Digital Commons Network^™

The Role Of The Cgas-Sting Sensing Pathway In Hiv-1 And Sars-Cov-2 Infections, Jenna Eve Eschbach

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Human immunodeficiency virus type I (HIV-1) and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are the causative agents of two unique pandemics. For a successful replication cycle to occur, viruses need to strategically outmaneuver host cell defenses. The innate immune system is the first line of defense against viruses and other pathogens. Host pattern recognition receptors detect viral nucleic acids and initiate signaling cascades that culminate in the expression of interferon (IFN) and transcriptional upregulation of antiviral interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). This dissertation examines the involvement of the innate immune response during early, post-entry steps of HIV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 infection. During …

Partially Supervised Reinforcement Learning For Gps-Denied Navigation, Ethan Weilheimer

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Navigating dynamic environments is a key challenge for autonomous agents, yet most existing research focuses on 3D settings or settings where the agent has full access to relevant semantics. In this work, we propose a learning framework for aerial navigation in the presence of changing dynamics and limited positional information. Specifically, we consider a drone navigation task where a drone at one time has access to GPS location information, which it has now lost and needs to navigate in the same area but at a future time with no GPS signal and differing transition dynamics. To address this, we introduce …

Adaptive Noise Estimation And Denoising With Deep Learning For Nmr Spectroscopy, Naveen Asokan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a powerful analytical technique widely used for molecular structure elucidation in chemistry, biology, and medicine. However, spectral accuracy is often degraded by noise—particularly in low acquisition time settings—resulting in reduced resolution and obscured chemical features. While traditional noise reduction techniques such as signal averaging can improve spectral quality, they require longer acquisition times, limiting their utility in real-time and high-throughput applications.

This thesis presents a deep learning-based denoising framework designed to enhance the quality of complex-valued NMR spectra. The proposed model, built upon a U-Net architecture, incorporates both real and imaginary components of the …

Generic Fpga Preprocessing For Astrophysics Instruments In Hls, Qinzhou Song

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

FPGAs are widely deployed on high-energy astroparticle physics instruments to preprocess large volumes of streaming data from various sensors. Increasingly, these deployments are finding their way to space-borne instruments, where constraints on size, weight, and power (SWaP) require careful balancing of speed and resource utilization. Although telescope designs vary widely, they often share common preprocessing elements, including channel-level readout, pedestal subtraction, waveform integration, and zero suppression from front-end ADCs, as well as identification and centroiding of signal islands across groups of multiple channels. High-Level Synthesis (HLS) tools allow these designs to be expressed at a conceptual level, which automates a …

Training Safety Control Filters Using High-Dimensional And Un-Labeled Data, Yuxuan Yang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Synthesizing control policies that preserve the safety of autonomous systems is a challenge that remains to be solved. Towards that goal, control barrier functions (CBFs) have been developed as mathematical constructs that can be used in real-time to correct safety-violating nominal actions to ones which preserve the safety of control systems. However, synthesizing CBFs using correct-by-construction methods has not been scalable. Instead, recent research has proposed data-driven approaches for learning CBFs in the form of neural networks. Two main challenges face such approaches: (1) labeling states as unsafe or safe ones requires the knowledge of the states in the backward …

The Kinship Of Creatives, Saba Saif Ur Rehman

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

This research essay contends that artists and creative individuals must recognize their agency in shaping societal narratives, particularly during times of technological and political upheaval. The essay draws on the insights and contributions of visionaries like Walter Benjamin, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Tomm Moore to emphasize the power of imagination and creativity in addressing real-world issues. It argues that previous technological advances have often reinforced hierarchical and oppressive systems, benefitting a select few while neglecting the masses. As we enter the fourth Industrial Revolution, this essay calls the artists to reclaim their tools from being co-opted for exclusionary and …

Adler, Asterios, & Maus, Crystal Ganatra

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Adler, Asterios, & Maus examines how small visual decisions in illustrations make up a language. And when the dialect changes from the predominant one in a graphic novel, something novel happens. A scene or specific quality gets the spotlight. It also explores how these visuals tie to Adlerian psychology and El Refaeian ideas on autobiography, behavior, and emotion. It identifies through two interesting grpahic novels- Asterios Polyp by David Mazzuchelli and Maus by Art Spiegelman- how these ideas can be used to understand ourselves. It intensely zeroes in on specific moments of visual language shift. Some of these change range …

Comics As Confrontation : A Case For Breaking Silence Around Sexual Abuse In Comics, Manimanjari Sengupta

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

In this essay I will provide an overview of the socio-cultural and legal attitude towards sexual violence in India, as evidence of the need for bringing survivor’s narratives out into public view. I will look closely at Indian comic artist Shromona Das’s Naming and Shaming (2018) , American artist Phoebe Gloeckner’s A Child’s Life and Other Stories (1998), and my own comic Feral (2025), to elucidate the ways in which comics are a potent medium for survivors to confront, not only our own memories by stringing together a sequential narrative, but also the audience, with the visualization of a lived …

Characterising Acute And Chronic Care Needs: Insights From The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2019, A. A. Asadi-Pooya

Department of Neurology Faculty Papers

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care addresses short-term conditions. Chronic conditions increasingly strain health systems, which are often unprepared for these demands. This study examines the burden of conditions requiring acute versus chronic care, including sequelae. Conditions and sequelae from the Global Burden of Diseases Study 2019 were classified into acute or chronic care categories. Data were analysed by age, sex, and socio-demographic index, presenting total numbers and contributions to burden metrics such as Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs), Years Lived with Disability (YLD), and Years of Life Lost (YLL). Approximately 68% of DALYs were attributed to chronic …

Residential Proximity, Duration, And Health-Related Quality Of Life: Insights From The Fernald Cohort, Sara Burcham, Wei-Wen Hsu, Sharon L. Larson, Phd, Jack Rubinstein, Susan M. Pinney

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

The impact of living near environmental contamination on the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) is not well understood. This study examined the impacts of the residential proximity (RP) and time spent near a former Department of Energy uranium processing facility (located in Fernald, Ohio) on the surrounding community’s HRQoL outcomes. A cross-sectional analysis was conducted using the data collected from participants using the Short Form-36 survey at the time of the enrollment in the Fernald Medical Monitoring Program (n = 7957). Mental and physical component summary scores (MCS and PCS, respectively) were computed for each participant. The scores were compared …

Hot Girls Don't Worry About Copyright: Trans/Formative Works And The Femmage Lifestyle, Czeslawa Wojtkowski

MFA in Visual Art

This thesis examines the ways in which collage is an ontologically transgender medium due to its freedom from traditional artistic formal and narrative structures. Considering that many trans experiences center around dichotomies, juxtaposition, and self-definition, collage is the best equipped to communicate these experiences in innovative ways. Through interrogations of feminized labor and the ways in which the art world upholds harmful gender binaries, as well as discussions of Femmage, maladjustment, and obsession, I argue that the fragmentary nature of photomontage, digital collage, and videomontage can externally express the multitude of feelings and identities contained within a body, to a …

Strategic Reactor Allocation For Deadlock-Free Execution, Jeevan Sivamohan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

As it becomes harder to increase the computation power of a single machine, we are turning towards parallel and distributed systems to extract additional performance by breaking down the problem into pieces and solving it simultaneously. While this provides a great opportunity for increased performance,e it comes with additional problems not present in the sequential approach. One such problem is deadlock. Deadlock is defined as the state in which program execution stalls because the system has run out of resources to manage and execute the program properly, or there exists some circular dependency in the data between parallel or distributed …

Structural Controllability For Switched Linear Ensemble Systems, Yi Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Experimental Evaluation Of Resource Allocation To Organelles In Eukaryotic Cells, Ronan Hanley

Senior Honors Papers / Undergraduate Theses

Among the hallmarks of the eukaryotic cell is its organization into spatially defined sub-compartments known as organelles. Organelles provide optimized environments for otherwise incompatible biochemical reactions within the cell. It has been shown that there is significant variation in the properties of organelles in a cell, and that cells have access to a limited pool of resources that they can allocate to organelles. This begs the question: by what principles do cells dictate how resources are allocated? To begin to explore this question, we look at resource allocation in S. cerevisiaefrom two perspectives. First, we use a combination of …

Held Together, Falling Apart: Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome As Embodied Abstraction, Chloe S. Macaulay

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Reconciling life within a body defined by fragility, I create worlds of connectivity to embody and refigure Classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (cEDS)–a connective-tissue disorder causing hypermobile joints, fragile skin, easy bruising, and poor wound healing. Large-format oil paintings employ a multi-layer method, layering paint like skin to reform the body onto canvas. Drawing on Surrealist automatic processes and theories of unconscious production, my methodology combines intuitive, process-based mark-making with traditional oil painting techniques and experimental material practices to subvert and reassert artistic agency, weaving between control and surrender. Scientific imagery, particularly SHG imaging of cEDS collagen tissue, informs a visual language …

Containers Of Becoming, Embodied Thresholds: Wearable Art As Performance, Bei Qi Ms.

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

My interdisciplinary art practice investigates wearable sculpture as a tool for emotional processing, identity negotiation, and embodied performance. Beginning with early works like a cape made from thrifted scarves—exploring how different wearers transform the same garment—I have expanded their role into vehicles for personal and collective meaning. Drawing from the work of artists including Nick Cave, Stan Brahkage, Lucy McRae, Lucy Orta, and Rebecca Horn, I examine how bodily concealment, distortion, and constraint can foster new modes of self-discovery.

Over time, my practice has evolved to incorporate performance, time-based media, and psychological frameworks. For example, my choreographed dance Enneagram: Beings …

Trans-Dimensional Coexistence: I No Longer Hold You But I See You, Keren Guo

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

We live in a world where impermanence is the only lasting truth. Fleeting moments and fading relationships reoccur in our lives, but the journey continues, nonetheless. My practice projects my individuality onto universal connections between humans through depicting worlds full of colorful imaginations, experiences, creatures, and figures. I draw inspiration from work by Inka Essenhigh, Yoko Ono, and Pipilotti Rist, studying contemporary artists’ use of colors, materials, and audience participation to make an array of works from paintings to an interactive installation as my final work. Additionally, I look into historical sources about mythical creatures and religious beliefs to enhance …

Weep No More, My Lady (Oh! Weep No More Today): Love, Violence, Printmaking, And Kentuckian Futurity, Madison Brown, Marshall Brown

Bachelor of Fine Arts Senior Papers

Situated within a regressive political climate, this essay considers the writer’s thesis artwork Weep No More, My Lady as a simultaneous account of Southern gendered violence and a desire for healing. Through personal and historical connections to Kentucky’s material culture, the work navigates binaries of class, race, and gender that have dictated the dominant contemporary conception of the region. Placing the competing forces of care and brutality in dialogue, Weep No More, My Lady translates these theoretical challenges into formal attributes. The work suggests modes of making — stitching, unraveling, tearing — can act against the construction and naturalization of …

The Seroprevalence And Risk Factors For Spotted Fever Group And Typhus Group Rickettsia Along The Texas-Mexico Border, Frederick M Cramer, Lauren M Leining, Timothy A Erickson, Josephine Tolan, Craig L Hanis, Eric L Brown, Sarah M Gunter

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Rickettsial pathogens are an endemic and emergent source of disease in Texas, with a historically high rate of transmission along the United States-Mexico border. To better understand the prevalence and risk factors for spotted fever group Rickettsia (SFGR) and typhus group Rickettsia (TGR) along the Texas-Mexico border, we conducted a seroprevalence study of adults residing in Starr County, Texas (N = 616). Plasma samples were screened for IgG reactivity to SFGR and TGR using commercially available ELISA. ELISA-positive samples were confirmed using a dual spot IgG indirect immunofluorescent assay. Seropositivity was defined as having a ≥1:128 titer. Analysis was conducted …

Interview With Early Career Librarians Marianne Donley And Rebecca Johnston, Grace Suhadolnik

Information Literacy Collab

No abstract provided.

Women And Politics In Nigeria: A Typology And An Assessment, Emma Chukwuemeka

Journal of African Policy Studies

The study was carried out to investigate the extent women participate in politics in Nigeria. Abia and Imo states were closely studied. Two hypotheses were formulated. The instruments used for data collection were questionnaire, interview and focus group discussion. A total of 354 copies of questionnaire were distributed, out of this number, 349 copies were completed and returned by the respondents. Z-test statistical tool was used to analyze the data, Based on the analysis, the major findings revealed that violence against women deters women from getting actively involved in politics in Nigeria. Also culture and traditional ethos prevent the advancement …

Political Corruption, Critical Governance Problem Facing The Nigerian State: Comparative Assessment Of Various Regimes, Brian-Vincent Ikejiaku

Journal of African Policy Studies

This paper examines political corruption as the most critical problem of Governance besieging Nigeria, by looking at, assessing and comparing the various administrations, both the civil and the military. The state of poverty, peace and development in each government were used as assessment indicators. The focus is from 1979 when democracy was introduced in Nigeria to 2007 when President Obasanjo left the corridor of power. Whereas this paper uses few direct citations and evidence from other works/reports to support its case, it however argues that political corruption impacted negatively on the poverty, peace and development of the Nigerian state. The …

Insecurity And The African State: The Myth And Reality Of Armed Non-State Actors, Eliza M. Johannes

Journal of African Policy Studies

Armed non-state militia groups of different shades—comprising rebels, criminals, extremist religious militants, and other opportunistic outfits—have played a significant role in creating instability and undermining human security in Africa. The militia and rebel groups, including the Islamist militant groups have fomented unending ethnic and religious tensions and conflicts in the region. Cognizant of this state of affairs, in this paper I analyze and try to explain the rise of some notable militia groups in Kenya, Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and the Central African Republic. While focusing on the Mungiki, the Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) in …

Anglophone Cameroon In Search Of Identity: Obstacles And Prospects, Tangie Nsoh Fonchingong

Journal of African Policy Studies

The former British Southern Cameroons opted in a UN organised plebiscite in 1961 to unify with La Republique du Cameroun to form a federation of two states that were said to be on a footing of equality. But contrary to declarations and expectations, the federation was not one of equal states. It was instead a veiled preparatory stage for the total assimilation of the Southern Cameroons into the highly centralised La Republique du Cameroun francophone unitary state. Through a number of assimilation stages, the Southern Cameroons has lost its autonomy to La Republique du Cameroun, its people marginalised, institutions destroyed, …

Learning A Little Bit Harder: The Intersecting Experiences Of First-Generation And Single-Mother College Students, Natalie Lecy, Elizabeth Hendrix, Brian A. Droubay

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version of this introduction here.

This study examines the experiences of nine first-generation, single-mother college students, focusing on these intersecting, double-jeopardy identities. Participants’ difficulty navigating college varied; contributing factors included family background, social capital, the type of college attended, and whether they established a mentor. The following themes were established: 1) realizing college is an option, 2) caught between two worlds, 3) college wasn’t designed for us, 4) economic barriers, and 5) disparities in social capital. Our findings indicate colleges were unprepared to meet the unique challenges faced by this group. We present recommendations for the …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 9, Issue 1, Spring 2025

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Spring 2025 issue (Volume 9, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

The issue includes five articles addressing challenges in higher education: faculty-student interactions with Generation Z students, experiences of first-generation single-mother college students, implementation of an interdisciplinary museum studies course, guidance for creating educational videos, and a book review on resistance to change in higher education. The journal emphasizes practical strategies for effective teaching, inclusivity, and innovative approaches to pedagogy across various educational contexts.

Effectiveness Of Osteopathic Manipulation Therapies Vs Pt/Rehabilitation Therapies On Multiple Sclerosis Symptoms, Daniel A. Dolinski, Sierra L. Hudson, Francis E. Jenney

Research Day

Introduction:

We review some of the epidemiologic and genetic aspects of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) while highlighting the benefits of an osteopathic approach to relieving symptoms and psychological distress in MS and similar disease states.

We focus on the efficacy of current PT/rehabilitation therapies versus Osteopathic Manipulative Therapies for selected symptoms in patients with MS, including changes in mood, motor functions, fatigue, vertigo, sleep, and chronic pain.

Living with MS is extremely expensive, ranging from an average per-person per-year cost of $65,612 for direct medical costs and an average of $18,542 for indirect costs/non-medical costs (Bebo et al., 2022). This study …

Social Determinants Of Health In Patients With Diabetes Mellitus Ii, Iman N. Ashraf, Donald Penney

Research Day

Introduction: More than 37 million people in the United States have diabetes, the majority 90-95% with type 2 diabetes. The social determinants of health (SDH) are the non-medical factors that influence health outcomes. They are the conditions in which people are born, grow, work, live, and age, and the wider set of forces and systems shaping the conditions of daily life. These forces and systems include economic policies and systems, development agendas, social norms, social policies and political systems. The SDH have an important influence on health inequities - the unfair and avoidable differences in health status seen within and …

A Prehabilitation Protocol For The Asymptomatic, Newly Diagnosed, Stage Iv Colon Cancer Patient., Scott Salters, Kaitlyn Wright, Sumana Moole

Research Day

Introduction

Prehabilitation is defined as the process of optimizing a patient’s health prior to a medical or surgical intervention. Although this is an emerging concept and is not yet standard of care, literature has shown prehabilitation to be a potentially useful tool in medicine. In the field of gastroenterology, it has been primarily used for patients undergoing surgery to remove cancers. We want to utilize prehabilitation and apply it towards patients that are awaiting oncological treatment for asymptomatic, advanced gastrointestinal malignancies. This case report highlights the need for a specific prehabilitation protocol in these scenarios and discusses evidence-based recommendations based …

Cutaneous Sarcoidosis Imitating Necrobiosis Lipoidica: A Case Report And Review, Felix Bui, Noor Hasan, Jeannel Miclat, Joseph Dyer

Research Day

Introduction

Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous skin condition of unknown etiology, which is diagnostically challenging because it can mimic various skin conditions. In this review, we report the case of a 59-year-old male presenting with previously undiagnosed cutaneous sarcoidosis in the form of alopecia and atrophic plaques on his scalp that clinically resembled necrobiosis lipoidica (NL).

Objectives

The primary objective of this study is to compare the treatment outcomes of our case report along with other existing cases of NL-like sarcoidosis.

Case Report

A 59-year-old male patient exhibited a shiny pink-yellow atrophic plaque with crusting, telangiectasias, and secondary alopecia. With a …