Digital Commons Network^™

Sentience, Sheetal Agrawal

Masters Theses

The increasing urgency for sustainable and adaptive systems has driven research toward embedding intelligence directly into materials rather than relying solely on external sensing and control systems. This thesis explores how smart material1 embedded systems can be designed to recognize and respond to environmental signatures, defined as measurable patterns such as temperature fluctuations and mechanical forces. Central to this investigation is the integration of shape memory alloys, particularly Nitinol, with geometry-based actuation mechanisms that amplify material behavior into functional system responses.

The central argument is that designing with smart materials is a design problem, not primarily a materials science problem …

Perceptual Heterotopia: A Spatial Experience Through Light, Media, And Textiles, Anne Yeoji Kim

Masters Theses

This study originates from sensory experience of observing sunrises and sunsets. Although the space in which these phenomena occur remains constant, it is perceived in different ways due to changes in the light that enters the space at these times. From these sensory experiences, the study began to inquire into the relationship between reality and the ideal. From this inquiry, it evolved into an exploration of how the ideal, or utopian, could be experienced through the senses within the realm of reality.

The concept of a heterotopia, as proposed by Michel Foucault, was used to expand upon these issues. A …

Somatic Prosthetics For Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how industrial design can transcend extractive technological paradigms in favor of relational interfaces that foster planetary attunement. Framing the climate crisis as a 'crisis of imagination', the research challenges the Western bifurcation of nature and culture by drawing on Indic cosmologies- which recognize stones, plants, and ecosystems as conscious at different levels and participants in a shared cosmic field. By synthesizing research in Biosemiotics, Quantum Information Pansycishm, and Neuroscience, the project redefines intelligence as a distributed, more-than-human phenomenon.

The research materializes as a speculative design artifact: a device that functions as a somatic prosthetic for planetary resonance. …

Material Costs, Karima Weinman

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates how migration fatality and disappearance data can be reinterpreted through material craft to create a more reflective encounter with information. Working with the Missing Migrants Project's dataset, this project asks how design can communicate dimensions of human loss that conventional data visualization cannot reach.

The work situates contemporary border violence within a longer colonial history, arguing that the logics of surveillance and quantification that structured European imperial expansion persist in the databases that govern mobility in the Mediterranean today.

Terrazzo is a 15th-century Venetian flooring technique built from discarded fragments bound together into a unified surface. This …

If The Sun Were As Big As My Heart, What Would Be The Distance Between The Sun And The Earth? Or How To Domesticate The Sun, Catalina Martinez, Catalina Martinez Rojas

Masters Theses

If the Sun were as big as my heart, what would be the distance between the Sun and the Earth? Or how to domesticate the Sun is a multidisciplinary installation project that explores how emotional, spiritual, and perceptual experiences can be translated into material form. Beginning from a speculative mathematical proposition that reduces the scale of the Sun to the size of the artist’s heart, the project investigates distance not only as a physical condition, but also as an emotional and domestic one.

Drawing from Colombian vallenato traditions, everyday observations of sunlight, and references ranging from Agnes Martin and Wayne …

Adam, The First Scientist: Unlocking The True Foundation Of Scientific Thinking, Thomas E. Lohman Jr.

Masters Theses

This thesis investigates the complex relationship between scientific thought and theological perspectives, proposing that God breathing life into Adam symbolizes a full divine inspiration for both scientific and theological understanding. The perceived conflict between science and theology arises from a shift in human thinking at the fall, which altered humanity's ability to rightly grasp both realms. After this crucial event, science shifted to a more naturalistic approach, while theology often downplayed God's sovereign power over creation.

The alterations to the original functions and purposes of science and theology have led to a fragile relationship between the two. According to Scripture, …

Receptivity And The Thing In Itself: Allison, Allais, And The Problem Of Outer Affection In Kant’S Transcendental Idealism, Amr Elmargoushy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Kant’s distinction between appearances and things in themselves within the framework of transcendental idealism, focusing on how this distinction is meant to secure objective validity while respecting the limits of possible experience. It critically evaluates two influential contemporary interpretations: Henry Allison’s epistemological reading, which understands the distinction as marking different ways of considering the same object, and Lucy Allais’s metaphysical reading, which attributes a grounding role to things in themselves. The thesis argues that while Allison’s reinterpretation successfully avoids noumenal causation by construing affection epistemically, it generates a structural epistemic circularity concerning the role of receptivity and …

Operational Responsibility In Ai Governance: A User-Centric Liability Framework, Zhengyang Chen

Faculty Publications

Who bears responsibility when artificial intelligence systems cause harm? This question has become central to AI ethics and governance. Most existing approaches focus on developers, yet this faces serious practical and theoretical problems. Drawing on tort law, agency law, and philosophy of technology, this paper argues that AI should be understood as an instrument whose outputs remain the responsibility of human operators rather than developers. We call this 'user-centric governance.' Placing accountability with deployers promotes public trust by creating clear lines of responsibility, a concern that governance approaches have often overlooked. It preserves democratic accountability by keeping human actors answerable …

Homeschool Music: The Predictive Relationship Between Parents’ Homeschooling Approach And Religiosity For Music Learning Choices, Ashley Virginia Finke

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative predictive correlational study was to examine how accurately the combination of parents’ homeschooling approach and parents’ religiosity predict music learning choices for homeschooled students. A Florida Department of Education report showed an increase in homeschooling between the 2013-14 and 2023-24 school years, while an Institute of Education Sciences report documented that 49 percent of homeschooled students in the United States participated in music in 2016. Despite these reports, limited research exists of homeschool music education in the United States and, specifically, in Florida. This study resulted from the related literature and the dearth of current …

Factors Influencing High School Band Enrollment For Eighth Grade Students In Ohio Small Town School Districts, Jon Steven Kauffman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many factors influence the choices of eighth-grade students as they decide whether to enroll in high school band. While musical ability and achievement can play a role in this decision, research suggests that social influences, such as peer relationships, a sense of belonging, and the band program's cultural environment, often have a greater impact on students' decisions. The Ohio Department of Education classifies school districts into four categories: Urban, Rural, Suburban, and Small-town. Although similar to other designations, small-town districts require a distinct label because of the unique mix of factors in these locations. They lack the population density of …

The Cold War And The Weaponization Of Digital Technology: How The United States Government Partnered With The Private Sector To Create A Technology-Driven Strategy For National Defense, Stephen J. Hoover

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Beginning with the National Security Act of 1947, the study traces the transition from conventional warfare to a sophisticated "Second Offset Strategy" defined by technological superiority. It argues that the Cold War necessitated the maturation of the alliance between the federal government and the private sector, transforming private enterprises into essential strategic partners for Cold War national defense. The research analyzes milestones in this digital shift, including the development of voice communications, air defense, space and nuclear technologies, command and control networks, and the transition from mainframes to microprocessors. Central to this analysis is the role of technology in key …

From Frames To Strains: Analytically Modeling Inelastic Deformation Under Mapped Single-Site Impacts From High-Speed Footage To Internal State Variable Codes, Joby Milo Anthony

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This work adds insight to the physical phenomena of microstructural and stress strengthening of metal components by the inelastic deformation from Surface Mechanical Attrition Treatment (SMAT). Impact behaviors observed by high-speed footage of a Crank-Slider Mechanism (CSM) are examined in the context of analytically moving rigid bodies in spacetime and resolving kinematics upon impact until restitution via Finite Element Analysis (FEA). A Coupled Discrete-Finite Element Model (CDFEM) leverages Bammann plasticity, Horstemeyer damage and void nucleation, growth, and coalescence and Cho recrystallization Internal State Variable (ISV) models to show the localization of plastic strain and onset of recrystallization under any single …

James Wilson And His Republic Of Happiness, Seth Ryan Hodges

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The following dissertation examines the political and moral philosophy of James Wilson, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Framers’ theorist whose synthesis of natural law, theology, and Enlightenment moral philosophy grounded what he referred to as the “Republic of Happiness.” It argues that Wilson’s concept of happiness was not rhetorical, but the structural foundation of his legal and constitutional thought. Drawing on Wilson’s Lectures on Law, revolutionary pamphlets, and convention debates, the study demonstrates that for Wilson, happiness meant moral excellence rather than pleasure or material satisfaction. The pursuit of happiness represented both a divine command and …

Assessing Non-Performance Based Standards Of The National Core Arts Standards In Georgia Public Middle And High Schools, Richard Brian Horne

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Developing a well-rounded musician must be the goal of every music teacher. In today’s modern educational system, assessment is a tool used to help shape the curriculum of all subjects. Music assessment must be no different. The National Core Arts Standards (NCAS) utilize anchor standards for assessment in four categories: creating, performing, responding, and connecting. Standards that fall within performing are quickly evaluated in formal and informal assessments, but other standards, such as creation, responding, and connecting, often need exploration. One needs to craft assessments to determine student understanding of performance and non-performance standards and explore development in those areas. …

Harmonizing Faith: An Investigation Of The Efficacy Of A Small Group Study On The Theology Of Music For Spiritual Growth, Timothy Davis

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The problem this study addresses is that Trinity Anglican Church in Connersville, Indiana, had not cultivated a theology of music among its congregants to enrich encounters with God through music. The purpose of this DMIN action research project was to implement a small group study on the theology of music to enrich encounters with God through God-honoring, captivating music. The researcher employed a novel approach: Luke 10:27 served as a paradigmatic framework for exploring how music relates to the dimensions of heart (i.e., emotion), soul (i.e., spiritual encounter), strength (i.e., embodied experience), mind (i.e., intellect), and neighbor (i.e., communal and …

A High School Choral Student's Perspective On Bullying, Allen C. Thomas

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative non-experimental research study was to examine the prevalence, type, and impact of bullying within secondary choral ensembles from the student perspective. Using a slightly modified version of the Swearer Bully Survey, data were collected from a convenience sample of 100 high school students. Initially, responses were to come from several high schools throughout the State of Maine. Due to challenges in survey administration, the researcher received permission to collect responses via social media and expanded recruitment to a national audience. The study employed a cross-sectional design and utilized Google Forms and Tally for data …

What Is The Skeleton Of Cognition? A Structural Account Of World Reconstruction Through Processing Axes, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper describes how the placement of a single processing axis reorganizes human cognition and generates a reconstructed world.

Most existing psychological and social theories begin from emotion, desire, morality, or social behavior. In doing so, they have discussed what forms on top of the cognitive skeleton without first fixing the skeleton itself. When the skeleton is not fixed, entirely different explanations of the same phenomenon can coexist, and it becomes difficult to identify which constitutes a foundational account.

This paper fixes the skeleton first. That skeleton is the processing axis.

The question is: when a single processing axis organizes …

Welcome Tilly Norwood: Forecasting Hollywood’S Ai Policy Futures, Samuel P. Rooker

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

In late 2025, weekly trade publication Variety Magazine reported on the announcement of a new acting talent in Hollywood: Tilly Norwood. Norwood is an industry outsider and the pet project of Eline Van der Velden, who unveiled the actress’ existence to the world at the Zurich Film Festival. The announcement quickly gained media coverage while Van der Velden has since faced cyclical backlash from Hollywood trade unions, which does not seem entirely without reason. Tilly Norwood is a digital persona, a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) program, designed by Van der Velden’s novel AI talent studio, Xicoia, to become the next …

An Authentic Key To Universality: The National Sound Of Tajčević And The International Sound Of Milojević In Serbian Piano Music, Nikola Šćepović

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis argues that the authenticity of the works of Marko Tajčević and Miloje Milojević arises from their deep artistic response to the cultural and historical environment in which they lived and created, while their universality lies in their ability to articulate this authentic language within established artistic forms that resonate with a broader international musical community. It situates these works within the broader cultural context of Serbian music between the two World Wars, a period marked by the negotiation between national identity and European artistic integration.

It also explores the two formative directions of Serbian piano music, the music …

Unknowing Sacrifices: Public Health And Radiation Illness In New Mexico And Nevada, 1940s-1960s, Beatriz Avila-Marquez

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The detonation of the first atomic bomb in the early morning of July 16, 1945, in New Mexico welcomed the atomic age that forever changed the world. After that day, thousands of lives were lost due to nuclear weapons, and hundreds of thousands more continued to suffer from the effects of atomic testing. The Atomic Energy Commission, fueled by the arms race of the Cold War, chose Nevada to continue the United States’ nuclear weapons testing. Knowledge of the dangers of radiation exposure, the effects of radiation, and techniques to prevent exposure are now available in part due to the …

“A Land No One Would Want”: Environmental Activism And The Rejection Of ‘Wasteland’ Narratives In Southern Nevada, Steven Butler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This paper traces events within the history of environmental activism in Southern Nevada. The first chapter discusses the proposed high level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain. The second chapter examines the closure of the Reid Gardner Generating Station in Moapa, Nevada. The third chapter details the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Groundwater Development Project. Each of the three chapters is linked by common themes within the history of Southern Nevada environmental activism, including dedicated coalition-building and the refusal of “wastelanding” of the region.

Constructing Imperial Connectivity: State Infrastructure Projects And The Imperial Gaze In Bengal Presidency, 1849-1856, Richard William Bradley Gaspers Iii

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The construction of roads, canals, and supporting infrastructure in British India connected urban environs of power to interior peripheral spaces. The conclusion of the Second Anglo-Sikh War in 1849 saw the East India Company stand alone as the paramount power over the Indian subcontinent. A century of conquest gave way to a century of internal management. This shifted the state’s ‘gaze’ inward. Public infrastructure construction skyrocketed after 1849, transforming the role of the colonial state as it built roads, canals, bridges, courthouses, police stations, and jails on an unprecedented scale. This thesis will explore how these physical constructs bolstered connectivity, …

Volume Cxlv, Number 22, May 15, 2026, Lawrence University

The Lawrentian

No abstract provided.

Realizing Reality — C.S. Lewis And The Hierarchical Model Of Christian Neo-Platonism, Jordan Spina

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Spina, Jordan, H. “Realizing Reality: C.S. Lewis and the Hierarchical Model of Christian Neo-Platonism.” Ph.D. diss., Concordia Seminary, 2025. 253.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in C.S. Lewis’ intellectual relationship to the Medieval cosmological model. Scholars have demonstrated that, for Lewis, the Medieval cosmological model represented more than a scientific picture of earth in relation to other heavenly bodies. Its significance was not dependent upon the number of planets or the order in which they were positioned. Instead, it represented a philosophically robust view of reality

However, what has yet to be demonstrated is the roadmap …

Understanding How Teachers Define And Employ Civics Education In Non-Elective Social Studies Classrooms, Joseph Kyle

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This study explored the perceptions of civics and civic education held by secondary school teachers of non-elective social studies classes in four schools within the same school district. Using a qualitative approach, this study examined how veteran teachers understood and defined civics, the ways in which they employed civics education in their teaching methodology and daily lessons, and the challenges or obstacles they perceived, if any, incorporating lessons reflecting a progressive experimentalist methodology. The study was undertaken in response to popular and governmental rhetoric reflecting a lack of civil discourse and alleging a lack of civics in public education, as …

The Making Of An Extremist: How Do We Become Someone Else’S Nightmare?, María Paula Morales

The Confluence

This article explores how ordinary people can be pulled into extremist movements and what psychological forces drive that process. It looks at three perspectives: social identity theory, which explains how group belonging shapes behavior, identity development, which shows how people searching for meaning may find it in extremist causes; and social neuroscience, which connects radicalization to brain activity linked to fear, loyalty, and moral judgement. Together, these approaches show that radicalization is not simply about ideology but about identity, emotion, and belonging. By understanding these dynamics, we can find better ways to prevent extremism and promote healthier, more inclusive communities.

Satire And Sentiment: Dickensian Characterization In Hard Times, Helen R. Ball

The Confluence

Readers of Charles Dickens both celebrate and criticize his characters, who are paramount among the quintessential aspects of his writing. His industrial novel Hard Times bears particularly the weight of such criticism in its portrayal of Stephen Blackpool, one of the Coketown factory Hands. Scholars have complained that Blackpool exemplifies, in too boring or didactic a manner, the typical virtues of the Victorian era, such as saintliness, humility, and long-suffering (Spector 365), and that his character lacks the necessary traits to compel and inspire readers.

Such a critique has prompted the following research and analysis. Using formalist observation of diction …

Sanctuary And Disappointment: Jewish German Refugees In The United States Army In World War Ii, Zachary P. Watts

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This paper examines the experiences of German-Jewish refugees who became intelligence soldiers in the United States Army. They are frequently called the Ritchie Boys, for their training in Camp Ritchie, Maryland. The paper focuses mostly on a single Ritchie Boy named Frank Adler, who came to the United States as a teenager from Austria in 1938 and ended up returning to his hometown as a soldier. The Ritchie History museum holds a large collection of Adler’s letters which form the most important source for this project. I have found a duality of experience from German and Austrian Jews in the …

Aggression And Mobility: The Power Of A Cavalry Pursuit During The Civil War, Leland G. Smith

Masters Theses, 2020-current

Decades after the Napoleonic Wars ended, military theorists in western countries began to write books and other manuals on how to successfully use cavalry on the battlefield. One such writer; Barron Jomini, mentions in his book The Art of War that cavalry should be used for reconnaissance, guarding flanks and looting, but its most important use was “opening the door for victory” by exploitation and pursuing the enemy for total victory. Jomini’s book was influential for the generals fighting the Civil War. In the early days of the war the Confederates would greatly use cavalry to conduct reconnaissance, while the …

Local And Indigenous Knowledge, Innovation, And Sustainable Development: Creating Sustainable Futures Amidst Crisis Conditions At The Community Level, Carlos Andrés Arias

Dissertations and Theses

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future (1987) made clear the need to reject longstanding development processes and focus on sustainable development. The Commission stressed that actual sustainable development integrates three elements: social development, economic development, and environmental protection. Though developed nations have achieved economic growth through conventional and extractive development practices, these practices have intensified natural disasters driven by climate change, increased food insecurity, and deepened poverty. This has acutely impacted Indigenous and local communities, many of whom face crisis conditions, such as war, terrorism, civil disorder, and their aftermath. Even so, many of these communities successfully implement …