Digital Commons Network^™

A Fascination With Gastrointestinal Viruses, Mary Kolb Estes

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

My arrival into this world came quickly, according to my mother, and it feels like my life has mirrored that rapid beginning. I have enjoyed a rich, varied, and stimulating life and career that have gone through several phases. I credit genetics, my family, technological advances, and many environmental factors for shaping my career. Being a virologist allowed me to be curious and creative and to make several unexpected discoveries. This has been a fun and rewarding journey, but it wasn't always easy. I am not accustomed to talking about myself, but I am happy to share some scientific achievements …

Molding Leominster's Plastics Industry: The Impact Of Italian Immigrant Labor, Kimberly M. King

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines the centrality of Italian immigrant labor in launching Leominster, Massachusetts’ transformative plastics industry. The study traces the arc of the immigrants’ stories from their arrival at the turn of the twentieth century, when their unskilled labor helped Leominster transition from artisan comb production to industrial celluloid manufacturing, to their rise as new technical experts and company owners in the 1940s. They endured hazardous work conditions and social marginalization to create better lives for themselves and their families.

Ultimately, their efforts were critical to the expansion and global recognition of Leominster’s plastics industry. Yet the role of immigrant …

Choked: How Decades Of Failures To Address Air Pollution And Housing Shortages Exacerbated Mortality In Pittsburgh During The Influenza Pandemic Of 1918, Virginia Montanez

Graduate Masters Theses

Pittsburgh experienced the highest death rate of all major U.S. cities during the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic. This record mortality was not due to inadequate, absent, or ignored nonpharmaceutical interventions and mandates. Instead, for decades prior, city officials prioritized industry at the expense of the collective health of the laboring class. They were especially egregious in permitting industrial smoke pollution and overcrowded housing to persist in immigrant-heavy working-class wards, leaving residents susceptible to respiratory disease incidence and mortality. As a result, Pittsburgh’s annual influenza and pneumonia death rates were drastically the worst in the nation to such an extent that …

A Tragedy And A Miracle: Trauma Medicine During The U.S. Civil War, Maxwell Bailey

Masters Theses

The Civil War, in many ways, hangs in the balance between the modern and premodern, with some historians calling it the first modern war, and others calling it the last pre-modern war. This historical dilemma extends to battlefield trauma care, where the modern and the archaic exist hand in hand. While the Civil War did not represent the birth of modern trauma care, it is certainly where modern American trauma care was conceived. The advancements in the medical field during this time prepared the way for germ theory to truly develop trauma care into a modern medical science. The groundwork …

The Carpet Bag Correspondence, Russell J. Desimone, Erik J. Chaput

Dorr Scholarship

In late December 1842 and early 1843 there appeared several newspaper articles in the Providence Journal under the caption of “The Carpet Bag” Correspondence. In all four letters were published in the local newspapers all claiming to be from the carpet bag. Two of the letters were written by Dutee J. Pearce of Newport to Thomas Dorr the leader of the suffrage movement in Rhode Island. The other two letters were written to Dorr by Dr. J.A. Brown and Louis Lapham. The second Pearce letter is interesting because it discusses giving the Black community a jury trial.

Remaking Life: The Culture Of Chinese Transcontinental Railroad Workers, Caroline Jordan

The Purdue Historian

This paper examines the methods by which Chinese immigrants involved with the construction of the first transcontinental railroad maintained cultural ties to their native China, as well as the changes they made to adapt to their new surroundings. The United States’ first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869, primarily at the hands of Chinese immigrants. Despite their massive contribution, no primary documents from Chinese workers themselves are known to exist. Their role in the railroad’s construction was largely forgotten until relatively recently. Chinese workers faced hostile living and working conditions during their life on the railroad. This paper covers multiple …

Xyy: Why? Science For The People And The Xyy Controversy, Fern Rice

The Purdue Historian

The mid-20th century saw a boom of scientific discoveries in genetics as people sought to understand the American political landscape through genomes. The desire to understand criminality through genetics rose as counterculture surged. The genetic defect known as “XYY syndrome” became connected to criminality through biased medical studies and sensationalized criminal cases worldwide. When the National Institute of Mental Health began to fund studies attempting to prove a link between XYY syndrome and criminality, organizations concerned with scientific justice took notice. The leftist organization Science for the People campaigned against an XYY study in Boston, deeming it unethical and biologically …

Reliance On Local Contractors And Messy Withdrawals: Lessons From Afghanistan, Guido Rossi

Journal of Strategic Security

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 highlighted both American unpreparedness for evacuating large numbers of foreign civilians as well over-reliance on local contractors that made the evacuation a task of much greater proportions. As a result, the United States were forced to renege on its promises of protection to many Afghan collaborators who were left behind exposed to Taliban retribution. However, the U.S. could not only have handled the evacuation and resettlement operation of Afghan civilians much more effectively through better contingency planning, interagency communication, and coordination, but it could also have prevented massive reliance on local contractors through …

The Evolution Of Multidisciplinary Head And Neck Cancer Treatment, Kevin J Contrera, Pooja D Reddy, Vanessa Helou, Jeffrey N Myers, Heath D Skinner, Renata Ferrarotto, Eugene N Myers

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Objective: The management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) has substantially changed over the past two centuries. This review explores the historical progression of HNSCC management focusing on the multidisciplinary treatment paradigm.

Data sources: This review synthesizes data from historical and current clinical trials, books, scientific reports, public documents, and other written material relevant to HNSCC management.

Review methods: Historical review.

Results: Although surgery was initially the only treatment available, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy have expanded the treatment landscape for HNSCC. Despite continuous evolution, modern treatment of HNSCC remains rooted in a multidisciplinary, personalized approach. This review highlights …

Our Lady Of Peace: John Joseph Lynch’S Pilgrimage To Niagara Falls, Amelia Gallagher

Vincentian Studies

This article relates how John Joseph Lynch established Niagara Falls as a pilgrimage site, which he envisioned as being the first such site in the United States. In the nineteenth century, Niagara was viewed as such a spectacular natural wonder that it frequently inspired religious devotion, a history that Lynch encouraged and continued. The evolution of nineteenth- and twentieth-century views of Niagara and of pilgrimage in general are discussed. Niagara's role in American history is also explored.

Cunning Commies, Dumb Democrats, And Exiled Germans: A Holistic Postmortem Of The 1948 Czechoslovak Coup D'État, Douglas Joys

Undergraduate Theses, Capstones, and Recitals

The role played by the post-WWII expulsion of ethnic Germans from Czechoslovakia in catalyzing the 1948 Czechoslovak coup d'état has been underexplored in favor of the traditional narrative of an East-West clash between Czechoslovak democratic and communist parties backed by the United States and Soviet Union, respectively. Scholarship on the expulsion and the coup has on occasion brought up connections between the two events, albeit briefly and only as a small part of larger examinations of one of the two. The Eastern and Western forces at play in Czechoslovakia were undoubtedly key factors in the coup’s outcome: the end of …

Swosu Department Of Psychology History, Janice L. Sperle

Department of Psychology

SWOSU DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY HISTORY
1948-2025

By Janice L. Sperle

Fifty-Ninth Commencement (Undergraduate), Sacred Heart University

Commencement Programs

Program for undergraduate ceremonies, May 10, 2025.

Fifty-Ninth Commencement (Graduate), Sacred Heart University

Commencement Programs

Program for graduate ceremonies, May 6 & 7,  2025.

The Tales Of Maruni, Sikuma Rai

Theses and Dissertations

Sikuma Rai journeys into the fading indigenous genre of Maruni—an eastern Nepali song and dance form—narrating letters to her late grandfather. Accompanied by her father, and a devoted folk musician from an upper-caste background, she traces echoes of memory, identity, and the fragile inheritance of indigenous culture.

Cultural Appropriation And The Commodification Of Heritage: The Nimiipuu Legacy In Joseph, Oregon, Juston W. Rogers

Linfield University Student Symposium: A Celebration of Scholarship and Creative Achievement

This paper explores the cultural appropriation and commodification of Nimiipuu heritage in Joseph, Oregon, by examining the history of the annual Chief Joseph Days (CJD) festival held by the residents of Wallowa Valley every year since 1946. While CJD purports to celebrate the legacy of both the Nimiipuu in Wallowa Valley and the traditional American West, instead it perpetuates a simplified and exploitive narrative that benefits the white residents of Wallowa Valley. Through historical analysis, this paper traces the dramatic erasure and forced removal of the Nimiipuu from their ancestral lands within Wallowa Valley in 1877, followed by their subsequent …

Recollections Of A Tejana Life, Carolina Yáñez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This thesis encompasses the life of a young woman navigating life in Texas through various political and social barriers. My interdisciplinary practice analyzes the historical context of Mexicans in Texas from its Revolutionary period into current injustices. Through fiber, printmaking, and photography I create a visual diary to illustrate what the political has made personal. These works display the beauty of Tejano culture, but also the power struggles that threaten communities I care for, as well as my own existence that persists against far-right wing agendas.

Current politics and government leadership in Texas have inspired me to make artwork calling …

Healthcare Access And Agency In Material Culture: A Specialized Analysis Of Pharmaceutical Artifacts From Louisville’S West End., Sara Marian (Deurell) Ignacio

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The American Victorian Period of the 1870s to 1920s was a time of significant transitions in medicine. In Louisville, Kentucky, this period saw an influx of Black healthcare professionals and the founding of Louisville National Medical College, the state’s first medical school open to people of color. A number of these professionals lived and/or practiced in the Beecher Terrace study area, which was excavated between 2017 and 2020. Patent medicine brands and archival records were examined qualitatively in order to understand neighborhood and case study household health concerns and consumer choice. Statistical analyses of the medicine bottles recovered during the …

Critical Race Historical Examination Of Summer Programs: Impact On African American Youth, Megan Lee, June Hopps, Deryl Bailey

Journal of Youth Development

No abstract provided.

Sisterly Bonds Beyond The Grave: The Ethical Implications Of Posthumously Publishing Jane Austen’S Persuasion, Ashleigh Jay

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

By the time that Jane Austen died in 1817, she had only published four novels. After her death, her family retained her other writings. Later that year, they published one of Austen’s finished manuscripts which became the novel Persuasion. This act of posthumous publication invokes inquiries into whether the action was ethical. In order to better understand the ethics of publishing Persuasion posthumously, one can look at information from Jane Austen’s life and ideas around posthumous actions. Even though Persuasion by Jane Austen was published posthumously, Austen’s choice to leave the manuscript with her sister and her completion of …

Glands Of Moll: History, Current Knowledge And Their Role In Ocular Surface Homeostasis And Disease, Michael Stopfer, Ingrid Zahn, Katharina Jüngert, Gerhard Aumüller, Frans L Moll, Martin Schicht, Helen P Makarenkova, Cintia S De Paiva, Friedrich P Paulsen

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Over the last 20 years, research into the Meibomian glands of the eyelids has increased exponentially and is now widely recognized as a field of research. It is all the more astonishing that knowledge about another type of gland in the eyelids, the Moll glands or ciliary glands, has almost stagnated and there has been little to almost no progress, even though this type of gland as a whole takes up a relatively large volume in the upper and lower eyelids. There is not much information about the namesake Moll or the function of the glands although these are listed …

Historical Perspectives On Bloodletting In The Management Of Asthma In Children And Adults, Joudeh B. Freij, Bishara J. Freij

Conference Presentation Abstracts

Background: Current asthma management consists of a combination of drugs with different mechanisms of action. Ancient asthma care, by contrast, focused on loosening the humours using remedies such as drinking animal blood, eating rabbit fat and fox lungs, inhaling or consuming certain herbs and plants, bloodletting (including wet cupping), diet (eating raisins, dried figs, vegetables, barley, capers, bread, cake), steaming, baths, wet compresses, and moderate helpings of wine with dinner. Bloodletting was believed to purge the body of noxious humours that caused human disease and thereby reduce inflammation. Here we address the use of bloodletting in asthma management over the …

Moonstorm In The Mainstream Or On The Margins?: Constellating St. Louis Lesbian Rhetorics From The Archives, Aurora Blanchard

Theses

Combining rhetorical analysis, oral history collection, and archival study, this multi-genre research project explores lesbian feminist organizing in the 1970s. Moonstorm was a St. Louis lesbian feminist magazine that operated in the 1970s and 1980s. The sample in this research project focuses on the issues of Moonstorm published between 1973 and 1977. Issues of Moonstorm are available for viewing in the archives of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Building on V. Jo Hsu’s theory of constellating, the poems and stories found in Moonstorm serve as sites of both contested and unconditional belonging for modern LGBTQ+ activists. Constellating, specifically in …

Student Senate Meeting Minutes April 7, 2025, Student Senate-Winona State University

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

This document is the official Winona State University Student Senate Minutes for April 7, 2025.

Mythic Arcana - A Tarot And Mythology Guidebook, Kiya Whitaker

English Student Scholarship

Mythic Arcana is part of my senior thesis show and the culmination of my writing and design journey at the college. It is a creative spin on the Major Arcana tarot deck and features mythological characters from around the world. Tarot is used for spiritual guidance, and the Major Arcana cards represent the Soul’s journey from naivety and vast potential (starting with 0, the Fool) to success and fulfillment (ending with 21, the World).

Enjoy this celebration of our world's rich and diverse cultures. Immerse yourself in enchanting art and storytelling. Allow this work to bring you to the past, …

Frenemies? Fascists And Conservatives In Interwar Britain, Dylan R. Cameron

Senior Theses

This thesis examines the attitudes, beliefs, and arguments of British Conservatives (Tories) in discussions about British fascism through the lens of two mainstream Conservative newspapers, The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, focused primarily on the buildup and aftermath of the infamous Olympia rally in June 1934. This thesis identifies two key factions within the conservative movement which arose in reaction to the rise of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists (BUF): (1) the staunchly anti-fascist “mainline Tories” who detested the BUF’s “foreign” character, propensity for violence, and antithesis to traditional liberal democratic principles, and (2) the fascist-sympathizing “reactionary Tories” …

The Evolution Of Ems: Chauffeur To Clinician, Allie L. Lamb

Honors Theses

Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are young and developing. These agencies provide pre-hospital care to individuals in communities across the United States. Despite their prevalence, research on EMS and its history is lacking. This study tracks the evolution of EMS in the United States by outlining its history, investigating major events during its life span, identifying major positive or negative influencing factors on its evolution, and conducting a survey to analyze the thoughts of the modern provider. The outline of the evolution of EMS exemplifies the evolution of the provider, which leads to the primary question. Are EMS providers clinicians? The …

Historical Firearm Licensing And Permitting Laws, Robert J. Spitzer

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

No abstract provided.

Psychedelic Psychotherapy And The Mental Health Crisis: A Historical And Scientific Review, Dylan Kunkel, Neil Levens, Charles Schumpert

Senior Theses

The global mental health crisis continues to expose the limitations of traditional psychiatric treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As conventional antidepressants offer modest remission rates and delayed efficacy, interest has grown in the therapeutic potential of psychedelic compounds. This thesis explores psychedelic psychotherapy through both a historical and scientific lens, tracing its roots from ancient ceremonial practices to modern clinical trials. It also provides context behind the neurobiological mechanisms by which psychedelics like psilocybin, LSD, ketamine, MDMA, and DMT affect mood and cognition. These compounds appear to reduce default mode network (DMN) connectivity, increase …

Dangerous And Unusual: How Heller’S Ahistorical Assumption Violates The Founders’ Original Intent, Oliver Krawczyk, Gilbert Ambler

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

When the U.S. Supreme Court ended its generational silence on the Second Amendment in District of Columbia v. Heller, the Court held that “a prohibition of an entire class of ‘arms’ that is overwhelmingly chosen by American society” is “invalid.” In so holding, the Court suggested that the Constitution protects only those weapons “in common use at the time,” a limitation thought to be “fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of ‘dangerous and unusual weapons.’” The Court defined none of these terms then, and it has not since.

Over a decade of constitutional infidelity ensued. …