Digital Commons Network^™

Back To The Office Or Out The Door: The Impact Of Return-To-Office Mandates On Employee Well-Being And Turnover Intention, Charlotte Renee Nelson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The widespread adoption of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered traditional workplace arrangements. As organizations increasingly implement RTO mandates, questions have emerged about how these changes affect employee well-being and turnover intentions. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources framework, this study examined the relationship between RTO mandates and two employee outcomes: employee well-being and turnover intention. The study also tested whether work engagement mediated these relationships and whether perceived organizational support and work stressors moderated the relationship between RTO mandates and work engagement.

A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 229 U.S. employees working …

Data-Driven Methodologies For Mapping Cultural Heritage: The Case Of The National Coal Heritage Area, West Virginia, Usa, Hossain Mohammad Nahyan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The objective of this dissertation was to develop a comprehensive, data-driven spatial framework for characterizing the complex cultural landscape of the National Coal Heritage Area (NCHA) in West Virginia. By transitioning away from traditional, heuristic spatial mapping, this research integrates advanced spatial statistics, machine learning, and GIS-based methodologies to objectively quantify the physical, visual, and cultural dimensions of the post-mining environment. The research is structured around three interconnected empirical studies, each addressing a specific scale of the Landscape Character Assessment (LCA) framework to support heritage conservation and sustainable spatial planning. The first paper focused on landform classification, developing an automated …

The Differential Impacts Of Internal And External Corporate Social Responsibility Activities On Consumer Trust After Covid-19, Kennadi C. Mccoy

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores the strategic role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in helping small businesses recover from crises, with a specific focus on the COVID-19 pandemic. Different from many traditional studies that highlight the ethical or reputational aspects of CSR, this research will examine its practical effects: how CSR initiatives during crises influence business success by enhancing consumer trust, particularly by examining the differential impact of Internal CSR versus External CSR. The study suggests that, compared with internally focused CSR, external CSR activities will have a greater impact on consumer trust. In addition, the dissertation suggests that this effect is …

Assessment Of Countermovement Jump In Athlete Status And Monitoring, Michael David Delong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Utilizing a CMJ to test athlete physical abilities and training program efficacy is popular, as it is simple, noninvasive, and has significant relations with sport qualities. However, assessments often use discrete outcome measures. This research explored strategy-based measures accounting for eccentric power and time and may explain athlete status more effectively. The research objectives are to analyze the use of the mean power rate of the CMJ to compare athletes' playing ability and its usefulness in monitoring during off-season training. Additionally, power-time curve analysis added location and timing of effects due to fatigue or fitness adaptation. Proper testing and monitoring …

Navigating Family, Culture, And Well-Being: A Qualitative Study Of First-Generation Adult Children Of Middle Eastern Immigrants In The United States, Ramona Amely

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to explore the lived experiences of first-generation adult children of Middle Eastern immigrant parents/caregivers living in the United States. This was a phenomenological study with reflexive thematic analysis. Participants (N=10) were interviewed via Zoom, and transcripts were analyzed using Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA). The results included four themes: (1) Migration Contact and Cultural Formation, (2) Bicultural Identity Development, (3) Family System Adaptation, and (4) Emotional Socialization and Psychological Impact. This study highlights how first-generation adult children of Middle Eastern immigrants navigate complex, interwoven processes of bicultural identity development, family adaptation, and emotional socialization shaped …

3d-Vit-Unet: 3d Vision Transformer Based Unet-Like Model For Volumetric Brain Tumor Segmentation, Sikandar Afridi, Atif Jan, Muhammad Abeer Irfan, Muhammad Irfan Khattak, Taimur Ahmed Khan

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Accurate volumetric segmentation of 3D medical imaging modalities is critical for therapy planning and clinical diagnosis, particularly for brain tumor delineation. Traditional convolutional neural network (CNN)-based architectures face challenges while capturing global contextual information and modeling long-range dependencies in complex 3D volumetric data, limiting their segmentation performance. Transformer-based models have emerged as promising alternatives to CNNs for such tasks, addressing their limitations in capturing global spatial dependencies. We propose 3D-ViT-UNet, a novel U-shaped vision transformer (ViT)-based encoder-decoder architecture for end-to-end volumetric brain tumor segmentation. The model employs 3D Window Multi-Head Self-Attention (3D-W-MSA) to capture local features and a 3D Dilated-Window …

Optimizing Ucs Prediction Models Through Xai-Based Feature Selection In Soil Stabilization, Ahmed Mohammed Awad Mohammed, Omayma Husain, Mosab Hamdan, Abdalmomen Mohammed, Abdullah Ansari, Atef Badr, Abubakar Elsafi, Abubakr Siddig

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Unconfined Compressive Strength (UCS) is a key parameter for the assessment of the stability and performance of stabilized soils, yet traditional laboratory testing is both time and resource intensive. In this study, an interpretable machine learning approach to UCS prediction is presented, pairing five models (Random Forest (RF), Gradient Boosting (GB), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGB), CatBoost, and K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN)) with SHapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) for enhanced interpretability and to guide feature removal. A complete dataset of 12 geotechnical and chemical parameters, i.e., Atterberg limits, compaction properties, stabilizer chemistry, dosage, curing time, was used to train and test the models. …

Testarticle21three, Abdul Rizwan

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

No abstract provided.

Designing A Study To Evaluate The Impact Of Webxr With Genai On Student Engagement In Distance Education, Kamran Mir, Geraldine Gray, Ana Elena Schalk, Muhammad Zafar Iqbal

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

This study aims to evaluate how immersive content can enhance student engagement, learning outcomes, and satisfaction in an open and distance learning context. The paper gives an overview of the background research and study design that investigates the impact of immersive virtual learning environments on distance education by integrating WebXR with GenAI into Moodle, a widely used virtual learning environment (VLE). The design considers two groups of learners, an experimental group and a control group. The experimental group will engage with WebXR having GenAI agents and the control group will experience the same course content delivered through conventional online teaching …

Hybrid Bacterial Colony Optimization And Particle Swarm Optimization For Load Balancing In Fog Computing, Aryan Kumar, Punit Gupta, Rohit Verma

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Fog computing minimizes latency and bandwidth consumption by processing data near the source, but it has the challenge of workload balancing across the dynamic and resource limited fog nodes. Uneven task assignment can result in bottlenecks, idle resources, and lowered Quality of Service (QoS) standards. In this work, we introduce a hybrid metaheuristic load balancing algorithm for fog computing by combining the Bacterial Colony Optimization (BCO) and the Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) techniques to enhance load balancing. BCO has good solution space exploration capabilities, whereas PSO has the advantage of quick convergence; the hybrid takes advantage from both to achieve …

Volatility In Transition: Fossil Fuel Dependence, Renewable Shifts, And Financial Risk Across Europe’S Eastern Divide, Lucía Morales, Daniel Rajmil, Bernadette Andreosso-O’Callaghan

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Europe’s energy landscape has undergone profound disruptions following the escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war, exposing deep structural vulnerabilities in the continent’s persistent reliance on fossil fuels. The crisis intensified political and economic tensions across the longstanding European Eastern divide, as the abrupt suspension of Russian gas disrupted energy security, triggered unprecedented price volatility, and accentuated disparities in the capacity of European Union Member States to pursue their green transitions. This paper investigates the asymmetric dynamics of fossil-fuel dependency and renewable energy expansion across ten Central/East European countries (CEEs, namely Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, …

Low Energy Availability And Dietary Factors In High School Runners, Natalie E. Allik

All Master's Theses

ABSTRACT

LOW ENERGY AVAILABILITY AND DIETARY FACTORS IN HIGH SCHOOL RUNNERS

By

Natalie Elizabeth Allik

June 2026

Context: Low energy availability (LEA) is associated with adverse health and performance outcomes in athletes and may be particularly concerning during adolescence when growth and bone development are ongoing. Although inadequate carbohydrate (CHO) intake has been proposed as a contributor to LEA, limited research has examined this relationship in adolescent endurance athletes. Objective: To examine dietary intake, bone mineral density (BMD), and eating disorder (ED) risk in adolescent distance runners with and without LEA. Methods: Eighteen adolescent distance runners (15.7 ± 1.2 years; …

The Kinship Power Of Women In Old English Literature, Emily L. Carter

All Master's Theses

This thesis examines several Old English texts to understand how power is portrayed in literature relating to women and their positions as wives, mothers, and daughters. Looking at women characters in Beowulf, Elene, “The Wife’s Lament,” Juliana, and Judith through a New Historicist lens, this thesis attempts to better understand the cultural and social expectations for women in power in Anglo-Saxon England, c. 1000. These women are portrayed as socially intelligent and politically active figures in their communities. The most exemplary women in these texts, this thesis argues, are those who are able to draw upon the …

Carbon Emissions And Greenwashing: Do High Esg Scores Reflect Real Decarbonization?, Alison Steenerson

All Master's Theses

This study examines the relationship between environmental scores, environmental performance, disclosure quality, and firm characteristics using a sample of publicly traded firms observed in 2020 and 2021. A two-stage regression framework was used to separate environmental scores into components explained by observable environmental performance, firm characteristics, disclosure practices, and environmental commitments. Results indicate that emissions intensity has a statistically significant but economically small relationship with environmental scores. In contrast, disclosure quality measures exhibited strong positive associations with environmental scores. Firms reporting emissions, participating in CDP, disclosing emissions targets, and adopting science-based targets received higher environmental scores independent of environmental performance. …

Paleo-Environmental Change In Deer Lagoon, Whidbey Island Interpreted From Diatoms And Lithology, Lourdes Garcia

All Master's Theses

Puget Sound is a densely populated, tectonically active area that can be affected by earthquakes from local crustal faults and the Cascadia subduction zone capable of producing abrupt coseismic subsidence. Tidal wetlands are particularly sensitive to abrupt changes because they are depositional environments that reside at sea-level and their lithology and ecological communities are strongly controlled by elevation within the tidal frame. As a result, coseismic subsidence can disrupt established environmental gradients and leave distinguishable signatures preserved within the stratigraphy, like tidal mud directly over peat deposits. These preserved records provide an opportunity to reconstruct past earthquakes and associated relative …

The Geomorphology And Hydrogeology Of Pre-Restoration West Fork Teanaway River, Wa, Usa, Shana M. Egan

All Master's Theses

The West Fork Teanaway (WFT) River in Kittitas County, WA is an entrenched bedrock river channel with disturbed floodplain geomorphology and degraded riparian ecology. Two stream restoration approaches, “stage 0” valley bottom reset and engineered logjam installation, will be installed at the WFT in summer 2026 by collaborators at the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife and Mid-Columbia Fisheries Enhancement Group. The objective of this study was to constrain the pre-restoration geomorphic and hydrologic conditions of the WFT. The WFT has an unconsolidated floodplain aquifer of predominantly coarse-grained fluvial deposits. Monitoring of groundwater and surface water levels began in …

Understanding The Cost Of Catastrophe: Wildfire Suppression Costs Drivers By Fire Size Class, Stephanie Overla

All Master's Theses

While most wildfires burn less than 100 acres, the western United States experiences much larger fires annually, placing increasing pressure on suppression resources. Changes in weather patterns, fuel composition, and the spatial complexity of human development have rapidly altered historic fire regimes, increasing both the frequency of large wildfires and the challenges of managing them. This study compares two wildfire classes—Fires of Unusual Size (FOUS, >90,000 acres with at least one rapid growth event), and Large Fires (LF, 25,000–90,000 acres), —to identify differences in how size- and growth-based fire classes influence wildfire suppression costs. Suppression cost data for 60 …

Exploring Students' Perceptions Of Active Learning Practices And Their Role In Critical Thinking Development In Undergraduate Biology Education, Kwame Kyeremah

All Master's Theses

As the global landscape becomes increasingly complex and undergoes more rapid changes than ever before, critical thinking has become an indispensable skill for addressing challenges in society, science, and the workplace. Despite its widespread adoption in undergraduate STEM education, active learning remains poorly understood from the student's perspective. This study investigated how undergraduate biology students perceived active learning in a ten-week biostatistics course (BIOL 213) at Central Washington University, and whether those perceptions aligned with critical thinking gains measured by the California Critical Thinking Skills Test with Numeracy (CCTST-N). A convergent mixed-methods design integrated student perception and mindset survey data …

Using Grounded Iceberg Wake Patterns To Interpret Catastrophic Flood Events In Southcentral Alaska, Jana K. Macinnis

All Master's Theses

Catastrophic flood events such as landslide tsunamis and jökulhlaups in glaciated areas can transport and strand icebergs, which obstruct the flow of floodwaters and leave a unique and recognizable grounded iceberg wake pattern in the sediment surface. Grounded iceberg wake patterns (GIWs) were identified at the two study areas in Southcentral Alaska; the outwash plain of a 1967 landslide tsunami at the Grewingk Glacier and proglacial lake, and the Matanuska River valley which experienced an unrecorded jökulhlaup in recent geological times. From these sites, 110 GIWs were identified through visual interpretation of lidar imagery and characterized by measuring their geometry, …

Ultrasound-Derived Liver Composition And Metabolic Flexibility Under Exercise Stress, Rhodes Van Houten

All Master's Theses

Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease (MAFLD) is characterized by abnormal liver fat accumulation in conjunction with metabolic syndromes. MAFLD affects 33% of individuals worldwide, though little is known about how increased liver fat impacts physiological responses to exercise. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between liver composition and metabolic flexibility during a graded exercise test.  Body composition was analyzed via dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Liver ultrasound was evaluated for echogenicity, where elevated mean gray volume (MGV) indicates abnormal liver tissue. Rates of fat (FATox) and carbohydrate (CHOox) oxidation (g/min), respiratory exchange ratio (RER), and blood lactate concentrations ([LA^-], …

Examining The Effects Of Virtual Nature Exposure And Video Immersion On State Hope With Nature Relatedness As A Covariate, Zachary Arneson

All Master's Theses

Previous work in the field of environmental psychology has shown that virtual nature exposure can produce many psychological benefits for the viewer. Within this literature, however, there has been no examination of the effects of virtual nature exposure on levels of state hope, a goal-directed positive psychological construct made up of two types of thought: agency and pathways. Additionally, there has been no direct examination of the effect of immersion level of the virtual nature exposure on psychological measures. To fill this gap in the literature, the current study examined the effects of virtual nature exposure and video immersion on …

Pre-Eruptive Timescales Via Olivine Diffusion Chronometry For Lava And Tephra Of The Schreibers Meadow Cinder Cone Eruption, Mount Baker (Kulshan), Wa, Sabrina Ansari

All Master's Theses

Mount Baker is a very-high threat Cascade volcano and is located near densely populated areas in northern Washington, putting many at risk if an eruption were to occur. Schreibers Meadow cinder cone is located on the southern flank of Mount Baker and produced the Sulphur Creek (SC) tephra and lava 9.8 ka. Previous work on the SC eruption used petrology and geochemistry to reconstruct the pre-eruptive magmatic architecture beneath Mount Baker Volcanic Field, including olivine-hosted melt inclusions to determine crystallization pressures, as well as plagioclase- and clinopyroxene-derived diffusion timescales to determine magma storage timescales of several months and recharge-to-eruption timescales …

Philosophically Aligned, Operationally Fractured: Duty-Of-Care In Nagpra Practice, Meghan Ensign

All Master's Theses

This research aims to explore the implementation of the Duty of Care [43 CFR Part 10.1(d)] within the 2024 revision of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) rules and regulations. While NAGPRA was designed to facilitate repatriation, ambiguities and institutional resistance have hindered compliance, necessitating regulatory updates. The 2024 revision added duty-of-care language intended to improve repatriation outcomes and reinforce Tribal sovereignty. Duty of care requires institutions to consult and collaborate with Tribes on curation policies and practices, and to obtain informed consent before allowing research on, exhibiting, or providing access to cultural items or human remains. …

Artistic Merit In The Wind Band Repertoire: A Critical Analysis Of Jarod Hall’S “Golden Horizons”, Eric Mills

All Master's Theses

The wind band repertoire has long been subject to rigorous scrutiny regarding its artistic legitimacy, and scholars have invested considerable effort in developing frameworks through which that legitimacy can be assessed. The most enduring of these is Acton Ostling's ten criteria of serious artistic merit, formulated in 1978 and tested across nearly half a century of subsequent scholarship. This thesis argues that JaRod Hall's Golden Horizons (2024) satisfies those criteria, through a close analysis of a single contemporary work, and what it reveals about the framework's continued analytical utility.

The methodology combines a review of the scholarship surrounding Ostling's framework, …

Testarticlejuntwenty26one, Abdul Rizwan

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

No abstract provided.

A Descriptive Analysis Of Gp Referrals To A Model 4 Emergency Department In The West Of Ireland, Marguerite Fortin, Daniel Scott, Safi Ullah, Nur Farah Binti Hussain, Siobhan Mcgrath, Declan Larkin, Deirdre Kelly, James Binchy, Enda Hession, James Foley

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Background: General Practitioner (GP) referrals to Emergency Departments (EDs) are common in Ireland, yet the structure and content of referral letters in Ireland are poorly described. Understanding these patterns may highlight opportunities to optimise communication and streamline patient flow. Aim: The aim of the study was to describe the characteristics, timing, reasons, and content of GP referral letters to a model 4 emergency department, and to identify areas for improvement for GP to ED communication. Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at University Hospital Galway, a Model 4 ED, analysing all electronic GP referral letters submitted via Healthlink during …

Modelling Intermediate Internal Waves With Currents And Variable Bottom, Rossen Ivanov, Lyudmila Ivanova

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

A model for internal interfacial waves between two layers of fluid in the presence of current and variable bottom is studied in the flat-surface approximation. Fluids are assumed to be incompressible and inviscid. Another assumption is that the upper layer is considerably deeper with a lower density than the lower layer. The fluid dynamics is presented in Hamiltonian form with appropriate Dirichlet–Neumann operators for the two fluid domains, and the depth-dependent current is taken into account. The well known integrable Intermediate Long Wave Equation (ILWE) is derived as an asymptotic internal waves model in the case of flat bottom. For …

Academics’ Experiences Of Work-Life Balance And Work-Life Conflict In A Familialist State: The Case Of Bosnia And Herzegovina, Sara Clavero, Caitriona Delaney

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Background: This paper explores how women academics in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) navigate work-life conflict and the main strategies they deploy to balance their work and personal lives. It examines the range of institutional support available to them and assesses their effectiveness in facilitating work-life balance and reducing work-life conflict. Methods: Drawing on 12 semi-structured interviews with female academics at various career stages from public and private universities across BiH, this study captures personal narratives of managing work and caregiving responsibilities. Results: Thematic analysis revealed the respondents’ personal strategies to find work-life balance while trying to achieve their career goals, …

Readability Of Online Patient Education Materials For Myopia Management, Monica Jong, Michelle Waugh, Pinar Ozmizrak, Ian Flitcroft

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Purpose: Patients are turning to the internet to access educational materials to help them make healthcare decisions, making readability an important factor. This cross-sectional study assessed the readability of online patient education materials for myopia management treatments that have regulatory approval. Methods: The top 10 Google search results from May 2024 for freely available online patient information on myopia management modalities and regulatory-approved products in Canada and Australia were analysed for readability. The modalities included orthokeratology, myopia control spectacle lenses, myopia control soft contact lenses and atropine. The products included MiYOSMART® [HOYA®], Stellest® [Essilor®], MyoCare® [ZEISS], MiSight® 1 day [CooperVision®], …

Adolescent Girls’ Experiences Of Digital Dating Abuse Through Social Media: A Scoping Review, Kiara E. Rodriguez

Social Work Theses

Teen dating violence (TDV) is a prevalent adverse childhood experience with lasting psychological and behavioral consequences. As adolescents increasingly engage with social media, with 95% of teens aged 13-17 reporting using it, digital spaces have become a significant context in which dating abuse can occur. Digital dating abuse (DDA) refers to patterns of abusive behaviors that are directed toward a dating partner through digital technologies, including social media and mobile phones. Despite the growing role of social media in adolescent relationships, research on how adolescent girls experience DDA in these contexts remains limited. The central question for this scoping review …