Digital Commons Network^™

“Some Vague Utopia”: Searching For Urania, Moira L. Neve

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the global pendulum swing of gender trouble marked by the United States’ President’s declaration that there are only two sexes, activists have been rejecting assimilation (ie. defining equality as gay marriage or queer people in the military) within queer studies long before 2025. In the first half of the 20th century, a journal by the name of Urania (1916-1940), privately published and circulated to their home base in the United Kingdom and beyond, five editors (Esther Roper, Eva Gore-Booth, Jessey Wade, Dorothy Cornish, and Irene Clyde/Thomas Baty), challenged the gender binary and the resulting assumptions of heterosexual marriage. This …

News Mediated Reporting And Governmental Narratives About The Enforcement Of Elite Criminality: Exploring The Social Construction Of Financial Frauds And Discrepancies In Punishment, Dominic J. Zicari

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how financial crime enforcement decisions are socially constructed through a qualitative content analysis of news articles and government communications pertaining to two specific cases: the Enron scandal of 2001 and the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. The study was guided by a theoretical framework that utilizes Barak’s (2017) theory of state-routinized crime control. The rigorous analysis of 394 news articles and government communication documents revealed that the media and the state rarely framed the subprime mortgage crisis as a criminal issue. Although the Enron scandal was frequently described as financial crime, journalists and government communicators were often …

“You’Re Only As Good As Your Resources”: Exploring Virginia Police Chiefs’ And Sheriffs’ Decisions As Public Administrators To Engage In Community Collaborations With Domestic And Sexual Violence Agencies, Christine E. Wengloski

Theses and Dissertations

The collaborations between domestic and sexual violence victim-serving agencies (DSVAs) and law enforcement agencies help connect victims of crime to needed services. To maximize the benefits of these victim-serving initiatives in Virginia, it is imperative that victim-serving agencies understand the perceptions and factors that influence the decision-making of law enforcement administrators. In this study, I first present a theoretical framework of Herbert Simon’s Decision-Making Theory as a guide to understanding police chiefs and sheriffs as public administrators. A review of the literature demonstrates gaps in existing scholarship around chiefs’ and sheriffs’ decision-making about domestic and sexual violence victim-serving initiatives. Next, …

Improving Telehealth Education And Training: A Needs Assessment Of Healthcare Providers And Trainees, Conor Duffy

Theses and Dissertations

Telehealth utilization has increased dramatically since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are many positive impacts of this shift to telehealth, including increasing access to care and reducing patient burden. However, healthcare providers report several consistent challenges that limit their ability to deliver telehealth, such as effective communication, technological difficulties, and difficulty performing physical examinations. To address these concerns, it is necessary to integrate telehealth education and training into healthcare professional training programs and healthcare systems. While many institutions have implemented telehealth education and training since the start of the pandemic, there is little consistency in the content, duration, …

Witnessing Intellectual Humility: How A Peer’S Humble Introduction Affects Feedback Receptivity And Social Perception, Stephanie A. Barrientos

Theses and Dissertations

Might intellectual humility (IH) be contagious? Across two studies, we examined how individuals respond to constructive criticism depending on whether the feedback-giver demonstrated IH—defined as acknowledging one’s limitations and valuing learning. We focused on outcomes related to intellectual (or epistemic) openness in the context of writing, including self-focused state IH (acknowledging one’s own knowledge limitations), other-focused IH (valuing the insights of a peer expert), corrigibility (comfort with being corrected), feedback engagement, and attitudes toward future academic help-seeking in writing (AHS).

In Experiment 1, participants received feedback from a peer who conveyed IH through a brief self-descriptive statement. This subtle manipulation …

Characteristics Of Permanent Teeth Undergoing Surgical Endodontic Evaluation: A Retrospective Study, Yasamin Mojarad

Theses and Dissertations

Objective: This study examines the pre-surgical clinical and radiographic characteristics that may influence the choice of apicoectomy over nonsurgical retreatment in a more detailed approach, focusing on the clinical factors that come into the evaluation phase. We hypothesize that there are certain patterns observed through a pre-operative CBCT that may impact the decision for surgical intervention. The study aims to assess patterns in the decision-making in surgical treatment planning.

Methods: Retrospective review analyzing 142 cases treated or planned for apicoectomy by VCU endodontic residents. Data collected from CBCT and PA radiographs included: restorations, quality of prior root canal treatment, presence …

Rural Realities Unveiled: Non-Certified Teachers’ Experiences And Perceptions Of Scripted Literacy Curriculum In K-5 Classrooms, Amillia Woolfork

Theses and Dissertations

The persistent shortage of certified teachers in rural school districts has led to an increased reliance on non-certified teachers NCTs to deliver literacy instruction. To support these educators, many districts have implemented scripted curricula, which provide structured lessons and instructional materials. However, limited research exists on the experiences of NCTs using scripted curricula and their impact on their teaching practices and self-efficacy. This qualitative exploratory case study examines the perceptions and lived experiences of non-certified literacy teachers in rural elementary schools who utilize scripted curricula. Guided by Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory and Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory, this study examined how NCTs …

Examining Healthcare Access Disparities: Social Determinants And Patient Experiences At Valley Healthcare, Mikaila Larmond

Theses and Dissertations

Persistent disparities in healthcare access continued to affect low-income, rural, and underserved populations across the United States. This capstone project explored these disparities within Valley HealthCare, a regional provider in Columbus, Georgia, by examining how social determinants such as income, education, geography, and transportation shaped healthcare engagement among adult patients. A mixed-methods case study design was used to analyze survey data, patient satisfaction feedback, and organizational reports from a sample of 80 adult patients between January and March 2025.

The results showed that patients residing in lower-income or geographically isolated areas reported significantly higher rates of missed appointments. Individuals with …

Exploring Advancement Department Staff Perspectives On Strategic Communication And Philanthropic Donor Giving At Public Universities, Miranda Hodges

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study investigated advancement staff perspectives on how donor communication impacts philanthropic giving at higher education institutions. The purpose of this study was to identify the communication practices that are most influential for philanthropic donor giving. While prior research has examined university marketing efforts, why alumni give back, and how affinity for a university compels donors to give, there is a research gap in how strategic communication impacts donor behavior at public universities. Eight university advancement staff members (N=8) from public universities across the Southeast United States were selected through purposive sampling and interviewed via semi-structured interviews. After interviews, …

From Trans Health To Vaccines: A Theoretically Driven Model Exploring Factors Related To Susceptibility To Medical Misinformation, Catherine Wall

Theses and Dissertations

Medical misinformation represents a significant threat to both individual and public health. While some consequences of this form of misinformation are relatively benign, there can be serious consequences ranging from a decreased trust in healthcare systems to an increased likelihood of epidemic outbreak and death. One such consequence can be seen in the recent legislative actions taken regarding access to transgender healthcare in the United States. Gender affirming care has been shown to benefit the mental well-being of transgender youth and adults; however, the demonstrably false information that underlies these legislative efforts can and has yielded significant harm. But what …

Learning And Identity In Cross Functional Teams: A Communities Of Practice Perspective, Penelope K. Mcfarline

Theses and Dissertations

Cross functional teams (CFTs) are groups of diverse professionals leveraged by organizations to address a variety of complex issues. While CFTs have the potential for rapid problem solving, product or service innovation, and knowledge creation, they sometimes underachieve or fail to meet their goals at great cost to the organization. Prior research points to the barriers that diverse professional identities create to CFT performance and learning. This study aims to explore the relationship between the professional identities of cross functional team members, and what and how they learn. A conceptual framework for the study sought to view a CFT as …

(Art) Education In The Afterlife Of Massive Resistance: Constructing, Capturing, And Commodifying Racialized Disability In Virginia’S Student Assignment Practices, 1956-1966 And Present Day, Jenna E. Gabriel

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores discursive functions of disability in pupil placement decisions in Massive Resistance Virginia, the relationship between disability and race that was constructed through these moves, and how these relationships surface in the reflections, perceptions, and pedagogy of a practicing art teacher, Nathan, who works at Arts High School (AHS), a Virginia specialty center high school. Under the umbrella of the Discourse Historical Approach, which relies on multiple, interdisciplinary data sources to explore how discourses evolve, I connect a robust archival analysis of historical data collected in the records of Virginia’s Pupil Placement Board (746 boxes, 1956-1966) with present-day …

Show Them, Teach Them, Let Them: Empowering Undergraduate Voices Through Student-Centered Theatre, Abigail G. Norris

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the urgent need for theatrical works that resonate with undergraduate students, arguing that student-centered playwriting and production can foster deeper engagement with theatre, reflect contemporary issues, and empower the next generation of theatre-makers. Grounded in a hybrid methodology of creative practice and qualitative research, the study proposes a comprehensive, student-driven model for university theatre programs. Drawing from the author's experiences at both the University of North Carolina at Wilmington and Virginia Commonwealth University, the thesis examines institutional season selection processes, inclusive pedagogical strategies in playwriting, and the development of new works through student festivals. Central to the …

Doves And Symbiotic Bacteria: Whole-Genome Assembly And Phylogenomic Inference, Mariam Topchyan

Theses and Dissertations

Part 1

I examined a potential source of variation in phylogenetic inference, investigating whether handling single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) through different methods during reference-guided genome assembly of pigeon and dove species impacts phylogenetic reconstruction and inference. Specifically, I created a custom consensus base calling tool that handles allelic variation through two different approaches, either ignoring heterozygous sites by denoting them as an ambiguous character “N,” or using a pseudo-random choice between supported base variants. Through reference-guided assembly of 108 dove species, I generated two datasets of alignments using both consensus calling methods, created two trees from both datasets via supermatrix and …

Liner Notes On Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music As A Praxis Of Self-Fashioning, Shawn J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Liner Notes on Black Trans Girlhood: Afrofuturist Affect & Black Popular Music as a Praxis of Self-Fashioning interprets Black musical performance in identity-making, with a focus on how music and Black trans identity intersect and informs Black trans girlhood. As such, Black trans girls render ourselves legible, i.e. understood without shame or judgment, by constructing our identities through the music by Black women we listen and dance to, or watch and sing. These musical connections affirm the possibilities of Black femme expression. This expression of Black femininity is due to what I call an Afrofuturist affect, by which I refer …

Place, Culture, And Care: A Socioecological Examination Of Type 2 Diabetes Among Hispanics In The U.S., Danielle Montoya

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes (T2D) disproportionately affects U.S. Hispanic populations. This dissertation examined whether structural determinants fundamentally drive T2D disparities among Hispanics, with attention to within-group racial heterogeneity.

Methods: Three studies utilized nationally representative data. Study 1 examined neighborhood segregation and ethnic enclave residence associations with T2D using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=5,056). Study 2 investigated acculturation and T2D associations using restricted NHANES data (2011-2018, n=4,540). Study 3 analyzed patient-provider racial/ethnic concordance and adequate diabetes care using MEPS data (2008-2021, n=17,138).

Results: Structural factors demonstrated primacy across all studies. Neighborhood segregation (aOR=1.17, p>0.05) and ethnic enclave residence showed no …

The Design Of A House, Lars Mattingly

Theses and Dissertations

Photography lends itself to both damaging and facilitating connection, the camera at once a weapon of destruction and a catalyst for change. The Design of a House is a call to love deeply. In the aftermath of body trauma, I use portrait photography to reconnect with myself and others. Through making portraits, I bridge my own gap between fear and intimacy. Primarily working with film-based cameras and hand-sensitized photographic materials, I reintroduce touch through process. The slowness, delicacy, and tactility of these acts offer a safety I am learning to trust. When photographing myself, my mother, and my partner, I …

Characterization Of Outer Surface Protein C Of Borreliella Role In Host Tropism, Kathryn Mf Chambers

Theses and Dissertations

The Lyme disease spirochetes, Borreliella spp., are maintained in nature through a complex enzootic cycle involving Ixodes ticks and a diverse set of reservoir hosts. The outer surface protein C (OspC) of the bacterium is an essential virulence factor required for transmission from ticks and early infection of mammals. Deletion of ospC abolishes infectivity, yet the precise molecular mechanisms underlying OspC function remain incompletely defined. In this dissertation, I examined the contribution of OspC type identity to host specificity. OspC is highly diverse, with over 30 genetically stable types described. While intra-type sequences are conserved (>95% amino acid …

Learning To Deceive And Persuade: Predictive Agents With Language And Personality Diversity In Social Deduction Games, Aaron M. Shah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a novel multi-agent architecture that combines Joint Em bedding Predictive Architectures (JEPA), Free Energy Principle (FEP)–inspired planning, and language-based social interaction. The system is evaluated in a custom Werewolf-style hidden-role game, where agents must coordinate, persuade, or deceive under partial observability. Each agent encodes its belief state into a latent representation, predicts future trajectories under candidate actions, and selects votes or eliminations through a planner trained to minimize prediction error. To enable communication, agents are equipped with trainable mouthpieces. A lightweight SpeakerBandit selects from discrete templates using REINFORCE on judge-derived rewards, while a logit-bias head steers a …

A Fault-Tolerant Exchange-Coupled Spin-Ensemble Qubit At Elevated-Temperatures, Aniruddha Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces a novel qubit architecture: the ferromagnetic exchange-coupled spin ensemble qubit (E-qubit), designed to address the noise-induced instability. In this work, the time evolution of the ensemble’s density matrix is studied using the Liouville–von Neumann equation. To benchmark against a single-spin qubit, the gate fidelity of an E-qubit is computed in the presence of thermal noise. Coherence time is also analyzed under identical thermal condition and a linear scaling is observed with qubit size . The results show that, at 6 K , the gate fidelity error (0.7 % ) of the seven- spin ensemble is an order …

Collaborative Robots For The Automation Of Additive Manufacturing Workflows, Logan Schorr

Theses and Dissertations

Collaborative robots have the potential to transform the world, being easier to program, safer around humans, and far cheaper than their industrial counterparts. This makes them uniquely qualified to operate autonomously in environments where the presence of humans is necessary, either as an operator themselves or as observers of active processes. One of the fields where collaborative robots have significant opportunity for utility is in metal additive manufacturing, in which near net-shape parts can be autonomously fabricated using materials like stainless steel, titanium, or nickel super-alloys. These processes, especially laser powder bed fusion and directed energy deposition, use a fine …

Strange World, Brooklin Grantz

Theses and Dissertations

My thesis work explores the intersections of masculine and feminine labors as they relate to the structure of domestic space. I utilize materials and processes akin to craft, construction and architecture, and domicile upkeep, noting what is shared between gendered and polarized fields while exploring uses of the grid in various instances as a structure to adhere to and antagonize: a binary. Highlighting the queerness and fluidity of materials and the similarities between seemingly disparate processes, I relate to the objects I make and alter through my own gender fluidity. I do not see masculinity or femininity as autonomous: the …

Strata: Layered Support Through Community, Resources, & Design, Jenna M. Sawyer

Theses and Dissertations

Strata reimagines transitional housing as a layered, responsive ecosystem that supports the holistic well-being of individuals experiencing housing insecurity. Inspired by the vertical structure of a forest canopy, the design integrates biophilic principles, trauma-informed strategies, and sustainable practices to create a dignified, inclusive environment. Located in the historic Sauer’s Factory in Richmond, Virginia, the project leverages adaptive reuse to ground the building in local context while addressing systemic gaps in supportive housing. Public amenities, such as a hygiene center, café, learning spaces, and a free store, encourage community integration and reduce stigma, while flexible private units and calming retreat spaces …

The Trauma-To-Prison Pipeline: A Multi-Level Theoretical Framework Exploring The Intersection Of Inequality, Trauma, And Exclusionary Discipline, Dana Ainsworth

Theses and Dissertations

The school-to-prison pipeline (STPP) is a widely recognized and extensively studied metaphor used to describe the process by which school discipline policies increase the risk of juvenile justice system involvement, particularly among historically marginalized populations. While it has been instrumental in shaping educational policy, the STPP framework has not evolved to account for the critical impact of trauma on learning and behavioral outcomes. Furthermore, it overlooks the role of systemic inequality that increases trauma exposure and produces concentric patterns of marginalization.

Drawing on research across the fields of education, public health, sociology, and criminal justice, this study proposes a theoretical …

Guardians Of Their Own: Routine Activities, Risk Perceptions, & Self-Protection Among Police Officers In The Line Of Duty, Amy Clifton-Mills

Theses and Dissertations

This research illuminated how police officers perceive risks in the line of duty and whether police officers implement protective behaviors on duty. This was done by implementing two phases of data collection: focus groups (I) and self-report surveys (II). The focus groups (N = 21) were conducted to inform the self-protective behaviors instrument in the self-report surveys (N =143). Officers self-reported their risk of assault and injury in the line of duty in the next six months to be 33.86% (SD = 27.13) and their risk of felonious death to be 14.4% (SD = 18.1). Results show that …

The Bitch And The Boogeyman: Violence Against Women And Gendered Morality In American Slasher Films, Davis A. Smith

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the relationships between on-screen depictions of violence in American slasher horror films and depictions of gendered morality of victims. Slashers are a subgenre of horror film that arose out of the exploitation cinema movement of the 1970s that are characterized primarily by the presence of one or more human killers inflicting violence on a group of protagonists, typically through the use of bladed weapons. Data collected comes from a comprehensive set of thirty-six American slasher films that received a wide theatrical release, with exemptions for films whose primary genre is not slasher and only selecting three films …

Targeting The Achilles’ Heel Of Lung Cancer Induced By Oncogenic P53, Brandon G. Velasco

Theses and Dissertations

Mutations of the tumor suppressor gene, TP53, are the most prevalent oncogenic mutations in lung cancer, occurring in up to 70% of human non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The majority of mutations in p53 are missense mutations that cause not only a loss of tumor suppressor function, but also gain of oncogenic functions, like tumorigenicity, immune suppression, and chemoresistance. Previous studies have shown that the depletion of gain-of-function (GOF) p53 or disruption of its ability to transactivate the expression of genes related to oncogenesis eliminates its tumorigenic properties indicating a dependency of human lung cancer cells expressing GOF p53 …

Developing Bioinformatics Expertise Through The Annotation Of The Gut Microbiome Of Odontotaenius Disjunctus, Keidra E. Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Next-generation sequencing (NGS) technologies have revolutionized biological research by generating unprecedented volumes of genomic data, necessitating advanced bioinformatics tools and specialized expertise to fully interpret complex microbial communities. This study outlines an integrated workflow to characterize the gut microbiome of the wood-feeding beetle Odontotaenius disjunctus. Prokka is employed for functional annotation to identify protein-coding genes and other genomic features, while Kaiju is used for taxonomic classification. DIAMOND is then applied to locate and validate the taxonomic assignments generated by Kaiju by aligning sequences within the contigs to a comprehensive protein database, proGenomes. Functional analysis revealed that the contigs encode proteins …

Narratives Of Illness Identity Development In Adolescents With Cancer, Rachel Holder

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Adolescence is a pivotal developmental stage characterized by the development of independence, autonomy, and identity. A diagnosis of cancer can be disruptive to this process (Grinyer, 2009; Hazen et al., 2008; Neylon et al., 2023). How one incorporates cancer into their identity, or illness identity, has been associated with clinical outcomes, including adherence, life satisfaction, psychosocial functioning, and health-related quality of life and could be a target for supportive interventions aimed at adolescents with cancer (Commissariat et al., 2020; Luyckx et al., 2008, 2018; Meyer & Lamash, 2020; Oris et al., 2016; Raymaekers et al., 2020). Prior literature has …

Machine Learning-Driven Optimization For Utility-Scale Quantum Optimization, Bao Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Hard combinatorial optimization problems, often mapped to Ising models, promise potential solutions with quantum advantage but are constrained by limited qubit counts in near-term devices. We present an innovative quantum-inspired framework that dynamically compresses large Ising models to fit available quantum hardware of different sizes. Thus, we aim to bridge the gap between large-scale optimization and current hardware capabilities. Our method leverages a physics-inspired GNN architecture to capture complex interactions in Ising models and accurately predict alignments among neighboring spins (aka qubits) at ground states. By progressively merging such aligned spins, we can reduce the model size while preserving the …