Digital Commons Network^™

Rapid Incorporation But Contrasting Stability Of Fertilizer Versus Litter Nitrogen In Mineral-Associated Organic Matter, Emma Bergh

Master's Theses and Capstones

Nitrogen (N) is abundant in agricultural soils during early spring due to both decomposing plant residues and initial fertilizer applications before peak crop uptake. This N is vulnerable to loss through leaching and denitrification, but a portion of this N can become stabilized in mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM). However, the short-term incorporation and long-term stability of different N sources within MAOM remain poorly understood. This study examined how fertilizer and litter derived N are incorporated and stabilized in MAOM using a three-week incubation experiment with 15N labeled fertilizer, rye root, and rye shoot additions to paired cropland and grassland soils. …

Potential Predictors Of Nonconductive Wood Column Volumes In Five Maple Species, Tanner Ryan Frost

Master's Theses and Capstones

Maple tapping guidelines rely on the understanding of nonconductive wood column (NWC) formation, but this process has only been studied in sugar maple and may be ineffective at advising producers in their tapping activities due to the variation in wounding between sites and the lack of research into alternative species more recently being brought to market. The goal of this study was to investigate sap sugar concentrations and sap yields as predictors of nonconductive wood column (NWC) volumes in five Acer species: sugar maple (Acer saccharum), red maple (Acer rubrum), silver maple (Acer saccharinum), Norway maple (Acer platanoides), and boxelder …

Weaponized Deepfakes: A Low-Resourced Attacker Threat Assessment, Joshua David Labelle

Master's Theses and Capstones

The democratization of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML) tools, combined with the short-form nature of modern media consumption, has created a ripe landscape for generating and weaponizing synthetic media. The availability of pre-trained, open-source generative models enables would-be attackers, who lack funding and enterprise-grade hardware, to conduct convincing information-based attacks that harm, manipulate, and deceive. This thesis aims to model this threat actor using an open-source deepfake generation pipeline that requires minimal computational resources and is capable of producing deepfakes in the audio, image, and video domains. This model is then used to identify, measure, and evaluate the capabilities …

Characterizing Sei Whale (Balaenoptera Borealis) Movement Patterns In The Gulf Of Maine, Emma Vergow

Master's Theses and Capstones

Sei whales are difficult to visually monitor due to their cryptic presence and lack of breaching. Passive acoustic monitoring has the potential to expand knowledge of sei whale movement ecology. The present study characterizes sei whale movement patterns related to migration dynamics in the Gulf of Maine. Five bottom-mounted Acoustic Long-Term Observatory landers, each equipped with a tetrahedral array of omni-directional hydrophones, were deployed throughout the Gulf of Maine as part of the Acoustic and Environmental Observation Network (AEON) in the Northwest Atlantic project. A combination of manual and automated detections was used to assess sei whale daily and seasonal …

Care Starts Before Entering The Clinic – A Holistic Approach To Assessing Primary Care Access At Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Cory E. Hauptman

All Theses

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center is the world’s largest military treatment facility and the primary provider of healthcare to the military, their families, and military retirees in the Washington DC area. The federal government is legally bound to provide access to primary healthcare services to Tricare enrollees within a 30-minute travel time of their residences. This time constraint has only been applied to the transit period from a patient’s residence to the base where the care is provided and has not accounted for the time it takes a patient to get to the clinic once they arrive at the …

The Effect Of Climate Change Disclosure Under Ifrs-S2 On The Going Concern Of Iraqi Listed Banks, Ahmed Jasim Abd Mohammed, Bushra Najem Al-Mashhadani

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

In recent years, increasing concerns regarding the implications of climate change and associated environmental risks on global financial stability have led both investors and stakeholders to demand more comprehensive disclosures on how economic entities impact the environment and climate. Also, the climate-related risks influence their operational sustainability and future cash flow generation. This study aims to investigate the effect of climate change disclosures according to IFRS-S2 on the going concern status of Iraqi listed banks. The research involves a sample of 30 banks listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange from 2018 to 2023. The study employed an analytical survey method …

Exploring The Role Of Transformation-Oriented Behavioral Accounting In Business Sustainability: A Qualitative Research, Nadia Dakhil Enad

Journal of Economics and Administrative Sciences

Behavioral accounting is an interdisciplinary approach that the substantially contributes to financial decision-making by providing analysis of behaviors and guides managers throughout the risks to help organizations achieve their goals. This study examines the impact of transformation-oriented behavioral accounting on business sustainability within Baghdad’s State Company for Textile and Leather. The study employed a qualitative approach and an interpretative phenomenological method. The statistical population consisted of the managers of the Baghdad Textile and Leather Company. From this population, 14 individuals with their knowledge of accounting and behaviorism were selected through purposive sampling. Sampling continued until data saturation was reached. The …

Investigating The Role Of Motivation On The Effectiveness Of Computerized Cognitive Training Among At-Risk Youth, Emely N. Lugo

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Student motivation plays a central role in academic success, influencing persistence, engagement, and performance across grade levels. Within situated expectancy-value theory (SEVT), motivation is shaped by students’ beliefs about their ability to succeed (expectancy), the importance or usefulness they assign to a task (value), the perceived effort or trade-offs involved (cost), and the situational context in which learning occurs. Although the link between motivation and academic performance is well known, there is limited research on how motivational factors, like those proposed by SEVT, influence the extent of cognitive gains from school-based cognitive interventions designed to improve abilities related to academic …

Not So Firmly Settled: How The Inconsistent Jurisprudence Of The Firm Resettlement Bar Serves As A Tool For Asylum Seeker Exclusion, Caroline V. Garrido

Fordham Law Review

The firm resettlement bar to asylum, designed to limit protections to those without refuge elsewhere, has become a source of inconsistency, confusion, and exclusion in U.S. asylum law. Circuit courts have adopted two different approaches for determining whether an asylum seeker has firmly resettled in a third country. Despite the Board of Immigration Appeals’ attempt to unify these approaches through the introduction of a burden-shifting framework, courts remain divided, and there is no clear guidance on what constitutes firm resettlement. This Note argues that this lack of guidance has led to inconsistent court holdings and interpretations that conflict with the …

Red, White-, And Blue-Collar Crime: Federal Sentencing Practices Among White-Collar And Blue-Collar Offenders, Henna Judge

Fordham Law Review

Under the current federal sentencing regime, district courts exercise immense amounts of discretion when sentencing. Though strict adherence to the U.S. Sentencing Commission Guidelines (the “Guidelines”) was once mandatory, courts must now use these Guidelines as an advisory starting point and make a series of fact-specific determinations when sentencing a defendant. Though judicial discretion in this realm aids in preventing undue reliance on Guidelines-range recommendations that can lack nuance, it also invites bias.

In recent years, scholars and courts alike have called attention to a potential disparity in the way blue-collar and white-collar offenders are sentenced. This Note examines relevant …

The Librarian Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, Maoria J. Kirker, David X. Lemmons

Communications in Information Literacy

Teaching self-efficacy is a critical factor in instructional success. Little research has been conducted on how academic librarians perceive their own teaching abilities. This study introduces and validates the Librarian Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale, a tool designed to measure self-efficacy beliefs among academic librarians engaged in information literacy instruction. By adapting established self-efficacy scales to the library instruction context, this study examines key factors influencing librarian teaching self-efficacy, including instructional strategies, lesson planning, and collaboration with faculty. Collective self-efficacy, which is perceptions of colleagues’ teaching confidence, is also examined. Statistical analysis indicates a reliable and valid scale which may benefit …

December 2025 News Releases, University Of Montana--Missoula. Office Of University Relations

University of Montana News Releases, 1928, 1956-present

No abstract provided.

Retrospectively Examining The Probability Of Acute Skin Failure Among Hospitalized Patients With Hospital-Acquired Pressure Injuries, Tori C. Hatch, Jeanine M. Salamone, Pierna F. Vaughner, Natalie Bermudez

Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Introduction: Acute skin failure (ASF) in hospitalized patients is a growing concern and a product of multisystem organ failure. Unlike hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs), ASF is not preventable despite prevention measures. The Skin Failure Clinical Indicator Scale (SFCIS) was recently developed to assess the probability of ASF. The purpose of this study was to retrospectively examine the probability of and factors associated with ASF in hospitalized individuals with HAPIs.

Methods: Data were collected from the electronic health records of in-patients with stage 3 or greater HAPIs over two years. Collection included demographics, comorbidities, COVID status, wound staging, injury location, SFCIS, …

Promoting Healthy Diet Adherence Using A Multisensory Approach For Post-Stroke Patients: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial, Stacey Myers, Yuki Asakura Strempek, Sarah Kaster, Clare Hall

Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Introduction: Evidence supports a healthy diet for secondary stroke prevention; however, programs to implement nutrition education remain inconsistent. This study assessed the feasibility and efficacy of using a multisensory approach called the “Hands-on Training” program (HOT) to improve healthy diet adherence among patients rehabilitating after stroke.

Methods: This pilot randomized controlled study was conducted at an inpatient rehabilitation facility. Stroke patients were randomly assigned to either an experimental group who received HOT or a control group who received conventional education. The HOT group received real-time meal choice coaching, a healthy meal preparation experience, and additional written education. The Mediterranean Eating …

Evaluating Perceptions Of Clinical Sports Pharmacists: Insights From An Orthopedic Clinic Survey, Brandon K. Welch, Sara Panella, Michael Swartzon, Eli Friedman, Samantha Cossin

Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Introduction: Athletes have unique pharmaceutical needs due to injury risk, supplement use, and anti-doping regulations. Despite this, pharmacists remain underutilized in sports medicine. This quality improvement project evaluated clinician and staff perceptions of clinical sports pharmacists at Baptist Health, a large healthcare system in South Florida.

Methods: A 12-question REDCap survey was distributed to 19 staff and clinicians— including physicians, athletic trainers, and medical assistants—across five Baptist Health Orthopedic and Sports Medicine clinics. Responses were measured using a Likert scale and analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis.

Results: The survey achieved a 100% response rate. Most participants had over …

Interactions Between Black, Brown, Blue And Green Carbon From Terrestrial To Marine Ecosystems: A Critical Review, Allison White, Richard Kline, Md. Saydur Rahman

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Black and brown carbon are byproducts of the incomplete combustion of biomass or fossil fuels. These light-absorbing aerosols influence climate by altering the radiative balance through the absorption and scattering of sunlight, exacerbating global climate change. Their subsequent deposition on terrestrial and marine environments affects surface albedo, snow and ice melt, and biogeochemical processes, leading to further environmental consequences. In contrast, green and blue carbon refer to carbon stored in terrestrial vegetation and marine ecosystems, respectively. These ecosystems play a crucial role in mitigating climate change by sequestering atmospheric carbon; however, they are increasingly threatened by climatic disturbances, anthropogenic activities, …

Leptinotarsa Texana Schaeffer And Gargaphia Arizonica Drake & Carvalho As Potential Biocontrol Agents For The Noxious Weed Solanum Elaeagnifolium Cav, Samikshya Subedi, Stephanie L. Kasper, Alexis Racelis, Greg Lefoe, Rupesh R. Kariyat

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Silverleaf nightshade (Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav.; SLN) is a perennial forb native to the southern United States, Mexico and South America that has become a serious agricultural weed across the world. Biological control has emerged as a significant alternative for the management of (SLN) due to the challenges and high costs associated with chemical and mechanical controls. In this study, we used a combination of field and laboratory studies to (1) explore the fundamental and realized host ranges of two North American insects, Leptinotarsa texana Schaeffer and Gargaphia arizonica Drake & Carvalho and (2) assess their suitability as potential biological …

Understanding Mental Health Crisis Response Through The Lens Of First Responders, Ella Gibson

Student Theses

Responses to mental health crises are becoming an increasingly contentious topic as cases of extreme police violence or fatality during a crisis are publicized in the media. Although first responders’ experiences with mental health crisis response have been explored in prior literature, there remains a lack of research that gathers data from multiple first responder roles and compares their experiences across groups. There is also a significant gap in research examining the perspectives of co-response teams. This study sought to gather qualitative data on the experiences of police officers, EMTs/paramedics, and co-response team members, and to explore their perceptions of …

Existence, Difference, And The Nigerian Woman: A Feminist Praxis Beyond Patriarchy, Hannah Yemisi Ajewole

Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the postcolonial condition of Nigerian woman through a critical philosophical engagement with feminist theory, focusing particularly on Simone de Beauvoir’s existentialism and Irigaray’s ethics of sexual difference. It interrogates the historical processes through which gender became the basis of hierarchy in the Nigerian society, arguing that colonial and patriarchal override precolonial forms of relationality—marked by dual-sex relationship and age-based hierarchies—into rigid, male-dominated structures of authority and representation. Drawing also on Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí’s critique of western gender epistemologies, the work contextualizes the Nigerian woman’s experience within a broader matrix of colonial imposition, cultural displacement, and epistemic violence. This …

Assessing The Impact Of Social Network On Cyber-Argumentation, Bhargav Krishna Thota

Dissertations

Argumentation is one of the basic activities people perform in our society. People often spend a lot of time arguing about social, cultural, economic, financial, political, and other issues. Existing cyber-argumentation platforms facilitate large-scale discussions among participants and play an important role in the analysis of collective opinions and collective decision-making. However, they do not provide social networking capabilities and are not designed to be used in social networking environments. Social networks in argumentation platforms can reveal the patterns, shifts, and true relationships between the users in a discourse that influence the collective decision-making process, outlier opinions and so on. …

Machine Learning-Aided Design Of High-Performance Aluminum Rotors For Enhanced Regenerative Braking Efficiency In Electric Vehicles, Sai Krishna Kancharla

Dissertations

This thesis investigates automotive brake system improvements through computational fluid dynamics (CFD), experimental testing, additive manufacturing, and machine learning techniques. The primary objective is to develop realistic simulations and eco-friendly brake materials for enhanced performance and sustainability. Initially, a CFD model was developed using ANSYS CFX to analyze brake rotor interactions with aluminum NASA alloy material supplied by the company. Preliminary tribological assessment on a Universal Mechanical Tester (UMT) confirmed the material suitability. Multiple rotor geometries provided were modeled and simulated under FMVSS 135 hot stop conditions. Friction performance was validated through scaled-down UMT tests using commercial brake pads and …

A Qualitative Study Of Health Priorities Of People With Dementia And Care Partners In Emergency Department And Hospital Care In A Public Safety-Net Setting, Anita Chary, Sumin Yoon, Victor Lara, Annika Bhananker, Michelle Suh, Kei Ouchi, Maura Kennedy, Aanand D Naik

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: Over half of the people with dementia visit the emergency department (ED) each year. Little is known about how people with dementia and their care partners conceptualize or communicate about health outcome goals or care preferences during acute care episodes.

Participants and setting: We conducted interviews with 14 Hispanic people with dementia and 19 care partners recruited from a public safety net hospital system in the southeastern United States. Participants were community-dwelling and had recently visited the ED.

Methods: We used a qualitative study design informed by phenomenology and guided by the patient priorities care (PPC) framework. Interviews elicited …

Crux: Exploring Imperialism And Resistance Through Role-Playing Games, Devon Gronka

Institute for the Humanities Master's Papers, Projects, and Capstones

This is a game about power. The game is a Role-Playing Game, or RPG. As with nearly all RPGs, the game presents the players with choices about how their characters will interact with each other and with the world around them, and these interactions are woven together to more or less form a plot. However, oftentimes in life there are no good choices available, and there is no win state outside of what we might determine for ourselves.

The game is a social experiment. While playing a game, a player takes in information in a very different manner than when …

Long-Term Sedimentation Rates And Patterns Of Alluvial Ridge Basins (Esteros) Of The Rio Grande Delta (Tx, United States Of America), Kynan Joseph Rutan

Theses and Dissertations

Little is known about the century-scale sedimentation rates and patterns of Alluvial Ridge basins within river deltas, especially in the Rio Grande Delta (RGD). To better constrain this, 22 cores were collected in the Bahia Grande Complex (BGC) and analyzed for grain size, organic content, age dates, and elemental composition.

Results show that grain size and sedimentation rates decrease from an artificial inlet to the basin interior, with elevated sedimentation in the south. Also, human activities, such as the construction of the Brownsville shipping channel in the 1930s, altered sedimentation dynamics in the basin by blocking natural inlets and leading …

Porous Triboelectric Nanogenerator For Load Sensing Of Total Knee Replacement, Elham Mahmoudi, Adam Garry Redgrift, Emre Salman, Milutin Stanacevic, Ryan Willing, Shahrzad Towfighian

Mechanical Engineering Faculty Scholarship

This study addresses the critical need for self-powered, durable pressure sensors in Total Knee Replacement (TKR) implants to enable the collection of post-operative information. The scope of this research encompasses the design, development, and testing of a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) integrated into an instrumented knee implant for energy harvesting and pressure sensing. The authors’ unique approach involves utilizing a porous silicone rubber as a dielectric material. This allows the TENG to withstand forces up to 2000 N and generate a maximum power output of 18 μW. Theoretical modeling combined with experimental validation provides deeper insight into the fundamental operating principles. …

Capsinoids, Non-Pungent Trpv1 Agonists, Induce A Mild Hypothermia That Provides Short- And Long-Term Neuroprotection After Ischemic Stroke, Alexander Andersohn, Alexander Andersohn

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has demonstrated neuroprotection in instances of cardiac arrest and neonatal hypoxia/ischemia but faces different challenges in application to stroke due to the activation of cold defense mechanisms in conscious patients. This dissertation examines the efficacy and specificity of capsinoids (a purified mixture of capsiate and dihydrocapsiate) to induce a sustained mild hypothermia in conscious mice that is neuroprotective after stroke. Capsinoids function as TRPV1 agonists. However, unlike capsaicin, capsinoids are vulnerable to esterase-mediated breakdown, thus significantly restricting their action to the site of delivery. We showed that capsinoids delivered intraperitoneally (IP) to mice induced a TRPV1-dependent drop …

Functional Analysis Of Ftsa-Mediated Recruitment Of Ftsk In Escherichia Coli, Abbigale Perkins

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Bacterial cytokinesis requires precise coordination between cytoplasmic and periplasmic components of the divisome to ensure that membrane constriction and chromosome segregation occur in synchrony. The actin-like protein FtsA plays a central role in this process by tethering FtsZ to the membrane and recruiting downstream division proteins. Despite its essential function, the mechanisms by which FtsA coordinates divisome activation and the recruitment of late-acting proteins remain incompletely defined. To address this, the role of FtsA in activating septal synthesis and recruiting the DNA translocase FtsK was examined using mutational analysis in Escherichia coli.

The FtsA^{M96E R153D} variant, which has …

Neural Dynamics Supporting Flexible Cognition, Meredith J. Mccarty

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Flexible cognition enables humans to adapt their behavior to changing circumstances by prioritizing relevant information and filtering out distractions. This process is thought to be supported by the integration of ongoing behavioral goals with incoming sensory information, but how this integration is realized in the human brain remains unclear. It is unknown how high-order sensory cortices can balance specialized processing with flexible integration of changing behavioral goals. In the following investigations, we use intracranial EEG (iEEG) recordings in humans to study the neural dynamics of flexible cognition during high-order sensory processing. First, we validated assumptions about the locality of iEEG …

Orthogonal Comparison Of Nuclear And Mitochondrial Clonal Architectures In Hematologic Malignancies, Nehali Shah

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a hematologic malignancy characterized by accumulation of mutations that disrupt hematopoietic differentiation and promote clonal expansion. Understanding how these mutations arise and evolve is essential for improving diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment stratification. Current methods are limited by either restricted genomic coverage (targeted panels) or low throughput and high cost (in single-cell whole genome sequencing, scWGS). An emerging alternative is the use of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations as clonal markers.

This study aims to determine whether mitochondrial-derived clonal architectures correlate with nuclear-derived clonal architectures in AML, thereby evaluating mtDNA as a scalable orthogonal tool for lineage …

Governing Complexity: A Comparative Assessment Of Four Governance Models With Applications To Climate Change Mitigation And Adaptation, J. B. Ruhl, Niko Soininen, Barbara Cosens, Lance Gunderson

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

Responses to ongoing global climate change include economy-wide mitigation efforts and large-scale societal adaptation that demand novel approaches to governance. An array of innovative governance models has been proposed since the late 1900s and early 2000s as scholars observed inadequacies of government-centric and formal legal approaches to natural resource management, complexity and uncertainty, failures of neoliberal economic reforms, and cross-scale institutional arrangements. Four such models have come to dominate the solution-oriented discourse on climate change governance: adaptive governance, transition governance, transformation governance, and anticipatory governance. We compare these models in terms of their origin and applicability to deal with the …