Digital Commons Network^™

Leadership In Action: Enhancing Staff Development For Organizational Success, Reinaldo Rivera Hernández

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nonprofit organizations face distinctive challenges that require specialized leadership and effective staff development strategies, particularly in community-focused organizations in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Leadership deficiencies can diminish employee commitment, restrict professional growth, and weaken organizational capacity, ultimately limiting mission fulfillment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore leadership and staff development deficiencies within a nonprofit organization in Lancaster County and identify strategies for improvement. Guided by Kurt Lewin’s change management model, the study examined barriers and supports for professional growth, the influence of leadership on organizational culture and retention, and practices promoting equity and succession planning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted …

Exploring Cybersecurity Strategies Used To Protect Personal Health Information From Cyberattacks When Using Telemedicine, Samara Torres

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The healthcare industry has been impacted by an increase in cybersecurity breaches because of cyberattacks when using telemedicine. It is crucial that information technology (IT) managers in the private healthcare industry protect personal health information (PHI) to uphold patients’ right to privacy, maintain their trust, prevent legal ramifications, and to comply with government regulations. This qualitative pragmatic research used the integrated system theory (IST) as a road map to explore effective cybersecurity strategies used to protect PHI in telemedicine. The participants were seven IT managers in the private healthcare industry within the United States who had experience with cybersecurity strategies …

Staff Education To Improve Mental Health Knowledge Among Critical Care Staff, Ashton Barnes

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health literacy is increasingly recognized as a critical component of nursing practice, particularly in high-acuity environments. At a local healthcare organization, leadership identified a gap in staff education related to mental health, contributing to elevated incidences of anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), burnout, and diminished patient outcomes. In response, I conducted this Doctor of Nursing Practice project to evaluate whether a structured educational intervention could enhance mental health knowledge and competency among critical care staff. Participants completed pre- and postintervention assessments to evaluate core concepts in mental health awareness and clinical application, with supplementary qualitative feedback gathered to …

Effects Of Cryoprotective And Mitochondrial Stabilizing Agents On Vitrified Bovine Oocytes, Allison Hoang

LSU Master's Theses

Oocyte vitrification success is highly dependent on cryoprotectant agent (CPA) choice as well as possible additives that could help preserve mitochondrial membrane potential (mMP), reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and calcium homeostasis within the cell. It is a delicate balance between levels needed for proper oocyte function and activation and levels needed to induce apoptotic pathways. The results of oocyte cryopreservation determine the eventual oocyte viability and subsequent fertilization and embryo development.

In this study potential permeating cryoprotectant combinations were explored such as ethylene glycol (EG) and propylene glycol (PG) or EG in combination with dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). Also, the …

Choice Of Animal Models To Investigate Cell Migration And Invasion In Glioblastoma., Piyanka Hettiarachchi, Taeju Park

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Glioblastoma is an aggressive and prevalent form of brain cancer characterized by rapid tumor cell migration and invasion into surrounding healthy tissues, making it resistant to conventional treatments. Despite advances in therapeutic approaches, patient prognosis remains poor, with a median survival of approximately 15 months. Tumor cell infiltration along perivascular spaces and white matter tracts is a major driver of recurrence, underscoring the need for experimental models that accurately capture these invasive behaviors. Animal models remain indispensable for this purpose, offering insights that cannot be fully replicated in vitro. This review focuses on applying animal models to elucidate the mechanisms …

Outcomes Of Brexucabtagene Autoleucel In Patients With Relapsed/Refractory Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia With Cns Involvement, Tamer Othman, Yannis Valtis, Noam E Kopmar, Simone E Dekker, Matthew Connor, Santiago Mercadal, Timothy E O'Connor, Kaitlyn C Dykes, Mohamed Ahmed, Nikeshan Jeyakumar, Amy Zhang, Katharine Miller, Katherine C Sutherland, Caitlin Guzowski, Vishal K Gupta, Navneet Majhail, Minoo Battiwalla, Melhem M Solh, Shahbaz A Malik, John Mathews, Caspian H Oliai, Paul Shaughnessy, Luke Mountjoy, Catherine J Lee, Aaron C Logan, Stephanie B Tsai, Jessica T Leonard, Marc Schwartz, Joshua P Sasine, Muthu Kumaran, Noelle Frey, Jae H Park, Divya Koura, Ryan D Cassaday, Bijal D Shah, Ibrahim Aldoss, Lori S Muffly, Laquisa C Hill

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) with central nervous system (CNS) involvement (CNS B-ALL) have poor outcomes and were frequently excluded from CD19-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell clinical trials. The efficacy and safety of brexucabtagene autoleucel (brexu-cel) in adults with R/R B-ALL was established by the ZUMA-3 trial, which excluded patients with advanced or symptomatic CNS involvement. In this retrospective multicenter analysis, we investigated the safety and efficacy of brexu-cel in patients with CNS B-ALL using data from the ROCCA (Real-World Outcomes Collaborative for CAR T in ALL) consortium. Of 189 patients who received infusion, 31 …

High-Speed Voltage Imaging Of Action Potentials In Molecular Layer Interneurons Reveals Sensory-Driven Synchrony That Augments Movement, Shuyuan Yang, Alex J Mcdonald, François St-Pierre, Indira M Raman

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Testing whether the synchrony of action potential firing is a cerebellar coding mechanism requires simultaneous recording, with high temporal fidelity, from populations of identified neurons. Here, we used targeted one-photon voltage imaging at 2–4 kHz to record action potentials from groups of ~10–300 molecular layer interneurons (MLIs) expressing a positively tuned, genetically encoded voltage indicator, FORCE1f or pAce. In awake resting mice, crus I MLIs fired brief (~1-ms) spikes at 20–60 spikes/s. Sensory stimuli of air puffs to the whiskers evoked short-latency (< 10 ms) increases in spiking probability. In most trials, >50% of MLIs fired synchronously with 4-ms temporal precision. The magnitude of puff-evoked whisks correlated tightly with …

Navigating The Challenges Of Global & National Uncertainty, The Global & National Security Policy Institute

LAII Events

Tuesday, August 26, 2025 | 08:00 am - 05:00 pm

Student Union Building Ballroom C

About:

The Global & National Security Policy Institute will gather the New Mexico security community for a symposium featuring practitioner and academic perspectives on the challenges of intelligence analysis, grand strategy, extended deterrence in Taiwan, the nuclear age, technology and advancement, and global cooperation for enhancing non-traditional security as well as poster presentations by GNSPI's Junior Research Fellows.

Notes:

This event is free and open to the public.

Influenza-Associated Acute Necrotizing Encephalopathy In Us Children, Katherine Thomas, Elizabeth Ballinger, Kristen S Fisher, Ajay X Thomas, Brian Appavu, Michael C Kruer, Derek Neilson, Jasmine Knoll, April N Sharp, Hannah E Edelman, Scott Otallah, Alexandra Morgan, Aniela Grzezulkowska, John Nguyen, Lekha M Rao, Shaina M Hecht, Laura Catalano, Hunter Daigle, Catherine Kronfol, Jessica Wharton, David Adams, Adam Z Kalawi, Michael Kung, Janetta L Arellano, Lauren Smith, Devorah Segal, Kristina Feja, Eileen Broomall, Anuj Jayakar, Sandra R Arnold, Hanna Retallack, Craig A Press, Grace Gombolay, Madeleine H Mclaughlin, Varun Kannan, Kavita Thakkar, Tasmia Rezwan, Erin Hulfish, Dalia Eid, Jennifer Meylor, Diane Peng, Ryan Hurtado, Taylor Nickerson, Iris Mandell, Abigail U Carbonell, Mallory Kerner-Rossi, Divya Jayaraman, Mallory Davis, Rosemary Olivero, Neel Shah, Christina M Osborne, Bo Zhang, Christopher Cortina, Adrienne G Randolph, Suchitra Rao, Thomas Larocca, Keith P Van Haren, Molly Wilson-Murphy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Importance: Acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE) is a rare, but severe, neurologic condition for which epidemiologic and management data remain limited. During the 2024-2025 US influenza season, clinicians at large pediatric centers anecdotally reported an increased number of children with influenza-associated ANE, prompting this national investigation.

Objective: To understand the clinical presentation, interventions, and outcomes among US children diagnosed with influenza-associated ANE.

Design, setting, and participants: This study was a multicenter case series of children diagnosed with ANE with longitudinal follow-up. A call for cases was issued via academic societies, public health agencies, and by directly contacting pediatric specialists at 76 …

Mrna Vaccines Encoding Variant Forms Of Sm-Tsp-2 Confer Protective Immunity Against Schistosoma Mansoni, Ramiz Shaheed, Pranav Mandyam, Rakesh Adhikari, Peter Hotez, Maria Elena Bottazzi, Jeroen Pollet

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite the global burden of helminth infections, no human vaccines have yet been licensed against these parasites. This study explored the development and evaluation of mRNA vaccine candidates targeting Schistosoma mansoni tetraspanin-2 (Sm-TSP-2), an antigen currently under evaluation as a protein vaccine. We designed constructs encoding either full-length Sm-TSP-2, or its large extracellular loop (EC2) domain in secretory, membrane-anchored, or cytosolic forms. In a murine challenge model, the secreted and membrane-anchored versions of Sm-TSP-2-EC2 induced the highest of antigen-specific antibody titers. These two construct designs, along with full-length Sm-TSP-2 mRNA, also significantly reduced adult worm …

Slc35g3 Is A Udp-N-Acetylglucosamine Transporter For Sperm Glycoprotein Formation And Underpins Male Fertility In Mice, Martin M Matzuk, Masahito Ikawa

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Despite the recognized importance of glycans in biological phenomena, their complex roles in spermatogenesis and sperm function remain unclear. SLC35G3, a 10-transmembrane protein specifically found in early round spermatids, belongs to the sugar-nucleotide transporter family, indicating its involvement in glycan formation. In this study, we found that Slc35g3 knockout male mice were sterile due to impaired sperm functions in uterotubal junction passage, zona pellucida binding, and oocyte fusion. Mouse SLC35G3 has UDP-GlcNAc transporter activity, and its ablation caused abnormal processing of the sperm plasma membrane and acrosome membrane proteins. Reported human SLC35G3 mutations (F267L and T179HfsTer27) diminished the UDP-GlcNAc transporter …

Cathartocytosis: Jettisoning Of Cellular Material During Reprogramming Of Differentiated Cells, Xuemei Liu, Thanh Nguyen, Megan D Radyk, Joseph Burclaff, Jason C Mills

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Injury causes differentiated cells to undergo massive reprogramming to become proliferative and repair tissue via paligenosis. Gastric chief cells use paligenosis to reprogram into progenitor-like spasmolytic-polypeptide-expressing metaplasia (SPEM) cells. Stage 1 of paligenosis is the downscaling of mature cell architecture via a process involving lysosomes. Here, we notice that sulfated glycoproteins are not only digested during paligenosis but also excreted into the gland. Various genetic and pharmacological approaches show that endoplasmic reticulum membranes and secretory granule cargo are also excreted and that the process proceeds in parallel with but is mechanistically independent of autophagy. Three-dimensional light and electron microscopy demonstrated …

Pfkfb3 Activates Cad To Enhance De Novo Pyrimidine Synthesis For Cell Growth, Qiuhua Yang, Yapeng Cao, Yaqi Zhou, Dingwei Zhao, Zhiping Liu, Jiean Xu, Junming Quan, Liang Zhang, Rui Wang, Xuejun Jiang, Xiao Liu, Kunfu Ouyang, Zhen Han, Jikui Liu, Tao Wang, Chunxiang Zhang, Neal L Weintraub, David J R Fulton, Jun Zhao, Mei Hong, Zigang Li, Yuqing Huo

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Aerobic glycolysis, termed the Warburg effect, is one of the aberrant metabolic pathways in highly proliferating cells. Glycolysis provides glycolytic metabolites to support the generation of biomass, such as nucleotides, amino acids, and lipids. Research on the direct interactions between glycolysis and other metabolic pathways is an emerging field that has garnered significant interest. Phosphofructokinase-2/fructose-2,6-bisphosphatase 3 (PFKFB3) activates glycolysis by synthesizing fructose-2,6-bisphosphate (F2,6BP), which allosterically activates the rate-limiting enzyme 6-phosphofructo-1-kinase (PFK-1). In this study, we found that PFKFB3 directly interacts with and regulates the phosphorylation of carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 2, aspartate transcarbamylase, and dihydroorotase (CAD), the enzyme catalyzing the first three …

Computer-Aided Reading Of Chest Radiographs For Paediatric Tuberculosis: Current Status And Future Directions, Megan Palmer, James A Seddon, Devan Jaganath

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Computer-aided detection (CAD) systems for automated reading of chest x-rays (CXRs) have been developed and approved for tuberculosis triage in adults but not in children. However, CXR is frequently the only adjunctive tool for clinical assessment in the evaluation of paediatric tuberculosis in primary care settings, and children would benefit from CAD models that can detect their unique clinical and radiographic features. To advance CAD for childhood tuberculosis, large, diverse paediatric CXR datasets linked to standardised tuberculosis classifications are required. These datasets would be used to train and validate paediatric-specific models for tuberculosis screening, diagnosis, and severity stratification. Previous studies …

Quantum Pseudorandom Primitives Beyond Pseudorandom States, Chuhan Lu

Dissertations and Theses

Quantum pseudorandomness is an emerging research area. Ji, Liu, and Song defined pseudorandom states (PRSs) and pseudorandom unitaries (PRUs) as quantum analogs of pseudorandom generators and pseudorandom functions. A unitary oracle separation result between one-way functions and PRSs/PRUs, established by Kretschmer, suggests that certain quantum primitives may remain secure even if classical cryptography is compromised. This insight has spurred extensive work on quantum pseudorandomness and its applications in quantum cryptography.

Many constructions of PRSs have been established under standard assumptions, yet building a secure PRU was a long-standing open problem. This dissertation aims to narrow the gap between PRSs and …

37th Convocation Pakistan

Speeches from convocations, inaugurations, and major events

No abstract provided.

'What The World Would Be’: How Creating A Shared World Through Collaborative Roleplaying Helps Us Deal With Real-World Challenges, Pablo Muslera

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

A creative prose artefact and critical exegesis illustrate how roleplaying games explore community and identity. A prose dramatisation of a cooperative TTRPG (table top roleplaying game) juxtaposes the collaboratively imagined world, and the reality from which it is an escape. Themes of gender identity, isolation, precarious work and fluctuating health are explored within the timeframe of the Covid outbreak in Adelaide mid-2020, with the roleplaying session serving as a respite from insecure work and health challenges, while supporting creative agency and the expression of meaningful selfhood through collaborative play and problem-solving. This reflects a broader phenomenon of the increased popularity …

Cpr: Knowing Through The Making, Dugald Graydon

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

The methodologies used in the creation of artistic work and, in the academic setting, the explanation of the processes of artistic inquiry and their findings is necessarily non-prescriptive and potentially requires artists to innovate on methodology, combining existing methods and creating new ones on a case-by-case basis. Creative Practice Research addresses these issues by offering a methodologically diverse range of principles that artists can use to articulate their subjective creative practices in an academic setting, challenging traditional research methods while also legitimising creative work within academia. The following paper provides a brief application of this methodology in the context of …

The Monstrous Other: Exploring Negative Representations Of Queerness In Genre Cinema, Mark Gambino

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

The following literature review is an extract from my SAE University College Masters thesis, Disrupting negative representations of queerness in genre cinema, conferred in September 2024. The project explored representations of the queer Other in film horror, through artefact-exegesis, with the creative artefact, horror film Shadows, interrogating the coding of trans / queer characters as the ‘monstrous Other’ in the horror film genre, and how this notion can be subverted and transcended.

Pigments, Bridge Of Disciplines, Candace Gwyther

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

What follows is an excerpt from Pigments: The Bridge of Disciplines, a practice-based Masters thesis exploring the intersection of oil painting and ceramics through shared material processes. The literature review grounds the research in theories of Meshwork, Play, Bricolage, and Path making, framing an interdisciplinary approach that challenges traditional boundaries and fosters new modes of creative expression.

Orchestrating Brilliance In The Recording Studio: Mixing Music To Record Music, Adrian Carroll

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This paper is a report on a heuristic inquiry into music recording practice and workflow to arrive at the essence of experience. Through professional reflection on a music recording, we investigated the recording process and student experience; this was used to identify, explore and expose tacit professional practice. The central theme that unfolded revealed benefits in mixing music during a recording session. Other themes of workflow efficiency, and emotional expression, also emerged from the data collection. The research culminated in a creative synthesis in the form of a research question: Can live studio recordings be a viable option for artists, …

Considerations When Exploring One’S Arts-Based Practice As Research, David L. Page

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This article shares insight into some of the knowledge gained on a higher degree research (HDR) study journey, which I wish I had access to prior to my commencement of that journey. I presented this on 8 July 2025 at the SAE University College Week 7 Forum, and trust this insight may be of interest to those SAE faculty who are new to higher education (HE) research, who have an interest in exploring one’s own arts-based practice as part of the Scholarship and Research activities now being encouraged at SAE University College.

The Methodological Approach Of My Emergent Auto-Ethnographical Journey In Arts-Based Practice As Research (Abr): Music & Sound-Making, Meaning-Making, Self-Making, David L. Page

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

This article discusses the methodological approach of my professional Doctor of Creative Industries (DCI) Research Project 1 study. The aim of higher degree research (HDR) Project 1 was to investigate my DIY music & sound-making practice and self as a practitioner, in the process of creating and producing a DIY music artefact. Specifically: to investigate why I as the practitioner felt an authentic connection with one form of music & sound-making (acoustic instrument-based), and not a connection with another form of music & sound-making (digital virtual-based).

In Tensile // In Between, Corinna Di Niro

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

"In Tensile // In Between" operates as both artistic artefact and theoretical critique, demonstrating how creative practice can embody and extend academic discourse. This creative-critical work examines shifting perceptions of course delivery within creative tertiary education, arguing that project-based learning enables the seamless embedding of socio-cultural discourse and theories within practical making processes.

The poem interrogates how educational environments can cultivate critical thinking through what I term "tensile pedagogy"—an approach that maintains productive charge between opposing forces rather than seeking synthesis or resolution. This concept builds upon King's (2017) work on pedagogy as tension, which argues that "tension and incompleteness …

Bodies That Sparkle And Spill: A Poetics Of The Burlesque Parent, Lola Montgomery

Imaginings: creative practice and inquiry

The embodied experiences of burlesque performers during motherhood are explored in an online discussion, through femme theory, Bakhtin's grotesque body, and Butler's gender performativity. The participants' bodies are explored as sites of contestation, able to perform diverse roles simultaneously. Through performance, Mulvey's masculine gaze is inverted into a poetics of feminine praxis.

Montserrat Developments Impacting Local Coral Reefs, Emma I. Bartholomew

2025 Symposium

Montserrat is a small island in the Caribbean, and over half of the island is in the exclusion zone because of the active volcano, Soufrière Hills. In that half was the old capital, Plymouth, which has since been abandoned, and its old port. The old port was getting less reliable and accessible, so they decided to build a new port in Little Bay, closer to the seat of government in Brades. This study explored how the addition of the new port impacted the corals in that area. We explored several different bays and recorded the diversity and health of the …

Transforming Leadership Behaviors And Thriving Through The Storm In A High Reliability Organization, Rajveer Kaur, Jiji Andrews, Kambree Baxter

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

The structural inequities have affected critical care nurses, health care worker’s health and well-being (Durrah et al, 2022; Wells, S., 2024). Prioritizing nurse wellbeing has been formed to improve psychologically safe work environments associated with positively decreasing barriers in patient outcomes within the workforce (Wells, S., 2024). Authentic leaders developed patient advocacy, trusting relationships with their employees to increase the access to proper nursing services to enhance the ability to thrive at work ( Alhalal et al, 2024a; Durrah et al, 2022). Authentic leadership tool was introduced to design interventions and policies specifically for nurse manager’s authentic leadership style to …

Leveraging Meaningful Recognition To Create And Sustain Healthy Work Environments, Cindy Lefton

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Meaningful recognition, a form of feedback describing how one makes a difference in the life of another, also serves to illustrate the elements of a healthy work environment in action. Focusing on meaningful recognition as a catalyst to shape and drive healthy work environments, attendees will be introduced to evidence-based budget neutral practices they can utilize to positively impact team members, workplace culture, and patient experience.

Transforming A Nurse Residency Program: Building Resilience To Enhance Professional Well-Being, Deborah Ambrosio Mawhirter, Maria L. Triolo

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Introduction: A nurse residency program fosters professional growth and aids in the transition into practice. As nurses enter the workforce, they may become overwhelmed and stressed. There is a growing recognition that nurses need assistance in developing skills for resilience. A process of adapting when faced with challenges such as stress and adversity. Educating nurses in a residency program by providing interventions to promote healthy behaviors, self- care and develop a resiliency plan enhances the work environment and allows nurses to flourish. Nurses that build self-care into personal resilience plans bolster individual wellness and promote wellness. Integrating a culture of …

Three-Pronged Mentorship Model, Sherrilyn D. Coffman, Dawn Taylor

Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE)

Background: ______ ______ University embraces a caring-based philosophy, which frames both our curriculum and our faculty way-of-being. Our School of Nursing has grown rapidly in recent years, adding more faculty to meet the needs of greater numbers of students. The faculty mentoring program has also expanded and developed into three phases: (1) Onboarding (belonging), (2) Mentorship (competency), and (3) Sponsorship (empowerment).

Purpose: This presentation will describe components and activities of the Three-Pronged Mentorship Model, and summarize evaluation data from our first year, ranging from August 2023 to December 2024.

Influence of Caring Theory: The mentoring program is aligned with Watson’s …