Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Safety Perceptions On Campus: A Look At Student Responses To Campus Crime And Institutional Effectiveness, Edgar J. Delatorre

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

There is limited research examining safety-related programs and perceptions of Deaf and hard of hearing (HoH) students, especially in respect to how receptive these students are to resources aimed to keep them safe while they are on campus and how these resources are perceived and to what extent they are utilized. Gallaudet University is the only university in the United States established for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, with a bilingual campus where students and staff use both English and American Sign Language (ASL) – making it a unique focus of study compared to other universities that use primarily …

Synthesis Of A Nicotine-Like Backbone Ligand For Binding Evaluation At Plk-1 Pbd, Carter Johnson

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

Cancer is a significant problem and requires continued research, as it remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide (Ramos, 2021). This capstone explores the synthesis and preliminary evaluation of a nicotine-type compound as a potential cancer-curing agent targeting the PLK-1 PBD protein using fluorescence polarization. The hypothesis is that a specific ligand may contribute to cancer research. This project also reviews cancer management methods while illustrating the discovery of chemical drugs used in chemotherapy. The project involves synthesizing and testing 3-((1-methylpyrrolidin-2-yl)methoxy)-1-alkylpyridin-1-ium, known as Compound C, to determine whether it can function as a potential cancer management agent. The …

Worldbuilding A Place For The Deaf: An Encyclopedic Approach To Writing Inclusive Narratives, Frederick Scott

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

This honors capstone project centered on existing deaf literature sets the stage for further storytelling projects using creative worldbuilding details written in an encyclopedic informational text. Across a fledgling life spent reading hearing fiction, a shortage of deaf literature has not gone unnoticed. To start addressing this shortage, this project collects necessary information to support further writings/publications of deaf literature. A review of American Signed Language and deaf/disabled representation in literary format shows that various strategies are employed to represent the language and people within their culture. The review identified examples of unique or distinct approaches used for various characters' …

Perception Of Mental Illness: Exploring Spatial Impacts On Well-Being, Dilan Stafin

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Bipolar disorder is often misunderstood, and its complex sensory and emotional needs are rarely considered in architectural design. Although research demonstrates that the built environment significantly affects stress, regulation, and healing, these insights are seldom applied to spaces dedicated to mental health awareness. This thesis investigates how architectural thresholds within a mental health awareness museum in Harris County, Texas, can bridge the gap between spaces of experience and spaces of care.

Reframing thresholds as therapeutic elements, the study draws on trauma theory to examine how transitions between openness and enclosure, stimulation and pause, and exposure and protection can spatially express …

A Multiple-Framework Approach To Examining The Role Of College Visits In College Access And Success For First-Generation And Bipoc Students, Jameia Mcduffie

LMU Theses and Dissertations

A Multiple-Framework Approach to Examining the Role of College Visits in College Access and Success for First-Generation and BIPOC Students By Jameia McDuffie This mixed-methods study explored how first-generation and BIPOC college students make sense of their college visit experiences and how those moments shaped confidence, belonging, and readiness for higher education. The study draws on Possible Selves Theory (Markus & Nurius, 1986), Community Cultural Wealth (Yosso, 2005), and Critical Race Theory (Ladson– Billings & Tate, 1995) to better understand the connections students form between what they see on campus and what they imagine for themselves. These frameworks guided the …

Effects Of A Structured Fall Prevention Education Program On Staff Knowledge And Confidence, Gifty Danso

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Filipino High School Teachers’ Use Of Technology To Teach Science Online, Bongbong Lalata Fernandez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Comprehensive Analysis Of Spray Development And Low Temperature Combustion Characteristics In A Cvcc With Nvh Of Renewable Aerospace Fuels: Hefa & Ft Synthetic Kerosene (S8) Compared To Jet-A & Ulsd, Coleman Norton

Honors College Theses

A comprehensive analysis was conducted to research the viability of Hydroprocessed Esters and Fatty Acids (HEFA) and S8 Synthetic Kerosene fuels as a drop-in replacement for conventional petroleum-based fuels, Jet-A and ULSD (Ultra Low Sulfur Diesel). Global transportation remains heavily dependent on liquid fossil fuels, while renewable aerospace fuels offer a promising pathway to reducing life cycle greenhouse gas emissions and pollution. However, the combustion performance and long-term feasibility of these fuels remain insufficiently characterized. This study performed a thorough assessment of each fuel's thermophysical and combustion properties. Thermophysical characterization encompassed viscosity, freezing point, energy density, spray atomization, and volatility. …

Educational Formation In A Fragmented Modern Age, Ana Lucía Fernández Del Castillo

College Honors Program

Mental health issues such as depression and anxiety are on the rise. No wonder considering all the issues that world faces today, from rising authoritarianism to a loneliness epidemic. 

This thesis studies how Catholic higher education, specifically the Jesuit theory of education, St. John Henry Newman's theory of education, and St. Edith Stein's theory of education, can prepare students for such a world. It looks at educational as formational and with a purpose beyond simply acquiring the necessary skills for a job.

Virtual Matter: Architecture As A Critical Turning Point, Aden Sterchi

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

The materialization of AI infrastructure has outpaced all regulatory frameworks, allowing data centers to proliferate with limited oversight despite their growing environmental and social impacts. Through a review of artificial intelligence’s technological development, the rise of big tech, and contemporary data center expansion, this thesis situates AI infrastructure within a broader pattern of deregulation, delayed accountability, and market-driven governance. Using a qualitative mixed-method approach combining historical analysis, policy critique, regional case studies, and research-through-design, the study examines how existing land use, utility, and environmental frameworks have failed to keep pace with the scale of data center sprawl; The study also …

Interweaving Cairo's Urban Fabric: The Formal, The Informal And The Contemporary, Hagar Ahmed

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Architecture is a negotiation between memory and change, preservation and erasure. In Cairo, a city layered with history, rapid development threatens historic areas and informal settlements (AlSayyad, 2011). While monumental heritage preservation is institutionalized, informal urban fabrics are often excluded from heritage discussions and planning. This research explores Mansheyet Nasser, or Garbage City, an informal settlement between Islamic Cairo and the Mokattam plateau. Over the past fifty years, Zabbaleen residents have built a communal waste collection and recycling system that processes up to 80% of materials, outperforming many regulated cities (Fahmi and Sutton, 2010; Didero, 2011). This infrastructure is both …

Dynamic Trust Calibration, Bruno Miranda Henrique

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Trust calibration between humans and Artificial Intelligence (AI) is crucial for optimal decision-making in collaborative settings. Excessive trust can lead users to accept AI-generated outputs without question, overlooking critical flaws, while insufficient trust may result in disregarding valuable insights from AI systems, hindering performance. Despite its importance, there is currently no definitive and objective method for measuring trust calibration between humans and AI. Current approaches lack standardization and consistent metrics that can be broadly applied across various contexts, and they don’t distinguish between the formation of opinions and subsequent human decisions. This thesis brings a novel and objective method for …

The Lived Experiences Of Clinical Mental Health Counselors Returning To Clinical Work After Becoming A New Mom: A Phenomenological Study, Kathryn Bohn

Dissertations

The experience of transitioning back to work postpartum can be an emotional rollercoaster for women. One that is often filled with identity tensions and sweeping emotions that range from guilt to relief, anxiety to confidence (Dod, 2025; Franzoi et al., 2023; Garcia-Lorenzo et al., 2023). Postpartum can be an emotionally raw and vulnerable time for new mothers as they navigate physical and emotional changes, maternal stress, and the pressures and demands of new motherhood (LeBlanc, 2023; Maylott, 2023). Professional counselors in a clinical setting, also known as clinical mental health counselors, encounter occupationally specific responsibilities that create unique experiences for …

Momentum Space Algorithm For Electronic Structure Of Double-Incommensurate Trilayer Graphene, Kenneth Silver Beard

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Numerical algorithms for computing the electronic structure of incommensurate 2D-materials using ab initio models are critical for predicting material properties and guiding experiments. For bilayers, momentum space and continuum models have been introduced to approximate observables of ab initio tight-binding models using a momentum description, despite the lack of periodicity in the tight-binding model required for Bloch theory. A similar structure has been introduced for double-incommensurate trilayers using a continuum model, where the three lattices are mutually incommensurate. However, this description leads to a four-dimensional lattice space, and numerical convergence of the density of states has been observed to be …

Contagious Rhetoric: The Generative Power And Malignant Erosion Of Rhetoric In Modern Media, Alexandra Russell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation develops a rhetorical framework for explaining how language circulates, shifts in meaning, and gains persuasive force in contemporary media environments. Existing models describe the movement of discourse but offer limited tools for analyzing how circulating narratives change—how affect, identity, and digital infrastructures shape that transformation. This project defines contagious rhetoric as a set of linguistic and narrative processes through which discourse becomes amplified, distorted, reclaimed, or weaponized. The studies examine two sites where these dynamics are especially visible: feminist digital storytelling in the #medusatattoo TikTok corpus and the strategic appropriation of abolitionist terminology by anti-abortion activists. These cases …

Advanced Machine Learning Methods For Seismic Hazard Applications: Ground Motion Modeling And Magnitude Estimation, Najme Alidadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Seismic hazard analysis depends on reliable prediction of ground motion intensity and accurate estimation of earthquake magnitude. Data-driven approaches have gained attention as potential complements to traditional regression-based and waveform-based methods. This dissertation investigates the role of advanced machine learning frameworks in improving both ground-motion modeling and moment-magnitude estimation. The study first examines the current state of machine learning applications in ground motion prediction and identifies key methodological challenges, including model validation, residual behavior, and physical consistency. Building on this context, new machine learning-based GMMs are developed for small-to-moderate induced earthquakes in Central and Eastern North America. The models are …

They Don’T Care About Us Here! The Intersectionality Of Implicit Bias, Stereotype Threat, And The Need For Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, Louis D. Blair

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how teachers engage in critical self-reflection of implicit bias and how that process influences their pedagogical awareness and classroom practices. Grounded in the Implicit Bias Theory, Adult Learning Theory, Transformative Learning Theory, and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy, the study utilized the Harvard Implicit Association Test (IAT), reflective journaling, and engagement with the book Despite the Best Intentions: How Racial Inequality Thrives in Good Schools, to explore shifts in three participants’ beliefs and instructional approaches. Data sources included pre- and post-survey responses, IAT reflections, and ongoing journal entries, and semi-structured post-study interviews which were analyzed thematically. Findings …

Discipline Or Damage? How Corporal Punishment Affects The Psychological Wellbeing Of Children In The School Setting, Umulkheir Mahamud Sharif Ali

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Corporal punishment continues to be used in many homes and schools despite research linking it to negative psychological outcomes in children. Previous studies, primarily focused on home settings, have associated corporal punishment with increased anxiety, depression, aggression, and emotional distress. However, less research has examined how these outcomes appear within school environments, where discipline occurs in more structured institutional settings. This thesis investigates how corporal punishment in schools affects students psychologically, emotionally, and academically through a literature review of peer-reviewed studies from psychology, education, and public health. The findings show that many of the mental health outcomes associated with corporal …

The Data Movement In Professional Sports, Preston Dorand

Undergraduate Honors Theses

At the turn of the 21st century, technological advancement reshaped industries worldwide, including professional sports. Organizations increasingly adopted analytical frameworks, leveraging advanced software systems and performance metrics to inform and optimize decision-making on and off the field. Industry professionals frequently cite the film and book, Moneyball, as a cultural turning point that brought data driven methodologies to the forefront. Since that period, professional sports, especially baseball, have evolved from foundational sabermetric theory into a complex data ecosystem characterized by high-resolution tracking technologies, pitch modeling, player valuation systems, and matchup optimization models.

My thesis examined how sports organizations operationalized data-driven …

The Brain Breakdown: Bringing Neuroscience To A Broader Audience, Katharine Buehrig

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Neuroscience is a rapidly growing field, which needs to continue becoming more accessible and understandable to younger generations. Expanding access to neuroscience through different modes, such as podcasts, brings the discipline to a broader audience. Podcasts allow listeners to follow an outlined learning path they can pursue on their personal timeline. High school students often do not have access to neuroscience specific materials within their standard science curriculum. To address this knowledge gap, I collected questions about neuroscience from high school students across four schools in the United States to develop an understanding about what they are interested in learning. …

A Mathematical & Computational Study Of Voting Power In Social Choice Systems, Madison T. Gambon

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis develops a computational framework for measuring the vulnerability of voting rules to coordinated strategic manipulation. While classical results show that most voting systems are theoretically manipulable, less is known about the magnitude of coordination required to alter outcomes or how that magnitude varies across institutional designs. I define the minimal manipulating coalition size k* as the smallest number of voters whose strategic ballot changes can overturn a sincere election outcome under a given rule. To enable cross-election comparison, I introduce the normalized manipulation threshold θ = k*/n . Using algorithmic search procedures and Monte Carlo simulation, I estimate …

Is Health Deserved? Personal Autonomy, Framing, Ethical Intimidation, And The Politicization Of Healthcare In The United States V. Japan, Ava C. Azucenas

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Is health deserved? Is your health owed to you? What does this mean, and whose responsibility is it? I argue that American culture’s use of  personal autonomy, “framing”, and ethical intimidation has stunted the improvement of both political and legal structures. This is evident in the politicization of the ‘for-profit’ healthcare system in the United States. American policymakers frequently weaponize moral foundations in order to coerce voters into supporting or opposing certain healthcare policies derived from the principle that some people are more "deserving" of health than others. This calculated “framing” of health concepts has deeply politicized such an ethical …

Investigating Creative Possibility Using Automated Composition, Kian Drees

Undergraduate Honors Theses

As a constructive method, Johann Joseph Fux’s theory of counterpoint defines a space of musical possibility for contrapuntal composition. I developed a computational method for generating melodies to systematically investigate selected properties of this space. My program recursively generates a tree of all possible cantus firmus melodies of a specified length or all possible first species counterpoints on a given cantus firmus, starting with an empty root node and adding child nodes representing possible musical notes at each step until the specified length is reached. I then investigated several properties of the generated melodies, such as the approximate relationship between …

Impact Of Land-Use Disturbances On The Composition Of Wetland Plant Communities Across The Conterminous United States, Maya Merchant

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Due to the threat of invasive species on wetland biodiversity, it is critical to assess factors driving their proliferation in wetlands. To address this growing need, this project analyzes relationships between non-native species and known anthropogenic disturbance types associated with increased biological invasions. Using the U.S. EPA’s 2021 National Wetland Condition Assessment, the relationship between non-native species (diversity, richness, and coverage) and surrounding land-use within 500, 1,000, and 3,000-meter buffers was evaluated. To explore patterns across larger spatial scales, mean non-native species diversity, richness, and coverage was calculated at the watershed level and compared to associated percentages of agricultural land …

The Supreme Court And Climate Law: A Qualitative Analysis, Tanner Blackington

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper seeks to explore the Supreme Court’s understanding of climate justice and its evolution over time. I begin with an explanation of the context on climate law, climate change, and the Supreme Court as an institution. I situate the study in the literature on judicial restraint, institutional barriers, and the powers of the Supreme Court as focal points. Then, drawing on a sample of 20 Supreme Court opinions issued between 2007 and 2025, I offer an empirical analysis which reveals the Supreme Court’s feelings of confinement within the boundaries of federalism and balancing power with the Legislative and Executive …

Technology’S Historical Impact On The Wealth Management Business And How Advisors Plan To Evolve Around Career Challenges Posed By Artificial Intelligence, Nick George

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The past few decades have molded our contemporary financial experiences and have forced financial advisors to plan for a career-altering pivot in the near future. Over the last fifty years, wealth advisors have seen dozens of incidents known as “extinction-level events”, described as the two-way path a consultant faces when new technological advancements occur. We used data collected from real-world financial advisors, client service associates, and academic publications to assess the next big turning point of the industry, Artificial Intelligence, and how it both differs and relates to other developments of this caliber within the industry, such as the rise …

Database: A Poetry Collection, Lara Dominique D. Solante

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Poets wield their pens to respond to various societal or cultural stimuli—including politics, art, science, and more. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is an exponential development that has become a leading topic of discussion. This project, titled Database, is a collection of poems that interrogates the tensions that exist between humanity and technology through the use of modern imagery, such as robots and virtual reality. These poems also examine the once distinct markers of humanity that characterized classical poetry, including emotion and sensory experiences, and reframes them within a contemporary context, giving technology and artificial consciousness a voice. Although this collection …

The Role Of Cultural Contexts Within Marketing Strategies Of Experiential Tourism Across Countries That Rely Heavily On Tourism, Maren Bronson

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Developing a cultural mindset requires awareness of one’s cultural background and recognizing that culture provides a broader framework for understanding the world around us (e.g. values, behaviors, and expectations). At the same time, tourism continues to expand globally, contributing approximately 10% of global GDP in 2025, serving as a major driver of economic growth for destination countries (WTTC, 2025). As destinations increasingly rely on international visitors, tourism marketing must satisfy the needs and wants of international tourists. This thesis reviews the literature on culture, marketing, and tourism to  examine how cultural contexts shape experiential tourism marketing strategies in tourism-dependent countries, …

Active Brazing Of Single Crystal Al2o3 To Kovar Alloy With Agcuzr Filler Metal, Anthony M. Mcmaster

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Brazing provides high strength and hermetic joining between metal, ceramic, and composite materials. Origins of the brazing process trace back to 3000BC, yet the technique continues to maintain relevance and demand across aerospace, medical, electronic, optical, and mechanical engineering. Here, single crystal Al2O3 (sapphire) was joined to Kovar in a single step via an AgCuZr active braze filler metal. The microstructure of the completed joint was investigating using microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. A unique braze chamber, paired with an optically clear top substrate (sapphire), allowed further investigation into the dynamics of the active braze process via in situ video monitoring. …

Effective Technological Integration Strategies For Improving Operational Efficiency And Competitive Advantage In Small Businesses, Tamara Wallace

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.