Digital Commons Network^™

Gender Perceptions Of Occupational Therapy Students And The Impact On Academic Experience, John Brian Leclerc

Theses and Dissertations

Since its inception in 1917, the field of occupational therapy has maintained a pronounced gender imbalance, with females comprising the vast majority of practitioners despite major historical shifts in healthcare delivery. This dissertation examines how occupational therapist (OT) and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) students perceive gender and how these perceptions influence their academic experiences and future professional roles.

Using a multi-study design, this dissertation integrates qualitative and quantitative approaches across three articles. In article 1, focus groups were employed with doctoral OT students (N=30) and revealed five central themes: the value of gender diversity for learning, a nurturing and supportive …

Deep Learning For Lithium-Ion Battery Status Monitoring: Robust State-Of-Charge And Trustworthy State-Of-Health Estimation, Mingwei Lei

Theses and Dissertations

In electric vehicle and energy storage applications, the reliable operation of safety-critical battery management systems (BMS) relies on accurate, real-time estimation of the state of charge (SOC) and state of health (SOH). Although data-driven methods show great potential, their practical application is primarily constrained by two major challenges. First, battery operation under real-world conditions involves continuously varying factors—such as temperature, aging stages, and dynamic cell characteristics—making it impossible to exhaustively cover all scenarios during laboratory data collection. This discrepancy often leads to a significant decline in estimation performance due to the domain shift problem. Second, engineering practice requires a balance …

Qualitative Exploration Of Understanding Gluten Intolerance: Knowledge, Experiences, And Perceptions Among American Indian Adults Living On The Mandan, Hidatsa, And Arikara Nation, Roselle M. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Background: This dissertation examines gluten intolerance, particularly celiac disease (CD), within American Indian communities. Although CD has been traditionally considered more common among people of European descent, emerging evidence suggests increasing rates among American Indian populations as dietary patterns have shifted from traditional, naturally gluten-free foods to diets containing higher levels of gluten. These dietary changes, along with possible genetic factors and historical underdiagnosis, highlight the importance of understanding how gluten-related health concerns are recognized and discussed within American Indian communities. Lower rates of diagnosis may reflect limited awareness of symptoms and challenges in communicating gluten-related health experiences rather than …

Intragroup Marginalization, Multiracial Identity Development, And Subjective Well-Being: A Qualitative Analysis, Anna Kim Nguyen

Theses and Dissertations

To date, there is little research on the relationship between multiracial identity, marginalization, and well-being, particularly research investigating whether identity can have a positive impact on well-being. The current study used live, semi-structured interviews and Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to aggregate the narratives of nine multiracial participants to explore their lived experiences of intragroup marginalization, multiracial identity development and integration, and well-being. Within the frames of the Intersectional Model of Multiracial Identity and Social Identity Model, five superordinate themes emerged across participants: (1) early racial meaning-making and internalized tension; (2) developing and negotiating a multiracial identity; (3) seeking and constructing …

Molecular And Cellular Mechanisms Of Neuromodulators In The Regulation Of Neural Activities And Memories In The Hippocampal Formation, Chidiebele Sharon Oraegbuna

Theses and Dissertations

The dentate gyrus (DG) and medial entorhinal cortex (MEC) are critical regions of the limbic system involved in spatial navigation, pattern separation, neurogenesis, learning and memory, and mood regulation. Alterations within the DG circuitry have been implicated in cognitive impairments in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and temporal lobe epilepsy. Disruption in the MEC is associated with the onset of AD pathology, temporal lobe epilepsy and schizophrenia. The roles of the DG and MEC in health and disease are mediated by their precise cellular activity. The main neurons of the DG are the glutamatergic granule cells (GCs) and …

Body-Scanning, Mindset, And Mindfulness: An Investigation And Augmentation Of A Relaxation Practice, Nathaniel Joseph Pagel

Theses and Dissertations

Meditation-related practices impact a variety of psychological outcomes. However, as new methods emerge, investigations of novel practices are crucial to promoting effective interventions. This study centrally tests the potential for non-sleep deep rest (NSDR) to improve scores on measures related to anxiety and cognitive performance, and the potential augmentation of NSDR through unilateral cathodal tDCS of the left-DLPFC (i.e., F3). A preregistered design was used to test if NSDR improves scores on measures related to cognitive performance, mediation states, anxiety, if scores from the Learned Helplessness Scale and the Growth Mindset Scale moderate the relationship between the experimental condition and …

Dual Credit In North Dakota: High School Administrators’ Perceptions And Experiences, Kayla Marie O'Toole

Theses and Dissertations

Dual credit opportunities continue to expand across North Dakota, providing high school students with opportunities to earn college credit while completing high school coursework. Despite this growth, participation in dual credit varies among high schools across the state. The purpose of this study was to examine high school administrators’ perceptions and experiences regarding dual credit programming in North Dakota. The study was guided by the following research question: What perceptions about dual credit exist among high school administrators, and what are their experiences?This study used a survey-based research approach to collect data from high school administrators throughout North Dakota. It …

Understanding The Mmiw/Mmip Crisis: Jurisdictional Gaps, Institutional Failure, And Public Perception, Taylor Julia Pesch

Theses and Dissertations

The Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) Crisis/Missing and MurderedIndigenous People (MMIP) crisis calls attention to the ongoing issues with underreporting and violence against Indigenous people. As years have gone by, the rates of violence and disappearances have increased. The Women’s Wilderness webpage reports that in 2016, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) recorded around 5,712 cases of Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and children; however, the database in the U.S. Department of Justice has only recorded 116 cases, highlighting a significant issue in MMIW reporting (Native Women’s Wilderness, n.d.). This study explores how jurisdictional barriers and reporting gaps can …

Cultural Identification And Preferences In Treatment For American Indian Adults With Substance Use Disorder, Megan Kay Saboo

Theses and Dissertations

Substance use disorders occur at a disproportionately higher rate for American Indian adults in the United States, yet there is a limited understanding of how those in the recovery process perceive their American Indian culture as a meaningful component of their treatment. This study intended to address this gap in the research and to assist with tribal efforts in treating substance use disorder among a small sample of American Indian adults enrolled in a Northern Plains tribe by assessing cultural identification and the importance, contribution, and incorporation of cultural traditions, practices, and ways of living into the recovery process. Results …

Public Good, Politics, And Public Goods: The Social Construction Of Educators In Progressive Era North Dakota, Kevin Joel Read

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines education reforms in North Dakota’s early Nonpartisan League period (circa 1916-1920) by focusing on three policy vignettes located in the local, state, and higher education domains. Together, this dissertation investigates the tensions and nuances of modernizing education in the state including the conditions which created a moment for rapid policy implementation, and the factors which led to that moment ending. The local vignette focuses on housing policy for educators, and the state’s consolidation of education governance into a Board of Administration is explored in the state and higher education chapters. Additionally, the role educators in the state …

Hidden In Plain Sight: A Single-Case Study Analysis Of An Established Employee Well-Being Department In Higher Education, Andria Spaeth

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the perceptions and experiences of student-facing staff within the Divisionof Student Affairs at the University of North Dakota to understand how they currently have their holistic well-being needs met through the Work Well department and the support they receive from the senior administration. A detailed review of the relevant literature is included. A qualitative single-case study research methodology is used alongside the Social Cognitive Theory framework to examine the current perceived support student-facing staff have.

The case study follows a bounded system approach with the Work Well department serving as the site selection as the worksite wellness …

Attachment Security And Sexual Compliance: Implications For Mental Health And Relationship Outcomes, Kimberly Tom

Theses and Dissertations

Sexual compliance is defined as consenting to sexual acts despite not wanting to have sex. Even though sexual compliance behavior has been associated with a multitude of adverse outcomes, it remains an understudied sexual behavior. Previous research has suggested people with insecure attachment (i.e., avoidant, anxious, and disorganized attachment styles) may be more likely to engage in sexual compliance than their securely attached counterparts. Results from the current study found attachment anxiety, but not attachment avoidance, significantly predicted sexual compliance behavior. Gender and generalized anxiety symptoms also emerged as significant predictors of sexual compliance behavior. This study also sought to …

Emotional And Physical Neglect As Predictors Of Mcmi-Iv Personality Scales, Jenna Wolff

Theses and Dissertations

Theodore Millon (2011) proposed that specific developmental experiences and childhood adversities contribute to personality pathology, although these hypotheses have received limited empirical investigation. Participants (N = 490) completed the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-IV (MCMI-IV) and self-report measures of childhood adversity. Hierarchical ordinal regression analyses examined whether childhood adversities predicted elevations across MCMI-IV personality scales after controlling for age, gender, and co-occurring abuse. Although neglect was the primary focus of the study, childhood physical and emotional abuse emerged as the most consistent predictors across models. Both forms of abuse significantly predicted elevated masochistic, borderline, and schizotypal personality scores. Emotional abuse uniquely …

The Centers For Disease Control And Prevention's Healthy Tribes Program: Uncertainty Around Executive Orders During 2025 - A Qualitative Study, Gem Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

Programs that center culture as prevention are required for promoting holistic health and well-being in American Indian and Alaska Native communities, however limited research demonstrates how these programs are affected by federal policy instability. Securing and sustaining funding for culturally centered initiatives is essential not only for reducing health inequities, but also for upholding Tribal self-determination and the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations.

This qualitative study examines the impact of federal funding uncertainty related to executive orders issued in 2025 on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Tribes program.

This Tribally driven study employed Knowledge Sharing Sessions, …

A Global Climatology Of Tropical Cyclone Integrated Kinetic Energy Utilizing Best Track And Synthetic Aperture Radar Data, Sydney Walters-Vangorden

Theses and Dissertations

Tropical cyclone (TC) intensity has traditionally been quantified based on the maximum sustained wind speed, a single-point metric that does not capture the full destructive potential of the TC. To account for the strength, size, and spatial distribution of the wind field, integrated kinetic energy (IKE) has recently been proposed. IKE is traditionally calculated as the total kinetic energy of the TC’s wind field inside its radius of tropical storm-force winds. This work presents the first global climatology of IKE using best track observations from 2004-2024 of 34-, 50-, and 64-kt wind radii from the National Hurricane Center and Joint …

Funding Traditional Best Practices: Exploring The Impacts Of Multidimensional Funding Through The Centers Of Disease Control And Prevention's (Cdc) Healthy Tribes Project, Hannah Lorraine Youngdeer

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of Health Tribes recipients managing or participatingin more than one funding opportunity provided through the CDC Healthy Tribes program; offering an opportunity to share successes and challenges in multidimensional funding management, program implementation, and impacts, as well as recommendations for funders and other American Indian and Alaska Native communities. This qualitative study used document analysis and a focus group, with data analyzed using deductive thematic analysis to identify patterns and develop themes.

The findings highlight methods of funding management and factors, such as organizational structures, that drive the organization of funding management. The findings also …

A Data-Driven Framework For Uav Trajectory Prediction And Abnormal Motion Detection Using Remote Id Telemetry, Rania Amin

Theses and Dissertations

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems are increasingly being adopted across commercial, industrial, and autonomous applications, creating a growing demand for intelligent monitoring techniques that improve operational safety, situational awareness, and airspace management. Among recent research directions in UAV systems, trajectory analysis and behavior monitoring have become essential for supporting reliable and scalable UAV operations. This thesis investigates two complementary challenges in UAV monitoring: trajectory prediction and abnormal motion-deviation detection.The first part of this thesis focuses on UAV trajectory prediction under incomplete observation conditions. A deep learning framework was developed to estimate future UAV positions using historical flight information and maintain …

Robotic Arm-Assisted Structured-Light 3d Reconstruction For Large-Area Surface Modeling, Ahmed Elfarran

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops and evaluates a robotic arm-assisted structured-light 3D reconstruction framework for improving reconstruction accuracy and surface coverage under practical experimental conditions. The system integrates camera-projector calibration, Gray-code projection, X/Y decoding, triangulation, MATLAB-based geometric correction, robotic multi-view acquisition, point-cloud alignment, and stitching. First, a tilted-projector structured-light setup was tested with the projector positioned approximately 20 degrees relative to the object plane. This non-ideal configuration introduced global tilt and geometric distortion in the raw point cloud. After correction, the RMSE decreased from 2.8 mm to 0.9 mm, the tilt error decreased from 4.5 degrees to 0.8 degrees, and the dimensional …

Exploring The Effects Of Anti-Lgbtq+ Legislation On The School Ecosystem Based On The Perspectives And Experiences Of Public School Teachers, Kamryn Holtz

Theses and Dissertations

The current study aimed to qualitatively explore queer and LGBTQ+ allied k-12 teachers’ perceptions and experiences related to recent anti-LGBTQ+ legislation. As health disparities among queer youth worsen due to changes in the sociopolitical climate and political sphere (Chokus-Bradley et al., 2022; Kline et al., 2022), teachers have a unique opportunity to support queer students through their roles and relationships within schools. Researchers contextualized the affirming intervention strategies teachers utilized through the Systems View of School Climate (Rudasill et al., 2018). Through semi-structured interviews, participants shared how the legislative changes have impacted strategies they use to support queer students, as …

Strengthening Teacher Development Through School-University Partnerships: A Document Analysis Informed By Improvement Science, Holly Ripley

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher shortages have become a persistent challenge across the United States, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Although alternative certification pathways have helped fill vacancies, many have also resulted in underprepared teachers entering the profession. This Dissertation in Practice addresses the need for sustainable solutions that strengthen teacher preparation while supporting school districts facing workforce shortages. Guided by improvement science and the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle, this study investigates school-university partnerships as a strategy for addressing both teacher shortages and teacher preparedness. A qualitative document analysis was conducted to examine funded school-university partnerships and state policies that support their implementation. The study explored …

Exploring Instructor Engagement With Aviation Safety Messaging At Und: A Pilot Study, Brendan Aug

Aviation Student Publications

Effective communication of safety information is critical in fostering a strong safety culture within collegiate aviation. This pilot study explores how flight instructors at the University of North Dakota (UND) engage with two safety communication tools: The ASAP Spotlight email update and the 60-Seconds for Safety flyers. A 25-question survey distributed to active UND Line Flight Instructors examined engagement levels, behavioral impact, perceived effectiveness, and preferred communication methods. Descriptive statistics, correlations, and an exploratory factor analysis were used to evaluate responses across four constructs: engagement, behavior, perception, and communication preference. Results indicate that while instructors do generally engage with and …

Double-Scoring: Reliable Extraction Of Strong Lottery Tickets, Bryce Christopherson, Jack Baretz, Darian Colgrove, Salah Dandan

Mathematics Faculty Publications

The lottery ticket hypothesis proposes that large random neural networks contain sparse subnetworks that can match the performance of dense models after compara- ble training. A stronger version asserts that sufficiently overparameterized random networks contain subnetworks that are already accurate before any weight training. Existing theory establishes that such strong lottery tickets exist, but reliable ex- traction remains difficult. We revisit edge-popup, a frozen-weight score-training method for extracting strong tickets, and identify layerwise sparsity selection as a central bottleneck. We introduce double-scoring, an augmented score-space parameterization that replaces a layerwise sparsity search with optimization over enlarged score tensors. We prove …

Facilitating Conditions And Gender Gaps: Predicting Intention To Adopt Digital Education Resources Among Teachers, Bijaya Shrestha, Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Student Publications

This study examined factors shaping school teachers’ intention to adopt Digital Educational Resources (DER) in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Factors included were performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, facilitating conditions, and behavioural intention. Fifty-six (56) teachers completed an online survey measuring those factors. Among all the factors, facilitating conditions were the marginally significant positive predictor of behavioural intention to adopt DER. Male teachers reported marginally higher behavioural intention (p =.05) to adopt DER compared to female teachers. However, gender was not a significant moderator in relationship between behavioural intention …

P-Value Visualizer, Manish Rami

Software

An interactive tool demonstrating what a user set p-value indicates with regards to probability.

Effect Size & Distributional Overlap Visualizer, Manish Rami

Software

An interactive tool comparing a control group and a treatment group, both with standard scores (M = 100, SD = 15). Cohen's d is expressed in standard deviation units. The three shaded regions show what each group's distribution looks like and how much they overlap. You can either use the preset buttons for effect sizes (SLP benchmarks) or the slider to change the values of Cohen's d to examine the distributions.

Along The Appalachian Trail, Robert Moore Jr

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Oblivious, Robert Moore Jr

Floodwall Magazine

No abstract provided.

Correlation Visualizer, Manish Rami

Software

An interactive tool to understand correlations. The tool uses an example relationship between phonological awareness (CTOPP-2) and reading fluency. Both measures use standard scores (M = 100, SD = 15). Viewers can adjust r to explore how the strength and direction of correlation affects the scatter pattern and shared variance. Use the slider for r to see corresponding changes in the plot and the values of r and effect size.

Developing And Sustaining Indigenous Nursing Leadership: The Heal Southwest Leadership Cohort, Cristina Rivera Carpenter, Adriann Begay

Indigenous Health Posters and Presentations

While Indigenous Peoples represent 2.9% of the total United States (US) population (Office of Minority Health, 2025), only 0.4% of the 4.7 million Registered Nurses (RN) in the US are Indigenous (AACN, 2024). This disparity in nursing representation impacts healthcare delivery and access in Indigenous communities. Healthcare services in Indigenous communities, such as those provided through Indian Health Services (IHS) and 638 facilities, often face high vacancies and high turnover rates (Kruse 2022). There are gaps in mentorship, professional development, community of practice, and available curriculum to practicing Indigenous Nurses who serve their communities. These gaps must be addressed to …

Interactive Distribution Visualizer, Manish Rami

Software

An interactive tool visualizing types of distribution. Viewers can morph between a bell curve, box plot, and cumulative frequency curve.