Digital Commons Network^™

Understanding How Ai Chatbots Act As Gatekeepers When Recommending Destinations, Ayden Alexandra Carmack

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence chatbots become a primary tool for travel discovery, questions arise about whose destinations get recommended and how. This study examines how ChatGPT (OpenAI), Claude (Anthropic), and Google Gemini function as algorithmic gatekeepers in travel recommendations, drawing on gatekeeping theory, framing theory, and growing scholarship on AI bias in tourism. Using a content analysis of 135 AI-generated responses to 15 standardized travel prompts (45 per platform, each run three times) this study coded destination selection patterns, dominant narrative frames, and informational omissions across platforms. Results show that 88.9% of recommended destinations were classified as high-income nations, with Japan, …

Lumbopelvic Kinematics And Muscular Co-Contractions In Walking Prior To And Immediately Following A Bout Of Prolonged Standing., Stephanie Cotariu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Prolonged standing is a common daily activity in a wide array of occupations, and approximately 44% of sample populations develop low back pain (LBP) during prolonged standing. Prolonged standing-induced LBP developers (“Pain Developers”) are three times more likely to develop clinical LBP and can therefore be considered a pre-clinical LBP population. Changes in typical gait have been observed in LBP patients, and walking has been hypothesized as being protective or preventive against LBP development. However, it is unknown whether Pain Developers exhibit similar kinematic adaptations to chronic LBP patients during common daily activities, such as walking. The exact muscular …

Behind The Screens And The Scoop: A Qualitative Analysis Of First-Person Mental Health Content On Social Media And Implications For News Coverage, Isabella Lise Marie Larue

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More young people are reporting increased viewership of health content across social media platforms, with only 55% of adults reporting this in a 2025 KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) poll. While trust in this form of information is low, consumption is increasing, alongside traditional news articles’ agenda-setting that discusses the same information in a different format. The goal of this research is to explore the effects of consuming first-person mental health content on social media for people with mental illness, more than just documenting its existence, and if audiences report a sense of belonging through this social media content. The results …

How Consumer Awareness Of Sustainability And Labor Practices Shape Fast Fashion Purchase Intentions, Sydney Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how consumer awareness of sustainability issues and unethical labor practices influences fast fashion purchase intentions. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior and supported by the Symbolic Interaction Theory, the research explores how awareness, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control, and price sensitive shape consumer decision-making. A quantitative research design was employed using a self-administered online survey distributed via social media platforms. The final sample included 187 participants, and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlation analyses, and multiple linear regression. Findings revealed that although participants reported moderate to high levels of awareness, this awareness did not significantly …

The Biased Divide: Perceptions And Challenges Of Esports Within Universities, Alexzandra O'Neal

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how institutional framing and student motivations influence the development and perception of collegiate Esports programs within higher education. The research explores how Esports is positioned as either a legitimate academic and competitive pursuit or a low-priority extracurricular activity, and how these perceptions impact program growth and student experience. This non-traditional thesis is presented as a documentary film utilizing a qualitative, semi-structured interview methodology. Data were collected through interviews with students, faculty, and program leaders, focusing on a comparative analysis between University of Oklahoma and University of Arkansas. Findings indicate that institutional support and framing play a significant …

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 …

Investigating Pre-Service Teachers’ Readiness For Early Reading Instruction: A Mixed Methods Study Of Quantified Knowledge In Phonemic Awareness And Lived Experiences, Kristin Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the lived experiences of pre-service teachers as they develop their knowledge and instruction skills during a three-week module within their first literacy course in a teacher preparation program. Literacy courses play an important role in equipping pre-service teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to promote reading development. Research suggests that phonemic awareness is a crucial skill that predicts later reading achievement; however, many teachers lack the necessary experience and knowledge. This gap raises concerns about teacher preparation programs and how pre-service teachers learn. Guided by Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, this sequential explanatory mixed-methods study sought to understand …

Assessing The Mental Wellness Of Professional Pilots And Their Willingness To Seek Professional Help, Bill Deng Pan, Flavio A. C. Mendonca Ph.D.

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Professional pilots face distinct mental health challenges arising from irregular schedules, fatigue, high responsibility, and the need to maintain medical certification. These factors contribute to elevated stress, anxiety, and depression, while concerns about stigma, confidentiality, and potential career consequences often discourage pilots from seeking professional psychological support. As a result, barriers to early identification and intervention of mental health challenges remain a persistent concern within the aviation industry. This ongoing study utilizes a non-experimental, survey-based design to examine the mental wellness of professional pilots worldwide and their willingness to seek mental health support. The survey includes demographic items, standardized mental …

From Reactive To Predictive: A Hybrid Trust-Mediated Adoption Framework For Data-Driven Maintenance In Distributed-Authority Aviation Environments, Dustin J. Foote

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Modern aviation maintenance operates within increasingly data-intensive technological environments, yet the operational integration of predictive maintenance into routine decision-making remains inconsistent across sectors. Contemporary aircraft incorporate centralized maintenance computers and condition monitoring architectures capable of fault aggregation, exceedance capture, and trend-based data collection. Although prognostics and health management research continues to advance detection and prediction methods, implementation outcomes often depend on factors beyond analytical performance alone.

This paper examines predictive maintenance adoption in distributed-authority aviation environments and argues that constraints emerge less from sensing capability than from organizational structure, decision authority dispersion, and institutional trust dynamics. For purposes of analysis, …

Reimagining The Canon: A Paired-Text Framework For Student Engagement In Secondary Ela Classrooms, Jannelle Christine Kay Brawner

Masters Projects

Literary engagement correlates to academic success, yet many schools across the nation struggle to engage their scholars meaningfully with traditionally taught canonical literature. The classrooms impacted most by this concern are secondary language arts classrooms. This disengagement can be attributed to a lack of student autonomy in selecting texts, low-interest topics, and an absence of relevance to student identity. As a result, schools are reporting underdeveloped reading comprehension skills, motivation, academic achievement on a variety of classroom and state-mandated assessments, and a sharp decline in critical thinking skills. This project emphasizes the importance of using high-interest paired-text lessons built into …

The Impact Of Play-Based Learning In Early Education, Stefani Merchant

Masters Projects

The increasing emphasis on academic achievement in early childhood education has contributed to a decline in play-based learning. This decline has raised concerns about its impact on children’s overall development. This project examines play-based learning as a developmentally appropriate approach that supports cognitive, social-emotional, language, and self-regulation skills in preschool and kindergarten students. Supported by the theories of Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky, the project explores play as a continuum consisting of free play, guided play, and playful learning. With each form of play, there are varying levels of teacher involvement. A review of current research highlights both the benefits …

A Guided Curriculum Approach To Supporting Critical Thinking And Mathematical Readiness In Ib Physics, Samantha Killeen

Masters Projects

The purpose of this project is to address the problem that many students lack the critical thinking and mathematical reasoning skills required to be successful in rigorous STEM courses like IB Physics. While students may perform well in mathematics courses, they often struggle to transfer those skills into physics contexts that require conceptual understanding and problem-solving. These challenges have been intensified by academic tracking in mathematics pathways, post-pandemic learning loss, and increased dependence on technology, which have reduced the opportunities for productive struggle in the classroom. As a result, students frequently enter IB Physics unprepared for the pace and rigor …

Psychological Principles In Writing Center Consulting & Ai, Ella S. Hansen

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

A third of those ages 18 to 24 have engaged with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025). The newest form, ChatGPT-4, is better at generating more plausible long-form essays and creative writing than ever before (Imran & Almusharraf, 2023), meaning that AI-assisted writing is prevalent at higher education institutions (Cardon et al., 2023) and in writing centers (Goulet, 2025). Limited research has investigated the impact of this on writing center consultants. This multidisciplinary study investigated how consultants feel about large language model artificial intelligence (LLM AI) and how it can impact the consulting process, through the lens of three psychological principles: empathy, social …

The Night Circus - The Traveling Edition: An Advertising Campaign And Cross-Cultural Analysis, Charlee A. Salinas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis is an outline of my advertising plansbook that examines how culturally adapted advertising for a single book affects perceived authenticity, emotional resonance, and purchase intent across three distinct markets: the United States, Brazil, and Vietnam. This study examines three culturally distinct markets to identify which advertising elements require full localization versus those where standardization is acceptable. By comparing adapted campaigns against a standardized approach, this research provides actionable insights for publishers navigating the efficiency-effectiveness trade-off.

The research questions asked:

-       How does culturally adapted advertising for the same book affect perceived authenticity, emotional resonance, and purchase intent across …

Rewriting The Boer ‘Slim’: Alice Stopford Green’S Reports On St. Helena’S Prisoner Of War Camp And Her Impact On British Views Of Boer Prisoners, Natasja A. Swanson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Alice Stopford Green (1847 – 1929) was a prominent Irish historian and politician, known for her role as a political activist in the Irish Home Rule movement. Her lesser-known legacy is her investigative journalism on prisoner conditions in British prisoner of war camps during the Second Boer War (1899 – 1902). Her reports on Boer conditions in the Deadwood Prisoner of War Camp on the island of St. Helena reflected maltreatment and institutional abuse by the British Government. These discoveries supported the minority English opposition that thought that England was overstepping the rules of civilized warfare. Green was primarily concerned …

The Mysteries Of Postpartum Ocd: A Systematic Review, Taryn Shaffer

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Background: The research on postpartum mental health is growing, with most focusing on physical and sexual wellness, or well-known mental health symptoms such as psychosis, depression, and stress. However, as the research grows, so does the interest in lesser-known or under-considered postpartum mental health symptoms, including Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The focus of this research can be the exacerbation of already-present OCD symptoms, or the onset of them during pregnancy and the postpartum period. The purpose of this systematic review was to analyze research on OCD in pregnant and postpartum women. Specifically, the review included an analysis of measures used to …

Probing Representational Emergence In Large Language Models, Shawn Ismail

Master's Theses

This thesis investigates whether abrupt behavioral gains in large language models under scaling are accompanied by systematic changes in internal representations. It combines a behavioral screen of 65 tasks per family with targeted layerwise probing across eight decoder-only, open-weight model families. Behavioral emergence is defined for each family-task trajectory using an empirical jump detector, with segmented regression retained only as a diagnostic. The representational follow-up analyzes 27 selected MMLU subtasks shared across all families, spanning 37 checkpoints and 216 family-task units.

For each follow-up checkpoint, frozen linear probes are trained on every layer's hidden states to measure how much task-relevant …

Preserving Cherokee Culture Through Literacy And Literature: A Study Of Gendered Literacy, Rhetoric, And Cultural Continuity In The Cherokee Nation, Diana W. Baber

Master's Theses

Early explorers to what is now America, beginning with Hernando DeSoto in 1530, stole the dignity and the lands of the Indigenous peoples of America, of whom the Cherokees are only one nation. Two of the things that could not be taken was the Cherokees’ rich cultural tradition and oral histories. Stories passed orally from generation to generation to ensure that histories were preserved. They were largely preserved by the women of the tribe.

After the American Revolution, there was pressure from the new government to force the Cherokees to assimilate to the new American culture—to speak English, dress and …

Restorying The Reader: Adolescent Narratives Of Identity, Context, And Motivation, Jennifer R. Gardner

Dissertations

This present study examined how adolescents narrate their reading experiences and what those narratives reveal about reading identity, motivation, and engagement. This study responds to a persistent problem in literacy education: adolescent reading is often framed through disengagement or reduced to isolated constructs, while students’ lived reading experiences across school, home, digital, linguistic, and social contexts remain underexamined. Guided by Self-Determination Theory, Intersectionality, and Reader Response Theory, this study centers on adolescent voices and treats these participants’ stories as the primary avenue of understanding how they experience and interpret their reading lives and selves. Data were collected through narrative interviews, …

Science For All: Utilizing Native And Everyday Language To Increase Academic Performance And Student Engagement For High School English Language Learners, Lashanda K. Whitworth

Dissertations

In public high schools across the U.S. high stakes assessments are seen as a lever to facilitate high-quality education and to gauge student learning. English Language Learners are mainstreamed into content classes and despite having low English proficiency scores are expected to perform as well as English first students and are required to take district and state mandated biology assessments. At the research site, ELLs comprise 25% of students and consistently score below the other subgroups in biology. This quasi-experimental study tested whether using disaggregate instructional strategies—incorporating ELLs’ native and everyday language—increases learning gains, academic growth, and engagement in a …

Qualitative Phenomenography: Sustaining Motivations Of Black Women Principals In Pk-5 Title I Schools, Kahliah C. Rachel

Dissertations

Black women principals remain underrepresented in educational leadership, yet they are disproportionately assigned to PK-5 Title I schools, where complex academic, social, and political demands converge. Limited research examines what sustains these leaders over time, particularly in roles marked by intersecting oppressions of race and gender. Grounded in Black feminist thought and intersectionality, this qualitative phenomenographic study explored the sustaining motivations of six Black women who currently served or had served as principals in a PK-5 Title I school in Georgia. The purpose of this study was to describe the different ways these principals understood and experienced the internal and …

Exploring Teachers’ Lived Experiences: The Impact Of Wellness On Student Engagement And Behavior In Third-Grade Classrooms, Tiffany L. Jackson

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored teachers' lived experiences implementing student wellness initiatives in the classroom and examined their views on how these initiatives affected student engagement and behavior. In this study, participants had the opportunity to express their views on implementing wellness practices in the classroom and on how these initiatives impacted student engagement and behavior. The research was guided by theoretical frameworks related to wellness, emotional and social intelligence, and relational perspectives. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were the primary data source, and interview notes will serve as secondary data. This study addressed three research questions: (1) What are teachers' lived …

Perceptions And Beliefs Of A High School Geometry Professional Learning Community During Initial Implementation Of Standards-Based Grading, Marcellyn E. Baker

Dissertations

Traditional grading systems in secondary schools often conflate behavior with achievement, obscure evidence of understanding, and constrain teachers’ ability to enact learning-centered beliefs. This qualitative case study examined how five experienced secondary mathematics teachers in a public high school geometry department experienced and interpreted a grassroots transition to standards-based grading (SBG) within collaborative professional learning communities (PLCs). Guided by a pragmatic and constructivist worldview, data were collected through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, field observations, and questionnaires and analyzed using iterative open and axial coding with cross-group pattern analysis. Findings indicated that SBG did not fundamentally alter teachers’ beliefs about learning; …

First-Year Seminar’S Influence On Thriving In First-Year Students, Chelsea Miller

Dissertations

First-year students struggle with attrition. Prevention of attrition has various interventions on such first-year seminars. Typically, these interventions use academic outcomes to measure effectiveness. Prior research supports that students enrolled in first-year seminar benefit academically from the intervention. However, these outcomes do not fully capture all the possible benefits of this intervention. This leaves room for research on other possible outcomes. Thriving as a construct incorporates both academic and social elements. Thriving is a possible outcome that could capture the benefits of first-year seminars. This study examined how much of the variance in thriving was explained by participation in first-year …

Nomophobia In Early Adolescence: An Exploration Of Prevalence, Academic Performance, And School Policy In United States Middle School Students, Christopher Otero

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine nomophobia among middle school students, investigating its relationships with grade level, smartphone OS, school smartphone policy, and academic performance. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory, the research utilized a sample of 85 U.S. middle school students to address three research questions:

Q1 What relationships exists between middle school students’ grade levels, smartphone operating systems, school smartphone policy, GPA, and nomophobia levels?

Q2 To what extent do middle school student’s grade level, smartphone operating system, and school smartphone policy predict nomophobia?

Q3 Is nomophobia a significant predictor of GPA in middle school students?

Findings …

Wrestling With Morality: A Study On Moral Identity And Social Behavior In Individual Sports, Julia Isabella Ybarra

Dissertations

The development of moral reasoning and social behavior in adolescents and young adults is critical to healthy functioning. Sport participation is frequently assumed to promote positive developmental outcomes; however, the moral implications of participation in combative sports such as wrestling remain debated. Wrestling differs from many team and individual sports due to its physically dominant and one-on-one competitive structure, raising questions regarding how involvement may relate to moral identity, moral disengagement, and social behavior. The purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to examine associations among moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in adolescent and young adult …

Applying The Job–Demands-Resources Model To Uncover Influences On Continuity Outcomes For Caregivers Of Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Nancy J. Potter

Dissertations

Home-based, shared living caregivers provide a vital safety net for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived job demands and job resources that influence continuity-related outcomes among caregivers supporting individuals with IDD within a shared living service model.

Three research questions guided this study:

Q1 How are job demands and caregiver outcomes related?

Q2 Do resources moderate the relationship between caregiver outcomes and job demands?

Q3 Does the moderating effect of resources on the relationship between job demands and caregiver outcomes differ by caregiver relationship type?

The study methodology examined …

The Paradox Of Twice-Exceptional Teacher Experience: A Narrative And Visual Inquiry, Michael Danielle Bell

Dissertations

Twice-exceptional (2e) individuals, those with high cognitive ability and concurrent disabilities, have been the primary focus in K-12 research, yet they largely disappeared from research as adults. This narrative inquiry examined the lived experiences of three 2e educators navigating the public school system. Grounded in the Neurodiversity Paradigm and the Social Model of Disability, the study utilized semi-structured interviews and photo elicitation to externalize the sensory and cognitive realities of 2e educators through an affirmative, strengths-based lens. Narrative analysis revealed a central synthesis of the paradox of 2e educator experiences that highlighted participants’ neurodivergent traits as simultaneously their greatest professional …

Exploration Of The Intent To Remain In The Nursing Profession: Reasons New Nurse Graduates Remain At The Bedside, Amy Simons

Dissertations

Newly graduated nurses (NNGs) have been essential to sustaining the nursing workforce, yet up to 35.0% have left their initial positions within 2 years of licensure, contributing to persistent workforce instability (Kovner et al., 2016; Shatto & Lutz, 2017; Yu & Kang, 2016). Although factors influencing early turnover have been widely studied (Blegen et al., 2017; Fox & Abrahamsen, 2009; Kovner et al., 2016; Shatto & Lutz, 2017; Skillman & Toms, 2022; Wei et al., 2018; Yarbrough et al., 2017), less has been known about the determinants of NNGs’ intent to remain in the nursing profession. Guided by Herzberg’s Two-Factor …

Reconsidering The Undergraduate Viola Canon: A Skill Based Framework For Repertoire Expansion, Daniella Isabel Angulo Martinez

Dissertations

This research analyses the limitations of the standard undergraduate viola repertoire and proposes a structured, skill-based framework for its expansion. Within collegiate viola programs in the United States, training frequently focuses on a limited group of orchestra-accompanied works, particularly those by Telemann, Stamitz, Bruch, and Walton. While these works have a great pedagogical value, their dominance has contributed to a restricted repertoire that can limit students’ technical development, musical style knowledge, and artistic growth.

Based on the pedagogical standards of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), this research identifies five core performance domains - technique, rhythm, intonation, tone projection, and …