Digital Commons Network^™

The Privacy Paradox: How Does Concern About Privacy Impact Actions In The Digital Age?, Julia Laduke

Honors Theses

The privacy paradox occurs when people claim to care about their digital privacy, but do not take actions to keep their data from being spread across the internet. This study examines college students, being primarily Generation Z, and their concerns and actions regarding digital privacy and security. A survey of 15 college students, 7 in humanities and 8 in STEM, was used to analyze their thoughts and concerns about their digital privacy. This survey also asked whether they took actions concerning their privacy, and if so, what tools they used to protect it. The results show that about 50% of …

Calibrating Human Trust In The Age Of Generative Ai: An Examination Of Ethical And Social Challenges, Abigail M. Mondido

Honors Theses

Generative AI (GenAI), a set of AI technologies with the ability to generate original, human-like outputs, is beginning to transform the way that information is distributed, composed, published, obtained, analyzed, and consumed. GenAI has seen massive adoption by internet users, businesses, and organizations in recent years despite the persistence of major ethical concerns and social implications. In particular, existing research has identified multiple critical trust-related issues associated with AI in general, including widespread mistrust and distrust, overreliance on AI, and a lack of trustworthiness of AI. There remains a need for a broader understanding of these issues as they relate …

Belonging, Governance, And The Future Of The Nation: Rethinking Citizenship In Tribal Nation Communities, Meadow Carroll

Honors Theses

Tribal citizenship is often framed as a question of identity or legal status, but it functions more fundamentally as a structure of governance that determines who participates in political life and whether nations can sustain themselves over time. This study compares the citizenship frameworks of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes and the Cherokee Nation to examine how different enrollment criteria shape political participation, demographic continuity, and institutional capacity. Drawing on tribal constitutions, enrollment materials, governance records, and voter participation data, the analysis demonstrates that citizenship systems produce measurable differences in how tribal governments function in practice. Systems based on fixed …

Skill Growth And Development In An Honors Experiential Learning Course, Julia D. Lyashevskiy

Honors Theses

Problem-solving skills are crucial for students in both schoolwork and the workforce as they help individuals and groups work through obstacles and come up with solutions to a problem. To help prepare students, the Innovation in Honors Lab at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga is a hands-on, interdisciplinary course that provides an experiential learning opportunity to practice skills while working directly with community partners to find and solve a local issue. This research tracks the development of six specific skills that students use throughout the class. The skills included communication, creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, conflict resolution, and …

Hardware Integration Of Preamble Based 802.11a Wi-Fi Frame Location For Usrp Radios, Nicholas P. Margavio

Honors Theses

Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of devices that can exchange information over the internet, and its deployments are projected to reach 30.9 billion by 2025, with most lacking encryption. One solution for these unencrypted devices is to use Specific Emitter Identification (SEI). SEI exploits distinct, native, and unintentional features of a radio’s signal to identify it and enhance wireless network security uniquely. For example, IEEE 802.11a Wireless-Fidelity (Wi-Fi) radio waveforms have a fixed structure that occupies the first 16 microseconds, from which SEI features can be extracted and used to identify the originating radio. By removing the …

The Effect Of Chronic Aerobic Exercise On Working Memory: A Study On Young Adults, Alexandria J. Morris

Honors Theses

Physical activity is essential for optimal health. Cognitive function is a major part of that, and can be evaluated through working memory (WM). This thesis examines the impact of physical activity on WM in young adult college students. It reviews existing research on exercise and WM, highlights gaps in the literature focused on this demographic, and explores the importance of chronic and moderate to high-intensity exercise to WM. There is existing research that examines the correlation of WM and physical activity for both acute and chronic exercise, as well as for children, adults, and older adults. Acute aerobic exercise shows …

Post-Dobbs: Observed Maternal And Infant Health Outcomes, Erin P. Yenawine

Honors Theses

This research investigates how the variance in abortion legislation and access across the United States has impacted infant and maternal health. This builds upon previous research identifying a relationship between abortion policy and quantity of births, (Myers et al., 2025; Bell et al., 2025) abortion policy and infant and maternal health pre-Dobbs (Gardner, 2024), and an emerging body examining the health outcomes post-Dobbs for mothers and infants (Gemmill et al., 2025; Gressler & Lewis, 2025). Scholars indicate that primary contributors to increases in infant mortality may be the continuation of pregnancies with congenital abnormalities and compounded barriers of access to …

“Who Are We?”: Exploring Adolescent Identity And Community Through Collaborative Mural Art, Rachel E. Stacy

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how participation in a high school mural club influences students’ sense of personal identity and community. By creating and leading a mural club, I guided students in designing and painting murals around their school and extending this work into the local community, all focused on how students defined themselves within the context of the school’s motto: “A Star is Rising”. I used qualitative methods including surveys, observational notes, artist statements, and visual documentation to examine and analyze how students experienced identity and collaboration throughout the process. The findings show that the creation of these murals provided students …

Creative Nonfiction Essays, Colby S. Langley

Honors Theses

To write about the present with any authority requires a keen eye for the past. To write from our lives into meaningful creative nonfiction requires a firm understanding that experience is the composite of life experience blending into the current moment. The writing is then drawn irreversibly towards emotion: indulgent and oppressive. The extremity of emotion dictates the difficulty of transcribing the experience onto the page, and violence is a source of both extreme emotion and experience. It is important to note that I am primarily considering personal violence for this essay, while societal and institutional violence have their own …

A Narrative Of The Plague Doctor And How Its Historical Context Translates To The Modern View Of The Plague Doctor, Callie P. Johnston

Honors Theses

The Plague Doctor was once a historical figure who practiced medicine primarily on those infected with the bubonic plague. The plague doctor, as a historical figure and physician, has been transformed in modern culture and media. Originally perceived as a harbinger of both hope and death, the Plague Doctor has undergone a historical transformation from a masked physician to a more stylized character that appears in modern media, digital art, toys, costumes, video games, and popular culture. This thesis examines the evolution of the Plague Doctor from its historical role as a plague physician to its current iconography as a …

Evaluating The Effects Of Urbanization On Meiofauna Biodiversity In Chattanooga’S Lentic Ecosystems Through Gis Applications, Keyle M. Bryant

Honors Theses

Urbanization is a leading driver of biodiversity loss in freshwater ecosystems, yet its effects on meiofauna—microscopic invertebrates that serve as key bioindicators of ecosystem health—remain poorly understood in lentic environments. This study evaluated the effects of urbanization on meiofaunal biodiversity in ten lentic waterbodies across Hamilton County, Chattanooga, Tennessee, by integrating environmental DNA (eDNA) metabarcoding, in-situ abiotic measurements, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)-based land use analysis. Water samples were collected between January and April 2023 and processed using 18S rRNA amplicon sequencing to assess biodiversity as richness (amplicon sequence variants or ASVs, phylogenetic diversity or PD, and community composition). Land …

How Do Community Gardens Contribute To A Thriving National Park City: A Case Study Of Chattanooga, Tennessee, Ansley B. Barry

Honors Theses

On April 3, 2025, Chattanooga, Tennessee became the first National Park City (NPC) in North America. With a long, industrial history, Chattanooga has made quite the pivot from being widely renowned for its low air quality and particulate pollution to being recognized as the Best Outdoor City in the US by Outdoor magazine. The goals emphasized by the National Park City campaign are creating a city-wide common interest of community-led sustainability efforts. While the initiative highlights many important initiatives to make the city more sustainable and resilient, community gardens are noticeably left out of the conversation. This paper argues that …

Dissociation, Anxiety, And The Vestibular System: Understanding The Impacts Of Anxiety, Panic, And Dissociation On The Vestibular System, Julian Achata

Honors Theses

Previous research indicates that vestibular dysfunction is associated with symptoms of anxiety, panic, and dissociation. The present study will investigate anxiety, panic, and dissociation symptoms and identify the connections between reported symptom severity and vestibular functionality. This study will focus on three different hypotheses: 1) higher levels of dissociation will correlate with increased vestibular disruption; 2) higher levels of anxiety will correlate with increased vestibular disruption; 3) higher levels of panic will correlate with increased vestibular disruption. Six virtually administered self-report measurements were used to identify the variables: Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Depersonalization Derealization Inventory (DDI), Dissociation Experiences Scale-II (DES-II), …

Red, White, And Broke: A Call For Accountability In Government, Mary A. Scott

Honors Theses

This study examines the scale of waste, fraud, and abuse in U.S. federal spending. The purpose of this research is to clarify how fiscal management in the federal government is intended to operate versus how it actually functions. Using a combination of conceptual analysis, existing literature, case-based evidence, and data analysis, findings suggest that the persistence of oversight failures arises from weak implementation, limited enforcement authority of oversight bodies, and an emphasis on recovery rather than prevention practices. This study contributes to the broader discussion of public finance by providing an accessible framework to understand why the foundational federal principle …

Environmental Awareness And Community Sentiments In A Superfund Site: A Study Of South Chattanooga, Mia Dial

Honors Theses

The concept of environmental injustice refers to the disproportionate exposure of marginalized communities to environmental hazards, often resulting from the placement of industrial sites, waste facilities, or other environmentally harmful infrastructure in areas with limited political and economic power. Alton Park, a historically underserved neighborhood in Chattanooga, Tennessee, faces elevated environmental risks due to its proximity to the South Chattanooga Lead Superfund Site and legacy industrial contamination. This study used semi-structured individual interviews to assess community awareness, perceptions, and behaviors related to environmental hazards in Alton Park. Residents generally reported some awareness of the Superfund site, though knowledge was often …

Resilience By Living With The Land And Community: A Case Study Of A Local Food Forest, Olivia Beck

Honors Theses

Imagine a public space where food, leisure, outdoor activity, and community engagement occur in one place, all in an urban forest ecosystem. For many, this is a hopeful vision of the future, and that is exactly what the idea of an urban food forest provides. In agroecology, a food forest or forest garden consists of planting diverse edible plants and mimicking the patterns of natural ecosystems. The intricate planning and design ensure the forest is self-sustaining, much like a natural forest, making it very resilient once established. However, they face many challenges and take time to grow and develop to …

Emotional Detachment In A Second Language: Exploring Emotional Expression In Bilingual Adults, Daniela Salas Lopez

Honors Theses

This qualitative study explored how bilingual and multilingual adults experience emotional detachment when using a second language and how language shapes emotional expression. This study aimed to examine how bilingual individuals personally experience these emotional differences in everyday life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with six bilingual or multilingual adults from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Findings revealed five major themes: emotional detachment in a second language, reduced emotional intensity and meaning, increased cognitive effort and emotional fatigue, authenticity and emotional comfort in the first language, and identity and personality shifts across languages. Participants consistently …

Preliminary Vascular Plant Checklist Of The City Of Chattanooga, Matthew J. Scott

Honors Theses

The City of Chattanooga, Tennessee was designated as a National Park City in April 2025 by the National Park City Foundation. Yet, there has not been a comprehensive vascular flora compiled for the city, though there have been extensive collections and observations made of the plant biodiversity in the area from the late 1800s onward. The goal of this project was to examine both the existing herbarium collections and public observation records from iNaturalist to compile a preliminary vascular plant checklist for Chattanooga, and to include conservation and ecological data for the species currently documented to provide a holistic review …

Growing Change: A Gis Spatial Analysis To Plan Urban Gardens In Chattanooga, Carson A. Chalk

Honors Theses

Food insecurity and limited access to fresh nutritious food in Chattanooga is a prevalent issue, primarily among lower socioeconomic households, and can put strain on overall well-being. This study aimed to identify suitable vacant parcels in Chattanooga where urban gardens could be developed using a GIS-based spatial analysis. Spatial data involving vacant parcels, slope, zoning, and proximity to grocery stores was cross referenced with socioeconomic data focused on poverty rates, vehicle ownership, and mean household income to identify the most suitable sites in areas of greatest need. Sites identified as suitable through GIS were then visited to verify their suitability. …

Unraveling The Modernist Grid: An Exploration Of Femininity And Containment In Design History, Riley Hayes

Honors Theses

This paper examines the Swiss grid as both a foundational tool of modernist graphic design and a cultural system embedded with ideological assumptions about order, neutrality, and authority. While the Swiss design tradition is widely celebrated for its clarity, rationality, and universality, this study argues that such principles are not neutral but historically situated, shaping how postwar Western visual culture organizes information, bodies, and value systems. Focusing on the circulation of Swiss design principles through editorial and advertising media, the paper situates the grid as a structuring logic that extends beyond layout into the framing of identity and gender. This …

A Meta-Analysis Of Endometrial Cancer Metabolites As Potential Non-Invasive Biomarkers, Makenna K. Johnson

Honors Theses

Endometrial Cancer (EC) is the most prevalent gynecological cancer in the United States and causes tens of thousands of deaths. Despite its massive negative impact in developed countries, there currently is no reliable screening tool used to diagnose women. Due to this urgent need for minimally invasive and precise techniques to diagnose this malignancy, the metabolomics field has been at the forefront of current research. An untargeted mass-spectrometry approach is used by many researchers to form an initial hypothesis as to which metabolites are key in identifying EC cases. However, there are sometimes inconsistencies between studies. A meta-analysis approach examines …

Glass Vault - A Novella, Christopher M. Young

Honors Theses

This book focuses on several themes, but the core topics I wanted to discuss were family, mental health, and grief. One of the initial premises I wanted to pursue was the creation of a perfect storm in which all enjoyment came at the cost of a painful reality. Amber is a woman who has gone through several devastating events, struggling to accept the reality she finds herself in. By virtue of the incredibly unlikely scenario of finding and falling in love with a rich man, she already has a difficult time believing that the things around her are real sometimes. …

Contrasting Roles Of Downed Wood And Leaf Litter In Structuring Aphaenogaster Ants And Other Forest-Floor Arthropod Communities, Danielle E. Dolan

Great Lakes Center Masters Theses

Forest floors are dynamic and spatially heterogenous landscapes characterized by differing amounts of light, temperature, and moisture. Bounded substrates, like downed wood and leaf litter, add further complexity to this landscape. Specifically, downed wood is noted for its ability to retain a higher moisture level than the surrounding environment, and as such can serve as an ideal microhabitat for desiccation intolerant organisms (e.g., salamanders and eusocial insects). Here, I attempt to disentangle the relationship between forest floor arthropods and microhabitat selection (i.e., downed wood vs leaf litter) on a northeastern forest floor. The ant, Aphaenogaster picea, was chosen as my …

A Creative Climate Framework For Developing Leaders Who Can Navigate Complexity, Uncertainty, And Change Now And Over Time, Christa M. Heydt-Hernandez

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

As organizational environments grow increasingly volatile and complex, leaders face a widening gap in the skills hardest to cultivate in adults: creative thinking, systems thinking, and human-centered design thinking. Yet leadership development has prioritized culture over climate, overlooking a more direct lever for change. This project argues the gap is fundamentally developmental: the skills most demanded of today's leaders are best introduced across childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood—long before the workplace—through what the author terms the Long Game of Leadership Development. In response, this project introduces the Creativity Steward™ framework, a longitudinal model grounded in developmental psychology, creative climate research, …

The 5i’S Framework Of Creative Self-Leadership, Maggie Cubbler

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this Master of Science in Creativity and Change Leadership project is to establish a framework for Creative Self-Leadership (CSL) development. Viewed through a gendered lens, the framework addresses how women's intrapersonal processes—the 5I's of introspection, interoception, intuition, imagination, and intrinsic motivation—are often compromised by sustained environmental and systemic pressure, and proposes practices designed to restore and strengthen these internal guides.

By recalibrating these intrapersonal processes toward accurate self-knowledge, CSL employs the science of creativity to lead women in their own quest for change, agency, and resilience while remaining cognizant of the dynamic between her and her environment.

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through Xr And Ai, Christopher Spitzer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Techno-Imagination: Elevating Creativity Through XR and AI explores the history of creativity and computing technology, supported by research and academic literature, and looks at the possibilities of a convergence between the two. In parallel, a brief biographical story of the author shares how a passion for creativity emerged, along with a growing interest in science and technology—specifically extended reality—which ultimately came together in the creation of this master’s project. The project also highlights how the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process was used alongside AI bots and twenty research-based creative thinking skills in developing the business model canvas. Finally, the outcome …

Leading The Choreography: Preserving Creative Agency In Ai-Supported Problem-Solving, Mikhaila Ackerbauer

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

As artificial intelligence tools become increasingly present in creative and problem-solving contexts, a critical question emerges: how can users engage with AI in ways that preserve rather than erode their own creative capacity? This project explores that question through research synthesis, practitioner conversations, coursework, international conference presentations, and the development of custom AI chatbots trained in the Creative Problem-Solving process. The central finding is a theoretical triangle comprising three interdependent capacities: autonomy, creative self-efficacy, and critical thinking. Grounded in Rhodes' (1961) Four P's framework, the triangle sits within the Person dimension. Convergent themes across the literature, practitioner conversations, and direct …

Designing The Future Of School Leadership: Cultivating Creative Capacity In Leadership Preparation Programs, Nicole Wagner

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Education systems are increasingly expected to prepare students with skills such as creativity, adaptability, collaboration, and problem solving to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world.  However, educational leadership preparation programs often provide limited explicit instruction in creativity and creative leadership.  This project examines how creativity is currently incorporated within educational leadership programs and explores ways creative problem solving and creative leadership competencies can be more intentionally integrated into leadership preparation.

Drawing upon scholarship in creativity, Creative Problem Solving (CPS), leadership, and educational change, this project includes three outcomes: (a) a comparative analysis of educational leadership preparation programs; (b) …

Systemic Barriers To Educational And Employment Attainment Among Individuals With Substance Use Disorders, Mollie B. Mccann Poblocki

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Substance use disorders (SUDs) and opioid use disorder (OUD) represent one of the most pressing yet poorly understood public health crises in the United States. Despite decades of clinical intervention, recovery outcomes remain deeply unequal, not because individuals lack motivation, but because the structural systems surrounding them are fundamentally broken. This project explored that reality through a comprehensive literature review examining how systemic barriers across educational systems, labor markets, poverty dynamics, and healthcare infrastructure shape vulnerability, treatment access, and recovery outcomes for individuals with SUDs. Major findings revealed a consistent socioeconomic gradient of harm: individuals with lower educational attainment, unstable …

An Investigation Of The Roles Aging, Gender And Age-Related Hearing Loss Play In Emotional Prosody Recognition, Giavanna Yowell

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Emotional prosody recognition is crucial for social interactions but is influenced by aging, gender, and age-related hearing loss (Lambrecht et al., 2012; Oerlemans et al., 2014; Palermo et al., 2013). No past studies have looked at all of these factors collectively. To address this shortcoming, the current study explored the relationships between aging, hearing loss and gender differences in emotional prosody recognition. The ability to recognize emotions through facial expressions was also included as a comparative measure. One hundred fifteen individuals (42 men and 73 women), ages 50 and older (M = 60.39, SD = 8.12), completed a hearing handicap …