Digital Commons Network^™

Predicting Dementia Risk: Progress, Pitfalls, And Priorities, Patricia Nistor, Osvaldo Espin-Garcia, Zul Merali, Shehzad Ali

Brain and Mind Institute

As populations age, identifying individuals at high risk for dementia has become a cornerstone of prevention-oriented public health policy. Accurate and scalable risk stratification could enable early intervention and resource targeting. However, existing models face methodological limitations, including constraints in available data and follow-up duration, challenges in dementia ascertainment, heterogeneity in modelling approaches, and limited external validation. This commentary discusses these challenges and identifies methodological priorities for developing dementia risk algorithms that are robust and suitable for real-world implementation.

Evolving Paradigms Of Sustainability In Luxury Fashion: Evidence From An Emerging Market, Sandipan Sen, Sphurti Sewak, Swati Singh, Moutusy Maity, Aniruddha Pangarkar

Faculty Publications – Marketing

The global fashion industry is both an economic driver and a major contributor of environmental and social challenges. This research examines how sustainable luxury fashion is constructed and adopted within an emerging market context by integrating perspectives from entrepreneurs, industry managers, and consumers. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach and drawing upon Self-Identity Theory and need for uniqueness, this research explores how identity-based motivations shape sustainable luxury consumption. Study 1 employs in-depth interviews with luxury fashion entrepreneurs and practitioners to uncover how sustainability is embedded within luxury value propositions. Building on these insights, Study 2 quantitatively tests a conceptual model examining the …

Comparing Digital And Non-Digital Gamification On Their Impacts In The World Language Classroom, Amanda K. Salmonson

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Few studies have focused on the comparison between digital and non-digital game-based learning, especially in the world language classroom. This thesis is a literature review of 36 peer-reviewed articles to compare the effects of digital versus non-digital game use in regards to motivation, language acquisition, vocabulary retention, teacher implementation, and student social skills and mental health. The findings show that both styles of gamification have positive impacts in all of these categories when compared to traditional teacher-centered instruction, though when compared, each mode has its benefits and weaknesses. Digital games’ promotion of competition can limit student intrinsic motivation as well …

How Does Recreational Screen Time Affect Student Academic Performance, Trever Nordlund

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This literature review examined how recreational screen time affects academic performance among students. Drawing on research addressing cognitive effects, motivation, cognitive exhaustion, persistence, technology habits, and pedagogical interventions, the review found that recreational screen time is reliably associated with modest negative effects on academic performance rather than severe ones. Digital interruptions carry a measurable cognitive cost that persists beyond the interruption itself, though the size of that cost varies by student. Self-regulation and the relevance of competing content emerged as the strongest explanatory factors. Neither restriction-based policies nor self-regulation interventions fully resolved the problem on their own. Implications for professional …

Engaging Exceptional Learners: Applied Learning Frameworks As A Foundation For Autonomy In Secondary Special Education, Lisa Chovan-Spence

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students with mild disabilities are transitioning from high school into the world of work inadequately prepared, even after completing the required transition measures laid out in their Individual Education Programs (IEPs). The transition gap could be remedied by increasing experiential learning opportunities within the core curriculum. Foundational educational psychology and cognitive science validate the use of experiential teaching pedagogies. However, less is written about the use of experiential learning methods in special education and their ability to better prepare students with disabilities (SWD) for this transition. The benefits of experiential learning teaching strategies, such as their propensity to build students' …

Justice In Erotic Spaces, Elena L. Cohen

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

This Article posits that the concept of "erotic justice" could be used by courts to push back against the current cascade of anti-LGBTQ+ laws and meaningfully improve the lives ofgay and trans people. The beginning of the twenty-first century was widely seen as a time of great progress for LGBTQ+ people, with the legalization of gay marriage in countries across the world seen as the ultimate triumph. Yet there is a strong contemporary movement to re-criminalize the lives of LGBTQ+ people and to remove protections that have been granted by courts. In the U.S., the 2020s have seen an ongoing …

Breaking The Perpetual Social Injustice Cycle By Implementing Race-Neutral Alternatives As A Means To Create Equitable Admissions Practices In Higher Education, Jazmin B. C. Jardim-Phipps

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

The article argues that higher education institutions can still achieve the compelling state interest of diversity while complying with the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) rulings by replacing race-based admissions with narrowly tailored, race-neutral alternatives. It proposes a model that redefines merit and prioritizes socioeconomic and first-generation status while eliminating legacy preferences to break cycles of systemic social injustice.

Annotated Legal Bibliography

Cardozo Journal of Equal Rights & Social Justice

No abstract provided.

Unseen Motherhood, Kylie Zieminski

All Student Theses and Dissertations

Unseen Motherhood is a series of photographs that shows what first-time motherhood is really like, starting with pregnancy and going through birth and everything after. I did not want to just show the happy or perfect moments. I wanted to capture the hard parts, the big feelings, and how much a person's identity can change.

There are eighteen black-and-white photographs in this series, all showing my twin sister as she goes through becoming a mother. These images follow her before, during, and after birth. I wanted to show that motherhood is more than just one happy photograph.

I based this …

The Inward Gaze: Byung-Chul Han's Achievement-Subjectivity In David Foster Wallace's Short Fiction, Ivan Marquez

All Student Theses and Dissertations

David Foster Wallace stated that the aim of his fiction and art was to reflect what it meant to be alive and form a relationship with the reader. In "E Unibus Plurum", Wallace posited that the tenets of Post-Modern fiction were once used to criticize the hypocrisies of the 1950's and 60's American had been subsumed by television and were no longer effective tools of criticism. Wallace argues for a move away from irony and stunt pilotry of postmodern fiction towards a fiction which espoused "single entendre values" (Wallace 192). While Wallace advocated for a return to more traditional story-telling, …

How Do African American Alumni At Private Predominantly White Institutions Describe And Interpret The Influence Of Culturally Responsive Support Spaces On Their Sense Of Belonging, Academic Persistence, And Long-Term Professional Development With The Institutional Context, Karen Williams-Blackman

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study examined how African American alumni at a private, predominantly White institution (PWI) in the Midwest described and interpreted the influence of culturally responsive support spaces on their sense of belonging, academic persistence, and long-term professional development. Culturally responsive support spaces are defined as environments that affirm identity, provide protection, and foster community, offering relational and cultural validation beyond traditional institutional diversity or compliance-based initiatives. Guided by Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Validation Theory (VT), this research examined how alumni interpreted their interactions with these support spaces and how such experiences influenced their academic trajectories and enduring …

Linking Social Entrepreneurship To Crime Reduction Among Young African Americans In Chicago’S South And West Sides, Grady C. Wheaton Jr.

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This study examined community members’ perceptions of social entrepreneurship as an employment-centered strategy for addressing youth violence among African Americans on Chicago’s South and West Sides. The study was guided by the following research question: Can social entrepreneurship be leveraged to reduce youth violence among African Americans on Chicago’s South and West Sides, as perceived by community members? Using Fillmore Laundry, a healthcare linen-processing social enterprise located in North Lawndale, as a case example, this quantitative, cross-sectional study collected survey data from 99 eligible community members recruited through community-based partnerships. The survey assessed perceived youth- and community-level program benefits, evaluations …

Exploring Management Strategies To Reduce Workplace Violence: Perceptions Of Illinois Healthcare Professionals, Mary Mack

All Student Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how managers of nonprofit healthcare facilities in the Chicago metropolitan area implement strategies to reduce workplace violence, what these strategies are and how they are carried out, and what organizational factors facilitate or impede their implementation. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven healthcare professionals in management or safety-oriented roles across seven facilities, purposefully sampled through the researcher's professional network. Findings revealed four recurring patterns across the sample. Prevention infrastructure was installed reactively, following specific triggering incidents rather than anticipating documented risk. Facilities consistently favored lower-cost mitigation measures over more resource-intensive prevention strategies. Reliance on short-tenure contract …

“Is This Really Funny?” Humor, Rape Myths, And Social Semiotics In Nigerian Comedy Skits, Grace Oluwatofunmi Adeyemo

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines how rape myth narratives are normalized through humor in Nigerian comedy skits. While existing research has identified rape-supportive beliefs in digital entertainment, it has paid less attention to the processes through which these meanings become socially acceptable. Guided by social semiotics, the study analyzes how semiotic resources use humor to normalize rape myth narratives in Nigerian comedy skits. Using a qualitative design, twelve purposively selected Nigerian comedy skits on YouTube were analyzed. The findings reveal that refusal is constructed as temporary, persistence is portrayed as effort, men's refusal is framed as abnormal, and consent is shaped by …

The Oxymoron At The Heart Of Delaware's Making Elon Happy Legislation, Franklin A. Gevurtz

McGeorge School of Law Scholarly Articles

Fearing that parties controlling corporations might incorporate elsewhere, Delaware has hurriedly enacted controversial legislation (SB-21) to reduce judicial scrutiny of dealings whereby such parties might further enrich themselves at the expense of public stockholders.

This article examines a basic problem with SB-21 that has been ignored in all the Sturm and Drang surrounding its enactment. Simply put, two key parts of the statute’s provisions addressing dealings by parties who control corporations are fundamentally at war with each other. These are the statute’s definition of controlling stockholder which focuses on the voting power to elect the directors and the statute’s provision …

Place Matters: Investigating The Social And Environmental Drivers Of Hypertension In Nashville, Marquinta Harvey, Michael D. Oliver, Tatum Brown, Deya Rassul, Thomas Strickler, Jarod Parrish, Catherine Bass

Funded Scholarship

Hypertension disparities persist across communities, driven by interactions between social determinants of health (SDOH) and behavioral factors. This study examines geographic and demographic patterns of hypertension in Nashville, Tennessee, to assess how socioeconomic, environmental, and behavioral factors contribute to inequities in prevalence, treatment, and control. Granular ZIP code-level analyses highlight community-specific drivers and the need for policy reforms to advance health equity.

Non-Instrumented Dva: Assessment Of Performance And Clinical Feasibility In Children Ages 2 Through 13 Years, Cathey P. Norton, Nancy S. Darr, Mary Katherine Beshears, Katherine Catalano, Tyra Dillard, Mahayla J.K. Gamble, Magdalene Olerich, Sadie Rodell Rupp

Funded Scholarship

Background/Objectives: Vestibular disorders can have functional consequences for children, including balance and gross motor delays, academic difficulties and behavioral manifestations; however, they are frequently undiagnosed in children. The purposes of this study were to evaluate the feasibility and clinical utility of performing a non-instrumented dynamic visual acuity (DVA) test as a primary screening tool for children and to examine typical performance on this non-instrumented DVA test in a large sample of children ages 2 through 13 years.

Methods: A clinical DVA test was administered to a convenience sample of 208 children aged 2–13 years. Static visual acuity was assessed using …

Examining Challenges For Sociology Master’S Degree Students At California State University, David Ortuno

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to identify the lived experiences of CSU sociology graduate students pursuing a master’s degree. Seven sociology graduate students from six of the eight (75%) total sociology MA programs throughout the entire CSU system were interviewed. Their responses were designed to analyze the support systems and challenges they face while pursuing a master's degree, as well as to investigate whether their experiences correlate with or fail to correlate with the promises in the CSU mission statement, and to answer the study’s research questions and achieve the purpose of this qualitative study.

Four themes emerged from …

Correlates Of Recovery Capital Among Women In Jails: Leveraging A Dimensional Recovery Framework, Amanda Fallin-Bennett, Martha Tillson, Jaxin Annett, Hartley Feld, Michele Staton

Nursing Faculty Publications

Background: Recovery capital encompasses internal and external factors that support recovery from substance use disorder, such as employment, social support, and physical and mental health. There is a need for more research on recovery capital among women who are incarcerated, who often face complex barriers to recovery, such as poverty, unemployment, and histories of trauma.

Methods: Women (N ¼ 900) were recruited from Kentucky jails as part of the broader NIDA-funded Kentucky Justice Community Opioid Innovation Network (JCOIN) cooperative project. Measures from baseline interviews (during incarceration) were selected in alignment with the Substance Abuse Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA)’s four …

“Being Treated As The Expert:” A Blueprint For A Community Advisory Board Approach To Elevate The Voice Of People With Living Experience With Substance Use In Academic Research, Trevor Moffitt, Survivors Union Of The Bluegrass, Bryson Henson, April M. Young, Sharon L. Walsh, Rachel Vickers-Smith, Junior Cruz, Jeremy Byard, Brook West, Amanda Fallin-Bennett

Nursing Faculty Publications

Introduction: Researchers have traditionally engaged Community Advisory Boards (CABs) to meaningfully involve community members in the research process. However, CABs are often formed only after a grant is funded, leading to criticisms of functioning merely as “ethical approvers.” For substance use researchers, the inclusion of people with living experience (PWLE; current experience with drug use) across all stages of research is especially important as they have historically been the experts in the needs of their community.   Methods: In response to this need for community engagement in research, the University of Kentucky, in partnership with a local recovery community center (RCC; …

Evaluation Of A Tobacco Treatment Specialist Training Program Targeted To Behavioral Health Professionals, Chizimuzo T. C. Okoli, Sarret Seng, Bassema Abu Farsakh, Emily Koyagi, Heather Beck, Audrey Darville

Nursing Faculty Publications

Tobacco use remains disproportionately high among adults living with mental illnesses (MIs), contributing to excess morbidity and mortality, particularly in high-burden states such as Kentucky. Behavioral healthcare providers are well-positioned to address this disparity but often lack formal training in evidence-based tobacco treatment. Tobacco Treatment Specialist (TTS) training provides healthcare providers with skills to deliver evidence-based tobacco treatment; however, traditional TTS training models often rely on synchronous, in-person or live virtual formats, which may limit accessibility for some healthcare workforces. Asynchronous, web-based delivery models may reduce these barriers. This study evaluates a targeted, asynchronous TTS training program designed for providers …

Financial Status, Fatalism, And Self-Care Of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among Rural Adults Living In Socioeconomically Distressed Areas, Ashmita Thapa, Geunyeong Cha, Dustin Hodges, Jia-Rong Wu, Misook L. Chung, Martha J. Biddle, Jennifer L. Smith, Debra K. Moser

Nursing Faculty Publications

Purpose: Adults with fewer financial resources often have poor self-care. Rural dwellers commonly have fewer financial resources than urban dwellers and are often stereotyped as fatalistic about health. We examined whether fatalism mediates the association of financial status with cardiovascular disease (CVD) self-care in rural adults in economically distressed areas. We hypothesized that those with fewer financial resources would have poorer self-care, and fatalism would mediate this relationship.

Methods: We enrolled 1,122 adults (53 ± 15 years) at risk for CVD. Financial status was reflected by individuals’ perceptions of how well they made “ends meet” with their financial resources, fatalism …

The Effects Of Pornography On Romantic Relationships, Jade A. Green

McNair Scholars Research

This study examined the relationship among pornography use, attitudes toward pornography, and romantic relationship outcomes among adults in the United States. The hypotheses are as follows: 1. Pornography use is negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. 2. Positive attitudes toward pornography are negatively associated with relationship satisfaction. 3. Men will report more positive attitudes toward pornography than women, 4. Higher pornography use is associated with being single.  A convenience sample of 165 adults from central Arkansas completed measures assessing pornography use/acceptance and relationship satisfaction. Statistical analyses included a correlation matrix, an independent-samples t-test, and a chi-square analysis. Results showed that pornography …

Ruth Fine: In Search Of The Place, Carrie Robbins, Maggie North

Books, pamphlets, catalogues, and scrapbooks

This catalogue was published in conjunction with the exhibition Ruth Fine: In Search of the Place, on view in Bryn Mawr College's 1912 Gallery from August 27–December 18, 2026.  The exhibition explores Philadelphia-based artist Ruth Fine's longstanding engagement with the natural world in terms of her "search for the place," an approach to artmaking that invites close looking and collaboration. The catalogue was edited by Maggie North and Carrie Robbins and designed by Nathanael Roesch. It also includes contributions from Wendy Edwards, Ruth Fine, Marianne Hansen, Janelle Rebel, and Chloe Sun.

Students With Vision And Hearing Loss: Successful Strategies For Teachers And Families, Karen A. Waldron, Michael Steer, Dolly Bhargava

Education Faculty Research

Students with Vision and Hearing Loss: Successful Strategies for Teachers and Families is an eBook containing extensive online Activities, Research, and Resources to support children and adolescents who are Vision Impaired or Blind, and those who experience a Hearing Loss or are Deaf.

This collaborative project was administered by Dr. Karen A. Waldron (Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas) and Dr. Michael Steer, with the support of graduate student Dolly Bhargava (Renwick College, New South Wales).

It includes the work of many experts at universities, schools, and regional service centers across the United States, Australia, and New Zealand, and provides specific …

Fluid Agency In Ai Systems: A Case For Functional Equivalence In Copyright, Patent, And Tort, Anirban Mukherjee, Hannah H. Chang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Modern Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems exhibit fluid agency in multi-step workflows: lacking human-like consciousness or culpability, yet they display behavior that is (i) stochastic (probabilistic and path‑dependent), (ii) dynamic (co‑evolving with user interaction), and (iii) adaptive (able to reorient across contexts). These properties generate valuable outputs but collapse attribution, irreducibly entangling human and machine inputs. Doctrines that assume traceable provenance—authorship, inventorship, and liability—fracture under this unmappability, yielding ownership gaps and moral “crumple zones.”This Article argues that only functional equivalence stabilizes doctrine under unmappability: Where provenance is indeterminate, legal frameworks should treat human and AI contributions as equivalent for allocating rights …

The Charity Capacity Curse, Shirley (Lijun) Zhang, Thomas Allard, David Hardisty, Shane Wang

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Can displays of charity capacity cues paradoxically harm charities' fundraising efforts? Six pre-registered studies provide evidence of a charity capacity curse whereby donors penalize charities for displaying capacity cues, such as human resources capacity, organizational capacity, and financial capacity cues. This curse occurs because donors perceive higher-capacity charities as needing less help. As donors typically donate based on need, they donate less to charities with superior capacity signals. This effect is attenuated when: (1) higher-capacity charities' needs are made salient, and (2) donors reflect on how their decision impacts end-beneficiaries. This research contributes to the literature on effective altruism and …

Brief Therapy Dog Interactions May Increase Self-Efficacy And Lower Perceived Stress And Cortisol In High School Students: A Preliminary Study, Dawn Melzer, Deirdre Yeater, Madison Derubis, Christiana Rose Kohlroser, Barbara J. Pierce

Psychology Faculty Publications

The present study examined changes in high schoolers’ perceived stress, general self-efficacy and cortisol levels after a brief interaction with a certified therapy dog. High school students completed self-report measures of perceived stress and general self-efficacy and provided salivary cortisol samples both before and after a 10-min interaction with a certified therapy dog. Following the interaction, students reported reductions in perceived stress scores, exhibited lower salivary cortisol concentrations and demonstrated increases in self-efficacy scores compared to before the interaction. Although higher self-efficacy scores were observed, general self-efficacy is generally regarded as a stable construct; therefore, these findings may reflect a …

Graduate Student Retention: Examining Why Master’S Students Leave And What Motivates Their Return In A Large Public University System, Sonja Prophete

Theses and Dissertations

Graduate student persistence is a relatively unexplored area in the literature of higher education studies; specifically, at a multi-institutional scale at the master's level. This research study examines the factors which cause students to discontinue their master's degrees, and what conditions could possibly support them returning to their program at a large urban public university system. The current study was guided by Hoyt and Winn's (2004) distinction between non-returning students, and Bean & Metzner's (1985) theoretical model of student attrition. A sequential mixed-methods study was conducted to examine the institutional and environmental influences on students' decision-making processes.

The quantitative data …

Environmental Load In Technology-Rich Classrooms: A Practitioner Reflection On Student Attention, Cognitive Fatigue, And Instructional Design, Christopher Morales

Essays in Education

This practitioner essay examines student disengagement in technology-rich classrooms through the lens of cognitive load and environmental demand. Rather than interpreting all off-task behavior as laziness, avoidance, or lack of motivation, the essay argues that some students may be responding to cumulative overload created by screens, transitions, digital platforms, visual clutter, noise, lighting, and fragmented instructional routines. Drawing from classroom observation and cognitive load theory, the essay introduces environmental load as a practical concept for educators seeking to preserve student attention without lowering academic expectations. The essay offers reflective questions and instructional adjustments that can help teachers and school leaders …