Digital Commons Network^™

An Analysis Of Baccalaureate Time To Completion And Gpa By Type Of Accelerated College Credit, Wil Perkins Ed.D., Aarek Farmer Ed.D.

Administrative Faculty & Staff Research and Publications

This study explored differences in the time to completion (graduation) and final GPA of first time in college (FTIC) students based on the type of earned institutional credits when accepted, and the academic results due to race and sex. Existing data from 6591 college graduates from two private universities were analyzed using descriptive statistics and ANOVAs. The results showed statistically significant differences in the time it took students to graduate as well as statistically significant differences in final GPAs based on the type of earned credits at the time of acceptance. Furthermore, significant differences in completion time and GPA existed …

Process Intensification For Carbon Sequestration By Resonant Vibratory Mixing, Amirhosein Riahi

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Due to the excessive consumption of fossil fuels, which leads to significant greenhouse gas emissions and rapid climate change, it is crucial to develop various Carbon Capture and Sequestration strategies. CO₂ sequestration in solid, porous adsorbents like low-cost biochar emerges as a promising method to achieve this goal. However, slow adsorption kinetics are one of the issues that limit the widespread use of biochar. While the characteristics of biochar are important and impact CO₂ adsorption, the conditions under which adsorption occurs are equally critical.

In this work, a novel process intensification strategy, namely Low-Frequency High Amplitude resonant vibratory …

Continuous Data Assimilation For Two-Phase Flow, Mary H. Graveman, Amanda E. Diegel

Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Computational Methods with Applications in Materials Science

Poster created as part of the Center for Computational Sciences' Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Computational Methods with Applications in Materials Science and presented at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Showcase.

We propose a numerical approximation method modeling two-phase flow (via the Cahn-Hilliard equation) that incorporates data to achieve long-time accuracy. The underlying numerical method utilizes the Galerkin finite element method for spatial discretization and a method known as continuous data assimilation to incorporate the known data. We demonstrate the method is long-time stable and long-time accurate provided enough data measurements are incorporated into the simulation, overcoming possibly inaccurate initial …

Peri-Gondwanan Sediment In The Arkoma Basin Derived From The North: The Detrital Zircon Record Of A Uniquely Concentrated Non-Laurentian Source Signal In The Late Paleozoic, Tyson M. Smith, Marieke Deshesne, Jaime A.M. Hirtz, Glenn R. Sharman, Mark R. Hudson, Brandon M. Lutz, Neil Griffis

Geosciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

During the assembly of Pangea, peri-Gondwanan terranes collided with the eastern and southern margins of Laurentia and brought with them unique detrital zircon U-Pb signatures. Discriminating between individual peri-Gondwanan terranes in the detrital record is difficult due to their similar geologic histories. However, characterization of this provenance is critical for understanding late Paleozoic sediment routing during development of Pangea. Along southeastern Laurentia, in the Arkoma Basin (present-day Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, southeastern United States), we identified Middle Pennsylvanian (Desmoinesian) strata that exhibit a concentrated peri-Gondwanan detrital zircon signature (e.g., ca. 800–550 Ma). Although several southern peri-Gondwanan terranes (e.g., Maya, Suwannee) …

Sex Differences In The Diets Of Forest-Dwelling Baboons (Papio Anubis), Kara Hartunian

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to eat and switch between many food sources is an adaptative feeding strategy utilized for meeting nutritional needs across different environments, seasons, and physiological conditions. Baboons (genus Papio) excel at both dietary flexibility and foraging selectively, and consequently have one of the most widespread geographic distributions in the Order. To further expand to our understanding of baboon feeding ecology, I analyzed foraging activity and the nutritional characteristics of the diets of the relatively understudied rainforest baboons (Papio anubis) living in Kibale National Park, Uganda. I also investigated if there are differences in food type choice …

Assessment Of Tripeptides Self-Assembly & Er Stress On Cell Viability And Exosome Secretion In Mda-Mb231, Azmat Parveen

Theses and Dissertations

This study delves into the effects of tripeptides KYpF and WYpK(NBD) on MDA-MB-231 cells, uncovering KYpF's ability to reduce cell proliferation and exosome secretion in peptide treated cells. Conversely, WYpK(NBD) demonstrated significant toxicity at 10 μM. These insights pave the way for optimizing peptide-based cellular treatments for exosome secretion purposes.

Mapping Urban Tree Canopy Using Publicly Available Satellite Data, Rosemary Mcguinness

Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the need for accessible, cost-effective tools for quantifying spatial and temporal changes in tree canopy cover in urban areas. Urban tree canopy provides a wide range of ecosystem services, including lowering air temperatures, reducing pollution, and mitigating stormwater runoff. Cities around the world have placed the expansion of their urban forests at the center of their sustainability goals. Consistent and timely data on urban tree canopy is essential for urban greening initiatives to succeed. Existing methods of accessing information about urban tree canopy are highly technical, costly, and labor-intensive, while the freely available source of tree canopy …

Optimizing The Protein Yield Of The Collagen Mimetic Peptide: Col108, Fahmida Akter

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The fibril-forming collagen mimetic peptide Col108, produced in E. Coli, has shown potential for innovative biomaterial applications. However, further research is constrained by its limited yield. My study aims to enhance the experimental parameters and has successfully pinpointed rifampicin as an efficient method to boost the production of Col108.

Development And Optimization Of A 1-Dimensional Convolutional Neural Network-Based Keyword Spotting Model For Fpga Acceleration, Trysten E. Dembeck

Masters Theses

Spoken Keyword Spotting (KWS) has steadily remained one of the most studied and implemented technologies in human-facing artificially intelligent systems and has enabled them to detect specific keywords in utterances. Modern machine learning models, such as the variants of deep neural networks, have significantly improved the performance and accuracy of these systems over other rudimentary techniques. However, they often demand substantial computational resources, use large parameter spaces, and introduce latencies that limit their real-time applicability and offline use. These speed and memory requirements have become a tremendous problem where faster and more efficient KWS methods dominate and better meet industry …

Impact Of Climate Change And Restoration On Phosphorus Loading In An Impaired Wetland, Katherine M. Lucas

Masters Theses

Restoring wetlands can increase biodiversity and water quality in both the wetland and connecting ecosystems; however, failing to consider past land uses can result in negative water quality effects. Prior agricultural practices at a coastal wetland restoration site in West Michigan have caused high legacy phosphorus (P) concentrations in sediments, as well as high P levels in the water column. Sediment dredging is being considered as a restoration tool to control internal phosphorus loading (IPL). In addition, climate warming is resulting in increases in both mean temperature and temperature extremes, which may affect IPL. I examined the effects of both …

Subspace Decomposition Of Linear Secrecy Codes, David Robert Joseph Hunn

Theses and Dissertations

We introduce a new method for the study of linear codes, termed subspace decomposition, which provides new insights into code structure and performance. Briefly, subspace decomposition comprises the evaluation of complex properties of a linear code by evaluating simple properties of its constituent subspaces. We find that this technique has application to a number of problems in coding theory. When applied to the problem of evaluating the performance of secrecy codes, subspace decomposition provides an efficient method for computing the equivocation of coset codes over the binary erasure wiretap channel. It is also especially efficient in computing the chi squared …

Non-Receptor Tyrosine Kinases: Their Structure And Mechanistic Role In Tumor Progression And Resistance, Abdulaziz M. Eshaq, Thomas W. Flanagan, Sofie Yasmin Hassan, Sara A. Al Asheikh, Waleed A. Al-Amoudi, Simeon Santourlidis, Sarah Lilly Hassan, Maryam O. Alamodi, Marcelo L. Bendhack, Mohammed O. Alamodi, Youssef Haikel, Mossad Megahed, Mohamed Hassan

School of Graduate Studies Faculty Publications

Protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) function as key molecules in the signaling pathways in addition to their impact as a therapeutic target for the treatment of many human diseases, including cancer. PTKs are characterized by their ability to phosphorylate serine, threonine, or tyrosine residues and can thereby rapidly and reversibly alter the function of their protein substrates in the form of significant changes in protein confirmation and affinity for their interaction with protein partners to drive cellular functions under normal and pathological conditions. PTKs are classified into two groups: one of which represents tyrosine kinases, while the other one includes the …

A Measurement Of The Differential Drell-Yan Cross Section As A Function Of Invariant Mass In Proton–Proton Collisions At √ S = 13 Tev, William Robert Tabb

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The Drell-Yan process, a crucial mechanism for producing lepton pairs in highenergy hadron collisions, serves as an essential probe for testing the Standard Model of particle physics. This dissertation presents a comprehensive measurement of the differential cross section with respect to the invariant mass of the lepton pairs, utilizing data collected by the CMS experiment at CERN from 2016 to 2018. Cross sections are essential for refining our understanding of parton distribution functions and the underlying quantum chromodynamics processes, thereby providing constraints on theoretical predictions. In this analysis, the cross sections are compared to theoretical models and simulations, offering new …

Boiling Crisis Is A Consequence Of Thermal Runaway In The Substrate Due To Degradation Of Nucleate Boiling Heat Transfer, Manohar Bongarala, Justin A. Weibel, Suresh V. Garimella

CTRC Research Publications

Chaotic bubble interactions during vigorous boiling have foiled attempts at an accurate mechanistic understanding of this important industrial transport process. Prediction of the boiling crisis (dryout) that occurs due to the spontaneous merger of bubbles into an insulating vapor film at critical heat flux remains an unsolved challenge. This work diagnoses the dryout process using synchronized high-resolution spatiotemporal heat flux and phase data, obtained via through-substrate infrared and visual inspection. We examine prevailing theories for the boiling crisis and provide evidence to rule out all but one. The boiling crisis is found to be a consequence of a peak in …

Radiation-Tolerant Thin-Film Reference Electrodes And Potentiometric Sensors, Bingyuan Zhao, Alexander Wei

Department of Chemistry Faculty Publications

The integration of electronic sensors into single-use systems for bioprocessing is challenged by their sensitivity to sterilizing γ-irradiation. This challenge also applies to reference electrodes (REs), whose potentials may be destabilized upon ionization and drift over time. Here we evaluate the performance of thin-film Ag/AgCl REs over a two-month window following γ-ray sterilization using a 60Co source. γ-REs display a characteristic voltage decay function ascribed to the dissipation of radiation-induced charge defects, and exhibit long-term potentiometric stability when stored in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) with a 95% confidence interval of 4 mV over 60 days. γ-REs have a mean insensitivity (inertness) …

Defending Critical Race Theory, Nick J. Sciullo

Seattle University Law Review Online

Recent attacks on Critical Race Theory (CRT) have caused wide ranging discussions about CRT in a diverse number of disciplines, throughout all grade levels, and around the world in media. While CRT adherents have long wished for more engagement with CRT, the recent firestorm of attacks has been surprising at best, and horribly worrisome and frightening at worst. Efforts to ban CRT in schools, while likely not having much effect given the improbability that CRT is taught in any K-12 schools, have politicized CRT in new ways (though like all education, it was always political). Moreover, this engagement is clearly …

New Weighting Parameters For Non-Local Means Based Denoising Algorithm, Ely Carroll, Hyeona Lim

Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Computational Methods with Applications in Materials Science

Poster created as part of the Center for Computational Sciences' Research Experiences for Undergraduates in Computational Methods with Applications in Materials Science and presented at the 2024 Undergraduate Research Showcase.

Current image denoising techniques can be broadly categorized into two types: variational methods which use minimizing functionals, and filtering methods via pixel averaging. Specifically, the non-local means (NLM) filtering based image denoising algorithm involves replacing each pixel value by the weighted averages of all pixels in the entire image. The basic non-local means algorithm is predicated on manually inputting a parameter to determine the weight of each pixel. We …

The Effect Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication Devices On Preschool-Aged Children With Disabilities, Jocelyn N. Fox

Masters Projects

Speech and language needs are not being met effectively in preschool-aged children. These skills are incredibly important, as speech and language skills affect all other areas of development (Greenwood et al., 2013). To help solve this problem, professionals who work with this population of students need to have effective practices in place to address the needs of these students. This project aims to provide preschool-aged children who have speech and language needs the access to communication they deserve. Through Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, many speech and language needs can be addressed. This project will provide training on AAC …

Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling Of 12.25” Horizontal Wellbores To Identify The Effects Of Pipe Rotation On Cuttings Transport Efficiency, David Rathgeber

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

As global demand for oil and gas continues to rise alongside pressures to curb climate change, Exploration and Production (E&P) companies look to reduce their surface footprint and increase drilling efficiency through longer horizontal well drilling. In addition, the depletion of conventional reservoirs is causing E&P companies to target more difficult reservoirs, often miles offshore (Gupta et al., 2014; Meader et al., 2000a). The increased horizontal reach of these wells often leads to increased challenges in adequate hole cleaning during drilling operations. Efficient hole cleaning becomes a greater challenge in high-angle wells, with gravitational forces causing pipe eccentricity, flow channeling, …

Increasing The Level Of English Language Learners Mathematical Word Problem Skills Using Language Interventions, Hannah M. Frederick

Masters Projects

This project highlights the possible solutions to the ever-increasing achievement gap between English Language Learners and native-English speaking students in United States’ schools. Standardized assessments are composed of mathematical word problems so instead of students being tested on their math abilities, they are also being tested on their reading comprehension. This adds an additional difficulty for English Language Learners who are in the process of learning English. This project outlines a plan to increase ELLs word problem skills through the explicit teaching of vocabulary and reading comprehension. These interventions will allow ELLs to improve their English abilities in a mathematical …

Effective Reading Intervention In The Intermediate Grades, Cassandra Baas

Masters Projects

Reading proficiency among intermediate-grade students remains below expected grade level, necessitating a comprehensive approach to teaching reading intervention. Research indicates that students struggling with reading often exhibit difficulties in both foundational skills and comprehension. To address these challenges, a multicomponent intervention combining explicit skill instruction with engaging comprehension practice is needed. A cognitive science framework, emphasizing active learning, metacognition, and the role of automatic decoding in freeing working memory for comprehension, is essential. Additionally, a reader-response perspective is beneficial, as it encourages deep engagement and critical thinking, helping to foster a lifelong love of reading.

Effective intervention requires a deep …

Prospects For Time-Domain And Multi-Messenger Science With Axis, Riccardo Arcodia, Franz E. Bauer, S. Bradley Cenko, Kristen C. Dage, Daryl Haggard, Wynn C.G. Ho, Erin Kara, Michael Koss, Tingting Liu, Labani Mallick, Michela Negro, Pragati Pradhan, J. Quirola-Vásquez, Mark T. Reynolds, Claudio Ricci, Richard E. Rothschild, Navin Sridhar, Eleonora Troja, Yuhan Yao

Publications

The Advanced X-ray Imaging Satellite (AXIS) promises revolutionary science in the X-ray and multi-messenger time domain. AXIS will leverage excellent spatial resolution (< 1.5 arcsec), sensitivity (80× that of Swift), and a large collecting area (5–10× that of Chandra) across a 24-arcmin diameter field of view at soft X-ray energies (0.3–10.0 keV) to discover and characterize a wide range of X-ray transients from supernova-shock breakouts to tidal disruption events to highly variable supermassive black holes. The observatory’s ability to localize and monitor faint X-ray sources opens up new opportunities to hunt for counterparts to distant binary neutron star mergers, fast radio bursts, and exotic phenomena like fast X-ray transients. AXIS will offer a response time of < 2 h to community alerts, enabling studies of gravitational wave sources, high-energy neutrino emitters, X-ray binaries, magnetars, and other targets of opportunity. This white paper highlights some of the discovery science that will be driven by AXIS in this burgeoning field of time domain and multi-messenger astrophysics. This White Paper is part of a series commissioned for the AXIS Probe Concept Mission; additional AXIS White Papers can be found at the AXIS website.

Postsecondary Arabic-Speaking English As A Foreign Language Learners’ Perceptions Of Learning English Sentence Structure, Mohammad Hamed Adam

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Writing proper English sentences poses a significant challenge for Arabic-speaking postsecondary students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL) due to substantial differences between Arabic and English syntactic structures. This basic qualitative study explored the perceptions of Arabic-speaking EFL learners at an Arabian university regarding the challenges they faced in mastering English sentence structure, especially after analyzing errors in their written assignments. The conceptual framework for the study used Corder’s error analysis model and Selinker’s interlingual theory to guide students in revising their errors. The research questions focused on students’ perceptions of learning English sentence structure and identifying syntactic errors …

Location Optimization Strategies For Corn Production And Distribution Towards Sustainable Green Supply Chain, Labiba N. Asha, Lucy G. Aragon, Arup Dey, Nita Yodo

Industrial Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Background: The corn supply chain is vital for food security and economic stability regionally and globally. This study integrates sustainable supply chain management with location optimization to address trade-offs from climate change, economic viability, and environmental impact while assuming the constant social obligation inherent in the supply chain structure. Methods: This study employs a mixed-integer programming (MIP) framework to optimize facility locations in North Dakota, including corn production zones as suppliers and ethanol plants as consumers. Primary objectives include cost minimization and greenhouse gas reduction, enabling the prioritization of economic or environmental goals as per organizational strategies and regulations. This …

Mucosal Immunization With Chad-Sars-Cov-2-S Prevents Sequential Transmission Of Sars-Cov-2 To Unvaccinated Hamsters, Tamarand L Darling, Houda H Harastani, Astha Joshi, Traci L Bricker, Nadia Soudani, Kuljeet Seehra, Ahmed O Hassan, Michael S Diamond, Adrianus C M Boon

2020-Current year OA Pubs

COVID-19 vaccines have successfully reduced severe disease and death after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. Nonetheless, COVID-19 vaccines are variably effective in preventing transmission and symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. Here, we evaluated the impact of mucosal or intramuscular vaccine immunization on airborne infection and transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in Syrian hamsters. Immunization of the primary contact hamsters with a mucosal chimpanzee adenoviral-vectored vaccine (ChAd-CoV-2-S), but not intramuscular messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, reduced infectious virus titers ~100-fold and 100,000-fold in the upper and lower respiratory tract of the primary contact hamster following SARS-CoV-2 exposure. This reduction in virus titer in …

How Google Advertisements Attract Consumers' Call-To-Action And Electronic Word-Of-Mouth, Tser-Yieth Chen, Hsueh-Ling Wu, Jiun-Hua Yun

Asia Marketing Journal

This study investigated central and peripheral route factors to assess the impact of Google Advertisements on how these factors contribute to users' call-to-action (CTA) and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) behaviors. We explored the persuasive effects of Google Advertisements on consumers by using a dataset of 483 valid empirical samples from Taiwan. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the hypotheses. The empirical results of this study indicate that both peripheral (image appeal) and central (information completeness) routes positively lead to the persuasion effect. This finding confirms that the peripheral and central routes increase the persuasion effect. The empirical results indicate …

Validating Multi-Os Machines In Datacenter Repair, N/A

Defensive Publications Series

The mean time-to-repair (MTTR) and downtime costs of multi-node machines, often deployed for high-value cloud and machine learning (ML) or artificial intelligence (AI) server fleets, can be high. This disclosure describes techniques to expedite repair validation in multi-node servers by tailoring installation and test procedures to repair actions. Repair actions proposed by a diagnoser based on component-to-node maps are used to compute a subset of nodes to be installed and tested. Installation and testing are performed at the submachine level alongside a subset of nodes that are relevant to the performed repair actions. Testing is split into a focused test …

Activated Carbon Derived From Rice Husk Biomass Using Pyrolysis-Assisted Tartaric Acid Activation For Removal Of Reactive Orange 16 Dye: Adsorption Modeling Using Response Surface Methodology, Ahmed Saud Abdulhameed, Ruihong Wu, Abdallah Reghioua, Harun M. Mbuvi, Zaher Mundher Yaseen, Zaharaddeen N. Garba

AUIQ Complementary Biological System

In the current work, rice husk (RH) biomass was pyrolyzed using tartaric acid as an activating agent to produce activated carbon (AC). For 60 min, the procedure was run at 700 °C and 5 L/min of nitrogen (N₂) flow rate. The study used response surface methodology (RSM) and a 3-level Box-Behnken design (BBD) to optimize the extraction efficiency of rice husk activated carbon (RHAC) in eliminating reactive orange 16 (RO16) dye from an aqueous solution. Different process parameters, such as pH (2–12), RHAC dose (0.04 – 0.14 g), and time (60-240 min), were chosen as part of the …

The Product Of Science, Rolf A.E Mueller

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

The relationships between agricultural science, invention, production and consumption are conventionally considered in a hierarchical model with consumption at the basis and science at the pinnacle of the hierarchy. -Two important shortcomings of that model as a basis for organising and manag\ng agricultural research are identified. First, the model does not specify how the direction and intensity of research Is guided in the absence of markets for the outputs from research. Second, the model does not identify the flows of specific information from the consumption and agricultural production sphere to the research sphere where such information is crucial for the …

From Technology Transfer To Resource Management, Janice Jiggins

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

Six models of technological innovation are examined. The implications for the roles and functions of research and extension, and of agricultural education systems, are analysed. The models are assessed against issues of gender, natural resource management and poverty, with consideration of who pays, and who benefits. The conclusion is drawn that the Transfer of Technology model is not a generalisable model to all circumstances, clients and policy goals. Client-driven systems and participatory approaches which build partnerships among researchers, extensionists, producers and other users of grassland landscapes, can be more effective and efficient.