Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of Prek-Eighth Grade School And District Administrators On The English Language Learner Reclassification Criteria, Impacting Long-Term English Learners, Elma Adelina Rodriguez

Doctor of Education (EdD)

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of school and district administrators regarding English Language Learner (ELL) criteria that affect the academic trajectories of Long-Term English Learners (LTELs). ELL criteria differ across states and are used to demonstrate not only English language proficiency but also ELL students' academic performance. While English-only students are not required to demonstrate their academic use of English, ELL students are required to demonstrate English-language academic reading, writing, listening, and speaking skills to be reclassified as English proficient. If ELL students remain classified as ELL for multiple years, they are labeled as LTEL. …

Relearning Language: A Meta-Analysis Of Syntactic Priming In Aphasia, Ally Miller, Willem Van Boxtel

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

Background: Despite the importance of grammatical skills for participation
in daily life, treatments for sentence–level abilities in aphasia
are comparatively scarce. The psycholinguistic paradigm of syntactic
priming has recently been advanced as a potential assessment and
treatment for grammatical skills, and existing evidence on priming in
aphasia is highly promising. Nevertheless, a comprehensive analysis of
the strength of priming effects in aphasia, as well as treatment components
which might amplify these effects, has not been reported.
This meta–analysis synthesizes existing findings on syntactic priming
in aphasia, aiming to provide a comprehensive picture of priming
effects and their potential application for …

Gullah Geechee, Progenitors For African North American Maternal Lineage, Jennifer Caldwell, Imani Sykes, Robbie Beyl, Tomilowo Abijo, Kiara Charles, Fatimah Jackson

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

African American ancestral lineages are marked by resilience, shaped by centuries of forced migrations, the Transatlantic and domestic slave trades, and subsequent movements within the United States. These historical events have influenced both the cultural and genetic diversity of Legacy African Americans. This study examined mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplogroups among 189 participants—79 Gullah Geechee and 110 African Americans—to explore the Gullah Geechee as potential progenitors of other Legacy African North American lineages. Haplogroup analysis revealed L2 and L3 as the most frequent among both groups, comprising 34.6% and 38.8% in African Americans and 28.0% and 54.7% in Gullah Geechee, respectively. …

Towards Breach Hypothesis Based Predictive Autonomous Cyber Defense Ecosystem: Proactive Prevention Of Imminent Threats And Productivity Losses, Yogesh Chavarkar

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

As cyberattack tools and techniques get sophisticated and persistent, reactive cybersecurity has been unable to effectively prevent breaches and compromises. Organizations and institutions with large complex environments have wide vulnerable exposure with higher chances of a cyberattack. This also increases overall security and financial risk. Possibility of repetitive attacks from cyber threats increases, too, despite the use of standard defense measures. Security tools and system vulnerabilities often need manual patching and updates to keep the environment secure and functioning effectively. Productivity suffers from manual trade-offs in keeping the systems secure from adverse impact. Persistent high-severity cyberattacks, despite continued reactive defensive …

Can Federalism Protect Subnational Liberal Democracy From Central Authoritarianism?, James A. Gardner

Journal Articles

Liberal democracy is eroding rapidly around the globe, including in the United States, raising alarming questions about whether American democratic institutions will endure. Nevertheless, some have speculated that federalism may protect liberal democracy at the subnational level when the central government turns authoritarian. This article argues that such optimism is premature: there is no a priori basis on which to predict the effect of central democratic backsliding on the quality of subnational democracy. Federal theory does suggest that internal heterogeneity in basic political commitments is likely to produce an escalating pattern of severe and possibly intractable intergovernmental conflict. Empirical evidence …

Andante: Introduction, Ilaria Serra

Andante: An Introduction

Cover art: Dorothy Tennant (1855-1926), Al gioco

Problems And Possibilities Of Namelessness In Late Antiquity And The Early Middle Ages, Jamie Wood, Hope Williard, Máirín Maccarron, Julia Hillner, James R. Burns

Medieval People

No abstract provided.

Full Journal

Pastoral Liturgy

No abstract provided.

Preparing Future Occupational Therapy Practitioners To Provide Culturally Responsive Care For Hispanic Populations, Abraham Ramirez

Occupational Therapy Student Scholarship

As the United States becomes increasingly culturally diverse, occupational therapy practitioners must be prepared to provide culturally responsive, client-centered care to individuals and families from diverse backgrounds. This doctoral capstone addressed an identified gap in occupational therapy education related to students’ preparedness to work with Hispanic/Latino populations through the development and dissemination of educational resources grounded in cultural humility. Guided by Agner’s Cultural Humility Framework, the project emphasized lifelong self-reflection, recognition of personal biases, collaboration, and openness to clients’ lived experiences rather than mastery of cultural knowledge. A mixed-methods approach was utilized, incorporating a literature review, needs assessment, faculty consultation, …

Connecting Through Art: A Collaborative Art Program For The Deaf Community, Andrey Meg Bacal, Cristina Dumitrescu, Gary Dennis, Regina Brejda, Maija Vizvary, Jacie Schneider

Occupational Therapy Student Scholarship

This doctoral capstone project developed, implemented, and evaluated a Deaf-centered, ASL-accessible community art program at the Jessye Norman School of the Arts in Augusta, Georgia. The project addressed communication and environmental barriers that may limit participation in meaningful leisure and community-based occupations. Two ASL-interpreted art sessions and a community art show were completed, with evaluation using adapted PROMIS-based survey items, implementation observations, and quality improvement feedback. Because only two usable anonymous survey responses were available at each time point, findings were summarized descriptively and interpreted as feasibility and implementation information rather than evidence of effectiveness. The project supported the feasibility …

Emotional Patterns In Conversational Social Media Using Graph-Based Context, Sai Sanjay Yerunkar

Master's Projects

Most social media datasets for emotion detection have not been constructed to account for conversational structure‚ so we investigate whether it carries signal for emotion prediction. Using Sentiment140 and GoEmotions Reddit threads‚ we construct their thread-based conversation graphs and compute the aggregated features of neighbors as well as the transformer and TF-IDF representations of comments. Connected comments are 4.5× more similar in emotions than expected by chance. Pairwise emotional similarity decays exponentially with geodesic distance (e.g.‚ after 2 hops). Pairs separated by a 30s timestamp difference have the highest emotional similarity. These results suggest that emotion is structured locally and …

Perception Matters: A Case Study Exploring How Belief Systems Affect Family-School Partnerships And Family Literacy Initiatives In A Title I School, Kwtay Calvin

Dissertations

Family-school partnerships have been shown to have positive effects on students’ overall performance in school. However, in many instances schools have not used partnerships effectively to support literacy learning, particularly for Black families. Teacher bias, negative perceptions, and lack of cultural responsiveness hinder teachers’ effort to build meaningful relationships with Black families to best support family literacy. This qualitative study aimed to examine family-school partnerships through the experiences of school principals, teachers, and Black families to gain insight into the factors that impact collaborative relationships and family literacy support. This study is framed in critical race theory, the theory of …

Digital Colonialism In Ai-Enhanced Sustainability Education: A Decolonial Systematic Review, Matthew Sauber

Faculty Scholarship 2026

As artificial intelligence reshapes higher education globally, its integration into sustainability programs raises urgent questions about equity, epistemological justice, and the reproduction of colonial power structures through technological systems. Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is premised on inclusive, justice-oriented pedagogy, yet the AI tools increasingly deployed in these programs originate predominantly from the Global North and embed Western epistemological assumptions. This study investigates how AI integration in higher education sustainability programs operates as a form of digital colonialism, creating systematic inequities that contradict ESD’s foundational commitments. We conducted a decolonial systematic review synthesizing 61 empirical studies identified through structured searches …

A Culturally And Linguistically Responsive Multi-Tiered System Of Supports For Emergent Bilingual Students With And Without Disabilities, Ben Christensen

Graduate Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Auditory Memory In Children Who Stutter, Sanaa Mahran Mohamed Qandel, Nihal Hisham Abdelhamid Mostafa, Nihal Hisham Abdelhamid

Journal of Medicine in Scientific Research

Background Stuttering has been described as a disorder in motor speech in which disruption in the timing between laryngeal, respiratory, and vocal tract rhythm of speech. It is characterized by prolongations and involuntary repetitions of sounds. Children who stutter (CWS) characterized by inability to produce sounds, with intra-phonemic disruption and involuntary silent pauses. Many studies have examined central auditory processing skills and reported impairments, yet auditory memory skills have not been adequately evaluated, leaving a gap in the available information. Aim of the study Assessing auditory memory performance and auditory memory abilities in CWS. Methods: Measuring recognition memory, memory for …

Classroom Libraries As Sites Of Literacy, Identity, And Imagination: A Pk–3 Guide, Kara M. Taylor

Science of Reading

At a time when children’s access to diverse books is shrinking due to censorship, book bans, and public library closures, classroom libraries have become critical sites of literacy development, identity formation, and imagination, particularly in PK–3 classrooms. This practitioner-focused brief synthesizes research from the science of reading, culturally relevant pedagogy, and literacy access studies to argue that classroom libraries function as essential instructional conditions rather than supplemental resources. Drawing on scholarship related to reading volume, representation, motivation, and foundational skills development, the guide offers practical, research-aligned guidance for curating PK–3 classroom libraries that support phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension while …

An Exploration Of The Status And Legacy Of The Latin Language, Jean M. Allison

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Latin language, widely referred to as a "dead language," has historically held a great influence throughout various cultures and dialects, still holding some of this importance in the contemporary world. This project intends to explore these influences, both modern and historical, as well as how the language is now considered dead. A variety of written material spanning several centuries will be utilized to examine these aspects of the project posed within the presented overarching theme. All of the relevant information from these texts will ultimately be summarized and critically detailed within a written report that displays the findings of …

Health Care Governance And Structural Exclusion In Florida: A Human Rights Analysis Of Access For Latinx Communities, Natalie Medrano

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Access to health care in the United States is a complex system shaped by statutory programs and the discretionary powers of state governance. This thesis examines how Florida’s healthcare system structures access through administrative design, with particular attention to its impact on Latinx communities. Although formally race-neutral, Florida’s reliance on Medicaid non-expansion, managed care delivery, and complex eligibility processes produces systemic barriers that limit access for low-income populations. Drawing on the international right-to-health framework articulated in General Comment No. 14 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, alongside Latinx Critical Race Theory (LatCrit), this study analyzes how …

The Role Of Games In Hospitality Management Education, Arghavan Hadinejad, Samira Zare

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Building upon game-based learning, this study compares hospitality students’ cognition, metacognition, engagement, satisfaction, and performance in a course across two academic terms at an Australian university. One term featured teaching content without any games while the second term incorporated gamification. A quasi-experimental design was used in which surveys, interviews and students’ evaluation reports were utilized. Students demonstrated more favorable cognitive thoughts, and higher levels of engagement and satisfaction in the gamified course. Students’ performance in assessments across the two courses as well as their metacognition were found to be similar. This study presents a game effectiveness matrix with Kahoot as …

Proactive Safety Reasoning In Human-Robot Collaboration In Disassembly Through Llm-Augmented Stpa And Fmea, Morteza Jalali Alenjareghi, Fardin Ghorbani, Samira Keivanpour, Yuvin Adnarain Chinniah, Sabrina Jocelyn

Études primaires

Disassembly tasks in human–robot collaboration (HRC) environments present safety challenges due to hazardous materials, control system variability, and physically demanding operator tasks. To address these challenges, we propose an AI-augmented risk assessment framework integrating System-Theoretic Process Analysis (STPA) and Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA). This framework is implemented in four configurations: Term Frequency– Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF), Fine-tuned Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), and RAG with a structured Knowledge Graph (KG) built from safety standards. The system supports real-time, standards-compliant safety reasoning by generating interpretable, context-specific recommendations. We evaluate these configurations across GPT-3.5 TURBO, GPT-4o, GPT-4.1, and …

Acceptability, Usability, And Clinical Integration Of A Clinic-Based Digital Game For Hpv Education: Qualitative Perspectives From Adolescents, Parents, And Healthcare Providers, Elizabeth Reifsnider, Satya Subedi, Nouran Ghonaim, Megan Whaley, Angela Chia-Chen Chen

Ellmer School of Nursing Faculty Publications

Background/Objectives: HPV vaccination is safe, effective, and recommended at ages 11–12, yet uptake remains suboptimal. Serious video games may offer an innovative strategy to deliver brief, engaging education during clinic visits. This qualitative paper, embedded within a mixed-methods study, examined adolescents’, parents’, and healthcare providers’ (HCPs’) perceptions of the acceptability, usability, and perceived clinical applicability of HPV Detective, a tablet-based digital game designed to provide HPV-related education to parent–child dyads during pediatric clinic wait times. Methods: Eight adolescent–parent dyads (N = 16) and three HCPs from university-affiliated pediatric clinics participated in 30–60-min semi-structured Zoom interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and …

Handwriting Recognition In Vr, Dominique Mosley

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Virtual Reality (VR) is slowly becoming more popular for more than just entertainment. VR can be found in educational, office, and even healthcare settings to help discover more intuitive ways to teach, collaborate, and treat patients. Outside of the virtual world, these environments typically rely on writing for communicating or note-taking. Currently, VR input forces users to rely on clunky on-screen keyboards which disrupts the user’s immersion and breaks the flow of natural interaction. This thesis explores the potential of VR as a learning platform by combining it with artificial intelligence (AI). It aims to develop a VR-enhanced handwriting practicing …

From Flexibility To Friction: Intended And Unintended Consequences Of Hot-Desking In Workplaces, Cheuk Hang Au, Lin Yue, Siqi Gao, Guanglei Cheng

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This study aims to theorize the tensions of hot-desking. Moving beyond its surface-level effects, we explain its complex impact on employee well-being and organizational conflict.

Design/methodology/approach: Using a multi-platform netnographic approach, we analyzed unsolicited discussions from online communities to capture diverse, authentic experiences across Eastern and Western contexts.

Findings: Grounded in technology affordance and constraints theory (TACT), our central finding is that hot-desking's affordances and constraints are dynamically co-produced. The organizational affordance of space efficiency is directly experienced by employees as a constraint of spatial insecurity and resource deprivation. This core tension fuels emergent social conflicts, such as senior …

Unmasking Impression Management: Large Language Models For Detecting Socially Desirable Responding In Open-Ended Situational Judgment Tests, Barret Vermilion

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Socially desirable responding (SDR) — the tendency to present oneself in an overly favorable light — remains a persistent validity concern in industrial-organizational psychology. Contemporary theory frames SDR as multidimensional, distinguishing agentic impression management (AM; inflating competence, dominance, and achievement) from communal impression management (CM; inflating warmth, cooperation, and prosocial qualities). Existing measures of AM and CM rely on self-report, which captures these constructs only at the level of generalized trait-like tendencies rather than as they naturally unfold in applicants' own language. This dissertation proposes a text-based alternative: detecting AM and CM in open-ended situational judgment tests (SJTs) of Big …

Strengthening Ocean Literacy: Marine Science Education And Training To Ensure Australia's Blue Future, Prue Francis, Rachel Kelly, Louise Swanson, Tanveer M. Adyel, Benjamin Arthur, Kirsten Benkendorff, Melanie J. Bishop, Helen Bostock, Marnie L. Campbell, Emma Church, Corrine Condie, Vaibhavi Dwivedi, Michelle Dyer, Matthew England, Liam Fullbrook, Charlie Huveneers, Malcolm Johnson, Brianna Le Busque, Rebecca R. Mcintosh, Amelie Meyer, Benjamin Mos, Jana Mrazova, Allyson O'Brien, Gretta T. Pecl, Amandine Schaeffer, Rebecca J. Shellock, Grant A. Smith, Scott Smithers, Ana Vila-Concejo, Graham Wood

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This white paper sets out a national vision for advancing ocean literacy in Australia and outlines the role of marine science in fostering an informed, engaged society capable of addressing the challenges and opportunities of our changing oceans. As environmental pressures intensify, and marine resource demands increase, Australians’ capacity to engage with ocean issues, understand risks and opportunities, and participate in marine decision-making has never been more urgent. Marine science will play a central role in building ocean literacy by delivering credible, actionable science, and strengthening education and training systems that enhance understanding of, and connection to, the ocean. Our …

The Case For Friction In Ai-Mediated Information Seeking And Learning, Susan G. Archambault, Priya Kizhakkethil

Librarian Publications & Presentations

Introduction. This paper challenges the assumption that frictionless AI-mediated information seeking represents progress. We argue that AI systems eliminating productive friction, such as uncertainty, exploration, and reflective processes, undermine intellectual virtues essential for critical thinking in an AI-saturated information environment.

Method. This conceptual article employs a theory synthesis approach, drawing on library information science (LIS) theories of information behaviour, experience, and literacy, virtue epistemology, and human–computer interaction (HCI) friction design literature.

Analysis. We map intellectual virtues such as curiosity, thoroughness, and intellectual humility onto the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education, building …

The Desecration Of Sacred Spaces In The Dead Sea Scrolls And Pre-Nicene Latin Christianity: A History Of Interpretation Of The Eschatological Motif Of The Defiling Enemy In Apocalypticism, Rodrigo De Galiza Barbosa

Dissertations

Problem

The motif of the polluting enemy in the sanctuary is an important point of departure in the articulation of community boundaries in Hebraic-Christian culture. This particular motif has the potential to explain, at least in part, how Jewish and Christian communities would have understood the apocalyptic evil other and, from this understanding, set boundaries for their holy communities. Texts such as Dan 8 and 2 Thess 2 have been the locus classicus of the so-called antichrist, and ever since their interpretation has shaped how Christians and Jews have understood the enemy to their respective communities. In the history of …

Women Are Discriminated Against On The Basis Of Sex: Anti-Trans Epistemologies In Australian Universities, Emily M. Gray, Jacqueline Ullman, Mindy Blaise

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article offers an analysis of qualitative data from a multi-phased project entitled Understanding and Addressing Everyday Sexisms in Australian Universities. The project’s key aim was to improve the ways in which gender-based discrimination is understood and addressed in Australian universities. It achieved this aim through adopting a situated, intersectional, and creative approach to data generation and analysis. The authors examine data from phase three of the project, a large-scale survey that was distributed across 12 of Australia’s 39 public universities, yielding 1257 responses. The survey was designed to encourage academic staff of all genders to participate and aimed to …

Cross-Cultural Communication Challenges In Multicultural Hospitality Teams: A Case Study Of The Arlington Hotel, Dublin, Lorrana Rosendo Da Silva

Business ETD Collections

This study investigates intercultural communication challenges within multicultural teams in the hospitality sector in Dublin, focusing on how linguistic barriers, cultural expectations and the dynamics of subgroups influence staff collaboration and day-to-day coordination. The research employs a qualitative case study at the Arlington Hotel, utilizing four semi-structured interviews—two with managers and two with employees—analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that, particularly during periods of high operational pressure, differences in English proficiency and understanding of accents can affect the clarity of instructions and the confidence to seek clarification. Furthermore, subgroups based on language or nationalities were described as useful in …

Social Drivers Of Healthcare Access In Pediatric Autoimmune Disease: A U.S. Analysis (2022–2023), Kevin Okifo

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Background: Prior studies in adults have demonstrated that social drivers of health contribute to disparities in disease burden, management, and healthcare access among individuals with autoimmune disease (AD). There is emerging pediatric evidence suggesting similar patterns, but national-level data describing how social and structural factors shape healthcare access for children with AD remain limited. The aim of this study is to identify the sociodemographic and structural factors associated with healthcare access among children and adolescents with AD in the United States. Understanding these factors can support meaningful advances that will optimize patient-centered care and wraparound services for pediatric AD.Study Design: …