Digital Commons Network^™

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: A Disease Made Invisible By Stereotypes, Isabella Tober

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is a very complex disease that is often overshadowed by public opinion. Stereotypes within modern-day media have turned this disease into a social joke, leading individuals to suffer in silence and isolate in fear of judgment. Historically, society has allowed this invisibility to be placed upon the disease, but so has the medical industry through misdiagnosis and inaccurate treatment. The reality of OCD is very real and impactful for those living with this condition. Through proper education and exposure to the truth behind OCD, negative discourse will turn positive, ultimately allowing people to feel visible and seek proper …

Utilizing Legal Frameworks In Rural Appalchia, Max Baker

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

A thematic coding of various medias surrounding the MTR being done on the Gauley Mountain in WV, searching for legal frameworks available to rural Appalachians.

Silence And Visibility: Media Framing Of Industrial Pollution And Health Risks  In Appalachian And Niger Delta Print Media, Adetola Fajembola

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

Communities living near oil extraction and coal mining sites face serious environmental and health risks, yet these risks are often absent from public conversation. This study examines how print media cover industrial pollution-linked health risks in two regions defined by extractive industries — the Niger Delta in Nigeria and Appalachia in the United States — between 2011 and 2020. Although these regions are geographically and culturally different, both bear the environmental and health costs of extraction while remaining underrepresented in media coverage that shapes public awareness and policy response. Using mixed methods content analysis of eight legacy print newspapers, the …

From Tal-Corset To Tuomeiyi: Inter-Asian Referencing Of Feminist Resistance Against Hegemonic Beauty Standards, Eva Liu

Student Research and Creative Activity Expo

How inter-Asian referencing of feminist knowledge shapes everyday feminist resistance against hegemonic beauty standards in contemporary China.

Chemical Effects Of Microplastics On Photochemistry In A Coral-Associated Zooxanthella, Meghan A. Hennings, Matz Indergard, John E. Parkinson

OneUSF Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium

Coral bleaching is the process by which corals lose their symbiotic microalgae in response to stressful conditions. These photosymbionts, known as zooxanthellae, give corals their color and sustain host growth through mutualistic nutritional exchange. Bleaching events are becoming more common and severe, driving research into coral conservation and the resilience of each partner in the symbiosis. Yet it is unknown how certain pollutants, such as microplastics, may affect bleaching outcomes. Previous research in our laboratory has demonstrated that the presence of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) microplastics inhibits bleaching recovery in sea anemones (a coral model), but it remains unclear whether the …

Digital Age: A Collection Inspired By Nostalgia, Memory, And A Late-2000’S Youth, Syd Libby

Art and Art History Summer Fellows

The cycle of visual culture, objects, and entertainment marketed to children changes rapidly. However, the objects, sounds, music, places and people we attach to as young people tend to hold weight in our lives and shape our understanding of the world. “Digital Age” is a series of paintings, sculptures and fiber works inspired by these feelings of nostalgia for a time that wasn’t really that long ago; around the late 2000’s – early 2010’s. I took this idea of nostalgia and represented it in different forms; both the images of me as a kid, alongside the objects I associate with …

Sustainable City Design And Policy Impacts: Mental, Health, Productivity, And Quality Of Life, Sawyer B. Bowman

OneUSF Undergraduate Research Conference

As corporations grow larger and consolidate more assets, both human and material, the importance of sustainability in workplace efforts has never been greater. Firms have excised impact over their communities and those employed by said firms, making decisions regarding green operations, triple bottom line considerations, and other sustainable business practices highly needed for the continued operation of firms. As these practices are costly both in the monetary and temporal sense of reality, many firms tend to place sustainability lower on the list of importance as compared to concepts such as productivity or profitability. Based on surveys and interviews with firms …

The Overestimation Of Minority Group Size, Kennedy Tennant, Kiara Overstreet, Ty Curci

OneUSF Undergraduate Research Conference

Politicians and citizens often claim that a problem is "growing" or even "out of control" without providing metrics to support their claim. We wondered if people who fear immigration might be prone to overestimate the percentage of people who they perceive as "foreign" and further, whether that overestimation is moderated by the degree of fear or contempt held towards that group. In Study 1, participants viewed fictitious graduate school applications and then estimated the percentage of applicants that were from the Middle East. In study 2, participants viewed fictitious head shots and estimated the percentage of individuals who were wearing …

Teens And Technology Leverage Health Information Technology, Joshua Gerges, Emily Gerges, Lauren Rielly Mcconnell, Lauren Rae Selent

OneUSF Undergraduate Research Conference

Adolescents seeking health information have multiple sources including physicians, families, schools, organized activities outside of school, “the street” and the Internet. Teens struggle to decide which sources provide them with information that is understandable, particularly related to potentially risky health behaviors. The purpose of this study was to better understand how high-school students use electronic tools. A quantitative, causal comparative approach as used to identify differences across groups. The independent variables were the student grade level. The dependent variables were the students’ response to the following questions, Students who utilized: 1) a computer at home 2) the Internet at home; …

Designing Equity With Ai: Scaffolding, Offloading, And Translation For Students With Learning And Attention Differences, Oksana Hagerty

Teaching & Learning with AI

This session positions AI tools as a mechanism for supporting students with learning and attention differences grounded in theories of distributed cognition. It distinguishes cognitive barriers arising from peripheral demands from those related to conceptual understanding and higher cognitive tasks. Drawing on scaffolding, cognitive offloading, and translation, the session argues for equity through intentional task design rather than individual exception. It concludes by examining the pedagogical trade-offs between AI-supported cognition and the pursuit of tool-independent mastery.

Don't Self-Opt Out Of Career Opportunities: Proceed With Confidence, Valerie Mendoza

Faculty Publications

While reflecting on your career in the past, have you ever stepped back from an opportunity that you wanted because you doubted yourself? In the workplace, confidence often gets mistaken for competence, and that means talented employees can be overlooked simply because they hesitate. The truth is that confidence isn’t something you’re born with. It’s a skill you can build. This session will get you started on building that skill.

We’ll explore practical strategies to strengthen your confidence starting today. We’ll also break down the key differences between how confident individuals act compared to those who aren’t, so you can …

Accessible By Design: Leveraging Ai For Inclusive Education, Lauren S. Kehoe, Rebecca Weber

Teaching & Learning with AI

No abstract provided.

Navigating Oer Support Without Drowning In Ai, Lydia Burrage-Goodwin, Christine Moynihan

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

This was a presentation at the June 2026 Boston Library Consortium at Connecticut College.

UMB Healey Librarians Lydia Burrage-Goodwin and Christine Moynihan talk about what experiences they have had with faculty using OER and AI, which led them to develop ethics guidelines to support librarians who work with faculty authors. Attendees learned about creating AI use statements for OERs, using AI transparency logos, and applying open licenses to fully AI generated content as well as OER adaptations.

Policing Course, Adrian Bordoni

Open Educational Resources

Policng course divided in 8 modules: includes readings, videos, interactive assignments, discussion boards Final ppaer and presentation to support topics

Using Environmental Scans To Help Direct And Sustain Local Best Practices, Emily Lapworth, Carol Kussmann

Joseph P. Healey Library Publications

The digital landscape is in a state of constant change, and there is no one-size-fits-all formula for managing your digital assets, so understanding your local context is crucial to planning an effective digital stewardship strategy. Whether you are just starting out or have been at the same institution for 10 years, conducting an environmental scan can help. What are the internal and external changes you need to manage? What kind of stuff are you dealing with, and who are the stakeholders? Where is it located, and what systems are you using? What tools are available, and how have best practices …

Transitioning Home: The Role Of Occupational Therapy In Aging In Place, Syrena Meyer

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

This capstone project explored the role of occupational therapy in supporting older adults transitioning home from hospitalization to successfully age in place. With the growing population of adults over age 65 and a strong preference to remain in their homes, there is an increasing need for interventions that promote safety, independence, and quality of life. This project focused on developing advanced clinical skills in inpatient and transitional care settings while implementing evidence-based interventions and educational resources. The Person-Environment-Occupation Model was used throughout the 14-week experience to identify strategies to enhance occupational performance in patients. Key activities included patient care, use …

Arkansas Educators' Views On Corporal Punishment: Demographic Influences And Social Work Implications, Phillip Hill, Esaa Samarrah

Research and Creative Works Expo

Corporal punishment (CP) in U.S. public schools, defined as "the use of physical force with the intention of causing a child to experience pain so as to correct their misbehavior" (Gershoff & Font, 2016), remains legal in 17 states despite mounting evidence of its ineffectiveness and disproportionate harm to marginalized students. This study presents survey data from 94 Arkansas public school educators, examining their knowledge of legality, personal and indirect experiences with CP, perceptions of its effectiveness, and attitudes toward its continued use. Analyses were conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics, with reverse coding applied to the negative-impact Likert items so …

Nitrogen Limitation Impacts The Evolution Of Tobramycin Resistance In E.Coli, Anja Hofmeier

Undergraduate Research and Engagement Symposium

We are investigating how nutrient-limitation affects the evolution of antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli. We evolved E. coli for 24 days in nitrogen- or carbon-limited environments with and without tobramycin. Many nitrogen-limited strains that evolved with tobramycin did not develop antibiotic resistance and went extinct. Surprisingly, fitness competitions showed that nitrogen-limited populations had an even larger fitness advantage in nitrogen-limited environments with tobramycin than in their evolutionary environments. These populations had a mutation in either gene glnL or glnK. We isolated each mutation in a clone and ran fitness assays to investigate how glnL and glnK mutations affected …

Propasafe-Hybrid: A Text-Based Hybrid Propaganda Detection Tool (Ila 2026 Presentation), Thomas Kimmeth, Avijit Roy, Vivek Sharma

Publications and Research

This presentation introduces Propasafe-Hybrid, a hybrid system for sentence-level propaganda detection that combines offline transformer-based classification with selective large language model (LLM) explainability. The system employs a two-stage pipeline in which a local BERT-based classifier evaluates all input text and filters non-propagandistic content, while only high-confidence candidates are forwarded to an LLM for rhetorical technique labeling and explanation. This design enables cost-aware, privacy-conscious, and scalable analysis by reducing unnecessary reliance on external models.

Propasafe-Hybrid identifies propagandistic techniques such as loaded language, obfuscation, and appeal to fear, and generates concise natural language rationales that make these techniques interpretable to users. By …

Occupational Therapy For Caregiver Support And General Clinical Practice In Rural Settings, Madysen M. Handel

Occupational Therapy Capstone Presentations

This capstone project aimed to develop advanced clinical practice skills and implement a structured caregiver intervention program within a rural outpatient pediatric occupational therapy setting at Hegg Health Center in Rock Valley, Iowa. Guided by the Model of Human Occupation, the Occupational Adaptation model, and the cognitive behavioral frame of reference, the project emphasized caregiver participation, routine-based strategy use, and support for sensory-emotional regulation across daily environments. Caregiver stress and perceptions of strategy use were assessed using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and a caregiver follow-up survey developed to evaluate confidence supporting regulation strategies and participation within home routines. Results …

Observation And Reflection Of Neighborhood And Community 2026: Healthcare Access, Food Desert, And Transportation, Charmaine White, Nicholas Cominos, Hassan Yassine, Nicholas Saeedi, Maria Pacheco Martinez, Miranda Baumbick, Turner Tomatti, Ariel Wallace

Patient Education Projects

No abstract provided.

Observation And Reflection Of Neighborhood And Community 2026: Social Determinants In Action: A Field Reflection On Community Health, Jamaica Jordan, Razanne Zaghloul, Raj Khuperkar, Lissette Valdez, Nathan Morren, Cole Duvall, Alexis King

Patient Education Projects

No abstract provided.

The Flower Child Vs The War Hero: How Media In The 1960s Divided A Nation, Shelby Koeppen

Symposium on Research and Creative Expression (SORCE)

The topic of this paper addresses the legacy of divisive media in the United States during the

Vietnam War, and the media’s exploitation of conflict between returning veterans and their families against the counterculture movement and the protesters involved. Historians and sociologists, such as Jerry Lembcke in his book The Spitting Image: Myth, Memory, and the Legacy of Vietnam, argue that news outlets purposely used inflammatory language and cherry picked stories to push unsubstantiated narratives about counterculture protesters. However, there is still a large debate surrounding certain events that took place during this time. Many people can imagine the stereotype …

Creating A Unique Hemoglobin-Based Oxygen Carrier, Clayton Fuller

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

The purpose of this thesis is to explain the current state of alternative oxygen carriers and propose a new hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier (HBOC) as a blood substitute/ blood therapeutic. Blood donation has drawbacks: risk of spread of infection, short storage time, and blood typing, and the current shortage. There are several possible modifications for hemoglobin to create a carrier (HBOC) which address specific issues related to allowing free hemoglobin to exist extra cellularly. One issue to address is vasoconstriction caused by nitric oxide scavenging, which has been solved by increasing the molecular weight of the HBOC via (co)polymerization, or by …

Mapping Mgmt Methylation Sites That May Predict Chemotherapy Success In Glioblastoma, Kennedy Bueno

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

Glioblastoma is the most common malignant primary brain tumor in adults, with a median survival of 15 months post-diagnosis. Resistance to standard temozolomide (TMZ) chemotherapy is common and is strongly influenced by O6-methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT), a DNA repair enzyme that reverses TMZ induced DNA damage. Reduced MGMT expression is associated with greater TMZ sensitivity and improved survival. Although MGMT promoter cytosine-phosphate-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) methylation is linked to treatment response, the individual CpG sites responsible for MGMT silencing remain unclear. This research aims to identify which sites are necessary to suppress MGMT expression and increase TMZ sensitivity. This project will map …

Peer Cultural Socialization As A Moderator Of Perceived Discrimination And Ethnic-Racial Identity Exploration Among Korean Adoptees, Josie Braun, Majel Baker, Jae-In Kim, Richard Lee, Elisheva Perelman

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

As peers become increasingly salient sources of affirmation and cultural learning across adolescence and emerging adulthood, peer cultural socialization may play a distinct and critical role in moderating Korean adoptees' exploration of their ethnic-racial identity. This study hypothesized that 1) ethnic-racial discrimination experienced in the past year in adulthood (T3) will be unrelated to exploration of Korean ethnic-racial identity in adulthood (T3). However, peer racial socialization in adulthood (T3) will moderate the relationship between ethnic-racial discrimination experienced in adulthood (T3) and exploration of Korean ethnic-racial identity in adulthood (T3), and 2) ethnic-racial discrimination experienced in the past year in adulthood …

Form And Fusion: The Art And Science Of Ceramics And Glass, Juniper J. Bauroth-Sherman, Kaleigh Evans

Interdivisional Studies Presentations

The first Ceramics & Art class (IDS-110-F: ST: Ceramics) has completed an immersive, interdisciplinary exploration of stained glass and we’re excited to showcase it now. Through hands-on studio work, experiments, and design projects, we combined artistic expression with the science of glass—learning how physics and chemistry shape everything from color to strength and light interaction. The students have developed practical skills in cutting, grinding, foiling, soldering, and assembling stained-glass pieces, while also experimenting with thermal stress, light transmission, and color chemistry. Glass is now understood as not just as an art form, but as a dynamic material grounded in scientific …

Steven Universe & The Phenomenon Of Family, Jabari J. Whipple

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

This research analyzes Steven Universe, a modern animated television series created by Rebecca Sugar, through a sociological lens to explore how contemporary media redefines the concept of family. The study examines how nontraditional caregiving structures and emotionally based kinship challenge the boundaries of the nuclear family model. Using the theoretical frameworks of symbolic interactionism and feminist theory, this paper interprets family as a social construction formed through love, care, and shared experience rather than biology alone. A purposive sample of fifteen episodes across seasons one, three, and five was analyzed for depictions of caregiving, gender roles, and emotional labor. Findings …

Navigating Hunger And Academic Success: College Students’ Experiences With Food Insecurity And Campus Food Pantries, Casey Weaver

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

Food insecurity is a growing issue faced by many college students, and there is an increasing call for more qualitative research examining food insecurity on college campuses. It may be posited that students who experience food insecurity but have access to resources are more likely to succeed academically than those without access to such resources. This research examined how the resources provided to college students experiencing food insecurity influenced their academic success at a university in the United States. This study explored the experience of four students who identified as food insecure and utilized campus resources to address this issue. …

Fifteen Years Of The Abc-Ahp-Ncnpr Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program: What Have We Learned?, Stefan Gafner, Roy Upton, Mark Blumenthal, Ikhlas Khan

Oxford ICSB

Initiated in 2011, the Botanical Adulterants Prevention Program (BAPP) was created as a partnership between the American Botanical Council, the 2American Herbal Pharmacopoeia (AHP), and the National Center for Natural Products Research (NCNPR) at the University of Mississippi to educate the herbal dietary supplement industry, regulators, and scientists in academia about adulteration of botanical ingredients. The ultimate goal of the Program was to improve the authenticity and quality of herbal dietary supplements to the consumer. Since its inception, the Program has published 100 peer-reviewed documents. Despite herbal ingredient suppliers’ and dietary supplement manufacturers’ implementation of changes in quality control specifications, …