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Red River
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed and will not be available until April 10, 2032 at the earliest.While covering the disappearance of a college student in Appalachian Kentucky, rookie TV journalist Adrienne Byrne discovers she knows the main suspect, Ethan Adams. As Adrienne is drawn deeper into the case, she must confront her own past in order to report the truth.2032-04-1
In This House
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed and will not be available until April 13, 2032 at the earliest.This thesis is a novel about an elderly woman named Rosie Burns who lives alone in her house in Rolling Hills Estates, California. After the death of her husband, Rosie finds comfort in relics from her past: an owl lamp and a 1970s shag carpet. Her house is a time capsule of the period in her life when her children and husband were home. She occasionally has delusions about her husband and she feels nostalgic for when she had the family together. When Rosie is diagnosed with dementia, her four distant children (Richard, Margot, Francis, and Judith) must come together to find their stubborn mother in-home care. Margot becomes the primary caretaker, since her siblings don’t want anything to do with Rosie’s care, even if they all love their mother in their own special way. It is a difficult burden for Margot, and her siblings continue to dump responsibility on her. Margot eventually finds an ad from a director named Linus looking for a place that could work as a 70’s-themed movie set—just like Rosie’s house. Margot calls back the director and brings in a film crew who unknowingly become unconventional caretakers for her mother. At first Rosie is resistant to the director but she soon feels happy to have company. The film mirrors her own life, and she delves into her memories as she watches the actors on “set” in her home. The story reaches its climax when, during a fit, Rosie throws the film crew out of her house and knocks her owl lamp onto her carpet, which starts a fire. It destroys the carpet and some of the film equipment. Rosie suffers from smoke inhalation and is taken to the hospital. She goes in and out of consciousness and delusions for two days, and the doctor tells Margot that her mother is dying. In a moment of clarity, Rosie begs her daughter to take her home because she does not want to die at the hospital. Margot finally stands up to her siblings and demands that they come to the house with her and their mother, since they barely bothered to visit Rosie in the hospital. They bring Rosie back to her somewhat charred home (not condemned, and deemed safe to enter) and put her into her bed. She sees her children in a way that echoes an earlier scene of Rosie’s memory of the children on Easter back in 1974. She dies with her family around her in her home, never having been forced out of it. The siblings go their separate ways. Margot is tasked with cleaning and selling the house. It ends with Margot leaving the house with this general idea: “As she stepped through the threshold of the doorway, she glanced back into the living room. Even though the couch was charred, the table distorted, and the owl lamp missing, it felt wrong not to see Momma sitting there. There was a weight—a disbelief—and a prick at the bridge of her nose as she felt tears begin to well up. At the same time, it felt similar to finishing a good book—one to which she’d grown profoundly attached—but feeling the need for it to end so she could be done with it.
Hotel Appalachia: Poems
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed. It will not be available until May 21, 2031 at the very earliest.This thesis is a collection of poems
House Kengar: Exodus
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed. It will be available in April, 2031.This thesis is a novel based in the magical world of Riniel, where Dragons may not be common, but are very much alive and well. These pages represent the first three-fifths of what should be a completed novel by Summer's end, work that has been polished and affected by my years of study at GMU, both as an Undergraduate and as an MFA Candidate. The story focuses on three different factions, one that runs from the other two, the other two hated enemies of each other as well, and on the interpersonal interactions between the members of those three factions. It is a time of war, but also a time of hope and renewal. A time for new leaders to be born out of the ashes of an older world
Strange Traveler
No full textThis thesis has been embargoed for 10 years. It will not be available until May 2031 at the earliest.This thesis describes a collection of poems which engage with the concept of a traveler on a journey. The travel thus explored is as much or more internal than physical. Through the creation of personal signifiers, emblems, and metaphors the traveler incorporates the world. These poems traffic in the crux where perception meets creation through personal sign making
Cost-effective Glove for Training Suturing
Full text linkThis work introduces a low-cost, sensor-integrated glove designed to assess and train new health workers in suturing. The system employs multiple force-sensitive pressure sensors placed on the fingers and an MPU6050 inertial measurement unit (IMU) affixed to the back of the hand to capture localized pressure and kinematic data, respectively. Using a microcontroller-based platform, the glove enables real-time monitoring of finger articulation and applied forces during simulated suturing. It addresses the need for accessible, quantifiable surgical training tools in resource-constrained educational environments. The paper outlines the glove’s hardware integration, signal conditioning, and software interface
Smart Occupancy Monitoring
Full text linkRetrieving real-time or historic occupancy and environmental conditions data of public spaces still need significant developments. The Smart Occupancy Monitoring (SOM) system addresses this by proposing an end-to-end solution. IoT-enabled devices equipped with sensors collect occupancy and temperature data, transmitted via MQTT for real-time analysis. A centralized dashboard visualizes space utilization and environmental metrics, enhancing operational efficiency and user experience. Testing across enclosed and open spaces demonstrated over 20% energy savings and improved space utilization by 4%. Future enhancements include battery operated devices and network-independent operations
The Acoustic Properties of Laterals in Southwestern Saudi Arabic
Full text linkLateral consonants exhibit varied acoustic characteristics across languages with distinct realizations ranging from clear to dark. In Arabic dialects, these variations are salient due to their interaction with emphatic consonants, which creates distinct acoustic patterns through their influence on surrounding segments. The present study examines the acoustics of the lateral consonants in Southwestern Saudi Arabic, focusing on how phonetic environment, age, and sex influence their realization. Using generalized additive mixed models, the trajectory of F2−F1 was analyzed across initial, medial and final positions adjacent to emphatic and nonemphatic sounds. By modeling dynamic patterns over time, the study captures non-linear formant dynamics while accounting for phonetic environment as well as age and sex. The findings demonstrate positional effects, with medial laterals adjacent to emphatic sounds exhibiting lower F2−F1 differences compared to those in non-emphatic contexts. Male speakers produced lower F2−F1 values, and older speakers showed greater variability
This Is a Test
No full textThis fake thesis has been embargoed for 11 years. It will not be available until May 2036.This is a fake entry
The Climate Crisis is Here, but Is the U.S. Government Ready? Lessons from LA and Florida
Full text linkThe escalating climate disasters in the United States, including the 2025 Los Angeles wildfires and the 2024 Florida hurricanes, have revealed significant deficiencies in the nation's ability to prepare for, respond to, and recover from environmental catastrophes. This study investigates whether U.S. climate policies adequately safeguard vulnerable communities or if political inaction, misinformation, and partisanship have left the country exposed to climate threats.
This study employs a multi-method approach, including policy analysis, case studies, and international comparisons. It examines federal and state disaster response strategies, evaluates legislative efforts such as the Inflation Reduction Act, and assesses the climate policies of recent presidential administrations, including Obama, Trump, and Biden. Additionally, the research incorporates global climate adaptation strategies, drawing lessons from the Netherlands’ flood resilience system and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Findings indicate systemic delays in response, inadequate resource distribution, and insufficient investment in proactive climate adaptation. Federal initiatives like FEMA disaster relief and the Inflation Reduction Act provide short-term assistance but lack long-term cohesion. Comparative analysis highlights that while other nations invest heavily in climate-resilient infrastructure, the U.S. remains fragmented in its approach.
This article argues that the U.S. remains reactive rather than proactive in addressing climate change-induced crises. Without urgent and systemic reforms, the U.S. will continue to face escalating economic, environmental, and human costs from climate disasters, leaving millions unprotected and exacerbating socio-economic inequalities