Digital Commons Network^™

Servingness In Solidarity: How Filipina/X/O American Student Organizations Cultivate Belonging, Clarissa Mae Lico Calimbas

Dissertations

Filipina/x/o American college students represent one of the largest Asian ethnic subgroups in the United States, yet their educational experiences remain underexamined within institutional research and higher education scholarship. Aggregated under the broader Asian American category, Filipina/x/o American students are rendered invisible by data practices that obscure the distinct colonial histories, socioeconomic realities, and identity negotiations. This qualitative study examined how Filipina/x/o American students at Pacific State University (PSU) describe their involvement in Filipina/x/o American Student Organizations (FASOs) and how that involvement shapes their sense of belonging, cultural identity development, and academic persistence. Guided by a critical race phenomenological framework …

Special Education Teacher's Perceptions Of Genai For Creating Individualized Lesson Plans, Mahadevan Iyer

Dissertations

In the United States today, 7.3 million students are receiving special education (SPED) services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004). Rules and regulations governing SPED help ensure that SPED students receive good quality education. Section 1414(d) of IDEIA requires schools to provide specialized academic instruction as per each student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP). SPED teachers are responsible for accommodating, scaffolding, and individualizing the curriculum to meet the goals specified in the IEP. Defining the individualized curriculum is an added responsibility for a SPED teacher. This study examined SPED teachers’ access to instructional materials that implement EBPs …

A Mixed-Method Study To Determine The Relationships Between Academic Confidence, Anxiety And Success In College Physics I At A Small Midwestern University, Jason Fenske

Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed-method study is to examine the effect of a variety of factors on student success in College Physics I. These factors include the transfer of knowledge from both high school physics and prerequisite mathematics courses for use in physics as well as anxiety, academic confidence, physics confidence, and methods designed to address these. The experiment occurred in a medium-sized midwestern university in two different classrooms. The results of this experiment showed that there is a direct correlation between mathematics confidence and physics confidence and therefore between these and student success. The study found that students who …

Exposing And Addressing Machine Learning Brittleness Through Constraint Solving, Muyeed Ahmed

Dissertations

Machine Learning (ML) implementations are fundamentally brittle: nondeterministic, inconsistent, and prone to overfitting; however, constraint solving can be used to systematically expose, quantify, and address this brittleness.

This dissertation first establishes that widely-used implementations of popular ML algorithms are nondeterministic (producing different outputs on the same input, across different runs) and inconsistent (different implementations of the same algorithm producing different outputs on the same input). This is more prevalent in Unsupervised Learning (UL) implementations where, due to the lack of a ground truth, subtle execution errors can go unnoticed and are difficult to verify. Nondeterminism and inconsistency also introduce security …

Engineered Porous Structures For Propellants Using Additive Manufacturing, Elbert Caravaca

Dissertations

Foamed polymers are widely used today for shock absorption and packaging materials to prevent damage to their contents. Typical foamed densities vary from 0.1 g/cm³ to 0.4 g/cm³ depending on the polymeric materials used. There is a need to explore foaming densities above 0.4 g/cm³ for propellants with highly engineered surface area progression for increased combustion performance. One way to achieve this is through highly controlled and engineered graded foam structures. To further exploit this approach, additive manufacturing coupled with a tunable means to generate foamed structures is the target of this work. To generate foam structures …

Development Of Ultrafast Protein Digestion And Standards Free Quantitation Methods For Mass Spectrometric Analysis, Praneeth Ivan Joel Fnu

Dissertations

A wide variety of biologically important molecules, such as enzymes, antibodies, hormones, transporters and receptors are proteins by composition and they play key roles in biological functions such as cellular regulation, communication, metabolism and physiological function. Protein dysfunctions and abnormalities are associated with numerous diseases, making proteins critical targets for understanding disease mechanisms and developing therapeutic interventions. Protein-based therapeutics such as monoclonal antibodies, hormones and vaccines gained popularity due to their high specificity, efficacy, and ability to treat complex diseases that are often difficult to address with small-molecule drugs.

Given the important role of proteins in a variety of biological …

The Inverse Elasto-Acoustic Problem, Patrick Grice

Dissertations

A stable and numerically efficient boundary integral method formulation of the elasto-acoustic problem is presented, based on Fourier analysis. The method generalizes well to multiple scattering. The Frechet derivative of the elasto-acoustic problem with respect to shape perturbations is derived, and geometric flow theory is used to design stable numerical methods for the simulation of moving boundaries. The shape derivative is used to define a regularized Gauss-Newton algorithm for shape fitting of elasto-acoustic scatterers.

The Impact Of Using History On Learning In Physics Laboratory Settings, Patrick W. Clouse

Dissertations

Integrating History of Science (HOS) into science courses has many benefits. Students demonstrate improved scientific content knowledge, develop their understanding of Nature of Science (NOS), and improve their attitudes towards science. However, barriers prevent instructors from effectively incorporating history into their teaching. The traditions and culture of science instruction, individual teacher attitudes and skills, existing institutional frameworks, and prevailing curricular materials all prevent HOS integration. Preservice teachers may never be exposed to HOS in their science or education courses, meaning they lack experience and knowledge surrounding the benefits of HOS. Therefore, alternative avenues for effective integration should be considered to …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Experiences Of African American Female Leaders In Public K-12 Schools In Georgia, Tyisha Davis

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how the intersectionality of race and gender shapes the leadership experiences of African American women in public K–12 schools. Despite comprising a significant portion of the educator workforce, African American women remain underrepresented in school leadership positions nationally, warranting deeper examinations of their professional pathways and daily realities. This qualitative study employed interpretative phenomenological analysis, guided by an intersectional framework, to understand the lived experiences of 10 African American female educational leaders across K–12 settings in Georgia. Principals, assistant principals, instructional specialists, and a superintendent engaged in semi-structured interviews analyzed through …

Power Signature-Based Hardware Security Techniques For The Internet Of Things, Ashish Mahanta

Dissertations

The rapid proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has introduced significant security challenges, particularly concerning stealthy, instruction-level malicious code injections that evade traditional software defenses. While conventional power analysis techniques are highly effective at detecting such subtle abnormalities, they require capturing high-resolution, voluminous power trace data. This dependency necessitates bulky data acquisition (DAQ) instrumentation, power-hungry analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), and intensive computational resources, making these methods impractical for deployment on resource-constrained IoT devices. To bridge this critical gap, this dissertation presents a novel hardware security paradigm, the Power Rising and Descending Signature (PRIDES) methodology. Instead of quantizing actual power consumption …

Identifying The Threshold: Using Regulatory Focus As A Predictor Of Ceo Adaptibility During Environmental Changes, George B. Constantine Iii

Dissertations

Building on research on CEO turnover and strategic leadership, this study examines how decision makers' regulatory focus shapes strategic decision-making and how this can contribute to performance decline, often resulting in CEO replacement. Drawing on regulatory focus theory, the study theorizes that measurable chronic regulatory focus attributes influence decision makers’ capacity to adapt to environmental change—conditions under which prior research suggests executives may become rigid and persist with established strategies. Despite its relevance for strategic adaptation, such chronic trait behavior has received limited attention in the current business literature. To address this gap, effectuation theory is integrated into a simulation-based …

Measuring Administrative Hiring Confidence Of Music Teachers In The Context Of Shallow Hiring Pools, Aaron M. Strum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and measure the confidence of K-12 administrators in hiring music faculty. This study also aimed to analyze administrators’ perspectives and confidence in key stages of the hiring process, including defining job expectations, posting, advertising, interviewing, and selecting highly specialized music teachers in K-12 settings. Confidence of K-12 administrators can be gauged through their understanding of how well an applicant aligns with the specific needs of the school’s program. Three research questions guided this investigation: (1a) How confident are K-12 administrators in their understanding of music teaching pedagogy when interviewing music teacher candidates …

Eusocial Caste Specialization Under Abiotic And Biotic Stress In A Stingless Bee, Tetragonisca Angustula, Kristin M. Robinson

Dissertations

Eusocial insects rely on division of labor to achieve high colony efficiency and provide essential ecosystem services, but specialization may also constrain colony resilience when workers operate near their physiological or behavioral limits under abiotic and biotic stressors. How specialization mediates these responses remains poorly understood, particularly in stingless bees (Tribe: Meliponini). Using the agriculturally relevant stingless bee Tetragonisca angustula, which possesses a specialized soldier subcaste, I investigated how a high degree of worker specialization influences physiological tolerance and predator responses across worker subcastes.

In this dissertation, I quantified variation in thermal tolerance and desiccation resistance among worker subcastes …

Blueprints For Resilience: A Delphi Study Of Architects' Competencies In Gulf Coast States, Richard J. Cantu

Dissertations

This study identifies and defines core competencies for licensed architects practicing in Gulf Coast states, emphasizing their critical role in protecting health, safety, and welfare (HSW) amid the region’s unique environmental challenges. Hurricanes, flooding, climate-induced risks, and other coastal hazards demand specialized expertise that existing architectural competency models do not adequately address. Leveraging Delphi’s research design, this study engaged Gulf Coast experts to develop and refine a region-specific competency framework across four iterative rounds. The findings highlighted the essential knowledge, skills, and abilities required for resilient and sustainable architectural practice. The study advances architecture’s human capital development (HCD) by addressing …

Black Women Science Teachers’ Contextual Knowledge Shapes Technology Integration To Support Culturally Responsive Teaching In Secondary Science Classrooms, Ashley M. Thomas

Dissertations

The number of Black and Brown high school students entering college to study science and technology majors is declining. Because they encounter shared intersectional experiences in the science and technology fields, Black women have a unique connection with their students that builds on teaching practices grounded in culturally responsive teaching (CRT). The mixed methods study was bounded to one school district that had a CRT initiative and provided training to its teachers. The study used a pre-validated survey regarding the perceptions of CRT in a technology-supported learning environment and identified the tools and practices Black female science teachers (BFSTs) use …

Constructing Female High School Students’ Stem Self-Efficacy: The Role Of High School Stem Research Experiences, Hyunjin Son

Dissertations

In the U.S., nearly a quarter of the workforce is employed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations. However, the STEM workforce lacks diversity, limiting perspectives to address real-world problems facing society. While many factors influence decisions to pursue STEM majors in college and enter the STEM workforce, one factor commonly associated with performance and persistence in STEM is STEM self-efficacy. Independent research experiences have been shown to increase conceptual understanding and confidence in STEM, leading to STEM degrees and careers. As high school co-curricular STEM research opportunities become more common, the effects of such experiences on students’ STEM …

Secondary Biology Teachers’ Understandings Of Growth Mindset, Kathryn Chapman

Dissertations

This case study investigates how high school biology teachers understand and apply growth mindset principles in their daily instruction. Using surveys, semi‑structured interviews, and focus groups, the study examines how biology teachers interpret mindset, how they attempt to enact it, and how curriculum demands shape their efforts. Findings show that teachers’ beliefs about intelligence strongly influence their feedback, expectations, and instructional decisions. Teachers described biology as a subject in which struggle is highly visible, emotionally charged, and often tied to students’ prior knowledge, making mindset work both necessary and challenging. Results also indicate that students’ mindsets are shaped by broader …

Machine Learning For Predictive Energy And Emissions Modeling Of Vehicles And Power Grids In The United States, S M Tanvir Faysal Alam Chowdhoury

Dissertations

The environmental benefits of electric vehicle (EV) adoption depend on more than replacing internal combustion engine vehicles with electric powertrains. EV adoption reshapes electricity demand, interacts with regional generation mixes, and influences travel behavior and congestion, creating a coupled transportation-energy system in which vehicle and power-plant emissions must be evaluated together. This dissertation develops machine-learning frameworks for predicting energy consumption and emissions from vehicles and power grids under rising EV adoption. The first component forecasts grid emissions from EV charging. Using simulation data from NREL's Cambium database, a Prophet-based time-series framework predicts carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emission rates …

Interplay Of Atomicity, Polarization, And Quantization On Performance And Reliability In Gan Finfets, Salim I. Almenshad

Dissertations

GaN based nanoscale high-electron-mobility transistors (HEMTs) are the next generation of transistor technology that features the unique combination of higher power, wider bandwidth, low noise, higher efficiency, and temperature/radiation hardness than conventional AlGaAs and Si based technologies. However, enhancement mode operation for nanoscale channel region is the most recent needed area of research. As well as reliability of these devices remains a major concern. The main objective of this proposed research is to numerically investigate the role of atomistic inhomogeneity and quantization in low-dimensionality lateral tri-gated AlGaN/GaN FinFET devices. It is shown that 3-D configured AlGaN/GaN FinFETs with narrow enough …

Applications Of Machine Learning For Nondestructive Evaluation Data Analysis, Connor Chase Seavers

Dissertations

A fourth industrial revolution is currently taking place in the manufacturing sector, called “Industry 4.0,” where material production and fabrication processes are becoming fully automated using integrated sensors, closed-loop feedback mechanisms, and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML). The nondestructive evaluation (NDE) field has begun to follow suit by integrating AI/ML techniques in material inspection processes to automate defect detection for many NDE methods. Since material inspection processes are paramount in ensuring safety and reliability in critical manufactured products, it is important that new AI/ML techniques are trustworthy for NDE data analysis. The current approach to building trust in new AI/ML methods …

Optimizing Few-Shot Learning In Pruned Large Language Models With Task-Specific Prompts, Danyal Aftab

Dissertations

Few-shot learning enables large language models to efficiently perform tasks given only a limited number of labeled examples. However, training these models entirely from scratch requires substantial computational resources, making it challenging for many organizations to fully leverage their potential. This thesis explores how structured pruning, task-specific prompting, and parameter-efficient fine-tuning can be combined to preserve few-shot learning capabilities in compressed LLMs, while also extending their utility to real-world recommendation systems.

In this research, we propose the Tailored LLM framework, which first reduces model size through structured pruning and then enhances few-shot learning performance using carefully designed prompts. We experiment …

"Girl I'Ll Figure It Out": First-Generation Women Of Color Navigating Higher Education, Prisilla Cortez

Dissertations

This qualitative study focused on understanding the experiences of first-generation women of color at a California public four-year institution and how their intersecting identities shape their academic experiences and overall well-being. Women of Color Feminist (Crenshaw, 1991), and intersectionality frameworks guided this study. Semi-structured interviews were used to collect data, and thematic analysis was used to identify patterns in participants’ experiences. Findings revealed three central themes, collective orientation and familial expectations, faculty interactions and sense of belonging, and institutional resources and access. Participants described navigating higher education while balancing family responsibilities, financial pressures, and academic demands. Although they demonstrated resilience …

Examining Beliefs Of State Department Of Education Directors Of Assessment Regarding Standardized Testing, Sara L. Kendallen

Dissertations

Directors of assessment in state departments of education are tasked with the planning and oversight, including development, field-testing, validation, and operationalization of statewide assessments. At the state level, directors of assessment are pivotal to a department of education’s ability to meet state and federal testing requirements. Directors of assessment hold their own opinions and beliefs, which may or may not be aligned with current adopted policies. The beliefs of those in state level educational bureaucracies about standardized testing has not been well-researched. It is hoped that this research will add to the greater understanding of statewide assessment. The goal of …

Can Curriculum Improve Confidence? Examining The Impact Of The Implementation Of The California Math Framework On Math Anxiety Levels Of Preservice Teachers In California, Amanda Lubbs

Dissertations

In 2010, the state of California adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as an effort to ensure students were graduating high school as college and career ready. Shortly after, in 2013, the California Board of Education adopted the California Math Framework (CMF) as a tool for schools to implement the CCSS for Mathematics (CCSSM). Its recommendations incorporated research-based techniques to alleviate math anxiety through the use of explorative learning experiences that help students understand math skills in applied contexts, and by de-emphasizing rote practice and memorization. This study inquires about the framework’s effectiveness in mitigating math anxiety among pre-service …

"A Door To The Future." A Case Study In Exploratory And Culturally Sustaining Theater Curriculum, Verónica Meza

Dissertations

This study addresses the persistent inequities in access to quality arts education for Latino immigrant and linguistically diverse communities in California. Despite progressive initiatives such as Proposition 28 (The Arts and Music in Schools Act) and the California Arts Council's Racial Equity Statement, systemic barriers prevent Latino and immigrant students from benefiting equitably from the arts. The central objective of this project is to understand how an exploratory, culturally sustaining theater curriculum can serve as a transformative and healing vehicle for adult immigrant Latino students, providing emotional protection, cultural affirmation, and language preservation within a U.S. educational context. This qualitative …

An Untouched Gem: Understanding Parental Perceptions On Community College Attendance, Harshdeep Singh Nanda

Dissertations

Community colleges serve as critical entry points into higher education, yet they continue to carry stigma, particularly within affluent communities where four-year institutions are often positioned as the expected pathway. While existing research has examined student and public perceptions, little attention has been given to how parents in affluent regions shape and transmit these narratives. This study investigated how parents in an affluent region of the San Francisco Bay Area perceive community college as a starting point for their children’s academic careers and how parents may contribute to shifting those perceptions. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, survey data …

Understanding The Impact Of Transfer Orientation Leadership: Student Leader Perspectives At A Mid-Sized California University, Kaci Taylor Turpin

Dissertations

Community college transfer students represent a vital source of diversity for public four-year institutions; at the same time, declining enrollments heighten the need for stronger, more functional transfer pathways between community colleges and four-year universities, especially given the significant vertical transfer gap and the unique barriers transfer students face in student leadership roles. This semi-structured interview study explored the experiential knowledge of 14 first-generation transfer student orientation leaders to understand how they navigate institutional barriers in their on-campus employment. Findings reveal that these leaders navigated institutional barriers by relying on peer networks and drawing heavily on their navigational capital. Furthermore, …

Sleep Disturbances Affect Sleep Quality Of Hospitalized Adults, Tonjia Hardesty

Dissertations

Abstract

Background: Sleep disturbances affect the quality of sleep hospitalized adults experience, possibly extending patient recovery time. Treatment of insomnia frequently includes pharmacological interventions exposing patients to potential side effects, leading to negative patient outcomes.  The purpose of this project was to determine if a sleep hygiene toolkit including eye masks, earplugs, advocacy cards, and removal of nicotine patches at bedtime would improve patient sleep quality without use of pharmacological interventions.

Methods: A descriptive observational design was used in this quality improvement (QI) project. A convenience sample of 37 (N =37) participants over the age of 18 years and …

Enhancing Well-Being: Implementing Weekly Social Interventions For Older Adults In Independent Living, Rosa Huang

Dissertations

Loneliness and social isolation significantly impact the physical and mental well-being of older adults. This quality improvement project implemented an eight-week social intervention designed to reduce loneliness and enhance well-being through weekly sessions incorporating mindfulness exercises, gratitude journaling, and structured socialization activities. The intervention was delivered by nursing students to a sample of residents in a Midwestern independent living community. While most standardized measures of loneliness and mood did not show statistically significant changes, the project resulted in a statistically significant increase in social network engagement as measured by the Lubben Social Network Scale-6 (LSNS-6). The findings suggest that group-based …

America The Monstrous: The Birth Of American Horror Fiction In The Long Nineteenth Century, Rachel Kietzman

Dissertations

American gothic works that center the affect of horror explore themes of abjection, inhumanity, and monstrosity that impede a coherent expression of American identity. By approaching these works through the lens of horror rather than only as Gothic works, a picture ofa visceral, embodied becoming takes shape: America is a monstrous birth in the most literal sense of the word, a sign and demonstration that unity and uniformity are not the same, that wholeness does not require conformity, and that political choices are paid for in flesh. In short, American horror fiction is the head of Medusa, an apotropaic sign …