Digital Commons Network^™

The Path From Acceptance To Adoption For Linguistic Innovations Dealing With Gender In The Language Classroom, Juan Carlos Acevedo Fontecha

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the factors influencing the acceptance, rejection, or adoption of gender inclusive and gender-non-identifying forms among language users. The study draws on responses from 25 students in a linguistic class to evaluate innovations in English and from 23 instructors of Spanish to evaluate innovations in Spanish. Participants took part in a survey designed to evaluate existing forms endorsed by the United Nations, and gender-non-identifying forms, such as the -e morpheme in Spanish or singular they in English, promoted by community-generated guides. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed side by side to better understand the participants’ reasoning regarding these …

Experienscape And The Interior Environment: A Case Study At A Bar With Entertainment, Paige J. Hendrickson

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to understand what aspects of the interior environment at a bar with bowling affect customers’ willingness to return and word-of-mouth sharing. The dimensions of the experiencescape model were used to guide the research, focusing on sensory, functional, social, and hospitality culture. A mixed qualitative methods approach was used, combining observations, focus group interviews, and moment maps to investigate customer comfort, satisfaction, excitement, memorability, and the difference in one’s perception of their experience based on ethnicity. It was found that the unique atmosphere, price, staff, and diversity were the main reasons customers returned or shared …

At The Mercy Of All Things: Nurturing Experimental Queer Writing On Embodied Mothering, Charley Koenig

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is an exploration of the ability of experimental queer writing to grow and transform expressions of mothering and care. The moves made here—both in the scholarship and anchor texts examined herein and in my own contributions to this effort—work to dethatch those toxic dominating narratives on motherhood, enforced and reinforced by our current Western society and culture, that contaminate and restrict our constructions of what it means to be and do mother. The collective work of experimental queer writers makes possible more nuanced, realistic, messy, complex, varied, embodied, liberating, and literally and figuratively dirty renditions of mothering and …

Cultural Identity In Mental Health Services And Helpseeking Behaviours Among African International Students, Mark Ofosu Asirifi

Theses and Dissertations

Acculturation stress impacts international students’ psychological well-being and academic success, yet research on African students remains limited. For African international students, this stress is intensified by cultural stigma surrounding mental health services, deterring help-seeking due to fears of judgment and ostracization. This identity negotiation complicates their willingness to access support, reinforcing cultural barriers to mental health care. This study explores how cultural identity shapes the mental health perceptions and help-seeking behaviors of African international students in the United States. Grounded in the Communication Theory of Identity (CTI) and the Health Belief Model (HBM), the research examines how acculturative stress, stigma, …

Listening To The Body: Attunement And Advocacy In Women's Experiences Of Endometriosis, Rebekah E. Greenslaugh

Theses and Dissertations

Endometriosis is a chronic, inflammatory condition in which tissue similar to the endometrial lining grows outside the uterus, leading to severe pain, fatigue, and other debilitating symptoms. Despite its significant impact on daily life, many women with endometriosis report that their symptoms are dismissed in medical encounters, as their pain is minimized or normalized as an inherent aspect of womanhood. This medical dismissal, combined with a lack of definitive diagnostic tools and effective treatments, leads many to turn to online support communities to make sense of their symptoms, share experiences, and develop ways to cope with the condition. Drawing on …

The Dangers Of The Current “Global Deregulatory Drive” In Financial Regulation: Written Testimony Submitted To The Uk House Of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee, Arthur E. Wilmarth Jr.

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This written testimony was submitted to the UK House of Lords Financial Services Regulation Committee in response to the Committee’s “Call for Evidence” regarding the growth of private credit markets since the global financial crisis of 2007-09 (https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9235/growth-of-private-markets-in-the-uk-following-reforms-introduced-after-2008). This written testimony was tendered in conjunction with the author’s oral testimony before the Committee on July 23, 2025, and addresses the following points:

1. As past deregulatory episodes have shown, the current “global deregulatory drive” to loosen financial regulation is likely to endanger global financial markets by encouraging excessive risk-taking by large banks and further expansion of “shadow banking” …

Generational Exposures To Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles And Perfluorooctanesulfonic Acid Affect The Performance Of Daughter Plants, Preston Clubb

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The effects of parental stress on the performance of next generation exposed to another contaminant were investigated. Wheat was exposed to cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2-NPs) in first and second generations and exposed to perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) in the third generation. Phenotypic or metabolic responses were assessed at 21-day (short-term exposure) or 90-day (long-term exposure) exposure periods. Biomass production, chlorophyll content, enzyme activity, and membrane damage were measured at short-term exposure, while elemental and PFOS concentrations, and grain metabolites were analyzed in long-term exposure. Results showed that continued exposures to CeO2-NPs and PFOS enhanced chlorophyll content but reduced concentrations of important …

Advancing Natural Resource Management Through Artificial Intelligence, Jonathan Fisk

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Natural aquatic systems are characterized by complex ecological processes and interactions occurring across multiple scales, and quantifying them is essential for proper management. However, managers often face decreasing budgets, increasing responsibilities, and limited staffing, resulting in challenges related to data prioritization, digitization, and management. While modern analytical technologies offer powerful tools, their effectiveness relies heavily on timely and accurate data input from diverse sources, including written, audio, and visual formats. Traditional data management practices are time-consuming, particularly due to the need for manual data verification. To address these challenges, innovative technologies leveraging artificial intelligence (AI)—including deep learning, machine learning, and …

The Role Of Sptbn1 Protein In Microglia Cells Actin Structure And Hiv-1 Infection, Rachel Pecka

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) directly attacks the host immune system by infecting and replicating in CD4-presenting immune cells. Like most viral pathogens, HIV utilizes cellular machinery to assist in viral entry, transport, and export. One of the components HIV is known to utilize for replication is the actin cytoskeleton. By directly binding to actin or actin-binding proteins, HIV can manipulate structural dynamics within the cell. The way HIV hijacks actin for replication post-viral fusion isn’t fully understood, especially during viral transport to the nucleus. A 2013 study conducted by Dai et al. found that lowering the expression of the cellular …

Livelihood Adaptive Strategies And Marginalization In Decision-Making: A Study Of Glacial Lake Outburst Flood (Glof) Vulnerable Communities In Northern Pakistan, Sobia Shah

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This study examines livelihood adaptation strategies and the dynamics of marginalization in decision-making within communities vulnerable to Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) in Gilgit-Baltistan, Northern Pakistan. Grounded in a vulnerability framework encompassing exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity, it addresses two objectives: identifying household and community-level adaptation strategies to GLOF risks and analyzing structural drivers of marginalization in adaptation decision-making. A mixed-methods design was used, combining a systematic review of GLOF measures in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) region with a household survey of 150 respondents in Hassanabad and Hoper valleys. Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) assessed how socio-demographic, economic, institutional, and …

Parafamily, Christina Mulligan

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The First Iucn Red List Of Cold-Water Corals Highlights Global Declines, Julia D. Sigwart, A. Louise Allcock, Renata Carolina Mikosz Arantes, Kelsey Archer Barnhill, Narissa Bax, Julia S. Beneti, Saskia Brix, Gudmundur Gudmundsson, Catherine S. Mcfadden, Severin A. Korfhage, Christi Linardich, Declan Morrissey, Pedro De Oliveira Nascimento, Bárbara De Moura Neves, Steinunn H. Ólafsdóttir, Stefán Ragnarsson, Kaveh Samimi-Namin, Íris Sampaio, Mark E. De Wilt

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

The most well-known species-based conservation tool is the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species. The current coverage of species in the Red List is known to under-represent benthic marine species. Cold-water corals (CWCs) are increasingly recognised as key to deep-water biodiversity and integral to protected vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs), but no deep-sea coral species were previously included in the Red List. We selected 22 cold-water coral species in the Northeast Atlantic, including 4 reef-forming stony corals and 18 octocorals including sea pens and gorgonians, and completed the first IUCN Red List global assessments …

Gendered Liberty, Laura Portuondo

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Civil Society And The Crisis Of Privacy Law, Ari Ezra Waldman

Emory Law Journal

Based on interviews with key players, public reports, and previously undisclosed primary sources, this Article tells the inside story of the American Data Privacy and Protection Act (ADPPA) and the role of privacy nonprofit organizations in crafting it. It uses ADPPA’s drafting as a case study about larger questions of expertise, the lawmaking process, and the role of law in setting the context of advocacy. The Article’s descriptive argument is that background law and the dynamics of privacy policymaking in the United States Congress channeled and constrained the choices made by privacy civil society organizations while negotiating and drafting key …

A Deep Look At Copyright’S Volitional Conduct Doctrine And Generative Artificial Intelligence, Aleksander J. Goranin

Emory Law Journal

This Article examines copyright’s volitional conduct doctrine, as applied to generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems. It traces the doctrine’s origins and evolution through key court decisions, analyzing its underlying rationale as a response to the harshness of the RAM copy rule and its elaboration as a proximate causation doctrine. The Article then evaluates how classic volitional conduct analogies to copy shops and photocopies may fit generative AI systems. Ultimately, the Article proposes a jury instruction to guide application of the volitional conduct doctrine in generative AI cases. The Article argues that the doctrine serves an important role in copyright law, …

Playing Politics: Social Media, Censorship, And Speech Gamification, Khaled A. Beydoun

Emory Law Journal

Forty percent of Americans self-censor their speech online. While staggering, the hidden phenomenon beneath this figure reveals a more dystopic outlook for the future of free speech. The powerful predictive technologies driving social media platforms, which the Supreme Court dubbed “the most important spaces for the exchange of views,” control the terms of modern speech and the scope of political discourse. The Supreme Court’s laissez-faire posture toward online speech moderation has only empowered digital dominion over modern expression and citizenship to the detriment of free speech principles.

As such, the primary threat to free speech today is not the state …

Molecular Mechanisms And Comparative Transcriptomics Of Diapause In Two Corn Rootworm Species (Diabrotica Spp.), Melise C. Lecheta, Chad Nielson, B. Wade French, Emily Nadeau, Nicholas M. Teets

Entomology Faculty Publications

Diapause is a programmed developmental arrest that can occur at any developmental stage depending on species, but the mechanisms that underscore embryonic diapause are poorly understood. Here, we identified molecular mechanisms underscoring distinct phases of diapause in the Diabrotica spp. complex. This species complex in- cludes economically significant agricultural pests, notably the western corn rootworm (WCR) and northern corn rootworm (NCR), which cause major losses in maize production. Rootworms undergo an obligate embryonic diapause to synchronize their life cycles with host plants, and we sequenced transcriptomes from both species at five time points (pre-diapause, diapause initiation, diapause maintenance, diapause termination, …

Collaborative Efforts To Combat Racism: Academics And Criminal Defense Lawyers In The Pursuit Of Racial Justice In California, Alvarez, Karina, Cameron-Wedding, Dr. Rita

Santa Clara Law Review

Lawyers and academics frequently cooperate to shape public policy and outcomes in specific cases, including in the area of racial justice. However, too frequently, lawyers and academics operate in silos—working towards the same goal of racial justice, but in different arenas. Lawyers are bound to their clients, foremost, and to advocacy before the court—often so much so that they might lose sight of broader challenges, achievements, and theories in racial justice. By contrast, academics spend their lives in the abstract, leaving them at risk of losing sight of the on-the-ground impact of their expert theoretical advances. This article aims to …

Conservative Family Values As Constitutional Law: Private Regulation And The Erosion Of Fundamental Rights, Spera, Clara, Fleming, Katherine

Santa Clara Law Review

This Article examines a paradox in contemporary constitutional law: While constitutional rights traditionally protect minorities against majority preferences, the Supreme Court has increasingly enabled certain private actors to override others’ constitutionally protected family formation choices through what this Article calls “private regulation.” The Court’s decisions allow individual private actors to impose traditional religious and moral views on others who do not share those beliefs, while simultaneously embedding those very views in constitutional jurisprudence. This dual approach creates a troubling inversion. Instead of constitutional rights serving their traditional function of protecting minorities from majority overreach, they are being used to empower …

A Framework For Mixed Reality Within Healthcare Education, Benyamin Ebadinia

Theses

Understanding complex three-dimensional systems and spatial relationships is a recurring difficulty in healthcare education, where students are often expected to reason about internal structures and multi-system processes from 2D diagrams, textbook figures, and static mannequins. This thesis presents the design, implementation, and mixed-methods evaluation of Systems Simulation, a reusable mixed reality (MR) application intended to help undergraduate nursing students explore human anatomy and pathophysiology using immersive 3D visualization.

Built in C# with the StereoKit framework for Microsoft HoloLens 2, Systems Simulation organizes nine anatomical body systems within a shared application. Learners can select a system, anchor the model in their …

All Red Inside: Embodied Metaphor In Clive Barker's Books Of Blood, Ian Vargas

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The collection Books of Blood is an anthology series of short stories written between 1984 and 1985. Only two, the very first and last, have any unifying story. For our purposes we will be looking at stories in particular that exemplify the themes I am speaking about. Barker's writing often heavily focuses on the ways that the body stands outside the control of the individual, something that a person resides in and must always rely upon, but is not actually in their control in most senses. His horror explores the ways in which the human body is both the first …

Campesino World-Building: Stories Of Migration, Memory, And Care In The Tension Of The Colonial Frame, Chelsea Ríos Gómez

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Campesinos, often reduced to the label of “farmworkers”, are too often seen only through the lens of their labor within profit-driven systems. This thesis disrupts that limited narrative by illuminating the rich, expansive nature of vivencias campesinas, ways of being that transcend capitalist measures of value. These vivencias are lived, embodied experiences rooted in campesino lifeways, encompassing cultural, spiritual, and relational practices that nurture and sustain life.

My research is guided by four central questions: (1) In what ways have campesinos in pixley resisted exploitative labor systems, and how can this resistance be understood as a form of care labor? …

North American River Otter (Lontra Canadensis) Prey Selection Of Wintering Waterbirds In A Wetland Complex, Gina Yael Culver

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Generalist predators are assumed to take a wide variety of prey throughout an annual cycle, often switching between food sources depending on availability. Prey selection is often studied by way of variables such as prey age class, body size, and various topics related to anti-predator behaviors, all variables used to measure how predators target prey. Following prior studies in coastal Northern California documenting that river otters (Lontra canadensis) had selected waterbirds as prey, we identified undigested prey items in scat to evaluate prey selection of waterbirds at the Arcata Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary (AMWS). We compared feathers found …

“Thanks For The [Land] Acknowledgement, Now What?”: Settler Histories And Decolonial Futures At Cal Poly Humboldt’S Schatz Tree Farm, Sangeeta Sarkar

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

As California’s newest polytechnic university, Cal Poly Humboldt is often lauded for its Indigenous-facing programming and commitments to Indigenous peoples. In recent years, Native American Studies faculty, staff, and students, alongside Indigenous community partners, have led conversations about Cal Poly Humboldt meaningfully supporting tribal sovereignty by returning land to Native nations. As Cutcha Risling Baldy summarized in a research interview, “Thanks for the [land] acknowledgement, now what?” (2024, personal interview). However, though Cal Poly Humboldt has made various land acknowledgements and references to Indigenous peoples in its university policies, conversations about #LandBack have been met with resistance from the university. …

An Economic And Production Analysis Of Seaweed Farms In California And The Pacific Northwest, Brian Donovan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Since the early 2010s, the seaweed aquaculture industry has steadily expanded in the United States, with states like Alaska, Maine, Hawaii, and Connecticut leading the way in the development of this emerging sector. However, information gaps remain concerning certain aspects of the domestic seaweed aquaculture industry. The purpose of this study was to examine the status of the seaweed aquaculture industry along the West Coast of the United States; specifically in the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Seaweed farmers in these states were invited to voluntarily complete surveys asking important production, economic, and commercial questions regarding their operations. Data …

Just Keep Swimming: Outmigration Survival Of Upper Klamath Basin Juvenile Chinook Salmon, James M. Whelan

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The removal of four impassable hydroelectric dams on the Klamath River provides salmonids with the opportunity to recolonize their historic range in the upper Klamath River watershed. However, successful reestablishment of salmon populations requires juvenile salmon born in Oregon's upper tributaries to safely migrate downstream through the river's upper reaches. This stretch of the Klamath River, immediately downstream of Upper Klamath Lake, presents multiple migration challenges, including two flow-control dams not scheduled for removal (Link River Dam and Keno Dam), significant water diversions, and water quality issues. To evaluate these challenges, I conducted experimental releases of radio-tagged juvenile Chinook salmon …

Exploring The Placebo Effect On The Cortisol Stress Response, Povheng Yam

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

The placebo effect is well-studied on pain perception and is often observed to have a pain-reducing effect in patients. A few studies suggest that the placebo effect can influence physiological changes in people. To date, not many studies have examined the placebo effect on stress; thus, the current study explored the placebo effect on participants’ cortisol stress response and self-reported stress while undergoing a modified acute stress task, the Sing-a-Song Stress Test (SSST). The current study includes 44 participants (22 in the control group and 22 in the treatment group). A deceptive stress-reducing tincture (filled with water) was used as …

A Porpoise-Driven Approach: Using Agent-Based Models To Predict Population Consequences Of Offshore Wind Noises On Gulf Of Maine Harbor Porpoises, Ben Greenberg Pridonoff

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Marine mammals are increasingly exposed to anthropogenic noises, including from offshore wind activities, necessitating the development and refinement of tools to predict the effects of noise on their populations. Agent-based models (ABMs) are an effective tool that can simulate realistic movements and behaviors of animals to quantify population consequences of disturbance. In this study, I used the Europe-based ABM ‘DEPONS’ to (1) evaluate its effectiveness in a new environment, the Gulf of Maine, USA/Bay of Fundy, Canada, and (2) develop estimates of the population dynamics of local harbor porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) interacting with expected noises from proposed floating …

Our Ai, Ourselves: Illuminating The Human Fears Animating Early Regulatory Responses To The Use Of Generative Ai In The Practice Of Law, Margaret Raymond

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

Generative artificial intelligence is changing the way lawyers work, and with those changes have come questions and concerns about how it should be regulated. Those questions and concerns, particularly on the individual level, are driven by fears about the implications of the use of generative AI. This Article identifies and explores the fears that drive these regulatory responses: fear of exposing judicial fallibility, anxiety over AI replacing human lawyers, and concerns about missing out on AI’s potential benefits. Ultimately, effective regulation of the use of generative AI in legal practice needs to be attentive to the fears and hopes surrounding …

Artificial Intelligence In Texas: Navigating The Risks, Benefits, And Uncharged Boundaries Of An Emerging Technology, Jordanna Tobias

St. Mary's Journal on Legal Malpractice & Ethics

No abstract provided.