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Ferroelectricity And Multiferroicity In Ultrathin Films Of Unconventional Transition Metal Oxide, Xin Li

Department of Physics and Astronomy: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Ferroic orders of transition metal oxides, such as ferroelectricity and ferromagnetism, are determined by the intercoupling between spin, charge, lattice. Consequently, ferroic epitaxial thin films have attracted wide interest due to the profuse novel phenomena and the great application potentials for modern electronics. However, the mainstream of the study for transition metal oxides has focused on perovskite structure, limiting the understanding and discovery of novel phenomena associate with ferroic orders. In this thesis, the epitaxial films of hexagonal rare-earth ferrites (h-RFeO₃) and fluorite-structure hafnia oxide (HfO₂) are studied comprehensively, providing new experimental and theoretic …

Multi-Theoretic Perspective Of Backer Decision-Making In Crowdfunding: Interplay Of Backer, Founder And Ai, Maliha Alam

Theses and Dissertations

Crowdfunding has become a transformative mechanism for financing innovation, connecting creators directly with backers while bypassing traditional funding barriers. Despite its rapid global growth, only about 33.7% of campaigns succeed, largely due to ineffective communication of value propositions and lack of backer engagement. This dissertation investigates the complex interplay between project founders, backers, and emerging AI technologies to understand the factors influencing donation intention and to enhance crowdfunding success prediction.

Adopting the behavioral decision-making framework, I draw on multiple theoretical perspectives- signaling theory, the dual-process model of persuasion, and the cognitive-affective trust framework to examine founder- backer interactions. Using a …

Hope Against Hope: Problems, Possibilities, Agency, And Survival, Erin Kay Chambers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In response to a critique of hope put forth by queer theorist Jack Halberstam, this thesis is a reassessment of what makes us capable of response—to “stay with the trouble,” in the words of Donna Haraway—in the face of overwhelming collapse. If not hope, then what? This thesis explores a number of questions about hope and its absence, opposites, and various deployments: is hope always an effective tool for survival? Does hopelessness always spell doom? Are hope and its apparent opposites necessarily incompatible? And if there is no hope, how do we keep going?—how do we survive? I explore these …

Don't Settle For Less: Incorporating Postcolonial And Settler Colonial Perspectives Into The Sociological Canon, Eli Xavier Ornelas

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

For decades now, post-/de-/settler-/ and anticolonial scholars have advanced the argument that sociology has largely failed to incorporate critical insights from theories of empire into the sociological canon. In this dissertation, I argue that introduction to sociology textbooks offer an important vantage point from which to assess conventional sociological knowledge as textbooks are often thought to be “reflections of the discipline.” I analyze the social theory and race chapters of 21 of the most often used introduction to sociology textbooks in the United States to investigate two chapters where insights from theories of empire would be present if indeed incorporated: …

Flooding: Risk Assessment And Its Interaction With Population & Environmental Health, Shivendra Srivastava

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Flood events have significant implications for both population and environmental health. This dissertation aims to explore flood risk and its interaction with humans and the environment. The key questions addressed in this dissertation include improving the existing flood risk framework to better assess population vulnerability and associated risk. Additionally, it explores how interactions among risk components vary across spatial scales and regions, and how these variations influence overall flood risk. The dissertation also investigates how to design a vulnerability component specific to flooding within flood risk estimation. Finally, it answers whether flood-specific vulnerability differs for a population compared to vulnerability …

“Self-Compassion Has To Be The Heartbeat Of How I Move Through Life”: A Mixed Methods Study Of Family Caregiver Emotional Well-Being, Sarah O. Rasby

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Often referred to as “hidden patients,” family caregivers endure numerous physical, emotional, psychological, and social hardships due to the demands of caregiving, which often results in their own needs going unmet. With the projected 61.3 million of the baby boomer generation entering the long-term care phase by 2029 along with a mass shortage of professional caregivers post-pandemic, more and more family members are expected to fill in for the role of care without sufficient access to support services (Pollard & Scommegna, 2014; Smith & Chang, 2016). An exploratory, mixed-methods study using a three-group intervention design was utilized to investigate the …

Climate Drives Genetic Diversity Loss In American Pika (Ochotona Princeps) Populations In The Great Basin, Emily N. Kulig, Jane Van Gunst, Michael J. Hernandez, Yvonne Luong, Monica Villaseñor, Rachel S. Crowhurst, Clinton W. Epps, Jessica A.Castillo Vardaro

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

American pikas (Ochotona princeps) are small, thermally sensitive mammals that primarily live in montane and alpine environments. The Sierra Nevada lineage (O. p. schisticeps) has experienced numerous local extinctions, most of which occurred in hotter, drier regions such as the Great Basin. Few genetic studies have assessed these at-risk populations. This study aims to fill that gap by conducting fine-scale genetic analyses on populations in low-elevation Great Basin habitat in northwestern Nevada. Specifically, we: (i) quantified genetic diversity and structure among populations within O. p schisticeps, with particular focus on northwestern Nevada; and (ii) assessed the influence of primary productivity …

Machine Learning-Guided Field Site Selection For River Classification, Zhihao Wang, Gregory Brian Pasternack, Yufang Jin, Costanza Rampini, Serena Alexander, Nikhil Kumar, Rune Storesund, K. Martin Perales, Christopher Lim, Stephanie Moreno, Igor Lacan

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Sufficient abundance and variety of field site sampling are crucial for obtaining an accurate reach-scale river classification of a regional stream network in support of scientific research and river management. However, many studies still randomly select field sites or only visit accessible streams. This leads to an inadequate exploration of stream characteristics, resulting in incomplete or inaccurate classification. Machine learning has been recognized for discovering and extracting streams’ geomorphic patterns efficiently and accurately from data, but its application in field site sampling design is still in its infancy. This study developed a general and practical field site selection framework by …

The Earliest University Of Nebraska Graduate Degrees, 1886-1909, Mark A. Griep

Mark A. Griep Publications

This list of the earliest graduate degrees awarded by the University of Nebraska (NU) in Lincoln was assembled to learn about the university’s research activity that preceded its admission to the prestigious Association of American Universities (AAU) in 1909.

Stabilization Of Cr³⁺ Using Iron Rich Slag-Derived Phosphate Cement: An Integrated Solution For Heavy Metals And Hazardous Solid Wastes, Ting Huang, Hongyan Ma, Zhongqiu Luo, Xintao Zhou, Zhengqing He, Peiwen Lv, Xiunan Cai, Pingyan Wang

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A novel iron-based phosphate cement (IPC), derived from iron-rich smelting slag (ISS), was developed as a sustainable and efficient binder for the stabilization/solidification of trivalent chromium (Cr³⁺). The mechanical properties, hydration behavior, microstructure, leaching toxicity, chromium chemical forms, and environmental safety of chromium-stabilized iron phosphate cement (CIPC) were thoroughly evaluated. The results showed that, with a mass ratio of ISS to ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) of 2.0, and even with the addition of 20 % chromium nitrate nonahydrate (CN), the compressive strength of CIPC reached 4.2 MPa after curing for 28 d. Furthermore, chromium leaching was well below …

Localized Multivariate Statistical Assessment Of United States Construction Labor Shortages, Ahmed Shiha, Islam H. El-Adaway

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Craft labor shortage is a persistent challenge facing the construction industry across various markets. The historically low geographic mobility of construction labor exacerbates and localizes labor shortages. Several research efforts relied on subjective evaluations to quantify the existence of labor shortages on a national level. As such, there is a lack of empirical quantification of labor shortages at different geospatial levels. This paper fills this knowledge gap. To this end, the authors adopted a methodology that encompassed: (1) conducting a literature review to identify and collect national-level and subnational indicators that explain the changes in labor supply and demand; (2) …

Coupling Effect Of Abrasion And Erosion On Ultrahigh-Performance Seawater-Sea Sand Concrete, Dawei Ding, Wei Zhang, Lanqin Wang, Hongyan Ma, Biqin Dong, Song Han, Hongjian Xu, Dongshuai Hou

Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Preparing ultrahigh-performance seawater-sea sand concrete (UHPSSC) to mitigate the scarcity of freshwater and river sand resources has generated considerable recent research interest. However, the deterioration mechanisms of UHPSSC under the effect of abrasion and erosion remain unstudied. In this paper, the underwater steel ball method was conducted to evaluate the impact of seawater, sea sand, steel fiber, and seawater abrasion on the abrasion resistance of UHPSSC. Then the stress erosion models of calcium-silicate-hydrate (C-S-H) were constructed to investigate the degradation mechanisms of UHPSSC under the effect of external stress and seawater erosion. The results show that the application of seawater …

Predicting Continuous Hand Pose From Wearable Emg Sensor Data Using Transformer-Based Deep-Learning Models, Jason Mcdowell

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This thesis investigated Transformer-based deep-learning models for predicting continuous hand pose from electromyography (EMG) signals collected with a low-cost, eight-channel wearable armband. A modular software laboratory was developed to support data acquisition, synchronization, visualization, model training, and inference. A single-subject, three-hour dataset of synchronized EMG and hand-tracking data was collected, with hand pose represented both as 15-dimensional joint flexion angles and 84-dimensional finger-bone orientation quaternions in a hand-centered frame. Compared with a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM)-based model, the Transformer-based model reduced whole-hand median prediction error from 3.6° to 3.3° for a joint angle model and from 17.4° to 15.1° for …

Msw Portfolio, Krystal F. Youngs

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Queer Convergence: Figurative Abstraction In Contemporary Art., Vincent Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an exhibition text for the exhibition of the same name held in Schneider Hall Galleries from May 15 to August 21st, 2025. This exhibition explores the work of three contemporary artists – Joshua Jenkins, Drew Scanlon, and Lalana Fedorschak – and analyzes their artwork through the lens of Queer Convergence. Queer Convergence is an exploration of abstracted images of bodies and how we can read these bodies through a queer lens, arguing that the visual language of bodily overlap, melding, and transformation shows the physical form as a site of continual change shaped by shared experience and …

Genes That Matter: Survival Modeling In Tcga-Brca With Treatment Interactions., David Pratt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High-dimensional genomic data offer both promise and challenges for identifying clinically relevant biomarkers. This study developed a parallelized survival modeling pipeline to identify genes associated with overall survival in breast cancer, with a focus on gene-by-treatment interactions and patient heterogeneity. RNA-Seq data from female patients in the TCGA-BRCA cohort were analyzed. Univariate Cox proportional hazards models were used to screen genes, adjusting for age, race/ethnicity, treatment status, and cancer stage. A LASSO-penalized Cox regression was fit across 2000 random seeds to assess feature stability. Genes were filtered by expression level, statistical significance, and hazard ratios (effect sizes) in either direction, …

Glycerol Kinase Gene Variant As A Cause Of Pseudohypertriglyceridemia And Apparent Poor Response To Plozasiran, Miriam Larouche, Christie Ballantyne, Josiane Dufour, Diane Brisson, Bruce Given, Daniel Gaudet

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Severe hypertriglyceridemia (HTG) is characterized by plasma triglyceride (TG) levels >500 mg/dL (SI: 5.7 mmol/L) (reference range, < 150 mg/dL [SI: < 1.7 mmol/L]) and is linked to cardiovascular disease and pancreatitis risk. Treatment typically involves dietary restrictions and lipid-lowering medications. Glycerol kinase deficiency (GKD) is a rare genetic disorder that causes pseudo-HTG.

In SHASTA-2, a study of patients with severe HTG, most subjects (>90%) treated with plozasiran, an apolipoprotein C-III (APOC3) small interfering RNA (siRNA), achieved TG levels < 500 mg/dL (SI: 5.7 mmol/L), below the risk threshold for acute pancreatitis. We report herein a case study of a 65-year-old male apparently not responding to plozasiran. The patient was shown to carry a loss-of-function variant in the GK gene resulting in GKD, with high free glycerol (40.24 mg/dL or 4.37 mmol/L) (reference range, 0.03-0.13 mmol/L) that contributed to an overestimation of TG concentration. After correcting for free glycerol, the patient was noted to have had mild HTG, with plozasiran treatment decreasing real TG values by up to 71%.

This case report suggests that …

The Scintillator Surface Detector Of The Pierre Auger Observatory, A. Abdul Halim, P. Abreu, M. Aglietta, I. Allekotte, K. Almeida Cheminant, A. Almela, B. Fick, K. Nguyen, D. Nitz, Et Al.

Michigan Tech Publications

Data collected so far by the Pierre Auger Observatory have enabled major advances in ultrahigh energy cosmic ray physics and demonstrated that improved determination of masses of primary cosmic-ray particles, preferably on an event-by-event basis, is necessary for understanding their origin and nature. Improvement in primary mass measurements was the main motivation for the upgrade of the Pierre Auger Observatory, called AugerPrime. As part of this upgrade, scintillator detectors are added to the existing water-Cherenkov surface detector stations. By making use of the differences in detector response to the electromagnetic particles and muons between scintillator and water-Cherenkov detectors, the electromagnetic …

The Effects Of Temperature And Cardiotonic Steroids On Cardiac Function And Metabolism In Snakes, Hannah Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

The function of the heart provides a window into the physiology of vertebrates and a means of evaluating their response to the stresses imposed by diverse activities. I developed a miniaturized instrument to record electrocardiograms (ECGs), using open-source Arduino technology, that a snake can wear as a backpack. The backpack can also be used when the snake is in a metabolic chamber, to record the metabolic rate and ECG simultaneously. I first used the ECG backpack to record the physiology of snakes under different temperature conditions, to verify that the system worked as expected. the backpack was then used on …

Cultural Adaptation Of The Act Guide For Immigrant Community Members, José Manuel González Vera

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Undocumented immigrants face many challenges that can harm their mental health, such as anti- immigrant policies, the threat of deportation, and difficulty accessing mental health care. Online mental health programs can make mental health care more accessible. The ACT Guide is a self-paced online tool designed to help with anxiety and depression. While it has mainly been used by white college students, similar ACT-based programs have been effective for diverse communities worldwide. The first paper was focused on gathering feedback from community members and Latine psychologists. This was done in partnership with United We Dream (UWD) and the Latinx Immigrant …

Improving Seasonal Precipitation Forecasts In The Western United States Through Statistical Downscaling, Bradley Vernon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Seasonal precipitation forecasts are essential tools for water management, especially in drought-prone areas like the Western United States. While global forecasting systems can predict precipitation months to years in advance, these forecasts are typically produced at a coarse spatial resolution due to high computational costs – especially when multiple forecast iterations, or ensemble members, are included. This coarse resolution limits their ability to capture localized weather features, such as those shaped by the complex terrain of the Intermountain West. Here, analog statistical downscaling is demonstrated as an effective approach to enhance the spatial resolution of operational seasonal forecasts provided by …

"I Was In The Story": The Relationship Of Oral Storytelling With Student Hope, Narrative Transportation, And Religious Beliefs, Jacob B. Earnest

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

This study investigated the potential relationships with oral storytelling and student narrative transportation levels, student hope levels, and student religious beliefs. The Children’s Hope Scale and the Transportation Scale-Short Form were to assess hope levels and narrative transportation levels in participants. Results suggest that oral storytelling may have a strong relationship with narrative transportation. A relationship with oral storytelling and student religious beliefs is also suggested. Oral storytelling and student hope levels, and the possible connection between student narrative transportation levels and student hope levels, needs further research.

Optimization Of The Root Zone In Controlled Environment Agriculture, Brendan Fatzinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Controlled environment agriculture (CEA) helps grow plants in spaces where resources like water and nutrients are limited, such as deserts or spacecraft. Effective management of water in the root zone, the area where plant roots grow, is vital to keeping plants healthy, especially in closed-loop systems where water cannot be wasted, as will be necessary for long-duration space missions.

An improved automated watering system designed for use in space-like environments was developed over several trials. Early designs using suction to draw water through tubes faced problems with uneven watering and roots blocking the tubes. Switching to a system that pushed …

An Embodied Social Demography For Trans And Nonbinary Workers, Jesse Ezra Shircliff

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Recently, the separation of “sex” and “gender” has seen intense debate in public discourse, stemming from skepticism about the social sciences and the measurement and study of gender specifically. Meanwhile, the United States population is becoming more gender diverse, with roughly 1 in 200 people now identifying as trans gender or gender nonbinary (that is, as a gender that is different from that person’s sex assigned-at-birth or outside of the sex-gender binary). This growing population experiences numerous disadvantages across social life, including obstacles in one particularly important aspect of the American Dream: the right to have and hold a job. …

Adapting To Change In Amenity-Oriented Communities: Innovative Strategies For Shifting Social And Environmental Needs, Emma L. R. Epperson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Amenity-oriented communities are places with significant and desirable natural amenities that are highly visited and plentiful within the Intermountain West. These high rates of visitation create complex challenges such as congestion in recreation spaces and in towns and increase costs of living. These communities are typically rural and often do not have the resources, funding, or infrastructure to combat these challenges. Although tourists provide financial stability and other amenities to these towns, local wellbeing is highly impacted. Outdoor recreation and the nature connections derived from outdoor experiences are major contributors to wellbeing in amenity communities. This research investigates the changes …

Evaluating Maternal Polar Bear Denning Habitat Along The Arctic Coastal Plain And Assessing The Potential For Noise Disturbance In Polar Bear Dens, Ethan Ducharme

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Polar bears (Ursus Maritimus) in northern Alaska are increasingly choosing land instead of sea ice to build their maternity dens. As sea ice continues to decline due to climate change, this shift makes it more important than ever to identify and protect the areas where polar bears dig dens to give birth and raise their cubs. In the first part of my research, I used new satellite-based elevation data to map potential polar bear denning habitat across a large section of Alaska’s Arctic Coastal Plain. This technology allowed me to identify the types of sloped terrain where drifting …

The Recreation Opportunity Spectrum In Practice: A Classification Of Visitors And Sites In The Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado, Usa, Jessica Bruck

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Researchers and public land managers continue to investigate what motivates visitors to recreate and how to best sustain environmental conditions to provide for these recreation demands and support conservation goals. Much recreation research has successfully identified visitor motivations at a single recreation area (spatial scale), but few studies broadly assess the manifestation of visitor motivations at an array of recreation areas that present unique recreation experience opportunities. Additionally, it is known that there are a diversity of visitor motivations and preferences, which presents a complex challenge to public land managers who must ensure that a diversity of recreation opportunities are …

Remote Detection Of Pest Damage And Tree Health In Tart Cherry, Christina Klara Lilligren

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

With the increasing affordability of technology, using technological advancements to assess tree health might soon become a possibility in low input crops such as tart cherry. We evaluated the ability of drone-mounted multispectral cameras, ceptometry

(canopy density), and soil conductivity meters (soil texture) to predict pest occurrence and remotely detect tree health. Pest scouting data were compared to the different technological datasets to identify the possibility of use for pest detection. While drone-mounted multispectral cameras were able to identify chlorotic trees, powdery mildew was not reliably detectable under a management threshold with current multispectral camera technology. Trees with low canopy …

Aquatic Habitat Representation For Robust Water Resources Management And Fish Conservation Decision-Making, Gregory C. Goodrum

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

We rely on rivers to provide water supply, flood control, and hydroelectricity for people and to sustain aquatic ecosystems. The development of dams and reservoirs to provide water for people did not consider environmental impacts to rivers, leading to widespread decline of freshwater species and habitat. Improving environmental outcomes of water management is needed to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems. However, rivers are complex and variable, making them difficult to represent as objectives for water management. This dissertation explores approaches to improve aquatic habitat representation and environmental objectives for water resources management and river conservation and restoration.

Chapter 2 uses …

From Marriage To Migration: Analyzing Return Migration, Gender Inequalities And Household Resource Allocation Patterns, Saeed Ahmad

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

In Kyrgyzstan, a country shaped by deep-rooted traditions and high rates of migration, women's lives are often influenced by powerful cultural expectations, economic pressures, and limited choices. My research explores how these forces intersect—particularly through the lens of bride kidnapping, migration, and how families use money and resources. Together, these issues reveal how gender inequality operates in everyday life, and how women navigate both constraint and resilience.

This dissertation includes three connected studies. The first examines how the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted international labor migration, especially for Kyrgyz migrants working in Russia. Many returnees lost their jobs and faced hostility or …