Digital Commons Network^™

Real-Time Application Of Optimal Experimental Design To Study Factors Related To Doubles Pickleball Match Outcome, Steven B. Kim, Marcos J. Palominos, Eric A. Martin, George K. Beckham, James J. Annesi

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

In kinesiology and exercise science, researchers want to identify factors associated with players’ performance. In racquet sports, matches are played in a tournament format, and researchers often find observational data for their studies rather than collecting experimental data. Even when an experiment is conducted, which is very rare in literature, a randomized design has been considered to produce unbiased results. Given a small number of participants and limited time, in theory, an optimal experimental design can produce more statistical information about parameters of interest than a completely randomized design. This article includes simulations and a real application of an optimal …

Image Analysis Using Smartphones: Relationship Between Leaf Color And Fresh Weight Of Lettuce Under Different Nutritional Treatments, Hye Su Won, Eunji Lee, Seeun Lee, Ji-Hyeon Nam, Jiwon Jung, Yuna Cho, Thomas Evert, Noah Kan, Steven Kim, Dong Sub Kim

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Image analysis can be useful for assessing crop health and predicting yield. Instead of expensive equipment, smartphones are considered an accessible and low-cost alternative. The objectives of this study were to evaluate whether fresh weight in green and red lettuce could be predicted by leaf color (intensity of green color measured by RGB) under different fertilizer treatments using RGB imaging from two widely used smartphone models (Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPhone). The two smartphones showed similar longitudinal patterns of RGB data (the intensity and dark green proportion), but the absolute difference in the RGB data was significantly different. Therefore, the …

Effects Of Genotype-By-Environment And Analysis Of Potential Management Interaction On Vase Life In Cut Lisianthus, Steven Kim, Seong Heo

Mathematics and Statistics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This research aimed to analyze how different genotypic and environmental conditions, along with salicylic acid (SA) treatment (management), influence the longevity of cut lisianthus flowers during post-harvest period. Four genotypes (“Arena Green”, “Blue Picote”, “Corelli Pink”, or “Kroma White”), four environments (hydroponic or soil cultivation with SA treatment during vegetative or reproductive period), and four levels of managements (SA concentration at 0, 0.1, 0.3, or 0.5 mM) were analyzed using the additive main effects and multiplicative interaction model (also known as AMMI model) and linear mixed-effects regression models. The biplot and linear mixed-effects regression analysis showed that hydroponic cultivation with …

Bsee Electrical Engineering, 2025-26, Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Bachelor of Science and Education

No abstract provided.

Towards An Artifact To Assess Differential Privacy In Microdata Streams, Sean Mcelroy, Varghese Vaidyan, Gurcan Comert

Research & Publications

As continued data breaches allow state-level threat actors to assemble expansive dossiers on populations to carry out information warfare objectives, protecting personal privacy in published data sets and internal data stores is increasingly essential to civilian and societal safety. At the same time, the explosion of high-resolution, high-accuracy microdata streams, such as timestamped geolocation coordinates collected simultaneously by hardware platforms, operating systems, and a multitude of on-device applications and sites establishes a layered, highly-correlated pattern of life that can uniquely identify individuals and allow for targeted information warfare actions. Differential privacy (DP) is an advanced but highly effective technique in …

Bs Engineering Technology, Manuf And Cad 2025-26, Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Bachelor of Science and Education

Manufacturing and Computer Aided Design (CAD) Emphasis

Bsce, Civil Engineering 2025-26, Arkansas State University - Jonesboro

Bachelor of Science and Education

No abstract provided.

Fair And Sustainable Machine Learning: A Holistic Approach To Data Quality, Efficiency, And Resource-Aware Training, Zahidur Rahim Talukder

Computer Science and Engineering Dissertations - Archive

The increasing reliance on distributed, privacy-sensitive data has driven the emergence of Federated Learning (FL) as a transformative paradigm for collaborative machine learning. By enabling multiple client devices to train a shared global model without transferring raw data, FL offers significant privacy advantages. However, real-world deployments of FL are constrained by critical challenges such as data heterogeneity, client unreliability, and hardware disparities. These factors lead to uneven model convergence, degraded global accuracy, and fairness issues that threaten FL's scalability and inclusivity in diverse environments.

This dissertation investigates these challenges and proposes three novel algorithmic frameworks to advance the state-of-the-art in …

Study On Motion Prediction Analysis Of Large Vessels Entering Kaohsiung Port Second Harbor, Li-Heng Cheng, Hsing-Yu Wang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Pilotage is a primary service offered by ports, ensuring the safe passage of entering and exiting vessels. This study applied motion prediction analysis to large vessels navigating the constrained waterways of Kaohsiung Port’s second harbor. To address the needs of pilots and port operators, a simplified planar motion equation was developed that incorporated speed over ground and rate of turn (ROT) as primary variables. The model relied on inputs of limited navigational data, enabling pilots to predict changes in heading and position over time and determine the conditions for safe harbor entry. Vessel paths and turning angles were analyzed to …

Pulse X

Pulse Magazine Archive

No abstract provided.

Scratching Behavior Of Copper-Niobium Nanolaminates, Matthew C. Peterson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Metal nanolaminates are known in material science for their unique mechanical properties and high strength due to their interface behavior. Cu/Nb nanolaminates specifically are studied for their uses in electronics due to their good conductivity and superior tensile strength compared to copper conductors, as well as their radiation resistance in radioactive environments. Currently, most molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of Cu/Nb simulations are axially loaded. This work attempts to characterize the scratching behavior of Cu/Nb nanolaminates with varying indenter size, temperature, speed, and layer thickness. The coefficient of friction (CoF), friction force, normal force, and material removal were then compared. A …

Modeling Wild Rice Bed Health: A Dual Metric Approach For Bed Strength And Invasive Impact, Seth Sisneros-Martinez

Journal of Earth and Life Science

Wild rice (mannoomin; Zizania palustris) is an aquatic grain that grows in slow-moving rivers and shallow bays throughout northern Minnesota. In Headquarters Bay on Leech Lake, wild rice has served as a cultural staple for Indigenous communities for centuries. However, its population has declined in recent years due to multiple environmental issues. One potential contributor is Eurasian watermilfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum; EWM), an invasive species that forms dense mats capable of outcompeting native aquatic vegetation, including wild rice. EWM was first recorded on the southern shoreline of Leech Lake in 2005 and has since become widespread. This study …

Implementing Rsa Accumulators For Asynchronous And Permissionless Reliable Broadcasting, Eric Webb

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

Asynchronous consensus protocols are essential for decentralized and trustless environments such as decentralized finance (DeFi), supply chain management, and voting systems. These protocols eliminate centralized authority and timing assumptions while improving resilience and security. However, as network sizes increase the communication overhead in these systems becomes a bottleneck that limits scalability and efficiency. One notable example is the Aleph protocol, which stands out as one of the first consensus protocols to be both asynchronous and permissionless while providing Byzantine Fault Tolerance. Unlike many existing asynchronous consensus mechanisms, Aleph is permissionless in nature and does not rely on a trusted dealer …

Employee Engagement In Rebranding, Violet Andoyo Otindo

Executive Masters in Media Leadership and Innovation

Corporate rebranding involves redefining an organization’s mission, vision, and values beyond changes to logos or taglines. Its success depends on active employee engagement, as employees play a critical role as brand ambassadors. The rebranding of the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC), formerly the National AIDS Control Council (NACC), illustrates the complexities of a government organization undergoing a strategic shift. The NSDCC expanded its focus from HIV control to addressing multiple syndemic diseases and related health factors. This study investigates employee engagement during rebranding the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) to the National Syndemic Diseases Control Council (NSDCC). This transition …

Captivating Chemistry: Luminous Lava Lamps, Linsey Vo, Brinlie Bergman, Kylie Daum, Shayan Noor, Akshay Aramjisingh

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2025

Our group participated in STEM Day, an engaging biannual event that brings together K–12 students to explore the wonders of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics through hands-on experiences. When planning our presentation, we aimed to create an activity that was both visually exciting and easy for students of all ages to understand. We chose to demonstrate the concepts of polarity and density through a fun and interactive experiment in which students created their own lava lamps. This activity allowed the students to observe scientific principles in action while encouraging curiosity and enthusiasm for STEM learning.

Budget For The Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2025, University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville

Budget for the Fiscal Year

No abstract provided.

From Bitcoin To Courtrooms: The Evolution Of Blockchain Technology And Its Applications, Isabelle Cruz

Wyoming Law Review

Blockchain’s tamper-proof, distributed, and decentralized design has gained popularity during a period of rising cybercrime and data vulnerability. People revere blockchain for its potential to revolutionize various industries and criticize it for its association with unethical and illicit activities. Despite challenges and misconceptions surrounding its prior uses, blockchain technology has continued progressing—offering promising solutions for enhancing data security, transparency, and accountability. This Comment examines the evolution of blockchain technology, its applications, and how it can improve efficiency and enhance public trust in the judicial system. After outlining blockchain technology’s modest beginnings, this Comment theorizes several applications for blockchain in the …

The Political Question Of Public Lands, Ryan A. Semerad

Wyoming Law Review

The Property Clause of Article IV of the United States Constitution provides: “Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property belonging to the United States.” Thus, among other things, the Constitution assigns the disposal of federally owned lands to Congress alone. That means the other branches of the federal government, including the courts, have no jurisdiction to exercise this power or to compel Congress to use it. Put another way, when Congress does not dispose of public lands through sale or transfer, that inaction is not subject to …

Force Of Nature (2024) By Ann E. Burg, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Middle Grades Books

Rachel Carson launched the modern environmental movement with books that combined detailed observations of the natural world, scientific research, and philosophical reflection on humanity’s relationship with nature — all conveyed in poetic language. Ann E. Burg’s fictional biography-in-verse Force of Nature shows how these habits of observation, questioning, reflection, and expression began in Carson’s childhood, and invites readers to follow her lines of inquiry. Can we provide for human well-being without sacrificing the well-being of non-human life? Can we provide for the well-being of certain human populations without sacrificing the well-being of others? Can we indulge our wonder about, and …

Deriving Structural Insights About Mesoscale Chromatin Folding Using Coarse-Grained Oligonucleosome Modeling, Ariana Brenner Clerkin

Student Theses and Dissertations

Here, I investigate chromatin organization on the scale of a few nucleosomes (~1kb). I developed an experimentally-validated coarse-grained polymer model and applied it 1) to show how chromatin fiber parameters, such as nucleosome spacing and breathing, impact chromatin organization on this scale–the mesoscale 2) to interpret mesoscale sequencing assay data and 3) to demonstrate that spatially-correlated cleavage, not protein protection, primarily drives the shape of the distribution of DNA fragment lengths resulting from ionizing-radiation damage. Pair-wise DNA-DNA contact data from DNA sequencing-based assays have the potential to provide locus-specific information about the relationships between chromatin structure and function. Radiation-induced correlated …

Gpcr To Channel Communication In A Membrane Signaling Pathway, Yuxi Zhang

Student Theses and Dissertations

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) regulate a variety of downstream effector proteins, making them essential for many physiological processes. For example, in the heart, the activation of beta-adrenergic receptors (βARs) and the stimulatory G protein (Gαs) leads to the opening of downstream hyperpolarization-activated cyclic nucleotide–gated (HCN) channels, resulting in an accelerated heart rate. In contrast, activation of M2 muscarinic receptors (M2Rs) and the inhibitory G protein (Gαi) opens G protein-gated inward rectifier K⁺ (GIRK) channels, slowing the heart rate. In addition to the Gαs and Gαi pathways, there is also the Gαq signaling pathway. In this pathway, activation of Gq-coupled GPCRs can …

A Neuronal Circuit Motif For Leaky Vector Integration, Abby Janke

Student Theses and Dissertations

To efficiently navigate their environments, animals ranging from insects to humans can keep track of their trajectory by continuously summing their direction and distance traveled over time. It is not clear how brains perform this fundamental computation––known as path integration––even though neural correlates and computer models abound. In arthropods, spatial-cognition related processes such as path integration are thought to be implemented in the central complex. Experimenters have shown that contiguously arrayed populations of neurons in the Drosophila fan-shaped body, a substructure of the central complex, display sinusoidally shaped bumps of calcium activity that signal vectors relevant for spatial navigation. The …

Benchmarking Reinforcement Learning And Off Policy Evaluation For Medical Decision Making, Mason Hargrave

Student Theses and Dissertations

Healthcare applications pose significant challenges to existing Reinforcement Learning (RL) methods due to implementation risks, low data availability, short treatment episodes, sparse re[1]wards, partial observations, and heterogeneous treatment effects (HTE). Despite significant interest in developing Dynamic Treatment Regimes (DTRs) for longitudinal patient care scenarios, no standardized benchmark has yet been developed. To address this gap, this thesis introduces Episodes of Care (EpiCare), a benchmark designed to mimic the challenges associated with applying RL to longitudinal healthcare settings. I leverage this benchmark to test seven state-of-the-art offline RL models as well as five common off-policy evaluation (OPE) techniques. My results suggest …

Neuromast Optogenetics Reveals Rules Of Spatial Encoding In The Zebrafish Lateral Line, Nicolas Velez-Angel

Student Theses and Dissertations

For animals to respond effectively to their environment, their sensory circuits must learn to distinguish between similar patterns of sensory information. A lingering question in neuroscience is how neuronal circuits achieve this performance. In this study, I use the posterior lateral line (pLL) of larval zebrafish to address this question. In the wild, the pLL must differentiate among a variety of hydrodynamic stimuli. However, understanding how fish distinguish between different water-flow stimuli has been challenging due to difficulties in stimulating individual neuromasts. To tackle this, I introduce a novel method in this thesis that combines single-neuromast optogenetics with whole-brain calcium …

Decoding Dynamic Gene Regulation In Hair Cell Development And Regeneration, Caleb C. Reagor

Student Theses and Dissertations

Identifying the causal interactions between genes and their proteins during the differentiation of specialized cells such as mechanosensory hair cells in vertebrates' inner ears and fishes' lateral lines requires an accurate description of the time-lagged relationships between transcription factors and their target genes. Here I describe Depicting Lagged Causality (DELAY), a convolutional neural network for the inference of gene-regulatory relationships across pseudotime-ordered single-cell trajectories. I first show that combining supervised deep learning with joint probability matrices of pseudotime-lagged trajectories allows the neural network to overcome important limitations of ordinary Granger causality-based methods, for example, the inability to infer cyclic …

Coding In Webassign, Gary Malek

Sabbatical Projects

Sabbatical presentation from a 2024 Spring Sabbatical

Days Of Future Past: The Legacy And Self-Efficacy Of Black And Hispanic Educators In Predominantly White School Districts, Tesfa S. Stewart

Selected Full Text Dissertations, 2011-

This mixed-methods dissertation investigates the self-efficacy of Black, Hispanic, and Multiracial educators in predominantly White institutions (PWIs), examining its connections to job satisfaction, career development, and perceived impact on students. Data from 34 participants, collected using the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES), indicated high overall self-efficacy, particularly in instructional strategies and classroom management. A one-way ANOVA revealed a statistically significant effect of race/ethnicity on total self-efficacy scores, with Black educators reporting significantly higher scores than their Hispanic and Multiracial peers (η² = .271). A simple linear regression using years of educational experience as the sole predictor did not produce …

Administrator Leadership And Collective Efficacy: Enhancing Math Education In Public High Schools In California, Lina Ahmadieh

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative, multicase study was to determine challenges that high school administrators experience when they establish the elements of collective teacher efficacy (CTE) based on the elements of common purpose, collective teacher accountability practices, protocols for collective practices, and interventions in their mathematics department and to determine the strategies that high school administrators use when they establish CTE in their mathematics department.Methodology: In this qualitative, multicase study, five interviews were conducted with public high school administrators in California. The researcher employed qualitative methods to explain the challenges that high school administrators experience when they establish the …

Seedlings Of Pacific Northwest Plants: A Photographic Guide, Gabriel E. Campbell-Martinez, Roxy Olsson

Rae Selling Berry Seed Bank and Plant Conservation Program

This document presents a visual, non-technical field guide of native and exotic/invasive seedlings that grow wild in the Pacific Northwest. It contains over 550 taxa representing a broad range of families and ecosystems, focusing on species that occur in Oregon and Washington. Species were selected to reflect ecological importance, frequency of occurrence, and relevance to land management, restoration, and conservation. It is intended for a broad audience, including restoration practitioners, land managers, botanists, ecologists, students, naturalists, and others interested in identifying plants at early life stages.

Comparative Analysis Of Machine Learning Models For Glioblastoma Survival., Muna Awel

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) remains one of the most lethal brain tumors, necessitating improved survival prediction models that integrate clinical and molecular data. This study develops a comprehensive machine learning pipeline leveraging TCGA-derived multi-omics datasets to predict binary survival outcomes. The framework integrates four classifiers Logistic Regression, Random Forest, XGBoost, and Support Vector Machine (SVM) and includes rigorous preprocessing with MCAR testing, KNN imputation, feature scaling, and hyperparameter optimization via GridSearchCV. SMOTE was applied to mitigate class imbalance and enhance model robustness for minority survival classes. Comparative performance analyses revealed Random Forest and XGBoost as top performers, achieving the highest recall …