Digital Commons Network^™

“How Far Do These Roots Go Down”: An Exploration Of Latinx And Latina Fans On Representation In Disney's Encanto, Noemi Nunez

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

In this dissertation, I examine how Latinx and Latina audiences engaged with and interpreted Disney’s 2021 Encanto, an animated film celebrated for its representation of Colombian and broader Latinx culture. While scholarship on Latinx representation in media has expanded, less attention has been given to how Latinx audiences themselves respond to narratives that are meant to represent them, particularly within fan studies. Focusing on both a broader Latinx fan community and first-generation Latinas in the United States, this project explores how audiences negotiate representation and recognition using Encanto as a media text that centered a Latinx story. Drawing from …

Examining Principals' Perceptions Of Their Preparedness To Lead In Title I Schools, Tiffany Roebuck

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Principals serving in Title I schools face complex instructional, organizational, cultural, and community related demands that require specialized leadership preparation and support.  The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of principals serving in urban Title I schools regarding their preparedness, supports, challenges, and successes as instructional leaders. The study also examined principals' perceptions of culturally proficient leadership and principal preparation program attributes considered essential for leadership readiness in high-needs school settings. Guided by the Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL) framework, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 principals serving in urban Title I …

Online Risk And Harm For Marginalized Users: How Social Influence Amplifies Or Mitigates Vulnerability, Tangila Islam Tanni

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Social media has reshaped how people connect, communicate, and influence one another, yet these environments also create harms that disproportionately affect marginalized users. Participation in online communities can expose users to identity-based harassment, emotional distress, and the normalization of harmful attitudes, shaping identity, well-being, and participation online and offline. Prior work has documented many forms of online harm, yet less is understood about how harmful norms and behaviors are reinforced across different forms of social media interaction, from private direct messages to online communities. Guided by the Social Ecological Model, this dissertation investigates how online harms toward marginalized users emerge …

“I Call For The Resurgence And Reclamation Of Our Indigenous Ways”: Institutional Landscapes, Resistance, And The Experiences Of Mmir Advocates, Sara Tehrani

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Indigenous Peoples across Turtle Island experience disproportionately high rates of violence and homicide compared to other racial groups. Rooted in coloniality and sustained by Western institutions, this epidemic is recognized as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives (MMIR) crisis. In response, Indigenous women have mobilized the MMIR Movement to raise awareness and advocate for institutional change. Although scholarship on MMIR has expanded, limited research has explored the experiences of MMIR advocates. This study interrogates the institutional landscapes that shape MMIR advocacy and explores the resistance strategies advocates employ to address the crisis. Using reflexive thematic analysis, this study examines semi-structured …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of School Leaders’ Role In Implementing The Four Pillars Of Community Schools For Improving Student Achievement, Adrian Irwin Thomas

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This study examined teachers’ perceptions of school leaders’ roles in implementing the Four Pillars of Community Schools to support Student achievement in under-resourced schools. The four pillars of Community Schools- Integrated Student Support, Expanded Learning Time and Opportunities, Family and Community Engagement, and Collaborative Leadership and Practices- served as the conceptual framework for the study. Distributed Leadership Theory and Epstein’s Framework of Parental Involvement provided the theoretical lens that guided the interpretation of the findings. The study explored teachers’ perceptions of leadership practices associated with the four pillars and identified leadership strategies perceived as most effective for sustaining the community …

Evaluation Of Multiple Generative Large Language Models On Neurology Board-Style Questions, Mohammad Almomani, Vijaya Valaparla, James Weatherhead, Xiang Fang, Alok Dabi, Chih Ying Li, Peter Mccaffrey, Dan Hier, Jorge Mario Rodríguez-Fernández

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Objective: To compare the performance of eight large language models (LLMs) with neurology residents on board-style multiple-choice questions across seven subspecialties and two cognitive levels. Methods: In a cross-sectional benchmarking study, we evaluated Bard, Claude, Gemini v1, Gemini 2.5, ChatGPT-3.5, ChatGPT-4, ChatGPT-4o, and ChatGPT-5 using 107 text-only items spanning movement disorders, vascular neurology, neuroanatomy, neuroimmunology, epilepsy, neuromuscular disease, and neuro-infectious disease. Items were labeled as lower- or higher-order per Bloom's taxonomy by two neurologists. Models answered each item in a fresh session and reported confidence and Bloom classification. Residents completed the same set under exam-like conditions. Outcomes included overall and …

Arabic Clinical Mental Health Named Entity Recognition Via Distant Supervision: Recurrent Vs. Transformer-Based Architectures, Ali A. Jalil, Rabih Sbera

Polytechnic Journal

Arabic Natural Language Processing (NLP) has made great strides, but the accurate extraction of mental state and physiological symptoms from patient-generated clinical consultations in dialectal Arabic, which is plagued with significant morphological complexity, colloquial noise and an extremely limited number of manually annotated clinical benchmarks, remains a significant challenge. In this work, we propose an end-to-end token-level symptom extraction system that is systematic and grounded in distant supervision paradigm and a strict gold standard evaluation with human verification to ensure real-world clinical generalization. A large weakly labelled corpus of 46,873 Arabic patient questions was created based on a clinical lexicon …

Exploring The Use Of Strategic Influencer Leadership (Sil) In Health Communication: A Cross-Cultural, Multi-Case Study, Katharina Wolf, Catherine Archer, Syafiq B. Assegaff, Joseph Nalloor

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose This study challenges the social media-centric view of influencers, arguing that health communication benefits from diverse strategic influencers beyond commercial figures. Trust, credibility and cultural resonance are essential for effective public health messaging, yet contemporary approaches often prioritise engagement metrics over strategic influence. Design/methodology/approach This paper employs a multi-case study approach to examine the strategic use of influencers in health communication across Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic. It explores how health professionals, royal representatives and a politician shaped public health messaging within culturally specific contexts. A mixed-methods approach, incorporating ethnographic research and thematic …

Generative Artificial Intelligence (Genai) In Procurement And Supply Chain Management: Applications, Opportunities And Challenges, Vinay Singh, Laurie Hughes, Mousa Ahmed Albashrawi, Il Jeon, Yogesh K. Dwivedi

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Purpose: This article aims to explore the transformative potential of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in procurement and supply chain management (SCM), with a focus on its practical applications, strategic implications and integration challenges. Design/methodology/approach: Adopting a conceptual approach, this article presents the authors’ views and arguments, supported by a review of existing literature and informed by insights from discussions with industry experts. The discussion in this conceptual article is anchored in the supply chain operations reference model. Findings: This research addresses critical questions regarding the practical and strategic impacts of GenAI, emphasizing its ability to simulate scenarios, deliver real-time insights …

Echoes Of The Nation: Janáček, Bartók, And The Articulation Of Central European Identity In Opera, Elyse Morris

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This thesis examines how opera functioned as a medium for articulating and negotiating national identity in the final decades of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Focusing on Leoš Janáček’s Jenůfa (1904) and Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle (1911), it explores how composers employed dramatic structure, linguistic choice, and musical language to construct culturally specific forms of expression within a rapidly shifting political and social landscape. Drawing on approaches from musicology and cultural history, the study considers how operatic works not only reflect national identity but actively participate in its formation.

Through analysis of libretto, language, and musical style, this thesis demonstrates that both …

Rhetoric Of Opportunity: An Analysis Of Gullah Geechee Histories Through The Lens Of Counterstory, Xaria Arthur

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Counterstory as a method/ology has been used in a variety of disciplines to share experiences of individuals and communities whose voices have been historically silenced or suppressed. Utilizing this methodological framework, my study shares the stories of six Gullah Geechee descendants with ancestral roots in the unincorporated community of Nesmith in Williamsburg County, SC. Treating these minoritized and individual stories as experiential knowledge, I trace the counterstories as topoi to introduce and develop the theoretical concept that I call the rhetoric of opportunity, which refers to memories or stories that have come to motivate individuals toward or away from …

Establishing And Testing Experiential Critical Theory (Ect), Dolores M. Batten Mrs.

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

There is a current gap in academia which has been largely overlooked in both pedagogy and assessment: the value of personal experience as key evidence of interpretation and meaning-making correlation. Aside from narrative writing, most current methods of literary analysis writing do not place a high value on personal experience beyond the inclusion of brief anecdotes. Yet experience is the major pathway by which an individual forms their worldview, which then informs the ways in which they interpret the world—and by extension, text. This dissertation both establishes and examines the use of Experiential Critical Theory (ECT) in pedagogical application for …

An Integrated Framework For Last-Mile Delivery Optimization Using Reinforcement Learning And Social Media-Based Traffic Prediction In Underdeveloped Megacities, Vasanth Bhat

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Supply chain management has become increasingly critical as transportation costs rise and urban delivery systems place additional pressure on already congested networks. Last-mile delivery—the movement of goods from distribution centers to end users—represents the most expensive and operationally complex segment of the logistics process, particularly in underdeveloped megacities characterized by unpredictable traffic, limited infrastructure, and sparse real-time data. This dissertation proposes an integrated framework for optimizing last-mile delivery in such environments by combining social media–based traffic intelligence, machine learning, and deep reinforcement learning. The framework leverages unstructured, real-time data from social media platforms to enhance traffic prediction and incorporates these …

The Bite Model And Multi-Level Marketing: How Monat Propagates, Lilly D. Cheung

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This study aims to understand how MONAT Global Corp, a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company, utilizes rhetoric that aligns with Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. Hassan is a cult expert and cult survivor whose work primarily explains undue influence and thought control with BITE representing Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. The MLM MONAT is a haircare brand that operates through a recruitment-and-sales-based hierarchy, in which sellers sign up and work under one another in a layered marketing structure. To meet quotas and maintain ranks, representatives will use rhetorical strategies to recruit new sellers beneath them in their ‘downline’ …

Contested Air: Politics, Prejudice, And Radio Broadcasting In New York State, 1925-1928, Sebastian Garcia

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This thesis examines the intersection between radio broadcasting as the "new media" of the 1920s and American political culture of the period, using New York Governor and 1928 Democratic presidential candidate Alfred E. Smith as a case study. Smith entered 1925 as a political lone wolf and left the year as a triumphant victor set to take the presidency. Building on the work of Smithian scholars, this thesis illuminates how Smith’s radio use remained central to this political transformation. Smith found in radio an apt space to bypass Republican opposition and mobilize the body politic through direct engagement, which, in …

Reflection In Still Waters: Generative Ai's Production Of Language, Jonathan D. Hawks

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Language is a conceptual process of meaning-making as well as a social construction as defined by Saussure, Bakhtin, and Lacan. Large Language Models (LLMs) engage with neither process and instead present language as a finished and consumable product which undermines its fundamental aspects. The difference between representing language through probability and its structural components instead of its more inherent qualities is not a pointless distinction. This paper utilizes Narcissus as a central metaphor to show how people misread the outputs of LLMs as language which imparts to those reflected words meaning on par with our own conceptualizations of reality. People …

Benchmarking And Advancing Heterogeneous Data Reasoning With Large Language Models, Yebowen Hu

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Large language models (LLMs) increasingly face complex real-world tasks requiring complex reasoning over heterogeneous inputs, including text, numbers, and structured data. This dissertation first investigates the capability boundaries of LLMs under such scenarios. Through the MeetingBank and SportsMetrics benchmarks, we show that while LLMs exhibit linguistic fluency, they struggle with factual accuracy, information density, and quantitative cross-referencing in meeting summarization and sports analysis. Using DecipherPref, a pair-wise evaluation framework grounded in the Bradley-Terry-Luce model, we further probe LLMs' inherent preferences for information-rich and lengthy inputs, and we identify critical deficiencies in financial decision-making through DeFine, where models lack precise insight …

"Time And Place Have Had Their Say": A Digital Historical Context Guide To Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, Anna Kephart Norris

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Harlem Renaissance author, anthropologist, and folklorist Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) is best known for her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. As part of the modern American literary canon, Their Eyes Were Watching God is assigned in countless secondary and post-secondary classrooms across the United States each year. Yet students find the book difficult to understand and educators find it challenging to teach due to its dialect, racial themes, and nuanced historical setting. In this paper, I argue that better understanding of Their Eyes Were Watching God's historical context eases these difficulties in reading and teaching the …

Old Maps Of The New World & New Theories On The European Encounter With La Florida: An Historical Archaeological And Four Field Anthropological Approach To Peter Apian's Cosmographia (1575), Emerson S F Richards

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This thesis examines the 1575 Spanish edition of the Cosmographia, a geographic textbook initially authored by Peter Apian and expanded by Gemma Frisius, as a source for anthropological inquiry into early European encounters with the Americas. Little attention has been given to the text’s potential as a source for anthropological analysis, particularly regarding its representations of the Americas and the cultural information embedded in the geographic data. This study addresses that gap by applying a Four-Field anthropological framework—cultural, biological, linguistic, and archaeological—to this edition, which incorporates excerpts from Ieronimo Girava’s qualitative and quantitative description of the Americas, including a …

Uae Traditional Folklore Through Modern Media And Its Educational Potential: The Case Of Freej, Shahad Imad Mostafa

Theses

This mixed‑methods study examined how the Emirati animated series Freej preserves traditional folklore through vernacular language, dialect, and idiomatic expressions, and evaluated its educational potential. Guided by four questions on folklore representation, dialect/idiom use, the role of the characters, and curricular applicability, the research combined content analysis of selected episodes, interviews coding and a survey of 100 Emirati participants; survey data were summarized with descriptive statistics to triangulate qualitative insights.

Findings indicated that audiences overwhelmingly perceived Freej as linguistically and culturally authentic: 95% rated the dialect as very/somewhat authentic, 94% said it reflects elders’ speech, and 89% felt the series …

Diasporic Challenges, Domestic Abuse And Patriarchal Norms Experienced By Migrant Pakistani Women In Australia, Safia Iftikhar, Shajimon Peter, Vicki Banham, Elizabeth Reid Boyd

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines diasporic challenges, domestic abuse and patriarchal ideologies that constitute unique diasporic lives of first-generation migrant married Pakistani women (MPW) in Australia. For this qualitative study, 21 MPW residing in Australia were recruited for semi-structured in-depth interviews. Results from the interpretative phenomenological analysis of data revealed the diasporic encounters MPW face in Australia and the influence of patriarchal ideology on their lives in navigating those encounters. MPW’s responses to patriarchal norms in their married lives fell on a spectrum, which include conformation to the norms of patriarchal familial structures on the one side and resistance and bargaining against …

Text Messaging Programs To Support Family Literacy Practices: A Scoping Review, Lennie Barblett, Leanne Lavina, Nicola Johnson, Caroline Barratt-Pugh

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Using bulk digital text messaging has been shown to be effective in many different fields such as health program interventions and supporting parents/carers. Evaluations of these interventions indicate positive changes in practice; however, it appears the potential of digital messaging through short message services (SMS) have not been fully taken advantage of in early childhood education. This scoping review using Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) approach investigates the current practices of text messaging programs to support families in the development of preschool aged children’s language and literacy learning. Searches of five databases identified 16 articles that fitted our criteria. Results indicate: …

Developing Consumer Consensus On Remote Assessment And Management Of Physical Function In Older Adults (Ramp): International Modified Delphi Process, Elsa Dent, Christopher Hurst, Jack Dalla Via, Jackson J. Fyfe, Paul Jansons, Eleanor J. Hayes, Gary Skinner, Marc Sim, Mylene Aubertin-Leheudre, Sabine Britting, Fanny Buckinx, Gavin Connolly, Lora Giangregorio, Jennifer R.A. Jones, Pauline Kelly, Robert Kob, Suzanne N. Morin, Girish Nandakumar, Lucas B.R. Orssatto, Maria Pearson, Daniel Pinto, Esmee M. Reijnierse, Catherine M. Said, Mohamed Salem, Vina P.S. Tan, Rosanna Tran

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Remote health care delivery, including the use of digital health interventions, is emerging as a tool for assessing and managing physical function, but its design and implementation often overlook the needs and preferences of older adult end users. Objective: The primary aim of this modified Delphi process was to develop consumer consensus on preferences for remote assessment and management of physical function in older adults. Methods: Research and consumer experts of the Remote Assessment and Management of Physical Function in Older Adults (RAMP) Working Group co-developed the Round 1 Delphi survey, which was advertised to consumers (adults aged ≥60 …

Noongar Culture, Arts Learning, And Wellbeing Literacy In Early Childhood: A Case Study Of The Song Room’S Deadly Arts Early Years Program In Western Australia Government Primary Schools, Jason Goopy, Narelle Lemon, Megan Mcpherson, Libby Jackson-Barrett, Jacqueline West

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This report presents findings from a case study examining how The Song Room's Deadly Arts Early Years program supports wellbeing literacy in early childhood education through engagement with Noongar culture, arts, and storytelling at Western Australia government primary schools. Conducted on Whadjuk Noongar Boodjar at Huntingdale Primary School and Orelia Primary School, the research was co-designed with Indigenous and non-Indigenous teaching artists, school communities, and The Song Room.

The study adopted wellbeing literacy — the capability to understand and intentionally use language about and for wellbeing across contexts — as its theoretical framework. Creative arts-based methods, including draw and tell …

Becoming A Nurse: A Lifelong Journey Beyond The Transition To Professional Practice-An Analytical Discursive Paper, Seung A. Park, Eckert, Rebecca Sharp, Judy Duchscher, Micah D.J. Peters

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Aim: To reconceptualise becoming a nurse as a lifelong developmental journey that extends beyond the traditional focus on new graduate transition, and to inform policies and practices supporting recruitment, retention and career sustainability. Background: The global nursing shortage persists, exacerbated by high attrition rates among new graduates and an aging workforce. While existing literature predominantly examines the transition from student to professional practice, we propose that ‘becoming a nurse’ begins earlier and extends beyond clinical roles into retirement. Design: An analytical discursive paper. Data Sources: Key theoretical frameworks (Schlossberg's Transition Model, Kennedy's Integrated Transition Model, Benner's Novice-to-Expert framework and Duchscher's …

Lived Experience Of Secondary Vicarious Trauma Among The Tegaru Australian Diaspora In The Postwar Context Of Tigray, Hailay Abrha Gesesew, Fauk, Kiflu Gebremicael Tesfamicael, Gebremeskel Mamu Werid, Lillian Mwanri, Amanuel Gebremedhin, Kidane Gebremariam, Semira Hailu, Kalayu Brhane Mruts, Michael Musker, Fisaha Haile Tesfay, Azeb Gebresilassie Tesema, Paul Ward

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: The war in Tigray has caused humanitarian and public health crises in North Ethiopia in addition to a high prevalence of mental health symptoms among the Tegaru (people from Tigray) diaspora in Australia. To date, there have been no studies that have explored mechanisms of vicarious mental health and resilience among Tegaru diasporas in Australia. Methods: We conducted 14 in-depth interviews with Tegaru people living in South Australia from September 2023 to June 2024. Data analysis involved an initial stage of open coding, followed by conceptual coding. We also applied “interanalyst validity” to validate the code of framework. Results: …

Rethinking Australian Teacher Education: A Reflective Tool For Culturally And Linguistically Sustaining Pedagogies, Sasha Janes, Paolino, Jane Merewether, Christine Cunningham

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Australia’s cultural and linguistic diversity highlights a pressing need for teacher education programs to prepare educators who can effectively support plurilingual learners. At the same time, existing programs often fall short in building the pedagogic and linguistic knowledge required to counter dominant English-only norms. This study draws on the framework of culturally and linguistically sustaining pedagogies (CLSP) to explicitly centre plurilingual practices. CLSP is particularly relevant in the Australian context, where English-centric policies continue to marginalise First Nations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) knowledges and perspectives and plurilingual ways of knowing and being. We present findings from a national study …

Reflections On Linear B, (Part 15): Sign 81 In Linear A And The Egyptian Four-Headed Ram God, Gerald Leonard Cohen

Arts, Languages and Philosophy Faculty Research & Creative Works

This article makes several tentative suggestions, including:

1. Linear A sign 81 (antecedent of Linear B81) may be an abbreviated image (two heads) of the four-headed Egyptian ram god Banebdjedet, with the horizontal line designating his horns shifted downward to the middle of the character.

2. A few other Linear A characters (e.g., sign 305) may represent slight alterations of sign A81.

3. Linear A82 includes two sets of three short horizontal lines. Those might signify brightness, and in the case of Banebdjedet the brightness would be his wisdom.

Large Language Model-Assisted Research Question Development In Public Health: A Case Study In The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program For Women, Infants, And Children (Wic), Qi Zhang, Bidusha Neupane, Priyanka Patel, Futun N. Alkhalifah, Yi He, Leslie Hodges

Health Behavior, Policy & Management Faculty Publications

Objective:

To assess the feasibility of using large language models (LLMs) to develop research questions about changes to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) food packages.

Design:

We conducted a controlled experiment using ChatGPT-4 and its plugin, MixerBox Scholarly, to generate research questions based on a section of the USDA summary of the final public comments on the WIC revision. Five questions weekly for three weeks were generated using LLMs under two conditions: fed with or without relevant literature. The experiment generated 90 questions, which were evaluated using the FINER criteria (Feasibility, Innovation, Novelty, Ethics, …

Breaking The Resistance: A Narrative Review Of The Evolution From Traditional Drugs To Precision Therapies In Epilepsy, Tirath Patel, Fathimathul Henna, Ashfaq Ahmed, Ayesha Ahmad, Noor Ul Huda, Syed Aaraiz Ul Hassan, Aiman Muhammad, Amna Javed, Maryem Filal, Nikhilesh Anand

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures, affecting approximately 50 million individuals globally. While conventional antiseizure medications (ASMs) control seizures in 70-80% of patients, about 30% experience drug resistance or intolerable side effects, necessitating alternative approaches.

Objective: To critically compare the efficacy, safety, and accessibility of conventional and emerging therapies for epilepsy, particularly in the context of treatment-resistant cases and global disparities in care.

Methods: This narrative review synthesized evidence from 120 peer-reviewed articles published between 2015 and 2025. Literature was retrieved from PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and Scopus using predefined search terms related to epilepsy …