Digital Commons Network^™

Molding Leominster's Plastics Industry: The Impact Of Italian Immigrant Labor, Kimberly M. King

Graduate Masters Theses

This thesis examines the centrality of Italian immigrant labor in launching Leominster, Massachusetts’ transformative plastics industry. The study traces the arc of the immigrants’ stories from their arrival at the turn of the twentieth century, when their unskilled labor helped Leominster transition from artisan comb production to industrial celluloid manufacturing, to their rise as new technical experts and company owners in the 1940s. They endured hazardous work conditions and social marginalization to create better lives for themselves and their families.

Ultimately, their efforts were critical to the expansion and global recognition of Leominster’s plastics industry. Yet the role of immigrant …

Sugar: A Sequence Unfolding Based Transformer Model For Group Activity Recognition, Yash U. Gondkar

Graduate Masters Theses

Large Language Models have improved significantly in the past couple of years due to the adoption of transformers. However, transformers still find it challenging to process videos due to limited context size caused by their quadratic computing cost. Therefore, we studied a booming field in machine learning which powers applications like social scene analysis and video surveillance systems called Group Activity Recognition (GAR). We found that recent models were able to achieve more than 90% accuracy on popular datasets like the Volleyball dataset, however, it turned out that even they relied on transformers.

Therefore, in this work, we developed a …

Exploring Potential Impacts Of Polyethylene Mesh And Polypropylene Rope Leachate On Bay Scallop (Argopecten Irradians) Survival And Growth, Katherine R. Johnson

Graduate Masters Theses

The bay scallop (Argopecten irradians), a commercially and ecologically significant bivalve along the Eastern coast of the United States, has faced severe population declines due to various anthropogenic impacts. At the same time, the proliferation of plastics, particularly in maritime industries, has introduced new threats to marine environments through both physical pollution and chemical leaching. This study aimed to assess the acute toxicological effects of leachates from two commonly used plastic products, polyethylene Netron and polypropylene rope, on A. irradians larvae. Experiments were conducted in June–July 2023 at the Nantucket Shellfish Hatchery. Leachates were prepared by incubating 0.5, …

Choked: How Decades Of Failures To Address Air Pollution And Housing Shortages Exacerbated Mortality In Pittsburgh During The Influenza Pandemic Of 1918, Virginia Montanez

Graduate Masters Theses

Pittsburgh experienced the highest death rate of all major U.S. cities during the 1918 H1N1 influenza pandemic. This record mortality was not due to inadequate, absent, or ignored nonpharmaceutical interventions and mandates. Instead, for decades prior, city officials prioritized industry at the expense of the collective health of the laboring class. They were especially egregious in permitting industrial smoke pollution and overcrowded housing to persist in immigrant-heavy working-class wards, leaving residents susceptible to respiratory disease incidence and mortality. As a result, Pittsburgh’s annual influenza and pneumonia death rates were drastically the worst in the nation to such an extent that …

Schools As Geopolitical Spaces: Violence Against Education During The Bosnian War (1992-1995), Allyson Bachta

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Attacks on education have long been a feature of conflict, yet their strategic use by state and non-state actors remains underexamined. Despite global concern and growing documentation efforts by the international community, the motivations and patterns behind school attacks are not well studied. This project investigates the strategic use of such violence by Bosnian, Serbian, and Croatian state and non-state armed actors during the Bosnian War (1992-1995) and challenges the assumption that attacks on schools are simply collateral damage. Drawing from political and anti-civilian violence literature, this study situates schools as both symbolic and strategic geopolitical targets, targeted not only …

Identifying Novel Fibrotic Mechanisms Underlying Treatment-Resistant Lower Urinary Tract Dysfunction, Quentin Darcy

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

IDENTIFYING NOVEL FIBROTIC MECHANISMS UNDERLYING TREATMENT-RESISTANT LOWER URINARY TRACT DYSFUNCTION

August 2025

Quentin D’Arcy, B.S., University of Massachusetts Amherst

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Boston

Directed by Dr. Jill Macoska

Lower urinary tract dysfunction (LUTD) is a common, age-related disease that affects millions of men over the age of 50. Current treatment for this and other related prostate diseases concentrate on decreasing benign prostate growth and relaxing smooth muscle contractions to alleviate urinary voiding symptoms. However, up to 45% of patients with LUTD are treatment-resistant and require surgical intervention to resolve prostate issues. By focusing on the contribution of inflammation-derived …

An Examination Of How The Ethno-Racial Socialization Process Influences Women Of Color’S Engagement With Mental Health Treatment, Kairys M. Grasty

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Women of Color (WOC) are uniquely deterred from engaging with traditional mental healthcare services due to the generational harm that has been wrought to Communities of Color when accessing support in generations’ past and present (Godoy-Ruiz et al., 2015). Thus, to protect WOC from further marginalization, parents and caregivers disseminate messages to WOC about their gender and racial identity during the ethno-racial socialization (ERS) process. While this process is intended to be protective, an unintended consequence is that it can socialize WOC to be distrustful of others and reluctant to engage with mental health services to support their mental health. …

On Being The Only: Using Black Feminist Thought And Hermeneutic Phenomenology To Deeply Understand Onliness As Experienced By Black Women In Stem, Karen M. Jarvis-Thorne, Karen M. Jarvis-Thorne

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

When a Black woman persists in a STEM undergraduate academic space as the only Black woman in that space, how is she shaped as a human being? How does she fare? How does the experience influence her decision making as she contemplates graduate school applications? Does the experience guide her decision to stay or leave STEM? In this study, the author used Black Feminist Thought to provide cultural and critical oversight of her engagement with Hermeneutic Phenomenology. Hermeneutic Phenomenology requires this oversight because the methodology’s theoretical foundations are grounded in Heidegger’s Nazism and should be critiqued if and when appropriate …

The Gendered Role Of Friendships For Advanced Care Planning And Health In Later Life, Zee Kee Emily Lim

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Friendship is becoming more pertinent to older adults because they are increasingly living with fewer family ties in later life due to changing social and demographic trends (Fiori et al., 2020; Verdery et al., 2019). However, friendships are not as extensively studied as compared to family relationships (Blieszner et al., 2019). Thus, additional research is needed to better understand the influence of friendships on health and health behaviors in later life.

This dissertation includes three studies that focus on the association between friendship and loneliness, advanced care planning, and cognitive function, examining the role of gender in these three studies, …

Multimodal Learning In Real-World Application: Enhancing Feature Representation And Training Strategies, Nana Lin

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Multimodal learning has emerged as a critical paradigm for developing intelligent systems that can understand and reason across diverse inputs such as images, text, and audio data. Despite significant advances, effective deployment of multimodal models in practice remains a challenging task. This dissertation explores how multimodal learning can be effectively applied to high-stakes, real-world scenarios, with a focus on enhancing feature representation and training efficiency. Specifically, this research investigates multimodal learning strategies in two key domains: healthcare and surveillance.

In the healthcare domain, we explored the data fusion and alignment approaches for cognitive decline diagnoses. First, we propose the LOVEMA …

Effects Of Emotion Regulation On Reactions To Racism In Process Of Antiracism Among White Individuals, Stephanie Marando-Blanck

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The current study used multiple mediation models to explore the pathways and relationships among white privilege awareness, white emotional empathy, white cognitive empathy, white guilt, and different types of emotion regulation as predictors of individual and institutional antiracist engagement. Gaining an understanding of how white individuals experience and regulate certain racial emotions in the process of learning about their white privilege may inform antiracist trainings, diversity, equity and inclusion workshops, multicultural courses in schools, as well as counseling trainings in cultural humility. White adults (N = 170) were recruited through an online crowdsourcing platform (Prolific) and completed a brief (~20 …

Towards A New Health Politics In Kenya: Labor Organizing And Strikes By Health Workers In The Public Health Sector, Michael Scanlon

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

There has been insufficient attention by global health scholars to labor organizing by health workers, including when and why organizing occurs, what forms and strategies it takes and its implications for governance and policy. These questions are critical but largely absent in research on what has been called the “global health workforce crisis.” Kenya represents an important case study. A new constitution in 2010 expanded institutional spaces for labor organizing and decentralized governance of the health system. Both reforms had significant implications for the health workforce and strikes by health workers have been pervasive. In 2017, nationwide strikes by public …

We Don't Have A Word For “Chief”: An Examination Of Leader And Follower Fluidity In The Distribution Of Leadership, Jordan R. Weymer

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

For nearly 20 years, researchers have studied distributed leadership—the interactive web of leaders, followers, and situation—as it occurs in schools around the world. Their studies have primarily focused on the interactions of leaders and followers in task-centric situations, highlighting distributed delegation, in which, upon task completion, leaders and followers return to their traditional roles. However, very few studies have focused on the reinterpretation of leader and follower roles through distributed leadership or how this reinterpretation can dismantle traditional hierarchical power paradigms in schools. By centering on distributing leadership as leaders and followers co-initiate leadership tasks to improve teaching and …

Global Commons, Local Crises: The Ecological Embeddedness Of Global Production Networks, Christopher R. Whynacht

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Notions of Global Production Networks (GPNs) are popular approaches to studying the complex, dispersed, and socially embedded production of goods and services. Yet, these concepts have largely struggled with incorporating environmental resources, risks, and actors. My dissertation leverages insights from Actor-Network Theory (ANT) to contextualize ecological elements of production as coequal participants with social stakeholders. I describe how GPNs are ecologically embedded and nested within the natural environment. I draw from ANT to develop a GPN framework that internalizes ecological dimensions. The second chapter in this dissertation develops these ideas and provides theoretical framing for further empirical chapters. The third …

Blackloving: The Culturally Responsive Engagement Practices Of Black Middle School Principals, Deandra L. Williams

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Black students are highly capable of learning and contributing to society when school communities are built on a foundation of love and there is meaningful school–family engagement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how Black middle school principals engaged with Black families using BlackLoving culturally responsive family engagement practices as Black students transitioned from elementary to middle school in Boston Public Schools (BPS). The researcher employed Black Indigenous methodology, in the form of talking circles and memoing, to gather the stories of four former Black Boston public school principals (who were all men) and to explore their …

Pipeline Vs. Choice: The Global Gender Gap In Stem Applications, Isaac Ahimbisibwe, Adam Altjmed, Georgy Artemov, Andres Barrios-Fernandez, Aspasia Bizopoulou, Martti Kaila, Jin-Tan Liu, Rigissa Megalokonomou, José Montalban, Christopher Neilson, Jintao Sun, Sebastian Otero, Xiaoyang Ye

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

Women account for only 35% of global STEM graduates, a share unchanged for a decade. We use administrative microdata from centralized university admissions in ten systems to deliver the first crossnational decomposition of the STEM gender gap into a pipeline gap (academic preparedness) and a choice gap (first-choice field conditional on eligibility). In deferred-acceptance platforms where eligibility is score-based, we isolate preferences from access. The pipeline gap varies widely, from -19 to +31 percentage points across education systems. By contrast, the choice gap is remarkably stable: high-scoring women are 25 percentage points less likely than men to rank STEM first.

Design And Development Of A Standalone Digital Holographic Microscope Employing Phase-Driven Reconstruction And Classification For Biomedical Imaging And Optical Diagnostics, Charlotte Kyeremah

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Access to advanced biomedical imaging technologies remains a significant challenge in resource-limited settings, especially for early disease detection and monitoring of diseases such as malaria, HIV, and other blood-borne diseases. Although point-of-care (POC) devices have gained popularity in global health, many rely on antibody-based tests, lateral flow strips, or optical readouts that often lack quantitative capabilities, sensitivity to early infections, or versatility in different diagnostic targets. In addition, these systems are typically dependent on disposable reagents or manual interpretation, which limits their effectiveness in remote areas. Digital Holographic Microscopy (DHM) presents a promising alternative as a label-free imaging method capable …

The Concept Of Maqāṣid Al-Sharī‘Ah And Maṣlaḥah In The Classical And Contemporary Tafsîr, Yusuf Wibisono, Femmy Roeslan

International Journal of Islamic Economics and Business Sustainability

A contemporary mufassir (Qur’anic exegete) employs the principle of al-‘ibrah bi maqāṣid al-sharī‘ah—that interpretation must refer to the objectives of Islamic law—in an effort to uncover the true meaning of the Qur’anic text. A purely literal reading of the Qur’an, without an understanding of its maqāṣid (objectives), faces many limitations. The maqāṣid approach emphasizes not only the wording of the text but also its underlying purposes and goals. The greatest strength of maqāṣid-based tafsīr (interpretation) lies in its ability to render the Qur’an always relevant, adaptable, and universally applicable. As an interpretive approach not strictly tied to …

Oral Hygiene Practices, Treatment Needs And Barriers To Dental Care Among Adolescents Attending Special Education Schools In Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia, Nur Hafizah Nor Wira, Noraida Mamat, Maryani Mohamed Rohani, Aimi Kamarudin, Sofia Anis

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objective: This study aimed to evaluate the oral health practices, status, and treatment requirements of adolescents with special healthcare needs attending special education schools in Selangor, Malaysia. The adolescents’ parents perceived challenges to oral healthcare were also established. Methods: The current study employed a cross-sectional approach involving 131 adolescents with varying special needs. The participants were between 13 and 18 years old and fulfilled the pre-determined inclusion criteria. The participants’ parents supplied information on sociodemographic, oral health practices, and possible obstacles to dental care through an online survey form. The oral examination on decay, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT), simplified …

Positive And Negative Personality Traits In Relation To Oral Health-Related Quality Of Life And Satisfaction After Implant-Supported Prosthetic Treatment, Naimeh Hasheminejad, Maryam Farzadmoghadam, Mohammad Mohammadi, Amir Nekouei, Mohammadreza Rostamizadeh

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objective: This study aimed to determine patients’ positive and negative personality traits in relation to treatment satisfaction and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQOL) in patients who have received dental implant-supported prosthesis. Methods: This study was carried out on 135 adults above the age of 30 who had received reasonable implant treatment and prosthesis in the last 1–24 months in a private and a public dental office. Data collection was carried out using a questionnaire, which was sent to patients via WhatsApp and email. Also, the Persian version of the Oral Health Impact Profile 14 and the Positive Affect Negative …

Self-Medication Behavior Of Dental Students With Oral Ulceration Lesions: A Cross-Sectional Study In Yogyakarta, Indonesia, Fita Fathaya Iriana, Hendri Susanto, Rosa Amalia

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objective: Self-medication refers to medication behavior for self-diagnosed symptoms. Oral ulcers are self-medicated lesions in the oral cavity. Dental students have different knowledge about oral cavity lesions and may self-medicate using drugs. This study aimed to determine the self-medication behavior of dental students for oral ulcers. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on dental students in the Faculty of Dentistry from different batch years. Purposive sampling was used to select students with oral ulcer lesions in the last six months. A validated and reliable questionnaire was used to assess self-medication behavior. Data collection using the online form. Student behavior …

Perception Of Conventional Cigarettes And Vaping Among Smokers And Nonsmokers: A Cross-Sectional Study, Indrayadi Gunardi, Rahmi Amtha, Firstine Kelsi Hartanto, Niko Falatehan, Alyah Heriandi, Angelita Victoria Kurniawan, Najla Nadiah, Wiwiek Poedjiastoeti, Andrijanto Andrijanto, Elizabeth Fitriana Sari

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objectives: The growing popularity of vaping has introduced additional challenges, as potential health risks are still under investigation. Exploring differences in smoking perceptions between smokers and non-smokers could provide valuable insights into smoking behavior and inform effective intervention strategies. This study aimed to evaluate and compare the perceptions of smoking, specifically vaping and conventional cigarette use, among young adult smokers and non-smokers. Methods: An analytical cross-sectional design was employed, with 542 university students included through random sampling, using a questionnaire consisting of 8 items. Data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test and Rasch model analysis. Results: Of the subjects, 259 …

Neutral Zone Vs. Conventional Denture Fabrication: A Randomized Crossover Study On Denture Performance, Karthik Kannaiyan, Arunima Chauhan, Vijayendranath Nayak, Riyshmaa Devendaran, Dashmita Peterson, Pavittra Kanesan, Vityaa Lakshmi

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objectives: It is challenging to achieve satisfactory outcomes in a complete denture for patients with resorbed residual ridges. Utilization of neutral zone techniques to guide posterior denture tooth arrangement and denture base contouring has been considered for many decades. However, the evidence is still not enough to revise protocols. This study aimed to compare patient satisfaction and stability of neutral zone denture with conventional denture. Methods: A crossover clinical trial was conducted among patients with resorbed mandibular ridges. Each participant received two sets of dentures: one fabricated using the neutral zone technique and one using the conventional method, in a …

Papillon–Lefèvre Syndrome: A Report Of Four Cases In One Family, Muhammed Abdullah Çege, Dilek Aynur Çankal, Ebru Binici, Bilge Turhan Bal

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Papillon–Lefèvre syndrome (PLS) is a rare genetic disorder caused by mutations in the cathepsin C gene and inherited in an autosomal recessive pattern. The risk of its occurrence is heightened by consanguineous marriages. PLS affects both genders and presents with hyperkeratotic patches on the hands and feet and precocious aggressive periodontitis. Although teeth initially erupt normally, rapid resorption in periodontal tissues leads to swift tooth loss, and prosthetic rehabilitation is complicated due to aggressive alveolar bone resorption. Case report: In 2021, a brother and sister sought dental treatment at Gazi University’s Faculty of Dentistry. After thorough examinations, the brother underwent …

Comparison Of Pharyngeal Airway And Dentoskeletal Effects Of 2 And 4 Premolar Extraction Treatment In Adult Orthodontic Patients, Esra Genc, Ahmet Karaman

Journal of Dentistry Indonesia

Objective: This study aimed to compare pharyngeal airway and dentoskeletal effects of 2 and 4 premolar extraction treatments in adult patients separately for each gender. Methods: The study was conducted with 60 adults (26 males; 34 females) aged 18-35 years. Individuals were divided into 3 groups as non-extraction, 2-premolar extraction, and 4-premolar extraction. Pre-treatment (T0) and post-treatment (T1) dentoskeletal and pharyngeal airway measurements were performed on cephalometric radiographs. Results: A significant increase in nasopharyngeal airway (PNS-ad2) and anterior hyoid bone movement (CV3ai-H) was observed in the 4-extraction group; whereas in the 2-extraction group, inferior oropharyngeal airway (IAS) narrowing and hyoid …

Open Science Is Coming To Theory Construction: The Case Of Document Analysis, Sarah R. Bostrom, Gina L. Levalley, Katrina Cooley, Richard E. Niemeyer

The Qualitative Report

Growing concerns about the reproducibility of scientific findings have led to efforts to enhance the transparency and rigor of social science research. Improving the accuracy and precision of theory development and adopting Open Science practices, such as open data, are widely considered effective means to achieve these ends. However, current Open Science practices primarily target quantitative methodologies and tend to ignore qualitative methods, like document analysis, due to perceived insurmountable obstacles. Since document analysis is often crucial for constructing accurate and precise theories, the inability to integrate Open Science practices with qualitative research methods undermines the effectiveness of these solutions …

Institutionalized Bullying In Tertiary Institutions In Nigeria And Perceived Mental Health Impacts: A Phenomenological Qualitative Study, Chika Bosah, Casey Mace Firebaugh, Tara R. Zolnikov

The Qualitative Report

Institutionalized bullying is when bullying moves beyond individual instances of bullying and is culturally embedded in an institution, such as a school or workplace. This type of bullying has not been thoroughly examined in tertiary school settings in Nigeria. This phenomenological qualitative study examined the experiences of tertiary students (from four different institutions in Nigeria) and their experiences of institutionalized bullying to determine if and to what extent this practice is occurring. There were (n=48) tertiary students engaged in open-ended, semi-structured interviews in Nigeria in 2022. Interviews were transcribed, coded, and thematically analyzed. Overall, this study found that institutionalized bullying …

Preparation, Development, And Refinement Of The Interview Protocol In Qualitative Research, David C. Coker, Adebowale Akande

The Qualitative Report

Interview protocols are by far the most common method utilized in qualitative research data collection. Novice and experienced researchers, from working on dissertations to grant proposals or other publications, often lack detailed interview design methods, as many educational programs do not require specific coursework on interview protocols and question development. To improve qualitative research, we make a proposal to incorporate an interdisciplinary approach that operationalizes three stages: preparation, development, and refinement. Preparation involves mapping the extant literature to define broad, narrow, and focused topics to write actionable standards, goals, and objectives. Development uses instructional design and educational psychology to construct …

Exploring Technology-Enhanced Learning: A Comparative Study Of Online And Offline Interactive Practices In The Iranian Higher Education System, Naser Rashidi, Mohamad Reza Farangi, Ali Hosseini

The Qualitative Report

This study explored how interactive teaching and learning are enacted through technology-enhanced methods in Iran’s higher education system. Using an exploratory qualitative design, it investigated the pedagogical strategies employed by instructors and examined whether these practices align with the principles of Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) across online and in-person contexts. Data were collected through the analysis of 263 class reports and 37 semi-structured interviews with university instructors. Thematic analysis using MAXQDA revealed six cohesive and interpretive themes: fostering human connection, empowering student voices, learning as dialogue, adaptive teaching, multimodal engagement, and feedback as dialogue. These themes reflect a holistic view of …

Biomarkers For The Diagnosis Of Indeterminate Pulmonary Nodules: Are We There Yet?, Kevin C Mcgann, Timothy A Khalil, Michael N Kammer, Edwin J Ostrin, Harvey I Pass, Jun-Chieh James Tsay, Leopoldo N Segal, Melissa Potter, Stephen A Deppen, Fabien Maldonado, Eric L Grogan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Indeterminate pulmonary nodules (IPNs), which are nodules that cannot be classified as definitively benign or malignant at the time of detection, are now diagnosed on the order of millions per year. Management of IPNs remains heavily debated, and routine practice ultimately involves some balance of overall clinical risk assessment and additional diagnostic tests or procedures which may generate significant risk, cost, and worry. Biomarkers are biologically based tests or indicators capable of accurately characterizing the physiologic properties of homeostasis and disease that are not otherwise easily evaluated by the clinician. Accurate biomarkers thereby serve as reliable surrogates for biological aberrancy, …