Digital Commons Network^™

Cost Talk: Protocol For A Stepped-Wedge Cluster Randomized Trial Of An Intervention Helping Patients And Urologic Surgeons Discuss Costs Of Care For Slow-Growing Prostate Cancer During Shared Decision-Making, Mary C. Politi, Rachel C. Forcino, Katelyn Parrish, Marie Anne Durand, A. James O’Malley, Glyn Elwyn

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Costs of care are important to patients making cancer treatment decisions, but clinicians often do not feel prepared to discuss treatment costs. We aim to (1) assess the impact of a conversation-based decision aid (Option Grid) containing cost information about slow-growing prostate cancer management options, combined with urologic surgeon training, on the frequency and quality of patient-urologic surgeon cost conversations, and (2) examine the impact of the decision aid and surgeon training on decision quality. Methods: We will conduct a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial in outpatient urology practices affiliated with a large academic medical center in the USA. We …

Tactile Materials In Practice: Understanding The Experiences Of Teachers Of The Visually Impaired, Mahika Phutane, Julie Wright, Brenda Veronica Castro, Lei Shi, Simone R. Stern, Holly Lawson, Shiri Azenkot

Special Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teachers of the visually impaired (TVIs) regularly present tactile materials (tactile graphics, 3D models, and real objects) to students with vision impairments. Researchers have been increasingly interested in designing tools to support the use of tactile materials, but we still lack an in-depth understanding of how tactile materials are created and used in practice today. To address this gap, we conducted interviews with 21 TVIs and a 3-week diary study with eight of them. We found that tactile materials were regularly used for academic as well as non-academic concepts like tactile literacy, motor ability, and spatial awareness. Real objects and …

Factors Controlling Longshore Variations Of Beach Changes Induced By Hurricane Hermine Along Pinellas County Beaches, West-Central Florida, Wenhan Zhai

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hurricane Hermine, 2016, impacted the coast of west-central Florida and generated high waves superimposed on elevated wave levels which caused significant beach erosion. A total of 122 profiles, spaced about 300 m apart, were surveyed 2 weeks before and one week after the storm to examine the beach changes along three barrier islands along the coast of west-central Florida. including Sand Key, Treasure Island and Long Key. In order to investigates the longshore variations of beach/nearshore changes induced by storm, several parameters were defined and calculated including beach volume changes, berm height, beach width, foreshore slope, as well as sandbar …

Dual Multivector Model Predictive Control For The Power Converters Of A Floating Owc Wec, Marcos Blanco, Dionisio Ramirez, Mohammad Ebrahim Zarei, Mahima Gupta

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Oscillating Water Column (OWC) is one of the most well-known wave energy converter (WEC). Typically, OWCs are installed in rocky shores or in custom-built breakwaters. However, since the wave profile is more favorable in an open sea, it can also be installed in a point absorber in order to increase the energy extraction.

This paper presents the development of a new dual Multivector Model Predictive Control (MMPC) for the power converters of a floating OWC WEC. The fast dynamic response featured by the proposed MMPC has proven to be very suitable to deal with the highly variable torque and velocity …

Testing For Cognitive Deficits After Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Using The Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metric And Dual-Task Assessments, Jasmin Mabry

University Honors Theses

Cognitive deficits are common following mTBI. DT gait assessments and seated computerized exams are often used for evaluating those deficits. Little is known about DT gait and neurocognitive performance in a chronic population. We compared people with chronic mTBI and subacute mTBI to healthy controls (HC) on DT gait and neurocognitive performance and explored the relationship of DT gait performance with a traditional neurocognitive (TNC) exam.

Subjects completed a computerized TNC - the ANAM - and a motor-cognitive DT test which assessed both DT motor performance as well as the cognitive task accuracy. The DT test consisted of subjects walking …

Rapid Method For Consistency And Concentration Reporting Of Cannabidiol Using 1H-Nmr And Computer-Assisted Chemical Software, Michael A. Fernando

University Honors Theses

An integrated computational method was demonstrated with hemp-derived Cannabidiol for an assessment of its purity and concentration. The sample was structurally verified, high purity, and 2.98 mmol/L in dissolved DMSO. The method presented is a general approach to assessing purity and concentration for any small organic molecule in CMC-Assist.

Fabricating Nanophotonic Devices Using Nanofabrication Techniques, Scott Cummings

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Nanofabrication processes are widely used to make the integrated circuits and computer chips that are ubiquitous in today’s technology. These fabrication processes can also be applied to the creation of nanophotonic devices. The ways in which we apply these fabrication techniques in the field of photonics is often constrained by the technologies used for electronics manufacturing which presents an interesting engineering challenge. These limitations include availability and cost of certain fabrication equipment and techniques required to create state-of-the-art nanophotonic devices. Through work with the University of California Irvine nano-fabrication cleanroom, we designed and fabricated various integrated photonic components including grating …

Assessment Of Soil Sampling Equipment For Guiding Fertiliser Decisions, David Weaver, Robert Summers, David Rogers, Peta Richards, David Rowe

Resource management technical reports

A range of methods, technologies and equipment are used to collect representative composite soil samples from paddocks. Once collected, soil samples are analysed for various parameters that provide evidence to guide fertiliser decisions. The sampling methods, technologies and equipment used must result in samples that consistently represent the parameter of interest.

Soil sampling technology and equipment has advanced from manual devices (such as pogo-stick-style foot-thrust core samplers [pogo]) to a variety of mechanised core-thrust samplers and augers that are fitted to vehicles or battery drills. Each device may function differently under different conditions, and each requires differing levels of human …

Global Forces Of Change: Implications For Forest-Poverty Dynamics, Priya Shyamsundar, Laura Aileen Sauls, Jennifer Zavaleta Cheek, Kira Sullivan-Wiley, J.T. Erbaugh, P. P. Krishnapriya

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

This article examines global trends likely to influence forests and tree-based systems and considers the poverty implications of these interactions. The trends, identified through a series of expert discussions and review of the literature, include: (i) climatic impacts mediated through changes in forests, (ii) growth in commodity markets, (iii) shifts in private and public forest sector financing, (iv) technological advances and rising interconnectivity, (v) global socio-political movements, and (vi) emerging infectious diseases. These trends bring opportunities and risks to the forest-reliant poor. A review of available evidence suggests that in a business-as-usual scenario, the cumulative risks posed by these global …

The Uniform Soybean Tests: Northern Region 2021, Guohong Cai, Adam Brock

Uniform Soybean Tests Northern Region

The purpose of The Uniform Soybean Tests is to critically evaluate the best of the experimental soybean lines developed by federal and state research personnel in the U.S. and Canada, for their potential release as new varieties. A test is established for each of ten maturity groups. Uniform Test 00 includes maturity Group 00 strains adapted to production in the northern fringe of the present area of soybean production. Uniform Tests 0 through IV include later maturing strains adapted to locations progressively further south in the North Central States and areas of similar latitude. Each year new selections are added …

Genomic Epidemiology Of Methicillin-Resistant And -Susceptible Staphylococcus Aureus From Bloodstream Infections, Joshua T. Smith, Elissa M. Eckhardt, Nicole B. Hansel, Tahmineh Rahmani Eliato, Isabella W. Martin, Cheryl P. Andam

Dartmouth Scholarship

Background: Bloodstream infections due to Staphylococcus aureus cause significant patient morbidity and mortality worldwide. Of major concern is the emergence and spread of methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in bloodstream infections, which are associated with therapeutic failure and increased mortality. Methods: We generated high quality draft genomes from 323 S. aureus blood culture isolates from patients diagnosed with bloodstream infection at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, New Hampshire, USA in 2010–2018. Results: In silico detection of antimicrobial resistance genes revealed that 133/323 isolates (41.18%) carry horizontally acquired genes conferring resistance to at least three antimicrobial classes, with resistance determinants for aminoglycosides, beta-lactams …

Design Of A 300cm2 Pemfc Stack With Force And Cfd Simulation To Optimize Flow Channels, Gasket Design, And Clamping Forces., Robert M. Ench

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells are important to the future of green energy as hydrogen can be made with green technologies and store energy for later use. Fuel cells can efficiently convert the hydrogen to electricity as needed. This study uses Solidworks simulation to make design improvements to the fuel cell before the prototype build stage of testing; this saves money and time by reducing the prototype builds needed.

In this study, a multi-channel serpentine design with two outlets versus a single outlet is evaluated using CFD to investigate pressure drop. Lower pressure drops are desirable as less energy input …

Computational Modeling Of 3d-Printed Lactobacillus-Antibiotic Scaffolds For Bacterial Vaginosis., Veeresh P. Rai

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The standard treatment for bacterial vaginosis (BV) is currently antibiotics, such as metronidazole, clindamycin, or tinidazole. These antibiotics are highly effective in getting rid of bacteria in the female reproductive tract (FRT); however, there are some bacteria that provide benefits to the FRT which also get expunged. While there are many strains of bacteria that play a beneficial role in the FRT, lactobacilli are among the most important. These bacteria are responsible for maintaining a healthy environment in the FRT via pH regulation by lactic acid metabolism. Antibiotics eliminate all bacteria from an environment, including lactobacilli, and as a result, …

Caregivers’ Understanding Of Early Literature Expectations For Firstborn Children Entering Kindergarten, Kathleen England

All NMU Master's Theses

This qualitative phenomenological research was designed to develop an understanding of caregivers’ understanding of early literacy expectations for their firstborn or only child as they begin their kindergarten schooling. This study consisted of seven participants and six interviews with caregivers that enrolled their children in the Archdiocese of Detroit Catholic Schools in Southeast, MI. With the findings of this study, school administrators and researchers alike may be able to find a deeper understanding in efforts to support their families as they begin their educational careers and establish a solid foundation for further growth and development.

Deterring Non-Target Birds From Toxic Bait Sites For Wild Pigs, Nathan P. Snow, Joseph M. Halseth, Justin A. Foster, Michael J. Lavelle, Justin W. Fischer, Michael P. Glow, Ingrid A. Messer, Seth M. Cook, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Toxic baiting of wild pigs (Sus scrofa) is a potential new tool for population control and damage reduction in the US. Field trials testing a prototype toxic bait (HOGGONE 2 containing 5% sodium nitrite [SN]), though, revealed that wild pigs spilled small particles of toxic bait outside of bait stations which subsequently created hazards for non-target species that consumed those particles, primarily passerine birds. To deter non-target birds from consuming particles of spilled bait, we tested four deterrents at mock bait sites (i.e., baited with bird seed) in north-central Colorado, USA during April–May 2020. We found a programable, inflatable deterrent …

Responses Of Turkey Vultures To Unmanned Aircraft Systems Vary By Platform, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Thomas W. Seamans, Bruce N. Buckingham, Joshua L. Hoblet, Patrice E. Baumhardt

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

A challenge that conservation practitioners face is manipulating behavior of nuisance species. The turkey vulture (Cathartes aura) can cause substantial damage to aircraft if struck. The goal of this study was to assess vulture responses to unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for use as a possible dispersal tool. Our treatments included three platforms (fixed-wing, multirotor, and a predator-like ornithopter [powered by flapping flight]) and two approach types (30 m overhead or targeted towards a vulture) in an operational context. We evaluated perceived risk as probability of reaction, reaction time, flight-initiation distance (FID), vulture remaining index, and latency to return. …

The Use Of Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping Practice To Improve Foundational Reading Skills In A First Grade Student, Annah Scherling

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Literacy is widely accepted as a critical life skill in the United States, but many students struggle to acquire the necessary foundational skills. The National Reading Panel of the National Institute of Child Health and Development established The Big Five which identified five critical areas for effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. There are 26 letters or graphemes represented in the English language and 44 sounds or phonemes. The connection between grapheme and phoneme is referred to as correspondences. A first-grade student, from a Midwest elementary school, was given a phoneme-grapheme mapping intervention to assist in …

Effects Of Small Group Math Interventions For Math Achievement, Brittany Folk

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

The purpose of this study was to see the impact of small group math interventions had on students’ math achievement with students who were considered high-risk according to Fastbridge testing. This study was mixed-methods action research, primarily focusing on the quantitative data gathered. The study used pre-test and post-test assessments, weekly small assessments, as well as surveys prior to interventions and after interventions to check students’ anxiety level towards math. There were five students from the 3^rd grade class were chosen to participate in this study. All data was collected and analyzed to determine if students grew in their …

The Influence Of Air Flow Rate And Its Temperature On The Moisture Absorption And Regeneration Processes., Abdelnabi Bayoumi Kabeel

Mansoura Engineering Journal

Production of fresh water by absorption of moisture from atmospheric air may be the only choice in sone places and circumstances. This can be performed by introducing the air into a packed bed of clothes saturated with a suitable desiccant to absorb water vapour from air with subsequent regeneration and condensation of water vapour. In this work, the effect of air flow rate and its temperature on the rate of moisture absorption and ine regeneration process is experimentally investigated. The power consumed in heating or cooling the air, and the blowing power are considered. For this purpose, an experimental setup …

Identification And Development Of Therapeutics For Covid-19, Halie M. Rando, Nils Wellhausen, Soumita Ghosh, Alexandra J. Lee, Anna Ada Dattoli, Fengling Hu, James Brian Byrd, Diane N. Rafizadeh, Ronan Lordan, Yanjun Qi, Yuchen Sun, Christian Brueffer, Jeffrey M. Field, Marouen Ben Guebila, Nafisa M. Jadavji, Ashwin N. Skelly, Bharath Ramsundar, Jinhui Wang, Rishi Raj Goel, Yoson Park, Simina M. Boca, Anthony Gitter, Casey S. Greene

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

After emerging in China in late 2019, the novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spread worldwide, and as of mid- 2021, it remains a significant threat globally. Only a few coronaviruses are known to infect humans, and only two cause infections similar in severity to SARS-CoV-2: Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, a species closely related to SARS-CoV-2 that emerged in 2002, and Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus, which emerged in 2012. Unlike the current pandemic, previous epidemics were controlled rapidly through public health measures, but the body of research investigating severe acute respiratory syndrome and Middle East …

Characterizing Long Covid: Deep Phenotype Of A Complex Condition, Rachel R. Deer, Madeline A. Rock, Nicole Vasilevsky, Leigh Carmody, Halie Rando, Alfred J. Anzalone, Marc D. Basson, Tellen D. Bennett, Timothy Bergquist, Eilis A. Boudreau, Carolyn T. Bramante, James Brian Byrd, Tiffany J. Callahan, Lauren E. Chan, Haitao Chu, Christopher G. Chute, Ben D. Coleman, Hannah E. Davis, Joel Gagnier, Casey S. Greene, William B. Hillegass, Ramakanth Kavuluru, Wesley D. Kimble, Farrukh M. Koraishy, Sebastian Köhler, Chen Liang, Feifan Liu, Hongfang Liu, Vithal Madhira, Charisse R. Madlock-Brown, Nicolas Matentzoglu, Diego R. Mazzotti

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Background: Numerous publications describe the clinical manifestations of post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC or “long COVID”), but they are difficult to integrate because of heterogeneous methods and the lack of a standard for denoting the many phenotypic manifestations. Patient-led studies are of particular importance for understanding the natural history of COVID-19, but integration is hampered because they often use different terms to describe the same symptom or condition. This significant disparity in patient versus clinical characterization motivated the proposed ontological approach to specifying manifestations, which will improve capture and integration of future long COVID studies.

Methods: The Human Phenotype Ontology …

From Language Comprehension Towards General Ai, Binay Dahal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Language comprehension or more formally, natural language understanding is one of the major undertakings in Artificial Intelligence. In this work, we explore a few of the problems in language understanding using fixed deep learning models. Specifically, first, we look into question generation. Asking questions relates to the cognitive ability of language comprehension and context understanding. For that reason, making progress in question generation is significant. We introduce a novel task called “question generation with masked target answer” and propose various models and present the baseline result for the task. Next, we extend on the question generation task and develop a …

Monitored Compression Therapy: Using Smart Technology To Optimize The Treatment Of Lower Extremity Swelling, James Skelly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Chronic Venous Insufficiency (CVI) and Venous Stasis Ulcers (VSUs) are symptoms which stem from diabetes – a disease effecting over 34 million people in the United States alone as of 2020. This Thesis details the design of a pressure-sensing garment used to enhance the treatment of CVI. The garment uses small force sensors (four levels: the insole of the foot, the lower leg, the lower calf, and the upper calf) to sense the pressure applied by a compression stocking. The sensed data is transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth to a smartphone application that was developed to display the data and interface …

Dreams Of Molecular Beams: Indium Gallium Arsenide Tensile-Strained Quantum Dots And Advances Towards Dynamic Quantum Dots (Moleculare Radiorum Somnia: Indii Gallii Arsenicus Tensa Quanta Puncta Et Ad Dinamicae Quantae Puntae Progressus), Kevin Daniel Vallejo

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Through the operation of a molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) machine, I worked on developing the homoepitaxy of high quality InAs with a (111)A crystallographic orientation. By tuning substrate temperature, we obtained a transition from a 2D island growth mode to step- ow growth. Optimized MBE parameters (substrate temperature = 500 °C, growth rate = 0.12 ML/s and V/III ratio ⩾ 40) lead to growth of extremely smooth InAs(111)A films, free from hillocks and other 3D surface imperfections. We see a correlation between InAs surface smoothness and optical quality, as measured by photoluminescence spectroscopy. This work establishes InAs(111)A as a platform …

A Wireless, Multi-Channel Printed Capacitive Strain Gauge System For Structural Health Monitoring, Kshama Lakshmi Ranganatha

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring of soft structural textiles plays a key role within the space industry to ensure the safety and integrity of space habitats, parachutes, and decelerator systems. Strain monitoring could be an effective means to evaluate structural integrity, but conventional monitoring systems are not suitable because they are intended for large, rigid structures. To overcome the limitations of rigid sensors, we recently proposed using printed capacitive strain gauges (CSGs) on flexible substrates to monitor the structural health of soft structure materials. Here, we present a strategy and implementation of a wireless, multi-channel readout system for distributed monitoring of soft …

Fair And Efficient Consensus Protocols For Secure Blockchain Applications, Golam Dastoger Bashar

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

In blockchain technology, consensus protocols serve as mechanisms to reach agreements among a distributed network of nodes. In this work, we propose three novel protocols for permissioned, healthcare, and supply chain blockchain.

(1) Proof of Queue (PoQ), for private blockchains, combines the lottery strategy of PoET with a specialized round-robin algorithm where each node has an equal chance to become a leader with equal access. PoQ is relatively scalable without any collision. Like PoET, PoQ uses Intel SGX, a Trusted Execution Environment, to generate a secure random waiting time to choose a leader and fairly distribute the leadership role to …

Fire Effects On Soil Properties: Amending Post-Fire Soils With Native Microbial Communities And Biochar To Improve Sagebrush Performance, Sabrina Marie Schuler

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Within the sagebrush steppe, fire has been shown to affect biogeochemical properties and the microbial community composition in soils. However, there is uncertainty about the magnitude and direction of these effects, since they vary by sites that differ in abiotic and biotic conditions. Moreover, differences in post-fire management strategies are likely to mediate the effect of fire on soil properties, thus further compounding this uncertainty. Any changes in soil biogeochemical properties following fire can prevent successful restoration of Artemisia tridentata sp. wyomingensis (sagebrush), leading to variable outcomes of restoration success in the sagebrush steppe. Previous research has shown that addition …

Water Quality Responses To A Semi-Arid Beaver Meadow In Boise, Idaho, Luise Bayer Winslow

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Beavers have been instrumental in shaping the North American riverine landscape. However, land use change and beaver trapping have caused large decreases in beaver populations, resulting in fundamental changes to river morphology, hydrology, and biogeochemical function. Effective river restoration and remediation of arid western rivers relies on a comprehensive interpretation of how beaver activity influences water quantity and quality. In this study, I compared two stream reaches with and without beaver dams in a semi-arid watershed, to quantify the effects of beaver activity on hydrology and biogeochemistry. Within each reach, I combined dilution gauging and stream tracer experiments to determine …

The Impact Of The Community Partnership School Model On Student Self-Efficacy And Civic Engagement, Brandon Lowe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to identify the impact of the Community Partnership Schools™ (CPS) model of community schools in the areas of social self-efficacy, academic self-efficacy, emotional self-efficacy, and civic engagement beyond the point of enrollment in the school. To answer the research questions, the researcher compared the responses of 96 high school students that had previously been enrolled in a CPS with the responses of 402 students from racially and socioeconomically similar schools that were not CPS, using the Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Children (SEQ-C) and the Civic Engagement Scale (CES). Results showed a significant positive correlation …

Theoretical Models Of Integration Of Interactive Learning Technologies Into Teaching: A Systematic Literature Review, Laila Mohebi

All Works

With the fast progress of technology and the vast amount of research papers related to technology integration in education being published yearly, a study that reviews models used in these papers is needed. Therefore, this paper (1) reviewed and analysed theoretical frameworks with models used for integration of technology in classrooms, (2) reviewed studies that discussed the impact of technology integration on students' learning capabilities, and (3) discussed the importance of preparing teachers to effectively integrate technology in teaching. The models reviewed were: Teacher Thoughts and Action Process (TTAP), Theory of Planned Behavior, Expectancy-Value Theory of Achievement Motivation (EVAM), Substitution …