Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring School Administrators' Perceptions Of Zero Tolerance Policies For African American Female Students, Keysha D. Knight

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Zero tolerance policies disproportionately affect African American female students and contribute to their accelerated entry into the school-to-prison pipeline. Existing literature indicated that these policies subject African American female students to harsher disciplinary practices and that their behaviors were often misunderstood by school administrators. However, there is limited research on how school administrators’ discretionary implementation of zero-tolerance policies contributes to these disparities. The purpose of this general qualitative study was to explore how school administrators interpret and exercise discretion when implementing zero tolerance policies affecting African American female students through the lens of Lipsky’s street-level bureaucracy theory. Four themes were …

Florida Police Officers’ Reflections On Faith And Spirituality Through Lived Experiences, Steven Vose Mcgillicuddy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This qualitative phenomenological study examined how Florida police officers perceived changes in their spiritual and religious beliefs following prolonged exposure to critical incidents. The research question asked how officers interpreted, adapted, and transformed their spiritual or religious beliefs in response to repeated critical incident exposure. Nine sworn frontline officers participated and were interviewed using a semi structured protocol. Transcripts were analyzed inductively using thematic analysis. Three primary findings emerged: (1) Career and Impact captured cumulative occupational exposure that prompted moral appraisal and coping, and participants did not report uniform loss of faith; (2) Spiritual Belief followed three common trajectories—stability, strengthening/reaffirmation, …

Memory Representations In Cortico-Hippocampal Systems, Angelique Ibanez Delarazan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Episodic memory often captures both the content of past events (e.g., people, places, and situations involved) and the specificity with which those events are remembered, ranging from summary-level to detailed recollection. Content-based theories, including the PMAT Framework, propose that cortical networks are organized around the types of information memories contain. In particular, the Anterior Temporal Network (ATN) supports entity representations, including characters, and the Posterior Medial Network (PMN) support contextual information, such as locations. Specificity-based theories, including the Trace Transformation Theory, propose that the level of recall specificity maps onto functional gradients within the hippocampus, with posterior regions (pHPC) supporting …

A Proposed Methodology For Online Asynchronous Therapeutic Dreamwork, Gregory Sparrow, Ryan Hurd, Yih-Jiun Shen, Kim Phetteplace

Counseling Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the acceptance of online “telemental” health as an alternative to sitebased service delivery. Concurrently, therapists have adopted various asynchronous virtual mental health resources, such as bulletin boards/forums, delayed chat, and email, to supplement traditional practice. Asynchronous dream sharing, pioneered in the early 1980s, has since supported online conferences and ongoing dreamwork communities. However, the potential of asynchronous therapeutic dreamwork (ATD) still needs to be explored. This article reviews the evolution of asynchronous online dream sharing and proposes that combining it with “co-creative” dreamwork—particularly the FiveStar Method—may generate distinctive contributions while providing greater safeguards than content-focused interpretive …

Lived Experiences Of Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing (Emdr) Certified, Staci Ekblad

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This phenomenological study explored counselors’ lived experiences of utilizing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) with children ages 8 to 12 years of age. Guided by a Husserlian approach, the research examined how clinicians make meaning of adapting EMDR—traditionally conceptualized as a structured, eight-phase protocol—for developmental and relational responsiveness within child psychotherapy. Through phenomenological reduction and epoché, counselors described a shift in consciousness from viewing EMDR as a rigid procedure to experiencing it as a flexible, relationally attuned process grounded in the child’s lived world. Counselors described the phenomenon of implementing EMDR with children with playful adaptations and co-regulation. The …

Psychometric Properties Of A Newly Developed Self-Report Scale To Determine The Relationship Between Retained Primary Reflexes And Behavioral Signs And Symptoms In An Adult Population, Joan Marie Macmillan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many adults suffer from mental health issues, often caused by retained primary reflexes. There are current gaps in the literature surrounding primary reflex assessment methods. The purpose of this quantitative psychometric study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a new behavioral self-assessment scale used to identify retained primary reflexes from behavioral indicators, while also determining if statistically significant relationships exist among study variables. The theoretical foundation for this cross-sectional study was based on the neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral work of Melillo, while conceptually benefiting from several neuroplasticity related frameworks, such as those developed by Ayres, Bach-y-Rita, and Masgutova. The self-report …

Morphology Extraction And Analysis Of Primary Soot Particles And Aggregates And Aggregates In Soot Tem Images Using Machine Learning, Timothy Paul Day

Master's Theses (2009 -)

Accurate characterization of soot morphology is crucial for understanding soot’s physical and chemical properties and their effects on climate and public health. Morphological characterization requires manual identification and segmentation of individual primary particles and aggregates, a labor-intensive and time-consuming process limits scale and reproducibility and contributes to uncertainty in climate models. Therefore, automated approaches are needed to reliably quantify soot morphology. This work develops SAGE (Soot Aggregate Geometry Extraction), an instance segmentation model and framework to segment primary particles in TEM images and extract morphological properties. Four key questions are addressed: (1) can the model achieve segmentation quality comparable to …

The Artificial Maintenance Of Relationship Satisfaction: Romantic Ai Companion Usage Sustains Emerging Adults' Human Romantic Relationship Satisfaction While Eroding Relationship Stability, Rebekah M. Hakala

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly sophisticated, romantic AI companions--AI systems designed to simulate romantic, emotional, or sexual relationships--have emerged as a novel relational phenomenon. Nearly one in four emerging adults now engage with romantic AI companions, yet little is known about how this usage affects their romantic human relationships. Drawing on Social Exchange Theory and the Investment Model of Commitment, and employing structural equation modeling, this thesis uses data from 2,431 emerging adults in romantic relationships to examine whether romantic AI companion usage influences relationship satisfaction and relationship stability among emerging adults in the United States (ages 18-30), and whether …

Psychosocial Characteristics Of North American Male Cannibals, Sheila A. Murphy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Criminal cannibalism is a rare form of violent offending that remains understudied despite public attention. This gap limits understanding of the psychosocial characteristics and life experiences of individuals who engage in cannibalistic behavior. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore psychosocial characteristics within the life experiences of North American males who engaged in cannibalistic behavior and identify common themes. Grounded in social control theory and self-control theory, the study examined how weakened social bonds and diminished self-regulation may relate to extreme deviance. The guiding research question focused on identifying common psychosocial characteristics within this population. A descriptive phenomenological …

Journey Of Becoming: Risk And Self-Determination In The Story Of Self For Adults With Intellectual, Developmental, And Learning Disabilities A Phenomenological Case Study Employing Narrative Inquiry And Thematic Analysis, Christopher R. J. Worth

Dissertations

This phenomenological case study, employing narrative inquiry and thematic analysis, captured the first-person voice of emerging adults (ages 20–28) with intellectual, developmental, and learning disabilities to explore how experiences of risk and self-determination shaped their personal narratives, or story of self. Guided by Critical Disability Theory, Foucault’s concept of relational power, and Shogren’s Causal Agency Theory, the study challenged the systemic bubble-wrapping that denies this population the "dignity of risk" (Perske, 1972). Data were collected from six participants through semi-structured interviews, adapted photovoice submissions, and participant selfreflections. The findings revealed that the phenomenon of becoming, catalyzed by intellectual adaptive risk-taking, …

Holding The Line: The Existential Threat To Dei Language And Values, Terrance Fitzsimmons, Larry Martinez, Jennifer Bishop, Darryl Rice, Florence Villesèche

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose – This article critically analyses and critiques the operationalisation of the Trump administration’s anti- DEI policies on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives in the United States of America and beyond. It specifically examines the attempt to silence DEI scholarship and practice, assessing the broader implications for social justice and global progress towards equity. The article also positions these attacks as an existential threat to DEI scholarship, scholars and practitioners, with the potential to reverse progress made since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The article serves as a call to action, urging the …

Three Papers On The Impacts Of Electoral Rules On The Behavior Of Politicians, Jordon Tyler Newton

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three papers that examine the ways that electoral rules may provide elites incentives that cut against citizen interests. In the first, titled ``Maybe Later: Term Limits and Strategy Behind Candidate Entry," I use the context of term limits to reexamine conditions for candidate entry. I argue they reduce the number of candidates who challenge incumbents, leading to a lock-in effect. By increasing the frequency of open races, term limits incentivize potential challengers to wait for an open race. To demonstrate this, I analyze primary data from 85 legislative chambers in 44 states over a two-decade …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Federal Employees Following The Dissolution Of Deia Initiatives, Angela Silva

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The federal government faces the ongoing challenge of sustaining a workforce that represents the diversity of the American public while navigating through policy changes that eliminated diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives. The federal government is public serving and is one of the largest employers in the United States. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of government employees navigating the termination of all diversity and inclusion programs through the lens of the antecedents and outcomes of inclusions model, which showed that inclusive leadership, climate and practices contribute to positive employee and organizational …

Has Politics Always Been Like This?, Tyler Bernius

The Penguin Review

There are some things that I, even as someone relatively new to politics, know are not normal–the blatant disregard of the Constitution, the seemingly rapid collapse of checks and balances, and the twisting and extending of presidential powers, to name a few. What is not clear to me, however, is whether people's reactions, attitudes, and interactions towards politics have always been this way. Growing up, I imagined politicians were respectable people who worked in the best interests of our country and who, even when disagreements did arise, settled problems with structured deliberation. I assumed voters looked at politics with logic …

Comparison Of Levels Of Bmi, Stress, And Depression Of Women During The Prenatal Period Relative To Their Activity Levels, Kalayna King

Create@State

This study aimed to analyze the relationships between activity levels, Body Mass Index (BMI), stress levels, and depression symptoms in obese pregnant women in Arkansas. Two separate exercise intervention studies were combined in this analysis to ultimately give a sample size of 293 pregnant women who were randomized into standard of care group (control) and an exercise group (experimental) (n = 115 and n = 178, respectively). Women in the control groups were instructed to independently continue to follow the physical activity guidelines recommended by their gynecologist, whereas the experimental groups participated in a combination of aerobic and resistance exercise …

Swosu Research And Scholarly Activity Fair 2026, Swosu Office Of Sponsored Programs

SWOSU Research and Scholarly Activity Fair Programs

On behalf of the University Research and Scholarly Activity Committee (URSAC) and the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, we are pleased to welcome you to the Thirty-Fourth SWOSU Research and Scholarly Activity Fair.

Cv: Carlene Sipma (Sociology), Carlene Sipma

Sociology Department Faculty Curricula Vitae

No abstract provided.

Generative And Large Language Models For Library Knowledge Graphs, Partha Sarathi Mandal, Sukumar Mandal Dr

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Structured Abstract

Purpose - Knowledge graphs play a key role in modern library and information services for information discovery, advanced search, and explainable recommendation systems. Recent progress in generative and large language models (LLMs) is changing. The present paper presents a clear and concise overview of how these models support knowledge graph construction in library and information science.

Design/methodology/approach –This study shows a conceptual and analytical approach. It considers the latest trends in generative models and LLMs as applied to the construction of knowledge graphs. Their application in entity extraction, relation identification, schema mapping, and triple generation on unstructured text …

Shame On You! The Socialization Of Self-Conscious Emotions In Early Childhood, Ashton K. Allen

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how parents and children discuss self-conscious emotions across early childhood. Self-conscious emotions such as shame, guilt, embarrassment, awe, and pride play a critical role in children's social and emotional development. Although prior research has demonstrated links between parent and child emotion talk about basic emotions such as happiness, anger, disgust, fear, sadness, less is known about how parents and children talk about self-conscious emotions. Participants for the current study were 247 parent-child dyads. The dyads completed a wordless storybook task designed to elicit discussion of five self-conscious emotions (shame, guilt, embarrassment, awe, and pride) annually across three …

The Effects Of Visual Supports On The Acquisition Of Guitar Chords, Cole S. Jahna

Thesis Projects

There is a current literature gap in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and music-based leisure activities. This study utilized a multiple-probe design to evaluate the effects of visual supports on the guitar fretboard combined with behavioral skills training (BST) to teach correct strumming and finger placement of three guitar chords (i.e., E, C, and G) to a neurodivergent adult. By using a task analysis, the strum and each individual finger placement were scored as correct or incorrect during each chord trial. Three chords that were under 50% accuracy in baseline were selected for the intervention. The intervention was introduced sequentially to …

Competition And Community In Marx’S Alienation Theory: Addressing 21st Century Social Isolation Through A Laclauian Lens, Brett J. Zimmerman

Theses

Capitalism reorients human priorities by necessitating socio-economic competition and tying the preeminent priority of survival to the rate at which one accumulates material resources. The orientation of wage as the only means to survival has replaced the need for the working class to form tribes, build inter-group solidarity, and engage in their communities, resulting in a less fulfilling society. Marx is traditionally conceptualized as a political or economic thinker, and while much of his political and economic thought will be useful supplementary material, in Section I, I will be viewing Marx through a more interpersonal lens. The section will take …

Do We Even Know What ‘Even’ Does? A Ca Investigation, Emily Johnson

Comm-entary

Emily is a Senior communication major with a Business Administration minor. She is originally from Merrimack, NH, and is planning on working in PR or something similar when she graduates in May.

What does “even” do in conversation? This study shows that when used mid-turn, “even” functions as a systematic device for intensifying stance. Analyzing naturally occurring interactions, I demonstrate how speakers use “even” to upgrade assessments, noticings, and complaints, making them more extreme or noteworthy. Recipients consistently orient to this intensification through agreement, accounts, or escalation. Even when the upgrade is left incomplete, others step in to realize it, …

Language Deprivation In Deaf Children, Kaleb Holske

Comm-entary

Kaleb is an American Sign Language English Interpreter with a double major in Linguistics, from Chester, NH. He’s also a professional balloon twister!

This piece examines how language deprivation affects deaf children when they don’t necessarily receive early access to natural language, especially during the most critical developmental years. It further explains how the medical model of deafness, reliance on cochlear implants or hearing aids, schooling, and limited sign language access can negatively impact the emotional, social, and academic growth of these children. This piece argues that early access to sign language and deaf centered support is essential for preventing …

Conventions Of Photography As Means Of Social And Technological Critiques, Ava Lannery

Comm-entary

Ava is a Communication major with a specification in Business Applications. She’s an Irish dual citizen from Newton, MA.

This piece looks  at how photography can be used as a form of Social and technological critique. Through Mark Peterson’s ICE’s Spectacle of Intimidation and Jack Latham’s Beggars Honey, this essay argues that photographers can manipulate composition, technology to create deeper meanings about power, style, social stage agency, immigration enforcement, and modern digital manipulation. Ultimately, this writing piece shows how photography depends on audience context and literacy to be fully understood. 

Lanthorn, Vol. 60, No. 15, April 20, 2026, Grand Valley State University

Volume 60, August 4, 2025 – April 20, 2026

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Exploring The Importance Of Mental Health Education In 5th Grade & Its Impact On Emotional Well-Being, Claudia K. De Jong

Masters Projects

Exploring The Importance of Mental Health Education in 5th Grade & Its Impact on Emotional Well-being

Abstract

Mental health challenges among youth continue to rise, with many mental health disorders emerging before adolescence, highlighting a critical gap in early prevention efforts. This study explores the importance of implementing structured mental health education in 5th grade as a proactive approach to supporting emotional development and reducing long-term behavioral risks. Grounded in research on developmental psychology and social-emotional learning (SEL), this project examines how early intervention can improve emotional regulation, help-seeking behaviors, and overall student well-being during a key transitional period. Using …

The Impact Of State And Federal Policies On Academic Researchers: Findings From A National Survey, Dylan Ruediger, Chelsea Mccracken, Jonathan Barefield

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Key findings

● State and federal policies targeting divisive concepts or DEI are shaping research agendas at scale and across disciplines. Twenty percent of all respondents, and 29 percent of researchers working in states with divisive concepts or similar laws, reported having avoided certain research topics because of state laws and policies.

● Eight percent of respondents representing a wide range of disciplines reported having had a federal grant cancelled in 2025.

● Eleven percent of respondents reported that federal and state policies restricting research activities are compelling them to seek employment out of state, to leave the academy, or …

Decolonizing The Academic Library: Examining The Successful Indigenization Of Ubc And Unm’S Library Services, Emily T. Villars

School of Information Student Research Journal

This article examines decolonization and indigenization initiatives at two academic libraries: the University of British Columbia (UBC) and the University of New Mexico (UNM). It asks how these institutions have implemented indigenization in their libraries and what lessons can inform broader reconciliation work across North America. Through a comparative lens, it analyzes how national and organizational frameworks, such as the Canadian Federation of Library Associations (CFLA-FCAB) Truth and Reconciliation Report and Recommendations and the American Indian Library Association’s (AILA) organizational goals, can shape these efforts. The study highlights three core strategies: decolonizing access and classification, transforming library spaces, and expanding …

Book Review: Academic Librarian Burnout: Causes And Responses Edited By Christina Holm, Ana Guimaraes, And Nashieli Marcano, Brianna Gaffney

School of Information Student Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Potential For Effective Telerehabilitation Of Upper-Extremity Orthopedic Injuries In Cameroon: A Mini Review, Thierry Y. Lienou, Mikayla Rai

Howard University Journal of African Studies (HUJAS)

In this mini review, we aimed to critically assess the effectiveness of telerehabilitation interventions for patients with upper-extremity orthopedic conditions, particularly in resource-limited areas such as Cameroon. We employed a rigorous article selection process, resulting in a final set of 13 studies published between 2009 and 2022. These studies examined various upper-extremity conditions across diverse patient demographics and utilized multiple outcome assessments, including standardized functional scores and range of motion measures. We analyzed telerehabilitation platforms, including video conferencing, virtual reality interfaces, mobile applications, and phone-based supervision. Our findings indicate that nine of the 13 studies demonstrated statistically significant improvements in …