Digital Commons Network^™

Assessment Of Truck Parking Demand And Safety During Normal And Severe Weather Conditions In Nebraska, Nathan Huynh, Li Zhao, Zhenghong Tang, Aida Riahifar, Jahangeer Jahangeer

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

This project examined truck parking capacity, demand, and utilization patterns along I-80 in Nebraska. The objectives were to (1) document the capacity of public and private truck parking facilities along I-80, (2) analyze spatial and temporal trends in parking demand, (3) develop models to predict occupancy at parking facilities, (4) identify clusters of undesignated parking during inclement weather, and (5) assess whether truck parking shortages contribute to truck-involved crashes. Within a one-mile buffer of I-80, 21 public facilities and 49 private facilities were identified. The spatiotemporal analysis of these public and private truck parking facilities using the National Agriculture Imagery …

The Divide Of Women’S Health: Systematic Thinking Of Women, Tasfia T. Howlader

Honors Theses

Women’s health has constantly been changing- from public health infrastructure to health policies, and even medical advancements. Yet, the struggles are persistent within the gaps present in women’s health. The Socio-Ecological Model (SEM) explains interactions between different levels of relationships, which result in health outcomes that vary from individual factors to environmental factors. Applying the SEM to describe health disparities can help explain how the relationships an individual has influenced their health. This project serves to exemplify these different levels while discussing the tailoring of services to the needs and the importance of populations based on their experiences. Specifically, adhering …

Faith That Lasts: How Local Churches Can Support Families In Passing On Their Faith To Their Children, Andrew Corbyn Thompson

Doctor of Ministry

NPO Statement

More than ever, children raised in Christian homes leave their faith by adulthood.

A major contributing factor to this tragic exodus is the North American ministry model that outsourced discipleship from the home to age-segregated church programs and professionals. This project responds to the urgent need to equip and empower parents in their foundational role as their children's first disciplers.

Key Benefit or Insights that Emerged from the Research Overall

The research for this project, grounded in biblical and theological foundations and sociological observation, highlights that lasting, authentic faith is fostered in a holistic home environment where parents, …

Humanising Language Teaching In The Age Of Ai, Anuchaya Montakantiwong, Napat Jitpaisarnwattana

PASAA

No abstract provided.

What Makes An Ideal English Teacher? Thai Secondary School Students’ Perceptions, Monthon Kanokpermpoon, Israporn Chuntharusmi Sanongpong

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Development Of A Sustainable Web Application For A Blended Learning Environment To Improve Standardized English Test Performance Of Undergraduates At King Mongkut’S University Of Technology North Bangkok, Rayong Campus, Kusuma Bangkom

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Epistemic Lexical Verbs As Hedging Devices And Their Semantic Prosodies In Applied Linguistics Abstracts In Thai International Journals, Soranut Kumdee

PASAA

No abstract provided.

Does A More Functionally Diverse Top Management Team Make The Financial Statements More Comparable?, Md Mahmudul Hasan, Audrey Wen-Hsin Hsu, Sayan Sarkar, Tsung-Hsuan Joey Yang

Accounting Faculty Publications

We examine whether top management team (TMT) functional diversity affects financial statement comparability. Drawing upon upper echelons theory and the information sharing perspective in diversity research, we argue that TMT functional diversity produces more comparable financial statements due to better information sharing and integration. Using a sample of US firms, we find that financial statement comparability is positively associated with TMT functional diversity. We also find that the positive relationship between TMT functional diversity and comparability is more pronounced in firms with a poor information environment. Our findings remain robust after addressing endogeneity concerns. This study contributes to the existing …

Intraosseous (Io) Analgesia Medication Administration In Orthopaedic Surgery: A Brief Review, Jenna Chrabolowski, Troy B. Puga, Abanoub Attallahm, Mckenna W. Box, John T. Riehl

North Texas GME Research Forum 2026

Introduction

Intraosseous (IO) analgesia is a novel strategy for pain control in orthopaedic surgery. This brief review aims to provide an overview of IO analgesia in orthopaedic surgery.

Methods

A search was conducted across seven databases. Titles and abstracts were screened followed by full-text review for inclusion criteria. Demographics and results were extracted from included articles.

Results

Ten studies met inclusion criteria and involved patients undergoing knee surgery and spinal surgery. IO lidocaine was shown to be effective for postoperative and intraprocedural pain control during vertebroplasty and kyphoplasty. IO morphine and IO NSAIDs were shown to be effective in reducing …

An Examination Of Remittance Inflow Variation In Net-Emigration Countries, Andrew Rizko

CMC Senior Theses

This paper examines the structural and institutional determinants of remittance inflows in a panel of 40 net-emigration countries from 2000 to 2024. By restricting the sample to countries with negative average net migration, the analysis holds migration pressure constant and isolates the role of domestic conditions in explaining cross-country variation in remittance dependence. Using fixed effects and correlated random effects (Mundlak) estimators, I find that labor force participation is the most robust within-country determinant: a one percentage point increase is associated with approximately a 2.3 percent decline in remittance inflows, consistent with remittances functioning as a structural need in contexts …

Forecasting The Unpredictable: The Bullwhip Effect In The Toy Industry, Mannat Sethi

CMC Senior Theses

This thesis investigates the bullwhip effect, the amplification of demand variability as it moves upstream in a supply chain, with a focus on the toy industry, and comparative analysis with the technology and consumer goods sectors. Using annual data from 1993 to 2024, the study analyzes production and retail growth for Mattel, Hasbro, Intel, and Procter & Gamble to assess how variance between consumer demand and firm output has changed over time. Bullwhip ratios are calculated as the variance of production growth divided by the variance of retail growth across two periods: 1993–2008 and 2009–2024.

The findings show that toy …

Federated Data Engineering And Learning For Edge Intelligence Systems, Afsaneh Mahanipour

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

The rapid proliferation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and cyber–physical systems (CPS) in domains such as smart healthcare, intelligent transportation, and industrial automation has led to unprecedented volumes of heterogeneous data. While advances in deep learning and large-scale foundation models have enabled powerful data-driven decision making, their deployment in real-world distributed environments remains fundamentally constrained by limited computation, communication bandwidth, energy resources, and data privacy requirements. This dissertation addresses these challenges by developing novel federated learning frameworks and efficient federated data-processing pipelines that make large-scale artificial intelligence practical, scalable, and trustworthy in resource-constrained settings. This dissertation identifies data preprocessing …

Multi-Objective Optimization Of Energy Costs And Ev Battery Health In V2g Enabled Homes, Dzifa M. Hodey

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Electric vehicles (EVs) and rooftop solar photovoltaic (PV) systems are increasingly being integrated into residential settings, creating new opportunities for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) and vehicle-to-home (V2H) operations. In these systems, the EV battery functions as a controllable energy storage unit that can charge from the grid or PV and discharge energy to supply household load or export to the grid for a profit. By intelligently scheduling this bidirectional power exchange, households can reduce electricity costs and enhance PV utilization. Realizing these benefits requires optimization strategies that balance cost reduction with EV battery health preservation. However, existing V2G/V2H studies largely emphasize cost …

Toward Efficient And Scalable Scientific Data Management Through Quality-Oriented Data Compression, Pu Jiao

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Scientific simulations and instruments now produce data at rates that overwhelm the storage, memory, and network subsystems of modern high-performance computing (HPC) facilities. Error-bounded lossy compression reduces data movement costs while bounding reconstruction error, yet three barriers limit its adoption in mission-critical workflows: existing compressors cannot guarantee the accuracy of domain-specific quantities of interest (QoIs) derived from compressed data; compression-induced artifacts such as posterization, blocking, and interpolation banding erode user confidence in decompressed fields; and significant compressibility in the quantization index arrays of interpolation-based pipelines remains unexploited. This dissertation addresses all three barriers through four contributions, with the artifact barrier …

Advancing Task-Oriented Dialog Systems: Scalability, Generalization, And Evaluation, Adib Mosharrof

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Task-oriented dialog (TOD) systems enable conversational interfaces for complex tasks like flight booking and restaurant reservations. However, deploying TOD systems at scale faces three critical barriers: scalability, generalization, and evaluation. Scalability is primarily restricted by the human-annotation bottleneck, as current systems depend on vast quantities of manually labeled data for every new domain, making deployment prohibitively expensive. Generalization remains a persistent challenge, as systems optimized for known domains often suffer significant performance degradation when encountering new, unseen ones. Existing evaluation metrics measure response quality and fluency, but fail to measure functional task success. As TOD systems are deployed across diverse …

Advancing Generative Methods For Multimodal Data Analysis, Rabeya Tus Sadia

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

The integration and modeling of high-dimensional, heterogeneous biological data remain central challenges in computational biology due to complex feature dependencies and pervasive missingness. This dissertation addresses these challenges by developing novel generative frameworks for multimodal data reconstruction, imputation, and interaction prediction. In generative modeling, we focus on capturing structural and causal dependencies in sparse biological systems. We first introduce CausalGeD, a causality-aware diffusion framework that leverages Granger-causal attention for biologically coherent spatial gene expression generation. Next, we propose CausalGenDiff, which combines VAE-guided latent representations with causal diffusion to enable robust reconstruction across spatial and single-cell modalities. We further present DepMicroDiff, …

Analysis Of Surrogate Models At Multiple Levels For Neural Acceleration Of Hpc Applications, Bibek Panthi

Theses

Due to rise of machine learning workloads, high performance computing platforms have increased GPU resources. Consequently, use of surrogate models, to utilize GPU compute and speedup scientific applications, is on the rise. Most of the time, the whole program is replaced with a surrogate model. In this work a shock simulation program (LULESH) was taken and three functions of varying complexity were replaced with small sized neural network as surrogate models. The speedup and error in output of whole program was analyzed. We found that for the smallest function, trained model lead to speedup of overall program by 40%, maintained …

Effects Of Gum Additives On Nickel Electroplating For Enhancing Steel Corrosion Resistance, Supitcha Supansomboon, Manatsawee Maneekan, Chanyanut Saenthaweesuk, Duangta Sitthichokcharoen, Natthapong Phinichka

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Low-carbon steels are widely used across various industries but have limited corrosion resistance, leading to safety hazards and a shortened service life. Nickel plating is a common method for enhancing steel corrosion resistance. The plating bath solution can be modified by adding additives to improve the properties of the coating. In this research, gum arabic, guar gum and gelatin were used as additives in a nickel electroplating bath. SS400 low-carbon steel, as a substrate, was plated with nickel from these different baths at 5 V for 25 min. Nickel coated with green additives showed higher hardness compared to those without …

Synergy Of Ground Granulated Blast-Furnace Slag And Limestone Powder In Ternary Cement: Effects On Heat Of Hydration And Strength Development, Pailyn Thongsanitgarn, Watcharapong Wongkeo, Thanongsak Nochaiya, Arnon Chaipanich

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study explores the synergistic effect of ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) and limestone powder (LS) on the hydration behavior and mechanical performance of ternary cement systems. Calorimetry revealed that 30GGBS mix showed a significantly lower peak of about 2.3 mW∙g‒1 and a delayed response. In contrast, the incorporation of LS enhanced early hydration, with the 30LS mix reaching a peak of approximately 2.8 mW∙g‒1 around 6 h. Among ternary blends, 15GGBS–15LS exhibited the highest and earliest heat flow peak (about 2.55 mW∙g‒1 around 7.5 h), while 25GGBS–5LS showed a slower response (about 2.45 mW∙g‒1 around 9.5 h). Despite differences …

Degradation Of Wastewater By Advanced Oxidation Processes Using Green Synthesised Cuo Nanoparticles, Srinivasan Vishal, Anand Sarvesvaron, Muralidharan Keerthana, Hemanth Sanjay Reddy, A Babu Ponnusami

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study highlights the green synthesis of CuO nanoparticles using coconut coir extract and evaluates their photocatalytic performance in the degradation of the Brown G dye. The CuO nano-particles were synthesised through sol-gel method, and the biomolecules like polyphenols, tannins and flavonoids acted as reducing agents to stabilise the nanoparticles. The characterisation of these nanoparticles was carried out through XRD, FTIR and FESEM methods. The nanoparticles were used to degrade the dye Brown G under UV irradiation.  Response surface methodology was used to optimise the operating parameter with Box-Behnken design, which is the most suitable for varying 3 or more …

Dual-Functional Activated Carbon From Coffee Grounds For Crystal Violet Dye Removal And Subsequent Application As An Electrode Material In Energy Storage Devices, Sirikorn Khaophong, Tawatchai Kangkamano, Sonchai Intachai, Panita Kongsune

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

The conversion of agricultural waste into high-value functional materials offers a sustainable strategy to address environmental concerns. In this study, activated carbon was synthesized from spent coffee grounds (CGAC) via KOH activation and used for crystal violet (CV) dye adsorption. Under optimal conditions (0.5 g dosage, 300 mg∙L‒1 CV, 30°C, 120 min), CGAC achieved 91.41% removal efficiency, with adsorption behavior fitting pseudo-second-order kinetics and the Freundlich isotherm. Thermo-dynamic parameters confirmed a spontaneous and endothermic process. Moreover, the reusability study revealed that CGAC maintained a high removal efficiency above 88% after seven adsorption–desorption cycles, demonstrating its structural stability and potential for …

Investigation On The Tribological Properties Of Al2o3-Tic Substrates In Fixed Abrasive Lapping For Data Storage Applications, Benjie Locsing Fernandez, Thanakrit Srisuwan, Duangamol Tungasmita, Sukkaneste Tungasmita

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

Alumina titanium-carbide (Al2O3-TiC) or simply AlTiC substrates were widely used in the magnetic recording industry for their superior mechanical and tribological properties. This study investigated the effect of AlTiC substrate crystal structure, chemical bonding and grain size in slider fix abrasive lapping tribology. Two types of AlTiC substrates, Type-A AlTiC and Type-B AlTiC equipped with an electro lapping guide (ELG), fully functional reader and writer devices were used in the study. The type-B lower material removal rate resulting to rougher surface finish was mainly due weakening caused by the titanium oxycarbide phase, which was the dominant factor, outweighing the minimal …

Surface Properties And In-Vitro Bioactivity Studies Of Tio2 Nanowire Doped Transition Metal (M=Fe, Co, And Mn), Misriyani Misriyani, Enayah Enayah, Z. Ryan Tian, Andi Meutiah Ilhamjaya

Journal of Metals, Materials and Minerals

This study investigates the influence of transition metal (Fe, Co, Mn) doping on the surface properties and in-vitro bioactivity of TiO2 nanowires. It aims to elucidate how transition-metal doping alters the surface behavior and biological response of TiO2 nanowires, enabling their potential use in biocompatible and magnetically responsive materials. Magnetic TiO2 nanowires doped with transition metals (Mx+/TiO2) were successfully prepared by a hydrothermal method using titanium dioxide in alkaline solution. Cations were added with Ti/Mx+ molar ratios of 5 to produce Fe/TNW, Co/TNW, and Mn/TNW. Characterization using SEM and XRD determine their surface properties. In-vitro bioactivity tests were conducted by …

Mitochondrial Replacement Techniques For Infertility: How Legal Barriers Harm Patients And Children, Kerry Lynn Macintosh

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

Recent studies show that mitochondrial replacement techniques (“MRTs”) can help women with poor egg quality and repeated IVF failures get pregnant and deliver healthy children. Unfortunately, infertile Americans can derive no hope from this promising development.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) claims jurisdiction over novel assisted reproductive technologies. Fertility clinics and doctors who want to provide MRTs must submit an investigational new drug (“IND”) application to the FDA and wait for approval before proceeding with clinical trials. However, for the past decade, Congress has enacted an annual appropriations rider that precludes the FDA from acknowledging receipt of applications …

Rebuilding The Ship Of Theseus: Navigating Faculty-Librarian Relationships Through Changing Waters, Alan Witt

Milne Library

The Ship of Theseus is a philosophical paradox that poses a question of identity: If you repair every plank of a ship, replacing each with new wood, at what point does the ship cease to be the same ship? This is a useful metaphor for academic liaison librarians to consider when thinking about outreach to departments: your relationship to a department as a whole consists of the component connections, which change as individuals retire or leave. The goals of this chapter are to acknowledge the primacy of relationships in library outreach (and the consequences to the library of those relationships …

A Literature Review On Ethics In Medical Diagnostic Ai & Analysis Therein, Connor J. Turetzky

Master's Theses

Artificial Intelligence presents a very promising future in medicine. Being able to diagnose and recommend treatments quickly is vital in ensuring positive patient outcomes. However, the new technology is not without risk. In this narrative literature review, the risks of AI in terms of bias, ethics, and environmental impact will be explored through existing research. This paper will focus on research published between 2019 and 2026, highlighting the major ethical and systematic problems currently facing diagnostic AI. Historical bias in medical data has led to AI that share those biases, and humans inherit that bias creating a potential negative feedback …

Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Economic Hardship: The Role Of Financial Capability, Rui Yao, Jing Jian Xiao

Human Development and Family Science Faculty Publications

Purpose: Previous research shows that the capability approach is association with lower poverty rates and higher well-being. Nonetheless, little research applied this approach to understanding economic hardship. To fill this gap, this study applies this approach to explore whether financial capability mitigates racial/ethnic disparities in economic hardship in the U.S.

Design/methodology/approach: Data were from the U.S. 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances. Multivariate logistic and ordered regressions were used to examine of the association between financial capability, measured both through individual components and a composite index, and pandemic-induced economic hardship. Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition analyses were used to evaluate the extent …

The Low Human Rights Advantage And The Failure Of Globalization: The Challenge Of China Inc., Shaomin Li

Management Faculty Publications

Purpose

We develop a framework of the low human rights advantage – labor repression, state discretionary expropriation and total control – that reduces factor costs and enables coordinated resource mobilization. These mechanisms generate economic advantage only when combined with access to global markets, which provide demand, capital and technology. By leveraging this low human rights advantage, the Chinese state has transformed China into a giant corporation that combines the agility of a firm with the resources of a nation, thereby reshaping global competition. Economic integration without corresponding political integration is a major contributor to the failure of the current wave …

Unlocking Organizational Support Through Psychological Empowerment: Identification And Test Of Transformational Leadership As A Catalyst Of Perceived Organizational Support, Ryan L. Klinger, Nathapon Siangchokyoo, Tipat Sottiwan

Management Faculty Publications

Organizational support theory (OST) explains how employees develop and respond to beliefs about their organization, with perceived organizational support (POS) representing a central construct within this framework. Integrating psychological empowerment theory, we examine an intrinsic motivational pathway through which POS relates to employee in-role performance and identify transformational leadership as a contextual catalyst that may strengthen this process. We test a multilevel moderated mediation model using multisource and multi-time data from 217 employees and 41 supervisors. Results indicate that POS is positively related to in-role performance through the psychological empowerment dimensions of competence and self-determination. Moreover, transformational leadership strengthens the …

Experimental And Numerical Study On The Stability Limits Of Ammonia And Ammonia/Hydrogen Flames Inside A Toroidal Jet-Stirred Reactor, Guillermo Alberto Barrios Cadenas

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Ammonia’s (NH₃) properties as a carbon-free hydrogen carrier, its phase characteristics, and its wide global infrastructure present a solid case as a potential surrogate for carbon-based aviation fuels. Delivering a zero-emission NH₃-based engine requires careful integration and optimization of the combustor and thermal management systems, a process that requires high-fidelity chemical reacting models experimentally validated through the use of simplified combustors. This study investigates NH₃ fundamental combustion characteristics at conditions relevant to aviation gas turbines using a newly constructed toroidal jet-stirred reactor (TJSR) facility. Lean blow-off (LBO) experiments were carried out for NH₃ blends …