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A Novel Nonparametric Test For Heterogeneity Detection And Assessment Of Fluid Removal Among Crrt Patients In Icu, Shaowli Kabir

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Over the past decade acute kidney injury (AKI) has been occurring among 20%-50% of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in United States. Continuous renal replacement therapy (CRRT) has become a popular treatment method among these critically ill patients. But there are multiple complications in implementing this treatment, including discrepancies in practiced and prescribed fluid removal, possibly related to the heterogeneity among these patients. With mixture modeling there have been several techniques in detecting heterogeneity with their specific limitations. In this dissertation a novel nonparametric ‘d test’ will be used to detect heterogeneity among CRRT patients in ICU. …

Distribution Of Particulate Organic Carbon – Fluxes And Inventories – In Growth-Faulted Coastal Wetlands, Samuel Joel Whitehead

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Coastal wetlands along the Northern Gulf of Mexico (NGOMx) are critically important but threatened environments which provide significant and diverse economic, social, and environmental value. These environments are essential components to the global carbon cycle, serving as one of the most efficient terrestrial carbon sinks. Since onset of the Industrial Revolution increasing rates of coastal wetland loss have been documented due to a variety of anthropogenic activities, neotectonic processes, subsidence, and rising sea-levels. This research utilized an array of methods and sedimentological analyses to test the hypothesis that growth-fault induced changes at Earth’s surface affects the delivery to, and storage …

The Revised Systematics And Paleoecology Of The Devonian Stemless Crinoid Genus Edriocrinus Hall, 1858, Catherine E. Herbert

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

New morphological observations of Edriocrinus Hall, 1858, enable a modern, holistic view of this unusual crinoid genus, previously included in the Superorder Flexibilia (Zittel, 1895) Wright et al., 2017. Re-analysis of Edriocrinus suggests that the genus should now be assigned to the Order ‘Dendrocrinida’ within the Magnorder Eucladida Wright, 2017 based on the five infrabasals, single radianal in the cup, absent anal sac, and non-pinnulate arms with rectangular uniserial brachials. Moreover, examination of the slight variations separating the current 14 Edriocrinus species indicates that these “species” are likely ecophenotypes. The current Edriocrinus species are revised based on firmly bound calyx …

The Performance Optimization Of Asp Solving Based On Encoding Rewriting And Encoding Selection, Liu Liu

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Answer set programming (ASP) has long been used for modeling and solving hard search problems. These problems are modeled in ASP as encodings, a collection of rules that declaratively describe the logic of the problem without explicitly listing how to solve it. It is common that the same problem has several different but equivalent encodings in ASP. Experience shows that the performance of these ASP encodings may vary greatly from instance to instance when processed by current state-of-the-art ASP grounder/solver systems. In particular, it is rarely the case that one encoding outperforms all others. Moreover, running an ASP system on …

Determining Power System Fault Location Using Neural Network Approach, Edward O. Ojini

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fault location remains an extremely pivotal feature of the electric power grid as it ensures efficient operation of the grid and prevents large downtimes during fault occurrences. This will ultimately enhance and increase the reliability of the system. Since the invention of the electric grid, many approaches to fault location have been studied and documented. These approaches are still effective and are implemented in present times, and as the power grid becomes even more broadened with new forms of energy generation, transmission, and distribution technologies, continued study on these methods is necessary. This thesis will focus on adopting the artificial …

Investigating The Uncertainties In Ct Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Radiomics, Gary Ge

Theses and Dissertations--Radiation Medicine

Radiomics is a technique that extracts quantitative features, termed radiomic features, from medical images using data-characterization algorithms. These radiomic features can be used to identify tissue characteristics and radiologic phenotyping that are not observable by clinicians in a non-invasive, low-cost manner, potentially generating image biomarkers for clinical decision. To date, there are still many uncertainties involved in radiomics which limit its clinical implementation. Herein, we propose to explore the impact of each component in the radiomics pipeline on predicting clinical outcomes. In Chapter II, we conduct a thorough review of CT lung cancer radiomics studies to examine the typical feature …

Bat Activity On West Virginia Mined Lands Restored Via The Forestry Reclamation Approach, Briana C. Snyder

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

The Forestry Reclamation Approach (FRA) is a practical guide to reforesting surface mined lands. Bats, as a unique group of species with declining populations, could benefit from this reforestation. In order to determine if the FRA is providing suitable bat foraging habitat, I surveyed bat activity at created depressional wetlands on 1-year old and 8-year old FRA restored lands (FRA1; FRA8), as well as at naturally formed wetlands in regenerating forest on traditionally reclaimed mined land (~40 years old; REGEN) and wetlands in mature forest not previously mined (MAT). I passively recorded echolocation calls for 12 nights across sixteen sites …

Stellar Parameter Determination For The Mastar Stellar Library, Daniel J. Lazarz

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Empirical libraries of stellar spectra represent a key ingredient needed for modeling the integrated spectra of stellar populations, such as galaxies, through a process called stellar population synthesis (SPS). In order to make use of such libraries, accurate stellar atmospheric parameter estimates are required. Here, I present a methodology that was developed to build a stellar parameter catalog to accompany the MaNGA stellar library (MaStar), a comprehensive collection of empirical, medium-resolution stellar spectra. This parameter catalog was constructed using a multicomponent χ² fitting approach to match the MaStar spectra to models generated by interpolating the ATLAS9-based BOSZ models. The …

Influence Of Bedrock Erodibility On Orogen Evolution In Collisional Systems And Implications For Geodynamic Models, Stephanie Ann Sparks

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Theoretical and numerical geodynamic models of continental collisional systems often involve, either explicitly or implicitly, a necessary yet complicated dependence between tectonics and erosion; however, the exact nature of these relationships remains elusive and controversial. In such models for the Himalayan-Tibetan (H-T) collisional orogen, surface processes are theorized or in some cases required to play an essential role in modulating critical processes active in the evolution of that system. To investigate, at least to first order. these interactions between climate and tectonics, we generate a simplified landscape evolution model of an actively uplifting orogenic wedge acted upon by surface processes. …

Syn- To Post-Orogenic Evolution Of Collisional Mountain Systems: Investigating The Potential For Crustal Flow Using Thermochronology And Numerical Models, Brandon Spencer

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

This dissertation is composed of three distinct manuscripts which collectively investigate processes that contribute to the late evolution of collisional mountain systems —specifically, the ancient Appalachian-Caledonian system. In the first paper, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronological data are used to constrain the timing of exhumation of the Scandian orogenic wedge of northern Scotland. Muscovite and amphibole samples yield dates of ca. 420-411 Ma, consistent with cooling after peak orogenesis. During this cooling phase, dates from both systems in individual thrust sheets show an increase in cooling rate in the later stage of exhumation; in the orogenic core, the cooling rate …

Deformation Of Wall Rocks And Overburden Sequences Proximal To Salt Diapirs In Salt Valley, Utah: Implications For Predicting Subseismic Damage In Salt Tectonic Systems, William Swanger

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Although deformation related to salt tectonics is generally considered to be an ancillary field of structural geology, owing to its relatively limited occurrence in the geologic record, the preponderance of salt-involved systems in multiple hydrocarbon-rich basins around the world (e.g., Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic passive margins, Iran, etc.) creates a necessity for understanding salt-related deformation. Traditionally, salt was considered to be relatively weak and thus was mostly unable to drive deformation of adjacent wall rocks and cover sequences. However, a number of recent numerical modeling studies have shown that mobilized and pressurized salt may have the ability to actively pierce …

Energy Integrated Ratio Analysis Of The Anomalous Precession Frequency In The Fermilab Muon G-2 Experiment, Ritwika Chakraborty

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, a_μ, provides a unique way for probing physics beyond the standard model experimentally as it gathers contributions from all the known and unknown forces and particles in nature. The theoretical prediction of a_μ has been in greater than 3 σ tension with the experimental measurement since the results of the Muon g-2 Experiment at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (E-821) were published in the early 2000s with a precision of 540 ppb. To settle this tension, the new Fermilab Muon g - 2 Experiment (E-989) is currently taking data with the aim of …

Constraining The Star Formation Histories Of Galaxies In The Swift/Uvot + Manga (Swim) Value-Added Catalog, Nikhil Ajgaonkar

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Although our understanding about galaxy evolution has improved in the past few
decades, we still do not understand how galaxies suddenly stop forming stars and move towards a quiescent phase. In order to do that, we must derive the Star Formation Histories (SFHs) of galaxies, that trace the change in Star Formation (SF) inside the galaxy over the cosmic timescale. This is achieved by using a set of spatially resolved near-ultraviolet (NUV) and optical spectroscopic images of the galaxies. We generate the Swift/UVOT + MaNGA value added catalog (SwiM VAC; Molina et al., 2020b) which comprises 150 galaxies having a …

Evaluating Restoration Outcomes: Red Spruce Reforestation In The West Virginia Highlands, Benjamin Rhodes

Theses and Dissertations--Forestry and Natural Resources

Red spruce (Picea rubens) is the keystone species of the red spruce-northern hardwood forest, a unique high-elevation plant community that supports hundreds of animal species in the Central Appalachians. These forests were devastated by the Industrial Logging Era of the late 1800s and early 1900s, and they remain in a degraded and fragmented state. Current restoration efforts include red spruce plantings on old field sites and reclaimed coal mines. This project seeks to aid those efforts by evaluating restoration outcomes for vegetation and soils along a ten-year chronosequence. Specifically, the study aims to determine whether restoration site soils …

Deriving The Distributions And Developing Methods Of Inference For R2-Type Measures, With Applications To Big Data Analysis, Gregory S. Hawk

Theses and Dissertations--Statistics

As computing capabilities and cloud-enhanced data sharing has accelerated exponentially in the 21st century, our access to Big Data has revolutionized the way we see data around the world, from healthcare to investments to manufacturing to retail and supply-chain. In many areas of research, however, the cost of obtaining each data point makes more than just a few observations impossible. While machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) are improving our ability to make predictions from datasets, we need better statistical methods to improve our ability to understand and translate models into meaningful and actionable insights.

A central goal in the …

Naturally Occurring And Introduced Tracers For Examining Water Pathways In Urban Environments, Elizabeth Avery

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Naturally occurring stable isotopes of water and introduced water tracers allow researchers to examine water pathways and better understand spatial and temporal variability in water sources. Trends in naturally occurring stable isotope values can function not only as a tracer for precipitation patterns and moisture recycling but also as a confirmation of municipal data. Additionally, these data can provide an early signal for the effects of climate change on these sources, reducing uncertainty from physical measurements. To further assess water pathways, introduced tracers can be used to investigate surface and below ground surface flow for streams and rivers.

In chapter …

Photocatalytic Degradation Of Lignin By Supported Silver Nanoparticles, Ning Wei

Theses and Dissertations--Chemical and Materials Engineering

Lignin is the second most abundant form of biomass on earth. The phenolic structure and high carbon to oxygen ratio make lignin an attractive renewable source of fuel and chemicals. However, its recalcitrance and heterogeneous nature prove difficult for decomposing lignin’s polymer structure and separation of the products. This work has focused on the use of low-energy catalytic approaches to overcome these barriers. A mimic of the lignin degrading enzyme laccase, consisting of a copper cluster Cu4Py4I4 modified with AgNO3, was developed to function similarly to the laccase active site. The prepared copper complex solution was found to be active …

Opioid Use Disorder Treatment With Buprenorphine: Analysis Of Treatment Utilization And Associated Outcomes In Kentucky, Feitong Lei

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Opioid use disorder (OUD) is chronic opioid use that results in clinically significant suffering, impairment, or even death. The opioid epidemic in the United States has become a public health and economic crisis, affecting patients' well-being and the nation's overall health and welfare. Eastern Kentucky was among the first regions affected by the opioid crisis, and Kentucky has historically ranked among the top five states for age-adjusted drug overdose mortality rate.

There are three medications (buprenorphine, methadone, naltrexone) approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat OUD. As a partial opioid agonist, buprenorphine is a safe medication for …

Building Tools For Improved Modulation Of The Human Gabaa Receptor, A Central Nervous System Target For The Treatment Of Anxiety, Garrett Edward Zinck

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

In the U.S., anxiety is recognized as an increasing range of mentally and physically debilitating psychiatric health disorders with significant economic repercussions. Over the last 20 years, several novel anti-anxiety therapies have entered the drug development pipeline, but none have made it to market.

The work in this dissertation focused on structurally modifying valerenic acid (VA), a structurally unique carboxylated sesquiterpene acid found in Valeriana officinalis. VA is putatively reported to have allosteric modulatory activity of the human GABA_A receptor, a ligand-gated ion channel responsible for attenuating neurotransmissions. Structural modeling of VA’s GABA_A receptor interaction suggests that …

Investigating The Physical Stability Of Amorphous Pharmaceutical Formulations, Travis W. Jarrells

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacy

Amorphous formulations, including amorphous solid dispersions (ASDs), consisting of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) intimately mixed in a polymeric matrix, are an attractive formulation approach to improve drug delivery, dissolution, and solubility. However, an amorphous API in an ASD is in a higher energy state compared to the crystalline drug and results in most ASDs being inherently unstable. The polymer helps to stabilize the amorphous drug against crystallization such that the resulting homogenous mixture maintains its solubility advantage relative to the crystalline form. One challenge of ASDs is that the presence of impurities including crystals or residual solvent, variations in …

Learning A Scalable Algorithm For Improving Betweenness In The Lightning Network, Vincent Davis

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

This paper presents a scalable algorithm for solving the Maximum Betweenness Improvement Problem as it occurs in the Bitcoin Lightning Network. In this approach, each node is embedded with a feature vector whereby an Advantage Actor-Critic model identifies key nodes in the network that a joining node should open channels with to maximize its own expected routing opportunities. This model is trained using a custom built environment, lightning-gym, which can randomly generate small scale-free networks or import snapshots of the Lightning Network. After 100 training episodes on networks with 128 nodes, this A2C agent can recommend channels in the Lightning …

A Study Of The Analysis Of Hemp-Derived Oil Products: Development Of A Method For The Analysis Of Phytocannabinoids In Medicinal Products, Erin Johnson

Theses and Dissertations--Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences

Human interactions with cannabis have a history spanning millennia as a source of fiber, food, and medicine. The plant came across Asia, Europe, and Africa with the movements of people and travelers eventually coming to the Americas with European explorers. In colonizing North America, cannabis fiber was key to the production of canvas and ropes for ships. Although fiber was the driver for cannabis production in the United States, medicinal uses were prevalent and propelled the eventual regulations. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906 mandated accurate labeling on drugs such as cannabis followed by the Marihuana Tax Act …

Tryptophan-Like Fluorescence And Non-Point Source Pollution In Karst Basins, Inner Bluegrass Region, Kentucky, Ryan Dapkus

Theses and Dissertations--Earth and Environmental Sciences

Typically, the degree of fecal contamination of water is assessed by the concentration of thermotolerant coliforms, like E. coli. This method is time-consuming, taking > 18 hours between the start of incubation and subsequent enumeration. The current study examines the utility of monitoring tryptophan-like fluorescence (TLF) using in-situ fluorometers as a proxy for fecal contamination, particularly E. coli. Relative timing of discharge peaks and TLF peaks is considered, as well as differences in E. coli concentrations and major anion concentrations between two different basins that were monitored weekly. Results indicate that TLF is somewhat useful in the prediction of …

Magnetization Dynamics In A Modified Square Artificial Spin Ice, Amrit Kaphle

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Artificial spin ices are magnetic metamaterials consisting of nanomagnet arrays in a 2-D lattice. Typically, these nanomagnet arrays are binary macrospins that can only be in an up or down state similar to the Ising spins. They have been intensively used to study magnetic frustration and ordering phenomena in a controlled environment. The hexagonal artificial spin ice and square artificial spin ice are among the most heavily studied systems. In this dissertation, we designed a modified square artificial spin ice system by an ordered substitution of a double-segment for a nanomagnet array in the unit cell of square artificial spin …

Neutron Spectroscopy Of The Parity-Violating 0.734 Ev Neutron Resonance In Lanthanum-139 In Preparation For The Noptrex Time Reversal Violation Experiment, Danielle Schaper

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

One of the most outstanding questions in physics is the matter-antimatter asymmetry of the Universe, resulting from excess baryogenesis processes during the early moments of the formation of the Universe. At present, the types of processes needed to explain this matter excess, so-called `CP-violating processes' are known to exist within the present framework of the Standard Model of particle physics. However, decades of research has shown that our understanding of the origin of these processes is incomplete, as we do not presently know of enough sources of CP-violating processes to account for the large baryon asymmetry that we observe. The …

An Energy-Integrated Analysis For Measuring The Anomalous Precession Frequency For The Muon G − 2 Experiment At Fermilab, Laura Kelton

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

In the search for physics beyond the Standard Model, the Muon g − 2 Experiment at Fermilab (E989) will make the most precise measurement of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a_μ. Improvements in precision come from both increased statistics and new techniques to significantly reduce previous systematic uncertainties. The muon a_μ is determined by extracting both the anomalous spin precession frequency, ω_a, and the average magnetic field sampled by the muons, B. Traditionally an energy threshold analysis method which requires reconstruction of decay positrons from the muon decay, μ⁺ → e^{+ …}

Enhancements To Uniformity Of Magnetic Fields At The Sns Nedm Experiment, Ahmad Saftah

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

The nEDM experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS) aims to increase
experimental sensitivity to hadronic CP violation by nearly two orders of magnitude.To do that the nEDMSNS experiment requires an extremely uniform magnetic field to maintain ³He polarization during transit to the measurement cell. The Magnetic Shield Enclosure (MSE) coil provides the required field. However, the superconducting shield distorts the MSE field.

This thesis discusses a magnetic cloak for the nEDM@SNS experiment that can restore the MSE field uniformity and cos theta coils designed to test the magnetic cloak in the first part. The second part of this …

Extraction Of Deep Inelastic Cross Sections Using A 10.4 Gev Electron Beam And A Polarized Helium-3 Target, Murchhana Roy

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

Experiment E12-06-121 at Jefferson Lab aims to do a precision measurement of the neutron spin structure function g₂ using inclusive inelastic scattering of electrons over a large kinematic range of x and Q². The third moment of the linear combination of the spin structure functions g₁ and g₂, d₂, is one of the cleanest higher twist observables and contains information on quark-gluon correlations. It is connected to the "color polarizability" or "color Lorentz force" of the nucleon. The experimental data taking was successfully conducted in Hall C using a longitudinally polarized electron …

Milky Way Morphology Probed By 6d Astrometric Data From The Gaia Space Telescope, Joshua Taylor Harry

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

At varying height above and below the plane of the Milky Way, I have used astrometric methods to classify stars of different galactic components of the Milky Way - the thin disk, thick disk, and stellar halo. This work complements prior study of Milky Way sub-structure - notably involving number density and/or pairwise correlations - which demonstrate non-steady state effects in the galaxy, such as axial/north-south symmetry breaking or more complex phenomena like the Gaia snail. This has motivated my exploration of stellar population changes with height about the Milky Way mid-plane, and the study of symmetry in such changes …

Cryogenic Magnetic Field Monitoring System In The Sns Neutron Edm Experiment, Umit Hasan Coskun

Theses and Dissertations--Physics and Astronomy

A permanent neutron electric dipole moment (nEDM), d_n, would violate charge-conjugation and parity (CP) symmetry. The neutron electric dipole moment currently has a global limit of d_n < 1.8 x 10^-26 e cm (90% CL). This limit is intended to be improved by two orders of magnitude by the nEDM experiment at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS nEDM), d_n ~ 10^-28 e cm. The magnetic field non-uniformities within the experimental region must be precisely monitored and managed in order to suppress systematic effects in the experiment caused by magnetic field gradients. The estimation of magnetic field components within …