Digital Commons Network^™

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 …

Responsive Rigor And Strategic Care: Faculty Praxis For Holistic Student Success In The Community College, Jennifer Elizabeth Kelley

Dissertations

This qualitative study examines how community college faculty conceptualize, communicate, and enact academic rigor and care in their teaching practice. While post-pandemic debates have positioned rigor and care as opposing forces—evident in the "Rigor Wars" that framed care as performative laxity and rigor as gatekeeping—community college faculty successfully integrate these practices to support holistic student success. This research addresses critical gaps in higher education scholarship, which has studied rigor and care separately, focused primarily on four-year institutions, and overlooked faculty perspectives on how integration occurs in practice. Drawing on a single-case study of 38 faculty members at a large Midwestern …

The Year Of Birth Age Grouping Policy: Its Impact On Participation In Us Youth Soccer, Murray James Findlay

Dissertations

In 2016, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) implemented a nationwide year-of-birth (YOB) age grouping policy that aligned youth soccer teams with calendar years (January 1st –December 31st), replacing the traditional schoolyear (August 1st –July 31st) grouping system. This dissertation investigates the impact of that policy on youth soccer participation in the United States, addressing a critical gap in empirical research linking national policy interventions to participation outcomes. Framed through the Fun Integration Theory (FIT) (Visek et al., 2015), which conceptualizes youth sport engagement as driven by social and intrinsic enjoyment factors, the study examines whether the YOB policy caused …

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 …

Jesus-Centered Preaching: A Christocentric Approach Based On The Hermeneutical Implications Of The Gospels As Βίοι., Mark Palmer

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to discover the implied hermeneutic of the Gospels as βίοι and to propose a congruent homiletic. The study addressed the following research questions: What is the genre of the Gospels and the resulting hermeneutic? Does current Christ-centered preaching account for his hermeneutic? Does Christological research account for intrinsic characteristics? What is the intrinsic Christology of Mark’s Gospel? What homiletical process is needed to align with the genre-based hermeneutic of the Gospels? The methodology of this study followed a four-step process: Genre research confirming the Gospels as βίοι, Christological research including the development of an …

Evaluation Associations As Catalysts For The Professionalization Of Evaluation Practice: A Comparative Case Study Of Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia And Uganda, Amy C. Jersild

Dissertations

Professional associations are recognized as key actors in promoting the development of the evaluation field across the globe. There has been exponential growth of Voluntary Organizations for the Professionalization of Evaluation (VOPEs) in the Global South in the past several decades in response to an evolving international aid agenda and a mobilized international evaluation field intent on supporting the development of national monitoring and evaluation systems and the professionalization of the field. VOPEs have featured as a central actor in the Global Evaluation Agenda, an initiative developed by the international community aimed to promote professionalization of the evaluation field as …

Personal And High-Intensity Gait Factors Associated With Balance And Walking Improvement With Outpatient Stroke Rehabilitation: A Retrospective Study, Heather Staal

Dissertations

Objective: The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships between personal factors and High-Intensity Gait variables and balance and walking improvement in an outpatient stroke population.

Background: Stroke is a leading cause of long-term disability, with persistent gait and balance impairments commonly limiting independence and participation. High-intensity gait training (HIGT) is an evidence-based rehabilitation approach that improves walking outcomes following stroke; however, guidance on how specific training variables are applied in outpatient physical therapy settings remains broad.

Methods: This retrospective observational study analyzes clinical data from outpatient physical therapy episodes in which HIGT is a …

The School To Prison Pipeline From The Inside Out: Survivor Narraitves, Nina M. Koufalias

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the lived experiences of two Latino men who traversed the school-to-prison pipeline in the 1980s. The purpose of this study is to investigate how intersecting systems of racism, ableism, poverty, and exclusionary school practices shaped their educational trajectories and contributed to their incarceration. Three overarching research questions guide this inquiry: (1) What can be learned from the stories of two formerly incarcerated relatives that sheds light on how the school-to-prison pipeline is lived? (2) How do their narratives illustrate the impacts of exclusionary discipline policies, such as zero-tolerance, on educational opportunities and life outcomes? (3) How does …

Effectiveness Of Monetary Policy Communication: Evidence From Textual Analysis Of Daily Newspaper Articles, Bisrat Abebe Woldesilassie

Dissertations

Monetary policy communication has become a crucial tool for central banks to shape market expectations and enhance transparency. The goal of this paper is to measure how effectively the Fed communicates monetary policy through FOMC minutes by analyzing the impact of the release of FOMC minutes on financial markets through textual sentiment analysis of daily newspaper articles. I measure the surprise in the daily news sentiment that is caused by FOMC minutes release. The surprise in the sentiment is calculated as the change in the news sentiment that is measured over three weeks prior to the release of the FOMC …

The Impact Of Pedagogy Training On Self-Efficacy In Pre-Tenured Community College Faculty, Barbara Leach

Dissertations

Community college faculty are typically hired based on disciplinary expertise rather than formal preparation in teaching pedagogy. This mixed-methods study examined whether prior pedagogy training was associated with higher levels of teaching self-efficacy among pre-tenured faculty at Illinois community colleges. Guided by Bandura’s theory of self-efficacy, the study compared faculty with prior pedagogy training, including K–12 licensure or graduate coursework, with faculty who had no prior pedagogy training.

Quantitative data were collected using a modified version of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale, while qualitative data were gathered through semi-structured interviews. Ten participants were divided equally between the two groups. …

The Impact Of Religious Behaviors, Islamophobia, Gender Roles, Language Proficiency, And Education Levels On Mental Illness Stigma And Help-Seeking Behaviors Among Arab Women In The U.S., Rima Muhsen

Dissertations

The official U.S. census does not provide data on the number of Arab Americans in the United States, which hinders studies that focus on this population group to explore their needs and improve access to mental health services. Arab women in America represent a subgroup that has received insufficient attention from researchers, particularly regarding culturally sensitive topics such as mental health problems and their associated stigma. The influence of cultural, social, and religious factors on self-stigma associated with mental illness has not been adequately studied among this marginalized group. While previous research has suggested a relationship between self-stigma, social stigma …

Well-Being, Resilience, And Trauma During Migration: A Mixed Methods Study Of Venezuelan Migrants In Transit, Margaret S. Port

Dissertations

A substantial body of research has examined the psychological impact of experiences preceding and following migration, yet comparatively little attention has been given to the psychological toll of the migration journey itself. Moreover, due to the relative novelty of the Venezuelan migrant crisis and the community’s arrival in the United States, the psychological impact of Venezuelan migrants’ unique migration experience has been underexamined. This study utilized an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to investigate the relationships between well-being, resilience, and trauma among Venezuelan migrants in Chicago, Illinois, while also exploring their lived experiences of the migration journey. Study participants (n …

From Campus To Community: The Role Of Higher Education In Strengthening Regional Entrepreneurial Ecosystems In Appalachia, Anne M. Montgomery

Dissertations

This study addresses a gap in understanding how small, rural liberal arts higher education institutions (HEIs) in the Appalachian College Association Entrepreneurial Alliance (ACAEA) support regional entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs), and how, if at all, those strategies vary across Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) county economic classifications. Using a qualitative multi-case design, the study examined 10 ACAEA institutions and drew on semi-structured interviews, site observations, institutional documents (including strategic plans), and ARC county-level economic data. The analysis produced five cross-case themes describing how these institutions support entrepreneurship: (a) strategic leadership and institutional culture, (b) experiential and embedded entrepreneurial education, (c) community-driven partnerships …

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 …

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 …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence And Neuro-Linguistic Programming On Candidate Assessment In Talent Acquisition, Amna Fahim

Dissertations

Digitalization in human resource management led to the implementation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) in recruitment practices. However, although AI and NLP were adopted globally, the empirical evidence in emerging countries, especially Pakistan, was scanty. Hence, this study investigated the impacts of individually and jointly implementing AI and NLP on candidate assessment outcomes in the telecommunications industry in Pakistan. According to the literature, this study is grounded in Technological Determinism, Machine Learning Theory, Psycholinguistic Theory, and Cognitive Behaviorism. A quantitative correlational approach was used in this study. To investigate the proposed research questions, descriptive statistics, Pearson …

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. …

Holistic Dram Enhancements: From Intrinsic In-Memory Operations To Robust Security Mechanisms, Ranyang Zhou

Dissertations

Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DRAM) is both the performance bottleneck and a critical security boundary of modern computing systems. Its physical properties make it an attractive substrate for near-data computation—yet those same properties expose it to disturbance-based hardware attacks. This dissertation argues that these two dimensions are not independent: the architectural choices that make DRAM efficient also reshape its threat landscape. Addressing both requires a unified approach to memory architecture and security co-design.

The first part of this dissertation attacks the memory wall through four processing-in-DRAM (PIM) frameworks. ReD-LUT and LT-PIM unify lookup-table arithmetic with charge-sharing logic, achieving up to 37.8x …

A Generative Ai-Driven Computational Framework For Industry-Scale Discovery Of Novel Battery Materials, Joy Datta

Dissertations

The growing demand for sustainable, high-energy-density electrochemical storage has motivated the exploration of multivalent-ion batteries based on earth-abundant elements such as aluminum, calcium, magnesium, and zinc. While multivalent charge carriers offer higher theoretical energy density than lithium, their practical deployment is hindered by sluggish ion transport, strong ion-host interactions, and structural degradation of electrode materials. Identifying host materials that can reversibly accommodate multivalent ions while maintaining structural integrity remains a fundamental challenge. The dissertation develops a scalable, end-to-end computational framework that integrates density functional theory (DFT), machine learning (ML), and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to accelerate the discovery of next-generation …

Toward Learning-Based Reconstruction And Part Decomposition Of Man-Made 3d Geometry: Neural Implicit Representations And Scalable Supervision, Shen Fan

Dissertations

Digital three-dimensional (3D) models are central to engineering design, analysis, and manufacturing, but learning pipelines for man-made geometry often operate on sampled carriers that do not preserve all of the structure present in exact CAD representations. This dissertation studies learning-based reconstruction and part decomposition for structured man-made 3D geometry, from general object benchmarks to CAD-derived datasets, with a focus on neural implicit representations trained from signed-distance samples, point clouds, and tessellated meshes. The goal is to make these models more accurate, more part-aware, and more consistently supervised.

First, signed distance function (SDF) reconstruction with implicit neural representations is improved through …

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. …

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 …

Reclamando Corazón Y Voz: Latinas Speak Their Truth Through Plática As Resistance In California Community College Learning Disabilities Assessments, Maricela Becerra

Dissertations

Although California Community Colleges (CCCs) offer learning disability (LD) assessments to determine eligibility for academic accommodations, for Latina students navigating converging forces of race, gender, language, citizenship, and ableism, these assessments often surface unspoken histories of harm. This study advanced Chicana feminista DisCrit (CFDC), extending disability critical race theory through Chicana spirituality and cultural intuition to examine possibilities when an educadora situates assessments in a plática grounded in consideración—respectful, relational, and unhurried care.

Rooted in Chicana feminist pláticas methodology and authored from the positionality of a disabled Latina scholar–practitioner, this qualitative decolonial dissertation explored how Latina students reflected on …

Generative Ai And Student Engagement, Motivation, And Learning: Exploring The Use Of Generative Ai In Higher Education Online Courses, Jeffrey L. Simmons

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The rapid emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT in higher education has left many institutions unprepared to assess their potential benefits and risks. This mixed-methods study examined how ChatGPT and Google’s NotebookLM were integrated into online course development and delivery at a small private nonprofit university in California, and assessed their perceived impact on student engagement, motivation, and learning.

Data were collected from post-course Likert-scale surveys completed by students across three online master’s-level courses and from pre-course prediction surveys by instructors in the two NotebookLM courses. Quantitative analyses included one-sample t-tests against a …

A Praxis Of Transformative Care: Centering Historically Resilient Students At A Pwi, Tanaisha Coleman

Dissertations

Campus cultural centers frequently treat student resilience as an individual struggle rather than a collective responsibility, obscuring systemic failures. At a predominantly white institution (PWI), historically resilient students, those from diverse backgrounds who have historically endured the structural load of institutional exclusion, carry the compounded weight of navigating systemic barriers while driving institutional change. This qualitative study disrupts traditional narratives of surviving and thriving to examine how undergraduate students constituting a student advisory committee (SAC) coconstructed critical resilience rooted in transformative and collective care.

Using community-based participatory research (CBPR), this study positions students as coarchitects of their institutional experiences. Over …

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 …

Burning Out: A Narrative Exploration Of The Adaptive Challenge And Scaffolds Built Toward Sustenance Among Immigrant Rights Activists In San Diego County, Anna C. Runion

Dissertations

Activist burnout has been identified as one of the greatest threats to social movement sustainability, and the lived experience of paid immigrant rights activists remains undertheorized. This narrative inquiry explored activist burnout among 10 San Diego County immigrant rights activists, revealing how this community understands burnout, what factors contribute to its production, and how activists sustain themselves within it. Using Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) narrative inquiry methodology, the researcher conducted in-depth individual interviews with ten activists representing a range of intersectional identities and roles. Narrative profiles were analyzed through holistic narrative reading, narrative reporting, structural and emergent coding, and cross-narrative …