Digital Commons Network^™

Note From The Chief Articles & Symposium Editor, Simyllina S. Chen

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

How The President’S Lawyers Use Law To Weaken The Rule Of Law, Scott L. Cummings

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Every Knee Must Bend: What The Death Penalty Requires From The Rule Of Law, Corinna B. Lain

University of the Pacific Law Review

No abstract provided.

Teaching Learning Newsletter Vol 6 Issue 1, Sastra Deemed To Be University

TLC Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Adjunctive Psychosocial Interventions And Opioid Abstinence Among Patients Receiving Buprenorphine: A Randomized Clinical Trial., Michelle R. Lent, Emily E Hurstak, Kevin G Lynch, Emily Loscalzo, Kimberly Mazur, Helen L Lugo, Karen L Dugosh

PCOM Scholarly Works

IMPORTANCE: Adjunctive psychosocial treatments are recommended for many using medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), but it is unclear which approaches can best enhance treatment outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the comparative effectiveness of 2 psychosocial treatments, peer recovery support (PRS) and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), on opioid abstinence when used as adjunctive therapies to office-based buprenorphine treatment in adults with opioid use disorder (OUD).

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This randomized clinical trial included US adults diagnosed with OUD referred for care at 5 federally qualified health centers with office-based addiction treatment programs by their clinicians from 2020 to 2024. Participants were …

Writ 201.50: College Writing Ii - Intermediate Rhetoric And Storytelling, Kelly Schirmann

University of Montana Course Syllabi, 2026-2030

No abstract provided.

The Spiritual Communities Of Bronies, Amie Sexton

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Bronies, adult, typically male, fans of the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, have long been regarded for seemingly breaking expectations around gender norms. This study finds that Bronies break expectations around what is expected of spiritualism. Through interviews and ethnographic observation of social media spaces Bronies frequent, it is found that spirituality based on the cartoon within the fandom is broad, diverse, and at times, normative. A proportionally-small group of fully sincere spiritualists with plural experiences and strong convictions inspire a much larger community of post-ironic aspirants. Aspirations towards spiritual experiences and the development of profound terminologies create …

Field Report: Communicating The Uottawa Library Collection Rightsizing Effort, Mackenzie Kathmann

Collaborative Librarianship

This field report examines the development and evaluation of a communications strategy for an academic university library’s multi-year Collection Rightsizing Effort. Recognizing that weeding projects often provoke stakeholder concerns around transparency and consultation, the project team adopted best practices from the Weeding Communications in the Collections Lifecycle Project Communications Matrix framework, developed by a subgroup of the joint Rosemont/ Partnership Communications and Advocacy Working Group, to guide and assess communication practices. The report outlines the creation, evaluation and improvements made to a comprehensive communications strategy. Survey results from the first year reveal strong awareness of the project and shared print …

Activating Shared Print As A Strategy For Legacy Print Access, Michael M. Brewer, Niamh A. Wallace

Collaborative Librarianship

While most libraries participate in collaborative shared print efforts but tend only to rely on them as a failsafe, this article underscores the timeliness and importance of more libraries “activating” shared print as a core strategy for access to legacy print content. The University of Arizona’s experiences with SCELC and HathiTrust for monographs and the WEST-Internet Archive pilot for serials are discussed as examples of how libraries might choose to pursue this approach.

Trends In U.S. Academic/Public Joint-Use Libraries Since 2000, Karen Tatarka

Collaborative Librarianship

Joint-use academic/public libraries in the United States experienced a surge in popularity at the turn of the millennium following the formation of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library in San Jose, CA and the Alvin Sherman Library in Davie, FL. These partnerships were met with a mix of enthusiasm and trepidation, and as the number of joint-use libraries grew, a corresponding body of literature developed to help guide prospective partners through the process. Now, twenty-five years after the boom, this article provides a current literature review and examines the existing landscape of academic/public joint-use libraries in the United States. …

"Certain" Unalienable Rights: Christian Nationalism And Beliefs About Freedom Of Speech, Emily J. Haan

Honors Projects

Christian nationalism can be defined as an ideology advocating for the fusion of Christianity with American civic life. While the First Amendment protects freedom of speech and religion, Christian nationalism has been linked to limiting the rights of those who do not fit into their vision for America. Citing the belief that America was founded as and should continue to be a Christian nation, Christian nationalists hold an exclusionary view of America, pointing to a relationship between Christian nationalist ideology and a limiting freedom of speech for stigmatized groups. This project uses data from the General Social Survey, 2021, (N …

Front And Back Matter

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Editorial, Julia Coffman

The Foundation Review

No abstract provided.

Power-Sharing Under Pressure: What A Decade Of Community Partnership Reveals For Philanthropy Today, Clare Nolan, Pilar Mendoza

The Foundation Review

Between 2017 and 2024, U.S. philanthropy experienced a period of significant innovation as many foundations reconsidered long-standing assumptions about control and began taking steps to share power more directly with the communities they fund. This article draws on community leaders’ reflections, alongside the authors’ perspective as long-term evaluators, to examine how these commitments were experienced in practice.

The article focuses on the David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s Starting Smart and Strong Initiative (S3I), a 10-year effort to strengthen early learning systems across East San Jose, Fresno, and Oakland, California. Drawing on interviews with grantees and technical assistance partners, along with …

Kitchen Table Press: A Case Study Of Regression To The Neoliberal Mean, Alaina Disalvo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines the idealistic founding of Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press in 1980 and its slow downfall, culminating in the cession of ownership of the Press to a university in 1992. It traces the ideological development of Kitchen Table Press’s key founders, Barbara Smith and Audre Lorde, and their respective relationships to the ideologies of other renowned feminist figures of the era, specifically June Jordan and Adrienne Rich. It examines the history of the Press through historical, intersectional, affective, and socialist lenses. This thesis argues that neoliberal pressures can bend even the most radical organizations away from their …

Managing Migration And Political Change: Lessons From Sweden’S 2015 Asylum Crisis For South Korea’S Emerging Immigration Era, Sean Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project is to analyze how two nations that have little in common in terms of geography or politics have been required to deal with immigration issues in ways that their institutions did not anticipate. One nation has been dealing with immigration-related issues for some time now, while the other nation has yet to do so. In 2015, when Sweden received approximately 162,000 asylum applications in one year alone, Sweden’s housing systems were strained, many of the municipalities were unable to keep up with the demand, and the political climate began to shift in ways that …

New Age Spirituality In Post-Secular Turkey: Navigating Secular Sensibilities And Class Privilege, Zeynep Ozbarlas

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The conflict between religion and secularism has been one of the major forces shaping Turkey’s socio-political landscape since the late nineteenth century. With the radical secular turn during the founding of the Turkish Republic, secularism remained the dominant force until the rise of political Islam in the 1980s. This dissertation, grounded in ethnographic fieldwork, argues that New Age spirituality, adopted by the secular upper-middle class, has become an alternative venue for the reproduction of secular sensibilities and socio-economic privilege in contemporary Turkey, at a time when the two-decade tenure of the Erdoğan regime has undermined secular hegemony.

Although New Age …

Goddess In A Trash Can: Religious Ritual Disposal In New York City Public Parks, Zoe Oro-Hahn

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Practitioners of Afro-Caribbean religions, including Santería, Vodou, Espiritismo, and Las 21 Divisiones, utilize the New York City Public Parks system to hold rituals, connect with spirits and ancestors, and dispose of religious remains leftover from trabajos (workings) and brujería (witchcraft). Utilizing photos from Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, my thesis considers the religious, political, social, and practical rationale behind this phenomenon, explores the rituals occurring, and provides policy suggestions that balance religious needs of practitioners with the safety and wellbeing of New York City’s parks.

Assessing The Influence Of Disability Views On Perceptions Of Hearing Aids Among Older Korean Adults, Stasha Lee

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Background

Age-related hearing loss, also known as presbycusis, is highly prevalent among older adults, yet hearing aid adoption remains low, in part due to concerns about stigma and negative social perceptions. This study aimed to examine whether attitudes towards disabilities influence perceptions of individuals wearing hearing aids among older Korean adults. It also explored the potential effects of cultural identity and the age of the individual wearing the hearing aid on these perceptions.

Methods

Ten participants completed the Attitudes and Perspectives on Persons with Disabilities (APPD) questionnaire and rated 8 different images of individuals (one younger male and one older …

New York State Excelsior Scholarship Program: A Post-Implementation Analysis Of Student Success, Eligibility, And Indebtedness – An Intersectional Study Of Black And White Female Students, Marcus I. Richardson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The New York State (NYS) Excelsior Scholarship Program, introduced in 2017, was designed as a “first-in-the-nation” tuition-free initiative intended to expand college affordability for undergraduate students attending public institutions in New York State. While the program aims to increase access to higher education, its eligibility requirements, particularly the expectation that students complete 30 credits annually through continuous full-time enrollment, may disadvantage students whose academic pathways diverge from traditional enrollment patterns. This study examined the relationship between structural, financial, and academic factors and students’ ability to retain Excelsior Scholarship eligibility at the City University of New York (CUNY). Using institutional data …

Revolutionary Petunias In The Hallways: Adultification, Identity, And Black Girls’ High School Experiences, Renee Niles

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines how adultification, the racialized misperception of Black girls as more mature, responsible, and self-sufficient, shapes high school experiences and identity development. Using Constructivist Grounded Theory and Black feminist epistemology, the study draws on interviews with eight Black women to explore how these experiences are interpreted over time. The study conceptualizes adultification as a form of developmental governance, an ongoing structural process that regulates perception, behavior, and identity from adolescence into adulthood.

Radiotheranostics For Gynecological Pathologies, Joni Sebastiano

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Molecular imaging, specifically positron emission tomography (PET), is vital for detecting disease and understanding its biological makeup. The exploitation of radiolabeled antibodies for PET imaging has proven to be indispensable to the field of molecular imaging over the last several decades. The development of radioimmunoconjugates for use in immunoPET has not only allowed for the sensitive, specific, and high-resolution detection of disease, but has also enabled a deeper understanding of the disease biology, ultimately guiding more personalized therapeutic strategies. Most typically, this technology is harnessed for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, however more recently, the field has explored the …

Technology Disruptions In Platform Ecosystems: Ai, Market Adaptation, And Digital Resignation, Eunah Cho

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines how technological disruptions reshape behavior, competition, and user response in platform ecosystems. Bringing together two studies of generative AI in digital labor market and one study of mandatory privacy disclosure in mobile app ecosystems, it argues that platform technologies do not affect participants uniformly. Instead, their effects are mediated by market structures, competitive dynamics, and platform dependence.

The first study shows that ChatGPT shifts workers’ human capital strategies by reducing investment in specialized depth while increasing skill diversity, revealing a move from exploitation toward exploration. Yet market rewards remain uneven, as workers who integrate AI with deep …

Music Appreciation In Cochlear Implant Users: A Questionnaire, Hanna Davidson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Cochlear implants provide significant benefits for speech perception in individuals with severe to profound hearing loss; however, music perception and appreciation remain challenging due to limited spectral and temporal resolution. This study examined music appreciation in post lingually deafened adult cochlear implant users, focusing on changes in enjoyment, listening behaviors, and subjective experiences following implantation. Sixteen adults completed a 36-item questionnaire assessing pre- and post-implant music engagement, perceived sound quality, and emotional responses to music. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and inferential statistics, and qualitative responses were analyzed thematically.

Results indicated a moderate decline in music enjoyment following …

The Hope Dionysos (After Augustus): A Post-Actian Reading Of Dionysian Imagery, Jane Horman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

At the center of the Roman court at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York stands an almost seven-foot-tall statue of an androgynous looking figure, leaning on a smaller statue of a woman. This piece, formally known as Statue of Dionysos Leaning on a Female Figure, has been nicknamed the Hope Dionysos for both the archaic statue he is leaning on, as well as the family to whose collection he belonged for many years. However, in its day, the statue occupied a complicated place in Roman culture. This paper will examine the ways in which Dionysos, specifically through …

Mediating Energy And Charge Transfer Dynamics Of Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals Via Surface Chemical Approaches, Aaron S. Malinoski

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Energy and charge transfer are the fundamental mechanisms by which semiconductor nanocrystals interact with their external environment and underpin all light-conversion related applications. Lead halide perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs) are a relatively new class of semiconductor nanocrystals that possess a unique and dynamic surface chemical environment. Investigations into the influence of these surface chemical conditions on the electronic coupling between surface-bound molecular acceptors and the perovskite nanocrystals, and how the surface chemistry can be manipulated, in turn controlling the charge and energy transfer mechanisms, is the focus of this dissertation. Through ligand-shell engineering using commercially available, inexpensive small molecules, the surface …

Access Denied: Financial Aid Inequalities And The Economic Impact On Daca Students, Teresa D. Jordan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project argues that financial aid policies in the United States create a system of structural inequality that systematically denies Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients’ equitable access to higher education. Drawing on peer-reviewed scholarship, federal policy data, and large-scale survey research, this paper demonstrates how the categorical exclusion from federal financial aid, inconsistent in-state tuition laws, and recurring DACA renewal fees form an interlocking barrier with profound psychological and economic consequences for a population that is deeply integrated into American society. These compounding barriers force students into a framework of constrained rationality, distorting their academic major choices …

Trans-Cyber Cinema: Digital Embodiment In Science-Fiction Films, Sophia R. Schrock

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis aims to define the trans-cyber genre within cinema. By looking retroactively at a selection of nine films made across various decades and countries, this genre connects these films through their visualization and thematization of both trans and cyber embodiments, whereby the trans-cyber being emerges. Before the cinematic analysis and explanation of the three generic conventions selected for this thesis – transformation of body/gender; altered reality, memory, and temporality; and, radical death – the two intertwining theoretical frameworks will be established. This includes a brief summary of applicable transgender theory, and an introduction to cyborg theory (using Donna Haraway’s …

A Hot Topic:
Congressional Polarization And Climate Change, Mercedes R.P. Wilby

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Scholars offer competing explanations for how congressional polarization develops and operates. The literature variously points to shifting agendas, procedural change, or member adaptation or replacement. In this project, I study how congressional polarization occurs by asking what mechanisms account for the emergence of climate policy polarization. Climate policy is a useful test case to evaluate these competing theories. As a relatively low-salience, highly technical issue that is neither new nor inherently ideological, it is not an obvious candidate for deep partisan division. Yet climate policy has become sharply polarized, extending partisan disagreement even to the underlying science.

In order to …

Implicit Attitudes Toward Hearing Aid Visibility: Conspicuous Versus Inconspicuous Hearing Aid Colors, Orly R. Ames

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Hearing aid stigma remains a significant barrier to treatment uptake, with device visibility frequently identified as a contributing factor. Although prior research has examined visibility in relation to hearing aid size and style, the role of color as a distinct aesthetic dimension has not been systematically investigated. The present study assessed whether hearing aid color affects implicit and explicit attitudes toward hearing aids and whether such evaluations differ across contexts. Twenty-six adults who were not current hearing aid users participated in an online quantitative multi-method study consisting of an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and self-report questionnaires. The IAT measured implicit …