Digital Commons Network^™

The Positive Impact Of Postsecondary Education Prison Programs On Social Identity, Recidivism, And Reintegration, Kimberly Redfern

Interdisciplinary Leadership Dissertations

This exploratory qualitative research with an interpretative phenomenological design seeks to understand how postsecondary education programs influenced incarcerated individuals and their post-release success. Postsecondary education prison programs have long been subject to criticism, as they provide incarcerated individuals with access to knowledge and social ideals that challenge the traditional power structures and social expectations in carceral settings (Castro et al., 2018). The primary research question: What role did social identity play in postsecondary prison education programs, with emphasis on their impact on recidivism and support for post-release reintegration for formerly incarcerated students? Findings from this study indicate that finding a …

Repeated Environmental Object Association And Its Influence On Player Emotion And Decision-Making, Yongchen Wang

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines whether repeated associations between neutral environmental objects and emotionally charged events can condition player emotion and influence in-game decision-making. The researcher developed a custom Dying Light single-player level called, “Conditional Illusion,” in which players explore a mansion and uncover narrative context through notes. Within the level, initially neutral objects, specifically a printer and a radio, were repeatedly paired with safe and horror events respectively, establishing patterned emotional associations. To evaluate the conditioning effect, the researcher recorded players’ facial emotional responses and gameplay footage during playtests, supplemented by post-playtest questionnaires. Results indicated that players consistently rated horror-paired spaces …

The Impact Of Abnormal Environmental Design On Player Tension In Horror Games, Jiawen Zhang

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how spatial design in video game levels can be used to generate player tension and sustain fear, in the absence of enemies or direct threats. For the spatial design, the researcher focused on impossible or abnormal environmental structures, such as looping corridors, non-Euclidean layouts, and disorienting transitions, and how they can evoke unease and emotional vulnerability in the player. To investigate the emotional impact of abnormal spatial design, the researcher created a horror, single-player level, “Echoes of Manor” in the game, Half-Life 2. The researcher aimed to maintain player engagement through constructed tension–release cycles and light puzzle …

Best Practices Of Landmark In Level Design: Maintaining Player Motivation Using Denial And Reward, Ziyi Hua

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates the integration of the Denial and Reward principle into landmark design to enhance player motivation and spatial navigation. By employing pre-arrival obstacles and proportional feedback upon reaching a goal, designers can create a curiosity-driven attraction loop. To demonstrate this, an artifact level was developed in the Skyrim Creation Kit, featuring a hierarchy of global, regional, and local landmarks within a semi-open environment. The level implements four best practices: hierarchy of landmarks; create effective denials; pacing denial–reward loops; and using visual conveyance, to pace the player’s journey and reinforce engagement.

Best Practices: Using Difficulty As A Motivator Through Tools As Rewards, James Parker

Level Design Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates a set of best practices intended to encourage players to persist through difficulty by leveraging tools as rewards, and as motivational design elements. Specifically, the researcher examines whether introducing the core challenge earlier in the experience, while framing tools as rewards of facility, can motivate players to engage with and solve the primary gameplay challenge.

Ai Mcat Tutor: Personalized Study Planning, Daily Check-Ins, & Slideshow Generator For Pre-Medical Students, Luke Latterman

IPHS 300: AI for Humanity

Preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is among the most demanding academic challenges facing pre-medical students, yet access to professional tutoring remains prohibitively expensive for many. This paper describes the design, implementation, and iterative evaluation of an AI-powered tutoring system built using Claude Code, Anthropic’s command-line interface for the Claude large language model, intended to serve pre-medical students directly, whether or not they have access to a professional tutor. The system integrates three components: a personalized multi-phase study schedule generator, a daily check-in assistant, and an AI-driven instructional slideshow generator for targeted content review. Each component was designed …

Analyzing Pressure Injury Trends Among Hospitalized Older Adults From Tarrant County, Oluwafunto M. Olorundare

2026 Spring Honors Capstones Projects

Pressure injuries occur when skin and underlying tissues are damaged due to unrelieved pressure that reduces blood circulation to the affected area. Hospitalized older adults are vulnerable to pressure injuries due to factors such as limited mobility, physiological changes associated with aging, chronic conditions, and longer hospital stays. Despite multiple studies on the prevalence and incidence of pressure injuries at the national and global levels, there is limited research that analyzes trends among hospitalized older adults at the county level, specifically Tarrant County. This research aims to examine pressure injury trends among hospitalized older adults residing in Tarrant County. Using …

Active Listening And Reassurance In Text-Based Virtual Health Coaches, Ghulam Hussain

Dissertations

Conversational agents (CAs) have strong potential to support health and physical wellbeing through text-based coaching, but they remain limited in their ability to demonstrate supportive social behaviours that are important in human coaching interactions. In particular, relatively little is known about how Active Listening and Reassurance are perceived, modelled, and evaluated in text-based virtual healthcare coaching, or how such behaviours should be adapted to individual users.

This dissertation investigates how supportive interaction behaviours can enhance text based virtual health coaching, with an initial focus on Active Listening and Reassurance and a later theoretical emphasis on Active Listening. Across five unique …

Computational Analysis Of Immigration Discourse And Political Polarization: Evidence From U.S. Political Podcasts During The 2024 Presidential Election, Reishiro Kawakami , ‘26

Senior Theses, Projects, and Awards

This study examines how immigration is discussed across the U.S. political podcast ecosystem during the 2024 presidential election cycle, with a focus on differences across the political spectrum. While prior research on immigration attitudes has relied heavily on survey data, this study shifts attention to naturally occurring political communication by analyzing large-scale podcast transcripts. Drawing on a novel dataset of over 48,500 episodes (approximately 40,000 hours of audio) from the top 100 political podcasts ranked on Election Day, this paper combines keyword search, topic modeling, and sentiment analysis to investigate both the thematic structure and emotional tone of immigration discourse. …

Who Then Can Be Saved? A Discussion Of Views Within The Christian Tradition Concerning The Salvation Of The Non-Christian, Logan A. Davis

Honors Theses

This thesis argues that, contrary to popular conception, the Christian Tradition is not strictly exclusivist in its understanding of salvation or in its assessment of the fate of the non-Christian but rather displays a rich diversity of views. Both the Christian Tradition and the Christian scriptures are characterized by a certain ambiguity on this issue; although a definitive answer may exist, it is not easily identifiable. Given this ambiguity, the study presents a representative spectrum of theological positions within the Christian Tradition and analyzes their respective treatments of the salvation of the non-Christian. In doing so, it seeks to provide …

Exploring The Effect Of Counterstereotype And Perspective Taking In Reducing Bias And Promoting Empathy In Police, Sydney C. Timmer-Murillo, Keara Kangas, Nakia Gordon

Psychology Faculty Research and Publications

Racism in policing continues to be a serious issue in the United States (U.S.). While most efforts to reduce racism, focus on changing implicit (i.e., nonconscious) racial biases, other factors may also influence behavior. Intergroup emotion theory posits that emotions, especially empathy, may play a powerful role in changing behavior. In this study, using community-based participatory research design we created and tested a virtual reality (VR) experience designed to reduce implicit racial bias through perspective taking and counter-stereotypical information. Fifty-six police officers from a large city took part in the study. They completed questionnaires and an implicit association task (IAT) …

Client And Self-Advocacy In Coordinated Entry: A Qualitative Case Study Of King County, Washington’S Coordinated Entry For All, Ugochinyere Onyeukwu

Theses and Dissertations from DePaul University

Despite policy attempts to address homelessness, it remains a societal concern. One such policy effort was the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s mandated implementation of Coordinated Entry (CE) systems, a streamlined, equitable approach to match individuals to the appropriate housing intervention based on need and housing vulnerability. However, research indicates that CE may not produce the desired outcomes. There is limited research identifying factors that may interfere with effective need-based housing allocation. Thus, this qualitative study aimed to gain insight into advocacy in CE as a potential factor influencing implementation. This study used Qualitative Content Analysis to explore …

Emote - A Modular Action Figure For Childhood Emotional Growth, Terrence Li

Theses

Emotional regulation and communication are one of the most important skills that we can learn. This skill allows us not only to recognize and effectively communicate our feelings to others but also allows us to recognize them in others. Although learning and recognizing these emotions may be a pursuit in which progress varies from person to person, this skill is especially invaluable to young children. Beginning as early as the age of 3, many children begin to show early awareness of their own emotions, such as reacting to discomfort or comfort, or starting to use words for feelings. This learning …

Giving Meaningful Effect To Victims’ Rights: The Canadian Victims Bill Of Rights As Quasi-Constitutional Legislation, Benjamin Perrin

All Faculty Publications

This research paper is the first detailed examination of the quasi-constitutional status of the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights ("CVBR") and the implications for its interpretation and application. It aims to provide a doctrinal account of this extraordinary legal recognition and to serve as a resource for scholars, judges, lawyers, and other justice system participants to ensure that the CVBR is interpreted and applied consistently with its aim of serving as a catalyst for transformative change to how the criminal justice system has historically treated victims.

Wegmans School Of Health And Nutrition’S Culinary Kitchen Cart Manual Development, Neena Bhala

Theses

To facilitate the initiation of culinary medicine at RIT, a manual to guide the use of a mobile kitchen cart was developed and evaluated. This manual was developed to support faculty, staff, and students’ use of a Mobile Kitchen Cart to be able to support culinary medicine and nutrition education activities. The Manual was directed to RIT faculty, staff, and students who have experience with the cart or intend to have future use with the cart. A qualitative evaluation study was conducted with ten participants including RIT faculty (n=2), students (n=4), and staff (n=4). Feedback on the manual was obtained …

Phrases, Crystal Ching-Lam Tam

Theses

Motivational posters are widely used in educational environments to encourage perseverance, build confidence, and promote positive thinking. However, many of these visuals rely on cliché imagery, generic language, and overly decorative styles, making them feel inauthentic and easy to ignore. In visually saturated campus environments, they often fade into the background, acting as noise rather than as meaningful communication. How can motivation be communicated in a more engaging, intentional, and relevant way for college students? This thesis introduces Phrases, a visual communication system that reimagines motivational design through abstraction, clarity, and restraint. Rooted in Swiss design principles and Gestalt theory, …

Department Of Politics And Government News And Views, Spring 2026, Department Of Politics And Government, Illinois State University

Department of Politics and Government News and Views

Newsletter of the Department of Politics and Government at Illinois State University

Verdict Format On Trial: Experimental Tests Of The Criminal Law’S Orthodoxy, Avani Mehta Sood

Vanderbilt Law Review

For centuries, American criminal courts have overwhelmingly favored “general” verdicts over “special” verdicts, without giving the latter a fair trial. A general verdict requires criminal jurors to deliver only an ultimate judgment of “guilty” or “not guilty” on a charged offense. In contrast, a special verdict would require jurors to answer a sequence of questions about whether each legal element of the charged offense has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt before they deliver a final judgment. The criminal law’s conventional wisdom holds that special verdicts will disadvantage defendants by constraining jurors’ latitude to temper or nullify the law, thereby …

Toward A Unified Framework For Open World Visual Learning, Yuansheng Zhu

Theses

Artificial intelligence systems have achieved remarkable performance across a wide range of visual tasks. However, most existing models operate under the unrealistic closed-world assumption, where training and test data are drawn from the same distribution. In real-world applications such as anomaly detection, autonomous driving, and medical diagnosis, learning systems frequently encounter novel or out-of-distribution scenarios. These settings require models that can recognize unknown inputs, adapt to new information over time, and maintain reliable performance under evolving conditions. This dissertation studies the problem of Open World Visual Learning, a paradigm that enables visual learning systems to operate robustly in dynamic and …

The Ladies' Home Journal: Dormant Seeds Of The Feminine Mystique Pre-Wwii, Isis Santos Villaça

University Honors Theses

At the turn of the 20th century, magazines were becoming increasingly available to the middle class. Throughout the 1890–1930s, the industry put forth an entire new iteration of publications that came to be popular with female readers. One of the most successful publications from this period, The Ladies' Home Journal, distinguished itself through its strong editorial presence on the page. The editors of the Ladies' Home Journal intended to create a "traditional" female identity that reflected domesticity in the journal, which countered the rising notions of the New Woman. Simultaneously, the publication aimed to create an educational product with …

Relative Contribution Of Morphological Awareness Skills In Predicting Reading Comprehension And Vocabulary Among Fourth-Grade Pupils With Learning Disabilities In Sultante Of Oman, Fatma. M. Alkaaf, Mahmoud Emam, Mohammed S. Bakry

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The study aimed to evaluate the relative contribution of morphological awareness skills in predicting reading comprehension and reading vocabulary in a sample of fourth-grade pupils with learning disabilities (LD), specifically dyslexia. The study sample consisted of 83 pupils randomly selected from schools in the Sultanate of Oman. The study used three standardized instruments to measure morphological awareness (MA): morphological decomposition analysis (MDA), morphological decomposition production (MDP), and reading comprehension test (RCT) with its two scales: sentence comprehension (SC) and text comprehension (TC) and the reading vocabulary test (RVT). The findings revealed with pearson correlation and stepwise multiple linear regression, a …

The Effectiveness Of A Group Counseling Program Based On Acceptance And Commitment Therapy In Reducing The Level Of Nomophobia Among Ninth Grade Female Students In Muscat Governorate, Samya Hamed Al Harthi, Manal Khasib Al Fazari, Amal Mohamed Al Hadabi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The study aimed to verify the effectiveness of a group counselling program based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) in reducing the level of nomophobia among ninth-grade female students in Muscat Governorate. To reach the objectives of the study, the interactive electronic nomophobia scale and the group counselling program based on acceptance and commitment therapy were used. The program consisted of twelve counselling sessions. The study followed the quasi-experimental approach with control and experimental groups, with pre- and post-test and a follow-up test. The study sample consisted of female students, distributed equally into two control and experimental groups. The results …

Ready To Serve, Spencer Hillier

The Diana McDonald Writer's Challenge

In this thorough analysis of the U.S. military’s ban on transgender personnel, Spencer Hillier describes the great sense of pride he felt when he initially joined the Army National Guard, as well as his subsequent emotional struggle, not to mention loss of GI benefits, health and dental insurance, and retirement benefits due to the 2017 ban on transgender service members. Hillier takes a careful look at the arguments against transgender personnel, developing thoughtful, logical explanations of why they lack validity. He argues that what matters is not a person’s identity, but whether one can fulfill the seven Army values—loyalty, duty, …

The Impact Of R&D Team Diversity On Ambidextrous Innovation In Srdi Smes, Cheng Zhan

Dissertations and Theses Collection (Open Access)

As a vital organizational form of R&D teams in specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative (SRDI) small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), distributed teams have gradually emerged as a dynamic source of innovation for such enterprises. Against the backdrop of the (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) era, markets have imposed higher demands on enterprises' innovative and sustainable development capabilities, exerting substantial impacts on the growth of SRDI SMEs. Although the distributed R&D team model, developed through continuous exploration in=132=132enterprises' innovation practices, has drawn practical and scholarlyattention for its role in shaping ambidextrous innovation in SRDI SMEs, the internal mechanism underlying the relationship …

Collecting Dust (Jackets): Regarding The Life And Ephemerality Of Dust-Jackets Through The Early To Mid-Twentieth Century, Kelsey Clodfelter

Munn Scholars Awards

Collecting Dust (Jackets): Regarding the Life and Ephemerality of Dust-Jackets through the Early to Mid-Twentieth Century examines the dust-jacket as a liminal form of printed ephemera, tracing its evolution between disposable packaging to a culturally significant archival object. Using theories of paratext, archival practice, and book history by Gerard Genette, Jacque Derrida, and G.T. Tanselle, and through three cases within the West Virginia & Regional History Center, the paper argues that the increasing incorporation of aesthetics, information, and advertising transformed dust-jackets into cultural artifacts with value beyond their protective function. Their preservation challenges conventional distinctions between ephemera and archival material.

The Domestic Mirror: Tiktok V. Garland, Data Privacy, And Meaningful Free Expression, Olivia Sharp

Colorado Law Student Scholars

No abstract provided.

Wooster Magazine: Spring 2026, Caitlin Paynich Stanowick

Wooster Magazine: 2021-2030

The spring 2026 issue of Wooster magazine showcases the enduring value of a liberal arts education in moments of change. Alumni Bill Colvin ’79, Scott Bloom ’94, and Hannah Samuell ’09 share how their Wooster education prepared them to navigate unexpected career paths and professional pivots. Additional features examine the College’s approach to artificial intelligence with an emphasis on learning and ethics, revisit a historic campus debate over teaching evolutionary theory and evidence-based scholarship, and there’s also a Q&A with President Anne McCall on the role of academic freedom in society. Oak Grove features “Why I Play” with baseball infielder …

Epigenetic Mechanisms For Mediating The Transmission Of Prenatal Maternal Stress And Associated Neurodevelopmental Outcomes, Kaylee Vis

Senior Honors Theses

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the primary stress response system responsible for regulating cortisol release. During pregnancy, maternal stress can dysregulate the HPA axis, leading to elevated cortisol and corticosterone levels that impact fetal development. Excessive prenatal exposure to stress has been associated with alterations in fetal brain structure and function, increasing the risk for neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety. Emerging research supports the idea that these neurodevelopmental effects may be transmitted through epigenetic mechanisms. However, a gap remains in the literature regarding the specific mechanism of interaction between environmental stressors, heritable epigenetic information, …

Tetrahydrocannabinol: The Extraction And Analysis Of Thc Metabolites From Urine Via Sle And Lc-Ms/Ms, Kaycee A. Smith

Senior Honors Theses

Over the past few decades, widespread cannabis legalization has substantially increased forensic toxicology casework throughout the United States (National Institute of Justice, 2019). Washington state, an early adopter of recreational cannabis legalization, reflects this trend with toxicology laboratories reporting a 59% increase in annual case submissions since 2014 (Goldstein-Street, 2026). Current cannabinoid analysis methods involving liquid – liquid extraction (LLE) coupled with gas chromatography – mass spectrometry (GC-MS) are time consuming, labor-intensive, and require chemical derivatization and pH modification prior to analysis. To manage growing caseloads, an efficient method capable of consistently and reliably detecting THC is critical. The goal …

Navigating Cultural Biases And Self-Worth For Black Women Leaders In Higher Education, Robbin Mitchell

Interdisciplinary Leadership Dissertations

African American women leading at public universities share their thoughts and perspectives on days filled with more than just tasks; they bear silent struggles and the hidden expectation of being recognized for their work without being marginalized. While building inner strength, some find their voices amid doubt and pressure. Progress is made not through grand gestures but through small acts of care. Viewed through the lens of Black Feminist Thought (Collins, 2000), their lives reflect complex realities. Du Bois’s (1903) concept of split identities is relevant—not by choice but by context. Being Black and female reshapes their identities in leadership …