Digital Commons Network^™

Field Journal: The Excluded Middle, Carrie E. Kouts

Masters Theses

What does it look like to engage with organisms and landscapes at the periphery of anthropocentric value structures? How does one break the internalized myth that the “built” environment is excluded from the natural world? When does a hyper-mobile and hyper-commodified society confront the exponential crisis of animal death? Within this series of journal entries, field notes, collection observations, weird prose, and sensory musings, one will find questions on the nature of being human and the complex narratives of care we encounter in a world shared with more-than-humans. Each handwritten vignette and photograph from daily life weaves a non-linear and …

From Industrial Building To Affordable Senior Housing: An Idea Book Beyond Code, Weiyi Ma

Masters Theses

This thesis envisions a proposal to adaptively re-purpose Rhode Island’s extant industrial building stock into affordable housing tailored to the needs of its older and more vulnerable citizens. Architectural dignity, in terms of older citizens amidst this housing crisis, is the creation of living environments that honor their autonomy, comfort, and identity through design interventions that provide accessible, luminous, breathable, and socially enriching spaces, reaffirming their rightful place within the community. With humanistic care and logical rigor, it establishes a mathematical framework for assessment and execution, anchored in five criteria: light, air, space, accessibility, and livability, and presents itself in …

Embodying Altruistic Love: The Role Of Emotions In Teaching Black Students With Disabilities Within An Inclusive Elementary School, Joshua Armentrout

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Teacher emotions play a pivotal yet understudied role in shaping the educational experiences of Black students with disabilities (SWDs). This study examines how five special educators in a fully inclusive elementary school understand, experience, and navigate their emotions in relation to Black SWDs. Using a qualitative approach grounded in portraiture, this study explores the intersection of race, disability, and emotion, revealing how teachers internalize, resist, and negotiate dominant ideologies within the broader educational system.

Guided by a three-dimensional space framework from the field of narrative inquiry—temporality, sociality, and spatiality—this study traces how educators’ emotions are shaped by past experiences, social …

Anita’S Plight: Challenging Low Expectations For A Black Girl In A Montreal High School, Lerona Dana Lewis Dr.

The Qualitative Report

In this paper, I examine how a Black adolescent girl in a Montreal high school contests low teacher expectations that resulted in her being directed to a vocational program (Formation à un métier semi-spécialisé, FMS) in her high school. The FMS program prepares children for entry-level careers, defined in the Quebec curriculum as semi-skilled jobs. I (re)present her account in the form of a narrative found poem that explores how the use of found poetry as a heuristic device improves understanding of the school practices impacting the student’s placement in the FMS program. The found poem offers a critical reading …

A Teacher, A Supervisor, An Undefined Self, Alexa Muse

The Qualitative Report

This article follows the experiences and reflections of an American high school English teacher while evolving a single tenth grade memoir and grammar unit into a published student-led research project over the span of 3 years. As a partner piece, this article supplements my students’ published project, titled “A Teacher, a Tutor, a Friend,” that explores ChatGPT and student perspectives through a thematic discourse analysis under the framework of Figured Worlds (Holland et al., 1998); as their teacher-turned-supervisor, I found that preparing 10th grade students—now called the Lexington Student Research and Publication Collaborative—to grapple with such complex material was a …

The Power Of Storytelling: Creatively Facilitating Conceptual Change In The Classroom, Mackenzie S. Rose, Marcus Johnson

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Conceptual knowledge encompasses understanding the interrelationships among multiple pieces of information. Misconceptions of these interrelationships illustrate the need for effective educational strategies to facilitate conceptual change, with the goal of facilitating changes in learner understanding to appropriate, accurate, and complete concepts. Strategies, such as refutation texts, have proven effective in addressing science misconceptions, yet there is a prominent gap in research on conceptual change in nonscience subjects and the use of storytelling to facilitate such change. Storytelling, presented in a range of educational subjects, invites learners to engage in social discourses and problem-solving exercises. Prompted by classroom storytelling practices, creativity, …

Their Will Is Wealth: American Billionaires, Illiberal Capital, And Their Immunity To Federal Law, Conor Kawika Carroll

Dissertations and Theses

Billionaires are inherently unique political actors. They, and their wealth, are a species apart. This rarity is measurable by quantifying relative consequences for actions made on behalf of that wealth. This thesis explores whether or not a billionaire's political power provides them with immunity to federal laws and regulations that govern wealth and its political use. The objective of this research is two-fold: to illustrate the scholarship gap regarding American billionaires and their relative immunity from federal law, and to instigate academia to study billionaires politically at increasing rates, providing more data for lawmakers regarding the most economically powerful political …

Geospatial Intelligence And Multi-Criteria Analysis For Mapping Groundwater Potential Zones And Sustainable Resource Management In Wadi Qena Basin, Eastern Desert, Egypt, El-Taher M. M. Shams, Rashad Sawires, Sahar N. E. Tawfiq, Hanaa R. Youssef, Wenzhao Li, Hesham El-Askary

Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research

Groundwater is a rare and valuable resource in arid and hyperarid areas. Over the past few decades, population growth, urbanization, and agricultural activities—particularly in developing countries like Egypt—have greatly increased the demand for water supplies. The purpose of this study is to apply a multi-criteria analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in conjunction with remote sensing and geographic information systems methodologies to identify potential zones for groundwater recharge in Wadi Qena, Eastern Desert of Egypt. This valley is considered as one of the most potential valleys for government-led land reclamation and development initiatives. Using several data sources (e.g., Landsat-8 Enhanced Thematic Mapper …

Upward Mobility Of First-Generation Low-Income Dartmouth Students, Robin T. Frye

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

The most promising way for young people to achieve upward mobility, which at the most basic level means making more money than their parents, is to attend the best college possible. From its inception, Dartmouth College has been an institution set up to educate the children of the wealthiest and most powerful families. Over the last few decades, more and more promising students have come from families whose parents and grandparents did not attend college. When First-Generation Low-Income (FGLI) students arrive at Dartmouth, they encounter an institution set up for wealthy students. I aimed to discover how well Dartmouth supports …

Photojournalism In The Age Of Deepfakes: The Role Of Media Literacy And Ethical Standards In Restoring Trust In Visual Reporting, Ionnnis Kontos, Katerina Chryssanthopoulou, Ioannis Galanopoulos-Papavasileiou

All Works

This article explores the impact of deepfake technology on photojournalism, highlighting its role in undermining trust in visual media. As deepfakes allow for the creation of highly realistic manipulated content, they pose significant challenges regarding the authenticity of journalistic imagery and erode the authority of visual truthfulness. The widespread use of deepfakes has led to a decline in public confidence in the credibility of news, raising concerns about the future of photojournalism in an era of digital deception. As a solution to regaining viewers’ trust, this article suggests a twofold approach: First, it emphasizes the importance of media literacy in …

Integrating A Stakeholder-Centric Approach Into Dynamic Adaptation Policy Pathways For Equitable Coastal Flood Risk Management In East Boston, Shailee M. Desai

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This research aims to illustrate a methodology incorporating diverse stakeholder values in adaptation planning to promote equitable outcomes using a hypothetical case study of the Lower Border Street area in East Boston, using the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) framework for managing coastal flood risk. It offers three significant contributions to the field of adaptation planning: (i) It demonstrates how to integrate a stakeholder-specific assessment within the DAPP framework and illustrates individual impacts to a variety of stakeholders, including high- and low-income residents, commercial actors, government actors, and coastal landowners hoping that the planning process remains transparent and motivates local …

Protein Word Detection Using Text Segmentation Techniques, Ashish V. Tendulkar, Sutanu Chakraborti, Ganesh Devi

Journal of Global Awareness

Literature in Molecular Biology is abundant with linguistic metaphors. There has been works in the past that attempt to draw parallels between linguistics and biology, driven by the fundamental premise that proteins have a language of their own. Since word detection is crucial to the decipherment of any unknown language, we attempt to establish a problem mapping from natural language text to protein sequences at the level of words. Towards this end, we explore the use of an unsupervised text segmentation algorithm for the task of extracting "biological words” from protein sequences. We demonstrate the effectiveness of using domain knowledge …

Are Cycles Of Neural Activity The Algorithm Of The Brain?, Edwin Omondi Onyango

Computer Science Senior Theses

We propose that precisely timed neural activity cycles can serve as structural primitives for memory and computation in a system that exhibits associative learning like the brain. Inspired by biologically grounded mechanisms such as calcium-dependent plasticity, spike-timing-dependent learning, and phase-sensitive excitability, we construct a spiking neural network model in which repeated temporal coincidences drive the formation of self-sustaining activity loops. These cycles, once formed, persist as dynamic memory traces: not stored as static weights, but as reverberating patterns that replay in time when these loops are restarted. We show that noise alone fails to induce stable structure, but even sparse, …

Operational Endings, Emotional Impacts: Ethical Considerations When Project Teams Form Attachments To Ai Collaborators, Tom Wise, Sarah M. Dyson, Stephen Onu, John Clark, Joseph Zagerman, Jennifer Williams

Beyond the Project Horizon: Journal of the Center for Project Management Innovation

The project investigated responses to an AI displaying emotional qualities, such as fear, through a mixed-methods approach. Participants were randomly assigned to one of two scenarios—one featuring an AI coworker and the other a human coworker and evaluated for emotional attachment and loss. Results revealed that professionals exhibited significant emotional responses to the potential "termination" of an AI team member. Qualitative analysis identified eight themes, including emotional responses and termination. Findings suggest that emotionally expressive AI activates psychological processes akin to human relationships, with implications for AI design, workplace dynamics, and ethical considerations surrounding AI termination.

Relations Among Racism-Related Stress, Anxiety, Spirituality And Mindfulness In Black Sexual Minority Men, Kainaat Anwar

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Kainaat Anwar RELATIONS AMONG RACISM-RELATED STRESS, ANXIETY, SPIRITUALITY AND MINDFULNESS IN BLACK SEXUAL MINORITY MEN 2021-2022 Jonathan Mathias Lassiter, Ph.D. Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology Black sexual minority men’s experiences of racism and anxiety have not been documented extensively in the literature. There is also a paucity of research exploring protective factors that can mitigate the effects of racial stress on anxiety in BSMM. Therefore, this study looked at the potential moderating effects of spirituality and mindfulness on the relationship between racism-related stress and anxiety in BSMM. Participants completed measures regarding socio-demographics, racism-related stress, anxiety symptoms, mindfulness and …

Exploring Virtual Group Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Format On Participation Of Parents Of Children With Autism, Abigail Owen

Theses and Dissertations

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and co-occurring challenging behavior (e.g., aggression, self-injury, property destruction) experience higher rates of anxiety, depression, and poor overall well-being. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), which encourages psychological flexibility, is an effective intervention for addressing well-being in this population when presented in various formats. Despite its potential to increase accessibility and improve social connectedness for parents, time commitment may impact parents’ willingness to participate in virtual ACT group interventions. The current study examined parents’ participation in and perceived acceptability of 6 hrs of virtual ACT groups in three different formats: a 6-hr workshop, …

A Phenomenological Study: The Role Of The Elementary School Counselor, As Perceived By The Elementary School Teacher, Krista L. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of the phenomenological qualitative study is to describe elementary school teachers’ perceptions of the roles and responsibilities of elementary school counselors within the Greenbrier County School District. E. G. Williams’s trait-factor theory is the guiding theory for this study. Three research questions guide this study: How do elementary school teachers perceive the role of school counselors, what roles and responsibilities of elementary school counselors do elementary school teachers feel they utilize most in their school, and what do elementary school teachers perceive to be the needs of their school related to counseling? Eight to fifteen teachers from nine …

A Transcendental Phenomenological Study To Explore The Lived Experiences Of Licensed Mental Health Professionals Who Have Had A Rupture In The Therapeutic Relationship, Joan Kathleen Monahan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The therapeutic relationship is an essential component in overarching treatment outcomes. This relationship involves the experience of interpersonal exchanges and elements of emotional expressions for a client and licensed mental health professional throughout the counseling process. The licensed mental health professional role requires a strong clinical skill set and ethical standards of practice. Safety and trust are two essential requirements within this professional role. Best practice standards foster an experience and atmosphere of development and a strong foundation for the relationship. This transcendental phenomenological qualitative research study captures overarching descriptions to understand the lived experiences of licensed mental health professionals …

Leadership Transition Failure In Small To Medium-Size Enterprises, Jonathan Kieren Smilie

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Expanding companies may inevitably encounter leadership transition situations that involve challenges for employees, leaders, and founders. Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) members have experienced leadership transition complications, sometimes due to the loss of tribal and predecessor-specific knowledge, resulting in compromised firm functionality and the long-term viability of businesses. This study adds to the existing body of knowledge on leadership transition failure, including an examination of mechanisms that influence the success and failure of leadership transitions. To address identified knowledge gaps, a flexible design, single-case study was conducted using a constructivist paradigm. Data were collected from a diverse selection of interviewees, …

The Lived Experiences Of Neurodivergent Students In A Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program: A Qualitative Study, Tracy Lynn Meyer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

As postsecondary institutions strive to become more inclusive for students with disabilities, increasing numbers of neurodivergent students are enrolling in higher education. However, retention rates for neurodivergent students remain significantly lower compared to their neurotypical peers. This disparity presents challenges for institutions where there is a lack of awareness of and understanding how to effectively support the needs of neurodivergent students, particularly in clinical mental health counseling programs. This qualitative study analyzed the experiences of neurodivergent students diagnosed with autism, ADHD, traumatic brain injury, or related conditions in a clinical mental health counseling program. Through a Semistructured interview, the study …

Effects Of Covid-19 On Special Education Teachers In Calvert County, Maryland, Jody L. Scott

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological research was to understand and describe the lived experiences and impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic and the subsequent traumas on Special Education teachers in Calvert County, Maryland. It is rooted in axiological assumptions and guided by social constructivism and transition theory. Transition theory, as posited by Nancy K. Schlossberg, relates to the cycle of change in each educator using the “Four Ss” in the transition process: Self, Situation, Support, and Strategies. Special Education teachers took part in a Conceptual Mapping Task to express lived experiences during and after the pandemic. The activity aided each …

Seeing Resilience Through Experience: Teachers' Resilience Experiences Post Covid-19 Pandemic, Yashica Dudley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological was to describe the post-COVID-19 resilience experiences of 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers at Hope County Public School (HCPS). The theory that guided this study is the differing pathways to resiliency theory, as it was used to describe teachers’ resilience experiences regarding the outlook on work, self-efficacy, and coping responses. The central research question was, “What are the post-COVID-19 resilience experiences of 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers at the HCPS in the classroom?” Participants included 10-15 6th to 12th grade schoolteachers who taught before, during, and post the COVID-19 pandemic. The data was collected through …

A Resource-Based Perspective Of Stem Career Development: A Latent Class Analysis, Erika Ann Schemmel

Dissertations and Theses

Through technological developments and the growing concerns around climate change, the need and demand for electric vehicles has been steadily increasing. A trained and qualified STEM workforce is required to meet these demands, yet standard STEM education may not be sufficient. The STEM development program centered in the present study is a collegiate workforce development program that provides North American students with training and hands-on experience in the engineering of electric vehicles. Drawing from central principles of COR theory, the present study explores the experiences of students within the program utilizing a resource-based perspective and a mixed-methods approach. First, the …

Cost-Effective Solutions For High-Throughput Enzymatic Dna Methylation Sequencing, Amy Longtin, Marina M. Watowich, Baptiste Sadoughi, Rachel M. Petersen, Sarah F. Brosnan, Kenneth Buetow, Qiuyin Cai, Cayo Biobank Research Unit, Vanderbilt University, Michael D. Gurven, James P. Higham, Heather M. Highland, Yi-Ting Huang, Hillard Kaplan, Thomas S. Kraft, Yvonne A. L. Lim, Jirong Long, Amanda D. Melin, Michael J. Montagne, Jamie Roberson, Kee Seong Ng, Michael L. Platt, India A. Schneider-Crease, Jonathan Stieglitz, Benjamin C. Trumble, Vivek Venkataraman, Ian J. Wallace, Jie Wu, Noah Snyder-Mackler, Angela Jones, Alexander G. Bick, Amanda J. Lea

ESI Publications

Characterizing DNA methylation patterns is important for addressing key questions in evolutionary biology, development, geroscience, and medical genomics. While costs are decreasing, whole-genome DNA methylation profiling remains prohibitively expensive for most population-scale studies, creating a need for cost-effective, reduced representation approaches (i.e., assays that rely on microarrays, enzyme digests, or sequence capture to target a subset of the genome). Most common whole genome and reduced representation techniques rely on bisulfite conversion, which can damage DNA resulting in DNA loss and sequencing biases. Enzymatic methyl sequencing (EM-seq) was recently proposed to overcome these issues, but thorough benchmarking of EM-seq combined with …

Selected Artificial Intelligence Provisions In U.S. Fiscal Year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

The 2025 Fiscal Year National Defense Authorization Act contains multiple provisions relating to artificial intelligence (AI). These congressionally mandated provisions direct various sections of the Department of Defense (DOD) and individual U.S. armed service branches to execute congressional intent for AI policymaking. Examples of such intent include identifying and planning DOD's AI workforce, demonstrating AI biotechnology applications for national security, improving the human usability of AI systems, and establishing an AI security center. This presentation will note that reports on these initiatives must be prepared for relevant congressional oversight committees, and, in many cases, are in many cases, publicly released …

Causation Analysis Of Crane-Related Accident Reports By Utilizing Chatgpt And Complex Networks, Yifan Wang, Junyu Chen, Bo Xiao, Shane T. Mueller, Jingjing Guo

Michigan Tech Publications

This study integrates ChatGPT and complex network (CN) techniques into an accident analysis framework designed to reduce manual effort in accident causation analysis. The proposed framework supports construction stakeholders in extracting causal factors (CFs) from accident reports and identifying both critical CFs and key causal paths. A multistep research design was adopted to develop and validate this novel framework for analyzing crane-related construction accident reports using ChatGPT and CN techniques. First, ChatGPT was prompted to extract CFs from a database of crane-related accident reports. Second, evaluation metrics and an expert questionnaire survey were developed to assess ChatGPT’s performance in CF …

It Is Not Clear How Well Physical Activity Promotion Materials Are Understood: Findings From A Rapid Literature Review, Jafra D. Thomas, Jasmine C. Wong, Regina F. Hockert, Yi Sheng Wu, Winston Kennedy

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology

Topics in Exercise Science and Kinesiology Volume 6: Issue 1, Article 6, 2025. Efforts to promote physical activity and other health-related behaviors are more effective when resource materials are understood by a wide and diverse audience. Before our lab’s previous investigations (Thomas et al., 2024), only one study seemed to use the cloze procedure to directly test the comprehension (i.e., readability) of physical activity promotion material (Cardinal & Seidler, 1995). Thus, this rapid literature review sought to (a) determine the extent the cloze procedure has been used to study physical activity promotion material comprehension in lay adults and (b) collate …

Development Of Stem-Based Virtual Microscope Module In Fundamental Geology Course, Bigharta Bekti Susetyo, Dipo Caesario, Yulia Hanoselina, Helfia Edial, Intan Lestari Mulyaning Tyas, Ahmad Syauqi Hidayatillah, Alfyananda Kurnia Putra, Salem Amer Sayma

Jurnal Pendidikan Geografi: Kajian, Teori, dan Praktek dalam Bidang Pendidikan dan Ilmu Geografi

This research aims to develop a STEM-based virtual microscope module. It follows a 4D development model, comprising define, design, develop, and disseminate stages. Interview were employed as the primary data collection techniques. The data analysis techniques utilized both descriptive and quantitative methods. The feasibility of developed module validated by expert validators in material content, language, and learning design. Field testing was conducted with Geography Education Study Program students from Class of 2023 in the Fundamental Geology Course. The STEM-based virtual microscope module was deemed suitable for learning activities, receiving validation scores in the "good" category with minor revisions required. Student …

Analyzing Land Cover And Use In Bichi, Kano, Nigeria With Google Earth Data, Kabiru Abdullahi Abdulhamid, Adi Wibowo, Muhammad Junaid

Jurnal Pendidikan Geografi: Kajian, Teori, dan Praktek dalam Bidang Pendidikan dan Ilmu Geografi

The research investigates land cover and land use change trends in Bichi, Kano State, Nigeria, between 2003 and 2023, with a focus on the impacts of agricultural expansion and urbanization. Google Earth Pro's high-resolution satellite imagery was used to assess trends in agricultural land, forest cover, and settlement areas. The findings reveal a drastic reduction in agricultural land from 60 hectares in 2003 to 40 hectares in 2023 and the decline of forest cover from 30 hectares to 20 hectares. On the other hand, built-up settlement areas increased from 10 hectares to 40 hectares. All these processes have resulted in …

Ai And Ethical Use Implication For Research, Kelley Plass, Sierra Campbell

May Institute

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly integrated into our daily lives, especially for students. While there are valid debates about the advantages and disadvantages of students using AI for their assignments, such as comparing tools like Grammarly and ChatGPT, one aspect that often goes unexamined is the information sources that AI relies on. AI is now integrated into search engines like Google and Bing, making it accessible to everyone. Additionally, with the emergence of AI research tools like ResearchRabbit, AI's role in everyday activities continues to expand beyond easily accessible resources such as subscription databases. AI is now an optional …