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Lgbtqia+ Inclusion In K-12 Education: A Systematized Review Of U.S. South Atlantic Region Educational Policy, Benjamin Little May 2026

Lgbtqia+ Inclusion In K-12 Education: A Systematized Review Of U.S. South Atlantic Region Educational Policy, Benjamin Little

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

LGBTQIA+ students experience disproportionate rates of discrimination, bullying, and mental health challenges within their educational settings, while educational policies shaping school climate vary considerably across jurisdictions. The purpose of this systematized review was to identify trends in the structure and implementation of LGBTQIA+ inclusion policies across K-12 state-level public education systems within the U.S. South Atlantic region and to examine how these policies addressed the needs of transgender youth and LGBTQIA+ students of color. This review synthesized publicly available state education documents, legislative materials, and nonprofit policy reports using a systematized review methodology guided by PRISMA principles and qualitative theme …


Building Strength: A Systematized Review Of Resilience Intervention Programs For Students, Rachel Christian May 2026

Building Strength: A Systematized Review Of Resilience Intervention Programs For Students, Rachel Christian

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

School-based resilience programs have emerged as a promising vehicle for promoting social-emotional development and buffering the effects of adversity among students. However, a systematic understanding of common program components, associated student outcomes, and implementation factors remains limited. This systematized review examined peer-reviewed research on resilience-building interventions for students in preschool through 12th-grade school settings. Following a structured search across four databases, nine studies met inclusion criteria and were analyzed using structured narrative synthesis. Findings were organized by four research questions addressing program components, student outcomes, implementation factors, and implementation–outcome relationships. Results indicated that resilience interventions consistently strengthened protective competencies, including …


Barriers And Bridges: Exploring Factors That Shape Mental Health Service Utilization In Rural America, Margaret Wiwuga May 2026

Barriers And Bridges: Exploring Factors That Shape Mental Health Service Utilization In Rural America, Margaret Wiwuga

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Despite disproportionately higher suicide mortality rates and comparable prevalence of mental illness across urban and rural communities in the United States, rural populations across the nation experience significantly lower access to and utilization of mental health services, naturally leading to worse comprehensive outcomes. This literature review examines multifaceted factors shaping mental health service use in rural America, taking note of both barrier and enabling factors that impede or enable these unique populations’ willingness and ability to access and use mental health services. Ten articles published prior to September 9, 2025, were selected from the James Madison University Libraries’ Psychology and …


Black Maternal Mental Health: Counseling Considerations For Prenatal Depression And Anxiety, Morgan Renee Williams May 2026

Black Maternal Mental Health: Counseling Considerations For Prenatal Depression And Anxiety, Morgan Renee Williams

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

The maternal mortality rate of Black women in the United States is four times higher than white women (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). The CDC defines a maternal death as “the death of a woman while pregnant or within 42 days of termination of pregnancy… but not from accidental or incidental causes” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2024, para. 1). This statistic is a consequence of the inequality within and outside of the American healthcare system (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2020). For the purposes of this research, Black women are defined as any women …


Neurodiversity In Counseling: Counseling Strategies For Supporting Neurodiverse Clients, Emily R. Plowright May 2026

Neurodiversity In Counseling: Counseling Strategies For Supporting Neurodiverse Clients, Emily R. Plowright

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Neurodiversity recognizes the natural differences in human functioning, including the unique ways that individuals think, learn, and process information. The neurodiversity movement views these differences as valuable, challenging historical beliefs that label them as deficits. Despite growing awareness of neurodiversity, counseling research and practice have largely overlooked the unique needs of neurodiverse clients, resulting in barriers to accessing mental health care. This paper addresses the concept and models of disability to provide context for understanding neurodiversity. Neurodiverse identities, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism spectrum disorder (ASD), specific learning disorders (SLDs), and tic disorder, are explored through their diagnostic criteria …


What’S Behind The Mask: The Diagnostic Divide In The Female Autism Phenotype, Shelley Gies Alston May 2026

What’S Behind The Mask: The Diagnostic Divide In The Female Autism Phenotype, Shelley Gies Alston

Educational Specialist, 2020-current

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in social communication and restrictive, repetitive behaviors; however, women are diagnosed at significantly lower rates than men. This study examined whether DSM-5-TR diagnostic practices may contribute to the underdiagnosis and delayed identification of ASD in individuals assigned female at birth (AFAB), with attention to masking behaviors, gendered social expectations, and clinician interpretation of symptoms. Grounded in the Female Autism Phenotype (FAP), a retrospective mixed-methods study surveyed 12 AFAB individuals aged 18–24 who self-identified or were formally diagnosed with ASD. Participants completed a 44-item online survey including Likert-scale and open-ended …


Signs Of Belonging: Community Identities Of Deaf Elders In Central And Coastal Massachusetts, Nelia Eaddy May 2026

Signs Of Belonging: Community Identities Of Deaf Elders In Central And Coastal Massachusetts, Nelia Eaddy

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This study focuses on shared experiences and themes of community identities within the elder Deaf community of central and coastal Massachusetts. Lived experiences and linguistic journeys shape our overall senses of belonging and identities; subsequently, they profoundly affect our relationship to our communities (Eastaugh, 2019). This research study discusses how concepts of belonging shift as individuals age within their community and how that impacts their sense of belonging and experiences with language. Communities where individuals feel a sense of belonging encourage identity development. The experiences of elders who identify as “Deaf” (due to their language preference and cultural influences) within …


A Weeping Willow, An Original Script Enriching The Canon Of Deaf Plays, Tyler Furzland May 2026

A Weeping Willow, An Original Script Enriching The Canon Of Deaf Plays, Tyler Furzland

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This creative writing capstone project presents A Weeping Willow, an original play script that explores themes of resilience, mental health, human connections, and acceptance. A teenager wakes up with no memory of the past year. Through fragmented glimpses of the past and the future, he struggles to piece together what happened on the most important day of his life. The play does not revolve around a Deaf-thematic storyline, a story that highlights the auditory aspects of the Deaf experience. This play is influenced by a study of scripts written by Deaf playwrights or plays featuring Deaf characters. This research examines …


Impact Of An Education Intervention Provided To Staff Regarding Depression In The Lgbtq+ Patient Population, John D. Plasch May 2026

Impact Of An Education Intervention Provided To Staff Regarding Depression In The Lgbtq+ Patient Population, John D. Plasch

DNP and Student Works

This Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project addressed gaps in depression recognition among LGBTQ+ patients by implementing a targeted educational intervention for healthcare staff in a primary care clinic serving a large LGBTQ+ population. LGBTQ+ individuals experience disproportionately high rates of depression, yet missed screening opportunities and limited provider knowledge contributed to underdiagnosis at the project site. Guided by Kurt Lewin's Change Theory and the Plan‑Do‑Study‑Act (PDSA) model, the project used a quasi‑experimental pre‑/post‑design to evaluate changes in staff knowledge and self‑efficacy using the Learning Self‑Efficacy Scale (L‑SES). The training improved staff awareness of LGBTQ+-specific depression risk factors, …


Agentic Synthetic Data Generation For Automated Model Development, Frederick Eugene Diehl May 2026

Agentic Synthetic Data Generation For Automated Model Development, Frederick Eugene Diehl

Theses and Dissertations

Large Language Model research has made large strides in capabilities from sentiment analysis to writing code. These advancements have been realized thanks to research into specific capabilities such as prompting techniques. Language models today have demonstrated the ability to create content, transform, and classify. These capabilities are not limited to academic exploration but also found in commercial products that are positioning themselves from application augmentation to personal assistants. These commercial products tend to steer towards single actions such as “summarize this article” or “write a function that performs action...” In parallel research has continued to advance towards more advanced constructs …


Automatically Constructed Preference Pairs For Chain-Of-Thought: Consistency Gains With Accuracy Tradeoffs, Cameron Scolari, Lanyu Shang May 2026

Automatically Constructed Preference Pairs For Chain-Of-Thought: Consistency Gains With Accuracy Tradeoffs, Cameron Scolari, Lanyu Shang

Honors Thesis

We investigate preference optimization over chain-of-thought (CoT) reasoning using automatically constructed preference signals derived from the accuracy and internal consistency of a model. Our results show that framing reasoning as a preference learning problem improves both the accuracy of the final answer and the structure of the model outputs. We observe a non-monotonic relationship between performance and the Direct Preference Optimization (DPO) scaling parameter β, where moderate values maximize accuracy while lower values improve stability, highlighting a tradeoff between optimization strength and reliable generation. We further identify a tradeoff between reasoning consistency and accuracy. Increasing the consistency weight improves agreement …


A Puff's Exploration Of Wayne Hopkins, Ethan G. Mullen, Leon Wiebers May 2026

A Puff's Exploration Of Wayne Hopkins, Ethan G. Mullen, Leon Wiebers

Honors Thesis

This thesis is a synthesis of modalities I have studied during the course of my Theatre Arts degree, applied to the realization of the principal character, Wayne Hopkins in the award-winning play Puffs (Or: Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic and Magic) a LMU Theatre Arts Department production. This work is divided into three major sections. First, I reflect on how I applied acting tools I have studied at LMU to the development of my character and performance. These include script analysis, story structure analysis, breath work, and Viewpoints training. Second, I share media displaying my …


Swept Into The Crisis: A Phenomenological Study Of Staff And Adaptive Leadership During The Pandemic, Alexandra Deremer May 2026

Swept Into The Crisis: A Phenomenological Study Of Staff And Adaptive Leadership During The Pandemic, Alexandra Deremer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Beginning in the fall of 2020, the pandemic created unparalleled challenges as schools reopened following extended closures, requiring school communities, with staff at every level, to rapidly adapt to evolving protocols, expanded job responsibilities, and ongoing uncertainty. This phenomenological study explored how building staff, such as custodians and teachers, perceived the leadership behaviors exhibited by principals during the implementation of COVID-19 disinfecting mandates and changes to school operations. Using Heifetz et al.’s (2009) adaptive leadership framework as a foundation, the intent of this research was to address three specific research questions that centered on staff perceptions of administrators’ response plans …


Choosing Play: A Quantitative Case Study On The Impact Of Play-Based Learning Compared To Direct Instruction In An Urban Kindergarten, Deborah Mary Arlauskas May 2026

Choosing Play: A Quantitative Case Study On The Impact Of Play-Based Learning Compared To Direct Instruction In An Urban Kindergarten, Deborah Mary Arlauskas

Educational Studies Dissertations

Choosing Play: A Quantitative Case Study on the Impact of Play-Based Learning Compared to Direct Instruction in an Urban Kindergarten examines the academic and behavioral outcomes of kindergarten students in two urban public schools: one implementing a play-based instructional approach grounded in JEDI (justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion) practices, and the other using direct instruction. Rooted in Froebel’s original purpose for kindergarten to nurture the whole child through play, social connection, and interaction with nature, this study returns to the developmental intent behind the creation of kindergarten itself. Standardized literacy performance was measured using the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) …


Thrombin-Induced Myofibroblast Differentiation Is Regulated By Myocardin And Novel Effector Genes In Ipf Fibroblasts, Christiana Okeke May 2026

Thrombin-Induced Myofibroblast Differentiation Is Regulated By Myocardin And Novel Effector Genes In Ipf Fibroblasts, Christiana Okeke

Biotechnology Theses

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a progressive interstitial lung disease characterized by fibroblast activation, excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, and irreversible respiratory decline. In this study, we investigated the role of myocardin and its downstream effectors, RGS5, DLGAP5, and TAGLN, in thrombin-induced myofibroblast differentiation and ECM remodeling using primary human IPF fibroblasts. Myocardin knockdown significantly attenuated thrombin-induced expression of profibrotic genes, including FN1, COL1A1, PAI-1, ACTA2, and CNN1, as well as the novel effectors RGS5, DLGAP5, and TAGLN, confirming myocardin as a central regulator of fibrotic signaling. Silencing RGS5 produced minimal effects on gene and protein expression despite minor downward …


Identification Of Proteins With Immune Stimulatory Activities From The Culture Filtrates Of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria, Christian Albert Agyei Acheampong May 2026

Identification Of Proteins With Immune Stimulatory Activities From The Culture Filtrates Of Nontuberculous Mycobacteria, Christian Albert Agyei Acheampong

Biotechnology Theses

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) are the mycobacterial species other than Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes tuberculosis, and Mycobacterium leprae, which causes leprosy. Diseases caused by NTM are on the rise in the United States and are steadily becoming a significant public health problem globally, particularly in developed countries. Despite the ability of NTM pathogens to interact with the host immune system, the proteins responsible for eliciting host immune responses remain unidentified, making the accurate and timely diagnosis of the disease a challenge. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that NTM strains secrete proteins that stimulate immune responses. Our study …


Underlying Mechanisms In The Relationship Between Ptsd And Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Jillian B. Heymann May 2026

Underlying Mechanisms In The Relationship Between Ptsd And Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Jillian B. Heymann

Dissertations

Current bodies of knowledge support the relationships between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain catastrophizing and PTSD, and pain catastrophizing and IBS. However, much less is known regarding how pain catastrophizing influences the relationship between PTSD and IBS. Additionally, while correlations between some demographic and trauma-related symptomatology have been elucidated in the relationship between PTSD and IBS, their impact as potential moderators on the relationship between PTSD and IBS has yet to be fully examined. Examining a student sample from a large midwestern university, the present study aimed to investigate the potential mediating and moderating roles …


Silent No Longer: Pedro Albizu Campos And The Fbi, Noah D. Dubroff May 2026

Silent No Longer: Pedro Albizu Campos And The Fbi, Noah D. Dubroff

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis explores the Puerto Rican revolutionary, Pedro Albizu Campos, and how he evolved from a typical independence-minded young man into a radical who actively rebelled against the colonial rule of the U.S. because of the pressures applied by law enforcement agencies, especially the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  The United States annexed Puerto Rico in 1898 at the conclusion of the Spanish-American War. Ever since, many Puerto Ricans have strongly advocated for their independence from the continental U.S., shaping the relationship into the present day. This article argues that the pressure and strain of such an imperial relationship influenced Albizu …


Identity And Intervention: United States' Foreign Policy Toward The Dominican Republic, Eileen Ledesma May 2026

Identity And Intervention: United States' Foreign Policy Toward The Dominican Republic, Eileen Ledesma

College Honors Program

Constructivist theory provides a framework for understanding United States foreign policy toward the Dominican Republic during the U.S. occupation (1916-1924), the rise and consolidation of Rafael Leónidas Trujillo’s dictatorship, and the regime’s eventual political isolation during the Cold War. This thesis argues that U.S. foreign policy was shaped by identity narratives and political culture, also identified through historically constructed understandings and the repeated performance of legitimacy and order. By situating U.S.-Dominican Republic relations within broader debates in international relations theory, this thesis highlights the explanatory value of constructivism in understanding the evolution and contradictions of U.S. policy in Latin America. …


Consonance, Dissonance, And The Brain: Directions In Modern Concert Music, Julianna F. Stratton May 2026

Consonance, Dissonance, And The Brain: Directions In Modern Concert Music, Julianna F. Stratton

College Honors Program

Modern Western arts pedagogy can easily lead its students to believe in the unimpeded evolution of musical language, progressing from highly consonant music to the dissonant explorations of the 20th century. Although extreme schools of music made their mark on the modern music scene, and some of their techniques do continue today, recent trends in the concert hall have seemingly embraced tonality and consonance again. This work addresses some of the neuroscientific and psychological underpinnings of this change. It explores the processes by which we assign meaning to sound, which might tell us about future trajectories of music in the …


Decolonizing The Home: Anti-Racist Parenting In Asian American Families And Its Effects On Children's Mental Health, Danielle Angela R. Soriano May 2026

Decolonizing The Home: Anti-Racist Parenting In Asian American Families And Its Effects On Children's Mental Health, Danielle Angela R. Soriano

College Honors Program

Few studies in the field of psychology have investigated how anti-racist and anti-colonial parenting styles are practiced, especially within the Asian American community. The current study aims to investigate how anti-colonial and anti-racist parenting practices are explicitly manifested and their relationship with mental health in Asian American communities. This study concludes by proposing new directions in literature and exploring how anti-colonial approaches can support positive mental health outcomes in children and adolescents. By borrowing questions from the California Department of Education Parent Engagement Module Series and developing new items tailored to our participants’ demographics, we found that the majority (n …


From Evidence To Practice: Improving Diabetic Patient Outcomes By Increasing Statin Utilization, Elizabeth Mcfalls May 2026

From Evidence To Practice: Improving Diabetic Patient Outcomes By Increasing Statin Utilization, Elizabeth Mcfalls

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention in patients with diabetes is essential, as heart disease remains the leading cause of death within this population (American Diabetes Association, n.d.). The purpose of this evidence-based project is to improve patient outcomes by enhancing adherence to statin therapy. A thorough literature review yielded 246 pieces of moderate-to-high-quality evidence; of these, eight articles were appraised in detail and selected for project inclusion. The strongest evidence identified four meaningful interventions. Thus, a multimodal approach was indicated for this project. This included addressing barriers to therapy, creating practice nudges, implementing a shared decision-making (SDM) tool, and utilizing clinical …


School Closure As Education Policy Failure: A Quantcrit Analysis Of Reform-Resistant Schools In Memphis (2010–2025), Stacy Hubbard Patton May 2026

School Closure As Education Policy Failure: A Quantcrit Analysis Of Reform-Resistant Schools In Memphis (2010–2025), Stacy Hubbard Patton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

High-stakes accountability policies have reshaped urban school governance by linking standardized test performance to decisions about intervention, restructuring, and closure. Although these systems are designed to improve low-performing schools, prior research suggests that accountability classifications reflect broader structural conditions, including racial segregation and concentrated poverty, rather than isolated instructional deficits, with schools serving Black and Latino students in historically disinvested communities bearing a disproportionate share of these consequences. This study examines the 2010–2025 achievement trajectories and survival-to-closure patterns of reform-resistant schools in Memphis–Shelby County Schools, guided by Quantitative Criticalism (QuantCrit) as both a theoretical and methodological framework. School-level administrative records …


Heroísma: Reimagining The Woman Leader And Heroine, Éowyn Bailey May 2026

Heroísma: Reimagining The Woman Leader And Heroine, Éowyn Bailey

Fenwick Scholar Program

Heroísma: Reimagining the Woman Leader and Heroine is a multi-disciplinary Fenwick Scholar thesis project by Éowyn Bailey that synthesizes Classics, Spanish, and Latin American Studies. The project features an original ten-scene play followed by an in-depth critical analysis, reimagining the underworld not as a final destination of death, but as a site of resistance where suppressed identities are recovered and reimagined. The play follows Renata, a modern protagonist who undergoes a katabasis (descent) to seek wisdom on leadership. She encounters four mentors: the mythological Ismene and Camilla, and the historical Anacaona and Micaela Bastidas Puyucahua. Guided by the Morella sisters, …


Local And Indigenous Knowledge, Innovation, And Sustainable Development: Creating Sustainable Futures Amidst Crisis Conditions At The Community Level, Carlos Andrés Arias May 2026

Local And Indigenous Knowledge, Innovation, And Sustainable Development: Creating Sustainable Futures Amidst Crisis Conditions At The Community Level, Carlos Andrés Arias

Dissertations and Theses

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future (1987) made clear the need to reject longstanding development processes and focus on sustainable development. The Commission stressed that actual sustainable development integrates three elements: social development, economic development, and environmental protection. Though developed nations have achieved economic growth through conventional and extractive development practices, these practices have intensified natural disasters driven by climate change, increased food insecurity, and deepened poverty. This has acutely impacted Indigenous and local communities, many of whom face crisis conditions, such as war, terrorism, civil disorder, and their aftermath. Even so, many of these communities successfully implement …


Reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Through Staff Education In A Nursing Home Setting, Aderonke Abimbola Abatan May 2026

Reducing Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Through Staff Education In A Nursing Home Setting, Aderonke Abimbola Abatan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.


Talking Climate: Does Peer Anxiety Amplify Or Alleviate Climate Change Worries?, Emma Tupone May 2026

Talking Climate: Does Peer Anxiety Amplify Or Alleviate Climate Change Worries?, Emma Tupone

Student Theses

As the climate crisis intensifies, climate change anxiety (CCA) has become increasingly common, yet it remains unclear whether discussing climate concerns with peers alleviates or amplifies distress. This study examined how climate conversations related to daily climate change anxiety, optimism, and pro-environmental behavior (PEB), as well as whether the perceived emotional tone of conversation partners shapes these associations. Using an 8-day daily diary design (N = 121), participants reported their daily climate-related emotions, engagement in private and public PEBs, and perceptions of peers’ climate anxiety and optimism following climate-related conversations. Results indicated that engaging in climate conversations was associated with …


The Greater Good?: Tradeoffs Between Social Connection And Status In Decision-Making Scenarios, Jonah M. Dratfield May 2026

The Greater Good?: Tradeoffs Between Social Connection And Status In Decision-Making Scenarios, Jonah M. Dratfield

Student Theses

Strong social relationships have consistently emerged as predictors of well-being in the psychological literature. However, research has not distinguished between the intrinsic social value derived from these relationships and the status derived from them. We constructed the novel Relationship Orientation Scale to explore this gap, utilizing binary decision-making scenarios in which individuals were forced to pit these two goods against one another. Across two studies, we found that individuals displayed a significant, but by no means universal, preference for intrinsically rewarding social relationships. We found, also, that social media use and comparison orientation were negative predictors of relationship orientation, whereas …


Automated Contact Pattern Extraction And Evaluation For Gears, Tom Abraham May 2026

Automated Contact Pattern Extraction And Evaluation For Gears, Tom Abraham

Theses

The tooth contact pattern is a crucial indicator of overall performance for many gear geometries, especially spiral bevel and hypoid gears. It is directly associated to the loaded function of transmission errors, a primary contributor to gear noise and vibration. This is especially relevant in electric vehicles, where gear noise is more pronounced due to the absence of masking noise from internal combustion engines. Consequently, the inspection and control of the contact pattern are essential aspects of gear design and manufacturing. Traditionally, contact patterns are evaluated using a manual process known as the tooth contact roll test. This test is …


Contested Surveillance: Gendered Citizenship And Political Participation In Egypt And Lebanon, Mohamad Zarif May 2026

Contested Surveillance: Gendered Citizenship And Political Participation In Egypt And Lebanon, Mohamad Zarif

Theses and Dissertations

While the 2011 Arab Uprisings were famously framed by the utopian narrative of a 'Facebook Revolution', this view has given way to a dystopian reality in which digital infrastructures can facilitate authoritarian retrenchment. This thesis interrogates how lowermiddle- and working-class precarious youth navigate and perceive this "Architecture of Control" in Cairo and Beirut. Using a comparative qualitative design with purposive and snowball sampling, this research integrates digital ethnography and fourteen interviews with eighteen participants (nine women, seven men) to capture lived experiences of surveillance rather than the internal logic of state security institutions. The study yields three primary findings. First, …