Digital Commons Network^™

Hispanic Academic Leadership In The Health And Human Services, Gabriela Elizabeth Rangel

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States, there are 63.7 million Hispanics (U.S. Census Bureau, 2023), making them the largest racial or ethnic minority in the country. National data from 2019 indicates that only 6% of tenured faculty in the U.S. were Hispanic, highlighting a significant underrepresentation of leaders in academia (NCES, 2024). This study employed a phenomenological approach with purposeful sampling, utilizing semi-structured interviews with ten participants who had leadership experience in academia within Health and Human Services (H&HS). The interviews served to explore various aspects, such as what were their aspirations to become leaders, their perceptions of the characteristics and qualities …

Factors Influencing Teacher Professional Autonomy And Career Satisfaction: The Effects Of Unrealistic Professional Expectations Surrounding Student-Centered And Technology Implementation Tropes, Karla Gabriela Lopez

Theses and Dissertations

The research problem is to investigate to what extent unrealistic professional expectations stemming from a predominant emphasis on the tropes of student-centeredness and technology integration impact teachers’ experiences of professional autonomy and career satisfaction. The purpose of this study is to find out what factors impact teacher autonomy and career satisfaction while also considering how teachers can be effectively supported to improve these areas. Utilizing a narrative inquiry approach, this qualitative study will be held in the Rio Grande Valley and will analyze interviews of both current teachers and teachers who have recently left the profession. Therefore, this study will …

Decolonizing The Whitexican: Reclaiming Identity Through Nahuatl And Mesoamerican Motifs, Laia Ivanna Vite Cano

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersection of art, linguistics, and ideography through the lens of personal and cultural heritage rooted in the Huasteca region of Central Mexico. Drawing inspiration from familial connections to the pueblos of Huazalingo and Huejutla in Hidalgo, Mexico, the research examines the cultural complexities of bicultural and binational experiences. It is grounded in the theoretical framework of Nepantla, a concept introduced by Gloria Anzaldúa to describe the unseen space of the border life as one of existing between worlds, identities, and cultures. Included and essential to this work is the Coyolxauhqui Imperative, which informs the process of …

Computational Expressions Of Void Reactions In Extended Chemical Reaction Network Models, Aiden J. Massie

Theses and Dissertations

Chemical Reaction Networks (CRNs) are a system of abstraction of real-world chemical dynamics. Each CRN system is defined as a pair of molecular species and reaction rules, which consume a set of reactant species and create a new set of product species. In this paper, we investigate the simple class of void reactions, which cannot create new species and are computationally weak with small-enough sizes in basic CRNs. Here, we study their computational expression in more powerful extended CRN models. Specifically, we consider the Step CRN model, in which new species are added into the system through a sequence of …

Performance Assessment Of Reconditioned Freight Rail Bearings Using Eddy Current Array For Enhanced Nondestructive Inspection, Eduardo Miranda

Theses and Dissertations

In North America, freight bearings removed from service must undergo a reconditioning process in accordance with Association of American Railroads recommended guidelines before reuse, with approximately 80% having been reconditioned at least once. This process includes bearing inspection, where repairable defects may be refurbished and returned to service with an extended performance range of 50,000 to 250,000 miles. Motivated by this extensive range in performance, researchers at the University Transportation Center for Railway Safety, in collaboration with MxV Rail, utilized a nondestructive evaluation method to enhance the reconditioning inspection process. An Eddy Current Array (ECA) was applied to bearing cup …

Interactive Effects Of Nutrient Loading And Hyposalinityon The Physiological Responses Of The Red Macroalga Gracilaria Tikvahiae, Donavuan Vincent Salazar

Theses and Dissertations

Coastal macroalgae face anthropogenic stressors such as nutrient enrichment from nitrogen fertilizers and reduced salinity linked to flooding. The physiological impacts of these combined stressors remain unclear. This study examined interactive effects of nitrogen loading and hyposalinity on Gracilaria tikvahiae through a 9‑day laboratory experiment. Samples experienced declining salinity (35–0 ppt) with nitrate or ammonia enrichment (120 µmol/L). Measurements included primary production, respiration, biomass, nitrate uptake, and chlorophyll‑a. Hyposalinity significantly reduced physiological performance, with gross primary production declining over 100%, chlorophyll‑a content 25–45% lower, biomass loss, and reduced nitrogen uptake. Nitrogen enrichment failed to mitigate the adverse impacts under hyposaline …

Modern Water And Sediment Transport Patterns In Alluvial Ridge Basins Of The Rio Grande Delta, South Texas, Usa, Waqid Nabi

Theses and Dissertations

Alluvial ridge (AR) basins are shallow, marine-influenced depressions within river deltas, yet their flow and sediment dynamics remain poorly understood. This study examines hydrodynamics and sediment transport patterns in the Bahia Grande Complex, which are AR basins of the Rio Grande Delta, using tilt current meters, water-level and turbidity loggers, and suspended and bed-sediment sampling. The AR basins function as wind-dominated, microtidal environments, where pre-existing basin geometry and hydrodynamic forcings control water flow and sediment distribution patterns. Seasonal wind patterns and storms modulate water levels and flow connectivity. Substrate patterns reflect frequent resuspension in the shallow northern basin, maintaining coarse …

Design And Evaluation Of Gamified Kahoot Modules For Improving Engagement And Conceptual Understanding Of Introductory Physics Students, Yaritza Villarreal

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the effectiveness of gamified learning modules in enhancing the engagement and conceptual understanding of introductory physics students. The first phase of this study focused on the design and development of gamified learning modules for selected topics in introductory physics. The modules were developed by integrating principles of Backward Design, following an escape-room theme with interactive scenarios, and incorporating classic game elements (e.g., points and leaderboards).

The second phase examined the effectiveness of the gamified Kahoot modules using a pretest-posttest control-group design. Sixty-eight (68) students were equally randomly assigned to the control and experimental groups. The experimental group …

Feature Extraction From Railroad Bearing Onboard Vibration Sensors Using Machine Learning Models, Diego Cantu

Theses and Dissertations

The University Transportation Center for Railway Safety (UTCRS) has developed an algorithm capable of identifying defective railroad bearings, determining damaged component(s) within, and quantifying severity of the defects. The defect-detection algorithm requires the operating speed as an input, which is not readily available in field operation of onboard sensors. Therefore, onboard sensors deployed in rail revenue service must rely on Global Positioning Systems (GPS) to obtain speed, which can be power-intensive and susceptible to signal interference. This study covers the development of a vibration-based model that extracts operating speed from wireless sensor data to enable fully autonomous onboard diagnostics. Signal …

Visionglow: Evaluating Minimal-Disruption Smart-Home Control In Apple Vision Pro, Hongxiao Zheng

Dartmouth College Master’s Theses

Smart-home control in mixed-reality environments like Apple Vision Pro often relies on disruptive, application-based paradigms, such as using a smartphone or a windowed virtual interface. These methods create a “mode switch” that imposes cognitive load and pulls users from their primary tasks. We present VisionGlow, a minimal-disruption spatial interaction technique for Vision Pro. VisionGlow represents devices as spatially-anchored “orbs.” To control a device, the user looks at its orb and performs a pinch gesture, which invokes a compact, contextual control panel. We conducted a within-subjects study (N=18) comparing VisionGlow against two baselines: the standard Apple Home app on a smartphone …

Life Cycle Assessment Of A Prefabricated Modular Timber Building, Bryan Mai

Construction Management

Traditional concrete construction carries a high carbon footprint, motivating interest in lower-impact alternatives such as prefabricated modular timber systems. This project conducts a process-based life cycle assessment (LCA) using OpenLCA to evaluate the environmental impacts of a modular timber building. Material quantities from major processes were modeled as flow inputs and converted into standardized OpenLCA units. Impact categories—including acidification potential, human toxicity, and energy/resource use—were analyzed to determine which materials and processes contribute most to overall environmental burden. Results show that transportation and plumbing materials drive the largest acidification impacts, while interior finishes dominate human toxicity. This LCA establishes a …

Communication And Privacy Management Between Female Veterans, Their Military Voluntary Kin, And Biolegal Family Members, Carol Lee Tschampl-Diesing

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

Military voluntary kin (MVK) refer to relationships between Service members and/or Veterans that they consider to be “like family,” despite lacking blood or legal ties. The purpose of this qualitative/interpretive communication study was to explore how female Veterans, who are the largest growing population of U.S. Veterans, discursively construct MVK relationships, navigate communication, privacy management, and boundary turbulence with their MVK and biolegal families (BLF). The researcher undertook in-depth interviews with nine female U.S. Veterans who reported having at least one MVK. The researcher posed four research questions, engaging in an interpretive analysis.

Participants described three ways they navigated interactions …

Developing A Metabolic Engineering Chassis From A Metabolically Versatile Organism, Rhodopseudomonas Palustris Cga009, Mark William Kathol

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

Metabolic engineering has made it possible to develop biological processes that were once considered economically unfeasible or uncompetitive. This field has enabled both a robust niche market, whereby products, such as pharmaceutical substances like monoclonal antibodies, are produced exclusively through biological means, as well as an emerging commodity production market. Nonetheless, significant challenges remain in harnessing the unique metabolic capabilities of genetically non-tractable organisms. This dissertation focuses on Rhodopseudomonas palustris CGA009 as a potential chassis for metabolic engineering. To address the issue of genetic intractability, a synthetic biology toolkit was developed to facilitate the expression of heterologous proteins in R …

Musical Self-Efficacy Through Active Music Listening: A Phenomenological Approach, Amy Marie Fraser

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

Music is often perceived as a talent reserved for the naturally gifted, rather than a fundamental human ability. This study questioned that perception by examining how active music listening can develop musical self-efficacy and reshape attribution beliefs about musical ability. Using a phenomenological approach, this study explored the experiences of students in a university music appreciation course, investigating how structured listening exercises, peer interactions, and reflections contribute to their perceived musical beliefs and competence. Grounded in Bandura’s self-efficacy theory and Weiner’s attribution theory, the study considered whether musical engagement can be accessible to all and not limited by perceived talent. …

Evaluating Fall And Spring Planted Cover Crops For Integrated Management Of Herbicide Resistant Palmer Amaranth And Effect On Soil Health, Vipin Kumar

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

Herbicide-resistant Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson) pose a severe threat to agronomic crop productivity in the United States, including corn and soybean production in Nebraska. Therefore, there is an urgent need for diversified and sustainable management approaches. Integrating cover crops (CCs) with herbicide programs represents a promising strategy to achieve Palmer amaranth suppression, sustain crop yields, and contribute to long-term soil health in irrigated corn–soybean production systems in Nebraska.

A meta-analysis of 41 studies and 595 paired observations demonstrated that CCs reduced Amaranthus spp. density and biomass by 37–59% depending on the growing season, with grasses and mixtures …

Detecting Prescribed Fire, Haying And Grazing Events Via Remote Sensing To Create Grassland Disturbance Landcovers For The Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus), Megan Amy Baldissara

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

This dissertation developed disturbance detection models to fulfill the need for remote sensing landcover products describing grassland structure. The use of landcover products derived from remote sensing is increasing over time in pheasant (Phasianus colchicus) research. Such landcover, however, does not provide relevant pheasant structural habitat information (Chapter 1). Pheasants require tall, high-density grassland for nesting, tall grassland with medium density for brood rearing, and tall grassland for wintering. Time since disturbance can serve as a proxy for structure, as it shapes vegetation by removing biomass and resetting succession. Disturbance is easier to detect than structure with current …

Defending The Homeland: An Archaeoethnodemographic (Aed) Analysis Of Population Dynamics And Settlement Patterns In The Navajo Dinétah, Ad 1720–1745, Kurt Mantonya

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

This dissertation presents an innovative archaeoethnodemographic (AED) analysis of Navajo population dynamics during the Middle Period (AD 1720−1745) of the Gobernador Phase in the Dinétah, the ancestral Navajo homeland in northwest New Mexico. During this critical quarter-century, intensified Ute and Comanche slave-raiding and Spanish military expeditions forced the Diné to abandon traditional dispersed settlement patterns in favor of defensive aggregation around fortified pueblitos—small masonry defensive structures built on boulder-tops and mesa-rims throughout the region.

The study employs an AED framework that systematically integrates archaeological site analysis, ethnographic household organization data, historical documentation, and demographic modeling to reconstruct population dynamics during …

Global, Continental, And Local Scale Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction Methods For Interpreting The History Of Miocene North America And The Great Plains, Willow Hue Nguy

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

The Miocene of North America is characterized by dynamic changes in herbivore communities, habitat composition, and global climate. Long-term cooling and drying trends influenced large changes in floral and faunal communities. The Great Plains, North America shifted from closed-canopy biomes to open-canopy biomes with C3-grasses to biomes with C4-grasses. This shift affected the herbivore communities as browsing-adapted ungulates were replaced by grazing-adapted ungulates. Much focus has centered on the Great Plains, so it is not well understood how the changes in biomes compare to other regions of North America. The models used for vegetation density indicate open-canopy biomes since at …

In-Field Tractor Operational Load Profile Generation In Support Of Advanced Tractor Testing In Mixedmode Power, Andrew Donesky

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

This dissertation addresses the need to better characterize real-world tractor power requirements across drawbar, power take-off (PTO), and hydraulic modes to support more representative tractor testing. Conventional testing protocols, such as OECD Code 2, emphasize steady-state performance under controlled high-load conditions, which do not reflect the mixed and dynamic demands of modern field operations. To address this gap, a Tractor Instrumentation System (TIS) was developed, validated, and deployed to collect high-resolution, mixed-mode power data during planting, anhydrous ammonia application, and grain cart operations. The TIS integrates physical sensors, including custom load pins, hydraulic pressure/flow sensors, and a redesigned PTO torque …

Investigating Programming Behaviors To Understand Student Engagement And Experience In Introductory Programming Courses, Marcus Eugene Gubanyi

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

Introductory programming courses are foundational to developing students’ problem-solving abilities and shaping their persistence in computing pathways. Engagement with programming tasks plays a central role in student learning and experience. Many research measures, including self-reports and code submissions, offer only a limited view of student engagement with programming tasks. This dissertation leverages programming process data, consisting of keystrokes and compilation events, to capture the programming process as it unfolds and to investigate observable programming behaviors. Guided by educational theories, three studies examine how students’ programming behaviors vary across instructional and assessment contexts, how they relate to motivational profiles, and how …

Large-Scale Experimental Study On The Impact Of Air Cleaning & Ventilation On Indoor Air Quality And Student Illness-Related Absenteeism, Daud Nosham

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

This large-scale randomized experimental field study investigated the effect of portable air purifiers (PAPs) on classroom’s air quality and student’s illness related absenteeism. PAPs were installed in 317 classrooms from various school districts located in Eastern Nebraska. The classrooms were randomly assigned into four conditions: three treatment conditions (T1, T2 & T3) and one control condition (device without any filter). T1 was equipped with HEPA filters, T2 added Activated Carbon (AC) layer to HEPA, and T3 further integrated Germicidal Ultraviolet (GUV) alongside HEPA and AC filters. The measured variables were carbon dioxide (CO2), fine particles (PN2.5) and coarse particles (PNcoarse), …

Real-Time, Co-Regulated Design For Cyber-Physical, Multi-Rotor Uas Swarms, Grant Simon Phillips

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

Uncrewed Aerial Systems (UAS) have been integrated into a wide range of research and industrial applications, with growing interest in extending mission duration and spatial coverage through coordinated multi-UAS systems, or swarms. While swarming offers the potential for extended mission endurance and robustness through advanced path-planning, control, and estimation algorithms, significant challenges arise when implementing these methods on decentralized platforms composed of size, weight, and power-constrained (SWaP) vehicles. Limitations in onboard computational capacity and congested communication channels can break critical design-time assumptions, which at best, will degrade application quality of service, and at worst, destabilize the fleet through excessive delays …

Ai-Enabled Robotic Nitrogen Management, Ankita Kalra

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

Nitrogen management in corn agriculture faces economic and environmental challenges, motivating development of precision, site-specific solutions. This dissertation presents AIR-N (AI-Enabled Robotic Nitrogen Management), a novel system that integrates cloud-based artificial intelligence with an autonomous field robot (Flex-Ro) to optimize nitrogen fertilizer application in real time. The research is driven by the need to improve nitrogen use efficiency while reducing leaching and emissions.

Comprehensive architecture (Cloud-E) was designed using Amazon Web Services to ingest multi-modal agronomic data (soil sensors, crop reflectance, weather) and host machine learning models. A Random Forest-based model was trained on historical field data to predict spatially …

An Integrated Modeling Framework To Evaluate Circularity Of The Corn–Water–Ethanol–Beef Nexus, Heydi Han

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

This dissertation examines the transition from conventional linear agricultural and food bioenergy systems toward more circular, resilient, and resource-efficient configurations. Prior research indicates that spatial and temporal variability in soil, weather, animal biological responses, and management decisions strongly influences productivity, nutrient-use efficiency, and profitability. Studies have also shown that a diversified circular system can buffer these sources of variability, improving stability and adaptive capacity. Building on these insights, the central focus of this work is to develop an integrated modeling framework to evaluate circularity within the Corn-Water-Ethanol-Beef (CWEB) nexus and explore how climate variability and management choices shape system-wide performance. …

Making Deep Neural Networks Trustworthy: Intelligibility And Safety Through Symbolic Methods, Eleanor Catherine Quint

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

The rapid adoption of deep learning has come at the cost of properties long valued in artificial intelligence: intelligibility and safety. This dissertation develops methods that restore these properties by coupling neural networks with symbolic structure.

First, for supervised classification, I propose a differentiable decision tree integrated with a supervised variational autoencoder. The resulting model maintains competitive accuracy and generative performance while exposing clear macro-features in its latent space, improving interpretability.

Second, for reinforcement learning, I extend constrained Markov decision processes by specifying constraints in formal languages. This formal language constrained MDP enables the use of automata for state augmentation, …

Post-Fire Soil Health Assessment Of The Grasslands And Woodlands In The Semi-Arid Nebraska Sandhills, Stephanie M. Lugo

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Grasslands in the Nebraska Sandhills are shaped by natural wildfires, which help maintain the structure and function of native grasslands. In recent decades, afforestation with ponderosa pine and eastern redcedar has introduced new woodlands that altered the region’s fire dynamics and raised important questions about the effects of wildfire on different vegetation types. As wildfires become more frequent, understanding their impacts on soil health in grasslands and woodlands becomes increasingly important. This study examines the short-term effects of the 2022 Bovee Fire on physical, chemical, and biological soil properties in native grasslands and ponderosa pine and eastern redcedar afforested woodlands. …

Representing The Incommunicado Client: Regulating The Attorney-Client Relationship In A Civil Rights Emergency, Michael Kagan

Washington and Lee Law Review Online

When the government obstructs a detainee’s ability to communicate with attorneys, normal rules governing the formation of attorney-client relationships break down. While some work-arounds exist to allow lawyers to bring such cases to court, they have significant limitations and can create problems of their own. The legal profession and the courts should adopt new rules modeled on emergency medicine to facilitate the filing of urgent civil rights claims for clients who are not in a position to consent. In emergency medicine, physicians can presume client consent for certain narrow and urgent purposes. Certain lawyers, in extreme cases, should be able …

A Novel Microfluidic Approach To Quantify Pore-Scale Mineral Dissolution In Porous Media, Rafid Musabbir Rahman, Elliott Niemur, Gianluca Blois, Farzan Kazemifar, Myeongsub Kim, Yaofa Li

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

Mineral dissolution in porous media coupled with single- and/or multi-phase flows is pervasive in natural and engineering systems. Dissolution modifies the physical, hydrological, and geochemical properties of the solid matrix, resulting in a complex coupling between local dissolution rate and pore-scale flow. The work reports a microfluidic approach that includes 2D reactive porous media and advanced pore flow diagnostics for the study of pore-scale dissolution in porous media with unprecedented details. The 2D microfluidic porous media, called micromodels, were fabricated in calcite by combining photolithography and wet etching, which not only offers precise control over the structural and chemical properties, …

Social Work In Times Of Genocide: A Palestinian Feminist Praxis Of Social Work, Stephanie Wahab

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

The abstract is translated in Arabic below. Social work cannot meaningfully claim a commitment to justice, human dignity, and the worth of people while simultaneously remaining committed to colonial logics. Recognizing and resisting collusion with settler colonialism demands structural shifts in knowledge production, curriculum, practice, and institutional alignment. This article speaks to organized social work’s collusion with the zionist project of Palestinian erasure amid the ongoing Nakba and genocide. Since Palestinian social workers are living and surviving genocide as they practice social work, worn binaries, such as provider–client, are unsettled in ways that make a Palestinian feminist praxis of social …

Building Kit For K-8 Education: An Introduction To Construction Fundamentals, Marc Joynt

Construction Management

Introducing construction concepts to young students requires tools that are both engaging and easy to use, which led to the development of a laser-cut building kit designed for K–8 classrooms. The process began with hand-drawn sketches to establish a simple, age-appropriate structure. The design was then modeled in AutoCAD, where each individual component was drafted for fabrication. After completing the digital model, the files were transferred into Rhino and organized by layer to ensure accurate communication with the laser cutters used to produce the final basswood pieces. Throughout the project, challenges such as material limitations, tolerance adjustments, and simplifying complex …