Digital Commons Network^™

Promote, Partner & Mentor: Research At Liberty University, Mark Hamilton

Faculty Publications and Presentations

How can you be involved with faculty and student research at Liberty University? Promote your own research through LU Faculty SHARE (the faculty research platform). Partner with Liberty University Journals, encouraging student submissions. Mentor students in the research process.

Objectives

At the end of this session, attendees will be able to:

• Promote your own Research through LU Faculty SHARE 
• Use LU Faculty SHARE to list your own articles, posters, and presentations.

• Partner with Liberty University Journals 
• Serve as an advisor, or editor of an existing journal.
• Create a new journal by completing an interest form and application for a new …

Codazzi Normalized Null Hypersurfaces, Théophile Kemajou Mbiakop, Cyriaque Atindogbe, Ferdinand Ngakeu

Turkish Journal of Mathematics

We introduce a class of null hypersurfaces of Lorentzian manifolds, namely Codazzi normalized null hyper surfaces, whose (screen) shape operator associated with the rigged vector field is a Codazzi tensor. Several examples are given to support our study. Moreover, we investigate conditions implying that the induced Riemannian screen structure on a Codazzi-type normalized null hypersurface of a Lorentzian space is locally a nontrivial warped product.

The Tribal Rules Of Evidence, Nicole Morote

American Indian Law Journal

Rules of evidence shape litigation practice across the country. In this sense, they govern the truth as it enters the court. Legal scholarship has yet to study tribal approaches to evidence— an area with tremendous promise for legal practitioners and evidence rulemakers alike.

This Article is the first to do so. It analyzes an array of tribal evidence codes across the United States. It reveals three frameworks that describe tribes’ approaches to the Federal Rules. In doing so, it offers a modest contribution to the nascent intersection between Tribal law and evidence studies: crucial insight into tribal systems’ unique needs, …

Feeding The Youngest In Crises: Infant And Young Child Feeding Preparedness In High-Income Setting, Aileen Kennedy, Elizabeth J. O’Sullivan

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Infant and young child feeding (IYCF) is a critical public health priority during emergencies, yet remains poorly integrated into emergency preparedness planning in many high-income countries (HICs). Despite the availability of international guidance, such as the Operational Guidance on IYCF in Emergencies the implementation of these tools in national systems has been inconsistent within HICs. This review examines recent emergencies in HICs to identify policy and operational gaps affecting breastfeeding support, the management of commercial milk formula (CMF), and the distribution of commercially available complementary foods (CACFs). The present review focuses on the practical translation of Infant and young child …

Algorithmic Editors: Section 230, Big Tech, And The Need For Clarity, Richard Gruters

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Investigating The Reliability And Validity Of The Social Connectedness Instrument Among U.S. Adults, Blake A. Fraser

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Growing evidence shows that poor social connectedness is becoming a public health threat, with rising prevalence and connections to poor mental and physical health across the lifespan. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop feasible and effective social connectedness interventions. There is limited evidence for the effectiveness of current interventions, with studies recommending tailoring the intervention to an individual’s specific social connection needs. However, previous measures of social connectedness provide little information about potentially modifiable contributors of poor connection. Thus, the Social Connectedness Instrument (SCI) was developed to fill in this gap by proposing two novel latent constructs of …

Racial Bias, Mindfulness, And Motivation Among Mental Health Clinicians, Deirdre Y. Burton

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Racial bias is linked to poor mental health outcomes and obstructs clinician-client relationships. Mental health clinicians (MHCs) may express implicit bias, expanding disparities for people of color. Mindfulness and motivation to respond without prejudice (MRP) are associated with reduced racial bias, yet few studies have examined these constructs among MHCs. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to evaluate relationships between mindfulness, MRP, and implicit racial bias. Licensed MHCs (n = 47, 85.1% female, 59.6% African American, mean age 50 years) participated in a convergent parallel mixed-methods study involving an online survey [Race Implicit Association Test (Race IAT), the Five …

Unseen But Felt: Exploring The Emotional And Developmental Impacts Of Father Absence On The Lives Of African American Daughters, Michelle Laniece Mayberry

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of African American daughters who grew up with absent fathers, examining how this experience influenced development, relationships, identity formation, and resilience. Through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis, six central themes emerged: (1) father-daughter relationship, (2) emotional and psychological impact, (3) identity and development, (4) social and relational outcomes, (5) decision-making and achievement, and (6) resilience and adaptation. Each theme was interpreted through the lens of attachment and social learning theories with a biblical worldview. The findings revealed that father absence often left emotional and developmental wounds in the lives of the participants. The …

A Longitudinal Study Of Performance And Workload In Military Flight Training, Kristen Fitzgerald Biondich

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative longitudinal research study of aircrew undergoing transition training was to examine the relationships between progressive syllabus events and aircrew performance, and progressive syllabus events and workload. In military aviation, the transition from one platform to another can present significant challenges to aircrew, especially regarding task saturation and performance. Previous research has suggested methods for improving the practice of flight training but has not investigated the emerging OA-1K mission and platform. The OA-1K is a modified Air Tractor AT-802U, a rugged, single-engine turboprop aircraft that is intended for use flying light attack and reconnaissance missions. This …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Mental Health Needs Of High School Youth In A Rural Community Post Covid-19 Pandemic, Maritza Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe former high school students’ experiences with mental health struggles while in high school during the COVID-19 pandemic in a rural Texas Public Independent School District. Mental illness increased among youth during the prolonged pandemic period of time and many of the pervasive mental health concerns have not been addressed effectively in the aftermath. As a result, a growing number of concerns pertaining to the mental health wellbeing of K-12 children continues to be on the rise. Thus, it is of utmost importance to learn more about the experiences of our youth …

Breaking The Silence: Hispanic Male Child Abuse Survivors And Their Post Traumatic Growth, Maria Angelica Hernandez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe Hispanic male survivors’ experiences of child abuse in Southern California. The theory guiding this study was social constructivism (Pfadenhauer, 2019), as it explains how a worldview is developed. The additional theories are Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory, Bowlby’s (1973) attachment theory, and Widom’s (1989) cycle of violence and how they influence the development of an individual’s perception and worldview. Tedeschi and Calhoun’s (1996) post-traumatic theory also influenced this study as it focused on growth after the trauma experience. The study includes 12 male participants of Hispanic descent between the ages of …

Experiences Of Victim Advocates Serving Military Sexual Assault Victims In The State Of New York: A Phenomenological Study, Neisha Louhar

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe victim advocates’ (VAs’) experiences serving victims of sexual assault (SA) in the State of New York. Current researchers emphasize experiences in the areas of professional satisfaction, development of new skills, and work relationships. The theories guiding the current research are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and social cognitive theory (SCT). Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that individuals are motivated to meet their needs in a specific order. Social cognitive theory’s observational learning shapes decision-making factors. have an important role in supporting victims of SA emotionally. Understanding victims’ experiences can provide awareness of …

Supporting Young Carers In Early Childhood: Mapping Power, Threat, Meaning, And Strengths: A Ptmf-Informed Qualitative Study, Carly Ellicott, Ali Bidaran, Felicity Dewsbery, Alyson Norman, Helen Lloyd

School of Psychology

Background/Objectives: This qualitative study examines strengths and strains faced by professionals working with young carers throughout the United Kingdom (UK) in the context of society’s youngest carers; young carers in early childhood (YCEC) (0–8 years). Methods: The Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) was utilised to map key findings of three focus groups. This conceptual lens offers a narrative-based understanding of ways in which power operates in society. Increasingly applied to explore experiences of individuals, communities, and groups, the PTMF proposes that concepts of distress are founded in broader contexts of injustice and social inequalities. Twenty-four participants were recruited from throughout …

Improving Mathematical Problem-Solving Performance Through The Use Of Reading Comprehension Strategies, Rebecca Yonan

Masters Projects

Research shows that math problem solving relies on more than arithmetic computation. Word problem solving is a combination of text comprehension and word memory. Being able to successfully solve word problems at the elementary level helps prepare students for algebra, and higher academics. Learning to solve word problems teaches students problem solving techniques that can be applied in their adult lives. This project creates an instructional routine where lessons are built around teaching primarily through word problem solving. Students will receive instruction on text comprehension, math vocabulary building, word memory, and arithmetic computation in order to simultaneously increase their math …

A Neutrosophic Homological-Gröbner Framework For Ai-Driven Media Education Evaluation, Mona Gharib, Hafiz Muhammad Athar Farid, José M. Merigó, Muhammad Riaz

Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) with media technologies has transformed teaching in Journalism and Communication, introducing new challenges for quality evaluation. Traditional assessment methods fail to capture the uncertainty, inconsistency, and incompleteness inherent in modern educational data. This paper proposes a Neutrosophic Homological–Gröbner Framework, which unifies three perspectives: neutrosophic sets to encode uncertain evidence, homological algebra to analyze structural coherence, and Gröbner bases to systematically simplify interdependent evaluation rules.

Within this framework, diverse evidence is encoded into neutrosophic triplets, daggregate into course-level indicators, and organized into neutrosophic chain complexes, where Betti indices reveal coherence and fragmentation. Educational policies are …

High-Performance Deep Learning Techniques For Plant Disease Detection: Performance Analysis, Validation, And Applications, Doaa El-Shahat, Ahmed Elmasry

Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal

The early detection of plant diseases is an indispensable task to improve crop yields and production quality. Crop disease observations by experienced pathologists are difficult and might take a long time. Therefore, deep learning (DL) techniques have been utilized to present an automated detection technique that could accurately and timely detect plant diseases. Several DL models in the literature were proposed, but no paper conducted a comparative study between those models to determine which of them was the best alternative for this task. Therefore, twenty-one DL models are compared in this review paper to show which of them could achieve …

Rf-Et-Ann: Hybrid Machine Learning Model For Forecasting Short-Term Photovoltaic Power Production, Walid Abdullah, Ahmed Ismail Ebada, Mohamed Abouhawwash

Sustainable Machine Intelligence Journal

Accurately forecasting photovoltaic (PV) power generation is a challenging problem due to the non-linear and highly variable characteristics of solar data, which is strongly influenced by several interdependent factors, such as environmental conditions, system characteristics, and technical aspects. In this study, a newly proposed machine learning (ML) technique based on integrating random forest (RF), extra trees (ET), and artificial neural networks (ANN) is presented to tackle this problem with better predictive accuracy, ensuring that solar energy is used more consistently, effectively, and economically; this model is dubbed RF-ET-ANN for short. Hybridization of these three models will help capture non-linear aspects …

From Covenant To Contract: How Secularization Of Christian Society Changed The Moral Basis Of Law, Rudy Iturrino

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Modern secular society has replaced religious understandings of obligation with legal contracts in which the state acts as the final arbiter. The purpose of this document analysis is to explore how the Christian concept of covenant was gradually replaced by secular legal contracts during the Reformation and Enlightenment, and how this shift influences modern views on eminent domain and national security policy. This dissertation was guided by Social Contract Theory. The following research question guided this study: What patterns from a document analysis reveal how the Christian idea of covenant was replaced by secular contract theory during the Reformation and …

Small Courageous Minds, Desirae Bach

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the barriers, agreements, and disagreements between mental health and Christianity, specifically as it relates to helping Christian children with anxiety. The following investigation explores how God defines and reacts to anxiety in the Bible and how anxiety is explained through scientific research. By explaining both scientific and biblical views of anxiety, the Christian community can grasp a better understanding of how to help children with anxiety. The research also builds a foundational investigation on how anxiety affects children and possible solutions for relieving anxiety in children. Educating children at a young age about mental health and offering …

Factors Influencing Sugary Drink Consumption Among Residential Students At Liberty University, Chinonso Felistas Eziechi

Masters Theses

Introduction/Background: Sugary drink consumption among college students remains a public health concern due to its association with obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease. Despite high awareness of health risks, consumption among emerging adults remains elevated. Guided by the Social Cognitive Theory, this study examined the psychosocial, behavioral, and environmental determinants of sugary drink consumption among residential students at Liberty University. Objective: To identify key predictors of sugary drink consumption and evaluate how expectations, self-regulation, and environmental factors shape beverage behaviors. Design, Setting, Participants: This cross-sectional study used an anonymous Qualtrics survey distributed on campus. Of approximately 745 eligible residential students, 473 …

The Impact Of Awareness Of Campus Health Services On Utilization Of Medical Care Among Residential Students At Liberty University, Catherine Pandagade

Masters Theses

College students represent the most prominent group of individuals when considering their lifestyles throughout aging. Therefore, this age group serves as a good opportunity for health education that could build positive health behaviors for life. Existing literature have said that the 18-25 year olds tend to have fewer resources and be often uninsured and have the highest rates of preventable diseases.2 Objective: The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of awareness and its subsequent effect on utilization of available health resources on campus among the student population of Liberty University. Additionally, the purpose of the research through …

A Proposed Cryptographic Algorithm Based On Three-Pass Protocol And The Elliptic Curve Cryptography, Rifaat Z. Khalaf, Hamza B. Habib

Baghdad Science Journal

The internet lately has become an integral part of people’s lifestyles. It impacts various aspects of their daily lives, including education, communication, etc. Hence, the need for efficient and fast cryptography algorithms has increased. In this paper, a new cryptographic algorithm is proposed using the authenticated Three-Pass Protocol (TPP) and the Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC). In the proposed algorithm, the ECC is used to encrypt and decrypt data (a text of size 128 bits), and the TPP is used for transmitting this data without sharing the keys. In the standard ECC, the receiver publishes the elliptic curve (EC) equation, the …

Improving Energy And Capacity-Awareness Of Effective Satellite Communication In 6g Heterogeneous Internet Of Things, Ahmed Mahdi Jubair, Khitam Abdulbasit Mohammed, Fouad H. Awad

Baghdad Science Journal

The spreading of Sixth Generation (6G) communication within the Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the recent innovations in networking services. As the number of devices becomes increasingly connected through extensive communication network connectivity, energy efficiency has become a significant concern with the widespread use of massive IoT devices. While general lack of energy optimization can lead to several issues, including data loss, link failure, and high-power utilization, directly affect the communication quality of the network. To address these challenges, it is crucial to develop a model that combines effective optimization and resource allocation, based on both Quality of …

Robust Qr Code Counterfeit Detection By Integrating Vgg19 Neural Embedding And Triplet Loss, Gede Putra Kusuma, Yulianto Yulianto, Renaldy Fredyan, Hendi Chandi, Jeffry William Tan, Philip Kwan, Muhammad Dafa Syukur

Baghdad Science Journal

Detecting counterfeit Quick Response codes plays a critical role in protecting the integrity of products and documents. This paper presents a novel methodology to increase the reliability of QR code counterfeit detection by integrating neural embedding VGG19 and triplet loss. The approach uses deep neural networks. Specifically, the modification of the VGG19 architecture is used to extract unique features from QR codes. These features are embedded in a multi-dimensional space using neural embedding methods. The use of the triplet loss function aims to increase the discriminative power of the embeddings, ensuring the discriminative power of the embeddings, and ensuring that …

Bioinformatics-Inspired Secure Video Encryption Using Chaotic Maps And Light Streaming Algorithms, Rajaa K. Hasoun, Rasha S. Ali, Ahmed G. Hameed, Ghassan H. Abdul-Majeed

Baghdad Science Journal

The Traditional encryption methods, such as AES, can be too slow for large video files, necessitating the development of faster and more efficient solutions for real-time video security. This research aims to enhance video security during transmission by developing a novel video encryption algorithm that is both fast and robust, specifically designed to handle large video datasets efficiently. The proposed video encryption algorithm integrates lightweight streaming algorithms for enhanced speed, modern cryptographic techniques, and chaotic maps for heightened security. The encryption process involves three key steps: Dividing the video into frames and scrambling/encrypting each frame, employing three innovative techniques: vertical …

Resiliency Among Service Industry Workers: A Biopsychosocial-Spiritual Assessment, Winston King

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to quantify service industry workers’ resiliency’s relationships with their emotional intelligence, understanding of differing personality types, spiritual resiliency, and substance abuse, as these are all applicable to the biopsychosocial-spiritual model, which served as the theoretical framework. The study included administering the Brief Resilience Scale (BRS), the Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test (SEIT), a self-reporting of employees’ understanding of differing personality types, a self-reporting of employees’ spiritual resiliency, and the Substance Use Brief Screen (SUBS) to social science graduate students working in the service industry. Resiliency was identified as the predictor variable and the other …

Vietnam Music Education For Professional Careers In The Music Industry, Dylan Bao Nguyen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia, holds a rich cultural heritage and diverse musical traditions that span more than four thousand years. The country began commercializing its music industry around 1997 and expanded it into a significant national sector by 2015. Even with this expansion, Vietnamese music remains largely unfamiliar to global listeners, creating an urgent need for strong music education programs that support the industry’s development. To understand why Vietnamese music struggles to achieve global visibility in the age of globalization, researchers must examine the current conditions of music education and identify the specific factors that limit its international …

2026-01-14 What Comes Next? Seattle U Seniors Share Their Stories, Maya Deguzman

The Spectator Online

No abstract provided.

In Search Of Resilience: A Case Study Of Leadership In Challenging Times In An International School Setting, Bradylee W. Mcgeough

Dissertations

This study investigated the leadership of a long-serving head of an international school during six periods of significant crisis affecting the school. The study was conducted at a private school in Islamabad, Pakistan, often referred to locally as The American School.

The study paid particular attention to the development of resilience in the leader and in the follower group during and after periods of crisis. Initially designed as a heuristic inquiry, in practice the study emerged more as a collection of oral histories, although heuristic inquiry methods were employed throughout the study. Polkinghorne’s conception of narrative analysis also …

Public And Nonprofit Media Are Facing Existential Threats, Trish Abalo, Emily Doebler

Research, Reports, and Publications

No abstract provided.