Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of Technology In Education: Friend Or Fiend?, Michaela A. Morgan

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

In this paper we will be examining the role of educational technology in the United States through a critical lens with the purpose of arguing that the growing dependence on EdTech, standardized testing, and data-driven instruction has contributed to the privatization, dehumanization, and inequity of public education. Drawing from critical pedagogy, sociocultural theory, and educational research both recent and decades prior. In my paper I explore how technology in schools often functions less as a liberatory tool and more as a mechanism of surveillance, commodification, and control. We consider the historical roots of educational inequality, including eugenics, meritocracy, and colonial …

Modeling The Effects Of Subsurface Tile Drainage On Atrazine And Nitrate Transport In Till Soils Of Iowa, Madison Hobbs

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

Tile drainage design influences groundwater flow pathways, residence time, and agrochemical transport in agricultural soils. This study evaluates how differences in drainage design affect subsurface flow behavior and contaminant transport in glacial till soils. A groundwater model was developed to compare conventional and controlled drainage systems with a shallow drainage system, and particle tracking was used to examine flow paths and residence times.

The results show that tile drainage creates distinct shallow and deeper flow pathways. In the conventional and controlled model, 88% of particles were captured by drains, while 12% reached the general head boundary. The shallow system drains …

Real-Time Isolated Asl Recognition: Evaluating Spatial-Temporal Networks And Multimodal Llms, Raga Mouni Batchu

West Chester University Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Final Projects

This thesis investigates the deployment of high-accuracy Isolated ASL Recognition (ISLR) in resource-constrained edge environments. We train a lightweight Spatio-Temporal Attention Network (SSTAN,∼2.7 M parameters,∼10 MB) on the WLASL-100 benchmark, achieving 75.25% Top-1 and 88.24% Top-5 accuracy with 139 ms CPU-only inference. A systematic comparison against frontier multimodal LLMs (Gemini 3 Flash, Gemini 3.1 Pro, Qwen 3 VL) shows SSTAN outperforms the best LLM baseline by∼1.85×in accuracy while being 22–230×faster and up to 40×cheaper annually. The LLMs’ core limitation is a lack of fine-grained temporal perception; they impose English-language semantic priors rather than learning the articulatory distinctions that define ASL …

A Call To Action: Engaging With The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Panel On Chemicals, Waste And Pollution, Miriam L. Diamond, Gabriel Sigmund, Marlene Ågerstrand, Michael G. Bertram, Alex T. Ford, Rainer Lohmann, Andreas Schäffer, Maria Clara V.M. Starling, Anna Soehl, Noriyuki Suzuki, Penny Vlahos, Marta Venier, Martin Scheringer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Global Inventory Of Fluoropolymer Production Plants And Their Associated Pfas Environmental Contamination, Anna J. Miller, Kevin Kleemann, Juliane Glüge, Rainer Lohmann, Ian T. Cousins, Dorte Herzke, Mark F. Miller, Amanda Rensmo, Xenia Trier, Zhanyun Wang, Martin Scheringer

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Fluoropolymers are widely used across sectors, but their production is associated with emissions of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs), which are mobile, persistent, and toxic. In this work, we compiled a global inventory of fluoropolymer production plants (FPPs) and assembled PFAS concentration measurements for various media in their vicinity. We identified 52 currently operating FPPs across 11 countries and 41 cities. For 12 FPPs, in 12 different cities, there are peer-reviewed site-specific PFAS measurements specifically attributed to the FPP. At these 12 sites, at least 236 individual PFASs have been detected across multiple environmental media, including surface water, groundwater, air, …

Preliminary Cruise Report: Tn452 Eastern Lau Spreading Center And Northeastern Lau Basin, Kingdom Of Tonga, April 19, 2026 – May 18, 2026, Roxanne A. Beinart, Shawn Arellano

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Leveraging Open-Source Llms For Infrastructure Drift Detection And Correction, Kemoy S. Campbell

Theses

Infrastructure as Code (IaC) enables organizations to provision and manage infrastructure at scale using version-controlled, declarative specifications. Despite these advantages, infrastructure drift where deployed resources diverge from their intended configuration remains a persistent operational challenge and is often addressed manually and reactively. Recent advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) have accelerated their adoption within software engineering and DevOps workflows; however, the sensitive nature of IaC artifacts, particularly Terraform state files, has limited organizational willingness to rely on public LLM services for drift detection and remediation. This thesis investigates the feasibility of using open-source, self-hosted LLMs to assist with IaC drift …

Enhancing Json Schema Inference Via Semantic And Structural Modeling Of Heterogeneous Data, Justin R. Namba

Theses

Schema discovery is finding the structure of data. It helps users understand the meaning of data and write queries to manipulate it. This is typically easy for relational databases, but complex for non-relational (NoSQL) databases with documents. For relational databases, the schema is predefined because the data they contain is structured, but for NoSQL databases, data is usually unstructured or semi-structured. Here, we focus on a type of semi-structured data called JSON, which is a collection of documents that consists of nested key-value pairs. A JSON key and value are similar to a column name and its associated data instance …

Which Forms Of Work Flexibility Retain Working Mothers: A Moderated Mediation Model Of Flexibility Need, Flexibility Use, And Top Management Support, Jeanine K. Andreassi, Angela R. Grotto, Leanna Lawter, Tuvana Rua, Cynthia A. Thompson

WCBT Faculty Publications

This study investigates the relative impact of utilizing various forms of work flexibility on mothers’ retention in full-time jobs. Drawing from a model of work reentry for new mothers and Human Ecology Theory (HET), we theorize that mothers’ flexibility needs influence retention through flexibility use and that top management support strengthens this process. Using a cross-sectional Qualtrics online survey, we recruited a diverse sample of 213 women across the United States who stayed with or left their full-time jobs after childbirth or adoption. Using relative weights and path analysis, we compared six forms of flexibility. Schedule, career, and leave flexibility …

Metabolic Mind: A Critical Literature Review On The Influence Of Mindset On Metabolic Health, Jordan Daniel M.A., M.S.

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

Evidence has demonstrated that psychological processes can influence metabolic functions, which are essential to overall health, as impaired energy metabolism can compromise physiological systems (Bobba-Alves N et al., 2022). Metabolic health is defined as a state of well-being characterized by optimal levels of blood glucose, lipids, cholesterol, blood pressure, and adiposity and is the absence of metabolic dysfunction, which encompasses but is not limited to cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, and metabolic syndrome. A powerful psychological construct that has demonstrated its influence on health is a mindset. Defined as core beliefs or assumptions about oneself and the world, …

2025-2026 Library & Learning Annual Review, Library & Learning, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Library & Learning Annual Reviews

Digital version of the 2025-2026 Annual Review for Library & Learning at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Implementing A Competency-Based Cross-Training Program To Enhance Patient Flow, Jill E. Shanklin

DNP Projects

Objective: To evaluate the effect of a competency-based cross-training program on perinatal nurses’ preparedness to care for medical-surgical (med-surg) overflow patients and to support patient flow.

Design: Quality improvement project using a quasi-experimental pre–post design.

Setting: A 44-bed perinatal unit within a university-affiliated medical center in the United States.

Participants: Registered nurses employed in the perinatal unit for ≥6 months; 24 completed the preintervention survey and 28 completed the postintervention survey.

Interventions: A competency-based cross-training program consisting of e-learning modules, simulation-based competency validation, and structured policy and procedure review.

Main Outcome Measures: Self-reported comfort, …

The Concrete Picket Fence: Reconnecting Interstate-Straddled Urban Communities, Brian J. Koluch

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Within the ongoing dialogue on substantive equity, the circumstances regarding enduring issues faced by black urban neighborhoods are called into question. Cities across the United States typically have major automotive arteries that tend to cut through or past said neighborhoods. Advocates argue that it is increasingly apparent that these systems of infrastructure especially in regard to these neighborhoods have been constructed in racist manners. Urban Interstates majorly contribute to equity disadvantages, as well as environmental hazards such as increased rates of asthma and respiratory disease. By mixing and matching various forms of equitable infrastructure, such as with cap parks, public …

Robots Are Watching You Sleep: The Hidden World Of Sleep Trackers, Luke Latterman

Scientific Kenyon: The Neuroscience Edition

No abstract provided.

Seeing Is Believing? Deepfakes In Financial Markets, Hadar Y. Jabotinsky, Michal Lavi

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

An AI-powered tool recently mimicked Warren Buffett's image and voice so convincingly that even his own family could have been deceived. This striking example highlights the transformative potential of voice cloning and deepfakes. This innovative technology leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to create hyper-realistic audio and video content. By blurring the boundaries between authenticity and synthetic creation, deepfakes make it possible to fabricate moments that never occurred. Recent advancements in AI and user-friendly software have made deepfakes more accessible andfurther contributed to the proliferation of deepfakes, enabling even individuals with minimal technical skills to produce compelling deepfakes at little to no …

Power Play: The Battle For Copyright Control In Emulation, Ryan Borja

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

The note argues that the current legal framework prioritizes commercial interests and developer rights over the preservation of older video games. To reconcile the tension between copyright protection and the public interest in cultural preservation, the analysis proposes legislative solutions such as compulsory licensing schemes or the creation of a dedicated federal preservation agency.

Some Respect Reserved? Survey Experiment Insights On The Perception Of Creative Commons And Copyright Infringement, Thomas H. Rousse

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

Since its inception, Creative Commons has introduced new ways for creators to grant licenses to the public without cost or the need for negotiation by breaking up rights provided by copyright and making a subset of those rights available to anyone willing to abide by the conditions of the license. Its widespread adoption has democratized open licensing for creators beyond the software context these licenses originated within. Although the success of Creative Commons as a community is plain, relatively little information is available about its perception by the general public. Aggressive litigation by Creative Commons licensors has put the organization …

The Devil Is In The Det[Ai]Ls: Ai Agents, Ghost Students, And The Crisis Of Verified Presence In An Agentic Ai World, Aras Bozkurt, Helen Crompton, Caroline Fell Kurban

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The transition from reactive Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) to agentic AI systems marks a categorical shift in digital education, moving beyond simple content generation to goal-oriented, autonomous execution. This paper explores the emergence of the “ghost student”: a digital surrogate created by the coupling of Large Language Models (the “mind”) and agentic AI browsers (the “body”). These entities are capable of navigating Learning Management Systems (LMS), engaging with content, and completing assessments with human-like mimicry, often rendering the actual learner’s presence optional. We argue that this phenomenon creates a verification gap that traditional proctoring and detection tools are structurally unable …

Chatgpt In Secondary English Language Learning: Educators' And Students' Literacy, Perceptions, And Experiences, Victoria Brenes, Sierra Outerbridge, Xinyue Ren

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The increasing use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) has shown the potential of transforming teaching and learning practices in various educational settings, such as in English language learning (ELL). As English language learners (ELLs) often experience many challenges and barriers in schools in the United States, it is urgent to leverage the educational affordances of GenAI in fostering the effectiveness of ELL. Given the limited research investigating GenAI adoption, especially ChatGPT literacy within K-12 ELL, this convergent mixed methods research aims to investigate students' and teachers’ perceptions of using ChatGPT and their ChatGPT literacy in secondary ELL contexts. We will …

A Comparison Of Conversational Chatbots And The Internet For Consumer Information Search, Wondwesen Tafesse, Yoseph Mamo

STEMPS Faculty Publications

This study compares consumer perceptions of conversational chatbots and the internet for information search. While the internet is a mature platform, conversational chatbots represent an emerging technology, and insight into how consumers view them in relation to the internet for information search is lacking. Drawing on the information source utility perspective, the study builds a comparative model based on four key dimensions: information currency, information customisation, information trustworthiness, and media richness. Additionally, the study investigates consumers’ prior experience with conversational chatbots as a moderating factor. Data was collected from 191 respondents recruited through MTurk. Paired sample t-tests assessed mean differences …

The Protective Power Of Psychological Resources In Mitigating Burnout And Enhancing Flourishing, Dylan R. Polkinghorne, David J. Radosevich, Deirdre M. Radosevich, Dianne D. Murphy, Laken James, Sue S. Craver

Management Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose

This study explores how burnout mediates the relationships between critical psychological resources, specifically resilience, flow and self-efficacy, and flourishing in contemporary work environments.

Design/methodology/approach

Data from 374 participants, including undergraduate students at a regional comprehensive university in the Midwest and full-time working adults in the USA, were analyzed using mediation analysis in MPlus 8.11 to assess the indirect and direct effects among burnout, psychological resources and flourishing in a work environment.

Findings

Results indicate that self-efficacy significantly predicts lower burnout levels and higher flourishing. Resilience and flow were negatively associated with burnout, reducing its impact; however, the direct effects …

The Nature Of The National Security Threat To Key Rhode Island Maritime Industrial Defense Sector Companies, Robert J. Hehl, Isabella Gannon, Madelyn Hudson, Patrick Malpass, Samantha Ronci

CJC 450 - Criminal Justice and Criminology Capstone

This Capstone Research Assessment (CRA) will assess the nature of the national security threat to Key Rhode Island maritime industrial defense sector companies posed by domestic and foreign capital investors. Through identification, evaluation and risk assessment of these domestic and foreign investors, this CRA will identify probable threat actors and the key technologies they may be targeting. This CRA will conclude with recommendations for preventing future domestic and foreign infiltration of sensitive US maritime defense industrial sector companies in protecting United States defense technologies and capabilities, strategic defense planning and overall national security.

Not On My Zoning Board: Achieving Mass Transit Development Despite Nimby Pushback, Brian J. Koluch

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Within the political discussion on local, state, and federal levels, all politicians seem to agree that U.S. Interstates are a crucial lifeline for many. Conjointly, city planners and scholars understand that we have a logistics issue in cities that can’t seem to handle highway congestion. When prompted with mass transit solutions, some community members protest them for altering the neighborhood in a presumably negative way, leading to the phrase; “Not in my back yard.” Thus, local governing bodies seem paralyzed to take the actions needed to move forward with these implementation strategies. Local governments, in order to circumvent the socially …

Intelligent Audio‑To‑Indian Sign‑Language And Sign‑To‑Audio Translation System Using Mediapipe, Tensorflow, Whisper And Google Tts, N. Pothanna, T. Kusuma, S. Haindavi, T. Sreeja, Shaik Shaheem Taj

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Communication barriers between the Deaf community and the general public remain a persistent challenge, particularly in multilingual settings where Indian Sign Language (ISL) is the primary mode of interaction. We propose a real-time bidirectional translation framework integrating MediaPipe for hand landmark extraction, a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) classifier built with TensorFlow/Keras for gesture recognition, OpenAI Whisper for robust multilingual speech-to-text transcription, and Google TTS for naturalistic speech synthesis. The system achieves 93% classification accuracy across 35 ISL classes (alphabets A–Z and numerals 1–9) on a dataset of 42,700 images, with macro and weighted F1-scores of 0.93. Deployed as a Flask …

Disproportionality: The Impact Identifying Students For Special Education, John M. Bradford

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on the topic of disproportionality as it relates to the special education population. Disproportionality is an area of interest for this researcher, who wanted to explore and learn more about disproportionality, the true numbers behind it, the consequences of overrepresentation, and the consequences of our current system for addressing it. Some populations of students have been seemingly overidentified for special education, and current thinking suggests that these services may have negative consequences for the groups that are overidentified. Disproportionality data were reexamined, along with the concept of whether proportional representation in special education should be expected. Additionally, …

A Quantitative Analysis Of Burrowing And Subterranean Locomotion In The Sand Lance Using A Transparent Sediment, Issei Fujita, Makoto Tomiyasu, Jun Yamamoto, Yasuzumi Fujimori

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Sand lances (Ammodytes spp.) rely on rapid burrowing into sediment for predator avoidance. Although their sediment grain-size preferences are well documented, the biomechanics underlying burrowing success remain unclear because natural substrates are opaque. Using a transparent-sediment system, we directly visualized and quantified burrowing kinematics to: (1) test the effect of body size (total length, TL) on burrowing success; (2) examine entry mechanisms (e.g., swimming speed, entry angle); and (3) describe locomotion within sediment. Logistic regression on the full dataset (N = 28 fish) identified TL as the primary determinant of success, with larger individuals exhibiting significantly higher success …

Cruise Network Design Under Sequential Duopolistic Entry, Ta-Hui Yang, Ching-Hui Tang, Wan-Tien O

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study addresses the network design for international cruise services in a duopolistic market, where carriers enter and make decisions sequentially. The leader, who makes the first move, makes decisions as there is no competitor in the market. The follower, who makes decisions later, has to design their network considering the existing leader’s network. The leader’s model is a mixed integer linear problem while the follower’s model is a mixed integer nonlinear problem. Therefore, a heuristic is proposed to solve the problem. The commercially available general algebraic modeling system is used in conjunction with its different solvers to solve the …

Effect Of Heat Treatment On The Corrosion And Wear Behavior Of 17-4 Ph Stainless Steel For Marine Applications, Syuan Tai, I-Kon Lee, Ming-Yuan Lin, Kang-Yu Liao, Chin-Chun Chang, Hung-Bin Lee

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study explores the tribocorrosion behavior of conventionally cast 17-4 PH stainless steel under real seawater conditions, focusing on the effects of three heat treatments (Solution, H900, H1100). Electrochemical tests, tribocorrosion experiments, SEM, XPS, and quantitative analysis were used to establish a three-stage tribocorrosion mechanism. Results show that H900 exhibits superior corrosion and wear resistance, while H1100 suffers increased material loss and surface cracking at high potentials. Elemental analysis revealed NbC migration forming third-body particles, which, although briefly reducing friction, induced local stress concentration and crack initiation. The findings highlight the critical influence of microstructure, passive film stability, and third-body …

Enhancing Underwater Imagery And Organism Detection Using Reinforcement Learning, K. Arul Deepa, P. Ramya, Karpaga Vinodha, Dharmaraja C

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Underwater environments pose significant challenges in assessing image quality and organism detection due to light scattering and absorption, which limits visibility and color fidelity. Existing solutions often fail to effectively address these challenges, resulting in suboptimal image quality and hindering organism identification. This paper examines the problem through a dual-focused approach: enhancing underwater images and detecting organisms using the Underwater Image Enhancement Benchmark (UIEB) dataset. The first step introduces a state-of-the-art method for image enhancement by applying reinforcement learning (RL) principles. By formulating the enhancement process as a Markov Decision Process (MDP)—where states are represented by image features and actions …

Ips Subperiosteal Implant For The Maxilla And Mandible, Tal Sastow, Ian Mark, Edward Woodbine, Jared Miller, Erik D. Gilroy, Harry Dym

The New York State Dental Journal

This two-case report presents the use of the Individual Patient Solutions (IPS) Implants® Preprosthetic system in two patients with distinct clinical needs.

Case #1 involves a 69-year-old male with significant unilateral maxillary bone loss and a residual oroantral communication (OAC) following the failure of both conventional implants and sinus lift procedures. Case #2 involves a patient with a severely atrophic, edentulous mandible. These cases present two distinct and challenging clinical scenarios where both traditional endosseous and zygomatic implants were not feasible. Both cases were successfully managed with a custom-designed IPS subperiosteal implant.

This innovative approach involves a rigidly fixated, stable …