Digital Commons Network^™

White, Heterosexual, Cisgender Male Experiences With Contemporary Masculinity Language, Marcus D. Kako

Doctoral Dissertations

Studies suggest that rigid adherence to tenets of traditional masculinity (e.g., dominance, restrictive emotionality, aggression) can lead to adverse physical and mental health outcomes in men and marginalized groups (e.g., Burke, 2002; Jampel et al., 2020; Jewkes et al., 2011; Mesler et al., 2022). However, literature demonstrates that many men have an aversion to changing thoughts, values, and behaviors related to traditional masculinity, and that the language used to discuss these changes affects men’s willingness to engage in adopting new perspectives and values (e.g., Smedley & Croffie, 2023; Stein, 2018). Thus, this dissertation focuses on understanding how White, heterosexual, cisgender …

Association Between Anxiety And Rrbs In Autistic Youth: Role Of Ethnicity, Catherine Rita Callaci

Loma Linda University Electronic Theses, Dissertations & Projects

Autistic youth are at elevated risk for developing co-occurring anxiety symptoms (Zaboski & Storch, 2018), which are shown to be related to restricted, repetitive behaviors (RRBs; Rogers et al., 2012). Despite similar rates of autism in Latinx as in non-Latinx White youth, limited research has been conducted in the Latinx population. Participants were autistic youth and youth with developmental delays (DD; N = 199, Mage = 4.98 years, Latinx = 66.3%, Male = 66.3%) from two larger randomized controlled trials investigating parenting stress. Child anxiety was measured via the Spence Anxiety Scales total anxiety T-scores. RRBs were measured via Repetitive …

Problems And Risks Within The Agriculture Of Stann Creek, Ethan Bailey

Supply Chain Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

Agriculture is a significant part of the economy of Stann Creek, Belize and faces many challenges. This research presents data from farms in the areas surrounding Dangriga regarding the problems that they have been experiencing and potential risks they may face. The research covers family/individual farms, an agriculture cooperative, commercial farms, agritourism businesses, and Mennonite communities. This research was conducted as part of an internship with the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) of Belize alongside extension officers of the Stann Creek branch of the MOA.

The data from the internship found that agriculture in Stann Creek dealt with problems regarding availability …

Topographies Of Being: World-Making And Ontological Formation In Modern Saint Catherine, South Sinai, Ahmad Mahana

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exploration of the ecological and sociological processes involved in the production of the socionatural space of the contemporary town and natural protectorate of Saint Catherine, South Sinai. Revered by all Abrahamic religions as the site of the Great Theophany, the town has perpetually been considered an area of immense spiritual and natural significance. In recent decades, however, the town has undergone a series of modernizing campaigns that have not only threatened the region’s natural environment and indigenous lifeways but have also jeopardized the plurality of its extant lifeworlds. By relying on a variety of ethnographic methods, …

Sufism At The Service Of Ḥadīth Commentary: Re-Framing Al-Kalābādhī'S Baḥr Al-FawāʾId In Fourth-Tenth Century Transoxiana, Fadhil Yunus Alsagoff

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines Abū Bakr al-Kalābādhī’s (d. 380/990) understudied ḥadīth commentary, the Baḥr al-fawāʾid al-mashhūr bi-maʿānī al-akhbār. The first Anglophone study of the text as a whole, this thesis situates itself within the emergent literature on ḥadīth commentaries and challenges the prevailing scholarly tendency to reduce Sufi-authored commentarial texts to the ishārī method of interpretation and to treat them solely as repositories of Sufi themes. This thesis argues that, contrary to current perceptions of the text as primarily a work of Sufism, the Baḥr al-fawaʾid is first and foremost a work of ḥadīth commentary, its main intent being to …

Circulating Futures: Infrastructure, Value, And The Making Of Contemporary Egypt, Yasmine Abdeldayem

Theses and Dissertations

Since 2014, Egypt has undertaken an unprecedented expansion of its road network as part of a broader project of territorial development and national renewal. Roads are presented in this project as the connective infrastructure through which new cities, investment zones, and desert territories are brought into circulation. Yet their developmental effects are often difficult to discern: infrastructure is rapidly built but unevenly maintained, while projects justified in terms of mobility, growth, and public benefit can produce dispossession, exclusion, and new forms of risk. This thesis argues that roads cannot be understood solely through the developmental outcomes they are intended to …

Bearpaw Reserve Wildlife Monitoring And Mapping With The Wildlands Conservancy, Hope Hansen

Scripps Senior Theses

For my Environmental Analysis Capstone, I worked in a small group to monitor and map the wildlife at Bearpaw Reserve. Bearpaw Reserve, located in Forest Falls, California, is a 600 acre tract of wilderness that is owned by The Wildlands Conservancy. Bearpaw is located about an hour from Claremont, in the San Bernardino Mountains. The Wildlands Conservancy makes management decisions about its reserves while applying conservation research to the real world.

My group’s task was to use trail cameras to gather data on the wildlife at Bearpaw, then visualize this information into a GIS map. We used a combination of …

Braiding More Than Sweetgrass: A Proposed Support Group Model For (Non)Tribal Native Americans In Recovery, Sara Cannon

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Native Americans (also referred to as American Indian/Alaska Natives or Indigenous persons) have too often been neglected in mental health interventions. This is a disservice, as they are disproportionately affected by challenges such as alcohol use disorder (AUD) and substance use disorder (SUD). Interventions directly speaking to AI/AN culture are rare to non-existent (at least in a published form), with the exception of White Bison’s Wellbriety (White Bison, 2002, 2024). It is not all together uncommon for individuals with Native roots to seek to (re)learn these traditions while in recovery from alcoholism and addiction. The aim of this project is …

The Bidirectional Effects Of Traumatic Brain Injury And Caudal Fin Amputation On Regeneration In Zebrafish (Danio Rerio), Makenna Wiebe

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and caudal fin amputation initiate robust regenerative responses in adult zebrafish (Danio rerio), yet whether regenerative activity in one tissue influences repair at a distant site remains unclear. This study investigated the bidirectional effects of concurrent brain and peripheral injury on regeneration and functional recovery. Specifically, we assessed the effects of TBI on caudal fin regeneration, caudal fin amputation on neural stem cell-associated cellular responses, and combined injury on behaviour. Adult zebrafish received no injury, TBI, caudal fin amputation, abdominal puncture, or combined TBI and caudal fin amputation. I assessed caudal fin regeneration morphometrically and evaluated …

Self-Reflecting On 30 Years Of Liberational Praxis: A Pluri-Epistemic Journey Embracing The Relational Indigenous Research Paradigm To Expand The Emancipatory Aims Of The Psychology Of Liberation., Adriana Fernand Salazar Ms

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This thesis asks how embracing Relational Epistemology, through accountable Pluri-Epistemic Dialogue, expands the Emancipatory aims of the Psychology of Liberation and deepens Liberational Praxis. Grounded in thirty years of Liberational Praxis, it brings the Psychology of Liberation into accountable encounter with Indigenous and Postcolonial Relational Epistemologies, without claiming Indigenous identity, authority, ceremony, or ownership. Within this situated encounter, Pensar Bonito (Tidy Thinking) illuminates movements from Martín-Baró’s Historical Memory toward Territorial and Ancestral Memory, from Freirean Dialogue toward walking the Word, from Fals Borda’s sentipensante toward Body-Nature and Body-Us, and from decolonial critique toward practices of Care and Subversion. Through a …

Bee Positive Missoula, Sophia Mahoney, Mckenna Hill, Olivia Cornwell, Lucas Hardoerfer, Brandon Quamme

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Bees are an essential species that support the growth of plant communities and enhance human agricultural success. Urbanization is associated with increased impermeable surfaces, large-scale land-use change, and changes in plant and animal community assemblages. Urban expansion exacerbates habitat fragmentation and loss, which has a particularly negative impact on wild or native specialist bee pollinators and the plant species they pollinate. Global and local research indicate the widespread nature of these negative trends; however, there are abundant opportunities to mitigate the impacts on bee pollinators by restoring wild bee habitat in urban areas. Habitat includes nesting and floral resources, and …

Sexual Di(Et)Morphism: Using Experimental Evolution To Test Whether Resource Partitioning Promotes Divergence Of The Sexes In Drosophila Melanogaster, Owen A. Jamieson

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Sexual dimorphism has been a long-studied phenomenon in the field of evolutionary biology. Usually, these differences in morphology, physiology and/or behaviour between the sexes are studied through the parsimonious lens of sexual selection. However, there are natural history cases where this lens does not seem applicable. Some species show sex specific morphological traits whose presence may not be due to a direct benefit to reproduction, but a difference in how each sex interacts with the environment and differing selective pressures from the environment on either sex. Darwin even brought up examples of this kind of dimorphism and pondered their existence, …

The Role Of The Avian Medial Hippocampal Formation In High-Similarity Spatial Discrimination, Alexandre Lebel

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Similar stimuli can create spatial-perceptual challenges, thus leading to errors in recall. To combat this interference, organisms rely on processes within the hippocampal formation (HF) that support the discrimination of highly similar memories. In mammals, memory interference is thought to be reduced by decreasing the correlation between traces of similar events; a process termed pattern separation, often by the dentate gyrus. The extent to which birds, which have granule cells (GCs) but lack a dentate gyrus, utilize HF-dependent mechanisms to mitigate memory retrieval errors remains unclear. This study investigates the role of the triangular region and area V (proposed homologs …

Find My Friends: Investigating Peer Direction In The Degu Retrosplenial Cortex, Angela T.N. Le

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In most species, social interaction depends on spatial proximity and the dynamics of approach can signal intention. While representations of others’ spatial locations have been found in areas like the hippocampus, we still have a limited understanding of how the brain uses these to guide social movement. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) integrates spatial information from both hippocampus and posterior parietal cortex and may help link this information with motor control systems. We recorded neuron activity from the RSC of degus while they freely interacted with one or two peers. Similar to other species, we identified a robust population of head-direction …

Endogenous Light In The Brain: Investigating Sources, Propagation, And State-Dependent Emission, Emre Cicek

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Ultraweak photon emission (UPE), and by extension light, has long been thought to be a modality of communication in nature. Prior studies have already identified that UPE can depend on cell type and can be used to discern between malignant and benign cells. However, besides theoretical models, not much effort has been made to identify possible biological structures that would allow for light to be used as a method of communication in the human body. According to the framework set by Shannon’s Information Theory, for communication to be possible at minimum a transmitter, a transmission channel, and a receiver are …

Sustainable – Low-Cost - Upgrade Of Activated Sludge Process For Nitrogen And Phosphorus (N&P) Removal From Wastewater, Abanoub N. Basta

Theses and Dissertations

Many municipal wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in developing countries were designed primarily for organic matter and suspended solids removal and therefore face increasing difficulty in meeting modern nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) discharge requirements. Conventional biological nutrient removal upgrades commonly require additional reactor volume, recirculation systems, aeration energy, and capital investment. Accordingly, sustainable retrofit strategies that improve nutrient removal within existing treatment footprints are increasingly needed, particularly in water-scarce and land-constrained regions.

This study investigated the integration of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) into the aeration stage of an activated sludge process as a hybrid nature-based enhancement for nitrogen and phosphorus …

Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices (Kap) Of Parents Regarding The Prevention And Control Of Childhood Iron Deficiency Anemia In Egypt: A Cross-Sectional Study, Omnia Soliman

Theses and Dissertations

Childhood Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) remains a major public health challenge in Egypt, where its persistently high and rising prevalence carries substantial consequences for child growth, cognitive development, immunity, and long-term health outcomes. Globally, approximately 40% of children aged 6–59 months are affected by anemia (World Health Organization, 2025), and Egypt mirrors this burden, with national data showing a worsening trend in recent years. In Egypt, national strategies have traditionally focused on biomedical interventions such as iron supplementation and food fortification, while less attention has been directed toward behavioral and household-level determinants, particularly parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) related …

The Willing And The Compelled: How Power And Place Shape Human-Bison Coexistence In Poland And The United States, Patrick Orville Kelly

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wildlife recovery programs depend not just on animals, but on how people feel about living with them. The degree to which people accept the disruptions wildlife brings to their lives, known as social tolerance, can determine whether a recovery program succeeds or fails, yet it remains understudied and underapplied in management plans. This dissertation studies how people in Poland and the western United States feel about living with the two living species of bison, the largest land animals in Europe and North America. In Poland, we surveyed 242 residents living at different distances from European bison habitat. Surprisingly, the most …

Wildfire And Fuel Treatments In Utah: A Practical Guide And Outcomes From An Oak-Maple Ecosystem, Annie E. Prescott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wildfire is a natural part of Utah’s landscapes, but as wildfires become more extreme and communities continue to expand into wildland areas, it is increasingly important to understand how wildfires behave and how their negative effects can be mitigated. One way to reduce wildfire risks and protect life, property, and ecosystem services is through fuel treatments — actions that reduce the amount and arrangement of flammable vegetation through mechanical removal, wildland fire, or other methods.

Information on wildfire behavior and fuel treatments is abundant but often scattered, ecosystem-specific and difficult to access. In addition, most research in the Western U.S. …

Weathering The Divide: Social Determinants, Neighborhood Context, And Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Among African American Women, Vanessa Cl Morman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) disproportionately affects African American women and contributes to racial health disparities in the United States. Although genetic susceptibility influences disease risk, growing evidence suggests that social determinants of health (SDOH), including neighborhood conditions, structural racism, and socioeconomic disadvantage, contribute to disease development and progression. Epigenetic mechanisms may provide a biological pathway linking adverse social conditions to chronic disease disparities. This dissertation examined the influence of SDOH on SLE disparities through evidence synthesis and empirical investigation to inform public health practice and policy.

Methods: This integrated learning experience consisted of three complementary manuscripts. Aim 1 was …

Leveraging Mammal Mycophagy To Determine Environmental Drivers Of Truffle Diversity, Brittany Hartsock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many mycorrhizal fungi are hypogeous (truffle-forming), producing underground fruiting bodies. Studying truffles is inherently challenging due to their hidden nature. However, mycophagous mammals provide a unique opportunity to study hypogeous fungi because they rely on truffles as a food source. Although several truffle species have recently been described in the southern Appalachian region, their fruiting patterns remain poorly understood. To address this, we quantified truffle richness and spore loads from 670 Peromyscus scat samples collected across 42 sites spanning an environmental gradient during 2024 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of East Tennessee. We found that truffle richness and spore abundance …

Study Of Fast Switching Metastable-State Photoacids And Controlled Drug Release From Polycaprolactone (Pcl) Vascular Scaffold, Rana Salman Abbood Abbood

Theses and Dissertations

Metastable-state photoacid (mPAH) has become a common tool for controlling and driving chemical processes with light. mPAHs with fast reverse reactions are desirable for precise temporal control or generating quick pulses of proton concentration. In this work, different approaches towards fast reversing mPAHs are studied. Experimental and computational results showed that stabilizing the charge–transfer intermediate is an effective way to increase the rate. A novel mPAH with a reverse reaction ≈500 times faster than the most widely used mPAH in methanol has been developed. Another water-soluble mPAH exhibited a reverse reaction with a rate constant of 7.8 s−1, the fastest …

The Quest For Sacred Truth In A Secular Society What Is Fueling Gen Z’S Return To Faith And Church Attendance In America?, William W. Dornbush

Doctor of Ministry (DMin)

This dissertation investigated the Critical Research Question: What are the key external factors influencing Generation Z’s internal quest for spiritual renewal? The study examined biblical, historical, and contemporary revival movements, including the Exodus, Pentecost, the Great Awakenings, the Jesus Movement, Charismatic Renewal, Brownsville, Toronto, and Asbury, to identify recurring patterns linking external pressures to spiritual awakening. Using a qualitative design, the study conducted semi-structured interviews with twelve Generation Z participants who experienced spiritual searching, renewal, or a deepened faith between 2020 and 2025, exploring how contemporary external pressures influence spiritual openness and transformation. The findings revealed six major themes: (1) …

Enso-Induced Oceanographic Anomalies And Their Potential Impacts On Coral Species In The Phoenix Islands Protected Area, Jason T. Gonsalves

Master's Theses

The 2015/16 El Niño event is one of the strongest El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events on record. Coral reefs in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA) were exposed to the effects of the 2015/16 El Niño event and experienced moderate to severe coral bleaching and mortality. This study examines the variability in three key oceanographic variables before, during, and after the 2015/16 El Niño event within PIPA: sea surface temperature (SST), sea surface salinity (SSS), and estimated chlorophyll-a (chl-a) as a proxy for regional productivity. I used remote sensing data for SST, SSS, and estimated chl-a coupled with in-situ …

Distribution Modeling Predicts Pacific Newt (Genus Taricha) Road Mortality Near Remote Lakes In Santa Clara County, California, Anna Petrosky

Master's Theses

The California newt (Taricha torosa) is listed as a State Species of Special Concern across its southern range due to habitat degradation and loss, and limited studies indicate it may be experiencing these threats in its northern range as well. This project assesses where the California newt may be encountering roads as migration barriers and experiencing high mortality in western Santa Clara County, California, in an effort to inform future conservation efforts. I conducted surveys of California newt roadkill on roads bordering two reservoirs used as breeding habitat and accessed roadkill data collected by the Lexington Reservoir Newt Patrol. Roadkill …

Teaching Individuals With Autism To Mand For Choice-Making Opportunities, Sarah T. Kong

Doctoral Dissertations - College of Arts and Sciences

The integration of choice-making opportunities into behavior analytic treatment has produced improvements in the lives of individuals with autism. Although researchers have focused on improving staff presentation of choice-making opportunities (Van der Meer et al., 2017), this approach places choice-making under the stimulus control of staff initiations and may result in missed opportunities for the child to make choices when it is most valuable to them. We evaluated the effectiveness of a mand training procedure to teach individuals with autism to request choice-making opportunities. Single trials were interspersed into participants’ typical treatment programming and contexts were designed to establish the …

Understanding Continuity Of Care Through The Voices Of. Providers And Families In Massachusetts, Ami Patel

Educational Studies Dissertations

Continuity of care is an important component of early childhood education that emphasizes stable, consistent, and responsive relationships among children, caregivers, and families. Although research has demonstrated the importance of stable caregiver-child relationships, much of the existing literature has focused on center-based childcare settings. This qualitative study explored how providers and families perceived long-term caregiving relationships, communication practices, and family-provider partnerships as shaping continuity of care. The purpose of this study was to examine licensed family childcare providers’ and families’ perspectives regarding the perceived developmental benefits, relational experiences, and challenges associated with continuity of care. Guided by attachment theory, sociocultural …

God's Not Neutral: Narrative Tropes, Spiritual Warfare, And The Construction Of Evangelical Political Identity In American Christian Fiction, Evelyn L. Mccullough

Dissertations and Theses

Evangelical Christian fiction has reached tens of millions of readers and viewers during the most sustained period of evangelical political mobilization in American history, yet its narrative construction remains largely unexamined. This study asks how recurrent tropes in this genre build the attitudinal and emotional preconditions for political engagement. Combining systematic qualitative content analysis of eight texts spanning four decades (1986–2024) with Critical Discourse Analysis grounded in van Dijk's sociocognitive framework, it traces how storytelling devices connect theological belief to political behavior. The analysis reveals a single organizing logic: the corpus holds one regressive heroic disposition constant while making it …

Northern Red-Legged Frog Terrestrial Movement And Connectivity In A Fragmented Peri-Urban Landscape, Alyson W. Yates

Dissertations and Theses

The movement and spatial ecology of amphibians is largely understudied, despite their imperiled conservation status. Landscape fragmentation by roads and other anthropogenic development features are known to affect amphibians in multiple ways pertaining to movement, often leading to population declines and exacerbating extinction risk. To mitigate these factors, wildlife managers can implement multidisciplinary strategies that seek to preserve or restore functional connectivity. However, these efforts require strong fundamental knowledge of how a species interacts with complex landscapes throughout their life cycle, including through their movement.

My thesis investigates multiple facets of northern red-legged frog (Rana aurora) spatial ecology …

From Combat To Congregation: A Guide To Moral Injury For Everyday Ministers, Kristyn Demers

School of Theology and Seminary Graduate Papers/Theses

Veterans often receive inadequate ministerial care for their unique and complex spiritual needs. Therefore, everyday ministers need training in trauma-informed spiritual care and practices of moral healing. These practices need to be implemented within parish and church communities to aid in the care and reintegration of veterans into our communities. In this paper, I will: a) introduce and distinguish moral injury as a particular concern for veterans; b) offer theological and scriptural evidence of the need for proper ministerial responses to moral injury; and c) list a set of tools and resources for ministers who interact with veterans