Digital Commons Network^™

Beyond The Binary: Strengthening Nursing Students’ Proficiency Of Equitable Health Promotion, Martha K. Findley

Theses

Background: Sexual and gender diverse (SGD) populations continue to experience significant health inequities, yet prelicensure nursing curricula often lack structured, evidence‑based training to prepare students for equitable care.

Purpose: This study evaluated whether a targeted, transgender‑focused simulation could improve nursing students’ clinical knowledge and preparedness for providing equitable health promotion to SGD populations.

Methods: A pre‑/post‑intervention design was used with senior‑level nursing students who completed a transgender patient simulation emphasizing communication, assessment, and equitable health promotion. Students completed a validated survey measuring knowledge and preparedness in caring for SGD patients.

Results: Significant improvements across most survey items demonstrated that the …

Understanding The Long-Term Patterns Of Change Of A Tidal Marsh In Mission Bay, San Diego, California, Carrie A. Shuster, Theresa Sinicrope Talley Ph.D., Drew Talley Ph.D., Zhi-Yong Yin Ph.D., Kellie Uyeda Ph.D.

Theses

Coastal marshes are among California’s most productive ecosystems and the most impacted, having been extensively modified by dredging, filling, and urban development. This thesis investigates over a century of change for a marsh in Northern Mission Bay, San Diego, California using ecological and spatial analyses.

Chapter 1 provides an overview of the environmental history and current land use of the Northern Mission Bay marsh, tracing changes from pre-contact Indigenous stewardship through colonial and modern urban development. It also introduces a restoration plant palette derived from historical and contemporary species occurrences, ecological functions, and documented cultural uses. By integrating ethnobotanical knowledge …

Anxious Or Avoidant? The Moderating Effects Of Attachment Styles On Later Development Of Ptsd And Bpd In Individuals With Child Maltreatment History, Jeannette L. Burkle

Theses

Child maltreatment (CM) has been associated with the later development of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among emerging adults. Numerous attachment studies have documented the association of insecure attachments with CM. There is little research on the independent effects of anxious and avoidant maternal attachment on later psychopathology and even less on the effects of peer attachment. Secure peer attachments can improve emotional regulation strategies as well as create healthy social support systems which may buffer against the development of later psychopathology. This study examined the independent effects of maternal and peer attachment in the relationship …

Navigating Errors: Voice Assistants And Aging Users, Bea Marithe V. Pulido

Theses

This study examined how age relates to usability, cognitive load, and affect when using voice-user interfaces (VUIs). VUIs such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Home are increasingly common and allow users to complete tasks through voice commands. While these systems can be convenient and accessible, especially for older adults, they often provide brief or unclear feedback when errors occur, making it difficult for users to understand what went wrong and how to continue the interaction. The current study compared older and younger adults (n = 40) to examine group differences in perceived usability, cognitive load, and affective change during VUI …

Chronotivity: Concurrent And Prospective Influences On Creative Performance Among College Students, Hreem Mahadeshwar

Theses

Creativity is increasingly understood as a dynamic process influenced by biological, psychological, and contextual factors. Previous research has linked chronotype, sleep quality, affect, curiosity, and creative self-efficacy to creative performance; however, relatively little is known about how these factors jointly relate to creativity among college students or whether they predict creative performance over time. The present study examined concurrent and prospective relationships in undergraduate students at RIT (T1: n = 210; T2: n = 38), between these variables and creative performance using a two-timepoint design. Creative performance was assessed using the Alternative Uses Task and scored for creative quality and …

Archaeal Signal Peptide Prediction Through Integration Of Proteomics And Machine Learning, Anjali Kaur

Theses

Signal peptides are short N-terminal amino acid sequences that direct proteins through cellular secretion pathways and play an essential role in protein localization and function. Computational tools such as SignalP are widely used to predict signal peptides. However, prediction accuracy for archaeal proteins remains lower than for bacterial and eukaryotic proteins, likely because relatively few archaeal proteins were available for model training. The goal of this study was to determine whether expanding the archaeal training data used by SignalP 6.0 could improve archaeal signal peptide prediction. Archaeal proteomics datasets from five archaeal species were analyzed to identify proteins with experimentally …

Stochastic Inverse Problems In Stochastic Elliptic And Parabolic Pdes, Zi-Jia Gong

Theses

This dissertation presents a computational framework for solving stochastic inverse problems in partial differential equations (PDEs) with random data. The objective is to recover unknown random coefficients in parabolic and elliptic diffusion equations, as well as nearly incompressible linear elasticity models. To achieve this, optimization-based approaches are used to minimize regularized Energy Least Squares (ELS) and Output Least Squares (OLS) objective functionals. Both direct and adjoint methods are used to estimate the gradient and Hessian of the objective functionals with respect to the coefficients. To avoid the expensive computation of the full Hessian matrix, the Newton-CG-like method is also adopted, …

Multi-Omic Analysis Of Molecular Changes In Haloferax Volcanii Biofilm Development, Joshua Koller

Theses

Biofilms are the predominant lifestyle of microorganisms and offer protection against environmental stress. Archaeal biofilm development remains poorly understood relative to its bacterial counterpart, and the fundamental differences between these two domains prevent direct extrapolation from bacterial models. To address this gap, we used quantitative proteomics and transcriptomics to characterize the molecular changes accompanying biofilm formation and maturation in the model archaeon Haloferax volcanii. Protein and transcript abundance were measured across seven conditions spanning both lifestyles and multiple timepoints, with glycosylated proteoforms quantified as entities distinct from their unmodified counterparts, covering both established biofilm-associated structures and newly identified candidates. Known …

Evaluation Of Mechanical Properties And Seal Strength Of Medical Packaging Materials Before And After Supercritical Co₂ Sterilization, Camila Madriz Pizarro

Theses

The sterilization of medical devices is critical in the prevention of infections in healthcare settings. Ethylene oxide (EtO), gamma irradiation, and steam sterilization have been the standard sterilization processes in healthcare settings, where the packaging system remains the most important barrier between the sterilized instrument/device. Safety concerns and regulatory pushback on conventional sterilization methods have pushed for further research on new sterilization techniques. Among the emerging sterilization technologies, one candidate that has garnered considerable attention is Supercritical CO2 sterilization. However, there is a lack of literature to support the compatibility between scCO2 and common medical packaging materials. The present study …

Analyzing The Effects Of Biodegradable Plastic Fragments On Maize Development And Defense Signaling, Ulysses Hampton

Theses

As plastic use shifts from non-degradable to biodegradable materials, the effects of biodegradable plastic fragments on crop physiology remain unclear. This study investigated how biodegradable plastic fragments influence maize development, transpiration, and defense signaling. Among five plastic types tested, poly(butylene adipate-co-terephthalate) (PBAT), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), polycaprolactone (PCL), polylactic acid (PLA), and thermoplastic starch (TPS). PBAT and TPS showed the most significant effects and were selected for further oxylipin analysis. Results indicate that biodegradable plastic fragments can alter oxylipin signaling pathways in subtle but meaningful ways, suggesting that these materials are not inherently risk-free alternatives to conventional plastics.

Design Of A Continuum Robot Test Bed Utilizing Model-Free Sliding Mode Control, Joseph Paul Streib

Theses

Continuum robots are a class of continually deformable robots inspired by snakes and tentacles that are commonly used in medical, search and rescue, and exploration applications. The robots are highly nonlinear and difficult to accurately model and control. Precise control of the pose of a continuum robot is typically reliant upon a system model. This work introduces a novel model free control algorithm for continuum robots that only relies upon the robot’s position in task space. The derived controller is built upon the foundation of a preexisting model free sliding mode controller and the q-state parameterized piecewise constant curvature kinematic …

Engineering Materials Function With Reconfigurable Colloids, Laura Galeano Tirado

Theses

The function of a material is defined not only by its chemical composition, but also by the structural organization of its constituents across multiple length scales, from the architecture of individual building blocks to their collective arrangement. Developing strategies to access, engineer, and reconfigure that structure on demand represents a central opportunity in the design of adaptive materials. Here, we present a thermoresponsive polymer-colloid platform that enables high-precision tuning of colloidal structures using only thermal stimuli. Rather than adsorbing to the surface, our polymers diffuse inside organosilica colloids to reshape them from within, allowing continuous modulation of their size, shape, …

Semiconductor Laser Calibration Through Photonic Chip With Microcontroller Driven Wavelength Inference, Clayton Acheson

Theses

Integrated Silicon Photonics leverages light-speed operation with lower power and higher data rates than electronic counterparts. To achieve this, light is sent through a silicon circuit, where it is manipulated to perform various operations. Primarily, the light for these circuits comes from laser sources. Semiconductor lasers are typically used for their small form factor and ability to be heterogeneously integrated into larger, more complex systems. Because the optical phase and wavelength of light respond to minute changes in local refractive index, light is increasingly used for high-sensitivity sensing in integrated photonic circuit applications. As such, schemes that integrate the laser …

Biochar-Derived Ethylene Scavengers For The Preservation Of Bananas, Morgan Samson

Theses

Ethylene regulates the rapid ripening of numerous climacteric fruits (e.g., banana, tomato, mango, and avocado). Minimization of ethylene formation and action in fruits during harvest or at any stage along the supply chain has become an important approach to prolong storage periods and minimize postharvest losses. Active packaging with ethylene scavengers has been proven to extend the shelf life of climacteric fruits; however, a cost-effective and sustainable solution is needed. Biochar-derived ethylene scavengers offer a promising approach to minimize postharvest losses, along with the valorization of abundant organic residues. This study produced and characterized biochars from two different feedstocks (i.e., …

Modeling Intercellular And Intracellular Organization And Dynamics Of The Bacteria Escherichia Coli : From Population Dynamics In The Gut Microbiome, To Condensate Formation In Starved Cells, Alberto Alonso

Theses

Escherichia coli is a predominantly non-pathogenic species of bacteria present in the gut of most healthy adults. It plays a critical role in the health of the gut microbiome and is also widely used as a model organism in microbiology and synthetic biology studies. This thesis discusses results from two ongoing projects on E. Coli organization and emergent biophysical properties at two very distinct length scales. The first project focuses on using genetically modified engineered E. coli bacteria for early detection and intervention in colorectal cancer (CRC), a significant public health issue in the US. The success of these engineered …

Impact Of Chiral Chain Conformations On The Self-Assembly Of Helical Polymers, Michael J. Grant

Theses

Polymers are a soft material with diverse applications across a spectrum of technologies including, but not limited to, packaging, drug-delivery, optics, lithography and templating. This ubiquity stems from over a century of in-depth theoretical and experimental investigations relating polymer size, stiffness and architecture to their emergent material properties. Interestingly, unlike small organic molecules where solution behavior is predominantly a function of hydrophobicity, in polymers, adjusting the aforementioned features can have a dramatic impact on their interactions with neighboring molecules. In turn, this allows for a tunable parameter space enabling the ability to achieve specific engineering goals. Yet, while the impact …

The Mediating Role Of Moral Disengagement In The Relationship Between Facets Of Empathy And Aggression, Romiere J. Horace

Theses

Aggression is a major social and public health concern with economic, psychological, and interpersonal implications. Extensive research has examined the potential antecedents for aggressive behavior, with many different environmental, biological, and intrapsychic factors being significantly associated with aggression. Researchers have also focused on cognitive mechanisms, like empathy, as a protective factor for aggression. More specifically, research has linked lower levels of empathy to higher levels of aggression; however, the underlying mechanisms of this relationship remain underexplored. A potential explanatory mechanism is moral disengagement, which allows individuals to justify harmful behaviors and avoid self-sanctions. However, limited research has examined these constructs …

Meridian, Rachel Seaton

Theses

Meridian is an ambient tabletop object that translates physiological data into a continuously evolving visual landscape. Rather than presenting emotional information through charts or notifications, it exists as a quiet environmental presence that can be understood through peripheral awareness. A simulated biometric system drives a particle field whose movement reflects physiological variation, producing eight distinct visual signatures. The visual system is governed by four parameters: field density, field disturbance, signal trace, and signal duration, which together shape the behavior and persistence of the particle field. The teardrop form was selected for its ability to convey both the passage of time …

Understanding The Lubrication Mechanisms Of Environmentally Compatible Protic Ionic Liquids, Davis Kipkania Kiboi

Theses

The development of environmentally sustainable lubricants is increasingly important as industries seek to reduce friction, wear, energy losses, and environmental impact. Choline amino acid protic ionic liquids (PILs) have emerged as promising candidates due to their bio-based constituents, tunable molecular structures, and favorable lubrication properties. However, the influence of amino acid structure on their lubrication mechanisms and tribological performance remains poorly understood. This dissertation investigates the physicochemical properties, tribological behavior, and tribofilm formation mechanisms of choline amino acid PILs to establish structure–property–performance relationships for sustainable lubricant design. Ten choline amino acid PILs containing glycine, alanine, lysine, leucine, isoleucine, aspartic acid, …

Rooted Worlds, Eli Groborchik

Theses

Plant Awareness Disparity (PAD) describes a widespread cognitive bias where plant life is systematically overlooked in favor of its animal counterparts. This disconnect is acutely visible in natural history museums where plant life is notoriously difficult to display. Rooted Worlds is an interactive, physical-digital installation designed to combat this bias by bridging the emotional and educational gap between audiences and Earth’s diverse ecosystems. Rejecting traditional flat screens and passive dioramas, the exhibit utilizes a fourteen-foot, 270-degree cylindrical projection screen to immerse visitors in six distinct, digitally rendered global biomes, creating a restorative and engaging space that leverages Attention Restoration Theory …

Spikerff: Learning Forward With Layer-Local Plasticity And Semi-Hard Negatives, Karthik Tumkur Kumar

Theses

Effective contrastive learning relies on choosing useful, informative "hard" negative samples. Current hard negative sampling methods designed for traditional artificial neural networks (ANNs) are, in general, computationally costly and are ill-suited to account for the temporal structure relevant to neuromorphic data. To tackle these issues, in this work, we formulate a similarity-guided semi-hard negative sampling strategy for neuromorphic computing based on spiking neural networks (SNNs). We propose SpikeRFF (Spiking Recurrent Forward-Forward), a gradient-free and unsupervised recurrent spiking framework that combines layer-local Forward-Forward learning with semi-hard negative selection and temporally structured negative construction. Positive samples are encouraged to produce high goodness, …

What’S Kept, Caitlin Smith

Theses

This thesis examines the collective psychological aftermath of de-industrialization in a rust belt city, processed through perspectives of nostalgia and betrayal. By reframing childhood memories of instability and inherited narratives, a framework is established for investigating the modalities through which love and attachment may obscure entangled harm, and how grief operates across both collective and personal registers. Found objects are situated as sites of projection where memories are abstracted and reconstituted. The processes of decay and weathering serve as analogues for psychological trauma, reframing deterioration as an inevitable and generative condition. Natural elements act as metaphors for neutrality, challenging imposed …

Analysis Of The Formation And Structure Of Protective Films In Sustainable Ionic Liquid Lubricants, Brendan Mahoney

Theses

Friction losses and wear of sliding components account for nearly one quarter of global energy consumption. Developing new lubricants to reduce these losses is essential for a more cost-effective and sustainable future. The automotive industry offers the greatest economic potential for new tribological discoveries, as it affects billions of people around the world. A significant portion of the friction losses in automobiles are due to the reciprocating motion in the engine, which leads to metal-on-metal contact. Ionic liquids have emerged as novel lubricants and additives due to their ability to form protective surface layers on metals, reducing friction and wear. …

Characterizing The Relationships Between Hydrology, Soil Biogeochemistry, And Green Ash Canopy Structure In Emerald Ash Borer-Affected Wetlands, Eva Switala

Theses

The invasion of the emerald ash borer (EAB; Agrilus planipennis) has caused mass mortality of native ash trees (Fraxinus spp.), devastating forested wetlands in the northeastern United States. Fifteen years post-introduction, the long-term ecological shifts and "new normals" of these ecosystems remain poorly understood. This project characterized patterns in EAB-affected forested wetlands by evaluating soil characteristics, biogeochemical cycling, hydrology, and green ash canopy across 12 sites with varying initial ash presence. Results revealed a clear separation between biogeochemically active and less active sites. Hydrologic differences emerged as a key driver of biogeochemical cycling, with higher soil moisture significantly increasing rates …

The Effect Of Aquatic Pollution On (Green) Microbial Communities In The Greater Rochester Area, Francesca Molee

Theses

Retention ponds are built in urban and suburban areas to catch the polluted runoff that would otherwise go into highly-valued freshwater ecosystems like the Great Lakes. They therefore make ideal model ecosystems to consider the effect of chemical, common pollution on aquatic communities. To understand the impact this aquatic pollution on both microbial community composition alongside green microbial physiological stress response, water column and sediment microbial communities were sampled from three retention ponds, and three non-retention, created ponds. The first part of this study focused on the microbial community composition. Using 16s amplicon sequencing on and subsequent analysis using Qiime2, …

Topological Tools For The Analysis Of Complex Networks And Higher-Order Networks, Jason P. Laruez

Theses

This dissertation investigates the intersection of topological data analysis and network science, applying and extending persistent homology, Betti numbers, and simpliciality measures to study temporal, evolving, and coevolving networked systems. We introduce a multi-layer zigzag persistent homology framework for analyzing temporal hypergraphs across multiple timescales simultaneously, and validate it on the DARPA Operationally Transparent Cyber dataset, where it produces topological signatures that distinguish malicious from benign network activity by source IP. We then apply topological tools to classical generative network models and their hypergraph extensions, characterizing how Betti numbers, filling efficiencies, and simpliciality measures evolve as these models grow or …

Towards Efficient Continual Deep Learning, Md Yousuf Harun

Theses

Modern AI systems can achieve remarkable performance on tasks such as image recognition, object detection, and language understanding, but they often struggle with a basic ability that humans rely on every day: learning continuously. When deep neural networks (DNNs) are updated with new information, they can unexpectedly forget what they previously learned, making them difficult to deploy in changing real-world environments. This dissertation explores how to build AI systems that can learn more like humans: adapting to new data, preserving past knowledge, and using prior experience to learn future tasks more efficiently. Rather than focusing only on preventing forgetting, this …

Control And Entrainment Of Oscillatory Dynamics In An Oncolytic Virus–Tumor Model Under Periodic Therapy Forcing, Aya Salaheddin Shujrawi

Theses

This thesis investigates the dynamics of a tumour–virus interaction model under sinusoidal periodic viral injection, using the three-compartment ordinary differential equation framework of Baabdulla and Hillen (2024). The aim is to characterise how the frequency and amplitude of periodic injection interact with the system's intrinsic oscillatory dynamics, and to identify conditions for stable frequency entrainment. Equilibrium and Hopf bifurcation analysis of the autonomous system yields a supercritical bifurcation at θ_H^auto ≈ 338.45 with intrinsic frequency Ω₀^auto ≈ 0.7552. Introducing a constant baseline injection u₀ = 0.05 raises the threshold to θ_H^forced ≈ 364.85 and shifts …

Effects Of Led Light Spectra And 1-Mcp On Postharvest Quality And Bioactive Compounds Of Cucumber (Cucumis Sativus L.) During Cold Storage, Imad Eldin Abbas Yousif

Theses

Extending postharvest quality and maintaining the nutritional value of cucumber fruit requires specific storage conditions to postpone senescence and enhance marketability. The postharvest lighting environment is a main factor that influences quality preservation for harvested biomass. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of different light emitting diodes (LED) spectra (green, red, blue, and white LED) alone or in combination with 1-Methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on postharvest quality and bioactive compounds of cucumber fruit during cold storage for 16 days at 5°C, the control fruit were left in the dark. For combined treatment, the fruits were exposed to 1-MCP …

Towards Efficient And High-Fidelity Generative Models, Paribesh Regmi

Theses

Generative models aim to learn the underlying data distribution and synthesize realistic samples such as images, videos, and audio. Deep learning has brought remarkable success to this field, enabling models to capture complex, high-dimensional structures and produce highly realistic outputs. However, a fundamental challenge remains — achieving both computational efficiency and high-quality generation simultaneously. Among modern approaches, diffusion-based generative models stand out for their exceptional sample fidelity but require hundreds of iterative denoising steps, making them computationally expensive and slow. To improve efficiency, recent work trains diffusion models in the low-dimensional latent space of a pretrained Variational Autoencoder (VAE), where …