Digital Commons Network^™

Comment On “Voices From Beyond The Grave: Protecting The Audio Of Murder Victims Through (Intellectual) Property Law” By Alexandra M. Hudson, Christopher B. Seaman

Washington and Lee Law Review

Alex’s Note correctly identifies the tension between two important, competing values when it comes to how the law should deal with the sound recordings of murder victims captured in a public record, such as a 911 call or body camera footage. The first value is government transparency, including disclosure of public records through federal and state Freedom of Information Acts (FOIAs). As the Supreme Court has explained, “[t]he basic purpose of FOIA is to ensure an informed citizenry, vital to the functioning of a democratic society, needed to check against corruption, and to hold the governors accountable to the governed.” …

Storycomposerai: Supporting Human-Ai Story Co-Creation Through Decomposition And Linking, Shuo Niu, Dylan Clements, Marina Margalit Nemanov, Hyungsin Kim

Computer Science

GenAI's ability to produce text and images is increasingly incorporated into human-AI co-creation tasks such as storytelling and video editing. However, integrating GenAI into these tasks requires enabling users to retain control over editing individual story elements while ensuring that generated visuals remain coherent with the storyline and consistent across multiple AI-generated outputs. This work examines a paradigm of creative decomposition and linking, which allows creators to clearly communicate creative intent by prompting GenAI to tailor specific story elements, such as storylines, personas, locations, and scenes, while maintaining coherence among them. We implement and evaluate StoryComposerAI, a system that exemplifies …

Diplomatic Misjudgments: The Decision-Making Process Before And During The 1870 Franco-Prussian War, Nathan Daly

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

How did emotions affect the diplomatic process during the waning days of the Concert of Europe?  Was the idea of national honor so prevalent that diplomats began to lack reason when it was called into question by opposing states?  What happens when overzealous officials make claims and requests that far outweigh their position and norms of the time?  To address these questions, this thesis examines the diplomatic negotiations that took place before and during the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War, with a focus on the French side. The first chapter, which examines the crisis before the war, highlights how the French diplomats …

The Last Boat: How American And Polish Domestic And Foreign Policies Shaped The Polish Jewish Emigration Experience, 1933–1939, Jesse Spadaccini

History & Classics Undergraduate Theses

The interwar period from 1918 to 1939 saw Poland and the United States contend with major international and domestic questions regarding Jewish emigration. In a matter of twenty years, Polish policy developed from protecting its Jewish minority to actively persecuting it in political, economic, and social spheres with radical antisemitism. In the United States, immigration was limited post-1924 because of a nationality-based quota system introduced by the Immigration Act of 1924. Despite diplomats arguing for increased numbers, American officials’ position remained strong on limiting immigration, continuing unchanged as an understanding of Polish-Jewish plight became clear in the 1930s. The Polish …

Ethics In Church-Based Research, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

Both biblical principles and the standards used in the social sciences help researchers understand how to ensure their research is ethical and how to avoid the temptations associated with conducting research. Using a framework derived from Ephesians 4:25-28, these principles include truthfulness, avoidance of harm, and integrity through hard work. Ethical violations include data fabrication and falsification, questionable research practices, inaccurate references, duplicate publication, coercion of participants, and plagiarism. Special care must be taken to prevent harm to participants, either directly or indirectly. Researchers studying church-based phenomena also need to be aware of the heuristics and biases that can weaken …

Cultural Landscaping Of North Korea: Preparing For Mission Engagement Through Large-Scale Defector Insights On Economy And Society, Soo Min James Park

Great Commission Research Journal

North Korea is one of the world’s most closed societies, yet history shows that closed systems can shift rapidly. A sudden opening through political change, humanitarian crisis, or expanded cross-border engagement could expose millions to unprecedented cultural, social, and spiritual influences. While earlier mission research relied primarily on anecdotal testimonies or small-sample studies, this study draws on the most comprehensive resource available to date, in-depth surveys of 6,351 North Korean defectors released in 2025 by South Korea’s Ministry of Unification. Through thematic analysis, the study conducts cultural deductions across nine categories, including five of Hofstede’s cultural dimensions, cultural tightness/looseness, communication …

Book Review: Lead: 12 Gospel Principles For Leadership In The Church, 2nd Ed. By Paul David Tripp, Ryan Gause

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The State Of Youth Ministry In Asian American Churches Today, Eunice Hong, Jinna Si Lo Jin

Great Commission Research Journal

Despite growing concern about youth disengagement from Christianity and the Christian church (Pew Research Center, 2025), strategies specifically tailored to engage Asian American youth remain under-researched. Drawing from interviews with 16 senior pastors and youth leaders across North America, this paper presents key findings on current ministry practices, with implications of emerging approaches to foster deeper youth engagement in Asian American church contexts.

2026 Vol 18(1) Complete Issue, David R. Dunaetz

Great Commission Research Journal

No abstract provided.

The Keepers' Shadow, Julietta Thron

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

"The Keepers' Shadow" is a 350-page fantasy novel. The project's base concept/idea is one I've always had, however, the in-depth world-building that brings that story to life is what I researched and expanded on during my independent study and thesis. The agriculture, economics, architecture and government systems are heavily influenced by Renaissance Italy, Spain, and Ireland. Moreover, I heavily researched and implemented themes/issues such as colonization, tyrannical governments, religious restriction/conflict, erasure of history, slave labor, and the successful use of fear mongering. These concepts are not ones unlike what we see in our own political and social climate today, hence …

Numerical Study Of Nutrient Mixing In Trabecular Bone In Microgravity, Disuse And Normogravity, Sagar Gharti

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Mechanical loading is known to regulate bone remodeling by driving interstitial fluid flow which stimulates cells and drives nutrient transport within the trabecular network. In microgravity, the absence of mechanical stimulation or loading suppresses convective flow processes, causing diffusion-driven nutrient mixing and renewal, and accelerated bone loss. This thesis investigates how oscillation frequency and trabecular bone density jointly control nutrient mixing and wall shear stress within trabecular cavities.

A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) framework is developed in STAR-CCM+ using a soft-cap oscillation model that mimics cyclic compression. Three idealized trabecular morphologies are simulated across different frequencies to represent microgravity or …

Determinants Of Future Suas Adoption: An Empirical Analysis Of Organizational And Behavioral Factors Within The Commercial Aviation Maintenance Enterprise, Jordan Baus

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The adoption of small Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (sUAS) represents a significant technological shift within the commercial aviation maintenance enterprise, offering the potential to improve inspection accuracy, enhance operational efficiency, and reduce maintenance-related risk. Despite these anticipated benefits, adoption intentions remain vague, influenced by a complex interplay of organizational structures, behavioral factors, and workforce perceptions. Limited empirical research has examined how these dynamics shape the willingness to adopt sUAS within highly regulated and institutionalized aviation maintenance environments. This study investigates the determinants of future sUAS adoption through an extension of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology 2 (UTAUT …

Numerical Investigation Of Rotor-Gust Acoustic Interactions Using The Overflow Cfd Solver, Jordan Mills

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The rapid expansion of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) necessitates high-fidelity modeling to predict and mitigate the noise signatures of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft within dense urban landscapes. A critical unknown in community-noise certification is the aeroacoustic response of rotors to unsteady inflow conditions. This research addresses this gap by investigating the aerodynamic and acoustic behavior of a representative rotor subjected to time-harmonic inflow disturbances. By establishing a robust numerical framework, this thesis quantifies the relationship between periodic atmospheric gusts and their impact on rotor performance, unsteady blade loading, and subsequent sound radiation. The research consists of a …

Insect Inspired Behavioral Strategies For Improving Multi-Agent System Resilience In The Presence Of Contagious Faults, James E. Hand

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

As Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) become increasingly involved in every aspect of everyday life the need to maintain reliability and resilience within these systems grows. However, in equal measure bad actors wishing to maliciously control or alter these systems are growing in both scale and capability. Thus, there is a present need for control schemes and agent behaviors that provide security against these threats while also avoiding large degradation in system performance as a tradeoff. Current research has covered a wide breadth of avenues and strategies that provide measurable resilience to faulted agents. However, these strategies often require group consensus, specialized …

Scenarioxp: A Complete Scenario-Based Testing Framework For The Exploration And Exploitation Of Autonomous Vehicle Validation Scenarios, Quentin Goss

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Today is an age of exciting emerging technology where cutting-edge research in autonomous vehicles (AVs) reduces the active human participation in driving and extends awareness beyond human limitations of perception and reaction, improving driving safety and quality of the user experience as a result. The ever-increasing complexity of these autonomous systems poses many challenges towards the validation and verification (V\&V) of these complex systems under time and resource constraints, as the use of artificial intelligence and also the intricacy of the operating environment means that these systems are also black-box and non-deterministic. Scenario-based V\&V testing of such systems, which involves …

Effect Of Nozzle Pressure Ratio On Thrust And Flow Behavior In A Supersonic De Laval Nozzle, Esha Jain

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Supersonic nozzles operate across a range of flow regimes. While an ideally expanded condition yields optimal thrust, practical propulsion systems rarely operate at this design point due to variations in altitude and engine operating conditions. As a result, nozzles frequently operate in off-design conditions. In overexpanded regime, where the exit pressure is lower than the ambient pressure, shock-induced separation may occur within the divergent section of the nozzle, potentially degrading nozzle performance. Understanding the aerodynamic behavior of nozzles operating under off-design conditions is therefore important for improving propulsion system performance and stability. In particular, direct thrust measurements provide a key …

Intelligent Flight Control Systems Using Adaptive Deep Neural Networks And Concurrent Learning-Based Design Methods, Maddox C. Morrison

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis investigates deep neural network (DNN)-based adaptive control strategies for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) operating under aerodynamic uncertainty and complex actuator dynamics.

The first contribution presents a control strategy employing a concurrent learning (CL)-based DNN training algorithm, which combines online adaptive DNN weight adaptation with offline batch-like training updates using a recorded data stack. The analysis focuses on the closed-loop performance improvements resulting from the use of optimum CL data-selection algorithms, which ensure that the recorded data stack maintains sufficient data diversity to provide a statistically meaningful representation of the operating conditions using a reduced data set. Specifically, this …

Study Of Output And Behavior Of Llms Using Confidence Framing In Prompt Engineering, Micah Parrilla

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

While prompt engineering is pivotal for shaping Large Language Model (LLM) outputs, the impact of confidence framing on behavioral calibration remains underexplored. This study investigates the ways in which psychological framing, utilizing techniques such as capability praise, role amplification, and doubt induction, affects linguistic tone, objective accuracy, and internal calibration. A 1,080-trial experimental matrix evaluated six diverse models across factual, logical, coding, and cyber security domains. Analysis using the Kruskal-Wallis H-test revealed highly significant behavioral shifts across all measured dimensions, providing conclusive evidence that the applied frames exert a substantial influence on model performance.

The findings identify a distinct cognitive …

Guardrail Height Safety Requirements Given Recent Crash History And Evolution Of Vehicle Design, Delaney Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Roadside barriers such as guardrails are fundamental to roadway safety, providing a critical last line of defense in preventing vehicles from leaving the roadway and impacting potential hazards. As vehicles are ever changing, it is necessary for guardrail design to adapt in response. Many contemporary vehicles such as sport utility vehicles and light trucks have higher centers of gravity than previous years, while electric vehicles have increased weight. Having sufficient guardrail height is essential to ensure proper engagement with vehicles to prevent loss of containment during impact.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of current Florida …

Safety-Aware Trajectory Generation For Increased Autonomy In Advanced Air Mobility, Edison Alberto Martinez Samaniego

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) envisions highly automated aircraft that will enable short and medium range transportation. Unlike conventional aviation, these vehicles are expected to operate closer to populated areas and with increased levels of autonomy, making safe operation under abnormal or degraded conditions a critical requirement. Failures or performance degradation can reduce the maneuvering capability of an aircraft, causing trajectories planned under nominal conditions to become dynamically unfeasible.

This thesis presents a trajectory generation and replanning framework designed to maintain safe and feasible flight under reduced flight envelope conditions for a lift+cruise eVTOL aircraft. A unified control architecture based on …

Quantification Of The Depth-Of-Field In A Self-Aligned Focusing Schlieren System, Alexander Ephraim

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

This thesis investigates self-aligned focusing schlieren (SAFS) as a step toward future volumetric and quantitative measurements of three-dimensional compressible flows. Conventional schlieren imaging provides valuable visualization of density gradients, but it records only a line-of-sight projection and therefore does not directly resolve the spatial distribution of structures through the depth of the flowfield. SAFS addresses part of this limitation by introducing depth sensitivity, but its depth response has not been well characterized quantitatively. To help lay the foundation for future volumetric and quantitative SAFS methods, this work addresses two related problems. First, calibrated quantitative schlieren imaging is applied to an …

Adaptive Methods Of Resident Space Object Identification For Space Situational Awareness, Evan Pavetto-Stewart

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

One of the fundamental tenets of Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is the detection and sub sequent identification of Resident Space Objects (RSOs) within unresolved optical space imagery. This function is vital to the documentation and tracking of RSOs in their respective operational orbits, knowledge that is necessary for collision avoidance efforts and Space Domain Awareness (SDA) applications. In previous work, development was begun on a MATLAB program called RSOID to fulfill this purpose by accepting a collection (or ’collect’) of unresolved imagery and outputting a sequence of RSO locations (called a ’tracklet’) that can be used to determine the RSO’s …

Developing A Multi-Band Gnss Remote Sensing Station To Measure Precipitable Water Vapor For Flash Flood Nowcasting, Madison Gleydura

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Flash flood nowcasting in Central and Southern Appalachia is particularly challenging due to steep terrain, narrow valleys, highly localized rainfall patterns, and limited measurement coverage. Traditional remote sensing methods, such as Doppler radar and microwave radiometry, suffer from reduced resolution at long range and signal blockage by mountains. GNSS-meteorology offers an established alternative for measuring precipitable water vapor and is currently integrated into several numerical weather models. Recent research demonstrates that commercial-grade GNSS receivers can produce tropospheric products comparable to those from geodetic-grade equipment. The gaps in mountain coverage can be addressed by developing a low-cost, self-contained embedded system that …

Evaluating Uav Visual-Inertial Odometry Trajectory Error And Feature-Level Metrics Over Repetitive Floor Patterns, Anass El Mekkoussi

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Visual-Inertial Odometry (VIO) is a widely used state estimation technique for Uncrewed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) navigation in environments where Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals are unavailable. VIO systems that rely on visual feature tracking are susceptible to performance degradation when operating over surfaces containing repetitive visual textures, where visually similar features can produce ambiguous correspondences that introduce errors into the trajectory estimate. Despite the prevalence of repetitive textures in indoor UAV operating environments such as warehouses, manufacturing facilities, and infrastructure corridors, the specific impact of different repetitive pattern geometries on per-surface VIO accuracy has received limited systematic study, and …

Purdue Hortcalculator: A Financial Tool For Sunflower Cut Flower Growers, Maria Celeste Ortez, Ariana P. Torres

Purdue Extension Numbered Publications

This step-by-step publication by Purdue and Texas Tech researchers explains how growers of specialty crops (in this case, spinach) can use HortCalculator, a free, web-based tool, evaluate the financial side of production in high tunnels. It explains how the HortCalculator generates easy-to-read reports that help answer an eternal question: Is my investment worth the risk?

Moral Repair, Forgiveness, And Collective Minds, Songzhi Wu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Human lives are increasingly shaped by collective entities (e.g., corporations, governments, nonprofits) that make consequential decisions and evoke trust, blame, and praise. Yet how people perceive and relate to these non-individual agents remains underexplored. This dissertation investigates collective mind perception, moral repair, and forgiveness across three chapters using experimental, neuroimaging, and corpus-based methods.

Chapter 1 examines how collective entities repair their moral standing after wrongdoing. Across four studies, agentic cues such as responsibility-taking and corrective plans consistently outperform experiential expressions such as remorse in eliciting forgiveness toward organizational transgressors. Agentic apologies also reshape memory: participants recall the apology content more …

Behavioral-Centric Team Evaluation Via Consistent Rewards, Clement Kudakwashe Nyanhongo

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Across human domains ranging from sports to business and organizational settings, complex tasks are often solved by teams rather than individuals, leveraging benefits such as interaction, mutual support, complementary skills, cohesion, and task allocation. Evaluating team effectiveness, however, is inherently challenging due to the subjectivity of many existing techniques and the limitations of outcome-driven metrics that primarily focus on performance scores while overlooking the team processes that generated the scores. To address these challenges, this dissertation proposes a behavioral-centric, end-to-end framework for team evaluation grounded in reward functions that model sequential team behavior. Reward functions offer compact and interpretable representations …

Advancement And Characterization Of Next-Generation Solid-State Photon-Counting Image Sensors For Astrophysics Applications, Nicholas R. Shade

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Astronomers’ pursuit of detecting light from increasingly faint and distant objects in the expanse of space necessitates continuous improvement in signal-to-noise ratio of camera technology. Recent advancements in solid-state detector technologies have enabled the determination of photon-number, including single photon events, enabling observations at the fundamental limits of physics. These developments are instrumental not only for standard two-dimensional imaging but also for advanced spectroscopy, which increasingly drives future astrophysical applications. This thesis presents an evaluation of three next-generation silicon-based detectors capable of photon-counting with deep-sub-electron input-referred read noise: the electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD), the single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD), and the …

How Theists Can Answer The “Why Be Moral?” Question: An Indirect Reason-Generation Account, Justin Morton

Politics, Philosophy, and Law Faculty Publications and Presentations

In this paper, I give a new type of theistic answer to the “Why be moral?” question. After briefly clarifying the version of the question I'm concerned with, as well as extant theistic answers to the question, I argue for a new kind of answer. Roughly, while on standard answers, future (post death) benefits directly generate present reason to be moral, on my view, they only do so indirectly. On my view, we only have present reason to be moral because we will have reason to be moral in the afterlife. I propose a principle of reason inheritance that would …

High-Fidelity Swarthmore Septa Station Display, Aurélien Carretta , ‘26, Nicholas Fettig , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

For this project, we propose a design and a prototype assembly for a high-fidelity SEPTA station display that shows real-time transit information, including train delays and future arrival times. This system would allow local commuters and Swarthmore College affiliates alike to remain updated on train arrival times at the Swarthmore College station, which currently does not have such a display deployed. We accomplished this design goal by assembling 16 LED panels together, powering them through a power supply unit, and sending information to them from a Raspberry Pi 5 microcontroller which connected to the SEPTA API to pull real-time information. …