Digital Commons Network^™

The Prospect Of F.E.W. Resources: How Food, Energy, And Waste Management Workforce Programs Address Global Equity And Sustainability, Quincy P. Biddle

Student Theses 2015-Present

As a global society, the issues affecting a specific city or country are no longer isolated; instead, they impact other places in myriad ways. Over the past few decades, environmental degradation and economic inequality, both within and between countries, have caused shortages of necessities like food and water, inadequate access to safe energy sources, and increased pollution, impacting people’s prosperity and the well-being of the planet. It is of global interest to remediate these issues for the betterment and progress of society, and thus, an approach to addressing these complications collectively and comprehensively is of utmost importance. This paper investigates …

Secondhand Or Second-Class? Environmental Injustice In Global Textile Waste Trade, Wendy S. Escalante

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the issue of textile waste dumping, specifically how secondhand clothing exports from the Global North create environmental, social, and public health burdens in the Global South. The study focuses on case studies in Chile’s Atacama Desert, where shipments of used clothing overwhelm local waste infrastructures and worsen patterns of environmental injustice. Chapter 1 describes the global flows of textile waste, including trade volumes, landfill accumulation, and the impacts of discarded clothing on ecosystem services such as clean water, fertile soils, and breathable air, alongside health risks from microplastic pollution, toxic runoff, and respiratory hazards from textile fires. …

Lithium Extraction In Chile, Estrella Pallares Medina

Student Theses 2015-Present

This article examines the environmental, political, and economic dimensions of lithium mining in Chile's Atacama Desert, a critical site within South America's "Lithium Triangle." Chapter 1 utilizes both quantitative and qualitative data to introduce the environmental problems of water shortage, ecosystem stress, and biodiversity loss associated with lithium mining, presented within the framework of the ecosystem services approach. This approach categorizes the impacts into four categories: supporting, regulating, provisioning, and cultural, which affect both human and ecological well-being. Chapter 2 applies the academic field of political ecology to analyze how corporate accountability, government policy, and governance shape environmental performance and …

A Sturdy Future: Mangrove Restoration Against Climate Extremes, Gabriella Marie Siasoco

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper addresses the impacts of climate change on natural disasters and examines how rehabilitation of mangrove forests in Mesoamerica and the Caribbean can mitigate those effects. Rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures contribute to higher sea levels and more severe hurricanes and tropical storms, characterized by increased frequency, duration, and intensity in peak winds, storm surges, and rainfall. Mangrove ecosystems act as vital buffers against coastal disturbances such as tsunamis and extreme storms, while contributing to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Additionally, they improve water quality by filtering nutrients, preventing eutrophication. Despite their ecological and economic value, mangroves in …

Isolated By Design: An Analysis Of The Texas Energy Grid, Samantha Prado

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper examines how climate change impacts Texas’s energy grid and identifies strategies for building grid resilience by focusing on renewable energy solutions and the inclusion of marginalized groups in decision-making processes. Understanding the conditions that led to the 2021 energy crisis and how they continue to impact Texas residents is critical in advocating for policy reform and climate adaptation. Therefore, the paper begins with the grid’s failure during Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 to demonstrate how the crisis resulted from extreme weather, market design, policy choices, and inadequate infrastructure. Chapter One analyzes the environmental impact of generating electricity …

Solid Waste Management In Greater Khartoum City, Sudan, Roba Mahmoud

Student Theses 2015-Present

This study investigates the rising solid waste management (SWM) dilemma in Greater Khartoum City (GKC), a critical environmental and public health issue caused by fast urbanization and inadequate infrastructure, with historical linkages to Sudan's colonial and postcolonial growth. Chapter 1 describes the current problem using quantitative and qualitative data, demonstrating that GKC produces approximately 3,340 tons of waste each day, with 56% organic matter, 8% plastics, and 16% paper. Collection efficiency remains severely poor, at 31.5%. Informal recyclers known as Nakasha or Barkata collect approximately 7% of total waste, supporting roughly 3,900 people, whereas filthy open dumps and unsorted medical …

Bio 340 Final Project: A Comparative Analysis Of German And French Energy Policy, Adam Garies

Biology Student Scholarship

Adam Garies - Environmental Biology ‘28

European energy systems have undergone rapid transformation over the past two decades, with countries adopting different strategies to reduce carbon emissions. This divergence is particularly evident between Germany and France. Following the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Germany accelerated its nuclear phase-out, while France has declared its commitment to nuclear energy. Nuclear energy however, is an important step towards reducing carbon emissions. Excluding nuclear energy from energy plans will lead to a rise in reliance on potent fossil fuels like coal and natural gas, resulting in greater carbon emissions, even with an emphasis on expanding …

Art Foundations In Student Digital Game Projects Within Online Learning, Isabelle John

Art 895 Research Papers

This qualitative study examined how traditional art foundations are reflected in student-created digital game projects developed within an online learning environment. As digital game-making becomes increasingly prevalent in art education, students engage in complex, visual decision-making that extends beyond technical execution. Through the analysis of student digital game artifacts, this study explored the presence of foundational art concepts, such as composition, color, spatial organization, visual hierarchy, and visual culture. Using a constructivist qualitative approach and visual artifact analysis, the study identified patterns in how art foundations were applied within online learning contexts.

Findings indicate that while art foundations were consistently …

Artistic Thinking In Stem Contexts: A Comparative Arts-Based Case Study Of Studio Habits Of Mind And Stem Thinking Frameworks, Annmarie Andersen

Art 895 Research Papers

STEM-aligned schools often include arts through STEAM initiatives, but it is unclear how artistic thinking actually complements or differs from STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) thinking. Studio Thinking research identifies Studio Habits of Mind (SHoM) as ways students think and learn through artmaking many of which parallel STEM competencies (thinking practices) such as problem-solving, modeling, and iterative design (Hetland, et al., 2013; Laquea, 2024).

Using student artwork, sketches, and student reflections as primary evidence, this comparative arts-based case study compares how Studio Habits of Mind align with and diverge from STEM thinking frameworks. By comparing these forms of evidence, the …

How Open Is Merlot? A Descriptive Study Of Oer Availability In A Major Learning Object Repository., James Thibeault, Jamie Schmidt

Open Educational Resources Publications

The Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) has long been regarded as a reputable source of open educational resources (OER). However, this reputation has rarely been subjected to systematic empirical scrutiny. This preliminary descriptive study examines how reliably MERLOT's Business section surfaces OER. Using a browsing-based methodology mirroring typical user behavior, 500 catalog records were manually evaluated across six access status categories. Results indicate that only 134 of 500 sampled resources (26.8%) qualify as OER under a definition requiring both open licensing and immediate accessibility. Of the 315 live links, 42.5% were OER, while 136 records (27.2%) …

Heat Pump Water Heater Cta-2045 Implementation Guidance For Maximizing Demand Response Impact, Dana Kahiwahiwa Paresa

Dissertations and Theses

Residential flexible loads, such as heat pump water heaters, have great potential for grid reliability services; however, their effectiveness depends on reliable performance in response to coordinated grid service requests. While the ANSI/CTA-2045-B protocol standardizes communication, it does not mandate specific functional behaviors, creating a mismatch in which the device may comply with the communication protocol but fail to meet performance expectations. This manuscript demonstrates the need for a ANSI/CTA-2045-B implementation guide by quantifying these discrepancies through gray-box conformance testing of market-available units followed by large-scale simulations.

Field testing results revealed a significant conformance gap. Tested units exhibited an average …

Spad Camera Image Analysis, Pratheen Reddy Pininti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

I present a thorough noise characterization of the Canon MS-500, a Single-Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) camera system, tested under both lit and dark conditions. The camera outputs 10-bit digital number (DN) values produced by an internal processing pipeline whose design is not publicly documented. All analyses in this thesis therefore describe the camera’s DN output — the signal that any downstream detection, tracking, or classification system will actually receive — rather than the photon-counting statistics of the underlying SPAD array. All computations were performed on the native 10-bit data. Where a measured quantity has a known photon-counting analog, the relationship …

Gendered Politics Of Pictures: How Images In A Pakistani English Textbook Homogenize Female Identities, Liaquat Ali Channa

The Qualitative Report

This qualitative multimodal analytical study draws upon Kress and van Leeuwen’s ideas about pictures and problematizes textbooks of English that supposedly teach only English in Pakistan. It aims to understand the identities of an adult female as shown in the images of an English textbook. It uses Foucault’s theories of discourse and discursive formation, and a Vygotskian sociocultural view of the development of consciousness. By following Braun and Clarke (2006, 2019), all the pictures of the My English Book 4 are first analyzed thematically. Later, O’Toole’s (1994) method of analyzing pictures is employed for a detailed examination of a representative …

Design And Production Of A Carbon Fiber Longboard, Jacob T. Williams

Honors Theses

This thesis contains an overview of the design, prototyping, and manufacturing of a carbon fiber long board. The purpose of this capstone was to create a viable product for the real-world market and then determine how to manufacture it at scale with sustainable financial practices. In order to accomplish this task, engineering, accounting, and manufacturing challenges had to be overcome throughout all stages. The production process involved the carbon fiber layup, baking, water jet cutting, and assembly of the carbon fiber longboard. In order to optimize this process, continuous improvement and lean manufacturing problem solving techniques were applied. After a …

Stridevision: Automated Detection Of Running Form Deviations From 2d Pose Estimation And Machine Learning, Paulina Eguibar Ortega

Honors Theses

Running gait analysis plays a critical role in injury prevention and performance optimization, however, existing approaches often rely on specialized laboratory equipment or wearable sensors with limited interpretability. Recent advances in computer vision, particularly 2D human pose estimation, enable markerless motion analysis from standard video. However, progress remains constrained by the lack of publicly available datasets designed for running form analysis.

In this work, we introduce a preliminary dataset and benchmark for stride-level running gait analysis. The dataset consists of 73 treadmill running videos from 15 participants with varying experience levels, annotated with over 4,600 stride-level labels across multiple biomechanical …

A Comparative Static Analysis Of Identifier Clones And Homonyms In Open Source Projects, Jose Palomino Lau

Theses

Identifier naming is a core element of software engineering and program comprehension. While existing literature suggests that naming consistency is ideal, there is limited empirical data on identifier homonyms, instances where the same name is used for different behaviors. This thesis investigates these naming patterns through a manual analysis inspired by grounded theory, supported by static analysis with srcML across three open source projects in Java, C and Python. By establishing a behavioral framework through axial coding, this research classifies 771 identifiers into functional categories to document their presence and role within the code. The results reveal that naming redundancy …

Design Optimization Of Active-Stabilizing Canards For High-Powered Rockets, Simon Babcock

Senior Honors Theses

Rocket canards are a common means of stabilizing a high-powered rocket in flight by producing aerodynamic forces to correct the rocket's trajectory. The size, shape, and position of the canards relative to the rocket body determine their control effectiveness and aerodynamic efficiency – two objectives of canard design with an inverse relationship to each other. By integrating automated iterative rocket trajectory simulation with adaptive surrogate modelling, this research optimized the canard planform geometry for a high-powered rocket to maximize the canards’ control effectiveness and aerodynamic efficiency through multi-variable, multi-objective design optimization. The canard design was first parameterized into four design …

Photo Identification On Interactions Between Tursiops Trucatus And Humans To Promote The Importance Of Sustainability, Julia Bronneberg

Undergraduate University Honors Capstones

The Mediterranean Sea is one of the most biodiverse regions, and especially around the Maltese islands, a popular tourist destination where people come to enjoy the beautiful weather and blue waters. Because bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) are the most common species people see in coastal areas, they are the primary focus of this research. We care about these bottlenose dolphins because they cannot protect themselves if we are the ones accidentally causing them harm. This study starts from the belief that if we cannot protect the ocean and marine life, then we cannot protect ourselves. We use many resources that …

Please Don’T Kill Big Bird: The Crusade Against Public Broadcasting, Paige Meyer-Draffen

Whittier Scholars Program

The sword and shield conservatives wield in their crusade against the CPB are contradictory constructs that represent the hypocrisy, greed, and monopolistic inclinations that underpin the efforts to kill public broadcasting. The Shield that conservatives stand behind is the rhetorical defenses employed to degrade the institution of Public Broadcasting. Arguments like protecting the American Family in the culture wars from programming like PBS’ Tales of the City (1993), or accusing NPR of being a biased, inaccurate journalistic outlet, and reducing PBS and NPR to only serving “wealthy, white, urban liberals and progressives, who generally look down on and judge rural …

Development And Launch Of Abn: An Adventist Freelance Web Application, Abishur Moses-Pakkianathan

MS in Computer Science Project Reports

The Seventh-day Adventist community often relies on personal networks and word-of-mouth for Adventist business services. Many of these businesses meet and provide services to their clients primarily through church connections and community recommendations. As the community and businesses grow, traditional networking methods become increasingly difficult to maintain. General marketplaces lack the trust framework shared by Adventists, and faith-based directories are often static or outdated without booking capabilities. Our solution provides a reliable and modern platform for Adventists to create service listings, receive and manage bookings, and connect with faith-aligned clients.

Examining Financial Literacy And The Impact Of Education And Certification On Rural Hospital Administrators, Austin Scott Crowe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Developing An Effective Integrated Marketing Communication Game Plan For Today’S Consumers: Examining Marketing Methods That Work And How To Make The Proper Strategy Adjustments To Remain Relevant In The Future, Michele M. Wisnesck

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As a seasoned marketing professional, I’ve seen marketing trends and gimmicks come and go, but more critically, I’ve seen consumers shift their behavior in significant ways. The guiding research question for this project asks: With the constantly evolving marketing and consumer landscape and regular use of AI agents like ChatGPT or Google Gemini, how can marketing and communication professionals remain relevant? In short, the answer to this question is that integrated marketing communication (IMC) practitioners must adapt to ongoing consumer behavior changes brought on by technology advancements while leveraging a combination of traditional persuasive techniques, a variety of modern marketing …

The African American Pulpit And The Reconstruction Of Narrative Ground In The Black Community, Nathaniel Cox

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how the African American pulpit serves as a living wellspring for rebuilding stories, memory, and identity, a task made urgent by centuries of erasure, from the trauma of the Middle Passage to the ongoing reverberations of that violence. My central claim is that African American preaching, when viewed through the insight-rich frameworks of Gadamer, Burke, and Frankl, becomes not just a form of speech, but a lifeline. It helps reclaim "narrative ground": the deep roots of meaning, belonging, and shared purpose that nourish a wounded people and allow genuine flourishing.

The journey unfolds across six movements. Chapter …

Navigating Barriers: The Career Challenges Of Chinese Non-Stem Graduates In The U.S. Job Market, Dilin Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the career challenges faced by Chinese international graduates from non-STEM fields as they transition from U.S. higher education to the job market. While prior research has largely focused on STEM graduates who benefit from favorable visa policies and high labor demand, limited attention has been given to non-STEM students navigating structural, cultural, and social barriers to employment. Guided by the intellectual capital framework—which encompasses human, cultural, and social capital—this study examined how Chinese non-STEM graduates experience and respond to these barriers within the intersecting contexts of immigration policy, labor market expectations, and cultural adaptation.

Five …

Life Histories Of Two Sgcn Procambarus Species In East Texas, Mckenzie A. Adkins

Biology Theses

Within freshwater systems, crayfish play notable roles by shaping habitats and linking food web levels. Yet even with such influence, knowledge about numerous species is incomplete, which hinders protection strategies. Found only in the Neches River basin in eastern Texas, Procambarus nechesae and Procambarus nigrocinctus have different conservation statuses, mainly because data on their life history remains sparse. These two species are not closely related and are analyzed independently in this study. Research into traits tied to survival and environmental preferences was carried out so that informed decisions on conservation efforts can be made for these species. The goal of …

The Machinery Of Division, Ethan D. Ernst

Honors Capstones

This single chapter of a future fictional work follows the protagonist, Grace Scott, as her twenty-first birthday approaches, yet things are not as they seem. In this world, alien creatures known as the Marauders have forced humanity to hide within fortified cities, while all children are at risk of mutating into these monsters and eventually losing their minds. This risk is guaranteed to disappear after reaching the age of twenty-one, making it the most celebrated birthday for every society on Earth. As this grand day arrives for Grace, however, strange events occur that indicate that the world may be about …

Teacher Shortages In Arkansas Rural School Districts: Employed Teacher’S Perceptions Of The Impact On Their Effectiveness, Carloss Guess

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

ABSTRACT

TEACHER SHORTAGES IN ARKANSAS RURAL SCHOOL DISTRICTS: EMPLOYED TEACHERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THE IMPACT

ON THEIR EFFECTIVENESS

Carloss Guess

Teacher shortages in rural school districts remain a persistent challenge that affects instructional quality, teacher workload, and professional sustainability. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore how teachers in rural Arkansas perceive the impact of staffing shortages on their instructional roles, workload, and professional well-being. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 10 K–12 teachers representing elementary, middle, and high schools and across varying career stages. Interview transcripts were analyzed using an inductive qualitative approach and the constant …

Modeling Individual Self-Protective Behavior During Epidemics, Geonsik Yu, Michael J. Garee, Mario Ventresca, Yuehwern Yih

Faculty Publications

Protecting public health from infectious diseases requires collective action, as individual behaviors—such as vaccination and mask-wearing—directly influence disease dynamics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, unexpected public responses often undermined the effectiveness of interventions, highlighting the need to understand collective behavioral patterns and motivations to design more effective mitigation strategies. This study presents an agent-based simulation model that captures how individuals adjust self-protective behaviors based on evolving opinions about disease risk and examines how these decisions interact with external factors, such as public health interventions, to shape collective outcomes. To improve the representativeness of the simulated population, multiple datasets were integrated to …

Inflammatory Markers In The Emergency Department And Ptsd Symptoms In The Aurora Study: A Longitudinal Cohort Study, Kristen Nishimi, Stacey L House, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Systemic inflammation is hypothesized to contribute to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) vulnerability. Few studies have examined inflammation shortly after trauma as a predictor of later PTSD symptoms. We examined whether inflammation from the emergency department (ED) post-trauma is associated with PTSD symptom severity over the following 6 months.

METHODS: Our sample included 742 AURORA participants, a longitudinal cohort of patients in 29 EDs across the United States after a traumatic stressor, followed up to 6 months. Plasma cytokines were assessed from a study blood draw in the ED: an inflammatory index (standardized sum of generally pro-inflammatory markers interleukin [IL]-6, …

The Design And Optimization Of A Styrene Production Plant, Kaylee Hardenstein, Amanda Anderson

Honors Theses

This thesis presents the design and economic optimization of a Styrene Production Plant targeting a capacity of 100,000 tonnes/yr at a product purity of 99.8 wt%. The process relies on the dehydrogenation of ethylbenzene in a packed-bed reactor system. Downstream separation is achieved through a series of cooling, phase separation, and distillation operations to recover styrene while recycling unreacted ethylbenzene and recovering valuable byproducts.

A base case design was developed and evaluated using a process simulation software, Aspen Plus V14, and an economic analysis. Sensitivity analysis identified the styrene market price and ethylbenzene raw material cost as the dominant factors …