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Implementation of Interprofessional Education: Respiratory Management in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Full text linkAmyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells, leading to muscle weakness, including weakness of respiratory muscles. Respiratory issues significantly contribute to the morbidity and mortality of persons with ALS. Therefore, respiratory management is a critical aspect of care. There is a concerning lack of awareness and knowledge among rural and urban healthcare professionals regarding the respiratory management of persons with ALS. Healthcare professionals need to understand the differences between oxygenation and ventilation and the importance of following evidence-based guidelines. Nurse practitioners play a crucial role in the care of a person with ALS, overseeing and coordinating interprofessional care. Regular care in multidisciplinary ALS clinics is beneficial, but due to the complexity of the disease, persons with ALS often require care from various healthcare professionals in a variety of settings. An interprofessional healthcare approach is favorable for providing the highest quality of care for ALS patients.
This project aimed to address the knowledge gap by designing, implementing, and evaluating an educational session focusing on interprofessional collaboration. This project targeted students pursuing healthcare degrees in various disciplines aiming to better equip healthcare students with knowledge before they enter practice. Participants completed pre- and post-surveys to determine if knowledge increased and to elicit attitudes and beliefs about interprofessional education. Quantitative and qualitative methods were utilized. Findings suggest that integrating educational sessions for healthcare students effectively enhances knowledge and positively benefits interprofessional interactions, which can lead to better health outcomes
Chrysopoeia: A Transcendental Metamorphosis of Consciousness
Full text linkAs of 2024 the world is in a mental health crisis. Now more than ever mental health is an
incredibly important topic, especially after the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the
situation as dire as it is, places like Oregon have started to turn to using psychedelics in treating
mental illnesses due to their proven effectiveness in healing the mind. As of January of 2023,
Oregon passed legislation that allows for the use of a psychedelic compound known as
psilocybin at licensed service centers. With psilocybin still being classified as a schedule one
drug under federal law, its use is limited to the grounds of licensed service centers. Since patients are only allowed to engage in this type of therapy at these service centers, it is crucially
important that the design of these service centers creates an environment that significantly aids in a patient?s mental healing journey.
The goal of this project is to propose a design and typology of architecture that can assist
in the transformation of a person?s consciousness for the sake of better mental health and
ultimately attaining a more fulfilling life. We have long distanced ourselves from our inner being
due to the lives we live today with modern technology and due to the way that we are used to
thinking in society. By better understanding our minds through the work of Carl Jung and
tapping into our consciousness and unconsciousness, we can vastly change the way that we think and become whole with ourselves through the practice of individuation. The practice of the use of psychedelics and other forms of wellness and therapy such as cold exposure therapy, nature immersion, community building, and exercise can help people navigate the inner depths of their mind to work past the mental barriers that hold them back from becoming mentally healthy
Healing Through Humanitarian Design: Understanding the Refugee Crisis and Designing for the Future
Full text linkThis project is an exploration into understanding the qualities of the built environment to attain a level of dignity for refugees in their healing process. Architecture cannot solve these social issues but seeks to understand the impact of the built environment on individual people. This research will focus on the humanitarian design response method and how it can be improved in the future. Can healing take place through design created by architects and does the design of a refugee camp have anything to do with that healing process? This research will use the global refugee situation as a vehicle to understand humanitarian design response. This research will interrogate global partners that are working towards the goal to support the healing process in refugee camps and understand how this process is approached within those companies and to further gain an understanding if the structure of a camp could influence the ability for people to heal. What if humanitarian design response was something that planners, designer and architects were prepared for, rather than something designers are always trying to catch up with. This research will reveal what strategies have been currently achieved as a humanitarian response in order to uncover any gaps that could provide a holistic solution in the future
Optimization Problems in Transportation and Logistics: A Practical Guide
Full text linkThis educational guide will help students and practitioners seeking to understand the fundamentals and practice of linear programming. The exercises contained within demonstrate how to solve classical optimization problems with an emphasis on spatial analysis in supply chain management and transport logistics. All exercises describe the Python programs and optimization libraries that can be used to solve them. The first chapter introduces key concepts in linear programming and establishes a new cognitive framework to help students and practitioners set up each optimization problem. This cognitive framework organizes the decision variables, constraints, objective function, and variable bounds in a format that allows for direct application to optimization software. The second chapter introduces two types of mobility optimization problems (shortest path in a network and minimum cost tour) in the context of delivery and service planning logistics. The third chapter introduces four types of spatial optimization problems (neighborhood coverage, flow capturing, zone heterogeneity, service coverage) and provides a workflow for visualizing the optimized solutions in maps. The workflow creates decision variables from maps by using the free geographic information systems (GIS) programs QGIS and GeoDA. The fourth chapter introduces three types of spatial logistics problems (spatial distribution, flow maximization, warehouse location optimization) and demonstrates how to scale the cognitive framework in software to reach solutions. The final chapter summarizes lessons learned and provides insights about how students and practitioners can modify the Python programs and GIS workflows to solve their own optimization problem and visualize the results
Domus Dei: The House of God
Full text linkThe architecture of Catholic church buildings has an intrinsic connection with the liturgy, theology, and tradition of the Church. Creating transcendent spaces to engage in the worship of God has been an essential part of Catholic life since the earliest days of Christendom. The questions this project seeks to address are as follows: How can the beauty of a contemporary church building signify the unchanging solemnity of Catholic worship and aid in the search for the Divine, and how can this beauty be returned to new churches in an economical way through form, current construction methods, and materials? How can these principles be applied to design a transcendent sacred space for a small parish with limited resources? This project resulted in a design solution for a new Catholic church building that incorporates each of the following design ideals: beauty, liturgy, geometry, materiality, and accessibility
Stories of Separation: Reunifying the Emotional Border of the Korean 38th Parallel
Full text linkWhen encountering conditions with unknown aspects, it is an impulse to occupy them with experiences and memories to alleviate the associated feelings and reach a form of understanding. This thesis explores how our understandings are influenced and establish a precedent for architectural interventions to assist in resolving the conditions of the unknown. Following World War II (WWII), the 38th parallel marked the beginning of the separation of the Koreas before it developed into the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ). Contrasting the stagnant characteristics of this physical division, the emotional division in Korea has continuously evolved and shifted throughout the years. Designed in mountains and along the invisible line of the 38th parallel, the architectural experiences draw out an understanding of the emotional border by imparting a lasting influence on people?s perceptions and memories
Childhood obesity conversations: Motivational interviewing in the brief primary care visit
Full text linkChildhood obesity is a global epidemic that sets a child up for future health complications into adulthood. There?s no current consensus on approaching weight-related conversations with patients and families. Nurse practitioners (NPs) are in a unique position to recognize obesity and initiate weight-related conversations with patients and families. Unfortunately, formative educational programs under-educate practitioners in the conduction of obesity conversations, so there is a decreased confidence and resulting avoidance of weight-related conversations.
This practice improvement project (PIP) aimed to increase provider confidence and utilize motivational interviewing techniques to initiate and sustain weight-related conversations with children and families with overweight or obesity. The PIP consisted of an hour-long educational video sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) electronically sent out to new family practice providers in a Nurse Practitioner Fellowship Program (NPFP) and experienced providers in the rural weight-management clinic. Pre- and post-surveys were employed to evaluate perceived confidence and utilization in clinical practice. Surveys also aided in understanding obesity education through formative and continuing education.
There were ten eligible participants, six from the NPFP and four from the weight management clinic. The PIP had a total of three participants who were all from the weight-management clinic. There were no participants from the NPFP. Through descriptive statistics, the co-investigator found that 2/3 of respondents had increased levels of perceived confidence regarding weight-related conversations with children and families with overweight or obesity. One participant indicated weight-related conversational training in formative schooling and all respondents reported weight-related conversational training through continuing education. One participant completed the one-month follow-up survey. The participant indicated he/she had implemented techniques presented in the video, but a larger population size is needed to make the results more meaningful.
Although the results supported the purpose of the PIP, the co-investigator would recommend further research targeting primary care practitioners to determine the need for further education in the primary care setting. Although limitations existed, the education and delivery method met the needs of the participants. The co-investigator recommends implementing weight-related conversation education into primary care formative education and encourages practicing practitioners to seek out continuing education regarding weight-related conversations with patients and families
Systems thinking in student retention and STEM persistence: a holistic approach to navigating challenges and implementing targeted solutions in higher education
No full textDecades of research focused on student retention in higher education have produced theoretical models which, despite being valuable, fail to characterize the convoluted nature of factors influencing retention outcomes. This thesis proposes a novel approach to understanding and addressing challenges of retention utilizing systems thinking. Through this method, institutions and departments are better able to identify areas of need and implement targeted solutions for the individualized nature of the problem. This systems map offers a more holistic perspective than the traditional siloed retention interventions. Implementing a student-centric approach, such as in virtual community support programs, or an institutional-centric approach, such as in a departmental climate survey, allows universities to strike a balance for the multifaceted challenges of addressing retention gaps. Integrating these approaches via the proposed systems map presents a promising avenue to tackle the ever-growing challenge of student retention within higher education
An analysis of intersecting factors influencing first-generation college student enrollment
Full text linkThis study examined the impact of college visits on first-generation college students (FGCS). Specifically, I analyzed data from a midsized university in the upper Midwest to understand the the intersecting effect of variables on FGCS?s choices for attending college. I tested four hypotheses by conducting logistic regression models using the focal variables of the number of campus visits, estimated family contribution, race, high school grade point average, and gender.
Results showed that visiting campus, a student?s race, being female, and grade point average significantly impacted their likelihood of enrolling at this university. FGCS who were Black/African American or Hispanic/Latino were substantially less likely to enroll compared to FGCS who were White. When looking at race and college visits, increased college visits indicated higher chances for enrollment for most FGCS; however, Black/African American students? chance of enrolling decreased with additional campus visits
Large spacecraft medium voltage DC (MVDC) power and propulsion system
Full text linkThis thesis introduces a medium voltage direct-current (MVDC) system for large spacecrafts with megawatt (MW)-scale power and propulsion systems for interplanetary transport. The proposed MVDC system comprises a nuclear electric propulsion (NEP) powered permanent magnet generator, a solar photovoltaic (PV), a backup battery energy storage system (BESS), an electric thruster, AC/DC loads, and the spacecraft low-voltage DC (LVDC) power system. The NEP is the main power source for the thruster, while the solar PV and BESS support payload and low-voltage systems. The energy sources are connected to the MVDC bus through power electronics converters. Unidirectional boost DC-DC converter and bidirectional boost DC-DC converters are adopted on the PV and BESS sources, respectively, while an isolated DC-DC converter is used to provide power to the thruster. To attenuate external disturbance and enhance the robustness of the proposed MVDC system, uncertainty and disturbance estimator (UDE) based controllers are designed for the power electronics converters in the MVDC system