Digital Commons Network^™

Racial And Ethnic Differences In Knowledge Of Gender-Affirming Care Among Community And Student Participants In The Bloom Transgender Health Education Program In The Paso Del Norte Region, 2022-2024, Tandra Ghosh

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

SUMMARY OF BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE: There is a noticeable lack of training and knowledge regarding gender-affirming care (GAC) among providers and within the general community. OBJECTIVE: Assess racial and ethnic disparities in knowledge of GAC among participants in BLOOM, a quasi-experimental transgender health education program in the Paso Del Norte region. HYPOTHESES: Among community and student participants at pre-survey, assess racial and ethnic differences in sociodemographic characteristics, preparedness, attitudes, and basic knowledge regarding LGBT clients/patients and GAC. METHODS: Secondary data among community (pre: 53; post: 14) and student (pre: 29; post: 17) BLOOM participants in 2022-2024 were used. Descriptive statistics …

Lgbtq+ Childhood Abuse, Reporting, & Parental Rights, Meagan Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aimed to investigate LGBTQ+ childhood maltreatment, its reporting generally, and the impact of religion on reporting. It was hypothesized that LGBTQ+ youth will experience more maltreatment than their non-LGBTQ+ peers; among those who experienced maltreatment, LGBTQ+ youth will be less likely to receive help or have reports made; and those from more religious families will be less likely to have received help or had their maltreatment reported. A sample of individuals between the ages of 18 and 35, currently living in the states of Arkansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Louisiana, Oklahoma, or Texas, was recruited to complete a cross-sectional survey. …

J Mich Dent Assoc May 2025

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association

The Journal of the Michigan Dental Association is published digitally each month through ADA Commons, reaching 166 countries and accumulating over 35,800 downloads. This extensive reach provides news, information, and features about Michigan dentistry, our state's oral health community, and the MDA's 6,200+ members. It serves as the main publication for connecting with Michigan dentists.

The May issue features:

• An informative interview with Dr. Cheri Newman, the MDA’s new president.
• A feature article from Delta Dental on the utilization of dental services pre- and post-COVID-19 and how the continuing decline in the utilization of restorative services may impact plan design. …

Title Changes & Checking In, Willa Tavernier

NASIG Newsletter

No abstract provided.

2023 Annual Operations And Maintenance Report 2023 Bres Annual Summary Report For Work Completed In Quadrant 3, Butte-Silver Bow Department Of Reclamation And Environmental Services

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Trump Attacks On Climate Science May Violate Numerous Federal Laws, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Starting on its first day on January 20, 2025, the second Trump administration has launched an unprecedented rollback of efforts to fight climate change. The Sabin Center for Climate Change Law’s Climate Backtracker already has 117 items.

Much of this is aimed at scientific research on climate change, or has the effect of inhibiting the conduct and dissemination of this research. Many of these actions may also violate federal laws.

This article discusses these actions, some of their legal implications, and the litigation challenges that have already been brought. It begins with actions that are specifically aimed at climate research, …

Angelic Wasting: The Impacts Of The Enlightenment, Evangelicalism, And The Industrial Revolution On Romanticization Of Tuberculosis In England, 1800-1850, Sara M. Sudano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis aims to elucidate the intersections between the portrayal of tuberculosis in the Romantic era and the Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution. This study aims to do so by locating and analyzing depictions in the primary source representations of the disease, then considering the effects of the three factors mentioned above on its representation. The Enlightenment, evangelism, and the Industrial Revolution interacted in a variety of ways, and the influence of all three factors was found within the representations of tuberculosis, albeit in often indirect ways. In the novels of Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell and Charlotte Brontë, tuberculosis was …

Examining The Impact Of The Executive Healthcare Leadership Institute On Faculty Readiness To Lead, Blythe Eggleston

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Americans living in rural communities face significantly poorer health outcomes compared to those in urban areas. Academic medical centers (AMCs), such as the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), play a critical role in addressing these disparities by incorporating rural health improvement into their mission. UAMS has committed to mitigating adverse health outcomes through targeted initiatives. However, AMCs operate within highly complex environments, balancing their tripartite mission of teaching, research, and clinical care, which demands exceptional leadership. These institutions also face unique organizational and economic challenges, compounded by personal and professional pressures on faculty members. To enhance leadership capacity …

The Uneven Disruptions Covid-19 Caused To Scholars’ Publication: A Preregistered Study, Marco De Prosperis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This proposed, preregistered study investigates the uneven impacts of COVID-19 on scholarly productivity among University of Arkansas faculty, focusing on how demographic and professional factors—such as gender, ethnicity, academic rank, tenure status, field of study, and the presence of children—may have moderated productivity during the pandemic. Utilizing a non-experimental, cross-sectional design, this research will collect data from 160 full-time faculty members through an online survey. Grounded in Role Theory, the study will examine role conflict and enrichment as faculty navigated shifting responsibilities in research, teaching, and caregiving during remote work. This study is particularly relevant as many assistant professors who …

In Vitro Investigation Of Macrophage Functional And Metabolic Modulation, Shelby Nicole Bess

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Macrophages are a subset of immune cells with a variety of functions that are abundant in numerous tumor types such as colorectal and breast cancer. It has been suggested that macrophages may serve an important function as immune mediators in tumor behavior; however, macrophage activity is complex and remains not completely understood. The overall goal of this dissertation was to explore and exploit tumor-associated macrophage phagocytic function and the changes in their interactions with cancer cells in an in vitro mouse model and in 2D and 3D in vitro culture models. First, we wanted to better understand macrophage behavior under …

Vision-Based Multimodal Frameworks For Human Behavioral Analysis: Applications In Group Activity Understanding And Public Health, Naga Venkata Sai Raviteja Chappa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Group Activity Recognition (GAR) has emerged as a crucial problem in computer vision, with wide-ranging applications in sports analysis, video surveillance, and social scene understanding. Unlike traditional action recognition focused on individuals, GAR requires understanding complex spatiotemporal relationships between multiple actors, their interactions, and the broader context in which these activities occur. This complexity introduces unique challenges, including the need for accurate actor localization, modeling of inter-actor dependencies, and understanding of temporal evolution in group behaviors. While recent advances have shown promise, existing approaches often rely heavily on extensive annotations such as ground-truth bounding boxes and action labels, creating significant …

Quantifying The Effects Of Urbanization On Stream Nutrient Loads And Decomposition, Caroline Anscombe

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Urban stream syndrome (USS) refers to the common symptoms of degradation in urban streams globally. Two symptoms of USS are increased nutrient and salt concentrations in streams, affecting ecosystem structure and function. Excess nutrients negatively impact freshwater ecosystems, placing downstream habitats at risk of eutrophication and harmful algal blooms. Excess salt runoff, derived from road salt application, is toxic to freshwater organisms and affects leaf litter decomposition, the base of aquatic food webs. Here, I aimed to quantify the effects of nutrient pollution and salinization on urban water quality and ecosystem function. Despite the widespread consequences of nutrient pollution, most …

Exploring Latent Mediation Through Bayesian Regularization Methods Of Lasso, Ridge, Horseshoe, Spike-And-Slab, Ethan Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Regularization is a powerful tool to combat overfitting and drive sparsity in complex models. Regularization was initially applied in regression modeling but has been increasingly utilized in structural equation modeling where its utility in identifying the essential components has helped improve modeling. As structural equation models have increased in complexity both in the number of indicators but also the number of latent factors, researchers have begun to investigate how applying Bayesian regularization to these systems can further push the limits on modeling complex models with limited sample sizes. One area where research is limited is the application of Bayesian regularizations …

Achieving Flexible Fairness And Privacy In Federated Learning, Alycia N. Carey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Having access to large, high-quality datasets is crucial for training machine learning models that achieve satisfactory performance. Unfortunately, it is common that a single entity (e.g., mobile device or organization) does not have access to such datasets due to monetary or resource constraints. Traditional machine learning requires that all training data reside in a centralized location during the entire duration of model training, however, in many circumstances it is difficult or even impossible (e.g., due to governmental regulations) for multiple parties to combine their data to meet this constraint. Federated learning is a machine learning paradigm that facilitates the joint …

Identifying Predictors Of Student Success During Occupational Therapy Level Ii Fieldwork, Melissa R. Foster

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The training paradigm for new occupational therapy (OT) practitioners includes both didactic classroom learning and clinical fieldwork experiences in order for them to establish clinical competency. However, many students struggle with the theory-to-practice gap of translating classroom knowledge to clinical experiences. When students struggle in this manner, it causes stress for all stakeholders involved, including the fieldwork educator, clinic managers, OT program faculty, as well as the student.

This study aims to avoid this stress by identifying predictors of student success by analyzing data from recent graduates of the University of Arkansas/University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences OT program through …

An Instructional Remodel: How Adopting A Unifying Model-Of-Instruction Impacted Teacher Self-Efficacy And Teacher Development And Evaluation Efforts In A Midwestern High School, Charles D. Patterson Carpenter

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods study sought to determine the effect of adopting a unifying model-of-instruction on teacher self-efficacy and the development and evaluation processes of administrators. By assessing the level of teacher self-efficacy (Tschannen-Moran & Hoy, 2001) in the nascent stages of the instructional model’s implementation, then reassessing it after a multiple-month sequence of professional learning, the researcher provides a judgment on statistical significance concerning the two measurements and conjectures the extent to which the instructional model impacted any differences in self-efficacy levels. Using two separate “before and after” interviews with purposefully selected administrators, the researcher explored how the unification of …

Crispr-Cas9 Integration Of Salmon Elovl2 In Zebrafish Enhances Lc-Pufa Biosynthesis And Growth Across Diets, Waleed Sami J. Al-Bachry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fish are a rich source of EPA and DHA, which are well-known long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs). The sustainable production of these essential fatty acids poses significant challenges, mainly due to our dependence on marine fish and certain nuts. CRISPR-Cas system was utilized to insert the elongation of long-chain fatty acids-like2 (Elovl2) gene from Salmo salar into Danio rerio. Elovl2 was introduced at 10-15-minute post-fertilization, and successful integration confirmed by PCR genotyping, sequencing and expression of EGFP. Approximately 67% of injected embryos successfully exhibited EGFP and sequence results verified the gene integration of Salmo salar Elovl2 at the first start …

Principal And Teacher Perceptions Of Corrective And Developmental Feedback For Teachers, John Kimball Emett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores why the current structures of systematic, comprehensive, instrument-driven, and inter-rater reliable teacher evaluation may oversimplify the multi-dimensionality of teaching and minimize practitioner voices in the field. A framework for teaching complexity is presented with descriptions of effective school culture and connectivity, educator well-being, connected relationships, reflection for continual improvement, and positive learning environments. Through a mixed method, bounded multiple case study, and descriptive survey research, I sought to understand principal and teacher perceptions along inquiry lines of feedback going well and not going well in both corrective and developmental settings. I probed reflexively with purposive sampling, five …

An Examination Of The Relationship Between Postsecondary Education And Earnings In The Architectural Woodworking Industry, Christopher J. Wernimont

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The architectural woodworking industry offers a potential option to job seekers who are looking for alternatives to a formal 4-year postsecondary education. This preregistered quantitative study explores the relationship between postsecondary education and earnings for employees within the architectural woodworking industry. Framed by Human Capital Theory, the research investigates three questions: (1) do postsecondary credentials account for additional variance in income within the industry, (2) is the relationship between postsecondary education and income moderated by whether the credential is related to woodworking, and (3) do individuals with specific types of postsecondary credentials earn higher incomes than those without postsecondary credentials? …

Design And Implementation Of Asynchronous Communication In Multi-Chiplet Systems: A Comparative Study Of Pseudo-Crossbar And Bus Architectures, Matthew Clemence

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

System-on-Chip (SoC) complexity continues to present challenges in global clock distribution and power management. The Globally Asynchronous Locally Synchronous (GALS) approach addresses these issues by enabling asynchronous communication between locally synchronous chiplets. This thesis details the design and implementation of two GALS architectures employing asynchronous handshaking protocols through Multi-Threshold CMOS NULL Convention Logic (MTNCL). The first architecture, a pseudo-crossbar, uses arbiters and multiplexers/demultiplexers (MUX/DEMUX) for prioritized and dynamic communication between chiplets. The second, a bus-based approach, employs D-latches to manage communication sequentially with predetermined interrupts. This research explores the detailed implementation, functional distinctions, scalability, and integration trade-offs inherent to each …

Exploring The Relationship Between Novice Teacher Autonomy And Workplace Engagement, Burnout, And Intentions To Remain In The Teaching Profession, Bryce Bennett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Administrators and experienced faculty frequently disagree on the degree of autonomy that should exist for classroom teachers. Administrators seeking to make adjustments to the levels of autonomy experienced by their teachers may struggle to account for differences between novice teachers and their more seasoned counterparts. This study applies researched-based models for exploring the relationship between various job resources and demands and their ultimate impact on workers. A mixed method designed employing a survey across three large school districts in Arkansas asked participants questions intended to uncover the degree of autonomy novice teachers typically experience, levels of burnout & workplace engagement, …

Gender Craze: Framing Policy Discrimination Against Transgender Students In K-12 Education, Quinette Rogers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Transgender youth in K-12 public education have been systematically marginalized through state-sanctioned violence and discriminatory policies, often portrayed as societal "boogeymen." They face exclusion and othering due to restrictive state legislation, such as bathroom bans, sports participation restrictions, and limited access to gender-affirming care. Current research lacks a comprehensive analysis of how state-level legislation affects transgender students. This study addresses that gap by employing qualitative thematic coding to examine the language, framing, and impact of state education policies on transgender students. By analyzing how these policies are framed around themes such as protecting family, safeguarding children, individual liberty, constitutional rights, …

The Role Of Arkansas Rural Libraries In Cultural Capital Development, Callie Spear Embry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the role of rural public libraries in Arkansas in fostering cultural capital development among youth. By employing a mixed-methods approach combining quantitative analysis from the 2022 Arkansas Public Library Survey and qualitative insights gathered from semi-structured interviews with rural librarians, the research investigates three core questions: (1) How do rural libraries impact youth cultural capital development? (2) In what ways can these libraries enhance their effectiveness in this area? (3) How do librarians perceive their roles in this developmental process?

Findings indicate that rural libraries serve as pivotal cultural coordinators and community hubs, positively affecting youth engagement …

Exploring Hybrid Cohort-Based Doctoral Program Features That Support Nontraditional Doctoral Students’ Persistence: A Preregistered Case Study., Glenda Winborn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rise of hybrid learning models, non-traditional learners have greater access to doctoral education. However, attrition rates from doctoral programs remain high, ranging from 40% to 50% across all doctoral programs and exceeding these levels in online non-traditional programs. Numerous causes of attrition or persistence in doctoral studies have been researched and can affect the student, the academic institution, and the broader academic society. This qualitative case study will explore adult and lifelong learning doctoral students' perceptions of the programmatic and instructional support resources that have helped improve persistence in their program. Two of the important programmatic features of …

The Role Of Mental And Physical Health On Fear Of Crime, Macky Ann Hurst

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Fear of crime is a significant social issue that affects quality of life, often leading to behavioral changes and increased anxiety. While prior research has explored the link between fear of crime and health, notable gaps remain – particularly regarding how distinct dimensions of health influence fear of crime. This study addresses these gaps by examining the effects of perceived health and depressive symptoms on fear of crime. Data were drawn from the Arkansas Crime, Public Safety, and Health Survey (ACPSHS), an online, opt-in survey of approximately 2,300 non- institutionalized adults in Arkansas. Ordinary least squares regression models were used …

Guns, Policing, And Crime: How The Internet And Social Media Shape Public Opinions, Sophie Buckley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I aimed to understand whether and how use of the internet and social media shapes attitudes on gun control, policing, and general crime. I use elements of cultivation theory to explain how exposure to media content insights moral panics and influences public beliefs on issues like guns and policing. Data were drawn from the 2023 Pew Research Center National Public Opinion Reference Survey (N=4,713), an annual survey of United States adults to produce benchmark estimates for various topics. I hypothesized that data from the survey will show frequent social media and internet usage influences attitudes towards crime, policing, and guns. …

The Future Of Fashion: A Systematic Literature Review On Consumer Willingness To Pay For Green Apparel, Emma Clark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, consumers have become highly aware of the environmental impact of their purchases, specifically of apparel products. Accordingly, apparel brands have increasingly focused on enhancing the sustainability of their product offerings to attract environmentally conscious consumers and elevate their brand image (Dangelico et al., 2022). Furthermore, most sustainably produced products are priced higher for consumers compared to standard alternatives (Elmanadily & El-Deeb, 2022). Research has shown that consumers can accept higher prices for products that do less harm to the environment (Gomes et al., 2023), but it has yet to be determined in which cases this is consistently …

Cartographic Representation And Analysis Of Sand Dune Morphometry In Wadi Rum, Jordan, Grace Clark

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Situated in southern Jordan, near the Saudi Arabia border, Wadi Rum boasts a dramatic landscape of towering sandstone inselbergs and vast dune fields. The UNESCO World Heritage site is known for its cultural, historical, and physical uniqueness. Due to the hyper-arid environment and sandstone weathering, the region provides a perfect outdoor laboratory for aeolian research.

While research on aeolian processes has grown in popularity in the past century, there is a lack of conventional cartographic and visualization techniques in the field of aeolian studies. This project corroborates findings from influential aeolian researchers such as R.A. Bagnold while also implementing traditional …

Regulatory Compliance Standards And Power System Reliability: A Study On Inverter-Based Resources, Pirouz Honarmand

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The increasing penetration of renewable energy, particularly inverter-based resources (IBRs), has reshaped the dynamics of modern power systems. This thesis investigates the impact of regulatory compliance, especially frequency ride-through requirements under NERC PRC-029-1, on the performance and reliability of interconnected multi-area systems. Using a MATLAB/Simulink-based state-space model built on the foundational structure proposed by Murty [31] and augmented with advanced control methods such as Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) control from Mackey and McCann [32] and further refined in the context of IBR damping by Alsarray and McCann [33], we explore three configurations of a three-area load frequency control (LFC) system. …

Automation Of Vulnerability And Patch Management: Information Extraction, Association, And Optimization, Kylie Mcclanahan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vulnerability and patch management is an integral part of a robust cybersecurity program, yet it grows increasingly complex due to the sheer amount of data that must be analyzed. Particularly in Operational Technology (OT) environments, analysis must be done manually because of the lack of automated solutions. Additionally, there are many steps in this process, from the initial discovery of the vulnerability to the implementation of its remediation, and each step in the process requires different data in order to be performed effectively. In this work, we provide approaches and strategies to assist operators in industrial or OT environments throughout …