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The Faculty's Perception Of The Role Of Equity In The Formation Of Cooperative Learning Groups In University Classrooms: A Qualitative Inquiry, Ethel Nwogu

Theses & Dissertations

THE FACULTY’S PERCEPTION OF THE ROLE OF EQUITY IN THE FORMATION OF COOPERATIVE LEARNING GROUPS IN UNIVERSITY CLASSROOMS: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

Submitted by Ethel K. Nwogu A Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of the Incarnate Word San Antonio, Texas December 2025

This study investigates how university faculty perceive and apply equity in the formation of cooperative learning groups. It examines the beliefs guiding instructional decisions and the practical strategies used to ensure fairness and inclusion. The central purpose is to understand how equitable group formation practices influence student …

2026 Spring Commencement, Tennessee State University

TSU Commencements 2025-Present – Mr. Dwayne Tucker, President

No abstract provided.

Processing Conditions In Narrative Interpretation: A Structural Account Of Cf/Ef Divergence In "The Clerk's Tale”, Griselda Poe

Publications and Research

This paper applies the framework established in Paper 19, "Cognition Is Not Content: A Structural Account of Processing Conditions," to re-describe Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales.

The same narrative produces two incompatible interpretations: a record of domestic violence, and a story of genuine love. This divergence does not arise from differences in ethical judgment or emotional response. It arises from structural differences in the conditions under which information is reconstructed.

This paper does three things. First, it analyzes the characters Walter and Griselda in terms of CF (Core-foregrounded) and EF (Modulation-foregrounded) processing conditions. Second, it describes …

On The Parametrization Of Self-Adjoint Extensions Of Singular Sturm-Liouville Operators, Caleb Beckler

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The self-adjoint extensions of a lower semi-bounded minimal Sturm–Liouville operator are parametrized using generalized boundary values defined by fixed choices of special nonoscillatory solutions, called principal and nonprincipal solutions. However, principal and nonprincipal solutions are not unique, and different choices yield different generalized boundary values. Therefore, the parametrization of self-adjoint extensions inherently depends upon the choices of principal and nonprincipal solutions. Using known properties of principal and nonprincipal solutions, Wronskian techniques, and the Pl¨ucker identity, we find the relation between self-adjoint extensions for two different parametrizations.

Transform-Based Quantum Potential Reconstruction From Sparse Spectral Data: Generalized Bertlmann-Martin Moment Inequalities, Matthew Plott

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Inverse quantum problems ask whether a central potential V(r) can be reconstructed from limited spectral information under explicit modeling assumptions. This dissertation develops and validates a reproducible, transform-based framework for reconstructing ground-state radial densities rho(r) = |R(r)|^2 and central potentials V(r) from discrete bound-state energy levels using generalized Bertlmann-Martin (GBM) moment inequalities as physics-informed constraints. In the Laplace route, L(q) is assembled from moment data and inverted numerically to recover rho(r). In the Fourier/form-factor route, even moments determine F(q) and inverse transformation yields rho(r). To support sparse spectral inputs, analytic continuation is performed with Pade approximants, and the framework is …

Curriculum Evaluation For Imagiedu, Madison Leigh Marchand

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This research examines whether or not ImagiEdu's curriculum aligns with the Indiana Academic Standards for K-8 Computer Science, and to determine if it meets the requirements to be approved as "High-Quality Curricular Materials" by the Indiana Department of Education (DOE). ImagiEdu is an award-winning technology education startup from Sweden, and provides inclusive coding education tools designed to help students imagine their future in the tech world. In this project, the DOE's 2024-2025 High-Quality Curricular Materials Rubric was used to evaluate ImagiEdu's curriculum, including its Scope and Sequence, Teacher Handbook, and over 25 Lesson Plans. The evaluation focused on four main …

Cyanine Dyes As Next-Generation Fluorophores: Applications In Cell Sorting And Fingerprinting Technologies, Super-Multiplexed Spectroscopy, Biomedical Imaging, And Beyond, Lucas Allen Davis

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

As biochemical, pharmaceutical, and medical sciences advance, the demand for technologies capable of probing multiple cellular targets simultaneously continues to increase. Super-multiplexed spectroscopic techniques offer a pathway toward comprehensive cellular fingerprinting by overcoming the spectral limitations of conventional fluorescence labeling. By circumventing the traditional “color barrier,” cyanine-based Raman tags enable the simultaneous discrimination of numerous cellular morphologies, allowing spectroscopy and imaging to be integrated for high-dimensional cellular analysis. Technologies developed in Goda Lab—including high-throughput flow cytometry, virtual freezing fluorescence imaging (VIFFI), Fourier-transform coherent anti-Stokes Raman spectroscopy (FT-CARS), and MERdot nanoparticles—address longstanding trade-offs between throughput, resolution, sensitivity, and multiplexing capacity. Central …

Shark Immunology And Its Biomedical Potential: Evolution, Innovation, And The Imperative Of Conservation, Reesha Bhagat

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This review aims to shed light on a significant ecological deficit and its implications for the future of science and medicine. Sharks possess a uniquely adaptive, cancer-resistant, and evolutionarily refined immune system with transformative biomedical potential, making their conservation a scientific and medical imperative. We are losing something medically irreplaceable, and we don’t even fully understand it yet. Shark conservation is a pressing scientific imperative because sharks are ecologically essential and represent an irreplaceable biomedical resource.

Bioshock: An Objectivist Counter Discourse On Ayn Rand’S Atlas Shrugged, Tucker M. Hurst

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The aim for this thesis is to discuss the themes and story structure of Bioshock with respect to Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged by deconstructing the relationship between both pieces of media as Bioshock representing a counter discourse to Rand’s objectivism. This will be done by examining both stories under a philosophical and economic lens to determine the main pillars of objectivism presented in Atlas Shrugged, then moving on to Bioshock’s dissection of these ideals when enforced on a secluded society. In doing so, not only is a better understanding of Rand’s philosophy obtained by presenting a form of case study …

Improving Fairness On Semantic Segmentation Using Large Language Models, Samuel E. Burggraf

Electrical & Computer Engineering Projects for D. Eng. Degree

As machine learning systems are increasingly integrated into critical decision-making processes, ensuring fairness in their design and implementation has become a significant concern. While fairness research has primarily focused on specific protected attributes, less attention has been given to spatial fairness, which can affect individuals at specific locations. If fairness is not addressed, models may systematically underperform in certain regions or across populations which can lead to unequal access to accurate predictions and potentially biased decision-making. Fairness considerations should extend across all machine learning applications to align with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) guidelines of fair and …

Assessing The Conservation Needs Of Native Texas Crayfish Species Through Distribution Analysis And Species Distribution Modeling, Elizabeth J. Croft

Biology Theses

Crayfish have essential roles in ecosystems because they are ecosystem engineers and keystone species. However, crayfish species are threatened by degradation and loss of habitats, introduction of invasive species, and high levels of endemism. Texas provides no legal protections for crayfish, despite its large number of species and endemics in the state. The overall goal of this study is to clarify the distributions of native Texas crayfish species using literature records, citizens science, and field sampling data, and highlight species in need of more conservation research. Occurrence records from all collected data were combined to visualize the distributions of species …

Enhanced Situational Awareness Of Solar Pv Plants For Near Real-Time Planning And Operation In Modern Power Systems, Michael A. Walters

All Theses

Solar photovoltaic (PV) plant development and utilization is increasing worldwide but remains intrinsically challenged by its large dependence on highly variable weather conditions and operating states. This paper presents a framework to leverage three new situational awareness indices (SAIs), namely: weather condition index (WCI) to gauge operational performance based on environmental states, operational complexity index (OCI) to indicate the severity of power generation reductions, and photovoltaic generation index (PVGI) to provide a final determination of the impact on power generation and to bolster situational awareness in planning and operational contexts for solar PV plants. This is accomplished by exploiting the …

Harness: Hybrid Architecture For Resilience In Networked Engineering System Simulations, Daniel Scott

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents the development of HARNESS, a unified, domain-agnostic framework for the modeling, optimization, and evaluation of complex systems under conditions of degradation and uncertainty. The research addresses a persistent challenge in systems engineering: the lack of a generalizable, behaviorally grounded approach for quantifying resilience and robustness across diverse domains. HARNESS integrates graph-theoretic dependency modeling, GPU-accelerated evolutionary optimization, and agent-based simulation into a modular architecture that enables both system design and diagnostic analysis. The framework models system interdependencies through user-defined components, parameters, and constraints, allowing architectures to evolve dynamically while maintaining structural validity. A mutation-only genetic algorithm with a …

May 1, 2026 Ereporter, University Of Alabama At Birmingham

eReporter (campus newsletter)

No abstract provided.

An Energy- And Area- Efficient Two-Stage Latch Comparator Using Common-Mode Reset, Larry Yu

Electrical Engineering Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an energy-and-area-efficient two-stage comparator implemented in TSMC 65 nm CMOS that incorporates a Floating Inverter Amplifier (FIA) followed by a latch using a common-mode reset scheme. The FIA improves input sensitivity and reduces kickback noise by isolating the input nodes from large latch voltage swings. The proposed latch resets its output nodes to a common-mode voltage rather than one of its supply rails, thereby reducing switching energy during the reset phase. The comparator can resolve differential input voltages as small as 2 mV with a clock period of 500 ps, achieving 74.33 μV input-referred noise while consuming …

Softmax Expressiveness With Linear Complexity By Investigating The Linear-Softmax Attention Accuracy Gap, Gabriel Mongaras, Eric Larson

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Softmax attention Vaswani et al. [2017] Bahdanau et al. [2015] has gained traction as one of the most important parts of most modern machine learning models. Despite being the most adopted modern machine learning algorithm, exploration of softmax attention itself has been neglected. While softmax attention is a very powerful architectural component, it has a major drawback of being quadratic in sequence length. More specifically, softmax attention has quadratic complexity during training and linear complexity (when using a KV cache) during inference, which limits the sequence length it can model due to system memory constraints. Linear attention was proposed, (proposed …

Sense Of Belonging And Self-Efficacy Of Women In Stemm At The University Of South Alabama, Emilie Dedeaux

Honors Theses

Despite decades of calls and initiatives to diversify science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) disciplines, females are still more likely to leave STEMM career paths compared to their male peers, which is often depicted as a 'leaky pipeline'. Females in STEMM often report greater social alienation, greater selfdoubt, lower sense of belonging and academic satisfaction due to a mismatch in values in STEMM disciplines. STEMM values have traditionally been normed by cisheteronormative, white, male ideologies . While extensive research has focused on the barriers females experience in STEMM that reduce sense of belonging , less research has focused on …

Optimization Of The Baffle Geometry Of A Circular Culvert Outlet Structure To Maximize Energy Dissipation, Kiarash Shirmahi

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

High-velocity flow at culvert outlets can lead to significant soil erosion and damage to downstream infrastructure, particularly in agricultural regions where land protection is critical. Circular culverts, commonly used in transportation systems, are especially susceptible to this issue due to flow acceleration caused by geometric constraints and installation angles. Despite extensive research on energy dissipation in rectangular culverts, limited attention has been given to circular configurations. This study addresses this gap by evaluating the hydraulic performance of baffle systems designed to reduce outlet energy in circular culverts.

A series of laboratory experiments was conducted using a scaled physical model of …

Building Dental Workforce Pathways In A Rural State Without A Dental School, Rashid Ahmad, Shawnda Schroeder

Indigenous Health Posters and Presentations

In North Dakota, workforce shortages are shaped by geography, training pathways, and weak return incentives.

• Statewide Dental Health Professional Shortage Area designation
• No in-state dental school
• Workforce shortages function as a structural driver of inequity • Oral health disparities among children, low-income populations, and Indigenous communities

Immersive Visualization Of Cardiac Segmentation And Analysis, Brandon Norman

Theses and Dissertations

Coronary artery disease remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, making early detection and treatment critical to reducing mortality. While coronary angiography remains the gold standard procedure for diagnosing coronary artery disease, less invasive methods such as coronary computed tomography angiography and virtual fractional flow re-serve continue to improve. However, taking full advantage of volumetric coronary computed tomography angiography data requires extensive post-processing before the data can support geometric modeling, hemodynamic simulation, and analysis. Existing Open-Source Appli-cations provide powerful tools for these tasks, but their interaction models remain largely desktop based, restricting users to 2d manipulation and hindering …

Soil Moisture Regime Effects On Near-Surface Soil Chemical Properties In Alfisols Under Native Tallgrass Prairie In Arkansas, Sydney M. Talley

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Undergraduate Honors Theses

Tallgrass prairie ecosystems provide many crucial ecosystem services, including nutrient cycling and storage, organism habitat, and soil and water conservation. However, tallgrass prairies are considered an endangered ecosystem, particularly in the Ozark Highlands and Grand Prairie regions of Arkansas, where less than 0.05% of Arkansas’ original prairie land area remains. Understanding soil nutrient supplies over time in native tallgrass prairie ecosystems is critical for quantifying the success of restoration and rehabilitation activities. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of soil moisture regime (SMR) (i.e., aquic and udic), region (i.e., Ozark Highlands and Grand Prairie), and their …

Civilian Mass Killings Perpetrated By Nonstate Actors: Data Trends And Theoretical And Empirical Risk Factors, Charles H. Anderton, Roxane A. Anderton

Economics

This article addresses two research questions: (1) What are recent trends in nonstate actor (NSA) civilian mass killings by country locations and perpetrator groups? and (2) What are risk factors for NSA civilian mass killings based on economic choice theory and large-sample empirical inquiry? We summarize recent data on mass killings perpetrated by various NSAs including rebel groups; political, territorial, and identity militias; and terrorist organizations. Following a review of the empirical NSA mass killing literature, we develop an economic choice model of a NSA's resource allocations to direct (military) fighting and to violence against civilians when in contestation with …

Lateral Thinking In Large Language Models: Benchmarking And Fine-Tuning For Puzzle Solving And Generation, Ashish Khadka

Master's Theses

Recent progress in large language models has produced reasoning-oriented systems that allocate additional computation at inference time (e.g., deliberation, verification, and self-correction), raising the question of whether these gains can solve tasks requiring creative and lateral thinking. In this thesis, we study such capabilities using two popular word-association games—LinkedIn Pinpoint and New York Times (NYT) Connections—which require identifying non-obvious patterns or relationships. We first benchmark some light-weight open models and analyze their performance trends with respect to puzzle release dates and approximate model knowledge cutoffs to distinguish memorization effects from genuine inference. Our results show that accuracy of traditional embedding-based …

Evaluation Of The Effectiveness Of Antihypertensive Therapy Chosen Through Maternal Hemodynamic Profile Analysis, Margaret Weimer

Poster Presentations

In treatment of emergent hypertension, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommends both oral labetalol and nifedipine, with no preference shown between the two. These medications have different mechanisms of action. Studies have suggested that consideration of hemodynamic profile may be an effective way to determine medication, but have not considered the Rule of 55, a simple calculation to predict hemodynamic profile.

Goals: 1. Determine if tailoring the antihypertensive to patient’s hemodynamic profile is associated with better control of blood pressure. 2. Determine if the Rule of 55 is an accurate method to determine hemodynamic profile.

Transcriptomic Responses Of Teleost Fishes To Thermal And Environmental Stress: A Synthesis Of Rna-Seq Studies, Aleen Ammar

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Climate change is driving rapid shifts in aquatic ecosystems, increasing the frequency and intensity of environmental stressors that affect survival, species distributions, and productivity. Alongside increases in temperature, stressors, such as hypoxia and acidification, are also intensifying with climate change. Teleost fishes exhibit substantial variation in tolerance to such environmental stressors. These range from specialists with narrow limits to generalists capable of persisting across fluctuating conditions, complicating predictions of vulnerability under ongoing environmental change. Transcriptomic approaches, particularly RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), provide a powerful approach for linking environmental stressors to physiological responses by quantifying genome-wide changes in gene expression. To assess …

Phenological Shifts In Reproductive Timing Of Bay Scallops (Argopecten Irradians) In New Jersey Following Subspecies Replacement, Ross John Choate Jr.

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) are commercially, ecologically, and recreationally important bivalves that have undergone major shifts in New Jersey over the past 25 years, including the extirpation of the southern subspecies from New Jersey in 2001 and its replacement by the northern subspecies from Long Island by 2004. This transition altered reproductive timing, reflected in changes to the Gonadal–Somatic Index (GSI) as well as the timing of visual gonadal conditions exhibited during specific months. Early post-reestablishment data showed peak GSI in June and July, consistent with Long Island populations, but recent observations indicate a shift toward August and September peaks, …

Assessing Decadal Changes In Eelgrass Communities From Barnegat Bay, Nj, Janelle Marie Delcastillo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Zostera marina (eelgrass) is a widely distributed marine angiosperm across northern hemisphere coastlines, yet many regions have experienced substantial declines due to disease, coastal development, and other anthropogenic stressors. Barnegat Bay is the only estuary in New Jersey that still supports extensive eelgrass beds, although it has undergone notable losses over the past five decades. To evaluate decadal-scale ecological change, we collected sediment cores in 2025 from a site with historical data spanning 2001–2010. Overall faunal densities remained relatively consistent, but several taxa exhibited clear shifts in abundance. Amphipods in the Phoxocephalidae and the isopod Erichsonella increased, whereas the cold-affinity …

Historic Patterns Of Growth And Destruction In Nj Seagrass Meadows, Masen Eck

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Seagrass meadows are one of the many habitats worldwide under threat from human disturbance and worsening climate conditions. This habitat provides many critical ecosystem services to coastal environments, which is why conserving and restoring seagrass meadows is critical. This study investigates the long-term success and failures from several eelgrass restoration sites in Barnegat Bay, New Jersey. Aerial imagery from multiple years were digitized in ArcGIS to assess restoration trajectories over time. Three of the sites were assessed over a period of twelve years (2012-2023), and one site was assessed twice (2021 and 2023). Results from these time series analyses showed …

Shape Variation In The Mandible Of The Borophagine Canids And Implications For Predatory Behavior, Benjamin Neavear

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The borophagines are an extinct lineage of canids that inhabited North America for more than 20 million years. This group included genera such as Aelurodon, Borophagus, and Epicyon. Borophagines are commonly referred to as “bone-crushing dogs” because their skull morphology converged with that of extant hyenas, predators capable of consuming bone. The purpose of this study was to determine whether convergence was present in the mandible, an anatomical structure strongly correlated with feeding behavior, particularly in the genera Aelurodon and Borophagus. It was hypothesized that most borophagine taxa possessed mandibular shapes similar to those of hyenas. Numerous mandibular characters were …

The Tones And Frequencies Of A Glockenspiel, Edward Czudak

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this thesis, I will analyze the tones and frequencies of a glockenspiel based on the results of Warburton’s 1954 article, “The Vibration Of Rectangular Plates,” [12]. I will be measuring and modeling the frequencies of a glockenspiel and connect them with the analytical and expected numerical solutions. The solutions will be based on the plate equation along with the boundary conditions of a rectangle free on all edges. I will look at the high modes of vibration for the bars and their corresponding overtones in the acoustic spectrum.