Digital Commons Network^™

Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning, Shawn J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer …

Modeling The Impacts Of The Current And Projected Temperatures On Spongy Moth Population Dynamics, Adrienne B. Spring

Theses and Dissertations

The spongy moth (Lymantria dispar) is an invasive forest pest that has caused significant ecological damage across the United States. Its invasion front is shaped by a number of factors, including temperature in both the northern and southern regions. With ongoing climate change, areas that were previously uninhabitable may become increasingly favorable for moth population establishment and expansion, while other areas may experience thermal stress limiting persistence. This study develops a temperature-driven population model to analyze how temperature affects the spongy moth population dynamics along the invasion front. This model incorporates temperature effects on fecundity, stage-specific survival rates, …

Place, Culture, And Care: A Socioecological Examination Of Type 2 Diabetes Among Hispanics In The U.S., Danielle Montoya

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) disproportionately affects U.S. Hispanic populations. This dissertation examined whether structural determinants fundamentally drive T2D disparities among Hispanics, with attention to within-group racial heterogeneity.

Methods: Three studies utilized nationally representative data. Study 1 examined neighborhood segregation and ethnic enclave residence associations with T2D using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=5,056). Study 2 investigated acculturation and T2D associations using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=4,540). Study 3 analyzed patient-provider racial/ethnic concordance and adequate diabetes care using MEPS data (2008-2021, n=17,138).

Results: Structural factors demonstrated primacy across all studies. Neighborhood segregation (aOR=1.17, p>0.05) and ethnic enclave residence showed no …

Genetic Studies At The Intersection Of Alcohol Use And Pain, Walker Rogers

Theses and Dissertations

Alcohol use disorder and pain are complex public health concerns affecting millions of people, and these conditions are often characterized by a bidirectional relationship. People experiencing pain may drink alcohol for its analgesic effects. In turn, excessive consumption of alcohol can lead to conditions that cause pain, leading to an escalating feedback loop of pain and alcohol use. Negating this cycle requires a nuanced understanding of the mechanisms underlying alcohol analgesia, which are presently not fully understood. The Miles and Damaj labs have previously shown that ethanol-induced antinociception is moderately heritable in mice, indicating a genetic component to the trait. …

The Design Of A House, Lars Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations

Photography lends itself to both damaging and facilitating connection, the camera at once a weapon of destruction and a catalyst for change. The Design of a House is a call to love deeply. In the aftermath of body trauma, I use portrait photography to reconnect with myself and others. Through making portraits, I bridge my own gap between fear and intimacy. Primarily working with film-based cameras and hand-sensitized photographic materials, I reintroduce touch through process. The slowness, delicacy, and tactility of these acts offer a safety I am learning to trust. When photographing myself, my mother, and my partner, I …

Tate Speech: Radicalizing Rhetoric And Multi-Level Marketing Recruitment Strategies In The Manosphere, Carey J. Priebe

Theses and Dissertations

My study aims to uncover the discursive elements behind the gendered recruitment strategies that influencers in the manosphere use to pipeline men and boys into their multi-level marketing (MLM) companies. In the manosphere, male supremacy is presented as desirable and subversive, and MLMs take advantage of emotional and economic instability. My study examines the Twitter (X) account of the popular manosphere influencer Andrew Tate as I trace his rhetoric along a three-pronged gendered recruitment framework, a framework originally developed around women selling essential oils online and funneling their followers into radical alt-right politics. What are the similarities and differences in …

Learning To Deceive And Persuade: Predictive Agents With Language And Personality Diversity In Social Deduction Games, Aaron M. Shah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel multi-agent architecture that combines Joint Em bedding Predictive Architectures (JEPA), Free Energy Principle (FEP)–inspired planning, and language-based social interaction. The system is evaluated in a custom Werewolf-style hidden-role game, where agents must coordinate, persuade, or deceive under partial observability. Each agent encodes its belief state into a latent representation, predicts future trajectories under candidate actions, and selects votes or eliminations through a planner trained to minimize prediction error. To enable communication, agents are equipped with trainable mouthpieces. A lightweight SpeakerBandit selects from discrete templates using REINFORCE on judge-derived rewards, while a logit-bias head steers a …

A Fault-Tolerant Exchange-Coupled Spin-Ensemble Qubit At Elevated-Temperatures, Aniruddha Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces a novel qubit architecture: the ferromagnetic exchange-coupled spin ensemble qubit (E-qubit), designed to address the noise-induced instability. In this work, the time evolution of the ensemble’s density matrix is studied using the Liouville–von Neumann equation. To benchmark against a single-spin qubit, the gate fidelity of an E-qubit is computed in the presence of thermal noise. Coherence time is also analyzed under identical thermal condition and a linear scaling is observed with qubit size . The results show that, at 6 K , the gate fidelity error (0.7 % ) of the seven- spin ensemble is an order …

Opioid Tolerance And Withdrawal In The Mouse Colon, James Fune

Theses and Dissertations

Constipation is a major clinical obstacle associated with opioids, prompting patients to discontinue treatment due to pain, discomfort, and psychosocial stressors. Moreover, chronic users become tolerant to the analgesic effects of opioids, but not to their constipating effects. Upon cessation of long-term treatment, serious diarrhea–among other somatic signs of withdrawal–may ensue. These symptoms become a driving factor for relapse, causing patients to restart opioid treatment. In this study, we aim to understand mechanisms that contribute to opioid tolerance and withdrawal in the colon. Previous findings suggest that constipation occurs partly due to the colon’s lack of tolerance to opioids’ inhibitory …

Collaborative Robots For The Automation Of Additive Manufacturing Workflows, Logan Schorr

Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative robots have the potential to transform the world, being easier to program, safer around humans, and far cheaper than their industrial counterparts. This makes them uniquely qualified to operate autonomously in environments where the presence of humans is necessary, either as an operator themselves or as observers of active processes. One of the fields where collaborative robots have significant opportunity for utility is in metal additive manufacturing, in which near net-shape parts can be autonomously fabricated using materials like stainless steel, titanium, or nickel super-alloys. These processes, especially laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition, use a fine …

Still An Athlete? An Exploration Of Athlete Identity, Body Appreciation, And Psychological Flourishing In Middle-Aged Former Collegiate Athletes, Kelly Furr

Theses and Dissertations

Collegiate athletes, upon retirement, are encouraged to develop other interests outside of sport to form a well-rounded identity. Yet middle-aged people often struggle to complete recommended strength training and exercise guidelines, and many continue to struggle with body appreciation and psychological well-being beyond adolescence and young adulthood. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 482 former NCAA athletes completed the Athlete Identity Measurement Scale (AIMS), Exercise Identity Scale (EIS), Body-Appreciation Scale (BAS-2), and Flourishing Scale (FS). The study used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to determine if athlete or exercise identity positively affects body appreciation and psychological flourishing through the mediating variable of …

Wondering And Wandering, Madeleine Herisson-Leplae

Theses and Dissertations

For my thesis, I have taken the concept of excavation and used it as a visual metaphor for my artistic process. Using my recurring motifs of a hole, ladder, and the gem, I break down the writing into three sections. First, the hole, a metaphor for entering an image; second, the ladder, process as investigation; and lastly, the gem, which represents wonder and delight. This work is influenced by childhood fantasies, video games, and believing in magic.

Strange World, Brooklin Grantz

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis work explores the intersections of masculine and feminine labors as they relate to the structure of domestic space. I utilize materials and processes akin to craft, construction and architecture, and domicile upkeep, noting what is shared between gendered and polarized fields while exploring uses of the grid in various instances as a structure to adhere to and antagonize: a binary. Highlighting the queerness and fluidity of materials and the similarities between seemingly disparate processes, I relate to the objects I make and alter through my own gender fluidity. I do not see masculinity or femininity as autonomous: the …

Vessels Of Spirituality: Merging Faith And Form, Maryam Al-Tajer

Theses and Dissertations

According to traditional Islamic teachings, natural materials like frankincense, black sesame seeds, and sidr (jujube) leaves are valuable both physically and spiritually. Historically, they have been used for healing and purification. Nowadays, influenced by contemporary science, people tend to overlook their metaphysical value, focusing on their medicinal uses. Similarly, Muslims assign spiritual qualities to the Muqatta’at, the disconnected letters that preface several surahs of the Holy Quran, believing them to contain sacred power. In both of these cases, the material leads to the spiritual.

Through material experimentation, informed by religious texts, my thesis combines revered materials with sacred letter forms …

The Influence Of Gender Identity And Healthcare Delivery Experience On Hiv Screening, Delton Harris

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the roles of gender identity, healthcare experience, and practitioners' scope of healthcare services in the uptake of annual HIV screening among the understudied population of transgender individuals. Transgender individuals are about half as likely to have an annual HIV screening despite having similar risk profiles to men who have sex with men (MSM). The current HIV guidelines for MSM recommend annual HIV screening because of the risky sexual practice, anal sex with other men. Similar to MSM, transgender individuals who have anal sex with men are at higher risk than the general population for HIV acquisition because …

Strata: Layered Support Through Community, Resources, & Design, Jenna M. Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations

Strata reimagines transitional housing as a layered, responsive ecosystem that supports the holistic well-being of individuals experiencing housing insecurity. Inspired by the vertical structure of a forest canopy, the design integrates biophilic principles, trauma-informed strategies, and sustainable practices to create a dignified, inclusive environment. Located in the historic Sauer’s Factory in Richmond, Virginia, the project leverages adaptive reuse to ground the building in local context while addressing systemic gaps in supportive housing. Public amenities, such as a hygiene center, café, learning spaces, and a free store, encourage community integration and reduce stigma, while flexible private units and calming retreat spaces …

The Trauma-To-Prison Pipeline: A Multi-Level Theoretical Framework Exploring The Intersection Of Inequality, Trauma, And Exclusionary Discipline, Dana Ainsworth

Theses and Dissertations

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is a widely recognized and extensively studied metaphor used to describe the process by which school discipline policies increase the risk of juvenile justice system involvement, particularly among historically marginalized populations. While it has been instrumental in shaping educational policy, the STPP framework has not evolved to account for the critical impact of trauma on learning and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, it overlooks the role of systemic inequality that increases trauma exposure and produces concentric patterns of marginalization.

Drawing on research across the fields of education, public health, sociology, and criminal justice, this study proposes a theoretical …

Guardians Of Their Own: Routine Activities, Risk Perceptions, & Self-Protection Among Police Officers In The Line Of Duty, Amy Clifton-Mills

Theses and Dissertations

This research illuminated how police officers perceive risks in the line of duty and whether police officers implement protective behaviors on duty. This was done by implementing two phases of data collection: focus groups (I) and self-report surveys (II). The focus groups (N = 21) were conducted to inform the self-protective behaviors instrument in the self-report surveys (N =143). Officers self-reported their risk of assault and injury in the line of duty in the next six months to be 33.86% (SD = 27.13) and their risk of felonious death to be 14.4% (SD = 18.1). Results show that …

Investigating The Temperature Effects On Aedes Aegypti And Dengue Virus In Central Argentina: Perspectives From Mathematical Modeling, Morgan H. Jackson

Theses and Dissertations

Dengue virus (DENV) causes over 390 million infections and around 40,000 deaths worldwide each year. DENV is primarily transmitted by the mosquito Aedes aegypti, and both the life cycle of these mosquitoes and DENV transmission are significantly impacted by temperature. In the temperate region of Central Argentina, where dengue outbreaks first began in 2009, outbreaks only occur following new introductions of DENV from other regions. Due to the relationships between temperature and DENV and temperature and Ae. aegypti, the risk of an outbreak changes throughout the year. Here, we develop and analyze mathematical models for both mosquito population dynamics and …

The Bitch And The Boogeyman: Violence Against Women And Gendered Morality In American Slasher Films, Davis A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the relationships between on-screen depictions of violence in American slasher horror films and depictions of gendered morality of victims. Slashers are a subgenre of horror film that arose out of the exploitation cinema movement of the 1970s that are characterized primarily by the presence of one or more human killers inflicting violence on a group of protagonists, typically through the use of bladed weapons. Data collected comes from a comprehensive set of thirty-six American slasher films that received a wide theatrical release, with exemptions for films whose primary genre is not slasher and only selecting three films …

Strength Imbalances And Shoulder Pain In Manual Wheelchair Users Stratified By Age Of Spinal Cord Injury/Disorder (Sci/D) Onset, Ashlyn M. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction The majority of manual wheelchair users (MWUs) with spinal cord injury or disorder (SCI/D) develop shoulder pain. In adults with SCI/D, there is evidence that upper limb strength imbalances are associated with shoulder pain. However, strength imbalances may indicate protective compensatory strategies, and other factors may be important contributors to pain. Currently, personalized prevention and management of pain is limited, little is known about joint strength imbalances and pain in children who use manual wheelchairs, and the effect of the age of SCI/D onset is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of age …

Sink Into Serenity: Exploring The Healing Properties Of Bathing Culture, Kristopher P. Mckeever

Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to deconstruct the ideas of privacy as they’re understood in the west, this project’s concept revolves around levels of transparency and how that can eliminate barriers and feelings of shame surrounding the human body, fostering a greater sense of community through shared vulnerability.

Radical Hope Amid Generational Oppression And Puerto Rican Well-Being, Natalia Gomez Giuliani

Theses and Dissertations

Oppressive systems (e.g., colonialism, racism, capitalism) create a disparate distribution of power that, through various mechanisms, negatively impacts the health and well-being of members of the oppressed group. Boricuas have experienced over 500 years of oppression, with the island currently maintaining a colonial relationship with the United States. As these adverse effects of oppression are identified, the need for protective factors (e.g., hope) has emerged. This study explored how islander Boricuas practice radical hope, understand their history of oppression and resistance, and how they perceived it to impact their overall well-being. Utilizing a phenomenological qualitative approach, I conducted 15 semi-structured …

Narratives Of Illness Identity Development In Adolescents With Cancer, Rachel Holder

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Adolescence is a pivotal developmental stage characterized by the development of independence, autonomy, and identity. A diagnosis of cancer can be disruptive to this process (Grinyer, 2009; Hazen et al., 2008; Neylon et al., 2023). How one incorporates cancer into their identity, or illness identity, has been associated with clinical outcomes, including adherence, life satisfaction, psychosocial functioning, and health-related quality of life and could be a target for supportive interventions aimed at adolescents with cancer (Commissariat et al., 2020; Luyckx et al., 2008, 2018; Meyer & Lamash, 2020; Oris et al., 2016; Raymaekers et al., 2020). Prior literature has …

Periodic Trends In The Electronic And Magnetic Structure Of Superatomic 3d Transition Metal Chalcogenide Clusters, Gabriel Bohannon

Theses and Dissertations

We have systematically investigated the electronic structure of octahedral transition metal chalcogenide clusters, TM₆S₈(CO)₆, in which the transition metal atoms are from the 3d series in order to identify if periodic properties emerge. We were motivated by the identification of closed electronic shells with electron counts of 96, 100 and 114 in similar clusters from the 4d and 5d transition metal series. Further motivation was the finding of a dual-shell closing in the Fe₆S₈(CN)₆^5- cluster. This cluster is stabilized with a large spin magnetic moment due to the …

Linking Disturbance & Macrophyte Colonization–Extinction Dynamics To Invasion Success & Community Assembly: Integrating Population, Community, & Landscape Perspectives, Joshua T. Armstrong

Theses and Dissertations

Aquatic plants, macrophytes, are foundational components of freshwater ecosystems, influencing abiotic conditions, providing habitat structure, and shaping biodiversity and community assembly processes. Their role is particularly critical in dynamic systems where disturbance regimes and colonization processes interact to shape community patterns and species distributions. Despite their ecological importance, macrophytes remain underrepresented in theoretical and applied studies of metacommunity dynamics and invasion ecology, especially in natural systems experiencing frequent environmental fluctuations. Here we aim to elucidate how macrophytes influence and respond to spatial and temporal variation in aquatic ecosystems, with a particular focus on colonization-extinction dynamics, invasion success, and community assembly. …

Machine Learning-Driven Optimization For Utility-Scale Quantum Optimization, Bao Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Hard combinatorial optimization problems, often mapped to Ising models, promise potential solutions with quantum advantage but are constrained by limited qubit counts in near-term devices. We present an innovative quantum-inspired framework that dynamically compresses large Ising models to fit available quantum hardware of different sizes. Thus, we aim to bridge the gap between large-scale optimization and current hardware capabilities. Our method leverages a physics-inspired GNN architecture to capture complex interactions in Ising models and accurately predict alignments among neighboring spins (aka qubits) at ground states. By progressively merging such aligned spins, we can reduce the model size while preserving the …

Financial Health Literacy Of Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Qualitative Research Study, Kimberly Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Financial health literacy (FHL) is an emerging concept with unique application to older adults. Multiple complexities converge in older age that create increased financial vulnerability (e.g., retirement, chronic disease). However, low financial and health literacy are common in older adults, impacting their ability to self-manage. The AWV’s focus on prevention offers an opportunity to incorporate a proactive approach to financial-related assessment. This study will explore the perceived value of assessing FHL in primary care settings and the financial-related barriers and facilitators to implementing the personalized prevention plan.

Methods: The conceptual framework was guided by the Individual and Family Self-Management …

The Role Of Context Sensitivity On The Association Between Racial Discrimination And Emotional Dysfunction Among Black American Adolescents, Summer C. Bryant

Theses and Dissertations

Black adolescents are at an increased risk of experiencing racial discrimination due to a developmental period marked by increased time away from parents and caregivers and increased time with peers (Fisher et al., 2000). Empirical research has shown that Black adolescents’ experiences of racial discrimination are associated with emotion dysfunction (Benner et al., 2018; Seaton et al., 2009; Sellers et al., 2006). Although previous research has identified racial factors such as racial socialization and racial identity as protective factors by reducing the impact of racial discrimination on Black adolescents’ emotion dysfunction (Gibson et al., 2021; Neblett et al., 2008), we …

Swarming Segregation: Leveraging Swarm Intelligence And Regionalization As Instruments For School District Desegregation, Jeffrey Wooten

Theses and Dissertations

Even after Brown led to the South briefly having the most diverse schools in the nation, schools throughout the Northeast have remained the most segregated in the nation for decades. While federal jurisprudence has made compelling desegregation pursuant to the Equal Protection Clause more challenging, New Jersey has a particularly favorable landscape to address severe segregation. With a highly diverse, densely populated public enrollment, favorable state constitutional precedent, and a history of successfully compelling desegregation, New Jersey is fertile ground exploring regional desegregation. Scholars, judges, and even plaintiffs in ongoing litigation (Latino Action Network v. N.J.) have called for New …