Digital Commons Network^™

Academic Outcomes Of Associate Degree Transfer Students From Selected Two-Year Campuses To A Public Urban Research University In The Northeast U.S: An Empirical Analysis Using Administrative Unit Record Data, Michelle Bianchi

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This study examined academic outcomes for associate degree transfer students at an urban, public research university in the Northeast United States. In particular, this study examined differences in rates of retention, rates of graduation, and cumulative upper-division grade point average (GPA) at graduation between associate degree transfers and direct-entry undergraduates at the same institution, taking into account the two-year college attended. This approach provides a lens into campus effects, considering the profiles of associate degree transfers from identified two-year colleges to search for similarities and differences in academic outcomes for transfers by two-year college attended.

The study relied on student-level …

Moving The Goalposts: Saudi Arabia, Football, And The Changing Rules Of Global Legitimacy, Sanskriti S. Kumar

CMC Senior Theses

Most commentary on Gulf state sports investment concludes that sportswashing fails: Saudi Arabia's favorability ratings remain low, its human rights situation has deteriorated, and Western public opinion shows no measurable improvement. This thesis argues that this conclusion applies the wrong standard. Asking whether Saudi Arabia has become more admired misses the more consequential question of whether it has become more accepted, and treating those two outcomes as equivalent produces misleading results. This thesis develops an original Normalization-Attraction Framework to evaluate whether the Saudi Public Investment Fund's October 2021 acquisition of Newcastle United Football Club has generated measurable political returns. The …

Audiovisual Motion Onset Asynchrony As Expectation Violation: Effects On Memory And Liking In Media Contexts, Sijia Song

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This research presents the first systematic investigation of motion-onset asynchrony (MOA) as a form of audiovisual temporal incongruency grounded in contemporary spatial audio and extended reality (xR) systems. MOA—the delay between the onset of visual and auditory motion—was manipulated at three levels (0 s, 1.1 s, 3 s) to test its effects on cognitive (memory) and affective (liking) outcomes during short 2D animated video viewing. Guided by inverted-U models of expectation violation, it was hypothesized that moderate MOA would be associated with the highest memory performance and liking ratings and that liking would mediate MOA’s effects on memory. Across two …

The Relationship Between Interoceptive Awareness And Eating Disorder Symptomatology, Madelyn G. Johnson

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Interoceptive awareness (IA; e.g., the ability to perceive and interpret internal bodily sensations) is increasingly recognized as central to eating disorder (ED) psychopathology, yet findings remain mixed regarding whether heightened IA is protective or maladaptive. Across two studies using a sample of 654 college students (Mage = 18.74, SD = 1.56; 46% White; 58% female) from a large northeastern U.S. university, we examined (1) how specific IA facets relate to ED symptom severity, and (2) whether anxiety sensitivity (AS) helps explain these associations. In Study 1, linear regressions predicting Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire–7 (EDE-Q7) scores showed that nearly all MAIA-2 …

By The Light, Desiree Galamgam

CMC Senior Theses

On the island of Helios, the sun god, a water nymph finds comfort tending to the flora along  riverbanks. Clytie avoids her oceanid sisters’ poisonous proclivities. Modeling herself after the sun god’s incessant responsibilities, she spends her existence working. Only taking breaks to perch herself at the top of her alcove’s hill to watch Helios drive his chariot to rise and set the sun, she sees him as the epitome of perfection and freedom.

Her tranquil life is interrupted by the sudden arrival of Helios himself at the footsteps of her isolated cave. Clytie begins to feel new emotions as …

Population Genomics And Evolution Of Pseudomonas Aeruginosa, Samara T. Choudhury

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium ubiquitous in diverse environments and an opportunistic pathogen in humans. It is a leading cause of chronic lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients and of hospital-acquired pneumonia and sepsis. With a large flexible genome and abundant mobile genetic elements, P. aeruginosa exhibits high levels of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), making it a significant public health threat. Evolutionary processes such as homologous recombination, and horizontal gene transfer generate extensive genomic diversity in this species and facilitate the spread of resistance genes. In this dissertation, I investigate the genetic and evolutionary factors shaping P. aeruginosa population structure …

Beyond Numbers: Bridging Statistical Significance And Clinical Relevance In Healthcare Research, Maharaj Singh, Waheeda Khan, Mehreen Fatima

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

Objective: This study aims to bridge the gap between statistical significance and clinical relevance using rigorous statistical methodologies applied to simulated healthcare data, thereby enhancing the translational value of research outcomes for patient‑centered care. Methods: A synthetic dataset representing 10,000 patients was generated, and descriptive statistics were applied to compare two treatment groups. Binary outcomes were predicted using both a logistic regression model and a neural network. Two‑tailed tests with a significant level of 0.05 were employed, utilizing SAS version 9.4 and IBM SPSS Statistics, Version 29.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States of America). Results: The simulated dataset …

Adequate Representation In Group Litigation, Elizabeth Chamblee Burch

Scholarly Works

This article examines the inherent tension between the legal system's desire for "global peace" (finality) and the constitutional requirement for adequate representation in collective lawsuits. While Rule 23 class actions provide structural safeguards—such as judicial oversight of counsel and settlement, and opt-out rights—alternative mechanisms like multidistrict litigation (MDL) and parens patriae suits often lack these protections . Using the In re National Prescription Opiate Litigation as a primary case study, the article illustrates how informal, "backroom" leadership selection in MDLs empowers a small circle of elite "repeat players" at the expense of marginalized groups, such as Native American tribes and …

From Privacy To The Data Economy: The Ftc’S Reframing Of Its Regulatory Priorities, Maria P. Angel

Scholarly Works

This Article argues that the Federal Trade Commission’s turn to “commercial surveillance” reflects a strategic shift away from traditional privacy frameworks toward addressing structural power dynamics in the data economy. Drawing on an analysis of 112 FTC documents, it identifies three core commitments: tackling systemic harms, adopting a political economy lens, and constraining corporate power. The Article contends that this reframing is both necessary in the AI age and should influence the future of privacy regulation in the United States, even amid efforts to limit the FTC’s authority.

State Medical Licenses Without Borders, Meighan Parker

Scholarly Works

Access to health care in the United States is undermined by a maldistribution of physicians, and state medical licensure remains a barrier to correcting this issue, despite legal reforms that attempt to streamline physician licensure pathways. Geographic distribution gaps can have serious consequences in rural areas, such as poor health outcomes, reduced access to care, and further entrenchment of health disparities.

On the bright side, physicians can potentially use telemedicine to help improve geographic distribution gaps through the provision of clinically appropriate, virtual care across state lines. But states have traditionally required physicians, even those who are currently licensed in …

From Collective Punishment To Collective Action, Samuel N. Johnson-Saeger

CMC Senior Theses

Regime change may be sought in two primary ways, absent a turn to internal or external violence: through nonviolent resistance, from within, and sanctions, from abroad. This paper is about how those two pathways are intertwined. I challenge two different strands of the existing literature. First, I show that Liou et al. (2022)'s finding that sanctions increase the predicted probability of nonviolent resistance movement progress is subject to substantial upward bias from country heterogeneity. Incorporating country fixed effects, I show that sanctions, on average, have no statistically significant effect on resistance outcomes. Second, I challenge Chenoweth and Stephan (2008)'s argument …

Analysis Of The Thermodynamic Variables Associated With Hawaiian Extreme Precipitation Using The Fraction Of Attributable Risk (Far), Matthew J. Sinnenberg

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The Hawaiian Islands experience extreme maxima in precipitation that vary spatially, by season, and in response to different teleconnection patterns. Due to the islands’ unique geography, they are not well-resolved by global climate models, necessitating a focused assessment to identify  climatological trends. In this study, a probability-based analysis was conducted on regionally averaged thermodynamic variables relevant to the formation of extreme events. The primary objective was to evaluate whether changes in the occurrence of extreme conditions have occurred and to understand how the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) influences these occurrence rates.

Hourly data from ERA5 spanning 1980-2019 were resampled to …

The History Of Mass Incarceration And Its Implications, Evan Sevaly

CMC Senior Theses

In this thesis, I develop a model to answer four questions about US incarceration: why did incarceration increase between 1973 to 2009, why have incarceration figures experienced an overall decrease since then, and what explains their oscillation, why has the penal system consistently incarcerated marginalized groups at disproportionate rates, and why is the US an incarceration outlier compared to other industrialized countries? I split the competing explanations to these questions into four schools of thought: the perspective that neoliberalism caused mass incarceration, the perspective that surpluses in finance capital, land, population, and state capacity caused mass incarceration, the perspective that …

Light And Fire: Kerosene And The Rise And Fall Of Standard Oil, 1859-1911, Minseok Jang

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation revisits the rise and fall of Standard Oil between 1859 and 1911 through the lens of petroleum’s materiality and the fire hazards it posed. Moving beyond traditional narratives that focus on the company’s corporate strategy, this study argues that the volatility of petroleum and the global consumer experience of its environmental risks were central to shaping the company’s trajectory. The research highlights how Standard Oil struggled to control the flammable nature of kerosene—the primary petroleum product used for illumination at the time—before aligning with Great Britain’s advanced inspection technologies and regulatory frameworks. This transimperial cooperation enabled Standard Oil …

The Impact Of The Filibuster On The Ideological Composition Of The Judiciary, James Cullers

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines whether the 2013 Senate filibuster reform–the so-called "nuclear option"–changed the ideological composition of federal judicial nominees and whether that change translated into different confirmation outcomes. Using ideology scores from the Database on Ideology, Money in Politics, and Elections (DIME) matched to a dataset of all federal judicial nominees from 2000 to 2024, we separate the judicial selection process into two stages: presidential nomination and Senate confirmation. At the nomination stage, we find that post-2013 nominees were approximately 71% more likely to be ideologically extreme by pre-reform standards, a large and statistically significant shift consistent with presidents responding …

Nanostructured Cathode Catalysts For Aem Electrolysis: From Catalyst Design To Degradation And Hydrogen Dynamics, Yamini Kumaran

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Anion exchange membrane water electrolysis (AEMWE) presents a promising pathway toward cost-effective and sustainable hydrogen production by integrating the chemical robustness of alkaline systems with the compact, zero-gap design of proton exchange membrane electrolyzers. However, the widespread implementation of AEMWE is limited by the availability of highly active and durable platinum-group-metal (PGM)-free catalysts and by an incomplete understanding of their degradation behavior under realistic operating conditions.

This dissertation focuses on the development, characterization, and mechanistic investigation of nanostructured MoNi₄–MoO₂-based electrodes for efficient and stable hydrogen generation under alkaline and membrane-integrated environments. MoNi₄–MoO₂ nanorods …

Investigating A Mindfulness Curriculum And Prompting For Generalization On Overall Engagement Time, Caitlyn Ruggiero

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Mindfulness is a practice that has existed for centuries (Felver et al., 2022) and has been adapted to address various aspects of human life. Among the various uses of mindfulness practices, they have been adapted for use in school settings to support the use of adaptive learning behaviors in the classroom. For the target behavior to change in the natural setting, the student receiving intervention must be able to generalize the learned mindfulness skills to the classroom. The current study aimed to determine whether participation in the Soles of the Feet mindfulness intervention increased students’ overall engagement time (OET) in …

Bio-Orthogonal Chemistry-Based Strategy To Turn-On And Turn-Off Crispr-Cas9 Gene Editing In Solution And In Live Cells, Bhoomika Pandit

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

The CRISPR–Cas9 system is a widely popular tool for genome engineering. There is a strong interest in developing tools for temporal control of CRISPR-Cas9 activity to address some of the challenges and to broaden the scope of potential applications. In this thesis I describe two biorthogonal based approaches to either Turn-ON and Turn-OFF CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing.

In first project work I describe a bio-orthogonal chemistry-based approach to Turn-ON Cas9 nuclease activity with temporal precision. We report a TCO-acylimidazole reagent that acylates 2′-OH groups of RNA. Poly-acylation (“cloaking”) of RNA was optimized in vitro using a model 18-nt oligonucleotide, as well …

The Aporia Of Divinity: Hegel's Metaphysics In Conversation With Spinoza And Schelling, Abhinav Ganesh

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis explores the intersections between the metaphysics of Spinoza, Hegel, and Schelling, as seen through their engagement with the concept of immediacy. I aim to show that this perspective offers a fruitful way of understanding the arguments of these three figures, while also complicating our understanding of the nature of immediacy and its importance to metaphysical systems.

Providers' Perceptions Of Barriers And Facilitators To Implementing Non-Pharmacological Treatment For Adults With Chronic Pain: A Meta-Synthesis, Mikhaela Mcfarlin

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Background. Chronic pain is a public health concern impacting approximately 20% of adults in the U.S. Nonpharmacological interventions are considered first-line treatments for patients with chronic pain, yet nonpharmacological interventions remain significantly underutilized. While previous research has explored barriers from the patient’s perspective, limited attention has been paid to providers’ experiences implementing these treatments. This qualitative meta-synthesis aimed to examine provider-perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing nonpharmacolgical treatments for adults with chronic pain. Methods. Independent reviewers conducted systematic searches across PubMed, PsycInfo, CINAHL, and ProQuest Dissertations using relevant (e.g., “mental health provider”, “nonpharmacological”) and applied inclusion criteria to …

A Cross-Species Meta-Analysis Of Environmental Enrichment Effects On Cognition, Greg S. Fitzgerald

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Environmental enrichment --providing animals or people with stimulating, complex surroundings --consistently improves cognitive performance in laboratory rodents. But when similar interventions are tested in humans, the benefits are much smaller. Understanding why matters: if researchers overestimate how well rodent findings will translate, it can mislead expectations for human cognitive interventions.

This dissertation presents the first cross-species meta-analysis comparing environmental enrichment effects on cognition between rodent and human studies. Drawing on 121 studies (71 rodent, 50 human) contributing 478 effect sizes, the analysis used multilevel models with variance correction to account for the statistical dependence created when studies report multiple outcomes. …

Structural Inequities, Environmental Toxicants, And Cardiometabolic Pathways In Cardiovascular Disease: Evidence From A Nationally Representative U.S. Population, Ese F. Oghaghare

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States and continues to disproportionately burden racial/ethnic minorities and socioeconomically disadvantaged populations. Traditional risk factors and behavioral explanations fail to fully account for these persistent disparities, motivating increased attention to intermediate biological pathways and environmental toxicant exposures through which structural inequities may become biologically embedded. This dissertation investigates how cardiometabolic biomarkers, diet quality, and exposure to persistent organic pollutants jointly contribute to cardiovascular disease risk in a nationally representative U.S. population.

Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), three complementary studies were …

Constitutional Rights, Human Dignity, And The American Dream: A Historical Analysis Of U.S. Immigration Policy After 9/11, Shelby Mcilroy

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis examines how United States immigration policy transformed after September 11, 2001 and asks whether modern immigration enforcement remains consistent with constitutional principles, human rights protections, and the broader ideals associated with the American Dream. The project investigates how immigration shifted from a primarily civil administrative system into one increasingly defined by surveillance, detention, and punishment. The central question guiding this research is whether the securitization of immigration has reshaped not only enforcement practices, but also the meaning of constitutional protections and human dignity for both citizens and noncitizens.

To answer this question, this thesis conducts a historical policy …

Pesos For Pesos And No One Feels At Home: Gentrification And Displacement In Mexico City, Sophia L. Castellanos

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates how gentrification and displacement have affected Mexico City, providing historical context and reasoning behind current policies for digital nomads and tourists. It examines policies enacted in similar cities such as Barcelona, Amsterdam, and Venice, which face challenges from increased tourism and short-term rentals like Airbnb. The thesis also reviews these regulations, highlighting their successes and limitations, and offers recommendations for integrating some of these strategies into Mexico City’s 2024 Tourism Law. Additionally, it explores public innovation strategies that could promote collaborations between the government and communities rather than complete government control. Finally, the paper discusses the challenges …

Family, Stability, Mentors & Money: Student Definitions Of Success, Arturo Caldera

CMC Senior Theses

This research takes a deep dive into the factors shaping marginalized communities’ educational experiences, particularly for low-income Latino students from migrant backgrounds navigating public schooling spaces. Across sixteen qualitative interviews, participant narratives reveal how a systemic lack of resources at the institutional, interpersonal, and structural levels undermines the quality of support students receive and shapes their academic trajectories. Grounded in student-centered practices and informed by scholarship in multicultural education, Chicanx/Latinx studies, feminism, and psychology, this study contributes to ongoing efforts to move beyond deficit-based frameworks and instead recognize the cultural wealth, knowledge, and resilience students bring from their homes and …

Spatial Spillovers In Emergency Lending: Evidence From Bayesian Quantile Models Of Reconstruction Finance Corporation Lending During The Great Depression, Oncel Aldanmaz

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates whether emergency lending by the Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) generated spatial spillovers across U.S. counties between 1932 and 1936. Using a monthly panel of 2,979 counties constructed from digitized RFC card index records, we estimate Bayesian quantile regression models for binary longitudinal data (QBLD) that allow spillover effects to vary across the conditional distribution of lending propensity. Neighboring lending exposure is positively associated with own-county lending outcomes across a wide range of quantiles and subsamples, with the strongest effects at the lower tail, where counties are least likely to receive lending. This pattern is consistent with a …

Understanding The Syphilis Resurgence Among Females Of Childbearing Age: Informing Prevention Efforts In New York State, Salvatore Currenti

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Syphilis is caused by Treponema pallidum and transmitted through direct contact with infected mucosal lesions and via vertical transmission during pregnancy (i.e., congenital). Transmission of syphilis to an infant during pregnancy (i.e., congenital syphilis [CS]) can lead to early fetal death, stillbirth, neonatal death, preterm birth, low birthweight, and congenital infection in infants. The United States (U.S.) is experiencing epidemic increases in both females of reproductive age with syphilis and infants with CS. In New York State (NYS), these trends have also occurred, especially after COVID-19 emergence, and increases in reported cases and incidence rates are comparable to national statistics. …

Disentangling Exercise Motivation From Eating Disorder Symptom Severity: A Dominance Analysis Of Compulsive Exercise Predictors, Sarah E. Siegel

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Compulsive exercise (CE) appears frequently in eating disorder (ED) samples but also occurs in nonclinical populations, raising the possibility that different motivational processes drive the behavior, perhaps depending on ED pathology. This study examined the relative contribution of exercise motives to CE while separating motivational variance from ED symptom severity. Undergraduate women (N = 376; 38.3% White, 28.8% Black) completed the Exercise Motivations Inventory–2 (EMI-2), the Compulsive Exercise Test (CET), and the 7-item Eating Disorder Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q7). An exploratory factor analysis of EMI-2 subscales yielded four factors: Affective Well-being (Enjoyment, Revitalization, Stress Management), Health/Function (Ill-health Avoidance, Nimbleness, Positive Health, …

The Original Joe Rogan: Evidence From Walter Winchell And American Political Outcomes, Quinten E. Carney

CMC Senior Theses

I study the impact of the first entertainment-news figures in American history. Walter Winchell seamlessly mixed celebrity gossip, political news, and personal attacks to create one of the most popular radio programs in the 1930s and 1940s. As a propagandist for Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), he supported the New Deal, American involvement in World War II, and anti-fascism. Replicating early Irregular Terrain Model (ITM) work, I find that exposure to Winchell had no effect on voting outcomes or support for WWII through war-bond sales.  I explore potential channels of influence in a consolidated media ecosystem that existed during Winchell’s time.

Perceived Autonomy To Exercise Rights: Race And Ethnicity And Citizenship In Consent Searches, Srishti Katuri

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

Consent searches—police searches conducted with an individual’s permission—constitute the majority of warrantless searches in the United States. Although these encounters are legally described as voluntary, scholars have long questioned whether civilians truly feel free to refuse an officer’s request to conduct a search. The present study examined how race and ethnicity and citizenship status influence civilians’ consent decisions and perceived freedom to deny consent in a hypothetical police encounter. A community sample of 191 adults from New York State read a vignette in which a police officer requested to search their backpack. Then, participants reported their ideal and anticipated consent …