Digital Commons Network^™

Moral Identity And Cognitive Mechanisms In Moral Decision-Making, Zachariah I. Hamzagic

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Moral identity can be broadly conceptualized as the degree to which an individual places moral values as directly relevant to their personal identity. A recently introduced developmental framework of moral identity argues that moral identity can be conceptualized as a lifelong goal. According to this theoretical framework, the moral identity goal (i.e., to be a moral person and engage in moral action) becomes stronger over the course of development by becoming more abstract (i.e., general), internalized (to satisfy personal ideals) and promotion (i.e., action) oriented. Additionally, the strength of the moral identity goal predicts moral functioning. To date there has …

Methylseleninic Acid Transformations In Nutrient Rich Water Containing Algae Exposed To Simulated Sunlight, Mikayla Cormier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Methylseleninic acid (MSA(IV)) is an organic form of selenium that has been suggested to be one of the most bioaccumulative forms of selenium in aquatic ecosystems. However, there have been no lab studies that confirm this, which is the reason this study was conducted. Once MSA(IV) and other bioavailable forms of selenium enter aquatic ecosystems, organisms such as algae take up these compounds which then bioaccumulate through the food chain. S. obliquus was exposed to 10 ppb MSA(IV) in 10% Bold’s basal medium (BBM) in a growth chamber to mimic environmental conditions over a 7-day period. Carbon traps and filters …

Identifying The Physical Activity Promotion Practices Of Obstetricians And Gynecologists: Patients With Endometriosis And Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Allison P. Herman

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Despite efforts to promote physical activity, many females in Canada do not meet recommended physical activity guidelines. For individuals with gynecological conditions such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), physical activity may aid in symptom management and improve daily functioning. Healthcare settings, including obstetrics and gynecology, represent an area of opportunity to promote physical activity among this population. This thesis aims to understand the physical activity promotion practices of Ontario-based Obstetricians and Gynecologists (OBGYNs) to patients with endometriosis and/or PCOS. A cross-sectional online survey was conducted to explore OBGYNs promotional practices and perceived factors influencing their engagement in physical …

" Who Am I Here?" Exploring The Racial Identity Development Of Chinese Adolescent International Students In Canada: A Constructivist Grounded Theory Approach, Wen Juan Song

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Abstract

This dissertation explores the racial identity development and associated mental health challenges of Chinese Adolescent International Students (CAIS) in Canada, a population navigating complex intersections of race, age, migration, and belonging. Despite their growing presence in Canadian secondary education, CAIS remain understudied in both educational and mental health research, particularly in relation to racial identity development within Western, multicultural societies. Using a Constructivist Grounded Theory methodology, this study draws on in-depth interviews with twenty-five CAIS participants, including ten current high school students, three returnees to China, and twelve who remained abroad in post-secondary education or employment.  The study is …

Contribution Of Comorbidities And Pregnancy Complications To Severe Maternal Morbidity In The United States, Tetsuya Kawakita, Sora A. Jones, Natsume Furukawa, George Saade

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

Objective: To quantify the extent to which rising rates of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) in the United States from 2016 to 2022 are attributable to increasing prevalence of maternal risk factors, including advanced maternal age, obesity, pregestational diabetes mellitus, gestational diabetes, chronic hypertension, and hypertensive disorders of pregnancy (HDP).

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study using the Nationwide Readmissions Database from 2016 to 2022, representing more than 25 million weighted delivery hospitalizations. The primary outcome of SMM was identified with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 21-condition algorithm; a secondary outcome excluded transfusion to improve specificity. Temporal trends …

Evaluating The Mediating Role Of Gestational Phthalate And Replacement Biomarkers In The Associations Between Race/Ethnicity And Birthweight, Amir J. Lueth, Danielle R. Stevens, Sarahna A. Moyd, Elena Sinkovskaya, Ann Przybylska, Antonia M. Calafat, Julianne C. Botelho, George Saade, Alfred Abuhamad, Kelly K. Ferguson

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

Background

Gestational exposure to phthalates is higher among non-Hispanic black (NHB) women than non-Hispanic white (NHW) women and may contribute to racial/ethnic differences in birthweight z-scores.

Objective

We aimed to investigate whether gestational phthalate and replacement biomarkers mediate the association between race/ethnicity and birthweight z-scores.

Methods

We analyzed data from 271 pregnancies in the Human Placenta and Phthalates study, a prospective cohort recruited from 2017 to 2020. Urinary phthalate metabolite concentrations were measured at up to eight time points during pregnancy and averaged to represent gestational exposure. Metabolites were grouped by parent compound. Linear regression models estimated associations in phthalate …

A Phenomenological Analysis Of Sense Of Belonging Among Community College Educators, Muhammad Owais Aziz

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored the complex phenomenon of sense of belonging (SB) among diverse health professions educators (HPEs) and non-health professions educators (non-HPEs) at a Canadian community college. SB, as a dynamic construct shaped by an individual's perception of being valued and respected, is influenced by personal preferences and by complex interactions with the individual's surroundings. To better understand SB and foster a more inclusive environment for diverse educators, it is necessary to investigate SB among these educators. This qualitative study used eleven semi-structured interviews and seven steps of data analysis. The results of this study can inform strategies, policies, …

Universities, Capital, And Democratic Vulnerability, Steven Dean, Dana Brakman Reiser

Faculty Scholarship

For many, the university serves as a crucial guardian of democracy. Still, the capitulation of leading American private universities to authoritarian pressure from the Trump Administration should not be terribly surprising. This Essay offers one reason why. It does so by focusing on the law governing private nonprofit universities. It examines both the origins and the impact of a fundamental tension between their charitable missions and their need for capital. It shows how the legal framework designed to protect these nonprofit universities from market pressures can actually intensify their vulnerability.

The so-called “nondistribution constraint” stands at the core of U.S. …

Blood Flow Regulates Metabolism In Hematopoietic Development, Pamela L Wenzel

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Blood flow modifies oxygen availability and biomechanical forces within the vasculature of the embryo as the hematopoietic system develops. The aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) envelops the largest artery in the body and is a critical site for the emergence of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Herein, I discuss the role of hypoxia-inducible factors (HIFs) and force as determinants of metabolism and fate determination. To address the effects of blood flow on hematopoietic development, I employ mouse embryo models and biomimetic culture. Real-time cell metabolic analyses show that oxygen consumption rates (OCR) and extracellular acidification rates (ECAR) are altered by flow in cultures of …

Engineering Mutation Clones In Mammalian Cells With Crispr/Cas9, Zijun Huo, Jian Tu, Rachel Shoemaker, Dung-Fang Lee, Ruiying Zhao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

CRISPR, Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat, as a powerful genome engineering system, has been widely accepted and employed in gene editing of a vast range of cell types. Compared to zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) or transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs), CRISPR shows a less complicated process and higher efficiency. With the development of different CRISPR systems, it can be used not only to knock out a gene but also to make precise modifications, activate or repress target genes with epigenetic modifications, and even for genome wide screening. Here we will describe the procedure of generating a stable cell line …

Memory Warriors, Pluralists, And Abnegators In Constitutional Interpretation: An Essay On Jack Balkin's Pluralist Originalism In Memory And Authority, Jed Handelsman Shugerman, Zachary Shugerman Handelsman

Faculty Scholarship

Jack Balkin’s Memory and Authority: The Uses of History in Constitutional Interpretation brings into conversation the scholarly insights of constitutional theory, history, and the growing field of “the politics of memory,” especially the concept of the “memory entrepreneur.”

Balkin appropriately connects the memory wars in American constitutional law back to Eastern

European memory wars during the World Wars and their aftermath. Prompted by Balkin, we turn to Jan Kubik and Michael Bernhard edited volume Twenty Years After Communism (2014), which has become even more widely influential after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and a new round of Eastern European memory wars. …

Prepregnancy Overweight And Obesity In Kuwait Birth Cohort Study, Abdullah Al-Taiar, Ali H. Ziyab, Eelaf A. Husain, Maryam M.Y. Mohammad, Maryem A. Shamsah, Noor Salah Alali, Reem Sharaf-Alddin, Majeda S. Hammoud

Epidemiology, Biostatistics, & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Objectives: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of prepregnancy obesity and overweight, and to identify a set of sociodemographic factors that could guide weight management interventions for women prior to conception.

Design, Sample, and Measurements: Pregnant women (N = 989) were recruited in the Kuwait Birth Cohort Study during the period June 2017 to February 2020. Prepregnancy weight and height were self-reported, while current weight and height were measured in a standardized procedure. Data on sociodemographic factors were collected through face-to-face interviews conducted by a trained data collector. Multinomial logistic regression was used to investigate the association between sociodemographic …

Regulating Robotaxis, Bryant Walker Smith, Matthew T. Wansley

Articles

In several sunbelt cities, commercial robotaxi service has arrived. The leading robotaxi company is providing over 400,000 trips per week. The industry claims that robotaxis will save lives and provide convenient and affordable mobility. Critics counter that they will increase congestion, undermine transit, and subject the public to ubiquitous surveillance. We argue that the social impact of robotaxis depends on how they are regulated. We emphasize two points missing from the debate. First, some of the benefits of robotaxis may be political rather than technological—some longstanding public policy goals may become viable in a robotaxi world. Second, letting one private …

The Impact Of True Crime Podcasts On Cold Case Investigations And Victims' Advocacy, Kyle Gamache, Karlie Rice, Ashley Allen, Willem Pontbriand

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

True crime has long captivated public interest, evolving from sensationalized accounts in the Middle Ages to the widespread popularity of modern podcasts. This qualitative study explores the ethical complexities of true crime media by examining how it intersects with criminal investigations, public perception, and victim advocacy. Through in-depth interviews with law enforcement officers, victim advocates, and true crime content creators, the study investigates differing attitudes toward the role of podcasts in active and cold cases. Using Colaizzi’s (1978) phenomenological method, data were analyzed to uncover shared and divergent themes across professional roles. Law enforcement participants voiced concerns over web- sleuthing …

An Energy-Stable Mixed Cg-Dg Scheme For A Full Shliomis Phase Field Model Of Two-Phase Ferrofluid Flows, Mahdi Gharehbaygloo

Doctoral Dissertations

"Ferrofluids are magnetic nanoparticle suspensions whose motion couples surface tension, flow field, magnetostatics, and magnetization dynamics. This dissertation develops, analyzes, and validates an energy-stable finite element method for a two-phase ferrofluid model that couples the Cahn-Hilliard equations with the full Shliomis model of single-phase ferrofluids, retaining its damping torque term, magnetic torque term, and magnetic stress term.

The spatial discretization is a mixed continuous Galerkin (CG) and discontinuous Galerkin (DG) formulation. It uses continuous ��2 elements for the phase field, chemical potential, velocity, and magnetostatic potential, discontinuous ��2 elements for the magnetization, and discontinuous ��1 elements for the pressure. The …

Harnessing Coherent-Wave Control For Sensing Applications In Scattering Media, Pablo Xavier Jara Palacios

Doctoral Dissertations

"Diffuse electromagnetic waves are widely used for non-invasive sensing and imaging in complex scattering media such as biological tissues. A fundamental limitation of such techniques is the scarcity of detected photons: as the source-detector separation increases to access deeper regions of the medium, the signal strength decays rapidly, leading to poor signal-to-noise ratio and limited sensitivity. This dissertation addresses this challenge through a combination of theory and computation.

We show that coherent control of the incident optical wavefront can compensate for the scarcity of detected photons that limits conventional diffuse optical imaging, typically performed in the near-infrared spectral region. By …

Governing The Digital Commons, Madelyn Rose Sanfilippo, Brett Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, Katherine J. Strandburg

Faculty Publications

The digital commons, as the coproduction of data, digital cultural products, and community, raise a variety of governance issues. From questions of participation, including voice mechanisms, to the legitimacy of decision-making or ownership, to specific action arenas, governance is complex and dynamic, reflecting the characteristics of the networks in which these commons are situated. This mini-track explores governance challenges and solutions across an array of case studies to highlight governance failures and solutions, many of which focus on reconciling the intersections of different action arenas and aligning policies with contextual norms.

Challenging Agency Deregulation, Todd S. Aagaard

Faculty Publications

The administrative state is experiencing two seismic shifts. First, in recent years, the Supreme Court has issued a series of decisions that significantly curtailed the powers of administrative agencies. Second, President Donald Trump is using administrative agencies to aggressively deregulate in his second term. The conventional wisdom is that the Supreme Court’s recent precedent will facilitate the Trump Administration’s deregulatory agenda.

This Article argues the opposite. Instead of promoting agency deregulation, recent Supreme Court precedent restraining agency authority provides a potentially powerful basis for challenging agency deregulation as administrative overreach. Time and time again, the Court has taken agencies to …

Language Acquisition And Emergent Literacy In The 21st Century, Albert H. White Jr.

Open Touro Created

2026

Grounded in contemporary scholarship and pedagogical research, this work employs an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to 21st-century literacy instruction while prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through its multimodal, universally accessible design—featuring interactive components, multimedia elements, and curated links to the New York State Department of Education Standards and Instruction Website—the resource facilitates critical engagement with content and alignment with state-mandated learning standards. Supplementary materials for pre-service teacher preparation and professional development are embedded throughout, enabling educators to customize and repurpose content for their specific contexts. Developed in partnership with Touro University and Colleges, this OER supports the continuous professional development …

Location, Location, Reaction: How Mandatory Ip Disclosure Silences Critics And Sparks Backlash, Sirui Li, Ping Xu, Yue Guo

Political Science Faculty Publications

Previous research has identified two competing outcomes of regulatory disclosure for negative online sentiment: chilling effects, which suppress negative online sentiment, and reactance effects, which intensify it. In this study, we apply these theories to examine the impact of mandatory IP location disclosure on citizens' negative online sentiment expressed on Sina Weibo, a leading Chinese social media platform. We argue that the mandatory IP location disclosure can have opposite effects on negative online sentiment depending on the type of social media context. To test this, we use a quasi-natural experiment and analyze more than 160,000 comments posted before and after …

Designing A Study To Evaluate The Impact Of Webxr With Genai On Student Engagement In Distance Education, Kamran Mir, Geraldine Gray, Ana Elena Schalk, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study aims to evaluate how immersive content can enhance student engagement, learning outcomes, and satisfaction in an open and distance learning context. The paper gives an overview of the background research and study design that investigates the impact of immersive virtual learning environments on distance education by integrating WebXR with GenAI into Moodle, a widely used virtual learning environment (VLE). The design considers two groups of learners, an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group will engage with WebXR having GenAI agents and the control group will experience the same course content delivered through conventional online teaching …

When The Internet Attacks, Craig Cowie

Cardozo Law Review

Courts have struggled with applying personal jurisdiction in cases involving intentional torts where the defendants act outside the forum, and the problem is particularly apparent and acute when the defendants use the internet to commit the tort. For example, is there jurisdiction when a defendant doxxes someone and calls for violence? What if they leave a bad Yelp review? Or tweet a defamatory statement? Courts have used many tests for determining whether personal jurisdiction is appropriate in these situations, but there has been relatively little recent scholarship on whether these tests are appropriate for analyzing personal jurisdiction in these contexts. …

Browser-Based Phishing Detection System Using Modern Web Technologies, Muhammad Arshad, Beena Sherin Kuriakose, Choo Wou Onn, Farhan Ahmad Siddiqui, Mohammad Shahid Kamal

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Phishing remains one of the most persistent cybersecurity threats, exploiting human trust to steal sensitive information through deceptive websites. Traditional detection methods, reliant on blacklists and reactive reporting, offer limited protection against rapidly evolving zero-day attacks. To address these challenges, this study proposes and evaluates a hybrid browser-resident phishing detection framework that combines three complementary detection mechanisms: a locally executed Random Forest model using URL lexical features, lightweight real-time DOM structure analysis, and VirusTotal’s multi-engine reputation service. Communication between the client and server is optimised using gRPC over the QUIC protocol, ensuring secure, high-performance data exchange with built-in retry mechanisms …

Public Preferences And Trade-Offs In Critical Mineral Mining Development In The United States, Bamidele Joseph Ajiga

Masters Theses

Rising demand for battery-critical minerals has increased U.S. mining efforts, but projects often face public opposition. There is limited work on how individuals in affected regions evaluate trade-offs between economic and environmental risks.

This research applies a discrete choice experiment to examine individual preferences for proposed battery-critical minerals mining projects in Missouri, Minnesota, and Idaho. 1908 respondents evaluated hypothetical mining projects defined by jobs, state tax revenue, the proportion of tailings reprocessed, groundwater impacts, and surface water impacts, under gold and silver versus battery-critical mineral framings.

Conditional and mixed logit models were used to assess the importance of attributes, demographic …

It’S (Not All) Personal: Civil Litigation And The Values Of Rights Of Action, Hanoch Dagan, Avihay Dorfman, Issi Rosen-Zvi

American University Law Review

Existing approaches to civil litigation, both regarding its theoretical underpinnings and its practical instantiations, take diametrically opposing perspectives on the value of personal rights of action. Some view them as inviolable and thus vehemently oppose any mandatory arbitration clauses and treat class actions as presumptively dubious. Others have no principled objection to either, as they perceive personal rights of action as mere technologies that are painlessly dispensable if the substantive values underlying the claim at hand can be realized more effectively through a more efficient mechanism.

In this Article, we reject both of these ‘all or nothing’ approaches and offer …

A Service Ecosystems Approach For Sustainable Volunteer Engagement: Developing Insights From Covid-19 Disruptions, Ingrid O'Brien, Fazlul K. Rabbanee, Eunjung Kim, Megan Paull, Kirsten Holmes, Jo Anne Kestel

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

The purpose of this paper is to develop foundational propositions designed to reflect success factors in the recruitment and retention of volunteers for future longevity. Using insights gathered from three universities' experiences of student volunteering during COVID-19, plus capturing the experiences of volunteer involving organizations, we draw on existing theories, as well as service ecosystem literature, to identify critical emerging trends. We argue that conceptualizing volunteer pathways as a set of linear, sequential stages linked to a single volunteering experience does not adequately capture the complexity of the volunteer ecosystem, including the dynamic inter-relationships among actors and the multiple roles …

Challenging The Monopoly Giant: Market Challenger Premium As Competitive Advantages, Cheuk Hang Au, Chih Yuan Chou

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Market challengers frequently disrupt established incumbents with innovative ideas or novel business models. Yet, they frequently face high entry barriers and the entrenched power of incumbents. Even when challengers provide products or services better aligned with the market, competing effectively can remain difficult, particularly in monopoly-dominated sectors. This paper presents a case study of ViuTV entering Hong Kong’s monopoly-led free-to-air TV market. We identify IFH (innovation, freshness, hope) strategies for challengers to gain competitive advantage, leading to the emergence of a “market challenger premium” as a unique competitive edge. We also examine the role of customer cognitive biases and the …

Do Lineage-Based Inheritance Norms Matter In Kinship Care Arrangements? Exploring Inheritance Paths In Grandparent Kinship Care Practice In Ghana, Hajara Bentum, Alhassan Abdullah, Vicki Banham, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Kinship lineage and inheritance norms in Ghana play a significant role in shaping family decisions. Research has shown that kinship lineage and inheritance norms determine kin membership for children by specifying whether they belong to their maternal or paternal family, as well as whether they can inherit properties of their biological father or mother. The notion of kinship membership has shaped parenting and child welfare practices in Ghana, including child maintenance payments and parental neglectful behaviours. This research explored whether kinship-based inheritance norms could influence decisions about selecting a grandmother (maternal vs. paternal grandmother) as a child’s caregiver. We interviewed …

Dropouts And Refusers: Clinicians’ Insights And Initiatives Into Reducing Treatment Attrition Amongst Young People Who Sexually Offend, James L. Finney, Natalie Gately, Suzanne Rock, Jocelyn Jones

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Sexual offending by young people causes significant harm to victims, families and communities. Treatment engagement and completion are therefore important for reducing future harm; however, young people who drop out of, or refuse to engage in, treatment present a unique challenge for clinicians and justice systems. Drawing on Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological systems theory, this study explored clinicians’ perspectives on the barriers to treatment engagement and completion for young people who have sexually offended in the Australian context. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with clinicians who provided or facilitated treatment for young people who had sexually offended (N = 22). Two major …

Inked Mobilities: Tattoos As Embodied Visual Narratives Of Youth Migration Between Italy And Australia, Giulia Marchetti

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

This article examines tattoos as embodied visual narratives within a broader study on youth transnational mobility (2019-2023). Focusing on recent Italian migration to and from Australia, 13 tattoos were documented among the 36 participants, acquired shortly before departure, during the stay in Australia, or upon return to Italy. Methodologically, the article proposes tattoo-based interviews as a participatory visual method that mobilises permanently inscribed images as sites of visual elicitation, enabling forms of reflection and storytelling. Tattoos thus operate as relational spaces of dialogue, co-interpretation, and reflexive meaning-making between researcher and participants. Epistemologically, tattoos are approached as visual narratives through which …