Digital Commons Network^™

Winter 2026, Office Of University Marketing And Communication

Bryant Magazine (1997-2019)(2024-present)

This issue invites us to reflect on some of the remarkable achievements of the past year and to look ahead with purpose and passion. At the heart of this issue is a theme woven throughout our culture: working together, collaboration, and partnership, best summarized as teamwork.

A Handup Approach: Applying An Oppression Lens To Perceptions Of Factors Interfering With Black And African American Undergraduate Persistence At A Predominantly White Institution, Edith A. Tettey

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

Black and African American students face persistent equity gaps in higher education, including lagging behind in bachelor’s degree completion rates. Students impacted by equity gaps are at risk for interpreting such gaps as a reflection of their personal effort rather than structural barriers to college persistence. The current study applied the Racial Encounter Coping Appraisal and Socialization Theory to understand how Black and African American undergraduates appraise what could interfere with their college persistence. Participants (n = 92) completed questionnaires assessing university belongingness, college self-efficacy, and centrality of Black identity, including an open-ended question asking what they perceived might interfere …

Ai-Driven Network Orchestration: Adaptive Routing For Federated Learning Over Software-Defined Hybrid Wans, Osama Abu Hamdan

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Modern wide-area networks increasingly adopt hybrid architectures that combine high-capacity wired backbones with flexible wireless links to extend connectivity to remote and underserved locations. However, the bandwidth variability inherent in wireless segments creates routing challenges that traditional protocols, designed for static link capacities, cannot adequately address. Simultaneously, Federated Learning (FL) has emerged as a privacy-preserving distributed machine learning paradigm in which geographically dispersed clients collaboratively train shared models without exchanging raw data. When deployed over wide-area networks, FL training is severely bottlenecked by communication overhead, particularly in cross-silo settings where model payloads reach hundreds of megabytes and synchronous aggregation protocols …

Towards Multimodal Guideline-Aligned Agentic Systems, Wenliang Zhong

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

I present my work on building multimodal guideline-aligned agentic systems designed to enable AI agents to solve complex real-world tasks. My research addresses two critical perspectives: (1) Instruction-Aware Embedding Models for flexible and universal embedding tasks, and (2) Guideline-Driven LLM Agents that leverage domain-specific guidelines to perform expert-level tasks. These components address embedding and generation tasks, respectively, and lay the foundation for a hybrid agent capable of tackling challenging real-world applications.

From the embedding perspective, I first address the instruction-following capabilities of embedding models. While Large Language Models (LLMs) excel at instruction following, they are primarily designed for generation rather …

Review:Linklater, Andrew. Violence And Civilization In The Western States-Systems. Cambridge University Press, 2017., Stephen T. Satkiewicz

Comparative Civilizations Review

The late Andrew Linklater (1949-2023) has been considered one of the most influential scholars within the field of International Relations. This was the result of his innovative synthesis into the field, with others, of the historical sociology of Norbert Elias (1897- 1990), work that addressed the long-term figuration processes of societies. This synthesis was enriched with the insights of the English School of International Relations, as devised by Martin Wight (1913-1972) and Hedley Bull (1932-1985), scholars who analyzed the many and differing interlocking networks and connections amongst geopolitical actors on the world stage. These efforts led Linklater to his final …

Thermal Analysis Of The Fiber Fuse Effect, John Seekins

Dissertations

The fiber fuse effect is a self-sustaining damage propagation mechanism that can occur in the core of optical fibers. Under sufficient levels of applied power, laser light is absorbed as heat in the fiber. This phenomenon is characterized by a brightly glowing spot in the fiber that propagates towards the source of laser light at about 1 𝑚/𝑠. A numerical simulation of the fiber fuse effect is developed that solves the transient heat equation with source terms in cylindrical coordinates utilizing an explicit finite difference discretization. For the first time in a simulation of this type, a radiation transport equation …

Chinese Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual Positive Identity Measure (C-Lgb-Pim), Yawen Yang, Ellen D. B. Riggle, Fang Wang, Mengyan Wu, Ye Sun, Huilan Liu, Lisha Dai

Gender and Women's Studies Faculty Publications

To support research and interventions using a positive, strength-based framework of lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identities in China, this study translates the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Positive Identity Measure (LGB-PIM) into Standard Chinese and evaluating its reliability and validity among Chinese sexual minorities. Following Brislin’s standardized translation procedures (translation, back-translation, cultural adaptation, and pretesting), the scale retained 25 items across 5 dimensions. A convenience sample of 392 participants underwent assessments of internal consistency (α = 0.92), retest reliability (α = 0.80), structural validity (68.54% variance explained), and construct validity. The five-dimensional structure showed robust convergent validity (AVE > 0.50, CR …

Reframing Latina Incarceration: An Exploration Of Intersectional Identity, Mass Incarceration And Criminalization In The United States, Melia Lorch

Hispanic Studies Honors Papers

This thesis examines the incarceration of Latina women in the United States through an intersectional lens that centers ethnicity, gender, and class, among other factors. While mass incarceration has been widely studied, Latina experiences are often overlooked or reduced to statistics, making their specific pathways into and through the criminal legal system largely invisible. This project argues that Latina incarceration is not simply the result of individual behavior, but is shaped by overlapping systems of structural inequality. Drawing on the interdisciplinary research of an array of scholars, recent government data and report, as well as observations from York Correctional Institution …

A Cold War Story: The Emigration Of Soviet Jews 1967-1980, William Bernstein

History Honors Papers

No abstract provided.

Reflections Of A Queer Latvia: How The Past Has Shaped Contemporary Activism, Gray Ruffer

Slavic Studies Honors Papers

This thesis aims to create a transhistorical map of queer Riga through the tolerance, treatment, and activist moments in Latvia from the early twentieth century to 2025, with special focus on the divided legal and social attitudes toward LGBT identities in different pockets of Riga. By tracing the role the Russo-Soviet occupations on Latvian soil from 1914-1991 had on the structure of governmental organizations, the treatment of the Latvian language and culture, and the social atmosphere in the capital of Riga, this thesis establishes a Latvian national historical memory through memory narratives that focus themselves in authentic Latvian traditionality, as …

The English You Speak Matters: Immigrants, Phonological Roots, And Psychological Perspectives On Accent Discrimination, Sophia Hauschildt

Psychology Honors Papers

Accent serves as a highly salient social cue that influences how speakers are perceived, particularly in multicultural contexts where linguistic diversity is increasing. The present study examined how English accent affects evaluations of speaker warmth and competence, and how individual differences in cultural intelligence and colour-blind racial attitudes shape these perceptions. Using a between-subjects experimental design, participants (N = 225) were randomly assigned to listen to a standardised speech passage presented in one of five accents: General American English (GAE; control), Spanish-accented English, Chinese-accented English, Hindi-accented English, or Filipino-accented English. Participants then completed measures of speaker evaluation based on …

The Language Of Collaboration: Analogs In Digital Media, Orion Martins

Theses & ETDs

To collaborate is to share meaning together, which is already to collaborate; sharing of meaning defi nes language. This co-emergence of collaboration and language happens through interplay between the known and the unknown—what we expect and what surprises us—held open by trust, which is not a precondition but a leap into uncertainty that allows transformation to emerge. Through three collaborative projects—Palm Bike Court Girl, Unruly Subjects, and Eat My Love—I investigate how this dynamic unfolds in artistic practice, documentary witness, and romantic devotion. Understanding collaboration as the ground of meaning-making matters because learning to hold the tension between known and …

An Amalgamation Of Genre: Creating A Multi-Style First Ep As A Musical Artist, Emily Mcgoogan

Theses & ETDs

As someone with the desire to continue creating music for most of my life whether as a full-time career or just as a hobby to fulfill leisure time with, choosing where to devote energy to can be quite difficult. The objective of this EP was to obtain as much exposure to the musical genres, styles, and programs that interest me in order to attempt to figure out how I work as a musical artist. I aimed for six different genres to explore: Pop, Experimental Pop, Alternative, Tech House, Blues, and Surf Rock. The process consisted of stages where I would …

A Multidisciplinary Dialogue On Students Of Color And First-Generation Students In United States Higher Education: Challenges, Current Representations, A Personal Story, And The Road Ahead, Christian Torres

Theses & ETDs

Despite a considerable amount of research, racial diversity in higher education in the United States remains a complicated social issue. Intersecting variables like being a first-generation student or a female student, in addition to the variable of being a student of color, complicate the issue further, calling for more research into the variable of race and ethnicity and how it may impact a student’s potential chances at success at the higher education level. In this thesis, a personal story of a first-generation student of color is provided to humanize the issue of diversity in higher education. Secondary data were then …

Issue 23: A Rights-Based Migration Strategy For Canada: Addressing Inequities In A Time Of U.S. Political Repression, Marika Jeziorek

International Migration Research Centre

This brief argues that the growing appeal of Canada to highly skilled professionals fleeing rights-based repression in the United States presents a unique opportunity to strengthen its skilled migration strategy through an equity-focused and economically sustainable approach. As U.S. professionals—particularly women, racialized individuals, healthcare providers, and academics—seek safety, professional autonomy, and legal protection, Canada has emerged as a key destination (Favaro, 2025; Levinthal, 2024; Malkin, 2016; Jackson, 2024). This appeal is rooted in Canada’s reputation as a rights-based society, one that contrasts sharply with the erosion of freedoms in parts of the U.S. To uphold and deliver on this perception, …

Southern Adventist University Undergraduate Catalog 2025-2026, Southern Adventist University

Catalog, Undergraduate

Southern Adventist University's undergraduate catalog for the academic year 2025-2026.

Southern Adventist University Graduate Handbook 2025-2026, Southern Adventist University

Student Handbooks, Graduate

No abstract provided.

Exploring Dominican University Nursing Students’ Perceptions Of Economic Barriers To Accessing Essential Women’S Health Products, Annabelle E. Burke

Nursing | Senior Theses

Period poverty is defined as inconsistent or inadequate access to feminine hygiene products, and it has been shown to negatively impact physical and mental health, academic performance, and dignity across diverse populations. Existing research highlights financial strain, social stigma, and insufficient support as key barriers to menstrual equity among individuals experiencing homelessness, adolescents living in low-resource environments, low-income women, and general undergraduate students (Brinkley & Niebuhr, 2023; Dave et al., 2022; Gruer et al., 2021; Lahme et al., 2018; Parkinson et al., 2024; Gilchrist et al., 2024). However, no studies have examined these issues amongst Dominican University nursing students who …

Paternal Involvement And Bonding In Neonatal Intensive Care Unit: Evaluating Daily Caregiving, Emotional Well-Being, And Father-Infant Connection, Ava G. Kinyon

Nursing | Senior Theses

Background: Premature birth and serious neonatal conditions frequently require infants to obtain care in the NICU, producing psychological and emotional obstacles for families. Despite the fact that skin-to-skin contact has been extensively researched for its strengths in encouraging stability and bonding, there persists restricted importance and understanding on paternal participation in routine caregiving tasks such as feeding, diapering, temperature checks, and swaddling. Purpose: This study aims to evaluate paternal participation in daily NICU caregiving tasks to address gaps in comprehending how these experiences impact bonding and emotional well-being among fathers of hospitalized infants. Methods: This study will employ a quasi-experimental …

Through Their Eyes: An Empathetic Narrative Inquiry Of Long-Term English Learners’ Perspectives In Rural High Schools, Enrique Ivan Nuñez

Doctor of Education (EdD)

This qualitative narrative inquiry study explored the lived experiences of Long-Term English Learners (LTELs). LTELs are students who remain classified as English learners for six or more years. Limited research on LTELs’ perceptions of reclassification limits educators’ ability to design effective reclassification practices. This study examined LTELs’ perspectives on barriers to reclassification, existing school supports, and socioemotional experiences. The study was guided by a conceptual framework integrating sociocultural theory and empathy. Semi-structured empathy interviews were conducted with 11 LTELs from three rural high schools. Interview transcripts were analyzed to identify themes while preserving each participant’s unique narrative.

Several key themes …

Agents Of Hope: A Narrative Inquiry Into The Lived Experience And Professional Practice Of Teacher Hopefulness, Brett J. Baxter

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Teacher attrition, declining job satisfaction, and increasing classroom challenges continue to affect the stability and effectiveness of K–12 public education. While research has consistently demonstrated positive outcomes associated with higher levels of hope among students, little is known about how teachers themselves perceive their own hopefulness or the role it plays in their professional practice. Without a clearer understanding of teacher hope, educational leaders and policymakers may overlook an important factor influencing teacher effectiveness and student outcomes. Guided by the theoretical framework of hope theory, which conceptualizes hope as the interaction of goal-oriented thinking, agency thinking, and pathways thinking, this …

Chronic Absenteeism In Long Island Secondary Schools: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Post-Covid-19 Trends And Professional Perceptions, William M. Gibbons

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Recent educational research studies have shown that an alarming number of students are chronically absent from school, a trend that is occurring both nationwide and in New York State. While this number had been slowly increasing before the COVID-19 pandemic, it has accelerated significantly following the pandemic. This increase in chronic absenteeism is also prevalent across Nassau and Suffolk County high schools; there has been a large increase in the percentage of students who are chronically absent in high school since the COVID-19 pandemic. Experts warn that this increased number can lead to multiple negative consequences for students, including social …

Teaching That Resonates: Reimagining High School Literature Through Real-World Connections, Lizzie Galanis

ENG 490 Senior Seminar Capstone

The current high school literature curriculum is overdue for reform. While classic books have value, teaching them in a modern context is crucial so the lessons can be translated to students’ daily lives. Integrating contemporary texts is essential when reimagining the curriculum because students can relate to them and connect with their themes. This paper analyzes five texts that would meaningfully enhance an updated curriculum. These texts promote real-world connections, interdisciplinary learning, and multicultural exposure. Schools and educators must reassess both what they teach and how they teach it to diversify the content and evolve with the times. Students should …

Entry Nr. 134 Isaac Anderson, Aaron Spencer Fogleman, Robert Hanserd

500 African Voices

No abstract provided.

Talking Black: The Construction Of Blackness In Film, D'Andre M. Person

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Projects

Media, such as film, plays a pivotal role in representing marginalized groups to general audiences. The portrayal of Black people in advertisements, novels, art, and film has perpetuated harmful stereotypes which associate Black men and women with negative traits that justify their marginalization, such as the "Coon" stereotype that frames Black men as lazy or the "Mammy" stereotype that positions Black women as subservient. Stereotypes in film are produced through images, but language plays a vital role in constructing general audiences' understanding of Black people as well. Through a rhetorical analysis of seven films released between 2016 and 2026, I …

Do Algorithms Dream Of Electric Muses? Teaching Creative Writing In The Age Of Generative Ai, Anna Leahy

English Faculty Articles and Research

In Philip K. Dick’s novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? androids are given a psychological test to confirm they are not human before killing them. The story’s end suggests that humans will treat a seemingly harmless android as authentically as a human even when humans are aware the android is not human. Students use tools like ChatGPT, which function as autocomplete on steroids, to produce text using probabilistic relationships among words, and instructors can’t always tell the difference between average student writing and Gen AI text. In creative writing classes, instructors might use thinking for oneself as a central …

Sunflower Boys (2025) By Sam Wachman, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Young Adult Books

Two issues preoccupy twelve-year-old Artem, living with his mother and younger brother Yuri in Chernihiv, Ukraine. He must navigate adolescence without the direct guidance of his father, who works construction in New York, USA, and his feelings for his best friend Viktor are shifting in a way he knows he must hide. But Artem’s coming-of-age story is interrupted by the invasion of the Russian army on February 24, 2022. Making their way across war-torn Ukraine toward the Polish border in hopes of reuniting with their father, the brothers experience hunger, severe illness, and the terror of witnessing the murder of …

A Panel Quantile Model Via Correlated Random Effects Approach For Testing Pecking Order Theory, Zongwu Cai, Meng Shi, Wuqing Wu, Yue Zhao

Student Publications

This article investigates the relative importance of internal and external sources of funds in financing activities across different levels of investment activities by proposing a panel data quantile regression model with correlated random effects, accounting for heteroscedasticity in both firm-specific individuals and distribution of investment. A new estimation method, which takes the influence of disturbance into account, is proposed by using the integrated quasi-likelihood function for the conditional quantile model and Laplace approximation. The large sample theory for the proposed estimator and the corresponding asymptotic χ² test are investigated. A Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to examine the finite …

Annual Report 2025 Durham, New Hampshire For Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2025, Durham Town Representatives

Durham, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Achieve Hearing Intervention Toolkit For Self-Management, Michelle L. Arnold, Victoria Sanchez, Courtney Matthews, Theresa Chisolm, Ann Eddins

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.