Digital Commons Network^™

Efficacy Of Automated Wireless Hearing Test System Implemented In An Exercise-Based Cancer Rehabilitation Program, Cecilia Talarico

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Cancer patients are at risk of hearing loss due to the ototoxicity of chemotherapeutics and radiation treatments. Gaining clinical access to ototoxic monitoring is a challenge for patients, and physicians are often hesitant to burden their patients with more travel and appointment scheduling to obtain hearing testing. The current pilot study evaluated the feasibility of utilizing the newly developed Creare Wireless Automated Hearing Test System (WAHTS) in an exercise-based cancer rehabilitation center setting. Nine cancer patients were recruited for hearing testing. Hearing tests were conducted using an automated testing algorithm (WAHTS) in an open room and then tested again using …

Applications Of Algebraic Coding Theory To Cryptography, Kylie Schnoor

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Whether it is online commerce, international relations, or simply through email communication, the encryption and decryption of data is essential to the inner workings of everyday life. To encrypt and decrypt efficiently, it is important that there is some structure behind the process rather than just a random procedure. The purpose of this research is to analyze different encryption schemes and their structure, with a focus on schemes that apply algebraic coding theory to cryptography. Cryptosystems based in algebraic coding theory are particularly important to the future of cryptography, as they are resistant to attacks by quantum computers, unlike many …

The Influence Of Personality On The Effects Of Nature Exposure Among College Students, Marshall Seiken

Undergraduate Honors Theses

College students’ emotional, mental, and physical health have seen a steady decline over the last decade. Research suggests that exposure to nature such as interacting with wildlife, hearing nature sounds, or programs where individuals are directedly involved in their experience with nature, allow for the individual to experience lower levels of stress, raise moods, and can help aid in the treatment of some of the most common mental illnesses such as Major Depressive Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. However, there is little research that examine other variables such as personality that may influence the outcome of the nature exposure …

Mental Health Presentation: An Instrument In Coach Education, Alison Zigler

Undergraduate Honors Theses

While mental health is a prevalent and important topic in athletics, coaches often receive little to no training on how to recognize and manage mental health concerns or how to make good mental health a priority on their team. Thus, a mental health presentation that informs coaches at the University of Northern Colorado (UNC) on the main mental health disorders and concerns in student-athletes and their management was conducted. An investigation on the main mental health concerns in student-athletes and the best practices for athletic staff when managing these concerns was done to properly create the presentation and accurately inform …

“How Am I A Maker Making A Makerspace?” : A Focus On Teachers In Practice Self-Authoring As Makers In Constrained K-8 Spaces, Bridget Looney

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Although there has been an abundance of empirical inquiry into making in recent years, interestingly, and despite growing interest in the integration of making into N-12 education, little seems to be known empirically about the ways in which teachers are implementing making and creating makerspaces in their own classrooms. Very little direct attention has been paid to ‘pioneer’ N-12 teachers who are engaging students in making. This gap in the research obscures our understanding of how teachers think about making, how they practice as teachers and makers, and how their school context might influence their teaching and making practices. This …

Frequency Of Multiple Sclerosis As A Function Of Handedness, Melissa Villafana

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Background: Previous studies have examined the association between handedness and various autoimmune disorders. There is a possible link between handedness and immune system response due to high levels of testosterone in-utero which has been theorized to affect cerebral and immune system developments. To our knowledge, only two studies have examined the relationship between Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and handedness. Both studies used different measures of handedness and therefore, had contrasting results. In the current study, we suggest the need for a more appropriate way to measure handedness. Objective: This study investigates the relationship between MS type and Handedness. Methods: Participants with …

Testing The Effectiveness Of Data- And Narrative-Based Messages In Mitigating Racial Bias In Size And Threat Judgments, Alexandra Brosseau

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Racial bias in threat perception has long been a phenomenon of concern within the social sciences, and more recently, researchers have begun to focus on the role that biased judgment of physical size may impact such perceptions. In the wake of highly publicized police killings of unarmed Black civilians, there have been increased calls for creating systemic and cultural reform to address the disproportionate violence inflicted upon the Black population. Simultaneously, political conservatives have mounted increasing resistance to discussions of racial equality and have recently begun enacting laws that would limit or prohibit teaching and workplace discussions on the topic. …

Determining The Feasibility Of A Sponge City Design On Montclair State University Campus, Megan Elizabeth Barron

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this project I examine the sponge city concept as a Low Impact Development (LID) approach to mitigating the adverse impact of stormwater runoff. LID techniques incorporate Green Infrastructure (GI) practices, which minimize the adverse impact of contemporary urban areas. Specifically, I am examining LID on the Montclair State University (MSU) campus within the context of stormwater runoff.

The Quad and the Quarry, two areas on the MSU campus, were selected for both their topographic depressions for containing runoff and for their built environment with large buildings and parking lots, an urban design feature that increase runoff. A 1/9 arc-second …

Assessing Potential Of Dual Use Solar Development In New Jersey Preserved Farmlands, Gary Ryan Chapman

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The dual use of farmland and the incorporation of solar energy has the potential to maximize the net returns per acre and utilization capabilities. Land is one of the most vital and nonrenewable resources that is often solely used for one purpose. This study focuses on analyzing three objectives: 1) To explore the potential of Agrivoltaic Farming (dual use) on preserved farmland in New Jersey. 2) To estimate the Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) of New Jersey’s dual use potential. 3) To generate sensitivity analyses of dual use solar and farm production in New Jersey. This study analyzed New Jersey’s …

New Black Carbon Isotopes From The Eastern Tethys And Earth System Modeling During The Petm, Maurizia De Palma

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; ca. 56Ma) is a time when global temperatures greatly increased due to rapid carbon emissions. The event is marked by a negative carbon isotope excursion (CIE) that is observed in both marine and terrestrial records. However, the amount, rate, and source of the emitted carbon remains highly debated. This study investigates the response of the eastern Tethys, an understudied subtropical shallow marine environment, and assesses the climatic impacts during the PETM. An Earth system model of intermediate complexity (cGENIE) ran six “double-inversion” experiments with δ¹¹B and δ¹³C_carb forced onto the …

Identifying Functional And Non-Functional Software Requirements From User App Reviews And Requirements Artifacts, Dev Jayant Dave

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis proposes and evaluates Machine Learning (ML) based data models to identify and isolate software requirements from datasets containing user app review statements. The ML models classify user app review statements into Functional Requirements (FRs), Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs), and Non-Requirements (NRs). This proposed approach consisted of creating a novel hybrid dataset that contains software requirements from Software Requirements Specification (SRS) documents and user app reviews. The Support Vector Machine (SVM), Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), and Random Forest (RF) ML algorithms combined with the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) natural language processing (NLP) technique were implemented on the hybrid dataset. …

Targeting Prosthetic Joint Infections Using Modified Egcg Derivatives With Antibiotics, Kavneet Chahil

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Prosthetic joint implantations have revolutionized orthopedic medicine by allowing individuals to regain physical function with minimal side effects. However, they are susceptible to post- surgical complications due to bacterial infections. Three significant bacteria that are responsible for the development of joint infections include Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which act by adhering to the prosthesis and form biofilms thus becoming antibiotic-resistant. It has been reported that green tea polyphenols, which are extracted from the leaves of the Camellia sinensis plant, have antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti- inflammatory properties. The purified, and modified epigallocatechin-3-gallate-stearate (EGCGS) and palmitoyl-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (P-EGCG) are more …

Assessment Of The Asexual Reproductive Strategies Of The Invasive Clinging Jellyfish Gonionemus Vertens, Valin Jarred Booker

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Anthropogenic activities are dispersing organisms at higher rates and this dispersal leads to organisms having a higher chance at becoming invasive. The Clinging Jellyfish, Gonionemus vertens, was originally from the north Pacific Ocean, but was identified in New Jersey’s coastal waters in 2016. G. vertens undergo a complex life history with an asexual polyp stage and the sexual medusa stage. Little is known about their polyp stage, which shows multiple asexual reproductive strategies that can generate high densities of medusa. Asexual reproduction of polyps was observed in 2020 to assess the rate of clonal production. Cultured polyps can have several …

Resisting Dominican Motherhood Across Julia Alvarez’S How The García Girls Lost Their Accents And Junot Díaz’S The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao, Ana Hilario

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper endeavors to explore the distinct ways in which the Dominican motherhood ideology promoted by Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina’s regime is resisted by women of different social classes and race through a close reading of the characters Laura and Beli in Julia Alvarez’s How the García Girls Lost Their Accents and Junot Díaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, respectively. Using Adrienne Rich’s concept of motherhood ideology as a theoretical framework and engaging in discussion of how these ideologies were constructed, engendered, and enforced by the Trujillo regime, I found that these texts depict voluntary and involuntary resistance …

Caliban The Savage : Shakespeare’S Critique Of Colonialist Misappropriation Of Indigenous Identities, Leonard Aquil Hughes

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis engages with Shakespeare’s The Tempest, analyzing the character Caliban as a critique of British colonialism. I argue that Caliban is not intended simply as a begrudged antagonist, but as a figure intended to represent New World natives. Shakespeare’s “savage” also acts as an on-stage embodiment of Africans and other victims of British imperial exploits that suffered subjugation and hegemony. With this character, Shakespeare provides a demonstration of the relationship between Europeans and the colonized, while challenging the very institution of colonialism. Such a work provides valuable post-Shakespearean insights as well. Caliban contributes directly to the dialogue surrounding the …

Does Target Race Moderate The Effect Of Trustworthiness On Face Memory?, Sharon Ada Kobinah

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Multiple factors can influence how accurately people remember the faces of others. Social group membership, and particularly race, is a well-studied influence. People tend to show better memory for racial ingroup faces than racial outgroup faces, a phenomenon known as the Cross Race Effect. Some other work has examined the influence of factors like facial trustworthiness in memory, finding that people may remember untrustworthy faces more accurately than trustworthy faces. The present study examines the joint influence of these two factors in order to determine whether target race moderates this untrustworthiness advantage in memory. White and Black participants encoded an …

Cas9 Grna And Homologous Recombinant Plasmid Integrate Inducible Ha-N-Icer In The Aavs1 Locus Of Sk-Mel-24 Cells, Douglas Job

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Melanoma is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer and is prone to metastasis. Once melanoma metastasizes, it is difficult to treat as patients often become immune to MAPK inhibitors and other therapeutic agents. Small molecules, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, have demonstrated success as an adjunct to melanoma treatment. As a small, 18kDa molecule with tumor suppressing properties, research using ICER continues to provide positive anti-tumor effects. ICER regulates cAMP-induced transcription as a powerful, dominant-negative transcriptional repressor. Recent research demonstrated that the fusion tag hemagglutinin (HA), when fused to ICER’s N-terminus, increased ICER’s half-life and apoptotic activity in …

Susceptibility To Online Disinformation, Ryan Christopher Lesica

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this article, I address the importance of finding tangible and viable solutions in minimizing susceptibility to online disinformation. I identify three main types of causal factors that lead to susceptibility: political, psychological, and technical; recognizing the implications of political polarization, news media, cognitive phenomena, algorithms, and online behavior that leads to saturation and susceptibility to false information. I argue that by thoroughly compartmentalizing causal variables into three main factors, each can then be addressed and solved in their own unique way. I analyze each factor, deriving reinforcing theories and evidence from various articles, experiments, and publications. I propose that …

Turning Tadpoles: Effects Of Salinity And Lateralization On Hyla Versicolor Escape Behaviors, Victor Lopiccolo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Road salt, which is used as a roadway deicer in the winter time, is a major contributor to the salinization of freshwater habitats. Amphibians are particularly vulnerable to the salinization of aquatic environments due to the reliance of many species on pond, lake, and stream habitat in their aquatic larval stage. This study examined how Northern Gray Treefrog (Hyla versicolor) tadpole behavior is affected by salinity in a multiple t-maze. Alternate turning is sequential turning in opposite directions. Alternating turns lead the animal further from the starting point, and are innate behaviors associated with foraging, exploration, and escape. A multiple …

Spatial Distribution And Recruitment Of The Botrylloides Violaceus And Botryllus Schlosseri Tunicates In Barnegat Bay, New Jersey, Kaitlyn Maguire

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Botrylloides violaceus and Botryllus schlosseri, colonial ascidians, are known invasive species of the North American Atlantic coast. The tunicates take residence and grow on native eelgrass (Zostera marina) blades, potentially negatively affecting eelgrass growth rate by means of smothering which reduces the plants ability to photosynthesize. Zostera marina is an important habitat, food source, and an indicator of environmental health. Invasive tunicates can decrease the amount of light that eelgrass receives which in turn, decreases the rate of growth of eelgrass. In the summer months of 2021, the relationship and abundance between the invasive tunicates B. schlosseri and B. violaceus …

"Neither Here Nor There" : Migrant Women And The Cycle Of Cultural Masculine Superiority, Fiorella Medina

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis examines the way migrant fiction evolves the use of women's stories. By examining this evolution, I argue that many migrant women writers explore misogyny within their representations of their home and adopted cultures. Using The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros (1983), The Affairs of the Falcons by Melissa Rivero (2019), and The Woman Warrior: Memoirs of a Girlhood Among Ghosts by Maxine Hong Kingston (1976), I explain the techniques these writers use to establish the mistreatment and marginalization their protagonists face. I clarify these works by presenting examples of women gaining agency despite the struggles they …

Magic Squares Of Squares Of Order 5 Modulo A Prime Number, Imani L. Mosquera

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this paper, I examine magic squares of squares (MSS) of order 5 over Zp where p is a prime number. The first approach to the problem is to find how many distinct elements an MSS may have (called the degree of the MSS). In the next step, I study the relationship between the magic sum and the center entry of any MSS. In order to develop construction methods and configurations for magic squares of squares of order 5 with desired degrees, I study Pythagorean triples and sequences of consecutive quadratic residues modulo p. Properties of these sequences are provided …

A Network-Based Analysis Of Student Learning Trajectories And Andragogical Design, John Kerry O’Meara

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The core goal of this thesis project is to formalize the complex system that exists naturally in a formal classroom environment. The three factors that are considered in this study are the roles of the student, the roles of the teacher, and the respective environments from which these members arise and how these act as determinants of curriculum development and design. At the curricular scale, educational practices should be treated as a complex system composed of various inherently connected concepts and exchanges of ideas and ways of knowing. This synthesis of previous work and ongoing research efforts employs a network …

Examination Of Social Cognition Impairments In Adults With Traumatic Brain Injury Through The Awareness Of Social Inference Test Performance, Brea Lenae Rivera

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Social cognition focuses on how people process, perceive, and apply information in social context in order to understand and infer their own behaviors and that of others. Impaired social cognition is a common, and often chronic, outcome of many neurological and psychiatric disorders, including traumatic brain injury (TBI). By lacking these social skills, there is a major disadvantage for social integration with others. In order to assess social cognition deficits in adult TBI populations, Part 1 and 3 of The Awareness of Social Inference Test (TASIT) were administered to examine social cognition impairments. A sample of 58 participants (28 TBI, …

The Independence Polynomial Of A Graph At −1, Kyle Robbins

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

No abstract provided.

Literary Machiavellianism, The Vice Figure, And The Jewish Character : Anti-Semitic Perceptions In The Jew Of Malta And The Merchant Venice, Allison Schaechter

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis focuses on Anti-Semitism in Renaissance drama through the lens of attempting to weave an older literary idea into a newer one. By the Renaissance, the Vice figure, a literary tool to draw one-dimensional evil characters, began to raise questions about the rationale behind their villainy. Machiavellianism served to reclassify characters that were originally meant to be perceived by audiences as inherently evil, allowing them potentially to sympathize with them in the plight that led them to such deplorable acts.

Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare created Jewish characters who seek to remain in control of their families and wealth, …

Can Patent Trolls Be Stopped Without Interfering With An Individual’S Property Rights?, Talar Sahagian

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis seeks to analyze patent trolls and how they are able to prey on successful patented innovations to monopolize on profits, all while doing it legally. This research aims to answer the question if patent trolls can be stopped without infringing on an individual’s property rights. This study analyzes various legislation enacted to limit the actions of patent trolls, and if they are sufficient in their totality to prevent the trolls from making a profit off a patent(s), they have no intention of utilizing or have never used. The data will be analyzed to show if the enacted reform …

Gender Roles In Natural Resource Use In Madagascar, Sarahana Shrestha

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Understanding the role that gender plays in natural resource use is crucial for effective conservation efforts. While Madagascar is a priority for international conservation due to its high levels of endemism and unsustainable natural resource use, there is little information on how gender roles affect forest product use. This study uses over seven years of data on gender roles within the extraction, use, and sale of natural forest and marine resources near Madagascar’s largest national park to inform future conservation strategies. We found that gender significantly affects how one uses natural resources in Madagascar. Men were primarily responsible for the …

“The Delta Is Filled Up With Death” : Death As Avoidance And The Construction Of White Identity In Lewis Nordan’S Music Of The Swamp, Sarah Sturm

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Lewis Nordan’s Music of the Swamp has not been fully explored with an emphasis on Nordan’s personal history in relation to racism in the South. In Nordan’s autobiography, Boy With the Loaded Gun (2000), Nordan describes growing up in Itta Benna, Mississippi — just one town over from where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 (Nordan 80). I argue Nordan’s depiction of death in the Music of the Swamp can be read as the early stages of him grappling with Till’s death through writing, along with the broader historical context of Southern racism. Nordan’s ambivalent relationship to this history informs …

In The Cities, There Is Violence : Do Higher Levels Of Police Militarization Correlate With Police Use Of Lethal Force?, Brennan B. Sumner

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Police violence has become a pressing issue in the United States. The topic of police militarization, as a consequence, has entered the public consciousness, and its effects have become a topic of concern. This paper will examine whether there is a correlation between higher levels of police militarization and higher rates of police use of lethal force from multiple perspectives. This paper will utilize a mixed methods research approach, combining historical analysis, critical literature review, and data analysis from thirty American cities. This paper will also discuss the public policy implications of police militarization and offer critiques therein.