Digital Commons Network^™

Using Triple Oxygen Isotopes To Investigate Water Usage In Desert Ecosystems, Cloe V. Knutson

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

In arid environments, maintaining water balance can be more critical for survival than obtaining food. As droughts intensify, understanding how animals manage body water is essential. Triple oxygen isotope analysis provides a novel way to trace water sources in animals, distinguishing contributions from free water, food-derived oxygen, and atmospheric O₂. We developed an equilibration method using CO₂–H₂O oxygen exchange and measured δ^’18O and Δ^’17O values via tunable infrared laser direct spectroscopy (TILDAS). Validated against traditional fluorination methods, this technique enables streamlined analysis of whole blood and plant samples. Applied to …

Modeling Mars Chaos Terrains As Fracture Mosaics, Aidan C. Buie

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Chaos terrain exists on several planetary bodies but most notably on Mars. With 30 different named terrains and hundreds of chaotic or ”chaos-like” terrains, they are one of the most prominent and visible features on the planet. Chaos terrains have many visible similarities to each other: they all are comprised of polygonal blocks separated by fractures or channels. These blocks vary from angular to rounded and from flat plateaus to small hills, and the fractures vary from flat floored to ”v” shaped. Often, a single chaos will contain all of these morphologies. Most of the 30 named chaoses on Mars …

A Mutational Analysis Of Thatisin: How Single Point Mutations Impact The Biosynthetic Process Of A Group 16 Graspetide, John F. Boynton Jr

Chemistry and Chemical Biology ETDs

Abstract:

Graspetides are a family of Ribosomally synthesized and Post-translationally modified Peptide (RiPP) natural products named for their ATP Grasp Macrocyclases. We identified several Graspetide Biosynthetic Gene Clusters containing common double glycine cleavage motifs and attempted characterization of the mature Graspetides. One of the resulting peptides, Thatisin, has a topology with two interlocking macrolactones installed by a single ATP Grasp Ligase named ThtC. Here we use single and double point mutations to observe the impact or variation on the installation of these macrocycles. Alanine scan mutagenesis is used to assess leader peptide residues in the precursor peptide ThtA to determine …

Improving Infiltration Model Performance In Arid And Urban Regions, Samuel Stephen Coulter

Civil Engineering ETDs

Flooding in arid regions is infrequent but damaging and limited historical data makes flood modeling an important tool for flood infrastructure design. This study improves flood modeling guidance by using plot-scale tests to determine the impact of slope, compaction, gravel mulch and landscape fabric on infiltration and runoff rates in sandy soil types. This data will be used as guidance for the linear and constant model. The performance of this model was compared with the curve number model for a hypothetical 100-year design storm. Results showed that gravel mulch increased infiltration rates by 66% and reduced erosion on steep and …

Addressing Head Injuries In High School Football: An Assessment Of Best Practices And Challenges In The Area Of Concussions As Held By New Mexico Activities Association High School Varsity Football Head Coaches And Athletic Directors, Alonzo Maestas

Health, Exercise, and Sports Sciences ETDs

Youth sports participation in the United States offers children and adolescents opportunities for physical activity, skill development, social interaction, and personal achievement. However, with sports comes the risk of injury, including concussions. Concussions can have serious long-term consequences such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). In response to the risks of concussions, New Mexico enacted a concussion law, NM Stat 22-13-31. In addition to this law, the New Mexico Activities Association (NMAA) and National Federation of High School Associations (NFHS) have also given guidance on how to manage concussions.

However, there is a gap in the literature concerning concussion education, best …

Secured Through Stone: The Power, Monuments, And Memory Of Thyra Danmarkarbót And The Jelling Dynasty, Jacquelyn Truitt

History ETDs

Sometime in the mid-tenth century on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, the Viking Age Queen Thyra (d. ca. 958/9) passed away and the epithet Danmarkarbót—Denmark’s Adornment—was skillfully carved onto her memorial runestone. Yet Thyra’s story has been clouded by few and unreliable textual sources, by differing assessments of her familial background that have emerged from those sources, and by misrepresentations of the material culture relating to her. This thesis explores Thyra and her place within the Viking Age Jelling dynasty through textual and material evidence and considers how the construction of both medieval and modern memory work and memorialization …

Interdependence And Place In Mescalero Homelands, 1660-1865, Joseph A. Ukockis

History ETDs

This dissertation examines strategic relationships that Mescalero Apaches made among themselves and with non-Mescalero communities from 1660 to 1865. It references Mescalero place names in piecing together pertinent stories across their vast ancestral homelands, demonstrating regional continuities in social, political, and economic dynamics over two centuries. It argues that bonds of interdependence, rather than armed resistance, were critical in maintaining autonomy and the ability to move freely, conduct effective diplomacy to protect claims to homelands, access resources in times of scarcity, and form key alliances that presented possibilities for resistance to colonial domination. Central to these dynamics were Mescalero and …

College Football Or Abortion Education? An Examination Of The University Of Arizona’S 1974 Stadium Bonds Bill, Emma Masterson

History ETDs

In 1974 the University of Arizona renovated their football stadium through a bonds bill passed by the state legislature. The renovations allowed the university to increase the stadium’s capacity by 17,000 seats. While in the state house, an Arizona Congressman attached a rider to the bonds bill banning the university’s medical school from performing abortions in most circumstances, effectively barring the university from teaching the medical students how to perform the procedure as well. This thesis seeks to position the University of Arizona football stadium renovations and abortion ban within the larger histories of American higher education and Arizona. This …

Immune Regulation In Fungal Airway Inflammation And Host Defense, Ruoning Wang

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs characterized by complex pathophysiological mechanisms and diverse endotypes, primarily categorized as T helper type 2 cell (Th2)-high and Th2-low asthma. Despite significant advances in understanding asthma pathogenesis, the mechanisms governing the pulmonary immune system’s response to external challenges have not been fully understood. To address these gaps, this comprehensive project was designed to investigate the interplay between fungal infections and specific CD4⁺ T cell populations in asthma. Our findings suggest that fungal infections can contribute to neutrophilic asthma by promoting the migration of platelet-myeloid aggregates into the lungs. We also …

Minimal Error Functions On Irregular Subsets Of The Real Line, Robert Michael Dukes

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Chebyshev Polynomials, those that minimize the maximal error on a compact set, are one of the most practical tools for approximating smooth functions. The classical results are on the set [-1, 1]; in this paper, we extend to more complicated subsets of the real line. We demonstrate some classical results and then take the result from [2] on regular Parreau-Widom Sets and extend it to semi-regular sets, defined as sets whose regular part is closed. We introduce the Regularity Coefficient as a series formed by evaluating the Green’s Function at irregular points. This new machinery is applied to the lower …

Toward Simulating 2d Cell Surfaces In A Disk, Myriam Allred

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Certain evolution models of cell surfaces (treated in two-dimensions) involve the solution of the Helmholtz equation with jump conditions enforced on an immersed closed curve. This thesis presents a sparse, modal spectral method for solving such Helmholtz problems. The solution is required to be continuous across the curve, but with a jump discontinuity in the normal derivative proportional to the planar curvature. The method relies on classical Fourier-Chebyshev basis functions, with the application of modal Chebyshev integration matrices to achieve sparse, banded approximations of the Helmholtz equation. The method achieves spectral convergence, despite the inherent low regularity of the relevant …

Derivation Of Adjoint Based Error Estimates For Nonlinear Ordinary Differential Equations With Application To Multistage Sir Models With Demographics, Daniel Alcala

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Ordinary Differential Equations (ODEs) are central to the mathematical modeling of various real-world phenomena, from mechanical systems governed by Newton’s laws to epidemic dynamics described by SIR-type ODEs. Since many ODEs do not admit closed-form analytic solutions, we approximate them numerically (e.g., with Euler’s, Runge–Kutta, or other such methods). This raises the key question: How accurate are these numerical solutions? In particular, reliably estimating the error in some quantity of interest (QoI) at time T without having an exact solution is of great scientific interest.

The first main contribution of this thesis is the development and analysis of adjoint-based error …

Transforming Recruitment: The Power Of Data-Driven Decision Making, Dylan Klim

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

Dylan Klim, senior assistant director in Admission presented at the National Small College Enrollment Conference (NSCEC) in Charlotte, North Carolina. Klim's presentation was titled, "Transforming Recruitment: The Power of Data-Driven Decision Making."

The NSCEC conference focuses on small colleges and universities that provide essential education and networking opportunities for small college professionals.

Reviving The Lost Art: Historical Foundations And Future Pathways For Bespoke Service In Luxury Retail, Andrew Burnstine

Faculty and Staff Publications & Presentations

The mid-20th century witnessed a zenith of deeply personalized, bespoke service within iconic luxury specialty retailers. This paper critically analyzes the foundational principles of this historical bespoke service model, extending Service-Dominant (S-D) Logic and retail evolution theory, to propose a robust framework for its modern revival. Employing a rigorous qualitative, multiple-case study approach, grounded in extensive historical and media analysis of four archetypal American and British luxury boutiques, and uniquely informed by an insider-ethnographic perspective on the central case exemplar ("Martha's"), the study distills six core principles: Profound Client Knowledge, Visionary Curation & Styling, Anticipatory & Proactive Service, The Exclusive …

But Who Is It For? Introducing A Framework For Critical Reflection On Design And Delivery Of Ethical Participatory Research, Hannah Gardiner, Clare Pettinger, Louise Hunt, Mary Hickson

School of Health Professions

Delivering ethical collaborative research is challenging, requiring disruption of assumptions, academic norms, and ways of working–including long-standing power dynamics. This article proposes a framework to support critical reflection on participatory practice; an adaptation of the wheel of consent. The adapted ‘ILBR’ framework explores the balance of who Initiates (makes requests/offers), does Labour (the action), gets Benefits, and takes on Risks (ILBR) in the conduct of research. This aims to support reflexive design and delivery of ethical participation, including a shift towards consent becoming an ongoing multi-way negotiation of agreements. Particularly it aims to support ‘interpersonal reflexivity’, and navigation of the …

Transforming Cancer Care: A Narrative Review On Leveraging Artificial Intelligence To Advance Immunotherapy In Underserved Communities, Victor M. Vasquez Jr., Molly Mccabe, Jack C. Mckee, Sharon Siby, Usman Hussain, Farah Faizuddin, Aadil Sheikh, Subramanian Dhandayuthapani, Shrikanth Gadad, Jessica Chacon

School of Medicine Publications

Purpose: Cancer immunotherapy has transformed oncology, but underserved populations face persistent disparities in access and outcomes. This review explores how artificial intelligence (AI) can help mitigate these barriers. Methods: We conducted a narrative review based on peer-reviewed literature selected for relevance to artificial intelligence, cancer immunotherapy, and healthcare challenges, without restrictions on publication date. We searched three major electronic databases: PubMed, IEEE Xplore, and arXiv, covering both biomedical and computational literature. The search included publications from January 2015 through April 2024 to capture contemporary developments in AI and cancer immunotherapy. Results: AI tools such as machine learning, …

An Arc Of Time Through Crime: Representations Of Gypsies And Travellers In Police Killings, Coretta Phillips, Becky Taylor, Zoë James

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

This paper examines newspaper stories reporting on the killings by Gypsy and Traveller offenders of PC Leslie Meehan in 1960 and PC Andrew Harper in 2019. These media representations are used as heuristic devices to explore differing media discourses about this white minority ethnic group. Sixty years apart, these stories demonstrate supportive media commentary in the earlier period and more corrosive coverage in the recent period. Making a contribution to historical criminology and its consideration of race, this paper draws from extensive archival analysis and the extant literature. It highlights the political-economic significance of home ownership, the partial inclusion of …

The Comparison Of Classical Tafsir And Contemporary Interpretation Regarding The Verses Of Astrophysics And Cosmology In The Qur’An, Azra Ansharullah, Basuni Imamuddin

International Review of Humanities Studies

As time progressed, various kinds of discoveries in the field of science emerged one by one, especially in the field of Astronomy and its "little brother" Astrophysics. This opens up opportunities for everyone to research things that have been researched from a new perspective, such as researching the Koran from a science and technology perspective. There are 310 instances in the Qur'an where the word "heaven" is mentioned, and within them, there are various statements regarding the nature, phenomena, and other things related to the sky. With the progress of technology, there is undoubtedly a gap in the interpretation and …

Understanding Black American Pastors' Leadership Role And Interaction With Public Health During Covid-19, Stacy L. Tolbert

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The COVID-19 pandemic tested the leadership, response, and resilience of Black American pastors and their communities. These pastors played a crucial role in supporting their communities to lessen the impact the virus had on underlying health conditions and socioeconomic hardships that were exacerbated by the pandemic. Despite their efforts, Black American pastors frequently encountered challenges helping their community. The current research sought to understand the lived experiences of Black American pastors during the pandemic and their interactions with public health institutions to secure resources for their communities through Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). The study was guided by the research question, …

Nursing Turnover Based On Age, Race, And Gender In Community Hospitals In Michigan, Laura Lawhorn

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hospitals struggle to maintain nursing staff to meet patient needs for a population that requires continuous care and experiences multiple illnesses. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the variations in reasons for leaving the nursing profession (dependent variable) based on age, race, and gender (independent variables) within community hospitals in Michigan. The theoretical framework for this study was the Nursing Neuman Systems Model, which posits that nursing comprises four key components: environment, individual, nursing practice, and health. A correlational research design was utilized to address the research question and analyze the relationships between the variables. The secondary …

Effective Strategies That Marketing Leaders Use To Increase Fan Base, Denise Leslie Rosa

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite its growth and potential, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) consistently struggles to generate profit, remaining unprofitable in its 28th (2024) season and heading into its 29th (2025) season. The inability of women’s professional basketball marketing leaders to generate increased revenue and fan engagement has limited the sport’s growth and visibility. Grounded in McCarthy’s four Ps of marketing concept that includes product, price, place, and promotion, the purpose of the qualitative pragmatic inquiry project was to identify and explore effective and innovative marketing strategies that marketing leaders use to increase the revenue of women’s professional basketball teams and their …

Experiences Of Women In K–12 Educational Technology Leadership Positions, Natalie M. Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem addressed in this study was the lack of women in K–12 educational technology leadership positions in the United States. The purpose of this basic qualitative study was to explore the experiences of women in K–12 educational technology leadership regarding the challenges and successes they encountered in achieving and maintaining their positions. Feminist standpoint theory formed the framework for this study. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 10 women who were active or former K–12 educational technology leaders in public schools across the country. Open and pattern coding were used to support thematic analysis. An overarching theme of gender bias …

Guardian Perceptions Of Living In Group Homes Versus Family Homes For Individuals With Intellectual Disabilties, Gail Roberts Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The living environment of group homes and family homes offer different qualities of life for individuals with intellectual disabilities. Guardian perceptions may shed light on how individuals with intellectual disabilities perceive their experiences, environments, and daily lives. Exploring and examining this social problem may positively impact policies, processes, and procedures, and have an impact on the lives of parents, families, and individuals with intellectual disabilities while driving positive social change. The purpose of this qualitative study using narrative inquiry was to explore, examine, and better understand guardian perceptions. The quality-of-life theoretical framework and Saldana’s process of color coding were used …

Who Benefits From Active Music Engagement During Cancer Treatment? Associations Of Sociodemographic Characteristics And Risk Factors With Moderators Of Intervention Effects., Steven J. Holochwost, Elizabeth Harman, Kristin Stegenga, Seethal A. Jacob, Sheri L. Robb

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Young children and their parents experience frequent and repeated exposure to potentially traumatic events during treatment for cancer. Active Music Engagement (AME) is a dyadic music therapy intervention that has been found to mitigate traumatic stress symptoms among parents who screened high for traumatic stress symptoms (TSS) and reported higher levels of child distress with cancer-related hospitalizations/treatment (child distress). The current study examined sociodemographic characteristics and risk factors that were associated with higher levels of parent TSS and child distress as a means to identify families that may benefit most from AME in the future. Data were collected from the …

Optimization And Acceleration Of Puf Design Through Reduced Order Standard Cell Modeling, Ian Z. Wilcox

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) designs continue to scale with ever increasing complexity and device counts in the billions. Demand for scalable high-fidelity simulations of these systems drives the need for the development of novel modeling capabilities. This research formulates a non-intrusive model order reduc-tion (MOR) framework, called PUF-ROMS, to accelerate and optimize the design and analysis of physical unclonable functions (PUFs) on ASICs. The primary goals of PUF-ROMS are to estimate entropy and temperature-voltage noise (TV-noise) of circuit structures used in the design in an accelerated evaluation environment to enable designers to explore architecture options with the goal of …

Neighborhood Environment And Incident Diabetes, A Neighborhood Environment-Wide Association Study ('Ne-Was'): Results From The Hispanic Community Health Study/Study Of Latinos (Hchs/Sol)., Cara M. Smith, Elizabeth W. Spalt, Linda C. Gallo, Jordan A. Carlson, Matthew Allison, Daniela Sotres-Alvarez, Christina Cordero, Qibin Qi, Earle C. Chambers, Martha Daviglus, Amber Pirzada, Gregory A. Talavera, Robert Kaplan, Joel D. Kaufman, Stephen J. Mooney

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The prevalence of type 2 diabetes is increasing among the Hispanic/Latino population. Type 2 diabetes incidence rates vary between neighborhoods, but no single aspect of the neighborhood environment is known to cause type 2 diabetes. Using data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos cohort of 16,415 Hispanic/Latino adults in four major US cities, we conducted a neighborhood environment-wide association study to identify neighborhood measures or clusters of measures associated with diabetes incidence. Two-hundred and four neighborhood measures were calculated at the census tract level or within a 1-km buffer of participants' residential addresses. Independent covariate-adjusted and survey-weighted Poisson …

P250307e_Uss0068_Twip Defpub Saws As Acf, Matched Filter, And Phase Detection, Christian A. Mohr, Mark Rode, Marco Dannemann

Defensive Publications Series

This invention presents a method and device for real-time analog signal processing using Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) technology. The system performs three core functions without digital conversion: (1) Autocorrelation Function (ACF) for time-frequency transformation, (2) Matched Filtering for pattern recognition, and (3) Phase Detection of modulated signals.

A SAW chip with interdigital transducers (IDTs) on a piezoelectric substrate decomposes input signals into parallel frequency channels ("frequency bins"). Envelope detection of each channel’s output generates an analog spectrogram. Weighting these outputs with predefined coded patterns (via analog operational circuits) enables instantaneous cross-correlation, acting as a matched filter. For phase-sensitive detection, in-phase/quadrature …

An Improved Process For The Preparation Of Methyl{4,6-Diamino-2-[5-Fluoro-1-(2-Fluoro Benzyl)-1h-Pyrazolo[3,4-B]Pyridin-3-Yl]Pyrimidin-5-Yl}Carbamate, Msn Laboratories Private Limited, R&D Center; Srinivasan Thirumalai Rajan; Ghojala Venkat Reddy; Singavarapu Adilakshmi;

Defensive Publications Series

The present invention provides an improved process for the preparation of methyl{4,6-diamino-2-[5-fluoro-1-(2-fluorobenzyl)-1H-pyrazolo[3,4-b]pyridin-3-yl]pyrimidin-5-yl} carbamate.

Fictitious Data-Based Watermarking System

Defensive Publications Series

Systems and methods are provided for watermarking via unique synthetic datasets. A candidate model may be trained with a poison dataset including synthetic information. The synthetic information may relate to a fictitious place, person, or scenario, for example. A set of one or more inference questions associated with the poison dataset may be determined. The candidate model may be tested based on the set of one or more inference questions. A confidence may also be generated. The confidence may be associated with one or more identification metrics associated with the candidate model.

Method, System, And Computer Program Product For Large Language Model (Llm)-Enabled Searching, Jia Yi Kuo, Jianyang Huang, Karthik Gopalakrishna, Bhuvanjeet Singh Gandhi, Paromita Guha, Ashutosh Kumar Chandel, Arpita Agrawal, Ritu Saxena

Defensive Publications Series

A method includes: chunking each resource into chunks; inputting the chunks into a model; for each chunk, generating an embedding vector; receiving a query message from a user device; inputting the query message into the model; generating a query embedding vector for the query message; executing a semantic search on the query embedding vector by: inputting the query embedding vector and the embedding vector for each chunk to the model; for each chunk, generating a chunk similarity score; determining a subset of chunks based on the chunk similarity score for each chunk of the resource; inputting the subset of chunks …