Digital Commons Network^™

Ai-Augmented Pedagogy In Higher Education: An Ethical And Equitable Framework For The Governance And Operational Integration Of Ai In Teaching And Learning, Asrat G. Amnie

Publications and Research

Abstract

Higher education faces a convergence of pressures that no single institutional response has yet resolved: widening demographic diversity, pandemic-exposed structural fragility, and the persistent inequity of whose learning gets supported and how. Artificial intelligence (AI) has entered this landscape not as an optional enhancement but as an infrastructural reality— embedded in adaptive platforms, feedback systems, and early-alert protocols at institutions worldwide. Yet adoption has consistently outpaced governance, and tools celebrated for democratizing access carry real risks of encoding and amplifying the inequities they promise to address. This article introduces the AI-Augmented Pedagogy (AAP) framework, developed through a Sequential Explanatory …

Bridging The Justice Gap: A Comparative Study Of Legal Aid Marketing In Canada, Australia, And The United States, Farah O. Haq

Student Theses and Dissertations

Access to justice remains a central challenge across legal systems, particularly for immigrants and refugees, Indigenous communities, and survivors of domestic violence. While legal aid organizations play a critical role in bridging this gap, their effectiveness increasingly depends on how clearly and compassionately they communicate legal information online to their target audience. This thesis conducts a comparative content analysis of nine nonprofit legal aid organizations in the United States, Canada, and Australia, three countries united by a common law tradition but divided by the communication barriers their communities face, examining 180 social media posts and nine websites through the lens …

Popgenhelpr: An R Package To Streamline And Facilitate Informed Population Genomic Analyses And Visualization Of Genetic Ancestry, Diversity And Differentiation, Keaka Farleigh, Mason O. Murphy, Christopher Marie Blair, Tereza Jezkova

Publications and Research

Analysing large population genomic datasets requires an interdisciplinary skillset. Beyond a knowledge base in genetics and population biology, population genomic analyses involve computer science and statistics, representing a barrier for researchers without experience in those fields. PopGenHelpR seeks to lower this barrier by enabling researchers to perform population genomic analyses and generate near-publication quality figures in a streamlined and informed fashion. PopGenHelpR allows users to estimate genetic diversity within populations as well as differentiation among populations and individuals from single nucleotide polymorphism data. PopGenHelpR includes commonly used measures such as observed heterozygosity and FST. PopGenHelpR also provides five …

No Excuses. All Ownership. Music As Meaning, Business As Longevity, Taylor Atherton-Henry

Student Theses

Music has always been more than a creative outlet for me; it is a reflection of identity, emotion, discipline, and the way I move through the world. Long before it became a profession or an academic pursuit, music functioned as a language through which I could process experience, express love, and make sense of both joy and struggle. As I progressed through this program, it became increasingly clear that my artistic development and professional aspirations were evolving simultaneously. What began as separate goals, creating an album and establishing a music production company, ultimately became inseparable. Each process informed and strengthened …

To Record, To Be Heard, Jiahao Li

Student Theses

Introduction

This capstone project is a pop rock album, including seven original songs written, performed, recorded, and mixed by myself. Four of the songs will be from an old project, for which I had made only demos at home about four years ago. The other three songs were written during the last three years. All songs were recorded in the recording studios at Feirstein. This paper will go through the creation process of this album and explore what songwriting, recording and producing mean to me. I will also talk about the evolution of my practice and my artisthood.

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

Breaking Barriers: A Literature Review On The Experiences Of Black Male Librarians In Urban Academic Libraries, Quintis Pinder

Urban Library Journal

This literature review examines the underrepresentation of Black male librarians in academic libraries, focusing on systemic barriers that they face, such as stereotype threat, microaggressions, and lack of mentorship. It explores the challenges to their career advancement and leadership opportunities, highlighting the influence of racial and gender biases in the workplace. The review also discusses the strategies Black male librarians use to navigate these obstacles, including personal coping mechanisms, mentorship, and support from professional organizations like the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA). Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts, advocating for …

Behind The Curtain: A Strategic Brand Campaign For Rhode, Carolyn Franco

Student Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project develops a strategic public relations campaign that aims to improve Rhode’s existing brand communication strategy. While Rhode has been highly successful since its launch, selling out its initial product line in minutes and building a waitlist of over 700,000 customers, much of this success has been because of its strong visual branding, organic influencer engagement, and founder-led visibility. However, as the brand continues to grow, expand its skincare line, and introduce new beauty products, its current communication strategy presents several limitations that may impact long-term credibility and consumer trust.

One key challenge is Rhode’s reliance on aesthetically …

The Role Of Avram, In Indecent By Paula Vogel, Bryce Hargrove

Student Theses

In the Fall of 2026, the Brooklyn College Department of Theatre produced the play, Indecent by Paula Vogel. This play was directed by then MFA Directing candidate, Sam Plattus. In this production, I played the role of Avram, who serves to represent a handful of characters, including Sholem Asch, the author of the 1906 play God of Vengeance, the content and surrounding events of which Indecent is based on. This show ran from December 5-9 as a part of the 2025-2026 season. In this thesis, I will delve into the life of playwright Paula Vogel and discuss her prior works, …

Beyond "Bad Apples": Political Identity, Moral Interpretation, And Institutional Response To Abuse, Laura Werner

Student Theses

This thesis examines how psychological explanatory frameworks and structural institutional response interact to shape how domestic violence and sexual abuse are understood and addressed. Drawing on behavioral design theory and John Dewey's transactional approach to experience, I argue that harm is interpreted through mental models that simultaneously shape both individual perception and institutional action. Using survey data from 736 participants, I demonstrate that endorsement of the "bad apples" explanatory framework, attributing abuse primarily to a small group of deviant individuals, is predicted by psychological essentialism, belief in a just world, social dominance orientation, and political conservatism. These findings suggest that …

Every Night We Tell This Story: Remembering, Remaking, And Re-Remembering Paula Vogel's Indecent, Sam Plattus

Student Theses

Vogel’s subtitle calls Indecent “the true story of a little Jewish play,” Sholem 4 Asch’s The God of Vengeance. A Jewish man is arranging a marriage for his daughter; that man is a brothel owner who raised his daughter in a home just upstairs from his place of business; his daughter falls in love with a girl working downstairs, and they dance naked, together, in the rain. Indecent follows the journey of Asch’s play from its first reading in his bedroom in 1906, through its European tour in the 1910s, to its debut on Broadway in 1923 when the cast …

Exploring Biogeographical Ancestry Inference Of New York Residents Using A 45 Indel Panel, Amanda Martinez

Student Theses

Biogeographical ancestry (BGA) inference is an important tool in forensic science, providing supplemental information when comparison/reference DNA is not available for traditional DNA analyses. Insertion/deletion polymorphisms (INDELs) have been used in the last decade as ancestry-informative markers (AIMs) for BGA inference because they can be easily adapted to forensic-type samples and are determined using low cost and easy processing methods. Limited research has attempted to estimate ancestry and admixture in United States (U.S.) populations. This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 45- and 21- INDEL panel to measure population admixture proportions of four different origins (African, European, East Asian and …

Visualization And Marker-Less Tracking Of User-Defined Pre-Processed Mri Articulator Data Using Deep Learning, Michael De George

Student Theses

This thesis presents a comprehensive framework for the automated tracking and visualization of articulatory movements based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data. A well-known data analysis tool for markerless pose estimation, known as DeepLabCut, is investigated for this purpose. The performance of this tool is enhanced through the design and implementation of a pre-processor. DeepLabCut is a markerless pose estimation toolbox based on deep learning, which overcomes the issue of making manual annotations frame-by-frame. Limitations from manually marking the MRI images are addressed by implementing transfer learning with convolutional neural networks to achieve accurate, user-defined articulator tracking without markers. Current …

Scb252 Fundamentals Of Biotechniques Laboratory Manual, Na Xu, Hanqi Ye

Open Educational Resources

This laboratory manual for SCB252: Fundamentals of Biotechniques provides an integrated, hands-on introduction to core concepts and methods in modern biological research using Drosophila melanogaster as a model organism. The manual emphasizes laboratory safety, research integrity, and responsible conduct of research, alongside foundational experimental skills. Students are guided through key biological techniques including fly husbandry, genetic crosses, mutant analysis, microscopy, DNA extraction, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, sequencing technologies, and bioinformatics tools such as BLAST and genome databases. Advanced modules introduce gene structure annotation, RNA-seq data analysis, and primer design, while fluorescence microscopy and protein analysis techniques further expand …

What Is The Skeleton Of Cognition? A Structural Account Of World Reconstruction Through Processing Axes, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper describes how the placement of a single processing axis reorganizes human cognition and generates a reconstructed world.

Most existing psychological and social theories begin from emotion, desire, morality, or social behavior. In doing so, they have discussed what forms on top of the cognitive skeleton without first fixing the skeleton itself. When the skeleton is not fixed, entirely different explanations of the same phenomenon can coexist, and it becomes difficult to identify which constitutes a foundational account.

This paper fixes the skeleton first. That skeleton is the processing axis.

The question is: when a single processing axis organizes …

Proximal Stress And Gender Identity: The Role Of Internalized Transphobia In Future Expectations, Maribelle Almonacy

Student Theses and Dissertations

Transgender and non-conforming (TGNC) youth and young adults are more likely to experience symptoms of posttraumatic stress due to identity-specific abuse. Studies on the impact of trauma on negative expectations in high-risk youth show a high association between pessimism, nihilism, and instability. Internalized transphobia, similarly, is correlated with negative mental health outcomes, such as depression and anxiety, and the internalization of social messages and discrimination. These studies are not specific to the experiences of gender minorities and do not explore the intersections of internalized stressors or trauma in young adults. To address this gap in literature, this study sought to …

War Photography & The Limits Of Empathy, Andrea Shi

Student Theses and Dissertations

The proliferation of photography, particularly war and poverty photography, has had massive implications for the level of vividness with which Americans are able to picture suffering beyond their doors. The mass atrocities that have occurred since the advent of photography – that is to say, the last 200 years – are so relentlessly circulated that they feel, sometimes, as an inevitable byproduct of human nature. It’s not surprising, then, that a lot of media theory and analysis reduce the dilemma of atrocity photographs to a psychological level. Do they numb us, or do they incite empathy? Are they a call …

Acoustic To Electronic: Multidimensional Musical Explorations, Kanenar Wen

Student Theses

The music of the film was once thought to affect the emotions of the audience without their knowledge (Gorbman, 1987). But in some new partnerships on film projects from students, the lines between music, sound, and silence should be erased. Music could be more of a texture. The sound effects may also have the characteristics of the music. Silence could communicate information. In the usual definition of music, it highlights the phrases, timbre, and harmonic composition. When it is altered, the sound is not only “music,” but it is also in combination with the image, time, and narrative; it becomes …

The Community Era: Developing Artistic Resource Sharing And Local Collaboration In California's Central Valley, Sine Chan-Golston

Student Theses

This work explores possibilities for artistic resource sharing and collaboration to address the needs of local arts communities. With the artistic programming researched and outlined (Arts Database, Space Sharing, Community Collaborations), the goal is to create an arts environment in California's Central Valley where local opportunities are abundant, accessible, and sustainable.

Enhanced And Confused: The High Price Of Partnership In American Theater, Brandan Walsh

Student Theses

Broadway’s contemporary development ecosystem relies on a complex and increasingly fragile relationship between nonprofit regional theaters, Equity workshop models in New York City, and a small number of fully commercial out-of-town tryouts. In recent decades, nonprofit regional theaters have become central to the commercial development process, hosting fully staged productions of Broadway-bound work under a banner of artistic partnership. These institutions provide infrastructure, audiences, labor, and institutional credibility, absorbing reputational risk in hopes of high rewards and financial gain from donors. In return, they receive limited financial participation in downstream commercial success and operate under strict ethical and legal constraints …

Talking Climate: Does Peer Anxiety Amplify Or Alleviate Climate Change Worries?, Emma Tupone

Student Theses

As the climate crisis intensifies, climate change anxiety (CCA) has become increasingly common, yet it remains unclear whether discussing climate concerns with peers alleviates or amplifies distress. This study examined how climate conversations related to daily climate change anxiety, optimism, and pro-environmental behavior (PEB), as well as whether the perceived emotional tone of conversation partners shapes these associations. Using an 8-day daily diary design (N = 121), participants reported their daily climate-related emotions, engagement in private and public PEBs, and perceptions of peers’ climate anxiety and optimism following climate-related conversations. Results indicated that engaging in climate conversations was associated with …

The Greater Good?: Tradeoffs Between Social Connection And Status In Decision-Making Scenarios, Jonah M. Dratfield

Student Theses

Strong social relationships have consistently emerged as predictors of well-being in the psychological literature. However, research has not distinguished between the intrinsic social value derived from these relationships and the status derived from them. We constructed the novel Relationship Orientation Scale to explore this gap, utilizing binary decision-making scenarios in which individuals were forced to pit these two goods against one another. Across two studies, we found that individuals displayed a significant, but by no means universal, preference for intrinsically rewarding social relationships. We found, also, that social media use and comparison orientation were negative predictors of relationship orientation, whereas …

Left Out And At Risk: Post-Pandemic Continuation Of Organizational Service Reduction In Metropolitan New York City Coincides With Rise In Opiate Use And Mental Health Problems For Latinos, Ruth Lin Campbell, Smita Ekka Dewan

Publications and Research

Increasing opiate use and mental health problems among younger and older Latinos in urban US contexts prompted this investigation into the organizational resources that facilitate help-seeking efforts of Latinos in New York State (NYS). Guided by a Vulnerability Model and a framework of organizational enabling resources, this study used complementary longitudinal and cross-sectional designs. The longitudinal component examined changes in levels of organizational facilitators for Latino substance use disorder (SUD) help-seeking in Downstate NYS across three time periods, while the cross-sectional component compared post-pandemic facilitator levels across service types and regions. A convenience sample of 241 SUD clinicians participated in …

Know But Not Recognized? Québec, The United States And The Thresholds For Diplomatic Recognition, Thomas Forget

Student Theses

This thesis examines the conditions under which the United States would recognize an independent Québec diplomatically and how it would maintain stable institutional relations with it. It also examines the extent of Québec’s paradiplomatic network’s reach in the United States, and how it influences the relationship and the probability of recognition. Based on a qualitative case study using process tracing and conceptual analysis, the thesis proposes that the institutional density of the Québec-US relationship increases the probability of functional continuity and, potentially, of programmatic cooperation after independence. However, this would not lower the significant political, legal, and strategic US thresholds …

What History Shows: A Structural Account Of Fixed-Point Theory Formation, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

Theory generation has long been subsumed under categories such as creativity, genius, and innovation. These categories do not distinguish assembly-based conceptual synthesis from fixed-point theory generation.

This paper makes that distinction explicit. The termination condition of assembly is external: data, citation, endorsement, usability. The termination condition of fixed-point theory generation is internal: consistency with internally held constraints, resolution of structural contradiction. The two operate under different processing conditions.

The historical record confirms this distinction. What Darwin, Einstein, Spinoza, and Kant produced was not assembly. Their processes involved unresolved branch retention and decomposition necessity, arriving at internally constrained fixed-point termination. Freud …

Propasafe-Hybrid: A Text-Based Hybrid Propaganda Detection Tool, Thomas Kimmeth, Avijit Roy, Vivek Sharma

Publications and Research

Propagandistic content increasingly circulates through online news and social media, where readers often encounter it with limited scrutiny, highlighting the need for reliable and fine-grained detection. This paper introduces Propasafe-Hybrid, a sentence-level system that integrates a fine-tuned transformer classifier with LLM-based technique classification to identify, label, and explain specific propaganda strategies. The pipeline generates actionable outputs, including highlighted sentences, technique assignments, and concise rationales, so users can immediately understand why a sentence was flagged and how each label was determined. To control inference cost, Propasafe-Hybrid employs a cost-aware pre-filtering stage that forwards only high-likelihood sentences to LLMs, reducing token usage …

Radar Spoofing Attacks And Their Impact On Sensor Fusion-Based Perception For Autonomous Vehicles, Ahmad Mohammed Bara

Student Theses

Safe autonomous vehicle (AV) operation depends on robust perception of the surrounding environment. While multimodal sensing—integrating cameras, LiDAR, and radar—provides comprehensive environmental awareness, radar’s robustness under adverse conditions has made it a critical component of modern perception pipelines. However, the security vulnerabilities of radar within these fusion architectures remain largely unexplored. This work presents an end-to-end analysis of radar spoofing attacks on learning-based radar–camera fusion systems. Using a simulation framework grounded in reflect-array attack models, we inject physically plausible perturbations into radar measurements by altering depth by and velocity, while maintaining crossmodal consistency. Evaluation on the nuScenes dataset shows that …

Software Integration In Personal Healthcare Devices And The Patient User Experience, Yassine Chahid, Patrick Slattery

Publications and Research

This study examines the current landscape and future direction of medical device hardware and software integration, focusing on how each contributes to patient care. It begins by analyzing hardware focused medical devices, such as implantable tools patients may rely on to assist with their condition, alongside diagnostic and monitoring equipment used to treat conditions in a variety of medical areas (e.g. cardiovascular conditions). It then evaluates how software is currently integrated through embedded systems, data processing, and user interfaces that support real time monitoring and clinical decision making, and how this impacts quality of care for the patient whilst minimizing …

Processing Conditions In Narrative Interpretation: A Structural Account Of Cf/Ef Divergence In "The Clerk's Tale”, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper applies the framework established in Paper 19, "Cognition Is Not Content: A Structural Account of Processing Conditions," to re-describe Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales.

The same narrative produces two incompatible interpretations: a record of domestic violence, and a story of genuine love. This divergence does not arise from differences in ethical judgment or emotional response. It arises from structural differences in the conditions under which information is reconstructed.

This paper does three things. First, it analyzes the characters Walter and Griselda in terms of CF (Core-foregrounded) and EF (Modulation-foregrounded) processing conditions. Second, it describes …

Fear Of Crime, Intolerance Of Uncertainty, And Trait Worry: A Mediation Model Of Perceived Risk And Victimization Concerns, Nicholai N. Chasseau

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined psychological vulnerability and fear of crime in 538 adults from Trinidad and Tobago. Perceived risk was the strongest predictor of fear, while prospective intolerance of uncertainty predicted fear directly. Mediation was supported among Afro-Trinidadians but not Indo-Trinidadians, suggesting sociocultural differences in cognitive pathways linking vulnerability to fear.