Digital Commons Network^™

Democratizing National Water Model Streamflow Forecasts Through Cross-Platform Mobile Application Development, Jerson J. Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

The National Water Model (NWM) provides operational streamflow forecasts for 2.7 million stream reaches across the continental United States, yet technical barriers prevent widespread public access to this hydrological infrastructure. This paper presents RIVR (River Information Visualization and Risk), a cross-platform mobile application that transforms National Water Model forecasts into an accessible interface for non-technical users. Built with Flutter, the application deploys to iOS and Android from a single codebase and integrates NOAA forecast APIs, CIROH return-period thresholds, and interactive vector-tile mapping. Performance evaluation across six metrics: application size, startup time, memory consumption, rendering frame rates, API response times, and …

Hybrid Bermudagrass Dormancy Management In A Cool-Season Climate, Clarissa H. Peterson

Theses and Dissertations

Hybrid bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon [L.] Pers. × C. transvaalensis Burtt Davy) (HBG) is a water efficient warm-season turfgrass increasingly adopted in cool-season and semi-arid regions due to climate change and the demand for reduced irrigation inputs. However, prolonged winter dormancy limits its visual quality (verdure) and seasonal performance. This thesis evaluated multiple management strategies to modify dormancy dynamics and improve off-season turf quality in a cool-season environment. Field experiments assessed the effects of growth covers, fertilizers, colorants, surfactants, organic acids, and overseeding with cool-season species on HBG dormancy over two seasons. Dormancy responses were quantified using normalized difference vegetation index …

Hypertext Transfer Protocol Fingerprinting: Techniques For Attacker-In-The-Middle Proxy Detection, Evasion, And Counter-Evasion, Jensen George Wood

Theses and Dissertations

Attacker-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing toolkits have emerged as a critical threat to enterprise and individual security by enabling adversaries to bypass multi-factor authentication (MFA) and compromise cloud-based accounts at scale. Traditional detection techniques--such as IP blocklists or content-based detection methods--are often ineffective against these increasingly sophisticated attacks. We propose a novel method that detects malicious proxies by identifying artifacts they introduce into HTTP request headers. To evaluate our approach, we systematically analyze traffic passed through several open-source AitM toolkits and proxies, identifying distinct modifications to header structures and content, then formalize these features as YARA rules for automated use. To validate …

Path Planning And Control For Vertical Takeoff And Landing Aircraft, Dean Benjamin Anderson

Theses and Dissertations

One of the challenging problems of unmanned aerial vehicles (uav) is controlling vertical takeoff and landing (vtol) aircraft. Vtol aircraft can take off and land without landing strips while retain the efficiency of fixed-wing airplanes for long range flight. Unfortunately, the transition from takeoff and forward flight, and from forward flight to landing, is an extremely difficult control problem. Most current controllers for transition switch between flight regimes based solely on airspeed. The trajectory for such switching transitions is a straight vertical ascension followed by a straight forward startup flight; it does not allow for the development of more complex …

Real-Time Data Collection System For Low-Cost Diesel Emissions Monitoring, Zachary Driskill

Theses and Dissertations

Diesel trucks are a major source of pollutants, including particulate matter (PM) and NO$_x$. Roadside emissions monitoring can identify high-emitting diesel vehicles, but conventional sensing systems rely on expensive, complex sensing instruments that limit widespread deployment. Low-cost sensors offer increased scalability due to their small size, low cost, and low power consumption, but they have lower accuracy and slower response time. This thesis presents the design and evaluation of a low-cost roadside emissions monitoring system, establishing the foundation for a scalable and widely deployable alternative. We apply machine learning calibration to roadside emission monitoring to improve the usability of low-cost …

Implementation And Evaluation Of Alternative Methods For Simulation Of Sidescan Sonar, Blake Paul Romrell

Theses and Dissertations

The original sonar implementation for the HoloOcean simulator was built upon a cached octree representation of the world. On first runs, building the cache was prohibitively slow, and the cache had a major memory footprint. This work presents alternative implementations for the sidescan sonar using direct raytracing on the CPU and rendering on the GPU. To evaluate and compare the implementations, timing tests on comparable parameters, as well as sweeps on resolution and range parameters, were performed. The render-based GPU implementation outperformed the others in the timing tests.

Leveraging River Forecast Center Knowledge To Improve Large-Scale Hydrologic Model Performance Through Bias Correction, Ian Mathews

Theses and Dissertations

The National Water Model (NWM) provides continental-scale streamflow predictions but exhibits bias and reduced skill in highly regulated and snow-driven basins. In contrast, River Forecast Center (RFC) models incorporate decades of local calibration and regulatory knowledge but are limited in spatial coverage to specific points of interest. This study evaluates whether hydrologic knowledge embedded in RFC-calibrated simulations can be transferred to improve NWM performance at unmonitored locations using the Streamflow Analysis for Bias Estimation and Reduction (SABER) framework. Using Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) simulations as surrogate reference data, we applied SABER to the NWM 44-year retrospective model simulation …

Advancing Cyclic Ion Mobility Mass Spectrometry For Structural Characterization, Isomer Discrimination And Gas-Phase Ion Chemistry, Sudam Shivaji Mane

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation focuses on the development and application of high-resolution ion mobility-mass spectrometry (IMS-MS) methodologies for gas-phase separation and structural characterization of small molecules, with particular emphasis on epimers, positional isomers, and protomers. In addition to structural separations, this work investigates fundamental aspects of gas-phase ion chemistry using IMS-MS in combination with collision-induced ion activation and dissociation techniques. Advanced separations were performed using cyclic traveling-wave ion mobility spectrometry (cyclic TWIMS), implemented in a commercial cyclic ion mobility-mass spectrometry (cIMS) platform, to systematically evaluate both the capabilities and limitations of high-resolution IMS in resolving subtle structural differences. Initial studies demonstrated that, …

Redox Reprogramming In Neurogenesis: Candidate Developmental Switches And Targets Of Oxidative Toxicity In The Redox Proteome, Ryan Jacob Summerhays

Theses and Dissertations

Neurogenic differentiation requires coordinated redox regulation, yet how reversible cysteine oxidation is remodeled at proteome scale during this process remains poorly defined. Here, we asked whether differentiation is associated with selective, site-specific changes in reversible cysteine oxidation and whether oxidative stress reveals developmentally conditioned vulnerabilities within this redox landscape. To address this, we applied a discovery-oriented, proteome-scale redox profiling strategy that quantifies condition-dependent changes in reversible cysteine oxidation using CysPAT labeling, phosphopeptide enrichment, and multiplexed TMT mass spectrometry. Neurogenic differentiation was characterized by reproducible, bidirectional, and highly site-specific remodeling of reversible cysteine oxidation at discrete regulatory nodes, as well as …

Practical, Scalable, And Cost-Effective Nanolc-Ms Workflow For Single-Cell Proteomics, Siqi Huang

Theses and Dissertations

Single-cell proteomics provides a novel research strategy for decoding cellular heterogeneity, revealing the molecular mechanisms of rare cell subpopulations, and studying the dynamic responses of cells to external stimuli. However, compared to transcriptomics, single-cell proteomics faces even more challenging technical challenges: extremely low protein amount in single cells, wide dynamic range, significant adsorptive losses during sample preparation, and the complex matrix and trace sample injection demanding extremely high stability and sensitivity from the separation and detection systems. Mass spectrometry-based bottom-up proteomics has become an important tool for analyzing complex biological systems, and nano-flow liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (nanoLC-MS) exhibits unique advantages …

Differentials As Models: Constructing A Differentials-Within-Limits Framework For First-Year Calculus And Examining Students' Understanding Of Limits, Differentials, And Derivatives Within It, Alexander A. Swindler

Theses and Dissertations

Work in first-year calculus has clearly shown the power that treating differentials (such as dx) as tiny quantities affords for first-year calculus learning, yet a traditional limits-based approach leaves no room for them. While some researchers have loosely described informal differentials and limits within the same paradigm, their actual conceptual definitions and relationships have not been explicitly constructed. Continued progress in this area could benefit from theoretical consideration of (a) providing clearer intuitive definitions for differentials inside a limits-based approach to calculus, and (b) defining more exactly the relationships between differentials and limits. In this study, I propose a theoretical …

"Deep In The Trenches": A Multi-Perspective Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis Of Student Mothers Navigating The Hidden Realities Of Postpartum Anxiety, Rhonda Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Despite availability of effective treatments women with postpartum anxiety (PPA) commonly go untreated because of barriers to care. Student mothers are a particularly vulnerable subgroup of women as they tend to be younger, are less likely to be married, and have lower incomes than non-student mothers. As anxiety rates in college women are higher than the general population and higher than college men, student mothers are at high risk of the adverse effects of untreated PPA. There is a paucity of existing literature about student mothers and mental health. The aim of the current study is to understand the help-seeking …

Transcriptomic Analysis Of Xeroderma Pigmentosum Group C Skin Samples, Austen N. Gleave

Theses and Dissertations

Xeroderma Pigmentosum is a rare genetic disorder caused by defective DNA damage repair enzymes. This condition results in an increased risk of developing skin cancer and other symptoms in those affected. In this thesis, we examined the effects of Xeroderma Pigmentosum on gene expression in patient skin biopsy samples. To accomplish this, we utilized statistical analysis of spatial transcriptomic and single-cell RNA sequencing techniques to discover differences between patient and heterozygous carrier skin samples. We found that the skin samples from Xeroderma Pigmentosum patients showed elevated levels of inflammation, immune activation, and cellular stress, while the carrier skin samples leaned …

The Impact Of Principal Preparation Program Components On Self-Efficacy Development In Aspiring School Leaders, Michelle Price

Theses and Dissertations

Leaders with high self-efficacy demonstrate greater persistence when facing adversity, implement organizational change more readily, and establish higher goals for themselves and their organizations. This qualitative study examines which components of principal preparation programs most strongly contribute to self-efficacy development among aspiring school leaders in Utah, specifically in instructional leadership and management for learning. Through semi-structured interviews with 19 recent graduates from three Utah universities, the research explores how program components influence candidates' confidence to lead schools effectively. Grounded in Bandura's self-efficacy theory, the findings reveal that while cohort-based models and faculty characteristics provide foundational support for overall efficacy development, …

No Principal Left Alone: Exploring Elementary Principals' Relationships With Their Full-Time Assistant Principals, Shauna Worthington

Theses and Dissertations

Elementary school principals are often the only administrator in their building; therefore they are left to face the adverse circumstances of their job without the support of an administrative colleague at their school. However, U.S. nationwide data suggests that school districts are more frequently hiring elementary assistant principals. This paper explores perceptions of elementary principals about the nature and dynamic of their relationships with their full-time assistant principals, including accompanying benefits and challenges. This qualitative inquiry utilizes an exploratory, descriptive, phenomenological approach and features the results of in-depth interviews with 20 elementary school principals in two large suburban public school …

Entwurzelt, Melanie Fischer

Theses and Dissertations

Entwurzelt (Uprooted) is an installation that explores the emotional landscape of displacement-trauma, grief, and the search for belonging in the aftermath of war and unrest. The vessels in this installation evoke the presence of a forest--each one a symbolic tree, rooted in memory and shaped by personal and collective histories. Being torn from the familiar means leaving behind everything except memories and carrying a void that may never be fully filled. Yet, in unfamiliar places, fragments of comfort can be found--echoes of what once was. For me, the forest is more than a memory--it is a bridge between past and …

Fallow Ground, Eli Kerns

Theses and Dissertations

Fallow Ground refers to the agricultural practice of intentionally leaving a field unseeded for a year or more in order to restore fertility and interrupt cycles of depletion. Although fallowing is a beneficial and necessary practice, the term has also come to signify waste or a lack of productivity. This double meaning is central to the work, reflecting a central contradiction: that withdrawal can be as vital as effort, and that rest, like labor, can function as a deliberate and sustaining act. The question I explore in this work is how to organize, understand, and live with these contradictions. Through …

Artificial Intelligence For Better Inclusive Higher Education: A Study Of A Private University In Cairo, Shereen Ismail

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how artificial intelligence (AI) tools relate to accessibility for visually impaired students in Egyptian higher education, focusing on University Y in Cairo. Grounded in the Social Model of Disability and Universal Design for Learning, it examines visually impaired students’ lived experiences of AI mediated access and the institutional conditions that shape these experiences. A qualitative phenomenological design was used, with semi-structured interviews conducted with visually impaired undergraduate students and key staff involved in assistive technology, teaching and learning, and student wellbeing; data were analyzed thematically. The findings indicate that participants experience AI tools (e.g., chatbots, transcription and …

Observational Diagnostics And Spectroscopic Detection Of Tropospheric Trace Gases And Oxidation Processes, Callum E. Flowerday

Theses and Dissertations

The troposphere is governed by photochemical and radical-mediated processes that control atmospheric oxidation capacity, secondary pollutant formation, and the chemical lifetime of gases. Quantitative understanding of these processes requires both robust observational frameworks capable of resolving complex precursor–product relationships and instrumentation with sufficient sensitivity and selectivity to detect reactive and low-concentration species. This dissertation advances atmospheric chemistry through the parallel development of quantitative observational methodologies and refined spectroscopic measurement techniques. The first component of this work evaluates atmospheric oxidation systems using long-term monitoring data and empirical diagnostics. Multi-year analyses of ozone and particulate matter trends were conducted to characterize variability …

Parental Perspectives On Preparedness Of Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities For Transition To Adulthood, Oretha Bennett-Spence

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Oretha Bennett-Spence PARENTAL PERSPECTIVES ON PREPAREDNESS OF YOUNG ADULTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES FOR TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD 2026 JoAnn Manning, Ed.D. Doctor of Education The transition from high school to adulthood presents significant challenges for young adults with intellectual disabilities and their families. Although schools are required to provide transition services, limited research has examined parents’ lived experiences navigating this process. This qualitative study explored how parents perceive their child’s preparedness for adulthood and postsecondary life. Guided by Schlossberg’s (1981) 4S Transition Framework and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), the study examined the experiences of six parents whose young adults were …

Does Concurrent Completion Of A Computer Task Interfere With Talking? Comparing Younger And Older Adults, Emma Simpson Hymas

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of a computer-based divided attention task on spoken language and compares the impact between younger (18–30 years) and older (55–82 years) adults. Sixty adults participated in a speaking task and two computer tasks which varied in difficulty. The Level 1 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” and the Level 2 computer task involved highlighting each instance of the word “the” while also underlining each instance of the word “a”. Each task was completed alone and then two computer tasks with different levels of difficulty were completed concurrently with a procedural discourse …

Objective Conditioning Via Latent-Factor Modeling, Kalman-Smoothing, And Hidden Markov Clustering: An Application To Empirical Asset Pricing, Melanie R. Neller

Theses and Dissertations

Empirical asset pricing relies heavily on conditioning sets--industry groupings, size buckets, valuation screens, and other researcher-defined partitions--to structure cross-sectional tests and portfolio construction. While intuitive, such partitions risk blending heterogeneous firms, masking latent exposures, and introducing omitted-variable bias. This thesis develops an objective, mathematically grounded conditioning pipeline that replaces subjective groupings with latent-factor extraction, Kalman-based data techniques, and probabilistic clustering via Gaussian hidden Markov models (HMMs). Using CRSP monthly returns, the framework stabilizes noisy return data, extracts systematic structure through principal component analysis (PCA), identifies homogeneous stock cohorts through HMM clustering, and models regime persistence using Markov transition matrices. These …

Electrochemical Sensors And Processes In Molten Salts: Chlorine Production, Electroanalytical Chemistry, And Thin-Layer Electrodes, Tyler Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Molten salt electrochemistry has historically played a substantial role in the metallurgical industry, and this trend is only accelerating in areas of green steel, direct ore processing, and rare-earth processing. In addition, the recent surge of interest in molten salt nuclear reactors has provided an additional application for molten salt electrochemical processes, including the reprocessing of used nuclear fuels and the development of electrochemical sensors for nuclear applications. In this work, the development of a chloride volatility separation process for used nuclear fuel is advanced; electroanalytical methods are improved for identifying and quantifying unknown analytes with and without the presence …

Generalizing Networks To Address Data Imbalance For Facial Action Unit Recognition, Andrew W. Sumsion

Theses and Dissertations

Facial action unit (AU) recognition is used in a variety of downstream applications, including sign language translation, dementia detection, pain detection, and other high-impact tasks that require understanding facial motion. Although AU recognition is a well-established field, a number of unresolved issues remain. An initial problem is the need to improve overall performance on the benchmark datasets, as measured by the average F1 score. Also, the performance across all individual AUs, not just the average F1 score, needs to be increased. Recently, the field has shifted its attention towards ensuring that AU recognition models generalize beyond the distributions represented in …

Tusqh: Topological Control Of Volume-Fraction Meshes Near Small Features And Dirty Geometry, Brian Reese Shawcroft

Theses and Dissertations

This work develops a framework to create meshes with user-specified homology from potentially dirty geometry by coupling background grids, persistent homology, and a generalization of volume fractions. For a mesh with fixed grid size, the topology of the output mesh changes predictably and monotonically as its volume-fraction threshold decreases. Topological anti-aliasing methods are introduced to resolve pinch points and disconnected regions that are artifacts of user choice of grid size and orientation, making the output meshes suitable for downstream processes including analysis. The methodology is demonstrated on geographical, mechanical, and graphics models in two-dimensions (2D) and three-dimensions (3D) using a …

Database-Driven Revelations In Epilepsy: Patient Reporting Accuracy And The Circadian Timing Of Seizures, Ithay Biton

Theses and Dissertations

For over thirty years, patients have been visiting the Arkansas Epilepsy Program for diagnosis and treatment for seizures and seizure-like episodes. As part of their clinical evaluation, patients often undergo ambulatory EEG (electroencephalogram) monitoring. This routine process produces valuable data for treating the patient. In this study, over 2000 ambulatory EEG reports from 1998 to 2016 were reviewed. A large database of seizures was created from the reports, with information on 407 patients, 1611 EEG-confirmed seizures, and 1726 patient-reported seizures (IRB Protocol #17-093). The database was used to address two important issues in epilepsy. The first topic of the study …

Bridging The Gap: Exploring The Educational Transitional Experiences Of Foreign-Born Ghanaian High School Students, Samuel Adusei Buabeng

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the gaps and limitations in language transition and the educational experiences of high school students born in Ghana who are English Language Learners. The research analyzed migration patterns within this group and how these experiences affect their integration into the American education system. It also examined whether culture and acculturation influence this transitional process. The study explored the language transition process, learning experiences, and cultural shifts within English-dominant educational systems, emphasizing participants' lived experiences and any challenges they faced during their transition. Although English is Ghana's official language, significant dialectal, exposure, and teaching-quality differences affect students' proficiency …

Using Facial Landmarks For Lip Motion Interpretation Applications, Kimi S. Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Facial motion, particularly lip movement, carries rich information about human speech that can be leveraged for a variety of computer vision and speech-processing tasks. Unlike other pixel-based methods, this work investigates the use of facial landmarks as a compact, privacy- preserving, and computationally efficient representation for lip-motion analysis. We evaluate landmark-based models across multiple tasks, including visual voice activity detection (VVAD), lip–audio synchroniza- tion, and visual speech recognition (VSR) for liveness detection. Using LRS3-VVAD1 and LRS22 datasets, we demonstrate that landmark-only models can achieve performance comparable to pixel-based systems for VVAD and synchronization, while significantly reducing parameter counts and inference …

Development Of Hypergraph Based Deep Neural Framework For Precise Cancer Subtyping And Meta Visualization, Pooja G Ms

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate Cancer Subtyping is a cornerstone of modern oncology essential for effective diagnosis and guiding personalized treatment. Histopathological Images (HIs) which capture the microscopic structure of tissues are widely used for cancer detection and subtyping. Even though deep learning has made significant advances, existing HI based subtyping methods often focus on specific cancer types, lacking a generic framework.

A unified framework that can classify multiple cancers with high specificity is desperately needed. In response to these limitations, this thesis proposes a robust multi-cancer, multi-class subtyping framework called DSHGNet (Depthwise Separable Hypergraph Convolutional Neural Network) which integrates Depthwise Separable Convolutional Neural …

Disproportionality Of Multilingual Learners In Special Education: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring The Relationship Between Teacher Self-Efficacy And Sheltered Instruction, Jessica Braynor

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract Jessica Braynor DISPROPORTIONALITY OF MULTILINGUAL LEARNERS IN SPECIAL EDUCATION: A MIXED METHODS STUDY EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHER SELF-EFFICACY AND SHELTERED INSTRUCTION 2025-2026 Hajime Mitani, Ph.D. Doctor of Education in Educational Leadership This study addressed the issue of disproportionality of multilingual learners (MLs) in Special Education. Using mixed-methods explanatory sequential design, the study examined the relationship between sheltered instruction implementation, domain-specific self-efficacy (pedagogical-content, linguistic, and sociocultural), and referrals of MLs to Intervention & Referral Services (I&RS) and Special Services. Quantitative data were collected from general education teachers using measures of Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol (SIOP) implementation and self-efficacy, along …