Digital Commons Network^™

Fragmented Minds And Fractured Selves: A Cognitive Stylistic Analysis Of Mental Disturbance In Leaves Of Narcissus, Sarah M. Fayed, Amany M. El-Shazly, Fatma Ismail Dr.

Computer Science

What readers encounter in literature directly affects their views and impressions of the world. Hence, it is essential to acknowledge this effect and analyze it to understand how readers identify and pass judgment about significant issues. One important issue to investigate is the depiction of mental disturbance in modern fiction. The present work reconceptualizes the depiction of mental disturbance in Arabic fiction through an analysis of Somaya Ramadan’s Leaves of Narcissus. To this effect, Leaves of Narcissus (Awraq al-narjis) the depiction of mental disturbance is examined. The stylistic devices Ramadan uses, such as schema alterations to convey the content are …

Resilient Voices: A Proposed Support Group For Latina Middle Schoolers, Vanessa G. Leon

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

The transition to middle school represents a critical developmental period characterized by significant social, emotional, physical, and cognitive changes. For Latina adolescents, this transition may be further complicated by cultural, environmental, and systemic stressors that increase vulnerability to mental health concerns. This doctoral specialization project addresses the need for culturally responsive mental health interventions designed to support the well-being of Latina middle school students during this developmental stage. The project presents Juntas Podemos, a school-based support group intervention that integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills within a culturally responsive framework to promote emotional well-being, …

La Mode Comme Arme À Double Tranchant : Construction Et Déconstruction De L’Indochine Coloniale, Sasha Hanson

Honors Theses

Cette thèse explore la façon dont la mode façonnait le pouvoir, l’identité et la résistance dans l’Indochine française à travers trois oeuvres littéraires : Un barrage contre le Pacifique (1950) de Marguerite Duras, Métisse blanche (1989) de Kim Lefèvre et The Book of Salt (2003) de Monique Truong. En appuyant sur les théories postcoloniales de Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Frantz Fanon et Homi K. Bhabha, j’argumente que la mode et les vêtements font plus que révéler les hiérarchies coloniales de race, classe et genre ; ils les renforcent activement. Alors que dans son récit, Duras expose les inégalités socio-économiques à l'intérieur …

Development Of A Python Pipeline For The Inference Of Selection In Human Genomes And Applications To Adh1b*2, Aine Macdermott

Honors Theses

Human evolutionary genomics provides an avenue to understand how genetic variation has been impacted by the environmental pressures of the past, revealing how selective pressures impacted past populations and contributed to present-day biological diversity. In this thesis, I describe the construction of a Python-based computational pipeline designed to automate and integrate multiple analyses of positive selection across worldwide population datasets, including derived allele frequency calculation, haplotype-based tests of selection, RELATE-based genealogical inference, and CLUES2-based temporal modeling. By automating file preparation, format conversion, job submission, result aggregation, model comparison, and visualization, this pipeline streamlines the data interpretation process, and shifts focus …

The Machine And The Masses: A Sociolinguistic Study Of Ai Political Rhetoric, Yaseen Tasnif

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

With increased use of and access to generative Artificial Intelligence, or AI, political communications have begun to see its influence, leading to the question of how this AI generated political rhetoric is received. In previous research, AI output has been extensively researched and indexed, highlighting specific qualities such as overly polished speech as indicators of use. Research has also been done on perception and detectability of AI, showing that people can accurately identify AI-generated text, but tend to be overconfident. However, such research has not been done in the context of political rhetoric, which is consumed in different ways than …

Splitting Heirs: When The Land Was Divided (Genesis 10:25), W. Creighton Marlowe

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

Shem’s genealogy (in Gen 10:2–30) records that “Two sons were born to Eber: One was named Peleg [ פֶלגֶ†], because in his time the earth was divided [ נִפְלְגָה֣†]; his brother was named Joktan” (10:25; NIV). What this “division” was has generated a few popular views, but none has reached consensus. The major interpretations to date are that the division was: (1) geographically, the patriarchal partitioning of territories to Noah’s three sons, or (2) a second distribution of these territories after the first by Noah; or (3) the split of the Pangaea continent into the modern continents or some other …

The Journal Of Inductive Biblical Studies

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

No abstract provided.

Who Are The Sons Of God And Nephilim In Genesis 6?: An Exegetical, Theological, And Scientific Evaluation, Samuel Ken-En Gan

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

Scholars debate the meaning of bene ha-elohim and Nephilim in Gen 6:1–4, interpreting the former as either spiritual or human, and the latter as giants or hybrids. Using historical exegesis, linguistic analysis, and genetic insights, this study concludes “sons of God” in Gen 6 refers specifically to humans, aligning with the biblical creation mandate of “kind after kind.” Although elsewhere the term may denote spiritual beings, this paper argues for a context-specific human interpretation in Gen 6, while acknowledging the broader biblical usage covering both angels and humans.

Can Ai Perform Inductive Bible Study? A Case Study And Implications For Applying Ai In Biblical Studies, Shishou Chen

The Journal of Inductive Biblical Studies

This article explores the potential of employing generative AI in biblical studies, focusing on Chat GPT’s strengths and limitations to perform Inductive Bible Study (IBS). Using the Parable of the Sower (Matt 13:3b–9) as a case study, the author evaluates Chat GPT’s ability to carry out core IBS tasks, including division and the identification of Major Structural Relationships (MSRs) in Matthew and in Matthew 13, as well as interpreting Matt 13:3b–9. The study concludes that ChatGPT can serve as a valuable research assistant but cannot replace human scholars. It also proposes a responsible human-AI collaboration model, explores pedagogical applications, and …

The Object Of Interpretation, Francisco J. Urbina

Journal Articles

This Article provides an account of the object of legal interpretation. It examines various potential objects: text, lawmaking choice, practice, and order. The Article argues for a pluralist conception of the object of interpretation, according to which all of these alternatives are possible objects. In making this argument, the Article puts forth an account of the nature of the object of interpretation. The object of legal interpretation is, in essence, what is treated as a source of law, a fact that is recognized as generating law. As such, which alternative is exactly the object of interpretation in a given context …

Large Language Models Improve Readability Of Patient Education Materials On Vascular Conditions, Melissa Chen Xu, Nicola Habash, Justin Do, Jiaying Bi, Dawn Salvatore, Paul J Dimuzio, Michael Nooromid, Babak Abai

Department of Surgery Faculty Papers

Objective: Patient education materials frequently exceed the recommended sixth-grade reading level. Although large language models (LLMs) have shown inconsistent accuracy in medical query responses, they have demonstrated promise in simplifying complex text. This capability has not yet been studied in vascular patient education materials. This study evaluates whether ChatGPT-4o and Gemini 1.5 Pro can improve the readability of Society for Vascular Surgery (SVS) patient education flyers. Methods: SVS health flyers were selected based on five common vascular conditions: abdominal aortic aneurysm, carotid artery disease, deep vein thrombosis, peripheral artery disease, and varicose veins. Each flyer was submitted to ChatGPT-4o and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences (Aces) In Immigrants, Maria Fana Mejia Bsc

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are severe or chronic stressors before age 18, including domestic violence, neglect, abuse, financial hardship, and parental separation (Loria & Caughy, 2018).

Research on ACEs in immigrants is limited, despite Latinx immigrant children being the fastest-growing child population in the U.S.

Healthy Starts: Cooking, Culture & Confidence, Lindsey Plumb

Student Research Design & Innovation Symposium

Healthy Starts: Cooking, Culture, and Confidence for Healthier Families is a culturally tailored nutrition intervention designed for pediatric patients and caregivers served by the Nutrition Teaching Center at Hasbro Children's Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island. The program addresses high rates of childhood overweight and obesity, food insecurity, and low caregiver confidence in meal preparation among racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse families. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, Healthy Starts focuses on building practical cooking skills, nutrition knowledge, and self-efficacy through bilingual, hands-on cooking classes, family nutrition workshops, and peer support circles. Sessions emphasize preparing affordable, culturally familiar meals while accommodating religious …

Language Models For Enhanced Patient-Provider Communication: Methods, Measures, And Benchmarks, Joseph Gatto

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

In recent years, significant efforts have been made to integrate Large Language Models (LLMs) into healthcare. In this study, we explore how to improve patient-provider communication using LLMs --- with explicit focus on asynchronous communication through EHR-integrated web portals. Throughout this thesis, we describe three interconnected studies that allow us to adapt, train, and evaluate LLMs in asynchronous portal communications. The first study focuses on Patient Message Triage, which is the task of determining the medical urgency of patient-authored message content. We introduce a novel benchmark, alongside methods and training strategies producing a state-of-the-art and publicly available triage solution. Our …

Constitutional Colonialism And Decolonization: Moving Toward A Decolonial African Constitutional Future, Luwam Dirar

Fordham International Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mission Refocus: A Strategic Realignment Of The Seventh-Day Adventist Worldwide Mission Effort In The Context Of The Three Mission Refocus Windows, Erton Kohler

Doctor of Ministry Projects

Problem

The Seventh-day Adventist Church emerged as a worldwide missionary movement committed to proclaiming the everlasting gospel to every nation, tribe, language, and people. Throughout much of its history, the Church demonstrated a strong commitment to cross-cultural mission and the establishment of an Adventist presence in territories with low or no access to the gospel message. However, as the Church expanded globally in membership, institutions, organizational structures, and administrative responsibilities, a gradual shift in mission priorities occurred. Increasing attention to institutional maintenance and regional demands often reduced emphasis on frontline mission territories and populations with no or low Adventist presence. …

Fairness Without Demographic Attributes In Medical Vision–Language Models, Ahsan Habib Akash

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Vision–language models (VLMs) and the embedding models that underlie them have become the default representation layer for multimodal artificial intelligence. Trained by contrastive alignment over enormous, loosely curated image–text corpora, they inherit the demographic skew of that data, and they encode it in the geometry of the shared embedding space itself. The consequence is a model that performs unevenly across demographic groups even when no protected attribute is ever supplied as an input. In consumer applications this is an equity problem; in medicine it is a safety problem, because an embedding that is systematically less discriminative for one subpopulation translates …

Dan Subotnik Kept It Real, John Mcwhorter

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Remembering A Dear Friend And Colleague, Thomas A. Schweitzer

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Can We Talk—Really Talk—About Critical Race Theory? What A Game For All Ages Can Teach Us, Dan Subotnik

Touro Law Review

This essay may shock many readers. What it tries to do is look more closely than usual at the underpinnings of American racial discourse in the hope of leaving its readers, by its end, more willing than before to speak openly and listen carefully to people who disagree with them on the fraught subject of race. Wouldn’t many of us academics like to engage in a more open-minded sort of interracial conversation with a greater variety of our peers than we usually do? And yet it never seems to happen. Do any of us, black or white, feel we can …

The Once And Future Scholar: A Love Letter To Dan Subotnik, Rose Rosengard Subotnik

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Transitivizers In Séliš-Ql̓Ispé, Logan J. Sites

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

No abstract provided.

Reclaiming The Constitution: "For There Is Always Light, If Only We're Brave Enough To See It", Palma Joy Strand, Gregory J. O'Meara S.J.

Marquette Law Review

As citizens—and as lawyers—we are schooled to view the U.S. Constitution as what—indeed—“constitutes” us as a nation and as a people. As lawyers— and as citizens—we are also schooled to understand that the Constitution is law and that its meaning is to be ascertained through the process of law and by lawyers and judges. This Article builds on a popular constitutionalism frame to describe the profound limitations of restricting constitutional meaning-making to a legal enterprise performed primarily by judges—especially in regard to positive rights written into the Constitution but under-protected in constitutional law. In addition, litigation’s either–or mindset has come …

Evolution Of A Client‐Level Dataset: 20 Years Of National Child Traumatic Stress Network Data Collection, C. A. Purbeck, A. N. Cooke, L. J. Liang, C. Smith, J. Staten, J. Epstein, H. B. Hodgdon, Jessica Eslinger, A. Wells, J. Goodrich, T. H. Bethel, K. Willett, Y. C. Fu, J. A. Fairbank, E. C. Briggs

Center on Trauma and Children Faculty Publications

Objectives: For 20 years, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network's (NCTSN) data collection efforts have been a central mechanism for Clinical Quality Improvement (ClQI). The NCTSN is a federally funded initiative in the United States composed of programs dedicated to raising the standard of care and increasing access to services for children and families who have experienced traumatic events.

Methods: These efforts span three initiatives: the Core Data Set (CDS), the Clinical Improvement through Measurement Initiative (CIMI) Measurement Based Care (MBC), and CIMI Data Sharing (CIMI-DS) that collected and analyzed client-level data to improve care for children and families served …

A Semiotic Analysis Of German-American Cultural Suppression In The Lincoln Freie Presse From 1914 To 1918, Elle Ward

Nebraska Anthropologist

This study performs a historical semiotic content analysis of the Lincoln Freie Presse to document the processes of cultural coercion and resultant identity erasure within the German- American press of Nebraska during the critical period of January 1914 to December 1918. The research establishes a semiotic baseline (1914–1916) characterized by high linguistic and content autonomy and then tracks the immediate, stark shifts following the U.S. entry into World War I (the coercion period) and the succeeding mass anti-German hysteria (1917–1918). Quantitative findings convey a rapid and overwhelming visual conquest of the newspaper’s spatio-textual landscape: patriotic symbolism surged from zero to …

Journeying Together: A Coaching Framework Empowering Voice And Transforming Teams, Kari Michele Kinard

Doctor of Leadership

To be seen, heard, and to have a voice are deeply human desires, regardless of where one finds oneself in the world. In the culturally and ethnically diverse Saharan nation, the Islamic Republic of Mauritania (RIM), the capital, Nouakchott, serves as a central hub shaped by a strong Islamic identity, historical hierarchies, and long-standing foreign involvement in development efforts. These dynamics create both meaningful opportunities and real challenges for leadership practices across sectors.

Development efforts in RIM have long sought to strengthen communities through education, healthcare, and economic initiatives. While these efforts are well-intentioned, sustaining impact has remained a persistent …

Cats 2.0: Leveraging Large Language Models And Graph Databases For Robust Arabic Sms E-Commerce Systems, M. Samir Abou El-Seoud, Daoud M. Daoud 2

Computer Science

Arabic SMS-based e-commerce platforms pose unique challenges due to the spontaneous and noisy nature of user-generated text (e.g., abbreviations, dialectal Arabic, or “Arabizi” transliterations). In this paper, we present Classified Ads Text Service (CATS) 2.0, an improved classified ads system that combines probabilistic large language models (LLMs) with deterministic graph-based knowledge representations to achieve robust understanding and matching of Arabic SMS content. Building on earlier work that emphasized the importance of integrating sublanguage analysis with content-oriented methods, our approach uses a hybrid pipeline: an LLM interprets free-text messages and extracts structured information, which is then inserted into a Neo4j graph …

Music To Move You: Comparing Effects Of Music Genre On Subjective Performance Of Football Players In A Practice Setting, Devin Deturk

PCOM Psychology Dissertations

Optimizing athletic performance has increasingly extended beyond conditioning to include psychological, health-related, and environmental interventions aimed at enhancing peak mental and physical fitness. However, advanced training mechanisms targeting these factors may not be readily available to all programs, necessitating cost-effective, accessible, and ethically sound adjuncts. Thus, music emerges as a potential solution that remains underutilized in applied sport settings but may be leveraged to address pervasive challenges such as fear of failure, burnout, and over-professionalization. The present dissertation investigated the effects of music in a practice setting, with particular emphasis on its capacity to enhance subjective performance, motivation, and positive …

Structuring The Musical Year: Dance, Topic, And Semiosis In Eighteenth-Century Calendar Music, Braden Shaw

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In this thesis, I apply a multifaceted analytical approach to examine a niche category of music called calendar music. In chapter one, I discuss Gregor Joseph Werner’s composition, the New and Very Curious Musical Calendar, and specifically address the minuets found within this work. Werner composes irregular measure groupings in his binary minuets and did so to represent the number of hours in day and night. This irregularity of measure groupings might superficially suggest that Werner’s pieces are stylized minuets only, unintended to accompany physical dancing and far removed from any actual choreographic influence of embodied performance. Werner, …

Seriosa And The Song Recital Tradition: Reframing The Antologi Musik Klasik Indonesia: Seri I—Vokal Dan Piano (Seriosa), Pharel Silaban

Theses and Dissertations--Music

This project traces the changing life of seriosa, later known as Indonesian art song, from its colonial emergence in the 1930s–1950s to its post-independence expansion and institutional contraction in the 1960s–1980s, and contemporary reframing since the early 2000s. It argues that the genre functioned as a vocal infrastructure that coordinated training, repertoire production, radio broadcast circulation, and public audibility. The study further shows that when the influence of Radio Republik Indonesia weakened, the fragility of this infrastructure became visible. Efforts to sustain the genre by figures such as Rose Pandanwangi, Pranawengrum Katamsi, Catharina Wiriadinata Leimena, and Aning Katamsi appeared …