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Befitting Bach: Prelude And Fugue Transcribed For Horn Quartet, Caitlin Murphy

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This thesis, titled “Befitting Bach: Prelude and Fugue Transcribed for Horn Quartet,” consists of horn quartet transcriptions of Prelude 1 and Fugue 1 from Johann Sebastian Bach’s The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I. The prelude and fugue pair were originally written for harpsichord during the Baroque period, and the pieces remain commonly performed on keyboard instruments. The transcription translates the pieces into four-part horn music while preserving the original musical ideas and accounting for the different technical capabilities between the instruments. The accompanying written component provides a brief history of the original compositions. Further, the report delves into the transcription …

Dynamic Vehicle Selection And Adaptive Aggregation For Asynchronous Federated Learning Enabled Vanet, Hugh Coleman

Computer Science Honors Theses

The rapid advancement of vehicular networks has paved the way for intelligent transportation systems, offering enhanced traffic management and autonomous driving capabilities. Federated Learning (FL) is emerging as a critical framework that enables the utilization of onboard information and computational resources while protecting data privacy. However, the high mobility of vehicles and the complex nature of wireless channels pose significant challenges for integrating FL into vehicular networks. This work proposes a Dynamic Vehicle Selection and Adaptive Aggregation Asynchronous based Asynchronous Federated Learning (DVSAA-AFL) scheme designed to optimize FL performance in vehicular networks. DVSAA-AFL introduces a novel approach to achieve dynamic …

Seeking Sustainable Tutoring Programs: A Case For Supplemental Instruction For The Success Of Middle School Students At The Sj Davis Campus In San Antonio, Texas, Charles Mazuca

Theses & Dissertations

Seeking Sustainable Tutoring Programs: A Case for Supplemental Instruction for the Success of Middle School Students at the SJ Davis Campus in San Antonio, Texas

Charles Andrew Mazuca

University of the Incarnate Word, 2025

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the study was to implement a pilot tutoring program on the campus of a public middle school in San Antonio, Texas, that supports improved math performance of under-performing students on the state mandated standardized test known as the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR) exam; broadly speaking, the study posed the question “How might a school community create a sustainable …

“How Do You Replicate A Relationship?” An Exploration Of How A School-Community Partnership Was Conceptualized And Enacted, Emilie Coppinger

Doctoral Dissertations

With concerns about supporting students’ overall wellness on the rise, school-community partnerships offer a promising solution. These collaborations can improve outcomes for students, schools, and communities by bringing together diverse expertise and funding sources. However, how these partnerships are formed and maintained, as well as how stakeholders are included in them, needs further exploration. To address this gap, the current study follows a collaboration between a school district and local health agency from the project’s initiation through its execution. The research approach and study design draw on the traditions of community-based research and ethnography, guiding my data collection and representation …

A Multi-Layered, Discourse-Oriented Exploration Of Learning Assistant-Student Interaction In Calculus I, Rebecca Butler

Doctoral Dissertations

Learning Assistants (LAs) are undergraduate near-peer tutors who aid in the instruction of collegiate courses in which they have previously been successful as students. It has been consistently shown that students in LA-supported STEM courses have more positive course outcomes than their peers without LA support. The benefits include improved retention, better scores on content assessments requiring higher-order reasoning, and a greater sense of belonging in STEM. Little is known about why students in LA-supported courses evidence this range of positive course outcomes, but it is conjectured that LAs facilitate these outcomes through their frequent and engaging interactions with students. …

Socioeconomic Status And Its Relationship To Mathematics Achievement: Using A Meta-Analysis, Bitna Choi

Doctoral Dissertations

Educational inequality mirrors broader societal disparities. There are various factors that represent educational inequality, such as socioeconomic status (SES), school environment, teacher quality, gender, and support services. Among these, SES is commonly used as a key indicator of educational inequality. Consistently, studies have shown that students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds have higher academic achievement (Johnson et al., 2022; Murphy, 2019; Tate, 1997). This disparity is particularly evident in mathematics, which is crucial for academic and career opportunities. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and mathematics achievement of K-12 students. In addition, this …

Personal Device Use In Mathematics: An Investigation Into Access, Utilization, And Outcomes, Catherine Dennis

Doctoral Dissertations

Personal devices, such as laptops, tablets, and smartphones, have become increasingly ubiquitous in undergraduate mathematics classrooms around the world. Moreover, the increased use of technology in educational contexts has provoked questions about equity in terms of student access, utilization, and the potential impact on outcomes (Hennessy & Dunham, 2008). This dissertation adds to the body of literature that addresses the overlap of personal device use and equity in undergraduate mathematics through three different methodological approaches: systematic review, quantitative inquiry, and qualitative exploration. The systematic review synthesizes 355 studies on personal device access, utilization, and outcomes in undergraduate mathematics. One key …

Wigner's Theorem And Spectrum Shrinking Maps, Meaghan Allen

Doctoral Dissertations

Wigner's Theorem, an influential result in quantum mechanics established by Eugene Wigner in 1931, states that every symmetry transformation on a ray space is induced by either a unitary or anti-unitary transformation. In this work, we generalize Wigner's Theorem in two directions: first, to maps between different Hilbert spaces, and second, to maps between factors of type II. In both cases, we focus on weakening the assumptions on the map, specifically by utilizing spectrum shrinking conditions. For the first generalization, let $\mathcal{H}_1$ and $\mathcal{H}_2$ be Hilbert spaces, and let $k$ be a positive integer such that $2\leq k < \frac{1}{2} \dim(\mathcal{H}_1)$. We show that if an injective map $\psi: \mathcal{P}_k(\mathcal{H}_1) \to \mathcal{P}_k(\mathcal{H}_2)$ satisfies two spectrum shrinking conditions, then it is induced by a linear or conjugate-linear isometry. For the second generalization, let $\mathcal{M}$ be a type II$_1$ or type II$_\infty$ factor, let $\tau_\mathcal{M}$ be a faithful normal semi-finite tracial weight of $\mathcal M$, and let $0

Static Risk Sensitive Reinforcement Learning, Jia Lin Hau

Doctoral Dissertations

Reinforcement Learning (RL) is a core area of artificial intelligence (AI) that enables systems to make decisions in complex environments. RL algorithms have shown promise in various domains, including resource management, robotics, and games. However, most existing RL approaches fail to account for the risks associated with decision-making. This oversight becomes particularly critical in high-stakes settings, such as healthcare, finance, criminal justice, and autonomous driving, where poor decisions can have significant consequences.

To address risk in decision-making, another line of research explores the properties (axioms) of "desirable" risk measures. This desirability is defined as the ability to quantify the capital …

Logistic Regression And Cox Hazard Modeling With Sparse High Dimensional Data Via Elastic Net Regularization And Graph-Guided Aggregation, Matthew Duckett

Doctoral Dissertations

Rare features are predictor variables with excessively low rates of nonzeros. It is not uncommon to encounter rare features in settings where data is quantified through one-hot encoding, such as text mining data or genomic data. Rare features pose problems for classic regression techniques due to instability of effect estimates. The problem is compoundedwhen the dimension of the feature space is high. Yan and Bien (2020) explored methods for aggregating rare features in high dimensions by leveraging side-information about relations between features that can be organized as a tree graph. While their work is restricted to standard Gaussian regression, we …

Consumptive And Energetic Responses Of Fishes Under Pressure Of Climate Change, Nathan Thomas Hermann

Doctoral Dissertations

Marine organisms are confronted with warming waters due to climate change requiring species to exhibit responses to persist. For many fish, these responses have included range shifts to cooler waters, but are species-specific which may create further disruption through trophic mismatches. To identify potential mismatches and estimate their implications for the quality of consumption within major predators, analyses of predator stomach contents were integrated with reviews of organismal energetics and physiological parameter values. The energy density of prey that is consumed dictates the consequences of consumption, so having data expands general understanding of diet. To that end, published records (n …

Probing Neutron Star Interiors: Insights Into Asymmetric Dark Matter, Dark Energy, And The Cold Dense Matter Equation Of State, Nathan Rutherford

Doctoral Dissertations

The combination of derived neutron star mass-radius measurements from NASA's Neutron Star Interior Composition ExploreR (NICER) mission, constraints from chiral effective field theory (chiEFT), and mass-tidal deformability constraints from gravitational waves has led to significant improvements in the understanding of the cold dense matter equation of state (EoS) of neutron stars. Interestingly, asymmetric dark matter (ADM) and dark energy may also be present within neutron star interiors, potentially impacting their global properties. Taking these effects into account, neutron star measurements can not only offer new insights into the dense matter EoS, but also serve as a hunting ground for dark …

Knot Alone: A 24/7 Live Chat App For Sewing Enthusiasts, Erica Frankenhoff

Theses

Knot Alone innovates support in the sewing industry by providing a 24/7 chat experience driven by community engagement. Unlike other forums or workshops with time limits, this platform guarantees interactive, personalized, and immediate guidance. Regardless of whether it’s a new beginner sewer learning how to thread a sewing machine, or a sewing enthusiast who is more advanced and is just figuring out issues with fabric tension, Knot Alone users can, at any hour, seek out professional advice. Professional advice will be provided by sewing educators and instructors, post graduate fashion students, and established sewing bloggers and influencers. By joining together …

Teacher Mindset: Improving Academic Outcomes For Students With Disabilities, Tracy A. Edwards

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This mixed-methods Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) explores the discrepancy between general and special education student performance on measures of growth and achievement in English Language Arts and Math in a small, suburban school district in Southwest Connecticut. Research supports that the growth rate for students with disabilities often decreases as they get older, leaving special education students with fewer opportunities to close the achievement gap over time. This study illustrates the importance of addressing teachers’ mindsets, perceptions, and collective efficacy to close the achievement and growth gap. Fifteen special education teachers and related service providers participated in a …

The Integrated Teacher: A Mixed Methods Study On How Professional Development In Comprehensive Wellbeing Practices Affect Special Education Teacher Stress And Efficacy, Katlyn Hagley

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) sought to examine the effects of mindfulness-based and trauma-informed instruction on special education teachers' (SETs’) perceived levels of stress and self-efficacy to improve teacher wellbeing, reduce attrition, and foster a stronger sense of school community. This study was conducted in a large, urban public school district in the Northeastern United States using a mixed-methods explanatory sequential design within a participatory action research framework. The research addressed the following questions: Does participating in an eight-week virtual training in mindfulness exercises positively influence the perceived levels of jobrelated stress among SETs? Does participating in an …

Protecting The Dignity Of The Child: A Study In Trauma-Sensitive Practices And Collective Efficacy In An Alternative Educational Setting, Erin Dessureau-O'Hara

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This dissertation addresses the issue of ineffective proactive approaches to students' emotional regulation by educational staff, which contributes to a high incidence of punitive discipline. The study aims to increase teachers' trauma-sensitive approaches to students' emotional needs to reduce the use of punitive and exclusionary discipline practices. Using a convergent mixedmethods research design, data were collected through interviews, exit tickets, classroom observations, focus group discussions, student behavior data, and pre-and post-assessments of collective efficacy. Participants included elementary teachers, support staff, and behavioral staff. The findings demonstrate that professional learning focused on trauma-sensitive approaches, the science of emotions and the brain, …

Expanding The Narrative: Rural Educators' Perceptions Of The Achievement Gap, Erika N. Martin

College of Education

This dissertation explores the perceptions of rural educators in Alabama in relation to the achievement gap. It places a special emphasis on how these teachers understand, articulate, and address the challenges facing rural schools. This study is guided by three research questions: (1) How do rural teachers in the state of Alabama understand and describe the achievement gap, particularly in relation to rural schooling? (2) How do rural teachers in Alabama identify the variables that impede the closing of the achievement gap for rural students and schools? (3) What do rural teachers in Alabama receive as necessary for improving student …

Climate Change In An Urban Catholic School: Taking The Temperature With A Three-Pronged Sel Intervention, Christa Marie Chodkowski

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice examines the impact of a 10-week social-emotional learning (SEL) intervention on school climate at Newberry Catholic Academy, an urban Catholic school with high teacher turnover. The intervention, combining a book study, daily gratitude journaling, and common planning time, aimed to improve collaboration, collegiality, and belongingness among faculty. Using a convergent mixed-methods design, the study assessed changes in teacher perceptions and the effectiveness of each component. Quantitative analysis via the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank Test revealed significant declines in Professional Learning (p=.01), Feedback and Coaching (p=.03), and School Leadership (p=.01), highlighting a need for further inquiry. Qualitative …

Characterization Of 3d Printed Microdialysis Probes For Solute Recovery And Non-Specific Adsorption, Bailey N. Scoggins

Chemistry & Biochemistry Undergraduate Honors Theses

Microdialysis is an important sampling technique that has uses in a wide range of disciplines, such as neuroscience and pharmacokinetics. 3D printing aims to address adaptability and customization issues that are present in standard “off-the-shelf” microdialysis probes. This work aims to lay the groundwork for characterizing a 3D printed microdialysis probe designed at the University of Arkansas. One experiment involved measuring solute recovery of caffeine as a function of flow rate of a standard CMA 11 probe to assess its membrane performance. The other goal was to learn about non-specific adsorption tendencies of enzymes (i.e., to what degree proteins stick …

Establishing Age-Related Changes In Gait Dynamics, Human Movement Variability, And Person Identification, Tyler M. Wiles

Theses, Dissertations, and Student Creative Activity

This dissertation explores the development and application of the NONAN Gaitprint dataset, a comprehensive resource for studying human gait’s variability and individuality. Gait, a fundamental aspect of human locomotion, is inherently variable. No two steps are exactly alike, and a series of steps is not arranged randomly. In fact, consecutive steps share information that reveal non-random patterns over time. Those patterns can be described using nonlinear analytical methods, such as the Hurst exponent, sample entropy, and recurrence quantification analysis. Many of these time series-based analyses require natural overground walking over a long enough duration to reveal the temporal structure of …

Rewriting The School Calendar: A Mixed-Methods Analysis Of Four-Day School Week Implementation In Arkansas, Kate Barnes

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The four-day school week (4DSW) has gained traction across the United States, particularly in rural districts seeking innovative responses to mounting challenges. Despite its expanding adoption, key questions remain regarding the motivations for implementing 4DSW schedules and their implications for teacher well-being and student achievement. This dissertation examines the emergence and effects of the 4DSW in Arkansas, where adoption has increased rapidly in recent years, offering a unique context shaped by state-level policy and rural dynamics. Employing a mixed-methods, this dissertation investigates (1) why and how districts adopt the 4DSW, (2) whether the policy alleviates teacher burnout, and (3) how …

Comparing Fastbridge Reading Assessment Scores: Reading Interventionist Vs. Lexia Powerup For Sixth-Grade Students, Amanda K. Boss

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This study investigates the differences in FastBridge reading assessment scores among sixth-grade students at a middle school in Southeast Minnesota. A sample of 266 sixth graders participated in the technology-based intervention program, Lexia PowerUp, while 35 students received additional support from a reading interventionist using the UFLI (University of Florida Literacy Initiative) Foundations curriculum. Employing a quantitative, non-experimental post hoc analysis, the research revealed that both Lexia PowerUp and UFLI: Foundations enhanced FastBridge AUTOreading scores; however, FastBridge aReading scores showed no significant changes for either program. Notably, students utilizing Lexia PowerUp consistently improved throughout the year, whereas those in the …

Maximal Independent Set Algorithms Within Procedural Planar Maps: A Large-Scale Evaluation, Chaucer Ihrig

Honors College Theses

Analysis of a childhood game has led us to the problem of maximum independent sets in planar graphs. We wrote a graph creation utility using R to generate a random planar map and its dual graph. This utility then finds a graph’s maximal independent set using a variety of six algorithms. We investigate statistical connections between graph structure, colorability, and the maximal independent sets found using these algorithms over an incredibly large and procedurally generated dataset. We find one can always win the coloring game if the resultant graph is two-colorable. The algorithms perform statistically and practically significantly better on …

A Deep Dive Into Integrals: From Riemann, Stieltjes, Lebesgue To Henstock–Kurzweil, Sydney C. Johnston

Math Honors Theses

Integration theory is broadly concerned with the existence of solutions to definite integrals over closed subintervals of the real line, and its power lies in the various techniques of integration, which enable integration of successively broader classes of functions. In this work, we establish a self–contained theory of integration in the sense of Riemann, Riemann–Stieltjes, Lebesgue, and Henstock–Kurzweil. Notably, our work utilizes the theory of Lebesgue integration developed by P. J. Daniell, which does not rely on measure theory and thus remains accessible at the undergraduate level. Our incentive for such an approach is to improve equitable access to advanced …

Advancing Efficiency Of Unstructured Mesh Processing With Localized Data Structures, Guoxi Liu

All Dissertations

Unstructured meshes are widely used to represent complex shapes and data in visualization tasks, such as medical imaging, engineering design, and geometric modeling. However, their unevenly distributed elements make them memory-intensive and time-consuming to process, especially as mesh sizes grow. This research focuses on improving the efficiency of processing large unstructured meshes by reducing memory usage and speeding up computations. This doctoral dissertation introduces three methods to address these challenges. The first approach divides the mesh into smaller partitions and processes it piece-by-piece, reducing memory requirements by up to 10 times. The second approach uses the processor's parallel computing capabilities …

Development Of Mixed O/S-Donor Imidazole Thione Ligands For Trivalent Lanthanide/Actinide Separations, Rhianna Wolsleger

All Dissertations

Separation of lanthanides and actinides is difficult due to their very similar size and charge. Increasing selectivity for actinides over lanthanides is possible by incorporating a softer, more polarizable donor atom into a chelating ligand, since the softer donor atom is capable of greater orbital overlap with the 5f orbitals of the actinides vs the 4f orbitals of the lanthanides. Sulfur-containing imidazole thione chelating ligands have not been investigated for this purpose but possess a resonance structure that puts significant negative charge on the sulfur, enabling it to form strong metal-sulfur bonds compared to other sulfur-containing ligands such as thioethers …

Level Of Fidelity Adaptation Of Structural Models To Support In-Space Servicing, Assembly, And Manufacturing (Isam), Maximilian Manuel Rothblatt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In-space servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM) operations increasingly rely on digital twin technology to perform predictive structural analysis in resource-constrained environments. A key challenge in deploying structural finite element analysis (FEA) within a digital twin lies in determining mesh fidelity settings that balance simulation accuracy with computational efficiency. This thesis presents the development of a MATLAB-based adaptive mesh refinement framework designed to identify optimal FEA mesh parameters prior to integration into a digital twin system.

The tool iteratively refines mesh resolution across faces, edges, and vertices based on von Mises stress distribution and convergence behavior. Termination criteria are governed by …

A Study Of End-Cut Preference In Tree-Based Modeling, Xiangya Wang

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Decision trees, particularly those built using the Classification and Regression Trees (CART) algorithm, are widely used for their interpretability and flexibility. However, the greedy nature of the CART splitting procedure gives rise to the end-cut preference (ECP) phenomenon, wherein split points near the extremes of predictor ranges are favored. This study offers a comprehensive investigation of ECP, exploring its theoretical underpinnings, practical manifestations, and implications for both single decision trees and ensemble methods such as Random Forests. Through theoretical analysis and simulation studies, we examine how ECP affects tree structure, variable selection, and predictive accuracy across tree-structured, linear, and nonlinear …

Student Perceptions Of Ai In University Studies, John Robert Fisher, Louis K. Falk, Margaret Mittelman

Communication Faculty Publications

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education is transforming students’ learning experiences, decision-making, and academic efficiency. This study explores student perceptions of AI’s benefits, challenges, and its role across academic disciplines. Findings indicate that while students recognize AI as a valuable educational tool, they also express concerns regarding privacy, reliance, and the need for improved AI training. Statistically significant differences were observed in AI’s impact on learning efficiency, decision-making, and academic engagement, supporting the hypothesis that AI enhances education but presents notable challenges. The study also highlights the necessity for balanced AI integration, ensuring that AI complements rather …

I Am (Me)Dicine: An Analysis On The Influence Of Humanities Courses Within The Construction Of Internal And External Identities Within Pre-Med Students At Uno, Alix Barnes

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The purpose of this project is to investigate how arts and humanities coursework may enhance the development of internal and external identities for premedical students beyond their traditional scientific coursework. A literature review shows positive findings on identity development and the influence of arts and humanities coursework on medical education. This investigation will take place through a mixed-method survey distributed to UNO premedical students and will explore themes of self-reflection, personal and professional growth, and understanding of external perspectives. An optional question prompts respondents to reflect further on their work within arts and humanities courses and their impact on these …