Digital Commons Network^™

Places And Spaces: The Onboarding And Retention Of Black Students In K-12 Private Schools, Peter H. Boylan

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

This study aimed to identify the social and academic constructs that Black students have made to enter and graduate from private, predominantly White, K–12 institutions. Through a comprehensive examination of themes derived from a narrative model with interviews, this research sought to identify the challenges Black students faced, what they did to overcome the challenges, and then to raise programmatic awareness in those institutions to ease the burden on Black students, their families, and to ease the challenges they face while at those institutions. This study could potentially create new insights into what makes a Black student and their families …

Transformative Learning Outcomes: Shifting The Learning Outcome Conversation From Assessment To Design, Mat D. Duerden, Jamin C. Rowan

Faculty Publications

What if the focus of learning outcomes shifted from telling students what they will know at the end of a course to who they will become? Learning outcomes have drifted away from informing curriculum design to providing parameters for external assessment. This article reviews this shift along with a proposal to reimagine learning outcomes as transformative learning outcomes. It discusses previous work on transformative learning outcomes and proposes a new conceptual definition: learning outcomes that articulate habits of mind or ways of being that students will develop because of a learning experience or sequence of learning experiences. Such learning outcomes …

A Labeled Magnitude Scale For Measuring The Anticipated Impact Of Immediate Experiences, Gary D. Ellis, Patti A. Freeman, Brian J. Hill, Jingxian Jiang, Kaylee Janes

Faculty Publications

Lundberg et al. (2022) recently developed a rubric for classifying experience impacts as ordinary, meaningful, memorable, or transformative. This article extends that contribution by developing a measure of anticipated impacts suitable for evaluating the anticipated impacts of immediate, structured experiences, such as heritage interpretation experiences, museum visits, and events. We developed a labeled magnitude scale (LMS) by calibrating six adverbial modifiers of impact intensity (negligible, slight, significant, profound, substantial, transformative) to judges’ ratings of ratio-scaled distances. We examined criterion-related evidence of validity using 2,867 experience observations from 594 university students who visited venues selected to advance their emotional connection to …

Writing Centers’ Entanglements With Neoliberal Success, Crystal Bazaldua, Tekla Hawkins, Randall W. Monty

Writing and Language Studies Faculty Publications

Throughout the 2010s, “success” became a common descriptor in writing centers, academic units, and student services. While the term carries connotations of professional achievement and economic improvement, it is rarely explicitly defined. This ambiguity is an example of how the interests of public institutions of postsecondary education are entangled with neoliberalism. Using a corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis approach, this essay examines uses of the ideograph “success” within an original mini-corpus comprising the webspaces of eight writing centers from one large state university system in the United States. The analysis considers how writing centers contribute to neoliberal discourses of “success” that …

Lithium In Drinking Water: Review Of Chemistry, Analytical Methods, And Treatment Technologies, Julie A. Korak, Philip J. Brandhuber, Joseph E. Goodwill

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Lithium was included in the fifth Unregulated Contaminants Monitoring Rule, signaling the Environmental Protection Agency's interest in regulating lithium. Many questions regarding occurrence, health effects, and treatability of lithium exist. This review primarily focuses on the relationship between lithium chemistry and treatability. Sampling indicates nationwide lithium occurrence in drinking water. Yet, lithium is not included in the Integrated Risk Information System, reflecting a lack of censuses regarding its health effects. Aqueous lithium is a monovalent cation with size, charge density, and solubility properties that present treatment challenges. Lithium's growing economic value is stimulating new extraction and isolation technologies, but these …

Evaluating Soil Stiffness For Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind Research Project Monopile Foundations, Kody Price

Open Access Master's Theses

The long-term performance of monopile foundations supporting offshore wind turbines along the United States East Coast remains uncertain. The uncertainty stems from several factors, including limited relevant historical data and questions regarding the reliability of existing soil stiffness estimation methods when applied to monopiles and the marine sediments in which they are installed.

The objective of this research is to investigate, apply, and compare existing methods and tools used to estimate soil stiffness to assess their accuracy and effectiveness for monopile applications. To ensure relevancy to the problem at hand, the geotechnical conditions and offshore wind turbine monopile foundation specifications …

Innovative Bioink Formulation For 3d Bioprinting Of Tissue-Engineered Intervertebral Disc Implants, Sophia Boiani

Open Access Master's Theses

Intervertebral disc (IVD) degeneration is a significant contributor to back pain and disability globally, necessitating advancements in treatment options. This thesis presents the development and characterization of a novel bioink to be used for generating 3D bioprinted tissue-engineered constructs of the nucleus pulposus (NP) region of the IVD. The bioink, a composite of methylcellulose (MC, 7 wt%), polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA, 15 wt%), and Lithium phenyl-2,4,6-trimethylbenzoylphosphinate (LAP, 0.1 wt%), is optimized for enhanced mechanical properties and cellular integration. Polylactic-co-glycolic acid (PLGA) nanoparticles were also incorporated in the hydrogel to potentially delivery growth factors in the future, which will support cell …

Control Of Flow Instabilities With Acoustic Metamaterials, Jensen E. Mctighe

Open Access Master's Theses

Acoustic metamaterials (AMs) have been proposed for uses in flow control, as they offer a passive control method and can be engineered independently, without needing complex fluid structure interactions simulations. For example, AMs embedded into flat plate surfaces have been demonstrated to delay (or speed up) the onset of laminar-to-turbulent boundary layer transition by attenuating (or strengthening) Tollmein-Schlicting waves through numerical simulation. However, as of present, no experimental research has been conducted to study or demonstrate the behaviors of AMs designed to interact with flow structures. An experiment was performed in which an AM was embedded into a flat plate …

Characterization Of A Single Bladed Propeller Used For Actuating An Autonomous Undersea Vehicle, Donald Samuel Alexander

Open Access Master's Theses

An asymmetric propulsion design using a single bladed propeller is proposed as a viable method for a Unmanned Undersea Vehicle (UUV) to obtain maneuvering capability in all 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) with a single actuator. This substantially reduces the cost of the UUV while enabling it to perform missions which could be assigned to an Autonomous Undersea Vehicle (AUV) or Remotely Operate Vehicle (ROV). However, they are also extremely expensive for most research applications. Current UUV architecture is either optimized for long endurance survey missions as AUVs or precise maneuvering as tethered ROVs. Both versions require several hull actuators …

Cross-Laminated Timber For Sustainable Construction - Long-Term Performance And Environmental Impacts, Arthiha Tharmrasan

Open Access Master's Theses

As concerns about climate change and its extensive impacts continue to grow, the construction industry has become focus of attention due to its substantial role in contributing to carbon dioxide emissions and resource depletion. This research thesis delves into the potential of timber structures, particularly cross-laminated timber (CLT), to offer sustainable alternatives to traditional construction materials. The study is structured into two main parts: an examination of the long-term performance of CLT and an evaluation of its environmental impacts through life cycle assessment (LCA).

The initial section of the study focuses on the durability and mechanical integrity of CLT structures, …

Understanding Groundwater Depletion And Water Security Challenges In The Transboundary Aquifer Systems Of The Middle East And North Africa Region, Mohammed Obaid Altayyar Alotaibi

Open Access Dissertations

The Arabian Peninsula countries are characterized by arid and semi-arid climates, relying heavily on groundwater as their primary source of freshwater. However, human activities are rapidly depleting and contaminating this resource, making its sustainable management increasingly crucial. Groundwater in these countries is stored in transboundary aquifer systems, such as the Wajid, Umm Er Radhuma, and Wasia, which are shared with Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Oman. These shared resources require Groundwater-sharing agreements for effective management. Yet, the lack of such agreements has resulted in poor data sharing, uncoordinated and unsustainable development, rapid water depletion, declining water quality, and land …

Cleveland Innovation District: A Cippo Panel Brief, Molly Schnoke

All Maxine Goodman Levin School of Urban Affairs Publications

No abstract provided.

The Practice Of Small Island Developing States On The Consent Regime For Marine Scientific Research: Developing And Reframing The Law Of The Sea In Changing Circumstances, Luciana Fernandes Coelho

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) seeks to reconcile competing interests in marine scientific research (MSR) within areas under national jurisdiction through the consent regime. Amidst the heightened focus on the limited capacity of Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to undertake the necessary MSR to maintain their livelihoods, it has been suggested that the consent regime for MSR could offer support in enhancing the scientific and technological capabilities of SIDS. However, the framework's fitness for purpose in light of changing circumstances has been questioned. Within this context, this thesis analyzes the influence of SIDS …

Effects Of Stretching The Pectoral Muscles On Bench Press One Repetition Maximum, Justin Pickles

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Economic Determinants Of University Enrollment: A Comparative Study Of U.S. And Illinois Universities, Miranda Kight

Research Papers

This study analyzes the economic and institutional determinants of full-time equivalent enrollment (FTEE) at 4-year colleges in the United States and public universities in Illinois. This research examines Tuition and Fees (TAF), the average price of in-state and out-of-state costs (AVGprice), the percent of first-time students awarded financial aid (Faper), the student-to-faculty ratio (STF), and the average salary of all instructional staff (avgsalALL). The data comes from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) throughout the years 2009 to 2022. The study examines how enrollment decisions are affected by different institutional characteristics by comparing national trends to enrollment patterns at …

The Role Of Feedback In Accurate Delivery Of Skill Acquisition Programs In Applied Behavior Analysis, Cyndy Wollenweber

Research Papers

Feedback is commonly used to increase and maintain employee performance. Although the effectiveness of feedback is frequently studied in applied behavior analysis (ABA), there are various considerations when it comes to providing feedback, such as the type of feedback, delivery method, and timing of feedback. For instance, although the feedback sandwich is commonly used, where positive feedback is delivered followed by corrective feedback and more positive feedback, empirical findings are mixed (Henley & DiGennaro Reed 2015; Parkes et. al., 2013). Therefore, the current paper will review ABA, organizational behavior management, the role of feedback in the aforementioned areas, and provide …

Optimization Of A Low-Cost Corona Dielectric-Barrier Discharge Plasma Wastewater Treatment System Through Central Composite Design/Response Surface Methodology With Mechanistic And Efficiency Analysis, Yiting Xiao, Yang Tian, Yuanhang Zhan, Jun Zhu

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Water pollution, which is intensified by the release of hard-to-degrade pollutants, poses severe threats to ecosystems, human health, and economic development. The existing advanced oxidation processes often involve high operational costs and can potentially result in secondary pollution, highlighting the necessity for innovative and more sustainable solutions. To address these challenges, our study introduces a cost-effective and eco-friendly corona dielectric-barrier discharge for wastewater treatment. Using the central composite design/response surface methodology, a high decolorization rate of 98% of methylene blue (MB) was achieved within 10 min by optimizing parameters such as pH and voltage. Furthermore, the mechanisms underlying the generation …

Rule-In-Use For Community-Based Springs Management Faces Land Use Pressures: Lesson Learned From Manggarai District, Bernadinus Steni, Hariadi Kartodihardjo, Soeryo Adiwibowo, Ruchyat Deni Djakapermana

The Indonesian Journal of Socio-Legal Studies

The struggle for water is one of the greatest immediate risks of the climate crisis. Therefore, the institutional challenge of water management is increasingly urgent and requires a number of consensuses to succeed, including community-based natural resource management (CBNRM). A key challenge to the traditional consensus for water conservation is the increasing need for land conversion due to population growth, which in turn deflects decision-making power away from traditional institutions towards external decision-makers such as regional governments. Using Ostrom's conceptual framework of rules of use, this research examines shifting spring water management in the context of Kabupaten Manggarai. The paper …

Towards A Biobehavioral And Social-Structural Model Of Inflammation And Executive Function In Pediatric Obesity: A Pilot Longitudinal Study, Kathryn P. King

All ETDs from UAB

Pediatric chronic health conditions (CHCs) prevalence has increased post-COVID- 19, and CHCs affect children’s psychosocial development while representing significant family and societal financial burden. Interventions addressing CHC outcomes and psychosocial sequelae would benefit from examining and targeting biobehavioral and social-structural influences on such outcomes. Chronic inflammation and executive function (EF) deficits represent cross-cutting biobehavioral processes, promising novel targets, are vulnerable to social-structural influences, and common across CHC populations. Pediatric obesity represents a model CHC to examine, given its strong ties to chronic inflammation, EF deficits, health behavior, and SES, in addition to its increased prevalence in the wake of COVID-19. …

Education Attainment And Health: Outside The Gender Binary, Brianna Patterson

All ETDs from UAB

Transgender and gender nonbinary individuals, hereafter referred to as trans, report worse health outcomes than trans individuals whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth, hereafter referred to as cisgender (Bauer, Hammond, Travers et al. 2009, Cicero, Reisner, Merwin et al. 2020). Past research has indicated that social determinants of health, such as education attainment, may be responsible for these inequities (Low 2006, The Lancet Public 2020). Education’s influence on health is well known from previous research, but the association is not distributed equally. In the United States (US) educational system, state and local governments have control, not the …

Environmental Influences On The Physiology Of Cnidarians And Their Symbionts, Shelby Gantt

All ETDs from UAB

Corals and other cnidarians maintain complex symbioses that include photosynthetic endosymbiotic dinoflagellates (Symbiodiniaceae), protozoans, fungi, bacteria, archaea, and other metazoans, collectively known as the holobiont. The stability of these associations is crucial for holobiont resilience and adaptation to environmental conditions and are the results of long-term ecological and evolutionary processes. Environmental factors such as light availability, seasonal environmental fluctuations, and warmer, more acidic conditions can disrupt these symbiotic associations and alter holobiont functioning. To understand the influence of different environments on cnidarian host and symbiont physiology, two framework coral species (Acropora palmata and Orbicella faveolata) from nursery-raised and wild populations …

The Efficiency Impact Of Gershgorin Circle Theorem For Feature Extraction In Computer Vision And Biomedical Signal Analysis, Sahaj Anilbhai Patel

All ETDs from UAB

In graph theory, a fundamental problem arises when signals or images are transformed into graphs where they are subsequently represented in the form of matrices, typically as Adjacency or Laplacian matrices. As the number of the samples increases, the dimensionality of these matrices also increases, leading to the "curse of dimensionality." This increase in dimensionality poses significant computational challenges, particularly in biomedical signal analysis or computer vision applications, where the computational efficiency of large-scale data is crucial. Traditional methods of feature extraction and then clustering become computationally intensive and less effective in handling of high-dimensional data, underscoring the need for …

Exploring The Associations Between Cognitive Training, Social Determinants Of Health, And Driving Behaviors: A Longitudinal Analysis Of The Active Study, Katie Wheeler

All ETDs from UAB

As the average lifespan increases, older adults are remaining independent into older ages than before. The ability to drive a vehicle is an essential part of daily living that helps older adults maintain independence. Cognitive training, specifically speed of processing training (SOPT), is an intervention that has consistently shown to benefit older adult’s driving abilities and driving behaviors. This dissertation examined the longitudinal association between cognitive training and primary driving location on crash risk across 20 years (Paper 1), investigated the effects of cognitive training and dosage on driving mobility across 10 years (Paper 2), and explored social determinants of …

Fundamentals Of Vehicle Modeling For Mobility And Maneuver, Jordan Whitson

All ETDs from UAB

The direction of research for off-road ground vehicles is an ever-growing interdisciplinary field. The strategies and modeling methods range from simple terramechanics mathematical models to complex terramechanics that involve the use of high-performance computing (HPC) systems with varying vehicle metric and performance analysis and information extraction. Current advanced methods based on terrain properties and dynamic models utilize conventional performance metrics that have been supported through decades of research. As automated driving systems (ADS) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) research and development progress, more complexities are unraveled and present the need for novel directions of research. Whereas on-road vehicles have the …

Multi-Enclave Blockchain Architecture Integrating Useful Work For Member Selection In Committee-Based Consensus, Shawn C. Adams

All ETDs from UAB

Blockchains offer an alternative approach to centralized systems for data and record storage by using independently operated nodes in a distributed and decentralized network. Within a blockchain network, each node maintains an identical version of all data, without being directly controlled or managed by any centralized entity. Nodes maintain the synchronization of data through the network's consensus mechanism, a protocol built into the nodes to determine which node is given the right to append data to the network. Once chosen, the data added by the node is propagated to other nodes which update their local records to maintain synchronization. Common …

Identification Of The Synthetic Cannabinoids Bzo-Poxizid And Mda-19 Using Gas Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry, Samantha Way

All ETDs from UAB

Synthetic cannabinoids are synthetic compounds created to mimic the effects of naturally derived cannabis. They are up to 100 times more potent than natural cannabis, and due to their cannabinoid-like activity, they are considered schedule one drugs in Alabama. They are also the most common new psychoactive substance in the state of Alabama. The possible threat to public health and their schedule one status makes it necessary to develop a method for the detection of these substances. BZO-POXIZID and MDA-19 are two synthetic cannabinoids of recent interest. This study was conducted to validate a method for the detection of these …

The Modification Of Single Domain Antibody Framework And Variable Regions To Impart Novel Pharmacodynamic And Pharmacokinetic Properties, Lucinda Ann Hall

All ETDs from UAB

In recent years, nanobodies have become important theranostic molecules, and research has focused on improving their pharmacokinetics and binding for novel targets. Nanobodies are characterized by their high kidney uptake, leading to potentially unsafe exposure of the kidneys when delivering cytotoxic payloads. Researchers hypothesize that positively charged amino acids contribute to this kidney uptake. To address this, we assessed the impact of substituting lysine residues within the 2Rs15d HER2 nanobody scaffold to alanine on its in vivo pharmacokinetics using positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. We found that nanobodies bearing lysine-to-alanine substitutions maintained their affinity for HER2. Characterization of the K88A …

Collected Essays By Simon Arzigian, Simon J. Arzigian

Texas Silver-Haired Legislature

These Collected Essays by Simon Arzigian were written in Edgewood, New Mexico, between 1998 and 2009.

Simon John Arzigian was born March 20, 1921 in Lawrence, Massachusetts, and spent most of his childhood in this New England factory town. His entire professional life was with the Department of Defense, living in the dense urban setting in Washington D.C. During World War II he served in The Army as a medic in Africa and Europe. After the war he attended Catholic University and the University of Illinois graduate school, training as a parasitologist. He moved to Edgewood New Mexico in 1995 …

Exploring The Spiritual Dynamics Of Orthodox Religious Tourism: An In-Depth Study Of Visitor Experience At Osovica Monastery, Ivan Kosta, Anđelina Marić Stanković, Danijel Pavlović, Marija Bratić, Slobodan Čerović

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Religious tourism is increasingly becoming a significant component of global tourism trends, contributing to a substantial increase in tourist traffic worldwide. This study focuses on analysing the motives, reasons, effects, and expectations of visiting Osovica Monastery, a recently renovated sanctuary of the Serbian Orthodox Church within the Banja Luka Diocese in the Republic of Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through a comprehensive literature review and empirical analysis, this research explores the motivations behind visiting the monastery, the impacts of these motivations on visitor satisfaction, and the factors influencing revisits and positive feedback. Utilising a methodological approach that incorporates both psychological and …

Doing A Good Search: Basic Rules And Search Tips, Roy E. Brown

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

This updated handout, previous version published in 2023, serves as a reference for individuals learning effective database search practices. It covers fundamental search principles, including Boolean operators, question types, and potential databases for various questions for assignments or in the clinical environment. Notably, this version incorporates a diagram illustrating the search process.

Remember, the search process is iterative, involving repeated cycles of refinement. Your approach will vary depending on the specific question you're trying to answer.

Update of Doing a Good Search: Basic Rules and Search Tips (2023)

The original version appeared in the following article:

McGrath, J. M., Brown, …