Digital Commons Network^™

Transforming Lives For Eternity: 2025-2026 Year End Summary, Southern Adventist University

Strategic Plans

Transforming Lives for Eternity 2025-2026 Year End Summary.

Unexpected Longevity In Myasthenia Gravis, Bhupendra O. Khatri, Scott Schutten, Sergey Tarima

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: This study compares age at death in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) and multiple sclerosis (MS) with the general U.S. population and examines age at death patterns during a period preceding modern high-efficacy therapies. Objective: To compare age at death among individuals with MG and MS with the general population and assess differences in age at death between MG and MS. Design: Retrospective population-based study using death certificate data from four U.S. states (Florida, Wisconsin, Texas, and New York) for 2000, 2005, 2010, and 2015. Methods: Individuals with MG or MS listed on death certificates were identified. Age at …

Integration Of Community-Engaged Research Technology And Methods To Guide Tobacco Regulatory Science In Rural Communities, Melissa H. Abadi, Stephen R. Shamblen, Mary Kay Rayens, Kirsten T. Thompson, Amy Wildman, Kathy Rademacher, William Wieczorek, Raphael Nishimura, Shyanika W. Rose, Mikhail N. Koffarnus, Seth Himelhoch, Ellen J. Hahn

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Objective – This study aims to build a rural Appalachian cohort to examine how US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) regulatory policies influence tobacco and nicotine product use across levels of rurality. Methods – The AppalTRUST (Appalachian Tobacco Regulatory Science Team) Cohort integrates four inter-connected Community-engaged Research + Technology (CEnRT) elements to support recruitment and retention: (1) building trust and cultural relevance; (2) addressing barriers to participation in research; (3) focusing on ethics and confidentiality; and (4) fostering ongoing and consistent collaboration between the scientific and field teams. The study uses a dual sampling design …

Mapping The Geography Of Economic Espionage In The United States (2000–2025): An Applied Counterintelligence And Spatial Analysis, David A. Turner

Graduate Research Papers

This Graduate Research Project examines whether economic espionage incidents within the United States exhibit structured geographic patterns aligned with innovation ecosystem density. Using a verified dataset of 135 publicly documented economic espionage and foreign-linked trade secret theft cases between 2000 and 2025, this study applies Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analysis to evaluate spatial concentration, sectoral prioritization, and foreign nexus distribution.

Kernel Density Estimation and state-level aggregation reveal disproportionate clustering within innovation-dense regions, including California, New York, and major Midwestern industrial corridors. Aerospace and defense technologies, energy technologies, and semiconductors and microelectronics collectively account for 55.6 percent of all documented cases. …

Digital Lover: Insecure Attachment Styles And Romantic Parasocial Relationship Among Chinese Female Otome Game Playersdigital Lover: Insecure Attachement Styles And Romantic Parasocial Relationship Among Chinese Female Otome Game Players, Weifan (Kyrie) Zhang M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

The existing literature has explored the relationship between insecure attachment styles and parasocial relationships, particularly focusing on traditional media such as television. However, it has largely overlooked the novel form of media represented by contemporary Chinese otome games, which offer an idealized digital environment potentially more appealing to players with insecure attachment styles. Moreover, previous studies have not sufficiently differentiated between general parasocial interactions and the specific nuances of parasocial romantic relationships unique to romantic video games (RVGs). This study seeks to bridge these gaps by examining the psychological underpinnings of Chinese female players' engagement with female-oriented romantic video games. …

Selling Ideals: Sexualization In Teen Girl Magazines, 2007-2017, Megan Coogan

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

Magazines are made to sell more than just a product; they sell lifestyles and ideals. Teen girl magazines target adolescents starting as young as twelve years old, but is the content in its pages appropriate and identifiable for that demographic? This study investigated how levels of perceived sexualization changed between 2007, 2012, and 2017, in Seventeen and Teen Vogue magazines. A decrease in perceived sexualization was expected across the ten-year period of time. This window of time reflects the last ten years of publication for both magazines. Research was conducted by creating and utilizing a grading system for non-explicit sexualized …

The Lived Experience Of Intimate Partner Violence For Females In Emerging Adulthood: A Qualitative Study, Laurel Dobkin M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Emerging adulthood is the developmental period between ages 18 to 25 where individuals begin to explore their worldviews and develop intimate relationships. This period is important for developing a sense of identity and self (Arnett, 2000, 2014). During this period, negative events or relationships, such as intimate partner violence (IPV), may have detrimental effects (Erikson, 1968; Barreto & Frazier, 2012). While literature suggests that IPV has high rates and negative consequences in emerging adulthood (Bhattacharjee & Gopal, 2022; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2024; Shen & Kusunoki, 2019), there is little research on the subjective experience of females …

Predicting The Next Recession With Machine Learning, David Heffernan

ICT

Economic recessions can have significant consequences for businesses, households, financial markets, and policymakers, creating a need for improved understanding of the factors associated with economic downturns. This project analyses historical US economic and financial data to examine patterns associated with previous recessionary periods and assess whether machine learning can be used to identify recession risk. The study uses a two-tier analytical approach, combining a macroeconomic dataset covering 1960 to the present with a more detailed dataset from 1987 onwards that incorporates financial markets, house prices, and consumer confidence. Building on previous exploratory analysis, the project develops and evaluates three machine …

Predicting Product Returns In Online Retail, Mihaela Cristina Stefanache

ICT

Product returns are a significant challenge for online retailers, contributing to additional operational costs and affecting inventory management and profitability. This project develops and evaluates three machine learning models to predict product returns for a UK online retailer, building on the data understanding and preparation completed in the previous CA2 capstone project. Following the CRISP-DM framework, the study extends the analysis through enhanced exploratory data analysis, feature engineering, model development, hyperparameter optimisation, cross-validation, and model interpretability. Logistic Regression, a Tuned Random Forest, and XGBoost are evaluated, with the Tuned Random Forest achieving the strongest overall performance, obtaining an F1 score …

Aqueous Iron Electrowinning: From Electrolyte Engineering To The Unexplored Potential Of Acetate Systems, Chodwell N. Verenga

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Iron electrowinning and electrodeposition sit at the intersection of classical metallurgy and developing sustainable manufacturing. With the iron and steel industry responsible for 7 - 9% of global CO₂ emissions, low-temperature electrochemical pathways for iron production have garnered significant research interest. This review examines the fundamental electrochemical principles governing iron deposition, the thermodynamic constraints imposed by the iron-water system, and the kinetic challenges posed by the parasitic hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The three key electrolyte systems are objectively evaluated: acidic sulfate and chloride electrolytes, alkaline suspension electrolytes and water-in-salt electrolytes. Their operating parameters, faradaic efficiencies, energy consumption and deposit characteristics …

Experimental Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Based Invisibility Cloak Under Tm-Polarized Microwaves, Muhammad Danyal

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Electromagnetic invisibility cloaks guide waves around an object so that the transmitted wavefront remains undisturbed. Most experimental microwave cloaking studies have focused on transverse electric (TE) polarization due to established measurement techniques. In this thesis, the experimental realization and characterization of a dielectric photonic crystal cloak operating under transverse magnetic (TM) polarization are presented. A measurement system operating in the X-band was developed to map the electric field distribution of the transmitted waves. Cloaking performance was first evaluated qualitatively by comparing numerical and experimental field distributions, where restoration of a flat wavefront indicated effective cloaking. Quantitative evaluation was performed by …

Digital Technology And Women’S Health In Nigeria: A Feminist Sts Walkthrough Analysis Of Mdoc Digital Health, Edith Michael Ogbodo

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

This thesis critically examines how a Nigerian digital health platform, mDoc, represents and constructs women’s health. Drawing on Feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS) and Light et al.’s (2018) walkthrough method, the study interrogates the values, assumptions, and power relations embedded in mDoc’s design, language, and governance structures. The analysis reveals that mDoc, despite positioning itself as an equitable solution to Nigeria’s health crisis, reproduces and depoliticizes the structural inequalities it claims to address. Through its neoliberal emphasis on self-care, the individualization of structurally produced suffering, and the datafication of women’s bodies, the platform encodes gendered, colonial, and class-based assumptions …

Reading Between The Lines: Protected, But Not From Interpretation, Hooriya Habib

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In the realm of television, audiences are interactive viewers who decode meaning based on their lived experiences. Given that each culture has its own set of cultural codes it uses as a lens to navigate life, meanings do not remain constant. This cultural media study breaks down three advertisements to study the effectiveness of these advertisements in relation to religious and cultural codes. Using Stuart Hall’s (1980) encoding/decoding model, an oppositional reading was employed to understand the disconnect that may be caused between an audience of rural Pakistani women and the producers. Objects of focus were nonverbal codes such as …

Public Perception Of Environmental Contamination And Its Implications For Fish And Community Health In West Bengal, India, Libia Hazra

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

In West Bengal, India, the highest fish-consuming state in the country, fish are woven into everyday life, including ceremonies of birth and marriage, prayers offered during harvesting and the cultural memory of communities whose identities are inseparable from aquatic life. However, the rivers, wetlands, and ponds that sustain these fish-human relationships are increasingly threatened by environmental contamination resulting from industrial discharge, agricultural runoff, and inadequate environmental management. Understanding how communities perceive these environmental changes is essential for developing effective conservation and public health strategies.

In collaboration between the Indian Institute of Technology (ITT) Kharagpur, India, and Michigan Technological University (USA), …

Physicochemical Characterization Of Small Extracellular Vesicles: Effects Of Immobilization, Isolation, And Disease State, Bianca M. Mercado Velez

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Cancer treatments and survival outcomes have improved significantly in the last couple of decades, with survival rates increasing in the U.S. Despite improvements in treatment outcomes, early detection and treatment are crucial for improving cancer prognosis and survival rates. The standard cancer diagnostic procedure of tissue biopsy is highly invasive, leading to the further spread of cancer in some cases. Alternatively, the extraction of biofluids from cancer patients, also called a liquid biopsy, is increasingly popular because it is less invasive and more representative of the tumor microenvironment, which contains cancer cells, tumor genetic material, and extracellular vesicles, including small …

Identifying Controls On The Biodegradation Of Dissolved Organic Matter To Inform Microbial Fuel Cell Applications, Lily N. O'Hagan

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Microbial fuel cells (MFCs) harness dissolved organic matter (DOM) biodegradation to generate power. To evaluate effects of DOM source, nutrients (nitrate and phosphate), and oxygen on DOM biodegradation, we conducted 4-day DOM biodegradation experiments with water and sediments from the Chesapeake Bay. Compared to soil-derived DOM, algal-derived DOM composition changed more and nearly doubled carbon dioxide (CO₂) production, peak CO₂ rates, and carbon removal, indicating MFC site selection should target regions with algal-rich DOM. Aerobic conditions increased CO₂ production by ca. 16%, doubled peak CO₂ rates, and reached peak rates 1 hour faster than anaerobic …

Applied Forest Restoration And Conservation In Michigan: Advancing American Beech Restoration And Documenting A Historical Insect Collection, Thomas E. Panella

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Forest restoration and conservation require both practical management approaches and the preservation of biological resources that support future research. This dissertation presents applied research conducted in Michigan that advances American beech (Fagus grandifolia) restoration in response to beech bark disease (BBD) while documenting an important historical entomological resource. Chapters 1–3 focus on overcoming practical barriers to American beech restoration. Restoration protocols were developed and refined for identifying BBD-resistant trees, graft propagation, rootstock collection, container production, and the field establishment of grafted BBD-resistant trees. A greenhouse experiment evaluated the influence of growing media and fertilization on container stock quality, …

Using Automotive Lidar To Reduce The Energy Consumption Of An Ego Autonomous Vehicle, Logan P. Schexnaydre

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

There is significant potential to reduce the energy consumption of the transportation sector through autonomous vehicles. Prior work on autonomous vehicle energy efficiency focuses on the whole system or the control subsystem. Yet, the sensing and processing components, which have direct and indirect effects on net energy use, are less explored. This dissertation fills this gap by modeling and evaluating these effects for lidar sensors, which provide high-resolution spatial data at the cost of high power and processing demands. I apply lidar to the energy-saving tasks of automated vehicle following and road surface profiling. For automated vehicle following, I model …

Shap-Rc: A Framework For Explaining Annotator Disagreement In Sexism Detection, Madhuri Sawant, Arjumand Younus, Simon Caton, M. Atif Qureshi

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

The effectiveness of supervised machine learning models is heavily influenced by the quality of training data, which is often shaped by human annotators. Subjective NLP tasks such as hate speech detection, toxicity identification, and sexism classification frequently exhibit annotator disagreement due to differences in individual perspectives. This study investigates annotator disagreement in sexism detection using English tweets from the EXIST 2023 competition. To systematically analyse disagreement, tweets are categorised based on annotator consensus levels, examining how annotator demographics and linguistic features contribute to labelling inconsistencies. We interpret disagreement patterns using Shapley Additive Explanations (SHAP) and assess the consistency of SHAP-derived …

Predictive Maintenance For Manufacturing Equipment, Paloma De Andrade Batista

ICT

Unplanned equipment downtime is a significant challenge in manufacturing, resulting in substantial productivity losses and operational costs. Predictive maintenance, enabled by machine learning and big data analytics, offers an opportunity to identify potential equipment failures before they occur and improve maintenance efficiency. This report extends a previous capstone project that applied Random Forest and Logistic Regression to the AI4I 2020 Predictive Maintenance Dataset. The current study expands the analysis by incorporating XGBoost, systematic hyperparameter optimisation, cross-validation, and SHAP-based model interpretability. In addition, SWOT and PESTLE analyses, alongside a legal and ethical assessment, examine the broader strategic and responsible implementation of …

Southern Adventist University Annual Report 2025-2026, Southern Adventist University

Annual Reports

The Annual Report for Southern Adventist University for 2025 to 2026.

Early-Time/High-Frequency Electromagnetic Induction Sensing For Minimal-Metal And None-Metallic Subsurface Targets, Michele Louise Maxson

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

Conventional electromagnetic induction (EMI) systems operate within the quasi-static regime, where measurements are dominated by conduction currents and are primarily sensitive to highly conductive targets and bulk soil properties. As a result, these systems exhibit limited sensitivity to low-conductivity and layered media, such as permafrost, composite materials, and minimum-metal landmines, where diagnostically relevant information resides in early-time/high-frequency electromagnetic responses, generally above 100 kHz. This limitation reflects a mismatch between conventional EMI system design and the underlying target physics, restricting the ability of standard EMI approaches to resolve fine-scale non-metallic subsurface structure.

In this thesis, I investigate early-time/high-frequency sensitivity as a …

Designing Narrative-Based Ai Assistance For Sensemaking In Collaborative Environments: Case Studies In Education And Dementia Care, Dylan Edward Moore

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This thesis addresses a gap in the human-computer interaction literature regarding the design, development, and evaluation of narrative-based AI assistance for collaborative, complex problem solving. I explore this design space through three case studies across the domains of education and dementia care. This work encompasses multi-year industry partnerships and longitudinal fieldwork, user-centered design, dataset curation, model training, and system evaluation.

Specifically, the first case study considers a story-based web platform for teaching AI literacy through peer-generated, personalized narrative scaffolding. Learners on the platform showed significant knowledge gains and other learning-related outcomes. To describe the novel design of this system, I …

Transforming Lives For Eternity: 2026-2031 Strategic Plan, Southern Adventist University

Strategic Plans

Southern Adventist University's 2026-2031 Strategic Plan.

Animator Becomes Animated: A Short Film Uniting Animation And Traditional Film As One, Peter Francis Stahr

Honors Program Theses

Traditional filmmaking has been around since the late nineteenth century, where filmmakers would utilize black and white film and tedious developing processes, including the manual handling of chemicals, to create a feature film. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, the first few 2D animated films came to life. Then, almost 100 years later, the digital age struck, bringing with it the ease of access for anyone to take out a camera and snap a picture, take a video, or even create a movie. In parallel with the development of digital filmography came 3D software, opening the creative capacity …

The “Multi-Normative” Biological Weapons Convention: A Study Of The 2022 Article V Meeting In Geneva, Robert Lawless

Emory International Law Review

In September 2022, States parties to the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) held a Formal Consultative Meeting in Geneva pursuant to Article V of the Convention, following Russia’s allegations that the United States and Ukraine had developed biological weapons in violation of BWC prohibitions. Although largely overlooked in public discourse, the Geneva meeting provides a revealing example of the BWC in practice. This article examines the Geneva meeting to assess the Convention’s normative role in contemporary international relations. It argues that States parties reaffirmed their commitment to the BWC’s core prohibition against the hostile use of biological agents against humans. Moreover, …

Treating Social Media Corporations As Quasi-State Actors To Address The Use Of Artificial Intelligence In Content Moderation, Michael T. Tiu Jr.

Emory International Law Review

Corporations have become powerful actors in the international system. They have the potential to disrupt the protection of values that states have been performing for decades. One of these values–freedom of expression–has been the recipient of impact of emerging technologies owned by corporations. Social media platforms have become new governors of expression. Content moderation rules cause adverse impacts on freedom of expression. The vagueness of certain criteria and the inconsistency of their application have led to censorship of speech which would have been protected offline. This situation is exacerbated by the use of artificial intelligence in content moderation, owing to …

Hazel A. Oxenford, Ph.D., Nancy Brown-Peterson

Miscellaneous Documents

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Defunding The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (Snap-Ed) In Louisiana, Virginia Bordelon, Senlin Chen, Yuxin Nie, Denise Holston, Jessice Stroope

Distinguished Undergraduate Researcher Program

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) was a federally funded initiative that aims to improve nutrition knowledge, promote physical activity, and provide education through Policy, System, and Environmental (PSE) strategies. This study examined the relationship between the defunding of SNAP-Ed and how nutrition and physical activity were affected among low-income families. Data for this study originated an interview with a Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) economist, an interview with SNAP-Ed field agent, and survey responses from 32 adult participants familiar with SNAP. The SNAP recipients use the education program resources to assist in healthy recipes, physical
education …

A Simple Statistical Tool To Correct The Daily Temperature Effect On Dielectric Soil Matric Potential Sensor Readings, Sebastián Bravo Peña, Meindert Commelin, Ole O. Wendroth

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

High-resolution time series recorded by soil water dielectric sensors are often affected by other processes. Dielectric soil matric potential sensors, such as the TEROS 21, exhibit temperature sensitivity, resulting in deviations of readings from the true value due to soil temperature fluctuations. However, methods for correcting this effect remain limited. The objective of this study was to create a straightforward, scale-based statistical approach to mitigate the influence of daily temperature oscillations on matric potential dielectric readings. The temperature sensitivity correction function (TSCF) identifies, quantifies, and smooths diurnal fluctuations caused by soil temperature dynamics. We provide a detailed description of the …