Digital Commons Network^™

Progressive Christianity: The Postmodern Mutation Of Theological Liberalism, Lisa Dundov

Masters Theses

The intention of this thesis is to historically track Liberal Christianity, distinguishing its different shapes, dissecting its current form of Progressive Christianity, and then refute its tenets by holding them to the standard of orthodox Christianity. This project is organized into a chronological, historical approach to Liberal Christianity followed by a comparative approach to Progressive Christianity and orthodox Christianity. The historical research aims to identify and connect common, theologically liberal elements, a distinct man-centered theology, across different historical horizons, including the delineation of modernity, postmodernism, secularism, and humanism, which are influenced and shaped by theological liberalism. Focusing on the current …

The Progress Of Power: A Narrative Review Of The Practical Progression Of Running Power Assessment And Application, Andrew David Fields

Masters Theses

Power has revolutionized endurance athletics. Power is a function of the amount of force produced in a certain amount of time. Utilized correctly, it can be an effective metric of effort during endurance activities. Cycling saw the first fruits of this metric in the 1980s and 1990s with Tour de France athletes and has continued to provide immense benefits to cyclists. Power when applied to running, however, has seen a much slower progression toward effective use. Various attempts in the 1970s and 80s to use calculations to express running power as a function of multiple different kinematic variables proved futile. …

Deciduous: Using Gamified Skill Trees And Mapping To Define Learning Opportunities For Students, Daniel Allen Burau

Masters Theses

Students can have difficulty visualizing the end goals of units of study and how one learned concept impacts another. They will benefit from seeing their progress toward completion and are motivated by how far they have come in their class. Progress in a course can be measured with the implementation of gamification tools. Gamification involves the integration of game frameworks into non-gaming areas. This research seeks to find how these and other gamification systems help increase student motivation or classroom performance. Elements of gaming are already found in some areas of education. Some schools have access to various tools to …

Telling The Story: Diabetes Prevention And Management, Brandi Caitlyn Frizzell

Masters Theses

Diabetes has been studied for thousands of years, however the root cause of this disease is still unknown. Although there are have been many disoveries for treatment options for this disease, there has yet to be a discovery of a cure. Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic that currently affects millions of people and is expected to affect millions more in the future. This disease often results in fatal health complications which contribute to years of life lost and mortality rates. The project proposes a solution for individuals affected by diabetes and those that are currently undiagnosed. The expected outcome of …

Teaching Through Screens, David Dell'osso Ritter

Masters Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic affected educational delivery dramatically, as many classes were transferred from ground to online in just a few weeks. This research explored the impact this transfer had on teachers and students. The research focused on student motivation and productivity in the online environment, as well as teacher presence in and preparedness for the online environment. The problem statement for this research is as follows: The COVID-19 pandemic responses to education diminished teacher presence resulting in a steep decline in student motivation and productivity. In addition to an extensive literature review, three case studies to better understand what had …

Examining The German Public's Response To The Third Reich's Anti-Jewish Policies, Georgetta M. Moore

Masters Theses

The anti-Jewish policies of the Third Reich progressed from anti-Jewish legislation, stripping German Jews of their rights, to systematic mass murder. Deeply rooted antisemitism and Nazi propaganda serving as a vehicle for ideology fostered an environment of approval among most of the German public for certain anti-Jewish policies such as the Nuremberg Laws. The non-Jewish, German public responses to these anti-Jewish policies by the Third Reich shifted over the course of the Nazi’s rule and during World War II. Most of the German public supported anti-Jewish legislation such as laws removing German Jews from civil service occupations because it made …

Amendment 4: A Movement To Reduce Ex-Felon Disenfranchisement In Florida, Hunter L. Harding

Masters Theses

The paper explores the foundations of Felon Disenfranchisement in the State of Florida and how the United States Constitution allowed for individual states to implement disenfranchisement measures. The historical foundations are necessary for understanding the implications of felon disenfranchisement and its disproportionate outcomes on minority communities. With previous attempts to change policy regarding the restoration of civil rights for those disenfranchised, a different approach was needed to solve the plagued restoration process in the State of Florida. Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, a group led by ex-felons, fostered the movement to create the ballot initiative of Amendment 4 in the 2018 …

Living With Stuttering: Authenticity, Identity, And Mental Health, Sarah Musilli

Masters Theses

In an effort to manage stigma, some PWS attempt to conceal stuttering and pass as a fluent speaker (Constantino et al., 2017). These efforts to conceal may be counterintuitive, as concealment of stuttering is predictive of elevated distress (Gerlach et al., 2021) and decreased quality of life among PWS (Boyle et. al., 2018). Although this association exists, the factors explaining how and why it exists are unexplored. Identity conflict and feelings of in/authenticity are two potential factors that are explored in this study. Qualitative interviewing supplemented with quantitative survey data is utilized to explore the lived experiences of identity conflict …

Debunking The Curse Of Ham And Its Generational Impact On The Black Race, Fraendy Clervaud

Masters Theses

The so-called curse of Ham became a major issue for Christian Theology and apologetics. The false interpretation claimed that the Black race were to be enslaved. Therefore, these individuals were subjected to inhuman treatment through the institution of slavery for generations. Many believed that those from Africa did not receive Christianity until after they were kidnapped from their homeland. The false narrative that slavery introduced them to Christ is disingenuous. That is because Christianity prevailed in Africa even before it did in Europe. Individuals from African contributed immensely to the history and theology of Christianity. Three of the major Christian …

Peter, The Apostle To The Gentiles? First Peter’S New Covenant Missional Strategy To Bless The Nations, Cole Victor Laing

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to further develop the message of First Peter within the context of the Apostle Peter’s life and witness. The majority of modern scholars suggest that First Peter is written to a predominantly Gentile audience. This begs the question as to why the apostle to the circumcised (Gal. 2:7) writes to a group of Gentile believers. The study aims to show that Peter, in fact, played a significant role in the earliest church’s mission to the Gentiles. Peter’s exhortation in his first epistle is to a group of believers who are suffering because of their …

We Shall Overcome: Designing An American Popular Music Curriculum To Promote Racial Equality, Kathryn Eileen Stiadle

Masters Theses

There is a strong relationship between American popular music and the fight for racial equality. In the past, music has been used to promote justice throughout slavery, segregation, and the civil rights movement. Racism remains a problem in American society, however, and music is not currently used to teach students about tolerance. This paper presents the argument that anti-racism education can be taught using an American popular music curriculum. Initial research was conducted using existing literature to determine the historical aspect of the project as well as current and future concerns. The acquired information was used to design a curriculum …

Neurogenic Stuttering: Exploring Potential Emotional And Life Impact, Natalie Devries

Masters Theses

The purpose of the current study was to explore the potential emotional and life impact of living with neurogenic stuttering and how and when an impact develops, if present. The current diagnostic criteria for neurogenic stuttering includes no emotional impact (Canter, 1971). The literature is divided in supporting this criterion (Lebrun et al., 1990; Leder et al., 1996; Perino et al., 2000; Theys et al., 2008; Tani &Sakai, 2011; Ellis & Sheehy, 2013; Vanhoutte et al., 2014). The current study relied on qualitative interviewing which was analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis to explore potential for emotional and life impact (Braun …

Development Of A Ppg Sensor Array As A Wearable Device For Monitoring Cardiovascular Metrics, Jose Ignacio Rodriguez-Labra

Masters Theses

Wearable devices with integrated sensors for tracking human vitals are widely used for a variety of applications, including exercise, wellness, and health monitoring. Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors use pulse oximetry to measure pulse rate, cardiac cycle, oxygen saturation, and blood flow by passing a light beam of variable wavelength through the skin and measuring its reflection. A multi-channel PPG wearable system was developed to include multiple nodes of pulse oximeters, each capable of using different wavelengths of light. The system uses sensor fusion along with a machine learning model to perform feature extraction of relevant cardiovascular metrics across multiple pulse oximeters …

Exploring Discourse Markers As A Treatment Outcome Measure For Aphasia, Anna K. Cedoz

Masters Theses

Discourse Markers (DMs) are communicative tools or resources that people use to organize conversations. The use of DMs among individuals with aphasia has been documented to support their communicative competence (Simmons-Mackie & Damico, 1996). Further research on the use of DMs by individuals with aphasia has been limited. The current study features a secondary analysis using existing data from Devanga (2020), which studied the effects of Collaborative Referencing Intervention (CRI; Hengst et al., 2010) on three participants with chronic aphasia. This study analyzed 18 conversation probes from one participant across baseline, treatment, and maintenance phases with clinician and spouse partners. …

Instructor Selection And Use Of Virtual Field Experiences In College Geoscience Course, Kristen Foley

Masters Theses

Virtual Field Experiences (VFEs) are a growing supplement and gateway to traditional fieldwork in the geosciences. With VFEs becoming more accepted for use in college geoscience courses, how instructors find and choose VFEs for their students is critical to creating greater accessibility and future resources. VFEs that are not easily accessed by instructors may go unused, and the effort put into making them would have been wasted. This phenomenological descriptive study utilized five focus groups of college geoscience instructors in the United States. Each 1-to-1.5-hour focus group session of 3-7 participants took place on video conferencing software, which was recorded …

Short-Term 2d And 3d Geomorphic Change Detection At A Public Park On Lake Michigan Using Uas Remote Sensing Techniques, Scott Patrick Fitzgerald

Masters Theses

The high-water level of Lake Michigan (LM) in the past few years has led to significant periods of erosion and increased the risk to private property owners on the coast. To cope with this, many property owners on the coast of LM have constructed coastal protections, some opting for seawalls. Previous studies have assessed the effects of seawalls but disagreed on their impacts, and only laboratory studies were able to establish their range of influence. Using a different method to study their effects will be pertinent to understanding them.

This research aims to use a higher temporal and spatial resolution …

The Potential Growth Of Synchronized Skating In The Midwestern Section Of Us Figure Skating, Hanna Marie Fussman

Masters Theses

Synchronized skating, a sport in which eight to twenty skaters perform a program in unison as a team, is the fastest growing yet least known and recognized discipline of figure skating in the United States. Skaters do not have control over whether they are exposed to synchronized skating due to their location not having a team, or due to a coach who has tainted the perception of their students to believe that synchronized skating is not as “worthy” of a discipline, causing them to have little to no interest to take advantage of the exposure and opportunities they may have. …

Influence Of Soil And Land Cover On Chronic Wasting Disease Prevalence In White-Tailed Deer And Mule Deer Across North America, Madison L. Miller

Masters Theses

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease that infects deer and is caused by a pathogenic prion. CWD is a concerning wildlife disease because it is incurable, potentially poses a risk to human health, and is spreading rapidly. CWD prions are transmitted both directly via bodily fluids and indirectly through environmental reservoirs such as soil. In this study, we investigated the influence of land cover and soil characteristics on CWD prevalence in white-tailed deer and mule deer. We acquired CWD prevalence data from seven North American regions and used ArcGIS to obtain land cover and soil characteristic data …

Design And Optimization Of An Electron Cyclotron Resonance Thruster, Austen Thomas

Masters Theses

Presented in this work is the process in the design and optimization of a coaxial electron cyclotron resonance thruster. Electron cyclotron resonance thrusters are novel microwave-based thrusters which possess select technological advantages over mature electric propulsion concepts such as being electrodeless and only requiring a single power source. The thruster constructed in this work is a coaxial configuration and is termed the Western electron cyclotron resonance thruster. Thruster dimensions were optimized based on past experimentation completed with ECR thrusters. In an attempt to enhance the microwave plasma coupling of the coaxial thruster design three different antenna configurations were considered: a …

Collective Expressions Of Monacan Indian Nation Identity: A Communicative Arts Genre Study, Gretchen E. Casler-Cline

Masters Theses

This study considers the current communicative arts practices of the Monacan Indian Nation, an Indigenous Virginia tribe of approximately 2500 people located in Amherst County, Virginia. Historically the tribe was a large nation that extended from the falls of the James River near Richmond, Virginia to the Southwestern portions of the state near Roanoke and now the Monacan Indian Nation homeland is at Bear Mountain in Amherst County, Virginia. The study was conducted through interviews and observations at tribal events such as the annual Powwow and culture class, as well as consistent attendance and participation as a musician at St. …

One Shell Of A Problem: Cumulative Threat Analysis Of Male Sea Turtles Indicates High Anthropogenic Threat For Migratory Individuals And Gulf Of Mexico Residents, Micah Ashford

Masters Theses

Human use of oceans has dramatically increased in the 21st century, with some of the highest rates of change found within the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Sea turtles are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic stressors in the marine environment as they make lengthy migrations between foraging and breeding sites often along coastal migration corridors. Sea turtles face severe population pressure from humans, yet little is known about how movement and threats interact specifically for male sea turtles. To better understand male sea turtle movement, and the threats they encounter within their expansive ranges, we tagged 40, adult male sea turtles …

Assessment Of Repeatability And Behavioral Syndromes In Genetically Distinct Clades Of Eastern Red-Backed Salamanders (Plethodon Cinereus), Kelsey Garner

Masters Theses

Animal personality implies limited behavioral plasticity and behavioral traits which are correlated across contexts. Correlated behaviors, sometimes referred to as behavioral syndromes, have the potential to inhibit behavioral traits from evolving independently. Limits on behavioral variation can influence a population’s ability to invade new geographic areas and exploit new niches. One way to explore such variation is to examine behavioral syndromes in genetically distinct populations of wide-ranging species that exhibit different dispersal pathways and distances. The personality-dependent dispersal syndrome suggests that certain traits, such as exploratory and risk-taking behavior, are correlated with dispersal success. The Eastern Red-backed Salamander (Plethodon …

Variation In Alkaloid Composition And Sequestration In Dendrobatid Poison Frogs, Katherine R. Waters

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

“Albertania” And “Egbenema”, Panding Biodiversity In The Oculatellaceae (Cyanobacteria)., Mildred Akagha

Masters Theses

To conduct molecular studies of cyanobacteria of Lagos, Nigeria, a total of eight soil/subaerial samples were collected in Lagos State, Nigeria, and used to isolate cyanobacterial cultures that were characterized microscopically, sequenced, and phylogenetically analyzed. Within the resulting set of cultures, a number of Synechococcales were observed, particularly belonging to Oculatellaceae. “Egbenema” and two new putative species of the recently described genus Albertania were found. Both genera belong to a supported clade within the Oculatellaceae that includes Trichotorquatus and Komarkovaea. The two new putative species of Albertania, “A. egbensis” and “A. latericola”, were from …

Integrating Temperature Dependence Into A Microstructure-Sensitive Fatigue Model For Titanium Alloys, Jared Michael Darius

Masters Theses

This work seeks to integrate temperature dependence into a microstructure-sensitive fatigue model for titanium alloys produced by both extrusion and electron beam melting (EBM) additive manufacturing, revising and enhancing the MultiStage Fatigue (MSF) model as the foundational model framework. Traditional fatigue modeling has required design engineers to conservatively use a lower-bound estimate of fatigue life predictions given a statistically significant spread of experimental data that can span up to two or sometimes three orders of magnitude for a given test condition. This variation in fatigue data has since been accounted for with the advent of the MSF model, linking individual …

The Benefits Of Offering Classroom Piano Lessons As Part Of The Curriculum In Public Elementary School, Denise Cheeks Mundy

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to determine the potential benefits of offering classroom piano lessons as part of the curriculum in public elementary schools. The research reviews the educational, neurological, and cultural potential benefits a child may receive if they study the piano. Further study examines the availability for teachers to receive training in teaching group piano, the methods of setting up a piano classroom, and materials needed for such a program in the school system. Records of the history of group lessons showed that this method of teaching has had periods of success and periods of decline in …

A Defense Of The Resurrection Miracle And Critique Of The Hallucination Theory, Joshua James Smothers

Masters Theses

Many Christian scholars simply laugh at the notion of the Hallucination theory. However, while it is laughable that the hallucination theory claims the disciples of Jesus all shared a hallucination in which they saw their beloved friend risen from the grave, there is more to the hallucination theory than meets the eye. This thesis defends the resurrection using history while critiquing the hallucination theory. Jesus did rise from the grave in the same physical body that was crucified at Calvary, and the disciple's claims of seeing a risen Jesus are true and can be proven with fact and evidence.

Comprehensive Evaluation Of Novel Medium-Temperature And High-Temperature Resistant Re-Crosslinkable Preformed Particle Gels For Conformance Control, Zhanmiao Zhai

Masters Theses

"Gel treatment has been widely used to control excessive water production and improve oil recovery in mature oilfields. In comparison to traditional preformed particle gel (PPG), re-cross linkable preformed particle gel (RPPG) has a significant advantage in treating abnormal features such as open fractures, fracture-like channels, and void space conduits (VSC). This research provides a comprehensive evaluation of two novel RPPG products developed in our lab: medium-temperature resistant RPPG (MT-RPPG) for a Middle East reservoir and a high-temperature resistant RPPG (HT-RPPG) for North Sea reservoirs (130 ^oC).

We assessed the effect of the monomer types and concentration, pH, salinity, …

From Soup To Nuts - The Efficiency Of Non-Profits: Evidence From U.S. Food Banks, Mary A. Mattingly

Masters Theses

Nonprofits are a growing part of America’s economy and play an import role in fulfilling the needs of society in addition to private firms and government agencies. Economists haven’t researched nonprofits as much as other firms in the past, but this is starting to change. This project looks at the efficiency of 20 food banks in the United States using Data Envelopment Analysis. The results show that American Food Banks appear to be using their funds efficiently, but others could learn to use their inputs and outputs in a more efficient manner. As more data becomes available, this area of …

The Experiences Of Professionals Of Color At A Predominantly White Institution, Brandy Matthews

Masters Theses

This qualitative study looks at the experiences professionals of color face in a Predominately White institution. More specifically, this study showed that professionals of color still face many challenges due to the barriers they face on, and off-campus compared to their White counterparts. This study utilized semi-structured interviews to help explore professionals of color experiences at a rural mid-sized university in the Midwest.