Digital Commons Network^™

Tailwater Trout Population Dynamics, Connor Dylan Cunningham

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Dams have been constructed throughout the world and provide several resources for humans (e.g., flood control, hydropower). These structures heavily alter the upstream and downstream environment. One consequence of these alterations is the creation of “tailwaters”, which can create cold-water habitat via hypolimnetic releases. In the southeast United States these tailwater environments are often managed for the recreational use of nonnative salmonids. The unnatural flow regimes of tailwaters affect the biotic and abiotic conditions and ultimately the dynamic rate functions (i.e., recruitment, growth, mortality) of the fish inhabiting them. As such, the goal of this research is to provide fisheries …

The Effect Of Hypochlorous Acid On Cultured Osteoblast And Escherichia Coli, Cristina Flaquer Fusté

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Hypochlorous acid (HOCl), a naturally occurring compound in neutrophils, has been used as an antimicrobial in wound treatment. Osteoblasts, bone-forming cells, within the bone tissue play a large role in bone fracture healing. Orthopedic infections are challenging to treat and highly morbid, including surgical site infection of arthroplasty procedures or infection in the setting of compound fractures. HOCl is being considered as a surgical antiseptic to decrease infections in orthopedic surgical procedures. This study therefore seeks to determine the effects of HOCl on osteoblasts and E. coli. Cultured osteoblasts were incubated with varying concentrations of HOCl to examine osteoblast …

Use Of Fecal Inoculum From Easy And Hard Keeper Horses To Determine In-Vitro Digestibility Of Feedstuffs Used In Equine Diets, Leah Bills

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Digestibility studies provide vital information for formulating ideal diets based on an animal’s ability to digest and absorb the available nutrients from the feed provided. The purpose of this study was to determine if there is a difference in the nutrient digestion of horses between those that have a difficult time maintaining a healthy body weight (body condition score at or below 5, hard keeper) and those that easily maintain a healthy body weight (body condition score of >5, easy keeper). Six mature geldings averaging 534.1 ± 47.1 kg were used in this study. During the experimental period horses were …

Activity, Movement, And Reproductive Patterns Of The Northern Giant Musk Turtle (Staurotypus Triporcatus) In Belize, Larissa Sage Saarel

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The Northern Giant Musk Turtle (Staurotypus triporcatus), a near-threatened species native to southern Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and western Honduras, faces multiple environmental challenges, yet its activity patterns, movement patterns, and reproductive biology remain poorly understood. This thesis investigates both seasonal activity and reproductive cycles of female S. triporcatus in Belize. To assess diel and seasonal activity, I tracked 12 female turtles and collected data using activity loggers. I also collected movement data through radio-telemetry and acoustic tracking methods. Results indicated that the species is primarily nocturnal, with increased activity during the wet season, particularly during flooding events. Turtles …

2025-2026, Benjamin N. Cardozo School Of Law

Student Handbooks

No abstract provided.

The Continuing, Resistance Popularity Of Critical Race Theory- Informed Pedagogy, Kaavonia Hinton, Karen Chandler

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The article focuses on the ongoing commitment of educators to incorporate critical race theory (CRT)–informed pedagogy in English classrooms despite legislative efforts to suppress it. Topics include the historical and political context of anti-CRT policies, the personal and professional responses of educators to these restrictions, and student-centered strategies used to navigate and resist such limitations in meaningful and legally cautious ways.

Eulerian Smoke Simulation With Multiple Fields, Diyang Zhang

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Fluid simulation is a cornerstone of computer graphics, enabling the realistic depiction of dynamic phenomena such as smoke, fire, and other gaseous behaviours. This thesis focuses on advancing Eulerian smoke simulation techniques, with a particular emphasis on grid-based simulations that capture intricate vortical structures and fine visual details.

We propose several detail-preserving frameworks that incorporate various scalar and vector fields within the simulation pipeline, including velocity, impulse, and Lamb vectors, along with their decompositions and transformed representations. By mathematically analyzing the properties of impulse, we derive its scalar fields decomposition (ImpSFD), which introduces an alternative numerical interpretation, and Vortex-Particles in …

Floating Signifiers: Ai, Semiotics, And The Crisis Of Meaning In Music, Kehinde Aruwajoye

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

This thesis examines how AI-generated music disrupts traditional meaning-making processes in musical expression. Through semiotic analysis (Saussure, Peirce) and cultural theory (Hall), I demonstrate how AI produces technically proficient but culturally hollow compositions, what I term "floating signifiers." Case studies reveal AI's inability to replicate the lived experiences that give music its depth, despite accurate stylistic reproductions. The work identifies three fundamental losses: contextual grounding, authentic hybridity, and historical consciousness. I propose ethical frameworks for human-AI collaboration that preserve music's essential humanity while leveraging algorithmic capabilities. Ultimately, this research shifts the debate from technical possibility "Can AI compose?" to cultural …

“They're Like Slash”: Multimodality And Embodied Agency In Students' Critical Engagements With Texts, María José Aragón, Meghan Corella, Nora W. Lang

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Despite recent calls to more fully incorporate multimodal perspectives into literacies research, there is still limited scholarship examining how students critically engage in reading activities by drawing on embodied practices. Racially and linguistically minoritized students are particularly disadvantaged by dominant logocentric and developmentalist approaches, which privilege oral and written discourse and often position these students as less capable of performing complex literacy practices. Drawing from three independent ethnographic studies, our multimodal interactional analysis examines how students of a range of ages and raciolinguistic backgrounds use embodied actions and other semiotic resources to agentively navigate text, task, and ideological constraints in …

Reelin Regulation Of Striatal Physiology And Cocaine Reward, Kasey Lynn Brida

All ETDs from UAB

Drugs of abuse activate defined neuronal populations in brain reward structures such as the nucleus accumbens (NAc), which are thought to promote the enduring synaptic, circuit, and behavioral consequences of drug exposure. While the molecular and cellular effects arising from experience with drugs like cocaine are increasingly well understood, the mechanisms that sculpt NAc neuron participation are largely unknown. Here, we leveraged unbiased single-nucleus transcriptional profiling to identify expression of the secreted glycoprotein Reelin (encoded by the Reln gene) as a marker of cocaine-activated neurons within the rat NAc. Multiplexed in situ detection confirmed selective expression of the immediate early …

Food Insecurity Among Graduate Students At The University Of Alabama At Birmingham, Amy Elizabeth Callahan

All ETDs from UAB

College food insecurity (FI) has grown steadily as a field of research over the past fifteen years. Existing research primarily has demonstrated that FI is a persistent problem with various risk factors and myriad potential impacts on students, though graduate students are largely understudied in favor of undergraduate and aggregated student populations. Given the unique circumstances graduate students face, as well as expected demographic differences such as age and household characteristics, this is a serious gap in the literature. This dissertation aims to investigate graduate student food insecurity in the United States, and particularly at the University of Alabama at …

Elucidating The Proteolytic Determinants Of Flavivirus Infection, Lochlain C. Corliss

All ETDs from UAB

Flaviviruses, recently renamed to orthoflaviviruses, are small, enveloped viruses with positive-sense, single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) genomes of about 11 kilobases. Upon cell entry and uncoating, the viral RNA (vRNA) is directly translated at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) as a single polyprotein that is then processed by the viral and cellular proteases into 10 functional subunits, consisting of three structural proteins and seven nonstructural (NS) proteins. Among the NS proteins are NS2B and NS3, which form the viral protease complex. NS3 consists of a serine protease domain while NS2B is anchored to the ER and contains a cytoplasmic loop that serves as …

Discarded People, Amber Harris

All ETDs from UAB

ABSTRACT This is the first chapter of the novel, Discarded People, a character-driven story about a group of young Black friends navigating love, identity, and community. As they form deep connections with one another, they face personal struggles that challenge their sense of belonging and self-discovery. The narrative explores themes of family, friendship, and the search for purpose, while highlighting the complexities of building a chosen family amidst personal and societal pressures. In chapter one, the main characters are introduced; Winnie, Franklin, Jelani, Adanna, Eban and Chance. As the characters prepare for their final year in high school while navigating …

Stimulation And Quantification Of Dopamine-Associated Behaviors, Hunter Goffinett

All ETDs from UAB

Dopamine (DA) is a neurotransmitter involved in the regulation of essential behaviors, including motor control and reward processing. Alterations in DA levels can significantly modulate these behaviors: increased DA release is associated with heightened locomotion and enhanced preference for rewarding stimuli. Therefore, measuring behavioral changes in vivo provides critical insight into DA release and function. In this study, we quantified DA-associated behaviors by radiolytic stimulation of the Drosophila A-isoform of the transient receptor potential ankyrin type-1 A (dTRPA1(A)) channel and investigated how the human-immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and its secreted protein, the trans-activator of transcription regulatory protein (Tat), alter drug-induced behaviors. …

Unveiling The Other: Feminine And Colonial Subjugation In Mary Elizabeth Braddon's England, Kaylie Rastegar

All ETDs from UAB

Just a few years after England experienced major societal shifts, both domestically in the passage of revolutionary women’s rights legislation and internationally in the Indian Mutiny, Mary Elizabeth Braddon’s Lady Audley’s Secret (1862) offered Victorian readers a way to confront their anxieties and uncertainties about the nation’s future. The traditional power structures of British imperialism and patriarchy faced growing resistance as Indian rebels and women’s rights reformers challenged their assumed natural authority. Past scholarship contextualizes the novel within these major historical events, viewing them in relation to each other in which the struggles of Indian colonial subjects equate to those …

Mesenchymal Hippo Signaling In Lung Development And Disease, Kylie Klinkhammer

All ETDs from UAB

During both lung development and regeneration, the proper coordination of different cellular populations working in concert are vital to proper development and wound repairs. Myofibroblasts, highly contractile mesenchymal cells, are vital the organization of cells during lung development and to the remodeling of the extra cellular matrix (ECM) during regeneration. As important as myofibroblasts are, their apoptosis or differentiation to a less contractile phenotype is equally important to normal development and regenerative processes. Excessive differentiation of myofibroblasts or the improper localization of myofibroblasts are associated with pulmonary fibrosis, which is characteristic of lung disease, such as bronchopulmonary dysplasia or idiopathic …

Uncovering The Role Of Heparanase-Armed Extracellular Vesicles In Sepsis-Associated Vascular Endotheliopathy, Robert Patrick Richter

All ETDs from UAB

Sepsis remains one of the most frequent causes of mortality and life-altering morbidity in humans of all ages globally. Though sepsis pathobiology is incompletely understood, it is clear that a unifying feature of all sepsis phenotypes is systemic vascular endotheliopathy and damage to the luminal glycocalyx of endothelial cells, or eGC, that leads to organ injury. While prior work has established that heparan sulfate (HS) is an especially important eGC constituent that helps regulate a host of endothelial cell (EC) functions, its role in promoting endotheliopathy during sepsis has not been fully characterized. Additionally, previous studies in the context of …

An In-Depth Review Of Food Insecurity In College Students Enrolled In Alabama Historically Black Colleges And Universities, Janice Dansby Washington

All ETDs from UAB

Food insecurity is a common issue in the United States (US), and special attention has been given to college students. There is empirical evidence of high food insecurity among African American students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) (Duke et al., 2023; Dahl et al., 2022; Goldrick-Rab et al., 2018). The current research explores the food-insecure conditions of college students at HBCUs in Alabama, appealing for more studies highlighting the role of all stakeholders in combating this issue. The research questions posed in this study are significant, as they are expected to yield vital information regarding the experiences and …

Chronic Pain And Resilience: Associations And Interactions With Diet, Asia Wiggins

All ETDs from UAB

Chronic pain is a significant issue globally, affecting millions of people. One relatively new way mechanism to reduce pain is to promote resilience. Yet, the effect of resilience on chronic pain may differ by sociodemographic factors (like racialized group). Furthermore, access to therapies that promote resilience may be limited across populations. However, the utilization of diet interventions for chronic pain symptoms has also been well-examined. In addition, research has shown that diets can be related to psychological resilience. Therefore, beneficial diets could potentially be utilized as a catalyst to, not only promote resilience, but also reduce pain (in combination with …

The Disaggregation Of Platform Labor: Theorizing Skin Tone Work In The Black Influencer Beauty Economy, Ta’Les Love

Open Access Publishing Support Funded Articles

Research on the beauty influencer economy highlights the role that racism plays in platform labor, as race is a prominent determinant in the hierarchy of influencers. While the literature on beauty influencers reveals the multi-faceted labor necessary for success in the genre, less attention is given to the ways that skin tone discrimination—or colorism—defines one’s subject position as a beauty influencer. I argue that skin tone is an identity characteristic that ultimately multiplies the labor required of beauty influencers, particularly for Black women with darker complexions. The extra labor required of persons from a marginalized subject position within a marginalized …

Identification Of Salt Tolerance And Stress Response In Us Department Of Agriculture Tomato Germplasm At The Seedling Stage, Ibtisam Alatawi, Haizheng Xiong, Kenani Chiwina, Hanan Alkabkabi, Qun Luo, Neelendra K. Joshi, Xiaolun Sun, Xuan Zhuang, Kai-Shi Ling, Ainong Shi

Horticulture Faculty Publications and Presentations

Soil salinity is a significant abiotic factor that impedes sustainable crop production in key agricultural regions worldwide. Saline cultivation adversely affects soil quality, whereas the use of saline water for irrigation disrupts the physiological and biochemical processes of plants. Continuous irrigation with high salt concentrations leads to a gradual buildup of soil salinity, thus hindering optimal plant growth and development. Consequently, there is a growing emphasis on breeding salinity-tolerant cultivars of various crops. In this study, 71 tomato accessions sourced from 20 countries and provided by the US Department of Agriculture were evaluated under controlled greenhouse conditions and subjected to …

Utilizing 16s Rna Sequencing To Identify Bacterial Species Colonizing Lame Birds With Bacterial Chondronecrosis With Osteomyelitis, Kara Hoover, Andi Asnayanti, Adnan Alrubaye

2025 Research Poster Competition

Poultry lameness has become prevalent in recent years due to high growth rates in broiler chickens. Bacterial chondronecrosis with osteomyelitis (BCO), the main cause of lameness, is characterized by necrosis of the femur and tibia in afflicted birds. Heavier birds are more susceptible to bacterial stress in these regions due to increased pressure on their growth plates. BCO lameness poses both ethical and financial threats to the poultry industry, as up to 15% of flocks can become affected during outbreaks. The purpose of this experiment was to identify bacterial species present in birds with BCO lameness. 1,800 chicks were randomly …

Robust Mitigation Strategy For Misleading Pheromone Trails In Foraging Robot Swarms, Ryan Luna, Qi Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

This study advances the security of swarm robotics by examining the resilience of stigmergic communication in foraging robot swarms against deceptive strategies. We specifically investigate the swarm’s vulnerability to attacks via misleading pheromone trails laid by detractor robots, which significantly hinder foraging performance. Through simulations, we evaluated the adverse effects of such attacks on resource collection and forager capture rates, highlighting a notable decline as the percentage of detractors increases. To counter these threats, we implement a robust defense mechanism utilizing DBSCAN for density-based clustering of pheromone trails, complemented by a cluster grouping method that effectively isolates batches of detractors …

Congestion Mitigation For Foraging Robot Swarms Using Spiral Path Strategies, Arturo Gonzalez, Qi Lu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Swarm robotics offers robust and scalable solutions for tasks such as foraging, but congestion near central collection zones remains a critical challenge, especially with increasing swarm sizes. Traditional solutions, such as static path planning or local repulsion-based methods, often fail to prevent interrobot collisions or bottlenecks near the collection zones. This research presents a comparative study of three strategies to mitigate congestion when returning resources to the central collection zone. The research herein focuses on tightly packed environments where, in theory, robots should follow a preplanned spiral, either ad-hoc, square, or circular, with congestion detection as described in the first …

Design And Deployment Of A Compact Rov For Deep-Sea Research And Exploration, Joshua F. Wood

Open Access Master's Theses

The scientific community has utilized unmanned underwater vehicles for ocean exploration since the mid-twentieth century, resulting in a well-cultivated and ever-changing discipline of ocean technology. The deep-sea environment, specifically, presents unique and harsh criteria due to the increased pressure found at depth and the vehicle components necessary to overcome it. The size and weight of underwater vehicles typically increase as operational depth increases, resulting in physically large systems with high operational costs to accommodate deep-sea research. This project first characterized the effect of length and diameter on carbon fiber pressure housing’s depth tolerance. It then leveraged this data to reduce …

Minimalistic Communication-Based Swarm Slam, Felix B. Koch

Open Access Master's Theses

This study presents and validates Range of Communication Swarm SLAM(RCS-SLAM), a novel SLAM approach designed for multi-robot systems using minimal hardware. Unlike traditional methods that rely on range or bearing measurements, RCS-SLAM only uses the identifiers of nearby robots within communication range. In the front-end, each robot constructs an individual pose graph based on its own odometry, while recording communication events with neighboring robots. The key novelty lies in the use of one-hop communication, where robots not only detect nearby peers but also relay received identifiers, effectively acting as transmitters themselves. This mechanism extends the communication graph and enables the …

High Neuraxial Blockade In A Parturient After Epidural Placement: A Quality Improvement Simulation., Samir Patel, Noah D Le, John Carter, Nick Melott, Andrew Kalnow, Camille D Hawkins, Alexander Luong, Matthias Franzen

Medical Education Articles

Background Epidural anesthesia is a commonly used procedure in obstetrics for managing labor pain, with a potential complication of high neuraxial blockade. Proficiency in performing epidural or spinal anesthesia and promptly recognizing and managing high neuraxial blockade are critical components of anesthesiology residency training. Methods A simulated case was designed involving a 21-year-old female in labor receiving epidural anesthesia. After the administration of local anesthetic, she develops symptoms of nausea, hypotension, and respiratory distress, progressing to high neuraxial blockade. The simulation environment included a labor and delivery suite setup, an epidural cart, airway supplies, a Laerdal SimMan 3G PLUS mannequin …

Probiotic Supplementation In Ruminants: A Sustainable Alternative For Enhancing Health, Milk Production, And Rumen Function, Jovahna Williams

Research Papers

This paper examines the effects of probiotic supplementation on ruminant animals, with emphasis on several key areas including ruminant animal health, milk production, rumen microbial profile, microbial protein synthesis and diversity, and patterns of rumen fermentation. As global interest in economically and biologically sustainable alternatives to antibiotics continues to grow, probiotics have emerged as promising candidates for improving livestock productivity while promoting animal and consumer welfare.

The primary objectives of this paper are to evaluate the specific effects and benefits of different probiotic strains in ruminants, to assess their potential as replacements for traditional growth-promoting substances such as fermentation enhancers …

Molecular Interactions Between The Shellfish Pathogen Vibrio Coralliilyticus Re22 And The Probiont Phaeobacter Inhibens S4sm, Jessica Coppersmith

Open Access Dissertations

Oyster larvae aquaculture is an important industry, both economically and environmentally, helping to create sustainable food systems by supplying seed oysters to farms, and also to restoration projects aimed at building coastal resilience and improving water quality by rejuvenating wild populations. However, oyster larvae are highly susceptible to rapid mortality events, crashes, which can seriously impact the industry. One source of these crashes in hatchery systems is vibriosis, caused by pathogenic species of Vibrio bacteria that are ubiquitous in temperate coastal waters, and with rising surface water temperatures their prevalence and virulence are increasing. To prevent these larval crashes from …

New Insights Into Fertilisation With Animal Manure For Annual Double-Cropping Systems In Nitrate-Vulnerable Zones Of Northeastern Spain, Dolores Quilez, Monica Guillen, Marta Valles, Arturo Dauden, Beatriz Moreno-Garcia

Biological and Agricultural Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Maize double-cropping production systems in Mediterranean areas have a great nitrogen extraction capacity and high nitrogen (N) requirements. This study aims to assess whether in these farming systems, animal manure can be applied, using adequate management practices, at levels exceeding the maximum annual amount of livestock manure established in the European Nitrate Directive for vulnerable zones (170 kg N ha-1) without increasing the risk of water nitrate contamination. We compare the risk of nitrate leaching under two fertilisation strategies, one with synthetic fertilisers and the second with a maximised application of pig slurry, exceeding the limits of the EU Nitrate …