Digital Commons Network^™

Examining The Ligands, Location, And Function Of Toll-Like Receptor 10, Kiefer Keanu Tam

Master's Theses

Toll-like receptors are a class of innate immune pattern recognition receptors that detect pathogen-associated molecular patterns and regulate downstream inflammatory responses. Toll-like receptor 10 remains the only human TLR whose ligand specificity, cellular localization, and immunological function are not fully defined. Emerging evidence suggests that TLR10 may play an anti-inflammatory role and can heterodimerize with TLR2 to modulate immune signaling. Previous studies from our laboratory demonstrated that stimulation with heat-killed Mycobacterium tuberculosis promotes TLR2-TLR10 heterodimerization and trafficking to the cell surface. In this study, we expanded our ligand panel to include additional gram-positive bacteria, particularly anti-inflammatory probiotic species, to further …

Linking Fishery Productivity To Child Health In The Coastal Tropics, Francisco Flores-Mejia

Master's Theses

Fish are a primary source of calories, macronutrients, and income for coastal communities around the world, but overfishing and environmental changes have dramatically reduced productivity in the majority of small-scale fisheries. The social costs of these losses are believed to be large, particularly in poorer communities, but most estimates of fishery productivity effects on households are contextual and difficult to generalize. We combine a remote sensing measure of pelagic fishery productivity with geolocated child health and growth data from 34 countries in the coastal tropics. We estimate that the difference between sustainedly good versus bad fishing conditions corresponds up to …

The Feather Of The Quill: How Folklore Shapes Human Relationships With Wildlife, Taylor Breeanne Nelson

Master's Theses

This thesis examines how folklore and cultural phenomena shape human relationships with wildlife, arguing that the stories a society tells about animals are not merely reflective of its values but are constitutive of them. Drawing on narrative research methods sourced from literature and academic journals and interviews with academics, conservationists, and community members, this project examines the role of animal folklore.

I discuss how narratives around wildlife evolved alongside the development of the United States, arguing that the beginnings of mainstream American conservation not only displaced existing communities but also erased the sophisticated human-animal relationships their traditions had long sustained. …

Investigating Cryptic Diversity In The Hawaiian Endemic Plant, Psychotria Mariniana (Rubiaceae), Uyen Thi Hoang Nguyen

Master's Theses

Islands, with their isolation and steep environmental gradients, serve as natural laboratories for studying speciation. Molecular phylogenetic and population genetic methods utilizing Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) have revolutionized our ability to document patterns of genetic divergence and diversity. Cryptic diversity, genetically distinct populations that were previously unrecognized as unique, and cryptic speciation, where divergent genetic populations may be deserving of status as unique species, have been observed in many taxa. The Hawaiian Islands provide an ideal setting for studying divergence and speciation due to their extreme isolation, known ages, and volcanic origin. Previous work has investigated the evolutionary relationships of the …

La Maquiladora De Sueños Is Where The “American Dream” Ends: The Socio-Cultural Impact Of Hai(T)Ijuanenses In The United States-México Borderlands, Pedro Aleman Perfecto

Master's Theses

Historically, Tijuana has been the destination for migrants who have been left out from the United States, Mexico, and the rest of the world. The city is at the epicenter of globalization where many transit, leave, and arrive. Sometimes considered a “third country” due to its binational and bicultural identity with its sister city, San Diego, California. The growing number of Haitian refugees that arrived in Tijuana in the mid 2010s to seek asylum in the United States overwhelmed the city’s infrastructure and left the Haitian community vulnerable, yet it created new opportunities and reshaped new identities in the region. …

Structure And Diversity Of Play Behavior In Juvenile Belding's Ground Squirrels, Paul O'Driscoll Ii

Master's Theses

Play behavior is ubiquitous among juvenile mammals and can promote motor, social, and cognitive development, providing multiple adaptive benefits to young animals in some cases. The structure of play can be linked to the benefits it confers on individuals. I evaluated the structure of play in juvenile Belding’s ground squirrels (Urocitellus beldingi), a species for which multiple adaptive benefits of play have been identified. I compared juvenile play in U. beldingi to adult sexual and aggressive behavior to determine and classify similarities between juvenile play and adult behavior. I evaluated diversity in the behaviors expressed during play interactions and diversity …

Paternal Investment And Labor Market Soft Skills: Evidence From The Philippines, Timothy Crane Wilkins

Master's Theses

Fathers’ involvement in their children’s lives may shape the social skills that determine labor market success, yet evidence from Southeast Asia remains limited. This study examines the relationship between paternal investment and soft skills used in the workforce. Using original survey and experimental data from more than 300 parents of young children in Metro Manila, Philippines, I analyze how their fathers’ past involvement during childhood, and current involvement as grandparents in childcare relate to dictator-game giving, interpersonal trust, and workplace relations. The results indicate that paternal investment is most statistically significant with improved workplace relations, specifically with participants’ reported ability …

Ecological And Nutritional Drivers Of Floral Fidelity In Wild Pollinators, Adelaide Elise Ergastolo

Master's Theses

Plants must receive pollen from the same species in order to successfully reproduce. For most flowering plants, the transfer of pollen occurs via animal pollinators while they forage on plants to obtain food. Therefore, the fidelity of pollinators to individual plant species during foraging trips is directly related to the amount of conspecific pollen plants receive. Low floral fidelity of pollinators can reduce plant reproductive success, which in turn has the potential to lower food resources for pollinators in the future. While many factors can potentially influence pollinator floral fidelity, several important ones may be the nutritional resources provided by …

Snp Recovery And Eye Color Prediction Accuracy From Exogenous Human Hair: Evaluating The Impact Of Hair Color And Shaft Location, Kaitlyn Bennett

Master's Theses

Forensic science increasingly relies on DNA evidence; however, traditional short tandem repeat (STR) analysis has limitations when applied to degraded samples, such as hairs in the exogen phase. This preliminary study investigates the recovery and prediction accuracy of IrisPlex single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from exogen-stage human hair samples to determine how factors like hair color and shaft location influence SNP recovery and phenotypic eye color predictions. The analysis focuses on the IrisPlex SNPs rs12913832 (HERC2 gene) and rs1800407 (OCA2 gene), which are strongly associated with eye color variation. Hair samples were collected from twelve donors aged 18-26, representing natural brown, …

Hormonal, Cytokinetic, And Skeletal Response To A Single Weighted Vest Exercise Treatment: A Pilot Study To Determine Weighted Vest “Rucking” Treatment For Osteoporosis In Post-Menopausal Women, Eleanor Pell

Master's Theses

Osteoporosis is characterized by a deteriorating of bone tissue leading to brittleness and increased fracture risk that affects both men and women as they age. Postmenopausal women are of particular interest due to high risk of declining bone density, a characteristic of this population. Treatments for osteoporosis range from menopause hormone therapy, bisphosphonates, biologics, nutritional changes, and exercise. Load bearing exercise interventions have shown effectiveness for stimulating bone growth, but many factors such as lack of access, motivation, self-confidence or knowledge, prevent long term compliance. “Weighted vest rucking” refers to a variation of rucking, which is a form of exercise …

Companion Parrot Vocal Learning And Reproduction Of Human Speech Sounds, Karla Vilches Castaño

Master's Theses

Vocal learning is rare among animals but is well developed in parrots, which can imitate novel sounds and, in captive settings, reproduce human speech. This study helps address a larger evolutionary question about vocal learning. Specifically, whether vocal learning ability is best understood as a single generalized trait or as a multi-dimensional system in which different acoustic features can be learned and reproduced with varying degrees of fidelity. This thesis quantifies how closely companion parrots match their human tutors across three acoustic dimensions (spectrographic structure, intensity contour, and pitch contour) and tests whether mimicry accuracy varies among individuals, differs between …

Investigating The Taxonomic Uncertainties Of Potentilla Rupincola, Natalie Elizabeth Hieber

Master's Theses

Landscape stewardship is an integral role for land managers that becomes more important when rare or endangered species occur within managed areas. Conservation across the landscape is a primary concern for land managers, but resources allocated for conservation can be limited due to many competing goals. Taxonomic uncertainty surrounding rare and endangered taxa, particularly plant taxa, that have historically been classified solely using morphological features further complicates conservation planning. One such taxon is Potentilla rupincola, a rare plant endemic to the eastern Rocky Mountains in Colorado. For over a century, botanists have debated whether P. rupincola is a distinct species …

Volunteer Spotlighting: Costly Signaling To Promote Volunteerism, Clyde A. Raible V

Master's Theses

Prosocial behaviors, because they are initially costly and do not guarantee a direct benefit to the actor, can nonetheless increase social status by signaling a willingness to incur cost on behalf of another. Given this signal value, nonprofit organizations may be able to leverage this knowledge to increase donations, such as through the provisioning of attention to, and recognition of, volunteers through social media. I predicted that the costliness of spotlighted behavior and the target signal clarity (i.e., individual vs. group spotlight) would interact with participants’ dispositional dominance and prestige-based status motives to influence volunteerism interest. To explore these associations, …

Assessment Of Mississippi Landfill Capacity In Relation To Waste Generation And Land-Use Constraints, Jason C. Anderson

Master's Theses

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management presents a growing challenge in Mississippi as population trends, socioeconomic change and regional development continue to place pressure on existing landfill capacity. This thesis examines waste generation and disposal patterns from 2000 through 2022 across Mississippi counties, with projections extending to 2050. Historical landfill tonnage data was gathered and compiled from the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and analyzed using regression models in Excel and RStudio, with forecasts generated for both in-state and out-of-state waste flow. Results highlight significant variations among landfills, including differing closure timelines, changing county service areas and notable shifts in …

Quantifying Discard Mortality Of Undersized And Ovigerous Crabs In The Gulf Of Mexico Blue Crab Fishery, Micayla Cochran

Master's Theses

Blue crabs support a valuable commercial fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Most states require the release of undersized and ovigerous blue crabs, yet mortality of these discarded crabs is an understudied component of total mortality. The first objective of this project was to quantify discard mortality of non-target crabs using bycatch surveys across the Lake Pontchartrain–Mississippi Sound coastal system. Ovigerous crabs were most common at high salinities and temperatures, whereas undersized crab presence was inversely correlated with soak time, temperature, and the number of crabs per trap, and also varied among geographic locations. A reflex action mortality prediction assessment …

Explaining The Gap: The Mediating Effect Of Basic Psychological Need Satisfaction On Parenting Styles And Disordered Eating Behaviors, Oliva Dixon

Master's Theses

Eating disorders remain one of the fastest growing and most fatal forms of mental health disorders. It is estimated that around 9% of the US population meets diagnostic criteria for an eating disorder; however, a much larger percentage of the population engages in disordered eating behaviors, putting people at risk for negative consequences both physically and psychologically. While there are several theories about what precipitates disordered eating, parenting has been shown to be a key factor that can influence disordered eating behaviors. While some theories implicate authoritarian parenting, others consider psychological control or permissive parenting as potentially associated with the …

Discerning Patterns Of Floral Sugar-Feeding: Dynamics Of The Mosquito Culex Antillummagnorum In Puerto Rico, Ella J. Branham

Master's Theses

Mosquitoes rely on sugar feeding for survival, primarily from flowering plants, yet mosquito–plant interactions remain understudied. I examined plant-feeding associations of the mosquito Culex antillummagnorum in the Luquillo Experimental Forest of Puerto Rico, which may clarify patterns of habitat use, disease dynamics, and broader species interactions. First, plant DNA was extracted from field-collected Cx. antillummagnorum to identify potential nectar sources. DNA barcoding produced positive matches to the flowering plant genera Billia, Aesculus, Cladium, Fimbristylis, Xyris, Cakile, and Habenaria. Habenaria was the most compelling result because it belongs to the same subtribe of orchids …

Redeveloping Mississippi: A Case Study On Brownfields In Central & Southern Mississippi, Sahrah R. Yeroozedek

Master's Theses

Brownfields, or properties that are or possibly are contaminated with dangerous materials, represent a common obstacle for communities in Mississippi. The real or potential presence of contaminants at these sites often deters investors due to costly cleanup requirements (EPA, n.d. -b). The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), through its Brownfield Revitalization Program, implemented guidelines for covering the costs and labor associated with the remediation of these properties. The EPA is not, however, responsible for redevelopment that supports long-term environmental and economic sustainability. Although the EPA maintains inventories of all Brownfields, there is also no comprehensive database of Brownfields and their current …

Psychological And Inflammatory Ties To Diet In Breast Cancer Survivors, Sonal Kaur Johal

Master's Theses

Breast cancer is among the most prevalent forms of cancer and is a primary cause of death among women (Wang et al., 2020). Cancer patients experience higher levels of anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and inflammation compared to non-cancer patients, which can predict a diminished quality of life but also contribute to higher mortality rates among cancer patients (Bortolato et al., 2016; Song et al., 2022). Diet has the potential to impact the manifestation of depressive and anxiety symptoms in both healthy individuals and those battling cancer. This study explored the association between dietary habits, specifically cholesterol, fiber, saturated fat, added …

Comparative Development Of Mof‑Based And Mof‑Free Agnp Functionalized Zno Nanorod–Cotton Fabric Composites For Photocatalytic Applications, Md Al Mamun

Master's Theses

Photocatalysis offers a cost‑effective and environmentally friendly strategy for degrading organic pollutants and addressing energy and environmental challenges. This study initially explored MOF‑based cotton‑fabric‑supported ZnO nanorod composites but found that the MOF component primarily acted as an adsorbent rather than an effective photocatalyst. Consequently, MOF‑free composites were developed by directly growing ZnO nanorods on cotton fabric and functionalizing them with silver nanoparticles. Photocatalytic testing revealed that AgNP‑modified ZnO nanorods, particularly at 10 mM AgNP, exhibited superior dye degradation efficiency, thereby demonstrating a scalable and effective photocatalytic platform.

Morphological Variation Of Lingual Glands In Wild American Alligator (Alligator Mississippiensis) Populations, Benjamin Angalet

Master's Theses

American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) inhabit diverse aquatic ecosystems including freshwater wetlands, swamps, and estuarine rivers. As apex predators, their physiological resilience has implications for ecosystem stability and long-term conservation. With projected sea-level rise and increasing saltwater intrusion into coastal freshwater habitats, understanding the osmoregulatory capacity of alligators is increasingly important. Unlike marine-tolerant crocodilians such as the saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus), which possess specialized salt-secreting lingual glands in addition to renal and cloacal mechanisms, the morphology and physiological significance of lingual glands in wild American alligators remain poorly understood. This study examined lingual gland morphology and plasma …

Programmable Degradation Of Polyethylene Via Amide-Functionalization: A Dual-Path Strategy Combining Palladium-Catalyzed Copolymerization And Enhanced Microbial Breakdown, Safi-Dapetel Balkissou Wouna

Master's Theses

Polyethylene (PE) is one of the most widely used polymers due to its durability, low cost, and chemical stability; however, these same properties contribute to its persistence in the environment. It takes about 1000 years for PE to be degraded by microbes in nature. This study investigates a molecular design strategy to enhance the biodegradability of PE by introducing polar functional groups into its backbone through palladium-catalyzed copolymerization with a Vince lactam-derived comonomer. This strategy was inspired by our previous observation that PHEVD (poly[7-(2-hydroxyethyl)-2,4-divinyl-3-oxa-7-azabicyclo[3.3.0]octane-6,8-dione]), a newly synthesized petroleum derived polymer that is rich of amide group, can be near-completely degraded …

Humor And The Politics Of Belonging: Race, Gender, And Radicalization In Online Spaces, Reese Chatman

Master's Theses

This thesis argues that post-ironic and meta-ironic humor acts as an affective gateway to far-right radicalization within online masculine subcultures. Examining incel forums and Groyper spaces, it traces how humor operates as the architecture through which extremist ideology is introduced, normalized, and internalized. Drawing on a synthesis of meme studies, digital rhetoric, and theories of irony and affect, and using digital ethnography and critical discourse analysis, the study examines recurring meme figures, especially the Wojak and its NPC variant, as portable diagnostic devices that sort participants into the "awake" and the unconscious regardless of ideological content. Case studies include incel …

An Investigation Of Data Granularity In Rag Pipelines For Personalized Medicine, Paritosh Pandey

Master's Theses

Generative AI, exemplified by large language models like the OpenAI GPT and Meta LLaMA families, can produce diverse content in response to prompts. This capability offers a promising solution to challenges in precision medicine, which seeks to tailor treatments to individual clinical profiles but often struggles with data collection, cost, and privacy concerns. By generating realistic, privacy-preserving patient data, generative AI has the potential to transform patient-centric healthcare. With such motivation, this research develops a comprehensive Generative AI pipeline emphasizing data granularity for accurate prediction of personalized treatments. The pipeline features a central Large Language Model interacting with a Machine …

Simulation Of A Buried Hydrogen Pipeline In Kansas State Soil, Sidney Hines

Master's Theses

Underground pipelines can be used to transport large amounts of pressurized hydrogen gas over several hundred kilometers. The design will be sensitive to the pipe material, diameter, and trench construction, and traffic loads above the pipe. The purpose of this paper is to conduct various geotechnical engineering analyses (seepage, stress, and slope stability) using the software program GeoStudio (version 2025.2.0) on a buried steel or FRP pipe section in a specific soil type, Harney Soil. Harney soil is of particular interest, because it is the Kansas State Soil and the analysis is for a buried gas pipe to run through …

Design And Validation Of A Wearable Respiratory Protection System For Wildland Firefighters, Oliver Pilon

Master's Theses

Wildland and Wildland–Urban Interface firefighters are routinely exposed to hazardous smoke with fine particulate matter, carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, and other toxic combustion products. Existing protective gear has significant limitations and shortcomings for these conditions. Respirators with tight-fitting facepieces make it difficult to breathe and speak. On the other hand, self-contained breathing apparatuses are too heavy, have a limited duration of use, and do not work well with long wildland fire scenes, while smaller protective equipment like N-95’s and gaiters provide very little protection. These constraints contribute to low adoption rates and prolonged occupational exposure.

This thesis presents the …

The Application, Construction, And Validation Of Hidden Markov Model Profiles For Carbonic Anhydrase Enzymes, Samuel F. Kaplan

Master's Theses

Carbonic anhydrases (CAs) catalyze the reversible hydration of CO2 and have evolved independently at least eight times, resulting in structurally distinct enzyme families (α, β, γ, δ, ζ, η, θ, ι). Traditional sequence alignment methods struggle to classify these convergently evolved proteins because their sequential similarity does not reliably indicate functional or evolutionary relationships. Many CA sequences in public databases are annotated generically without family assignments, and prior computational approaches have focused predominantly on the three well characterized families (α, β, γ), leaving the five recently discovered classes without robust classification tools. Family level assignment is often a prerequisite for …

Mechanistic Framework Of Wood Decomposition In Post-Storm Vegetative Debris Piles Using Continuous Quality Theory, Thomas T. Lee

Master's Theses

Storm events generate significant quantities of vegetative debris composed of wood, branches, twigs, and other organic materials. Efficient post-storm resource recovery and carbon accounting depend on reliable predictions of decomposition within these large, heterogeneous debris piles. While small-scale wood decay is well studied, decomposition dynamics within multi-layer debris piles remain poorly characterized, limiting municipalities' ability to estimate material longevity and resource recovery potential.

To address this gap, this study develops the WOOD_DK (Wood Organic Oxidation and DegraDation Kinetics) model, a preliminary, exploratory one-dimensional multilayer decomposition framework simulating coupled temperature, moisture, oxygen, and carbon dynamics in MATLAB. Microbial decomposition follows Continuous …

Neurosymbolic Counterpoint Generation, Paul D. Jarski

Master's Theses

Recent advancements in generative artificial intelligence have revolutionized music generation, yet research has predominantly focused on raw audio synthesis over music in symbolic form, i.e. a score. This thesis presents the first neurosymbolic model designed to generate imitative Renaissance counterpoint in symbolic (MIDI) format. By leveraging an autoregressive Transformer architecture, this research explores the capacity of deep learning models to manage independent voices and strict stylistic constraints.

We compare multiple data representation strategies with distinct tokenization methods. The proposed model incorporates a symbolic component that enforces fundamental contrapuntal rules. Additionally, this thesis contributes a preprocessed dataset of Renaissance polyphony, in …

Time-Dependent Amplification Of Growth Rates In A Plankton-Oxygen Model, Rapha Coutin

Master's Theses

Near-bottom hypoxia occurs when dissolved oxygen levels drop to a level that is harmful to marine biology, creating biological dead zones along the ocean floor. Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the percentage of coastal, near-bottom, hypoxic water, with the average in 2021 nearly double that of the average from 2009 to 2018 and about twenty-eight times the average from 1950 to 1980. Recent literature has linked this increase in oceanic hypoxia to the increase in upwelling-favorable winds caused by climate change. Upwelling brings low-oxygen, nutrient-rich water up to the surface, leading to plankton blooms and mass consumption …