Digital Commons Network^™

Analyzing Food Insecurity At Cal Poly Humboldt: Prevalence, Barriers, And Institutional Neglect, Alex Neel

IdeaFest 2025

An analysis into the different aspects of food insecurity we face on campus, from privatization of our food systems, administrative apathy, and consequences of food insecurity for students.

Cannabis Use And Mental Health: A Double-Edged Leaf, Hannah Lyons, Lanna Moore, Izzy Tetzlaff, Adriana Cluver

IdeaFest 2025

Our project entails researching the effects of cannabis on various mental illnesses. We are investigating whether cannabis use impacts mental health disorders—exacerbating them, providing relief, or having no effect—aiming to better understand its role and clinical implications. Using OneSearch through Cal Poly Humboldt Library, we reviewed 12 papers utilizing keywords like “mental illness,” “cannabis,” “anxiety,” and “depression.” Findings show cannabis may worsen symptoms depending on usage patterns and individual conditions, suggesting the need for caution and increased research in clinical use and mental health policy.

California At A Crossroads: Saving The Trinity’S Water Future, Chris Koier

IdeaFest 2025

California’s Trinity River faces rising threats from outdated infrastructure, federal overreach, and climate change. This poster distills key findings from the California in the Crosshairs public policy series, analyzing infrastructure failures, collapsing salmon runs, and misguided federal water releases. It proposes local solutions—groundwater recharge, urban water independence, and Sites reform—to secure California’s rivers, ecosystems, and tribal rights before irreversible damage occurs.

Remote Sensing For Forest Health And Wildfire Mitigation, Jonathan David Juarez, Rachel Torres

IdeaFest 2025

Forest ecosystems are vital for maintaining biodiversity, stabilizing soil, and regulating water cycles. However, frequent wildfires, extended droughts, and declining vegetation health are placing these ecosystems at risk. This research will explore how remote sensing tools and available data such as soil moisture, vegetation indices, and phenology can be used to assess forest health and mitigate wildfire risks.

The Gut Microbiome And The Influences On Emotional State, Sophia Hummel, Payton Tausig, Sophia Vanslambrouck, Nathan Aguilar, Angel Roca

IdeaFest 2025

We reviewed current research articles examining the complex relationship between gut microbiome and mood regulation in people. In order to collect our data, we completed a literature review on this topic. We found that there is a very strong relationship between the gut microbiome and mood in people. We observed mental health factors in relationship to mood such as stress, anxiety, and depression. As a result, worsened gut microbiome led to worsened mood factors. This topic has high importance due to how new the topic and research is, and how it affects human health, leading to future implications of treating …

Utilizing Β-Gal To Visualize Selective Transport Of The Ssa4 Gene In S.Cerevisiae, Ian M. Staertow, Rebecca L. Adams Phd

Science University Research Symposium (SURS)

In eukaryotic cells such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, protein synthesis begins with the transport of mRNA from the nucleus to the cytoplasm. In order for mRNA to leave the nucleus, it must first bind to specific transport proteins which can then facilitate transport via the nuclear pore complex (NPC), a selectively permeable membrane within the cell's nuclear envelope. Under environmental stress, such as heat shock, S. cerevisiae cells modulate transport rates. In this case, in heat stress or “heat shock” most mRNA transcripts will remain in the nucleus. The SSA4 transcript encodes for a chaperone protein which facilitates the subsequent export …

Reclaiming The Genius Of A Free State, Tennessee's Forgotten Anti-Monopolies Clause, Braden H. Boucek

Belmont Law Review

This article argues that Tennessee’s Anti-Monopolies Clause—enshrined in Article I, Section 22 of the Tennessee Constitution since 1796—has been systematically underenforced and misconstrued by Tennessee courts. Although the constitutional text unequivocally provides that “monopolies are contrary to the genius of a free State and shall not be allowed,” judicial interpretation has diluted this categorical prohibition by importing deferential federal rational basis review and engaging in “lockstepping” with federal substantive due process doctrine. The author contends that this approach is doctrinally unsound because the U.S. Constitution contains no analogous anti-monopoly provision, rendering federal precedent inapposite. Through historical analysis grounded in originalist …

Harvesting Humans, Joanmarie Ilaria Davoli

Belmont Law Review

This Article examines allegations of systematic forced organ harvesting by the People’s Republic of China and argues that existing U.S. federal criminal law provides an underutilized mechanism to deter American participation in that industry. Tracing the historical development of China’s transplant system—from the use of executed prisoners to the alleged targeting of prisoners of conscience, including Falun Gong practitioners and Uyghurs—the Article situates organ procurement practices within broader human rights and genocide concerns. It contends that despite congressional hearings, resolutions, and proposed sanctions, meaningful deterrence has been limited. The Article advances a novel enforcement theory: prosecution of U.S. persons under …

But-For Or Not But-For, The Question Is Answered, Samuel Rawlings Barnett Jr.

Belmont Law Review

In But-For or Not But-For, the Question Is Answered, Samuel Rawlings Barnett Jr. examines the ongoing federal circuit split regarding the appropriate causation standard for retaliation claims under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA). While some circuits apply a “motivating factor” standard, others require plaintiffs to prove “but-for” causation. The Note situates this division within the Supreme Court’s broader shift in employment discrimination jurisprudence from the mixed-motive framework of Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins to the stricter “but-for” standard articulated in Gross, Nassar, and Comcast. Through close statutory analysis of 29 U.S.C. § 2615(a)(1) and § …

Efficacy Of Deferoxamine Mesylate In Serum And Serum-Free Media: Adult Ventral Root Schwann Cell Survival Following Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Cell Death, Yee Hang Ethan Ma, Abhinay R. Putta, Cyrus H. H. Chan, Stephen R. Vidman, Paula V. Monje, Giles W. Plant

Neurosurgery Faculty Publications

Schwann cell (SC) transplantation shows promise in treating spinal cord injury as a pro-regenerative agent to allow host endogenous neurons to bridge over the lesion. However, SC transplants face significant oxidative stress facilitated by ROS in the lesion, leading to poor survival. deferoxamine mesylate (DFO) is a neuroprotective agent shown to reduce H₂O₂-induced cell death in serum-containing conditions. Here we show that DFO is not necessary to induce neuroprotection under serum-free conditions by cell survival quantification and phenotypic analysis via immunohistochemistry, Hif1α and collagen IV quantification via whole cell corrected total cell fluorescence, and cell death …

Contributors, Karin Dejonge-Kannan, Travis N. Thurston, Amanda Deliman, Amanda Morris, Anna Kuthy, Anne Cook, Beth Buyserie, Bethany B. Stone, Caroline Wienhold, Casandra E. Harper, Chris Kilgore, Cynthia Korpan, Elisabeth Schussler, Ferlin Mcgaskey, Gabrielle Stecher Woodward, Hannah Mae Lewis, James Agutter, Janette R. Hill, Jeff Spears, Jim Lamuth, Jordan Shipley, Kate Tregloan, Kim Hales, Letizia Guglielmo, Melissa E. Ko, Michael Morrone, Miranda Yaggi Rodak, Peggy Brickman, Raoul A. Mulder, Shannon M. Sipes, Sharon Lyman, Shihua Brazill, Stephen A. Klien, T. Adam Halstrom, Terri A. Dunbar, Victoria Mondelli, Vijay R. Kannan, Virginia Stormer

Documenting Teaching Excellence

No abstract provided.

More Than Money: Holistic Outcomes Of Catholic Higher Education, Jason King

Journal of Catholic Education

In an era dominated by financial metrics and return-on-investment rhetoric, this study offers a counternarrative by examining the holistic outcomes of Catholic higher education. Drawing on a nationally representative survey of 2,000 college graduates, it compares alumni of Catholic and secular institutions across three domains: life satisfaction and personal fulfillment; civic engagement and community involvement; and ethical development. The findings reveal that graduates of Catholic colleges report higher life satisfaction, greater civic participation, and a stronger ethical orientation than their secular peers—patterns that persist across demographic subgroups. While Catholic colleges perform well on traditional financial indicators, their distinctive value lies …

Creating Counternarratives To Heteronormativity In Art Education: Portraits Of The Lives Of Five Gay Art Teachers, Bradley Mckinney

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This study explored ways heteronormativity has been reinforced in art education, drawing from personal experiences and scholarly literature. I reflected on how conformity pressures influence individuals and communities aligning with Foucault's concepts of binary polarities, Butler’s theory of performativity, Sedgwick’s notion of survivor’s responsibility and Warner’s ideas of queer stigma. My research combines autoethnography, ethnography, personal narrative, and therapeutic reflection to create portraits, or in-depth narratives, and snapshots, or brief narratives, of five self-identified gay art teachers from the Midwestern region of the United States. These portraits and snapshots examine ways the participants navigated their identities within educational environments. Creating …

Sin, Sickness, Or Self-Defense? How Medicalizing Women’S Acts Of Survival Confounds Justification And Excuse, And Undermines Justice, Jordan Robinson

UIC Law Review

No abstract provided.

Menstrual Cycle Variations In Ultrasound And Biomechanical Risk Factors For Acl Injury In Adolescent Female Athletes, Jessica Garcia

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injuries are a significant concern in adolescent female athletes, with rates consistently higher than their male peers. This disparity is attributed to a complex combination of anatomical, hormonal, and neuromuscular factors that elevate injury risk while performing dynamic movements common in running and cutting sports such as soccer, basketball, lacrosse, and volleyball. Knee laxity has been identified as a potential risk factor, yet current measurement tools lack the sensitivity, reliability, and validity needed for practical application. Additionally, fluctuating sex hormones throughout the menstrual cycle (MC) have been implicated in changes to ligament properties and neuromuscular control, …

The Effects Of Speed, Grade And Footwear On Knee Adduction Moment And Tibial Shock, Alexis C. Gant

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Knee osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by progressive cartilage deterioration, chronic pain, and reduced mobility. Alterations in gait mechanics, particularly increased knee adduction moment (KAM) and tibial shock, are strongly associated with OA onset and progression. These biomechanical markers reflect abnormal joint loading and provide valuable insights for developing non-invasive interventions. This dissertation investigates how modifiable external factors, specifically walking slope, footwear type, and walking speed, influence knee joint loading patterns. The goal is to inform rehabilitation strategies that can decrease joint stress, alleviate symptoms, and slow disease progression.

Study 1 examines the effects of walking slope …

Force Matters: An Exploration Of Manual Therapies Effects On Passive Tension Properties Of The Lower Extremity., Loran D. Wade Jr

Kinesiology Dissertations - Archive

Musculoskeletal dysfunction is a leading cause of pain, functional limitation, and disability worldwide, necessitating the exploration of non-invasive therapeutic strategies. Manual therapy, which encompasses massage, stretching, and instrument-assisted soft tissue mobilization (IASTM), has long been used to address musculoskeletal dysfunction, yet its mechanisms of action and clinical efficacy remain inconsistently defined within the literature. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the historical foundations, physiological effects, and current applications of manual therapy techniques in the treatment of musculoskeletal disorders. Emphasis is placed on how these interventions influence key musculoskeletal properties, including tissue stiffness, joint range of motion, neuromuscular function, and …

Impact Of Climate Change On North Central Texas, Diana K. T. Hansen

Earth & Environmental Sciences Dissertations - Archive

ABSTRACT

IMPACT OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON

NORTH CENTRAL TEXAS

Diana Kay Thomas Hansen, Ph.D.

The University of Texas at Arlington, 2025

Supervising Professor: Arne M.E. Winguth

The North Central Texas region is a rapidly expanding metropolitan area. One of the largest climate hazards that will affect human health in this region are extended heat waves and heavy precipitation. This study will examine how these hazards will change in response to climate change and the impact to human health due to weather extremes in a changing climate.

Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (Phase 6) simulations were used to evaluate future projected temperature …

The Role Of Sodium Butyrate As An Inflammatory Regulator And Its Effect On Long Noncoding Rnas In Neuroinflammation, Angel Covarrubias

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses - Archive

Inflammation is a crucial homeostatic process that contributes to both the elimination of foreign invaders and tissue repair. Inflammation at sites of tissue injury or infection is initiated by the detection of a harmful stimulus, triggering vital inflammatory immune signaling pathways and a cascade of cytokines and inflammatory mediators. The dysregulation of this process, however, can result in inappropriate inflammatory responses manifesting in tissue damage and compromised cell function. Dysregulation of the inflammatory response is seen frequently in many human diseases such as Diabetes, Cancer, cardiovascular disease, and neurodegenerative diseases.

In the context of the Central Nervous system, inflammation is …

From The Personal To The Political: Abortion Salience And Women’S Voting Trends Over Three Decades, Danielle N. Myers

Political Science Theses - Archive

Abortion has shaped American politics for decades, yet its long-term impact on women’s political behavior remains under-examined. This study explores how abortion salience and media framing influenced women’s voter turnout between 1990 and 2020. Drawing on a content analysis of major newspaper coverage and voter data from the American National Election Studies (ANES), I test four hypotheses about turnout, belief alignment, party defection, and media framing effects. The results suggest that while Pro-Choice women consistently vote at higher rates and prioritize abortion in candidate selection, media salience alone does not significantly boost turnout or cause widespread party realignment. Additionally, increased …

Evaluation Of Electric Vehicle Batteries For Enabling High Power Loads, Maxton K. Manker

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

The growing demand for high-power energy storage systems in applications such as artificial intelligence (AI) data centers, industrial backup systems, and grid-level stabilization efforts presents new challenges in technology selection. These loads have a uniquely high continuous or transient power demand that can impact the stability of the electric grid. To mitigate these challenges, energy storage in the form of batteries or supercapacitors has been proposed either as stand-alone or as intelligently controlled grid buffering sources. These same types of energy storage are commonly found in electric vehicles (EV) where they must respond to abrupt throttle and braking behavior, similar …

Smart Irrigation System Using Iot And Lstm For Optimal Water Management, Farley Y. Ruiz

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

This thesis presents the design and implementation of a smart irrigation system that combines Internet of Things hardware with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) neural network for predictive soil moisture management. The goal is an affordable and reliable solution that uses real-time sensor data and environmental data to schedule irrigation before the substrate moisture drops below its target range. The system integrates soil moisture, temperature, humidity, and sensors on an Arduino Nano that communicates wirelessly with a Raspberry Pi. The Raspberry Pi runs a Python/Flask backend that collects and processes data, executes the LSTM model, and serves a secure web …

Power Quality Event Diagnosis Using Multi-Rate Neural Networks, Jordan D. Lloyd

Electrical Engineering Theses - Archive

Power quality disturbances (PQDs) are among the primary challenges facing modern electrical systems, as they degrade the performance and lifespan of connected equipment. This thesis investigates the relationship between the rate at which voltage waveform data are sampled, the reliability of these measurements, and the ability of deep neural networks to classify PQDs accurately. A one-dimensional convolutional neural network (CNN) was trained and evaluated across multiple sampling rates and signal-to-noise ratios to quantify how information loss in the temporal and spectral domains affects classification reliability. The results demonstrate that model accuracy degrades nonlinearly as sampling rate and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) …

Escapism: The Presence Of Escapist Tendencies In Depressed Gamers, Hannah K. Weberg, Emily Pica

Modern Psychological Studies

Escapism, a coping mechanism used to relieve stress, uniquely characterized by removing one’s conscious self from reality, can be utilized by video gamers with depression to escape from their own realities. The implications of this phenomenon could allow researchers to better understand how escapism affects this community. It was predicted that there would be a positive relationship between escapist gaming motivations and depressive symptoms. Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative survey methods drawing from undergraduate students at Austin Peay State University (n = 113) and correlational analyses, our hypotheses were supported. A significant positive relationship was found between escapist …

The Evolution Of The Stress Response In The Trinidadian Killifish: Ecological Drivers And Maternal Mediation, Mikaela E. Feder

Biology Dissertations - Archive

Ecological variables can induce the stress response in organisms. Yet, few studies have tested for evolutionary shifts in stress responses across ecological gradients. In these studies, we used Trinidadian killifish found in sites with predators (high predation, HP) and sites where they are the only fish present (killifish only, KO). HP and KO populations differ in a suite of behavioral and life-history traits, making the Trinidadian killifish an excellent model to examine evolutionary physiology. My dissertation addresses the knowledge gap by examining: (1) how baseline cortisol differs in wild-caught Trinidadian killifish found in HP and KO sites, (2) the influence …

Understanding Misinformation On Social Media Through Truthfulness Stance, Zhengyuan Zhu

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Misinformation on social media has become a pervasive issue that profoundly influences public opinion and decision-making. As false or misleading claims circulate widely online, there is a critical need for analytical tools to understand how people react to such claims. This dissertation introduces the concept of truthfulness stance as a key lens for social sensing. In essence, truthfulness stance assesses whether a textual utterance believes a factual claim to be true, false, or expresses a neutral stance or no stance toward the claim. Leveraging stance in this manner fills an important gap in misinformation research: it enables us to gauge …

Atorvastatin Alters Neuronal Morphology Data Set, Carolyn L. Pytte

Publications and Research

Statins are highly effective and widely prescribed cholesterol lowering drugs. However, statins cross the blood-brain barrier and decrease neural cholesterol in animal models, raising concern that long-term statin use may impact cholesterol-dependent structures and functions in the brain. Cholesterol is a fundamental component of cell membranes and experimentally decreasing membrane cholesterol has been shown to alter cell morphology in vitro. In addition, brain regions that undergo adult neurogenesis rely on local brain cholesterol for the manufacture of new neuronal membranes. Thus neurogenesis may be particularly vulnerable to long-term statin use. Here we asked whether oral statin treatment impacts neurogenesis …

Small Farms And Climate Change: Accomplishing Sdgs 2 And 13 By Supporting Food Sovereignty, Taylor Jeanfreau

Lex Specialis

United Nations member states have fallen woefully short on progress in accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and more urgent action is needed to combat the effects of climate change. International promotion of food sovereignty—an ideology that encourages localized, environmentally friendly food production— would help with the accomplishment of the SDGs, particularly goals 2 (ending world hunger and achieving food security) and 13 (combating climate change). This paper surveys the history of food sovereignty and explores the ways in which the concept supports SDGs 2 and 13, examining its production and environmental benefits as they relate to these specific goals. …

Unveiling Injustice: The Rule Of Law And Indigenous Rights In Guatemala -- A New Haven Perspective, John Mendez

Lex Specialis

No abstract provided.

2025 United Nations Millennium Fellowship Showcase, Lynn University

United Nations Millennium Fellowship Showcase

2025 United Nations Millennium Fellows:

• Amira Shiwraj
• Amit Yarlagadda
• Ana Bhattacharjee
• Arantza Espinoza Valencia
• Danielle Shapiro
• Emma Steinweiss
• Gisselle Thomas
• Jorge Suarez La Torre
• Juan Vazquez-Valderas
• Milani Ellis
• Nya Bowen
• Sofia Curiel Alvarez
• Sofia Dajer
• Tristan Posada
• Vivika Arocho