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2024 Annual Operations And Maintenance Report 2024 Bres Annual Summary Report For Work Completed In Quadrant 4, Butte-Silver Bow Department Of Reclamation And Environmental Services

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Pulse Wave Velocity In Atrial Fibrillation: A Scoping Review Of Clinical Relevance, Oren G. Nedjar, Zaneh Kahook, Syed Maaz Shah, Christos G. Mihos, Marc M. Kesselman

Student Publications

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with high morbidity, mortality, and healthcare burden. Arterial stiffness (AS) alters cardiac loading conditions and contributes to ventricular arterial uncoupling (VAC), diastolic dysfunction, and atrial remodeling. Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the standard noninvasive measure of AS, but its role across the spectrum of AF has not been clearly defined. This scoping review assessed the existing literature on PWV and AF, with attention to disease onset, clinical characteristics, progression, treatment response, and outcomes. A scoping review was conducted following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses …

Aligning Care To Cognitive Style: A 4-Question Framework For Patient-Centered Dermatology Visits, Elise Lau, Jeremy Haskins, Vishnu Palaniappan, Kumar Nadhan

Student Publications

Objective: To improve patient-centered dermatology care by identifying how patients prefer to approach medical decision-making and structuring their visit, using a brief 4-question intake survey focused on cognitive style.

Methods: New patients at 2 dermatology clinics within the California Skin Institute completed a multiple-choice intake questionnaire before their first visit. The survey asked patients how many concerns they wanted to address, how much guidance they preferred in selecting treatment, whether they prioritized diagnosis or treatment during the visit, and their expected timeline for results. Associations between patient responses and demographics (sex, age, chief complaint) were analyzed using χ2 tests.

Results: …

Modeling Bicycle Ridership In Northwest Arkansas, Nelofar Qulizada

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a global comparison, the U.S. ranks second lowest in bicycle use for urban trips, surpassed only by Brazil. This underutilization signals missed opportunities to improve public health, environmental sustainability, and community connections. In Northwest Arkansas (NWA), a region actively investing in active transportation infrastructure, efforts were underway to reverse this trend. However, a key question remained: Were these investments effectively boosting bicycle ridership? To address this question, communities required reliable methods to measure cycling activity. Traditionally, this involved stationary counters placed at strategic locations to monitor ridership patterns. While accurate, these counters had limited spatial coverage. In contrast, emerging …

Cultivating Excellence: The Relationship Between Educator Professional Development And Adult Student Success In Arkansas, Marsha Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study will investigate the relationship between Arkansas adult education teachers' engagement in professional development and their average classroom achievement, as indicated by students' measurable skill gains (MSGs). The study, informed by Dreyfus's (2004) model of skill acquisition, will examine the impact of the quantity of professional development hours, teachers' employment status (full-time or part-time), and the focus of professional development (content versus other domains) on classroom outcomes. Survey data on professional development involvement will be collected from Arkansas adult education teachers using a cross-sectional, regression-based design and subsequently linked to achievement data from the LiteracyPro system. Five hypotheses …

Gun Violence Prevention In The Christian Church: A Deductive Content Analysis Of Faith-Based Firearm Education Resources, Sarah Winn

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzed whether Christian faith-based curricula and toolkits regarding firearm safety and violence prevention align with established best practices in public health, social work, and education research. Previous research has explored the prevalence and impact of gun violence, best practices regarding gun violence and safety interventions, the effectiveness of churches as public health initiative partners, and the relationship between Christianity and views on firearms. In this study, qualitative deductive content analysis indicated that faith-based gun violence prevention toolkits are strongly oriented toward advocacy, community mobilization, and public health framing. At the same time, gaps remain in their integration of …

Will The Demons Follow (And Other Stories), Eberechi Onyekachi Mcbride

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Will The Demons Follow (and Other Stories) is a collection of interconnected short stories that examines memory, trauma, migration, and womanhood across Nigerian and diasporic spaces. Set in both Nigeria and the United States, the stories move between villages, cities, and immigrant communities, presenting characters whose lives are shaped by cultural expectations, spiritual beliefs, family authority, and personal longing. Through multiple narrative voices, the collection considers how the past continues to shape the present. Characters struggle with family conflict, religious pressure, sexual violence, and the psychological burdens carried across borders. In the title story, “Will The Demons Follow?”, the narrator …

Developing A Questionnaire For The Interoceptive Awareness Of Stuttering, Leslie Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Stuttering is commonly measured through its overt characteristics (blocks, prolongations, and repetitions). This equates to stuttering “severity,” or the frequency of these behaviors. This method, however, does not reflect the lived experience of adults who stutter. This “measurement problem” has been the subject of numerous studies. In this graduate thesis, the measurement problem is addressed by using qualitative data previously gathered by Malcolm (2024) from adults who stutter about the internal experience of stuttering to create survey. Quotes from adults who stutter were gathered, categorized, edited for clarity, and formatted into a survey, The Multidimensional Interoceptive Awareness of Stuttering Scale …

Marvelous And Disturbing: Surreal Imagery, Elaboration And The Limits Of Persuasion In Women's Health Journalism, Shelby Elizabeth Gill

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Since the 1930s, surrealism has lent its abstract hand to journalism, offering a visual language for topics that resist literal depiction. Given its historical and often fraught association with the female form, surrealist imagery has found a natural home in editorial coverage of women's health, most recently in reporting on endometriosis, a condition whose invisible, stigmatized and difficult-to-articulate experience makes conventional photojournalism an inadequate representational tool. The present study experimentally compared surreal imagery, realistic imagery and a text-only control condition to assess their effects on knowledge acquisition, comprehension, attitudinal responses, perceived risk and behavioral intentions related to endometriosis in a …

Privacy Protection In Machine Learning: Methods For Structured And Unstructured Data, Karuna Bhaila

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As machine learning models become increasingly integrated into data-driven decision-making, the protection of sensitive information throughout the model lifecycle is a paramount concern. As these models process and memorize sensitive, proprietary, or personal data, they risk leaking information through their outputs or internal states, especially in domains such as healthcare and finance. The protection of data in machine learning has thus been a crucial field of study. Within this paradigm, researchers have studied theoretical and application-oriented mechanisms for realizing privacy protections for various data formats. Nonetheless, privacy in machine learning still has many open problems, especially with the emergence of …

Evaluation Of The Weed Control Efficacy And Potential Economic Returns Of An Autonomous Weeder In Vegetable Production Systems, Claire Plassmeyer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vegetable production requires intensive weed management. Conventional producers rely on herbicide applications to manage weeds effectively at low costs; however, growers are under pressure to minimize chemical use due to environmental concerns and increased incidences of herbicide resistance. Non-conventional systems, including organic and sustainably focused small-scale production, rely primarily on cultural practices and physical weed control methods, which are labor-intensive and costly due to limited labor availability and rising wages. These concerns have prompted the development of autonomous weeding devices, such as unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) equipped with navigation sensors and implements to provide repeated, high-precision weed control. Compact devices …

Attachment And Betrayal: Post-Infidelity Attachment Issues With A Focus On Gender, Taylor Forsythe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Infidelity represents a significant relational trauma that may disturb attachment processes such as trust, emotional intimacy, and closeness. There is a gap in the literature on how different infidelity exposures may relate to these attachment responses; more so, there is a dearth of information on the gender differences for attachment issues following any kind of infidelity. The purpose of this study aimed to examine differences in avoidant and anxious attachment across infidelity groups (no infidelity, non-sexual infidelity, sexual infidelity), and a further comparison of gender differences in those groups. Participants (N = 151) completed online surveys in a larger study …

"We're Not The Exception. We're The Expectation.": Black Undergraduate Men Disrupting The Dominant Discourse Through Narratives Of Persistence And Belonging At A Predominantly White Institution, Michael M. Mack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Black undergraduate men (BUM) at predominantly White institutions (PWIs) have often been portrayed through deficit-oriented narratives that emphasize barriers and premature departure while minimizing the voices of those who persist and cultivate belonging. The researcher addressed this problem by examining how BUM at a private PWI narrated their persistence and belonging, and how their narratives disrupted the dominant discourse about Black men in higher education. Literature regarding BUM at PWIs has too often centered obstacles and attrition while overlooking the voices, strategies, and experiences of BUM who persist. Therefore, Black men’s narratives were solicited to better understand what enabled persistence …

A Qualitative Study On Exploring The Underrepresentation Of Women Of Color In Fortune 500 Executive Leadership, Cherrese J. Belt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this study the researcher examined the persistent underrepresentation of women of color in senior leadership roles within Fortune 500 companies. Despite the increasing number of highly qualified women of color, access to executive-level leadership opportunities remains disproportionately limited. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore the barriers experienced by women of color in advancing to senior leadership positions and to identify strategies used to navigate these barriers. The researcher collected data through semistructured interviews with 10 women of color in management and senior leadership roles, each with over 15 years of professional experience in the United …

Bats And Bacteria: Infection Dynamics At The Human-Wildlife Interface, Isabella Katherine Deanglis

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As the second most diverse mammalian order, bats host an array of pathogens, some of which are known to infect humans. Synanthropic bats share spaces with humans, resulting in bat-borne pathogen exposure. While most bat-borne disease research has focused on viral pathogens, bats host numerous bacterial pathogens with zoonotic potential. By integrating a global meta-analysis with field studies in Sub-Saharan Africa, I characterize the structural attributes that facilitate shared interfaces, the bacterial pathogens present in synanthropic bats of rural Kenya, and the physiological and environmental dynamics influencing odds of infection in these synanthropic bats. Finally, I evaluate the clinical relevance …

Self-Directed Violence In Athletes, Adela Vavrinova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Self-directed violence (SDV) in athletes comprises a spectrum of behaviors, including non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), suicidality, and self-harming behaviors that can be embed- ded within sport contexts. Competitive sport environments may intensify psychological vulnerability through factors such as performance demands, body-image pressures, injury and rehabilitation stress, and norms that discourage help-seeking. This thesis synthesizes existing literature on SDV among athletes with the aim of clarifying how SDV is concep- tualized and measured, summarizing what is known about prevalence patterns, functions, and contextual risk factors, and identifying prevention and intervention strategies relevant to athlete systems. The reviewed evidence suggests the SDV literature …

Developmental Mathematics As A Potential Barrier To Degree Completion In Community Colleges, Cynthia Bernice Fletcher

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Developmental mathematics is often seen as a barrier to student progression in community colleges, especially for students pursuing Associate of Science degrees requiring math coursework. This quantitative, ex post facto, non-experimental study examined how developmental mathematics factors predicted Associate of Science degree completion at a two-year community college in the West South-Central United States. Specifically, it assessed how academic performance in developmental mathematics, placement method, math pathway, and number of developmental math courses related to Associate of Science degree completion, as well as differences across student subgroups. Archival institutional data were used for first-time-in-college students across four cohorts: 2018, 2019, …

Learning At Lunch: A Qualitative Examination Of Lunchtime Discourse In Preschool Classrooms, Savanna Lynn Gragg

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods study examined how preschool teachers understand and use mealtime as an opportunity for children’s learning and connection. The project explored teachers’ beliefs, observed mealtime practices, and used collaborative video reflection to examine how teachers’ perspectives and behaviors evolved over time. Over five weeks, mealtimes were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed alongside reflection sessions with the teacher. Using the Arkansas Child Development Early Learning Standards (CDELS) as a developmental lens, each mealtime interaction was coded for learning opportunities across domains such as language, literacy, social-emotional growth, and self-help skills. Findings indicated that as the teacher engaged in video-supported reflection, mealtime …

Genre Prediction Using Rnns And Llm-Enhanced Video Game Review Data, Gabriel Young

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

LLMs (Large Language Models) are powerful tools for engaging with textual data, carrying many advantages over classical NLP (Natural Language Processing) and ML (Machine Learning) approaches. However, a classical ML model can still be faster, more efficient to run, and accessible than an LLM. We seek to gain the benefits of LLM text comprehension and preserve them in a classical ML model, a hybrid approach. The LLM operates on text to surface relevant information and associations in our problem space, then the ML model trains on the LLM output. The model may learn from the LLM and provide a more …

"Pockets Of Existence" The Lighting Design For "Silent Sky", Faith Noel Spencer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore how lighting can express wonder, isolation, and discovery through the lens of the play Silent Sky by Lauren Gunderson. Produced at the University of Arkansas in February 2025, my design utilized shifts in color, intensity, and movement to mirror Henrietta Levitt’s pursuit of understanding within both science and society. This design sought to balance the expansiveness of the never ending universe with the intimacy of humanity, using lighting to bridge the vastness with isolation. Challenges in this production included creating a sense of infinite space within the confines of a proscenium theatre, having continuity across multiple …

Assessment Of The Quality, Practicality, And Economic Viability Of Malted Rice, Bernardo Pontes Guimaraes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Climate change threatens the global supply of malting barley, creating a need for sustainable, climate-resilient alternative grains for the brewing industries. This dissertation investigated the chemical, sensorial, practical, and economic viability of using rice as a malting material. First, the malting and brewing qualities of 20 rice samples were evaluated. Results indicated malted rice (MR) had good malting and brewing qualities, including adequate levels of free amino nitrogen (FAN), high amyloglucosidase and limit dextrinase activities. Furthermore, pigmented rice varieties displayed a novel reddish-purple wort color. To identify rice cultivars suited for malting and brewing, the relationship between starch chemistry and …

Evaluating The Role Of Hosa–Future Health Professionals In Addressing The Healthcare Workforce Shortage, Amy Warner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The United States continues to face a significant healthcare workforce shortage, particularly in rural and underserved communities, with implications that extend globally. As a practitioner in health science education, this study was driven by a problem of practice: understanding how HOSA–Future Health Professionals contributes to developing the future healthcare workforce. While the need for effective workforce pipeline strategies is widespread, this study is centered specifically on Oklahoma HOSA as a model of practice within one state. HOSA is designed as an intracurricular extension of health science programs, providing students with opportunities to apply classroom learning through leadership development, competitive events, …

Tribological Evaluation Of A Graphite Coating Using A Custom Miniature Conveyor, Shae Threlfall

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

Reducing friction in conveyor systems has significant economic and environmental implications, as a substantial portion of energy losses originates at the belt-bed interface. This thesis outlines the design, construction, and validation of a miniature conveyor tribological test system. Unlike conventional tribometers, which impose concentrated point contacts, the miniature conveyor replicates the distributed load consistent with industrial conveyor systems. It can measure real-time mechanical responses of steel samples coated in a low friction coating.

The mini conveyor was validated by evaluating three materials: uncoated mild steel, PDA/graphite coated steel, and Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Electrical power, temperature, sound, and acceleration were recorded. Electrical …

Primary Cilia Regulate Glp-1 Signaling In Pancreatic Β Cells, Isabella Melena, Jeong Hun Jo, Shannon E Townsend, Samantha Adamson Digruccio, Xinhang Dong, Lifei Zhu, Jonathan Campbell, Jing W Hughes

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are mainstay therapies for diabetes and obesity, acting in part by enhancing glucose-dependent insulin secretion. While the primary cilium is a known signaling compartment for certain G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), its role in the β-cell response to incretins remains undefined. Here, we show that primary cilia are essential for full GLP-1R signaling. Loss of β-cell cilia in mouse and human islets severely impaired GLP-1-potentiated insulin secretion, an effect preceded by blunted whole-cell cAMP and Ca

From Low Field To High Value: Robust Cortical Mapping From Low-Field Mri, Karthik Gopinath, Timothy Coalson, Matthew F Glasser, David Van Essen, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Three-dimensional reconstruction of cortical surfaces from MRI for subsequent morphometric analysis is fundamental for understanding brain structure. While high-field Magnetic Resonance Imaging (HF-MRI) is the standard in research and clinical settings, its relatively limited availability hinders widespread use. Low-field MRI (LF-MRI), particularly portable systems, offers a cost-effective and accessible alternative. However, existing cortical surface analysis tools, such as FreeSurfer, are optimized for high-resolution HF-MRI and struggle with the lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and resolution of LF-MRI. In this work, we present a machine learning method for 3D reconstruction and analysis of portable LF-MRI scans over a range of contrasts and …

Crispr-Cas9 Cd33-Deleted Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation With Gemtuzumab Ozogamicin Maintenance In Aml: A Phase 1/2 Trial, John F Dipersio, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Patients with high-risk acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are likely to relapse despite allogenic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Post-HCT preventative maintenance can be limited by toxicity toward the normal donor cells. Tremtelectogene empogeditemcel (trem-cel) is a CRISPR-Cas9 gene-edited allogeneic HCT product lacking CD33, designed to shield the donor graft from cytotoxicity of subsequent CD33-targeted therapies such as gemtuzumab ozogamicin (GO). In this multicenter, phase 1/2a, open-label study, adult patients with AML/MDS with high relapse risk received trem-cel after myeloablative conditioning followed by GO maintenance (0.5-2.0 mg m

Differences In Injury Rates By Competition Level Among Scholastic And Collegiate Female Lacrosse Athletes: A Systematic Review, Carrie J Froemming, Daniel C Touhey, Robert H Brophy, Derrick M Knapik

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Women's lacrosse is an increasingly popular sport. Current rules allow incidental body and stick-to-stick contact, with limited required protective equipment. Injuries to the head, face, and lower extremities are common, especially at higher levels of competition. Differences in injury rates and types based on competition level remain largely unknown.

PURPOSE: To systematically review the literature to better understand injury differences between scholastic and collegiate female lacrosse athletes.

STUDY DESIGN: Systematic review; Level of evidence, 4.

METHODS: Under PRISMA guidelines (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses), 543 studies were identified in September 2025 in PubMed, Scopus, Google Scholar, …

Best Practice: Ct-Guided Adaptive Radiotherapy Reference Planning On The Ethos Platform, Xenia Ray, Joseph Harms, Alex Price, Mu-Han Lin, Dennis N Stanley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Online adaptive radiotherapy (ART) enables treatment plan modifications based on the patient's anatomy at each fraction, addressing limitations of conventional radiotherapy that relies on a static pre-treatment plan. CT-guided ART (CTgART), as implemented on the Varian Ethos platform, has gained increased clinical adoption over the past several years; however, its success is highly dependent on reference plan design due to limited on-table planning flexibility. As a result, clinicians creating and reviewing reference plans will greatly benefit from both understanding how upstream planning decisions affect the downstream adaptive process and proactively incorporating strategies that improve optimization robustness and efficiency on-treatment. We …

Multicenter Comparison Of Modern Plating Options In Fibula, Scapula, And Osteocutaneous Radial Forearm Free Flaps, Craig A Bollig, Amit Walia, Patrik J Pipkorn, Ryan S Jackson, Sidharth V Puram, Jason T Rich, Randal C Paniello, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

OBJECTIVES: Evaluate the association of plating strategies with hardware removal and operative time, after adjusting for relevant clinical variables.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective Review.

SETTING: Multiple Academic Medical Centers.

METHODS: Patients undergoing osseous free flap reconstruction stratified based on the plating strategy [conventional plating with a hand-bent plate, precontoured plate, and virtual surgical planning (VSP) with patient-specific hardware and cutting guides]. Variables associated with hardware removal were analyzed using multivariable logistic regression. To evaluate the effect of plating strategy on operative time, a multivariable linear regression model was created. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated.

RESULTS: …

Consensus Guidelines On Inferior Petrosal Sinus Sampling: A Guideline From The Society Of Vascular And Interventional Neurology Guidelines And Practice Standards Committee, Farhan Siddiq, Hunter Brooks, Esra Demirtas, Ibrahim Ahmad Bhatti, Sami Al Kasab, Adam De Havenon, Robin Novakovic, Ossama Y. Mansour, Cynthia L. Kenmuir, Ameer E. Hassan

School of Medicine Publications

Background: Bilateral inferior petrosal sinus sampling (BIPSS) is the gold-standard test to distinguish Cushing disease (CD) from ectopic adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH) secretion when biochemistry confirms ACTH-dependent Cushing syndrome and pituitary magnetic resonance imaging is equivocal. However, practice varies widely between centers, leading to false negatives, misinterpretation, sampling errors, and avoidable risk. Neurointerventionalists performing BIPSS have lacked dedicated, procedure-focused guidance.

Methods: Using the Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology Guidelines and Practice Standards framework, a multidisciplinary panel (endocrinology, interventional neuroradiology, and endovascular neurosurgery) performed a systematic review through August 2025 and developed recommendations graded by class of recommendation and level of …