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Acts Of Becoming: A Phenomenological Investigation Into The Lived Experiences Of West Virginia Teacher-Activists, 1990 To The Present, Phillip Elias Howard

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This critical phenomenological dissertation explores the lived realities of becoming a West Virginia teacher-activist. Presenting the experiential accounts of three participants, its semi-structured questions Show the lifeworld forces, inherited (factical) self-identities, and occupational, "on-the-ground" classroom experiences that inspired its research collaborators to assert themselves as unionists and natural teacher-organizers. This dissertation utilizes a collection of Marxian, phenomenological, and post-structural interpretation devices to develop robust, sensemaking themes which reveal the meaning of participants’ lived reflections. It also provides thick descriptions of co-researchers' historic and current political, economic, and socio-cultural backdrops amid West Virginia’s right-wing political realignment of the 2010s, the eternal …

Treatment Of Birdsong In Selected Works For Solo Piano, Madeline Hoover

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Birdsong-inspired music makes up a small but important part of the classical piano repertoire. This paper reviews birdsong in classical music since the seventeenth century, exploring different techniques for mimicking birdsong and the unique strengths of the piano as an instrument for purveying bird music. In the Baroque and Classical eras, the cuckoo song was sampled often because of its simplicity. Later, composers’ attention turned toward more complicated songs, like that of the hermit thrush. Interest in more complex songs led to experimentation in notation and a push for more accurate transcriptions. In the 20th century, composers included recordings of …

Jazz And Classical Form In Selected Movements Of Nikolai Kapustin's Eight Concert Etudes Opus 40, Hsiaofen Lin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research focuses on three etudes from Kapustin’s Eight Concert Etudes, Op. 40, offering analyses for “Prelude,” “Reverie,” and “Toccatina,” The analysis explores several interrelated issues: the extent to which jazz-derived formal structures may be discerned in Kapustin’s piano works beyond traditional classical models; the ways in which jazz structural frameworks interact with forms such as sonata, ternary, and through-composed designs; and the degree to which jazz formal procedures influence sectional organization, phrase structure, and large-scale form. A further concern is whether Kapustin’s use of jazz form serves merely as a stylistic reference or operates as a structurally determinative …

Preparing The Professional: Selected Uses Of Digital Audio Workstations In Applied Tuba Studios, Reid Timothy Cox

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The modern music job market calls for musicians to cultivate and engage with a diverse range of area interests and skillsets. Collegiate music programs provide opportunities to prepare students professionally, yet programs have traditionally fallen behind changes in the job market. One way that music faculty within higher education can help prepare students to succeed after graduation is by teaching students to engage with digital audio workstations, also known as DAWs. Using DAWs, students can gain new practice tools, as well as learn skills that are helpful in a number of musical careers. This is of particular use to the …

More Than A Man: An Ethnomusicological Survey Of The Folklore Of John Henry And Resource Guide For “More Than A Man” By Shanyse Strickland, Clayton R. Heath

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

“John Henry” exists as an enduring folk legend in the United States of America, representing the confluence of the Reconstruction Era, the economic utility of Appalachia and the Westward expansion of industry which left it behind. Though based on historical events, Henry’s fictional representation has diverted and evolved in music and other media from its inception in the oral tradition to the modern age. Through this progression, shared symbols have circulated, gathering embedded meanings and associating the folklore with specific communities. Henry’s representational identity has been signaled with the creation and distribution of each version of his story, both complicating …

White Lies Of Time: Temporal Racialization In 19th-20th Century American Literature, Yu Uchida

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

By examining mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century American literary texts, this dissertation project aims to theorize the ways in which whiteness relies on conceptualizations of time to hegemonize non-white subjects and prescribe their historical representations. Because whiteness is dynamic in its emergence and effects and ubiquitous in sociopolitical and cultural realms, this dissertation holistically turns to white, Black, and Indigenous writers to delineate how whiteness functions throughout the period and how racialized subjects negotiate it. Portraying the nation’s history as lived experience rather than objectified knowledge, the racialized authors I examine undermine the concept of linear progressive time that subtends structural …

Process Modeling, Operability Analysis, And Techno-Economic Optimization Of Soecs For Sustainable H2 Production, Krishna Murthy Busam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The global imperative to decarbonize energy systems has intensified research into sustainable hydrogen production pathways, as hydrogen emerges as a critical energy carrier for sectors difficult to electrify directly. Among water electrolysis technologies, solid oxide electrolyzer cells operating at elevated temperatures offer the highest theoretical efficiency by utilizing thermal energy to reduce electrical energy requirements, yet comprehensive frameworks integrating electrochemical modeling with process operability analysis and techno-economic optimization remain scarce in the literature. This dissertation develops a process systems framework for proton-conducting solid oxide electrolyzer cells that bridges the gap between fundamental electrochemical phenomena and industrial-scale process economics. At the …

Community Resilience Drives Change, Claudia Rose Dilima

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The opioid crisis has impacted many Americans. From 1999 to 2023, approximately 800,000 people have died due to opioid overdose (CDC, 2025). What began as overprescription of painkillers has evolved into a complex social health issue that is now worsened by stronger synthetic drugs like fentanyl. Fentanyl and fentanyl analogs (synthetic opioids that are very similar chemically to fentanyl) are often found in illegal drug supplies and in counterfeit pills (CDC, 2025). Thus, individuals who might have been initially overprescribed painkillers might now be pushed toward illegally produced drugs that are significantly more potent than what they were originally prescribed. …

Deep Learning-Based Co-Current Upward Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow Regime Identification In An Annular Conduit, Joshua Robert Macomber

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Flow regime identification in co-current upward gas-liquid flow through annular conduits remains a significant challenge in petroleum engineering, with major safety and operational implications. It is also important across industries involving the transport of multiphase fluids. Misidentifying flow regimes can introduce major operational risk, yet regime boundaries in annular gas-liquid flow are often visually complex and context dependent.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the utility of convolutional neural network (CNN) classifiers for flow regime identification. The CNN was trained using annular flow image dataset published by Texas A&M University. The dataset consists of approximately 947 RGB images …

Ai-Driven Prediction And Reconstruction Of Missing Cased-Hole Logs For Improved Well System Understanding, Samuel Avilez Martinez

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Well logging is a fundamental technique in formation evaluation providing continuous, real-time measurements of geological and petrophysical properties within a well. Through the systematic analysis of well logs, engineers and geoscientists can accurately determine critical formation characteristics, including porosity, permeability, lithology, and fluid composition. Well logging is fundamental for making informed decisions and reducing uncertainties in the exploration and development of oil and gas reservoirs.

Despite its significance, the acquisition of reliable well log data in oil and gas wells is often compromised by various operational, mechanical, and formation-related challenges, as well as pressure, fluid, and equipment constraints. In high-risk …

Congolese Journalists: Professional Identity And Legitimacy, Hannah L. Heiskell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This paper examines how Congolese journalists construct their professional identity

and legitimacy while working under conditions of conflict and state pressure, and how

international media outlets discursively represent them through Western journalistic norms.

Addressing previous research and centering local perspectives, this study uses critical

discourse analysis to compare language, framing, and narratives across Congolese and

international media texts, and the works in which they produce. Attention is given to how

agency, professionalism, and constraint are represented within each discourse. The analysis

focuses on metajournalistic discourse, or journalism talking about journalism, to examine

how professional norms and boundaries are articulated and …

Global Weak Solutions Of Optical Variational Wave System, Shahrazad Hamed Alnafie

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

                                                       ABSTRACT

                   Global Weak Solutions of Optical Variational Wave System

                                        Shahrazad Hamed Mahal Alnafie

The coupling of a variational wave equation with Maxwell’s equations gives rise to the optical variational wave system, a hyperbolic PDE system that models the director field of the nematic liquid crystals. This system presents unique analytical challenges that have not been addressed in the existing literature. In this dissertation, we study the one-dimensional case of this system.

We establish the global existence of conservative weak solutions to the associated Cauchy problem. The hyperbolic system is derived using the energy variational method. Through a sequence of suitable …

Roasting-Dependent Changes In Antioxidant Activity And Metabolite Profiles Of Coffea Liberica: Unraveling Bioactive Compounds And Their Functional Properties, Nuratikah Abdullah, Lay Kek Teh, Mohd Zaki Salleh, Mohd Salleh Rofiee, Lay Jing Seow, Eleena Mohd Yusof, Ye Han Sam, Eng Keng Seow

Baghdad Science Journal

Coffea liberica, despite its high antioxidant activity reported in the green bean, has had limited research in the literature on changes in metabolite profiling across different roasting levels. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to evaluate the antioxidant activity and metabolite profiling of the green beans and various roasting levels of Coffea liberica brew using multiple antioxidant assays namely (total phenolic content, total flavonoid content, 1,1-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl, ferric reducing antioxidant power, 2,2’-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid), and hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity) and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight (LC/MS-QTOF), respectively. Notably, light-roasted coffee brew retained the highest antioxidant activity …

Patterns Of Decision-Making And Stakeholder Prioritization In International Education Leaders At American Higher Education Institutions, Daniel C. Evans

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This quantitative study was conducted using a stakeholder theory analysis method to determine what patterns of decision-making exist in international educational leadership. The existing demands on international education leaders and recent geopolitical events have placed existing funding and ideological pressure on these individuals. This research was significant by reducing feelings of leadership isolation and providing data-driven analysis on how practitioners are responding to these pressures.

Participants were recruited from the membership of the Association of International Education Administrators, with the delimitation criteria that they have working experience in a managerial role in international education programming in the United States. In …

Continental Violence And The "Oregon Question": George Frederick Ruxton And The Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest, Rory Orion Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper builds on recent efforts to depict Indigenous polities across North America in their international relations with European and Euro-American colonists and their centralized governments. It examines George Frederick Ruxton, a private English citizen and former army lieutenant, as he developed his response to the U.S.-British Oregon dispute while living in London in early 1846. He concluded that continental warfare was imminent and took overt steps to influence British policy, which he believed could halt U.S. expansion and definitively resolve the “Oregon Question.”

Assistant Principals’ Perspectives And Experiences Concerning Their Influence As Instructional Leaders On Student Achievement In Title I Schools, Courtney J. Charles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This qualitative descriptive study explored the perspectives and experiences of assistant principals in Title I schools in the context of their instructional leadership responsibilities. The study examined the relationship between assistant principals as instructional leaders in Title I schools and student achievement by addressing research questions related to curriculum implementation, data-driven decisions, school culture, instructional support, and professional development. Moreover, this study used purposeful sampling to select 13 assistant principals from Title I schools, and data were collected through semistructured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis. Marzano’s focused school leader evaluation model served as the framework for interview questions. …

Accessing Campus Mental Health Services In A Nigerian Southwestern University: Barriers To Academic Success, Caroline Dada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mental health disorders are a significant health concern among higher education institutions in sub-Saharan Africa, including Nigeria. A substantial treatment gap exists in the Nigerian healthcare system, and this gap is further worsened by cultural and religious barriers, which reinforce stigma that discourages students from seeking professional help. This qualitative narrative inquiry explored the barriers students encountered when accessing mental health services at a university in Southwestern Nigeria, to increase service access. Qualitative semistructured interviews were conducted with seven professional mental health providers at a university counseling center between March and April 2025. Inductive thematic analysis was used to identify …

Risk Of Deep Vein Thrombosis In Patients With Periodontitis: A Nationwide Population-Based Cohort Study In Taiwan, Ying-Ting Yeh, Nai-Chen Shih, Ping-Ju Chen, Yu-Hsun Wang, Chao-Bin Yeh

Journal of Dental Sciences

No abstract provided.

Invisible, Manipulated, And Politicised: Rethinking The Conceptual Foundations Of The Un Convention On The Rights Of The Child, Anshul Dalmia

National Law School of India Review

This paper examines whether the rights articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (‘UNCRC’) can be meaningfully assimilated within the broader framework of international human rights. It locates this inquiry within enduring jurisprudential debates on the nature, justification, and enforceability of children’s rights. While international human rights law presumes a relatively stable rights-bearing subject, children occupy an ambivalent position—simultaneously recognised as rights-holders and as dependents mediated through an adult authority. Drawing on Tobin’s critique, which cautions against the dangers of conceptual indeterminacy, the paper argues that the UNCRC exemplifies these risks. It contends that the …

A Generalized Framework For The “Core” Thalamocortical Circuit Computation, Charles Liu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This thesis explores a biologically inspired computational framework based on a common excitatory-inhibitory circuit in the superficial layers of the cortex. By varying the strength of local feedback inhibition, this single circuit gives rise to distinct unsupervised learning behaviors: strong inhibition leads to clustering and hierarchical clustering, while weak inhibition produces principal component-like representations. From this principle, we develop three algorithms: Lateral Inhibition Clustering (LI-C), Lateral Inhibition Hierarchical Clustering (LI-HC), and Antipodal Iterative Mean Estimation (AIME).

LI-C performs clustering without requiring a predefined number of clusters, using a competitive learning rule to extract dominant patterns from data. LI-HC extends this …

Critical Success Factors For An Effective Security Risk Management Program: An Exploratory Case Study, Jason A. Williams, Humayun Zafar, Saurabh Gupta

Faculty Articles

This paper evaluates the perceived effectiveness of the security risk management (SRM) programs at a Fortune 500 firm. Layers of management and staff participated in the study. Perceived effectiveness of their SRM programs was based on nine critical success factors (CSFs). Interviews confirmed six initial CSFs (Executive Management Support, Organizational Maturity, Open Communication, Risk Management Stakeholders, Team Member Empowerment, and Holistic View of an Organization) that were extracted from the literature. They were confirmed and synthesized with three additional CSFs (Security Maintenance, Corporate Security Strategy, and Human Resource Development). Implications for SRM are discussed.

Reconstituting A Constitution, And A Republic: The Architecture Of Authoritarian Rule, J. Maria Glover

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

A constitution can be remade without tearing it down, or even changing a single word. It is done by law.

“The judicial power is vested in one Supreme Court and in such inferior courts as Congress may establish,” whose “province and duty” it is to “say what the law is.” U.S. Const. Art. III §1; Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 1 (Cranch) 137 (1803). It is not the power to remake the Constitution that grants it.

The Supreme Court is turning the inherited powers that hold power to law into instruments of its own aggrandizement. It is taking authority from …

New Therapies, New Challenges: Cystic Lung Disease After Cancer Immunotherapy, Ananya Venkatesh, David Camacho, Ross Summer, Michael Dong

Division of Internal Medicine Faculty Papers & Presentations

Immunotherapies have reduced reliance on cytotoxic strategies with their associated high toxicity levels, revolutionizing cancer care. However, these targeted therapies have also increased prevalence of previously rare sequelae, impacting patients experiencing longer survival. We describe a case of endometrial adenocarcinoma with lung metastases, in which tumor resolution following immunotherapy created cystic airspaces, leading to a pneumothorax complication. A 49-year-old female with advanced stage endometrial adenocarcinoma and lung metastasis developed cystic lung lesions in areas of previous metastatic lesions after treatment with Pembrolizumab and Bevacizumab. She developed a pneumothorax secondary to the rupture of one of the large lung cysts, leading …

¡Salud! Sacrificing The Sacred Sip: A Critical Analysis Of The Impact Of The Spiritual Conquest On Alcohol Traditions In Central México, Elizabeth Vilchis

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

By thoroughly investigating the available primary sources, this thesis will convey the importance of the Mesoamerican inebriating drink pulque in both the ethos and mythos of ancient Nahua society, examining how the ritual use of pulque became problematic in the eyes of the Spaniards, by investigating the cultural and ideological contradictions or double standards that enabled the tensions, struggles, and violence with which the Spanish colonial regime repressed the ritual use of pulque. This thesis compares the Nahua ethos and mythos of pulque to the Christian ethos and mythos of wine, highlighting the parallels perceived by Spaniards in Central México …

Nonbinary Gender Performance And Self-Identification In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, Lillian R. Durr

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, a text informed by a rich Romantic era philosophical tradition, has produced an expansive contemporary body of transgender studies scholarship. Building on transgender literary studies of Frankenstein, my thesis analyzes the difference between the monster’s internalized self-perceived identity and their externally performed and perceived identity. I interpret the difference between the monster’s internal and external identity as an analogy through which to understand contemporary nonbinary experiences. The “performance” of gender that Judith Butler describes is a limited expression of an internal, inescapable, ontological experience of self-identification. The monster’s own social experience illustrates the …

Characterization Of The Effects Of Atp On Primary Brainstem Glial Cells, Donovan J. Aardema Faigh

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Migraine and temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) are debilitating orofacial pain disorders that negatively impact one’s quality of life. These disorders are characterized by elevated levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and activation of central nervous system glial cells that promote and maintain central sensitization and enhance pain signaling in response to inflammatory stimuli. The goal of my study was to characterize the effects of the pro-inflammatory signaling molecule adenosine triphosphate (ATP) on intracellular calcium levels, mRNA levels, and protein expression in astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes to better understand the role of ATP in promoting central sensitization. To address this goal, primary …

Genomic Signatures Of Decline And Recovery In An Endangered Bat, Myotis Grisescens, Marxe Altman-Orbach

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Tremendous population declines may result in the loss of genetic diversity, which can, in turn, lead to reduced adaptive potential, overexpression of deleterious phenotypes, and further population declines. In this way, genetic drift from a severe demographic decline may ultimately lead to an extinction vortex. However, populations that avoid the loss of genetic diversity may remain viable, despite demographic crashes. Therefore, understanding genetic diversity is vital for assessing the conservation status of species that have undergone declines, and can even reflect the effectiveness of management actions. I investigated signatures of genetic bottlenecks in the gray bat (Myotis grisescens), …

Inherited Sins: Essays, Claire Ellerman

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Joan Didion said of her book, The Year of Magical Thinking, that, “the reason I had to write it down, is that no one had ever told me what it was like.” She was trying to make sense of her grief following the death of her husband, and in doing so, wrote a piece of creative nonfiction (CNF) that explores her own life in and around the larger ideas of mourning, connection, and moving forward. This is the ultimate aim of creative nonfiction: writing to make sense of our lives in relation to the world around us. In this …

United States Mainstream Meat Market Entry: An Analysis On Speciality Goat Meat Products, Madison Raye Schmitz

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Understanding consumers' perspectives and motivations is key when looking into making goat meat more accepted in the mainstream meat market. Previous research has shown there is a demand for goat meat from different populations in the US. Consumers also care more about the quality of the food they purchase. Understanding that goat meat has lower cholesterol and is leaner than other red meat is important to incorporating goat meat in niche consumer markets. Providing consumers with a product that is familiar to them is more acceptable than giving consumers a cut of meat they are unfamiliar with. Standard products like …

Experimental Diegetic Thresholds: A Study Of Adapted Carceral Narratives [The] Nickel Boys And Sing Sing, Leslie D. Muench

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The diegesis is the storyworld of a film, including all the characters, settings, events, and other elements. At certain times, though, that threshold is permeable, particularly when the fictional source material involves lived experiences. Two carceral films model an experimentation with adapted material and the palimpsestuous layering effect that is a result of real-life narratives being transposed into fictional ones. Nickel Boys, directed by RaMell Ross (2024), and Sing Sing, directed by Greg Kwedar (2023), endeavor to humanize a stereotypically ostracized community: Black boys and men who are incarcerated. Through the screenwriting, casting, producing, filming, and sharing of their films …