Digital Commons Network^™

Gender Differences In Perception Of Dyspnea And Its Relation To Muscle Weakness, Functional Status, Disability In Activities Of Daily Living, And Depression In Adults With Heart Failure—A Secondary Analysis, Michelle Minh Tran

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Although Heart Failure (HF) can occur in both women and men, some studies have shown that both genders do not present the same outcomes; however, there is an underrepresentation of the effect of gender on the relationship of HF and changes in activities of daily living. This study compared the effects of gender on dyspnea and other variables to determine differences between symptoms, disability, and other relationships. A secondary analysis of a cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted with 186 patients who were told to perform several tests to evaluate muscle weakness, functional status, depression, and disability. Instruments such as the …

Social And Environmental Disparities In Physical Activity And Childhood Obesity In 2-5-Year-Old Children, Alexis Jones

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Social and environmental factors are important determinants of physical activity (PA) and childhood obesity. The purposes of this study were to 1) explore associations of social-demographics (i.e., ethnicity, social-economic status [SES], gender), PA, sedentary behavior (SB), and BMI percentile with social/built environment and 2) explore SES disparities in environmental determinants of health. This cross-sectional study recruited 40 preschoolers (Mage=3.55 years; 75% girls; 17.5% low SES; 30% Hispanic; 10% overweight/obese). Parent-report surveys measured social-demographics, PA outcomes, and social/built environment. Results indicated higher SES children engaged in more PA and less SB than low-SES peers. SES significantly associated with PA, obesity, crime …

Study Of Neutrino Background For The Low-Mass Dark Matter Search In Future Neutrino Experiments, Aayush Bhattarai

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

With high-intensity neutrino beams and large mass detectors, neutrino physics has entered the high precision measurement era. Accelerator experiments that use high-intensity proton beams impinging on a fixed target could produce dark matter along with neutrinos. DUNE, one of the most extensive neutrino experiments under construction, has similar prospects of looking for low-mass dark matter (LDM) produced in the proton interactions with the target. With the possibility of charge-neutral LDM production in the target, numerous neutrinos will be generated alongside it, which will be the primary background to the LDM signal. To understand these neutrino backgrounds, we studied two “modified …

Destroying Man: Philosophically Situating C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition Of Man, Anna Elizabeth Tarpley

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Lewis’ central argument in The Abolition of Man explains the philosophical consequences of extending assumptions implicit within scientific methodologies and originally used to treat Nature to include a treatment of humans. This thesis elucidates Lewis’ philosophical concept of man’s “Power Over Nature” by providing the historical and philosophical context out of which it developed. Multi-disciplinary research relying on primary source documentation, secondary academic literature, biographical material, and philosophical text was used to synthesize a descriptive philosophical narrative in two parts. The first part consists in the historical basis for the shift in ideas involved in Lewis’ argument as manifest in …

A Proposed Approach For Testing An Educational Virtual Reality Simulation For End-Of-Life Care, Jasmine Hyder

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Virtual Reality (VR) is becoming more popular with the continuous introduction of newer and more capable technology. Specifically, VR educational simulations can provide training on complex situations that may be difficult to carry out in real life. In an attempt to improve the quality of end-of-life care knowledge among nursing students, a VR simulation is in development that presents related scenarios nurses may face. Rigorous testing of this simulation is essential to produce effective results that separates itself from 2D simulations or other educational methods. A testing framework and plan is proposed here that can be extended to future VR …

Proposal For Uta-Downtown Arlington Bike Network, Anna Laura Harmjanz

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Bicycling offers great benefits for cities including sustainable, efficient, and affordable transportation, improved health and wellness, and creating vibrant communities. Universities offer a good starting point for young adults to form sustainable transportation habits. This study explores how the University of Texas at Arlington’s community perceives existing bike infrastructure, services, and amenities on campus and off-campus to create a well-connected and safe bike network. An online survey was used to collect feedback from students and employees on commuting patterns, cycling experience and barriers, perceived safety on various bike facilities, and suggestions. Based on survey responses, a bike network analysis was …

United Nations Peacekeepers, The Use Of Sexual Exploitation And Abuse, And Feminist Theory, Corrina Marie Sullivan

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Why do United Nations peacekeepers enact sexual harm against the very populations they are meant to protect? Given that the purpose of United Nations peacekeepers is to promote peace in a country following a period of unrest and/or violence, acts of sexual exploitation and abuse are antithetical to their purpose. These acts also inflict trauma on populations meant to be protected. Finally, this behavior undermines the general trust in the United Nations. Therefore, when peacekeepers engage in acts of sexual exploitation and abuse, these acts have larger implications for not only the peacekeeping force but the United Nations as a …

A Study Of Algorithmic Bias With A Focus On Mitigation Practices And An Analysis Of Discrimination Conscious Data Mining, Ashni Walia

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Algorithmic bias is a moral error within computer systems that is often left undetected due to a lack of set procedures. The aim of this study was to find the source of this bias leading to possible procedural solutions that can be applied widely. A meta- analysis, case study, and sample interview statistics are used to understand the multiplication of such bias into generated outputs. The study concluded that lack of diverse data leads to bias in output, in addition to a lack of awareness about the existence of such bias. This ignorance is amplified by the myth surrounding deep …

The Effect Of Depression, Anxiety, And Length Of Stay In Neonatal Intensive Care Upon Maternal-Infant Bonding, Tori Shavon Young

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Bonding is important to establish an early relationship but a challenge to mothers with infants in NICU. The aim of this study was to determine if a longer length of time an infant requires NICU admission is associated with impaired maternal-infant bonding. A secondary goal explored associations and effects of maternal depression and anxiety upon bonding via the Postpartum Bonding Questionnaire (PBQ), Edinburg Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), and a subscale of the EPDS for anxiety. A descriptive design was used to explore mental health and bonding among 45 NICU mothers who were at least 18 years old and could speak, …

Appllication Of Convolutional Neural Network Towards Image Upscaling Demonstrated Via Chest X-Ray Dataset, Murtaza Aliasgar Khokhar

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Light Field Microscopy is a 3D imaging technique that sacrifices spatial resolution to capture angular information. A neural network was developed to increase the resolution of images captured. The objective of this study is to show the application of the developed convoluted neural network towards other topics. A dataset containing chest x-ray images will be used to train, test, and analyze the neural network. The neural network will be trained by converting the images to low-resolution and using it as training data. The original high-resolution data will be used as ground truth. PSNR, SSIM and visual tests will be used …

Improving Texas With Green Roof Gardens: A Review Of Green Roof Garden Systems And Evidence-Based Design Proposal For The Cappa Building, Uta, Raul-Andres Morales

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Texas is home to some of the hottest summers, often reaching over 100o during the day. A few countries, like Canada and Germany, have created policies that mandated green roof garden systems for new and renovated buildings. Studies conducted by the American Society of Landscape Architects shows that green roofs can lower the temperature of a city as a whole anywhere between 0.2o and 1.4o F. The implementation of green roof gardens in Texas can aid in lowering heat islands, excessive rainwater run-off, and increase energy efficiency in buildings. With the research conducted, this project was a creative design proposal …

Increasing The Efficiency Of Universal Robot 5–By The Introductionof Fiducial Markers, Resha Adhikari

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

Even though the UR5 robot was developed for industrial purposes, it has not been efficient enough to replace human workers in warehouses and factories. The main theme of this project is to increase the change the working practice of robot by detecting the fiducial markers and using it as a source to pick up the envelopes. Once the robot is able to detect the fiducial markers placed on the envelope, the robot will locate it and then move towards it, use suction to pick up the envelope and move it to another location as desired (a box in our case). …

Improving User Experience (Ux) Through Web Redesign, Jash Shah

2022 Spring Honors Capstone Projects - Archive

This project aims to identify major factors of consideration for redesigning a website to improve the user experience (UX). We short-listed ten websites and reviewed them with the prospect of understanding the user experience. A short survey was also conducted to better understand usability, user satisfaction and for examining the user experience. This information was compared with the top three UX popular websites to help ascertain the major differences. The process allowed us to classify factors that would assist in enhancing the user experience, but it was discovered that these could vary depending on website type and use. Additionally, there …

The Arkansas Ll.M. Program: Forty Years Of Leadership, Susan A. Schneider

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The University of Arkansas School of Law has been a leader in agricultural law education for over forty years through its innovative LL.M. Program in Agricultural and Food Law. This essay memorializes the history of this signature Program and charts its progress through the decades as agricultural law issues evolved and the discipline expanded.

Agricultural Carbon: The Land, Landowner, And Farmer, Barclay Rogers

Journal of Food Law & Policy

Carbon is certainly a hot topic in agriculture. Across the countryside, farmers, landowners, agricultural service providers, and many others are trying to understand what carbon is about and what it may mean to them. One of the more interesting topics around agricultural carbon concerns the relationship between the landowner and tenant farmers on absentee-owned land (i.e., land that is farmed by someone other than the person who owns it). This article provides a brief background on the agricultural carbon opportunity and explores some ideas about how to pursue the opportunity on absentee-owned farmland.

Black-Owned Beef: Should Black Beef Producers Stake Space In Food Justice?, Shirah Dedman

Journal of Food Law & Policy

While there is growing interest in Black cowboys, the narrative is largely tethered to parades and urban and suburban saddle clubs, much like the fictional movie on Netflix, Concrete Cowboy. Missing from the narrative are today’s real Black cowboys: rural ranchers and farmers raising cattle for beef production and consumption.

The Broken Beef Cattle Industry: Cool, Covid And Cattletrace, Hayden L. Ballard

Journal of Food Law & Policy

While the Kansas City Stockyards themselves are gone, just like in the early 20th Century, a beef monopoly has once again found its way into the industry, and a way around the Packers and Stockyards Act of 1921 and is again suffocating the industry. While at the time of the act’s passage in 1921 five companies controlled the market, today the market is even more consolidated in the “Big Four,” as the four biggest meat packing companies in America are commonly known (Cargill, Tyson, JBS and National Beef/Marfrig), and are again arguably stifling the free-market. If Americans do not act …

Plantain Cultivation In Puerto Rico: Its Inclusion In The National Crop Table Of The United States Department Of Agriculture’S Farm Service Agency, And Its Loss Compensation In Disaster Programs, Javier A. Rivera-Aquino

Journal of Food Law & Policy

If justice is to provide each person what they deserve, it seems plantain producers in Puerto Rico did not relish a just compensation for their farm losses after Hurricane Maria in 2017. The main culprit? Stale data. Farm Service Agency’s (FSA) Wildfire and Hurricanes Indemnity Program (WHIP) utilized plantain production data under the National Crop Table (NCT) 2017, which seemingly did not reflect up-to-date yield averages of Puerto Rico’s plantain farmers at the time of Hurricane Maria.

Journal Of Food Law & Policy - Spring 2022, Journal Editors

Journal of Food Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Pestfacts Wa Issue 05 - May 2022, Jean Galloway, Cindy L. Webster, Steve Collins

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 05 - May 2022 contents:

• Blackleg and the risk of sowing canola on canola
• Meet PestFacts WA team member – Steve Collins

Pestfacts Wa Issue 04 - May 2022, Svetlana Micic, Benjamin S. Congdon, Cindy L. Webster, Andrea Hills, Ravjit Khangura

PestFacts WA

PestFacts WA Issue 04 - May 2022 contents:

• Grasshoppers are hatching
• Aphid activity and turnip yellows virus detections
• Downy mildew and damping off in canola
• Nodorum blotch in wheat
• Plant disease webinar recording can now be viewed online

Detecting Accurate Emotions In Faces, Emma Greenwood

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Anger race bias is the tendency to misidentify expressions of emotion, specifically anger, in Black or racially ambiguous faces that are fearful or neutral (Hutchings & Haddock, 2008). Anger is often associated with aggression (Murphy et al., 2005). Therefore, the inaccurate perception of anger and threat may lead to an inappropriate response and could increase the likelihood that a police officer will shoot at a suspect (Correll et al., 2007). From 2015 to 2020, police officers shot and killed over 100 unarmed Black males (Washington Post, 2020). This study examined if anger race bias could be reduced through emotion identification …

Regression Tree Predictive Filter, Jarren Worthen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Many algorithms have been developed to predict future samples of a signal. These algorithms, such as the recursive least squares predictive filter, rely on the assumption that the system generating the signal can be modeled as a linear system of equations. These systems perform poorly when used to predict signals generated by non-linear systems. To predict a non-linear signal, non-linear methods must be used. Regression trees are a simple form of machine learning that is non-linear in nature and can predict output based on a set of given input. The goal of this capstone project was to develop an algorithm …

Small Spacecraft Thermal Control Louvers, James Anthony Mullen

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Small satellites missions are becoming increasingly complex and are requiring more power. These demands lead to temperature fluctuations on the satellite due to spacecraft layout, sunlight and shadow in orbit, and high-powered instrumentation. Products which provide necessary thermal stability for components on the satellite are desirable to small satellite manufacturers.

In September of 2015, Dr. Allison Evans of the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center filed a patent for an innovative louver system configured for small satellite applications. The design was sized for satellites with a 1U form factor and utilized bimetallic springs to lift the louver flaps. The design was …

Estimating Cattle Density Using Wildlife Cameras, Emily Bonebrake

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Quantifying the abundance and distribution of animal populations is critical for effective wildlife research and management. Due to their cost-effectiveness, wildlife cameras have become an increasingly popular tool for estimating population densities. Previously, this technique relied on ‘capture-recapture’ models that utilized re-sightings of individually marked animals, but in recent years methods have been developed to estimate the population densities of unmarked animals. One such method is the random encounter and staying time (REST) technique, which does this by assuming that the cumulative time animals stay within the view of the camera scales linearly with the number of individuals. This allows …

Bridging The Divide Between Upper And Lower Classmen: Resources For Mentors And Freshmen In The Choral Education Program, Tanner Hancock Pruett

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The recent decline in student retention in the choral education program at Utah State University should be cause for concern. Students who are excited and passionate about choir are leaving choral education and/or dropping out of college entirely. However, research into college retention rates and the experiences of choral education students at USU has helped explain this decline in student retention.

My review of research about college retention rates indicates that some of the biggest reasons that students drop out of college are academic difficulty, interpersonal difficulties, and mental health. It also indicates students with a strong sense of support …

Antimicrobial Assay Of Sagebrush Roots, Lauren Rachel (Moody) Mcfadden

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Plants produce secondary metabolites for various functions, one of which is antibacterial activities. Sagebrush has historically been used by Native Americans for different medicinal purposes, suggesting that it may have secondary metabolites that would have medicinal values, including antimicrobial activities, and can be a natural source for antibiotics. This study aims to carry out the antimicrobial activity of Sagebrush root extract against a handful of bacteria. We tested the antimicrobial activity of root extract of Sagebrush against six bacteria such as Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, E. coli DHSα (Lab cloning strain), Agrobacterium tumefaciens GV3101 (Lab cloning strain), Pseudomonas …

Evolution Of Floral Microbes And The Resulting Effects On Pollinator Preference, Hailey Hatch

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Floral microbes are an overlooked aspect of the extended floral phenotype. Through altering floral nectar chemistry, they can mediate interactions between flowers, pollinators, and other floral microbes, with significant implications for plant and pollinator health. Interactions between floral microbes and pollinators are critically important to understand, as pollinators provide important ecosystem services in both natural and agriculture systems. Here, I explored how floral nectar traits affected both evolution and competition within the floral yeast Metschnikowia reukaufii, the floral bacterium Bacillus subtilis, and other microbes isolated from Brassica rapa nectar, an important plant model system and oilseed crop. To …

Anticipatory Intelligence Resilience Modeling Evaluation Of Aspire Research Center, Madeleine Alder

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The analysis of threats and vulnerabilities in a system is essential in developing resilience strategies to strengthen the system’s ability to adapt and succeed. This report delivers a threat analysis of ASPIRE, a research organization centered on engineering solutions for promoting electric vehicle (EV) adoption. ASPIRE, which is an international network of university research partners and comprised primarily of engineering teams, is focused on developing technology that can be used by industry or governmental partners. The threat of low public buy-in for ASPIRE technology is one of the most significant concerns facing the system. Low adoption rates or public resistance …

A Sentiment And Content Analysis Of Facebook Posts Regarding Wild Horse Management, Libbie G. Anderson

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study was to better understand public sentiment and current conversations on Facebook regarding wild horse management practices, including adoption, roundups, and contraception, in the timeframe between the June 2021 BLM Wild Horse Advisory Board meeting and January 31, 2022. Social media monitoring and quantitative content analysis were used to examine the Facebook posts of four organizations communicating about the wild horse controversy. The research questions guiding this study included: (1) How many total mentions of “fertility control,” “contraception,” “roundup,” “gather,” “adoption,” and “management” as they pertained to wild horses occurred across Facebook from June 1, 2021 …