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A Mixed-Methods Study Of Entomology Incorporation In U.S. Secondary Science Instruction, Erin M. Ingram

Department of Entomology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To encourage understanding and appreciation of insects, entomology education advocates have supported and encouraged K-12 teachers to integrate insects and insect-related content into formal science instruction. However, research examining how and why science teachers incorporate entomology into secondary science courses is limited.

A sequential explanatory mixed-methods research study was conducted to address this gap. The study was conducted in two phases. During the first phase, quantitative survey research was conducted with a representative sample of 254 U.S. secondary life science teachers. During the subsequent qualitative phase, follow-up interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 18 survey participants and an …

Modeling Waterfowl Hunter And Ducks Unlimited Member Behavior Using Mark–Recapture Methods, Katherine Graham

School of Natural Resources: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The number of individuals actively participating in waterfowl hunting has substantially declined since the 1980s, despite relatively abundant waterfowl populations and hunting opportunities. To avoid further losses in political support for wildlife management, losses in habitat conservation revenue, and broaden the base of waterfowl and wetland conservation support, there has been an increased focus on growing the number of waterfowl hunters and waterfowl and wetland conservation supporters. The purpose of this study was to estimate resident waterfowl hunter and Ducks Unlimited (DU) member recruitment rates, retention probabilities, and license/membership purchase probabilities; provide a better understanding of the factors influencing these …

Examining The Effects Of Greenland Ice Sheet Melting And Atlantic Meridional Shutdown On The Climate Of Scandinavia And The British Isles, Tyler Lemburg

Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Earth’s climate has been rapidly changing over the last hundred years, and its global average temperature is rising. However, climate change is far more complicated than a simple increase in temperature. For example, it is theorized that certain regions of Earth, including Scandinavia and the British Isles, could actually become cooler through ongoing climate change processes. Two of these processes are Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) melting, and slowdown of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC). This research examines if climate change, through GrIS melting and AMOC slowdown, could contribute to cooler, instead of warmer, temperatures in Scandinavia and the British …

Mammal Species Inventory Using Various Trapping Methods In Zone 4 Of Billy Barquedier National Park, Belize During Rainy Season, Mersady Redding

Animal Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Belize is a small country, but it is extremely ecologically diverse. Based on the few studies conducted in Belize, the abundance of mammals is low but diversity is high. Particular findings note the number and identity of species differed between four sites in the Maya Mountains of Belize, indicating that a data set from a single site is not representative of the Neotropical region. Insufficient data is available to estimate current species richness of many areas in Belize, including Billy Barquedier National Park (BBNP). The objective of this study was to explore trapping and documentation methods of terrestrial mammals in …

Dynamic Flood Modeling Essential To Assess The Coastal Impacts Of Climate Change, Patrick L. Barnard, Li H. Erikson, Amy C. Foxgrover, Juliette A.Finzi Hart, Patrick Limber, Andrea C. O’Neill, Maarten Van Ormondt, Sean Vitousek, Nathan Wood, Maya K. Hayden, Jeanne M. Jones

Marine Science

Coastal inundation due to sea level rise (SLR) is projected to displace hundreds of millions of people worldwide over the next century, creating significant economic, humanitarian, and national-security challenges. However, the majority of previous efforts to characterize potential coastal impacts of climate change have focused primarily on long-term SLR with a static tide level, and have not comprehensively accounted for dynamic physical drivers such as tidal non-linearity, storms, short-term climate variability, erosion response and consequent flooding responses. Here we present a dynamic modeling approach that estimates climate-driven changes in flood-hazard exposure by integrating the effects of SLR, tides, waves, storms, …

Vocational And Life Skills Quarterly Report: Grant Cycle 3, Quarter 6 October-December 2019, Uno Nebraska Center For Justice Research, Katelynn Towne

Reports

This report presents quarterly data and evaluation updates for the Vocational and Life Skills Program (VLS) through Quarter Six of Grant Cycle Three. VLS was created by the Nebraska Legislative Bill 907 in 2014 to reduce recidivism and increase meaningful employment for Nebraskans convicted of a crime. The report contains 1) descriptions of the eight funded programs across the state, 2) a snapshot of program participation across the programs, 3) demographics of the participants served by the VLS initiative, and 4) participation breakdowns and descriptions of the skills participants are gaining through VLS programming. VLS continues to update service providers …

Coy Arjate Adrusted Response Adaptive Randomization Designs With Targeted Learning, Hai Zhu

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Since Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued the very first draft guidance in 2010, adaptive designs have been considered to be one of the most promising approaches to make drug development more efficient and less costly. Two approaches, covariate-adjusted response-adaptive (CARA) randomization and adaptive seamless phase II/III design (ASD) have garnered growing attention recently. However, most of the CARA designs are based on parametric models and suffered from model misspecification. The research of incorporating CARA into ASD is also limited and whether type I error rate can be controlled has not been answered. In this dissertation, a new family of …

Studying The Properties Of Seamless Phase Ii/Phase Iii Clinical Trials Under Covariate Adaptive Randomization, Garrett Miller

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Covariate adaptive randomization is an allocation procedure used in clinical trials that seeks to balance treatment groups. While this method has been shown to reduce bias due to imbalanced treatment groups, the effects of covariate adaptive randomization have not been studied under seamless Phase II/Phase III clinical trials that incorporate short-term endpoint information and treatment selection. Therefore, this analysis sought to determine whether these adaptive randomization methods can be applied to seamless Phase II/Phase III trials while preserving Type I error. In addition, this analysis sought to create R-packages that employ seamless Phase II/Phase III techniques to provide analysis tools …

Clinical And Demographic Factors Associated With Peg-Asparaginase-Related Toxicities In Patients With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Priyadarshani Dharia

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Introduction: Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-asparaginase is one of the first-line drugs in pediatric ALL treatment. Although a complete and prolonged treatment with PEGasparaginase has been instrumental in improving the survival of ALL patients, it is associated with four common toxicities: hypersensitivity, hyperbilirubinemia, pancreatitis, and venous thromboembolism (VTE). PEG-asparaginase-related toxicities may require modifications and delays in treatment, which often leads to poor treatment outcomes. Previous studies of PEG-asparaginase-related toxicities have mainly focused on individual toxicities. Further, these studies were conducted in study populations which were predominantly self-reported non-Hispanic whites. Therefore, there is a gap in the knowledge regarding the cumulative burden of …

Quantifying The Financial & Clinical Impact Of Annual Vs. Biennial Mammography Screening, Danmeng Huang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Current guidelines for screening mammography recommend different start ages and intervals for women with average cancer risk. Longer intervals between mammograms allow more time for a tumor to grow, to become symptomatic and clinically detectable, and more likely to be at advanced stage. Existing literature on the associations between mammography screening frequency and risk of more advanced breast cancer have mixed results. Studies have showed that advanced breast cancer costs more to treat, but real-world cost estimates following different mammography screening frequencies are unavailable. To fill the gaps, this dissertation aimed to quantify the clinical and financial impact following annual …

Moving Beyond The Single Gene: Integrative Gene Set Analysis For Rna-Seq, Andrew Richard Aschenbrenner

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

RNA-seq is the next-generation sequencing technology for gene expression and while many tools have been developed to assess differential expression, most focus on gene-level statistics. Gene-level statistics implicitly ignore any dependence among genes. In order to directly incorporate correlation into testing for differential expression, genes are sorted into networks using Ingenuity Pathway Analysis (IPA) and the gene expression of each network is modeled using Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Since the gene network data often exhibits correlation structures containing positive and negative values, a new intermediate correlation structure is developed. This structure provides a compromise between an exchangeable (one parameter for …

Quantifying The Financial & Clinical Impact Of Annual Vs. Biennial Mammography Screening, Danmeng Huang

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Current guidelines for screening mammography recommend different start ages and intervals for women with average cancer risk. Longer intervals between mammograms allow more time for a tumor to grow, to become symptomatic and clinically detectable, and more likely to be at advanced stage. Existing literature on the associations between mammography screening frequency and risk of more advanced breast cancer have mixed results. Studies have showed that advanced breast cancer costs more to treat, but real-world cost estimates following different mammography screening frequencies are unavailable. To fill the gaps, this dissertation aimed to quantify the clinical and financial impact following annual …

Nonlinear Functional Models On Causal Inference, Rong Jiao

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Statistical analysis has experienced significant progress on association study, but it remains elusive to understand the etiology and mechanism of complex phenotypes. As a major analytical platform, association analysis may hamper the theoretic development of biomedical science and its application. Thus, many researchers suggest making the transition from association to causation. The mainstream of research in genetics and epigenetics data analysis focuses on statistical association or exploring statistical dependence between variables. Despite significant progress in dissecting the genetic architecture of complex diseases by genome-wide association studies (GWAS), the signals identified by association analysis can only explain a small proportion of …

2019 Winter Undergraduate And Graduate Commencement, Belleville Campus, Lindenwood University

Commencement Programs

Lindenwood University, Belleville commencement program.

2019 Winter Undergraduate Commencement, Lindenwood University

Commencement Programs

Lindenwood University Commencement program.

Modeling Of Characteristics On Artificial Intelligence Iq Test: A Fuzzy Cognitive Map-Based Dynamic Scenario Analysis, Fangyao Liu, Yayu Peng, Zhengxin Chen, Yong Shi

Information Systems and Quantitative Analysis Faculty Publications

This research article uses a Fuzzy Cognitive Map (FCM) approach to improve an earlier proposed IQ test characteristics of Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. The defuzzification process makes use of fuzzy logic and the triangular membership function along with linguistic term analyses. Each edge of the proposed FCM is assigned to a positive or negative influence type associated with a quantitative weight. All the weights are based on the defuzzified value in the defuzzification results. This research also leverages a dynamic scenario analysis to investigate the interrelationships between driver concepts and other concepts. Worst and best-case scenarios have been conducted on …

Results From A 14-Year Intervention Program Designed To Impact Pursuit Of A Phd In Research Among Underrepresented Students In Stem Disciplines, Gretchen Schneider Burton, Eugene Kennedy, Maria Da Graça H. Vicente

Faculty Publications

Minority research and training (MRT) programs have been used across U.S. colleges and universities as a method to close the educational achievement gap and generate a highly skilled and diverse workforce. Previous studies have improved our understanding of the need to diversify the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines and the various interventions that have been developed to support these efforts. However, there is still little evidence about what strategies are most effective in promoting interest, continuation, and matriculation into STEM graduate programs among underrepresented groups. The study herein utilized a case study design with a mixed methods approach …

Liutex Analysis By Pod And Dmd For Vortex Formations In Boundary Layer Transition, Sita Charkrit

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Vortices are considered as the building blocks of turbulent flows. To study how one type of vortex becomes another type especially in flow transition is one way to get better understanding about turbulence. In this dissertation, two types of vortex formations, i.e., the hairpin vortex formation and the formation of vortex structure from symmetry to asymmetry, are studied by the direct numerical simulation. According to Liu et al. (2019), Liutex has been proposed as a new physical quantity with scalar, vector and tensor forms. A Liutex vector is defined as a rotation part of fluid motion without shear contamination. The …

Mathematical Modeling Of A Network Of Neurons Regarding Glucose Transport Deficiency Induced Epileptic Seizures, Ariel N. Leslie

Mathematics Dissertations - Archive

Epilepsy is a complex phenomena of a system of neurons simultaneously firing that are highly intensive and synchronized. Seizures are a common and well known physical feature for all types of epileptic disorders [8]. Epilepsy is known to be traced back to spatial and temporal patterns working in sequence. The rhythms, patterns, and oscillatory dynamics explain the mechanistic nature of neurons especially in absence seizures [37]. An electroencephalogram device (EEG) monitors the electrical activity within the brain using small electrodes, which measures voltage fluctuations on the scalp. Previous models such as Wilson-Cowan (1972) [34], introduced a model showing the dynamics …

Introduction To Production: Philosophies, Flow, And Analysis, Charles R. Standridge

Open Textbooks

Production is a fundamental societal and economic activity. Production has to do with the transformation of raw materials into useful objects and includes the knowledge to complete the transformation effectively. Thus, production is a board topic ranging from philosophies about how to approach production such as lean and quick response manufacturing, how to organize production facilities, how to analyze production operations, how to control the flow of materials during production, the devices used to move materials within a facility, and strategies for coordinating multiple production facilities.

An integrated introduction to production is presented in a set of learning modules. In …

Reasoning From Point Clouds, Joey Wilson

Computer Engineering

Over the past two years, 3D object detection has been a major area of focus across industry and academia. This is primarily due to the difficulty of learning data from point clouds. While camera images are fixed size and can therefore be easily trained on using convolution, point clouds are unstructured series of points in three dimensions. Therefore, there is no fixed number of features, or a structure to run convolution on. Instead, researchers have developed many ways of attempting to learn from this data, however there is no clear consensus on what is the best method, as each has …

Regrouping In The Clearing: Resisting Liturgiam Authenticam And Reconsidering An African American Rite, Kenneth L. Crowe Hamilton

Journal of the Black Catholic Theological Symposium

In light of the move to the right manifested in the recent changes to the Roman Rite, this essay seeks to add an Africentric and postcolonial critique to other recent liturgical and linguistic critiques of the new rite by liturgy scholars and pastors. I argue that the new translation is an attack on not only Vatican II principles but also on black Catholic theological principles, the black Catholic community, and oppressed populations in general. The essay seeks to locate the racism, sexism, heterosexism, and classism behind the imperialist nostalgia of Liturgiam Authenticam by revisiting the 1960s and the issues and …

The Generation Of Operational Policy For Cyber-Physical Systems In Smart Homes, Jared Wayne Hall

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The term “Cyber-Physical Systems” (CPS) refers to those systems which seamlessly integrate sensing, computation, control, and networking into physical objects and infrastructure [1]. In these systems, computers and networks of physical entities interact with each other to bring new capabilities to traditional physical systems. Since its introduction, the field of Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) has evolved with new and interesting advancements concerning its capability, adaptability, scalability, and usability [1]. One such advancement is the unification of the Internet of Things (IoT), a concept that enables real-world everyday objects to connect to the internet and interact with each other, with CPS [1]. …

Step-Pool Channel Morphology, Forcing Effects, And Geomorphic Classification In The Ozark Highlands, Se Missouri, Triston Ralland Rice

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Understanding headwater streams and their morphology is inherently difficult in contrast to larger streams in downstream valleys. Geomorphic forcing can occur over short distances (<10 >m) and influence channel geometry due to geologic factors such as colluvial inputs and resistant bedrock or biologic factors such as fluvial wood inputs and tree growth in the channel. How and where these geomorphic variables effect step-pool channel characteristics is poorly understood in the Ozark Highlands. Step-pool channel form is typically controlled by gradient, substrate characteristics, and sediment supply. This study reports on a geomorphic assessment of step-pool characteristics and classifies channel form using …

Study Of Amorphous Boron Carbide And Hydrogenated Boron Carbide Materials Using Molecular Dynamics And Hybrid Reverse Monte Carlo, Rajan Khadka

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

We present a computational study of amorphous boron carbide (a-B_xC) models using Molecular Dynamics (MD) studied with Stillinger-Weber (SW) and ReaxFF potential. The atomic structure factor (S(Q)), radial distribution function (RDF) and bond lengths comparison with other experimental and ab initio models shows that a random arrangement of icosahedra (B₁₂, B₁₁C) interconnected by chains (CCC, CBC) are present in a-B_xC. Afterward, Hybrid Reverse Monte Carlo (HRMC) technique is used to recreate a-B_xC structures. The existing SW potential parameters of Boron are optimized for the α-rhombohedral (Icosahedral B_{12 …}

Seasonal Time Series Models With Application To Weather And Lake Level Data, Mengqing Qin

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This work studies seasonal time series models with application to lake level and weather data. The thesis includes related time series concepts, integrated autoregressive moving average models (abbreviated as ARIMA), parameter estimation, model diagnostics, and forecasting. The studied time series models are applied to the data of daily lake level in Beaver Lake (1988-2017) and the data of daily maximum temperature in New York Central Park (1870-2017). Due to seasonality of the data, three different approaches are proposed to the modeling: regression method, functional ARIMA method and multiplicative seasonal ARIMA method. The forecasted values of the year 2018 are compared …

Monongahela River, Wv Channel Catfish Population Assessment, Kristen Lee Chestnut-Faull

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Channel Catfish Ictalurus punctatus populations have been evaluated using many sampling gears in rivers. However, a consensus has not been reached on which gear or gears produce the most reliable population demographics. Specifically, this study compares population demographics of Channel Catfish throughout the Monongahela River, WV using multiple gear types. Fish were sampled seasonally during 2018 using baited hoop nets, low- frequency electrofishing, and trotlines. Firstly, too few fish were collected using electrofishing and were excluded from all analyses. In terms of relative abundance, fish sampled with hoop nets had higher catch rates (mean SCPUE = 5.8, SE = 0.4) …

Student Discourse And Problem Solving In A High School Mathematics Classroom, Natalie J. Chism

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the problem-solving process and discourse in three high school Algebra 2 classes and analyze how discourse might be used to facilitate the problem-solving process. High school Algebra 2 students in this study were asked to engage in discourse with their peers in order to reach conclusions in open-ended problem-solving tasks. The teacher acted as the facilitator and encouraged students to act as the mathematical authorities. On two different days, students were given two different real-life problem-solving tasks and asked to reach possible conclusions to those tasks. Three research questions guided the study: …

Synthesis And Characterization Of Ion-Implanted Gold Nanoparticles, Nurlathifah Fnu

Masters Theses

Gold negative ions of 70 keV energy were implanted within the quartz substrates at room temperature at seven different fluences starting from 2 x 10¹⁶ particles/cm² to 8 x 10¹⁶ particles/cm² with the increment of 1 x 10¹⁶. Prior to the implantation, Stopping and Range of Ions in Matter (SRIM) calculations were carried to obtain the Bragg peak below the surface of quartz. Rutherford Backscattering Spectrometry (RBS) was carried out using 2.0 MeV He⁺⁺ ions to measure depth and implanted fluence of gold, and learn how they varied with fluence. Backscattered He particles …

Ultrafast Relaxation Dynamics In Graphene Oxide-Dye And Perovskites Nanocomposites, Abubkr A. Arzaq Abuhagr

Dissertations

Novel materials such as graphene oxide (GO), reduced graphene oxide (RGO), and Perovskites nanocomposites nanosheets have shown interesting electrical and optical properties. These materials have shown prominence in research regarding optical sensing applications. The interaction of different fluorescent molecules like dye molecules with GO, and RGO have been studied recently to develop novel optical sensors, photo-catalysts, and light-harvesting agents. In this study, we have monitored the excited state interactions of dyes covalently attached to GO and RGO nanosheets. Three amine derivatives of anthracene, pyrene, and coumarin were covalently bound to different systems via amide bonds and diazotization. Characterization of different …