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Review of Age, Gender and Status in Macedonian Society, 550–300 BCE: Intersectional Approaches to Mortuary Archaeology, by Elina M. Salminen
No full textBook revie
Dynamic Peg-In-Hole Assembly with Effort-Based Collision Detection: Vision-Augmented Reinforcement Learning Control on a Collaborative Robot
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationPeg-in-hole insertion, a cornerstone of industrial assembly, faces challenges in dynamic environments where a moving hole mimics real-world tasks such as placing components on conveyors, inserting bolts into shifting parts, or adapting to human motion during collaborative handovers. These situations disrupt traditional robotic strategies that rely on fixed poses and rigid preprogrammed motions. Such static methods assume a stable environment and cannot adjust when the target moves or the task conditions shift. This unpredictability defines unstructured environments, where conventional control often results in jamming, misalignment, or costly process delays. This thesis introduces a vision-augmented reinforcement learning framework for a Yaskawa HC10DT collaborative robot, allowing sensorless dynamic insertion using internal joint effort sensing and computer vision (CV) based hole tracking. Pilot tests achieved 98% hole-tracking accuracy and 95% collision detection reliability, combining visual feedback with effort-based contact inference for adaptive, compliant motion. While an initial RoboDK simulation using Deep Q Network (DQN) proved insufficient for continuous control, real-world training with Soft Actor Critic (SAC) in ROS 2 was adopted. SAC's reward function penalizes misalignment and collisions while rewarding stable contact and successful insertion, addressing sparse rewards and improving learning robustness. With a validated perception stack, SAC continues to optimize insertion behavior in increasingly dynamic settings. This approach, which avoids dedicated external force or torque sensors, enhances safety by limiting excessive force, improves adaptability to unpredictable environments, and simplifies system design, offering significant value for applications in automotive, electronics, and aerospace manufacturing. As future work, the system will be extended to support a fully autonomous robotic insertion pipeline capable of handling unstructured environments without the need for dedicated force or torque sensors.The goal is to demonstrate strong generalization across part variations, lower failure rates, and enable seamless integration into industrial workflows
Examining the potential of Pacific abalone as a novel high-resolution archive of upwelling in the California Current.
No full textA Property of G-Vectors for Rank 3 Quivers
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationCluster variables, as generators of cluster algebras, are determined by a combination of a g-vector and an F-polynomial, with its parametrization depending on the associated g-vector. Since both g-vectors and F-polynomials play a fundamental role in expressing cluster variables, their computation is essential in the study of cluster algebras. One of the most effective ways for computing cluster variables is through their associated F-polynomials. This process depends on knowledge of the corresponding g-vectors, highlighting the importance of g-vectors in understanding the structure of cluster variables and motivating our investigation into their properties and computational approaches in this work. It is well known that the recursive and combinatorial structure of cluster algebras often gives rise to Diophantine problems, particularly in the form of integer solutions to nonlinear equations. In this dissertation, we establish an unexpected property of g-vectors by showing that those associated with rank 3 quivers satisfy certain Diophantine equations. This result builds on the framework of cluster algebras and their combinatorial properties
Painting a Picture: Arts-Based Community Engagement, a Qualitative Case Study of a Community College and its Process
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationBoth arts and higher education professionals utilize the term community engagement to describe specific interactions between organizations or institutions with their surrounding communities. The overarching goal of this practice is to provide a mutually beneficial relationship between an institution or organization and a community that provides a space for learning, practice, inclusivity, creativity, and growth. Though both entities (higher education and arts organizations) have this goal in common, their processes vary in relationship building, application, and practice; therefore, each carries a different meaning and set of expectations for outcomes as a result of projects and programming. Due to this broad commonality, however, there is opportunity for these two entities to create and sustain effective community engagement initiatives together to provide successful programming that would benefit the community, arts organizations, institutions, faculty, students, and staff. This single case study focuses on a community college in rural Alabama that has a reputation for successfully merging the fields to accomplish effective community engagement in an impactful way. In examining the study through the lens of a framework for community-based programming, the results of the study show that there are a variety of processes and programs, but many of the tenets of these processes (partnerships, leadership support, etc.) are non-negotiables in the field of engagement
Battling Bullying: An Intervention to Improve Civility Among Nurses
No full textDNP ProjectIntroduction: Incivility among nurses in contemporary healthcare settings poses significant challenges impacting individuals, organizations, and patients alike, yet there is a lack of standardized, evidence-based interventions to address this issue. Existing literature advocates for the assessment of workplace incivility, continuous education, and cognitive rehearsal training. This project sought to evaluate whether a combination of e-learning and cognitive rehearsal training enhances the ability of first-year registered nurses to identify, recognize, and respond to incivility, while also promoting a culture of civility in the workplace.
Methods: First-year pediatric critical care nurses at a nationally recognized Magnet®-designated children's hospital participated in a self-paced e-learning module, followed by a two-hour cognitive rehearsal session. The e-learning segment aimed to raise awareness of incivility and encourage effective communication. The cognitive rehearsal training involved role-playing structured scenarios, allowing participants to practice responses to typical uncivil behaviors utilizing evidence-based techniques. The Workplace Civility Index (WCI) was utilized to measure outcomes at three intervals including pre- and post-intervention and one-month post-intervention.
Results: WCI scores demonstrated a significant improvement (p<.001) both post-intervention and at one-month post-intervention compared to pre-intervention measures. Participants also expressed a higher likelihood of directly addressing workplace issues (p<.001). Post-course evaluations revealed high levels of satisfaction and perceived usefulness of the training.
Discussion: The results of this project indicate that integration of e-learning with cognitive rehearsal training effectively improves nurses' skills in recognizing and responding to incivility. The increased confidence in tackling workplace issues underscores the importance of structured training in fostering a positive workplace culture. These findings emphasize the necessity for ongoing educational initiatives to encourage civility within nursing practice. Incorporating such interventions into professional development programs may lead to healthier work environments and improved patient care. Future studies should investigate the long-term impacts and the potential for scalability across various healthcare contexts
An Exploration of Just-In-Time Adaptive Interventions for Eating Behaviors Using LLM-Based Messages
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationEating behavior is one of the most critical components of weight loss and a vital contributor to weight loss management. Adults labeled as obese according to world-renown scientific organizations number more than 1.9 billion, with the United States classified as the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) country with the most obese adults among the world population. For the past several years, sensors have been instrumental in facilitating research and strides toward the goal of weight loss and management, and more recently, with eating behavior. Additionally, large language models have been explored as a tool within various areas including digital health. Some of the methods that LLMs have been useful for so far include public communication of health notices to identifying caloric intake. To mitigate obesity, how people eat and when they eat requires study to aid in reducing weight. To make these determinations, the utilization of various methods including sensors as well as LLMs is vital. In this work, LLMs will be utilized and reviewed for their strengths and weaknesses, and determine any future research to further enhance their usefulness toward the goal of further study of eating behavior to further mitigate obesity and general weight loss
Effective Cognitive Modes for Compliance with Information Security Policies over Time
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationCompliance with information security policies (ISPC) has long been conceptualized as rational and intention-driven behavior. However, recent scholarship suggests that individuals' reasoning strategies in security contexts are far more dynamic and context-dependent. This dissertation seeks to reframe how ISPC is understood by emphasizing the role of cognitive adaptation, i.e., how individuals shift between intuitive, quasirational, and analytical modes in response to environmental, task-related, and psychological factors. In this two-essay dissertation, we pursue three broad goals. In Essay 1, we achieve two objectives. First, we conduct a systematic literature review to explore how ISPC has been cognitively framed and behaviorally measured across prior information security research. This review identifies three limitations: 1) an overreliance on rational-choice and intention-based decision making; 2) insufficient attention to adaptive reasoning strategies; and 3) limited consideration of both cognitive and behavioral change in empirical measurement. In response, we develop five cognitive-behavioral reasoning chains that represent distinct processes of how employees navigate security decisions. Then, we conduct semi-structured interviews to validate these chains by providing empirical support for a cognitive framework that accommodates real-world complexity and dynamics. In Essay 2, we empirically examine cognitive and behavioral change in ISPC through a longitudinal study with an experience sampling method that captures real-time observations from participants over multiple workdays. This study demonstrates that employees' cognitive modes fluctuate in response to factors such as task complexity, decision fatigue, and task familiarity. Results show that analytical mode supports stronger compliance, task familiarity enhances analytical engagement, and decision fatigue increases intuitive but less secure behavior. This dissertation introduces a cognitively adaptive model of compliance behavior, provides empirical evidence of within-person variability, and offers actionable guidance for designing interventions that support security behavior in contextually sensitive ways
Impact of Offender Sex Across Legal Decision-Making Intercepts in Cases of Domestic Violence: a Meta-Analysis
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationDomestic violence (DV) – a public health crisis impacting the wellbeing of millions of individuals in the U.S. – is a developed area of research within the social sciences. Thus far, researchers have examined a variety of legal and extralegal factors involved in the sociolegal response to DV, including offender/victim sex. The outcomes of these studies have produced mixed results, and emerging scholarship often emphasizes the complexity involved within legal decision-making, such that extralegal factors impact some, but not all, decision-making points. Given the mixed results of the impact of offender sex in tandem with efforts highlighting the nuance within legal decision-making, the current research explored if and how offender sex is associated with legal decision-making across and within multiple intercepts (i.e., police, prosecutors, and adjudicators) via a systematic review and meta-analyses (k = 34). Meta-analyses revealed that police are no more likely to arrest males or females on average; however, a subgroup analysis of studies controlling for offender weapon use and victim injury demonstrated police are more likely to arrest males than females. On average, police are more likely to dually, rather than singly, arrest females than males. Regarding the second intercept, prosecutors are more likely to pursue cases with male rather than female offenders but no more likely to apply severe charges. Adjudicators are also more likely to convict and incarcerate males than females on average. Importantly, while these meta-analyses generally indicated that males, on average, are treated more punitively in DV cases, virtually all analyses indicated significant heterogeneity in effects, with most highlighting that females may be treated more punitively across comparable studies. We discuss the results in the context of extant literature and study limitations
Applying Forks to Questions on Quivers
No full textElectronic Thesis or DissertationA quiver is a species of directed graph that admits an operation called mutation. In this work, we present three results on quivers: two new hereditary and mutation-invariant properties of quivers, the settlement of a conjecture of Bucher and Mahachek, and an elementary proof of the sign-coherence of c-vectors for two infinite families of quivers. Fundamental to all three results are a type of quiver called a fork, which have excellent combinatorial properties. Our first result deals with hereditary and mutation-invariant properties. A hereditary property of quivers is one preserved by restriction to any full subquiver. A mutation-invariant property of quivers is one preserved by mutation. We prove that a quiver being mutation-equivalent to a finite number of non-forks---defined as having a finite forkless part---is this new property, using only elementary methods. Additionally, we show that a generalization---having a finite pre-forkless part---is also a new hereditary and mutation-invariant property in the same manner. Further, we prove a result on the unrestricted red size of a quiver, the maximal number of red vertices in its framed quiver after any given mutation sequence. In a 2023 paper by Bucher and Machacek, it was shown that connected, mutation-finite quivers either have an unrestricted red size of n-1 or n, where n is the number of vertices in the quiver. We prove here that the same holds for the connected, mutation-infinite case using forks. As such, the unrestricted red size for any quiver equals n-c, where c is the number of connected components of the quiver that do not admit a reddening sequence. Finally, we prove a result on the c-vectors of forks that allows us to show that the c-vectors of both abundant acyclic quivers on any number of vertices and mutation-cyclic quivers on three vertices are sign-coherent with only elementary methods