Digital Commons Network^™

Quantification, Misc., Jan Anderssen

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates various topics concerning the interpretation of determiner phrases and their connection to individual entities. The first chapter looks at a phenomenon called telescoping, in which a quantificational expression appears to bind a pronominal form across sentence boundaries, at odds with commonly assumed and well motivated constraints on binding. I investigate the limited circumstances under which telescoping is available and argue that the mechanism that makes it available should respect said locality constraints. In particular, I argue that the impression of co-variation arises not because of binding by the initial quantificational expression, but because an of independent, albeit …

Effect Of Side Chains On Organic Donor (D) And Acceptor (A) Complexes And Photophysical Properties Of D-A Dyads, Amarnath Bheemaraju

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation aims to understand the effect of incompatible side chains on the complexes of pi-conjugated electron-rich donors and electron-deficient acceptors in solution. The role of incompatible side chains were studied in simple mixtures of organic donor and acceptor molecules that form donor-acceptor complexes. The incompatible branched and linear alkane side chains on the acceptor and donor respectively prevented complex formation between naphthalene diimide acceptor and naphthalene ether donor. However, the incompatible hydrocarbon-fluorocarbon and polar-non polar side chain pairs did not affect complex formation between the donor and acceptor. In quaterthiophene-naphthalene diimide dyads, the incompatibility of the side chain on …

Effect Of Color Overlays On Reading Efficiency, Rhonda Morrison

Open Access Dissertations

Reading is a skill that unlocks the doors of learning and success. It is commonly accepted that reading is a foundational skill that plays a major role in a child's academic success. The history of teaching reading includes many theories about the development of reading, the source of reading difficulties, and interventions for remediation. A large body of research has demonstrated that reading difficulties stem from a phonological basis and interventions that target this area are generally beneficial in helping improving reading skills (National Reading Panel, 2000; Shaywitz, 2003; Stanovich, 1986). However, there are some who even with extensive intervention …

Social Meanings Of Mortality: The Language Of Death And Disease In 19th Century Massachusetts, Jeffrey Keith Beemer

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the emergence and development of cause-of-death registration in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. I examine the historical, demographic, sociopolitical, and theoretical conditions that gave rise to the first state-implemented cause-of-death registration system in the United States, Massachusetts's vital registration system. Developments in almost every arena of social life during the nineteenth century were shaped in some fashion through disease. The disease ecology changed dramatically during this period shifting from acute infectious to chronic degenerative diseases, which marked the beginning of the epidemiological transition. Registration systems were key components in this transitional period, providing the raw data on which nineteenth-century public …

Query-Dependent Selection Of Retrieval Alternatives, Niranjan Balasubramanian

Open Access Dissertations

The main goal of this thesis is to investigate query-dependent selection of retrieval alternatives for Information Retrieval (IR) systems. Retrieval alternatives include choices in representing queries (query representations), and choices in methods used for scoring documents. For example, an IR system can represent a user query without any modification, automatically expand it to include more terms, or reduce it by dropping some terms. The main motivation for this work is that no single query representation or retrieval model performs the best for all queries. This suggests that selecting the best representation or retrieval model for each query can yield improved …

Queue Length Based Pacing Of Internet Traffic, Cai Yan

Open Access Dissertations

As the Internet evolves, there is a continued demand for high Internet bandwidth. This demand is driven partly by the widely spreading real-time video applications, such as on-line gaming, teleconference, high-definition video streaming. All-optical switches and routers have long been studied as a promising solution to the rapidly growing demand. Nevertheless, buffer sizes in all-optical switches and routers are very limited due to the challenges in manufacturing larger optical buffers. On the other hand, Internet traffic is bursty. The existence of burstiness in network traffic has been shown at all time scales, from tens of milliseconds to thousands of seconds. …

Fifth-Grade Students' Tactical Understanding, Decision-Making And Transfer Of Knowledge In A Tactical Games Model Net/Wall Sampling Unit, Heidi Renee Bohler

Open Access Dissertations

The Tactical Games Model (TGM) is an instructional model in which the primary assumption is to facilitate students' tactical understanding of games (i.e., response-selection and execution processes). Additionally, there is speculation that tactical understanding of one game transfers to other tactically similar games (Mitchell, Oslin & Griffin, 2006, p. 20). Limited research has been conducted regarding student response selection processes, problem representations, knowledge base development, or transfer of learning in this model. Griffin and Patton (2005) called for examination of TGM through an information processing lens. Examining action, condition, and goal responses of novice physical education students could provide significant …

Phase Behavior Of Block Copolymers In Compressed Co2 And As Single Domain-Layer, Nanolithographic Etch Resists For Sub-10 Nm Pattern Transfer, Curran Matthew Chandler

Open Access Dissertations

Diblock copolymers have many interesting properties, which first and foremost include their ability to self-assemble into various ordered, regularly spaced domains with nanometer-scale feature sizes. The work in this dissertation can be logically divided into two parts - the first and the majority of this work describes the phase behavior of certain block copolymer systems, and the second discusses real applications possible with block copolymer templates. Many compressible fluids have solvent-like properties dependent on fluid pressure and can be used as processing aids similar to liquid solvents. Here, compressed CO₂ was shown to swell several thin homopolymer films, including …

The Role Of Prompts As Focus On Form On Uptake, Brian Bates Boisvert

Open Access Dissertations

Students are human beings; they, like all of us, make mistakes. In the language classroom, these mistakes may be written, spoken, and even thought. How, if, when, under what conditions and to what degree these errors are treated is of current concern in research regarding language acquisition. In their meta-analysis of interactional feedback, Mackey and Goo (2007) report that the utilization of feedback is beneficial and find evidence that feedback within the context of a focus on form environment is also facilitative of acquisition, echoing Norris and Ortega's (2000) positive findings regarding focus on form research. Thus, the role of …

Computational Affect Detection For Education And Health, David G. Cooper

Open Access Dissertations

Emotional intelligence has a prominent role in education, health care, and day to day interaction. With the increasing use of computer technology, computers are interacting with more and more individuals. This interaction provides an opportunity to increase knowledge about human emotion for human consumption, well-being, and improved computer adaptation. This thesis explores the efficacy of using up to four different sensors in three domains for computational affect detection. We first consider computer-based education, where a collection of four sensors is used to detect student emotions relevant to learning, such as frustration, confidence, excitement and interest while students use a computer …

Micronutrient Intake And Premenstrual Syndrome, Patricia O. Chocano-Bedoya

Open Access Dissertations

Premenstrual syndrome (PMS) is characterized by the presence of physical and psychological symptoms restricted to the late luteal phase of the menstrual cycle and associated with substantial impairment in life activities. In the U.S. about 8 to 15% of women of reproductive age suffer from PMS. Many micronutrients are potentially involved in the development of this disorder due to their role in the synthesis of neurotransmitters and hormones or in their regulation, but few previous studies have evaluated the effects of micronutrients on PMS. The first study examined the association between B vitamin intakes, and PMS development among women participating …

Attention To Television In Preschoolers Who Exhibit Adhd Symptoms: An Erp Investigation, Lindsay B. Demers

Open Access Dissertations

Children with ADHD suffer from low and high order attention deficits. Work by E.P. Lorch and colleagues shows that these attention deficits affect televised narrative comprehension. The purpose of this research was to determine the extent to which the televised narrative comprehension deficits are the result of an inability to inhibit processing of irrelevant information. To achieve this, data were collected from 16 healthy adults and 37 preschool age children who varied in their ADHD symptoms. Participants were instructed to attend to one of two simultaneously presented audio tracks from children's television shows. For all participants the video that matched …

Electrostatic Effects In Aggregation Of Crystallin Proteins, Deniz Elizabeth Civay

Open Access Dissertations

The three projects utilized polymer physics theories to investigate polymer aggregation mechanics. Dynamic light scattering (DLS), static light scattering (SLS) and small angle light scattering (SALS) were the primary characterization tools. The goal of the first project was to study the aggregation of bovine βL-crystallin and apply that knowledge towards cataract formation, which is caused by aggregation of the crystallins. The first series of experiments characterized the kinetics of α-crystallin and βL-crystallin in water at room temperature. α-crystallin’s equilibrium hydrodynamic radius value was kinetically independent. βL-crystallin formed an aggregate with an Rh that was kinetically dependent. The packing structure of …

Subjects Of Scale / Spaces Of Possibility: Producing Co-Operative Space In Theory And Enterprise, Janelle Terese Cornwell

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation addresses key questions raised in Human Geography and Economic Geography concerning scale and the production of space, alternative economic geographies and co-operative economic development. It is the product of a five year ethnographic investigation with co-operative enterprises in Western Massachusetts and the broader Connecticut River Valley of Western New England. It explores neglected questions about how subjects are producing co-operative economic identities, enterprises and development strategies amid capitalist cultural dominance; and how structural, financial and governmental aspects of their enterprises participate in cultivating the desire and capacity to expand co-operative space. In line with poststructuralist feminist perspectives within …

Identity And The Limits Of Possibility, Sam Cowling

Open Access Dissertations

Possibilities divide into two kinds. Non-qualitative possibilities are distinguished by their connection to specific individuals. For example, the possibility that Napoleon is a novelist is non-qualitative, since it is a possibility for a specific individual, Napoleon. In contrast, the possibility that someone---anyone at all---is a novelist is a qualitative possibility, since it does not depend upon any specific individual. Haecceitism is a thesis about the relation between qualitative and non-qualitative possibilities. In one guise, it holds that some maximal possibilities---total ways the world could be---differ non-qualitatively without differing qualitatively. It would, for example, be only a haecceitistic difference that distinguishes …

Generalized Expectation Criteria For Lightly Supervised Learning, Gregory Druck

Open Access Dissertations

Machine learning has facilitated many recent advances in natural language processing and information extraction. Unfortunately, most machine learning methods rely on costly labeled data, which impedes their application to new problems. Even in the absence of labeled data we often have a wealth of prior knowledge about these problems. For example, we may know which labels particular words are likely to indicate for a sequence labeling task, or we may have linguistic knowledge suggesting probable dependencies for syntactic analysis. This thesis focuses on incorporating such prior knowledge into learning, with the goal of reducing annotation effort for information extraction and …

"Whether Writers Themselves Have Been Changed": A Test Of The Values Driving Writing Center Work, Michelle Deal

Open Access Dissertations

This project questions a core value that writing center workers have long held about tutoring writing: that we change writers. Applying sociocognitive and Bakhtinian lenses, I was able to complicate theory-practice connections. Tutor-tutee negotiations during tutorials, tutees' perceived learning outcomes, and their revisions were compared with their reasons for revising so that I could investigate what tutees potentially learn from their tutors, how, and why. Data indicated if tutors' information/advice became, in Bakhtin's terms, internally persuasive to tutees. When the authoritative discourses tutors represent or endorse converge with students' internally persuasive discourses, they converge in students' revision choices as tutor-tutee …

Cellular And Molecular Changes Following Skeletal Muscle Damage: A Role For Nf-Kb And Muscle Resident Pericytes, Robert H. Hyldahl

Open Access Dissertations

Skeletal muscle is dynamic and actively regenerates following damage or altered functional demand. Regeneration is essential for the maintenance of muscle mass and, when dysregulated as a result of disease or aging, can lead to losses in functional capacity and increased mortality. Limited data exist on the molecular mechanisms that govern skeletal muscle regeneration in humans. Therefore, the overall objective of this dissertation was to characterize early molecular alterations in human skeletal muscle to strenuous exercise known to induce a muscle regenerative response. Thirty-five subjects completed 100 eccentric (muscle lengthening) contractions (EC) of the knee extensors with one leg and …

Reclaiming America For Christian Reconstruction: The Rhetorical Constitution Of A "People", Joanna L. Brook

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the rhetorical constitution of a religio-political social collective which has come to be understood as Christian Reconstruction (CR). CR is guided by conservative Calvinism (Reformed theology) and upholds the ideas of theonomy, postmillennialism, and presuppositional apologetics. Some of the leaders associated with CR are R. J. Rushdoony, Gary North, Gary DeMar of American Vision and Doug Phillips of Vision Forum. A few of its key practices are homeschooling, the father ‘returning home,’ and having as many children ‘as God will allow,’ (a vision aligned with the Quiverfull movement). It is primarily a national movement within the United …

Tree-Based Methods And A Mixed Ridge Estimator For Analyzing Longitudinal Data With Correlated Predictors, Melissa Nicole Eliot

Open Access Dissertations

Due to recent advances in technology that facilitate acquisition of multi-parameter defined phenotypes, new opportunities have arisen for predicting patient outcomes based on individual specific cell subset changes. The data resulting from these trials can be a challenge to analyze, as predictors may be highly correlated with each other or related to outcome within levels of other predictor variables. As a result, applying traditional methods like simple linear models and univariate approaches such as odds ratios may be insufficient. In this dissertation, we describe potential solutions including tree-based methods, ridge regression, mixed modeling, and a new estimator called a mixed …

Three Essays On Hedge Fund Fee Structure, Return Smoothing And Gross Performance, Shuang Feng

Open Access Dissertations

Hedge funds feature special compensation structure compared to traditional investments. Previous studies mainly focus on the provisions and incentive structure of hedge fund contract, such as 2/20, hurdle rates, and high-water mark. The first essay develops an algorithm to empirically estimate the monthly fees, fund flows and gross asset values of individual hedge funds. We find that management fee is a major component in the dollar amount of hedge fund total fees, and fund flow is more important in determining the change in fund size compared to net returns, especially when fund is shrinking in size. We also find that …

Measurements Of Gravity Driven Granular Channel Flows, Kevin Facto

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation presents experiments that studied two gravity driven granular channel flows. The first experiment used magnetic resonance imaging to measure the density and displacement distributions of poppy seeds flowing in a rough walled channel. Time-averaged measurements of normalized velocity and density showed little flow speed dependence. Instantaneous measurements, however, showed marked velocity dependence in the displacement distributions. There was evidence of aperiodic starting and stopping at lower flow speeds and the onset of density waves on a continuous flow at higher speeds. The second experiment measured forces in all three spatial directions at the boundary of a flow of …

Aspects Of Network Formation And Property Evolution In Glassy Polymer Networks, Andrew Thomas Detwiler

Open Access Dissertations

Experimental and theoretical characterization techniques are developed to illuminate relationships between molecular architecture, processing strategies, and physical properties of several model epoxy-amine systems. Just beyond the gel point partially cured networks are internally antiplasticized by unreacted epoxy and amine which leads to enhanced local chain packing and strain localization during deformation processes. Additional curing causes the antiplasticization to be removed, resulting in lower modulus, density, yield stress, and less strain localization. Physical and mechanical probes of network formation are discussed with respect to several different partially cured model epoxy-amine chemistries. The non-linear fracture energy release rate and the molecular architecture …

Organic Photovoltaics Based On P3ht/Pcbm: Correlating Efficiency And Morphology, Dian Chen

Open Access Dissertations

Controlling the morphology of thin films is key in optimizing the efficiency of polymer-based photovoltaic (PV) devices. The morphology and interfacial behavior of the multicomponent active layers confined between electrodes are strongly influenced by the preparation conditions. Results obtained in this work quantitatively show the photovoltaic device performance is strongly affected by the nanoscopic morphology, crystal orientation, composition distribution and the interdiffusion behavior of the photoactive layer. To better understand the physics of the photoactive layer in the organic photovoltaic devices, it is necessary to gain a quantitative understanding of the morphology and the manner in which it develops. A …

Role Of Strongly Interacting Additives In Tuning The Structure And Properties Of Polymer Systems, Vikram Kumar Daga

Open Access Dissertations

Block copolymer (BCP) nanocomposites are an important class of hybrid materials in which the BCP guides the spatial location and the periodic assembly of the additives. High loadings of well-dispersed nanofillers are generally important for many applications including mechanical reinforcing of polymers. In particular the composites shown in this work might find use as etch masks in nanolithography, or for enabling various phase selective reactions for new materials development. This work explores the use of hydrogen bonding interactions between various additives (such as homopolymers and non-polymeric additives) and small, disordered BCPs to cause the formation of well-ordered morphologies with small …

Three Essays On Hedge Fund Fee Contracts, Managerial Incentives And Risk Taking Behaviors, Gong Zhan

Open Access Dissertations

Essay One

Under the principal-agent framework, we study and compare different compensation schemes commonly adopted by hedge fund and mutual fund managers. We find that the option-like performance fee structure prevalent among hedge funds is suboptimal to the symmetric performance fee structure. However, the use of high water mark (HWM) mitigates the suboptimality, though to a very limited extent. Bothour theoretical models and simulation results show that HWM will induce more managerial efforts only when a fund is slightly under the water but it will unfavorably dampen incentives when a fund is too deep under the water and when the …

Writing The Local-Global: An Ethnography Of Friction And Negotiation In An English-Using Indonesian Ph.D. Program, Amber Engelson

Open Access Dissertations

Suresh Canagarajah, John Trimbur, Bruce Horner, and others argue that U.S. scholars must begin imagining their academic institutions as part of larger global English conversations, which would involve expanding Western perceptions of "good writing" to allow for the cultural and ideological differences implied by the term "global." Horner and Trimbur, for instance, urge compositionists to take an "internationalist perspective" to writing instruction, to ask, "whose English and whose interests it serves" in relation to the "dynamics of globalization" (624). To better understand what it means to write internationally in English, I conducted ethnographic research at the Indonesian Consortium for Religious …

Spatial Evolutionary Game Theory: Deterministic Approximations, Decompositions, And Hierarchical Multi-Scale Models, Sung-Ha Hwang

Open Access Dissertations

Evolutionary game theory has recently emerged as a key paradigm in various behavioral science disciplines. In particular it provides powerful tools and a conceptual framework for the analysis of the time evolution of strategic interdependence among players and its consequences, especially when the players are spatially distributed and linked in a complex social network. We develop various evolutionary game models, analyze these models using appropriate techniques, and study their applications to complex phenomena. In the second chapter, we derive integro-differential equations as deterministic approximations of the microscopic updating stochastic processes. These generalize the known mean-field ordinary differential equations and provide …

Selective Inhibition And Mechanistic Studies Of The Human O2 Sensor, Prolyl Hydroxylase Domain 2 (Phd2), Shannon Coates Flagg

Open Access Dissertations

Prolyl Hydroxylase Domain 2 (PHD2) has been identified as a key oxygen sensor in humans along with Factor Inhibiting Hypoxia Inducible Factor (FIH). As such PHD2 and FIH play critical roles in myriad pathways of medical relevance by hydroxylation of their target substrate hypoxia inducible factor (HIF), a transcription factor responsible for the regulation of over 100+ genes. With such critical roles in human physiology the ability to selectively regulate these two enzymes could potentially lead the way for novel therapeutic treatments of a vast array of disease states from cancer to myocardial infarction. We report on three classes of …

Clock Generation And Distribution For Enhancing Immunity To Power Supply Noise, Jinwook Jang

Open Access Dissertations

Clock generation and distribution are getting difficult due to increased die size and increased number of cores in a microprocessor. Clock frequencies of microprocessors have been increased and expected to trend 4GHz in near future. This increased clock frequency requires to limit the clock skew and jitter to 5~10% of clock frequency, which is 12.5~25ps. On top of this, non-ideal power supply behavior (supply droops) is worsening available timing margin to the critical paths. This dissertation presents three types of interrelated works: 1) analytical modeling of period jitter of global clock distribution induced by power supply droop, 2) circuit design …