Digital Commons Network^™

Image Classification Using Transfer Learning And Convolution Neural Networks, Mohan Burugupalli

Computer Science

In the recent years, deep learning has shown to have a formidable impact on image classification and has bolstered the advances in machine learning research. The scope of image recognition is going to bring big changes in the Information Technology domain. This paper aims to classify medical images by leveraging the advantages of Transfer Learning over Conventional methods. Three types of approaches are used namely, pre-trained CNN as a Feature Extractor, Feature Extractor with Image Augmentation, and Fine-tuning with Image Augmentation. The best pre-trained network architectures such as VGG16, VGG19, ResNet50, Inception, Xception and DenseNet are used for classification with …

Evaluation And Evolution Of Naonto- A Profile Ontology Of Native American Diabetes Patients, Vikram Pandey

Computer Science

Diabetes is one of the deadliest diseases worldwide. Its prevalence is highest amongst the American Indian (AI) community. The existing ontology-based self-management tools for native Americans lack comprehensiveness and are not well evaluated. Hence in this paper, we focus on creating and evaluating a profile ontology for the American Indian diabetic patients which can lead to the creation of personalized self-management tools so the community can better manage this disease. Our approach is composed of creating a profile ontology for the American Indian community by acquiring their cultural, geographical, food intake and related information, and evaluating the correctness of the …

The Role Of The County Emergency Manager In Disaster Mitigation, Amanda Savitt

Emergency Management

Scholarship on disasters in the United States would suggest that emergency managers should play a role in hazard mitigation. Yet, little empirical research has investigated precisely what role or roles emergency managers actually do play during this phase. This study explored the role of county-level emergency managers in hazard mitigation and the factors that might influence those roles. Data for this study was collected through 42 in-depth, telephone interviews with county- level emergency managers in FEMA Regions III, V, and X, which includes the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Grounded theory was utilized in order …

The Role Of The County Emergency Manager In Disaster Mitigation, Amanda Miller Savitt

Emergency Management

Scholarship on disasters in the United States would suggest that emergency managers should play a role in hazard mitigation. Yet, little empirical research has investigated precisely what role or roles emergency managers actually do play during this phase. This study explored the role of county-level emergency managers in hazard mitigation and the factors that might influence those roles. Data for this study was collected through 42 in-depth, telephone interviews with county- level emergency managers in FEMA Regions III, V, and X, which includes the Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest regions of the United States. Grounded theory was utilized in order …

Examining The Relationship Between Elementary School Teachers' Multicultural Attitudes And Self-Efficacy For Teaching English Language Learners, Daisy Mae Figueroa

Education

An increase in English Language Learners (ELLs) in public schools across the nation is forcing stakeholders to reexamine how teachers are being prepared to effectively teach culturally and linguistically diverse students. It is unclear to what extent inservice teachers feel prepared to work with ELLs and what factors impact their feelings of preparedness. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching ELLs, general teaching self-efficacy, and multicultural attitudes. The study also explored whether teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching ELLs could be explained by variables that include years of teaching experience, highest degree earned, perception …

Lived Experiences: Exploring The Impact Of Trauma On Educator Experiences And Classroom Practices, Danelle Ann Klaman

Education

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore teachers’ experiences working with children impacted by adverse childhood experiences. As a dissertation in practice, this qualitative study was intended to examine the lived experiences of educators in regard to how trauma presents itself in the classroom setting and to explore their perceptions on the greater impact of trauma towards curricular outcomes, the classroom environment, and implications with regard to their role as educators. Data were collected from 12 interviews with six female middle school educators, employed within a school district that serves a medium sized community and the surrounding rural …

Investigation Of Novel Approaches For Improved Amphiphilic Fouling-Release Coatings, Alireza Rahimi

Coatings and Polymeric Materials

Marine biofouling has troubled mankind, both environmentally and economically, since they set sail, resulting in many undesired consequences such as increased drag, reduced maneuverability, increased fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, and heightened maintenance costs. This problem is highly complex as it involves more than 4000 marine organisms with varying modes of adhesion and surface preferences as well as many aquatic environments. The common state-of-the-art approaches to contend with marine biofouling on the submerged surfaces of ships in seawater has antifouling (AF) and fouling-release (FR) surfaces. As AF coating systems utilize biocides which are often toxic to the environment to …

Vascular Plants Of The Klamath-Siskiyou Region Of California And Oregon: A Numerical Conspectus, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.

Utilization Of Interdigitated Microelectrodes And Dielectrophoresis For Biosensing, Bio Molecule Manipulation And Biomanufacturing Therapeutic Cells, Vidura Dhananjaya Jayasooriya

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Microelectrode arrays (MEA) and microfluidic systems are two of the most used technologies in Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) applications. These integrated and miniaturized systems are said to offer significant advantages in medical applications due to their high sensitivity, high throughput, lower material consumption, low cost, and enhanced Spatio-temporal control. Further, the physical laws at the micro-scale offer certain advantages in terms of the control of physical, biological and chemical properties in diagnostics or therapeutics at the cellular or molecular level. Moreover, these platforms are portable and can be easily designed for point-of-care diagnostics. Unfortunately, among various microelectrode and microfluidic technologies available today, …

A Negative Dielectrophoresis Based Method Of Detecting Pancreatic Cancer Antigen Ca 242 In Serum, Sharmin Afrose

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Patients with pancreatic cancer in metastasis rarely survive, thus the need for diagnostic tools for early stage detection. Current techniques such as ELISA and SPR are complex and expensive and cannot detect cancer in its early stages. Cancer Antigen 242 (CA 242) is a potential protein biomarker of pancreatic cancer with high sensitivity and specificity. This thesis presents a negative Dielectrophoresis (DEP) based method of detecting pancreatic cancer protein biomarker CA 242 in serum. A spectrum of concentration levels was generated with a cut off level 20 U/mL using a transduction mechanism with negative DEP spectroscopy, light scattering, and image …

Predictors Of Employee Engagement In Institutions Of Higher Education, Jessica Marie O'Day

Education

This study investigated predictors of employee engagement at a large public research university. Generally speaking, the typical employee is disengaged at work (Adkins, 2015), and previous research has identified burnout as a contributor to employee disengagement (Maslach et al., 2001). Full-time staff employees volunteered to participate in a four-part survey regarding their levels of employee engagement, burnout, anxiety, and physical activity. Burnout was found to be the most significant predictor of employee engagement or disengagement, however, the results of all four surveys used in the study further exposed the complicated nature of successful employee engagement strategy.

Meta-Analysis Comparing Watchmantm And Amplatzer Devices For Stroke Prevention In Atrial Fibrillation, Indranill Basu Ray, Dibbendhu Khanra, Sumit Shah, Sudhanva Char, Xiaoming Jia, Wilson Lam, Nilesh Mathuria, Mehdi Razavi, Bhavna Jain, Dhanunjaya Lakkireddy, Saibal Kar, Andrea Natale, Adedayo Adeboye, John Lynn Jefferies, Sripal Bangalore, Samuel Asirvatham, Mohammad Saeed

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: For patients with atrial fibrillation who are at high risk for bleeding or who cannot tolerate oral anticoagulation, left atrial appendage (LAA) closure represents an alternative therapy for reducing risk for thromboembolic events.

Objectives: To compare the efficacy and safety of the Amplatzer and Watchman^TM LAA closure devices.

Methods: A meta-analysis was performed of studies comparing the safety and efficacy outcomes of the two devices. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale was used to appraise study quality.

Results: Six studies encompassing 614 patients were included in the meta-analysis. Overall event rates were low for both devices. No significant differences between the …

Development Of Performance Optimized Rotation Tolerant Viola-Jones Based Blackbird Detection, A Throughput Optimized Asynchronous Mac Implementation, And Automated Wheat Lodging Estimation, Nauman Jalil

Electrical and Computer Engineering

The research described in this doctoral dissertation focuses on three main topics:1) performance optimization of the Viola-Jones Algorithm (VJA) for red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) detection, 2) further increasing performance of an already optimized asynchronous Multiply and Accumulate (MAC) unit, and 3) development of a framework to differentiate between lodging and non-lodging areas of a field from visible and multispectral aerial drone images. The first topic explores VJA rotational robustness, since VJA object detection is inherently not invariant to in-plane object rotation. An efficient method to detect rotated blackbirds is developed, which provides a balance between detection accuracy and computational cost. …

Using Classification And Clustering To Predict And Understand Student Behavior In An Innovation-Based Learning Course, Lauren Nichole Singelmann

Electrical and Computer Engineering

One of the Grand Challenges for Engineering is advancing personalized learning, but challenges remain to identify and understand potential student pathways. This is especially difficult in complex, open-ended learning environments such as innovation-based learning courses. Student data from an iteration of an innovation-based learning course were analyzed using two educational data mining techniques: classification and clustering. Classification was used to predict student success in the course by creating a model that was both interpretable and robust (accuracy over 0.8 and ROC AUC of over 0.95). Clustering grouped student behavior into four main categories: Innovators, Learners, Surveyors, and Surface Level. Furthermore, …

Strategies To Inhibit The Formation Of 3-Monochloropropane Diol During Deep-Fat Frying, Qionghuan Ye

Food Safety

3-monochloropropane-1,2-diol or 3-chloropropane-1,2-diol (3-MCPD) and glycidol are the most commonly occurring group of thermal process contaminants which are considered as “possible human carcinogen” and “probably carcinogenic to humans”, respectively. Potato strips prepared from three different potatoes cultivars (Russet Burbank, Ranger Russet, and Umatilla Russet) grown in North Dakota from the crop year 2018 were fried with vegetable oil at 190 ºC, respectively, for five consecutive days (8 h/day). The dynamic changes of 3-MCPD and glycidol equivalents were investigated during deep-fat frying. 3-MCPD equivalent in oil and potato strips decreased with increased frying time. Meanwhile, the content of glycidol equivalent increased …

Social Dialect Features Of Military Speech: A Sociolinguistic Study Of Fargo Veterans, Anthony J. Albright

English

This mixed-methods study examines the potential existence of a military dialect separate from regional or social dialects experienced by civilians. In particular, how similar is the military-related storytelling lexicon of veterans in the Fargo-Moorhead area to the lexicon set forth in training bases and training manuals used by the U.S. military? The lexicon used by veterans in storytelling can sometimes seem opaque to an audience. It is typically dense with meaning borne by a few coded words. These words carry a contextual burden that can be better understood by an appeal to the dialect from which they were borne. In …

Spatiotemporal Dynamics Of Butterflies And Their Floral Resources, Adrienne Kendra Antonsen

Entomology

Butterflies fulfill a unique role among insect pollinators as long-distance flyers. This makes butterflies particularly valuable as vectors of genetic diversity among spatially isolated plant populations. Like many insects, though, butterfly populations have experienced significant declines in recent years. To help inform conservation efforts, and to investigate community and species level dynamics, I studied butterflies and their floral resources as part of a three year pollinator survey across the state of North Dakota. At the community level, I analyzed butterfly-flower interaction networks across space and time. I then examined the specialization of individual species within those networks and their contributions …

Advancing Gender Equity In Stem: Antenarratives And Feminist Leadership Practices In Policy Work, Ashleigh Ryann Petts

English

While the field technical and professional communication (TPC) has long been concerned with workplace writing and policy writing, few studies have addressed the process of policy writing within an academic context. Using antenarrative and apparent feminism methodologies, this dissertation explores the policy writing process and feminist leadership practices of the DESIGN Committee, a group of women academics who worked to propose new policy to address gender inequity in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields for faculty working in their statewide educational system (SES). Employing methods of observation, participant observation, semi-structured interviews, and artifact collection over a period of …

The Dangers Of Power: Government Control In The Worlds Of Condie’S Matched And Lowry’S The Giver, Deborah Faith Haley

English

This paper considers the topic of government control through the context of young adult dystopian literature. The novels The Giver (1993) by Lois Lowry and Matched (2011) by Ally Condie are specifically considered in their connection to governmental control over an entire society. The novels The Giver and Matched both provide views into worlds where such basic human experiences as language use and memory are controlled, so that the protagonists—Jonas (The Giver) and Cassia (Matched) –find themselves torn between trusting what they have been told all their lives by their respective societies and what they have come to understand through …

The Covid-19 Vaccine Dilemma, Dorit R. Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

COVID-19 continues to lead to large numbers of deaths, harms, and financial costs. Without an effective vaccine, those will continue. The pressure to find a vaccine is high; and that pressure places a risk on the safeguards in place to assure that vaccines are safe and effective will be ignored. The United States has an extensive apparatus to oversee vaccine safety before and after licensing, including multiple federal committees and several monitoring systems, and that apparatus gave us, in 2020, an extraordinarily safe vaccine supply. This Article explains the different pressures that push for and against using the same apparatus …

Digging The Rabbit Hole, Covid-19 Edition: Anti-Vaccine Themes And The Discourse Around Covid-19, Tara C. Smith, Dorit R. Reiss

Faculty Scholarship

This article draws on a broadcast popular among the anti-vaccine community to map out six themes used by the broadcast to mislead viewers about COVID-19. The themes are the claim that “they” e government and pharma e are lying to you, claims that COVID-19 is an excuse to remove civil liberties, viewing everyone as an expert, claiming that science cannot save us, skewing the science, and a claim that “they” are out to harm the viewers. The article points out that similar themes are used to mislead followers with anti-vaccine information. It highlights the concern that these themes will not …

Evidence Of Memory From Brain Data, Emily R. Murphy, Jesse Rissman

Faculty Scholarship

Much courtroom evidence relies on assessing witness memory. Recent advances in brain imaging analysis techniques offer new information about the nature of autobiographical memory and introduce the potential for brain-based memory detection. In particular, the use of powerful machine- learning algorithms reveals the limits of technological capacities to detect true memories and contributes to existing psychological understanding that all memory is potentially flawed. This article first provides the conceptual foundation for brain-based memory detection as evidence. It then com- prehensively reviews the state of the art in brain-based memory detection research before establishing a framework for admissibility of brain-based memory …

Progressive Punitivism: Notes On The Use Of Punitive Social Control To Advance Social Justice Ends, Hadar Aviram

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Perverse Incentives: Why Everyone Prefers High Drug Prices -- Except For Those Who Pay The Bills, Robin C. Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

Health care spending rarely follows an ordinary, rational model. Yet even in that context, prescription drug prices are rising at a puzzling rate. What is causing the phenomenon? Quite simply, incentives percolating throughout the prescription drug market push players toward higher prices. At the center lies the highly secretive and concentrated Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) industry middle players who negotiate between drug companies and health insurers by arranging for rebates and establishing coverage levels for patients. Contracts between drug companies and the middle players are closely guarded secrets. The PBM customers, including Medicare, private insurers, and even their auditors, generally …

The Cancer Curse: Regulatory Failure By Success, Robin C. Feldman

Faculty Scholarship

Since the turn of the millennium, a series of regulatory decisions—unrelated in time and design—has shifted the focus of the pharmaceutical industry toward cancer research and treatment. Regulation, of course, is designed to drive public and private behavior, but the sum of these regulatory actions is driving behavior well beyond governmental design. This phenomenon represents a peculiar form of regulatory failure that cannot be sufficiently explained without contemplating a new form of regulatory failure—failure by success.

As with any great epic tale, the modern saga is full of celebrities and drama, framed by truly heart-wrenching stories. However, with 89 percent …

Viral Licensing: Ensuring The Public Interest When Taxpayers Fund Pharmaceutical Research, Robin C. Feldman, Betty Chang Rowe, Rabiah Oral

Faculty Scholarship

In recent years, the nation's drug development and delivery system has loomed in the forefront of pressing policy concerns. This piece suggests a relatively simple pathway that could provide opportunities for progress with aspects of the problem. Through the addition of a few choice provisions in their licensing agreements, research universities could improve consumer choices and access to the drugs developed with their government-funded research. Looking at the entire drug development system, universities play a complex set of roles. They are both the keepers of the academic flame and the stewards of public money. Beyond that, universities also may benefit …

Off-Label Drug Risks: Toward A New Fda Regulatory Approach, George Horvath

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

An Ultra-Low-Power Area-Efficient Non-Coherent Binary Phase-Shift Keying Demodulator For Implantable Biomedical Microsystems, Milad Ghazi, Mohammad Hossein Maghami, Parviz Amiri, Sotoudeh Hamedi-Hagh

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

A novel non-coherent, low-power, area-efficient binary phase-shift keying demodulator for wireless implantable biomedical microsystems is proposed. The received data and synchronized clock signal are detected using a delayed digitized format of the input signal. The proposed technique does not require any kind of oscillator circuit, and due to the synchronization of all circuit signals, the proposed demodulator can work in a wide range of biomedical data telemetry common frequencies in different process/temperature corners. The presented circuit has been designed and post-layout-simulated in a standard 0.18 µm CMOS technology and occupies 17 × 27 µm2 of active area. Post-layout simulation results …

The Relationship Between Workload, Performance And Fatigue In A Short-Haul Airline, Lucia Arsintescu, Ravi Chachad, Kevin B. Gregory, Jeffrey B. Mulligan, Erin E. Flynn-Evans

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

The aim of this study was to determine the relationship between pilot workload, performance, subjective fatigue, sleep duration, number of sectors and flight duration during short-haul operations. Ninety pilots completed a NASA Task Load Index, Psychomotor Vigilance Task and a Samn-Perelli fatigue scale on top-of-descent of each flight and wore an activity monitor throughout the study. Weak, but significant, correlations were revealed between workload and all factors. Subjective fatigue, number of sectors and lapses were significant predictors of workload. Pilots reported higher workload when fatigue increased, the number of sectors were higher, and objective performance was worse.

Vascular Plants Endemic To The Klamath-Siskiyou Region, James P. Smith Jr

Botanical Studies

No abstract provided.