Digital Commons Network^™

Human Trafficking In Ohio: A Human Rights Violation, Sunny M. Lloyd

Honors Projects

Human trafficking is an overlooked and underestimated issue in the state of Ohio. The Ohio Attorney General’s Office estimates that over 1,000 children are sex trafficked in Ohio every year. Given the severity and prevalence of this issue, the following research project explores the issue of human trafficking in Ohio and discusses five major human rights violations resulting from human trafficking. This project includes details from an interview with a human trafficking survivor who was trafficked for labor and sex over the course of fifteen years in northeast Ohio. To conclude, the project suggests recommendations for the State of Ohio …

Homiezation, Isa D. Ferris

Social Justice | Senior Theses

This thesis presents Homiezation as a practical framework for building transformative relationships across cultural and racial boundaries, focusing on intercultural engagement for scholars, educators, and community practitioners. Based on community research in Marin County, California, it draws on interviews with Latino/a immigrants, first-generation Latino/a citizens, and one non-Latino BIPOC community member. I coined the term ‘Homiezation’ during my community work to describe the process of fostering care, trust, and shared humanity within Third Spaces, where diverse cultures interact and learn from one another.

Six interconnected themes—showing up, trust, social awareness, cultural humility, humor, and compañerismo—form the foundation of Homiezation. These …

Comparative Analyses Of Psychological And Training Characteristics In Judo Competitors And Non-Competitors: Mental Strength, Self-Efficacy, Grit, Resilience, Self-Control, Aggression, Mental Health, And Life Satisfaction, Leandro De Lorenco-Lima, Daniery Rosario, Stacey Gaines

Applied Sport & Performance Psychology | Faculty Scholarship

Judokas competing at the national and Olympic levels rigorously engage in numerous daily and weekly training sessions, potentially influencing the athletes’ mental conditioning. Based on the nature of competition, peak physical and mental conditioning is a prerequisite to achieve the highest place on the podium. This study investigated the differences in training characteristics, mental strength, resilience, grit, self-efficacy, self-control, aggression, life satisfaction, and mental health disorders between judo competitors and non-competitors. A total of 146 judo athletes (77.4% male) from 18 to 45 years of age, representing 60 competitors (41.1%) 86 noncompetitors (58.9%) participated in this study. Judokas answered training-related …

Town Of Dummer, Nh Annual Report Of The Town Officers For The Year Ended December 31, 2024, Dummer Town Representatives

Dummer, NH Annual Reports

This is an annual report containing vital statistics for a town/city in the state of New Hampshire.

Development Of A Drone-Assisted Pavement Management Framework Based On The Pavement Condition Index For University Parking Lots, Omesh Pasuluru

Civil Engineering Theses - Archive

Efficient pavement management is essential for keeping university parking lots in good condition. At the University of Texas at Arlington, parking areas experience heavy use and environmental wear, which can cause damage if not addressed early. Traditional methods for assessing pavement conditions are time-consuming, interrupt daily activities, and are expensive. Hence, there is a need for better solutions. This study introduces a drone-based pavement management approach that uses the Pavement Condition Index (PCI) system. The PCI is a numerical scale from 0 to 100 that rates pavement quality based on surface condition. A high PCI score (85-100) indicates the pavement …

Digital Platform Transitions In The Finance Industry: Three Essays, Cheryll-Ann Wilson

2025

This three-paper dissertation is motivated by an emerging dichotomy in the financial sector: an increasing use of an open-source digital platform—the Python platform—in an industry that historically has been wedded to proprietary systems.

Chapter 1 is a qualitative pilot study to ascertain which factors are likely to motivate investment professionals to select Python versus other tools and/or technologies. I find that efficiency and access to industry-specific libraries—notably Pandas and NumPy—are significant motivators in their selection of Python over Excel. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the issues through a sequential, exploratory mixed methods approach.

Chapter 2—the qualitative field study—investigates how and …

Essays On Political Violence And Democratic Competition In Western Democracies, Moritz Emanuel Bondeli

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

This dissertation sheds new light on the causes of political violence as well as its consequences for democratic competition, focusing on Western democracies. My first essay examines the interplay of policing, political violence and democratic backsliding in Weimar Germany. It establishes that the preferences and incentives of law enforcement officials are central to understanding variation in political violence in this context. The essay combines original quantitative data on law enforcement staffing and party mobilization efforts with secondary data on incidents of lethal political violence and electoral outcomes to build an original county-level panel dataset for the German state of Prussia, …

Regulation Of Pre-Mrna Processing Through Nascent Rna Folding, Leonard Schaerfen

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

RNA sequence determines the formation of intramolecular base pairs. Together with tertiary contacts, base pairs define every RNA's structure, or fold. The catalytic, regulatory, or coding potential of an RNA strongly depends on its folding pattern. Because base pairing occurs much faster than RNA synthesis (transcription) in cells, early structural states can govern RNA processing events and dictate the formation of functional conformations. These co-transcriptional structural states remained largely unknown. To address this gap, I developed CoSTseq, a chemical probing and enrichment method to measure nascent RNA base pairing upon exit from RNA polymerases (Pols) transcriptome-wide in living Saccharomyces cerevisiae …

Vocational Ministry Leader Burnout: Exploring The Effects Of The Spiritual Discipline Of Resting In Solitude On The Mitigation Of Burnout For Vocational Ministry Leaders In South Florida, Sandra L. Ives

All Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Vocational ministry leaders are at an increased risk of burnout due to the demands of their roles in ministry, which can result in burnout. The problem this project addressed was the mitigating effect of the spiritual habits of resting in solitude and the disciplines of prayer, fasting, study and meditation of Scripture, and Sabbath to aid in mitigating incidents of burnout for vocational ministry leaders within South Florida church communities. The timeline for this project started in 2007, with continuing incidents of burnout occurring through the present day. The Researcher used a mixed methods approach and conducted quantitative and qualitative …

A Systematic Review And Evaluation Of The Tools Measuring Work-Related Psychosocial Factors In Prospective Research On Sickness Absence Of Health Care Workers, Laurent Corthésy-Blondin, Simona Margheritti, Samantha Vila Masse, Andrea Gragnano, Alessia Negrini

Revues de littérature, synthèses de connaissances

Purpose:

This systematic literature review aims to list the validated tools measuring work-related psychosocial factors (WRPFs) influence health care workers’ (HCWs) sickness absence (SA), and to evaluate their psychometric and practical properties.

Methods:

Using the PsycINFO, Medline, and Web of Science databases, the search targeted prospective studies on WRPFs and SA in HCWs published between 2012 and 2023. The validated, self-report tools that measured WRPFs and that yielded at least one significant predictor of SA in HCWs were identified. An evaluation of the psychometric and practical properties was performed.

Results:

Based on inclusion criteria, three prospective studies on HCWs were …

At Home Camp Programming To Improve The Quality Of Life In Children With Disabilities And Medical Illnesses, Megan R. Boyleston

Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Doctoral Capstone Symposium

In the state of South Carolina, more than 58,000 children living with a disability or serious medical illness are not being served with the opportunity to participate in a summer camp (Denton, 2023). Summer camps encourage children to interact with their peers, experience play, and engage in enjoyable activities. These are all skills that children with disabilities and medical illnesses tend to struggle with (Makaroff et al., 2013). Lack of these skills can contribute to a lower overall quality of life for these individuals.

A quality improvement capstone project was completed in collaboration with a nonprofit organization that creates overnight …

Home Activity Resources In Senior Activity Centers, Skylar B. Hayes

Entry-Level Occupational Therapy Doctorate - Doctoral Capstone Symposium

Due to the growing population of older adults in both our local community and in the world, the need for promotion of healthy aging is essential. The literature shows that community support and resources are critical to aging in place, which helps maintain independence as older adults age. A doctoral capstone project was conducted to address the need for support and resource to increase the quality of life of senior citizens attending community day centers. The project goals were to design and implement educational resources that increase older adult’s overall level of activity physically, cognitively, and socially. Through a mixed …

Criterion, Volume 43, 2025, Loyola Marymount University English Department

Criterion

Faculty Advisor: Michelle Bitting

Co-Editor-in-Chiefs: Taylor Crowell & Eriana Muñoz

La Voz 2025, Loyola Marymount University, Modern Languages & Literatures Department

La Voz Student Journal

LA VOZ is published by the Modern Languages & Literatures Department, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA.

Teaching About The Michigan Pbb Disaster, Jessica Zaker

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

Lines On A Map, Lives On The Ground: Teaching Borders And Empathy In The Scramble For Africa, Mark T. Johnson

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

The State Of Elementary Social Studies In Michigan, Annie Mcmahon Whitlock

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

Analysis Of Crowd Logistics Networks Using Agent-Based Models, Preetam Kulkarni

Industrial, Manufacturing, and Systems Engineering Dissertations - Archive

Crowd logistics is a system in which an online platform connects a group of non-professional couriers (crowd/carriers), who use their under-utilized resources to offer delivery service to other individuals or businesses (senders) for a fee. While crowd logistics platforms have the potential to offer more flexible and responsive delivery services for much lower rates than traditional logistics providers, it is difficult for platforms to be successful as it is challenging to meet carriers’ and senders’ expectations. Crowd logistics has been applied in the context of food and grocery delivery, parcel pickup and drop-off services and last-mile delivery, however, it has …

Perceived Unmet Needs And Barriers To Services Associated With Traumatic Brain Injury In Rural Populations, Megan M. Bruce

Graduate Student Scholarship

This study investigated unmet needs of individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and of their caregivers living in rural communities. The objective of this research study was to identify occupational therapy’s role and intervention priorities for individuals with TBI and their caregivers in rural settings. Descriptive statistics were generated from quantitative survey responses obtained from 84 community-dwelling individuals with TBI and 40 caregivers ranging in age from 18 to 80 years. The most identified “barriers” were poor awareness of the ways to receive services (TBI Survivors = 65%, Caregivers = 61%), inadequate professional/provider knowledge about available supports and services (TBI …

Introduce, Inform, Inspire: Curating A Collection Of Idms For Sustained Inquiry, Lisa K. Pennington, Mary E. Tackett

The Great Lakes Social Studies Journal

None

The Impacts Of Land Use And Groundwater Inputs On Stream Health And Habitat Of Jennings Creek, Bowling Green, Kentucky, Allison Francis

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

In Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Jennings Creek watershed encompasses the entire city and surrounding area; however, little work has been completed focused on assessing the Creek’s water quality, habitat, and biological indicators. Jennings Creek is fed by several karst groundwater springs, making it highly vulnerable to contamination due to the rapid connection between the surface and subsurface via sinkholes and underground rivers. An examination of Jennings Creek’s water quality, habitat, and biological indicators provides an assessment of the watershed’s health.

The methodology closely followed the methods for assessing habitat by Kentucky’s Energy and Environment Cabinet and was approved for the …

Attic Salt, 2025, Loyola Marymount University, The Honors Program

Attic Salt

No abstract provided.

Updating Rainfall Zones And Intensities In Nebraska For Improved Design Of Non-Bridge-Sized Drainage Structures, Rezaul Mahmood, Tirthankar Roy, Chanchal Gupta, Kanak Kanti Kar, William Sorenson

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This study assesses the effectiveness of precipitation zones and Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) curves used by the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT) for designing drainage structures. Twenty stations were selected for the analysis of revised IDF curves out of forty-two stations. Datasets have been considered from the National Center for Environmental Information (NCEI). By Comparing the new curves with existing ones, the study efforts examine the frequency, duration and severe rainfall. The results show that the IDF curves for various zones and stations varied noticeably from one another. Also, noticed that Zone A and B shows lower rainfall intensities in short to …

"The Perfect Storm": Weathering Black Racial Trauma Across The Lifespan And The Impact Of Covid-19, Taryne M. Mingo, Kiauhna Haynes

Adultspan Journal

Descendants of Africans Enslaved in the United States (DAEUS), who lived in the South prior to 1965 and experienced decades of legalized discrimination, were found to have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Arline Geronimus (1992) coined the term “weathering” to acknowledge the accumulation of racial trauma stored within the body over extended periods of time. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study, aligned by the tenets of Critical Race Theory, explores how continuous racial trauma impacted DAEUS citizens’ well-being and trust in the COVID-19 vaccine. Three Group Experiential Themes emerged during this study, all connected with the experiences …

From Classrooms To Community: An Ethnographic Narrative, Nathan Nagaoka

CGU Theses & Dissertations

This ethnographic narrative weaves together the story of my journey as a novice teacher, as I worked to create a positive classroom ecology and learned countless lessons while assuming the roles of student, teacher, and observer. Through the analysis of multiple artifacts, intended to reflect my teaching practices, this narrative challenged me to examine my role in society and consider my past intentionally. With humility, hard work, and the connections I made with my students, this narrative tracks my progress as a teacher and displays my hopes and dreams for the future.

In The Kingdom Of The Thunder Dragon: Happiness, History, And Environment In A Changing Bhutan, Betsy Bolton

English Literature Faculty Works

Landlocked, mountainous, and surrounded by global giants India and China, Bhutan has provided remarkable leadership on both climate action and human happiness, despite its pre-2023 status as a least-developed nation. Bhutan was the first country to be internationally recognized as carbon neutral; it is also the birthplace of “Gross National Happiness” (GNH), a pointed alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a means of measuring the success of national policies in promoting citizens’ wellbeing. Yet Bhutan has also been a site of ethnic conflict, with roughly tens of thousands people displaced into refugee camps in the 1990s and eventually resettled …

The Story Of North Atlantic Right Whales, Sydney Haas

Theses & ETDs

North Atlantic right whales are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. In this project, an ArcGIS StoryMap was made so that the problems facing this species and the possible solutions to these problems could be communicated to a wide audience. A StoryMap is a tool that can creatively display narrative text, graphics, and maps. This StoryMap is an accumulation of data, information, statistics, policies, maps, and technological solutions surrounding North Atlantic Right Whale conservation. Scientific research and communication, whether it be through policies or education, must work together for a real impact to be …

Credit Analysis And Professional Development: A Capstone Internship With Servisfirst Bank, Christian Gulgin

Theses & ETDs

This paper details the steps that led to my internship experience at ServisFirst Bank in Sarasota, Florida, from January to May 2025, as part of my senior project for a Bachelor of Arts in Financial Economics at New College of Florida. My role as a Credit Analyst Intern involved evaluating the creditworthiness of clients through detailed financial statement analysis, covenant testing, and credit reporting. The internship enabled significant development in both technical competencies, such as mastering financial ratios and Excel-based analyses, and interpersonal skills involving communication and teamwork. This experience provided clarity on my professional trajectory within the banking and …

Resilience And Its Effects On Psychological Well Being During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Taylor Reinsel

Honors Theses

Stressors and trauma in life are unavoidable. However, the way we respond and adapt to them can be within our control. This response differs from person to person, but there are factors that can influence the likelihood of an individual rebounding from a crisis, as well as factors that can put them at a higher risk of developing mental illness. One of the main factors that influences Psychological Well Being is the presence of Resilience.

The main goal of this study was to examine how factors of Resilience relate to Psychological Well Being and COVID-19 Well Being during the COVID-19 …

“Windows For Witness: Dan Fishback’S Radical Access”, Alexandra Juhasz

Publications and Research

Dan Fishback’s Jewish crip aesthetic – art made within a framework of integrated access – is rooted in the human (or Jewish!) capacity to be generous and so much more. He expands our understandings of who is in the room, who is in the world, who is in our community, who lives at the same time as us but in a different way. This connection in his show between chronic illness and Palestine is not only about alienation it is about identification and solidarity.