Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing Fire Risks In San Luis Obispo: The Impact Of Building Construction And Landscaping On Wildfire Vulnerability, Zachary A. Pollock

Construction Management

As wildfires grow in frequency and intensity across California, understanding and mitigating residential fire risk has become a public safety priority. Communities in the wildland-urban interface (WUI), such as San Luis Obispo, are especially vulnerable due to their proximity to natural vegetation and the prevalence of older housing stock. While state and local agencies have introduced regulations and educational campaigns, there remains a need for accessible, scalable tools that help identify fire risks at the individual home level. This project assessed wildfire vulnerability across 140 homes in San Luis Obispo, California, using a custom visual grading rubric informed by academic …

Rotating Scatter Mask System Optimization Study For Determining Optimal Image Recreation, Seth L. Grover

Theses and Dissertations

The Rotating Scatter Mask (RSM) system is a radiation imaging technology currently limited by the mask design and governing identification algorithm parameters. To optimize the RSM design, Dakota—an optimization software—was integrated with a ray tracing code that simulates particle interactions with the RSM detector, and with the Locally Competitive Algorithm (LCA), which reconstructs the source image based on the ray tracing code’s Detector Response Matrix (DRM). Since the original ray tracing code was developed in MATLAB, it was translated into Python to improve compatibility with both Dakota and LCA. The Python version of the ray tracing code was then integrated …

Post Salt: Adaptive Architecture For An Uncertain Climate, Mallorie Beckner

Masters Theses

Climate change is rapidly altering seasonal patterns, particularly in the Northeastern U.S., where winter temperatures have risen by approximately 3°F over the past century. As a result, infrastructure designed to support communities during winter conditions, such as road salt storage facilities, faces obsolescence. New York State, the largest consumer of road salt in North America, has 40 salt storage facilities in New York City alone, all of which are sited along interconnected waterways. Though often overlooked, this network of structures forms a critical part of the city’s response to winter weather. As these structures face a paradigm shift, their future …

Problematizing A Hegemonic English: An Assessment Of Language Use And Diversity In A Nation Of Immigrant Communities, Charlotte Choat

Honors Projects

The increasing development of language diglossia between global English and local languages around the world raises questions of how the American linguistic character will react. In a culture defined by its lack of ethnolinguistic definition, can language localization occur? A study of language development in America requires a historical assessment of language contact, discourse, and dominance. The present state of American English is not the natural result or authentic representation of America’s population, but the outcome of language restrictionism and resource disparity enforced on many ethnolinguistic groups throughout American history. In the modern era of intensified immigration, ethnolinguistic diversity is …

Framing The Sudanese Refugee Flows To Egypt Across Traditional And Social Media., Ghada Abdullah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the framing of Sudanese refugees in Egyptian media during the first year of the Sudanese conflict (April 2023–March 2024). Employing a content analysis framework, the research investigates content from three Egyptian newspapers—Al Ahram, Al Masry Al Youm, and Al Wafd—alongside tweets from the social media platform X. The study identifies recurring frames, themes, and narratives, highlighting differences between traditional media and social media platforms in their portrayal of Sudanese refugees. Key findings reveal that neutral tone dominate traditional media, focusing on factual reporting, followed by negative, then positive tones. Conversely, social media predominantly features negative narratives, such …

The Afterlife Of Walls / Reimagining The Museum Beyond Possession, Bensu Girgin

Masters Theses

When artifacts are returned, whether to their original sites or to communities with enduring cultural and ancestral ties, what might museums become in their absence? Once defined by possession, these spaces could shift toward empathy: not through institutional authority, but through shared presence and living memory.

This thesis critiques how Eurocentric museum practices have long sustained a colonial logic by detaching artifacts from the cultural, spiritual, and embodied contexts that gave them meaning. In doing so, museums render objects static, symbols of conquest rather than continuity, and reinforce historical narratives rooted in domination and erasure. Centering the British Museum as …

Giving Space To Equity: Creating Modular Mentorship Spaces For At-Risk Youth, Helei Gomariz-Robertson

Masters Theses

The built environment is a physical manifestation of a society’s values and priorities. The way space is allocated reflects what a society deems significant, shaping how communities and cities function on both a practical and symbolic level. In Washington, D.C., this relationship between space and meaning is particularly evident. The city’s layout was carefully designed to emphasize national identity, with monuments and memorials occupying central locations that highlight their historical and symbolic importance. However, not all spaces receive the same attention or resources. For example, the only youth rehabilitation center serving the Washington, D.C., area is built to accommodate just …

Mapping Our Tears: Risd Cry, Yimiao Wang

Masters Theses

RISD CRY is a participatory project empowering the RISD community to share their experiences of emotional vulnerability. The project includes physical sign-in forms in campus facilities, a Google Doc sign-in form, illustrations of participants’ comments, and an online campus map where individuals can mark where they have cried. This multi-format engagement fosters community connection, challenges the stigma surrounding emotional expression, and provides a platform for solidarity among individuals facing stress and burnout.

Beyond its tactical goals, RISD CRY also interrogates the cultural frameworks through which emotional struggle is perceived and processed. It critiques the institutional impulse to measure, diagnose, and …

Pressing Into Absence, Linda Sok

Masters Theses

Pressing into Absence traces the materials, processes, and works I have engaged with between March 2023 and May 2025, positioning historical and contemporary narratives in dialogue with one another. This book interweaves colonial-era source materials (from 1864- 1928) - writings, etchings, and paintings of Cambodia produced by persons from the United States of America and France - with personal anecdotes from my travels to Cambodia in 2024. These accounts are layered alongside speculative reflections in the form of text, sketches, mind maps, and material explorations. These archival remnants and personal experiences are folded together and positioned as equally reliable sources. …

A Qualitative Study On The Barriers And Facilitators Of Integrating Women Into The Firefighting Workforce: Perspectives Of Men And Women, Helen Frazer Ph.D. Candidate, Ellie Lawrence-Wood Ph.D., Miranda Van Hooff Ph.D., Amelia Searle Ph.D.

The Qualitative Report

This study explores the barriers and facilitators of integrating women into the firefighting workforce, with insights drawn from both women and men firefighters in South Australia. The research focuses on challenges and supports encountered during recruitment and long-term retention of women in this male-dominated field. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with paid (career) firefighters, with a thematic analysis applied to transcriptions. Key themes identified included occupational challenges (barriers) such as lack of diversity, perception of women as “diversity hires,” ill-fitting uniforms and equipment, unconscious bias, and the hypermasculine culture of the workplace. Women also tended to cope with workplace …

2025 Rose-Hulman Institute Of Technology : One Hundred And Forty-Seventh Commencement May 31, 2025, Rose-Hulman Comm And Marketing

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Alexander Smith V. City Of Atlantic City

2025 Decisions

USDC for the District of New Jersey

The Silk Butterfly Effect: Japan And The United States 1853-1941, Melodee Birlew

Dissertations and Theses

This study examines the rise and fall of the silk industry in both the United States and Japan in the first half of the twentieth century. While silk had been a valuable commodity for millennia for royalty, aristocrats, and the extremely wealthy, the opening of Japan's ports in 1853 soon made silk more accessible to lower classes around the world.

Consequently, Japan's newfound wealth catapulted her status among other rich and powerful nations. Japan's military might, financed in large part by the silk trade and displayed by her victory over Russia in 1905, earned her even more prestige on the …

Mental Health Counselors’ Lived Experiences With The Legal System In Matters Concerning Their Clients, Kendria L. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health counselors frequently engage with the legal system in ways that significantly impact their clinical roles, ethical decision-making, and emotional well-being. Despite the high stakes of these encounters, little is known about how counselors experience and make meaning of such legal involvement. This study explored the central research question: What are the lived experiences of mental health counselors when they are involved with the legal system in matters concerning their clients? This transcendental phenomenological study, grounded in Husserl’s philosophy of exploring lived experience through the suspension of presuppositions, investigates the experiences of mental health counselors when they are involved …

School Of Law 2025 Commencement Information And Photographs May 16, 2025, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Commencement (1996- )

No abstract provided.

Navigating Utility Liability In A Changing Climate: A Comparative Analysis Of State Utility Failures And Legal Reforms In Response To The Maui Wildfires, Danielle S. Comstock

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

This Comment will analyze the history of utility liability in climate-related disasters and examine instances where utility companies caused and mitigated damages. Drawing lessons from other states, it proposes several key solutions: clarifying legal standards for utility liability, enhancing regulatory frameworks, and leveraging federal support to drive proactive measures. This Comment aims to provide a comprehensive framework for improving utility preparedness and resilience in the face of climate-related disasters by examining how these solutions could have altered past outcomes and addressing the obstacles to their implementation.

Ai Regulation Across Borders: Legal Challenges And Prospects For International Cooperation, Alex Whaples

San Diego International Law Journal

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has fueled international calls for a comprehensive regulatory framework to balance innovation with the protection of fundamental rights. This analysis examines the diverse AI governance strategies of four key jurisdictions—the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom, the United States, and China—highlighting their strengths, limitations, and ideological differences. It explores the complexities of crafting an international AI treaty, including challenges related to enforcement mechanisms, regulatory burdens on developers, and ideological divides between Western democracies and China. To navigate these challenges, fostering global cooperation and ensuring accountability without stifling innovation is essential. By leveraging existing …

A Toxic Inheritance: Addressing The Legal Implications Of Inheriting Hazardous Waste Land, Ashley Pyle

San Diego Journal of Climate & Energy Law

Inheritance law, governing the transfer of assets and rights from generation to generation, is a cornerstone of legal systems worldwide, Inheritance law’s implications extend beyond wealth management and tax strategies. This Article addresses a neglected area of overlap: inheritance law and hazardous waste. Consider Sarah, a Southern California beneficiary whose narrative exemplifies that overlap, and her story of how inheritance law combines grief, liability, and opportunity….

Inheriting toxic land poses a legal challenge to a beneficiary’s ability to abandon property as a matter of law and policy. This raises the additional question of who should bear cleanup liability for an …

Avoiding The Thin Veneer Of Legality; Structural And Institutional Factors Impacting Judicial Scrutiny In A National Security Context, Seán Looney

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Discussions surrounding the role of judicial oversight in the national security context often revolve around discussions of appropriate standards of review and levels of deference for judges to take. While answering these doctrinal questions remains essential, the question of whether there are non-doctrinal factors which may influence how judges review executive action is relatively understudied. This article uses the so-called double-lock authorisation mechanism under the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 to show how structural and institutional factors may influence judicial decision-making in a national security context. These factors are not universal rather they are specific to the oversight mechanism in question. …

Facial Recognition Technology: The Case For Comprehensive Federal Oversight, Christopher Hart

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article will argue that regulations for government agency use of FRT should be stringent and limit the exploitation of personal biodata in the private sector. Instead of creating a new agency, Congress could expand an existing agency’s responsibility by granting it regulatory power over facial recognition technology. First, this article will seek to delineate the contours of facial recognition technology and its contemporary application within the United States. Then, this article will analyze the intricacies of FRT in both the public and private sectors. Within the public domain, specific attention will be devoted to discussing the use of FRT …

Money For Nothin’, Gifts For Free: The Supreme Court Differentiates Between Bribes And Gratuities In Snyder V. United States, Seth Lewis

Mercer Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States determined that the federal bribery statute regarding state and local officials did not include gratuities in Snyder v. United States. In Snyder, James Snyder was convicted of accepting an illegal gratuity under 18 U.S.C. § 666 and appealed his conviction. The Court’s decision addressed the split in the United States Courts of Appeals regarding whether 18 U.S.C. § 666 criminalized gratuities, payments made after an official’s act without a prior agreement, along with bribes, payments made with a prior agreement. The Court held that 18 U.S.C. § 666 only criminalized bribes and did …

Strategies To Eliminate Counterfeit Medications In The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain, Clarence Edward Mosby

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Counterfeiting and drug diversion in the U.S. supply chain is a business problem that results in medication shortages for many ill patients. Successful strategies to augment the distribution of pedigree pharmaceuticals and reduce supply chain medication shortages are important to community pharmacists. Grounded in the theory of constraints as the conceptual framework, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to explore the strategies that pharmacists use to detect and reduce the dispensing of counterfeit medicines. The participants were 6 pharmacists in the Northeastern United States. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and publicly available documents. Through thematic analysis, …

Fsec Meeting Minutes May 28, 2025, University Of Rhode Island Faculty Senate

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes

No abstract provided.

From Ballots To Bureaucrats: Who Is Really Holding Georgia’S Prosecutors Accountable?, Sutton M. Eggena

Mercer Law Review

In the modern justice system that we know today, prosecutors play a significant role in shaping the lives, reputations, and liberties the everyday American enjoys. Former United States Attorney General and Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson once said, “[t]he prosecutor has more control over life, liberty, and reputation than any other person in America.” A prosecutor’s position in the criminal justice system is unlike any other, holding the power to decide who gets charged with a crime and the severity of those charges. This power has evolved, moving from a system where individuals and families had to fight for …

"We Walk The Same Path But Have On Different Shoes: Wounded Healers And A Halfway House In Boston, Ma", Julie Labagnara

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores the processes, procedures, and relationships in a women’s reentry house, the New Hope Home (NHH), in the Grove Hall neighborhood of Boston, MA while also examining the evolution of the home and the relationships within the NHH.  This project is based on interview and participant observation data of the staff and residents of the home to ascertain multiple viewpoints and experiences of people critical to the home’s existence and success or struggles. The home opened in April 2022.  This research begins at the grand opening of the home and continues through early 2025.  Finally, neighborhood resident interviews …

Integrating A Stakeholder-Centric Approach Into Dynamic Adaptation Policy Pathways For Equitable Coastal Flood Risk Management In East Boston, Shailee M. Desai

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This research aims to illustrate a methodology incorporating diverse stakeholder values in adaptation planning to promote equitable outcomes using a hypothetical case study of the Lower Border Street area in East Boston, using the Dynamic Adaptive Policy Pathways (DAPP) framework for managing coastal flood risk. It offers three significant contributions to the field of adaptation planning: (i) It demonstrates how to integrate a stakeholder-specific assessment within the DAPP framework and illustrates individual impacts to a variety of stakeholders, including high- and low-income residents, commercial actors, government actors, and coastal landowners hoping that the planning process remains transparent and motivates local …

Give Them Their Roses: Honoring Student Affairs Professionals Of Color Combatting Secondary Racial Battle Fatigue At A Historically White Institution, Julián X. Latshang, Julián X. Latshang

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores the phenomenon of Secondary Racial Battle Fatigue (SRBF) and its impact on student affairs professionals of color in higher education. Grounded in critical qualitative inquiry and the lived experiences of participants, this study examines how emotional, behavioral, and physiological effects of SRBF manifest both through professionals’ direct racialized experiences and their roles supporting students enduring racial trauma. Framed by Racial Battle Fatigue (Smith, 2010) and Secondary Traumatic Stress (Figley, 1995), the research addresses three guiding questions: (a) How does SRBF manifest in professionals of color? (b) In what ways does it emerge when supporting racially traumatized students? …

Caring For The Incarcerated Patient: Provider Perceptions Of Quality Of Care In The State Of Louisiana, Haley Beavers Khoury, Olivia K. Sugarman, Andrea Armstrong, Bruce Reilly, Ashley Wennerstrom

Journal of the Louisiana Public Health Association

Background: As of December 2023, there were roughly 28,000 people held in state custody in Louisiana. Prior research and litigation have documented challenges with healthcare service delivery within prisons, but less is known about the higher acuity care incarcerated people receive at state-contracted hospitals. Methods: Between November 2020 and January 2021, authors conducted semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of Louisiana healthcare professionals about their experiences of providing incarcerated people care at hospitals. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. Authors used applied thematic analysis techniques to synthesize qualitative data and identify themes. Results: Nine health professionals with diverse roles and …

2025-05-28 A Pirouetting Poet And Professor, Serena Chopra, Leila Bunker

The Spectator Online

No abstract provided.

Irreparable Harm: How The United States Fails To Remedy Unjust Deportations, Joe Colley

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

When the United States wrongfully deports individuals, the harm is often irreversible. This piece explores the systemic gaps that leave those unjustly deported without meaningful remedies or recourse.