Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Abortion Bans On Women’S Financial Wellbeing: Evidence From A Post-Dobbs America, Sophie Mulvihill

Student Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Bridging The Rural Telehealth Divide, Deborah R. Farringer

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Putting The “Social” Into Social Determinants Of Health: Why Policymaking For Improving Health Must Tackle Social Isolation And Loneliness, Laura C. Hoffman

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

Second Generation Immigrants In Higher Education: Experiences In Selective Liberal Arts Contexts, Brenna Paxton

Honors Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the educational experiences of second-generation students at a selective, predominantly white liberal arts institution, in order to better understand what types of factors and practices contribute to their success, and how successful educational trajectories intersect with racial, ethnic, cultural and gender identities. To explore this, hour-long interviews were conducted, diving deeper into the educational experiences of second generation immigrants, also considering the lives of previous generations such as parents and grandparents. Interviews were transcribed and coded, uncovering patterns and themes that existed across participants’ experiences. Findings revealed that second generation immigrants at …

The Boston Metco Program: Recent Alumni Experiences And Educational Equity, Maya Hernandez

Honors Theses

This project focuses on contemporary school integration practices by examining, in particular, the Boston METCO (Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity Inc) program and the experiences of its recent alumni. The METCO program, the United States’ longest-running voluntary school desegregation program, was created in 1966 to give students of color from the city of Boston better educational opportunities by busing them to the surrounding suburbs for school. To this day, it is a program meant to expand educational opportunities, increase diversity, and reduce racial isolation, by permitting students from Boston to attend public schools beyond district lines, in the suburbs. My …

How The Town Views The Gown: A Case Study Of A Campus-Community Relationship, Dora Kreitzer

Honors Theses

This research uses Bucknell and Lewisburg as a case study to understand the relationship between universities and their surrounding communities. While prior research has focused on urban, large, and/or research-oriented universities, the rural, small, and predominantly liberal arts nature of Bucknell provides an opportunity to explore how campus-community relationships vary by environment. Forty-eight qualitative semi-structured interviews and 12 months of observation of Lewisburg Borough Council meetings are used to explore three main areas of the town-gown relationship: economics, space, and social capital. These three themes emerged from interviews and observations as the most important determinants of residents’ perceptions of the …

The Lasting Impact Of Ring V. Arizona On Capital Jury Trials, Kevin M. Morrow

Wyoming Law Review

The final decision on the imposition of the death penalty in the United States is made by either judges or juries. A wealth of empirical study has gone into comparing these two methods. Arizona, with its change to a jury-based system immediately after the landmark Supreme Court decision Ring v. Arizona, is divided into discrete eras of capital sentencing. For the first time, this article catalogs, and examines, the post-Ring capital trials that reached the question of life or death to explore systemic differences between jury and judge sentencings. The study revealed that while Arizona’s rate of death sentences increased …

Impacts Of Southern Pine Beetle (Dendroctonus Frontalis Zimmerman) On Loblolly Pine (Pinus Taeda L.) Canopy And Water Use In The Homochitto National Forest, Mississippi, Usa, Sasha Goodnow, Yun Yang, Hui Liu, Ashley Schulz

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

Abiotic and biotic forest disturbances can have many impacts to forest ecosystem services, including to forest water use. Studies on impacts to forest evapotranspiration have been conducted on the mountain pine beetle (Dendroctonus ponderosae) in western North America, but not on the southern pine beetle (Dendroctonus frontalis), which is a native pest of loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) and shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata), in the southeastern United States. Stressed pine trees produce pheromones that attract southern pine beetles and, with enough stressed trees, beetle populations can quickly grow to epidemic levels and attack healthy trees, which results in widespread tree mortality. …

Traveling Jack: Tracing Settler Identity Through Appalachian Folklore, Madelynn R. Green

Endeavors: Mississippi State Undergraduate Research Journal

Archaeology and Folklore have long had a tense relationship, but in an era of archaeology focusing more and more on the current and descendant communities it is imperative for archaeologists to begin engage folklore traditions in their work. By engaging archaeology and folkloric methods both fields can benefit. In the case of this study, I have used the "Traveling Jack" story, a common folk tale with English, Scottish, Irish, and Appalachian versions that involves a young man using his wits to overcome a series of challenges to achieve various happy endings, to trace Scottish and Irish settlement and reinvention in …

Domestic Direct Agricultural Exports And Export Spillovers From Foreign Export Intermediary Firms: Evidence From Tanzania, John S. M. Shilinde, Ari Kokko, Vincent Leyaro

Journal of African Trade

This study examines the impact of foreign intermediaries on Tanzanian domestic direct exporting firms’ ability to expand their export volume. Using panel gravity PPML model to firm-level agricultural exports dataset 2010-2020, we find that foreign intermediaries significantly promote domestic firms’ intensive margins of exports. The geographic clustering of foreign intermediaries exporting comparable goods to similar destination generates significant positive spillover effects on domestic firms based in the same region. This suggests, the companies with product-destination-market pairings have the greatest export spillover effects that are likely related to knowledge transfers generated foreign firms from their country of origin.

Migration And Youth Unemployment In Africa: Implications For The African Continental Free Trade Area (Afcfta), S.U.R Aliyu, Afees Adebare Salisu, Oyeyemi Kale

Journal of African Trade

This research explores the impact of migration within Africa on youth unemployment. The study makes two sig nificant contributions to existing literature. First, it investigates how intra-African migration can potentially support intra-African trade to enhance productivity and reduce youth unemployment. Second, it estimates the effects of intra African migration on male and female youth unemployment. The research methodology comprises using a two-level estimation involving the Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood (PPML) technique and a Two-Stage Least Squares approach addressing endogeneity bias. Furthermore, a Negative Binomial Maximum Likelihood estimator was utilized to test the model's robustness. The results indicate that higher per …

Trade Misinvoicing: Corruption And Economic Performance In Africa, Samuel Odewunmi, Godwin Okafor, Zheng Wang, Oluwasoye Mafimisebi

Journal of African Trade

This paper analyses how trade misinvoicing, as a direct measure of corruption, affects the economic performance of Africa, given that most of the existing studies on the corruption-economy nexus are based on corruption perception index, world governance indicators, international country risk guide, and other corruption indices. Using GMM and OLS econometric techniques on a sample of 35 African countries from 2008 to 2017, our results show that corruption, as measured by value gap reduces income per capita in the selected African countries. Specifically, a 1 percent increase in the value gap will reduce GDP per capita by 0.309-0.414 percent. The …

From Pathological Bifurcations To Meaningful Planetary Change Agents, Brad Tabas, Linda Gardelle, Klara Kovesi, Una Beagon

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This chapter discusses and analyzes the phenomenon of pathological bifurcation among French engineering students. Pathological bifurcation occurs when sustainable development succeeds in inspiring student activism, but that passion expresses itself destructively. The chapter answers two questions. First, we interrogate whether pathological bifurcation is a product of lacunae with current SD education practices. Having answered affirmatively, we reflect on how to treat this diagnosis. Our suggestion is that if SDG related curricular innovations are desirable, so too is an extensive grounding in the traditional teachings of what we call planetary humanities. These are lessons drawn from around planet inculcating the very …

Assessing High-Speed Rail (Hsr) Policy And Politics In Washington State: Avoiding The Mistakes Of The Past, Landen K. Hashimura

All Master's Theses

While international standard high-speed rail (HSR) has yet to be successfully completed in the US, there is a national interest in the topic, as evidenced by recent federal initiatives to research HSR across various corridors. The Cascadia Corridor has been identified as a region with high potential for HSR, leading to an ongoing study in the State of Washington. Given the tumultuous history of American HSR development, the Cascadia HSR initiative needs to avoid the mistakes of the past. Two major contributing factors to this failure to build HSR are uneven political support for HSR and poor policy frameworks. Despite …

Evaluating Geoai-Generated Data For Maintaining Vgi Maps, Lasith Niroshan, James D. Carswell

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Geospatial Artificial Intelligence (GeoAI) offers a scalable solution for automating the generation and updating of volunteered geographic information (VGI) maps—addressing the limitations of manual contributions to crowd-source mapping platforms such as OpenStreetMap (OSM). This study evaluates the accuracy of GeoAI-generated buildings specifically, using two Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) models. These are OSM-GAN—trained on OSM vector data and Google Earth imagery—and OSi-GAN—trained on authoritative “ground truth” Ordnance Survey Ireland (OSi) vector data and aerial orthophotos. Altogether, we assess map feature completeness, shape accuracy, and positional accuracy and conduct qualitative visual evaluations using live OSM database features and OSi map data as …

Are We Safe In The Digital World? Why We Still Fall Victim To Cybercrime, Kevin Le

Honors Papers and Posters

Cybersecurity has only recently gained press coverage as millions of individuals are victimized by cyberattacks. While current cybersecurity measures offer some protection, human error has been the number one cause of cyberattacks for the past eight years (Verizon, 2024). Cybercrime continues to evolve in complexity, leveraging advanced technology and human psychology to bypass traditional security systems. This study examines why individuals still fall victim to cyberattacks. It explores the psychological and cognitive factors that make individuals vulnerable, focusing on social engineering techniques such as phishing and pretexting. This study also analyzes factors from psychological theories, including Protection Motivation Theory, Routine …

Facilitating Engagement In Meaningful Occupations Through Nature-Based Experiences, Sydney Johnson

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Background: Many children, especially those living in urban areas, are spending less time in nature than ever before which is decreasing their engagement in meaningful occupations such as sleep, play, education, social participation, and activities of daily living. Interacting with nature can improve children’s emotional regulation, development, attention span, mental health, and overall well-being. It is important that children have access to nature and its benefits to ensure they are reaching their full potential in life. One method to improve children’s access to nature is providing them with nature-based activities that can be modified or adapted for those living in …

Using An Archival Collection In A Student Research And Creative Activity Fair: The Lourdes Gouveia Papers At The University Of Nebraska At Omaha, Claire Du Laney Dunker

Criss Library Faculty Publications

During the Spring 2022 semester, Claire Du Laney, Outreach Archivist at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) Archives and Special Collections (ASC), worked with Dr. Brett Kyle and students in International Relations in Latin America (PSCI4280) to introduce political science students to primary source research.[1] Using the Lourdes Gouveia Papers (UNO-0234), students conducted archival research and incorporated those skills into their final projects.[2] The Lourdes Gouveia Papers are the research collection of Dr. Lourdes Gouveia, a UNO professor and founding director of the Office of Latino/Latin American Studies (OLLAS), who studied Latinx immigrants in the Nebraska meat-packing industry from …

Increase Successful Outcomes With Technology-Driven Mergers And Acquisitions : Prioritize Post-Merger Integration Risk Mitigation, Kingsley Eromosele Usianeneh

Dissertations

In the post-COVID-19 era, accelerated engineering advances including Artificial Intelligence (AI) have increased firm’s reliance on technology-driven mergers and acquisitions (M&A) as an expedient strategy to bolster their technological innovation capabilities, retain competitive advantage and ensure sustainability. However, many M&As fail to achieve their strategic goals because of persistent challenges during post-merger integration (PMI). This dissertation adopts and integrates chapter 2 – chapter 4 to identify, theorize, and proactively mitigate the primary recurring PMI challenges that impede successful technology-driven M&A outcomes. Chapter 2 adopts PRISMA guidelines, conducts a systematic literature review, identifies, and synthesizes four persistent PMI risk categories: (1) …

การศึกษาวิเคราะห์ลักษณะการย้ายถิ่นเข้าและรูปแบบเชิงพื้นที่ และปัจจัยที่มีผลต่อความตั้งใจอยู่ต่อของประชากรแฝง: กรณีศึกษากรุงเทพมหานคร, นันทนัจช์ ลิ้มกมลทิพย์

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

การย้ายถิ่นภายในประเทศไทยมากกว่าร้อยละ 10 มีจุดหมายปลายทางไปสู่กรุงเทพมหานคร ซึ่งส่งผลสำคัญต่อการเปลี่ยนแปลงพลวัตของประชากรเมืองอย่างรวดเร็ว อย่างไรก็ตาม ระบบทะเบียนราษฎรไม่สามารถสะท้อนการเคลื่อนย้ายดังกล่าวได้อย่างทันท่วงที กล่าวคือ จำนวนประชากรที่อาศัยอยู่จริงมีสูงกว่าจำนวนประชากรตามทะเบียนราษฎรอย่างมีนัยสำคัญ จึงนำไปสู่การเกิดขึ้นของกลุ่ม "ประชากรแฝง" ที่ยังไม่ได้จดทะเบียนในพื้นที่ ซึ่งย่อมส่งผลให้การจัดสรรทรัพยากรและการบริหารจัดการเมืองไม่สอดคล้องกับความเป็นจริง งานวิจัยฉบับนี้แบ่งการศึกษาเป็นสองส่วน สำหรับส่วนแรก เพื่อทำความเข้าใจลักษณะและรูปแบบเชิงพื้นที่ของการย้ายถิ่นเข้าสู่กรุงเทพมหานคร ผู้วิจัยวิเคราะห์ข้อมูลจากสำมะโนประชากรและเคหะ พ.ศ. 2533 2543 และ 2553 ด้วยสถิติเชิงพรรณนา อีกทั้งยังมีการผนวกข้อมูลการใช้ประโยชน์ที่ดินและข้อมูลรายรับจากภาษี เพื่อทดสอบความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างปัจจัยเชิงพื้นที่กับการย้ายถิ่นเข้าสู่พื้นที่ด้วยการวิเคราะห์การถดถอยพหุ โดยผลการศึกษาพบว่า จำนวนผู้ย้ายถิ่นเข้าสู่กรุงเทพมหานครมีเปลี่ยนแปลงตามช่วงเวลา โดยมีการลดลงใน พ.ศ. 2543 และกลับมาเพิ่มขึ้นใน พ.ศ. 2553 นอกจากนี้ ยังพบการเปลี่ยนแปลงรูปแบบการกระจายตัวของผู้ย้ายถิ่น โดยใน พ.ศ. 2533 มีการกระจุกตัวในเขตกรุงเทพฯ ชั้นใน แต่หลังจากนั้นขยายตัวออกสู่เขตกรุงเทพฯ ชั้นนอกอย่างต่อเนื่อง โดยเพิ่มขึ้นจาก 1.02 แสนคน เป็น 2.07 แสนคน ในช่วงระยะ 20 ปี ทั้งนี้ผลการวิเคราะห์การถดถอยพหุชี้ให้เห็นว่า ความหนาแน่นของประชากร รูปแบบการใช้ประโยชน์ที่ดิน และรายได้จากภาษีท้องถิ่น ล้วนเป็นปัจจัยเชิงพื้นที่ที่มีความสัมพันธ์เชิงบวกสำหรับผู้ย้ายถิ่นที่ระดับนัยสำคัญทางสถิติร้อยละ 5 ขณะที่สัดส่วนวัยแรงงานมีความสัมพันธ์เชิงลบที่ระดับนัยสำคัญทางสถิติร้อยละ 10 สำหรับการศึกษาส่วนที่สอง ซึ่งเป็นการวิเคราะห์ปัจจัยกำหนดความตั้งใจอยู่ต่อของประชากรแฝง โดยใช้ข้อมูลระดับบุคคลจากการสำรวจการย้ายถิ่น พ.ศ. 2557-2564 ผ่านแบบจำลองสมการโครงสร้าง (Structural Equation Modeling: SEM) พบว่า แบบจำลองสำหรับประชากรแฝงที่พำนักอยู่ในกรุงเทพมหานครมากกว่าหนึ่งปี มีความสอดคล้องกับข้อมูลเชิงประจักษ์ในเกณฑ์ดี (RMSEA = 0.04, RMR = 0.06, CFI = 0.96) โดยปัจจัยด้านเศรษฐกิจมีอิทธิพลโดยตรงสูงสุดต่อความตั้งใจอยู่ต่อของประชากรแฝง (β = 0.30) ในขณะที่ปัจจัยด้านประชากรมีอิทธิพลทางอ้อมผ่านระยะเวลาการพำนักในระดับต่ำกว่า (β = 0.08) ซึ่งผลลัพธ์นี้สอดคล้องกับกลุ่มประชากรแฝงที่พำนักไม่เกินหนึ่งปี จึงอาจกล่าวได้ว่า โอกาสทางเศรษฐกิจเป็นกลไกหลักในการกำหนดการตัดสินใจตั้งถิ่นฐานของประชากรแฝง โดยสรุปแล้ว การศึกษานี้ชี้ให้เห็นว่า การย้ายถิ่นเข้าสู่กรุงเทพมหานครได้รับอิทธิพลจากปัจจัยเชิงพื้นที่ ในขณะที่ความตั้งใจอยู่ต่อของประชากรแฝงถูกกำหนดโดยปัจจัยทางเศรษฐกิจในระดับบุคคล ซึ่งถือเป็นหลักฐานเชิงประจักษ์ที่ชี้ให้เห็นถึงความจำเป็นในการกำหนดนโยบายบริหารจัดการเมืองที่สอดคล้องกับบริบทพื้นที่ โดยการบูรณาการการวางผังเมือง นโยบายตลาดแรงงาน และการปรับปรุงระบบทะเบียนราษฎร เพื่อเพิ่มประสิทธิผลในการบริหารจัดการประชากรเมืองในระยะยาว

To Compare Is Human: A Review Of Social Comparison Theory In Organizational Settings, Michael J. Matthews, Thomas K. Kelemen

Management Faculty Publications

Social comparisons are one of the most ubiquitous behaviors that individuals, groups, and firms undertake. In particular, social comparison theory is based upon the premise that actors are motivated to engage in comparisons and that decisions throughout this process impact employees’ core self-evaluations, team relations, executives’ behaviors, firm prestige, and more. However, despite the prevalence of the phenomenon—and thereby the frequent application of the theory in organizational studies—a synopsis of the theory’s underpinnings and extant findings remains absent. Here, we present a state-of-the-art review that summarizes the theory’s history and mechanics and critically examines how social comparison theory has been …

Gravity And Magnetic Analysis Of The Amu Darya Basin Of Turkmenistan And Uzbekistan, Logan R. Rogers

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Jurassic-Tertiary Amu Darya Basin is mainly located within Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan with a small portion extending into Afghanistan and Iran. The basin is one of the largest petroleum systems in central Asia. The basin is located in the southeast corner of the Turan platform, where both the Middle Paleozoic Turkestan and Early Mesozoic Tethys oceans were closed during different orogenies. The southern boundary of the basin is along the Bande Turkestan fold belt, the Afghan-Tajik basin to the east, Paleozoic metamorphic terranes to the north, and the Karakum high (Paleozoic basement rocks) to the west. Several blocks and terranes …

The Mythic Seeds Of Human Rights, Joshua Mackenzie Luna

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

In this thesis, I propose a causal relationship between ancient societies’ mythic corpuses and their law codes. I begin by presenting the histories and historiographies of ancient Israel and Mesopotamia to highlight important themes in their development. Then, I place their creation and flood myths side-by-side for comparison, yielding key differences in the way each group conceptualizes human form, value, and purpose. Once these key differences have been established, I compare each group’s set of slave laws to demonstrate how each law code remains philosophically consistent with its respective set of myths and diametrically opposed to the set from the …

Modeling The Impact Of Climate Change On Plant Hardiness Zones Across The Contiguous United States Using Empirical Bayesian Kriging Regression Prediction, Daniel Donkor

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Mapping plant hardiness zones is crucial to understanding and predicting the spatial distribution of plants in response to climatic conditions. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the plant hardiness zones based on the average of annual extreme minimum temperatures using the Parameter elevation Regression on Independent Slope Model (PRISM). While the USDA’s 2012 and 2023 Plant Hardiness Zone maps remain standard references, they offer limited geostatistical transparency that causes more complications in replicating. This study applies Empirical Bayesian Kriging Regression Prediction (EBKRP) method to generate Plant Hardiness Zone maps, analyze spatial and temporal shifts in the plant hardiness …

Empowering U.S. Allies In The Indo-Pacific: An "America First" Approach To Great Power Competition, Nathaniel Benjamin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Indo-Pacific is the primary area for Great Power Competition between the United States and China. China’s rapid but cautious rise has allowed it to achieve a position that threatens to upset the norms and rules of the U.S.-led system in the region. The second Trump Administration has pursued an “America First” policy since taking office in January 2025, but pushing U.S. allies to take on more responsibility for their own defense will not be enough. U.S. allies are major regional players and should be trusted to uphold the principles of the current international system; therefore the U.S. must limit …

Indopacom Force Structure: A Trajectory Into The 2030s, Robert Burke

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Over the past ten years Taiwan has become a major point of friction between the United States and People’s Republic of China with both militaries preparing for a potential conflict over the island. China vastly expanded its military forces and capabilities over the past thirty years and is intent on obtaining the ability to both seize Taiwan by force and prevent the United States from generating enough combat power to intervene and defend the island. The Pentagon began to restructure its conventional forces in the Western Pacific at the end of the 2010s, implementing new operational concepts designed to fight …

Predicting Real Estate Prices Using Deep Learning Regression Models On Socio Spatial Data, Gentle Engworo

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Cities keep their own kind of ledger. Every block, bus stop, corner store, and year that slips by leaves a small entry about what homes are worth. That ledger is what we call socio-spatial data: simple facts about what a home is (its age), where it sits (latitude/longitude), how easy it is to get around (distance to the nearest MRT station), what’s nearby (number of convenience stores), and when it sold (transaction date). This thesis asks a practical question in that everyday language: given these common clues, can we predict home prices more accurately and explain why? Using 414 …

Evaluation Of Practical Methods To Determine If A Karst Creek Is Gaining Or Losing: Case Study Of Leith Creek, Elizabeth Jones

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Karst landscapes are abundant in Missouri, with features such as caves, springs, and sinkholes that form through the dissolution of limestone. Leith Creek is a small stream in Polk County, Missouri fed by two springs and the shallow unconfined Springfield Plateau aquifer, a highly karstified aquifer which is made up of limestone and minor interbedded shale-mudstone units. To determine if Leith Creek is gaining or losing, stream flow, water chemistry and temperature sensors were monitored. Stream flow results required multiple visits to take measurements while temperature sensors required two visits, one to install the dataloggers and another to remove the …

Exploring Power Dynamics In Ghana Through Ceramic Sculpture, Collins Yaw Antwi

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The works in this thesis explore the implications of power dynamics such as inequality, power struggle, and oppression within Ghana’s society. I abstract specific elements such as coins, and especially cowry shells which honors Ghana’s past through their use as a source of currency in the colonial era and further serves as a metaphor that represents power. Platters and bowls from different cultures serve as a container for these dynamic symbols of power. By incorporating these elements in my sculptures, I bring attention to the struggle and challenges Ghanaians have experienced over the years. In other ways, I find it …

Critical Mineral Exploration In The Superior Province Of Northwestern Minnesota - A Geophysical Data Analysis, Michell L. Waterman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Archean basement geology of northwest Minnesota, a region covered by glacial deposits and historically underexplored for minerals, was analyzed using gravity, magnetic, radiometric, and geochemical data. These datasets were integrated to aid in identifying subsurface structures and evaluating the area's potential for economic mineralization within the Wabigoon, Quetico, and Wawa Subprovinces of the Superior Province. Gravity and magnetic datasets, analyzed through upward continuation, derivative maps, and two-dimensional modeling, revealed distinct northeast-to-southwest-trending maxima corresponding to fault-bounded, high-density, and magnetically susceptible bodies. These features were interpreted as mafic to ultramafic intrusions and dikes, several of which align with known Proterozoic fault …