Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Effects Of Africana Studies On Black Undergraduate Students: A Qualitative Case Study, Lanaya M. Butler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Particularly in the context of American K-12 schools, education has been manipulated to control—rather than liberate—students through the erasure and distortion of Black history, experiences, perspectives, and capabilities. Additionally, American schools prioritize memorization and obedience while failing to equip students with critical thinking skills. As a result, students are trained to become workers rather than innovators, worldbuilders, and change-makers. For nearly a century, Black educational critics have stated that these systems were designed to subjugate Black community members through dehumanization and enslavement of the mind. These critiques are foundational to the aims of Afrocentric education which posits the life experiences …

Margaret Cavendish And Radical Self-Love, Marina Burandt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Margaret Cavendish was an early modern Englishwoman writer who lived from 1623 to 1673. She wrote under her own name at a time when it was more common for women to write under a pen name, and published almost everything she wrote. Her writings include a multiplicity of genres, from science fiction, poetry, drama, and philosophy, to letters, biography, and autobiography. Cavendish’s style often blends multiple genres and forms, showcasing a modality that is driven by complexity and hybridity. Cavendish was a surprisingly modern figure in many ways, as her writings show. The Description of a New World, Called the …

Conceptualizing The Explanatory Fully Longitudinal Mixed Methods Case Study Design: A Demonstration With An Arithmetic Education Trial With Kindergarten Children, Menglong Cong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In employing longitudinal mixed methods designs, researchers have commonly used the fully longitudinal mixed methods design. This has occurred mostly in the health sciences but less in education. The current investigation proposes a novel longitudinal mixed methods research design, explanatory fully longitudinal mixed methods case study design. It demonstrates its potential for addressing research inquiries in educational research using the arithmetic learning trajectories datasets. This study is presented in three components. The first is a quantitative phase, selecting an exploratory case from a previous arithmetic learning trajectories study (Clements et al., 2021) for qualitative analyses based on maximizing the …

Computational Fluid Dynamics And Fluid Structure Interaction Modeling In Healthy Vertebral Arteries: A Comparative Study, Bryce Clinkenbeard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral perfusion is critical for maintaining proper brain function, with each cerebrovascular artery playing an integral role in the overall cerebrovascular system. When these arteries become damaged or develop plaque, cardiovascular disease (CVDs) such as atherosclerosis can arise, leading to conditions like arterial stenosis. While CVDs are most prevalent in older individuals, they are also observed in young adults, particularly those engaged in high-endurance occupations such as military service. Diagnosis and prediction of CVDs often rely on imaging modalities supported by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) which account for low resolution in fluid flow. CFD models assume rigid arterial walls, which …

Supercritical Co2 Technology For Biomass Extraction: Review, Bahare Nozari, Ron Kander

School of Design and Engineering Papers

Supercritical carbon dioxide extraction is increasingly recognized as a green and efficient alternative to conventional solvent-based techniques for valorizing plant biomass. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent advances in a scCO₂ extraction method, focusing on its advantages in isolating high-value compounds from agricultural feedstocks. The unique physicochemical properties of scCO₂, combining gas-like diffusivity with liquid-like solvating power, enable selective extraction under mild and tunable conditions, which preserves the integrity of thermally sensitive molecules. In addition, scCO₂ reduces energy consumption, eliminates toxic solvent residues, and offers greater extraction precision than traditional methods. These features have …

Minority Stressors And Internalizing Symptoms In Sexual And Gender Minority Adolescents: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Anni R. Subar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) adolescents are at elevated risk for internalizing symptoms, such as anxiety and depression, due in part to chronic exposure to minority stress. To provide a comprehensive synthesis of this literature, we conducted a meta-analysis of 32 studies, yielding 162 effect sizes from 41,360 participants aged 8– 22. All included studies examined the association between minority stress, defined as stigma-related stressors such as discrimination, victimization, and internalized stigma, and internalizing outcomes in SGM youth. The random-effects meta-analysis revealed a small but significant association (r = .25) between minority stress and internalizing symptoms, consistent across stressor …

Development Of An Embedded Iot Board For Real-Time Floor Estimation Of Autonomous Robots, Carter J. Sorensen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As service robots become more prevalent in multi-story environments such as hospitals, hotels, and laboratories, accurate floor-level detection is critical to ensuring operational reliability. Consider a robot tasked with delivering medical samples in a multi-story laboratory. Without accurate feedback, a robot exiting on the wrong floor could introduce delays, disrupt workflows, or compromise sample integrity. Internet of Things (IoT) technologies offer a way to address these risks by providing real-time error detection and corrective capability. However, current IoT-based floor estimation systems often require invasive modifications to building infrastructure—particularly elevator control panels. These approaches introduce challenges related to cost, liability, backward …

An Advanced Hexacopter For Autonomous Exploration Of Mars: Attitude Control And Navigation Strategies, Laura Sopegno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Mars exploration has recently witnessed major interest within the scientific community. Unmanned robotic platforms offer reliable solutions to acquire and collect data and information from the Red Planet. Particularly, rovers, landers, and orbiters have significantly shaped planetary exploration on the Moon and Mars, contributing significantly to past missions while also highlighting limitations in their capacity to cover diverse terrains over wide ranges. Given current advances in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UASs), Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) offer promising alternatives for future scientific missions.

It is argued that hexacopters, with their relatively compact design and redundancy, present a promising …

Effects Of Oil Content On Dough And Fermentation Characteristics, Liang Yongxia, Luo Wenyun, Huang Zeyu, Zeng Zicong, Li Dongming

Food and Machinery

［Objective］ To investigate the influence of oil content on the characteristics of dough made of flour with different qualities.［Methods］ Camellia oil and butter are used as raw materials,and incorporated into flour at different proportions (mass fractions of 0%,1%,2%,3%,and 4%,respectively ).The control group consists of flour without oil added.The properties of the dough are analyzed using the farinograph,viscosity analyzer,rheometer,and other instruments.［Results］ Compared with the control group,the water absorption capacity and wet gluten content of the dough significantly decrease (P<0.05),and the pasting and tensile properties of the dough are markedly altered (P<0.05) when the oil content reaches 4%.When the oil content is 3%,there is no significant change in the formation time or stabilization time of the dough,while the fermentation performance of the dough is notably enhanced.［Conclusion］ The addition of oil facilitates the formation and stabilization of the gluten network,enhances the stability of the dough,delays its aging process,and significantly improves its properties.These effects are more pronounced compared to those observed in the butter -supplemented group.

Preparation Process Optimization And Application Of Naringin-Polysaccharide-Protein Composite Preservative Film, Xu Di, Liu Xia, Xiong Yingzi, Xie Yutong, Hu Yifei, Zheng Yawen

Food and Machinery

［Objective］ To optimize the processing parameters of naringin -polysaccharide -protein composite preservative film and to explore the slow release ability and preservation effect of the composite film.［Methods］ Polysaccharides and proteins are used as the substrate of the composite film,and the types,additions,and ratios of the substrate materials are optimized by the indicators of light transmittance,opacity,water vapor permeability (WVP ),and oxygen permeability (OP).On this basis,naringin (1%,3%,5%) is added to the base film to obtain naringin -polysaccharide -protein composite film.A preliminary study is conducted to analyze the slow -release effect and freshness preservation effect of the composite film on Longan.［Results］ When the polysaccharide …

Effects Of Heat Moist Treatment On Γ-Aminobutyric Acid Accumulation , Polyphenol Content , And Antioxidant Activity Of Red Kidney Beans, Zhang Siqi, Zhou Sumei, Hou Dianzhi, Cui Yajun, Wang Li

Food and Machinery

［Objective］ To investigate the effect of heat moist treatment on the γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA ) content of different varieties of red kidney beans and to screen out the red kidney bean varieties with the strongest GABA accumulation capacity.At the same time,the changes in phenolic content and antioxidant activity of red kidney beans after heat moist treatment are investigated.［Methods］ This paper determines the GABA content in red kidney beans before and after heat moist treatment by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC ) and conducts correlation analyses of GABA accumulation with free amino acid content and GABA key metabolic enzyme activities in …

Research Progress On Methods For Evaluating The Effect Of Milk Desensitization, Xu Chenyu, Lu Dingqiang, Wang Qian, Li Ming, Wu Wenling, Song Qingwei

Food and Machinery

Food allergies are becoming an increasingly serious issue,and milk,as one of the major allergens,severely affects the daily lives of individuals with allergies.This article reviews the recent research progress on methods for assessing the desensitization of milk allergenicity from the perspectives of protein structural changes,IgE/IgG binding capacity,animal sensitization models,in vitro digestion models,and cell degranulation assays.It also looks forward to the future directions of research on methods for evaluating the effectiveness of milk desensitization.

Probing Dust Grain Optical Properties In The Ism Using Diffuse Ultraviolet Observations Together With Radiative Transfer Modelling, Nilanjana Dey Choudhury

University Departments

No abstract provided.

Theoretical Investigation On The Magnetic And Spintronic Behaviour Of 2d Mxenes, Abhinav Prashant Gotmare

University Departments

No abstract provided.

Gender-Based Crimes And The Colombian Special Jurisdiction For Peace, Caroline Davidson

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

The Special Jurisdiction for Peace ("JEP"), created as part of Colombia's historic 2016 Peace Agreement, has been hailed as a novel, restorative justice-oriented mechanism for addressing gross human rights violations at the domestic level. Commentators point to the JEP as a potential model for other jurisdictions looking to address mass atrocities. The success or failure of this model hinges on the JEP's ability to effectively address an issue of great concern to the International Criminal Court as well as to Colombian civil society: gender-based crimes. This Article is the first to examine comprehensively the JEP's progress on this vital issue, …

When Electrification Meets Reindustrialization: The First Eu Green Electric Vehicle Subsidies And The Wto Consistency, Mandy Meng Fang

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

The French Government recently reformed the "Ecological Bonus" scheme, which has generously supported its domestic consumers in purchasing electric vehicles ("EVs"), by introducing a new criterion based on the amount of carbon emitted in the vehicle's manufacturing. Starting in 2024, the scheme strictly sets the production carbon footprint ceiling at 14.75 tons of CO2, effectively denying the subsidy eligibility of more than one-third of EVs sold in France. Other European Union ("EU") Member States, including Italy, have considered taking similar policy actions. Criticized as the French version of the discriminatory United States Inflation Reduction Act, the new Ecological Bonus scheme …

Countering The Demand Side Of Foreign Bribery: An Analysis Of The Foreign Extortion Prevention Act, Noah Buyon

Duke Journal of Comparative & International Law

The United States has long criminalized bribery of foreign officials but not bribery by foreign officials. Under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA"), an American may be criminally liable for paying a bribe to another country's official, but the official commits no corresponding crime. The official might face criminal charges if they launder the proceeds of the bribe through the United States and could find themselves the target of Executive Branch sanctions for their corrupt behavior. But until 2023, the United States largely left the official's punishment, if any, to the official's home country. Then, Congress passed the Foreign Extortion …

Degraded Document Binarisation, Miriyala Ajith

Master’s Dissertations

In this study, I explored degraded document binarization by reviewing two recent model frameworks and implementing their models using PyTorch. The first model is based on cGANs, specifically the DE-GAN [41] framework, which enhances degraded documents by restoring their quality prior to binarization. The second model employs vision transformers [40], inspired by the DocBinFormer architecture, which uses an autoencoder in both the encoder and decoder for effective binarization. Both models were evaluated on the ISI-Bengali dataset. Experimental results demonstrate that DE-GAN improved document quality by 4% compared to the degraded input, while the vision transformer model achieved a 14% improvement, …

Reducing Attention Complexity In Graph Transformers Through Subgraph Partitioning, Ranjan Kumar Choubey

Master’s Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the challenge of scaling Graph Transformers by proposing a subgraph-based strategy to reduce attention complexity. The proposed framework preserves representational power while making attention computation tractable for largescale graphs. The method begins by partitioning the input graph into K subgraphs using the METIS algorithm. Each subgraph is encoded using a combination of local structural features from a Graph Convolutional Network (GCN) and global positional cues from Laplacian Positional Embeddings (LPEs). These embeddings are fused via a trainable projection function to form subgraph tokens. A supergraph is constructed to model interactions among subgraphs, allowing attention to be applied …

“Eyes Can Be Blinded”: A Narratological Analysis Of Focalization In Sarah J. Maas’S A Court Of Thorns And Roses And A Court Of Silver Flames, Georga Mae Feek

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the complex relationship between Feyre and Nesta, two prominent characters in Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) and A Court of Silver Flames (ACOSF). My analysis uses narratological concepts from three significant scholars in narrative theory: Gérard Genette, Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan, and Mieke Bal. I begin with a theoretical synthesis of narration and focalization and outline the various categories of types of narrators and focalizers. Then, I analyze Feyre’s focalization in ACOTAR and Nesta’s focalization in ACOSF. Through this process, I have developed rich character studies of Feyre and Nesta. My investigation of the …

Pilgrimage, Trade And Empire: A Gis Investigation Of Pre-Hispanic Roads In The Ocoña And Chorunga Valleys Of Peru, Geri Evilla

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines Inca imperial expansion into the Ocoña and Chorunga Valleys, through an investigation of precolonial roads and trails. It focuses on the Middle to Late Horizons (700 BCE-1534 CE), with specific attention to the last 100 years, when the region was occupied by the Inca state and experienced a rapid increase in population and architectural development. Data collected in excavations, and pedestrian, and drone surveys were used in geographic information systems, to map pre-Hispanic road systems. A combination of Least Cost Path and viewshed analyses were used to investigate land use patterns and tie this region into the …

The Shōnen Apocalypse: An Analysis Of The Shōnen Power System And Its Narrative Functions, Mario Da Silva Melo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis has two primary goals. First, it provides an overview of the history of manga as a medium, and manga studies as a field. In doing so, I observe a lack of terminological and methodological specificity. As a result, I provide a formalist approach to thematic criticism in order to address the above issues. Second, my thesis primarily centers on shōnen power systems and their narrative functions. Power systems are "magic rules" that determine how superhuman abilities mechanically function. I identify two main power systems in shōnen manga: spiritual manipulation and transformations. My thesis posits that shōnen manga authors …

Some Results In Thermodynamic Formalism, C. Evans Hedges

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates several key questions at the intersection of dynamical systems, computability theory, and thermodynamic formalism. In the symbolic setting, we establish novel results regarding the statistical properties of equilibrium states, deriving bounds on probabilities of configurations and relating these bounds to the Gibbs property through the homoclinic relation. Additionally, we examine the computability of thermodynamic quantities such as pressure, ground state energy, and residual entropy. We show that topological pressure is computable from above for general subshifts and computable for strongly irreducible shifts, with similar results extending to ground state energy and residual entropy.

Extending beyond subshifts, we …

The Embodiment And Experiences Of Gender Euphoria Among Transgender And Nonbinary Communities: A Mixed Methods Inquiry, Brendon T. Holloway

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender euphoria is a critical aspect of embodiment for transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people that has long been overshadowed in academic research by deficit narratives and gender dysphoria. While gender dysphoria is the distress an individual may experience related to their gender, gender euphoria encapsulates the positive emotions a TNB person may experience because of positive gendered experiences. Despite community documentations of gender euphoria since the 1970s, academic research on gender euphoria has only recently begun to emerge. This three-paper dissertation advances this body of scholarship by exploring how gender euphoria is conceptualized, experienced, and embodied in TNB communities. Utilizing …

Excellence Gaps: A State-Based Review Of Policies, Jonathan M. Jennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates how state education policies address excellence gaps among student subgroups in gifted education. Using a multiple case study design, it examines the policy mechanisms, identification practices, and funding models employed across states to promote equity in advanced academic access. Grounded in critical policy analysis, the study highlights systemic disparities perpetuated by inconsistent definitions, underfunding, and limited accountability structures. Findings reveal that while some states adopt promising interventions - such as universal screening and dual enrollment support - many fall short in ensuring sustainable, inclusive practices. This research calls for reform grounded in transparency, comparability, and justice for …

The Narratological Maus, Isla Lader

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Complete Maus, a memoir graphic novel surrounding the events of character Art Spiegelman as he collects, records, and illustrates his father’s life pre-the Holocaust in Europe, his time in Auschwitz, and then life in the United States has been one of the focal Holocaust survivor testimonies and has redefined the genre it exists in as both a graphic novel, but also as a form of testimony. Like many popularized works dealing with the Holocaust, though, cultural preconceptions of Jewish people, genocide, and audiences’ desire to find morals within the work have made it so often audiences come to …

Sustaining Queerness: A Phenomenological Study Of Colorado Educators, Devani Lemmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to engage queer Colorado educators to explore how to sustain their identities as queer educators in a politically fractured state. By focusing on Colorado, I could assess the extent to which the legal protections afforded there adequately support educators in sustaining themselves. Additionally, the findings from Colorado had the potential to further illuminate factors influencing teacher sustainability and retention on a much larger scale. The questions for this research project were: 1) How are queer educators sustaining themselves and each other in an increasingly volatile political climate? 2) What, if any, factors impact queer …

E Ho’Omau Mākau, We Will Continue: The Living Sovereign Entities Of Contemporary Hawaiian Songs, Kēhaulani Lagunero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationship between contemporary Hawaiian mele (songs) and Hawaiian ea (sovereignty), focusing on how mele acts as sovereign living entities representing cultural resilience, identity, and resistance to settler-colonial influences. Through semi-structured interviews with Kānaka Maoli, participant observation at cultural events, and close analysis of mele, I identify that these songs are not only expressions of cultural memory, but also living embodiments of ea—sovereignty because they are alive, and they are alive because they are ea. Drawing from the frameworks of cultural survival, survivance, symbolic power, and defiant indigeneity, I explore how mele actively engage …

Carbon Monoxide Releasing Polymeric Micelles, Riya Joshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carbon monoxide (CO), traditionally known as a toxic gas, has emerged as a potential therapeutic agent due to its cytoprotective, anti-inflammatory, and vasodilatory properties. This study explores the development of CO-releasing polymeric micelles as a controlled delivery system for biomedical applications. Using ring-opening metathesis polymerization (ROMP), we synthesized diblock copolymers incorporating CO-releasing moiety diphenylcyclopropenone (DPCP) with hydrophilic polyethylene glycol (PEG) to enhance solubility and stability of the overall CO releasing system. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) and electron microscopy (EM) confirmed the formation of well-defined micelles, while fluorescence assays demonstrated efficient CO release with the use of Iridium photocatalyst under 470 …

Phenomenological Inquiry: High School English Language Arts And Reading Professional Development Design And Delivery, Michelle Jestice

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative, phenomenological inquiry aimed to understand the overall essence of public high school English language arts and reading professional development design and delivery from an inclusive, sociocultural, responsive theoretical lens. The lens extended previous scholarship, combining six educational concepts and theories to develop an ideological framework for high school English language arts and reading professional development design and delivery. They include Vygotsky’s (1978) sociocultural theory, Knowles’ (1978) andragogy, Shulman’s (2013) content-pedagogy-curricular contextualization, Hammond’s (2015) culturally responsive teaching, Bennett’s (1986) intercultural competencies, Smale-Jacobse and others’ (2019) and Tomlinson and others’ (2003) concepts of differentiation: referred to as SACReD. A central …