Open Research Oklahoma (Oklahoma State Univ.)
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Reproductive ecology of greater prairie-chickens and thermal effects of an exotic broadleaf plant
No full textIn the Great Plains of North America, more than 70% of historical grasslands have been lost, and remaining grasslands continue to face fragmentation and changes in prevailing land management practices. These changes have important implications for wildlife, especially when they alter the structure and landscape-scale configuration of vegetation. One important way that vegetation influences wildlife is through the modification of temperatures near the ground. We examined the impact of the invasive species sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata) on the near-ground thermal environment in a tallgrass prairie. Temperatures were significantly cooler when sericea was present than when it was absent. While increasing sericea cover did not significantly affect spatial thermal variation, it did have a quadratic relationship with temporal thermal variation, indicating that thermal variation across the diel cycle was lowest when sericea cover was moderate. At broader spatial scales, we investigated whether the configuration of burn patches on the landscape influenced nest and brood survival of greater prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus cupido pinnatus). Although we did not detect any significant relationships between proximity to burn edges, tree cover, or water sources and nest or brood success, nest survival was negatively related to wetter conditions during the nesting season. Brood survival during the first week post-hatch was negatively related to wetter conditions two years previously and negatively related to increasing daily path sinuosity. When we examined survival for individual chicks rather than brood survival, we found that survival probability between Days 1 and 4 post-hatch was influenced by proximity to burn edges. Survival probability was highest for chicks that hatched from nests 300-500 m from the nearest recent burn or that remained 0-300 m on average from the nearest recent burn. We also found support for litter depth as a potential mechanism underlying these relationships, as early chick survival was negatively related to litter depth. This suggests that the farther chicks must travel through unburned, accumulated vegetation, the more difficult it is for them to escape predators or capture prey. Our findings highlight how changes in plant communities and vegetation structure affect both the abiotic environment and wildlife populations in the tallgrass prairie
Preacher: Uncovering the gendered leadership challenges of Black clergywomen within the Black church
No full textThe purpose of this narrative inquiry study was to uncover how Black clergywomen experienced gendered leadership and navigated the patriarchal structure of the Black church—one often intent on limiting their leadership opportunities. To highlight Black clergywomen’s experiences, the study employed a constructionist and Endarkened feminist epistemology (Dillard, 2006), and a methodological framework that employed Narrative Inquiry and Endarkened Narrative Inquiry (McClish-Boyd & Bhattacharya, 2021). Data collection methods include life notes (Bell-Scott, 1994), dialogic interviews, and wisdom whisper (McClish-Boyd & Bhattacharya, 2021, 2023), all of which center African-ascendant ways of knowing and storytelling. The study focuses on seven Black clergywomen, aged 44-76, including the researcher, who also serves as a clergywoman. Compelled by personal experience and guided by Endarkened Feminist Epistemology, the study analyzes life stories to explore how these women navigate intersectional challenges, resist doctrinal constraints, and reimagine leadership within ecclesial spaces. Key thematic findings reveal clergywomen’s Calling Stories as Anchors and Beacons, Biblical Narratives as Theological Tools, and Excommunication and Isolation as Control Mechanisms, each addressed in separate chapters. First, each narrator articulated a distinct calling story that anchored their ministerial identity and sustained their leadership development and service amid persistently exclusionary church cultures. Narrators also storied and engaged biblical narratives as tools of resistance and validation, reinterpreting scripture to affirm their spiritual authority and challenge patriarchal readings. Conversely, many described how sermons and teachings—particularly those invoking Paul’s epistles and the allegory of Diana’s Temple—were used against them to reinforce gendered exclusion and restrict access to the pulpit. Participants reported emotional and vocational tensions, especially around expectations of domestic perfection, and described how their spiritual authority was often framed as a threat to traditional gender roles. Additionally, several clergywomen noted experiencing formal and informal exclusion, termed as excommunication, resulting in their ultimate removal from the church. In response, they employed resistance strategies such as reteaching scripture, mentoring peers, preaching against sexism, forming their own ministries or joining those who were more aligned with their doctrinal views of female ecclesial leadership, and using clothing and visibility to challenge ecclesial norms. Collectively, these narratives illuminate the persistence of gendered leadership barriers within the Black Church and the prophetic, embodied strategies Black clergywomen use to resist, reframe, and transform their ministerial landscapes
Non-equilibrium entanglement dynamics and transport in engineered quantum systems
No full textThis dissertation presents theoretical and computational investigations into non-equilibrium quantum dynamics in engineered systems, with a central focus on entanglement generation for quantum metrology. The primary contributions establish the scalable and robust generation of entanglement in the form of two-mode squeezing in bilayers of power-law interacting quantum spins and uncover a novel dynamical phase transition.
We develop a Floquet protocol utilizing spatio-temporal control to engineer spin-spin interactions tailored to the initial state and desired entanglement dynamics, thereby improving
the standard quantum limit of 1/√N scaling of the sensitivity in system size N to approach
the ultimate Heisenberg limit of 1/N. For a wide range of power-law interactions (1/rα), this
approach creates exponentially fast entangled pairs of excitations between the layers. We
then reveal a dynamical phase transition in the two-mode squeezing dynamics by identifying
universal scaling in terms of system parameters and a divergent time-scale. We establish
two distinct phases: a fully collective phase exhibiting Heisenberg-limited squeezing and a
partially collective phase with scalable but sub-Heisenberg squeezing. A full set of critical exponents is derived, and a universal scaling collapse of the dynamics is demonstrated,
framing entanglement generation within the theory of non-equilibrium critical phenomena.
We also apply advanced computational methods to other quantum and classical engineered
systems. We investigate quantum transport that maps conductivity to the disorder-driven
phase diagram of two-dimensional Dirac fermions. We also design a high-efficiency, lead-free
tandem photovoltaic cell. Collectively, this research provides a framework for harnessing
quantum control to probe and enhance functionality in complex systems, from fundamental
quantum sensing to applied materials design
Automation-induced attrition of pilots’ manual flying capabilities: Implications for airmanship and safety
No full textThis research explores the phenomenon of manual flight skill degradation among pilots operating highly automated aircraft. The study aims to assess whether there are statistically significant correlations between increased cockpit automation and the erosion of core airmanship, particularly in situations that necessitate manual control, such as in-flight emergencies. Through a critical examination of flight automation technologies, pilot training programs, and industry practices, this research investigates how reliance on automated flight control systems contributes to the atrophy of manual flying competencies. The findings are intended to inform aviation training protocols and support the development of strategies that balance automation with the preservation of essential piloting skills
Exploration of power reduction for Montgomery multiplication architectures for RSA
No full textRSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) is now being used in low-power devices to ensure secure communication without consuming much of the available limited energy on the device. This is achieved by using ASICs with power reduction techniques and also using efficient hardware algorithms. This work presents low-power Montgomery multiplication architectures for RSA implementation. Two different architectures of Montgomery multiplication which are radix-2 by Tenca-Koc and the very high radix (radix-2¹⁶) by Kelly-Harris are presented. Architectural changes are made to the radix-2 and radix-2¹⁶ Montgomery multiplication implementations to avoid race conditions and incorrect data flow. Also, the data flow in the carry save adders in the radix-2 architecture is rearranged to ensure that the design works for various operand lengths, number of processing elements and word sizes. Regulating the data flow in the high radix design has ensured that the design works for the condition that requires a FIFO.
The aforementioned architectures suffer from high power consumption due to constant clock supply to the underlying processing elements that perform Montgomery multiplication. The aim of this work is to generate low-power Montgomery multipliers for radix-2 and radix-2¹⁶ designs using the clock gating methodology and then implement RSA modules using these multipliers to analyze power, performance, and area (PPA). The Montgomery multiplication and RSA architectures help to understand the trade-off between the designs in terms of PPA. The designs are simulated and synthesized for 256 and 1024 bits and have been evaluated for PPA using TSMC 28hpc+ 28 nm technology. Results indicate a 37% to 97% decrease in power for Montgomery multiplication architectures and a 15% to 51% decrease in power for RSA architectures. The results indicate a reduction in power over the original designs whilst having tradeoffs in choosing the number of words (w), number of processing elements (p) and operand size for implementation (n)
Teachers’ self efficacy: A critical link between the writing teacher and the teaching of writing in the Belizean primary school
No full textTeaching writing requires adequate training in writing pedagogy, a love for writing, and the ability to recognize the magnitude of writing power. Even though Belize’s official language is English, for most, English is a second language, with Kriol considered the Lingua Franca of Belize. For this reason, writing can be a struggle for many and a challenge for teachers to meet the needs of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore a process-oriented writing approach that examines writing pedagogies on teachers’ self-efficacy in the teaching of writing at the primary school level. A pre-test post-test quasi-experimental study was conducted to hypothesize the effect of a nine-week writing intervention through the comparison of the pre-test and post-test scores. The data was analyzed using IBM SPSS 30. Paired Sample t-tests were used to answer research questions 1 and 2 to detect if there was a significant difference in teachers’ Personal-Efficacy and General Efficacy after a nine-week intervention in the teaching of writing. This was examined using three sub-scales, each for Personal and General Efficacy, namely efficacy in Engagement, efficacy in Instructional Strategies, and efficacy in Classroom Management. The study concluded that the nine-week writing intervention had a significant positive effect on teachers’ personal and general efficacy in writing. Suggestions were recommended for focusing on applied implications, participant diversity, and policy development in future research
Does selection of beef cattle for economically important traits impact post-weaning immunological phenotype and robustness traits?
No full textBovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a multifactorial complex disease that has created a billion dollar disparity annually and raised welfare concerns in the stocker and feedlot sectors. Therefore, the objectives of this dissertation were to evaluate the influence of calving season and growth and milk traits on: 1) variations in performance, feed efficiency, and carcass traits, 2) health and immune indicator traits, 3) changes in immune and growth related changes to the liver proteome, and 3) altered metabolite and metabolic pathways. Angus-cross cows from spring (n =120) and fall (n = 119) calving cowherds were randomly mated with Angus bulls selected for mean yearling weight expected progeny difference (YW EPD) with high growth (mean YW EPD = 72 ± 5.6 kg; HG) and moderate growth (mean YW EPD = 43 ± 3.2 kg; MG). and high (sire milk EPD = 15 ± 2.5 kg; HM) and low (sire milk EPD = 8 ± 2.6 kg; LM) genetic merit for the milk production of his daughters, creating a 2 × 2 factorial arrangement of sire genetic merit categories (HH, HL, MH, and ML). Weaned beef steers (n = 239; 224 ± 16.7 kg) from natural service and artificial insemination breeding were used over a 2-yr period. To evaluate the effects of growth, milk, birth season, and interactions four components were analyzed: 1) performance, feed efficiency, and carcass metrics, 2) immune phenotypes and health outcomes, 3) untargeted proteomics, and 4) untargeted metabolomics. Individual animal and phenotypic groups intakes were monitored from preconditioning to harvest. Immune phenotype data were collected during stressful events and individual animal health was monitored throughout the study. A bottom-up discovery approach to proteomic analysis was used to identify regulated protein pathways. Metabolomic discovery analysis uncovered increased abundance of glycolic and amino acid enriched pathways important for rapid growth of feedlot aged steers. Findings from the research has provided foundation for further investigation into the effects of growth traits on nutrient utilization, immune function, and regulation of key biologic processes and pathways. Expansion of the dataset to better understand the health outcomes observed in moderate growth sire EPD selection may shift the idea that growth traits and immune function are inversely correlated, and the role calving season plays on biological processes
Enhancing security in VANETs with unsupervised learning-based real-time false information detection
No full textVehicular Ad-hoc NETworks (VANETs) enable communication among vehicles and between vehicles and infrastructure to provide safety and comfort to the users. Securing VANETs from malicious nodes is critical, considering their potential impact on public safety. False information detection is one such important security issue in VANETs, where malicious nodes may broadcast bogus information to create the impression of a fake emergency event, like a crash or road congestion. Additionally, multiple malicious nodes may collude to collectively launch false information attacks to increase the credibility of an attack. Detection of false information attacks is critical to mitigate the potential risks they bring to the safety of users and other entities on the road. Existing techniques for detecting false information attacks in VANETs use different approaches such as machine learning, statistical methods, blockchain, trust scores, etc. These techniques rely on historical information about vehicles, past traffic data to train machine learning models used in certain techniques, or coordination among vehicles. Moreover, most of the approaches overlook collusion among attackers. To address these limitations, this dissertation proposes false information attack detection techniques for VANETs using unsupervised machine learning techniques. The objectives of this research are to detect isolated and colluding false information attacks in VANETs with high accuracy and low processing delay using only the real-time characteristics of the network without depending on historical information about vehicles or any past traffic data. The performance evaluation results show that the proposed techniques offer higher accuracy, lower data processing delays, and lower false positive rates compared to existing approaches in scenarios with high proportions of malicious nodes
Immaculate realities: Style, craftwork and collaboration in Bazmark Productions
No full textThis dissertation discusses the work of the Bazmark Films production house, an Australian filmmaking collaborative headed by director Baz Luhrmann and costume/production designer Catherine Martin. Bazmark works are sometimes dismissed by scholars and the popular press alike due to their overwhelming amount of style, which can be said to operate as a disengagement from reality. I argue instead that many of the chief elements of style across the films and television shows of this company—production design, costuming, prop management, and use of popular music—are in fact the elements that tie the productions to specific historical moments. By focusing on cinematic craftwork in this collaborative, I offer an evolution on what could be a standard auteurist study. Rather than collapsing the labor and specialty expertise of many into the brand name of the director, I redirect attention to several important craft workers who assist with the creation of Bazmark’s film worlds—what Luhrmann has referred as “immaculate realities.” It is my contention that Bazmark’s elaborately constructed diegetic worlds only appear self-contained. Despite their unreality and seeming ahistoricism, they speak quite directly to their historical and industrial contexts. This project excavates those histories and roots them in Bazmark’s collaborative processes behind the scenes
Critical content analysis of book flood and local picture books in the Belize public library
No full textThis project is a combination of two studies that examined picture books. Because the cost of publishing local books for children and purchasing picturebooks is unaffordable, Belize relies heavily on book donations to fill the shelves in schools and libraries. I conducted a critical multicultural content analysis and a decolonizing content analysis on 15 books (a combination of international and local) at the Leo Bradley Library in Belize City. This project focuses on the representation in the picturebooks available at the library and the possible effects these books have on young Belizean readers. Using metaphors as an additional analytical lens, results of both studies reveal the impact international and local picture books have on young readers. Implications of this project calls on teachers and librarians to be critical in book selection for their collection and to allow a space for readers themselves to have more speculative experiences when reading picture books with authentic representations