Digital Commons Network^™

Macroeconomics, State Action, Civic Trust, And Homicide: The Causes And Consequences Of Interpersonal Violence In Latin America, Guillermo Escano

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent 8 percent of the global population but about one-third of global homicides, yet interpersonal violence in the region receives limited attention in the English-language literature. This dissertation contains three distinct studies of the causes and consequences of crime and violence in LAC. The first study examines the predictive effects of inflation on robbery, burglary, and homicide rates in Argentina, which possesses one of the highest robbery rates worldwide and has endured high inflation – and, at times, hyperinflation – for years. I obtained annual crime data for 1973-2022 from the National Criminal Information …

Families’ Experiences Participating In A Collaborative, Multimodal Writing Workshop: Agency, Home Literacies, And Home/School Connections, Erin M. Faeth

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Students benefit academically and socially from strong home and school partnerships (Padak & Rasinski, 2010; Patrikakou et al., 2003; Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2009), yet there is often a gap between these contexts (Nelson, 2019; Padak & Rasinski, 2010; Risko & Walker-Dalhouse, 2009). To bridge the divide between these spaces, I drew on a sociocultural view of writing, the paradigm of family literacy, and third spaces of literacy to investigate four families’ experiences participating in a collaborative, multimodal writing workshop. Through practitioner research and case study methods, I explored the following research questions: (1) How do families talk about writing while …

First-Gen Latinx/Afro-Latinx And Complex: Keeping Resilient Responses On Shuffle, Tibisay I. Hernandez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This qualitative study examined the racialized experiences of first-generation Latinx and Afro-Latinx students in higher education. Fourteen participants engaged in pláticas, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups to reflect on how their identities, race, and institutional dynamics shaped their collegiate journeys. The study examined how these students navigated both personal and institutional settings, revealing the emergence of tensions around belonging, authenticity, and cultural responsibility in everyday interactions. Using Latino Critical Race Theory (LatCrit) alongside Multidimensional Identity Negotiation Theory (MINT) and Co-Cultural Communication Theory (CCCT), this study developed an emergent framework—the Resilient Response Model—to better understand how students respond to complex identity …

Embracing The Unmanageable: The Critique Of The Everyday And The Postwar Condition In Wallace Stevens’ And Robert Duncan’S Works Circa 1950, Kazuma Morita

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

My thesis is designed as an investigation of the ethical and political implications of the everyday in postwar American poetry. While recent scholarship of everyday life studies has clarified the centrality of the everyday or the ordinary to modernism and postwar literature, it does not elaborate enough on the impact of the political condition on literary expressions of everyday life in post-1945 period. Given U.S. military’s infiltration into everyday life of people living inside and outside the country after World War II, it is an important task to spotlight the way American postwar poets tackled U.S. war culture through their …

From A Child's Perspective: A Qualitative Study Of Elementary School Student Engagement, Deanna J. Springstead-Gonzalez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Abstract

Background and Purpose. This study sought to investigate child engagement from the children's perspective, aiming to understand better what they perceive as factors that facilitate or constrain their academic engagement in classrooms. By centering children's voices, this research challenges traditional views of students as passive recipients of education, instead recognizing them as active participants with valuable insights into their learning experiences. This work builds on the frameworks proposed by Shirley and Hargreaves (2021) and Lawson and Lawson (2013) that utilize socio-ecological theory to better understand those factors impacting children’s learning experiences.

Method. The study was conducted at an elementary …

Emergent Sites Of Language Contact: Lexical Borrowing By Mexican Bilingual Speakers In Live-Streamed Tabletop Games, Ethan Sims

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The field of contact linguistics has investigated numerous sites of contact between languages and the resulting phenomena (Poplack et al.; 1988, for example); however, there remain many contact sites that have yet to be analyzed. The present dissertation views the lexical evidence of language contact between English and Spanish via the medium of live-streamed tabletop role-playing games. These games, often lacking accessible translations in languages other than English, have become a popular pastime over the last decade, which has increased the amount of contact between the two languages. Dungeons and Dragons, a roleplaying game which typically deals with fantasy elements, …

The Benefit Of New Perspective: An Analysis Of Postcolonial Adaptation, Sara L. Tilbe

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In our modern world, the concept of literary adaptation is not unheard of. Each release of a new, popular text comes with an underlying chance that it will likely be snatched up by Hollywood executives to be told through a cinematic setting. However, there is less fanfare when it comes to the topic of literary adaptation, particularly of famous texts that are deemed “classic” of the literary canon. Usually, any news of a literary adaptation of a classic book is meant with polarizing views from the general public. Some welcome the change, excited for what a new author can bring …

Tapping A Hidden Resource In Classrooms: Peer Interactions And Their Role In Language, Literacy, And Disciplinary Literacy Practices Among Adolescent English And Non-English Learners, Jina Byeon

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This qualitative case study examines how peer interactions among six seventh-grade English Learners (ELs) and non-ELs serve as both a context for and a method of developing adolescents' literacy and disciplinary literacy practices. Data sources include two semi-structured interviews with each student and their four classroom teachers, student and teacher ethnographic interviews, 300 hours of classroom observations (in English Language Arts, Social Studies, Math and Science, English as a New Language Tutorial), and student-generated artifacts (e.g., worksheets).

Through the application of iterative and thematic data analysis, three key themes were identified: 1) adolescents' interactions with their peers fostered a supportive …

Age-Of-Acquisition (Aoa) Effects Reflect An Orthographic Processing Advantage For Early-Acquired Words, Madison L. Martell

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Age-of-acquisition (AoA) effects, the processing advantage for words learned early in life, are well-documented across various tasks. While various theories attempt to explain these effects, the underlying mechanisms remain debated. This dissertation examined the role of orthographic processing in AoA effects through three experiments emphasizing orthographic rather than semantic processing. In Experiment 1, participants completed an eye-tracking and proofreading task to detect spelling errors in sentences containing early- versus late-acquired words, followed by a spelling dictation task to assess individual differences in spelling ability. Experiment 2 employed a spelling dictation task to test whether early-acquired words show better spelling accuracy …

The Chironian 2025, New York Medical College

The Chironian

The Chironian is distributed to a readership of 16,000 faculty, alumni and employees of New York Medical College, government and community leaders, affiliated hospitals and selected media. Each issue is carefully crafted to provide a balance of articles on cutting-edge research, personality profiles, student accomplishments and alumni news from all five schools on the NYMC campus. Inquiries can be sent to [email protected].

A Proposed Ehrenfeucht-Fraïssé Game Model For Natural Language Processing Generative Adversarial Networks, Don Li

Anthós

Large Language Models (LLM’s) (e.g., ChatGPT) constitute both a significant research area and commercial application of AI. Current major LLM’s are built on Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) neural network architecture to perform natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is another popular neural network architecture, which leverages a zero-sum game between constituent neural networks within the architecture to train the GAN, and is widely used for visual data applications. This article proposes a new GAN architecture for NLP: an EF-GAN whose underlying algorithm uses Ehrenfeucht–Fraïssé (EF) games, a game-theoretic approach from model theory to determine elementary equivalence of …

Analyzing Rap Through Poetry: “Zen Scientist” By Milo & Kenny Segal, Mason S. Jensen

Anthós

milo, now known as R.A.P. Ferraria, has described his music as synonymous with poetry. This article examines his song “zen scientist,” testing the linkage of poetry and rap through poetic analysis. Jensen analyzes the song through metrical systems, marking it in scansion, poetic feet, and rhyme to delineate rhythm and to show how rhythm is created and experimented with. Jensen then applies Vendler and Chan’s methods for deriving poetic meaning, providing potential interpretations of “zen scientist.” Jensen argues these poetic methods dissect the rap song into perspicuity. The article concludes that poetic analysis can be used effectively to analyze rap …

Ai-Generated Text Detection And Source Identification, Anjana Priyatham Tatavarthi, Faranak Abri, Nada Attar

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The use of advanced machine learning techniques to detect AI-generated text is a very practical application. The ability to distinguish human-written content from machine-generated text while identifying the source generative model helps address growing concerns about authenticity and accountability in digital communication. The differentiation of human-generated and AI-generated text is highly relevant to several applications, from news media to academic integrity, and is key to ensuring transparency and trust in content-driven environments. However, existing models are often insufficient to accurately detect AI-generated text and determine the specific AI source due to the complex nature of machine-generated content. To address this, …

Self-Disclosure And Social Support In A Web-Based Opioid Recovery Community: Machine Learning Analysis, Yu Chi, Huai Yu Chen, Khushboo Thaker

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Background: The opioid crisis remains a critical public health challenge, with opioid use disorder (OUD) imposing significant societal and health care burdens. Web-based communities, such as the Reddit community r/OpiatesRecovery, provide an anonymous and accessible platform for individuals in recovery. Despite the increasing use of Reddit for substance use research, limited studies have explored the content and interactions of self-disclosure and social support within these communities. Objective: This study aims to address the following research questions: (1) What content do users disclose in the community?; (2) What types of social support do users receive?; and (3) How does the content …

Psychological Impacts In Exercise Riders And Professional Jockeys Following Injury, Kelley M. Renner

Theses and Dissertations--Kinesiology and Health Promotion

One of the most well-known equestrian sports, horse racing, is not only a cornerstone of Kentucky’s economy, but also a vital part of its culture, with professional jockeys playing an essential role in the local communities and traditions that define the state. Despite its popularity and financial impact, mental health challenges within the sport have continually been shrouded in silence and ignored in research (Ball et al., 2007). Equally concerning is the high injury prevalence, and psychological impact of these injuries (e.g., psychological distress, depression, anxiety, loss of identity, and self-esteem (King et al., 2022; Losty et al., 2019; McConn-Palfreyman …

"Bridging The Gulf" Perception And Experiences Of Arab Gulf International Female Students' Engagement Process In The U.S. Higher Education Institutions., Nouf Kh Almazyan

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

This study explores the engagement experiences of international female Arab Gulf students while studying in U.S. higher education institutions. Thus, a phenomenological approach through a qualitative research design was applied to collect data based on semi-structured interviews with eleven female participants from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman. The researcher conducted the interviews to ascertain how these students perceive and experience academic, social, and cultural engagements and the factors influencing their adjustment and integration into American university communities. During the data collection process, concrete measures were taken to establish the credibility and trustworthiness of the research findings. Data were analyzed using …

Crossing Borders, Breaking Barriers: The Transformative Journey Of First-Generation Students Abroad, Stephen Farley

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Policy Studies and Evaluation

First-generation students are underrepresented in study abroad programming, both nationally and at the University of Kentucky. To address participation barriers and the resulting opportunity gap for first-generation students, the University of Kentucky designed and implemented an innovative study abroad program for first-generation students titled “Explore First: Careers, Cultures, and Connections.” This specially-designed program sought to provide participants with the academic, social, and professional benefits associated with education abroad experiences, including greater self-efficacy, sense of belonging, intercultural competence, and career exploration and preparation. This mixed methods study examines these intended outcomes of Explore First. Drawing from quantitative surveys administered pre-, mid- …

Restorative Justice In Early Childhood Education: A Professional Development Model And Observational Study Of Classroom Implementation, Sarah Cummins

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This three-article dissertation explores the use of restorative justice (RJ) in educational settings, with a specific focus on early childhood programs. Restorative justice is a conflict resolution approach that prioritizes repairing harm, restoring trust, and empowering individuals to self-advocate rather than relying solely on punitive measures. While research has demonstrated the success of RJ in middle and high schools, and to some extent in elementary schools, limited attention has been given to its application in early childhood education. This dissertation examines the potential benefits of RJ in early childhood classrooms, including fostering social-emotional learning, student-led conflict resolution, and a positive …

Examining How Well High School Geometry Students Learn Concepts Of Three-Dimensional Figures Using A Project-Based Instructional Strategy, Lenora A. Mcgrath

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This paper examines how well the introduction of an integrated approach, namely, Project-based Instruction (PBI), which uses real-world contexts to investigate problems, leads to improved academic performance and student motivation in a 9^th Grade Geometry class studying three-dimensional figures and their properties. The experimental group worked through the researcher-designed unit that included mini-lessons, six benchmark lessons, and the design and creation of a final product to address the driving question of the unit. The comparison group experienced a normative teaching strategy designed by the classroom teacher. An explanatory sequential mixed methods design was chosen for the proposed study to …

“Hard To Rememeber, Then Hard To Forget:” A Qualitative Exploration Into The Attitudes And Lived Experiences Of Black People With Black Names, Destin L. Mizelle

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Naming practices within the Black American community are vibrant and deeply rooted in cultural traditions and shared values. Much like other ethnic groups, these names tell stories, reflect heritage, and connect individuals to their community, making each choice meaningful and significant. However, due to the systemic effects of anti-Blackness, Black Americans often have a complex relationship with their names. While previous research has primarily utilized quantitative methodologies focusing on the negative associations and consequences of having a Black name, this study aims to amplify the voices of Black people who possess Black names. Using reflexive thematic analysis, this qualitative study …

Competent Readers’ Online Multimodal Reading Strategies Use, Hyoju Ahn

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

As reading spaces evolve, it is imperative to identify and describe the strategies and skills used in constructing meaning. I examined online multimodal reading strategies, those used in constructing meaning from multimodal information sources (e.g., images, audio, written words) on the Internet. Participants read online multimodal texts from a laptop screen and provided verbal reports as they read to learn a scientific topic. Through verbal protocol analysis, I cataloged and described their multimodal reading comprehension strategies. Complementing retrospective interviews, reader-computer interaction videos, and written pre- and post-knowledge reports accounted for how they read strategically. Strategies were coded to provide insights …

“They're Like Slash”: Multimodality And Embodied Agency In Students' Critical Engagements With Texts, María José Aragón, Meghan Corella, Nora W. Lang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Despite recent calls to more fully incorporate multimodal perspectives into literacies research, there is still limited scholarship examining how students critically engage in reading activities by drawing on embodied practices. Racially and linguistically minoritized students are particularly disadvantaged by dominant logocentric and developmentalist approaches, which privilege oral and written discourse and often position these students as less capable of performing complex literacy practices. Drawing from three independent ethnographic studies, our multimodal interactional analysis examines how students of a range of ages and raciolinguistic backgrounds use embodied actions and other semiotic resources to agentively navigate text, task, and ideological constraints in …

Domain-Specific Customization For Improving Speech To Text, Zubin Mario Tobias

Theses

The advent of transformer-based models has revolutionized natural language processing, bringing remarkable improvements in tasks like automatic speech recognition (ASR). Inspired by these advancements, this thesis explores the optimization of a transformer-based ASR model to improve transcription accuracy in educational settings, particularly for lecture content. The goal of this research is to provide real-time, high-accuracy captions that enhance accessibility for all students, while offering a cost-effective solution for educators. To assess the potential of domain-specific fine-tuning, Whisper-small underwent two phases of fine-tuning. In the first phase, it was finetuned on care- fully selected, publicly available datasets: SpeechColab’s Gigaspeech-XS [39], AMI …

Working With Similarities And Differences: Relational Processes In Transdisciplinary Qualitative Research With Diverse Teams, Michael S. Dao, Soma De Bourbon, Melissa Mcclure Fuller, Miranda Worthen

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Transdisciplinary research and research teams are becoming increasingly valued in academic spaces. The potential of transdisciplinary research is that the diversity of thought and experience can create robust research processes from project inception, methodological protocol, data collection, data analysis and reporting output. Yet, transdisciplinary research teams can also bring about complications pertaining to conflicting epistemological perspectives, areas of expertise, and objectives for applied impact. In noting the benefits and downsides of transdisciplinary research, this article aims to detail how a transdisciplinary research team navigated a qualitative and participatory longitudinal research project. Drawing from a larger community-based participatory research project, the …

Empowering Customer Service With Generative Ai: Enhancing Agent Performance While Navigating Challenges, Charles Costa, Souvick Ghosh

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Introduction. As large language models (LLMs), such as GPTs, become more intelligent, a key area of exploration is how these technologies can improve the customer experience. Contrary to common belief, many consumers, including Gen Z, prefer human-provided customer service, illustrating the importance of human-AI collaboration in the space. Method. By leveraging the author’s real-world knowledge of enterprise knowledge management and customer service delivery, we reviewed numerous literature about AI, knowledge management, and service design and synthesised practical insights for industry professionals to build a successful AI strategy. Analysis. We examined the gap between academic research on generative AI and how …

Structural Originalism: A Second Amendment Case Study, Ian C. Bartrum

Scholarly Works

“Originalism” is having a national moment, even if it is not entirely clear what the word means. What should we be originalist about? The leading academic approach asks us to parse the communicative content of text ratified in a very different linguistic culture; then construct a modern legal meaning consistent with our semantic speculations. Too often the result enforces policy judgments made in a radically different moral and technological world. This makes very little sense.

In this paper I recommend a more perspicuous and coherent use of constitutional history, which I call “structural originalism.” Rather than saddle ourselves with the …

Disability In Exile: The "Union Of Russian Invalids" In Interwar Bulgaria And Yugoslavia, Evguenia Davidova

History Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article examines the post-war experience of a specific group of war veterans: the Russian refugees after the October Revolution in 1917. What happened when disabled veterans were stateless and dispersed among several foreign states? The focus is on comparing interwar Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, two countries on opposite sides of the Great War. There the refugees established various societies, mostly dominated by the military. Drawing on unpublished archival sources, this article investigates how the Russian societies for disabled persons functioned at four levels: amid the other Russian associations in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia; among the greater diaspora known as “Russia Abroad”; …

Advancing Narcolepsy Advocacy: Bridging Patient Narratives And Systemic Change, Ahmed Salem Bahammam, Lindsay Jesteadt, Hamza Dhafar, Amir Sharafkhaneh

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

We introduce the Stigma-to-Structure Advocacy Framework, a novel, evidence-based model designed to transform narcolepsy advocacy by systematically bridging patient narratives with structural change. Narcolepsy remains a profoundly underdiagnosed and misunderstood neurological disorder, with persistent diagnostic delays and pervasive cultural stigma undermining patient well-being and access to care. Despite recent progress in awareness and support, advocacy efforts remain fragmented and insufficiently integrated with health policy, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. This perspective advances a strategic evolution of narcolepsy advocacy through the Stigma-to-Structure Advocacy Framework, which is anchored in three pillars: narrative-driven awareness, clinical system integration, and policy activation. Drawing on …

How Gps Communicate The Urgent Suspected Cancer Referral Pathway To Patients: A Qualitative Study Of Gp-Patient Consultations, Jessica Russell, Laura Boswell, Athena Ip, Jenny Harris, Hardeep Singh, Ashley Nd Meyer, Traber D Giardina, Afsana Bhuiya, Katriina L Whitaker, Georgia B Black

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: The UK National Institute for Health and Care (NICE) recommends that GPs inform patients referred onto the urgent suspected cancer (USC) pathway about what to expect from the service. However, there is a lack of evidence on patient experience and information needs at the point of referral. It is a challenge for GPs to communicate the reasons for referral and provide reassurance.

Aim: To examine how GPs communicate a potential cancer diagnosis and USC referral in practice.

Design & setting: This is a secondary analysis of a dataset of 23 audio-recorded GP-patient consultations, selected from a larger dataset of …

Subito 2025, Portland State University. School Of Music & Theater

Subito: Student Voices from Portland State University School of Music & Theater

Issue 8, Spring 2025

Explore the boundless creativity and passionate inquiry within this year's journal. Topics range from microtonal tuning systems unrestricted by cultural boundaries, to creative tips from composer and interdisciplinary artists, to analysis of Arvo Pärt and poetic ruminations of singing Beethoven's 9th.