Digital Commons Network^™

An Autoethnography Of Organic Representation In Queer Arts Documentation, Eden Joyce Prime

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project is to illustrate the importance of documentation processes grounded in ‘organic representation,’ a media practice paradigm from the work of A. J. Christian (2020). Organic representation prioritizes narrative co-creation, informed consent, and intersections of identity and cultural knowledge. To effectively document a subject’s lived experience, a media professional must share intersections of identity and/or culture with the subject and provide opportunities for narrative co-creation. Intersectional positionality gives media practitioners authority to document important narratives in a way that honors the identity and contextual significance of the subject. For journalists documenting the life and work of …

Jdm And The Formation Of Japan’S Underground Car Culture: Street Racing, Identity, And Regulation, Lizhou Chen

Student Publications

Japan’s underground car culture is often associated with street racing, JDM, and modified cars, but these visible features developed from broader economic, social, and regulatory conditions. This paper argues that Japan’s underground car culture was shaped by three factors: postwar economic growth that made mass car production feasible, social identity and status attached to car type and driving behavior, and government regulation of the road system and driving habits that forced reckless driving into less visible times and locations. By examining car ownership, kei cars, youth self-expression, gendered meanings of vehicles, road design, and moral expectations around safe driving, this …

Bridging Communities Through Sport: A Social Work Study On Refugees Teaching Cricket To American Citizens, Nafees Alam

Social Work Faculty Publications

This qualitative study explores the psychosocial and communal impacts of a reciprocal integration initiative where refugees from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Somalia taught cricket to Americans in New York City, New York and Boise, Idaho (2022–2024). Grounded in Erikson's psychosocial theory and Bandura's self-efficacy framework, the study examines how sport fosters dignity, self-determination, and cross-cultural cohesion. This study recruited 15 refugee coaches and 30 American learners using qualitative methods through interviews, focus groups, and observations. Findings reveal refugee coaches gained self-worth and resolved Eriksonian conflicts, while 78% of American learners reported reduced stereotypes. Cricket fostered social capital, transforming public parks into …

Purr-Spectives: Connections Between Feline Coat Color And Human Preferences And Perceptions In Northeast Arkansas, Tiffany L. Batchelor

Honors Theses

Felines have played an important role in the lives and culture of humans for thousands of years. The purpose of this study is to investigate perceptions of felines and feline demographics to gain a better understanding of the relationship between cats and humans in the Northeast Arkansas (NEA) area in particular. For Study 1, data on phenotype and health conditions (n = 2,277 feline patients) were collected from patient files from three Northeast Arkansas veterinary clinics. For Study 2, an anonymous survey generated using Qualtrics titled “Purr-spectives: Feline Behavioral Perceptions Survey” was published through the College of Agriculture social media …

Altimetry Data From Icesat-2 Brings Value To The Private Sector, Molly E. Brown, Aimee Neeley, Abigail Phillips, Denis Felikson

Student Publications [Scholarly]

This short communication synthesizes evidence on how the Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) altimetry data are used by private sector actors and the implications for economic value creation. Using secondary research that collected and summarized information from existing data from reports, journals, websites, and databases, the work identifies 54 companies across 9 sectors leveraging ICESat-2-derived elevation, canopy height, bathymetry, and surface measurements to inform decision-making, risk assessment, and new business models. The analysis situates ICESat-2 within a broader context where freely available Earth observation data can generate substantial private- and public-sector value, potentially exceeding hundreds of billions in …

Can Argentina Overcome The Lithium Natural Resource Curse? A Case Study Into Argentina's Institutional Framework For Lithium Supply Chain Development And Innovation, Colby Greene

Senior Theses

Through the analysis of the natural resource curse, the development of institutional frameworks in societal contexts, the nature of natural resource-based industry value chains, and value creation through institutions and value chains, all in the context of Argentina’s lithium industry, this paper finds that Argentina has failed to implement the necessary institutions and promote proper policy to promote value addition and real economic growth through the conduit of the development of the lithium industry, yet it is not actively a victim of the natural resource curse. In the hierarchical nature of mining value chains, Argentina has permitted their vast lithium …

A Vision-Language Model Framework For Geographically And Environmentally Informed Soundscape Assessment, Pengyu Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Sound environments shape how people experience urban spaces, yet conventional noise monitoring relies on isolated sensors that lack semantic context and spatial scalability. This study explores whether Vision-Language Models (VLMs) can infer acoustic conditions directly from street-view imagery, offering a scalable alternative to dense sensor networks. This thesis focuses on three tasks: (1) identifying visible sound sources (vehicles, pedestrians, water features); (2) predicting sound pressure levels (SPL) in decibels; and (3) classifying sound type into Natural, Mechanical, or Human categories. I collected 200 field samples across 11 cities using mobile phones and decibel meters, producing aligned image-spectrogram-dB triplets spanning diverse …

Characterizing Spatiotemporal Dynamics In Beach-Dune Systems Under Anthropogenic And High Energy Forcings, Youngjae Kim

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal regions have historically been integral to geographic research given the complex interactions among physical processes, ecological systems, human activities, and socio-economic dynamics. As global populations in low-elevation coastal zones increase, understanding the coupled human-natural dynamics becomes essential for effective hazard mitigation. This dissertation presents an analytical framework that combines high-resolution remote sensing, image classification, landscape metrics, and geomorphometry to characterize the composition, configuration, and morphodynamic trajectories of coastal systems. The research investigates multi-scale dynamics in managed and unmanaged coastal environments by integrating diverse data sources to analyze spatial and temporal variability. The framework is implemented through three distinct research …

Making Social Studies Work In The Age Of Ai, Angelo Letizia

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is to first outline a more embedded stance toward AI use, which I have labeled invisible philosophy and history as DNA and use this embedded framework as a backdrop for a more concrete discussion of skills and dispositions in regard to the use of AI in the social studies classroom and beyond. This dual positioning, one more theoretical and one more concrete, calls attention to the fact that AI should not simply be seen as some flashy tool divorced from a more nuanced and embedded understanding of its role in society. A list of practical …

Behavioral-Centric Team Evaluation Via Consistent Rewards, Clement Kudakwashe Nyanhongo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Across human domains ranging from sports to business and organizational settings, complex tasks are often solved by teams rather than individuals, leveraging benefits such as interaction, mutual support, complementary skills, cohesion, and task allocation. Evaluating team effectiveness, however, is inherently challenging due to the subjectivity of many existing techniques and the limitations of outcome-driven metrics that primarily focus on performance scores while overlooking the team processes that generated the scores. To address these challenges, this dissertation proposes a behavioral-centric, end-to-end framework for team evaluation grounded in reward functions that model sequential team behavior. Reward functions offer compact and interpretable representations …

2026 April, Morehead State University. Office Of Communications & Marketing.

Morehead State Press Release Archive, 1961 to the Present

Press releases for April of 2026.

Personality Predictors Of Cybersecurity Vulnerability: Insights From Self-Reports And Stimulated Threat Scenarios, Saroja Roy Grandhi

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In this cyber dependent and enabled era, understanding the role of human factors in digital security is essential. This study investigates the relationship between Big-Five personality traits and cybersecurity behaviors by examining both self-reported and stimulated behaviors in security threat scenarios. Participants completed validated questionnaires to report their personality traits, cybersecurity practices and engage in task-based stimulations to capture behaviors such as phishing detection, password creation, and response to security alerts. The study tested whether higher conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness would be associated with stronger cybersecurity practices and smaller discrepancies between self-reported and observed behaviors. And, whether greater extraversion and …

Electronic Book Acquisition Strategies In Academic Libraries: A Review Of The Literature, Rachel E. Scott, Michael A. Arthur

Faculty and Staff Publications – Milner Library

Electronic book (e-book) acquisition models have evolved over the decades they have been available to library customers. This review leverages findings from scholarly literature to document the proliferation and evolution of e-book acquisitions models, their strengths and weaknesses in various contexts, and their role in the collection development strategies of academic libraries. From firm orders and subscription packages to demand-driven and evidence-based acquisitions, engagement with e-book acquisitions models varies considerably based on factors such as library budget and staffing, institutional curriculum and programs, consortial affiliations, support for textbook affordability initiatives, and COVID-19 responses. The findings from this literature review suggest …

The Mental Advantage: The 10 Disciplines That Separate The Elite From The Average, Scott Williams

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Title of Project

The Mental Advantage: The 10 Disciplines That Separate the Elite from the Average

Defense Date

April 1, 2026

Candidate Name

Scott Williams

Personal Email Address

[email protected]

First Advisor

Dr. Joshua Henson, PhD

Second Advisor

Dr. Michael Steiner, PhD

DSL Final Project Abstract

Project Type

This project was a book manuscript designed to develop and present a practical leadership framework for high-performance individuals and organizations.

Project Overview

This project explored the concept of Elite Mental Execution™ as a structured framework for understanding and developing high-performance leadership. Drawing from nearly three decades of professional experience in leadership, executive coaching, …

Training Language Models For Bilateral Trade With Private Information, Dirk Bergemann, Soheil Ghili, Xinyang Hu, Chuanhao Li, Zhuoran Yang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Bilateral bargaining under incomplete information provides a controlled testbed for evaluating large language model (LLM) agent capabilities. Bilateral trade demands individual rationality, strategic surplus maximization, and cooperation to realize gains from trade. We develop a structured bargaining environment in which LLMs negotiate via tool calls within an event-driven simulator, separating binding offers from natural-language messages to enable automated evaluation. The environment serves two purposes: as a benchmark for frontier models and as a training environment for open-weight models via reinforcement learning. In benchmark experiments, a round-robin tournament among five frontier models (15,000 negotiations) reveals that effective strategies implement price discrimination …

Dirges Of Hope, Manasseh Azure Awuni

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Among the varied themes that African fiction explores, politics and governance remain the most dominant across generations. Writing under oppressive and exploitative colonial administrations, the first generation of African storytellers used fiction to highlight the injustice of colonial rule. With fidelity to the African proverb that says the tales of hunting will always glorify the hunter until the lion learns to tell its own stories, African writers also used fiction to push back against one-sided, toxic narratives about the continent. After independence, when rulers of the new republics continued the colonial legacies of oppression, inflicting untold hardships on their citizens, …

Enhancing Undergraduate Learning In Physics: The Effects Of Ai-Assisted And Ai-Guided Instruction On Knowledge, Self-Efficacy, And Satisfaction, Stephen Woods

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as large language models are increasingly used for self-directed learning, yet there is limited experimental evidence on whether they improve learning outcomes and whether theory-informed guidance adds value beyond AI use alone. Prior literature suggests that effective learning depends not only on access to information, but also on how instruction supports attention, working memory, long-term memory, and cognitive load, while also fostering motivational processes such as self-efficacy. Individual differences such as Need for Cognition may also shape how learners engage with cognitively demanding instructional tools such as AI.

The present study examined how different …

Computational Analysis Of Immigration Discourse And Political Polarization: Evidence From U.S. Political Podcasts During The 2024 Presidential Election, Reishiro Kawakami , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This study examines how immigration is discussed across the U.S. political podcast ecosystem during the 2024 presidential election cycle, with a focus on differences across the political spectrum. While prior research on immigration attitudes has relied heavily on survey data, this study shifts attention to naturally occurring political communication by analyzing large-scale podcast transcripts. Drawing on a novel dataset of over 48,500 episodes (approximately 40,000 hours of audio) from the top 100 political podcasts ranked on Election Day, this paper combines keyword search, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis to investigate both the thematic structure and emotional tone of immigration discourse. …

Framing Emirati Womanhood: Heritage, Modernity, And Soft Power In Tourism Discourse, Valerie Priscilla Goby

All Works

This paper examines how Emirati womanhood is framed within the tourism discourse of the United Arab Emirates, analysing how gendered representation operates as both a cultural and political instrument in nation branding. Drawing on framing theory and informed by feminist perspectives on tourism and media representation, this study explores the visual and textual portrayal of women on official online platforms, including Visit Dubai, Visit Abu Dhabi, Emirates Airlines, and the UAE Ministry of Culture and Youth. These materials constitute a state-sanctioned narrative of national identity that integrates cultural heritage with modernity. Through qualitative framing analysis, four recurrent interpretive frames were …

From Our Stories, To Our Streets (Osos), Jennifer Lopez

Student Publications

Youth traffic safety persists as a critical planning challenge and public health concern in New Mexico, where pedestrian fatality rates consistently rank among the highest in the United States (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, NTSA, Governors Highway Safety Association, GHSA, 2023; Baca, 2025). Students (children), due to their daily interactions with roadways, whether when they walk, bike, ride transit, or drive/get driven to and from school, are among the most vulnerable groups within the transportation system (Ferenchak, N. Wesley, M., 2017. For many students in Albuquerque, the commute to or from school is one of the most dangerous parts of …

Empowering Change: Building Environmental Sustainability Initiatives And Becoming A Sustainability Champion, Amanda C. Karls

School of Public Service Theses & Dissertations

In an era marked by escalating environmental challenges and an urgent need for sustainable development, higher education institutions (HEIs) are increasingly positioned as critical actors in advancing sustainability within the communities they serve. Regional comprehensive universities (RCUs), in particular, occupy a distinctive position as access‑oriented, community‑embedded public institutions; yet sustainability efforts at these institutions often unfold under conditions of limited resources, diffuse responsibility, and informal governance. This dissertation examines how individual actors at RCUs effectively advance environmental sustainability initiatives in the absence of centralized infrastructure or formal authority.

Guided by the overarching research question—How can individual actors at regional comprehensive …

Library 5.0 And Predictive Intelligence: A Conceptual Literature Review, Shrikant Ramteke

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Abstract

Purpose In this paper, the author will explore the nature of predictive intelligence developed in modern libraries as part of the overall progression of libraries toward Library 5.0. It aims to give a conceptual clarity of what predictive services are, how they have been influenced by technology and ethics, and how they fit into existing traditions of librarianship.

Design/methodology/approach This paper utilizes a qualitative, conceptual literature review method as a scholarly inquiry. Approximately 60 peer-reviewed journal articles and institutional reports published after 2018 and before 2025 were purposively sampled from leading databases in library and information science and information …

Artificial Intelligence And Chatgpt In Libraries: A Bibliometric Analysis Of Social Science Research (2022–2026), Shrikant W. Ramteke, Yogesh B. Daphal

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Purpose

This paper will map the world of research on artificial intelligence and chatbots in libraries systematically by analysing the trends in publications, intellectual organization, pattern of collaboration, and the way the Social Science literature has evolved with the theme of artificial intelligence and chatbots published between 2022 and 2026.

Design/methodology/approach

We have conducted a thorough bibliometric search where we have considered 7,660 peer-reviewed journal articles found in Scopus database. The collection was compiled according to the PRISMA requirements, and later, both performance-based metrics and science mapping techniques were applied.The whole process of visualisation and analysis was carried out through …

Fear In The Forecast: Do You Believe The Government Controls The Weather?, Gabriella Bartsch

Honors Papers and Posters

Weather manipulation by the government is among the most widely believed conspiracy theories in America, with over 49 percent of Americans subscribing to this belief. As belief in weather-related conspiracies continues to gain traction, understanding the political and social factors that drive these beliefs becomes increasingly essential. In this study, data from the Chapman Survey of American Fears, a representative national sample of U.S. adults, as well as a qualitative content analysis of X/Twitter posts from 2020 to 2026, are used. This research examines how political partisanship and conspiratorial predisposition are reflected in media consumption and levels of institutional trust, …

Utilizing A Brief Experimental Analysis To Examine Therapeutic Interventions On Math Anxiety And Math Fact Fluency In School-Age Children, Erin Simon

Honors Theses

This study utilized a brief experimental analysis (BEA) to examine the effects of taped problems (TP) alone and in combination with brief therapeutic interventions on math fact fluency and math anxiety in elementary-aged students with language disorders. Math anxiety was assessed pre- and post-intervention using the Early Elementary School Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (EES-AMAS), a standardized measure for examining math anxiety levels in young students, and math fact fluency was measured using 2-minute Curriculum-Based Measurement (CBM) probes. Results indicated that TP-only was associated with improvements in digits correct per minute (DCPM) for most participants; further, the addition of therapeutic interventions …

Advancing The Understanding Of Palliative Care In Singapore: Knowledge, Attitudes, Receptiveness, And The Moderating Role Of Media Information-Seeking Preferences, Su Lin Yeo, Angel Lee, Raymond Han Lip Ng, May O. Lwin, Yumin Lin

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Introduction: Despite the growing demand for palliative care, this specialized medical care remains severely underutilized, with almost 50% of countries worldwide lacking access. Given that misperceptions and stigma continue to hinder progress in healthcare policy, this study aims to examine the relationships between palliative care knowledge, attitudes, and receptiveness to better understand how public health communication can enhance awareness and understanding of the topic in Singapore. Applying the adapted knowledge-attitude-practice (KAP) model, it further extends theory by examining the moderating role of media information-seeking between knowledge and receptiveness.Methods: Mixed-mode surveys involving 1,226 participants (926 online and 300 in-person respondents), representing …

Determining Factors Leading To Sobriety In Native American Graduates Of A Joint-Jurisdictional Court Program, Ryan Fisher

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The issue of driving under the influence (DUI) is a continuous problem in rural communities, especial those in Indian Country. Alcohol use and abuse has long been a health concern for these communities contributing to higher mortality rates and increased incarceration rates for American Indian / Alaskan Native (AIAN) populations. Wellness courts, using the problem-solving court model, have been successful in helping DUI offenders achieve sobriety and wellness. While the model has been successful, there remains a lack of qualitative research into why participants find success in these programs; especially marginalized populations such as AIAN. This phenomenological qualitative study was …

ทำไมในความรับผิดของปัญญาประดิษฐ์ถึงควรเปลี่ยนจากทฤษฎีความผิดเป็นทฤษฎีความรับผิดขององค์กร (Why Ai Liability Should Shift From Fault-Based Theory To Enterprise Liability), Laddawan Yaimanee

Chulalongkorn University Law Journal

ปัญญาประดิษฐ์เข้ามามีบทบาทต่อการดำเนินชีวิตของบุคคลอย่างมาก ทำให้เกิดปัญหาความรับผิดจากความบกพร่องของปัญญาประดิษฐ์ จากคุณสมบัติเฉพาะที่มีความซับซ้อนและความเป็นอิสระจากการควบคุมของมนุษย์ ทำให้การใช้ทฤษฎีความผิดที่มุ่งหาตัวผู้กระทำผิดมารับผิดชอบต่อความบกพร่องของปัญญาประดิษฐ์นั้นไม่เหมาะสมอีกต่อไป เนื่องจากทฤษฎีความผิดมุ่งหาผู้กระทำความผิดโดยเจตนาหรือประมาท โดยมุ่งเน้นที่ตัวบุคคลผู้กระทำผิด ทำให้ผู้เสียหายไม่ได้รับความเป็นธรรม ต้องพิสูจน์ต่อศาลว่ามีการกระทำผิดโดยเจตนาหรือประมาทเกิดขึ้น ทั้งที่โดยคุณสมบัติของปัญญาประดิษฐ์นั้นมีความซับซ้อนทางเทคโนโลยี ผู้เสียหายไม่อาจพิสูจน์ความผิดหรือความเกี่ยวข้องระหว่างเหตุและผลของการกระทำและการตัดสินใจของปัญญาประดิษฐ์ได้โดยง่าย ด้วยเหตุนี้จึงจำเป็นต้องนำทฤษฎีความรับผิดขององค์กรมาใช้ เพื่อให้ผู้ผลิตปัญญาประดิษฐ์รับผิดต่อความบกพร่องของปัญญาประดิษฐ์แม้ไม่มีความผิดเกิดขึ้นก็ตาม โดยเป็นการรับผิดในความบกพร่องชำรุดของปัญญาประดิษฐ์โดยตรง ทั้งนี้ผู้เสียหายจะมีภาระการพิสูจน์เพียงว่าปัญญาประดิษฐ์นั้นมีความชำรุดบกพร่องและก่อให้เกิดความเสียหายต่อผู้เสียหายเท่านั้น ซึ่งหลักทฤษฎีความรับผิดขององค์กรมุ่งเน้นที่การกระจายความเสี่ยงและการคิดต้นทุนการผลิตภายในองค์กร หลักการนี้จะทำให้ผู้ผลิตสามารถคำนวณต้นทุนความเสียหายได้ล่วงหน้าและสามารถกระจายความเสี่ยงไปยังผู้มีส่วนได้เสียหรือผู้บริโภคในตลาด ไม่จำต้องแบกรับภาระของต้นทุนสินค้าและความเสียหายแต่เพียงผู้เดียว ความรับผิดขององค์กรจึงเป็นความรับผิดเด็ดขาดของผู้ผลิต ซึ่งมีความเหมาะสมกับปัญญาประดิษฐ์มากกว่าการใช้ทฤษฎีความผิดแบบดั้งเดิม

From Reclamation To Restoration: Remaking Nature On Portland's Peninsula, Theus Richards

University Honors Theses

This environmental history of the North Portland Peninsula is a critical case study of a landscape in transition, where new "natures" have been constructed through shifting projects of reclamation and restoration. The Port of Portland, who controlled the Peninsula, transformed the marshy bottomlands near the confluence of the Columbia and Willamette Rivers to accommodate greater networks of industrial infrastructure and expand their capacity for global trade. Beginning in 1967, the Port began dredging operations to fill Ramsey Lake to make way for the construction of Rivergate Industrial District. Through this process, Smith & Bybee Lakes were set aside as a …

The Heavy Crown, Shared Throne: How Coleadership Tempers Ego And Sustains Leader Well-Being, Sam T. Hunter, Ares Boira-Lopez, Alexis D'Amato

Psychology Faculty Publications

Mitchell and colleagues (Reference Mitchell, Haslam, Burke and Steffense2026) provide a well-reasoned, sound, and thought-provoking case for why HR practices can promote or discourage narcissistic tendencies in leaders. Acknowledging their contribution, we offer two points of pushback and one point of extension based on those areas of pushback. The first point of pushback is that counter to the authors, we contend that hypercompetitive selection methods that seek to identify the best leadership candidate, although not ideal, are necessary. Do such processes (e.g., head hunting, in-depth assessment centers) admittedly have the potential to inflate individual egos and promote narcissistic …