Digital Commons Network^™

A Review Of The Effect The Kentucky Center For School Safety Has On Kentucky School District’S Safe Schools Data, Patricia Greer

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

The study examines the impact of the Kentucky Center for School Safety on safety data from Kentucky Schools. The data consisted of behavior events reported in the Safe Schools Data collected from the student information system, Infinite Campus. The analysis was conducted using interaction data from the Kentucky Center for School Safety and behavioral data from Kentucky Public Schools.

The Impact Of Rti On Ninth Grade Reading Success, James Dailey

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Graduation rates are an important component of a school’s progress report card, published by the state’s department of education.  Ensuring that students have the resources and supports that they need in order to be successful is paramount to a school’s ability to provide quality educational services for their students.  Research published by the Center for High School Success (2020) indicates that students entering their freshman year of high school are twice as likely to drop out of school for being academically behind compared to their peers. For students to receive the support that they need to help them close their …

Classifying Surfaces With Handle Decomposition, Elizabeth Sipes

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Among topological spaces, manifolds draw a lot of interest. An
n-manifold is a space that is locally like R^n. Manifolds of dimension 2
are called surfaces. Using handle decomposition, we decompose surfaces
into k-handles, where 0< =k< =2. Techniques such as handle sliding and
handle cancellation allow us to get a more favorable representation of
our surface. We use these tools and calculation of the fundamental group
to classify all compact surfaces.

Women In Music: Experiences Of Women Oboists In Us Symphony Orchestras, Brianna Corgel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The evolution of women in American music has been a gradual and ongoing process. Historically, women were largely excluded from public musical life and did not achieve widespread acceptance as professional musicians until the 20^th century, largely due to prevailing cultural and societal expectations. In the 19^th century, women typically performed in domestic settings for small gatherings of family and friends. Female instrumentalists were generally limited to the piano and a few string instruments, while wind instruments—such as the oboe—were discouraged because they were considered unladylike or visually unappealing when played. The 20^th century saw the emergence …

How Do Reading Specialists Shape Their Identities As Literacy Leaders? An Exploration Of Competence, Performance, And Recognition Within Communities Of Practice, Christina Glance Petrone

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This qualitative multiple-case study explored how reading specialists enact literacy leadership within elementary schools in West Virginia. Although reading specialists are increasingly expected to support schoolwide literacy improvement, leadership responsibilities are not always explicitly defined within their roles. Guided by a communities of practice framework and an identity model, this study examined how reading specialists develop and demonstrate literacy leadership through their daily interactions with teachers, administrators, and other school personnel. Data sources included participant questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with participants, their principals, and colleagues from their school. Participants in this study included three reading specialists (interventionists) working in K-5 …

Three Essays On Urban Transportation, Daniel Amorim Souza Centuriao

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Urban environments are shaped by dynamic interactions between infrastructure development, policy interventions, and episodic demand shocks, all of which can generate unintended externalities in the form of motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities. This dissertation investigates the determinants of traffic safety in dense urban settings, with a particular focus on how different sources of urban activity affect collision risk and severity. Using New York City as a case study and leveraging high-resolution spatial and temporal data, I examine three distinct but interconnected mechanisms: construction activity, traffic safety policies, and large-scale events.

The first chapter analyzes the impact of urban development, …

Self-Leadership And Perceptions Of Artificial Intelligence: A Single-Case Study, Patrik Garren

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this single-case qualitative project is to uncover how self-leadership’s behavioral and cognitive strategies influence perceptions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and AI adoption. While existing literature acknowledges that there is an association between self-leadership, technology’s perceived usefulness and ease of use, as well as comfort with AI preparedness and its professional impact, there is limited research on how self-leadership shapes perceptions of AI and AI adoption in real-life contexts. To fill this gap in contemporary literature, this project analyzes qualitative semi-structured interviews with 25 healthcare professionals involved in the implementation of ‘AI Model 1’ at their mid-sized United …

Bringing Patriarchy To Looksmaxxing: Identification And Exploration Of Strategies To Restabilize The Patriarchy In The Looksmaxxing Community, Mackenzie Grace Freeman

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Research literature on looksmaxxing is subsumed under the incelosphere, which is acknowledged as a white and male supremacist space. Yet, researchers fail to attend critically to the structure of patriarchy, choosing instead to base their analyses within the mainstream hegemonic masculinity paradigm. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this project fills a gap in the literature by transcending the mainstream paradigm to explain how the looksmaxxing community uses the body as a site of crisis management in response to patriarchal backlash, with the ultimate goal of restabilizing the patriarchy. This project uses a community-led survey from a popular online looksmaxxing community. This …

Unsuccessful? Universal Human Rights And The United Nations: Russian Imperialism In Ukraine And The Post-Udhr International System, Sofiia Novytska

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Human universality has always stood as a controversial subject and remains politically contentious today. Following the humanitarian crisis of World War II, the international community was determined to protect the integrity and dignity of people worldwide by developing the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights. However, universal human rights were not invented by the Declaration and were already conceptually established in global ancient thought, further evolved into Early Modern scholarship, and later paved the way for modern humanitarian frameworks. The UDHR was not universally well-received, and was criticized for its revolutionary legal character, postcolonial contestation, and practical ambiguity. The …

Survival In The Stigmatized Industry (Bitcoin Atm), Brooks Mcadam

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

ii ABSTRACT Survival in the Stigmatized Industry (Bitcoin ATM) Brooks McAdam This paper examines how companies can survive in a stigmatized industry where the same message may attract customers while simultaneously generating skepticism. The study posed the following research question using the Bitcoin ATM industry as the context: Does the message presented on company websites influence the degree of exit risk in a market characterized by moral concerns, exposure to fraud, and unstable regulation? The answer is clear. Messaging is important; however, not every message is equally important. Fee-related messaging emerged as the most consistent predictor of exit risk. Messaging …

Deep-Learning-Based Generation Of Synthetic Contactless Fingerphotos, Christopher Harry Burton

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The collection of biometric data is a labor-intensive, high-resource process that presents significant logistical, privacy, and cost barriers for researchers and developers. To address these challenges, the biometrics community has increasingly turned to generative models capable of producing synthetic datasets that reflect the statistical properties of real data. While substantial progress has been made in synthetic fingerprint generation for contact-based modalities, the contactless fingerphoto domain has remained largely underserved. This work presents a deep learning-based approach to synthetic contactless fingerphoto generation using a Stable Diffusion model guided by multimodal conditions (text and image). The dataset used for training was collected …

Formation-Based Analysis In Contemporary Saxophone Practice: A Case Study Of Ziwei Shi's The Blue Lotus Bloms, Jiageng Ren

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation examines contemporary saxophone repertoire through a formation-based analytical approach, using Ziwei Shi’s The Blue Lotus Blooms as a case study. It is organized into three parts. Part I establishes the conceptual and methodological framework by introducing the concept of “formation-based analysis,” positioning the “condition of musical formation” as its core. Further situating the study within scholarship on practice-based research, cross-cultural theory, and modernism/postmodernism. Part II provides a detailed analytical and performance-based investigation of the work, including the collaborative commissioning process, the application of Thaat as a pitch resource, the role of extended techniques and embodied endurance, and contrasting …

Designing Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really: A New Take On The New Woman, Spencer T. Lawlor

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This thesis will document the process of designing the costumes for Dracula: A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Really, by Kate Hamill. It will detail a close reading of the text and how it differs from its original source material, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, an examination of the research process for this design, as well as an analysis of the design process and execution of costumes for this production. It will explore the challenges I faced as the Costume Designer on this production, including but not limited to: examining the gender dynamics involved in genderbending a well-known piece of literature, working within a …

Government Financial Statements: The Influence Of Audit Opinion Type On Attitudes Toward Taxation, Stephanie Ann Vonfintel

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The United States government has a responsibility to American citizens to be a good financial steward of their tax dollars. The inability to fulfill this responsibility is evidenced by 28 consecutive years of audit failures, whereby the Government Accountability Office has been unable to issue an opinion on the United States government’s annual financial statements. An experiment varying audit opinion type is used to evaluate whether the United States government failing (or passing) its annual financial statement audits influences attitudes toward federal taxation. Findings show support for federal taxation is strongest when citizens are told that the United States government …

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 …

A Constraint-Based Approach To Developing Melodic Improvisational Skills In Intermediate Jazz Piano Students, Alton Xian Rong Wong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examines the pedagogical value of a constraint-based approach in helping students develop improvisational fluency and coherence by facilitating audiation. Although there are pedagogical texts on jazz improvisation that incorporate exercises shaped by constraint-based thinking, there is neither a systematic framework for their application with students of varying levels and musical backgrounds, nor a clear explanation of their pedagogical purpose. This research investigates how constraint-based pedagogy, through the lens of rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic parameters, can be applied independently or collectively to support the development of improvisational fluency in intermediate level jazz piano improvisers. It argues that musical constraints …

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 …

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. …

A Digital Calibration Source For 21 Cm Cosmology Telescopes, Kalyani Balkrishna Bhopi

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Precise calibration of radio telescope beams and gains is a central requirement for 21 cm intensity mapping experiments, which aim to measure large scale cosmological structure through the redshifted emission line of neutral hydrogen. Bright astrophysical foregrounds dominate the sky at these frequencies, and separating them from the cosmological signal demands precise control over instrumental systematics, particularly the telescope beam and its frequency-dependent response. Existing aerial calibration sources are incoherent broadband emitters, detectable only as total power. They provide no direct phase information and suffer from poor sensitivity in low signal-to-noise regimes.

We present the Precision Emitter for 21cm Array …

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 …

The Ocean Is Not A Machine: A Feminist Media Analysis Of Oceanographic Models, Simulations, And Futures, Clarissa Chevalier

Study of Women, Gender, & Sexuality: Faculty Publications

This article examines how scientific and artistic representations and technologies shape ocean futures. Dominant Western oceanography frequently engages mechanistic metaphors that conceptualize the ocean as a machine, pump, or carbon sponge. This way of visualizing the ocean, guided by the logics of control and quantification, shapes contemporary remote sensing, modeling, and prediction technologies. Alternative approaches to oceanographic representation, including Indigenous, anticolonial, Black feminist, and artistic approaches, offer critical counterweights to destabilize the authority granted to mechanistic oceanographic representations. Ocean simulations and scale models are infrastructures through which ocean futures are rendered and presented in multidimensional space. Through a comparative media …

Black Hole Spectroscopy And Tests Of General Relativity With Gw250114, Jaclyn (Jax) Sanders

Physics Faculty Research and Publications

The binary black hole signal GW250114, the loudest gravitational wave detected to date, offers a unique opportunity to test Einstein’s general relativity (GR) in the high-velocity, strong-gravity regime and probe whether the remnant conforms to the Kerr metric. Upon perturbation, black holes emit a spectrum of damped sinusoids with specific, complex frequencies. Our analysis of the postmerger signal shows that at least two quasinormal modes are required to explain the data, with the most damped remaining statistically significant for about one cycle. We probe the remnant’s Kerr nature by constraining the spectroscopic pattern of the dominant quadrupolar (ℓ=m=2) …

Sun Valley’S 2025 World Cup Downhill Course Improves Dick Durrance’S 1939 Course, And Recaptures The Excitement Of The Classic Harriman Cup Races, John W. Lundin

Works by Local Authors

In early October 2024, the Sun Valley Resort received final approval to host the Audi

F.I.S. Ski World Cup Finals between March 22-27, 2025. Twenty five men and 25 women from

30 countries will compete in all four Alpine skiing disciplines - slalom, giant slalom, downhill

and super-G.

Kekuasaan Yudisial Dalam Sistem Demokrasi Konstitusional: Membangun Antitesis Dekonstitusionalisasi Dan Politisasi Peradilan, Tundjung Herning Sitabuana, Airlangga Surya Nagara, Dixon Sanjaya

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

Strengthening idea of constitutional democracy as a transitional phase towards a modern rule of law requires one of main characteristics of an independent judiciary. Current phenomena demonstrate how utopian these conditions are as the judiciary becomes increasingly politically pragmatic, transactional, interdependent, and demoralized. At the same time, phenomenon of constitutional defiance is growing stronger with efforts to deconstitutionalize and politicize the judiciary. This study aims to explore the existence and legitimacy of the judiciary in constitutional democracy era against that phenomenon. The research was conducted doctrinally with a historical, conceptual, and comparative approach that was analyzed qualitatively. The results indicate …

Omnibus Law Sebagai Strategi Mengatasi Disharmonisasi Peraturan Di Indonesia, Tuti Tri Hastuti S., Zainal Arifin Hoessein

Jurnal Hukum & Pembangunan

This article discusses the challenges in implementing the Omnibus Law (OL) both as a regulatory system and as a tool for harmonizing regulations within Indonesia’s legal positivist tradition and its complex, non-simple regulatory hierarchy, from the perspectives of legislative consolidation theory, regulatory coherence theory, and multilevel regulation theory. This study is based on the assumption that OL, within the framework of legal positivism (norm hierarchy system), faces problems in applying these three theories. The research employs normative juridical and comparative methods, analyzing national regulations and international research findings. The results indicate, first, that the positioning of OL, which does not …

Cultivating Wellness: Nurturing Gratitude And Resilience, Brennan Lewis, Christi Welter, Elaine Beardsley, Alison Kell

Podcasts

This heartfelt discussion on the power of wellbeing and gratitude in nursing practiceoff ers practical strategies to gear up for the busy season, prioritize wellness and recognize the invaluable contributions of your nursing colleagues.

Super-Efficient Breach In Bankruptcy: Recalibrating Remedies For Contract Rejection Damages, Ishaq Kundawala

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Contract law rests on a simple but powerful premise: when a party breaches, the law protects the injured party’s expectation interest, placing them, as nearly as possible, in the position they would have occupied had the contract been performed. This principle underlies the theory of efficient breach, which tolerates economically rational breaches so long as the non-breaching party is fully compensated. But in bankruptcy, this foundation often collapses. Under section 365 of the Bankruptcy Code, a debtor may reject an executory contract, with the law treating that rejection as a prepetition breach and relegating the counterparty’s claim to general unsecured …

Insurance And Chapter 11 Bankruptcy: Is The Insurance Neutrality Doctrine Dead?, Mikaela Deleon

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Insurers have traditionally been denied “party in interest” status under the Bankruptcy Code due to the longstanding insurance neutrality doctrine. The insurance neutrality doctrine prevents insurers from challenging a chapter 11 bankruptcy plan as a section 1109(b) “party in interest” if the plan does not increase the insurance company’s liability from pre-bankruptcy levels. If none of their rights or obligations were impacted by the plan, insurance companies were previously left without a means to challenge a proposed reorganization plan. As a result, insurance companies providing liability insurance to corporations stricken with mass tort lawsuits ran the risk of becoming the …

Asbestos 2.0: A Looming Disaster At The Intersection Of Pfas Litigation And The Texas Two-Step––Even After Purdue Pharma, Tyler Sheridan

Emory Bankruptcy Developments Journal

Companies that have manufactured, processed, or sold per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), also known as “forever chemicals,” face mounting financial pressure as the number of claims against them skyrocket. With billions of dollars already allocated to settlements and new lawsuits continuously filed, liable corporations may utilize the Texas Two-Step to minimize financial risk. The maneuver would enable solvent companies to isolate PFAS liability and discard it into bankruptcy, potentially delaying and capping payouts for claimants in the process. Third-party releases have survived Purdue, leaving the forum’s ability to permanently resolve mass tort liability intact. Moreover, escalating litigation may prompt …