Digital Commons Network^™

Drug Delivery, Disulfide Crosslinked Hydrogel Coating For Polydimethylsiloxane (Pdms) Implant Materials, Paul A. Contos, Paul Anthony Contos

Master's Theses

Though polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is often used in medical devices due to its desirable mechanical properties and biocompatibility, its surface is often prone to bacterial adhesion. This is especially a problem for catheters, where bacteria can adhere and form biofilms that can in turn result in Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). In order to deter the presence of UTI causing bacteria on PDMS catheters, methods were developed to formulate a disulfide crosslinked hydrogel coating and create a methodology to allow adhesion to a PDMS substrate. The hydrogel coating discussed in this paper will be synthesized by chemically crosslinking stimuli-responsive vesicles, that carry …

Internal Funding Newsletter, Academic Year 2024-2025, Office Of Research And Creative Activity, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Internal Funding Newsletters

The University of Nebraska at Omaha is committed to educating people of the world and the Office of Research and Creative Activity is proud to contribute to UNO?s exceptional education, groundbreaking research, and the life-long success of students and alumni. UNO innovates for the public good through pragmatic and impactful research and discovery. This year's programs provided over $750,000 in awards for students and faculty. These projects included recording a new album of music for a saxophone, flute, and piano trio, understanding college campus bicycle theft, studying student perceptions of the difficulty of organic chemistry concepts, evaluating a therapy program …

A Study On The Propagation And Exploitation Of Structured Light In Underwater Turbulence, Jaxon P. Wiley

All Dissertations

The development and optimization of optical systems will play a pivotal role in the continued exploration and exploitation of the world’s underwater environments. These systems offer advantages in many sectors, and includes applications in areas such as high-speed communication, advanced sensing and imaging, and environmental characterization and monitoring. Underwater environments offer a plethora of challenges, however, and mitigating these obstacles remains an arduous task. In this work, the inherent advantages of structured light are leveraged to optimize optical system performance through non-ideal underwater conditions. Additionally, fundamental relationships between the generation of specified structured modes and their interactions with complex environments …

Multiple View Neural Regression Of A Facial Shape Model, Xiang Li

All Dissertations

Creating re-topologized 3D facial meshes is a critical step in high-quality facial animation pipelines, yet it remains a labor-intensive and time-consuming task. Traditional approaches typically rely on multiview stereo reconstruction and specialized photometric environments to acquire accurate geometric and reflectance data under controlled conditions. This dissertation presents work toward more efficient capture of production-ready meshes including (1) developmental aspects of VarIS, a custom-designed light sphere capable of capturing high-resolution stereo geometry and reflectance maps—including diffuse, specular, and normal components under programmable illumination; (2) a study of the effects of camera parameters on automatic 2D and 3D landmarking methods, (3) methods …

Advancing Life Cycle Assessment For Environmental Sustainability Of Carbon Fiber-Reinforced Polymer Composites (Cfrps)), Hao Chen

All Dissertations

Carbon fiber-reinforced polymer composites (CFRPs) have emerged as promising materials, particularly for lightweight applications, with the potential to reduce environmental impacts across multiple sectors, including automotive, aerospace, and renewable energy. However, fully realizing their sustainability potential requires a more comprehensive and context-specific understanding of their environmental performance throughout the entire life cycle—from raw material production to end-of-life management.

This dissertation advances life cycle assessment (LCA) practices for CFRPs by addressing key challenges across multiple phases of the CFRP life cycle. First, I conducted a critical review and meta-analysis of carbon fiber manufacturing, revealing substantial variability in reported data on energy …

Influence Of Experience And Risk With Natural Hazards On Geoscience Interest And Career Expectations, Shannon Conner

All Dissertations

Understanding student interest in geoscience is important, as it has the potential to inform departmental decisions such as the selection of classroom examples and marketing strategies to attract new geoscience majors. Recruitment to geoscience is critical to address future social and environmental challenges. Our work may also provide insight into how to approach persistent recruitment problems within departments, such as student enrollment and the lack of diversity within the geosciences. This work involves developing a geoscience interest scale, integrating geospatial and educational data sets related to hazard risk and interest, and an exploring career motivations as related to natural hazard …

Effects Of Lossy Compression Data On Machine Learning Models, Max H. Faykus Iii

All Dissertations

Machine learning is a fundamental tool that is incorporated in every field across academia and other industries. Due to the large amount of data needed for training machine learning models, lossy compression plays a crucial role in storing data. Machine learning involves the use of algorithms and models to learn patterns in data. This allows the AI to make decisions without specific programming. On the other hand, compression utilizes encoding and decoding techniques to reduce the size of files. Compression is either lossy or lossless, lossy causes a loss of data while lossless preserves the data. This dissertation will explore …

From Pencil To Pixel: How Leadership Shapes Organizational Responses To Competence-Destroying Technological Change, Jennifer Underwood

All Dissertations

This dissertation examines how managerial leadership enables organizations to overcome inertia during competence-destroying technological change through a historical comparative case analysis of the animation industry's transition from hand-drawn to computer-generated imagery (CGI) between 1980-2000. Drawing on archival data from Disney, Pixar, and Don Bluth Studios, I identify three distinct leadership approaches—pioneering, bridging, and preserving—that differently influenced how workforces adjusted their views of identity, process, and change. These adjustments led to three different outcomes: transformative integration, constrained adoption, and entrenched resistance. This research makes three theoretical contributions and develops a novel framework that explains how leadership can constrain or enable transformation, …

Organizational Metamorphosis: When Artificial Intelligence Transforms Companies Into New Economic Life Forms, Allan M. Glass

All Dissertations

Traditional theories of organizational change fall short in explaining how artificial intelligence (AI) transforms organizations. This grounded theory study, based on interviews with 34 organizational leaders, identifies a novel phenomenon: organizational metamorphosis - the irreversible transformation of organizations into fundamentally new entities through deep integration with AI as a cognitive partner.

The metamorphosis process unfolds in three phases. Individual Awakening occurs when leaders experience powerful interactions with AI, prompting a rapid shift from skepticism to advocacy. Once a critical mass of leaders undergo this shift, it initiates Organizational Restructuring, characterized by reimagined work design, boundary dissolution, and altered temporal rhythms. …

Evaluating The Impact Of Medicaid Expansion On Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Care And Health Disparities, Marvin Idoteyin Okon

All Dissertations

Persistent disparities in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) outcomes reflect broader structural inequities shaped by race, place, and socioeconomic conditions. This dissertation examined trends in NSCLC outcomes over the past two decades and evaluated the impact of Medicaid Expansion (ME) under the Affordable Care Act on improving outcomes and reducing disparities, especially in marginalized communities.

Using nationally representative datasets, three interrelated studies were conducted. The first assessed trends in NSCLC incidence, early-stage diagnosis, and 3-year survival from 2002-2021, stratified by metropolitan status, deprivation (Social Deprivation Index), and segregation (Index of Concentration at the Extremes). While incidence declined and early-stage diagnosis …

Melts To Solutions: Structure, Dynamics, And Response Of Polyelectrolytes, Shalika Meedin

All Dissertations

The current research elucidates the changes in the structure and motion of polyelectrolytes as they are perturbed by solvents and shear flows. Polyelectrolytes are macromolecules whose backbone consists of long, predominantly hydrocarbon chains, substituted by ionizable groups, which tend to dissociate into ions in polar solvents. Their properties result from a delicate balance of elastic energy that arises from the polymeric backbone and electrostatic forces, which stem from the ionizable groups. Though polyelectrolytes have an immense potential to propel numerous technologies, from clean energy to drug delivery systems, understanding the delicate balance between the properties of the polymer backbone and …

Accurate Temporal Integration Schemes For Nonlinear Adsorption Problems, Evan D. Butterworth

All Dissertations

We consider a nonlinear transport problem to model the chromatography process of high-capacity multimodal membranes. Robust and efficient algorithms that simulate these bioseparation processes are critical to developing therapeutics for various chronic illnesses and infectious diseases. However, much of the current methodology focuses on stabilization and linearization techniques, often implementing low-order time-discretizations and linearized adsorption, resulting in inefficiencies and inaccuracies in the numerical solution. Utilizing Rothe's method, we develop various time-discretization schemes coupled with the finite element method to solve the fully implicit problems. Stability and solvability results are presented for several methods. Through multiple high-level software implementations paired with …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Undergraduate General Chemistry, Destinee J. Cooper

All Dissertations

General chemistry is a foundational course for advancement in most undergraduate STEM programs, but unfortunately, many students do not continue in STEM after their experiences in their general chemistry course. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) has the potential to increase students’ positive experiences in general chemistry by centering their needs, identities, and backgrounds. However, this pedagogical approach has not been widely studied in the college general chemistry context. As such, my four-paper dissertation broadly aimed to explore both the implementation and outcomes of CRP in undergraduate general chemistry.

The first paper reviewed the literature on culture-based pedagogies across the full undergraduate …

Towards Securing Ai Systems: Investigating Threats In Multimodal Autonomous Driving & Rag Systems, Saket Sanjeev Chaturvedi

All Dissertations

Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems have become central to high-stakes applications such as autonomous driving and language-based decision support. As their deployment accelerates, ensuring the security and trustworthiness of these systems becomes paramount. Among the most stealthy and potent threats are backdoor attacks, where models behave as expected under normal conditions but exhibit malicious behavior when triggered by specific inputs, either digital or physical.

This thesis investigates novel backdoor and adversarial vulnerabilities across two emerging classes of AI architectures: (1) multimodal 3D object detection systems that fuse LiDAR and camera data, and (2) Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems that pair large language …

Exploring The Socio-Cultural Dynamics Of Nocturnal Urban Landscapes: A Case Study, Jie Kong

All Dissertations

This dissertation explores nighttime social leisure activities in public parks within urban working- and middle-class communities. As cities confront climate change, shifting work schedules, and post-pandemic lifestyles, neighborhood parks have gained renewed importance after dark, especially in areas where households have limited private space. These non-commercial nighttime uses are often overlooked in planning, design, and built environment studies, yet they play a vital role in fostering cultural identity, social connection, and community well-being.

Focusing on Williamsburg and Bushwick in Brooklyn, New York, this research investigates how public parks are used at night, by whom, and for what purposes. New York …

Online Multiobjective Optimization, Kristen Joyce

All Dissertations

Online optimization (OO) is an iterative process of decision making under uncertainty. At every step, a decision is made before the outcome of this decision is known. For the online optimization model, the objective function is unknown at the time the decision is being made. It is very likely that the taken decision is not optimal, so the decision maker incurs a loss, called regret, in every iteration. The goal of the online optimization algorithm is to compute a decision at every step so that the overall regret cost is minimized. In particular, the average regret produced by an ideal …

Flipping The Script?: The Development And Validation Of A Qualitative Framework For Identifying Key Cognitive And Attitudinal Components Of Conflict-Based Problem Representations, Kyle Christenson

All Dissertations

When people work together, disagreements are inevitable. How someone understands a given conflict, specifically whether they see it as a shared problem or not, can shape how they respond and whether they look to resolve it collaboratively. Researchers have studied many aspects of conflict, like what causes it and the strategies people use to manage it. But we know much less about how people think about conflict in the first place and how those thoughts affect efforts to manage conflict. This research developed a tool to study how people describe conflicts in writing. It identifies key ideas and attitudes that …

From Cities To Ranches: Assessing Public Support For Jaguar (Panthera Onca) Conservation And Livestock Predation In Colombia, Luz Angelica Solano

All Dissertations

Jaguars are among the most emblematic large carnivores worldwide. Nonetheless, the species has declined by 25% in less than 25 years and their range has been reduced by 55%, approximately, primarily due to habitat loss from increasing agricultural development, retaliatory killings from human-jaguar conflict, and overhunting of their natural prey. Given the anthropogenic nature of these threats, developing effective coexistence strategies and public support for jaguar conservation are increasingly urgent for the continued persistence of this species. I conducted a scoping review to assess trends and gaps in the existing peer-reviewed literature, grey literature, and news articles related to human-jaguar …

Studies On The Effects Of Operator Fatigue On Performance, Trust, And Workload Demand In Human-In-The-Loop Ai-Enabled Drone Systems, Snowil Lopes

All Dissertations

Civil infrastructure must be regularly inspected to ensure its safety and reliability. Traditionally, risk engineers performed these inspections manually and in person. However, with the introduction of drones equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), inspections of civil infrastructure can now be conducted remotely. These AI-enabled drones capture and analyze images, helping engineers monitor large and complex structures from a distance. However, working with integrated systems consisting of multiple drones, especially those with varying levels of reliability, can be challenging. Operators must divide their attention, determine how much to trust each drone, and manage mental workload, which can affect their performance. Another …

Empowering Employability: Voices Of Black Women Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth In An Undergraduate Agricultural Program, Rose Marie Somers

All Dissertations

Across the nation, agricultural industry professionals have bemoaned the shortage of qualified professionals, expressing an expanding need for graduates with a blend of discipline-specific and employability skills to advance the sector. Research indicates that the future of the US agriculture sector hinges on a diverse and skilled workforce. Yet, a paucity of literature exists on Black women's enduring legacy, experiences, and how they understand and develop 21st-century critical transferable professional competencies needed to address complex challenges in modern agriculture. Black women have a long tradition in agriculture and a wealth of cultural knowledge, skills and innovations that are untapped. This …

Improved Rumen Microbiome Interpretation Via Empirical Filtration Derived From Known Mock Microbiomes, Wesley A. Tom

School of Biological Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The rumen microbiome plays a critical role in ruminant health and performance. As a consequence, many studies investigate microbial community composition using 16S rDNA based sequencing. As such, data quality and data filtering are critical to accurately identify microbial community composition. In this study we use mock communities to empirically select data filtering parameters to reduce artifact populations and compared the effect of filtering using different bioinformatic pipelines using rumen bacterial community data. The filtering parameters identified provides consistent estimates of rumen microbial diversity, regardless of bioinformatic pipeline utilized and provides a more accurate view of microbiome structure and composition. …

Student Supports For Achieving College And Career Readiness, Edward C. Fletcher Jr., Turhan K. Carroll, Bo Hyun Lee, Carrie Burggraf

Journal of College Access

School community members help to foster students’ college-going mindsets by creating and facilitating a college-going culture within the school. Based on our findings of a school district composed of a majority ethnically and racially diverse student body, we found the district to be successful in promoting social capital by way of a school stakeholder community. The school stakeholders leveraged social capital to promote a college and career going culture within the context of career pathway programs. This culture promoted a sense of belonging where students felt supported in achieving their goals of being college and career ready. Most notably, the …

Professional Pathways In Business: The Role Of Social Capital For Latinx Students, Maritza S. Campo, Manuel Pech, Teresa Madamba

Journal of College Access

Latina/os currently represent one of the most significant contributors to the United States economy, possessing $3.78 trillion in purchasing power. Despite constituting the second largest demographic group in the nation, Latinx representation in business graduate programs and corporate leadership positions, including board memberships, remains below 5%. As Latinx enrollment and graduation rates in higher education have consistently increased over the past decade, it has become increasingly imperative to examine how Hispanic-Serving Institutions can more effectively support Latinx students in their transition from academic to professional careers in business. This study investigates the impact of initiatives implemented by one Hispanic-Serving Institution …

From The Battlefield To The Archive: Tracing Testimony In Holocaust Memory, Tiana M. Taliep

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis portfolio examines the evolving role of testimony in shaping public memory of World War II and the Holocaust. As the last generation of eyewitnesses passes, societies increasingly rely on preserved, mediated forms of testimony to understand and remember traumatic pasts. Testimony, whether handwritten, oral, visual, or digital, is not a neutral historical record but an interpretive act shaped by cultural, political, and technological forces. This portfolio argues that testimony functions as evidence and expression: it transmits trauma across generations while simultaneously reflecting the changing frameworks through which war and genocide are remembered.

The portfolio explores testimony in personal, …

The Power Of Social Capital For First-Generation College Students, Inez M. Gonzalez Perezchica

Journal of College Access

First-generation college students (FGCS) face unique challenges in achieving career success, challenges which stem from limited access to social capital. Social capital refers to the value derived from access to social structures, which serve as resources that enable individuals to pursue and attain their interests (Coleman, 1988). Enhancing mentoring for FGCS requires an understanding of how social capital facilitates success and upward mobility. FGCS face information gaps that can hinder their ability to navigate college bureaucracy, advance their careers, and beyond. To address this information gap, FGCS can seek advisors and mentors, or institutional agents, who can provide critical insights …

Complete Issue, Claudia Martinez, Lorenzo M. Sianez Jr

Journal of College Access

No abstract provided.

Cultivating Connections: Toward A Framework For Equity In Social Capital Development In College And Career Pathways, Samantha L. Perez

Journal of College Access

The attention on college and career pathways over the last decade has revitalized interest in key activities like early career exploration, work-based learning, and labor market alignment of career and technical education. One essential element of this work, and perhaps among the most critical, has not received as much attention. Research shows that social capital—the relationships and networks an individual has and their ability to build, leverage, and mobilize them— is often how people get access to new information and educational and career opportunities; however, it is not something that most school systems have made an explicit priority for preparing …

Debunking Myths: Preparing Black Students Who Are Accelerated Learners For Postsecondary Opportunities, Erik M. Hines, Donna Y. Ford, Renae D. Mayes, Tanya J. Middleton, James L. Moore Iii, Desmond Mcglone

Journal of College Access

Black students are the most underrepresented in Gifted and Talented Education (GATE), Advanced Placement (AP), honors, dual enrollment (DE), and other programs for advanced learners (Ford, 2011, 2013; Hines, 2024; Hines, Fletcher et al., 2022). However, accelerated learners, particularly Black students, are usually seen as individuals who understand their educational trajectory, are more likely to know where they plan to attend college, and quickly know their career choice (Smith & Wood, 2020). Accelerated learners are students who are engaged in advanced coursework or programs such as Gifted and Talented Education (GATE), Advanced Placement (AP), honors, dual enrollment (DE). In this …

Effects Of Emotional Intelligence In Enhancing Team Collaboration And Conflict Resolution In Agile Project Management, Shaikh Muhammad Sinan

Harrisburg University Dissertations and Theses

In this study, I explored the use of emotional intelligence (EI) in enhancing team collaboration and conflict resolution within agile project management environments. Though agile methodologies have gained more popularity, most projects still suffer from interpersonal conflicts and communication failures that detract from project performance. Though the literature is particular to the dynamics of agile project management, little is known about the emotional and interpersonal dynamics that influence team effectiveness. I examined how EI skills such as self-awareness, self-regulation, empathy, and social skills influence team dynamics and project success. Guided by Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence Framework, in this qualitative study, …

Enhancing The Value Of Satellite Earth Observations For Coastal Management: Tools For Collaboration And Co-Development, Nicole Dejeet Bartlett

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Despite unprecedented satellite Earth observation (EO) capabilities and free data availability, widespread adoption in coastal management remains limited due to persistent communication barriers between satellite experts and coastal practitioners. This dissertation addresses the fundamental challenge of translating satellite EO technical capabilities into management-relevant applications. Through synthesis of literature, stakeholder interviews, and two multi-year co-development case studies in Virginia's Middle Peninsula and Cape Cod, Massachusetts, this research identifies systematic barriers to satellite EO adoption and develops innovative frameworks for overcoming them.

The work argues for a common language between satellite product developers and coastal managers, identifying communication barriers spanning technical, institutional, …