Digital Commons Network^™

A Qualitative Study On Investigating The Power Of Scripture To Conquer Depression By The Bible's Psychological Power Among Christians, Joana Okudzeto Biekro

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This phenomenological study investigated Evangelical Christians’ experiences using the Bible as a means of treating their depression in Orange County, CA. Depression is a painful mental illness that affects people all over the world. The rationale of the study is to add knowledge to Christians and thought leaders who seek a cure to the struggle of depression from a Biblical perspective. The research process is presented in the study of depression among Christians. Guided by these three questions, “How do evangelical Christians describe their experiences using the Bible as a means of treating their depression?”, “How do participants describe their …

Comparative Efficacy Of Combined Versus Singular Auditory Alpha-Theta Brainwave Entrainment And Hypnotherapy Modalities In Chronic Pain Management, Jennifer Nicole Leavitt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This experimental quantitative research, a randomized controlled trial, evaluated combined efficacy of auditory alpha-theta brainwave entrainment (BWE) and hypnotherapy in chronic pain management versus each modality alone. Chronic pain is a serious clinical challenge that may benefit from novel, nonpharmacological interventions. Previous studies have demonstrated benefits of both BWE and hypnotherapy for pain; but research on combined effects was not identified. This study hypothesized that a synergistic approach would offer superior pain relief compared to singular modalities. The study utilized a randomized controlled trial design with a sample size of 38 participants, initially, aged 25 to 65 years old, recruited …

Successful Habits Of Small Historically Black College And University Band Programs, William Thomas Brooks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study is to identify successful habits associated with the establishment, development, and sustainability of historically black college and university band programs consisting of less than 128 instrumentalists. The success of large Historically Black College and University (HBCU) band programs often highlights and markets the brand of the HBCU experience. Despite the gleaming success of widely popular schools, there is varied success among smaller programs with less visibility. HBCU bands around the country operate with fewer than 128 band instrumentalists, with some demonstrating more successful behaviors than their larger counterparts. Despite their efforts, these programs sometimes …

The Effects Of Seesaw On "John Kanaka" Singing Assessment Tracking And Teacher-To-Student Feedback In The Third Grade Elementary Music Classroom, Sarah Elizabeth Gonzalez

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Assessments play a vital role for teachers to measure individual student progress and motivate instruction that meets students' needs. Traditional assessments provide a substantive way for teachers to collect data, which they will analyze long after they administer the assessment. Creating substantial evidence for individual performance-based standards poses a challenge. Seesaw serves as an online platform for student engagement, allowing students to share their knowledge while parents can safely monitor it through photos, videos, drawings, text, audio, PDFs, and links. The researchers conducted the study over four weeks in March 2025 in the third-grade music classes at Ray Roberts Elementary. …

Extended Reality Technology & The Integration Of The Paramedic Academic Learning Disability Student Into Inclusive Learning Platforms: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Kathleen A. Limber

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological hermeneutic study was to discover the learning experience of augmented reality or virtual reality and extended reality technology for current and former paramedic academic students with learning disabilities in a regional Mid-Atlantic paramedic program located in the rural, mountainous Appalachian region. The theories guiding this study were Sweller’s cognitive load and Bandura’s social cognitive theory. The central research question was: What are the lived experiences of paramedic academic students with learning disabilities (LDs) using XR (AR/VR) technology as a pedagogical learning tool? The sample of 12 research participants consisted of LD students who identified as …

Exploring Higher Education Shared Governance Constitutional Documents As Potential Culture Building Contributors To Friction Between Faculty And Administration Through A Qualitative Analysis Of Foundational Institution Documents, Lanna Monday Emmett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This qualitative research project investigates the role shared governance documents in higher education institutions play in communicating the guiding principles and expectations used to create, sustain, and challenge culture through a content analysis of foundational institutional documents. Colleges and universities face challenges driven by technology, globalization, the capitalization of education, and shifting expectations regarding diversity, equity, and sustainability. These changes require institutions to adapt their organizational models for more competitive decision-making while navigating evolving governance issues. In some instances, these changes have been cited as one cause for friction between institutional stakeholders, particularly faculty and administration. Previous studies have more …

An Applied Multimethod Study: Addressing The Problem Of Property Integrity Issues In The State Of Alabama, Suzanna Kirkpatrick Taylor

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This applied multimethod study addressed the problem of property integrity issues in the state of Alabama. The central research question aimed to discover how property integrity issues could be identified and reduced within the state. The multimethod design utilized qualitative and quantitative data collection methods framed with Cohen and Felson’s (1979) routine activity theory across semi-structured interviews, content analysis of online news articles posted to the International Association for Property and Evidence’s Headline News webpage, and a survey questionnaire. Data observations revealed the problem of property integrity issues was complex. Target suitability for property items being stolen was found to …

How Experts View The Legal System's Use Of Scientific Evidence, Shari Seidman Diamond, Richard Lempert

Articles

Legal scholars and courts frequently write about how scientific evidence is vetted and presented in legal proceedings, but the views of experts themselves have received little attention. Our research aims to fill that gap. This paper reports some of what we learned from a series of surveys we conducted, beginning with a survey in 2016 of scientists who had been elected to membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.3 Subsequent surveys were directed to subscribers of the journal Science who identified as scientists and engineers and to self-identified experts who advertised their availability as experts to lawyers or …

Exploring The Underutilization Of Ai In Courtroom Decision-Making Processes, Dominique Lashaun Hilliard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The underutilization of AI in Texas state courtrooms challenges judicial efficiency, fairness, and transparency. Despite AI’s potential to enhance evidence management and decision-making, its adoption remains limited. Legal professionals and information technology (IT) managers stress the need for strategies to address these barriers and promote equitable justice. The purpose of this qualitative multiple-case study, which was grounded in the technology acceptance model, diffusion of innovation theory, and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, was to explore strategies IT managers use to implement AI in criminal justice information systems. Semi-structured interviews and organizational documents provided data for thematic analysis, …

The Electrostatic Charge On Exuded Liquid Drops, Schuyler Arn, Pablo Illing, Joshua Mendéz Harper, Justin C. Burton

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Fluid triboelectrification, also known as flow electrification, remains an under-explored yet ubiquitous phenomenon with potential applications from material science to planetary evolution. Building upon previous efforts to position water within the triboelectric series, we investigate the charge on individual, millimetric water drops falling through air. Our experiments measured the charge and mass of each drop using a Faraday cup mounted on a mass balance, and connected to an electrometer. For pure water in a glass syringe with a grounded metal tip, we find the charge per drop (Δ/Δ) was approximately -5 pC g to -1 pC g. This was independent …

2025 May 23 - Board Of Trustees Agenda And Minutes, Board Of Trustees, East Tennessee State University

Board of Trustees Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Artificial Intelligence On Art: The Intersection Of Ai-Generated Images And Ethical Concerns, Tetiana Fedotova

Electronic Dissertations and Theses, 2010-current

Artificial intelligence (AI) has gotten significant attention and debates, especially within the creative community, regarding AI-generated visual content. AI-generated images relate to the most popular concerns among artists and designers. This new approach of using AI leads to redefining the culture of creativity that shaped values and principles, which was built by a traditional perspective. However, the ongoing development of open-AI-powered generative tools is challenging society’s adoption of AI in creative realms. This paper explores and analyzes expert opinions and the public perspective of AI-generated algorithms, shedding light on fears and excitement surrounding their influences. Subsequently, ethical concerns, which are …

Active Transport Enables Protein Condensation In Cells, Gaurav Chauhan, Edward G Wilkinson, Yaning Yuan, Samuel R Cohen, Masayuki Onishi, Rohit V Pappu, Lucia C Strader

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Multiple factors drive biomolecular condensate formation. In plants, condensation of the transcription factors AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR 7 (ARF7) and ARF19 attenuates response to the plant hormone auxin. Here, we report that actin-mediated movement of cytoplasmic ARF condensates enhances condensation. Coarse-grained molecular simulations of active polymers reveal that applied forces drive the associations of macromolecules to enhance phase separation while giving rise to dense phases that preferentially accumulate motile molecules. Our study highlights how molecular motility can drive phase separation, with implications for motile condensates while offering insights into cellular mechanisms that can regulate condensate dynamics.

Statistical Approach To Turbulent Dispersal Of Aerosols For Accurate Prediction Of Concentration And Associated Uncertainties, K. A. Krishnaprasad, ‪Nadim Zgheib, S. Balachandar

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Publications

In the context of turbulent dispersal of aerosol pollutants from a source within a ventilated indoor space, the present work addresses the importance of going beyond accurate prediction of the mean ensemble-averaged exposure, by evaluating the expected level of variability in individual realizations. This uncertainty quantification requires a statistical description of the inherent stochastic turbulent dispersal process and the inhomogeneous nature of the indoor flow. We leverage large datasets from turbulence-resolving EulerLagrange simulations of aerosol dispersal in varying indoor geometries. The datasets provide time-resolved concentrations of pollutants emitted by a source located anywhere in a room and reaching a sink …

A Joint Geometric Topological Analysis Network (Jgta-Net) For Detecting And Segmenting Intracranial Aneurysms, Xinyue Zhang, Zonghan Lyu, Yang Wang, Bo Peng, Jingfeng Jiang

Michigan Tech Publications

Objective: The rupture of intracranial aneurysms leads to subarachnoid hemorrhage. Detecting intracranial aneurysms before rupture and stratifying their risk is critical in guiding preventive measures. Point-based aneurysm segmentation provides a plausible pathway for automatic aneurysm detection. However, challenges in existing segmentation methods motivate the proposed work. Methods: We propose a dual-branch network model (JGTANet) for accurately detecting aneurysms. JGTA-Net employs a hierarchical geometric feature learning framework to extract local contextual geometric information from the point cloud representing intracranial vessels. Building on this, we integrated a topological analysis module that leverages persistent homology to capture complex structural details of 3D objects, …

2025 May 23 - Academic, Research, And Student Success Committee Agenda And Minutes, Board Of Trustees, East Tennessee State University

Board of Trustees Agendas and Minutes

No abstract provided.

Citrus Farming, Tourism, And Globalization: Jeju Island’S Transformation Under South Korea’S State-Led Development, Caitlin Hong

Student Work

The Williams Prize in East Asian Studies is awarded to Caitlin Hong for her outstanding senior thesis, “Citrus, Capital, and Control: Jeju Island’s Transformation under State-Led Development.”

Hong’s work exemplifies intellectual ambition, methodological rigor, and original insight. Through an interdisciplinary blend of historical analysis and ethnographic fieldwork, she offers the first comprehensive English-language account of Jeju Island’s citrus farming industry, tracing its development from the postwar period to the present day.

Demonstrating extraordinary initiative, Hong designed and executed an independent research trip to Jeju Island, conducting interviews with citrus farmers, laborers, and experts, while also consulting numerous primary sources in …

A Journey Towards Human Rights: The Indigenous Repatriation Movement 1967-1995, Sara Lynne Shaffer-Henry

History Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

In June 1967, a group of Indigenous Peoples met at Mato Paha (Bear Butte, SD). The meetings were called due to disturbing reports and visions related to Indigenous Ancestral remains burial goods, or other sacred items on display in museums and repositories. They also discussed the continued desecration of sacred sites, and how these actions denied Indigenous Peoples of their human rights. The meeting a Mato Paha became the catalyst for what is now known as the Repatriation Movement. Based on grassroots organizing, the Repatriation Movement direct action, gatherings, legal action, and public relations to develop national repatriation law and …

Harmonic Classification Of Different Lighting Technologies Using Empirical Mode Decomposition And Support Vector Machines, Ahmad Farid Abidin, Mohd Abdul Talib Mat Yusoh, Abdul Hafiz Kassim, Nik Hakimi Nik Ali

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The impact of excessive harmonic distortion on electrical distribution networks highlights the critical need to understand harmonics in different lighting technologies to detect sources of issues and their effects. The increasing prevalence of nonlinear loads in power systems has contributed to significant harmonic pollution, deteriorating power line quality. This paper aims to address this issue by focusing on power line frequency detection and the classification of lighting technologies, combining empirical mode decomposition (EMD) with the one-versus-one support vector machine (OVO-SVM) approach. EMD is utilized to analyze signals through intrinsic mode functions, preserving the signal’s characteristics while extracting features related to …

Influence Of Nurse’S Knowledge And Attitudes On Caring Behaviors For People With Opioid Use Disorder, Inyene E. Essien-Aleksi, Don Roosan, Tracie Mcpadden, Leslie Rideout, Michael Martin, Paula-Jo Beniers, Amy Lund, Danielle Leone-Sheehan, Alysse Wurcel

Health Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: Opioid use disorder (OUD) remains the leading cause of preventable substance use-related deaths in the U.S. Each year, more than 1 million Americans seek hospital care for OUD-related issues. However, they often receive inadequate treatment and face barriers such as limited overdose prevention education, delays in medication initiation, and insufficient post-discharge follow-up. Nurses are well-positioned to improve inpatient OUD treatment, yet qualitative research suggests they often have limited knowledge and negative attitudes toward OUD, which can decrease the level of compassion and empathy nurses have toward people with OUD. Validated instruments, such as the Care Behavior Index (CBI-6) and …

Sweet Talk "Switch On", David Turner, Soren Walker

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

“Switch On” is the debut album by Melbourne’s Sweet Talk. Founded in 2018 by D. M. Turner and Soren Walker, Sweet Talk was created as a means to explore their love of American music of the mid to late 20th century through a uniquely Australian lens. Australia and the United States have a close relationship stretching back over 100 years. This bond continues to be expressed geopolitically and is prevalent in the cross-cultural exchange found in contemporary music. Sharing a British and Irish heritage, the countries have developed several musical styles in parallel including country music and rock n roll. …

Helmholtz Cage: Software Development And Implementation For Cubesat Testing, Gustavo A. Cotom Lopez

University Honors Theses

This paper details the successful development and deployment of a Helmholtz cage system, designed to produce precisely controlled magnetic fields for testing and calibration purposes. The core focus was on creating a robust, modular software architecture enabling independent current modulation on each axis, comprehensive serial communication between multiple microcontrollers, and real-time data acquisition from the MR3 magnetometer. All software components, including the serial communication drivers, control algorithms, command line interface, and calibration routines, were developed from the ground up. The system was fully operational upon completion: all hardware components functioned as intended, serial communication with each subsystem was reliable, and …

Heroines Of Their Own Stories: Lower Socio-Economic Black And Hispanic Giftedness, Dace Ashcraft

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of racially, ethnically, and economically diverse (REED) learners in developing gifted traits and behaviors for female students who have taken part in an extracurricular online course from the northeastern United States. Gifted traits and behaviors, or giftedness, was generally defined as what might be perceived as advanced ability or the potential for advanced ability in one or more specific areas. The theories guiding this study are Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which aids in understanding the influence of a student’s culture on higher-order mental functions originating in the social …

How Certain Is The Continuity Of The Panama Canal And How Will It Affect The Global Supply Chain Industry?, Enmanuel Rodriguez Correa

Honors Theses

The Panama Canal, a critical artery of global trade, is under mounting threat from prolonged droughts, water scarcity, and evolving geopolitical dynamics, casting doubt on its long-term viability. This thesis investigates the continuity of the Panama Canal’s operations amid intensifying climate change, and assesses the broader implications for the global supply chain. As the canal facilitates approximately 5% of global maritime trade and provides billions in annual cost savings to shipping companies, any disruption poses severe consequences for global commerce, economic stability, and trade logistics.

The analysis begins by situating the canal within its historical and geopolitical context, emphasizing its …

Conditional Quantization For Some Discrete Distributions, Edgar A. Gonzalez, Mrinal Kanti Roychowdhury, David A. Salinas, Vishal Veeramachaneni

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Quantization for a Borel probability measure refers to the idea of estimating a given probability by a discrete probability with support containing a finite number of elements. If in the quantization some of the elements in the finite support are preselected, then the quantization is called a conditional quantization. In this paper, we have determined the conditional quantization, first for two different finite discrete distributions with a same conditional set, and for a finite discrete distribution with two different conditional sets. Next, we have determined the conditional and unconditional quantization for an infinite discrete distribution with support {12𝑛:𝑛∈ℕ}. We have …

Chicago Detective Explorers: Examining The Effects Of Applied Social Emotional Learning Practices On Project-Based Forensic Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math Education Within Out-Of-School Time Programs, Jesus Roberto Magallon

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

This dissertation investigates the impact of a project-based forensic science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) course that utilized social-emotional learning (SEL) as part of its curriculum design during an out-of-school time (OST) summer program designed for high school students on Chicago’s far Northwest side. Although Durlak et al. (2011) showed that SEL improves academic achievement and well-being, its intersection with STEM remains underexamined. The Chicago Detective Explorers (CDE) program—designed and taught by the researcher—included a project-based forensic STEM curriculum (broadly defined as practice and analysis of physical evidence found at crime scenes) woven with SEL activities in areas such as …

Blockchain-Enabled Master Data Management, Shakhawat Hossain

Theses and Dissertations

Master Data Management (MDM) is essential for maintaining data quality, accuracy, consistency, and governance within organizations. However, traditional centralized MDM systems continue to face challenges related to data integrity, security, and scalability. This research presents a blockchain-enabled MDM framework designed to overcome these limitations by leveraging blockchain’s decentralized, immutable, and secure architecture. The study aims to identify and address the shortcomings of conventional MDM practices, examine the applicability of blockchain technology in enhancing these systems, and develop a functional prototype to validate the proposed model. The framework incorporates decentralized review mechanisms that improve auditability and ensure trusted data verification by …

Karcı Fractional Artificial Neural Networks (Karcıfann): A New Artificial Neural Networks Model Without Learning Rate And Its Problems, Meral Karakurt, Hülya Saygili, Ali̇ Karci

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

The learning rate parameter used in classical artificial neural networks (ANNs) designed with stochastic gradient descent causes problems such as failure to learn, getting stuck in local minima, memorization, and long training times (divergence problem). To address these issues, this paper proposes a novel ANN method that uses a fractional derivative instead of Newton’s derivative. This method is referred to as Karcı fractional ANN (KarcıFANN). In classical ANNs, the weight update is done by assigning the same constant value to the learning rate in each iteration or for a set number of iterations. In contrast, in KarcıFANNs, the weight update …

A Proposed Coding Algorithm With Ai-Assisted Restoration Capability, Parviz Gharehbagheri, Hamid Haj Seyyed Javadi

Turkish Journal of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences

This paper introduces an innovative encoding method based on the concept of "distancecodes" , which allows characters to appear randomly in different locations during the decoding process. Codeword-based algorithms decode and present their characters sequentially, which can hinder accurate reconstruction in the event of incomplete text decoding, as there is no intelligent or non-intelligent model available for continuing the text reconstruction.In contrast, our proposed algorithm allows for the non-sequential and scattered appearance of characters throughout the data during the decoding process. This enables AI algorithms to restore undecoded characters using contextual information such as decoded characters, adjacent complete and incomplete …

Experiences Of Black Women School Counselors Coping With Student Suicide, Megan Patrice Ray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Suicide represents a major public health and educational concern and presents profound emotional and professional challenges for school counselors. This transcendental phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of nine certified school counselors of color who had experienced the death of a student by suicide while employed in K–12 educational settings. With this research, I sought to answer the question: What are the lived experiences of school counselors of color who have had a student die by suicide? Guided by Moustakas’ transcendental phenomenological framework, this study employed bracketing to set aside researcher bias and uncover the essence of participants lived experiences …