Digital Commons Network^™

An Assessment Of The Reinforcing And Aversive Properties Of Transition-Related Stimuli, Lillian Louise Skiba-Thayer

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Transitions from relatively favorable (rich) to relatively unfavorable (lean) activities have been shown to disrupt behavior. Transition-related disruptions in behavior have been observed across laboratories, species, and procedural arrangements. The most commonly reported disruption in basic research is a pause in the reinforced behavior in the signaled transition from a relatively rich to a relatively lean condition of reinforcement (Perone & Courtney, 1992). The present study assessed the function of the stimuli associated with transitions as either reinforcing, punishing, or neutral across two experiments using eight pigeons as subjects. Experiment 1 tested the function of two stimuli, one correlated with …

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

The Differential Impacts Of Internal And External Corporate Social Responsibility Activities On Consumer Trust After Covid-19, Kennadi C. Mccoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores the strategic role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in helping small businesses recover from crises, with a specific focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Different from many traditional studies that highlight the ethical or reputational aspects of CSR, this research will examine its practical effects: how CSR initiatives during crises influence business success by enhancing consumer trust, particularly by examining the differential impact of Internal CSR versus External CSR. The study suggests that, compared with internally focused CSR, external CSR activities will have a greater impact on consumer trust. In addition, the dissertation suggests that this effect is …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Agentic Ai As A System Within Systems: A Process Model Of Organizational Embedding., Aravindh Sekar, Deb Tech

Research & Publications

The emergence of Agentic AI systems is reshaping organizational processes through continuous adaptation, autonomous coordination, and real-time operational execution. Unlike traditional artificial intelligence applications focused on discrete decision-making tasks, Agentic AI systems operate continuously and interact dynamically with organizational environments. Existing AI ethics literature has primarily emphasized issues such as fairness, bias, transparency, and accountability within static or decision-centric AI contexts. Similarly, traditional AI alignment research has largely focused on ensuring that AI systems pursue intended goals and remain controllable under specified operational conditions. However, these approaches may be insufficient for explaining how ethical risks evolve with continuously operating autonomous …

In Search Of The Soul Of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, And Meaning In Refractive Collaboration With Generative Ai, Fatima Nazir

Theses and Dissertations

When images can be generated in seconds, what remains uniquely human in the act of creation? In Search of the Soul of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, and Meaning in Refractive Collaboration with Generative AI investigates where authorship, agency, and meaning reside within design practices mediated by generative AI. Rather than using AI to produce predictable results, this research deliberately relinquishes control to observe how generative systems interpret language through their own learned associations. Through a practice-led investigation across four generative models within the Higgsfield platform, user prompts were progressively shortened from full sentences to single words, revealing recurring patterns and cultural …

Injectable Hydrogels For Bone Regeneration: Mechanical Reinforcement Strategies Using Nanoparticles And Nanofibers: Review Paper, Fariba Ganji, Morteza Mirzagoli, Lobat Tayebi

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Background and Purpose: The growing demand for bone regeneration following severe injuries highlights the importance of scaffolds in bone tissue engineering (BTE). Injectable hydrogels have emerged as promising candidates because their properties closely mimic the native extracellular matrix (ECM). However, their limited mechanical strength and structural instability restrict their practical application. Approach: This review summarizes recent strategies for reinforcing in situ-forming injectable hydrogels to improve their mechanical performance for bone regeneration. Particular emphasis is placed on nanomaterial-based strategies, including the incorporation of nanoparticles and nanofibers, and their ability to enhance the physical properties of polymeric networks. Key Results: Evidence from …

Digital Twin Technologies For Battery Systems: Advancements, Applications, And Future Directions, Seyed Saeed Madani, Yasmin Shabeer, Michael Fowler, Satyam Panchal, Carlos Ziebert, Hicham Chaoui, François Allard

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The relationships among deep learning, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI), and the most recent advancements in digital twin (DT) technology for battery energy storage systems are discussed in this paper. The study highlights the need for improved cloud-edge coordination, AI model development, and stronger cybersecurity features by demonstrating real-world applications of digital twin technology in electric vehicles (EVs), aircraft, and grid storage. It also described DT-based structures for fault detection, real-time monitoring, and optimization through standardization and battery management system (BMS) fusion. Because DT-based solutions for distributed energy resources (DERs) offer improved energy management systems, various studies have been conducted …

Automated Writer And Acquisition-Condition Classification Of Digitally Captured Handwriting Using Statistical Dynamic Features And Support Vector Machines, Long-Huang Tsai, Hsiang-Ju Lai, Wen-Chao Yang, Jiajun Jiang, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

Digitally captured handwriting preserves pen trajectories and dynamic signals, but it also records hardware- and input-dependent properties that can confound forensic interpretation. This study revises a support vector machine (SVM) screening framework using 16,500 samples from 30 writers, 11 writing-content categories, and five acquisition conditions spanning three tablets and stylus or finger input. Twenty-four raw and derived time-series variables were summarized by maximum, minimum, mean, median, and standard deviation, yielding 120 features; the mode statistic was removed. Writing direction and angular velocity were recalculated with atan2-based vector formulas. Unavailable device/API channels were encoded as zero, and Z-score parameters were estimated …

Stabilized Multi-Objective Optimization For Camouflage Attack In Remote Sensing, Omid Rajabi Rostami, Kazi Aminul Islam, Liuwan Zhu, Rui Ning, Chungsheng Xin, Hongyi Wu, Jiang Li

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

We investigate the vulnerability of multi-task maritime surveillance systems in which object detection and semantic segmentation operate concurrently. We propose Stabilized Multi-Objective Optimization (SMO), a framework that jointly targets Mask R-CNN and U-Net with a single universal adversarial texture in a digital white-box setting, with additional cross-model transfer evaluation. SMO combines a logarithmic-inversion loss transformation, feature inconsistency, and a systematic comparison of six optimization strategies for seven heterogeneous objectives. The loss transformation controls loss-dependent gradient scaling, while a U-Net generator supplies a spatially coherent texture and a hull-aligned application function accommodates target geometry without explicit Expectation over Transformation (EoT) sampling. …

Undermining Discretion: The Selective Attacks On Progressive Prosecutors, Angela J. Davis

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Prosecutors are the most powerful officials in the criminal legal system. They decide whether to bring criminal charges and what those criminal charges should be. These decisions are totally within their discretion. The U.S. Supreme Court has consistently protected the power and discretion of prosecutors in making these decisions, and legal challenges to the exercise of prosecutorial discretion have been largely unsuccessful.

In recent years, a growing number of individuals have successfully run for chief prosecutor on platforms of reducing the prison and jail populations, consistent with public safety. They pledged to use their power and discretion to implement policies …

Misinformation And The Law, Gustavo Ribeiro

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

This Article bridges critical gaps between the growing body of social science research on misinformation and the persistent challenges jurors face in evaluating potentially unreliable evidence in courtrooms. Misinformation—a pervasive issue undermining decision-making in democratic societies—mirrors the difficulties jurors encounter in distinguishing truth from falsehood amid compelling but unreliable evidence. The consequences of such challenges are dire: wrongful convictions, racial disparities, and the erosion of public trust in the legal system.

This Article is the first piece of legal scholarship to provide a comprehensive discussion of current research on the psychological mechanisms underlying susceptibility to misinformation—such as the illusory truth …

The New Neccesity, Ezra Rosser

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, cities are free to criminalize homelessness. The 2024 case City of Grants Pass v. Johnson is the most important homelessness case in decades and was a significant blow to advocates for the unhoused. The conservative majority rejected the idea that city ordinances criminalizing sleeping in public amounted to cruel and unusual punishment insofar as they penalized status. There is no sidestepping the loss. But within the faint glow of the embers of the oral argument and of the decision itself, there is the possibility that a new understanding of necessity, supported by the same …

Application Of Organic Geochemistry To The Characterization Of Hydrochar And Biochar: Insights Into Composition And Optimization, Michael A. Kruge, Teresa A. Centeno, Alvaro Amado-Fierro, José Manuel González-Lafuente, Rubén Forján, José Luis Gallego

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Hydrothermal carbonization has garnered significant attention in recent studies due to potential applications of the hydrochar produced, which overlap with those of torrefied biochar, including soil improvement, carbon sequestration, and energy production. However, unlike the relatively uniform properties of biochar, hydrochar characteristics can vary greatly depending on the feedstock used. Advanced characterization techniques are essential to better understand these materials and enhance their practical applications. Research on hydrochar requires a multi-faceted approach, including molecular-level studies, to optimize production processes and identify specific applications.

In this regard, analytical methods commonly used in organic geochemistry could play a crucial role in deepening …

Workforce Development Academy For Youth, Hassan Hashemian

Mineta Transportation Institute

To address the need for a diverse workforce in the 21st century and create an awareness of the career paths and opportunities that exist in the transportation industry, the College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology at the California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA) has created the Workforce Development Academy for Youth (WDAY). The goal of this program is to build a pipeline of diverse, well-qualified young professionals for the transportation industry. The program works with high school students and teachers to offer academic courses, basic skills, workforce readiness training, internships, extracurricular activities, and career placements to prepare students and …

Examining The Current And Potential Impacts Of Erosion, Flooding, And Permafrost Thaw On Small Businesses In The Lower Kuskokwim Basin, Alaska, Dela Yao Agbagba

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Climate change has intensified hazards such as flooding, erosion, and permafrost thaw in Arctic Communities, threatening small business buildings, disrupting operations, and reducing income. Small businesses are important to these communities because they provide essential goods and services and support local economic activity. Understanding their vulnerability and adaptation needs is therefore important for sustaining communities in the Lower Kuskokwim Basin, Alaska.

This study used GIS spatial analysis and content analysis as its two main methods, supported by a limited number of semi-structured interviews. A spatial database of 78 businesses across seven Alaska Native Communities was developed, and flood susceptibility was …

The Balance Of Power In Ukraine And Deterrence Effectivenes Against Nuclear-Armed Russia, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has raised several significant questions regarding the impact of deterrence, the European balance of power and the ability of current security frameworks to restrict the actions of nuclear-armed revisionist powers. This paper uses an integrated theoretical framework consisting of deterrence theory, the balance of power theory, the security dilemma and neorealism to analyze the dynamic relationships between Russia, Ukraine and the Western alliance. The primary contribution of the paper is to develop a comprehensive analytical framework to evaluate the relationship between different aspects of deterrence (i.e., to prevent an initial attack, to limit further escalation and …

Great Power Competition In Africa: Sustaining Openness Amidst Transnational Threats And Authoritarian Fragmentation, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

As the United States seeks to position itself in an increasingly competitive world, Africa has emerged as an increasingly key arena of great power competition where the United States, China, and Russia are competing to determine the nature of political norms, economic governance and security architecture on the continent.

The combination of growing transnational threats (such as terrorism, pandemics, climate-related instability, and digital vulnerability), and growing authoritarianism, has transformed the continent into a testbed for competing visions of international order. In light of this backdrop, this paper posits that the United States must pursue a strategy of sustained strategic openness …

Security Governance In Post-Colonial Africa And Implications On Democratic Institutions, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

This paper will evaluate how security governance contributes to both the development of democracy and the establishment of stable institutions within newly independent post-colonial states in Africa. Security governance is examined here as it relates to the long-term influence of colonial legacy, military presence, and the politicization of the security services. The authors have based their analysis of this issue on qualitative data gathered from Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and Kenya. The findings of the research suggest that unless security sectors are subject to civilian oversight and adhere to democratic principles, they tend to serve the …

The Evolving Beijing Consensus: Chinese Communist Party Political Control And Economic Trade Offs, Ian Murphy

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

China’s rapid economic rise and unique development trajectory have long been the subject of scholarly debate, often framed through the concept of the “Beijing Consensus” as an alternative to the Washington Consensus. While initial conceptualizations highlight innovation, sustainability, and national sovereignty, later analyses highlighted elements like state capitalism and authoritarianism, particularly in the wake of the 2008 Global Financial Crisis. This paper argues that the Beijing Consensus is undergoing a significant evolution under Chairman Xi Jinping, increasingly prioritizing the Chinese Communist Party’s political security, regime stability, and ideological control at the expense of economic growth. This marks a notable departure …

Nuclear Deterrence And The Security Dilemma In A Complex Multipolar World, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Objectives: The purpose of this research project is to examine how nuclear deterrence intersects with the concept of security dilemma, i.e., when a state takes an action intended to increase its own security it may inadvertently create a risk or threat to another state and contribute to increased levels of tension. Fourth, how nuclear and conventional systems are becoming increasingly interconnected, which will serve to potentially amplify risks associated with these systems.

Methods: Utilizing a qualitative analytical approach of documents such as national strategy documents, defense policy statements and historical records of crises dating from 1945-2025, the study identifies four …

The Contested Kinmen Model, Ian Murphy

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

[Introduction] Kinmen County, Taiwan, stands as an anomaly in East Asia- it is an archipelago administered by Taipei but visually and geographically tethered to the coastline of the People's Republic of China (PRC). For over seven decades, these islands have served as the physical frontline of the unfinished Chinese Civil War, functioning first as a kinetic battleground and later as a laboratory for cross-strait engagement. Yet, to view Kinmen as a relic of the Cold War is to miss it's contemporary strategic significance. The region has now become the primary theater for the PRC's "Kinmen Model" (Jinmen Moshi, symbols redacted), …

Trigonometric Continuous-Variable Gates And Hybrid Quantum Simulations Of The Sine-Gordon Model, Tommaso Rainaldi, Victor Ale, Matt Grau, Dmitri Kharzeev, Enrique Rico, Felix Ringer, Pubasha Shome, George Siopsis

Physics Faculty Publications

Hybrid qubit-qumode quantum computing platforms provide a natural setting for simulating interacting bosonic quantum field theories. However, existing continuous-variable gate constructions rely predominantly on polynomial functions of canonical quadratures. In this work, we introduce a complementary universality paradigm based on trigonometric continuous-variable gates, which enable a Fourier-like representation of bosonic operators and are particularly well suited for periodic and non-perturbative interactions. We present an ancilla-based framework for implementing trigonometric gates with arguments given by arbitrary Hermitian functions of qumode quadratures. The protocol yields unitary gates deterministically, and non-unitary gates through probabilistic post-selection. As a concrete application, we develop a hybrid …

Intensive Longitudinal Methods: Toward A Psychological Science Of Daily Life, Jean-Philippe Laurenceau, Ana M. Digiovanni, Niall Bolger

Department of Psychology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Intensive longitudinal methods (ILMs) represent a class of longitudinal designs used to understand the flow of people's thoughts, feelings, physiology, and behaviors in their natural settings. This term encompasses daily diaries, experience sampling, ecological momentary assessment, ambulatory assessment, and related methods. Research on ILMs has grown exponentially, evolving into a core approach that complements more traditional designs. This article builds on this journal's first review on this topic, published in 2003. In the quarter-century since, there have been marked advances in design, technology, and statistical modeling. Three core ideas permeate this review: To build adequate theories of psychological functioning in …

Table Of Contents

The Judges' Book

No abstract provided.

Foreword, Alex G. Tse

The Judges' Book

No abstract provided.

Civil Procedure: The Complexities Of Consent To Personal Jurisdiction, Scott Dodson

The Judges' Book

In Mallory v. Norfolk Southern Railway Co., the Supreme Court decided a personal-jurisdiction case outside the minimum contacts framework for the first time since 1990. Five justices deemed consent to be a method of establishing personal jurisdiction without regard to International Shoe. And, relying on pre-Shoe precedent, the Court held the defendant to have consented to general personal jurisdiction in Pennsylvania by complying with that state’s unique business-registration statute, which permitted its courts to “exercise general personal jurisdiction” over a registered corporation.

Mallory could be read as treating consent to personal jurisdiction as a simple, monolithic concept. …

Civil Procedure: Personal Jurisdiction And Federalism, Scott Dodson

The Judges' Book

The historical development of personal jurisdiction has featured an important interstate-federalism aim: to keep harmony among sovereign states. By purporting to use state borders to partition case allocation among states, personal jurisdiction follows the mantra that good fences make good neighbors.

This structural component fits uncomfortably with the idea of personal jurisdiction as an agent of the individual right protected by the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. Due process, after all, concerns a state’s relationship to a defendant, not the state’s relationship to another state.

In this chapter, I argue that whatever interstate-federalism value personal jurisdiction might, in theory, protect, the …