Digital Commons Network^™

Our Legacy, Kaishun Huang

Theses

Plastic pollution has become one of the most pressing environmental issues. Plastic bottles take up to 450 years to decompose in landfill. The other issues caused by plastic waste such as incineration, microplastic and many more are equally terrifying. This project means to create more social awareness. A call for more people to take action and make a difference. Serious overproduction of plastic waste and other Non-Degradable Substance overwhelms the world’s ability to deal with them. Uncontrolled waste production will cause great trouble for us and our children and grandchildren. This project is in three parts. An infographic introduces some …

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, …

Timing Jitter From Broadband Radio Observations Of Millisecond Pulsars, Jackson Hebel

Theses

Timing the arrival of pulsar light is a critical tool for scrutinizing the characteristics of the interstellar medium (ISM) and the pulsar itself. Pulsar timing is affected by factors such as the solar system's kinematics, turbulence in the ISM, and intrinsic timing noise inherent to each pulsar. The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) maintains a catalog of high-precision timing for millisecond pulsars. Using NANOGrav pulsars, and accounting for relative time-of-arrival (TOA) differences within observation epochs, the remaining noise in the TOA can be parsed out to just the jitter innate to the pulsar. This research utilizes wide …

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, …

Addressing The Drug Problem: The Establishment Of Drug Courts And Evaluating Their Effectiveness, Diana Blick

Theses

Throughout the United States during the past few decades, there have been problems with the use of drugs. There has and always have been issues with drug addiction and drug crimes in terms of how to address those problems. From the harsh consequences of the Rockefeller Drug laws in 1973 to the establishment of the first drug court in 1989, there have been reforms to the drug laws to reduce the severity for punishments of drug offenses. The first drug court in the United States was established in Miami, Florida before spreading throughout the United States. The first drug court …

Midweek Memo, Georgia Southern University

Midweek Memo

• Applaud
• Remember
• Share
• Experience
• You May Have Heard

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 …

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.

Investigating The Relationships Between Concentrated Disadvantage, Place Connectivity, And Covid-19 Fatality In The United States Over Time, Fengrui Jing, Zhenlong Liu, Shan Qiao, Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Background Concentrated disadvantaged areas have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 outbreak in the United States (US). Meanwhile, highly connected areas may contribute to higher human movement, leading to higher COVID-19 cases and deaths. This study examined the associations between concentrated disadvantage, place connectivity, and COVID-19 fatality in the US over time. Methods Concentrated disadvantage was assessed based on the spatial concentration of residents with low socioeconomic status. Place connectivity was defined as the normalized number of shared Twitter users between the county and all other counties in the contiguous US in a year (Y = 2019). COVID-19 fatality was measured …

The Effect Of Gut Microbiota On Overwintering Success In Mule Deer, Emma Wilcox

Theses and Dissertations

Mule deer are an important rangeland grazer, large prey species, and game animal for the state of Utah, so herd size is monitored and managed actively. A significant cause of population decline is poor overwintering survival, including from the lack of available forage during winter months. Mule deer energy storage is correlated with greater overwintering success, so physical estimates of energy storage including body condition score (BCS), rump fat (RF), and loin thickness (LT), can be used to track and predict a herd's health. Current methods of collecting deer information are costly, time consuming, and cause physical stress to deer, …

Wildfire Modeling With Data Assimilation, Andrew Johnston

Theses and Dissertations

Wildfire modeling is a complex, computationally costly endeavor, but with droughts worsening and fires burning across the western United States, obtaining accurate wildfire predictions is more important than ever. In this paper, we present a novel approach to wildfire modeling using data assimiliation. We model wildfire spread with a modification of the partial differential equation model described by Mandel et al. in their 2008 paper. Specifically, we replace some constant parameter values with geospatial functions of fuel type. We combine deep learning and remote sensing to obtain real-time data for the model and employ the Nelder-Mead method to recover optimal …

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 …

With The Screenwriter's Pen: An Analysis Of The Representation Of Gifted Children In The Family Film, Sarah Williams

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Family films are something that have been enjoyed for many decades. They often create a fantastic world that will enchant audiences and eventually become beloved stories. A big aspect often seen in these films is a protagonist that possesses some kind of gift. Where does this gift come from? How does it grow? Most importantly, how do the screenwriters who are responsible for bringing these gifted heroes to life go about it?

Using the screenplays of Kubo and the Two Strings, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Encanto, and Coraline, I take a deep dive into the portrayal of …

Unclean And Unforgivable, Cindy Pope

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Abstract

Unclean and Unforgiveable

Unclean and Unforgiveable is a historical medical drama wherein the protagonist, Victoria Evans, travels to Richmond, Virginia, to become a nurse trainee in 1862. Using archival and bibliographic research, this writer constructed authoritative, realistic, and emotionally charged scenes for readers to experience the brutalities of war and the harsh realities of nursing in the South. Yet for all her laborious duties carried out with diligence and devotion, Victoria’s beloved Virginia is decimated, and her family is destroyed. Her one marketable skill is nursing using proper hygienic and cleansing techniques. This brings her to the attention of …

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 …

Investigating Biometrics Of Perimyotis Subflavus In Traditional And Nontraditional Hibernacula In The Southeastern United States As It Relates To Susceptibility To White-Nose Syndrome., Makayla Ferrari

Master of Science in Integrative Biology Theses

Perimyotis subflavus, or tricolored bat, populations have declined significantly since the emergence of white-nose syndrome (WNS) and has been proposed for listing as “endangered” under the United States Endangered Species Act. Traditionally, bats use caves as hibernacula, but as anthropogenic impacts have increased so has the use of manmade structures like culverts and bridges for roosting by several bat species. The internal environment of these anthropogenic structures is influenced by external temperature and humidity differently than caves and may influence P. subflavus winter activity, and thus susceptibility to WNS. One of the most significant differences in P. subflavus roosting behavior …

Clean Water State Revolving Fund For The Year Ended June 30, 2022, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Financial and Compliance Audit Reports

No abstract provided.

Powerful Yet Lonely: Is 3c 297 A High-Redshift Fossil Group?, Valentina Missaglia, Juan P. Madrid, Mischa Schirmer, Francesco Massaro, Alberto Rodríguez-Ardila, Carlos J. Donzelli, Martell Valencia, Alessandro Paggi, Ralph P. Kraft, Chiara Stuardi, Belinda J. Wilkes

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The environment of the high-redshift (z = 1.408), powerful radio-loud galaxy 3C 297 has several distinctive features of a galaxy cluster. Among them, a characteristic halo of hot gas revealed by Chandra X-ray observations. In addition, a radio map obtained with the Very Large Array shows a bright hotspot in the northwestern direction, created by the interaction of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) jet arising from 3C 297 with its environment. In the X-ray images, emission cospatial with the northwestern radio lobe is detected, and peaks at the position of the radio hotspot. The extended, complex X-ray emission observed …

A Literary Tool Among The Shades Of Grey: Fanfiction, Libraries And Readers’ Advisory, Molly Hart

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Fanfiction is a work or story developed by fans that utilizes either characters, settings, or plot points from a source text or revolves around famous individuals that are not directly written by the original authors or creators. As a whole, it is a vast and widely misunderstood genre that is typically associated with the poorly written work of teenagers or the hyper sexualized content of famous works like Fifty Shades of Grey. In all reality, fanfiction can serve as a vital tool for librarians and readers’ advisory personnel to encourage reading. This paper takes a look at the content of …

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 …

Interprofessional Education Lab Manual And Workbook, Geraldine Terry

Open Textbooks

This laboratory manual was designed to educate and develop integrated healthcare practices essential in delivering person-centered care. Participants will develop their ability to distinguish the role of their own profession and other healthcare professionals collaborating in the care coordination and case management of patients. The content and team-oriented activities in this manual provide guidance on advancing leadership and communication principles necessary for effective interprofessional communication and team collaboration. The well-researched material is tailored to build on the strengths of participants, while also identifying and encouraging areas for improvement.

Developing A Corequisite Writing Textbook: How Two Novices Handled The Complex Nature Of Open Textbook Production, Dawn Atkinson, Stacey Corbitt

Writing

Despite the growing body of scholarship focused on Open Educational Resources (OERs), studies tracking open textbook production are exceedingly rare. To gain insight into the complexities associated with open textbook development, this article’s authors used concurrent verbalisation and pre- and post-concurrent verbalisation interviews to document writing episodes while composing their first coursebook, an open-source text designed for corequisite course pairings of writing fundamentals and introduction to technical writing. Corequisite classes combine content-area instruction with explicit skill-building opportunities, and although commercial publishing houses do produce corequisite textbooks for traditional general education courses, the authors were impelled by the need to create …

Uniqueness Of Steady State Positive Solutions To A General Elliptic System With Dirichlet Boundary Conditions, Joon Hyuk Kang

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to give conditions for the uniqueness of positive solution to a rather general type of elliptic system of the Dirichlet problem on a bounded domain Ω in Rⁿ. Also considered are the effects of perturbations on the coexistence state and uniqueness.

Focus On Top Tier 2.0: Community Partnerships, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Focus on Top Tier 2.0

UNLV has been an integral part of the growth of Southern Nevada, and our efforts on campus and beyond seek to enhance our communities and make them better. UNLV is proud to have earned the Carnegie Classification for Community Engagement, an important milestone on our journey that demonstrates the highest standard of recognition. This designation affirms our efforts as our faculty, staff, students, and alumni embrace the power of partnerships for the public good.

How Do You Initiate A Weight Discussion With Your Patients?, Alexander Redmann, Rachael Urbaniak, Jessica Neuman

DNP and Student Works

Research shows that many providers feel uncomfortable initiating weight discussions related to fear of sounding judgemental and inexperience in weight counseling. This leads to the failure of healthcare providers to intervene before weight issues become a greater diagnosis. The primary objective for this project is to determine if a screening tool aids providers in initiating weight discussions with patients.

The Tennessee Local Development Authority For The Year Ended June 30, 2022, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Financial and Compliance Audit Reports

No abstract provided.

Tennessee State School Bond Authority For The Year Ended June 30, 2022, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Financial and Compliance Audit Reports

No abstract provided.

Tennessee Local Development Authority For The Year Ended June 30, 2022, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Financial and Compliance Audit Reports

No abstract provided.

The Clean Water State Revolving Fund For The Year Ended June 30, 2022, Tennessee. Comptroller Of The Treasury.

Financial and Compliance Audit Reports

No abstract provided.