Digital Commons Network^™

Enhancing Emotional Accuracy And Behavioral Novelty In Robot Behaviors: A Generative-Discriminative Approach, Rista Baral

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Recent advancements in language modeling have improved robotic emotion expressiveness, yet several challenges remain. Many existing robotic expression models rely on fixed rules and static frameworks, which limit their ability to capture the dynamic nature of emotional expression. Additionally, these systems often struggle to balance emotional accuracy with generating novel and varied behaviors. These limitations underscore the need for method capable of delivering both emotionally accurate and diverse robot behaviors.

In this thesis, we addresses these challenges by introducing a new framework for expressive behavior generation in robots. We develop a generative model that generates robot behavior sequences that align …

Sustainability: Buzz Word Or Future Of Fashion? Measuring The Feasibility Of Outright Sustainability Among Fast Fashion’S Biggest Agents, Ryan Miller

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Abstract

The fashion industry is currently experiencing unsustainable rates of pollution within its supply chains. The rapid increase in demand for short lead times perpetrated by large-scale retailers has led to hazardous practices negatively affecting both the environmental conditions and working conditions of producing countries. With this increased pressure, relationships between brands and suppliers have become untenable. Limited transparency and imbalanced power dynamics at the hand of the industry’s leading retailers require restructuring in order to build more sustainable and equitable supply-chain practices. Further, governmental regulation is currently limited in its capacity to enforce sustainable business practices on a global …

Risk Perceptions And Water Governance: Experiences Of Irrigation Companies In The Great Salt Lake Basin Of Northern Utah, United States, Bailey M. Holdaway

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Irrigation companies are important water management entities in the Western US. However, these companies often face barriers when managing water. Particularly as the state of Utah grows and water resources are drying, there is much finger pointing at those in irrigation and agriculture for better water management. However, pointing fingers without the participation of these companies often does not lead to effective water management outcomes. Therefore, it is important to understand the role of these irrigation companies, and particularly how they are approaching water management.

I set out to understand the role of these irrigation companies, specifically in the Great …

Development Of A High-Performance, Cost-Effective Architecture For Real-Time Fourier Transform Analysis On An Efinix Trion Fpga, Luke Cashwell

Honors Theses

This project presents the development of a high-performance, cost-effective, and powerefficient pipelined architecture designed to execute 10,000 Fast Fourier Transforms (FFTs) per second on an Efinix Trion T120 FPGA. Each FFT processes 4096 signed 13-bit elements, facilitating real-time data analysis for a Time-Domain Impedance Probe (TDIP) operating at a maximum data rate of 490 Mbit/s. The algorithm utilizes the built-in multipliers and dual-port memory cells of the FPGA to optimize data storage, transfer, and processing. It achieves this high performance while only using approximately 4% of the Look-Up Tables (LUTs), 7% of the integrated RAM cells, and 15% of the …

Coyote (Canis Latrans) And Non-Target Wildlife Responses To Livestock Guardian Dogs At Sheep Grazing Sites On The California Central Coast, Tricia T. Nguyen

Master's Theses

Livestock depredation is one of the oldest and most widespread forms of human-wildlife conflict. The coyote (Canis latrans), a midsized canid, represents a significant proportion of domestic sheep depredations in the United States, costing livestock producers an estimated 24.6 million dollars annually. Management strategies for coyote-sheep depredation vary widely in their effectiveness and in their level of public support. Identifying appropriate strategies for farms, ranches, and other sheep grazing sites remains a pressing need due to the potentially negative consequences for surrounding ecosystems and socioeconomic outcomes for sheep producers. The livestock guardian dog (LGD) is a nonlethal control …

Mazur’S Intersection Property And Its Variants, Deepak Gothwal

Doctoral Theses

We discuss various differentiability notions in connection with ball separation prop- erties. We characterise the uniform Mazur’s intersection property (UMIP) in terms of w*-semidenting points in attempt to resolve a long standing open question: “Does UMIP imply uniformly smooth renorming?” Further, we discuss a stronger version of UMIP called the hyperplane uniform Mazur intersection property (HUMIP) which is shown to characterise uniform smoothness. Similar ball separation char- acterisations are obtained for Fr´echet smoothness and asymptotic uniform smoothness (AUS). These ball separation properties are then shown to be residual properties. Thus, we obtain that norms which have UMIP or norms which …

Mathematics Achievement: The Impact Of Cooperative Learning Strategies On Math Anxiety And Self-Efficacy Among Adult Basic Education Students, Lacey H. Rogers

All Dissertations

Many adult basic education (ABE) students struggle to pass the mathematics portion of the GED, limiting their access to educational and employment opportunities. This Dissertation in Practice addressed the problem of low math achievement at the New Beginnings Adult Learning Center by implementing cooperative learning strategies aimed at reducing math anxiety, increasing self-efficacy, and promoting student engagement.

Grounded in the principles of improvement science, the eight-week intervention introduced daily Think-Pair-Share routines during math instruction. The goal was to create a more supportive classroom environment where students felt encouraged to participate and build confidence in their math skills. Data were collected …

How Developers Use Type-System Related Programming Language Features, Samuel W. Flint

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Optional type annotations are a popular feature of programming languages that allow developers to omit explicit type information in code while, in some cases, retaining many of the benefits of static typing, such as in-code documentation, improved detection of type errors, or enforcement of code properties. However, how developers use and understand optional type annotations is not clear. The focus of this dissertation is to understand the use and comprehension of optional type annotations.

Optional type annotations are examined through four lenses: first, by examining the evolution of usage in a statically typed programming language (Kotlin, the default language for …

Examining Employers’ Perspectives Relating To Early College High School Programs And Employability Skills, Kathleen Mcguigan

Education Doctoral

This phenomenological qualitative research study examined employer perspectives on the employability skills of graduates from Early College High School (ECHS) programs. The study investigated the program components that enhance the preparation of employability skills and the systems that support graduate transition to the workforce. Using semi-structured interviews with employer partners and an iterative coding process, three key themes emerged across the data. The key themes highlight the importance of factors relating to workplace readiness, including internships and experiential learning, behavioral and soft skills, and structured transition systems, as critical components in preparing ECHS graduates for employment.

The findings indicate that …

Comparison Of Finite-Amplitude Acoustic Models: Single Equation Of Motion For Potential Vs System-Level Approaches, Mohammad Javad Mohaghegh Kojidi

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluates two finite-amplitude acoustic models, by solving the associated equations of motion (in potential form), and then compares the results with recent studies using hyperbolic system-level approaches. An implicit numerical method is employed to solve the second-order equations in one dimension. The performances of the Diaz et al. (2018) and Blackstock (1963) models in approximating the acoustic special case of the Euler system, via velocity profile plots and related metrics, are evaluated and compared. Working in the setting of the classical signaling problem with sinusoidal input, present results (using the single equation of motion approach) provide independent confirmation …

Evaluating Immersion And Agency In Ai-Assisted Live Murder Mystery Games, Seraphina C. Courtney

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact of AI-assisted narrative generation on player immersion and agency in a live-action roleplaying (LARP) experience. A live-action murder mystery game was designed and run in two formats: a static version with GPT-4 generated characters, dialogue, and stage directions, and a dynamic version where players created their own characters and improvised freely, guided by AI-generated narrative beats, a story element that moves the plot forward [21], that provided a narrative scaffolding for the players. The dynamic version employed a distributed computer vision system that tracks the movement of key items in the play-space so their relevance …

Improving Coastal Hydrodynamic Model Performance Through Parameter Sensitivity Analysis And Optimization, Sunni Siqueira Allen

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents a framework for parameter sensitivity analysis and optimization of coastal hydrodynamic models. The research uses the Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) method to quantify parameter sensitivity and identify optimal values for currents, wave height, and water level. A variance-based technique guides parameter selection when GLUE yields competing values or when observations are unavailable.

The framework is demonstrated through two case studies: Hurricane Michael (2018) and the ExCaliBur field study (2022) near Oceanside, CA. Results from Hurricane Michael show higher optimal hydrodynamic model bottom friction values near the hurricane's landfall location. The Oceanside study identifies the hydrodynamic model's …

Algorithmic Recourse In Sequential Decision-Making For Long-Term Fairness, Francisco Gumucio

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Algorithmic decision-making systems are increasingly being deployed in high-stakes domains such as criminal justice, education, and financial services. While machine learning models have demonstrated significant utility in automating complex decisions, they have also raised substantial concerns regarding fairness and equity. Much of the existing work in algorithmic fairness has focused on static, one-shot settings, where interventions are aimed at miti- gating bias in a single decision. However, many real-world systems operate sequentially, where decisions made at one point in time can influence future outcomes through dynamic feedback loops. In such scenarios, addressing fairness at only one decision point can be …

Multiple Monochromatic Subgraphs In Edge-Colored Graphs, Emma Felicity Jent

Dissertations

Ramsey theory, though a relatively young branch of mathematics, has captivated the attention of graph theorists, combinatorialists, and theoretical computer scientists alike through its raw beauty, versatility, and powerful applications. Before it emerged as a branch of mathematics, the central idea of Ramsey theory appeared in the form of three lemmas in three separate papers by three different mathematicians working on three distinct areas of research. The first such lemma was published by David Hilbert in 1892, followed by the second lemma published by Issai Schur in 1916. However, Frank Ramsey’s renowned lemma, published in 1930, compelled mathematicians to establish …

Mechanistic And Evolutionary Insights Into A Group Of Nicotine And Hydroxynicotine Degrading Flavoenzymes, Zhiyao Zhang

Dissertations

Flavoprotein amine oxidases (FAOs) are key enzymes in various kinds of metabolic pathways, mediating redox reactions via flavin cofactors. While most FAOs function as oxidases that readily reduce oxygen to hydrogen peroxide, a few outliers of the FAO family act as dehydrogenases that suppress the reaction with oxygen. The molecular basis for this divergence in function remains poorly understood.

The work presented in this study investigates the fundamental mechanisms of how flavincontaining enzymes activate or suppress their reaction with different electron acceptors to achieve high turnover rates. The overall body of work is divided into three different sections that (1) …

Preservation Of The Bernstein Property For Sums Of Independent Random Variables, Iosif Pinelis

Michigan Tech Publications

It is shown that Bernstein-type conditions on independent random variables are preserved by their sum. Some optimality properties of such preservation are proved.

Dissipation Physics And Absorption Features In Black Hole X-Ray Binaries, Theodore Dezen Phd, Benjamin R. Cavallari

McNair Summer Research Program

As matter falls closer toward the center of the accretion disk it loses gravitational potential energy, part of which becomes radiation primarily in X-ray wavelengths. Accretion disk models often invoked to fit observed spectra predict relativistically smeared absorption features that are not present in data from black hole X-ray systems such as GX 339-4 and LMC-X3. Informed by recent local and global simulations, we conduct new disk structure and radiative transfer calculations with increased dissipation rates of gravitational potential energy into thermal energy in disk upper layers. We find a noticeable reduction of the absorption features compared to older models …

Backpack Funding: What Happens When Dollars Follow The Student?, Alison Heape Johnson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A growing movement in the United States in recent years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought a wave of school choice policies, which allow students to opt into an educational arrangement outside of their zoned traditional public schools (TPS) using public funds. Critics frequently express concern that these policies place an undue financial burden on both taxpayers and school districts. States adopting such policies may take on the additional financial responsibility of educating students who would otherwise privately finance their education, posing an additional cost to the state. When students do leave TPS to participate in private school choice …

Simulation- And Machine Learning-Based Methods For Inland Waterway Operation And Maintenance Decision-Making, Maryam Aghamohammadghasem

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. inland waterway transportation system (IWTS) is an essential part of the country's multimodal freight transportation network. In addition to seasonal droughts and floods, the operations of the IWTS may be disrupted by random malfunctions and scheduled maintenance of its critical components. Among these critical components, locks play a key role in the operation of navigable inland waterways, and lock-induced disruptions to the supply chains of related industries, such as agriculture and manufacturing, often result in significant economic losses. To assess the performance of the U.S. IWTS, we develop a PyNetLogo simulation tool to capture the movements and delays …

Digital Biophilia In Web Interface Design For Accessibility And User Well-Being, Bryana Michelle Peifer

Theses

This interdisciplinary study explores the intersection between horticultural therapy and web design, focusing on the impact of biophilic design principles in shaping contemporary practices within digital interface design. This exploration addresses the multifaceted relationship between humanity and the natural world, particularly how this connection serves as a source for the emergence of nature-inspired elements in digital expressions and their subsequent integration into modern web design for accessibility and well-being. As digital environments increasingly dominate daily experiences, the need for digital wellness through nature integration has become critical, especially for individuals who have physical disabilities, limited mobility, or limited access to …

Integrating Bulk And Single-Cell Transcriptomics To Investigate Intratumor Heterogeneity, Shuai Guo

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Cancers are heterogeneous mixtures of tumor and surrounding cells, where each component comprises multiple distinct sub-types and/or states. Understanding the cell-type-specific contributions is critical for advancing cancer biology, yet high-throughput expression profiles from tumor tissues only represent combined signals from all diverse cellular sources. Bulk deconvolution with single-cell/nucleus (sc/sn) RNA-seq data has emerged as a powerful approach to dissect both cellular composition and cell-type-specific expression patterns, yet the technological discrepancy across sequencing platforms limits accuracy.

To systematically evaluate the impact of platform discrepancies on bulk deconvolution, we first generated a benchmark dataset of 24 healthy retinas with paired bulk and …

Therapeutic Potential Of Sglt2 Inhibitors In A Repeated Love Dose Cisplatin Model., Dianet C. Sanchez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cisplatin is a potent chemotherapeutic, thirty percent of patients develop Acute Kidney Injury (AKI). These patients are ten times more likely to develop chronic kidney disease (CKD). Sodium-glucose-cotransporter-2-inhibitors (SGLT2i), FDA approved for diabetes, has shown protection in multiple mouse models of AKI-CKD. We hypothesize SGLT2i can protect the kidney in a model of repeated low dose cisplatin with/without cancer. B6:129 mice with/without lung adenocarcinoma (Lung-adeno) were treated daily with SGLT2i dapagliflozin (10mg/kg)/vehicle control. After seven days, weekly cisplatin (7mg/kg)/vehicle control was initiated for 3-4 weeks. Following final cisplatin dose, kidney function, injury, fibrosis, inflammation was assessed. SGLT2i treatment attenuated alterations …

Onair: Applications Of The Nasa On-Board Artificial Intelligence Research Platform, Evana Gizzi, Conner Firth, Caleb Adams, James Berck, P. Timothy Chase Jr., Christian Cassamajor-Paul, Rachael Chertok, Lily Cloug, Jonathan Davis, Melissa De La Cruz, Matthew Dosberg, Alan Gibson, Jonathan Hammer, Ibrahim Haroon, Michael A. Johnson, Brian Kempa, James Marshall, Patrick Maynard, Brett Mckinney, Leyton Mckinney, Michael Monaghan, Robin Onsay, Hayley Owens, Sam Pedrotty, Daniel Rogers, Mahmooda Sultana, Jivko Sinapov, Bethany Theiling, Aaron Woodard, Caroline Zouloumian

Computer Science: Student Work

Infusing artificial intelligence algorithms into production aerospace systems can
be challenging due to costs, timelines, and a risk-averse industry. We introduce
the Onboard Artificial Intelligence Research (OnAIR) platform, an open-source
software pipeline and cognitive architecture tool that enables full life cycle AI
research for on-board intelligent systems. We begin with a description and user
walk-through of the OnAIR tool. Next, we describe four use cases of OnAIR for
both research and deployed onboard applications, detailing their use of OnAIR
and the benefits it provided to the development and function of each respective scenario. Lastly, we describe two upcoming planned deployments …

Saliva & Circadian Rhythm In Medical Profiling For Early Disease Prevention, Joseph Lewis

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

Circadian rhythms affect almost every biological process from hormone secretion, gene expression, immune regulation, and metabolism. Studies show that disruption to these internal rhythms through irregular sleep, artificial sleep, and irregular sleep can significantly increase risk for chronic disease such as diabetes, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegeneration, and cancer. Saliva presents a viable alternative for capturing biomarkers found through blood or cerebrospinal fluid, offering substantial utility for diagnostic and chronobiological profiling. Saliva contains hormones such as cortisol and melatonin while containing inflammatory markers that fluctuate rhythmically throughout the day. Due to its ease of collection, saliva is well suited for longitudinal monitoring, …

Co-Editors' Corner, Raven L. Jones, Tanya Upthegrove Gregory, Alexandra M. Sánchez

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

Welcome to our “Co-Editors Corner,” a space where we take a moment to celebrate our personal and professional accomplishments and victories. This section is a reminder that although we shoulder so much, we’re committed to uplifting one another and ourselves. Whether we’re sharing photos of our harvests, attending conferences, freestyling, or spending time with our loved ones – we’re excited to continue to chase joy.

A Simple Guide For Describing Soils, 2nd Edition, Angela Stuart-Street, Nicolyn Short Dr, Paul Galloway, Noel R. Schoknecht

Natural resources published reports

Soils are enormously diverse and can be very confusing to understand and talk about. This simple guide for describing soils helps to identify the most important parts of a soil profile and provide an easy way to understand and explain what you see. It gives you a step-by-step guide of what soil properties to describe and how to describe them, along with the tools to make basic soil classifications. The soil descriptors help you to identify the soil type and aid in assigning a simple and standardised name to the soil. While this guide is designed to link with a …

Investigation Of Wireless Communication Sub-Optimizing Factors And Ai-Based Optimization For Ber Reduction, Lalan Jee Mishra

Theses and Dissertations

The increasing demand for high-throughput, low-latency, and reliable wireless communication has led to significant advancements of cellular wireless technologies since the early ‘80s. However, in dynamic and interference-prone environments—particularly those involving Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)—signal degradation due to pathloss, multipath propagation, co-channel interference, and weather-induced attenuation continues to undermine performance. These factors contribute to elevated bit error rates (BER), inefficient spectrum usage, and unreliable communication links, thereby limiting the practical utility of wireless systems in aerial applications. Traditional mitigation techniques, while effective under certain conditions, often fail to adapt to rapidly changing wireless environments. This shortcoming underscores the need for …

Spatio-Temporal Beam-Level Traffic Forecasting In 5g Wireless Systems Using Multi-Task Learning, Israel E. Tommy

All Theses

Accurate beam-level traffic forecasting is critical for 5G wireless network optimization, yet is challenged by inherent data sparsity and multi-scale temporal patterns. This thesis presents a novel Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU)-based Multi-Task Learning (MTL) framework with ensemble enhancement for spatio-temporal traffic prediction. The approach used shared representations to jointly perform classification and regression, making it more effective than traditional methods at handling beam-level traffic prediction. Through systematic evaluation of six machine learning models (Linear Regression, DLinear, XGBoost, Echo State Network, Long Short-Term Memory, and GRU-MTL) across three sequence lengths (168/24/8-hour), we demonstrated that: (1) the proposed MTL approach outperformed conventional …

Cooling Climate Across Last Interglacial High Stands On San Salvador And Great Inagua, The Bahamas, Ian Winkelstern, Sierra Petersen, H. Allen Curran, Cecilie Phillips, Alex Quizon, Bosiljka Glumac, David Griffing

Geosciences: Faculty Publications

The last interglacial (LIG) is the last time global climate was about as warm as today, with global sea-levels several metres higher. The LIG probably had a re- duced latitudinal temperature gradient, with warmer poles and cooler tropics than today. Well-constrained records from low latitudes can test this overall model. We used bivalve shells sampled from six localities thought to expose the LIG age Cockburn Town Member of the Grotto Beach Formation on both San Salvador and Great Inagua Islands, The Bahamas. Previous work described two LIG depositional intervals: older ‘Reef I’ and younger ‘Reef II’, separated by a disconformity. …

Plithogenic Sets-Based Academic Quality Appraisal Under Uncertainty In Vocational College Art Courses, Jia Li

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

No abstract provided.