Digital Commons Network^™

Urban Green Space As Climate Infrastructure, Wyatt W. Del Valle

Master's Theses

This thesis estimates the causal effect of urban parks on land surface temperature in the

American Southeast using a geographic regression discontinuity at park boundaries. The

result is null. Within a CCT-optimal 257-meter bandwidth across five cities, park interiors

are not detectably cooler than the land immediately outside them:−0.023 °C, p = 0.926.

A two-way fixed effects panel across 20 cities and 39 years confirms the well-documented

NDVI–LST relationship—a 0.1-unit increase in NDVI is associated with 3.4 °C lower surface

temperature—while a park size heterogeneity model runs directly into the siting endogeneity

problem, showing why naive distance gradients cannot be …

La Maquiladora De Sueños Is Where The “American Dream” Ends: The Socio-Cultural Impact Of Hai(T)Ijuanenses In The United States-México Borderlands, Pedro Aleman Perfecto

Master's Theses

Historically, Tijuana has been the destination for migrants who have been left out from the United States, Mexico, and the rest of the world. The city is at the epicenter of globalization where many transit, leave, and arrive. Sometimes considered a “third country” due to its binational and bicultural identity with its sister city, San Diego, California. The growing number of Haitian refugees that arrived in Tijuana in the mid 2010s to seek asylum in the United States overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure and left the Haitian community vulnerable, yet it created new opportunities and reshaped new identities in the region. …

Cyberspatial Cartographies: Mapping Digital Nationhood Within The California-Punjabi Diaspora., Saihajpratap Singh Bajwa

Master's Theses

This research investigates the phenomenon of digital nationhood, the idea that a new form of community is actively produced through interactions taking place within digital social networks and forums. These spaces function as more than repositories of information or cultural archives; they are living ecosystems in which identity is constructed through mutual encounters among members of a diaspora, where shared references, meanings, and concepts proliferate across multiplex networks. The central questions animating this inquiry are: can a nation exist without a territory, and are these encounters producing what we might conceive of as a digital nation?

The Punjabi people serve …

The Feather Of The Quill: How Folklore Shapes Human Relationships With Wildlife, Taylor Breeanne Nelson

Master's Theses

This thesis examines how folklore and cultural phenomena shape human relationships with wildlife, arguing that the stories a society tells about animals are not merely reflective of its values but are constitutive of them. Drawing on narrative research methods sourced from literature and academic journals and interviews with academics, conservationists, and community members, this project examines the role of animal folklore.

I discuss how narratives around wildlife evolved alongside the development of the United States, arguing that the beginnings of mainstream American conservation not only displaced existing communities but also erased the sophisticated human-animal relationships their traditions had long sustained. …

Hidden Behind Happiness: Bhutan’S Global Image And Ethnic Exclusion, Deepesh Das Shrestha

Master's Theses

Bhutan has gained international recognition for its philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH), which promotes holistic development through principles of well-being, environmental sustainability, cultural preservation, and good governance. Yet this celebrated image conceals a darker history: the systematic expulsion of the Lhotsampa, the Nepali-speaking ethnic minority of southern Bhutan. This study critically explores the contradiction between Bhutan's international image as a model of happiness and the lived experiences of Lhotsampa refugees who were displaced during the early 1990s.

Using a qualitative phenomenological research design, the study draws upon in-depth semi-structured interviews with six resettled Bhutanese Lhotsampa refugees living in the …

The Effects Of War Exposure On Psychological Well-Being And Social Preferences, Jacinta B. Duncan

Master's Theses

Using original survey and experimental data collected in Ukraine in 2023 and 2024, this paper estimates the causal impact of exposure to war-related violence on psychological outcomes, social preferences, and cognitive functioning. I combine a disaggregated war experience index with two incentivized economic experiments - a modified Dictator Game and an Emotional Stroop Test - and exploit randomized variation in task order as a priming treatment to establish causal identification. I find that war exposure has clear and consistently negative effects on psychological well-being, with direct personal experience producing the largest reduction in DASS well-being (β=−0.338 SD, p < 0.01), and that these effects are broadly distributed across demographic groups - though women report disproportionately higher psychological distress even at low levels of exposure. Social support emerges as the most effective buffer against war-related psychological harm, nearly eliminating the well-being gap between high- and low-exposure individuals, while economic hardship compounds distress and drives passive coping responses. In contrast, war exposure has limited and context-specific effects on social preferences: property loss and direct exposure increase prosocial behavior, but only when sharing is costless, consistent with solidarity norms operating within binding resource constraints. Cognitive task performance is largely unaffected by war exposure or emotional priming, with education emerging as the dominant predictor of Stroop performance across all specifications. Taken together, these findings support targeted, gender-sensitive mental health interventions and community-based support programs as high-leverage instruments for mitigating the long-term human costs of conflict.

Lowland Tropical Forests Remain A Methane Sink Under Warming And Long-Term Hurricane Disturbance Recovery, Gabriele Larocca Conte, Lucia Zuvela, Rachel Cruz-Pérez, Tatiana Barreto-Vélez, Nibia Becerra-Santillan, Sophia F. Campbell, Hieu P. Chu, Trung Dam, Iana F. Grullón-Penkova, Miriam Kleit, Deyaneira A. Ortiz-Iglesias, Laura C. Rubio-Lebrón, Molly A. Cavaleri, Sasha C. Reed, Debjani Sihi, Tana E. Wood, Christine S. O'Connell

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Methane (CH₄) is a potent greenhouse gas, and tropical forests account for roughly one–third of global atmospheric CH₄ uptake by soils. Projected warming and more frequent hurricanes in these ecosystems may alter soil CH₄ sink strength, as warmer and wetter soils enhance methanogenesis activity. We measured soil CH₄ and CO₂ efflux during the calendar summer months of 2023 and 2024 alongside continuous records of soil moisture, soil and air temperature, and precipitation in an in–situ warming experiment (TRACE) located in a lowland tropical forest in Puerto Rico, six to seven years after Hurricanes Irma …

Soil Dna-Phosphorus: Method Optimisation And Application Across Uk Soils, Margaret Massam, Daniel Menezes-Blackburn, Mohammed Al Kasbi, Catherine Wearing, Marc Stutter, Courtney D. Giles, Tegan Darch, Timothy S. George, Charles Shand, David Lumsdon, Martin Blackwell, Hao Zhang, Patricia Cooper, Renate Wendler, Lawrie Brown, Philip M. Haygarth

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

Despite growing recognition of rapid diester P turnover, quantitative data on soil DNA-P across soil types remain scarce due to methodological constraints. This study aimed to investigate the impact of changes in the analytical protocol of a soil DNA-P method developed by Paraskova et al. (2013) on DNA-P recovery and the use of the revised procedure on 32 UK soils on our understanding of DNA-P in soils. The steps of the Paraskova method were tested on two contrasting soils, and a revised version was developed and used to determine the DNA-P levels of 32 UK soils. These findings were then …

Effects Of Combined Application Of Biochar And Nitrogen Fertilizer On The Growth Parameters Of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon Citratus), Ashkan Asgari, Yunes Rameshjan, Babak Jamali, Aminallah Tahmasebi

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

The synergistic application of biochar and nitrogen fertilizer significantly improves plant growth and soil properties. The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the application of biochar and nitrogen on the shoot and root of lemongrass in a factorial design within a completely randomized setup. The experiment included three levels of biochar, i.e. 0%, 1%, and 2% (v/v) and 2 levels of nitrogen, i.e. 0 and 1 (g/pot) under greenhouse conditions with 3 replications. The following parameters were measured, plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves, length of the largest leaf, fresh, shoot and root dry weight. The …

A Governorate-Level Index Of Fisheries And Coastal Habitats In Oman, Ibtisam Al Abri, Jaynab B. Yousuf, Nadir Al-Abri, Fahad Al Rasbi

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

Oman's fisheries sector, deeply rooted in coastal tradition, is becoming a key pillar in the nation's transition away from oil dependency. With over 3,165 km of coastline and access to three major marine ecosystems, the Arabian/Persian Gulf, Sea of Oman, and Arabian Sea, the country holds vast ecological and economic potential. However, the sustainability and performance of small-scale fisheries (SSF), which represent over 90% of national fishing activity, vary widely across governorates due to environmental stress, infrastructure gaps, and climate vulnerability. This study presents the first governorate-level, multidimensional assessment of fisheries and coastal resources sustainability in Oman. Using a mixed-methods …

Regularity Clarity At A Cost: The Risks To Everyday Investors If Project Crypto Continues Without Guardrails, Maia Chess

The University of Cincinnati Intellectual Property and Computer Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Fragments, Editors Of Fragments

Fragments

No abstract provided.

Exploring Maximal Length Cellular Automata To Generate Primitive Polynomials In Gf(2), Sumit Adak, Subhrajit Deb, Anurag Ghosh, Angshuman Roy, Souvik Roy

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

We present a simple method that uses cellular automata (CAs) to find primitive polynomials over GF(2). We used maximal length CAs as tools to generate primitive polynomials. It is usually very difficult to find maximal length CAs or primitive polynomials since they require exponential time, and there is no linear time method. However, in our work, given an n-size specific sequence of CA with reasonable probability, our technique computes a cycle of length at most 2^n-1 (maximal length) in O(n) time. The characteristic polynomials of synthesized maximal length CAs are claimed to be primitive since it was previously established that …

Evaluating Optimal Capacity And Investment Strategies For Renewable Energy Projects: A Combined Technical And Financial Approach, Helen Josephine, Indhumathi Shanmugasundaram, Sharad Gupta, Manjari Sharma

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The global shift toward clean energy is accelerating, and by 2050 renewable sources are expected to supply more than 85% of the world’s electricity. This transition, however, introduces new layers of complexity. Wind and solar energy behave as interconnected subsystems whose output fluctuates with weather, season, and geography. Their interaction with fixed hourly demand, capital-intensive investments, and financing structures creates a multi-dimensional system in which small changes can trigger significant operational and economic consequences.  This study presents a simulation-driven framework designed to understand and optimize this complex behaviour. The framework models hourly wind and solar generation alongside projected demand to …

Decision Making At Triage Classification Using Svm With Smote Technique, Mehanas Shahul, Pushpalatha Kp

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

The efficient functioning of triage gates in overcrowded emergency departments (EDs) occurs in the context of the complex adaptive system (CAS) framework, where diverse system elements – patients, medical personnel, resources, patients’ inflow patterns, and patients themselves – simultaneously and dynamically influence the decision process. This study addresses the automated incorporation of machine learning triage algorithms as part of the system triage process to support automated classified risk-level recognition based on a limited set of vital signs. Patients are dynamically subsumed under high and low-risk categories enhanced by sensitivity, which enables optimal diagnosis and triage response to the critical clinician …

Words Matter: The Rhetoric Of National Security And The Reality Of Individual Rights, Christopher J. Borgen

Journal of Civil Rights and Economic Development

(Excerpt)

While the meanings of words can be flexible or contested, they are not infinitely pliable. These limits on words and their uses help define the outer bounds of legitimate state action. However, even the written law is only as stable as our interpretation of what those words mean. There is the risk that a deliberate and persistent misuse of words by states and other actors can eventually change our understanding of the law it.

Some of my work has analyzed the use of words and phrases such as “self-determination,” “sovereignty,” and “secession.” But, in this Essay, I focus on …

The New Deal In Georgia: Oral History Research Collection, Zach S. Henderson Library Special Collections

Finding Aids

This collection contains materials from an oral history research project on the New Deal in Georgia conducted in 1987 by Marchanita R. Coleman as part of Dr. R. Frank Saunders’ historiography course. Materials include a typed final report, oral history interview audiocassette tapes, and one photograph. Interviews are with African American residents of Liberty and Chatham County who lived during the Great Depression or remember the New Deal era in Georgia.

Uncovering Discrete States From Multimodal Psychophysiological Data Using Gaussian Latent Dirichlet Allocation (Glda), Congyu Wu, Aaron Fisher, David Schnyer

Northeast Journal of Complex Systems (NEJCS)

In this article we explore and validate the utility of an unsupervised probabilistic model, Gaussian Latent Dirichlet Allocation (GLDA), for discovering discrete states from repeated, multimodal psychophysiological samples collected from multiple individuals. Psychology and medical research heavily involves measuring potentially related but individually inconclusive variables from a cohort of participants to derive diagnosis, necessitating clustering analysis for state identification. Traditional probabilistic clustering models such as Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) assume a global mixture of component distributions, which may not be realistic for observations from different patients. The GLDA model borrows the individual-specific mixture structure from a popular topic model Latent …

Perceptions Of Care: An Exploratory Case Study On Residents’ Perceptions Of Neighborhood And City Maintenance, Taylor Coats

Transforming Communities

Where one lives impacts both their physical and mental well-being. Though one’s builtenvironment is an important factor, the perception of one’s environment influences mental well-being. This qualitative study examines what influences residents’ perceptions of theirneighborhood and local governmental efforts to maintain and improve their community. Thisstudy utilized a case study methodology to interview residents, stakeholders, and politicians intwo neighborhoods in a mid-sized urban city in the Midwest (N = 16). This study identified threecore aspects that influence participants' perceptions of their neighborhoods and city efforts tomaintain and improve their community: 1) history with the city; 2) geographic location withinsegregated neighborhoods; …

Tax Trends, Nicholas J. Fiore

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Research And Development Under The Tra, High-Tech Companies Gain Significant Advantage, Patricia A. Lawrence

Tax Adviser

No abstract provided.

Gender Affirming Rhetoric, Emerson R. Wright

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

During the runup to the 2024 election, virtually every person who watched an American football game saw an advertisement alleging that Kamala Harris was “for they/them,” while “President Trump is for you.” Candidates and interest groups spent more than $200 million on ads shaping and preying on public perception of trans people, and Democrats wasted no time blaming Kamala Harris’s electoral loss on messaging around trans issues. On the heels of a contentious election that relied heavily on this type of weaponized culture war messaging, misleading and hostile discourse about transgender people and the issues they face is hard to …

Disenfranchisement, S.B. 8005, And The Price Of Protest In Tennessee, Valorie K. Vojdik

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Read The Writing On The Wall: Why Confederate Messaging Matters In Tennessee Courthouses, Hon. John G. Browning

Tennessee Journal of Race, Gender, & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Markovian Communication Protocol For Efficient Communication In Distributed Systems, Shivam Mohan

Defensive Publications Series

ABSTRACT

The proposed protocol introduces a Markovian approach to message propagation in distributed computing systems, emphasizing reduced overhead and enhanced fault tolerance. Each node functions as a stateless agent, making forwarding decisions solely based on its current state and the received message, consistent with the Markov property. Messages act as self-contained carriers, embedding relay history and path metadata such as bloom filters, vector clocks, or acknowledgment maps, so nodes can detect prior processing and avoid redundant forwarding. Current-state directives like next-hop details, time-to-live, quorum requirements, and propagation mode guide deterministic or probabilistic dissemination across gossip, ring, or hybrid topologies. By …

Token-Bound Post-Quantum Secured Planning For Hierarchical Vision-Language-Action Robots, Dennis Lanov, Charles Fleming

Defensive Publications Series

Techniques are described for securing hierarchical vision-language-action robot planning by converting planned robot actions into cryptographically protected tokens bound to an execution context. A planner generates an ordered token sequence, and each token is sealed using post-quantum cryptography and authenticated encryption to bind the token to context, sequence, and freshness constraints. At execution, a verified executor satisfies remote attestation requirements before token release and verification. Verified tokens are then permitted to condition low-level robot control, providing zero-trust, quantum-resilient execution with step-level auditability and improved safety.

Barriers To The Adoption Of Robotics, Artificial Intelligence And Service Automation (Raisa) For Sustainable Operations: Evidence From The Irish Hotel Sector, Neeta Israni Mrs, James Hanrahan Dr

Irish Journal of Tourism, Hospitality, Leisure and Event Research

Industry 4.0 technologies, such as Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Service Automation (RAISA), can support sustainable operations in hotels and thereby promote circular hospitality. However, their adoption by hotels may be impeded by a significant number of barriers. This mixed-methods study explores the key barriers to the adoption of RAISA technologies by Irish hotels. The data were gathered between May 2024 and May 2025 via an online survey and through 16 semi-structured interviews with hotel managers and operational staff. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, while the qualitative data were analysed using the six steps of reflexive thematic analysis. …

A Training Needs Analysis For A Sustainable Tourism Destination Management Programme: A Practitioner’S Perspective, Catriona Murphy Dr., Shane O'Sullivan, Nicola Orio, Ilaria Doimo

Irish Journal of Tourism, Hospitality, Leisure and Event Research

While sustainable tourism practices have long been acknowledged for their potential to reduce negative impacts and enhance positive outcomes, their effectiveness is often hindered by several challenges. These include a considerable gap in skills and inadequate collaboration between practitioners and educators. To meet these pressing challenges, it is essential to strengthen awareness, enhance collaboration between industry and educators, and develop the critical skills needed to champion responsible and sustainable tourism in European regions. As the principles of sustainability advocate for equitable management of tourism destinations combined with the upward growth in tourism activity in Europe post pandemic, there is an …

Reflections Of An Appalachian Miner's Grandson: How The Biden Administration Prioritized Miners' Safety And Health And Mining Communities, Christopher J. Williamson

West Virginia Law Review Online

No abstract provided.

Kev's Dinghy Boat Workshops, Ruiyang Xiao

Masters Theses

In a culture where convenience replaces process, this project argues that making — even when inefficient, imperfect, or unnecessary — enables forms of engagement that buying cannot.

Technologies and Services nowadays are able to fulfill human’s desire to travel and explore at ease. However, this convenience proposes a mode of engagement based only in deeper knowledge of context and thus our experience with the world around us is hence diminished. Our engagement with the world becomes heavily mediated, regulated and controlled.

This project investigates how hands-on engagement with water can reintroduce + restore our sense of joy, curiosity, consequence, and …