Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond Artifacts And Fossils: Exploring The Contributions And Socioeconomic Impacts Of Montana’S Museums And Paleontological Tourism, Emma Keinath-Lopez, Elena Bigart, Glenna Hartman, Kara Grau, Ava Worbets, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

This study explores how Montana’s museums, including those along the Montana Dinosaur Trail, influence communities, economies, and visitor experiences in a post-pandemic environment. Through mixed methods—511 visitor surveys at 44 museums and 18 interviews with museum professionals— this research provides a holistic understanding of museum operations, visitor motivations, and community impacts.

School Climate As Primary Prevention: Mental Health And Violence Outcomes Among Lgbtq+ Youth In The U.S. South (2015–2024), Latarsha H. Michael, Brieah D. Hudson, Kenya T. Horne

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) adolescents in the U.S. South experience disproportionately high rates of bullying, discrimination, depression, and suicidality. Supportive and inclusive school climates are identified as key protective factors that can mitigate these risks and function as primary prevention against violence. This systematic narrative review synthesizes peer-reviewed research and high-quality survey reports published between 2015 and 2024 that assess school climate, mental health, and violence-related outcomes among LGBTQ+ youth with representation from Southern states, including Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, 1,167 records …

Gun Violence And Maternal Mortality In The Mississippi Delta: A Dual Public Health Crisis, Nelson Atehortua, Mary Shaw-Ridley

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

No abstract provided.

Archives And Children's Knowledge, Elliott Kuecker, Ashley Rockenbach

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

This article argues for the importance of collecting works created by children—not just about and not just for—in formal archival collections. Framed through the ideas of legitimate knowledge and epistemic injustice, this piece combines notions important to children’s rights activists and childhood studies scholars with the role archives can play in preserving children’s knowledge through child-created materials. The authors describe how researchers struggle to find work created by children within archives, impacting the ability to create child-centered research that centers children’s views of the world as prominently as adult views of the world. Some collections that do include child-created materials …

Review Of Land In Libraries: Toward A Materialist Conception Of Education, Anna Z. Szapiro

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Extractive practices of colonial land theft and environmental exploitation have produced intolerable global conditions leading to climate collapse. As the information field grapples with its culpability in colonial violence and climate change, Lydia Zvyagintseva and Mary Greenshields’s incisive Land in Libraries: Toward a Materialist Conception of Education draws contributions from practitioners in the United States and Canada to chart a way forward. Through historical analysis, case studies, critical theory, and autoethnography, authors in this volume take up land – and our relation to it – as the epistemological catalyst for systemic change. At once austere critique and lyrical contemplation, Land …

A Probabilistic Deep Learning Framework For Retrieving Chlorophyll-A From Hyperspectral Imagery: Integrating Channel Attention And Mixture Density Networks, Wenzhao Li, Surendra Maharjan, Rejoice Thomas, Junde Chen, Hesham Morgan, Michael J. Garay, Olga V. Kalashnikova, Shahryar Fazli, Charles Ichoku, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Accurate monitoring of Chlorophyll-a (Chla) is critical for assessing aquatic ecosystem health, yet ecological complexity often leads to ambiguous spectral signatures in satellite data. Traditional deterministic models assume a one-to-one mapping between spectra and pigments, often failing to capture these high-dimensional analytical challenges. In this study, we propose a novel deep learning architecture, the Channel Attention-Mixture Density Network (CA-MDN), to retrieve Chla from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Earth Surface Mineral Dust Source Investigation (EMIT) hyperspectral mission. The CA-MDN integrates an attention mechanism to dynamically select ecologically relevant spectral bands and employs a probabilistic output layer to quantify …

Relationship Between Vegetation Greenness (Ndvi) And Land Surface Temperature Across Land Cover Types In Ciwidey Sub-Watershed (1990–2020), Syal Syabila, Kuswantoro Marko, Revi Hernina

Jurnal Geografi Lingkungan Tropik (Journal of Geography of Tropical Environments)

Land cover change significantly influences vegetation greenness and land surface temperature (LST), particularly in upstream watershed regions experiencing rapid development. This study aims to analyze changes in vegetation greenness (NDVI), land surface temperature, and their relationship across different land cover types in the Ciwidey Sub-Watershed, Bandung Regency, during 1990–2020. Landsat 5 TM and Landsat 8 OLI images (Path/Row 122/65) acquired in July 1990, 2005, and 2020 were processed using radiometric correction, supervised classification (Maximum Likelihood), NDVI extraction, and mono-window LST algorithm. Land cover classification accuracy was assessed using confusion matrix analysis. Linear regression was applied to evaluate the relationship between …

Improving Rural Health Through Nutrition Incentives: A Mixed Methods Evaluation Of The First Year Of The Appalachian Farmacy Program, Bethesda O'Connell, Harrison Ihrig, Andrea D Nutsugah, Ignacio Garcia, Michael Rice, Ashley Cavender

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Food insecurity remains a critical public health concern, particularly in rural, low-income communities. In 2023, 13.5% of United States households experienced food insecurity, with rates in Tennessee (15.6%) exceeding the national average. Produce prescription programs have emerged as a strategy to improve food access and promote healthier eating behaviors. This study presents an evaluation of Appalachian Farmacy, a produce prescription program in Northeast Tennessee designed to increase fruit and vegetable consumption among individuals receiving Medicaid, Medicare, or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits. Program evaluation methods included semi-structured interviews for process evaluation and pre- and post-surveys for outcome evaluation. Interviews …

Analyzing Structural Inequities Within Medical Care In The Us Vs. Norway, Shreya Devarajan

Student Scholarship

Spring 2026 SOCI 232: Social Policy and Global Issues course.

Research questions:

1) To what extent do race and education contribute to unequal healthcare access in the US, and how does this differ from inequality patterns in Norway?

2) To what extent has medical innovation improved overall health while simultaneously reinforcing or widening health inequalities over time in the US vs. Norway?

Navigating (M)Otherhood: Perception, Practice, & Policy Of Adolescent Pregnancy In The North Coast Of Perú, Mahir Rahman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“It’s a vicious circle”, the obstetricians of Huanchaco repeated time and time again after discussing a recently pregnant 13-year-old girl who had just moved to the North Coast of Perú. Adolescent pregnancy is an extremely stigmatized topic in global maternal and child health discourse. Pregnant adolescents are subject to educational policy, clinical protocol, and community practice. While global scholarship emphasizes adolescent pregnancy prevention, limited scholarship focuses on the conditions in which adolescent pregnancy is perceived, discussed, and managed. More importantly, these perspectives are even less documented amongst the North Coast of Perú.

This thesis serves as an ethnographic exploration of …

Simulating Cyber-Resilience: The Strategic Role Of The Locked Shields Exercise In Enhancing International Cyber Preparedness, Christopher A. Ramezan, Ludwig Christian Schaupp, Elizabeth A. Vitullo, William J. Walker

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

As cyberthreats to critical infrastructure remain prevalent, national response mechanisms must evolve beyond the technical domain to incorporate legal, communicative, strategic, and cross-sector coordination. This work explores Locked Shields, an annual exercise conducted by NATO's Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, as a pedagogical and conceptual framework for simulating whole-of-government responses to cyber incidents. Unlike traditional cyber exercises, Locked Shields engages legal advisors, media strategists, and civil-military roles in realistic, scenario-driven simulations that portray the political and operational conditions of a real international-scale cyber crisis. We detail the exercise architecture, contrast with other cyber exercises, and assess its pedagogical and …

Ai-Generated Content And Cultural Preservation: Toward A Research Agenda, Ryo Shiozaki

Proceedings from the Document Academy

This paper maps the theoretical and practical challenges of preserving AI-generated content (AIGC) and proposes a coordinated research agenda rather than policy prescriptions. AIGC reveals the networked, processual nature of cultural production, challenging assumptions about human authorship, singular intentionality, and linear transmission. We identify forces that dissolve boundaries—indistinguishability, distributed intentionality, and recursive training loops—examine legal patchworks across jurisdictions, and consider evolving social perceptions that shape cultural recognition. Extending document theory toward evaluation that gives priority to function and drawing on social ontology, we argue that preservation and recognition are mutually constitutive. We outline a coordinated agenda across three fronts: theoretical …

Temperature And Sex Ratios At Birth, Jasmin Abdel Ghany, Joshua Wilde, Anna Dimitrova, Ridhi Kashyap, Raya Muttarak

Publications, Reports and Presentations

Human sex ratios at birth (SRBs) shape population composition and are closely linked to maternal health and gender discrimination. In the context of environmental change, SRBs may theoretically be skewed by physiological or behavioral responses to exposure to extreme heat. However, evidence for this is limited. In this study, we estimate the effect of prenatal exposure to temperature on birth sex by linking survey data on 5 million live births in 33 sub-Saharan African countries and India with high-resolution temperature data. To distinguish between spontaneous and induced abortions, we exploit sociodemographic differentials, exposure timing, and regional differences in son preference. …

When Disaster Strikes Y’All Street: A Study On Cross-Sector Collaboration In Protecting U.S. Financial Critical Infrastructure, Rachael A. Zerr, John Friedlander

Publications and Research

This exploratory research examines public-private collaboration between corporate security leaders and local emergency responders in the North Texas financial corridor known as “Y’all Street.” Using perception-based survey data from senior representatives in the private and public sectors, the paper evaluates partnership strength, preparedness activities, information sharing, and operational coordination. Findings indicate that collaborative practices such as facility tours, joint exercises, and emergency planning are present, but that partnership maturity remains uneven and is not yet fully standardized across the corridor. The research concludes that more formalized and institutionalized coordination will be necessary to strengthen resilience as the region’s financial significance …

The Disproportionate Impact Of Hiv On Young Women In Durban: Exploring Gendered Vulnerabilities And Socioeconomic Barriers, Adrian A. Nolasco

Capstone Collection

South Africa has a high rate of HIV, with young women in Durban especially affected due to social, economic, and cultural challenges. This study looks at the experiences of young women living with HIV and the views of healthcare professionals caring for them in KwaZulu-Natal. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five women and three medical professionals to explore how HIV affects their lives, the challenges they face, and how they cope.

The findings show that both structural and personal barriers make it hard for young women to stick to treatment. Long waits at clinics, limited …

Confinement And Consent: A Comparative Analysis Of Sexual Abuse In Finnish And U.S. Prisons, Madison A. Greico

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

The Bangkok Rules and The Basic Principles for The Treatment of Prisoners are a specific outline of protections and rights for individuals( Bangkok specifically about women) within prisons adopted by the United Nations compromising states. While The United States is a leader in the United Nations and adopted this set of rules, their failures of commitment are extremely apparent. Every year, thousands of prison rapes occur behind bars in New York alone by the very guards meant to protect them. In Finland, another United Nations member, however, has virtually no record of sexual abuse within their prisons. In investigation of …

Exploring The Experiences Of Cit Officers And Their Perceptions Of The Programs Effectiveness, Arkeshia Dominique Ware

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Police officers across the United States frequently respond to individuals experiencing mental health crises, yet many lack specialized training to manage these encounters effectively. The Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) model was developed to improve law enforcement responses through collaboration with mental health professionals and an emphasis on de-escalation. Although prior research has examined measurable outcomes associated with CIT programs, limited qualitative research has explored CIT-trained officers’ lived experiences and perceptions of effectiveness. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to examine how CIT-trained officers use their skills to reduce arrest, officer and citizen injury, and use of force …

Watching The Watchers: Redefining Privacy And Human Rights In Correctional Surveillance, Ianna H. Choi

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Incarcerated individuals exist in a space where security and privacy constantly clash. This study examines how surveillance technologies—biometric monitoring, video surveillance, and electronic tracking—in correctional settings impact the privacy rights of those incarcerated. Through a review of peer-reviewed literature, and insights from informal conversations with incarcerated individuals at Broome County Jail, this research examines the ethical, legal, and social implications of surveillance in carceral facilities, focusing on how constant monitoring impacts privacy, relationships, and mental well-being. Expanding beyond jails, the study considers surveillance in state and federal prisons, evaluating its implications under the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and …

Comments On Treasury Notice 2025-68, Jin Huang, Michael Sherraden

Center for Social Development Research

In December 2025, the U.S. Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service announced their intent to issue regulations concerning Trump Accounts (also known as 530A accounts), requesting public comments on the intended regulations and related provisions. This testimony presents comments submitted in response to that request. In it, Jin Huang and Michael Sherraden summarize evidence from the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment (SEED OK), Maine’s My Alfond Grant, and Rhode Island’s CollegeBound Baby on the effectiveness of automatic enrollment in policy. They discuss the use of Social Security numbers, a centralized clearing fund, and a designated custodian network as tools …

Development And Diffusion Of The Social Capital Index (Soci), Dean Kyne, Daniel P. Aldrich, Dominic Kyei

Sociology Faculty Publications

Social capital influences community disaster preparedness, response, and recovery. In 2020, Kyne and Aldrich introduced the Social Capital Index (SoCI), a pioneering, publicly available county-level measure capturing bonding, bridging, and linking social capital across the United States. Since then, the SoCI has been widely adopted across disciplines and applied in diverse research contexts. Five years later, emerging theoretical developments and expanded data availability offer an opportunity to reassess its diffusion and strengthen its methodological foundations. This study addresses three objectives: (1) revisiting the conceptual roots that informed the original index, (2) examining its diffusion through citation and co-citation analyses of …

Moment Of Recognizability: Askancing And The Global South, Pedro Lange Churion, Tanu Sankalia

Global Studies Faculty Publications

This article introduces askancing as an epistemic strategy for the Global South to challenge the Global North’s construction of the Global South’s alterity. Askancing is a neologism we propose by engaging with Jacques Lacan’s speculations on the gaze as it pertains to the construction of “the other.” We argue that this strategy of askancing might already be implicit in postcolonial theories, from the notion of the subaltern, through “decoloniality,” to “ecologies of knowledge.” Central to askancing—and contrary to the decolonial call for an epistemic break with modernity—we agree with Dipesh Chakrabarty’s assertion that modernity’s rational discourse is both “indispensable and …

Validating Uas-Based Ndvi Data With Satellite Landsat Imagery For Bald Eagle Habitat Prediction In The Del Rio Springs Ecosystem, Noah Morales, Ronny Schroeder, Elise Anderson

Student Works

Vegetation health is commonly assessed using the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), which can be derived from multispectral sensors operating at different spatial resolutions. Validating NDVI products across sensor platforms is essential to determine their reliability for environmental monitoring and habitat assessment. This research compares NDVI derived from moderate-resolution satellite imagery and high-resolution unmanned aircraft system (UAS) imagery collected over the same study area. Landsat imagery, provided through the joint USGS–NASA mission, was used to represent satellite-based vegetation patterns, while high-resolution multispectral data were acquired using a MicaSense sensor mounted on a UAS to capture fine-scale vegetation detail.

NDVI values …

Satellites, Urban Heat, And Environmental Justice: Community As The Bridge Between Analysis And Action, Joshua B. Fisher, Ambar Rivera, Ava Cison, Ashley Agatep, Kainani Tacazon, Sophia Spiegleman, Alison Mckenery, Rio E. Fisher, Reginald Archer, Jason A. Douglas

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Heat waves are increasing in frequency, intensity, magnitude, and duration, causing a disproportionate impact on marginalized communities exposed to urban heat islands. Newly emerging spaceborne thermal sensing instruments, such as ECOSTRESS and Hydrosat, now have the capabilities to measure urban surface temperatures accurately at the block level (< 100 m) and with enough frequency to capture transient heat waves (daily to subweekly). Such data are critical for monitoring and informing policy and mitigation efforts, such as resurfacing, green space, cooling stations, and medical mobilization. These serve to advance environmental justice and reduce health risks—and deaths—among the most vulnerable: minority, low-income, elderly, those with physical- and mental-health preconditions, unhoused, children, and outdoor workers. While scientists have increasingly used satellite data to quantify urban heat islands and risks to communities, there remains a significant gap in action resulting from such analyses—a figurative and literal “valley of death.” Reviewing over 500 scientific publications, we identify a critical lack of engagement with the communities being analyzed (10.9%; n = 58); yet, community engagement is key to bridging such analysis with subsequent action. Here, we demonstrate how participatory community engagement directly with data and analysis leads to increased policy changes and mitigation efforts. Our framework has immediate implications for how scientists may augment their work and thought processes to achieve …

Prediction Of Methane Gas By Using Hyperspectral Imageries And Remote Sensing Techniques, Aysha Ali Alharmasi Alhajeri

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

Greenhouse gases is important for sustaining life on earth as well as in mitigating climate change. Methane (CH4) is considered as one of the most important critical gases for the global climate change and have significant influences on our life. Accordingly, the prediction of this greenhouse gas emissions is very important for avoiding the climate change effects and to maintain environmental sustainability. The objective of this study is to explore the potential applications for remote sensing to predict methane levels in the Earth’s atmosphere with a combination of local ground data and data from hyperspectral satellite imagery. By using hyperspectral …

More Hours, More Work: Head Start Expansions Boost Maternal Employment, Chloe R. Gibbs, Esra Kose, Maria Rosales Rueda

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Women’s employment remains highly sensitive to childcare constraints, making childcare availability a critical lever for supporting mothers’ labor force attachment. We study the effects of expanded full-day programming in Head Start, using the 2016 federal funding initiative that targeted grantees with low full-day enrollment. Linking administrative program data, geo-coded center locations, and household data on employment, we estimate a difference-in-differences design by comparing mothers of young children in treated and untreated areas. The policy increased full-day enrollment by 19 percent and raised single mothers’ employment (1.9%), hours (2.5%), and earnings (6.5%). Results show that extending program duration meaningfully improves maternal …

The Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of The Job Search Experiences Of International Counseling Doctoral Students In The U.S., Yi-Ju Cheng, Juleen Buser, Terry Pertuit

Journal of Counselor Preparation and Supervision

International counseling doctoral students (ICDSs) bring valuable cultural diversity to the counseling profession in the U.S. However, their transition to professional roles is complicated by cultural identity factors, limited support for career guidance, and employment barriers tied to language, immigration status, and unfamiliarity with U.S. licensing and employment resources. There is limited understanding of their job search experiences. This qualitative study, through interpretive phenomenological analysis, examines 12 ICDSs’ job search experiences in the U.S. Nine themes were identified. The findings highlight a discrepancy between the counseling profession’s stated commitment to diversity and the actual support to international students, and the …

We Got You Sis: Body Mapping As An Embodied Pedagogical Approach To Sexual And Reproductive Justice Studies, Renata J. Hall

Feminist Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

An Ethnographic Exploration Of The Lived Experiences With Gynecologic Cancers, Norma Naser Aldeen

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This thesis stays close to conversations with nine women who spoke about living with and through gynecologic cancers, from moments of finding out, through treatment, and into what follows. These encounters unfolded primarily through digitally mediated exchanges across Baalbek, Beirut, and other translocal settings shaped by distance and movement. Rather than approaching illness as a bounded biomedical event, this thesis attends to how gynecologic cancer is narrated as something that lingers—pressing into everyday life through bodily sensations, altered rhythms, and ongoing recalibrations of care, responsibility, and what remains possible.

Across these encounters, care rarely appears as a stable system …

On Education-Occupation And Skill-Occupation Mismatches Among Generation Z In Egypt, Hamsa Mohamed Ebrahim Yousef Ebrahim

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the impact of education-occupation and skill-occupation mismatches, specifically with regard to Generation Z in Egypt, with a focus on prevalence, socioeconomic factors, and their impact on youth employability and human capital utilization. The research examines education and skill mismatches through a quantitative approach, relying primarily on quantitative analysis of the Egypt Labor Market Panel Survey (ELMPS) 2023 data using multinomial logistic regression for education mismatches and probit regression for skill mismatches. The results indicate that education and skill mismatches are common among employed Gen Z, with a considerable percentage of 38-45%. This is despite the fact that …

Artemisinin Partial Resistance Mutations In Zanzibar And Tanzania Suggest Regional Spread And African Origins, 2023, Sean V. Connelly, Julia G. Muller, Mohamed Ali, Billy E. Ngasala, Wahida Hassan, Bakari Mohamed, Kyaw L. Thwai, Jacob M. Sadler, Jacob Marglous, Abebe A. Fola, Abdallah Zacharia, Shija J. Shija, Safia Mohammed, Dominick C. Msolo, Hamza Said, Editruda E. Peter, Melic Odas, Isaack J. Rutha, Mwanaidi Nwange, Karamoko Naire, Shazia Ruybal-Pesántez, Robert Verity, Rebecca Crudale, Varun Goel, Barbara B. Choloi, Anders Björkman, Jeffrey A. Bailey, Jessica T. Lin, Jonathan J. Juliano

Faculty Publications

Artemisinin partial resistance, driven by Plasmodium falciparum K13 mutations, threatens malaria control. Zanzibar is vulnerable to artemisinin partial resistance spread but lacks recent molecular surveillance. We sequenced samples in Zanzibar and mainland Tanzania collected from 2022 to 2024. K13 mutations were found in 2 of 1440 participants (P441L, A675V) in Zanzibar and 6 of 3762 (R561H, P441L) in mainland Tanzania. Based on whole genome sequencing data, K13 mutations appear to be of African origin with regional spread. Frequent parasite importation appears to maintain partner drug mutation frequencies similar to the mainland, where artemether-lumefantrine selects for mutations favoring artesunate-amodiaquine sensitivity. Ongoing …