Digital Commons Network^™

A Survey Of Prosecutorial Philosophies And Their Effects On Sentencing, Bryan Briones

Honors College

In the criminal justice system, prosecutors (also known as District Attorneys) are granted discretion. Discretion gives prosecutors the ability to choose which cases to pursue, what plea deals to offer, and the suggested sentence for the crime. However, in the real world, prosecutors do not have as much power as many believe they do. While they do work in an important role, the media, T.V, movies, and even social media platforms have created a general misconception. In researching prosecutorial discretion, an attempt will be made to disprove any misconceptions and seek to educate society. The purpose of this study is …

Through The Needle’S Eye: Capitalist And Evangelical Considerations In Martin Scorsese’S The Wolf Of Wall Street, Emma Conatser

Honors College

No abstract provided.

Uav And Structure-From-Motion Photogrammetry Enhance River Restoration Monitoring: A Dam Removal Study, Alexandra D. Evans, Kevin H. Gardner, Scott Greenwood, Brett Still

Natural Resources Science Faculty Publications

Dam removal is a river restoration technique that has complex landscape-level ecological impacts. Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are emerging as tools that enable relatively affordable, repeatable, and objective ecological assessment approaches that provide a holistic perspective of restoration impacts and can inform future restoration efforts. In this work, we use a consumer-grade UAV, structure-from-motion (SfM) photogrammetry, and machine learning (ML) to evaluate geomorphic and vegetation changes pre-/post-dam removal, and discuss how the technology enhanced our monitoring of the restoration project. We compared UAV evaluation methods to conventional boots-on-ground methods throughout the Bellamy River Reservoir (Dover, NH, USA) pre-/post-dam removal. We …

Measuring The Effectiveness Of Peer Tutoring Services At Tutorial Services: A Correlation Study Between Student Use Of Peer Tutoring And End-Of-Semester Grades, Melissa Hoffner, Claire Landrieu

Assessment Mini Grant Reports

Scholarship in the field of learning support posits students struggling with historically rigorous courses in mathematics and science, experience high attrition rates. Scholarship further posits that students seeking peer-tutoring in mathematics and science courses who use peer-tutoring at a minimum of three to five times in a semester, can hope for a letter grade improvement (AbdulRaheem, Yusuf, & Odutayo, 2017; Marx, Wolf, & Howard, 2016). Peer-tutoring at Tutorial Services (TS) is theoretically grounded on four learning theories, Behavioral Learning Theory, Cognizant Learning Theory, Social-Constructivist Theory, and Critical Thinking Skills Theory. A fifth theory, Schlossberg’s Adult Transition Theory, provides the avenue …

Impact Of Movement Breaks On Student Focus, Marissa Malyszek

Master's Theses

This action research study focused on the impacts that movement breaks had on student focus during math lessons. This was a mixed-methods study with data collection occurring over a time period of three weeks while in a third grade classroom. Students were given 60-180 second movement breaks during math lessons over the course of the study. Movement breaks were classified in this study as any activity that required movement of one or more parts of the body. Data was collected in the form of observational analysis as well as through the use of student surveys. The findings of this study …

Tariff Barriers And The Protection Of Intellectual Property In The Global Economy, Difei Geng, Kamal Saggi

Economics Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper develops a simple two-country model of quality-improving innovation to study the role tariff barriers play in shaping the welfare impact of global patent protection. We show that international patent policy coordination via national treatment is desirable only if tariff barriers between countries are sufficiently low. Furthermore, if countries are free to impose their optimal tariffs on one another, requiring national treatment in patent protection unambiguously lowers world welfare. Hence, constraining tariffs helps pave the way for international coordination over patent protection. This insight provides a potential rationale for the historical sequencing of policy reforms observed in the global …

Gauging The State-Of-The-Art For Foresight Weight Pruning On Neural Networks, Noah James

Computer Science and Computer Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The state-of-the-art for pruning neural networks is ambiguous due to poor experimental practices in the field. Newly developed approaches rarely compare to each other, and when they do, their comparisons are lackluster or contain errors. In the interest of stabilizing the field of pruning, this paper initiates a dive into reproducing prominent pruning algorithms across several architectures and datasets. As a first step towards this goal, this paper shows results for foresight weight pruning across 6 baseline pruning strategies, 5 modern pruning strategies, random pruning, and one legacy method (Optimal Brain Damage). All strategies are evaluated on 3 different architectures …

Implementing An Osteoporosis Screening And Treatment Protocol For Patients With Fragility Fractures, Lyndsey Slape

Cohort X

Osteoporosis is a global health concern that can be identified and treated with appropriate screening and medical management. The number of fragility fractures that occur will continue to rise with an aging population and is a key predictor of osteoporosis. However, many patients with fragility fractures do not receive the recommended post-fracture care. Poor bone health places patients at increased risk for secondary fracture and has serious emotional, physical, and financial consequences (Kanis et al., 2021). Understanding the benefit of identifying osteoporosis and preventing secondary fractures in an orthopedic clinic has proven advantageous in optimizing bone health and reducing fracture …

Introduction Of Semaglutide As An Effective Option For Obese Patients Motivated To Lose Weight, Crystal Garcia-Martinez

Cohort X

Obesity has become a global crisis with a tremendous impact on patients and costs reaching billions of dollars each year. Prevention and treatment of this condition will be crucial to ongoing efforts to prevent its long-term complications. Health care providers may have the opportunity to educate patients and address weight management issues before serious complications develop. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Heart Association, and many publications in the medical literature focus on methods that might be used to target weight loss with diet and exercise. Unfortunately, many patients have had little to no success …

Is Health Literacy A Defined Risk Factor? A Literature Review Of Health Literacy As It Relates To Immigrant Populations In The U.S., Kelly Zdanuczyk

Sustainability and Social Justice

Throughout its lifespan the definition of health literacy in the United States has been ambiguous and disagreeable. This discrepancy has created disparity among health outcomes for vulnerable populations who are classified with lower degrees of health literacy and thus have a harder time interacting with the healthcare system. This paper will review published peer-reviewed literature on the topic of health literacy as it relates to immigrant populations in the United States and explore the ways in which low health literacy results in negative health outcomes. The literature review finds the discrepancies among health literacy, as it pertains to immigrant communities …

Restoration Of A Lake Ontario-Connected Fen Through Invasive Typha Removal, Andie Graham, Bradley Mudrzynski, Eli Polzer, Douglas A. Wilcox

United States Fish and Wildlife Service: Publications

Lake-level regulation that began in 1960 eliminated large fluctuations of Lake Ontario water levels, altering coastal wetland plant communities. More than a half century later, the altered hydroperiod supports dense, monotypic stands of invasive cattail (Typha angustifolia and Typha × glauca), which have diminished overall plant community diversity. As a result, Lake Ontario coastal wetlands are less capable of providing many of their traditional ecological functions. One such wetland is Buttonwood Fen, a floating, lake-connected peatland on Lake Ontario’s southern shore near Rochester, NY. We implemented cattailcontrol measures from 2016 to 2018 with the goal of decreasing live …

Fair Bankruptcy Solutions Under Interval Uncertainty, Uyen Pham, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

If the overall amount of the company's assets is smaller than its total debts, then a fair solution is to give, to each creditor, the amount proportional to the corresponding debt, e.g., 10 center for each dollar or 50 cents for each dollar. But what if the debt amounts are not known exactly, and for some creditors, we only know the lower and upper bounds on the actual debt amount? What division will be fair in such a situation? In this paper, we show that the only fair solution is to make payments proportional to an appropriate convex combination of …

How Probable Is A Revolution? A Natural Relu-Like Formula That Fits The Historical Data, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

In his recent book "Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order", Ray Dalio considered many historical crisis situations, and came up with several data points showing how the probability of a revolution or a civil war depends on the number of economic red flags. In this paper, we provide a simple empirical formula that is consistent with these data points.

Shape Of An Egg: Towards A Natural Simple Universal Formula, Sofia Holguin, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Eggs of different bird species have different shapes. There exists formulas for describing the usual egg shapes -- e.g., the shapes of chicken eggs. However, some egg shapes are more complex. A recent paper proposed a general formula for describing all possible egg shapes; however this formula is purely empirical, it does not have any theoretical foundations. In this paper, we use the theoretical analysis of the problem to provide an alternative -- theoretically justified -- general formula. Interestingly, the new general formula is easier to compute than the previously proposed one.

Freedom Of Will, Non-Uniqueness Of Cauchy Problem, Fractal Processes, Renormalization, Phase Transitions, And Stealth Aircraft, Miroslav Svitek, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

We all know that we can make different decisions, decisions that change -- at least locally -- the state of the world. This is what is known as freedom of will. On the other hand, according to physics, the future state of the world is uniquely pre-determined by its current state, so there is no room for freedom of will. How can we resolve this contradiction? In this paper, we analyze this problem, and we show that many physical phenomena can help resolve this contradiction: fractal character of equations, renormalization, phase transitions, etc. Usually, these phenomena are viewed as somewhat …

How To Estimate The Present Serviceability Rating Of A Road Segment: Explanation Of An Empirical Formula, Edgar Daniel Rodriguez Velasquez, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

An accurate estimation of the road quality requires a lot of expertise, and there is not enough experts to provide such estimates for all the road segments. It is therefore desirable to estimate this quality based on easy-to-estimate and easy-to-measure characteristics. Recently, an empirical formula was proposed for such an estimate. In this paper, we provide a theoretical explanation for this empirical formula.

Education In The Era Of Google, Wikipedia, And Deep Learning: Are We Humans Still Needed And If Yes For What?, Miroslav Svitek, Olga Kosheleva, Vladik Kreinovich

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

One of the main purposes of education is to teach skills needed in future life and future jobs. What is important and what is useful changes with time. Before the industrial revolution, routine mechanical work was an important part of human activity – now machines can do it (and do it better). Before printing, copying was an important activity – now copy machines do it. Before computers, humans were needed for computing – now computer do it better. With Wikipedia and Google, there is not much need for scholars being erudite. Even extracting dependencies from data – one of the …

Economy-Related Emotional Attitudes Towards Other People: How Can We Explain Them?, Christopher Reyes, Vladik Kreinovich, Chon Van Le

Departmental Technical Reports (CS)

Research has shown that to properly understand people's economic behavior, it is important to take into account their emotional attitudes towards each other. Behavioral economics shows that different attitudes results in different economy-related behavior. A natural question is: where do these emotional attitudes come from? We show that, in principle, such emotions can be explained by people's objective functions. Specifically, we show it on the example of a person whose main objective is to increase his/her country's GDP: in this case, the corresponding optimization problem leads exactly to natural emotions towards people who contribute a lot or a little towards …

Mitigation Of End Zone Cracking In Precast Prestress Concrete Girders, Oluwatobi F. Babarinde

Doctoral Dissertations

Precast prestressed concrete girders have been widely used to construct bridges in the United States. Recent advancements in high-performance concrete and newly developed girder sections allow the span of girders to be extended significantly. Generally, bridges with longer spans require deeper girders and use more prestressing strands; the latter exacerbates the end zone cracking in pretensioned concrete girders when prestressing strands are released. Various types of end zone cracks have been observed, including horizontal and inclined cracks in the web, and bottom flange cracks.

This dissertation explores two possible options to mitigate the end zone cracking in precast prestressed concrete …

Practices Of Instructional Leaders Which Support And Monitor Implementation Of Individualized Education Plans And Influence Teaching In Inclusive Classroom Settings, Pamela D. Williams

Doctoral Dissertations

This qualitative case study was designed to learn more about how the practices of instructional leaders support and monitor the implementation of Individual Education Plans (I.E.P.s) and influence teaching in inclusive classroom settings. It was designed to explore a sample of general educators’ and administrators’ perceptions about the challenges they face to remain in adherence to obligations bound by duty to deliver I.E.P. services as outlined by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The selected participants were twelve middle school general educators and administrators from two school districts in northwest Louisiana chosen through purposive sampling. The primary data collection …

Graphene Nanoscroll Field-Effect Transistor-Based Radiation Sensors, Joshua B. Joffrion

Doctoral Dissertations

Carbon nanomaterials have excited both academia and industry with their extraordinary electronic, mechanical, optical, thermal, and chemical properties for over forty years, providing opportunities for significant advances in fundamental and applied science and leading to the development of disruptive technologies and applications. While graphene and carbon nanotubes have been at the forefront of research, a relatively new one-dimensional carbon allotrope, graphene nanoscrolls, will likely play significant roles in future technologies. Graphene nanoscrolls have structures similar to carbon nanotubes with a key difference in that they are not seamless – there are exposed edges along their lengths. As such, they share …

Design Of A Bandgap Voltage Reference, Nicolaus Vail

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

This thesis details the design process of a bandgap voltage reference (BGR) integrated circuit in a 180 nm CMOS process. A BGR provides a constant DC voltage across a range of operating temperatures and supply voltages. By its nature, the circuit is intended as a reference, not to provide current, so the output would be connected to a very high impedance, such as the gate of a transistor. At 27°C, this design provides a 955 mV reference voltage given a nominal VDD of 3 V. From 20°C to 175°C, the output voltage has a variance of 7.2 mV (approximately 0.8%) …

Signal Analysis Of Photovoltaic Systems For Multilevel Cybersecurity, Wesley G. Schwartz

Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The cybersecurity of grid-connected power electronics is a rapidly developing field as more and more of these devices become a part of the Internet of Things. The objective of this thesis to analyze the current control signals of a photovoltaic (PV) inverter and develop an interface board for the implementation of a new cyber-secure controller.

In this thesis, the testing and in-depth analysis of the current PV inverter control system will be conducted. Using the data collected, an interface board will be developed to allow the use of the Unified Control Board (UCB), developed by Chris Farnell, in the PV …

Student Perceptions Of Agriculture Messages Delivered Using Creative Media, Faith Mills

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was determine how communicating authentical agricultural information using an infographic affect millennial and generation z students’ perceptions on the agriculture industry and to determine the perceptions of college students regarding the infographic used to convey agricultural messages. This study used a qualitative and quantitative approach in a questionnaire format through Qualtrics. The questionnaire was designed with five sections including a pre-questionnaire, content presentation, post-questionnaire, infographic perception questionnaire, and demographics section. All questions in the pre- and post- questionnaire were focused on the subjects found in the infographic presented in the content presentation. Overall, participants had …

A Communications Audit Of Selected Equine Assisted Activities And Therapies (Eaat) In Northwest Arkansas, Laykyn Rainbolt

Agricultural Education, Communications and Technology Undergraduate Honors Theses

Digital media, including websites and social media platforms, are becoming a staple in the marketing and communication field to reach consumers. Although digital media can offer high dissemination rates to a broad audience, it can also be time consuming without current training or resources to allocate to it. Nonprofits struggle to maximize their reach and effectiveness through social media due to limited staff, time, resources, and training (Bernritter et al., 2016; Bjork et al., 2016; Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012; Tao et al., 2021). Equine Assisted Activities and Therapies organizations in Northwest Arkansas selected for this study showed high use of …

A “Third Place” For The Little Rock Air Force Base, Community Design Center

Community Design Center Project Reports

The third place is a widely understood concept coined by urban sociologist Ray Oldenburg to denote those life-affirming civic places that are neither work nor home. In an effort lead by Clemson University, the UACDC partnered with the Little Rock Air Force Base to develop a Social Center – or a Morale Welfare and Recreation (MWR)/Outdoor Recreation (ODR) Center per official military nomenclature – using mass timber technology. Two schemes reflecting mat building typology, a deep-plan, large, horizontal building developed from repeatable modules, were prepared by the UACDC studio at the level of Schematic Design. The first scheme, The Shed …

Improving Patient Discharge In The Ambulatory Surgical Setting Utilizing A Preoperative Educational Video, Leeann Kluth

The Eleanor Mann School of Nursing DNP Capstone Projects

Background: Use of ambulatory surgery centers providing outpatient surgical procedures has grown due to medical advances, short stays that reduce costs, and convenience for the patient. However, due to the reduced time between diagnosis and surgery, there is a decreased amount of time available for education and discharge teaching. Historically, discharge education is provided after surgery in written form while the effects of anesthesia and pain medication impair a patient’s ability to retain information. This leads to increased reports of uncontrolled pain, poor comprehension, and higher rates of adverse events due to poor comprehension of discharge orders.

Methods: The development …

Arclothmasks: A Pandemic Startup Journey, Adam Jackson

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Covid-19 changed the way the world operated when it became a pandemic in 2020. The need for personal protection equipment was unexpected and suppliers were not prepared for the demand. The government mandate of masks furthered the need of PPE across the nation. To help fill this shortage, many companies began to retool their manufacturing processes from clothing to masks. This thesis will dive into one PPE company and its journey from the start of the pandemic. The business plan for the company will follow it along with graphs and charts that help tell the tale of the startup.

How Blockchain Solutions Enable Better Decision Making Through Blockchain Analytics, Sammy Ter Haar

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

Since the founding of computers, data scientists have been able to engineer devices that increase individuals’ opportunities to communicate with each other. In the 1990s, the internet took over with many people not understanding its utility. Flash forward 30 years, and we cannot live without our connection to the internet. The internet of information is what we called early adopters with individuals posting blogs for others to read, this was known as Web 1.0. As we progress, platforms became social allowing individuals in different areas to communicate and engage with each other, this was known as Web 2.0. As Dr. …

Internship Thesis – Koch Industries, Sophia Gesualdi

Information Systems Undergraduate Honors Theses

The history of Koch Industries dates back to 1927, when Fred C. Koch improved the process of converting heavy oil into gasoline. This innovation was the moment that started it all; the company has only grown since its humble beginnings. Today, Koch Industries (Koch) is one of the largest privately held companies in America (Summary of Koch Industries History). Koch has involvement in an extremely diverse list of businesses and industries around the world; the organization is a conglomerate of companies that all function under the same umbrella. Two of the most noteworthy companies owned by Koch Industries are Flint …