Digital Commons Network^™

Unsung Heroes: The Jones County Drug Court, Elise Joelle Denoulet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In Ellisville, Mississippi, some heroes do not wear capes. The Jones County Drug Court, located in rural Mississippi, fights drug and alcohol addiction daily. This drug court program, led by the tough but compassionate Consuelo Walley, supervises about 70 to 90 participants in their recovery journey. In recent years, this program has grown to be known as one of the most efficient in its region, and I made it my mission to uncover why that is. It turns out staff members are themselves recovering addicts, who utilize their own experience as a way to connect and relate to their participants. …

Strengthening Tier One Instruction In The Mathematics Classroom By Increasing Teacher Mathematics Content Knowledge And Pedagogy, Cynthia Becton French

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this applied research study was to strengthen Tier I instruction within seventh and eighth-grade mathematics classrooms. This applied research study uses three elements; professional learning communities, consistent content-specific professional development, and increased student achievement to strengthen Tier I instruction in middle school mathematics and measure student academic growth. Interviews, surveys, statewide assessments, and benchmark scores were used in this study as measures for program success. Using these elements to support Tier I instruction can lead to increased student achievement in mathematics at the middle school level.

Slavery, Antislavery, And Masculinity In Kansas And Kentucky, Spencer King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Gender roles and conceptions of gender have varied cultures throughout the world and have transformed over time. Times of significant change, such as times of intense conflict and warfare, have often aided these transformations in gender as people adapted to their circumstances. The opening of Kansas Territory and the eventual start of the Civil War mark one of these moments, as white abolitionists moved from the eastern United States to the West in order to prevent the spread of slavery and encountered violence from proslavery actors who sought to preserve the institution. Bleeding Kansas, the violent conflict between proslavery and …

Milk And Water Kefir: Microbial Diversity And Sensory Properties, Xia Li

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Kefir is a fermented beverage that has become increasingly popular because of its proposed probiotic functions. It can be classified into two types: milk kefir and water kefir depending on the medium and inoculated starter culture. This dissertation summarizes work exploring the similarities and differences between milk and water kefir with respect to sensory properties and microbial composition. For the kefir sensory test, six milk and six water kefirs were evaluated on the sensory attributes (color, aroma, taste, and mouthfeel). Milk kefirs were assessed as sour and cheesy, followed by a creamy and thick mouthfeel. In contrast, water kefirs were …

Essays On Labor Market Reform And The Quantity Theory Of Money, Lawrence Ogbeifun

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes two projects, one on labor market reform and the business cycle and the other on the quantity theory of money.

The Influence Of Childhood Emotional Maltreatment And Exclusion On Distress Among Individuals With Social Anxiety Symptoms, Megan Perry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is one of the most pervasive psychological conditions affecting emerging adults. Previous literature has demonstrated the importance of biological influences, individual difference characteristics, negative parenting practices, peer victimization experiences, and trauma/adversity in the development and onset of SAD. One unique adverse experience is childhood emotional maltreatment (CEM) or parent-based emotional abuse and/or neglect. CEM has been associated with more severe and persistent social anxiety symptoms in adults. In young adulthood, adverse experiences such as peer exclusion can exacerbate the cognitive and behavioral processes of SAD. However, the impact of early CEM experiences has yet to be …

An Assessment Plan To Analyze Nudges And Their Effectiveness In A Learning Management System At Educational Institutions, Nishanth J. Rodrigues

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Procrastination is a significant problem in academia with some estimates suggesting that this occurs in as high as 70-90% of college students (Abdi Zarrin & Gracia, 2020) that manifests in numerous harmful ways including postponement of weekly reading assignments, delay in writing term papers, and inadequate preparation and beginning too late when studying for exams. The effects of procrastination vary from the immediate, such as a failed grade on an assignment, to the long-term, including delayed graduation or even failure to graduate, all of which have the “knock-on” effect of harming the students’ self-esteem and future success following their studies. …

Design And Application Of Single And Multi-Gate Transistor-Based Analog Chaotic Maps, Maisha Sadia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rapid advancement in technology has led to an increase in security threats, such as side-channel attacks and reverse engineering, which can potentially leak sensitive data or code to malicious parties. To address these challenges, researchers harness the inherent complexity of chaos-based computing. Leveraging chaos offers several advantages, including logic obfuscation, mitigation of power analysis attacks, and encryption of images and data.

The motivation has been to design hardware-efficient circuits that meet modern systems’ power, area, and performance requirements and provide enhanced security. We have introduced our novel one-dimensional discrete chaotic map circuits, designed using a 45nm CMOS process, although the …

I Say See You Later, Lillian Slaughter

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This MFA thesis continues the work that was completed in the master’s thesis “This Is Home: Stories of H2-A Placemaking in the U.S. and Mexico,” by creating a short film about the farm in Kentucky. Through research on ethics and positionality, I explore the ideas that shaped this filmmaking process. The film highlights the experience of working on a mid-sized organic farm that utilizes the federal H2-A visa program for seasonal farmworkers through the lens of a co-worker. This supplemental written thesis includes research, personal accounts of the process of filmmaking, and a reflection of influential films.

Particle Image Velocimetry Investigation Of Flow Around Grooved Cylinders, Jhalak Dhakal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an experimental study of the flow around a grooved cylinder in an internal flow passage with a square cross-section. The effects of groove parameters, such as groove diameter (depth) and orientation (streamwise and longitudinal), on the wake characteristics and the pressure drop across the cylinders are investigated. Three Reynolds numbers of, 1230, 2000, and 2825, are tested. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) and cross-correlation techniques were used to measure the velocity fields and visualize the flow patterns. The results show that streamwise grooved cylinders with larger groove diameters (H2.0, H2.5, and H3.0) have reduced wake length and width …

The Emergence Of Discursive Leadership In Online Commmunities, Chad Diaz Ii

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this Dissertation is to provide a detailed rationale for the way in which I address the following research questions in my dissertation: “What characteristics of user discourse lead to the emergence of leadership in online communities?” To this end, I provide a literature review of studies on online communities, examine past definitions, and propose an integrated definition of online communities. Focusing on the specific domain of leadership in online communities, I conduct a literature review of early and seminal articles published in this domain with the objective of identifying the foundational theoretical frameworks and the factors that …

On Security And Privacy In Machine Learning, Thomas Cilloni

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In recent years the use of social media platforms, surveillance cameras, and vision-enabled devices and services has increased exponentially. While the mere use of a device or service is not a privacy issue, Machine Learning use has also drastically increased, and it exposes a number of privacy and security threats, especially towards online users. Privacy legislation around the world prohibits to use of data unfairly, but the conversion of laws to technical applications is often subject to interpretation. Such ambiguity opens a gap for data owners to potentially misuse data, violating end users’ privacy.

The overall objective of this doctoral …

Synthesis Of Derivatives Of Hexafluoroisopropanol, Meshal Alghamdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Fluorinated organic molecules have significant potential in medicinal chemistry and drug discovery. Consequently, 20–25% of the FDA approved drugs contain at least one fluorine atom. Functional groups displaying high levels of fluorination are attracting new interest to expand the chemical space for drug development. A hexafluoroisopropanol (HFIP) group is one of these groups which combines high levels of fluorination with an adjacent alcohol. This functionality displays a unique hydrogen bond donor without any nucleophilicity. Recent studies have shown that the HFIP can be employed as a building block for the synthesis of drug-like molecules, and its incorporation into small molecules …

The Double Descent Behavior In A Two Layer Neural Network For Binary Classification, Chathurika Srimali Abeykoon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning and artificial intelligence have changed the world significantly in recent years. Its breakthrough innovations take machine learning to a whole new level where machines can learn to recognize tasks, inspired by the human brain's neural networks. The generally accepted belief about training these machines or models is that \larger models and more data are always better". In classical statistics, the test error is a \U-shaped" curve where the bigger and more complex models have higher test errors which is not favorable. But recent studies observed a surprising concept about test error called the double descent phenomenon where the …

Can Graphene-Coated Sand Enhance Water Reuse By Improving Water Quality In The Presence Of Municipal Treated Wastewater?, Madelyn Barber

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The need for alternative water sources is dramatically increasing. Therefore, it is essential to develop alternative water sources to meet the current water scarcity challenges. Water reclamation, recycling, and reuse involving treated municipal and or animal wastewater address these challenges by resolving water resource issues and creating new sources of high-quality water supplies. However, the presence of bacteria, high levels of nutrients, and turbidity, as well as the occurrence of chemicals of emerging concern (CECs) in the treated wastewater, combined with the willingness of the public to use treated wastewater can undermine the wide application of water reuse. Implementing affordable …

Geochronological, Geochemical, Petrographical, And Structural Analysis Of The Northeast Bighorn Mountains, Sheridan County, Wyoming, Usa, Robert Charles Andreoli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this project was to produce geologic maps of the Skull Ridge, and Dayton South, Wyoming 7.5-Minute Quadrangle (Scale 1:24,000), from the northern Bighorn Mountains, Wyoming Cratonic Province (WCP). Detailed analysis of the geology within these quadrangles was performed using geochemistry, geochronology, thin section petrography, and structures of geologic units. The Bighorns are divided into northern and southern sections where the north is characterized by an Archean felsic batholith with cross-cutting plutonic dikes, and the south is composed of an Archean gneiss complex. The basement rocks in this area were formed ~2900-2500 Ma during a series of geologic …

Supernatural Law? A Refutation Of Three Recent Natural-Law Arguments Against Catholic Integralism, Jackson Dellinger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, there is a longstanding debate over the proper relationship between religious and civil institutions, or “church and state.” One radical voice in the debate is that of Catholic integralism, a school within Catholic social teaching which argues that Catholic governments should submit to the religious authority of the Church, and that Catholics should aspire towards a Catholic society with this relationship between Church and State for all nations. Recently, interlocutors have attempted to show that integralism is inconsistent with a core element of the Catholic teaching to which they appeal—that is, natural law. In this paper, …

Investigating The Use Of Politeness Strategies In Expressing Disagreements Among Saudi Efl Teachers On Twitter, Rowida Ali Al Ghamdi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the politeness strategies employed by Saudi EFL teachers when expressing their disagreements on Twitter. It examines the factors affecting Saudi EFL teachers' choice of politeness and disagreement strategies. It compares Saudi EFL teachers' disagreement expressions with those of American ESL teachers on Twitter. Four instruments were utilized to collect the data: retrieving the corpus of tweets, observing the thread of tweets (for Saudi EFL and American ESL teachers), using an open-ended questionnaire, and follow-up interviews (for Saudi EFL teachers). This study finds that the on-record strategy was the most frequently used among Saudi EFL teachers, as found …

Fine Gauze, Silk, Raw Silk, Satin, Brocade, Siyun Fang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A collection of poetry.

Structural Violence And Its Effect On Women's Empowerment In The Case Of Bangladesh Garment Workers During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Fowzia Binte Faruque

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis delves into the complex relationship between women's participation in Bangladesh's garment industry, their empowerment, and structural violence against them. Although Bangladesh's patriarchal society perpetuates structural violence against women, the garment sector has also facilitated social and economic empowerment for many. By adopting a gender-focused lens and examining the interplay between structural violence and empowerment, this research aims to explore the socio-economic status of female garment workers in Bangladesh during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, 2020-2022. The study employs a qualitative content analysis, analyzing two national newspapers—The Daily Star and The Financial Express (Bangladesh)—as primary sources.

The findings …

Neverender, David James Gambino

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This is a work of fiction exploring the Global War on Terror from the perspective of US aircrew servicemembers.

Development And Characterization Of Cannabidiol And Rho Kinase Inhibitor Combination Formulations For Ophthalmic Use, Mihir Sanjay Ghonge

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Glaucoma, the leading cause of irreversible blindness globally, is a neurodegenerative disease marked by progressive death of the retinal ganglion cells in the eye. In 2018, FDA approved a 0.02% ophthalmic solution of netarsudil mesylate (NM), Rhopressa®, a rho kinase inhibitor, for the reduction of intraocular pressure in patients with glaucoma or ocular hypertension; the first new drug class in more than two decades. Cannabidiol (CBD) has been studied for its effects on intraocular pressure since the 1980s. In 2022, a study established that topical administration of CBD (1% w/v) decreased the intraocular pressure in pigmented Dutch Belted Rabbits. This …

Nursing Faculty Turnover: Recruitment And Retention At Jones College, Alan Luke Hammonds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The nursing profession has been facing a deficit of nurses for many years (Denehy, 2000; Haddad et al., 2023, Mayo, 1944; Schorr, 1980; Theisen & Pelfrey, 1990). Nurses are an essential part of the medical care system. They are responsible for most of the functions associated with healthcare. The schools that train nurses are as much affected by the shortage as the industry itself. With fewer nurses in the medical field from which to draw, nursing schools have had a difficult time maintaining nursing faculty levels to meet the needs of the medical community. With nursing faculty shortages already straining …

Food Retailing In Mississippi, 1895-2000, James R. Gulley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a history of the evolution of the grocery industry in Mississippi in the twentieth century. I used primary source interviews, analysis of newspaper articles and advertisements, U.S. Census data, archival materials, and secondary sources to inform the thesis. The research focuses on an urban market in Jackson, Mississippi, and a rural market in Philadelphia, Mississippi. This history also concentrates on two Mississippi-based supermarket chains, Jitney-Jungle and Sunflower, and the families that founded them. The thesis argued that the innovations in grocery retailing during this era improved the lives of all Mississippians by lowering the cost of food, …

Characterization Of Vibrational Response Of A Helical Coil Subject To Environmental Exposure And Structural Modifications, Nathan Hill

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In an effort to fully characterize the response of a cylindrical helix, the heat and vibrational stresses are modeled using both simulations and experimental testing. The intent of this work is to identify the frequencies, shapes, and Q factors of the vibrational modes of the helix subject to different stimuli and evaluate changes due to environmental exposures and structural modifications. COMSOL Multiphysics is used to simulate the response of the helix under different boundary conditions. Experimental measurements of the response to impulsive and continuous wave stimuli are taken. The eigenfrequency data from the simulations and experiments are then compared for …

Development And Validation Of Different Analytical Techniques For The Quantification Of Cannabinoids And Cannflavins In Cannabis And Cannabis-Based Products, Mostafa Elhendawy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main objective of this study is to modify, develop, and validate techniques for detecting and quantifying the levels of major and minor cannabinoids, along with their corresponding acids, in Cannabis sativa plants and certain marketed products. To achieve this goal, the research employs Gas Chromatography (GC), High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC), and a novel spectroscopic method known as Absorbance-Transmittance Excitation Emission Matrix Spectroscopy (A-TEEM). Another study validated and applied the HPLC technique to analyze the unique class of flavonoids (Cannflavins) found in various parts of the cannabis plant, including leaves, buds, and pollen.

The A-TEEM method was developed and validated …

The Effect Of Mandated Disclosure On Liquidity Among Not-For-Profit Organizations, Erin Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines whether mandated disclosure under Accounting Standards Update (ASU) 2016-14 affects not-for-profit (NFP) liquidity. ASU 2016-14 requires NFPs to disclose information that enhances financial statement users’ ability to assess an organization’s liquidity. Using panel data from fiscal years 2014 through 2019, I compare liquidity before and after the mandated disclosure for the top 100 revenue generating NFPs in 2019. I find that NFPs manage operating reserves, i.e., unrestricted liquid net assets, more closely to NFP sector guidelines after the disclosure mandate. Specifically, I find that NFPs with operating reserves above the recommended range prior to the disclosure mandate …

Formulation And Characterization Of Oral Thin Films (Otfs) Of 17-Beta Estradiol, Srijan Kaur Hora

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Estrogen Hormonal Replacement Therapy is the most common and most effective means for post-menopausal women to get relief from vasomotor symptoms. Oral films are feasible approaches to designing a dosage form that can include the benefits of oral delivery but circumvent the side effects and risks associated with first-pass metabolism and transdermal delivery. The film releases the drug when it comes in contact with water leaving behind a gel.

In this study, different grades of Hydroxy propyl cellulose (HPC-M, HPC-SL, HPC-SSL) were used as film-forming polymers; propylene glycol was used as a plasticizer, Citric Acid as saliva stimulating agent, Mannitol …

Formulation And Development Of Haloperidol Implant For Patients With Schizophrenia., Shivam Jaiswal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The fabrication of subcutaneous implants can be done using the continuous manufacturing technique known as Hot-Melt Extrusion (HME). This study aimed to evaluate the quality and physical and chemical properties of subcutaneous implants including their drug release profile, stability, and performance manufactured through HME and to assess the applicability of HME in the continuous manufacturing process. Overall, the study aimed to contribute to the advancement of manufacturing processes for subcutaneous implants, with the potential to improve their efficacy and patient outcomes.

To formulate the implant for patients with schizophrenia, a formulation was developed using a combination of Haloperidol (HLP) (an …

Three Essays On The Democratic Party, Jonah King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the United States today the two parties struggle to find common ground on anything, and strong partisan attachments lead many members of the public to follow the lead of their preferred party on nearly every political decision. However, the sorting of the public does not mean that the parties are monoliths. The Democratic Party in particular is composed of a wide range of groups which often do not easily come to consensus when there are decisions to be made. The occasional lack of consensus within the Democratic Party leads to questions about how the party as a whole is …