Digital Commons Network^™

Design, Simulation, And Experimentation Of A Box Barge Model Under Asymmetrical Conditions, Kylie Sink

Senior Honors Theses

This study investigates the ability of numerical simulations to predict vessel motion responses under asymmetrical loading conditions. A raked barge model was designed, constructed, and tested in a towing tank to evaluate the response amplitude operators (RAOs) for heave, roll, and pitch under various wave conditions. The model included six internal compartments that allowed different flooding scenarios to be simulated in order to create asymmetric loading conditions. Experimental testing was conducted under head seas (0 degrees) and beam seas (90 degrees) with multiple wave periods.

A numerical model of the vessel was developed using GHS to generate predicted RAOs for …

Experimentation To Study Ship Motions Under Asymmetrical Conditions, Elise Simon

Senior Honors Theses

The pioneers of ship motion analysis often used the symmetry assumption to reduce computation time and complexity. For the symmetry assumption to be valid, a ship must be upright with no heel angle, which is rarely the case. An increased interest in damaged ships has motivated further analysis of ship motions in the asymmetric condition; however, only a limited number of physical experiments have been conducted in towing tanks. This paper presents an experiment carried out to analyze vessel motions in the asymmetric condition for a box barge model. The method includes model construction, experiment setup, the test matrix, and …

Together In Sync: Assessing Prosocial Behavior With A Full-Body Interactive Mixed Reality Experience, Sena Beste Ercan, Belen Gonzalez, Olga Gali, Gray Atherton, Liam Cross, Narcis Pares

School of Psychology

This study investigates how interpersonal synchrony (IPS) in full-body interactive Mixed Reality (MR) environments can shape children's prosocial behavior. We introduce DragonIce 2.0, a two-part MR game designed to induce synchronous or asynchronous group activity and assess their impact on prosocial behavior. To examine changes in affiliation (team belonging and peer liking) and collaboration (overt joint actions), we conducted a comparative study with children aged 9–10, using both system logs and self-report measures. The results highlight the importance of context, task structure, and perceived coordination in shaping social outcomes, offering insights into how interaction dynamics shape social engagement in immersive …

Best Practice: Ct-Guided Adaptive Radiotherapy Reference Planning On The Ethos Platform, Xenia Ray, Joseph Harms, Alex Price, Mu-Han Lin, Dennis N Stanley

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Online adaptive radiotherapy (ART) enables treatment plan modifications based on the patient's anatomy at each fraction, addressing limitations of conventional radiotherapy that relies on a static pre-treatment plan. CT-guided ART (CTgART), as implemented on the Varian Ethos platform, has gained increased clinical adoption over the past several years; however, its success is highly dependent on reference plan design due to limited on-table planning flexibility. As a result, clinicians creating and reviewing reference plans will greatly benefit from both understanding how upstream planning decisions affect the downstream adaptive process and proactively incorporating strategies that improve optimization robustness and efficiency on-treatment. We …

Unified Deep Learning Techniques For Spatial Detection And Temporal Forecasting Across Visual Domains, John Olawale Olamofe

All Dissertations

This dissertation proposed a unified deep learning framework for spatial detection and temporal forecasting across visual domains, designed to address limited supervision, class imbalance, and scale variability. The framework was structured around four complementary principles: Domain-Aware Input Rebalancing, Representation-Centric Learning, Diversity-Driven Robustness, and Transfer Across Scale and Modality, which together enabled robust visual representation learning across heterogeneous data sources.

Domain-Aware Input Rebalancing mitigates non-uniform and sparse data distributions by actively reshaping inputs before learning via class-aware augmentation, sampling, resolution manipulation, and super-resolution. This principle underpins object detection in overhead satellite imagery (xView), dense urban aerial scenes (CADOT), temporally sparse NDVI …

Hydrologic Harmonies: Weaving Water Corridors Into Fargo's Park, Trail, And Open Space Network, Isaac Janssen

Landscape Architecture Theses

This thesis investigates how Fargo’s river corridors can be redesigned as connected, multi-functional public landscapes that strengthen community access, expand recreational opportunities, and support nature-based education. Although the Wild Rice and Red Rivers shape the city’s identity, decades of flood-control infrastructure and fragmented access have limited the public’s relationship with these waterways. As Fargo continues to grow and adapt to changing hydrologic conditions, the need for resilient, accessible, and educational riverfront spaces has become increasingly urgent.

Using a mixed-method approach that integrates literature review, precedent analysis, GIS-based site assessment, and iterative design exploration, this project develops a framework for reconnecting …

The Green Spine: Reimagining The Central Campus Of North Dakota State University Through Social Green Spaces And Pedestrian Connections, Lydia Ham

Landscape Architecture Theses

This thesis studies how landscape architecture can reimagine university campuses as connected, flexible, and functional environments that enhance how people will interact with the outdoor environment. Focusing on North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota, the project focuses on adding green space where there are currently underutilized open spaces. Key principles of successful campus landscapes focus on including well defined circulation systems, spatial variety, and multifunctional use. Where research has developed three focus zones including Bison Green, Prairie Common, and Herd Crossing to show how integrated landscape systems can support movement, learning, and recreation while still maintaining an overall …

Temporality Waters: Connecting People To The Brays Bayou Through Memory, Culture, And Identity Experiences In Houston, Texas, Khulda Aamir Obaid

Landscape Architecture Theses

Communities across Texas face increasing hydrological pressures from natural climate variability, changing precipitation patterns, and rapid urban growth. Although directly attributing extreme precipitation events to anthropogenic climate change is complicated by internal variability and observational limitations (de Vries et al., 2023; Griffin et al., 2024; IPCC, 2021; National Academies, 2016), cities such as Houston are preparing for more frequent and intense storms. Historical floods—including Tropical Storm Allison, the Memorial Day and Tax Day floods, and Hurricane Harvey—have exposed the limits of Houston’s predominantly hard-infrastructure flood management. The Brays Bayou watershed, particularly the Meyerland neighborhood, shows heightened vulnerability, where impervious surfaces, …

Prediabetes Prediction Before Disease Onset Using Multimodal Health Data: A Machine Learning Approach, Luisa Veronica Gracia Mazuca

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Prediabetes is a critical health condition that increases the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) test diagnoses patients with prediabetes, but the disease has already caused metabolic alterations. Early detection is essential for timely interventions, and machine learning models offer a promising approach to identify prediabetic individuals through the analysis of biomarkers such as cytokines. We compared four classifiers-logistic regression, decision tree, random forest, and k-nearest neighbors - using cytokines (TNF-α, MCP-1, IL-1β, IL-6, IFN-γ), age, BMI, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Models were evaluated using stratified 5-fold cross-validation and ROC-AUC. K-Nearest Neighbors (k-NN) achieved the highest …

Provenance Analysis Of Advanced Persistent Threats In Operational Technology Environments, Laura Aminta Guevara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Live vulnerability testing and penetration assessments of critical infrastructure are costly, complex operationally and, in many cases, unsafe to conduct directly against live systems, whether these are commissioned in-house and through third-party providers. For Operational Technology environments specifically, these constraints are further aggravated by the limited vendor support and inconsistent security patching available that characterize many industrial communication protocols. This significantly restricts the scope and feasibility of conventional penetration testing. At the same time, the increasing overlapping of OT systems with enterprise networks and the internet has expanded the attack surface of ICS infrastructure, making more pressing the need for …

Ai-Based Framework For Elucidating The Ring Opening Energy Of Cycloalkanes, Evan Griffin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Cycloalkanes are a prominent component of jet fuels due to their high volumetric energy density and lower soot yield compared to aromatics. However, the structural nuance of cycloalkanes can make predicting their combustion kinetics challenging. The present study aims to develop a quantitative structure-property relationship of the ring opening energy (ROE) of cycloalkanes. A total of 253 cycloalkanes were curated from the ZINC15 database, ranging from monocycloalkanes to tetra-cycloalkanes. The 3-D cartesian coordinates of the closed shell and open shell diradical states for all curated cycloalkanes was generated with RDKit in Python and used MMFF94 to optimize the molecular geometries. …

Numerical Methods For Modeling Darcy-Forchheimer Flow In Heterogeneous Porous Media, Nate Mcnair

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Classic approaches to modeling fluid flow in porous media rely on Darcy's Law, which assumes a linear relationship between volumetric flow rate and the pressure gradient. However, in recent years, applications such as enhanced geothermal systems have highlighted the need to model nonlinear flow behavior, since experimental and observational data show that, once flow velocity exceeds a certain threshold, the relationship between velocity and macroscopic pressure gradient becomes nonlinear. This requires alternative models that more accurately capture the physical behavior of these systems.The Darcy-Forchheimer model provides one such alternative by introducing a nonlinear velocity-pressure relationship. However, this nonlinearity creates additional …

Design And Optimization Of Peptide Inhibitors Targeting Kinesin: Molecular Modeling Studies And Virtual Screening For Therapeutic Candidate Development, Maraf Mbah Bake

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Kinesins are ATP-driven molecular motors essential for intracellular transport and mitotic spindle assembly, and their mechanochemical behavior has been extensively characterized through computational tools. The first project reviews decades of advances in molecular dynamic simulations, including all-atom and coarse-grained molecular dynamics, Markov state models, Brownian dynamics, and free-energy approaches, which have collectively deepened our understanding of conformational transitions, microtubule-binding interfaces, and ligand interactions, especially for the mitotic motor Eg5. The second review examines the rapid emergence of quantum computing as a transformative technology for drug discovery, highlighting key historical milestones, recent progress in hybrid quantum-classical algorithms, quantum-enhanced docking, and quantum …

Process Optimization Of Directed Energy Deposition Via Dmaic Methodology And Lean Manufacturing Principles, Erick Gerardo Molina Castaneda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive Manufacturing (AM), particularly Direct Energy Deposition (DED), has gained increasing relevance in industrial and research environments due to its capability to manufacture complex geometries and repair high-value components. However, despite its technological advantages, DED processes often lack standardization, clear documentation, and structured workflows, especially in academic laboratories. This research aims to optimize and standardize DED processes through the application of Lean Manufacturing principles using the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) methodology. The study was conducted at the Keck Center for 3D Innovation, focusing on pre-printing and printing activities. Key issues were identified. Improvement actions included the implementation of …

Best Linear Unbiased Prediction Based On Optimally Selected Order Statistics Using Compound Design, Foster Nkansah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Any life-testing experiments with censoring generate ordered failure data, which are used to estimate model parameters of the underlying lifetime distribution. However, predicting unobserved failure times is an important goal post inference. Balakrishnan and Bhattacharya [2021] showed that joint best linear unbiased predictors (BLUPs) are more efficient than their marginal counterparts. In this thesis, we introduce a compound optimal design to compute joint BLUPs based on a suitably chosen subset of the observed data. It is shown that the linear predictors of the parameters from any location-scale distribution, based on a few optimally chosen ranks, obtained from the compound optimal …

Novel Roles Of G-Beta-Gamma Signaling In Microtubule Dynamics And Neurodegeneration, Diana I. Olivas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Neurodegenerative disorders (NDDs), including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by progressive neuronal dysfunction, cytoskeletal disruption, and cognitive decline. Although Tau hyperphosphorylation and neurofibrillary tangle (NFT) formation are classical hallmarks of AD, emerging evidence suggests that microtubule (MT) dysfunction may precede and occur independently of Tau pathology. Understanding upstream regulators of MT dynamics is therefore critical for elucidating early mechanisms of neurodegeneration. Previous work from our laboratory demonstrated that G protein βγ (Gβγ) subunits directly interact with tubulin and promote MT assembly. However, the mechanism of Gβγ signaling in neuronal cytoskeletal stability and neurodegeneration remained poorly understood. The present study investigated …

Katie In-Between, Savannah Rae Sarabia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Katie In-Between is a contemporary young-adult fiction piece that follows the protagonist Katie as she learns about and reclaims her cultural identity. In her process, she learns the importance of embracing her identity, which refutes biases and ideals about who is and who is not part of her community. This story draws on personal experience navigating cultural identity and confronting histories and events that suppress that minority community's expression in American society. Through narration, poetry, and journal entries, readers are exposed to the confrontation of languages and histories to support ideas such as Gloria Anzaldúa's concept of nepantla, which refutes …

Daughters Of The Road, Kristen Marie Sche

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The beloved Road Novel has long been a tale submerged in the coming-of-age story following men as they search for themselves along the American highways. The genre can vary from journeys of families seeking refuge or tackling a task to men seeking answers to something missing in their lives. However eclectic the genre, it lacks in the pilgrimage of girls finding what the road can bring to them in a literary fictional context. This thesis provides a novel written in the popular genre while exploring themes of sisterhood, grief, and inclusion through the context of a hybrid form of narration …

Mitigating Clay Contamination In Field Sands To Prevent Early Age Failure In Asphalt Mixtures, Suhail Rashid Vaid

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Field sands are commonly incorporated into hot mix asphalt (HMA) pavements due to their availability and cost-effectiveness compared to crushed aggregates, primarily to enhance workability. Their usage, however, is generally restricted to no more than 10% of the total aggregate content because of concerns regarding their potential negative influence on pavement performance. A major concern is the presence of deleterious clay particles, which can substantially affect the behavior of asphalt concrete (AC). This research explored how clay minerals influence AC performance by examining Superpave mixtures and characterizing both clay and sand properties. The methylene blue value (MBV) was employed to …

Penalty Approach To Constrained Optimization Problems In Water Reservoir And Energy Generation Management, Edwin Horacio Trejo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The growing demand for resilient and sustainable energy generation has driven interest in Hybrid Floating Photovoltaic-Hydropower (HFPVH) systems. Operating these systems effectively requires making water release decisions that satisfy physical and regulatory constraints while maximizing energy production. Prior work by Vega (2024) developed a Dynamic Outlier Filter Long Short-Term Memory (DOF-LSTM) architecture for forecasting reservoir release patterns. That predictive work is valid and addresses an important component of the HFPVH decision pipeline. However, the constraint system in that work operates externally to the learning process, and the behavior of penalty-based constraint enforcement had not been studied independently in this context. …

Bridging Leadership: An Autoethnographic Inquiry Into The Governance And Decision-Making Experience Of A Latina Rural School Superintendent, Rosa Isela Vega-Barrio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This autoethnographic study, Bridging Leadership: An Autoethnographic Inquiry into the Governance and Decision-Making Experience of a Latina Rural School Superintendent, examines how governance and leadership are experienced and enacted through the sustained relationship between a superintendent and a school board president in a rural border district along the U.S.-Mexico border, the study explores how power, trust, reciprocity, role expectations, and ethical tension evolve within this leadership partnership over time. Grounded in Relational Leadership Theory, Social Exchange Theory, and Role Theory, the study conceptualizes leadership as a relational and contextually embedded process rather than a function of positional authority. Using autoethnography …

Molecular Mechanisms Of Pfas Induced Protein Dysfunction: Implications For Neurodegenerative Risk, Daisy Lee Wilson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are persistent environmental contaminants with widespread human exposure and well-established links to adverse health outcomes. However, despite increasing epidemiological and experimental evidence, the molecular mechanisms underlying PFAS-induced neurotoxicity remain incompletely defined. This dissertation investigates PFAS toxicity across biological scales, integrating protein biophysics with neuronal cell models to elucidate pathways relevant to neurodegeneration. At the molecular level, we demonstrate that PFAS disrupts the structure and function of globular proteins, including the impairment of α-lactalbumin's calcium-binding capacity and of β-lactoglobulin's retinol binding, through concentration-dependent conformational destabilization. By applying these findings to a neuronal model, we show that …

Comparative Case Studies Of How General Chemistry Ii Students Explain Entropically-Driven Phenomena, Raymundo Aragonez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Understanding how students conceptualize entropy remains a central challenge in chemistry education. Often referred to as a "driving force" of chemical reactions, the dispersal of energy as a process proceeds is indicative of a process's spontaneity or thermodynamic favorability. Students frequently default to discussing phenomena in deterministic terms, potentially reflecting the language choice and heuristics selected by the instructor such as "disorder". In this study, assessment prompts about entropy from a convenience sample of general chemistry textbooks were characterized as to their potential to elicit three-dimensional learning, and students' responses to assessment prompts from a curriculum aligned with three-dimensional learning …

Automated Arctic Coastal Boundary Extraction From Multispectral Satellite Imagery, Harshavardhini Bagavathyraj

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Arctic coastlines are changing rapidly as permafrost thaw and coastal erosion accelerate under a warming climate, creating a need for accurate and scalable methods to monitor landscape change. Two geomorphically important indicators of this change are the shoreline, which represents the land--water boundary, and the bluff edge, which marks the transition from vegetated tundra to the coastal slope or cliff. However, delineating these features from high-resolution imagery remains challenging because Arctic scenes are spatially extensive and visually complex. In this study, we address these challenges by developing deep learning methods for automated shoreline and bluff-edge extraction from high-resolution satellite imagery …

Effective Prediction Of Martensite Start Temperature By Hybrid Machine Learning And Ethical A.I. In Materials Science, Agniprava Banerjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The martensite start temperature Ms governs heat treatment design and mechanical property development in martensitic steel alloys. Accurate prediction of Ms from chemical composition alone would accelerate alloy development, yet existing empirical equations lack accuracy for multi-component steels and purely data-driven models provide no physically principled behavior outside their training domain. This dissertation develops a hybrid machine learning-physics framework for predicting Ms in steel alloys from composition. The MAP Cambridge dataset (1,020 cleaned records, 15 alloying elements) is processed through a five-stage cleaning pipeline and a 21-feature physics augmented representation, including the Ghosh-Olson Ms thermodynamic prediction as an explicit feature. …

Blood, Steel, And Stone, Jennifer Camplair Hassell

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This thesis, Blood, Stone, and Steel, explores the intergenerational impact of trauma, memory, and history through a unique blend of poetry, photography, and personal family narratives. Drawing on archival materials, family photographs, and the tradition of documentary poetry, the work investigates how the legacy of war and immigration shapes identity across generations. Inspired by Marianne Hirsch's concept of postmemory, the author examines inherited memories and their affective transmission, focusing on the experiences of her great-grandfather - a German immigrant and WWI veteran - and the subsequent effects on her family. The narrative is structured in three parts: BLOOD, reflecting loss …

Computational Studies Of Dna-Wrapped Carbon Nanotubes: From Enantioselective Dna Binding To Molecular Recognition Of Small-Molecule Analytes, Sayantani Chakraborty

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) exhibit chirality-dependent optoelectronic properties and near-infrared fluorescence that make them promising platforms for biosensing. When functionalized with single-stranded DNA (ssDNA), SWCNTs form conjugates capable of selective molecular recognition. However, the molecular mechanisms governing chirality recognition and analyte-induced optical modulation remain incompletely understood. This dissertation investigates these mechanisms through an integrated computational approach combining molecular dynamics simulations, enhanced sampling techniques, and machine learning. First, atomistic molecular dynamics (MD) and replica exchange MD simulations were used to investigate how short ssDNA sequences interact with enantiomers of (7,5) SWCNTs. Analyses of base stacking, nucleotide orientation, sugar-phosphate positioning, and contact …

Additive Manufacturing Of Spatially Variant Actuating Structures From Shape Memory Polymers., Katia Lizbeth Delgado Ramos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation studies the structure-processing-function relationships of additively manufactured shape memory polymer blends, with emphasis on mechanical anisotropy. Chemical exposure, thermally activated recovery, self-healing behavior, and 4D printed functional response. Two polyester-based blends were studied: a binary blend composed of polycaprolactone and thermoplastic polyurethane (PCL/TPU) blend, and a ternary blend composed of polycaprolactone/thermoplastic polyurethane/ polylactic acid (PCL/TPU/PLA) blend. The materials were melt-compounded using a twin-extruder to produce filament for fused filament fabrication (FFF). Specimens were fabricated using four different raster orientations, 0°,90°, 0/90°, and 45°, to investigate the influence of processing architecture and composition on the mechanical performance, recovery behavior, …

Hvsr-Based Resonance Analysis And Fault Zone Characterization In The El Paso Region, Alexandro Dominguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Horizontal to Vertical Spectral Ratio (HVSR) analysis offers an efficient method for characterizing near-surface structure, resolving sediment thickness, and identifying fault-controlled basin geometry in regions with strong impedance contrasts. This study applies HVSR techniques to continuous ambient-noise recordings collected across the El Paso region, a tectonically active segment of the southern Rio Grande Rift where accurate subsurface mapping is essential for seismic hazard assessment. Ambient-noise windows were processed, spectrally smoothed, and stacked to obtain stable HVSR curves, from which fundamental resonance frequencies and corresponding sediment-thickness estimates were derived. Spatial patterns in these resonance frequencies reveal pronounced basin asymmetry, abrupt lateral …

From Covid-19 To Influenza: Transforming Public Health Surveillance Through Freeze-Drying Innovations, Rui Dong

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Public health surveillance increasingly relies on wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a non-invasive, community-level early warning system for infectious diseases like COVID-19 and influenza. However, detecting minute viral concentrations in complex wastewater matrices remains a significant analytical challenge. Traditional concentrating methods, such as ultrafiltration, are limited by high performance variability and significant viral signal loss due to necessary pretreatment steps, such as pre-clarification, which inadvertently discard solid-associated viral fractions. To address these limitations, this dissertation introduces and evaluates freeze-drying as a novel, pretreatment-free concentrating method for wastewater viral surveillance. By sublimating water, freeze-drying uniquely retains both liquid and solid-phase viruses within …