Digital Commons Network^™

Incarceration Reimagined: A Diversionary Option For Serious Felony Offenders, Jane Mitchell

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Successfully “Reframing” Assessment Work Due To Macro And Micro Pressures, Julene L. Jones, Mary K. Thompson, Beth Janetski, Sarah Wu

Library Presentations

The Grand Challenges Project supports global collaborations informing equitable and evidence-informed practices for higher education assessment practitioners. The Grand Challenge’s Equity Action Makers Team conducted twenty interviews in 2023/2024 with assessment professionals across higher education. Several participants explained that they have adjusted their approach to equity work to successfully complete their projects or achieve their goals. They did this in response to various macro and micro influences, such as recognizing their own positionality, meeting grant funding requirements, dealing with institutional financial or cultural pressures, navigating political pressures outside their influence, or fostering supportive networks of practitioners.

Pushing Boulders: Exploring The Barriers To Conducting Equity-Informed Assessment, Beth Janetski, Sarah Wu, Julene L. Jones, Mary K. Thompson

Library Presentations

In the quest for equitable student success, assessment professionals from higher education and supporting organizations face a myriad of challenges. As part of the Grand Challenges in Assessment Project, twenty-four leaders in equity-informed assessment practices were interviewed to share their experiences. They revealed the internal and external barriers they navigate daily, from mental stress and isolation to structural obstacles. These professionals are on the front lines, striving to ensure all students have equal access and outcomes, despite the uphill battle against entrenched resistance and apathy. Their stories highlight the resilience and dedication required to push for meaningful change.

Converting “Nonlesional” Imaging Occult Epilepsy Into A Focal Lesional Entity Using Advanced Imaging Techniques: Illustrative Case, Muhammad Usman Khalid, Flavius D. Raslau, Valentinos Zachariou, David Powell, Zachary Winder, Ryan Cloyd, Sarah Helen Thomas, John Kuipers, Rachel Ward Mitchell, Riham H. El Khouli, Timothy J. Ainger, Sally Mathias, Farhan A. Mirza

Neurosurgery Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND To achieve the best possible outcome in surgical refractory epilepsy, the seizure onset zone must be accurately identified prior to treatment.

OBSERVATIONS A 38-year-old man presented with tonic-clonic and focal seizures 2–3 times per month, refractory to antiseizure medications. Scalp EEG, MRI, PET, ictal SPECT, magnetoencephalography, and stereo-EEG (SEEG) did not provide conclusive seizure onset zone localization. Subsequently, the patient was included in the authors’ ongoing postictal arterial spin labeling (ASL) study and additional postprocessing was performed with a morphometric analysis program (MAP) and texture analysis. Using these results, the authors reexamined the original structural MR images, with attention …

New Insights Into The Ovulatory Process In The Human Ovary, Misung Jo, Mats Brännström, James W. Akins, Thomas E. Curry

UK CARES Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Successful ovulation is essential for natural conception and fertility. Defects in the ovulatory process are associated with various conditions of infertility or subfertility in women. However, our understanding of the intra-ovarian biochemical mechanisms underlying this process in women has lagged compared to our understanding of animal models. This has been largely due to the limited availability of human ovarian samples that can be used to examine changes across the ovulatory period and delineate the underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms in women. Despite this challenge, steady progress has been made to improve our knowledge of the ovulatory process in women by: (i) …

Evaluating Experiential Learning In Undergraduate Agricultural Education: A Content Analysis Of Course Syllabi From A College Of Agriculture, Tyler Newberry

Theses and Dissertations--Community & Leadership Development

This study evaluated the presence and depth of experiential learning within undergraduate course syllabi from the Martin-Gatton College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment. Through a content analysis of 41 syllabi across five academic majors, the study examined how course objectives and assignments aligned with Kolb’s Experiential learning cycle (1984), Webb’s depth of knowledge (1997), and Joplin’s Mini to maxi Scale (1981). A structured coding instrument was used to quantify the frequency of learning elements across these three frameworks. The findings revealed that Abstract Conceptualization and Reflective Observation were the most common stages in both objectives and assignments, while Concrete Experience …

Clinicians Perspective On The Implementation Of Person-Centered Care In Persons With Aphasia, Carmen S. Alderman

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

This paper examines speech-language pathologist perspective on implementing person-centered care for persons with aphasia. Person-centered care is based on the social model, which emphasizes the importance of including the client. The survey addressed clinicians’ use of person-centered care related to collaborative goal setting and treatment planning, as well as facilitators and barriers to implementing person-centered care for individuals with aphasia based on the view of practicing clinicians across a variety of settings. The results indicated most speech-language pathologists have heard of person-centered care, understand the importance of involving clients in goal setting, ask clients about their preferences when setting goals, …

Exploring Early Childhood Educators’ Perceptions Of Lockdown Drills: Preparedness, Training Needs, And The Balance With Social-Emotional Development, Juniper Alaska Brewer

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to evaluate early childhood educators’ perceptions of lockdown drills. It assessed feelings of preparedness, perceived training needs, and balancing safety protocols with children's social-emotional development. A multi-methods online survey was distributed to 13 early childhood educators and students in the Interdisciplinary Early Childhood Education (IECE) field, collecting both quantitative and qualitative responses via Qualtrics.

Survey data showed educators strongly agreed drills prepare them for emergencies (average 4.46/5) and generally agreed drills prepare children (4.08/5), though responses were more neutral about reducing educator anxiety (3.77/5). Only one participant reported occasional training; most (7 of 13) …

Duae Cypriani Soarez Praefationes Ad Opus De Arte Rhetorica Libri Tres Commentariis Rhetoricis Instructae, Marcus Porto

Theses and Dissertations--Modern and Classical Languages, Literature and Cultures

De Arte Rhetorica Libri Tres (1562) written by Cyprian Soarez (1524-1593), priest and teacher of the Society of Jesus, was the standard rhetorical manual in the Ratio Studiorum and thus was used for over two centuries in Jesuit colleges throughout the world. Concerned that young students of Latin were not yet ready for the major rhetorical texts of antiquity, such as Cicero’s and Quintilian’s, Soarez wrote this manual as a digest of ancient rhetoric to the beginner. This thesis uses the rhetorical precepts found in Cyprian’s work to analyze the work’s own two prefaces. Thus, it aims at providing …

Exploiting Artificial Intelligence And Optimization For Smart Agriculture, Jackson K. Butcher

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Dynamic integration of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become a vital component for unlocking the potential of smart agriculture. Currently, limitations such as limited computational resources, poor network connectivity, and rigid treatment strategies stifle optimal agricultural outcomes. This creates a challenge of leveraging the capabilities of modern artificial intelligence to combat the natural and artificial constraints of the smart agriculture environment. The primary contribution of this thesis is the development of frameworks to alleviate the overhead data and computational demand for AI within smart agriculture settings. The first framework, iCrop+, utilizes TinyML and LoRa to guarantee high-precision …

Biomedical Relation Extraction In The Era Of (Large) Language Models, Yuhang Jiang

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Biomedical relation extraction is a key task in information extraction supporting downstream applications such as knowledge discovery, information retrieval, and question answering. As such, improvements in relation extraction (RE) are expected to have major implications for other information needs in biomedicine. In this dis- sertation, we pursue biomedical relation extraction in several advanced settings with recent advances in large language models (LLMs) and retrieval augmented generation (RAG). First, we address an important slot filling task on social media that arose during the Covid-19 pandemic, using the idea of continuous prompts with encoder models. Next, we handle a tricky dynamic n-ary …

Assessing Generalization Along Side Acquisition Using System Of Least Prompts Versus Video Modeling Plus System Of Least Prompts Of Simulated Vocational Tasks, Victoria B. Shafer

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this study was to assess if system of least prompts alone or video modeling plus system of least prompts was more effective when teaching a student with a moderate intellectual disability three simulated vocational tasks using paper materials. Additionally, generalization was assessed using real-world materials. An adapted alternating treatment design was used to compare conditions. The results indicated that system of least prompts alone was more effective than video modeling plus system of least prompts. There was no demonstration of generalization.

Efficacy Of Deferoxamine Mesylate In Serum And Serum-Free Media: Adult Ventral Root Schwann Cell Survival Following Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Cell Death, Yee Hang Ethan Ma, Abhinay R. Putta, Cyrus H. H. Chan, Stephen R. Vidman, Paula V. Monje, Giles W. Plant

Neurosurgery Faculty Publications

Schwann cell (SC) transplantation shows promise in treating spinal cord injury as a pro-regenerative agent to allow host endogenous neurons to bridge over the lesion. However, SC transplants face significant oxidative stress facilitated by ROS in the lesion, leading to poor survival. deferoxamine mesylate (DFO) is a neuroprotective agent shown to reduce H₂O₂-induced cell death in serum-containing conditions. Here we show that DFO is not necessary to induce neuroprotection under serum-free conditions by cell survival quantification and phenotypic analysis via immunohistochemistry, Hif1α and collagen IV quantification via whole cell corrected total cell fluorescence, and cell death …

Injection-Related Infections And Self-Treatment Practices Among People Who Inject Drugs In Rural Appalachia, Laura C. Fanucchi, Jennifer R. Havens, Matthew Fahmy, April M. Young

Center on Drug and Alcohol Research Faculty Publications

In this study of self-reported serious injection-related infections among people who inject drugs in rural Appalachia (n = 463), 50% reported reusing syringes/needles, 70.6% ever had an injection-site abscess, and 44.4% of those with a recent abscess took nonprescribed antibiotics. The study identifies opportunities to improve harm reduction services.

Comparison Of Video Modeling And Naturalistic Time Delay For Children With Autism In Preschool Classrooms, Makenna A. Briggs

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

This study presents findings from an alternating adapted treatments design (AATD) that compared the use of video modeling and naturalistic time delay to teach language targets to children with autism. The research included two U.S. preschool students with a provisional diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both participants met criterion with time delay.

German Cockroach Allergen Mitigation, Olivia Katz

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

German cockroaches (Blatella germanica L.) remain one of the most challenging indoor pests to manage, due in large part to their cryptic nature, rapid reproduction, and resistance to insecticides. Because of their close proximity to humans, they also pose several serious health threats, including the production and dissemination of several potent allergens linked to asthma development and exacerbation. Given the risks associated with cockroach allergens, we examined the longevity of two distinct cockroach allergens (Bla g 1 and Bla g 5) in the home environment and the efficacy of cleaners at removing these allergens. Our findings show that Bla …

Including Black Farmers, Excluding Pests: Perspectives On Participation In The Cooperative Extension Service, Briana Bazile

Theses and Dissertations--Entomology

In recent years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has faced renewed scrutiny for documented discrimination against Black farmers, yet far less attention has focused on its century-old partner in public service delivery, the Cooperative Extension Service (CES). This gap is especially notable considering 1) federal parity mandates extant since 1972 in response to significant disparities between Black and White constituents and staff,2) public commitments to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in 2020 and, 3) the contributions of Black leaders at the origins of CES, at Tuskegee University in the late nineteenth century. Using the Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service (KYCES) as a …

Understanding Assessments For Adult English Learners: A Case Study Of Second Language Acquisition And Development, Chi Ma

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

While standardized tests have become the norm for assessing language proficiency, they may not effectively capture the diversity of adult immigrants, including their backgrounds, experiences, and varying levels of language proficiency. Grounded in experiential learning theory, sociocultural theory on second language acquisition, and concepts of identity, motivation, and investment, this study explored how the Adult English Learning (AEL) program utilized different types of assessments, what the needs and goals of AEL students were in learning English, and how various stakeholders, including teachers, students, and program coordinator, perceived current assessments reflecting students’ needs and goals.

The findings of the study reveals …

Seasonal Variation Of The Stream’S Autogenic Sediment Transport Regime, Melissa Beckman

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

This thesis investigates the autogenic sediment transport regime in a low-gradient stream system in the inner bluegrass region of central Kentucky, USA The seasonality of sediment transport seasonality was not well addressed in prior research for baseflow and low flow periods, to our knowledge, due to the assumption that low flows do not account for considerable fluid transport capacity to move sediment. The hypothesis is that during the autogenic regime the sediment transport in the low-gradient system is being driven by geophysical, biogeochemical, and biological processes. We hypothesize that crayfish are one mechanical driver of sediment transport during these periods. …

The Effects Of System Of Least Prompts To Promote Indpendence For A Student With Autism, Misty L. Brown

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

This study examined the effects of a System of Least Prompts (SLP) intervention on the independent skills, such as completing a daily schedule, setting alarms on a personal device, and transitioning into set activities, for a high-school student diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and multiple co-occurring diagnoses. LB was a 15-year-old student who attended a specialized non-profit school for individuals with ASD and severe behaviors and was in the process of transitioning back into public school. He required support in self-management and choice making skills. The purpose of this intervention was to increase LB’s ability to evaluate his day …

Enhanced Separation Performance For Fractionally Liberated Materials Using The Hydrofloat™ Process Technology, Yucel Ozsoy

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The advent of HydroFloat™ technology, developed by Eriez Manufacturing, marks a significant milestone in the evolution of the mineral processing industry, particularly for the coarse particle flotation by shifting the limits, well-known as the “Elephant Curve.” As the industry strives to process lower-grade ores with higher tonnages for financial reasons, the significance of processing coarse particles through HydroFloat™ technology becomes increasingly critical.

This approach offers substantial benefits by potentially reducing energy consumption within grinding circuits, making it a key solution in enhancing efficiency and cost-effectiveness. This study presents a comprehensive review of the existing literature, laying a solid foundation by …

Sedimentary Archives Of Late Quaternary Limnological, Ecological, And Environmental Change In The Eastern Sierra Nevada (California, Usa), Bailee Hodelka

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

The Sierra Nevada essentially serve as the headwaters of California, providing crucial freshwater to the state through seasonal snowmelt. This water supply is threatened by climate change in complex ways that are not fully understood. Geological records provide a valuable source of information on how the hydrology, limnology, and ecology of the Sierra Nevada region has responded to climate changes of the past. This dissertation presents new sedimentary and paleoecological research from Mono Lake and Convict Lake (Mono County, California) and aims to shed light on environmental changes in the eastern Sierra Nevada from ~16 ka to present.

At Mono …

Measurement Of Two-Point Energy Correlators Within Jets In P+P Collisions At Sqrt[S]=200  Gev, Star Collaboration

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Hard-scattered partons ejected from high-energy proton-proton collisions undergo parton shower and hadronization, resulting in collimated collections of particles that are clustered into jets. A substructure observable that highlights the transition between the perturbative and nonperturbative regimes of jet evolution in terms of the angle between two particles is the two-point energy correlator (EEC). In this Letter, the first measurement of the EEC at RHIC is presented, using data taken from 200 GeV p þ p collisions by the STAR experiment. The EEC is measured both for all the pairs of particles in jets and separately for pairs with like and …

Design Of The Ecce Detector For The Electron Ion Collider, J. K. Adkins

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

The EIC Comprehensive Chromodynamics Experiment (ECCE) detector has been designed to address the full scope of the proposed Electron Ion Collider (EIC) physics program as presented by the National Academy of Science and provide a deeper understanding of the quark–gluon structure of matter. To accomplish this, the ECCE detector offers nearly acceptance and energy coverage along with excellent tracking and particle identification. The ECCE detector was designed to be built within the budget envelope set out by the EIC project while simultaneously managing cost and schedule risks. This detector concept has been selected to be the basis for the EIC …

Implications Of Nutrient Fate And Transport Following Nanopesticide Applications In Agricultural Field Plots In Central Kentucky, William Rud, Manuel D. Montaño, Daniel M. Miller, Wayne T. Sanderson, Carmen Agouridis, Brianna F. Benner, Tiffany L. Messer

Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications

The potential benefits of nanopesticide use over standard pesticides include more precise application at reduced application rates, lower premature degradation, and decreased direct impacts to target organisms. However, field scale investigations of the fate and transport of common nanopesticides such as copper (II) hydroxide and imidacloprid combinations, remain limited. A field study evaluating nano-scale copper (II) hydroxide (Cu), standard imidacloprid (I), nanoimidicloprid (NI), and nano-scale copper (II) hydroxide and imidacloprid (CuNI) compared to control (C) plots was conducted using thirty 14.6 m² field plots to determine the impacts of nanopesticide applications on nutrient cycling and quantify the persistence of …

Folliculin (Flcn) In Thyroid Tumors: Incidence, Significance, And Role As A Driver Gene And Secondary Alteration, Faisal Hassan, Camryn Slone, Robert J. Mcdonald, Julie C. Dueber, Adeel M. Ashraf, Melina Windon, Oliver J. Fackelmayer, Cortney Y. Lee, Therese J. Bocklage, Derek B. Allison

Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Faculty Publications

Thyroid carcinomas are driven by diverse molecular alterations, but the tumor suppressor gene folliculin (FLCN), best known for its role in Birt–Hogg–Dubé (BHD) syndrome, has received limited attention in thyroid tumors. Here, we describe two thyroid tumors with pathogenic FLCN alterations—one germline and one somatic—and analyze the broader prevalence and significance of FLCN in thyroid carcinomas using multiple large sequencing datasets, including ORIEN-AVATAR. Patient 1, with a germline FLCN mutation and a history of BHD syndrome, presented with a well-circumscribed oncocytic adenoma. Molecular testing confirmed biallelic FLCN inactivation, but no additional mutations or aggressive features were observed, and the patient …

Crop Insurance And Weather Risk: Decision Tools And The Effects Of Rising Temperatures In Kentucky, Enil Serrano

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This thesis investigates how rising temperatures and climate variability affect crop insurance decisions and premium rates for corn and soybean farmers in Kentucky. It introduces a new decision-support tool, the "Crop Insurance Decision Maker" (CIDM), which helps producers evaluate the financial trade-offs of various crop insurance products under different risk preferences. The first chapter details the tool’s development, function, and potential to improve farmer understanding of insurance options. The second chapter quantifies how +1°C and +2°C warming scenarios impact yield risk and crop insurance premium rates using 73 years of corn yield data, 51 years for soybean yield, and weather …

A Histopathology Aware Dino Model With Attention Based Representation Enhancement, Merve Ozkan, Caner Ozcan, Cody Bumgardner, Mahmut Selman Gokmen

Institute for Biomedical Informatics Faculty Publications

Histopathological image analysis plays a critical role in modern medical diagnostics, particularly in the detection and classification of various types of cancer. This study proposes a method called HistoDARE (Histopathology-Aware DINO with Attention-based Representation Enhancement), which offers an innovative approach to the attention module used in the Vision Transformers architecture. Unlike conventional attention mechanisms, HistoDARE introduces a novel three-stage AttentionWrapper module that sequentially applies spatial and channel attention followed by a residual refinement stage, enabling the extraction of spatially-aware and semantically distinctive feature representations. HistoDARE is a method integrated into the DINOv2 model, which uses the ViT-L/14 architecture. The obtained …

Characterizing And Targeting The Non-Catalytic Functions Of Phosphatase Of Regenerating Liver 3 (Prl-3) In Oncogenesis And Cancer Progression, Jeffery T. Jolly

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Phosphatase of Regenerating Liver 3 (PRL-3) is frequently upregulated in various cancers and is associated with poor patient prognosis. Although traditionally studied for its phosphatase activity, PRL-3 also interacts with the CNNM family of magnesium transporters through its catalytic site, and these two functions are mutually exclusive at any given time. Most previous studies relied on a commonly used PRL-3 mutation that disrupts both phosphatase activity and CNNM binding, making it challenging to determine which function drives its oncogenic effects. To address this gap in the field, I utilized a panel of PRL-3 mutants that selectively disrupt either phosphatase activity …

La Parole Comme Outil De Résistance Contre Les Tabous Oppressifs Des Femmes Marocaines : Une Étude Comparative De Paroles D’Honneur Et Hshouma, Roseline Adeleke

Students' Supported Scholarship

No abstract provided.