Digital Commons Network^™

The Journey Toward Ascension: Understanding The Narratives Of Latinx Women In K-12 School Principalship, Manuela Jimenez

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the unique leadership journeys of Latinx women holding principal positions in K-12 schools across New Jersey. The research findings revealed that these women's career paths were significantly influenced by their social identity characteristics, specifically as female Latinx individuals. The study serves as a crucial reminder to challenge and eliminate negative perceptions and biases towards Latina school principals and their leadership growth and methodologies. The study focused on the leadership journeys of Latinx women holding principal positions in K-12 schools in New Jersey. The findings also showed that their career paths were aided by their social identity characteristics …

Student Driven Feedback: A Study In Self-Efficacy, Jennifer L. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

In this mixed methods research study, I use student survey and interview data from English 11 students at a suburban, public high school to analyze the ways in which students' self-efficacy is impacted when a feedback intervention is introduced that creates the opportunity for students to ask questions about their writing. In this study, I found that as a result of the intervention students showed an increase in their writer-centered efficacy beliefs, reported an awareness of the control and autonomy the intervention provided, and expressed an appreciation for the ways in which teacher feedback can be useful in helping them …

Towards A Practical Method For Monitoring Kinetic Processes In Polymers With Low-Frequency Raman Spectroscopy, Robert Vito Chimenti

Theses and Dissertations

Unlike liquids and crystalline solids, glassy materials exist in a constant state of structural nonequilibrium. Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of material kinetics is critical for understanding the structure-property-processing relationships of polymeric materials. Amorphous materials universally display low-frequency Raman features related to the phonon density of states resulting in a broad disorder band for Raman shifts below 100 cm-1, which is related to the conformational entropy and the modulus. This disorder band is dominated by the Boson peak, a feature due to phonon scattering because of disorder and can be related to the transverse sound velocity of the material, and a …

Development Of Bifunctional Electrocatalyst For The Electrically Rechargeable Zinc Air Batteries, Thiruvenkatam S

Theses and Dissertations

The spontaneous reaction between zinc and oxygen in an alkaline medium is exploited in non-rechargeable aqueous zinc-air batteries (ZABs) to generate useful electricity. The primary ZAB has a rich history as it was used in tramways, railway signalling and it is being used in hearing aids, pacemakers, etc. The success of primary ZABs led to the development of two types of rechargeable ZAB, namely, mechanically rechargeable ZAB (mrZAB) and electrically rechargeable ZAB (erZAB). In mrZABs, the exhausted anode and electrolyte are replaced periodically. Whereas the chemistry of primary ZAB is reversed using suitable electrocatalysts in erZABs. Electrocatalysts used in erZABs …

Reverberation Of Ecocritical Concerns In The Novels Of Kazuo Ishiguro, Bavetra S

Theses and Dissertations

Kazuo Ishiguro, one of the most celebrated contemporary writers, has authored eight novels. As a Noble Laureate of 2017, his works are constantly under academic scrutiny. One of the best-explored themes in the works of Ishiguro is memories and emotions. No writer of meritable artistic integrity can ever stay away from the pressing issue of his age. Intriguingly, Ishiguro's works seem to lack engagement with environmental issues. The extensive study of Literature reiterates the point that Ishiguro's works are explored solely for a diminished ratio in terms of environmental challenges.

The researcher has identified the lack of critical attention on …

Lingampally, Mackenzie Anne Jaggi

Theses and Dissertations

Lingampally is a multigenerational family story that follows a single mother, Amulya Goli, as she navigates raising Vasanth, her self-assured, reckless son, in the Christian faith in a small village in Hyderabad, India. Absent a father figure, Vasanth struggles to know himself and embrace his manhood. In a tumultuous series of events, Amulya's past indiscretions return demanding justice, and she must sacrifice all that she loves to ensure her family's future. She secures the funds that allow Vasanth, his wife Boomika, and their sons Nikki and Hari to emigrate to Plymouth, England in the winter of 2001 to start a …

O Processo De Escrita Para Uma Audiência Autêntica: As Reações De Aprendizes Intermediários Da Língua Portuguesa Como Terceira Língua, Marcos Paulo Barboza

Theses and Dissertations

Este estudo investigou as reações, sentimentos e pensamentos dos alunos sobre a diferença entre escrever em um segundo idioma para uma tarefa em sala de aula e escrever para um público autêntico fora da sala de aula. O estudo foi aplicado em uma aula de português para falantes de espanhol. Oito alunos foram inicialmente solicitados a escrever diversas redações curtas para seu professor e, posteriormente, escolher uma das redações para reescrever para um público autêntico de leitores do blog. Os textos foram comparados e os resultados indicam que quando escreveram para o público externo à sala de aula, ficaram mais …

A Qualitative Case Study: Ncaa Division Iii First-Generation Student-Athletes And Transferable Skills, Eric Brennan

Theses and Dissertations

The development of transferable skills is seen as an important factor for higher education institutions to enhance the employability of their graduates (Holmes, 2013; Tymon, 2013). An overarching purpose of the higher education system is to prepare students for their professional careers and lives. This qualitative instrumental single case study explored how first-generation student-athletes develop transferable skills through intercollegiate athletics at a public, Division III university in New Jersey. Further, it sought to understand how the university validates these transferable skills for first-generation student-athletes. Data was collected using semi-structured in-depth open-ended interviews to capture rich details from the participants related …

Automating Verification Of Bpmn Workflow Functional Correctness Using Model Checking, Bryce Mckay Pierson

Theses and Dissertations

Many critical systems industry-wide demand fail-safe process execution. Many of these systems are beginning to use low-code or no-code (LC/NC) solutions to their problems. Mechanisms for verifying the integrity of LC/NC solutions are extremely limited in comparison to traditional code. One solution exhaustively searches the execution state space for undesirable behavior, but it requires expertise in model checking and extensive manual labor. Additionally, error output from that method is exclusively text-based and demands time and familiarity to comprehend. We introduce a tool for automating model checking of LC/NC solutions. Participation in the automation process requires very little knowledge of the …

"Pasted Up And Printed Out": Watchmen As Ontographic Network, Thomas B. De Groff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' 1986-87 comic book series Watchmen according to its network structure, paying particular attention to page layout and the establishment of or deviation from the nine-panel "waffle iron" grid. This reading aims to better understand the comic book form, connecting the work of comics theorist Theirry Groensteen to certain elements of actor-network theory and Ian Bogost's notion of the ontograph--a map of being that emphasizes the interobjectivity of networked nodes. This thesis explores the ontographic nature of the comic book form more generally before tracing the meta-textual ontograph in Watchmen. The thesis then …

Mineral Matter Behavior During The Combustion Of Biomass And Coal Blends And Its Effect On Particulate Matter Emission, Ash Deposition, And Sulfur Dioxide Emission, Rajarshi Roy

Theses and Dissertations

Combustion of coal is one of the primary sources of electricity generation worldwide today. Coal contains different chemicals that cause particulate matter(PM) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions. These are health hazards and are responsible for deteriorating the ambient air quality. Particulate matter also forms ash deposits inside the coal combustor, which in turn decreases the energy efficiency of the power plants. Using biomass as a fuel in these utility boilers can potentially reduce the problems of particulate matter emissions and ash deposition, and can significantly reduce the SO2 emissions. However, biomass needs to be pretreated to make its properties similar …

Sagefire: An Agent-Based Model Of Heat Dynamics In Sagebrush Steppe Ecosystems During A Fire Event, Samuel Joseph Knuth

Theses and Dissertations

Context: The Great Basin in the western US features arid to semi-arid climates and sagebrush steppe ecosystems. Increased fire frequency can negatively impact these ecosystems by promoting invasive species. Agent-based modeling is a valuable tool to study fire dynamics in sagebrush steppe ecosystems, offering insights in management strategies and ecosystem resilience. Objectives: We developed SageFire, an agent-based model, to simulate heat dynamics influenced by shrub cover during fires in the Great Basin. Our objectives were to accurately classify ground cover types, incorporate classified imagery into a simulation model, and accurately visualize fire intensity based on the spatial arrangement of the …

Spatial Distribution Of Soil Nutrients And Properties As A Function Of Vegetation Distribution, Fire, And Rodent Activity, Nathan O. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Fires are becoming larger and more frequent in the deserts of North America, driven largely by the expansion of invasive annual grasses. Rodent consumers can curb invasive grass expansion through plant herbivory, but the top-down effects of this pressure on soil resources are understudied. In shrub dominated deserts, islands of fertility under shrub canopies are surrounded by nutrient poor interspace soils that dictate patterns of vegetative growth. Little is known of how top-down controls from rodents and fire may interact with fertile island topography. These studies explore the effects of fire, rodent activity, and fertile island topography on plant available …

Head Tail Open: Open Tailed Classification Of Imbalanced Document Data, Chetan Joshi

Theses and Dissertations

Deep learning models for scanned document image classification and form understand- ing have made significant progress in the last few years. High accuracy can be achieved by a model with the help of copious amounts of labelled training data for closed-world classification. However, very little work has been done in the domain of fine-grained and head-tailed(class imbalance with some classes having high numbers of data points and some having a low number of data points) open-world classification for documents. Our proposed method achieves a better classification results than the baseline of the head-tail-novel/open dataset. Our techniques include separating the head-tail …

Laboratory Evaluation Of Early-Age Concrete Comprising Type Il Cement And Natural Pozzolans, Battsagaan Ilch

Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this laboratory research was to investigate the effects of a higher water-cementitious materials ratio on selected properties of concrete mixtures comprising natural pozzolans. The scope of work included testing of six concrete mixtures, including one for each of three natural pozzolans at two water-cementitious materials ratios of 0.44 and 0.48 and one concrete mixture without pozzolan at a water-cementitious materials ratio of 0.44, which was treated as a baseline in this research. The stiffness and strength of each concrete mixture were measured at 1, 3, and 7 days using concrete specimens that were cast immediately after mixing. …

User-Centered Design Of Compliant Mechanism And Origami-Based Products, Bethany Maria Parkinson

Theses and Dissertations

In user-centered design, the way users feel when interacting with products is taken under consideration in the design process. In this research, the user-centered design of compliant mechanism and origami-based products is explored. Examples of user-centered compliant mechanism and origami-based design projects are presented: first, for novel furniture designs, in which the safety, comfort, and visual aesthetics are important; and second, for compliant handheld dart launchers, where the feel of blaster actuation is taken into consideration. The feel of a product and a person's emotional response to it are important to products meant to be interacted with, but especially in …

Development And Evaluation Of Full Performance-Based Procedures For The Estimation Of Liquefaction-Induced Building Settlement In A Non-Free-Field Condition Using Cumulative Absolute Velocity, Dallin Nathan Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Liquefaction induced settlement is an earthquake hazard engineers face when developing infrastructure. Current methods for estimating liquefaction induced settlement are done in a free field condition. This assumption is not an accurate way to describe the soil because in most cases the soil will bear some kind of infrastructure. Evaluation of liquefaction induced settlement in a non-free-field condition is a more appropriate way. Using the Bullock et al. CAV model, Bullock et al liquefaction induced settlement model, and probabilistic seismic hazard software from the USGS, a full performance-based procedure for the estimation of liquefaction-induced building settlement in the non-free-field condition …

Subversive Compliance In A Precarious Nation: Camp In The Skopje 2014 Project, Lila Rice

Theses and Dissertations

To promote their desired national identity, the North Macedonian government funded the Skopje 2014 Project––an initiative including abundant statues, architectural façades, and other structures that depict Ancient Macedon as North Macedonia’s heritage. This project received copious amounts of criticism on two central fronts: first, that its allusions to Ancient Macedon are a false depiction of history; second, that its aesthetic is tacky. While valid arguments are made on each of these fronts, I argue that the latter complicates the former when analyzed in the context of North Macedonia’s precarity. In this analysis, I employ the work of Judith Butler and …

Andromedus: A Novel, Ariel Renae Hochstrasser

Theses and Dissertations

Andromedus "Midas" Hellebore is a half-fae necromancer living in Portland, Oregon. When he was a child, he grew up in a brothel on a fae territory near the Pacific coast on an island called Duckwell. The matron of said brothel tried to sell him to be a blood pet for a man named Mr. White, both to be a sex slave and to consistently produce fae blood, which consumed by humans could give them the magic fae folk are born with. However, a few of the escorts at the brothel - including Orla, the one who chose to raise him …

Objects And Museal Rhetoric, Isaac James Richards

Theses and Dissertations

Rhetoricians of public memory are interested in materiality. Simultaneously, they seek to recover, promote, and commemorate historically marginalized populations. These twin objectives form a paradox: how does one study public memory in contexts where material manifestations are limited or lost to history? What of peoples and cultures whose histories of erasure have left them with insufficient material to stock a traditional museum? To explore these questions, I examine museal spaces, or places of public memory that are atypical when compared to normative museums, even as they maintain some museum-like features. More specifically, I examine the various rhetorical effects of objects …

"A Love That Transcends Hunger": Choice And Edenic Imagery In Contemporary Queer Poetry, Aubrey Dickens

Theses and Dissertations

Contemporary poets such as Richard Siken are known for their sexual and explicitly queer nature. Others have debated the spiritual dimension of queer poetry such as Siken's, with individuals such as Marta Figlerowicz arguing that though one of Siken's poems calls itself a litany, it does not match all the rules of a litany due to not being clearly devotional. Using an outside-in analytical approach to Richard Siken's "Snow and Dirty Rain," Kayleb Rae Candrilli's "There is a Point at Which I Tire of My Own Fear," and Jericho Brown's "Eden", I argue that spirituality can be found in explicit …

Unique K3 Surfaces With Purely Non-Symplectic Automorphism: Insights From Weighted Projective Spaceunique K3 Surfaces With Purely Non-Symplectic Automorphism:\\Insights From Weighted Projective Space, Elizabeth Melville

Theses and Dissertations

K3 surfaces have garnered attention across various fields, from optics and dynamics to high energy physics, making them a subject of extensive study for many decades. Recent work by mathematicians, including Brandhorst [1], has focused on non-symplectic automorphisms, aiming to categorize K3 surfaces that admit such automorphisms. Brandhorst made a list of unique K3 surfaces with purely non-symplectic automorphisms and established specific criteria for a K3 surface to be isomorphic to one on his list. This thesis aims to provide an alternative representation of select K3 surfaces from Brandhorst's list. While Brandhorst predominantly characterizes these surfaces as elliptic K3 surfaces, …

Developing A Sql Injection Exploitation Tool With Natural Language Generation, Kate Isabelle Boekweg

Theses and Dissertations

Websites are a popular tool in our modern world, used daily by many companies and individuals. However, they are also rife with vulnerabilities, including SQL injection (SQLI) vulnerabilities. SQLI attacks can lead to significant damage to the data stored within web applications and their databases. Due to the dangers posed by these attacks, many countermeasures have been researched and implemented to protect websites against this threat. Various tools have been developed to enhance the process of detecting SQLI vulnerabilities and active SQLI attacks. Many of these tools have integrated machine learning technologies, aiming to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Penetration …

E Afua Mai Mauga Manuia O Nu'u: Conservation From Mountains To Reefs In Tropical Pacific Islands, Tavailau T. Segi

Theses and Dissertations

Soil erosion is the main exacerbating threat to climate change impacts in tropical Pacific islands, particularly to steep and mountainous volcanic islands. The morphological features (steep and mountainous), short distance from ridge to reef, frequent storm events, extended raining season, and accelerating developments from growing populations pose serious threats to terrestrial and marine resources. Perhaps the most threatening part is the high dependency of their human populations on the land and ocean for food supplies, supporting national economies, and sustaining culture and human well-being. Locals, governments, and non-governmental organization projects are underway to improve protection and management of natural resources …

Portuguese As L3: Student And Teacher Perceptions Of The Role Of Spanish In Portuguese Learning, Caroline Diniz Ainsworth

Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at a beginning Portuguese course for Spanish bilinguals in a United States university to analyze the perceptions that Spanish bilinguals and their teacher have about the facilitative and non-facilitative aspects of Spanish on the learning of Portuguese as a third language. The study investigates four main areas of language learning: vocabulary, general grammar, sentence structure, and pronunciation. Findings show that students and their teacher perceive Spanish as facilitative for Portuguese learning, but not in all areas.

Poe’S Theory Of The Short Story And Hybridity In East Asian Short Fiction: Considering Mori Ogai’S “Maihime” And Su Manshu’S “Suizanji”, Anthony Michael Wood

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis considers how Mori Ōgai’s “Maihime” (1890) and Su Manshu’s “Suizanji” (1916) conform and differ from Edgar Allen Poe’s theory of the short story. It then considers Ōgai’s and Su’s reading of the short stories and East Asian short fiction as well as Ōgai’s definition of the short story to consider why these works of short fiction differ from Poe’s definition, concluding that they are hybrid works, which seek to combine the short story and East Asian short fiction.

The 1950s Davy Crockett Craze: Strengthening National Identity After The Korean War, Donna Marie Stapley

Theses and Dissertations

With the stalemate of the Korean War, the United States went through a dispirited time when the citizens tried to make sense of a war they felt had no meaning. With the new threat of the Cold War and Communism, Americans struggled to find security and a way to rebuild their demoralized nation. It was during this 1950s time that Walt Disney decided to produce a movie about a historical figure, Davy Crockett. Using the legends told during Crockett's lifetime, Disney adapted and enhanced these legends. The result was what is famously known as the 1950s Crockett Craze. Disney provided …

Phosphorus Soprtion Experiments: Impacts On Water Column Phosphate Concentrations In Utah Lake, Rebecca Layne Butters

Theses and Dissertations

Utah Lake, located in north-central Utah, USA, is a freshwater lake with a large surface area, shallow depth, and phosphorus-rich sediment with significant water-sediment interaction. These factors cause unique phosphorus behavior relative to other lake ecosystems, governed by sediment-water interactions. We hypothesize that benthic sediments and suspended solids act, by sorption processes, to maintain water column P concentrations that are largely insensitive to P inflows. We conducted a Phosphorus Addition Experiment to characterize sorbed P fluxes in the lake. Our experimental procedure included bench-scale laboratory experiments testing Utah Lake water and sediment with dilute and augmented P levels, as well …

Is Dual Language Immersion Inclusive? Insights From Enrollment Data, Autistic Student Experiences, And Developmental Screening, Dakin Fjeldsted Stovall

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion of Dual Language Immersion (DLI) programs, now offered in over 300 Utah schools, necessitates a detailed investigation into how these programs accommodate diverse student populations, particularly those with developmental differences. A comprehensive three-part approach was employed for this evaluation. The first study evaluated DLI enrollment patterns by surveying over 300 Utah parents. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was used to uncover factors influencing enrollment decisions and characteristics of students participating in DLI programs. This study revealed that developmental ability, socioeconomic need, and parent value toward DLI immersion significantly predicted enrollment; practical recommendations are provided to improve the accessibility …

The Materiality Of The Soul In Plutarch's Moralia, Caleb Cole Deppermann

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Plutarch's vague comments about the materiality of the soul in Moralia. My contention is that, despite suggestions to the contrary, Plutarch aligned with Plato in thinking about the soul as immaterial. I argue that a deeper understanding of Plutarch's relationship to Plato as well as the Stoics and Epicureans of his time shed light on his otherwise ambiguous passages. The end result will be (1) a more secure understanding of Plutarch's position on the materiality of the soul and (2) an improved ability to appreciate Plutarch's playful and vivid language as he describes immaterial souls with material …