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Investigating The Evolution Of Shear Failure In Cross Laminated Timber (Clt) Transverse Layer Using Acoustic Emission, Harika Undadi May 2026

Investigating The Evolution Of Shear Failure In Cross Laminated Timber (Clt) Transverse Layer Using Acoustic Emission, Harika Undadi

Theses and Dissertations

Cross-laminated timber (CLT) is susceptible to rolling shear failure in the transverse layers. This study evaluated the rolling shear failure in southern pine (Pinus spp.) and yellow poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) CLT panels using block shear, delamination, and interlaminar shear tests. Acoustic emission (AE) monitoring was integrated with video recording to capture structural damage while loading. The results showed rolling shear failure as the dominant failure mode in the transverse layer. The AE energy and the load-displacement curve were classified into stages і) deformation stage with negligible AE signals (elastic behavior); ⅱ) crack propagation stage with increased AE signals; and ⅲ) …

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The Role Of Math Anxiety – And Associated Support Mechanisms And Strategies – In The Academic Success Of Stem College Students, William Jacob Tschume May 2026

The Role Of Math Anxiety – And Associated Support Mechanisms And Strategies – In The Academic Success Of Stem College Students, William Jacob Tschume

Theses and Dissertations

Math anxiety has been widely documented as a barrier to student success, yet its role within institutional student success frameworks – particularly in gateway STEM courses – remains underexamined. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between math anxiety, academic support mechanisms, and academic performance among undergraduate STEM students enrolled in a gateway mathematics course at a large, public, research-intensive university. Guided by the Debilitating Anxiety Model, student success frameworks, Social Cognitive Career Theory, and equity-oriented perspectives, this study addressed three research questions: (1) how student demographic characteristics relate to levels of math anxiety, (2) the …

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Integrating Augmented Reality Visualizations Into Data Science Notebooks Using Microsoft Hololens 2, Derek Willis May 2026

Integrating Augmented Reality Visualizations Into Data Science Notebooks Using Microsoft Hololens 2, Derek Willis

Theses and Dissertations

Data-science notebooks support iterative analysis but are limited to two-dimensional (2D) displays. This work presents an approach to extend such environments with rapid augmented reality (AR) visualization while preserving conventional 2D workflows. An opensource R package was developed to convert notebook objects into three-dimensional (3D) models, export them in the Graphics Language Transmission Format (glTF), and transfer directly to a Microsoft HoloLens 2 via a USB connection for viewing in the native 3D Viewer application. The proposed workflow eliminates manual conversion and transfer steps required by earlier methods. A user study employing a post-session questionnaire indicated that participants found the …

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Delayed Timing Of Spring Application Of Nitrogen In Corn, Elizabeth Mae Worley May 2026

Delayed Timing Of Spring Application Of Nitrogen In Corn, Elizabeth Mae Worley

Theses and Dissertations

Application timing of nitrogen (N) fertilizer within the corn growing season can be crucial to crop nutrient uptake and availability. A lack of region-specific timing recommendations may result in inefficient fertilizer use and inconsistent yield responses. The objectives of this study were to determine how late in the growing season a first and second N fertilizer application can be pushed until corn yield is impacted and investigate whether Growing Degree Days (GDDs) should be used as better estimate of timing for N application than calendar date or growth stage. First applications were able to be delayed until V4-V6 growth stages …

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Assessing The Relationship Between Subsurface Geology And Surficial Geomorphology: Remotely Predicting Geologic Features And Geohazards Using An Elevation-Trained Machine Learning Algorithm In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Allison L. Wing May 2026

Assessing The Relationship Between Subsurface Geology And Surficial Geomorphology: Remotely Predicting Geologic Features And Geohazards Using An Elevation-Trained Machine Learning Algorithm In The Northern Gulf Of Mexico, Allison L. Wing

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates the capacity to predict subsurface geologic features and submarine landslide susceptibility using surficial geomorphology derived from bathymetric elevation data in the Northern Gulf of Mexico. Quantitative geomorphic variables including slope, curvature, aspect, rugosity, geomorphons, and Bathymetric Position Index were generated from 30-meter digital elevation models and used as explanatory variables in presence-only Maximum Entropy models. Known locations of faults, pockmarks, mud volcanoes, hydrocarbon seeps, and landslides (particularly intact scarps) were used to train and validate predictive models through k-fold cross validation. Model performance was assessed using omission rates and AUC values. Results demonstrate that specific geomorphic signatures, …

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Beyond English: Auditing And Mitigating Cross-Lingual Data Contamination In Multimodal Large Language Models, Pavan Dharma Adapa May 2026

Beyond English: Auditing And Mitigating Cross-Lingual Data Contamination In Multimodal Large Language Models, Pavan Dharma Adapa

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis extends data contamination auditing for multimodal large language models to multilingual settings. Using LLaVA 1.5 and a high-fidelity French parallel dataset derived from ScienceQA, the study evaluates how performance changes when identical image-question pairs are translated from English to French. The resultsshow a substantial cross-lingual performance decline and frequent flips from correct English predictions to incorrect French predictions, indicating that benchmark performance can depend heavily on memorized English-specific patterns rather than stable multimodal reasoning. To address this weakness, the thesis introduces an inference-time mitigation strategy based on perturbation ensembling and cross-lingual consistency aggregation. The proposed method reduces instance-level …

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Design And Uncertainty Methodology In High Efficiency Filtration Media Testing, Jeremy Andrei Adriano May 2026

Design And Uncertainty Methodology In High Efficiency Filtration Media Testing, Jeremy Andrei Adriano

Theses and Dissertations

Electrospun nanofiber media are being developed as potential alternatives to conventional HEPA filtration materials due to their small fiber diameters and tunable microstructures. To support future testing of these materials, the Small-Scale Test Stand (SSTS) at the Institute for Clean Energy Technology (ICET) requires modifications to ensure accurate and repeatable aerosol filtration measurements. Electrospun filters introduce challenges including fragile media structures and uncertain filtration efficiencies that may allow particle penetration to downstream instrumentation. This work evaluates adaptations to the SSTS design to support testing of electrospun filtration media. In addition, an uncertainty framework for aerosol measurements obtained using a Scanning …

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Impacts Of Structural Design On Oyster Survival And Predation In Restored Oyster Reefs, Jaden Akers May 2026

Impacts Of Structural Design On Oyster Survival And Predation In Restored Oyster Reefs, Jaden Akers

Theses and Dissertations

Restoration efforts are critical to ensure healthy oyster populations, but the high cost and marginal success rate of many restoration efforts demonstrates the need to evaluate alternative oyster reef restoration designs and strategies. To address this issue, I conducted a paired field and mesocosm study to assess the influence of structural design on oyster survival and predation. Results of the field portion of this study showed that oyster survival was greatest in short and bed-level (i.e., sitting on the sea bottom) reef designs. When assessing how design features impact oyster drill activity, elevated reefs (i.e., elevated above the sea bottom) …

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Machine Learning-Based Decision Support Models With Applications In Postsecondary Education, Marco Paolo Anglesio May 2026

Machine Learning-Based Decision Support Models With Applications In Postsecondary Education, Marco Paolo Anglesio

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the deployment of machine learning methodologies in an industrial engineering framework for the development of advanced decision support systems in the context of enrollment management. Drawing on techniques from educational data mining, the research addresses three key phases in the lifecycle of traditional and non-traditional students. First, it analyzes student retention using predictive classification models designed to identify individuals at elevated risk of attrition. Second, it employs temporal convolutional networks for time series forecasting, estimating aggregate enrollment levels over highly variable, finite planning horizons on the basis of partially observed data and using an asymmetric loss function. …

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On The Bias And Variance Of The Plug-In Estimator For Generalized Shannon’S Entropy, Shirli Salihaj Arndt May 2026

On The Bias And Variance Of The Plug-In Estimator For Generalized Shannon’S Entropy, Shirli Salihaj Arndt

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the bias and variance of the plug-in estimator for generalized Shannon’s entropy. The setting is discrete data where observations take categorical values and the statistical object of interest is a probability distribution on an alphabet of possible outcomes. In such problems, entropy provides a relabeling-invariant summary of dispersion, but estimation can be challenging when the number of possible outcomes is large relative to the sample size. In addition, on some countably infinite alphabets, the classical Shannon entropy may diverge, motivating alternative entropy-like targets. Generalized Shannon’s entropy is defined by applying Shannon entropy to an escort reweighting of …

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How Did A Pandemic Impact Park Usage Among The Older Adult Populations In Memphis, Tn?, Katherine Barlow May 2026

How Did A Pandemic Impact Park Usage Among The Older Adult Populations In Memphis, Tn?, Katherine Barlow

Theses and Dissertations

During COVID-19 older adults’ populations were a vulnerable demographic, and through a review of existing literature it was determined that there is limited research about park and outdoor space use during COVID-19 by older adults. This research seeks to address these gaps by examining how a pandemic impacted park usage among the older adult population (age 60+) in Memphis, TN at Shelby Farms Park. This study examines the comparison of park use during (2020-2023) and after (2023-present) COVID-19. A mixed methods approach was employed. Wilcoxon Signed Rank test was run to analyze the survey data and a significant statistical difference. …

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Assessing Differences In The Frequency And Severity Of Osteoarthritis On The Mandibular Condyles Between Males And Females At Tell Abraq, Brittany C. Brown May 2026

Assessing Differences In The Frequency And Severity Of Osteoarthritis On The Mandibular Condyles Between Males And Females At Tell Abraq, Brittany C. Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Tell Abraq, a Bronze and Iron Age site in the United Arab Emirates, was a center of trade and cultural expansion during the Umm an-Nar period (2700–2100 BCE). Its multichambered tombs contain large, commingled burials, reflecting increasing sedentism and agricultural practices. This study examines mandibular osteoarthritis (OA) to explore lived experience and biomechanical stress. A total of 138 adult mandibles were analyzed for sex and OA severity. Results show generally mild and infrequent OA, though preservation limited analysis. Sex estimates suggested more gracile morphologies than previously identified. No strong sex-based differences in OA were observed. Overall, findings highlight the impact …

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An Evaluation Of Mississippi’S Policy For Identifying And Exiting Targeted Support And Improvement (Tsi) And Additional Targeted Support And Improvement (Atsi) Schools, Christopher A. Burrow May 2026

An Evaluation Of Mississippi’S Policy For Identifying And Exiting Targeted Support And Improvement (Tsi) And Additional Targeted Support And Improvement (Atsi) Schools, Christopher A. Burrow

Theses and Dissertations

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify schools for improvement based on overall performance and the performance of student subgroups. While substantial research has examined CSI schools, limited attention has been given to state policies governing the identification and exit of TSI and ATSI schools. This project evaluates Mississippi’s policy for identifying and exiting TSI and ATSI schools to determine whether the system appropriately identifies underperforming subgroups, promotes sustained improvement, and aligns with ESSA's equity-focused intent. Guided by the policy analysis triangle framework, the study employed a desk-based secondary data analysis of Mississippi’s publicly available state and …

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Characterization Of Water Quality In The Mississippi Sound Using In-Situ And Satellite Observations, William Elliott Butler May 2026

Characterization Of Water Quality In The Mississippi Sound Using In-Situ And Satellite Observations, William Elliott Butler

Theses and Dissertations

The Mississippi Sound is a highly productive estuary facing increasing pressures from natural disasters, oil spills, freshwater inflows, and coastal urbanization, yet it remains insufficiently monitored. In this study, key water quality parameters were quantified at 25 stations across the Mississippi Sound from 2024-2025 and integrated with Sentinel-3 satellite imagery retrievals to generate monthly turbidity maps from 2016-2025. Peak turbidity (~10 FNU) and TSS (~20 mg/L), reduced Secchi depth (~100 cm) and conductivity (~20,000 μS/cm), were observed from late winter to early summer; these conditions varied in fall and early spring. Colored dissolved organic matter was moderate, while chlorophyll-a and …

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Determining Agricultural Literacy Proficiency Of Extension Professionals And Primary Volunteers In Mississippi, Molly Campbell May 2026

Determining Agricultural Literacy Proficiency Of Extension Professionals And Primary Volunteers In Mississippi, Molly Campbell

Theses and Dissertations

The development of agricultural literacy is a lifelong process, moving from gaining agricultural knowledge to communicating with others to applying to societal issues, and extends beyond the formal classroom. The Mississippi State University Extension Service has the ability to reach various audiences through educational programming, making them a potential catalyst for change in increasing agricultural literacy across the state. The study aims to determine the agricultural literacy levels of Extension professionals and primary volunteers in Mississippi and the factors potentially influencing these levels. Twenty-nine Extension professionals and eleven primary volunteers completed a survey of demographic questions and the Judd-Murray Agricultural …

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From Miocene Origins To Ecological Diversification: Unraveling Evolutionary Dynamics Of North American Asters (Symphyotrichum), Sushil Dahal May 2026

From Miocene Origins To Ecological Diversification: Unraveling Evolutionary Dynamics Of North American Asters (Symphyotrichum), Sushil Dahal

Theses and Dissertations

Symphyotrichum, a plant genus traditionally treated within the genus Aster L., comprises >100 species of annual or perennial plants in the Compositae family Asteraceae. One of the most diverse genera in the southeastern US flora, the genus extends across the Americas, the Caribbean as well as eastern Eurasia. Despite its presence across the major American biomes and with distinctive floristic characteristics, several question regarding Symphyotrichum remains obscure. This research project focuses on exploring diverse aspects of Symphyotrichum systematics, biogeography and evolution. I tested three main hypotheses: (1a) Symphyotrichum originated ancestrally across Mexico and eastern North America in the Miocene ( …

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British Subjects "Of Ye Jewish Religion": The Negotiated Identities Of The Levy-Franks Family, Laura Miriam Drake May 2026

British Subjects "Of Ye Jewish Religion": The Negotiated Identities Of The Levy-Franks Family, Laura Miriam Drake

Theses and Dissertations

Through a series of determined choices over sixty-five years, the Levy-Franks family blended their religious identity as Jews with their claimed British socio-political identity to achieve economic success in eighteenth-century colonial New York. Through colonial records, newspapers, legal petitions, portraits and, most significantly, the letters of Abigaill Levy Franks, this dissertation examines the family’s actions taken to create a blended identity, despite the potential threat that their participation in the broader British Atlantic world posed to their religious selves. During a time in British history when religious identities were at the forefront of political debate, the Levy-Franks family created a …

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Evaluation And Mitigation Of Bias And Toxicity In Open-Source Large Language Models Using Crows-Pairs And Bold, Sai Harika Gade May 2026

Evaluation And Mitigation Of Bias And Toxicity In Open-Source Large Language Models Using Crows-Pairs And Bold, Sai Harika Gade

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis evaluates bias and harmful language generation in five open-source language models and tests practical mitigation methods that do not require retraining. Two masked models are assessed with a sentence-pair benchmark for stereotype preference, and three generative models are assessed with a prompt-based benchmark for harmful continuations across demographic domains. The study uses a unified experimental workflow to compare model behavior, summarize differences across bias categories, and measure changes after intervention. Results show that the masked models favor stereotypical content above a random baseline, while the generative models usually produce low average toxicity but still show uneven risk across …

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Assessment Of Energy And Hydration Demands Of Farm Workers In Mississippi, Mckenzie Lynne Hargrove May 2026

Assessment Of Energy And Hydration Demands Of Farm Workers In Mississippi, Mckenzie Lynne Hargrove

Theses and Dissertations

The agricultural community in Mississippi is critical to the state’s economy and the health of its communities. Farm workers meet these needs by performing highly demanding work with long hours of labor, limited resources, and stressful environmental conditions. The purpose of this investigation was to examine and measure indicators of physiological and behavioral adaptations to the heat such as whole body sweat rate (WBSR), sweat sodium (Na+) content, urine specific gravity (USG), and fluid intake, as well as determine total daily energy expenditure (TEE) and water influx (rH2O) via the doubly labeled water technique (DLW) in farm workers during the …

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Investigating Teacher Cognition Of Teaching Spatial Thinking Among Middle And High School Stem Teachers: A Knowledge, Belief, And Attitude Perspective, Jonathan Grant Harris May 2026

Investigating Teacher Cognition Of Teaching Spatial Thinking Among Middle And High School Stem Teachers: A Knowledge, Belief, And Attitude Perspective, Jonathan Grant Harris

Theses and Dissertations

Spatial thinking is a critical cognitive ability that supports learning and problem solving across science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Despite extensive research highlighting the importance of spatial thinking in STEM achievement and career success, limited research has examined STEM teachers’ cognition of spatial thinking or developed instruments to measure it. The purpose of this study was to investigate middle and high school STEM teachers’ cognition of spatial thinking, including their perceived pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of spatial thinking, self-efficacy beliefs about teaching spatial thinking, and attitudes toward spatial thinking as a critical component of STEM learning and achievement. …

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Developing And Evaluating U.S. Army Bridging For Ship Simulation, Jacob C. Hodges May 2026

Developing And Evaluating U.S. Army Bridging For Ship Simulation, Jacob C. Hodges

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the intricacies of ship simulation and developmental processes for integrating wet gap crossing capabilities into a simulated environment. The US Army Mark III Bridge Erection Boat (BEB) and Improved Ribbon Bridge (IRB) were modeled in commercial off the shelf (COTS) and Government Co-Owned (GCO) navigation software suites to determine their performance capabilities and limitations. Each model was constructed using naval architecture concepts to accurately capture their hydrostatic and hydrodynamic effects before being validated against available performance data and expert elicitation from expert US Army watercraft operators. Models were configured and tested in simulated river flows with current …

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Exclusionary Disciplinary Composition Outcomes: Schools With High African American Enrollments And Schools With Low African American Enrollments, Darrell A. Jones May 2026

Exclusionary Disciplinary Composition Outcomes: Schools With High African American Enrollments And Schools With Low African American Enrollments, Darrell A. Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Racial disparities in exclusionary disciplinary outcomes remain consistently documented across United States public schools, with African American (AA) students disproportionately represented in in-school suspension (ISS) and out-of-school suspension (OSS) outcomes. The purpose of this quantitative comparative study was to examine whether statistically significant differences existed between (a) the percentage of students receiving ISS who were AA and (b) the percentage of students receiving OSS who were AA in selected Mississippi public high schools with high AA enrollment (≥70%) and low AA enrollment (≤30%) during the 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 academic years. The study utilized archival, publicly available, school-level discipline and enrollment …

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Accelerating Defensive Cyber Operations Via Unsupervised Log Clustering And Automated Regex Template Synthesis, Charles Matthew Jones May 2026

Accelerating Defensive Cyber Operations Via Unsupervised Log Clustering And Automated Regex Template Synthesis, Charles Matthew Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Modern Security Operations Centers (SOCs) ingest millions of log entries per day, but manual parsing does not scale to the volume, heterogeneity, and rapid evolution of log formats. This dissertation investigates whether unsupervised clustering can automate the generation of candidate field-extraction templates while remaining deployable in production and feasible under realistic runtime and memory constraints. The central research question asks whether a machine-learning-assisted pipeline that proposes extraction templates for security engineer review—relative to reproducible human-authored baselines such as hand-written regular expressions—can measurably improve rule-set deployability and corpus-scale extraction quality. Improvement is quantified using four applicability metrics: Coverage Rate (CR), Exclusive …

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A Pedagogically Effective Conceptual Framework For The Resilience Of Unit Test Suites To Refactoring, Daniel Paul Knight May 2026

A Pedagogically Effective Conceptual Framework For The Resilience Of Unit Test Suites To Refactoring, Daniel Paul Knight

Theses and Dissertations

Unit test suites are intended to support safe and efficient source code refactoring, yet in practice they can hinder rather than help when tests are tightly coupled to implementation details. Such non-resilient tests require frequent co-evolution, consume valuable engineering time, and may disincentivize beneficial code improvements. While concepts such as passive and active resilience, test smells, and technical debt have been studied individually, they have not been integrated into a single actionable framework, nor has their pedagogical value been systematically evaluated. This dissertation introduces a novel conceptual framework for the resilience of unit test suites to refactoring, grounded in resilience …

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Low-Dimensional Metal Halides For Light-Emitting Diodes (Leds): Photophysical Aspects And Device Engineering, Udara Madushanka Kuruppu Kuruppu Achchige Don May 2026

Low-Dimensional Metal Halides For Light-Emitting Diodes (Leds): Photophysical Aspects And Device Engineering, Udara Madushanka Kuruppu Kuruppu Achchige Don

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, low-dimensional metal halides have garnered significant interest due to their exceptional optical properties. This dissertation focuses on the structural, optical, and photophysical properties of both lead-based and lead-free low-dimensional metal halides and investigates their applications in light-emitting diodes. In Chapter II, the nature of Mn2+ doping in two-dimensional (2D) lead halide perovskites is discussed. 2D perovskites show strong excitonic and dielectric confinement due to their quantum well structures. Introducing optically active Mn²⁺ dopant ions into these 2D perovskites further enhances their optical properties and promotes energy transfer from the host to the Mn²⁺ dopants, resulting in dual …

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Assessment Of Local Ecological Knowledge, Oyster Predation, And Habitat Function To Improve Management Of Nearshore Habitats, Cynthia Evelyn Marie Lupton May 2026

Assessment Of Local Ecological Knowledge, Oyster Predation, And Habitat Function To Improve Management Of Nearshore Habitats, Cynthia Evelyn Marie Lupton

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal ecosystems along the northern Gulf of Mexico are ecologically and economically vital yet increasingly threatened by environmental change, habitat degradation, and knowledge gaps that complicate restoration and management efforts. This dissertation integrates social and ecological approaches to improve understanding of predator dynamics, stakeholder perceptions, and habitat function related to nearshore habitats. Thereby, providing information that can inform adaptive management and restoration in the region through addressing three overarching objectives: 1) evaluate stakeholder perceptions of oyster (Crassostrea virginica) predation and management practices; 2) quantify environmental and habitat factors influencing oyster drill (Stramonita haemastoma complex) abundance; and, 3) assess the influence …

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Body Swaps, Prophetic Dreams, And The Angel Of Destruction: Agency And Narration In Mary Shelley’S Short Stories And Revisions To Frankenstein, Meg Mcdougal May 2026

Body Swaps, Prophetic Dreams, And The Angel Of Destruction: Agency And Narration In Mary Shelley’S Short Stories And Revisions To Frankenstein, Meg Mcdougal

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates Mary Shelley’s later bibliography, focusing on several of her short stories published around the 1831 revisions to Frankenstein. This study investigates Shelley’s techniques to present the agency of each of her protagonists through various techniques of narration, including points of view, methods of storytelling, and usage of voice. Comparing three of Shelley’s short stories creates a throughline of agency and narration in tandem with the presence of the supernatural, and this throughline can be found exclusively in the 1831 edition of Frankenstein. Through this examination, Shelley’s later edition of her most famous work can be looked at …

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Investigating Semantic Categorization Using Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation, Zack Murphy May 2026

Investigating Semantic Categorization Using Fast Periodic Visual Stimulation, Zack Murphy

Theses and Dissertations

Fast periodic visual stimulation (FPVS) with EEG provides a rapid method for isolating both higher-order and lower-order cognitive responses, an advantage that could prove useful in future research into higher order cognitive tasks. This thesis tested whether a semantic categorization response could be reliably differentiated from a low-level color response. EEG data were collected while 33 young adults viewed image sequences of fruits and vegetables of varying colors across five experimental conditions that compared color and semantic categorization responses. Frequency domain analysis revealed that color responses were much stronger and localized to the Left Occipito-Temporal (LOT) region of interest (ROI) …

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Improving And Supporting Flight Instructor’S Decisions For First Solo, Isabella Piasecki May 2026

Improving And Supporting Flight Instructor’S Decisions For First Solo, Isabella Piasecki

Theses and Dissertations

Flight instructors have the burden of determining when a student is ready for their first solo flight, and many have expressed uncertainty over their own decision-making skills during this phase of a student’s training. Prior studies have examined flight instructors’ pre-solo decisions in other countries, but no such study has been conducted with American flight instructors. For this study, current flight instructors with multiple prior endorsements for a student pilot’s first solo were interviewed to identify the more abstract concepts they use to guide their decision. Qualitative themes were identified from their experiences. Using this information, a checklist was developed …

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Characterizing The Microbial Structure And Function In Black Soldier Fly Digested Dairy Manure And Subsequent Larvae, Branden N. Pierce May 2026

Characterizing The Microbial Structure And Function In Black Soldier Fly Digested Dairy Manure And Subsequent Larvae, Branden N. Pierce

Theses and Dissertations

This work examined the microbial structure and gene expression found in Black Soldier Fly larval guts and their frass when reared on dairy cattle manure that had been amended with either R. rhodococcus 21198, P. polymyxa 8158, or both and compare the results to larvae reared on untreated manure. First an overview of literature surrounding projected global food supplies and the possible use of insects to either increase them or mitigate the environmental effect of producing said supply. A cellulose degradation assay was performed to assist in determining which bacterial species to use as amendments. Characterization of the microbial communities …

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