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Multimodal analgesia has gained favor in analgesic management to improve pain management and minimize opioid use in spinal fusion surgeries. Remifentanil, a short-acting opioid analgesic, is combined with adjuncts such as fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, ketamine, dexmedetomidine, lidocaine, and magnesium infusions to produce synergistic pain relief post-surgery. This quality improvement (QI) project evaluated current multimodal and opioid strategies in thoracic spinal fusion procedures using remifentanil infusions as part of a project encompassing cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal fusions. The literature review supported multimodal analgesia to combat opioid-induced hyperalgesia. A retrospective chart review of 50 thoracic spinal fusion surgeries at a level one academic medical center examined postoperative pain scores and pain medication administration for patients receiving intraoperative remifentanil infusions with other pain medications. Data were analyzed using linear regression and Pearson’s r correlations. Findings revealed multimodal techniques were employed among anesthesia providers; however, no statistically significant differences were observed in pain scores or postoperative medication administrations based on analgesics used. While multimodal approaches were prevalent, further research is needed to evaluate their effectiveness in reducing postoperative pain. Recommendations include expanding to alternative surgical populations without pre-existing pain conditions and adding comparative groups to enhance understanding of multimodal strategies.
Guided by provider judgment, the intraoperative use of specific pain medication combinations can affect patients’ self-reported pain scores in the postoperative recovery room (PACU). While many options are available, commonly used intraoperative analgesics include fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone, ketamine, dexmedetomidine, lidocaine infusions, and magnesium infusions. As part of a larger quality improvement project analyzing cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spinal fusions, this project sought to identify current practices for multimodal analgesia and narcotic administration in lumbar spinal fusion procedures utilizing remifentanil infusions. The literature review supported the use of multimodal analgesia to combat opioid-induced hyperalgesia. Determining the most effective practice may guide provider practices to help decrease self-reported pain scores and postoperative pain medication usage in the PACU. A retrospective chart review was conducted on 50 patients who underwent lumbar spinal fusion surgeries at a level one academic medical center. Postoperative pain scores and pain medication administration were examined for patients who received intraoperative remifentanil infusion in combination with other pain medications. The findings revealed no statistically significant correlations between intraoperative multimodal analgesia combinations and pain medication administration or pain scores in the PACU. Clinically significant findings included an average pain score in the PACU of 5.14 out of 10, potentially indicating poor pain control. Recommendations include evaluating the postoperative pain control effects of a singular analgesic, such as ketamine, during surgeries utilizing remifentanil infusions, and exploring pain assessment tools that evaluate impact on functional status.
This quality improvement project sought to identify current usage of multimodal analgesics in cervical spinal fusion procedures utilizing remifentanil infusions. The choice of specific pain medication combinations can impact patients’ self-reported pain scores in the postoperative recovery room (PACU). The literature review supported the use of multimodal analgesia to combat opioid-induced hyperalgesia (OIH) associated with remifentanil. After conducting a retrospective chart review focused on cervical spinal fusion surgeries for 50 patients, postoperative pain scores and pain medication administration were examined for patients who received intraoperative remifentanil infusion in combination with other analgesics.
Linear regression identified no significant associations between the number of intraoperative multimodals and the number of doses of pain medications in PACU (b = 0.27, t = 1.00, p = 0.322) or the average pain scores in PACU (b = 0.31, t = 1.28, p = 0.207). Pearson’s r correlations found that none of the individual multimodals were associated with pain medication administration or pain scores in PACU. Although there was a lack of statistically significant findings, it was found that nurse anesthetists were employing a multimodal approach to analgesia. More projects need to be conducted to see if multimodal analgesia can combat OIH associated with remifentanil.
ABSTRACT
JOHN C EVERETT. Preventing institutional failure: a review of operational and financial variables at theological graduate schools. (Under the direction of DR. ALAN MABE)
Theological graduate schools have faced many challenges over the past twenty years, but many have thrived and survived through the efforts of great leaders, strong faculty and staff, dedicated supporters, and supportive organizations. There have been a number of closures, mergers, and accreditation withdrawals with struggling theological graduate schools due to various reasons including enrollment reduction issues, financial exigency, rising tuition, endowment concerns, and the changing landscape of the church just to note a few. Studying the financial strengths and weaknesses at theological graduate schools provides an opportunity to address the relationship of financial and operational variables at these schools.
This quantitative study determined if there is a relationship between financial and non-financial variables and the financial stability and instability at 161 theological graduate schools in the United States. The study utilized financial and non-financial data from two time periods, 2011 and 2021 with the following variables: financial responsibility composite score (FRCS), independent theological schools, university-embedded theological schools, denomination, region, minority serving, enrollment, tuition, expenditures, endowment, library volumes, and faculty FTE.
The study included correlation analysis, trend analysis, and multiple regression analysis. The multiple regression analysis included nine models reviewing the relationship of independent and dependent variables. Independent theological schools had a statistically significant p-value for the financial responsibility composite score with negative differences in these scores compared to the university-embedded theological graduate schools. Roman Catholic theological schools had a statistically significant p-value and yield a difference of .5156 for the financial responsibility composite scores in 2011. In 2021, endowment levels and expenditure levels had statistically significant p-values and yielded differences of -.0012 and -.0002 respectively for the financial responsibility composite scores. Enrollment levels and Midwestern schools had strong p-values, but the results were not statistically significant for financial responsibility composite scores.
Overall, the United States’ population continues to substantially increase in cultural diversity (NCES, 2018; NCES, 2020a; NCES, 2020b), therefore increasing the overall diversity of students in school settings. Children from minoritized groups have a higher risk of experiencing poverty (US Census Bureau, 2017), problem behaviors (Post et al., 2019), adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), trauma (CYW, 2017), mental health concerns and inadequate mental health treatment or counseling (National Survey of Children’s Health, 2011-2012; National Survey of Children's Health, 2019-2020). Effective, culturally, and developmentally appropriate interventions are needed to address the mental health needs of racially/ethnically minoritized youth in elementary school settings. Professional School Counselors (PSCs) are charged with addressing the ongoing social/emotional, behavioral, academic, and mental well-being of all students, including those racially/ethnically minoritized. One way that PSCs can address these needs is through child-centered play therapy (CCPT). A logistic regression was utilized to explore how the amount and quality of play therapy training, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) of the PSCs, and attitudes toward cultural humility are related to the use of CCPT in addressing student’s mental health needs among elementary school counselors (N=256). Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between the amount and quality of play therapy training, attitudes toward cultural humility, and the use of play therapy, but not ACEs. The results also indicated that there was not a significant relationship between the amount and quality of play therapy training, ACEs, attitudes toward cultural humility, and the use of CCPT. Implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research are discussed.
Climate change presents a pressing challenge for natural disaster management, to quantify its effects and associated disasters is a persistent challenge for regional climate risk studies. As climate-induced hazards escalate in intensity and frequency, infrastructure in hazard-prone regions faces growing risks – A situation especially critical to transportation infrastructures. Recent events, such as Hurricane Helene in 2024, which caused widespread damage to life supporting infrastructures and roadways closures, underscore the urgency of addressing these combined hazards. This dissertation assesses multi-hazard risks to bridge infrastructure in North Carolina’s mountainous regions, focusing on the interplay between landslide, flooding, wildfire, and earthquake risks. We approach the multi-hazard issue using landslide as the basic quantifier and investigate the nesting effect of earthquake and rainfall triggered landslides.
Because forest fire has the potential of diminishing soil moisture and can encourage landslides, wildfire risk is also included as a predictor. Analysis identifies key wildfire-related variables, such as distance to roads, elevation, and proximity to populated areas, as significant predictors of landslide susceptibility, highlighting the role of remote sensing data in extreme weather event prediction. Soil type, included in the landslide model, had limited impact, suggesting the need for refined soil classification methods in future studies.
Utilizing logistic regression (LR) and random forest (RF) models, this study develops predictive maps for landslide and wildfire susceptibility, achieving accuracy rates of 75.7% and 83.9% for landslide prediction and 68.5% and 72.9% for wildfire prediction, respectively. The higher sensitivity of the RF model, as shown in ROC curve analysis, demonstrates its effectiveness for multi-hazard risk modeling.
The wildfire susceptibility map is then incorporated as an independent variable in predicting landslide occurrences, revealing critical interactions between wildfire and landslide risks. The result are two different landslide susceptibility maps. Finally, a novel index, the Assumed Flooding Potential (AFP), is introduced to quantify flood risk. Since it is hard to establish flooding scenarios for bridges in mountain regions. AFP is calculated as the mid-span clearance for bridges. Furthermore, bridges-in-valleys are identified for high flooding risk analysis.
The integration of multi-hazard data allows for a dynamic understanding of bridge vulnerability, resulting in a shift in risk probability for certain structures. Specifically, the number of bridges with over a 50% probability of multi-hazard risk exposure decreased from 47 to 26, while four new bridges emerged in high-risk zones due to the addition of wildfire susceptibility data. These findings provide actionable insights for decision-makers, enabling proactive mitigation strategies tailored to bridges that face increased vulnerability from wildfire-triggered landslides.
This research delivers a high-resolution multi-hazard risk map and model for infrastructure resilience planning, offering critical tools for bridge engineers and policymakers. The 2024 Hurricane Helene landslides and bridge damage data from the state have been used to validate the risk maps. The results indicated reasonable accurate predictions, thus, ascertaining the study contributed to the potential to anticipate future multi-hazard risks. However, it also highlighted the need to address the complex interactions between environmental and anthropogenic factors and the urgency for future studies to advance our understanding of climate effects and to enhance our ability to anticipate and mitigate multi-hazard impacts on critical infrastructure in the face of evolving climate challenges.
National efforts have been made to increase STEM participation among racially marginalized individuals (Ro & Loya, 2015). However, women, especially African American women, remain underrepresented in STEM fields, particularly in engineering and computer science disciplines. The purpose of this basic interpretive qualitative study was to understand the first-year experiences of African American women in engineering and computer science majors at a predominantly white institution (PWI). This study was guided by Strayhorn’s (2019) model of college students’ sense of belonging. Semi-structured interviews were used to gather in-depth insights into the participants’ experiences. The sample consisted of 8 African American women at a PWI in the Southeastern part of the United States. A thematic analysis approach was used for this study. Four major themes were identified: (1) intentionality in decision-making processes: identification of early experiences for STEM access, (2) messaging: parental “college-going expectations” vs. family “STEM major selection” influence, (3) psychosocial influencers of belonging in STEM, and (4) interpersonal agency toward socialization and engagement in STEM majors. The findings of this study provided insights into the unique challenges African American women face in their first year in engineering and computer science majors. The findings of this study suggest that institutions can significantly improve the experiences of African American women in STEM by implementing targeted strategies that address their unique challenges.
Photoconductive detectors are semiconductor optoelectronic devices that absorb optical energy and convert it to electrical signal. However, photoconductive gain or quantum efficiency (QE) theory of photodetector exhibits considerable controversy in optoelectronics literature. Gain is generally defined as the ratio of the number of photogenerated charge carriers collected by the electrodes and the number of photons absorbed in the semiconducting photoconductor. This gain is often expressed as the ratio of the carrier lifetime over the carrier transit time. The lifetime is the average time before an electron recombines with a hole, and the transit time is the time needed for photogenerated carriers to travel from one electrode to another under an applied voltage. This simple theory implies that it is possible to obtain high gain by reducing the transit time.
In this dissertation, the gain theory of photoconductive detector with an intrinsic (undoped) semiconductor is reexamined by assuming primary photoconductivity. In contrast to the widely adopted gain formula as a ratio of the carrier lifetime to transit time, allowing for a value much greater than unity, it is shown that this ratio can only be used as QE under the low-drift limit, but has been inappropriately generalized in the literature. The analytic results for photocarrier density, photocurrent, and QE in terms of normalized drift and diffusion lengths are obtained, which indicates that QE is limited to unity for arbitrary drift and diffusion parameters. A distinction between the two QE definitions used in the literature, but not explicitly distinguished, is discussed. The accumulative quantum efficiency (QEacc) includes the contributions of the flow of all photocarriers, regardless of whether they reach the electrodes, whilst the apparent quantum efficiency (QEapp) is based on the photocurrent at the electrodes. In general, QEacc > QEapp; however, they approach the same unity limit for the strong drift. Furthermore, it is shown that the photocurrent in the photoconductive channel is in general spatially nonuniform and that the presence of diffusion tends to reduce the photocurrent. As one form of secondary photoconductivity, it is confirmed that doping in a photoconductive device can yield a gain, limited by the ratio of the mobilities of majority and minority carriers. Based on the simulation results, new analytic results that show good agreement with simulated results are proposed.
This work lays the ground for understanding mechanisms of experimentally observed, above-unity photoconductivity gains. Moreover, these findings should offer new insights into photoconductivity and semiconductor device physics and may potentially lead to novel applications.
This three-article dissertation examined the impact of a Formative and Alternative Assessment Methodology (FAAM) implemented at a Colombian university during COVID-19. The first study explored, through in-depth interviews, participants' experiences with the FAAM. This study's findings indicated that the flexibility of instructional and assessment criteria, the use of digital technologies, formative assessment practices, and alternative forms of assessment rendered noteworthy benefits for the participants. The second study investigated through a survey the variables that influenced instructors' implementation and usefulness of the FAAM. The correlational and regression analyses revealed that instructors' assessment literacy (AL) was a significant positive predictor of both outcome variables. Likewise, instructors' use of assessment strategies during the FAAM was positively associated with their AL. The third study examined the variability in students' final grades before, during, and after implementing the FAAM through multilevel modeling. The results showed a significant increase in student grades during the FAAM semesters and variation among academic disciplines. Thus, this dissertation offers a holistic account of a university's unique pedagogical experience situated in the context of a global crisis. Grounded in both qualitative and quantitative evidence, this research testifies to the usefulness of formative and alternative assessment principles and practices in higher education.
Family engagement is a crucial component of student success, impacting academic performance, attendance rates, and behavior. However, many families, particularly those from historically marginalized communities, remain disengaged from their child's school due to barriers such as a lack of trust, negative experiences, and language or cultural obstacles. A foundational reason for this disengagement is the unpreparedness of teachers to intentionally engage families. Teacher education programs often do not have an explicit focus on family engagement, resulting in teachers who may feel unprepared and who do not understand the cultural context of their students' families; thus, hindering effective communication. This dissertation explored the preparedness of beginning teachers to engage families in elementary schools, and how they perceive this preparedness, particularly in urban settings. By examining how beginning teachers perceive their readiness, it provided insights into the strengths and weaknesses of teacher education programs in this regard. The research sought to answer two central questions: 1) How are beginning teachers prepared to engage parents and families in elementary schools, and 2) How do they perceive their teacher education program's preparedness for this task? The study employed a mixed methods approach, involving curriculum analysis, online surveys , and semi-structured interviews. The findings of this study informed recommendations for teacher education programs, looking to equip future teachers with the skills and knowledge needed for effective family engagement.
