Digital Commons Network^™

Autonomous Feature Detection For Capture Path Planning For Rendezvous And Docking With Non-Cooperative Spacecraft, Trupti Mahendrakar

Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing risk of collisions with space debris and the growing interest in on-orbit servicing, the ability to autonomously capture non-cooperative, tumbling target objects remains an unresolved challenge. This thesis provides an autonomous and artificial intelligence solution to either inspect, avoid, or perform on-orbit spacecraft servicing of an uncooperative resident space object (RSO). The solution is built on the fundamentals of Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), which is used to classify the four most targeted features of a spacecraft essential for docking and collision avoidance during rendezvous, such as solar panels, antennas, spacecraft bodies, and thrusters. The solution was then …

Exploring Integration Between Athletic Trainers And Strength And Conditioning Coaches Among The Ncaa Division I Southern Conference Institutions, Yoshihiro Kojima

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the interdepartmental integration between athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches in relation to relationship, communication, collaboration, and education. Forty participants from the NCAA Division I Southern Conference, twenty-eight athletic trainers and twelve strength and conditioning coaches, completed an electronic survey during a two-week period. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive and thematic coding analyses. The results suggested participated athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches were interactive and collaborative. Open-ended responses identified key concepts when athletic trainers and strength and conditioning coaches communicated and collaborated. A high interaction and collaboration model …

Assessment And Monitoring Of Deltaic Wetlands And Fluvial Systems: Refining And Validating A Multimetric Index Of Resaca Ecosystem Health, David Lecusay Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Resacas are ancient distributary channels of the lower Rio Grande River historically serving as floodwater drainage pathways onto the Laguna Madre, Texas. Resacas provide numerous ecosystem services and critical habitat for many species. Mainly influenced by urbanization, integrating a multimetric index for assessing and monitoring resaca ecosystem health is required for adaptive management. The Resaca Health Index (RHI) integrates structural and functional components: (1) nonredundant metrics describing fish communities (Fish Community Index); (2) Trophic State Index derived from Secchi depth; (3) decay constant from riparian vegetation leaf litter decomposing in the water column; and (4) a riparian quality index based …

Roi-Aware Content-Adaptive Video Streaming System For Power Savings, William Oswald

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

The demand for mobile video streams is constantly increasing. With this demand comes a need for mobile devices to receive more videos at ever increasing quality. However, due to the large size of video data and intensive computational requirements, video streaming requires frequent memory access that consumes a substantial amount of mobile device power; as a result, the battery life of mobile devices is limited. In this thesis, a video content-adaptable Region-of-Interest (ROI)-aware video storage technique that promotes power savings is presented. During the video encoding process on the transmitting server, based on the macroblock variance and ROI characterization, the …

Bridge Load Posting Prediction, Sabarethinam Kameshwar, Md. Manik Mia, Sai Bandaru

Publications

There are approximately 13,000 bridges in Louisiana facilitating movement of people, goods, and services. At present, about 12% of the bridges are load posted, i.e., they are deemed to lack the strength to safely carry all legal loads. With time bridges will age and deteriorate; at the same time, legal loads might increase. Load posted bridges disrupt the movement of goods and commerce. Therefore, objective of this research was to estimate the number of load posted bridges in Louisiana over the next 50 years. For this purpose, herein, a data based approach was used. For a given bridge type, the …

Expanding The Concept Of Comprehensive Area Ratio Parameter To The South-Central States: Towards Simplifying The Structural Evaluation Of Flexible Pavements At The Network Level, Mena Souliman, Samer Dessouky, Nitish R. Bastola

Publications

The surface deflection bowl data collected through falling weight deflectometer (FWD) test is utilized by highway agencies in assessing the performance of the flexible pavement. However, a robust method to evaluate pavement sections utilizing FWD data from all the sensors is seldom developed. There is always a need for DOTs and highway agencies to have a simplified procedure, which can be directly implemented in agencies' databases. This study focuses on expanding and validating the concept of previously developed area ratio parameters towards the pavement section of South-Central States (Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) in effectively analyzing the pavement …

A Case For The Decriminalization Of Simple Possession Of Narcotics In Mississippi, Stroud Tolleson

Honors Theses

Through its incarceration of simple possession offenders, Mississippi is failing to acknowledge the severity of addiction and importance of mental health. In this paper, I will examine Mississippi’s history of opinion and policy on drug use. In order to gain a better understanding of addiction and Mississippi’s criminal justice system, I interview several individuals with experience in varying aspects of these issues. Mississippi has one of the highest rates of incarceration in the United States, with stringent laws regarding the possession of narcotics. Mississippi’s mental health resources have been deemed unconstitutionally deficient on more than one occasion, and addicts are …

Identification Of Phosphorous Loading Point Source Facilities To 303(D) Listed Nutrient Impaired Waters Through Watershed Delineation Using Arcgis For Life Cycle Assessment Applications, John Zimmerman

Chemical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The work done for this project is part of a larger “life cycle assessment (LCA) of novel electrochemical phosphorus recovery technology at the wastewater treatment plant and U.S. watershed scales” (Morrissey 2019). The goal of that LCA is to determine “environmental impacts of implementing electrochemical struvite recovery at the wastewater treatment plant, U.S watershed, and global scales” (Morrissey 2019). This project’s goal is to identify locations deemed more sensitive to eutrophication impacts. The results will be used as part of the life cycle inventory (LCI) accounting for geographically explicit phosphorus flows. The waters identified as impaired were sourced from the …

Environmental And Genetic Factors Affecting Bone Diseases And Phenotypes In Mouse Models, Wei Dong

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Bone diseases and phenotypes are affected in multiple ways. We focused on studying the effects of genetic and environmental factors, especially their impact on bone properties. Firstly, we investigated the effects of β-caryophyllene (BCP), a naturally occurring dietary cannabinoid, on protecting bone from vitamin D deficiency in mice fed on a diet lacking or supplemented with vitamin D (VD). We found that the VD-deficient diet enhanced the length of femur and tibia bones (P<0.05), and increased bone volume (BV; P<0.01) and the trabecular bone volume fraction (BV/TV; P <0.01) compared to the D+ diet. When given BCP-containing diet, mice exhibited higher BV and bone mineral density (BMD; P<0.05) than the control group. The trabecular and cortical bone were also affected by VD and BCP. In addition, the inclusion of dietary BCP improved the serum concentrations of klotho (P < 0.05). In summary, these data indicate that BCP enhances the level of klotho in the serum, leading to improved bone properties and mineralization in an experimental mouse model. Under conditions lacking UV light, the D-deficient diet could affect multiple properties of bone, including trabecular and cortical bone, in mice. The D-deficient diet can also result in weight loss in mice.

My second project is to evaluate the bone properties in a mouse model with Il-1rn mutation. When knockout for IL-1rn, mice of Balb/c genomic background exhibited …

Identifying The Molecular Cause Of Extreme Endoplasmic Reticulum Dilation In Pediatric Osteosarcoma And Its Relationship To The Disease, Rachael Wood

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Pediatric osteosarcoma tumors are characterized by an unusual abundance of grossly dilated endoplasmic reticulum and an immense genomic instability that has complicated identifying new effective molecular therapeutic targets. Here we report a novel molecular signature that encompasses the majority of 108 patient tumor samples, PDXs and osteosarcoma cell lines. These tumors exhibit reduced expression of four critical COPII vesicle proteins that has resulted in the accumulation of procollagen-I protein within ‘hallmark’ dilated ER. Using CRISPR activation technology, increased expression of only SAR1A and SEC24D to physiologically normal levels was sufficient to restore both collagen-I secretion and resolve dilated ER morphology …

Examination Of Antiviral Resistance In Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis Virus, Jasper Lee

Theses and Dissertations (ETD)

Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV) is a New World Alphavirus that causes Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE), which is characterized by a febrile illness that can progress to neurological disease and death. While no major outbreaks of VEE have occurred since 1995, VEEV is a virus of concern as, in addition to its spread through mosquitos, it can be aerosolized and used as a bioweapon. Unfortunately, there are currently no FDA-approved vaccines or antivirals against VEEV. Efforts have been made to discover small molecules with an inhibitory effect on VEEV, but the potential for emergence of antiviral resistance to these compounds …

Dynamic Modeling Of A Three Degree Of Freedom Reaction Sphere, Joshua Michael Byron

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a method to simulate the dynamics of a three degree of freedom, electromagnetically suspended Northrop Grumman Corporation Reaction Sphere (NGCRS) in MATLAB Simulink® by computing the magnetic force and torque relations offline, using COMSOL® Multiphysics. The goal of the thesis is firstly to demonstrate through Finite Element Magnetic Modeling (FEM) that magnetic field interactions between a stator levitation electromagnet (EM) and the rotor permanent magnets (PM) are limited to a single EM-PM pair and that all other PMs can be considered decoupled from the EM. Secondly, this thesis aims to demonstrate that a set of generalized magnetic …

A Select Examination Of The Historiography Of The Causes Of The War Of 1812, Shiva Czuba

History Theses

This thesis examines a selection of literature concerning the causes of the War of 1812. While named America’s “forgotten” war, many historians have attempted to examine the political landscape that led to the newly formed United States to declare war on England in 1812. While maritime concerns have primarily been seen as the cause, this thesis will examine how that historiography has changed throughout the past two hundred years.

Chapter one, entitled “Early Interpretations: Maritime Grievances” examines the works of Alexander James Dallas, Henry Marie Brackenridge, Richard Hildreth, Gilbert Auchinleck, and Henry Adams. Chapter two, entitled “Changing Interpretations” looks at …

In Vitro Investigation Of Tumor Selective Piperidones As Therapeutic Agents Against Leukemia Cancer Cells, Lisett Contreras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cancer is a continuous global health issue. It is the second leading cause of death behind heart disease. Disparities across the emergence of cancer and resulting fatalities raise the importance of researching the disease. Treatments are available for certain types of cancers. However, these are typically accompanied by residual problems including side effects and the possibility for relapse. Some treatments attack all cells, leading to unwarranted side effects that make the possibility of living a comfortable life nearly impossible. Other treatments are specific to certain genetic alterations, making them only useful for a small percentage of patients. Not one treatment …

Interval Constraint-Solving Strategies For Solving Dynamical Systems, Angel Fernando Garcia Contreras

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

There are abundant phenomena that humans can describe through mathematical models. Dynamical systems are one such type of model, describing the behavior of phenomena that change over time. For example, a scientist can measure and analyze an insect's wing parameters and movements to create a dynamical system of that behavior. We can then use this model in different applications, such as creating a nano vehicle with insect-like propulsion.

For many real life problems, there exist analytical solutions. These can represent a full description of the state of a dynamical system at any moment in continuous time. However, in most practical …

The Network Link Outlier Factor (Nlof) For Localizing Network Faults, Christopher Mendoza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This work presents the Network Link Outlier Factor (NLOF), a data analytics pipeline for network fault detection and localization solution that consists of four stages. In the first stage, flow record throughput values are clustered in two sub-stages: using Density-Based Spatial Clustering of Applications with Noise (DBSCAN) and then a novel domain-specific ThroughPut Cluster (TPCluster) technique. In the second stage, Flow Outlier Factor (FOF) scores are computed for each flow. In the third stage, flows are traced onto the network. Finally, in the fourth stage, each link is given a Network Link Outlier Factor (NLOF) score which is the ratio …

Essays On The Economic Consequences Of Regulatory Monitoring, Yicheng Zhu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies the economic consequences of regulatory monitoring in two chapters. In the first chapter, using hand-collected data on Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) violations, I examine how enforcement actions on financial institutions affect their investment bankersâ?? role as mergers and acquisitions (M&A) advisors. I document that FINRA violations in the current year lead to a loss of M&A market share in the following year. I further find that client performance improves in future M&A deals advised by the sanctioned banks. Specifically, I document that future bidder (client) cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) are positively related to both the number …

Computational Study Of Grain Structure Evolution In Cdte/Cds Via Molecular Dynamics, Sharmin Abdullah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Grain structure analysis plays an important role in the identification of grain boundary characteristics, which can affect the efficiency of Cadmium Telluride/Cadmium Sulfide (CdTe/CdS) solar cells since they can act as recombination centers for carriers. Computer simulations such as molecular dynamics (MD) can be a very convenient and cost- effective method of investigating the growth evolution and grain structure of materials. The recently reported and experimentally validated MD simulated growth of polycrystalline CdTe/CdS films shows that these materials mostly consist of zinc blende (ZB) and wurtzite (WZ) structures, along with highly disordered atoms. However, little information about the semiconductor compound …

Rational Design Of Multifunctional Nanocatalysts For Environmental Remediation And Energy Conversion Technologies, Md Ariful Ahsan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The discovery of efficient and sustainable carbon-based nanotechnologies to solve both the scarcity of drinking water and global energy crisis has become a paramount task in the last decades. Owed to the fast population growth and industrialization of the modern society, access to potable water and clean energy technologies is becoming very hard around the globe. Water pollutants have become a serious threat to the environment and ecology because of their toxic nature. Parallelly, the current hydrocarbon-based fuel industries are generating high levels of contamination across the planet, making imperative the development of cleaner energy technologies. In this regard, the …

¡Sí Se Puede!: Understanding The Experiences Of Latina Students During Their Doctoral Journey At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Flor Del Rocio Acevedo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The existing body of literature on Latinas has mostly been focused on the undergraduate student experience (Hernandez, 2002; Hurtado et al., 1996; Kena et al., 2016; Tinto & Goodsell, 1994; Torres, 2004). Additionally, despite the increasing participation of women in graduate education since the 1980s (Walker et al., 2008), Latinas have been and continue to be underrepresented in doctoral programs and the professorate (Myers, 2016). In spite of recent increases in enrollment, Latinas attained just 8.8 percent of the doctoral degrees awarded from 2018-2019 (National Center for Education Statistics, 2020). As Latinas are projected to account for a third of …

An Investigation Of Upper Extremity Motor Impairments In Children Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Motor Planning Vs Motor Execution, Patrick Anthony Cereceres

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder typically diagnosedwhen a child displays social and communication impairments, repetitive behaviors, and rhythmic movements like hand flapping. This disorder is unique because of the high variability of symptoms displayed between each individual who is diagnosed. Because of this, no neurological or physiological test exists to diagnose a child with ASD. Current diagnostic tests are various forms of interviews or observations which an experienced clinician must administer. While these tests have been instrumental in diagnosing children with ASD, many go undiagnosed, which can be detrimental as they transition into adulthood. Current literature indicates …

Predicting Zero Bin In The Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry: Machine Learning Algorithms, Yazmin Montoya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The semiconductor industry has faced supply chain manufacturing shortages that ultimately led to a worldwide chip shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic. These chip manufacturers use sophisticated and advanced manufacturing machinery in their fabs to manufacture chips. As experienced during the pandemic, manufacturing unavailability is often due to the lack of critical manufacturing-related spare parts. This thesis evaluates the effectiveness of machine learning algorithms to identify significant factors contributing to manufacturing part outages (i.e., zero-bin) to keep manufacturing equipment running at total capacity within the organization. We propose clustering methods to segment the data and use logistic regression, logistic lasso regression, …

Suspicionless Policing, Julian A. Cook

Scholarly Works

The tragic death of Elijah McClain—a twenty-three-year-old, slightly built, unarmed African American male who was walking home along a sidewalk when he was accosted by three Aurora, Colorado police officers—epitomizes the problems with policing that have become a prominent topic of national conversation. Embedded within far too many police organizations is a culture that promotes aggressive investigative behaviors and a disregard for individual liberties. Incentivized by a Supreme Court that has, over the course of several decades, empowered the police with expansive powers, law enforcement organizations have often tested—and crossed—the constitutional limits of their investigative authorities. And too often it …

The Impact Of Corporal Punishment For Timorese High School Graduates, Veronica Godinho Pereira

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the impacts of corporal punishment for Timorese high school graduates. Physical punishment is a pervasive method of disciplining students and children used in Timor-Leste because it has been such a tradition (UNICEF 2017). Few researchers have attempted to analyze the negative impacts of corporal punishment and possible gender differences; there is no known research on the impacts of corporal punishment in Timor-Leste. This study uses an in-depth interview method, where data were collected from 26 Timorese high school graduates composed of both men and women from both private and public schools in Timor-Leste. The ages of the …

Pets And Problems: Exploring Community Patterns In Calls For Animal Services, Paige Dejarnett

Sociology and Criminology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Pets have historically been viewed as family members, children, property, or economic resources. However, research surrounding animal maltreatment has expressed this issue as an individually-based problem, rather than a community-based phenomenon. Correlations have been found between animal cruelty, antisocial behaviors, and future interpersonal violence, whether this correlation be a predictive relationship, or a resultant relationship. Past research has also found correlations between animal treatment practices and the rural/urban differences of this behavior. However, there are many community-based indicators that have not been explored to understand the distribution of animal maltreatment. This study aims to explore these ideas by analyzing the …

Marine Phytoplankton Functional Types Exhibit Diverse Responses To Thermal Change, S. I. Anderson, A. D. Barton, S. Clayton, S. Dutkiewicz, T. A. Rynearson

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Marine phytoplankton generate half of global primary production, making them essential to ecosystem functioning and biogeochemical cycling. Though phytoplankton are phylogenetically diverse, studies rarely designate unique thermal traits to different taxa, resulting in coarse representations of phytoplankton thermal responses. Here we assessed phytoplankton functional responses to temperature using empirically derived thermal growth rates from four principal contributors to marine productivity: diatoms, dinoflagellates, cyanobacteria, and coccolithophores. Using modeled sea surface temperatures for 1950–1970 and 2080–2100, we explored potential alterations to each group’s growth rates and geographical distribution under a future climate change scenario. Contrary to the commonly applied Eppley formulation, our …

Development Of Metaheuristic Algorithms For The Efficient Allocation Of Power Flow Control Devices, Eduardo Jose Castillo Fatule

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Modern energy grids have become extremely complex systems, requiring more variable and active flow control. As a remedy to this, Distributed Flexible AC Transmission Systems (D-FACTS) are cost-efficient devices used to mitigate power flow congestion and integrate renewable energies. The objective of this research is then to propose an efficient multiple objective evolutionary algorithm to solve a stochastic model for D-FACTS allocation, which aims to optimize various objectives related to cost, grid health, and environmental impacts. The model was implemented on a modified RTS-96 test system, and the results show that optimally allocating D-FACTS modules using the proposed model can …

Linking Plot And Landscape Level Phenology, Alejandra Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Plant phenology has become popularize since the 1990s to help understand the effects of climate change on vegetation, it is a way to study the patterns of leaf-out, flowering, and senescing of the life-cycle of the plant. The timing from start of season (SOS) to end-of-season (EOS) of plant leaf-out development has important implication on ecosystem productivity and carbon cycling across ecological scales from individual trees to whole regions. The need for plant phenology studies in dryland are highly anticipated, since they make up 40% of the terrestrial landscape and recently have shown the play an important role in the …

Molecular Mechanism Of Dna Bisintercalator Antibiotic Resistance, Priyanka Rajendra Gade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Class II UvrA is an ATP-binding cassette protein and a homolog of class I UvrA, the DNA lesion detection component of the universal prokaryotic nucleotide excision repair system. We show that Ecm16, a class II UvrA protein from Streptomyces lasalocidi, specifically recognizes DNA duplex that contains the DNA bisintercalator antibiotic echinomycin. Heterologous expression of Ecm16 in Escherichia coli renders host cells resistant to echinomycin. Interestingly, Ecm16’s antibiotic resistance activity does not require the DNA repair proteins UvrA/B/C/D, indicating that it operates independently of the cell’s nucleotide excision repair pathway. Unlike UvrA, Ecm16 uses the insertion domain to regulate its ATPase …

Geophysical Studies Of The Characteristics Of Fluvial And Desert Soils In Rio Grande Valley Of West Texas And Southern New Mexico, Aimee V. Garcia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Agriculture in arid lands, such as in the Rio Grande Valley in west Texas, relies on flood irrigation. However, flood irrigation can cause salt buildup and greenhouse gas emissions associated with pedogenic carbonate precipitation. The ability of irrigation to promote crop growth is influenced by geochemical and hydrological processes controlled, in part, by soil grain size, larger-scale soil structure, and mineralogy. This study investigated soils from 3 regions 1) A pecan orchard in the river valley of Tornillo, TX, with soil derived from fluvial deposits, undergoing flood irrigation every 2 to 3 weeks in spring through fall, 2) The El …