Digital Commons Network^™

"A Changed Understanding Of Our Present": Moby-Dick As Prophetic Ecological Activism, Katie Ann Schini

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale is a classic of American literature, spanning multiple genres and remaining culturally relevant nearly 175 years after its original publication. Though on the surface Moby-Dick reads as an adventure story of a man who experiences the whaling industry firsthand, Herman Melville’s text continues to invite new generations of readership through the framework of the twenty-first century climate crisis.

In this thesis, I position Moby-Dick as a text that can be used to understand our modern society’s current dispositions of ecological grief. My thesis operates at the intersection of three main literary critical theories: ecocriticism, affect, and …

Tenaciously Curious, Joe Mark Taylor

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In this thesis paper, I will outline the journey I’ve taken throughout my graduate studies at the University of Montana and how it has culminated in my thesis exhibition, Tenaciously Curious. I’ll begin with an Introduction that speaks to the importance of finding ways to connect to nature, and the benefits we gain by recognizing our bodies as extensions of the organic world.

In the following section, Influences, Theory and Lineage, I’ll explore the themes that drive my research, highlight artists who have influenced my work, and discuss why this inquiry feels vital within our contemporary moment.

In the section …

Examining Rural Second-Graders' Literate Identities In Relationship To Reading Proficiency: A Mixed Methods Case Study, Ashley R. S. Olsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Although the act of reading is inherently multi-faceted, encompassing an array of interrelated cognitive, social, and cultural processes, the bodies of reading research typically align to either qualitative or quantitative methodologies. This routinely bifurcated approach to reading research reflects the ongoing disagreement surrounding best practices for literacy instruction. Numerous quantitative findings have supported the use of systematic and explicit foundational skill instruction to improve students’ reading proficiency. On the other hand, previous qualitative studies have emphasized the existing identities that children bring to any learning community and the benefit of nurturing literate identity formation in the classroom. Intersecting a modified …

“Emergency Relief As Routine”: The Evolution Of Fsa’S Livestock Forage Disaster Program In An Era Of Persistent Drought, Shae L. Olsen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the historical origins, current limitations, and future of the Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Livestock Forage Disaster Program (LFP), the primary federal drought disaster relief program for ranchers in the United States. Drawing connections between the Dust Bowl-era Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) and LFP, I argue that the AAA, while innovative at the time, prioritized the maintenance of commodity markets over ecological resilience, disproportionately benefiting white, landowning producers. This trend is reflected in LFP today. Through a policy analysis and original qualitative research, including interviews with 23 FSA staff members in nine states, I examine how LFP operates …

Examining Coinfections With Human Cytomegalovirus, Christopher Samuel Peterson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) is the largest of any human virus, both physically at up to 300 nm in diameter, and as a genome, with its 235 kbp DNA genome with at least 165 open reading frames. It is also the number 1 non-genetic cause of birth defects and has a global prevalence rate of just over 80%. Despite these characteristics, it is not as well known to the general public as some of the other human herpesviruses, such as herpes simplex or varicella-zoster virus. Like other herpesviruses, HCMV can establish latency, leading to a lifelong infection for its host with …

Community Resilience Factors For Gsm Individuals: Considering The Roles Of Transgender Identity And Age, Benny Ilac

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Gender and sexual minority (GSM) individuals face a variety of health disparities, including increased rates of depression, anxiety, and substance use. One explanation for the presence of these health disparities is the minority stress model, which suggests that proximal (internal) and distal (external) experiences of minority stressors contribute to poorer health outcomes in GSM populations. An important yet understudied component of this model is resilience, which acts as buffer against the negative impacts of minority stressors. Focus on community resilience factors, as opposed to individual resilience factors, may be particularly important in GSM populations in reducing the onus placed on …

The Effects Of Stigma On Mental Health Treatment Engagement, Kali Diane Strickland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Stigma is often cited as a significant barrier to mental health care (e.g., Andrade et al., 2014), but less is known about the impact of stigma on treatment engagement over time. The literature often calls for prospective studies (e.g., Clement et al., 2015). Additionally, little is known about label avoidance and its relationship to the other components of stigma, public and self-stigma. This study examined stigma’s association with mental health treatment engagement over time and the relationship between public stigma, self-stigma, and label avoidance. Specifically, the study assessed participants’ responses to stigma and related covariate measures. Approximately 5 weeks later, …

Challenged: A Practice-Based Analysis Of Simulating The Realities Of Teaching Through Play, Shanel Lara Locke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

ChallengED is a classroom simulation game designed to explore the emotional and procedural realities of teaching through interactive play. Rather than attempting to manufacture empathy, the project focuses on conveying the unpredictability, humor, and fatigue that shape daily classroom life. Drawing from my own teaching experience, the game uses experiential realism and embodied interaction to communicate how educators navigate constant interruptions, shifting demands, and limited control. The development process also became a therapeutic practice, offering a way to reinterpret professional challenges through creative experimentation. Situated within practice-based research, ChallengED demonstrates how game design can function as both artistic inquiry and …

Refining Population-Level Measures Of Early Childhood Vaccination Coverage Using National Immunization Survey-Child Data, Alexandria Nicole Albers

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Background: From 2011-2021, the U.S. Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended 10 vaccine series by age 24 months, with guidelines for minimum vaccination age, maximum age for rotavirus vaccination, minimum dose intervals, and a catch-up schedule for delayed series initiation. National vaccination surveillance evaluates series completion based on whether children received the recommended number of doses, including a combined 7-vaccine metric (completed seven series collectively). However, this approach overlooks: 1) vaccinations given too early, too late, or too close together, 2) catch-up schedule vaccinations, and 3) completion of all 10 recommended vaccines.

Purpose: To refine national childhood vaccination coverage …

"I'Ve Never Felt A Pain Like This" A Dialogic Analysis Of Parent-Child Estrangement Narratives On Reddit, Grant W. Lane

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

How do adult children estranged from their parent(s) create meaning and make sense of their estrangement in Reddit posts on the subreddit r/EstrangedAdultChild? This study analyzed Reddit posts written by estranged adult children for a presumed audience of other estranged adult children. Using relational dialectics theory (RDT) as a lens for analysis, this research examined the competing discourses that influence the meaning-making and sense-making processes of estranged adult children in their posts when the intended audience is fellow estranged adult children. Seventy-four posts from r/EstrangedAdultChild, authored by adult children who self-identified as estranged from at least one parent, were collected …

Intercellular Mitochondrial Transfer Contributes To Microenvironmental Redirection Of Cancer Cell Fate, Julie Sofie Bjerring, Yara Khodour, Emilee Anne Peterson, Patrick Christian Sachs, Robert David Bruno

School of Medical Diagnostics & Translational Sciences Publications

The mammary microenvironment has been shown to suppress tumor progression by redirecting cancer cells to adopt a normal mammary epithelial progenitor fate in vivo. However, the mechanism(s) by which this alteration occurs has yet to be defined. Here, we test the hypothesis that mitochondrial transfer from normal mammary epithelial cells to breast cancer cells plays a role in this redirection process. We evaluate mitochondrial transfer in 2D and 3D organoids using our unique 3D bioprinting system to produce chimeric organoids containing normal and cancer cells. We demonstrate that breast cancer tumoroid growth is hindered following interaction with mammary epithelial cells …

Secondhand Tobacco Smoke Exposure And Sleep Disturbance In School-Aged Children In Appalachian Ohio, Ketrell Mcwhorter, Christine Kim, Timothy J. Hilbert, Danielle E. Mcbride, Anthony A. Mangino, Patrick J. Parsons, Kurunthachalam Kannan, Erin N. Haynes

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Introduction: Secondhand tobacco smoke (SHS) exposure remains a major public health concern for children and has been implicated in sleep disturbances through biological and behavioral mechanisms. Different methods of measuring SHS exposure have yielded inconsistent results. This study examined the relationship between SHS exposure and sleep among rural Appalachian 7–9-year-olds, utilizing three SHS measurements: natural log-transformed (ln) serum cotinine concentrations, dichotomized serum cotinine levels (≥0.05 vs. <0.05 ng/ml), and parent/caregiver report of ≥1 smoker in the home. We hypothesized SHS-exposed children would have a significantly higher prevalence of sleep disturbance—e.g., short sleep, frequent snoring, night awakenings—compared to unexposed, regardless of measurement method. Methods: We used data from the Marietta Community Actively Researching Exposure Study, a cohort of 404 children in Marietta and Cambridge, Ohio. Sleep disturbances were parent/caregiver-reported. Linear models were used for continuous outcomes to estimate beta coefficients; log-binomial models with generalized estimating equations (exchangeable correlation) were applied for dichotomized outcomes to estimate prevalence ratios (PR), each with 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Twenty-six percent of children had a parent/caregiver report of ≥1 sleep disturbance. There was a 35% increased prevalence of short sleep [PR = 1.35 (95%CI:1.02–1.80), p =.04] with each unit increase of ln serum cotinine levels, adjusting for age, sex, parent education, BMI percentile, and history of breathing difficulties in the past two years. Increasing ln serum cotinine levels were associated with a significant 5.5-min decrease in average sleep duration in age-adjusted models. Conclusions: Higher SHS exposure was associated with poorer sleep outcomes, with serum cotinine emerging as the only measure linked to short sleep, underscoring the importance of smoke-free environments, particularly in rural communities, and objective exposure assessment.

Posterior Circulation Stroke- A Case Report, Janet Alva, Shwetha Prabhu, Raghavendra Rao S

Manipal Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences

Background: Stroke is most commonly seen in individuals over 65 years of age. When it occurs in adults between 18 and 65 years, it is classified as a young stroke. Unusual presentations such as dizziness, visual disturbances, or sensory changes often contribute to delayed recognition. Early identification is crucial for preventing complications and enhancing neurological outcomes. Case presentation: A 34-year-old female presented to the emergency department with a sudden onset of dizziness, right-sided tingling and weakness, and blurred vision. The neurological examination revealed subtle signs of posterior circulation impairment. MRI brain stroke protocol demonstrated an acute posterior circulation infarct involving …

Modeling Healthcare Managerial And It Sophistication, Gary Hackbarth, Teuta Cata

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Sophisticated healthcare managers understand that managing information and selecting technology are two related but separate skill sets. Information Technology Governance (ITG) allows healthcare organizations to deal with complex issues, compete effectively, and support patient needs by integrating managerial and IT sophistication to improve business performance. An organizational model that merges IT and managerial sophistication by improving ITG to forecast business outcomes must grasp the intricacies of technology to acquire, manage, and utilize information technology in alignment with business strategies. The proposed model differentiates between internal and external IT management strategic thinking, emphasizing the critical need to govern IT effectively by …

Missouri, Elizabeth Ford

Thin Blue Advantage: Police Exceptionalism and the Two-Tier System of Public Sector Collective Bargaining

Missouri law allows for both police and non-police collective bargaining, but before 2018 there were no agency mechanisms to adjudicate a failure to bargain.

In 2018, however, the state passed a statute dramatically constraining public sector unions, but the law exempted police. The Missouri Supreme Court found that exclusion to be an equal protection violation.

Connecticut, Elizabeth Ford

Thin Blue Advantage: Police Exceptionalism and the Two-Tier System of Public Sector Collective Bargaining

In general, the Connecticut commission is hostile to expansive definitions of mandatory subjects of bargaining, sometimes issuing decisions that are results-driven and an expression of a preference for the substance of the employer’s decision. There are a couple of distinctions between police and other units:

• The Commission is more likely to weigh safety on the side of bargaining for police than others.
• The Commission treats the requirement to bargain surveillance-based decision more expansively for non-police units than police-units.

The Commission is more likely to find subcontracting of police work to an outside agency to be a mandatory subject of bargaining.

Illinois, Elizabeth Ford

Thin Blue Advantage: Police Exceptionalism and the Two-Tier System of Public Sector Collective Bargaining

As compared with other states, the Illinois Labor Relations Board (“ILRB” or “Board) is unusually protective of the right to bargain. The Board is more protective still of the ability of police unions to bargain over employer decisions. In the last several years in cases involving the Chicago Police Department, the Board has moderated somewhat by, in key cases, refusing to issue a decision but rather holding the matter “in abeyance.” A few highlights follow:

• Only Police Have the Right to Interest Arbitration. The Illinois Labor Relations Act requires police bargaining units to resolve contractual impasses through interest arbitration. …

The Romanticization Of Human-Vampire Relationships: How 'Twilight' And 'The Vampire Diaries' May Prime Young Women To Accept Dating Violence, Natalie M. Bowen

UROP Posters

The first literary vampire can be traced back to 18th century Germany, with Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem “Die Braut von Korinth,” but the stereotypical features of a vampire are traditionally accredited to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Modern vampires, such as Edward Cullen and Stefan Salvatore of the Twilight and The Vampire Diaries series respectively, have managed to win the hearts of teenage girls all across America with their sex appeal and charismatic nature. According to Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory, individuals learn new behaviors by modeling and imitating the actions of those around them. This comprehensive literature review investigates the connection …

Analysis Of Differential Gene Expression In Androgen-Independent Clones Derived From The Mycap Pca Cell Line, Jessie L. Tignor, Melanie Sinanian, Richard Inho Joh, David Gewirtz, Jason Reed

UROP Posters

Androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) is a primary treatment strategy for prostate cancer (PCa), yet many tumors eventually develop androgen independence, leading to treatment resistance. To investigate the molecular changes underlying this transition, we analyzed differential gene expression in four androgen-independent (AI) clones derived from the Myc-CaP prostate cancer cell line using RNA sequencing. Gene expression profiles were compared to the parental Myc-CaP line, and differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified using DESeq2 and edgeR. The AI clones exhibited significant downregulation of senescence-associated genes, including Ezh2 and lamin B1, suggesting a loss of senescence-related chromatin repression. Additionally, upregulation of Wnt pathway …

Systematic Co-Culture Of Ipsc-Cm And Ipsc-An Promote Co-Maturation In Vitro, William Gregory Terrell Jr.

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The cardiac microenvironment is a complex system of multicellular interactions that enables proper heart function. In native heart muscle, sympathetic neurons (SN) and parasympathetic neurons (PSN) modulate the beat rate of cardiomyocytes (CM) to maintain homeostasis. Pluripotent stem cells can differentiate into CM, but differentiated CMs are fetal-like, with a high beat rate, and lack organized sarcomeric structure. Recent reports of co-cultured pluripotent CM/SN pairs have reported electrophysiological changes in the SN (increased upstroke velocity). However, interpretation of these results are obscured by the differences in co-culture parameters between studies (stage of development, co-culture duration, etc.). The goal of this …

End-Less, Marzo Kaisin

Grado en Gestión y Comunicación de la Moda

END-LESS es una marca de moda de segunda mano que busca redefinir el valor percibido de las prendas a través de la narrativa, la autenticidad y la sostenibilidad.

Al crear un nuevo sistema de compra y venta, END-LESS ofrece una nueva experiencia para el usuario, creando un proceso de imaginación detrás de la indumentaria y de su historia. La esencia de la marca se basa en un modelo de negocio que expone narrativas, características y elementos que rodean a cada prenda. Mediante componentes sensoriales, tanto visuales como auditivos, el usuario logra sumergirse en un proceso de compra único, en el …

The Uptake Puzzle In Expungement Of Criminal Records, Jessica K. Steinberg, Elenore Wade

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

Expungement has an uptake problem. A recent explosion of state-level rights allows people with felony convictions to expunge their criminal record, but only 1 to 6 percent of eligible people avail themselves of the remedy. Expungement is a powerful policy tool that promotes social and economic reintegration. It also serves a dignitary purpose, allowing people with criminal records to unshackle themselves from past mistakes. One might assume people would rush to court to clear their records. That the opposite is occurring—and new laws are idling on the books—suggests that rights-creation in this space has not been efficacious. This demands a …

Prima Facie Regulatory Capture: Lessons From Epa’S Regulation Of Glyphosate And Pfas ‘Forever Chemicals’, Jason Maclean

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back: The United States’ New Direction On Digital Trade

Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology

No abstract provided.

Fine-Tuned Large Language Models (Llms): Improved Prompt Injection Attacks Detection, Md Abdur Rahman, Hossain Shahriar, Guillermo Francia, Fan Wu, Alfredo Cuzzocrea, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Large language models (LLMs) are becoming a popular tool as they have significantly advanced in their capability to tackle a wide range of language-based tasks. However, LLMs applications are highly vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, which poses a critical problem. These attacks target LLMs applications through using carefully designed input prompts to divert the model from adhering to original instruction, thereby it could execute unintended actions. These manipulations pose serious security threats which potentially results in data leaks, biased outputs, or harmful responses. This project explores the security vulnerabilities in relation to prompt injection attacks. To detect whether a prompt …

Vulnerability To Stability: Scalable Large Language Model In Queue-Based Web Service, Md Abdul Barek, Bajlur Rashid, Mostafizur Rahman, A.B.M. Kamrul Islamc Riad, Guillermo Francia, Hossain Shahriar, Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated exceptional capabilities in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and are now widely used in various applications globally. However, one of their major challenges is handling high-concurrency workloads, especially under extreme conditions. When too many requests are sent simultaneously, LLMs often become unresponsive which leads to performance degradation and reduced reliability in real-world applications. To address this issue, this paper proposes a queue-based system that separates request handling from direct execution. By implementing a distributed queue, requests are processed in a structured and controlled manner, preventing system overload and ensuring stable performance. This approach …

Contextual Embedding-Based Clustering To Identify Topics For Healthcare Service Improvement, K M Sajjadul Islam, Ravi Teja Karri, Srujan Vegesna, Jiawei Wu, Praveen Madiraju

Computer Science Faculty Research and Publications

Understanding patient feedback is crucial for improving healthcare services, yet analyzing unlabeled short-text feedback presents challenges due to limited data and domainspecific nuances. Traditional supervised approaches require extensive labeled datasets, making unsupervised methods more practical for extracting insights. This study applies unsupervised techniques to analyze 439 survey responses from a healthcare system in Wisconsin, USA. A keyword-based filter was used to isolate complaint-related feedback using a domain-specific lexicon. To identify dominant themes, we evaluated traditional topic models such as Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) and Gibbs Sampling Dirichlet Multinomial Mixture (GSDMM) - alongside BERTopic, a neural embedding-based clustering method. To improve …

Measuring Toluene Diisocyanate Concentrations In Accordance With Acgih® Inhalable Fraction And Vapor (Ifv) Notation, Charles Larocque, Pierre-Luc Cloutier, Sébastien Gagné, Loïc Wingert, Sylvain Canesi, Jacques Lesage, Simon Aubin

Études primaires

Toluene diisocyanate (TDI) is an irritant (skin, eye and respiratory) and a sensitizer. This compound is used to manufacture polyurethane materials such as flexible foams. The use of isocyanates may lead to exposure by inhalation and/or skin contact and isocyanates are recognized as a cause of occupational asthma. The American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH^®) recommends a threshold limit value (TLV) for TDI of 1 part per billion (ppb) (7 µg m-^³) with inhalable fraction and vapor (IFV) notation. This notation means that the inhalable fraction of particles and the vapor phase of TDI may …

Évolution Des Troubles Mentaux Liés Au Travail Au Québec Entre 2012 Et 2021, Jaunathan Bilodeau, Martin Lebeau, Marc-Antoine Busque, Alain Marchand

Études primaires

Introduction : Plusieurs pays ont connu une augmentation du nombre de troubles mentaux acceptés au cours des dernières années, mais les variations possibles de cette évolution dans la main-d’œuvre demeurent à explorer.

But de l’étude : Cette étude examine la distribution dans le temps des troubles mentaux acceptés selon la profession, le secteur industriel, le sexe et l’âge au Québec.

Résultats : Les taux d’incidence des troubles mentaux et leur évolution varient selon la profession et le secteur industriel. Alors que le taux est généralement plus élevé dans les professions mixtes et le secteur tertiaire, l’augmentation de ces taux s’observe …

Revitaización De Late Checkout, Daniel Martín Rodríguez

Grado en Gestión y Comunicación de la Moda

Este Trabajo de Fin de Grado aborda la revitalización de Late Checkout, una marca española de moda urbana que ha logrado posicionarse en el panorama contemporáneo gracias a su propuesta estética inspirada en el universo hotelero y a un storytelling que aúna lujo accesible, cultura digital y exclusividad. Fundada en 2019 por el estilista Alex Turrión, la firma se enfrenta actualmente al reto de consolidar su identidad independiente, alejándose estratégicamente de su asociación inicial con figuras mediáticas como C. Tangana, sin renunciar a los valores que cimentaron su éxito.

El proyecto se estructura en tres fases: análisis de contexto y …