Digital Commons Network^™

Some Likelihood-Based Methods For Clustering Functional Data, Tong Shan

Theses and Dissertations

The analysis of functional data is an increasingly relevant part of statistics. The exploratory data analytic method of cluster analysis plays a very important role in different fields. Over the years, researchers have developed many clustering approaches, striving to achieve more accurate and efficient clustering. In Chapter 1, we aim to improve the accuracy of our outcome when clustering functional data. To achieve this goal, we use a predictive likelihood function which serves as an objective function to optimize in order to determine the most appropriate clusters. To optimize the objective function over the space of clustering partitions, we produce …

Between Florida And The World: Young People And The Politics Of Citizenship, Jessica Flach

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis critically examines how American high school students experience and make sense of global citizenship within the context of a commercial educational tour. Drawing on a case study of students from a Title I public high school in Florida, the research interrogates the narratives of civic transformation promoted by educational travel companies and explores how these narratives intersect with students’ lived realities. Combining ethnographic methods, interviews, and critical discourse analysis, the study reveals that global citizenship is not meaningfully realized through such travel experiences; rather, it is fragmented, depoliticized, and often disconnected from the civic education students receive in …

A Spatial Scan Statistic For Group Testing Data, Vincent Onyame

Theses and Dissertations

Group testing involves pooling specimens from multiple individuals and offers an efficient means to surveil low-prevalence pathogens, but poses challenges for spatial cluster detection when only pooled results are observed. In this thesis, we develop a spatial scan statistic tailored to group-testing data with variable pool sizes. The statistic compares a null hypothesis of a homogeneous infection rate across all clusters to an alternative hypothesis that infection probabilities differ inside and outside a candidate cluster, with both models fitted by maximum likelihood estimation. We approximate the null distribution of the maximum likelihood ratio test via Monte Carlo simulation.

Through a …

Naqbu: Cosmological Undercurrents In Sumer And Akkad, Fiona Eirene Andrews

Theses and Dissertations

The concepts of primordial incomprehensibility, ordered creation, and the liminal chaos between them, form a foundational framework in Mesopotamian intellectual culture. The distinctive ways in which these concepts manifest in Sumero-Akkadian cultures suggest a systematic cosmological substructure — characterized by the paradoxical, cyclical, and co-creative relationships between forces such as Infinity and measure, generation and destruction, and definition and obscurity — that remains insufficiently examined in current scholarship. Drawing from diverse corpus of Mesopotamian creative works, Kabbalistic exegesis, and post-modern scholarship, this thesis seeks to elucidate the essential dynamics within that substructure. By proposing a semiotic hermeneutical strategy attuned to …

Reluctant Transitions: Place And Post-Extraction Politics In Southeastern Ohio, Jenna Lynn Haver

Theses and Dissertations

Based on a summer of ethnographic research in a subsection of Appalachian Ohio colloquially referred to as “The Valley,” this research challenges three narratives of this place that formulate a harmful Appalachian imaginary. The first narrative of industrycontrolled coal heritage is complicated by the way local people negotiate control over their own stories of coal and its existence outside of industry domain. The second narrative characterizes this as a space of extraction which is in tension with different social relations to varying types of energy – especially the discontinuity of the coal to fracking shift. The third narrative centers of …

Emotional Landscapes: St. Teresa Of Avila And The Spiritual Journey, Jillian Louise Breeden

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the writings of St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) through the methodological lens of the history of emotions, arguing that her mystical accounts represent a crucial yet understudied contribution to our understanding of early modern emotional frameworks. Through close textual analysis of Teresa's major works, this study demonstrates how her detailed articulations of spiritual ecstasy, divine love, and religious melancholy offer unique insights into both the religious and secular emotional landscapes of Counter-Reformation Spain. Teresa's innovative emotional vocabulary, which combined traditional Catholic devotional language with embodied metaphors and spatial conceptualizations, allowed her to navigate the complex ecclesiastical politics …

The Penn Center’S Impact On Rural Health Through Midwife Programming In 20Th Century South Carolina, Kathryn Addison Greenberg

Theses and Dissertations

The Penn School of the Sea Islands provided an education to thousands of rural, Black South Carolinians over the twentieth century. Northern missionaries including the founders of the Penn School, Laura M. Towne and Ellen Murray, taught and provided healthcare to the residents of the Port Royal Experiment through the Civil War and into Reconstruction. With the arrival of Rossa Cooley and Grace House, the Penn School put emphasis on auxiliary programing including midwifery training institutes held in conjunction with Dr. Hilla Sheriff and the South Carolina Department of Public Health’s Division for Maternal and Child Health. With the goal …

Ways Of Living And Knowing, Reem El Hassan Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

After decades of sedentarization, the Muzeina tribe in South Sinai now has new generations born into sedentary lifestyles, never experiencing nomadism like their ancestors once did. This shift has impacted their knowledge system, traditionally shaped by interactions and kinship with nature. Exposure to social media is influencing younger generations' ways of living, raising the older generations’ concerns about their Bedouin identity. Despite being one of the largest tribes in South Sinai, the Muzeina are rarely represented in literature.

This ethnography explores the impact of sedentarization and contextual developments on the Muzeina's knowledge system, inherited from their ancestors. Muzeina’s relationship, and …

Assessing The Impact Of Digital Transformation On Regulatory Processes And Systems Compared To Traditional Paper-Based Processes At The Egyptian Drug Authority, Rania Aa Soliman

Theses and Dissertations

In the past several decades, the rate of scientific and technological advancements in drug development and digital fields have been extraordinary. Internet of Things and block chain technologies are currently viable in the mature cloud computing industry, these transformative examples contrast starkly with the current pharmaceutical regulatory submission, review, and approval process of the EDA. However, with the emergence of initiatives that aim to improve and expedite regulatory decision-making, there is a promising future ahead. These initiatives, if successful, will not only transform the current transactional structure but also leverage scientific and technological advances to deliver patient-centric therapies. This radical …

“Redefining The Fortress” Migrant Experiences, Adaptation And Connection Within Serbian Borderlands, Nicholas J. Leone

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This thesis seeks to examine migrant experiences due to Serbia's geopolitical significance along the so-called Balkan route, and how this is specifically exemplified in the northern autonomous region of Vojvodina. Serbia’s position outside the external border of the European Union has caused it to be a strategic transit point for migrants en route to desired destinations, typically within Western and Northern Europe. However, the European Union’s externalization policies in partnership with Serbian authorities have played an extensive role in migration mobility patterns and humanitarian conditions for migrants traversing within the Serbian borderlands, specifically along the border with Hungary. The …

Hierarchy Viz: A Visual Analytics Framework For Visualizing Hierarchical Data Using Machine Learning, Vinay Kumar Uppalapati

Theses and Dissertations

Automated visualization systems aim to generate visualizations directly from raw data with minimal user inputs. However, while existing systems focus on data visualizations mainly using line charts and scatter plots to explore the data patterns, they struggle with hierarchical data representation where data relationship is essential. Hierarchical visualization, crucial for understanding multi-level relationships, typically requires users to manually define hierarchies and have expertise in visualization tools to create meaningful representations. This makes the process complex, time-consuming, and reliant on domain knowledge. To address this, we propose HierarchyViz, an automated system that detects multiple hierarchies in raw datasets and generates intuitive …

Commercial Pressures And Editorial Independence: Egyptian Journalists' Perceptions Of Advertiser Influence In Contemporary Media, Mohamed Ahmed Salem

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the complex interplay between commercial imperatives and editorial autonomy in Egypt’s contemporary media landscape, focusing on journalists’ perceptions of advertising influence. Drawing on Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT) and informed by Political Economy and Institutional Theory, the study investigates how Egyptian journalists navigate ethical tensions arising from advertiser demands—both state-linked and private—within a hybrid media system marked by economic precarity, political control, and digital disruption. Through 20 in-depth interviews with journalists, alongside insights from PR professionals, media managers, and academic experts, the research reveals a pervasive erosion of the editorial-commercial boundary. Journalists report widespread self-censorship, blurred content labelling, …

In Search Of Educational Justice: Lived Experiences Of Community College Presidents And Their Authentic Critical Leadership, Juan Felipe Arzola

Theses and Dissertations

There are several gaps in research related to the fields of study of community college leadership and its influence on shared governance discussions and decision-making. The purpose of the current study is to address the gap in the study of community college leadership and its influence on shared governance discussions and decision-making through a critical, intersectional investigation of authentic critical leadership and its potential to influence shared governance group discussions and decision-making in distinctively different ways than those advocated by mainstream leadership theories. Participants participated in semi-structured interviews and were observed in a shared governance group meeting to identify evidence …

An In Depth Examination Of Educational, Family, Economic, And Personal Determinants On Academic Performance, Engagement, And Stress: A Comprehensive Study Among Engineering Students, Oumaima Larif

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the effects of family, education, economic, and personal factors on students’ decisions to pursue engineering as a profession and their long-term impact on performance as engineering students. We adopted a mixed-method approach, collecting data through surveys administered to undergraduate and graduate engineering students at Mississippi State University. The study results revealed that family, education, economic, and personal factors profoundly influence students' decisions to study engineering. We found that parental expectations, background information, and socioeconomic status, in conjunction with cultural norms, values, gender expectations, and religious beliefs, affect students. Additionally, this study identified gaps in the existing literature …

Best Practices In Community College Adult Education: Literature Review And Synthesis, Jon H. Lightsey

Theses and Dissertations

This study emphasizes the importance of adult education students and the critical lack of knowledge about promoting their success on satellite campuses in rural and low socioeconomic areas. This study aims to investigate best practices in adult education at community colleges to maintain the number of students enrolled until their program or training is completed. The high School Equivalency Diploma options include the GED, HiSET, and Competency-Based High School Equivalency Option. The results indicate adult education students might be more successful if they received the support services needed, such as counseling, tutoring, time management, and goal setting. This literature review …

Stakeholder Opinions On Design And Management Strategies At The Pharr Mounds Site, Lauryn Elizabeth Polito

Theses and Dissertations

The Pharr Mounds site along the Natchez Trace Parkway is a culturally significant burial location that is visited by thousands each year. This site is home to the remains of an ancient group of individuals that the current Chickasaw Nation are descended. To provide culturally sensitive management strategies, enhance visitor experience, and to analyze the perspectives of others on design solutions, a mixed-method approach including individual interviews and online surveys were used for three main stakeholder groups including members from the Chickasaw Nation, employees from the National Park service, and public site visitors. Questions addressed mound significance, site accessibility, interpretation, …

“Here For Everyone” (?): How Intimate Partner Violence Service Organizations Address Community Needs And Transgender Inclusion In The Deep South, Brian Tesch

Theses and Dissertations

Transgender individuals face disproportionately high rates of intimate partner violence (also known as IPV) when compared to other sociodemographic groups. Despite this prevalence, IPV service organizations in the Deep South (e.g., Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, and South Carolina), a region of the U.S. encompassing several rural communities and characterized by traditional gender norms and conservative Christian religious values, may have difficulties meeting the unique needs of transgender IPV survivors. This dissertation explores two key areas: (1) the perceptions of IPV service organization staff members in the Deep South concerning how their agencies assist members of the transgender community, and (2) …

Langston Hughes And The “Afro-American Narrative” Tradition, Paul Haynes

Theses and Dissertations

After introducing Langston Hughes and defining Robert B. Stepto’s “Afro-American narrative” tradition, Chapter One presents a biography of Hughes from his birth in 1902 until he came under the patronage of Charlotte Osgood Mason in 1927. Chapter One also addresses the aesthetic expectations of the Harlem Renaissance and the extent to which Hughes either met or failed to meet those expectations. Chapter Two presents a reading of Not without Laughter as an integrated narrative, addressing how Hughes’s authenticating strategies and Mason’s authenticating devices evenly control the novel. Chapter Three presents a reading of Hughes’s short-story cycle, The Ways of White …

Voices In The Borderlands: Reimagining Identity, Cultural Belonging, And Dystopian Spaces In Anzaldúa’S Borderlands And Viramontes’S “The Cariboo Café”, Oralia G. Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how Gloria Anzaldúa’s Borderlands/La Frontera (1987) and Helena María Viramontes’ short story “The Cariboo Café” (1985) portray marginalized individuals navigating liminal spaces of identity, oppression, and survival. Borderlands/La Frontera and “The Cariboo Café” show how systematic violence and displacement shatter the self, pushing characters to navigate trauma in a dystopian space. Sonya, Macky, the café owner, and the grieving mother represent Anzaldúa’s concepts of borderland subjectivity, betrayal, and spectral haunting.

Sonya and Macky, two undocumented children, represent Anzaldúa’s borderlands subjects and reside in a state of nepantla, an in-between space of cultural dislocation. The café owner …

Redefining Roles In Displacement: The Asylum Journey Of Sudanese Women In Faisal, Cairo, Majeda Abdin Mahasneh

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how Sudanese refugee women, who arrived in Faisal, Cairo, after April 2023 experience gender-based violence (GBV). The research investigates the types of GBV these women encountered during their journey from Sudan to Cairo, how their gender roles changed in the asylum context, and their vision for the future regarding safety and support. A qualitative approach was employed, using in-depth interviews with four Sudanese refugee women, complemented by field notes and observations made during visits to the Faisal neighborhood. The analysis focused on the personal stories shared by the women, highlighting the various forms of violence they experienced, …

Works On Paper, Xingyun Wang

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is about my painting practice and artistic influences.

Fountain, Sadaf Azadehfar

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the intersections of water, power, identity, and architecture through the lens of colonial and postcolonial landscapes, focusing particularly on Persian gardens and fountain sculptures. Drawing on historical, cultural, and symbolic frameworks, the study explores how water systems embody both practical and spiritual roles, positioning water as a force of control, resistance, and regeneration. Central to this work are analyses of arches and garden designs, which serve as architectural metaphors for cosmic harmony, community gathering, and contested space. Through a combination of visual analysis, historical research, and personal artistic practice—including ceramic sculptures and multimedia installations—this thesis traces the …

Assessing The Effect Of Covid-19 On Air Quality For Five Texas Metro Areas Using Daily Air Quality Index Values, Rahul Sahajpal

Theses and Dissertations

Air pollution is one of the biggest health hazards known to humans. The quality of the air that we breath is mainly determined by the level of six major air pollutants, Carbon Monoxide (CO), Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), Particulate Matter 10 (PM 10), Particulate Matter 2.5 (PM 2.5), Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) and Ozone (O₃). The main source of these air pollutants are fossil fuels (Oil, Coal and Natural gas). Their levels in the air are reported using an Air Quality Index (AQI). Higher AQI values indicate bad air quality and vice versa. In this study …

Rewriting The Frontier: The Impact Of Collective Memory On The Mythos Of Western Settlement, Kelly E. Kooper

Theses and Dissertations

Using Paul Cohen’s methodological approach in History in Three Keys, this thesis examines the construction and debunking of the myths of manifest destiny, the rugged individual frontiersman, and the “noble savage” Native American in the writing about, experience of, and representation of the settlement American West. First, it analyzes the evolution of the historiography from Frederick Jackson Turner to William Cronon. Then it examines the experiences of four families (the Grices, Grahams, Deems, and McCormicks) who settled in Iowa and Nebraska from 1850 to 1880. Lastly, it surveys various popular cultural celebrations of the West. Through this triple lens, this …

False Virtues And Fragile Honor: The Weight Of Reputation In Shakespeare’S Works, Amanda Sheps

Theses and Dissertations

"False Virtues and Fragile Honor: The Weight of Reputation in Shakespeare’s Works" analyzes the intersection between honor and social standing in William Shakespeare's Othello and Much Ado About Nothing, specifically in regards to the gender roles prevalent in the plays' societies. In both plays, women who are perceived as a threat to the prevailing norms of society are ostracized, ridiculed, and may even face violence at the hands of their male love interests. The innocence of Desdemona and Hero, however, calls into question the validity of this cruel treatment. These negative reactions reflect the pressure that men have to preserve …

Tears, Blood, And Milk: Frida Kahlo's Depictions Of Maternity, Jenny Mushkin Goldman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes Frida Kahlo’s representations of miscarriage, childbirth, and breastfeeding as departures from idealized portrayals of womanhood in post-revolutionary Mexico. Drawing on Catholic and Mesoamerican imagery, Kahlo reframes the maternal body as a site of resistance, engaging mexicanidad (Mexicanness) to counter its patriarchal constructions of national identity and gender.

Island Child: Sound, Memory, And The Diasporic Imagination, Rachel J. Oh

Theses and Dissertations

Island Child is an immersive audiovisual installation that explores how sound-based memory sustains personal and cultural identity. At its core, the piece reflects on the quiet yet shared emotion among those who have left home—the inevitability of departure, and the complex act of holding both loss and love. For many, leaving is not a choice, but a necessity. Yet the act of leaving leaves a permanent mark, etched in memory, time, and body.

This project creates a contemplative space for those silent truths, using sound and image to express the tension between separation and continuity. Traditional Korean lullabies, my grandmother’s …

Hemispheres Of Faith: Mapping The Global Journey Of An Ivory Rosary Bead At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Mary M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Hemispheres of Faith reattributes a carved ivory rosary bead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Quito School in 18th-century Ecuador. Through examining the trade history of the Manila Galleons, material analysis, and iconographic study, Hemispheres of Faith challenges the bead's European origins and reveals the object as a product of global exchange, devotional practice, and colonial artistic collaboration within the Spanish Empire.

Louis-Léopold Boilly’S Toddler In Mamluk Costume, Circa 1803: Feminism And Orientalism In The Napoléonic Era, Jessie Polk

Theses and Dissertations

Privately held until it came into the Met collection, Toddler in Mamluk Costume by Louis-Léopold Boilly was not widely known and hasn’t been extensively studied. This thesis seeks place it in context and argues that it is likely a portrait of a girl, a niece of Napoléon I, Zénaïde Bonaparte.

Piecemeal, Max J. Eisenberg

Theses and Dissertations

Exploring the history of photographic manipulation both inside and outside of the camera from the late 19th century until today. My work plucks out cultural and local signifiers from the state of Florida, and the American South as a whole, and disseminates them using a constructed symbolic vernacular in the form of in-camera collaging on large format film.