Digital Commons Network^™

Toward Learning-Based Reconstruction And Part Decomposition Of Man-Made 3d Geometry: Neural Implicit Representations And Scalable Supervision, Shen Fan

Dissertations

Digital three-dimensional (3D) models are central to engineering design, analysis, and manufacturing, but learning pipelines for man-made geometry often operate on sampled carriers that do not preserve all of the structure present in exact CAD representations. This dissertation studies learning-based reconstruction and part decomposition for structured man-made 3D geometry, from general object benchmarks to CAD-derived datasets, with a focus on neural implicit representations trained from signed-distance samples, point clouds, and tessellated meshes. The goal is to make these models more accurate, more part-aware, and more consistently supervised.

First, signed distance function (SDF) reconstruction with implicit neural representations is improved through …

Significant Crash Characteristics Associated With E-Scooter And E-Bike Crashes, Aimee Jefferson

Dissertations

Micromobility devices—namely e-scooters and e-bikes—have rapidly gained popularity in the United Sates, rising from 35 million annual shared rides in 2017 to over 133 million in 2023 (NACTO 2024). But also increasing is the number of injuries associated with these devices; however, most research emphasizes injury and demographic patterns rather than crash characteristics that would inform prevention strategies. Most existing crash research also relies on small sample sizes, lacks nuance distinguishing between involved parties (motorists, pedestrians, single device), and fails to distinguish between bicycle and micromobility crash patterns despite micromobility devices often being instructed to use conventional bicycle facilities. These …

Anonymity And Accountability In Secure Messaging, Erin Kenney

Dissertations

Encypted messaging has become more and more prevalent as time moves on, and its benefits in assuring privacy cannot be overstated, but it also brings along with it concerns on how to moderate platforms where all messages are hidden. Message Franking, followed by Traceback systems, addressed these concerns by allowing the sender of a message to be proven when reported, even for forwarded messages in the case of Traceback, however these systems damage the privacy guarantees that originally motivated encrypted messaging to begin with.

In practice, even without those concerns encrypted messaging alone is not enough to prevent the most …

Glass Transition Temperature Of Plga Nanoparticles And The Application In Drug Delivery, Guangliang Liu

Dissertations

The glass transition temperature (T_g) of poly(D,L-lactic-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) nanoparticles plays a crucial role in governing molecular mobility, diffusion, and consequently, drug release kinetics. However, the interaction among residual surfactant, drug effect, nanoscale confinement, and release medium on T_g remains insufficiently characterized. This study aims to bridge this gap by correlating the thermal behavior of PLGA nanoparticles with their drug release behavior under physiologically relevant conditions.

In the present study, PLGA nanoparticles were synthesized using both nano-emulsion and surfactant-free nano-precipitation approaches. The influence of residual surfactants - poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) and didodecyldimethylammonium bromide (DMAB) - was systematically …

Membrane-Engineered Nanotherapeutic Platforms For Drug Delivery: Hollow Fiber Membrane Synthesis Of Lipid Nanoparticles, Biomimetic Nanocarriers, And Nanobubbles, Zhixiang Liu

Dissertations

Lipid-based nanocarriers have emerged as a cornerstone technology for RNA therapeutics, enabling effective intracellular delivery for applications ranging from vaccination to gene regulation. However, current manufacturing approaches, particularly microfluidic-based platforms, face inherent limitations in scalability, throughput, and structural tunability due to their reliance on confined channel geometries and restricted mixing architectures. Addressing these challenges requires fundamentally new strategies that decouple nanoparticle formation from traditional microscale flow constraints while maintaining precise control over physicochemical properties.

This dissertation presents a comprehensive framework for the design, engineering, and application of advanced lipid-based nanocarriers, centered on a hollow fiber membrane (HFM)—assisted nanopore-mediated assembly platform. …

Parameter Density Estimation For Cardiac Electrophysiology Models Using Data Consistent Deep Learning, Michael Luo

Dissertations

Mathematical models of biological rhythms and excitable systems can provide insights into mechanisms underlying cardiac electrical dynamics. However, estimating the parameters of these models from experimental observations is often difficult due to noise, heterogeneity, and unobserved variables. For example, in an electrocardiogram (ECG) recording, information about the electrical properties of different regions of the heart is compressed into a single voltage trace. Additionally, variability within these signals may contain important information about population heterogeneity, regional differences in electrophysiology, and time-dependent modulation.

This dissertation develops, explores, and evaluates methods that perform feature-based distributional inference for complex nonlinear dynamical systems. The objective …

A Network-Cascade Framework For Short-Run Production Failure Under Maritime-Energy Chokepoint Disruption, Siyao Liu

Double Helix Methodology

Abrupt maritime-energy disruption can generate system-wide production losses before firms and policymakers can adjust. Existing assessments usually emphasize direct exposure or long-run equilibrium responses, which makes them less suitable for short-run risk assessment in energy-dependent production systems. We develop a threshold-cascade framework that combines dual-track dependence topology, edge-level inventories, smooth operability bands, and a separate price-validation step to identify the blockade intensity at which a localized chokepoint shock becomes systemic production loss. The framework is evaluated against the March 2021 Suez blockage and the 2022 Russia–Ukraine producer-price episode, and then applied to a 2026 Strait of Hormuz stress scenario using …

Mapping The Future Of Digital Logistics: A Multi-Layered Analysis Of Technological Evolution And Integration, Jiang Yu

Double Helix Methodology

In the context of accelerating digital transformation and increasingly complex global supply chains, this study develops a multi-layered analytical framework to investigate the technological evolution and future trajectory of digital logistics. Using 107,202 patent records from the IncoPat database covering 1960–2023, the study integrates the entropy weight method, grey relational analysis, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), and a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) to identify core patents, extract technological topics, and forecast their dynamic evolution through 2028. The findings identify 27 major technological topics and reveal a significant transition from traditional operational optimization toward integrated intelligence and autonomous execution. Technologies related to …

The Cultivation Of Public Perception: Cultivated Meat Narratives And Misinformation On Tiktok, Anna M. Balkus

Graduate Masters Theses

Cultivated meat is an emerging tissue engineering technology that has the potential to address major issues threatening food systems, including climate change, rapid population growth, and the spread of disease. Among technical challenges, public perception remains a significant barrier for the widespread adoption of cultivated meat. While social media has transformed communication globally, it has simultaneously contributed to corrupt online environments infected with misinformation—unintentional inaccuracies that differ from disinformation, which is spread with the intent to mislead. The way the public receives and digests information regarding new food technologies, like cultivated meat, will be shaped by their social media environment. …

Empowering Lifelong Choice: Supporting Older Individuals With Idd To Thrive At Work, Transition To Retirement With Dignity, And Maintain Community Connections, Leslie Quarles

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

This synthesis addresses the need to support older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in their engagement in continued work. The project traces the journey from an initial focus on supporting older individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities to work as long as they wish to an eventual shift toward a phased retirement approach. It considers issues such as a reimagined visualization of the support team structure, integration of tailored job supports and Community Life Engagement (CLE). The author's familial history sparked a sense of injustice that would not stay buried, shaping a career path in disability services and access. …

Indonesia And The Global Maritime Fulcrum: Structural Crisis Of The Four Pillars Of Maritime Power, Frisca Ayu Suciandika

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This article critically examines Indonesia’s position in realizing its vision as a Global Maritime Fulcrum through an analysis of four main pillars of maritime power: maritime science, financial strength, maritime industry, and naval defense. The study is motivated by the paradox between Indonesia’s vast geographical and historical potential as an archipelagic state and its limited structural capacity to build modern maritime power. This research employs a qualitative descriptive approach using library research and critical analysis of academic literature, international data, and Indonesian maritime policy documents. The findings show that Indonesia still faces an epistemic deficit in maritime science due to …

Digital Communication And The Evolution Of Ideological Narratives In Indonesia: Insights From Social Media Platforms, Tia Mariatul Kibtiah, Muhammad Fikri Fawazi

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study examines how pro-caliphate and anti-democratic narratives are articulated and normalised within YouTube comment spaces in Indonesia. As the world’s largest Muslim-majority country with high levels of digital engagement, Indonesia provides an important context for analysing how political-religious discourses circulate through everyday digital interaction. The research analyses 1,354 YouTube comments related to the caliphate, governance, and democracy. Data were collected using Google Apps Script, manually filtered for relevance, and examined through qualitative content analysis informed by Social Network Theory (SNT) and the Radicalisation Factor Model (RFM). The findings show that 34.49% of comments endorsed ideological pro-caliphate narratives, while 35.97% …

The Effect Of Incompatibility Types On The Escalation Of Global Armed Conflicts, Michael Haratua Rajagukguk, Ruben Cornelius Siagian Rcs

Journal of Terrorism Studies

Global armed conflicts show variations in intensity influenced by the type of issue incompatibility. This study aims to analyze the influence of territorial, ideological, and combined incompatibilities on the probability of high-intensity conflict escalation, as well as its implications for conflict mitigation strategies. Global conflict dyadic data were analyzed using a multilevel logistic regression model with controls for time, region, and conflict type. The results show that ideology-based conflicts have a lower probability of reaching high intensity than territorial conflicts (OR ≈ 0.51, p < 0.05), while conflicts with a combination of ideology and territory tend to be at greater risk of high escalation (AM effect ≈ +26.6 points), although the effect is not yet statistically significant. Temporal analysis shows a downward trend in conflict intensity over time, especially in the post-Cold War period, while regional effects and conflict types show significant variation. These findings fill a gap in the literature on the dual interaction of ideological and territorial claims, showing that the highest escalation of violence occurs when symbolic and material dimensions are intertwined. In conclusion, conflict escalation is more influenced by a combination of issues and structural characteristics of conflict than by ideology alone. The novelty of this research lies in the identification of the strengthening effect of dual incompatibility and the downward trend in conflict intensity after the Cold War, which emphasizes the importance of a relational and temporal context-based mitigation approach in global conflict management.

Trends Of Pediatric Psychotropic Polypharmacy In Massachusetts Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Gianna D'Ambrozio

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Youth in the U.S. and internationally are increasingly being diagnosed with depression and related psychiatric conditions (Murthy, 2021) many of whom are being subjected to non-evidence-based, or what has been termed irrational, psychotropic polypharmacy (Barnett & Concepcion Zayas, 2019). Psychotropic polypharmacy can be defined as “the use of 2 or more psychiatric medications in the same patient,” (Zito et al., 2021) though definitions can vary. Using data from the Center for Health Information Analysis’ Massachusetts All-Payer Claims Database, this study examined the sociodemographic factors associated with high rates of polypharmacy, a hypothesized increase in pediatric psychotropic polypharmacy rates in Massachusetts …

Pickleweed In The Disappearing Marsh: Population Genetics & Metal Accumulation In Salicornia Depressa, Alice Kaisla

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Salicornia is a genus of succulent halophytes found in salt marshes around the world. Salicornia species have a remarkably high tolerance for heavy metal pollution and have been shown to accumulate high concentrations of heavy metals in their tissue under experimental conditions. As a result, they are both a useful system for studying evolution in polluted coastlines and a potential candidate for use in phytoremediation. My research focuses on Salicornia depressa, known as pickleweed, a species commonly found in marshes along the heavily urbanized and industrialized New England coast. I investigate genetic diversity and population structure in S. depressa populations …

Should I Stay Or Should I Go?: A Phenomenological Case Study Of Teacher Turnover In An Urban School Merger, Haven Jones

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

School mergers are becoming a more common occurrence in urban school districts within the U.S., as an attempt to address student enrollment declines and resulting budgetary concerns. Yet very little research has been conducted to understand how the context of a school merger influences known K-12 education phenomena, such as the teacher turnover decision-making process. This study utilized a phenomenological case study approach to explore the impact of a school merger on teacher turnover within a specific middle school-high school merger in a Northeastern city. Fifteen teacher participants were interviewed and three primary source documents were analyzed to determine what …

Adapting Population Genetics, Practice, And Policy For Plant Conservation In A Changing World, Cooper M. Kimball-Rhines

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Biodiversity conservation is an inherently interdisciplinary goal that requires effective collaboration among academics, ecosystem managers, policymakers, and other stakeholders. Codesigning research with these groups ensures experiments are useful and improves adoption of policy and practice recommendations while advancing our understanding of basic science. This dissertation explores the power of codesigned research in shaping plant conservation strategies using stakeholder engagement, causal inference, demographic modeling, and multi-omic sequencing techniques. In chapter 1 I discuss the history of New England ecosystems and the need for research-driven changes to plant conservation policy and practice in the face of global change. In chapter 2, I …

Streamlined Biomedical Image Processing Pipelines, Jiehyun Kim

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on advancing carotid artery analysis through a series of visualizations and deep learning tools for calcified plaque assessment and related biomedical imaging tasks. Accurate plaque evaluation is essential, but current workflows depend on slow, clinician-dependent manual review. To address these limitations, this work introduces the CACTAS framework, a set of tools and methods that enable fast and reliable plaque segmentation for clinicians.

The first study, the CACTAS-Tool, provides a web-based labeling tool that enables clinicians to label plaque directly in three dimensions through a streamlined one-click interface. This tool significantly reduces the effort required to generate high-quality …

Static Data-Race Detection For Gpu Programs: Behavioral Types With Partial Completeness Guarantees, Zhen Rong Liew

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

GPUs are essential to modern computing but notoriously difficult to program correctly. Static analysis tools can verify data-race freedom, but their over-approximations produce spurious reports of data races that do not occur, limiting their practical usefulness. This dissertation establishes when Memory Access Protocols (MAPs), a compositional abstraction modeling memory access behavior between synchronization barriers, can be simultaneously sound and complete. We first prove that MAP-based analysis is sound and complete for well-typed Jaminan programs---those without data-dependent array indexing. This result establishes the theoretical boundary: completeness is achievable when data-dependent control flow and indexing are absent. Jaminan extends MAPs with symbolic …

The Marginalizing Effect Of Special Education: Investigating The Overrepresentation Of Black Males Identified With Emotional Impairment In A Separate School In An Urban Setting, Cindie Neilson

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The American public education system relies heavily on normed and standardized mechanisms to define competence, behavior, and academic success. By design, such systems cannot accommodate the full range of human variation and instead reproduce expectations rooted in dominant culture norms. When embedded within a racially stratified educational system, Special Education, while intended to provide access and opportunity for students with disabilities, can function as a mechanism through which inequality is reproduced. This qualitative study examined the persistent overrepresentation of Black males identified with Emotional Impairment in highly restrictive separate day school settings. The research was conducted in a public separate …

Small Molecule Antioxidants As Potential Therapeutics For Preeclampsia, Maxim Mastyugin

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

The major goal of this work was to develop a therapeutic intervention against preeclampsia (PE). Preeclampsia affects up to 5-7% of all pregnancies and has no causative treatments. It is associated with oxidative stress caused by a prolonged ischemic state and increase in reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the placenta. The cardinal symptoms include high blood pressure, kidney dysfunction, and in severe cases, eclampsia. With no treatment for the underlying causes available, we offer small molecule antioxidants which may scavenge ROS in the placenta arising from the initiating event of PE, the oxidative stress. By reducing placental ROS, these antioxidants …

Computer-Aided Development Of Novel Antioxidants, Rita Bernadett Vlocsko

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Physiological redox homeostasis is a fine balance between prooxidants and antioxidants that are integrated elements of several reduction-oxidation mechanisms at molecular, organellar, cellular and tissue levels. When this equilibrium is disrupted and prooxidants become dominant, the body relies on endogenous and exogenous antioxidants to counterbalance the dysregulation and ultimately prevent the progression of oxidative stress. Reactive species (reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen species, or reactive sulfur species) are significant contributors to prooxidant activity. Over the years, substantial knowledge has been accumulated regarding their origin and roles in disease development, leading to the discovery and development of antioxidants that effectively target …

Pipelines And Power: Governance, Conflict, And Hybrid Political Orders In Nigeria's Niger Delta, Nkasiobu Wodu

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Abstract

Many conflict-affected states in the Global South can be described as Hybrid Political Orders—governance arrangements where informal authority and formal state institutions coexist, overlap, and contest for power. In Nigeria's Niger Delta, this phenomenon is clearly evident. In this context, the exercise of governmental authority extends beyond the Weberian State. Local and non-state actors such as ethnic-based organizations, former combatants, and traditional authorities routinely perform government-like functions within their spheres of influence.

This study analyzes how extractive corporations, informal authorities, and the Nigerian state co-produce governance and shape patterns of conflict and cooperation in the Niger Delta. Its central …

Whose Knowledge Is Sustained?: Dominican Students’ Cultural And Linguistic Experiences Navigating White, Female, And Monolingual Pedagogical Spaces, Carminia Lissette Castillo

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how Dominican newcomer youth experience schooling in U.S. secondary schools, with emphasis on language, curriculum, identity, belonging, and students’ visions for more humanizing educational environments. Grounded in student testimonios, the study explored how school structures, pedagogical practices, and teacher–student relationships shape students’ academic engagement, emotional well-being, and sense of recognition as they navigate migration, language transition, and racialized identity formation. Informed by raciolinguistic, culturally sustaining, and critical interpretive frameworks, this study centered Dominican students’ voices as sources of knowledge about schooling, exclusion, and possibility. The findings comprise three central themes. First, students described raciolinguistic schooling …

Arts On The Point: Boston's First Public Sculpture Park, Isabella Slonka

Honors College Theses

Led by the conviction that “a public campus needs public art,” Professor Paul Tucker founded UMass Boston’s Arts on the Point (AoP) sculpture park in 1997. Large-scale works by world-class contemporary artists including Sol LeWitt, Dennis Oppenheim, Luis Jiménez, Sheila Pepe, and Mark di Suvero were made accessible to students, served as teaching aids and attracted those outside of UMB to Columbia Point. AoP’s use of long term loans made the landscape itself a rotating gallery.

Consideration of the “personality” of the campus was essential in the selection of works. Site visits with artists were conducted to ensure that their …

Intergenerational Climate Stories Of South Carolina, Christine Sorrell Dinkins, Laura Barbas Rhoden, Samuel Stuckey, Hayden Jones

Community Based Research

Intergenerational Climate Stories

In this volume, you will hear from South Carolina residents age 45+ who generously agreed to speak with student researchers at Wofford College. In these intergenerational conversations, participants shared how they have experienced and perceived climate change over the course of their lives. Some stories have been anonymized through the use of pseudonyms, while others include participants’ names with permission. In some cases, researcher comments and questions are included for context. The stories have been lightly edited for clarity and concision while preserving the participants’ voices.

All conversations were facilitated in Summer 2023 by Wofford students Hayden …

Developing The Evidence And Associated Service Models To Support Older People Living With Frailty To Manage Their Pain And To Reduce Its Impact On Their Lives: A Mixed Method, Co-Design Study (The Poppy Study).: The Poppy Study, Lesley Brown, Deborah Antcliff, Andrew Clegg, Anne Grice, Pat Schofield, Asim Suleman, Amanda Williams, Nikki Harrison, Nicky Kime, Alan Wright, Natalie Lam, Dan Howdon, Davide Tebaldi, Rahena Mossabir, Sarah Hallas, Thomas F Crocker, Anne Forster

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Frailty increases vulnerability to adverse events (falls, illness) resulting in poorer health outcomes in later life. Persistent pain is common and impactful in older adults with frailty. Pain impact is potentially modifiable, and addressing it is important for supporting this population. The Pain in Older People with Frailty study aimed to generate evidence and develop service models to improve pain management for older adults with frailty and inform service provision for this underserved population. Objective(s): Phase 1: Map research evidence and synthesise findings from randomised controlled trials of multi-component pain management programmes and psychological therapies for community-dwelling older adults. …

Developing The Evidence And Associated Service Models To Improve Pain Management In Older People Living With Frailty: A Synopsis Of The Poppy Mixed Method, Co-Design Study: Poppy, Patricia Schofield

School of Nursing and Midwifery

Background: Frailty increases vulnerability to adverse events (falls, illness) resulting in poorer health outcomes in later life. Persistent pain is common and impactful in older adults with frailty. Pain impact is potentially modifiable, and addressing it is important for supporting this population. The Pain in Older People with Frailty study aimed to generate evidence and develop service models to improve pain management for older adults with frailty and inform service provision for this underserved population. Objective(s): Phase 1: Map research evidence and synthesise findings from randomised controlled trials of multi-component pain management programmes and psychological therapies for community-dwelling older adults. …

Culturally Competent Nurse-Led Education To Reduce Delayed Diagnosis And Increase Awareness Of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome In Reproductive-Aged South Asian Women, Madeeha Syeda

Honors College Theses

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common condition that affects hormones in women, especially in their 20s and 30s. Symptoms of PCOS include irregular periods, abnormal hair growth, acne, obesity, hyperpigmentation of the skin, cysts, skin tags, thinning hair, and infertility (Newin, 2023). While the exact cause of PCOS is unknown, it is linked to insulin resistance, higher levels of androgens, and low-grade inflammation (Newin, 2023). In regards to complications, PCOS can increase risk for gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, preterm term, and C-section deliveries. In terms of treatment, there is no cure but early diagnosis is key to reducing symptoms (Newin, …

Intervention Levers For Stunting Reduction In Indonesia: Evidence From The 2023 Indonesian Health Survey Data, Iwan Ariawan, Hafizah Jusril, Zahra Izza Afifa, Azka Fitri, Elmarizha Sekar Utami, Mikail Hasan, Dwi Puspasari

Kesmas

Stunting remains the largest public health challenge among macro-nutrition problems in Indonesia, affecting almost a quarter of children under five in 2023. The prevalence is considered high according to the World Health Organization standard. This study analyzed 15 aggregated provincial variables from the 2023 Indonesian Health Survey using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM), focusing on determinants of stunting among children under two to identify primary intervention levers. Findings indicated that intervention urgency should focus on the first 1,000 days, particularly the steep increase in stunting prevalence observed in the 12–24-month age range. While the highest prevalence is in Eastern provinces (e.g., …