Digital Commons Network^™

Algorithmic Sculpting Of Complex Fused Silica Surfaces For Nondestructive, Mode-Matched Cavity Quantum Electrodynamics: Adaptive Co2 Milling And Simulation-Guided Ultrafast Inscription, From Fiber Fabry-Perot Cavities To Monolithic Architectures, Meagan E. Parker

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Quantum sensors achieve exceptional measurement sensitivity through coherent, well-isolated quantum systems, but practical deployment is hindered by destructive readouts that require repeated state preparation and create long system dead times. Optical cavities enable continuous, nondestructive measurements with minimal back-action, yet integrating high-finesse cavities into scalable quantum devices remains limited by existing fabrication methods. To overcome these constraints, an adaptive CO₂ laser-milling platform was developed. Guided by glass thermodynamics and melt dynamics, this closed-loop system uses in-situ phase-shifting interferometry to sculpt complex fused-silica surfaces with sub-nanometer root-mean-square roughness. The platform was validated by fabricating extended-length fiber Fabry–Pérot cavities and monolithic micro-cavity …

Non-Traditional Rare-Earth-Doped Oxide Glass As A Gain Medium, Jared S. Tolliver

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

There is a need for mid-infrared(MIR) lasers in defense, medical, and environmental monitoring. A large part of this technological development is the study of gain media. One class of materials of special interest is glasses with a low maximum phonon energy. These have the fiberization and broad spectral features of glass, whereas glasses with high maximum phonon energy exhibit higher rates of multi-phonon relaxation and can be opaque in the MIR, both of which are detrimental to laser operation. Recent advances in container-less processing have allowed for the study of new glasses that aren’t possible with conventional fabrication techniques. One …

Keeping Communities Safe Through An Alternative First Response Model: Predictors Of Civilian First Responders’ Self-Efficacy In Handling Crisis Situations, Jasmine Desiderio

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

The expansion of civilian alternative first responder models reflects a national shift toward community-based approaches to crisis intervention. Grounded in Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, this study examined the extent to which demographic characteristics are associated with crisis self-efficacy, explored how perceptions of the responder role relate to confidence, and identified supports necessary for effective crisis response. A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was employed with civilian first responders in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Quantitative data were collected with the Crisis Self-Efficacy Scale, and semi-structured interviews gathered qualitative data. Exploratory regression analyses (n=31) were not reliably associated with crisis self-efficacy, while role …

Transforming Faculty Development: Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Arts-Based Design, And Communities Of Transformation In Stem Education, Kristen L. Ferris

Organization, Information and Learning Sciences ETDs

This dissertation investigates the relational conditions enabling institutional transformation and diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice (DEIJ) within STEM higher education. Despite needs for systemic change, sustaining faculty engagement remains difficult due to entrenched power dynamics, lack of pedagogical training, and political repression. To address these barriers this research introduces Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCB) as an analytic lens and functional infrastructure for change.

Through three papers, this study 1) establishes OCB via a systemic literature review as an actionable metric for faculty development; 2) details the design of a cross-institutional Community of Transformation (CoT) as a design case; and 3) Presents …

Interpretable Case-Control Inference Through Log-Linear General Location Models, Zacharia Stuart

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This dissertation analyzes one of the few publicly available NFL injury datasets to study field type and non-contact lower-limb injuries. Field type is studied jointly with other risk factors to understand how these factors interact to affect injury risk. The data were gathered through a case-control sampling scheme, which limits direct inference on absolute injury probabilities. While not the most common approach for case-control data, this dissertation models the retrospective distribution directly through Log-Linear General Location Models (Log-Linear GLOMs). Through a log-linear structure placed on a log-odds-ratio reparameterization, the model provides directly interpretable marginal and interaction contributions to injury log-odds …

Developing A Dispersion Interferometer For Characterizing Power Flow Plasma Formation And Transport Studies, Nathan R. Hines

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Sandia's refurbished $Z$-pinch machine experiences persistent current loss in its post-hole convolute and inner magnetically insulated transmission line regions, widely attributed to low-density electrode plasmas whose formation and transport remain poorly constrained by existing diagnostics. This dissertation develops and validates a fiber-coupled, continuous-wave, second-harmonic orthogonally polarized dispersion interferometer for time-resolved measurements of electron areal density in millimeter-scale gaps. The diagnostic employs single-laser second-harmonic generation, non-steering differential phase control, and polarization-based phase retrieval to achieve sub-$10^{15}$~cm$^{-2}$ sensitivity, multi-hundred-megahertz bandwidth, and sub-$200$~$\mu$m effective cross-gap spatial resolution. Performance is benchmarked against a $94$~GHz interferometer on the UNM Helicon-Cathode plasma device and then fielded …

Enhanced Computational Modeling Of Photoionization And Streamer Formation, Anahita Alibalazadeh

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Photoionization is a key mechanism governing the formation and propagation of streamer discharges in air by generating electron-ion pairs ahead of the streamer front. Accurate and computationally efficient modeling of this non-local process is essential for reliable plasma simulations. However, the widely used Zheleznyak photoionization model relies on empirical assumptions and requires computationally expensive domain-wide integration.

This dissertation advances photoionization modeling in three ways. First, the classical integral model is enhanced by incorporating experimentally measured vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) emission spectra together with photoabsorption and photoionization cross-section data, enabling direct calculation of the photoionization source term as a function of pressure …

3d Electromagnetic Simulations Of A 1.6 Cell S-Band Photoinjector: Emittance Studies For Electron Microscopy, Trudy Bolin

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Modern beam-based materials research demands electron sources with increasingly precise time resolution, high brightness, and stability. For example, there are various instruments across the U.S. dedicated to ultrafast electron diffraction (UED), but fewer are dedicated to ultrafast electron microscopy (UEM), which demands beam stability. Modeling femtosecond electron bunches with ultra-low emittance < 50 nm-rad inside a 1.6-cell S-band (2856 MHz) rf photoinjector with full 3D electromagnetic simulations can require high-performance computing (HPC) environments due to the scale disparity between the macroscopic cavity geometry and the femtosecond-scale bunch kinematics. To enable optimization in a desktop computing environment, this work presents a streamlined 3D electromagnetic Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation framework optimized for 400-femtosecond bunch regimes. The covariance method was employed to study emittance properties for electron bunch counts ranging from thousands to millions and has successfully resolved highly transient, pure rf phase-space rotations, such as a localized energy-spread minimum occurring at the gun exit iris. To overcome the computational cost of these simulations, a machine-learning-based Bayesian optimization approach was deployed to construct multi-objective Pareto fronts from sparse datasets. Because the simulation software is scalable from desktop to HPC facilities, the framework is ready for experiments at the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

Real-Time Waveform Synthesis For Rfsoc-Based Quantum Control Systems, Tiamike I. Dudley

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

RFSoCs are gaining adoption in many labs for quantum control systems thanks to their compactness and affordability. Making full use of the many components on an RFSoC evaluation board is a challenging engineering problem that must be solved to realize scalable control systems. In this dissertation, I evaluate the performance of various RFSoC components in the context of quantum information science. I present two custom FPGA engines that accelerate and parallelize arbitrary waveform generation. The first engine can be instantiated many times to power low-speed DACs for ion-shuttling trap electrodes. The second engine synthesizes CPMG-XY8n dynamical decoupling pulse sequences on …

Modeling For You: A Personalized Approach To Residential Energy Simulation And Distributional Reinforcement Learning, Nestor Gabriel Pereira

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The growing complexity and uncertainty of residential energy use, driven by electric

vehicles and renewable technologies, demand more intelligent and robust

management systems. Traditional methods often fail when faced with unpredictable

electricity prices and user behavior. This dissertation addresses this gap by presenting

a novel personalized framework combining detailed household energy modeling with

a risk-aware reinforcement learning agent for appliance scheduling.

The first contribution is a probabilistic, bottom-up simulation model that captures

the interdependent behaviors of occupants, appliances, and electric vehicles to

generate realistic, high-fidelity load profiles. The second contribution is a lightweight,

tabular Distributional Q-Learning (D-QL) algorithm that schedules …

Multi-Robot Cooperative System For Complex Aerospace Manipulation Tasks: Theory And Application, Longsen Gao

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Multi-robot systems can extend manipulation capabilities beyond the limits of a single robot, particularly for tasks involving large, flexible, delicate, or free-floating payloads. Reliable cooperative manipulation, however, remains difficult when payload dynamics, contact geometry, compliance properties, deformation-induced forces, and external disturbances are only partially known, and when safety constraints must be enforced during physical interaction. This dissertation develops a two-layer control framework for resilient multi-robot manipulation under uncertainty, with emphasis on space servicing, satellite stabilization, aerial transportation, and cooperative manipulation of free-floating structures.

Impacts Of Agricultural Microplastics On The Growth Of Marine Phytoplankton In Monterey Bay, Olivia A. Pawlyk

Master's Theses

Agricultural plastics are an emerging source of microplastics (MPs) to coastal marine environments, yet their effects on marine phytoplankton remain poorly understood. In coastal regions surrounding Monterey Bay (California, USA), plastic mulch used in agriculture can fragment into MPs during weathering and removal, entering marine waters via runoff and wind transport. This study investigated the effects of environmentally relevant concentrations of agricultural MPs on the growth and physiology of four marine phytoplankton species: two harmful algal bloom (HAB) taxa (Alexandrium sp. and Pseudo-nitzschia multiseries) and two non-HAB taxa (Thalassiosira sp. and Prorocentrum sp.). Each species was cultured independently and exposed …

Rthermal: Gate Level Power And Thermal Simulation For 3d-Stacked Chips, Peter Xiong

Master's Theses

As the number of transistors in modern processors increases, heat dissipation has become a major bottleneck to scalability. The use of 3D stacking further intensifies this problem, as heat from multiple layers can accumulate vertically. These challenges create a growing need for tools that can accurately and efficiently simulate the thermal behavior of 3D chips during design and validation. Several existing tools model thermal behavior for 3D-stacked chips and can simulate average heat over large spatial regions or long time intervals. However, when heat is concentrated in a small area or over a short time window, such models can miss …

Depth-Dependent Effects Of Disturbance On Reproductive Output And Growth Of Giant Kelp (Macrocystis Pyrifera), Roxanne-Alexa Amalia Garibay

Master's Theses

Understanding the resilience of foundation species to disturbance, such as the canopy-forming giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera), is crucial as these species support diverse communities by provisioning habitat and nutrients. This study investigated sublethal effects of biomass loss on reproductive traits and the recovery of vegetative biomass following simulated disturbance at shallow and deep sites in Stillwater Cove, central California. Initial baseline morphometrics revealed that depth significantly influenced total frond length and blade density but did not predict other vegetative or reproductive biomass metrics. A manipulative experiment varying type and intensity of disturbance—from canopy removal to full frond culls—demonstrated a decoupled …

Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Final 2022 Unreclaimed Sites Sampling: Ur-27 Site Evaluation Summary Report, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

The Dental Hygienist Perspective On Laser Use For Nonsurgical Periodontal Therapy, Tammie A. Nyce Mrs.

Dental Hygiene ETDs

The purpose of this study was to assess the perceptions, attitudes, and experiences of dental hygienists regarding the use of lasers in the non-surgical treatment of periodontal disease.  A descriptive survey was distributed via email to current active and inactive members of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association. The sample consisted of practicing dental hygienists who had received training in laser use and lived in states that allowed laser use by dental hygienists.   Those dental hygienists who are not practicing clinically, who are not trained in the use of lasers, and who do not have experience using lasers in the treatment …

Establishing Thermal Bleaching Thresholds For Montastraea Cavernosa On Florida’S Coral Reef, Olivia Faris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Marine heatwaves are increasing in frequency and duration, with widespread bleaching events and mortality impacts observed on Florida’s Coral Reef. However, thermal bleaching thresholds for corals in Southeast Florida are not well established, limiting the ability to forecast or manage response to thermal stress events in the region. This study was designed to establish bleaching thresholds for Montastraea cavernosa, a reef-building stony coral, in Southeast Florida. Ex-situ experiments were conducted where triplicate M. cavernosa fragments of multiple genotypes were exposed to acute thermal stress or held at intermediate temperatures to simulate chronic stress. Thermal performance curves based on photosynthetic …

Ionophore-Based Plga Nanosensor For Selective Ion Detection And Imaging, Zhiyu Tang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Accurate detection of electrolyte ions is essential for biological research, disease diagnosis, and the investigation of cellular function. In this study, we developed ionophore-based PLGA nanosensors for the optical detection of biologically important ions. The nanosensors were prepared by encapsulating ionophores, chromoionophore III, and ion exchangers within PLGA nanoparticles. The resulting nanosensors showed uniform morphology, good colloidal stability, and concentration-dependent optical responses toward Na⁺, K⁺, and Ca²⁺ over the range of 10⁻⁶ to 10⁻¹ M. Reversible fluorescence responses under repeated ion concentration changes confirmed the stability and robustness of the sensors. The nanosensors also demonstrated reliable analytical performance for K⁺ …

Measurements And Studies For Rare Event Searches Using Directional Detectors, Elizabeth Tilly

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Measuring topology and initial direction of low-energy (keV-MeV) particle tracks is interesting to rare-event searches. While directional dark matter searches have been one of the largest drivers for R&D for low-energy directional detectors, this work is interested in its application to Migdal searches. The Migdal effect—a nuclear recoil and an electron recoil sharing a vertex—has been used as a detection channel for low-mass dark matter but has only recently been measured. Low-energy directional detectors are ideal to measure the canonic Migdal topology. This dissertation discusses 3D reconstruction algorithms developed for the Migdal In Galactic Dark mAtter expLoration (MIGDAL) experiment and …

Exploring The Role Of A Mushy, Crustal Compliant Region In Volcano Deformation, Grant A. Block

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Volcanoes are both creative and destructive forces that have shaped and continue to shape our world from early geologic time to the present day. Continued study of volcanic processes not only better prepares us for monitoring volcanic hazards but also allows us to better understand processes fundamental to Earth as we know it, such as the generation of the atmosphere and accretion of the continents. This dissertation focuses on an integral part of volcanic processes: the trans-crustal magmatic transport system. Specifically, we investigate regions of these transport systems where magma pools in melt-rich lenses within broader regions of low melt-fraction, …

In-Situ Stm Visualization Of Molecular Structural Evolution During Electrochemical Oxidation Coupling Of Para-Aminothiophenol On Au(111), Zi-Wei Ma, Tai-Rui Wu, An-Ni Zheng, Lai-Ke Chen, Yuan-Hui Xiao, Zhao-Bin Chen, Qing-Na Zheng, Jian-Zhang Zhou, Jia-Wei Yan, De-Yin Wu

Journal of Electrochemistry

Para-aminothiophenol (PATP) is not only a widely-used probe molecule in the field of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), but also an important model molecule for interfacial reactions, exhibiting distinct photo- and electro-oxidation pathways, so that PATP is selectively activated under different external fields. The evolution of products and intermediates during electrochemical oxidative coupling remains unknown. In this study, we have investigated the dynamic electrochemical oxidation process of PATP on the Au(111) surface using cyclic voltammetry, electrochemical (EC)-SERS, and in situ electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (EC-STM). The results showed that PATP forms an unsaturated adsorption coverage on Au(111) in an acidic solution. …

Assessment Of Anaerobic Co-Digestion Of High Strength Organic Feedstocks Diverted From Landfills, Sumaiya Sharmin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The increasing generation of high-strength organic wastes such as food waste and fats, oils, and grease (FOG) presents challenges for landfill capacity and waste management. Anaerobic co-digestion offers a sustainable alternative by converting these wastes into renewable energy and nutrient-rich digestate. This study evaluated the co-digestion performance of single fruit waste residuals and mixed food waste with wastewater sludge to identify substrate combinations that maximize methane production while maintaining process stability. Laboratory-scale batch experiments were conducted under mesophilic conditions using thickened waste activated sludge (TWAS) with varying proportions of food waste and co-substrates, including seaweed, aquatic weed, grease trap waste, …

2026-07-28 Message From The President, Morehead State University. Staff Congress.

Staff Congress Records

Message sent on July 28, 2026 by the President to the campus community regarding upcoming dates and events for the Fall Semester, academic calendars, construction news, campus personnel recognitions and other updates.

Tomographic Bistatic Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Exploiting The Starlink Communication Waveform, Jonathan C. Denton

Theses

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) is a powerful tool for imaging and reconnaissance, typically operated in a monostatic configuration. Bistatic geometries spatially separate the transmitter and receiver, capturing unique target scattering information, while passive methods leverage existing environmental signals of opportunity. With the advent of massive Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband constellations like SpaceX’s Starlink, high-bandwidth reference signals with large Doppler modulation now exist globally, offering bistatic SAR imaging potential worldwide. This research presents an end-to-end simulation to demonstrate the passive exploitation of Starlink communication waveforms for tomographic bistatic SAR imaging. Utilizing high-fidelity Computer-Aided Design (CAD) models, the simulation generated a …

Neural And Computational Mechanisms Of Effort Under The Pressure Of A Deadline, M. Andrea Pisauro, Daniele Pollicino, Lucy Fisher, Matthew A. J. Apps

School of Psychology

Deadlines fundamentally shape motivation. Research examining effort-based choices finds effort is an avoided cost. However, this overlooks how making progress on longer-term goals to be reached before deadlines motivate people to exert high effort for little immediate reward. Here, we test a framework where motivation depends on deadline pressure (work remaining / time remaining). Across four studies we use computational modelling examining decisions when physical effort makes progress on goals with deadlines. In support of the hypotheses, deadline pressure significantly impacts decision-making, shifting people from avoiding effort, to seeking the progress it makes. Using ultra-high-field fMRI, we show that functionally …

Benefits Of Regional Anesthesia Versus Opioids In The Management Of Postoperative Pain Following Excision Of A Peripheral Nerve Sheath Tumor., Duveen Nalamothu, Mauricio Arce Villalobos, Joseph D Tobias

Ambulatory and Primary Care Articles

Postoperative opioid exposure in opioid-naive patients may carry a risk of persistent opioid use. We present the case of a 16-year-old female with no significant family history who was recently diagnosed with neurofibromatosis type 1 and found to have a rapidly enlarging mass in her left upper extremity. She was scheduled for excisional biopsy. To minimize the need for postoperative opioids, analgesia via a continuous peripheral nerve catheter was employed following resection of the malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumor. This case report reviews the clinical applications of multimodal analgesia via a continuous peripheral nerve catheter in pediatric patients, including placement …

Study The Density Dependence Of Nuclear Matter Properties In Some Magnesium Isotopes, Huda Abdul Jabbar Hussein, Wasan Z. Majeed

Baghdad Science Journal

In this study, the symmetry energy, neutron pressure, and incompressibility modulus for the magnesium isotope ^20–35Mg are investigated using the Coherent Density Fluctuation Model (CDFM). In order to make the transition from infinite nuclear matter properties to finite nuclei, the weight functions |f(x)|² are calculated. The results showed a nonlinear relationship between the symmetry energy and the thickness of the neutron skin (ΔR_n), where ΔR_n initially increases as the symmetry energy rises, reaching a maximum, and then gradually drops with further increases in symmetry energy. Furthermore, the incompressibility coefficient and neutron pressure demonstrated irregular trends, …

A New Numerical Approach For Solving Caputo-Fabrizio Fractional Differential Equations, Manoj Kumar

Baghdad Science Journal

In this paper, we present a novel numerical scheme for solving fractional-order differential equations of the form ^CFD_t^η ψ ( t ) = f( t,ψ ( t ) ),ψ ( 0 ) = ψ ₀,0 < η < 1,t∈[ 0,T ], where ^CFD_t^η denotes the Caputo-Fabrizio derivative operator. Further, we establish the stability and error analysis of the proposed scheme. We also extend this scheme for solving systems of fractional differential equations. Furthermore, we perform the several numerical simulations and present the results graphically. The obtained solutions are compared with those achieved through the well-known methods such as fractional Adams-Bashforth method and a new predictor-corrector method. It has been observed that the proposed method offers greater accuracy than these established methods. Hence, the proposed scheme can be utilized for the simulations of various fractional order differential equations, when the derivatives are considered in the Caputo-Fabrizio sense.

Synthesis, Characterization, Molecular Docking, And Anticancer Activity Of Triazole-Derived Trinuclear Metal Complexes (Tat3), Eman M. Ramadthan, Khansaa Shakir Al-Nama, Ammar H. Al-Sabawi

Baghdad Science Journal

A novel series of trinuclear coordination complexes of Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Zn(II), and Cd(II) was synthesized using a triazole-based ligand, namely 4-amino-5-((bis((4-amino-5-thioxo-4,5-dihydro-1H-1,2,4-triazol-3-yl)methyl)amino)methyl)-2H-1,2,4-triazole-3(4H)-thione, (TAT3) in an alcoholic medium. The obtained complexes were investigated using a comprehensive set of physicochemical and spectroscopic techniques, including CHNS elemental analysis, Fourier-transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, UV–visible spectroscopy, proton and carbon-13 nuclear magnetic resonance (¹H and ¹³C-NMR), mass spectrometry, magnetic susceptibility measurements, and molar conductivity. Structural and surface morphology assessments were further carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The spectroscopic and analytical data confirmed that …

Synthesis, Spectroscopic Characterization, Biological And Computational Study For Some Metal Ions Complexes With Schiff - Mannich Base Ligand Derived From 1,3,4-Thiadiazole, Israa Rasheed Ghadhban, Shaymaa R. Baqer

Baghdad Science Journal

A new Schiff–Mannich base ligand derived from 1,3,4-thiadiazole was synthesized via the reaction of 2-amino-5-mercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole with sulfabenzamide and indoline in the presence of formaldehyde, yielding N–(4-((5-(2-oxoindolin-3-ylideneamino)-1,3,4-thiadiazol-2-ylthio)methylamino) phenyl thiolperoxy) benzamide (L). Six multivalent metal complexes were subsequently prepared with Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II), Pd(II), Pt(IV), and Au(III) ions. The ligand and its complexes were characterized using various spectroscopic techniques, including FT-IR, UV-Vis, ¹H NMR, and ¹³C NMR, while magnetic susceptibility and conductivity measurements were performed for the complexes. Infrared analysis revealed tetradentate coordination of the ligand to all metals, with octahedral geometries for most complexes and square planar geometries for …