Digital Commons Network^™

An Efficient Approximation To The Vibrational Coupled Cluster Method For Large Molecules, Nivedhitha P Ms

Theses and Dissertations

The Watson Hamiltonian is a widely used model for describing anharmonic vibrational motion in polyatomic molecules. It expresses the kinetic energy in separable dimensionless normal coordinates and represents the potential energy as a Taylor series expansion around the equilibrium geometry, usually up to the quartic approximation. Several computational methods have been developed to solve the corresponding vibrational Schrödinger equation for predicting infrared (IR), Raman, and vibrational circular dichroism (VCD) spectra. These include the Vibrational Self-Consistent Field (VSCF) method, Vibrational Configuration Interaction (VCI) and its approximations, and Vibrational Second-Order Perturbation Theory (VPT2), each providing different balances between computational cost and accuracy. …

No Principal Left Alone: Exploring Elementary Principals' Relationships With Their Full-Time Assistant Principals, Shauna Worthington

Theses and Dissertations

Elementary school principals are often the only administrator in their building; therefore they are left to face the adverse circumstances of their job without the support of an administrative colleague at their school. However, U.S. nationwide data suggests that school districts are more frequently hiring elementary assistant principals. This paper explores perceptions of elementary principals about the nature and dynamic of their relationships with their full-time assistant principals, including accompanying benefits and challenges. This qualitative inquiry utilizes an exploratory, descriptive, phenomenological approach and features the results of in-depth interviews with 20 elementary school principals in two large suburban public school …

Fallow Ground, Eli Kerns

Theses and Dissertations

Fallow Ground refers to the agricultural practice of intentionally leaving a field unseeded for a year or more in order to restore fertility and interrupt cycles of depletion. Although fallowing is a beneficial and necessary practice, the term has also come to signify waste or a lack of productivity. This double meaning is central to the work, reflecting a central contradiction: that withdrawal can be as vital as effort, and that rest, like labor, can function as a deliberate and sustaining act. The question I explore in this work is how to organize, understand, and live with these contradictions. Through …

Bridging The Cybersecurity Education Gap: The Role Of Open Educational Resources In Supporting Rural Cybersecurity Programs, Brittni Hardie

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the intersection of cybersecurity education, open educational resources (OER), and rural higher education through a systematic review of current literature and an exploratory survey of rural community college faculty. The purpose of this research, consistent with the approved Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol, was to understand how OER can be leveraged to design and deliver an affordable, high-quality System Security course within a rural higher-education environment. As cybersecurity workforce shortages continue to grow across the United States, rural institutions face persistent challenges in sustaining high-quality programs due to financial constraints, limited faculty capacity, and rapidly evolving curriculum …

Empirical Benchmarks For Interpreting Effect Sizes In Violent Crime Interventions, Kohta James Matsukawa Hansen

Theses and Dissertations

Criminal justice researchers apply Cohen’s (1988) benchmarks to classify effect sizes as small, medium, or large, despite these standards never being meant for broad, decontextualized use (Cohen, 1988; Gies et al., 2024; Goulet-Pelletier & Cousineau, 2018; Lakens, 2013; Milner et al., 2023). Repeatedly doing so may weaken statistical validity, distort findings, and impede effective policymaking. This study introduces the first effect size benchmarks specifically designed for violent crime interventions.

Using a quasi-meta-analysis framework, 1,605 effect sizes from 104 violent crime intervention studies from the CrimeSolutions clearinghouse were converted to Cohen’s d. Three new discrete benchmarking methods were created using a …

Artificial Intelligence For Better Inclusive Higher Education: A Study Of A Private University In Cairo, Shereen Ismail

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how artificial intelligence (AI) tools relate to accessibility for visually impaired students in Egyptian higher education, focusing on University Y in Cairo. Grounded in the Social Model of Disability and Universal Design for Learning, it examines visually impaired students’ lived experiences of AI mediated access and the institutional conditions that shape these experiences. A qualitative phenomenological design was used, with semi-structured interviews conducted with visually impaired undergraduate students and key staff involved in assistive technology, teaching and learning, and student wellbeing; data were analyzed thematically. The findings indicate that participants experience AI tools (e.g., chatbots, transcription and …

Parental Perspectives On Preparedness Of Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities For Transition To Adulthood, Oretha Bennett-Spence

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Oretha Bennett-Spence PARENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON PREPAREDNESS OF YOUNG ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES FOR TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD 2026 JoAnn Manning, Ed.D. Doctor of Education The transition from high school to adulthood presents significant challenges for young adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. Although schools are required to provide transition services, limited research has examined parents’ lived experiences navigating this process. This qualitative study explored how parents perceive their child’s preparedness for adulthood and postsecondary life. Guided by Schlossberg’s (1981) 4S Transition Framework and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study examined the experiences of six parents whose young adults were …

Bridging The Gap: A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring The Relationships Between Student-Teacher Demographic Mismatch And Students’ Perceptions Of Fairness, Inclusion, And Achievement, Nicholas Nahrwold

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the relationships between student-teacher demographic mismatch and students’ perceptions of fairness, inclusion, and achievement. The purpose of this research was to determine how race, gender, and SES mismatch between students and teachers is related to their feelings of belonging and academic outcomes. A mixed-methods study was conducted involving a combination of survey data, student performance records, and student interviews. Results from the study indicated a relationship between student-teacher gender match and GPA, student-teacher racial match and GPA, and student-teacher racial match and attendance outcomes. Although not statistically significant, the data collected also highlighted trends between student-teacher SES …

A Study Of Early Childhood Coaches’ Preparedness To Implement Lgbtq+ Affirming Social–Emotional Practices, Nicole Lynn Muñoz

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative collective instrumental case study examined how early childhood consultation specialists (coaches) perceive and implement LGBTQ+ affirming practices in early learning environments serving children from birth to five. Although legal and policy advancements have increased recognition of LGBTQ+ identities, early childhood education remains an underexamined context for inclusive practice. Grounded in a constructivist and interpretivist paradigm and informed by Queer Theory, Transformative Leadership Theory, Practice-Based Coaching, and the Pyramid Model, data were collected through interviews, surveys, and reflective field notes with a purposeful sample of New Jersey coaches. Findings highlight how coaches define inclusion, navigate organizational conditions, and identify …

An Interpretable Hybrid Deep And Reinforcement Learning Paradigm For Glioma Prognosis, Renuga Devi M Ms

Theses and Dissertations

Brain tumors are highly aggressive and lethal types of cancer, particularly gliomas. These cancerous growths show complicated pathophysiological behaviours and with poor prognosis despite therapeutic advances. Due to their biological differences and infiltrating growth, as well as overlapping radiological characteristics, they pose great difficulty in diagnosis, grading, and survival prediction. Artificial intelligence technology, which includes machine learning , deep learning, and reinforcement learning has developed into a new paradigm for the automation of brain tumor diagnostics and personalized treatment. The main goal of this study is to create an integrated AI-based framework that can perform brain tumor segmentation, grading and …

Development Of Deep Fused Neural Architecture For Ancient Tamil Palm-Leaf Manuscript Recognition, Hariharan P Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Digitizing Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts is important for education, communication, and the preservation of cultural heritage. The complex structure of the Tamil script, the wide range of handwriting styles, and the degradation seen in ancient Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts make these texts very difficult to read and understand. Digital Image Processing (DIP), document analysis techniques, and traditional Optical Character Recognition (OCR) are unable to handle noise, background interference, faded ink, and limited labelled data, motivating the need for robust, effective Deep Learning (DL)- based solutions.

As a prerequisite to understanding and designing effective recognition systems for ancient manuscripts, this thesis first examines …

Does Concurrent Completion Of A Computer Task Interfere With Talking? Comparing Younger And Older Adults, Emma Simpson Hymas

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of a computer-based divided attention task on spoken language and compares the impact between younger (18–30 years) and older (55–82 years) adults. Sixty adults participated in a speaking task and two computer tasks which varied in difficulty. The Level 1 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” and the Level 2 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” while also underlining each instance of the word “a”. Each task was completed alone and then two computer tasks with different levels of difficulty were completed concurrently with a procedural discourse …

Objective Conditioning Via Latent-Factor Modeling, Kalman-Smoothing, And Hidden Markov Clustering: An Application To Empirical Asset Pricing, Melanie R. Neller

Theses and Dissertations

Empirical asset pricing relies heavily on conditioning sets--industry groupings, size buckets, valuation screens, and other researcher-defined partitions--to structure cross-sectional tests and portfolio construction. While intuitive, such partitions risk blending heterogeneous firms, masking latent exposures, and introducing omitted-variable bias. This thesis develops an objective, mathematically grounded conditioning pipeline that replaces subjective groupings with latent-factor extraction, Kalman-based data techniques, and probabilistic clustering via Gaussian hidden Markov models (HMMs). Using CRSP monthly returns, the framework stabilizes noisy return data, extracts systematic structure through principal component analysis (PCA), identifies homogeneous stock cohorts through HMM clustering, and models regime persistence using Markov transition matrices. These …

Electrochemical Sensors And Processes In Molten Salts: Chlorine Production, Electroanalytical Chemistry, And Thin-Layer Electrodes, Tyler Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Molten salt electrochemistry has historically played a substantial role in the metallurgical industry, and this trend is only accelerating in areas of green steel, direct ore processing, and rare-earth processing. In addition, the recent surge of interest in molten salt nuclear reactors has provided an additional application for molten salt electrochemical processes, including the reprocessing of used nuclear fuels and the development of electrochemical sensors for nuclear applications. In this work, the development of a chloride volatility separation process for used nuclear fuel is advanced; electroanalytical methods are improved for identifying and quantifying unknown analytes with and without the presence …

Governing Bme Amplification In Large Language Models: A Standards-Aligned Framework For Llm Data Lifecycle Risk Detection And Ethical Ai Governance, Dale A. Rutherford

Theses and Dissertations

Large Language Models (LLMs) now underpin critical systems in education, healthcare, and policy advisory contexts, yet remain susceptible to the recursive amplification of bias, misinformation, and error (BME). These distortions, driven by feedback loops between user interactions, model retraining, and data reuse, accelerate epistemic drift and erode information quality over time. This dissertation advances a comprehensive governance architecture to detect, quantify, and mitigate these risks across the full AI lifecycle. The research introduces the BME Metric Suite, a standards-aligned diagnostic framework comprising five original metrics: Bias Amplification Rate (BAR), Echo Chamber Propagation Index (ECPI), Information Quality Decay (IQD), Pretraining Diversity …

Generalizing Networks To Address Data Imbalance For Facial Action Unit Recognition, Andrew W. Sumsion

Theses and Dissertations

Facial action unit (AU) recognition is used in a variety of downstream applications, including sign language translation, dementia detection, pain detection, and other high-impact tasks that require understanding facial motion. Although AU recognition is a well-established field, a number of unresolved issues remain. An initial problem is the need to improve overall performance on the benchmark datasets, as measured by the average F1 score. Also, the performance across all individual AUs, not just the average F1 score, needs to be increased. Recently, the field has shifted its attention towards ensuring that AU recognition models generalize beyond the distributions represented in …

Database-Driven Revelations In Epilepsy: Patient Reporting Accuracy And The Circadian Timing Of Seizures, Ithay Biton

Theses and Dissertations

For over thirty years, patients have been visiting the Arkansas Epilepsy Program for diagnosis and treatment for seizures and seizure-like episodes. As part of their clinical evaluation, patients often undergo ambulatory EEG (electroencephalogram) monitoring. This routine process produces valuable data for treating the patient. In this study, over 2000 ambulatory EEG reports from 1998 to 2016 were reviewed. A large database of seizures was created from the reports, with information on 407 patients, 1611 EEG-confirmed seizures, and 1726 patient-reported seizures (IRB Protocol #17-093). The database was used to address two important issues in epilepsy. The first topic of the study …

Bridging The Gap: Exploring The Educational Transitional Experiences Of Foreign-Born Ghanaian High School Students, Samuel Adusei Buabeng

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the gaps and limitations in language transition and the educational experiences of high school students born in Ghana who are English Language Learners. The research analyzed migration patterns within this group and how these experiences affect their integration into the American education system. It also examined whether culture and acculturation influence this transitional process. The study explored the language transition process, learning experiences, and cultural shifts within English-dominant educational systems, emphasizing participants' lived experiences and any challenges they faced during their transition. Although English is Ghana's official language, significant dialectal, exposure, and teaching-quality differences affect students' proficiency …

Tunable 3d-Printed Biomaterials For Perfused In Vitro Models Of The Blood-Brain Barrier, Louis Salvatore Paone

Theses and Dissertations

In vitro models have tremendous utility for improving our understanding of complex physiological and pathophysiological processes in a more controlled environment than animal models, in addition to incorporating human cells to overcome species-specific disparities. This dissertation describes innovations in biomaterial-based fabrication processes that advance in vitro models of the blood-brain barrier, providing the opportunity to evaluate the effects of cell-matrix interactions on barrier integrity, additives to reduce viscous drag of blood flow, and molecular mechanisms underlying the cellular response to amyloid beta in the context of Alzheimer’s disease. The core technology underlying this advance is a biomaterial compatible with digital …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Transition Metal Carbide (Max) And Mxene Nanoflakes For Energy Storage And [email protected], Srikanth Ragunath B Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Rapid growth in population and industrialization created a huge demand for superior energy storage devices. Thus, the researchers are in constant search of developing exotic materials towards energy harvesting and storage devices. Batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells received a great attention to meet the global demand for energy storage. Among them, supercapacitors are widely preferred as energy storage devices due to higher power density, longer cycle life, and fast charging. The performance of the supercapacitors highly depends on the choice of electrode materials and electrolyte.

Recently, “MXenes”  a new class of layered a new class of layered a new …

Exploring The Effect Of Nanomodifiers On The Self-Healing Property Of Asphalt Binders, Debzani Mitra

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate the influence of nanomodifiers on the self-healing of asphalt binder. Two base asphalt binders, PG 58-28, and PG 64-22 were modified with nanoalumina, nanoclay, and nanosilica at 1%, 3%, and 4% dosages by weight of binder. After performance grading and storage stability tests, Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) assessed changes in unaged and short-term oxidized binders. Additionally, thermodynamic properties i.e., Surface Free Energy (SFE), of nanomodified binders were assessed via the sessile drop method. Finally, this study conducted healing characterization using the Modified Time Sweep and Linear Amplitude Sweep Healing tests. Moreover, this study looked …

Development Of Hypergraph Based Deep Neural Framework For Precise Cancer Subtyping And Meta Visualization, Pooja G Ms

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate Cancer Subtyping is a cornerstone of modern oncology essential for effective diagnosis and guiding personalized treatment. Histopathological Images (HIs) which capture the microscopic structure of tissues are widely used for cancer detection and subtyping. Even though deep learning has made significant advances, existing HI based subtyping methods often focus on specific cancer types, lacking a generic framework.

A unified framework that can classify multiple cancers with high specificity is desperately needed. In response to these limitations, this thesis proposes a robust multi-cancer, multi-class subtyping framework called DSHGNet (Depthwise Separable Hypergraph Convolutional Neural Network) which integrates Depthwise Separable Convolutional Neural …

Infrastructural Resiliency Analysis Concerning Extreme Events, Yasaman Norouzi

Theses and Dissertations

Infrastructural resiliency is critical for maintaining functionality during and after extreme events, ensuring minimal service disruptions and supporting rapid recovery. Key resiliency attributes—robustness, redundancy, resourcefulness, and rapidity—enhance infrastructure adaptability and safety. This study investigates significant factors and methods for improving resiliency, with a focus on equity and reliability. A new resiliency metric, incorporating equity as a core element, is developed using probabilistic approaches. This metric integrates structural vulnerability with accessibility, income, cost, and exposure factors to evaluate community impact on infrastructure access. To achieve this, limit state functions are defined to assess how infrastructural vulnerabilities affect diverse communities. Apart From …

Jackfruit Peel Valorization Through An Integrated Biorefinery Approach, Rohil Kumar K Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) peel (JFP), an abundantly available lignocellulosic biomass, remains largely underutilized despite being rich in cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and pectin. In India, approximately 13,460 hectares are under jackfruit cultivation, with Panruti in Tamil Nadu as a major production zone. The discarded peel often contributes to environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The present study emphasizes sustainable valorization of JFP through an integrated biorefinery framework for generating value-added bioproducts.

Major biopolymers, cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and pectin were extracted and fractionated, followed by detailed physicochemical characterization using FTIR, NMR, XRD, SEM, TGA, DSC, GPC, and BET analyses. Pectin extraction with …

Gendered Harms In Armed Conflict: International Legal Responses To The Gendered Effects Of The War In Sudan, Naima Dams

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis interrogates how international law conceptualizes, prosecutes, and ultimately limits the understanding of sexual violence in contexts of war and displacement. Drawing on feminist legal theory, postcolonial critique, and ethnographic fieldwork with Sudanese women displaced in Egypt, it questions the dominant legal framing of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV) as episodic, exceptional, and individualized. Instead, it reveals sexual violence as structural, continuous, and embedded in the everyday realities of racialized, gendered, and colonial harm.

Through ethnographical narratives, the study exposes how survivors' experiences often exceed the legibility frameworks of humanitarian and legal institutions, which prioritize spectacular, forensic evidence over slow, …

Mscl-X: Meta Supervised Contrastive Learning With Gaussian Prototypes For Robust Few-Shot Open-Set Modulation Classification, Emmanuel Mawuli Agbator

Theses and Dissertations

Automatic modulation recognition has found its way into the core modern-day wireless communication systems whereby intelligent receivers estimate signal formats without any prior coordination with the transmitters. Challenging situations arise in any working radio frequency environment for the conventional modulation recognition systems due to insufficient labeled data, rapidly fluctuating channel conditions, and appearance of plenty other unseen modulation types. Taken together, these challenges raise questions concerning the ability to institute learning frameworks that could perform well on few-shot and open-set conditions. Hence the thesis attempts to address the same by proposing two complementary learning-based frameworks for few-shot open-set modulation recognition …

Exploring Noise Induced Extreme Events In Neuronal Oscillators Networks And Machine Learning Forecasts, Hariharan S Mr

Theses and Dissertations

This doctoral dissertation comprehensively investigates the underexplored phenomenon of noise-induced extreme events (EE). The word “extreme” is accompanied by an occurring “event” when the deviation is extreme or higher than that of regular occurrences. These extreme occurrences are rare, abrupt, sudden, and irregular, often causing a profound impact on the system and its surroundings. Tsunami, earthquakes, solar flares, and tornadoes are such events that do not occur often but still significantly cause damage to mankind. This thesis particularly focuses on EE in neuronal systems where sudden synchronization can trigger seizures, tremors, and strokes which serve as classic examples of such …

Disproportionality Of Multilingual Learners In Special Education: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring The Relationship Between Teacher Self-Efficacy And Sheltered Instruction, Jessica Braynor

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Jessica Braynor DISPROPORTIONALITY OF MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION: A MIXED METHODS STUDY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND SHELTERED INSTRUCTION 2025-2026 Hajime Mitani, Ph.D. Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership This study addressed the issue of disproportionality of multilingual learners (MLs) in Special Education. Using mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, the study examined the relationship between sheltered instruction implementation, domain-specific self-efficacy (pedagogical-content, linguistic, and sociocultural), and referrals of MLs to Intervention & Referral Services (I&RS) and Special Services. Quantitative data were collected from general education teachers using measures of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) implementation and self-efficacy, along …

Green Roofs For Grey Water Treatment – Comparative Study Of Economic And Environmental Impacts, Shaden S. Attia

Theses and Dissertations

Cities are under more pressure than ever to use sustainable methods for managing water and other resources because of urbanization, climate change, and a lack of water. Standard greywater treatment systems (SGTSs) work well, but they use a lot of resources and don't provide a lot of ecosystem services. Greywater-treating green roofs (GTGRs) have emerged as a promising Nature-Based Solution (NBS), combining wastewater recycling with benefits like regulating temperature, reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and reducing the urban heat island (UHI) effect. Even with this potential, there is still not enough real-world research on how GTGRs affect both the economy …

Two Decades Since Cms V. Argentina: Concession Contracts, Necessity Doctrine, And The Imf’S Impact On Sovereign Economic Governance, Esraa S. Saied Abdallah

Theses and Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of international trade, particularly within the framework of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), the primary aim has been to promote and protect foreign investment. The 1980s witnessed a notable increase in investment treaties, coinciding with a global shift toward privatization that was significantly influenced by the impact of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. By the 1990s, BITs had evolved to offer specific guarantees aimed at reducing the risks foreign investors faced in host states. However, despite the growth and transformation brought about by foreign investments, disputes arising under investment …