Digital Commons Network^™

Ecclesiastes’ Framework For The New Testament Doctrine Of Personal Eschatological Judgment, Brent D. Denney

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation examines the relationship between the assertions of divine judgment in the book of Ecclesiastes and the New Testament passages that depict the final judgment of humans. Chapter One introduces the topic and thesis by foregrounding modern scholarship's neglect of the conceptual relationship between Ecclesiastes’ assertions of divine judgment and the New Testament’s mature doctrine of personal eschatological judgment, which underpins this study. Chapter Two examines Qohelet’s deployment of the term הֶבֶל (heḇel) as a tensive symbol for the conditions stemming from the fall and its effects on humanity's pursuit of anything of lasting value (יִתְרוֹן, yiṯrôn). For Qohelet, …

Exploring The Leadership Experiences Of Black Males At Four-Year Public Universities: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study, Demario Levon Preston

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand the school leadership experiences for Black male students at four-year public universities. At this stage in the research, leadership experiences were defined as the lived experiences of Black male students in universities' leadership roles, including the barriers they encountered and the strategies they employed to navigate these challenges. The theory guiding this study was Astin's (1984) theory of involvement, which posits that student engagement influences academic success and leadership development. The central research question asked: What are the lived experiences of Black males in four-year public universities who engage in …

A Strategy For Identifying, Equipping, And Empowering High-Capacity Church Leaders Within The Zero Collective Network, Blake Hicks

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This Doctor of Ministry action research project addressed the shortage of high-capacity lay leaders within The Zero Collective (TZC), a multi-church network in West Michigan, which has limited the sustainability and expansion of ministry initiatives. The purpose of this project was to develop a practical, biblically grounded strategy for identifying, equipping, and empowering high-capacity leaders to strengthen the network’s leadership pipeline and support its mission.

Using an action research methodology, this study engaged a select group of lay leaders identified as having high leadership potential. Data were collected through a triangulated approach, including pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, interviews, focus groups, …

Secondary Traumatic Stress: Lived Experiences Of Urban Educators, Stephanie R. Booker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and interpret the lived experiences of urban educators who experienced secondary traumatic stress resulting from exposure to the traumatic events of their students. Teachers in urban school settings serve students with high exposure to poverty, violence, and trauma, and these shared experiences often result in the urban educator experiencing secondary traumatic stress (STS). The theory guiding this study was Hans Selye's Stress Theory. Data were collected through interviews with ten secondary urban educators from five states and eight cities with varying years of experience, grade levels, and racial and ethnic backgrounds. …

Identifying The Effects Of Racial Bias On Levels Of Medical Mistrust Among Black And White Young Adults, Clayton L. Westmoreland

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional group comparison was to examine whether differences exist in levels of medical mistrust, healthcare avoidance, and preference for racially concordant providers between young Black adults and young White adults residing in Texas. An electronic, pilot-tested survey was distributed via social media and included demographic items and Likert-scale measures to assess trust levels and healthcare decision-making behaviors. Independent samples t-tests were conducted using IBM SPSS software to compare group means. Results indicated statistically significant differences across all three variables. Young Black adults reported significantly higher levels of medical mistrust (lower scores indicating greater mistrust; …

Arete In Education: A Phenomenology On Virtue Cultivation In Classical Christian Schools, Jeffrey D. Brown

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe the lived experiences of educational leaders in classical Christian schools with the cultivation of virtue as the primary purpose of education. The concept guiding this study is Aristotelian virtue ethics, from which spring virtue theory and positive organizational scholarship. The Aristotelian worldview drives the assertion among classical Christian educators that education is defined as the cultivation of virtue. The central research question for this study is “What are the lived experiences of classical Christian educational leaders in cultivating virtue in their students?” The study of classical Christian educational leaders’ views about …

Maintaining Stability Of Digital Twin Enabled Offshore Wind Farm (Owf) By Fuzzy Logic Controller., Yamini Gaddam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

ABSTRACT Offshore wind farms are increasingly and rapidly expanding due to its ability to harness strong and consistent wind energy resources. Large offshore wind farms are connected to mainland grids through High-Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) technology. However, offshore wind farms can often experience disturbances related to sudden wind changes, voltage drops/dips, faults related to converter switching, and unbalanced grid conditions which affect both the HVDC operation and wind turbine output. As a result, there is a growing need for more advanced and reliable modeling and monitoring tools. Moreover, traditional proportional-integral (PI) controllers are widely applied in wind turbines and HVDC …

Interpreting Workforce Readiness: Student Perceptions Of Academic–Industry Alignment Through A Cultural Historical Activity Theory Lens, Timothy Marshall Flohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The gap between academic preparation and industry expectations in hospitality, tourism, and culinary education represents a persistent challenge for higher education programs and industry stakeholders alike. Despite growing attention to workforce readiness, relatively few studies have examined this gap from the student perspective using a validated, hospitality-specific measurement instrument. The purpose of this study is to examine undergraduate and graduate students' perceptions of academic–industry alignment and self-reported professional readiness within hospitality, tourism, and culinary programs at accredited colleges and universities in the United States. Grounded in Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), this study frames student perceptions as products of engagement …

Energy-Based Cavitation Erosion Risk Modeling Of Sheet-To-Cloud Cavitation Of A Hydrofoil, Catherine Baum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Cavitation erosion is a significant challenge in marine and hydraulic systems because the relationship between cavitation dynamics and material damage is difficult to quantify. This study evaluates an energy-based cavitation erosion risk model using large-eddy simulations (LES) of sheet-to-cloud cavitation on a hydrofoil operating under conditions representative of experiments conducted in the United States Navy's Large Cavitation Channel (LCC). Six erosion risk indicators derived from the energy balance of a collapsing vapor structure were investigated using multiple driving-pressure fields. The results showed that indicators based on pressure derivatives contributed negligibly to the predicted erosive energy, while indicators based on the …

An Investigation Of The Relationships Between Visual Perceptual Expertise For Music Notation, Dyslexia Risk, And Musical Experience: A Pilot Study, Janel Kathleen Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Musicians who are also dyslexic often report various challenges related to reading music notation. Researchers have identified perceptual expertise, as measured via visual fluency, as one of the key predictors of musical sight-reading abilities. Yet, individuals who are dyslexic often perform worse on measures of visual fluency in the domains of words and faces when compared to non-dyslexic individuals. Consequently, the primary purpose of this pilot study was to explore potential relationships between perceptual expertise for music notation, musical experience, and traits of dyslexia.  To that end, this pilot study was a repeated measure within-subjects design with continuous covariates. The …

Synthesis And Evaluation Of Platinum (Iv) Prodrugs And Development Of Localized Drug Delivery Systems, Karla Cisneros Vargas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation outlines the design, synthesis, and characterization of oxaliplatin-derived Pt(IV) prodrugs consisting of biologically active ligands. The stability and coordination behavior of oxaliplatin and a synthesized Pt(IV) derivative are investigated in an aqueous/organic mixed solution. Additionally, cytotoxicity of the compounds was tested using two human osteosarcoma cell lines, MG-63 and SK-ES-1. Notably, the tested drugs exhibited comparable or increased cytotoxicity compared to oxaliplatin. Another aspect of this research outlines the development and optimization of a triple-network hydrogel for the encapsulation and release of the hydrophobic drug Simvastatin. The hydrogel exhibited mechanical stability, biocompatibility, and biodegradability. Furthermore, it details the …

Surveying First-Year Stem Students’ Self-Reported Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes Towards Teamwork, Gregory R. Goldsmith, Camilla Acosta

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

The ability to work in a team is cited as a key outcome for many undergraduate Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) programs, both as a method for improving learning and as a highly desired trait for employers. Despite a growing focus on teamwork, our ability to design appropriate teamwork curriculum is limited by our poor understanding of what students arriving at university know about teamwork, what teamwork skills they consider themselves to possess, and their attitudes towards teamwork. We delivered a mixed-methods survey to first-year STEM undergraduate students (n = 205) to benchmark knowledge, skills and attitudes towards …

Instructional Slides From Molten Salt Electrochemistry Symposium (Moses) 2026, Devin Rappleye, Carlos Mejia, Alex Peroff

Faculty Publications

This instructional slide set was developed for the 2026 Molten Salt Electrochemistry Symposium (MoSES) as an introduction and review of fundamental electrochemical concepts and methods used in molten salt systems. The material is intended for students, researchers, and practitioners seeking to better understand and interpret electrochemical measurements in high-temperature molten salts.

Topics include electrochemical thermodynamics, kinetics, mass transfer, electrode potentials, cyclic voltammetry, chronopotentiometry, chronoamperometry, square-wave voltammetry, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), and common approaches for analyzing electrochemical data. Emphasis is placed on building physical intuition, understanding underlying assumptions, recognizing common experimental artifacts, and connecting electrochemical signals to real chemical and transport …

What We Should Know About The Reliability Of Empirical Legal Studies, Kathryn Zeiler

DePaul Law Review

The findings of replication studies conducted in the early 2010s

led many to declare that science was in the midst of a “replication

crisis.” Since then, a growing number of reforms have been

proposed and tested. The field of empirical legal studies seems

behind other fields such as psychology, economics, political science,

medicine, biology, and others that have taken significant steps

toward uncovering the general reliability of the field’s empirical

work, investigating the causes of observed unreliability, and

instituting and testing the effects of various reforms. The purpose of

this Article is to summarize what we know about the reliability …

Procedural Justice In Trump's America, Rebecca Hollander-Blumoff

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

Probabilistic Injury And Presumptions Of Prejudicial Preferences, Erik J. Girvan

DePaul Law Review

No abstract provided.

Noneconomic Tort Damages And Biased Beliefs About Vulnerability To Harm, Roseanna Sommers, Nathan Cheek

DePaul Law Review

The American tort system aspires to provide fair compensation to injured plaintiffs, regardless of socioeconomic status, race, religion, or gender. Recent experimental evidence from psychology suggests, however, that factfinders consistently judge identical harms as less severe when experienced by individuals of lower socioeconomic status (SES). People presume, for instance, that a paper cut hurts a wealthy person more than a less well-off person, that domestic violence inflicts greater suffering on a high-SES woman than a lower-SES woman, and that bullying harms a fiveyear- old from a high-SES family more severely than one from a low- SES family. This Essay examines …

Subjective Due Process As A Legal Standard: Using Lay Judgments As A Basis For Evaluating Emerging Remote And Impersonal Civil Procedures, Tom Tyler

DePaul Law Review

The forums through which the civil justice system operates are

rapidly changing toward the adoption of remote and impersonal

procedures. These changes are being driven by efforts to manage

large case loads through a system which has limited resources.

Authorities supporting these evolving forums suggest that they

respond to litigant concerns for rapid and inexpensive case

management procedures. A review of research suggests that, in

contrast to this perspective, people are actually very sensitive to

whether they believe they receive due process. Such due process

concerns have been identified through the literature of procedural

justice. They reflect four judgments about …

The Virginia Meeting 2011

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

When Two Equals Four, Gilda Ferguson Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Va Dent J April, May And June 2011

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Transmogrifying Coding Into A Social Studies Technology Tool: Using Participatory Design With Engineers And Social Studies Educators To Design Data Visualization Tools For Social Studies Data Literacy Education, Bahare Naimipour, Jessica Zhang, Tamara Shreiner, Mark Guzdial

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Our work aims to inform, design, and create data visualization tools that are meant to be integrated specifically into social studies classes. In this essay we discuss the use of participatory design methods to learn what social studies teachers (both pre-service and in-service) want in their classrooms and test the usability of real tools with these participants. Through this approach we iteratively engage our users, and they inform the design and development of learning tools for the learning and instruction of social studies data literacy. Using a social construction of technology lens, we describe the scaffolding embedded in our tools …

Dentistry For Individuals With Disabilities, H. Barry Waldman Dds, Mph, Phd, Steven P. Perlman Dds, Mscd

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Serving The Best And Bravest, Leonard Jackson Jr., Dmd

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Letter To The Editor - The Dental Doctor And Malignant Neoplasia, Marvin E. Pizer Dds, Ms, Ma, Ficd

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Va Dent J July, August And September 2011

Virginia Dental Journal

No abstract provided.

Exploring A Facile Elisa-Based Method For Detecting Antibody Aggregates, Kaitlyn N. Shaw

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Purpose: Immunoglobulin gamma (IgG) is the primary structural platform for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs). Highly concentrated (>100 mg/mL) mAb formulations are increasingly used to extend drug action but are susceptible to protein denaturation and irreversible aggregation due to physical and chemical stresses, including temperature and pH changes. Aggregation can reduce drug potency and increase immunogenicity, creating challenges for the quality and safety of biologic products. This study aimed to develop and validate a rapid, sensitive, and cost-effective method for detecting protein aggregation in IgG solutions.

Methods: Human plasma-derived IgG was reconstituted in phosphate-buffered saline (0.001–0.02 mg/mL) and exposed to …

Awareness Of The Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program Among Healthcare Providers Caring For Older Adults, Anannya Pushkarna, Melanie Turk

Graduate Student Research Symposium

Introduction:

Prediabetes is a prevalent condition among older adults and represents a crucial opportunity where early interventions can help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Lifestyle modifications are first-line management. The Medicare Diabetes Prevention Program (MDPP), a 12-month lifestyle change program initiated in 2018, is fully covered by Medicare, yet uptake remains limited. This study assessed healthcare providers’ beliefs about prediabetes and awareness of the MDPP.

Methods:

A cross-sectional survey was administered electronically to a national sample of physicians, nurse practitioners (NPs), and physician assistants (PAs). Questions addressed beliefs about prediabetes, barriers to care, and knowledge/awareness of the …

Developing An Empirically-Driven Immigration Policy Towards Socially Inclusive Hong Kong: A Social Justice-Oriented Acculturation Framework, Gizem Arat, Narine Kerelian

Journal of Justice-Informed Social Work Practice and Research

We conducted a qualitative study to develop an empirically driven social justice-oriented acculturation framework by exploring educators’ perceptions of diverse ethnic groups’ social inclusion in Hong Kong. Twenty in-depth interviews with educators serving ethnic minorities in Hong Kong were conducted adopting a vignette methodology using examples of specific groups relevant to Hong Kong. Based on our findings, we developed a social justice-oriented acculturation framework centred on four categories (assimilation, separation, marginalization, and integration) for understanding the interplay of factors in the exclusion or inclusion of diverse groups in mainstream society; and distinguishing the interchangeable uses of assimilation and acculturation—as a …

A Critical Review On Enhancing Equity Of Mental Health Treatment Of African American Families Through Social Support And Social Capital, Julie Radlauer-Doerfler, Morgan E. Cooley, Heather M. Thompson, Atensia Earp Bowen, Gabe Caress, Alicia Best

Journal of Justice-Informed Social Work Practice and Research

African American adults and children experience both disproportionality and disparity when in contact with the mental health delivery system. There are a number of contextual factors that influence the treatment of African American families, such as systemic oppression or racism in both society and the behavioral health system or individual expressions of mental health symptomology. This review will provide an overview of how mental health disparities crossover systems, perceptions of mental health and mental health treatment among African American families, provide some context for why this review was written, as well as discuss the context of social support and social …