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The Impossible Motherhood: Education Accompanying Mothers (Peidu Mama) And Transnational Migration In China’S Global Era, Jingxue Zhang Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Gender and Women's Studies

This dissertation examines transnational educational relocation as a gendered project of future making through the figure of Chinese educational accompanying mothers, or peidu mama, in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and the Greater Los Angeles area in the United States. It investigates how educational migration is organized through the intersection of affective governance, moralized motherhood, and unequal global conditions. It seeks to answer how transnational educational motherhood is represented in state-endorsed media and public discourse; how women narrate and justify educational relocation while negotiating the morally unstable label of peidu mama; how aspiration, risk, and the idea of “a better …

Frequency And Phase Synchronization Of Antenna Arrays With Phase Incoherent Microcontrollers, Harley W. Byrd

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The construction of phased array antennas has traditionally been an expensive and complex task. It has recently been claimed that it is possible to construct high-performance Wi Fi antenna arrays using inexpensive consumer components. Motivated by some limited data available from online presentations of such devices, this thesis covers an attempt to construct a phased-array Wi-Fi antenna using several ESP32 chips, which have native Wi-Fi modulation and demodulation capabilities. While there are many positive aspects associated with utilizing ESP32 chips for this purpose, a key challenge is the inherent phase incoherence of their internal Phase Locked Loops (PLLs). The approach …

H2 Matrix Compression For Fast Magnetic Field Post-Processing, Calvin M. Demps

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Large-scale computational electromagnetic simulations frequently require the assembly of dense system matrices, whose computation time and memory cost grow rapidly with problem size and can render high-resolution simulations impractical. This thesis presents a benchmark of the H² hierarchical matrix method applied to the construction of a coupling matrix that maps magnetization current in a structure to the magnetic field at observation points external to the structure. The underlying field interaction is derived from Maxwell's equations and discretized using a Nyström approach, producing a dense matrix.

The method is benchmarked across various geometries of increasing complexity and for increasing mesh …

Stacked Risks, Unequal Returns: Stratified Risk Allocation In Housing And Higher Education, Regina M. Lewis

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

In the United States, public policy does more than distribute resources. It distributes risk. The same policy can create profoundly different consequences for different people because policies operate on landscapes shaped by generations of unequal investment and opportunity.

To explore this process, I introduce the Stratified Risk Allocation (SRA) Framework to demonstrate how facially neutral policies reproduce inequality by allocating risk across populations with unequal capacity to absorb it. Drawing on risk society theory, historical institutionalism, critical race theory, intersectionality, and stratification economics, the SRA framework distinguishes between Exposure, the likelihood of encountering policy-generated risk, and Capacity, the resources available …

Promptable Segmentation For Adaptive And Data-Efficient Medical Image Analysis, Tyler Ward

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Image segmentation is a fundamental task in computer vision. While segmentation models have traditionally been trained in a fully-supervised manner, recent approaches have leveraged large-scale pre-training and prompting mechanisms to great effect. However, the performance of such approaches often degrades when applied to domain-specific tasks like medical image analysis. A major reason for this lies is that these models are trained on large, labeled datasets of natural images, which have drastically different characteristics compared to medical images, limiting the generalizability of the methods when applied to medical data. This dissertation presents several data-efficient, adaptive, and promptable medical image segmentation models. …

Regulating Galaxy Growth: Ionized Gas Conditions, Star Formation Histories, And Environmental Effects, Shweta Jain

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Understanding galaxy formation and evolution requires tracing how baryons cycle between stars, gas, and the interstellar medium (ISM) across cosmic time. The efficiency of star formation, the buildup of metals, and the regulation of gas inflows and outflows are governed by evolving physical conditions within galaxies and their environments. My thesis investigates how the ionized ISM, star formation histories, and environmental processes have shaped galaxy evolution over the past ∼ 12 Gyr. The primary focus of this work is the evolution of the physical conditions of ionized gas in galaxies, including gas-phase metallicity and ionization state. Using new and archival …

Multiscale Modeling Of The Thermomechanical Behavior Of Polymeric And Molecular Organic Semiconductors, Kehinde H. Fagbohungbe

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Organic semiconductors, derived from π-conjugated polymers and molecules, enable the development of deformable, stretchable and flexible electronics due to their tunable redox, optical, electronic and mechanical properties. However, an informed understanding of how multi-scale morphological characteristics of the polymeric and molecular semiconductors influence bulk properties that contribute to electronic and optical performance, especially under operational thermal and mechanical stresses, remains incomplete. This lack of understanding poses a challenge to scalability and commercialization of organic electronics. This dissertation develops and deploys computational modeling approaches, particularly atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to investigate the multiscale morphological behavior of these synthetic semiconducting materials …

A Nonlocal Lattice Particle Method For Modeling Hcp Polycrystalline Solids, Di Liu

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Polycrystalline materials, composed of individual grains with varying grain size, shape, and crystallographic orientation are widely used in various engineering and industrial applications. Conventional applications of polycrystalline materials rely on the macroscopic performance, and the microstructural features are usually homogenized out. With the advancement of modern technologies and improvement of characterization methods, polycrystalline materials find their applications in meso- and micro-scale systems. At these length scales, the microscopic features including grain boundary characteristics significantly affect the material physical responses. As a result, the conventional continuum mechanics models become problematic, especially for material failure problems where the microstructural features play dominant …

Personality Exceptions: Enhancing Character In Narrative Planners With Internal Memory, Elinor Rubin-Mcgregor

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Stories and narratives are powerful tools for forging connections between people, as they induce emotions shared through their audience and help build empathy and understanding through sharing unique perspectives. Interactive stories can do all this and more, as they can be used to better educate and engage their audience. But in such stories, the characters must have consistent personality and human-like emotions in order for the audience to relate to them. Current implementations of personality in interactive narratives either portrays characters with static personality that feel less realistic, or else require a great deal of additional work from the author …

Preserving Large-Scale Railroad Infrastructure Sites: The Louisville And Nashville Ravenna Yard As A Case Study, Zachary Jones

Graduate Final Projects

This project consists of a draft National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination for the Ravenna Louisville and Nashville Railyard, located in Irvine, Kentucky. Developed in the early twentieth century as the operational center of the L&N Railroad’s Eastern Kentucky Division, the rail yard played a significant role in the transportation of coal and other natural resources while contributing to the growth of the towns of Ravenna and Irvine. Through the review of historical resources, field documentation, and examination of preservation scholarship, this project evaluates the historical significance and integrity of the surviving rail yard resources and argues for their …

Non-Invasive Digital Restoration Of Damaged Photographic Film Negatives, Ankan Bhattacharyya

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Physical restoration of damaged photographic film causes more damage. Also, existing non-invasive digital restoration of film negatives does not produce print-quality optical images. Instead, they produce X-ray projections, which are not the same as optical projections. This thesis addresses these problems and establishes a framework that can digitally restore old, damaged films without the need to open them physically. Virtual Unwrapping is an existing pipeline that has proven itself over the last couple of decades to work on unopenable papyrus scrolls, like the Herculaneum Scrolls. This thesis utilizes the concept of virtual unwrapping to restore damaged photographic film negatives. Due …

Engineering Plga Nanoparticle Size To Modulate Immune Responses After Spinal Cord Injury, Daniel J. Kolpek

University of Kentucky Doctoral Dissertations

Spinal cord injury is a severe and debilitating condition that often results in lifelong complications, including paralysis. Many of these chronic outcomes are driven by a sustained inflammatory response at the injury site, which limits tissue regeneration and functional recovery. As a result, therapeutic strategies that modulate this immune response have gained significant interest. Polymer based nanoparticle therapies have emerged as a promising approach due to their ability to interact with and influence immune cell behavior. Importantly, the physicochemical properties of nanoparticles can be precisely tuned to optimize these effects. Among these properties, size has been shown to influence key …

Development Of An Atmospheric Particle Imaging System (Apis), James W. Hebert

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

The study of atmospheric particulates plays a crucial role in both climate change studies and the improvement of hypersonic travel. The current issue at hand is a lack of knowledge of stratospheric particulate content and the high cost that is associated with conducting research at these altitudes. This project focuses on the development of an Atmospheric Particle Imaging System (APIS) to be a low-weight, low-cost optical payload. The goal is to make a device that can be mounted onto an uncrewed aerial system that has the capability of imaging particulates moving at steady flow velocities, and thereby characterize the individual …

Founder Worship, Effective Altruism, And Corporate Governance, Jennifer S. Fan, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Kytc Highway Geometric Design Workshop, Jill Asher, Jeff Jasper, Travis Thompson, Chris Van Dyke

Kentucky Transportation Center Research Report

In-depth knowledge of geometric design principles is a prerequisite for delivering road projects that provide safe and efficient multimodal mobility for all users. Historically, Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) early-career design staff arrived at the agency with little design experience. The agency has relied on a combination of short courses and mentorship provided by experienced personnel to bring early-career design staff up to speed on design best practices. However, this approach to training carries limitations. Employee turnover and imposing workloads make it challenging for early- and even mid-career design professionals to receive guidance from seasoned designers who have long tenures at …

Using Low-Cost Sensors And Gps To Assess Spatiotemporal Variations In Personal Exposure To Pm2.5 In The Washington State Twin Registry, Ningrui Liu, Ally Avery, Elena Austin, John S. Meschke, Nicola K. Beck, Graeme Carvlin, Yisi Liu, Anne V. Moudon, Igor Novosselov, Jeffry H. Shirai, Glen E. Duncan, Edmund Seto

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Epidemiological studies typically rely on exposure assessments based on ambient PM_2.5 concentrations at participants' home addresses. However, these approaches neglect personal exposures indoors and across different non-residential microenvironments. To address this problem, our study combined low-cost sensors and GPS to conduct two-week personal PM_2.5 monitoring in 168 adults recruited from the Washington State Twin Registry between 2018 and 2021. PM_2.5 mass concentration, size-resolved particle number concentration, temperature, humidity, and GPS coordinates were recorded at 1-min intervals, providing 5,161,737 data points. We used GPS coordinates and a processing algorithm for automatic classification of microenvironments, including seven land use …

Multiple Bursts Of Speciation In Madagascar’S Endangered Lemurs, Kathryn M. Everson, Luca Pozzi, Meredith A. Barrett, Mary E. Blair, Mariah E. Donohue, Peter M. Kappeler, Andrew C. Kitchener, Alan R. Lemmon, Emily Moriarty Lemmon, Carlos J. Pavón-Vázquez, Ute Radespiel, Blanchard Randrianambinina, Rodin M. Rasoloarison, Solofonirina Rasoloharijaona, Christian Roos, Jordi Salmona, Anne D. Yoder, Rosana Zenil-Ferguson, Dietmar Zinner, David W. Weisrock

Biology Faculty Publications

Lemurs are often cited as an example of adaptive radiation, as more than 100 extant species have evolved and filled ecological niches on Madagascar. However, recent work suggests that lemurs lack a hallmark of other adaptive radiations: explosive speciation rates that decline over time. Thus, characterizing the tempo and mode of evolution in lemurs can reveal alternative ways that hyperdiverse clades arise over time, which might differ from traditional models. We explore lemur evolution using a phylogenomic dataset with broad taxonomic sampling that includes the lorisiforms of Asia and continental Africa. Our analyses reveal multiple bursts of diversification (without subsequent …

Assessing Patient Experiences And Priorities In Traumatic Brain Injury Health Care, Temitayo R. Okusanya, Madeline D. Furie, Sergey Tarima, Courtney O. Barry, Terri Deroon-Cassini, Yuka Kobayashi, Michael A. Mccrea, Kathleen S. Williams, Staci A. Young, Lindsay D. Nelson

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Improving patient experiences and outcomes of traumatic brain injury (TBI) will require understanding patient perspectives of current care systems. Experts have called for building more integrated, patient-centered systems of care to better support patients through stages of TBI recovery. Informed by an earlier qualitative study, we conducted a survey to quantify patient perspectives on discharge and post-discharge experiences across seven hospitals in a single southeastern Wisconsin health system. Eligible participants were English or Spanish speakers and received TBI care between February 2023 and June 2024 at one level I trauma center emergency department (ED) and inpatient unit, two level III …

Quantifying Nuanced Differences In Hand Dexterity Between The Dominant And Nondominant Hands Of Healthy, Right-Handed, Young Adults, Brian J. Conway, Léon Taquet, Timothy F. Boerger, Kaitlin Goetschel, Kate B. Krucoff, Sergey Tarima, Brian D. Schmit, Max O. Krucoff

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

When individuals present with hand injuries, clinicians often use the contralateral hand as an internal control. However, subtle differences in baseline dexterous abilities between the dominant and nondominant hands are poorly understood. To address this gap, here we quantified such differences, measured as independence (individuation) and smoothness of finger movements. A cohort of 47 right-hand-dominant healthy adults (22 males and 25 females) moved each finger independently 10 times, while joint angle data were tracked with a dataglove (CyberGlove III, CyberGlove Systems, San Jose, CA). Each finger’s performance was compared with its counterpart on the opposite hand using Wilcoxon-signed rank tests. …

Hiring Expectations For New And Future Workers In Animal Genetics Careers, Meghan C. Wulster-Radcliffe, James N. Macleod, Robert J. Coleman, John S. Radcliffe, Rebekah B. Epps, Carol D. Hanley, Cheyenne S. Summers, Steven A. Zinn, Sarah A. Reed

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

To better align educational outcomes with workforce demands in animal and equine genetics, this study surveyed 65 industry professionals on entry-level competencies, hiring trends, and graduate preparedness of undergraduate students. The survey assessed employer ratings on the importance and perceived proficiency of seven core competencies: critical thinking, communication, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, career/self-development, and equity/inclusion, as well as technical knowledge and broader skills relevant to animal breeding and genetics. Results revealed oral communication, teamwork, and work ethic were rated as the most critical transferable skills, though notable proficiency gaps persist, particularly in leadership and professionalism. Foundational technical knowledge in genetics, molecular …

Integrating Eem Fluorescence Spectroscopy With Machine And Deep Learning Models For Multi-Output Prediction Of Fish Freshness, Yanwei Fan, Zengtao Ji, Chuanheng Sun, Daming Xu, Xinting Yang, Ce Shi, Hongbing Fan

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

A precise and real-time assessment of the freshness of aquatic products during storage can effectively reduce economic losses and food safety problems. This study developed a novel multi-output freshness monitoring model integrating excitation-emission matrix (EEM) fluorescence spectroscopy with two machine learning (ML) and one deep learning (DL) approach to simultaneously predict freshness indices and classify freshness stages. We Utilized bighead carp (Hypophthalmichthys nobilis) andrainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), to predict TVB-N, K value, and TVC freshness indices via PCA-RF regression, achieving R² = 0.85-0.98 and RMSE = 0.23-3.63 significantly outperforming PARAFAC-SVR/RF and PCA-SVR; classify freshness into fresh, sub_fresh, and rot stages …

High-Throughput Screens Identify Genotype-Specific Therapeutics For Channelopathies, Christian L. Egly, Alex Shen, Tri Q. Do, Carlos Tellet Cabiya, Paxton A. Ritschel, Suah Woo, Matthew Ku, Brian P. Delisle, Brett M. Kroncke, Björn C. Knollmann

Physiology Faculty Publications

Genetic diseases such as ion channelopathies substantially burden human health. Existing treatments are limited and not genotype specific. Here, we report a 2-step high-throughput approach to rapidly identify drug candidates for repurposing as genotype-specific therapy. We first screened 1,680 medicines using a thallium-flux trafficking assay against Kv11.1 gene variants causing long QT syndrome (LQTS), an ion channelopathy associated with fatal cardiac arrhythmia. We identified evacetrapib as a suitable drug candidate that improves membrane trafficking and activates channels. We then used deep mutational scanning to prospectively identify all Kv11.1 missense variants in an LQTS hotspot region responsive to treatment with evacetrapib. …

The Interpretive Foundations Of Arbitrary Or Capricious Review, Alexander Mechanick

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

New Title Ix Rules Come Under Cross: Due Process Requirements And Direct Cross-Examination In Campus Sexual Assault Cases, Bailey Browning

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Fact-Finders' Dialectic: Beyond Rationalist Optimism And Realist Pessimism, Michael Head

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Duty To Warn In The Age Of Automation, Alexander B. Lemann

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Knockout Of Perilipin-2 In Microglia Alters Lipid Droplet Accumulation And Response To Alzheimer’S Disease Stimuli, Isaiah O. Stephens, Lance A. Johnson

Physiology Faculty Publications

Highlights: What are the main findings? Knockout of Plin2 in microglia reduces lipid droplet burden, while enhancing phagocytic clearance capacity. Transcriptomic, bioenergetic, and lipidomic analyses reveal that loss of Plin2 reprograms microglial metabolism toward reduced TAG storage and improved mitochondrial resilience. What are the implications of the main findings? Plin2 serves as a key regulator of microglial lipid droplet stability, metabolic flexibility, and immune function under Alzheimer’s-relevant stressors. Targeting Plin2 may represent a therapeutic strategy to alleviate lipid droplet-driven dysfunction and restore microglial performance in aging and neurodegeneration. Lipid droplets (LDs) are emerging as key regulators of metabolism and inflammation, …

When Performance Takes Priority, Matthew D. Whitwer, Joseph H. Hammer, Brenna Gomer, Elahe Vahidi, Sarah A. Wilson

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Engineering education is at a critical juncture where supporting student mental health is essential for fostering persistence, equity, and the development of a resilient and innovative workforce. Yet, undergraduate engineering students experiencing mental health concerns are often unlikely to seek professional help. To identify factors that account for this gap in treatment, this project administered the Undergraduate Engineering Mental Health Help Seeking Instrument to 1903 engineering undergraduates across five institutions. Correlations and regression were used to examine the links between help-seeking intention and (a) help-seeking mechanisms (e.g., attitude, perceived norm, self-efficacy) and (b) beliefs about seeking help. Students’ personal evaluation …

Comparison Of Alcohol-Induced Hepatoprotective Effects Of The High Fischer Ratio Oligopeptides With/Without Half Substitution By Pueraria Lobata, Yongke Deng, Qin Zhao, Na Chen, Zhiqin Zhang, Jingxuan Wang, Hongbing Fan, Haimei Liu, Lili Zhang

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Long-term excessive intake of alcohol can cause serious damage to the liver, and the study of natural active ingredients with hepatoprotective effects is of great significance for the prevention and treatment of alcoholic liver injury. This study explored the ameliorative effects of high F-value oligopeptides (HFOPs) from Chlamys farreri, Pueraria lobata extract (PL), and their complex (HFOPs + PL) on alcoholic liver injury. Results showed HFOPs + PL significantly reduced alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) leakage, increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) activities, and decreased the production of malondialdehyde (MDA) and inflammatory factors in alcohol-induced HepG2 cells. …

Screening And Identification Of Antioxidant Peptides From Sea Cucumber Gonad Proteins And Their Activation Of Superoxide Dismutase, Zhiqin Zhang, Jingxuan Wang, Yongke Deng, Yugui Wang, Peipei Dou, Hongbing Fan, Xiangquan Zeng, Xinguang Fan, Lili Zhang, Haimei Liu, Qin Zhao

Animal and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

The gonad is one of the major byproducts of sea cucumber. Four novel antioxidant peptides (NPWGQ, PGHPF, VPYPR and ATGPQGPAGQRGPAGPTGPTGPAG) were isolated and identified from sea cucumber gonad proteins through enzymatic hydrolysis and antioxidant activity-guided fractionation, bioinformatics approaches and in silico screening. These peptides demonstrated great free radical (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and 2,2′-azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS))-scavenging activity and notable superoxide dismutase (SOD)-activation capacity. Molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation data suggested that these peptides could form strong binding with SOD through hydrogen bonding, electrostatic interactions, and hydrophobic interactions. Among these peptides, NPWGQ displayed the most potent antioxidant and SOD-activating effects. Through searching …