Digital Commons Network^™

A Noisy Debate: Should The Law Require The U.S. Census Bureau To Sacrifice Accuracy For Privacy?, Justin Giles

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Fair Admissions, Fair Decisions, And Fair Outcomes: An Analysis Of Algorithmic Bias In Education, Employment, Healthcare, And Housing, Mclean Waters

North Carolina Journal of Law & Technology

No abstract provided.

Intellectual Property Rights: Examining Outdated Laws, Monopolies, Manipulation, And The Need For Modernization, Maggie Moles

Economics Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis critically examines the shortcomings of current intellectual property (IP) laws in the face of rapid technological advancement and evolving digital landscapes. It argues that while IP laws were intended to incentivize innovation, protect creators' rights, and foster fair competition, they often fall short of these goals in practice. Through an analysis of various case studies and real-world examples, the thesis demonstrates how outdated IP laws can hinder progress, stifle creativity, and impede access to knowledge and resources, particularly in industries heavily reliant on patents and copyrights.

Furthermore, the thesis explores alternative models and proposals for reform, including open …

“Alternate” Vs. “Alternative”, Research Medical Library

Word for Word 2024

No abstract provided.

Climate And Channel Morphology Control Stream Drying Across Scales, Mac Beers

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Over half of the global stream network is estimated to dry for at least one day of the year. Streams that dry at some point in space and time are considered intermittent. Intermittent streams exhibit one of three hydrologic states: flowing, non-flowing pools, and dry. The distribution and extent of completely dry channel and non-flowing pools is important for water quality and ecology, however, we are currently unable to accurately predict when, where, and how streams dry at small scales. Few studies have investigated the stream characteristics that influence local scale controls of drying, and more work is needed to …

Improved Hydrologic Modeling And Geophysical Imaging Of Critical Zones: Incorporating Structural And Temporal Constraints, Hang Chen

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The Earth's critical zone (CZ) is a life-sustaining layer extending from the canopy of the tree to the bottom of the active groundwater circulation, providing valuable resources to terrestrial life, including nutrients, minerals, and fresh water. There are many challenges in studying various processes within and the function of the CZ. This dissertation addresses two common challenges in studying the CZ hydrology and watershed function, which are critical for a predictive understanding of the water dynamics in mountainous terrain and for an informed management of future water resources under rapid climate change. These challenges include (1) accurate quantification of hydrological …

Extending The Technology Acceptance Model: The Experiential Educator And Virtual Learning Technologies, Michael A. Dzbenski

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Virtual Reality (VR) and Virtual Learning Environments (VLE) are technologies that allow users to interact with virtual environments and can create and participate in digital educational experiences and simulations. Due to the VR and VLEs being relatively new technologies in education, acceptance, use, and finally adoption in a classroom environment lies with educators. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to explore and identify factors that positively influence educator attitudes toward adopting VR and VLE technology. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was extended to determine if the experiential learning educator role profile correlates to educator attitudes toward the acceptance …

Assessing Experiential Learning In A K-12 Afterschool Makerspace: Using The Beyond Rubrics Toolkit, Stacy L. Dzbenski

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the efficacy of the Beyond Rubrics Toolkit (BRT) as an embedded assessment instrument within makerspaces. Conducted as a pilot study at two Boys & Girls Club sites during afterschool programming, the research aimed to address the following research questions: (1) What skills are Youth Development Professionals teaching and assessing through makerspace programming? (2) How is learning currently assessed in the BGCS makerspaces? (3) What is the Youth Development Professional's perception of the Beyond Rubrics toolkit as a method to assess learning in the makerspace? (4) How would the Youth Development Professionals characterize the student learning being assessed …

Promoting Successful Industry Academic Partnerships For Curriculum Development: Integration Of Multiple Streams Framework And Stakeholder Theory, Jennifer D. Gudapati

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

There is a widening gap between traditional higher education and the needs of the industry workforce. Higher education has lately been criticized for having too few voices playing a role in most curricula development, with the voices being used consisting largely of career academics (Nature Editorial, 2023). Both industry and academia have found a disconnect between academic training and preparedness to enter the labor market (Jackson et al., 2016). Multiple Streams Framework (MSF) and Stakeholder Theory (ST) have been offered as potential frameworks for guiding elements of policy or strategy development and implementation in this context. However, in this dissertation, …

An Analysis Of Instructor Feedback, Olga Hawranick

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Carless & Boud (2018) capture the definition of feedback best as “a process through which learners make sense of information… use it to enhance their work or learning strategies (p.1).” This definition goes beyond feedback solely being the role of instructors and highlights the student component in making sense of the feedback which we reference in this study as “actionable feedback.” Are instructors providing meaningful feedback to their students to encourage revision? Past studies offer inconsistent results on most features of feedback and little is known about how some of these factors benefit students’ interactions with feedback.

This study aims …

Narratives On Homelessness: Investigating The Connections Between Organizational Language And Learning, Lantz Mcginnis-Brown

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The increasing privatization of government and the associated growth of the nonprofit sector means that the delivery of public services is increasingly taking place outside of the traditional domain of government. Variation between nonprofits now significantly shapes the range of public experiences with ‘government’. The type of feedback process that a nonprofit employs with a particular stakeholder group may shape that group’s experiences in an organization’s “action situation” - the “social spaces where individuals interact, exchange goods and services, solve problems, dominate one another, or fight” (Ostrom, 2011, p.11). Nonprofits with poor feedback processes, and accordingly poor conceptions of client …

Triggers Of Rapid Change In Glacier Dynamics, Jukes Liu

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The loss of land ice has become the greatest contributor to global mean sea level rise since 2006 (Oppenheimer et al., 2019). Glaciers have contributed ∼20% to global sea level rise over the last ∼2 decades (Oppenheimer et al., 2019; Hugonnet et al., 2021), while the ice sheets have contributed 33% (Oppenheimer et al., 2019). For the outlet glaciers and ice streams that drain the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, changes to their dynamics (flow speed, thickness, and length) dominate their present and future mass loss (King et al., 2020; Diener et al., 2021). One of the main limitations in …

Cyanide Abundance Of Highly Aqueously Altered Cm Chondrites: Insight For Asteroid Bennu, Rachel A. Reichow

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Asteroids, and the meteorites that come from them, retained the composition of the early Solar System and can give us insight to the processes that lead to the origin of life. The current NASA mission, OSIRIS-REx, has returned asteroid samples from the near-Earth asteroid Bennu. This asteroid is thought to be similar in composition to highly aqueously altered meteorites including CM1 and CM1/2 meteorites. Cyanide is thought to be an important molecule for prebiotic chemistry. Simple cyanide salts would have been the most accessible form of cyanide for reactions to occur; however, they may have recombined to form different metal-cyanide …

The Opioid Epidemic In Virginia: Comparing Case Studies Of County-Level Implementation Of Opioid Response Plans, Sydney Elyse Fox

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This project entails a mixed method review of the implementation of opioid policies in the 133 cities and counties of the Commonwealth of Virginia using van Meter and van Horn’s (1975) Model Theoretical Framework as a guide. This study focuses upon understanding how the characteristics of successful implementation intersect with the components of opioid policy, controlling for education, poverty, and health insurance coverage, and how that interaction may lead to reduced overdose deaths. According to van Meter and van Horn, political agreement is necessary to create a policy with an administrative mechanism to implement. This administrative mechanism, along with resources, …

From Metabolites To Flux: Understanding Cellular Metabolism, Cale Thornton

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Metabolomics is a well-established field with the first published mention of the metabolome in 1998 with numerous applications encompassing food science, microbiology, forensics, plant biology, and many others. In this thesis, I will describe how we utilized Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to aid in our understanding of topics ranging from method development, biomass conversion, to food science. In the first topic, we will probe the challenges and successes in understanding how to monitor the real-time metabolism of living cells by NMR. Cells larger can ca. 0.2 μM in diameter tend to settle out of suspension within minutes. Pluronic F-127 …

Agricultural Irrigation Water Quality In The Lower Boise River Basin: A Quantitative Assessment Of Canal Ecosystem Metabolism And Escherichia Coli Spatiotemporal Variability, Reed Chasmar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Irrigation canals are pervasive in agricultural landscapes. Despite their vast spatial extent and significant volumetric impact on the hydrologic cycle, the role of irrigation canals as intermittent channels within a river network, as well as their various functions (e.g., supporting aquatic ecosystems, transporting microbial communities, altering the carbon cycle), are not well understood. Microbial water quality and aquatic ecosystem metabolism represent two mechanisms to assess stream channels that can provide new insights into the complex dynamics and spatiotemporal patterns that exist in irrigation canals, which has relevance for both human health and for the field of stream ecology. The goal …

Exploring Creative Economy Policy Change In United States Cities: An Interconnected Theoretical Approach Framing An Emerging Field And Practice, Matilda Rose Bubb

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The creative economy is a relatively new policy arena focusing on the consumption and production of culture and cultural products, urban development and placemaking, intellectual property protection, entrepreneurship and innovation, tourism, sustainability, and social impact. Despite its documented growth in U.S. cities in the past twenty years, we know very little about how these policy innovations spread, or about who advocates for them. To contribute to public policy research and the creative economy sector, I ask the following overarching question: How are emerging creative economy policy innovations spread, adopted and implemented in cities identified as highly creative in the United …

On The Use Of Elastic Waves To Study Snow Microstructure And Mechanical Properties: A Look From The Lenses Of Laser Ultrasound And Time-Lapse Seismic, J. Christopher Mccaslin

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Accurate knowledge of the mechanical and microstructural properties of snow is essential to improve snow science and engineering applications. In this dissertation, I investigated the use of ultrasound to quantify certain snow properties with a non-contacting laser ultrasound system (LUS), then I applied the knowledge gained from a small controlled lab-based method to a larger field-based active-source seismic method.

I first evaluated two different LUS devices to determine which one produced more accurate ultrasound observations in analog snow (i.e. shaved ice). The PSV-400 Scanning Vibrometer was found to provide higher quality ultrasound observations compared to the VibroFlex Fiber Vibrometer. Using …

Practices, Curricula, And Perspectives: Creating Equitable And Inclusive Science Higher Education Classrooms, Victoria Lee Duncan

Dissertations

How can Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) faculty create environments where students do not feel marginalized? Changes are necessary to address the historically exclusive climate, systemic oppressive classroom policies, and practices dominated by White, patriarchal, Eurocentric perspectives in many STEM classrooms. Faculty incorporating approaches and practices documented in the literature across time and multiple STEM disciplines can create equitable and inclusive (EI) classrooms. However, the challenge for faculty is consolidating the information to identify fundamental elements necessary for establishing EI classrooms. By synthesizing and cataloging components found in the literature, following a qualitative meta-synthesis framework, the purpose of Project …

A Narrative Inquiry Into The Perceptions Of Counseling Faculty Regarding The Use Of Humor In Clinical Supervision, Ryan Cheuk Ming Cheung

Dissertations

Cheung, Ryan Cheuk Ming. A narrative inquiry into the perceptions of counseling faculty regarding the use of humor in clinical supervision. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2024. Students in counselor preparation programs are required to be clinically supervised by faculty when working with clients. Considering how to help supervisees and positively affect supervision outcomes, one method could be the use of humor by counseling supervisors. Research in the area of humor in counseling supervision is largely missing (Dantzler, 2017; Vereen et al., 2006). A key task in supervision is building a strong working alliance (Bordin, 1983) …

Survival After Ditching In Motorized Aircraft, 1989-2022, Douglas D. Boyd, Volker C. Schick, Catherina Hippler, Jochen Hinkelbein

Publications

INTRODUCTION: Although an unintended aircraft landing on water (referred to as ditching) is a rare event, the potential for occupant injury/fatality increases immediately following the event due to adverse conditions. However, to date, few studies have addressed the subject. Herein, ditching events and post-ditching survival were investigated.

METHODS: Ditchings (1982–2022) in the United States were identified from the National Transportation Safety Board database. Occupant injury severity, aircraft type, pilot experience, flight conditions, and number of occupants were extracted. Poisson distribution, the Chi-squared test (2-tailed), Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis one-way analysis of variance were employed.

RESULTS: A total of 96 …

Investigation Of Movement Coordination In Reaching Through The Modulation Of The Cerebello-Thalamo-Cerebral Tract By Cerebellar Tes In Awake Mice, William Johnston

PCOM Biomedical Studies Student Scholarship

Cerebellar ataxia is a neurological disorder that can be genetically or sporadically acquired. Ataxia is the loss of the ability to coordinate the range, rate, force, and direction of movements. Loss of gait stability, and reaching smoothness is progressively seen clinically. The non-invasive brain therapy called transcranial electric stimulation (tES) has been shown to have an impact on the behavior of humans with cerebellar dysfunction. However, the physiological and behavioral effects of tES are not well studied. Quantitative measurements were used in reaching behavior assays with head fixation using normal and ataxic mice before and after tES treatment. Frame by …

The Generational Identity Crisis: A Novel, Hankun Chen

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis is a novel set in 2032 China, where people are experiencing huge social declines and identity crises, and additionally, a technology to digitize consciousness is gaining popularity. The protagonist of the novel lose contact with his friend in the digital world, and he receives an anonymous indestructible jar one day with a label that keeps changing to direct him to different locations. In his search for his friends and the secret of the jar, he realizes that the clues are all related to things he is familiar with from the old days. During that adventure, which occurs to …

Person-First Versus Identity-First Language For Mental Illness: A Discourse Analysis, Amanda M. Cox

University Honors Program Senior Projects

A general consensus on the most appropriate language in reference to people with disabilities has yet to be established. Advocates of person-first language, such as a person with autism, argue that such language emphasizes the whole person, as opposed to focusing on their disability or impairment (Granello & Gibbs, 2014). However, those in favor of identity-first language, such as an autistic person, believe that this language usage allows individuals to claim their diagnosis, as there is nothing inherently wrong with the adjectival form (Dunn & Andrews, 2015). There is a lack of research of written works regarding whether person-first or …

Characterization And Analysis Of Supersonic Flow Through De Laval Nozzles At Varied Design Conditions, Sarah Baird

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

A combined numerical and experimental investigation of supersonic planar nozzles under different design conditions has been conducted. Supersonic planar nozzles are common geometries observed in supersonic wind tunnels and aircraft or rocket engines. For the important role they play in wind tunnel testing and aircraft propulsion, it is important to conduct a thorough numerical and experimental study to characterize their performance at different operating conditions. In this study, a de Laval nozzle was scanned to extract its contours and subsequently modeled to compare analytical and numerical performance expectations under design and off-design conditions. The nozzle was then installed in a …

Comparative Predictive Analysis Of Stock Performance In The Tech Sector, Asaad Sendi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study compares the performance of deep learning models, including Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM), Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), and Transformer, in predicting stock prices across five companies (AAPL, CSCO, META, MSFT, and TSLA) from July 2019 to July 2023. Key findings reveal that GRU models generally exhibit the lowest Mean Absolute Error (MAE), indicating higher precision, particularly notable for CSCO with a remarkably low MAE. While LSTM models often show slightly higher MAE values, they outperform Transformer models in capturing broader trends and variance in stock prices, as evidenced by higher R-squared (R2) values. Transformer models generally exhibit higher MAE …

The Use Of Whole Blood In Increasing The Survivability Of Combat Wounded Troops From 1940 To 1953, Devin Sweet

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Humans have been experimenting with new ways to kill each other for millennia, and for just as long, doctors have been experimenting with methods to improve survivability of those wounded. The 20^th century was one of the bloodiest period in human history; war claimed over one hundred million lives. With the scourge of disease more easily managed, the medical communities came to address the one wound that historically cost most lives – bleeding to death. Shock and exsanguination can kill a person within thirty seconds to two minutes, and finding ways to mitigate that outcome has been the subject …

Exploring Auditory Thalamocortical Pathways In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Caitlin Dyer

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Thalamocortical tracts related to language have rarely been examined in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We examined the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN), Heschl’s gyrus (HG), and planum temporale (PT) volumes, and the connections from MGN to HG and MGN to PT, using MRIs from 39 children with ASD (20 with receptive language impairment, 19 without) and 20 typically developing controls, aged 5-17 years. In children with ASD without language impairment, MGN volume was positively correlated with receptive language scores. Additionally, the thalamus was smaller in children with ASD with language impairment, correlating negatively with receptive language scores in this group. Left …

Bedeviled Beauty: My Journey Through White American Theater Institutions, J'Aila C. Price

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Game console: Oculus Quest

World: American Theater Institutions

Player: Minority

Place: United States

Level: “Ain’t no way.”

This thesis explores the contrast between the Westernized philosophies ingrained in my education and my identity as a Black female artist. It sheds light on the difficulties of pursuing higher education in the arts and the gaps that arise from limited exposure to culturally diverse Black resources, revealing the systemic issues in Western performance education. The paper also discusses the insights gained from my journey as a Black female artist, focusing on my thesis performance of Blood at the Root, which is …

Investigation On The Effects Of Biofouling On The Boundary Layer, Adam N. Bacon

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study is an investigation of the effect of biofouling on the boundary layer of a flat plate and a NACA 4-digit series foil. Three identical hydrofoils made of resin were placed in the Gulf of Mexico at Grand Isle, Louisiana, and observed and analyzed by marine biologists at the University of New Orleans for their species composition. The resulting biofouling that grew was primarily made up of barnacles and bryozoans. The foils were submerged in an open channel flume at zero incidence and subjected to a series of experiments whose arc-length Reynolds numbers ranged from approximately 13000 to 32000. …