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Graduate Theses and Dissertations

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Soilless Substrates As A Critical Control Point For Mitigating Food Safety Risks Within Hydroponic Leaf Lettuce Production, Eric Nuertey Tetteh Jul 2026

Soilless Substrates As A Critical Control Point For Mitigating Food Safety Risks Within Hydroponic Leaf Lettuce Production, Eric Nuertey Tetteh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The effect of hydroponic soilless substrates and microbial biocontrol agents on the persistence of foodborne pathogens in indoor lettuce production is variable depending on substrate type, pathogen species, and biocontrol formulation. This study addressed key gaps by first characterizing the ability of different substrates to support Salmonella and Listeria monocytogenes survival and then evaluating the ability of pine biochar and Bacillus subtilis to suppress pathogen persistence in selected substrates under controlled conditions. In the first experiment, the persistence of Salmonella and L. monocytogenes was evaluated in four soilless substrates: rockwool (RW), low density foam (LDF), peat moss (PM) and coco …


Designing Functional Nanolaminates From Complex Atomic Layer Deposition Reactions, Joseph Joel Muhanga Jul 2026

Designing Functional Nanolaminates From Complex Atomic Layer Deposition Reactions, Joseph Joel Muhanga

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) enables precise cycle by cycle control over film thickness and composition. This kind of control is ideal for the engineering of functional nanolaminate coatings with tailored optical properties. Since ALD synthesized composite films are deposited as discrete, stratified layers and not as homogeneously intermixed solids, it is not yet clear when such composites can be be treated with the effective medium approximation (EMA). EMA is simplification that is important to the design of mixed oxide coatings. This dissertation addresses that question using a model system, and then asks whether the same approach can be used to …


Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of A Pdms-Based Nanochannel Using Nano Embossing, Cooper James Haskamp Jul 2026

Design, Fabrication, And Testing Of A Pdms-Based Nanochannel Using Nano Embossing, Cooper James Haskamp

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

DNA sequencing has become increasingly important in the field of biomedical research and clinical applications. Currently, the most well-established sequencing technique is ‘Sequencing by Synthesis’ with accuracy in the range of 99.2% to 99.74% and sequencing lengths of only 300 base pairs. Sequencing by Synthesis is a lab-based method that requires expensive equipment and fast parallel computing. It is not suitable for portable, on-site applications. A new technique known as ‘nanopore’ was developed to meet these requirements. Nanopore is an electrical sequencing method that relies on the translocation of a DNA molecule through a nanoscale pore, where the blockage current …


Arkansas’ Crippled Children’S Homes & The Politics Of Polio, Rylie Ford Jul 2026

Arkansas’ Crippled Children’S Homes & The Politics Of Polio, Rylie Ford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Most of the work in the field of disability history has centered on the Northeastern part of the United States and regions with large urban centers, therefore, excluding Southern and rural perspectives. This omission is particularly problematic when roughly 79% of the Black population in the United States lived in the South in 1940. The aim of this study is to contribute a Southern perspective to disability studies and Black medical history by tracing the development of services and aid for children with physical disabilities in Arkansas. Employing the frameworks from the social model of disability and Black disability politics, …


Tipping In The Digital Age: Comparing Group And Individual Tipping Behavior Across Cashless Payments, Akosua Sayer Koduah Jul 2026

Tipping In The Digital Age: Comparing Group And Individual Tipping Behavior Across Cashless Payments, Akosua Sayer Koduah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tipping has long been central to the U.S. hospitality industry, where it provides a substantial share of service workers’ income. What was once a cash-based practice is now increasingly mediated through digital platforms such as card readers, QR codes, and peer-to-peer apps. These systems introduce features such as visibility of the decision, preset defaults, and group payment options that reshape how customers decide whether and how much to tip. While traditional tipping has been widely studied, research on digital restaurant tipping remains limited. This study focuses on two underexplored mechanisms: visibility (whether staff can observe the decision) and group context …


Statistical Machine Learning For Calibrating Climate Model Wind Fields., Augustine Ouru Jul 2026

Statistical Machine Learning For Calibrating Climate Model Wind Fields., Augustine Ouru

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates statistical calibration methods for wind data from Global Climate Models (GCMs), with emphasis on wind speed and wind direction. The analysis uses 30 years of daily observed and GCM wind records from 9 spatial locations in the South East USA. Wind is represented in polar coordinates, but also often modeled in Cartesian coordinates. Four calibration models are compared: a marginal wind speed model, an independent Cartesian model. The calibration models are based on semi-parametric quantile regression, a flexible conditional density estimator fitted using neural networks. The neural network objective functions are optimized using maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) …


Evaluation Of The Weed Control Efficacy And Potential Economic Returns Of An Autonomous Weeder In Vegetable Production Systems, Claire Plassmeyer May 2026

Evaluation Of The Weed Control Efficacy And Potential Economic Returns Of An Autonomous Weeder In Vegetable Production Systems, Claire Plassmeyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vegetable production requires intensive weed management. Conventional producers rely on herbicide applications to manage weeds effectively at low costs; however, growers are under pressure to minimize chemical use due to environmental concerns and increased incidences of herbicide resistance. Non-conventional systems, including organic and sustainably focused small-scale production, rely primarily on cultural practices and physical weed control methods, which are labor-intensive and costly due to limited labor availability and rising wages. These concerns have prompted the development of autonomous weeding devices, such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) equipped with navigation sensors and implements to provide repeated, high-precision weed control. Compact devices …


"Pockets Of Existence" The Lighting Design For "Silent Sky", Faith Noel Spencer May 2026

"Pockets Of Existence" The Lighting Design For "Silent Sky", Faith Noel Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore how lighting can express wonder, isolation, and discovery through the lens of the play Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson. Produced at the University of Arkansas in February 2025, my design utilized shifts in color, intensity, and movement to mirror Henrietta Levitt’s pursuit of understanding within both science and society. This design sought to balance the expansiveness of the never ending universe with the intimacy of humanity, using lighting to bridge the vastness with isolation. Challenges in this production included creating a sense of infinite space within the confines of a proscenium theatre, having continuity across multiple …


The Reframing Of An Ancient Tragedy Within A Contemporary Context, Samuel Ofosu Danquah May 2026

The Reframing Of An Ancient Tragedy Within A Contemporary Context, Samuel Ofosu Danquah

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines, explores, and explains the costume design process for a contemporary production of The Trojan Women by Euripides performed at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. The production concentrates on the play’s violent upheaval and its relationship between historic, present, and future significance. The Trojan Women by Euripides is recognized as a leading anti-war tragedy inspired by the Melian Massacre, which occurred circa 415-416 BCE. The Melian Massacre was a war between Sparta and Athens that occurred on the eastern mainland of Greece. The Trojan Women presents a distinctive challenge, visually depicting the immediate consequences of a city’s downfall …


Keepingness: Stitching Well-Being Through Arts-Based Self-Study As Self-Care For An Art Educator, Betsy Marie Allison May 2026

Keepingness: Stitching Well-Being Through Arts-Based Self-Study As Self-Care For An Art Educator, Betsy Marie Allison

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how quilting can function as a reflective and restorative practice for art educators navigating the emotional labor of teaching. Grounded in arts-based self-study and informed by a/r/tography and serendipity methodology, the study examines how hand-stitching and journaling intertwine as embodied forms of inquiry. Through the creation of hand-stitched triangular quilt blocks arranged in a spiral formation and anchored by a central dragonfly motif, the research documents the lived experiences of a public-school art educator working within the complexities of contemporary education. Journal writings stitched onto the muslin backs of each block, alongside processing photographs and material decisions, …


Harness: Hybrid Architecture For Resilience In Networked Engineering System Simulations, Daniel Scott May 2026

Harness: Hybrid Architecture For Resilience In Networked Engineering System Simulations, Daniel Scott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of HARNESS, a unified, domain-agnostic framework for the modeling, optimization, and evaluation of complex systems under conditions of degradation and uncertainty. The research addresses a persistent challenge in systems engineering: the lack of a generalizable, behaviorally grounded approach for quantifying resilience and robustness across diverse domains. HARNESS integrates graph-theoretic dependency modeling, GPU-accelerated evolutionary optimization, and agent-based simulation into a modular architecture that enables both system design and diagnostic analysis. The framework models system interdependencies through user-defined components, parameters, and constraints, allowing architectures to evolve dynamically while maintaining structural validity. A mutation-only genetic algorithm with a …


Inherent Frames Of Mind, Karlena Fletcher May 2026

Inherent Frames Of Mind, Karlena Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Inherent Frames of Mind is a mixed-media painting series that serves to investigate and celebrate the intersections between the artist and the family, friends, and places that have shaped her. These people and environments are embodied abstractly in the artwork by inanimate objects, flora and fauna, patterns, colors, and materials that are shared between them. It investigates the phenomenon when otherwise peripheral items are transformed into cornerstones of the artist’s history. These items are juxtaposed within hybrid compositions of floating imagery, ready to be scrutinized and cherished. This thesis also outlines the artist’s return to her most inherent ways of …


Every Why Hath A Wherefore, Harrison Baxley May 2026

Every Why Hath A Wherefore, Harrison Baxley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates techniques learned in classes at the University of Arkansas that would prepare me for my thesis role as both Dromio twins in The Comedy of Errors. The fast-paced production required a demanding performance from me mentally and physically, with rapid changes between each character. This project breaks down developmental training from One Person Show and Acting Studio classes that would prove essential to my thesis role. The result of this project has led to a toolbox for approaching a career in clowning, multi-character performance, and audience connection.


Burning In The Aftermath: Lightning The Trojan Women, Olivia Mack May 2026

Burning In The Aftermath: Lightning The Trojan Women, Olivia Mack

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis documents the lighting design process for The Trojan Women at the University of Arkansas, exploring how light can hold space for grief, devastation, beauty, and survival. Guided by the central conceptual image of “flowers burning in a garden,” the design sought to balance fragility and destruction allowing moments of tenderness to exist within the wreckage of war. This document reflects on research, collaboration, conceptual development, drafting, cueing, and rehearsal-to-performance evolution. It evaluates the emotional and visual effectiveness of color, angle, texture, and rhythm in shaping audience experience. Production photographs, the light plot, and cue paperwork are included to …


From Data Digitization To Personalized Care: Deep Learning And Decision Analytics In Healthcare Systems, Ahla Ko May 2026

From Data Digitization To Personalized Care: Deep Learning And Decision Analytics In Healthcare Systems, Ahla Ko

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation traces a progression from foundational data infrastructure to individualized clinical decision-making, developing and evaluating three computational frameworks that advance healthcare efficiency and personalization through deep learning and decision analytics. The first study presents an end-to-end pipeline for automated recognition of handwritten medical forms, addressing persistent challenges in health data digitization. Integrating a YOLO-based field detection model, a Convolutional Recurrent Neural Network (CRNN) for text transcription, and a confidence-based human-in-the-loop quality assurance framework, the system achieved 99.75\% Exact Match Accuracy and a 0.13\% Character Error Rate on medical forms collected from a tuberculosis research project in Moldova. A GPU-accelerated …


Geospatial Science And The Changing Environment: Applied Methods For Sustainable Agriculture And Landscape Management, Harrison Wakefield Smith May 2026

Geospatial Science And The Changing Environment: Applied Methods For Sustainable Agriculture And Landscape Management, Harrison Wakefield Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Rapid environmental change is disrupting agricultural productivity, ecological function, and the long-term resilience of managed landscapes. At the same time, the rapid growth of geospatial data science has improved our understanding of environmental change and increasingly is being used to improve sustainability in agricultural and environmental management. However, critical gaps remain that limit the applicability of data-driven insights in landscape management. This dissertation investigates the potential of geospatial analytics for sustainable agriculture and landscape management, with a focus on applied methods that operate across spatial and temporal scales. Using field, landscape, regional, and national datasets, it explores the capabilities and …


Enhancing Methods For Load Rating Bridge Timber Piles, Aashish Ghimire May 2026

Enhancing Methods For Load Rating Bridge Timber Piles, Aashish Ghimire

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Timber piles are widely used in bridge foundations across the United States due to their low cost and ease of installation. The strength of a timber pile is dependent on many factors including wood species, unbraced length, support conditions, age and cross-sectional properties. Cross-sectional properties are highly impacted by the progression of biological deterioration which often is undetected when using standard DOT inspections methods. Current inspection practices rely primarily on subjective methods that provide limited quantitative information about a pile’s existing load-carrying capacity. Consequently, timber piles are inaccurately assessed and prematurely replaced. In response, this thesis investigates the relationship between …


The Environment, Health, And Vector Nexus: Evaluating The Spatiotemporal Variability And Societal Impact Of Ticks In Arkansas, Dalton Williams May 2026

The Environment, Health, And Vector Nexus: Evaluating The Spatiotemporal Variability And Societal Impact Of Ticks In Arkansas, Dalton Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Tick-borne diseases (TBDs) are a surging public health and veterinary concern in the United States. In states like Arkansas, climate change and shifting land use have recalibrated the ecological niches of vector species. This research utilizes species distribution and ecological niche modeling to assess the spatiotemporal suitability of ixodid tick habitats, specifically where environmental and socioeconomic factors intersect. By integrating spatial science with public health frameworks, this study identifies priority intervention areas in underserved rural regions where healthcare resources are often constrained. This study provides a comprehensive methodological framework, leveraging remote sensing datasets and historic disease data to delineate exposure …


Investigating Calcium Oxychloride Deterioration In Concrete: Analyzing Variation In Laboratory Testing Procedures, Standardized Testing Protocols, And Industry Implementation., Joey Roy Parker May 2026

Investigating Calcium Oxychloride Deterioration In Concrete: Analyzing Variation In Laboratory Testing Procedures, Standardized Testing Protocols, And Industry Implementation., Joey Roy Parker

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Access to sustainable infrastructure is critical for society. In the U.S., over $350 billion is spent annually to maintain roadways providing access to education, medical care, and citizen consumer needs. Maintaining service of these systems during severe winter weather events is a significant challenge for maintenance personnel across the country. The use of deicing/anti-icing materials to lower the freezing temperature is a popular mitigation technique used to provide reasonable driving conditions during these times. The combination of these materials, freeze/thaw cycles, and precipitation produce perpetual deterioration and corrosion within reinforced concrete pavements and bridges. In the U.S., over 60% …


Brightly Slacked Tight, It Sways, Molly Brooke Martin May 2026

Brightly Slacked Tight, It Sways, Molly Brooke Martin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Brightly Slacked Tight, It Sways is a body of work that investigates unpredictability and process-based making through collage and materially hybrid forms that combine natural and synthetic elements, operating between drawing, painting, and sculpture. Using familiar, readily available materials gathered from the studio, hardware store, and my surrounding environment, the work embraces improvisation as a generative force. Unpredictability keeps me in relation to the work, interrupting certainty, requiring responsiveness, and mirroring the shifting conditions of the natural world. I break, cut, and recombine sticks gathered from my yard and athletic tape from gymnastics, along with scrap drawings and paintings. Shaped …


Idling, Greta Sky Kresse May 2026

Idling, Greta Sky Kresse

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Idling, I examine the car as a poetic ground where the intimacy of private space and the expansiveness of landscape collapse. The work holds escape and entrapment, movement and stalling, in unresolved tension. Ultimately more interested in the suspended moment than any destination. The work, rooted in my experience growing up Arkansas and engaging in the broader experience of working class Southern life, examines how this space is a site of adolescent life, a memorial site of loss and risk, and a symbol of class mobility and its limitations. Formal motifs developed through my plein air practice unify the …


A Review Of Ufgs And Ufc Specifications For The Mixture Design Process Of Military Airfield Concrete Pavements, Emaduddin Ahmad May 2026

A Review Of Ufgs And Ufc Specifications For The Mixture Design Process Of Military Airfield Concrete Pavements, Emaduddin Ahmad

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Military airfield concrete pavements require exceptional durability and performance, guided by the stringent criteria of the Department of Defense (DoD) Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC) 3-25-04 and Unified Facilities Guide Specifications (UFGS) 32 13 14.13. Currently, the mixture design approval contains severe pre-construction bottlenecks, primarily due to comprehensive requirements of testing all aggregate sources within six months of project commencement. This rigid approach forces redundant and time-consuming laboratory tests, such as the ASTM C666 freeze-thaw durability test, to be conducted even when utilizing consistent aggregate sources. This thesis reviews the current UFGS mixture design process to identify critical bottlenecks in the …


The Noise Of Time...., Shannon P. Smith May 2026

The Noise Of Time...., Shannon P. Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"the noise of time…" is a meditation on home, memory, and the fluidity of time, told through image and sculpture (materiality). Rooted in the complexity of Black identity and ignited by the passing of my father, this work began as a challenge: to create something interior and vulnerable, specific to my experience yet open enough for others to hold. Influenced by Gaston Bachelard’s "The Poetics of Space," I consider home—our personal intimate space—not only as a container for objects, but as a sanctuary for dreams, remembrance, and complicated emotions. I observe the home as a structure that holds what cannot …


Wanti Wanti Nuh Ghetti: Navigating The American Theatre Through A Multicultural Lens, Gabriela Madu May 2026

Wanti Wanti Nuh Ghetti: Navigating The American Theatre Through A Multicultural Lens, Gabriela Madu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores how actors of color navigate educational and professional spaces so they can bring their full experiences to the projects they take on, whether those projects are written for them or not. Through the depiction of the struggles faced by women of color in educational theatre in my one-person show Wanti Wanti Nuh Ghetti, the thesis argues that theatre holds transformative potential when actors of color are not merely visible on stage, but are deeply invested in their work and have a sense of belonging within the creative process. Drawing on this performance, the study further explores how …


No Place But Here, Dillon Bryant May 2026

No Place But Here, Dillon Bryant

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The writing in this document is a dovetailing of fragments ranging from critical inquiry, analysis, scripts, and other observations that relate to the body of work in “No place but here”. It is an accompanying document attempting to enrich the visual work rather than a direct illustration. The installation of “No place but here” at the Rogers Creamery is an investigation utilizing collage, text, and other constructed photographs, images, and objects to play with and against familial and broader narratives of power, control, and ambiguity associated with the American West. Underpinned and intersected by interior questions revolving around artifice, connection, …


"Shhh": A Reflection On Matrescence, Anna Guillory May 2026

"Shhh": A Reflection On Matrescence, Anna Guillory

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

“Shhh” is a collection of drawings that reflect on the many ways the first year of motherhood shifts identity, perspective, and relationships. Focusing on my personal experience of becoming a caregiver, each work acts as an exploration and artifact of the shared labor between parenting and redeveloping an art practice, articulating both the tension and the enmeshing of these two realities. The work poses questions around value and production and consequently presents considerations of the passage into matrescence itself. Through a combination of rendered images, gestures and marks from observed moments in domestic space, postpartum life, and my own inner, …


A Better Box To Lie In, Camille Gros May 2026

A Better Box To Lie In, Camille Gros

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This written thesis accompanies an exhibition of textiles and works on paper that explore the emotional, architectural, and political structures that relay experiences of a Queer Southern livelihood; it is about girlhood, homoeroticism, isolation, passion, hunger, sweet love, and terrible fear. The show is a celebration of our dependance upon one another, and an expression of grief. I am sure that this work will need to be repaired in time, and I hope for many hands to mend it.


Advancement In Electrochemical Generation-Collection: Snapshot Redox Cycling Voltammetry For Rapid Analysis At Chip-Based, Individually Addressable Microband Electrode Arrays, Blake Aleck Sterling May 2026

Advancement In Electrochemical Generation-Collection: Snapshot Redox Cycling Voltammetry For Rapid Analysis At Chip-Based, Individually Addressable Microband Electrode Arrays, Blake Aleck Sterling

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Snapshot redox cycling voltammetry (Snapshot RCV) is introduced as a rapid electrochemical technique that reconstructs the current-potential profile of a redox active species using a microband electrode array. By simultaneously biasing individual generator electrodes alternating in the array to different voltages across the analyte’s potential range while individually holding collector electrodes at a reversing potential, “spatial” voltammetry is achieved in as little as 1 s with the temporal speed of chronoamperometry, rapidly capturing the steady-state redox cycling (RC) profiles. During RC (a mode of generation-collection), the analyte is oxidized (or reduced) at generator electrodes and converted back at neighboring collector …


Explainability In Deep Learning For Density Regression, Dalton James Oxford May 2026

Explainability In Deep Learning For Density Regression, Dalton James Oxford

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Classical statistical methods focus on explainability and inferential power. Machine learning and deep learning can handle non-linear, high-dimensional data better than traditional methods. In modeling, a clear understanding and interpretation are essential to decision-making. Recent work in quantile regression and extreme modeling has begun to use deep learning due to its performance on high-dimensional, non-linear data. Semi-Parametric Quantile Regression (SPQR) is a nonparametric spline-based approach to quantile regression that estimates the conditional PDF and CDF of the response. Semi-Parametric Quantile Regression for Extremes (SPQRx) is a recent extension of SPQR that provides two features: out-of-sample estimation and accurate extreme-tailed estimation. …


Strain Engineering Of Excitonic And Vibrational Properties In Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Sneha Minesh Patel May 2026

Strain Engineering Of Excitonic And Vibrational Properties In Two-Dimensional Transition Metal Dichalcogenides, Sneha Minesh Patel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mechanical strain represents a robust and non-invasive method for tuning the electronic and vibrational properties of two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs). This work examines homogeneous biaxial strain as a symmetry-preserving control parameter that governs excitonic and interlayer dynamics in atomically thin TMDs. In monolayer MoSe2, biaxial tensile strain is intrinsically generated during high-temperature physical vapor deposition due to thermal expansion mismatch with amorphous substrates. Optical spectroscopy demonstrates substantial and tunable excitonic energy shifts exceeding 100 meV per percent strain. Polarization-resolved second harmonic generation confirms the retention of lattice symmetry under biaxial deformation. The investigation is further extended to bilayer MoS2, where …