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Chip- And System-Level Reliability On Sic-Based Power Modules, Pengyu Lai Sep 2023

Chip- And System-Level Reliability On Sic-Based Power Modules, Pengyu Lai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The blocking voltage, switching frequency and temperature tolerance of power devices have been greatly improved due to the revolution of wide bandgap (WBG) materials, such as silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN). Owing to the development of SiC-based power devices, the power rating, operating voltage, and power density of power modules have been significantly improved. However, the reliability of SiC-based power modules has not been fully explored yet. Thus, this dissertation focuses on the chip- and system-level reliability on SiC-based power modules. For chip-level reliability, this work focuses on on-chip SiC ESD protection devices for SiC-based integrated circuits (ICs). …


Statewide Implementation Of Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (Care) In Early Childhood Educational Centers: Examination Of Implementation Determinants, Kathryn Parisi Sep 2023

Statewide Implementation Of Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (Care) In Early Childhood Educational Centers: Examination Of Implementation Determinants, Kathryn Parisi

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

To expand reach of evidence-based strategies for the treatment and prevention of childhood mental health issues, implementation efforts have been focused on educational settings. However, little is known about what facilitates the success of these programs. Implementation determinants provide insight about processes impacting success at the administrative and individual provider level. The current investigation examined data collected from a statewide implementation of Child-Adult Relationship Enhancement (CARE) in early childhood education centers and preschools. Two-hundred, seventeen teachers from 10 early childhood centers and preschools provided ratings of their students’ behavior for several weeks before and after participating in CARE training. Participants …


Density And Occupancy Of Mammals Along An Urban To Rural Gradient In Northwest Arkansas, Leah E. Mctigue Sep 2023

Density And Occupancy Of Mammals Along An Urban To Rural Gradient In Northwest Arkansas, Leah E. Mctigue

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Human development is a rapidly expanding phenomenon impacting wildlife communities globally. As the human footprint expands, natural greenspace and nature reserves become fragmented and isolated. Wildlife species and communities respond to these changes in different ways. Urban exploiters persist in more urban areas and are able to take advantage of anthropogenic subsidies (food, shelter, etc). Urban avoiders, however, are species that may be pushed out of developed areas or occur in lower densities relative to undisturbed areas. Northwest Arkansas is an optimal location to study the impacts of urbanization on wildlife communities, as the current human population is expected to …


Partial Discharge Mitigation In Power Modules Using An Automation-Driven Design Rule Development Method, Shilpi Mukherjee Sep 2023

Partial Discharge Mitigation In Power Modules Using An Automation-Driven Design Rule Development Method, Shilpi Mukherjee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Power modules used for the conversion and conditioning of electrical power for applications like electric vehicles, more-electric aircraft, the power grid, etc., are largely designed manually by engineers. Design automation of power modules is starting to gain recognition as a timely and necessary alternative to intuitive manual design and fabrication. With increasing need for wide bandgap materials that can operate at higher voltages, and the need to make modules more compact, hazards like electrical breakdown are more likely. Partial discharge (PD) is a silent and invisible precursor to electrical breakdown. It is compounded with compaction, creating a potential for electrical …


Estimation Of Gross Primary Productivity Of Rice In Arkansas Using The Vegetation Photosynthesis Model, Riasad Bin Mahbub Sep 2023

Estimation Of Gross Primary Productivity Of Rice In Arkansas Using The Vegetation Photosynthesis Model, Riasad Bin Mahbub

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An estimate of the gross primary productivity (GPP) of rice fields can be instrumental to understand their harvest yield and to fulfill an array of agricultural monitoring needs. One of the most common satellite-based models to estimate GPP is the vegetation photosynthesis model (VPM). In this study, we use the VPM model for rice cropland in Arkansas and validate our findings against 16 site-years in-situ data (eddy covariance (EC)). At the site scale, results validated against 16 site-years have shown that the VPM with site information (R2 = 0.71, MAE = 2.90 g C m-2day- 1, and RMSE = 4.04 …


Index Fund Ownership And Stock Price Efficiency: Evidence From Quarterly Earnings Seasons, Joe López Vilaró Sep 2023

Index Fund Ownership And Stock Price Efficiency: Evidence From Quarterly Earnings Seasons, Joe López Vilaró

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While prior research argues that individual investors benefit from a switch to passive investment in index funds (French 2008, Bond and García 2022), higher levels of index fund ownership of firm shares lead to competing factors that influence a firm’s price efficiency (i.e., the speed and accuracy with which a firm’s stock price reflects investor consensus on the information provided about a firm). If relative investor sophistication increases as index fund ownership increases, there is a benefit to the firm’s price efficiency. Yet, more shares held passively limit the shares available for investors to actively incorporate firm news, adversely impacting …


The Influence Of Temperature, Prey Availability, And Population Of Origin On Ectotherm Energetics, Allison R. Litmer Sep 2023

The Influence Of Temperature, Prey Availability, And Population Of Origin On Ectotherm Energetics, Allison R. Litmer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change poses threats to organisms regarding direct and indirect effects of warming temperatures. Laboratory studies and predictive models are useful for understanding how temperature influences organisms, and the future of species’ life history and persistence. This dissertation expands upon current approaches to thermal studies and climate models, while investigating effects of warming nighttime temperature and altered prey availability on individuals and populations. Lizards in the genus Sceloporus were used as model organisms, as they are broadly distributed with thermally sensitive physiologies. The first dissertation chapter conducted meta-analyses to examine temperature-induced changes in food consumption, activity, and life history. Prominent …


Decrypting The Processes Of Policy Evolution: Comparing Québec And Ontario’S Evolution Of Risk Management Policies, Frederick Clerson Guicherd Sep 2023

Decrypting The Processes Of Policy Evolution: Comparing Québec And Ontario’S Evolution Of Risk Management Policies, Frederick Clerson Guicherd

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through policies or programs, states can influence industries to align with their vision of what a sector should become. However, this vision is subject to influence from actors of the industries which emphasize the importance of the relationship between the state and interest groups. In this dissertation, we observe the evolution of 9 Canadian agriculture risk management programs implemented by two provincial governments between 1990 and 2020 to understand how such programs coped with the new trends in agriculture. Through a review of parliamentary discussions and official documents, we evaluate the factors that justified program evolution based on the combination …


Her Story Told Her Way: A Narrative Inquiry Into Black Women’S Perception Of The Strong Black Woman., Chulyndria Chanee Laye Sep 2023

Her Story Told Her Way: A Narrative Inquiry Into Black Women’S Perception Of The Strong Black Woman., Chulyndria Chanee Laye

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The narrative surrounding the meaning of being a Black woman has historically been dominated by stereotypes such as the mammy, jezebel, sapphire, and angry Black woman. Black women have attempted to control their own narrative through the internalization of these stereotypes, leading to the creation of the Strong Black Woman (SBW) construct. While the SBW is comprised of a sense of caretaker, independence, and emotional restraint, Black women’s attempts at embodying this construct in the face of societal oppression and familial responsibilities can and often does have negative effects on their mental health. Although the behaviors associated with the SBW …


The Future Of Public And Private Plant Breeding According To Plant Scientists, Lexie Burris Sep 2023

The Future Of Public And Private Plant Breeding According To Plant Scientists, Lexie Burris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Plant breeding has been effective in addressing food insecurity by increasing agricultural yields and productivity. Historically, public plant breeding programs have long-term, integrated approaches to plant breeding research, germplasm enhancement, and variety development, but as funding is reduced the future is less certain as to areas of focus. This survey builds off those before it and asks the next logical question, if a divergence between private and public breeding is taking place, what aspects should each sector focus on? The impetus of this study was to ask opinions of plant breeders globally regarding the direction they believe the public and …


Treating High Salinity Produced Water Using Hybrid Membrane Processes: Electrocoagulation-Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration-Membrane Distillation-Crystallization, Mahmood Gheni Jebur Sep 2023

Treating High Salinity Produced Water Using Hybrid Membrane Processes: Electrocoagulation-Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration-Membrane Distillation-Crystallization, Mahmood Gheni Jebur

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Produced water (PW) is considered the largest industrial wastewater stream in the world. PW generated from oil and gas operations generally contains a range of contaminants including high total dissolved solids, high total suspended solids, polar and nonpolar organic compounds, and low surface tension dissolved species. Treating PW is very challenging and applying only membrane-based technologies is not sufficient due to membrane fouling, which affects their long-term performance. Hence, integrated membrane processes are required to treat PW effectively. Hybrid membrane processes, which may result from combining a conventional process with a membrane separation, could be used to address the issues …


Utilizing The 3d Environment To Facilitate Learning Of Complex Visual Neural Pathways In The Avian Brain, Parker Straight Sep 2023

Utilizing The 3d Environment To Facilitate Learning Of Complex Visual Neural Pathways In The Avian Brain, Parker Straight

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neuroanatomical pathways are difficult to study often due to the limit of methods used to visualize the anatomical and physiologic characteristics. In many studies, a neural pathway is presented using 2D representations for structural connectivity. A problem is deciding which of three planes: coronal, sagittal, or horizontal is best for visualizing the pathway’s components clearly and spatially precise for those wanting to learn and utilize that information. A 3D environment would be imperative in solving this issue. We therefore attempted to develop a means of accurately presenting detailed anatomical structures within the 3D regions they occurred. It is our hope …


Otherwise, You Will Have To Suffer The Consequences: The Racial Cleansing Of Catcher, Arkansas, Michael Johnson Anthony Sep 2023

Otherwise, You Will Have To Suffer The Consequences: The Racial Cleansing Of Catcher, Arkansas, Michael Johnson Anthony

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following the brutal murder of a young white woman in late 1923, the rural town of Catcher, Arkansas divided along racial lines. Rumors that the woman had been raped and murdered by three Black men angered a portion of the white community who formed a 500-person mob to punish the accused. After an unsuccessful attempt at lynching the men, a small portion of this mob turned its attention to the remaining Black citizens still residing around Catcher. Anonymous notices were posted at several locations throughout the community threatening Black citizens to leave or suffer the consequences. Eleven men armed themselves …


Non-Physical Abuse In Sports: Organizational Culture’S Role, Ian O'Rourke Sep 2023

Non-Physical Abuse In Sports: Organizational Culture’S Role, Ian O'Rourke

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of sport professionals who worked in organizations that tolerated non-physical abuse. This qualitative study used active interviewing and grounded-theory design to guide the data collection and coding efforts. The data identified emerging themes to generate essential theory. The research collected data through interviews with 10 sport professionals. This phenomenological study looked at sport professionals’ experiences who worked at private sport organizations and those that worked within a university athletic department. Interview responses illustrated that all participants experienced comparable treatment and felt similarly to the non-physical abuse taking place. An interesting …


An Exploratory Analysis On The Lived Experiences Of First-Year Students Participating In Living Learning Communities On A College Campus, Cody James Lindbloom Sep 2023

An Exploratory Analysis On The Lived Experiences Of First-Year Students Participating In Living Learning Communities On A College Campus, Cody James Lindbloom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Living learning communities in higher education involve students living in a shared residence space and a faculty or staff member leading various activities. These communities have been shown to help students transition to and retain in higher education, promote higher grade point averages, and provide peer support. However, only a limited number of published studies have shown the benefits for students who may have adverse experiences because they come from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived social support received and the benefits of the support across a sample of first-semester living learning community students …


Risk-Returns Of Forward Contracting Southern Row Crops With Crop Revenue Insurance, Chandan Bhattarai Aug 2023

Risk-Returns Of Forward Contracting Southern Row Crops With Crop Revenue Insurance, Chandan Bhattarai

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the risk and return associated with various levels of forward contracting for southern row crops, specifically corn, soybean, and rice, in conjunction with different coverage levels of the Revenue Protection (RP) crop insurance program and government support plans. Forward contracting is a strategy to manage price risk by transferring ownership of physical grain from a seller to a buyer at a pre-agreed time. RP is a return-based crop insurance program offering coverage levels ranging from 50-85 percent in 5 percent increments, which allows producers to hedge against yield or price risks. Additionally, the study analyzed the effectiveness …


The Hidden Role Of Religiosity In Contemporary Public Education In The United States Of America, Marilyn Anderson Rhames Aug 2023

The Hidden Role Of Religiosity In Contemporary Public Education In The United States Of America, Marilyn Anderson Rhames

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The ‘separation of church and state’ is a fundamental precept of the United States, yet the phrase itself is not written in the Constitution and even Supreme Court justices disagree on how it should be defined. The ambiguity surrounding religious liberty is perhaps most felt in K-12 public education, where the fear of inflicting faith formation on impressionable students has inspired the vision of a secular, God-neutral, government-run school system. As such, federal and state laws dictate that public school educators who coerce students by promoting or inhibiting religious devotion risk losing their jobs. Yet, the reality is that the …


Beef And Dairy Substitution Effects Associated With Carbon Labeling And An Information Intervention, Sara Gardner Hedgecock Aug 2023

Beef And Dairy Substitution Effects Associated With Carbon Labeling And An Information Intervention, Sara Gardner Hedgecock

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Understanding consumer perceptions of carbon emissions in agriculture is a critical step to help increase the sustainability of food consumption. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 14.5 percent of all global anthropogenic GHG emissions are estimated to be represented by livestock (FAO), and cattle, raised for beef and milk, are the largest animal species responsible for emissions, comprising over 60 percent of the livestock sector’s emissions. This motivates this study’s analysis of beef and dairy milk products and alternatives. To better understand how consumers may substitute meat and milk products when provided with information about …


Investigation Of The Flow Field In The Jack Rabbit Ii Mock Urban Environment Field Tests Using A 1:50 Scale Wind Tunnel Model, Paulo Victor De Freitas Lopes Aug 2023

Investigation Of The Flow Field In The Jack Rabbit Ii Mock Urban Environment Field Tests Using A 1:50 Scale Wind Tunnel Model, Paulo Victor De Freitas Lopes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Accidental release of toxic chemicals can put workers and nearby populations at significant risk. Consequence assessment of accidents in urban environments is of particular interest. Urban geometries create wind channels between buildings, along with particularly dangerous areas downwind of buildings, where near-stagnant flow is present. Furthermore, recirculation zones can be formed between buildings, trapping high concentrations of toxic gases at ground level, particularly for denser-than-air gases. In 2015, the Department of Homeland Security conducted the Jack Rabbit II Field Test (JR-II) at Dugway Proving Ground, UT. During JR-II, chlorine was released at the center of a Mock Urban Environment (MUE) …


Generation Z’S Perceptions Of Hunting And Conservation Efforts In Arkansas, Hannah Ferguson Aug 2023

Generation Z’S Perceptions Of Hunting And Conservation Efforts In Arkansas, Hannah Ferguson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hunting participation numbers have steadily declined since the 1980s and Generation Z is not engaging in hunting. Hunting is one of the most effective tools for managing wildlife populations and ensuring the success and local ecosystem conservation. Many wildlife stewardship institutions, such as Arkansas Game and Fish Commission in Arkansas, are funded by sales taxes imposed on firearms, ammo, and archery equipment. With a decline in hunting participation, it is imperative state-run wildlife stewardship organizations and other hunting institutions learn the best practices for communicating with younger generations. This study sought to understand Generation Z’s perceptions of hunting and conservation …


Household Manifestations Of Coalescence At Carden Bottoms (3ye0025) And In The Arkansas River Valley, Gillian Marie Steeno Aug 2023

Household Manifestations Of Coalescence At Carden Bottoms (3ye0025) And In The Arkansas River Valley, Gillian Marie Steeno

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Excavations at Carden Bottoms (3YE0025), an Early Contact period farmstead site in the Arkansas River Valley, yield important information about cultural mingling at a briefly occupied site affected by European contact. These broad cultural interactions have been explored; however, traditions and practices at the individual household level are largely unknown. In this thesis, I explore contexts including three house structures and associated pits at the Carden Bottoms site. This case study includes attribute analyses and chi-square tests performed on ceramic decoration and temper as well as lithic tool and source material. Additionally, ceramic form is investigated between and within households …


Verification Of Astm Centrifugation Equations For Soil Suction Determination, Esteban Maclein Miranda Pinzon Aug 2023

Verification Of Astm Centrifugation Equations For Soil Suction Determination, Esteban Maclein Miranda Pinzon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The unit correction constant (B) in the ASTM D6836 standard needs to be evaluated. The B-value was proposed to be 0.00548 instead of 0.00553. This apparent discrepancy led to an investigation comparing the predicted and measured suction values for high air entry (HAE) ceramic disks. A Beckman-Coulter Model J6-MI six-bay centrifuge and a WP4C Dewpoint Potentiameter were used in the testing program. HAE ceramic disks rated with bubbling pressures of 3-bar and 5-bar were used as analogue soil specimens. The HAE ceramic disks were spun in the small-scale centrifuge to apply prescribed suction amounts and then placed in the WP4C …


Alkali Silica Reaction Mitigation Using Glycerin, Ana Laura Errigo Chanis Aug 2023

Alkali Silica Reaction Mitigation Using Glycerin, Ana Laura Errigo Chanis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of glycerin as a concrete additive to reduce alkali silica reaction (ASR), was evaluated and is presented in this study. Specifically, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) ultra-accelerated alkali silica reaction testing procedure by means of autoclaving was employed to examine the use of glycerin for ASR mitigation or reduction by analyzing mortar bar expansion data. The fine aggregates used in this investigation consisted of highly reactive Jobe Sand or Los Lunas Sand with an autoclave expansion of 0.5 and 0.4 percent, respectively. The laboratory investigation was performed by recording the amount of expansion of the …


Development And Use Of A Detached Leaf Assay To Assess Soybean Cultivar Resistance To Target Spot, Caused By Corynespora Cassiicola, Rachael Wolf Aug 2023

Development And Use Of A Detached Leaf Assay To Assess Soybean Cultivar Resistance To Target Spot, Caused By Corynespora Cassiicola, Rachael Wolf

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Target spot, caused by the fungus Corynespora cassiicola, was once considered a minor foliar disease of soybean in the US. However, a severe outbreak of target spot occurred in the southeastern U.S in 2016. Due to the lack of information on resistance in soybean cultivars, and the challenges in screening cultivars in the field, a detached leaf assay was developed to evaluate resistance. The objectives of the effort were to 1) develop a greenhouse inoculation method of soybean with C. cassiicola 2) use that method to compare reactions of soybean germplasm lines to target spot 3) collect and characterize isolates …


Ways To Endure, Skyler J. Maggiore Aug 2023

Ways To Endure, Skyler J. Maggiore

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Ways to Endure is an installation of photographic-based inquiry through light, steel, emulsion, glass and, healing welted skins. Topographic satellite imagery of flood-prone peaks and valleys within my rural home county are abstracted by a Google Earth glitch. Acupuncture needles are a reminder of sorrow and relief and an indicator of boundary and location. The Fresnel lens has a historical responsibility as a beacon, a tool of survival and navigation, originally used to concentrate and project light in lighthouses, and fire starters in survival kits. The Fresnels are fixed in front of intimate portraits to magnify and abstract. This installation …


A Pilot Study Of Students’ Ethical Decision Making And Emotional Intelligence, Casandra K. Cox Aug 2023

A Pilot Study Of Students’ Ethical Decision Making And Emotional Intelligence, Casandra K. Cox

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Demand for ethical leaders in agriculture is high to meet 21st century goals, while ethics course offerings in land-grant institutions are limited. The purpose of this case study was to establish a baseline of current University of Arkansas Bumpers College of Agriculture, Food and Life Science (Bumpers College) agriculture and natural resource program students’ ethical decision making (EDM), as measured by the DIT-2, and emotional intelligence (EI), as measured by STEM-B and STEU-B, determine if EI mean scores predict EDM, and identify relationships between EDM or EI and demographic characteristics or lifespan experiences. An online survey design with probability sampling …


The Influence Of Climate And Landscape On Allocapnia Mohri Distribution In Arkansas, Brianna Leigh Annaratone Aug 2023

The Influence Of Climate And Landscape On Allocapnia Mohri Distribution In Arkansas, Brianna Leigh Annaratone

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stoneflies are a globally threatened aquatic insect order. In Arkansas, a diverse group of winter stonefly (Capniidae: Allocapnia) have not been surveyed since the 1980s, likely because species-level identification requires the rarely-collected adult form. Allocapnia mohri, a regional endemic, was previously commonly found in mountainous, intermittent streams from the Ouachita Mountains ecoregion north to the Ozark Highlands, but no species distributional models including land use or climate variables exist to our knowledge. We collected adults from 70 stream reaches from the historic Arkansas range from November to April 2020 and 2021. We modeled distributions using random forest (RF) models populated …


A Comparative Study Of Techniques For Non-Monotonic Dependence With Emphasis On Sensitivity To Sample Size, Noise Level And Computational Attributes, Fariha Tasnim Aug 2023

A Comparative Study Of Techniques For Non-Monotonic Dependence With Emphasis On Sensitivity To Sample Size, Noise Level And Computational Attributes, Fariha Tasnim

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Evaluating association between variables is often of interest by many researchers. To serve this purpose, different association measures have been developed. However, type of relation between variables affects the degree of relationship. Hence, detection of the rela- tionship between variables is germane to measuring the correlation coefficient. With that mindset, here we explored six non-monotonic measure of association techniques and com- pared them with three classical approaches. Due to inconsistency in definition and range of different techniques, it is not feasible to compare the correlation estimates as their nature of variability differ. Therefore, we used permutation test based on Monte …


Understanding The Environmental And Genetic Influence On Fluctuating Asymmetry And Developmental Instability In Primates, Ashly N. Romero Aug 2023

Understanding The Environmental And Genetic Influence On Fluctuating Asymmetry And Developmental Instability In Primates, Ashly N. Romero

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explored the impact of environmental factors on the development and perpetuation of fluctuating asymmetry (FA) and sought to understand the role evolution may play in the FA exhibited in two primate populations: the free-ranging Cayo Santiago rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) and the Southwest National Primate Research Center olive baboons (Papio hamadryas anubis). Demographic, ontogenetic, secular, external, and genetic factors were examined. Specifically, this dissertation investigated FA over all ontogenetic stages, across decades, between sexes, in association with ecological catastrophes, and with tooth pathology to try and tease apart factors that may influence FA and developmental instability. This dissertation …


Factors Affecting Food Security And Participation In Food Pantries In The U.S., Alexis Jade Skinner Aug 2023

Factors Affecting Food Security And Participation In Food Pantries In The U.S., Alexis Jade Skinner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Given the rise in food inflation, reduction of SNAP benefits, and the increased demand for food pantry participation, a more holistic understanding of potential barriers to obtaining assistance from non-Federally regulated food pantries is warranted. In May of 2022, 625 surveys were administered to low-income participants in the United States who participated in food collection from a food pantry in the previous month. Those participants were asked to select what information they were asked to provide during their visit, including home address, place of employment, Social Security card, driver’s license, household size, blood test, or others. Some forms of the …