Digital Commons Network^™

Multidomain Modeling And Ramp-Aware Forecasting Of Floating Photovoltaic Systems For Water-Energy Nexus Applications, Md Atiqur Rahaman

Doctoral Dissertations

Floating photovoltaic (FPV) systems have become a transformative renewable energy technology because of their cooling effects on PV performance and ability to prevent water evaporation in land-constrained areas. Although FPV systems have the potential to become a commercially viable technology, their large-scale deployment remains constrained by uncertainties in thermal behavior, sustainability, and grid-operational variability. This dissertation identifies and characterizes these three key issues and presents an integrated, measurement-based evaluation of a 130 kW FPV installation located at the Passaúna reservoir in Brazil. In the first contribution, four temperature models, including physical and empirical models, were developed and comparatively evaluated to …

The Promise And The Punishment: A Critical Analysis Of Pbis At The Intersection Of State Discipline Policies In Louisiana, Ashley D. Willis-Brooks

Doctoral Dissertations

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) emerged as a preventative instructional alternative to exclusionary and punitive school discipline practices emphasizing tiered systems of support, data-based decision making, and proactive behavioral instruction. Despite its strong theoretical foundation and widespread adoption, PBIS implementation has produced uneven outcomes, particularly in policy contexts where state discipline statutes continue to authorize exclusionary practices. In Louisiana, PBIS is promoted through state guidance as an evidence-based framework; however, governing discipline policies simultaneously permit suspension, expulsion, and zero-tolerance provisions. This coexistence raises critical questions regarding alignment, coherence, and equity within the state’s discipline system. The purpose of this …

Learning And Predicting The Performance Of Gradual Type System, Mohammad Wahiduzzaman Khan

Doctoral Dissertations

Gradual typing reconciles the complementary strengths of static and dynamic typing by allowing programmers to incrementally introduce type annotations while preserving the flexibility of dynamically typed code. This approach improves reliability, documentation, and tooling support without sacrificing rapid prototyping. To ensure soundness, gradual type systems enforce annotations through runtime checks, typically implemented via cast insertion. Although these checks guarantee correctness, they can introduce substantial and highly variable runtime overhead, making performance prediction and optimization a central challenge for practical adoption. Prior work has largely focused on coarse-grained (macro-level) configurations, where entire modules are either fully typed or untyped. While such …

Learning From Extremes: A Copula-Based Feature Selection Framework For Machine Learning-Driven Risk Prediction, Agnideep Aich

Doctoral Dissertations

Reliable feature selection is crucial for building interpretable and practical risk models, particularly when decisions depend on identifying the highest-risk groups rather than relying on average trends. This dissertation presents and tests a supervised filter that ranks predictors by their upper-tail concordance with the outcome, using a Gumbel-implied upper-tail concordance score $\lambda_U$. The score is calculated from pseudo-observations and Kendall’s $\tau$ (via the Gumbel $\tau\mapsto\lambda_U$ mapping), does not require model fitting during selection, and focuses directly on joint extreme events, such as when both a predictor and the positive class are high. The method is compared to Mutual Information, mRMR, …

Fashioning The Self: Trauma, Disability, And Autofiction In Contemporary Quebecois Literature, John Ashburn

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation brings into dialogue trauma studies, disability studies, queer theory, and scholarship on autofiction and self-portraiture to examine representations of the self in contemporary Quebecois literature. Focusing on La fille d’elle-même (2021) by Gabrielle Boulianne-Tremblay, Tu aimeras ce que tu as tué (2017) by Kev Lambert, Grosse (2018) by Lynda Dion, Désormais, ma demeure (2020) by Nicholas Dawson, Chienne (2019) by Marie-Pier Lafontaine, and Ouvrir son cœur (2018) by Alexie Morin, this study argues that the literary self emerges as fundamentally unstable, shaped by trauma, embodiment, cognitive variation, and shifting configurations of gender and sexuality. Across this corpus, fragmentation …

Challenges In Tracking Methane Seepage Variability: The Δ13c Proxy Through Individual Benthic Foraminifera Analysis, Gracie Babineaux

Doctoral Dissertations

Methane seeps are dynamic biogeochemical systems that influence carbon cycling, seafloor ecology, and gas hydrate stability along continental margins. Yet reconstructing past methane seepage remains challenging because most sedimentary proxies integrate over long timescales and cannot resolve the short-lived or spatially restricted methane pulses that characterize many seep environments. This dissertation evaluates the reliability, sensitivity, and limitations of benthic foraminiferal δ¹³C as a proxy for methane-rich porewater conditions across two contrasting seep systems: long-term seepage at Woolsey Mound in the northern Gulf of Mexico and short-term, spatially variable seepage along the Chilean Margin. Using Individual Foraminifera Analysis (IFA), scanning electron …

Molecular And Histologic Studies Of The Amygdala And Reward Circuits In Rhesus Macaques (Macaca Mulatta) With Self-Injurious Behavior (Sib), Jackie Barua

Doctoral Dissertations

Self-injurious behavior (SIB), also known as non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), is characterized by deliberate infliction of harming one’s own body tissues without committing suicide, and persists in a group of captive rhesus macaques despite an enhanced enrichment program and pharmacological intervention with diazepam. The aim of this dissertation was to identify the neurobiological underpinnings of SIB by combining RNA-seq guided transcriptomic discovery and targeted candidate gene validation with unbiased histological and imaging analysis. The secondary aim was to employ a complementary mouse model to investigate the endogenous opioid system in response to diazepam. The amygdala transcriptome of primates with SIB (n …

Investigating The Distribution And Origin Of Pitted Mounds On Mars Using Machine Learning-Based Mapping And Integrated Geological Analysis: Application To Isidis Planitia, Precious Batubo

Doctoral Dissertations

Pitted mounds are widespread landforms across the northern plains of Mars, yet their origin remains uncertain. These features have been interpreted as possible expressions of subsurface fluid activity, including sedimentary volcanism, magmatic processes, or other fluid-assisted mechanisms. Determining their distribution, morphology, and geology is therefore important for understanding the evolution of subsurface hydrological processes and the planet’s potential for habitability. However, the large spatial extent of mound-bearing terrains makes comprehensive manual mapping impractical. This dissertation presents an automated approach to mound detection using Faster Region-Based Convolutional Neural Network (Faster R-CNN) from high-resolution Context Camera (CTX) images including morphometric and mineralogical …

Enhancing Hiv Prevention: Implementation And Evaluation Of A Standardized Hiv Risk Assessment Screening In A Primary Care Setting, William Duckworth

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: HIV remains a persistent public health concern, with 1.3 million people affected worldwide. Although advances in treatment have improved long-term management, early prevention still relies on identifying individuals at elevated risk. In many primary care settings, routine HIV risk assessment is inconsistent or absent, resulting in missed opportunities to screen, educate and initiate prevention strategies such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This gap underscores the need for structured, evidence-based tools to improve early risk identification and strengthen HIV prevention efforts. Purpose: Implement and evaluate an evidence-based standardized screening process for HIV risk assessment to achieve early identification and enhance appropriate …

Enhancing Hpv Vaccination Engagement And Uptake Among Young Adults Aged 17 To 26 Through A Multilevel, Multicomponent Intervention, Sarah Dianne Girlinghouse

Doctoral Dissertations

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) remains one of the most common vaccine-preventable infections, with vaccination rates among young adults aged 17 to 26 remaining below Healthy People 2030 targets. University health settings represent a critical opportunity to improve vaccine uptake. Prior to this quality improvement (QI) initiative, student health services (SHS) at a public university in the southern United States did not routinely offer HPV vaccination, resulting in missed opportunities for prevention. Evidence supports provider recommendation, clinical decision support, and improved access as key drivers of HPV vaccination uptake. Purpose: The purpose of this QI project was to increase HPV vaccination …

Development Of Artificial Intelligence Based Geophysical Technique For Unconventional Resource Exploration, S M Shamsul Hoque

Doctoral Dissertations

Unconventional shale resources have become an important source of oil and gas in the United States, but their characterization remains challenging because of strong heterogeneity and complex elastic and geomechanical behavior. Important properties, such as total organic carbon (TOC) and brittleness, play a key role in evaluating source quality, reservoir behavior, development potential, and subsurface storage suitability. This dissertation develops artificial intelligence-based geophysical techniques to improve unconventional resource exploration and characterization by integrating seismic attributes, well-log data, deep learning, multicomponent seismic registration, and joint PP-PS inversion. A TOC estimation technique is developed and applied to both the Tuscaloosa Marine Shale …

Optimizing Well-Being In Post-Stroke Aphasia: Improving Access And Participation In Mental Health Care, Ashley H. Kidd

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation is focused on improving the well-being of people with aphasia. The overall aim of this research agenda is to move the healthcare system forward in its understanding of managing people with aphasia’s well-being after diagnosis. This focus is addressed through a compilation of three separate academic articles that are published or submitted to journals for the peer review process in speech-language pathology. All three works are focused on aphasia, a language disorder resulting from acquired brain injury, and the well-being of the person with aphasia. The first article focuses on managing the communication breakdowns that occur during group …

Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Of Assistive Technology Implementation For Students With Learning Disabilities, Delphine N. Amorow Aalbilly

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Exploration Of Maryland African American Veterans’ Experiences Utilizing Information On Federal Benefits And Services, Shontrea Bazemore

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Law Enforcement Officers' Perception Of Human Trafficking And The Efficacy Of The Training They Receive, Christian Jones

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Elementary Teachers Using Coteaching In Bermuda, Laveta Daphne Ebbin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

6tisch Based Sensing Network For Smart Agriculture, Riley Heike, Griffin Jones, Justin Odo, Jalen Paige, Rosalie Wessels

Computer Science and Engineering Senior Theses

This project investigates 6TiSCH (IPv6 over Time-Slotted Channel Hopping), a relatively recent IETF networking standard introduced in 2013 that combines deterministic TSCH scheduling, 6LoWPAN header compression, and RPL mesh routing to enable low-power, reliable, multi-hop wireless communication for IoT deployments. Despite its strong theoretical properties, 6TiSCH remains underexplored in practice, and real-world questions around configuration, scalability, power behavior, and end-to-end integration are not well documented. Our primary goal was to build and operate a working 6TiSCH network, characterize its performance through iterative testing, and understand what it takes to go from raw packet delivery to a complete data pipeline.

To …

Are Greenfield Cross-Border Investments Sensitive To Us Trade Policy? An Investigation Of Responses To Liberation Day Tariff Announcements, Philip Caspar Ernst

Economics Undergraduate Senior Theses

This paper studies whether foreign greenfield investment into the United States responded to the Trump administration’s April 2025 Liberation Day tariff announcements. Using project-level fDi Markets data from January 2023 through November 2025, I examine changes in announced project counts, expected jobs created, and capital investment. The analysis compares aggregate investment activity before and after Liberation Day, tests whether responses differed for countries assigned additional tariffs above the 10% baseline level, investigates the effects of tariff intensity on investment announcements, and examines whether effects were concentrated in particular business activity fields. The clearest finding is that project announcements declined after …

The Impact Of Student Choice On Reading Engagement And Comprehension In First Grade, Gia Stella Nardi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to (a) examine the effect of student choice on first-grade students’ reading engagement and (b) determine how student choice impacted their reading comprehension during instruction. Throughout the study, students utilized a choice board following each read-aloud to express their understanding of what they perceived as important in the text. Findings indicated that students demonstrated high levels of engagement during the 12 read-alouds, which were intentionally selected based on their interests, as well as during the choice-based activities that followed. Additionally, students showed growth in their ability to apply key comprehension skills, including summarizing, identifying …

Seeing Through Similar Eyes: How Social Identity Shapes Reinterpretation Of Ambiguous Stimuli, Eli Bailit

Cognitive Science Senior Theses

Identical sensory input can lead to a variety of subjective experiences and interpretations. In the face of such ambiguity, we often turn to our social context. Does the identity of the person providing an alternative interpretation to an ambiguous stimulus impact someone’s likelihood to adopt it? This study examined whether perceived interpersonal similarity modulates reinterpretation of ambiguous visual stimuli. Thirty Dartmouth undergraduates completed a modified “MadLibs” paradigm in which they generated initial interpretations of ambiguous photographs, indicated their confidence in their interpretations, then decided how much to update those interpretations upon viewing an alternative sourced from an individual of varying …

Category Learning Under Verbal Interference, Yawen Xue

Cognitive Science Senior Theses

What happens to cognition when you disrupt language? What does language actually do as a representational medium for cognition? Much literature shows a facilitative role of language on categorical thinking. This work specifically examines the role of language in category learning using a verbal interference paradigm. I ran two experiments where participants learned to distinguish between two novel categories of bugs while under conditions of verbal or visuospatial interference. In Experiment 1, category membership was determined by an XOR rule; in Experiment 2, category membership was determined by an AND rule.

In Experiment 1, participants on average did not succeed …

Identifying Preferred Toothpaste And Improving Toothbrushing Participation In Autistic Individuals, Taylor Bakalar

Doctoral Dissertations - College of Arts and Sciences

Research that assessed the prevalence of oral health disorders among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) found that behavior and environmental variables played a role in deteriorated dental hygiene in some patients with ASD. Behavior analytic interventions have been used to increase participation with dental exams and daily toothbrushing skills (Duhanyan et al., 2019). The current study seeks to extend Duhanyan et al. (2019) through the implementation of a modified single-stimulus preference assessment to identify a preferred toothpaste by evaluating increased percentage of participation with experimenter-implemented toothbrushing. For all participants, the SSPA identified at least one toothpaste flavor that increased …

Knowledge To Freedom: Implications Of Race, Gender, Socioeconomic Status, And Spiritual Health On Adolescent Well-Being Under Westernization, Doralis Maria Allen

Masters Theses

The aim of the current study was to extend the understanding of the well-being of adolescents and to further information on the psychological relationships between wellbeing, spiritual health, intersectionality, and Westernization. A total of 315 students from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette were recruited via SONA to participate in a study entailing of a five-part online survey through Qualtrics, and 301 respondents in total were measured. The survey measured five aspects of each participant’s health through the perspective of their adolescent selves; well-being, spiritual health, subjective socioeconomic status, and their perception of their race/ethnicity and gender. Well-being is a …

Analyzing Speeding-Related Crash Severity On Louisiana’S Highways, Nelly Akweley Ankrah

Masters Theses

Speeding is a major contributing factor to roadway crashes and remains a significant safety concern. Understanding the factors influencing speeding crash severity and how they vary across roadway environments is essential for developing effective safety countermeasures. A total of 22,151 speeding-related crashes recorded in Louisiana between 2015 and 2024 were analyzed. Crashes were categorized by FHWA functional classification into three roadway groups: Interstates and Principal Arterials, Minor Arterials and Collectors, and Local Roads. Four spatial machine learning models, GXGBoost, SDT, GRF, and GeoKNN, were evaluated to classify crash severity outcomes, as traditional models do not account for the spatial dependence …

Alexandre Etienne Declouet: A Study And Re-Examination Of Chauvinistic Heritage In Antebellum Louisiana 1812-1890, Connor Matthew Benoit

Masters Theses

This thesis analyzes the change in French Creole culture through the perspective of sugar planter and enslaver Alexandre Etienne DeClouet. The aim of this study is to assess the relationship between all facets of DeClouet’s livelihood including, relationships with other wealthy French Creoles, his family, the Louisiana sugar industry, Political alliances, other cultural demographics in Louisiana, and his enslaved labor on his large St. Martin parish property. Within this study, several archival databases were used to attempt to create a clearer picture of the sugar planter with the help of newer primary source evidence. Using the Alexander DeClouet and Family …

Automating Distillation Column Internals Design Via Reinforcement Learning: A Hybrid Action Space Approach, Holden B. Broussard

Masters Theses

Distillation columns are the most used separation technique in all chemical fields. The design of column internals presents a hybrid action space problem, where trayed internal parameters are continuous and packed parameters are discrete; Hybrid meaning the action space consists of both discrete and continuous design parameters. Hybrid action spaces have presented a challenge in the reinforcement learning space, since the most robust algorithms are designed to handle specific action types. This research develops and validates a hierarchical multi-agent reinforcement learning framework that divides the action spaces into different agents. The Controller agent selects between internal types, the Soft Actor- …

A Simulation-Based Lean Six Sigma Framework For Process Optimization In Textile Manufacturing Toward Industry 4.0, Md Shafiqul Islam Chowdhury

Masters Theses

This study focuses on integrating simulation modeling with Lean Six Sigma (LSS) within the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) framework for process optimization in textile manufacturing industry. Although traditional LSS framework such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Root Cause Analysis are effective in identifying waste, they mainly rely on static and historical data which make their capability limited for real analysis or predictive decision making. As a result, many textile manufacturing processes still face challenges such as production delays, excessive work-in-process (WIP), high cycle time, and inefficient resource utilization. To address this issue, this research proposes a simulation-based …

Severity Of Deficit In Skeletal Muscle Lipid Metabolism Invokes Unique Adaptive Responses In Dietary Lipid Intake And Absorption, Victoria Datta

Masters Theses

Skeletal muscle plays a central role in whole-body lipid metabolism through mitochondrial and peroxisomal fatty acid oxidation (FAO). When skeletal muscle lipid metabolism is impaired, whole-body adaptations occur to maintain metabolic homeostasis. We hypothesized that limiting skeletal muscle lipid metabolism through mitochondria and/or peroxisomes would trigger adaptive responses to reduce dietary lipid intake and/or absorption with the most robust changes coinciding with deficit severity. Mice were generated with skeletal muscle-specific deletion of 1) carnitine palmitoyltransferase 1b (Cpt1bM-/-) to limit mitochondrial FAO, 2) peroxin 5 (Pex5M-/-) to impair peroxisomal FAO, and 3) both Cpt1b and Pex5 (DKO). Results were compared to …

Investigating Patterns Of (Mal)Adaptation In Two Dominant Cajun Prairie Grasses: Schizachyrium Scoparium And Panicum Virgatum, Braden Isaiah Doucet

Masters Theses

Local adaptation is assumed to be prevalent within natural populations, but anthropogenic climate change and habitat destruction have been demonstrated to cause maladaptation. This thesis examines patterns of adaptation within two dominant grass species of our local Cajun Prairie ecosystem, Panicum virgatum and Schizachyrium scoparium. Using a provenance common garden study, our results reveal how climate change and habitat destruction have altered the patterns of adaptation within local populations. Chapter 1 examines how source climate and geographic distance predicts population fitness. Chapter 2 examines the type, magnitude, and direction of selection acting on key ecological traits of both species, as …

Hyperdimensional Computing For Edge And Mobile Devices, Colin Eddy Dupuis

Masters Theses

This thesis presents a set of four Hyperdimensional Computing (HDC) frameworks and their Android application implementations to evaluate efficiency and feasibility on resource-constrained devices. These proposed methods target a range of application domains, including wearable health monitoring, mobile malware detection, and activity recognition utilizing both computer vision and multiple sensor streams as input. The proposed frameworks utilize HDC’s simple, lightweight arithmetic operations to convert raw data into high-dimensional representations for use in both binary and multi-class classification schemes. Each method utilizes unique encoding techniques tailored for each use case, demonstrating the flexible nature and specialization HDC offers as an emerging …