Digital Commons Network^™

Mysteries Of The Bryozoans, Judith E. Winston

Gulf and Caribbean Research

Marine bryozoans have about 6,000 living species and many fossil species going back to the early Ordovician. As suspension feeders they can be an important part of keeping the ocean healthy. Yet, as colonial organisms, even though present in habitats from estuaries and continental shelves to the deep sea, they are often treated as background for mobile organisms. There is still much to learn about their lives and relationships. This Ocean Reflection describes my career as a museum scientist from the 1970s to today, beginning at a time when it was often difficult as a woman to find a way …

Evolving Perceptions Of Self And Others: The Effects Of Communing With Nature While Thru Hiking The Florida National Scenic Trail, Stella P. Arbeláez Tascón

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation post-2024

This body of artwork comprises a thesis that documents and exposes the artist’s inner workings as she regained balance after experiencing deep emotional trauma. This individual’s healing transformation was prompted by her immersion in nature while walking the Florida National Scenic Trail in its entirety, 1,130 miles (or 1,818 km), from the Everglades to the panhandle, in three and a half months. The artistic research conducted, and autobiographical body of work created from it, aims to help others reconnect with their own strengths and to seek wellness in the restorative properties of Nature, while advocating for an empathetic approach to …

Organization Of Lithic Technology At 48ye240 Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming: Bifaces As Indicators Of Environmental Predictability, Hunter Alan Watry

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

48YE240 within the Hayden Valley of Yellowstone National Park is a pre-contact hunter-gatherer site recorded on two separate terraces along the Yellowstone River. This site and the two terraces are divided by the Grand Loop Road. The higher terrace is west of the road, while the lower terrace is east of the road, adjacent to the Yellowstone River. The lower terrace was excavated in 1999 and included a hearth feature dating to the Middle Archaic. The higher terrace was excavated in 2020 and contained intact cultural deposits. This thesis presents a lithic analysis of the assemblage recovered from the higher …

Binoculars To Bytes: Development And Field Validation Of An Ai-Driven System For Avian Monitoring, Christian J. Dupree

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Autonomous camera-trap arrays coupled with artificial-intelligence (AI) vision can lift bird monitoring beyond the spatial, temporal, and labor limits of traditional field surveys. We present Binoculars to Bytes (B2B), an open-source pipeline that turns 180–360° time-lapse imagery into analysis-ready avian data. At Freezout Lake Wildlife Management Area (Montana, USA) the system ran four-hour morning deployments during spring and fall migrations (2023–2024). A YOLO-NAS detector, incrementally refined with a “Specialized Localized Iterative Model” workflow, quadrupled local accuracy and, after confidence-based species-binning, cut false-positive rates in half. Daily AI species lists were benchmarked against contemporaneous eBird citizen-science checklists and recovered ≥ …

Health Risk Assessment Of Copper Exposure Through Hand-To-Mouth Activities In The Lithium-Ion Battery Manufacturing Industry, Adisorn Phungkum, Worawat Meevasana, Khanidtha Marungrueang

Applied Environmental Research

This study aims to evaluate the occupational exposure levels of copper (Cu) among workers in a battery manufacturing facility by analyzing the Cu concentrations on hand surfaces at three distinct time periods: before work (BW), before lunch (BL), and after work (AW). A total of 30 workers involved in 13 different workstations or tasks—such as battery cell preparation, spot welding, soldering, and labeling—were included in the study to reflect diverse exposure scenarios. Surface wipe sampling was conducted according to NIOSH Method 9102, and the Cu concentrations were quantified via inductively coupled plasma‒mass spectrometry (ICP‒MS). Additionally, the hazard quotient (HQ) was …

Investigation And Health Risk Assessment Of Indoor And Outdoor Nitrogen Dioxide At Preschools In Haze Areas Of Lampang Province And Industrial Areas Of Rayong Province, Thailand, Susira Bootdee, Sawaeng Kawichai, Suganya Phantu, Sopittaporn Sillapapiromsuk

Applied Environmental Research

Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a major indoor air pollutant and a significant ambient air contaminant associated with health effects, especially for students and teachers who attend schools in the areas of traffic, roads and industry. This study aims to assess the impacts of NO2 exposure on the health of students in haze and industrial areas from November 2023 to March 2024. Researchers utilized tube-type passive samplers to collect indoor and outdoor NO2 samples, which were subsequently analyzed via spectrophotometry. The results revealed that the weekly mean indoor and outdoor NO2 concentrations in the haze areas (HA1–HA5) ranged between 4.4–29.0 and …

Environmental Exposure To Metals In Children And Their Effects On Autism Spectrum Disorder, Oludesola Ogunesan

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT As scientific understanding of environmental determinants of health advances, growing attention has turned to the role of toxic metal exposures in exacerbating neurodevelopmental outcomes, particularly in vulnerable populations such as children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This dissertation investigates the intersection of environmental metal exposure, biomonitoring innovation, and social factors shaping ASD severity in Alabama. Using a multidisciplinary framework, four interrelated studies explore biological, environmental, and participatory dimensions of ASD research and public health. The first study evaluates the utility of Volumetric Absorptive Microsampling (VAMS) for measuring exposure to cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), manganese (Mn), and mercury …

The Influence Of Student Personality Traits On Satisfaction And Success In Online Education In Higher Education: A Systematic Review, Elizabeth G. Hunter, Jayna Niblock, Samantha Barefoot, Jackson Miller, Jason Hughes, Lydia Kite, Edith Scarletto

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

Online learning is a growing area in occupational therapy education. It is important for faculty to use the modality of online learning to understand the influence of student personality traits, defined as relatively stable characteristics that influence thinking and behavior, on student satisfaction and success in graduate level programs. By understanding the influence of personality traits, faculty can better develop online materials that are flexible enough to support individuals who may have a higher risk of low satisfaction and success. There has been plentiful research in the areas of education and psychology assessing the influence of personality on the online …

Support Needs Of Agrarian Women To Build Household Livelihood Resilience: A Case Study Of The Mekong River Delta, Tran Thi Ngoc Tran

Dissertations

Problem

Rural livelihood faces significant challenges due to the increasing frequency and severity of climate change impacts. However, the development of women’s livelihood resilience remains constrained by gender-blind policies, limited sex-disaggregated data, and a lack of integration of gender-specific needs and priorities in resilience-building interventions. This study aims to address these critical gaps. This study aims at exploring the perceived support needs of rural agrarian women in building household livelihood resilience to climate change. Specifically, it seeks to (1) understand how household livelihood resilience is perceived by rural agrarian women, and (2) identify the support they require to effectively adapt …

They Forgot We Were Seeds: Critical Counter-Narratives Supporting Culturally Informed Community Seed Work, Florentina Rodriguez

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This Professional Innovation dissertation utilizes Critical Counter-Narrative both as research methodology to generate narrative reflections and as praxis for liberatory transformation. Through research vignettes adapted from the author’s experience with critical collaborative autoethnographic seed work, this study produced critical counter-narratives aimed at addressing inequities in small-scale seed systems. These counter-narratives were incorporated into curriculum materials synthesized as an educational toolkit for a professional research

sister-project: the new Culturally Informed Community Seed Pledge and Code of Ethics (CICSP/COE). This project seeks to address disparity and extractive practices; outline relational pathways for reciprocity and respecting communities of origin; and provide evaluation metrics …

Practical Application Of Artificial Intelligence For Ecological Image Analysis: Trialling Different Levels Of Taxonomic Classification To Promote Convolutional Neural Network Performance, Amelia E.H. Bridges, Eleanor Cross, Kyran P. Graves, Nils Piechaud, Antony Raymont, Kerry L. Howell

School of Biological and Marine Sciences

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI), particularly convolutional neural networks (CNNs), into ecological research presents new opportunities for the automated analysis of image-based data. This study explores the practical application of CNNs for ecological image analysis by trialling annotation to different levels of taxonomic classification to determine their impact on model performance. We systematically compare various annotation strategies, evaluating their effects on the accuracy of CNNs in ecological contexts; as well as considering the feasibility of manually annotating training data to different levels. We demonstrate that variation in annotations groupings (animal, phylum or morphology) has little impact on model performance, …

Changes In The Spatiotemporal Patterns Of Covid-19 In Japan From 2020 Through 2023, Atsuna Tokumoto, Kazuaki Jindai, Tomoki Nakaya, Mayuko Saito, Clive E Sabel, Hitoshi Oshitani

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

BACKGROUND: The spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varied among countries. The spatiotemporal trends of COVID-19 in Japan remain understudied. Therefore, this study aimed to conduct a detailed investigation of the spatiotemporal evolution of infections/deaths across prefectures in Japan, to analyze the changing patterns of COVID-19 circulation in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas.

METHODS: We extracted data from nationally represented open-source data from January 15, 2020, to May 9, 2023, and we calculated the incidence rate of infection and the mortality. Further the ratios were obtained by dividing those rates in prefectural level by those in national level to make them …

Assessing Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Composition And Diversity Across A Land-Use Gradient In Eastern Washington Prairies, Katherine I. Cole

EWU Masters Thesis Collection

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are key to healthy, functioning terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. Associating with over 80% of all extant land plants, they play a pivotal role in nutrient cycling, and contribute to overall plant health. Given their significance to terrestrial ecosystems, AMF have a crucial role to play in the successful restoration of Eastern Washington’s native prairies. However, AMF community composition is significantly altered by the commercial agricultural practices used extensively in this region for over 100 years. The Eastern Washington University (EWU) Prairie Restoration Project aims to restore ~120 acres of farmland to native prairie. This research provides insight …

Neural And Computational Approach To Understanding Environmental Modulation Of Behavioral Identity In Zebrafish, John W. Hageter

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Organisms rely on behavior for survival. Animals engage in behaviors that allow for feeding, mating, exploring and navigating their environment among others. Necessary for these behaviors to develop are the environmental factors and underlying circuitry which make behavior possible. Specifically, how the environment guides underlying neural circuitry to develop unique facets or phenotypes of a larger behavior are key to understanding why unique behaviors exist. In this thesis, I build foundational evidence for determining these mechanisms through the use of the zebrafish local search behavior. This is a behavior that zebrafish employ following the loss of environmental illumination where they …

A Multiscale Ai Framework For Forest And Agriculture Health Monitoring: Drone-Based Object Recognition And Segmentation For Automated Ecological Assessment, Sruthi Keerthi Valicharla

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Forest and agricultural ecosystems are increasingly at risk due to invasive species, pests, and diseases, necessitating scalable, automated, and intelligent monitoring solutions. Traditional field based forest and agriculture health assessments are limited by cost, time, and spatial coverage. This dissertation presents a multiscale deep learning framework that automates forest and agriculture health monitoring using drone imagery and computer vision techniques. The system operates across three spatial levels: forest level, tree level, and leaf level, combining object detection, segmentation, and classification models to support large scale ecological assessment.

At the forest level, high-altitude drone imagery is processed using object detection and …

Microbial And Plant Biodiversity In Appalachian Agroecosystems And Their Implications For Soil Health, Kinsey Reed Close

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The sustainability of agricultural landscapes depends on understanding the complex interactions between plants, soil, and microbes. In Appalachia, a region shaped by complex terrain and long histories of human and ecological interaction, small family farms produce hay, livestock, and row crops. These agroecosystems, though often treated as “artificial” by many ecologists, have the potential to support both food production and biodiversity conservation if managed with an understanding of ecological complexity. This dissertation examines how plant and microbial diversity interact with soil and management to influence nutrient cycling, soil health, and long-term resilience in Appalachian agricultural systems. A literature review revealed …

Effects Of Environmental And Anthropogenic Gradients On Fish Beta Diversity In Central Appalachian Streams, Alanna Kaylee Lowther Smith

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Understanding the environmental and spatial drivers of community composition is essential for conserving freshwater biodiversity. We examined how environmental gradients, land cover, and spatial structure influence fish beta diversity in wadeable streams across West Virginia, USA. We quantified total beta diversity and partitioned it into species replacement and richness difference components and used local contributions to beta diversity (LCBD) to identify compositionally unique sites. Community–environment relationships were evaluated with distance-based redundancy analysis (dbRDA), and a beta regression GLMM was used to test how elevation, slope, land cover, and stream order (factor) predicted LCBD while accounting for spatial structure (dbMEMs) and …

Using Advanced Machine Learning To Evaluate The Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Human–Bear Interactions In Maryland, Usa, Katherine A. Kurth, Jonathan K. Trudeau

Human–Wildlife Interactions

American black bears (Ursus americanus) are highly adaptable to human-dominated areas, which can lead to interactions with humans. Managing these interactions is a priority for many wildlife agencies in North America. Climate-induced shortages in natural food can exacerbate human–bear interactions, as bears are driven to seek alternative food sources in human-dominated areas. However, few studies have investigated the impact of climate or weather on the frequency and severity of human–bear interactions. In Maryland, USA, no research has examined the anthropogenic or environmental factors contributing to human–bear interactions, even though reported interactions have consistently increased since the 1990s. Our …

Pygoscelis Penguins Prefer Different Oceanographic And Terrestrial Habitats During The Austral Summer, Katherine L. Gallagher, Rachel Herman, Katherine Walton, Michael S. Dinniman, Heather J. Lynch

OES Faculty Publications

Pygoscelis penguins interact with both terrestrial and marine environments, especially during the austral summer when they raise their chicks. Accessible ice-free ground spaces serve as locations for penguins to build colonies and successfully raise chicks while the surrounding marine environment serves as the foraging grounds for adult birds. Penguins must be able to navigate through the waters around their colonies to forage for Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba), their primary prey during the austral summer. Krill, whose distributions are driven partially by the surrounding physics and partially by their behaviors, must also be plentiful in the waters near the …

Long-Term Ichthyoplankton Monitoring Of The Moon River (Savannah, Ga) With A Focus On Climate Change, Bradley Cayson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The presence of healthy fish populations is a cornerstone of many important ecological mechanisms. These populations are supported by the recruitment of ichthyoplankton, or the egg and larval stages of fishes, as the primary determinant of population growth. Increases in average global water temperatures can alter the composition of fish communities and thus the offspring found in planktonic stages. I compared a large data set of ichthyoplankton surveys completed from 2009-2011 to a replicated six-month sampling period from May – November of 2024. Collection was conducted weekly to biweekly during night flood tides using a fixed suspension ichthyoplankton net (1mm …

Diversifying Ecology Education For Everyone Through More Inclusive, Interdisciplinary, And Accessible Teaching, Loren B. Byrne, Emily S. J. Rauschert, Vikki L. Rodgers, Gillian Bowser, Et Al.

Arts & Sciences Faculty Publications

Educating more students about ecology and its beneficial applications to societal issues is urgent yet challenging. To address this challenge, diversifying ecology education is a key way to make ecology more inclusive, accessible, and interdisciplinary for more people than ever. Advancing this goal requires ecology educators to develop a more expansive view of (1) how to engage more diverse undergraduate students in ecology courses, especially those from historically underrepresented groups and non-majors, (2) the interdisciplinarity of content in those courses, and (3) the learner-centered pedagogies used to engage students. We suggest ways that ecologists can advance “ecology education for everyone” …

Investigating The Effectiveness Of Best Management Practices In Reducing Fecal Bacteria In Narrow River, Rhode Island, Katherine Thompson

Open Access Master's Theses

Fecal bacterial contamination shapes how communities manage and use estuarine waters, with consequences for ecosystem health and public access. In Rhode Island's Narrow River, elevated concentrations of fecal coliforms and enterococci have restricted shellfishing for decades despite ongoing management efforts. From 2004 to 2018, local organizations implemented Best Management Practices (BMPs) to address water quality challenges, yet their effectiveness remains incompletely understood. This study analyzes three decades of monitoring data using linear regression, generalized additive models, and Before After Control Impact methods to evaluate BMP effectiveness and identify key drivers of contamination. Linear regression revealed spatially variable trends, with bacterial …

The Experiences Of Systemic Invalidation In Chronic Pain Care Among Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Individuals: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study, Claira Moro

School of Psychology Theses

This study explored the lived experiences of individuals from socioeconomically disadvantaged communities living with chronic pain and prescribed pain-relief medication. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, eight participants were recruited from a single primary care network in England. Two Group Experiential Themes were developed. This paper reports one: From dismissed to disengaged: the trauma of seeking help, with three sub-themes: (1) “Being fobbed off” – dismissal across healthcare and benefit systems; (2) “It just seemed horrible to me, to take it off me” – pain relief as withdrawn, stigmatised, or conditional; and (3) “Do I want to poke the bear?” – disengagement …

Children’S Outdoor Play Injuries: How Real Are Parental Concerns Of Danger In Outdoor Play?, Fiona Armstrong, David Gaul

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

Risky play can be defined as any play that is thrilling or exciting, involving risk of injury [Sandseter, E. B. H. (2007). Categorising risky play—How can we identify risk-taking in children's play? European Early Childhood Education Research Journal, 15(2), 237–252.]. Risky play has been associated with danger and increased risk of injury, yet there is limited evidence relating to the prevalence of injuries because of play, with existing data mainly related to home and sports-related injuries [Gilmartin, S., Barrett, M., Bennett, M., Begley, C., Ni Chroinin, C., O’Toole, P., & Blackburn, C. (2022). The effect of national public health measures …

Dictyostelids: The Second Major Group Of Slime Molds, P. Liu, Z.J. Zhang, J.H. Ge, Y. Zou, Z. Li, S. Li, Y. Li, S.L. Stephenson

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The dictyostelids (also called cellular slime molds or social amoebae) are among the more abundant and widespread groups of microorganisms in terrestrial ecosystems. Despite this fact, they are totally unknown to most people, who sometimes confuse the dictyostelids with myxomycetes (or plasmodial slime molds). The first dictyostelid (Dictyostelium mucoroides) was described by the German Oskar Brefeld in 1869. More than 180 species are now known, and these organisms have been recorded from the high arctic to the subantarctic. The primary microhabitat for dictyostelids is the soil/humus layer on a forest floor, but they also occur in a number of other …

Territory And Border Dynamics Among Small Pre-Hispanic Polities In Western Chiapas, Mexico, Antonio Martinez Tunon

Electronic Theses & Dissertations (2024 - present)

This dissertation examines the concept of territory in premodern polities, challenging modern assumptions that territory is a static or obsolete notion in the face of globalization. It critiques the conventional Westphalian model of state sovereignty, emphasizing that premodern political entities often exhibited flexible, overlapping territorial arrangements rather than fixed, linear boundaries. By analyzing territorial organization in premodern societies, this research explores the historical evolution of territoriality, identifying continuities and transformations over time.

Drawing from archaeology, anthropology, and historical geography, the research investigates how different societies have defined and maintained territorial control based on factors such as political authority, economic resources, …

The Relationship Between Food Insecurity And Low Birthweight Across Us Counties And Related Racial Disparities, Marissa A. Beldon, Shondra L. Clay, M. Courtney Hughes, Kathryn Mazurek

Faculty Articles, Papers, and Other Scholarship

Objective

To explore the relationship between low birthweight (LBW) and food insecurity across US counties and determine whether this relationship differs between Black and White women.

Methods

LBW data was derived from the 2013–2019 National Center for Health Statistics and National Vital Statistics System Birth Files. Food insecurity data was derived from Feeding America’s 2013–2019 Map the Meal Gap project. Analyses included descriptive statistics and regression models.

Results

Data were available for 3037 US counties. Food insecurity significantly predicted county-level LBW (t(3035) = 44.48, P <  .001) and explained 39.46% of the variance in LBW (F(13,035) = 1978.03, P <  .001, R = .63). Food insecurity predicted LBW for …

Spatial Analysis Of American Chestnut (Castanea Dentata) Distribution And Ecology In Kentucky’S Federal Lands, Jacob Raymond Pease

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

Anthropogenic factors have been the cause of the decline of tree species across the globe. From unsustainable logging and development to disease and improper management, threats to forests have taken their toll. The American chestnut (Castanea dentata) was once an integral basal tree species in Appalachian forests, but chestnut blight drove the species to functional extinction by the mid-1900s. The recent creation of genetically modified chestnuts gives hope for future restoration of the species throughout its historical range. Despite blight resistance, effective restoration will require optimal site selection for finding and planting chestnuts, which will maximize limited resources. …

Wildlife Distribution Mapping And Analysis In Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Using Site And Satellite Imagery Data, Pinho Joaquim Munhequeira Mr

Murray State Theses and Dissertations

One of Mozambique's most important conservation sites, Gorongosa National Park has seen critical ecological changes over the past several decades resulting from climate variability, habitat loss, and political instability. This research integrates Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing to examine the relationship between vegetation dynamics and wildlife population, and distribution. The main goals of this study are to evaluate the spatial distribution of particular wildlife species: buffalo (Syncerus caffer), elephant (Loxodonta africana), hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), and zebra (Equus quagga), and determine the impact of vegetation density and land cover on their …