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Say Bananas: A Pilot Study On An App-Based Intervention As A Modality Of Home Practice, Kate Margaret Sjostedt

Master's Theses and Capstones

This single subject design study provides an initial exploration of using Say Bananas toprovide motor learning-based intervention for children with childhood apraxia of speech. By implementing an app-based home practice intervention tool to support traditional speech sound disorder treatment, specifically the Treatment for Establishing Motor Program Organization (TEMPO), it was designed to treat speech sound disorders by implementing exercises using a more engaging platform. We tested the performance of three different children diagnosed with childhood apraxia of speech. Each child used the app as a modality of home practice five days a week for four weeks in addition to their …

Understanding Ecological Baselines To Inform Humpback Whale (Megaptera Novaeangliae) Management Strategies In Southeast Alaska, Melanie Anabel Smith

Master's Theses and Capstones

Vessel disturbance impedes the resilience and recovery of humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) populations. Many management strategies in Southeast Alaska aim to protect whales and their habitat. However, it is difficult to measure the effectiveness of management strategies without understanding the state of an ecosystem with minimal vessel traffic. The thesis examines two situations with reduced vessel activity to understand humpback whale behavioral and acoustic ecology. We first use the Beardslee Island Complex and adjacent waters in Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve (Glacier Bay), an area with minimal vessel traffic, to understand habitat use by foraging and traveling whales. Using …

Bioimpedance Smart Needle System For Real-Time Tissue Detection During Intramuscular Injection, Marc Peter Tausanovitch

Master's Theses and Capstones

Injectable drug delivery is an extremely commonplace procedure in the world ofmedicine, with over 16 billion injections administered annually. Due to the high vascularity of muscle tissue, the intramuscular (IM) route is preferred for many antibiotic, biological, and hormonal drugs. Appropriate needle length plays a critical role in the success of IM injection, ensuring that the drug is deposited in the core muscle. Instances of over- or under-penetration are associated with reduced drug bioavailability and vaccine related injury. Unfortunately, guidelines for needle length selection do not always yield positive results due to practitioner error or adverse patient physiology. This thesis …

Characterizing The Diets Of Tidal Marsh Sparrows Using Fecal Dna Metabarcoding, William Thomas Rumfelt

Master's Theses and Capstones

Animal diet studies provide valuable insights into evolution and ecology, including about niches filled by species and how they are shaped by interspecific competition. Fecal DNA metabarcoding is an efficient, non-invasive approach to assess animal diets by sequencing DNA recovered from fecal samples. This study used fecal DNA metabarcoding to characterize the breeding season diets of six Atlantic coast tidal marsh sparrow species with varying levels of adaptation to tidal salt marsh habitat. We identified the major prey taxa present in each species’ diet, compared dietary diversity as a measure of niche width across species of varying salt marsh specialization, …

Investigating Late Pleistocene To Recent Bimodal Sedimentation In The Terrebonne Basin, Gulf Of Mexico, Kayla Tozier

Master's Theses and Capstones

The UT-GOM2-2 Deepwater Hydrate Coring Expedition collected continuous conventional and pressure cores in the Terrebonne Basin, Gulf of Mexico (GOM) to 155 mbsf to investigate the physical, chemical, and biological properties of sediments within, bounding, and overlying methane hydrates. Calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy constrains the age of the upper 145 mbsf to the Pleistocene (<0.66 Ma) to recent. Description of UT-GOM2-2 Hole H003 revealed a lithologic unit from 4.5 to 152 mbsf, defined by bimodal sedimentation of carbonate oozes and interbedded muds. In this thesis, we examine the shallowest mud-to-carbonate ooze transition to investigate the processes driving this bimodal sedimentation through measurements of biogenic silica (BSi), total carbon (TC), total nitrogen (TN), total sulfur (TS), total organic carbon (TOC), and δ13C of total organic carbon (δ13C-TOC) from 4.62 to 37.83 mbsf. Mixed planktonic foraminifers were picked for radiocarbon dates through 14.39 mbsf, constraining the last ~42,000 years. Our results are integrated with additional existing shipboard and post-cruise data sets, including XRF core scanning data, calcareous nannofossil biostratigraphy, reworked calcareous nannofossil abundance, smear slide analyses, and magnetic susceptibility data. Our integrated results suggest that the BSi record represents reworked (RW) Cretaceous radiolarians delivered fluvially to the site, rather than Pleistocene to recent radiolarians produced via in situ productivity. Evidence of greater terrigenous flux by RW Cretaceous microfossils (both calcareous nannofossils and radiolarians) during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 2 is consistent with a closer distance of the site to the shoreline during a sea-level low stand. Increased grain size and sand delivery during the last deglacial (16 to 8.9 ka) are consistent with meltwater pulse-driven sedimentation documented elsewhere in the Gulf of Mexico (e.g. Emiliani et al., 1975; Aharon, 2003). Below the radiocarbon constrained interval, two biostratigraphic age datums from 70 to 290 ka nearly constrain a full glacial-interglacial cycle (most of MIS 4-8), where coarse turbidite delivery is greatly increased during a glacial period, consistent with sea level low stands, and reworked sediment delivery greatly increases towards the interglacial period, consistent with meltwater pulses and higher sea level. Though stadial/interstadial processes are evident in our datasets, it appears that the bimodal sedimentation represents a systematic shift in the proximity of the site to the Mississippi River mouth. Low and relatively consistent CaCO3 content, depleted δ13C values, and high TOC:TN values within the carbonate ooze interval suggest that in situ productivity does not increase, but rather dilution by terrigenous sediment decreases. These findings have implications for the deposition of coarse- and fine-grained lithologies on the northern Gulf of Mexico, which may ultimately influence gas hydrate distribution along continental margins. Additionally, these findings suggest that BSi can be measured in GOM sediments as a proxy for the Mississippi River flux.

Mindfulness And Meditation: Activation Likelihood Estimates (Ale) And Meta-Analytic Connectivity Modelling (Macm), Ariana Christine White

Master's Theses and Capstones

Introduction: Mindfulness, a popular practice that originated as a Buddhist custom, encompasses a myriad of techniques such as meditation, yoga, and journaling. Such practice is often suggested for individuals with mental health disorders (MHD). Recently, mindfulness-based interventions, including forms of psychotherapy like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, have gained prominence. Investigations into brain activity associated with mindfulness-based interventions have identified positive modulation of a Triple Network Model (TNM), a confluence of three brain networks that are commonly associated with MHD. Targeting these networks and understanding mindfulness-specific connectivity may provide evidence for regions to target during intervention in order to induce neural …

Evaluating The Long-Term Performance Of Recycling Agents In High-Rap Content Asphalt Mixtures, Zheng Wang

Master's Theses and Capstones

The Utilization of Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) has become a pivotal strategy for improving infrastructure sustainability. However, with a high RAP content included in the pavement material, the aged asphalt will decline the mechanical properties of the flexible pavement and thus decrease the durability. Recycling agents (RAs) are products with chemical and physical characteristics designed to restore the rheological properties of reclaimed asphalt material and improve the performance of recycled asphalt mixtures with high RAP content that promote economic and environmental benefits. Plenty of the RA products are proven effective once blended with asphalt; however, the long-term effect of the …

A Hybrid Residue Based Sequential Encoding Mechanism With Xgboost Improved Ensemble Model For Identifying 5‑Hydroxymethylcytosine Modifications, Islam Uddin, Hamid Hussain Awan, Majdi Khalid, Salman Khan, Shahid Akbar, Mahidur R. Sarker, Maher G. M. Abdolrasol, Thamer A. H. Alghamdi

Artículos científicos

RNA modifications play an important role in actively controlling recently created formation in cellular regulation mechanisms, which link them to gene expression and protein. The RNA modifications have numerous alterations, presenting broad glimpses of RNA’s operations and character. The modification process by the TET enzyme oxidation is the crucial change associated with cytosine hydroxymethylation. The effect of CR is an alteration in specific biochemical ways of the organism, such as gene expression and epigenetic alterations. Traditional laboratory systems that identify 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) samples are expensive and time-consuming compared to other methods. To address this challenge, the paper proposed XGB5hmC, a …

Diverging Paths, Converging Goals Framing Crisis To Kairos In Bill Gates's And Greta Thunberg's Climate Discourse, Daniel Wuebben, Wang Emily, Emma Gomez Domingo, Juan Romero-Luis

Artículos científicos

This article introduces a typology of nine communication frames and analyzes how they operate in Bill Gates's How to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe (2021) and Greta Thunberg's The Climate Book (2022). The typology draws special attention to how non-fiction books are vehicles that can appeal for timely action (i.e. kairos), establish authorial ethos, disseminate climate science, and advocate for climate activism and energy transitions. The application of the typology highlights the books' narrative arcs: Gates and Thunberg both begin by acknowledging the reality and severity of the climate crisis and the correspondence between social progress and justice. Then, their arguments …

Book Review Of Her Honor: Stories Of Challenge And Triumph From Women Judges, Janet Bond Arterton

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Temporal Scales Of Mass Wasting Sedimentation Across The Mississippi River Delta Front Delineated By 210pb/137cs Geochronology, Jeffrey Duxbury, Samuel J. Bentley, Kehui Xu, Navid H. Jafari

Faculty Publications

The Mississippi River Delta Front (MRDF) is a subaqueous apron of rapidly deposited and weakly consolidated sediment extending from the subaerial portions of the Birdsfoot Delta of the Mississippi River, long characterized by mass-wasting sediment transport. Four (4) depositional environments dominate regionally (an undisturbed topset apron, mudflow gully, mudflow lobe, and prodelta), centering around mudflow distribution initiated by a variety of factors (hurricanes, storms, and fluid pressure). To better understand the spatiotemporal scales of the events as well as the controlling processes, eight cores (5.8–8.0 m long) taken offshore from the South Pass (SP) and the Southwest Pass (SWP) were …

Limits On Polygonal Organization Of Boulders In The Martian Northern Lowlands, D. R. Hood, A. L. Cohen-Zada, R. C. Ewing, S. Karunatillake

Faculty Publications

Polygonal terrain on Mars can form via thermal contraction and subsequent fracturing of the permafrost layer and covers much of the surface poleward of ∼60°. In similar terrains on Earth, seasonal freeze-thaw processes create a range of diverse landforms, including several in which clasts on the surface congregate into sorted circles and polygons. In the Martian northern lowlands, several investigations into boulder patterns have come to differing conclusions on whether analogous organization of clasts is present on Mars, whether there is an association between boulders and polygonal fracture margins, and what periglacial process may cause such organization in the modern …

The Sacraments Of Initiation As ‘Proof Of Concept’ For Bernard Lonergan’S ‘Four-Point Hypothesis’, Eugene R. Schlesinger

Religious Studies

This essay endeavors a correlation between Bernard Lonergan’s ‘four-point hypothesis’ – a theological proposal integrating trinitarian theology and the supernatural order of ‘created grace’ – and the sacraments of initiation. The same formal structure that Lonergan discerned in the experience of grace, itself a means of participation in the life of the Trinity, is replicated in the sacramental reception of that grace in those ritual acts whereby one is made a Christian. This at once serves as a ‘proof of concept’, lending credence to the Lonerganian proposal, and provides a speculative framework for understanding how it is that the sacraments …

Pediatric And Pregnancy-Related Visits At Rural Health Clinics In 2018 Among Medicaid/Chip Enrollees In 20 States, Katherine A. Ahrens Mph, Phd, Zachariah T. Croll, Yvonne Jonk Phd, John Gale, Heidi O'Connor

All Maine Rural Health Research Center Publications

Background: There is limited information on the extent to which Rural Health Clinics (RHC) provide pediatric and pregnancy-related services to individuals enrolled in state Medicaid/CHIP programs. Methods: We used a 100% sample of the 2018 Medicaid Demographic and Eligibility and Other Services Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System (T-MSIS) Analytic Files for 20 states to estimate pediatric and pregnancy-related services to patients enrolled in state Medicaid/CHIP programs. Results: Among children and young adults enrolled in Medicaid/CHIP in 20 states, around 1 in 10 visited a RHC in 2018. For those living in rural areas, around 1 in 5 visited an RHC …

Control And Management Of Type-Ii Diabetes Among People Living With Hiv (Plwh) Compared To Hiv-Negative Patients And By Clinic Type In The Bronx, Nyc, Aprielle Wills

Dissertations and Theses

ABSTRACT

Control and Management of Type-II Diabetes Among People Living with HIV (PLWH) compared to HIV-Negative Patients and by Clinic Type in the Bronx, NYC

by

Aprielle Wills

Advisor: Heidi E Jones, MPH PHD

Background: The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that approximately 1.3 million people in the United States (U.S.) were living with an HIV diagnosis by the end of 2021. With advancements of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and improved access to care, HIV has become a chronic condition in the U.S. As PLWH age, they are experiencing higher rates of other chronic conditions, specifically type-II diabetes (type-II …

Examining Well-Being And Healthy Lifestyle Interventions Among Nursing Students Worldwide: A Scoping Review, Christine S. Gipson, Belinda Deal, Michael Skinner

Nursing Faculty Publications and Presentations

Purpose: The purpose of this scoping review was to identify intervention studies related to well-being and healthy lifestyles in nursing students to identify research gaps in the literature for future research. Methods: The review followed the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis, and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews checklist. Five databases were searched to retrieve the articles assessed by this review: APA PsycINFO, CINAHL Complete, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. Inclusion criteria included articles with a sample population of nursing students; addressed the well-being, wellness, health, or healthy lifestyle(s) …

Felony Disenfranchisement And Voter Turnout: Randomized Trials In Iowa And Washington, Alexander Billy, J.J. Naddeo, Neel U. Sukhatme

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

Prior to the 2022 midterm elections, we conducted large-scale randomized controlled trials in Iowa and Washington aimed at increasing voter turnout among newly enfranchised individuals with past felony convictions. Alongside national and grassroots partners, we designed and implemented experiments to ascertain the effectiveness of alternative outreach mechanisms, including targeted mailers and digital ads. We did not detect statistically significant or economically meaningful effects on voter registration or turnout; most observed effects were precise nulls. The absence of measured impact is likely attributed to low digital engagement with our online ads as well as extensive voter outreach already conducted by our …

Medicare Medication Therapy Management, Ximena Oyarzún-González, Erin L. Abner, Patricia Freeman, Anna Kucharska-Newton, David W. Fardo, Daniela C. Moga

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: The Medicare Medication Therapy Management (MTM) program has been available to eligible Medicare Part D beneficiaries since 2006, but research regarding program utilization and characterization is limited. Objective: To describe enrollee and MTM program characteristics in a national sample of Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) beneficiaries (2013 to 2016). Methods: Using a 5% random sample of Medicare FFS beneficiaries, we conducted a descriptive time series analysis to examine annual MTM enrollment and describe the type of MTM criteria at enrollment (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services [CMS] vs. expanded). We investigated the offer of Comprehensive Medication Review (CMR) along with CMR …

Factors Associated With Child And Youth Mental Health Readmissions From A Us National Database, W. David Lohr, Kahir S. Jawad, Nichole Wood, Jennifer F. Le, Michelle D. Stevenson, Yana B. Feygin, Deborah Winders Davis

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Objective: To describe and identify factors associated with mental health (MH) readmission rates for youth ages 5 to 17 years discharged between January 2019 and November 2019. Method: This retrospective, cross-sectional analysis using the 2019 Nationwide Readmissions Database identified hospitalizations for patients with a primary diagnosis of an MH condition using the Clinical Classification Software groupings, which are based on ICD-10-CM codes. Various patient characteristics including comorbidities were included in univariate and multivariate analysis to study their association with psychiatric readmission. Results: A 30-day readmission rate of 7.8% was found for the overall sample with significantly higher rates for youth …

Post Cardiac Arrest Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction Associated With Survival To Discharge, Kanjit Leungsuwan, Kory R. Heier, Olivia Henderson, Karam Ayoub, Talal Alnabelsi, Emily Slade, Vedant A. Gupta

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Background: Post cardiac arrest left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is routinely assessed, but the implications of this are unknown. This study aimed to assess the association between post cardiac arrest LVEF and survival to hospital discharge. Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, all in-hospital and out of hospital cardiac arrests at our tertiary care center between January 2012 and September 2015 were included. Baseline demographics, clinical data, characteristics of the arrest, and interventions performed were collected. Earliest post cardiac arrest echocardiograms were reviewed with LVEF documented. The primary outcome was survival to discharge. Results: A total of 736 patients were …

Regenerating Family Member 3 Alpha Is Predictive Of Mortality Following Emergent Large Vessel Occlusion, Madison Sands, Christopher J. Mclouth, Jacqueline A. Frank, Benton Maglinger, Nathan Millson, Mais N. Al-Kawaz, Shivani Pahwa, David L. Dornbos, Douglas E. Lukins, Amanda L. Trout, Ann M. Stowe, Justin F. Fraser, Keith R. Pennypacker

Biostatistics Faculty Publications

Regenerating Family Member 3 Alpha (REG3A) is an antimicrobial protein secreted by the intestine and pancreas with additional immunomodulatory properties. Previously, we published that REG3A expression in ischemic stroke patient systemic blood, during mechanical thrombectomy (MT), is significantly associated with inflammatory cytokines and patient function on admission. This paper, however, did not investigate post-acute death rates. Therefore, we investigated plasma REG3A protein expression, during MT, in patients (n = 141) that survived or died within the end of the follow-up after MT. Subjects who died had significantly higher systemic plasma REG3A levels at the time of MT compared to survivors …

Arkansas Wheat Performance Tests 2023-2024, J. F. Carlin, R. D. Bond, T. C. Swanson, J. C. Mccoy

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Wheat variety performance tests are conducted each year in Ark- ansas by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Crop Variety Improvement Program. The tests provide information to companies developing cultivars and marketing seed within the state and aid the Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service in formulating variety recommendations for small-grain producers.

The tests were conducted at the Northeast Research and Extension Center at Keiser, the Vegetable Substation near Kibler, the Lon Mann Cotton Research Station near Marianna, the Pine Tree Research Station near Colt, and the Rohwer Research Station near Rohwer. Specific location and cultural practice information accompany …

Application Of Surge Arrester In Limiting Voltage Stress At Direct Current Breaker, Mohammadamin Moghbeli, Shahab Mehraeen, Sudipta Sen

Faculty Publications

Hybrid DC circuit breakers combine mechanical switches with a redirecting current path, typically controlled by power electronic devices, to prevent arcing during switch contact separation. The authors’ past work includes a bipolar hybrid DC circuit breaker that effectively redirects the fault current and returns it to the source. This reduces arcing between the mechanical breaker’s contacts and prevents large voltage overshoots across them. However, the breaker’s performance declines as the upstream line inductance increases, causing overvoltage. This work introduces a modification to the originally proposed hybrid DC breaker to make it suitable to use anywhere along DC grid lines. By …

Insights From Augmented Data Integration And Strong Regularization In Drug Synergy Prediction With Synergnet, Mengmeng Liu, Gopal Srivastava, J. Ramanujam, Michal Brylinski

Faculty Publications

SynerGNet is a novel approach to predicting drug synergy against cancer cell lines. In this study, we discuss in detail the construction process of SynerGNet, emphasizing its comprehensive design tailored to handle complex data patterns. Additionally, we investigate a counterintuitive phenomenon when integrating more augmented data into the training set results in an increase in testing loss alongside improved predictive accuracy. This sheds light on the nuanced dynamics of model learning. Further, we demonstrate the effectiveness of strong regularization techniques in mitigating overfitting, ensuring the robustness and generalization ability of SynerGNet. Finally, the continuous performance enhancements achieved through the integration …

A Stochastic Production Frontier Model For Evaluating The Performance Efficiency Of Artificial Intelligence Investment Worldwide, Ying Chih Sun, Ozlem Cosgun, Raj Sharman, Pavankumar Mulgund, Dursun Delen

Department of Information Management and Business Analytics Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

As artificial intelligence (AI) begins to take center stage in technological innovations, it is essential to understand the business value of AI innovation efforts and investments. While some early work at the firm level exists, there is a shortage of literature that takes a larger country-level perspective. This study investigated the effect of AI innovation efforts on production efficiency across countries using stochastic production frontier approaches. In addition, our model also included the traditional economic inputs of capital and labor. We used both the Cobb–Douglas function and Constant Elastic Substitution model specifications. The significant findings of this study are as …

Advancing Hydrogen Gas Utilization In Industrial Boilers: Impacts On Critical Boiler Components, Mitigation Measures, And Future Perspectives, Edem Honu, Shengmin Guo, Shafiqur Rahman, Congyuan Zeng, Patrick Mensah

Faculty Publications

This review sets out to investigate the detrimental impacts of hydrogen gas (H2) on critical boiler components and provide appropriate state-of-the-art mitigation measures and future research directions to advance its use in industrial boiler operations. Specifically, the study focused on hydrogen embrittlement (HE) and high-temperature hydrogen attack (HTHA) and their effects on boiler components. The study provided a fundamental understanding of the evolution of these damage mechanisms in materials and their potential impact on critical boiler components in different operational contexts. Subsequently, the review highlighted general and specific mitigation measures, hydrogen-compatible materials (such as single-crystal PWA 1480E, Inconel 625, and …

Peak Microhardness Recovery Via T6 Heat Treatment With Extremely Soft Annealed Al7075 Feedstock In Additive Friction Stir Deposition, Huan Ding, Uttam Bhandari, Pengcheng Zhu, Ehsan Bagheri, Saeid Zavari, Yehong Chen, Yang Mu, Yongqiang Wang, Shengmin Guo

Faculty Publications

With standard T6 heat treatments, precipitate-hardened alloys such as Al7075 and Al6061 fabricated using Additive Friction Stir Deposition (AFSD) method restore to noticeablely different peak mechanical properties. Previous research observed similar results but did not provide a viable solution. This study proposes a new processing strategy, namely enhanced plastic deformation by subjecting the Al7075 feedstock to annealed softening treatments. Specifically, by annealing the standard T651-Al7075 feedstock and deposition substrate (179 HV), their Microhardness were first degraded to its lowest state (80 HV), which is called a Soft-to-Soft system. For the Soft-to-Soft system subjected to AFSD, after undergoing appropriate T6 heat …

A Review Of Agrivoltaic Systems: Addressing Challenges And Enhancing Sustainability, Amro A. Zahrawi, Aly Mousaad Aly

Faculty Publications

Agrivoltaics is a relatively new term used originally for integrating photovoltaic (PV) systems into the agricultural landscape and expanded to applications such as animal farms, greenhouses, and recreational parks. The dual use of land offers multiple solutions for the renewable energy sector worldwide, provided it can be implemented without negatively impacting agricultural production. However, agrivoltaics represent a relatively new technology, facing challenges including economic viability, vulnerability to wind loads, and interference with growing crops. This paper reviews the recent research on integrating agrivoltaics with farming applications, focusing on challenges, wind impact on agrivoltaics, and economic solutions. The effect of agrivoltaics …

An Intelligent Impulsive Noise Mitigation With Deep Learning Method, Guo Yang, Yuwen Qian, Zikun Wang, Xiangwei Zhou, Wen Wu

Faculty Publications

To enable message transmission among sensors and equipment, power line communication (PLC) is a widely adopted smart grid. However, due to the occurrence of impulsive noise (IN), reliable transmissions over PLC channels in the smart grid are challenging. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an adaptive noise mitigation scheme to clip the IN with the sliding window-based method, where the altitude of the received signal in the current time slots is obtained by computing the average altitude of signals in the previous and next time slots. To detect the states of IN and dynamically estimate the power threshold of signals …

September 2024 Library News, University Libraries

Library News

No abstract provided.