Digital Commons Network^™

Behind The Smile: A Qualitative Study On Dentist Burnout And Workplace Satisfaction In Cache Valley, Luke Thomas Hatch

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This qualitative research study examined satisfaction, stressors, and burnout among dental professionals in Cache Valley, Utah. Eight practitioners at various points in their careers were interviewed with a range of specialties including general dentistry (n = 3), pedodontics (n = 3), oral and facial surgery (n = 1), and orthodontics (n = 1). Analysis of the interviews showed that level of clinical autonomy was a primary factor influencing burnout levels. Stress levels in more experienced practitioners and owners tended to be lower than those who worked in multiple practices (multi-doctor) or with corporations. Individuals in these environments reported higher levels …

A Curriculum Development Study: Crafting And Teaching Curricula For Ell Students In China, Kayleigh Kearsley

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

When teaching English Language Learners (ELL), it is important to understand the best practices and tools available to teach these students effectively and engagingly. In this curriculum development study, I examine and utilize effective and engaging practices for teaching ELL students and offer eleven lesson plans taught to a native Chinese speaker that reflect the implementation and development of these practices. Research consisted of both practical and theoretical sources concerning critical pedagogy for teaching ELL students. An understanding of students’ background shapes an understanding of language transfer, thus providing a more tailored teaching approach (Swan & Smith, 2001). The scaffolding …

Ngc - Torch Test Ablation Stand Improvements And Upgrades, Sarah Nelson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This capstone project is sponsored by Northrop Grumman (NGC). The goal of the project is to redesign an ablation torch testing system to improve usability, safety, and versatility. Northrop Grumman relies on their ablation torch testing system to conduct quantitative evaluations of materials and high stress and high temperature conditions. The system provides essential data that supports product development, safety validation, and compliance with performance standards. By improving usability, safety, and versatility, NGC will be able to streamline testing operations, increase accuracy of results, and reduce operator risk. The system must allow testing using both a bent and straight torch …

R Software Tutorials For Introductory Statistics Courses, Erica M. Hurst

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This project focused on creating online resources for using the statistical software package R in an introductory statistics course at Utah State University. The goal was to make R more accessible, user-friendly, and engaging for learners. To do this, existing written materials were moved to a new section of an online website called Stats Stuff. Then interactive features were added such as step-by-step video tutorials, real datasets, and an embedded coding tool. These resources have been in use for the past four years and have helped students build confidence and enhance their statistical learning experience.

Discovering Strategic Behaviors In The Floor Using Reinforcement Learning, Kevin Parks

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This project investigates how a reinforcement learning (RL) agent can develop territorial strategies in a highly stochastic, grid-based approximation of the television game show The Floor. I design a custom Gymnasium-compatible environment that models the show’s core mechanics on a 10×10 board, including probabilistic duels governed by player skill, adjacency-constrained attacks, chain-attack rules, and a Randomizer mechanism for selecting new initiating players. A Maskable Proximal Policy Optimization (Maskable PPO) agent is trained under several reward configurations and evaluated against stochastic non learning opponents as well as random and “always pass” baselines.

Across experiments, the best-performing configuration achieves a win …

Financial Overconfidence, Borrowing, And Life-Cycle Outcomes, Jessica B. Parkinson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This paper studies the effects of overconfidence in a lifetime consumption and savings model that allows for debt accumulation. Overconfidence, a well-documented behavioral bias, leads individuals to hold distorted perceptions of the different interest rates that they face on their savings and on their borrowings. While existing life-cycle models with overconfidence abstract from debt, I introduce a spread between the interest rates on savings and on borrowings, where the overconfident individual forms distorted perceptions of this spread. To model the actual and the perceived spreads, a continuously differentiable logistic function is utilized, and these spreads are incorporated into a standard …

Vernacular Religiosity: Liminality, Mentorship, And Communal Reciprocity In Women's Religious Communities, Megan J. Miller

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

This thesis is a study on women’s religious communities, and the vernacularized traditions practiced by the women themselves from a folkloric perspective. Examining the creative and meaningful ways women find to interact with their faith on a daily basis, this thesis proposes a natural cycle of religious participation which allows the women to move between active and passive participation roles within their religious communities, and creates equitable spaces for women by relying on the communal reciprocity of the group.

By focusing on individual women and their experiences and belief practices as part of a larger community of religious practice, this …

A Rabbinic Exegesis Of Halleluyah's Etymology, Maksim Astashinskiy

Faculty Papers and Publications

Pointed text is from Mishnah Pesachim, Open Mishnah, Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts Online, accessed April 19, 2019, https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Mishnah; or, see A Passover Haggadah, As commented upon by Elie Wiesel (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993), 69–70.

The Aramaic text is from: “Talmud Bavli,” in The William Davidson Talmud, The William Davidson Digital Edition of the Koren Noé Talmud (Jerusalem: Koren Publishers), Sefaria: A Living Library of Jewish Texts Online, 117a, accessed April 10, 2019, https://www.sefaria.org/texts/Talmud.

The Canon Of Mar Rabbula, The Bishop Of Edessa, Maksim Astashinskiy

Faculty Papers and Publications

Rabbula of Edessa's short canon recension is a fifth-century text preserved in a seventh-century manuscript: “The shorter recension is known simply as ‘The Canons of My Lord Rabbula, Bishop of Edessa,’ designated as CPG 6491. [Julien Joseph] Overbeck printed this collection from BL Add. 14526, fols. 30b–31a.” See: The Rabbula Corpus: Comprising the ‘Life of Rabbula,’ His Correspondence, a Homily Delivered in Constantinople, Canons, and Hymns. trans. and eds. Robert R. Phenix Jr. and Cornelia B. Horn (Atlanta: SBL Press, 2017), ccxxi–ccxxii.

Acp In Primary Care Setting, Dajauna Young

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

This quality improvement project evaluated a structured ACP intervention in a small yet fast- paced, urban primary and urgent care clinic serving a predominantly African American population in Chicago. Guided by the CARES framework, the project aimed to improve provider confidence, cultural competence, and patient engagement. All clinical and supportive staff within the clinic (2 physicians, 1 physician assistant, 1 nurse practitioner, 2 registered nurses, 1 medical assistant, 1–2 rotating medical/APRN students) completed a five-week training program on ACP principles, culturally sensitive communication strategies, and optimized electronic medical record (EMR) workflows, including templates, eligibility flags, and reminders. Eligible patients were …

Specimen, Basil Payne

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Specimen” is a collection of my original poetry drawn from my thesis that explores identity and experience through the lens of nature. Specimens are dead, preserved individuals of nature who are used for scientific study. They help us humans understand the world better, help us make scientific advancements, but can they do more than that? In my poetry, I see myself and all the other individuals as specimens, singularities with lessons to teach and things to learn. Listening to the more-than-human world, acknowledging their differences can help us understand the aspects of ourselves that feel out of place, be those …

Factors Influencing Student Satisfaction And Perceived Learning In Global, Faith-Based Online Education: The Roles Of Course Structure, Instructor Presence, Learner Interaction, And Student Engagement, Brandon Weekes

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Online education continues to expand worldwide across diverse contexts. Online students often differ from traditional in-person learners, as they are more likely to return to or begin education later in life while balancing career and family responsibilities. When online experiences are ineffective, students may withdraw from courses or stop progressing in their programs. As a result, there is a need to better understand how to improve the experiences in the online learning environment

Prior research has identified course structure, instructor presence, learner interaction, and student engagement as key factors influencing student satisfaction and perceived learning in online learning environments. However, …

Beyond Morphology: Testing Molecular Assessment Of Macroinvertebrate Communities In Alpine Streams Of The Teton Range, Usa, Joshua Vollmer

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Alpine streams and the macroinvertebrate communities that reside within them are threatened by the rapidly changing climate. Long-term monitoring of these communities is required to understand how they are changing and to predict their future trajectories. Historically, stream monitoring and assessment has been performed by collecting and identifying individuals using their morphological traits. However, in alpine aquatic ecosystems, distinct macroinvertebrate species often lack the morphological differences that allow them to be distinguished. DNA metabarcoding, an alternative method for identification which uses genetics instead of morphological differences, is not impacted by this issue, and therefore, may be better suited for alpine …

Stream Education: How It Can Enrich The Expansion Of Social-Emotional Learning, Madalyn L. Menke

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This research project investigates the implementation of a STREAM Education curriculum – integrating science, technology, reading/writing, engineering, arts/humanities, and mathematics, with a group of fourteen elementary-aged students. The study explores how the intentional inclusion of Reading and the Arts within a traditional STEM framework - guided by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning CASEL framework - can enrich students’ social-emotional wellbeing and engagement in learning. In partnership with SOAR Afterschool Care, an eight-week instructional project was implemented in which students were read What Do You Do with an Idea? by Kobi Yamada as a central text. The book …

Motivational Systems In Education That Encourage Academic Achievement & Student Leadership, Hannah A. Lockhart, Angela Elsass Ed.D.

Curriculum and Instruction Undergraduate Honors Theses

This comprehensive literature review examines the impact of school-based motivational systems on students’ academic achievement, leadership development, and overall engagement. Drawing on contemporary motivational frameworks, motivation is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct shaped by internal psychological processes and external environmental factors. Particular emphasis is placed on autonomy, competence, relatedness, and belongingness as key mechanisms underlying intrinsic motivation, persistence, and leadership capacity. This extended review of literature addresses a gap in empirical studies on the implementation and effectiveness of specific motivational programs in diverse school settings. Additionally, it also addresses the influence of developmental stages and recent educational disruptions, including the …

Blockchain For Large Language Models (Llms): Applications, Challenges, And Framework Implementation, Ahmad Musamih, Ibrar Yaqoob, Khaled Salah, Raja Jayaraman, Mohammed Omar

Industrial Engineering: Faculty & Staff Publications

Large Language Models (LLMs) are increasingly embedded in intelligent systems across domains such as healthcare, finance, and smart infrastructure. However, their reliance on centralized data pipelines raises unresolved challenges concerning provenance, accountability, and verifiable trust. As the demand for transparent and regulation-aligned AI grows, these challenges have become central to the responsible deployment of intelligent systems. This review examines how blockchain technology can address them by introducing decentralized integrity, immutable audit trails, and cryptographic verification into the LLM lifecycle. Through a structured synthesis of current research, we identify conceptual and architectural gaps that limit trustworthy data management, inference authentication, and …

Cardozo Law News Brief: May 1, 2026, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Cardozo Law News Briefs

Highlights from the May 1, 2026 Cardozo Law News Brief include:

• Maurice Q. Robinson ’09 was honored at the 16th Annual BALLSA Celebration for his leadership, service, and commitment to creating opportunities for future generations.
• Professor Lindsay Nash was quoted in The New York Times about Texas Governor Greg Abbott’s immigration enforcement tactics, raising concerns about constitutional violations tied to administrative warrants.
• Professor Wilfred Codrington III spoke to USA Today and Newsweek about recent Supreme Court redistricting cases and their implications for state authority.
• Professor Jacob Noti-Victor co-authored an op-ed in The Atlantic examining copyright law and generative AI amid …

You Are Very Easy To Love, Ruby Tugeau '28

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Ruby Tugeau is a sophomore at DePauw University majoring in Global Health and Women's & Gender Studies! She enjoys long hikes in the nature park, oldies music, and warm soup. Ruby's been writing all her life and wants to thank AMWR for allowing her to share her work!

Flying Fish, Chelsea Parsley '28

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Chelsea Parsley is a sophomore Creative Writing major at DePauw University. She enjoys drawing, writing, singing, and accumulating obscure pieces of trivia.

Tuesday Evenings In Your Mother's Bathroom, Lexi Simpson '26

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Lexi Simpson is a senior Psychology and English Writing double major, and a Malpas Scholar at DePauw University. She loves ceramics, writing, and road trips. Lexi is inspired by the stars, the ocean, and being outside. She enjoys reading and being with family and friends.

Would You Listen, If I Could Speak?, Jordan Heaviland '29

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Jordan Heaviland is a first-year Creative Writing major and Prindle Scholar, with a keen interest in Philosophy. He primarily writes poetry and short-fiction. His favorite books are House of Leaves and Oryx and Crake. Jordan has previous publications in Muncie Voice, Perspicacity Magazine, and The Lavender Journal.

River House, Jane Duffy '26

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Jane Duffy is an English Writing and Studio Art double major at DePauw University. She is a painter, a creative writer, and the Editor-in-chief of A Midwestern Review for her fourth year of involvement. She enjoys hiking, drinking coffee, travelling, and creating things inspired by observation of the world around her.

Celestial Wings, Rori Mullen '26

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Rori Mullen is a senior in studio art and psychology at DePauw University. Working with ceramics and textiles, she makes multisensory works that depict nature imagery and is inspired by her studies in psychology.

Unknowing Connections, Samaira Snow '26

A Midwestern Review: A Magazine of the Arts and Issues at DePauw University

Samaira Snow is a senior at DePauw University where she will graduate in May 2026 with double majors in Studio Art and Art History and a minor in Education Studies. Her work is often inspired by procedural efforts and plays with the relationship of layering and texture. She has started to participate in exhibitions.

Extracting Wildfire Influence From Natural Streamflow Variability To Inform Post-Fire Peak Flow Predictions, Haley Anne Canham

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Wildfire is a natural process, however, wildfire occurrence, severity, and size is increasing globally along with large storms. Despite the expectation that floods will be larger after wildfire, a large range in post-fire flood size has been observed. This creates challenges for emergency managers to prepare for flooding in areas where wildfire might occur. Aside from wildfire, many other factors influence the size of floods, making it difficult to isolate the influence of wildfire. This work finds that factors including wetter versus drier years and seasons can alter the size of a flood, effectively hiding the influence of wildfire. Additionally, …

Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards A Composition Pedagogy Of Place, Dax Gove

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

“Reading Cache Valley Rhetorics: Towards a Composition Pedagogy of Place” proposes that place—one’s immediate locale—is an essential element of ecocritical writing pedagogy. There are constant interacting rhetorical constructions of meaning within any given place across texts from the different groups who have lived there. In these local texts, the evidence of a rhetorically mediated reality is evident in the stark differences between natures and cultures—meaning is rhetorically constructed, down to the meaning of place and people. This project reads texts local to the author’s immediate locale, Cache Valley, Utah, from white LDS settler and Indigenous Shoshone rhetors in order to …

From Stuckness To Sustainability: Tailoring A Conflict Management Framework To Support Emotional Processing In English Teaching, Isabelle Scott

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Nationally, teachers are struggling to simply stay in the career, let alone thrive in it, and many education researchers are recognizing that teaching has become a largely unsustainable career for an increasing number of educators. There are many complex challenges that English Language Arts (ELA) teachers face that contribute to this dissatisfaction and the unsustainability of the career, including the demanding human and relationship-focus of the work, the emotional intensity in this type of caring, intense debates and controversies occurring in national politics that then play into the classroom, and an overarching disillusionment with teaching. This thesis explores such problems …

Mechanisms Of Life History Trade-Offs In The Evolution Of Eusociality, Frances Katherine Hunter

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

When faced with stressors such as pathogen infection, organisms must invest energy in defense or risk death. Because resources are limited, mounting an immune response often comes at the expense of other costly activities such as reproduction. The costs of immunity are shaped by factors including behavior, nutrition, age, and evolutionary history.

Social insects (e.g., ants, bees, and wasps) offer a powerful system for studying these trade-offs because queens in these colonies appear to escape them—living long lives while reproducing prolifically. Bees, which include species that range from those which nest solitarily to those with complex social systems and many …

Teaching In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Lived Experiences, Nicholas Ricks Harris

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing education, creating new opportunities for teaching and learning while also raising challenges for teachers. Although schools are encouraging the use of AI, little is known about how teachers experience this transition or how it affects their professional roles. This study explored teachers’ lived experiences as they begin working with AI, using a phenomenological research approach to understand both what they encounter and how they make sense of those experiences. Through interviews with teachers who have recently engaged with AI in their practice, the research identifies themes that reveal opportunities, challenges, and shifts in professional …

Examining Middle School Girls' Self-Efficacy Changes During A Design-Based Engineering Unit, Emily Lehnardt

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Drawing on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory, this exploratory multi-case study examines how engagement in an engineering designed-based unit, specifically through an intervention focused on iterative improvements, influences middle school girls’ self-efficacy. This study was conducted in a suburban public middle school. It involved five female participants enrolled in a seventh-grade science classroom. Qualitative data were collected from pre- and post-interviews, self-reflection journals, observations and student artifacts. Multiple data sources were triangulated to ensure the credibility and depth of the findings. Qualitative data were analyzed using inductive and deductive coding to produce open codes, axial categories driven by Bandura’s four sources of …