Digital Commons Network^™

Reclaiming Sound: Copyright Restoration As Cultural And Economic Justice For Black Musicians, James Roberts Jr.

Senior Theses

This paper examines copyright restoration as both a legal mechanism and a form of cultural reparations for Black musicians historically excluded from ownership and profit in the American music industry. It traces the evolution of U.S. copyright law from its earliest forms to the Music Modernization Act of 2018, highlighting how shifting statutory frameworks have gradually extended protection and restoration rights to artists who were once denied them. The analysis situates this legal trajectory within a broader history of racialized exploitation in the recording industry, where inequitable contracts and systemic power imbalances functioned as modern forms of artistic sharecropping. Through …

The Economic Impact Of The Soda City Market In Columbia, Sc, Sarah E. Lillard

Senior Theses

This study examines the role of Soda City Market in the economic and social revitalization of Columbia, South Carolina’s Main Street district. Since relocating downtown in 2012, the market has evolved from a small farmers market into a major cultural and entrepreneurial hub attracting more than 300,000 visitors annually. To evaluate its impact, the study integrates two primary methods: a vendor survey capturing business characteristics and an IMPLAN input–output model estimating the market’s economic effects within Richland County. Survey results from 25 vendors reveal a diverse and culturally representative business community in which Soda City serves as both an incubator …

“The Good Life” Of Ai, Lauren Smith

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is powered by data centers, sprawling warehouses of servers that require massive amounts of electricity and water to operate. The United Statesalready has more than 1,000 data centers, with nearly 400 more on the way.

Nebraska is next. Google is building a major new data center in North Lincoln, adding to the 18 operating across the state.

Our collective use of tools like ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Microsoft’s Copilot has fueled a boom in generative AI, and with it a surge in energy and water consumption.

The need for AI regulation isn’t a future concern. It’s …

The Myth Of Clean Manufacturing, Andrea Phan

Op-Eds from ENSC230 Energy and the Environment: Economics and Policies

We must act now and reform renewable energy credits to reflect real progress. This means tightening Scope 2 rules so that renewable claims are tied to additional, time and location matched, clean power. It means rewarding measurable integration, so that real emissions are avoided, not waived by retroactive certificates. RECs can still play a role, but only in a system that demands we use the tools we already have.

Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project: Reflecting On Identity And Oral History At A Community College, Thomas Cleary

Publications and Research

In this article, I share narrators’ stories from the Covid-19 Asian American Oral History Project based at LaGuardia Community College, CUNY, to illustrate how Covid-19 and increased anti-Asian hate during the pandemic shaped Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) identities in Queens, New York. Narrators’ stories shed light on how Black Lives Matter impacted their own understanding of race and racialization, particularly as AAPI identity and race relate to the Model Minority Myth. This project also laid the groundwork to develop a broader oral history culture at the college, developing faculty pedagogy to incorporate oral history interviews and interviewing into …

Impulse, Fall 2025, Jill Fier, Sierra Brown, Jerome J. Lohr College Of Engineering

Impulse (Jerome J. Lohr College of Engineering Publication)

2 | Faculty News
3 | SDSU Vet Hua to Head Civil Engineering
6 | Ad Lunam — To the Moon
10 | Building A Safety Culture
11 | Department News
12 | Surface Mount Technology Kickoff
14 | Construction Management Student, Volleyball Player Building Success Piece by Piece
16 | Student Awards, Honors
18 | Student Competition Results
20 | NASA Win Opens Doors for New Product Development Order
22 | SDSU Engineering Student Tabbed as Noblereach Fellow
26 | Knabach Award Recipient from Apprentice Lineman to Company President
28 | Metzger Create Faculty Endowment for SDSU Engineering
30 …

Many Stories, One Shape: Narrative Convergence In Ai-Generated Fiction, Marisol Hernandez Brito

IPHS 484: Senior Seminar

Frontier large language models (LLMs) generate fluent outlines but often converge on repetitive structural templates. This exploratory study examined inter-model diversity in thriller novel outlines produced by five LLMs (ChatGPT-5(5.1), Grok-4, Gemini-2.5 Flash, DeepSeek-v3, Claude Sonnet-4.5) under baseline and enhanced prompting conditions (N=50 outlines). Blind AI evaluations revealed moderate inter-model diversity (baseline mean 64.45%; enhanced 58.89%), declining relative to intra-model baselines and between phases, particularly in Protagonist and Plot dimensions. Quantitative and qualitative analysis identified phase-specific convergence: a "forensic procedural" template (analytical female protagonists, corporate conspiracies, Quest/Monster arcs) under the baseline prompt, shifting to a "domestic psychological thriller" template (uniform …

Texas S.B. 8 V. Rights: Restoring Judicial Power With The State Action Remedy, Kobi J. Grossman

Undergraduate Honors Theses

While the constitutional right to an abortion was the law of the land in the U.S., Texas sought to restrict that right in line with their political agenda by passing S.B. 8 (2021), referred to as the “Texas Heartbeat Act”. This statute made access to abortions illegal past six weeks, or once a heartbeat is detected. The enforcement structure created in the law did not look to the state to exercise its role as the executor of the public good, but rather, to private citizens in creating a right of action for individuals to sue anyone who “aids or abets” …

Theoretical Investigation And Practical Validation Of Ai Based Fault Detection In Bjt Amplifier Circuits, Sameh O. Abdellatif, Kyrillos Selim, Ahmad Alaa, Ola Hassan

Electrical Engineering

Analog circuits are essential to electronic systems due to their variety of critical functions. Catastrophic faults, such as short- and open-circuit faults, can stop the circuit from functioning. Meanwhile, parametric faults such as drift due to temperature fluctuations, noise in components, and power supply issues cause the circuit to operate beyond its range. Such faults can harm the circuit and its constituent parts. Therefore, it is crucial to identify and address the issues brought on by these faults. Common traditional fault diagnosis methods that rely on manual testing and visual assessment are lacking in complex electronic systems and faults. Such …

Advancing Self-Powered Continuous Glucose Monitoring: A Comprehensive Simulation Of Sensor-On-Chip Development And Analog Interface Circuit Design, Sameh O. Abdellatif, Kyrillos Selim, Adham Farag

Electrical Engineering

The advent of continuous glucose monitoring (CGM)technology has revolutionized diabetes management, facilitating real-time blood glucose assessment that optimizes insulin therapy and dietary modifications, thereby significantly enhancing patient outcomes. This study presents comprehensive modeling, simulation, and integration of a continuous glucose monitoring system on-chip, featuring an optimized electrochemical glucose sensor equippedwith dual-energy harvesting units. In the assessment of glucose sensor performance at optimized conditions, the simulated characteristic curve showed a sensitivity of 8063 mA. m mol−1 at a working electrode width of 90 μm and height of 200 μm. The developed system incorporates a battery managementsystem that effectively bridges the harvested …

Inductorless Cascaded Low-Power Dc-Dc Converter: Optimizing Performance Metrics Through Machine Learning Techniques, Ahmed Khaled, Sameh O. Abdellatif

Electrical Engineering

This study presents a groundbreaking methodology for optimizing the operational efficiency of a three-stage boost DC-DC cascaded converter through the application of a Random Forest(RF) machine learning algorithm. A novel figure of merit is meticulously formulated to quantitatively evaluate the converter’s performance, focusing on critical metrics such as power conversion efficiency, output DC ripple levels, and response time. The Random Forest model is trained on a comprehensive dataset encompassing a wide range of resistive and capacitive design parameters, with the figure of merit serving as the output indicator. Rigorous simulations and analyses demonstrate that the integration of LM741 operational amplifiers …

Integrative Stem Approach Impact On Mathematical Acquisition And Mathematical Conceptual Understanding, Kayla Grace Eller

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study investigates the impact of an integrative Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) approach on fourth grade students’ mathematical conceptual understanding and mathematical language acquisition. For the purposes of this research, mathematical language was defined as students’ comprehension and use of key mathematical terminology and concepts, while mathematical conceptual understanding was characterized as a comprehensive and practical grasp of mathematical ideas that goes beyond isolated facts and methods. The study was situated in the theoretical framework of situated cognition learning theory and informed by the conceptual framework of Wells PIRPSOAL model (2016), with particular attention to how …

​​​How Do Working Conditions Effect Teacher Job Satisfaction And Intention To Stay: Retaining Special Education Teachers​, Alyssa Michelle Raygoza

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher retention remains a leading area of focus in the United States. Recent research efforts have examined the effects of specific work-related experiences on teacher retention. In comparison to teaching in a general education classroom, special education teachers often face increased levels of job demands that can influence the ways in which existing resources may or may not balance out such challenges. The study is grounded in the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) Model, a theoretical framework that has been used widely in both occupational and, more recently, educational research focusing on the specific demands and resources situated within teacher working conditions. …

Exploring Dynamics Of Nature’S Raincoat: Comparing How Nano-Scale Silk Fibers Produced By Dryland And Tropical Species Of Webspinning Insects Interact With Water, Richard P. Barber Jr, Emily A. Arias, Andrew M. Schatz, Aidan Kaneski, Janice Edgerly-Rooks

Biology

Embiopterans are reliant on silk for protection and produce the finest silk fibers known in nature. This report compares silk–water interactions for four species representing two different lifestyles: two tropical arboreal species that feed on lichens on bark and two detritivores from arid regions that typically live in leaf litter and underground. Water droplets placed on spun silk transformed the fibrous top layer to a film. Arboreal embiopterans spun a denser silk covering than did the detritivores. The films that formed after exposure to water were also denser for the arboreal species. A possible underlying cause for the difference between …

Creativity In Large Language Models, Robert Kenneth Morain

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence systems approach human-level performance across a wide variety of domains, creative domains remain a critical yet underexplored area of research. Unlike traditional AI tasks with well-defined objectives, creative tasks rely on inherently subjective measures, making them particularly challenging for machines that lack human experiential context. This dissertation establishes the fundamental importance of creativity in AI systems and presents methods for improving and evaluating the creative capabilities of LLMs on the pathway toward AGI. This work addresses and examines key limitations in current LLM creativity through model innovations, development frameworks, and comparative studies. The dissertation develops novel architectural …

Nbc Peacock North Fall 2025 Newsletter, Peacock North Staff

NBC Peacock North Newsletter

Highlights include: Marilyn's Page--John Filippelli Receives NATAS Governors’ Award-- Dateline Marks 3,000th Show-- Sheinelle Jones Returns to Today Show-- Mike and Suzanne Noseworthy Celebrate Al Rice at 90-- A New Era Begins: Inside News 4 New York & Telemundo 47’s Brand New Newsroom-- Tributes to Silent Microphones: Lenny Basile, Bob Trumpy, Karen Sullivan, Carol Aerenson,--We Get Letters & Pictures

First-Year University Students’ Mathematics Capital And Identities, Paola Valero, Lisa Österling, Nhu Truong, Anna Danielsson, Bruna Nunes, Maria Berge

The Mathematics Enthusiast

Based on a survey of 150 respondents and 16 timeline interviews with first-year university mathematics students in Sweden, we explore how the material resources and conditions available to them —mathematics capital— connect to their mathematical identities. We found that mathematics capital has bearing on how early in life students start to consider doing mathematics. We also found individually different trajectories among students with low mathematics capital into university mathematics. The study expands both existing theoretical and methodological ways of researching the material bearings of identity and opens up for new ways of understanding and exploring the conditions that may facilitate …

From Problem Solving To Problem Posing: Two Classroom Examples, Suzana Antunović, Ljiljana Arambašić, Anđa Valent

The Mathematics Enthusiast

In this paper, we present two examples of classroom activities on divisibility and mathematical induction that combine problem solving and problem posing. In our activities, standard tasks of the form ’Prove that the statement holds’ were transformed into ’Think of similar examples,’ with the meaning of ’similar’ left for the students to interpret. This approach not only helps develop problem-solving skills but also teaches students how to pose problems themselves.

Bioinformatic Analysis Of Pogz Variants In Relation To White Sutton Syndrome, Hannah Rollins

Theses

White-Sutton syndrome (WHSUS) is a rare neurodevelopmental disorder caused by mutations in the Pogo Transposable Element with ZNF Domain (POGZ) gene, which encodes pogo-transposable element with ZNF domain, a chromatin regulator essential for proper mitotic progression and DNA repair. This study uses a bioinformatic framework to evaluate the structural and functional impact of missense mutations in the conserved amino acid region (positions 500–800) of the POGZ protein. Protein modeling, variant effect prediction, conservation analysis, and molecular dynamics simulations were employed to gain an understanding of the effects of POGZ missense mutations on protein structure and movement with specific emphasis on …

Anything Goes, Lynn University

Drama Programs

Music and lyrics: Cole Porter
Original book: P.G. Wodehouse, Guy Bolton, Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse
New book: Timothy Crouse, John Weidman

The 2022 revision of Anything Goes is a refreshed version of Cole Porter's classic musical comedy. This update preserves the show's beloved songs—like "I Get a Kick Out of You," "You're the Top" and the title number "Anything Goes"—while modernizing the book with sharper pacing and streamlined dialogue. Set aboard an ocean liner bound for London, the story follows nightclub singer Reno Sweeney, stowaway Billy Crocker, and a colorful cast of characters as they get tangled in romantic and …

District Vulnerability Index For Pakistan (Dvip): Harnessing Multisectoral Data To Inform Equitable Policy And Climate Action, Population Council

Climate and Environmental Changes

Pakistan’s highly heterogeneous population faces significant development challenges, including unequal resource distribution and disparities in access to services, which create varying levels of vulnerability across communities. While existing studies have primarily examined vulnerability through climate, economic, or other disaster lenses, they often overlook underlying structural and systemic factors. This study aims to address that gap by developing an index that incorporates domains of vulnerability typically underrepresented in analyses of Pakistan.

Research On Identification And Evaluation Method Of Medical Experts' Expertise Domains In Online Health Community Based On Knowledge Graph, Yunjiang Xi, Qian Zhang, Man Li, Juan Yu

Journal of Scientific Information Research

[Purpose/significance] This study aims to identify the expertise domains of medical experts, and evaluates their domain levels to provide a basis for community expert recommendation.

[Method/process] This study utilized the improved OneRel model to structure community historical Q&A into entity relation triples. Then used the knowledge graph triples to test the consistency between the medical knowledge in the community Q&A and the domain knowledge, and finally obtained the doctor's domain levels by aggregating in each expertise domain.

[Result/conclusion] Using the data example from xywy.com website, 214 doctors in the community were ranked in terms of their average level of expertise …

Disclosure Puzzles In Patent Law, Jonathan S. Masur, Lisa Larrimore Ouellette

University of Chicago Law Review

Since its inception, patent law has required that inventors publicly disclose information about their inventions in exchange for receiving patent rights. This foundational requirement is policed through multiple doctrines: patents fail “enablement” if “undue experimentation” is needed to practice the invention, and they lack adequate “written description” when they fail to establish the inventor’s “possession” of the invention.

Despite disclosure doctrines’ centrality, fundamental puzzles about their application remain unresolved. What are the boundaries between enablement and written description? Do equivalents claimed via the doctrine of equivalents have to be enabled or described? Are the rules different for after-arising technologies? Federal …

Followership Theory In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: A Phenomenological Study Of How The Integration Of Ai Into An Ai-Human Hybrid Cancer Research Team Affects Followership Characteristics, John F. Carrera

PhD in Organizational Leadership

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming part of cancer research teams, helping with data analysis, pattern recognition, and decision support. Although AI changes how work is completed, little is known about how AI changes how followers adapt when AI becomes part of the team. This study examined how AI influences followership characteristics within AIhuman hybrid cancer research teams. A qualitative phenomenological research design was used to explore the lived experiences of nine cancer research professionals who interacted with AI as part of their routine work. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, transcribed, and analyzed through multiple rounds of qualitative coding to find …

Closing The Loop On Textile Waste: Policy, Technology, And Consumer Behavior In Sustainable Fashion, Anthony Amotoe-Bondzie

Collected Student Papers

Textile waste has become one of the most visible consequences of the fashion industry’s linear production and consumption model, where materials are rapidly extracted, transformed, consumed, and discarded. This paper critically examines how sustainable fashion can move beyond isolated recycling efforts toward a more integrated circular economy framework. Rather than treating textile waste as only an end-of-life problem, the study analyzes it as a systems issue shaped by overproduction, weak product design, limited recovery infrastructure, fragmented regulation, and consumer habits that normalize short garment lifespans. The paper argues that closing the loop on textile waste requires coordinated interventions across policy, …

Oer Action Plan At Southern University And A&M College, Maletta Payne

Southern University and A&M College: John B. Cade Library Publications

This OER Action Plan, developed by the Southern University Library, outlines strategic initiatives to expand the adoption and integration of Open Educational Resources (OER) across a wider range of academic programs. The plan emphasizes building sustainable collaborations with faculty and academic departments, engaging administrative leaders to support OER through institutional policies and incentives, and aligning these efforts with the University’s mission to reduce student costs, foster teaching innovation, and enhance learning outcomes. Through targeted outreach, faculty development opportunities, and cross-campus partnerships, the plan aims to increase the visibility, use, and long-term impact of OER. This action plan was created as …

Humanized Mouse Models For Type 1 Diabetes., David V. Serreze, Marissa Tousey-Pfarrer, Jeremy Racine

Faculty Research 2025

T cell-mediated autoimmune type 1 diabetes (T1D) is under complex polygenic control in both humans and the NOD mouse model. However, in both species, particular major histocompatibility complex (MHC; designated HLA in humans) haplotypes provide the primary T1D risk factor. Both MHC/HLA class I and II variants interactively contribute to T1D by respectively driving autoreactive CD8 and CD4 T cell responses that cooperatively destroy insulin-producing pancreatic β cells. While NOD mice have provided important insights to the pathogenic basis of T1D, the model has so far provided only a limited means to identify possible clinically translatable disease intervention approaches. This …

Advancing The Science Of Genomic Learning Healthcare Systems., Teri A Manolio, Renee Rider, Carol J Bult, Rex L Chisholm, Patricia A Deverka, Geoffrey S Ginsburg, Eric D Green, Gail P Jarvik, George A Mensah, Jahnavi Narula, Erin M Ramos, Mary V Relling, Dan M Roden, Robb Rowley, Noura S Abul-Husn, Adam H Buchanan, Christopher G Chute, Guilherme Del Fiol, Gai Elhanan, Susanne B Haga, Rizwan Hamid, Carol R Horowitz, Peter J Hulick, Cynthia A James, Janina M Jeff, Bruce Korf, Latrice Landry, Deven Mcgraw, Howard L Mcleod, Nancy J Mendelsohn, Travis Osterman, Casey Overby Taylor, Daryl Pritchard, Heidi L Rehm, Krystal S Tsosie, Jason L Vassy, Karriem Watson, Ken Wiley, Marc S Williams

Faculty Research 2025

INTRODUCTION: Identifying key characteristics of exemplar genomic learning healthcare systems (gLHS) and knowledge gaps that can be explored by collaboration among them is likely to accelerate the sharing of best practices and generation of evidence that informs the use of genomics in clinical care.

METHODS: Deliberations of an expert group convened by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) supplemented by relevant literature.

RESULTS: Recent advances in genomic data standardization, automated clinical decision support, increased interoperability, and improved genomic technologies have enabled the development of several robust gLHS. They remain concentrated in major academic centers, however, and operate largely independently. …

Evaluation Of Hippocampal Dlgap2 Overexpression On Cognition, Synaptic Function, And Dendritic Spine Structure In A Translationally Relevant Ad Mouse Model., Andrew R Ouellette, Kristen M S O'Connell, Catherine Kaczorowski

Faculty Research 2025

INTRODUCTION: Developing effective therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires a better understanding of the molecular drivers of the disease. Our previous work nominated DLGAP2 as a modifier of age-related cognitive decline and risk for AD. We tested the hypothesis that overexpression of DLGAP2 in the hippocampus would protect against cognitive and synaptic deficits in a susceptible F1 5XFAD model.

METHODS: DLGAP2 was overexpressed in the hippocampus of F1 hybrid 5XFAD and non-transgenic littermates using a viral approach. Cognitive function, electrophysiological properties, and dendritic spine morphology were assessed at 6 and 14 months of age.

RESULTS: DLGAP2 overexpression impaired synaptic plasticity …

Genetic And Epigenetic Screens In Primary Human T Cells Link Candidate Causal Autoimmune Variants To T Cell Networks., Ching-Huang Ho, Maxwell A Dippel, Meghan S Mcquade, Leann P Nguyen, Arpit Mishra, Stephan Pribitzer, Samantha Hardy, Harshpreet Chandok, Florence M Chardon, Troy A Mcdiarmid, Hannah A Deberg, Jane H Buckner, Jay Shendure, Carl G De Boer, Michael H Guo, Ryan Tewhey, John P Ray

Faculty Research 2025

Genetic variants associated with autoimmune diseases are highly enriched within putative cis-regulatory regions of CD4⁺ T cells, suggesting that they could alter disease risk through changes in gene regulation. However, very few genetic variants have been shown to affect T cell gene expression or function. Here we tested >18,000 autoimmune disease-associated variants for allele-specific effects on expression using massively parallel reporter assays in primary human CD4⁺ T cells. We find 545 variants that modulate expression in an allele-specific manner (emVars). Primary T cell emVars greatly enrich for likely causal variants, are mediated by common upstream pathways and …