Digital Commons Network^™

Between The Living And The Dead, Leona Strong

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Between the Living and the Dead is a collection of short stories and flash fiction that explores loss, generational abuse, abandonment, the sometimes brutal power of familial ties, and love in its many forms—both good and evil. This thesis aims to tease out, in the reader, moments of reflection, compassion and revelation. “Falling,” centers on a mother’s grief after her son dies by suicide and her attempt to move beyond perceived culpability and shame. She does this by jumping from a plane to embody his last moments and make the same decision…to live or to die. “And Baby Makes One,” …

The Reliability, Validity, And Sensitivity Of Physical Working Capacity At The Pain Intensity Threshold, Danielle A. Sterner

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The purpose of this dissertation was to evaluate the reliability, validity, and responsiveness to training intervention of a pain-anchored capacity threshold, the Physical Working Capacity at the Pain Intensity Threshold (PWC_PIT), as a practical submaximal marker of endurance-related exercise tolerance. Study one examined the test-retest reliability of pain-based, perceptual, and physiological physical working capacity measures in recreationally active men using a standardized multi-bout cycling protocol, with pain intensity responses demonstrating strong reproducibility and low measurement error, supporting the stability of pain-anchored thresholds when standardized procedures are applied. Study two evaluated the validity of PWC_PIT by examining pain …

Threads Of The Past: Exploration Of Banal Medievalisms In Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine, Evan Garrett Wallace

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation examines how medieval historical narratives circulate within contemporary Western digital discourse surrounding Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russian political rhetoric has frequently invoked the medieval polity of Kyivan Rus’ to assert civilizational continuity between the medieval past and the modern Russian state. While these claims have been widely discussed in political and media contexts, less attention has been given to how such narratives appear within everyday online discourse. This study investigates how medieval references are mobilized, circulated, and interpreted within social media environments during the early conflict.

The research draws on a dataset of approximately 160,000 tweets collected from …

Unmasking Pentastomes: Generating Genomic Resources For Enigmatic Parasites, Stephanie Lyn Villella

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The introduction of invasive species can disrupt ecosystems not only through competition and predation but also by introducing novel pathogens to naïve host populations. In the southeastern United States, the invasive Burmese python (Python bivittatus) has been implicated in the introduction of the pentastome parasite Raillietiella orientalis, which has been associated with increased parasite burdens and mortality in native snakes. Despite their ecological significance and ancient evolutionary history, pentastomes remain poorly represented in genomic databases, limiting efforts to understand their evolutionary origins, host–parasite interactions, and mechanisms underlying parasite emergence. This study addresses these gaps by generating the …

The Lifecycle Of The Educator: Bridging Fragmented Pathways Across Writing Center And Composition Pedagogy, Emma S. Weis

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Graduate students are frequently positioned as instructors of record in foundational writing courses, yet preparation for these roles is often distributed across institutional sites, including writing centers, pedagogy courses, and mentorship opportunities. This thesis examines educator development across successive institutional roles, tracing how instructional responsibility is encountered and negotiated within writing center and composition studies. Through autoethnographic tracing, this research considers how progression is experienced in practice, with attention to the influence of institutional design on the movement between stages.

Paired with this narrative approach, a rhetorical analysis of institutional artifacts draws upon experiences at Stetson University and the University …

Dynamics Of Household Food Insecurity Vulnerability: Examining Health, Functional Limitations, And Income Stability, Renita Washburn

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Household food insecurity is a multidimensional issue affecting millions of households in the United States. While research has established that low income and poor health or functional limitations can increase the risk of food insecurity, current approaches do not fully capture these dynamic processes to identify long-term vulnerability. Specifically, income-based measures rely on static thresholds that miss instability, potentially underestimating risk. Gaps also remain in understanding persistent food insecurity, including how functional limitations (difficulties with activities like bathing, shopping, or managing finances) are associated with insecurity over time. These functional limitations can impact both economic factors (such as the ability …

Site Use And Demographic Changes In A Northwest Atlantic Sea Turtle Foraging Ground, Ryan C. Welsh

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

and site fidelity, making mortality difficult to distinguish from redistribution. We developed a behaviorally explicit framework to separate true mortality from changes in availability caused by movement and redistribution. We evaluated this problem for juvenile green turtles (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) captured at the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant intake canal on Florida’s Atlantic coast using a multi-decade capture–mark–recapture record spanning 1977 - 2023. Hidden Markov Models classified individuals into latent habitat-use strategies (Nomadic, Resident, and Transient) based on capture timing and body size. Across both species, these strategies captured consistent differences in site fidelity and recapture …

Resources And Coping Strategies In Adverse Work Situations: A Person-Centered Approach, Chad Yagey

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The resilience process model highlights an approach to how people mobilize their resources to cope and positively adapt in the face of adversity. Leveraging Conservation of Resources (COR) theory and the Work Home Resources Model (WHRM), I aim to uncover the extent to which resilience capacity (resources) and resilience enactment (coping) influence outcomes of resilience, offering one of the first empirical tests of the resilience process model. Specifically, COR theory posits that the more psychological resources someone has, the more successful they are in coping. I challenge this notion by examining whether specific profiles of the combination of resources available …

Ecological And Evolutionary Responses To Environmental Change In Two Large North American Mammals, George Zaragoza

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Climate change and urbanization are resulting in rapid shifts in ecosystems. The effects of these changes are complex, and understanding how species respond is critical for predicting their impacts on genetic diversity and evolution, as well as changes in habitat suitability. Species can respond to these changes in two major ways: through behavioral or genetic adaptation, or by moving to more suitable habitat as conditions change. Adaptive genetic change, in particular, can support behavioral and physiological responses that enable species to persist in novel or changing environments, and understanding these changes can help predict how species will respond to anthropogenic …

Cfd Analysis Of A Full Heat Exchanger Between Ammonia And Supercritical Co2 In Aviation Application, Mairah Ahmed

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

The aviation industry’s transition toward lower-carbon propulsion systems has accelerated interest in alternative fuels, including ammonia–hydrogen fuel blends. In this work, a supercritical CO2 Brayton cycle is integrated with the exhaust stream of a turbofan engine to recover waste heat and utilize it for ammonia preheating and cracking. The recovered thermal energy raises the ammonia temperature to the level required for catalytic decomposition, enabling onboard hydrogen production. The proposed architecture combines ammonia cracking with a high-bypass, two-shaft turbofan engine representative of the propulsion system employed on the Boeing 737 MAX 8. This approach addresses the challenges associated with onboard hydrogen …

Armstrong V. Elizabeth, Southern District Of New York

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Machine Learning-Based Intrusion Detection System For Iot Networks Using The Rt-Iot 2022 Dataset, Bukunmi Ebenezer Afolabi

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The rapid expansion of the Internet of Things (IoT) has transformed modern computing by enabling seamless connectivity among heterogeneous devices across diverse application domains. However, this increased interconnectivity has significantly enlarged the attack surface of IoT networks, exposing them to a wide range of sophisticated cyber threats. Conventional security mechanisms often lack the capability to detect emerging attacks in real time, thereby necessitating the development of intelligent Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) capable of accurately identifying malicious network activities. This study developed and evaluated a machine learning-based intrusion detection framework for multiclass IoT attack detection using the RT-IoT2022 dataset. The dataset …

4-H Kindness Matters Scholarship, Kristen Lyons

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

America’S Recount Addiction, Derek T. Muller

Book Chapters

Election recounts are costly and rarely change the results. By narrowing recount laws and relying on more precise safeguards, states can cut costs, deliver final results more swiftly, and reinforce public confidence in elections.

Imprint: NYU Global Access Publications, 2026, Open Access Since 2026.

Dragons And Giants And The Dream From Frog And Toad Together (1971) By Arnold Lobel, Peter Shea

Chapter Books

In Arnold Lobel’s classic story “Dragons and Giants,” Frog and Toad read a book about knights fighting dragons and giants and then measure themselves against those heroes, asking, “Are we brave?” Societies all over the world show children images of martial bravery from early on and then, at about age 18, draft them into the military to act out those ideals. In “The Dream” Toad dreams that a voice praises him as he performs on a stage while his friend Frog, applauding in the audience, keeps shrinking. But Toad can wake up from this dream and realize the expectations of …

A New Kind Of Muslim?: Islamic Identity, Digital Media And Youth In Oman, The "Switzerland Of The Middle East.", Paulo C. Oliveira

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

A Scalable Distillation And Metric-Learning Pipeline For Adaptive Weed Classification On Edge Devices, Abderrezak Allalen, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

Smart agriculture increasingly relies on automated weed detection to reduce inputs and labor. Deploying deep learning on edge devices is difficult due to limited compute and evolving weed classes. We propose a pipeline that combines partial fine-tuning of an EfficientNet-B7 teacher, embedding level distillation into lightweight students (MobileNetV3, ShuffleNetV2, EfficientNet-B0), and semi-hard triplet metric learning. The system learns 2048D embeddings and is evaluated with N-way/K-shot episodes to mimic a few-label condition. Dynamic INT8 quantization enables CPU-only inference with minimal accuracy loss. The approach adapts rapidly to novel species with few labels while meeting real-time edge constraints, supporting sustainable herbicide management …

Highlighting Ai Competencies: A Qualitative Analysis Approach Using Ai Agents, Ahmed Elnoshokaty, Omar El-Gayar, Abdullah Wahbeh, Mohammad Al-Ramahi, Tareq Nasralah

Research & Publications

The rapid advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is reshaping the job market, creating a demand for new skills and competencies in AI and machine learning (ML). As academic institutions strive to align educational programs with industry needs, a clear understanding of job market expectations becomes essential. This study employs a qualitative, grounded theory approach, enhanced by large language models (LLMs), to analyze job postings related to AI. Using a custom coding framework and AI agent arbitration, we extract and classify the competencies sought by employers into eight major categories. Key findings emphasize the significance of technical skills, including system analysis, …

Mini-Track Introduction: Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality: A Paradigm For Immersive And Collaborative Computing, Christopher Kreider, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

This mini-track focused on Augmented, Virtual, and Mixed Reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) technologies which change many of the traditional assumptions about computing while enabling unprecedented capabilities in immersion and collaboration. As these technologies have gained in adoption, understanding how their differences and unique capabilities interact with human users and collaborative process has the potential to shed light on the unique capabilities, and provide direction for future advances in these technologies.

Genai–Supported Python Programming Education: A Design Science Research Approach, Sunny Sun, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

The growing use of GenAI tools in programming education raises concerns about student over-reliance and the potential adverse impact on the development of foundational skills. This research-in-progress adopts a Design Science Research (DSR) approach to propose the GRE Model, a pedagogical artifact for Python programming education. The model structures learning into seven modules aligned with Bloom’s Taxonomy and integrates AI-supported guidance, reflective practice, and evaluation. The paper contributes a design-oriented framework that supports the responsible integration of GenAI while promoting critical thinking, engagement, and core programming competencies.

Project Management For Blockchain: Strategic Guidance And Lessons From Practice., Cherie Noteboom, Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

Blockchain technology (BCT) offers powerful solutions to long-standing enterprise challenges such as inefficiencies, lack of transparency, and low stakeholder trust. By enabling secure transaction tracking and real-time data sharing, BCT can improve operational accuracy, streamline workflows, and build confidence across organizational ecosystems. However, the implementation of BCT significantly transforms conventional project management strategies and practices. We propose practical recommendations for each stage of the process group of the project life cycle- Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring & Controlling, and Closing to meet the demands of decentralization, interoperability, and continuous ecosystem coordination inherent in the implementation of BCT projects. Grounded in practitioner …

Blockchain As A Digital Coordination Infrastructure For Project Management: A Systematic Review And Integrative Framework,, Cherie Noteboom, Sai Neelima Seru, Aravindh Sekar

Research & Publications

Blockchain technology has gained increasing attention as a digital infrastructure capable of improving transparency, trust, and coordination in complex, multi-organizational project environments. However, existing research on blockchain-enabled project management remains fragmented and industry-focused, providing limited guidance for organizational adoption and integration. This study addresses this gap through a systematic literature review of 29 peer-reviewed studies, following PRISMA guidelines, to examine how blockchain capabilities are incorporated into project management practices across industries and maturity stages.

Grounded in Resource-Based View and Coordination Theory, the analysis employs a feature-to-process mapping approach to link six core blockchain capabilities—decentralization, transparency, immutability, smart contracts, traceability, and …

Provider Perspectives On Sociotechnical Alignment Of Intelligent Clinical Decision Support Systems, Andrew Behrens, Cherie Noteboom, Patti Brooks

Research & Publications

Intelligent Clinical Decision Support Systems (ICDSS) are increasingly integrated into healthcare settings to enhance clinical decision-making, efficiency, and patient safety. Despite advances in artificial intelligence-enabled decision support, ICDSS adoption remains inconsistent, particularly in complex clinical environments where professional autonomy, workflow alignment, and accountability are critical. This study examines healthcare providers’ perspectives on ICDSS through a grounded theory approach informed by established Information Systems theories, including the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), and the Human-Organization-Technology fit (HOT-fit) framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 providers within a large, integrated …

Agentic Ai As A System Within Systems: A Process Model Of Organizational Embedding., Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

The emergence of Agentic AI systems is reshaping organizational processes through continuous adaptation, autonomous coordination, and real-time operational execution. Unlike traditional artificial intelligence applications focused on discrete decision-making tasks, Agentic AI systems operate continuously and interact dynamically with organizational environments. Existing AI ethics literature has primarily emphasized issues such as fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability within static or decision-centric AI contexts. Similarly, traditional AI alignment research has largely focused on ensuring that AI systems pursue intended goals and remain controllable under specified operational conditions. However, these approaches may be insufficient for explaining how ethical risks evolve with continuously operating autonomous …

The Datafied Child: A Systematic Literature Review And Research Agenda On Sharenting, Privacy, And Social Media., Kyle Bittle, Cherie Noteboom

Research & Publications

Sharenting, the parental practice of sharing children's personal information online, raises critical privacy, ethical, and regulatory concerns. This systematic literature review and research agenda examines how sharenting is studied, analyzing theoretical frameworks through an information systems (IS) lens. Findings identify five key themes—privacy management, identity presentation, consumer vulnerability, social influence, and parenting ethics—shaped by broader technological, social, and regulatory forces. To structure these insights, this study introduces a three-domain framework to categorize how digital infrastructures, cultural norms, and policy gaps influence sharenting behaviors. The review highlights limited IS engagement in sharenting research and underscores the need for greater focus on …

Activist Judicial Restraints, Michael Gentithes

Akron Law Faculty Publications

For decades, jurists and scholars have touted the virtues of judicial restraint—a characteristic of judges who only adjudicate issues they are competent to resolve, thereby avoiding political thickets and preserving their authority. Judicial restraint is ingrained in justiciability doctrines that emanate from Article III of the Constitution. When applied evenhandedly, standing requirements, the political question doctrine, and prudential manageability prerequisites to litigation help the Court maintain an appropriately restrained docket.

The Roberts Court falls well short of this restrained ideal in potentially dangerous and destructive ways. The Court has changed justiciability doctrines into “activist judicial restraints” that, rather than avoiding …

Non-Destructive Characterization Of Variously Colored Gypsum And Aragonite/Calcite Speleothems From The Cigalère Cave (Ariège, France), Martin Vlieghe, Johan Wouters, Gérald Fanuel, Jean-François Drion Du Chapois, Anne Gallez, Stéphane Pire-Stevenne, Gaëtan Rochez, Johan Yans

International Journal of Speleology

The Cigalère Cave is a 21 km-long karstic cave located in the Ariège Department, in the French Pyrenees, and underlies directly the Bentaillou Pb-Zn-Fe sulfide ores. The cave hosts abundant gypsum mineralizations, some of them exhibiting various colorations including blue, yellow, purple, orange and black. Due to strict preservation policies, these colored mineralizations have not been studied much. Here we propose a non-destructive characterization of five distinct gypsum or carbonate speleothem structures from the Cigalère, exhibiting different colorations. To comply with the preservation policies, no sample was taken from the cave, and all speleothems were analyzed in situ using portable …

Evolution And Spread Of Regionally Adapted Newcastle Disease Virus Isolatesfrom Live Bird Markets In Nigeria 2023–2024, Mohammed Usman Sajo, Dongyeop Lee, Jean Nepomuscene Hakizimana, Augustino Chengula, Abdul-Dahiru El-Yuguda, Dong-Hun Lee, Gerald Misinzo

All Grantees Publications

Newcastle disease (ND) virus (NDV) infection ranks among the most important poultry diseases globally. In Nigeria, ND remains a persistent menace to poultry production, marked by recurrent outbreaks. However, there is limited understanding of the evolutionary changes and transmission dynamics of the virus in the region. A molecular epidemiological study was conducted to elucidate the evolutionary and transmission patterns of NDV in Nigeria. Phylogenetic analysis of seven NDV isolates from cases recorded between 2023 and 2024 in four Northeastern states exhibited genetic diversity and formed distinct clusters that correspond to the prevailing subgenotype XIV.2. The maximum clade credibility (MCC) tree …

Provider Perspectives On Sociotechnical Alignment Of Intelligent Clinical Decision Support Systems., Andrew Behrens, Cherie Noteboom, Patti Brooks

Research & Publications

Intelligent Clinical Decision Support Systems (ICDSS) are increasingly integrated into healthcare settings to enhance clinical decision-making, efficiency, and patient safety. Despite advances in artificial intelligence-enabled decision support, ICDSS adoption remains inconsistent, particularly in complex clinical environments where professional autonomy, workflow alignment, and accountability are critical. This study examines healthcare providers’ perspectives on ICDSS through a grounded theory approach informed by established Information Systems theories, including the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), and the Human-Organization-Technology fit (HOT-fit) framework. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 providers within a large, integrated …

Drivers And Barriers To Artificial Intelligence Adoption In Agriculture: A Socio-Technical Analysis Of Midwestern United States Farmers., Abeer F. Alkhwaldi, Cherie Noteboom, Amir A. Abdulmuhsin

Research & Publications

The agricultural industry is at a critical juncture, experiencing global pressures in the form of climate volatility, a shortage of labor, and an increase in production costs. Although artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential for revolution due to its predictive analytics and self-controlled machinery, it has not achieved widespread and even distribution for use, especially among small-to-medium-sized farms in the Midwestern United States. This study formulates and empirically examines a comprehensive socio-technical model to determine the drivers and barriers to the adoption of AI in this agricultural region. Based on a synthesized framework of the “Unified Theory of Acceptance and …