Digital Commons Network^™

Take It Or Leavitt: The Criminal Consequences Of Doing The Right Thing, Eva Lynch

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

Building Scaffolding Instead Of Barriers: Accessibility For Neurodivergent Law Students, Katherine Silver Kelly

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

When it comes to accommodations and accessibility to equitable learning environments for neurodivergent law students, law schools tend to think our only tool is a hammer and approach everything as if it is a nail. As lawyers, we are experts in problem solving, we are trained to ask questions, to explore the how and why. Yet we fail to do this when it comes to addressing the needs of neurodivergent students. We know how legal education works, we know what students will encounter, what it takes to be successful, and the challenges and struggles students face. This is not to …

Empirically Testing The “Unbiased Factfinder[S]”, Chris Cox

Southern Illinois University Law Journal

This scholarly investigation examines the decision-making processes in sexual assault cases, juxtaposing the charging decisions of lay individuals with the factual sufficiency reviews conducted by appellate judges. The study's comprehensive analysis of 254 cases provides a unique perspective on criminal justice decision-making within the context of the military justice system—a singular jurisdiction that confers prosecutorial discretion upon lay individuals and permits extensive factual sufficiency reviews by appellate courts, akin to quasi-jury fact-finding articulated in written opinions.

The research findings challenge the paradigm of formal legalism, lending support to a legal realist perspective that posits both lay individuals and judges are …

A Sociolinguistic Study Of The Bani Malik Dialect In Mecca, Saudi Arabia, Mansour Almalki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My research aims to examine how the dialect of the Bani Malik community, a minority group in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, has been influenced by its contact with the urban dialect of Mecca. It also aims to record Bani Malik speakers’ attitudes toward their heritage dialect. Thirty-six Bani Malik speakers of different age groups, genders, and amounts of contact with Meccan speakers were interviewed for 30 minutes each. Quantitative data analysis was used to investigate the influence of the Meccan dialect on one Bani Malik morphological feature, the first-person singular possessive marker < -i:h>, and two phonological features, the diphthongs [ai] and …

Record Scratch: The Podcast, Kate Widmer

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

“Record Scratch: The Podcast” is an attempt to gather some of the history of Missoula’s alternative music scene from the 1990s until now, to contribute to documentation of Montana’s art scenes as well as to summarize and finalize my two and a half years of doing music reporting in Missoula. For the podcast, I interviewed four people who are active in Missoula’s music scene. Our discussions range from their youth through to the present day, giving several perspectives on Missoula’s changing music culture, as well as what it means to be a punk in Montana. My guiding reason for this …

Caring For Public Art On Campus: A Case Study In Archives, Conservation And Curation For Public Art At The City University Of New York At York College In South Jamaica, Queens (2025 Cuny Research In The Classroom Grant Project), Emily Verla Bovino

Open Educational Resources

The City University of New York (CUNY) hosts public art at many of its colleges. The practice of funding public art through the CUNY Construction Fund and the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY) began after a 1966 New York State Law created a financing and construction partnership between the two entities.

As these collections of museum-quality contemporary art on CUNY campuses age and increase in value, how can care and conservation be ensured? Conceived in response to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data on the projected 11% growth of employment for archivists, curators, museum technicians, …

Teitiota And Climate Non-Refoulment: The International Law Obligation To Create Domestic Protection Mechanisms, Helen Kerwin

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

“Forced Worship Stinks In God’S Nostrils”: The Inquisition, Sepharad, And The American Experiment, Isaac Amon

Touro Law Review

In December 1791, the Bill of Rights, comprising the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, enshrined fundamental protections for individual freedoms, with the First Amendment guaranteeing liberty of conscience. This milestone, however, was the culmination of centuries of struggle. The arrival of Iberian Jews, including conversos, in North America played a pivotal role in shaping the course of American history. The Founders referenced the Inquisition in their letters and debates, particularly in discussions on legal protections for criminal suspects and the broader issue of religious liberty. Founding assurances of religious freedom to Jews and Christians stand in stark contrast …

Partisan Conflict On Social Media: Empirical Evidence And Policy Challenges, Juan S. Morales, Anne E. Wilson

Laurier Institute for the Study of Public Opinion and Policy

• Social media exploits human biases, heightening the visibility and spread of negative, extreme, and divisive content
• Public opinion and norms are distorted by disproportionately active fringe voices while moderates are muted
• Politicians adapt to incentives, increasing incivility, moralization, and out-group demonization
• Preferences for content moderation differ by users’ ideology, complicating regulation and risking ideological bias in discourse
• Platforms alone may not be able to reverse a self-perpetuating spiral of divisiveness – education and policy thus play a crucial role

National Para Social Workers Handbook, Ministry Of Gender Labour And Social Development, Republic Of Uganda

Humanitarian Task Force

A resource guide for supporting para social workers in delivery of child protection and well-being services at community level in Uganda. This revised handbook integrates the Baobab project's sexual violence screening intervention.

Between The Lines, Sarah Laura Nesti Willard

CoHSS Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

Middle-Level Teachers’ Attitudes On Disciplinary Literacy Instruction In The Non-Ela Classroom, Katherine E. Bowers

Dissertations

The persistent gaps in student achievement, particularly in the context of discipline-specific literacy skills, across public schools in the United States continue to widen. With a focus on South Carolina, this study investigates how professional development efforts have sought to address these gaps and enhance literacy instruction. Despite many initiatives, testing scores and teacher perceptions reveal limited progress in literacy outcomes. The study discusses a key challenge: the lack of substantial literacy instruction beyond English language arts (ELA) classes, resulting in a growing disparity between literacy mastery and the current reality. The research acknowledges the existence of literacy-focused professional development …

Faculty Motivation For Online Teaching And Learning, Elizabeth Sachiko Haas Greene

Dissertations

The study will examine which factors predict faculty motivation in online learning. Additionally, the study will investigate the relationship between faculty perceptions of online learning and overall online teaching and learning and the relationships that exist between perceptions of administrative support and self-efficacy for online learning. The study's findings will provide insight into how institutions can support faculty teaching in the growing online modality. The overarching method for this study is a nonexperimental quantitative study. This method will collect numerical data that can be used to measure various aspects of behavior, including attitudes (Drew et al., 2014). The study's participants …

2025 Document For Celebrating Scholarship & Creativity Day Soirée, Stacy Penk, Diana Symons

Celebrating Scholarship and Creativity Day (2018-)

No abstract provided.

Social Determinants Of Mental Health Outcomes, Ariana Fein

Honors Theses

Mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and depression, are a growing global concern with profound consequences on individuals' well-being and societal functioning. The burden of these disorders is not only psychological but also economic, affecting quality of life. Mental health outcomes are heavily influenced by a range of social determinants, such as financial status, education, and access to healthcare. While extensive research has focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries, there remains a significant gap in understanding how these determinants affect mental health in low-resource settings or non-WEIRD countries. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the …

The Intersection Of Dementia And Criminal Behavior, J. Taylor Humphrey

Marquette Law Review

As the number of individuals affected by dementia increases, the criminal justice system continues to face questions about dementia and criminal responsibility. However, gaps in the legal process have left these individuals, incapable of forming intent, vulnerable to wrongful punishment. Courts rely on traditional culpability frameworks that fail to account for the nuance in dementia-related cognitive decline, and, as a result, prisons are forced to function as de facto nursing homes lacking adequate resources to provide proper care. This Comment proposes treating dementia as a sliding scale, arguing for a context-specific response through streamlined crisis response, use of diversion programs, …

Hallows Lecture: Resorting To Courts Or To Community Conversations? Article Iii Standing As The Guardian Of Free Speech And Democratic Self-Governance, Michael Y. Scudder

Marquette Law Review

None.

Nirsa Student Referees: Exploring The Connection Between Sense Of Community And Positive Health And Well-Being Outcomes, Jacob K. Tingle

School of Business Faculty Research

Despite working in complex environments, which require managing antagonistic and abusive relationships, sport referees are essential to ensure fair and safe competition. Evidence suggests officiating can positively impact well-being and officiating communities provide social support. Despite those positives, there remains a shortage of qualified officials, which is compounded by aging referee populations. These concerns emphasize the need to attract young people and examine well-being benefits resulting from involvement in officiating communities. As such, the aim of this study is to help NIRSA professionals better understand how the community or social networks made through officiating intramural sports could better support student …

Interactions And Applications Of Optical Angular Momentum In Magneto-Optical Material, Seth R. Nelson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation explores the interactions and applications of optical angular momentum within magneto-optical materials. Beginning with a theoretical and experimental analysis of multiple reflection and refraction phenomena within magneto-optical material. We derive and verify the dependence of refractive indices on optical spin angular momentum and magneto-optical magnetization, resulting in nonreciprocal elliptical and linear polarization beam splitting effects and wavevector discretization. We fabricate a magnetless slab waveguide isolator with minimal optical loss. Extending our study to optical orbital angular momentum, we introduce a perturbation to the electronic transition model in bismuth-substituted iron garnets. We demonstrate that this perturbation leads to nonreciprocal …

Linear Response Of Driven Non-Hermitian Photonic Systems, Lucas R. Simonson

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The notion of non-Hermitian engineering in optics and photonics has attracted considerable attention in the past decade. From laser devices and sensing applications to light trapping and guiding, non-Hermitian engineering provides additional degrees of freedom that allows for more control over light-matter interaction. It is thus of great importance to develop a deep insight into the linear response of non-Hermitian optical systems. We begin by studying the linear response of non-Hermitian Hamiltonian systems under general conditions and derive an expression for its Green's operator in terms of its eigenvectors and its canonical Jordan vectors. Next, we investigate the quantum noise …

Renewable Energy’S Impact On Economic Growth: The Role Of Institutions – A Case Study From Africa, Bashiru Ibrahim

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This study investigates the impact of renewable energy consumption (REC) on African economy, and particularly the moderating effect of institutional quality. Since the world remains concerned with sustainability and its heavy reliance on fossil fuels, it is relevant to determine the economic impacts of REC. Using Driscoll-Kraay Fixed Effects Standard Estimate (DKSE) on a panel data of 49 African countries from 1974 to 2023, the findings indicate that there is a statistically significant low negative correlation between REC and economic growth, suggesting that higher dependence on renewable energy tends to be associated with slower economic performance in Africa based on …

Developing A Graphql Mesh Federated Api Gateway: Rapid Integration Of New Endpoints Into A Predefined Schema, Noah Kolczynski

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

The Navy’s Undersea Warfare Decision Support System (USW-DSS) uses data from an ever growing number of sensors, accessible through an equally growing number of Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Due to the lack of standardization among these sensors and APIs, as the system has continued to grow, the challenge of collecting and using these data has become increasingly prevalent. Previous work at Michigan Tech, in collaboration with engineers at ARiA (Applied Research in Acoustics LLC), introduced a GraphQL Mesh federated API gateway. The gateway would enable the combination of diverse API sources into a predefined hierarchical structure. This report follows the …

Knowledge Integrated Deep Learning For Enhanced Fault Diagnosis And Prognosis For Rotating Machinery And Its Applications On Marine Systems, Yunsheng Su

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This dissertation develops a knowledge-informed deep learning framework for robust fault diagnosis and prognosis across various engineered systems, including bearings, lithium-ion batteries, and mooring systems in wave energy converters (WECs). A deep transfer learning (DTL) method is first developed to improve bearing fault diagnosis by fusing data from multiple sources and extracting key features using convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Building upon this, a knowledge-informed deep network (KIDN) framework is proposed, integrating physics-based features with deep learning to enhance diagnostic accuracy and generalizability. A constrained Gaussian process (CGP) model is further employed to guide adaptive network design and reduce model tuning …

Thermionic Emission Computational Design Of Rare-Earth Hexaboride Cathodes In An Oxygen Environment, Sophia G. Brylinski

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This project seeks to optimize a rare-earth hexaboride cathode material for thermionic emission Hall-effect thruster in an air breathing electric propulsion system for the very low earth orbit (VLEO). The main atmospheric constituents in VLEO are nitrogen and atomic oxygen. The presence of oxygen causes the Hall-effect thruster cathode to poison, sharply decreasing its electron emission, thus reducing thrust. Two cathodes used for thermionic emission are dispenser cathodes and lanthanum hexaboride (LaB₆) cathodes, with the LaB₆ cathodes having better resistance to oxygen poisoning. It is desired to develop a cathode that can better tolerate the oxygen environment …

Review And Development Of Centralized Engineering Tool Frameworks To Enhance Productivity And Bridge Gaps In Current Engineering Processes, Elijah M. Sierra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis aims to tackle some of the inefficiencies with the current methods of engineering. The issues are specifically the inefficient iteration processes between preliminary design and detail level design, a lack of centralized resources, and poor project organization and management. The thesis provides a case study on the current tools that solve this issue and then presents a new proof of concept framework for an engineering tool. This tool addresses these issues by unifying calculators, databases, external tools, and project management systems under one modular platform.

The tool consists of one central GUI with multiple independent modules such as …

Fine Root And Ectomycorrhizal Functional Traits Of Quercus Rubra Populations From Across A Latitudinal Gradient, Emma L. Shedd

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Forests are increasingly considered for their carbon sequestration value, but their ability to store carbon is dependent on a close balance between carbon fluxes into and out of ecosystems. Nutrient uptake of roots and associated symbiotic communities results in respiratory carbon release, which is projected to increase with warming and represents a substantial uncertainty in earth system modeling. Traits that are functionally related to nutrient uptake can be used to estimate carbon fluxes, but our understanding of the trade-offs that govern root, and especially fungal, traits is limited. Fine roots in surface soils are responsible for the bulk of plant …

Protecting The Mental Health Of Children Exposed To Domestic Violence In Dallas, Texas, Lakitta Brewton

Selected Social Change Portfolios in Prevention, Intervention, and Consultation

Goal Statement: This project Aims to explore the impacts of domestic violence and provide a prevention focused response that prioritizes early intervention over crisis management. Shifting the focus from reactive to proactive care will strengthen the community's well-being and ensure that families receive the support they need and deserve.

Significant Findings: Children who are exposed to domestic violence are at a much higher risk of developing mental health challenges, like anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (NCTSN, 2022). In Dallas, the numbers are alarming, with over 13,800 family violence incidents reported in 2023, many of which involved children, either …

Depth Of The Lake And The Height Of The Sky (2017) By Kim Jihyun, Megan Jane Laverty

Picture Books

The Depth of the Lake and the Height of the Sky (2017) is KimJihyun’s first picture book; it is composed entirely of pictures. It “tells” the story of a young boy and his dog who spend a day swimming and sunbathing at a lake that is within walking distance from his grandparents' home, whom he is visiting with his parents. At first glance, the story might seem unremarkable, recounting an experience familiar to many. However, Kim’s illustrations challenge this assumption by drawing us into the boy’s encounter with nature. She creates a visual journey that guides us through a perceptual …

Remixing Oer Assignment: "Advantges And Disadvantages Of State-Level Policies", Katie Zuber

Open Educational Resources

This assignment, created by Katie Zuber, uses OER readings to help students understand how federalism impacts their everyday lives. Using the United States’ response to the Coronavirus as a case study, students will see firsthand that where decisions get made (i.e., the state or federal level) often dictates who gets what, when, and how. This assignment was made as part of a workshop on remixing OERs at John Jay College in 2025.

Remixing Oer Assignment: Incarceration And Homicide Trends, Veronica Michel

Open Educational Resources

In this assignment, Professor Veronica Michel asks students to look for data in two different open access sources and combine them into a new, remixed dataset that they will use to conduct analysis and write a report. The assignment encourages students to play an active role in selecting, formatting and interpreting openly available data. This assignment was created as part of a seminar on remixing OER that ran in 2025.