Digital Commons Network^™

Sexual Identity And Sleep Health In Adolescents: The Role Of Parenting Practices, Alexa Grace Deyo

Theses - ALL

Adolescence is a developmental period marked by heightened vulnerability to insufficient sleep, which contributes to adverse emotional, cognitive, and physical health outcomes. Evidence indicates that adolescents who identify as lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) are at an increased risk for poor sleep relative to their heterosexual peers. However, little is known about which dimensions of sleep health differ by sexual identity or modifiable factors that may underlie these differences. This study examined whether adolescent sleep duration, sleep efficiency, and daytime sleepiness differed by sexual identity, and investigated whether parental acceptance and parental monitoring helped explain these differences. Participants were 5,919 …

Blue-Collar Belonging: How An Analysis Of Identity, Epistemics, And Stance Reveal Fluid Community Membership In Rural Upstate New York, Kennedy Reed Jones

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines how community membership is constructed in everyday conversations amongst rural blue-collar people in Upstate New York. Through a sociolinguistic approach, the data from this project was collected by recording naturally occurring conversations of rural blue-collar community over a year. These conversations were then transcribed and coded, seeking out pockets of blue-collar topics in the conversations. When doing this, blue-collar/blue-collar experiences were understood as manual work, typically not done in an office, and that does not often require a degree. Therefore, by drawing on sociolinguistic scholarship on identity, epistemics, and stance, this project argues that membership in this …

Assessing The Impact Of Land Use Land Cover Change On Habitat Quality In Onondaga County, New York: A Thirty-Year Spatial Analysis., Favour Nkwando Sedwaa

Theses - ALL

The Earth's terrestrial surface is experiencing rapid and unprecedented transformation driven by human land use activities. An estimated 75% of the global land area has been altered, and land-use and land-cover change (LULCC) is widely recognized as the largest contributor to biodiversity loss worldwide. Habitats, the ecological spaces that sustain biodiversity, are particularly vulnerable to the compounding pressures of habitat loss and fragmentation associated with urbanization and agricultural intensification. This study investigates the impacts of LULCC on landscape fragmentation and habitat quality in Onondaga County, New York, over a 30-year period from 1994 to 2024. Using Annual National Land Cover …

Beyond The Policy - Designing A Healing Campus For Xinhua's Children, Katharine Massey

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

To some people children are seen as a blessing, but for China, they were considered detrimental to the economy status of the country. For 35 years China implemented a policy that limited families to one child so they could curb their rapid population growth and keep their image of being an economic leader of the world. This thesis will look at the lasting impact the one-child policy had on the population of China and the results that have emerged since the law has ended, along with the 2024 stop on foreign adoption programs and who was most impacted by it. …

Women In Literature And Their Ephemeral Bodies, Madeline Zafon-Whalen

English Honors Theses

This thesis is a comparative analysis of women writers from the twentieth to twenty-first century. Works by authors such as Virginia Woolf, Margaret Atwood, and Otessa Moshfegh, contain an emerging pattern and relationship linked through an ephemeral bodied aesthetic which depicts women's bodies as deconstructed, intangible, and undefined.

The first chapter analyzes works by Woolf, including To the Lighthouse and A Room of One's Own. Starting in the modernist age we see the body coming into question, becoming denaturalized while the institution of the "novel" is renewed through women's contributions to the literary canon. Women’s productivity, and the potential to …

The Impact Of Stress On Selective Attention Among College Student Athletes, Jayla K. Mcgaffin

Honors Theses

Student athletes face unique stressors from balancing academic and athletic demands (Lopes Dos Santos et al., 2020), which may deplete cognitive resources and impair focus. The present study examined the relationship between perceived stress and selective attention among college student athletes. Stress was conceptualized as the interaction between external pressures and individual coping responses (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Twenty undergraduate student athletes from the University of New Haven completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) and a computerized Flanker task measuring selective attention, but only eighteen were used in the final correlation analysis. It was hypothesized that higher levels of perceived …

Addressing Childhood Obesity In Low-Income Communities In Massachusetts, Alexa Thomas

Capstones

No abstract provided.

Affective Labor And Deservingness In Global Care Economies: A Comparative Film Analysis In Brazilian And U.S. Cinema, Débora Ferreira Leite

Theses - ALL

This thesis examines how contemporary cinema constructs narratives of migration, care labor, and social mobility through representations of Latina caregivers. Focusing on two films, Knives Out (2019), directed by Rian Johnson, and Diários de Intercâmbio (The Secret Diary of an Exchange Student, 2021), directed by Bruno Garotti, the project explores how cinematic narratives shape cultural understandings of care work, migration, and the American Dream. Although these films emerge from different national industries and genres, both center Latina women navigating transnational labor arrangements and aspirations for social mobility in the United States. Drawing on scholarship on the global care economy, transnational …

Talking To The Eyes: Paradoxes Of Ineffability And Effusivity In Mark-Making, Theodore Xavier Berg

Theses - ALL

Redefining mark-making as an active form of material signification has helped me understand my experience of the paradox of ineffability. This experience is as accurately described by the term effusivity as it is by ineffability, because it is not a matter of what cannot be expressed, but rather of what cannot not be expressed; of the experience that inescapably accompanies expression and signification. As our material means of expression and signification evolve digitally, the consequences of their contradictions become more discernible.

The Trouble With Being Human, Sam Bray

Theses - ALL

Grief, Trauma and the Invisible Spaces We Cannot Leave

Effects Of Combined Action Observation, Motor Imagery, And Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation On Muscle Strength And Size During Short-Term Upper Limb Immobilization, Zahra Pourhatami

Theses - ALL

Short-term limb immobilization induces rapid declines in muscle strength that exceed reductions in muscle size, suggesting a dominant role of neural mechanisms in early functional decline. Interventions capable of simultaneously targeting central neural and peripheral muscular pathways may therefore offer superior protection during disuse, yet such combined approaches remain unexamined in upper limb immobilization models. To investigate the effects of combined action observation with motor imagery (AOMI) and neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) (AOSTIM) on muscle strength, size, and quality during 7 days of upper limb immobilization, we conducted a study in healthy young adults. Forty-three healthy young adults were randomly …

Polymer Concentration Driven Tuning Of Drug Release In Nano-In-Microparticle Systems For Immunomodulation, Jason Bae

Theses - ALL

Osteoarthritis (OA), a disease caused by the wearing and tearing of articular cartilage, affects over 32.5 million Americans. Synovial inflammation is now recognized as a major contributor to OA progression and pain. Activated synovial macrophages in an OA joint are believed to play a major role in low-grade inflammation found in OA. Bisphosphonates such as zoledronic acid (ZA) are known to induce apoptosis specifically in macrophages and several of them are being evaluated as a disease-modifying osteoarthritis drug in clinical trials. Zolendroic Acid (Zol) is a biphosphonate that is most commonly used for treatments in bone-related diseases. Previous research reported …

Going Live: How Twitch Appearances Shape Voter Perceptions Of Political Candidates, Leah H. Ross

Theses - ALL

This paper examines the persuasive power of political candidates appearing on livestreaming platforms as a campaign strategy for targeting younger, politically disengaged voters. Drawing on the theoretical frameworks of platform affordances, parasocial interaction, celebrity endorsement, and source credibility, it argues that the unique digital architecture of livestreaming sites creates media conditions distinct from traditional broadcast media and other social media. These conditions amplify parasocial experiences, telepresence, and flow, making audiences potentially more receptive to political messaging. The paper then situates livestream appearances within the broader tradition of celebrity endorsements and the growing influence of social media in campaign communication. It …

Kitchen As An Archive: Konkani Food, Memory, And Identity In India, Sanjana Sharma

Theses - ALL

The Konkani community has often struggled to find an effective way to preserve its culture. Colonial conflict, regional division, and diasporic migration have stood in the way of creating a unified identity. My thesis argues that Konkani cooking traditions comprising heirloom ingredients, conventional cooking tools, ceremonial food practices, and adaptable diaspora recipes constitute a vibrant and evolving repository. This makes the kitchen an essential yet overlooked space for cultural memory. Concentrating specifically on the Konkani communities in Karnataka, I explore how ingredients such as Kokum underscore an understanding of plant ecologies; how seafood sheds light on coastal traditions; how gendered …

Assessing Knowledge And Decision-Making In Basic Genomics Among Adolescents And Adults, Sidharth Masarur

Honors Scholar Theses

Background

Genetic testing and genomic sequencing are increasingly part of pediatric care, yet many adolescents and parents lack the knowledge needed to make informed decisions. Prior studies show gaps in understanding, even among highly educated families, raising concerns about the adequacy of consent and assent. Little is known about when youth begin to comprehend genomic sequencing and how this impacts their own genetic and genomic decision-making.

Objective

To assess baseline genomic knowledge among adolescents and parents, examine its influence on decisions about genetic testing and sequencing, and identify opinions on appropriate age thresholds for youth participation in testing decisions.

Methods …

Geometric Approaches To Memory Formation In Soft Matter, Gentian Muhaxheri

Dissertations - ALL

The primary focus of this dissertation is the development of a geometric framework for understanding memory formation in systems composed of interacting hysteretic elements, or hysterons. Using tools from bifurcation and catastrophe theory, this work provides a description of how complex memory behaviors emerge from the structure of the system's configuration space and the system bifurcations under external driving. As a concrete model system, we study networks of connected rubber balloons subjected to different inflation protocols. Under pressure control, the system maps naturally onto a Preisach-type system of non-interacting hysterons and exhibits return point memory. In contrast, under volume control, …

Scalable Advanced Control Of Building Hvac Systems Using Physics-Informed Machine Learning, Xuezheng Wang

Dissertations - ALL

Buildings account for approximately 40% of total energy consumption in the United States, with HVAC systems representing the single largest energy end-use. Advanced control strategies such as model predictive control (MPC), reinforcement learning (RL), and differentiable predictive control (DPC) have demonstrated significant energy savings in individual studies, yet their widespread adoption remains limited by the lack of scalable, control-oriented dynamic models, the absence of consensus on control strategy selection, and the gap between single-zone research and multi-zone real-building deployment. This dissertation addresses these barriers through an integrated research program spanning physics-informed machine learning (PIML) model development, advanced control evaluation, and …

Symmetries Of Legged Locomotion: Theory And Applications In Animals And Robots, Jiayu Ding

Dissertations - ALL

Legged locomotion in animals and robots is naturally modeled as a hybrid dynamical system: smooth body evolution is repeatedly interrupted by discrete contact events such as touchdown and liftoff. Although symmetry is a powerful organizing principle in smooth dynamical systems, a comparably systematic symmetry framework for hybrid legged locomotion remains underdeveloped. This dissertation develops such a framework for a scoped class of periodic hybrid locomotion models and uses it to relate theoretical gait analysis, animal locomotion studies, and robotic gait generation. The dissertation first extends symmetry notions from autonomous dynamics to hybrid legged systems and distinguishes symmetries of the hybrid …

Global Invertibility Of Sobolev Mappings And Energy Minimizers With Prescribed Jacobian, Sabrina Traver

Dissertations - ALL

We prove two main results at the intersection of Geometric Function Theory and Nonlinear Elasticity. The first is a Sobolev variant of the Inverse Function Theorem, which generalizes a famous result of John Ball. It uses Classical Sobolev Theory as well as the Degree Function, which was initially a topological tool. The second result is the existence and uniqueness (up to rotation) of a radially-symmetric minimizer for Sobolev mappings with prescribed Jacobian. This result generalizes recent work of André Guerra, Lukas Koch, and Sauli Lindberg.

Dg Algebra Techniques For Tor Algebras And Edge Ideals, Desiree Martin

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis is comprised of two projects. The first is individual work where I use semifree Gamma-extensions to show, for an ideal I with infinite projective dimension over a Noetherian local ring R, there exists a splitting morphism from a Tor algebra Tor(R/I,R/I) to the exterior algebra of the R/I-free summands of the conormal module. In particular, when the conormal module is free over R/I, we see that the exterior algebra of the conormal module splits completely from Tor(R/I,R/I) as algebras. For the second project my collaborators, Hugh Geller and Henry Potts-Rubin, and I completely classify all trees and cycle …

On Compact Quasi-Einstein Metrics Of Constant Scalar Curvature, Eric Morgan Cochran

Dissertations - ALL

This thesis concerns a generalization of Einstein manifolds called quasi-Einstein manifolds. These manifolds are a triple $(M,g,X)$ where $(M,g)$ is a Riemannian manifold, and $X$ is a smooth vector field on $M$. Quasi-Einstein manifolds are of interest in general relativity, where a special class of quasi-Einstein manifolds are known as near horizon geometries. They are also related to Ricci solitons, which are self-similar solutions of the Ricci flow. In the first set of results in this thesis, we study the existence of Killing fields on compact quasi-Einstein manifolds. In particular, we prove an equivalence between compact quasi-Einstein manifolds of constant …

The Impact Of The U.N. Convention On The Rights Of People With Disabilities On Education For Students With Disabilities In China: A Case Of Non-Compliant Effectiveness With International Law, Renci Xie

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation empirically investigates the impact of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) in China, with a particular focus on Article 24, the right to education. Using a mixed-methods approach, this dissertation addresses two central questions: whether and how Article 24 has influenced Chinese national policies on inclusive education; and whether and how the Chinese law that promotes inclusive education has impacted the lived experiences of students with disabilities in seeking educational accommodations. To examine changes in Chinese national policy, the study employs Critical Discourse Analysis of disability-related education laws and regulations. This analysis …

A Study Of The Links Between Denudation, Lithology, And Tectonics In The Tropical Andes, Helbert Garcia-Delgado

Dissertations - ALL

Landscape evolution in the tropical Northern Andes is governed by complex interactions between tectonic deformation, climatic shifts, and bedrock lithology. Standard geomorphic models often struggle to capture the full spectrum of these processes, particularly in active orogens where topographic steady state is frequently challenged by variable sediment dynamics and deep weathering. Understanding how these factors dictate landscape responses over different timescales is critical for interpreting the relationship between landscape evolution and surface processes of tropical mountain belts. This dissertation utilizes a combination of cosmogenic nuclide dating, numerical modeling, and subsurface borehole analysis to examine the structural, climatic, and lithological controls …

Development Of Dual-Stimuli Responsive Polymer-Coated Gold Nanoparticles And Their Surface Engineering Via Polyelectrolyte Layer-By-Layer Assembly, Buddhini Chathurangi Nugaduwa Vithanage

Dissertations - ALL

The modification of nanoparticles with combinations of low critical solution temperature (LCST) polymers and polyelectrolyte (PE) layers is studied. Three n-isopropylacrylamide-co-acrylamide polymers were synthesized in which charges could be varied from neutral, to negative or positive by way of incorporating poly acrylic acid (pAAc) or poly 4-vinylpyridene (p4VP) units. Polymerization centered around a disulfide initiator, which when reduced produced two polymer chains and a convenient linkage to gold NPs (NPs). The resulting LCST-NPs conjugates possessed sharp phase changes at critical temperatures (TC), while the incorporation of pAAc or p4VP allowed for tuneable charges and pH sensitivity. Studies with 1H-NMR and …

Avicenna On Non-Rational Voluntary Motion, Hamed Shirmohammadi

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates Avicenna’s theory of non-rational voluntary motion. Avicenna’s most significant innovation in this domain is his theory of the internal senses, and in particular, his account of the estimative faculty (wahm) and its proper objects, the intentions (ma'nā). Intentions are non-sensible features of perceived particulars—such as the hostility of a wolf—that carry evaluative significance for the perceiving animal. This dissertation argues that understanding the nature of intentions is the key to explaining how a non-rational animal can pursue goals through relatively complex courses of action. Avicenna recognizes two ways in which intentions are acquired: through instinct and through …

"I Just Wanted To Help": Certified Recovery Peer Advocates And Disconnected Labor, Rosie Benser

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation examines the remaking of the recovery industry via the rise of Certified Recovery Peer Advocates (CRPA), or recovery peers, and the conditions that enable and constrain their labor. Peer Based Support Services (PBSS) was professionally recognized in the substance use disorder (SUD) treatment field starting in the early twenty-first century through federal grants for the underinsured and the ability to submit services for Medicaid/Medicare insurance repayments. As a result, CRPAs are especially present in low-income communities, dispatched to serve people seeking recovery from SUD with a mandate to “have conversations about change.” Drawing from in-depth interviews, participant observation …

A City’S Neglectful Past: Young Black Mothers And The Creation Of A Reproductive Health Crisis In The Urban North 1900 - 2005, Semaj Imane Campbell-Blakes

Dissertations - ALL

"A City’s Neglectful Past: Young Black Mothers and The Creation of A Reproductive Health Crisis in the Urban North 1900‐2005" examines how the promise of northern liberalism concealed enduring forms of racial inequality in reproductive health. Centering Syracuse, New York, a city long celebrated for its nineteenth-century abolitionist legacy, the project reveals how its twentieth-century institutions expelled pregnant Black girls from schools, criminalized their sexuality, and oversaw some of the highest Black infant-mortality rates in the nation. Through this lens, Syracuse becomes a case study in the contradictions of progressive reform, where liberal ideals coexisted with structural neglect and moral …

How Institutions Of Higher Education Leverage Information Technology To Navigate In A Dynamic Environment: The Case Of Alternative Credentials, Sarah J. Williams

Dissertations - ALL

This research examines how higher education leverages information technology (IT) to mitigate the uncertainty of enrollment volatility in a dynamically shifting landscape. The strategic alignment model (SAM), a theory of strategic alignment of business and information technology, was applied to analyze how microcredential programs in higher education institutions address this uncertainty. Publicly accessible information was collected to develop cases from 15 institutions of higher education alternative credential programs. The collected evidence was assessed to discern how leveraging technology generates value related to the strategic mission of the institutions. The hallmarks of excellence standards, developed by the University Professional and Continuing …

Implementing A Buddy System To Enhance Float Pool Nurses’ Experience And Unit Integration, Nancy Kairia

Doctoral Projects

Float pool nurses play a vital role in maintaining hospital operations; however, they often experience role ambiguity, inconsistent integration, and reduced psychosocial empowerment, which may negatively influence engagement and retention. This Doctor of Nursing Practice project implemented and evaluated a structured buddy program designed to enhance psychological empowerment among float pool nurses in a large academic medical center. Guided by Gretchen Spreitzer’s Psychological Empowerment Framework, the project examined changes across four domains: meaning, competence, self-determination, and impact. A pre-post design was used to assess outcomes before and after implementation. Five nurses completed the preintervention survey; of these, four completed the …

Exploring The Benefits Of Yoruba Indigenous Knowledge And The Herbal Medicine System, Sunday Opene Ozonuwe 7317673, Ayobami Aderonke Ogungbade, Faith Ohwofasa

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The Yoruba people are one of the West African's main ethno-linguistic or ethnic groups. They have an impressive indigenous knowledge and herbal medicinal system. They pre-occupied Oyo, Osun, Ekiti, Kwara, Ondo, Lagos and Koji state. The researchers developed seven (7) research objectives and seven (7) research questions to investigate the nature, forms, benefits and methods of preparing and administering Yoruba Herbal Medicine. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study, interviews and observations were the instruments used for data collections. Eight (8) herbal medicine practitioners were interviewed in Oyo and Ogun state. The result of the interviews was also presented …