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The Beautiful Place: Understanding, Perceiving, And Participating In Beauty According To The Doctrine Of The Two Kinds Of Righteousness, Martin Bartholomew Dressler

Doctor of Philosophy Dissertation

Nearly everyone agrees with this statement: Beauty is powerful. But what exactly is beauty? Is it objective or subjective? Is beauty bound up with reality, or even the being of God? Or is beauty “nothing but” a social construct, rendering all judgments concerning beauty mere opinion, or else the fruit of culturism? This dissertation examines beauty through the lens of the Lutheran distinction of the Two Kinds of Righteousness. It will enable Christians to account for their experience with beauty by attending to the following three questions: (1) What is beauty? (2) How do we perceive beauty? and (3) How …

Missing Wedge Completion Via Unsupervised Learning With Coordinate Networks, Dave Van Veen, Jesús G Galaz-Montoya, Liyue Shen, Philip Baldwin, Akshay S Chaudhari, Dmitry Lyumkis, Michael F Schmid, Wah Chiu, John Pauly

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Cryogenic electron tomography (cryoET) is a powerful tool in structural biology, enabling detailed 3D imaging of biological specimens at a resolution of nanometers. Despite its potential, cryoET faces challenges such as the missing wedge problem, which limits reconstruction quality due to incomplete data collection angles. Recently, supervised deep learning methods leveraging convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have considerably addressed this issue; however, their pretraining requirements render them susceptible to inaccuracies and artifacts, particularly when representative training data is scarce. To overcome these limitations, we introduce a proof-of-concept unsupervised learning approach using coordinate networks (CNs) that optimizes network weights directly against input …

Geochemical Variation In The Muscle Of Aleutian Steller Sea Lion Prey, Scott Chandler

Biological Sciences

Body tissue chemistry has been extensively utilized as biomarkers about the cryptic life histories of Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in the western and central Aleutian Islands, Alaska, specifically tissue total mercury concentrations and stable isotope ratios of carbon and nitrogen. As patterns in these biomarkers can be associated with either trophic dynamics or environmental conditions, I examined spatiotemporal and biological variability of bulk carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios and total mercury concentrations in the muscle tissue of ten fishes and two cephalopods found in Steller sea lion diets. I hypothesized that the complex bathymetry and oceanography of the …

Strategies For Building Supply Chain Resilience And Sustainability Within Law Enforcement, Vladimir Walter Jankov

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Insufficient supply chain management expertise among law enforcement departments during black swan events may hurt the operationality, functionality, and effectiveness of their purpose to keep the communities safe. Grounded in black swan theory, the purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies for building supply chain resilience and sustainability within law enforcement. Data were collected from 11 command staff personnel from three law enforcement departments in South Carolina through semi-structured interviews, member checking, and assessments of organizational documents related to departmental supply chain policies and procedures. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis framework. Six …

High School Teacher Perceptions About Reading Strategies That Support African American And Hispanic Students, Sherrie Sudler

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed by the study was African American and Hispanic students’ literacy scores remain the lowest of all ethnicities at high schools in a district, despite the implementation of numerous initiatives and curricular platforms. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to investigate how high school teachers perceive their implementation of instructional strategies in reading to support African American and Hispanic students’ academic achievement. Using Freire’s theory of critical pedagogy, high school teachers’ perceptions of their implementation of instructional strategies in reading were explored. Data were collected using semistructured interviews of 10 participants who met the inclusion criteria …

Human Service Professionals Perceptions About Support From Supervisors During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ericka Booker

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The United States Department of Human Services provided information about how to administer services remotely to human service organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic, but multiple challenges arose including lack of support, ethical concerns, and difficulty in building a rapport with clients remotely. The problem that was addressed in this study was the negative impacts on clients due to the issues with human service professionals providing virtual services during the pandemic. This generic qualitative study aimed to explore perceptions about the support human service professionals received from their supervisors during the pandemic. Bandura’s self-efficacy theory was used to explore participant perceptions …

Exploring Spanish Translation Accommodations For English Learning Students, Lea Mendoza

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem is that translations of language in standardized mathematics tests are not provided, which reduces the achievement scores of native-Spanish-speaking English language learners (ELLs) in Grades 4 and 8. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of language translation for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to uncover strategies of language translation to support the math scores of Spanish-speaking ELLs in fourth and eighth grades in a northeastern state. Underpinned by Krashen’s theory of comprehensible input, this study addressed the research question regarding how teachers of ELLs perceive language translation strategies for the …

Learning Proximal Operators With Gaussian Process And Adaptive Quantization In Distributed Optimization, Aldo Duarte Vera Tudela

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

In networks consisting of agents communicating with a central coordinator and working together to solve a global optimization problem in a distributed manner, the agents are often required to solve private proximal minimization subproblems. Such a setting often requires a further decomposition method to solve the global distributed problem, resulting in extensive communication overhead. In networks where communication is expensive, it is crucial to reduce the communication overhead of the distributed optimization scheme. Integrating Gaussian processes (GP) as a learning component to the Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers (ADMM) has proven effective in learning each agent's local proximal operator to …

Influence Of Fire On Boreal Stream Metabolism, Jacob Adams

Biological Sciences

Wildfires are becoming more severe, frequent, and intense in the boreal forest, which has large repercussions for ecosystem processes, such as carbon and nutrient cycling. Combustion of terrestrial soils and biomass can propagate to influence streams, including increased nutrient inputs, flashier discharge, and changes to the light regime. Due to a warming climate, fire regimes are changing in concert with precipitation regimes, including more frequent and larger storms, which can scour primary producers and remove poorly attached detritus. Changing physicochemical attributes of streams resulting from fire and precipitation could influence metabolic processes that in turn influence carbon (C) storage and …

Controls Over Visitation Rates To Mineral Licks By Snowshoe Hares (Lepus Americanus) In Northern Alaska, Laura Knutsen

Biological Sciences

Geophagy, or soil consumption, is a common behavior of several avian and mammalian herbivore species. This activity has been attributed to providing essential nutrients and improving digestion of forage high in plant secondary metabolites. Recently, this behavior has been observed in snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) and is thought to influence both their nutritional ecology and population dynamics. The purpose of this study was to examine the possible ecological controls over snowshoe hare visitation rates to mineral licks using a camera trap study at four sites near Wiseman, AK, from 2017 to 2020. Data visualization and modeling showed hare activity was …

Effects Of Hunting Pressure On The Spatial Dynamics Of A Subarctic Caribou Herd, Jeffrey Wells

Biological Sciences

Indirect effects of hunting can have important ecological and hunt management implications, and little has been done to quantify these indirect effects on caribou (Rangifer tarandus). To assess effects of hunting pressure on caribou spatial dynamics, we used GPS locations that spanned fall and winter 2010-2022 from the semi-migratory Fortymile caribou herd in interior Alaska. We analyzed these locations using integrated step selection analysis to evaluate step lengths (i.e., movement rates) and selection of distance to roads and trails, and forest cover across 3 hunting pressure levels (none, low, and high) as well as road crossings during hunting compared to …

Biogeographic History Of The World's Marmots And The Genetic Basis Of Melanism In An Alaskan Population Of Hoary Marmots, Kendall K. Mills

Biological Sciences

This dissertation addresses questions related to the phylogenetics, molting phenology, and genetic basis of melanism in marmots. Marmots (genus Marmota) are large, diurnal ground squirrels that hibernate for 7-8 months each year and have a broad Holarctic distribution. In Chapter 1, I use ultraconserved elements from all 15 extant species to better resolve the phylogeny of Marmota and shed light on the biogeographic history of marmots. The results indicate marmots originated in North America ~16.3 Ma and crossed the Bering Land Bridge into Eurasia ~3-4 Ma. In addition, the Woodchuck (M. monax) and the Alaska Marmot (M. broweri) are more …

The Avialan Fauna Of The Late Cretaceous Prince Creek Formation, Alaska, Lauren N. Wilson

Geosciences

Modern polar regions are critical breeding grounds for over 250 species of birds. Some migrate to high latitudes for access to seasonally abundant resources during reproductive periods, whereas others are year-round residents. Despite the major role these birds play in polar ecosystems, we know very little of the origins of the utilization of polar ecosystems for nesting due to the rarity of avialan fossils from high latitudes. The avialan fossil record spans 150 million years, yet evidence for high-latitude bird reproduction extends only to the Eocene La Meseta Formation of Antarctica (56-33.6 Ma). Here, we report a remarkable polar avifauna …

Nigerian Secondary Physics Teachers’ Perceptions Of Factors That Challenge Information And Communication Technology Integration, Hemamalini Srinivasan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Challenges to integrating technology into educational institutions pose a significant issue that impacts students’ performance and accomplishments. The research problem addressed through this study was that secondary school physics teachers were challenged to integrate information and communication technology (ICT) in a southwestern state of Nigeria. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore secondary physics teacher perceptions of the factors that challenged ICT integration in the southwestern state of Nigeria, so that schools could be provided with research-deduced recommendations to take informed steps forward toward developing technology-integrated student-centered pedagogies. In this study, the unified theory of acceptance and …

Bibliometric Insights Into Indian Artificial Intelligence Research In Library And Information Science, Khadeeja Mohammed Nizam Ansari, Dr. Sunil Bhatt

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study aims to evaluate the research productivity of Indian researchers on artificial intelligence (AI) in the Library and information science (LIS) field. The study employed a bibliometric approach to analyze the yearly growth, prolific authors, organization, country, pattern of Authorship, keyword analysis, and most cited papers on AI in LIS. The researcher used the Web of Science database to retrieve literature related to Indian AI researchers in LIS between 1995 and 2023. Four hundred forty publications were downloaded and analyzed using MS Excel, Biblioshiny, and Vosviewer software. The study reveals that Indian researchers published 440 publications and 6227 citations …

Synthetic Realities And Artificial Intelligence-Generated Contents, Daniel Moreira, Sebastien Marcel, Anderson Rocha

Computer Science: Faculty Publications and Other Works

Welcome to the IEEE Security & Privacy Special Issue on Synthetic Realities and Artificial Intelligence-Generated Contents! In this edition, we delve into the topic of synthetic realities, where generative artificial intelligence (GAI) is revolutionizing the construction of narratives, blurring the boundaries between fact and fiction, for the good and the bad. Indeed, content created or enabled by GAI spans a wide spectrum of usage and intentions, from fostering positive experiences, such as entertainment, training, and education, to more questionable utilization, such as deception, propaganda, and manipulation.

On The Effect Of Liquid Crystal Orientation In The Lipid Layer On Tear Film Thinning And Breakup, Mary Taranchuk

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

A Model Of Shell Structure And Pattern In Mollusks, Rahnuma Islam, Bard Ermentrout, Sabrina Streipert

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Exploring The Evolution Of Altruistic Punishment Using A Pde Model For Multilevel Selection, Daniel Cooney

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Using Splines To Investigate The Effects Of Temperature On The Within-Mosquito Malaria Parasite Forms, Alexander J. Diefes, Miranda I. Teboh-Ewungkem

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Identifiability Analysis And Model Reduction For Soft Tissue Models, Mansoor A. Haider

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Perceptual Grouping With Latent Noise, Ben Lonnqvist, Zhengqing Wu, Michael H. Herzog

MODVIS Workshop

Humans effortlessly group elements into objects and segment them from the background and other objects without supervision. For example, the black and white stripes of a zebra are grouped together despite vastly different colors. A thorough theoretical and empirical account of perceptual grouping is still missing – Deep Neural Networks (DNNs), which are considered leading models of the visual system still regularly fail at simplistic perceptual grouping tasks. Here, we propose a counterintuitive unsupervised computational approach to perceptual grouping and segmentation: that they arise because of neural noise, rather than in spite of it. We show that adding noise in …

Tracking Food Quality In Algae-Daphnia Ecosystems Through Stage Structured Models And Colimitation, Tomas Ascoli

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Identifiability For Pde Models Of Fluorescence Microscopy Experiments, Veronica Ciocanel

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Poroelastic Systems Describing Biological Tissues, Ellie Gurvich

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

Modeling Mechanisms Of Microtubule Dynamics And Polarity In Neurons, Anna Nelson, Veronica Ciocanel, Scott Mckinley, Hannah Scanlon

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Childhood Opportunity Index On Treatment Outcomes Of Osteochondritis Dissecans Of The Knee, Colton Schwarz, Kennedy J. Morey, Brian R. Lee, Angie Vanderpool, Kevin Latz, Natalie C. Stork, Donna Pacicca, Brian Harvey

Research Days

This study aims to explore the relationship that Childhood Opportunity Index (COI), a validated measure of socioeconomic status, has on the outcomes of treatment of osteochondritis dissecans (OCD) of the medial femoral condyle (MFC) of the knee in pediatric patients age 0-18 years.

Thyroid Dysfunction In Patients Receiving Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors, Emily Metzinger, Jennifer Boyd, Julia Broussard, Christopher Klockau

Research Days

The use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) is increasing in the treatment of different cancers. This study investigates ICI and thyroid dysfunction in pediatric patients at Children's Mercy Kansas City. This is a retrospective chart review that looked at development of thyroid disorders in patients who received PD-1 inhibitors, PD-L1 inhibitors, or CTLA-4 inhibitors in 19 pediatric patients. Results showed that hypothyroidism developed in 3 patients who received any of these medications. Additionally, 2 patients had thyroid dysfunction prior to starting ICI therapy, and 1 of these patients developed hyperthyroidism shortly after beginning ICI therapy. Thyroid dysfunction can be seen …

Simultaneous Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy And Deceased Donor Liver Transplant In A Pediatric Patient With Cirrhosis And Class 3 Obesity, Lakshmi Kunam, Voytek Slowik, Brooke Sweeney, Ryan T. Fischer, Jason D. Fraser, Bhargava Mullapudi, Richard J. Hendrickson

Research Days

Background: Liver transplantation is a life saving procedure for children with end-stage liver disease with the goal of returning to a normal healthy life. Obesity and weight gain can lead to post-transplant steatosis and contribute to patient morbidity and mortality. In patients with obesity, simultaneous bariatric surgery can lead to reduced body mass index (BMI) and decrease allograft steatosis and patient metabolic syndrome.

Methods: After obtaining patient and family assent/consent, patient records were reviewed and analyzed.

Results: The patient was initially evaluated at 8 years of age for right upper quadrant pain. Imaging consistent with cirrhosis and portal hypertension prompted …

Multiscale Modeling Of Microtubule Polarity Mechanisms Following Neuronal Axotomy, Hannah Scanlon

Biology and Medicine Through Mathematics Conference

No abstract provided.