Evaluating Pfas And Marine Microbial Interactions In Estuarine Sediments With Varying Urbanization And Assessments Of Microbial Responses To Pfos, Zachary J. Padgett

All Theses

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a diverse class of synthetic chemicals that have become globally distributed due to their extensive use in industrial and consumer products and their extraordinary resistance to environmental degradation. Their persistence and documented toxicity have made them a growing concern in coastal environments, particularly in estuaries where urban runoff, wastewater, and industrial discharges concentrate these compounds. Estuaries are unique in that tidal mixing and interactions with fine-grained sediments and organic matter promote PFAS retention, while the microbial communities living directly within estuarine sediments are positioned where PFAS preferentially accumulate, creating conditions for prolonged exposure and …

Electrokinetic Flow Instabilities In Non-Newtonian Fluids With Conductivity Gradients, Md Mainul Islam

All Theses

Electrokinetic instabilities (EKI) arise in electrically driven flows because the applied electric field interacts with spatial variations in electrical conductivity, generating electric body forces that can destabilize fluid interfaces. EKI can be beneficial by enhancing mixing in microchannels where diffusion is slow, but it can also be detrimental by disrupting stable sample transport, focusing, and separation. EKI has been widely studied in Newtonian fluids, and the electric Rayleigh number is known to govern the onset of this instability. However, very few studies have examined its behavior in non-Newtonian fluids, despite their prevalence in biological, chemical, and industrial applications. 

This thesis …

Addressing Food Pantry Capacity To Offer Medically Tailored Groceries For Food Insecure Individuals With Chronic Disease In Rural South Carolina, Anna G. Taylor

All Theses

This study examines the feasibility of implementing medically tailored grocery (MTG) programs within rural food pantries in South Carolina to better serve food-insecure individuals living with chronic diseases. Using a mixed-methods design, the study aimed to assess current pantry capacity, identify barriers and facilitators to MTG implementation, and evaluate strategies to strengthen MTG delivery.

The intervention was guided by three implementation science frameworks: the Six-Step Knowledge Sharing Model, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR), and the RE-AIM evaluation framework. Data collection occurred in two phases. In Phase 1, statewide focus groups, capacity surveys, and inventory assessments were conducted to …

Evaluating The Potential For Chain Elongation To Produce Medium Chain Carboxylates From Anaerobic Conversion Of Lipids, Erin Boyer

All Theses

Medium Chain Carboxylates (MCCs), including caproate and caprylate, are valuable chemicals in various industries that can be produced biologically through an identified chain elongation pathway called reverse β-oxidation. During lipid degradation in anaerobic co-digesters at wastewater treatment plants, methane production is maximized to ensure the successful breakdown of the lipids. It remains unclear whether the anaerobic conversion of lipids possesses the potential to produce MCCs, and this study sought to evaluate the potential using anaerobic co-digester sludge from a full-scale wastewater treatment plant. Batch assays were conducted using the sludge from the plant as inoculum, as well as palmitic acid, …

Understanding The Potential Sources Of Bacteria And Turbidity Pollution In The Edisto Island Watershed, Brynne Sumner

All Theses

Anthropogenic pollution introduces contaminants, such as pathogenic bacteria and turbidity, into coastal watersheds. These contaminants are the major contributors to water quality impairments in the three sub-watersheds encompassing Edisto Island and the Town of Edisto Beach (hereafter referred to as the Edisto Island Watershed), located within the ACE Basin, South Carolina, USA. With 18 locations impaired for fecal bacteria and 19 for turbidity on the 2024 South Carolina 303(d) list of impaired waters, the Edisto Island Watershed offers valuable insights into the water quality challenges rural coastal communities face.

This study aimed to identify the sources of fecal bacteria and …

Implementation Of A Practical Sharp Interface Saltwater Intrusion Model To Assess Future Sea-Level Impacts, Alexandra G. Defalco

All Theses

Rising sea levels caused by global warming exacerbate saltwater intrusion, the inland movement of seawater into coastal aquifers. These processes increase susceptibility to freshwater contamination, surface flooding, and infrastructure damage. Numerical models are utilized to assess hazards to coastal aquifers on a regional scale.

The U.S. Navy is currently developing a robust, reduced-order groundwater modeling platform, SWI6, that uses the sharp interface approach to approximate the location of the freshwater-saltwater interface to define the extent of saltwater intrusion within an aquifer. Featuring compatibility with MODFLOW 6 unstructured grid formats and the Newton-Raphson formulation for better solution stability, SWI6 improves upon …

Insect Abundance And Bat Use Of Fields For Foraging In The Cumberland Plateau, Caroline M. Abramowitz

All Theses

Bat populations and their insect prey are declining, making it urgent to understand how habitat features and management support both groups. Early successional habitat (ESH), grasslands and shrublands with reduced vegetative clutter and abundant flowering resources, may benefit foraging bats and nocturnal insects. This study examined how landscape context, patch characteristics, microhabitat features, and management (mechanical mastication and prescribed burns) affected insects and bats across 29 managed fields in Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area (TN/KY) from 2024–2025. Flight-intercept traps collected 25,297 insects across five orders. Though results were order-specific, vegetative composition and height were the strongest predictors …

Evaluation Of Ostomy Pouching Change Practices Among Hospital-Based And Community-Based Nurses, Hannah Gerlach

All Theses

An estimated 725,000 to 1 million Americans are living with an ostomy and depend on ostomy pouching systems as part of their daily care. Effective ostomy management requires regular pouch changes and consistent skin care to prevent peristomal skin complications. Many individuals living with an ostomy face long-term challenges in managing their ostomy care, which can negatively affect their health-related quality of life. There is a need to understand how professional experience across different care environments, such as hospital-based and community-based settings, influences ostomy nursing care practices.

This study evaluates how nurses working in hospital-based settings and community-based settings perform …

University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga Faculty Handbook, 2026 August 1, University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga. Office Of Academic Affairs, University Of Tennessee At Chattanooga. Faculty Senate

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Faculty Handbooks

Governance, policies, guidelines, services, and resources managed by and for the faculty at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

Fixed Points For Fitted Lines, David L. Farnsworth

Articles

For many fitting methods for lines in the plane, each observation possesses an associated point in the plane, or at infinity for particular observations. These associated points are called “fixed points,” because properly chosen replacement points for the originally selected observation create other fitted lines that contain the same fixed point. Simple linear regression and orthogonal least-squares regression are investigated as examples. The phenomenon has been previously noted for simple regression, where the properly selected replacement points are related to regression diagnostics and the determination of outliers. Orthogonal regression lines are fundamental to principal component analysis. Mechanical devices for simple …

Some Results About Orthogonal Least-Squares Lines, Steven J. Kilner, David L. Farnsworth

Articles

A set of quantitative bivariate data is augmented with one additional point. Orthogonal least-squares fitting is used for the original set and the augmented set. The possible locations of the two lines, the points of means of the two sets, and the augmenting point are examined.

Flow And Professional Identity Through Lived Experiences Of Doctoral Students In An Online Immersive Instructional Framework, Leticia De Leon

Teaching and Learning Faculty Publications

This qualitative phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of doctoral students engaged in an immersive instructional framework within an online course on Adult Learning Strategies. The purpose was to examine how immersive design elements (De Leon, 2020) and flow theory as defined through Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) and Shin’s (2006) helped participant engagement via enjoyment, telepresence, focused attention, and time distortion. Participants completed five narrative journals across two immersive modules designed with multimodal, authentic, interactive, and autonomous elements. Data analysis followed Moustakas’ (1994) phenomenological reduction, including bracketing, horizontalizing, thematic clustering, and a synthesized essence of experience. Results revealed that students experienced flow …

Decision-Making Criteria In Polygenic Embryo Screening: A Survey Of Reproductive Medicine Physicians, Rémy A Furrer, Aayushi Gandhi, Dorit Barlevy, Shai Carmi, Todd Lencz, Stacey Pereira, Gabriel Lázaro-Muñoz

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Purpose: Polygenic embryo screening (PES) examines embryos for their genetic likelihood of developing complex conditions and traits. The commercialization of PES places reproductive endocrinologists and infertility specialists (REIs) as the primary decision-makers in its use, despite professional guidelines cautioning that PES is not ready for clinical use.

Methods: This survey examines how 152 US REIs perceive and approach potential clinical decision-making scenarios regarding the use of PES.

Results: REIs were more likely to offer PES for medical conditions (up to 62% for cancer) than for traits (eg, 0% for skin color, 10% for body mass index). When evaluating 11 potential …

Extending Genome-Wide Association Studies To Admixed Cohorts With High Degrees Of Relatedness, Taotao Tan, Alejandra Vergara-Lope, José Jaime Martínez-Magaña, Nirav N Shah, Yi-Sian Lin, Kai Yuan, Jaime Berumen, Jesus Alegre-Díaz, Pablo Kuri-Morales, Roberto Tapia-Conyer, Joel Gelenter, Janitza L Montalvo-Ortiz, Wei Zhou, Jason M Torres, Elizabeth G Atkinson

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Admixed populations comprise a large portion of the human population worldwide, but are often excluded from genome-wide association studies (GWASs) due to analytic challenges. Our group developed Tractor, a local-ancestry-informed GWAS tool designed for admixed samples that produces accurate ancestry-specific effect sizes and boosts the discovery power to identify ancestry-enriched loci. However, Tractor operates under an assumption of unrelated samples. Here, to address this gap, we propose Tractor-Mix, which allows for well-calibrated association studies in datasets containing admixed samples with relatedness. Extensive simulations show that this method is competitive with other state-of-the-art approaches that do not produce ancestry-specific results. Empirical …

Draft Final Butte Priority Soils Operable Unit Insufficiently Reclaimed Sites Temporary Best Management Practices Work Plan: Bres No. 16 – Curry And Bres No. 50 – Zelia, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Clark Tailings Consolidated Waste Management Area Site Investigation Quality Assurance Project Plan (Qapp), Woodard & Curran

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Praise That Empowers: Training Preschool Teachers To Linguistically Adapt Behavior-Specific Praise For Hispanic Students, Claudia Abril Ochoa

Dissertations

Children’s engagement in early ages is critical for promoting behavioral, academic, and social-emotional outcomes. However, engagement in classroom activities may be difficult for young children who have not mastered the primary language used in early childhood education settings (i.e., English). Research regarding engagement in English Language Learners (ELLs) in preschool settings, as well as cultural and/or linguistic adaptations of classroom interventions to serve this population is limited. Behavior-specific praise (BSP) has been an effective strategy to improve behavior in preschool classrooms. The current study used a multiple-baseline design across three Head-Start teachers to test the efficacy of in situ training …

Graph Perturbation Analysis For Subgraph Counting, Hanhua Xiao, Yuchen Li, Kyriakos Mouratidis

PhD Student’s Publications Collection

Subgraph counting, which involves determining the frequency of a query graph within a data graph, has numerous applications such as query optimization, fraud detection, and evaluating the expressiveness of graph neural networks. Despite its importance, there has been no systematic study on the impact of adversarial graph perturbations on subgraph counts. In this work, we examine the kSub problem, which aims to identify k edge additions that maximize the count of a query graph. We prove that kSub is intractable due to its NP-hardness, even for constant approximation. To address this, we relax the problem into a top-k selection, termed …

Parental Engagement For Students With Disabilities In Online Learning, Misty A. Benson

All Graduate Reports and Creative Projects, Fall 2023 to Present

Parental engagement for online students with disabilities is critical for their learning success (Tundle et al., 2016). When parents are actively engaged in online learning, their children experience positive learner outcomes (Smith et. al., 2016). Research indicates that students with disabilities are rapidly transitioning to fully online learning, with parents playing an active role as their learning instructors.The implication for parents who choose to enroll their children with disabilities in online learning is greater parental engagement in their child's learning.

"Always Online, Never At Ease: Fear Of Missing Out (Fomo) As A Partial Mediator Between Adverse Childhood Experiences (Aces) And Physical Health, Psychological Functioning, And Psychosocial Adjustment Among College Students", Evelyn Pensamiento

Psychological Science Undergraduate Honors Theses

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events, such as abuse, neglect, and household disruption, that occur during the first 18 years of life. ACEs have been found to be strongly linked to negative outcomes, such as poor physical health, poor mental health, low self-esteem, low emotion regulation, poor college adjustment, low life satisfaction, and low social connectedness, and high loneliness (Felitti et al., 1998; Carbonell et al., 2018; Cloitre et al., 2019; Mosley-Johnson et al., 2018; Yayan et al., 2019). Previous literature suggests that fear of missing out (FoMO) may help explain some of the negative consequences of ACEs …

William H. Henning, William H. Henning

Faculty CVs

No abstract provided.

Robert D. Probasco, Robert D. Probasco

Faculty CVs

No abstract provided.

Samuel M. Sanchez, Samuel M. Sanchez

Faculty CVs

No abstract provided.

On The Paces Of Artaud: An Attempt To Examine An Afro-Futurism Template Through The Lens Of Theatre Of Cruelty, Nihal Hassan Abdulla

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the scenic rationale of Baby Love, highlighting its poetic stage language and metaphoric choices. Referencing Artaud, it investigates how scenery challenges conventional theatre and demonstrates the feasibility of Afro-futurist aesthetics within the Theatre of Cruelty. The approach prioritizes sensory communication, following Artaud’s emphasis on stage techniques.

Referring to the influence of Artaud’s intense artistic milieu, which contributed to the crystallization of the concept of Cruelty, and identifying methodologies used in developing my design metaphor.

Tracing the emergence of the Afrocentric movement in America reveals that the literary roots of Afro-futurism were established in cyberculture a bit earlier …

An Update On The Role Of Multimodal Analgesia In Perioperative Pain Management, Whitney N. Kuwamoto, Grace C. Eddy, Edward R. Mariano, Eric S. Schwenk

Department of Anesthesiology Faculty Papers

Multimodal analgesia has become a foundational principle of acute perioperative pain management and enhanced recovery and involves the application of nonpharmacologic, pharmacologic, and/or interventional techniques. The overall goal of this approach is to apply a combination of different modalities that target discrete points along the pain pathway and thereby avoid the overreliance on opioids and associated side effects. Since our review in 2018, there have been significant developments that have prompted an updated review of multimodal analgesia. In this article, we identify and summarize important trends that influence the current approach to acute perioperative pain management as well as provide …

Odyssey To The Extraordinary: Living Our Land Grant Mission And Beyond, Jeffrey P. Gold, Katherine S. Ankerson, Tiffany Heng-Moss

Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources: Institute Publications

Presents a strategy intended to guide future directions for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's (UNL) Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) including issues related to governance, funding, organizational structure, and strategic alignment within UNL and the University of Nebraska system.

Safety And Real-World Effectiveness Of Eptacog Beta With Emicizumab Prophylaxis: An Interim Analysis Of The Athn 16 Study., Tammuella Chrisentery-Singleton, Suchitra Acharya, Sanjay Ahuja, Lauren Amos Md, Meera Chitlur, Nabil Daoud, Ashley Eason, Miguel Escobar, Carol Fedor, Shveta Gupta, Philip Kuriakose, Sonia Nasr, Sharon Pennington, Rajiv K. Pruthi, Michael Recht, Andreana Robertson, Doris V. Quon, Allison P. Wheeler, Mark Reding

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Eptacog beta, a recombinant factor VIIa bypassing agent, has demonstrated safety and efficacy in the management of bleeding events (BEs) in people with hemophilia and inhibitors. Data describing eptacog beta use in patients receiving emicizumab prophylaxis remains limited. This interim analysis of the American Thrombosis and Hemostasis Network 16 study, a phase 4, multicenter, US based, open-label study, evaluates the safety and real-world effectiveness of eptacog beta for the treatment of BEs experienced on emicizumab prophylaxis. Nineteen participants with hemophilia A and inhibitors who agreed to treat BEs with eptacog beta were included. Eptacog beta dosing was determined by the …

Ecmo Use In Infants With Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia: A Literature Review., John Ibrahim, Nicholas Carr, Franscesca Miquel Verges, Natalie Rintoul, Robert Digeronimo, John M. Daniel Iv, Sarah Keene, Burhan Mahmood

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) is a leading cause of chronic respiratory failure in infants. Severe BPD is associated with prolonged mechanical ventilation, pulmonary hypertension, and high morbidity and mortality. As disease severity increases, extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is being reconsidered as a potential rescue therapy. Historically, ECMO has been reserved for neonates with reversible respiratory failure and those who required mechanical ventilation for less than 14 days, while infants with BPD were excluded. However, advancements in ECMO technology, anticoagulation strategies, and ventilatory management have led to a reassessment of its role in this population. Emerging reports suggest ECMO may serve as …

Pharmvar Genefocus: Cyp1a2-Clinical Impact, Genetic Variation, And Updated Nomenclature., Katalin Monostory, Gonzalo Villapalos Garcia, Dora Koller, Solomon Adams, Chad A. Bousman, Evangelia Eirini Tsermpini, Michelle Whirl-Carrillo, Amy J. Turner, Volker M. Lauschke, Mohamed Nagy, Erin C. Boone, Teri E. Klein, Pablo Zubiaur, Andrea Gaedigk

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

The Pharmacogene Variation Consortium (PharmVar) provides nomenclature for the highly polymorphic human CYP1A2 gene. CYP1A2 plays a crucial role in the biotransformation of several commonly used drugs, including antipsychotics, antidepressants, anxiolytics, and methylxanthines. The activity of CYP1A2 varies significantly among individuals due to genetic and non-genetic factors. This GeneFocus paper offers an overview of the functional significance of CYP1A2 in drug metabolism, CYP1A2 genetic variation, and presents the updated PharmVar star allele-based nomenclature for CYP1A2. Updates include revisions to previously defined star alleles to align with PharmVar standards, as well as the addition of novel star alleles, providing the pharmacogenetic …

Impact Of Trisomy 21 On Post Pull-Through Enterocolitis And Bowel Function In Children With Hirschsprung Disease: A Pcplc Analysis., Marshall W. Wallace, Scott S. Short, Rachel C. Crady, Ron W. Reeder, Hira Ahmad, Kelly Austin, Andrea Badillo, Casey M. Calkins, Megan M. Durham, Julie R. Fuchs, Christopher Gayer, Julia E. Grabowski, Jamie C. Harris, Charles R. Hong, Ankur Rana, Rebecca M. Rentea, Nelson Rosen, Payam Saadai, Caitlin A. Smith, K Elizabeth Speck, Cristine S. Velazco, Richard J. Wood, Michael D. Rollins

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

INTRODUCTION: We evaluated whether Trisomy 21 (T21) affected bowel management use, ability to toilet train for stool, and rates of Hirschsprung-Associated Enterocolitis (HAEC) in children with Hirschsprung disease (HD). We hypothesized that T21 would be associated with increased rates of HAEC, bowel management program (BMP) use, and delayed toilet training for stool.

METHODS: Children with HD in the Pediatric Colorectal and Pelvic Learning Consortium (PCPLC) database who underwent primary pull-through were included and stratified by T21 status: HD only versus HD + T21. Children requiring a redo pull-through, initially managed with a stoma, or those who had inadequate follow-up were …