Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of The Menstrual Cycle Phase On Rpe, And Symptom Characteristics In Pre-Professional Female Soccer Players, Emily Potts

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Hormonal fluctuations across the distinct phases of the menstrual cycle have been shown to influence physiological and psychological responses to exercise, with some evidence suggesting phase-dependent changes in symptom presentation and ratings of perceived exertion (RPE); however, findings remain inconsistent, and few studies have examined these relationships across an entire competitive season in female soccer players. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in RPE and menstrual symptoms across cycle phases, as well as the relationships between RPE and symptom reporting in pre-professional female soccer players. A total of 22 female soccer players (age 22± 1.85) were recruited …

Comprehensive Performance Evaluation Of Devops Infrastructure Under Dynamic Workloads, Abdulrazaq Mamud

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This research aims to investigate performance optimization and reliability issues related to cloud-based computing environments through an analysis of three key infrastructure components: virtualized CPU resource management, distributed API rate limiting, and web server deployment architectures. This research combines machine learning and system experimentation as a way of exploring the impact of infrastructure-level behaviors on overall system performance and scalability. The first component of the research focuses on analyzing CPU Fragmentation in Virtualized Environments, where unbalanced workload allocation on Virtual CPU Cores causes increased tail latency, resulting in Service Level Agreement violations. Metrics are analyzed using the Random Forest classifier …

Feasibility Of Quantifying The Dosage Of Zycotherm In Its Modified Asphalt Binders, Susmita Acharjee

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The quantification of low-percentage additives in asphalt binders is challenging due to their minimal concentration and the complex composition of the binder matrix. Zycotherm, a nano-organosilane anti-stripping additive, is typically used in very small dosages (0.05%–0.20%), making its detection and quantification particularly difficult. This study investigated the feasibility of estimating Zycotherm dosage in asphalt binders by examining chemical and rheological and moisture responses. Two asphalt binder grades, PG 64-22 and PG 76-22, were modified with Zycotherm at dosages of 0.05%, 0.10%, 0.15%, and 0.20% by weight of binder, along with corresponding base binders. Laboratory experiments were conducted using Fourier Transform …

Disrupting Ableist And Heteronormative Narratives Through The Other-Abled Body In Octavia E. Butler's "The Evening And The Morning And The Night", Morayo Joy Akingbelue

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ableist discourse has historically positioned disabled people as ‘unfit,’ resulting in their marginalization within society. This marginalization is not only manifested in terms of their physical performance but sometimes in the way disability intersects with race, gender, and sexuality, reinforcing the construction of disabled individuals as ‘other.’ While prominent feminist and disability scholars have challenged deficit based narratives of disability, Rosemarie Garland-Thomson’s concept of the misfit, Sami Schalk’s Defamiliarization, John Swain and Sally French’s Affirmative Theory, and Moya Bailey and Izetta Autumn Mobley’s A Black Feminist Disability Framework, Black women’s speculative fiction, offers a critical intervention by defamiliarizing dominant narratives …

Evaluating Source Material And Seed Propagation Techniques For Spartina Alterniflora To Enhance Salt Marsh Restoration In Coastal Georgia, Maygan Palacios

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Salt marshes provide critical ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, flood attenuation, and habitat for diverse aquatic and terrestrial species. Despite their ecological importance, these habitats are increasingly threatened by anthropogenic activities and rising sea levels. To protect and restore salt marshes and their ecosystem services, restoration efforts using living shorelines (LS) have become more common. Along the Eastern and Gulf coasts of the United States, the native grass Spartina alterniflora is commonly used in LS installations for its key role in salt marsh food webs, resilience to abiotic stress, and ability to stabilize and build sediment. Previous studies have documented …

Flexible Membrane Electrodes For Use In High-Capacity Lithium-Ion Batteries, David A. Denemark

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Wearable electronic devices require high-capacity flexible batteries to improve user comfort and increase usage time per charge. In this thesis, flexible lithium-ion battery (LIB) electrodes are prepared using a novel and scalable phase inversion method, embedding one-dimensional SnO₂ nanowires and double-walled carbon nanotubes within a porous polyacrylonitrile asymmetric membrane. The optimized electrode delivered an initial specific discharge capacity of 915.93 mAh g⁻¹, approximately 2.5 times greater than conventional graphite anodes, with 61.99% capacity retention after 45 cycles. The incorporation of a carbon mesh substrate further enhanced both electrochemical and mechanical performance, achieving 89.46% capacity retention after 45 cycles and a …

Female Athletes’ Mental Health Help-Seeking Experiences: Understanding The Impact Of The Coach-Athlete Relationship And Coach Sex, Verena Zaisberger

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Mental health help-seeking remains stigmatized in the world of sports (Cosh et al., 2024). Evidence suggests that female athletes may prefer to disclose vulnerable topics to individuals of the same sex (Keil et al., 2023), including help-seeking (O’Keeffe et al., 2022). However, no investigations have explored how coach sex or the coach-athlete relationship may influence female athletes help-seeking experiences. This is despite the importance of coaches in promoting and facilitating mental health services utilization (Bissett et al., 2020). To further understand this topic, the aim of this study was to explore what female athletes’ mental health help-seeking experiences are under …

Reinterpreting Stochastic Optimal Control Under Ecological Uncertainty: Inferring Decision Urgency From Vegetation Biomass Dynamics, Komi Mensah Agboka, Tobias Landmann, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Stochastic optimal control provides a rigorous framework for systems subject to uncertainty, yet its operational use in ecological crisis contexts remains limited by interpretability. We reinterpreted a stochastic control formulation in which selected parameters emerged as indicators of decision urgency rather than normative preferences. Vegetation biomass was modeled as a stochastic stock subject to nonlinear loss driven by feeding pressure (e.g., desert locust activity) and multiplicative noise, with uncertainty represented by a time-varying volatility term that integrated extreme rainfall anomalies and conflict-related disruption. Rather than prescribing an optimal policy, we inverted the closed-form solution of the control problem to infer …

2026 Annual Report, Tennessee. Department Of Human Services

Annual Reports

This annual report highlights the accomplishments of the Department of Human Services for the fiscal year.

The Colorado River: Searching For Solutions In The Face Of Uncertainty: Conference Summary, Emilia Endara, Douglas Kenney

Books, Reports, and Studies

The Colorado River is facing unprecedented change and uncertainty. Average annual flows continue to decline, and negotiations to craft post-2026 guidelines to manage the river have repeatedly bogged down in disagreements about delivery obligations, sharing shortages, and mandatory conservation. While some clarity may emerge in the coming months, the ability to sustain many existing municipal and agricultural water users is already being compromised. Meanwhile, there is growing recognition that a durable resolution must also address the water rights of sovereign Tribal Nations and better integrate environmental values into river management. All sovereigns, stakeholders, and sectors must work together now more …

Thirst For Data: State Responses To Data Center Water Use, Daniel Anderson, Sydney Stellato

Books, Reports, and Studies

No abstract provided.

Employment Preferences Of Favela Residents, Mayara Felix, Beatriz Marcoje, Ieda Matavelli, Maria Clara Rodrigues

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

We document employment preferences of workers at the margin of informality using open-ended questions and discrete choice experiments in Brazil’s largest favela complex. Stated preferences emphasize pay and tangible job benefits rather than meaning or purpose, while primary complaints center on poor management, customers, and inflexible schedules. Workers exhibit high valuations for all formal sector amenities on average—unemployment insurance, parental leave, and termination notice—as well as for learning opportunities, but lower for non-formal sector amenities such as shorter commutes. Valuations vary systematically by employment sector in ways consistent with sorting: formal workers value formal amenities most, the self-employed value them …

Pamphlet, The Great Book, Ellen Davies-Rodgers, 1973

Documents

A pamphlet advertising, "The Great Book, Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church, 1832-1972, Memphis, Tennessee" by Ellen Davies-Rodgers, published by The Plantation Press, Davies Plantation Road, Brunswick, Tennessee, 1973.

Streamlining Literacy Assessment, Sheila Mulder, Katie Anderson, Samuel W. Flint

Annual Research Symposium

Reading proficiency scores are low throughout the nation. Reading proficiency is a foundational skill that supports academic success across all content areas. Skilled reading involves multiple interrelated components. Assessment can support teachers to identify skill deficits and inform instruction; however, rural teachers lack the time, resources, and specialized support to translate the data into effective instruction and interventions. To better contextualize this need, we received 59 surveys from South Dakota teachers with 23 of the surveys being valid responses, finding that teachers feel prepared to teach reading and struggling readers. Teachers reported that they spend relatively little time in assessment, …

Secure-Home: Detect And Redact Pii, Hajar Niroomand, Omar F. El-Gayar

Annual Research Symposium

Personally Identifiable Information (PII) leakage from home environments poses significant identity theft risks. While enterprise networks employ robust security measures, firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and access controls, these protections rarely extend to home settings, creating a critical security gap. Current firewall technologies lack the capability to detect and scrub PII from outbound traffic, leaving vulnerable populations such as children, elderly users, and remote workers exposed. This design science research proposes Secure-Home, a prototype outbound inspection tool that detects and redacts clear-text PII before data leaves home networks. Using rule-based detection and selective redaction, Secure-Home provides a practical last line of …

Geospatial Analysis Of Sinkhole Density And Characteristics In West Virginia, Marissa Shannon Loftus

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Creation of a sinkhole map of West Virginia provides useful data to help identify areas susceptible to sinkhole related hazards, as well as allowing for detailed analysis of factors controlling karst development. Newly available, statewide LiDAR-derived digital elevation data have made mapping sinkholes over larger spatial extents feasible. For this study, sinkholes were mapped for all areas of West Virginia that are underlain by carbonate rocks; then the distribution and characteristics were evaluated overall and in four focus areas (Berkeley and Jefferson counties, Pendleton County, Greenbrier County, and Monroe County). These areas correspond to broader physiographic regions, with Berkeley, Jefferson, …

Gcn5l1-Mediated Lysine Acetylation Regulates Mitochondrial Dysfunction In The Aged Heart, Jackson Edmond Stewart

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

For over a century, cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been and remains the leading cause of death globally. CVD risk and severity increase significantly with advanced age, and mitochondrial dysfunction has been implicated in the pathogenesis of aging. Furthermore, mitochondrial health is crucial for cardiac function, as one-third of total cardiomyocyte volume is occupied by mitochondria in order to meet the high energy demand of contractile and relaxational function. It is thus crucial that we understand the pathological mechanisms driving mitochondrial dysfunction in aging and how this contributes to age-associated cardiovascular disease. The current manuscript aims to fill this knowledge gap …

Facial Aesthetics And The Esthetic Plane: Effects Of Modern Lip Trends, Allison Paige Fritz

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Background and Objectives: The objective of this study is to evaluate whether there is a difference in aesthetic preferences of lip position between dental professionals and the general public, which we will refer to throughout the paper as lay people. In addition, age and gender differences will be determined to evaluate whether there is a need to re-evaluate the accepted normative values for lips to Esthetic plane (E-plane).

Experimental Design and Methods: A cross sectional, observational study design was used. The study aim was to evaluate the perception and opinions regarding lip position and fullness of both lay people …

Divided Loyalties: Military Recruitment And Emancipation In Kentucky, Jacob Joseph Klinger

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation explores how Unionist Kentuckians leveraged their military recruitment to negotiate the scope of federal emancipation during the American Civil War. By 1863, the War Department’s need for troops superseded the racial sensitivities of inhabitants in loyal slave states like Kentucky by promising to free and enlist Black men if white recruits failed to fill the quota. Kentucky’s proslavery Unionists responded and white volunteerism surged by 23 percent, 10 percent more than the national average, to fill the quota and negate military emancipation. Kentucky leaders heralded the recruiting effort but struggled to sustain it alongside an uncredited militia which …

Assessment Of Countermovement Jump In Athlete Status And Monitoring, Michael David Delong

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Utilizing a CMJ to test athlete physical abilities and training program efficacy is popular, as it is simple, noninvasive, and has significant relations with sport qualities. However, assessments often use discrete outcome measures. This research explored strategy-based measures accounting for eccentric power and time and may explain athlete status more effectively. The research objectives are to analyze the use of the mean power rate of the CMJ to compare athletes' playing ability and its usefulness in monitoring during off-season training. Additionally, power-time curve analysis added location and timing of effects due to fatigue or fitness adaptation. Proper testing and monitoring …

White Lies Of Time: Temporal Racialization In 19th-20th Century American Literature, Yu Uchida

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

By examining mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth century American literary texts, this dissertation project aims to theorize the ways in which whiteness relies on conceptualizations of time to hegemonize non-white subjects and prescribe their historical representations. Because whiteness is dynamic in its emergence and effects and ubiquitous in sociopolitical and cultural realms, this dissertation holistically turns to white, Black, and Indigenous writers to delineate how whiteness functions throughout the period and how racialized subjects negotiate it. Portraying the nation’s history as lived experience rather than objectified knowledge, the racialized authors I examine undermine the concept of linear progressive time that subtends structural …

High-Resolution Laser Diagnostics For Ion Measurements In Magnetized Plasmas, Katey Stevenson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

In this work, we investigate ion heating in two plasma systems (helicon plasmas and flux rope plasmas) using the PHAse Space MApping (PHASMA) experiment. Our studies rely on high-resolution laser diagnostics, specifically laser-induced fluorescence (LIF), to measure ion velocity distribution functions (IVDFs). The temperature and bulk flow of each species are inferred from their respective VDFs. This dissertation is organized into three main parts: the study of ion heating in helicon plasmas, pulsed LIF modeling and diagnostic development, and the study of ion heating in flux rope plasmas. Helicon plasma sources efficiently generate high-density plasmas and are widely used to …

Three Essays On Option Markets, Fangzheng Ou

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This dissertation includes three essays examining index option and stock option markets. The first essay investigates the pricing kernel puzzle by examining S&P 500 index option returns and empirical pricing kernels across expiration dates ranging from one month to one year. We document that at short maturities, out-of-the-money call option returns are negative and decrease with the strike price, while at long maturities, at least some are positive and increase with the strike price. Empirical pricing kernels predominantly exhibit a W-shape at short maturities, with this pattern becoming less pronounced and evolving toward a monotonically decreasing curve at longer maturities. …

Congolese Journalists: Professional Identity And Legitimacy, Hannah L. Heiskell

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This paper examines how Congolese journalists construct their professional identity

and legitimacy while working under conditions of conflict and state pressure, and how

international media outlets discursively represent them through Western journalistic norms.

Addressing previous research and centering local perspectives, this study uses critical

discourse analysis to compare language, framing, and narratives across Congolese and

international media texts, and the works in which they produce. Attention is given to how

agency, professionalism, and constraint are represented within each discourse. The analysis

focuses on metajournalistic discourse, or journalism talking about journalism, to examine

how professional norms and boundaries are articulated and …

Back To The Office Or Out The Door: The Impact Of Return-To-Office Mandates On Employee Well-Being And Turnover Intention, Charlotte Renee Nelson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The widespread adoption of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic significantly altered traditional workplace arrangements. As organizations increasingly implement RTO mandates, questions have emerged about how these changes affect employee well-being and turnover intentions. Guided by the Job Demands–Resources framework, this study examined the relationship between RTO mandates and two employee outcomes: employee well-being and turnover intention. The study also tested whether work engagement mediated these relationships and whether perceived organizational support and work stressors moderated the relationship between RTO mandates and work engagement.

A quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional survey design was employed. Data were collected from 229 U.S. employees working …

Exploring Shared Experiences As Citizen Sport Diplomats: A Collaborative Self-Ethnography, Randall J. Griffiths, Jacob K. Tingle, Angela Breidenstein

School of Business Faculty Research

Research purpose: This study was a critical analysis of the lived experiences of three American university professors who served as volunteer citizen diplomats in a bi-lateral U.S. State Department sport exchange program with North Macedonian volleyball coaches.

Research methods: With the aim of capturing the experience of serving as citizen sport diplomats and making sense of it to inform future practice, this research utilized a collaborative self-ethnography approach. This reflexive approach brings together: (a) analytic autoethnography as individuals themselves are engaged in the ethnography and study, and (b) collective ethnography as a team collects and makes sense of shared data …

Genocide And Politicide: The Psychology Of State Terrorism, Clark Mccauley

Psychology Faculty Research and Scholarship

This chapter reviews the psychologies that enable mass killing of civilians by government (politicide). A typology of perceived threats is advanced, with special attention to contamination threat and essentializing the enemy. Three groups of actors are distinguished: perpetrators, leaders, and the mass public that leaders and actors claim to represent. Predictors of genocide are considered, highlighting the importance of means and opportunity.

In Search Of The Soul Of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, And Meaning In Refractive Collaboration With Generative Ai, Fatima Nazir

Theses and Dissertations

When images can be generated in seconds, what remains uniquely human in the act of creation? In Search of the Soul of Creativity: Authorship, Agency, and Meaning in Refractive Collaboration with Generative AI investigates where authorship, agency, and meaning reside within design practices mediated by generative AI. Rather than using AI to produce predictable results, this research deliberately relinquishes control to observe how generative systems interpret language through their own learned associations. Through a practice-led investigation across four generative models within the Higgsfield platform, user prompts were progressively shortened from full sentences to single words, revealing recurring patterns and cultural …

Markov Chain Wave Generative Adversarial Network For Bee Bioacoustic Signal Synthesis, Kumudu Samarappuli, Iman Ardekani, Mahsa Mohaghegh, Abdolhossein Sarrafzadeh

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper presents a framework for synthesizing bee bioacoustic signals associated with hive events. While existing approaches like WaveGAN have shown promise in audio generation, they often fail to preserve the subtle temporal and spectral features of bioacoustic signals critical for event-specific classification. The proposed method, MCWaveGAN, extends WaveGAN with a Markov Chain refinement stage, producing synthetic signals that more closely match the distribution of real bioacoustic data. Experimental results show that this method captures signal characteristics more effectively than WaveGAN alone. Furthermore, when integrated into a classifier, synthesized signals improved hive status prediction accuracy. These results highlight the potential …

An Explainable Cs-Mitigation Triangular (Ecsmt) Framework To Secure Graph Neural Networks, Sabah Ettahri, Sergio Pallas Enguita, Chung-Hao Chen, Wen-Chao Yang

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

This research addresses cyber risk by defending against backdoor attacks on Graph Neural Networks (GNNs). We propose the Explainable Complex System-Mitigation Triangular (ECSMT) Framework, which integrates Robust Training, Graph Regularization, and Data Sanitization into a lightweight, hardware-efficient defense layer. To evaluate structural generalizability, we conducted empirical evaluations across three distinct benchmark domains (AIDS, MUTAG, and PROTEINS) using a Graph Isomorphism Network (GIN) backbone. Under a baseline 5% backdoor subgraph trigger injection ratio, ECSMT achieves excellent utility retention, securing a Clean Accuracy (CA) of 97.33% (±0.62%) while reducing the Attack Success Rate (ASR) from 97.00% down to 69.45% on the primary …