Digital Commons Network^™

Fashioning The Self: Trauma, Disability, And Autofiction In Contemporary Quebecois Literature, John Ashburn

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation brings into dialogue trauma studies, disability studies, queer theory, and scholarship on autofiction and self-portraiture to examine representations of the self in contemporary Quebecois literature. Focusing on La fille d’elle-même (2021) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, Tu aimeras ce que tu as tué (2017) by Kev Lambert, Grosse (2018) by Lynda Dion, Désormais, ma demeure (2020) by Nicholas Dawson, Chienne (2019) by Marie-Pier Lafontaine, and Ouvrir son cœur (2018) by Alexie Morin, this study argues that the literary self emerges as fundamentally unstable, shaped by trauma, embodiment, cognitive variation, and shifting configurations of gender and sexuality. Across this corpus, fragmentation …

Challenges In Tracking Methane Seepage Variability: The Δ13c Proxy Through Individual Benthic Foraminifera Analysis, Gracie Babineaux

Doctoral Dissertations

Methane seeps are dynamic biogeochemical systems that influence carbon cycling, seafloor ecology, and gas hydrate stability along continental margins. Yet reconstructing past methane seepage remains challenging because most sedimentary proxies integrate over long timescales and cannot resolve the short-lived or spatially restricted methane pulses that characterize many seep environments. This dissertation evaluates the reliability, sensitivity, and limitations of benthic foraminiferal δ¹³C as a proxy for methane-rich porewater conditions across two contrasting seep systems: long-term seepage at Woolsey Mound in the northern Gulf of Mexico and short-term, spatially variable seepage along the Chilean Margin. Using Individual Foraminifera Analysis (IFA), scanning electron …

Molecular And Histologic Studies Of The Amygdala And Reward Circuits In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta) With Self-Injurious Behavior (Sib), Jackie Barua

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-injurious behavior (SIB), also known as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), is characterized by deliberate infliction of harming one’s own body tissues without committing suicide, and persists in a group of captive rhesus macaques despite an enhanced enrichment program and pharmacological intervention with diazepam. The aim of this dissertation was to identify the neurobiological underpinnings of SIB by combining RNA-seq guided transcriptomic discovery and targeted candidate gene validation with unbiased histological and imaging analysis. The secondary aim was to employ a complementary mouse model to investigate the endogenous opioid system in response to diazepam. The amygdala transcriptome of primates with SIB (n …

Investigating The Distribution And Origin Of Pitted Mounds On Mars Using Machine Learning-Based Mapping And Integrated Geological Analysis: Application To Isidis Planitia, Precious Batubo

Doctoral Dissertations

Pitted mounds are widespread landforms across the northern plains of Mars, yet their origin remains uncertain. These features have been interpreted as possible expressions of subsurface fluid activity, including sedimentary volcanism, magmatic processes, or other fluid-assisted mechanisms. Determining their distribution, morphology, and geology is therefore important for understanding the evolution of subsurface hydrological processes and the planet’s potential for habitability. However, the large spatial extent of mound-bearing terrains makes comprehensive manual mapping impractical. This dissertation presents an automated approach to mound detection using Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) from high-resolution Context Camera (CTX) images including morphometric and mineralogical …

Enhancing Hiv Prevention: Implementation And Evaluation Of A Standardized Hiv Risk Assessment Screening In A Primary Care Setting, William Duckworth

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: HIV remains a persistent public health concern, with 1.3 million people affected worldwide. Although advances in treatment have improved long-term management, early prevention still relies on identifying individuals at elevated risk. In many primary care settings, routine HIV risk assessment is inconsistent or absent, resulting in missed opportunities to screen, educate and initiate prevention strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This gap underscores the need for structured, evidence-based tools to improve early risk identification and strengthen HIV prevention efforts. Purpose: Implement and evaluate an evidence-based standardized screening process for HIV risk assessment to achieve early identification and enhance appropriate …

Enhancing Hpv Vaccination Engagement And Uptake Among Young Adults Aged 17 To 26 Through A Multilevel, Multicomponent Intervention, Sarah Dianne Girlinghouse

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) remains one of the most common vaccine-preventable infections, with vaccination rates among young adults aged 17 to 26 remaining below Healthy People 2030 targets. University health settings represent a critical opportunity to improve vaccine uptake. Prior to this quality improvement (QI) initiative, student health services (SHS) at a public university in the southern United States did not routinely offer HPV vaccination, resulting in missed opportunities for prevention. Evidence supports provider recommendation, clinical decision support, and improved access as key drivers of HPV vaccination uptake. Purpose: The purpose of this QI project was to increase HPV vaccination …

Development Of Artificial Intelligence Based Geophysical Technique For Unconventional Resource Exploration, S M Shamsul Hoque

Doctoral Dissertations

Unconventional shale resources have become an important source of oil and gas in the United States, but their characterization remains challenging because of strong heterogeneity and complex elastic and geomechanical behavior. Important properties, such as total organic carbon (TOC) and brittleness, play a key role in evaluating source quality, reservoir behavior, development potential, and subsurface storage suitability. This dissertation develops artificial intelligence-based geophysical techniques to improve unconventional resource exploration and characterization by integrating seismic attributes, well-log data, deep learning, multicomponent seismic registration, and joint PP-PS inversion. A TOC estimation technique is developed and applied to both the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale …

Optimizing Well-Being In Post-Stroke Aphasia: Improving Access And Participation In Mental Health Care, Ashley H. Kidd

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on improving the well-being of people with aphasia. The overall aim of this research agenda is to move the healthcare system forward in its understanding of managing people with aphasia’s well-being after diagnosis. This focus is addressed through a compilation of three separate academic articles that are published or submitted to journals for the peer review process in speech-language pathology. All three works are focused on aphasia, a language disorder resulting from acquired brain injury, and the well-being of the person with aphasia. The first article focuses on managing the communication breakdowns that occur during group …

Are Greenfield Cross-Border Investments Sensitive To Us Trade Policy? An Investigation Of Responses To Liberation Day Tariff Announcements, Philip Caspar Ernst

Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses

This paper studies whether foreign greenfield investment into the United States responded to the Trump administration’s April 2025 Liberation Day tariff announcements. Using project-level fDi Markets data from January 2023 through November 2025, I examine changes in announced project counts, expected jobs created, and capital investment. The analysis compares aggregate investment activity before and after Liberation Day, tests whether responses differed for countries assigned additional tariffs above the 10% baseline level, investigates the effects of tariff intensity on investment announcements, and examines whether effects were concentrated in particular business activity fields. The clearest finding is that project announcements declined after …

The Impact Of Student Choice On Reading Engagement And Comprehension In First Grade, Gia Stella Nardi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the effect of student choice on first-grade students’ reading engagement and (b) determine how student choice impacted their reading comprehension during instruction. Throughout the study, students utilized a choice board following each read-aloud to express their understanding of what they perceived as important in the text. Findings indicated that students demonstrated high levels of engagement during the 12 read-alouds, which were intentionally selected based on their interests, as well as during the choice-based activities that followed. Additionally, students showed growth in their ability to apply key comprehension skills, including summarizing, identifying …

Harnessing Story To Overcome The Double Empathy Problem Between Autistic And Neurotypical People: Brain-Behavior Relationships, Kate Gifford

Theses and Dissertations

There is a dearth of information on the physical aspects of the Double Empathy Problem which is the bidirectional challenge of shared empathy and understanding between autistic and neurotypical individuals. Storytelling has been shown as means to facilitate empathy between storytellers and listeners in both neurotypical and autistic populations through behavioral research. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) is a neuroimaging technique used to evaluate the hemodynamic response in the cortex and can be used to compare hemodynamic responses across multiple individuals (i.e., hyperscanning). The purpose of this study was to examine activation in empathy-related brain regions and assess brain synchrony between …

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_7, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Seeing Through Similar Eyes: How Social Identity Shapes Reinterpretation Of Ambiguous Stimuli, Eli Bailit

Cognitive Science Senior Theses

Identical sensory input can lead to a variety of subjective experiences and interpretations. In the face of such ambiguity, we often turn to our social context. Does the identity of the person providing an alternative interpretation to an ambiguous stimulus impact someone’s likelihood to adopt it? This study examined whether perceived interpersonal similarity modulates reinterpretation of ambiguous visual stimuli. Thirty Dartmouth undergraduates completed a modified “MadLibs” paradigm in which they generated initial interpretations of ambiguous photographs, indicated their confidence in their interpretations, then decided how much to update those interpretations upon viewing an alternative sourced from an individual of varying …

Category Learning Under Verbal Interference, Yawen Xue

Cognitive Science Senior Theses

What happens to cognition when you disrupt language? What does language actually do as a representational medium for cognition? Much literature shows a facilitative role of language on categorical thinking. This work specifically examines the role of language in category learning using a verbal interference paradigm. I ran two experiments where participants learned to distinguish between two novel categories of bugs while under conditions of verbal or visuospatial interference. In Experiment 1, category membership was determined by an XOR rule; in Experiment 2, category membership was determined by an AND rule.

In Experiment 1, participants on average did not succeed …

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_2, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_8, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_3, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_1, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_9, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Mgrre_Thinsections_Mgrre-147_10, Mgrre

Thin Sections

No abstract provided.

Applications Of Iceye Commercial Satellite Synthetic Aperture Radar In The Laurentian Great Lakes, Ray H. Watkins, Susan Janiszewski, Michael Sayers, Robert Shuchman, Karl Bosse, Gary L. Fahnenstiel, Joseph W. Burns

Michigan Tech Publications

The Laurentian Great Lakes, often resembling inland seas, exhibit complex interactions between wind and waves that influence lake conditions. Monitoring these dynamics currently relies on buoy-based measurements and model predictions. Recent advancements in commercial satellite technology now provide high-revisit, high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery, such as ICEYE’s X-band data from the NASA Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. SAR offers all-weather, day-and-night capabilities, making it a valuable tool for Great Lakes monitoring. In this study, we assess the effectiveness of ICEYE SAR for lake monitoring, focusing on western Lake Erie. We evaluate multiple imaging modes and find that Stripmap …

Large-Scale Synthesis (75 G/Batch) Of Single-Atom Catalysts For Selective Electrochemical Co2 Reduction To Co And Commercialization Potential Analysis, Carter Racine, Ahmed Badreldin, John Pellessier, Yayun Chen, Shaoqin Chen, Shengyao Wang, Jin Feng, Chengcheng Fei, Yun Hang Hu, Ying Li

Michigan Tech Publications

A promising approach to mitigate climate change is to use renewable electricity to convert carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions into useful products like carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrocarbons. While research has largely focused on developing high-performance catalysts for electrochemical CO2 reduction (eCO2R), scalability of catalyst synthesis remains underexplored. Metal–nitrogen–carbon (M–N–C) catalysts with dominant single-atom sites are among the most effective materials for CO production, but conventional synthesis methods rely on energy-intensive steps and complex pre- and post-treatment processes, hindering scalability and adding negative environmental impacts. This work demonstrates a scalable, single-step synthesis of M–N–C (M = Ni/Fe) catalysts using commercially available …

Secondary Cutaneous Involvement In Peripheral T-Cell Lymphoma: Diagnostic Frameworks, Staging Integration, And Therapeutic Implications, Aura Calderon, Jose Loayza Pintado, Cristina Kochi, Jared Hensley, Andres Suarez Parraga, Everardo Cobos

School of Medicine Publications

The occurrence of secondary cutaneous manifestations in peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL) is relatively infrequent and can resemble benign dermatoses, leading to diagnosis delays. We present the case of a 78-year-old female patient with a diagnosis of PTCL affecting the left parotid gland, who experienced a 2-day sudden and intensely pruritic skin eruption, which progressed from both forearms to the trunk, involving more than 50% of the total body surface area. Initially, the eruption was managed as a hypersensitivity reaction with antihistamines and corticosteroids, with temporary symptomatic relief; however, the rapid clinical progression in the context of an established diagnosis of …

Identifying Preferred Toothpaste And Improving Toothbrushing Participation In Autistic Individuals, Taylor Bakalar

Doctoral Dissertations - College of Arts and Sciences

Research that assessed the prevalence of oral health disorders among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) found that behavior and environmental variables played a role in deteriorated dental hygiene in some patients with ASD. Behavior analytic interventions have been used to increase participation with dental exams and daily toothbrushing skills (Duhanyan et al., 2019). The current study seeks to extend Duhanyan et al. (2019) through the implementation of a modified single-stimulus preference assessment to identify a preferred toothpaste by evaluating increased percentage of participation with experimenter-implemented toothbrushing. For all participants, the SSPA identified at least one toothpaste flavor that increased …

Interview With Vernon Weckbacher, Vernon Weckbacher, Logan Dovalina

Rio Grande Valley Oral Histories

In this oral history interview conducted on June 2, 2026, Logan Dovalina interviews Vernon Weckbacher (born 1956 in Wadsworth, Ohio), a longtime Rio Grande Valley resident and former museum professional. Weckbacher recounts his family’s relocation to Mercedes, Texas, in 1970 at age 14, his high school and college years at Pan American University (BFA in Art, minor in Geology), and his 26-year career at the McAllen International Museum (now IMAS), where he worked on exhibits and notably helped build the Mexican folk art collection through acquisitions in Oaxaca and Michoacán.

He later served as collections manager at the Mission Historical …

Samuel Johnson Dictionary, 1773 Edition, Beth Rapp Young

Research Data and Datasets

This dataset contains digitized page images from the 1773 fourth edition of A Dictionary of the English Language, contributed by the University of Florida and Indiana University as part of a digital humanities project led by Beth Rapp Young. The collection provides foundational primary source material for the study of 18th-century English lexicography and supports research in textual analysis, transcription, and historical linguistics.

Knowledge To Freedom: Implications Of Race, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, And Spiritual Health On Adolescent Well-Being Under Westernization, Doralis Maria Allen

Masters Theses

The aim of the current study was to extend the understanding of the well-being of adolescents and to further information on the psychological relationships between wellbeing, spiritual health, intersectionality, and Westernization. A total of 315 students from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette were recruited via SONA to participate in a study entailing of a five-part online survey through Qualtrics, and 301 respondents in total were measured. The survey measured five aspects of each participant’s health through the perspective of their adolescent selves; well-being, spiritual health, subjective socioeconomic status, and their perception of their race/ethnicity and gender. Well-being is a …

Analyzing Speeding-Related Crash Severity On Louisiana’S Highways, Nelly Akweley Ankrah

Masters Theses

Speeding is a major contributing factor to roadway crashes and remains a significant safety concern. Understanding the factors influencing speeding crash severity and how they vary across roadway environments is essential for developing effective safety countermeasures. A total of 22,151 speeding-related crashes recorded in Louisiana between 2015 and 2024 were analyzed. Crashes were categorized by FHWA functional classification into three roadway groups: Interstates and Principal Arterials, Minor Arterials and Collectors, and Local Roads. Four spatial machine learning models, GXGBoost, SDT, GRF, and GeoKNN, were evaluated to classify crash severity outcomes, as traditional models do not account for the spatial dependence …

Alexandre Etienne Declouet: A Study And Re-Examination Of Chauvinistic Heritage In Antebellum Louisiana 1812-1890, Connor Matthew Benoit

Masters Theses

This thesis analyzes the change in French Creole culture through the perspective of sugar planter and enslaver Alexandre Etienne DeClouet. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between all facets of DeClouet’s livelihood including, relationships with other wealthy French Creoles, his family, the Louisiana sugar industry, Political alliances, other cultural demographics in Louisiana, and his enslaved labor on his large St. Martin parish property. Within this study, several archival databases were used to attempt to create a clearer picture of the sugar planter with the help of newer primary source evidence. Using the Alexander DeClouet and Family …

Automating Distillation Column Internals Design Via Reinforcement Learning: A Hybrid Action Space Approach, Holden B. Broussard

Masters Theses

Distillation columns are the most used separation technique in all chemical fields. The design of column internals presents a hybrid action space problem, where trayed internal parameters are continuous and packed parameters are discrete; Hybrid meaning the action space consists of both discrete and continuous design parameters. Hybrid action spaces have presented a challenge in the reinforcement learning space, since the most robust algorithms are designed to handle specific action types. This research develops and validates a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning framework that divides the action spaces into different agents. The Controller agent selects between internal types, the Soft Actor- …