Digital Commons Network^™

Grief, Depression, And Well-Being: The Role Of Social Support And Psychological Inflexibility, Ashley Wicochea

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Grief/bereavement is a normal emotional process that individuals experience upon the death of a loved one. Complicated grief or prolonged grief disorder results when grief becomes prolonged and associated with impairment in functioning (Howarth, 2011; Al-Gamal et al., 2018). Previous research has found a positive relationship between prolonged grief and depression. Moreover, research has found that the relationship between grief and depression was strongest under conditions of low peer support (Al-Gamal et al., 2018). Previous research on psychological inflexibility has found a positive relationship with grief and psychological distress, and a negative relationship with psychological well-being (Howell & Demuynck, 2021). …

Proactive, Perceptive, And Positive Parenting Of Adolescents: A Proposed Workshop, Marbella Oseguera

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

During adolescence, teenagers develop new needs for autonomy, respect, and privacy, but parents can be unaware of adolescents’ developmental changes or struggle with adapting their parenting practices. Unawareness of teens’ needs or unwillingness to restructure the parent-adolescent relationship can lead to misunderstandings, pushback from teens, and increased parent-teen conflict. If parents are unable to resolve conflict appropriately through positive guidance, they are likely to engage in psychological control. Psychological control is a harmful practice that is used to manage adolescents’ behaviors and maintain authority within the parent-teen relationship. Extensive research has demonstrated the negative effects of psychological control on adolescents’ …

Why We Leave: The Role Of Approach And Avoidance Motivations In Romantic Relationship Dissolution, Emily Connard

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Romantic relationship dissolution (i.e., a breakup) is one of the most stressful events a person can experience. Breakup initiators often encounter a range of emotions (e.g., guilt, depression, anxiety) after leaving their romantic partner. Yet, little is known about how an initiator’s unique motivations for leaving impact their breakup strategies and emotions in the aftermath. The current study examined the association between dissolution motives, breakup strategies, and experienced outcomes in 273 marital and non-marital breakup initiators. As predicted, initiators who left due to approach dissolution motives (e.g., seeking more freedom; draws to leave) experienced greater positive outcomes following a breakup; …

Constructing Hyperbolic Polygons In The Poincaré Disk, Akram Zakaria Samweil

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Poincaré Disk plays a significant role in non-Euclidean geometry. Inverting points, segments, or polygons through a circle provides us with a deep vision of the link between Euclidean and non-Euclidean geometry; especially when we try to prove lemmas, constructions, or conjectures. All points inside a circle, c, represent a Poincaré Disk denoted D_c, and all "lines" in a Poincaré Disk are d-lines, which are circles orthogonal to the circle's boundary. The question that motivated my research is: how can we use the properties of the disk, its boundary, and its d-lines to construct hyperbolic polygons? We will …

The Relationship Between Covid-19, Student-Parent Gpa, And Childcare Needs, Karina Ventura

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Being a college student comes with its responsibilities and challenges. Additionally, being a parent also comes with responsibilities and challenges. For those who classify as both student and parents, there is double the work. The student-parent population in colleges has increased over the past few years and it is important to ensure that their support needs, such as childcare, are taken into consideration. When the COVID-19 pandemic shifted learning to online and childcare centers shut down, student-parents felt the consequences. The purpose of this study was to examine how a student-parent support program (CCAMPIS) impacted academic progress and persistence from …

Contactless Food Ordering System, Rishivar Kumar Goli

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Contactless food ordering has revolutionized the way a customer interacts with restaurants by allowing them to place orders and make transactions. Through these web-based platforms, customers can now browse menus, customize orders, and make payments seamlessly. By scanning the restaurant’s QR code, customers can reserve a table. If the table is available, then automatically it will be reserved. However, if the table is occupied the customer will be added to the waiting list. Once the customer selects desired food then they can securely make payments based on ordered food items. The food will be delivered straight to the customer's table. …

Restaurant Management Website, Akhil Sai Gollapudi

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the ever-evolving corporate landscape of today, it is crucial to respond to customer needs as efficiently and in a timely manner as possible. The project's primary objective is to create a method for clients to make reservations for restaurants online. This makes life easier for busy customers in their daily life.

Today, people are looking for comfort thanks to rapidly developing technology. As we can see, people invent and implement new technologies in all fields according to customer needs.

We got a unique restaurant idea that helps people save time. People prefer quick methods to get things done. With …

Geospatial Wildfire Risk Prediction Using Deep Learning, Abner Alberto Benavides

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This report introduces a thorough analysis of wildfire prediction using satellite imagery by applying deep learning techniques. To find wildfire-prone geographical data, we use U-Net, a convolutional neural network known for its effectiveness in biomedical image segmentation. The input to the model is the Sentinel-2 multispectral images to supply a complete view of the terrain features.

We evaluated the wildfire risk prediction model’s performance using several metrics. The model showed high accuracy, with a weighted average F1 score of 0.91 and an AUC-ROC score of 0.972. These results suggest that the model is exceptionally good at predicting the location of …

Finserv Android Application, Harsh Piyushkumar Shah

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The FINSERV Android application is a mobile tool designed for individuals to manage and track their finances. In financially complex world, many people struggle to maintain a clear overview of their income, expenses, and financial goals. This application aims to bridge that gap by providing users with a powerful and user-friendly platform to efficiently monitor and optimize their personal finances.

With the Personal Finance Tracking Android Application, users can effortlessly track their income and expenses, categorize transactions, and gain valuable insights into their spending patterns. The application offers features such as expense categorization and real-time expense tracking.

To enhance usability …

Genetic Programming To Optimize Performance Of Machine Learning Algorithms On Unbalanced Data Set, Asitha Thumpati

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Data collected from the real world is often imbalanced, meaning that the distribution of data across known classes is biased or skewed. When using machine learning classification models on such imbalanced data, predictive performance tends to be lower because these models are designed with the assumption of balanced classes or a relatively equal number of instances for each class. To address this issue, we employ data preprocessing techniques such as SMOTE (Synthetic Minority Oversampling Technique) for oversampling data and random undersampling for undersampling data on unbalanced datasets. Once the dataset is balanced, genetic programming is utilized for feature selection to …

Transaction Management Sysyem For A Publisher, Hassain Shareef Mohammed Jr

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Managing the day-to-day operations of a publishing house isn't easy. For example, it's hard to keep track of stocks, manage vendor orders, and maintain transaction records. Our project titled Transaction Management System aims to solve these problems by offering a single tool that helps standardize and digitize publishing operations. It assists in automating and improving the efficiency of the various processes involved in a publishing house. The Transaction Management System is a full-stack web application that can be accessed through an internet browser. The user experience and interface are simple and easy to use so that users can find information …

Mathematics Behind Machine Learning, Rim Hammoud

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field of study that involves developing intelligent
machines that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Machine
learning (ML) is often used as a tool to help create AI systems. The goal of ML is
to create models that can learn and improve to make predictions or decisions based on given data. The goal of this thesis is to build a clear and rigorous exposition of the mathematical underpinnings of support vector machines (SVM), a popular platform used in ML. As we will explore later on in the thesis, SVM can be implemented …

Vamos A Pláticar: The Sense-Making Process Of Career Services Practitioners At California Community Colleges In A Guided Pathways Epoch, Claudia Estrada-Howell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The California Community College system and its vision for success, which includes a focus on increasing students' degree and certificate completion, as well as increasing the percentage of existing Career and Technical Education students who report being employed in their field of study is highlighted. To help support these goals, the California Community College System has adopted the Guided Pathways framework. This framework requires all campuses to fundamentally redesign their programs and support services to ensure they are clear, more educationally coherent pathways to credentials that in turn prepare students for success in the workforce and further education. To do …

Hsp70 And Hsp22 As Toxicity Bioreporters In Drosophila Melanogaster, Zakkary Hudson

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Of the over 80,000 chemicals used commercially in the United States, few have had sufficient safety and toxicological information collected. To further reduce animal usage, methods that will lessen reliance upon traditional animal toxicology testing and increase the usage of alternative, high throughput toxicology screening methods are being explored. One such method is the utilization of biomarkers and bioreporters in model organisms such as Drosophila melanogaster. The biomarkers, HSP22 and HSP70 have been successfully utilized in various studies involving Drosophila melanogaster bioreporter constructs to evaluate chemical toxicity. In this study, both an in vivo and in vitro HSP22 and …

Comparing The Effectiveness Of Different Boosting Algorithms For Ground Water Quality In Telangana Region, Divy Jot

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This culminating experience research project explores the parameters needed to predict the water quality levels for use in different climatic conditions pre and post monsoon from 2018 to 2020 in Telangana State, India. A study was conducted on the water quality analysis by using linear regression with water quality Index in Telangana region. However, in this study we are replicating the water quality analysis by using stack model and machine learning algorithms such as Light Gradient Boosting Machine, Random Forest and Artificial Neural Network. The research Questions are: (Q1) What are the sources of the significant parameters that impact groundwater …

Public Relations For Cryptocurrency: Coinbase Guidebook, Logan Odneal

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Cryptocurrency has emerged as a disruptive force in the global financial landscape, challenging traditional systems and offering new possibilities for economic transactions. As this innovative technology gains traction, its reputation and public perception have become crucial factors for its widespread adoption and long-term success. However, the reputation of cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency organizations have been in crisis as multiple and widescale frauds and crashes have threatened the growth of the industry.

This project seeks to answer this issue by applying crisis communications and public relations frameworks to create a plain language guide to inform the consumer base and restore investor confidence …

Sales And Stock Management System, Rashmika Gaddam Ms

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Grocery stores using Excel for managing sales and stock management could involve maintaining separate sheets for sales and stock data, with revenue/cost. This system could provide a basic level of tracking and analysis, allowing the grocery store to monitor sales trends and stock levels. However, using Excel for this purpose is not without its challenges. For example, the manual nature of data entry in excel can result in errors and inconsistencies, particularly if multiple people are involved in maintaining the sheets. Additionally, as the volume of sales and stock data grows, the Excel spreadsheet can become unwieldy and slow, …

The Effects Of Innovative Work Culture And Training Quality On Counterproductive Work Behaviors, Emily Anne Garreton

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the present study, I examined how innovative work climate influenced job training quality and behavioral intentions and perceptions of employees. Employee reactions to job training foreshadow workplace intentions and behaviors that employees might engage in. The intentions that were investigated were Counterproductive Work Behaviors (CWBs) and the reduction of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs). The sample consisted of 338 participants who have been employed recently. In a self-report questionnaire, participants recalled their perceptions of the job training at a current or recent job and indicated how likely or interested they were in committing certain work behaviors. Survey items were gathered …

Avocado Consumption And Markers Of Inflammation: Results From The Multi-Ethnic Study Of Atherosclerosis (Mesa), Russell Tracy

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Purpose

Since avocado consumption has been linked to a possible reduction in inflammation, we investigated associations between avocado consumption and markers of inflammation in a population-based multi-ethnic cohort [Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)].

Methods

We used a food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) at MESA exam 1 to capture avocado/guacamole consumption. To calculate daily servings of avocado/guacamole, we used both frequency and serving size data from the FFQ. We classified participants into three consumer groups: rare or never (daily serving ≤ 0.03), medium (0.03 < daily serving < 0.1), and heavy (0.1 ≤ daily serving). Inflammation was estimated by natural log-transformed inflammatory biomarkers (CRP, IL-2, IL-6, homocysteine, fibrinogen, TNF-a soluble receptors). We used multivariate general linear regression models to assess associations accounting for age, sex, race/ethnicity, educational level, income, energy intake, smoking status, physical activity, diet quality, body mass index, and diabetes type.

Results

Among 5794 MESA participants, the average age and BMI were 62.25 y ± 10.26 and 28.28 ± …

Thriving Hives: The Beekeeper's Annual Journal, Andree' Walker Bravo, Shauna Collard Bagley, Sheriden M. Hansen, Jaydee Gunnell

All Current Publications

This beekeeping journal organizes apiary information at your fingertips, along with monthly tasks and tips to help beekeepers be successful with their hives.

Prevalence And Factors Associated With Vaping Cannabidiol Among Us Adolescents, Hongying Daisy Dai, Roma Subramanian, Avina Mahroke, Ming Wang

Student Publications

Importance: e-Cigarette use and vaping marijuana (cannabis) are popular among US adolescents. Cannabidiol (CBD) is a compound found in the cannabis plant that has recently increased in use.

Objectives: To examine the prevalence of and factors associated with youths vaping CBD.

Design, setting, and participants: This cross-sectional study included a nationally representative sample of students from middle and high schools (typical age, 11-18 years) in the US from the 2022 National Youth Tobacco Survey, conducted from January to May 2022.

Exposure: Demographic characteristics, harm perception of tobacco use, and vaping behaviors.

Main outcomes and measures: The main outcomes were weighted …

The Stop Covid 2 Study: Fluvoxamine Vs Placebo For Outpatients With Symptomatic Covid-19, A Fully Remote Randomized Controlled Trial, Angela M Reiersen, Caline Mattar, J Philip Miller, William G Powderly, Michael W Rich, Julie Schweiger, Angela Stevens, Lei Yang, Michael Yingling, Torie R Gettinger, Charles F Zorumski, Eric J Lenze, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Prior randomized clinical trials have reported benefit of fluvoxamine ≥200 mg/d vs placebo for patients infected with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).

METHODS: This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, fully remote multisite clinical trial evaluated whether fluvoxamine prevents clinical deterioration in higher-risk outpatients with acute coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Between December 2020 and May 2021, nonhospitalized US and Canadian participants with confirmed symptomatic infection received fluvoxamine (50 mg on day 1, 100 mg twice daily thereafter) or placebo for 15 days. The primary modified intent-to-treat (mITT) population included participants who started the intervention within 7 days of symptom onset …

Association Of Soluble Markers Of Inflammation With Peri-Coronary Artery Inflammation In People With And Without Hiv Infection And Without Cardiovascular Disease, Michael L Freeman, Mian B Hossain, Shana A B Burrowes, Jean Jeudy, Ryan Bui, Daniela Moisi, Sarah E Mitchell, Mariam Khambaty, Robert G Weiss, Michael M Lederman, Shashwatee Bagchi

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Inflammation is linked to elevated cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in people with HIV (PWH) on antiretroviral therapy (ART). Fat attenuation index (FAI) is a measure of peri-coronary inflammation that independently predicts CVD risk in HIV-uninfected persons. Whether FAI is associated with soluble inflammatory markers is unknown.

METHODS: Plasma levels of inflammatory markers were measured in 58 PWH and 16 controls without current symptoms or prior known CVD who underwent coronary computed tomography angiography and had FAI measurements. A cross-sectional analysis was performed, and associations of markers with FAI values of the right coronary artery (RCA) and left anterior descending …

Alcohol Consumption Among Adults With A Cancer Diagnosis In The All Of Us Research Program, Mengyao Shi, Chongliang Luo, Oluseye K Oduyale, Xiaoyu Zong, Noelle K Loconte, Yin Cao

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Alcohol consumption is associated with adverse oncologic and treatment outcomes among individuals with a diagnosis of cancer. As a key modifiable behavioral factor, alcohol consumption patterns among cancer survivors, especially during treatment, remain underexplored in the United States.

OBJECTIVE: To comprehensively characterize alcohol consumption patterns among US cancer survivors.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used data from May 6, 2018, to January 1, 2022, from the National Institutes of Health All of Us Research Program, a diverse US cohort with electronic health record (EHR) linkage, and included 15 199 participants who reported a cancer diagnosis and 1839 …

Investigation Of Cyclic Gaseous Solvent Injection For Enhanced Oil Recovery In Unconventional Formations, Samuel Asante Afari

Theses and Dissertations

Unconventional resources have been known to hold vast quantities of hydrocarbons. However, exploiting the oil and gas they hold was previously challenging due to their low permeabilities. Recent advances in horizontal well drilling and hydraulic fracturing have enabled oil and gas production from these reservoirs, leading to significant increases in energy supply to meet the growing energy demand. However, despite the relative technological success, considerable obstacles persist; oil production from unconventional wells often declines by more than 20% of their initial production rate within the first two years, leaving significant volumes of residual oil trapped in the formations. This overarching …

An Early Pliocene Fish Assemblage From The Southern Appalachians: Ichthyofauna Of The Gray Fossil Site, Shay Maden

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Gray Fossil Site (GFS) preserves an early Pliocene sinkhole pond that accumulated a rich flora and vertebrate fauna. Fossils of fish are incredibly common at GFS, representing thousands of specimens recovered to date. Comparison with extant species reveals a depauperate freshwater fish fauna consisting of only two species: Lepomis sp. and Micropterus sp. The absence of fishes that are ubiquitous in modern streams suggests no perennial surface hydrologic connection between the Gray Fossil Site and the nearby Holston River. Limited opportunities for dispersal into the pond and deleterious conditions such as eutrophy and high competition may have resulted in …

Pact: A Pipeline For Analysis Of Circulating Tumor Dna, Jace Webster, Ha X Dang, Pradeep S Chauhan, Wenjia Feng, Alex Shiang, Peter K Harris, Russell K Pachynski, Aadel A Chaudhuri, Christopher A Maher

2020-Current year OA Pubs

MOTIVATION: Detection of genomic alterations in circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) is currently used for active clinical monitoring of cancer progression and treatment response. While methods for analysis of small mutations are more developed, strategies for detecting structural variants (SVs) in ctDNA are limited. Additionally, reproducibly calling small-scale mutations, copy number alterations, and SVs in ctDNA is challenging due to the lack to unified tools for these different classes of variants.

RESULTS: We developed a unified pipeline for the analysis of ctDNA [Pipeline for the Analysis of ctDNA (PACT)] that accurately detects SVs and consistently outperformed similar tools when applied to …

Pharmacokinetics Of Moxidectin Combined With Albendazole Or Albendazole Plus Diethylcarbamazine For Bancroftian Filariasis, Yashpal S. Chhonker, Catherine Bjerum, Veenu Bala, Allassane F. Ouattara, Benjamin G. Koudou, Toki P. Gabo, Abdullah Alshehri, Abdoulaye Meïté, Peter U. Fischer, Gary J. Weil, Christopher L. King, Philip J. Budge, Daryl J. Murry

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Moxidectin (MOX) is a milbemycin endectocide recently approved by the U.S. FDA for the treatment of onchocerciasis in persons at least 12 years of age. MOX has been shown to have a good safety profile in recent clinical trials. The efficacy of MOX for the treatment of lymphatic filariasis (LF) and its potential use in mass drug administration protocols for the elimination of LF is currently under evaluation. In the context of a clinical trial, we investigated the pharmacokinetics and drug interactions of a combination of MOX plus albendazole (ALB) with or without diethylcarbamazine (DEC) compared to ivermectin (IVM) plus …

Anesthesia Clinical Workload Estimated From Electronic Health Record Documentation Vs Billed Relative Value Units, Sunny S Lou, Laura R Baratta, Daphne Lew, Derek Harford, Michael S Avidan, Thomas Kannampallil

2020-Current year OA Pubs

IMPORTANCE: Accurate measurements of clinical workload are needed to inform health care policy. Existing methods for measuring clinical workload rely on surveys or time-motion studies, which are labor-intensive to collect and subject to biases.

OBJECTIVE: To compare anesthesia clinical workload estimated from electronic health record (EHR) audit log data vs billed relative value units.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study of anesthetic encounters occurring between August 26, 2019, and February 9, 2020, used data from 8 academic hospitals, community hospitals, and surgical centers across Missouri and Illinois. Clinicians who provided anesthetic services for at least 1 surgical encounter were …

Scca1/Serpinb3 Suppresses Antitumor Immunity And Blunts Therapy-Induced T Cell Responses Via Stat-Dependent Chemokine Production, Liyun Chen, Victoria Shi, Songyan Wang, Lulu Sun, Rebecca Freeman, Jasmine Yang, Matthew J. Inkman, Subhajit Ghosh, Fiona Ruiz, Kay Jayachandran, Yi Huang, Jingqin Luo, Jin Zhang, Pippa Cosper, Clifford J Luke, Perry W. Grigsby, Julie K. Schwarz, Stephanie Markovina, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Patients with cancer who have high serum levels of squamous cell carcinoma antigen 1 (SCCA1, now referred to as SERPINB3) commonly experience treatment resistance and have a poor prognosis. Despite being a clinical biomarker, the modulation of SERPINB3 in tumor immunity is poorly understood. We found positive correlations of SERPINB3 with CXCL1, CXCL8 (CXCL8/9), S100A8, and S100A9 (S100A8/A9) myeloid cell infiltration through RNA-Seq analysis of human primary cervical tumors. Induction of SERPINB3 resulted in increased CXCL1/8 and S100A8/A9 expression, which promoted monocyte and myeloid-derived suppressor cell (MDSC) migration in vitro. In mouse models, Serpinb3a tumors showed increased MDSC and tumor-associated …