Digital Commons Network^™

A Modular Saponin Adjuvant Platform: Development, Structure–Activity Relationships, And Applications, Di Bai

ETDs from 2020-2029

ABSTRACT Saponin-based vaccine adjuvants have attracted considerable attention owing to the clinical success of QS-21, a potent immunostimulant capable of inducing balanced humoral and cellular immune responses, yet its widespread application is limited by supply constraints, chemical instability, and dose-dependent toxicity. To address these challenges, we previously developed two semisynthetic saponin adjuvants, VSA-1 and VSA-2, derived from abundant Momordica saponins through a single-step modification, which exhibit QS-21–comparable immunopotentiating activity with improved accessibility and stability. Here, we first performed a systematic structure–activity relationship (SAR) study of the VSA series using MS I as the lead scaffold. Modulation of the side-chain length …

Investigation Of Air Emissions With A Local Composites Industry, Chris White

ETDs from 2020-2029

Workers at an office space raised complaints about a sweet-smelling odor directly outside their building. After an initial assessment of the surrounding businesses and their processes, it was determined that the workers were most likely exposed to styrene emissions from a nearby composites company. This investigation utilizes multiple weeks of direct readings with a photoionization device and active environmental sampling with a charcoal tube and pump to confirm the styrene exposure hypothesis. Weather trends were also recorded to determine correlation between weather and exposure to the sweet-smelling chemical. The direct readings found an exposure maximum of less than 2 ppm …

Statistical Methods For Mendelian Randomization Under Nonlinearity And Non-Normality, Mary Appah

ETDs from 2020-2029

Instrumental variable (IV) methods are widely used for estimating causal effects in observational studies where unmeasured confounding may bias traditional regression estimates. The core idea is to use a variable referred to as an instrument that is associated with the exposure of interest, independent of unmeasured confounders, and influences the outcome only through the exposure. While originally developed in econometrics, IV methods have been increasingly adopted in epidemiology and genetic research under the framework of Mendelian Randomization (MR), where genetic variants, most commonly single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), serve as instruments. MR provides a powerful tool for investigating causal relationships between …

From Cork To Coasting: A Multi-Stage Ode Model Of Water-Rocket Flight, Viktoria Savatorova, Patryk Kustra, Ethan Dyer, Connor Carlson, Aleksei Talonov

CODEE Journal

Water rockets provide an affordable and engaging context for exploring applications of differential equations. Motivated by outreach activities conducted with undergraduate students, we develop a four-stage mathematical model of vertical water-rocket flight that is suitable for use in an ODE or mathematical modeling course. The model includes the cork-release phase, water-thrust propulsion, air-thrust propulsion with compressible and potentially choked flow, and the final ballistic stage with quadratic drag. While retaining key physical features, the model can be formulated as a system of ordinary differential equations that can be integrated numerically using tools familiar to students. We compare model predictions with …

Influence Of Crop Diversification On Climate Change Mitigation And Business Profitability: A Study Of The Southern Marmara Region, Türkiye, Engi̇n Tolga Önder, Nuray Demi̇r

Turkish Journal of Agriculture and Forestry

Crop diversification strategies are being put forward to mitigate the negative effects of climate change associated with greenhouse gas emissions, and thus to ensure sustainable food production that is resilient to climate change and to reduce the risks faced by producers. By diversifying their agricultural products producers can insure themselves against the risks associated with climate variations, disease, and pests, contributing to both continuous food production and income flow. The present study investigates the effect of climate change on enterprise income in the Yenişehir district of Bursa province – a region noted for its intensive production of vegetables and other …

Low Cost Lightning Localization At Microwave Frequencies, Bradley Glaubitz

Dissertations and Theses

High precision lightning localization is essential for atmospheric research and public safety, yet the high cost of traditional VLF/LF systems restricts high resolution detection primarily to well funded agencies. Furthermore, conventional low frequency receivers often overlook microwave frequency emissions associated with lightning leader development. This thesis proposes a compact, low cost microwave frequency localization system operating in the 1.42 GHz band to provide an accessible alternative for high resolution mapping. The methodology utilizes an ARM Cortex M0+ microcontroller and a triggered 64 MHz 32 bit counter synchronized to a GPS Pulse Per Second (PPS) signal, achieving a temporal resolution of …

Driving Innovation: Transatlantic Attitudes To The Bionics Bus As A Vehicle For Health Transformation And Stem Engagement, Christopher James, Sarang Shankar, Madeleine Dale, Bhathika Perera, Richard Laugharne, Matthew Allen, Maria Feijoo‐Renones, Rohit Shankar

Peninsula Medical School

Emerging mobile health and STEM engagement platforms are increasingly recognised as catalysts for improving public understanding of biomedical technologies and supporting digitally enabled models of healthcare delivery. The Bionics Bus (https://bionicsbus.org/) is a novel mobile laboratory designed to democratise access to robotics, artificial intelligence, prosthetics and digital diagnostics by delivering hands-on experiences directly to schools, communities and healthcare settings. This study provides the first transatlantic comparison of public attitudes toward the Bionics Bus within the United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA), two countries with contrasting healthcare systems and digital transformation priorities. Using a mixed-methods cross-sectional design, 78 …

Jnk Signaling Impacts Car-T Cell Effector Function, Charles Kuhlmann

ETDs from 2020-2029

The potent cytotoxic activity of T cells serves as a natural defense against cancers. Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy represents a strategy for harnessing T cells against advanced tumors. CAR-T cell therapy has seen striking success against hematologic malignancies, prompting its application to new diseases. Ovarian cancer is a highly lethal disease characterized by frequent recurrence and aggressive nature, prompting the investigation of CAR-T cell therapy as a salvage regimen. However, like in other solid tumors, the early performance of CAR-T cell therapy in ovarian cancer is poor. While many strategies exist for improving the longevity of CAR-T …

Efficient Multimodal Foundation Model Tuning For Hallucination Mitigation, Fei Zhao

ETDs from 2020-2029

Over the past few years, multimodal foundation models have achieved remarkable progress in perception and understanding. However, two challenges limit their reliability: (1) dependence on offline training, which in most real-world settings requires large volumes of labeled data and, as a result, hinders the model’s ability to adapt to new data or domains; (2) weak cross-modal grounding, which often leads to hallucinated content generation, producing descriptions that are linguistically fluent but inconsistent with the input visual evidence. This dissertation frames hallucination mitigation as an outcome of transitioning from fixed learning (static, offline fine-tuning) to adaptive, feedback-driven lifelong learning. By incorporating …

Clinical Validation Of Tabpfn-2.5: Zero-Shot Performance, Data-Scarce Robustness, And Distilled Models For Real-Time Clinical Decision Support, Baraa Aljawawdeh

ETDs from 2020-2029

Accurate clinical risk prediction plays an important role in improving patient outcomes, particularly in perioperative settings where early intervention can influence care decisions. Although machine learning has shown promising results using electronic health record (EHR) data, its use in clinical practice is often limited by complex development processes, the need for hyperparameter tuning, and variability in performance across datasets. These challenges are especially relevant in data-scarce clinical settings. This thesis evaluates TabPFN-2.5, a transformer-based tabular foundation model designed to perform classification without dataset-specific training. The model was applied to two real-world perioperative prediction tasks: unplanned care escalation (UCE) following post-anesthesia …

Learnable Structured Attention For Student-Aware Knowledge Distillation In Dense Prediction, Chen Liu

ETDs from 2020-2029

Dense prediction tasks, including object detection and semantic segmentation, require models to produce structured predictions and are widely used in real-world vision applications. Although deep networks have achieved strong performance on these tasks, their high computational cost limits deployment on resource-constrained systems such as autonomous-driving vehicles. Knowledge distillation (KD) addresses this issue by transferring knowledge from a large teacher model to a compact student model. However, existing distillation methods for dense prediction face greater challenges than those for classification due to the more complex task requirements. To overcome the challenges, this thesis presents a unified study of adaptive distillation for …

The Colorado River Water Supply Crisis In A Few Graphs: Part 1, Jack Schmidt, Anne Castle, Eric Kuhn, Kathryn Sorensen, Katherine Tara

The Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River

In 2026 and for only the third time in the 21st century, there was no accumulation, and no recovery, of total Basin live storage6 during the snowmelt season. Nor was there any accumulation or recovery of total live storage in Lake Powell and Lake Mead during the 2026 snowmelt season. Total Basin live storage (hereafter, total Basin storage) is all the water available in the Colorado River Basin’s reservoir “savings account” and stored in reservoirs within the watershed.7 On June 1, total Basin storage was 22.94 million acre feet (maf), only 1.62 maf above the previous minimum of March 20238 …

Active Learning Of Constraint Boundaries Using Expected Magnitude Of Incorrectness And Neural Networks, Atticus Beachy, Ramana V. Grandhi

Faculty Publications

This research proposes an acquisition function for constraint boundary identification, with applications to hypersonic air vehicles. Hypersonic vehicles endure extreme thermal loads caused by aerodynamic heating, resulting in a strong coupling between structural performance and aerothermodynamics. However, modeling coupled system behaviors requires simultaneous consideration of both aerodynamic and structural design variables, increasing the dimensionality of the design trade space and the difficulty of accurately modeling the constraints. Several active learning schemes have been proposed to accelerate identification of the composite feasible region that satisfies all constraints. Some of these require integrating the surrogate model over the entire design space with …

Production, Purification, And Crystallization Of The Recombinant Her2 Tyrosine Kinase Domain (Her2-Tkd), Edanur Topalan, Hali̇li̇brahi̇m Çi̇ftçi̇, Hasan Demi̇rci̇

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

The human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 tyrosine kinase domain (HER2-TKD) is an important therapeutic target in oncology. In this study, we developed a practical and cost-effective approach for producing soluble recombinant HER2-TKD in Escherichia coli as a basis for structure-based drug discovery. The gene encoding HER2-TKD was cloned into a pET28a(+) expression vector and expressed in E. coli. Since the protein was initially obtained as inclusion bodies, solubilization with 1.5% sarcosyl was applied to recover it in soluble form. The purified protein was obtained through size-exclusion chromatography, followed by tag removal using reverse affinity purification. Crystallization trials were performed …

Quantum Engineered Mxene–Graphene–Plasmonic Nanocomposites For Next-Generation Transparent And Flexible Space Photovoltaics, Arash Vaghef-Koodehi

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

This study presents a quantum‑engineered, tricomponent heterostructure comprising Ti3C2T MXene quantum dots (2–5 nm), single‑layer graphene, and plasmonic gold nanoparticles (15 ± 3 nm) uniformly embedded within electrospun polyacrylonitrile nanofibers. This integrated architecture demonstrates a remarkable combination of optical transparency (89.3 ± 1.1%) and power conversion efficiency (19.7 ± 0.4%) under AM0 solar illumination, representing 340% enhancement over state‑of‑the‑art transparent photovoltaic devices. A multiscale computational framework, bridging density functional theory and device‑level drift-diffusion modeling, identifies optimal interlayer spacing (3.4 ± 0.1 Å) as the key to achieving 89.3% charge‑transfer efficiency. Concurrently, localized surface plasmon resonances at 532 nm generate electromagnetic …

Efficient Heterogeneous Photo-Fenton Degradation Of Azo Dyes Using The Nanocomposite Mgfe2o4/Mos2, Zahra Zeinali, Leila Ershadi Afshar, Naz Chaibakhsh, Farnaz Isapour

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

In the present work, a facile hydrothermal route was employed to synthesize the nanocomposite MgFe2O4/MoS2, which acted as a heterogeneous photo-Fenton catalyst for the degradation of a synthetic diazo dye, Acid Blue 113 (AB113). The nanocatalyst produced underwent analysis using multiple characterization techniques. The parameters influencing the oxidative reaction were statistically modeled and optimized using response surface methodology. Optimal degradation efficiency for AB113 (94.92%) was attained at pH 8.79 using 10 mg of MgFe2O4/MoS2 nanocatalyst, 1.6 mL of H2O2, and a reaction duration of 27 min. The synergistic effect resulting from the formation of electron-hole pairs renders the combined photocatalysis …

Electrochemical Biosensing Of Alpha-Fetoprotein Based On Carboxylated Multi-Walled Nanotube-Polyazur A (In Des)-Gold Nanoparticles, Merve Yilmaz Çilçar, Meli̇ke Bi̇lgi̇ Kamaç

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

AFP, a cancer biomarker, is monitored during fetal development and in the serum of pregnant women. Sensitive and rapid monitoring of AFP is crucial for effective management. In this study, screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCEs) modified with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT-COOH), polyAzur A (PAA), which was prepared in a deep eutectic solution (DES), and gold nanoparticles (AuNP) were fabricated. AFP biosensors were developed for practical, sensitive, low-cost, and rapid detection of AFP. Optimizations of nanostructures (MWCNT-COOH, AuNP) and polymers (PAADES) were performed. The MWCNT-COOH, PAADES, and AuNP-modified SPCEs were characterized by FE-SEM-EDX, FTIR, and XRD techniques. The amounts of 6-MOH, APTES, …

[H]-Mediated Enhancement Of The Fenton Reaction Over A Pd/Uio-66(Zr)-F4 Catalyst, Juanhong Li, Suqin Wang, Xin Liu, Feng Liu

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

A [H]-accelerated catalytic Fenton system was developed using Pd/UiO-66(Zr)-F4 as the catalyst. This system enabled the regeneration of Fe²⁺ and facilitated the continuous generation of both ·OH and 1O2 through [H]-mediated electron transfer at ambient temperature and pressure. Under the conditions of 0.2 g L−1 catalyst (Pd loading 0.516 wt%), 25 μM Fe2+, 60 mL min−1 H2 flow (as the [H] source), 20 mM H2O2, and pH 3, approximately 89% of carbamazepine (initial concentration 20 mg L−1) was degraded within 3 h using trace iron. However, the catalytic activity of Pd/UiO-66(Zr)-F4 gradually declined from 89% to 53% over six reaction …

Alcohol-Based Microextraction Of Rhodamine 6g From Soft Drink, Food, And Cosmetic Samples, Mustafa Soylak, Esra Yamaner, Özgür Özalp

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

By using alcohol-based solvent extraction without tetrahydrofuran, a liquid–liquid microextraction technique was developed for the separation–enrichment of trace levels of Rhodamine 6G from complex matrices, including soft drinks, food, cosmetics, hygiene products, and natural waters. Numerous experimental parameters were tuned, including pH, alcohol volume, ultrasonication time, and sample and eluent volume. The enrichment factor (EF), limit of detection (LOD), and limit of quantification (LOQ) were used to assess the analytical performance of the suggested approach. The LOD and LOQ were 6.92 ng mL−1 and 23 ng mL−1, respectively, and the EF was 14. Through the use of the standard addition …

Synthesis Of Two Hofmann-Type-Like Clathrates, Characterizations, And Investigation Of Their Structures, Spectroscopic And Theoretical Properties, Zari̇fe Si̇bel Şahi̇n, Zeki̇ Kartal

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

This study concerns two Hofmann-type-like clathrates using 4-aminopyridine (4AP) as ligands and the transition metal atoms copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn). These clathrates have the structural features of heteronuclear tetracyanonickelate(II) and contain H2O and 4AP molecules as guest molecules, respectively. These two clathrates were characterized by infrared spectroscopy (IR), elemental analysis, and single crystal X-ray diffraction (SC-XRD) techniques. Based on elemental and spectral data, the structural formulae describing these clathrates were found to be [Cu(II)(4AP)4Ni(μ-CN)2(CN)2]·H2O (1) and [Zn(II)(4AP)4Ni(μ-CN)2(CN)2]·(4AP) (2). In addition, the values of some optical, electronic, and thermochemical properties of the two obtained clathrates calculated with the Gaussian 03 …

Gwtc-4.0: Methods For Identifying And Characterizing Gravitational-Wave Transients, A. G. Abac, I. Abouelfettouh, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Raul Alberto Espinosa Perez, J. Lawrence, Francisco Llamas Villarreal, Soma Mukherjee, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

The Gravitational-Wave Transient Catalog (GWTC) is a collection of candidate gravitational-wave transient signals identified and characterized by the LIGO–Virgo–KAGRA Collaboration. Producing the contents of the GWTC from detector data requires complex analysis methods. These comprise techniques to model the signal; identify the transients in the data; evaluate the quality of the data and mitigate possible instrumental issues; infer the parameters of each transient; compare the data with the waveform models for compact binary coalescences; and handle the large amount of results associated with all of these different analyses. In this paper, we describe the methods employed to produce the catalog’s …

Physically Mixed Graphene Aerogel:Carbon Black (Ga:Cb)-Supported Pt Or Hydrothermally Synthesized Ga-Pt/Cb Hybrid Electrocatalysts For Pem Fuel Cells, Emi̇ne Teke Öner, Meli̇s Irmak Aydin, Merve Ni̇da Dursunoğlu, Ayşe Bayrakçeken

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

Graphene aerogels (GAs), having the superior properties of graphene and aerogel structures, are promising support materials for Pt nanoparticles to be used as electrocatalysts for PEM fuel cells. In this study, two routes were followed to synthesize GA-based electrocatalysts. In the first route, after GA synthesis it was physically mixed with carbon black (CB) by changing the mass ratios from 0% to 100% with 25% increments and then decorated with Pt nanoparticles via microwave irradiation, resulting in Pt/GA:CB electrocatalysts. In the second route, firstly, Pt/CB electrocatalyst was synthesized and then GA was hydrothermally added to the Pt/CB by changing the …

A Nonenzymatic Electrochemical Glucose Sensor Depending On A Ninps/Co3o4/Functionalized Graphene Oxide-Modified Working Electrode, Sümeyra Pekmez, Muhammet Güler

Turkish Journal of Chemistry

In the present research, the aim was to develop a novel electrochemical enzyme-free glucose sensor dependent upon a nickel nanoparticles (NiNPs)/cobalt (II, III) oxide (Co3O4)/carboxylated graphene oxide (GO-COOH)-modified glassy carbon (GC) electrode. The electrocatalytic performance of the electrode was tested using various electrochemical methods such as amperometry and cyclic voltammetry (CV). The NiNPs@Co3O4/GO-COOH/GC electrode showed noticeably superior electrocatalytic behavior for glucose oxidation in 0.1 M NaOH media, ascribed to the good synergistic impact between NiNPs, Co3O4, and GO-COOH. The amperometric response of the NiNPs@Co3O4/GO-COOH/GC electrode to glucose exhibited two linear determination ranges at +0.55 V potential. The first one was …

Amending Planting Media With Typha-Derived Biochar For Sustainable Horticulture, Elissa Touma

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Constructed wetlands are widely used to improve water quality by removing excess nutrients from wastewater and stormwater. Nutrients are stored within wetland vegetation, particularly in fast-growing plants such as Typha. Harvesting vegetation provides an opportunity to permanently remove these nutrients while generating biomass suitable for beneficial reuse. Converting harvested biomass into value-added products such as compost and biochar can support nutrient recovery and sustainable biomass management. In addition, increasing concerns regarding the environmental impacts of peat extraction have created interest in renewable alternatives for horticultural growing media. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of harvested …

Exploring Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices Among Female Leaders In Title I Schools: Strategies For Enhancing Student Success, Tara K. Indar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The academic achievement gap between White students and diverse student populations remains a persistent and prominent disparity in schools across the United States. While this issue affects schools nationwide, it is particularly significant in Title I schools, where many students from diverse, lower-socioeconomic-status backgrounds are served. Although a substantial body of literature examines this gap and highlights the positive impact of culturally responsive leadership, there remains a limited understanding of which specific practices are most effective in improving students’ academic outcomes. This study explores the perceptions of female school leaders in Title I schools regarding the strategies they believe contribute …

Modeling And Mitigating Stale Hardcoded Secrets In Version Control History, Katarina Valentine Capalbo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hardcoded secret vulnerabilities remain a growing and persistent problem that can be difficult to mitigate once exposed. While there has been significant research and advancements in identifying and preventing hardcoded secrets, less attention has been given to understanding the risks of leaving these secrets behind in version control history, as well as analyzing the sanitization of hardcoded secrets. These challenges present a growing gap between the risk and ability to mitigate and sanitize existing secret exposures. This thesis begins to address this gap by formalizing a threat model for hardcoded secrets that persist in Git version control history after the …

Demand And Capacity Management Of Runway Systems: A Review, Hao Jiang, Weili Zeng, Hainuo Zhou, Yannan Lu, Yuheng Chen, Wenbin Wei

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Runway systems serve as the critical interface between airports and terminal airspace, and their efficient operation is essential for balancing air traffic demand and airport capacity. With the continuous growth of air traffic, intelligent runway demand and capacity management has become increasingly important for mitigating congestion and delays. This paper presents a comprehensive review of runway capacity–demand management from both supply-side and demand-side perspectives. On the supply side, runway configuration selection is reviewed, including runway configuration capacity envelopes, influencing factors, and existing optimization methodologies, such as prescriptive models, descriptive models, and reinforcement learning approaches. On the demand side, flight runway …

Illinois Masonic Medical Center School Of Nursing Bulletin, 1969-1971, Advocate Health - Midwest

Historical Documents - Combined

Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago, IL: This IMMC Nursing School bulletin provides information about the school including admission criteria, cost, student services, policies, opportunities, and curriculum.

An Open Framework For An Interplanetary Energy And Resource Loom: Utilizing Non-Demolition Swarm-Drone Harvesting And High-Inclination Polar Trajectories, Christopher L. Eckes

Defensive Publications Series

This disclosure presents a decentralized, high-efficiency system architecture designed to bypass the thermodynamic, material, and logistical bottlenecks blocking civilization's transition to Type I status. The Interplanetary Energy and Resource Loom introduces a decoupled, multi-tier space architecture that separates primary orbital infrastructure from high-friction planetary environments.

The system utilizes a heavy, low-maintenance master vehicle propelled by a Tethered Fusion-Driven Sail operating along a high-inclination solar Y-axis polar trajectory to achieve 100% unblocked solar and cosmic radiation exposure. Material ingestion (volatile gases and liquid composites) is delegated to a specialized swarm of high-velocity, aerodynamically optimized Collector Drones that execute transient atmospheric skimming …

Deep Q Network For Adaptive Pelican Crossing Signal Optimization Balancing Pedestrian Safety And Vehicular Efficiency, Amalia Yasmin Chairunnisa, Andyka Kusuma, Jachrizal R. Sumabrata

Smart City

Static pelican crossing systems often fail to accommodate the stochastic arrival patterns prevalent in high-density transit-oriented development (TOD) zones, creating operational inefficiencies between pedestrian clearance and vehicular flow. At the Cikini Station transit hub in Jakarta, existing fixed signal cycles contribute to pedestrian delays and peak-hour congestion. This study evaluates an adaptive signal control model for mid-block pelican crossings using a Deep Q-Network (DQN) algorithm. To calibrate the simulation, empirical data were extracted from field CCTV footage using the YOLOv8 algorithm, accurately capturing 15-minute peak flow fluctuations and commuter surges. The system is formulated as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) …