Digital Commons Network^™

Campaign Finance And Democratic Integrity: Studying The Effects Of Campaign Finance On Elections, Abigail C. Johnson

Political Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Using data collected from the Stanford Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME) this paper examines the connection between campaign finance results in independent expenditures. Focusing on 2022 and 2024 United States Senatorial election cycles, this research investigates whether or not female and male senatorial candidates receive higher or lower rates of supportive and opposing funding and how such funding effects the electoral outcomes of female candidates. Through logit regression analyses and descriptive statistics, like histogram and distribution graphs conducted in RStudio, this research measures how financial backing from outside groups affects probability in Senatorial primary electoral …

On The Trail, In The Towns: Visitor Use And Community Perspectives Along Montana’S Continental Divide Trail, Ava Worbets, Kika Bradford, Melissa Weddell

Institute for Tourism and Recreation Research Publications

As outdoor recreation participation has steadily increased nationwide over the past decade, reaching record levels in 2024 amid long‑term growth trends (OIA, 2025), the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) is drawing rising numbers of hikers traveling through Montana’s gateway communities. Yet little is known about who these hikers are or how their presence affects the towns that support them. This report examines CDT hikers and their relationships with Montana gateway communities from two complementary perspectives. First, understanding hikers’ demographics, spending patterns, and trail behaviors using data from 507 respondents who completed Montana’s CDT sections between 2022 and 2024. Second, exploring how …

Design And Verification Of The Multi-Slit Solar Explorer Camera Field Programmable Gate Arrays, Jordan M. Johnson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

The Multi-Slit Solar Explorer, or MUSE, is a NASA mission that will take images of the Sun to study solar flares and the solar corona. The mission will provide insight into the mechanisms behind space weather. The mission consists of two cameras: the Spectrograph (SG), and the Context Imager (CI). The Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory is providing both cameras for the mission.

This report describes a part of the design and verification process for a central component on these cameras known as the Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs). These FPGAs are programmed to acquire, handle, and send images …

Girl Grammar: A Syntactic And Pragmatic Analysis Of Girl And Miss Girl, Evelyn A. Powers

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Based on observation, personal interaction, and informal interviews/linguistic judgements, this thesis presents the unique and asymmetrical grammaticality patterns of the terms Girl and Miss Girl. To account for these asymmetries, I provide a syntactic framework rooted in Minimalism and Rizzi’s (1997) expanded CP hypothesis, alongside a pragmatic explanation based on Barros and Frank’s (2023) attentional maintenance and attentional shift paradigm.

Miss Girl behaves as a typical R-expression when used as a 3rd person subject, but Girl has a very restricted distribution, inconsistent with either R-expressions or pronouns (it is acceptable as the subject of a main clause, ungrammatical in object …

Dissecting The Complex Genomic Landscape Underlying Oxidative Stress Resistance Using Natural Variation In Yeast, Sonali Lakshika Anne Lenaduwe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stress is experienced across the tree of life. Survival in fluctuating environments depends on a robust genetic architecture. This dissertation examines the genetic and metabolic determinants underlying one such adaptive response: cross-protection. Leveraging natural variation in the stress responses of budding yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, I examine the genetic variation contributing to ethanol-induced cross-protection against oxidative stress. Acquired stress resistance, in which mild pre-exposure improves survival to subsequent stresses, is prevalent across diverse organisms and can involve both same-stress and cross-protection. Using high-throughput bulk segregant analysis (BSA-seq) and advanced intercross mapping populations derived from natural yeast isolates, I identify quantitative trait …

Every Why Hath A Wherefore, Harrison Baxley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates techniques learned in classes at the University of Arkansas that would prepare me for my thesis role as both Dromio twins in The Comedy of Errors. The fast-paced production required a demanding performance from me mentally and physically, with rapid changes between each character. This project breaks down developmental training from One Person Show and Acting Studio classes that would prove essential to my thesis role. The result of this project has led to a toolbox for approaching a career in clowning, multi-character performance, and audience connection.

Burning In The Aftermath: Lightning The Trojan Women, Olivia Mack

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the lighting design process for The Trojan Women at the University of Arkansas, exploring how light can hold space for grief, devastation, beauty, and survival. Guided by the central conceptual image of “flowers burning in a garden,” the design sought to balance fragility and destruction allowing moments of tenderness to exist within the wreckage of war. This document reflects on research, collaboration, conceptual development, drafting, cueing, and rehearsal-to-performance evolution. It evaluates the emotional and visual effectiveness of color, angle, texture, and rhythm in shaping audience experience. Production photographs, the light plot, and cue paperwork are included to …

An Assessment Of The Basihyal And Its Functional And Ontogenetic Relationships To The Masticatory Apparatus In Primates, Parker Mitchell Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The hyoid is central to many important functions such as feeding, vocalization, and breathing. However, primate hyoid morphology has been widely understudied compared to other aspects of craniofacial morphology. This dissertation aimed to bridge gaps in the current understanding of primate hyoid morphological variation and the hyoid’s relationship with mandibular morphology. Using microCT, diceCT, and three-dimensional geometric morphometric methods, this work details broad taxonomic variation of basihyal shape, resting hyoid position, and suprahyoid muscle architecture in primates, and assesses such variation for the effects of phylogeny, allometry, and covariation between these elements and mandibular shape. These analyses were also conducted …

An Evaluation Of Leading Indicators In The Construction Industry And Their Relationship With Incident Rates, Kitti Miller Whalen

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Improving safety programs has been a focus of organizations for decades. Historically, focus has been directed towards lagging indicators such as recordable incident rates and experience modification rate (EMR). While these remain beneficial, they are only one component of the broader framework. In recent years, companies have started to examine what occurs prior to an incident, which are known as leading indicators. The research into leading indicators is promising, however research into the area is limited. The focus of this study is to identify which leading indicators are most strongly associated with improved incident rates in the construction industry specifically. …

Characterizing Negative Academic Experiences, Danae M. Gaytan

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

According to the 2024 National College Health Assessment, roughly one in five college students experience serious psychological distress (ACHA, 2024). High levels of psychological distress among college students are well-documented (Emmerton et al., 2024; Eisenberg et al., 2013; Bewick et al., 2010), yet less is known about the specific experiences that contribute to this distress. Grounded in multiple theoretical frameworks, this study examines students’ negative academic experiences, their perceived causes, and associated outcomes. Using an online crowdsourcing platform, current higher education students (N = 215) described their most negative academic experience (NAE) and then answered questions about their reactions and …

Responsive Rigor And Strategic Care: Faculty Praxis For Holistic Student Success In The Community College, Jennifer Kelley

Library Scholarship

This qualitative study examines how community college faculty conceptualize, communicate, and enact academic rigor and care in their teaching practice. While post-pandemic debates have positioned rigor and care as opposing forces—evident in the "Rigor Wars" that framed care as performative laxity and rigor as gatekeeping—community college faculty successfully integrate these practices to support holistic student success. This research addresses critical gaps in higher education scholarship, which has studied rigor and care separately, focused primarily on four-year institutions, and overlooked faculty perspectives on how integration occurs in practice. Drawing on a single-case study of 38 faculty members at a large Midwestern …

From Local Conflict To Transpacific Remittance Routes: Qiaopi, Household Need, And Overseas Chinese Migration From South China, Enci Zheng

History Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Gender Identity, Political Alignment, And Views On “Man Or Bear” Trend Among Uconn Undergraduate Students, Erin Tumminello

Honors Scholar Theses

The “Man or Bear” debate, which became wildly popular online in 2024, asks whether someone would prefer encountering a random man or a random bear if alone in the woods. This question is meant to spark conversations around sexual and gender-based violence, and it created considerable discourse. Upon an exploration of the literature, findings include the fact that sexual violence often goes underreported among survivors, and that support of hegemonic masculinity and conservatism among men are associated with lower support for survivors. This study is meant to expand upon these findings, and to examine the ways in which gender identity …

Collaboration And Betrayal: Pius Xi And A Changing World, Nathan B. Higgins

Honors Scholar Theses

From the negotiations over the 1929 Lateran Accords to the start of World War II in 1939, the Holy See delicately navigated a turbulent diplomatic period. In the preceding century, the Catholic Church saw much of its temporal power decline as European states became more secular, and the pope lost the Papal States during the Risorgimento. Amid the decline in station, the rise of atheistic communism in Russia, Mexico, and Spain posed an existential to the Church, which Pope Pius XI would challenge during his pontificate. To confront this threat, he would work alongside Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany …

Ai-Assisted Frame Selection For Sports Photography Using Computer Vision And Multi-Modal Image Metrics, Sahana Ganesh

Honors Scholar Theses

This project focuses on the design and development of an AI-assisted frame selection system that automatically analyzes sequences of sports images and ranks frames based on overall photographic and contextual value. Additionally, we will focus on providing insights into the Computer Vision and Artificial Intelligence techniques used to build it.

The application utilizes computer vision and machine learning techniques to evaluate multiple dimensions of image quality and content. These include technical image quality metrics such as sharpness, motion blur, and exposure; compositional metrics such as subject placement and visual balance; and semantic understanding through detection of players, ball location, pose, …

Artificial Intelligence: Revolutionizing The Insurance Industry, Taylor Michaud

Honors Scholar Theses

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has evolved dramatically in the past century. It has become a powerful tool that can mimic human intelligence through algorithms that can learn from historical data and feedback. Some forms of AI need human intervention to keep them accurate, whereas others can autonomously refine themselves. The insurance sector will be greatly affected as AI will simplify and automate many processes, resulting in higher accuracy while using fewer company resources. Some key areas of insurance that will be impacted include sales and customer service, underwriting and pricing, claims, fraud detection, risk prevention, and actuarial analysis. However, to be …

Vertizontal Price Competition Between Social Media Platforms, Soumya Kanta Mishra, Sumit Sarkar

American Business Review

We model price competition between two horizontally  differentiated social media platforms, each offering basic and premium services. Users are either platform-anchored or quality-anchored. The platforms are two-sided, with users and advertisers as the two sides. We find a unique and symmetric equilibrium in the pricing game, where platforms earn revenue from both sides. As the quality difference increases, premium service prices rise, while basic service prices drop. Users are subsidized under strong network effects, but the platforms do not subsidize users if they are sufficiently differentiated. Vertical differentiation increases platform profits if sufficient quality difference is achieved for a given …

Transportation Support As A Preventive Strategy For Family Stability: A Community-Based Intervention In Monterey And Santa Cruz Counties, Synthia Moreno

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Families in Monterey and Santa Cruz Counties face transportation barriers that limit access to essential services and increase the risk of family instability and child welfare involvement. This capstone project was completed at Safe Families for Children Monterey Bay, a nonprofit organization that provides preventive, community-based support to families in crisis. The organization serves diverse, primarily low-income families, including many Hispanic/Latino households, across urban and rural communities. The project developed a Transportation Support Program using trained volunteers to provide reliable rides for families and interns to attend medical, legal, and social service appointments. The purpose was to improve access to …

Bridging The Gap: Improving Student Awareness And Use Of Ottercare Supports, Jamie Toborg

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Many students at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) experience food and housing insecurity and remain unaware of available campus resources. This capstone project, implemented through OtterCare, aimed to increase awareness and utilization of basic needs support services, particularly among upper-division and transfer students. The intervention included classroom presentations, faculty outreach, and distribution of informational materials, developed using evidence-based practices and community feedback. Following implementation, survey data from 65 students indicated that 83% intended to visit the Hub and 61% planned to share information with peers, demonstrating increased awareness and engagement. While the intervention did not fully address structural food …

Building Inclusive Communities: Addressing Bullying And Supporting Lgbtq+ Youth In Monterey County, Mayra Luna

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Bullying among LGBTQ+ youth in Monterey County is a significant public health concern, contributing to increased rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation. Rainbow Connection, a program within Monterey County’s Child and Adolescent System of Care, works to improve school climate and promote inclusive environments through partnerships and community engagement. This capstone project implemented an anti-bullying event in Salinas, a prominent town in Monterey County. Pink Shirt Day event is to raise awareness of bullying prevention and promote LGBTQ+ inclusivity. The project included collaboration with community partners, distribution of anti-bullying educational materials, and engagement with youth, families, and school members. …

From Service To Support: Empowering Aging Veterans, Priscilla A. Mireles

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project was designed to assist aging veterans in Monterey County who face challenges staying safely in their homes long-term. It describes the Monterey County Military and Veterans Affairs Office, an agency dedicated to helping former service members and their families navigate the complexities of the federal benefits system to access essential support. The project focused on a small-scale community resource fair aimed at bridging the gap between aging veterans and local services including caregiving, healthcare, and transportation. By centralizing diverse organizations, the intervention aimed to increase awareness of available resources among this population. Most intended outcomes were met; …

Introducing Mindfulness In The First Grade Classroom, Isabel Zuchelli

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Curriculum on mindfulness is often absent for young elementary school children. Without skills in practicing mindfulness, young children may miss out on the benefits of mindfulness and struggle with emotional and behavioral self-regulation. When educators support children with a curriculum that teaches mindfulness, children can increase their focus, enhance impulse control, and improve peer relations as they progress in elementary school. Therefore, I have created a two-day lesson plan that implements activities to teach mindfulness to a first grade classroom at Santa Rosa Academic Academy in Atascadero, California.

Employment Pathways: Hands-On Training For Young Adults With Disabilities, Blanca E. Cruz Cruz

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

An eight-week hands-on training program was implemented to improve job readiness, communication skills, and confidence among young adults with disabilities in Monterey County. Participants included nine individuals with special needs who engaged in workshops, mock interviews, product training (on the item being sold), and work shifts at a local farmers’ market in Salinas. The program involved collaboration between Special Kids Connect staff, the farmers market team, and participants’ families. Mixed methodology assessments evaluated participants’ employment skills and self-confidence. Results showed improvements in practical job skills and increased confidence levels among participants. The program demonstrated that educational hands-on learning combined with …

Raising Awareness Of Senior Transportation Services In Monterey County, Daisy Prado

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Transportation barriers limit access to vital health and social services, especially for older adults. This capstone at Independent Transportation Network Monterey County (ITNMC) in Salinas focused on supporting older adults and those with visual impairments through volunteer-based rides, enabling independence and well-being. The project aimed to increase ITN awareness by sharing volunteer and rider stories on social media, building connections, and encouraging involvement. Social media presence grew, though limited time and structure hindered full implementation. Still, the foundation built is worth continuing to build. Intentional outreach can make a difference. With stronger planning, community support, and sustained effort, ITN can …

An Evaluation Of A Nonprofit Support Service For System-Impacted Individuals In Monterey County, Jackie T. Nguyen

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Formerly incarcerated individuals in Monterey County experience high rates of housing instability and homelessness due to systemic barriers such as stigma, employment discrimination, and restricted housing access. These challenges increase the risk of recidivism and long-term socioeconomic instability, highlighting the need for effective reentry support. This capstone project evaluated the effectiveness of a reentry program in promoting long-term stability and identified strengths and areas for improvement. The evaluation was conducted at Helping Empower Reentry Services (H.E.R.S.), a nonprofit organization serving Medi-Cal recipients through Enhanced Care Management and Community Supports. Activities included engaging with 30 program participants and collecting survey data …

Building A Stronger Cab: Employee Experience, Retention, And Community Relationships, Rosenda Armida Jaimes

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project presented an organizational assessment of the Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County (CAB), a non‑profit organization whose mission is to partner with the community to eliminate poverty. Utilizing a mixed methods approach, this assessment gathered quantitative data from a staff satisfaction survey and reviewed qualitative data from exit interviews collected throughout 2025. Together, this information   provided CAB’s executive team with evidence‑based insights into employee experiences, workplace challenges, and the underlying factors that contributed to staff turnover. The recommendations developed from this analysis aimed to support CAB in improving staff retention, fostering a more supportive and sustainable …

Immigration Related Stress As A Social Determinants Of Health Among Immigrants In Santa Cruz County, Jose Manuel Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Immigration related stress is a major public health issue for undocumented immigrants and mixed status families. That is linked towards the social determinants of health associated with mental health, stress, and disparities. This capstone project was implemented at Santa Cruz County Immigration Project, a program within the Community Action Board in Watsonville, California, that provides legal assistance and support towards the community. The purpose of this project was to evaluate & analyze collected data from clients feedback through bilingual surveys & intake forms that were distributed in person, email, text, and QR code. A total of 50 surveys were collected, …

Improving Citizenship Preparation At Santa Cruz County Immigration Project, Destiny C. Castrejon

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Community-based organizations that serve low-income immigrant clients often deal with challenges like language barriers and limited access to materials that are easy to use. The goal of this internship project was to support citizenship preparation by creating simple and user-friendly study tools for immigrant clients. The project took place at the Santa Cruz County Immigration Project in Watsonville and mainly served Spanish-speaking, low-income adults. The main activities included creating large-print bilingual flashcards based on the 128 citizenship test questions, printing and laminating them, and sharing them with staff and clients for use. Informal feedback was gathered from one client and …

Implementing A Teen Vaping Awareness Intervention In Monterey County, Vanessa Sanchez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Adolescents in Monterey County face increased risks of respiratory health problems due to rising vaping use, influenced by low awareness, social pressures, and environmental factors. This capstone project, conducted with Breathe California, aimed to promote awareness of vaping risks and assess youth knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. The intervention took place at the 2026 Salinas See Our Youth Summit at Sherwood Hall in Salinas, California, and included middle and high school students from diverse backgrounds. Participants received education through an awareness flyer and brief discussion, followed by a survey. The anticipated outcomes were greater awareness of vaping-related health risks and reduced …

Housing Stability For Domestic Violence Survivors: Strengthening Support Through A Self-Evaluation, Joanna T. Ramirez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project addressed the lack of stable and affordable housing for survivors of domestic violence in Santa Cruz County, a critical issue of ongoing homelessness and barriers to long-term safety and independence. The project was implemented at Monarch Services within the Housing First Program, which serves survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, particularly those from low-income and marginalized communities. The purpose of the project was to develop a trauma informed, client centered self evaluation to better understand survivors needs and housing barriers throughout time. Implementation included the creation of an assessment tool, along with a logic …