Digital Commons Network^™

Exploring The Biocultural Profile Of The Undocumented Populations Of The Sonoran Corridor: A Skeletal Assessment Of The Prevention Through Deterrence Strategy, Mary A. Vaughn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Over the last thirty years the mortality rate of the undocumented population at the US-Mexico border has risen, requiring methods distinguishing US-born individuals from immigrants to improve the likelihood of identification and repatriation through foreign consulates. Forensic anthropologists with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner (PCOME) have advocated for the use of the biocultural profile, combining the biological profile with factors including oral health, osteological stress, and personal effects. The biocultural profile serves two purposes, functioning both as a tool for identification and with which to document structural inequality within communities of origin.

This study examines changes in …

Evaluation Of Palm Oil As An Ingredient In Finishing Beef Cattle Diets On Performance, Carcass Characteristics, And Meat Quality, And The Composition Of Spayed Heifers To Intact Heifers Fed Melengestrol Acetate On Feedlot Performance And Carcass Characteristics, Tate S. Johnson

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Heifers represent a large proportion of cattle placed in feedlots, making pregnancy management an important consideration for maintaining performance and carcass value. Melengestrol acetate (MGA) is commonly included in feedlot diets to suppress estrus and prevent pregnancy in intact heifers during the finishing period. Alternatively, spaying has historically been utilized as a management practice to allow heifers to graze alongside breeding cattle without the risk of pregnancy. Despite its historical use, there is limited contemporary research comparing the growth performance and carcass characteristics of spayed heifers with intact heifers managed with MGA under modern feedlot conditions. Therefore, a commercial study …

The Illusion Of Absence, Abraham K. Ali

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The Illusion of Absence is a collection of thirty poems with a critical introduction that examines the poetic legacy of paternal absence and the reconfiguration of family in Africa and diasporic narratives. I grew up in Nigeria without my father. His absence has shaped my understanding of love, silence, manhood, and home. This manuscript is an exploration of the lasting legacy of my father’s absence and its place within an exploration of masculinity within the broader context of the African and diasporic experience. My mother became the focal point within the home as she brought cohesion and unity within the …

Redefining The Mother Wound: Marianism, The Church, And Communal Mothering In Las Madres: Latinas In The Heartland Who Led Their Family To Success, Maria R. Loya-Pérez

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis reconsiders the restrictive role assigned to Mexican mothers that is perpetuated by the Church and Marianism, and how those restrictions are liberated by communal mothering. In examining how a Mexican mother is expected to act based on cultural expectations, I analyze the stories of three real mothers from the familial autobiography Las Madres: Latinas in the Heartland Who Led Their Family to Success. I analyze three mothers, the matriarch Candelaria, her daughter Rafaela, and her daughter Irene to better understand how the Church and Marianism has restricted them based on the experiences of Candelaria. These restrictions when placed …

Good Life Automobility: Cultural/Rhetorical Resistance And Persistence Of Us Car Hegemony, Trinity O. Thompson

Department of Communication Studies: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project takes the car as a historical signifier of a rhetorical racialization process that enables a hypermobile white, masculine, neoliberal identity that pervades conceptions of mobility in the West. I locate these overlapping social formations under a cultural logic of good life automobility (GLA) that positions cars, a quintessential form of private property, as a motivator for a contemporary “good life” citizenship identity that cultivates neoliberal subjectivities of free movement and market consumption in contempt of socialized and racialized public transit futures. The introduction chapter elaborates on the boundaries of GLA while also contextualizing the two analysis chapters through …

Advancing Targeted Food Allergen Detection: Extraction Optimization And Sample Preparation Method Comparison Using Lc-Ms/Ms, Zhenhao Wang

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Accurate quantification of food allergens in processed foods by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) requires effective protein extraction and sample cleanup. However, no single sample preparation workflow has shown consistent performance across diverse food matrices. This study evaluated extraction buffer formulations and post-extraction cleanup strategies for quantification of milk, soy, and peanut allergens in multiple processed food matrices.

Six extraction buffers with varying combinations of SDS, urea, and thiourea alongside a common Tris-HCl/DTT/PVPP base were evaluated across five food matrices. No significant differences in extraction efficiency were observed among buffer formulations for nonfat dry milk (NFDM), non-roasted soy flour, peanut …

Understanding Roma Oppression In Europe Through Humantarian Forensic Analysis, Christal L. Quinn

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

This thesis examines the marginalization of Roma people in Europe, and how humanitarian forensic practices may help Roma communities in their quest for justice and recognition. The study draws exclusively on secondary information to examine the social, political, and legal issues affecting the Roma communities, who have endured centuries of institutional discrimination, marginalization, and violence. This thesis identifies ways in which systematic oppression continues to limit Roma communities’ access to education, housing, healthcare, and legal protection through a review of relevant literature and applicable theoretical frameworks. The study also examines the relevance of forensic science, particularly its humanitarian applications, in …

The Impact Of Community On Professional Identity In Computer Science Education, Ian A. Kollipara

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis explores the application of Communities of Practice (CoPs) in Computer Science Education. The work consists of two qualitative studies examining related but distinct populations: (1) K–12 CS teachers and (2) undergraduate CS students. The first study presents a retrospective analysis of conneCTION, an online CoP for K–12 CS educators, identifying strengths, weaknesses, and design considerations that inform future platform development. The second study investigates how participation in a CoP can mitigate negative and exclusionary stereotypes in CS. This study was conducted in an under-explored context: a small, private, religious, Midwestern university, and examines an existing community, the Programming …

A Webcam Eye Tracking Infrastructure For Software Engineering Tasks, Zachary M. Kozak

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Performing eye tracking utilizing commodity webcams has been explored for over a decade, but limited camera quality and sensitivity to head movements have hindered its adoption in research settings. Recent advances in consumer-grade webcams and machine learning methods present an opportunity to improve the accuracy of webcam eye tracking and extend the feasibility of studies beyond controlled laboratory environments.

Current popular webcam eye tracking methods restrict implementations to the browser and rely on continuous user interactions for calibration, limiting the kinds of studies that can be conducted. This thesis presents a feature-based gaze prediction system that incorporates eye geometry and …

Gao Weijie’S East–West Encounter, Jiabo Gao

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This portfolio mainly includes the two major dissertation recital papers, program notes and one lecture recital speech I presented throughout my DMA period. The first recital paper primarily compares and examines how Johann Friedrich Reichardt, Carl Loewe, and Franz Schubert set ErlkönigThe Yuanqu Song Cycle, exploring how Gao combines different musical systems of the East and West to express Chinese ancient poetry. This is also my main contribution during my DMA period, which involves in-depth research and performance of art songs from Germany, France, Italy and China.

Breeding For Diverse Color And Protein Quality In Popcorn And Sweet Corn, Jonathan Niyorukundo

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Sweet corn and popcorn are important crops consumed globally as vegetable and snack, respectively. They are deemed healthy foods due to high fiber and carotenoid contents, especially in yellow varieties. Commercial varieties are optimized for high-yielding agronomics, and previous efforts were made to improve specific macro- and micronutrient contents. Both sweet corn and popcorn have poor protein quality due to the inadequate essential amino acids such as lysine and tryptophan. Moreover, commercial varieties are predominantly yellow, thereby offering no diversity of other maize colors, which are potentially healthier and more appealing to the consumer. In this project, we sought to …

Unleashing Stress: The Effects Of Training, Bond Strength, And Stress On Pet Dog Behaviors And Health, London Maria Wolff

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Humans and dogs have formed a unique ability to communicate with each other through evolutionary and developmental mechanisms. This increased communication serves to form dynamic interspecies bonds by facilitating learning and training over the lifetime of a dog. However, it is not known what factors permit the unique capacity of dogs to form bonds with, and learn from, their human companions. Odor is a notable candidate for interspecies communication about emotional states, with studies showing that both dogs and humans use odor information to detect human emotions (Calvi et al., 2020). Possibly, this may include detection of both acute and …

Problems With Small Drinking Water Systems In Developing And Developed Countries: How Do They Compare?, Kurt Kesteloot

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation compares the factors that drive the long-term functionality of small drinking water systems (serving fewer than 10,000 people) in developing and developed country contexts, with a focus on groundwater supplies. Using regression analysis in SAS and complementary fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) for developing countries, the study integrates two datasets: 23 Engineers Without Borders project surveys (90+ variables across 14 countries) and a multi-year National Park Service inspection dataset (approximately 1,561 systems; 7,460 recorded deficiencies, enriched with U.S. Census ZIP-code aggregates). In developing countries, statistically significant predictors of success include government cash contributions (odds ratio [OR] ≈ 67.6), …

Development Of A Decision Aid For Single-Sided Deafness Intervention For Adults: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study, Priya Karimuddanahalli Premkumar

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Individuals with single-sided deafness (SSD) encounter challenges such as difficulty localizing sounds, understanding speech in noisy environments, heightened auditory fatigue, and a diminished quality of life. The available treatment options for SSD are diverse, ranging from contralateral routing of signal (CROS) devices and bone conduction devices (BCD) to osseointegrated auditory implants (OAI), cochlear implants (CI), or even opting for no device at all. However, each of these treatment choices comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Navigating the decision-making process for SSD treatment can be challenging due to each option's unique pros and cons. Furthermore, there remains a …

Boolean Rank Via Monomial Ideals And Neural Ideals, Juliann Marie Geraci

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation develops new connections between Boolean matrix factorization, combinatorial neural codes, and commutative algebra. The central goal is to understand how structural and algebraic invariants can be used to measure and bound complexity in discrete data. We begin by studying the Boolean matrix factorization (BMF) problem, which seeks to express a binary matrix as a product over the Boolean semiring with minimal inner dimension, known as the Boolean rank. By interpreting binary matrices as bipartite graphs, we relate Boolean rank to biclique covers and introduce algebraic techniques to study this quantity. We associate to a matrix its edge ideal …

Musical Affinities Between Ann Southam's Glass Houses And Canadian Fiddle Tunes With Performance Considerations For Glass Houses No. 5, Evangelia Nikolaidou

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Ann Southam stands as one of Canada’s foremost minimalist composers. Her fifteen-piece piano set Glass Houses, composed in 1981 and revised in 2009, reflects the joyful, dance-like energy of Canadian fiddle music that inspired it. While Glass Houses has frequently been discussed within the context of minimalist composition, less attention has been given to the ways in which the work resonates with Canadian fiddle traditions. This document draws on existing scholarship on Métis, French-Canadian, Newfoundland, Anglo-Canadian, and Scottish fiddle traditions to trace and clarify structural, rhythmic, and textural affinities between Canadian fiddle tunes and Glass Houses. Focusing on …

Open Multi-Agent Systems: The Free-Range-Zoo Framework And Moasei Competition, Ceferino J. Patino Iv

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The field of multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) has made significant strides in addressing sequential decision-making problems under uncertainty. However, traditional MARL frameworks assume closed-world settings with fixed agent sets, static task distributions, and unchanging environment dynamics. This thesis presents two complementary contributions that advance the state of open-world multi-agent systems research: (1) the free-range-zoo framework, an open-source environment suite for MARL in open environments featuring dynamic agent populations, evolving task sets, and changing operational frames; and (2) the MOASEI Competition, an international benchmarking event that leverages free-range-zoo to evaluate how artificial agents handle openness in complex, partially observable domains. The …

A Daily Assessment Of Food And Alcohol Disturbance And Alcohol Intoxication As Predictors Of Sexual Violence Victimization, Amanda Elizabeth Baildon

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Alcohol-involved sexual violence (SV) is a common and detrimental experience for young adult women. To supplement SV prevention strategies aimed at perpetrators, who are fully responsible for the occurrence of SV, risk reduction programs that target women’s drinking have been implemented with limited efficacy. To improve these programs, research must examine novel predictors like food and alcohol disturbance (FAD) that contribute to SV risk. FAD refers to compensatory behaviors (e.g., restricted eating, excessive exercise) to offset alcohol’s calories or enhance intoxication. Approximately 45% of young adult women engage in FAD, a practice that likely heightens SV risk by facilitating rapid …

External Force Control Of Transitional And Turbulent Flows, Cesar Alberto Leos

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Turbulence in wall-bounded flows governs momentum transport, drag, and energy efficiency in a wide range of engineering systems, yet its response to external forcing remains incompletely understood across transitional and high Reynolds number regimes. This dissertation investigates an active flow control strategy based on spanwise external forcing and demonstrates how it modifies the dynamics of transitional and turbulent channel flows with the objective of identifying the mechanisms through which forcing alters transition, flow physics, and turbulent drag reduction.

Firstly, direct numerical simulations are performed to examine the subcritical transition under external forcing. The onset and sustenance of turbulence are shown …

Improving Drought Science Communication And Accessibility, Lindsay Erin Johnson

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Effective drought management depends not only on the accuracy of scientific data, but also on how that information is communicated and understood by diverse audiences. This dissertation examines drought communication through the lens of science communication, with a focus on improving readability, accessibility, understandability, and usability of drought information. Using a manuscript-style format, three studies investigate how drought information is written, delivered, and applied. Chapter 1 provides a brief overview and outline of this dissertation. Chapter 2 evaluates the readability of the U.S. Drought Monitor (USDM) national narratives over almost 8 years. Results show that these narratives are consistently written …

Making The Case For Spandex: The Nature Of Re-Novicing And The Merging Of Expertise For Former Elementary And High School Teachers Who Move To Teaching At The Middle Level, Elizabeth K. Boyle

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

As an academic coach in a large, Midwestern middle school, I noticed an influx of teachers with years of prior experience at the elementary or high school levels being hired to work with students in grades six through eight. Because they were already veteran teachers, they were not assigned mentorship, yet there were aspects of working in a middle-school setting that effectively “re-noviced” them (Hanuscin et al., 2020).

Knowing that cookie-cutter approaches to professional development and learning often do not meet the needs of adult learners, I sought information that would guide what professional growth opportunities could be provided to …

Impacts Of Supplemental Fat In Finishing Diets On Digestibility, Performance, Carcass Outcomes, Meat Quality And Methane Production Of Feedlot Cattle, Anna Marie Kobza

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Rising costs and fluctuating availability of supplemental fats has led to increased interest in alternative fat sources or feed additives that might improve utilization of supplemental fat in feedlot diets. Two separate experiments were conducted to evaluate alternative strategies to overcome high fat prices. The first experiment was a metabolism study, conducted to evaluate digestion parameters of supplemental fat sources with or without LYSOFORTE Extend. The objectives of this experiment were to evaluate LYSOFORTE Extend in beef finishing diets containing a saturated fat source (tallow) and unsaturated fat source (corn oil). Duodenally and ruminally fistulated steers were fed diets containing …

Redefining Professional Boundaries To Strengthen Relationships And Postsecondary Goal-Setting: An Improvement Science Approach To Coaching Opportunity Youth, Felipe De Jesus Longoria-Shinn

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Transitional and independent living coaches at Central Service Agency (CSA), a pseudonym for a Midwestern human services organization, support opportunity youth—young people facing systemic barriers—in improving their life trajectories. Although CSA has served an increasing number of youth in recent years, the number pursuing postsecondary education has remained stagnant or declined. This study engaged coaches, staff, and participating youth in an improvement science (IS) initiative designed to increase the number of postsecondary goals set by youth. Grounded in research demonstrating that postsecondary pathways can mitigate the effects of adverse life experiences and promote long-term mobility, this study examined how relational …

Program And Proceedings, The Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2026: 146th Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Sixth Annual Meeting

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program and abstracts of the proceedings for the Nebraska Academy of Sciences 136th annual meeting, 2025

Sessions

Aeronautics and Space Science

Anthropology

Biological and Medical Sciences

Earth Sciences

Ecology, Sustainability, and Environmental Science

Physics and Engineering

General Poster Session

2026 Maiben Lecture: Shifting Extremes: Understanding Nebraska’s Changing Climate and Preparing for What Lies Ahead, Deborah Bathke

2026 Friends of Science Awards: Julie Shaffer and Irina Filina

2026 C. Bertrand and Marian Othmer Schultz Colleaguate Schoalrship Award: Piper Ryschon and Bryce Reeson

In Memoriam: Paul Royster

Carmen Manrique De Quintero: A Forgotten Legacy In Colombian Piano Music, Lina Maria Luisa Marín Diaz

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This doctoral document investigates the life and piano works of Carmen Manrique de Quintero (1871–1931), a pivotal yet overlooked figure in Colombian music history. Positioned as a stylistic bridge between the nineteenth-century estética del salón [salon aesthetics] and the professionalization of the Colombian composer, Manrique de Quintero’s output represents a sophisticated synthesis of European forms and Colombian national rhythms. Despite her membership in the influential Garay artistic lineage and her prolific body of work, her legacy has suffered from editorial blurring, fragmented documentation, and systematic intellectual appropriation. Using a multidisciplinary approach of genealogical reconstruction and artistic archaeology, this study restores …

Electron Emission From Unactivated Gaas: Towards The Development Of Novel Sources Of Spin-Polarized Electrons, William Truslow Newman

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Spin-polarized electrons are commonly emitted from GaAs photocathodes with treated surfaces in a process called negative electron affinity activation. These sources require stringent vacuum conditions that are often hard to achieve and lead to significant downtimes in experiments. In this dissertation, I present new investigations of electron emission from unactivated GaAs towards the development of novel sources of spin-polarized electrons. The work entails two primary directions. The first is the investigation of electron emission using multiphoton ionization processes enhanced by nanoscale surface structures. We explore GaAs electron sources including, shards, nanotip arrays of pyramid structures, wedges, and ion-milled tips. The …

Reconstructing Nebraska’S Late Quaternary Paleoenvironment, Landscape Change, And Human–Environment Dynamics Using Diatoms And Optically Stimulated Luminescence Dating, Gosia Mahoney

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

This dissertation examines Holocene environmental change and human–environment interactions in the Nebraska Sand Hills by integrating geomorphic, paleoenvironmental, and geochronological data. It presents three complementary studies that together explore how climatic variability, local landscape processes, and human activity influenced environmental systems.

The first study reconstructs the early Holocene evolution of a dune-dammed valley in the central Sand Hills. Stratigraphic, sedimentological, and diatom evidence indicate that eolian activity resulted in a blocked fluvial system, leading to elevated groundwater levels and the formation of a wetland that later developed into a lake. Notably, this transformation occurred under relatively dry conditions, demonstrating that …

“The Left Leg Is Not Well”: Identity, Economy, And Ability In Early Modern Drama, Emma D. Whaley

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The human reality of the disabled experience often goes overlooked by scholars analyzing early modern literature. Most scholarship seems to interpret disability as metaphorical without examining the human who experiences it. In this paper, I will be examining disability in three early modern texts as literal and inquire into the realities of the disabled experience for the characters. A Larum for London, The Shoemaker’s Holiday, and The Fair Maid of the Exchange all prominently feature a disabled character—Stump, Ralph, and Cripple respectively. These characters offer a depth of personhood rarely examined in early modern literary scholarship, even in …

Bass Numbers Of Veronese Submodules And Lifting The Frobenius Trace, Taylor Jeffrey Murray

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The first part of this thesis is inspired by the works of G. Lyubeznik, C. Hunkeke, R. Sharp, and L. Núñez-Betancourt on Bass numbers, associated primes, and injective dimension of local cohomology modules. In particular, we study the question: how do Bass numbers behave under the Veronese functors? We show for a positive integer n, a reasonably nice, graded, finitely generated algebra over field R, and a graded module M, that if the Bass numbers of M are finite over R, then so are the Bass numbers of Mⁿ/Rⁿ; this recovers …

On The Transport Of Chloroplast Lipids, Cailin Smith

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Chloroplasts are green, photosynthetically active organelles ubiquitous to the plant kingdom. Owing to their cyanobacterial origin, chloroplasts consist of three membranes: the outer envelope, the inner envelope, and the thylakoid, the latter of which is the site of the light-dependent reactions of photosynthesis. Not only do the lipids that make up these membranes delineate aqueous compartments, but they also respond dynamically to developmental and environmental cues, constitute the matrix that scaffolds protein machinery, and even serve as functional components of some proteinaceous complexes. However, while lipids are of vital importance to the structure and function of the chloroplast, the mechanisms …