Digital Commons Network^™

Inoculating Soybean Plants At Different Growth Stages: Selecting Bradyrhizobium, Sinorhizobium, Or Both, Matthew R. Knoll

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Soybean plants rely on nitrogen for growth, however atmospheric nitrogen (N2) is not a usable form and needs to be converted into different forms that are available to the plant. Nitrogen fixing bacteria such as rhizobia form symbiotic relationships with Soybeans in exchange for shelter and excess plant sugars. As a result, the plant can get the nitrogen it needs. There are four main genera of rhizobia that can form root nodules on Soybean including Bradyrhizobium, Sinorhizobium, Mesorhizobium, and Rhizobium. At this point, the effect that age of the host plant has on the selection of …

The Role Of Host Factor Sptbn1 In Hiv-1 Capsid Uncoating In Human Microglial Cells, Callie Marie Fry

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

HIV-1 is the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), and currently, there is no cure once an individual is infected. The development of new drugs targeting HIV-1 replication steps is essential for keeping viral loads low or undetectable to prevent further transmission. An attractive replication step for new drug targets is viral capsid uncoating, where the virus loses the protein structure encapsulating the genome. The exact mechanism of capsid uncoating is unknown; however, several host-factors may be involved including protein SPTBN1. Recent studies have shown a significant decrease in viral infectivity when SPTBN1 is knocked down, yet its role …

Learned Helplessness: An Online Replication And Validation, Arshpreet (Sunny) Kandola

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The current study entails the partial replication of a classic learned helplessness two-phase triadic design experiment within an online learning context and aimed to validate a new attributional style self-report measure designed to identify individual differences in tendencies to develop learned helplessness consistent with the original reformulation of the hypothesis. Further, recent innovations in neuroscientific technology have allowed for a deeper examination of the mechanisms at play, finding support for a major re-interpretation of the theory of learned helplessness - suggesting that helplessness is more so the default passive response, while the active ingredient that is detected or expected (i.e., …

Restoration Of Giant River Cane (Arundinaria Gigantea) In Southwest Missouri, Lyndsey D. Rightnowar

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Giant river cane (Arundinaria gigantea), a native bamboo species, once dominated riparian landscapes across the southeastern United States but has declined to approximately 2% of its historic range. This study evaluated restoration techniques for giant cane in southwest Missouri by examining the influence of rhizome source (putative genotype), planting type, and restoration site on restoration success. I compared two planting types: greenhouse-to-field (G2F) transplanting, where rhizomes were first propagated in the greenhouse before planting, and field-to-field (F2F) transplanting, where rhizomes were directly transplanted from source canebrakes to restoration sites. Rhizomes were collected from four existing canebrakes in Taney …

The Effectiveness Of Using Machine Learning Techniques To Improve Online Education Advantages, Challenges, And Barrier, M. Samir Abou El-Seoud

Computer Science

In this paper, we are going to analyze the effectiveness of using machine learning (ML) techniques to improve online education. Nowadays, numerous universities and online education providers have expanded their offerings. For the uninitiated, we can simply refer to online education as distance learning facilitated through the Internet and a computer. Online education, as a component of distance learning, is gaining popularity due to its offerings. In recent years, online education has become an important part of contemporary education. It's important because it allows students to learn or get access to study materials without attending a conventional class at a …

A Novel Low-Complex Optimized Resource Allocation Algorithm Using Gwo Optimization Technique In Energy Scavenging For Wban, M. Samir Abou El-Seoud, Amira Olazan, Albashir A. Youssef

Computer Science

In wireless body area networks (WBANs) powered by energy scavenging, effectively managing renewable energy is critical to ensuring delay-sensitive services. This paper proposes a novel low-complex optimized resource allocation algorithm using the Grey Wolf Optimization (GWO) technique to allocate resources, specifically energy and communication channels, and maximize user utility while guaranteeing the worst-case delay. To achieve this, firstly, a formulation of a user utility optimization problem that accounts for the stochastic nature of energy scavenging and consumption without requiring prior knowledge of these processes is performed. Utilizing GWO optimization techniques, optimization problems broke down into four sub-problems: battery management, collection …

Catalog 2025-2026, University Of North Florida

UNF Course Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Next In Line: Addressing The Constitutional And Policy Problems With The Current Presidential Line Of Succession, Arian Carlo Rubio

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

The presidential line of succession is a critical component of the United States government, designed to ensure continuity and stability in the executive leadership during crises. This Note examines the current statutory provisions concerning presidential succession to identify constitutional ambiguities and practical challenges that could undermine governmental operations during unforeseen emergencies.

Through a detailed analysis of historical instances, such as the incapacitation scenarios of past presidents and recent threats to government officials, including the COVID-19 pandemic and a rise in political violence, this Note highlights the risks posed by the existing succession framework. The ambiguity primarily revolves around the roles …

Nsu Health Professions Division 2024-2025 Course Catalog, Nova Southeastern University

HPD Course Catalogs

• Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine
• Barry and Judy Silverman College of Pharmacy
• College of Optometry
• Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences
• College of Dental Medicine
• Ron and Kathy Assaf College of Nursing
• Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Allopathic Medicine

Dimensional Prediction Of Borderline Personality Disorder Traits: A Cross-Sample Comparison, Savanah Stinnett

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) presents a significant challenge in clinical diagnosis and treatment due to its pervasive pattern of instability in interpersonal relationships, self-image, affects, and impulsivity, often manifesting in early adulthood. Despite its prevalence, issues with categorical personality disorder (PD) diagnosis have been highlighted, leading to the introduction of the Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) in Section III of the DSM-5. This doctoral project seeks to address the current mapping of AMPD traits for BPD by evaluating the comprehensive assessment of traits relevant to BPD to determine whether these traits accurately measure the construct or if supplemental characteristics …

What Is The Meaning Of This? A Proposed Assessment Tool For Exploring Meaning Of Life In The Therapeutic Realm, Logan S. Burris

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

It is likely that since man has first learned to communicate with one another, we have wondered what the meaning of life is. Throughout recorded history, groups of individuals with religious, philosophical, and scientific backgrounds have searched for the answer to this deceptively simple question. Previous research has shown that finding meaning in one’s life can render positive psychological and physiological outcomes for individuals presenting with depressive and anxiety disorders, trauma, chronic and terminal illness, and many more. There have been numerous attempts of creating assessments intended to measure a person’s meaning in life, however most of them either do …

Building A Burnout-Resistant Workforce: The Benefits Of Mindfulness For Clinical Psychology Doctoral Students, Joseph Dickhaus

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Burnout has long been a significant occupational hazard for mental health professionals. Despite the increasing recognition of its prevalence and impact, many graduate programs fail to adequately address self-care strategies. Mindfulness, a practice of focused attention, has emerged as a promising approach to prevent and mitigate burnout. This paper reviews the literature on burnout and its effects on mental health professionals. Next, the paper will provide an overview of mindfulness, mindfulness-based interventions, and benefits of mindfulness. It argues for the integration of mindfulness training into graduate programs to equip students with essential self-care skills early in their careers. The paper …

Apoyo En Comunidad: A Proposed Manual For Latinx And Hispanic Support Groups, Yadira Diaz Romero

Psychology Doctoral Specialization Projects

Navigating college life can be difficult; add to that the complications of navigating different cultures and it creates a chasm for young adults to overcome. This is true for many Latinx college students who often attend colleges where few resources exist to offer support in navigating these social and cultural issues in their everyday life. Additionally, while group therapy is championed as a treatment modality for many, few groups exist that target Latinx communities, especially Latinx college students. This project aims to highlight these social and cultural issues faced by Latinx individuals and provide clinicians with a treatment manual to …

Comparing Approaches To Estimating Person Parameters For The Mupp Model, David M. Lahuis, Caitlin E. Blackmore, Gage M. Ammons

Psychology Faculty Publications

This study compared maximum a posteriori (MAP), expected a posteriori (EAP), and Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approaches to computing person scores from the Multi-Unidimensional Pairwise Preference Model. The MCMC approach used the No-U-Turn sampling (NUTS). Results suggested the EAP with fully crossed quadrature and the NUTS outperformed the others when there were fewer dimensions. In addition, the NUTS produced the most accurate estimates in larger dimension conditions. The number of items per dimension had the largest effect on person parameter recovery.

A Legal Herstory Of Wwii ‘Comfort Women’— Chapters: Past, Present, And Beyond, Linny Kit Tong Ng

UC Law SF Journal on Gender and Justice

No abstract provided.

Defining Arbitration, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not define the term “arbitration,” the very process the one-hundred-year-old statute was enacted to promote. The absence of a definition has led to courts' inconsistent and unpredictable application of the FAA's regulatory benefits to agreements to resolve disputes in processes other than traditional, binding arbitration, such as appraisal, evaluation, and mediation. Additionally, with no clear definition as guidance, companies have inserted arbitration clauses into adhesive consumer and employment agreements that require “arbitration” of disputes but designate a process lacking hallmarks of due process. The Supreme Court even justified enforcing class action waivers in arbitration …

Understanding The Impact Of The Care Connect Washington Program, Hannah Cohen-Cline, Dan Fish, Taylor Doren, Abby Bush

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

At The Crossroads: Initial Findings And Lessons Learned From A Medicaid Housing Benefit Pilot, Cat Livingston, Megan Holtorf, Benjamin Gronowski, Alyssa Cragie

Articles, Abstracts, and Reports

No abstract provided.

Testing The Life-History Dependence Of Dietary Restriction Effects On Oxidative Molecular Damage In Hornworms, Fahime Taheri

Masters Theses

DR and ambient temperature are two environmental factors widely implicated in shaping organismal maintenance and longevity through effects on metabolic rate and oxidative damage. This study tests whether DR and reduced body temperature independently or interactively reduce oxidative protein damage in the gut of tobacco hornworm larvae, a short-lived ectotherm whose life history may constrain typical DR responses. Larvae hatched from eggs were allocated to two feeding regimes (AL and DR) and to 20 °C and 30 °C. At a defined endpoint, guts dissected and homogenized, and analyzed for protein carbonyl content and total protein. Protein damage was expressed as …

Extraction And Separation Of Metal Cations From Synthetic Acidic Solutions Using Emulsion Liquid Membrane, Nouhaila Filali

Masters Theses

The work is organized into two main papers supported by experimental and comparative studies using Emulsion Liquid Membrane (ELM) systems. The first paper explores the individual extraction of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, As, Ni) from synthetic phosphoric acid using Alamine 336 and D2EHPA as carriers. Alamine 336 achieved the highest extraction efficiency (>90%) and stability, offering a promising route to reduce toxic impurities in fertilizer-grade acid. The second paper examines the selective separation of Ni2+ and Co2+ from various acidic solutions using the ELM configuration. Systematic variation of carriers, stripping agent and feed acidity, clarified transport mechanisms and stability, …

The Theory And Practice Of Modifying Soccer: Maximizing Learning Outcomes In Elementary School Physical Education, Jongho Moon, Dongwoo Lee

Department of Kinesiology Scholarship and Creative Works

Physical education (PE) has been affirmed over the past decade as a vital part of school curriculum. Drawing from Newell’s theory of constraints (1986) and a comprehensive review of evidence-based literature, this study meticulously investigates pedagogical practices, effective activity modifications, and the implementation of a game-like progression within elementary school PE, with a focus on augmenting learning outcomes across the psychomotor, cognitive, and affective domains. This paper places a primary emphasis on soccer—an open-skill team sport taught in PE programs globally—as its situational conditions make it an ideal option for maximizing students’ learning. The study equips readers with an extensive …

Self-Reported Hearing Loss And Health During A Pandemic: Findings From A Cross-Sectional Analysis Using A 2021 Household Survey, Eunice Y. Park, Erin R. Nelson-Bakkum, Amy A. Schultz, Lauren K. Dillard

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic differentially impacted individuals with hearing loss, likely in part due to increased communication difficulties from masking, a commonly implemented protective measure. Objective: This study examines the association between self-reported hearing loss and health during the pandemic. Methods: This study uses data from the COVID-19 Survey collected by the Survey of the Health of Wisconsin from February to March 2021. Hearing loss was defined as self-reported fair or poor hearing. The outcomes were self-reported symptoms of anxiety and depression, separately, and self-reported general health. Multivariable models adjusted for age, gender, and race/ethnicity were used to examine the …

Artifacts Of Ableism: Semiotics Of The Built Environment And Disability Identity On University Campuses, Will M. Williams, Talia Steinmetz, Elaine Gerber

Department of Anthropology Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article examines the impact that signs, readable as texts and discourse embedded in architecture and the built environment, have on shaping disability knowledge among undergraduate students on college campuses. Using reflexive photography as a research tool, we speculate that architectural signs, the artifacts of ableism, are (mis)representing disability and essentializing what it means to be disabled - which results in an "othering"of the disabled population, perpetuates stereotypes about disability on college campuses, and limits a sense of inclusion. Further, by remaining focused on access, this distortion obscures identities within the disabled community and operates counterfactually to the disabled community's …

Fighting Disinformation Online: The Digital Services Act In The American Context, Daniela Peterka-Benton

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

The internet is one of humanity’s most significant creations in the modern era. What began roughly 30 years ago has developed into a rich, diverse, but largely unregulated environment we can no longer live without. With the spread of mis- and disinformation worldwide, calls for a safer internet have gotten louder. This article discusses the threats disinformation poses to online users and provides a case study on how the European Union’s Digital Services Act attempts to protect users’ fundamental rights in the online space and whether the Digital Services Act could or should serve as a model for similar legislation …

De Acordo Com A…: Lexical Bundles And Disciplinary Variation In Academic Brazilian Portuguese, Larissa Goulart

Department of Linguistics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Research on formulaic language has shown that few lexical bundles overlap across disciplines in expert academic writing, with disciplinary writing being characterized by specific bundles. This was proven to be the case in both English (Hyland, 2008) and Spanish (Cortes, 2008). This paper explores the use of lexical bundles in Portuguese academic writing in two disciplinary groups, life sciences and humanities. Using a corpus of research articles written by Brazilian scientists, four-word bundles were extracted and compared for their function (Biber; Conrad; Cortes, 2004) and structure (Biber; Johansson; Leech; Conrad; Finegan, 1999). The results of this study indicate that writing …

Human Serum Albumin Interaction With Organochlorine Pesticides, D. S. Sanford, R. Yadav, A. Mishra

Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science

Human serum albumin (HSA) is the most abundant blood plasma protein and plays a crucial role in drug transport and physiological homeostasis. HSA has a highly flexible structure consisting of three domains, each with multiple binding sites lined with hydrophobic and hydrophilic residues. The structural properties of HSA make it a robust reservoir and receptor for various endogenous and exogenous compounds, including therapeutic drugs. Organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are a subclass of pesticides characterized by their chlorine content. Once widely used, these compounds remain persistent in the environment and biological systems despite regulatory restrictions in many developed countries. The strong ligand-binding …

Comparison Of Machine Learning Models For Colon Cancer Survival: Predictive Modeling Approach, Reuben Adatorwovor, Motolani E. Ogunsanya, Bin Huang, Richard Charnigo, Olufunmilola Abraham

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Colon cancer is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with survival influenced by risk factors, treatment type, and patient characteristics. Traditional statistical models, such as Kaplan-Meier curves, have been widely used to estimate survival probabilities. However, these models often have difficulty handling complex interactions, covariates, and nonlinear relationships between risk factors. Recently, machine learning (ML) techniques have emerged as promising tools for improving survival prediction by handling large covariates and capturing complex patterns.

Objective: This study compares several ML models to accurately estimate colon cancer survival by leveraging data from the Kentucky Cancer Registry. By identifying key risk …

Incident Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Among Veterans By Gender Identity: A Cohort Study, Carl G. Streed Jr., Meredith S. Duncan, Kory R. Heier, T. Elizabeth Workman, Lauren B. Beach, Guneet K. Jasuja, Hill L. Wolfe, Landon D. Hughes, John R. O’Leary, Melissa Skanderson, Joseph L. Goulet

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Transgender and gender diverse (trans) populations are at elevated risk for atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD).

Objective: Measure the association of gender identity and gender-affirming hormone therapy (GAHT) with ASCVD outcomes.

Design: Cohort study.

Participants: Over 1 million veterans receiving care in the Veterans Health Administration.

Main Measures: Gender identity was identified via a validated natural language processing (NLP) algorithm. Incident ASCVD (acute myocardial infarction, ischemic stroke, or revascularization after the baseline date) was identified via International Classification of Diseases diagnosis codes among veterans without prevalent ASCVD. We calculated sample statistics stratified by gender identity and used Cox proportional hazard …

Athletic Training Students' Use Of Health Information Technology Professional Behaviors During Clinical Experiences: A Report From The Aate Research Network, Cailee E. Welch Bacon, Julie M. Cavallario, Stacy E. Walker, R. Curtis Bay, Bonnie L. Van Lunen

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Context:

As an essential core competency for high-quality healthcare, health information technology (HIT) leverages the use of technology, such as electronic record systems, to collect and use patient care information to make informed clinical decisions. There is a dearth of information regarding professional athletic training students' (ATSs') use of HIT professional behaviors during clinical experiences.

Objective:

To assess HIT professional behaviors ATSs engage with during clinical experience patient encounters (PEs). DESIGN: Multisite panel design.

Setting:

12 professional athletic training programs.

Participants:

363 ATSs enrolled across the participating professional athletic training programs entered patient encounter information within E*Value during their scheduled …

Long-Term Antibacterial Efficacy Of Silver (I) Cyanoximates Against Streptococcus Mutans Ua159 Biofilm Growth, Tiffany A. Rojas

Honors Program Theses

Streptococcus mutans is the primary causative agent of dental caries due to its ability to form resilient multispecies biofilms. These biofilms promote acid production and degradation of the protective layers of the tooth, making biofilm formation a target for novel treatments. Silver(I) cyanoximates are of interest as alternatives to traditional antimicrobials and antibiotics due to the high UV and heat resistivity as well as poor solubility of the cyanoxime ligand paired with the well-established antimicrobial silver ion. Previous research has shown that silver(I) cyanoximates can effectively inhibit S. mutans biofilm formation after 24 hours in vitro. This study aimed to …