Digital Commons Network^™

Redefining Community: An Analysis Of Black Presence On Nantucket In The Late 19th And Early 20th Centuries, Laura A. Paisley

Graduate Masters Theses

In the mid-19^th century, the decline in whaling initiated massive change on Nantucket Island’s cultural landscape. The thriving, but segregated, New Guinea community that formed in the late-18^th century was also impacted by this shift. Tourism ultimately became, and still is, Nantucket’s primary source of income and has wreaked havoc on the historical narrative that is perpetuated about the island. This narrative rarely moves past Nantucket’s whaling history and does not discuss the continued Black presence on the island. This thesis uncovers the relationship between race, space, and community formation that existed on Nantucket between 1860 and 1920. …

Identity Resolution In Feminists Raised Catholic: A Narrative Analysis Of Life Histories, Carlotta Reinhardt, Lauren E. Duncan

Psychology: Faculty Publications

Using narrative analysis of life histories, we explored the interplay between Catholic religious background, identity formation, and feminist activism. We used data from 13 oral histories of feminist and LGBTQ+ activists in the US and Italy who were raised Catholic. In the first stage of Downing and Roush’s model of feminist identity development, passive acceptance, religion can play a significant role. We found that whether religion is central to a person's worldview or not, and whether it is rigid or flexible, influence how individuals handle identity conflicts related to gender and sexuality during the revelation stage. Dissonances were caused by …

Difficulty In American Dramatic Literature, David Turkel

Dissertations

Speaking broadly, this dissertation explores the marginalization of American drama within the field of literary studies. In attempting to account for this marginalization, theater scholars have tended to invoke the genre’s supposed lack of “difficulty,” meaning its failure to pose meaningful interpretive challenges to its readers. However, this dissertation takes an alternative view of the matter, contending that if American drama has indeed been marginalized, it is not because literary studies departments have regarded it as intrinsically “simpler” than other literary genres; in fact, it is theater scholars who have been more likely to read the genre as simple, or …

A 65-Year-Old Man With Cough, Hypercalcemia, And Diffuse Opacities, Philip K Angelides, Oriana Salamo, Sujith V Cherian, Eduardo Yepez Guevara, Carlos A Jimenez, Saadia A Faiz

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Respiratory infections in patients with cancer are common. A low threshold for bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) should be maintained in immunocompromised patients with pulmonary opacities on chest imaging to evaluate for opportunistic infections. In those with unresolving symptoms, transbronchial biopsies may add significant diagnostic value. Concomitant hypercalcemia in patients with cancer is typically related to underlying malignant disease. However, in those with persistent respiratory symptoms or atypical infiltrates then granulomatous inflammatory diseases should be considered. Diagnosing histoplasmosis in immunocompromised patients can be difficult. Antigen testing is often more sensitive, but tissue biopsy or culture may be needed. We describe …

Monitoring And Understanding Momentary Affect Intensity From Smartphone Sensors: Investigating The Role Of Time Resolutions And Semantic Locations, Yiqin Zhu

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Momentary affect intensity refers to the momentary strength or intensity of emotional experience and shows wide associations with critical psychological and behavioral phenomena. Traditional self-report approaches to assess affect intensity require people’s attention and are prone to missingness and recall bias. Wide and cheap smartphone access offers opportunities to monitor and understand real-time affect intensity. This study had three specific aims: (a) To evaluate the potential for a state-of-the-art explainable artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to predict momentary affect intensities without active inputs, we tested how well Temporal Fusion Transformers (TFTs) can predict momentary affect intensity in an unseen test sample; …

Differing Impacts Of Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device Leads On Tricuspid Regurgitation, Sophie A. Leon, Melissa Austin, Nayeem Nasher, Daler Rahimov, Faizaan Siddique, Chitra Parikh, Danial Ahmad, Vakhtang Tchantchaleishvili, Behzad B. Pavri

Division of Cardiology Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Placement of cardiac implantable electronic devices (CIED) with leads that traverse the tricuspid valve is thought to contribute to tricuspid regurgitation (TR). However, there are relatively limited data comparing the impact of different CIED lead types on the incidence and progression of TR. This study sought to quantify the change in TR severity following implantation of CIEDs with different lead types.

METHODS: Patient data were collected on individuals with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD), right ventricular-paced pacemakers (RV-PM), and His bundle-paced pacemakers (His-PM) placed by a single provider at a single institution between 2016 and 2019. Patients with extravascular CIED …

Microplastics And Other Plastic-Like Microdebris In Sediments From The Dart River And Estuary, Southwest England, Maia Killian, Andrew Turner

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

Surficial sediment samples (n = 10) collected from a transect of a river-estuary (Dart) in southwest England have been analysed for geochemical characteristics, anthropogenic metals (Cr, Cu, Sn, Pb, Zn), and microplastics (∼50 μm–5 mm) and other microplastic-like debris. Results indicated the finest grains towards the lower river and upper estuary, a seaward increase in sedimentary Ca, and loss on ignition ranging from about 0.7 to 4 %. Anthropogenic metals were heterogeneously distributed throughout the catchment with maximum concentrations in the river or lower estuary. Microplastics were dominated by fibres, with concentrations ranging from 110 to 1800 kg−1 and composition …

Empowerment Through The Sisters Lifting As We Climb Network: Examining The Organization’S Impact On Black Women, Sharnay Hearn Davis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological case study examines the role of empowerment within the “Sisters Lifting as We Climb Network” through the experiences of Black women participants in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews, the research investigates the organization's origins, evolution, and social support mechanisms that foster empowerment, as well as participants' experiences with programs and activities over the past nine years. Additionally, the study identifies areas for organizational improvement to further enhance participant empowerment.

The findings of this research support the empowerment theory framework by clarifying the preconditions, processes, and outcomes of empowerment within the Network, which fosters sisterhood and enhances participants' …

Chanticleer | 2025-2026, Welcome Home, Gamecocks, Jacksonville State University

Chanticleer

No abstract provided.

Individual Noise-Tolerance Profiles And Neural Signal-To-Noise Ratio: Insights Into Predicting Speech-In-Noise Performance And Noise-Reduction Outcomes, Subong Kim, Susan Arzac, Natalie Dokic, Jenn Donnelly, Nicole Genser, Kristen Nortwich, Alexis Rooney

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Background/Objectives: Individuals with similar hearing sensitivity exhibit varying levels of tolerance to background noise, a trait tied to unique individual characteristics that affect their responsiveness to noise reduction (NR) processing in hearing aids. The present study aimed to capture such individual characteristics by employing electrophysiological measures and subjective noise-tolerance profiles, and both were analyzed in relation to speech-in-noise performance and NR outcomes. Methods: From a sample of 42 participants with normal hearing, the neural signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)—a cortical index comparing the amplitude ratio between auditory evoked responses to target speech onset versus noise onset—was calculated, and individual noise-tolerance profiles were …

The Role Of Social Media In Spreading Hearth Information During Heallth Crises, Aseel Al-Ajarmah, Faten Hamad

Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

Access to information strongly contributes to the advocacy of sustainable development. Social media can facilitate availability and accessibility of information during crisis times. This research investigates the role, and difficulties of using social media to spread health information among the Jordanian society. A questionnaire was disseminated to all faculty members at health schools at The University of Jordan (N=415) of whom 380 responded (91.5% response rate). The results indicate that social media are highly recognised as a practical platform to increase public awareness during pandemics. However, there is a need for measures to limit the spread of fake news and …

Participatory Community Archiving To Preserve And Sustain North Georgia Appalachia’S Language, Literacy Practices, And Histories, Leah Panther Dr., Lindsey Walker, Presley Dyer, Tyler Osborn, Kerri Abernathy

Georgia Library Quarterly

This case study presents Swappin’ Stories, a community-based archiving event that serves as a model for public and participatory archiving. The event aimed to address gaps and misrepresentations of southern Appalachia by gathering the voices, artifacts, and stories of Towns County residents. By centering local narratives, it sought to foster a sense of community identity and offer an authentic portrayal of North Georgia, distinct from the narratives shaped by popular media and political figures. This case highlights the potential of community-driven archives to reclaim and reshape regional histories.

Invited Review: Effects Of Management On Performance Of Stocker Cattle And Subsequent Feedlot Performance: A Review Within Applied Animal Science, M.A. Snider, M.S. Gadberry, J.D. Rivera

Animal Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: The purpose of this review is to summarize relevant research from the journal Applied Animal Science (formerly known as The Professional Animal Scientist) between 1995 and 2024, that explores management practices and concepts as they relate to stocker calf performance and subsequent feedlot performance. A secondary objective of this review is to describe research trends and identify knowledge and research gaps within existing literature. Sources: Sources for this article included peer-reviewed scientific literature obtained from the journal Applied Animal Science, formerly known as The Professional Animal Scientist. Literature used in this review included original research, short communications, technical notes, …

Towards Context-Aware Traffic Classification Via Time-Wavelet Fusion Network, Ziming Zhao, Zhuoxue Song, Xiaofei Xie, Zhaoxuan Li, Jiongchi Yu, Fan Terry Zhang, Tingting Li

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Encrypted traffic classification occupies a significant role in cybersecurity and network management. The existing encrypted traffic classification technology mostly relies on intra-flow semantics for extracting features. However, considering that some attack behaviors inherently have similar patterns to legitimate behaviors, and powerful adversaries could simulate benign users to conceal their attack intentions, intra-flow features may be similar between different categories. In this paper, we propose TrafficScope, a time-wavelet fusion network based on Transformer to enhance the performance of encrypted traffic classification. Specifically, in addition to using intra-flow semantics, TrafficScope also extracts contextual information to construct more comprehensive representations. Moreover, to cope …

Tetd: Trusted Execution In Trust Domains, Zhanbo Wang, Jiaxin Zhan, Xuhua Ding, Fengwei Zhang, Ning Hu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Intel TDX empowers cloud service providers to construct confidential virtual machines called trust domains (TDs) on x86 platforms. Similar to its counterparts from AMD and Arm, TDX's hardware based protection over integrity and secrecy of virtual machine memory and vCPU states inevitably hinders legitimate virtual machine management such as introspection. At the presence of compromised high-privileged software (e.g., the guest kernel), neither the cloud service provider nor the TD owner can securely carry out a task within the TD. To tackle this problem, we propose TETD, an in-TD trusted execution technique without trusting any TD system software. Our design does …

Oblivious Digital Tokens, Mihael Liskij, Xuhua Ding, Gene Tsudik, David A. Basin

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

A computing device typically identifies itself by exhibiting unique measurable behavior or by proving its knowledge of a secret. In both cases, the identifying device must reveal information to a verifier. Considerable research has focused on protecting identifying entities (provers) and reducing the amount of leaked data. However, little has been done to conceal the fact that the verification occurred.We show how this problem naturally arises in the context of digital emblems, which were recently proposed by the International Committee of the Red Cross to protect digital resources during cyber-conflicts. To address this new and important open problem, we define …

The Shape Of Absence: Diaspora And Echoes Of Mother In Lucy, Zahra Ebrahimi

All Theses

This thesis examines the impact of the motherland and maternal figure in shaping Lucy’s character in exile and her journey of self-discovery in Jamaica Kincaid’s Lucy. It explores the role of the past in shaping Lucy’s present by focusing on colonialism and the influence of both the Antiguan and white maternal figures on her path toward independence and self-discovery. Throughout the narrative, Kincaid invites readers to follow the deep and complicated relationship between Lucy’s white mother, Mariah, and her mother in Antigua. These interactions shape Lucy’s character and encourage readers to view the story not just as the tale …

The Uses Of Dramaturgical Research In Cinematic Storytelling, Asset Design, And Adaptation In Animation, Delaney L. Walker

All Theses

“The Black Hair” is a creative project that explores the convergence of cinematic adaptation, dramaturgical research, and animation design in retelling a traditional Japanese short folktale from the Heian Era. Rooted in the practice of theatrical dramaturgy, this thesis advocates for a research-driven creative pipeline by developing a culturally respectful and historically grounded approach to developing cinematic storyboards. By thoroughly examining the chronicles of history and the sociocultural context, the project seeks to foster deeper cultural appreciation while reintroducing a lesser-known narrative to modern audiences through a visual medium. The project draws stylistic and narrative inspiration from iconic Japanese filmmakers …

Practical Keyword Private Information Retrieval From Key-To-Index Mappings, Meng Hao, Weiran Liu, Liqiang Peng, Cong Zhang, Pengfei Wu, Lei Zhang, Hongwei Li, Deng, Robert H.

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper introduces practical schemes for keyword Private Information Retrieval (keyword PIR), enabling private queries on public databases using keywords. Unlike standard indexbased PIR, keyword PIR presents greater challenges, since the query’s position within the database is unknown and the domain of keywords is vast. Our key insight is to construct an efficient and compact key-to-index mapping, thereby reducing the keyword PIR problem to standard PIR. To achieve this, we propose three constructions incorporating several new techniques. The high-level approach involves (1) encoding the server’s key-value database into an indexable database with a key-to-index mapping and (2) invoking standard PIR …

Mpo: Multilingual Safety Alignment Via Reward Gap Optimization, Weixiang Zhao, Yulin Hu, Yang Deng, Tongtong Wu, Wenxuan Zhang, Jiahe Guo, An Zhang, Yanyan Zhao, Bing Qin, Tat-Seng Chua, Ting Liu

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large language models (LLMs) have become increasingly central to AI applications worldwide, necessitating robust multilingual safety alignment to ensure secure deployment across diverse linguistic contexts. Existing preference learning methods for safety alignment, such as RLHF and DPO, are primarily monolingual and struggle with noisy multilingual data. To address these limitations, we introduce Multilingual reward gaP Optimization (MPO), a novel approach that leverages the well-aligned safety capabilities of the dominant language (e.g., English) to improve safety alignment across multiple languages. MPO directly minimizes the reward gap difference between the dominant language and target languages, effectively transferring safety capabilities while preserving the …

Think Both Ways: Teacher-Student Bidirectional Reasoning Enhances Mcq Generation And Distractor Quality, Yimiao Qiu, Yang Deng, Quanming Yao, Zhimeng Zhang, Zhiang Dong, Chang Yao, Jingyuan Chen

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Generating high-quality Multiple Choice Questions (MCQs) remains challenging for educational tools due to the need for contextual relevance and plausible distractors. Existing methods still struggle with these dual requirements, leading to questions that lack depth and distractors that are either too obvious or irrelevant. In this paper, we propose BiFlow, a novel framework that integrates bidirectional reasoning perspectives: teacher reasoning generates contextually relevant questions and plausible distractors, while student reasoning evaluates question clarity and the misleading nature of the distractors. To further enhance reasoning, we introduce PathFinder, a mechanism that employs breadth-first search and Chainof-Thought (CoT) strategies to explore diverse …

Sex Differences In The Risk Of Developing Alzheimer Disease, Cognitive Trajectories, And Relationships Between Cognition And Pathological Burden, Carling G. Robinson

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Prior work suggests females may develop Alzheimer disease (AD) dementia at a higher rate than males, and that this effect may interact with apolipoprotein (APOE) ε4 genotype. However, this work has often been limited by imprecise clinical diagnoses and a lack of AD biomarkers. In addition to the frequency of dementia, there are mixed reports on whether sex impacts rates of cognitive decline. Further, females consistently exhibit greater accumulation of AD pathological biomarkers, particularly tau, than males. It has been theorized that females initially demonstrate resilience to AD pathology, maintaining cognitive functioning longer than males, but experiencing a steeper cognitive …

Pricing The Unknown: An Analysis Of Expected Value Of Young Horses And Price-Determining Factors, Rupasri Sura

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From a seller’s point of view in a market, it is crucial to plan the pricing strategies based on perceptions of buyer preferences and their willingness to purchase to ensure market success in selling and pricing. Applying this to the equine industry, this paper studies the factors determining the price of young horses (age ≤ 2 years) in digital auction platforms. Using data from Professional Horse Services, LLC (2012–2023), a Heckman’s two-step approach was employed, which involves a probit model as the first step and a hedonic price model as the second, aiming to correct for sample selection bias in …

When Engagement Meets Distraction: The Effects Of Multitasking Types On Learning From Video Lectures, Zubeiru Mahama

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Students often multitask with lecture-relevant (e.g., note-taking) and lecture-irrelevant (e.g., texting) secondary tasks during lectures and such behavior tends to be more common in asynchronous than synchronous settings. Two experiments investigated the combined and comparative effects of lecture-relevant and lecture-irrelevant secondary tasks on attention to and retention of a geology video lecture in a simulated asynchronous setting. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: lecture-only, lecture-relevant multitasking (i.e., taking notes during the lecture), lecture-irrelevant multitasking (i.e., completing a survey in Experiment 1 or instant messaging in Experiment 2 during the lecture), or hybrid multitasking (both note-taking and survey …

Examining Shock Wave Flow Past The Brim Of A Helmet Using Schlieren Imaging, Cody Thomas, Catherine E. Johnson

Mining Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Increasing the protection a helmet provides the user from shock waves can help reduce the prevalence of blast induced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). Previous research has shown that air enters and gets trapped in the helmet-head cavity and can increase the overpressure experienced by the wearer. The brim design of the helmet has yet to be studied to understand how shock waves flow into the helmet. By studying a variety of brims, it is possible that the design can be modified to minimize shock wave flow into the helmet. This paper investigated a shock wave impacting interior and exterior facing …

Measuring The Impact Of Ged Preparation On Ged Testing Outcomes, Matthew Utz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study investigates the relationship between participation in GED preparation programs and GED test outcomes among adult learners at a single Adult Basic Education (ABE) center located in an urban area of a south-central U.S. state. Recognizing the significance of the GED as an alternative credential to a traditional high school diploma, the research examines how instructional hours and structured preparation correlate with students’ final scores in mathematics, English language arts, social studies, and science. The study also describes the demographic characteristics of the learners, including gender, race, and age groups, and analyzes their performance on the Test of …

Using Interpersonal Motives To Identify Latent Profiles Of Borderline Personality Pathology: Implications For An Overcontrolled Style Of Bpd, Regina Schreiber

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is conceptualized as a disorder of undercontrol (i.e., behaviorally impulsive, emotionally expressive), with affective, interpersonal, and identity instability. BPD related impairment is high, yet diagnostic accuracy remains a problem for individuals who present with greater overcontrol (i.e., behavioral inhibition, expressive suppression), which occurs in some BPD subtypes. The current study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to expand on prior research by identifying latent profiles based on interpersonal motives for agency and relatedness, desire for predictability, perceived dependency, and self-efficacy in a sample of people with elevated BPD features (n = 136). Individual differences in overcontrol, undercontrol, …

End Times: American Mortality, Death Materiality, And Social Death In The 1990s, Jordan A. Savage

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States in the 1990s was marked by pervasive representations of death in popular culture. As death imagery became increasingly visible in entertainment, there was a growing detachment from the embodied, biological realities of death, a tension intensified by the ongoing AIDS crisis. This project explores how death is politicized and how decisions about who lives and dies are shaped by power. I draw on a constellation of theoretical frameworks that collectively illuminate the operations of state-sanctioned death and social abandonment. These include Michel Foucault’s concept of biopolitics, which examines the management of life by state power; Giorgio Agamben’s …

Cultural Vibrations: Student Power, International Exchange, And Black America In Mai 1968, Noah Micheal Roberts

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract This thesis examines the prominence of Black Americans in the 68’ student movement in France. May 68’ incorporated a diverse and global network of social movements and political organizations, and had a notable connection to the American student movement. Black Americans had formed a large expatriate community in France which overlapped with many of the transnational connections forged by the student movements of 68’. This community was extremely notable in the French public sphere for popular works of literature and music, but its political contributions have been minimized or understudied. By utilizing student accounts, state and organizational records, and …

Lifetime Stressor Exposure, Race And Ethnicity, And Habitual Stress Processes: An Evaluation Of Repetitive Negative Thinking And Hair Cortisol Concentration, Harrison Dickens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Habitual stress processes are thought to influence acute stress reactivity and stress-related disease. Habitual stress processes have been shown to adapt in response to stressor exposure experienced across the lifespan. The current study seeks to explore whether two habitual stress processes, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and repetitive negative thinking (RNT), were associated with lifetime stressor exposure (self-reported and objective neighborhood-level stressors). Additionally, the current study attempts to quantify how this process may be moderated by race and ethnicity. Participants (N = 134, Mage = 18 [SDage= 1.69], 56.7% female) consisting of White (N = 52), Black (N = 37 ), …