Digital Commons Network^™

Cross-Tailoring Integrative Alcohol And Risky Sexual Behavior Feedback For College Students: Protocol For A Hybrid Type 1 Effectiveness-Implementation Trial, Anne E. Ray, Eun-Young Mun, Melissa A. Lewis, Dana M. Litt, Jerod L. Stapleton, Lin Tan, David B. Buller, Zhengyang Zhou, Heather M. Bush, Seth Himelhoch

UK CARES Faculty Publications

Background: Underage drinking and related risky sexual behavior (RSB) are major public health concerns on United States college campuses. Although technology-delivered personalized feedback interventions (PFIs) are considered a best practice for individual-level campus alcohol prevention, there is room for improving the effectiveness of this approach with regard to alcohol-related RSB.

Objective: The aims of this study are to (1) evaluate the impact of a brief PFI that integrates content on alcohol use and RSB and is adapted to include a novel cross-tailored dynamic feedback (CDF) component for at-risk first-year college students and (2) identify implementation factors critical to the CDF’s …

Effect Of Reflex And Mechanical Decreases In Skin Perfusion On Thermal- And Agonist-Induced Eccrine Sweating In Humans, Kristen Metzler-Wilson, Milie M. Fang, Kenan Alibegovic, James W. Daggett, Seetharam C. Narra, Robert P. Dazé, Olivia G. Miller, Thad E. Wilson

UK CARES Faculty Publications

In humans, skin blood flux (SkBF) and eccrine sweating are tightly coupled, suggesting common neural control and regulation. This study was designed to separate these two sympathetic nervous system end-organ responses via nonadrenergic SkBF- decreasing mechanical perturbations during heightened sudomotor drive. We induced sweating physiologically via whole body heat stress using a high-density tube-lined suit (protocol 1; 2 women, 4 men), and pharmacologically via forearm intradermal microdialysis of two steady-state doses of a cholinergic agonist, pilocarpine (protocol 2; 4 women, 3 men). During sweating induction, we decreased SkBF via three mechanical perturbations: arm and leg dependency to engage the cutaneous …

Massachusetts Prevalence Of Opioid Use Disorder Estimation Revisited: Comparing A Bayesian Approach To Standard Capture-Recapture Methods, Jianing Wang, Nathan Doogan, Katherine L. Thompson, Dana Bernson, Daniel Feaster, Jennifer Villani, Redonna Chandler, Laura F. White, David Kline, Joshua A. Barocas

Statistics Faculty Publications

Background: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) estimated the prevalence of opioid use disorder (OUD) among the civilian, noninstitutionalized people aged 12 years or older in Massachusetts as 1.2% between 2015 and 2017. Accurate estimation of the prevalence of OUD is critical to the success of treatment and resource planning. Various indirect estimation approaches have been used but are subject to data availability and infrastructure-related issues.

Methods: We used 2015 data from the Massachusetts Public Health Data Warehouse (PHD) to compare the results of two approaches to estimating OUD prevalence in the Massachusetts population. First, we used …

A Comparative Analysis Of Applied Behavior Analysis And The Montessori Method, Emily Webb

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

The Montessori method is a multi-sensory curriculum design based on Dr. Maria Montessori’s observations of the positive outcomes a multi-sensory educational approach had when working with children with disabilities; however, there is little empirical data to support the outcomes of using the Montessori method to teach children with disabilities. Despite the limited amount of quantitative research on the Montessori method and early childhood special education, studies suggest Montessori educators are open to professional development on working with children with disabilities and are willing to implement other methods to provide support for those children while still maintaining the integrity of the …

Establishing Self-Instruction Skills By Teaching Mands For Informational Inquiries With Intelligent Voice Assistants Using Progressive Time Delay, Taylor Rae Kelley

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

In this study, unknown questions were posed to four high school students with intellectual disabilities, and they were directed to use intelligent voice assistants to mand for the answers. This self-instruction skill was taught using progressive time delay within a multiple probe across participants design with embedded generalization probes. Participants were trained to initiate Siri® or Google Assistant™ before baseline sessions were conducted. The effectiveness of progressive time delay to teach this skill was evaluated when questions were presented by research implementers and when presented by untrained communication partners. Implementers exposed participants to additional voice commands at the end of …

Cannabinoid Poisoning-Related Emergency Department Visits And Inpatient Hospitalizations In Kentucky, 2017 To 2019, Stevie C. Britch, Sharon L. Walsh, Rachel Vickers-Smith, Shanna Babalonis, Svetla Slavova

Center on Drug and Alcohol Research Faculty Publications

Background and objectives: Cannabis is the most used federally illicit substance. Due to widespread medicinal use and state-level legalization, public perceptions of cannabis have shifted toward the assumption that cannabis is safe. However, cannabinoids can cause adverse medical complications that may lead people to seek treatment. This study characterized cannabinoid poisoning-related medical encounters, poisoning involving cannabinoids and other psychoactive substances, and cannabinoid poisoning-related cardiac complications. Methods: Administrative billing data for emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations in acute care facilities with a discharge date from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2019 were used to characterize cannabinoid poisoning events in …

Evaluating A Rapid Coaching Intervention That Includes Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Teaching A Parent Naturalistic Strategies, Lauren Reiss

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

Parents of young children with or at risk for disabilities face added stress and challenges every day. This study implemented a rapid coaching intervention to teach a parent naturalistic language interventions such as mapping language onto their child's play, narrating their own play, and arranging the environment. In addition, parents were trained to use a milieu teaching procedure. In addition, a pre-service behavior interventionist and speech-language pathologist collaborated on selecting instructional targets for the child.

Magnetotelluric Insights Into The Formation And Reactivation Of Trans-Crustal Shear Zones In Precambrian Basement Of The Eastern U.S. Midcontinent, Benjamin S. Murphy, Michael S. Delucia, Stephen Marshak, Dhananjay Ravat, Paul A. Bedrosian

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

Three-dimensional inversion of regional long-period magnetotelluric (MT) data re- veals the presence of two distinct sets of high-conductivity belts in the Precambrian basement of the eastern U.S. Midcontinent. One set, beneath Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and western Ohio, is defined by northwest– southeast-oriented conductivity structures; the other set, beneath Kentucky, West Vir- ginia, western Virginia, and eastern Ohio, in- cludes structures that are generally oriented northeast–southwest. The northwest-trend- ing belts occur mainly in Paleoproterozoic crust, and we suggest that their high con- ductivity values are due to graphite precipi- tated within trans-crustal shear zones from intrusion-related CO2-rich fluids. Our MT inversion …

Terrestrial Ecosystem Transformations In Response To Rapid Climate Change During The Last Deglaciation Around Mono Lake, California, Usa, Adam J. Benfield, Sarah J. Ivory, Bailee Nicole Hodelka, Susan R. H. Zimmerman, Michael M. Mcglue

Earth and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications

We examine major reorganizations of the terrestrial ecosystem around Mono Lake, California during the last deglacial period from 16,000–9,000 cal yr BP using pollen, microcharcoal, and coprophilous fungal spores (Sporormiella) from a deep-water sediment core. The pollen results record the assemblage, decline, and replacement of a mixed wooded community of Sierran and Great Basin taxa with Alkali Sink and Sagebrush Steppe biomes around Mono Lake. In particular, the enigmatic presence of Sequoiadendron-type pollen and its extirpation during the early Holocene hint at substantial biogeographic reorganizations on the Sierran-Great Basin ecotone during deglaciation. Rapid regional hydroclimate changes produced structural alterations in …

Recovery Of Valuable Metals From Electronic Waste Using A Novel Ammonia-Based Hydrometallurgical Process, Peijia Lin

Theses and Dissertations--Mining Engineering

The growing quantity of waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE), also known as electronic waste (E-waste), has been an area of growing public concern. The abundance of valuable metals contained in waste printed circuit boards (WPCBs) has made it a promising secondary resource, especially for Cu and Au. Although the recovery of metals from WPCBs via hydrometallurgical routes has been studied extensively over the past 20 years, most of the research has been limited in the laboratory. In current hydrometallurgical processes, strong acids and expensive oxidizers are often used to ensure a high recovery of metals without considering the sustainability …

Operationalizing A Culture For Successful Lean Transformations: A Framework And Model-Based Tools, Amir Najarzadeh Dr.

Theses and Dissertations--Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Lean manufacturing has been embraced by many companies as a business model to promote operational excellence. However, a high percentage of lean implementation attempts have failed; many organizations have not been able to sustain continuous improvements to achieve lean transformations. This failure is often attributed to the sole focus on the hard-side (tools) of lean, at the expense of the soft side (culture). The majority of research exploring the cultural dimensions of lean either aims to increase awareness about culture or addresses it only in a cursory manner. To bridge this gap this study aims to identify and assess the …

Decarbonization Analysis For Thermal Generation And Regionally Integrated Large-Scale Renewables Based On Minutely Optimal Dispatch With A Kentucky Case Study, Donovin Lewis, Aron Patrick, Evan S. Jones, Rosemary E. Alden, Abdullah Al Hadi, Malcolm D. Mcculloch, Dan Ionel

Power and Energy Institute of Kentucky Faculty Publications

Decarbonization of existing electricity generation portfolios with large-scale renewable resources, such as wind and solar photo-voltaic (PV) facilities, is important for a transition to a sustainable energy future. This paper proposes an ultra-fast optimization method for economic dispatch of firm thermal generation using high granularity, one minute resolution load, wind, and solar PV data to more accurately capture the effects of variable renewable energy (VRE). Load-generation imbalance and operational cost are minimized in a multi-objective clustered economic dispatch problem with various generation portfolios, realistic generator flexibility, and increasing levels of VRE integration. The economic feasibility of thermal dispatch scenarios is …

Azimuthal Anisotropy Measurement Of (Multi)Strange Hadrons In Au+Au Collisions At √S Nn = 54.4 Gev, Star Collaboration

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Azimuthal anisotropy of produced particles is one of the most important observables used to access the collective properties of the expanding medium created in relativistic heavy-ion collisions. In this paper, we present second (v2) and third (v3) order azimuthal anisotropies of KS0, φ, Λ, Ξ, and ω at midrapidity (|y|< 1) in Au+Au collisions at sNN=54.4 GeV measured by the STAR detector. The v2 and v3 are measured as a function of transverse momentum and centrality. Their energy dependence is also studied. v3 is found to be more sensitive to the change in the center-of-mass energy than v2. Scaling by constituent quark number is found to hold for v2 within 10%. This observation could be evidence for the development of partonic collectivity in 54.4 GeV Au+Au collisions. Differences in v2 and v3 between baryons and antibaryons are presented, and ratios of v3/v23/2 are studied and motivated by hydrodynamical calculations. The ratio of v2 of φ mesons to that of antiprotons [v2(φ)/v2(p¯)] shows centrality dependence at low transverse momentum, presumably resulting from the larger effects from hadronic interactions on antiproton v2.

Association Of Notch3 With Elastic Fiber Dispersion In The Infrarenal Abdominal Aorta Of Cynomolgus Monkeys, Sohei Ito, Naofumi Amioka, Michael K. Franklin, Pengjun Wang, Ching-Ling Liang, Yuriko Katsumata, Lei Cai, Ryan E. Temel, Alan Daugherty, Hong S. Lu, Hisashi Sawada

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: The regional heterogeneity of vascular components and transcriptomes is an important determinant of aortic biology. This notion has been explored in multiple mouse studies. In the present study, we examined the regional heterogeneity of aortas in nonhuman primates.

METHODS: Aortic samples were harvested from the ascending, descending thoracic, suprarenal, and infrarenal regions of young control monkeys and adult monkeys with high fructose consumption for 3 years. The regional heterogeneity of aortic structure and transcriptomes was examined by histological and bulk RNA sequencing analyses, respectively.

RESULTS: Immunostaining of CD31 and αSMA (alpha-smooth muscle actin) revealed that endothelial and smooth muscle …

Predictors And Outcomes Of Acute Pulmonary Embolism In Covid-19; Insights From Us National Covid Cohort Collaborative, Muhammad H. Gul, Zin Mar Htun, Vinicio De Jesus Perez, Muhammad Suleman, Samiullah Arshad, Muhammad Imran, Mahender Vyasabattu, Jeremy P. Wood, Michael I. Anstead, Peter E. Morris

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Objectives To investigate whether COVID-19 patients with pulmonary embolism had higher mortality and assess the utility of d-dimer in predicting acute pulmonary embolism.

Patients and methods Using the National Collaborative COVID-19 retrospective cohort, a cohort of hospitalized COVID-19 patients was studied to compare 90-day mortality and intubation outcomes in patients with and without pulmonary embolism in a multivariable cox regression analysis. The secondary measured outcomes in 1:4 propensity score-matched analysis included length of stay, chest pain incidence, heart rate, history of pulmonary embolism or DVT, and admission laboratory parameters.

Results Among 31,500 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, 1117 (3.5%) patients were diagnosed …

Relative Adrenal Insufficiency Is A Risk Factor And Endotype Of Sepsis - A Proof-Of- Concept Study To Support A Precision Medicine Approach To Guide Glucocorticoid Therapy For Sepsis, Chia-Hua Wu, Ling Guo, Dan Hao, Qian Wang, Xiang Ye, Misa Ito, Bin Huang, Chieko Mineo, Philip W. Shaul, Xiang-An Li

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Introduction: 25-60% of septic patients experience relative adrenal insufficiency (RAI) and glucocorticoid (GC) is frequently used in septic patients. However, the efficacy of GC therapy and whether GC therapy should be based on the status of RAI are highly controversial. Our poor understanding about the pathogenesis of RAI and a lack of RAI animal model present significant barriers to address these critical issues.

Methods: Scavenger receptor BI (SR-BI) regulates stress-induced GC (iGC) production in response to stress. We generated SF1CreSR-BIfl/fl mice and utilized the mice as a RAI model to elucidate the pathogenesis of RAI and GC therapy in sepsis. …

Utilizing Precision Technologies To Validate A Real-Time Location System For Dairy Cattle And Monitor Calf Behaviors During Heat Stress, Emily Rice

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

With the increase in on-farm precision dairy technologies (PDT) utilization, large quantities of information are readily available to producers. A more recently available technology for use in livestock species is the real-time location system. These technologies offer dairy producers the opportunity to monitor and track real-time locations of cows, track locomotion patterns, and summarize specific area usage. However, the usefulness of these insights is heavily dependent on the performance of the technology. Therefore, the first objective of this dissertation was to assess the positioning recording performance and the usefulness of the data recorded of a real-time location system (Smartbow GmbH; …

Effects Of Biosynthesized Bromoform On Enteric Methane Production, Animal Performance And Tissue Residues In Cattle, Sydney Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Animal and Food Sciences

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been implicated in global warming and extreme climate change conditions. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified agriculture, more specifically cattle production, as a major contributor to global GHG production. When expressed as liters of gas, CO2 is considered the primary GHG produced, however, in terms of global warming potential (GWP), CH4 has 25-times greater potential than that of CO2. Due to the elevated GWP of CH4, we have constructed a series of experiments to investigate the use of a halogenated CH4 analogue derived from kelp (i.e., bromoform) as an inhibitor of enteric CH4 production …

Interface: Technology & Portraiture, Mullins Sydney

Graduate Thesis Exhibition Catalogue Gallery, 2023

In Interface, five Kentucky-area artists explore a new language of representation with the aid of digital tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Automatic Facial Recognition Software (AFR). Some artists use algorithms to alter celebrity faces beyond recognition, others feed data sets of existing art to AI models in an attempt to generate portraits of no one in particular. Others still create tools for understanding the very act of facial recognition or obfuscation. All have one thing in common: they wish to stretch the limits of and critique the genre of portraiture, as well as to cause viewers to question …

A Process Intensification Approach To Improve Volatile Fatty Acids Production, Extraction, And Valorization, Can Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering

Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a widely used biowaste conversion method. Recent studies have explored arrested methanogenesis as an alternative approach to leverage existing AD facilities and produce volatile fatty acids (VFAs) instead of biogas. VFAs have been recognized as precursors for a range of value-added chemicals and bioproducts. Arrested methanogenesis involves inducing acidic fermentation by halting the AD process before methanogenesis. It has been found that higher organic loading and thermophilic conditions enhance VFA accumulation and stabilize the acidic fermentation (AF) system.

Brewer's spent grain (BSG), a significant by-product of the brewing industry, was employed as the feedstock for VFA …

“Who Do You Love, And Are You For Sure?”: Black Relationship Attitudes And Partner Preferences, Chesmore Simon Montique

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Historically, research has identified Black relationships as deviant, unstable, and pathological as compared to White relationships (Frazier, 1966; Moynihan, 1965). This outlook centers on White experiences as a baseline for comparison and dismisses the cultural nuance within Black relationships. Examining intraracial Black relationship formation dynamics – specifically romantic partner preferences – using an intersectional framework seems more relevant as Black people are least likely of all races to date White people (Batson et al., 2006; Yancey, 2009). As Black immigrants continue to increase their presence in the U.S. (Anderson & López, 2018), the current research examines how cultural factors influence …

An Investigation Of Individualized Education Programs For Students With Autism, Jordan Findley

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

Autism is one of the fastest growing educational disability groups (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, 2021). The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004) ensures all students have access to a free and appropriate public education. Individualized Education Programs (IEP) have been described as central to IDEIA (2004) and are the most common service received by children with autism (Berrcera et al., 2017; Yell et al., 2003). Despite the frequent use of the IEP in service provision for students with autism, there is relatively little research on the content and quality of IEPs for students …

A View Into Collaborative Methods Between Minority Organizations And Archivists At The University Of Kentucky, Claudia Elizabeth Benito

Anthropology Presentations

This poster examines the white and male-dominated narrative promoted in the archives. Archivists hold the power to record and contribute to what is included in the archives. The lack of descriptions and identifiers causes archivists to define materials to the best of their ability. A third party is then creating historical notes that may not be complete and the materials lose, to some extent, their meaning and value. This becomes even more problematic when the materials have originated from or highlight minority individuals or groups. Particular language, or lack thereof, can make locating and understanding these materials more difficult for …

Microglia Proliferation Underlies Synaptic Dysfunction In The Prefrontal Cortex: Implications For The Pathogenesis Of Hiv-1- Associated Neurocognitive And Affective Alterations, Hailong Li, Kristen A. Mclaurin, Charles F. Mactutus, Rosemarie M. Booze

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

Microglia, which are productively infected by HIV-1, are critical for brain development and maturation, as well as synaptic plasticity. The pathophysiology of HIV-infected microglia and their role in the pathogenesis of HIV-1-associated neurocognitive and affective alterations, however, remains understudied. Three complementary aims were undertaken to critically address this knowledge gap. First, the expression of HIV-1 mRNA in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of postmortem HIV-1 seropositive individuals with HAND was investigated. Utilization of a combined RNAscope multiplex fluorescent and immunostaining assay revealed prominent HIV-1 mRNA in microglia of postmortem HIV-1 seropositive individuals with HAND. Second, measures of microglia proliferation and neuronal …

Personalized Point Of Interest Recommendations With Privacy-Preserving Techniques, Longyin Cui

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Location-based services (LBS) have become increasingly popular, with millions of people using mobile devices to access information about nearby points of interest (POIs). Personalized POI recommender systems have been developed to assist users in discovering and navigating these POIs. However, these systems typically require large amounts of user data, including location history and preferences, to provide personalized recommendations.

The collection and use of such data can pose significant privacy concerns. This dissertation proposes a privacy-preserving approach to POI recommendations that address these privacy concerns. The proposed approach uses clustering, tabular generative adversarial networks, and differential privacy to generate synthetic user …

Quality Control Methods Through Pre-Determination Of Fields For Usrap Projects, Zachary Heath

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The United States Road Assessment Program (usRAP) was designed to rate highways for their ability to protect road users and to make recommendations to engineers and policy makers for investments to enhance road safety. The program is heavily dependent on local road data or characteristics. Pre-populating usRAP requires coders to evaluate sixty-six attributes at 100-meter intervals along a subject highway. In this thesis, methods for obtaining and assuring the quality of some of the usRAP data elements are proposed. Kentucky Transportation Cabinet Highway Information System (HIS) data are used as “ground truth” for roadway grade and curvature. Methods of using …

Historical And Forecasted Kentucky Specific Slope Stability Analyses Using Remotely Retrieved Hydrologic And Geomorphologic Data, Daniel M. Francis

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Hazard analyses of rainfall-induced landslides have typically been observed to experience a lack of inclusion of measurements of soil moisture within a given soil layer at a site of interest. Soil moisture is a hydromechanical variable capable of both strength gains and reductions within soil systems. However, in situ monitoring of soil moisture at every site of interest is an unfeasible goal. Therefore, spatiotemporal estimates of soil moisture that are representative of in-situ conditions are required for use in subsequent landslide hazard analyses.

This study brings together various techniques for the acquisition, modeling, and forecasting of spatiotemporal retrievals of soil …

Clustering States To Improve The Strategic Highway Safety Plan, Victoria Cambron

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

Each update to a Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) can require a large amount of time, resources, and funding. From the requirements in U.S.C.148(a)(13)(E-F), in the SHSP update process states must consider the results of other transportation planning processes and develop a list of strategies to reduce or eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes (United States, 2023). To fulfill these requirements more efficiently and to gain the largest amount of benefit from said research, this thesis asks the question: how do we select other state transportation plans to study for ideas on improving our own SHSP? In this thesis, a …

Value Propositions, Adoption Factors, And Implementation Considerations: Building A Path Towards Construction Innovation, Makram Bou Bou Hatoum

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The construction industry has been influenced by a wave of technological advancements and trends that were introduced by the fourth industrial revolution or Industry 4.0. Mapped as Construction 4.0, these technologies are disrupting the way projects are designed, planned, constructed, delivered, and operated. While existing research has predominantly focused on technology adoption and use cases across the project lifecycle, limited attention has been given to the organizational perspective and explored Construction 4.0 as a transformative vision. As such, there is a significant need for decision science research to support decision-makers in understanding the value of Construction 4.0, gaining leadership buy-in, …

Implementation Of Digital Twins For Small Water Systems, Aidan Gill

Theses and Dissertations--Civil Engineering

The main objective of this thesis is to develop a working digital twin for a small water system in central Kentucky which will serve as a general format for other similar systems in the region wishing to implement digital twins for operator support. While the benefit of having a calibrated hydraulic and water quality model is widely understood, small distribution systems tend to not have the same financial and economic means to properly support these tools. Creation of a digital twin using this methodology provides a means for operators to predict pressure, flows, chlorine residuals, and total trihalomethane (TTHM) concentrations …