aims of the study were to (a) understand the significance of cultural values in shaping these experiences, with a focus on cultural norms surrounding motherhood and fertility, and (b) gain insight on the ways in which women of color seek assistance. The conceptual framework integrated the biopsychosocial model, stress and …

Reducing The School-To-Prison Pipeline Through Restorative Practices And Culturally Responsive Teaching, William Clifford Banks Iii

Masters Projects

Research has shown there is a growing trend that students of color end up becoming incarcerated due to the school-to-prison pipeline. Students of color are being targeted by exclusionary policies at a higher rate than their white counterparts. School districts must reevaluate their discipline measures and adopt new policies that work to build positive relationships and communities within them. This project provides the groundwork for implementing restorative practices and culturally responsive teaching in schools, with the hope of building stronger community ties and reducing exclusionary discipline policies. The project provides research that supports the implementation of restorative practices and culturally …

Coloring Outside The Lines: Factors Facilitating Divergent Thinking, Michelle Baca Reinke

Master's Theses

Divergent thinking involves producing a multitude of unique and diverse ideas. The ability to “color outside the lines” is crucial to business, education, and social domains. The flexibility, originality, and fluency dimensions of divergent thinking are commonly assessed using the Alternative Uses Task, which involves generating uses for common objects. Prior research suggests that high identification (first-person perspective) with schema-inconsistent experiences increases flexibility, while semantic density (degree of conceptual associations) impacts originality and fluency inversely. However, their combined effects across multiple divergent thinking dimensions remain unexplored. The present research investigated the interactive effects of identification (high, low), schema consistency (consistent, …

Management Of Postoperative Pain In Septorhinoplasty: A Systematic Review, Caitlin M Coviello, Uma R Ramesh, Beatriz Varman, Krista L Olson, Sunthosh K Sivam

Library Staff Publications

Objective: Septorhinoplasties are a common surgery. Effectively managing postoperative pain and identifying opioid reduction techniques is of critical importance. This systematic review characterizes the literature regarding the management of postoperative pain with opioid-based and opioid alternative therapies in patients undergoing septorhinoplasty.

Data sources: Medline (Ovid), Embase (Elsevier), Cochrane Library (Wiley), and Web of Science (Clarivate).

Review methods: A literature search was conducted using multiple medical subject headings (MeSH) and keywords with adherence to preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis (PRISMA) guidelines. Full-text analysis was performed by two independent reviewers using the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) and National …

Strategies To Reduce Waiting Times In A Hospital Emergency Department, Gillian Denise Browne-Farrell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Leaders of the emergency departments (EDs) globally, especially in the United States face persistent challenges addressing staffing issues in the ED and increased wait times. The purpose and review question for this integrative review was to investigate strategies and best practices to decrease waiting times in a hospital ED. The Theory of Constraints framework served as the theoretical foundation for this review. An examination of the literature published within the past five years identified 101 relevant articles. From these articles, 30 empirical and non-empirical articles were selected for further analysis using the Johns Hopkins evidence-based practice model and six major …

Enhancing Communication Among New Nurses Using Scenario-Based Education, Anita Clark Chambers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This staff education project was designed to enhance communication among new nurses with 2 years or less of experience in a Level One trauma center emergency department (ED). The aim of this project initiative was to enhance learners’ communication strategy knowledge and confidence by using scenario-based education via a web-based format. When ineffective communication exchanges occur with healthcare personnel, such as with new nurses, negative patient care outcomes can occur such as sentinel events. Transitional challenges such as lack of prioritization, clinical decision-making skills and low confidence can affect the new nurse’s ability to appropriate effective communication strategies into their …

Sex, Stress And Hormones : The Role Of Modifiable Risk Factors In The Kinetics Of Alzheimer’S Disease, Hannah Marie Edwards

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease hallmarked by the presence of amyloid- plaques and tau tangles in the brain. The process of the disease begins decades prior to the onset of symptoms and is thought to be driven first by a buildup of amyloid- peptide in the extracellular space, triggering a cascade of pathology and symptomology culminating in loss of cerebral volume and cognitive impairment. Women are diagnosed with AD at a rate 2/3 higher than their male counterparts, even when controlling for age. While most driving factors of the disease are thought to be genetic, roughly 40% of …

Evaluation Of The User Experience For A Point Of Care Molecular Test For Causes Of Vaginitis, Barbara Van Der Pol, Rebecca Lillis, Irving Nachamkin, Stephen Young, La Shonda Crane, Jacqueline Brown, R. Lamar Parker, Alice Weissfeld, Xiaohong Liu, Christina Huang, Aarthi Raman

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

Background: Vaginitis is a major cause of healthcare visits in the US, costing over $1.2 billion annually. Point-of-care (POC) nucleic acid amplification tests (NAATs) could improve accuracy of diagnosis and treatment during initial visit for vaginitis compared to send-out NAATs. Methods: A secondary analysis of data was collected from test operators at POC testing sites where the Xpert Xpress Multiplex Vaginal Panel test (“MVP test”) was performed. Users completed a survey assessing their experience with the instrument system and the PCR-based MVP test. Results: The MVP test demonstrated consistent performance, measured by positive and negative percent agreement, across all user …

High-Fidelity Wireless Mobile Audio In Film Production Engineering Practices And On-Set Workflow Design, John Trevino

Theatre Faculty Publications

Film production environments demand predictable, stable, and high-fidelity audio capture. Traditional approaches rely on dedicated hardware recorders, wired lavalier systems, and separate RF microphone setups. However, the rapid improvement of mobile processors and modern Bluetooth audio systems has opened new opportunities for filmmakers seeking compact recording workflows.

This paper examines the engineering and production techniques developed in 2025 while building mobile recording systems capable of delivering consistent, clean audio for filmmaking. The analysis focuses on system design, workflow ergonomics, and reliability under field conditions.

Quantile Index Predictors Using R Package Hyper.Gam, Tingting Zhan, Misung Yi, Inna Chervoneva

Department of Pharmacology, Physiology, and Cancer Biology Faculty Papers

MOTIVATION: Evaluation of single-cell protein expression from immunohistochemistry images is used increasingly in biomedical research. Many proteins are used solely for phenotyping cells in the tumor microenvironment. Other proteins with meaningfully quantitative expression levels provide so-called functional protein biomarkers. There is still a limited number of methods and software tools available for utilizing the entire distributions of single-cell expression levels.

RESULTS: We present the R package hyper.gam, providing a supervised learning framework for deriving biomarkers based on single-cell distribution quantiles. The single-cell data are first converted into sample quantile functions, which are then used as predictors in scalar-on-function regression models …