Digital Commons Network^™

Minds Among Minds: An Analysis Of Identity And The Self In The Hyperconnected World, Anabelle S. Bergstrom

Undergraduate Fellows' Research

Since the dawn of online environments such as social media platforms, individuals have coupled their social lives with their online presence in various formats such as through posting, commenting, following, and liking the media others publish on media outlets such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter (now known as X), TikTok, and others. The rise of the widespread use of social media in the 21st century has fueled a divide between the in-person world and the virtual world. This gap can impact not only one’s self-identity but their social identity as well. This raises an important question about human sociality in the …

Efficacy Of Phytochemicals In Inhibiting Horizontal Gene Transfer Of Antibiotic Resistance Between Multidrug Resistant Salmonella And Commensal E. Coli, Poonam Vinayamohan

Doctoral Dissertations

Bacterial antibiotic resistance (AR) imposes a huge threat to public health worldwide. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics in human medicine and animal agriculture resulted in the development of antibiotic resistant bacteria, including pathogens. Bacteria possess an inherent ability to share their genetic information by means of horizontal gene transfer (HGT), a property that favors dissemination of AR genes among neighboring bacteria. The animal gut, the reservoir of AR bacteria and AR genes, acts as a source for environmental contamination and propagation of AR through manure and water. There has been an increased incidence of AR Salmonella infections in humans in …

Speedup Techniques For Deep Neural Networks, Xia Xiao

Doctoral Dissertations

Deep neural networks (DNNs) have achieved significant success in many applications, such as computer vision, natural language processing, robots, and self-driving cars. With the growing demand for more complex real-world applications, more complicated neural networks have been proposed. However, high capacity models result in two major problems: long training times and high inference delays, making the neural networks hard to train and infeasible to deploy for time-intensive applications or resource-limited devices. In this work, we propose multiple techniques to accelerate the training and inference speed as well as model performance

The first technique we study is model parallelization on generative …

On The Semantics Of Evidentials In Southern Aymara, Gabriel A. Martinez Vera

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation addresses a number of phenomena in the semantics and syntax-semantics of evidentiality focusing on Southern Aymara within a cross-linguistic perspective. Traditionally, the literature has identified three evidentials in this language: the direct evidential enclitic =wa, the indirect evidential suffix -tay, and the reportative evidential free morpheme siwa. This dissertation concentrates on four issues in connection to these markers. The first issue I address is the association of evidentiality and focus in the same marker, namely, the direct evidential =wa. This is a topic that has been previously acknowledged (Muysken 1995; Faller 2002), but has remained unaccounted for. More …

Zinc Oxide Based Nanowire Arrays For Selective Detection Of Multiple Gaseous Analytes At Elevated Temperature, Bo Zhang

Doctoral Dissertations

Zinc oxide (ZnO) based nanostructures represent an important class of gas sensor materials, due to their high surface-to-volume ratio, significant surface band structure bending upon gaseous analyte exposures, good mobility of charge carriers, and good structural stability at elevated temperature. Their usually surface-dominant sensing processes entail the important roles played by nanostructure size, defects, morphologies, and surface absorbate energetics and dynamics. In this dissertation, based on ZnO nanowire array as a gas sensing platform, rational decoration of electronic sensitizers, such as Au nanoparticles, and semiconducting oxide, such as Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles, has been employed to boost its electrical …

Diversification Of Functionalized [13]-Macrodilactones, Chengsheng Chen

Doctoral Dissertations

Macrocycles are currently an important area of investigation in drug design and development. Macrocycles can bind target biomolecules and affect various cellular processes due to their ability to modulate their conformations and their occupation of a unique region of chemical space. Our group has worked on the synthesis, structural properties, and biological activity of a class of [13]-macrodilactones in previous studies. Their key structural components include two ester groups, an alkene, and a hinge atom.

This dissertation takes advantage of the modular approach to the synthesis of [13]-macrodilactones and parlays it for the ability to prepare numerous analogs from a …

Exclusive Phi Production Beam Spin Asymmetry Measurements With Clas12, Brandon Clary

Doctoral Dissertations

Measurements of the beam spin asymmetry (BSA) of the exclusive electroproduction of the vector phi(1020) meson through its decay into charged Kaons have been performed. The data set used was based on the RG-A run period from the recently upgraded CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS12) in Hall B at Jefferson National Lab (JLab). The run period used a 10.6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam and an unpolarized hydrogen target. The available statistics collected allow for detailed studies of the W, -t, xB, and Q2 dependencies of the BSA amplitudes from phi production. The BSA measurements will shed light on the …

Chemical Tools And Mass Spectrometry-Based Approaches For Exploring Reactivity And Selectivity Of Small Molecules In Complex Proteomes, Lei Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

The biomedical and pharmaceutical communities are experiencing a growing demand for new druggable targets. On the other hand, many marketed drugs are being repurposed for their newly uncovered pharmacological activities. In fact, off-target drug effects can either lead to adverse events or new marketable indications. As the healthcare industry moves closer toward systems biology and precision medicine, comprehensive profiling of small molecule-protein interactions has become increasingly crucial. Chemical proteomics is a powerful set of bioanalytical approaches that utilize small molecule chemical probes and affinity capture mass spectrometry to study proteome-wide actions of reactive small molecules like drugs, toxins, and metabolites. …

Repairing The Teacher Pipeline For People Of Color: Three Essays On Minority Teacher Scholarships, Jeremy Landa

Doctoral Dissertations

Despite near consensus agreement about the importance of increasing the presence of teachers of color in schools, there is limited research on how public policy can solve this problem. Drawing on federal and one university’s teacher education data, this dissertation addresses whether a Minority Teacher Scholarship (MTS) can alter the labor supply of teachers of color. The first essay evaluates whether five states implementing MTS programs increase the proportion of candidates of color earning teacher education bachelor’s degrees. Using event study and difference-in-differences frameworks, I find that implementing states stabilized the share of Black candidates relative to non-implementing states, a …

Virtual Reality Self-Modeling As An Intervention For Stuttering, Johanna M. Deleyer-Tiarks

Doctoral Dissertations

Virtual Reality Self-Modeling (VRSM) is a new self-modeling intervention. It is the coming together of two well established interventions, Video Self-Modeling (VSM) and virtual reality (VR) and can be described as using 360 degree VR videos, viewed through a VR system headset or smartphone, to depict individuals self-modeling a desired behavior. By using 360-degree video, individuals who watch VRSM interventions will be able to view themselves eliciting a desired behavior while feeling as if they immersed within the environment being watched. The distinction between traditional VR treatments and traditional Video Self-Modeling (VSM) treatments is that VRSM delivers both self-modeling and …

In-Situ Cryogenic Mechanical Characterization Of Materials At Micrometer Scales, Gyuho Song

Doctoral Dissertations

The mechanical properties of materials have been considered as one of the most important material properties for the development of mechanically reliable engineering products. Although some materials exhibit excellent material properties, such as electronic, magnetic, thermal, and optical properties, the materials cannot be usable in engineering applications if they are mechanically unstable in devices. Nowadays, nanotechnology allows us to make useful small-scale engineering devices, for instance, actuators of Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems and silicon-based electronic devices. These developments have continuously required the creation of mechanically reliable small materials that can survive during the long-term service. For the last two decades, micromechanical studies have …

Localization Of Gli1+ Expressing Cells In Adult Mouse Molars, Divya Puri

Master's Theses

Identification of the mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) population capable of giving rise to odontoblasts secreting dentin during growth (primary dentinogenesis)and repair (reparative dentinogenesis) is critical for the development of improved pulp therapy, regeneration of dentin and ultimately, the bioengineering of functional teeth. Recent lineage tracing studies have led to the identification of several new MSCs and their associated niche referred to as the neurovascular bundle, located at the apical end of the incisor. This newly identified niche contains several populations of MSCs including Gli1⁺(glioma-associated oncogene homolog 1), cells that are activated by Shh secreted by sensory nerves. Furthermore, …

Cell Phone Presence, Phubbing, And Rejection: Antecedents And Effects Of Cell Phone Usage During Face-To-Face Communication, Ryan Allred

Doctoral Dissertations

The introduction of cell phone technology continues to influence relational communication. Pilot testing sought to understand if the mere presence of a phone causes individuals to feel snubbed by their conversation partners, but failed to find a direct effect of cell phone presence on any key communication outcome. Therefore, the present two-part study explored the impact of cell phone usage (i.e., phubbing), rather than presence alone, during face-to-face communication. Utilizing interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory, study one examined the impact of phubbing on perceptions of acceptance and rejection within parent-child relationships. Then, drawing upon developmental interactionist theory, study two examined the influence …

Identifying Attentional Shifting Weaknesses And Attentional Tendencies In Children With Developmental Language Disorder: A Potential First Step To Promoting Word Learning, Yara Aljahlan

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted

Mitigation Of Air-Electrode Degradation In High-Temperature Electrochemical Systems: Capture Of Airborne Contaminants By Getters, Junsung Hong

Doctoral Dissertations

High-temperature electrochemical devices including solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have been recognized as promising candidates for next-generation devices for energy conversion, storage, and gas separation. These devices, however, remain susceptible to the electrocatalytic poisoning of air-electrodes from trace airborne contaminants such as Cr/Si/B vapors, SO₂, CO₂, and water species. The long-term exposure of air-electrodes to air flow at high operating temperatures leads to the accumulation of airborne gas impurities, and the formation of undesired compounds, degrading the electrochemical catalytic activity of air-electrodes. To date, most efforts to mitigate the electrode poisoning have focused on developing low-temperature/impurity-tolerant …

High Pressure Combustor Flame And Wall Conjugate Radiative Heat Transfer, Andressa Johnson

Master's Theses

Efficient aeronautical engines operate at higher pressure ratios and temperature, creating challenges due to higher heat loads. Thermal radiation in aviation has conventionally been treated as correction factors or scaled from experimental data. The complexity of the radiative transfer equation (RTE) leads to computational costly solutions resulting in simplified treatment. The goal of this work is to extend knowledge of non-gray gas radiation modeling to gas-turbine combustor simulations under high-pressure conditions. A one-dimensional temperature solver for combustor liners with thermal barrier coating is developed first, and a non-gray wide-band spectral model for high-pressure conditions is constructed subsequently. Both retrieve spectral …

Alcohol-Related Consequences: Factor Structure And Associations With Trait Mindfulness And Drinking Motivations, Lauren Carney

Master's Theses

Objective. This two-study project aimed to determine if motivations to use alcohol (coping and social motivations) mediate the relationship between trait mindfulness and a variety of alcohol-related consequences and to determine if the relationship between motivations to use alcohol and alcohol-related consequences is moderated by alcohol use. Study 1 determined the factor structure of positive and negative consequences of alcohol use. In Study 2, this structure served as the outcome across eight moderated mediation models. Method. For Study 1, data were obtained from 165 undergraduate students to perform exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on alcohol-related consequences. For Study 2, …

Electrospray Printing: An Advanced Technique For Processing Polymers Into Thin Films For Membrane Applications, Tulasi Ravindran

Master's Theses

This thesis deals with the scope and prospects of the novel technology for electrospray printing to process polymers for liquid filtration membrane applications. First, the ability to explore novel reaction media to tune polyamide properties was demonstrated. Aromatic polyamides for reverse osmosis membranes are made by interfacial polymerization. Conventionally, interfacial polymerization is an in situ polycondensation of a diamine and an acid chloride conducted on a porous support at the interface of two immiscible solvents. Using electrospray printing, different solvent media were used to print polyamides on to ultrafiltration support membranes. It was observed that polar protic solvents formed membranes …

Applying Transit Accessibility Metrics To Locating Affordable Housing, Robert Walsh Smith

Master's Theses

The location of affordable housing in the United States is greatly influenced by how it is funded, and current funding criteria does not make wide use of comprehensive accessibility metrics. To show the benefits of using a comprehensive metric to locate affordable housing, one such metric, the TOI, was compared with more simple measures of transit access in a case study. A qualitative assessment of the comprehensive transit metric showed improvements over a simpler measure currently used by an affordable housing program. Statistical modeling was also performed to see if the TOI could better predict whether households had adequate transit …

Human Intention Inference Using Fusion Of Gaze And Motion Information, Daniel Trombetta

Master's Theses

Enabling robots with the ability to quickly and accurately determine the intention of their human counterparts is a very important problem in Human-Robot Collaboration (HRC). The focus of this work is to provide a framework wherein multiple modalities of information, available to the robot through different sensors, are fused to estimate a human's action intent. In this thesis, two human intention estimation schemes are presented. In both cases, human intention is defined as a motion profile associated with a single goal location. The first scheme presents the first human intention estimator to fuse information from pupil tracking data as well …

Examining Dissolved Gases In A Changing Climate, Allison Staniec

Doctoral Dissertations

Changing climate scenarios predict a variety of effects across land, ocean, and atmosphere. In this dissertation the effect of several climate change related phenomena on dissolved gases in the coastal ocean and across the ocean-atmosphere interface is examined. Warming temperature, as predicted by the IPCC (2014), has direct impacts on the capacity of water to act as a reservoir for dissolved gases through its effect on their solubility (Chang, 2010). The first portion of this dissertation addresses dissolved gases in a coastal estuary, where warming is expected to be accelerated relative to the open ocean. A representative gas, oxygen, is …

Homomesy For Foatic Actions On The Symmetric Group, Elizabeth Sheridan-Rossi

Doctoral Dissertations

In this thesis, we consider two different families of maps on the symmetric group S_n, each created by intertwining a bijection of Foata with dihedral involutions on permutation matrices. Iterating each map creates a cyclic action on S_n, partitioning it into orbits. This allows us to look at statistics that have the same average value over each orbit, called homomesic. The homomesy phenomenon was first proposed by Propp and Roby in 2011, and many instances have been found across a wide range of combinatorial objects and maps.

The first family of maps involves the so-called “fundamental …

Evaluation Of Winter Weather Prediction During Extreme Snowfall Events And Analysis On Wind Gust Prediction For Non-Convective Rain And Wind Events, Michael Walters

Master's Theses

Numerical weather prediction (NWP) models are important tools used by federal agencies and the weather enterprise to inform and warn the public about extreme weather events. Snowstorm forecasts, which can be highly impactful throughout the Northeast United States, face challenges related to microphysical and initial and boundary layer processes that hinder the accuracy of forecasts. In addition, observations of mixed phase precipitation are very sparse spatially and temporally which causes an added challenge to validate predictions. This study presents an evaluation of 38 significant snowstorms and 18 rain/wind events from 2005 to 2020 using three NWP models. Each modeling system …

Galilean Invariance In Large-Eddy Simulation Of Shallow Convection, Oumaima Lamaakel

Master's Theses

In large-eddy simulations (LES) a computational-domain translation velocity can be used to improve performance by allowing longer time-step intervals. The continuous equations are Galilean invariant, however, standard finite-difference-based discretizations are not discretely invariant with the error being proportional to the product of the local translation velocity and the truncation error. Even though such numerical errors are expected to be small, it is shown that in LES of buoyant convection the turbulent large-scale flow organization can modulate and amplify the error. Galilean invariance of global flow statistics is observed in well-resolved direct numerical simulations (DNS). In LES of single-phase convection under …

Dynamic Network Configurations For Functionality And Security, Devon Callahan

Doctoral Dissertations

Networks are designed with functionality, security, performance, and cost in mind. Flows should be served while controlling risk due to attackers. Configuration is time intensive and largely static until a major new vulnerability or service requirement forces change. We address this problem with an autonomous framework consisting of Observe, Orient, Decide and Act phases and look to optimization techniques for solutions to the Orient and Decide phases.

Our first solution explores opportunities to improve network Quality of Service by combining a single flow routing solutions with a global multi-flow solution in a hybrid manner. In order to evaluate the quality …

Snap Assistance, Food Purchasing Behaviors And Dietary Patterns Among Overweight/Obese, Pregnant, Low-Income Latinas, Marta Holovatska

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

The Minor Spliceosome Regulates Alternative Splicing Of Minor Introns In Neuronal Development And Disease, Anouk M. Olthof

Doctoral Dissertations

Expression of ~2% of eukaryotic genes requires the splicing of not just one, but two types of introns: major, as well as minor, introns. These minor introns contain divergent sequences at their splice sites which are recognized by the minor spliceosome (U11, U12, U4atac, U6atac and U5). Since splicing of both intron classes occurs co-transcriptionally, expression of minor intron-containing genes (MIGs) is thought to require the coordinated action of both the major and minor spliceosome. Proper MIG expression is especially important for nervous system development, as underscored by multiple diseases linked to pathogenic variants in minor spliceosome components. To understand …

Adaptive Trust Negotiation For Time-Critical Access To Sensitive Data, Eugene Sanzi

Doctoral Dissertations

The security of an application’s data is an important consideration when creating modern applications. Users requiring secure data access undergo an explicit pre-registration process where an electronic identity (username, X.509 certificate, etc.) and a method of laying claim to the identity (password, public/private key pair, etc.) are created. The user’s authorization data is associated with the electronic identity. However, there are emergent situations where a user needs to access data where previous pre-registration is not possible because the future need for such data is unpredictable, such as an emergency room physician accessing the electronic health records (EHRs) of admitted patients. …

The Role Of Beta-Hydroxybutyrate Supplementation In A Drosophila Model Of Traumatic Brain Injury, Derek Lee

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Resolvent Estimates And Discrete Maximal Parabolic Regularity For Galerkin Finite Element Methods, Kyle Allaire

Doctoral Dissertations

We study space-time fully discrete maximal parabolic regularity for second order advection-diffusion operators. These estimates have many applications, including in the establishment of optimal a priori estimates in non Hilbert space norms. For time discretization, we use discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods that, in the simplest case of piecewise constant approximating functions, are equivalent to a modified backwards Euler time-stepping scheme. For discretization of the spatial variable, we analyze both continuous Galerkin (cG) and discontinuous Galerkin finite element methods (dG). Discontinuous Galerkin methods in space are analyzed because of our particular interest in the case where advection dominates diffusion, where …