Digital Commons Network^™

Mental Health Education For Latinx Students In High School, Wilbert F. Rivas-Vides

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Mental health has become a significant concern for adolescents, especially high school juniors and seniors who are getting ready to transition into adulthood. At this age, students often face academic pressure, uncertainty about their future, and the challenge of balancing increased independence with family and cultural expectations. These stressors can be even harder for students from immigrant, low-income, or bilingual backgrounds because they may face extra barriers when trying to seek support. National data show that mental and behavioral health conditions are common among teens, with anxiety and depression standing out as leading concerns (Sappenfield et al., 2024). To address …

Bridging The Digital Divide: Educating Older Adults To Recognize And Prevent Scams, Isabella S. Chan

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The older adult community, especially those 60 years and older, is a frequent target of scams and financial exploitation. When an individual is scammed, and with the likelihood of older adults choosing not to report, many do not recover their money (CFPB 2022). Social isolation and cognitive decline are significant factors that increase an older adult’s susceptibility to scams; however, digital literacy and their lack of understanding of technology are also obstacles to detecting a scammer’s deception. In response to these concerns, I created an hour-long presentation to educate and bring awareness to older adults about scams and how to …

More Than Words: A Parent-Led Approach To Triqui Language Revitalization At Home, Monica Andrade

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Preserving indigenous languages is crucial for maintaining cultural identity, strengthening family bonds, and promoting the healthy development of children. For many immigrant Triqui families, the shift to using dominant languages like English or Spanish can lead to language attrition, a gradual loss of their native language when it is no longer spoken regularly at home (McCarty, 2003). To help Triqui parents actively preserve and promote their heritage language, I conducted a workshop specifically for a group of Triqui mothers at the Greenfield Community Center. The workshop provided practical strategies to engage children in everyday Triqui conversations, strengthen intergenerational connections, foster …

Supporting Healthy Eating Habits In Preschoolers, Adrian Arechiga-Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Unhealthy eating habits in early childhood are a growing health concern that has long-term effects on children’s physical and emotional health. Early childhood is an ideal time to support healthy eating habits because nutritious food choices support 1 children’s growth, brain development, and overall well-being. Making healthy food choices also helps prevent diseases such as diabetes and heart disease (Al-Mahshi et al., 2025). However, many young children face limited nutrition education, a lack of parental influence, and inadequate food environments. To address this issue, I created a one-day workshop for children at an early childhood daycare, Ale’s Learn and Play …

“Fighting For Our Future” The Grassroots Victory For Ethnic Studies In The Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Eli L. Davies

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This Capstone project captures personal participant ethnography of the 2023-2025 campaign to reinstate an esteemed Ethnic Studies consultant at the Pajaro Valley Unified School District in Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, CA. I joined students, educators, parents, and community members to form a grassroots movement of resistance to counter right-wing Zionist attacks on Ethnic Studies. This paper will show how the rich legacy and spirit of resistance within Watsonville contributed to the victory against academic repression in K-12 Ethnic Studies.

Impact Of Polystyrene Nanoplastics On Oncogenic Signaling Pathways In Prostate Cells, Luis Alfonso Adel-Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prostate cancer (PC) remains the most prevalent malignant disease among the male population worldwide, with a dramatic increase observed in the European Union from the 1980s to the 2000s. The etiology of PC is attributed to both hereditary factors and environmental pollutants. Among these, endocrine disruptors and polystyrene nanoparticles (PSNPs) interact with the prostate gland via the circulatory system, inducing intense oxidative stress. This study aims to characterize, for the first time, the pathobiological effects of PSNPs in both non-malignant (RWPE1) and malignant (22RV1) prostate cell lines. The objective was to elucidate the mechanisms by which environmental pollutants, such as …

Simulation, Modeling, And Economical Optimization Of Small Modular Reactors For Flexible Power System Operations, Javier Bejarano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The transition toward a low-carbon and increasingly renewable electric grid has heightened the need for generation technologies that can deliver both stability and operational flexibility. Small Modular Reactors (SMRs), with their modularity, reduced geographical footprint, and capacity for flexible operation, have emerged as promising resources for supporting modern power systems. However, a comprehensive evaluation of their technical performance across steady-state conditions, fault-induced disturbances, and economically optimized dispatch is necessary to understand their role in future grid architectures. This thesis provides an assessment of SMR capabilities using benchmark test systems, data-driven forecasting, dynamic simulation, and unit commitment modeling to evaluate how …

Effect Of Build Parameters On Mechanical Properties And Residual Stresses Of Lp-Ded Inconel 718 Overhanging Structures, Angel Fernando Bravo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive manufacturing of Inconel 718 via laser powder direct energy deposition (LP-DED) offers design flexibility for repair and fabrication of large components. However, mechanical properties remain sensitive to process parameters and geometric constraints, which impact the consistency of material properties. This study investigates the effect of different build angles (0°, 20°, 30°, and 35°) at different laser powers (1070W and 2000W) on the mechanical properties and residual stresses. Eight overhanging structures were fabricated using Inconel 718 and subjected to various heat treatments (SR + HIP + SOL + Aging). Numerical simulations were developed to predict residual stresses in the samples, …

Enduring Efffects Of Juvenile Fluoxetine Exposure On Serotonin Transporter Expression Within The Hippocampus And Prefrontal Cortex Of Male C57bl/6 Mice, Daniel Eduardo Calvo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prescription rates of fluoxetine, the most dispensed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, have been rising among the juvenile population. Since adolescence is a critical developmental period in which the brain undergoes pruning, chronic increases in serotonin levels may lead to long-term neurobiological changes in brain regions responsible for emotional regulation. Thus, using mice as a model system, this thesis evaluated how adolescent fluoxetine exposure (AFE) influences the expression of serotonin transporters (SERT) in the adult hippocampus and prefrontal cortex. To do this, postnatal day (PD)-35 male C57BL/6 mice were administered with fluoxetine (250 mg/l in their drinking water) for 15 consecutive …

Under Pressure: The Effects Of Stress And Cognitive Load On Interrogative Suggestibility, Claudia Cota

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High-stakes situations, like police interrogations, can impair critical thinking due to stress and cognitive demands, making individuals more susceptible to suggestion. While much research focuses on children, young adults are also at risk for interrogative suggestibility, which can have serious legal consequences. This study experimentally manipulated stress and cognitive load to test whether both factors increase suggestibility in young adults, both independently and interactively, with the highest suggestibility among those experiencing both greater stress and cognitive demands. This was evaluated by examining both condition effects and self-reports of stress and cognitive load. College students (N = 230), aged 18 to …

Boxing The Shadow, Based On Some True Stories By Madskater Bohannon, Brad Haines

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Creative writing, as a therapeutic modality, delves into memory and confronts fragmented emotional and cognitive processes through the medium of written language. For me, this involves language exerting resistance against memory, physical form, and silence. Boxing the Shadow, a hybrid of memoir, flash nonfiction, poetry, graphic novel scripting, and playwriting, emerges from my experiences with moral injury, and the ongoing process of self-expression that challenges institutional structures. At its essence, writing is an act of survival: it renders visible the inarticulable, identifies the phantoms and specters that haunt, and finds a suitable form to accommodate memory's unreliability and the jaggedness …

Comparison Of Ti-6al-4v Powder And Bulk Specimen Properties Across Manufacturers In Laser Powder-Blown Ded, Alejandro Javier Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The investigation and comparison of 4 different Ti64 powder feedstocks from 3 different manufacturers was done to determine if the quality of the powder had a profound effect on the properties of the bulk specimens despite using the same processing parameters. The characteristics of the powder observed are the atomization process used, particle size distribution, flowability, and its density. The Ti64 printing parameters for directed energy deposition that were kept consistent were the feed rate, scanning speed, and laser power. Coupons with varying build angles (0-30°) were printed to measure the impact of overhangs on bulk specimen properties (ultimate tensile …

Exploiting The In-Distribution Embedding Space With Deep Learning And Gaussian Discriminant Analysis For An Out-Of-Distribution Malware Attach Detection, Tosin Olusola Ige

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

State-of-the-art machine and deep learning models generally perform well on previously seen data, albeit with wrong close world assumption that all real-world data are from previously seen train and validation samples, hence there poor performance when exposed to data which deviates from previously seen training and validation set. This is clearly evident in the domain of cybersecurity where the world continues to experience several high profile malware attacks despite advancement in state-of-the-art research. The reason being that the constant evolvement of innovation in the development of tools and method deployed to carry out various attacks had given hackers and other …

Hubert-Based Models And Evaluation Strategies For Pragmatically-Faithful Speech To Speech Translation, Javier Vazquez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Pragmatic fidelity in speech-to-speech translation (S2ST) has largely been understudied, leading to communication tools inadequate to support non-superficial dialog. We aim to improve pragmatic faithfulness in English-Spanish translation through the development of machine learning models that are able to predict a corresponding pragmatic representation in the other language. To evaluate performance, we developed a pipeline that utilizes a recently-developed pragmatic similarity evaluation metric to compare models. Further, we developed models that exploit HuBERT features as these have been found suitable for various prosody and pragmatics related tasks. Our models outperformed human and state-of-the-art predictions, albeit the methodology being limited to …

An Empirical Investigation Of The Effects Of Gunshot Detection Technology In Detroit, Joe Davis

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This paper evaluates the impact of acoustic gunshot detection technology (GDT) on crime and policing outcomes in Detroit, Michigan. Leveraging the implementation of ShotSpotter across high-crime neighborhoods, I analyze outcomes including crime rates, emergency calls, police response times, and case clearance. My findings indicate that ShotSpotter installation is associated with a 6% reduction in violent crime but a modest increase in nonviolent crime. The technology also produces a large increase in the reporting of gunfire incidents—over 300% more gunshot-related calls for service—yet police respond 7% slower to ShotSpotter alerts than to citizen-reported gunshots. Consistent with prior research, I find no …

How Negative Accounting News Events, Voluntary Esg Assurance, And Assurance Provider Influence Consumer Purchasing Intentions, Clark Hampton, Macy Knutson, Adi Masli, Chad Stefaniak

Faculty Publications

Consumers are increasingly conscientious of societal and environmental impacts of their purchases, prompting companies to make environmental, social, and governance (ESG) claims and engage in voluntary ESG assurance. However, prior literature lacks insight into whether consumers consider negative accounting news events (e.g., error/irregularity restatements) and their effects on purchasing intentions. Using real world consumers of sustainable goods, we investigate how varying levels of negative accounting news events (i.e., error or irregularity restatements), the presence of ESG product-quality assurance (e.g., cage free egg certification), and the type of assurance provider (e.g., an accounting firm that also audits the financial statements, an …

Dolphins ‘Orient-Against-Current’: Foraging In Dredged Channels, Eliza M.M. Mills, Sarah Piwetz, Dara N. Orbach

Marine Science

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.) are opportunistic foragers with global distributions that utilize diverse feeding tactics based on environmental factors, habitat features, prey behavior, group dynamics, and genetics. We describe a unique foraging tactic regularly observed in the confluence of dredged shipping channels with high anthropogenic disturbance, and explore potential abiotic (temporal, tidal, habitat) drivers of the behavior. A shore-based digital theodolite was used from 2021 to 2022 to observe common bottlenose dolphins (T. truncatus) foraging within a current in a technique we term Orient-Against-Current (OAC). During OAC, dolphins position themselves facing into the flow of a current, swimming at a …

Age, Growth, Diet And Reproduction Of African Pompano (Alectis Ciliaris), Clinton J. Moran, Jonathan Tucker, Callie H. Crawford

Biology

Understanding the life history traits of ecologically and economically important fish species is critical for effective management. This study provides the first detailed analysis of age, growth, diet and reproductive characteristics of African pompano (Alectis ciliaris) from the southeastern United States, expanding upon prior work from the Western Arabian Gulf. A total of 54 specimens were collected off the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina when they were available during the 2024 fishing season (May–October). Age was determined via otolith sectioning, and growth was modelled using the von Bertalanffy growth function (L∞ = 96.61 cm, K = 0.689, t0 = …

Multicultural Organizational Development (Mcod) Scans Of Public Space In Milner Library, Fall 2025: External Report, Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, And Access Committee, Milner Library

Milner Library Publications

In Fall 2025, Milner Library’s Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access (IDEA) Committee conducted Multicultural Organizational Development (MCOD) scans of the library’s public spaces, in continuation of the MCOD scans conducted in 2023 and 2021.

Clinic Bulletin H2 - 2025, Outpatient Services

AKUH Outpatient Services Archives

• Special Message - Director Outpatient Services
• Clinic Statistics
• Awards & Recognitions
• Life in Outpatient Services
• Trainings & Capacity Enhancement
• New Appointments

Fisheries Research Report No. 363 : South-West Freshwater Angling: Estimates Of Participation, Effort And Catch For 2024/25, Claire B. Smallwood, Karina L. Ryan, Eva Lai

Fisheries Research Reports

South-West Freshwater Angling (SWFA) in Western Australia is a licensed fishery primarily targeting the Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), which are stocked in selected dams and rivers, as well as the introduced Redfin Perch (Perca fluviatilis) and the native Freshwater Cobbler (Tandanus bostocki). Since 2000/01, annual phone-recall surveys have been undertaken using the SWFA licence database as the sampling frame. This monitoring provides information to understand the fishery and support future management decisions. For the first time, data are reported by basin for different waterbody types (public dams, rivers) as well as for specific key fishing …

Masthead

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

No abstract provided.

June 30, 2023: Resurrections And Bad Omens Of A Nadir Court, Zamir Ben-Dan

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

June 29, 2023 was monumental for racial justice advocates and scholars; the U.S. Supreme Court issued a major decision that eviscerated affirmative action while declaring itself a vanguard of racial equality. The Court’s race-related juridical activities on the following day, June 30th, received far less attention. On June 30, 2023, the Court denied certiorari in five cases directly implicating race. Those denials of certiorari generated five opinions, two concurring in the denial and three dissenting from denial. These five opinions should have created as much buzz as the Court’s affirmative action decision the day prior; examined together, they tell a …

The Role Of Procedural Due Process In Equal Protection And Affirmative Action Analysis: The Narrowly Tailored Prong, Simona Grossi

UC Law Constitutional Quarterly

The Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College marked the end of affirmative action as traditionally practiced in higher education admissions, forcing universities to seek alternative legal pathways for fostering diversity. At the same time, the Trump administration’s executive orders targeting DEI initiatives have exacerbated the legal uncertainty, raising critical questions about how institutions can preserve fairness in admissions while withstanding both judicial and political scrutiny.

This article argues that Procedural Due Process—when read in conjunction with Equal Protection—provides a constitutionally sound and structurally fair framework for admissions policies that align with strict scrutiny while preserving …

Mechanisms Of Underwater Treadmill Walking In Persons With Brain Injury (Stroke And Cerebral Palsy), Oluwaseye Paul Odanye

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

People with brain injuries, like stroke, and children experiencing cerebral palsy (CP), tend to experience gait alterations and walking impairments due to injuries to regions of their brains. These impairments negatively affect the ability of affected individuals to function appropriately within their communities, necessitating task-specific gait training, such as underwater treadmill (UT) walking. UT walking is an intervention that leverages the buoyancy and hydrodynamic drag characteristics of water to the advantage of its users. Currently, there is no established baseline principle for applying UT walking mechanisms for rehabilitation.

This dissertation focused on investigating the mechanisms for UT use in persons …

Gulf Coast Faculty Council Minutes - December 16, 2025, Eric Saillant

Gulf Coast Faculty Council Minutes

No abstract provided.

Losing Control: Evaluative Access And The Limits Of Attributability In Angela Smith’S Theory Of Moral Responsibility, Henry Kissam

Honors Theses

The unwilling addict agent archetype–who wholeheartedly resolves to abstain from taking a drug but takes it regardless–is important to moral responsibility theorists for many reasons, but two in particular stand head-and-shoulders above the rest. The first is the frequency with which the archetype must be reckoned with through our everyday practices of moral assessment. It is not an idle thought experiment, pushing nothing but the theoretical limits of a particular theory. It is a near-ubiquitous presence in real, practical moral assessment. The second reason is a consequence of the first. Because we deal with the archetype frequently, we morally assess …

Prevalence Of Cytauxzoon Felis In Ticks From South-Central Kansas And Northwest Arkansas, Nicole E. Mcilvain

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cytauxzoon felis is a protozoan that causes an often-fatal illness in felines known as cytauxzoonosis, or bobcat fever. Ticks are vectors of this pathogen, with Amblyomma americanum being the most common vector. Previous studies have noted a correlation between peak tick season and peak cytauxzoonosis diagnosis. For cytauxzoonosis, minimal treatments exist, and scientists have not found a cure, which is why focus needs to be on preventing disease. Knowledge on the prevalence of C. felis in different tick species helps veterinarians and pet owners be aware of the potential for their cat developing cytauxzoonosis if one or more ticks are …

Exploring The Relationship Between Social Media And Anxiety In Deaf Community Students: A Mixed-Methods Approach., Gigi Zheng

Theses

The mental health of Deaf individuals, particularly in relation to social media engagement, is an understudied area amid growing global concerns about anxiety disorders. Deaf individuals face unique challenges, including communication barriers, social isolation, and stigma, all of which can heighten anxiety levels. Although social media offers valuable opportunities for connection and self-expression, it may also amplify stress and feelings of inadequacy when accessibility barriers persist. This mixed-methods study examined anxiety among Deaf college students and explored the cultural validity of two widely used anxiety measures—the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). Quantitative data were collected …

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The Prairie Light Review

No abstract provided.