Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring Teachers’ Lived Experiences: The Impact Of Wellness On Student Engagement And Behavior In Third-Grade Classrooms, Tiffany L. Jackson

Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored teachers' lived experiences implementing student wellness initiatives in the classroom and examined their views on how these initiatives affected student engagement and behavior. In this study, participants had the opportunity to express their views on implementing wellness practices in the classroom and on how these initiatives impacted student engagement and behavior. The research was guided by theoretical frameworks related to wellness, emotional and social intelligence, and relational perspectives. Semi-structured one-on-one interviews were the primary data source, and interview notes will serve as secondary data. This study addressed three research questions: (1) What are teachers' lived …

The Efficacy Of Ethical Data: An Analytical Study By, Lamar Gebara

Theses

As artificial intelligence and machine learning models become increasingly embedded in decision-making systems across industries, questions about the ethical sourcing of data have grown more pressing; model performance relies heavily on vast, diverse datasets, many of which are harvested without consent, transparency, or equitable representation. This study aims to compare analytics outcomes (accuracy, bias, fairness, and explainability) between ethically sourced and unethically sourced datasets. Using CRISP-DM methodology, the study will develop matched classification models on both dataset types, evaluate their performance and fairness using open-source tools such as Fairlearn and AIF360, and assess broader implications for trust, accountability, and regulatory …

Topological Perspective On Temporal Climate Networks, Daniel Oleynikov

Theses

Networks are highly effective tools for analyzing the dynamics of Earth’s climate system. In this approach, nodes represent geographical locations and edges represent correlations or causal relationships with respect to climate fields, such as air and sea surface temperatures. We extend this technique by integrating it with topological data analysis (TDA), which shifts the focus from pairwise relationships—typical of conventional network methods—to higher-order interactions among geographic locations. Through techniques such as persistent homology and simplicial distributions, we investigate how the global climate dynamics—summarized by this representation—have evolved over the last 75 years. Additionally, we evaluate changes in oceanic connectivity with …

Neuropsychological Functioning And Coping Strategy Intervention Approaches In Youth With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Kalliopi Megari, Dimitra V. Katsarou, Georgios A. Kougioumtzis, Evangelos Mantsos, Maria Sofologi, Agathi Argyriadi, Alexandros Argyriadis, Efthymia Efthymiou

All Works

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in ages 3–18 is associated with disturbances in attention, working memory, processing speed, and executive control, as well as persistent difficulties in affect regulation. These neuropsychological vulnerabilities might interfere with learning, peer relationships, and the consolidation of age-appropriate developmental skills. Methods: We conducted a narrative review informed by a structured literature search in PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Embase, EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. English-language publications from 1990 to 2025 were considered if they examined (1) neuropsychological outcomes of trauma exposure or PTSD in youth and/or (2) interventions with potential to modify neurocognitive or affective …

Wrestling With Morality: A Study On Moral Identity And Social Behavior In Individual Sports, Julia Isabella Ybarra

Dissertations

The development of moral reasoning and social behavior in adolescents and young adults is critical to healthy functioning. Sport participation is frequently assumed to promote positive developmental outcomes; however, the moral implications of participation in combative sports such as wrestling remain debated. Wrestling differs from many team and individual sports due to its physically dominant and one-on-one competitive structure, raising questions regarding how involvement may relate to moral identity, moral disengagement, and social behavior. The purpose of this exploratory quantitative study was to examine associations among moral identity, moral disengagement, and prosocial and antisocial behavior in adolescent and young adult …

Applying The Job–Demands-Resources Model To Uncover Influences On Continuity Outcomes For Caregivers Of Individuals With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities, Nancy J. Potter

Dissertations

Home-based, shared living caregivers provide a vital safety net for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived job demands and job resources that influence continuity-related outcomes among caregivers supporting individuals with IDD within a shared living service model.

Three research questions guided this study:

Q1 How are job demands and caregiver outcomes related?

Q2 Do resources moderate the relationship between caregiver outcomes and job demands?

Q3 Does the moderating effect of resources on the relationship between job demands and caregiver outcomes differ by caregiver relationship type?

The study methodology examined …

Protecting The Public: The Impact Of Continued Competence Regulations On Nursing Disciplinary Rates, Laura Katherine Blackhurst

Dissertations

Nursing competence is essential for the provision of quality, ethical, legal, safe patient care. NRBs serve a critical role in establishing standards for nurses that lead to the protection of the public. While most NRBs mandate some measure of ongoing competence, there is notable variation in NRB competence regulations. While competence regulations should reduce the need for nursing discipline, there is limited evidence regarding the effectiveness of these regulations in promoting public protection.

The purpose of this study was to explore how continued competence regulations impact the disciplinary rate of registered nurses. The following research questions guided this study:

Q1 …

The Use And Efficacy Of Non-Verbal Gestures In Applied Studio Voice Instruction And Vocal Coaching, Mark Eugene Lubas

Dissertations

Despite important innovations in the use of technology in vocal instruction, individualized, faceto- face communication remains the predominant delivery modality for applied voice lessons and vocal coaching. Applied voice instructors and vocal coaches consistently identify non-verbal, gestural communication as a significant dimension of these instructional interactions. Existing scholarship has examined the expressive use of gesture in musical performance, the role of gesture in facilitating pitch accuracy acquisition among young singers, and the neurological responses of singers to gestural input. However, systematic investigation of gesture as a pedagogical instrument from the perspective of the instructor remains underdeveloped in the literature. This …

Reconsidering The Undergraduate Viola Canon: A Skill Based Framework For Repertoire Expansion, Daniella Isabel Angulo Martinez

Dissertations

This research analyses the limitations of the standard undergraduate viola repertoire and proposes a structured, skill-based framework for its expansion. Within collegiate viola programs in the United States, training frequently focuses on a limited group of orchestra-accompanied works, particularly those by Telemann, Stamitz, Bruch, and Walton. While these works have a great pedagogical value, their dominance has contributed to a restricted repertoire that can limit students’ technical development, musical style knowledge, and artistic growth.

Based on the pedagogical standards of the American String Teachers Association (ASTA), this research identifies five core performance domains - technique, rhythm, intonation, tone projection, and …

A Phenomenological Examination Of Value Recognition And Development In Mental Health Counselors-In-Training, Luke Erskine Steinman

Dissertations

The importance of values in therapy is well recognized and documented in the field of mental health counseling, despite this, the implementation of value-based instruction into formal training is often unclear and inconsistent. As such, the purpose of this study was to investigate how CITs recognized their personal and professional values; the impact those values have on their work and personal lives; how their values developed throughout the course of their training; and what factors influenced that development. This was done with the hopes of better understanding how these areas shape their professional practice. Research questions examined how CITs recognize …

Feedback Without Content Expertise: Exploring Teacher Perception Of Effective Feedback In Teacher Evaluations With Content Mismatch, Anna Keathley Bergeron

Dissertations

A key element of teacher evaluation systems is to support professional growth by providing teachers with feedback on their instructional practices and identifying opportunities for improvement. Despite this intent, research consistently indicates that teachers often perceive evaluation feedback as vague, generic, or disconnected from their instructional context. These concerns are particularly evident at the secondary level, where evaluators frequently assess teachers outside their area of content expertise. As a result, recent research suggests that a lack of content knowledge may serve as a barrier to providing meaningful feedback.

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to examine how …

Social Correlates Of Trauma And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Importance Of Context, Lukoye Atwoli, Linnet Ongeri

Internal Medicine, East Africa

Understanding trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) requires a contextual perspective that considers historical legacies, social environments, and cultural realities. This paper draws on empirical evidence from Kenya and Uganda to demonstrate the limitations of applying trauma frameworks developed in high-income countries to African contexts. Findings from the Orphaned and Separated Children’s Assessment Related to Their Health and Well-Being (OSCAR) study challenge assumptions about care environments. The study reveals higher PTSD rates among orphans in family-based settings compared to institutional care, and highlights the protective roles of religion and social support. The Neuropsychiatric Genetics of African Populations-Psychosis (NeuroGAP-Psychosis) study provides …

Sensing Rna’S Conformation With A Solid-State Nanopore Device At Various Ph And Temperature, Haopeng Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study uses solid-state nanopore technology to investigate the stability and dynamics of RNA molecules under thermal stress and pH fluctuations. Two distinct mRNA samples were analyzed: (1) heat shock protein (HSP)-encoding mRNA extracted from Sulfolobus solfataricus P2, a thermophilic archaeon inhabiting extreme environments such as geothermal sulfuric hot springs (pH < 4, temperature range: 65–90°C), and (2) total RNA extracted from White Leghorn chickens, which thrive under standard physiological conditions. ΦX174 virion single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) were included as a comparative reference. Nanopores, fabricated in silicon nitride membranes, were used to electrically characterize the structural properties of individual RNA molecules in solution, close to their native environments. The nanopore membrane separates two chambers containing salt buffer solution, where ionic current is the primary measurement parameter. When a voltage bias is applied across the membrane, ion flow and an ionic current can be measured. Charged RNA molecules driven translocation through the nanopore induces pore resistance changes, resulting in detectable current blockade events. Variations in these events provide insights into RNA secondary structure and conformational dynamics. By systematically altering pH and temperature, this study elucidates the effects of environmental stressors on RNA stability and structural integrity. The findings reveal distinct responses between thermophilic HSP-encoding mRNA and mesophilic RNA, underscoring the adaptive mechanisms of thermophilic RNA under extreme conditions. These results contribute to a better understanding of RNA behavior under stress and establish a foundation for future applications in RNA-based diagnostics and biotechnology development.

Nadh Flim Reveals Cellular Bioenergetics And Mitochondrial Morphology During Drosophila Convergent Extension, Maria Espana Pena

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mitochondria are dynamic organelles that can fragment or fuse to support different bioenergetic demands and cellular processes, although the role of mitochondrial fission and fusion during embryonic development is not well understood. Fluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) of the mitochondrial cofactor NADH can be used to visualize mitochondrial networks and infer aspects of cellular bioenergetics in a label-free manner. We used NADH FLIM to test whether germband cells undergo changes in cellular metabolism during Drosophila convergent extension (CE)––a process in which hundreds of epithelial cells undergo coordinated intercalation to elongate the embryo. Contrary to our expectations, we did not observe significant …

Conservation Wins And Woes: A Meta-Synthesis Of Ecotourism Impacts On Primates And Local Communities, Madison Lanie Mckinniss

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Biodiversity assessments identify 612 extant species of primate, but ~50% of these species are at risk of extinction. Threats include agricultural and industrial production, urban development, and poaching. As concerns have grown regarding impacts on the environment, researchers have proposed ecotourism as a tool for conserving ecosystems while improving human welfare. Although conservation initiatives are pursued at these ecotourist sites, the presence of humans can cause additional influences on non-human primates (NHP). Primatologists have posed questions regarding implications of ecotourism on NHP, but research remains scarce. This study will investigate the practices executed at ecotourist sites where endemic NHPs reside. …

Ꭰꮎꮰꭶ (Missing): A Phenomenological Study Of Native American Student Experiences In The Law School Setting, Christina Allene Shaw

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The legal landscape for Native American people in the United States is ever evolving and highly nuanced, with its historical foundation anchored into the classical pilasters of American legal jurisprudence. Federal Indian law scholars place that historical foundation within the written opinions of Chief Justice Marshall dating back to the 1820s and 1830s (Fletcher, 2024). Although few law students will likely find themselves closely examining the unassigned readings of the Marshall Trilogy or contemporary federal Indian law, there is one small group of students in law school doing exactly that: Native American law students. American Indians and Alaska Natives are …

Writing Through The Plague: Memory, Trauma, And Survival In Arabic And English Narrative, Zainab Abbood Jawhar Aldaoseri

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how Arabic and English literary and intellectual traditions responded to the Black Death as a shared yet differently articulated experience of collective trauma. Drawing on trauma theory, particularly the work of Cathy Caruth and Dominick LaCapra, it analyzes how plague narratives function as cultural mechanisms for processing mass suffering. Through a comparative study of Arabic historiographical, theological, medical, and poetic texts alongside English allegorical, mystical, autobiographical, and satirical writings, this project argues that both traditions developed distinct narrative strategies to render the trauma of plague intelligible. Arabic plague literature, represented by figures such as Ibn Khaldūn, Ibn …

Revocation Reconsidered: Probation Advocacy Through A Litigation Lens, Shira M. Diner

Faculty Scholarship

Being found in violation of probation has dire consequences. The person found in violation can be imprisoned, upending them from their job, family, and community. Unlike incarceration after a criminal trial, a sentence after a violation of probation is not the result of a legal process characterized by robust due process protections. It is also often not the result of a forceful and thorough defense. It is instead the consequence of a hearing where lawyers with the fixed mindset of an inevitable finding of a violation don’t engage in the same preparation that they would if it was a trial. …

Antidiscrimination, Not Anti-Dei: The Real Story Of The Supreme Court's Recent Title Vii Precedent, Madeline H. Meth

Faculty Scholarship

For several years, my colleague and I had been litigating employment discrimination cases with facts that shocked our friends and family. For example, we fought Dallas County over a women-work-the-weekend policy that required women detention officers to work weekends while male colleagues took the weekends off. Likewise, we challenged the City of Cleveland when it moved our client, an emergency medical services supervisor, from the day shift to the night shift explicitly because he is Black. Then, in April 2024, in one of our client’s cases, Muldrow v. City of St. Louis, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overruled the …

How Ai Destroys Institutions, Woodrow Hartzog, Jessica Silbey

Faculty Scholarship

Civic institutions—the rule of law, universities, and a free press—are the backbone of democratic life. They are the mechanisms through which complex societies encourage cooperation and stability, while also adapting to changing circumstances. The real superpower of institutions is their ability to evolve and adapt within a hierarchy of authority and a framework for roles and rules, while maintaining legitimacy for the knowledge produced and the actions taken. Purpose-driven institutions built around transparency, cooperation, and accountability empower individuals to take intellectual risks and challenge the status quo. This happens through the machinations of interpersonal relationships within those institutions, which broaden …

The Secret Science Of Songs. Created By All Children Everywhere, Paul G. Morehouse Phd

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This field article introduces The Secret Science of Songs, a research-informed, practice-based framework that reconceptualizes songs as powerful, transdisciplinary tools in early childhood education. Drawing on over 40 years of classroom-based action research alongside established findings in cognitive science and music perception, the framework argues that young children’s engagement with songs is rooted not primarily in performance skill, but in their innate capacity to perceive and process auditory patterns in music and language. These pattern-based experiences constitute a rich aesthetic and cognitive domain through which children construct meaning, long before mastery of melody or verbal precision emerges.

The article …

Strategies In Bargaining Faculty Retrenchment Provisions: Insights From Cases Of Implementing Contract Language, Gary Rhoades

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

In this article on faculty (and professional staff) retrenchment, based on my recent national analysis of 506 collective bargaining agreements, I delineate four strategies to negotiating the topic found in contract provisions (with more than one strategy often found in the same contract). The strategies are: Procedural (focused on due process); consultative (addressing employee involvement in deliberations); conditional (defining pre-conditions of retrenchment); and re-alignment (speaking to reversing the decades-long relative disinvestment in academic and student facing professional staff). In exploring four cases of institutions—two community colleges and two universities—experiencing retrenchment, I consider how the contract provisions have played out in …

Forcing The Issue: Nebraska’S Collective Bargaining Stand-Off, Shannon Cummins

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This paper describes the unusual collective bargaining landscape for public academic institutions in the state of Nebraska where state legislation has mandated both pay transparency and limits to the collective bargaining process. Specifically, it explores the unprecedented 2024-2025 bargaining cycle which relied on innovative union tactics of nationwide freedom of information requests (FOIA) to reach contract agreement in the face of twelve years of administration stonewalling tactics. The case study of Nebraska is important as it provides an actual account of negotiations where state limits on collective bargaining have yet to be tested in the courts.

One Faculty, One Mission: A Unified Faculty Model For California Community Colleges, Debbie Klein

Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy

This article advances a unified, non-tiered faculty model as essential to fulfilling the mission of the California Community Colleges (CCC) system. Although the system is charged with realizing open access and educational equity, nearly 70% of faculty serve in part-time or contingent roles—often without proportional compensation, institutional stability, or meaningful participation in governance. Drawing on research demonstrating that faculty working conditions shape student learning conditions, the article argues that structural employment inequities undermine the system’s democratic promise. Situating the proposal within national “One Faculty” efforts and recent legislative attention to pay parity in California, it demonstrates that reform is both …

Pepperdine Journal Of Communication Research: Volume 14, Issues 1-2, 2026, Kampton Carter

Pepperdine Journal of Communication Research

No abstract provided.

Leading Academic Health Centers In Times Of Uncertainty, Wendy L. Ward

Marshall Journal of Medicine

Times of uncertainty and rapid change can negatively impact academic health centers (AHC) in complex ways, creating challenges for leaders. These include policy uncertainty, financial instability, workforce stress, reputational risk, operational disruptions, and advocacy pressure. There are also potential opportunities for AHCs during this time of immense change and disruption. This perspective piece reviews the diverse negative and positive impacts of political turmoil on academic health centers. Five considerations are offered for leaders navigating times of uncertainty.

Field Notes: Introducing Godly Play In Cross-Cultural Contexts: Notes From A Short-Term Mission Trip In Kenya, Shannon Clarkson Rains

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

This field note explores the use of Godly Play in a short-term mission context in Kitale, Kenya. It focuses on the author’s experience using this method to limit the temptation to impose one’s own theological and cultural interpretation when teaching Bible stories. While Godly Play emphasizes open-ended wondering, participants often hesitated to respond, reflecting familiarity with didactic learning environments. The study highlights how prior knowledge, language, and adult mediation influence theological engagement. It argues that pedagogy itself is culturally embedded and offers practical implications for cross-cultural ministry, including the need for cultural awareness, translator preparation, and realistic expectations for short-term …

Witness Beyond Technique: Gospel, Conversion, And The Moral Formation Of The Church, Christopher Flanders

Discernment: Theology and the Practice of Ministry

Technique, efficiency, and measurable outcomes typically govern contemporary Western approaches to evangelism. Such approaches presume a thin account of the gospel, a punctiliar understanding of conversion, and an instrumental view of the church’s witness. This article argues that these assumptions represent not merely pragmatic missteps but theological distortions. Drawing on Scripture, historical theology, missiology, and practices of Christian initiation, I contend that evangelism is best understood as ecclesial witness oriented toward the moral formation of persons and communities under the reign of God. Conversion, on this account, is not a discrete decision secured through persuasive technique but a transformative journey …

Va Dent J July, August And September 2020

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Technical Complications In Implant Restorations, Sorin Uram-Tuculescu D.D.S., M.S., Ph.D.

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.