Digital Commons Network^™

American Coverage Of The Killing Of Awdah Hathaleen: A Case Study, Charlie F. Nichols

Journalism

This project analyzes coverage from major American news outlets regarding the killing of Awdah Hathaleen by Yinnon Levi, using firsthand accounts of the event as a point of reference. These accounts are organized into a timeline of the event that coverage is compared with. The propaganda model outlined in Manufacturing Consent by Herman & Chomsky (1988) is used as a theoretical framework, namely the concept of unworthy victims. This framework posits that victims of violence perpetrated by American client states are framed as deserving of said violence. This addresses a gap in the literature of comparing coverage with a verifiable …

Ai And Statistics: An Examination Of The Capabilities Of Ai Models To Perform Data Science, Erik Rosine

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Artificial intelligence has become one of the fastest growing modern technologies, with publicly available AI chatbots becoming particularly popular since the 2022 launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Due to their seemingly endless applications and unrivalled ease of use, these AI models present a new and often highly efficient method of approaching problems and increasing efficiency. However, with so many marketed models available, it is challenging to know which is the best one to use. This experiment tests five of the most popular AI models at performing data science tasks with given datasets, a common application of AI. These models are OpenAI’s …

Crispr/Cas-Mediated Genome Editing Of Staphylococcus Aureus For Studying Phage-Pathogenicity Island-Host Interactions, Annalise Williams

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Staphylococcus aureus is a gram-positive cocci that is a common member of our microbiota, living frequently on our skin and in our nasal passages. It is known for its wide variety of clinical manifestations, including endocarditis, scalded skin syndrome, toxic shock syndrome, food poisoning, sepsis, folliculitis, impetigo, and many other infections. It is widely recognized for being acquired in both hospital and community settings and is often resistant to multiple drugs. This poses a major problem, both in the United States and globally, as many treatments are no longer effective. MRSA, or Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus, is one example of the many …

The Short Term Water Quality Impacts Of A Low-Head Dam Removal On Urban Stream Water Quality In Central Virginia, Usa: Is It The Dam Or The Urban Environment?, Lorraine L. Upton

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Dam removal in the United States has become a common practice for stream restoration and community safety. Studies have shown removals to restore an ecosystem to its natural flow, but in urban environments, dams can serve as a retention basin that help to mitigate increased amounts of stormwater and high pollution loads from increased percentages of impervious surfaces. A central Virginia watershed located in an urbanized community recently experienced a low-head dam removal and its conversion to a constructed wetland. This study assesses the short-term impacts of the dam removal through water quality sampling based on its chemical, biota, and …

Fellowship Of Christian Athletes (Fca) Social Expansion: An Analysis Of The Fca Brand Architecture, Victoria G. Williamson

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

The Fellowship of Christian Athletes has seen much growth over the past seven decades, after being created in a small town in Oklahoma in 1954 with only 15 members to now having 2,000+ staff and reaching 100+ countries (FCA Timeline, 2024). How did such a small organization with such a specific niche, become the well-known non-profit global ministry it is today? This thesis will discover how the Fellowship of Christian Athletes grew its brand worldwide pre and post-digital media through its marketing and communications methods. For this thesis, research will be done on FCA’s methods for reaching its target audience …

Hypothetical Courtroom: Influence Of Expert Witness Testimony On Jurors’ Decision-Making, Macy R. Hooper

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Jurors’ decision-making is shaped by social and psychological factors that may create bias, particularly in cases involving psychopathic defendants. The present study examines how a hypothetical defendant’s perceived psychopathy, the type of scientific evidence presented (neuroimaging vs. only verbal descriptions), the gender of the expert witness, and the expert’s use of artificial intelligence (AI) affect jurors’ decisions. Participants read one of four mock trial vignettes involving a psychopathic defendant and then evaluated the defendant’s guilt, recommended sentence length, and weighed the credibility of the expert witness. Results indicated that confidence in the expert significantly decreased after participants were informed that …

Physical Interactions Shape Collective Thermoregulatory Behavior In Honey Bees, Casey E. Lambert, Kyara Vazquez, Zachary P. Nelson, Chelsea N. Cook

Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Social animals exhibit complex, coordinated behaviors that can drive significant environmental change. Within groups, individuals sense their environment and share information to facilitate collective action. Direct physical contact is a key mechanism of communication in many social species, yet its role in organizing collective behaviors remains underexplored. Here, we investigate how tactile interactions influence thermoregulatory fanning behavior in honey bees (Apis mellifera), a critical collective response to environmental stress. By reducing the ability of bees to engage in physical contact, we demonstrated that direct tactile interactions are necessary to initiate and coordinate fanning. Increasing social density by spatially …

The Impact Of High-Cadence Cycling On Overground Running Performance In Recreational Runners, Matthew Ott

Master's Theses

Cycling is a commonly used exercise because it provides a controllable cardiovascular and musculoskeletal demand while imposing relatively low impact on the rider. High-cadence cycling (HCC) has been shown to influence subsequent running performance and gait performance by increasing cadence and reducing work rate when cycling prior to running. However, most of this work has focused on triathletes and older adults. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the acute effects of HCC on subsequent 800 m running performance and spatiotemporal parameters in adult recreational runners. Thirty recreational runners completed two testing sessions. On Day 1, participants performed …

Explaining The Gap: The Mediating Effect Of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction On Parenting Styles And Disordered Eating Behaviors, Oliva Dixon

Master's Theses

Eating disorders remain one of the fastest growing and most fatal forms of mental health disorders. It is estimated that around 9% of the US population meets diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder; however, a much larger percentage of the population engages in disordered eating behaviors, putting people at risk for negative consequences both physically and psychologically. While there are several theories about what precipitates disordered eating, parenting has been shown to be a key factor that can influence disordered eating behaviors. While some theories implicate authoritarian parenting, others consider psychological control or permissive parenting as potentially associated with the …

Evaluating Modern Neural Network Architectures For Suicide Prediction, Kyle Brown

Master's Theses

Suicide remains a leading cause of death among adolescents despite more access to healthcare information than ever before. Medical professionals struggle to make accurate diagnoses and catch warning signs with the overwhelming amount of data available. Machine learning algorithms, including neural networks, have previously been employed for this task, yet it remains an understudied domain.

This research aims to evaluate the capabilities of Multi-Layer Perceptron (MLP) and a selection of its successors, ResNet and MLP with a category embedding layer, at the task of predicting suicidal ideation among high-school students. This research finds ResNet to be the most capable at …

Redeveloping Mississippi: A Case Study On Brownfields In Central & Southern Mississippi, Sahrah R. Yeroozedek

Master's Theses

Brownfields, or properties that are or possibly are contaminated with dangerous materials, represent a common obstacle for communities in Mississippi. The real or potential presence of contaminants at these sites often deters investors due to costly cleanup requirements (EPA, n.d. -b). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Brownfield Revitalization Program, implemented guidelines for covering the costs and labor associated with the remediation of these properties. The EPA is not, however, responsible for redevelopment that supports long-term environmental and economic sustainability. Although the EPA maintains inventories of all Brownfields, there is also no comprehensive database of Brownfields and their current …

The Impact Of Place-Based Education Professional Development On Faculty Identity And Perceptions Of Nature-Culture Dichotomies, Reyt Middleton

Master's Theses

This qualitative study analyzes how implementing place-based education (PBE) in undergraduate coursework shapes faculty identity narratives and nature–culture positionalities across conceptual lenses of past, present, and future. Three faculty members at a regional Mississippi university engaged in a PBE professional development program; narratively driven pre- and post-implementation interviews were given to participants, then examined via thematic analysis. Framed primarily through lenses of constructivism, with support from critical pedagogy of place, relational and ecological epistemologies, and scholarship on faculty identity, this study posits two research questions—1: How does teaching PBE influence faculty identity narratives across past, present, and future temporalities? 2: …

Comparison Of The Effects Of Participation In Early Childhood Education On Readiness Outcomes, Pre- And Post-Covid-19 In A South Texas District, Maria J. Valadez Gonzales

Theses and Dissertations

This study will investigate and gather quantitative data noting if a learning gap exists when evaluating reading data of students participating in a high-quality learning program in 2020 due to the pandemic. RQ1: What gaps are evidenced by progress monitoring TPRI/TJL data from 2019 Beginning of Year (BOY) Kinder pre-pandemic when compared to 2020 post-pandemic BOY data in First grade for educationally disadvantaged students in a South Texas school district? RQ2: Do students who attend these ECE high quality prekinder programs show differing levels of academic achievement utilizing progress monitoring assessments in reading for Kinder – First grades (Wyse et …

Beyond Moving Hands: Narratives Around Deaf Education, Sara Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative narrative study explored the experiences and perspectives of deaf educators and educational interpreters working in high school settings. Participants shared narratives about their professional experiences, training, and roles in deaf education. By considering their professional histories, backgrounds, and cultural perspectives, this study examined how these experiences shaped participants’ perceptions of the current state of deaf education.

Using a qualitative narrative research design, three participants with experience working in high school deaf education settings were interviewed individually and later participated in a focus group discussion. The interviews and focus group centered on participants’ perspectives regarding key issues in deaf …

Teacher Narratives Of Curriculum Implementation In Bilingual Education: A Vygotskian Analysis, Jose F. Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

This narrative inquiry explores bilingual educators' experiences implementing the Amplify Reading curriculum in a diverse, Title I-funded urban district. As schools adopt standardized curricula, tensions emerge between monolingual standards and the needs of bilingual students. Using a Vygotskian framework with Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and Knowledge Structures (KS), the study examines how teachers navigate systemic contradictions and how these tensions influence their professional identities.

Using an interpretivist approach, data were collected via semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and a researcher’s journal from six experienced bilingual educators. Thematic analysis reveals profound structural fractures within the activity system: a primary contradiction between …

Voices From The Classroom: Elementary Teachers’ Perspectives On Teaching And Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic – A Case Study And Autoethnography, Alicia Lopez-Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

Guided by constructivist learning theory and sociocultural theory, this qualitative case study and autoethnography examines how bilingual educators constructed knowledge, adapted instructional practices, and utilized mediational tools within face-to-face, online and hybrid learning environments. These frameworks informed the study’s design, data analysis, and interpretation of findings related to pedagogy, technology integration, and student engagement. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, naturalistic observations, and autoethnographic reflective journaling.

Bounding The Average Kissing Number, Including New Bounds For Three-Dimensional Binary Sphere Packings, Mark William Bockhaus

Theses and Dissertations

The average kissing number is defined as the supremum over all sphere packings of the value: two times the number of tangencies divided by the number balls in the packing. In this paper, we present a survey of the literature about bounding the average kissing number, beginning with the first non-trivial results, through the most up-to-date bounds. We then turn our focus to binary sphere packings: those which contain spheres of two different radii. We improve upon known bounds for the average kissing number for binary sphere packings in three-dimensions and find exact bounds for many packings.

Elementary Teachers' Culturally Responsive Strategies For Fostering Critical Thinking In Science Instruction With Emergent Bilinguals, Lydia Stella Ratel

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of bilingual and English as a Second Language (ESOL)-certified elementary teachers as they fostered critical thinking among emergent bilingual (EB) students in grades 3–5 science classrooms. Grounded in culturally responsive pedagogy, translanguaging, funds of knowledge, and critical thinking theory, the study examined how teachers made sense of instructional decision-making and EB students’ scientific reasoning within accountability-driven educational contexts.

Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with elementary teachers serving emergent bilingual students in South Texas public schools. Phenomenological analysis was used to identify shared meanings across participants’ descriptions of instructional practices, language use, …

Analyzing Criteria Air Pollutants And Meteorological Parameters In The Rio Grande Valley, Laredo, And Corpus Christi Region Of South Texas, Angela Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Recently, the Rio Grande Valley has experienced significant population growth due to economic opportunities, cross-border commerce, SpaceX, and the Rio Grande and Texas liquid natural export terminal presence. The Rio Grande Valley has an estimated population of 1,368,723. This region is largely understudied, along with nearby urban centers such as Laredo and Corpus Christi. The Rio Grande Valley and Laredo regions are a concern due to their population growth and heavy cross-border transportation. Data from the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality Continuous Ambient Monitoring Sites was collected from January 1st , 2024, to December 31st, 2024. Statistical analysis, such as …

Academic Anxiety, Anxiety Sensitivity, And General Mental Health In Collegiate Student-Athletes, Finley Gabrielle Elkins Sims

Theses and Dissertations

Collegiate athletes’ mental health is on the decline, and they have unique experiences that can influence the prevalence of mental health struggles. This study examined academic anxiety, comorbid forms of anxiety, and predicting factors in 187 collegiate student-athletes across 29 U.S. colleges. Athletes had significantly higher levels of academic anxiety and general anxiety compared to a college nonathlete population. There were significant gender differences in athletes, with females having greater levels of anxiety sensitivity, academic anxiety, sport anxiety, general anxiety, depression, and a history of depression than male athletes. Gender, history of depression, anxiety sensitivity, and depression were significant predictors …

Intersecting Identities, Social Support, Multiple-Minority Stress, And Health Outcomes Among Latinx Lgbtq+ Adults, Amanda Lamas

Theses and Dissertations

Latinx LGBTQ+ adults experience poor health due to exposure to intersectional discrimination; however, they also possess protective factors to cope with these stressors. This study explored the associations and interactions of identity affirmation (ethnic, American, LGBTQ+), identity outness, perceived social support, LGBT-POC microaggressions, and health among LGBTQ+ Latinx adults. Correlational analyses and regression models controlling for covariates showed that American and ethnic identity affirmation, perceived social support, and identity outness were positively associated with health, and LGBT-POC microaggressions were negatively associated with health. LGBTQ+ identity affirmation was directly correlated with mental health, but not in the regression model. Identity affirmation …

Vision-Language Guided Quadruped Navigation With Reinforcement Learning Control, Chen Yuan Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Large Language Models and their multimodal variants, Vision-Language Models (VLMs), can interpret natural language instructions and visual context. Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods such as Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) have been shown to successfully learn stable quadruped locomotion. This work investigates whether a VLM integrated with an RL controller can control a quadruped robot to perform instruction-following navigation to a predefined target using text instructions, egocentric vision, and proprioceptive state.

Most VLM-based robotics work directly target prediction of robot actions from multimodal inputs. This approach often depends on large amounts of expert demonstration data, generated by controllers such as trained RL …

Teacher Stories In A Place-Based Science Education Program In The Trans-Nueces Region, Brian Craig Gabrysch

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the emerging professional narratives of five educators involved in the Integrated Oceans Program at a coastal South Texas school district situated within the Trans-Nueces region. Guided by the central research question—What are the emerging teacher stories from a place-based science program in the Trans-Nueces region, and what do we learn about place-based science education from the narratives?—the study employs narrative inquiry methodology following Riessman (2008) and Bruner (1985) to investigate how educators construct meaning from their practice within a program anchored to the Laguna Madre wetlands ecosystem.

The theoretical framework integrates interpretivism (Benton & Craib, 2010), …

On The Structure Of The Homotopy Lie Algebra Of Local Rings, Dawson M. Strong

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the construction and homological properties of the homotopy Lie algebra π(R) of a commutative local ring (R,m,k). Drawing upon the theoretical framework of differential graded (DG) algebras, we first establish the theory of minimal free resolutions and other standard topics in homological algebra. The core of this work details the iterative construction of the acyclic closure R⟨Y⟩ of k over R, which is achieved by the systematic adjunction of exterior and divided power variables to eliminate cycles in homology. We demonstrate that this acyclic closure serves as a minimal free resolution and provides the means to define …

La Panza: Un Acto De Rebeldia Para Los Atravesados Y Los Que Siguen Despues / The Panza: An Act Of Rebellion For The Inbetweeners And Those Who Follow After, Abigail Guadalupe Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

Our ancestors, family members, and ourselves that live in the borderlands have embodied knowledge, and/or an innate intuition that comes from the pit of our soul, particularly from our “panza”; hence, the creation of a panza consciousness as the focus for my thesis. I’m trying to “rediscover” the embodied knowledge that has been taken from us and how we can learn to harness these forms of knowledge into a societal shift ( i.e. how we interact with others, how we see our bodies, how see the creation of knowledge, and how we see the world). Although, Eurocentric ideals sought to …

A Case Study Of One-To-One Mobile Teaching And Learning Environments Measuring Creativity In A Rural Elementary School In Deep South Texas, David Warren Hernandez

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how creativity is enacted within rural one-to-one mobile teaching and learning environments in Deep South Texas. Grounded in the frameworks of mobile learning affordances (Klopfer et al., 2002), the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework, and the SAMR model, the study explored how instructional practices, student agency, and contextual conditions influenced creative learning experiences in an elementary school setting. Data were collected from five elementary teachers at a rural South Texas district and included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and samples of student-created artifacts. Data analysis followed a systematic process of first-cycle coding, second-cycle axial …

Accurate Polyp Segmentation With Visual Mamba, Diego Adame

Theses and Dissertations

Medical image segmentation is a fundamental task in computer-aided diagnosis because it enables precise delineation of anatomical structures and pathological regions from clinical images. While convolutional neural networks and Transformer-based models have achieved strong performance on many medical segmentation benchmarks, CNNs struggle to model long-range dependencies and Transformers often incur high computational complexity for high-resolution medical images. Recently, state space models have emerged as an efficient alternative for dense prediction tasks due to their ability to capture long-range dependencies with linear complexity. However, existing Mamba-based segmentation models still rely on pixel-wise raster scanning that disrupts spatial locality and use simple …

2nd Place Research Paper: Shaping The Ape: Storytelling, Cultural Reflection, And Boundary Negotiation In Human-Ape Zoo Encounters, Abigail Bond Halling

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

The typical Western zoo functions as a unique environment in which animals are frequently positioned as subjects of education and entertainment through the medium of storytelling. In this sense, the zoological institution can also be read as an extension of popular Western constructions surrounding nonhuman animals, particularly those who are symbolically charged characters in our collective imaginary– the great apes. Given the morphological, behavioral, and psychological similarities between humans and other great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans), nonhuman great ape enclosures at the Western zoo become spaces where humans are most radically confronted with navigating the boundaries of the “human-animal …

Student Engagement As A Predictor Of Stem Student Success, Mosab Shaher Abu Al Foul

Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study investigates factors influencing engagement, persistence, and degree completion among underrepresented minority (URM) students in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Guided by Tinto’s Interactionist Model (1975) and Bandura’s Self-Efficacy Theory(1977), it examines how institutional practices and socioeconomic conditions contribute to inequities in student outcomes. Using a non-experimental, correlational design, the study analyzes National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) data and institutional records from a Midwestern Research 2 university (N = 620; URM subsample n = 52). Binary logistic regression, MANOVA, and t-tests were used to assess relationships among High-Impact Educational Practices (HIEPs), engagement indicators, faculty interaction, pre-college …

Towards Continuous Carbon Fibers From Corn Oil, Ismail Akanmu Adebayo

Theses and Dissertations

The global demand for carbon fibers has experienced exponential growth over the last decade, driven by the desire for materials with high strength and low density for applications in aerospace, automotive, wind energy, and specialty industrial markets. Currently, carbon fibers are almost exclusively produced from petroleum-based precursors, most commonly polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and petroleum-derived pitch. The high production costs associated with these fossil-based precursors limit the broader adoption of carbon fibers and represent a significant barrier to market expansion. The development of a bio-based carbon fiber precursor derived from renewable feedstocks would help transition this market away from fossil carbon sources …