Digital Commons Network^™

Middle Grades English Language Arts Teachers’Experiences Of Care: A Narrative Case Study, Kathleen Rose O’Farrell

Theses and Dissertations

This narrative case study examined how four middle grades English Language Arts (ELA) teachers enacted care in a suburban Northeastern U.S. middle school. Drawing on interviews, classroom observations, instructional artifacts, and notes, the study developed narrative portraits to examine how care was experienced and enacted within daily instructional practices. Guided by Nel Noddings’s (2013) care theory and Geneva Gay’s (2018) culturally responsive care framework, the study explored how teachers sustained meaningful and equitable instruction amid post-pandemic academic, social-emotional, and technological shifts. Findings revealed care as the instructional foundation, making equitable and meaningful literacy learning possible with three interrelated dimensions: trust, …

Multi-Tier Systems Of Support: A K–12 Case Study, Christopher Foster

Theses and Dissertations

Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) has emerged as a widely adopted framework intended to address student academic and behavioral needs through tiered intervention systems and data-informed decision making. While many school districts have implemented MTSS frameworks, variability in implementation across grade levels and school contexts continues to affect the consistency and effectiveness of these systems. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the implementation of MTSS across the K–12 continuum within a public school district in the northeastern United States. The study explored three central areas: the structural features supporting MTSS implementation, stakeholder perceptions of MTSS effectiveness, …

Teacher And Administrator Perspectives On Participation In Professional Learning Communities And Their Impact On Collective Teacher Efficacy: A Multi Case Study, Maria Kambourakis

Theses and Dissertations

Urban educators face ongoing challenges in establishing collaborative cultures that effectively maximize student achievement. To address this research problem, this qualitative case study investigates how teachers and administrators perceive their participation in Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and how these perceptions shape Collective Teacher Efficacy (CTE). Grounded in Bandura’s social cognitive theory of collective efficacy and DuFour’s PLC framework, the research explores how structured collaboration enhances educators' shared beliefs in their ability to positively impact student learning. The researcher employed a qualitative case study design involving eight teachers and two administrators across two non-public, urban K-8 schools in Brooklyn, New York. …

Using High Speed Kinematics To Investigate Kinematic Variation Across Populations Of Astyanax Mexicanus, Agniva Sinha

Theses and Dissertations

Kinematic analysis pipelines now provide temporal and geometric resolution for determining a variety of body movement. These machine-learning trained programs allow behavioral neuroscientists to dissect complex behaviors and relate changes in those movements to conserved neural assemblages. These analyses are common in model organisms, but a lack of ethologically driven kinematic work in non-models has hampered our understanding of how evolution shapes behavior through sensorimotor circuits. Astyanax Mexicanus is a unique model organism that allows us to understand how evolutionary divergence as a result of adaptation to environmental conditions leads to genotypic and associated phenotypic changes in brain development and …

Embracing Pluralism In Catholic Schools: Administrative And Faculty Perspectives On Multiculturalism In Education, Gerard J. Buckley

Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative, nonexperimental study examined faculty and administrative perspectives on multiculturalism in Catholic schools across New York State. Archived New York State Education Department (NYSED) data were analyzed to identify student race/ethnicity enrollment trends in Catholic schools from 2013 to 2025, alongside survey data measuring Catholic school educators’ perceptions of multiculturalism. Survey participants included faculty and administrators from seven dioceses across New York State. Data were analyzed using ANOVAs and multiple regression. The study addressed two primary areas: changes in racial/ethnic enrollment over time and differences in educator perceptions on multiculturalism based on demographic and professional factors. Findings showed a …

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Higher Education Enrollment, Shonna L. Jones-Washington

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of AI-driven chatbot technology on the progression through the undergraduate admissions funnel, including application, admission, and enrollment, and to explore how AI outreach intensity predicts these outcomes while addressing potential disparities across student subgroups. The study involved 24,141 data records, including both domestic and international undergraduate applicants to St. John’s University for the Fall 2025 semester. The study found that AI interaction was associated with higher admission rates (83.0% vs. 75.7%) but revealed no significant relationship between AI usage and final enrollment rates. Quantitative analyses, including chi-square tests, binary logistic …

Analytics Framework For Cyberattack Risk, Severity, And Timing Prediction Using Survival - Aware Sequence Modeling, Mariia Voronina

Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to develop an analytics framework for cyberattack risk, severity, and timing prediction using survival-aware sequence modeling. The primary objective was to analyze the temporal dynamics of cyberattacks by jointly considering attack type, severity, risk, and time-to-attack, and to evaluate whether these components can be effectively modeled within a probabilistic framework. The analysis was conducted using a synthetically generated cyberattack dataset designed for cybersecurity research purposes. The dataset included multiple attack categories, such as DDoS, Intrusion, Malware, severity levels, and engineered risk measures. Python was used as the primary programming language for data analysis and model development. The …

Exploring Perceived School Administrator Leadership Support And Teacher Burnout, Matthew H. Stifelman

Theses and Dissertations

Burnout is an issue that affects those in numerous occupational settings and comes with tremendous risks for physical and psychological consequences (Edú-Balsania et al., 2022). Burnout is defined as one’s psychological response to chronic work stressors that can cause cognitive, emotional, or physical health damage (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Decades of research have identified numerous risk factors for burnout across occupations. Risk factors include job and personal values, workload, lack Burnout is an issue that affects those in numerous occupational settings and comes with tremendous risks for physical and psychological consequences (Edú-Balsania et al., 2022). Burnout is defined as one’s …

Interference Under Pressure: Task-Switching And Cognitive Control In Adhd, Rocio Belen Varela

Theses and Dissertations

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a widespread neurodevelopmental condition associated with significant academic difficulties, often resulting in students scoring a year below average on standardized examinations (Lawrence et al., 2020; Mohammadi et al., 2019). A proposed core feature of the disorder involves impairments in working memory (WM), specifically the Central Executive component responsible for attentional control (Alderson et al., 2013; Kofler et al., 2008). These WM operations are governed by two cognitive control modalities: proactive control (sustained, anticipatory maintenance) and reactive control (cue-driven, on-demand processing) (Braver et al., 2007). This quasi-experimental study investigated whether a natural tendency toward reactive control grants …

2026-2027 Catalog, Governors State University

Catalogs

The 2026-2027 Governors State University Undergraduate and Graduate Catalog is a comprehensive listing of current information regarding:
Degree Requirements
Course Offerings
Undergraduate and Graduate Rules and Regulations

Valuing Future Lives, Daniel J. Hemel, Jonathan S. Masur

Public Law and Legal Theory Working Papers

Federal regulation often involves a tradeoff between monetary costs in the present and life-saving benefits in the future. A central question in regulatory cost-benefit analysis is how to assign a present dollar value to future lives so that future lives and present dollars can be compared. For regulations that are projected to prevent deaths years or decades down the road, agencies make two key analytical moves. First, they adjust the value of a statistical life upward to reflect the fact that society’s willingness to pay to save lives will rise as people become wealthier in the future. Second, they discount …

Effectiveness Of Walleye Stocking In Winter Kill Lakes, Tyler Haus

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Winter kill events, marked by extensive fish mortality due to hypoxic conditions under the ice, are a common phenomenon in shallow eutrophic lakes, especially in the northern lakes in the northern United States. These events can drastically alter fish communities and often result in the elimination of top predators. Though these lakes will typically slowly bounce back to what they were in a couple of years. This study evaluates the effectiveness of walleye, Sander vitreus, stocking in lakes after a winter kill. For this study, four known winter kill lakes that are consistently stocked with walleye were studied. Pre- …

Assessing Urban–Rural Differences In Largemouth Bass Abundance In Minnesota, Jonathan Gates

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Urbanization can significantly alter freshwater ecosystems and influence sport fish populations. This study examined differences in largemouth bass Micropterus nigricans catch-per-unit-effort (CPUE) between urban and rural lakes in Minnesota and evaluated temporal changes between 2000–2010 and 2011–2021. Forty lakes (20 urban, 20 rural) were selected using Minnesota Department of Natural Resources fisheries survey data. Lakes were classified using NLCD 2019 land cover data, with ≥10% developed land designated as urban. Nonparametric analyses (Wilcoxon rank-sum and signed-rank tests) were used to assess spatial and temporal differences in CPUE. Results showed that rural lakes had consistently higher median CPUE than urban lakes …

Neonicotinoid Bioaccumulation In Bluegill And Bullhead Within Lake Julia And Lake Zumwalde, Jake Stuber

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Brown Bullhead Ameiurus nebulosus, Yellow Bullhead Ameiurus natalis, and Bluegill Lepomis macrochirus are unique in their stark differences. Bullhead are scaleless bottom feeders that can tolerate high pollution and low O₂ conditions. In contrast, Bluegill are scaled, aggressive nesters and are less tolerant of high pollutants or low-oxygen conditions. Among these pollutants include a class of chemicals called neonicotinoids (hereafter referred to as neonics). Neonics are a class of insecticides primarily used within agriculture and pest management. Due to the effectiveness, application has escalated on a global scale. They have been well documented by many toxicology assessments. …

Indigenous Land Seizure & Environmental Injustice: Impacts Of Settler Colonialism, Lydia Moorman

Journal of Earth and Life Science

The fields of conservation and environmentalism prioritize ecosystem health, yet both emerged from western frameworks that displaced and criminalized Indigenous land stewardship. The idealization of “pristine wilderness” narratives served to justify the removal of Indigenous peoples from their homelands and erased millennia of sustainable land stewardship that had maintained ecological balance long before western conservation existed. These narratives not only misrepresented Indigenous relationship with land but also constructed a false dichotomy between humans and nature that positioned Indigenous presence as a threat rather than a source of ecological knowledge. Simultaneously, anthropogenic expansion; such as pipelines, mining, railroads, and other extractive …

Powering The Machine, Draining The Planet: Whether U.S. Environmental Law Is Equipped To Regulate The Energy And Water Demands Of Ai Data Centers, Michael Marcu

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Artificial intelligence (AI) data centers have become one of the United States' fastest-growing and least-regulated sources of environmental stress. In 2024 alone, U.S. data centers consumed 183 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity more than the entire nation of Pakistan and consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water (IEA, 2025; Berkeley Lab, 2024). By 2030, electricity demand from these facilities is projected to reach 426 TWh, a 133% increase in six years (Pew Research Center, 2025). This paper examines whether the existing U.S. environmental regulatory framework put by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Clean Water Act (CWA), and the …

Stochastic Mechanical Mesoscale Modeling Of Cylindrical Cavities In Metallic Foams, Mujan N. Seif, Alexandre Martin, Matthew J. Beck

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

Aluminum foam is a critical component of state-of-the-art micrometeoroid and orbital debris shielding. However, its randomly oriented constituent ligaments create significant variability in properties at different length scales. Previous efforts have thoroughly characterized the statistical implications of micro- to macro-scale-length transitions on the homogenized elastic behavior of damage-free, pre–micrometeroid and orbital debris (MMOD) strike structures. In this work, the properties of the residual material post MMOD impact are assessed by introducing cylindrical cavities representing the damage track. It was observed that configuring the cavity parallel to the through-the-thickness direction transformed a nominally isotropic foam into an anisotropic (transverse isotropic) material, …

Insights From And Future Directions For A Nationwide Science And Engineering Education Collaboration In Stratospheric Ballooning, Beth A. Covitt, Angela C. Des Jardins, Erick P. Agrimson, Jason T. Ash, Sean C.C. Bailey, Katelyn A. Barber, Mike J. Bastidas, Edgar A. Bering, Matthew T. Bernards, Anthony Choi, Nicholas B. Conklin, Jacqueline K.Q. Do, Montana Etten-Bohm, William F. Finney, James A. Flaten, Jeffrey M. Freedman, Rachel H. Humphrey, Eric P. Kelsey, Hunmin Kim, Christopher L. Lee, Wookwon Lee, Jared W. Marquis, Justin R. Minder, Jani M. Pallis, David J. Pawlowski, Chong Qiu, Joanna H. Rivers, Jason A. Ruszkowski, Jillian B. Schmidt, Thomas G. Sharp, Paul E. Slaboch, Suzanne W. Smith

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

The Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project (NEBP) engaged 53 teams of students from across the United States to fly experiments on high-altitude balloons for the 2023 annular and 2024 total solar eclipses. By many measures, NEBP was a successful project. However, the teams did encounter challenges. To better understand what could be improved for similar future projects, this study engaged project partners in examining strengths, challenges, and recommendations across four topics: project structure, education and research approach, broadening participation, and funding. Analysis of the topics was completed through written comments followed by remote focus group discussions. The project director and evaluator …

Use Of Ai In Expert Testimony: Understanding The Attorney Perspective, Emma S. Puntin

Program in Community Action (PICA)

Artificial Intelligence is becoming increasingly incorporated into different aspects of society, including our legal system. AI has potential to enter into legal proceedings through the introduction of its evidence in case and expert witness testimony. Expert witnesses are called to offer knowledge on matters relevant to a case and can vary in specialization. This study aimed to explore how attorneys view experts who use AI and how they would approach this in a courtroom setting. Structured interviews were conducted with ten attorneys from various jurisdictions. During these interviews, attorneys were asked what they have encountered during their work in the …

Using L1-Magic For Feature Enhancement And Reduced Redundancy In Hyperspectral Data, Ashley Alfred

Mathematics Dissertations

Hyperspectral imaging offers detailed spectral information, but achieving high spatial resolution typically requires large and expensive equipment. This study explores an alternative approach: enhancing low-quality hyperspectral bands using an L1-norm minimization technique known as L1-magic. The goal is to improve the utility of low-cost hardware by preserving discriminative features, promoting sparsity, and reducing spectral redundancy. We apply L1-magic to enhance low-quality bands and hypothesize that this method selectively amplifies key features while suppressing redundant information. Experimental results indicate that the enhanced bands approach the quality of high-resolution data, enabling robust feature extraction without reliance on high-end hyperspectral cameras.

Ultra-Low Noise Ion Detection For Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay Searches, Karen E. Navarro

Physics Dissertations

Neutrinos are the most abundant particles in the universe that carry mass. Yet, we know very little about them since they are electrically neutral and interact weakly. A small instance after the Big Bang, an imbalance occurred that caused matter to be produced in greater quantities than antimatter. A leading candidate for this unexplained process is leptogenesis. Leptogenesis predicts that neutrinos are Majorana particles: a particle that is its own antiparticle. Today, particle detectors are being constructed to search for this property through the yet unobserved neutrinoless double beta decay (0νββ) . If observed, this would demonstrate that neutrinos are …

Applied Machine Learning In Mineral Prospectivity Mapping In The South Pass-Granite Mountains Of Wyoming, Carl D. York

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The South Pass-Granite Mountains, comprised of Archean to Tertiary rocks embedded with an Archean greenstone belt in Central Wyoming, have historically been mined for gold, iron, steel, and silver. Rare earth elements have been of increasing interest in the region and thus, several datasets have become available. Knowledge driven and data driven models are used in mineral prospectivity mapping with input data including geological mapping, geochemical data, geophysical (USGS Critical Mineral magnetic and gravity data), radiometric (U, Th, K) data and multispectral remote sensing data. Mineral prospectivity has seen a rapid improvement in recent years using advancements in machine learning …

Flow Regime Shifts And Channel Morphological Adjustments In Response To Changing Climate Patterns: Examples From Gasconade River, Missouri, Usa, Katherine E. Brand

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Recent changes in climate patterns due to anthropogenic inputs (i.e. greenhouse gases/CO₂) have caused alterations to precipitation events leading to altered flow regimes. Changes in the magnitude and frequency of flood events results in physical adjustments to river morphology, including changes in width and depth. As rivers experience more frequent and larger flood events, they accommodate by changing their morphological characteristics. The Gasconade River, a tributary of the Missouri River located in southcentral Missouri, USA, has exhibited recent patterns of acute bank erosion with limited understanding of its causes and effects on the river. This study aims to understand how …

Urban Megaregions In The United States: A Gis-Based Approach To Defining A New Regional Geography, Jonas Rugys

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This study investigates urban megaregions in the United States. The regional concept is examined from its origins in the geographic tradition as well as its transformation in the twentieth century to its current state. A GIS-based methodology for defining urban megaregions is presented and discussed. The results challenge existing assumptions of population and employment growth in the United States.

Colonel William J. Hoynes Award, Notre Dame Law School

Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

The Hoynes Prize, is a gift of Dean William James Hoynes, 1878, LL.D. 1888, first dean of the Notre Dame Law School.

To the graduating law class member who has the best record in scholarship, application, deportment, and achievement.

Allison T. Dang Award Of Service, Asian Pacific American Law Students Association, Notre Dame Law School

Student, Faculty, and Staff Awards

Presented to a student who has demonstrated exceptional dedication, service, and support to the APALSA community and fellow AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) students. This award recognizes an individual who has selflessly worked to support the needs of others and embody a spirit of care and service.

Pursuer Evader Surveillance Game, Zijie Mu

Honors Theses

This thesis studies the pursuer evader surveillance game with a triangular obstacle in the short-term. In the game, the pursuer aims to maintain surveillance of the evader as long as possible while the evader aims to break surveillance in a finite time. We classify the player strategies into  ideal ones and best admissible ones. The outcome of the game is determined by line of sight. We reduce the 4D game to a 3D game with a boundary separating two different local regimes. When the evader starts inside the threshold, we show that there exists an admissible evader that maintains an …

Education And The Maternal Childcare Gap: Evidence From The Uk Covid-19 Pandemic, Lara Bakhaya

Honors Theses

This paper examines whether college education shapes working mothers’ access to remote work, flexible working, and childcare hours in the United Kingdom, and whether COVID-19 school closures amplified these inequalities. Using data from the UK Time Use Survey (2016–2021), a repeated cross-sectional diary dataset spanning the pre-pandemic period and five COVID-19 waves, this paper estimates weighted logistic and ordinary least squares regressions on a sample of married or cohabiting, employed mothers. School closures serve as a natural experiment, providing an exogenous shock to caregiving demands that affected all mothers simultaneously regardless of education level. College education significantly predicted working from …

Spillover Effects Of Medicare Advantage On Fee-For-Service Post-Acute Care Spending, Nyel Bangash

Honors Theses

Does the growth of Medicare Advantage reduce fee-for-service post-acute care spending through practice-pattern spillovers, or do observed spending differences primarily reflect favorable selection? Using a county-level panel of roughly 2,700 counties (2014–2023) and a two-way fixed effects specification, I find that a one percentage-point increase in MA penetration is associated with $9.54 less per-capita standardized FFS spending. Spending per episode falls while participation rates remain stable, consistent with practice-pattern spillovers rather than compositional changes from selection. Welfare indicators from County Health Rankings, CDC PLACES, and CMS Care Compare show no evidence that spending reductions harm health or care quality. The …

Net Carbonyl Ene Reactions Of Olefins With Aldehydes, Alexandra Mock

Honors Theses

Aldehydes and olefins react in the presence of base and TMSOTf to yield homoallylic alcohols. In this net ene reaction, TMSOTf acts as a Lewis acid to activate the aldehyde, leading to a strong oxygen-silicon bond that acts as a driving force in the reaction. In the proposed mechanism, the α-methylstyrene attacks the carbonyl carbon of the TMSOTf-activated aldehyde to produce a carbocationic intermediate. Elimination using a relatively bulky base (2,6-lutidine) provides the homoallylic alcohol. This reaction has proven robust in terms of the aldehyde and olefin scope.