Maryland Shared Open Access Repository

MD-SOAR is a shared digital repository platform for twelve colleges and universities in Maryland. It is currently funded by the University System of Maryland and Affiliated Institutions (USMAI) Library Consortium (usmai.org) and other participating partner institutions. MD-SOAR is jointly governed by all participating libraries, who have agreed to share policies and practices that are necessary and appropriate for the shared platform. Within this broad framework, each library provides customized repository services and collections that meet local institutional needs. Please follow the links below to learn more about each library's repository services and collections.

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Bowie State University

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St. Mary's College of Maryland

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Recent Submissions

The Appalachian Mountains: A Geological and Archaeological History
(2025-12) Hummer, Miranda; Ross, Jennifer; Kambic, Robert; Hixson, David; Hood College Art and Archaeology; Hood College Departmental Honors
The Appalachian Mountains are among the oldest and most geologically complex ranges on Earth, formed over a billion years through successive tectonic collisions, including the Grenville, Taconic, Acadian, and Alleghanian orogenies (Hatcher 2010; Tollo, Corriveau, McLelland, and Bartholomew 2004). These events produced a landscape of extraordinary structural diversity, featuring plateaus, ridges, valleys, and karst systems, profoundly shaping ecological systems and human history. This thesis examines the Appalachian Mountains as an interconnected system where geology, ecology, and culture are inseparably linked. The project integrates geological, archaeological, paleontological, and cultural perspectives, focusing on the unglaciated Appalachian Plateau and Ridge and Valley regions. Archaeological case studies, arranged chronologically from the late Pleistocene to the late prehistoric period, reveal how landforms such as rockshelters, salt licks, and river valleys structured patterns of human mobility, subsistence, and settlement (Cobb & Nassaney 2002; Cremeens, Whisonant, and Davis 2003). Paleoenvironmental reconstructions and site analyses demonstrate that caves and karst zones served as ecological refugia and cultural landscapes, preserving evidence of everyday lifeways and ritual activity. The central argument of this project is that the Appalachian landscape was a dynamic force, not a static backdrop. It actively shaped human migration and cultural development over nearly 20,000 years. By arranging sites chronologically, this study shows a direct cause-and-effect trajectory from early, mobile hunter-gatherers to increasingly sedentary and socially complex societies. The Appalachians were not a monolithic barrier. Instead, they formed a resource-rich mosaic of environments whose unique geology repeatedly catalyzed cultural transformation. In doing so, this thesis not only situates Appalachia within deep geological time but also foregrounds its role in shaping the long arc of human history in eastern North America.
Optimizing Financial Dashboard Visualizations Using AI
(2025-12) Dutta, Prakash; Walsh, Greg; University of Baltimore. Yale Gordon College of Arts and Sciences; University of Baltimore. Master of Science in Interaction Design and Information Architecture
This research investigated how artificial intelligence enhanced financial dashboard visualizations by comparing AI-augmented and traditional approaches across efficiency, usability, and user comprehension. The mixed-methods study involved 10 participants using Kavout (AI-enhanced) and Webull (traditional) platforms through standardized tasks and 10-day diary studies. Results showed AI-enhanced dashboards improved task completion rates by 2% and user confidence through automated recommendations and contextual explanations. However, critical challenges emerged around explainability and trust, with 73% of participants expressing concerns about AI recommendation rationale and bias toward conventional visualizations. The research revealed fundamental tensions between automation efficiency and user control requirements in high-stakes financial environments demanding transparency. Key contributions include empirical evidence for AI's potential to democratize financial analysis, design principles for explainable AI in financial contexts, and frameworks for balancing automation with user agency. Findings suggest future AI-enhanced financial dashboards must prioritize transparent reasoning mechanisms and co-creative human-AI collaboration while maintaining user trust and decision accountability.
The Impact of Pandemic Era Health Care Policy on Uninsured Non-Elderly Adult Americans in an ACA Medicaid Expansion and a Non-Expansion State
(2025-12-09) Vermeiren, Frank; Gibson, Ed; University of Baltimore. School of Public Affairs; University of Baltimore. Doctor of Public Administration (D.P.A.)
This paper reviews pre-pandemic, pandemic era, and post-pandemic health care policy and health care access barriers for uninsured non-elderly adult Americans between two cities. One in a Medicaid expansion state and one in a non-expansion state. A comparison will be made of institutional health care access policy, local, state, and federal policy, access disparities, and social determinant factors among uninsured non-elderly adult Americans. Factors will be identified using quantitative analysis of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). A summary of factors influencing the uninsured in the presence of pandemic era local, state, and federal policy. A quasi-experimental mixed methods analysis will be provided to show the impact of pre-, intra-, and post-COVID-19 pandemic era health policy on the uninsured living in Baltimore City and the City of Milwaukee. Original literature shows a significant increase in access to health care for the uninsured following the implementation of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) in 2010 with gradual decreases in access overtime resulting in a negative impact on health care delivery for uninsured non-elderly Americans living in the two subject cities. Local-, state-, and federal level health care policy demonstrate resources available to offset costs of caring for the uninsured with comparative examples of two cities. community organizations, leveraging state, federal and private funding, facilitate health care for uninsured Americans experiencing homelessness. Comparative data will be examined to show if there is a significant disparity in access to health care between the states of Maryland and Wisconsin and specifically focusing on Baltimore City and the City of Milwaukee.
An In Vitro Study of the Uptake and Release of Ribavirin and It's Effect on the Osmotic Fragility of Rat, Rhesus Monkey and Human Erythrocytes
(1981-09) Spears, Charles T.; Hood College Biology; Biomedical and Environmental Science
Recent studies indicate that ribavirin, a synthetic antiviral agent, may have an unusual affinity for rhesus monkey erythrocytes not detected in rat erythrocytes (14). Experiments were designed to estimate the uptake and release of ribavirin at 4°C and 37°C, via ¹⁴C-ribavirin, and to determine the drug's effect on osmotic fragility of rat, rhesus monkey and human erythrocytes. The results of the uptake studies show that monkey RBC's have a much stronger affinity for ribavirin than either rat or human RBC's and that uptake of ribavirin at 37°C is an energy requiring process. The release of ribavirin is an apparent equilibrium reaction that proceeds, via facilitated diffusion, in the direction of the concentration gradient: Free Rib⇆ Rib-P ⇆ Rib-P-P ⇆ Rib-P-P-P The osmotic fragility curves of fresh RBC's from the respective species, incubated 2.5 hours with ribavirin, showed no significant change from the control curves. However, monkey RBC's incubated 2.5 hours with 4095 μM ribavirin and an additional 21.5 hours in drug-free media became significantly more resistant to osmotic lysis. Rat and human RBC's similarly treated were not detectably affected. These data indicate that the uptake and release mechanisms for ribavirin are similar for all three species and that the effect of ribavirin on the osmotic fragility of fresh RBC's is not detectable.
THE CANDOMBLE RELIGION: A SOURCE OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL EMPOWERMENT FOR AFRO-BRAZILIAN WOMEN
(2008-01) Spaulding, Rachel Elizabeth; Hood College Arts and Humanities; Humanities
In my paper I focus on the role that the religion of Candomble plays in the development of the female identity in the Afro-Brazilian culture. It explores the conflation of the belief structures of the indigenous peoples, the spiritual ideologies of the African-Yoruba cultures and the Catholic faith. Moreover, as an extension of defining woman and defining what is sacred, it considers the symbolic nature of blood sacrifice as a confirmation of a deified status. It examines the space and the boundaries that these women inhabit when attempting to construct a true meaning and understanding of what it is to be a woman living in an Afro-Brazilian culture. Also, it takes into consideration the role religion plays in revealing the status of women who exist in this space, and as a consequence, the way the religion itself then becomes an influencing factor upon the definition of women in this culture. I develop a discussion about what is worshipped and held sacred with regards to the status of women as an underlying ideal which has a direct relationship to the political and economic realities for women in this Afro-Brazilian setting. As such, it considers various religious, social, economic and political theories that contribute in outlining the role of the Afro-Brazilian woman. It is my contention that women in the Afro-Brazilian culture have greater access to the resources of their societies based on an elevated quasi-deified status derivative of their role as priestesses of Candomble houses.