Digital Commons Network^™

Learning English Through American Culture, Chun Yu (Jimmy) Chen

Language Study as a Gateway to the Humanities

No abstract provided.

Examining Nurse Burnout During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Causes And Mitigation Strategies, Melanie Sena

Honors Projects

Nurse burnout is a multidimensional occupational syndrome that predates the COVID-19 pandemic, yet the pandemic served as a catalyst that intensified its scope and severity in ways that the healthcare system was profoundly ill-equipped to manage. Characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, burnout among nurses accelerated dramatically between 2020 and 2022 as clinical workloads surged, personal protective equipment remained scarce, and moral distress became a near-universal experience across care settings. This review examines the primary systemic and individual contributors to nurse burnout during COVID-19, explores the consequences of burnout for both nurses and patients, …

Passenger Autonomy In Airport Systems: Integrating Accessibility, Spatial Design, And Technology To Improve Operational Efficiency, John Michael Schmitz

Honors Projects

Airports are among the most complex operational environments in modern transportation, requiring the coordination of passenger movement, security processes, and infrastructure under significant time constraints. Although there have been many advancements in aviation, most passengers continue to experience high levels of stress and confusion while trying to navigate airport terminals. This paper argues that operational efficiency in airport systems is achieved by increasing  passenger autonomy through the utilization of accessible design, spatial legibility, and new emerging technologies. This paper takes note of some foundational theories that drove urban design and cognitive psychology, including Lynch’s concept of imageability, Passini’s theory of …

The Influence Of The Japanese Language On Gender Perceptions, Jasmine Bishara

Honors Projects

This study aimed to understand the how the Japanese language impacted people’s gender perceptions of women. Previous research showed that there are words and phrases in the Japanese language that are devaluing towards women, and that there are different societal expectations of women in their speech style. There are also different expectations of women’s behavior, which has impacted them in the workplace. Due to a lack of participants, no conclusions can be drawn about how language and social expectations impact how women are perceived in society. However, based on previous research it can be assumed that these issues still remain …

Rabbit Writing, April 27, 2026, Sdsu Writing Center

Rabbit Writing : The Official Newsletter of the SDSU Writing Center

Vol 1. No. 7

Fenner Award Winner
Schedule
An Interview by Tesha Barua

“I Am Shining Like Never Before”: A Qualitative Study Of The Preparation For Leadership And Vocational Call Among Lay Hispanic Women Educators In U.S. Catholic Schools, Bernadette Mary Boyle

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Catholic education was established and staffed by religious individuals called by the principle of mission and vocation: to serve and support immigrant, socio-economically disadvantaged Catholic communities. But by 2016 less than 3% of full-time professional Catholic school staff were avowed religious, and these historically Eurocentric schools across the United States have declining enrollment (Donohue & Guernsey, 2023). This has challenged Catholic leaders to consider whether Catholic schools can still fulfill the founding mission of Catholic education. In 2022, Ospino and Wyttenbach reported on “the various ways in which Hispanics educators are transforming the American Catholic school experience” (p. 5) and …

The Brethren In China: Cross-Cultural Relationships Within An Imperial Structure, Sebastian S. Kochall

History and Political Science Student Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Understanding And Evaluating The Impact Of Pathway Programs, Benjamin Boer

Reports, Analyses, and other Publications

A brief by Educatoin Systems Center (EdSystems) on the outcomes and lessons learned from the data collection processes and analysis for the Accelerated Model Pathways for Information Technology (AMP-IT) initiative, including an overview of the scaling of IT college and career pathways in the participating school districts, an understanding of the “milestones” that students meet prior to graduation, and how these milestones can be used to evaluate the program and assess longer-term outcomes. Additionally, the summary explores the challenges faced in collecting data and how EdSystems is adapting its data collection and analysis approach to improve understanding and evaluation of …

Implications Of Ai In Higher Education And Faculty Development, Nicole Gonzales Howell, Freddie Seba, Virginia Ramos

Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Scholarship

The project “Implications of Generative Artificial Intelligence” explores how AI tools are transforming higher education, with a focus on pedagogy, ethics, and policy. It aims to equip faculty with practical resources and frameworks for responsible integration of AI in teaching, including curated AAC&U materials, sample assignments, and privacy/disclosure guidelines. The project also addresses institutional considerations such as ethical use of detection software and the development of departmental best practices. Ultimately, it seeks to foster informed, critical, and creative engagement with generative AI across disciplines.

Radio As War: An Exploration Of Kalamazoo Black Radio In The Vietnam War Era, Amelia Koch

Honors Theses

Kalamazoo, Michigan’s black history runs deep. This thesis aims to trace that black history, and situate it within the realm of black radio as a cultural phenomenon. Rising to its provenance in the mid-1960s, black radio has been, and continues to be, a rallying point for African American communities across the U.S., particularly in Chicago and Detroit. Kalamazoo, a halfway point between these two major cities, has a lack of such stations. Exploring the lack of black radio in Kalamazoo during the 1950s through 70s, this work presents a connection between the existence of black programming and the experience of …

System Architecture: Self-Aware Room, David B. Smith

Publications and Research

This report presents the system architecture for the Self-Aware Room, an evolvable research platform designed to transform heterogeneous environmental signals into structured semantic representations for decision-making, simulation, and immersive media output. The architecture is organized as a layered mediation pipeline, beginning with raw data acquisition from diverse sensing modalities and proceeding through local processing, feature abstraction, cross-modal fusion, semantic interpretation, and output to digital twin and immersive audiovisual systems. Rather than defining the system through a fixed set of devices, the report emphasizes the transformation pathways by which sensor data becomes computationally tractable, interpretable, and actionable. The architecture also allows …

Building Community And Connection One Mahjong Tile At A Time, Sherise Kimura, Genevieve Leung, Nicholas Tay, Wei Yang Menkus

Journal of Interdisciplinary Perspectives and Scholarship

By creating spaces for shared play and conversation, we aim to reduce social isolation and encourage meaningful engagement. These interactions not only enhance well-being and foster a sense of belonging, but also promote cultural awareness, support learning, and help build a more inclusive and connected campus community.

A Daily Assessment Of Food And Alcohol Disturbance And Alcohol Intoxication As Predictors Of Sexual Violence Victimization, Amanda Elizabeth Baildon

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Alcohol-involved sexual violence (SV) is a common and detrimental experience for young adult women. To supplement SV prevention strategies aimed at perpetrators, who are fully responsible for the occurrence of SV, risk reduction programs that target women’s drinking have been implemented with limited efficacy. To improve these programs, research must examine novel predictors like food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) that contribute to SV risk. FAD refers to compensatory behaviors (e.g., restricted eating, excessive exercise) to offset alcohol’s calories or enhance intoxication. Approximately 45% of young adult women engage in FAD, a practice that likely heightens SV risk by facilitating rapid …

An Annotated Bibliography Of Music For Flute Alone And Flute And Electronics By Lgbtq Composers, Bridget Hill

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Throughout my formal music education and general music upbringing, I have noted the erasure of the LGBTQ identities of artists, composers, musicians, and historical figures from formal music curricula, and from the concert hall. In response to this erasure, I am increasing visibility through the act of record-keeping by taking inventory of the works written for flute by LGBTQ composers. In searching for flute music by LGBTQ composers, it became clear that works by these composers were not organized into a centralized collection, or body of work.

This document will start the process of record-keeping by collecting and annotating works …

Artificial Intelligence In Dental And Orthopedic Skeletal Imaging: A Scoping Review Of Methodological Convergence And Translational Gaps, Man Hung, Isabella Strickler, Annabella Jensen, Bayler Gunnell, Alicia Parry, Samuel Dyal, Martin S. Lipsky

Institute on Aging Publications

This scoping review aimed to answer the question: to what extent do artificial intelligence applications in dental and orthopedic skeletal imaging demonstrate true cross-disciplinary methodological convergence versus parallel development with shared translational barriers? This scoping review synthesizes AI applications across both fields to characterize methodological overlap, developmental asymmetries, and translational gaps, rather than assuming convergence. Following the PRISMA-ScR reporting standards, we searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and EMBASE for peer-reviewed, English-language human studies published between January 2015 and May 2025. Eligible studies applied AI, machine learning, or deep learning to diagnostic, segmentation, or preoperative planning tasks in …

Beyond Attachment: Endolysosomal Determinants Of New World Arenavirus Entry And Fusion, Cassandra E. Thompson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Arenaviruses are enveloped, negative-sense RNA viruses maintained in rodent reservoirs and transmitted to humans through exposure to aerosolized rodent excreta, where they can cause severe and sometimes fatal disease. The geographic distribution of arenaviruses reflects the range of their rodent reservoirs, resulting in the classification into Old World and New World groups, with New World arenaviruses further subdivided into clades A–D. Viral entry is the first step of infection and a major determinant of host range, tissue tropism, and zoonotic potential. Further, viral entry is a tightly regulated, multistep process that couple’s receptor engagement with intracellular trafficking and pH-dependent membrane …

Molecular Circuits In Dendritic Cell Development, Feiya Ou

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In 2008, the Kenneth Murphy Laboratory published the seminal discovery that BATF3 is an essential transcription factor (TF) for the development of classical dendritic cell type 1 (cDC1) (Hildner et al., 2008). Since then, two major themes of the lab have been to elucidate the genetic networks that control dendritic cell (DC) development and to define the unique functions of individual DC subsets. My dissertation aligns primarily with the former theme while also reflecting my own scientific interests. Specifically, this dissertation investigates how two developmental enhancers are controlled by a series of TFs in cell type- and stage-specific manners to …

A Trauma Psychology Approach To Space Psychology And Long-Duration Space Travel In Consideration Of Isolation, Resource Scarcity, And Group Dynamics., Alden Nicoll

Honors Projects

As modern societies research and prepare for long-duration deep space travel, psychological research becomes increasingly prevalent into understanding the effects of trauma on the psyche. This present study looks at the current research outcomes of “Team Dynamics”, “Social Isolation”, and “Resource Scarcity” within the literature of Space Psychology. Current research on social isolation is taken from past missions in outer space and analog missions in Antarctica, at sea, and prison research. While research is vast on social isolation, it doesn’t consider how trauma could be intensified with both time and duration in space. Next, when considering team dynamics and how …

"Principle Before Party": Samuel "Golden Rule" Jones And The 1899 Ohio Gubernatorial Election, Connor Hand

Honors Projects

As partisan loyalty declined and resentment grew against American social, political, and economic conditions at the end of the nineteenth century, political reformers saw an opportunity to spread their ideals for a better society. Most reformers opted against running for office, and those who did often used standard or newly formed political parties. Mayor of Toledo and progressive businessman Samuel Jones differed from the standard reformer by seeking office while embracing a non-partisan ideology. By analyzing Jones’ writings, the partisan response to his movement, and contextualizing him amongst reformers, this essay explores how Jones stood out from the standard political …

The American Samoan Oxymoron: The Noncitizen National And The Meaning Of Citizenship, Craig R. Shagin, Delaram Rezaeikhonakdar

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

This article examines the legal distinction between U.S. citizens and noncitizen nationals, with a particular focus on American Samoa. While residents of other U.S. territories—such as Guam, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands—are granted U.S. citizenship by legislation, American Samoa remains the only unincorporated U.S. territory whose inhabitants are recognized as nationals but not citizens. This distinction results in significant political disabilities for American Samoans even when residing in a state, as they may not vote, hold public office, or serve on juries. The article argues that there is no substantive distinction between “citizen” and “noncitizen national” beyond the …

Secondary Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions, Knowledge, And Collaborative Practices In Professional Learning Communities, Josey S. Rodriguez

Education Theses and Dissertations

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) investigates teacher perceptions, knowledge of and collaborative practices of professional learning communities (PLCs) at a Southwest Texas high school. The study used a mixed-methods design utilizing a survey, open-ended questionnaire, PLC observations, and an interview. Participants included 8 mathematics teachers and one campus administrator at a campus with over 800 students in grades nine through twelve. Teacher perceptions of PLCs were analyzed using descriptive statistics for quantitative data, while observations, the open-ended questionnaire, and the interview were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Findings revealed that despite PLC+ training, limited …

Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (Dilt) Model: Bridging Nomothetic And Idiographic Psychometrics, Muchen Xi

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to develop an analytical framework that bridges the long-standing divide between nomothetic and idiographic approaches to defining the structure of personality and other individual differences. The nomothetic tradition seeks to explain and predict behavior through stable, universal dimensions of personality, while the idiographic approach emphasizes the fine-grained, dynamic processes unique to individuals. Although theoretical advances have begun to reconcile these perspectives, analytical methods capable of integrating them remain underdeveloped. To address this gap, I introduce the Dynamic Individualized Latent Trait (DILT) model, a framework that decomposes ordinal item responses from intensive longitudinal data into three components: 1) …

Exploring The Relations Between Employer Beliefs And Workplace Practices: Organizational Factors And Autism Employment Outcomes, Melinda Ann Henson

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Autistic individuals experience persistent employment disparities despite interventions targeting individual skills and supports, suggesting that workplace factors also shape employment outcomes. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) posits that workplace environments supporting employee autonomy, competence, and relatedness promote employment outcomes. This study examined SDT-aligned practices and tested associations between employer beliefs about autism as a form of neurodiversity, hiring receptivity, and employment outcomes for Autistic professionals. A preliminary aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure, the Workplace Inclusivity and Autonomy Survey (WIAS), designed to assess SDT practices via employer report. Participants included 43 professionals representing a range of …

Advancing High-Energy Astrophysics Through X-Ray Spectropolarimetry And Balloon-Borne Instrumentation, Sohee Chun

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The strong gravitational field around black holes provides a unique laboratory for investigating the behavior of matter and radiation under extreme conditions. As matter accretes, the interplay between the accretion disk, hot corona, and surrounding stellar environment produces complex spectral and polarimetric X-ray signatures. Thus, X-ray spectropolarimetry has become a powerful tool for constraining the accretion geometry. Building on these advances, this dissertation integrates theoretical modeling, observational data analysis, and instrumentation development to address open questions in high-energy astrophysics. On the theoretical side, relativistic ray-tracing simulations test the truncated disk-hot inner flow accretion geometry against observations of Cygnus X-1, identifying …

Autoantibody Reactivity In Hidradenitis Suppurativa: Characterizing Keratinocyte And Apocrine Gland Targets Across Disease Progression And Anti-Tnf-Α Treatment, Talla Hamouche

Student Theses and Dissertations

Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic, relapsing inflammatory skin disease associated with impaired quality of life, representing one of the highest burdens among dermatological conditions. This debilitating disorder primarily affects apocrine-gland-bearing and flexural skin areas, most commonly the axillae, breast, buttocks, and groin. As lesions recur and new sites emerge, surgical excision does not guarantee prevention of disease reestablishment. Despite its substantial burden, HS remains among the least understood and most treatment-resistant inflammatory diseases. The mechanisms underlying this chronicity and the frequent failure of conventional anti-inflammatory therapies remain unresolved. An underappreciated autoimmune dimension may contribute to HS pathogenesis: the clonal …

We Are Not What We Think: Solipsism & The Concept Of Mind, Michael Marcoux

Student Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I argue that the persuasiveness of solipsism—understood as skepticism of the existence of anything or anyone outside of one’s own private mental life—rests not on its intrinsic argumentative force, but on the degree of commitment to a certain philosophical dogma. I use the problem of solipsism to tease out this dogma, which I dub the Primacy of Privacy. It is characterized by the conviction that in dealing with what there is and what we know, the mental, be it construed in terms of perceptions or thoughts, is the only certain datum from which most if not all …

Quality Improvement Project: Integrating Depression Screening Into Adult Wellness Visits In A Primary Care Clinic, Nina Denchukwu

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Depression is a prevalent and debilitating mental health condition that remains significantly underdiagnosed in primary care, despite national recommendations for universal adult screening. At the project site, less than 40% of adults completing annual wellness visits had documented depression screening. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to evaluate whether integrating the evidence-based Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-2 and PHQ-9 into the electronic health record (EHR) would improve completion of depression screening, documentation, and referrals to treatment. The project was guided by Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations Theory and the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) framework. A quantitative pre–post intervention design linked with the …

Promoting Trauma-Informed Practices Through Staff Education, Ediomi Enebong Oduwole

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Front office staff in outpatient psychiatric settings are often the first point of contact for patients experiencing anxiety and emotional distress. However, existing evidence indicates that non-clinical, front office staff often lack formal training in trauma-informed care (TIC). This gap may limit early recognition and response to patient distress. This quality improvement project addressed this gap by evaluating the impact of a trauma-informed educational intervention of staff confidence and documentation of patient distress. The project was guided by Pender’s Health Promotion Model and Lewin’s Change Theory. It used a pre-and post-intervention quantitative design with sample of five front office staff …

Expanding The Pantheon Of “Place-Myth”: Media-Induced Travel In College Students Who Study Abroad, Isabella M. Shevetz

Honors College Theses

Media-induced tourism refers to any travel that is in some part motivated by the consumption of mass media related to that location. Media-induced tourism and mass-tourism have led to nation branding and destination marketing across the globe, two industry phenomena that have worked to skyrocket tourism in places where it was not previously a large driver of the local economy. The expansion of mass media availability and the birth of social media mean the media roles of producer and audience member have blurred. Ordinary people now have the influential power of large media corporations. In destination marketing, the user-generated content …

Interval Appendectomy Practices For Complicated Appendicitis In Children: A Systematic Review From The Apsa Outcomes And Evidence-Based Practice Committee., Jason P. Sulkowski, Carlos T. Huerta, Jun Tashiro, Diana L. Diesen, Brian C. Gulack, Emily Christison-Lagay, Katie W. Russell, Hanna Alemayehu, Stephanie F. Polites, Matthew T. Hey, Henry L. Chang, Alana L. Beres, Romeo C. Ignacio, Donald J. Lucas, Sandra K. Kabagambe, Robert Baird, Afif N. Kulaylat, Sara A. Mansfield, Rebecca M. Rentea, Christopher Pennell, Barrie S. Rich, Yasmine Yousef, Robert Ricca, Lorraine Kelley-Quon, Tamar L. Levene, American Pediatric Surgical Association Outcomes And Evidence-Based Practice Committee

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

BACKGROUND: This review summarizes considerations within the existing recent literature that guide the practice of interval appendectomy (IA) after initial non-operative management (NOM) of complicated appendicitis (CA) in children.

METHODS: A systematic review of English language articles published from 2000 to 2025 was conducted in Medline, Embase, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials to address four elements which could impact the decision for IA after NOM of CA: (1) the incidence of recurrent appendicitis; (2) the time period in which recurrence occurs; (3) the patient or disease-related risk factors which increase recurrence; and (4) the incidence of appendiceal neoplasms …