Digital Commons Network^™

Hybrid Geographies And Nature In The City: A Tale Of Two Greenspaces In Louisville, Ky., Rebecca Dixon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many conservation initiatives position nature and the urban as opposing constructions, which means the possibilities where cities can work with nature are often overlooked. This study uses the lens of relational geographies to examine nature in the city by comparing two greenspaces in the Beargrass Creek watershed in Louisville, Kentucky: Waterfront Botanical Gardens and the Louisville Nature Center. The two organizations are compared by using a combination of content analysis, discourse analysis, and GIS flood analysis methods to determine how their geographical location and history affect the ways in which the dynamic between nature and culture is reproduced. Results show …

Metabolic Regulation Of Cardiac Fibroblast Phenotype And Function., Collin Kleis Wells

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cardiac fibroblasts are central effectors of cardiac repair after myocardial infarction (MI). In response to signaling cues, they differentiate to a range of phenotypes with robust capacities to synthesize and secrete extracellular matrix (ECM) and signaling molecules. Although activated fibroblast phenotypes are associated with pronounced changes in metabolism, it remains unclear how the metabolic network upholds the effector functions of fibroblasts in the post-infarcted heart. Here, we identified that critical enzymes in the phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) cycle, i.e. pyruvate kinase muscle-2 (PKM2) and phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase-2 (PCK2), are elevated in the heart after MI and examined their role in regulating post-MI remodeling …

Development Of A Machine Learning Framework For An Irrigation Decision Support System, Eric Wilkening, Derek M. Heeren, Yeyin Shi, Laila A. Puntel, Guillermo R. Balboa, Abia Katimbo, Kuan Zhang, Precious Nneka Amori, Bruno Lena

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Currently used irrigation scheduling techniques often require significant human intervention and are time consuming, particularly for variable rate irrigation. This research aimed to develop a conceptual framework that incorporates disparate data sources leveraging both mechanistic and machine learning (ML) approaches. The overarching objective is to utilize the growing availability of data and technology to manage irrigation more precisely, which will minimize negative impacts of irrigation on our water resources. An initial irrigation machine learning model was proposed and tested in this study as a key component of an edge-cloud computing and federated learning decision-making framework. The specific objectives were (1) …

The Social Dimensions Of Aquaculture: Food Sovereignty And Indigenous Rights In Ketchikan, Alaska, Morgan J. Davis

Capstone Collection

This research project asks how the growing commercial aquaculture industry in Ketchikan, Alaska, functions to alleviate or exacerbate local food insecurity; reinforce or undermine food sovereignty among Indigenous communities, and enhance or restrict community participation in the control of marine resources. Global initiatives have responded to food insecurity through agricultural inputs and technology to create higher yields; however, conventional agricultural production has contributed to and is increasingly vulnerable to climate change. To address higher demands for food, government agencies and development experts have looked towards Blue Growth and aquaculture as a solution for food insecurity and environmental concerns. While aquaculture …

Owl Integrations Soil Monitor, Derek Chau, Armaan Kahlon

Electrical Engineering

This paper examines the design process and results concerning the OWL Integrations soil monitor. Disaster relief relies heavily on digital communications, especially in environments where conventional methods (e.g. Wi-Fi, cellular, fiber optics) are unusable. To help emergency services assess disaster-stricken areas, a soil monitoring system was developed using LilyGo T-Beams (ESP32), programmed with specialized firmware known as the ClusterDuck Protocol to collect data pertaining to moisture and temperature. The project is sponsored by OWL Integrations, with help from the Cal Poly Electrical Engineering (EE) Department. Results show positive prospects, with the product able to make 4 km transmissions, operate for …

The Bandages Problem, James E. Marengo, Joseph G. Voelkel, David L. Farnsworth

Articles

A new probability problem, named the Bandages Problem, is described and solved. The problem involves repeatedly selecting and removing an item at random from a finite population that initially consists of a known configuration of single and paired items. For each selection, the probability that the chosen item is single is found. Generalizations are suggested.

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Individual Cleaning Steps Of A Cip Protocol In Membrane Biofilm Removal Under Dynamic Conditions, Diwaker Singh, Sanjeev Anand

Dairy Science and Food Science Faculty Publications: 2022 to Present

This study evaluated the effectiveness of individual clean-in-place (CIP) steps in removing biofilms from reverse osmosis (RO) membranes under dynamic flow conditions using the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) biofilm reactor. Biofilms were developed in the laboratory under continuous flow, using mixed-species bacterial isolates obtained from 10-month-old RO membrane biofilms from a commercial facility. Individual CIP chemicals, representative of those used in commercial protocols, were tested against 24 h-old biofilms. Additionally, a complete six-step sequential CIP process was conducted under dynamic conditions, consisting of treatments with alkali, surfactant, acid, enzyme, a secondary surfactant, and sanitizer. All experiments were performed in …

Comparative Impacts Of Irradiation On Antioxidant Compounds Of Scalded And Non-Scalded Skin Of Granny Smith Apples, Angela Banda

Food Science (MS) Theses

Post-harvest Superficial scald affects the quality of Granny Smith Apples. Oxidative stress develops superficial scald with antioxidant systems mitigating the extent of this damage. This study evaluated the effects of gamma, X-ray, and electron beam irradiation on antioxidants – ascorbic acid, total phenolics, α-tocopherol, carotenoids, chlorophyll, and campesterol – in scalded and non-scalded apple peel tissue. Apples were treated with 0.2-0.77 kGy and stored at 0-1 °C. Irradiation at the applied doses increased scald incidence, suggesting that disruption of antioxidant systems promoted reactive oxygen species accumulation and membrane damage. While certain antioxidants appeared to be upregulated as a stress response, …

Multi-Stage Stochastic Programming For Disaster Relief Logistics Under Forecast Uncertainty, Sudhan Bhattarai

All Dissertations

Hurricanes are among the most destructive annual disasters in the United States, presenting interdependent challenges for evacuation planning and relief-supply logistics. Coordinating evacuation and relief operations is crucial to ensure the timely and effective movement of at-risk populations and the delivery of essential supplies. This dissertation develops and evaluates three progressively advanced multi-stage stochastic programming (MSSP) frameworks that integrate evacuation and relief-item pre-positioning while explicitly accounting for uncertainty in hurricane forecasts.

Chapter 1 introduces a fully adaptive MSSP model for the integrated hurricane relief logistics and evacuation planning (IHRLEP) problem. The model simultaneously optimizes evacuation flows and inventory pre-positioning over …

How Do Acoustic Indices Serve As Proxy Of Temperate Forests And In Relation To Presence Of Bobcat (Lynx Rufus) In Central Indiana Habitats, Faith Mcphee, Kristen Bellisario Dr.

Discovery Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Internship

Central Indiana is largely dominated by agriculture which has led to numerous historical extirpations of mammals. The bobcat (Lynx rufus) is slowly re-establishing across northern Indiana after near extirpation in the early 1900s and utilizes corridors similar to extirpated mammals. Bobcats as a focal species can serve as an indicator for habitat quality for future designated wildlife corridors. New metrics have emerged from species monitoring through remote sensing technologies such as eco-acoustic indices which summarize sound profiles, are a potential proxy for biodiversity, and could be utilized in monitoring large mammals. Here, we investigate the relationship between Lynx …

Flowdb: A Complete Method For Extracting Queries From Functional Programs, Koby J. Lewis

Theses and Dissertations

Programmers working on database-backed applications frequently face trade-offs between designing maintainable software and efficient software due to the overhead of querying a database. We demonstrate FlowDB, an analysis for database-backed programs that can aid in program transformations that allow a program to be written in a maintainable style while still being performant. FlowDB employs demand-driven control flow analysis (DCFA) to produce a set of query sites that may be evaluated during the execution of a program. This set of query sites may then be used by a developer or compiler to cache needed results.

An Active Quasi-Circulator Ic And Technique For 1-255 Mhz Resonance-Based Spectroscopic Impedance Plethysmography, Sharisse Poff

Theses and Dissertations

Impedance measurement is a promising avenue for noninvasive glucosemonitoring. Specifically,resonance-basedimpedancemeasurements exhibit good correlation with glucose levels at excitations from tens of MHztoover 100 MHz. Additionally, plethysmographic impedance measurements are needed to separate arterial blood signals, which contain strongerglucose information, frominterstitialfluidsignals. Weanticipate that plethysmographic measurements across a range of frequencies— spectroscopic plethysmography—at excitations from tens to over 100 MHz could enable resonance-based monitoring with higher selectivity for arterial glucose than previous work. Afour-point impedance measurement circuit is designed, and its ability to measure constant and periodically time-varying impedance is demonstrated. This circuit presents high impedance to the device-undertest (DUT), which fails …

Performance Evaluation Of Delay-Aware Packet Delivery In Wireless Devices, Alvin Lee

Computer Science and Engineering Master's Theses

As wireless networks, such as WiFi, have evolved from a convenient alternative to wired internet into the backbone of modern digital life, with approximately 19.5 billion devices deployed in 2023, the emergence of Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications has introduced unprecedented Quality of Service (QoS) demands that challenge existing wireless capabilities. While recent wireless standards have largely addressed throughput limitations, achieving consistent low-latency performance remains a significant challenge.

This thesis focuses on the implementation and performance evaluation of existing solutions to latency bottlenecks in wireless networks, and their impacts on User Datagram Protocol (UDP) and Transmission Control …

Quantifying Multiphase Flow In Small-Diameter Vertical Pipes, Umaer Abdullah Zaki

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

In small-diameter (1-inch) vertical pipes, predicting the onset of liquid loading in gas-liquid flows remains challenging due to limitations of conventional flow regime maps. This study addresses that problem by comparing the flow regime prediction performance of the classic Orkiszewski map against a more recent map by Wu et al. (2017). Experimental data were collected using the Montana Tech Vertical Flow Loop in a 1-inch tubing system under a range of gas and liquid flow rates. A pressure-type curve analysis method was applied to interpret the multiphase flow behavior and identify regime transitions. The focus was on the critical annularmist …

Evaluating The Potential To Increase Oil Production From Legacy Fields In Montana, Noel Dapilee

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

This research assesses the potential for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) techniques to boost oil production in Montana. Eight major oil basins in Montana, comprising over 350 oil fields, were analyzed. Using a volumetric analytical method, the original oil in place (OOIP) was estimated for 42 fields where sufficient data were available for the calculation. By comparing the cumulative oil production with the OOIP, fields with significant remaining reserves were identified. Data for this project was obtained from the Montana Geological Society (MGS) and the Montana Board of Oil and Gas (MBOG), which provided comprehensive information on reservoir properties, fluid characteristics, …

Modeling Copper Biogeochemistry In Continental Environments: 0 – 93 °C, Paul Goldsborough Helfrich

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

Microbiomes are intertwined with copper chemistry through both toxin and trace nutrient interactions. We produced and examined nineteen metagenomes from a creek recovering from historic copper mining to investigate how anthropogenic contamination shapes microbial community structure and functional potential. We then incorporated the metagenomic profiles and concurrently collected geochemical context into multivariate models to examine correlations between habitat geochemistry and microbial ecology. Residual copper and wastewater inputs alter stream habitability across seasonal gradients. We complimented initial analyses with new insights from high temperature environments. Combined dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), temperature, pH, and silica stress constrain photosynthesis in hydrothermal features. Geochemical …

New Dentist News (August 2025), Ada Committee On The New Dentist

New Dentist News

New Dentist News offers timely information on scientific, social, educational, political and economic developments affecting new dentists. This collection is historical and items may not reflect current standards. For up-to-date information contact the ADA. The New Dentist News was alternately titled ADA Lifeline, 1997-June 2001.

Patterns And Continuity: Documenting African American History In Carbon County, Utah, And The Roots Of Racial Terror Lynchings In American Society, Michael L. B. Forvil

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis explores the history of African Americans in Carbon County, Utah, through the lens of racial terror lynching, community memory, and migration. Anchored in the story of Robert Marshall, a Black man lynched in Price, Utah, in 1925, the project considers how racial violence reached beyond the American South and how such acts have been neglected in public memory. Drawing on family history research, census records, historical newspapers, and the work of the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), this work contextualizes Marshall’s death within broader patterns of racial terror lynchings that shaped African American migration from the South during the …

J.W. Crawford Iii 1 4 Th P R E S I D E N T T E X A S S O U T H E R N U N I V E R S I T Y 2 0 2 4 - 2 0 2 5, Office Of The President

President Office Publications

none

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

Library & Learning Newsletters

PDF version of the August 2025 (Volume 4, Issue 1) Library & Learning Newsletter.

Graduate List - August 2025, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Commencement Lists

No abstract provided.

Retinal Vascular Dysfunction In The Mthfr(677c>T) Mouse Model Of Cerebrovascular Disease, Alaina M Reagan, Michael Maclean, Travis L Cossette, Gareth R Howell

Faculty Research 2025

INTRODUCTION: Investigations of retinal biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) and AD and related dementias (ADRD), has increased significantly. We examine retinal vascular health in a mouse containing the ADRD risk variant Mthfr

METHODS: Morphology and function of retinal vasculature and neurons were assessed using in vivo imaging, immunohistochemistry, and pattern electroretinography. RNAscope and proteomics were employed to determine Mthfr gene expression and differential protein expression in mice carrying Mthfr

RESULTS: Mice show age- and sex-dependent retinal vascular deficits, displaying similarities to previously published brain data. Mthfr is widely expressed and co-localizes with vascular cell markers. Proteomics identified common molecular signatures …

Quicknotes August 2025, Southern Adventist University

QuickNotes – Advancement e-Newsletter

QuickNotes is an e-newsletter that comes from Advancement at Southern Adventist University. The August 2025 edition covers Southern's cocurricular collaborations and partners in prayer.

Layered Redactions: An Arts Based Research And Self Study Handbook For Art Teachers Navigating Professional Learning Communities, Audrea M. Danenhauer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This self-study contributes to the field of art education by examining the tensions and possibilities within Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) through an arts-based lens. Framed as both a love letter and a palimpsestic work, this thesis reimagines professional development as a layered, living practice, rooted in collective care and criticality. Using collage as both method and metaphor, the study interweaves Freire’s dialogic praxis, bell hooks’ radical tenderness, and the marginalia of a weathered PLC handbook—redacted, annotated, and reassembled with lived experience. Through deliberate redaction and reassembly, the research intentionally disrupts the normative invisibility of whiteness in educational structures, making visible …

Design, Modeling, Control, And Analysis Of A Modular Two-Wheeled Self-Balancing Robotic System, Mishek Jair Musa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two-wheeled self-balancing robots have garnered substantial attention within the realms of research and innovation in academia and industrial settings. In particular, advances in control algorithms, machine learning, reinforcement learning, and sensor technologies have played a pivotal role in their development. Although primarily recognized for their utility in personal transportation in the commercial sector, these robots possess potential applications across various domains, including search and rescue, healthcare, material handling, logistics, etc., due to their active stabilization and exceptional maneuvering capabilities. A particular area of interest lies in the creation of modular self-balancing robots designed for seamless reconfiguration and enhanced human interaction. …

The Impact Of Black Faculty On First-Year Black Student Retention, Sense Of Belonging, And Racial Identity At Historically And Predominantly White Institutions, D'Andrea L. Williams

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The presence and engagement of Black faculty members in higher education can significantly impact Black students' college experience in their first year, especially at historically and predominantly White institutions. Emphasizing the importance of representation mentorship and relationship building, this study stresses the importance of Black faculty in fostering a sense of belonging, strengthening racial identity development, and contributing to the retention rates of Black college students during their freshmen year. On campus, Black students face the challenges of a campus climate plagued by racism, unfair expectations, mistreatment, microaggressions, and discrimination. Representation matters, and the sharing and affirming of those experiences …

Uab Libraries News, 08/09 2025, Uab Libraries

UAB Libraries News

No abstract provided.

Exploring Ict Adoption In Teaching And Learning Of Science: A Case Of Senior Teachers In Kenya, David Odhiambo, Winston Edward Massam, Fredrick Mtenzi

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

This study was conducted in Homa Bay Sub County, Kenya to explore the adoption of ICT among senior teachers, aged between 45-60 years, in teaching and learning of science. A qualitative research approach using a case study design was employed. Eight secondary school senior teachers of science, 2 females and 6 males, within Homa Bay Sub County were purposefully selected. Semi structured interviews were conducted one-on-one basis followed by classroom observation and document analysis. Analysis of the data revealed that senior teachers of science generally integrate ICTs in planning, assessment and in classroom teaching; however pedagogical preferences and teacher’s workload …

Icipe Monthly Digest – Volume 1, Issue 8, August 2025, International Centre Of Insect Physiology And Ecology (Icipe)

icipe Newsletters

No abstract provided.

Decoding Anisotropic Porous Medium: A Synergy Of Lattice Boltzmann Modelling And Operator Learning To Predict Permeability As A Function Of Orientation, Soumya Shouvik Bhattacharjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the directional properties of porous media is essential for accurately predicting flow behavior, reactive transport, and fluid-solid interactions in systems ranging from geothermal reservoirs to energy storage devices and biological tissues. Directional variations in permeability - reflecting a medium's response to flow at different angular orientations - are particularly important for complex, inherently anisotropic geometries. In this study, we employ a Lattice Boltzmann (LBM) model to calculate directional permeabilities from porous media images subjected to varying flow inlet angles. Three classes of porous media were investigated: (1) synthetic media with circular grains, serving as isotropic baselines; (2) synthetic media …