Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding The Intergenerational Transmission Of Risk And Resilience In Black Birthing Parent-Infant Dyads: Physiological Coregulation & Cultural-Contextual Factors, Annabelle Armah

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Symptoms of postpartum depression (PPD) are common, particularly for Black birthing parents who may face increased psychosocial risk during the perinatal period. Previous work has demonstrated that PPD can have significant ramifications not only for maternal wellbeing but for infants’ regulatory development. PPD may influence the concordance or mutual influence of biological states between parents and children (i.e., physiological synchrony). Physiological synchrony is thought to be implicated in the development of self-regulation and may be a mechanism through which PPD undermines infants’ emerging regulatory capacities. In Black families, cultural-contextual factors, like racism or cultural practices, may additionally shape birthing parent …

Academic Satisfaction Of Graduate Students In Mental Health Professions: Mediating Roles Of Burnout And Engagement, Yu Ying Li

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Academic satisfaction for students is as critical to their retention and well-being as job satisfaction for working adults; however, it has received limited empirical attention particularly among graduate students in mental health-related programs. One of the barriers to mental health trainees’ satisfaction with their academic training is burnout. The current study evaluated the applicability of Study Demands-Resources (SD-R) framework (Lesener et al., 2020) to trainees. Specifically, this study examined the relations between study demands (i.e., perceived stress), study resources (i.e., supervisory alliance and social support), student burnout, student engagement, and academic satisfaction. It also tested if student burnout and engagement …

Development And Analysis Of An Embedded Hardware Platform For Low-Power Rram–Based In-Memory Computing And Neural Network Applications, Jeelka Solanki

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Conventional computing architectures are based on repeated data transfer between memory and the compute unit; however, artificial neural network applications rely on data-intensive vector-matrix multiplication as a mathematical operation, where data movement from memory to compute processor results in increased power consumption and reduced performance. Possible solutions to this problem include in-memory computing, which addresses the data transfer bottleneck by computing directly within the memory. To demonstrate the potential of this approach, our research group fabricated hafnium oxide-based resistive random-access memory (RRAM) arrays using a 65nm CMOS technology for in-memory compute operations. This work demonstrates the design and development of …

Rethinking Theories Of Political Discourse: The Limitations Of The Deliberative-Agonistic Split, Connor Moran

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

What are “theories of political discourse,” why do they matter to political theory, and where do current ones fall short? This dissertation mines the existing resources availed by contemporary democratic theory in order to respond to the discursive challenge of “pernicious polarization,” particularly in the United States. The most comprehensive and influential theories of political discourse today have been furnished by the almost 40-year debate between deliberative democracy and agonism, both of which offer normative models centered on ameliorating the quality of political discourse.

The key finding of the dissertation is that the foundational works of the deliberative-agonistic split lack …

Classification, Service Provision, And Early Academic Skills Of Early Elementary School Students Who Received Services As A Preschool Student With A Disability, Meghan Conboy

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Youth with disabilities benefit from coordinated supports and services, particularly during early childhood when they are developing foundational abilities that will influence their developmental trajectory (Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center, 2015; Sandall et al., 2005). Preschool-aged students who enter kindergarten with adequately developed pre-academic skills are more likely demonstrate high performance levels in academic domains throughout compulsory education compared to peers with low pre-academic skills (Christensen et al., 2020; Fitzpatrick, 2017; Hair et al., 2006; Tavassolie et al., 2022). However, despite the knowledge that both preschool programs and high-quality and effective early intervention benefit children across their lifetime, limited research …

Historical Changes In The Seasonality And Variability Of Daily Surface Air Temperature In Era5 And Cmip6 Models, Zirui Wan

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis investigates historical changes in the seasonality and daily variability of near-surface air temperature (Tas) during 1950–2024 using ERA5 reanalysis and simulations from 21 CMIP6 models. ERA5 and CMIP6 show broadly similar climatological structures of the Tas seasonal cycle and variability, with considerable inter-model discrepancies. Both ERA5 and CMIP6 show decreasing Tas variability over northern mid-high latitudes, while Tas variability increases in the low latitudes in ERA5 but changes little in CMIP6 multi-model mean (MMM) due to different change patterns among the models. To investigate the mechanisms of historical Tas variability changes, I analyzed the relationships between Tas variability …

School Leaders’ And Teachers’ Sensemaking Of Performance-Based Learning And Assessment Reform Initiatives, Kate Jarrard

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Educational leaders occupy a difficult position in the landscape of reform, as they are at times charged with initiatives that conflict with existing guidance and core instructional work. Effective change requires more than program redesign; it demands shifts in people’s behavior. For school leaders, the challenge is not simply understanding a new initiative, but making personal sense of it and then communicating it coherently to staff in ways that generate genuine commitment, all while navigating the gap between standard and innovative practice, bridging from policy intent to classroom-level implementation.

In the case of school performance, standardized testing has long anchored …

Understanding Support And Success: A Cross-Group Analysis Of Student Support Services And Nontraditional Graduate Student Experience, Erica Shudt

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study explored how nontraditional graduate students perceive their experiences with student support services within a Research 1, public university. The purpose of this study was to understand how these services impact their overall academic experience. Findings from semi-structured interviews with nontraditional graduate students and student support staff using a qualitative approach revealed four themes. These themes included (1) a shared emphasis on connection and belonging, (2) flexibility as a foundation for support and success, (3) individualized student-centered support, and (4) the acknowledgement of nontraditional student support identity. Both groups identify that meaningful support is within relationships with faculty and …

Bioinformatic Identification And Analysis Of Shared Splicing Errors In Myotonic Dystrophy Type (Dm1) And Fuchs' Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (Fecd), Carter I. Wilkins

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is an autosomal dominant form of muscular dystrophy, and it is the most common form of adult-onset muscular dystrophy. The disease is the result of CTG trinucleotide repeats (TNR) in the 3’UTR of the dystrophia myotonica protein kinase (DMPK) gene. This produces toxic RNA hairpin structures by CUG repeat expansions that sequester proteins–most relevantly muscleblind-like 1 (MBNL)–that regulate alternative RNA splicing. The missplicing of a wide variety of genes results in the symptoms such as myotonia (rigidity of the muscles), atrophy, and cardiac failure.

Fuchs’ Endothelial Corneal Dystrophy (FECD) is characterized by progressive loss and …

Corannulene: Optimized Synthesis And Four-Fold Reduction, Guy Rozenman

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Corannulene is a bowl-shaped π-conjugated fragment of the ball-shaped C₆₀-fullerene that undergoes stepwise multielectron reduction and can accept four electrons to form the aromatic tetraanion, C₂₀H₁₀⁴⁻. Prior literature has established this charge state in donor-solvated alkali-metal assemblies: early solution studies identified the formation of the tetraanion under lithium reduction in THF, and later X-ray diffraction crystallography demonstrated a triple-decker lithium sandwich in which two corannulene tetraanion decks encapsulate five Li⁺ ions. The central objective of this thesis is to determine whether the corannulene tetraanion can instead be isolated as a bulk solvent-free alkali-metal salt containing only corannulene and …

Reviving Southern Divides: Multilevel Explorations Of Gentrification’S Role In School Resegregation In Tallahassee, Florida From 1999 – 2015, Ola U. Kalu

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines whether neighborhood gentrification in Tallahassee reshaped Title I elementary schools by improving academic outcomes, changing who enrolled, or both, from 1999 to 2015. Using Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Model as a conceptual scaffold, the study situates schools within their neighborhood and district contexts across three nested analytical levels. A two-wave panel design using 2010 and 2015 school-year observations is linked to a 2000 Census baseline to connect school data with spatially weighted neighborhood change indicators. Mixed-effects multilevel models and fixed-effects robustness checks estimate the associations between neighborhood change indicators and two continuous dependent variables: standardized ELA achievement and …

The Effect Of Education On Green Growth And Carbon Emissions, 1990–2022, Soojeong Ahn

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The question of whether education promotes economic growth has long been a central topic in development research, and education has been linked to economic outcomes through macro-level pathways such as human capital accumulation, productivity growth, and technological diffusion. More recently, this discussion has expanded beyond economic growth to consider whether education contributes to environmentally sustainable development, particularly green growth. Green growth emphasizes the possibility of sustaining economic expansion while reducing environmental pressure (OECD, 2011; UNEP, 2011), and this study therefore examines how education is related to green growth and carbon emissions at the macro level.

At the macro level, existing …

Systematic Literature Review: Elevating Black Voices Through Universal Social-Emotional Learning Interventions, Natasha J. Hogg

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This systematic literature review examined the outcomes of culturally responsive universal Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) interventions for Black students in K-12 school settings addressing mental health, racial trauma, and racial disparities. Following the PRISMA protocol, a comprehensive search was conducted across PsycINFO, EBSCO, and five academic journals by April 2025. Results yielded 11 peer-reviewed articles with 2,246 Black participants published between 1994 and 2024. Exclusion criteria included sole focus of Tier 2 or 3 interventions, lacking Black student populations, or lacking outcomes aggregated by race. Seven SEL interventions were identified with risk of bias assessed by a secondary reviewer. Thematic analysis …

Bonny And Read: Navigating The Waters Between Truth And Tale, Fiona J. Faccilonga

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis examines piracy, cross-dressing, gender fluidity, and ambiguous identity in the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read as represented in A General History of the Pyrates by Captain Charles Johnson. This thesis argues that Johnson’s narrative reshapes their piracy through feminine frameworks to align them with patriarchal expectations of womanhood and fixed identity. Specifically, he uses the breast and the belly as sites of gendered truth, attempting to reduce their masculine presentation as mere performance rather than intrinsic identity.

However, despite Johnson’s attempt at narrative authority, Bonny and Read ultimately resist such containment. Through close readings of both …

Retrieval And Characterization Of Aerosol Optical And Microphysical Properties Following Pyrocumulonimbus Events From Sageiii/Iss, Vishal G. Bagadia

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Stratospheric aerosols play an important role in maintaining global radiative balance with impacts to stratospheric equilibria through physical and chemical forcings.  Stratospheric aerosol size distributions, in particular aerosol size, are vitally important in determining the physical and chemical impacts of aerosols in the stratosphere. The representation of aerosol size and size distributions in most climate models contain large uncertainties due to relatively sparse sampling of stratospheric aerosols. Occultation measurements from satellite provide an unique opportunity to retrieve the aerosol size distribution using high quality aerosol extinction measurements. A retrieval algorithm is developed to characterize size distributions of stratospheric aerosols from …

Moderators Of Subjective Distress And State Body Image During Open And Blind Weighing, Danielle E. Peters

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Objective: Body image disturbances are central to eating disorder (ED) pathology and are often addressed through exposure-based methods, such as open weighing. Open weighing is recommended in evidence-based ED treatments, but many clinicians and patients prefer blind weighing. It may be that pre-treatment patient characteristics may influence how distressed they feel by open and blind weighing. As such, the present study aimed to 1) compare how open and blind weighing impact subjective distress and state body image, and 2) examine whether self-weighing tendencies, body avoidance, body checking, body checking-related beliefs, intolerance of uncertainty, and ED psychopathology moderate the relationship between …

Multifunctional And Adaptive: Tracking How Fibroblasts Respond To Tissue Injury And Facilitate Tissue Remodeling, Joey R. Tavarez

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Fibrosis is characterized by an accumulation of proteins in the extracellular matrix (ECM) that results in altered tissue architecture and reduced organ function. In the salivary glands, fibrosis leads to loss of saliva, dysbiosis of the oral microbiome, an increase in oral infections, difficulty in digestion of food and an overall reduction in the quality of life. Understanding the progression of fibrosis and how it affects human health is a crucial step for designing effective therapeutics. Understanding fibroblast function is integral to advancing the field due to the many roles they play in maintaining the ECM. To perform preliminary analysis, …

Informationally-Optimal Measurements On Single-Qubit Systems, Adam V. Preston

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This thesis will focus on deriving informationally-optimal quantum state tomographic measurements on single-qubit systems, with the definition of informationally optimal to be defined as those measurements which maximize the average information gain. The informationally-optimal measurements that will be covered include projective measurements (formally building off of the work of [1] and putting it on firm, information-theoretic foundations), and more general types of quantum measurements called directional (also known as rank-one) positive operator-valued measure (POVM) measurements, and, finally, adaptive directional POVM measurements.

For projective measurements, we build on the work of Wootters and Fields ([1]) and show, via analytical methods and …

German Science, American Manufacturing: Ethnic Capital, Transnational Technology, And Corporate Development At Bausch & Lomb, 1853–1953, George L. Grobe Iv

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the first century of the Bausch & Lomb Optical Company, founded in Rochester, NY in 1853 by German immigrants John Jacob Bausch and Henry Lomb. It argues the firm’s success was driven by leveraging of management’s German ethnic identity as “ethnic capital” to access resources like financial liquidity, immigrant labor, and technical expertise. These resources allowed for the transformation of the firm from a small optical retail shop into a major manufacturer of advanced optical instruments. However, as later generations of the family Americanized, the ability of the firm to leverage ethnic capital eroded until breaking completely …

Molecular Diffusion In Chemically Amplified Resists For Euv Lithography, Eshan Dilina Thilakarathna

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Photolithography is a critical manufacturing step in high-volume manufacturing (HVM) of semiconductor devices, where a photoresist layer is used to transfer nanoscale patterns onto the underlying stack materials. As the microelectronics industry continues to move toward smaller node sizes, driven by Moore's Law. As a result, the tolerances for photoresist performance have become increasingly demanding, which necessitates simultaneous improvements in resolution, defectivity, and roughness. At advanced nodes, these performance limitations are governed by the fundamental stochastic nature of the photochemical processes occurring within the resist film itself, rather than the optical or tool-level constraints. Photon shot noise, the statistical distribution …

Barriers And Corridors: Timber Rattlesnake Habitat Connectivity In New York, Lauren Rose

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Habitat fragmentation poses a significant threat to species that rely on landscape connectivity for movement in search of food, water, and mates. The timber rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus), listed as a threatened species in New York State, travels an average of 1.5 miles—and up to five miles—from permanent denning sites to reach habitat suitable for gestation, foraging, basking, and overwintering. Ongoing development in the lower Hudson Valley has increasingly fragmented these critical habitats, restricting movement between den populations. This thesis evaluates landscape barriers that contribute to population isolation and identifies opportunities to restore connectivity among timber rattlesnake metapopulations.

Using …

Inflammation In Early Borrelia Burgdorferi Skin Infection, Ariana Nobles

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Borrelia burgdorferi (Bb) is the causative agent of approximately 476,000 cases of Lyme disease in the United States and rising. Bb is spread through infected saliva of the black-legged tick, Ixodes scapularis, to the host. Patients infected with Bb experience short-term symptoms, such as erythema migrans (EMs), fatigue, pain, and cognitive impairment. If left untreated, Bb infection will cause long-term health complications, like Lyme neuroborreliosis and Lyme arthritis. It is postulated that symptoms associated with Lyme disease are driven in part by inflammation.

My thesis focuses on the skin as it holds significant immunological importance in the …

Concentration Or Coincidence? Rethinking Random Effects In Spatial And Spatiotemporal Concentration Of Burglary Through A Target-Based Approach, Yichao Gao

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Studies of crime and place have long asked how much random processes contribute to the spatial and spatiotemporal concentration of crime. Traditionally, simulations assume that crime incidents occur randomly across microgeographic units—such as block groups, street segments, and parcels—by selecting geographic units at random with replacement. This dissertation takes a different approach, modeling crime incidents as random selections among potential targets, also with replacement. In this framework focusing primarily on burglary, simulated patterns reflect the spatial distribution of potential targets (i.e., properties). This dissertation relies on burglary data from San Antonio, Texas (2017–2019), and measures available burglary targets as individual …

Discord Is Still A Chord: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Discourse Networks, Brokerage, And The Fiscal Consequences Of Fracking Policy In The Delaware River Basin, In Hae Noh

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Beneath the policy debates of many environmental controversies lies a dynamic network of actors making claims, forming coalitions, and contesting policy discourses. Drawing on theories of discourse coalitions, discourse networks, network brokerage, and public finance, and using the Delaware River Basin hydraulic fracturing debate as a case study, this dissertation examines how discourse coalitions evolve, how discourse brokers shape coalition dynamics, and whether resulting policy decisions produce meaningful fiscal consequences. The first paper investigates how discourse coalitions shifted across three periods of the Delaware River Basin fracking debate, using a mix of methods integrating discourse network analysis, computational text analysis, …

Well-Being Despite Adversity: A Portfolio Approach To Understanding Resilience Among Autistic Adults, Krista Rose

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Autistic individuals, across the lifespan, face increased exposure to stressful, adverse, and potentially traumatic experiences. These experiences pose a negative impact on well-being and quality of life. Prevailing risk-based models are anchored in deficit-focused conceptualizations and provide limited insight into autistic individuals’ experiences afteradversity, highlighting the important shift towards strength-based models within resilience. Although resilience is a crucial topic to promote positive outcomes and well-being among autistic individuals, existing research is limited, lacks an integrated framework, and has not yet been investigated in the context of stressful, adverse, or potentially traumatic experiences, despite the deleterious effect these experiences pose …

Essays On Indian Inflation Targeting, Dipankar Biswas

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation explores the efficacy and impact of inflation targeting as the monetary policy framework with a specific focus on India after its formal adoption of the inflation-targeting framework in 2016.

The first chapter focuses on the history of monetary policy framework in India. It discusses, in detail, the different monetary policy frameworks, namely Credit Planning, Flexible Monetary-Targeting, and Multiple-Indicator approaches, adopted by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) (i.e., the monetary authority of the country), before arriving at the adoption of the inflation-targeting framework. The monetary policy transmission process in India during the different global turmoil segments of the …

Development And Applications Of Fluorescence Microscopy Protocol To Investigate Borrelia Burgdorferi Immune Interactions In The Skin, Rebecca V. Landry

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The skin is an immunological organ that acts as the hosts’ first line of defense against infectious agents. Infectious disease vectors like ticks breach this barrier by feeding on hosts, transmitting pathogens like Borrelia burgdorferi in the process. Uncleared infection with B. burgdorferi causes Lyme disease, the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States. Previous research has explained many elements of Lyme disease pathogenesis and immunity including the dissemination of the spirochete, innate immune cells performing phagocytosis, the production of antibodies by the humoral response, and the impact of prophylactic treatment with monoclonal antibodies. A remaining gap in the …

Becoming-With The Earth: Contemplative Practice As A Critical Onto-Epistemic Resource For Planetary Belonging, Care, And World-Making, Megan M. Fowler

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

In an era of accelerating planetary crisis, social work is called to reimagine its theories, methods, and practices beyond anthropocentric frameworks that separate human wellbeing from the health of the Earth and its resplendent living systems. Working in the space of transformative eco-social work, a growing chorus of voices contends that eco-centric responses require broadening the scope of health, welfare, justice, and care to extend beyond the human, to include the more-than-human world upon which all life intimately depends—understandings resonant with Indigenous and other relational knowledge systems long marginalized by colonialist-capitalist-modernity. Drawing from eco-feminist, eco-queer, decolonial, and post-anthropocentric lineages of …

A Moderated Mediation Analysis Of Mental Health Literacy, Personal Stigma, And Gender On Help-Seeking Intentions In College Students, Anna M. Gentile

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Although many college students experience mental health challenges, help-seeking rates remain disproportionately low relative to reported need (Abelson et al., 2022). Identifying factors that facilitate help-seeking is critical for improving access to mental health support in this population. Prior research has identified mental health literacy as a significant predictor of help-seeking behavior and intentions among college students (Gorczynski et al., 2017; Smith & Shochet, 2011), whereas personal stigma, which is defined as a person’s negative attitude towards people with mental health concerns (Griffiths et al., 2006), has been consistently associated with reduced help-seeking (Abelson et al., 2022). Grounded in the …

Academic Drift In Indonesian Islamic Higher Education: An Empirical Study Of The State Islamic University Of Mataram, Ade Alimah

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Many higher education institutions imitate one another to achieve upward movement, a phenomenon known as academic drift. While this trend is widely acknowledged, the existing academic literature primarily focuses on developed nations. This research aims to investigate how academic drift occurs in Indonesian Islamic higher education, particularly through institutional transformations that involve institutes transitioning to universities.

This qualitative study examines academic drift at the State Islamic University of Mataram, Indonesia. To gather extensive data, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants from this university, representatives from two leading public Islamic universities, and senior officials from the Ministry of Religious Affairs.

Our …