Digital Commons Network^™

Identifying And Minimizing Underspecification In Breast Cancer Subtyping, Jonathan Cheuk-Kiu Tang

Master's Theses

In the realm of biomedical technology, both accuracy and consistency are crucial to the development and deployment of these tools. While accuracy is easy to measure, consistency metrics are not so simple to measure, especially in the scope of biomedicine where prediction consistency can be difficult to achieve. Typically, biomedical datasets contain a significantly larger amount of features compared to the amount of samples, which goes against ordinary data mining practices. As a result, predictive models may fail to find valid pathways for prediction during training on such datasets. This concept is known as underspecification.

Underspecification has been more accepted …

A Design Of A Digital Lockout Tagout System With Machine Learning, Brandon H. Chen

Master's Theses

Lockout Tagout (LOTO) is a safety procedure instated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) when doing maintenance on dangerous machinery and hazardous power sources. In this procedure, authorized workers shut off the machinery and use physical locks and tags to prevent operation during maintenance. LOTO has been the industry standard for 32 years since it was instantiated, being used in many different industries such as industrial work, mining, and agriculture. However, LOTO is not without its issues. The LOTO procedure requires employees to be trained and is prone to human error. As well, there is a clash between …

Design Of A System To Investigate The Relationship Between Feedback And Delivery Medium For A Novel Motor Task, Ashley Humpal

Master's Theses

Stroke is a chronic, lifelong illness, and full recovery requires continuous physical and cognitive rehabilitation. Such long-term rehabilitation is cost-prohibitive; however an approach to providing long-term therapy that has recently gained traction is the use of socially assistive agent (SAA) systems. These systems make use of non-contact communication devices and can be used to guide people through a variety of rehabilitative tasks. They have the potential supplement current rehabilitation practices by providing motivation during intense exercises, and can extend the reach of the therapist into remote and home settings.

Though SAA systems have been used in a variety of rehabilitative …

Effects Of Atomic Oxygen On Outgassing Of Silicone Materials, Samuel Westrick

Master's Theses

An important consideration for spacecraft material selection is the space environment that the spacecraft will be operating in. Two features of the space environment that drive material selection are material outgassing and the presence of atomic oxygen in low Earth orbit (LEO). Materials that are considered for use in space are tested to be able to understand how they’ll outgas on orbit and how they’ll respond to interactions with atomic oxygen. However, testing to understand how atomic oxygen interaction with a material will affect how the material will outgas is rare and not standardized. This thesis used a vacuum chamber …

A Study On The Effects Of Cementless Total Knee Arthroscopy Implants' Surface Morphology With Finite Element Analysis, Peter Hunt

Master's Theses

Total knee arthroscopy is one of the most performed and most successful orthopedic surgeries, with nearly a million procedures performed in 2020 in the United States alone. Due to changing patient demographics, the use of cementless fixation for implant stability is becoming more prevalent amongst recipients. Cementless implants rely on the surface morphology of a porous coating to bond implant to bone; the quality of this bond is dependent on an interference fit and the roughness, or coefficient of friction, between implant and bone. Stress shielding is a comparison of the properties in implanted bone to natural bone; it is …

Biodegradation Of Methyl Tert-Butyl Ether And Tert-Butyl Alcohol Using Bioaugmentation With Biowish® Aqua, Elizabeth Villanueva

Master's Theses

Aqua, a commercial product manufactured by BiOWiSH® Technologies, was utilized in this research to study its effectiveness to biodegrade methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) and tert-butyl alcohol (TBA). Microcosms containing varying concentrations of MTBE and TBA as well as a growth media and mineral salt solution were examined. Analytical instrumentation used in this study included the use of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC/MS) to determine concentrations of MTBE and TBA and a spectrophotometer to extrapolate approximate active biomass concentrations in each experiment. Four different environmental conditions were tested for both MTBE and TBA. The environmental conditions tested for each contaminant included: …

The Rise Of Terrorism In Africa And What It Means For U.S. Policymakers, Bridget Mary Hughes

Master's Theses

This thesis utilizes three case studies to measure the rise of terrorism in Africa. This qualitative data leads the reader to one ultimate question: what does the rise in terrorism in Africa mean for the United States (U.S.) and U.S. policymakers, National Security academia, students in National Security, if anything at all? The answer is: if civilian and military compounds are being targeted by these violent extremists, as these three case studies demonstrate, it is my recommendation that U.S. policymakers cease sending troops to the African theater and, instead, allocate funding to the citizens and nonprofits of the countries whom …

Finding One's Artistic Voice Through Use Of Movement Exploration, Improvisation, And Reflective Writing, Maureen Glennon Clayton

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore how dance students will use movement exploration, improvisational experiences and reflective writing in the creation of personal movement choices and development of the artistic voice. The researcher developed three essential questions to guide this research: Q1 How does improvisation and movement exploration aid students in finding their own artistic voice?

Q2 What did the participants learn about the processes of improvisation and movement exploration through their reflective journal writing?

Q3 Do the participants feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the study?

The research instruments included pre- and post-surveys and …

Loading Rate Of Two Maximalist Shoes Compared To A Traditional Running Shoe, Elizabeth Ray

Master's Theses

The transition of running footwear to maximalist constructions has been largely spearheaded by runners’ desires for reduced risk of injury. Loading rates have been used as a measure of a shoe’s ability to attenuate vertical ground reaction forces. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of maximalist running shoes of two differing constructions upon loading rate compared to a traditional shoe condition. A secondary purpose of this study was to investigate any interaction between footwear condition and speed on loading rate. Eight runners (4 women, 4 men; mean age = 29 yr ± 6.5 ; mean body …

Mechanisms Behind The Luteoprotective Effects Of Fish Meal Supplementation In Bovine: Cytokine Sensitivity And Luteal Blood Flow, Anika Shelrud

Master's Theses

Early pregnancy loss continues to be problematic in the cattle industry. A large proportion of the pregnancy loss occurs during the maternal recognition of pregnancy (MRP) phase of gestation. During the MRP, a developing conceptus must secrete sufficient interferon tau to inhibit release of the uterine- derived and luteolytic mediator, prostaglandin F2 alpha (PGF2��). If successful, the progesterone- secreting corpus luteum (CL) will be maintained, which is necessary for establishment and maintenance of pregnancy. Pregnancy loss at the point of MRP may be due to a slow developing conceptus that does not effectively block PGF2��. Therefore, reducing the influence of …

Make Up! An Exploration Of Choreographic Methods: Transforming Sailor Moon Into Concert Dance, Nathaniel Drake Parrott

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the effectiveness of certain choreographic tools for the task of translating visual and literary material into concert dance, specifically through translating the source material Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. The research sought to determine which choreographic tools used in the study were more effective than others and more preferred than others in terms of participant responses. This was achieved through translating the animated series Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon into a series of virtuosic dance solos for public performance through the use of various choreographic tools, including abstract translation, literal translation, Forsythe …

Immunological Effects Of Berberine And Physical Activity In A Murine Breast Cancer Model, Janae Mudge

Master's Theses

Berberine (BBR) is a plant-derived alkaloid popularly used in a complementary context to treat splenomegaly and chronic disease states such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and cancer. Recent research has examined BBR as a regulator of lipid and glucose metabolism in association with the AMPK pathway; but little is known concerning its immunological impacts. It is also known that exercise is a potent AMPK activator exhibiting immunological benefits, but nothing is known about the combination of these complementary approaches for treating breast cancer. The purpose of this study is to determine if oral consumption of BBR when paired with physical activity …

Finding The Right Combination: An Exploratory Study Of Business Acumen, Community Engagement, And Success Criteria In Colorado Dance Studios, Ann Hunt

Master's Theses

The primary purpose of this study was to discover similarities and differences between Colorado dance studio owner’s definitions of success and data pertaining to community engagement and business strategies. This may help to inform current and future dance studio entrepreneurs of the variety of interpersonal skills needed to maintain a dance studio, how community engagement may be an instrumental part of studio culture, and how business strategies and goals realized an owner’s vision. The essential questions that focused this research study were: Q1 Why is it important for dance studio owners to define success for themselves? Q2 What can be …

Cdc’S Covid-19 Vaccination Messages And Public Engagement: A Study On Facebook Posts, Hasan Mahmud Faisal

Master's Theses

Government health agencies utilize social media for public health interventions. This study examines how CDC, the national public health agency of the United States, use Facebook to disseminate COVID-19 vaccine messages and to get public engagement towards them over the past two years (2020-2022). Investigating the process of dialogic potentials of Facebook from the dialogic theory of public relations perspective, the current study analyzes 681 posts and 3,405 comments from CDC’s official Facebook page. Thematic analysis of posts yields three dominant themes such as “Vaccine supportive”, “availability of vaccine”, and “up to date information”. Comment analysis shows positive sentiment to …

Stability Of Universal Screening Over Time: An Examination Of The Student Risk Screening Scale, Rebecca Wagner Lovelace

Master's Theses

Universal screening is a proactive method to identify students that are at risk for social-emotional and behavior (SEB) problems and provide information to schools to support early intervention for at risk children. Current recommendations for practice indicate screening should be conducted at three time points during the school year. Previous studies suggest that this recommendation is not empirically based and fewer screenings per year may be sufficient for identifying students at risk. The current study seeks to extend the literature regarding the stability and consistency of screening scores over time by analyzing ratings from the Student Risk Screening Scale (SRSS) …

Drinking Motives As Mediators For The Relationships Between Overparenting And Alcohol Outcomes, Tatum Freeman

Master's Theses

The present study investigated the mediating role of drinking motives in the relationship between overparenting and alcohol outcomes using a sample of 207 traditional age college students (i.e., 18-25 years old; M = 19.8, SD = 1.64). Data on participant demographics, drinking motives, the practices of participants’ primary caregiver, typical weekly drinking, hazardous drinking, and alcohol consequences were collected via SONA (an online participant management software that allows researchers to collect data from a university psychology subject pool). Participants were 89.4% female and 54.1% White. Coping and conformity drinking motives partially mediated the relationships between overparenting, alcohol consequences, and hazardous …

Crisis Communication In The Ukraine-Russia Conflict: Use Of Facebook By Un Humanitarian Organizations, Rubaiya Zannat

Master's Theses

The proliferation of social media has made it incredibly simple to quickly disseminate valuable information to a large audience. Thus, numerous organizations are now heavily leveraging these social networking platforms as a means for managing their crisis responses. Through a content analysis of 355 posts concerning the Ukraine-Russia conflict made by five large UN humanitarian organizations between February and May, 2022, on their official Facebook pages, this study investigated organizational crisis communication patterns. Findings suggest that UN humanitarian organizations extensively used "threat" and "need for change" as crisis characteristics to delineate the Ukraine-Russia situation, whereas “protection of safety and security,” …

Wildfire Spread Prediction Using Attention Mechanisms In U-Net, Kamen Haresh Shah, Kamen Haresh Shah

Master's Theses

An investigation into using attention mechanisms for better feature extraction in wildfire spread prediction models. This research examines the U-net architecture to achieve image segmentation, a process that partitions images by classifying pixels into one of two classes. The deep learning models explored in this research integrate modern deep learning architectures, and techniques used to optimize them. The models are trained on 12 distinct observational variables derived from the Google Earth Engine catalog. Evaluation is conducted with accuracy, Dice coefficient score, ROC-AUC, and F1-score. This research concludes that when augmenting U-net with attention mechanisms, the attention component improves feature suppression …

Ectotherm Thermoregulation At Fine Scales: Novel Methods Reveal A Link Between The Spatial Distribution Of Temperature And Habitat Quality, Ian Axsom

Master's Theses

Investigating ecological questions at the scale of individual organisms is necessary to understand and predict the biological consequences of environmental conditions. For small organisms this can be challenging because we need tools with the appropriate accuracy and resolution to record and quantify their ecological interactions. Unfortunately, many of our existing tools are only appropriate for medium to large organisms or those that are wide ranging, inhibiting our ability to investigate the ecology of small organisms at fine scales.

In Chapter 1, I tested a novel workflow for recording animal movements at very fine spatial and temporal scales. The workflow combined …

Switching “Leader” And “Follower” Roles: The Wedding First Dance As A Representation Of A Modern Relationship, Anna Magidson

Master's Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine whether introducing switch dancing as an alternative to the traditional “leader” and “follower” role dynamic in a wedding first dance could be an effective tool of empowerment for people of all gender identities and sexual orientations. It was particularly important to understand whether this could have a positive impact on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other (LGBTQIA+) community. To the researcher’s knowledge, no other academic research paper has ever examined the intersectionality between the wedding industry, the LGBTQIA+ community, and switch partner dancing. This study was developed …

Social Emotional Learning And Its Development Through Dance: Comparing The Opinions Of Dance Educators And Non-Dance Educators, Teresa Pachniak

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis was to identify connections between what is learned in a dance classroom within public schools and the five components of a Social Emotional Learning Curriculum: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. The research was designed to answer the following questions: Q1 Are the five components of SEL demonstrated regularly by dance students in compared to non-dance students? Q2 Can SEL be taught using a dance curriculum of movement exploration and dance scholarship? The researcher hoped to accomplish this goal by comparing the opinions of dance teachers and those of non-dance teachers, regarding …

Empathy, Inclusion, Equity, Integration, Oneness: Best Practices In Lower Elementary Dance Education, Charity Metzger

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to determine ways in which dance could assist kindergarten to second-grade student comprehension of Empathy, Inclusion, Equity, and Oneness. To answer the research questions, the researcher used an integrative approach to gain qualitative data and investigated the ways in which students internalize these concepts. Administrators, general education teachers, social-emotional educators, and special education instructors collaborated with the dance educator to observe lessons, give feedback, and complete surveys based on the guided questions of the research. Research tools also included surveys from students, guardians, educators, and school staff that work closely with the classes involved. …

Conservation Genomics: Utilizing Genetic And Transcriptomic Sequencing For Effective Conservation Management Of Astragalus Osterhoutii, Christine Mowad

Master's Theses

Astragalus osterhoutii M.E. Jones (Fabaceae) is a federally listed, rare, endemic species restricted to seleniferous soils in Grand County, CO (Anderson, 1989). This research utilized both RADseq and RNAseq to generate neutral and adaptive genomic datasets. Neutral data analysis aimed to determine i) the genetic diversity of A. osterhoutii and each of its populations level, ii) how genetic structure is partitioned across the species range, and iii) the closest relative to A. osterhoutii. Analysis of adaptive, RNAseq data aimed to identify i) differentially expressed genes, ii) if patterns of expression are similar to neutral data, and iii) differences in Se …

Dance Education In Pennsylvania Charter Schools: Advocating For Parity Among The Core Arts Disciplines, Donna Lynch

Master's Theses

The goal of this research was to collect data on existing dance programs and activities in Pennsylvania charter schools, and to advocate for the presence of dance in school arts offerings for academic credit, creating parity among the four core arts disciplines of visual arts, music, theater, and dance. The researcher developed three essential questions to guide this research:

Q1 What dance education programs currently exist in Pennsylvania charter schools, and what certifications are held by dance educators in these schools?

Q2 What obstacles, other than the teacher certification process, are preventing schools from hiring dance specialists and implementing dance …

Emerging Trends In The Dance Competition Industry: A Qualitative And Quantitative Analysis Of Key Stakeholder Experiences, Alyssa Hinz

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to assist dance competition participants in understanding the advantages and disadvantages of participating in dance competitions. The researcher evaluated the experiences and perceptions of the dance students, parents, and teachers that partake in dance competitions with the goal of uncovering the positive and negative effects dance competitions have on them. The research instruments used in this study included a multiple-choice survey, which was analyzed quantitatively, and a short answer survey, which was analyzed qualitatively. Limitations to this study included the survey questions, the number of participants, and the survey demographics. The survey was created …

Who’S Teaching Whom? A Dance Concert Exploring Teacher-Led, Student-Led, And Collaborative Choreographic Methods, Robin Suing

Master's Theses

The purpose of this study was to create a positive learning environment where students with a range of dance backgrounds can flourish. The goal was to discover the feeling responses of college students to teacher-led, student-led, and collaborative choreography to determine the importance of a balance between teacher-led and student-centered instruction. Information from this project will be used to inform curriculum planning in future dance courses. The following essential questions were used as a guide when assessing the qualitative and quantitative answers to the surveys and interview questions given to the participating students: Q1 What similarities and differences are found …

Are Competition Trained Dancers Ready For A College Dance Program?, Alison Durham

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to explore the opinions of competition trained dancers and college dance professors to see if dancers in college dance programs were prepared for all the aspects of dance that college offered. The research instrument used was an electronic survey that utilized qualitative and quantitative questions for gathering data. Participants in this study were located throughout the United States and included thirty college dance students and eight college dance professors. The data showed that some students believed they were prepared for a college dance program, while others felt they had holes in their training. The …

Use Of National/State Dance Standards And The Effect On High School Student Preparation Levels For College Admission Requirements, Rebbecca Meyers

Master's Theses

Meyers, Rebbecca. Use of National/State Dance Standards and the Effect on High School Student Preparation Levels for College Admission Requirements. Unpublished Master of Arts thesis, University of Northern Colorado, 2022.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the gap between high school dance student preparation levels and college dance entrance expectations and requirements within the state of California. To guide the research, it was important to consider the following essential questions: Q1 Are the use and effective implementation of the National Arts Standards in Dance, as well as the California Arts Dance Standards, in a given high school dance …

Metabolic Changes Associated With Gestational Diabetes And Weight Loss, Marykate Smith

Master's Theses

Introduction: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM) is diabetes diagnosed for the first time during pregnancy and negatively affects the mother and her child. Research suggests a multidisciplinary lifestyle intervention may aid in the reduction of GDM and its complications. Further, the use of metabolomics is needed to understand the alterations that happen prior to GDM diagnosis to reduce its recurrence.

Objective: Metabolomics analysis was conducted at baseline and 16-weeks post-intervention for women enrolled in a pre-pregnancy lifestyle intervention study to observe metabolic changes associated with GDM occurrence and weight loss.

Methodology: Sixteen samples from the parent Gestational Diabetes Prevention trial were …

Investigation Of Temperature, Solution Strength, And Applied Stress Effects On Cation Exchange Processes In Geosynthetic Clay Liners, Kurt Katzenberger

Master's Theses

A laboratory test program was conducted to investigate the effects of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress over increasing conditioning durations on cation exchange processes in sodium bentonite (Na-B) geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs). The test program was intended to determine if the variables of temperature, solution strength, and applied stress had beneficial or detrimental effects on the engineering behavior of Na-B GCLs in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills and laboratory testing applications. Needlepunched-reinforced, double non-woven Na-B GCL specimens were conditioned in fluids of increasing ionic strength (DI water, 2 mM CaCl2, 50 mM CaCl2, and 200 mM CaCl2 representing control, …