Digital Commons Network^™

Extended Adaptive Oscillator Framework For Gait Phase Estimation With Adaptive Coupling And Transition Detection Across Locomotion Tasks, Nikhila Radha Krishnan

All Theses

Gait phase is a human-inspired physical variable that describes the instantaneous position of a person within a gait cycle. Adaptive oscillators have been widely used for gait phase estimation due to their ability to synchronize with periodic and pseudo-periodic biomechanical signals and generate monotonically increasing cyclic phase values. Typically, the performance of adaptive oscillators is strongly influenced by coupling strength, a parameter that bridges a trade-off between convergence speed and steady-state variability of the estimated stride frequency. In gait assistive applications, stride frequency estimation must be sufficiently fast to enable phase-based assistance while achieving a stable stride frequency estimate. The …

Insect Abundance And Bat Use Of Fields For Foraging In The Cumberland Plateau, Caroline M. Abramowitz

All Theses

Bat populations and their insect prey are declining, making it urgent to understand how habitat features and management support both groups. Early successional habitat (ESH), grasslands and shrublands with reduced vegetative clutter and abundant flowering resources, may benefit foraging bats and nocturnal insects. This study examined how landscape context, patch characteristics, microhabitat features, and management (mechanical mastication and prescribed burns) affected insects and bats across 29 managed fields in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (TN/KY) from 2024–2025. Flight-intercept traps collected 25,297 insects across five orders. Though results were order-specific, vegetative composition and height were the strongest predictors …

What Makes A Cozy Game Cozy? Looking Through The Lens Of Feminism And 4e Cognition, Mary Catherine M. Wilcox

All Theses

Why do some games feel cozy, and others miss the mark, even if they are tricked out in bright colors and festooned with bows? This thesis examines the emerging genre of “cozy games” to better understand why some titles successfully evoke comfort and relaxation while others fail, despite relying on conventionally cute aesthetics or farming-sim mechanics. Although cozy games have grown rapidly in popularity over the past decade, the genre remains under-studied and is often dismissed as frivolous, reflecting the broader historical devaluation of media associated with women. Accordingly, this study argues that understanding cozy games requires examining women’s relationship …

Comparative Analysis Of Rigging Implementations, John E. Thomas

Master of Fine Arts in Digital Media Culminating Experience

Rigging acts as a bottleneck between modeling and animation, yet core rigging principles and procedures have largely stagnated over the past two decades. However, cutting-edge rigging systems have begun appearing recently in software not typically used for animation. These tools are proposed to mitigate the need for rigging artists. These novel systems now force teams to evaluate what system is best for their projects. Artists have focused their analysis of rigging tools on how they interact with, or compare to, existing pipeline structures, concepts, and deadlines. This research centers on the implementation and development of tools and systems ranging from …

Understanding What Works In Disseminating Clinical Practice Guidelines: A Qualitative Evidence Synthesis, Sumanth Kumbargere Nagraj, Tandekile Lubelwana Hafver, Valerie Reinthaler, Stijn Van De Velde, Carlos Zaror, Yan Jiao Shen, Susan Banda, Talitha Mpando, Gertrude Kunje, Suzgika Lakudzala, Ameer Hohlfeld, Emmanuel Effa, Denny Mabetha, Thomas Agoritsas, Per Olav Vandvik, Nicolas Delvaux

Peninsula Dental School

Objective To identify the barriers and facilitators that influence the dissemination of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) and to explore the perceived usefulness, practical utility, expectations, and unmet needs of end users in relation to current dissemination strategies. Methods This qualitative evidence synthesis (QES) is a part of mixed-methods evidence synthesis. We searched literature from MEDLINE, Embase, CINAHL, Web of Science, Scopus, Epistemonikos, and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and Medical Guidelines Clearing house on January 30, 2025. Screening, data extraction and quality appraisal of the included studies were done by at least two authors independently and in duplicate. We …

Towards Confucian Economic Democracy: A Relational Alternative To Possessive Individualism, Sor-Hoon Tan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article offers a Confucian conception of ownership and a different approach to equality based on a concept of relational person that could provide an alternative philosophical framework for economic democracy. The Confucian concept of nonexclusive and nonabsolute co-ownership, conditional on owners fulfilling their social responsibilities and sustained in networks of relationships mitigates the drive to appropriation and resistance to redistribution even without formalizing legal rights of equal ownership. Confucian texts’ condemnation of wide disparities between rich and poor corresponds with distributive ideas that balance equal satisfaction of needs with merit-based incentives for productivity constrained by social harmony. Without advocating …

When The Best-Fit Model Is Not Best: The Glass Slipper Fallacy And Latent Growth Mixture Modelling, Jonathan L. Chia, Markus Wettstein, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite the use of latent growth mixture modelling (LGMM) to study longitudinal changes, existing practices may inadvertently impede this very investigation. Although subgroup trajectories may theoretically differ in their structure (e.g., some subgroups being linear, some curvilinear), the current convention advocates overreliance on the baseline model to derive subsequent profile trajectories, which may obscure these structural differences. In this article, we provide a brief description of extant LGMM practices, after which we explicate the pitfalls of the current approach. Finally, we provide a principled approach for LGMM research moving forward. Specifically, we recommend specifying a set of theoretically plausible models …

Artificial Intelligence (Ai) In Forensic Psychology: An Umbrella Review Of Potentials And Pitfalls, Ysabel Thereze Ang Guevarra, Nur Eva Alisha Binte Mohamed Hisham, Andree Hartanto

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming increasingly embedded within forensic psychological practice, shaping how criminal risk, legal responsibility and public safety are assessed. AI tools are now used in recidivism prediction, behavioural analysis, deception detection and investigative support, high-stakes domains where errors can have profound consequences. Despite this rapid adoption, the existing literature remains fragmented, with most reviews confined to narrow subdomains and offering limited integrated synthesis of AI′s broader role in forensic psychology. Thus, this umbrella review addresses this gap by synthesising findings from 43 reviews obtained from five major databases, namely EBSCOhost ERIC, EBSCOhost PsycInfo, PubMed, Scopus and Web …

Transnational Social Protections And The Market: Seeking Support From The Global Cruise Industry, Yasmin Y. Ortiga

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Migration studies have mostly portrayed employers as paternalistic or exploitative, creating the very conditions that make migrants’ lives insecure and unstable. This paper challenges this view by showing how the market can also be an unlikely source of protections, where extractive work conditions co-exist with a certain degree of social support. Drawing on interviews with 45 Filipino cruise workers during the COVID-19 pandemic, I discuss how migrants used a logic of employee rights to claim benefits such as food, housing and insurance. Cruise lines willingly provided such protections, but only while workers maintained active contracts onboard their ships. Rather than …

Gender And Professional Identities In Businesswomen’S Negotiation, Chi-Ying Cheng, Amy J. Lim, Yi Wen Tan, Fiona Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Gender roles and expectations for women have been shown to account for why women tend to negotiate ineffectively in business settings. Drawing from the psychological literature on multiple identities, this paper examines how individual differences in perceived compatibility between gender and professional identities–captured by the construct Gender-Professional Identity Integration (G-PII)–shape businesswomen’s negotiation behaviors. Two studies examined how G-PII interacts with identity cues and cue valence to influence negotiation outcomes. We found that those who perceived their gender and professional identities as compatible (high G-PII) exhibited an “assimilation” effect–they negotiate more effectively when their professional identity was primed by professional identity …

The Ambivalent Wisdom Of Moral Disgust, Brandon Yip

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper has two aims. First, to provide a positive account of moral disgust. I suggest that moral disgust is a response to acts that are socially corrosive, namely, acts that undermine the normative structure to which an agent is attuned. I support this analysis with two lines of evidence: (1) moral disgust serves the important function of guarding normative structures from socially corrosive actions and (2) the analysis provides an illuminating explanation of moral disgust in a wide variety of cases. The secondary aim of this paper is to probe the normative implications of my positive account. I suggest …

Surgeon Health And Well-Being Initiative: A Survey Of General And Orthopedic Surgery Residents' Reports Of Musculoskeletal Pain., Maryam Mohamed, Grace J Kim, Kristen Conrad-Schnetz, Zhan Yang, Mary Carneval

Ambulatory and Primary Care Articles

Background Musculoskeletal (MSK) pain is a well-known risk among surgeons, resulting from the multifactorial physical demands of the occupation. Because of the demands faced by resident surgeons, many individuals find themselves with sometimes debilitating MSK pain. Although these risks are well documented and there have been proposed solutions, there is little discussion on the role that osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) can play in relief of MSK pain over time in this population. Objective The purpose of this study is to determine the prevalence and distribution of MSK pain among general and orthopedic surgery residents at Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF). Based …

Effects Of Concurrent Neuropathologies With Alzheimer Disease Neuropathologic Change On Cognitive Decline: Minimal Impact Of Vascular Brain Injury Compared With Other Combinations, Sarah M Yasuda, Charles Mock, Kathryn Gauthreaux, Kwun C G Chan, C Dirk Keene, Jessica E Culhane, Yen-Chi Chen, Walter Kukull

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We examined cognitive changes associated with several neuropathologic entities, alone and in combination. We studied 808 participants from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center to assess associations between neuropathologic diagnoses (from autopsy) and neuropsychologic test scores (trajectories over time for 5 domains: overall cognition, episodic memory, attention, language, executive function). Neuropathologies included: Alzheimer disease neuropathologic change (ADNC), Lewy body disease (LBD), vascular brain injury (VBI), and limbic-predominant age-related TDP43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change (LATE-NC). Using linear mixed-effects models, we examined trajectories of cognitive decline for ADNC alone compared to ADNC plus LBD, VBI, or LATE-NC. We also examined differences between observed trajectories …

Achilles Tendon Injuries In Major League Soccer: A 10-Year Analysis Of Injury Rate, Return To Play, And Performance Metrics, Brian Forsythe, Catherine Hand, Francis Hand, Henry Eilen, Matthew Varano, Jared Sasaki, Camden Bohn, Anne Timmermann, Lauren Fertig, Eric Giza, Robert H Brophy, Bert Mandelbaum, Kirk Mccullough

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Injuries to the Achilles tendon, such as tears or ruptures, are commonly observed among elite athletes. These injuries can be debilitating for professional soccer players, leading to prolonged recovery and potential performance declines.

PURPOSE: To investigate the annual incidence, return-to-play (RTP) duration, and postinjury performance outcomes of Major League Soccer (MLS) players who sustained Achilles tendon injuries from 2010 to 2021.

STUDY DESIGN: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

METHODS: This retrospective matched-cohort study evaluated MLS players with Achilles tendon injuries from 2010 to 2021, identified through the MLS Injury Surveillance database, and compared outcomes, including RTP duration, between …

Physiological, Cognitive, Behavioral, And Perceptual Contributors To Falls Risk Across Middle And Older Adulthood, Jacquelyn Moxey

Rehabilitation Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Falls are multifactorial events influenced by physiological, cognitive, behavioral, and perceptual factors. Although falls prevention research has traditionally focused on older adults and objectively measured physical impairments, less is known about how cognitive performance, physical activity, and perceptions of ability collectively contribute to falls risk vulnerability across middle and older adulthood. This dissertation examined these relationships through three complementary studies.

Study 1 examined associations between cognitive screening performance and physiological falls risk in 315 community-dwelling older adults. Lower global cognitive performance was associated with greater physiological falls risk. Performance on items reflecting attention and visuospatial/executive function demonstrated the strongest domain-level …

Variability In Nutrient And Enterococcus Concentrations In Tidal Floodwater Across Watersheds With Different Land Uses, Alyssa Bucci

OES Theses and Dissertations

Tidal flooding is an increasingly pressing hazard in coastal Virginia due to sea level rise and land subsidence. The Hampton Roads region of Virginia has the second-highest rate of relative sea level rise in the United States and experiences frequent tidal flooding, but the water quality impacts of this flooding on the Chesapeake Bay are not being accounted for. High concentrations of dissolved nutrients and Enterococcus bacteria (a fecal indicator) have been observed in tidal floodwater of the Lafayette River, a tributary of the James River and the lower Chesapeake Bay. This study investigates variability in dissolved nutrient and Enterococcus …

Drones In Wildfire Airspace Management: Developing A Scalable Framework For Mid-Sized Cities, Victoria Denise Tanner Williamson

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Wildfires are becoming increasingly frequent and severe, creating growing risks for mid-sized communities with limited emergency response resources. The January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires—which burned more than 57,000 acres and destroyed over 18,000 structures—underscore the urgent need to strengthen wildfire response strategies through the integration of unmanned aerial systems (UAS) (Hardy, 2025).

This study develops a scalable framework for drone-assisted wildfire response in resource-constrained environments. Using the city of Waynesboro, Virginia, as a case study, the research examines how mid-sized jurisdictions can integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to improve preparedness, response, and recovery. A three-round, mixed-methods Delphi study engages emergency …

The Effects Of Working With Unidentified Migrant Remains: Caregiving, Border Security, And Human Rights On The U.S.–Mexico Border, Jennifer Delaine Huddleston

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation explores how migrant death and the handling of unidentified remains operate within U.S. border governance, focusing on caregivers, forensic anthropologists, and volunteer search-and-recovery teams who recover, document, and try to identify the dead along the U.S.–Mexico border. Using classic grounded theory and reflexive visual ethnography, the study includes interviews, field observations, and documentary photography conducted in South Texas, covering Brooks, Maverick, and Webb Counties.

Instead of viewing migrant deaths as accidental humanitarian tragedies, this dissertation situates caregivers’ daily work within a historical trajectory of deterrence-based border policies, from Prevention Through Deterrence to modern state-led enforcement regimes. It demonstrates …

Simulations Of Inverse Compton Scattering With Radiation Reaction, Elizabeth Breen-Lee

Physics Theses & Dissertations

Inverse Compton scattering (ICS) is a versatile mechanism for producing bright, tunable, and quasi-monochromatic x-ray and gamma-ray radiation through the interaction of relativistic electrons with intense laser pulses. These sources have applications spanning medicine, archaeological studies, materials science, and fundamental research, motivating continued efforts to improve both their performance and the accuracy of theoretical models used to describe them. As nextgeneration laser and accelerator facilities continue to reach increasingly intense regimes, efficient and accurate simulation techniques have become essential for the design and optimization of ICS sources. This dissertation presents the development of analytical and computational methods for modeling inverse …

Enhancing Stem Education With Modeling, Simulation, And Ai Technologies: From Virtual Laboratories To Intelligent Teaching Assistants, Yiyang Li

Electrical & Computer Engineering Theses & Dissertations

Rapid advancements in modeling and simulation (M&S) and artificial intelligence (AI) present new opportunities to enhance various aspects of STEM education, from virtual laboratories that simulate physical lab environments in software to intelligent teaching assistants that provide on-demand, curriculum-aligned instructional support. Virtual laboratories offer a potential solution to the access and scalability challenges of laboratory courses by allowing students to conduct experiments without physical equipment or geographical constraints. AI-powered teaching assistants, particularly those grounded in course-specific materials, can help mitigate the instructional support gap that arises when students work independently in digital learning environments. This dissertation presents three-phase research into …

Quantitative Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy For Antiretroviral Drug Monitoring: Novel Quality Index And Distributional Approaches In Aqueous And Plasma Matrices, Marguerite Rose Butler

Chemistry & Biochemistry Theses & Dissertations

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) offers high sensitivity for molecular detection but is limited for quantitative applications by spatial heterogeneity in signal enhancement on dried colloidal substrates. This Dissertation addresses these limitations through the development and evaluation of novel quantitative methods applied to the antiretroviral drugs tenofovir and emtricitabine.

A quality index (Qi) metric was developed to rank individual SERS spectra within each well based on analyte peak prominence relative to local baseline. SERS spectra were acquired from evaporated silver colloid deposits on aluminum well plates using a custom raster-scanning Raman system. Calibration curves were constructed using the top-ranked spectra (Top-Qi …

Motivation And Constraints In Recreation Participation Among Children And Adults With Disabilities, Monica Klock

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation investigated how motivation and constraints relate to participation in outdoor and community recreation among children with disabilities and adults who are blind or visually impaired. Although outdoor recreation is associated with important physical, psychological, and social benefits, people with disabilities continue to participate at lower rates than their peers without disabilities, and prior work shows that barriers extend well beyond physical access to include structural, interpersonal, and intrapersonal constraints. Drawing on the Constraint–Negotiation Model (CNM) and social cognitive theory, this dissertation addressed gaps in multivariate research and life-course perspectives by examining whether and how motivations, perceived constraints, and …

A Longitudinal Analysis Of Hospital Consumer Evaluation In Virginia, Tulay Akmandor Inac

Health Services Research Dissertations

Suboptimal patient experience signals a need to improve clinical efficacy, patient safety, and healthcare quality. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified hospital resource and staffing demands, reducing hospitals’ capacity to invest in patient experience improvement. Prior studies remain limited because many lack longitudinal structure and organized theoretical models, making temporal inference difficult and weakening analyses of patient experience disparities. To address these limitations, this dissertation incorporates three studies examining patient experience and pandemic-related effects.

In state-level markets comparable to Virginia, limited research has examined longitudinal patient experience trends across regional hospital systems using HCAHPS scores. The first study uses descriptive trend analysis …

A Phenomenological Study Of The Lived Mentoring Experiences Of Black Women Faculty At Public Hbcus, Leona Quatena Mcgowan

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

Despite increases in the representation of women in academia, Black women remain significantly underrepresented, accounting for approximately 4% of full-time faculty in postsecondary institutions. This lack of representation contributes to intersecting challenges, including experiences with racism, sexism, and limited access to mentorships in higher education. Previous studies have established that mentoring aids in the success and retention of faculty, but there is limited research examining how Black women faculty experience mentoring within public Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the lived mentoring experiences of Black women faculty employed at public …

Menopausal Symptoms, Psychosocial Factors, And Physical Activity Among Physically Active Midlife Females, Ella Onsoriasl

Exercise Science Theses & Dissertations

Menopausal symptoms are common during midlife and may be associated with females' physical activity (PA) participation, yet how these symptoms relate to PA levels, perceived confidence and enjoyment, and psychosocial resources such as social support (SS), exercise identity, and quality of life (QOL) remains unclear. The purpose of this study was to examine how menopausal symptom severity relates to PA levels, perceived confidence and enjoyment during PA, and psychosocial factors, including SS, exercise identity, and QOL. This cross-sectional study surveyed 151 midlife females aged 40 to 60 who reported engaging in intentional PA at least once per week. Participants completed …

Building Bridges: Connecting Biomechanics And Lived Experience In Bertolotti's Syndrome, Andrea Morgan Muffly

Rehabilitation Sciences Theses & Dissertations

Bertolotti’s Syndrome (BSy), characterized by the presence of a lumbosacral transitional vertebra (LSTV), represents a complex clinical entity that affects not only the physical health of the individual, but the quality of their daily life. Prior research on BSy focused on epidemiology, not lived experience, revealing inconsistencies in diagnostic inconsistencies of LSTV morphology. A three-tiered diagnostic system is proposed to streamline the reporting of LSTV subtypes. We examined how BSy is diagnosed, its symptoms, presentation, and how this impacts individuals’ ability to participate in activities of daily living (ADLs) and instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). We conducted a multi …

Counselors’ Training Needs In Effectively Engaging With Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy, Elif Bor

Counseling & Human Services Theses & Dissertations

As public and scientific interest in psychedelic-assisted therapy (PAT) continues to grow, counselors are increasingly encountering clients who are exploring or engaging in psychedelic use for therapeutic purposes. Such encounters introduce new ethical, clinical, and professional considerations. Counselors must develop an informed understanding of psychedelics and their effects, recognize the emotional and cognitive processes that may emerge during psychedelic experiences, and be prepared to respond to potential risks or adverse reactions (Aicher et al., 2025). They also need to competently answer client questions, assess risk and suitability, facilitate the integration of psychedelic experiences, and collaborate with medical and other professionals …

I Was There, I Belonged There, And I Should Be There: The Adult Student Experience In Community College Courses Filled With High School Students, Charles Douglas Bowling

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

The rapid expansion of dual-enrollment and early college high school programs in North Carolina has led to a substantial increase in the numbers of dual-enrolled high school students in community college classrooms. This exploratory case study examined how adult students described their experiences in university-transfer courses in which dual-enrolled high school students make up the majority of the class. It also examined how some of these adult students’ instructors described the experiences of these adult students.

The current study was conducted at three community colleges in rural counties in southern Appalachia and included semi-structured interviews with 18 adult students (24-60 …

Interpretable Sparse Modeling Of Longitudinal Signals Via Critical-Range Rectification And Anytime Rule Compression, Jason Orender

Computer Science Theses & Dissertations

High-dimensional longitudinal data arise in clinical monitoring, industrial control systems, and other sensor-driven domains where outcomes are often governed by threshold-and-lag behavior. Traditional longitudinal workflows frequently depend on expert guessing to nominate candidate variables, lag windows, and threshold hypotheses, followed by repeated hypothesis testing over a limited set of manually specified relationships. While such approaches can be useful in narrow settings, they are often less robust in high-dimensional regimes because important interactions may be missed, multicollinearity can destabilize inference, and the resulting process can be labor-intensive and difficult to scale. This dissertation develops an end-to-end framework for interpretable sparse longitudinal …

A Qualitative Case Study Of Leadership Development In A Graduate Medical Laboratory Science Program, Demetra Castillo

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

Leadership development is increasingly recognized as an essential component of healthcare education, particularly as medical laboratory professionals assume expanded responsibilities involving collaboration, decision-making, systems thinking, and organizational leadership. Despite this need, limited research has explored how leadership develops within graduate medical laboratory science (MLS) programs. This qualitative case study examined leadership development through the lens of Experiential Learning Theory (ELT). Two research questions explored how the program fostered leadership development through students’ professional biographies, leadership questionnaires, final reflection papers, and leadership credos and how leadership reflections demonstrated growth over time. Secondary data from five student cases were analyzed using deductive …