Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating The Role Of Cellular Senescence On Vestibular Dysfunction In Repetitive Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Michael Volyanyuk

Dissertations

Vestibular dysfunction is a prevalent and persistent consequence of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Clinical reports reveal that women experience vestibular deficits more frequently than men following mTBI. Despite the high prevalence and debilitating nature of vestibular symptoms, preclinical literature evaluating mTBI-associated vestibular impairments is limited. Emerging evidence demonstrates that cellular senescence is involved in the pathological molecular sequela of mTBI. It has been shown that senescence contributes to cognitive deficits following repetitive mTBI (rmTBI); however, its role in rmTBI-associated vestibular dysfunction remains unexplored. This body of work investigated the role of cellular senescence on rmTBI-induced vestibular dysfunction in both …

Coming To The Table: How Black Mamas Resist And Reorganize The Racialized Educational Terrain In Community, Moriah Lynn Johnson

Dissertations

Black homeschooling has grown significantly among African American families, yet existing scholarship has not fully theorized how race, gender, and institutional power operate within homeschooling communities. My dissertation examines how Black mothers resist and reorganize a racialized educational terrain that extends beyond conventional schooling into homeschooling spaces. Drawing on Diamond’s (2006) racialized educational terrain framework, I introduce the Racialized Homeschooling Terrain (RHT) — an original conceptual framework that demonstrates how homeschooling spaces are racialized in similar and distinct ways. This framework centers Black maternal agency, as moms interpret, resist, and reorganize homeschooling spaces to construct communal homeplace. Using a qualitative, …

Don't Force Me To Explain: Rethinking Access Outside Of Compulsory Transparency, Rhea Ienni

Dissertations

My dissertation is concerned with better understanding the barriers disabled people encounter while attempting to procure access both at the institutional level, and in their everyday lives. Within disability and accessibility literature, there are many discourses on what disability is and what access means. However, there are few people who explore the harmful consequences of disabled people being forced to “prove” they are disabled to an ableist world to get their basic needs met, and my dissertation intervenes in this gap. Within current US policy, if a disabled person requires access support at the institutional level, they must provide medical …

A Qualitative Study Of Gratitude Practice Among Won Buddhist Older Adults And Implications For Gerontological Social Work, Sungsim Lee

Dissertations

Although gratitude has been widely studied in social science, existing scholarship has largely relied on Western worldviews and quantitative research frameworks, limiting understanding of lived gratitude experiences within diverse spiritual and cultural contexts, including Eastern spiritual traditions. In Won Buddhism, originating in South Korea, gratitude holds a central place in spiritual life and is understood as an essential practice. This qualitative study explores the views of Won Buddhist older adult practitioners regarding their experiences, benefits, and challenges of engaging in spiritually grounded gratitude practice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 practitioners aged 65 and older from English-speaking Won Buddhist communities. …

Being Desi At School: Exploring The Racialized School Experiences Of South Asian American Youth, Prabha Kaundinya

Dissertations

Schools in America have been central areas for racialization, and as an immigrant, racial-ethnic minority population, South Asian American (SAA) students have been subjected to a variety of racialization processes (S. J. Lee et al., 2017; Rice, 2017, 2019; Subedi, 2013). However, what is known about SAA educational experiences is often based on celebratory stereotypes that proclaim their uniform success while neglecting attention towards the diversity of their needs (including academic, social-emotional, or mental health needs; Saran, 2015; Ngo & Lee, 2007; P. Patel & Patel, 2017; Pedraza & Guillaume, 2023; N. Sharma et al., 2020). This dissertation uses a …

Elucidating The Mechanisms Of Complex Flavoprotein Dehydrogenases, Tyler Alt

Dissertations

Flavins are ubiquitous redox active cofactors that can catalyze electron transfer between substrates. They offer the advantage of being able to stabilize a range of oxidation and protonation states, as well being amenable to covalent modification, which can further alter their activity. As such, the scope of reactions catalyzed by flavoproteins is broad and flavin has implications in a range of biological processes. The two predominant forms of flavin that serve as redox active cofactors are flavin adenine mononucleotide (FMN) and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD), which are functionally homologous. A major complication of studying flavoprotein dehydrogenases, and one that has …

Making Sense Of The Barrio: Place-Based Appraisal And Coping Among Latine Residents In Chicago, Juanita Vivas Bastidas

Dissertations

Residents of Chicago’s Latine barrios often describe their neighborhoods as places of familiarity and safety—sites defined by both personal independence and collective solidarity, where daily life is marked by a sense of belonging and mutual support. Yet, residents also contend daily with overlapping social and environmental stressors. While urban, medical, and environmental sociologists have each shown that place matters, their findings remain siloed and rarely integrated to illuminate the everyday realities of Latine neighborhoods. As a result, we lack a systematic analysis of how people living in Chicago’s Latine barrios make sense of and cope with multiple, simultaneous stressors. I …

Merleau-Ponty On The Crisis Of Natural Philosophy: A Critique Of The Metaphysical Foundations Of Natural Science And Investigations Into The Ontology Of Nature, Kevin Mager

Dissertations

In this dissertation, I show that Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of nature is also a radical critique of the metaphysical foundations of natural science. This critique leads us to a new ontology for science, grounded in the lifeworld. I focus on how his philosophy offers a detailed critique of both physicalism and mechanism. For Merleau-Ponty, mechanism is not just the strict adherence to classical causality, but any view that asserts that classical causality has any role to play in reality at all. To replace mechanistic causality, Merleau-Ponty argues that we must conceive of nature as grounded in meaningful possibility. Merleau-Ponty's emphasis on …

Uncovering Dkk1 As A Therapeutically Relevant Target In Aggressive Er+ Breast Cancer Using A Novel Antiestrogen, Kristen Young

Dissertations

Over 70 percent of breast cancers are estrogen receptor-positive (ERα+), meaning that the hormone estrogen drives tumor growth. Although first-line targeted therapies that directly block ERα from hormone-dependent pathologies are initially effective, almost half of patients ultimately progress. These patients show high mutational rates to the ESR1 gene that encodes for ERα. A hotspot missense tyrosine to serine mutation at position 537 (Y537S) initiates hormone-independent, allele-specific transcriptional programs that increase metastasis. While next-generation ERα-targeted therapies show promise, benefits are often limited compared to standard-of-care. Understanding the mechanisms of action used by the Y537S ESR1 breast cancer cells to evade therapeutic …

Using Design Thinking To Support Teacher Confidence In Delivering Culturally Relevant Literacy Instruction To Address Literacy Achievement Gaps, Amy Winters

Dissertations

Despite comprehensive efforts over the years, literacy rates in the United States continued to decline, particularly among students from disadvantaged populations. The literacy achievement gap was driven by socioeconomic disparities, inadequate teacher preparation, and a lack of access to evidence-based, culturally relevant materials. In the Main School District (MSD), the scholar practitioner identified while interventions existed, inconsistencies in literacy instruction and a lack of teacher confidence in delivering culturally responsive instruction hindered student progress. The dissertation in practice focused on addressing issues in literacy instruction and achievement while highlighting ways to meet teachers’ needs and provide means to engage all …

Exploring How Therapist Trainees’ Mentalization, Attachment Styles, And The Working Alliance Impact Treatment Outcomes In Psychotherapy, Hanali Gilbert

Dissertations

A burgeoning area of research within the past 30 years has sought to identify which specific therapist factors contribute to differential treatment outcomes (Barkham et al., 2017). The purpose of the current naturalistic study was to explore how two personal characteristics of therapist trainees, mentalization capacity and attachment styles, impact early treatment outcomes at two Midwestern psychology training clinics. This study also examined whether therapist mentalization and the working alliance interacted to influence client outcomes. Therapists completed the Mentalization Scale (MentS; Dimitrijević et al., 2018) and the Experiences in Close Relationships scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998), while the Working …

Disability Employment In Côte D’Ivoire: Human Resources Managers’ Experiences And Challenges, Kinanpy Vanessa Toure

Dissertations

This study examined the critical role of human resource (HR) managers in promoting workforce integration and addressing the persistent barriers faced by people with disabilities (PWDs) in Côte d'Ivoire. Focusing on the perspectives, challenges, and lived experiences of HR managers, the research explored how inclusive workplace practices were developed and implemented within the Ivorian context. Employing a qualitative case study design, the study utilized semi-structured, scenario-based interviews and analyzed allowable public documents, specifically the Ivorian Labor Code, a relevant NGO publication addressing disability inclusion in Côte d’Ivoire, and the publicly available websites of participating organizations. This approach was intended to …

Long-Covid And Cognition, Mychael Bruce

Dissertations

COVID-19 is an evolving virus that can harm the body’s respiratory and cardiovascular systems. Directly related to COVID-19 are individuals who do not recover from their initial infection, making them long haulers. Long-COVID is transitioning from a range of isolated phenomena to higher prevalence rates in patients who contracted COVID-19. Many individuals report issues with cognitive function, referred to as ‘brain fog’, that affect memory, attention, and even language skills. This literature review addresses the available research on Long-COVID and how persistent infection correlates with cognitive difficulties. It aims to explain the neurobiology of Long-COVID and how Long-COVID interacts within …

Holding Space: How Caregivers Narrate Support, Stress, And School Partnership, Celia D. Davenport

Dissertations

This qualitative dissertation examined how caregivers of students with low-incidence disabilities experienced and interpreted school support within the context of daily family life. Grounded in the social model of disability, the study was designed to explore the nature of meaningful school-based support, the limitations caregivers encountered, and the ways school-family relationships shaped these experiences over time. The overarching research question asked how caregivers of students with low-incidence disabilities perceived the school’s role in supporting their families. A qualitative research design was selected to center caregiver voice and allow for in-depth exploration of lived experience. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews …

The Impact Of Reliable Backup Childcare Services On Work-Life Balance And Stress Levels Among Working Parents, Christiana Arhin

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between access to reliable backup childcare services, work-life balance, and stress levels among working parents. Building on Arhin’s (2025) research, this study seeks to address limitations in sample diversity and incorporate qualitative methods to gain deeper insight into these variables. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study will examine how access to backup childcare services influences work-life balance and stress levels, with a focus on capturing both quantitative trends and qualitative perspectives of working parents. By exploring these relationships, the study aims to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the role …

Understanding And Enhancing Suicide Prevention Strategies In The Military: The Roles Of Culture, Leadership, And Command Climate, Kelly Johanna Pires

Dissertations

Military service members are shaped and molded to fit a military culture that emphasizes mission readiness and continuous preparedness. Countless hours are spent training for various situations that can arise. Many trainings are geared toward worst-case scenarios that can cause an increase in stressors and traumatic events. They are expected to demonstrate resilience and overcome adversity to remain mission-ready. This expectation to be mission-ready creates the space for mental health difficulties as well as stigma and avoidance of help-seeking behaviors. In many cases, the desire to stay mission-ready creates a barrier for conversations around mental health. The military emphasizes qualities …

Evaluation Of Neuroplastic Changes In Psychological Intervention And Contemporary Treatments Of Depression, Taylor Severance

Dissertations

Major depressive disorder is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders worldwide. There is a vast range of treatment options for depression, with varying levels of effectiveness. Recent treatments for depression have expanded, increasing alternative treatments, and it is unknown which treatments have the largest impact on depression. This research was designed to examine the treatments of depression, with a focus on psychotherapy and contemporary treatments such as ketamine, psilocybin, and transcranial magnetic stimulation. A literature review was conducted to assess treatment outcomes and neuroplastic changes in these interventions, as well as combinations of the interventions. Data were evaluated …

The Motherhood Contract: Mental Load, Moral Risk, And Gendered Care In Contemporary Parenting And Digital Culture, Stephanie J. Stallman

Dissertations

This dissertation examines childcare as a site of gender inequality shaped by cultural norms, structural barriers, and digital discourse. Despite increased awareness of shared parenting ideals, mothers predominantly bear the “mental load.” This study introduces the idea of a motherhood contract: implicit expectations that mothers are responsible for managing children’s needs. Two research questions guide this study. (1) What are parents’ experiences of managing the mental load of caregiving? How do they make sense of these experiences within the gendered and moral expectations shaping family life? (2) How are cultural ideas about childcare and parenting constructed, circulated, and reproduced through …

Diverse Families Navigating Mental Health At The Pediatrician’S Office: A Mixed Methods Exploration Of The Interplay Of Stress, Culture, And Child Mental Health In The Primary Care Setting, Sara B. Budowsky

Dissertations

Low-income and ethnic minority youth experience high psychiatric need but persistently low participation in traditional mental health care. General pediatricians are often the first and only healthcare providers with whom many families engage around their child’s emotional and behavioral development. Using both quantitative analysis of retrospective secondary data and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of in-depth interviews with diverse caregivers, this project explored influencers of child mental health and family utilization of pediatric primary-care-based mental health services in the context of a uniquely multicultural clinic serving a predominantly Medicaid population. Three key findings include: 1) Caregiver Stress was a highly significant, …

Exercise Therapy For Mood Disorders In Retiring/Former Athletes, Christian Antos

Dissertations

This dissertation examined the potential integration of exercise therapy and psychotherapy as a treatment approach for mood-related difficulties experienced by former elite athletes during the transition out of competitive sport. Retirement from athletics is often associated with significant biopsychosocial challenges, including disruptions in identity, healthy routines, social support, and emotional well-being. Existing literature suggests that exercise may serve as an effective adjunctive intervention for improving mood and overall psychological functioning, though limited research has explored its application among retiring athletes within psychotherapeutic contexts. This literature review synthesized current research related to athletic retirement, neurobiological mechanisms associated with physical activity, and …

Predicting Clinical Outcomes Of Non-Specific Low Back Pain By Studying The Interaction Of Clinical And Demographic Factors Of A Retrospective Data Set, Erica Michelle Fernandes

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to investigate demographic factors, including age, gender, body mass index (BMI), race, marital status, insurance type, severity of disease (initial pain level), and clinical factors such as number of visits (no. of visits) at physical therapy (PT), length of time at PT and the type of clinician either physical therapist versus physical therapy assistant (PTA), that most predict PT clinical outcomes in patients with nonspecific low back pain (NSLBP) and see if there is an interaction between demographic and clinical variables.

Methods

The current study is a retrospective, cross-sectional, observational study using secondary electronic …

Perceptual And Geometric Advances In Crowd Simulation, Bilas Talukdar

Dissertations

Simulating realistic crowd motion remains a fundamental challenge in computer graphics and multi-agent systems, as it requires modeling both physically plausible interactions and perceptually natural behaviors. Existing crowd simulation methods typically employ simplified geometric abstractions, most commonly circular agent representations, and model navigation using either analytical interaction formulations (e.g., force, velocity, or constraint-based methods) or learned policies derived through reinforcement learning. Despite their effectiveness, these approaches often overlook detailed geometric structure and do not explicitly account for perceptual realism. This dissertation addresses these challenges by improving the realism of virtual crowd simulation through two key advancements: perceptual preference learning and …

Principles Of Privacy And Security In Artificial Intelligence And Applications, Khang Tran

Dissertations

Modern artificial intelligence (AI) systems have transformed critical domains such as healthcare, software engineering, finance, and the legal system. Despite their broad impact, concerns about trustworthiness, especially regarding privacy and security, remain major obstacles to wider adoption. Addressing these concerns requires both a systematic understanding of the privacy and security risks inherent in AI systems and the development of principled foundations for trustworthy AI that safeguard client privacy and security. This goal is particularly challenging because of the complexity of modern large-scale AI systems, the trade-offs between privacy and model utility, and the need to simultaneously ensure other important properties …

Mechanics And Physical Attributes Of Nature-Based Alterations: Rock Reinforcement And Urban Heat Island Assessment, Mary Chikondi Ngoma

Dissertations

Ground improvement is critical to geotechnical and geo-engineering systems, where modification of the properties of geomaterials (rocks and soils) is required to maintain stability and prevent failure of infrastructure installed within and around them. This need has become increasingly important with rapid urbanization and population growth, which intensify demands on surface and subsurface systems and further challenge the performance of supporting geomaterials. As a result, there is growing interest in nature-based solutions, particularly biologically mediated processes such as biocementation, which can enhance the physical, hydraulic, and mechanical properties of geomaterials while offering environmentally sustainable alternatives to conventional ground improvement techniques. …

Glass Transition Temperature Of Plga Nanoparticles And The Application In Drug Delivery, Guangliang Liu

Dissertations

The glass transition temperature (T_g) of poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles plays a crucial role in governing molecular mobility, diffusion, and consequently, drug release kinetics. However, the interaction among residual surfactant, drug effect, nanoscale confinement, and release medium on T_g remains insufficiently characterized. This study aims to bridge this gap by correlating the thermal behavior of PLGA nanoparticles with their drug release behavior under physiologically relevant conditions.

In the present study, PLGA nanoparticles were synthesized using both nano-emulsion and surfactant-free nano-precipitation approaches. The influence of residual surfactants - poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DMAB) - was systematically …

Membrane-Engineered Nanotherapeutic Platforms For Drug Delivery: Hollow Fiber Membrane Synthesis Of Lipid Nanoparticles, Biomimetic Nanocarriers, And Nanobubbles, Zhixiang Liu

Dissertations

Lipid-based nanocarriers have emerged as a cornerstone technology for RNA therapeutics, enabling effective intracellular delivery for applications ranging from vaccination to gene regulation. However, current manufacturing approaches, particularly microfluidic-based platforms, face inherent limitations in scalability, throughput, and structural tunability due to their reliance on confined channel geometries and restricted mixing architectures. Addressing these challenges requires fundamentally new strategies that decouple nanoparticle formation from traditional microscale flow constraints while maintaining precise control over physicochemical properties.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive framework for the design, engineering, and application of advanced lipid-based nanocarriers, centered on a hollow fiber membrane (HFM)—assisted nanopore-mediated assembly platform. …

Parameter Density Estimation For Cardiac Electrophysiology Models Using Data Consistent Deep Learning, Michael Luo

Dissertations

Mathematical models of biological rhythms and excitable systems can provide insights into mechanisms underlying cardiac electrical dynamics. However, estimating the parameters of these models from experimental observations is often difficult due to noise, heterogeneity, and unobserved variables. For example, in an electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, information about the electrical properties of different regions of the heart is compressed into a single voltage trace. Additionally, variability within these signals may contain important information about population heterogeneity, regional differences in electrophysiology, and time-dependent modulation.

This dissertation develops, explores, and evaluates methods that perform feature-based distributional inference for complex nonlinear dynamical systems. The objective …

Transcranial Ac Modulation Of Cerebellar Nuclear Activity In Awake Animals, Nuran Kavakli

Dissertations

Entrainment of cerebellar nuclear (CN) cells via cerebellar transcranial alternating current stimulation (ctACS) has been reported in animals under ketamine/xylazine anesthesia. Our main objective was to demonstrate modulation of CN activity in unanesthetized, freely moving animals using ctACS. Multi-channel carbon-fiber electrodes were implanted into the interpositus nucleus for recording multi-unit (MU) activity, and thin-film electrodes were implanted subcutaneously over the posterior cerebellum for stimulation. A frequency-domain-based metric was developed to quantify modulation from MU signals. The results demonstrated modulation in a wide range of frequencies (4 Hz-300 Hz) as in anesthetized animals. In contrast, the amplitude of the peak in …

Embodied Leadership And Conditional Legitimacy: Critically Conscious Male Leaders Navigating Systems Of Power, Luis A. Legaspi

Dissertations

Leadership is not a neutral concept; it is shaped by overlapping systems of power, including empire, whiteness, neoliberal capitalism, and cisheteropatriarchy. These interlocking systems influence how leadership is defined, recognized, and legitimized, often privileging particular identities and forms of authority. The persistent underrepresentation of people of color, women, and queer individuals in positions of leadership reflects how dominant conceptions of leadership remain closely aligned with historically entrenched structures of power.

This critical narrative inquiry study examines how men, who disproportionately occupy positions of social and institutional authority, make meaning of masculinity, power, and leadership within these systems. Drawing on relational …

Compassion At The Core: Reimagining Schools As Centers Of Human Flourishing Through Youth-Led Action Research, Tara S. Waudby

Dissertations

In an increasingly competitive and standardized world, student wellbeing is a growing priority in K-12 education, alongside an emerging focus on human flourishing. While not commonly paired with wellbeing science, compassion is gaining prominence as an important systemic mindset. Focusing on compassion in schools cultivates attitudes of caring, openness, generosity, concern for others, and concern for the environment, leading to positive impacts on organizational culture and learning. This points to a broader question about what it means for students and communities to flourish. However, it is unclear how compassion is experienced in the lives of students. A common solution has …