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Graduate Theses and Dissertations

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What Cognitive Processes Drive Attentional Bias, And How Does Stress Affect Them?, Colton L. Hunter May 2023

What Cognitive Processes Drive Attentional Bias, And How Does Stress Affect Them?, Colton L. Hunter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Attentional biases toward or away from emotionally evocative stimuli have been well documented and related to clinical outcomes such as social anxiety. Some work has suggested that stress modulates attentional biases, but there are a number of inconsistencies in this literature regarding the direction of that modulation, highlighting a need to examine moderators of that effect. Sex differences in stress effects could potentially explain this inconsistency, as acute stress can affect males and females differently. It is also possible that stress differentially influences multiple component processes underpinning attentional bias, but these processes have not been well character, and to date …


Exploring Ferroelectric Phenomena In Batio3, Linbo3, And Liznsb: From Extended Oxygen Vacancies To Tri-Stable Polarization And Giant Hyperferroelectricity, Shaohui Qiu May 2023

Exploring Ferroelectric Phenomena In Batio3, Linbo3, And Liznsb: From Extended Oxygen Vacancies To Tri-Stable Polarization And Giant Hyperferroelectricity, Shaohui Qiu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents three projects that investigate the complex phenomena of ferroelectricity under different conditions in BaTiO3, LiNbO3, and LiZnSb using first-principles density functional calculations. Extended defects in ferroelectric solids play a crucial role in reducing the lifetime and performance of ferroelectric devices by causing fatigue, domain pinning, and aging. Thus, understanding their impact is of critical importance for the development of reliable and high-performance ferroelectric devices. In addition, hyperferroelectricity is an intriguing phenomenon that has attracted much attention in recent years. Despite the existence of depolarization field, spontaneous polarization persists under an open-circuit boundary condition (OCBC), making hyperferroelectric materials …


Investigation The Plugging Behavior Of Virus Filters, Iman Abdulqader Saab May 2023

Investigation The Plugging Behavior Of Virus Filters, Iman Abdulqader Saab

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A virus filtration step is integral to the manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals to ensure viral safety. A virus filter is a single-use device that uses a size-based separation process and has a unique structure with minimal defects, so that contaminating virus particles cannot pass through the membrane pores, while therapeutic molecules can. The development of novel antibodies (Abs), including significant increases in product titers, is frequently challenged by virus filter fouling, making a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms essential. This thesis focused investigating of the effect of prefilter types, buffer type and salt content on virus filtration performance. The impact …


Demand Prediction And Inventory Management Of Surgical Supplies, Rajon Paul Pantha May 2023

Demand Prediction And Inventory Management Of Surgical Supplies, Rajon Paul Pantha

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Effective supply chain management is critical to operations in various industries, including healthcare. Demand prediction and inventory management are essential parts of healthcare supply chain management for ensuring optimal patient outcomes, controlling costs, and minimizing waste. The advances in data analytics and technology have enabled many sophisticated approaches to demand forecasting and inventory control. This study aims to leverage these advancements to accurately predict demand and manage the inventory of surgical supplies to reduce costs and provide better services to patients. In order to achieve this objective, a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model is developed to predict the demand for …


Class Salient Interactions And Selection Decisions: The Stratifying Power Of Employers’ Emotions, Kristie Moergen May 2023

Class Salient Interactions And Selection Decisions: The Stratifying Power Of Employers’ Emotions, Kristie Moergen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Securing employment is critical to accessing labor market rewards such as a steady income, benefits, and advancement opportunities. However, an individual's social class—corresponding with their economic, social, and cultural capital—may advantage or disadvantage them in gaining employment. Indeed, it is well-evidenced that the lower social class experiences labor market disadvantage, and management scholars point to organizational selection processes as one lever of such inequality. Still, the role of class salient interactions—same- and cross-class interactions between an interviewer and interviewee— and, specifically, the role of the employer remains an open question. Understanding how class salient interactions impact selection is critical, not …


The Lighting Design Of This Bitch! Esta Sangre Quiero, Zackary Mcjunkins May 2023

The Lighting Design Of This Bitch! Esta Sangre Quiero, Zackary Mcjunkins

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis serves to document the script analysis, lighting design process, and execution of the lighting design for the University of Arkansas’s Fall 2022 production of This Bitch! Esta Sangre Quiero, an original work by M.F.A. playwriting candidate Adrienne Dawes. Special care will be taken to address the unique challenges faced throughout the design process and implementation of the lighting design. This document contains all necessary paperwork to implement a lighting design, including a light plot, section, magic sheet, and other paperwork, as well as research imagery and photographs of the production.


Lgbtqia+ People And Religious Trauma, Cira Abiseid May 2023

Lgbtqia+ People And Religious Trauma, Cira Abiseid

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), intersex, and asexual people (LGBTQIA+) experience religious trauma caused by the harmful messaging often aimed at sexual and gender minorities. Identity dissonance can be created when LGBTQIA+ people find their religious and sexual or gender minority identities at odds with each other. A review of existing literature revealed themes of identity erasure, internalized homophobia, and resilience, but there was limited research involving this population. This qualitative study centers the voices of those who have experienced religious trauma based on their identities and works to understand their healing journeys. Fifteen LGBTQIA+ individuals participated …


Approaches For Mitigating Woody Breast In Commercial Broilers Through Nutritional And Management Strategies, Clay Maynard May 2023

Approaches For Mitigating Woody Breast In Commercial Broilers Through Nutritional And Management Strategies, Clay Maynard

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Breast myopathies have caused significant economic losses to the poultry industry over the last decade. The induction of woody breast (WB), white striping (WS), and spaghetti meat (SM) have caused textural issues, functional issues, and a decline in consumer acceptance. Of these three myopathies, WB causes the most pronounced effects on product quality and reduces functional use. Woody breast is also commonly associated with expansive breast meat growth/high performing broilers. However, progress in reducing these myopathies has been limited without hindering other aspects of poultry rearing. Generally, production performance reduces as myopathy occurrence or incidence reduces. This response is primarily …


A Hero's Status In Two Lenguas, Ana Karen Miramontes Loya May 2023

A Hero's Status In Two Lenguas, Ana Karen Miramontes Loya

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis consists of my statement of artistry, and documentation of artistic materials and thesis related performances.


The Effects Of A Science Of Reading Professional Development Plan On Teachers’ Perceptions Of Content Knowledge And Self-Efficacy In Instruction: A Mixed-Methods Study, Mary K. Schaefer May 2023

The Effects Of A Science Of Reading Professional Development Plan On Teachers’ Perceptions Of Content Knowledge And Self-Efficacy In Instruction: A Mixed-Methods Study, Mary K. Schaefer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to measure the impact of a year-long professional development plan designed to support K-3 teachers in two elementary schools in making shifts to align instructional practices with the science of reading. This mixed methods approach incorporated an action research design to answer the following research questions: What was the relationship between teachers’ understanding of the foundational skills of reading and teachers’ confidence in teaching the foundational skills of reading? What impact does strategic and ongoing PD in the science of reading have on teachers’ practice? What are teachers’ perceptions of year-long professional development in …


Open Source Intelligence For Cybersecurity Events Via Twitter Data, Dakota Dale May 2023

Open Source Intelligence For Cybersecurity Events Via Twitter Data, Dakota Dale

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT) is largely regarded as a necessary component for cybersecurity intelligence gathering to secure network systems. With the advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) and increasing usage of social media, like Twitter, we have a unique opportunity to obtain and aggregate information from social media. In this study, we propose an AI-based scheme capable of automatically pulling information from Twitter, filtering out security-irrelevant tweets, performing natural language analysis to correlate the tweets about each cybersecurity event (e.g., a malware campaign), and validating the information. This scheme has many applications, such as providing a means for security operators to gain …


Green Infrastructure In The Ozarks: Northwest Arkansas Development Policy And The Open Space Plan, Daniel Holtmeyer May 2023

Green Infrastructure In The Ozarks: Northwest Arkansas Development Policy And The Open Space Plan, Daniel Holtmeyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Northwest Arkansas regional planning authorities in 2016 released the Northwest Arkansas Open Space Plan, a voluntary document outlining ways to protect and preserve important open spaces even as the region’s population balloons and urban development spreads outward. No one appears to have made a systematic attempt to gauge the Plan’s impact on development decisions, however. In this thesis, I conduct a qualitative survey of several cities and counties’ planning codes and comprehensive plans to determine how much these policies have in common with the Open Space Plan’s essential principles. From that survey, I also conduct two case studies of recent …


Toward A Better Understanding Of Social Network Site Engagement In Influencing Health Behaviors: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Message Framing, Endorsement Cues, And User Engagement, Shawn Chunhsien Chiang May 2023

Toward A Better Understanding Of Social Network Site Engagement In Influencing Health Behaviors: An Examination Of The Relationship Between Message Framing, Endorsement Cues, And User Engagement, Shawn Chunhsien Chiang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of social network sites (SNS) to deliver health interventions has been on the rise in recent years due to their popularity among the general population and functionalities that facilitate interactions with the content, or with other users of SNS. Despite that, scholars have noted challenges, including low engagement, associated with SNS-delivered interventions. This dissertation’s overall purpose is 1) to document the current state of measuring engagement within SNS-delivered health interventions, and 2) to empirically examine the interplay between message framing, social endorsement and engagement in a randomized experiment using Instagram. Results from the scoping review showed that a …


Embracing The Ugliness A Director's Journey Into Yasmina Réza’S "God Of Carnage", Huan Thien Bui May 2023

Embracing The Ugliness A Director's Journey Into Yasmina Réza’S "God Of Carnage", Huan Thien Bui

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I detail my involvement directing Yasmina Réza's God of Carnage as my thesis show. This paper comprehensively covers every stage of the production process, beginning with pre-production tasks such as selecting a title, holding auditions, conducting research, and analyzing the script. It also encompasses the production procedures, including design meetings, rehearsals, tech week, and performances, before concluding with post-production activities such as self-reflection and analyzing audience feedback. Furthermore, I discuss the various insights I've gained about theatre practice over my four-year program in terms of acting, directing, and producing. This paper also serves as an intropective journey, …


Cartographic Analysis Of Earth-Sun Relationships In Ancient Amazonia, Jackson Bennett Critser May 2023

Cartographic Analysis Of Earth-Sun Relationships In Ancient Amazonia, Jackson Bennett Critser

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The alignments of ancient man-made earthworks across the Amazon Basin, known as geoglyphs, have recently been discovered to predate early societal dates. Although much research indicated that the Amazon was uninhabitable until the last 1000 years (Meggers 1971), new evidence suggests this is not the case. The application of advanced cartographic and GIS technologies were implemented to link solar ‘marker’ days (e.g. solstices, equinoxes) with the alignment of geoglyphs, megaliths, stone architecture, and broader city forms to discover and analyze previously unknown Earth-Sun relationships across the Amazon Basin to conceivably sophisticated urban and architectural plans. The study of these geoglyphs …


The Cost Of Organizational Change For Rural Community Colleges, Randy Clayton Scaggs May 2023

The Cost Of Organizational Change For Rural Community Colleges, Randy Clayton Scaggs

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study will investigate the unintended consequences of implementing structural change in a rural community college in the mid-South region of the United States. Specifically, this study will examine the unanticipated outcomes of merging student affairs and academic affairs into one division. Scant empirical evidence exists about the benefits of this structural change or literature reviewing assessments of the unanticipated financial and nonfinancial costs to the institution. This critical case study is situated in a rural community college that recently changed its organizational structure by combining the academic and student affairs divisions. A purposeful sample, from different levels of …


Achieving Causal Fairness In Recommendation, Wen Huang May 2023

Achieving Causal Fairness In Recommendation, Wen Huang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recommender systems provide personalized services for users seeking information and play an increasingly important role in online applications. While most research papers focus on inventing machine learning algorithms to fit user behavior data and maximizing predictive performance in recommendation, it is also very important to develop fairness-aware machine learning algorithms such that the decisions made by them are not only accurate but also meet desired fairness requirements. In personalized recommendation, although there are many works focusing on fairness and discrimination, how to achieve user-side fairness in bandit recommendation from a causal perspective still remains a challenging task. Besides, the deployed …


Political Speech: The Influence Of Speaker Sex And Verbal Aggression On Message Perception, Amanda Magusiak May 2023

Political Speech: The Influence Of Speaker Sex And Verbal Aggression On Message Perception, Amanda Magusiak

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined political messaging. More specifically, I considered the influence of the sex of the speaker and the use of verbal aggression on overall message perception. One hundred and six college-aged students read eight excerpts of political speech where sex of the speaker (male; female) and level of aggression (aggressive; nonaggressive) were manipulated. Participants then completed measures assessing their agreement with the political message, the speaker’s credibility, the speaker’s communicative appropriateness, and the speaker’s level of verbal aggressiveness. Results indicated that male and female political speakers were evaluated similarly on measures of agreeableness, credibility, and appropriateness. In addition, aggressive …


Factors That Affect Home Range Of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Horridus) In Northwest Arkansas, Bannon Gallaher May 2023

Factors That Affect Home Range Of Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus Horridus) In Northwest Arkansas, Bannon Gallaher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Conservation of animal populations requires knowledge of their habitat and spatial needs. Quantifying spatial requirements involves the analysis of home range. We examined the effects of sex, body size (SVL), body condition (log mass/log SVL), and year on home range in Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) in Northwest Arkansas. Individual locality data from an ongoing, 22+ year radio-telemetry study in Madison Co., Arkansas were analyzed using both minimum convex polygon (MCP) and Kernel Density Estimates (KDE). Plots of the number of sequential observations versus home range (MCP and KDE) determined that a minimum of 25 locations per individual per active season …


“From An Elephant Into A Ballerina:” The Future Of Higher Education From Senior Leaders At Public Very High Research Institutions, Sarah Cathleen Rice Denison May 2023

“From An Elephant Into A Ballerina:” The Future Of Higher Education From Senior Leaders At Public Very High Research Institutions, Sarah Cathleen Rice Denison

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose for conducting the study was to identify how Very High Research university senior leaders at public institutions in the United States described their vision of the future of higher education over the next 25 years. Specifically, the study provided an opportunity for university chancellors and presidents to describe their versions of what the future holds for higher education and how they are preparing for that future. A vision for the future included senior leader’s perspectives on three elements of the university: the university’s mission and purpose, academics, and student services. Their experience in higher education combined with their …


Potential Control Of Invasive Mesquite Through Improving The Consumer’S Understanding Of Liquid Smoke Applications., Seth W. Ellsworth May 2023

Potential Control Of Invasive Mesquite Through Improving The Consumer’S Understanding Of Liquid Smoke Applications., Seth W. Ellsworth

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mesquite trees continue to invade forests and range lands in many countries across the world. The cost to remove these trees is staggering. In Texas, landowners spent $25 million over a 10- year period to clear 300,000 ha of mesquite trees, a fraction of the 22 million ha of Texas land affected by this invasion. Estimates are that the mesquite continues to negatively impact one to two percent of additional land in selected counties each year in Texas. However, the problem is not unique to Texas, but rather to the 44 species of mesquite trees, belonging to the genus Prosopis …


The Perceived Needs Of First Responders To Identify And Support Sex Trafficking Victims: A Case Study, Raja Kumar May 2023

The Perceived Needs Of First Responders To Identify And Support Sex Trafficking Victims: A Case Study, Raja Kumar

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Researchers have found that sex trafficking in the 21st century is a growing human rights atrocity. This qualitative case study investigates law enforcement professionals’ perceived needs as first responders to identify and support sex trafficking victims. Specifically, this study examines resources, training, and support that they perceive to be critical to their success. The primary research question that guides this study is what do first responders need to identify and support sex trafficking victims? To answer this question, the following sub-questions facilitate the inquiry: A) What resources do law enforcement professionals need to identify and support victims of sex trafficking? …


Experienced Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers’ Nonnativeness-Related Challenges, Coping Strategies, And Identity Construction, Roseli Marqueti Matos Franco May 2023

Experienced Nonnative English-Speaking Teachers’ Nonnativeness-Related Challenges, Coping Strategies, And Identity Construction, Roseli Marqueti Matos Franco

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Kamhi-Stein (1999) declares that little is known about nonnative English-speaking teachers (NNEST) who work in ESL settings also known as Inner Circle countries. Twenty years later, Fan and de Jong (2019) have echoed that view by stating that traditionally research on NNESTs focuses on Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) international graduate students and that little is known about professional nonnative English-speaking teachers in English-dominant environments such as the U.S.A. Therefore, to try to help fill this gap in the literature, I investigated the lived experiences of English teachers who speak English as an additional language, often called …


Effects Of Landscape And Yard Features On Mammals In Residential Yards In Northwest Arkansas, Emily Johansson May 2023

Effects Of Landscape And Yard Features On Mammals In Residential Yards In Northwest Arkansas, Emily Johansson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The human footprint is rapidly expanding, and wildlife habitat is continuously being converted to human residential properties. Most wildlife residing in developing areas are displaced to nearby undeveloped areas. However, some animals can coexist with humans and acquire the necessary resources (food, water, shelter) within the human environment. This may be particularly true when development is low intensity, as in suburban yards. Due to the wide variety in how homeowners utilize their yards, they can be considered individually managed “greenspaces.” These yards can provide a range of food (e.g., bird feeders, compost, gardens), water (bird baths and garden ponds), and …


Reproducibility And Replicability In Unmanned Aircraft Systems And Geographic Information Science, Cassandra Howe May 2023

Reproducibility And Replicability In Unmanned Aircraft Systems And Geographic Information Science, Cassandra Howe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Multiple scientific disciplines face a so-called crisis of reproducibility and replicability (R&R) in which the validity of methodologies is questioned due to an inability to confirm experimental results. Trust in information technology (IT)-intensive workflows within geographic information science (GIScience), remote sensing, and photogrammetry depends on solutions to R&R challenges affecting multiple computationally driven disciplines. To date, there have only been very limited efforts to overcome R&R-related issues in remote sensing workflows in general, let alone those tied to disruptive technologies such as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) and machine learning (ML). To accelerate an understanding of this crisis, a review was …


Development Of Medical Device For Volume Status Assessment Using Peripheral Venous Pressure, Audra Beneux May 2023

Development Of Medical Device For Volume Status Assessment Using Peripheral Venous Pressure, Audra Beneux

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The severe side effects of acute dehydration and blood loss may be prevented if assessed and treated quickly. As amplifier technology has improved, small peripheral venous pressure (PVP) signals collected using a transducer on an intravenous catheter can be analyzed to monitor patient volume status. This thesis details the development of an embedded system prototype that quickly and accurately assesses volume status using PVP analysis. The volume prediction algorithm classified 10 seconds of PVP data as “dehydrated” or “resuscitated”. The hardware design consisted of four primary areas: analog signal conditioning, processing, user interaction, and power. After data collection, the signal …


Stream Processor Development Using Multi-Threshold Null Convention Logic Asynchronous Design Methodology, Wassim Khalil May 2023

Stream Processor Development Using Multi-Threshold Null Convention Logic Asynchronous Design Methodology, Wassim Khalil

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Decreasing transistor feature size has led to an increase in the number of transistors in integrated circuits (IC), allowing for the implementation of more complex logic. However, such logic also requires more complex clock tree synthesis (CTS) to avoid timing violations as the clock must reach many more gates over larger areas. Thus, timing analysis requires significantly more computing power and designer involvement than in the past. For these reasons, IC designers have been pushed to nix conventional synchronous (SYNC) architecture and explore novel methodologies such as asynchronous, self-timed architecture. This dissertation evaluates the nominal active energy, voltage-scaled active energy, …


Effect Of Nanobubble-Oxygenated Water For Irrigation Of Sand-Based Golf Course Putting Greens, Eric Deboer May 2023

Effect Of Nanobubble-Oxygenated Water For Irrigation Of Sand-Based Golf Course Putting Greens, Eric Deboer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Nanobubbles (NBs) are sub-micron, stable cavities of gas. The properties of NBs theoretically allow long bubble residence times and high gas dissolution rates resulting in the supersaturation of oxygen in water. Adequate soil aeration is a constant concern for producers of agricultural and horticultural crops. Because of their unique properties, NBs have been investigated for oxygenating water used in the irrigation of various agricultural and horticultural crops to increase soil oxygen concentration. Creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) is the most widely used turfgrass for golf course putting green surfaces. Golf course superintendents use various methods to increase soil oxygen in …


The Growth And Characterization Of Inn Quantum Dots Using Droplets Epitaxy In Mbe, Malak Refaei May 2023

The Growth And Characterization Of Inn Quantum Dots Using Droplets Epitaxy In Mbe, Malak Refaei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

III-nitride semiconductor material systems offer great potential for next-generation optoelectronic devices due to their direct bandgaps, which vary from 0.7 eV (InN) to 3.5 eV (GaN) to 6.2 eV (AlN), as well as their other unique properties. InN has gained much less attention than GaN and AlN within this family of semiconductors due to its complicated low-temperature growth. However, the prediction that an InN quantum well on GaN can become a two-dimensional (2D) topological insulator has resulted in expanding the research interest in InN. At the same time, this renewed interest has begun to reveal that the formation of an …


Effects Of Land Use On Soil Microbial Communities In Tropical Montane Forests Of Malaysian Borneo, Yang Kai Tang May 2023

Effects Of Land Use On Soil Microbial Communities In Tropical Montane Forests Of Malaysian Borneo, Yang Kai Tang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Land use, such as logging and forest conversion to agriculture, can modify soil physicochemical and biological properties, and affect soil health. To understand how land use change can impact soil properties and canopy structure, we used a land use gradient in Malaysian Borneo consisting of six sites, including old growth forests, mixed forests, and agriculture fields. Specifically, we aimed to answer the following questions: (1) How do soil physicochemical properties vary across land use types? (2) Does bacterial diversity and composition vary across different land use types? (3) Does fungal diversity and composition vary across different land use types? We …