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OPIOID USE DISORDER WITHIN THE EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT: NOT ALL SKIN INFECTIONS ARE EQUAL
Get PDFThe emergency department (ED) is where two health crises commonly converge, the opioid crisis and cellulitic infections while simultaneously being the front door to the healthcare system at large. The aim of this dissertation is to fill the gap in knowledge about specific skin and soft tissue injury and severe infection (SSTI) with comorbidity of opioid use disorder (OUD) (OUD SSTI) population and demonstrate inequities as compared to the SSTI and severe infection without OUD comorbidity (non-OUD SSTI) through the lens of the Conceptual Model of Nursology for Enhancing Equity and Quality: Population Health and Health Policy. The Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) for 2019 was utilized and a retrospective cross-sectional secondary data analysis was performed. This study findings revealed a 10% increase in likelihood of admission to the hospital for OUD SSTI visits to the ED p\u3c 0.001, the average cost of the ED treatment was 565.14 for non-OUD SSTI visits p \u3c 0.001, the average LoS for the OUD admissions was 6 days and 7 days for non-OUD SSTI admissions p\u3c 0.001. This study demonstrated that females were 25% less likely to visit the ED for their SSTI and severe infection as compared to men in the non-OUD SSTI population p\u3c 0.001, while in the OUD SSTI population women seeking care in the ED were 5% less than men p \u3c 0.01. This study emphasizes the need for more robust understanding on the impact of MOUD in conjunction with treatment of infection both within the ED as well as on inpatient floors. This study with the use of the Conceptual Model of Nursology for Enhancing Equity and Quality: Population Health and Health Policy, highlights the need for further studies related to 30-, 60-, 90-day readmission rates to the ED post single dose antibiotic use in tandem with MOUD for all cause visits
Investigating Testosterone and Cortisol in Romantic Relationships
Get PDFRomantic relationships are a primary relationship in adulthood. Relationship satisfaction has been suggested to decline over time across couples with and without children but explanations as to what might lead to decreased relationship satisfaction are lacking. Combining internal factors with external factors is likely to provide a more thorough understanding of what relationship satisfaction looks like after the major life change that is parenthood. The current dissertation focuses on understanding how hormones (i.e. testosterone and cortisol) and interpersonal interactions such as social support and partner investment might help explain what romantic relationship satisfaction looks like in parents. This project uses salivary assays and relationship satisfaction reports across three studies to investigate romantic relationships. The first study utilized an undergraduate sample, the second study used a sample of first-time fathers, and the final study included mothers and fathers during the postpartum period and at a 10-year follow-up. Together the findings of this dissertation suggest that the interaction of testosterone and cortisol (dual-hormone hypothesis) is not applicable to certain interpersonal interactions such as romantic relationships
Embodying Altruistic Love: The Role of Emotions in Teaching Black Students with Disabilities within an Inclusive Elementary School
Get PDFTeacher emotions play a pivotal yet understudied role in shaping the educational experiences of Black students with disabilities (SWDs). This study examines how five special educators in a fully inclusive elementary school understand, experience, and navigate their emotions in relation to Black SWDs. Using a qualitative approach grounded in portraiture, this study explores the intersection of race, disability, and emotion, revealing how teachers internalize, resist, and negotiate dominant ideologies within the broader educational system.
Guided by a three-dimensional space framework from the field of narrative inquiry—temporality, sociality, and spatiality—this study traces how educators’ emotions are shaped by past experiences, social relationships, and institutional environments. Findings suggest that teacher emotions are not merely personal experiences but deeply shaped by historical, social, and political forces. The emotional labor of inclusion emerges as a central theme, illustrating how educators oscillate between vulnerability, frustration, and deep commitment in their work with Black SWDs.
This study expands the discourse on teacher emotions by exposing their role in either reinforcing or disrupting educational inequities. By critically examining the affective dimensions of teaching, it challenges deficit-oriented narratives and advocates for policies, teacher preparation programs, and professional development efforts that prioritize emotional awareness, reflexivity, and relationality. Altruistic love, which emerged as a significant and unexpected thematic finding, reflects a radical and transformative commitment to humanizing Black SWDs through emotional engagement, care, and advocacy. Ultimately, this research reimagines the role of teacher emotions in fostering equity-driven and humanizing educational spaces
Disability: A Dirty Word? How Language Historically Perpetuates Exclusion and Systemic Oppression
Get PDFIn 1990, the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) marked a pivotal moment in the American disability rights movement, which began in the 1960s and sought to secure civil rights for people with disabilities. Despite this monumental achievement, this thesis considers how the language used throughout American history and culture to describe people with disabilities, even within the confines of progressive legislation like the ADA, remains deeply rooted in ableist and oppressive historical attitudes. At the heart of this issue, this thesis demonstrates how the medicalization of disability, which has dominated American culture for centuries, continues to frame disability in what disability scholars refer to as a “deficit model” – meaning, disability, at a social level, is understood fundamentally as a deficiency or flaw rather than a product of social and environmental barriers.[1] At different moments in American history, this has led to the creation of dehumanizing labels such as “feebleminded,” “handicapped,” or “retarded.”[2] In more recent decades, efforts to adopt more inclusive or politically correct language – including the word disability itself – have not fully escaped this underlying logic of deficit, nor the historical roots of fear, pity, and exclusion. As this thesis argues, even seemingly progressive language can reinforce societal barriers that limit access to education, basic rights, and opportunities for full participation in society. The continued reliance on ableist terminology perpetuates centuries-old stigmas and stereotypes, contributing to cycles of discrimination, exclusion, and poverty.[3]
By examining the continued usage of terminology that frames disability in accordance with ideas of deficit or deficiency, this thesis presents several key arguments. First, I argue that our understanding of disability history remains incomplete without sustained attention to the role language has played in shaping societal attitudes toward people with disabilities. Moreover, I argue that American history itself cannot be fully understood without the integration of a disability perspective. Second, I aim to establish a broad historical chronology and overview that traces the oppressive and exclusionary origins and deficit-centric etymology of past and present language used to describe and frame disability within U.S. history, laws, culture, and society. Third, I argue that due to the continuance of this deficit model in language used to describe disability, even today, that without acknowledging the harmful linguistic legacy of terminology used to frame disability, that American culture and society (if only inadvertently), continue to marginalize people with disabilities.
This thesis concludes that the term “disability” still bears the burden of its historical connotations, despite attempts to shift away from a deficit-centric view. These residual associations reinforce stereotypes and stigma, sustaining negative attitudes that have long hindered inclusion and equality. While there have been concerted efforts to shift the focus away from deficit models, the concept of disability still carries the weight of its etymological and cultural history, which reinforces outdated ideas of deficiency and incapacity. This enduring linguistic legacy perpetuates ableist attitudes that remain embedded in American culture, institutions, and discourse. By drawing attention to this troubled linguistic history, this thesis, intends, by contrast, to underscore that disability is an essential aspect of human diversity – one that must be recognized, not only for its role in shaping individual experience, but for its integral place in the broader narrative of history and society.
[1] Tom Shakespeare, Disability Rights and Wrongs (New York: Routledge, 2006).
[2] Sayantani DasGupta, “Medicalization,” in Keywords for Disability Studies, ed. Rachel Adams, Benjamin Reiss, and David Serlin (New York University Press, 2015) 120-122.
[3] Andrew Warren, Wanjira Chege, Meghan Greene, Lisa Berdie, “The Financial Health of People with Disabilities: A Report on the State of Disability Financial Security,” (Washington D.C.: National Disability Institute, 2023). https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/the-financial-health-of-people-with-disabilities-report-final-0923.pd
FROM EPIDEMICS TO EXPERIMENTAL TREATMENTS: AMPHIBIAN MASS MORTALITY EVENTS AND A POTENTIAL TREATMENT FOR CHYTRIDIOMYCOSIS
No full textWorldwide, amphibian populations have experienced dramatic declines due to a variety of threats. Among them, disease has been particularly deleterious and continues to impact populations. In the United States and Canada, the three leading causes of amphibian mass mortality events are ranavirosis, chytridiomycosis, and severe perkinsea infection, all caused by infectious pathogens. While research and policy have helped populations recover from these diseases, more work needs to be done to develop practical and efficient treatments for these infections. Of these three diseases, chytridiomycosis has had the most devastating effects on amphibian populations globally. Caused by the chytrid fungi Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal), chytridiomycosis inhibits proper transmission of electrolytes across the host’s skin and can ultimately lead to host death. Antifungal drugs, probiotics, and heat therapy treatments have shown promise in treating chytridiomycosis; however, each of these treatment options has negative side effects, are impractical in the field, or both. In my research, I explore the effects of pH and prebiotic treatments on Bd. I report that low pH environmental conditions and a prebiotic mixture of galactose and pyruvate provide an infected host protection against Bd, while a neutral environment and β-glucan prebiotic do not help amphibian hosts clear infection. These results add an additional tool to our arsenal of treatments for amphibians infected with Bd and push us closer to conserving imperiled species
NEW MATHEMATICAL APPROACHES TO ULTRA-COLD ATOMS
Get PDFThis dissertation addresses three main themes: cold atoms, integrability, and number theory. In this dissertation we present novel approaches to four models, each of which touches on at least two of the three themes. At the intersection of cold atoms and integrability, we present a Lagrange bracket formalism that allows for exact computation of initial quantum fluctuations of soliton breathers which previously could only be estimated numerically, and the advance in software tools developed in Python to facilitate studies of two-dimensional disc breathers. At the intersection of integrability and number theory, we present a propagator for the Newman-Moore, or triangular plaquette, model for glassy spin systems derived from the Rule 60 cellular automaton which allows all ground states to be found for square lattices with side length equal to a Mersenne number. Finally, at the intersection of cold atoms, integrability, and number theory, we present a lattice WKB approximation and general solutions for a tight-binding lattice model with exponential hopping which arises from studies of a single atom in a specifically engineered potential
NOTIONS OF SOVEREIGNTY: EUROPEAN UNION INVOLVEMENT IN INDEPENDENCE-SEEKING REGIONS
Get PDFThis study examines alternative ways of conceptualizing sovereignty through European Union involvement in the issue areas of conflict management, capacity-building, and human rights promotion in four independence-seeking regions: Western Sahara, Somaliland, Abkhazia, and Transdniestria. Document analysis and in-depth key informant interviews were used to develop a theory of European Union involvement in independence-seeking regions.
The theory of European Union involvement proposed in this study rejects state-centric notions of sovereignty as the only mode of understanding sovereignty and holds that independence-seeking regions (ISRs) enact various sovereignties through their existence. Further, the theory formed in this research suggests that state-centric notions of sovereignty are unhelpful in understanding ISRs as a varied phenomenon; and that ultimately, state-centric notions of sovereignty perpetuate instability in the international system due to the isolation of ISRs by nation-states and international organizations, including the European Union. This theory proposes that many exclusive sovereignties coexist, have done in the past, and will do in the future, along a spectrum of sovereign iterations. Such a theory allows us to conceive of a political world(s) that will not always be constructed and ordered as we know it today
Building a Sustainable System: Reimagining Nonprofit Leadership Through Critical and Creative Thinking
Get PDFThis synthesis introduces the Critical and Creative Thinking Leadership Toolbox (CCTLT), a practitioner-oriented framework designed to support nonprofit leaders navigating staff engagement, organizational complexity, and long-term sustainability. Drawing on lived experience, scholarly literature, and graduate coursework in the Critical and Creative Thinking (CCT) program, the project challenges traditional leadership models that treat employee buy-in as a binary status or compliance metric. Instead, it reframes buy-in as a dynamic spectrum shaped by trust, clarity, psychological safety, and reciprocal accountability. The work critiques unsustainable leadership practices common in mission-driven organizations and offers an actionable alternative grounded in reflection, systems awareness, and dialogic engagement. Through reflective inquiry and field-based observations, the CCTLT is developed as a bridge between leadership theory and real-world application. Tools are organized across key dimensions—Emotional Intelligence, Effective Communication, Metacognition, Creativity, Sustainability, and Presencing—each illustrated with definitions, contextual applications, and guiding principles. The framework also introduces the Buy-In/Burnout spectrum as a visual tool to support real-time leadership diagnosis and adaptive response. Intended for nonprofit leaders, leadership educators, and practitioners committed to organizational care and ethical alignment, this synthesis contributes to a growing field of sustainable leadership practice. The work affirms leadership as a relational and reflective process, offering a model for cultivating coherence between inner stance and external impact
Latine Students in U.S. Schools: An Interactive Resource Book for Educators
Get PDFThis interactive resource book provides educators with highly curated research, academic scholarship, and community-based materials to better inform and support their work with Latine students, families, and communities. Grounded in critical and culturally sustaining pedagogies (Rendón et al., 2014; Alim & Paris, 2017). This book encourages educators to cultivate a spirit of curiosity, collaboration, and continuous learning, recognizing that serving Latine students well requires both commitment and ongoing inquiry
Improving Access to Menopause Care Through EMR Integration and Provider Education
No full textAbstract
Perimenopause and menopause represent universal, transformative life stages that affect more than 63 million women in the United States. Yet, this phase remains among the most neglected areas in women’s health. Despite robust evidence supporting the safety and effectiveness of both hormonal and non-hormonal therapies, millions of women remain undiagnosed or undertreated due to fragmented healthcare systems, limited provider education, absence of EMR screening prompts, and inconsistent insurance coverage.
This Capstone Project synthesizes current research and population health data to evaluate how integrating a standardized menopause SmartSet within the electronic medical record (EMR), coupled with structured provider education, can enhance access, quality, and equity of care for women aged 35 to 64. A PRISMA-guided literature review identified 28 studies published between 2018 and 2025 examining menopause care, digital decision-support tools, and educational interventions. Findings revealed persistent deficits in provider knowledge, documentation, and equitable access to care.
The proposed dual intervention—EMR-based screening integrated with provider education—addresses both structural and educational barriers within primary care. Grounded in the Quadruple Aim and AACN Essentials (2021), this project positions nurse practitioners as leaders in advancing digital innovation, promoting health equity, and improving midlife women’s health outcomes. Implementing standardized SmartSets and education initiatives has the potential to transform menopause management into a proactive, data-driven, and equitable component of primary care