Digital Commons Network^™

Predictors Of Depression And Life Satisfaction Among Asian Indians Living In The United States Of America, Ramanjot Kaur Basanti

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This study assessed the statistical contribution of gender, acculturation, Asian values, coping self-efficacy and discrimination in the prediction of depression and life satisfaction with Asian Indian American adults. The increasing number of Asian Indians in the United States has prompted psychologists and other clinicians to seek understanding of the unique mental health needs of this population. However, previous studies on predictors of depression and life satisfaction among Asian Indians living in the United States had been scarce and inconclusive. The current study, grounded in Berry’s multidimensional theory of acculturation, used a cross-sectional correlational survey design to examine if gender, acculturation, …

Self-Defense And Political Rage, Erin L. Sheley

Faculty Scholarship

This Article considers how American political polarization and the substantive issues driving it raise unique challenges for adjudicating self-defense claims in contexts of political protest. We live in an age where roughly a quarter of the population believes it is at least sometimes justifiable to use violence in defense of political positions, making political partisans somewhat more likely to pose a genuine threat of bodily harm to opponents. Furthermore, the psychological literature shows that people are more likely to perceive threats from people with whom they politically disagree and that juries tend to evaluate reasonableness claims according to their own …

Teaching Children Consent Skills Through The Lens Of Personal Boundaries And Bodily Autonomy, Prerana Atreya

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Sexual violence is a public health and safety problem affecting many children across the United States. One preventative tool the public health department uses to mitigate the high prevalence rates and harm of sexual violence is teaching consent skills to children. Previous research has demonstrated that behavior analytic principles effectively teach other important safety skills (e.g., abduction prevention, gun safety, and poison safety). Thus, it is possible that using behavioral technologies to teach consent skills will show similar effectiveness as teaching safety skills. The current study’s purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of using behavioral skills training (BST), video modeling, …

Utilizing Internet Memes In Senior High School Biology To Improve Gen Z’S Academic Achievement, Attitude, And Self-Efficacy, Alyanna Nicole Carlos, Emmanuel D. Delocado

Biology Faculty Publications

Generation Z learners’ short attention span challenges educators to design engaging teaching methods that capture their interest. This quantitative study investigates the effect of memes, which are popular internet media, on non-STEM Gen Z high school students’ academic achievement, attitude, and self-efficacy in biology. Two groups of Grade 11 participants (n=243) were taught cellular division and genetics lessons through two different approaches. The results demonstrate that the experimental group which was taught using meme-infused materials had statistically significantly higher post-test scores (21.46 ± 4.41 out of 30; independent t-test = 0.00) than students who were taught with materials with no …

Quantifying Public Support For Culling Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish (Acanthaster Spp.) On The Great Barrier Reef, Stewart Lockie, Henry A. Bartelet, Brent W. Ritchie, Lintje Sie, Gillian Paxton

Quantitative Methods and Information Technology Faculty Publications

Population surges of crown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) (Acanthaster spp.) are a leading cause of coral cover loss on Australia's Great Barrier Reef (GBR). While COTS culling has been undertaken since 2012 little is known about how the public perceive COTS culling or how perceptions vary among social groups. Drawing on survey data collected in 2018 and 2022 we test the relative influence of demographic variables, social and institutional variables, and beliefs concerning the risks and benefits of culling, on public acceptance for the culling of COTS on the GBR. In contrast with previous research suggesting a polarization of views, we found …

Ethical Education Data Mining Framework For Analyzing And Evaluating Large Language Model-Based Conversational Intelligent Tutoring Systems For Management And Entrepreneurship Courses, Joseph Benjamin R. Ilagan, Jose Ramon Ilagan, Ma. Mercedes T. Rodrigo

Quantitative Methods and Information Technology Faculty Publications

Educational data mining (EDM) can be used to design better and smarter learning technology by finding and predicting aspects of learners. Amend if necessary. Insights from EDM are based on data collected from educational environments. Among these educational environments are computer-based educational systems (CBES) such as learning management systems (LMS) and conversational intelligent tutoring systems (CITSs). The use of large language models (LLMs) to power a CITS holds promise due to their advanced natural language understanding capabilities. These systems offer opportunities for enriching management and entrepreneurship education. Collecting data from classes experimenting with these new technologies raises some ethical challenges. …

Silencing Stemness Genes In Glioblastoma Cancer Stem Cells Improve Anticancer Drug Efficacy, Jonhoi C. Smith

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Glioblastoma (GBM) is an aggressive and incurable primary brain tumor characterized by therapy-resistant cancer stem cells (CSCs). Due to the limited effectiveness of conventional chemotherapies and radiation treatments against cancer stem cells (CSCs), there is a critical need for the development of innovative therapeutic approaches. Our previous research revealed the significant expression of embryonic stemness genes, NANOG and OCT4, in CSCs, suggesting their role in enhancing cancer-specific stemness and drug resistance. By suppressing the expression of these genes, we observed increased susceptibility of CSCs to the anticancer drug, Temozolomide (TMZ). Furthermore, suppression of NANOG expression led to an accumulation of …

Mindful Approaches, Transforming Hearts: Cultivating Elementary Students' Positive Mathematics Identity Development Through An Equity-Based Morning Mathematics Club, Kayla N. Blankenship

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation examines how third through fifth-grade students' mathematics identities developed through a strengths-based mathematics club focused on equitable teaching practices. In this study, theories of Communities of Practice (Wenger, 1998) and Figured Worlds (Holland et al., 1998) were combined with recommendations from Catalyzing Change (NCTM, 2020) and equity-based practices (Aguirre et al., 2013) to promote students’ positive mathematics identity development. Students with positive mathematics identities have increased mathematics engagement and achievement, and are more likely to seek careers in STEM. Mathematics identities are developed through and influenced by various sociocultural, personal, and educational factors. Incorporating evidence from student surveys, …

A Chat Analysis Of The Use Of Educational Video Games To Teach Physical Science To Middle School Girls, Stephen G. Petit

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

As students transition into middle school science courses, their interest and engagement in the subject declines. This decline is most significant among girls, particularly for topics in physical science. While several factors have been identified that contribute to the decline, one area that is emerging as a new way to help improve girls' view of science is the use of educational video games to improve engagement and interest in science content, particularly as video games have been steadily rising in popularity with girls. This study used Cultural Historical Activity Theory to understand how middle school girls engage with an educational …

Nonprofit Compliance: Perceptions Of Small Nonprofit Leaders To Be Compliant, Andrea C. Ortega

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Small nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are at higher risk of having their IRS tax-exempt status revoked due to a lack of funding, governance, and structure. Organizations that fail to file an annual information return or notice for three consecutive years automatically lose their tax-exempt status by revocation. In May 2020, the IRS revoked the status of more than 30,000 NPOs for failing to file tax returns. This research contributes to the very limited number of qualitative studies on nonprofit leaders' knowledge of federal compliance, which is unknown and may contribute to small nonprofits losing their IRS-exempt status. This qualitative study examines …

An Exploratory Sequential Mixed Methods Study On Usable Cybersecurity And The Behaviorial Effects Of Cognitive Load, Corey Leong

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This study investigated individuals’ behaviors and perceptions, and actions of a cybersecurity event after reviewing relevant cybersecurity content published in a cyber alert. As new technologies are developed and released, humans experience pressure to defend against threats while at work to remain productive and meet desired organizational goals (Chowdury & Skinner, 2019). The first part of the study randomly assigned participants to respond to a pre-questionnaire followed by an intervention, reading a cyberalert. Participants then answered a post-questionnaire that included the identical questions from the pre-questionnaire, in addition to, biographical and career related questions as well. The second part of …

Addressing Spectral Bias Of Deep Neural Networks By Multi-Grade Deep Learning, Ronglong Fang, Yuesheng Xu

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have showcased their remarkable precision in approximating smooth functions. However, they suffer from the spectral bias, wherein DNNs typically exhibit a tendency to prioritize the learning of lower-frequency components of a function, struggling to effectively capture its high-frequency features. This paper is to address this issue. Notice that a function having only low frequency components may be well-represented by a shallow neural network (SNN), a network having only a few layers. By observing that composition of low frequency functions can effectively approximate a high-frequency function, we propose to learn a function containing high-frequency components by composing …

An Ultrafast, Mid-Wave Infrared Source For Driving High-Order Harmonics Beyond The Water Window, Zachary A. Marra

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation details the development of the world’s first cryogenically cooled Fe:ZnSe-based chirped pulse amplifier, a mid-wave infrared source for strong-field physics experimentation. The long upper-state lifetime provided by cryogenically cooling the Fe:ZnSe gain medium allows free-running, diode-pumped Er:YAG lasers to be used as pump lasers. The amplifier is seeded by a novel two-stage optical parametric amplifier pumped at 1 μm, which is potentially carrier-envelope phase-stable. The system is capable of producing 247-fs pulses at 333 Hz and 4.6 mJ with a center wavelength of 4.07 μm, although exact characteristics vary for different repetition rates and arrangements. The spectral bandwidth …

Assessing The Connection Between Social Media And Ideological Polarization, Joshua Stiekman

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Does the usage of social media make individuals more polarized? Previous studies have shown that political use of the internet does make individuals more likely to politically participate, but little academic work has looked at the dynamic of ideology and the social media usage, despite the increase of social media usage in everyday life. This study uses Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok to see if social media users are more polarized, and which ideological groups are more polarized on social media. Moderates are included to differentiate if there is a difference. This study analyzed data from the …

The Experience Of Blind Mothers In Parenting Children With Disabilities ``, Abeer S. Ali

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Blind or visually impaired mothers (BVIMs) raising children with disabilities experience an exceptional set of challenges that have been largely overlooked in disability and parenting research and teacher education. With this study the researcher examined how BVIMs support their children with disabilities in key areas such as behavior management, educational advocacy, caregiving, and accessing resources. Additionally, the researcher sought to understand how these mothers navigate their experiences as they challenge with societal perceptions, institutional barriers, and the daily caregiving demands. The researcher employed a qualitative case study methodology, using in-depth individual interviews and a focus group with six BVIM participants. …

Supporting Online Student Success Via Online Instructor Best Practices, Tori Jayne Taylor

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

Fully online learning provides flexibility students appreciate but can be impersonal and socially isolating. Students can experience lower achievement and more frequent course withdrawal because they struggle to connect to the content, instructor, and other students. Twelve experienced general education instructors from a large university were interviewed to understand how they notice and support students who are at risk of underachieving or failing fully online courses. Interview data were triangulated using course content analyses from two of the instructors’ online courses. Thematic data analysis was guided by the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework.

Instructors in smaller courses use a variety …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Impact Of Anti-Woke Legislation On Higher Education, Brittany Knowles

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

The events immediately following the COVID-19 pandemic, to include the uptick of hate crimes against Asian-Americans and the murder of George Floyd had a profound impact on public awareness of diversity, equity and inclusion issues. Where initially it appeared, public perception was supportive of the work- in recent years it has come under increasing scrutiny particularly within the academic space. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) work specifically anti-racism has become increasingly polarizing. The decline in public perception of DEI work was marked by the use of simplified catchphrases like woke agendas and CRT in reference to schools. With then presidential …

Program Evaluation Of Behavioral Health Training: Using The Retain Model, Kris J. Toscani

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This study investigated the effectiveness of gamification elements introduced into a well-established behavioral health in-person professional training. The gamification elements were designed with the RETAIN Model and Rubric and intended to increase team member engagement by increasing Relevance, Embedding a fictitious medical-themed story, creating opportunities for knowledge acquisition and Transfer, Adapting the content to the job functions of the participants, creating an Immersive experience in which the team members were fully engaged in the medical mystery, and repetitively applying gameplay concepts to efforts to create a Naturalized learning experience. The methodological approach to assessing …

The Activated Singer: Components Of An Emerging Singing Identity In Adults Learning To Sing, Karen J. Wise, Andrea R. Halpern

Faculty Journal Articles

Many adults avoid singing participation, even in informal situations. We examined components of singing identity in self-identified non-singers using questionnaires, including a novel Singing Inhibition (SI) scale, among 238 adults volunteering for a training study. Higher levels of Singing Inhibition were predicted by a combination of lower self-reported singing skill, lower Parental/Family Engagement in singing, and stronger belief that singing is a fixed ability. A subsample of 20 self-reported non-singers (aged 23–71) participated in 10 months of singing lessons, and we tracked changes in objective singing competence as well as self-assessments and singing-related attitudes and beliefs at baseline, at six …

Eavesdropping-Driven Profiling Attacks On Encrypted Wifi Networks: Unveiling Vulnerabilities In Iot Device Security, Ibrahim A. Alwhbi

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Abstract—This dissertation investigates the privacy implications of WiFi communication in Internet-of-Things (IoT) environments, focusing on the threat posed by out-of-network observers. Recent research has shown that in-network observers can glean information about IoT devices, user identities, and activities. However, the potential for information inference by out-of-network observers, who do not have WiFi network access, has not been thoroughly examined. The first study provides a detailed summary dataset, utilizing Random Forest for data summary classification. This study highlights the significant privacy threat to WiFi networks and IoT applications from out-of-network observers. Building on this investigation, the second study extends the research …

A Multimodal Framework For Automated Content Moderation Of Children's Videos, Syed Hammad Ahmed

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

Online video platforms receive hundreds of hours of uploads every minute, making manual moderation of inappropriate content impossible. The most vulnerable consumers of malicious video content are children from ages 1-5 whose attention is easily captured by bursts of color and sound. Prominent video hosting platforms like YouTube have taken measures to mitigate malicious content, but these videos often go undetected by current automated content moderation tools that are focused on removing explicit or copyrighted content. Scammers attempting to monetize their content may craft malicious children's videos that are superficially similar to educational videos, but include scary and disgusting characters, …

Forgiveness As A Critical And Transformative Factor In Sustainable Peace: Peacebuilding Women In Rumuruti, Kenya, Genevieve Mwella Sabala

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The concept of ‘forgiveness’ in relation to sustainable peace has been extensively writtenabout. However, research shows that many organizations involved in peacebuilding have not actively adopted ‘forgiveness’ as they have done with restorative justice, healing, and reconciliation. Therefore it opens up an opportunity for further inquiry to identify the meaning and role of forgiveness in sustainable peacebuilding. Forgiveness is still being debated and the various meanings accorded by a variety of disciplines from religion, political, sociological, and conflict resolution practitioners, make it more complex. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate women’s lived experiences with ethnic violence post …

Case Study: Iran, Israel, And Saudi Arabia Relations 1979-2022, Sarh Albliahed

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if establishing diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel would stabilize the Middle East region and how Iran would affect that. This qualitative research delineated a case study focused on relationships between three of the key actors in the Middle East: Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. It was a time- specific examination of those individual's cases and their interactions from 1979 to 2022. The intersections of the three countries and their individual experiences as sovereign states were analyzed. The research questions were:1) How would the establishment of diplomatic relations and further engagement …

Balancing Acts: Navigating The Impact Of Working From Home On Women, Families And Beyond, Gayle Marie Hardison

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the world and continues to impact us four years later. One of the most significant impacts the pandemic had is on the way we work. To stop the spread of the virus and to safeguard the public, countries around the world issued stay-athome orders which required all but essential workers to stay at home beginning in March of 2020 in the United States and throughout the world. This transformed the way and where we worked and a large portion of the workforce which was able, began working from home or teleworking. What …

Human Rights, Informed Consent, And The Influence Of Gender In Compulsory Vaccination: A Qualitative Analysis To Mediate Public Policy In A Protracted Social Conflict, Shannon Christine Rowles-Mcgighan

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

This research study sought to understand the perspectives and experiences related to theCompulsory Vaccination Policy and the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. The research objective was to mediate the conflict between the public and the medical community by presenting what William Ury called the “third side.” Uri (1999) studied conflict and found another way to perceive conflict from a larger perspective that emphasizes a fair solution that meets both sides’ needs and the surrounding communities. This study involved qualitative analysis to triangulate the concerns in the conflict through an evaluation of vaccine injury cases, vaccine injury data collection methods, the influence …

The Role Of The Diaspora In The Peace Process In The Democratic Republic Of The Congo:A Qualitative Case Study, Solomon Lulonga Mlongetcha Jackson

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) continues as one of the world's most prolonged and most intractable conflicts in human history. The problem being studied was that over 5 million Congolese individuals had been displaced because of the conflict, forcing them into repetitive cycles of poverty and militarization. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative single case study was to explore the perceptions and lived experiences of members of the DRC diaspora on their various roles in the conflict resolution process in their home country. A secondary purpose was to identify barriers they perceived toward peacekeeping processes …

The Role Of Hope In The Lives Of Sexual And Gender Minority Youth: The Relationship Between Bullying And Life Satisfaction, Jedediah E. Bragg, Daniel Howell, Shane R. Brady

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Among sexual and gender minority students, 70% are bullied at school every year in the United States (2019). This study utilized a random 6% sample (n = 400) from the 2018 Washington State Healthy Youth Survey (n = 32,271), to assess the relationships between sexuality, bullying and life satisfaction, and then how hope moderates this established relationship. Results of this study illustrate the negative effects of bullying on life satisfaction for all students, while highlighting differences across sexuality. Additionally, this study illustrates that interventions to address the impacts of bullying might be best served by including the positive construct of …

Getting To Disability Justice: A Critical Conceptual Review Of Disability Models In U.S. Social Work, Kathryn M. Wright

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In 1983, scholar Mike Oliver coined the term the “social model of disability.” While the medical model presents disability as an inherent, immutable, and pathological defect, the social model suggests that disability emerges from external and social barriers (Oliver, 1983). Little research within social work has engaged with sociocultural paradigms of disability and how they might impact social work practice. American social workers generally approach disability as a biological category and an obvious deficit. This paper draws attention to the need to analyze the category of disability through social and cultural lenses in social work research and practice. Via a …

Global Deaf And Disability-Led Partnerships For Accessible Emergency Response And Humanitarian Action, Alina A. Engelman, Joe Booze, Alexia Izquierdo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Disability-serving non-profit, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a critical role in fostering care networks and supporting humanitarian action for disabled people before and during emergencies, particularly in the absence of targeted philanthropic and governmental support. However, relatively few NGOs serving disabled people are led or operated by people with disabilities, especially by disabled women. This analysis, based on survey and interview data with leadership, explores the impact of two disability-led operations. Findings have profound implications for how social work practice can center disability justice both in preparing for and responding to emergencies. This paper assesses the needs and impact of two …

Dd 263-001: Digital Design Studio I, Michael Zajacz

School of Art and Design Syllabi

No abstract provided.