Digital Commons Network^™

Mental Health Trends Among African American High School Students, Alexis Heard

Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent mental health is a major public health issue in the U.S., with African American high school students facing a rapidly worsening crisis. While all youth show increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidality, African American adolescents are at greater risk due to systemic racism, socioeconomic inequality, community violence, and limited access to culturally responsive care. Few national studies have examined mental health trends among this group. This study (1) examines 2011–2021 trends in persistent sadness/hopelessness, suicidal ideation, suicide planning, and suicide attempts among African American high school students; (2) explores gender differences; and (3) compares these patterns to national …

The Relationship Of Preschool Variables To Kindergarten Early Literacy Skills, Michele Davis Thomason

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the impact of Pre-K experiences on kindergarten early literacy skills in Alabama. A convergent parallel mixed-methods research design was utilized to analyze assessment data from My Teaching Strategies AlaKiDS and Renaissance STAR Early Literacy for kindergarten students in a rural Alabama district. The students were divided into three groups for comparison: students who attended Alabama First Class Pre-K, those in private programs using the Abeka curriculum, and students with no formal Pre-K experience. The dissertation utilized Vygotsky’s constructivist theory to assess the influence of early educational environments on the cognitive development through scaffolding and the Zone of …

Walking (Virtually) Within The Past: A Video Tour Of Eureka's Historic Chinatown, Anne Howard, Katie Buesch, Sarah Godlin, Tim Miller, Vicki Ozaki, Sheri Woo

Humboldt Journal of Social Relations

"This piece reflects on the process of creating a place-based digital product aimed at expanding the educational reach of the Eureka Chinatown Project to an online audience. The authors explore the important role of sharing technical and historical knowledge, stories, and resources..."

Impact Of High School Racial Composition On Intercultural Competence Of Undergraduate Students, Ryuto Hashimoto

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Since the US population continues to become more diverse, it is important to foster students' intercultural competence (ICC) so that they can work collaboratively with people from different backgrounds. The existing studies have examined the impact of socialization at school on youths' development in their attitudes and behaviors in the context of classroom. However, we know little about whether or not the organizational and individual characteristics have an impact on students' ICC development. This study explored the impact of high school racial composition and individual factors such as gender on the ICC of undergraduate students. The study used the course …

Cultivating The Competitor: Advocacy, Competition And Education, Vanessa Fowler

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the intricate balance between advocacy, competition, and education within collegiate forensics, aiming to understand how these elements coexist and influence the experiences of students and coaches. The literature review highlights the multifaceted nature of student success, emphasizing the importance of a holistic approach that includes personal development, emotional well-being, and societal contributions. The research examines the critical role of self-efficacy and motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, in driving student achievement. It also addresses the tension between competition and education, advocating for a balanced approach that supports holistic student development. Through semi-structured interviews with current competitors, coaches, and …

Exploring Front-Line Implementers Perceptions To Inform Tier 1 Pbis Implementation Coaching, Sammi Cowger

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The successful implementation of universal practices within Positive Behavior Interventions and Support systems (Tier 1 PBIS) relies on front-line implementers to deliver services through student-facing practice elements. However, schools are often limited in the implementation support they can provide (Fixsen et al., 2005). Therefore, there is a growing emphasis in educational research on the systems and resources necessary to support the individuals tasked with implementing the programming (Forman et al., 2013). One form of support commonly used to support implementers of other school-based practices is implementation coaching. While this term is not universally used within the literature, it can be …

Characterization Of Actin Capping Protein Beta Isoform Specific Dynamics In Metastatic Cells, Etinosa Osamudiamen

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

To gain insight into the mechanism of cancer progression, we examined the isoform-specific roles of actin capping protein (CPβ1 and CPβ2) related to actin cytoskeletal dynamics and metastatic progression in human uterine epithelial cells (HeLa). We employed qPCR to determine the relative expression levels of CPβ1 and CPβ2 in actively growing HeLa cells. Our findings confirmed that CPβ1 and CPβ2 are differentially expressed, with CPβ2 being the predominant isoform, two-fold higher, consistent with its expression in other non-muscle tissues. To extend our expression studies, the localization and spatial distribution of the isoforms were visualized via immunolocalization studies using isoform-specific monoclonal …

Racial Diversity Matters: Experiences Of Dental Hygienists Of Color In Education And Practice, Sonika Masih

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Oral health is important to overall health. Poor oral health can affect a person’s ability to smile and chew, and can negatively affect their self-esteem. Poor oral health can lead to systemic diseases and even death. Therefore, access to dental care is vital for maintaining a quality of life, but people of color often lack access to this essential care. Negative stereotyping, color blind attitudes, and providers' biases are barriers for people of color to access dental care. Dental hygienists play a crucial role in removing barriers to oral healthcare for underserved populations. However, the dental hygiene profession does not …

Estimation Of Energy Use Intensity By Space Usage At Minnesota State University, Mankato, Rocio Alvarado Ramirez

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis creates a model that serves as an evaluation tool for testing decarbonization strategies on energy-related projects at Minnesota State University, Mankato, by estimating Energy Use Intensity for different types of spaces across campus. These EUIs can be used to predict future energy consumption when space usage changes and also serve as a baseline for dynamic energy modeling. The methodology used was a regression-based spreadsheet model proposed by Dr. Shreshth N. and originally applied at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. EUIs were estimated across five different scenarios, and for electricity, steam, and chilled water. Three criteria were used to …

Growing Up Online: Children, Family Vlogs, And The Monetization Of Childhood, Jenna Anderson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

As family life continues to enter and unfold on YouTube, the boundaries between intimacy, entertainment, and monetization have become strikingly blurred. This thesis examines how YouTube family vloggers construct and monetize their families through curated portrayals of authenticity, care, and morality. Using a qualitative content analysis of 100 videos from ten of the most popular YouTuber family channels of 2023, this study investigates how families and children are presented, how performances of authenticity are constructed and perceived, and how advertisements and sponsorships shape the narratives that these families produce. The analysis considers how parents act as both narrators and producers …

Guide To The Charles Samuel Brown Collection, Columbia College Chicago

CBMR Collection Guides / Finding Aids

The strength of this collection lies in the African-American traditional Spiritual scores produced and arranged by Charles Samuel Brown for SATB a cappella and piano. Pieces range from the years 1972-2011.

Utilitzing A Nurse Triage Model To Decrease The Administrative Burden Of Emr Messaging, Pamela B. Schneider

DNP Projects

Abstract

Background: The volume of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) messages from patients to providers continues to rise, yet clinic workflows have not been adequately restructured to accommodate. Increased EMR, especially the inbasket, is associated with provider burnout and decreased job satisfaction, contributing to provider turnover.

Purpose: To improve the triage and distribution of the EMR messaging workload

Method: A Nurse Triage Flowchart was implemented in the Gastroenterology Clinic at the University of Kentucky to help RNs/MAs triage patient messages for improved workflow. Surveys were completed by RNs/MAs and providers before and three months post-implementation. Data from EPIC over six …

“What We Say Matters”: Reducing Drug Use Stigmatization By Healthcare Professionals Through A Narrative-Based Awareness Campaign, Adam M. Traugott

DNP Projects

Background: Stigma towards substance use has been identified as a contributor to poor care and health outcomes amongst people who use drugs (PWUD), a vulnerable population. Healthcare worker stigma negatively affects the outcomes of individual patients and may have greater public health implications. Methods of addressing drug-use stigma have previously been implemented in a variety of clinical settings. Presenting the lived experience of PWUD to healthcare workers via emotionally compelling narratives has been found to be an effective means of stigma reduction.

Purpose: This study utilized two psychometrically validated tools to measure (1) the baseline prevalence of drug use stigma …

The Expressive Effects Of Bilateral Labor Agreements, Ian G. Peacock

Chicago Journal of International Law

Bilateral labor agreements (BLAs) aim to facilitate the movement of temporary migrant workers between countries. So far, studies of BLAs have focused on whether they have effects on migration flows. Despite countries entering hundreds of BLAs, evidence for their effects on migration flows remains limited. Yet, even if BLAs have limited material effects, they may still have important symbolic effects. On this topic, this Comment highlights BLAs’ potential to change rhetoric about international migration among heads of state. Drawing on an original empirical analysis focused on BLAs with the Philippines, the Comment analyzes how BLAs may influence leaders’ expressed attitudes …

Influence Of Perceived Health Provider Communication, Diabetes Duration And Age At Diagnosis With Confidence In Diabetes Self-Care, Courtney L. Ortz, Meredith S. Duncan, Oluwatosin Leshi, William B. Burrows, Brittany L. Smalls

Family and Community Medicine Faculty Publications

Introduction: Several factors influence individuals’ confidence to perform diabetes-related self-care activities, including perceived patient-provider communication, diabetes duration and age at diagnosis. It has been well-documented that patient-provider communication is essential when managing chronic diseases such as diabetes; however, the impact of this communication with diabetes duration and age at diabetes diagnosis on confidence in performing self-care behaviors is obscure.

Research design and methods: We utilized data from the 2021 Household Component of the Medical Expenditure Survey among participants 18 years or older who had completed the Diabetes Care Survey. Ordinal logistic regression models were utilized to assess the association between …

“It Is The Greatest Shame In The World”: Tomás Cerdán De Tallada’S Pioneering Analysis And Critiques Of Jails In The Spanish Golden Age, Riley Emerson Carney

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

During the 16^th century, prisons as we know them did not exist in Spain nor in most of Western Europe. Jails, as a temporary place to hold criminals before their trial, did exist but were quickly filling up with a wave of new criminals and debtors. This system of jails was poorly organized and poorly understood until Tomás Cerdán de Tallada wrote his treatise Visita de la carcel, which was the first in Spain to analyze the system of jails as a whole, and one of the first to offer criticisms of the system. Core to Cerdán’s understanding …

‘Who’S Your Daddy?’: Ddradseq Parentage In Broodstock-Offspring Pairs Of Diadema Antillarum In A Population Restoration Initiative, Bianca R. Rosendahl

Undergraduate Scholarship and Creative Works

In the early 1980s Diadema antillarum, or the long-spined urchin, was hit by a catastrophic mass mortality event across the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, inclusive of the Florida Keys. The cause of this die-off event was likely triggered by a pathogen or environmental stressor that decimated native populations by up to 98%. The species has not yet fully recovered and is struggling with recruitment success which is why it may benefit from an ex-situ recovery program. In this study, I used single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) to identify genetic variation and analyze parentage in a captive population of …

Bridging The Digital Divide In Biomedical Healthcare: Policy Solutions For Equity In Access, Literacy, And Infrastructure, Brooke E. Turner, Emmy L. Colon Alamo

Undergraduate Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper explores the intersection of digital inequity and biomedical healthcare access in the United States, positioning the digital divide as a structural determinant of health. As telehealth and digital platforms become central to care delivery, communities lacking broadband infrastructure, digital literacy, and affordable internet access face compounded barriers to equitable healthcare. The study introduces five critical dimensions—access, availability, adequacy, acceptability, and affordability—as a framework for addressing these disparities. It proposes the Rhizomatic Digital Ecosystem Framework to guide national and local interventions, emphasizing the need for public investment in broadband expansion, digital education, and affordability programs. By treating digital access …

Bank Of America Foundation Fellowship 2015–2024, Bank Of America Foundation, Notre Dame Law School

Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

The Bank of American Foundation Fellowship, launched in 2015, covers the cost of salary and benefits for two graduating class members to work for two years at a city agency or nonprofit organization of their choice. The fellows’ work must advance community sustainability and provide legal services to low-income or underrepresented populations.

(Re)Imagining Linguistic Justice Through Pláticas: Dual Language Educators’ Perspectives On Restorative Practices, Lysandra Pérez

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the pervasive impacts of linguistic imperialism in U.S. dual language classrooms, focusing on restorative language justice practices designed to address the harm caused by manifestations of linguistic oppression, including language policing, linguistic surveillance, and language discrimination (Cameron, 2014; Tuck & Yang, 2012). Grounded in LangCrit (Crump, 2014) and Raciolinguistics (Flores & Rosa, 2015), this study centers the voices and lived experiences of minoritized bilingual educators in Central Washington and Southern California, highlighting their insights and calls for transformation within bilingual education. Through pláticas en grupo (Fierros & Delgado Bernal, 2016), dual language educators co-created restorative practices that …

Writing Back To Empire: Anticolonial Petitioning And Decolonisation In Postwar British West Africa, 1945–1960, Bright Alozie

Black Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article reexamines petition writing as a strategic form of anticolonial resistance and negotiation in British West Africa between 1945 and 1960. Focusing on Nigeria and the Gold Coast (now Ghana), it argues that petitions – often regarded as apolitical or ineffective – were in fact deeply political texts through which colonised individuals asserted rights, challenged imperial authority, and participated in shaping decolonisation discourse. Drawing on new archival petitions, colonial correspondence, and administrative records, the study analyzes how a wide range of African actors – including trade unions, veterans, women’s organisations, and youth groups – appropriated colonial bureaucratic norms to …

Teaching Borges Effectively: A Pedagogy Of Literary Reading, Luciano Martinez

Spanish Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

The Mathematical Struggle: A Peer’S Review Of Mathematics Education, Joshua Brobst

All Student Scholarship

This paper explores the perceived bias against the mathematics (math) discipline. Specifically, it will explore the concept of math anxiety (MA) and why the broad idea of the apparent negativity towards math is so pervasive. The paper does so through two different avenues; the first approach being a literature review of the data and arguments from psychology and math education journals that have been previously published. The second method provided is one performed specifically for this thesis in which data from a University of Southern Maine (USM) MAT 100 course was collected from student responses submitted at the end of …

The U.S. Supreme Court Decision In Smith V. Spizzirri: An Analysis Of Its Impact On Enforcing International Arbitration Agreements And Awards Falling Under The New York Convention In The United States, Charles E. Woode

Buffalo Law Review

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the U.S. courts’ role in the interpretation, enforcement, and confirmation of international arbitration agreements and awards under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the New York Convention. It delves into the intricacies of FAA Chapters 1 and 2, which govern domestic and international arbitration respectively, and their interplay in shaping the arbitration landscape in the United States. Initially, this article addresses the significant circuit split regarding 9 U.S.C. § 3, which required clarification by the United States Supreme Court in Smith v. Spizzirri. The Court’s decision provided much-needed clarity on whether a district …

Re-Defining Direct Copyright Infringement In The Digital Age: The Shortcomings Of Abkco, Inc. V. Sagan's "Presses The Button" Standard, Shelby Mcswan

Buffalo Law Review

This Comment offers a broader reading of direct copyright infringement. The definition of a direct infringer must go beyond the person who “presses the button,” and extend to those who authorize, instruct, or force another to commit an act of infringement. A broader reading not only ensures that direct liability in copyright law is uniform with other areas of the law, but it also ensures that copyright law protects those who it was meant to protect and punishes those who are truly at fault. Part I of this Comment provides history and background information on the development of intellectual property …

Remote Infant Studies Of Early Learning (Rise): Scalable Online Replications Of Key Findings In Infant Cognitive Development, Rhiannon Luyster, Elena Tenenbaum1, Caitlin Stone, My H. Vu, Madeleine Hare, Kristen Gilyard, Sudha Arunachalam, Elika Bergelson, Somer Bishop, Michael Frank, J. Kiley Hamlin, Melissa Kline Struhl, Rebecca J. Landa, Casey Lew-Williams, Melissa E. Libertus, Julie Markant, Maura Sabatos-Devito, Stephen J. Sheinkopf, Jennifer B. Wagner, Kayle Park, Anna I. Soderling, Ashleigh K. Waterman, Jordan N. Grapel, Amit Bermano, Yotam Erle, Shafali Jeste

Emerson Authors, Researchers, & Creators

The current manuscript describes the Remote Infant Studies of Early Learning (RISE), a battery intended to provide robust looking time measures of cognitive development that can be administered remotely to inform our understanding of individual developmental trajectories in typical and atypical populations, particularly infant siblings of autistic children. This battery was developed to inform our understanding of early cognitive and language development in infants who will later receive a diagnosis of autism. Using tasks that have been successfully implemented in lab-based paradigms, we included assessments of attention, memory, prediction, word-recognition, numeracy, multimodal processing, and social evaluation. This study reports results …

Annual Report Of Undergraduate Research Fellows From August 2024 To May 2025, Office Of Research And Sponsored Programs. Morehead State University.

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Reports and Publications

Annual Report of Undergraduate Research Fellows from August 2024 to May 2025.

Sharksrx Newsletter Winter 2025, Nova Southeastern University

NSU Sharks Rx

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of The Hague Convention In Addressing International Child Abduction, Areej A. Dakelallah Althubiti

Theses and Dissertations

Parental child abduction is a growing concern fueled by immigration, cross-cultural marriages, evolving family dynamics, and gaps in the implementation and enforcement of developed international frameworks. This study examines the effectiveness of and challenges to the enforcement of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (HCCA), which was developed to address this problem. Specifically, the goal of this research is to assess the effect the HCCA has had on parental kidnapping, analyze its effectiveness in resolving international custody disputes, and identify the legal and practical obstacles that inhibit implementation. While the prevalence of parental kidnapping continues …

Provider-Patient Alliance And Trauma Among Pregnant Patients With Opioid Use Disorder, Molly Doernberg

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The goal of this project was to compare the provider-patient relationship among pregnant patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who did or did not have a history of moderate to severe trauma. The hypothesis was that patients with a trauma history would self-report worse relationships with their providers. This was an exploratory analysis of data from 169 patients enrolled in the Support Models for Addiction Related Treatment (SMART) trial. Trauma history, defined as probable post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), was determined by a score ≥31 on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The provider-patient relationship, collected at 26±4 weeks of pregnancy, …