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Study Of Weight Gain In Freshman Students At The University Of Arkansas, Lily Maleknia May 2023

Study Of Weight Gain In Freshman Students At The University Of Arkansas, Lily Maleknia

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to examine the poor (non-nutritional) food choices that college freshman make when living on-campus and eating at on-campus dining facilities. These poor choices lead to excessive weight gain, eating disorders, declining health and wellness, and mental health issues (i.e. depression, anxiety, lack of self-confidence). These side effects can lead to a less than desirable 1st year college experience and lack of academic success. Based on these concerns, different investigations have been performed to determine the causes of this phenomena. Given adolescent weight gain is highly linked to being overweight and obesity in adults, a better understanding …


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 …


The Theatrical Lighting Design For The Production Of The Moors., Austin James Bomkamp May 2023

The Theatrical Lighting Design For The Production Of The Moors., Austin James Bomkamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis paper, The Theatrical Lighting Design for the Production of The Moors documents the process of the lighting design for the production of The Moors written by Jen Silverman and produced at the Fine Arts Center University Theatre by the University of Arkansas Department of Theater. This document includes the research, process, implementation, and evaluation of the theatrical lighting design for this play.


Crafting The Brand: Characterizing Consumer Perspective Of Brand Equity Among Microbreweries In Northwest Arkansas, Alyssa Johnson May 2023

Crafting The Brand: Characterizing Consumer Perspective Of Brand Equity Among Microbreweries In Northwest Arkansas, Alyssa Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Craft beer and craft breweries are on the rise across the United States and more importantly, in Arkansas. Throughout the past two decades, craft beer has gained popularity in the state of Arkansas as the number of craft breweries have risen across the state. However, there is currently little literature on how branding in craft breweries in Northwest Arkansas is used to gain and retain loyal consumers. This study aimed to add to the academic literature and provide practical recommendations to practitioners on how brand equity is built among craft breweries in Northwest Arkansas, using qualitative interviews. Marketing strategies of …


Polymeric Biomaterials Approaches For Engineering The In Vitro Cellular Microenvironment For Mscs, Mahsa Letter-Mahsa Haseli May 2023

Polymeric Biomaterials Approaches For Engineering The In Vitro Cellular Microenvironment For Mscs, Mahsa Letter-Mahsa Haseli

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cell therapy is a technology that relies on replacing diseased or dysfunctional cells with healthy functioning ones. One of the cells used for such advanced therapies are stem cells, owing to their ability to differentiate into specific cells required for repairing damaged or defective tissues or cells. The majority of cell-based products are intended to transiently persist in the patient, secreting factors which then allow the patient’s body to heal; in these products, the cells are subsequently eliminated from the body. Furthermore, unique manufacturing platforms, in addition to novel commercialization strategies, will be required to create a successful, sustainable cell …


Doctoral Students' Experiences Of Community Of Practice In A Hybrid Cohort-Based Program: A Case Study, Celeste Avery May 2023

Doctoral Students' Experiences Of Community Of Practice In A Hybrid Cohort-Based Program: A Case Study, Celeste Avery

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Graduate enrollment in the United States is increasing. With the advent of the cohort learning model and online delivery methods, adult learners now have greater access to higher education. The cohort learning model, which is based on elements of Community of Practice, has been shown to provide learners with a sense of community while also having a positive impact on retention. In a hybrid cohort-based learning model, many institutions provide the convenience of both online and face-to-face classes. Doctoral student attrition remains high, ranging from 40-50% across all programs, with rates as high as 70% in Education programs. The purpose …


Efficient Routing For Disaster Scenarios In Uncertain Networks: A Computational Study Of Adaptive Algorithms For The Stochastic Canadian Traveler Problem With Multiple Agents And Destinations, Neel Chanchad May 2023

Efficient Routing For Disaster Scenarios In Uncertain Networks: A Computational Study Of Adaptive Algorithms For The Stochastic Canadian Traveler Problem With Multiple Agents And Destinations, Neel Chanchad

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary objective of this research is to develop adaptive online algorithms for solving the Canadian Traveler Problem (CTP), which is a well-studied problem in the literature that has important applications in disaster scenarios. To this end, we propose two novel approaches, namely Maximum Likely Node (MLN) and Maximum Likely Path (MLP), to address the single-agent single-destination variant of the CTP. Our computational experiments demonstrate that the MLN and MLP algorithms together achieve new best-known solutions for 10,715 instances. In the context of disaster scenarios, the CTP can be extended to the multiple-agent multiple-destination variant, which we refer to as …


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 …


Starch Granule And Crystalline Structures With Relation To Enzyme Digestibility, Ana Isabel Gonzalez Conde May 2023

Starch Granule And Crystalline Structures With Relation To Enzyme Digestibility, Ana Isabel Gonzalez Conde

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Porous starch produced by enzyme hydrolysis has attracted much attention for its adsorption and delivery properties. Porous starch has been successfully prepared from A-type starch, but not from B-type and C-type starches, which is partly attributed to the surface and crystalline structure. The present study aimed to characterize the role of the crystalline structure and the structure-function relationship impacting the susceptibility of starch with different crystalline polymorphs to amylase digestion. The starches were subjected to chemical modification (acid hydrolysis or surface gelatinization), physical modification (heat-moisture treatment, HMT, or high-pressure processing, HPP) or their combinations prior to amylase digestion, and the …


Advanced Cmos Process For Submicron Silicon Carbide (Sic) Device, Niloy Saha May 2023

Advanced Cmos Process For Submicron Silicon Carbide (Sic) Device, Niloy Saha

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Silicon carbide (SiC) is a wide semiconductor material with superior material properties compared to other rival materials. Due to its fewer dislocation defects than gallium nitride and its ability to form native oxides, this material possesses an advantage among wide band gap materials. Despite having several superior properties its low voltage application is less explored. CMOS is extremely important in low voltage areas and silicon is the dominant player in it for the last 50 years where scaling has contributed a major role in this flourishment. The channel length of silicon devices has reached 3 nm whereas SiC is still …


Modbus Rtu For Embedded Cyber Secure Inverter Controller, Brady Mcbride May 2023

Modbus Rtu For Embedded Cyber Secure Inverter Controller, Brady Mcbride

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Modbus communication protocol is a widely adopted communication standard in industrial control systems. This communication protocol is known for being reliable and straightforward to implement while being versatile in terms of its operating parameters while supporting multiple formats over various hardware infrastructures and architectures. Many intelligent devices such as Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs), Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), Internet-of-Things (IoT), and various Operational Technologies (OT) utilize Modbus for their communication systems. These types of systems must communicate with each other through a standardized and central communication process. To support the integration of these modular systems, a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) can …


An Investigation Of Seed Hardness And Seed Coat Color Values In Natto Soybean, Joshua Winter May 2023

An Investigation Of Seed Hardness And Seed Coat Color Values In Natto Soybean, Joshua Winter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natto is a specialty fermented soyfood made from small-seeded (seeds-1) soybean varieties. Seed hardness and seed coat color are important seed traits that determine the texture and appearance of natto and are thus valuable to breeders. Prior research has identified quantitative trait loci (QTL, hereafter) for seed hardness, but its nature as a quantitative trait heavily influenced by the environment means that it is still poorly understood. Prior research has identified the primary genetic components of seed coat color using simple visual inspection, but few studies have investigated the usefulness of more quantitative measurements, such as the color space coordinates …


Dicamba Translocation And Metabolism In Susceptible Soybean And Evaluation Of Factors Contributing To Volatilization, Maria Leticia Zaccaro May 2023

Dicamba Translocation And Metabolism In Susceptible Soybean And Evaluation Of Factors Contributing To Volatilization, Maria Leticia Zaccaro

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The expansion of dicamba-resistant technology increased the use of dicamba in season and relocated the off-target movement towards the growing season, negatively affecting susceptible vegetation, such as soybean. This research aimed to understand different aspects of the off-target movement of dicamba and impact on susceptible soybean. A study determined the accumulation of dicamba in soybean seed (grain) when parental plants at the pod-filling stage were treated with 1/200 of a labeled rate of dicamba at 560 g ae ha-1 and radiolabeled herbicide used as a tracer. This research found that 44% of the total herbicide absorbed by the parent plants …


The Influence Of Pesticides On Us Corn Production Environmental Impact: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Dominant Production Practices, Kyle Marinoni Lawrence May 2023

The Influence Of Pesticides On Us Corn Production Environmental Impact: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment Of Dominant Production Practices, Kyle Marinoni Lawrence

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years there has been increasing interest in reducing agricultural environmental footprints in the United States, particularly for commodity crops like corn grain. Pest management is one aspect of agricultural production that is often identified as having potential for improvement with regard to environmental impact, but there is not a robust body of literature to identify the wide-scale influence of pesticides on yield and environmental impact. In this study, we hypothesized that the use of different classifications of pesticides has a significant impact on the overall environmental impact. To test this, agricultural models were created to represent the dominant …


An Exploratory Analysis On The Lived Experiences Of First-Year Students Participating In Living Learning Communities On A College Campus, Cody James Lindbloom May 2023

An Exploratory Analysis On The Lived Experiences Of First-Year Students Participating In Living Learning Communities On A College Campus, Cody James Lindbloom

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Living learning communities in higher education involve students living in a shared residence space and a faculty or staff member leading various activities. These communities have been shown to help students transition to and retain in higher education, promote higher grade point averages, and provide peer support. However, only a limited number of published studies have shown the benefits for students who may have adverse experiences because they come from diverse backgrounds. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived social support received and the benefits of the support across a sample of first-semester living learning community students …


Fulfilling Koch’S Postulates And Evaluation Of Different Administration Routes In Poults Challenged With Streptococcus Gallolyticus, Latasha Gray May 2023

Fulfilling Koch’S Postulates And Evaluation Of Different Administration Routes In Poults Challenged With Streptococcus Gallolyticus, Latasha Gray

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Streptococcus gallolyticus (SG) is a Gram-positive found as commensal gut flora in animals and humans. SG has been associated with acute mortality in poults 2 to 3 weeks of age, with lesions mainly consisting of splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, and pericarditis. The objective of this thesis was to reproduce disease in poults caused by SG recovered from clinical field isolates and evaluate different routes of administration. Three field isolates from geographically disparate areas in Arkansas and Missouri were used for the experiments contained in this thesis. Antibiotic sensitives of the three field isolates revealed sensitivity to penicillin as well as a wide …


An Experimental Study Into Tholin's Solubility With Liquid Hydrocarbons On Titan, Katherine Dzurilla May 2023

An Experimental Study Into Tholin's Solubility With Liquid Hydrocarbons On Titan, Katherine Dzurilla

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Titan’s production of organics in its atmosphere and the liquid hydrocarbon lakes present on its surface make it a prime target for astrobiologists. Many previous studies on laboratory analogs of these organics, called "tholins", have found amino acids, nitriles, and other building blocks necessary for life. The potential solubility of tholins in the lakes of Titan presents an opportunity to create physical and chemical changes within the organics. While the lakes of Titan are primarily comprised of nonpolar compounds (methane and ethane), many predict that very small amounts of polar hydrocarbons are also present. To better understand these processes, researchers …


The Secondary School Science Olympiad Experience: Coaches Opinions And Attitudes Regarding Participation And Content Acquisition, Julieanna Darnell Rohde May 2023

The Secondary School Science Olympiad Experience: Coaches Opinions And Attitudes Regarding Participation And Content Acquisition, Julieanna Darnell Rohde

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Science Olympiad (SO) is a team-oriented STEM competition that offers students the opportunity to participate in a wide range of STEM topics attracting students with varying STEM interests. This hermeneutic phenomenological cross-case study explored the experiences of 12 SO coaches with experience coaching middle school and/or high school teams. Educational settings for the teams included public schools, private schools, and homeschool. Coaches were asked to fill out an open-ended questionnaire about their SO coaching experiences. Based upon questionnaire responses, coaches were invited to participate in follow-up interviews. The experiences related by the coaches in the interviews were written as case …


An Age, Size, And Climate Response Study Of Old Growth Shortleaf Pine In The Mccurtain County Wilderness Area, Oklahoma, Nicholas Cancalosi-Dean May 2023

An Age, Size, And Climate Response Study Of Old Growth Shortleaf Pine In The Mccurtain County Wilderness Area, Oklahoma, Nicholas Cancalosi-Dean

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Increment cores were extracted from 483 trees distributed over 21 semi-randomly sampled 0.1-hectare plots on three distinct landscape positions in the McCurtain County Wilderness Area (MCWA), a 57 square kilometer tract of uncut shortleaf pine in southeastern Oklahoma. Forty additional cores were taken off plot from older-appearing trees. All sampled trees were shortleaf pine (Pinus echinata) with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of at least 10 cm. Hardwoods were not included in the size and age analyses. The study site chosen for the sampling was made up of four parallel east-west trending ridges near North Linson Creek, making up …


A Podcast - Inspirando El Futuro: Stories About Latina Leaders In Northwest Arkansas, Wendy Echeverria May 2023

A Podcast - Inspirando El Futuro: Stories About Latina Leaders In Northwest Arkansas, Wendy Echeverria

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project aims to showcase the Latina leaders in Northwest Arkansas and empower other Latinas to dream and achieve more. With the Latin American and Hispanic communities growing rapidly, it’s essential to highlight research and changes being done in local communities. The project is a five-episode podcast. Each episode features a Latina leader and experts, and it takes a deep dive into who Latinas are, their challenges, successes, and so much more.


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 …


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 …


Dpd Guided Insight On The Formation Process Of Polyethersulfone Membranes By Nonsolvent Induced Phase Separation And The Effects Of Additives, Eric Ledieu May 2023

Dpd Guided Insight On The Formation Process Of Polyethersulfone Membranes By Nonsolvent Induced Phase Separation And The Effects Of Additives, Eric Ledieu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dissipative particle dynamics (DPD), a coarse grain simulation method, was applied to the membrane formation process of non-solvent induced phase separation (NIPS) to gain further insight on the mechanism of certain variables and how they affect the final morphology. NIPS involves two solutions, an organic polymer dissolved in an organic solvent colloquially called the dope and an aqueous coagulation bath, brought into contact with one another. The solvents then mix, causing the polymer to fall out of solution as an asymmetric membrane with a dense surface layer and a more open subsurface layer in response to the decreasing solubility. Polyethersulfone …


Effect Of Human Decellularized Skeletal Muscle On Recovery From Volumetric Muscle Loss Injury, Jacob Schluns May 2023

Effect Of Human Decellularized Skeletal Muscle On Recovery From Volumetric Muscle Loss Injury, Jacob Schluns

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Volumetric muscle loss (VML) overwhelms muscle’s robust capacity for regeneration. A key event in the etiology of VML injury is the bulk loss of structural cues provided by the underlying extracellular matrix (ECM). While muscle is a highly structured tissue, with cell and ECM alignment in the direction of contractile force production, the impact of scaffold alignment on recovery remains unclear. Bulk human decellularized skeletal muscle (DSM) tissues were sectioned into 10 x 1-2 mm fibers. VML defects were repaired using multi-fiber implants consisting of approximately 8 fibers per defect arranged into two layers. Fibers were oriented 1) to the …


Analysis Of An Isolated Bidirectional Ćuk Converter, Yeny Hau Chen May 2023

Analysis Of An Isolated Bidirectional Ćuk Converter, Yeny Hau Chen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The objective of this thesis is to perform an analysis of the isolated bidirectional Ćuk dc-dc converter topology and demonstrate the advantages and operation of this configuration through simulations using MATLAB/SimulinkTM and measurements collected from a 1.5-kW prototype tested at the Engineering Research Center (ENRC) laboratory of the University of Arkansas. The idea of integrating an active-clamp snubber circuit on each side of the converter, proposed by Dr. Sudip Mazumder from the University of Illinois, Chicago, limits the additional voltage stresses on the components due to the energy from the transformer’s leakage inductance. This is studied in this thesis to …


Development Of An Intervention For Improving Food Acceptance Of People With Hearing Loss, Sara Esther Jarma Arroyo May 2023

Development Of An Intervention For Improving Food Acceptance Of People With Hearing Loss, Sara Esther Jarma Arroyo

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hearing loss, defined as the partial or total inability to hear sound in one or both ears, is the most common sensory deficit in adults to date. Approximately 15% of American adults aged 18 and over report some trouble hearing. The impact of hearing loss may be profound, with consequences for the social, functional, and psychological well-being of the person. Surprisingly, very little attention has been paid on whether auditory loss can significantly impact consumers’ sensory perception and overall enjoyment of food. There were four objectives of this dissertation study. Chapter 1 aimed to determine the impacts of hearing loss …


Automation Of Life Cycle Assessment, Jacob Hickman May 2023

Automation Of Life Cycle Assessment, Jacob Hickman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An automation program, named Jacob LCA, was created to help perform life cycle assessment (LCA). The program uses a template file to perform controlled and consistently ordered actions with the LCA program, SimaPro, and effectively removes the need for manual user input. It can be set to run using data from one or more life cycle inventory (LCI) files, which allows for rapid iteration and testing of data. It also partially addresses some of the limitations of LCA by establishing a procedure through which temporal and spatial variations in data can be integrated into LCI files and then passed to …


Mitral Valve Imaging And Biomechanics: A Workflow Towards Computational Modeling And Validation, Sam Stephens May 2023

Mitral Valve Imaging And Biomechanics: A Workflow Towards Computational Modeling And Validation, Sam Stephens

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The mitral valve serves a critical role in healthy cardiac function by ensuring the unidirectional flow of oxygenated blood from the left atrium into the left ventricle. It experiences the highest pressures found within the heart and its closure is the result of a complex interaction of several different structures that, furthermore, are unique to each individual. Despite the valve’s vital role however, the specific function of these constituent structures is not fully understood. This, confounded by its asymmetric, personalized nature, make surgical interventions for the mitral valve far less effective than for its neighboring aortic valve. Efforts to overcome …


Improving Classification In Single And Multi-View Images, Hadi Kanaan Hadi Salman May 2023

Improving Classification In Single And Multi-View Images, Hadi Kanaan Hadi Salman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Image classification is a sub-field of computer vision that focuses on identifying objects within digital images. In order to improve image classification we must address the following areas of improvement: 1) Single and Multi-View data quality using data pre-processing techniques. 2) Enhancing deep feature learning to extract alternative representation of the data. 3) Improving decision or prediction of labels. This dissertation presents a series of four published papers that explore different improvements of image classification. In our first paper, we explore the Siamese network architecture to create a Convolution Neural Network based similarity metric. We learn the priority features that …


Ecology, Evolution, And Gene Transfer Between Diatoms And Bacteria, Cory B. Gargas May 2023

Ecology, Evolution, And Gene Transfer Between Diatoms And Bacteria, Cory B. Gargas

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although photosynthetic macro-eukaryotes (i.e., plants) make up the majority of organic biomass on earth, bacteria are the second largest taxonomic group, by biomass. Bacteria are ubiquitous in our environment, living on, and within, man-made surfaces, natural environments, and eukaryotes themselves. The relationship between bacteria and eukaryotes has existed from the very beginning of eukaryotic life in the form of bacterial endosymbioses that resulted in mitochondria and plastids. Other eukaryote–bacteria relationships have evolved since then, ranging from the beneficial (e.g., mutualistic) to harmful (e.g., parasitic or pathogenic). Understanding these eukaryote–bacteria relationships is key to understanding both the evolution of important ecosystem …