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Gaseous Ozone To Improve The Microbial Safety Of Spices, Seeds, And Nuts, Arshpreet Kaur Khattra May 2024

Gaseous Ozone To Improve The Microbial Safety Of Spices, Seeds, And Nuts, Arshpreet Kaur Khattra

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing number of reported outbreaks of pathogens in low-moisture foods (LMFs), there is a need to investigate novel non-thermal gaseous technologies to increase the microbiological safety of spices, nuts, and seeds without compromising the product quality. The objective of this study was to inactivate Salmonella spp. in different spices, seeds, and nuts using gaseous ozone treatment and evaluate the suitability of Enterococcus faecium as a potential surrogate for Salmonella. Each food product (dried basil leaves, black peppercorn, chia seeds, and walnuts) was separately inoculated with a 5-strain Salmonella and E. faecium cocktail and equilibrated to water activity …


The Effects Of Diet, Size, And Phylogeny On Primate Dental Proportions, Rudolph J. Wilkins Dec 2023

The Effects Of Diet, Size, And Phylogeny On Primate Dental Proportions, Rudolph J. Wilkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is generally appreciated that there is a relationship between the relative size of the incisors, mandible length, and diet in primates. More specifically, the differences in relative incisor size among primate species are believed to be evolutionary adaptations to their use during food processing and acquisition. While this satisfactorily explains relatively large incisors, it fails to address the relatively small incisor size seen in many taxa. One hypothesis is that there is a trade-off between molar size and incisor size in species with relatively short mandibles. The following study uses two-way ANOVA to evaluate the possibility that spatial constraint …


Decoding Usage And Adoption Behavior Of The Low-Carbon Transportation Market: An Ai-Driven Exploration, Vuban Chowdhury Dec 2023

Decoding Usage And Adoption Behavior Of The Low-Carbon Transportation Market: An Ai-Driven Exploration, Vuban Chowdhury

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transportation sector stands as a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, with its environmental impact steadily escalating over the past few decades. This has prompted government agencies to facilitate the adoption and usage of low-carbon transportation (LCT) options as alternatives to fossil-fuel-powered transportation. LCTs include modes of transportation that minimize the overall carbon footprint of the transportation sector by relying on energy sources that are environmentally sustainable. These sustainable transportation options have also garnered significant interest in the transportation research community. For government agencies and researchers alike, a comprehensive understanding of the adoption and usage …


Determining The Effect Of The Presence Of Food Deserts On The Number Of Crashes In Census Tracts In Arkansas, Lizbeth Juarez-Bartolo Dec 2023

Determining The Effect Of The Presence Of Food Deserts On The Number Of Crashes In Census Tracts In Arkansas, Lizbeth Juarez-Bartolo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Food deserts, areas with limited access to grocery stores which sell fresh produce, dairy, and meats, are a growing concern in many communities. The presence of a food desert is known to cause great impacts on the physical health of the people residing within them, but there is little to no research on a food desert’s influence on the traffic safety of the location in which it encompasses. Based on previous studies into food deserts, studies suggest that food inaccessibility is mostly felt by rural residents. Since rural residents must travel farther distances on more hazardous rural roadways to access …


Standing On The Edge Of A Dream, Parto Ahmadpour Mobarake Dec 2023

Standing On The Edge Of A Dream, Parto Ahmadpour Mobarake

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Standing On the Edge of a Dream delves into the intricate tapestry of lived experiences shaped by relocation, emphasizing the nuanced space that exists between reality and imagination. As an individual who has undergone the transformative journey of immigration, I recognize that the concept of relocation is like standing on the edge of a dream. This notion becomes a living structure, intricately woven with threads from our past, present, and future. My artistic exploration extends beyond my artworks, yet it remains deeply rooted in my personal narratives. The artworks in the exhibition continue to draw inspiration from personal memories and …


Increasing Accessibility For Hard-To-Reach Cultural Heritage Sites Using Low-Cost Drone Photogrammetry, Eray Can Dec 2023

Increasing Accessibility For Hard-To-Reach Cultural Heritage Sites Using Low-Cost Drone Photogrammetry, Eray Can

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

New recording technologies have ushered in a transformative era in archaeological research, with drone photogrammetry emerging as a pioneering tool in this field. This innovative approach leverages unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) equipped with high-resolution cameras to capture precise aerial imagery of archaeological sites. Drone photogrammetry offers numerous advantages, such as cost-efficiency, rapid data collection, and the ability to access remote or challenging terrain. By seamlessly integrating photogrammetric techniques, these technologies offer archaeologists the ability to create highly detailed 3D models. This study delves into the principles and applications of low-cost drone photogrammetry in archaeology, highlighting its potential to enhance site …


Oscillith Matara, James Reilly Dickens-Hoffman Dec 2023

Oscillith Matara, James Reilly Dickens-Hoffman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oscillith Matara is a series of improvisational acousmatic compositions that explore themes of birth, death, trauma and transformation. Each composition is an entry from a log of my daily practice. This practice is a meditation using electronic instruments as feedback devices to explore my states of consciousness as it relates to my present situation and personal history. The sound generated through this process of reflecting and responding acts as a cathartic medium for processing depression, anxiety and chronic pain. As a thesis exhibition Oscillith Matara is presented as a group of selected works and is performed as a fixed duration …


Where Will I Be From, Melissa Loney Dec 2023

Where Will I Be From, Melissa Loney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Where Will I Be From is an exhibition and film centered around the intersections of generational grief and technology. I documented domestic locations connected to my family across the Great Plains. This on-site photo documentation was then used to create photogrammetric renderings of these locations and their structures, recorded in the open-source CAD software Blender. Together, these familial places, separated by hundreds of miles, were digitally compiled to make one collective world. The aesthetic of this project connects the visual languages of Southern Gothic and Low-Poly Video games. The Gothic nature exposes an isolated decaying presence within a rural landscape. …


Deep Learning For Photovoltaic Characterization, Adrian Manuel De Luis Garcia Dec 2023

Deep Learning For Photovoltaic Characterization, Adrian Manuel De Luis Garcia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis introduces a novel approach to Photovoltaic (PV) installation segmentation by proposing a new architecture to understand and identify PV modules from overhead imagery. Pivotal to this concept is the creation of a new Transformer-based network, S3Former, which focuses on small object characterization and modelling intra- and inter- object differentiation inside an image. Accurate mapping of PV installations is pivotal for understanding their adoption and guiding energy policy decisions. Drawing insights from current Deep Learning methodologies for image segmentation and building upon State-of-the-Art (SOTA) techniques in solar cell mapping, this work puts forth S3Former with the following enhancements: 1. …


Where One Puts Wood On The Fire: The Political Economy Of P’Urépecha Urban Neighborhoods At The Site Of Angamuco, Michoacán, Kyle Ryan Urquhart Dec 2023

Where One Puts Wood On The Fire: The Political Economy Of P’Urépecha Urban Neighborhoods At The Site Of Angamuco, Michoacán, Kyle Ryan Urquhart

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the political and economic relationships in the organization and use of neighborhood public space at the archaeological site of Angamuco in Michoacán, Mexico. Ethnohistoric sources describe multiple distinct social classes for the P’urépecha people at the time of European contact, but they are ambiguous about the exact political and economic relationships among them. There is some description of how these different interest groups articulated at the level of the city-state, but there is not much information on the internal dynamics of neighborhood or district-level subdivisions of the city-state. The discovery of the remains of a …


Capabilities Of Sintered Silver As A High Temperature Packaging Material, Bakhtiyar Mohammad Nafis Dec 2023

Capabilities Of Sintered Silver As A High Temperature Packaging Material, Bakhtiyar Mohammad Nafis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With electrification progressing across many sectors including industry, automotive and aerospace, the power density requirements are changing. The increased power density results in higher and higher ambient temperatures that electronics are exposed to. The response has been to move towards wide bandgap (WBG) semiconductor devices that can withstand much greater temperatures and can operate at much higher voltages than silicon. Additionally, these WBG devices deliver low drain-source on resistance (RDS_on) capabilities, enabling high current power modules that increase power density even further. This also requires the packaging to evolve in order to withstand the new requirements. As a result, researchers …


Reliability Modeling And Improvement Of Critical Infrastructures: Theory, Simulation, And Computational Methods, José Carlos Hernández Azucena Dec 2023

Reliability Modeling And Improvement Of Critical Infrastructures: Theory, Simulation, And Computational Methods, José Carlos Hernández Azucena

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a framework for developing data-driven tools to model and improve the performance of Interconnected Critical Infrastructures (ICIs) in multiple contexts. The importance of ICIs for daily human activities and the large volumes of data in continuous generation in modern industries grant relevance to research efforts in this direction. Chapter 2 focuses on the impact of disruptions in Multimodal Transportation Networks, which I explored from an application perspective. The outlined research directions propose exploring the combination of simulation for decision-making with data-driven optimization paradigms to create tools that may provide stakeholders with optimal policies for a wide array …


How I Came To Jam With The Angels Of The Dirty South: A Journey Into Art And Art Education, Miki Skak Dec 2023

How I Came To Jam With The Angels Of The Dirty South: A Journey Into Art And Art Education, Miki Skak

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper dives into my personal journey from a far-left activist youth into becoming an artist. It explains how a poet saw artistic potential within me, introduced me to the world of art and eventually art education. I reflect on the art education I have received from several different art schools and how they try to adapt to the demands of the contemporary art world that has been in a constant condition of reshaping itself since Marcel Duchamp’s readymade. As an artist who is less focused on the techniques of traditional artistic mediums, I investigate how the state of art …


Self-Consolidating Concrete Design For Drilled Shaft Structural Applications, Grady S. Caton Dec 2023

Self-Consolidating Concrete Design For Drilled Shaft Structural Applications, Grady S. Caton

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-consolidating concrete (SCC) is a relatively new concrete technology which allows the concrete to be placed without the need for manual or machine vibration. This innovation reduces labor costs, construction times, and can provide a smooth, finished surface. However, this technology is used in the United States primarily in the precast and prestressed concrete industry. The utility of SCC in structural applications, such as areas of dense reinforcement or locations where complex geometry makes consolidation impossible, is also advantageous. In this study, a series of SCC mixtures were developed both with and without fly ash replacement. These mixtures were then …


Comparing In-Situ Liquefaction Triggering Procedures For Sites In Arkansas, Sagar Barua Dec 2023

Comparing In-Situ Liquefaction Triggering Procedures For Sites In Arkansas, Sagar Barua

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There currently exists a significant amount of uncertainty when designing piles for bridge foundations in liquefiable soil. Currently ARDOT engineers use a Standard Penetration Test (SPT) based liquefaction spreadsheet developed 10 years ago to evaluate liquefaction triggering. Since this spreadsheet was developed, updates to the liquefaction triggering procedures have been published making the spreadsheet out-of-date. Moreover, additional methods of liquefaction evaluation using cone penetration test (CPT) and shear wave velocity (Vs) provide added means of evaluating liquefaction potential. This thesis updates ARDOT's liquefaction triggering evaluation methodology with the newest procedures and incorporates additional empirical liquefaction hazard estimates such as the …


The Impact Of Eye-Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing On Self-Reported Test Anxiety In College Students, Renee Wilson Dec 2023

The Impact Of Eye-Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing On Self-Reported Test Anxiety In College Students, Renee Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Test Anxiety (TA) has become a major concern for college students. Experiencing mental concern about test-taking perpetuated by physiological hyperarousal directly affects students’ ability to be successful in college. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a multi-faceted therapeutic approach that aims to process dysfunctional negative cognitions which originate with negative past experiences to an adaptive state. Developed by Francine Shapiro in 1989, the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model undergirds the 30-second, therapist-initiated, bi-lateral eye-movements. These movements identify and reprocess emotionally disturbing experiences, linked to an individual’s emotional expression, by deliberatively triggering a connected trauma network. This dissertation examined the …


Development Of A Prototype Satellite-Tracking Telescope For Ground-Based Spectroscopy, Charles Smith Dec 2023

Development Of A Prototype Satellite-Tracking Telescope For Ground-Based Spectroscopy, Charles Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Spectroscopy is the practice of determining the chemical composition of a gas through analyzing the light that is filtered by the gas. Spectroscopy is commonly used by astronomers to deduce the atmospheric composition of planets. This process is done by initially measuring the spectrum of light from the star that the planet orbits, and then measuring it again once the planet is in between the observer and the star. The spectrum light that is filtered out is dependent on the chemical composition of the gas, and so this information can be used to determine the chemical composition of the atmosphere …


Characterization Of Highly Doped N-Type And P-Type Silicon Carbide Ohmic Contacts, Tanner Rice Dec 2023

Characterization Of Highly Doped N-Type And P-Type Silicon Carbide Ohmic Contacts, Tanner Rice

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Silicon Carbide (SiC) is a rather new material that possesses unparalleled properties when compared to Silicon. Due to its larger band gap alongside other thermal properties, SiC can survive in hotter, more radiation intensive environments, whether that be within the crust of the earth or in the reaches of space. As a desirable semiconductor for these applications, CMOS is an especially important device due to its low power consumption. However, creating a good contact between the metal and semiconductor optimally requires two different metals for the n -type and the p-type semiconductor. This greatly increases the processing time, as separate …


A Simulated Qualitative Study Exploring Higher Education Faculty's Perceptions Of Factors That Influence Dynamic Decision-Making When Choosing Opportunities For Student Engagement In Asynchronous Online Courses, Leticia De La Garza Dec 2023

A Simulated Qualitative Study Exploring Higher Education Faculty's Perceptions Of Factors That Influence Dynamic Decision-Making When Choosing Opportunities For Student Engagement In Asynchronous Online Courses, Leticia De La Garza

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore higher education faculty’s perceptions of factors that influence dynamic decision-making when choosing opportunities for student engagement in asynchronous online courses. More specifically, this study sought to understand how faculty in higher education perceived these factors to prevent and facilitate dynamic decision-making when designing instructor presence, student-to-student collaboration, and student-to-academic content engagement opportunities in asynchronous online courses, as Garrison et al. (1999) suggest, for a community of inquiry. There has not been much focus on the dynamic decision-making of online instructors in higher education and a call to continue exploring factors that influence …


Scaffolding Strategies That Benefit And Support Adult English As A Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: A Literature Review, Walkiris Mejia Ortega Dec 2023

Scaffolding Strategies That Benefit And Support Adult English As A Foreign Language Reading Comprehension: A Literature Review, Walkiris Mejia Ortega

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The poor reading proficiency and the lack of reading comprehension strategies have been a major flaw for adult university learners in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts, particularly in the case of English majors at the School of Foreign Languages in the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Research has shown this reading gap can be improved through suitable instructional strategies and assistance referred to as scaffolding. The purpose of this literature review was to investigate how beneficial scaffolding is for EFL adults´ reading comprehension, which scaffolding strategies prove effective in supporting EFL reading comprehension, and how those …


Understanding The Kinetics Of Laser-Induced Nanowelding Of Nanoparticles And The Motility Of Bacteria When Faced With Obstacles, Ariel Rogers Dec 2023

Understanding The Kinetics Of Laser-Induced Nanowelding Of Nanoparticles And The Motility Of Bacteria When Faced With Obstacles, Ariel Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation has two focus areas: nanoparticle nanowelding and bacteria motility in the presence of micrometer sized structures. There are two main projects for the nanoparticle nanowelding studies: “Real-time imaging of laser-induced nanowelding in solution” and “Two-color laser-induced nanostructure shape modulation.” For the real-time imaging project, I used a fluorescence microscope, a 405 nm laser, and various python packages to quantify the average size of nanowelded nanostructures as a function of time and found that the average nanostructure growth over time fit the parameters of A¯(t) ∝ c0(1−e−t/τ), where c0 represents the initial concentration of nanoparticles in the solution and …


The Alumni Base Holds The Institution In Their Heart: Alumni Decision Making And Communication Strategies During University Leadership Change, Brandy Cox Jackson Dec 2023

The Alumni Base Holds The Institution In Their Heart: Alumni Decision Making And Communication Strategies During University Leadership Change, Brandy Cox Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the research was to understand how alumni executives make decisions and formulate communication strategies during university leadership change. The research was based on the trends found by the American Council on Education that the tenure of the college president has been on the decline since 2006 and is currently 5.9 years. Multiple factors have been identified in the literature that have led to this decline. The research focused on the largest constituency of most universities, its alumni base, and provides context and a description of decision making and communication strategies for alumni executives navigating leadership change. The …


Developing Recommendations For Broad Mite, Polyphagotarsonemus Latus Banks, In Blackberry, Rubus Subgenus Rubus, Jared Bradley Linn Dec 2023

Developing Recommendations For Broad Mite, Polyphagotarsonemus Latus Banks, In Blackberry, Rubus Subgenus Rubus, Jared Bradley Linn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Broad mite, (Polyphagotarsonemus latus Banks) (Acari: Tarsonemidae), is an economically important pest of blackberry production across the world. Since it was first reported on primocane-fruiting blackberries in 2010, little work has gone into developing IPM tools and understanding impact on floricane-fruiting cultivars. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of broad mite feeding on floricane-fruiting cultivars of blackberry, develop an efficient and accurate field scouting strategy, and investigate the impact of cultivar and trellising technique on the development of broad mite populations. Experiments consisted of evaluating floricane fruiting cultivars by quantifying broad mite populations and cataloging their …


Cellular Control Of Proteostasis, Cytoskeleton Organization, And Polarity Remodeling During Infection-Related Development By The Rice Blast Fungus, Audra Rogers Dec 2023

Cellular Control Of Proteostasis, Cytoskeleton Organization, And Polarity Remodeling During Infection-Related Development By The Rice Blast Fungus, Audra Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding the intricate processes underlying fungal infection-related development is crucial for combating plant pathogens. In this study, we investigate the coordination of morphogenetic transitions during plant infection by Magnaporthe oryzae, the blast fungus. We focus on three key aspects: protein quality control, cytoplasmic microtubule organization, and cell-end marker proteins. M. oryzae forms a specialized infection cell known as an appressorium. The proper formation of this cell is crucial for the pathogen to infect a susceptible host. First, we investigate protein quality control mechanisms during infection-related development. Our findings demonstrate that aggregated proteins are sequestered into quality control compartments within conidia …


Characteristics Of Award-Winning Children’S Books About Agriculture: An Analysis Of Content, And The Perspectives Of Authors, Illustrators, And Publishers, Addison L. Beckham Dec 2023

Characteristics Of Award-Winning Children’S Books About Agriculture: An Analysis Of Content, And The Perspectives Of Authors, Illustrators, And Publishers, Addison L. Beckham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this two-article qualitative study was to characterize children's literature about agriculture and to describe the perceptions of authors and illustrators who are responsible for writing and designing these successful publications. This will result in the ability of organizations like Feeding Minds Press to provide writers, illustrators, and publishers with effective strategies and techniques to improve the accuracy and overall quality of children’s literature about agriculture. Few parameters exist for authors of children’s books about agriculture (Biser, 2007). These parameters are necessary to ensure the quality and accuracy of these educational efforts (Serafini, 2012). Though Feeding Minds Press …


Assessment Of Needs And Priorities For Precision Agriculture And Soil Testing In Arkansas, Solomon Frimpong Dec 2023

Assessment Of Needs And Priorities For Precision Agriculture And Soil Testing In Arkansas, Solomon Frimpong

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Optimum crop production is needed to meet the growing population's food, water, fiber, and energy needs. However, agricultural productivity is hampered by many destabilizing factors such as pest management challenges, declining water quantity, and climate change which threaten long-term food security. Maximizing productivity will require optimizing resources through Precision Agriculture (PA) by supplying inputs based on crop needs. Precision Agriculture offers tools that can be used to optimize crop management practices globally. However, stakeholders’ perceptions and the lack of data-driven site-specific recommendations limit stakeholders’ ability to fully harness the potential benefits of PA. Identification of stakeholder needs and approaches to …


Evaluation Of Water Hardness And Ph On Soybean And Cotton Insecticide Efficacy, Taylor Davis Dec 2023

Evaluation Of Water Hardness And Ph On Soybean And Cotton Insecticide Efficacy, Taylor Davis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Insecticide efficacy often varies by location and year. Many factors can influence an insecticide’s efficacy, but an often-overlooked factor is the quality of water in a carrier solution. Water quality includes many parameters, but two important ones are water hardness and pH. Research has shown that water hardness and pH can affect some pesticides. Multiple experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of water hardness and pH on insecticide efficacy. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of water hardness and pH on the efficacy and residual control of chlorantraniliprole for the control of corn earworm, Helicoverpa zea (Boddie). Leaf …


Deep Learning Frameworks For Accelerated Magnetic Resonance Image Reconstruction Without Ground Truths, Ibsa Kumara Jalata Dec 2023

Deep Learning Frameworks For Accelerated Magnetic Resonance Image Reconstruction Without Ground Truths, Ibsa Kumara Jalata

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is typically a slow process because of its sequential data acquisition. To speed up this process, MR acquisition is often accelerated by undersampling k-space signals and solving an ill-posed problem through a constrained optimization process. Image reconstruction from under-sampled data is posed as an inverse problem in traditional model-based learning paradigms. While traditional methods use image priors as constraints, modern deep learning methods use supervised learning with ground truth images to learn image features and priors. However, in some cases, ground truth images are not available, making supervised learning impractical. Recent data-centric learning frameworks such as …


The Needs That Instagram Satisfies For People Seeking News & How This Displaces Time Spent With Traditional Media, Madeleine Dunn Dec 2023

The Needs That Instagram Satisfies For People Seeking News & How This Displaces Time Spent With Traditional Media, Madeleine Dunn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines how the current climate of mainstream media is changing, and how this may affect journalistic norms and practices. There are many outlets for consumers to receive news, including traditional media, such as television news, newspapers, magazines, etc. There is also social media. The future of mainstream media outlets, like television stations, newspapers, magazines and radio stations, seems to depend on the growing use of social media sites for the use of getting news. This research will focus on Instagram as an alternative to traditional media, and why people prefer to use this outlet to get their news. …


Demographics, Sexual Dimorphism, And Ecological Aspects Of Ambystoma Annulatum (Ringed Salamander) In Northwest Arkansas, Usa, Brian M. Becker Dec 2023

Demographics, Sexual Dimorphism, And Ecological Aspects Of Ambystoma Annulatum (Ringed Salamander) In Northwest Arkansas, Usa, Brian M. Becker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The need to study and monitor amphibian populations is increasing along with the threats to their population stability and persistence in nature. Northwest Arkansas is one of the fastest growing areas in the nation and with that growth comes rapid changes in land use, massive alterations to habitats, habitat loss, and the introduction of nonnative plants and animals. Ambystoma annulatum (Ringed Salamander) is an Ambystomatid endemic to the Ozark and Ouachita Mountains of southern Missouri, northern and western Arkansas, and eastern Oklahoma giving it a relatively small distribution compared to most Ambystoma. Therefore, Arkansas constitutes a significant portion of the …