Digital Commons Network^™

Unleashing Serine Palmitoyltransferase In Test Tubes And Mice, Matthew W. Peart

Theses and Dissertations

Canonically known both for structural contributions to lipid bilayers and roles in cell signaling, the sphingolipids comprise a dynamic, multifaceted class of molecules which are studied to understand homeostatic cell biology as well as pathophysiology. Sphingolipids contribute to tissue-specific structures such as myelin, a multilayer membrane that allows for rapid conduction of action potentials along neuronal axons. All sphingolipids are downstream products of the rate-limiting and initiating enzyme in the de novo sphingolipid synthesis pathway, Serine palmitoyltransferase (SPT). Demonstrative of its status as the enzyme that catalyzes a crucial step in a biochemical pathway, SPT activity is strictly regulated. This …

Reply Stop To Stop, Molly A. M. Garrett

Theses and Dissertations

Over the course of 8 years working in progressive political strategy, 2015–2023, I became increasingly critical of the systems, formulas and tools we were using to communicate with voters. Reply STOP to Stop is documentation of my time at graduate school, of wrestling with ideas of political design, language, communication and distribution. I analyzed my past work — all the texts, emails, social media posts, print ads, web banners, videos and other miscellaneous scripted content — and wondered if we would all be better off without it. Would elections be fairer, would there be less fake news, more community building? …

Rehabilitation In Stroke-Related Flexor Synergy, Shawn J. Dirocco

Theses and Dissertations

Upper extremity abnormal flexor synergy caused by stroke can impair individuals by coupling upper extremity muscles with deltoid activation. Previous studies have shown that reduction in deltoid loading can decrease flexor synergy. Robotic rehabilitation has the ability to allow for reduced deltoid loading while assisting or constraining joints along the arm to increase rehabilitation outcomes. The effects of higher degree of freedom low impedance robotics needs to be tested to learn how various parameters affect flexor synergy in comparison to end point robotics. During the first experiment, we tested 16 chronic stroke patients with flexor synergy problems in 3 tasks. …

Intuitive Mixed Reality Interfaces For Creative And Interactive Robotics: Roboart, Magnaforma, And Playmeow, Miles Popielamc

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis details the development and application of intuitive Mixed Reality (MR) interfaces designed to broaden access to robotic control for creative and interactive uses. The central contribution is the RoboART system, a novel MR interface built with the Microsoft HoloLens 2 to program an ABB GoFa collaborative robot for non-expert users, such as artists. The work describes RoboART's application in the Magnaforma project, where it enabled complex artistic expression.

Additionally, the thesis introduces the PlayMeow project, which explores adaptive pet interaction through a laser-guided turret. This system's control strategies were deeply informed by the intuitive paradigms developed for RoboART, …

Visible Modulation Of Epsilon Near Zero Materials, Jonathan M. Weber

Theses and Dissertations

While Epsilon-Near-Zero materials have offered many benefits from their introduction to the field of nonlinear optics, those materials have also narrowed the range of wavelengths often studied. With reliable and proven enhancements to light-matter interaction in the ENZ region, many researchers have had little reason to extend the spectrum measured in experiments. The purpose of this work is to measure the intensity dependent refractive index of Indium Tin Oxide across a broad spectral range, from ultraviolet to near infrared, to improve the understanding of semiconductor nonlinearities far from Lorentz and Drude resonances. Furthermore, the visible region is naturally low-loss in …

Intervertebral Lateral Bending Moment Differences In The Lumbar Spine Of Baseball Pitchers Across Throwing Velocities, Justin Humenay

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction Baseball pitching imposes substantial mechanical demands on the lumbar spine, a crucial link in the kinetic chain responsible for transferring energy from the lower body to the upper extremity. While increased pitch velocity is associated with greater trunk forces the specific intervertebral loading patterns during high-velocity pitching remain unclear. This study investigates differences in lateral bending moments across lumbar spinal segments between collegiate pitchers throwing at high versus low velocities.

Methods Twenty right-handed collegiate pitchers were divided into two groups: high-velocity (n = 10, 90.3 ± 1.6 mph) and low-velocity (n = 10, 81.6 ± 1.1 mph). Motion capture …

Brute Gamification, Catherine Chen

Theses and Dissertations

Digital platforms are surreptitious structures that gamify the ways in which we engage and exchange. They dictate every step of our journeys even as we navigate onward with a sense of absolute agency. The harder that we try to win, the more the platform will win!

In Brute Gamification, I employ image-based installation and performance to unravel the terms and conditions with which these platforms dictate our lives. A literal platform supports a series of image-games, all of which are about to end in a draw. Through prescribing the user to a designated path to focus on this non-ending as …

Facile Synthesis Of Gold, Copper, And Silicon Nanostructures By Laser Ablation In Liquid, Nicholas Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

Metal nanoparticle (NP) synthesis is a continually evolving area of research, owing to the widespread application of NPs in fields such as catalysis, drug delivery, and biosensing. Compared to bulk metal material, NPs contain a larger proportion of surface atoms and exhibit unique optical properties, thus making them ideal for applications where maximizing surface interactions is key. Moreover, their compositions can be altered in several different ways, as evidenced by metal alloy, core/shell, supported, and defective NPs. While conventional synthesis methods are capable of producing NPs in large quantities, they often require conditions of high temperature and pressure, strong reducing …

Is Sex Necessary? Or Why You Feel The Way You Do, James Thurber, E. B. White

Zea E-Books Collection

Contents: The Nature of the American Male : A Study of Pedestalism • How to Tell Love From Passion • A Discussion of Feminine Types • The Sexual Revolution : Being a Rather Complete Survey of the Entire Sexual Scene • The Lilies-and-Bluebird Delusion • What Should Children Tell Parents? • Claustrophobia, or What Every Young Wife Should Know • Frigidity in Men • Answers to Hard Questions • Glossary

The year was 1929, the height of the Roaring Twenties and the eve of the Crash and Great Depression. A “Sexual Revolution” was in progress, and two writers from The …

Exploring The Development Of Students' Calling To The Work Of An Hod Practitioner In An Undergraduate Hod Degree Program, Neil Dana Rahbar-Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation project consisted of a multiple case qualitative study to explore indications of cross-influences between students’ experiences of learning takeaways as participants in one or more HOD undergraduate degree courses and accompanying experiences (if any) of perceiving and/or living a calling to work as HOD practitioners. This phenomenological inquiry involved four undergraduate students who had completed one or more HOD degree courses at Mid-Atlantic States University (MSU as a pseudonym) during a two-year period. Each participant attended a single interview of about 90 minutes in duration, responded to a short vocational calling survey as a guide for interview questioning, …

Profiles Of First-Year First-Generation Students’ Library Perceptions And Use: An Intersectional, Mixed Methods Study, Megan Hodge

Theses and Dissertations

To effectively support first-generation students, academic libraries must understand their needs. However, limited library research has been conducted into how these students, who often embody multiple structurally disadvantaged identities, perceive and use academic libraries or how their intersecting identities manifest in differing library needs. This study aimed to build understanding of first-year first-generation students’ perceptions and use of academic libraries. To do so, the researcher used an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design. First-year first-generation students at Virginia Commonwealth University were surveyed using Winkler and Sriram’s (2015) Academic Capital Scale and Anwar et al’s (2012) AQAK: Library Anxiety Scale for Undergraduate Students. …

Beliefs Related To Diagnosing Bpd And Complex Ptsd, Bailey Pascuzzi

Theses and Dissertations

There has been speculation that Borderline personality disorder (BPD) and Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (Complex PTSD) are the same disorder or represent separate disorders on a broader trauma spectrum (Frost et al., 2020; Lewis & Grenyer, 2009). BPD and Complex PTSD share several symptoms but differ in their presentation (Ford & Courtis, 2021). Because the two disorders present so similarly, it could be that clinicians have difficulty differentiating them, leading to misdiagnosis (Miller, 2014). This study examined clinicians’ diagnostic decision-making and stigma toward BPD and Complex PTSD. Participants (N = 426) completed an online survey where they diagnosed a written …

Learning From Non-Stationary Data Streams, Gabriel Jonas Aguiar

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of data from sources such as mobile applications, sensors, and network monitoring has increased the need for machine learning algorithms capable of handling non-stationary data streams. However, learning from such streams presents significant challenges due to their evolving nature and the presence of concept drift. One of the most complex issues is learning from imbalanced data streams, where shifting data distributions, combined with feature space drifts, complicate continuous adaptation. These challenges become even more pronounced in multi-class scenarios, which are common in real-world applications. Detecting concept drift in such contexts is particularly demanding, as it requires tracking …

“Some Vague Utopia”: Searching For Urania, Moira L. Neve

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the global pendulum swing of gender trouble marked by the United States’ President’s declaration that there are only two sexes, activists have been rejecting assimilation (ie. defining equality as gay marriage or queer people in the military) within queer studies long before 2025. In the first half of the 20th century, a journal by the name of Urania (1916-1940), privately published and circulated to their home base in the United Kingdom and beyond, five editors (Esther Roper, Eva Gore-Booth, Jessey Wade, Dorothy Cornish, and Irene Clyde/Thomas Baty), challenged the gender binary and the resulting assumptions of heterosexual marriage. This …

Exploring Prenatal Cannabis Use Among Young Pregnant Bisexual Individuals: A Mixed Methods Study, Nicole Boss

Theses and Dissertations

The perinatal period is a critical time for health behaviors with outcomes that have short- and long-term effects for both childbearing person and child. Research indicates that young bisexual people are at greater risk of unintended pregnancy, experience psychosocial health disparities, and may be more likely to use cannabis during pregnancy. Few studies have examined this phenomenon. This study is a secondary analysis of mixed methods data from a longitudinal cohort study. Thematic analysis of qualitative data (n=12) revealed the contextual adaptivity of cannabis use, with participants explaining the situations and rationales which motivated their cannabis use changed over time. …

Social Support, Tobacco Attitudes/Perceptions Of Harm, And Asthma Status As Moderators In The Association Between Tobacco Exposure And Cotinine Levels, Rachel L. Pitts

Theses and Dissertations

Tobacco use and exposure are linked to adverse health outcomes (e.g., respiratory conditions) and increased healthcare utilization (e.g., emergency room visits). This study examined the moderating role of social support, tobacco attitudes/perceptions of harm, and asthma status on associations between tobacco use (e.g., combustible product use) and exposure (e.g., secondhand smoke) and cotinine levels among individuals in Richmond, Virginia. We also explored differences in tobacco-related variables by asthma status and associations among tobacco use, secondhand smoke exposure, cotinine levels, and asthma control. Youth (n = 201) and adults (n = 209) (95.7% Black/African American; 60.6% female; 65.8% non-tobacco users; 21% …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Kynurenine-Mediated Lifespan Regulation In Yeast, Ryan E. Counterman Jobb

Theses and Dissertations

The kynurenine pathway is a highly conserved pathway that acts as the primary pathway for tryptophan catabolism and has been found to be involved in lifespan regulation across many diverse organisms. Caloric restriction (CR) is the only known dietary intervention to date that both increases the mean lifespan and the health span of multiple organisms, although the molecular mechanisms of these effects are not fully understood. There are known and sometimes contradictory relationships between the kynurenine pathway activity and the life- extending effect of CR but the crosstalk between the two is not well characterized. Understanding these relationships could lead …

Three Essays On Investment Strategies, Machine Learning And Risk Management, Nafise Aalipour

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of frictions, regime dynamics, and predictive modeling in understanding persistent anomalies and managing financial risk in equity markets. Across three essays, I examine how transaction costs limit arbitrage opportunities, how market regimes shape the evolution of return anomalies, and how a hybrid econometric-machine learning framework can enhance risk forecasting.

The first essay investigates whether transaction costs and idiosyncratic risk constrain the profitability of long-term reversal and medium-term momentum strategies. Using a comprehensive dataset from 1927 to 2022, I estimate stock-level trading frictions through three distinct methods - Limited Dependent Variable models, Gibbs cost estimators, and …

United States Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Integrity Policy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

US EPA SIP

Sexual Dysfunction Or Systemic Discrimination? The Role Of Androcentricism And Phallocentrism In The Conceptualization, Diagnosis, And Treatment Of Female Sexual Dysfunction, Alyssa Lagrone

Undergraduate Student Research Awards

No abstract provided.

Yars 18(32)

Yearbook of Antitrust and Regulatory Studies

YARS Vol. 18(32)

History's Identity Crisis, Allison Orr Larsen

Faculty Publications

Lower court judges across the country are struggling to manage the Supreme Court’s new “history and tradition” test that applies to Second Amendment challenges. This Article articulates one fundamental reason for the struggle: nobody is quite sure what a judge is actually doing when she evaluates claims about what happened in the past. Is it traditional legal reasoning— weighing evidence and looking for patterns? Is it fact-finding of the sort we think expert historians should testify about—conveying to a trial judge the best evidence we have about the purpose of colonial gun laws? Or is it a different sort of …

By Any Other Name: Dei Is Not What You Think It Is, Nicole Porter

Faculty Publications

In this moment, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs are hotly debated and very misunderstood. Contrary to popular belief, DEI programs do not drastically change an employer’s hiring practices. They are, to some extent, performative. In this essay, I explain what DEI really is and why a rebranding (or at least a new name) might be in order.

Hypnosis And Mindfulness Audio Recordings For Reducing Fatigue In Individuals With Multiple Sclerosis: A Randomized Controlled Study, Mark P. Jensen, Susan Robles, Michael G. Nash, Susanne May, Dwan M. Ehde, Melissa A. Day, Owen Gottlieb, Laurence I. Sugarman, Kevin N. Alschuler

Articles

Background

Fatigue is a common problem in individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS).

Objective

The objective was to evaluate the effects on fatigue of having 4 weeks of

access to audio recordings of therapeutic hypnosis (HYP) and mindfulness meditation

(MM) practices.

Methods

A total of 333 individuals with MS and fatigue were randomly assigned to

one of the three treatment conditions for 28 weeks: (1) access to therapeutic HYP audio

recordings, (2) access to MM audio recordings, or (3) no access to recordings

(treatment as usual or TAU). Fatigue impact (primary outcome) and other outcomes

were assessed at 4, 16, and …

Impact Of Catastrophic Brain Injury Guidelines On Organ Donation Rates, Kristen D. Nordham, Danielle Tatum, Abdallah S. Attia, Mayur B. Patel, Anil Paramesh, Juan C. Duchesne, Jeffry Nahmias, Amelia W. Maiga, Allan B. Peetz, Pascal O. Udekwu, Anquonette Stiles, Chloe Shell, Joshua D. Stodghill, Taneen Maghsoudi, Erin Iacullo, Bryant Mclafferty, Erin Coonan, Ryan M. Boudreau, Steven A. Zimmerman, Berje Shammassian, Tanya Egodage, Isabella Aramento, Patrick Morris, Jacob Metheny, Michael S. Farrell, Matthew D. Painter, Owen T. Mccabe, Philomene Spadafore

Surgery Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND One third of organ donors suffer catastrophic brain injury (CBI). There are no standard guidelines for the management of traumatic CBI prior to brain death, and not all trauma centers have institutional CBI guidelines. In addition, there is high variability in management between institutions with guidelines. Catastrophic brain injury guidelines vary and may include various combinations of hormone therapy, vasopressors, fluid resuscitation, and other practices. We hypothesized that centers with CBI guidelines have higher organ donation rates than those without. METHODS This prospective, observational EAST-sponsored multicenter trial included adult (18+ years old) traumatic-mechanism CBI patients at 33 level I …

Human Rights Methodology For Clinical Instruction: Legal Theory And Interdisciplinary Practices To Realize Human Rights Outcomes, Diane Desierto

Journal Articles

The interdisciplinary fact-finding and analytical methodologies of global human rights law, when translated to experiential learning practices (e.g., in the form of human rights legal assessments that integrate international law with domestic law and inject rigorous plausibility evaluations of client claims applicable to global as well as domestic fora) can usefully enhance and expand United States law school clinical teaching practices and the transfer of practical lawyering skills. By teaching law students: (1) the wide range of available human rights factfinding and empirical tools; (2) the techniques for broad use and application of primary and secondary evidentiary sources; and (3) …

Development And Prototyping Of A Modular Quadruped Towards Testing Standardization For Legged Robot Stability, Michael Conner Larsen

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Legged robots are well-suited for navigating uneven and unmapped terrain, making them valuable in various robotics applications. Maintaining balance and stability in such environments relies on a combination of sensors, control strategies, and mechanical design. However, selecting the most effective sensing and control method for a given use case remains challenging. Previous studies have explored various approaches, integrating combinations of joint angle measurement, inertial measurement units (IMUs), torque-based control, leg force measurement, image processing, and machine learning, paired with numerous controller designs, which can contribute to stability. However, direct comparisons of these methods are often limited by the need for …

Academic Entitlement: Why Gen Z Students Believe They Deserve Good Grades For Academic Success Regardless Of Their Performance, Clinton Stephen Mawusi

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores how Generation Z college students at Northern Illinois University (NIU) understand, negotiate, and express academic expectations and experiences, particularly concerning their sense of academic entitlement. Drawing from semi-structured interviews with 20 full-time undergraduate students across diverse academic disciplines, this qualitative study employed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-phase thematic analysis approach to identify patterns in students’ perspectives on grades, effort, and faculty relationships. The findings reveal detailed tensions between students’ desire for recognition of effort and their awareness of institutional standards of academic merit. Participants shared insights into classroom interactions, grading policies, use of campus resources, and the …

Investigating The Experiences Of Sales Trainees, Sales Instructors, And Sales Leaders Regarding Workplace Training Delivered Through Immersive Virtual Reality In A Remote Work Setting, Gregory Christopher Scott

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Workplace learning was profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the effects of the pandemic was the shift to work-from-home arrangements for eligible workers. It is anticipated that work-from-home arrangements will permanently remain above pre-COVID levels. Previous studies have identified the potential of using virtual reality (VR) for certain types of training, including workplace safety, soft skills, and virtual tours. However, VR has not been thoroughly investigated in a work-from-home setting, especially within the context of a global pandemic. Additionally, while much of the literature concentrates on the experiences of learners in VR, relatively few studies have included instructors …

Thai Pre-Service And Early-Career Teachers' Professional Identity Formation, Duangkamon Winitkun

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Beginning teachers, including pre-service (PSTs) and early-career teachers (ECTs), face various types of challenges such as classroom management, instructional planning, building relationships with school stakeholders, adjusting to school culture, and limited resources (Kozikoglu, 2017). Many studies focus on these challenges as technical issues, neglecting the role of teacher identity in how educators experience and address these difficulties (e.g., Burden, 2020; Doyle, 1990; Hoy & Weinstein, 2013). Moreover, most teacher identity studies are predominantly conducted in Western contexts where sociocultural values and systemic constraints shape teachers’ professional roles differently from those in Eastern contexts. This three-manuscript dissertation investigates the identity formation …