Digital Commons Network^™

We Don’T Get Our Voices Heard, We Work: Working-Class Perceptions Of Power And Powerlessness In Iowa, Jadin Grieser

Honors Program Theses

The question this thesis aims to answer is, what power dynamics influence the political behavior of working-class people? Rather than assuming that the working-class has certain interests or should behave in certain ways, this question needs to be answered by looking into how the working-class themselves describe their interests and needs, along with understanding why and how they decide to act or not to act upon those interests and needs. By analyzing how the working-class discusses and perceives politics, this thesis expands upon theoretical understandings of powerlessness and political behavior through observing how perceptions shape and reinforce powerlessness within the …

Learning Together At The Forefront Of Change: Gen Ai Summit 2026 (Program), Office Of Campus & Community Writing, Eastern Michigan University, Faculty Development Center, Eastern Michigan University

Learning Together at the Forefront of Change: GenAI Summit 2026

No abstract provided.

Trauma And The Brain: Foundations To Trauma-Informed Care In Nursing, David Wolff

OER Materials

The goal of this presentation was to educated nursing students about what traumatic events are and how they impact a patient, thus informing their approach to nursing care that is trauma-informed.

A Data-Driven Framework For Automation Readiness In Minnesota State University, Mankato Course Scheduling, Prisca Bongu Payanzo Maba

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

University course scheduling is one of the most complex optimization problems in higher education institutions. With universities growing in size and offering a broad spectrum of majors and disciplines, the number of possible course scheduling combinations increases exponentially, rendering traditional ways of scheduling ineffective.

Although operations research has extensively studied automated scheduling algorithms, there has been limited investigations into the organization readiness of academic departments to implement such systems. This paper offers a hybrid data science framework that assesses departmental readiness for scheduling automation.

The study combines qualitative Zoom interview data from 19 academic departments with institutional scheduling rules from …

Finding “Humberland”: The French Language As A Privatized Signal In Lolita, Mae Legare

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Flickers Of Desire: Shared Consciousness And Queer Ethics In Mrs. Dalloway, Maeve Doherty

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Complete Issue

The Criterion

No abstract provided.

Celebration Of Faculty Scholarship 2025, Olin Library

Celebration of Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

2025-2026 Book-In-Common Teaching Guide, Collin College

Book in Common

Introduction: Let's surround our students and community members this coming academic year with some common reading amongst the disciplines. 5 This year, we're reading Hua Hsu's Stay True. Not only is this book a Pulitzer-Prize winning memoir, but it's also a coming-of-age story about college life, friendship, music, identity, grief, race, 90's pop culture, philosophers, and technology. It's bound to be of interest to students as they, too, are encountering challenges of the day.

Genomic Surveillance: Your Dna Is Not Neutral, You Don’T Even Own It., Uri Kim

Mitchell Hamline Law Journal of Public Policy and Practice

No abstract provided.

Grief Counseling Best Practices: A Delphi Study, Jillian M. Blueford, Megan J. Doughty Shaine, Elizabeth A. Doughty Horn, Marcela Kepic, Michael Kocet, Katie Kostohryz Dr., Sara Jean-Philippe, Jen R. Hartman

Adultspan Journal

This Delphi study identifies expert-informed best practices in grief counseling to address current gaps in counselor education. Findings present essential competencies—knowledge, skills, and awareness—to guide ethical, culturally responsive, and trauma-informed support for grieving individuals across diverse settings.

2025 - 2026 Faculty Senate Annual Report, University Of South Carolina

Faculty Senate

The primary file includes the 2025 - 2026 Admissions Committee Report. Additional annual reports are attached.

E-Payment Systems Use: The Role Of Cybersecurity Risk And The Moderating Effect Of Risk Propensity And Technology Readiness, Abdou Illia, Hyunsun Kim-Hahm, Thomas Ngniatedema, Mahaman Sani Yakoubou

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Advances in digitalization have accelerated consumer migrations away from traditional cash- and check-based payment systems towards electronic payment systems worldwide. Yet, many people still remain resistant. This study examined the role of motivational and inhibiting factors and their interaction effects on the use of e-payment systems. The findings suggest that perceived cybersecurity risk, risk propensity, trust in the companies offering the e-payment services, and technology readiness have a significant direct impact on the use of e-payment systems. The findings also suggest that risk propensity and technology readiness have a tempering effect on the negative impact of perceived risk. The study …

Business Process Redesign For Reducing Undelivered Product Return Losses In E-Commerce – An Explainable Ai Approach, Venkataraghavan Krishnaswamy, Deepa R, Himanshu Sharma

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Product returns in e-commerce affect the profitability of the e-tailer. We adopt a two-stage approach to reduce undelivered product returns in an e-commerce firm. First, we develop and compare machine learning techniques—logistic regression, decision trees, Naïve Bayes, random forest, adaptive boosting, gradient boosting, stochastic gradient boosting, and deep neural networks—on their ability to predict undelivered returns. Next, we use explainable methods, such as relative importance and Shapley values, to develop insights from the best-performing machine learning model. Finally, we use these insights and the predictive model to redesign the firm’s order fulfillment and return processes. A Post-implementation evaluation of the …

College Of Liberal Arts Faculty Bylaws 2026-2027 - Amended 09/2026), College Of Liberal Arts Faculty, Rollins College

College of Liberal Arts Bylaws

No abstract provided.

Early And Sustained Improvements In Sense Of Smell With Tezepelumab Treatment In Patients With Chronic Rhinosinusitis With Nasal Polyps (Waypoint), Joaquim Mullol, Joseph K. Han, Tanya M. Laidlaw, Claire Hopkins, Anju T. Peters, Oliver Pfaar, Martin Desrosiers, Stella E. Lee, Andrew P. Lane, Claudia Chen, Yun Chon, Sandhia S. Ponnarambil, Andrews Foster, Andrew W. Lindsley, Christopher S. Ambrose

Department of Otolaryngology (ENT) Faculty Publications

Background

Loss of smell is a principal symptom of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), affecting health-related quality of life and posing a safety hazard.

Methods

WAYPOINT (NCT04851964), a phase 3, multicenter trial in adults with uncontrolled CRSwNP, randomized patients 1:1 to receive tezepelumab 210 mg or placebo subcutaneously every 4 weeks for 52 weeks. Changes from baseline in biweekly mean Nasal Polyposis Symptom Diary (NPSD) loss of smell item, University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT), and 22-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-22) loss of smell/taste item scores, as well as anosmia (UPSIT score ≤18) prevalence, were assessed over 52 …

An Introduction For Nursing Research: An Open Educational Resource For The Undergraduate Nursing Student, Ellen Benjamin

OER Textbooks

The purpose of this text is not to prepare you to independently conduct research, but to help you become an informed and critical consumer of research. The ability to systematically evaluate the strengths, limitations, and applicability of research findings is known as critical appraisal. Critical appraisal is an expected competency of baccalaureate-prepared nurses [5] and requires a foundational understanding of research principles and methods. This book will introduce the research process, including common research methodologies, data collection and analysis approaches, ethical considerations, and strategies for translating research evidence into nursing practice.

What Is Hate Speech? A Proposal For An Ordinary And Legal Definition, Hannah Van Dijcke

SJD Dissertations

The term “hate speech” has been stretched in legal and public debates to cover speech ranging from insults to Holocaust denial. This definitional stretching has consequences beyond mere conceptual confusion: it risks obscuring the profound harm that hate speech does, and it facilitates the term’s misuse.

In this dissertation, I aim to precisely define hate speech and its harm, both in an ordinary (colloquial or non-legal) sense and in a legal sense. To do so, I examine real-world examples of speech widely understood to express hate, including texts from the context of the Holocaust and the Rwandan genocide, and conduct …

Bridging The Gap: A Systematic Review Of Cyber Conflict Forecasting Models And The Case For Ai-Driven Dynamic Frameworks, Salim Arfaoui, Youssef Harrath, Omar El-Gayar

Research & Publications

Cyber conflict forecasting remains constrained by static models that overlook the integration of geopolitical context with technical indicators. This systematic literature review examines 58 studies (2010–2025) using PRISMA guidelines and an Input-Process-Output framework to classify approaches and identify key gaps. Quantitative methods dominate (67%), yet only 14% incorporate geopolitical variables, despite the political nature of cyber conflict. Major limitations include adversarial adaptation blindness (85% assume static behavior), coarse temporal granularity (72% use daily+ intervals), lack of uncertainty quantification (75%), and minimal modeling of cross-domain escalation (92% cyber-only focus). Strategic forecasting is rare, with just 14% providing long-term insights and 16% …

The Explainable Ai Paradox: When Transparency Improves Decision Quality And When It Creates Overconfidence, Harsha Sammangi, Poloju Pravalika

Research & Publications

Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is widely promoted as a remedy for algorithmic opacity, premised on the assumption that revealing a model's reasoning improves human oversight and decision quality. This study investigates the Explainable AI Paradox: the possibility that explanations simultaneously increase trust, reliance, and adoption while also producing overconfidence in flawed models — improving decision quality when models are valid but amplifying errors when models are not. Using a controlled experiment with 921 managers making pricing, lending, or inventory decisions assisted by AI systems of deliberately varied validity, participants were randomly assigned to one of five explanation conditions: no explanation, …

Real-World Anti-Amyloid Therapy Beyond Traditional Symptomatic Populations: A Longitudinal Case Series, Jayoung Han, Yuan Fang, Darlingtina Esiaka, Olufunmilola Abraham

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Publications

Introduction: Anti-amyloid monoclonal antibodies are approved as disease-modifying therapies for early Alzheimer’s disease (AD), but real-world evidence remains limited, particularly among individuals treated during preclinical or minimally symptomatic stages. This study characterized clinical and biomarker trajectories among anti-amyloid therapy recipients across disease stages.

Method: We conducted a longitudinal retrospective case series of three biomarker-positive individuals from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative who received lecanemab or donanemab. Clinical, cognitive, cerebrospinal fluid, plasma biomarker, and amyloid PET data were examined.

Results: In all three cases, most of the observation period preceded anti-amyloid therapy initiation. Clinical trajectories varied by biomarker profile and treatment …

Optimizing Control Definitions In Opioid Use Disorder Genetic Research Using Electronic Health Records, Maria Niarchou, Ellen L Tsai, Mariela V Jennings, Annika Faucon, Hyunjoon Lee, Kritika Singh, Justin D Tubbs, Panos Roussos, Tian Ge, Richard C Crist, Rachel Vickers-Smith, Howard Edenberg, Amy Moore, Bradley T Webb, Eric O Johnson, Rachel L Kember, Jordan W Smoller, Lea K Davis, Brandon J Coombes, Georgios Voloudakis, David Burstein, Travis T Mallard, Vanessa Troiani, Sandra Sanchez-Roige

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Amidst the opioid crisis, understanding the genetic basis of opioid use disorder (OUD) is crucial for identifying biological mechanisms and intervention points. However, genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have been hampered by inadequate sample sizes and often the use of control populations not assessed for prior opioid exposure. Because opioid exposure is a prerequisite for the development of OUD, consideration of exposure history in controls is important. Electronic health record data (EHR) paired with genomic information allow a broader sampling of patients with OUD and exposed controls. We leveraged data across two healthcare systems to evaluate the impact of using controls …

Building The Ryan White Hiv/Aids Program Bench In Kentucky, Lauren Bifulco, Kathleen Harding, Jana Collins, Anna Rogers, Lenon Farkash, Marwan Haddad, Alice Thornton

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS program (RWHAP) is governed by legislative and programmatic guidelines that ensure comprehensive services are provided to persons with HIV (PWH) across the United States. Comprehensive training and skill building opportunities for programmatic staff are rare. RWHAP funding recipient organizations may struggle to acquire and retain essential program-specific knowledge, with downstream impact on patient care and treatment. We designed a comprehensive 11-session videoconference learning series to improve program staff’s confidence and competence with RWHAP fundamentals. Quantitative pre-vs-post session data were analyzed using Wilcoxon Signed-Rank tests, and qualitative data using thematic analysis. We enrolled 136 staff from 23 …

Identifying Transcriptomic Signatures That Mediate The Causal Effect Of Genotype On Alzheimer's Disease., Simran Kaur, Anna L. Tyler, Giovanna L Durante, Gregory Cary, Gregory W. Carter, J Matthew Mahoney

Faculty Research 2026

The combined effects of thousands of genetic polymorphisms account for Alzheimer's disease (AD) genetic risk. Most AD polymorphisms affect gene expression. Thus, the transcriptome, the set of all gene expression levels for every gene in the genome, is a major mediator between the genotype to phenotype. This study uses genotypes, transcriptomes, and clinical phenotypes to identify the transcriptomic signature that mediates the causal effect of genotype on AD. By utilizing a causal inference method known as high dimensional mediation analysis (HDMA) on the Religious Orders Study/Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP) longitudinal cohort, the genotype, transcriptome, and phenotype data were reduced …

Reward Deficits In Co-Occurring Social Anxiety And Depression: The Roles Of Anhedonia, Boredom, Loneliness, And Covid-19 Social Restriction, Nathan M. Hager, Alicia L. Milam, Hannah C. Hamrick, Benjamin Swanson, Matt R. Judah

Psychology Faculty Publications

Prior research points toward reward deficits as crucial to the link between social anxiety disorder and major depressive disorder. However, studies have not explored specific types of reward deficits or how social-environmental factors may impact them. The current study examined whether the indirect effects of three reward deficits (anhedonia, boredom, and loneliness) accounted for the connection between social anxiety and depression. Questionnaires were collected in a sample of college students (N = 523) during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing examination of environmental stressors (i.e., remote learning and current friend network size) on reward deficits. Indirect effect models …

Rooted And Rising, Reclaiming Power, And Setting Resilient Paths: Uncovering The Barriers And Success Factors Through A Phenomenological Study Of Latinas In Leadership In Municipal Government, Patricia Jacquez-Nares

Theses and Dissertations

Latinas represent one of the quickest-rising labor demographics in the United States (Delamater & Livingston, 2021). However, they remain significantly underrepresented among executive positions (Beaty & Davis, 2012; Piatak et al., 2022; Webb Farley et al., 2021). This research investigates Latina underrepresentation in non-elected leadership roles within municipal governments. The experiences of 15 Latina leaders serving in California as public servants in municipal government in positions such as directors, managers, or executives. Interviews were used to explore the barriers faced by Latina leaders during their career journeys and the approaches they used to overcome them and become successful leaders. The …

What Were Trigger Warnings? New Forms Of Knowing And The Use Of The Classroom, Kelli Fuery

CCI Books and Book Chapters

"In some ways the trigger warning, if left as a form of not- knowing, shares a similar threatening sensibility to the current fear of future technology² and my interest in this chapter is to consider what has happened to trigger warnings so that we might rethink the ways in which a classroom can be used to embrace unthought experiences in productive and creative ways. Have trigger warnings already become a reductive part of well- intended classroom instruction, or might there be something more to be gained by considering an evolution of their function, one that moves trigger warnings from …

Beyond Mean Length Of Utterance: Novel Measures For Characterizing The Spoken Language Of Autistic Children, Janine Mathee-Scott, Courtney E. Venker

Speech Pathology and Audiology Faculty Research and Publications

Purpose:

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is a common measure of expressive language complexity in young children, including autistic children. However, means, by nature, obscure some information about spread and variability in data. Thus, we aimed to examine a new approach to characterizing linguistic complexity in autistic children by investigating the validity of two novel measures—range of length of utterance (RLU), standard deviation of length of utterance (SDLU)—alongside established measures: MLU and total utterances (TU).

Method:

Participants were 40 autistic children (12 girls, 28 boys; M_age = 41.78 months). Children participated in 10-min, play-based language samples with their caregivers. …

Dismantling The Whiteness Of Legal Education, Doron Samuel-Siegel

Law Faculty Publications

Whiteness is not merely a racial description. Whiteness operates as allegiance to structural racism. The quiet engine of racial hierarchy, whiteness pervades and shapes traditional legal education, rendering legal pedagogy a structurally racist enterprise. Legal education not only reproduces the racism embedded in the law and legal profession, but also obscures the ways legal doctrine, professional norms, and pedagogical practices normalize, protect, and make invisible the advantages that accrue to whiteness itself. In doing so, itproduces lawyers ill-equipped to dismantle structural injustice.

This Article breaks new ground in the scholarship on legal pedagogy by defining whiteness as it operates within …

Why They Stay: Exploring Mid-Level Managers’ Experiences During Economic Instability, Cynthia Josefina Bryan

Dissertations

Purpose: This phenomenological study explored mid-level managers’ perceptions of the impact of organizational environments fostering recognition, empowerment practices, and psychological safety on sustaining their organizational commitment when economic instability impeded leadership succession planning, employee upskilling, and staff retention. Additionally, the study identified sustainable, nonfinancial organizational practices that influenced participants’ decisions to remain with their organizations during periods of economic instability.

Methodology: Grounded in Organizational Support Theory and Organizational Commitment Theory, the study included eight mid-level managers representing public, private, nonprofit, and educational organizations. Data were collected through demographic questionnaires, field notes, and semi structured interviews. Data analysis followed Moustakas’s (1994) …