Digital Commons Network^™

El Cuerpo Puede Curar, Crear Y Cocinar: Analyzing Chicana Embodied Knowledge In The U.S-Mexico Borderlands, Kimberly Monserrat Grimaldo

Theses and Dissertations

The U.S.–Mexico borderlands, specifically the Rio Grande Valley, is a culturally rich site yet deeply affected by coloniality where Indigenous cultures have been erased and suppressed. The Mexican American War devastated Indigenous communities as their knowledge of healing was dismissed by Western science and predominantly buried. This history of oppression and colonization in the borderlands rendered the region with “una herida abierta,” in the words of Chicana scholar Gloria Anzaldúa. However, despite an open wound, there is potential healing that can be incited through colonial resistance within the home. Texts that convey culinary and healing epistemologies include cultural productions such …

Emotional Outbursts In Latinx Autistic Youth With Intact Or Non-Intact Families; Frequency, Severity, And Socio-Demographic Correlates, Sandra Lucia Masso Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impaired social interaction, communication, and restricted repetitive behaviors. One of the core difficulties in individuals with ASD is related to emotional outbursts. Emotional outbursts (EO) are behavioral episodes in response to situations, environmental and physiological stimuli that occur in an extreme, unpleasant, sometimes aggressive way, often disproportionate to the context. Considering the impacts that EO’s can cause in populations with neurodevelopmental disorders and on the well-being and mental health of parents/caregivers, the need arises to evaluate these populations. Due to the core characteristics of ASD (such as a rigid mentality, …

#Helpplz: Mental Health Representation In Theatre For Young Audiences, Kate Elizabeth Dirrigl

Theses and Dissertations

#HELPPLZ is a play for young theater audiences that depicts four teenagers with various mental health challenges. It’s target audience is for children ages ten to fifteen and should be performed by actors of similar ages. #HELPPLZ is an immersive theatre experience, as a audience members watch four actors perform from four different lifestyles and point of views, all while broadcast on screens behind the actors. Every seat is a good seat in the house. This play follows a shift in trends of mental health depiction in contemporary theatre. No longer demonized and much more accessible, plays such as Dear …

Fairness And Robustness In Decentralized Federated Learning, Kaichuang Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a privacy-preserving paradigm that allows multiple clients to collaboratively train a machine learning model without sharing raw data. However, traditional FL relies on a central server for model aggregation, which introduces a single point of failure and makes the system vulnerable to server-side attacks or breakdowns. To address these limitations, Decentralized Federated Learning (DFL) has been proposed, eliminating the need for a central server and enhancing system resilience. Despite these advantages, DFL faces critical challenges related to fairness and robustness, especially under non-i.i.d. data distributions and adversarial conditions. In this thesis, we propose a …

The Effects Of Placing Students In Special Education In A Disciplinary Alternative Education Program, Daniel Garza

Theses and Dissertations

Educating students with special needs can be very challenging especially when their academic challenges are compounded with behavioral challenges. Disciplining students with special needs can create additional challenges and often the use of punishment can have little to no effect in deterring undesirable behavior. As behaviors escalate, so does the form of punishment and students with special needs are often sent to a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program. This study aimed to uncover the effects of placing students who receive special education services in a Disciplinary Alternative Education Program focusing on the impact of placements on academic outcomes and behavioral changes. …

Climate Change And The Field Of Farm Labor In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas, Cody Richard Mortell

Theses and Dissertations

Farm workers in the United States are often vulnerable to adverse impacts of climate change, particularly extreme heat. This study explores farm workers’ climate change perceptions (CCP) as a mediating force in climate adaptation. Using latent class analysis, in-person survey data (n=404) from Lower Rio Grande Valley, TX (2024) and NOAA data were analyzed. Results were interpreted using Bourdieu’s field analysis framework and his notions of capital and symbolic power. Findings include: a social hierarchy with three latent classes of workers based on economic, cultural, social, and symbolic capital, which statistically significantly affected CCP. Workers in higher structural positions were …

Art And Effort, Saul Gabriel Dominguez Ii

Theses and Dissertations

Since childhood I questioned living and my life itself. I wondered the extent of our own free will since people live to cry, to hate, to think they’ve been born simply to die. I use philosophers and some contemporary fiction to portray a lens of living where we must romanticize the present, rather than an uncertain future, and remove the idea that there is a reason for our living. This method of present thinking is a characteristic of a life-well lived. The manuscript will largely be told from my point of view, a young aspiring author with limited experience, through …

Sensor Data Fusion For Air Quality Monitoring, Mirna Hesham

Theses and Dissertations

Since traditional air quality monitoring methods often rely on geographically sparse and costly air quality monitoring stations, image-based air quality method- ologies are recently offering a compelling alternative that utilizes images from sources like satellites, traffic cameras, and even smartphones to monitor pollution levels by using estimation models, image-processing techniques, and deep-learning models. In this thesis, we first conduct a systematic review, in which we categorize and discuss the existing literature work. Moreover, we introduce a novel, multi- modal dataset designed to address the limitations of existing datasets, which are restricted in size, geographical coverage, and fixed-scene imagery, impeding the …

Capturing The Realities Of Space And Culture: An Exploration Of Landscape In The House On Mango Street And Woman Hollering Creek, Leanna C. Mendiola

Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Capturing the Realities of Space and Culture: An Exploration of Landscape in The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek (May 2025)

Leanna Carmela Mendiola, B.A., Texas A&M International University; Chair of Committee: Dr. Zachary Hernandez

This thesis explores Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street and Woman Hollering Creek. Cisneros’s books explore the landscape and culture around her characters as readers piece together the experiences of women. The two novels use architectural elements to examine each book’s protagonists’ community and culture. The thesis argues that Cisneros employs space and place to underscore empowerment and the characters’ journeys …

The Impact Of System Transparency On Perceived System Reliability, Perceived System Usability, And Information Clarity In Self-Driving Car Systems, Uditkumar Nair

Theses and Dissertations

In human-computer interaction (HCI), the development of autonomous vehicle (AV) technology has created new difficulties, especially in building user confidence as well as understanding of system functioning. The effect of system transparency on user- centered outcomes, such as perceived usability, perceived system reliability, and information clarity, is examined in this thesis. In order to evaluate their experiences in both ordinary and high-stakes driving situations, participants engaged with both system- transparent user interfaces (TUIs) and non-transparent user interfaces (NTUIs) across a number of experimental scenarios. In order to assess how well each interface conveyed system logic and actions, the study included …

Bridging The Gap: Enhancing Devops Security Through Comprehensive Threat Modeling, Ashutosh Jagdish Sonar

Theses and Dissertations

Today, security is an essential component of software development, especially in DevOps environments where rapid and continuous product release cycles are common. Systems are vulnerable to new attacks because traditional security approaches often cannot keep up with the pace of change. The threat modeling approaches used in DevOps are examined in this thesis, along with their advantages, disadvantages, and suitability for use in current software development processes. Well-known frameworks including STRIDE (Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information Disclosure, Denial of Service (DoS), and Elevation of Privilege), Attack Trees, LINDDUN (Linking, Identifying, Non-Repudiation, Detecting, Data Disclosure, Unawareness, and Non-Compliance.), Practical Threat Analysis (PTA), …

C-Band Air To Ground Communication System For Uav, Mubark Alghamdi

Theses and Dissertations

C band spectrum 5030-5091 MHz is allocated for command-and-control communication services with unmanned aircraft systems. This document evaluates the possibility of using 3GPP 5G standards for provisioning of such services. Channelization of the spectrum and major system parameters are proposed. The performance of the proposed system in channel fading environment is evaluated using MATLAB based simulations. The evaluations examine SINR, and average throughput of the proposed system at different altitudes of the unmanned aircraft system. MATLAB simulations are used to evaluate system performance in free-space environments. Signal-to-Interference-plus-Noise Ratio (SINR) and Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) are predicted at different UAS …

Characterizing Human Mobility Patterns In Saudi Arabia Using Cellular Data, Meshal Alnefaie

Theses and Dissertations

The study analyzes human mobility in Saudi Arabia. Using crowd-source data, Riyadh mobility is analyzed to find trends and highlight mobility patterns of individuals in Riyadh. Then, the mobility of Riyadh is compared with that of Jeddah and Dammam in a similar data collection and analysis. Four mobility metrics are utilized: Number of Visited Locations (NLOC), Number of Unique Locations (NULOC), Radius of Gyration (RGYR), and Distance Traveled (DTRV). The results show interesting outcomes about individuals in the three cities. Although these cities are far from each other, they observe the same mobility patterns. These findings have the potential to …

Developing End-To-End Imitation Learning For Asteroid Proximity Operations, Patrick David Quinn

Theses and Dissertations

Asteroid exploration remains a popular topic in the scientific community, however hurdles still exist for controlling spacecraft within the asteroid environment. Communication delays often require the usage of limited onboard computing hardware for navigation. Additionally, long mission timelines must be accommodated with highly efficient fuel use. Considering these issues, it is apparent that any guidance, navigation, and control (GNC) system in these spacecraft should emphasize both computational and fuel efficiency in its design. Furthermore, the integration of a robust state estimation system is necessary for the successful deployment of such systems. The development of a controller aiming to address these …

The Marionette Among Us: The Dark Triad, Influence Tactics, And The Fabric Of Team Relationships, Jarret Nathan Bain

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the influence of the Dark Triad personality traits—Machiavellianism, Narcissism, and Psychopathy—on workplace team dynamics, particularly through the use of hard and soft interpersonal influence tactics. The research focuses on Team Member Exchange (TMX) as a measure of perceived relationship quality among team members. Using a cross-sectional survey of employed adults recruited through Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk), the study investigated the relationships between Dark Triad traits, influence tactics, and TMX. The findings reveal that while Narcissism is positively correlated with TMX, Machiavellianism and Psychopathy show more complex patterns of association, impacted by the choice of influence tactics. The …

Patterns Of Fire History And Vegetation Changes In The Last 5000 Years: A Paleoecological Study Of Iquitos, Annabel Zwarts

Theses and Dissertations

The vegetation of the Amazonian rainforest is hypothesized to have been shaped by pre-Columbian activities, such as burning and palm management to various extents. Management of palms is hypothesized to have caused some of the most useful species to become hyperdominant in Amazonia. This study investigated the extent to which human activities over the past 5000 years affected palm abundances in mature lowland rainforests near Iquitos, Peru. I used phytoliths and charcoal from soil cores to determine the history of local floras, and modern palm surveys to compare modern phytolith occurrence with modern vegetation. Because pre-Columbian activity clustered along the …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of Embedded Instruction And Item Quality On Activity Selection, Julianne Isabella Fernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Naturalistic teaching strategies, such as embedded instruction, have been used to effectively teach a variety of skills to individuals diagnosed with ASD and other developmental disabilities. However, the effect of embedding instructions on a child’s play preferences is unknown. The goal of this study is to evaluate whether response allocation is dependent on frequency of demands or quality of items available during preferred activities. We used a concurrent operants arrangement in which a room was divided into two sides and various toys were placed in each with embedded demands available in one side. In Experiment 1, researchers evaluated the time …

Use Of Pushed-In Pencel Pressuremeter Test For Shallow Foundation Design In Florida Fine Sands, Brhane Weldeanenya Ygzaw

Theses and Dissertations

A comprehensive evaluation was conducted on the performance, consistency, and practical application of various in-situ geotechnical testing methods for predicting the settlement and bearing capacity of shallow foundations in Florida’s fine sands. The methods assessed include the Standard Penetration Test (SPT), Cone Penetration Test (CPT), Dilatometer Test (DMT), pushed-in PENCEL Pressuremeter Test (PPMT), and the pre-bored TEXAM Pressuremeter Test. A dual approach controlled indoor testing at the FDOT State Materials Office (SMO) and field investigations at three representative sites (Kingsley, Trenton, and the UCF research site), formed the experimental foundation.

Over thirty settlement prediction techniques and thirteen bearing capacity estimation …

Early Breast Cancer Detection With Ultrasound Data Using Nmf, Rutvi Khamar

Theses and Dissertations

Early detection of breast cancer significantly influences patient outcomes. Dynamic Contrast-Enhanced Ultrasound (DCE-US) has shown promise in early detection by visualizing tumor vascularity and perfusion dynamics in real-time. This study evaluates the efficacy of DCE-US in distinguishing four stages of cancer progression: normal, hyperplasia, ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), and invasive cancer, using a transgenic mouse model that mimics human breast cancer. Ultrasound burst pulses, while commonly used to remove unbound contrast agents, can potentially damage human tissues. Using the pre-pulse data helps mitigate this risk, ensuring safer and more reliable measurements. A VEGFR2-targeted microbubble contrast agent was injected, and …

Effects Of Reflective Journaling And Nudges On Academic Motivation And Engagement, Lakshmi Satya Sai Veda Mahita Uppuluri

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the effects of reflective journaling and motivational nudges on academic motivation and engagement among college students. Grounded in Self- Determination Theory (SDT), the research examines how different interventions influence intrinsic motivation, and academic behaviors such as class attendance, participation, and preparation. The study employed a between-group experimental design with three conditions: a control group, a journaling group, and a journaling group that also received daily motivational nudges. Results showed that students in the journaling groups—particularly those who received nudges—experienced a significant increase in academic motivation. While changes in academic engagement were not significant, the effect size suggested …

Stochastic Analysis With Operational Calculus In Reliability, Hend Hamdan Al-Jahani

Theses and Dissertations

Our dissertation models several reliability systems subject to occasional random shocks of random magnitudes W1,W2,..occurring at times tau0, tau2,..In Model 1, the underlying system becomes inoperational if it wears out due to aging specified by a monotone increasing continuous function Delta identifying system's wear at any time t>=0 . The system is deemed inoperational if delta crosses a sustainability threshold at some moment T=(delta )^-1(D). The precise time T is difficult to identify making the realistic failure time randomly delayed and thus identified at some opportune observation epoch. The system can also fail due to damages by external shocks, …

The Effect Of Food Preference On The Efficacy Of The High-Probability Instructional Sequence To Treat Food Selectivity, Christina Marie Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations

Food selectivity involves avoiding certain foods based on type, texture, brand, smell, temperature, or presentation, and it affects 80% of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Although several antecedent-based and consequence-based behavioral interventions exist to increase acceptance and consumption of food in this population, one antecedent-based intervention that has shown promise both within and outside of a feeding context is the high-probability instructional sequence, which consists of the delivery of three high-probability instructions before delivery of a low-probability instruction. The high-probability sequence is used to increase compliance with instructions that have a low probability of completion (e.g., taking a bite …

The Impact Of Sibling Sexual Abuse On Parenting Stress, Giuliana Berry

Theses and Dissertations

Sibling sexual abuse is the most common yet least reported, treated, and studied manifestation of child sexual abuse (Bertele & Talmon, 2023; Caffaro & Conn-Caffaro, 2005; Krienert & Walsh, 2011; O’Brien, 1991). It is a particularly challenging form of intrafamilial sexual abuse for parents and caregivers because their children are both the victim and the perpetrator of the abuse. They struggle to balance the needs of both children (Duane et al., 2002; Tener et al., 2020) and may experience heightened stress and associated psychological difficulties. Parenting stress is linked to child and adolescent posttraumatic stress and internalizing and externalizing problem …

Evaluating A Video Modeling Approach To Teach Shelter Volunteers How To Interact With Dogs In The Shelter, Sean Michael Will

Theses and Dissertations

Well-trained volunteers are required to help meet the daily needs of dogs waiting to be adopted in animal shelters and to find new homes for them. Inadequate volunteer training leads to mismanagement and attrition of volunteers who are essential to helping shelter dogs get adopted. However, animal shelters often lack access to the resources and funds required to provide adequate training for volunteers. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design, this study evaluated a cost-effective program consisting of video modeling with voiceover instruction, on-screen text, examples, and non-examples that instructed volunteers to interact with the dogs in a specific manner to …

Trends In And Factors Associated With Science Achievement Among Fourth Graders In Saudi Arabia: A Secondary Analysis Of Timss Data, Reda Massawe

Theses and Dissertations

This secondary analysis examined trends and factors associated with science achievement among fourth-grade students in Saudi Arabia using data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Between 2007 and 2019, Saudi students consistently scored below the international average in science, with female students outperforming males by more than 30 points. The study addressed two issues: (1) reasons behind Saudi students’ underperformance and (2) limited research on contributing factors. TIMSS data from 2011, 2015, and 2019 were analyzed using descriptive, correlational, and regression methods. While trends across the years were explored, only 2019 data were used for detailed …

Exploration, Exploitation, And Financial Performance: The Long-Term Advantages Of Ambidextrous Companies, Georgi Aleksandrov Kirov

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have advanced ambidexterity as an effective organizational strategy to cope with environmental and technological change. The use of divergent and incompatible core construct conceptualizations, overreliance on cross-sectional and perceptual performance measures, and persistent scarcity of longitudinal examinations have undermined empirical conclusions that ambidexterity works. This study seeks to ascertain whether ambidexterity enhances long-term financial performance under environmental conditions of munificence, dynamism, and external potential slack.

The study deploys a novel operationalization of the ambidexterity concept and develops company portfolios to compare the financial results of ambidextrous firms and their rivals. Based on a 25-year data set, the research finds …

Exploratory Study On Factors That Impact Job Embeddedness For Northeast Government And Commercial Aerospace Procurement Specialists, Nicholas Alaimo

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined job embeddedness theory and its impact on commercial and government aerospace procurement professionals in the Northeast United States. The research sought to understand the factors that influence why these professionals remain in their positions and what elements contribute to improved job performance. Job embeddedness theory explains employee retention through three key factors: perceived fit within their role, perceived links to organizational culture, and perceived sacrifices that would result from leaving.

The study identified six main themes. First, the research found both similarities and differences in how aerospace procurement specialists connect with aerospace culture in government subcontracting …

Matrix Training Of Verb Tenses With Autistic Children, Alexandra Lynn Ewald

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to extend the research on matrix training by evaluating its efficacy for producing recombinative generalization of regular verb tense endings. Three autistic children were shown videos of people known to the participants acting out behaviors associated with an action about to take place, currently taking place, or that took place. The targets (actors, actions, and verb tenses) were arranged in a matrix, and the targets appearing along the diagonal of the matrix were directly trained, while the remaining targets were probed to determine if the participant was able to emit correct responses without any …

Expressive And Interpretable User Engagement Prediction Using Multivariate Survival Processes, Akshay Aravamudan

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to characterize how information diffuses online is of paramount importance to stakeholders that are interested in tasks such as proposing solutions for mitigating and countering dis/misinformation, predicting user engagement of content in social media, planning marketing campaigns to roll-out products and planning dissemination of political campaign messaging among others. One such facet of learning the dynamics of information diffusion is the ability to predict user engagement or the popularity of a single piece of information as it spreads through an online medium. Existing works in this regard mainly either obfuscate user level information or utilize frameworks that are …

Personality Trait Recognition Through Deep Neural Temporal Modeling Of Non-Verbal Behavior, Kushal Vangara

Theses and Dissertations

Personality research seeks to explain the wide range of human behaviors through stable, measurable traits. Human interactions are inherently rich and multidimensional, and analyzing behavioral data offers a promising path to uncover personality insights. The increasing convergence of psychology, computer science, and machine learning has fueled interest in computational approaches to personality assessment. Advances in sensing technologies have made it possible to capture fine-grained information about individuals’ behaviors and interactions in naturalistic and controlled environments. Automated audio-visual analysis techniques extract relevant behavioral cues, which machine learning models then interpret to infer underlying personality traits. This work provides a comprehensive overview …