Digital Commons Network^™

Sustainability In The Fashion Industry: Environmental Effects & Analyzing Innovative Approaches To Reducing Environmental Impact While Maintaining Profitability And Effectiveness, Haley Castillo Rebollar

Senior Honors Theses

The fast-fashion business model has several severe environmental impacts, including resource overconsumption, chemical pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and solid waste consumption. Hence, the sustainable fashion alternative is questioned as to whether it can be applied with recoverable economic value and limited consequential impact when considering novel approaches in business model innovation, supply chain transformation, and the adoption of digital technologies. Evidence suggests that sustainability and profitability need not be mutually exclusive when strategic intervening actions are effectively managed. The set of principles of the circular economy, sustainable enterprise architecture frameworks, green supply chain management, advanced systems of forecasting, and three-dimensional …

Executive Committee - Agenda, 05/05/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Agendas

No abstract provided.

Atlas Of Champions: Historic Maps Of The 2026 World Cup Nations, Evan Spencer, Darryl Ward

2026 - Atlas of Champions: Historic Maps of the 2026 World Cup Nations

An exhibition celebrating the 2026 World Cup through the cartographic collections in the Virginia Garrett Cartographic History Library. Exhibit curated by Evan Spencer and designed by Darryl Ward.

Hearing And Vision Impairment And Cognitive Function In Later Life: A Scoping Review Of Psychosocial Mechanisms, Lea Guelde

Honors Capstones

Introduction: Sensory impairment is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions in later life and has been consistently associated with poorer cognitive outcomes. While prior research has documented associations between sensory loss and global cognitive decline, less attention has been paid to the psychosocial mechanisms that may explain this relationship. Understanding these pathways is essential for identifying modifiable intervention targets. This scoping review mapped and synthesized the existing literature on associations between hearing and vision impairment and cognitive function in adults aged 60 years and older, with a specific focus on psychosocial mechanisms linking sensory function and cognition in later …

Ud Sinclair Academy Marks 10th Anniversary, University Of Dayton

News Releases

The UD Sinclair Academy marks its 10th anniversary with a milestone that reaches beyond campus. More than 250 students have earned a UD degree through the program, with nearly 80% staying in the Dayton region after graduation.

Early Childhood Educators' Experiences Of Literacy Programs For Low-Income Preschool Students, Amy M. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Staff Education Intervention To Improve Staff Knowledge And Competency In Supporting Patients With Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Self-Management, Dorothy Chudi-Agbaku

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

A Qualitative Analysis Of Reddit Posts Made By Formerly Incarcerated Women, Madison R. Diaz

Graduate Student Thesis

Women with felony convictions who serve prison sentences encounter significant barriers during reentry, making it difficult to achieve stability. These barriers are shaped by stigma, background check policies, and limited access to supportive resources, often leading to feelings of hopelessness and isolation. The current study analyzes Reddit posts made by self-identified women in the r/Felons subreddit to understand how they describe these barriers and how they use online spaces for support. A qualitative content analysis was used to identify common themes related to employment, education, housing, and stigma. Many posts reflect frustration, discouragement, and anger toward the criminal justice system …

Barriers To Palliative Care Access In Rural South Dakota: A Policy And System-Level Analysis, Harshavardhan Kadarkaraisamy

Honors Thesis

Palliative care improves the quality of life for people living with serious illness. It helps by addressing symptoms, improving communication, and providing mental, physical, and spiritual support. However, in South Dakota access to palliative care is limited in rural areas. These challenges include geographic isolation, workforce shortages, healthcare infrastructure, reimbursement, and misunderstandings about palliative care. This thesis examines the key policy barriers that limit access to palliative care in rural South Dakota. This work involves engaging with South Dakota-specific literature, rural health research, policy sources, community education, telehealth expansion, and policy reform. By focusing on the rural context of South …

Impact Of Intravenous Thrombolysis On Aspiration Thrombectomy Outcomes: An Imperative Trial Subgroup Analysis, Yi-Qian Qian, Yan Wang, Soumya Mohanty, Siyuan Chen

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Bayesian methods for the detection of continuous gravitational waves (CGWs) in pulsar timing array (PTA) data incur substantial computational costs that grow rapidly due to the number of noise and signal parameters characterizing the fitted model being proportional to the size of the PTA. This computational burden limits the scalability of these methods for large-scale PTAs comprising hundreds of pulsars anticipated from next-generation radio astronomy facilities. In this work, we introduce a computationally efficient frequentist method designed to circumvent this challenge. This is achieved by combining an adaptive spline fitting algorithm that nonparametrically suppresses red noise, thereby eliminating the need …

Rhettech Journal Volume 8

RhetTech

No abstract provided.

Sit-To-Stand: Smart Physical Therapy Device Design Project, Mollie Petersen, Evie Collier, Gracie Kniss, Lucas Sokolik, Jacob Zitek

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Mechanical engineering students in their last year are provided with the opportunity to form a small group and design a product. The specific project covered in this report is the creation of a smart attachment to a physical therapy device. A sit-to-stand piece of equipment is used to help patients recover or build the strength to move from a sitting to standing position after an injury or illness. Currently, there is not a way for physical therapists to collect numerical data while a patient is using the equipment. Much of their care plans are built off of personal perception and …

Raman Spectroscopy With Machine-Learning Classification For The Prediction Of Stereotactic Radiotherapy Induced Treatment Toxicity In High-Risk Localised Prostate Cancer, Jade F. Monaghan, Daniel Cullen, Dinesh K.R. Medipally, Rahul Suresh, Kelly M. Redmond, Ciaran Fairmichael, Suneil Jain, Aidan D. Meade, Fiona M. Lyng

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Radiotherapy can lead to late-onset toxicity, to varying extents between individuals due to differences in radiosensitivity. Predicting which patients are most at risk is key to augmenting the therapeutic window. However, the underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood, and current experimental methods often lack clinical applicability. This study employs Raman spectroscopy to analyse biochemical profiles in peripheral lymphocytes and plasma, aiming to monitor radiotherapeutic response and predict intrinsic radiosensitivity in high-risk localised prostate cancer patients treated with stereotactic radiotherapy. Partial-least squares discriminant analysis classification of Raman spectra at baseline (n = 20) from post-hormone therapy (n = 19), mid-treatment (pre-4 …

What’S In It For Us?, Hannah Giancola

Theses

What’s in it for us? examines how value can be created, abstracted, and redefined through material practice, participation, and shared experience. Situated in the space between maker and mender, the artist works in the symbiotic relationship between creation and repair. Wood is the primary material of creation, often in its imperfect form. It becomes both medium and metaphor representing intrinsic value while helping to challenge the systems that’s equate value with market and currency. From a multidisciplinary approach and adaptive nature, the work pulls from personal history, interfaith upbringing, and influences from conceptual art to traditional craft. This thesis transitions …

Complexity And Usability Of Digital Healthcare, Theresa Haas

Theses

Digital services, ranging from online shopping and banking to government services and healthcare, are rapidly taking over human-provided services. The accessibility and usability of such digital services may not allow older adults to make use of them, making automation a barrier to access societal services. This is especially critical with many healthcare-related services and apps. This research is framed around two interrelated constructs, task complexity and individual complexity, the latter influenced by cognitive decline in older users. The experiment has three representative tasks of different task complexity and the measure of individual complexity which is understood through previous knowledge of …

Support Systems, Capability Configurations, And Enabling Conditions For Circular Entrepreneurship, Israa Thiab

Theses

The transition to a circular economy requires entrepreneurs who can create value from waste, design regenerative business models, and navigate resource-constrained environments. Yet understanding what enables circular entrepreneurial success remains fragmented across the sustainability and entrepreneurship literatures. This dissertation examines how entrepreneurial support systems, capability configuration, and external enabling conditions shape circular venture development and performance through three complementary studies that together advance a unified framework of circular entrepreneurial effectiveness. Study 1 employs participatory action research with a donor-funded incubation program in Jordan, examining how stakeholder priorities reconfigure support systems for circular entrepreneurs. Analysis of two cohorts reveals that stakeholder-driven …

Designing The Spaces In Between: How Transitional Spaces In Elementary Schools Shape Clarity, Well-Being, And Belonging, Cristin Witcher Siegel

Theses

This thesis investigates the role of transitional spaces in elementary schools and their impact on students’ experiences of clarity, well-being, and belonging. While educational design often prioritizes classrooms as primary sites of learning, this study argues that the spaces between them, including corridors, stairwells, and entry zones, play a critical role in shaping daily experience and supporting student development. Using a comparative case study methodology, three elementary schools in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago were analyzed, each representing a distinct architectural era and educational philosophy: Crow Island School (1939), Wilmette Junior High School (1958), and Sunset Ridge School (2018). …

University Employees Honored For Exceptional Student Service, Mitchell Diggs

University of Mississippi News

OXFORD, Miss. – A Chinese language instructor and a wellness and recovery support specialist are this year's winners of the Frist Student Service Award at the University of Mississippi.

Falling Star Program: A Visual Cue Intervention To Reduce Falls In Long-Term Care, Maggie Shanahan

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Falls among older adults in skilled nursing and long-term care settings remain a leading cause of injury, functional decline, and increased healthcare utilization, contributing significantly to morbidity and mortality in this population (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2023; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2022). The primary purpose of this project aimed to implement and evaluate a structured visual cue–based fall prevention intervention to reduce fall rates among high-risk residents in a long-term care facility in Northwest Indiana. The project included 23 participants aged 65 years and older who were identified as high risk for falls. Using …

O. George Stansberry Papers (1940s-1998), O. George Stansberry

Center for Restoration Studies Archives, Manuscripts and Personal Papers Finding Aids

No abstract provided.

Rehabilitation In Name Only: Structural And Procedural Failures In Tennessee’S Parole System, Laney Quickel, Ashia Davis, Kresha Patel, Michelle, Camillia, Sherra

Vanderbilt Social Justice Reporter

No abstract provided.

Increasing Medication Adherence In Those With Hypertension, Holly Kimiecik

Evidence-Based Practice Project Reports

Hypertension is a chronic condition characterized by persistently elevated blood pressure and remains a significant contributor to morbidity and mortality in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2024), approximately 47.7% of U.S. adults have hypertension, yet only about one in five achieve blood pressure control below 130/80 mm Hg. Medication adherence plays a critical role in managing hypertension and preventing complications. Adults aged 18 years and older prescribed antihypertensive medications from a primary care clinic in Valparaiso, Indiana, participated in this six-week quality improvement intervention. Evidence from a comprehensive literature review supports combining patient …

A Two-Phase Perspective On A Related-Rates Paradox, Charlie Vazquez Acosta

Honors Capstones

Related-rates problems are a standard topic in first-year calculus and have appeared in textbooks for over 150 years. These problems are used to teach implicit differentiation and the relationship between changing quantities. Common examples include the falling ladder, the fishing bobber, the melting snowball, and the leaking conical tank. In each of these problems, a quantity is changing at a constant rate, and students are asked to find the rate of change of another related quantity. While the computations themselves are usually straightforward, the standard models lead to unrealistic results near the end of the motion. For example, the falling …

A Quality Improvement Project To Strengthen Hospice Spiritual Care Delivery, Patricia Boudreau

Doctoral Projects

Spiritual care is an essential component of holistic end-of-life nursing, yet it is inconsistently provided in home hospice settings. For this Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) quality improvement project, we developed and implemented the Compassionate Spiritual Comfort Integration Program (CSCI), a brief, theory-based educational intervention to strengthen hospice nurses' spiritual care practices. Grounded in Kolcaba's Comfort Theory and Jinpa's Compassion Framework, the CSCI was delivered as a prerecorded webinar. A quasi-experimental single–group pretest–posttest design was used to evaluate changes in spiritual care behaviors, measured with the 17-item Nurse Spiritual Care Therapeutics Scale (NSCTS) and a single-item confidence measure. Twenty-two nurses …

Numerical–Machine Learning Hybrid Framework For Forecasting Multi-Phase Flow Dynamics In Deep Wellbores, Raghad S. Shamsah, Farhan Lafta Rashid, Mudhar A. Al-Obaidi, Ahmed N. Al-Dujaili

Warith Scientific Journal of Engineering and Technology

The Conventional models do not usually reflect the intricate relationships between the fluid characteristics, wellbore geometry, and operating flow parameters in the deep wellbores, which becomes a major issue in the extraction of hydrocarbons, where the unexpected behavior of the flows (bubble, slug, annular) can cause the efficiency and integrity of the equipment to be compromised. This problem has been tackled by developing a new neural network-based method that incorporates mathematical models and machine learning in this paper to identify the flow patterns and optimize the production parameters. It is an experimental study, where 12 input variables are used (e.g., …

Executive Committee - Minutes, 05/05/2026, Academic Senate

Academic Senate Minutes

No abstract provided.

Jtc 26: A Mother And Daughter Support Team, Pam Starling

University of Mississippi News

This story is part of the 2026 Journey to Commencement series, which celebrates the pinnacle of the academic year by highlighting University of Mississippi students and their outstanding academic and personal journeys from college student to college graduate.

Cystic Fibrosis Mental Health And Wellness Questionnaire - Factors And Properties Of A Comprehensive Cf-Specific Self-Report Measure, C. Virginia O'Hayer, Patrick J. Smith, Max J. Genecov, Christopher F. Drescher, Heather Bruschwein, Chelsi N. Nurse, Katherine Lawliss, Darcy C. Esiason, Gunnar H. Esiason

Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: Existing mental health self-report measures have been criticized for over-simplification, lack of CF-specific focus, susceptibility to measurement reactivity bias, and conflation of symptoms of anxiety and/or depression with CF-related symptoms and/or treatment side effects. The CF Mental Health and Wellness Questionnaire (CFMHWQ) is a 25-item measure assessing CF-specific mental health burden symptoms.

METHODS: To examine common underlying factors contributing to scores on the CFMHWQ, principal component analysis (PCA) was conducted of all 25 items. We conducted cross-validation of CFMHWQ principal components, examining unadjusted correlations between each principal component, demographic characteristics (age and biological sex), negative affect (mean rank global …

The Changing Landscape Of Artist Success: Evaluating Independent And Label-Signed Career Paths, With A Focus On The Christian Music Industry, Nicholas Ty Brueggemann

Senior Honors Theses

Traditionally, record labels have propelled the music industry (Christian and secular). They established themselves in the late 19th century, allowing artists to accumulate acclaim more efficiently. Since their inception, labels have connected artists to a support network that delegates career-related tasks. Getting signed to a label has historically been the industry standard career path for artists wanting to become successful enough to live off making music full-time. However, with the recent emergence of the digital landscape, more promotional methods, opportunities, and tools have become available to artists. Through this study, insights will be gained into the necessity of signing with …

Descriptive Analysis: Effects Of Insufficient Sleep Among College Students Ages 18-22, Divine Ighalo

Honors Theses

Background: Not getting enough sleep is common among college students and is often linked to habits such as screen time, caffeine intake, stress, and irregular routines. This study examined how these lifestyle factors are associated with insufficient sleep among college students ages 18-22 and how poor sleep affects their overall wellbeing. Methods: This study used a cross-sectional survey design and collected data through an anonymous 25 question online Qualtrics questionnaire. This was completed by 150 participants. The survey was designed to be completed in about 5-7 minutes. It included a mix of multiplechoice questions, frequency-based responses and select all that …