Digital Commons Network^™

Structural And Interpersonal Determinants Of Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake In Vulnerable Populations Of The United States, Alyea Wood

Capstone Showcase

Since its introduction in late 2020, the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine has had the lowest rates in marginalized populations like minorities, elderly, and those of low socioeconomic status. Decreased rates of vaccination uptake in these groups has resulted in increased burden of disease and subsequently higher rates of hospitalization and death. Many inequities in poor COVID-19 health outcomes can be explained by examining common predictive factors that determine vaccination rates in these United States populations. This special article research aims to explore these various predictive factors with the goal to provide targeted strategies to boost COVID-19 vaccination rates, especially …

Arcadia Magazine, 2025-01

Alumni Magazine

No abstract provided.

Integrating Deconstruction And Historic Preservation: A Best Practices Policy Comparison, Kelsey M. Baldwin

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Carl Elefante, the former president of the American Institute of Architects, famously said, “The greenest building is…one that is already built” (Elefante, 2012). Elefante articulated the environmental benefits of reuse and the significant energy costs associated with demolition and new construction. In 2022, the commercial and residential building sectors produced 31% of the United States’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (EPA, 2025). A large percentage of this is tied to the production of building materials.

Caspases Protect Against Hyperglycemia Induced Necroptosis-Like Cell Death In Brain Endothelial Cells, Aleena S. Mathew

Theses and Dissertations

Acute diabetes characterized by high spikes in blood glucose levels in association with severe hyperglycemia can lead to an increased risk of ischemic stroke in the brain. To better understand high blood glucose levels, hyperglycemia, in the brain we explored its effects on endothelial cells. Endothelial cells line the inner walls of blood vessels and are directly impacted in hyperglycemia. Brain endothelial cells are a major component of the blood brain barrier (BBB) which tightly regulates the brain’s microenvironment. The type of cell death such as apoptosis, caspase dependent, or necroptosis, caspase independent, can exacerbate diabetes associated complications. There is …

El Maíz Del Abuelo: Fidel Márquez Sanchez’S Legacy And Mexico’S Historical Maize Agriculture, Lucia Marquez-Uppman

Scripps Senior Theses

The Green Revolution was an era of scientific development in productive agricultural methods and technologies in the mid-twentieth century. High-yielding seed varieties, artificial fertilizers, irrigation infrastructure, pesticides, and herbicides all developed from this period. Texcoco, Mexico was the center of much of the Green Revolution's education and research from the 1940s onward at the Autonomous University of Chapingo, a prestigious agricultural school, with funding from the US-based philanthropic Rockefeller Foundation. Powerful consequences in the globe's agriculture emerged from the Green Revolution, including the production of maize, a staple crop in Mexico, especially for Indigenous and campesino populations. My abuelo, Fidel …

Bright-Lines In Sentencing: A Legal And Moral Case Against Juvenile Life-Without-Parole, Mckenzie Reily Isaac

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper criticizes the Supreme Court of the United States for its holding in Jones v. Mississippi (2021): the Eighth Amendment does not require a sentencing authority to find that a juvenile is "permanently incorrigible" before it may impose a sentence of life-without-parole. This ruling circumvents stare decisis as it undermines the substantive protections established in Miller v. Alabama (2012) and Montgomery v. Louisiana (2016), while purporting to preserve them. Not only is circumvention of stare decisis a failure of the Court's judicial duty, it is also a profound moral failure. This paper deploys Ronald Dworkin's law as integrity to …

Social Rejection, Isolation, And Substance Use Disorders: A Neurobiological Defense Of Social Network Intervention In Single-Site Housing First, Victoria Eichel

Scripps Senior Theses

Abstract

Introduction: Rising rates of homelessness in the United States demand not only increased housing efforts but also comprehensive strategies addressing the underlying causes of chronic homelessness. Among the most prevalent factors is substance use disorder (SUD), which both contributes to and results from housing instability. Conventional abstinence-based treatment models often fail to address the root causes of substance use, particularly the chronic social isolation and rejection experienced by the unhoused. This thesis argues for the adoption of a neuroscience-informed model of recovery rooted in community reintegration and low-barrier housing with on-site support services.

The Neuroscience of Substance Use Disorders …

"Girl, So Confusing": Tiktok Tweens, Technology, And The Authentic Self, Emily R. Dietrick

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the American tween as a postfeminist subject within the context of youth cultural production on TikTok, responding to the recent resurgence of concern about the young girls’ body in popular discourse. The first chapter will explore the origins of the tween as the marketing industry category previously known as the subteen, particularly through the lens of tween media culture and postfeminist narratives of choice and authenticity in identity formation. The second chapter will analyze the current technological facets of TikTok with attention to the For You page, algorithm, user-generated content, and influencer self-branding. This will demonstrate how …

Reject Modernity, Embrace Tradition: Unpacking Gender Roles In Social Media Performances Of "The Good Life", Lauren Mar

Scripps Senior Theses

What do JD Vance, tradwife influencers, and the “sprinkle sprinkle” movement have in common? They all have something to do with the increasing popularity of an apparent return to traditional gender roles. This thesis is an intersectional investigation of women’s gender roles in relation to class and race as they appear in different performances of “the good life” on social media. Through a series of personal essays, this thesis explores how these media examples represent a deeper political unhappiness with present conditions. This thesis takes the time to unpack the different sides of discourse surrounding each subject, and counters the …

Weathering And Beyond: Leveraging Mathematical Modeling To Simulate Erosion In Digital Media, Fiona Irving-Beck

Scripps Senior Theses

How might we bring an idea to life from both a mathematical and an artistic perspective? Within Weathering, I use imagery of environmental erosion to explore the differences between physical and digital forms of representation. I created a physical painting of an abandoned copper mine, digitized the work, and then used a mathematical model to digitally “erode” it, which I re-translated into paintings. While the explicit texture present in physical work speaks best to my practice/intent, the mathematical framework that is the basis for my digital work affords a powerful mode of temporal flexibility. Used in conjunction, these two …

You Must Really Love Your Mother, Eliet Lee Williamson-Diaz

Scripps Senior Theses

My thesis, You Must Really Love Your Mother, is a documentary that explores the relationship between my mother and grandmother living together on my grandmother’s factory pig farm in rural North Carolina. I was motivated to create this project to document and memorialize a unique chapter in my mom’s life—leaving her career and community in New York City to spend invaluable time with her mother. This documentary takes place a year after both my mom’s step-mom and biological mom were in the ICU at the same time. My mom’s step-mom, Carol, passed away, while her biological mom, Judy, survived …

Sticking Out And Fitting In: Experiences Of Black And Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Students At Scripps College, Grace Njoki Gitau

Scripps Senior Theses

There is a lack of research about the experiences of students of color at predominantly white women’s colleges. Women’s colleges are institutions that have evolved over hundreds of years to support the education of marginalized genders, including transgender women and nonbinary people in recent years. Many women’s colleges have a white majority of students, which can have adverse effects on students of color pursuing their education. Collecting data from Scripps College, a women’s college with 40% students of color, 12 interviews were conducted with students who self-identified as Black or Asian American. Results found that students of color who experience …

“Ignorance Is No Excuse”: Reproducing The Normative Female Body Through Mass Consumerism In Post-Wwii Women’S Magazines, Hannah E. Lorenz-Meyer

Scripps Senior Theses

In the Post-War era, women’s magazines took on a key role in cultural production, publishing literature, non-fiction articles, and advice on everything from marriage to fashion. Women’s magazines served a a form of propaganda, promoting a specific form of femininity that upheld the status quo. And that form of femininity was overwhelmingly affluent and White. By establishing magazines as a solution to women’s personal problems, editors served to shape the image of the post-war American woman. Nowhere is this vision more intimate than the way it was applied to the female body and reproduction. In this thesis, I analyze how …

Find My Friends: Location-Sharing Ideologies And Peer Surveillance Practices, Nayla Dayal

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the use of Find My Friends in the context of the Claremont Colleges. Students choose to location-share under initial rhetorical justifications of social reciprocity, and community-orientedness, and peer-safety. Drawing from ethnographic interviews conducted with users at the colleges, I argue that the infrastructure of Find My Friends in conjunction with the social and physical proximities of the Claremont environment creates a distinctive condition where users are subject to what I term as a “virtual, neoliberal, and participatory panopticon.” Here, users are seemingly empowered through the application’s neutralizing collapse of reciprocity and hierarchy that are seen in conventional …

Representing Childhood: Abstraction And Aesthetics Of Simplicity In Ezra Jack Keats's The Snowy Day, Elle Propp

Scripps Senior Theses

The central question driving this project is not “Is The Snowy Day art?”—a question that risks reifying the very hierarchies this thesis seeks to trouble—but rather: What might it mean to treat this picturebook as an art historical object? What must be addressed in the discipline’s practices, priorities, and self-conceptions to engage such work with rigor and care? How can we analyze the picturebook as an art object?

Selling Egg-Cellence: An Exploration Of Commercial Oocyte Donation And Genetic Determinism In 21st Century America, Abigail C. Oswald

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis examines the impact of genetic determinism on commercial egg donation in the United States. Through critical analysis of social media advertisements, online forums, and interviews, it argues that reductionist, genetically deterministic thinking drives the commodification of oocytes. Fertility agencies exploit assumptions about heritable traits (health, ethnicity, intelligence) to market "desirable" donors, influencing intended parents' choices and compensation hierarchies. Then the research explores how these same ideas shape perceptions of familial closeness in donor-conceived individuals and their parents, revealing mixed feelings surrounding genetic ties. This study highlights the complex interplay of biology, technology, and social constructs in defining family …

Mutation Of Hereditary Breast Cancer Based On Mutated Tp53 Gene: A Meta-Narrative Review, Abril Mendoza, Mehrangiz Osmani, Zaura Ruben, Samantha Scott, Mary Coolbaugh-Murphy Phd, Mb(Ascp), Brandon Greer Mfa, Denise M. Juroske Short Phd, Mb(Ascp)

Research Methods Poster Session 2025

No abstract provided.

Braf V600e Mutation In Melanoma: A Comparative Meta-Narrative Review Of Detection Techniques And Their Diagnostic Efficacy, Sumaya Mahamed, Christopher Nava, Maria Julia Sanchez, Mayra Iliana Sandoval, Denise M. Juroske Short Ph.D., Mg(Ascp) Cm

Research Methods Poster Session 2025

No abstract provided.

Cultural Factors Associated With Parenting Practices And Wellbeing Among Pakistani Immigrants, Yumna Khan

Honors Program Theses

Immigrant parents experience many challenges when shifting to a new culture, such as rearing children in a culture different from the one in which they were reared. Adjusting to a new culture is associated with aspects of parental wellbeing and the parenting practices that they adopt (Murthy, 2024). This has been studied widely among immigrant parents, but not among Pakistani immigrants. The present descriptive study aimed to address the following questions among a sample of Pakistani immigrant participants (N = 61): 1) What parenting practices and values are embraced by Pakistani immigrant parents and to what extent are these values …

Stellate Ganglion Block Effectiveness For Ptsd, Anxiety, And Depression In Psychiatric Outpatients: A Retrospective Analysis, Edina Wede Carr

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

The prevalences of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), and major depressive disorder (MDD) have risen significantly in recent years, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic. Many individuals remain symptomatic despite conventional treatments, highlighting the need for novel, integrative interventions. Stellate Ganglion Block (SGB), a procedure targeting the cervical sympathetic chain to modulate the autonomic nervous system, has emerged as a promising therapy for treatment-resistant psychiatric symptoms. Evaluating data from the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7), and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9), this retrospective study examined the clinical outcomes of PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms from …

Sounding Like A Normal Gay: A Sociophonetic Analysis Of Homonormativity And Identity Performance On The Lgbtq Right, Maralina Caldas

Scripps Senior Theses

Previous linguistic research has noted the remarkable ability of LGBTQ speakers to tailor their identity expression contextually based on the perceived safety of their context: studies of queer style-shifting have contrasted this group’s behavior in queer-friendly contexts with their speech in socially conservative ones. However, the patterns identified by this research do not account for the behaviors of outspokenly conservative queer people whose political ‘safe spaces’ are unaccepting of their queer identity. In order to index their belonging to two groups that are frequently in opposition with one another, I suggest that the style shifting behaviors of LGBTQ conservatives may …

Gain-Of-Function Tp53 Mutations Induce Non-Canonical Nf-Κb Transcriptional Targets To Promote Tumor Development, Kelsey A. Yutan

Scripps Senior Theses

Background: Gain-of-function TP53 mutations have previously been shown to induce chromosomal instability (CIN) in cancer cells, triggering the cGAS-STING innate immune response and subsequently activating the non-canonical NF-κB (NC-NF-κB) signaling pathway. This signaling cascade promotes cancer cell metastasis and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment (TME), significantly impacting tumor development and progression. However, the precise downstream mechanisms by which the mutp53-CIN-cGAS-STING-NC-NF-κB signaling pathway facilitates tumor development and progression remain poorly understood. Here, our objective was to identify direct downstream targets of mutp53-CIN-cGAS-STING-induced NC-NF-κB signaling that potentially impact the TME to promote the development and progression of oral squamous cell carcinoma.

Methods …

Constructing Bodies Of Subversion And Resistance: The Carceral Quarantine Of Hiv-Positive Haitian Refugees At Guantanamo Bay Under U.S. Imperialism, Isabelle E. Oringer

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the detention of HIV-positive Haitian refugees at Guantánamo Bay in the early 1990s as a case study of medicalized racism and U.S. imperialism. It explores how U.S. public health policy, immigration law, and Cold War-era foreign interventions converged to criminalize and confine Black Haitian bodies, constructing them as threats to national security and public health. By analyzing primary testimonies and media coverage alongside the works of scholars such as Paul Farmer and Naomi Paik, the project reveals how racialized conceptions of disease and subversion informed discriminatory practices that disproportionately targeted Haitian refugees. Furthermore, it examines how the …

The Importance Of Astronomy: Practical And Fundamental Aspects, Bailey N. Rossetti

Integrated Studies

Astronomy is both a field that answers fundamental theories and questions about our universe, while also advancing practical innovations that are used today. Astronomy analyzes questions about life beyond planet Earth and explores how planets, galaxies, and stars form. From early stargazers who only depended on stars for timekeeping and navigation to new advances in telescopes and space missions, astronomy has deepened the knowledge of humans for centuries. Astronomy has also supplied us with ways to track time, make calendars, and use navigation such as GPS systems. Beyond expanding discoveries, astronomy created technologies with wide-ranging features-- including medical imaging, satellite …

Behavioral Observations And Analysis Of Twix: The Cape Porcupine At The Lake Superior Zoo, Erin Davidson

Scripps Senior Theses

The three main goals of zoos are outlined as: education, conservation, and research. In our modern world, the focus of zoos has shifted away from simply housing animals, and towards how we can best promote proper animal welfare for individuals in human care. Animal welfare can be defined as the “mental health” of non-human species of fauna, and is greatly influenced by the stressors within the environment, as well as the option of choosing how to interact with and respond to the environment. Animals housed in zoos are presented with unique stressors that they often do not choose to experience, …

Empowering Adolescent Females: A Psychological Approach To Sexual Education, Paola Rausseo

Scripps Senior Theses

Adolescence is a pivotal stage of self-discovery, yet many young women lack the tools and knowledge to navigate sexual health confidently. This study implements an intervention rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Social Learning Theory (SLT) to enhance empowerment, self-advocacy, and boundary-setting in adolescent females aged 13–16. The program’s structure incorporates skill-based activities, including role-playing and action planning, to equip participants with practical tools and a safe space to practice these skills. This approach emphasizes addressing psychological and social factors influencing sexual decision-making and seeks to bridge gaps in traditional sexual education. Participants will be recruited from six randomly …

Exercise Interventions For Anxiety In Adolescents: The Mediating Role Of Anxiety Sensitivity And Self-Efficacy, Kendra Teraoka

Scripps Senior Theses

Although there is promising evidence suggesting that exercise can be an effective method for reducing anxiety, the research examining the underlying processes through which exercise relates to anxiety, especially among adolescents, is limited. The following study seeks to uncover whether 1) exercise has a significant direct impact on anxiety symptoms, 2) anxiety sensitivity mediates the relationship between exercise and anxiety, and 3) self-efficacy also mediates the relationship between exercise and anxiety. A sample of 103 high school students aged 15-17 years old will be assessed on measures of anxiety sensitivity, self-efficacy, and anxiety symptoms before and after the implementation of …

Assessing The Effects Of Wildfire Season Pm2.5 Exposure And Environmental Variables On Breeding Season Avian Body Condition, Cira Seyer-Ochi

Scripps Senior Theses

The increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires pose growing threats to wildlife, yet the indirect effects of wildfire smoke on avian populations remain largely unstudied. This exploratory study provides an initial assessment of how particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) associated with smoke pollution from the 2017 California wildfire season, in conjunction with precipitation and habitat type, influences the body condition of four resident bird species during the 2018 breeding season. Using bird banding data from 29 Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) stations, I assessed the potential interactions between PM2.5 concentrations, precipitation, and habitat type with body condition for Song Sparrows …

Characterization Of Dietary And Hormonal Influences On Renal Sodium Transporters And Channels In Rodent Models, Evelyn Chan

Scripps Senior Theses

Within kidneys, a diverse array of renal epithelial cells works to maintain electrolyte and water balance to regulate blood pressure and pH. These cells contain varying types of sodium transporters that adjust sodium reabsorption according to the body’s needs. Previous studies have observed sex-specific differences in renal sodium transporter regulation, which are thought to optimize reproduction in females. In this study, we performed high resolution microscopy and detailed characterization of cell type-specific expression and localization of major sodium transporters and channels in rodents in response to dietary and hormonal influences. Specifically, we examined the impact of dietary salt intake and …

Let's Talk About Sex: Investigating Radical Feminist Theories On Prostitution In The United States, Anna E. Peterson

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the feminist debates surrounding prostitution through an analysis of Catharine MacKinnon and Andrea Dworkin’s abolitionist theories, juxtaposed with critiques from Wendy Brown, Janet Halley, Susie Bright, and Marxist feminist abolitionist Esperanza Fonseca. The text examines the systemic forces of patriarchy and capitalism that commodify women’s bodies and the challenges of legislative approaches to the sex trade. While MacKinnon and Dworkin identify the structural inequalities underpinning prostitution, their legislative proposals often fail to address the stigma and systemic conditions that perpetuate the marginalization of prostituted people. Critics like Brown and Halley highlight the limitations of punitive measures, calling …