Digital Commons Network^™

Accelerating Circular Economy Transition For A Sustainable Built Environment: A Systems-Based Framework, Radwa Walid Yassin Eissa

Doctoral Dissertations

"The Circular Economy (CE) has gained momentum as a transformative framework for steering the construction value chain towards greater sustainability. However, this transition requires shifts in production and consumption patterns, adoption of circular business models, and the replacement of linear practices. Despite growing interest, CE adoption in construction faces persistent challenges, including sectoral fragmentation, lack of integrated governance frameworks, and limited coordination among stakeholders. This dissertation aims to accelerate the CE transition in the built environment through a multi-scale, interdisciplinary approach spanning five modules: (1) Module 1 develops a construction value chain-structured portfolio of CE strategies and assesses their implementation; …

Assessment Of Simulation Software Used For Cubesat Gnc Verification And Validation By University Research Teams, Alexander Taiyo Newett

Masters Theses

As the growth in university satellite teams continues, along with the greater trend in the small satellite market, the need for a guidance, navigation, and control verification and validation pipeline suitable for these young and inexperienced teams becomes evident. Much of the mathematical theory and software implementation of GNC concepts are large hurdles for teams largely composed of undergraduate students.

Many software packages exist that can help these teams achieve GNC verification and validation. If the learning curves of these software packages can be overcome, new satellite teams have the opportunity to better build and test GNC algorithms that are …

Assessment And Comparison Of Selected Carbon Ablation Models In Hypersonic Free-Flight And Arc-Jet Conditions, Andrew Steven Heider

Masters Theses

Accurate prediction of ablative thermal protection system (TPS) performance is critical for hypersonic vehicle design. However, numerical prediction of ablation remains challenging because results are influenced by complex physics and the choice of surface chemistry model and assumptions made in material response calculations. The objective of this work is to evaluate several carbon ablation models and their implementation within modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes. Numerical simulations were performed using NASA’s LAURA flow solver and the commercial CFD code ANSYS Fluent, which coupled Navier-Stokes with surface chemistry models describing carbon oxidation, nitridation, and sublimation reactions. Several reaction sets were considered, …

Optimal Slotting In Hybrid Warehousing For Industry 4.0, Teng Yang

Masters Theses

In the era of Industry 4.0, the warehouse management system (WMS) employed by many firms prescribes hybrid storage, i.e., products with high turnover, called fast movers, are kept in random storage for a short time duration before being shifted to a dedicated storage area, while products with low turnover, called slow movers, remain in random storage. From dedicated storage, the products are dispatched to the customer. The challenge for managers is selecting the slot in dedicated storage to assign to each product while demand data change because of fluctuating market conditions; this problem is referred to as slotting in the …

Validating A Low-Cost Radio Frequency Characterization Framework For Development-Grade Software-Defined Radios In Short-Duration Cubesat Missions, Thomas Wayne Francois

Masters Theses

Software-defined radios (SDRs) and CubeSat platforms have reduced the cost and complexity of space-based communication systems, enabling broader participation in satellite missions. While low-cost radio hardware is increasingly accessible, the ability to characterize and validate its performance remains constrained by the high cost and limited access to traditional RF test equipment. This disparity creates a challenge for small satellite development teams, which must characterize communication-system technical performance with limited access to laboratory-grade instrumentation.

This thesis presents a low-cost RF characterization framework for assessing key radio-frequency performance metrics using readily available hardware and measurement techniques. The approach integrates frequency translation, SDR-based …

Design For Extrusion-Based Additive Manufacturing: Generation Of Guidelines For Ceramics With Comparison To Thermoplastics, Hollis Hervey Waites

Masters Theses

"Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM) has made much progress for polymer material extrusion processes (MEX-P), like Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM), but very little progress for ceramic MEX processes (MEX-C) like Direct Ink Writing (DIW). This thesis leverages MEX-P design guidelines to create an initial set of design guidelines for DIW. FDM and DIW processes and material properties are compared, and the effect of these factors on the differences in rules is discussed. Five design guidelines are identified as applying to all MEX. For three of these, an exact limit for DIW of alumina is studied: minimum corner radius in the …

Transformer-Based Language Models For Bitcoin Market Prediction And Interpretation, Erich Gozebina

Masters Theses

"In the context of a Master's thesis in applied mathematics, this work investigates compact transformer-based language models as an instrument for Bitcoin-related predictions and decision support. The work connects three topics: the structure of the Bitcoin system and its data, the mathematical and algorithmic foundations of deep autoregressive transformers, and the design of practical training pipelines for financial applications. On this foundation, a reproducible ETL pipeline for Bitcoin data is developed and two forecasting experiments are conducted with the compact language model nanochat. The first experiment approaches the prediction of next-day price movements through autoregressive next-token generation based on structured …

Characterizing A Delay-Programmable Two-Color Femtosecond Light Source For Coherent Control Of Atomic Multi-Photon Ionization Processes, Mason Tanner Toombs

Masters Theses

"In this work a delay-programmable two-color femtosecond laser based on a chirped-seed noncollinear optical parametric amplifier was characterized. This design utilizes a titanium-sapphire crystal oscillator to generate broadband pulses of light spanning approximately 600-1200 nm, with a pulse duration of ~5 fs, repetition rate of 80 MHz, and pulse energy of ~2.5 nJ. An infrared portion of the light, spanning approximately 1020-1060 nm, is split off from the pulse and used to generate a pump beam. By dispersing the remaining seed beam and controlling the relative timing delay between the seed and the pump, tunable frequencies within the seed can …

Structured Decomposition And Efficient Adaptation For Scientific Data Movement: From Transfer Concurrency To Genomic Data Acquisition, Rasman Mubtasim Swargo

Masters Theses

"The end-to-end performance of scientific data movement is increasingly limited not by raw network capacity but by whichever resource along the path is momentarily slowest, a bottleneck that no single static configuration can track. This thesis argues that the right response is to decompose each problem along the resource or workflow axis where bottlenecks vary, adapt only the genuinely dynamic control variables at runtime, and make that adaptation efficient through utility-guided or offline-learned control rather than expensive online search. The thesis develops this principle through four systems of widening scope. AutoMDT decomposes a transfer by operation, assigning separate concurrency levels …

Modern Research Tools Supporting Science At Andrews University, Peter Lyons, Henry Navarro

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Existence, Nonexistence And Uniqueness Of Positive Solution To A General Elliptic System With Fixed Or Perturbed Growth Rates, Joon Hyuk Kang, Noah Koliadko

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Retrograde Pendulum: Reversing Course On Standards-Based Grading, Jay C. Percell

Faculty Publications - College of Education

This commentary details one large, suburban school district that, after a decade-long commitment to implementing standards-based grading (SBG), reversed course, abandoned the initiative, and returned to traditional grading. This article provides a postmortem of the ambitious reform effort, drawing upon previous research and recent district survey data from teachers and parents. Among the factors leading to the reform's reversal are that, despite a carefully planned, multi-year rollout, the initiative was unable to resolve persistent concerns about implementation inconsistency, student motivation, and the technology reporting platform. Internal pressures were exacerbated by external turmoil, including personnel turnover and the COVID-19 pandemic, and …

Exploring The Research Landscape On Single-Case Design Methodology Using Technology Through Text Mining And Large Language Models, Mikyung Shin, John William Mckenna

Faculty Publications - College of Education

The use of technology within single-case design research has expanded exponentially across disciplines, which necessitates a better understanding of global scientific knowledge and patterns. We aimed to empirically map the evolution of knowledge in single-case design methodology using technology. In the semi-automated screening process, we identified 3,637 publications from the Web of Science, spanning the years 1970 to 2025. The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis was ranked highest in h-index and g-index, and Behavior Analysis in Practice had the highest m-index. The United States was the country with the most authors affiliated. A total of 15 topics …

Supporting Teachers’ Learning About Technology Accessibility: A Content Analysis Of Asynchronous Professional Development, Mutiara Syifa, Natalie L. Shaheen

Faculty Publications - College of Education

Accessibility is imperative to providing disabled students a free and appropriate technology-mediated public K-12 education. But according to the literature, teachers often lack the requisite knowledge to ensure the technologies they use are accessible. So, we conducted a study to understand what, if any, asynchronous professional development about technology accessibility was available to teachers and other K-12 professionals. The findings indicate that of the free technology accessibility professional development materials in the sample (a) fewer than 20% are designed for teachers, (b) most provide limited information, and (c) fewer than 9% specifically address science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) subjects. …

Supporting The Cognitive, Emotional, Social, And Physical Development Of Adolescent Students Through Dance, Anne C. Holdren

Faculty Publications - College of Education

The transition to middle school during early adolescence presents a range of challenges for students, which can negatively impact both academic performance and overall development. Involvement in dance and incorporating dance into the middle school curriculum can provide opportunities for academic, emotional, social, and physical growth and success. Through dance, adolescent learners adapt to new ways of acquiring skills and new pedagogical approaches for learning and development. Dance offers students from diverse backgrounds an opportunity to build community and work toward a common goal. Dance is a universal art form that transcends cultural boundaries, providing a rich platform for self-expression …

Scope Of Microbial Transglutaminase For Site-Specific And Oriented Immobilization Of Native Antibodies From Various Host Species, Emily Beitello, Kwame Osei, Faith E. Breausche, Jon A. Friesen, Jeremy D. Driskell

Faculty Publications – Chemistry

Modification of antibodies to chemically couple labels or immobilization reagents is essential for developing biosensors. Typically, conjugation occurs through chemical methods that leverage reactive amines and thiols on native antibodies; however, this nonspecific approach can interfere with antibody function. Microbial transglutaminase (mTG) is an enzyme that has been used for site-specific conjugation of chemical modifiers to the F_c region of native antibodies, but thus far mTG-mediated conjugation has been limited to production of antibody-drug conjugates with human IgGs. Here, we assessed the scope and versatility of mTG to target IgGs, with the goal of site-specific conjugation to facilitate oriented …

Investigations Toward A Unified Reaction Pathway Of Thermal And Tbsotf-Mediated Oxidopyrylium-Alkene (5 + 2) Cycloadditions, Adam J. Youman, Samantha N. Rokey, Wentao Guo, Jacob P. Grabowski, Susanna N. Angles, Jacob J. Bulandr, Qing Sun, John R. Goodell, Dean J. Tantillo, T. Andrew Mitchell

Faculty Publications – Chemistry

Oxidopyrylium-based (5 + 2) cycloadditions are crucial reactions to construct seven-membered carbocycles containing an ether bridge (i.e. oxabicyclo[3.2.1]octanes). Intramolecular silyloxypyrone-based (5 + 2) cycloadditions were investigated and revealed several features: (1) the TBDPS thermal process proceeds via a zwitterionic oxidopyrylium intermediate similar to previously reported TBS variants; (2) the TBSOTf-mediated reaction proceeds through a cationic oxidopyrylium intermediate; (3) quantum chemical calculations predict a stepwise process for an electron-rich dipolarophile for each set of conditions. The thermal silyloxypyrone-based (5 + 2) cycloadditions were extremely dependent on the nature of the dipolarophile and the silyl transfer group. The TBDPS enhances the …

Ordo Ab Chao: Crystallographic Disorder As A Window Into Ionic Liquid Structure, Joseph Cooper, Marija Scheuren, Lara I. Teodoro, Christopher M. Butch, Raychell A. Jerdo, Kylie M. Allen, Mariana E. Toner, Matthias Zeller, Arsalan Mirjafari, Patrick C. Hillesheim

Faculty Publications – Chemistry

Despite being intended to resist crystallization, ionic liquids (ILs) quite frequently form solids, albeit with low melting points. The design motifs that lower melting points can leave measurable signatures in the solid state, manifesting as crystallographic disorder, and often give rise to metastable liquid states. While sometimes treated as experimental complications, such features provide a valuable window into the structural origins of IL phase behavior. Herein, we report a crystallographic study of a series of benzylated ILs that crystallize either directly or from long-lived supercooled melts. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction, supported by computational modeling and statistical analyses, provides structural evidence that …

Diverse C–C Bond Formation Reactions Catalyzed By Oxidized Palladium Nanoparticles Supported On Marine Shell Waste Powder Via Additive-Free Deposition–Precipitation, Jian Hou, Garrett M. Milligan, Zhicheng Cai, Jun-Hyun Kim

Faculty Publications – Chemistry

The formation of carbon-carbon (C–C) bonds is central to modern organic synthesis. Although the use of conventional Pd-ligand complexes as homogeneous catalysts results in highly effective yields, these systems often face some limitations including high cost, difficult recyclability, and thermal stability. Here, we demonstrate the utilization of palladium (Pd)-derived metals supported on finely ground marine shell waste as a reactive and recyclable catalyst for diverse C–C bond-forming reactions. Oyster shell powder (OSP) derived from problematic biowaste, primarily composed of calcium carbonate, provides abundant anchoring sites to immobilize Pd ions via an additive-free deposition–precipitation method, followed by thermally-induced conversion into oxidized …

Racing To Safety: Tax Policy For Ai Safety-By-Design, Mirit Eyal-Cohen, Yonathan Arbel

SMU Law Review

The White House recently announced its vision of artificial intelligence (AI) policy: AI development is a race and America must win it. To that end, a new America’s AI Action Plan directs federal agencies and states to remove regulatory barriers to AI development and accelerate innovation. This approach leaves limited room for regulatory measures that would address the safety risks of powerful AI systems: their behavior in novel domains remains unpredictable, their decision-making opaqueness, and their alignment with human values is uncertain. While experts warn of large-scale accidents, policymakers find themselves in a bind: Regulate AI and cede ground to …

Asymmetric Synthesis Of The Hiv Protease Inhibitor Tmc-126, A Pmx Antimalarial Protease Inhibitor, And A Putative Covid-19 Inhibitor Using A Highly Stereoselective Glycolate Aldol Addition Reaction Pathway, Kweku Amaning Affram, Austin Carter, April Breede, Alexandra Kimsey, Godson Hemeson, Bader Semakieh, Moses Martinez, Emmanuel Ayim, Joy Odeh, Shawn R. Hitchcock

Faculty Publications – Chemistry

An asymmetric glycolate aldol addition pathway was developed for the synthetic preparation of a series of protease inhibitors based on the hydroxyethylamine structural motif. A single glycolate aldol adduct derived from a highly diastereoselective (≥95:5 d.r.) asymmetric aldol reaction served as the starting point for the synthesis of the inhibitors. The starting material is easily prepared and purified via recrystallization on multigram scales. This work describes the synthesis of the HIV protease inhibitor TMC-126, the Plasmepsin X (PMX) inhibitor 49c for the treatment of malaria, and a computationally derived inhibitor for the 3CLpro of the SARS-CoV-2 from a single common …

Examining How Engagement Strategies Of Principals Influence Teacher Retention In Urban Title I Schools, Bridgette Allen

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

As the teacher shortage continues to rise, it is critical for educational leaders to focus on teacher retention. Principals play a significant role in teacher retention, teacher engagement, and job satisfaction; therefore, they must implement effective engagement strategies to improve teacher retention. The purpose of this basic qualitative study is to explore how engagement strategies employed by principals at urban Title I schools contribute to teachers’ decisions to remain at these schools. The research question for this study examines teachers’ perspectives on how the engagement strategies used by their school principals influence their decision to remain in an urban Title …

Exploring Teacher Perceptions: A Comparative Analysis Of Departmentalized And Self-Contained Instructional Models In First And Second Grades, Jason R. Trotter

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This qualitative multiple-case study examined the perceptions of first- and second-grade teachers who have taught in both the departmentalized and traditional self-contained instructional models. The study explored teachers’ perceived advantages and disadvantages of each model, examined how their experiences within each model influenced instructional strategies and classroom management approaches, and assessed their perceived impacts on student engagement and learning outcomes. Each grade level was a bounded case. This study was conducted at a Title I elementary school in Southeast Georgia, where both models were implemented.

Guided by social constructivism, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven teachers (four first-grade and three …

Math Toxicity: A Psychoanalytic Examination Of Blips And Belonging In Mathematics Education, Kimberly R. Kirstein

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines how secondary mathematics education functions not only as a curricular and institutional structure but as a lived, relational, and affective experience for students. While mathematics education research has extensively documented patterns of achievement, access, and anxiety, far less attention has been given to how students come to experience mathematics as a site of threat, shame, and diminished worth. This study introduces the concept of math toxicity to describe the cumulative harm produced when mathematics operates as a gatekeeping mechanism that links performance to identity and value. Drawing on historical analysis, psychoanalytic theory, and autobiographical inquiry, this research …

The Impact Of A Nf-Κb Signaling Inhibitor On The Antibacterial Activity Immune Response In The Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides Felis), Caroline M. Singer

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Ctenocephalides felis are vectors of several bacterial pathogens that cause disease in humans and animals, including Bartonella henselae and Rickettsia felis. Successful pathogen transmission requires that microbes survive the immune defenses of the flea digestive tract following blood feeding. In insects, humoral immune responses are regulated primarily by the Toll and immune deficiency (IMD) signaling pathways, with the IMD pathway serving as the principal defense against Gram-negative bacteria. Although genomic and transcriptional evidence indicate that cat fleas encode and express components of the IMD signaling pathway, the functional roles of individual pathway components within the flea digestive tract remain …

A Unified Automated And Explainable Ai Framework For Drug Discovery, Clinical Diagnostics, And Public Health Data Prediction, Lord Coffie

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis investigates the development of automated, explainable artificial intelligence systems to improve automated scientific discovery, clinical diagnostic support, and public health decision-making. Three independent yet thematically aligned studies were conducted across cheminformatics, radiology, and population health. Study A introduces an automated and explainable machine learning pipeline for Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship (QSAR) modeling using RDKit-derived molecular descriptors. The pipeline performs systematic preprocessing, consensus-based feature selection (mutual information, random forest importance, RFECV), and benchmarks six supervised models—Random Forest, XGBoost, Support Vector Machine, Balanced Random Forest, EasyEnsembleClassifier, and a blended meta-ensemble, achieving AUC = 0.90 and accuracy = 0.83, while ensuring interpretability …

Varying Dna Methylation Patterns In The Florida Sand Skink (Plestiodon Reynoldsi) In Relation To Fire Histories, Victoire Hj Litre

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Epigenetics is the study of changes in phenotype not caused by changes in DNA sequence. DNA methylation is the most well-studied epigenetic mechanism in an ecological context. Reptiles use DNA methylation to respond to environmental stressors and differences among habitats. The Florida Sand Skink (Plastidome reynoldsi) is federally listed as a threatened species. They are endemic to the threatened, fire-dependent Florida scrub habitat. As they persist in burned habitats, the Florida Sand Skink must be able to rapidly respond to wildfires. To better understand how the Florida Sand Skink adjusts to fire-driven habitat changes, it is important to …

Ai-Driven Real-Time Detection Of Zero-Day Browser Exploits Using Webassembly-Based Instrumentation, Temitope Damilola Elijah

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The rapid evolution of web browsers into fully fledged application execution environments has significantly expanded their attack surface, making them prime targets for sophisticated zero-day exploits that evade traditional signature-based security mechanisms. To address this challenge, this research proposes an AI-driven framework for real-time detection and analysis of zero-day exploits in web browsers by integrating browser-level telemetry monitoring, unsupervised anomaly detection, and large language model–based threat interpretation. The framework introduces a lightweight WebAssembly telemetry agent embedded within the browser runtime to capture low-level execution behaviors, including WASM module instantiation, memory growth patterns, network interactions, and runtime API activity. These telemetry …

Assessing The Diversity And Composition Of Crayfish Assemblages In The Ogeechee River Basin, Reginald Turner

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Crayfish assemblage composition in the southeastern United States is understudied relative to other aquatic taxa, such as aquatic insects and fishes, and the Coastal Plain watersheds of that region are particularly underrepresented in the contemporary literature on this topic. For example, although 38% of the crayfish species in Georgia are considered “species of greatest conservation need,” most of the distributional data used to make these designations are outdated, with some dating back over 50 years. This thesis sought to update our understanding of the contemporary distributions of crayfish species within the Ogeechee River Basin (ORB), a watershed in southeastern Georgia …

Swimming In Uncertainty: Filling Data Gaps And Providing An Educational Platform For Beach Water Quality At Tybee Island, Georgia, Lukas Roberson

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

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Swimming in beaches water contaminated with high levels of bacteria can make you sick. Current monitoring at the public beaches on Tybee Island consists of weekly monitoring and enumeration of fecal indicator bacteria that takes 24 hours for results. If the number of bacteria exceed regulatory limits, a public health advisory is issued, and affected waters are retested until …