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High-Resolution And Time-Efficient Infiltration Rate Estimating Technique Using Geophysical Emi And Hydrogeological Modeling, Md Abdus Samad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information on infiltration rates is crucial for developing climate-resilient infrastructure, optimizing irrigation in agricultural management, and tackling stormwater-related hazards. However, rapid urbanization and climate change are expected to exacerbate these risks. Therefore, proper assessment and understanding of infiltration capacity is essential for designing effective soil conservation strategies aimed at enhancing infiltration, reducing erosion, and supporting sustainable land and water management. Despite the importance, traditional methods such as single ring and double ring infiltrometer (DRI) test are limited by spatial resolution and time inefficiency, often fail to capture spatial heterogeneity across large areas.

To address these limitations, this research developed a …

Beyond Guns Vs. Butter: Gendered Dynamics In Security Policy Preferences, Elaine Elizabeth Tagert

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation challenges the foundational assumptions of the “guns versus butter” debate by recentering gender, insecurity, and state legitimacy in the analysis of public opinion. Drawing on over 300,000 individual responses across 80 countries, and original survey data from post-conflict Colombia, it demonstrates that the commonly held belief that women are more likely to prioritize welfare over security is both context-dependent and empirically unstable. Rather than reflecting innate preferences, gendered policy attitudes emerge from lived experiences of violence, inequality, and institutional trust.

The first empirical chapter reveals a striking reversal of conventional expectations in the Global South: in regions where …

Design Matters: Modernizing The Federal Arbitration Act To Safeguard Party Autonomy, Sarah R. Cole

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Arbitration is a creature of contract. And it is basic arbitration law that arbitrators must respect contracting parties’ intent. The Federal Arbitration Act’s 100th anniversary offers an ideal moment to reaffirm this principle: arbitrators resolving commercial disputes should honor parties’ intent while preserving arbitration’s core values: efficiency, finality, and autonomy. Unfortunately, routine judicial deference to arbitration decisions often undermines parties’ intent as expressed through party design of the arbitration process. In response to this issue, this Article proposes amending the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) to empower courts to safeguard two common arbitral party directives: limits on arbitrators’ remedial authority and …

"Arbitration In Name Only": A Race Claims Mismatch, Michael Z. Green

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

With arbitration’s meteoric rise as a tool in resolving statutory employment discrimination matters beginning in the 1990s, concerns about lack of employee bargaining power received little consideration when raised in court challenges to the enforcement of employer-mandated agreements to arbitrate those claims. Only in rare circumstances, when an employer appeared to go to extremes in using its overwhelming bargaining power to implement an arbitration process so clearly unfair would a court find the agreement created an unfair “arbitration in name only” that should not be enforced.

Employers have become savvier in how they require employees to agree to resolve discrimination …

Breaking The Chain: How An Alternate Dispute Resolution Process Can Be Used In The Criminal Justice System For First-Time Non-Violent Criminal Offenders, Leora Perlstein

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The criminal justice system is deeply rooted in our history. There are traditional views on how it should be run and conducted. “Founded on the concept that crimes against an individual are crimes against the state, our justice system prosecutes individuals as though they victimized all of society.” Traditionally, when individuals commit a crime, they go through the process of receiving a ticket—or if they commit a particular violent crime they will be immediately arrested—and then they go through the process of appearing in court for an arraignment in which they are “read the charges against [them]” and are either …

Majority Dynamics On Random Graphs With Almost Balanced Initial Settings: The Power Of Few, Hoang Bao Linh Tran

Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Dissertations

A community of n people participate in a parliamentary election with two major parties. Every person initially supports one side, and with each day, changes their opinion to match the majority among their friends. This process, commonly known as Majority Dynamics in literature, and similar processes, have been studied in many different contexts, including Statistical Physics, Computer Science, Economics and Ecology, as discussed in the influential survey by Mossel and Tamuz (2014).

Tran and Vu (2019) considered the process on a Erdös-Rényi G(n, p) random graph and discovered the "Power of Few" phenomenon: Starting from a …

Leveraging Large-Language Models As Collaborative Reasoning Partners To Enhance Scientific Workflow, Douglas B. Craig

Wayne State University Dissertations

The rise of Large Language Models (LLMs) has transformed artificial intelligence, offering advanced capabilities in text generation, natural language understanding, and multi-modal interactions. However, their use as standalone tools or as perceived repositories of static knowledge has limited their potential in real-world applications, especially in critical domains like healthcare and scientific research, where transparency, explainability, and accountability are paramount. This research addresses these limitations by conceptualizing LLMs as reasoning engines within a hybrid framework that integrates retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and case-based reasoning (CBR) within a note-taking application.

The study introduces a novel system, LmRaC, designed to enhance the reliability, explainability, …

The Role Of Fruiting Bodies In Protecting A Community Of Myxococcus Xanthus Spores From The Environment, Dave Lall

Wayne State University Dissertations

Environmental microorganisms have evolved a variety of strategies to survive fluctuations in environmental conditions, including the production of biofilms and differentiation into spores. Myxococcus xanthus are ubiquitous soil bacteria that produce starvation-induced multicellular fruiting bodies filled with environmentally resistant spores (a specialized biofilm). Isolated spores have been shown to be more resistant than vegetative cells to heat, ultraviolet radiation, and desiccation. The evolutionary advantage of producing spores inside of fruiting bodies is not clear. Here, we examine a hypothesis that the fruiting body provides additional protection from environmental insults. We developed a high-throughput method to compare the recovery (outgrowth) of …

Advancing Road Safety Through Software-Defined Vehicles, Raef Abdallah

Wayne State University Dissertations

Road traffic accidents are a significant global concern, claiming approximately 1.3 million lives annually and causing non-fatal injuries to 20–50 million people, many of which result in long-term disabilities. They are the leading cause of death for individuals aged 5–29 and impose a substantial economic burden, costing most countries 3% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In addition to car accidents, other types of road incidents, such as collisions involving tall vehicles and overpasses, also pose significant risks. These accidents result in numerous fatalities and cause millions of dollars in damages annually. Environmental conditions like wet or icy roads and …

African Restorative Justice Philosophy: Practicing The Ubuntu Paradigm In The Composition Classroom, Francis Hamza Issah

Wayne State University Dissertations

As the field of rhetoric and composition studies grapples with problematic institutional paradigms militating against its growth, changes taking place in the field mean that opportunity is created for a more equitable, inclusive, and diversified composition classroom. Questions of diversity, equity and inclusion have led me to investigate the composition classroom to identify and decenter structural systems of white mainstream literacy and language practices as a way of encouraging and building on the prior literacy practices of not just minority students, but all categories of students. In my dissertation research, I propose the practice of ubuntu as a way of …

Volatility Spillover Across Energy Markets, Mohammad Taisir Bani Hani

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study examines price volatility spillovers between two major world crude oil benchmarks, WTI and Brent, as well as between WTI and its refinery products using daily data from 1987 to 2023. The analysis focuses on two key phenomena: the financialization of commodity markets and the fracking revolution. To capture these dynamics, the study employs two models: the BEKK-GARCH model by Engle and Kroner (1995) and the D-Y volatility index by Diebold and Yilmaz (2009, 2012). Findings reveal that both phenomena significantly influence the direction and magnitude of volatility spillovers between these markets. Specifically, results from the D-Y index show …

The Category Is: Body: A Pcsim Approach To Culture-Specific Bid Healing Programming For Bgcm, Gabriel A. Delong

Wayne State University Dissertations

Black gay cismen (BGCM) are among the highest population demographics to experience body image dissatisfaction (BID) and among the least likely to seek healing programming. Culture-specific experiences such as sexual racism have been linked to body image dissatisfaction among BGCM. While the harmful experiences of sexual racism have been studied among BGCM, body image healing programming continues to address the needs of predominantly White straight ciswomen. Additionally, medical mistrust, identity preservation, and culturally incongruent healing practices have been linked to reasons BGCM are reluctant to seek healing practices. This dissertation aims to address the gap in existing literature by employing …

Unstable Rivalry: Structure, Domestic Politics, And Taiwan In U.S.-China Relations, Brendan Edward Flynn

Wayne State University Dissertations

International relations (IR) scholarship frequently utilizes structural and domestic political levels of analysis to explain interstate war and conflict. While U.S.-China relations have deteriorated significantly, there is considerable disagreement about what caused this change. In this dissertation I utilize Militarized Interstate Disputes (MIDs) to operationalize instability between the U.S. and China and test competing theories. Increasing levels of MIDs since 2009 broadly confirm structural theories that hold power parity is a primary driver of conflict between great powers. Case studies of the Third Taiwan Strait Crisis (1995 – 1996) and Fourth Taiwan Strait Crisis (2022), however, illustrate that domestic political …

Worlds Built And Borrowed: A Paracosmic Exploration Of The Metatextual Unconscious, Ryleigh Michele Roberts

Master’s Theses

This thesis explores literary phenomenology through the lens of fictional world-building and borrowing, integrating psychoanalytic play theories and reader response criticism, primarily through the works of D.W. Winnicott, Stanley Fish, and Wolfgang Iser. In applying this theoretical approach, the thesis investigates how fictional worlds function as intermediary phenomena through which creators can externalize and process their individual or collective experiences of being. Employing a comprehensive literary survey framework, the project spans a diverse range of texts, from canonical literature, such as the Brontës’ juvenilia and Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, to contemporary works like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight and E.L. James’ Fifty Shades …

Ginger: The Effect Of Illustrated Storybooks On Children’S Response And Teachers’ Facilitation In Stem Education, Defne Yabas, Tugba Abanoz, M. Sencer Corlu

Indiana STEM Education Conference

This study aims to explore children’s and teachers’ responses to the integration of illustrated storybook content into STEM activities in early childhood. The correlation between STEM content and illustrations in children's storybooks conveying scientific information is a crucial aspect that can impact children's learning of STEM. Studies have reported the utilization of storybooks in STEM education for young children (Abanoz & Yabaş, 2022; Pantoya et al., 2015), yet an absence of research has been noted regarding the impact of illustrated storybooks on children's engagement in STEM education. There is substantial research evidence that early childhood teachers have low self-efficacy beliefs …

Correction Of Temperature Effects On The Resistivity Of Ggbs Concrete Under Natural Environmental Exposure, Benny Suryanto, Asdam Tambusay

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Electrical resistivity is increasingly recognised as a practical indicator of concrete durability, particularly for assessing cover-zone properties and corrosion risk. However, interpretation of in-situ measurements is complicated by the influence of natural temperature fluctuations. This paper presents the application of a recently proposed temperature correction protocol for electrical resistivity measurements in newly batched concrete, enabling accurate evaluation of microstructural development under variable environmental conditions during both curing and post-curing periods. The proposed approach employs activation energy derived from in-situ measurements and implements an Arrhenius-based correction to normalise resistivity to reference temperatures of 10oC and 20oC. Experimental results demonstrate that the …

Feature Extraction Of Steel Corrosion Based On Xct Scanning And Deep Learning Model, Yuxi Zhao, Yuzhou Wang, Xu Miao, Hanjun Wan

International Conference on Durability of Concrete Structures

Accurate quantification and analysis of steel corrosion is crucial for reliability assessment studies of in-service reinforced concrete structures. However, the pixel-level cross-sectional data provided by X-ray computed tomography (XCT) proves difficult to quantify, especially for the amorphous corrosion products filled in mortar, due to the absence of robust feature extraction methods. In this study, multiple deep learning models were trained to automatically identify corrosion products from a large number of XCT images. The database comprised XCT images obtained from a RC component subjected to chloride-rich environment for four years. The results indicate that deep learning models can segment different regions …

Indiana Interstate Speed Profiles 2020-2024, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Deborah Horton, Darcy M. Bullock

Indiana Mobility Reports

This report presents a graphical summary of monthly mile-hours of congestion across the 8 Indiana interstates (I-64, I-65, I-69, I-70, I-74, I-94, I-465, and I-469) and the Indiana Toll Road (I-90) analyzed longitudinally over the last five years from January 2020 to December 2024. It is a continuation of speed profile summaries that are published in previous years. Such systemwide interstate performance measures provide important information for decision makers to plan capital projects and assess operations.

Hours of operation by speed bins (0 to 14 mph, 15 mph to 24 mph, 25 mph to 34 mph, 35 mph to 44 …

Crawfordsville District Interstate Speed Profiles: April 2020–March 2025, Rahul Suryakant Sakhare, Jairaj Desai, Deborah Horton, Darcy M. Bullock

Indiana Mobility Reports

This report presents a graphical summary of monthly mile-hours of congestion across the three interstates (I-65, I-70, and I-74) in INDOT’s Crawfordville District analyzed longitudinally over the last five years from April 2020 to March 2025. It is a continuation of speed profile summaries that are published in previous years. Such systemwide interstate performance measures provide important information for decision makers to plan capital projects and assess operations.

Hours of operation by speed bins (0 to 14 mph, 15 mph to 24 mph, 25 mph to 34 mph, 35 mph to 44 mph, 45 mph to 54 mph, 55 mph …

Faith Amid Chaos: Does Religiosity Buffer Youth Delinquency In Disordered Neighborhoods?, Mason T. High

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study examines whether religiosity moderates the relationship between neighborhood disorder and delinquent behavior among juvenile offenders. Drawing on Social Disorganization Theory and Neighborhood Disorder, the study hypothesizes that religiosity, both as an attitude and as a behavior, serves as a protective factor against delinquency in disordered neighborhoods. Using data from the Pathways to Desistance study, this research employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression with and without interaction terms to assess how individual perceptions of disorder interact with religiosity in influencing minor and major delinquency. Results indicate a significant positive association between perceived neighborhood disorder and delinquency, reinforcing the notion …

Sports And Rhetorical Marginalization: A Case Study Of Angel Reese & Caitlin Clark, Diamond R. Williams

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the manifestation of racism, sexism, and capitalism in the language and rhetoric of sports media through a case study of WNBA players Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. This study theorizes that sports media has referred to Reese and Clark with damaging language tied to the intersections of their respective identities. This thesis also identifies and analyzes the presence of repeated themes throughout select sports media that mirror relevant theories surrounding stereotypes, biases, and marginalization in sports. Examining and analyzing the subtle nuances at play allows one to understand how language implicitly reinforces harmful narratives and, thus, how …

A Kinder Panopticon? Examining Effects Of Fairness And Justice On Performance Outcomes Under Advanced Electronic Monitoring Systems, William F. Tang

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The adoption of Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM) systems has increased with the prevalence of remote workers post-COVID. Research indicates EPM yields conflicting performance and behavioral outcomes. EPM-related behavior can be predicted by organizational justice (the extent to which workplaces are perceived as fair in nature); environments with higher justice ratings are less likely to induce issues like stress and distrust. However, advanced EPM like electroencephalograms (EEG) may modulate the relationships between perceived fairness, stress, and work performance. This study assigned 42 participants to a modified vigilance test (based on Temple, et al., 2001), which participants took under 3 placebo monitoring …

Exploring The Effects Of Looping On First And Second Grade English Language Learners (Ells) Students' Reading And Science Achievement, Kiera A. Palmer

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this study is to compare the reading and science achievement of first grade ELL students who looped with their teacher to second grade with the reading and science achievement of first grade ELL students who had a different teacher in second grade. Looping is an educational practice that allows teachers to stay with their class for two or more years, it was hypothesized that it would have a positive effect on ELL students’ reading and science achievement. Using a comparative methodology, the study tracked the end-of-year scores of the ELL students in their Florida Assessment of Student …

Creating A Criteria Set To Evaluate The Use Of Cai Resources In K-6 Language Arts Education, Matthew T. Bates

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this creative project was to research adequate educational practices regarding implementing technology and specifically CAI (Computer-Assisted Instruction) technology in the context of elementary education. This information was compiled into distinct categories based on research articles and policy statements. Then, the implications of each category were explored within the classroom. From this review of research, I created a criteria set for elementary educators to follow to evaluate CAI in the framework of their own educational methods and classroom. This thesis presents an address on the issue of student engagement in elementary literacy classrooms by assisting students in actively …

Beyond The Bench: Historical Injustices And Future Pathways For Florida’S Family Court, David J. Blum

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines systemic inequities in Florida’s family law system, focusing on how legal doctrines, discretionary practices, and enforcement patterns disadvantage unwed and noncustodial fathers. Drawing on statutory analysis, case law, empirical studies, and psychological research, it evaluates several reforms designed to promote fairness while protecting child welfare. These include mandatory paternity testing at birth, a rebuttable presumption of equal custody, stronger enforcement of visitation orders, equitable tax restructuring, and improved training for legal professionals. Current Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) procedures often create binding obligations without confirming biological parentage, resulting in long-term emotional, legal, and financial consequences. Research shows …

Ad Astra Per Aspera: Legal Revision Of Space Laws And Intellectual Property To Cultivate Global Alliance And Innovation, Jaiden E. Haggiag

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis explores the inadequate nature of the current legal space regime and points out the gaps in outer space laws, including the following: Jurisdictional Challenges, Frameworks of Liability, and IP (Intellectual Property) Enforcement, utilizing laws such as the Outer Space Treaty (OST), the Liability Convention, the Registration Convention, the Moon Agreement, the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT), and TRIPS, along with national laws like the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act and The Inventions in Outer Space Act (35 U.S.C. § 105.). Through analysis of current scholarly proposals and treaty evolution and synthesize to provide policy options, the goal of …

An Analysis Of The Constitutionality Of Florida's 2024 Hb 3: “Online Protections For Minors,” Comparative To Other State Regulations Of The Internet, Evan J. Siegel

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines the constitutionality of the Florida House of Representatives’ 2024 priority bill, HB 3: “Online Protections for Minors,” through its ongoing litigation in North Florida. The broad nature of the bill, which is now Florida law, and its burden on accessing constitutionality protected speech and/or expression may not be consistent with the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. How the law defines and shapes what material may be accessible to people on the Internet, or the means they would need to use to create a social media account, are questions many other courts have begun …

0th Order Solutions Of The Wavefunctions For The Quantum Elliptical Box And Microstrip Antenna, Nishtha Tikalal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

For a quantum particle confined to a two-dimensional elliptical box or electromagnetic wave in a microstrip antenna, geometrical and boundary condition interplay result in a spectrum of spatial patterns. Due to the asymmetrical nature of the ellipse, we are faced with continuous symmetry reductions, leaving both degenerate and nondegenerate solutions. Here, we present a complete derivation of an analytical solution and visualizations of the fundamental wavefunctions for both Dirichlet and Neumann boundary conditions respectively corresponding to the quantum elliptical box and the elliptical microstrip antenna.

We demonstrate that the eigenmodes, governed by eccentricity, directly correspond to the modal field distributions …

The Post-Alert Lexicon: A Multiphased Study To Develop Content For Post-Alert Messages, Jeannette Sutton, Hugh D. Walpole, Micki Olson, Lauren B. Cain, Savanah Olivas, Bruce Pollock, Nicholas Waugh

Emergency Preparedness, Homeland Security, and Cybersecurity Faculty Scholarship

Using a multi-phased, mixed methods approach, grounded in theory on alerts and warnings, the Post-Alert Lexicon serves as a companion to the Warning Lexicon to provide evidence-based guidance on how to construct a post-alert message for 45 hazards and missing person events. We draw from the results of quantitative content analyses of a census of post-alert messages issued as Wireless Emergency Alerts from 2012-2022, and public message testing experiments for three hazard types (wildfire, earthquake, and bomb threat), to find that a focus on hazard resolution and public action, rather than the commonly employed language of “all clear,” increases message …

Neurotensin Regulates Primate Ovulation Via Multiple Neurotensin Receptors, Andrew C. Pearson, Jessica S. Miller, Hannah J. Jensen, Ketan Shrestha, Thomas E. Curry Jr., Diane M. Duffy

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Neurotensin (NTS), a small neuropeptide, was recently established as a key paracrine mediator of ovulation. NTS mRNA is highly expressed by granulosa cells in response to the luteinizing hormone (LH) surge, and multiple NTS receptors are expressed by cells of the ovulatory follicle. To identify the role of NTS receptors NTSR1 and SORT1 in ovulation in vivo, the dominant follicle of cynomolgus macaques (Macaca fascicularis) was injected with either vehicle control, the general NTS receptor antagonist SR142948, the NTSR1-selective antagonist SR48692, or the SORT1-selective antagonist AF38469. Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) was then administered to initiate ovulatory events. …