Digital Commons Network^™

Review Of Comic Books, Special Collections, And The Academic Library, Nicholas Wantsala

Journal of Contemporary Archival Studies

Comic Books, Special Collections, and the Academic Library is a pioneering scholarly work by Brian Flota and Katie Morris that documents the integration of comic books into archival special collections and academic libraries. This book, inspired by the donation of Flota's father's extensive comic collection to James Madison University, traces the growth of comic books as scholarly resources and library holdings. Featuring contributions from 35 scholars across 20 chapters, it explores key questions such as the value of collecting comics and their role in library instruction. The essays, enhanced with suggestions for further reading and informative footnotes, offer a comprehensive …

Multiclass Cyberbullying Detection Using Advanced Neural Network Architectures: A Comparative Study Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mahyar Alinejad

Data Science and Data Mining

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital communication landscape has seen an unprecedented rise in cyberbullying incidents. Addressing this critical issue, our study develops and evaluates a novel multiclass cyberbullying detection framework employing several advanced neural network architectures—namely Neural Networks (NN), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU). Utilizing a balanced dataset created through Dynamic Query Expansion, this research benchmarks the performance of these models in accurately classifying cyberbullying according to specific victim attributes such as age, ethnicity, gender, and religion. Our results demonstrate that LSTM and GRU models, in particular, exhibit superior performance …

Multiclass Cyberbullying Detection Using Advanced Neural Network Architectures: A Comparative Study Amidst The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mahyar Alinejad

Data Science and Data Mining

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the digital communication landscape has seen an unprecedented rise in cyberbullying incidents. Addressing this critical issue, our study develops and evaluates a novel multiclass cyberbullying detection framework employing several advanced neural network architectures—namely Neural Networks (NN), Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Long Short-Term Memory networks (LSTM), and Gated Recurrent Units (GRU). Utilizing a balanced dataset created through Dynamic Query Expansion, this research benchmarks the performance of these models in accurately classifying cyberbullying according to specific victim attributes such as age, ethnicity, gender, and religion. Our results demonstrate that LSTM and GRU models, in particular, exhibit superior performance …

Challenging The Universality Of Poplack’S Syntactic Constraints: Insights From Arabic-English Code-Switching Among Saudi Arabian Women, Sharifa Bahri

Linguistics ETDs

This study investigates the applicability of Poplack's (1980) syntactic constraints, the free morpheme constraint and the equivalence constraint, to Arabic-English code-switching among Saudi Arabian women. Based on 886 intra-sentential code-switching utterances drawn from naturalistic podcast speech, the analysis reveals substantial violations of both constraints: 306 utterances (34.5%) violated the free morpheme constraint, and 601 utterances (67.8%) violated the equivalence constraint, occurring across a wide range of syntactic categories. While violations of the free morpheme constraint were exclusively unidirectional, involving Arabic bound morphemes attached to English free morphemes, equivalence constraint violations were bidirectional, though predominantly shaped by Arabic grammar. Crucially, many …

Citizen Science Helps Monitor Urban Biodiversity: An Interactive, Data-Driven, And Open-Source Perspective, Katie Slack

Geography ETDs

Story maps, a powerful tool for communicating environmental narratives, are often commercial and lack many interactive functions. We integrate a data-driven and interactive geovisualization within an open-source story map created from high-attribute citizen science datasets. This story map creates a backend programming infrastructure for accessible, open-source science communication tools. Our story map intuitively communicates the findings from our web map application (app) portion of the story map to the public and helps reveal findings from the iNaturalist datasets. Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States is a demonstrative case study, but our tools can be flexibly adapted to other cities. Geovisualizations revealed …

Economic Stress And Child Outcomes: The Family Stress Model Among Asian American Families During Covid-19, Annie Fanta, Sei Eun Kim, Cindy J. Huang, William Tsai, Cindy Y. Huang

Department of Family Science and Human Development Scholarship and Creative Works

Limited research has examined the impact of financial stress on families since the onset of COVID-19, specifically among Asian American (AA) parents. Informed by the Family Stress Model, this study examined the short-term longitudinal links between economic stress, parental psychological distress (i.e., anxiety and depression symptoms), positive parenting behaviors, and child outcomes three months later (i.e., child internalizing and externalizing problems). Results indicated that Time 1 (T1) parental economic stress was directly and positively associated with positive parenting behaviors at T1 and child internalizing problems at Time 2 (T2). Parental psychological distress at T1 was directly and negatively associated with …

Effective Strategies That Marketing Leaders Use To Increase Fan Base, Denise Leslie Rosa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite its growth and potential, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) consistently struggles to generate profit, remaining unprofitable in its 28th (2024) season and heading into its 29th (2025) season. The inability of women’s professional basketball marketing leaders to generate increased revenue and fan engagement has limited the sport’s growth and visibility. Grounded in McCarthy’s four Ps of marketing concept that includes product, price, place, and promotion, the purpose of the qualitative pragmatic inquiry project was to identify and explore effective and innovative marketing strategies that marketing leaders use to increase the revenue of women’s professional basketball teams and their …

Indian Cosmology And Archaeoastronomy Of The Khmer Stone Temples In Sakon Nakhon-Thailand, Duangden Boonpok

International Review of Humanities Studies

This article is multidisciplinary study of cosmology, archaeology and astronomy of the Khmer stone temples in Sakon Nakhon. The study investigates of the temple’s architectural structure and environmental geography which related to the astronomical knowledge. The result of study found that the plan and structure of temples is influenced by the concept of Indian cosmology which has Mount Meru as the central axis. Buildings is signified as mountain or heaven with high and multi-layered base. The main building is symbolically important as the origin of power for the whole temple. The objects and positions are the transforming of cosmology concept …

Representation Of Women’S Role In Sumbanese Ikat Weaving (Tenun Ikat), Tasya Widya Krisnadi

International Review of Humanities Studies

The craft of weaving is not merely an economic or artistic activity, but also plays a central role in the identity and social life of the Sumba community, particularly in the Kodi District of Southwest Sumba Regency. Women in Sumba play a crucial role in the practice of tenun ikat. They are not only the custodians of the skills and technical knowledge of weaving, but also the bearers of cultural values embedded in the process. This research aims to reveal the role of Sumbanese women as preservers of tradition amidst the currents of modernization. This study employs qualitative methods with …

Comparative Study Of Machine Learning Models For Predicting The Market Value Of Professional Football Players, Álvaro Salvador López

Master's Theses or Doctor of Nursing Practice

The market value of professional football players is a critical factor in decision-making for clubs, agents, and analysts. Accurate player valuation impacts transfers, contract negotiations, and financial planning. In recent years, data-driven approaches have emerged to support traditional scouting with predictive analytics. This thesis presents a comparative study of machine learning models to estimate the market value of football players based on historical performance and personal attributes.

This thesis presents a comparative study of two independently developed machine learning systems designed to predict the market value of football players for the 2020–2021 season. Both systems were trained using real data …

Health Impacts, Air Pollution And Electric Vehicles In California, Pufan Qi

Economics ETDs

This research examines the impact of electric vehicles (EVs) on air quality in California over the period from 2010 to 2021, as well as the implications of air pollution for respiratory health, organized into five chapters. The initial chapter provides background information and outlines the objectives, findings, and contributions. The second chapter examines the relationship between air quality and electric vehicles by utilizing fixed effect panel regression models. The third chapter employs panel regressions with Poisson control models to assess the correlation between changes in air quality resulting from electric vehicles and the prevalence of respiratory diseases. The fourth chapter …

2022-07-19 Executive Council Minutes, Susie Salazar

Executive Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

• Social Media Use Among Undergraduate Women: Associations With Body Image, Disordered Eating, And Well-Being, Kirsten P. Peterson

Psychology ETDs

Though prior research has identified a range of negative impacts associated with social networking site/app (SNS) use, these effects vary and are often attributed to specific aspects of SNSs rather than time spent on them. The current study examined relations between SNS use and various psychological outcomes (i.e., body appreciation, body dissatisfaction, eating pathology, depression, and self-esteem) and how these may differ by platform, proportion of image-based content, image subjects, and passive (relative to active) use. Worse outcomes were anticipated for individuals who primarily used appearance-focused platforms and those with greater exposure to image-based content, self or celebrity images, and …

Investigating The Determinants Of Influenza Entry And Spread In Human Airway Cells Using Fluorescence Microscopy, Zijian Guo

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Influenza A virus (IAV) remains a significant global health challenge. IAV utilizes the receptor binding protein hemagglutinin (HA) and the receptor destroying protein neuraminidase (NA) to facilitate infection. The activities of these proteins affect multiple steps in IAV life cycle. However, it remains unclear how these IAV factors influence infection dynamics in the context of a complex cellular environment encountered in the respiratory tract. In this work, we use fluorescence microscopy and human airway epithelial cells to study influenza biology at the single-cell and single-virion level, revealing key insights into viral binding, entry, and spread. First, we focused on the …

Scoping Review: Faktor – Faktor Yang Mempengaruhi Keputusan Lansia Memilih Senior Living, Nia Murniati, Badra Al Aufa, Mochamad Iqbal Nurmansyah

Jurnal Administrasi Bisnis Terapan

Abstract Senior living has emerged as an alternative solution to public health and social policy challenges amid the global acceleration of aging. Traditionally perceived as a last resort, life in senior living facilities is shaped by evolving dynamics in health, family, and society. This scoping review explores the key factors influencing older adults' decisions to reside in senior living communities during their later years. Utilizing Andersen’s Behavioral Model of Health Service Use as a theoretical framework, the review was conducted following PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Articles published between 2019 and 2024 were identified through searches in PubMed, Scopus, ProQuest, and Taylor & …

Hidden Struggles, Shining Leaders: Black K–12 Leaders Navigating Microaggressions While Leading Predominantly White Or Majority-Minority Schools, Yinka Dallas

LMU Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative study explored the lived experiences of eight Black educational leaders navigating microaggressions in predominantly White or majority-minority K–12 school settings in Southern California. Framed by Critical Race Theory (CRT) (Crenshaw, 1989; Ladson-Billings, 1998; Solórzano, 1998), the conceptual framework of microaggressions (Sue, 2010; Sue et al., 2008, 2007), and informed by the historical displacement of Black educators and leaders following Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the study examined how participants perceived and responded to microaggressions, as well as the reported psychological and physiological toll of these experiences, and strategies employed to address, cope with, and disrupted incidents …

Making The Macc: Communities Of Practice And Cultural Citizenship In Austin, Texas, Cassie Lynn Smith

Anthropology ETDs

Meaningful community engagement is a challenge for local governments without a thorough understanding of constituents’ histories and their relationship with City government. This dissertation investigates the City of Austin’s (COA) Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) in Austin, Texas, to understand how this culture and arts institution engages with and is influenced by its patrons. This study analyzes the role of the MACC’s community of practice (Lave and Wenger 1991)—an evolving group of educators, activists, artists, and COA staff—in shaping public policy and educational programming as well as creating places of belonging for marginalized people in the city. …

“…Stay On It…”/A Theory///“Illumination Happens”//, Lara E. Goldmann

Art & Art History ETDs

“…stay on it…”/a theory///“illumination happens”// is a critical engagement with the work of contemporary Black artists Arthur Jafa and Adam Pendleton, explored through the lens of the Black radical tradition. Bridging aesthetics, politics, and history, the dissertation investigates how their visual, sonic, and conceptual practices articulate Black life, insurgency, and imagination.

Drawing on theorists such as Fred Moten, Sylvia Wynter, Hortense Spillers, Frantz Fanon, and Cedric Robinson, the study constructs a framework that considers Blackness as an ontological, social, and aesthetic force. It examines how Jafa and Pendleton unsettle dominant epistemologies, staging acts of refusal and creation that resonate within …

Better Together: Embedding Media Literacy Into Academic Courses, Chereeka Garner

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

In an era where digital information is abundant and often misleading, equipping college students with media literacy skills is more crucial than ever. This lightning talk will provide a streamlined guide to developing a comprehensive media literacy course specifically designed for college students. Attendees will learn about the essential components of the course, including how to design an engaging curriculum, implement effective teaching strategies, and utilize assessment methods to gauge student understanding.

Participants will be able to:

Understand the importance of media literacy within the broader context of information literacy and its impact on college students’ ability to navigate digital …

Inequality And Covid Risk At School: Racial Disparities In Indoor Density, Vaccination Rates, And Consequences For Absenteeism, Michael C. Quinn, Michah W. Rothbart, Amy Ellen Schwartz, Brian Elbel

Center for Policy Research

During the COVID pandemic, schools were widely believed to be a venue that facilitated disease transmission. While some worried Black and Hispanic students would disproportionately face greater risk of COVID exposure at school (school COVID risk) – given well-documented racially disparate school environments and resources – little empirical evidence exists documenting or refuting potential disparities in school COVID risk. This paper begins to fill this gap by examining racial disparities in the school environments that contribute to COVID risk at school—specifically, vaccination rates and classroom space per pupil (indoor density) - in New York City elementary schools. We then document …

A Mutational Analysis Of Thatisin: How Single Point Mutations Impact The Biosynthetic Process Of A Group 16 Graspetide, John F. Boynton Jr

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Abstract:

Graspetides are a family of Ribosomally synthesized and Post-translationally modified Peptide (RiPP) natural products named for their ATP Grasp Macrocyclases. We identified several Graspetide Biosynthetic Gene Clusters containing common double glycine cleavage motifs and attempted characterization of the mature Graspetides. One of the resulting peptides, Thatisin, has a topology with two interlocking macrolactones installed by a single ATP Grasp Ligase named ThtC. Here we use single and double point mutations to observe the impact or variation on the installation of these macrocycles. Alanine scan mutagenesis is used to assess leader peptide residues in the precursor peptide ThtA to determine …

Instability Analysis In Cylindrical Thin Film–Compliant Core Structures: Numerical Simulations And Effects Of Inelastic Deformation, Md Al Rifat Anan

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

When a thin film bonded to a thick compliant substrate is subject to in-plane compression, wrinkles can develop if the critical state for instability is reached. In various applications the film/substrate system may also take the form of cylindrical fibers, where an axial compressive loading can trigger axisymmetric wrinkles. A straightforward computational approach to simulate such wrinkling behavior is needed for material design, to either prevent wrinkling or to exploit its benefits for flexible device applications. In this work a comprehensive numerical study is undertaken by employing the finite element method. The embedded imperfection approach used previously for planar structures …

Composition Portfolio Of Doug Falk, Doug Falk

Music ETDs

This composition portfolio contains six compositions:

Heterogeneity (2020) for solo guitar

Amalgamation (2023) for reed quintet

Oil and Vinegar (2024) for wind symphony (satisfying the requirement of one work for large ensemble)

Shouting into the Abyss (2024) for flute with electronics (satisfying the requirements of a work for electronics and a work for voice)

Movements Come, Movements Cease (2025) for voice, trumpet/flugelhorn, marimba, electric bass, drum set and fixed media; written in collaboration with choreography by Laura Orozco Garrett (satisfying the requirement of one collaborative work)

Celestial Bodies in Motion (2025) for 10 piece wind ensemble (satisfying the requirement for …

Exploring Socio-Psychological Drivers And Pathways Of Sustainable Fashion Consumption, Jiyeon Kim Ph.D., Md. Rafiqul Islam Rana M.S.,Ph.D

Faculty Publications

This study explores social and psychological factors influencing the intention to purchase sustainable fashion products. Integrating self-congruity theory, self-completion theory, and Theory of Planned Behaviour, this study proposed a dual-path model of socio-psychological variables essential for shaping consumer attitudes towards sustainable consumption and subsequent purchase intention. Additionally, the moderating role of sustainable brand awareness in the link between attitude and intention and the effect of affordability on purchase intentions were tested. Data were collected from 278 US fashion consumers through an online survey, and PLS-SEM was used for the analyses. Results show that self-identity drives self-expressive benefits, while environmental awareness …

Exploring Adversarial Threats To Neuralhash: A Perceptual Hashing Algorithm, Gurleen Kaur

Student Theses

Perceptual hashing algorithms are algorithms that generate content-based image hashes by extracting perceptual features from the images. Unlike cryptographic hashes, which exhibit significant changes with even slight input alterations, perceptual hashes do not change when modifications like compression, color correction and brightness are applied to the images. These hashes are designed to remain similar for inputs that are visually or perceptually alike, which has led to their widespread application in detecting duplicate images, finding similar images for reverse image search and to detecting inappropriate content of Child sexual abuse (CSAM) images by comparing image hashes with dataset of known perceptual …

The Influence Of The Dutch East Indies Government’S Ethnic Politics On Discrimination Against The Chinese Ethnic Group In Batavia (1946–1950), Zaky Rizqy Zaidaan Fadrin, Fajar Muhammad Muhammad Nugraha

International Review of Humanities Studies

This study explains how discrimination was experienced by ethnic Chinese in Batavia in the early post-independence period in 1946–1950, with an emphasis on the influence of ethnic politics practiced by the Dutch East Indies colonial government. The purpose of this study is to analyze the pattern of discrimination against ethnic Chinese influenced by the legacy of colonial racial segregation. The method used is qualitative historical descriptive. The main sources of this study come from letters of complaint from the Chinese community in 1946–1949 in the National Archives of the Republic of Indonesia (ANRI) and newspaper articles from 1950 from De …

The Comparison Of Classical Tafsir And Contemporary Interpretation Regarding The Verses Of Astrophysics And Cosmology In The Qur’An, Azra Ansharullah, Basuni Imamuddin

International Review of Humanities Studies

As time progressed, various kinds of discoveries in the field of science emerged one by one, especially in the field of Astronomy and its "little brother" Astrophysics. This opens up opportunities for everyone to research things that have been researched from a new perspective, such as researching the Koran from a science and technology perspective. There are 310 instances in the Qur'an where the word "heaven" is mentioned, and within them, there are various statements regarding the nature, phenomena, and other things related to the sky. With the progress of technology, there is undoubtedly a gap in the interpretation and …

The British Colonial Land Policy And The Development Of Plantation Agriculture In Colonial Southwestern Nigeria, Adesola S. Adesote

International Review of Humanities Studies

The main thrust of this paper is to critically analyse the impact of the colonial land policy of the British on plantation agriculture in colonial Southwestern Nigeria. Although land legislation had been introduced as far back as the late 19^th century, such as the Public Lands Ordinance of 1876 later renamed the Public Lands Acquisition Ordinance of 1917, it was vigorously pursued with the imposition of colonial rule in the period between 1900 and 1960. It argued that the introduction of land policy by the British in order to achieve her economic objective in Nigeria led to the commercialisation …

Assessing The Effects Of Antibiotic Selectivity And Temperature On The Antimicrobial Activity Of Isolates Derived From The Deep-Sea Sponge Pheronema Capenteri, Lex L. Hilario

The Plymouth Student Scientist

The rapid increase of antibiotic resistance necessitates the discovery of novel antibiotic compounds capable to tackle these resistant bacteria. Deep-sea sponges accommodate a diverse and dense microbiome filled with an array of bacterial communities that have the potential to produce novel antimicrobials. Some discovered novel strains have already shown their capability in producing secondary metabolites that are effective against clinically relevant strains. This study aims to evaluate the impacts of different culture conditions; antibiotic selectivity and temperature, on the antimicrobial activity of isolates recovered from three different Pheronema carpenteri deep-sea sponges. Using culture-dependant methods, a total of 59 bacterial isolates …

Comparing P62 And Lc3 As Autophagy Biomarkers: Insights Into Cellular Homeostasis, Riya Roychan

The Plymouth Student Scientist

Autophagy is a fundamental cellular process that maintains homeostasis by the degradation of damaged organelles and proteins. It plays crucial roles in cellular remodelling, development, and disease progression. These roles apply to the study of neurodegenerative diseases which is heavily linked to the toxicity produced by unwarranted accumulation of cellular material. A key player in autophagy is LC3, which translocate to autophagosomal membranes during the process. Detecting fluorescently labelled LC3-II through immunofluorescence provides a valuable method for assessing autophagy levels in samples. In a similar premise p62, also known as sequestosome-1 (SQSTM-1), is an adaptor between LC3 and ubiquitinated substrates, …