Digital Commons Network^™

Recolonizing Black Bears (Ursus Americanus) In Mississippi: Gene Flow, Isotopic Niche, And Habitat Use, Lacy Ann Dolan Todt

Theses and Dissertations

American black bears (Ursus americanus) once ranged widely across the United States, but habitat loss and overexploitation in the early 20th century caused dramatic declines and extirpations across much of their range. Legal protections, translocations, and forest restoration have since promoted recovery, and black bears are now recolonizing portions of their historical range, including Mississippi. Effective conservation requires understanding the factors that shape recolonization. In this dissertation, I examined genetic connectivity, isotopic niche breadth, and habitat use to assess how black bears are re-establishing in Mississippi. In Chapter 1, I investigated genetic structure and connectivity of bears in western Mississippi …

Novel Experimental Techniques For Pressure Transients, Luliang Zhang

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces novel experimental techniques for analyzing pressure transients, focusing on dynamic strain and pressure measurements to advance the understanding and application of Pulse Pressure Amplification in percussive devices. The research evaluates a high-speed linescan extensometer utilizing linescan Digital Image Correlation (DIC) on a Kolsky Bar to obtain strain data at high strain rates. This data is critical for accurate material characterization and simulations to model dynamic behavior. Additionally, a novel method for measuring dynamic pressure waves in pipe systems has been developed, enabling direct assessments of pressure amplification in devices such as tapered pipe systems. The findings contribute …

Design, Development, And Validation Of An Automated Hole-Punching System For Precision Irrigation In Lay-Flat Poly Pipe Tubing, Micah James Foster

Theses and Dissertations

Increasing pressure on water resources in agricultural regions, particularly the Mississippi Delta, demands innovative irrigation technologies to optimize water usage while maintaining crop productivity. This research presents the design, development, and validation of an automated hole-punching system for lay-flat poly pipe tubing used in precision irrigation applications. The system ensures accurate and consistent hole placement through an integrated rotary cutting die, a PLC-based control architecture, stepper motor actuation, and distance-sensing and position-synchronization. The software logic maintains precise hole spacing despite variations in tubing speed. System performance was evaluated through extensive testing and statistical analysis of hole-spacing accuracy, repeatability, and sagitta-based …

Lecun-Pso Hybrid Initialization Of Neural Network Using Asymmetric Gait Features For Classification Of Parkinson’S Disease, Michael Joseph Carter

Theses and Dissertations

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a complex condition with a wide range of clinical symptoms. It is a progressive neurological disorder that has afflicted an estimated 1 million people in the US and 10 million worldwide. The diagnosis of PD is typically based on the presence of clinical features, with no specific diagnostic test or biomarker. The methods of assessment for PD are also used, in whole or in part, for similar symptom diseases such as Multiple Sclerosis, Essential Tremors, Multiple System Atrophy, Supranuclear Palsy, Dementia with Lewy bodies and Huntington’s disease. Many of the current clinical tests have low sensitivity …

Physics-Informed Neural Network For Maximum Detectable Distance Estimation In Mobile Gamma Spectrometry, Nancy A. Ibrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Accurate estimation of the Maximum Detectable Distance (MDD) is critical for environmental remediation, nuclear incident response, and public safety. Conventional approaches assume stationary detectors and rely on computationally intensive simulations, limiting their applicability for mobile, real-time surveys. Mobile gamma spectrometry introduces additional complexities due to detector motion, variable acquisition times, and heterogeneous backgrounds. This study addresses the central question of how effectively a Physics-Informed Neural Network (PINN) can estimate MDD for mobile gamma spectrometry, while maintaining both accuracy and computational efficiency under dynamically changing environmental conditions. A multi-phase approach was employed, combining field data collection, computational modeling, and operational tool …

Evaluating The Effects Of Biostimulants On Apple Coloration, Patrick G. Owens

Theses and Dissertations

Apple peel color is one determining factor of apple quality and is a highly sought after trait by both growers and consumers. Historically plant growth regulators (PGRs) such as daminozide and auxins have been used to induce a greater amount of red color in the peel, but these products typically have negative production impacts and raise environmental concerns. One new area of interest is in called biostimulants. This study investigated the effects of two experimental biostimulants (MCEN1 and MCEN2) applied at varying rates and timings, as well as a commercially available plant growth regulator (Blush® 2X), on ‘Honeycrisp’ apple color …

Small Area Estimation Methods For County-Level Forest Biomass Estimation, Pratyush Dhungana

Theses and Dissertations

We evaluated small area estimation (SAE) methods for county-level forest biomass across four Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) regions in the contiguous United States using the coefficient of variation and relative root mean squared error. The Standard Fay–Herriot (FH) model was compared with multivariate, spatial, and measurement-error extensions, while the unit-level Battese–Harter–Fuller (BHF) model was compared with mixed-effects random forests (MERF) with auxiliary data from remote sensing. Spatial FH improved precision when spatial dependence was strong; otherwise, Standard FH was more reliable. All FH models were effective with fewer than 100 plots. Measurement-Error FH produced more accurate estimates than FIA …

Leveraging Google Earth Engine For Computationally Efficient Pixel-Level Analysis And Vector Delineation From Satellite Data., Rishita Garg

Theses and Dissertations

Analyzing large-scale, high-resolution satellite imagery is a computationally intensive task requiring time and computing resources. This can be accelerated using cloud computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine (GEE) where computational and storage requirements can be scaled based on demand. However, cloud-based platforms for processing high-resolution imagery remain underutilized in environmental applications such as agriculture, and forest health. This thesis explored the application of GEE to two geospatial problems in agricultural conservation and disease mapping in forestry: 1) Extraction of agricultural field boundaries from Sentinel-2 satellite imagery, for use in conservation, precision agriculture, land management, and organization, etc., and 2) …

Study On Vehicle-Pedestrian Interaction Autonomy By Risk Potential Theory, Riku Kikuta

Theses and Dissertations

Vehicle–pedestrian interaction is a critical aspect of autonomous vehicle (AV) development, as socially acceptable AVs must account for pedestrian intention and behavior. Risk Potential (RP) theory provides a framework to build human-like AVs by modeling expert driver risk perception, but conventional RP models treat pedestrians as static obstacles and neglect their dynamics. This dissertation extends RP theory by incorporating pedestrian velocity and orientation into three new models: the RP velocity model, the RP related-velocity model, and the RP Pedestrian Potential Position (PPP) model. These models were implemented in the Navigating All Terrains Using Robotic Exploration (NATURE) autonomy stack and tested …

Validation And Efficacy Of A Novel External Ankle Support Device For The Prevention Of Lateral Ankle Sprains, Sally Kennon Barfield

Theses and Dissertations

Ankle sprains are a common injury in sports and in life and can lead to debilitating consequences if not managed properly. Current prevention methods are limited to bracing or taping of the ankle. While these methods have been shown to help in mitigation of ankle sprains, associated issues such as performance decrements and discomfort have been noted in the currently available literature. The BetterGuards is a novel external ankle support that has been touted as the key to the issues presented by more traditional prevention methods. The purpose of this study was to determine both the effectiveness of the BetterGuards …

Improvement Of Spot Spraying Treatments Using Precision Application Technologies, Steffen Telgmann

Theses and Dissertations

Chemical plant protection is widely adopted in agriculture and plays a crucial role in maximizing plant production. Several developments for site-specific applications have been implemented in chemical plant protection, driven by economic, social, and environmental considerations. Spot spraying technology, which utilizes single nozzles or a limited number of nozzles to treat specific areas, is now available and gaining market penetration. However, its performance depends on carefully optimized application parameters to ensure consistent coverage and efficacy, thereby mitigating both under- and overdosing. To address concerns including reduced efficacy, resistance evolution, and environmental impacts, this work researches the effects of nozzle selection …

A Case Study On Redesigning Classroom Activities And Assessments For Generation Z Students, Sushma Shrinivasan

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the dynamic interplay between pedagogical strategies, learner diversity, and emerging educational technologies through three interconnected studies. Study 1 compares Traditional instruction, Problem-Based Learning (PBL), and Simulation-Based Learning (SBL), revealing that while PBL and SBL enhance student performance—particularly PBL—their impact on perceived learning varies. Notably, SBL reduced perceived learning despite strong outcomes, underscoring the affective and metacognitive complexities of active learning. Study 2 examines the role of demographic factors such as gender, ethnicity, employment, and first-generation status, finding no significant main effects but identifying a key two-way and three-way interactions, suggesting that instructional effectiveness is influenced by the …

Integrated Experimental, Numerical, And Machine-Learning Framework For The Analysis Of Spray Dynamics In Diesel And Gasoline Direct-Injection (Gdi) Engines, Yassine El Marnissi

Theses and Dissertations

The regulation of diesel and gasoline direct injection (GDI) during cold starts has become subject to stricter numerical limits by both the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the US and the European Commission (EC). For diesel engines, the EPA’s Clean Trucks Plan (Model Year 2027+) sets a certification NOₓ limit of 0.035 g/bhp-hr and an in-use fleet average limit of 0.050 g/bhp-hr, along with a PM limit of 0.005 g/bhp-hr, representing an 82.5% reduction in NOₓ compared to the former 0.2 g/bhp-hr standard. For gasoline engines, US standards regulate cold-start pollutants such as hydrocarbons (HC) ranging from 0.03 to 0.08 …

Polyminhash: Efficient Area-Based Minhashing Of Polygons For Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search, Alima Subedi, Sankalpa Pokharel, Satish Puri

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Similarity searches are a critical task in data mining. As datasets grow larger, exact nearest neighbor searches quickly become unfeasible, leading to the adoption of approximate nearest neighbor (ANN) searches. ANN has been studied for text data, images, and trajectories. However, there has been little effort to develop ANN systems for polygons in spatial database systems and geographic information systems. We present PolyMinHash, a system for approximate polygon similarity search that adapts MinHashing into a novel 2D polygon-hashing scheme to generate short, similarity-preserving signatures of input polygons. Minhash is generated by counting the number of randomly sampled points needed before …

Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter Regulates Itam-Dependent Platelet Activation, Jehiel Abigail Ajanel Gomez

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Thromboembolic conditions are the leading cause of disability and death in the United States. Platelets play an important role in the pathophysiology of thrombus formation by aiding in the formation and stabilization of the clot. Central to platelet activation is cytoplasmic calcium, which increases after platelet activation through ITAM (Immunoreceptor tyrosine-based activation motif) or GPCR (G-protein-coupled receptor) receptors. Platelet mitochondria rely on cytoplasmic calcium for mitochondrial calcium influx, which is critical for ATP formation and regulation of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species. In other cells, mitochondrial calcium entry is regulated by the multimeric protein complex, mitochondrial calcium uniporter (MCU). Deletion of …

Anesthetic Management Of A High-Risk Cirrhotic Patient With Severe Aortic Stenosis And Massive Ascites Undergoing Elective Hernia Repair, Sadi Abukhalaf, Farzad Ebrahimi

Advocate GME

No abstract provided.

Correction: Amino Acid Transporter Lat1 (Slc7a5) Promotes Metabolic Rewiring In Tnbc Progression Through The L-Trp/Qprt/Nad+ Pathway, Margot Y. Fedoroff, Lei Zhao, Shaomin Wang, Leili Saeednejad Zanjani, Alok Bhushan, Haifeng Yang, Karen M. Bussard, Stephen C Peiper, Jun He

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

Correction: J Exp Clin Cancer Res 44, 190 (2025) Following publication of the original article [1], the authors found that Dr. Leila Saeednejad Zanjani was not included in the final author list despite her contributions. The details are provided below: Current authors: Margot Y. Fedoroff1†, Lei Zhao1†, Shaomin Wang1, Alok Bhushan2, Haifeng Yang1, Karen M. Bussard3, Stephen C. Peiper1 and Jun He1*. Updated author list: Margot Y. Fedoroff1†, Lei Zhao1†, Shaomin Wang1, Leili Saeednejad Zanjani1, Alok Bhushan2, Haifeng Yang1, Karen M Bussard3, Stephen C Peiper1, Jun He1*. The correction does not compromise the validity of the conclusions and the overall …

Sex-Specific Angiogenic Responses In Endothelial Cells-Role Of The Pluripotency Factor Oct4, Junchul Shin, Junyoung Hong, Iuliia Molokotina, Irene Krukovets, Ellin Kim, Svyatoslav Tkachenko, Eugene Podrez, Tatiana V Byzova, Olga A Cherepanova

Department of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology Faculty Papers

The study investigates the sex-specific effects of the pluripotency factor OCT4 deficiency in endothelial cells (ECs) on angiogenesis. OCT4 is known for its role in embryonic stem cells, but we recently found that it plays a protective role in ECs during atherosclerosis. Herein, we utilized cultured mouse aortic ECs (MAECs) and several in vivo models, including skin wounding, melanoma tumor implantation, and hindlimb ischemia, to explore the role of OCT4 in angiogenesis in both male and female mice. Our findings revealed significant sexual dimorphism in wild type mice, along with sex differences in responses to OCT4 deficiency across all three …

A Trigger For The Autonomous Decommissioning Of Smart Devices, Ravindra Mangar, Jared Chandler, Jingyu Qian, Carl A. Gunter, Timothy J. Pierson, David Kotz

Dartmouth Scholarship

Smart devices are ubiquitous in modern environments, yet their decommissioning phase remains poorly studied and often overlooked in system design. We define secure decommissioning as the process by which a smart device securely disconnects from its environment and makes sensitive data inaccessible. If not decommissioned, devices may retain sensitive information – such as security credentials or user-behavior data that could be recovered by an adversary. Unfortunately, some users may forget to decommission a device when they dispose or sell it, and cannot decommission a device that is lost or stolen. This paper investigates a trigger mechanism for individual wireless smart …

Relationship Between Working Memory And Reading Comprehension: A Secondary Meta-Analysis, Gennadi Mikhailik

Doctoral Dissertations

Although working memory (WM) capacity has been highlighted in many theories of first-language (L1) and second-language (L2) reading comprehension, some scholars argue that its importance may be overstated and that existing findings are still inconclusive. Even with extensive research since 1995, the literature has lacked a thorough quantitative review of these results. This study shows that WM capacity is positively related to reading comprehension. The current secondary meta-analysis examined the relationship between WM capacity and reading comprehension in both L1 and L2, using two authoritative meta-analytic datasets: Daneman and Merikle’s (1996) for L1 and Jeon and Yamashita’s (2022) for L2. …

Concerted Rattling-Induced Strong Anharmonicity And Phonon Coherence Lead To Ultralow Glasslike Thermal Conductivity In Tlagte, Shantanu Semwal, Yi Xia, Chris Wolverton, Koushik Pal

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Ordered crystalline compounds exhibiting ultralow and glass-like thermal conductivity are both fundamentally and technologically important, where phonon quasi-particles dominate their heat transport. Understanding the microscopic mechanisms that govern such unusual transport behavior is necessary to unravel the complex interplay of crystal structure, phonons, and collective excitations of these quasi-particles. Here, we use state-of-the-art first-principles calculations based on quantum density functional theory to investigate the origin of experimentally measured unusually low and glassy thermal conductivity in semiconducting TlAgTe that possesses disconnected chains of Tl atoms within its three-dimensional crystalline framework made up of distorted AgTe4 tetrahedra. Utilizing a unifying framework of …

More Than Just A Criminal: Talking Back As A Critical Autoethnographic Journey, Anakin Rivera Ramirez

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article explores the experiences of doctoral students with criminal records navigating higher education, using a critical theoretical framework to highlight the unique challenges and triumphs I faced. Drawing upon decoloniality and critical race theory perspectives and activism, I define my critical scholarship as challenging the dominant oppression through thoughts and actions. Through autoethnographic and self-reflective narratives, I reflect on how my lived experiences as a Latino who has experienced criminalization. I have shaped my academic pursuits and critical consciousness. The autoethnography discusses systemic barriers such as stigma, discrimination, and institutional biases, showing how these obstacles have informed the author’s …

Evolutionarily Convergent Mechanism Of Formin Regulation Coordinates Actin Polymerization In Apicomplexan Parasites, Pengge Qian, Yong Fu, Jianwei Zeng, Michael J Naldrett, Rui Zhang, L David Sibley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Apicomplexan parasites rely on actin-based motility for host cell invasion and for their dissemination. Although previous studies implicate formin 1 (FRM1) in governing this process in

Conservation Of Cis-Regulatory Codes Over Half A Billion Years Of Evolution, Yohey Ogawa, Yu Liu, Connie A Myers, Ala Morshedian, Gordon L Fain, Alapakkam P Sampath, Joseph C Corbo

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Identifying homologous cell types across species is essential for understanding cell type evolution. The retina is ideal for comparative analysis because its six major cell classes have persisted since the origin of vertebrates more than half a billion years ago. Here, we show that the retina's conserved cellular architecture is mirrored by deep conservation of the cis-regulatory codes that govern gene expression. Through single-cell chromatin accessibility analysis of lamprey, fish, bird, and mammalian retinas, we demonstrate cross-species conservation of cis-regulatory codes in all retinal cell classes despite extensive turnover of cis-regulatory regions. Conservation manifests as clustering of high-affinity transcription factor …

Stakeholder Criteria For Trust In Artificial Intelligence-Based Computer Perception Tools In Health Care: Qualitative Interview Study, Ansh Rai, Meghan E Hurley, John Herrington, Eric A Storch, Casey J Zampella, Julia Parrish-Morris, Anika Sonig, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz, Kristin Kostick-Quenet

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Background: Computer perception (CP) technologies hold significant promise for advancing precision mental health care systems, given their ability to leverage algorithmic analysis of continuous, passive sensing data from wearables and smartphones (eg, behavioral activity, geolocation, vocal features, and ambient environmental data) to infer clinically meaningful behavioral and physiological states. However, successful implementation critically depends on cultivating well-founded stakeholder trust.

Objective: This study aims to investigate, across adolescents, caregivers, clinicians, and developers, the contingencies under which CP technologies are deemed trustworthy in health care.

Methods: We conducted 80 semistructured interviews with a purposive sample of adolescents (n=20) diagnosed with autism, Tourette …

User-Customized Application Settings Using Customized Application Environments, Alexander Haubold, Clément Julliard

Defensive Publications Series

Software applications on user devices can be launched only in their default state or in a single user-configured state. This requires users to change the application state for individual use cases each time they launch an application. For example, a camera application may have multiple modes such as default, portrait, panorama, video, etc. and the user needs to switch from the default mode to other modes before using the application. This disclosure describes application containerization techniques that enable users to launch an application in any of a set of custom initial states associated with separate custom-labeled icons. Users can thus …

Context-Aware Standby State And Context-Aware Boot With Low-Cost Hardware, Subrata Banik, Noga Smith

Defensive Publications Series

Avoiding latency in booting or waking a device requires keeping it on and connected at all times, resulting in poor battery life, frequent recharging, limited mobility because of the need for a connection, and higher costs. Sensor-based functionality for automatically triggering device start or wake by sensing human presence requires expensive sensors, does not identify specific users, generates many false positives, and lacks uniformity across devices. This disclosure describes implementation of a context-aware standby state and context-aware boot process with low-cost hardware integrated within a device. A device in the shutdown or suspended state can be switched to the context-aware …

2023u_Approved_Sm06_Pm_Bs-Biological-Sciences-Emphasis-Pre-Professional-Studies-Rev1, Undergraduate Curriculum Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2023u_Approved_Sm03_Pm_Bs-Environmental-Science-Curr-Update, Undergraduate Curriculum Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.

2023u_Approved_Nhp58_Cm_Nrsp-4016-Nursing-Practicum-V, Undergraduate Curriculum Council

All Approved Curriculum

No abstract provided.