Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Explicit Professional Development As A Means To Change Inclusive Mindsets, Mitchell E. Elatkin

Theses and Dissertations

Inclusive education requires educators to hold beliefs that support the participation and success of students with disabilities in general education settings. Although federal policy mandates access to the least restrictive environment, educator attitudes toward inclusion continue to influence the implementation of inclusive practices. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to examine whether explicit professional development (PD) focused on inclusive mindsets influenced school stakeholders’ attitudes toward inclusion across a school year. Participants included representatives from various roles within a charter school organization in the Midwest. The researcher collected data through two administrations of the Adapted Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion Survey …

Dining Experiences Across Hearing Profiles: The Influence Of Noise And Environmental Factors In Restaurants, Lorin M. Kmieciak

Theses and Dissertations

Dining out is a popular activity worldwide that is rooted in sensory and emotional engagement. How an individual experiences the sensory conditions in restaurants varies widely, highlighting the importance of designing dining environments that accommodate diverse perceptual needs and abilities. The purpose of this study is to address how existing dining environments overlook inclusive and accessibility-centered design by examining how hearing loss intersects with the acoustic, sensory, and social dimensions of dining environments. This study employed a mixed method, exploratory approach by gathering quantitative data through a survey and qualitative data through follow-up interviews to generate a holistic and data-driven …

"I Didn't Teach It Again Because It Wasn't Worth It": How Grades 6-12 English Language Arts Teachers Select Texts And Navigate The Obstacles That Impede Them, Steve Poggendorf

Theses and Dissertations

Classroom texts not only function as tools through which teachers can build curricula, but they can also engage and empower learners. Despite the importance of engaging texts in the classroom, teachers encounter obstacles, both social and institutional, that impede their ability to select the texts they believe will best foster student engagement and empowerment. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate how teachers make text selections, as well as the nature of the obstacles that stand in the way of teachers who hope to inspire and engage their students through lessons built around texts of their choosing. The …

Assessing Decision Making Of United States Arboreta: A Survey Of The Main Drivers Behind New Planting Selections, Sophia Reavley

Theses and Dissertations

When an arboretum needs to replace fallen specimens, what are they looking for in the new plant that will be added to the collection? Arboreta are locations where trees and shrubs can be studied in an area where the public can also enjoy them. This study looks to see what aspects of scientific value (conservation status, diversification, ornamental value, etc.) and what external factors (budgets, public opinion, research articles, etc.) of new species selections become the main driver in decision making. An anonymous online survey was used to collect data from arboreta and botanical gardens of the United States that …

Your Left Or Mine: A Journey To Accessibility For Learning Disabilities And Neurodivergence In Stage Combat Pedagogy, Ambria Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines stage combat pedagogy from its inception to the present day through the lens of accessibility for learning disabilities and neurodivergence. Relevant research in education as it relates to disability is analyzed and applied to the field of stage combat pedagogy. What follows is a deconstruction and reconstruction of beginning level stage combat pedagogy to increase accessibility. These ideas are then tested and the results reflected on. This thesis focuses on college level and aged students who are the most likely demographic for beginning stage combat students. The completion of this thesis does not represent an endpoint in …

Development Of A Practical Lu-177 Activity Calibration Protocol For Clinical Nuclear Medicine: Dosimetric Impact Analysis And Implementation Tools, Azam Almolaiki

Theses and Dissertations

Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) is widely used in radionuclide therapy, where accurate activity measurement prior to administration is essential for safe and effective treatment delivery. However, variability in dose calibrator response due to measurement conditions and source geometry remains a practical challenge in routine clinical settings. This study presents a practical clinical calibration strategy under real-world constraints for Lu-177 activity measurement using standard nuclear medicine instrumentation. A vial-based approach was implemented using a well-type ionization chamber (Capintec CRC-15R) to evaluate measurement repeatability, temporal stability, and geometry dependence. All measurements were performed under consistent conditions with appropriate decay correction applied using the physical …

My Mouth Is A Glutton, My Mouth Is A Lover., Cole Kamerick Eller

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a reflection on my relationship with jewelry. I discuss the impact of jewelry

and its materials. What are the ramifications of these objects? Politically, socially, and

spiritually. I reflect on material agency, cultural unconscious, and value systems, and

how I relate to jewelry, my love for it, and my grief for it. This work is the result of ritual

and impulse. The writing is my reflection on the results of that ritual.

Plumbed 3-Manifolds And Neumann Moves, Noah J. Pope

Theses and Dissertations

We give a constructive proof that every weakly negative definite plumbing tree can be transformed into a negative definite one by a finite sequence of Neumann moves. The argument combines Neumann’s plumbing calculus with the diagonalization algorithm of Duchon, Eisenbud, and Neumann, which extracts the eigenvalues of the framing matrix directly from the combinatorics of the tree. We show that any positive eigenvalues are supported on linear branches and can be eliminated systematically via controlled applications of Neumann moves. This provides an explicit algorithm reducing weakly negative definite plumbing trees to negative definite ones.

The Transition From School To Work For Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders: Examining The Lived Experiences Of Students In Private Day Schools, Gabrielle S. Pickover

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of young adults with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) as they transitioned from private day school settings into sustained employment. Guided by Schlossberg’s Transition Theory, the study explored participants’ perceptions of the barriers, supports, and strategies that shaped their transition experiences. Data were collected through twelve semi-structured interviews with six participants who maintained at least one year of continuous employment following high school. Analysis revealed four primary themes: structure as a stabilizing force, resilience developed through adversity, experiential learning as a pathway to employment, and employment as identity and independence. Findings suggest …

Awareness, Empathy, Action: How American Students’ Study Abroad Experiences In The Middle East And North Africa (Mena) Influence Self-Perceptions Of Global Citizenship, Renee Lamb

Theses and Dissertations

Internationally minded practitioners and academics have posited for decades that global citizenship could be a tool the world can use to build a stronger and more sustainably minded global culture. Through global citizenship’s inclusion in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, Target 4: Quality Education, educators from pre-primary to university have been put at the forefront of this movement. At the higher education level, study abroad is arguably the most important global learning tool used by American institutions today for building global citizenship. However, the vast majority of American students study abroad in Western Europe, leaving a glaring gap in …

Within The Ruin: A Modern Brewery Rebirth, Karim Asarzadeh

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis project focuses on the revitalization of the historic ruins of the James River Steam Brewery in Richmond, Virginia. The project transforms the forgotten industrial structure into a modern brewery with a second-floor restaurant addition and community gathering spaces while preserving the historic masonry ruins. It showcases a holistic design approach that considers all aspects of the building, including its connection to the urban context and landscape, as well as its architecture, interiors, and furniture. The project demonstrates how a holistic design approach can create stronger spatial connections and more cohesive environments. In particular, it offers a strategy for …

Will You Let Me In?, Irene Piazza

Theses and Dissertations

Imposed borders are everywhere: The borders created by stanchions during bureaucratic lines, the borders of a country, the borders of a page. Humans are forced to follow them. Borders are imposed structures that dictate a way to move, a way to write, a way to be confined. But what happens when those borders aren’t followed? What happens when someone decides to walk through the stanchion belt by crouching under it or sliding its buckle open? What happens if a person decides to walk outside of the paved pathway? What happens if someone crosses a border or writes beyond the page …

Waxing And Waning: Hidden Interiors Of Grassroots Expression, Asmita Baskar

Theses and Dissertations

Concealed interiors historically emerged from necessity in response to dominant systems around surveillance, control, and visibility. These hidden spaces carefully regulated access, cultivated intimacy, and enabled self-expression within grassroots groups and marginalized communities. Operating free from surveillance and in contrast to surrounding architectural and urban systems, these concealed spaces were not formally “interior designed”, yet they reveal how communities activate the interiors they encounter to retain agency.

Scholarship on grassroots resistance is largely examined through sociology, anthropology, psychology, or political science, with limited literature directly linking interiority, interior design, and resistance within covert spaces. This thesis addresses the gap in …

Vitality: Wellness For Female Collegiate Athletes, Kristin Beach

Theses and Dissertations

Vitality is a wellness center for female collegiate athletes. It is rooted in female oriented design strategies for comfort, recovery, and wellbeing. This project aims to provide an inclusive environment in which women within the VCU athletics department can come and support their health and wellbeing.  Spaces include physical therapy, academic support, movement studios, gathering lounge, locker room, private therapy, and grab and go food options. This program aims to provide spaces that support the busy schedule of a collegiate athlete, while using design strategies that enhance social, mental, and physical wellbeing while visiting. Located in a historic sauers building, …

Musings Of A Dyke: Reimagining A Lesbian Past To Support A Lesbian Future, Tori Mitchell

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis interrogates the heterosexist bias inherent in historical narratives by recontextualizing myth, biblical accounts, folklore, and art history through a dedicated lesbian lens. Utilizing oil painting as my primary medium,  I construct a metafictional world–a pseudo-historical space where the foundational assumption is that every figure is a lesbian until proven otherwise. This inversion serves as a direct counter-narrative to the default lens of cis heteronormativity typically applied to the past. Within this world, I “lesbianize” the traditional icons of Western culture: the heroes, the symbols, and the deities.

My practice navigates the tension between reinvention and extinction, viewing both …

"It's The People, Not The Place:" Queering Shared Space In Richmond, Virginia, Kathleen Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The intersection of queerness and planning is an understudied subject area that has implications for equity and access. Queer communities face real barriers to equitable access of resources that stem from a long history of legal, cultural, and economic marginalization. Experiences of shared spaces for queer groups and organizations is important to understand, as outward expressions of queerness are not always welcome in shared spaces, depending on sociopolitical context. Richmond, Virginia has a rich queer history both filled with challenges as well as examples of queer success and joy that makes it a prime case study selection.

This thesis utilizes …

Exploring, Understanding, And Supporting Academic Help-Seeking In Context, Molly L. Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Conceptualized as a self-regulated learning (SRL) strategy, academic help-seeking is a fascinating behavior because it is self-directed while also reliant on social interactions with help-givers (Karabenick, 2004). What is known about help-seeking in academic settings largely revolves around individual traits, strategies, motivations, beliefs, and identities, and how each of these constructs influence help-seeking outcomes (Bornschlegl et al., 2020; Fong et al., 2023; Karabenick & Gonida, 2018). What is underexplored in these areas, however, is how features of the learning context interact with student-level factors to shape academic help-seeking behaviors and beliefs. This dissertation attempts to address some of these gaps …

Tuberculosis In Jim Crow Virginia, 1900-1972, Elizabeth Dooley

Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) was a major public health concern in the United States, especially in the first half of the twentieth century. Transmission and treatment of the disease, which is spread between humans through close contact, was complicated by racial segregation laws in the South known as Jim Crow laws. Virginia subscribed to these laws, which played a role in how and where Black Virginians with TB could be treated. Segregated treatment facilities with an inadequate number of beds for the number of infected people and deaths in the state added to these complications of disease control and plan for eradication. …

Early Math Readiness And Later Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Bailey Bontrager

Theses and Dissertations

The current body of literature provides much evidence that mathematics skills at the start of kindergarten are predictive of later mathematics achievement, and that students enrolled in early childhood education (ECE) programs are better prepared for mathematics at the start of kindergarten. However, the potential for children to develop mathematical skills prior to entering kindergarten relies on access to ECE programs and resources in families’ surrounding communities. Recent use of geospatial data collection techniques and measures of community resource availability have enabled researchers to examine specific localities for the ways in which community organizations and institutions support residents in particular …

Endodontic Access Through Zirconia Crowns: A Comparative Evaluation Of 3d Guided Versus Free-Handed Techniques, Maryam Alrughaib

Theses and Dissertations

Objective:

Accessing canals through full-coverage zirconia crowns is challenging and may increase the risk of misdirection, excessive dentin removal, and prolonged chair time. Guided endodontic access has been proposed to improve efficiency and precision. This study compared the accuracy and time efficiency of guided versus free-hand endodontic access through zirconia restorations. The hypothesis was that guided access would enhance canal localization precision and significantly reduce access time.

Methods:

Thirty-two extracted maxillary premolars were restored with 1-mm–reduced monolithic zirconia crowns (3Y-TZP, Katana HTML, Kuraray, Japan) and mounted in Modupro models. Teeth were assigned to two groups (n = 16 each): guided …

Climate, Biogeography, And Dispersal: A Unifying Framework For Ameri-Caribbean Dry Forests, Pablo Lopez Bustamante

Theses and Dissertations

Seed dispersal is a crucial ecological function that enables plants to alter their distributional range, avoid intense competition and natural enemies near the parent plant, and recover from disturbances. These processes shape species and functional composition of forests. Wind has traditionally been considered the dominant dispersal mechanism in Ameri-Caribbean dry forests, yet growing evidence suggests that other dispersal mechanisms also play significant roles in this ecosystem, responding differently to biotic and abiotic conditions. Still, how dispersal syndrome composition influences plant communities, the ecological drivers underlying these patterns, and the effects of climate change on dispersal syndrome dominance remain poorly understood. …

Positive Body Image In Postpartum Women: A Psychometric Evaluation Of The Body Appreciation Scale-2 And A Phenomenological Exploration, Taylor Vashro

Theses and Dissertations

Postpartum women appear particularly vulnerable to body dissatisfaction due to the rapid physiological, emotional, and environmental changes that occur across the perinatal experience (Baskin et al., 2021; Nippert et al., 2021). Recent studies have demonstrated the experience of both negative and positive body image during postpartum (Rodgers et al., 2024; Watson et al., 2016). However, there is limited research regarding the measurement and exploration of positive body image in postpartum women. The current study aimed to: 1) evaluate the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Body Appreciation Scale-2 (BAS-2), a widely used measure of positive body image in postpartum …

The Long Shadow Of The Boys In Blue: Civil War Memory & The Evolution Of Veteran Identity In Twentieth Century Pennsylvania, Alexander L. Barbolish

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a case study of the transformation of veteran identity and civic culture in Northeastern Pennsylvania, tracing the profound shifts in the way Americans remembered war, commemorated sacrifice, and defined what it meant to be a veteran, from the turn of the twentieth century to the dawn of World War II. By examining the complex interactions and relationships between three distinct and overlapping generations of veterans—those of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, and World War I—this study argues that veteran identity was neither static nor monolithic, but was continually renegotiated through commemorative practice, organizational culture, and public …

An Integrated Data-Driven Framework For Arctic Shipping: Analyzing Vessel Speed, Environmental And Ecological Factors Through Innovative Statistical Spatio-Temporal Methods, Inverse Optimization And Machine Learning, Mauli Pant

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation develops an integrated data-driven framework to analyze vessel navigation and ecological risk in the United States Arctic from 2010 to 2019. As environmental change and maritime activity increase in the region, understanding how vessels respond to dynamic conditions and how those responses interact with marine ecosystems has become increasingly important. A central theme of this dissertation is the treatment of vessel speed as both an observed outcome and a decision variable reflecting trade- offs among operational, environmental, and ecological factors. The first chapter develops a predictive framework for vessel speed over ground (SOG) using Gaussian Process Boosting (GPBoost), …

Film For Jeanette, Brice Goldberg

Theses and Dissertations

Film for Jeanette is an experimental documentary concerning grief, memory, and what remains of those who have left this physical plane. The film paints the portrait of my late sister, Jeanette Lee Goldberg, who died in a car accident when she was 19. What begins as a memorial becomes a celebration of her life and an exploration into the complexities of her character that led to her death. Jeanette’s story is told through interviews with family members, while the visuals, created with various alternative 16mm film techniques, depict my own journey through the filmmaking process. I was only 3 when …

Examining Mental Healthcare Underutilization Among Latino Immigrants: Healthcare Providers’ And Community Health Workers' Perspectives, Geovani Muñoz

Theses and Dissertations

Latinos continue to experience many logistical and systemic barriers to professional mental health services (Derr, 2016) despite being the second-largest racial-ethnic group in the United States (U.S.). With a community of 65 million people (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024), Latinos experience mental healthcare inequalities (Cook et al., 2019) due to structural, cultural, and systemic barriers. Although prior research has emphasized culturally responsive care as a pathway to reducing disparities (Nagy et al., 2025), much of the literature has focused on Western medical models, with limited attention to community-based perspective. Guided by the Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices (KAP) framework, the present study …

Mathematical Models With Clinical Applications For Improving Health Outcomes, Helen Harris

Theses and Dissertations

In clinical settings, patients are exposed to many risks and stressors that could result in adverse health outcomes. Here we present mathematical models that seek to address these risks. First, we present a Markov Chain model to investigate the effect of medication reconciliation (MR) completion on patient health outcomes in the intensive care unit. Using this model, we simulate the annual incidence of adverse drug events (ADEs) for three different ADE rates. Based on the simulated results, we conduct a cost-benefit analysis for various levels of compliance to determine the financial implications of increasing MR completion depending on the baseline …

Mediator: Ornament As A Visual Language Of The Transcendent, Selma Fejzullaj

Theses and Dissertations

Adolf Loos’s declaration that “ornament is a crime” defined modernist design, establishing a legacy that dismisses ornamentation as wasteful and regressive. This research questions that legacy by repositioning aesthetics as a divinely grounded value, inspired by the Qur’anic vision of Paradise. In this celestial realm, beauty is not wasteful but a manifestation of divine perfection. Conceptually, the project reclaims ornament as a vital tool for contemplating metaphysical themes. Materially, it reimagines glass, shifting it from modernist "radical honesty" to a medium of layered depth. Recombining traditional Islamic ornamentation practices such as Girih and Chaharbagh, the project evokes the Qur’anic vision …

Re-Sense, Nneoma Njoku

Theses and Dissertations

Re-Sense examines artist’s books as perceptual tools capable of reshaping how readers encounter history, memory, and archival absence. Beginning with the idea that books teach us how to know and how to see, the text argues that conventional book structures often reinforce Western knowledge systems through overemphasis of linearity, coherence, and containment. In contrast, artist’s books' experimental structures support novel modes of knowing and relation to ourselves and the world of humans and non-humans. The author describes this process of exhuming perception from Western constraints as re-sensing.

Through re-sensing, the historical past becomes less like a fixed record and more …

Examining Youth Ethnic Identity And Parental Familismo As Protective Factors Against Bicultural Stress And Internalizing Symptoms In Latino Youth, Daniella Olivares

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescence is a critical developmental period marked by increased vulnerability to mental health challenges. For Latino adolescents living in the U.S., experiences of bicultural stress may heighten the risk for adverse mental health outcomes. However, cultural strengths–such as youth ethnic identity and parental familismo–may serve as protective factors. The current study examined whether youth ethnic identity and parental familismo moderated the relationship between bicultural stress and internalizing symptoms among a diverse sample of Latino youth in central Virginia. Latino adolescents (n = 60) completed measures assessing bicultural stress, ethnic identity, and internalizing symptoms, while parents (n = 60) reported on …