Digital Commons Network^™

Robert Frost And The Myth Of Adam And Eve, Theo Johnson

CMC Senior Theses

What exactly it is about the story of Adam and Eve that fascinated Robert Frost is hard to say. Of course, he is not the first to engage with it in writing – for much of recorded human history, the Genesis account of man’s creation has held a place of unparalleled importance in our understanding of what it is to be human, provoking innumerable exegetic responses. In popular literature, too, it has served as inspiration for some of the most celebrated English and American poems. From the “bloodless myth” of Geoffrey Hill’s “Genesis” to the great theodicy of John Milton’s …

Money Matters: Investigating The Emotional, Cognitive, And Biological Pathways Connecting Maternal Early Life Financial Insecurity And Parenting Quality, Elise Power, Stacey N. Doan

CMC Senior Theses

Early life adversity has been shown to have a variety of negative effects on adult functioning, including parenting quality, with implications for child wellbeing. Adverse early life experiences including poverty have been linked to long-term disruptions in emotional, cognitive, and physiological functioning that compromise the ability to provide sensitive, nurturing care. The present study investigated whether emotional regulation difficulties, physiological regulation, and cognitive function mediate the relationship between early life financial insecurity and parenting quality. A sample of 132 mother-child dyads completed self-report measures, biological samples, and cognitive assessments. A multiple mediation model ran in SPSS, revealed a significant indirect …

Exporting Culture, Building A Nation: South Korea’S Use Of Pop Culture As A Soft Power Tool, Nathaniel J. Kim

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines the multiple governmental plans, policies, and actions by the South Korean government to support and globalize their pop culture products. After the crumbling of its economy and global image due to many external factors in the 1900s, South Korea found itself in poverty with very little global influence. To rebuild their nation, the government implemented many actions to help grow and strengthen their pop culture products to make them more desirable, domestically and internationally. This thesis analyzes three of the major pop culture exports for South Korea, television, movies, and music, and demonstrates how the government has …

The Ecoformative And Transformative Issues Of Nature In The Schoolyard: An Exploration Of The Relationship Between Everyday Experiences Of Nature And Well-Being At School, Alix Cosquer, Olivier Gimenez, Arnaud Gregoire, Vincent Girard, Thierry Noell, Tatiana Wasella

Cities and the Environment (CATE)

In urban areas, the implementation of schoolyard facilities (especially through the greening of these spaces) aims to promote children's contact with nature to improve well-being and increase their awareness of environmental preservation. In this study, we use the prospect of schoolyard landscaping in two French schools to conduct research on pupils’ relationship with nature and well-being at school. We explore cognitive and social mechanisms that affect children's perceptions and behaviour in their relationships with nature on a daily basis and in the school context, with a view toward implementing schoolyard designs.

The research aims are (i) to gain a better …

Digital Health Literacy On Diabetes Knowledge Among Older Adults In The United States, Jung Eun Kim, Susana J. Calderon, Myoungjin Kim

Faculty Publications - Mennonite College of Nursing

Purpose

This study examines the relationship between selected socio-demographics and digital health literacy on diabetes knowledge among older adults in the United States.

Design

Cross-sectional study

Methods

The eHealth Literacy Scale and the Short Diabetes Knowledge Instrument were used. Descriptive statistics, Pearson’s r, point-biserial correlation coefficient, Kendall’s tau, ANOVA, and Poisson regression were used for data analysis.

Findings

The mean age was 71. The mean sum score for digital health literacy was 28.32 (SD = 7.95; range, 8–40), and the mean score for diabetes knowledge was 8.8 (SD = 2.3; range, 2–13). The education level, annual income, number of digital …

Phytochemical Analysis, Antioxidant, And Antibacterial Properties Of Partition Fractions Of Adansonia Digitata And Annona Muricata Extracts Using Chloroform, Ethyl Acetate, Ethanol, And Aqueous Solvent Systems, Fagbohun Oyenike Bushirat, Hassan Abdusalam Adewuyi, Sakariyau Adio Waheed, Maryam Nana Musa, Timothy God-Giveth Olusegun, Ayomide Babatunde Ishola, Agumage Idoko, Adeola Victor Kolawole, Adesanmi Adefunmilayo Oluwatuyi, Sarah Ngozi Agwasim

Chemistry & Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Adansonia digitata and Annona muricata are traditionally used medicinal plants with reported pharmacological properties. In this study, we aimed to elucidate the phytochemical composition, antioxidant activity, and antibacterial properties of partition fractions of Adansonia digitata and Annona muricata extracts obtained using chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and aqueous solvent systems. The plant extracts were successively partitioned using chloroform, ethyl acetate, ethanol, and aqueous solvent systems. Phytochemical analysis was performed using standard methods. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using FRAP and DPPH assays. Antibacterial activity was assessed using agar well diffusion and MIC determination. Phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids (10.2-15.6%), flavonoids …

The Work And Lives Of Agricultural Workers, Cynthia Caron

Sustainability and Social Justice

In 2022, the World Bank estimated that roughly 27% of Sri Lankans worked in the agriculture sector. This chapter focuses on the lives of agricultural workers who cultivate their own farms or work as temporary labourers. It provides an overview of the factors that influence their agricultural livelihoods including but not limited to the structure of the country's agricultural economy and wages. The chapter discusses the risks and uncertainties that climate change, government policies, and agrochemical use present to workers and how they adapt. The chapter's final focus is the incorporation of workers including women into commercial agriculture and export-oriented …

Minor V. Happersett And The Repudiation Of Universal Suffrage, Ellen D. Katz

Articles

Nearly 150 years ago, Minor v. Happersett rejected a constitutional challenge to a Missouri law that excluded women from the electorate. Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment forty-five years later is often said to have “overturned” Minor. In fact, the Amendment did no such thing. Minor held that voting is not among the privileges of citizenship protected by the Fourteenth Amendment. The Nineteenth Amendment says nothing to the contrary, and instead bars laws and practices that deny or abridge the right to vote “on account of sex.” Minor remains good law today.

It was not happenstance that the Nineteenth Amendment …

High Tech Touts, Sherman J. Clark

Articles

This essay has three interrelated aims. First, it articulates a set of capacities I call virtues of attention—capacities for intuitive discernment, good judgment about what is worth sustained focus, and the ability to engage deeply with worthwhile things. These are eudaimonist virtues in that they help us live well, not merely act rightly. Second, the essay explores what I call poisonous persuasion: the idea that rhetorical appeals, especially those used in marketing, may not only succeed by appealing to certain desires or habits of mind but may also deepen and entrench them. Third, I bring these insights together to examine …

Boden Lecture: Taxation Of Autonomous Artificial Intelligence, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Lucas Brasil Salama, Herbert Snitz, W. Robert Thomas

Articles

This Article proposes that tax can be a useful supplement to other measures to regulate Autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AAI) and limit its potential harmful effects. This proposal differs from command-and-control regulation of AAI along the lines of European Union legislation that may unduly limit the development of AAI. It also differs from existing proposals to tax AAI to generate revenue to help workers displaced by AAI programs, or to tax the data used by AAI The proposal is based on granting AAI programs like ChatGPT separate legal personhood, like corporate personhood, while incentivizing or requiring their corporate owner to place …

The Sovereignty Problem In Federal Indian Law, Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Articles

There is a sovereignty problem in federal Indian law-namely, that the federal government's sovereign defenses prevent tribal nations and individual Indian people from realizing justice in the courts. Often, compelling tribal and Indian claims go nowhere as the judiciary defers to the interests of the United States, even where Congress has expressly stated its support for tribal interests. Conversely, tribal judiciaries allow claims to proceed to the merits, invoking customary and traditional law to hold tribal governments accountable.

Sovereignty theory helps to explain why justice can be done in one court system but not another. But federal, state, and tribal …

Skeletons At Sea: Unpacking The Oceanographic And Taphonomic Variables That Impact The Remains Of Decedents At Sea, Ella Tartsa

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

Preserving Equality In The Classroom: How Public Schools Can Defend Trans-Inclusive Policies Against Teacher-Led Constitutional And Statutory Claims, Olivia Vladyka

Fordham Urban Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Impact Staphylococcus Aureus Has On Conventional And Organic Dairy Herds In New Hampshire And New York, Jacqueline Rose Holmes

Honors Theses and Capstones

Staphylococcus aureus is a potentially virulent bacterium that causes mastitis in dairy cattle. The toxins produced from S. aureus impact host immunity, damage the mammary gland, and can adapt to cause antimicrobial resistance. It is important to manage both organic and conventional farms correctly by practicing proper hygiene while milking and providing a clean environment. There is a significant increase of S. aureus cases on organic farms compared to conventional, so there may be ways in which organic management and treatment options could be altered to reduce economic loss and animal suffering. The thesis focuses on the involvement S. aureus …

Developing A Ninhydrin Assay To Determine Methionine And Lysine Loss From Rumen Protected Amino Acid Supplements, Ashley K. Miske

Honors Theses and Capstones

No abstract provided.

A Biphasic Microstructural Model Of Skeletal Muscle To Study Structure-Function Mechanisms Under Multiaxial Tensile And Compressive Conditions, Benjamin Wheatley, Minhaj U. Bhuiyan, Sabrina S. Lorza, Kevin M. Moerman, Pierre-Yves Rohan

Faculty Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Ice: Disability Representation In The “Ice” Love, Death + Robots Adaptation, Danbee You

Dean James E. McLeod Freshman Writing Prize

This essay examines how Netflix’s Love, Death + Robots (LDR) adaptation of Rich Larson’s short story “Ice” transforms its original sibling dynamic into a commentary steeped in ableist tropes. While Larson’s story portrays Sedgewick, the unmodded brother, as autonomous and confident, the episode reinterprets him through infantilizing and victimizing lenses, casting him as a disabled figure in need of rescue. The LDR episode’s decisions to downplay or embellish certain elements of Larson’s short story reveal eco-ableist and transhumanist-ableist themes that link bodily limitation to environmental incompatibility and valorize technological modification as physical superiority. Furthermore, Fletcher’s deceptive “help” exemplifies the heroic …

Elephant Megacarcasses Increase Local Nutrient Pools In African Savanna Soils And Plants, Courtney G. Reed, Michelle L. Budny, Johan T. Du Toit, Ryan Helcoski, Joshua P. Schimel, Izak P.J. Smit, Tercia Strydom, Aimee Tallian, Dave I. Thompson, Helga Van Coller, Nathan P. Lemoine, Deron E. Burkepile

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

African elephants (Loxodonta africana) are the largest extant terrestrial mammals, with bodies containing enormous quantities of nutrients. Yet, we know little about how these nutrients move through the ecosystem after an elephant dies. Here, we investigated the initial effects (1–26 months postmortem) of elephant megacarcasses on savanna soil and plant nutrient pools in the Kruger National Park, South Africa. We hypothesized that (H1) elephant megacarcass decomposition would release nutrients into soil, resulting in higher concentrations of soil nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and micronutrients near the center of carcass sites; (H2) carbon (C) inputs into the soil would stimulate …

Morphing Shape Metastructures Using The Hybrid Position Feedback Control And Bistable Structural Elements, Mehmet Simsek, Thomas E. Alberts, Onur Bilgen

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This research introduces a new multi-degree-of-freedom metastructure concept utilizing a hybrid position feedback controller. An arbitrary number of bistable segments, or structural elements, are connected serially or in parallel to form a distributed bistable structure, or a so-called metastructure. The hybrid controller, an unstable-then-stable second-order single-degree-of-freedom system, leverages the resonant mode of a bistable system to destabilize it and dynamically induce snap-through between equilibria. The metastructure inherits multiple bistable positions, maintaining equilibrium shapes without consuming power and enabling many equilibrium configurations. Two geometric configurations are proposed and analyzed using a modified hybrid feedback control approach, which rejects forces from neighboring …

Epilogue: Every Þrose Has Its Thorn On Poison, The Cure, And Other Pharmacological Prickles; Or, Why Are You So Far Away?, David Ben-Merre Ph.D., Manu Samriti Chander Ph.D.

English Department Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impact Of Firms’ Innovation And Environmental, Social, And Governance (Esg) Score On Financial Performance: A Study Of Telecommunications And Information Technology Companies Listed On Apec Member Countries’ Stock Exchanges In The Period Of 2018-2022, Navira Putri Apriliani, Rahmat Aryo Baskoro

The Indonesian Capital Market Review

The telecommunications and information technology sectors significantly drive economic growth through continuous innovation. This study investigates how Innovation and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics affect the financial performance of 80 telecommunications firms listed on stock exchanges in APEC member nations from 2018 to 2022. Innovation is evaluated based on research and development expenditures, whereas financial performance is determined by examining revenue and Tobin’s Q. Employing Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) and Two-Stage Least Squares (2SLS) regression methods, the findings reveal that innovation positively influences ESG scores, notably improving governance aspects. ESG scores positively impact revenue but negatively affect Tobin’s Q. …

The Relationship Between Socioeconomic Factors And Low Birth Rates In Ohio, Ryan Gora, Hannah Amin

Scholarship in Medicine - All Papers

Background: The incidence of low birth weight (LBW) has not substantially fallen over time despite advances in medical interventions. LBW has been linked to several chronic diseases in adulthood including type 2 diabetes (T2DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD), making it a particularly salient public health issue.
Objective: To examine socioeconomic factors and diseases associated with LBW in Ohio between 2016-2022.
Methods: Using data from County Health Rankings, we identified socioeconomic factors predictive of LBW in Ohio between 2016-2022. We also examined the relationship between LBW and incidence of T2DM as well as food insecurity (FI). In addition, we investigated how …

Generative Ai (Gan & Vae) In Motion Sickness Research, Harigovind Harikumar, Tomojit Ghosh

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

No abstract provided.

A Systematic Study Of Freezing Behavior In Earthworms In Response To Auditory And Vibratory Stimuli, Navjot Singh, A. Burton, Dragana Ivkovich Claflin

Celebration of Undergraduate & Graduate Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activities Materials

While earthworms have largely been studied for their role in eliminating toxic metals from soil, less is known about their behavior overall. Previous work from our lab found that a predator-like auditory stimulus (grunting) reliably induced fear-related freezing behavior (Worthen et al., 2024). The present studies further explore earthworm behaviors in response to audio-vibratory stimuli. In Experiment 1, we manipulated amplitude levels and speaker location to examine the parameters needed to reliably induce a freezing fear response to the grunting sound. It was hypothesized that when the speaker was touching the apparatus and producing an added mechanical vibration, there would …

A Case Study In Program Evaluation: Evaluation Of A Program Designed To Increase Activity Levels In Bourbon County Residents, Brooke M. Woodburn

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

This paper provides recommendations to eliminate possible barriers in a program developed to reduce inactive levels across Bourbon County.

Mapping Horizon Limits Using Topographical Reference Points For Determining Pre-Columbian Circum-Caribbean Indigenous Interisland Contact Routes, Al M. Rocca

SSGS Faculty Publications and Presentations

Existing archaeological studies have suggested an extensive network of ongoing human travel operated between the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the Lesser Antilles before and at the time of European contact in 1492. Additional evidence prompts some scholars to propose expanded contact of these areas with Mesoamerica, the rest of Central America, the northern coast of South America, and the Florida peninsula, resulting in an interconnected circum-Caribbean region. A variety of economic, political, and social influences stimulated this desire for sea and ocean movement, including migration, trading, tribute, raiding, and social connectedness. Geographic and oceanographic factors such as distance between …

Fiscal Citizenship And Taxpayer Privacy, Alex Zhang

Faculty Articles

Should individual tax data be public or confidential? Within the United States, secrecy has been the rule since the Tax Reform Act of 1976. But at three critical junctures—the Civil War, the 1920s, and the 1930s—Congress made individual tax records open for public inspection, and newspapers published the incomes of the billionaires of the time. Today, Finland, Norway, and Sweden all mandate significant transparency for individual tax information.

This Essay intervenes in the tax-confidentiality debate by building a new analytical framework of fiscal citizenship. Until now, scholars have focused on compliance—whether disclosure incentivizes honest reporting of income, and if it …

Tort Liability For Failure To Age Gate: A Promising Regulatory Response To Digital Public Health Hazards, Matthew B. Lawrence, Brett Frischmann, Avi Sholkoff

Faculty Articles

Tort liability for failure to “age gate” is a promising legal response to the public health hazards of AI, social media, sports gambling, and other digital spaces. Tort liability for failure to “age gate” hinges liability for harms to minors on an app’s failure to take reasonable steps to prevent minors from gaining access or otherwise to apply appropriate governance rules, such as privacy-protective default settings or ensuring genuine parental consent. While no one legal response is a panacea, tort liability for failure to age gate carries several distinctive advantages that make it a particularly promising option at this stage …

The Effects Of Heat Stress On The Rumination In Lactating Dairy Cows, Kailey Anne Deighan

Honors Theses and Capstones

This study aimed to (1) investigate the association between Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) and rumination activity patterns in lactating dairy cows, and (2) explore the breed-specific impacts of THI on rumination time in Holstein and Jersey cows. The first hypothesis was that higher THI values would be associated with decreased rumination time (RT). The second hypothesis proposed that Holsteins, due to their lower heat tolerance, would experience greater reductions in RT than Jerseys under heat stress. From June 1 to October 1, 2024, daily climatic data were collected in New Hampshire using VisualCrossing to calculate THI. Each day was categorized into …

Epilepsy: Etiology And Treatment Methods, Avital Nightingale

The Science Journal of the Lander College of Arts and Sciences

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder that is caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain. Due to the evolution of our understanding of epilepsy and its causes, a variety of therapeutic options have been developed to modulate seizures and limit their occurrence rate. Medication, diet and surgery have been the traditional treatments offered to individuals suffering from epilepsy but the latest advancements in neurotechnology have given patients with drug resistant epilepsy hope by providing options other than surgery. While the disorder is a complex one and its pathogenesis not yet fully understood, recent research has provided insight into the …