Digital Commons Network^™

World As Other, World As Self: Beyond Dualism In Environmental Narratives, Tamara Wallace Ramirez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Stories of place matter to the way we live with the Earth. A dualistic perspective that pits "culture" against "nature" enables environmental degradation on small and large scales. Conversely, understanding humans and nonhumans as entwined allows us to think and act differently with our planetary community. This view entails integrating the "self" and the "other." Instead of being antithetical to the other, the self arises through engagement with others, human and nonhuman. Understanding our mutuality with others while respecting their alterity and agency fosters caring and dedication. Our sense of connection with the more-than-human world inspires our compassion. However, such …

Once Upon Another Time: Retelling Fairy Tales & Legends With Inclusive Identities For Modern Young Adult Audiences, Hailey Drapcho

Honors Theses

This thesis explores how modern young adult (YA) fairy tale retellings can act as interventionist works as part of the mythopoeic YA fantasy sub-genre, where they enfold traditionally excluded identities into the archetypal role of the fairy tale female protagonist who is expected to embody an idealized form of girlhood. Fairy tales have a profound impact on self-image and how individuals create expectations of their role in the world. By fracturing the archetypes maintaining restrictive and exclusionary expectations, mythopoeic YA fairy tale retellings affirm the young adult girl to embrace her own individual identity and determine her role in the …

In The Kingdom Of The Thunder Dragon: Happiness, History, And Environment In A Changing Bhutan, Betsy Bolton

English Literature Faculty Works

Landlocked, mountainous, and surrounded by global giants India and China, Bhutan has provided remarkable leadership on both climate action and human happiness, despite its pre-2023 status as a least-developed nation. Bhutan was the first country to be internationally recognized as carbon neutral; it is also the birthplace of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH), a pointed alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a means of measuring the success of national policies in promoting citizens’ wellbeing. Yet Bhutan has also been a site of ethnic conflict, with roughly tens of thousands people displaced into refugee camps in the 1990s and eventually resettled …

The Story Of North Atlantic Right Whales, Sydney Haas

Theses & ETDs

North Atlantic right whales are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this project, an ArcGIS StoryMap was made so that the problems facing this species and the possible solutions to these problems could be communicated to a wide audience. A StoryMap is a tool that can creatively display narrative text, graphics, and maps. This StoryMap is an accumulation of data, information, statistics, policies, maps, and technological solutions surrounding North Atlantic Right Whale conservation. Scientific research and communication, whether it be through policies or education, must work together for a real impact to be …

Puerto Rico’S Grand Wyndham Hotel Río Mar, The Methods They Use To Protect Leatherback Sea Turtle Nests, And My Own Findings On These Nests, Christopher Thillet

Theses & ETDs

For a very long time, leatherback sea turtles have been harmed in many ways by ecological damage caused by humans, especially their nests. Despite this, it is also humans who have been trying their best to undo these wrongs by working to protect the environment around the areas they have constructed. This thesis serves as a reflection that will provide information on what leatherback sea turtles are and the many things that are harming them worldwide, as well as the information that the hotels of Puerto Rico have collected to help further the study surrounding the many effects that people …

Osa-Diff: An Origin Sampling Based Adversarial Attack Using Diffusion Models, Shayan Jalalipour, Banafsheh Rekabdar

Computer Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Diffusion models are becoming an increasingly popular emerging technology, however their use in adversarial attacks remains a scarcely explored topic. We show that diffusion models can be used to create end-to-end hidden adversarial perturbations with high rate of success, and propose a novel diffusion based adversarial attack that allows for substantially faster training time (through improved convergence on high quality images) and with substantially less computational overhead than typical diffusion model training

Profiling Bile Acids In The Stools Of Humans And Animal Models Of Cystic Fibrosis, Melissa M. Carmichael

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with dysbiosis of the gut microbiome, alterations in intestinal mucus production, aberrant bile acid (BA) metabolism, fat malabsorption, and chronic inflammation. As little is known about BAs in CF, we performed both comprehensive and targeted BA profiling in stool of children with or without CF. Our results reveal that select BA species and metabolites are significantly different between children with CF (cwCF) and healthy controls. There is also a trend towards higher primary cBA and total BA levels for cwCF. Matched bacterial metagenomic analyses showed no change in a-diversity between groups in our small cohort, …

How To Elevate Your Note-Taking Skills, Alexander Cho

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

One of the most crucial skills a student can have is effective and efficient note-taking abilities. Therefore, this interactive lesson transforms note-taking from a passive recording activity into an active learning strategy. Through discussions, activities, and reflections, students will understand the importance of note-taking, then learn techniques to take better notes before, during, and after class. Afterwards, we will dive into 4 different note-taking methods and students will be able to adapt these techniques to different content types, and develop personalized systems for review.

Mahjouba Initiative Ebike Charging In Morocco, Margaret Atkins, Christian Hudanich, Justin Kim, Lane Myshrall

ENGS 89/90 Reports

The Mahjouba Initiative, led by artist Eric van Hove, merges Moroccan craftsmanship with modern engineering to develop locally sourced, sustainably produced e-bikes for rural communities. A team from Dartmouth College’s ENGS 90 conducted a feasibility analysis of a scalable, affordable e-bike charging station for deployment in Tissint, Tata, Morocco, where transportation infrastructure limitations hinder economic development. This analysis supports a battery-swapping pilot as a crucial step in advancing the Mahjouba Initiative’s mission to develop domestically powered transportation. The proposed charging station includes on-grid and off-grid (solar-powered) options, ensuring flexible deployment based on available energy infrastructure. Key design considerations include charging …

Pulse Electrothermal De-Icing Air Source Heat Pumps For More Efficient Residential Renewable Energy Systems, Madeleine Carr, Abby Hughes, Thea Kunzle, Justin Sapun

ENGS 89/90 Reports

Air source heat pumps (ASHPs) are increasingly being adopted as energy-efficient alternatives to traditional oil and gas furnaces for heating and cooling homes. However, in colder climates, these systems often face significant challenges due to frequent icing on the outdoor condenser fins during winter months. This icing condition drastically hinders performance by reducing efficiency, leading to higher energy consumption and increased operational costs. In the most common conventional defrosting method, the reversing valve sends refrigerant from the indoor space to the outdoor unit to melt the ice, effectively cooling the room. This defrosting process is both energy intensive and intermittently …

Tracked Electric Vehicle To Access Backcountry Ski Trails, Adam Alto, Mccoy Buchsteiner, Remi Kauderer, Kolbe Shannon, Ryan Tanski

ENGS 89/90 Reports

Long, low-angle approaches in backcountry skiing substantially limit the terrain that can be accessed in a single day. Snowmobiles remain the primary motorized solution but are difficult to transport and pose needless risk to the user, other recreationists, and the environment. Other options fall short of the portability, cost-effectiveness, or flexibility necessary to solve this problem. To address this gap, we refined a compact, battery-powered electric vehicle to aid skiers in efficiently reaching backcountry trails. Our prototype keeps the backcountry skier on their skis as a wheel behind them propels them forward. The prototype previously developed by our sponsors encountered …

The Role Of Chronic Activity-Based-Anorexia In Drug-Paired Environmental Preference, Abby Bendixen

Behavioral Neuroscience Honors Papers

Anorexia nervosa (AN) has one of the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders. This disorder, and other eating disorders, have features that overlap with substance use disorder (SUD), including reward sensitivity, impulsivity, and emotional dysregulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of chronic, restrictive eating disorders on the development of cocaine-paired environmental preference. Seven-week-old female rats were induced to a model of chronic activity-based-anorexia (ABA) and underwent conditioned place preference (CPP) testing to examine cocaine-paired environmental conditioning. The activity patterns of rats that underwent chronic ABA were not consistent with previous studies inducing chronic ABA in …

Optimization, Machine Learning, And Networking Solutions For Cyber-Physical Systems, Xu Tao

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) represent a transformative paradigm that integrates sensing, computation, and actuation through networked systems to enable intelligent, context-aware applications across various domains. Despite their growing potential, CPS still face critical challenges, particularly in maintaining reliable, low-latency communication and efficient data processing in resource-constrained and dynamic environments. These challenges are further magnified in rural or remote deployments, where traditional network infrastructure is often unavailable or unreliable. This dissertation addresses these challenges through the development of optimization and inference algorithms that enhance network performance in Software-Defined Networks (SDN), using techniques such as reinforcement learning and network tomography for efficient routing. …

Folic Acid-Decorated Lipidic Nanocapsules Co-Loaded With Atorvastatin And Curcumin To Enhance Glioma Targeting In Mice, Mahitab Bayoumi, John Youshia, Osama Abdelkawy, Sara Abdelgaber, Mona Arafa, Maha Nasr, Omaima Sammour

Pharmacy

Background: Glioma remains an intractable and highly aggressive brain tumor, mainly due to the daunting obstacle presented by the blood-brain barrier (BBB). To overcome this challenge and enhance therapeutic efficacy, a dual-drug delivery system was engineered. This system co-encapsulated curcumin, a nutraceutical with multitargeted anticancer potential, with atorvastatin calcium, a repurposed anticancer agent, within lipidic nanocapsules (LNCs). Methods: LNCs were prepared via the phase inversion temperature method and optimized using a Box–Behnken design. The optimized LNCs were subsequently functionalized with folic acid (FA) to enable active targeting. FA-LNCs were characterized using, XPS, TEM, in vitro release, and MTT cytotoxicity …

Sigrid Undset: Nordic Catholic Apologist, Brendan Edward Arthur

Theses

This thesis explores the depth and breadth of Sigrid Undset’s non-fiction Catholic writing, a substantial body of work that has largely remained inaccessible to all but readers of Norwegian. Through original translations and analysis, it synthesises these texts into broad themes while situating them within their historical contexts of the intellectual and cultural debates in early twentieth-century Norway. The study addresses three research questions: (1) the general themes in Undset’s Catholic non-fiction; (2) the contemporary relevance of these writings; and (3) whether Undset merits the designation “Catholic apologist.” In its method, the thesis employs textual analysis of Undset’s essays, articles …

Photocatalytic Performance Of Ba₀.₈Ca₀.₂Tio₃ Composite For Norfloxacin Removal In Aqueous Solutions, Raj Mohanty, Swayam Aryam Behera, Asima Subhadarshini, Binita Nanda, P. Ganga Raju Achary

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study investigates the degradation of norfloxacin using a Ba0.8Ca0.2TiO3 (BCTO) perovskite composite synthesized via a simple solid-state method. Variety of characterization techniques, including photoluminescence spectra, powder X-Ray Diffraction, UV-Vis Diffuse Reflectance Spectra, FE-SEM and Fourier-Transform Infrared spectra confirm the structural and optical properties of BCTO. Electrical characterization further elucidates its conductive properties. The BCTO composite demonstrates an impressive 87% degradation rate of norfloxacin, attributed to its reduced electron-hole recombination, enhanced light harvestation, and improved charge carrier mobility. Kinetic studies indicate that the degradation process adheres to a pseudo-first-order model, with BCTO outperforming both pure BaTiO3 and conventional photocatalysts. These …

Upcycled Waste-Derived Triboelectric Nanogenerator For Sustainable Energy Harvesting, Archana Panda, Basanta Kumar Panigrahi, Subhendu Pati, Sunit Gourav Mohanty, Kushal Ruthvik Kaja

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The proliferation of disposable paper-based materials in laboratories has raised significant environmental concerns due to their rapid discard and accumulation. This study explores the upcycling of commonly discarded laboratory waste, specifically butter paper and polyurethane (PU) foam, into a single-electrode triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) for mechanical energy harvesting. The fabricated device employs butter paper as the positive triboelectric layer and PU foam as the negative layer, with an aluminium tape electrode. Electrical tests reveal a peak voltage of 21 V and current of 47 nA, reaching a maximum power of 438 nW at 500 MΩ load. The TENG demonstrates stable performance …

Mechanochemical Synthesis Of Ni(Ii)-Tptz Complexes With Co-Ligands: Spectroscopy, Dft, And Biological Studies, Deepak Senapati, Anulipsa Priyadarshini, Debadutta Samal, P. Ramesh Babu, Satyanarayan Sahoo, Narayan Chandra Bera, Raghabendra Samantaray, Jagannath Panda, Rojalin Sahu

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

New mixed-ligand Ni(II) complexes [Ni(tptz)(1,10-phen)] (1), [Ni(tptz)(2-Mimd)2] (2), and [Ni(tptz)Imd)2] (3) were synthesized via a green, solvent-free mechanochemical approach using ball milling. The primary ligand used was 2,4,6-tris(2-pyridyl)-1,3,5-triazine (tptz), with secondary ligands being 1,10-phenanthroline, 2-methyl imidazole, and imidazole, respectively. Structural characterization by IR, UV-Visible, photoluminescence spectroscopy, and powder X-ray diffraction, supported by DFT calculations, revealed a distorted square planar geometry for complex 1 and distorted tetrahedral geometries for complex-2 and complex-3. Notably, bathochromic shifts in the UV-Vis spectra confirm metal-ligand charge transfer transitions and extended π-delocalization. Powder XRD analysis determined average crystallite sizes of 17.86 nm (1), 25 nm (2), …

Minor V. Happersett, Dobbs V. Jackson Women's Health Organization, And The Supreme Court's Refusal To Reconstruct America, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

One hundred and fifty years ago, in the wake of the ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments, the United States Supreme Court decided Minor v. Happersett. In Minor, the Court ruled Missouri could continue to deny women the right to vote based on their sex. The decision was simply reasoned. In the absence of clear constitutional text requiring Missouri to provide the right to vote to women or proof that the right to vote was a right of citizenship, Missouri had no obligation to allow women to vote. Some states had banned women citizens from voting since the country’s founding. Missouri …

Anti-Democratic Rights Of Nature, Noah M. Sachs

Law Faculty Publications

The global Rights of Nature (RoN) movement, which seeks to confer enforceable rights on organisms and ecosystems, has become a political force, and governments are now codifying legal rights for nature in legislation. But policymakers and legal scholars are overlooking how assertions of vague rights held by a limitless class of non-humans could lead to repressive, anti-democratic outcomes. Many scholars view recognition of nature’s rights as an expansion of the boundaries of democracy, but a critical examination of RoN scholarship and advocacy shows that RoN principles are designed to check and constrain democratic institutions. Core tenets of the RoN movement …

Procedural Political Economy, Luke P. Norris

Law Faculty Publications

When the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure came into being in 1938, a broad political economy discourse was driving significant legal and policy reform efforts. Legal scholars, economists, political leaders, and others placed questions of economic power and their relationship to democracy at the center of those reform efforts, honing and developing a political economy tradition that is a forebearer to today’s law-and-political economy (LPE) approach. Both then and today, the relationship of civil procedure to these trends has not been fully mined. This Article tells a vital part of that story, tracing the federal civil procedure system’s political economy …

Social Murder And The Antisocial Contract, Marissa Jackson Sow

Law Faculty Publications

Social murder is widely understood as the reckless and calculated killing by the State of people who are considered surplus and thus made redundant by the State. It is not merely an outcome, however; social murder, is an antidemocratic process, and—certainly as it is manifesting in the United States under the second Trump Administration—is also an anti-constitutionalist project aimed at destroying society, eliminating social goods, and renegotiating an American social contract that is, definitionally, antisocial. Social murder is as much about the elimination of social life as it is about the interruption of physical life. And it is fueled by …

Comparison Of Fasting And Non-Fasting Regimens Outcomes Before Catheterization Laboratory Procedures: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Ali Moradi, Shayan Shojaei, Asma Mousavi, Mehrdad Mahalleh, Soheil Rahmati, Parnian Soltani, Mashood Farooqi

West Florida Division GME Research Day 2025

No abstract provided.

Communiqué: College Of Humanities, Arts & Sciences Alumni Magazine, Volume 11, 2025, University Of Northern Iowa. College Of Humanities, Arts, And Sciences.

Communiqué: College of Humanities, Arts & Sciences Alumni Magazine

Contents:

EVERY ISSUE
Message from the Dean --- 4
Donor Feature --- 5
CHAS Briefs --- 36
Class Notes --- 38

FEATURES
Engineering Advances --- 6
Japan Water Quality Trip --- 10
Theatre Outreach --- 14
A Future in Physics --- 18
International Teaching --- 24

STORIES
SLP Community Partnership --- 22
Professional Readiness --- 28
Syndaver Lab --- 30
Art Teaching Sisters --- 32
Math Alum Now NBA Coach --- 34

The Discord Dilemma: Section 230'S Free Pass For Internet Providers Sanctioning Online Extremism, Claira L. Cooper

Law Student Publications

This Article examines the relationship between the blanket immunity for internet providers guaranteed by Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act and the rise of online extremism on gaming adjacent platforms. This Article analyzes multiple recent events incited by extremists on the gaming platform, Discord, and the real-life consequences that arise when extremism is allowed run rampant on platforms. This Article argues that Section 230, in its current form, enables platforms to turn a blind eye to illegal conduct on their website by avoiding moderation, thus making it clear that Section 230 is in dire need of an update to …

Effect Of Traditional Versus Fenceline Weaning On Lamb Stress, Emma N. Sutton, Kenneth P. Coffey, Eva Wray, Derico Setyabrata, Bryan Kutz, Shawna Weimer

Discovery, The Student Journal of Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

Stress in sheep can negatively affect productivity and increase their susceptibility to illness and parasites. The traditional method of weaning lambs is the abrupt separation of lambs from their dams. An alternative method of weaning, fenceline weaning, where offspring are separated from their dams by a single fence but retain visual and auditory contact, has been found to reduce stress in cattle and may also reduce stress in sheep. The objectives of this study were to evaluate body weights, fecal egg counts, and behavior to determine if traditional or fenceline weaning has lower stress associated with weaning in lambs. The …

Cross-Facility Reliable Deep Learning Based Beef Marbling Assessment Via Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Regression, Samuel Vinson, Dongyi Wang

2025 Research Poster Competition

Beef is one of the most important sources of animal protein and plays a crucial role in daily diets to support muscle growth, energy production and overall health. Historically, each beef carcass was evaluated by 3-5 skilled United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat graders, which are still considered as the gold standard for grading. Since 2009, electronic imaging grading systems have been approved by the USDA and have been gradually adopted in the grading facilities. Accurate and consistent beef grading plays a critical role in maintaining the quality, market value, and consumer trust in U.S. beef products. The USDA …

From Portraits To Bathwater: Desire, Imitation, And Violence In The Picture Of Dorian Gray And Saltburn, Kylie Marie Golden

All ETDs from UAB

This thesis examines the cycle of imitation within queer male desire in The Picture of Dorian Gray and Saltburn, arguing that both texts depict an unsustainable pattern in which protagonists mold themselves after an idealized other, leading to obsession, violence, and self-destruction. While Oscar Wilde’s novel encodes queerness within aestheticism and moral decay, Emerald Fennell’s film reconfigures these themes through class ambition and performative sexuality. I explore how both texts present imitation as a dangerous mechanism through which male characters construct their identities, only to find that their self-fashioning is ultimately untenable. This study positions Saltburn as a contemporary rewriting …

The Antiviral Treatment Of Bk Polyomavirus, Peter Alexander Kaul

All ETDs from UAB

A kidney transplant is the most common form of organ transplant in the United States. The waitlist of patients waiting for a kidney transplant totals over 80,000. In recent years, kidney transplants have been performed more than ever before, but the waitlist continues to grow. This is due to the constant addition of new patients being added, as well as, patients who obtained a kidney transplant, but their transplant failed and were added back to the waitlist. While the development of more specific and effective immunosuppressive drugs given to transplant recipients have reduced the cases of acute rejection, it has …

An Examination Of Psycho-Behavioral Risk And Resilence Profiles In People With Chronically Painful Knee Osteoarthritis, Daniel Kusko

All ETDs from UAB

The prevalence and impact of chronic pain are far-reaching and costly to our society. Chronic pain conditions are affecting many people in the US and abroad. Osteoarthritis (OA) is commonly referred to as a slow progressing degenerative disease that tends to develop over 10 to 15 years and can result in functional limitations and pain. Chronic knee OA is a common form of OA pain that affects many adults across the globe. Biopsychosocial factors are theorized to play an important role in how people with chronic pain may develop, exacerbate, or cope with pain. The goal of this project was …