Digital Commons Network^™

Navigating Stigma And Privacy: Health-Related Communication Among Bangladeshi Women, Nazmul Shajib

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women in Bangladesh often silently bear the burden of stigma tied to their bodies, minds, and societal roles. This study examines the coping strategies women use to manage health-related stigma and their privacy while facing issues like reproductive health, mental health, and postpartum challenges. The study was conducted by utilizing in-depth interviews with 17 Bangladeshi women. Stigma Management Communication Theory (SMC) and Communication Privacy Management Theory (CPM) are the two frameworks that guided the study. The findings of the study reveal that stigma often silences women and threatens their social identities, and women feel that having a health problem means …

Impact Of Lighting Wavelength On Broiler Behavior, Health, And Performance, Angela Perretti

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Lighting influences broiler production, health, and behavior. Due to their advanced visual system, avian species perceive a wide spectrum of light. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of white (W, 350 to 780 nm) blue (B, 450 nm), and green (G, 560 nm) light on broiler production, processing performance, activity, fear, stress, blood cell profiles, tibiotarsi (tibia) morphology, and depth perception. Day-of-hatch by-product chicks from a Cobb 500 female line (N=600) were randomly assigned to 12 pens (N=4 treatment replicates). Body weight and feed consumption were recorded on day (D) 0, 14, 28, and 41, and …

Impact Of Three Professional Development Models (Online, Face-To-Face, And Hybrid) On Bhutanese Inservice Science Teachers' Conceptions Of Aspects Of Nature Of Science (Nos) With Reports Of Translation Of Nos Content Into Classroom Teaching Practices, Pabi Maya Das

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Having a scientifically literate citizenry is an asset nationally and globally, and knowledge of the nature of science (NOS) is a crucial element in such literacy. Science teachers are a vital link if students are to understand key elements of the NOS, yet teachers themselves often lack knowledge of NOS and how to integrate NOS content into science lessons. Investigating the impact of a series of inservice professional development experiences using three distinct delivery modes (face-to-face, hybrid, online) for teachers in my home country of Bhutan is the overarching goal of the study reported here. The study used a mixed-methods …

The Connection Between Workplace Wellness Activities And Job Satisfaction In Manufacturing, Lori Scott Dreiling

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Employers in all industries are concerned with creating and maintaining a workplace where their employees are engaged in their work. Job dissatisfaction is shown to lead to higher levels of turnover, absenteeism, and presenteeism. The purpose of this quantitative study will be to examine the connection between workplace wellness activity participation and job satisfaction, specifically for manufacturers in Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas, and Northeast Oklahoma. Manufacturers have experienced increased global competition in the last three decades, not just for their products or services but for quality talent. The value of this study is to show manufacturing employers that by providing …

Prone To Prejudice: Trans Experiences And Structural Harm In The U.S. Prison System, Margaret-Maria Pemu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines transgender individuals' experiences within the justice system. This study seeks to illuminate the complex realities of incarceration using social constructionism and reflexive thematic analysis. The social constructionist perspective offers a framework for understanding how gendered identities are shaped, constrained, and policed within institutional contexts. The analysis of narratives from Large Reddit communities allows this study to examine how transgender individuals make sense of and survive correctional environments. A comprehensive analysis of the data generated the following six major themes: (1) Solitary Confinement Universally Induces Horror, (2) Discriminatory Treatment Leads to Disillusionment with the Criminal Justice System, …

Exercising Sovereignty In The Theater Of Court: How Performative Punishments Has Substitute Law Implementation In The Islamic Republic Of Iran, Nina Maziar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Legality is a modern infrastructure, but when it is combined with the jurisprudence, which is very interpretive and subjective, an amorphous content is merged, which can be shaped for utilitarian purposes; and this is how the arbitrary legal system of Islamic Republic is staged. This unshaped legal system, courts/trials and penal codes, especially political charges are ambiguous contents, baffling the mindsets. This unclear setting is deterministically vague to scare the victim, and the audience with the stagecraft of the court. Sovereignty is defined both in the international affairs regarding the capability of one state ruling a country, but it …

The Effects Of Background Child-Directed And Adult-Directed Singing On Reading Comprehension Performance, Agnes Yeboah Amfo-Adu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although music features in speech, such as those found in child-directed speech and song, are known to enhance language processing, the underlying mechanism of this benefit remains unclear. Prior research has primarily compared verbal materials presented in a musical, child-directed style to those in a less musical, adult-directed style, leaving it uncertain whether the benefit stems from the music style of verbal presentation or mere exposure to musical features. This study examined whether the language benefits of child-directed input persist when it is presented as background auditory stimuli rather than the primary focus of cognitive tasks. Experiment 1 found that …

Testing A Culturally Grounded Training For Black And Latine Clinicians: Creating Communities In Pcit For Providers Of Autistic Youth, Harlee Onovbiona

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Black and Latine families of autistic youth continue to face mental health disparities, some of which have been attributed to poor access to services, discrimination, and poor culturally responsive care. Black and Latine families call for more family-centered treatments that are in accordance with their values and culture with options for treatments to be delivered by clinicians with similar racial and ethnic backgrounds. Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) is a widely known evidenced-based treatment (EBT) that has been used with Latine, Black, and neurodiverse children to improve the parent-child relationship and reduce challenging behaviors. Although considerable efforts have been made to …

Predicting Case Clearance For Victims Of Anti-Transgender Homicide In The United States, Brittaney Alyssa Mann

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a shortage of research exploring case clearance of anti-transgender bias homicides. This study will comparatively examine the similarities and differences in anti-transgender bias homicide cases with and without arrests at the victim, situational and incident levels occurring in the United States between 2013 and 2023. Data are extracted from the Bias Homicide Database (BHDB), the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs (NCAVP), and the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). This project will address the gap in understanding case clearance of anti-transgender bias homicides, provide policy implications, and ideas to further the discipline’s understanding of the topic. Keywords: LGBTQIA+ victims, bias …

Using Interpersonal Motives To Identify Latent Profiles Of Borderline Personality Pathology: Implications For An Overcontrolled Style Of Bpd, Regina Schreiber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is conceptualized as a disorder of undercontrol (i.e., behaviorally impulsive, emotionally expressive), with affective, interpersonal, and identity instability. BPD related impairment is high, yet diagnostic accuracy remains a problem for individuals who present with greater overcontrol (i.e., behavioral inhibition, expressive suppression), which occurs in some BPD subtypes. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to expand on prior research by identifying latent profiles based on interpersonal motives for agency and relatedness, desire for predictability, perceived dependency, and self-efficacy in a sample of people with elevated BPD features (n = 136). Individual differences in overcontrol, undercontrol, …

Utilizing The Horseshoe Prior In Exploratory Factor Analysis And Gaussian Graphical Networks, James Thomas Roddy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

High-dimensional data analysis frequently involves extracting meaningful structure from noisy, sparse signals. In recent years, Bayesian shrinkage priors—particularly global-local shrinkage priors—have emerged as powerful tools for inducing sparsity while preserving signal fidelity. Among these, the Horseshoe prior has gained notable attention for its capacity to simultaneously shrink irrelevant parameters and retain substantial signals. This dissertation explores the Horseshoe prior as a unified framework for sparse Bayesian inference across theory, simulation, and real-world application. The first component develops new theoretical results establishing the asymptotic Bayes optimality of the Horseshoe prior in Gaussian graphical models (GGMs). We consider sparse precision matrix estimation …

Assessment Of Mental Health Needs For Chronically Unhoused Individuals Living In A Bridge Housing Community, Isabel Furse Augur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Higher rates of psychopathology and substance use are reported in individuals experiencing homelessness compared to the general population, especially in those who are chronically unhoused. Chronically homeless individuals are also less likely to access treatment for these problems because of barriers to care. Addressing housing needs is an important first step in engaging people who are homeless with the care they need. This project focused on assessing the mental health needs of a Housing First community in Northwest Arkansas, which has few barriers for entry but does not provide direct support for mental health. This project adopted a community-based participatory …

A Grounded Theory Investigation Of The Experiences Of Rehabilitation Administrators, Counselors, And Supervisors Providing Services To Women With Disabilities Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence, Dana Posey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract There is a noticeable gap in the literature as it relates to how rehabilitation and disability service providers have worked with women with disabilities who have experienced intimate partner violence. To address the dearth of knowledge, a qualitative grounded theory study was conducted with 12 rehabilitation administrators, counselors, and supervisors regarding their experiences providing services to women with disabilities who have been in or are in an intimate partner violence relationship. Semi-structured interviews were administered, recorded, and transcribed verbatim in an ongoing manner throughout the process. As data was collected, it was analyzed using NVIVO 15, which is a …

Effect Of Dietary Tryptophan Supplementation And Heat Stress On Pasture Broiler Welfare And Performance, Jaelen Matthew Cherry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Pasture-raised broiler chickens face temperature extremes that can threaten welfare. In the study, we evaluated whether a 0.26 % tryptophan-supplemented diet (T) improved heat stress (HS) resilience in Ross-708 broilers raised on pasture. At D14, birds began the T or remained on the control diet (C) and were moved outdoors. On D20 and 41, half of each group underwent six-hour HS; the remainder stayed under thermoneutral (TN) conditions. Weekly body weight, feed intake on D20 and D41 were recorded, and fear was measured using the Tonic Immobility (TI) test. Neither diet nor HS affected body weight. However, tryptophan supplementation resulted …

Lifetime Stressor Exposure, Race And Ethnicity, And Habitual Stress Processes: An Evaluation Of Repetitive Negative Thinking And Hair Cortisol Concentration, Harrison Dickens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Habitual stress processes are thought to influence acute stress reactivity and stress-related disease. Habitual stress processes have been shown to adapt in response to stressor exposure experienced across the lifespan. The current study seeks to explore whether two habitual stress processes, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and repetitive negative thinking (RNT), were associated with lifetime stressor exposure (self-reported and objective neighborhood-level stressors). Additionally, the current study attempts to quantify how this process may be moderated by race and ethnicity. Participants (N = 134, Mage = 18 [SDage= 1.69], 56.7% female) consisting of White (N = 52), Black (N = 37 ), …

Assessing The Recall Of Traffic Safety Campaigns In Arkansas, Pratik Babu Pokharel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study estimates the degree to which drivers recall traffic safety campaigns based on sociodemographic characteristics including driving frequency, vehicle type, education, income, age, household composition, race, and gender. Traffic safety campaigns are efforts to educate, persuade, and inspire individuals to adjust their attitudes and behaviors for improved road safety, utilizing planned communications over a set time period. They aim to encourage safe driving using slogans shown on television, radio, social media, billboards, and variable message signs. Two years of a mail-based survey conducted in Arkansas were used to estimate binary logistic regression models for each of four safety campaigns. …

Mindful Symbiotic Ecosystems. Designing For Women In Remote Workspaces, Andrea Guevara Araujo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Women represent 61% of designers in the workforce but hold only 29% of leadership roles. This disparity highlights a critical need for an ecosystem that removes barriers and cultivates mentorship, community, and leadership among women (Bolt, 2020). Even though women have proven their ability to succeed in male-dominated corporate cultures, the real question is not about capability but sustainability. Driven by overwork, competition, and burnout, the workplace does not just push women out; it leads to long-term instability for the entire organization (Krivkovich et al., 2024). In the workplace, a culture of masculinity reinforces harmful, outdated mindsets and glorifies aggressive, …

Public Comment: Using Critique-Like Mediating Artifacts To Democratize Discourse At City Council Meetings, Piper Schuerman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Are local governments designed for equitable citizen participation? While civic engagement aims to empower citizens and support representative governance, barriers to participation can hinder those outcomes. City council meetings, key venues for public input, pose specific challenges such as long durations, dense content, and intimidating formalities. These issues disproportionately affect Generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012), who frequently report feeling underinformed or having limited time to engage. This thesis explores how city council meetings might use multimodal mediating artifacts, inspired by design critique practices, to make public discourse more accessible for Gen Z adults.

Grounded in activity theory and …

Using Scaffolding, Gamification, And Self Awareness To Create Responsive Ux/Ui In Cad Software To Nurture Metacognition In Novice Users, Obed Ibrahim Gonzalez

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Computer-aided Design (CAD) software represents a significant shift from manual and analog design processes to digital workflows, offering substantial utility, accuracy, and productivity benefits. However, CAD software often presents a steep learning curve, particularly for novice users who are new to the software or possess only basic knowledge. Traditional CAD curricula have predominantly focused on technical problem-solving—teaching tools and systems—while often neglecting strategic knowledge that encompasses reflection, planning, and refining, which are essential components of metacognition. Metacognition is crucial for transforming novices into experts who use fewer and more complex commands, employ sophisticated planning, and achieve their goals more efficiently. …

A Living House Never Stands Still, Holly Rose Kranker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A Living House Never Stands Still is an exhibition that explores the interplay between place, memory, and the suspension of time through diverse mediums and materials. I engage with seemingly mundane objects, interpreting them through a non-linear, dream-like, and irrational framework to unearth latent connections across time–past, present, and future. Central to these explorations is the concept of home—not merely as a physical location, but as an evolving entity. Home is a sacred space for me.

My recent studio reflections are focused on the lifecycle of objects, the emotional responses they evoke, and how these cycles emulate the human body …

Adult Effects And Affects: Dialogic Reflections And Theoretical Analysis Of Systemic Led Education, Early Childhood Education, And Art Education, Katherine Galaz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through self-exploration, reflexive dialogue, and literature review I look to the grey areas, contradictions, and margins of hegemonic educational practices. I highlight the ways in which the standard of education is structured in opposition to how children seek to understand and make sense of the world. In my analysis of early childhood settings and art education under the umbrella of the U.S. education system, I approach historical antecedents involving colonialism and systemic injustice. Within the field of art education, I specifically look at the artistic and imaginative ways that children resist societal norms in early childhood education. As such, I …

Only You Can Prevent The Apocalypse: Donald Trump, The Environmental Movement, And Egotism At The Brink, Gregory A. Griffin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the rhetorical style termed 'Apocalyptic Egotism,' focusing on its manifestation in American political discourse and environmental activism. By analyzing the rhetoric of Donald Trump and prominent climate advocates, including Al Gore, King Charles III, David Wallace-Wells, and Greta Thunberg, the study identifies four key stylistic elements: imminent crisis, historical insulation, epistemic certainty, and hyperbolic agency. The analysis reveals how this rhetorical style represents a distinct departure from traditional apocalypticism and perpetuates Anglo-centric power structures and marginalizes non-Western voices, with significant implications for understanding race, rhetoric, and global inequality in the context of modern crises. The thesis concludes …

Influence Of Smartphone Notifications On Behavior And Eye Movement Parameters Of Emotional Attention, Joshua Daniel Upshaw

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how smartphone notifications interact with emotional facial expressions to influence behavioral and physiological eye movement parameters of attentional orientation. Using a dot-probe paradigm, participants viewed mixed emotional face pairs (angry, happy, or neutral) following an auditory stimulus (smartphone notifications, control tones, or silence). Angry faces elicited greater behavioral accuracy and delayed initial fixations, consistent with heightened threat-related attentional engagement. Notifications disrupted attentional stability, reflected in increased fixations and pupil size variability. The combined effect of smartphone notifications preceding angry faces intensified attentional modulation—evidenced by slower responses, increased blinking, greater pupil constriction, less pupil variability, and faster initial …

Victims Of Stage And Screen: Parasocial Savior Rhetoric And Coded Social Critique At The Convergence Of Celebrity & Conspiracy Cultures, Amy Whiteside

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers a critical rhetorical analysis of what I term parasocial savior conspiracy theories , a unique genre of conspiracy narrative that portrays a public figure as victimized and allows their fans to step into a savior role through their advancement of the conspiracy theory. These narratives, I argue, are both catalyzed by and further insulative to a fan’s parasocial relationship with the public figure in question. Herein, the celebrity acts as a vessel of projection for their fans’ anxieties about control, allowing them to displace their agency panic onto a beloved external party and critique factors that seem …

Quick Response Codes In Extension Outreach Communications: Insights From A Visual Content Analysis And Educators’ Perceptions, Kobina Danful Fanyinkah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increased smartphone use presents an opportunity to enhance the creative inclusion of Quick Response (QR) codes in extension outreach efforts. Tailoring extension programs to communicate with specific audiences has been identified as essential, highlighting the need for targeted and context-specific strategies. The development of QR code technology has provided a unique approach that allows extension professionals to target clientele with specific extension messages and programs. While extension has a commendable record in educational delivery through traditional forms of outreach, research on how best to employ digital tools with extension audiences is thin at best. Though the rising popularity of QR …

Male And Female Contributions To Sexual Dimorphism, Catherine L.W. Clayton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since Darwin, the evolution of sexual dimorphism connects to different evolutionary mechanisms reflecting both natural selection and sexual selection. In primates, body size dimorphism has been attributed to multiple factors, including sexual selection, fecundity selection, ecological selection, and other factors. In contrast, canine tooth size dimorphism has been primarily associated with sexual selection in males with minor change in females, with other factors playing only a secondary role. This suggests that the degree to which body size dimorphism and canine size dimorphism covary, controlling for phylogeny, should reflect the strength of sexual selection. Conversely, the magnitude of divergence between the …

Exploring The Role Of Influencer Marketing In The Animal Health Industry: A Content Analysis Of Strategies And Impact, Haylee Henry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A review of literature revealed a lack of peer-reviewed research on influencer marketing within the animal health and nutrition industry, specifically within the livestock sector. This study aimed to address this gap by analyzing how animal health and nutrition companies of different sizes utilized influencer marketing and how consumers interacted with content tailored to influencer marketing. A content analysis was conducted. This study collected and analyzed social media influencer posts from eight North American animal health and nutrition companies, three small, three medium, and two large, between January 2023 and December 2024. Influencer content included posts by individuals, partner organizations, …

Lgbtq+ Childhood Abuse, Reporting, & Parental Rights, Meagan Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate LGBTQ+ childhood maltreatment, its reporting generally, and the impact of religion on reporting. It was hypothesized that LGBTQ+ youth will experience more maltreatment than their non-LGBTQ+ peers; among those who experienced maltreatment, LGBTQ+ youth will be less likely to receive help or have reports made; and those from more religious families will be less likely to have received help or had their maltreatment reported. A sample of individuals between the ages of 18 and 35, currently living in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Oklahoma, or Texas, was recruited to complete a cross-sectional survey. …

Achieving Flexible Fairness And Privacy In Federated Learning, Alycia N. Carey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Having access to large, high-quality datasets is crucial for training machine learning models that achieve satisfactory performance. Unfortunately, it is common that a single entity (e.g., mobile device or organization) does not have access to such datasets due to monetary or resource constraints. Traditional machine learning requires that all training data reside in a centralized location during the entire duration of model training, however, in many circumstances it is difficult or even impossible (e.g., due to governmental regulations) for multiple parties to combine their data to meet this constraint. Federated learning is a machine learning paradigm that facilitates the joint …

Gender Craze: Framing Policy Discrimination Against Transgender Students In K-12 Education, Quinette Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transgender youth in K-12 public education have been systematically marginalized through state-sanctioned violence and discriminatory policies, often portrayed as societal "boogeymen." They face exclusion and othering due to restrictive state legislation, such as bathroom bans, sports participation restrictions, and limited access to gender-affirming care. Current research lacks a comprehensive analysis of how state-level legislation affects transgender students. This study addresses that gap by employing qualitative thematic coding to examine the language, framing, and impact of state education policies on transgender students. By analyzing how these policies are framed around themes such as protecting family, safeguarding children, individual liberty, constitutional rights, …