Digital Commons Network^™

Veratridine Suppresses Rictor-Mtorc2 Signaling Pathway In Colon Cancer Patient-Derived Xenograft Cells, Morgan Daniel Montgomery

Honors Thesis

Colorectal cancer (CRC) remains the second deadliest and fourth most common cancer in the world. The metastatic form of CRC is especially devastating due to a lack of effective and safer therapeutic options. Another challenge includes an increasing number of younger patients. Among critical signaling pathways overactivated in CRC, mTORC2 plays a key role in the progression of metastatic CRC, yet there is no selective mTORC2 inhibitor in the clinic. Interestingly, a natural plant alkaloid from the Veratrum genus, Veratridine (VTD), shows promise as VTD can upregulate UBXN2A, a colon-specific tumor suppressor protein. UBXN2A works with E3 ligases to ubiquitinate …

Sleep And Autism Spectrum Disorder, Jennie Carlin

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Sleep disturbances are highly prevalent among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and may negatively affect daytime behavior, emotional regulation, learning, and overall family well-being. This quantitative research proposal examines the relationship between sleep difficulties, behavioral functioning, and family experiences among children with ASD. The study will explore how behavioral and environmental sleep interventions may influence sleep quality and nighttime behaviors, how improved sleep may contribute to changes in daytime behavior, and how parents and caregivers perceive the feasibility and effectiveness of implementing sleep-focused interventions at home. A quantitative research design will be used to collect caregiver-reported data through the …

Why Western Michigan University Should Implement A Women's Varsity Ice Hockey Program, Lauren Young

Honors Theses

This study evaluates the feasibility and strategic value of implementing a varsity women’s ice hockey program at Western Michigan University (WMU). As women’s ice hockey continues to experience significant growth at the youth, high school, and collegiate levels, disparities in participation opportunities persist, particularly within institutions that sponsor men’s hockey but not women’s programs. This research argues that WMU is well-positioned to address this gap by establishing a women’s varsity ice hockey team that aligns with institutional goals, gender-equity standards, and national participation trends.

A qualitative case study approach was used to assess feasibility through three primary areas: institutional comparison, …

Success Or Setback: A Literature Review Of The Association Between Youth Athlete Sport Specialization And Injury Incidence From Adolescence To Adulthood., Kelis Adams

Honors College Theses

For a multitude of reasons, in the United States, present day society is a persistent witness and contributor to the adultification and professionalization of children alongside the activities they engage in. Single-sport specialization in youth sports is one of our most clear and poignant instances of the existence of this subcurrent. But, in recent years, following the uptick in single-sport specialization among youth athletes there has also been a marked increase in sports medicine professionals cautioning athletes and their families of premature commitment to a sole sport due to concerns of physical health risks. As sport typically involves forceful and …

Dynamic Control Of Active Optical Structures Using Fea-Derived State-Space Models, Damian Suarez

Theses

Active optical systems commonly use influence coefficient methods to map actuator commands to surface deformation, but these static models only describe steady-state behavior and do not capture transient or frequency-dependent structural dynamics. This work develops a finite element analysis (FEA)-derived state-space framework for active optical control by reducing an ANSYS deformable mirror model into modal coordinates and mapping structural deformation into optical Zernike space. The framework is used to compare three control strategies: static feedforward inversion, LQI feedback tracking, and a combined LQR–feedforward controller under steady-state and time-varying Zernike setpoints. The results show that feedforward control provides rapid static correction, …

Analysis Of Bacterial Virulence And Resistance In A Model Of Recurrent Uti, Rachel L. Proper

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Urinary tract infection (UTI) is a major women’s health issue, affecting approximately 40% of women during their lifetime. Formation of a biofilm by UTI-causing bacteria poses a major challenge in treatment, as the protection provided by the biofilm hinders both host defenses and antibiotic treatment. Failure to eradicate these infections causes them to become recurrent (rUTI). Previous research indicates that rUTI may be comorbid with a mutation in the SERPINE1 gene, which causes fibrin to accumulate within the body. Literature also indicates that fibrin provides a better scaffold for bacterial attachment and, subsequently, biofilm formation. In this work it was …

Public Sector Employment: An Examination Of The Perceptions Of Potential Employees And The Realities Of Public Sector Hiring Agencies, Davis B. Chambliss

Honors Theses

This study investigates the growing challenge of recruiting Gen Z employees into the public sector, focusing on the disconnect between younger workers’ career preferences and their perceptions of government employment. While prior research suggests that Gen Z values purpose-driven work, stability, and community impact, public sector organizations continue to face hiring shortages and an aging workforce. The research employs a mixed-methods approach, combining a literature review with original survey data collected from two groups: college students and public servants from three states. The student survey generated 119 responses, with 72 qualifying participants, while the public servant survey yielded 30 responses. …

Whose Fault Is It Anyways?: An Investigation Into Mississippi Divorce And Contested Custody Laws In Practice, Charles Conner

Honors Theses

When compared to almost any other state in the country, Mississippi is an outlier when it comes to divorce and child custody laws. Mississippi still retains a fault-based system to adjudicate contested divorces and still maintains best interest of the child as the default custody standard in court. These standards make Mississippi an exception nationally, requiring dedicated hearings to assign blame for the collapse of a marriage. This thesis aims to study how this unique system has impacted those going through it by surveying attorneys in the state who practice family law. This thesis will compare experiences both nationwide and …

Charity Pharmacies: An Integrative Overview Of Operations: A Continuing Education Program For Pharmacists, Stella Bertram

Honors Theses

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The goal of this activity is to educate pharmacists about Charity Pharmacies by creating an integrative overview of their purpose, laws and regulations, processes and procedures, eligibility, and opportunities for involvement. This course will ensure pharmacists are competent in the operations involved in volunteering or working within a charitable pharmacy.

Additionally, the information provided supports pharmacists in understanding their roles as well as roles of volunteers. They will understand the importance of their role in the community and the depth of their service within Charity Pharmacies.

Optimization Of A Point Absorber Wave Energy Converter (Wec), Rutwa Dilipkumar Nagar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

This study examines the performance and optimization of a point absorber wave energy converter with a partially submerged spherical float. A comprehensive open-source computational framework integrates frequency-domain hydrodynamic analysis with time-domain simulation using Capytaine, BEMIO, and WEC-Sim. Hydrodynamic coefficients such as added mass, radiation damping, and excitation forces are calculated and integrated into the governing equation of motion using the Cummins formulation. A parametric analysis varies the float diameter and geometric configurations across several cases. Hydrodynamic coefficients and response amplitude operators are assessed to analyze system behavior and resonance characteristics. Results indicate consistent trends in normalized added mass, with radiation …

An Autism-Centered Analysis Of The Aesthetics And Narrative Of Gene Wolfe’S Book Of The New Sun, Sebastian Peterson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Much of the recent work published within the literary neurodiversity studies field focuses on how certain writing techniques can be viewed as representing the experience of being autistic by influencing the reader so that they experience distinctly autistic patterns of cognition. Likewise, the Book of the New Sun series employs many such techniques within the narrative and prose. This is in addition to the fact that the plot contains elements that mirror the relationship and conflict between those with autism and neuronormative hegemony (that being the ways in which societies oppress, mistreat, and belittle those not deemed “neurotypical”). The goal …

Spatiotemporal Accident Prediction In Arid Climates: Integrating Weather And Infrastructure Data Using Geohashing, Aishah Almarzooqi

Theses

Adverse weather conditions, such as heavy rainfall and associated flooding, pose significant challenges to road safety and emergency response in Dubai, UAE. The existing road infrastructure, primarily designed for arid conditions, often struggles to cope with these infrequent yet severe events, leading to increased traffic accidents and hindered access to critical services. While current research in the UAE has explored traffic accidents, there is a notable gap in predictive modeling that integrates granular meteorological data with specific spatial characteristics to quantify accident risk with high spatiotemporal precision. To address this, this research investigates the comparative performance of ensemble machine learning …

Study Of Complex Biological Systems Through Ai-Empowered Metabolomic Analysis And Modeling, Runyu Zhao

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation establishes an integrated framework that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced metabolomics to overcome the "complexity bottleneck" in microbial engineering, specifically addressing the global crises of plastic waste and carbon emissions. By framing the research within the complex biosystems for effective bioproduction and bioremediation, this work develops novel strategies to engineer and analyze biological systems for a circular bioeconomy. In the "Build" phase (Chapter 2), the study addresses the instability of synthetic microbial consortia. By utilizing calcium-alginate hydrogel compartmentalization, the research successfully decouples the growth of the phototroph Synechococcus elongatus from its heterotrophic partners (P. putida and Y. …

Bearing The Burden: The Emotional And Psychological Impact Of Racial Stress On Black Women In Missouri, Ivy Smith

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines the emotional and psychological impact of racial stress on Black women in Missouri using a multi-method, longitudinal approach grounded in Racial Trauma Theory. Racial stress is conceptualized as a multidimensional construct that includes racial trauma, racial violence exposure through social media, and racial discrimination distress. This study addresses gaps in the literature by examining the prevalence of mental health outcomes, emotional responses to these experiences, and the role of racial stressors over time. Using three waves of data, this study assesses the proportion of participants meeting clinical cutoff scores for depression and anxiety using the Multiple Affect …

Building Human-Aware Ai: Learning From And Assisting Human Decision-Makers, Saumik Narayanan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As artificial intelligence systems become more capable, they are increasingly used not only as standalone problem-solvers, but as systems that learn from and interact with humans. In these settings, success depends not only on the strength of the model in isolation, but also on how well it fits the humans it is trained on or deployed alongside. This dissertation argues that human heterogeneity is a central ingredient in the design of effective human-aware machine learning systems. Rather than treating differences between people as noise to be averaged away, I show that variation in human expertise and preferences can provide useful …

Lateral Habenula And Dorsal Raphe Neurons Signal Value Computations In Multi-Attribute Decision-Making, Yang-Yang Feng

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Decision-making is a fundamental part of adaptive behavior and can be compromised in psychiatric illness. Humans and animals are continuously presented with objects and opportunities as options to decide between. One challenge is that these options may independently vary along multiple dimensions or attributes that we care about. This can include attributes of physical reward, such as amount, delay, or uncertainty. When these attributes are present, the possibility of an abstract, cognitive reward, advance information to resolve uncertainty, may also motivate our decisions. It is unclear how the brain makes these subjective decisions, trading off between these multiple attributes based …

Acquired Von Willebrand Syndrome From Pathological Cardiovascular Flow, Alice Liu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Acquired von Willebrand syndrome (AVWS) is a bleeding disorder characterized by the loss of high molecular weight von Willebrand factor (VWF) multimers. It is often associated with a wide range of underlying diseases, including individuals who receive mechanical circulatory support (MCS) and myeloproliferative neoplasm (MPN) patients, yet the mechanical mechanisms remain incompletely understood. In circulation, VWF undergoes force-dependent conformational changes that regulate its susceptibility to cleavage by the metalloprotease ADAMTS13. While elevated shear has long been believed to the main cause, pathological VWF cleavage cannot always be explained by shear alone, suggesting more factors are at play. The goal of …

Functional And Spatially Specialized Inhibition And Neuromodulation During Learning In The Hippocampus, Gerardo Enrique Molina

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The hippocampus relies on a diverse network of regulatory components for memory formation. Neuromodulators and inhibitory interneurons act in concert with excitatory neurons to control learning. Even within one of these components there is a vast diversity of genetic or chemical composition that may come from unique sources at uniquely timed intervals or events. The goal of this dissertation is to identify specific functional-behavioral attributes of two such examples: parvalbumin (PV)-expressing interneurons and the neuromodulator dopamine, in hippocampal CA1. In separate experiments, I used two-photon microscopy of the calcium sensor, GCaMP, which measures neuronal activity, and GRAB-DA, which reports levels …

Assessing Hyperlocal And Local Air Quality Through Passive Samplers And Low-Cost Monitors, Yan He

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Air pollution is a major environmental health concern and has been associated with respiratory disease, cardiovascular morbidity, metabolic disorders, premature mortality, and additional adverse health outcomes. Air pollution often exhibits substantial variability at fine spatial scales, yet conventional regulatory monitoring networks are too sparse to resolve neighborhood-level exposure gradients that may exist in many urban and rural communities. Hyperlocal differences in pollutant concentrations—driven by local emission sources, land use characteristics, atmospheric chemistry, and meteorological conditions—can lead to systematic differences in long-term exposure among populations living only short distances apart. Improving exposure characterization therefore requires dense monitoring strategies and spatial modeling …

Smart Kitchen: Towards Real-Time Ai Systems For Cognitive Support In Daily Activities, Ruiqi Wang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The rapid growth of the aging population and the rising prevalence of Subjective Cognitive Decline (SCD) highlight the need for continuous, unobtrusive assessment of functional cognition during everyday activities. Vision-based smart home systems offer a promising pathway for monitoring behavior and supporting independent living. However, enabling real-time cognitive assistance remains challenging. It requires not only accurately interpreting complex human behaviors to detect cognitive errors, but also supporting real-time deployment on resource-constrained edge devices and under dynamic wireless network conditions. This dissertation presents Smart Kitchen, an AI-driven system for real-time cognitive error detection through the monitoring of daily cooking activities. Under …

Individualized Models For Perception And Cognition, Dominic Marticorena

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation develops individualized models of perceptual and cognitive behavior, inferring latent capacities from limited data with sufficient efficiency, precision, and generality for person-level prediction. In perception, a nonparametric Bayesian framework for adaptive psychophysics is extended from audition to vision, producing an estimator that recovers dense individualized contrast sensitivity profiles through variational inference, a generalized kernel, and information-guided stimulus selection. A multitask extension enables simultaneous estimation of multiple psychometric fields by exploiting shared latent structure. Transferring this inferential logic to cognition, where relevant dimensions must be supplied by task design rather than physics, requires new measurement infrastructure. A Minecraft-based platform …

Revisiting Visualization Literacy: What Standardized Assessments Reveal And Conceal Across Instruments, Cultures, And Ai Systems, Saugat Pandey

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Data visualizations are now a primary medium for public communication, scientific reasoning, and decision-making. By transforming complex data into accessible graphical forms, visualizations are widely assumed to make information comprehensible to broad audiences. Yet the ability to accurately read, interpret, and critically evaluate a visualization, what researchers call visualization literacy, is neither uniform nor universal. It is a learned, multidimensional skill shaped by prior exposure, educational opportunity, and context. While the field has developed standardized instruments to measure visualization literacy, these tools were built under narrow assumptions: participants are typically paid, English-speaking, and recruited from Western online panels. When any …

Deep Learning Enhanced Multimodal Endoscopy For Colorectal Cancer: From Real-Time Software Architecture To Clinical Response Assessment, Haolin Nie

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most commonly diagnosed cancer and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States, with a concerning rise in incidence among younger adults. Clinical management is currently shifting toward organ-preserving ``watch-and-wait" strategies for rectal cancer and precision endoscopic resection for early-stage polyps. However, current diagnostic standards, including white-light colonoscopy (WLC) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), lack the resolution and functional specificity to accurately assess the invasion depth of precancerous polyps or to reliably distinguish post-treatment fibrosis from residual viable tumor. This dissertation advances colorectal cancer diagnostics through three integrated contributions: CPU-optimized photoacoustic …

Benefits Of Traffic Reprofiling For Delay Sensitive Networking, Jiaming Qiu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Deterministic networking systems, such as Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) and Deterministic Networking (DetNet), require strict end-to-end delay guarantees while efficiently utilizing limited network resources. Conventional approaches typically focus on fixed traffic profiles, which can lead to suboptimal resource utilization in scheduling or admission control problems. This dissertation investigates traffic reprofiling—the proactive reshaping of traffic arrival patterns—as a complementary mechanism for improving both resource efficiency and delay performance under strict service guarantees. The dissertation consists of three parts. The first part studies bandwidth minimization under hard delay constraints for Service Curve Earliest Deadline First (SCED) schedulers. We show that traffic reprofiling can …

Inference-Time Scaling For Robust And Adaptive Computational Imaging, Yuyang Hu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Computational imaging has transformed fields such as medical imaging, computational photography, and remote sensing by combining physical measurement models with advanced image reconstruction algorithms. Two major paradigms have driven significant progress: model-based deep learning (MBDL), which integrates learned priors with physics-based data consistency, and generative models, especially diffusion models, which capture complex image distributions and enable posterior sampling for uncertainty quantification. Despite their success, most existing methods still operate under static inference: they rely on fixed pretrained priors, predetermined sampling procedures, and a fixed forward model during reconstruction. This rigidity limits their robustness in the presence of distribution shift, complex …

Beyond The Game: A Four-Phase Financial Development Program For Student-Athletes, Joanna Cirrincione

Masters Projects

Student-athletes face unique challenges including, but not limited to, significant time demands, limited financial socialization, and emerging name, image, and likeness (NIL) opportunities that influence their financial knowledge and behaviors. Although financial education exists, it is often inconsistent and not tailored to the needs of the population which the education intends to serve. This project is grounded in Nancy Schlossberg’s (1984) transition theory and Nevitt Sanford’s (1962) theory of challenge and support, framing financial literacy development as a process requiring intentional challenge and support as student-athletes transition into life after collegiate athletics. A four-phased, structured development program is proposed to …

Designing Break-Glass Access The Preserves Accountability, Hattin Gram Berryman

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Second Person Pronouns In The King James Bible, Drew Barrett Chandler

Honors Capstone Projects and Theses

No abstract provided.

Perceptions Of Rural Large Animal Owners On Cost And Distance As Barriers To Veterinary Medicine, Alyssa Dalleske

Honors College Theses

Access to veterinary care remains a significant issue in rural communities due to financial, geographic, and access barriers. Limited access to veterinary care can have an impact on animal welfare and an economic impact for producers. This study aimed to assess factors influencing access to veterinary services, including cost, distance to clinics, perceived value of care, and availability of mobile veterinary professionals. The survey was distributed to rural large animal owners using social media, and gained 20 participants. It collected data on perceived barriers within their communities. The survey results indicated that cost of care and distance to veterinary clinics …

From The Ground To The Stars: How Research And Development In Aerospace Plays A Massive Role, Bryan Sohan

Honors College Theses

Aerospace technology is a long-standing field of innovation, yet it has experienced renewed momentum in recent years due to increased public and private investment. This study analyzes how changes in budget allocations to aerospace-related firms and government organizations influence the pace and scope of technological development within the aerospace sector. By examining historical trends in aerospace innovation alongside recent funding initiatives and policy decisions, this research evaluates the relationship between financial investment and technological advancement. This analysis focuses on Hypothesis 1 (H1): that higher aerospace R&D expenditure is positively correlated with innovation output. Using a two-period state-level panel (FY2021 and …