Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions Of Rural School Superintendents Around Leading Ongoing Technology Initiatives, Randal A. Bergquist

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Technology initiatives in public schools have been an important topic of discussion as educators work on implementing various strategies to enhance student achievement/success. The improvement in technology, both hardware and software, along with wider areas of internet coverage, has allowed educators to think about implementation of technology into schools. Many school districts across the United States have already implemented technology initiatives, such as one-to-one, for students in all grades and levels. The increased pressure on school administrators to improve student achievement/success has resulted in research that comes short of ongoing technology initiatives, especially in the rural schools. This research study …

Paraprofessionals In The School Setting: A Literature Review, Tyelyn Pearson

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

Teachers and paraprofessionals are partners in education, working together to provide the best educational experience possible for each child. Biggs et al. state “fostering and maintaining strong collaborative relationships are critically important for paraprofessionals and special education teachers working together to provide a high-quality education for students with severe disabilities” (2016, p. 152). It is crucial that paraprofessionals are offered training and taught strategies and techniques to implement and support diverse students in the classroom (Patterson, 2016).

In the 1950’s, paraprofessionals were first added to the classroom as a way to provide teachers with more planning time and they performed …

Masculinity And Depression: A Qualitative Content Analysis Of The Counseling Literature’S Recommendations On Caring For Men From 2012-2021, Jean Taylor

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

This study examined how the counseling literature between the years of 2012-2021 addressed the diagnosis and treatment for men with depression. Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) was used to examine four publications of the American Counseling Association: Journal of Counseling and Development (JCD), Journal of Humanistic Counseling (JHC), Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development (JMCD), and Counselor Education and Supervision (CES). Four research questions guided the study: 1. How many articles in the selected counseling journals focus on men and depression between 2012 and 2021, and what percentage of the total articles do they represent? 2. What specific types of studies …

A Deep Learning-Based Model For Plant Lesion Segmentation, Subtype Identification, And Survival Probability Estimation, Muhammad Shoaib, Babar Shah, Tariq Hussain, Akhtar Ali, Asad Ullah, Fayadh Alenezi, Tsanko Gechev, Farman Ali, Ikram Syed

All Works

Plants are the primary source of food for world’s population. Diseases in plants can cause yield loss, which can be mitigated by continual monitoring. Monitoring plant diseases manually is difficult and prone to errors. Using computer vision and artificial intelligence (AI) for the early identification of plant illnesses can prevent the negative consequences of diseases at the very beginning and overcome the limitations of continuous manual monitoring. The research focuses on the development of an automatic system capable of performing the segmentation of leaf lesions and the detection of disease without requiring human intervention. To get lesion region segmentation, we …

System Shock: Using -Omics Data To Characterize Biological Remodeling In The Microbiome, Resistome, And Transcriptome Of Bacteria, Winston Eugene Anthony

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The human experience is indelibly linked to microbial life. So much so, that the holobiont theory has been coined to define the assemblage of host and microbe as a discrete ecological unit. Perturbation of the commensal microbiome can create niche space for pathogens, which through the concomitant rise of antimicrobial resistance represent an ever-evolving danger. In Chapter 2 of this dissertation, I describe the results of an interventional study designed to directly perturb the healthy gut microbiome and observe the dynamics of taxonomic composition and functional recovery. I observe significant decreases after 5 days of antibiotic treatment in the gold …

Canonical And Noncanonical Mechanisms Of Resistance To Arginine Starvation In Cancer, Leonard Christopher Rogers

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The enzyme argininosuccinate synthetase 1 (ASS1) catalyzes the condensation of citrulline and aspartate into argininosuccinate as part of the urea cycle and citrulline-nitric oxide cycle. This reaction is essential for mammals to synthesize the amino acid arginine, which is required for all cells. Nearly all human tissues express at least some ASS1, but they import most of their arginine from the extracellular space after it is produced and released by the kidneys. Most solid tumors lack a functional level of ASS1, including over 85% of sarcomas, which are cancers of connective tissues. Published evidence suggests that this provides a proliferation …

The Role Of The Neurodevelopmental Disorder Gene Myt1l In Mammalian Brain Development, Jiayang Chen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Recent human genetic studies have associated mutations in a gene called Myelin Transcription Factor 1 Like (MYT1L) with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs). Patients with MYT1L loss of function (LoF) mutations (MYT1L Syndrome patients) demonstrate shared symptoms such as microcephaly, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and obesity. Despite prior studies showing MYT1L overexpression facilitates neuronal differentiation in vitro, its functions in vivo, especially in the mammalian brain, and how its mutation leads to human disease pathology remains poorly understood. Here, I established the first mouse model of MYT1L Syndrome mimicking a patient specific LoF mutation. I found mice with Myt1l heterozygous …

Toward Enhancing The Synthesis Of Renewable Polymers: Feedstock Conversions And Functionalizable Copolymers, Tedd Casey Wiessner

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This thesis describes research under the rubric of the Center for Sustainable Polymers that is aimed at two separate goals. The goal of the first project (Chapters 1 and 2) was to develop a deeper mechanistic understanding of a method for the synthesis of linear α-olefins, while the second aimed at synthesizing statistical copolymers that incorporate olefin-containing monomers through ring-opening transesterification polymerization and showing that these copolymers could be functionalized. In Chapter 1, published methods for the conversion of fatty acids to linear α-olefins are reviewed to provide context for the mechanistic work we accomplished (Chapter 2). In Chapter 2 …

Tissue Resident Macrophages Drive Fibrosis During Pancreas Inflammatory Injury And Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma, John Baer

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The immune system, and especially macrophages, are central in responding to infections, as well as providing a wide array of functions in other pathologies, especially in responding to inflammation. It is established that macrophages will accumulate within tissues during inflammation, many times secreting cytokines and chemokines central to the inflammatory response. This is particularly true during pancreatitis, or inflammation of the pancreas, where it has been shown that macrophages and monocytes accumulate in the pancreas to have various roles in further promoting inflammation. It is not well established, however, whether there are divergent roles for the distinct macrophage subsets that …

Reassessing The History Of The Poverty Point Phenomenon: A Case Study From The Jaketown Site, Mississippi, Usa, Seth Bradley Grooms

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Towards the end of the Late Archaic period (ca. 4800-3000 cal BP), between 3,600 and 3,300 years ago, Native Americans engineered a colossal earthwork complex that covers approximately 200 hectares in northeast Louisiana. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site known as Poverty Point and the namesake for a material culture pattern documented to varying degrees at sites throughout the Lower Mississippi Valley (LMV). However, the nature of interactions between these sites and the type site is poorly understood. The people who constructed the Poverty Point site lived on wild food resources. They hunted, fished, and gathered food from …

Analyzing The Interconnectedness Of The Human Genome, Nicholas Jacobs

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The human genome is much more interconnected than many people realize. In this thesis, I will outline two efforts to portray this idea. First, I will seek to display that cell fitness is an omniphenotype. That is to say, cell fitness can be used to determine whether an unknown factor interacts with a known factor for any phenotype. The human genome is sufficiently interconnected that if two factors interact with one another then that can be reflected by a multiplicative change in cell fitness. This change in fitness can be used to determine if a new factor of interest is …

Inferring Adaptation In Social Microbes From Experimental Evolution Under Relaxed Selection, Tyler John Larsen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Microbes exist against a backdrop of other organisms, and the interactions between microbes have major consequences on their traits, their evolution, and their impact on the world. Microbial interactions and the adaptations that enable them are extremely diverse – they can unlock abilities beyond the reach of individual cells or lead to a population’s destruction, they can be temporary or permanent, they can be between genetically identical cells or different species entirely. The first chapter of this dissertation reviews microbial interactions and the related concept of the evolution of conflict and cooperation.To be certain a trait is an adaptation at …

The Effect Of Ionization Density In Applications Of Radiation Detection, Dosimetry, And Therapy, Daniel Mulrow

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation covers a wide range of topics but is linked by the common theme of radiation interacting with materials and studying the result of those interactions. The introduction describes the fundamentals of how radiation interacts with material and how we are able to detect that radiation and the application of how we use those interactions in radiation oncology. The thesis starts with a chapter detailing the temperature dependence of the photophysics in two organic scintillators. This chapter is the foundation for a future study that will look the degree to which these scintillators can distinguish between gammas and neutrons …

Essays On Macroeconomics And Finance, Matias Nicolas Marzani

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the relationship between risk and finance at the level of firms. In the first chapter, a model is developed in which optimal debt maturity is determined by a balance between the higher rollover risk of short-term debt and the higher risk-taking incentives of long-term debt. Evidence is provided using firm-level data on sales growth volatility and resource allocation to business lines. The second chapter explores the role of financial innovation in securities issuance, finding that the introduction of new financial products improves a firm's ability to raise funds. A model of the allocation of financial products among …

The Enemy Within: An Investigation Of The Intracellular Bacteria In Urinary Tract Infections, Jennie Elizabeth Hazen

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are common diseases that are associated with significant morbidities. Multiple studies have indicated that multiple species of uropathogenesis bacteria invade and persist within bladder epithelial cells as a necessary step of uropathogenesis. Interestingly, many of these species are not canonically associated with intracellular infections. Although the first study describing bacteria within the urothelium was published two decades ago, this critical step of uropathogenesis remains relatively understudied.I established a murine model of community-acquired A. baumannii UTI, a previously unstudied manifestation of the disease. While immunocompetent mice resolved their infections quickly, immunocompromised mice displayed high bacterial burdens throughout …

Modernism As Public Art: Reawakening The Social Agency Of Abstract Public Sculpture, 1950–1980, Tola Porter

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents a critical reassessment of postwar modern public sculpture and offers a framework for both the reevaluation and reawakening of these significant, inherited public images. Between 1950 and 1980, as a result of new national policies, the United Kingdom and the United States experienced a boom in public sculpture. That phenomenon was augmented by architectural modernism, whose stark buildings called for the addition of sculpture. The growing prestige of abstract art made it a popular choice for architects and commissioners, who sought to leverage the cachet of contemporary artists. For both private sector architects and public sector patrons, …

Tracking Reducing Equivalents Between Cellular Compartments To Understand The Metabolic Demands Of Proliferation, Yahui Wang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Proliferating cancer cells compartmentalize metabolic reactions, many of which require reducing equivalents. This compartmentalization is functionally important, but it is challenging to study with current technologies. As a consequence, our understanding of proliferating metabolism has been limited. Here, I developed an approach to track reducing equivalents between cellular compartments. By applying this method to a panel of different cell lines under various conditions, I investigated a dysregulated metabolic phenotype in proliferating cells known as “aerobic glycolysis”. Aerobic glycolysis is characterized by an elevated rate of glucose fermentation to lactate irrespective of oxygen availability. Using the NCI-60 cell lines, I first …

Non-Canonical Beta-Lactam Antibiotics, Brett Wesley Virgin-Downey

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In canonical β-Lactam antibiotics, such as penicillin, the strained nature of the β-Lactam ring leads to acylation of the catalytic serine in the active site of transpeptidases. In 2018, our lab reported a novel mechanism for monocyclic β-lactam antibiotics in the inhibition of glutamine synthetase (GS) by a natural product, tabtoxinine-β-lactam (TβL) using a 3-hydroxy-β-lactam pharmacophore. This work aims to generalize the β-lactam scaffold from TβL to act as a warhead against ATP-dependent carboxylate-amine ligase enzymes, with dihydrofolate synthetase (DHFS) as the test case. A pure 3-hydroxy-β-lactam warhead was synthesized and ligated both chemically and chemoenzymatically to different pteridine mimics. …

Mechanisms Regulating Photoreceptor Subtype Specification And Chromophore Utilization In Zebrafish, Leo Volkov

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

The first step in vision is the detection of light by a photoreceptor cell. The spectral sensitivity of a photoreceptor, in turn, is determined by the composition of its visual pigment, which consists of an opsin protein and a covalently bound chromophore derived from either vitamin A1 or vitamin A2. In the course of evolution, opsin gene duplication and functional divergence led to the emergence of four distinctive cone opsins, maximally sensitive to ultraviolet (UV), blue, green, or red light, as well as the rod opsin. Subsequently, the expression of these functionally distinct opsins was segregated into distinct cell types …

Secure Authentication Scheme Based On Numerical Series Cryptography For Internet Of Things, Dr Khaled Nagaty, Maha Aladin, Abeer Hamdy Dr.

Computer Science

The rapid advancement of cellular networks and wireless networks has laid a solid basis for the Internet of Things. IoT has evolved into a unique standard that allows diverse physical devices to collaborate with one another. A service provider gives a variety of services that may be accessed via smart apps anywhere, at any time, and from any location over the Internet. Because of the public environment of mobile communication and the Internet, these services are highly vulnerable to a several malicious attacks, such as unauthorized disclosure by hostile attackers. As a result, the best option for overcoming these vulnerabilities …

Leveraging Fpga Primitives To Improve Word Reconstruction During Netlist Reverse Engineering, Reilly Mckendrick, Corey Simpson, Brent Nelson, Jeffrey Goeders

Faculty Publications

While attempting to perform hardware trojan detection, or other low-level design analyses, it is often necessary to inspect and understand the gate-level netlist of an implemented hardware design. Unfortunately this process is challenging, as at the physical level, the design does not contain any hierarchy, net names, or word groupings. Previous work has shown how gate-level netlists can be analyzed to restore high-level circuit structures, including reconstructing multi-bit signals, which aids a user in understanding the behavior of the design. In this work we explore improvements to the word reconstruction process, specific to FPGA platforms. We demonstrate how hard-block primitives …

Crisisready's Novel Framework For Transdisciplinary Translation: Case-Studies In Wildfire And Hurricane Response, Andrew Schroeder, Caleb Dresser, Akash Yadav, Jennifer Chan, Shenyue Jia, Caroline Buckee, Satchit Balsari

Institute for ECHO Articles and Research

Extreme weather events including wildfires and hurricanes are becoming increasingly hazardous due to climate change, and often result in transient or permanent population displacements. Disaster-related disruptions in infrastructure, workforce, wages, and social networks can combine with population displacements to result in interruptions in health care access and prolonged impacts on morbidity and mortality. The data needed to make health systems and emergency management approaches more resilient to these hazards, and more responsive to the needs of affected populations, are sequestered in silos across private corporations and public agencies. In two case studies, we describe how our research team at CrisisReady …

Wmu Board Of Trustees Formal Session December15, 2022, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

Acceptance of the Agenda

Approval of the Minutes (November 3, 2022 Meeting)

Remarks by the Chair

Remarks by the President

Updates by the Faculty Senate President

Updates by the Western Student Association President

Updates by the Graduate Student Association President

Solving the Unsolvable

Public Comments Regarding Action Items

Action Items

• Building Name Adjustment – Stadium Club
• Honorary Degree Recommendation for Frederick S. Upton

Consent Items

• Personnel Report
• Flexibility on Use of Funds – Beauregard Endowment

General Public Comments

Tiam1-Mediated Synaptic Plasticity Underlies Comorbid Depression-Like And Ketamine Antidepressant-Like Actions In Chronic Pain, Qin Ru, Yungang Lu, Ali Bin Saifullah, Francisco A Blanco, Changqun Yao, Juan P Cata, De-Pei Li, Kimberley F Tolias, Lingyong Li

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Chronic pain often leads to depression, increasing patient suffering and worsening prognosis. While hyperactivity of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) appears to be critically involved, the molecular mechanisms underlying comorbid depressive symptoms in chronic pain remain elusive. T cell lymphoma invasion and metastasis 1 (Tiam1) is a Rac1 guanine nucleotide exchange factor (GEF) that promotes dendrite, spine, and synapse development during brain development. Here, we show that Tiam1 orchestrates synaptic structural and functional plasticity in ACC neurons via actin cytoskeleton reorganization and synaptic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) stabilization. This Tiam1-coordinated synaptic plasticity underpins ACC hyperactivity and drives chronic pain-induced depressive-like behaviors. …

Development Of Novel Nucleophile-Intercepted Beckmann Fragmentations And Progress Toward The Total Synthesis Of 2(S)-Cathafoline, Evan M. Dunkley

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis is comprised of two chapters, the first being the discovery of a novel nucleophile-intercepted Beckmann fragmentation of [2.2.1] indoline systems that resulted in highly stereo- and regioselective reactions. Chapter one details the exploration of this reaction as well as its relevant background information detailing its significance. Chapter two describes the application of the novel nucleophile-intercepted Beckmann fragmentation in the context of a total synthesis of akuammilline alkaloid 2(S)-cathafoline. While the target natural product was never synthesized, unpredicted reactivity resulted in interesting discoveries worthy of discussion.

Outcomes In Patients With Poor-Risk Cytogenetics With Or Without Tp53 Mutations Treated With Venetoclax And Azacitidine, Daniel A Pollyea, Keith W Pratz, Andrew H Wei, Vinod Pullarkat, Brian A Jonas, Christian Recher, Sunil Babu, Andre C Schuh, Monique Dail, Yan Sun, Jalaja Potluri, Brenda Chyla, Courtney D Dinardo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

PURPOSE: To evaluate efficacy and safety of venetoclax + azacitidine in treatment-naïve patients with acute myeloid leukemia harboring poor-risk cytogenetics and TP53mut or TP53wt.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: We analyzed data from a phase III study (NCT02993523) comparing venetoclax (400 mg orally days 1-28) + azacitidine (75 mg/m2 days 1-7) or placebo + azacitidine, and from a phase Ib study (NCT02203773) of venetoclax + azacitidine. Patients were ineligible for intensive therapy. TP53 status was analyzed centrally; cytogenetic studies were performed locally.

RESULTS: Patients (n = 127) with poor-risk cytogenetics receiving venetoclax + azacitidine (TP53wt = 50; TP53mut = 54) were compared …

The Consumption Of Photovoltaic Energy Based On The Theory Of Practice And Sociotechnical Transitions, Rafael Lopes Carvalhais, Marcelo De Rezende Pinto Prof.

The Qualitative Report

This paper seeks to advance the discussions involving the articulation between the theory of Sociotechnical Transitions and Practice Theory. The text tries to develop this articulation considering that it is possible to find in the literature notes that the Theory of Sociotechnical Transitions is a suitable partner to be articulated with the Theory of Practice. The proposition was tested in empirical research in which we sought to understand how consumption practices change from adopting photovoltaic energy consumption. The research is categorized as qualitative research. The study offers an interpretation of the object from the theoretical lens provided by Social Practice …

Review Of The Physical And Chemical Properties Of Seagrass Soils, Nerea Piñeiro-Juncal, Oscar Serrano, Miguel Ángel Mateo, Elena Diaz-Almela, Carmen Leiva-Dueñas, Antonio Martinez-Cortizas

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Seagrasses are a polyphyletic group of angiosperms that colonized marine environments more than 30 million years ago and currently inhabit coastal soft and rocky substrates in all continents except Antarctica. Due to their evolution from terrestrial plants, seagrasses have belowground organs that interact with the substrate, transforming it through chemo-physical processes analogous to terrestrial soil formation. Although seagrass substrates provide valuable ecosystem services including carbon and coastal stabilization, they have been largely regarded as sediments by marine scientists and neglected in soil science research. However, over the last decades, the increasing interest in carbon accumulation by seagrasses has generated multiple …

Performance Analysis Of A Solar-Driven Integrated Direct-Contact Membrane Distillation And Humidification–Dehumidification System, Abdellah Shafieian, Amin Roostaee, Pooria Behnam, Mehdi Khiadani

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Despite significant advantages of solar-driven membrane-based distillation systems, their large-scale application is limited due to high energy losses, and low technical and economic feasibility. To overcome the mentioned issues, a Direct-Contact Membrane Distillation (DCMD) module (as the primary distillation stage) was coupled with a hollow-fibre membrane-based air humidification–dehumidification (HD) unit (as the secondary distillation stage) to increase the water productivity of the system by recovering some of the lost energy in the first stage. The membrane-based humidifier was designed and implemented instead of the conventional packed columns to avert their drawbacks of being bulky, complex, less durable, and less reliable. …

Traditional Beliefs, Practices, And Migration: A Risk To Malaria Transmission In Rural Nepal, Kr Awasthi, J Jancey, Aca Clements, Rk Sah, Et Al

Peninsula Medical School

The study aimed to explore sociocultural factors influencing the risk of malaria and practices and beliefs towards malaria prevention, transmission and treatment in a remote village in Khatyad Rural Municipality (KRM) of Nepal. A sequential exploratory mixed methods approach was used. Qualitative data were collected through 25 one-on-one, in-depth interviews followed by a face-to-face household survey (n = 218) among people from a village in KRM believed to have a high risk of malaria. Traditional practices such as Chhaupadi requiring the seclusion of women during menstruation and post-partum, transhumance, and reliance on traditional healers for the management of malaria were …