Digital Commons Network^™

Decomposition Study Using Pigs In Southeastern Nebraska During The Fall And Winter Seasons, Ryan Bodine

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

When an individual is found deceased, one of the tools used in the identification process is estimating the post-mortem interval (PMI). This estimate is used to determine how long an individual has been deceased once their remains are found. To estimate an accurate PMI, knowing how decomposition is affected by external factors is key. The transition period from fall to winter in southeastern Nebraska consists of fluctuating temperatures as the seasons transfer from fall to winter. This thesis investigates how decomposition is affected during this transition period while also looking at two different environments that are common in Nebraska, prairies …

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 …

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.

Salon Music For Professionals: An Analysis And Performance Guide To Two Programmatic Suites For Flute And Piano By Theodor Blumer (1881–1964), Brenna Sherman

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

Theodor Blumer (1881–1964) was an early twentieth-century German composer, pianist, and conductor whose substantial contributions to the flute repertoire have received little scholarly attention. Despite his prolific output and close association with leading wind performers of his time, his music remains largely absent from contemporary scholarship and performance. This dissertation addresses that gap by presenting a comprehensive biographical timeline, defining Blumer’s compositional aesthetics, and completing an in-depth analytical examination of his programmatic works for the flute.

Drawing on primary source materials from Blumer’s estate—including personal correspondence, photographs, and dated manuscripts—this study constructs the first full biography of Blumer. Central to …

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 …

Centering Access: Reimagining Basic Writing Through Critical Disability Frameworks, Jason Burton Mccormick

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

Despite decades of scholarship arguing otherwise, developmental writing spaces are still often treated as places of deficit in higher education. This deficit positioning emerges in the ways the courses are discussed (as barriers and burdens to graduation), the way learners are imagined (being “unprepared” for college work), and the way placement is understood as punishment. Developmental educators continue to fight this stigma, but rely on stories of students “overcoming” rather than acknowledging that the stigma is a product of the institution and its discriminatory norms, not the offering itself.

My work reimagines the developmental writing classroom as an essential liminal …

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 …

Sister Suite, Evan Lebouef

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

Sister Suite is a large ensemble work for a 17-piece jazz orchestra, double string quartet, 3 vocalists, and media. This piece is informed by the historical significance of music in the lives of three sisters and by how their musical choices each reflect their personalities, societal roles, and effects on their children and loved ones. In this work, themes, interpretations, and motivic development shape the soundscape for the audience. Using interviews and detailed musical research, I have created a substantial work that highlights the effectiveness of music and how siblings can influence one another and those outside their families.

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), …

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 …

A Conductor’S Focus On The Preparation And Performance Of Timothy Takach’S Helios, Lester Ray Miller

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

Multimovement a cappella choral works have been composed and performed since the invention of printed music. When selecting such works, choral conductors often look to masterworks of the Renaissance or to the established works of modern composers. Timothy C. Takach (b. 1978) premiered the 12-movement a cappella choral cycle entitled Helios in 2019. Takach has become a celebrated composer whose works are performed by choirs across the country, yet little academic study has focused on his output. This document serves as a resource for the conductor who wishes to program Helios and as an aid in preparing for rehearsal. It …

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 …

An Annotated Bibliography Of Music For Flute Alone And Flute And Electronics By Lgbtq Composers, Bridget Hill

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

Throughout my formal music education and general music upbringing, I have noted the erasure of the LGBTQ identities of artists, composers, musicians, and historical figures from formal music curricula, and from the concert hall. In response to this erasure, I am increasing visibility through the act of record-keeping by taking inventory of the works written for flute by LGBTQ composers. In searching for flute music by LGBTQ composers, it became clear that works by these composers were not organized into a centralized collection, or body of work.

This document will start the process of record-keeping by collecting and annotating works …

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 …

Exploring The Relations Between Employer Beliefs And Workplace Practices: Organizational Factors And Autism Employment Outcomes, Melinda Ann Henson

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

Autistic individuals experience persistent employment disparities despite interventions targeting individual skills and supports, suggesting that workplace factors also shape employment outcomes. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) posits that workplace environments supporting employee autonomy, competence, and relatedness promote employment outcomes. This study examined SDT-aligned practices and tested associations between employer beliefs about autism as a form of neurodiversity, hiring receptivity, and employment outcomes for Autistic professionals. A preliminary aim was to evaluate the psychometric properties of a newly developed measure, the Workplace Inclusivity and Autonomy Survey (WIAS), designed to assess SDT practices via employer report. Participants included 43 professionals representing a range of …

German Is For You! The Making Of A High School Multikulti German Course, Jennene Aten

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

This teacher self-study examined the process of creating and teaching a multicultural German curriculum. This study necessarily involved observing students as they went through the semester of course work, but students are not the center of the research. I am. This research focuses on what I learned about teaching, specifically my teaching in my subject area and how I could improve my skills and methods.

Germany is an ethnically diverse nation but not usually thought of as such. The presentation of Germany in German language textbooks is generally portrayed as rather monochromatic. Students who study German, specifically in Fairfield, California, …

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 …

No Ash Will Burn, Blake Kinnett

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

No Ash Will Burn follows twin narrators Avery and Krista Harmon. After a boy their aged, named Oliver O’Hara, moves in next door, Avie begins playing music with him at the docks in their town. When their mother unexpectedly passes away, Avery leaves their small town of Monticello, Kentucky for Lexington, Kentucky, taking Krista’s dulcimer along with her. The dulcimer was built by their late father, who intended to build two, but passed away before he could complete the second, dedicated to Avery. The completed dulcimer has Krista’s name carved into the side. In Lexington, Oliver develops an original song, …

Laser Microprocessing Of Metallic And Composite Materials: Nanosecond Pulsed Laser Surface Melting, Laser Shock Peening, And Femtosecond Laser Machining, Qiuchi Zhu

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

This dissertation comprises three parts addressing laser microprocessing of metallic and composite materials through nanosecond pulsed laser surface melting, laser shock peening, and femtosecond laser machining. The first part discusses nanosecond pulsed laser surface melting for corrosion mitigation in stainless steel. Commercial 304 stainless steel (SS) was first used to establish a processing window for stable shallow remelting and rapid resolidification. The approach was then extended to 304L/308L SS welded joints relevant to nuclear dry storage canisters. The results show that nanosecond laser surface melting refines the near-surface microstructures in the heat-affected zone and improved pitting corrosion resistance. Electrochemical and …

A Multimodal Approach For Building Generalizable And Reliable Models Of Longitudinal Experiential Data, Ahatsham Hayat

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

This dissertation studies how to build generalizable and reliable models for longitudinal experiential (LE) data. Such data arises in domains where human behavior, experience, and context evolve over time, including education, behavioral health, and related human-centered settings. These datasets are often heterogeneous, partially observed, temporally structured, and vulnerable to out-of-distribution (OOD) shift, making them difficult to model with conventional machine learning pipelines.

The dissertation develops a multimodal research program that progresses from traditional machine learning and deep learning methods to contextual large language modeling, vision-language modeling (VLM), and finally a frozen-backbone multimodal framework designed to improve robustness and generalization. Across …

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 …

Integrated Approaches For Valorization Of Chicken Feather Waste: From Extraction To Application Of Keratin-Based Bioproducts, Muhammad Ehtasham Akram

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

This dissertation explores the optimization of chicken feathers keratin hydrolysate (CFKH) production using alkaline hydrolysis (AH) and sub-critical water hydrolysis (SCWH), focusing on acquiring high keratin yield in the hydrolysate. Then, CFKH along with other locally sourced materials, was used to develop bioplastics with regenerative agriculture properties (BioWRAP), with the ultimate objective of applying it as a soil mulch to suppress weeds in agricultural crops. This work also addresses challenges in process design and industrial scale-up of BioWRAP. Chapter 1 is a literature review that introduces terms like biobased, biodegradable, and bioplastics, materials and methods used to make bioplastics, and …

Leading With The Heart: Fostering Asset-Based Teacher Beliefs And Practices For Multilingual Learners Through Research–Practice Partnership In A Diversifying Suburban Elementary School, Valerie Anne Kyllmann

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

This mixed methods study is part of a larger research-practice partnership (RPP) between practitioners and researchers at a Midwestern suburban elementary school experiencing an increase in cultural and linguistic diversity. Like many U.S. schools, its teaching force is mostly White, middle-class, and female, creating not only a pedagogical gap, but also a belief gap about the linguistic and academic assets multilingual students possess. Grounded in linguistically responsive teaching, adult learning, and improvement science, this study explores how RPPs can leverage varying expertise in cycles of inquiry to co-create initiatives that foster asset-based teacher perspectives through building-wide events and professional development. …

Critical Edition Of El Libertador: A Symphonic Poem By Costa Rican Composer Julio Mata (1899–1969), Manuel Monge Mata

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

This project offers a critical edition of El Libertador, a symphonic poem composed by Costa Rican artist Julio Mata Oreamuno (1899–1969). The piece holds special importance in Costa Rican orchestral music and represents the symphonic poem genre in Latin American compositions. Although Mata is acknowledged as a key figure in the growth of Costa Rican musical institutions and composition during the twentieth century, much of his orchestral work remains rarely performed and not easily accessible to today’s performers.

The edition is based on manuscript sources kept in the Archivo Histórico Musical of the University of Costa Rica, consisting of …

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 …

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 …