Digital Commons Network^™

Mentoring Relationship Quality: An Evaluation Of Environmental Risk And Protective Factor Predictors For Urban Black Youth, Brittanie Nicole Gage

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Mentoring programs are an important intervention promoting positive developmental outcomes among youth exposed to chronic environmental stressors, particularly Black youth living in underinvested communities. Research has demonstrated moderate positive effects of mentoring on youth outcomes however, less is known about factors influencing mentoring effectiveness. Mentoring relationship quality (MRQ) has emerged as a key component of mentoring effectiveness, suggesting that perceived closeness and support within the relationship can enhance youth outcomes. Less is known regarding the environmental risks and protective factors shaping youths’ ability to engage meaningfully in mentoring relationships. Parent–child relationship quality, exposure to violent stressors, and adaptive and maladaptive …

Push And Pull: Nato, Eu, And Poland’S Positioning After 2022, Zsombor Zeöld, Réka Dobreffné Bogár, Dániel Bernát Vay

Journal of Strategic Security

The 2022 Russia-Ukraine war profoundly reshaped European security, exposing long-standing weaknesses while accelerating institutional adaptation within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the European Union (EU). This article argues that NATO reaffirmed its role as the guarantor of hard deterrence and defense commitments (“pull effects”), while the EU advanced as a provider of institutional support, logistics, financial tools, and defense-industrial initiatives (“push effects”). A case study of Poland illustrates how a frontline state navigates these dynamics, using NATO’s pull and the EU’s push to expand its security agency and shape broader European defense debates. Together, these developments suggest a …

Post-Ukraine Fallout: How Azerbaijan’S Break With Russia Reflects The Strategic Consequences Of A Weakened Kremlin, Hasan Alisoy

Journal of Strategic Security

This article analyzes how Russia’s declining power, accelerated by its military overextension in Ukraine, triggered a historic rupture in Russia–Azerbaijan relations, culminating in the 2025 Yekaterinburg incident. It argues that the deaths of two Azerbaijani citizens in Russian custody—and the retaliatory actions taken by Baku—did not cause the diplomatic collapse, but rather crystallized a long-term realignment rooted in Azerbaijan’s post-conflict assertiveness and Russia’s unraveling regional leverage. Drawing on the 2024 downing of an Azerbaijani airliner by a Russian missile, the premature withdrawal of Russian peacekeepers from Karabakh, and Azerbaijan’s evolving alliance with Türkiye, the article positions this realignment within a …

The Digital Radical: Online Extremism, Propagation, And Terror By Design's Strategic Implications For Homeland Security, Hunter Lacroix, Shevach Berkovits

Journal of Strategic Security

The 'lone wolf' figure has long been central to counterterrorism analysis, representing the trajectory from non-participant to self-directed actor aligned with extremist causes. Traditional frameworks emphasizing in-person networks or online exposure, however, fail to capture the transformation of radicalization in the algorithmic age. The Arab Spring demonstrated the mobilizing power of digital platforms, yet movements like ISIS later weaponized these networks to provide ideology, belonging, and identity to dislocated populations. This article introduces the concept of the Digital Radical—an individual who transitions from passive consumer to active propagator of extremist narratives, sustaining and expanding radical ecosystems in a symbiotic …

Redbird Scholar, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring 2026), Illinois State University, Office Of The Vice President For Research And Graduate Studies

Redbird Scholar

No abstract provided.

A Treat-To-Target Approach For Obesity Management: A Post Hoc Analysis Of The Surmount-5 Trial., Carel W Le Roux, Luca Busetto, Louis Aronne, Deborah Bade Horn, Georgios K Dimitriadis, Beverly Falcon, Luis-Emilio Garcia-Perez, Elisa Gomez Valderas, Theresa Hunter Gibble, Cagri Senyucel, Julia P Dunn

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Introduction: With new advancements in obesity medicine, clarity on goals and expectations for successful disease management is limited. This post hoc analysis assessed application of proposed treat-to-target (TtT) thresholds for obesity to the outcome measures of SURMOUNT-5, which randomised participants with obesity to tirzepatide or semaglutide.

Methods: The proportion of participants in each treatment group reaching proposed TtT thresholds for waist to height ratio (WHtR) < 0.53, body mass index (BMI) < 27 kg/m2, or a combination was evaluated. The associations between the thresholds and achieving low disease activity to remission (meeting goals for at least four of five defined cardiometabolic risk parameters) and normalisation or improvement in SF-36v2 physical component score (PCS) from baseline to week 72 were explored.

Results: About 23.1%-33.9% of participants treated with tirzepatide and 14.2%-20.7% treated with semaglutide reached the TtT thresholds, with greater weight reduction than the overall population. About 77% of participants who reached WHtR < 0.53 achieved low disease activity to remission, with an odds ratio of 2.31 (p < 0.001) compared to those who did not reach this target. The BMI threshold was not statistically associated with the assessed outcomes for SF-36v2 PCS.

Conclusion: In this …

Using Confirmatory Factor Analysis To Identify Symptom Clusters In Individuals With Acquired Disabilities, David S Tulsky, Aaron J Boulton, Pamela A Kisala, Callie E Tyner, Ryan Pohlig, Nancy D Chiaravalloti, Jerry Slotkin, Heather B Taylor, Mark Sherer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Purpose: Acquired disabilities, such as spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury, limb loss (or other major limb injury/illness), or stroke, are typically accompanied by an array of physical and emotional symptoms and social challenges that interfere with recovery and affect quality of life (QOL). Despite advances in personalized medicine, interrelationships between symptoms remain unclear, and clinicians often treat individual symptoms in isolation. The objective of this study was to identify clusters of symptoms that occur across sudden-onset disability populations, with a long-term goal of identifying targets for clinical intervention.

Methods: Participants were 755 adults who sustained a spinal cord injury, …

Integrating Artificial Intelligence Into Marketing Education: A Conceptual Framework For Curriculum Enhancement, Aisha Ghimire, Gallayanee Yaoyuneyong

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This paper introduces a Constructivist–Experiential GenAI Integration Framework to embed Generative AI (GenAI) across undergraduate marketing curricula. Grounded in constructivist and experiential learning theories, the framework positions GenAI as a learning partner, through hands-on, reflective, and ethically informed learning. Discipline-specific vignettes illustrate how GenAI can enhance marketing courses through accessible and scalable activities that align with diverse class sizes, institutional resources, and delivery modes. By leveraging freely available GenAI platforms, the model promotes inclusivity while cultivating AI literacy, ethical reasoning, and strategic agility. The paper concludes with recommendations for empirical validation and cross-institutional collaboration to ensure that GenAI-driven marketing education …

Assessing Shifts In Leadership Language: A Comparative Study Of The Aacc Competencies For Community College Leaders, Bethany A. Siehr

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Leadership competency frameworks are widely used in community colleges to guide hiring, professional development, and succession planning. However, little is known about how leadership expectations evolve within these frameworks over time or how revisions reflect shifts in what the field values as legitimate leadership preparation. This study examined longitudinal change in the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC) Competencies for Community College Leaders across four editions published in 2005, 2013, 2018, and 2022.

Using a structured comparative document analysis, the study applied an extraction grid, a modification classification framework, and the Semantic Aspect Scale to identify additions, deletions, augmentations, separations, …

Perceptions Of The Community Eligibility Provision (Cep) Program, Angela H. Napier

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This study examined how educators and families perceive and experience the Community Eligibility Provision (CEP) and its influence on student attendance, engagement, well-being, and school climate within one public school division. While prior research has established quantitative links between universal meal programs and academic outcomes, limited research has explored how stakeholders interpret and experience these effects in practice. Addressing this gap, this study employed a convergent mixed-methods design, integrating archival attendance data, surveys, and semi-structured interviews with principals, assistant principals, teachers and families. Quantitative findings revealed modest but inconsistent changes in absenteeism following the CEP implementation, while qualitative findings provided …

"On The Same Rope": An Exploratory Study Of Staff Experiences At The Mountain Seed Foundation's Healing Base Camp Program, Jill C. Kivikoski

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

Since the escalation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainians have faced significant social and public health challenges, particularly among Service Members, Veterans, and their Families (SMVF), including disability, traumatic stress, and barriers to mental health care (Kostenko et al., 2024; Krasnodemska et al., 2023; O’Grady & Galouchka, 2023). Retreat based programs grounded in shared military identity may offer an accessible form of support (Barrett & Currin, 2024). Mountain Seed Foundation’s (MSF) Healing Base Camp (HBC) was developed to promote healing and resilience among Ukrainian SMVF (Mountain Seed Foundation, n.d.).

This qualitative dissertation used a single-case study design (Yin, …

Considering Special Education Program Performance Analysis And Teacher And Student Involvement In Transition Planning: A Delphi Study To Prioritize Student Interests, Strengths, And Transition Assessment, Charles S. Thull

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Individualized education program (IEP) transition plans are required to be based on student interests and strengths, and use age-appropriate transition assessments, yet limited guidance exists on how to prioritize these elements. Despite decades of transition planning research and policy development, students with disabilities continue to experience poor postsecondary transition outcomes, special education teachers report limited readiness to support transition planning, university special education programs lack transition focused coursework, and transition plans are created for compliance and lack transition assessment information. Considering these concerns, this study used a modified Delphi method, informed by Human Performance Technology (HPT) and Ecological Systems Theory …

Electromyography, Prosthetic Properties, And Running Biomechanics In Recreationally Active Persons With Lower Extremity Amputation, Paige M. Agnew

Rehabilitation Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Lower extremity loss affects nearly 150,000 individuals in the United States yearly yielding extreme health care costs annually. Typically, prosthetic devices are prescribed for 5-8 years despite known changes to an individual’s gait as time progresses. Patients can expect to undergo approximately 8-12 weeks of gait retraining to improve their comfort and efficiency. Biomechanical changes occur when running with a specific running prosthetic including considerable biomechanical and neuromuscular interlimb asymmetries and alterations in loading patterns. The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the biomechanical demands for lower extremity prosthesis users during running. The first study synthesized peer reviewed evidence …

Objectification And Discrimination Among Bi+ Women: Body Image Outcomes And The Moderating Role Of Relationship Type And Partner Gender, Kaitlyn E. Ryan

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Objectification theory posits that being sexually objectified by others leads to a greater likelihood of engaging in body surveillance behaviors, which in turn is associated with higher body shame (Fredrickson & Roberts, 1997). Prior research has identified both objectification and anti-bisexual discrimination as significant predictors of body surveillance and body shame among bi+ women (i.e., bisexual, pansexual, queer) (Brewster et al., 2014; Salim et al., 2024). No studies, however, have considered the unique experiences of romantically partnered bi+ women, including the potential moderating effects of partner gender and relationship type. The present study examined whether romantic relationships are protective for …

Microstructural And Thermal Studies Of Niobium On Copper Fabricated By Sputtering And Multicharged Ion Deposition, Md Obidul Islam

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Niobium-coated copper (Nb/Cu) superconducting radiofrequency (SRF) cavities are a promising alternative to bulk niobium cavities for next-generation particle accelerators due to their reduced material cost and superior thermal conductivity of the copper substrate. However, cavity performance is fundamentally limited by the microstructural quality of sputtered Nb films and thermal transport across the Nb/Cu interface. Reduced thermal diffusivity in thin films and high interfacial thermal resistance contribute to localized heating and performance degradation under high RF fields. This dissertation addresses these challenges through a combined experimental and methodological investigation of thermal transport in Nb thin films, focusing on interface engineering using …

The Role Of Autonomy And Motivation On Teacher Retention: A Mixed Methods Study, Jordan Overton

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Teacher retention remains a persistent concern in the United States, with nearly 13% of classrooms unfilled by licensed teachers. Grounded in self-determination theory and basic psychological needs theory, this mixed methods sequential explanatory study examined the relationship between teacher autonomy, motivation, and intentions to leave, while also exploring the contextual factors that shaped teachers’ perceptions of autonomy within their work environments.

In the quantitative phase, survey data were collected from 123 elementary and middle school teachers across three school divisions in Southeastern Virginia. Measures included teacher autonomy, work motivation, and intentions to leave one’s school or division and the teaching …

Fabrication Of Flexible Laser-Induced Graphene-Based Non-Enzymatic Glucose Sensor For Diabetes Management, Reagan Aviha

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

This research focuses on developing a flexible non-enzymatic glucose sensor to address the issues of cost, stability, and limited sensitivity associated with enzymatic glucose sensors. Regular monitoring of glucose levels is required to manage the global health challenge of diabetes. The sensor is built on a cost-effective, durable, flexible, conductive, and high-surface-area substrate acting as a scaffold for modification with easily tunable and electroactive species to enhance glucose detection. The electroactive materials used are zinc oxide (ZnO), palladium (Pd) and platinum (Pt). Laser-induced graphene (LIG) is created by laser engraving. ZnO, Pd and Pt are electrochemically deposited and optimized based …

Personality Predictors Of Cybersecurity Vulnerability: Insights From Self-Reports And Stimulated Threat Scenarios, Saroja Roy Grandhi

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In this cyber dependent and enabled era, understanding the role of human factors in digital security is essential. This study investigates the relationship between Big-Five personality traits and cybersecurity behaviors by examining both self-reported and stimulated behaviors in security threat scenarios. Participants completed validated questionnaires to report their personality traits, cybersecurity practices and engage in task-based stimulations to capture behaviors such as phishing detection, password creation, and response to security alerts. The study tested whether higher conscientiousness, openness, and agreeableness would be associated with stronger cybersecurity practices and smaller discrepancies between self-reported and observed behaviors. And, whether greater extraversion and …

The Racialized Treadmill Of Robotic Agriculture: Colonial Legacies, Legal Exceptionalism, And Labour Control, Vasanthi Venkatesh

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The title of this paper draws on two historical meanings of the word ‘‘treadmill”. First, it references the economic concept of the ‘‘agricultural technology treadmill”, which describes how technological advances in farming lead to market consolidation, pushing smaller producers out while benefiting agribusiness oligopolies. Second, it invokes the literal treadmill, which was invented in 1818 as a punitive labour technology and a ‘‘rational” tool to discipline racialized and indentured labourers in colonial plantations. By connecting these two threads in agricultural technology — economic domination and racialized labor control — this paper examines how robotics and automation in modern agriculture perpetuate …

Generating Personal Data And The Gdpr Conceptualizing, Analyzing, And Recognizing Generated Personal Data, Hideyuki Matsumi

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

In 2014, to fight the littering problem, an environmental group posted portraits of potential litterbugs on public streets. The group extracted DNA from tossed cigarettes, coffee cups, or condoms, and generated the possible likeness of individuals whose DNA was found from these items in public. Similarly, in 2017, detectives working on a cold case sent DNA found at the crime scene of a homicide and sexual assault victim from 1990 to a company that claims it ‘‘can turn DNA into a face”. Subsequently, detectives published the ‘‘predicted face” in an attempt to solicit tips from the public. In 2020, they …

R-Ai-Sing Questions: Exploring The Ethical And Legal Landscape Of Artificial Intelligence-Generated Media Of Medicalized Children, Kristen Thomasen, Gregorio Zuniga-Villaneuva, Muhammed Mukadam, David Lysecki

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

When it comes to complex medical care for children, even in a country like Canada with many publicly funded healthcare services, much of the necessary research and holistic support for children and families is financed through private donations. Fundraising campaigns for children’s hospitals and services are common, often featuring movie stars, professional athletes, and many child patients. A range of important charitable activities, providing comfort, services, and necessities such as food and accommodation to children and families, are carried out through fundraising and donations. Fundraising for children’s services is a multibillion-dollar global undertaking. What’s more, it is largely dependent on …

Game Face: Legal Tackle On Facial Recognition And Privacy Rights At Nfl Games, Shanthi E. Senthe

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The unprecedented rapid uptake of facial recognition technology (‘‘FRT”) in commercial and public spaces for data capture and surveillance has entrenched every aspect of our daily lives from mundane tasks, such as grocery store shopping to family and experiential moments, such as participation in spectator sports. As such, the rapid adoption and integration of FRT into sports security is reshaping aspects of sporting events and fan experiences, often without adequate consideration of privacy and ethical implications. Professional sports leagues, specifically the NFL, are in the process of adopting the use of this type of technology to enhance security measures, streamlining …

Consensus Ad Artificialis: Contract Theory Meets The Genai Mind, Katie Szilagyi, Marina Pavlovic´

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

The advent of generative AI (GenAI) has generated shockwaves across industries. Many established professions are grappling with how GenAI’s functionality transforms their daily activities, staying power, and raison d’eˆtre. GenAI’s newfound facility with words and language has rapidly encroached upon the purview of lawyers, whose trade has long been expertise with words. While some worry about lawyers’ place in a GenAI-oriented future economy, others are optimistic about the transformative potential GenAI offers as a tool to the practicing lawyer. Legal service providers have been quick to adopt GenAI tools in the name of efficiency, harnessing its generative power for tasks …

Bodies As Vessels: (Re)Production, Consumption, And Female Identity In The Handmaid’S Tale And Dawn, Shelby Clark

Honors Theses

This honors thesis examines how reproduction and food are used to signify power and impact female identity in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid's Tale and Octavia Butler’s Dawn. Both feminist dystopian novels portray societies that secure futurity through the commodification and management of women's domestic labor. The protagonist of each novel, Offred in The Handmaid's Tale and Lilith in Dawn, is responsible for ensuring the survival of humanity through forced reproduction and is additionally expected to produce or manage food. In this thesis, I argue that in both novels, female identity is reclaimed and affirmed as separate from a commodified state …

Optimizing Auv Perception For Competitive Underwater Robotics: Analyzing Performance And Simplicity Of Machine Vision Hardware, Joseph King

Honors Theses

Underwater robotics is a growing field with many practical applications, such as pipeline and offshore structure monitoring, deep sea mining, mine reconnaissance/removal, and marine environmental monitoring. USM’s Robotics Club will participate in the international RoboSub competition, where student-led teams build autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) that perform a variety of tasks within a pool requiring camera-based object detection. This project analyzes affordable hardware and software options for providing machine vision to USM’s future RoboSub AUV. The performance of an ESP32-CAM microcontroller, Raspberry Pi 5, and Jetson Orin Nano single-board computers running FOMO and YOLO object detection models was compared. These models …

Digital Citizenship Among Middle School Students In Oman: A Study Considering Various Variables, Suad Saleh Al Wahaibi, Khalfan Zahran Al-Hijji, Raja Maznah Raja Husain

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

This study examined the level of digital citizenship (DC) among grade 10 students in Oman with respect to gender, internet usage duration, and exposure to online threats. A total of 1,022 students participated during the 2022/2023 academic year. The study employed a questionnaire constructed on Ribble’s (2015) Respect, Educate, and Protect (REP) model and applied a random cluster sampling technique. Results revealed that students’ DC level was moderate overall. No statistically significant difference was found between male and female students, while there were significant differences in DC scores in terms of facing online threats and in terms of internet usage …

The Digital Dilemma: Social Media’S Influence On Children’S Well-Being In Developing Nations: A Systematic Literature Review, Hilal Hamed Al Busaidi, Ayman Al Shukri, Moosa Al Shukaili, Yahya Al Niyadi, Adil H Al Kindi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

Social media has become an integral part of the lives of teenagers and children, particularly in developing countries. Though it opens avenues for communication and expression, it also plays a serious role in mental health. This paper conducts a systematic literature review (SLR) of published studies from 2015 to 2025, utilizing the databases of PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, to assess the impact of social networking sites on the mental health of children’s populations in low- and middle-income countries. The review identifies three concern areas: cyberbullying, increased anxiety and depression rates, and socioeconomic factors’ effects. Literature suggests that adolescents …

Dissection Of The Quintuple Product, With Applications, Tim Huber, James Mclaughlin, Dongxi Ye

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

This work considers the m-dissection (for m≢0(mod3)">m≢0(mod3)) of the general quintuple productQ(z,q)=(z,q/z,q;q)∞(qz2,q/z2;q2)∞.">Q(z,q)=(z,q/z,q;q)∞(qz2,q/z2;q2)∞.Multiple novel applications arise from this m-dissection. For example, we derive the general partition identityDS(mn+(m2−1)/24)=(−1)(m+1)/6bm(n), for all n≥0,">DS(mn+(m2−1)/24)=(−1)(m+1)/6bm(n), for all n≥0,where m≡5(mod6)">m≡5(mod6) is a square-free positive integer relatively prime to 6; DS(n)">DS(n) is defined, for S the set of positive integers containing no multiples of m, to be the number of partitions of n into an even number of distinct parts from S minus the number of partitions of n into an odd number of distinct parts from S; and …

Soliton Solutions To The Coupled Sasa–Satsuma Equation Under Mixed Boundary Conditions, Changyan Shi, Xiyao Chen, Guangxiong Zhang, Chengfa Wu, Bao-Feng Feng

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

In this paper, we derive general bright–dark soliton solutions to the coupled Sasa–Satsuma (CSS) equation using the Kadomtsev–Petviashvili reduction method. Since the CSS equation is a special case of the four-component Hirota equation, our approach begins with the construction of two-bright-two-dark soliton solutions for the four-component Hirota equation. By imposing specific parameter constraints, these solutions are subsequently reduced to the bright–dark soliton solutions of the CSS equation. Finally, the dynamical behaviours of the one- and two-bright–dark soliton solutions are thoroughly analysed and illustrated.

Short-Term Electricity Price Forecasting With Constrained Regressors, Mucun Sun, Li Zhang, Yifeng Gao

Computer Science Faculty Publications

The volatility of electricity price presents a challenge to market participants as their decision-making process are highly depend on the accuracy of price forecasts. However, there is growing empirical evidence of increasing price volatility and price spikes in electricity markets as a result of variable renewable energy generation, extreme weather events, and other factors. The distribution shift caused by spikes in electricity price data differentiates the forecasting tasks from other renewable energy sources. Moreover, the observations may be compromised by cyberattacks and thus not available in the testing phase. To this end, we propose a Similarity-Enhanced Electricity Decomposition Forecasting model …