Digital Commons Network^™

Invasives In Our National Parks: How Tourists Can Help Stop The Spread Of Invasive Species, Alexandria Elivira Marci

Masters Theses

Invasive species are a major issue around the world and more specifically in our U.S. National Parks. Ranging from plants to insects to animals, invasive species are a greater threat than many may imagine. The impact that invasive species have on an ecosystem encompasses more than taking over a native species’ environment; it includes competing for food, water, and other resources, as well as having an adverse effect on our economy and threatening us with deadly diseases. Many factors lead to the cause of spread of invasive species, but all point back to human interference, from purposely spreading invasive species …

A Preliminary Evaluation Of The Behavioral Gerontology Staff Training Protocols, Minyoung Kim

Masters Theses

Staff training in aging settings is integral to ensuring quality services, and such training has traditionally been conducted in person. With the COVID-19 outbreak, there is a need for innovative approaches to training that reduce exposure for trainers and staff. However, the efficacy of such an approach has not yet been demonstrated. To prevent the waste of staff resources at long-term care facilities, this study evaluates the efficacy of behavioral gerontology staff training protocols as a form of telehealth by utilizing graduate and undergraduate students as pilot participants. We use an additive concurrent multiple-probe design across participants to evaluate the …

A Middle School Choral Methodology And Curriculum Pairing, Eunice Nogueras-Negron

Masters Theses

Studies show that middle school choral education is beneficial to its participants, yet there is a lack of resources such as curriculums or methodologies to better equip students and teachers. This thesis will explore the possibility of the future development of a middle school choral music methodology that follows similar structures to that of widely accepted music methodologies such as Orff Schulwerk, Dalcroze Eurhythmics, and Kodaly Concepts. This research is intended to aid middle school choral music educators who are seeking to improve the quality and intentionality of their instruction.

The Reality Of Aging Out Of The Foster Care System: Informing The General Public Of The Issues Associated With Aging Out Of The Foster System And The Leading Causes Behind Them, Katerina Suther

Masters Theses

Nearly half of youths aging out of the foster care system find themselves homeless due to a lack of systematic programs and public awareness. Due to unawareness of the resources available to foster children in the United States, much foster youth end up uncertain how to navigate their lives after emancipation, which often results in homelessness. This project uses literature reviews, diary studies, and mind mapping to identify the leading causes behind homelessness amongst emancipated foster youths. Reviewing first-hand accounts of children and adults associated with the foster care system provides insight into how youth in the foster care system …

A Study On The Beliefs Of Juvenile Justice Practitioners On Youth Behavior And Treatment, Chase S. Christenson

Masters Theses

The following study was conducted to determine the beliefs juvenile justice practitioners (police officers, juvenile probation officers, and youth specialists) have about youth behavior through the lens of Wolfe’s (1998) Entitlement Theory. The four beliefs explored between juvenile justice practitioners are: (1) beliefs about why youth act out, (2) what changes youth behavior, (3) an expectation of youth obedience to authority, and (4) attachment relationships influencing youth behavior. The researcher used a 43-item survey measured with a 5-point Likert scale and open-ended questions that were administered to West Michigan’s juvenile justice practitioners through Qualtrics. Responses were analyzed using an ANOVA …

Don't Kill Mockingbird: An Educator's Guide To Teaching To Kill A Mockingbird In The 21st Century, Rachel Mayes Allen

Masters Theses

While To Kill a Mockingbird is easy to misinterpret and difficult to read at times, today’s students are capable of appreciating the novel just as much as previous generations; we as teachers simply have to give them that chance. By grounding our students in the novel’s historical context, navigating controversies gracefully and rationally, and creating meaningful learning experiences around the novel, we can help our students see To Kill a Mockingbird for what it is.

Development Of A Highly Sensitive Pressure Sensing System With Custom-Built Software For Continuous Physiological Measurements, Masoud Panahi

Masters Theses

In this work, a pressure sensing system was designed and fabricated by developing a highly sensitive cone-structured pressure sensor with a custom-built software for physiological monitoring applications. A novel highly sensitive cone structured porous polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based pressure sensor capable of detecting very low-pressure ranges was developed for respiration monitoring. The pressure sensor was fabricated using a master mold, a hybrid-structured dielectric layer, and fabric-based electrodes. The master mold with inverted cone structures was created using a rapid and precise three-dimensional (3D) printing technique. The dielectric layer, with pores and cone structures, was prepared by annealing a mixture of PDMS, …

Human Trafficking: A Review Of The International, Federal, And State Of Georgia Policies, Hannah Carmichael

Masters Theses

Human trafficking is a worldwide injustice that happens everywhere. Men, women, and children, of all ages, and all ethnicities are enslaved throughout the world. There are two main types of human trafficking, sex trafficking and forced labor. There is new legislations and policies being signed into law to help fight against human trafficking, but what is working? Where are there still gaps? This paper will review the public policies in place to combat human trafficking at the international, federal (United States), and state (Georgia) level as well as provide recommendations to inform future policies as well as education and awareness …

In And Of The Body, Nicola Difusco

Masters Theses

This practice traces information as it moves through physical and digital spaces, asking questions surrounding how technology alters meaning as it makes interpretations. Led by my own personal interests and the memetic bodies of popular culture I was embedded, questions arise surrounding how individuals communicate with and experience the networks they are embedded within. Furthermore, this practice expands to investigate what happens when the body becomes a technological interface, and how issues of ownership affect our interactions.

The Ephemeral Altar & The Floating Grave, Hannah Suzanna

Masters Theses

Using tarot and machine learning, I actively de-compose the narrative of four disintegrating sites — a conservation cemetery in North-Central Florida, my Dad’s house in California, an abandoned parking lot near my apartment in Providence, RI, and myself as an inherently mortal human.

Rather than a tool for prediction, I see tarot as a system of decay — breaking down human experiences into archetypes to allow presence with our existence.

What happens when we look at other predictive technologies, such as machine learning, as means of breaking apart our reality too? When talking about science fiction or speculative fiction, a …

Tracking Traces, Songan Kyung

Masters Theses

My art practice in RISD is to reveal violent narratives embedded beneath the surface of digital traces. By taking the role of investigator — crime 71 scene investigator, conspiracy theorist —, I experiment in ways to dismantle and reconstruct the ongoing social phenomena caused by the circulation of harmful digital traces. My practice comprises careful choices of protecting the ones harmed by the malignant digital traces and disclosing the toxicity.

Unfold The Body, Fan Su

Masters Theses

I was born into a physical body of flesh and bone, so I thought that I was one with it. As a carrier of my mind and soul, I believed that it was singular to me; that I had full ownership of it. So, why was I refusing womanhood? Was this devaluation of women a legacy? Was this a legacy unique to Chinese women?

As a woman born and raised in a metropolitan center in China, I proceeded through childhood and adolescence questioning my power as a woman. Feminine maturity and the societal pressure to follow the expectation of being …

The Reenactment : "Object" As Performance, Yue Jiang

Masters Theses

Throughout history, women have endured many obstacles placed upon them in both the private and public spheres. Women are pressured to achieve an ideal beauty standard and the expectation to fulfill the obligation of traditional domestic roles. As a 23-year old Chinese woman who daily faces these pressures, I intentionally critique them using my body as the site and the pressure as subject. Through acts of performance, using handmade and mass-produced objects consumed daily by women, I highlight the insidious pressures and expectations placed upon women’s bodies. By utilizing the format of photography to document the discomfort of “wearing” or …

Security Blanket, Danni Xu

Masters Theses

I draw upon the stories of people who have experienced nostalgia to identify a sense of belonging to home. I create familiar objects specific to the stories of diasporic peoples to establish a connection between myself and the viewer or wearer, even when I am not present. As a former hotelier adept at initiating conversation, the goal of this work is to serve as a communication mediator, a way to find mutual interests among people in a proactive way.

This thesis addresses the following questions: Can jewelry build networks of connection across time and space? How does the format of …

Sapping, Smudging, Staining: A Feminized Body, Breslin Shea Bell

Masters Theses

This book—of poetry, prose, and lists—muses on the effects of liquidity and leakiness of a feminized body. By bringing echo narrative, illegibility, de-telling, and that which is continuously wet to the viewer’s body and space, this book and accompanying multimedia installation provides a lens to consider reproductive rights, body autonomy, and gender-based aggression and violence. Work of matter and color investigates interiority, both bodily and spatial, as it relates to surface, access, and space-making.

Art Can Empower Children And Lead Them To Think Seriously About Significant Critical Issues, Jialu Gao

Masters Theses

This thesis is an investigation of how students can benefit through art and how visual arts educators can engage students in thinking about critical issues that are happening within contemporary society. Raising people’s awareness of the value of art, and especially urging to practice art better in schools’ curriculums are the starting point. This thesis includes looking at selective literature from Elliot Eisner, Charles Fowler, Mika Munakata and other educators and authors. The author also examines select contemporary practices in art education that occur in different settings, for example, in school, in gallery, in museum, and in community. The author …

Beauty Still Lives Here: Narratives Of Radical Self-Love, Deshun Peoples

Masters Theses

This exhibition is primarily concerned with the act of taking up physical and socio-political space. Through the use of form, design, color, and installation this work places various histories and traditions of both ceramics and resistance in communication with one another. The red, black, and green of Marcus Garvey’s 1920 Pan-African/Black American flag are proudly displayed against a warm, calm, pale green backdrop to highlight the importance of mental health in all endeavors, especially in the emotionally taxing labor of social, political, and economic protest in the battle for humanity, life, civil rights, equity, access, and decision-making power.

When Art Education Meets Environmental Issues: The Interconnectedness Of Art And Science, Eunhyung Julie Chung

Masters Theses

In recent years, we have come to understand that the environmental crisis is no longer what we see in books or screens but it is what we are facing now. Along with the public's increasing interest in the environment post-COVID, this thesis explores the role of art in enhancing awareness of critical environmental issues. Through a literature review, the author examines theoretical concepts at the core of the history of art and science in search of ideas about the interconnectedness of science and art. The review explores why an interdisciplinary approach to education is vital to learning about environmental issues …

Counting Pebbles Wasn't Even A Class In High School: Seeing Visual Arts Education Through A Process-Forward Lens, Em Xiangning Wang

Masters Theses

This thesis explores process-forward visual arts education in the Greater Providence arts education community. The researcher conducted interviews with arts educators as well as administrators working within organizations guided by a “process-forward” philosophy. Interview transcripts are analyzed to identify any emergent themes of intended and actualized student learning outcomes as well as other commonalities which exist among the interviewed organizations. This investigation found that, within these organizations, multiple, significant forms of student learning outcomes were identified that extended well beyond any particular aesthetic merits of the artistic products created by students

The author calls, in this thesis, for a recalibration …

Sensory Refreshment: Tcm Reconsidered, Ni Tang

Masters Theses

With the rapid development and expansion of our cities and the economic demand placed on residents, city dwellers are under more personal stress than ever. Long commutes, overtime work, irregular rest, unhealthy diets, urban pollution and noise all adversely impact wellbeing. These unhealthy conditions overwhelm the mind and make residents mentally and physically sub-healthy. Sub-health is a state between complete health and sickness, which is especially common in large cities. The sub-health rate in Shanghai and Beijing has reached more than 70%.

Chinese medicine can regulate the human body from a holistic perspective and help solve sub-health problems. Chinese medicine …

A Study Of Pedagogical Approaches To Inform Instructors On How To Help Ease The Transition Of A Flute Student Switching To Oboe, Mai'ya Jackson

Masters Theses

Young band students are seldom allowed to begin on the oboe, due to the specialized difficulties of the instrument. It is more prevalent for a student to begin on another instrument, such as the flute, and transition to the oboe after some initial experience. Many students switch to oboe from flute, since both instruments have similarities in fingering and wind technique. However, there are significant differences between the two instruments. These differences include embouchure formation, articulation, octave keys and alternate fingerings, intonation adjustment, and double reed care. If a student is not able to receive individualized instruction during this transitional …

I Just Can't Get You Out Of My Head : Frenetic Vortex, Animal As Image - Field Notes (1989-2021), Steffanie A. Padilla

Masters Theses

This essay is an attempt to describe a hypnosis induced by media through the accumulation of images in everyday life starting the day I was born. Raised by television and the internet, I go through a chronological timeline of my life selecting banal memories to showcase how violence to animals became neutralized/rendered invisible. The work is primarily concerned with mental health while focused on the youth, ecological destruction, and how sensory overload keeps us from knowing ourselves. The motivation of this paper is to better understand how our environment shapes our reality by using a psychological, media theory, and cognitive …

Living · Sharing · Connecting : Rebirth Of Longchang Apartments Heritage Community, Linhong Jiang

Masters Theses

The Longchang Apartments, which the British designed during the Shanghai Concession Period, is considered a building of great historical importance. However, the disconnected relationship between this historic building and the ever-developing modern society surrounding it becomes more and more evident over time. The backward living conditions of residents and management fail to meet contemporary needs, which intensifies various conflicts between different user groups within the historic site.

This thesis proposes a different way of living in high density within historic structures and explores a new program focusing on user groups’ behavior and interaction to activate the site. The adaptive reuse …

Unraveling The Living: Reframing Cramped Housing As A Social Living, Dong-Zoo Han

Masters Theses

In Seoul, people of the poorest economic status live in compressed units no larger than 32 square feet, known as “sliced housing.” The majority of these residents hope for better living conditions, but they are unable to move for multiple reasons. This is an interwoven sociological issue that requires intervention proposals that improve the physical and mental wellbeing of the people in these housing situations. This thesis demonstrates possible architectural interventions that will enhance the quality of life and support systems within Seoul’s “sliced housing” villages.

Other urban villages in Seoul in similar states of degradation have been destroyed, with …

Remember Me: How We Can Modify The Home For People With Dementia, Wenjin Wang

Masters Theses

More than 50 million people live with dementia worldwide. For reasons of familiarity, affordability, and psychological comfort, the home is uniquely preferred by people with dementia (PwD) and their caregivers for aging in place. Ample studies show that built environmental features (e.g., furnishing, lighting, layout) influence the daily lives of PwD. These features can be modified easily and with fewer disruptions to daily life at home. However, most PwD and their caregivers usually have little knowledge of what can be achieved through simple interventions to environmental features.

There is a great need for an exhibition to explain the dementia-friendly home …

Psychological Well-Being Through Music Listening, Majed Boughanem

Masters Theses

Design has gotten good at delighting and stimulating us in the short term. Could we design products that are good for us in the long run?

In this project, I looked at positive psychology for concepts to develop into features of products and use music listening as a vehicle for integrating them. I propose three music-listening features that help exercise and cultivate emotional regulation strategies:

1_The Reaction Tile

2_The Monofilter

3_The Vibelist

Each feature represents one or multiple strategies from the Process Model of Emotional Regulation.

Beacon Public Library: Expanding Radical Civic Care For An Uncertain Future, Katrina Machado

Masters Theses

Stressors like climate change will put strain on our communities, making them more vulnerable. I am asserting and expanding the role of the public library as a civic space for radical care and community resilience. This work explores the ways in which the public library, as an existing institution, could adapt to the needs of its changing environment and community. Interventions are visualized by a librarian’s jumpsuit and library apron, an adapted library book cart, public signage, and a re-imagined library card.

I imagine a public library that pushes the bounds of its physical building and actively and compassionately serves …

Outcomes Of Music Improvisation Experiences: A Scoping Review, Julia Mccarren

Masters Theses

Music improvisation is a therapeutic music intervention utilized frequently by board-certified music therapists in various clinical settings. While music therapists frequently use music improvisation as a treatment intervention, research on music improvisation outcomes is limited. The purpose of this scoping review is to summarize current knowledge about the outcomes of music improvisation experiences in music therapy and non-music therapy contexts. This review aims to identify and address gaps in the literature to provide suggestions for future research. The findings of this review will inform clinical music therapy methods. To conduct the scoping review, the researcher used the following five-stage framework: …

Effects Of Traditional And Microbially-Focused Restoration Techniques On Soil Communities In Tallgrass Prairies, Zachary J. Whitacre

Masters Theses

Tallgrass prairies have virtually disappeared in many parts of their former range due to the conversion of this ecosystem to farmland. In more recent years there have been efforts to restore these prairies on reclaimed agricultural land. However, these restored prairies do not resemble their remnant counterparts in many ways, such as in soil microbial community composition and metrics related to carbon storage. In Chapter 1, I show that bacterial communities in a restored prairie and an adjacent remnant prairie in southwest Michigan differ in their immediate and longer-term responses to prescribed fire, a commonly used prairie restoration and maintenance …

Composite Analysis Of Mendenhall Glacier Interannual Glacial Health Decline, Hailey Marie Cantrell

Masters Theses

Glacial health in Alaska, USA is demonstrating an interannual declining trend. Repetitive years have suffered an imbalance between winter seasonal ice accumulation and summer seasonal ice loss. Increased ice loss has commonly been attributed to warmer Arctic summer temperatures, which contribute to greater calving events and amplified ablation. Study of the unique climatic influences by different variables is ongoing and at the forefront of climate-glacier interaction research.

This study is designed to quantitatively evaluate correlations between changes in Alaskan climatic patterns and an interannual trend of declining glacial health for Mendenhall Glacier by combining analysis of Landsat satellite imagery, teleconnection …