Digital Commons Network^™

Rise, Lead, Thrive: A Young Feminist's Path To Leadership, Population Council Kenya, Nawiri Project

Adolescents and Young People

Information Education and Communication graphic created for the Young Feminist Organizing (YFO) project.

A Christian Perspective, Undated, Phadp, "Internal Exiler 33", Randy Lewis, Maximus Strong, Craig Newton, Bart Johnson, Jeffery Lee, Earl Mcgahee Jr

A Christian Perspective

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Impact Of Group Art Therapy On Sense Of Belonging In Early Adolescents: A Mixed Methods Study, Carol Chu

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

During adolescence, peer relationships strongly influence development and emotional well-being. In addition, Adlerian theory emphasizes social interest and the importance of connectedness within the social environment. This mixed methods study explores the impact of a four-session group art therapy intervention in a middle school setting on young adolescents’ sense of belonging. Seven students in the seventh and eighth grade from a public middle school in Sacramento County participated in the study. Quantitative data were collected at two time points in the study, before and after the intervention, using the Sense of Belonging Scale (SBS). All seven participants demonstrated an increase …

A First Amendment Right To Know, David S. Ardia

Faculty Publications

This Article tackles an increasingly important question: Can police round up people on American streets and keep secret the names of those they detain without violating the First Amendment? Alarmingly, the government made this very argument in the summer of 2020 when it sought to break up Black Lives Matter protests occurring in cities across the country. Based in part on a Supreme Court decision from the 1970s involving access to prisons, the government argued that the First Amendment imposes no constraints on government secrecy. If it is true that the government can shield its exercise of police power from …

Working Families V Ontario: Toward A Principle Of Voter Agency, Jamie Cameron

Articles & Book Chapters

In Working Families v. Ontario, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of the right to vote was complicated by the triangulation of s.2(b), s.3, and s.33 of the Charter. After Ontario’s twelve-month spending limits on third-party advertising were invalidated under s.2(b) of the Charter the government of Ontario re-enacted the same limits and added an override provision to pre-empt review under that guarantee. In the s.3 litigation that followed – referred to in this article as Working Families 2 – the Supreme Court held, by 5-4 vote, that the same third-party spending limits violated s.3’s right to vote. This short …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Artificial Intelligence And Its Impact On Student Learning, Ranging From Understanding, Originality, Motivation, Problem-Solving, And Resilience, Joseph Whelan

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming education, challenging traditional notions of how learning should be structured in schools. Although research on educational AI remains limited, its influence on student learning is already evident. On a daily basis, educators observe the impact artificial intelligence has on five specific areas of student learning: being, understanding, originality, motivation, problem-solving. and resilience. Using a mixed-methods approach, with descriptive research using surveys with free-response questions, the study aimed to examine how the five student characteristics are affected in the classroom daily through the integration of artificial intelligence into student learning. Teachers participated in a survey …

Hope As Affect: Engaging With Crisis And Collapse Through Collaborative Performance Making, Bronte Frances

Theses : Honours

The project is interested in how hope can operate as an affective, embodied force within collaborative performance-making processes. In this specific context it was to see how, where and why the concept of hope was possible in the collaborative making of a new and original full length theatre work that was addressing themes of crisis and collapse. Invoking key theorists – Joanna Macy and Chris Johnstone (2022), Donna Haraway (2016), Kathleen Stewart (2007), Jonathan Lear (2006), and Rebecca Solnit (2016) – the research investigated how hope can be consistently enacted. Centred on investigating hope as affect experienced in the present …

Symbolism And Choreographic Practice: Exploring The Application Of Symbolism To Dance Through The Creation Of A Solo Choreographic Work, Ruby Brazzalotto

Theses : Honours

This research project explored the significance of symbolism as a communicative tool within dance theatre. The project drew upon Symbolist theory and Pina Bausch’s choreographic approaches, in an attempt to understand how the symbolic use of props and gestural movement can communicate and elevate meaning within dance performance. This project involved the creation of a new solo dance work, self-reflexivity, and analysis of how Bausch’s and Symbolists’ modes of presenting ideas overlap. The project sought to document how symbolic props can be chosen, developed and combined with theatrical choreography to convey meaning to audiences.

21st Century Perspective On The Changing Pattern Of Nerve Injuries From Gunshot Wounds In The U.S., Thomas A. Decoster

Western Journal of Orthopaedics

Gunshot wounds (GSWs) with nerve injuries in the 21st century differ significantly from those reported in the 20th century. The vast majority are now low-velocity civilian injuries, in contrast to high-velocity military injuries previously reported. The rate of nerve injury in civilian GSWs is approximately 5%, compared with the 30% reported in military cohorts. However, the most common pattern of nerve injury in the current civilian population is neurotmesis and partial neurotmesis, in contrast to the majority axonotmesis of the military cohorts. In the 20th century, treatment generally consisted of watchful waiting for signs of spontaneous recovery over three months …

Peripheral Nerve Repair And Reconstruction: Current Techniques, Adjuncts, And Emerging Therapies, Niklaus Skipp, Lana Dokic, Christina Wassef, Jazzlyn Gonzalez, Ana Love, Heather Mercer, Deana Mercer

Western Journal of Orthopaedics

Peripheral nerve injuries require reconstruction when direct, tension-free repair is not possible. A range of reconstructive strategies are used to restore continuity and promote axonal regeneration, including graft-based reconstruction, nerve transfers, conduit-based repair, supercharged end-to-side augmentation, and emerging regenerative therapies. Autologous interfascicular nerve grafts and vascularized grafts remain established techniques, whereas processed nerve allografts provide a donor-sparing alternative. Nerve transfers are increasingly used for proximal injuries with long regeneration distances, and conduits are an option for gaps shorter than 5 mm. Nerve-wrapping techniques are used to reduce perineural scarring and preserve gliding in complex or revision cases. Emerging adjunctive therapies, …

Study Of The Relationship Between Insulin Resistance And Osteoporosis In Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus And Diabetic Nephropathy Elderly Patients, Mohamed Zakarya Nooh, Alaa Abdelsalam Dawood, Bassant Samy Hamed Hafez, Moustafa Bakrey Hamed Ata

Mansoura Medical Journal

Background Type 2 diabetes mellitus and diabetic kidney disease play a major role in bone deterioration and increased fracture risk because they influence both insulin sensitivity and bone metabolism. Objective The purpose of this study was to investigate the connection between osteoporosis and insulin resistance in older individuals with type 2 diabetes and diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Methods: A total of 105 participants were enrolled in the study and divided equally into three groups: 35 diabetic patients with albuminuria, 35 diabetic patients without albuminuria, and 35 age- and gender-matched healthy controls. The study was conducted at the Endocrinology & DM …

Unbundling 17 U.S.C. § 1202: Construing The Law’S Scope In Light Of Its Text, Purpose, And Remedies, Samuelson, Pamela, Stallman, Erik, Urban, Jennifer M.

Santa Clara Law Review

The Ninth Circuit will soon decide if five anonymous programmers can claim as much as $9 billion in statutory damages from OpenAI and GitHub for violations of an obscure law outlawing infringement-enabling removal or alteration of “copyright management information” (CMI). This Article closely analyzes that law, which is codified as §1202 of Title 17 of the U.S. Code. The law is remarkable in several respects. Statutory damages available for §1202 violations far exceed those available for actual copyright infringement. Copyright infringement need not be alleged, let alone found, for liability under §1202 to attach. Indeed, it is not even necessary …

Systematics Of Disk-Winged Bats (Thyroptera), Courtney L. Klumpp

Capstone Showcase

This thesis investigates the evolutionary relationships among disk-winged bats in the genus Thyroptera, a small group of Neotropical bats known for the adhesive suction disks on their wings and feet that allow them to roost inside tightly rolled leaves. The distinctive morphology and behavior of these bats have not been extensively documented, and their phylogenetic relationships remain only partially resolved. The goal of this research is to better understand how these species are related to one another and to determine whether the five recognized species of Thyroptera form a single monophyletic group. To address this question, morphological and genetic …

Kentucky Probation And Parole: Recognizing The Need For A Larger Workforce, Brent T. Burgess

Integrated Studies

Abstract

Kentucky’s Department of Probation and Parole needs additional officers. While officers are being added, caseloads continue to rise and officers in Kentucky are feeling exhausted. This research project focuses on examining some of the main issues behind the cause and effects that probation and parole officers are facing in Kentucky. The research lists the different aspects of both probation and parole and the dissentions between state and federal probation, since parole was abolished by the federal system 1987. The project includes new legislative reform movements taking place in attempts to reduce the high populations of Kentucky’s jails and prisons …

(Dis)Orientations: Finding Rhythm Within Queer Nightlife In Los Angeles, Frances Bright Currie

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines how queer individuals in Los Angeles perceive, inhabit, and reshape their experiences in queer cultural spaces. Through this project, I trace the evolution of queer nightlife in Los Angeles (from early gay counterspaces, through the collectivist politics of the Queer Nation, to post-gay assimilation and contemporary “inclusive” queer nightlife) in order to examine how queer space has been shaped and reshaped by a recurring tension between the utopian promise of universality and inclusion and the material realities of exclusion. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, queer theory, and approaches to memory and the archive, I argue that queer nightlife …

“Beejagalu Namma Jeevana” (Seeds Are Our Life): Women Farmers’ Relational Practices Of Care, Labor, And Life Within Regenerative Systems In South India, Sara F. Mehkri

Scripps Senior Theses

“Beejagalu Namma Jeevana” (Seeds are Our Life): Women Farmers’ Relational Practices of Care, Labor, and Life within Regenerative Systems in South India, examines the role of women farmers in regenerative agricultural systems in Kanakapura, Karnataka, through ethnographic fieldwork with GREEN Foundation (GF) and its farmer networks. It argues that regenerative agriculture in this context is produced through care-based multispecies assemblages that reconfigure relationships between labor, knowledge, and ecological life, generating resilient socio-agroecological systems and expanding forms of human capability.

Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews with women farmers, participant observation, and historical analysis of agrarian change in South India, this thesis …

Development Of A Bidirectional Tmv-Based Plant Expression Vector For Dual Gene Co-Expression, Matisse Schutten-Burgess

Scripps Senior Theses

Monoclonal antibodies, or mAbs, have recently joined the growing array of biopharmaceuticals used to treat a variety of chronic, autoimmune, and infectious diseases. Antibody therapy is highly customizable, as mAbs can be genetically engineered to target specific disease markers. Traditional systems of producing monoclonal antibodies use mammalian cells, most prominently Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells. While these systems are widely used, they are time-intensive and costly. Because of this, plant-based antibody production systems have risen in prominence, as they provide a more cost-efficient and faster way to generate antibodies. One drawback that has surfaced is that the co-expression of antibody heavy …

Making Faces, Elinor Attisani

Scripps Senior Theses

Making Faces is a series of gelatin silver prints and moving images that argues that identity is constructed through– rather than simply reflected in– repeated choices and behaviors. Through my project, I suggest that gender is not innate, but rather, performed. The images visualize the process through which a gendered self is established. A series of representations of Mari in costume come together to demonstrate the practicing of gender, and point to the illusory nature of the notion of a pre-existing, essential self. This representation of an exaggeratedly feminine subject is highly staged and theatrical, compelling the viewer to look …

Doikayt And The Ethics Of Belonging: Lessons In Place-Making From The Jewish Labor Bund, Zoë L. Jacobs

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis traces the evolution of doikayt—the Bundist principle of hereness—from its origins in the Jewish Labor Bund to contemporary applications in North America. Rooted in a refusal of both assimilation and nationalist escape, doikayt emphasizes cultivating safety, solidarity, and belonging through collective responsibility rather than territorial claims.

Building on this foundation, the exploration situates hereness within a settler-colonial context, where ethical dwelling is complicated by Indigenous dispossession. Drawing on Alexis Shotwell alongside Indigenous thinkers Vanessa Watts and Kyle Whyte, I examine how inhabiting place requires confronting historical injustices and ongoing relational responsibilities. Chapter 3 analyzes Linke Fligl (2016–2022) as …

Boredom And Creativity: The Effects Of Unstructured Play Versus Screen Time On Creative Performance, Vivienne J. Swenson

Scripps Senior Theses

Children today spend increasing amounts of time engaged with digital media, raising questions about how screens may displace developmental experiences that support creativity. Although research suggests that unstructured play and even mild boredom can facilitate divergent thinking, few studies have directly compared unstructured, self-directed play with passive screen use in early childhood. The present study proposes an experimental design to examine whether 20 minutes of unstructured play leads to higher creativity scores on the Thinking Creatively in Action and Movement (TCAM) than an equivalent period of passive screen engagement among children ages 3–5. Using matched-group assignment based on demographic, cognitive, …

Lights, Camera, Aggression!: Exploring The Relationship Between The Horror Genre And Criminality, Taylor M. Wanke

Scripps Senior Theses

This proposed correlational study will examine the effect of exposure and involvement with the horror genre in media and the crime genre in media on one’s antisocial personality traits, criminal thinking, criminal behavior/aggression, and morality in the general population and those who are currently incarcerated. Data will be collected through a Qualtrics survey accessed online for the general sample and printed out for the incarcerated sample. Each participant will complete exposure checklists, involvement scales for each genre, and multiple measures to record their level of each dependent variable. Data will be analyzed using a correlational analysis, 1-sample t-tests, and a …

Assessing Elemental Composition In Dry, Canned, And Fresh Dog Food Using Icp-Oes And Xrf Analysis, Lyla M. Johnston

Scripps Senior Theses

Pet food safety has become a concern due to recurring contamination incidents and limited federal regulation of toxic metal concentrations. This study investigates the elemental composition of 15 commercial dog and cat foods. Representing dry, canned, and fresh dog food types, using Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) and portable X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analysis. The primary objective was to quantify concentrations of potentially harmful heavy metals (Cr, Pb, As, Hg, Cd) and assess the presence of abundant elements such as aluminum (Al), silicon (Si), and sodium (Na). All five target heavy metals were below instrument detection limits, suggesting that …

Legal Stories Without Villains, Alison Peck

Law Faculty Scholarship

Lawyers have always been storytellers, and cognitive science is increasingly demonstrating that human beings are wired to learn through story. But legal stories may have a dark side if, as theorists have recently suggested, stories motivate pro-social action by reinforcing in-group identification and out-group hatred. In an increasingly divided polity, are we doomed to stories that drive us toward social disintegration? A solution to the legal storyteller’s dilemma may be found in an ancient source: Aristotle’s Poetics. By crafting legal stories that track the elements of the Tragedy as described by Aristotle and adapted by modern storytellers from Broadway …

The Gut–Brain Axis And Its Role In Depression And Anxiety: A Meta-Narrative Review, Sania Dastagir, Alina Esenalieva, Thinh Quach, Haley Sutton

Research Methods Poster Session 2026

No abstract provided.

Good Food In The Neighborhood: Localizing Nutritious Food Access, Joseph Pool

Honors Program Theses

Given contemporary changes to federal budget priorities and recent challenges to federal food access funding, this research explores the potential benefits of entrusting state-level and municipal-level policymakers with food access policy. More specifically, this research suggests that “localizing” food access has the unique benefit of not just addressing the affordability of food, but the physical accessibility of it. As observed in the previous literature and expounded upon here, food provisioning requires consideration of nutrition, physical accessibility, and financial affordability. Programs that only address one of these priorities fail to adequately help people receive the food they need. Through policy analysis …

A Patient-Centered Approach To Physician-Assisted Death For Patients With Treatment-Resistant Major Depressive Disorder, Moc Lan Nguyen

Honors Program Theses

In medical ethics, the arguments for allowing physician-assisted death (PAD) access for physically and terminally ill patients are well-accepted. These arguments mainly stem from the rise of support for patient autonomy and recent criticisms of paternalism. While this notion in support of PAD is generally held in various medical disciplines, psychiatry remains staunchly couched in their conviction of paternalism. Compounded with the principle of suicide prevention, psychiatry is reluctant to accept PAD for its mentally ill patients as it goes against their profession’s role responsibilities. Furthermore, there is plenty of skepticism regarding mentally ill patients’ competency, which calls into question …

Indirect Effects Of Coral Bleaching On Tursiops Truncatus Diet And Foraging Behavior In Bocas Del Toro, Panama, Annabel Fiero

Scripps Senior Theses

Indirect effects, where another species or factor mediates the effects of a given species, are critical to ecosystem structure and resilience. Shifts in fish community structure, as a result of rapidly declining coral reefs in the Caribbean due to warming-induced bleaching, pose a threat to apex predators like Tursiops truncatus (bottlenose dolphins). Branching corals create habitat niches for numerous fish species. These fish rely on coral for food and habitat, and in turn provide food for upper trophic levels. Prior research has highlighted how coral bleaching will disrupt Acroporid reef building corals and fish community structure, but the effects of …

Making Faces, Elinor Attisani

Scripps Senior Theses

Making Faces critiques the naturalization of gender norms and asserts that all gender expression is learned and imitative. With respect to my work, “naturalization” refers to the attribution of patterns of behavior to an unbreakable essence at the core of a person; the distinct qualities that place masculinity and femininity in opposition are often attributed to natural characteristics of the male and female sexes. Judith Butler famously contradicts this myth of gender expression as the externalization of an underlying core identity in their book, Gender Trouble, where they argue that the repeated imitation of a nonexistent ideal is constitutive of …

“No Soy Una Santa Pero Estoy Blessed”: El Álbum Lux, La Lingüística, Y Rosalía Como Una Santa Moderna, Abigail H. Gustafson

Scripps Senior Theses

Esta tesis analiza el álbum LUX (2025) de Rosalía como un proyecto artístico que fusiona la espiritualidad, la lingüística y la identidad femenina en un contexto contemporáneo y globalizado. A través de referencias a figuras religiosas femeninas como Anandamayi Ma, Santa Rosa de Lima y Rabia Basri, Rosalía reinterpreta el concepto tradicional de la santidad y propone una visión moderna de la feminidad. Este análisis se apoya en la teoría de la performatividad de género de Judith Butler, argumentando que la identidad femenina en LUX se construye de manera fluida, múltiple y no limitada por categorías culturales o religiosas rígidas. …

How Semiflightless Birds Adapt: A Survey From Barú, Costa Rica, Eli P. Laloudakis

Scripps Senior Theses

When we think of birds, we think of flight. Because of this, scientific research often focuses on how birds evolved flight and how their wings function during flight. However, not all birds can fly or fly well, as wings wax and wane on developmental, seasonal, and evolutionary time scales (Dial and Heers 2021). Consequently, rudimentary wings can be found in developing birds, secondarily flightless or semiflightless birds, birds that undergo simultaneous molts, and extinct theropods with “protowings” (structures that preceded fully functional wings). Secondarily flightless and semiflightless birds often evolve where there is no/low predation, abundant year-round food supply, and …