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Physiological And Morphological Responses To Drought Stress In Different Cultivation Environments In Wild Type And Aba-Deficient Barley, Chloe Betts

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Global food security is increasingly threatened by the effects of climate change. Of the environmental factors affected by climate change, drought is one of the most critical for plant survival and reproduction, shaping plant morphology and physiology and therefore crop productivity. Although the effects of drought on plants are widely studied, studies are often conducted in controlled greenhouse or laboratory conditions rather than more realistic field-like conditions. This is justified by the lower costs, convenience, and ability to disentangle the effects of different factors in more controlled conditions. This thesis explores the effect of the same watering limitations in different …

Plastic Pollution: Investigating Environmental Pathways And Critically Evaluating Interventions, Florence Parker-Jurd

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Plastics are lightweight, versatile, and durable materials used in the manufacture of a wide range of products. Innovation in the early 1950’s facilitated a dramatic reduction in production costs with the potential to mass produce inexpensive convenience items intended for single use applications. As a consequence, plastic production has grown exponentially over the last 75 years, and a throw away culture of single use has become deeply engrained in modern society. Plastic production exceeds 450 million tonne/yr, substantially exceeding our capacity to manage associated waste resulting in pollution accumulating in every compartment of the natural environment. While plastic pollution has …

Coral Reef Fishes In Different Hard And Soft Coral-Dominated Reef Habitats, Ana Coelho

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Understanding how fish communities respond to different coral habitats is essential for predicting the future resilience of coral reef ecosystems. This study tested whether fish assemblages differ between hard and soft coral–dominated reef plots and among coral genera. We predicted higher fish abundance and more frequent benthic interactions in hard coral plots, and genus-specific differences in community composition, behaviour, and time spent within plots. This study examined fish species diversity, richness, abundance, behaviour, and the time spent in coral habitats. The analysis encompassed seven coral genera in an Indo-Pacific reef system. Twenty 2 × 2 m reef areas, each dominated …

Effects Of Salinity, Region, Site, And Cohort On Growth Traits Of The Black Mangrove, Avicennia Germinans, Bekki Foster

School of Biological and Marine Sciences Theses

Mangroves are trees that are adapted to grow in saline or brackish environments, typically, in estuarine and coastal zones in tropical and subtropical areas. Their root complexity supports marine biodiversity by providing habitat and nursery grounds for fishes and their canopies serve as roosting and breeding sites for avian species. Additionally, roots facilitate nutrient capture through epibiont communities and trap suspended sediments, enhancing stability against high-energy weather and contributing to vertical accretion, potentially mitigating sea level rise. This study aimed to investigate how such factors as salinity, provenance, and genetic background, affect the above and below ground morphological traits of …

Elevated Temperature Flexure Behavior Of Continuous Carbon Fiber Reinforced Zrb2–Zrsi2 Ultrahigh Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composites, Jacob Stacy, Aaron Ginsparg, Jason Lonergan, Jeremy Watts, Gregory Hilmas

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Ultrahigh temperature ceramic matrix composites (UHTCMCs) were fabricated from unidirectional prepreg tapes consisting of a matrix of ZrB₂ with 5, 10, and 15 vol.% ZrSi₂ additions and continuous polyacrylonitrile carbon fibers and were densified at 1600°C in a hot press. The relative matrix densities ranged from 88% to 93% with interlayer spacings of ∼72 µm and fiber volume fractions between 30% and 36%. Phenolic resin additions were utilized to react with ZrSi₂ acting as a transient sintering aid to form ZrC and SiC phases. Elastic moduli of the UHTCMCs decreased with increasing temperature during 4-pt flexure testing. …

Simulated Lunar Gravity Testing Of A Magnetic And Electrostatic System For Beneficiating Lunar Regolith, Blake A. Coffman, Gabriel Porter, Lindsay Manteufel, Mitchell Cottrell, Jeffrey D. Smith, David J. Bayless, William Shonberg, Frank D. Han, Fateme Rezaei, Kirby Runyon

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

We present the design and testing of a lunar regolith beneficiation device that utilizes magnetic and electrostatic separation methods to concentrate desired minerals by removing unwanted material, such as the mineral anorthite, from bulk lunar regolith. The beneficiated materials would have value for downstream in-situ resource utilization (ISRU) processes such as metal extraction, oxygen extraction, and metal oxide additive manufacturing processes. The apparatus uses a dual-strength magnet system with N52 and N42 neodymium magnets to separate particles by magnetic susceptibility. The electrostatic separation system, which acts like a sieve, sorts the regolith simulant by particle size using a single-phase 50% …

Quantum Critical Behavior Of Diluted Quasi-One-Dimensional Ising Chains, Logan Sowadski, Thomas Vojta

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

(Formula presented.) (Formula presented.) is a unique magnetic material. It features bulk 3D magnetic order at low temperatures, but its quantum critical behavior in a magnetic field is well described by the 1D transverse-field Ising universality class. This behavior is facilitated by the structural arrangement of magnetic (Formula presented.) ions in nearly isolated zig-zag chains. In this work, we investigate the effect of random site dilution on the critical properties of such a quasi-1D quantum Ising system. To this end, we introduce an anisotropic site-diluted 3D transverse-field Ising model. We find that site dilution leads to unconventional activated scaling behavior …

Emergent Spin Fluctuation And Structural Metastability In Self-Intercalated Cr1+Xte2 Compounds, Clayton Conner, Ali Sarikhani, Theo Volz, Mathew Pollard, Mitchel Vaninger, Xiaoqing He, Steven Kelley, Jacob Cook, Avinash Sah, John Clark, Hunter Lucker, Cheng Zhang, Paul Miceli, Yew San Hor

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

Intercalated van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials host unique magnetic properties due to the interplay of competing interlayer and intralayer exchange couplings, which depend on the intercalant concentration within the van der Waals gaps. Magnetic vdW compound chromium telluride, (Formula presented.), has demonstrated rich magnetic phases at various Cr concentrations, such as the coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases in (Formula presented.) (equivalently, (Formula presented.)). The compound is created by intercalating 0.25 Cr atom per unit cell within the van der Waals gaps of (Formula presented.). In this work, we report a notably increased Curie Temperature and an emergent in-plane …

Relativistic And Recoil Corrections To Light-Fermion Vacuum Polarization For Bound Systems Of Spin-0, Spin-1=2, And Spin-1 Particles, Gregory S. Adkins, Ulrich D. Jentschura

Physics Faculty Research & Creative Works

In bound systems whose constituent particles are heavier than the electron, the dominant radiative correction to energy levels is given by light-fermion (electronic) vacuum polarization. In consequence, relativistic and recoil corrections to the one-loop vacuum-polarization correction are phenomenologically relevant. Here, we generalize the treatment, previously accomplished for systems with orbiting muons, to bound systems of constituents with more general spins: spin-0, spin-1=2, and spin-1. We discuss the application of our more general expressions to various systems of interest, including spinless systems (pionium), muonic hydrogen and deuterium, and devote special attention to the excited non-S states of deuteronium, the bound system …

Teaching Effectiveness On Secondary Mathematics: Evidence From Pisa—Shanghai-China, Ting Shen

Psychological Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Educational researchers and policymakers around the world have a strong interest in understanding the underlying reasons for the remarkable academic achievement of Chinese students in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Although teachers have a significant impact on student achievement, empirical evidence on teaching effectiveness in the Chinese education system has been scarce. This study uses the PISA 2012 Shanghai-China data and employs both multilevel models and quantile regression models to investigate effective teaching factors and their differential effects for students at different mathematics achievement levels. The results reveal the importance of cognitive activation and disciplinary climate as consistent, …

Character Judgements Of Rap Music Fans, Kaila C. Putter, Dan J. Miller, Amy M. Belfi, James Rees, Amanda E. Krause

Psychological Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

Extending Fischoff, we used vignettes to examine people's perceptions of a hypothetical rap fan accused of murder. Study 1 (N = 300) used a 2 (murder accusation) x 2 (inclusion of rap lyrics) x 2 (fan gender) experiment, asking participants to judge how capable of murder and sexually aggressive they found the fan. The presentation of lyrics and murder accusation were associated with the fan being more capable of murder, while rap lyrics and participants' rap attitudes were associated with the fan being more sexually aggressive. Thematic analysis revealed that, in conditions containing both the lyrics and the murder accusation, …

Structural And Intersectional Factors In Full Retirement: Insights For Black Men, Waleed Sami

Adultspan Journal

This interview centers the full retirement experience of Anthony Crawford. This perspective highlights the complex interplay between social determinants, intersectional identity, the psychology of working, and social class/social mobility, as key factors in his lived experiences. The relationship between structural factors and interpersonal factors continues to be a growth edge in counseling, as counselors frequently report lack of knowledge or comfort in their relationship with counseling. This interview seeks to fill the gap and demonstrate a concrete way to develop clinical insights. The full interview is transcribed and provided, along with practical and research implications for counselors working with populations …

Puppet Lab: Investigating Digital Technologies In Creative Learning, Harrison Lorenz-Daniel

Theses : Honours

This study interrogates the impact that digital technologies and digital mediation have on creative learning workshops run by arts organisations and delivered by teaching artists. It responds to a wave of new creative learning initiatives supported by arts organisations, state governments, and schools following the COVID-19 pandemic. Situating the research primarily in the investigation of Puppet Lab, a new digital workshop developed by Spare Parts Puppet Theatre in Walyalup (Fremantle), qualitative data was collected over a series of 5 semi-structured interviews with Western Australian teaching artists. The study found that digital technologies did not meaningfully impact the standard delivery of …

Systematic Review Of Ketamine Therapy For Treatment Resistant Depression, Amal Abdulkadir

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

a systematic literature review the results of 29 published studies from 2020-2025 that met specified inclusion criteria. The review identified costs and benefits of traditional algorithms for treating this problem, as well as the trend in research to include the use of ketamine. Studies have demonstrated a potential association between the use of ketamine therapy and significant clinical improvement in depressive symptoms. However, the current efficacy of ketamine therapy compared to treatment as usual, side effects and contraindications have not been addressed. This dissertation is available in open access at AURA, https://aura.antioch.edu/, and OhioLINK ETD Center, https://etd.ohiolink.edu/

A Generalized Framework For The “Core” Thalamocortical Circuit Computation, Charles Liu

Dartmouth College Ph.D Dissertations

This thesis explores a biologically inspired computational framework based on a common excitatory-inhibitory circuit in the superficial layers of the cortex. By varying the strength of local feedback inhibition, this single circuit gives rise to distinct unsupervised learning behaviors: strong inhibition leads to clustering and hierarchical clustering, while weak inhibition produces principal component-like representations. From this principle, we develop three algorithms: Lateral Inhibition Clustering (LI-C), Lateral Inhibition Hierarchical Clustering (LI-HC), and Antipodal Iterative Mean Estimation (AIME).

LI-C performs clustering without requiring a predefined number of clusters, using a competitive learning rule to extract dominant patterns from data. LI-HC extends this …

Brief Of Amicus Curiae Professor Steven L. Schooner In Support Of Petitioners' Petition For Certiorari In King V. United States (U.S. Supreme Court), Aram A. Gavoor, Eric Frank, Giovanna Milano, Matt Novotny, Tegan Oliver, Kaci Waguespack, Steven L. Schooner

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

This is an amicus brief in support of a U.S. Supreme Court petition for certiorari in King v. United States (No. 25-856), in which GW Law School's GW Law’s Administrative Law, Issues, and Appeals Clinic represented government contracts expert, GW Law Professor Steven L. Schooner). Petitioners—retired UPS employees William King, Stephen Dardzinski, and the Estate of Anthony Gugliuzza (on behalf of a class of retirees and pension beneficiaries)—challenge the Federal Circuit’s novel “underlying assets” test (created in reviewing a matter initially decided in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims), which withholds per se Takings Clause protection for vested rights to …

Two Heads Are Better Than One: Integrating International Law And Global Public Health Approaches To Firearm Violence To Promote Public Safety And Human Rights, Arturo J. Carrillo, Jonathan E. Lowy

GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works

In his Advisory of June 25th, 2024, the U.S. Surgeon General, Vivek H. Murthy, declared firearm violence a public health crisis and presented a damning picture of the widespread deaths, injuries and trauma caused by gun violence in the United States. A critical feature of the firearm violence crisis in the United States that the Surgeon General did not expressly address in his report–or even mention–is the role of the manufacturers, distributors, and dealers of firearms, collectively referred to as “the gun industry.” It is an open secret that the U.S.-based firearm industry engages in manufacturing, marketing, distribution and sale …

Childlessness And Health In Middle Age And Older Adulthood: Evidence From Singapore, Christine Ho, Dahye Kim, Rohan Ray, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School Of Economics

Health and well-being in mature adulthood are important concerns given the prevalence of individuals aging without children. We exploit two new instruments for childlessness— infertility and the number of childless siblings—and condition our analyses on a rich set of covariates including childhood health and financial status, to investigate the causal relationship between childlessness and health in middle age and older adulthood. Using a nationwide dataset of 1,500 Singaporeans aged 50 and above, we show that OLS underestimates the negativeeffects of childlessness on health. We find that childlessness leads to higher likelihood of poorer self-reported health and mental distress. The results …

Bargaining Inefficiency Due To Mispricing Under Incomplete Information : Evidence From The Bilateral Oligopolistic Containership Time Charter Market, Jaeung Cha

World Maritime University Ph.D. Dissertations

A well-established body of bargaining studies theoretically demonstrates that inherent limitations in observing the counterplayer’s private information give rise to an incomplete information setting in bargaining, leading to efficiency losses associated with mispricing, costly delays, and even bargaining failures. As the shipping market, a business-to-business market in which products are generally heterogeneous and the number of both sellers and buyers is limited by high entry/exit barriers, relies on a bargaining mechanism to determine tailored transaction prices, market pricing is prone to inefficiencies associated with incomplete information. However, the relevant empirical evidence remains underexplored in both the shipping finance and bargaining …

Integrating Literacy Into A High School Climate Change Unit, Bailey Bushman

Graduate Research Papers

The ability to read is an important skill for members of society. Teaching students to read is often left up to elementary teachers and then secondary English teachers are expected to expand on those skills, but other content areas can help teach the needed literacy skills to students. In addition to typical literacy skills like reading and writing, students need to be able to understand climate science in order to make responsible decisions about the Earth’s future.

One way to ensure that students are getting both literacy skills and disciplinary content would be for science teachers to include a variety …

Transforming The Chemistry Classroom: Flipped Learning As A Scaffold For Inquiry, Hannah Alicia Nash

Graduate Research Papers

This action research study examines how the placement of flipped instruction within a 5E instructional model impacts student content understanding and perceptions of learning in a high school Chemistry II course. Research was conducted across three sections during a gas laws unit, with each section experiencing a different instructional approach. These approaches included flipped instruction in the Engage phase, flipped instruction in the Explain phase, or a non-flipped approach in which all parts of the 5E occurred in class. Pre and post tests were used to measure student understanding, while surveys and reflections were used to gather student perceptions of …

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter, January 2026, University Of Northern Iowa. Iowa Waste Reduction Center.

Iowa Waste Reduction Center Newsletter

Contents:

--- Retirement Celebration: Jim Olson

Ocular Surface Disease Following Lasik And Cataract Surgery: A Review Of Their Interrelated Complications, Matthew D. Spangler, Nila Kirupaharan, John D. Sheppard

Department of Ophthalmology Faculty Publications

Background: Ocular surface disease is a multifactorial condition that is very commonly caused by dry eye disease (DED). Ophthalmic procedures intended to improve visual outcomes, laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis (LASIK) and cataract surgery, can paradoxically cause or exacerbate underlying ocular surface disease. This results in worsening vision and quality of life.

Areas covered: This review examines the pathophysiological mechanisms contributing to ocular surface disease development following LASIK and cataract surgery. Both procedures are associated with the transection of corneal nerves, leading to decreased tear production, surface instability, altered neurotrophin production, and impairment of the blink reflex. Furthermore, these incisional procedures …

Milner Library Annual Report, 2026, Milner Library, Illinois State University

Reports and White Papers - Milner Library

2025 annual report for Milner Library, Illinois State University.

Steady As She Goes: Remote Work Benefits Daily Goal Progress Through Reduced Energy Variability, Andrew A. Bennett, Kathleen R. Keeler, Emily D. Campion, Sheila K. Keener

Management Faculty Publications

As the prevalence and allowance of remote and hybrid work evolves, research has shown consistently mixed findings about how work location is related to worker energy and perceptions of daily performance. We aim to resolve this ambiguity by integrating affective events theory with ideas about emotion dynamics to develop new theorizing explaining why energy variability, rather than mean energy level, is an important predictor of daily goal progress. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 219 employees from one organization allowing remote and hybrid work, capturing individual hourly energy levels for five consecutive workdays (4,812 hourly observations). Our …

The Emerging Social Media Water Cooler? Motivations For Reddit Use In A Niche League, Jan Boehmer, Brendan O'Hallarn

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

Social media play a key role in sport marketing—with athletes, teams, and leagues directly engaging with their audiences. While Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter have received much attention in the sport marketing and communication literature, research on Reddit is scant. This is particularly noteworthy, as the platform is growing rapidly and promises utility for users with nonmainstream interests to find and engage with each other. This study employs a uses and gratifications approach to investigate how prevalent Reddit use is among fans of the United Football League (UFL), what motivates users to engage with the platform, and whether Reddit use leads …

Stages Of Being Foreign As Portrayed In Daughter Of Keltoum And Lost Birds, Fran Hassencahl

Communication & Theatre Arts Faculty Publications

In this paper, I use the intercultural communication model, The Stages of Being Foreign, developed by anthropologist Oberg (1960) and modified by Gullahorn & Gullahorn (1963), Lewis & Jungman (1986), and Ward, Bochner, and Furnham (2001) to explain the experience of culture shock. This model describes the stages that individuals experience when they leave, either voluntarily or involuntarily, their home country/culture and must adapt to a new culture. These stages as described by Oberg are a preliminary stage (a spectator stage), an increasing participation stage, the pit of the culture shock stage, the adaptation stage, and for some migrants a …

Enlem: Ensemble Learning-Based Model To Detect Phishing Websites, Most Nilufa Yeasmin, Md Abu Rumman Refat, Bikash Chandra Singh, Zulfikar Alom, Zeyar Aung, Mohammad Azim

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Phishing involves manipulating individuals into revealing private data, e.g., user IDs, bank details, and passwords. The observed surge in fraud is related to increased deception, impersonation, and advanced online attacks. Thus, effective phishing detection methods are required to mitigate escalating global phishing threats. Existing methods (e.g., heuristics-based, signature-based, and visual similarity-based methods) attempt to detect phishing sites, and machine learning (ML) and deep learning (DL) methods are effective in the cybersecurity context in terms of learning from data, offering insights, and forecasting. However, independent ML algorithms are limited when handling complex data, and DL techniques surpass traditional ML methods in …

Toward Secure And Practical Machine Learning-Based Access Control: A Framework With Real-World Constraints And Adversarial Analysis, Olusesi Balogun, Mohammad Ghasemigol, Zhipeng Cai, Daniel Takabi

School of Cybersecurity Faculty Publications

Attribute-Based Access Control (ABAC) frameworks coordinate access requests based on subject, object, and environment attributes, as well as policy rules, and are widely used in corporate security systems. Recently, machine learning has been applied to ABAC to address policy-generation imbalances, misassigned privileges, and attribute leakages. However, existing MLBAC techniques do not consider the structural constraints and attribute interdependencies present in traditional ABAC systems. Moreover, these frameworks have not been extensively evaluated under black-box attack scenarios. To address these gaps, we propose extensions to MLBAC that integrate structural constraints, attribute dynamism, and attribute weighting into the MLBAC objective function. Additionally, we …

Voyage Of Injustice: The Socioeconomic Exploitation In The Cruise Industry, Tarissa L. Peterson

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

No abstract provided.