Digital Commons Network^™

Geospatial Analysis Of Flood Risk On Housing Price In Fargo, Nd, Sho Sato

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Flooding, one of the most destructive natural hazards, causes millions of dollars in damage each year. As climate change intensifies, even ar-eas previously less prone to flooding may become increasingly vulner-able. Fargo, ND, has experienced multiple floods in the past, high-lighting the growing risk. This research evaluates the relationship be-tween flood risk and property values in Fargo, ND.

Using The Epic Algorithm For Radio Astronomy, Samuel D. Michaud

Research & Creative Achievement Day

The EPIC (E-field Parallel Imaging Correlator) algorithm is a direct imaging correlator for radio interferometer arrays. Bypassing the expensive processing step of cross correlation and immediately computing a spatial fast Fourier transform allows it to generate extremely high framerate radio images. EPIC serves to efficiently process signals from a very high count of radio antennas in an array with parallel computing, scaling as Nlog(N). This research project investigates the advantages and limitations of using EPIC for astronomy. This was done by stress testing both the user interface and back-end database through SQL commands to validate the output data it processed …

Panel Impact And Compressing Strength Testing, Michael A. Dietz, Wyatt N. Laborde

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Intro/Purpose: This project was conducted to investigate how a material's compressive strength is affected after being impacted while supported on three sides. This has broader implications, helping us understand how military equipment, such as battleships, have their compressive strength affected when impacted by projectiles like bullets, shrapnel, or other objects.

Methodology: This test was conducted using panels made of multiple layers of fiberglass pressed together to form a solid sheet. We then cut these sheets into multiple panels. These panels were rectangular, with a tab coming off three sides. The three tabs simulated a wall supporting the material …

Improving Tutor Effectiveness Through Simulation Training At Wsu Tutoring Services, Sarah J. Bassler, Kelsi A. Kuchel, Mirra L. Swenson

Research & Creative Achievement Day

This project introduces a simulation-based training initiative for Winona State University (WSU) Tutoring Services, aimed at enhancing tutor effectiveness, communication skills, and student satisfaction. WSU Tutoring Services provides free tutoring to students through peer-based, online, and specialized instruction programs, aiming to support students' academic success. Despite these efforts, the service has faced challenges with student retention and negative perceptions due to varied tutoring quality.

A thorough needs assessment—incorporating organizational, person, and task analyses—highlighted significant areas for improvement. Organizational analysis identified the key issue of inconsistent tutoring effectiveness leading to dissatisfaction among students, negatively affecting student retention and overall usage of …

Education On Advanced Directives In Rural Communities, Samantha Koster, Alyssa Iverson, Caroline O'Dell, Nulia Nguyen, Olivia Post, Gabrielle Gray, Cheol-Hyeon Roh

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Population Health Problem

Trempealeau County faces issues knowledge gaps and health literacy. The Compass Report (2024) highlights that 19% of residents in the county consider their community excellent in meeting their family’s educational needs, while 11% believe the opportunities for gaining additional knowledge are excellent.

Threaded Locations: Sustainable Custom Hoodie Brand, Kaylee E. Olson

Research & Creative Achievement Day

For my Senior Capstone project for the Art and Design Department, I created a clothing brand called Threaded Locations. The Brand's mission was to merge sustainability with personal memories, offering people a unique way to cherish meaningful places. The concept behind Threaded Locations is to connect the stories behind places in people's lives with custom embroidered designs.

People often have emotional attachments to certain places, whether that is the neighborhood in which they grew up or a beloved vacation spot. With Threaded locations, the goal was to give people an opportunity to carry a piece of those memories with them …

Modeling Sod1 Enzyme Mutations: Biochemistry Ii Lab Class Project, Jenna Bolduan, Elle K. Haumont

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Superoxide Dismutase 1 (SOD1) is an enzyme that catalyzes the detoxification of reactive oxygen species that cause damage to the body. Mutations of this protein can cause diseases, such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). The structures of the SOD1 wild type and two of its deleterious mutations (A4V and L126*) were digitally modeled using the AI program AlphaFold3. Although a literature structure exists for A4V, no experimental structure data has been collected for L126*. The wild type and A4V structures were virtually identical, whereas the wild type and L126* structures had quite different features, with the mutant being smaller and …

Development Of A Qpcr For Detecting Borrelia Burgdorferi And Ixodes Tick Dna Simultaneously, Jenna Junker, Anthony J. Appicelli

Research & Creative Achievement Day

Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) and Lyme disease, caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi, are prevalent in the upper Midwest. Accurate determination of the percentage of Ixodes ticks that carry Lyme disease could help physicians and health experts develop treatment and prevention plans to curb the prevalence of disease. The purpose of this study was to see if accurate results for both Ixodes DNA and Borrelia DNA could be analyzed in the same qPCR assay for faster Lyme disease testing. Current testing in humans is achieved by running two separate diagnostic assays, an ELISA and Western Blot, both …

Exploring The Role Of Personality Traits In Predicting Financial Vulnerability: Moderating Effects Of Digital Literacy And Financial Literacy Within The Framework Of The Theory Of Planned Behavior, Saad Ahmed Almarzooqi

Thesis/ Dissertation Defenses

The growing integration of digital financial services in the UAE has introduced new challenges in mitigating financial fraud, particularly in understanding individual susceptibility to such risks. This study explores the role of personality traits and shaping financial fraud vulnerability, employing the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to examine how extraversion, agreeableness, consciousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience influence this vulnerability. The study further assesses the mediating roles of subjective norms, attitude towards financial fraud, and perceived behavioral control in these relationships, as well as the moderating effects of digital and financial literacy.

Results from a cross-sectional survey of 406 UAE …

True Crime Adaptations And How The Public Surveils, Laura Nothstine

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

True crime adaptations have become increasingly popular in the past few decades, but their existence reaches back several centuries. They have taken many forms, including stage dramas, graphic novels, and true crime podcasts. Examples of these adaptations— particularly the play Arden of Faversham, the graphic novel From Hell, and modern true crime podcasts—illustrate the selective process used to create true crime adaptations. That process chooses to foreground certain aspects of crimes while others are left behind, which changes audience understandings of the crime. By understanding the nuances of these adaptations, the potential effects they create in audience perceptions become clear. …

Waging War On Peacebuilders: Digital Sexual Violence As A Barrier To Peace, Abigail T. Connors

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Technology’s rapid advancement is quickly cultivating an online world that is becoming increasingly dangerous for women that participate in public life. This paper explores the ways in which sexual violence is used in online spaces to harass and abuse women peacebuilders and inhibit their peacebuilding work. It first dives into exactly how digital sexual violence is conceptualized in modern scholarship and academic works, then examines the different shapes that digital sexual violence takes, how digital sexual violence impacts women peacebuilders personally and professionally, and how digital sexual violence, when used against women peacebuilders, impacts global democratic efforts. It concludes with …

Some Inequalities Of A Matrix And Its Modulus In Powers Acting On Unit Vectors, Fuzhen Zhang

Mathematics Colloquium Series

Given a square matrix, one can associate it with a variety of numerical values and properties—such as the trace, determinant, eigenvalues, and singular values (at the undergraduate level), and the numerical range (and numerical radius), matrix norms, and majorization inequalities involving eigenvalues and singular values (at the graduate level). These studies all serve a common goal: to describe and understand the matrix as thoroughly as possible. In this talk, we present several inequalities involving a matrix A and its operator modulus ∣A∣, particularly in the context of their powers acting on the unit sphere (i.e., unit vectors)

Little Andre Henry Hudson

African American Funeral Programs

Little_Andre_Henry_Hudson.pdf - Death notice for Andre Hudson

A Note From The Managing Editor, Lia Richter

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

A message from the 2024-2025 Managing Editor of the Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal, Lia Richter.

Does The Incorporation Of Justice In Axiology Solve Consequentialism's Distributive Pitfalls?, Moss Magnusson

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Fred Feldman’s Justicized Act Utilitarianism (JAU) seeks to address the distributive shortcomings of consequentialist theories by incorporating justice in his axiology. By considering the distribution of intrinsic goods rather than solely their quantity, JAU aims to preserve consequentialism’s core principles while addressing justice-based objections. This paper critically examines JAU, arguing that while Feldman’s theory marks a significant advancement, it ultimately fails to reconcile consequentialism with justice in a meaningful way. Following an exposition of JAU, two critiques are presented through thought experiments to test its boundaries and implications.

On The Moral Responsibility, Evil, And Punishment Of Adolf Eichmann, And Its Implications For Us, Samantha Rigante

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

This paper discusses Adolf Eichmann, an infamous figure for his role in the Nazi regime, and the ideas of evil, moral responsibility, and punishment. I argue for a new way of viewing Eichmann by focusing and classifying him as an evil person according to Claudia Card’s theory of evil in her work The Atrocity Paradigm and honing on Eichmann’s role as moral agent and responsible figure. By considering him as such, I contend with ideas and questions regarding his actions, intentions, choices, and motives during the Holocaust, positing him as someone who was a moral agent, can be held morally …

Out Of Many, (Some) People: Race, Identity, And Beauty In Jamaican Nationalism, Shamoy Dixon

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

When Jamaica gained independence in 1962, it grappled with the question of how to define Jamaican national identity. With the absence of Indigenous culture, Jamaican nationalism sought to develop an identity that would unify its diverse population that comprised the descendants of African, Asian, Middle Eastern, and European peoples. Despite this approach towards racial inclusion, this multiracial vision of nationalism reflected colonial power arrangements and beauty aesthetic standards.The biggest proponents of Jamaican nationalism, the mixed-race government, were invested in valorizing a mixed ‘Brown’ identity over and above the Black identity shared by the majority of Jamaicans. Thus, 20th-century Jamaican nationalism …

Unearthing Silence: Deaf Archaeology As A Pathway To Social Justice And Accessibility, Abigail H. Steiner

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Deaf archaeology is an emerging field exploring the material culture, spaces, and histories of Deaf communities to understand their social lives and identities. This paper examines Deaf archaeology as a framework for uncovering the historical presence of Deaf individuals and promoting social justice. It begins by defining deafness, contrasting medical and cultural perspectives, then traces the field’s roots in sign language evolution, marginalization, and Deaf education. Through a timeline of findings, the study reveals how Deaf individuals have been recognized or overlooked historically. Engaging with the Southern Tier Deaf community, I explore accessible archaeology and the role of Deaf archaeology …

Female Acceptance Of Mates Is Consistent Across Different Sex Ratios And Male Proximities In Wood Frog (Rana Sylvatica) Breeding Aggregations, Alia Kabbaj, Laura Bousaid, Gabriella Lowney, Lindsey Swierk

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Sexual selection plays a crucial role in shaping reproductive strategies. We investigated the influence of sex ratio and male proximity on female acceptance of mates in wood frogs (Rana sylvatica). We hypothesized that females at a more even sex ratio would exhibit higher acceptance of males due to reduced male competition when compared to females at a more male-skewed sex ratio. Using digital video analysis of mating trials (n = 39), we quantified male proximity to females and female acceptance of males at two sex ratios – 1:4 (F:M) and 1:7. Males at a 1:4 sex ratio maintained …

Daydreamer, Minh-Hung Nguyen

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Daydreamer is a collection of five poems that blend into a colorful collage. “A peaceful ancient town” depicts a typical day in Hoi An while “Summer noon melody,” written in traditional Vietnamese verse form lục bát (six-eight), describes a peaceful Vietnamese countryside village during harvest days. The tone immerses into the darkness of isolation in “Midnight piece” and then becomes calmer, allowing nature to shine in “The squirrel and the pond” which consists of haiku poems about the cycle of seasons and life, a classic theme in Japanese poetry. Finally, the collection concludes with “In the middle of the clear …

“They Wear This Hideous Makeup All Over Their Face”: Dirty Girls And The Grrrl-Hag, Autumn Jacobs

Binghamton University Undergraduate Journal

Filmed at the height of riot grrrl, the documentary Dirty Girls presents a microcosm of the scene at a Santa Monica high school as it follows a group of girls ostracized by the student body due to their opposition to and negation of standard models of early 1990s beauty. This paper aims to situate riot grrrl and the “dirty girls” into larger contexts of the historical oppression of women, that, when viewed beyond the specificities of their given period, illustrate recurring patterns that involve the negative depiction of older women, denoted as “old hags” in the Middle Ages and Early …

A Legal Analysis On The Link Between Pornography Consumption And The Perpetuation Of Abuse, Madelyn Garrett

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay examines the connection between the overconsumption of pornography and the growing demand for violent and extreme types of pornography. This essay also looks at the abuse this demand perpetrates.

I Have Some Reservations: Examining Whether Federal Rules Of Evidence 413 And 414 Serve Legitimate Purposes Of Punishment For Native American Defendants, Cameryn Gonnella

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay will analyze the legitimacy of Federal Rules 413 and 414 as applied to Native American defendants through the lens of the purposes of punishment: rehabilitation, deterrence, retribution, incapacitation, and restitution.

A New Look At Sex Offender Rehabilitation: Embracing Elective Chemical Castration, Alli Florence

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This essay analyzes the historical and modern use of castration efforts on sex offenders and advocates for federally supported, elective chemical castration as an effective means of rehabilitative treatment and relapse prevention post-incarceration.

Dykebreaking: The Homophobic Rape Of Lesbian Woman And The Next Frontier Of Hate Crime Laws, Mallory L. Harrington

Advanced Issues in Criminal Law: Sex Offenses

This article will explain the motivations behind homophobic rape by examining it as both a sex offense and a hate crime, before arguing that its unique status at the intersection of both categories of offenses places its victims in a particularly vulnerable position and situates those who offend in this way in a more serious category of offender than other sex offenders.

Does Friend Groups’ Co-Rumination Explain Depression Homophily Among Undergraduate Women’S Friendship Groups?, Alyssa Chapman Klas

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

No abstract provided.

Decolonial Critical Qualitative Research Design, Mayra Garcia-Diaz

GS4 Student Scholars Symposium

No abstract provided.

A Jewel In The Crown Is Better Than Money In The Pocket": Historical Data On The Role Of Midwives In Caring For Families In Southern Appalachia, Kristen Montgomery

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Background: Midwives have provided care to women since the beginning of time. Early midwives had little training but learned their craft from experienced women. Later, formal training became available. Midwives have a rich history in Appalachia.

Purpose: to explore the rich history of all types of midwives in Appalachia.

Methods: Materials from the Archives of Appalachia were reviewed. Both written and oral materials were evaluated. This included a review of the document, identification of themes, and then comparing those themes with previously identified themes. Documents were reviewed in a random order by two researchers who met to discuss results.

Results: …

Kentucky House Bill 159: Health Care Policy Analysis, Lindsey Frasure

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Lindsey Frasure MSN-Ed., RN

Lincoln Memorial University, Caylor School of Nursing

DNP Student

An Educational Presentation: Kentucky House Bill 159: Health Care Policy Analysis

Abstract:

Purpose/Background: Kentucky House Bill 159 is a bill that passed through the state congress in 2024. It is known as the decriminalization bill. The aim of this presentation is to analyze and discuss the bill in its entirety, why the bill continues to be important in healthcare, implications for nursing, the future of nursing, and advocation for change. The significance of the presentation is to educate fellow healthcare professionals on the importance of policy …

Factors Influence Homeless People’S Psychological Well-Being And Suicidal Ideation, Pi-Ming Yeh

Epsilon Sigma at-Large Research Conference

Introduction/Significance: About 582,462 individuals are experiencing homelessness in America. Homelessness is devastating, regardless of age. But for children, it can have serious physical, emotional, and psychological implications.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the influences of spiritual well-being, coping strategies, family interaction, and personality on psychological well-being, and suicidal ideation among people with homelessness.

Methods: Sixty people with homelessness were recruited in the Eastern Tennessee Downtown Day Center, USA. IRB was approved. This was a cross-sectional descriptive research design. Questionnaires were used to do data collection. SPSS 28.0 was used to do the data analysis. Descriptive …