Digital Commons Network^™

Electromagnetic Formation Control Using Frequency Multiplexing, Zahra Abbasi

Theses and Dissertations--Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

This dissertation addresses control of relative positions and orientations of formation flying satellites using magnetic interactions. Electromagnetic formation flight (EMFF) is implemented, in which each satellite is equipped with a set of electromagnetic coils to generate an electromagnetic field. Traditional EMFF technique applies DC magnetic fields which lead to a nonlinear and highly coupled formation dynamics that allow for only position or orientation control of the satellites. We present a new frequency multiplexing method, which is a technique that uses multi-frequency sinusoidal controls, to approximately decouple the formation dynamics and to provide enough controls for both position and orientation control. …

Comparison Of Implant-Retained Overdenture And Conventional Complete Denture In The Edentulous Mandible: A Survey Study To Measure Patients' Satisfaction And Quality Of Life In Dental School Clinical Environment, Ahmad Kutkut

Theses and Dissertations--Clinical and Translational Science

Patient satisfaction and quality of life are integral parts of assessing the quality of oral health care. Current aging population trends suggest a growing need to understand the effects of edentulism on oral health and quality of life. As the proportion of aged Americans expands, there will be an increased need to understand treatment options and patient communication strategies. In addition, as new treatment options and innovative technologies emerge, it will be essential to understand patients' concerns and identify best practices associated with denture treatments' individual fit and function. Advanced denture treatments can now be fabricated using CAD/CAM digital denture …

Genetic Mouse Models Of Liver Disease: Potential Roles Of Zhx2 (Afr1) And Afr2 In Damage And Regeneration, Courtney P. Turpin

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences

The liver is the largest internal organ in mammals and responsible for carrying out various processes, including lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, detoxification of chemicals, and production of serum proteins. Liver damage, which can be caused by a variety of agents including viral infection, environmental toxins, alcohol and excessive dietary fats, can cause dysregulation of these critical functions, leading to worsening liver pathophysiology and impacting health. However, the liver has the remarkable ability to regenerate when damaged. Hepatocytes, which comprise a majority of liver cells, are relatively quiescent under healthy conditions. Upon injury, remaining hepatocytes can proliferate to recover from liver …

Novel Mammalian Models For Understanding And Treating Spinal Cord Injury, Michael B. Orr

Theses and Dissertations--Physiology

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is devastating and often leaves the injured individual with persistent dysfunction. The injury persists because humans have poor wound repair and there are no pharmacologic treatments to induce wound repair after SCI. The continued efforts to discover therapeutic targets and develop treatments heavily relies on animal models. The purpose of this project is to develop and study novel mammalian models of SCI to provide insights for the development and effective implementation of SCI therapies.

Lab mice (Mus musculus) are a powerful tool for recapitulating the progression and persistent damage evident in human SCI, but …

Development Of A Robust Linac-Based Radiosurgery Program For Multiple Brain Metastases & Estimation The Radiobiological Response Of Indirect Cell Kill, Allison Palmiero

Theses and Dissertations--Radiation Medicine

Accurate and precise delivery of Stereotactic Radiosurgery (SRS) using Gamma Knife (GK) unit by Leksell is a gold standard for multiple intracranial lesions. SRS provides less brain toxicity compared to whole brain radiotherapy techniques historically used. However, these treatments are limited in availability and are accompanied by long treatment times with painful, intolerable headframe fixation. With advancements in linear accelerator (Linac) based SRS, multiple brain lesions can be treated separately with individual isocenters or, more recently, altogether with a single isocenter multi-target (SIMT) volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) technique. SIMT methods reduce the challenges of treating patients with GK by …

Profiling Social Media Tourists Using Literature During 2015-2019: Criminal Profiling Method, Jijun Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

With the continuous development of mobile commerce and the Internet, social media has deeply penetrated people’s lives and fundamentally changed the way of searching, reading and using travel-related information. With this backdrop, this research studied social media tourists (SMTs) who share or acquire information related to the hospitality and tourism on social media platforms. Based on 271 empirical articles retrieved from major databases and top hospitality and tourism journals in the recent five years from 2015 to 2019, this research developed a profiling framework about SMTs using criminal profiling method. The findings showed the possibility of using the criminal profiling …

Evaluating The Performance Of Reusable Level 2 Isolation Gowns, Susan I. Dabbain

Theses and Dissertations--Retailing and Tourism Management

The purpose of this research was to evaluate the performance of commercially available reusable Level 2 isolation gowns over the product’s lifecycle by assessing the ability to protect at an AAMI Level 2. The performance of the gowns was evaluated to determine if they met the required specifications of the AAMI and ASTM standards. Seventy-two commercially available Level 2 reusable gowns from six sample groups were evaluated. The results of testing the barrier and durability performance were compared to the specification of ANSI/AAMI PB70:2012 and ASTM F3352 – 19. Gowns were evaluated initially, and after 5, 10, 25, 50, and …

Seeing Double With Cannabis: Heteroploid Populations In Bipolaris Gigantea, Causal Agent Of Bipolaris Leaf Spot, Desiree Szarka

Theses and Dissertations--Plant Pathology

Bipolaris leaf spot (BLS) disease emerged with the reintroduction of hemp as a crop in the United States following more than 60 years of prohibition. The causal agent was identified as Bipolaris gigantea (=Drechslera gigantea), a known minor pathogen of monocots which causes devastating disease on hemp. BLS has been confirmed throughout Kentucky and reported in 15 states. Morphology and growth characteristics of isolates from eight counties across Kentucky were similar with the exception of some isolates producing protoperithecial-like structures. Phylogenetic and whole genome analysis indicated that some isolates were haploid, containing a single allele at each gene …

Muscle Mass And Immune Function In The Senior Horse, Alisa Christina Herbst

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Senior horses (≥ 15 years) represent up to one-third of the global equine population, and the proportion of old horses (≥ 20 years) in the U.S. has been steadily increasing. Aging is associated with a loss of skeletal muscle mass in horses, and while age-related muscle loss is comparingly well characterized in humans, little is currently known concerning underlying mechanisms, adverse outcomes, or the prevalence of low muscle mass in senior horses. One factor proposed to play a role in the development of age-related muscle atrophy in humans is inflamm-aging, a low-grade inflammation that affects elderly people and that has …

The Impacts Of Imazapic On Garlic Mustard And Non-Target Forest Floor Vegetation In Central Kentucky’S Hardwood Forests, Pavan Kumar Podapati

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Alliaria petiolata is an invasive biennial herb that poses a substantial threat to various ecosystems across the United States. Imazapic herbicide can control A. petiolata infestations, but there is limited peer-reviewed data on impacts of pre-emergent imazapic spraying to forest floor communities. This research examined the impacts of pre-emergent imazapic (0.84 kg/ha) with Pentra-Bark® surfactant on ground cover of A. petiolata and the spring perennials Claytonia virginica and Erigenia bulbosa. Experimental populations in randomized blocks within two forest stands in central Kentucky received the following treatments at 0.84 kg ai/ha: imazapic with Pentra-Bark®, glyphosate with Pentra-Bark®, Pentra-Bark® alone, and …

Assessing The Use Of Lidar And Uav Technology For Monitoring Growing Alfalfa, Stuart Tucker Sheffield

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Alfalfa is a popularly grown crop because of its value as a nutritious feed source for livestock. The efficient production of an alfalfa crop relies on the monitoring of certain parameters, like height, quality, and yield. Traditionally, producers have used manual measurements of alfalfa plant height to estimate the nutritive quality and yield of a growing alfalfa crop. Manual measurements of plant height are often labor intensive and provide low resolution data that is not acceptable for full field scale assessment of growing alfalfa. The two studies presented in this thesis offer detailed insight into the rapid and accurate monitoring …

Modeling Energy Flows In Floating In-Pond Raceways Utilizing Solar Power Back-Up, Bo Smith

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

The In-pond Raceway (IPR) is a novel option for production aquaculture, depending on water moving devices to provide constant flow. Device failure may result in catastrophic fish loss, requiring power backup systems to mitigate risk in case of power outages. Because these systems must be dependable and many suitable locations are remote, off-grid solar photovoltaic (PV) systems with battery storage have been considered since they eliminate need for utility power. Such systems can be hard to size and expensive. This study modeled system requirements using an energy balance to determine whether systems could withstand varying loads based on climatological conditions. …

Comparing Beopt (Energyplus) Energy Predictions To Measured Circuit Level Energy Consumption Of 12 Similar Small Energy-Efficient Single-Family Residences, Braydi Mcpherson-Hathaway

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Residential energy usage patterns change as a result of new building codes, renewable technologies, household electronics, and changes in occupancy habits. Building simulations have used end-use energy studies to inform occupancy profiles and overall usage characteristics for the building simulations. Building simulations allow designers, engineers, policymakers, code developers, and building owners to model proposed designs to new and existing buildings, thus it is imperative that the energy profiles used in the models are accurate. In this study, the building simulation engine BEopt is used to model energy-efficient homes recently constructed in Southern Kentucky. The homes have well defined building characteristics …

Spiritual Mentoring During Emerging Adulthood: A Dyadic Perspective, Jeffrey L. Reed

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

Mentoring relationships have long been identified as a valuable means for supporting identity development in young adults and assisting these individuals in navigating life transitions. The guidance and stability afforded by mentoring relationships can be particularly beneficial to individuals undergoing transitions in their personal or professional lives, or both, and are thus well-suited to play a meaningful role in the lives of emerging adults. Emerging adults are also in a unique developmental stage in which they experience increased freedom and opportunity for exploration away from parents and guardians. While this freedom often results in increased risky behavior, it also allows …

A Qualitative Examination Of The Agency Of Women In Their 30s And 40s Who Use Dating Applications, Tera Buerkle

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The use of dating applications (apps) to find romantic and sexual partners is widespread across age groups, however, there is a paucity of research on dating apps with those in middle adulthood. Sexual script theory suggests that women’s agency (i.e. the ability to act in one’s own best interest) may be impacted by expectations from an inherently sexualized context, such as dating apps. Feminist theory contends that women’s agency is complicated by gender socialization due to the imbalance of power in society that greatly favors men. In this study seventeen women aged 30 to 49 completed in-depth semi-structured interviews, and …

Financial Literacy And Retirement Preparedness In Sri Lanka: Evidence From The Private Sector Employees, Tiyani Lakshmi Rodrigo

Theses and Dissertations--Family Sciences

The South Asian country of Sri Lanka has a rapidly aging population, but little attention has been paid to individuals and families' financial preparedness for retirement. This study aims to overview the current system of retirement preparedness in Sri Lanka, and to examine financial and pension literacy's role on the retirement preparedness. Specifically, this study evaluated three domains of retirement preparedness: planning for retirement and perceived retirement income adequacy (subjective measures, n = 142), and wealth accumulation (objective measure, n = 115). Results show that (1) financial literacy had a positive and statistically significant association with retirement preparedness (only with …

Applying Mixed-Effects Modeling To Behavioral Economic Demand: An Introduction, Brent A. Kaplan, Christopher T. Franck, Kevin Mckee, Shawn P. Gilroy, Mikhail N. Koffarnus

Family and Community Medicine Faculty Publications

Behavioral economic demand methodology is increasingly being used in various fields such as substance use and consumer behavior analysis. Traditional analytical techniques to fitting demand data have proven useful yet some of these approaches require preprocessing of data, ignore dependence in the data, and present statistical limitations. We term these approaches “fit to group” and “two stage” with the former interested in group or population level estimates and the latter interested in individual subject estimates. As an extension to these regression techniques, mixed-effect (or multilevel) modeling can serve as an improvement over these traditional methods. Notable benefits include providing simultaneous …

Reproducibility And Discriminant Validity Of The Posterior Shoulder Endurance Test In Healthy And Painful Populations, Neil A. Evans, Suzanne Konz, Arthur J. Nitz, Timothy L. Uhl

Physical Therapy Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: This investigation measured the reproducibility and discriminant validity of the Posterior Shoulder Endurance Test (PSET) on painful and non-painful populations.

DESIGN: Reliability and validity study.

SETTING: Laboratory setting.

PARTICIPANTS: Thirty subjects (male = 11; female = 19).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Time to failure (TTF) was the primary outcome measure to determine reliability of the PSET. Discriminant validity identified with receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves utilized TTF separately in men and women since they used different loads.

RESULTS: There were 25/30 subjects (painful = 12; non-painful = 13) tested a second time. ICC, SEM, and MDC90 ranged respectively from 0.77, …

Analysis Of Tax Increment Financing (Tif) Usage And State Requirements, Joseph Black

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Tax Increment Financing(TIF)is one of the most popular economic development tools in use, as well as one of the few economic development tools available to municipal governments. Although it was slow to be adopted by many states, currently every state, as well as the District of Colombia, has active TIF districts to back over $35 billion in bonds across the country. Despite its popularity, there is no consensus on the ability of TIF to create a planned and measurable outcome. Because of this ambiguity, TIF usage is clustered across the country as state legislatures have put in varying requirements to …

The Fiscal Impact Of Covid-19: A Study Of Five States, Jacob Jansen

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken its toll on states’ coffers due to declining revenues and in response state budget authorities have taken action to adjust budgets in order to maintain proper financial balance. At the end of fiscal year 2020 on June 30, 2020, budget authorities in 46 states likely found themselves straining to make sure their state’s bottom line was not grossly negative. That strain has since continued into fiscal year 2021, which started the day after. As revenues appear to be on the rise again and the financial hardships lessened, an evaluation of the responses to the pandemic’s …

The State Of Woodford County’S Assistance Network, Katherine Connair

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This study seeks to determine what the overall picture of assistance network serving the Woodford County region is. The goal was to determine if there are any observable gaps in the network and to have a clear understanding of what the assistance network is. Gaps were identified by studying the existing network, surveying network members, and examining publicly available resources. A Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis was conducted to analysis the whole network. Assistance for this study refers to programs/organizations that provide cash or in-kind benefits/services to people (U.S. Census Bureau). The assistance network is all of the …

The Effect Of Veteran Status On Economic Reintegration, Amanda Buck

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Veteran unemployment rates are often understated in reports due to the generalization of the individuals that make up the veteran population. While veterans overall suffer a larger penalty than non-veterans in the civilian labor market, different demographics of veterans deal with diverse consequences of service. Specifically looking at Gulf War Era-II veterans compared with their similarly aged civilian peers, two linear regressions are used with main effects and differential effects to show the different probabilities of unemployment for distinct groups. Veterans’ probability of unemployment is 0.66 percent higher than their non-veteran peers. However, I find that Black veterans have a …

Analysis: Internal Controls Impact On The Mitigation Of Risk And Fraud In Public Finance, Brian Stephens

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Internal controls involve every process that assess or mitigates risks within an organization. From an organizational level, internal control objectives relate to the reliability of financial reporting, measurements on the status of achieving operational or strategic goals, and compliance with laws and regulations. Over the years internal controls have gained the misconception of being merely an accounting or auditing function. However, poor or lapsed internal controls can have devastating effects on an organization. Conversely, an organization that places heavy emphasis on internal controls and leads with an ethical culture are more likely to be successful in meeting their organization’s mission …

Lost And Found: Reuniting Missing Participants And Lost Pensions, Kathryn L. Moore

Law Faculty Books and Chapters

In the United States, the problem of missing participants and lost pensions is huge. Although there is no precise estimate of the size of the problem, the PBGC reports that more than 80,000 workers have unclaimed pensions worth more than $300 million and Terry Dunne of Millennium Trust Company has made “an educated guess based on government and industry data that more than 900,000 workers lose track of 401k-style, defined-contribution plans each year.” Anecdotally, Kyle Garrett posted on July 8, 2020, that in his 15 years at the Pension Rights Center, the most frequent question he has received from callers …

Perspectives On Cultivating A Positive Collegiate Clarinet Studio Environment: A Survey Of Students And Professors, Katherine Nichole Breeden

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Data was analyzed from a survey of collegiate clarinet students and professors concerning student and faculty preferences and perceptions concerning the cultivation of a positive collegiate clarinet studio environment. Over two hundred respondents indicated preferences for the structure of individual lessons and studio class.

The data indicated it is essential that the professor adapt their teaching to individual students during lesson instruction. Goals should be recorded, a verbal agreement alone is insufficient. Contact information for all studio colleagues should be available, and the professor should be accessible should the need arise. Large ensemble concert attendance should be encouraged, and recital …

Efficacy And Mechanism Of Acs811 In Tomato Immune Responses, Layne Ellen Harris

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Biologicals are increasingly becoming an important part of sustainable integrated pest management in agricultural crop production and encompass a wide variety of products with varying degrees of efficacy and available research data. As biologicals become more integrated into commercial production systems, it is critical to rigorously evaluate biological product efficacy and mode(s) of action in crops. The better that biologicals are understood in terms of effective application, integration into commercial programs, and their specific mechanisms in crop growth and protection, then the greater the opportunity for increasing yields and food security.

ACS811 is a microbial fermentation-based biological product from Alltech …

The Interactive Effects Of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (Bdnf) Polymorphisms And Posttraumatic Stress Disorder On Neurocognitive Functioning In U.S. Military Veterans, Colton Shafer Rippey

Theses and Dissertations--Psychology

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is associated with mild-to-moderate deficits in neurocognitive functioning. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene, namely, the Met allele, may also be associated with mild deficits in neurocognitive functioning. However, findings are inconsistent and may be sensitive to environmental epigenetic moderators such as psychopathology.

The current study analyzed data from European-American U.S. military veterans (n = 1,244) who participated in the 2011 National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study (NHRVS). Multivariate analyses of covariances were conducted to evaluate the unique and interactive effects of the Met allele and probable PTSD on …

A Constructive Approach To Managing Faculty Conflict: An Action Research Study, Natasha L. Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Research indicates colleges and universities are faced with an excess of challenges and issues, and one of these issues is dealing with conflict. The purpose of this mixed methods action research study was to implement a conflict management strategies workshop on the campus of Morehead State University as an intervention to address the problem of conflict between faculty and administrators. Data collected and analyzed from an exploratory pilot study included interviews of current faculty and administrators regarding situations of conflict. As a result, the following information was discovered: conflict does exist on the campus of Morehead State University between faculty …

Strategic Educational Leadership Within The Policy-Making Arena: The Promulgation, Passage, And Practice Of Tennessee's High Performing School Districts Flexibility Act Of 2013, Robert Lawrence Hullett Jr.

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

In 2010, Tennessee’s 106th General Assembly passed the First to the Top Act (2010), a companion legislation for the federal Race to the Top Act (2009) program launched by the Obama Administration. A provision of this state law required that half of teacher and principal evaluations be based upon student achievement, which included a component of required continuous academic growth. For school districts whose students scored at the highest academic performance levels, the continuous growth component would negatively impact their teachers’ and principals’ annual evaluations. In 2012, the Williamson County Schools (WCS) superintendent requested mitigation for relieve from the Tennessee …

Computational Utilities For The Game Of Simplicial Nim, Nelson Penn

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Simplicial nim games, a class of impartial games, have very interesting mathematical properties. Winning strategies on a simplicial nim game can be determined by the set of positions in the game whose Sprague-Grundy values are zero (also zero positions). In this work, I provide two major contributions to the study of simplicial nim games. First, I provide a modern and efficient implementation of the Sprague-Grundy function for an arbitrary simplicial complex, and discuss its performance and scope of viability. Secondly, I provide a method to find a simple mathematical expression to model that function if it exists. I show the …