Digital Commons Network^™

Bugs, Birds, Blue: Queer Ecologies Of Embodiment, Kinship, And Survival, Celeste B. Newcomb

Theses and Dissertations

bugs, birds, blue is a multi-channel audiovisual installation that examines queer ecology as a framework for understanding transgender embodiment, kinship, and survival amid environmental crisis and ongoing political attacks on trans life (Mortimer-Sandilands and Erickson). Through sculpture, projection, sound, reflective surfaces, and biological imagery, the installation places human bodily matter alongside microbial and aquatic life forms to challenge narratives that frame trans existence as unnatural, recent, or isolated. Instead, the work proposes transness as relational, adaptive, and deeply entangled with broader ecological systems. The installation is composed of two interconnected environments. On one side of the space, three aquariums rest …

Synthetic Explorations Towards Phenyl Benzazepine-Inspired Scaffolds And Synthesis Of Minor Cannabinoid Derivatives, Vishwashiv Kumar Emogaje

Theses and Dissertations

D1R is a compelling therapeutic target for correcting dopaminergic imbalances. However, existing ligands exhibit suboptimal pharmacokinetic properties. As such, we synthetically explored untouched structural modifications to the phenyl benzazepine scaffold. Cannabinoid-based molecules also display potential to treat neurological maladies and cancer. We synthesized Cannabichromene derivatives and uncovered enhanced anticancer activities.

They Returned Fighting: World War I, Disillusionment, And The Remaking Of African-American Political Life In New York City, Michael Frank

Theses and Dissertations

They Returned Fighting examines how Black New Yorkers used World War I service, wartime activism, and postwar protest to press claims to citizenship and democracy, even as racial violence, discrimination, and contested public memory exposed the limits of that belonging in New York City and the United States.

Surface Gestures: Contemporary Sculpture, Material, And The Possibilities Of Finish, June Kitahara

Theses and Dissertations

Through the work of Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Patty Chang, and Jes Fan, alongside performance, cinema, cultural figures, and twentieth-century sculpture, the thesis argues that the surface of contemporary works reveals the inextricability of aesthetics from technologies of gendered racialization, sexuality, and sensation.

The I Need More Time Machine, Suzanne L. Schulz

Theses and Dissertations

The I Need More Time Machine imagines alternatives to gendered overwork and exhaustion. Incorporating animation and the interviews of twelve NYC-based female and nonbinary artists who are caretakers and full-time workers, the film dwells in spaces of fatigue and repetition — from the vantage point of commuting — then draws on forgotten feminist and utopian housing blueprints to create science fiction-inspired, fantasy-imbued sites for gendered flourishing. The animated fantasy segments imagine elastic time, deep rest, experiments in collaboration, and liberating feminist spatial possibilities

Do Clothes Make The Man? Ftm Crossdressing In The 18th-19th C. Anglo-American World, Aidrian Graber

Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to analyze the legacy of "Female Husbands" and other female-to-male crossdressers in the 18/19th c. Anglo-American world and how such people can illuminate the field of transgender history.

One Long Yawn, Dylan Musler

Theses and Dissertations

Dylan Musler contextualizes her painting and ceramic work. She explores themes around time, the grotesque, transference, holes, and dirty snow piles.

Genetic Screen For Regulators Of Pol4, A Dna Repair Polymerase In Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, Pasang Dolma Sherpa

Theses and Dissertations

In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, DNA polymerase 4 (POL4) is the beta repair polymerase, the product of the POL4 gene, and is involved in base excision repair (BER) and microhomology-mediated end joining (MMEJ). Despite its involvement in these repair pathways and its conservation across eukaryotes, deletion of POL4 shows no detectable phenotype under standard laboratory conditions. I hypothesized that unknown genes act as backup systems, providing redundant activities that allow pol4Δ cells to survive. To test this, a genetic screen for mutants showing synthetic lethality with pol4Δ was implemented. I constructed a strain lacking the POL4 gene and carrying …

Lemonade Everything Was So Infinite, Lauren Cline

Theses and Dissertations

In “Lemonade Everything Was So Infinite,” artist Lauren Cline uses her process-based approach to painting as a metaphor for the relationship between mundanity and eternity. Utilizing various frameworks, including the autobiographical writings of Hélène Cixous and the theology of Simone Weil, as well as examples from her own artworks,  the artist suggests that there is a universal human need for the dissipation of the singular, isolated self, and explores various ways that this can be achieved.

Voyager, Ben K. Voss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores painting as a site of meditation, time and (un)knowability.

Neuroprotective Effects Of Prophylactic Brivaracetam On Memory And Anxiety Following Traumatic Brain Injury, Sofia Dumic

Theses and Dissertations

Prophylactic brivaracetam (BRV) was evaluated in a rat TBI model for effects on behavior and serum tau. BRV reduced anxiety-like behavior with optimal dose-dependent effects at 2.1mg/kg, but did not affect working memory. Serum tau was detectable early post-injury, supporting its use as a biomarker.

A New Electroencephalography Electrode Design For Curly And Kinky Hair Types, Elena Butler

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Medical discrimination and implicit bias are present in both societal systems and into the design and validation of medical devices. Traditional electroencephalography (EEG) systems often fail to provide reliable physiological recordings on curly and kinky hair types (3B–4C), associated typically with Black American and others of African descent. EEG on these hair types often results in high electrode-scalp impedance, poor signal quality, and participant discomfort. Consequently, such technical biases contribute to the underrepresentation of these populations in neuroscience research and clinical diagnostics, while simultaneously limiting equitable access to EEG-based medical care.

To address this gap, a novel conductive electrode attachment …

Beyond Local Pathology: Exploring The Role Of Gut Microbiota In Chronic Low Back Pain Using An Integrated Behavioral And Microbiological Approach, Adan L. Redwine

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Chronic low back pain (LBP) affects millions worldwide, often originating from intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration. While the gut microbiome modulates musculoskeletal pain, prior studies of the gut-disc axis have focused entirely on structural changes. This leaves a critical gap: does the microbiome influence the experience of discogenic pain? To answer this, an integrated approach using longitudinal gut microbiome profiling, machine learning-based behavioral phenotyping, and structural disc assessments in a rat model of discogenic LBP was utilized.

Female Sprague Dawley rats underwent one of four conditions: sham surgery, IVD injury, antibiotic-mediated microbiome depletion + IVD injury, or IVD injury + treatment …

Breastfeeding Education Preferences Of Pregnant People With Low Incomes, Megan Kindred

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Background: The proportion of infants breastfed at 1 year in the United States remains below the Healthy People 2030 goal. Longer breastfeeding durations are important due to dose-response benefits, but disparities are greater among those with low incomes. Prenatal breastfeeding education (PBE) interventions can increase breastfeeding duration. Additionally, incentivization and gamification can be used to increase use of educational technology but are underexplored in this domain. Prior studies examining PBE format preferences do not reflect currently available technology. PBE format preferences of childbearing people should be reexamined.

Purpose: This purpose of this study is to: (1) identify PBE format preference …

Ethnic And Sex Differences In Salt Sensitivity Amongst Normotensive Young Adult Nigerians: Implications For Hypertension Prevention, Ahmed Oloyo, Abdullahi Adejare, Oluwakemi Odukoya, Simiat Elias, Oyewole Kushimo, Olusoga Sofola

Biomedical Sciences, East Africa

Background: High dietary salt intake is a well-established modifiable risk factor for hypertension and cardiovascular disease. Salt sensitivity – a blood pressure (BP) phenotype defined by exaggerated BP response to salt loading, remains underrecognised in normotensive populations despite its strong link to adverse cardiovascular outcomes. The burden and determinants of salt sensitivity amongst young Nigerians remain poorly understood.

Aims: This study aimed to identify demographic and behavioral risk factors associated with salt sensitivity, explore potential ethnic and sex-related differences, and determine the independent predictors of salt-sensitive (SS) BP response amongst normotensive young adult Nigerians.

Subjects and Methods: An …

A Comparative Analysis Of Direct Air Capture And Geologic Co2 Storage Technologies, Sarah Fettig

Environmental Studies Honors Theses

Centuries of greenhouse gas emissions have led to anthropogenic climate change and an increased average global temperature. The 2015 Paris Agreement committed the signatory countries to take action to limit global warming to at most 2°C, with a lower maximum warming target of 1.5°C. Climate data shows the 1.5°C target is out of reach, and that aggressive greenhouse gas mitigation needs to be undertaken to reach the 2°C goal. A rapid shift to renewable energy and lifestyle changes will not be effective, however, and in fact, CO₂ needs to be removed from the atmosphere for the 2°C goal to …

Faith Leaders’ Guide To Adolescent Protection, Population Council, Zambia Interfaith Networking Group (Zingo), Faith Mother Bodies

Adolescents and Young People

No abstract provided.

Addressing The Functional Anonymity Of The Post Thaw Microbiome: How Redox And Temperature Conditions Dictate Microbial Community Composition After Permafrost Thaw, Nathan Patrick Alexander

Master's Theses and Capstones

Permafrost is perennially frozen soil that underlays 11% of Earth’s total surface and stores 33%of the planet’s global soil carbon stocks in the form of soil organic matter. Rising global temperatures are causing permafrost to thaw. Permafrost thaw often creates a heterogeneous patchwork of redox conditions on the landscape, resulting in a diversity of microbial metabolisms using alternate terminal electron acceptors. In aerobic respiration, microbes use oxygen as TEAs and soil organic matter as an electron donor; anaerobic respiration is carried out when microbes use alternate electron acceptors, such as NO3-, Fe3+, SO42-, and CO2. Understanding microbial responses to changing …

Identifying Landscape And Behavioral Drivers Of Human-Black Bear Conflict In New Hampshire, Shea O'Connor

Master's Theses and Capstones

Abundant American black bear (Ursus americanus) populations and increasing human development in New Hampshire have led to a prevalence of human-bear conflict across the state. This conflict negatively impacts humans, bears, and even the surrounding environment as safety is put at risk and environmental roles are disrupted. This thesis aimed to address both the ecological and human dimensions of human-bear conflict by combining a quantitative spatial analysis with a qualitative thematic analysis. Chapter One examined anthropogenic and landscape factors influencing human-black bear conflict levels across New Hampshire. I utilized ordinal logistic regression to analyze how various ecologically relevant predictor variables …

Vegetation Mediates Methane Ebullition Across Temporal Scales In A Temperate Peatland: A 10-Year Dataset, Apryl L. Perry

Master's Theses and Capstones

Wetlands are the largest and most variable natural source of methane (CH₄) to the atmosphere, contributing an estimated 161 Tg CH₄ yr-1 globally. Climate and anthropogenic changes can alter hydrology, geochemistry, and vegetation, generating substantial variability in CH₄ emissions across landscapes. Long-term measurements of CH₄ fluxes, inclusive of all transport pathways (ebullition, plant transport and diffusion), are rare but essential for understanding wetland contributions to the global carbon cycle. We present a decadal dataset of ebullitive CH₄ emissions from a temperate peatland, examining variation among vegetation types and relationships with environmental drivers. We found that ebullitive CH₄ fluxes were highest …

Exploring Aldh2 Deficiency And Its Implications For Personalized Medicine In Underrepresented Asian American Populations, Janie O'Neil Chan Sills

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Baby And The Bathwater: Reproductive Abuse As Domestic Violence And Empowering Bodily Autonomy Through The Law, Kadhapriya Lindo

University of Florida Journal of Law & Public Policy

Reproductive abuse—ranging from contraceptive sabotage and coerced pregnancy to coerced abortion and sexual violations such as stealthing—operates as a distinct and under-recognized form of domestic violence. By assessing medical, sociological, and legal research, it is clear how reproductive abuse holds a victim’s body and reproductive ability hostage, producing long-term physical, psychological, and familial harms. Existing criminal statutes, which focus on force-based sexual offenses, do not capture non-physical reproductive violations such as medication tampering or nonconsensual condom removal. Further, civil remedies, including tort claims and custody determinations, inadequately account for the harms of coerced conception and the long-term legal ties it …

Empowering Latinas In Computer Science: Success Stories And Challenges, Martin Jalomo

Theses and Dissertations

Latina women remain significantly underrepresented in computer science, and limited research centers their lived experiences within the field. This qualitative narrative inquiry examined how Latina women who completed computer science degrees and secured employment persisted in predominantly male and non-Latina environments. Guided by Yosso’s (2005) Community Cultural Wealth framework, the study explored how participants leveraged forms of capital to navigate structural, relational, and psychological barriers. Data were collected through narrative interviews with five Latina graduates and analyzed using thematic and cross-case analysis. Findings indicate that underrepresentation shaped participants’ sense of belonging while persistence was supported through aspirational, familial, social, navigational, …

“Sometimes I Feel That Going To College Was A Waste Of Time”: Latinas’ Lived Experiences Navigating Culture, Gender, And Marriage Post-College Degree, Nancy Peña

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative critical narrative study explores how Latinas navigate and make meaning of gender roles within their heterosexual marriages post-college graduation. Data are collected via semi-structured interviews with 10 Latina participants: an initial plática focus group, followed by individual interviews, and a final plática focus group for member checking. Key findings reveal that despite Latinas acquiring autonomy, stability, negotiated power, personal growth, and social development as a result of attaining a degree in higher education, overall development is limited due to heightened responsibilities, persistent gender hierarchies, continuous religious norms, and constant gender role guilt. The evidence suggests that although attaining …

The Relationship Between Secondary School Principals’ Ethical Leadership Behaviors And School Climate, Ericka Julie Carranza

Theses and Dissertations

Limited research explains how teachers in culturally and socioeconomically diverse secondary school settings experience principals’ ethical leadership behaviors and how those behaviors are perceived as shaping school climate. This qualitative study examined teachers’ perceptions of secondary school principals’ ethical leadership behaviors and the ways in which those behaviors were experienced as influencing relational, emotional, and professional dimensions of school climate.

Grounded in Social Learning Theory, the study employed a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews and focus groups with secondary school teachers from diverse educational contexts. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis to identify patterns related to ethical leadership behaviors, …

Effects Of Vitamin E Deficiency On Anxiety-Like Behavior In Zebrafish With Distinct Stress Coping Styles, Areem Zahid

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Stress and anxiety disorders affect millions worldwide and represent a significant public health burden. Individual differences in stress coping style and antioxidant regulation contribute to variability in stress responsiveness and anxiety-related behaviors. Oxidative imbalance has been implicated in the neurobiology of anxiety, but its interaction with inherent stress coping phenotypes remains unclear. This study examined whether long-term dietary vitamin E deficiency alters anxiety-like behaviors in zebrafish selectively bred for proactive and reactive stress coping styles. Adult zebrafish were maintained on either a vitamin E–sufficient or vitamin E–deficient diet for five months, followed by behavioral assessment using the novel tank diving …

Insights Into Androgen Receptor Allosteric Modulation By P,P'-Dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene Binding At The Binding Function-3 Site And Site-Specific Binding Function-3 Mutations, Emanuel Aggeo Flores

Theses and Dissertations

One of DDT’s metabolites, p,p’-dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene (DDE), has been classified as an endocrine disrupting chemical (EDC) due to its ability to interfere with hormone signaling by binding to nuclear receptors (NR) such as the androgen receptor (AR).

Structurally, the AR contains a ligand-binding domain (LBD) where endogenous steroids bind. Furthermore, the LBD contains a surface binding site known as binding function-3 (BF-3), which studies suggest exerts an allosteric effect on bound DHT when small, hydrophobic molecules bind.

Here, we present a study that examines how specific BF-3 site mutations and DDE binding affect steroid stability within the LBP utilizing computational methods. …

Using Behavioral Monitoring To Assess Activity Patterns And Welfare Indicators In Captive Black Howler Monkeys (Alouatta Caraya), Ramiro Gomez Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined activity patterns and potential welfare indicators in captive black howler monkeys (Alouatta caraya) using behavioral monitoring techniques. A monogamous pair housed indoors at Gladys Porter Zoo was observed using focal sampling methods, and a species specific ethogram was developed to systematically record behavior. A total of 1,750 minutes of data were collected over one year. Observed behaviors were categorized into five groups: affiliative, agonistic, stationary, locomotion, and stereotypic behaviors. Activity budgets were calculated to determine the proportion of time allocated to each behavioral category. Results indicated that affiliative behaviors, particularly physical contact, dominated the activity budget, while …

Multi-Task Growing Interpretable Neural Network For Multi-Target Symbolic Regression, Hussein Rajabu

All Theses

Over the past decade, deep learning has achieved remarkable success across domains such as computer vision and natural language processing. Despite their strong predictive capabilities, these models often function as black boxes, limiting transparency and making them difficult to trust in high-stakes applications such as healthcare and business decision-making. While explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) methods improve interpretability, most approaches remain post-hoc, focusing on statistical associations rather than uncovering the underlying functional mechanisms governing predictions.

Symbolic regression (SR) has emerged as a promising direction within XAI by directly discovering explicit mathematical expressions that describe relationships between inputs and outputs. Unlike traditional …

The Impact Of Palm Cooling On The Physiological And Cognitive Function Of Aerobically Trained Individuals, Katherine L. Tibbs

Honors Theses

Background: Cooling strategies have been shown to combat the harmful effects that an increase in body temperature can potentially cause, and palm cooling in particular has been adopted due to its effectiveness in mitigating muscle fatigue during exercise. While there is clear support that this improves muscular strength and endurance, there is a lack of research on the impact palm cooling has on the mental aspect of physical activity. The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive and physiological effects of palm cooling on aerobic exercise performance. Methods: Ten aerobically trained participants between the ages of 18-35 were …