Digital Commons Network^™

Crowding, Capacity, And Reform: Exploring The Dynamics Of Correctional Policy, John Ursino

Criminology and Criminal Justice Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the dynamic mechanisms that drive correctional population change and evaluates strategies for sustainable decarceration. Despite widespread calls for evidence-based corrections, methodological tools such as time series analysis remain underutilized for understanding population management. This dissertation addresses this gap through a three-paper design that applies advanced time-series methods to key stages of the correctional continuum. Chapter Two uses interrupted time-series analysis to evaluate the impacts of both proactive (policy-driven) and reactive (COVID-19 and court mandate-related) decarceration events in Washington State on admissions, technical violations, and recidivism outcomes, clarifying how policy design affects prison admission flows. Chapter Three employs …

“Gc Flight, Lock The Doors” How Communication Resilience Shapes Crisis Response In Human Space Flight, Jessica Hilt

Communications Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

A precursor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) has been pushing the boundaries of space flight since 1915 (“NASA History – The NACA,” 2024c). Space flight as we know it today began in 1962, with an address given by President John F. Kennedy at Rice University. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard…” (Kennedy, 1962, p. 3). Words of which have inspired generations of children, men, and women who were courageous enough to …

Colorectal Cancer Screening: Implementation And Evaluation Of A Screening Algorithm In A Rural Family Practice Clinic, Mollie M. Tate, Whitney Dubas

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer-related mortality in the United States and disproportionately affects rural populations. Although more than 90% of cases occur in adults older than 50 years, increasing incidence among younger adults prompted an update to national guidelines recommending screening beginning at age 45. Rural residents face multiple barriers to colorectal cancer screening (CRCS), including limited access to care, transportation challenges, lack of insurance, and absence of standardized screening processes in primary care. These barriers contribute to lower screening rates, delayed diagnosis, and poorer outcomes. Evidence demonstrates that CRCS reduces CRC morbidity and …

Relationship Between Judges’ Gender And Caseload Clearance In Jamaica’S Parish Courts, Sonia Bertram Linton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

A Content Analysis Of Emotional Valence And Engagement In Youtube Comments, Lydia Britton '27

Student Research

This study investigated the relationship between YouTube comment participation and emotional valence. We hypothesized that highly negative-valenced comments would generate higher engagement (likes and replies), based on prior research showing that emotionally intense content drives interaction. Fifty comments from ten popular videos across five categories (shopping, music, gaming, news, and sports) were analyzed using linguistic indicators (language and emojis) and intensifiers (capitalization, exclamation points, profanity). Each comment was assigned a dominant valence and a Likert scale rating. Engagement was measured by likes per view and replies per view. Results showed a negative correlation between emotional valence and replies. Despite trending …

Lunar Regolith Sintered Brick Apparatus, Andrew Fasano, Noah Parayil, Darius Felix Karra

Senior Design Project For Engineers

This project describes the preliminary design and analysis of the Semi-Autonomous Lunar Regolith Sintered Brick Apparatus that will assist in developing permanent infrastructure on the Moon. An issue with permanent lunar operations is the transportation of materials to the Moon. To address this, the designed device uses lunar regolith as the source material for producing bricks. This design considers the constraints set for operation with the Griffin lunar lander: maximum payload mass of 200 kg, power consumption below 5 kW, and limited payload dimensions. The design uses a combination of a laser sintering motion system, a regolith layering subsystem, a …

Measuring Effectiveness Of A Mobility Aide On A Medical-Surgical Unit, Jamie L. Granatowicz, Laura N. Rogers, Leeza A. Struwe

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects: College of Nursing

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a mobility aide on a medical-surgical inpatient unit to improve patients’ surgical outcomes, decrease hospital length of stay, and decrease the number of falls.

Design: A retrospective review was conducted to determine the effects of a mobility aide implemented on a medical-surgical unit. The intent was to ensure the utilization of the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol for early mobilization before and after implementation. Two-month periods were analyzed before and after implementation.

Findings: The results demonstrated clinical significance for patients when implementing a mobility aide. The mean length of stay was 1.044 days …

Trial Practice And Procedure, John O'Shea Sullivan, Leesa M. M. Guarnotta

Mercer Law Review

The 2025 Survey period yielded a range of decisions impacting trial practice in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, from detailed analysis of the constitutional requirements for personal jurisdiction, expounding upon the limited opportunities for interlocutory appeal, and reinforcing pleading standards. This Article analyzes some of this Survey period’s notable opinions on issues of first impression in the Eleventh Circuit, but it is not intended to be an exhaustive discussion of the Eleventh Circuit’s important decisions during the Survey period.

Children, Clicks, And Constitutional Blind Spots: The First Amendment And The Regulation Of Social Media For Minors, Pepper Miller

Mercer Law Review

“A fundamental principle of the First Amendment is that all persons have access to places where they can speak and listen, and then, after reflection, speak and listen once more.” This oft-quoted maxim from Packingham v. North Carolina has become a touchstone for the wave of litigation challenging state laws that restrict minors’ access to social media platforms. But, in the rapidly advancing age of social media, should the principle still stand that all persons, specifically minors, are entitled to unfettered access to such novel spaces where they can speak and listen? Underpinning the discussion of this issue lies “a …

Real, Not Rhetorical: Children’S Rights As The Strongest Constitutional Defense Of Obergefell Against Religious-Liberty Challenges, Tanya Washington

Mercer Law Review

Justice Kennedy’s decision to center adults’ rights in the Obergefell majority opinion—despite his awareness of children’s legal vulnerabilities—created space for Justice Thomas, in his Davis statement, to ignore children altogether and to reframe the constitutional question as a clash between adults’ rights: the right to marry and to be free from discrimination versus the right to exercise one’s religious beliefs and to refuse to engage in conduct that abrogate those beliefs. This distorted constitutional framing eclipses entirely the rights of children in same-sex families and the concrete harms they will face if their parents are barred from marrying—harms that provide …

All Rights Reserved . . . For Disney: Corporate Mouse Traps, A Frozen Public Domain, And How A.I. May Usher In A Whole New World For Copyright, Matthew A. Shatto

Mercer Law Review

Copyright, as a body of law, is a recent development in the human consciousness, originating in 1710 with England’s Statute of Anne. Nevertheless, in the three hundred years that followed, more copyright laws were enacted than murder statutes throughout recorded history. With these successive statutes, corporations have effectuated the largest land grab ever seen. Modern copyright law is the elephant in the room in discussions of wealth inequality, perpetuating evil inside and between countries. Moreover, it has deprived humanity of cultural roots, locking ideas behind a paywall that funnels wealth to the few and stymies ingenuity through the sterilization of …

Concrete Crumbles, Drew M. Dzurko

Graduate Artistry Projects and Performances

Concrete Crumbles examines instability within contemporary American political and social life through photography, collage, and installation. Using construction zones and damaged infrastructure as primary subject matter, the project investigates how material transformation and fragmentation can function as metaphors for political precarity, media saturation, and the erosion of civic stability. Photographs are printed on copy paper, physically cut, rearranged, collaged, and scanned into unstable compositions that resist fixed perspective and seamless representation. These processes emphasize labor, impermanence, and reconstruction while challenging photography’s traditional association with objectivity and permanence.

The work is informed by historical and contemporary influences including Brassaï, Germaine Krull, …

Assessing College Tuition And Wage Prospects For Careers In Archaeology, Angelina H. Gutierrez

Honors Capstones

The pressures of rising college tuition are raising questions about whether a degree in higher education is worth the return on investment in today's society and economy. This study aims to acknowledge the issues of affording college and the opportunities granted in the face of college wealth premiums from the perspective of the field of archaeology. The college wealth premium is understood as additionalopportunities and increased salaries offered to those with a degree in higher education compared to those without. Using the Midwestern United States as a case study, I discuss the gender/race wage gap, college debt, loan inequity, and …

Digital Transformation And Adaptive Capacity Of Banks In Tanzania: The Mediating Effect Of Knowledge Sharing, Sospeter Muchunguzi, Ulingeta O. L. Mbamba, Victor G. Wilson

Business Management Review

Amid rising competition and uncertainty, banks are increasingly adopting digital technologies to sustain adaptive capacity and competitiveness. This study examines the mediating effect of knowledge sharing in the influence of digital transformation on adaptive capacity. Drawing on an integrative theoretical framework combining the Dynamic Capability Theory, the Affordance Theory and the Adaptive Structuration Theory, a deductive approach was used, involving a sample size of forty-three (43) banks in Tanzania. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered through a drop-off and pick-up-later method and analyzed with PLS-SEM using SmartPLS software. We found that digital transformation of customer touchpoints makes banks more …

Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy With Patient Education, Belle Grady, Victor Huber

Scholarship Pathways Program

Addressing Vaccine Hesitancy with Patient Education

Belle Grady, MD | Mentor: Victor Huber, PhD

Background: Vaccine hesitancy is a complex global issue, exacerbated by pandemics and social media. In addition to hesitancy, state policies loosening childhood vaccine requirements and alternative vaccination schedules may contribute to recent vaccine-preventable illness outbreaks in the United States. In South Dakota alone, kindergarten vaccination rates have gradually declined over the past decade. Such vaccine hesitancy and decreasing vaccination rates is a public health concern and must be addressed. Accessible patient education resources on the topic are necessary to increase vaccination rates.

Project Description: This project …

Visual Arts And Humanities In Medical Education, Lauren Schild, Craig Uthe

Scholarship Pathways Program

Introduction: In medicine today, physicians are expected to be impartial, emotionally intelligent, and have the observational skills to pick up on and interpret ambiguous body language, skin changes, and hygiene factors which may aid in a diagnosis. However, medical students are often not directly taught these observational or emotional intelligence skills. Art has historically been used by the artist to express thoughts and emotions for themselves and to allow viewers to explore their own feelings. The aim of this course is to provide an opportunity for students to advance their observation and communication skills through the study and creation of …

Spectator 2026-05-07, Editors Of The Spectator

The Spectator

No abstract provided.

From Demolition To Digital: Using Virtual Reality To Interpret Hamilton House, Hannah R. Miller

Graduate Final Projects

This master’s project investigates the potential of digital reconstruction as a tool for documenting and interpreting demolished historic resources, using Hamilton House as a case study. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates archival analysis with digital modeling to recreate the spatial context of the house. By grounding the digital model in historical evidence, this study examines how virtual reconstruction can be used to interpret social relationships, patterns of use, and lived experiences that are not fully captured through traditional means of documentation. This project also considers the interpretive implications of reconstructing using fragmentary historical data, addressing the possibilities and …

Spatial Analysis Of Heavy Metal Leaching Threats From North Dakota Landfills To Drinking Water Aquifers, Leila Campbell

Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Showcase

Groundwater is a primary fresh water source for most rural communities in North Dakota. The EPA acknowledges that landfill leakage is not a matter of if but when, and early detection can be extremely difficult. This project identifies which counties and aquifers face the greatest threat from landfill heavy-metal leaching based on proximity, waste types, and groundwater vulnerability, thereby indicating which landfills warrant the closest monitoring and regulatory compliance.   The methodology combines two indexes. The DRASTIC index identifies aquifer vulnerability to surface pollution based on hydrogeologic factors. These factors are weighted by their significance to produce a score that reflects …

A Socio-Computational Framework For Understanding Information Campaigns Through A Collective Action Perspective, Sayantan Bhattacharya

Theses and Dissertations

In a time when social media significantly influences public dialogue, grasping the elements that contribute to the success of information campaigns has become vital for understanding modern social movements and political engagement. This dissertation explores the essential factors that affect the efficacy of information campaigns across digital platforms, addressing a notable gap in existing research that frequently neglects the systematic connection between information spread and outcomes of collective action. Instead of viewing these as distinct phenomena, this study constructs an integrated framework that highlights three crucial dimensions of successful information campaigns: the human factor, which emphasizes the role of influential …

The Impact Of The Science Of Reading Initiative On Reading Test Scores Among Rural Elementary Students In Arkansas, Julie A. Ferguson

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

This study examines changes in reading achievement among rural elementary students in Arkansas following the statewide implementation of the Science of Reading initiative. Beginning in 2019, Arkansas required educators in kindergarten through sixth grade to receive training in evidence‑based literacy practices emphasizing phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Despite these efforts, rural districts continue to face challenges related to staffing, access to professional development, and instructional resources, raising questions about whether statewide reforms have produced measurable improvements in reading outcomes.

Using a quantitative, longitudinal, quasi‑experimental design, this study analyzes ACT Aspire reading assessment data collected from rural Arkansas schools …

2026 Spring Commencement Program: Winona State University, Winona State University

WSU Commencement Programs

This is the Winona State University Spring 2026 commencement program. Commencement was on Thursday, May 7 and Friday, May 8, 2026.

During the Commencement event, a complete list of graduates was provided online. This program was not published during the Commencement event. This digital copy is maintained in the repository for archival purposes.

Sull'essere Umani "On Being Human", Benjamin S. Woodard

Master's Theses

The thesis describes the essential parts of the compositional process and how music expresses the individual philosophies of the composer. The goal is not to describe an overarching, and therefore overbearing, ruleset for what makes the compositional process human, but to describe it in relation to personal experience, with the rise of large language models in mind—sprouting from this research, composing a piece of music that reflects both the new electronic music that has now been embedded academically and the centuries-old tradition of performing on analog instruments. “Sull’essere Umani,” the English translation being "On Being Human", was the piece that …

Party, Place, And Pocketbooks: What Shapes Americans’ Trust In Political Institutions, Hwayong Shin

Weidenbaum Center Survey (WCS) Reports

Evidence from the Weidenbaum Center Surveys (Waves 6–8) suggests that trust in institutions has not simply evaporated. Instead, it is being sorted along several cleavages, such as partisanship, geography, and personal economic security. While trust in the federal government remains relatively low yet stable from May 2025 to March 2026, trust in specific institutions varies across partisan, geographic, and economic cleavages. This fragmentation of trust points to a potential challenge to the stability of American democracy.

Liberty Centre Marketing & Branding Strategy: Client Consulting Report, Mirsada Demirovic, Jack Gottschalk, Danny Ventura

MBA Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

Liberty Centre is a non-profit organization based in Norfolk, Nebraska, operating under the recognized Clubhouse model. The organization’s mission is to assist adults recovering from mental illness with opportunities to rebuild their lives through work and access to community resources.

This consulting engagement was undertaken as part of the MBA Capstone course under the direction of Professor Kristi Lynch. Our Team: Mirsada Demirovic, Jack Gottschalk, and Danny Ventura was tasked with developing a marketing and branding strategy to increase awareness of Liberty Centre’s services.

The primary deliverables include a refined brand positioning statement, a messaging framework, a digital growth strategy, …

A Critical Analysis Of The Influence Of Ideology On Education Governance In An Urban, Midwestern School District, Carl Bryan

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study examines how ideology operates within local education governance through a critical theoretical lens. As state and national education policies, accountability mandates, and partisan political discourse increasingly shape local school governance, this research investigates how power relations, ideological influences, and equity concerns are embedded in school board decision-making processes and public discourse. Addressing a gap in existing scholarship on ideology in education governance, the study employs a qualitative case study of an urban public school district in the Midwestern United States. Data sources include individual interviews with school board members, critical discourse analysis of school board meetings, and analysis …

Table Of Contents

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Jack Chenette

Mercer Law Review

No abstract provided.

Criminal Law, Thomas D. Church, Reid M. Koski

Mercer Law Review

This Article provides a tour of the most important criminal law opinions published by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2025. Rather than engage in an exhaustive review of the facts and laws in each case, we focus on the key holdings from the most noteworthy, published decisions. Section I of this Article addresses rulings specific to substantive offenses such as fraud, drug trafficking, and sex crimes, while Section II covers issues arising under the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. Section III deals with the Federal …

Science In Service Of Society: My Journey In Immunology And Public Engagement, Prakash Nagarkatti

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.