Digital Commons Network^™

Using Noninvasive Calibrated Cuff Plethysmography To Observe The Effects Of Lifestyle Habits On Arterial Compliance, Joshua M. Whitaker

Master's Theses

Cardiovascular disease remains as a leading cause of death for both sexes and across all racial backgrounds. Continuing to research causes, early predictors, and preventative actions are paramount to ensuring that cardiovascular disease starts to decrease in its activity. Endothelial dysfunction is the earliest known predictor of cardiovascular disease, therefore investigating early detection methods of endothelial dysfunction can improve health outcomes. This study revolves around a non-invasive calibrated cuff device that uses the principles of segmental plethysmography and oscilliometry to measure arterial compliance of baseline and induced hyperemic conditions in human subjects to determine how well arteries vasodilate in response …

Mechanics Post-Tavr For Trileaflet Vs Bicuspid Aortic Valves: Insights From Computational Simulation, Breandan B. Yeats, Aniket Venkatesh, Sri Krishna Sivakumar, Hoda Hatoum, Milad Samaee, Venkateshwar Polsani, Et. Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Background: Bicuspid aortic valve (BAV) disease is the most common congenital heart defect and is associated with elliptical openings and excess calcification. Limited data are available on long-term efficacy of transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) for BAV patients.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to compare simulated mechanical metrics post-TAVR between BAV and trileaflet patients with calcific aortic stenosis.

Methods: Pre-TAVR computed tomography scans of trileaflet (n = 22) and BAV (n = 25) were used to segment the aortic valve. Simulated balloon-expandable stent deployment was performed from a previously developed protocol. The bioprosthetic leaflets were then pressurized under …

(R2125) Impact Of Convective Condition And Inclined Magnetic Field On Casson Nanofluid With Bioconvection In Porous Medium, Touseef Fayaz, O. Otegbeye, Md. Sharifuddin Ansari

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

This paper presents an analysis on steady magnetohydrodynamic boundary layer flow of Casson nanofluid with microorganisms near an expandable boundary in a porous medium. The flow behaviour is analysed by incorporating impacts of magnetic field applied in a direction which makes an angle α∗ with the boundary and convective conditions in temperature, nanoparticle concentration and microorganism density at boundary. Non-dimensionalised nonlinear and coupled system of ordinary differential equations are solved by exercising a numerical algorithm termed as spectral local-linearization method. The considered numerical algorithm is found to be convergent and capable of yielding accurate results. Graphical sketches of solutions obtained …

December 2025 Library & Learning Newsletter, Minnesota State University, Mankato. Library & Learning Dean’S Office Communications Team

Library & Learning Newsletters

PDF version of the December 2025 (Volume 4, Issue 5) Library & Learning Newsletter.

Graduates List - December 2025, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Lists

No abstract provided.

Creating A Virtual Event Website, Timothy Sorensen

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

This Best of 10 Virtual Race project involved creating a virtual athletic event website designed to motivate participants to engage in multiple types of physical activity while providing a fair and engaging leaderboard system. Traditional virtual events often favor participants who specialize in a single activity, such as cycling or running long distances, making it difficult for multi-sport athletes to compete. This project addressed that gap by implementing a scoring system across multiple categories such as cardio, ball sports, racket sports, weight training, outdoor activities, etc. where lower cumulative scores indicate better overall performance. This approach encourages participants to improve …

Evaluation Of Injection Well Efficacy To Address Saltwater Intrusion In Water Supply Wells At Hooper Bay, Alaska, Matthew Hegland, Thomas Ravens

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Saltwater intrusion affects water quality in coastal water supply wells, increasing salinity in drinking water and thereby negatively impacting communities. Hooper Bay, AK is a community in west Alaska that has experienced relatively high salinity water in their water supply wells. Injection wells are evaluated here in an effort to provide a possible solution to further saltwater intrusion in Hooper Bay wells. Analytical modeling is utilized to perform the investigation. Steady-State 2D horizontal models provide potential placement, spacing, and pumping rates for the proposed injection wells.

Applied Project Management Methodologies To Create A Volunteer Engagement Guide For New Hope Nonprofit Organization's Volunteer Program, Carlos San Miguel

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) rely on volunteers to sustain operations and fulfill their missions, yet many realize persistent challenges in recruiting, training, and keeping them. New Hope Compassionate Ministries (NHCM), a nonprofit organization in Alaska, has struggled to attract and keep volunteers for inventory and restock days—limitations that directly impact its ability to combat food insecurity. This project applies structured project management methodologies to find and address NHCM’s volunteer engagement gap. Through mixed-methods research, including surveys and interviews, the project analyzes current volunteer recruitment and retention practices to uncover underlying barriers. Findings inform the development of a Volunteer Engagement Guide designed …

Application Of A Nonprofit Project Management Methodology To Solid Rock Bible Camp Infrastructure Planning, Austin Laber

Student Projects for Graduate Degrees

Over the last decade, several costly infrastructure issues have been presented to Solid Rock Bible Camp (SRBC) due to deferred maintenance, poor record-keeping, and short-term, donation-based funding. This has cost the organization substantial time and money and has risked its ability to obtain insurance for its infrastructure. The application of project management principles to SRBC’s unique nonprofit structure and values identified SRBC's current infrastructure needs, pursued future infrastructure solutions, and prioritized future project recommendations. This project documented the campus’s current state and compared its inventory to industry standards and the needs of its stakeholders to find deficiencies. These deficiencies were …

Platforming For Circuit Education, Grady Oliver Schneider

Computer Engineering

The purpose of this project was to provide an alternative for students being introduced to resistive circuits. As a freshman in electrical engineering (transferred to computer engineering), I saw the struggles of other freshman to grasp the conceptual basics of circuits. While there’s lots of guides to circuit education, I think many of them fall short of being both engaging and teaching the intuition behind circuits. A lot of the more advanced concepts in circuits depends on the basic intuition of KCL, KVL, and Ohm’s Law. While there’s several basic techniques (such as voltage divider, current divider, and mesh current …

Impact Of Antibody Fc Engineering On Translational Pharmacology, And Safety: Insights From Industry Case Studies., Frank R Brennan, J Ryan Polli, Jean Sathish, Melissa Ramones, Babette Wolf, Tilman Schlothauer, Shirley J Peters, Curtis C Maier, Changhua Ji, David L Wensel, Derrick Witcher, Patricia C Ryan, T Scott Manetz, Adriano Flora, Brian Soper, Birgit Fogal, Lindsey Dzielak, Xiaoting Wang, Prathap Nagaraja Shastri, Karen Price, Michael Doyle, Nidhi Sharda, Mary Struthers, Maximilian Brinkhaus, Bianca Balbino, Eric Stefanich, Masaki Honda, Jan Terje Andersen, Shermaine Mitchell-Ryan, David P Humphreys

Faculty Research 2025

Therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are often designed to not only bind targets via their antigen-binding domains (Fabs) but to also engage with cell surface receptors, FcγRs and FcRn, through their Fc regions, which may result in a variety of functional outcomes, including antibody- dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), antibody-dependent cellular phagocytosis (ADCP), complement-dependent cytotoxicity (CDC) and alteration of circulating half-lives. Engineering the Fc regions to achieve desirable pharmacology and pharmacokinetics is a widely adopted strategy in drug development. Fc regions can be modified through amino acid substitutions and glycoengineering, resulting in enhanced or reduced effector functions, preferential binding to FcR subtypes, …

Elucidating Differences In Constitutionally Isomeric Diamine- And Bisphenol-Based Polybenzoxazine Networks, Benjamin L. G. Morasch

Dissertations

This dissertation aims to expand the fundamental understanding of diamine-based benzoxazine chemistry by examining how synthesis influences the network properties of 4,4’-ddm and phenol-based (P-ddm) benzoxazine, compared to the constitutionally isomeric bisphenol-F and aniline-based (BF-a) benzoxazine. While bisphenol-based benzoxazines such as BF-a have been studied more extensively, diamine-based benzoxazines are still relatively unexplored due to the competition with the formation of 1,3,5-hexahydrotriazine intermediates and the inconsistent thermal and mechanical properties reported in the literature. These inconsistencies stem from factors including synthetic methods, curing conditions, and degradation during polymerization that have been overlooked.

To address these issues, this dissertation is organized …

General Education Teachers' Perspectives And Practices For Supporting English Language Learners In Memphis Charter Schools, Ijiah Hargrove

Dissertations

The growing enrollment of English Language Learners (ELLs) in U.S. schools, particularly within urban charter settings, presents unique challenges for general education teachers who are often underprepared to meet both linguistic and academic needs. The purpose of this study was to explore the instructional strategies, perspectives of their ability of self-efficacy, and institutional factors that shape how K–8 charter school teachers in Memphis support ELLs. This work is significant because teachers’ beliefs, preparation, and available resources directly impact ELL achievement and equity in education.

A qualitative single-case study design was employed, with twelve general education teachers recruited through purposeful sampling. …

Upcycling Commodity Polymers To Advanced Materials For Energy And Environmental Sustainability, Anthony Griffin-Espinoza

Dissertations

Synthetic polymers play an essential role in nearly every aspect of our lives. Extending beyond single-use packaging, polymeric material design has progressed to attain tailorable architectures granting exceptional performance across advanced applications, including carbon-fiber reinforced polymer composites for aerospace, conductive materials for soft electronics, and drug carriers for biomedicine. While highly promising, intricately designed polymers needed to achieve excellent performance often have limited processability, complex synthetic methods, and expensive precursors. Furthermore, due to a lack of recyclability, commodity polymer waste streams result in both environmental impacts and a substantial loss of economic value. This dissertation focuses on developing robust strategies …

Privacy Preserving-Based Artificial Intelligence For Precision Agriculture, Partha P. Sengupta

Dissertations

The research work finds a solution to precision agriculture of cotton cultivation using artificial intelligence (AI) models. Two sets of model performance based on the application are selected namely a low resource and a high resource setting. This is because using drone surveys to capture images identifying the classes of stressed and unstressed cotton plantation requires limited model architecture and CPU based computation. Thus, traditional AI models were selected for low resource settings. Again, for high computation intensive models like transfer learning-convolution neural network (CNN) based architectures were grouped into high resource settings. There was another issue of class imbalance …

The Malonate Template: The Key To Unlocking Novel Amino Acids, Thomas Owens

Dissertations

The “Malonate Template” provides access to various amino acids, all from a common intermediate. Herein, demonstrates the use of the malonate template to establish a synthetic route to both 2-thiohistidine and 2-thio-3-N-methyl-histidine from a benzyl methyl malonate derived intermediate. Furthermore, efforts exploiting the applicability of the malonate template for the of both 2-thiohistidine and 2-thio-3-N-methyl-histidine as a suitable alternative to methods previously described by Erdelmeier are described.

The method presented incorporates modifications to the biomimetic pathway described by Erdelmeier for the synthesis of 2-thiohisidine. By exploiting the biomimetic formation of 2-thiohisitidne’s mechanism via mass spectrometry, we …

Understanding Crystallization Behaviors Of Polyethylene-Derived Vitrimers, Sara Valdez

Dissertations

Polyolefins (POs), particularly polyethylene (PE) and polypropylene (PP), are among the most widely utilized polymers globally, valued for their low production costs and favorable mechanical properties stemming from their semicrystalline microstructure. However, their extensive use and improper disposal have raised serious environmental and human health concerns. In response, PO-derived covalent adaptable networks (CANs) have emerged, integrating dynamic chemistries to enable recyclability and sustainable end-of-life strategies. While existing literature has largely focused on novel CAN systems, structure–property relationships, and network rearrangement in relation to thermal transitions (e.g., topological freezing temperature), the influence of network formation on crystallinity and crystallization kinetics remains …

Across The Pond, Across The Waistline: A Comparative Look At The Childhood Obesity Crisis In The United States And United Kingdom, Samantha N. Eales

Honors College Theses

Childhood obesity is no longer just a local concern; it’s a global epidemic shaping the health of future generations. This paper compares how two similar nations with drastically different healthcare systems, the United States and the United Kingdom, tackle this growing crisis. Although both countries struggle with fast food culture, sedentary lifestyles, and targeted marketing, their health policy strategies differ dramatically. The U.S. leans on community programs and education, while the U.K. enforces stronger national regulations and advertising restrictions. By examining nutrition, physical activity, and policy, this thesis explores what each country does well and where they fall short. It …

Evaluation Of Food-Safe Silicone Rubber Containment For Seedling Emergence, Yield, And Reusability, Claudia Garrido-Ruiz, Juan D. González-Teruel, Bruce Bugbee, Scott B. Jones

NASA

Flexible containment materials are essential for repeated planting cycles in the Utah Reusable Root Module (URRM), a zero-discharge system developed for space-based crop production. In previous trials, a vinyl top cover provided effective evaporative control and media retention but could not meet flight certification. To identify a suitable alternative, this study evaluated food-safe, flight-qualifiable silicone rubber sheets as an impermeable top cover for a wedge-based seeding system. The silicone rubber was tested at three thicknesses (1/32", 2/32", and 3/32") in combination with three linear fringe lengths (1.0", 1.5", and 2.0") and two fringe widths (0.25" and 0.5") and compared with …

Nymc Synapse Issue 56, School Of Medicine Student Senate, New York Medical College

The Synapse

No abstract provided.

Steel-Concrete Composite Girder Experiments To Isolate Interface Load Transfer Effects On Stud Fatigue Life, Marc Crespi Hromcova

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Metal fatigue resulting from repeated loading is a primary limit state that affects the quantity of headed shear studs required in the composite design of steel bridge girders. While concrete-deck-to-steel-superstructure load transfer is only considered through stud bearing in the American Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (AASHTO) design standards, friction and interface interlocking effects may also contribute. This study aims to experimentally quantify the effect of interface conditions on the fatigue life of headed studs within composite girders. In this study, two full-scale composite girder specimens having the same geometry and material properties are tested with two interface conditions. …

Optimizing Indigenous Timber Short-Gap Crossing Designs By Minimizing Wood Moisture Content, Robert Greenwood

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reducing moisture content increases wood strength and reduces the weight of timber members. An accurate and efficient method for measuring moisture content is important for the design and construction of indigenous timber short-gap crossings. This study evaluates different methods for measuring moisture content in timber, describes a methodology for developing a representative moisture content value for a timber log, and approaches for quickly drying large timber logs. The results of this thesis will support activities in developing a representative moisture content of a log for structural design purposes and reducing weight for constructability purposes. The approaches discussed were developed considering …

Toward A Better Understanding Of Friction, Adhesion, And Stud Bearing Shear Transfer At The Steel-Concrete Interface Of Composite Bridge Girders, Callie Grace James

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Following curing of the concrete deck, load transfer between the concrete and steel components in a composite bridge girder is possible through three mechanisms: 1) mechanical contact (bearing) between the embedded shear connectors and surrounding cured concrete, 2) adhesion between the cured concrete and steel-section top flange, and 3) friction between the contacting materials Understanding the mechanisms of bearing, adhesion, and friction shear transfer at the steel-concrete interface of composite bridge girders is necessary for efficient proportioning of headed shear connectors (or studs) in design. To better understand the roles that stud bearing, adhesion, and friction play in composite girder …

Assessing Neurocognitive Functioning Among Adults Ageing With And Without Hiv At The Kenyan Coast: Measurement Issues And Correlates, Patrick Nzivo Mwangala, Carophine Nasambu, Ryan Wagner, Mihaela Duta, Gaia Scerif, Charles Newton, Amina Abubakar

Institute for Human Development, East Africa

Background: Cognitive impairment is one of the most prevalent complications of HIV infection, with significant medical and functional impacts. However, valid, and reliable assessment tools are lacking for the newly emergent ageing population of people living with HIV (PLWH) in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), including Kenya. Without these tools, critical intervention opportunities, e.g., psychoeducation, treatment and additional support, are missed. To bridge this gap in Kenya, we adapted the Oxford Cognitive Screen Plus (OCSPlus), a tablet-based cognitive assessment tool designed for low-literacy settings, with adults ageing with HIV ≥ 50 years and their uninfected peers. This study examines …

Microfluidic Investigation Of Green Carbon Capture, Storage, And Utilization Using Waste Concrete And Seawater, Abhishek Ratanpara

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology has emerged as a primary engineering pathway to mitigate global warming and climate instability. For carbon capture, amine-based absorption and stripping are widely used due to their high capture efficiency and retrofit compatibility. However, these systems generate toxic wastewater, consume large volumes of freshwater, and require significant regeneration energy. For carbon utilization and storage, deep saline aquifers and carbon dioxide (CO2)- assisted enhanced oil recovery (EOR) have been proven to be feasible options at the industrial scale; however, concerns remain about long-term subsurface storage integrity and limited efficiency in carbonate reservoirs containing more …

Local Government Standing As State Standing, Katharine Cooney, Katherine Mims Crocker

Faculty Scholarship

It is increasingly common, and controversial, for local governments to bring lawsuits as plaintiffs in federal court. Many questions about this practice raise matters that sound in policy. But some, including the issue of standing to sue, also raise issues of constitutional law. How local governments fit into standing rules should reflect how they fit into the U.S. constitutional system more broadly. As the Supreme Court put it in the famous (and infamous) 1907 case Hunter v. City of Pittsburgh, "[m]unicipal corporations are political subdivisions of the State, created as convenient agencies for exercising such of the governmental powers of …

Underwater Remote Sensing Of Oil: Validation Testing Of A Commercial-Off-The-Shelf Acoustic Sensor For Emergency Response, Sara Jessica Berg

Master's Theses and Capstones

During an oil spill, emergency responders need to be able to estimate the thickness of oil to determine the type of recovery equipment to use and the environmental impact for natural resource damage assessment, perform a risk assessment, and generate response plans. There is an abundance of remote sensing techniques and devices that have been evaluated for use in oil spill emergency response. One that has repeatedly shown promise is active sound navigation and ranging (SONAR) system that transmits and receives acoustic signals. However, the systems that have been tested are often prototypes, not readily available during an oil spill …

An Inter-Model Comparison Of Snow Water Equivalent In Watershed 3, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, For Winter 2023-2024, Ryan Reed

Master's Theses and Capstones

Estimates of snow water equivalent (SWE) are crucial for water availability and flood risk assessment due to the contribution of snow melt to increased surface runoff. However, many regions do not have observations of SWE, thus necessitating a robust method to estimate SWE for streamflow forecasting. Numerical snowpack models provide a potential way to estimate SWE in areas without observations. However, there are a multitude of snowpack models available, and they range greatly in their complexity. Even so, there have been few snowpack model intercomparisons to assess the trade-offs in model performance and complexity, and those that do exist did …

Copula-Based Tests For Assessing The Association Between Genetic Variants And Mixed Phenotypes, Martin Amoah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High-dimensional omics studies increasingly involve heterogeneous data types and phenotypes, which traditional association methods struggle to model jointly due to incompatible marginal distributions and complex dependence structures. This thesis develops a unified copula-based framework for assessing associations between genetic variants and mixed phenotypes by decoupling flexible marginal models from their joint dependence structure. While previous copula-based approaches in this setting have focused largely on continuous and binary traits, we extend these methods to a broader class of phenotype pairs. Specifically, we introduce new association tests for bivariate outcomes involving ordinal–continuous, nominal–continuous, and survival–continuous combinations. The proposed methodology derives joint density …

Instance-Adaptive Gated Fusion Of Multi-Transform Image Representations, Prince Appiah

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation proposes the Instance-Adaptive Gated Fusion (IAGF) framework, a novel deep learning architecture for adaptive and interpretable fusion of multiple time–series image transformations. While existing methods rely on static concatenation or dataset-level optimization, IAGF introduces a learnable gating mechanism that dynamically assigns per-instance weights to Recurrence Plots (RP), Gramian Angular Summation Fields (GASF), and Gramian Angular Difference Fields (GADF). The gating layer performs a convex fusion of transformation-specific embeddings under a softmax constraint, ensuring mathematical stability and interpretability. An entropy-regularized objective prevents dominance collapse and promotes balanced exploration of transformations during training. Comprehensive experiments across eighteen benchmark datasets, spanning …