Digital Commons Network^™

Harnessing Nature's Building Blocks: Exploring Sustainable Biomass For Polymer And Composite Materials, Kavan Sheth

All Dissertations

The automotive industry has been actively pursuing lighter and more fuel-efficient vehicles to address rising emissions and challenges associated with global warming. Polymers such as polyamides, polyolefins, and polyesters play a crucial role in reducing the weight of structural components while maintaining required safety standards. However, this transition has inadvertently made the automotive sector one of the largest contributors to plastic waste generation. Plastic waste presents a significant challenge due to its chemically inert nature, leading to its persistence in the environment and the leaching of toxic chemicals over hundreds of years. Scientists and lawmakers have been tackling this issue …

Evaluating Novel Approaches For Improving Anadromous Fish Passage In Coastal Rivers, Aaron Bunch

All Dissertations

Few of the world's rivers remain free-flowing for over 1000 km, significantly impacting anadromous fish populations due to dam-induced habitat fragmentation. Three partial migration barriers (low-head dams) on North Carolina's Cape Fear River (USA)—lock and dam 1 (LD1), lock and dam 2 (LD2), and lock and dam 3 (LD3)—impact American shad Alosa sapidissima, Atlantic sturgeon Acipenser oxyrinchus oxyrinchus, and striped bass Morone saxatilis populations. Mitigation strategies to pass fish upstream have included conservation locking, nature-like fishway construction, and environmental flows (e-flows). This study introduced a novel e-flow (dam submergence flow), tested acoustic double-tagging techniques for tracking American …

Statistical Methodologies For Sequential Online Controlled Experiments, Yangyi Li

All Dissertations

Online controlled experiments, primarily used on digital platforms like websites or apps, involve varying certain variables while keeping others constant to determine their effects on specific outcomes. This method allows researchers to compare results with a control group, gaining reliable insights. These experiments have grown popular among companies for assessing product impacts and guiding decision-making.

This dissertation presents a group Sequential Probability Ratio Testing (group SPRT) algorithm optimized for online experiments to balance sample number and accuracy by minimizing expected costs. It contrasts group SPRT with traditional SPRT under normal distributions, revealing differences in test power, sample size, and cost …

Green Chemistry Design Of Epoxies From Biomass For Circular Economy, Kavya Ganesan

All Dissertations

The commercial epoxies market in automobiles has been growing mainly in terms of usage as automotive coatings and lightweight composite structures manufacturing. Most of these commercial epoxies are bisphenol-based. Bisphenol-based epoxies are a class of high-performance polymer materials that, when cured, yield thermosets with high mechanical, thermal and chemical resistance properties. Roughly, North America produces around 123 billion pounds of these epoxies which are used in various industrial applications like coatings, composites, structural parts, automotive, electronics, construction etc. These epoxies are mainly manufactured from bisphenol-A (BPA) and epichlorohydrin (EPH). These raw materials are sourced from fossil fuel resources and are …

Numerical Simulation Of Laser Induced Elastic Waves In Response To Short And Ultrashort Laser Pulses., Alireza Zarei

All Dissertations

In an era of intensified market competition, the demand for cost-effective, high-quality, high-performance, and reliable products continues to rise. Meeting this demand necessitates the mass production of premium products through the integration of cutting-edge technologies and advanced materials while ensuring their integrity and safety. In this context, Nondestructive Testing (NDT) techniques emerge as indispensable tools for guaranteeing the integrity, reliability, and safety of products across diverse industries.

Various NDT techniques, including ultrasonic testing, computed tomography, thermography, and acoustic emissions, have long served as cornerstones for inspecting materials and structures. Among these, ultrasonic testing stands out as the most prevalent method, …

Essays On The Labor Market Outcomes And Location Choices Of Military Veterans, Brian Bifulco

All Dissertations

The economic outcomes of military veterans are a persistent source of interest for economists, policy analysts, and the public in the United States. Veterans' outcomes bear directly on the decision of prospective recruits to join the military and current service-members to exit the military, informing policymakers about the long-term sustainability of the all-volunteer force. This dissertation focuses on veterans' economic outcomes by examining their relationship with market entry conditions and the location decisions veterans make when they exit the military.

Chapter 1 examines the earnings and employment outcomes of new military veterans associated with market entry conditions. This chapter intersects …

Enforcement Of International Investment Arbitration Awards: Comparative Lessons From Indonesia And China, Luo Yuan Yuan, Abdul Gani Abdullah Prof., Gatot Sumartono

Indonesia Law Review

The current world has various methods to resolute the investment dispute, while the main reason which should be largely taken into account when people choose the way to resolve the dispute is whether the recognition and enforcement of the resolution is effective or not.

As the most popular resolution chosen for investment dispute, the international arbitration is playing the most crucial role on the current stage. The article focuses on the comparative study on the recognition and enforcement of International Investment Arbitration Award between Indonesia and China. The research addresses two questions namely: (1) how to make the dispute settlement …

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Undergraduate College Students, Rebecca C. Madson

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic created significant disruption across the world. These two studies provide a mixed methods approach to understanding how undergraduate college students at one university were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The first, a quantitative study, examines changes in mean, median, and standard deviation of GPAs in the semesters leading up to and during the pandemic (Fall 2018 - Spring 2022). The second, a qualitative study, involves interviewing students (n = 13) who began their undergraduate college career in Fall 2019, prior to the pandemic, and graduated in Spring 2023. Findings from these studies suggest that undergraduate students performed …

An Experimental And Computational Study On The Dynamics Of Vertical Axis Wind Turbines, Stephen Conte

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This thesis conducts preliminary analyses on the estimated performance of a novel Vertical-Axis Wind Turbine at a small-scale through experimental and numerical means. This includes the construction of a wind tunnel in the Complex Fluids Lab at Montclair State University for the simulation and analyses of small-scale prototypes of said VAWT; as well as the utilization of Ansys® 2024 Student Fluent R1 for CFD simulation of scaled single-blade pairs, and potentially full-models of said VAWT.

Disavowed: The Downfall Of England's Men, Marriages, And Sense Of Self In The Stories Of D. H. Lawrence, Emily Guido

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper aims to discuss the theme of displacement, specifically of men in early twentieth-century England experiencing the decline of the traditional masculinity model, in the short fiction of D. H. Lawrence. Displacement, fundamentally, it is removing that which belongs in a specific place or home to an unknown, unadapted environment. In the context of literature, displacement can take more abstract shapes, such as cultural, spiritual, and mental displacements that—as most great literature does—arouses our sympathies to the larger groups and concepts for which they stand. In these types of stories, physical displacement becomes the metaphor for these more abstract …

Patterns In Macrofaunal Abundance And Biodiversity At Sites In The Florida Keys, Cydney Wolff

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Coral reef health in the Florida Keys, USA has been declining in recent years. To gain an understanding of the current state of macrofaunal abundance and biodiversity on these reefs, research was conducted to identify and count the macrofauna colonizing standardized settlement plates at two coral reef sites, one in the middle (Delta Shoal) and one in the lower (Pelican Shoal) Florida Keys. Plates were deployed for a one-month period in June 2023. At each site, the plates were placed at two heights: ocean bottom and 2 m above ocean bottom (two plates per height per site for a total …

Male Infertility: A Retrospective Review Of Laboratory Charts At A Tertiary Teaching Hospital In Nairobi City County, Festus Mulakoli, Doris Machaki, Abednego Ongeso, Maureen Akolo, Ruth Wagathu

School of Nursing & Midwifery, East Africa

Background: Globally, approximately 50 million couples experience one form of infertility, and 10 million cases of subfertility have been reported in sub-Saharan Africa. Infertility is characterized by a lack of clinical conception among couples who live together for more than one year with regular coitus, without the use of contraception. Factors related to fertility vary by sex and geographical region. These factors include age, lifestyle, infectious diseases, and genetic disorders. In African culture, children are considered a simple inheritance and a measure of masculinity, so efforts are needed to address the growing problem of male infertility in this context. …

Postcolonial Analysis Of Equity In The Ghanaian Education System, Enock Yeboah

Kutztown University Masters Theses

The paper contains information on the Ghana education system. As a product of the system, I will explain the Ghanaian education system's structure in the first part of the paper. In this part of the paper, I explain the Ghanaian education system from early childhood to the tertiary level, the assessment practices used in Ghana, and diversity and inclusion in the education sector of Ghana. I will give a brief overview of all the educational levels in Ghana and the age brackets of all levels. Early childhood education in Ghana starts at birth to age 4, and kindergarten starts at …

Physical Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Abraham Victor Steiner

Education Doctoral

The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the perceptions of physical education teachers regarding the implementation of the New York State Education Department (NYSED) Culturally Responsive-Sustaining (CR-S) Education Framework principles within their pedagogy when working with Black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) students. The research sought to understand the challenges and strategies the participants used to implement the CR-S Education Framework.

The research was conducted using a case study approach, focusing on the perceptions of six physical education teachers in an urban school district in Upstate New York. Data were gathered through questionnaires, …

Evaluation Of Late Season Potassium Applications To Arkansas Soybean, Carrie Ortel

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Potassium (K) deficiency is one of the most important yield limiting factors in Arkansas soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) production, although there are recently improved diagnostic and management opportunities available. However, several questions regarding the successful implementation of in-season K management in soybean production remain. Therefore, the research objectives were to (a) delineate the relationship between drought stress and K deficiency on soybean vigor, (b) identify the spatial dependencies of leaf-K concentrations at the production scale, (c) develop a leaf sampling protocol, (d) calibrate the fertilizer-K rate needed to correct varying levels of K deficiency at 15, 30, and …

Class Of 2024 Commencement Program, State University Of New York College At Cortland

Commencement Programs

May Commencement, Undergraduate Ceremony

Sports Science: An Entrepreneurial Venture, Nicole J. Jones

Senior Honors Projects

In sports science, ensuring maximum athlete safety and optimizing data utilization are pivotal yet leave room for further work. My project, Unbeaten SafeWare, addresses these critical issues by focusing on two primary concerns: preventing heat-related and cardiac illnesses, which are significant causes of athlete fatalities, and enhancing the transparency and utility of sports data. This initiative involves developing a shirt integrated with sensors to monitor vital signs and an athlete management system to handle data input, storage, analysis, and accessibility for athletes.

The project has advanced through the efforts of a multidisciplinary team, which includes biomedical engineering undergraduates, two faculty …

The Effect Of Social Determinants On Pediatric Mental Health, Megan Johnson

Senior Honors Projects

In the United States, mental illnesses are developing at an increasing rate affecting all populations. When looking at pediatrics, the instances of proper diagnostics and treatments are significantly lower than in the adult population. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 5 children have a mental health disorder, but only 20% of children receive care from a specialized mental health care provider. The goal of this study is to determine how the social determinants of health have an impact on the mental health of pediatric patients. These determinants included physical environment, economic stability, community and social …

Flamenco, Gender Roles, And Female Empowerment In Granada, Spain, Dana F. Giordano

Senior Honors Projects

During the 2023-2024 academic year, my academic pursuits led me to Granada, Spain. This city is nestled within the culturally rich region of Andalucia, renowned as the birthplace of flamenco. Immersed in the study of Spanish language and culture, but also cognizant of prevalent issues of sexism deeply rooted within its societal fabric, I decided to explore gender expression and dynamics in flamenco. For this project, I researched Laura Mulvey's notion of the “male gaze,” a feminist theory that argues that the depiction of women in art and media supports a patriarchal society. Women are often portrayed as objects for …

Reconnecting With Nature One Classroom At A Time, Bianca Apuzzo

Senior Honors Projects

Environmental science is more important to today’s society than it has ever been, and developing basic ecoliteracy is the easiest way we can work towards a more sustainable future. Ecoliteracy allows us to connect deeper to nature and provides us with the information needed to protect and restore our beautiful planet. We are rolling downhill, picking up speed as we go, through a silent mass extinction. The scariest part of it all: nobody seems to care.

In response to the lack of environmental education provided to today’s students, I have created a syllabus for a high school level science course …

The Power Of Self-Reflection, Lucy Kaczmarski

Senior Honors Projects

Research suggests that self-reflection, which includes practices like journaling and personal narrative writing, can be a powerful tool for improving mental and emotional well-being. As a health studies major who will be pursuing a graduate degree in clinical mental health counseling, I wanted to learn about self-reflection and its impact on holistic well-being. Therefore, I developed a three-phase project to accomplish this. Phase 1 entailed a careful literature analysis of peer-reviewed research exploring the benefits of self-reflection. These studies discuss the importance of knowing and expressing oneself. Sources indicate that in writing about demanding times, individuals can find closure, and …

A Potential Klebsiella Bacteriocin With Efficacy Toward The Enterbacteriaceae Family, Kasey Barber

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Drug resistance is unfortunately becoming a prevalent issue in the course of patient treatment, ranging from chemotherapy resistance to antimicrobial resistance. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimated in 2016 that at least 23,000 people die every year in the United States from an infection with an antibiotic-resistant organism (Munita, et al, 2016). Carl Friedlander was the first scientist to describe Klebsiella pneumoniae in 1882 as an encapsulated bacillus after isolating the bacterium from the lungs of patients who had died from pneumonia (Ashurst and Dawson, 2022). Klebsiella pneumoniae is the type species for the Klebsiella genus and …

Adverse Childhood Experiences And Sexual Functioning: A Mediation Analysis Of Difficulties In Emotional Regulation, Haven Travis

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Sexual dysfunction can lead to a negative impact upon a person’s mental and relational health, including relational and overall distress, poor relationship and sexual satisfaction, and clinical mood disorders such as depression. Moving upstream to identify factors that may predict sexual dysfunction would therefore be beneficial for early intervention in at-risk populations. History of childhood trauma is one such factor that may influence sexual functioning later in life. While adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have been less studied in association with sexual dysfunction, there is some evidence to indicate that they may be related. ACEs have been shown to increase the …

Detection Of Jamming Attacks In Vanets, Thomas Justice

Undergraduate Honors Theses

A vehicular network is a type of communication network that enables vehicles to communicate with each other and the roadside infrastructure. The roadside infrastructure consists of fixed nodes such as roadside units (RSUs), traffic lights, road signs, toll booths, and so on. RSUs are devices equipped with communication capabilities that allow vehicles to obtain and share real-time information about traffic conditions, weather, road hazards, and other relevant information. These infrastructures assist in traffic management, emergency response, smart parking, autonomous driving, and public transportation to improve roadside safety, reduce traffic congestion, and enhance the overall driving experience. However, communication between the …

Scare If You Dare: A Look Into Scare Acting, Hana Goss

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Scare acting has always been the unsung villains of the entertainment industry. For three months of the year, for about five minutes of a haunted house, they get attention. However, the work scare actors do to is way more than just a five second “boo.” Scare actors have been at the beginning of theatre and continue to influence modern entertainment. Even though the patrons may be the ones feeling the danger, scare actors may be even more in danger than them. Each scare actor is unique from their looks to their moves. It might be take a lot of nerve …

An Actor's Approach To Contemporary Theatre, Ethan Harbin

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This paper is a composite of research and reflection in regards to Comemedia dell'arte as well as contemporary theatre. It is a personal exploration of the life and legacy of Aurand Harris. My personal application of the research is documented in this thesis.

Risky Business: Creating A Process To Review Accuracy Of American Society Of Anesthesia (Asa) Classification And To Improve Overall Quality Risk Adjustment Of Surgical Patients, Jane Kinney, Sonja Orff, Robyn Begin, Nicholas Flavin, Eira Hyrkas, Christopher Adams, Ian Neilson

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2024

Through interdisciplinary education and the creation of an audit process, we have observed a 30.6% reduction in the number of ASA assignment misclassifications.

Variations Exist In Hospital And Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Total Hip Arthroplasty According To Biological Sex, Catherine Call, Andrew Lachance, Thomas Zink, Henry Stoddard, Callahan Sturgeon, George Babikian, Adam Rana, Brian J. Mcgrory

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2024

Introduction

• The effect of biological sex on the outcomes of THA remains unclear.

• Average combined data may mask sex-related variation and obscure clinically relevant differences in outcomes.

Dean's Research Newsletter, May 2024, Neil W. Schluger

SOM Dean's Research Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Tech Startups ‘Propel-Ed’ At University Of Dayton Win $200,000 State Grants, University Of Dayton

News Releases

Tech startups boosted by a program to support entrepreneurs building a new business based on technology developed at the University of Dayton each received $200,000 awards from the State of Ohio Technology Validation Startup Fund.