Digital Commons Network^™

Remarks At The Botetourt Chamber Of Commerce 49th Annual Dinner, Glenn Dubois

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

No abstract provided.

Brief For Lorianne Updike Toler As Amicus Curiae Supporting Neither Party, Gorge Design Group, Llc V. Xuansheng, Lorianne Updike Toler, Lawrence A. Stein

College of Law Faculty Publications

The Patent and Copyright Clause in the Constitution was designed to stimulate the economy by promoting “the Progress of Science and useful Arts,” and was also limited to that purpose. Insofar as the economy was not stimulated and promoted in the United States, the Clause had a limit. Thus the Patent and Copyright Clause was not thought to be absolute by its Framers, and was bounded geographically, temporally, and to those inventions that were useful. Under the Fifth Amendment, both the Takings and Due Process Clauses protecting property derived from the Magna Carta of 1215. Since this time, the Takings …

Detection Of Stroke With Retinal Microvascular Density And Self-Supervised Learning Using Oct-A And Fundus Imaging, Samiksha Pachade, Ivan Coronado, Rania Abdelkhaleq, Juntao Yan, Sergio Salazar-Marioni, Amanda Jagolino, Charles Green, Mozhdeh Bahrainian, Roomasa Channa, Sunil A Sheth, Luca Giancardo

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Acute cerebral stroke is a leading cause of disability and death, which could be reduced with a prompt diagnosis during patient transportation to the hospital. A portable retina imaging system could enable this by measuring vascular information and blood perfusion in the retina and, due to the homology between retinal and cerebral vessels, infer if a cerebral stroke is underway. However, the feasibility of this strategy, the imaging features, and retina imaging modalities to do this are not clear. In this work, we show initial evidence of the feasibility of this approach by training machine learning models using feature engineering …

Comprehensive Molecular And Morphological Resolution Of Blubber Stratification In A Deep-Diving, Fasting-Adapted Seal, J. I.. Khudyakov, K. N. Allen, D. E. Crocker, N. S. Trost, A. H. Roberts, L. Pirard, C. Debier, E. R. Piotrowski, J. P. Vázquez-Medina

Pacific Faculty Work

Blubber is a modified subcutaneous adipose tissue in marine mammals that provides energy storage, thermoregulation, hydrodynamic locomotion, and buoyancy. Blubber displays vertical stratification by lipid content, fatty acid composition, and vascularization, leading to the assumption that deeper blubber layers are metabolically active, while superficial layers are mainly structural and thermoregulatory. However, few studies have examined functional stratification of marine mammal blubber directly, especially in pinnipeds. We characterized morphological and transcriptional differences across blubber layers in the northern elephant seal, a deep-diving and fasting-adapted phocid. We collected blubber from seals early in their fasting period and divided blubber cores into three …

Computational Tools For Modeling And Simulation Of Sooting Turbulent Non-Premixed Flames, Victoria B. Stephens

Theses and Dissertations

Turbulent combustion systems are physically complex processes that involve many interdependent phenomena---including turbulent fluid dynamics, multi-component mass transfer, convective and radiative heat transfer, and multiphase flow---that occur over a wide range of length and time scales. Modeling and simulation studies complement experimental work by implementing and validating models and providing predictive capabilities, but current software tools are often limited by a lack of standardization and best practices, non-robust implementation, or over-specialization. Some topics in combustion CFD research, notably radiative heat transfer and soot modeling, are critically underrepresented in simulation studies as a result of software limitations. This project establishes and …

Assessing The Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices Of Elementary Teacher Educators On The Inclusion Of Computational Thinking Through Coding, Megan Christine Swanson

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to understand the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of teacher educators regarding Computational Thinking (CT) and coding. All elementary teacher educators in the state of Utah were sent a survey and asked to participate in a follow up interview. Twentynine faculty replied. Five of the 29 survey respondents were interviewed. Teacher educators shared their definitions of CT and coding, which primarily dealt with problem solving and computer programming, respectively. Overall attitudes were positive about incorporating CT and coding, but many participants questioned how it would fit into the already overwhelming nature of the elementary education major. However, those …

Cloud Container Security’ Next Move, Vishakha Sadhwani

Dissertations and Theses

In the last few years, it is apparent to cybersecurity experts everywhere that the proverbial container tech genie is out of the bottle, and has been widely embraced across multiple organizations. To achieve the flexibility of building and deploying applications anywhere and everywhere, cloud native environments have gained great momentum and made the development lifecycle simpler than ever. However, container environments brings with them a range of cybersecurity issues that includes images, containers, hosts, runtimes, registries, and orchestration platforms, which needs the necessity to focus on investing in securing your container stack.

According to this report[1], released by cloud-native …

Influence Of Emotional Intelligence And Leadership Behavior In The Construction Industry., Zeeshan Akther Mohammed

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI), work engagement, and project success among mid-level management in the construction industry. Multiple sources, including journals and research papers, were examined to establish the importance of EI and its impact on work engagement. The study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of EI and its influence on the work engagement of mid-level employees. The findings highlight the correlation between EI and work engagement, quantifying the threshold of EI required for optimal contribution to organizational success. The research questions address the relationship between EI and work engagement in the construction industry, as …

Restaurant Branding Financial Analysis Using Data Analytics, Hamda Alwahedi, Khaled Aljaberi

Theses

Abu Dhabi's hospitality industry is a vibrant and dynamic sector that has established itself as a premier destination for tourists seeking luxury, comfort, and unparalleled entertainment experiences.This study serves as a contribution to Abu Dhabi hospitality industry and economy, as it serves as a data driven and artificial intelligence (AI) solution that utilizes the latest technology to meet increasing demands. A local UAE chain, abc restaurant, is the primary source of data, after applying machine learning and data analysis technologies and techniques extensive analysis the key drivers of profits decline were identified. Further examining causes and factors in the social …

Experimental Simulation Of Nucleating Bubble Behavior In A Microgap With Air Injected Bubbles, Jack Green

Theses

The following study investigates the behavior of bubbles created by air injection under a tapered microgap. It is a continuation of previous work from the Thermal Analysis and Microfluidics Lab at RIT which showed that placing a tapered gap manifold over a heated surface in a pool boiling setup could direct the flow of vapor created by two-phase heat transfer and create a pumping effect to increase its heat transfer performance. This study isolates this phenomenon and examines exactly how bubble motion affects liquid throughput. The results of this study provide insight into the specific parameters which induce this effect …

F3rn.Org Defi, Nabeel Mohammed Basheer

Theses

Leadership is searching for strategies to assist geo-based communities, cities, large and small towns, and neighborhoods in achieving independent and more decentralized, sustainable environmental practices. By employing a paradigm that encourages peer-to-peer fund raising and rewards participants by actively encouraging more civic engagement, the F3rn platform responds to this demand and helps to build a stronger local circular economy. The F3rn Defi Platform has made it possible to create a global ecosystem for recycling plastic waste. This ecosystem uses Algorand blockchain technology to provide unbanked people with access to financial services, job opportunities for the extremely poor through financial incentives, …

The Hurt And The Healing: An Artistic Investigation Into The Stigma Surrounding Substance Use Disorder, Kenny Kelley

Undergraduate Theses

This interdisciplinary, creative thesis aims to deconstruct the stigma directed towards individuals who struggle with substance use disorder (SUD) through the use of a solo art exhibit on Bellarmine University's campus. This exhibit features two large-scale installation sculptures and curated art pieces created by individuals at Crossroads Recovery Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. In addition to the gallery exhibition, this research-based written reflection is also included. One of the sculptures portrays the “hurt” that stigma causes for those who struggle with SUD. In contrast, the second sculpture represents the “healing” that can be achieved for people struggling with SUD when stigma …

Non-Hermitian Physics In Magnetic Systems, Hilary M. Hurst, Benedetta Flebus

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Non-Hermitian Hamiltonians provide an alternative perspective on the dynamics of quantum and classical systems coupled non-conservatively to an environment. Once primarily an interest of mathematical physicists, the theory of non-Hermitian Hamiltonians has solidified and expanded to describe various physically observable phenomena in optical, photonic, and condensed matter systems. Self-consistent descriptions of quantum mechanics based on non-Hermitian Hamiltonians have been developed and continue to be refined. In particular, non-Hermitian frameworks to describe magnonic and hybrid magnonic systems have gained popularity and utility in recent years with new insights into the magnon topology, transport properties, and phase transitions coming into view. Magnonic …

Developing An Accurate Simulation Model For Predicting Friction Stir Welding Processes In 2219 Aluminum Alloy, Kennen Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

Modeling of friction stir welding (FSW) is challenging, as there are large gradients in both strain rate and temperature that must be accounted for in the constitutive law of the material being joined. Constitutive laws are most often calibrated using flow stresses from hot compression or hot torsion testing, where strain rates are much lower than those of the FSW process. As such, the current work employed a recently developed method to measure flow stresses in AA 2219-T67 at the high strain rates typical of FSW. These data were used in the development of a finite element simulation of FSW …

توظيف تقنيتَي الاستشعار عن بُعد ونُظم المعلومات الجغرافية لتقييم مخاطر السيول في الجزء الأعلى من حوض وادي إبراهيم (مكة المكرمة), إبراهيم درويش

Journal of Arts and Social Sciences

تكمن المشكلة في الجزء الأعلى من حوض وادي إبراهيم بمدينة مكة المكرمة في تغير أغطية الأرض الطبيعية التي كانت بمثابة متنفس لمياه الفيضان إلى استعمالات عمرانية؛ وهو الأمر الذي أدى إلى تقليص زمن الاستجابة وسرعة تولد الجريان وتضاعف أحجام المياه واتساع المنطقة المعرضة لمخاطر الفيضانات. وبالتالي يهدف البحث إلى تقييم حجم ومخاطر السيول في الجزء الأعلى لحوض وادي إبراهيم، بإتباع منهجية مصلحة صيانة التربة الأمريكية (CN)، وتعتمد هذه المنهجية في تقدير الجريان السطحي ومخاطره على أغطية واستعمالات الأرض والمجموعات الهيدرولوجية للتربة والرطوبة المسبقة للتربة والأمطار/24 ساعة، وتعتبر هذه الطريقة من أكثر طرق تقدير الجريان انتشاراً في الدراسات الهندسية ومشاريع إدارة …

Growth Productivity As A Determinant Of The Inoculum Effect For Bactericidal Antibiotics, Gabriela Diaz-Tang, Estefania Marin Meneses, Kavish Patel, Sophia Mirkin, Laura Garcia-Dieguez, Camryn Pajon, Ivana Barraza, Vijay Patel, Helana Ghali, Angelica P. Tracey, Christopher Blanar, Allison J. Lopatkin, Robert P. Smith

Biology Faculty Articles

Understanding the mechanisms by which populations of bacteria resist antibiotics has implications in evolution, microbial ecology, and public health. The inoculum effect (IE), where antibiotic efficacy declines as the density of a bacterial population increases, has been observed for multiple bacterial species and antibiotics. Several mechanisms to account for IE have been proposed, but most lack experimental evidence or cannot explain IE for multiple antibiotics. We show that growth productivity, the combined effect of growth and metabolism, can account for IE for multiple bactericidal antibiotics and bacterial species. Guided by flux balance analysis and whole-genome modeling, we show that the …

Development Of A Passive And Compact Solid Metal Heat Switch, Steve Park

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

The main purpose of the independent study was to test and optimize a passive solid metal thermal heat switch. Based on the results from my summer research internship, a new metal prototype was machined. Multiple thermal tests were conducted to validate the functionality of the heat switch and to measure the thermal performance. Experiments were conducted in the vacuum chamber to minimize heat loss and improve the switching ratio. From the thermal data measurement, although the off-state thermal conductance decreased from 0.19 W/K to 0.075 W/K compared to previous trials, this conductance value is still higher than expected. Self-consistent and …

Music Therapy Interventions And Their Outcomes On Hematology And Oncology Patients, And Outpatient Groups, Alexandra Paque

Honors Theses

There is a variety of research published about the use of music therapy interventions and their outcomes for the pediatric hematology-oncology and outpatient groups, however the research is not combined to put together a description of the most effective interventions utilized in one place. This scoping review addressed the questions of what music therapy interventions are used in the pediatric hematology/oncology and outpatient settings, and what the outcomes of music therapy were respectively. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were established to determine what articles to include in the review. Three databases including Google Scholar, WMU Library, and PubMed were searched to …

Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach Update, December 14, 2022, Office Of Research, Economic Engagement And Outreach

Office of Research, Economic Engagement and Outreach

No abstract provided.

F3rn.Org Defi, Nabeel Mohammed Basheer

Theses

Leadership is searching for strategies to assist geo-based communities, cities, large and small towns, and neighborhoods in achieving independent and more decentralized, sustainable environmental practices. By employing a paradigm that encourages peer-to-peer fund raising and rewards participants by actively encouraging more civic engagement, the F3rn platform responds to this demand and helps to build a stronger local circular economy.

The F3rn Defi Platform has made it possible to create a global ecosystem for recycling plastic waste. This ecosystem uses Algorand blockchain technology to provide unbanked people with access to financial services, job opportunities for the extremely poor through financial incentives, …

Shape Optimization Of Spherical And Cylindrical Bearings Under Pure Squeeze Conditions Using Genetic Algorithms, Vibhav Santhanam

Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to determine the optimal shape of lubricated axisymmetric spherical bearing cups and symmetric journal bearing sleeves under transient pure squeeze conditions using a genetic algorithm. The objective is to maximize the load impulse of a perfectly spherical ball or perfectly cylindrical journal interacting through a thin lubricant film with a generally non-spherical cup or non-cylindrical sleeve to achieve a specified minimum film thickness value. A generation is a set of bearing shapes over the design space encoded as binary chromosomes. A finite element model simulates the normal approach of the ball or journal to …

Development Of A Bio-Inspired Computational Astrocyte Model For Spiking Neural Networks, Jacob Kiggins

Theses

The mammalian brain is the most capable and complex computing entity known today. For many years there has been research focused on reproducing the brain's processing capabilities. An early example of this endeavor was the perceptron which has become the core building block of neural network models in the deep learning era. Deep learning has had tremendous success in well-defined tasks like object detection, games like go and chess, and automatic speech recognition. In fact, some deep learning models can match and even outperform humans in specific situations. However, in general, they require much more training, have higher power consumption, …

Advanced Isogeometric Discretization Techniques, Kyle Dennis Richardson

Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I provide a robust, efficient inverse mapping algorithm for use in immersed simulation methods, specifically in the Flex Representation Method. I also explore a structural theory that unifies the theories of solids, shells, beams, and rigid bodies. As part of this, I preform a preliminary exploration of applying the Flex Representation Method to shells. Finally, I explore why higher order elements suffer from small critical time steps in explicit dynamics. I then propose a simple method of remedying this issue by exploiting the properties of U-splines.

Future Climate Rhetorics Of Belize: A Counter-Apocalyptic Inquiry Into Belize’S Possible, Probable, And Preferable Futures, André Habet

Dissertations - ALL

This dissertation investigates future climate rhetorics of Belize through a variety of methods in order to mediate the various conceptions of the future professed in climate policy, experiential phenomenology, and acoustic ecologies of agroecology. Chapter one considers the values embedded in climate change policy documents, specifically the Nation Communications documents composed by Belize’s various ministries since the country signed to the Paris Agreement in 2016. Using the People’s Agreement of Cochamba as an alternative lens, the chapter explores how people-centered, as opposed to market-centered, attunements informing climate policy can potentially lead to a more just, equitable future that does not …

A Comparative Study On Blockchain-Based Electronic Health Record Systems: Performance, Privacy, And Security Between Hyperledger Fabric And Ethereum Frameworks, Md Jobair Hossain Faruk, Hossain Shahriar, Maria Valero, Xia Li

Master of Science in Software Engineering Theses

Traditional data collection, storage, and processing of Electronic Health Records (EHR) utilize centralized techniques that pose several risks of single point of failure and lean the systems to a number of internal and external data breaches that compromise their reliability and availability. Addressing the challenges of conventional database techniques and improving the overall aspects of EHR application, blockchain technology is being evaluated to find a possible solution. Blockchain refers to an emerging distributed technology and incorruptible database of records or digital events which execute, validate, and maintain by a ledger technology to provide an immutable architecture and prevent records manipulation …

Determining Figure Skating Jump Under-Rotation In Real-Time Using Imu Sensors During Practice, Duncan O. Furgeson

Theses and Dissertations

We explore the use of machine learning to detect under-rotation in figure skating jumps. Under- rotation in jumps is difficult for the skater to sense but learning to recognize under-rotation is an impor- tant part of learning proper jump technique. To address this difficulty, we present the Under-rotation Monitor, or UR Monitor, a system for detecting under-rotated figure skating jumps in real-time. UR Monitor uses a single inertial measurement unit (IMU) attached to the skater's waist that sends a stream of accelerometer and gyroscope data to a mobile phone via Bluetooth. The mobile phone creates and sends an input vector …

Implementation Of Frostbite And Opioid Overdose Response Guidelines At A Warming Center, Kristeljei Baltazar, Rachel Turner

DNP and Student Works

Homelessness is a major crisis within the United States. The instability of the homeless population's lifestyle exposes them to physical and mental health conditions such as frostbite and opioid use. Due to the harsh winter weather conditions in Minnesota, homeless individuals often experience frostbite. In addition, opioid overdoses continue to rise within this community, with numbers doubling each year. The purpose of this project was to increase staff and volunteer knowledge and confidence levels surrounding the response to frostbite injuries and opioid overdoses by implementing guidelines at a warming center for homeless individuals.

Potential Local Extirpation Of An Imperiled Freshwater Mussel Population From Wildfire Runoff, Andrew J. Lawrence, Cindy Matuch, Jacquelyn J. Hancock, Andrew L. Rypel, Laura A. Eliassen

Western North American Naturalist

Effects of wildfire and subsequent hydric erosion on freshwater communities are of increasing interest. While freshwater biodiversity is in a global state of decline, examples of climate-driven wildfire impacts to freshwater mussel populations are especially limited. We discovered a population of native floater mussels (Anodonta californiensis/nuttalliana), documented fish species, and recorded data on river substrate characteristics before and after an influx of wildfire runoff in Monterey County, California, USA. Pre-wildfire runoff surveys documented robust and naturally reproducing populations of mussels and 3 species of native fishes (Monterey sucker, Catostomus occidentalis mnioltiltus; Monterey roach, Lavinia symmetricus subditus; …

St. Joseph County 2021 Housing Plan, Molly Trueblood, Lee Adams, Gerrit Anderson, Southcentral Michigan Planning Council

Reports

No abstract provided.

Future Colorado River Basin Drought And Surplus, Rama Bedri, Thomas Piechota

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

Historical and future drought and surplus periods in the Colorado River basin are evaluated based on eight climate scenarios. Unimpaired streamflow from 17 stations in the Colorado River are evaluated based on U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Reclamation, and Coupled Modeled Intercomparison Projection 5 downscaled data from 1950–2099. Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 emission scenarios are considered for four climate models (HadGEM2-ES, CNRM-CM5, CanESM2, MI-ROC5). Drought (surplus) quantities, magnitudes, severities, and water year flows are compared for the historical and future periods. Results indicate that there is a significant difference between the historical record and future projections. The …