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Balancing Growth and Identity: Tourism, Culture, and Economic Development in Dangriga, Belize
Full text linkThis thesis examines the interplay between tourism development and cultural preservation in Dangriga, Belize. Dangriga is a town with a rich Garifuna heritage, and its residents take great pride in maintaining and sharing their traditions with both future generations and visitors. However, Dangriga remains relatively underdeveloped as a tourist destination. By conducting interviews with community stakeholders, my team and I created a needs analysis focused on the most prominent concerns voiced by residents, while offering an outside perspective. In addition to our experiences in Belize, I conducted independent research on the potential impacts of cruise tourism, the benefits of community-based tourism models, and the critical role of government engagement in shaping sustainable and inclusive tourism development. Ultimately, this thesis aims to support tourism practices that preserve Dangriga’s heritage while addressing the town’s long-standing developmental challenges
Understanding the Effects of Aging on Skin Tissue Mechanics and Collagen Organization through Quantitative Polarized Light Imaging
No full textIntrinsic aging causes changes in the structure and mechanical properties in skin, yet the complex organization of the collagen fibers in the dermis makes it challenging to fully understand how these fibers behave and interact as skin gets older. In this study, we used the single-shot Quantitative Polarized Light Imaging (ssQPLI) system developed by Quinn Lab to measure the changes in collagen structure between young and old mice in response to mechanical testing. Our results showed that young skin was more effective at reorganizing when stretched. Specifically, young skin showed greater changes in directional variance (DV) and more fiber rotation toward the direction of loading, meaning the collagen structure could maintain its strength and flexibility under strain. In contrast, old skin showed smaller changes in DV and fiber rotation, suggesting that collagen fibers were less capable of adapting to mechanical forces. Our observed results did not always follow patterns found in previous studies, showing that collagen behaves in complex, non-uniform ways. Overall, these findings suggest that intrinsic aging impairs the ability of collagen to reorient under stress, and these results could help guide novel therapeutic methods focused on improving wound healing and enhancing the functions of the skin
Sustainability: Buzz Word or Future of Fashion? Measuring the Feasibility of Outright Sustainability among Fast Fashion’s Biggest Agents
Full text linkAbstract
The fashion industry is currently experiencing unsustainable rates of pollution within its supply chains. The rapid increase in demand for short lead times perpetrated by large-scale retailers has led to hazardous practices negatively affecting both the environmental conditions and working conditions of producing countries. With this increased pressure, relationships between brands and suppliers have become untenable. Limited transparency and imbalanced power dynamics at the hand of the industry’s leading retailers require restructuring in order to build more sustainable and equitable supply-chain practices. Further, governmental regulation is currently limited in its capacity to enforce sustainable business practices on a global scale. This analysis is applicable for the restructuring of the global supply chain and offers guidance to the necessary steps to build a truly circular fashion economy. Findings from this paper conclude that adoption of circular practices by fashion retailers must begin with investment in long-term sustainable production methods. These methods are shown to offer profitability when adopted through a diversified low-impact materials portfolio, more efficient energy sources, and improved utilization of excess materials created throughout the production process. Governmental bodies must enact more stringent regulatory measures to ensure the adoption of these practices while offering equitability to companies leading the charge in this transition, a process displayed by the efforts of the European Union. The results of this work show a feasible and profitable path towards outright sustainability within the fashion industry when encompassing all necessary measures
Cross-Facility Reliable Deep Learning Based Beef Marbling Assessment Via Unsupervised Domain Adaptation Regression
Full text linkBeef is one of the most important sources of animal protein and plays a crucial role in daily diets to support muscle growth, energy production and overall health. Historically, each beef carcass was evaluated by 3-5 skilled United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) meat graders, which are still considered as the gold standard for grading. Since 2009, electronic imaging grading systems have been approved by the USDA and have been gradually adopted in the grading facilities. Accurate and consistent beef grading plays a critical role in maintaining the quality, market value, and consumer trust in U.S. beef products. The USDA beef grading system, primarily based on fat marbling characteristics, has long served as the industry standard for classifying beef quality. However, traditional grading methods relying on human visual inspection have been prone to variability among graders and inconsistencies across processing plants. To address these challenges, this study developed a deep learning based solution to predict USDA beef grades by analyzing fat marbling patterns in carcass images collected from multiple processing facilities. The dataset provided by the USDA, which includes expert-graded images of beef carcasses from seven processing plants, provides numerical scores on a range of 0-1500, which was used to train convolutional neural networks (CNNs) such as ResNet, VGG, and Inception. Additionally, this study proposes a unified unsupervised domain adaptation regression method, which was employed to enhance the models’ ability to generalize across different environments. The dataset reflected real-world variability, such as differences in lighting, equipment, and operational practices, ensuring the models could adapt to diverse plant conditions. By correlating image-based features with USDA grades, the models successfully identified intricate marbling patterns and reduced variability compared to human graders. Statistical analyses showed that the deep learning based approach provided more uniform results across plants, addressing the inconsistencies of traditional methods. In comparison with commonly utilized generic CNN deep learning models, the newly proposed unsupervised domain adaptation model achieves a significantly better marbling score prediction performance in different processing facilities. This study not only automated the beef grading process but also introduced a scalable and efficient solution for the industry. The integration of domain adaptation ensured robust performance in varying plant environments, making the system practical for widespread adoption. Beyond reducing labor costs and improving grading accuracy, this research contributed to a fairer system for producers by further standardizing grading criteria across facilities. By bridging advanced technology with traditional practices, this study provides a framework for policy makers to regulate and approve deep learning based beef grading protocol into commonplace beef grading practices.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hnrcsturpc25/1041/thumbnail.jp
Sports Injury Prevention - Epidemiological Analysis of Concussion Mechanisms in Female Soccer Players: A Review of NEISS Data (2020–2023)
Full text linkBackground/Introduction: Concussions are a significant concern in women’s soccer, with many studies showing that women have a higher rate of having them than compared to men. The number of concussions in athletes have raised concerns about long-term health and calls for a deeper look into ways to prevent them from occurring. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to review the epidemiological data related to the mechanisms of concussions as a result of soccer, specifically within female participants.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/coesym25/1003/thumbnail.jp
The Effect of Maternal Anxiety of Breastfeeding Exclusivity and Duration
Full text linkThis study examined whether postpartum anxiety affects breastfeeding exclusivity and duration among mothers in Northwest Arkansas. While maternal anxiety was not a significant predictor, child age and infant birth order were associated with breastfeeding outcomes.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/coesym25/1012/thumbnail.jp
Knockin’ on Music’s Door: A Cross-Generational Study of the Formation of Tastes, Roles, and Affinities for Music
Full text linkThe music we love is a direct reflection of who we are. It shapes our identity, fuels our emotions, and connects us to the world around us. Whether it\u27s the anthems of our youth, the lyrics that put our feelings into words, or the melodies that bring back memories, music is woven into every stage of life. It influences the way we dress, the communities we belong to, and the way we see ourselves. Our playlists may evolve, but the connection remains the same. Music is more than just something we listen to; it’s a part of us
PILGRIMS ON THE UPWARD WAY: The African American Community in Eureka Springs and The Church at Its Heart
Full text linkOn May 13, 1899, an unknown hand began a ledger. The heading for that page began, Yeartley Conference Record Book of Pilgrim Chapel A.M.E. Church. The remainder of the page is blank. The following entry dates to April 18, 1902, and details collections in a different hand. These pages are from the Pilgrim Chapel AME Church in Eureka Springs and Harrison. From 1899 to 1911, this church served as the center of the African-American community in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, providing unwavering support to its members through community and worship. In time, they would buy land and build a church. The church would house a school. They would pay their pastor a stipend and eventually build a parsonage. The African-American community in Eureka Springs would disappate before the 1920s. This ledger in the University of Arkansas Special Collections provides insight into a time of unity and growth for a group of former enslaved people and their children. My presentation will share insights about the church and the ledger, part of ongoing research into this community and its members, and the reasons for the community’s abandonment.
Interestingly, local historians, including myself, considered this ledger lost. I spent hours looking for it in places documented in a 1985 local history book. I have been working on transcribing the ledger to glean information about the church and its members. This work aims to inform about Eureka Springs’ history and to spotlight a time in the history of former enslaved people. Because of natural disasters like fires and flooding, as well as the lack of accurate reporting for African Americans during this time, Eureka Springs newspaper archives are not available. Studying sources like photographs and the ledger has become essential to this work.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hnrcsturpc25/1027/thumbnail.jp
The Effect of Parental Behavior on the Ontogeny of the Immune System in the Eastern Bluebird (\u3ci\u3eSialia sialis\u3c/i\u3e)
Full text linkPrevious research has explored the trade-offs between growth and immune endpoints in offspring since early development is critical in shaping adult responses to disease. However, an unexplored aspect of immune development is the influence of parental behavior on immune outcomes. I observed parental behavior during early development and its influence on offspring immune condition. To analyze parental behavior during incubation in the Eastern Bluebird, I quantified incubation constancy (percentage of time spent on the nest) and its impact on white blood cell ratios throughout development. Incubation constancy is useful in defining general trends in adult incubation behavior. Here, I have used it to examine how it influences aspects of immune condition critical to adult disease outcomes.
I used an established nest box system (208 boxes) managed for Eastern Bluebirds by the DuRant Lab in Fayetteville, AR. To examine parental behavior, I used data gathered from two-channel temperature loggers, in which one logger is placed inside and one outside the nest box. Using NestIQ (Hawkins and DuRant 2020), a program developed by the DuRant lab that uses machine learning to detect changes in parental behavior in relation to environmental temperature and nest temperature, my work has capitalized on recent advances in computer programming to quantify changes in animal behavior as it relates to environmental conditions. Blood samples were taken from Eastern Bluebird nestlings on day 5 and 10 of incubation. The samples had been previously collected and stained by William Kirkpatrick. The white blood cell count for a slide was completed by counting 100 white blood cells within the stained blood smear on a slide. Each blood cell that was counted was classified as a lymphocyte, heterophil, monocyte, eosinophil, or basophil. To calculate white blood cell ratios, I divided the number of heterophils and eosinophils by total lymphocyte numbers.
When examining the results for my project, I first compared Heterophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio and eosinophil count between days 5 and 10 for each individual bluebird. We found a significant change in both Heterophil-to-Lymphocyte ratio and eosinophil count from day 5 to day 10. From these results, it is evident that much more immune system development occurs between day 5 and day 10 rather than before day 5. This tells us that immune system development is not prioritized within the first 5 days post hatch. When looking at findings for constancy, there were no significant relationships between white blood cell count and parental behavior, except for monocyte count. Monocyte numbers were significantly predicted by adult constancy. There was not clear evidence to know if parental behavior influences the development of the immune system as a whole. These results can be used to understand more about the timeline of immune system development in the eastern bluebird. Additionally, these findings could be used to do further research into why parental behavior seems to only effect monocyte numbers and no other aspects of the immune system.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hnrcsturpc25/1017/thumbnail.jp
Differences in cellular and humoral immune responses to a primary and secondary immunization with herpesvirus of turkey (HVT) vaccine in layer pullets
Full text linkIn poultry production, chickens are routinely vaccinated with live herpesvirus vaccines for protection from lymphoma causing Marek’s disease virus. However, information on the immune responses to these vaccines is limited. This study examined cellular and antibody responses to primary and secondary vaccinations with herpesvirus of turkey (HVT). Six unvaccinated 9-wk-old, and six HVT-vaccinated (s.c. at hatch) 19-wk-old, layer pullets received a first (V1) or a second (V2) HVT vaccination, respectively, by intradermal injection of HVT-vaccine into the pulp of growing feathers (GFs; 10 µL/GF; 16 GFs/bird). GFs were collected before (0h), and at 0.25, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 10d post-pulp-injection (p.i.) and, blood, at 0, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28d p.i. To assess leukocyte profiles in GF-pulps, cell suspensions were prepared for immunofluorescent staining and leukocyte population analysis by FACS. ELISA was used to measure plasma levels of HVT-specific IgM and IgG. GF and blood data were analyzed by 2-way ANOVA and 2-way repeated measures ANOVA, respectively, to test effects of vaccine, time, and their interactions, followed by Tukey’s HSD tests when appropriate (P≤0.05 for all tests). Both V1 and V2 recruited leukocytes, primarily lymphocytes, by 1d p.i. (P≤0.05) with peak levels (% pulp cells) observed by 3d that were higher (P≤0.001) with V1 (54%) than with V2 (24%) and declined gradually to near 0h levels by 10d. Heterophils and macrophages peaked (4% each; P≤0.05) at 0.25d with both V1 and V2. However, V1 and V2 differed greatly in recruitment of T- and B-cells, with V1 recruiting much higher levels at 3, 5, and 7d (P≤0.05). While CD4+ T cells dominated the T cell response to V1, with elevated levels from 3 to 10d, CD8+ T cells were the most abundant T cells responding to V2, with peak levels on 1 to 3d p.i. (P≤0.05). Plasma HVT-IgM levels were elevated (P≤0.05) on 10 and 28d post V1 but did not change post V2. Similarly, HVT-IgG levels increased steadily post V1 (P≤0.05), reaching near maximal levels by 14d, while V2 did not stimulate a further increase. The temporal, qualitative, and quantitative differences in leukocyte presence at the site of HVT injection post V1 versus V2, suggest development of cell mediated immunity in response to HVT vaccination.https://scholarworks.uark.edu/hnrcsturpc25/1018/thumbnail.jp