Digital Commons Network^™

Decolonizing A Settler Colonial State: How Canada And The United States Have Approached Investigations Into Indigenous Boarding And Residential Schools, Holly Jacobs

Master's Theses

Indigenous boarding and residential schools were in use for over 100 years in both Canada and the United States. Grown from numerous policies aimed at assimilation, dispossession, and genocide of the Indigenous peoples of North America, these residential schools had a particular aim: to wipe away all cultural and familial ties of every individual and to replace them with beliefs and values of white settlers. Though the schools are no longer in operation, their legacy of erasure and pain continues to affect survivors, their descendants, and Indigenous communities across both nations. This thesis looks at what the federal governments of …

Disability Identity In Samuel Taylor Coleridge's Letters, Jackson Fields

Master's Theses

This thesis focuses on letters written by British Romantic author Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote about his chronic illness during the period of emerging modern ideas of disability. Coleridge’s letters are valuable to readers in the twenty-first century because they enable us to track the formation and negotiation of Coleridge’s disability identity. As one of the most important thinkers and authors in the English language, Coleridge has a lot to teach us about how one can understand their illnesses, medical authority, and the influences of disability on friendships and social roles. This thesis considers Coleridge’s letters to his loved ones …

Porotic Hyperostosis And Cribra Orbitalia In The Adult Population Of Tipu, Miranda Hahn

Master's Theses

Tipu is a contact period Maya site in western Belize where a mission church and cemetery was established around AD 1560. An archaeological excavation in the 1980s recovered the remains of more than 550 individuals. In its unique location on the fringes of Spanish control, Tipu was the site of both acceptance of introduced cultural traits as well as rebellion against them. The series has been intensively studied over the last decades, but an analysis of anemia using more recently developed and widely accepted standards has not yet been completed. Therefore, I scored adults using the new widely accepted standards …

The U.S. Invasion Of The Dominican Republic: From Cooperation To Conquest, Andrew Defabio

Master's Theses

This paper explores the political and military relationship between the U.S. and the Dominican Republic from the Eisenhower administration to the Johnson administration’s invasion in 1965. The U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic was a military operation that had been planned and prepared for by administrations prior and not simply a reactive decision to prevent a Communist takeover. Analysis of multiple administrations places the invasion of the Dominican Republic in a larger context of U.S. – Dominican relations. The U.S.’s desire to dominate military and political aspects of the Dominican Republic is consistent with U.S. Cold War Latin American policy.

The Debate On Nil: Progress For Female Collegiate Sports?, Stephanie Andrada

Master's Theses

In this study, seven female collegiate athletes from three different women’s sports teams (basketball, gymnastics, and volleyball) from a mid-major, Division-I college were interviewed. The study analyzed the lived experiences that NIL has on these specific female athletes in these particular women’s sports using a qualitative methodology. Three research questions were posed:

1. In what ways does the commercialization of college sports influence the NIL opportunities for these female athletes?
2. Could NIL perpetuate an uneven playing field for these female athletes in competition for limited resources?
3. To what degree do these female college athletes feel that NIL presents opportunities for equitable …

Examining The Role Of Echo-Chambers Within Online Incel Communities Using Sentiment Analysis And Group Based Trajectory Modeling, Francesca Florine Fanucchi

Master's Theses

Technological advancements within the last decade have created new opportunities for social movements to meet and communicate online with like-minded individuals. Under this notion, these online communities generate an echo-chamber of information, to which certain individuals only surround themselves with people sharing similar values and opinions. As a result, online platforms (e.g., forums, blogs, websites) form as safe spaces for members to express their views seen as unacceptable offline. Research examining the role of echo-chambers in facilitating extremist rhetoric within online incel communities is limited, despite real-world acts of violence perpetrated by self-proclaimed incels. Therefore, the objective of this thesis …

Thinking Styles, Conspiracist Belief, And The Mediating Role Of The Dunning-Kruger Effect In Modeling Belief Change, Lucas C. Cusano

Master's Theses

Why can a person believe something for which there is no evidence and yet also fail to believe something for which there is overwhelming evidence? This study develops a structural model of belief change using the latent constructs of thinking styles and conspiracist belief while accounting for the Dunning-Kruger effect (i.e., overconfidence in one’s knowledge the less one knows about a topic) as a mediator. A combined two-hundred and twenty-six participants from both Amazon’s Mechanical Turk and the introductory psychology SONA subject pool were given two knowledge measures on topics of genetic modification and vaccination before and after reading refutational …

Habitat Value Of Stormwater Retention Basins For Avian Species In The South San Francisco Bay, Maya D. Briones

Master's Theses

Shorebird populations are declining worldwide due to habitat fragmentation, degradation, and loss. A potential, understudied set of resources that might be used to benefit waterfowl, especially breeding shorebirds, are artificial wetlands such as stormwater retention basins. This study evaluated the habitat value of stormwater retention basins in the San Francisco Bay Area by measuring species abundance, richness, and behavior. Seston, or biota and other suspended material, was collected and tested for mercury contents. Additionally, the habitat features within each basin were recorded and tracked for changes over a year. The stormwater retention basins supported a higher diversity of bird species …

The Moderating Effects Of Sleep Quantity And Quality On The Relationship Between Job Stressors And Job Satisfaction, Olga A. Baryshnikova

Master's Theses

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study was the first to investigate the moderating effects of sleep quantity and sleep quality on the relationships between role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict, and interpersonal conflict with job satisfaction. In doing so, it addressed a gap in the literature on organizations and provided a new direction for future research in this sphere. Leveraging the Job Demands-Resources model as a theoretical foundation, this study looked at sleep quantity and quality as personal resources capable of counteracting the negative impacts of the aforementioned job stressors on job satisfaction. Underscoring their known detrimental …

Manifestations Of Communicative Resilience In Experiences Of Serial Arguments Among Adult Children Of Harmful Parental Alcohol Use, Brooklyn Willis

Master's Theses

This thesis investigated the ways in which adult children of harmful parental alcohol use manifest resilience through the lens of the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR). The CTR presents five communication processes by which resilience, which is the ability to overcome hardship, is demonstrated. Serial arguments, the repeated and unresolved conflicts that occur between romantic partners, were utilized as the context to study resilience. Interviews were conducted to learn about perceptions of serial argument resolvability and the ways and frequencies in which resilience manifested. A pre-interview survey gathered information pertaining to relationship satisfaction and perceptions of resilience. A thematic analysis …

Quantum Mechanics And Dynamical Models For Finite Unlabeled Simple Graphs, Nathan M. Lewis

Master's Theses

This thesis constructs quantum mechanical theories of finite simple graphs for both labeled and unlabeled graphs.These theories may provide a description for discrete spacetime in a quantum gravity theory. Finite simple graphs and their properties are introduced. The first and second quantization of the standard quantum mechanics of particle systems are reviewed. A quantum mechanical theory of graphs similar to first quantization of standard quantum mechanics is developed via a correspondence of graph edges to particles in particle systems. An algorithm for constructing quantum states of graphs which is independent of graph vertex labeling is developed. It builds antisymmetric graphstates …

The Correlation Between Perceived Maternal Parenting Style And Perceived Emotion Regulation In Seventh-Day Adventists In Southern Brazil, Camila Cardoso Masotti

Master's Theses

Problem.\

One's ability to regulate his/her emotions utilizing coping mechanisms and dissuasive mental strategies is partly attained due to the correct functioning of innate biological systems and to life experiences that promote learning/training in this area (cf., e.g., Matsumoto & Hwang, 2012). The field of emotion regulation studies has extensively elaborated on a multivalent description of human emotional development, in which emotions are part of essential mental strategies for an individual's conscious and unconscious goals in life (cf., e.g., Lang & Bradley, 2010; Levenson, 1999). Therefore, as a partly learned ability, one's emotion regulation skills have been shown as positively …

A Study Of The Multi-Faceted Impact Of The Second Vatican Council Upon Catholicism And Beyond, Constantin Valentin Popescu

Master's Theses

The Topic

The research analyzes the development of Catholicism in the 20th century. After the First Vatican Council (1868-1870) and the promulgation of the dogma of papal infallibility and papal primacy, the Roman Catholic Church lost much credibility and influence with Christianity, becoming increasingly isolated from the developing modern world. In this situation, Catholicism needs a revival, a reconfirmation of its long-lost authority. On the other hand, knowing that the Roman Catholic Church fulfills a very important role in biblical prophecies, we will observe, in this study, an adaptation of Catholicism to the modern world precisely to regain its credibility. …

The Theological And Biblical Significance Of Financial Resources In The Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Mihai Stoicescu

Master's Theses

The Topic

The research will present the evolution of the system of tithes and offerings, starting from biblical times to the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as well as the theology behind it.

The Purpose

The purpose of the study is not only to discover the history and theology underlying the system of tithes and offerings, but also to emphasize the universal nature of this system.

The Source

The research involved both the consultation of specialized literature, as well as the study of primary written sources, in this case the available documents and archives regarding financial resources throughout the …

Changing Vaccine Hesitant Attitudes Of Parents Using Moral Persuasion, Max Vitro

Master's Theses

In the fight against Covid-19, overt, science-based messaging is not enough to persuade everyone to get vaccinated no matter how encouraging the data. Recent studies on attitudes toward vaccines and other health-promoting measures have provided clues as to why so many are still opposed, suggesting many who were resistant had reasons that were rooted along moral grounds. This process of moralization occurs when a belief becomes a moral matter of ‘right and wrong’ rather than a means to an end. Because moral beliefs are more entrenched, they’ve proven much more difficult to change. There is one approach that could increase …

Queen Academy, Hantian Zhnag

Master's Theses

As an upmarket novel exploring immigration and racial dynamics, Queen Academy lies at the intersection of Kathryn Ma’s The Chinese Groove, Timothy Wang’s Slant, and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye in style and subject. The protagonist Kang comes to the US from China to study statistics, but finds himself becoming a “potato queen”—an Asian gay man interested in dating white men only—and locked in self-loathing. It will take a heartbreak and treading the line of illegality to see himself again. Overall, by engaging with themes of immigration, belonging, and racialized desire, the novel takes the stance that the …

Militant Maids: Domestic Workers’ Participation In Bus Boycotts, Voter Registration, And Head Start Programs In The Deep South, Brittany Ann Carey

Master's Theses

This thesis examines the participation of domestic workers in the Civil Rights Movement, specifically in Gulf South bus boycotts in Baton Rouge, Montgomery, and Tallahassee; voter registration efforts in Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, and Florida; and Head Start work in those same Deep South states. Domestic workers engaged in activism by joining unions, women's movements, and the Communist Party to improve their treatment in Northern and Southern cities. Modern historians have expanded their research to explore the participation of domestic workers in the Civil Rights Movement, especially in the Montgomery Bus Boycott. In some cases, researchers also have explored the complicated …

Post Pandemic Cyberbiosecurity Threats From Terrorist Groups, Haley D. Dodge

Master's Theses

The research in this thesis explored the research question: Are United States (US) health systems accessible to cyber-bio terrorist attacks post-pandemic, within the context of the emerging discipline of cyberbiosecurity? Key findings of the analysis demonstrated how US health systems are more accessible to cyber-bio terrorist attacks specifically from cyber hacking groups based on the increasing sophistication of their cyber capabilities and the lack of cyber protection for biological systems. The concept of cyberbiosecurity was first introduced in 2018 by researchers exploring the converging threat landscape of the cyber and biology domains. As biology is growing more dependent upon vulnerable …

From Mesoamerica To Aleppo And Transylvania: The Global Migration Of The Chile Pepper, Arianne M. Peterson, Arianne Peterson

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the migration of the chile pepper, or capsicum anuum, from Mesoamerica into the Old World after 1500, focusing on two case studies of the Aleppo pepper in Syria and paprika in what was once Hungarian Nagyvarad, and which is now Romanian Oradea. Using foodways as a historical lens, and considering the movement of food as historical, it can be seen that the chile pepper, despite its low profit value, illustrates a globalization that existed well before modern times, and it came to cement itself within many different cultures as a symbol of identity. Despite its far-away …

Biodegradation Of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether And Tert-Butyl Alcohol Using Bioaugmentation With Biowish® Aqua, Elizabeth Villanueva

Master's Theses

Aqua, a commercial product manufactured by BiOWiSH® Technologies, was utilized in this research to study its effectiveness to biodegrade methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA). Microcosms containing varying concentrations of MTBE and TBA as well as a growth media and mineral salt solution were examined. Analytical instrumentation used in this study included the use of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC/MS) to determine concentrations of MTBE and TBA and a spectrophotometer to extrapolate approximate active biomass concentrations in each experiment. Four different environmental conditions were tested for both MTBE and TBA. The environmental conditions tested for each contaminant included: …

Make Up! An Exploration Of Choreographic Methods: Transforming Sailor Moon Into Concert Dance, Nathaniel Drake Parrott

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effectiveness of certain choreographic tools for the task of translating visual and literary material into concert dance, specifically through translating the source material Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. The research sought to determine which choreographic tools used in the study were more effective than others and more preferred than others in terms of participant responses. This was achieved through translating the animated series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon into a series of virtuosic dance solos for public performance through the use of various choreographic tools, including abstract translation, literal translation, Forsythe …

Switching “Leader” And “Follower” Roles: The Wedding First Dance As A Representation Of A Modern Relationship, Anna Magidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether introducing switch dancing as an alternative to the traditional “leader” and “follower” role dynamic in a wedding first dance could be an effective tool of empowerment for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. It was particularly important to understand whether this could have a positive impact on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA+) community. To the researcher’s knowledge, no other academic research paper has ever examined the intersectionality between the wedding industry, the LGBTQIA+ community, and switch partner dancing. This study was developed …

Who’S Teaching Whom? A Dance Concert Exploring Teacher-Led, Student-Led, And Collaborative Choreographic Methods, Robin Suing

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to create a positive learning environment where students with a range of dance backgrounds can flourish. The goal was to discover the feeling responses of college students to teacher-led, student-led, and collaborative choreography to determine the importance of a balance between teacher-led and student-centered instruction. Information from this project will be used to inform curriculum planning in future dance courses. The following essential questions were used as a guide when assessing the qualitative and quantitative answers to the surveys and interview questions given to the participating students: Q1 What similarities and differences are found …

Are Competition Trained Dancers Ready For A College Dance Program?, Alison Durham

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore the opinions of competition trained dancers and college dance professors to see if dancers in college dance programs were prepared for all the aspects of dance that college offered. The research instrument used was an electronic survey that utilized qualitative and quantitative questions for gathering data. Participants in this study were located throughout the United States and included thirty college dance students and eight college dance professors. The data showed that some students believed they were prepared for a college dance program, while others felt they had holes in their training. The …

Crisis Communication In The Ukraine-Russia Conflict: Use Of Facebook By Un Humanitarian Organizations, Rubaiya Zannat

Master's Theses

The proliferation of social media has made it incredibly simple to quickly disseminate valuable information to a large audience. Thus, numerous organizations are now heavily leveraging these social networking platforms as a means for managing their crisis responses. Through a content analysis of 355 posts concerning the Ukraine-Russia conflict made by five large UN humanitarian organizations between February and May, 2022, on their official Facebook pages, this study investigated organizational crisis communication patterns. Findings suggest that UN humanitarian organizations extensively used "threat" and "need for change" as crisis characteristics to delineate the Ukraine-Russia situation, whereas “protection of safety and security,” …

Dietary Protein Intakes, Distribution Patterns, And Quality In Ncaa Divsion 1 Soccer Players, Jun H. Kwon

Master's Theses

Dietary protein is required to support recovery and adaptation following exercise training. While prior research demonstrates that many athletes meet total daily protein needs, intake seems to be predominantly skewed toward the evening meal. An even distribution of protein doses throughout the course of a day is theorized to confer greater skeletal muscle anabolism compared to a skewed pattern of intake. Protein quality is also an important dietary consideration for athletes, with the amino acid leucine being the primary driver of the postprandial anabolic response. The present thesis investigates the protein consumption characteristics among a selected cohort of NCAA Division …

How Chicago Public Schools Engaged African American Parents In The Closing Of Austin Career Academy High School, Shani Blackwell

Master's Theses

The role of African American parents in education reform initiatives in Chicago is not clearly defined. Local School Councils (LSC) allow parents to make school related decisions in Chicago. But LSCs are removed from decisions about whether or not to place school on or off probation, and whether or not to close schools based on performance or building utilization. In 2013, African American and Latinx parents expressed outrage over the decision by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to close 49 schools with protests, including a hunger strike by a group of parents, and pleas to the Chicago Board of Education (BOE). …

Constructing Planetary Citizens Through Ecopedagogy In U.S. Social Studies Standards, Madeline Anne Rainey

Master's Theses

The world is in the age of the Anthropocene, where humans are impacting the environment to disastrous effects. The capitalist economy, promoting neoliberal policies of mass consumption, has exacerbated the world's environmental deterioration and social inequity. The rights and responsibilities people hold have been rapidly changing with the fourth industrial revolution. Globalization and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) have further expanded notions of citizenship. While there have been numerous attempts to bring the environment into schools, it has not emphasized what this crisis deserves. Ecopedagogy, as a critical theory, explicitly examines the interplay between environmental and social problems and challenges …

A Comparative Study Of The Impact Of Regimes In Latin America’S Education Systems: The Cases Of Mercosur, Alba-Tcp, And Pa, Victoria Desimoni

Master's Theses

This thesis presents a comparative study of the regional education policies and programs in three Latin American (LA) regional entities (hereafter ‘regimes’ and ‘regionalisms’): The Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America – People’s Trade Treaty (ALBA-TCP), and Pacific Alliance (PA). Each of these represents different regionalisms coexisting in LA (hegemonic, post-hegemonic, and counter-hegemonic regionalisms), which makes them ideal for comparative analysis. This project aims to compare these very diverse regimes to interrogate the similarities and dissimilarities, as well as discover who (the regional or the global) is shaping education systems in this area …

An Integrated Approach For Controlling Verticillium Wilt Of Strawberry, Jack T. Koster

Master's Theses

Strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa, Duch.) is an important crop in California, with more than 35,000 acres planted in 2018 resulting in a farm gate value of $3.1 billion. In 2020, California strawberry production accounted for more than 85% of national strawberry production and faces serious threats to production due to various soil-borne diseases. One such disease, Verticillium wilt, is caused by the fungal pathogen Verticillium dahliae and is commonly found in temperate zones around the world where strawberries are grown. Due to the phase-out of efficacious fumigants like methyl bromide, alternative disease management methods have become necessary to …