Digital Commons Network^™

Great Expectations: How Gender Assigned At Birth Shapes Viewpoint Based Perceptual Disparities In Gender-Diverse People, Adelyn Emter

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine disparities between personal beliefs and perceived societal ideologies about earning gendered traits and maintaining masculinity and femininity, with a focus on gender-diverse perspectives and the influence of gender identity on responses to social research. The current study recruited 334 gender-diverse participants to compare Viewpoint and Gendered Trait based on participant Gender Assigned at Birth, using twelve statements about earning and maintaining masculinity and femininity. The Traditional Egalitarian Sex Role (TESR) Inventory and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) Scale were used as covariates which significantly contributed to the model. As expected, societal belief scores …

Forceful Functors: A Categorical Approach To Constraint Monitoring In Machine Learning Models, Jonathan Wirkkala

Theses and Dissertations

Often times in machine learning there are several heuristic choices that one makes during model selection, training, and validation. These choices include the type of training used, the width and depth of the model, type activation function and many more. These choices are general rules of thumb and best practices when creating a machine learning algorithm to achieve acceptable results. For example, in the case of image processing, this may mean determining whether or not a given image contains a tumor. Decisions made during the design process create several variations of machine learning algorithms, all with various properties with pros …

Hillslope Degradation: Coarse Sands May Move Faster But Fines Dominate Flux, Robert Chance

Theses and Dissertations

Hillslopes are one of the most pervasive landforms on Earth yet the details of the processes that drive their evolution are not completely understood. Excluding boulders, the majority of mass and volume in soil-mantled hillslopes is composed of sand-sized and finer grains. Understanding the transport rates and governing transport mechanisms of these grains is therefore key to advancing our knowledge of hillslope evolution.This research investigates sand-sized sediment transport through field experiments at 20 sites tracking surface sediment motion and 11 sites measuring depth-dependent transport. These empirical results are compared against outputs from a novel grain-based hillslope diffusion simulation (GBHDS), which …

An Exploratory Investigation Of The Impact Of Psychological Intimate Partner Violence On College Women: A Qualitative Study, Dana Juel Conzemius-Schindler

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found psychological intimate partner violence (P-IPV; defined as emotional and verbal abuse utilized to degrade, demean, create fear, control, or isolate; Tolman, 1989; Sullivan et al., 2012) is detrimental to mental health functioning, including increased sexual risk behaviors, depressive and anxious symptomology, and relationship dissatisfaction (Hellemans et al., 2015; Overstreet et al., 2015). Despite this, little is known regarding the academic and psychological lived experiences of survivors of P-IPV. Therefore, the current study sought to qualitatively explore the lived experiences of female-identified students exposed to psychological intimate partner violence while in college. Through a Consensual Qualitative Research (CQR; …

Adhd Research And Practice: An Evaluation Of Psychologists’ Utilizations Of Adhd Assessments In Practice, Desiree Giesen

Theses and Dissertations

The incidence of first-time Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diagnoses among adults has been on the rise. There is limited research on effective practices for evaluating adult ADHD, with previous studies showing conflicting results regarding the effectiveness of various assessment measures. The current study investigates the assessment tools chosen by psychologists and their perceived importance in evaluating ADHD. A cross-sectional design was used with 200 participants who were primarily licensed psychologists. The unstructured clinical interview with the client was the most used assessment tool and was rated as having the highest importance, whereas continuous performance tasks were rated as having the lowest …

Ecological Dynamics In Beaver-Engineered Boreal Wetlands: Amphibian Phenology, Occupancy, And Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Communities, Talon Stammen

Theses and Dissertations

Boreal wetlands are ecologically rich yet vulnerable ecosystems shaped by hydrological dynamics, cold climate regimes, and landscape-scale disturbances. Among the most influential agents of change in these systems are beavers (Castor canadensis), whose engineering activities create a mosaic of lentic habitats at varying stages of ecological succession. This dissertation investigates the structure and dynamics of amphibian and aquatic macroinvertebrate communities across a beaver-influenced wetland landscape in Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA.The first study (Chapter II) examines breeding phenology and detection patterns of boreal anurans using a combination of passive acoustic monitoring and visual encounter surveys at 25 wetlands over four …

Targeted Coaching In The Detroit Promise Path: A Thematic Network Analysis Of Current Challenges And Opportunities For Student Success, Maryse Danielle Wilson

Theses and Dissertations

The Detroit Promise Program is one of the many college promise programs operating within the United States that offers full college tuition coverage to students within the city who meet certain residential criteria. Detroit’s population has one of the highest proportions of Black and first-generation students and the lowest average socioeconomic class in the country. From the time of the Promise Program’s launch until now it has seen minor improvements in college degree competition rates, but this rate is still low compared to the national average. The Detroit Promise Path, which is an off branch of the Detroit Promise Program, …

Comparative Analysis Of Lstm-Based And Traditional Hydrologic Models For River Discharge Prediction: A Case Study Of The Goose River, Adewale Ajao

Theses and Dissertations

Streamflow predictions are important in planning water resources and effective hydrological management. Physically based models such as the Hydrologic Engineering Center-Hydrologic Modeling System (HEC-HMS) have been used in the past for this purpose. Still, the use of machine learning models such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) has been proven to complement the use of traditional models. This study compares the reliability performances of HEC-HMS and LSTM models to predict the streamflow of Goose River Watershed in North Dakota. The objective of the research is to perform a comprehensive comparative analysis between the performance of HEC-HMS and LSTM models to predict …

Machine Learning-Guided Discovery Of Metal-Ligand Catalysts For Affordable Green Hydrogen Produced Via Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzers, Achouak Benarbia

Theses and Dissertations

The rising demand for clean and sustainable energy sources has underscored the critical role of hydrogen in the global energy transition. However, the widespread adoption of green hydrogen remains constrained by the high cost and scarcity of platinum-based electrocatalysts used in Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) electrolyzers. This dependence inflates production costs and poses long-term risks related to supply security and scalability. While numerous studies have explored alternative materials, the discovery of efficient and stable non-platinum catalysts remains a major bottleneck due to the vastness of chemical space and the resource-intensive nature of experimental screening. To address this challenge, this study …

When Fomo Meets The Keg: A Descriptive Case Study Of Binge Drinking In First-Year College Students At The University Of North Dakota, Angie Novak

Theses and Dissertations

Binge drinking among first-year college students is a persistent public health and academic issue, particularly during the transition to higher education. As students gain independence and navigate peer influence and campus norms, many perceive alcohol use as a central part of the college experience. This descriptive case study investigates the personal, environmental, and behavioral factors contributing to binge drinking among first-year students at the University of North Dakota (UND).The study, guided by Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), explored how students adopt and reinforce drinking behaviors through peer modeling, social expectations, and institutional culture. Qualitative data was collected through individual interviews with …

Advancing Human-Computer Interaction Systems Through Explainable And Secure Ai Integration, Ifiok Udoidiok

Theses and Dissertations

As artificial intelligence (AI) systems increasingly shape how humans interact with digital environments, the need for transparency, security, and robustness in intelligent decision making has become critical. This thesis explores how explainable and secure AI techniques can be integrated into modern human-computer interaction (HCI) systems to enhance trust, resilience, and alignment with human operators.

We present three related studies, each addressing a distinct challenge in the design of human-centered AI. First, we apply XAI methods, specifically Local Interpretable Model-Agnostic Explanations (LIME), to deep learning (DL) based CAPTCHA solvers. By interpreting model attention patterns, we uncover exploitable weaknesses in text CAPTCHA …

Laboratory Application Of An Aircraft Particle Imaging Probe To Characterize Levitated Ice Crystals And Their Aerodynamic Drag, Cheyenne Phoenix Harrison

Theses and Dissertations

Ice crystals in the upper atmosphere range in size from a few nanometers to a few millimeters, creating potential damage to vehicles traveling at hypersonic speeds; this problem has not yet been investigated with controlled laboratory techniques. This thesis investigates ice crystal impacts on high-speed flight vehicles and their aerodynamics by exploring a new method to combine ice crystal and shock wave experimental apparatuses to achieve experiments of observing ice crystals and shock waves interacting. The objectives of this research are: (1) to consistently produce levitated ice crystals in a setup that can feasibly release the ice crystals into a …

Evaluation Of Schlafen Family Proteins In Triple Negative Breast Cancer, Savannah Brown

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the role of Schlafen (SLFN) family proteins in Triple-Negative Breast Cancer (TNBC), a subtype known for its aggressive behavior and poor response to treatment. Through a series of studies, this dissertation examines the interplay between multiple SLFN proteins, chemotherapy resistance, and immune modulation, revealing the potential of SLFN12 as both a biomarker and therapeutic target for improving treatment outcomes, particularly in overcoming chemoresistance in TNBC.

Breast cancer, the most common cancer worldwide, includes various subtypes like TNBC, which lacks estrogen, progesterone, and HER2 receptors, making it resistant to conventional therapies. SLFN proteins, first discovered in mice, regulate …

An Analysis Of Flow Properties Of Shock Tube Boundary Layer, Cheyenne Harrison, Carson Running

Mechanical Engineering Student Publications

Ice crystal behaviors in the upper atmosphere are very unknown and under-researched, leaving them a mystery as to how they might interact with objects traveling through this region. Currently the University of North Dakota Aerosol Engineering Laboratory is creating an experiment to drop an ice crystal through a vale on a shock tube. This project aimed to solve for properties of the air flow traveling through the shock tube to see how it might affect the falling ice crystal. These properties included Reynolds number, boundary layer thickness, wall shear stress, and velocity contours of the boundary layer. Through Excel and …

The Effect Of Temperature On Power Output From A Hydroelectric Penstock, Taylor Hartell, Carson Running

Mechanical Engineering Student Publications

Hydroelectric power is a form of renewable energy that uses the power from water to generate electricity. One of the ways this is done is by diverting water from a river with a penstock leading to a turbine. Hydroelectric systems rely on water as the source of power, and the viscosity of water varies with temperature. When temperatures are low, viscosity is high, and when temperatures are high, viscosity is low. Other works have studied the optimal dimensions of penstocks for power generation and the effect of hydroelectric power on river temperatures. In this research, the effect of temperature on …

December 12, 2024, The Dakota Student

The Dakota Student

No abstract provided.

Neuronal And Glial Cell Alterations Involved In The Retinal Degeneration Of The Familial Dysautonomia Optic Neuropathy, Anastasia Schultz, Henar Albertos-Arranz, Xavier Sánchez Sáez, Jamie Morgan, Diane Darland, Alejandra Gonzalez-Duarte, Horacio Kaufmann, Carlos E. Mendoza-Santiesteban, Nicolás Cuenca, Frances Lefcort

Biology Faculty Publications

Familial dysautonomia (FD) is a rare genetic neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorder. In addition to the autonomic and peripheral sensory neuropathies that challenge patient survival, one of the most debilitating symptoms affecting patients' quality of life is progressive blindness resulting from the steady loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs).Within the FD community, there is a concerted effort to develop treatments to prevent the loss of RGCs. However, the mechanisms underlying the death of RGCs are not well understood. To study the mechanisms underlying RGC death, Pax6-cre;Elp1loxp/loxp male and female mice and postmortem retinal tissue from an FD patient were used to …

Understanding Ai Literacy: Implications For Practice, Sara Westall, Janet Anderson, Devon Olson

Librarian Publications

A presentation developed for the fall 2024 University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences Medical Curriculum Advance, exploring the connections between information literacy, artificial intelligence literacy, and algorithmic literacy and their relevance to health education from the perspective of research and instruction librarians.

Feedback For Learning From Text: What Kind And Where In The Text Is Most Effective?, Virginia Clinton-Lisell

Education, Health & Behavior Studies Faculty Publications

Etextbooks have the affordance of providing immediate feedback for review questions on the content. However, it needs to be clarified what type and placement of feedback is most effective. College and high school students (N = 390) were randomly assigned to receive either correct-answer-only feedback or elaborative feedback either in the middle-and-end of the textbook excerpt or the end only. Elaborative feedback at the end of the text had more accurate posttest scores and more efficient learning (based on time reading per correct answer) than did other conditions. Metacomprehension accuracy, based on the difference between predicted performance and actual …

Personality Across Realities: Correlations Between Personality Profiles And Preferences Within Roleplaying Games, Brittany Lee Mancha

Theses and Dissertations

Clinically maladaptive behaviors and personality types have been studied within gamers, both those who play video games and those who roleplay in tabletop games. However, the connection between personality types and the preferences of the players themselves in what and how they roleplay is just barely being studied. Personality traits, such as extraversion/introversion and motivation by pain or pleasure, may be both influencing the gameplay decisions and preferences of players, and vice versa. A total of 500 respondents completed the Millon Index of Personality Styles, Revised (MIPS-R), followed by a demographics survey and finally a survey assessing Dungeons and Dragons', …

Causes Of The Morphological Distinctiveness Of Ahuna Mons And Differences In Cryovolcanic Styles On Ceres And The Inner Uranian Satellites Miranda And Ariel, Caleb Strom

Theses and Dissertations

Ahuna Mons is one of the most distinctive features on the dwarf planet (1) Ceres and shows evidence of cryovolcanic activity on a main belt object in the geologically recent past. Ahuna Mons is unusual, however, in that it has a higher aspect ratio and sharper features than other candidate domes on Ceres. It also stands apart from cryovolcanic features identified on other suspected cryovolcanic worlds like Miranda and Ariel, where cryovolcanism is associated with double ridges and potential plume activity. In this work, dome age, based on crater counting, and aspect ratio are compared through correlative analysis to investigate …

Handheld Multimodal Point Spectroscopy, Rgb Imaging, And Fusion Artificial Intelligence To Determine The Species And Freshness Of Fish Fillets, Mitchell Sueker

Theses and Dissertations

When fish species are mislabeled and the fish’s freshness is inaccurately represented, health, environmental, and economic problems can arise for both consumers and the fish industry. Fish are some of the easier foods to mislabel, as the processing of whole fish to fillets makes the visual identification of the species and freshness assessment more challenging. Due to the shortcomings of the current industry standards, confirmed by our interviews with over 20 professionals in all fish supply chain nodes, developing a system that can provide accurate and rapid on-site fraud detection is of necessity. In an attempt to meet these needs, …

Understanding Mental Health Awareness And Knowledge Of Flight Instructors, Eric Michael Buteau

Theses and Dissertations

Mental health has become an increasing concern in the aviation industry, with pilots often withholding health information for fear of losing their medical certification. Certified Flight Instructors (CFIs), who interact closely with students, are in a unique position to recognize and address mental health crises but lack sufficient training in this area. This study examines CFIs' awareness, knowledge, comfort, and willingness to engage with mental health issues in aviation. A survey was distributed to CFIs at a large aviation university. Survey results revealed no significant correlation between years of experience and knowledge or comfort with mental health topics. However, a …

Development, Characterization, And Application Of Nanomaterials For Target Detection And Therapeutic Study, Yingfen Wu

Theses and Dissertations

Nanomaterials have emerged as a pivotal area of research in chemistry, driven by their unique properties that make them suitable for both industrial and biomedical applications. Among nanomaterials, nanozyme is a series of nanomaterials with enzyme-mimetic activities that can proceed with the catalytic reactions of natural enzymes, conferring significant potential for their use in various biomedical applications. Herein, we describe three types of nanomaterials products with distinct properties and applications: 1) Fe³⁺-doped graphene quantum dots (GQDs) for sensitive H₂O₂ detection; 2) ratiometric fluorescent nanoprobes based on near-infrared (NIR) semiconducting polymer dots for label-free detection of dopamine; and 3) Multifunctional near …

Detection Of Apiary Sites From Remote Imagery, Ning Li

Theses and Dissertations

Honey bees are essential for honey production and pollination services, but their colonies have been declining despite increasing demand. This decline may be due to various factors, including habitat loss, altered land use, climate shifts, and pesticide exposure. In order to assess the quantity and quality of habitats for honey bees and determine their availability and suitability for supporting bee colonies, it is crucial to identify the spatial location of registered apiary sites being used. However, such data is not available, which makes it a challenge for researchers in the field to further advance honey bee-related investigations. In my study, …

Petrophysical And Geomechanical Alterations During Supercritical Co2 Submerge: Laboratory Testing On Samples From The Middle Bakken, Ruichong Ni

Theses and Dissertations

The promising strategy of CO2 capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) aims to reduce CO2 emissions and tackle the pressing problem of global warming. Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of changes in petrophysical and geomechanical characteristics in assessing target formations' capacity to sequester CO2. Permeability is one of these characteristics that is essential to the movement of CO2 inside rock formations and has a direct effect on how well CO2 is sequestered. Existing methods calculate permeability by using effective stress, but they have made unpractical assumptions that the effective stress coefficient could be stable or gradually increase after CO2 exposure. …

Experimental Investigation Of Freezing Microdroplets For Understanding Chain Crystal Aggregates Observed In Atmospheric Clouds, Imteaz Osmani

Theses and Dissertations

Ice crystal aggregates are observed in upper stratospheric clouds. The crystal aggregates can form in different orientations, geometry, and shapes which are not well studied. These crystal aggregations are found in the clouds as crystal chains of various lengths and cause damage to hypersonic vehicles which include missiles, re-entry vehicles, and jet aircraft. The reasons behind such damage by atmospheric crystal chains to hypersonic bodies are unknown. That is why studying these ice crystals and their behavior in the hypersonic environment is necessary. Ice crystals form in the atmosphere in two different ways which are homogenous and heterogenous. Heterogenous freezing …

Behavioral Health Workforce Modeling To Assist In Prioritizing Educational Pathways Programs In North Dakota, Mandi-Leigh Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Background. The need for behavioral health services in North Dakota has grown in recent years. As part of the response to the need for services, a state definition of behavioral health workforce was enacted in state statute to assist in addressing this need. Thus far, no empirical evaluations of the status of that workforce have been conducted.Purpose. The primary purpose of this work was to quantify the supply and demand for the behavioral health workforce in North Dakota to assist in identifying and prioritizing those educational pathways that can assist in growing the identified needed workforce. Sample. This study examined …

The Fcc 5-Year Deorbit Rule’S Impact On The Space Industry Including Non-Traditional Scientific And Environmental Stakeholders, Kristin Shahady

Theses and Dissertations

In pursuit of a safer and more sustainable space environment, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) introduced the 5-year deorbit rule, a regulatory mandate aimed at mitigating space debris by requiring satellite operators to remove their spacecraft from LEO within 5 years after their mission is complete. While the intent behind this rule is admirable in the desire to remediate and limit the generation of orbital debris, it raises questions whether it was crafted with consideration of all stakeholders, whether it will truly mitigate the creation of orbital debris, and whether it exhibits characteristics of arbitrariness and capriciousness. Agencies’ actions be …

Targeting World Language Learning In The Target Language: A Qualitative Inquiry Of The K–12 Foreign Language Teacher Experience, Igor Ljevaja

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores the current practices of K–12 foreign language teachers (FLTs) in using the target language (TL) within an urban school district in the Midwest United States. Focusing on how FLTs engage in professional development (PD) to optimize their TL use in the classroom, the study investigates the strategies and knowledge FLTs employ to foster TL proficiency among students. Purposeful sampling was employed to recruit participants (n = 5) who represented full-time FLTs, taught between sixth and 12th grade, and had at least four years of teaching experience and valid state licenses. Semi-structured interviews with current FLTs provide …