Digital Commons Network^™

Perceptions And Experiences Of Intimate Partner Violence Among Hispanic College Students, Racquel Vera

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is recognized as a serious, growing problem on college campuses. IPV rates among college students exceed estimates reported for the general population. Few studies have examined the impact of IPV among the Hispanic college student (HCS) population or explored how HCSs perceive and experience IPV.

Focusing on young adults (ages 18 to 25 years), this mixed methods study was designed to explore the perceptions and experiences of IPV focusing on levels of victimization and perpetration in relation to gender role attitudes and beliefs, exposure to parental IPV, acculturation, and religiosity. A sample of 120 HCSs was …

The American Politics Of A Jewish Judea And Samaria, Rebekah Israel

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation poses a set of six questions about one of the Israel Lobby’s particular components, a Potential Christian Jewish coalition (PCJc) within American politics that advocates for Israeli sovereignty over “Judea and Samaria” (“the West Bank”). The study addresses: the profiles of the individuals of the PCJc; its policy positions, the issues that have divided it, and what has prevented, and continues to prevent, the coalition from being absorbed into one or more of the more formally organized components of the Israel Lobby; the resources and methods this coalition has used to attempt to influence U.S. policy on (a) …

Sonic Peace: An Antithesis To Sonic Warfare, Tatiana Maria Schnitman Espindola

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sonic Peace: An Antithesis to Sonic Warfare explores certain frequencies that have been associated with various healing qualities, and seeks to bridge the sounds of antiquity and modernity. The piece draws on numerology and symbolism and adopts a cross-cultural approach in an effort to advance a cohesive universal healing message. The text featured in the composition is original, except for the use of an ancient Japanese Shinto chant.

Accepting The Failure Of Human And State Bodies: Interactions Of Syphilis And Space In "Hamlet" And "The Knight Of The Burning Pestle", Laura E. Radford

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is, first, to explore the presence and meaning of Foucault’s heterotopia within William Shakespeare’s “Hamlet”and Beaumont and Fletcher’s “The Knight of the Burning Pestle.” The heterotopia is a privileged space of self-reflection created by individuals or societies in crisis. In each play, the presence of crisis is explained though the metaphor of syphilis; to which individual characters respond by entering the reflective space of the heterotopia in order to countenance and “cure” their afflictions. The second purpose of this thesis is to examine the ways in which the crises acted upon the stage reflect …

Modeling, Simulation, And Characterization Of Space Debris In Low-Earth Orbit, Paul D. Mccall

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Every space launch increases the overall amount of space debris. Satellites have limited awareness of nearby objects that might pose a collision hazard. Astrometric, radiometric, and thermal models for the study of space debris in low-Earth orbit have been developed. This modeled approach proposes analysis methods that provide increased Local Area Awareness for satellites in low-Earth and geostationary orbit. Local Area Awareness is defined as the ability to detect, characterize, and extract useful information regarding resident space objects as they move through the space environment surrounding a spacecraft.

The study of space debris is of critical importance to all space-faring …

The Effects Of Trained Teachers’ Integration Of Dialogic Reading Discourse On Hispanic English Language Learners’ Literacy Skills In Kindergarten, Isela S. Rodriguez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quasi-experimental Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) study explored whether the vocabulary and reading comprehension mean scores of Hispanic Kindergarten ELs whose teachers were trained to utilize Dialogic Reading (DR) discourse were higher than the mean scores of Hispanic ELs in kindergarten whose teachers were not trained to utilize DR discourse strategies. Sixty-three self-identified Hispanic, English Language Kindergarten students and four teachers participated in the study. The teachers were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (DR trained) or control group by drawing names from a hat. Student assignment to experimental versus comparison group was based on the teacher’s assignment to …

Development Of A Coupling Model For Fluid-Structure Interaction Using The Mesh-Free Finite Element Method And The Lattice Boltzmann Method, Jaime Mudrich

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the presented thesis work, the meshfree method with distance fields was coupled with the lattice Boltzmann method to obtain solutions of fluid-structure interaction problems. The thesis work involved development and implementation of numerical algorithms, data structure, and software. Numerical and computational properties of the coupling algorithm combining the meshfree method with distance fields and the lattice Boltzmann method were investigated. Convergence and accuracy of the methodology was validated by analytical solutions.

The research was focused on fluid-structure interaction solutions in complex, mesh-resistant domains as both the lattice Boltzmann method and the meshfree method with distance fields are particularly adept …

Towards The Prediction Of Mutations In Genomic Sequences, Juan Carlos Martinez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Bio-systems are inherently complex information processing systems. Furthermore, physiological complexities of biological systems limit the formation of a hypothesis in terms of behavior and the ability to test hypothesis. More importantly the identification and classification of mutation in patients are centric topics in today’s cancer research.

Next generation sequencing (NGS) technologies can provide genome-wide coverage at a single nucleotide resolution and at reasonable speed and cost. The unprecedented molecular characterization provided by NGS offers the potential for an individualized approach to treatment. These advances in cancer genomics have enabled scientists to interrogate cancer-specific genomic variants and compare them with the …

Effects Of Sex, Third Grade Reading Achievement And Motivation As Predictors Of Fourth Grade Reading Achievement Of Hispanic Students: A Path Analysis, Vivian M. Del Rio

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the topic of motivation for intermediate students combining both an objective criterion measure (i.e., standardized test scores) and the self-report of students on self-concept and value of reading. The purpose of this study was to examine how third grade reading achievement correlated with the motivation of fourth grade boys and girls, and, in turn, how motivation related to fourth grade reading achievement.

The participants were fourth grade students (n=207) attending two public, elementary schools in Miami-Dade County who were of primarily Hispanic origin or descent. Data were collected using the Reading Survey portion of the …

Roles Of Dna Base Excision Repair In Maintaining The Integrity Of Dna Methylation, Jing Zhou

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

DNA methylation and demethylation are involved in regulation of gene expression. CpG clusters have been identified as hotspots of oxidative damages and mutagenesis. DNA base excision repair can remove oxidative DNA damage on CpG clusters and mediate an active DNA demethylation pathway. In this study, we examined the molecular mechanisms underlying interactions among DNA methylation, demethylation and BER. Our results demonstrated that a single 5-methylcytosine did not exhibit a significant effect on BER. Surprisingly we found that the abasic site completely inhibited the activity of thymine DNA glycosylase (TDG) leading to the sustainment of the mismatch efficiently extended by pol …

Real-Time Qpcr Assay Development For Detection Of Bacillus Thuringiensis And Serratia Marcescens Dna And The Influence Of Complex Microbial Community Dna On Assay Sensitivity, Jonathan Segal

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time qPCR) assays are an effective technique to detect biological warfare agents and surrogate organisms. In my study, primers were designed to detect chromosomal DNA of biological warfare agent surrogates B. thuringiensis and S. marcescens (representing B. anthracis and Y. pestis, respectively) via real-time qPCR. Species-level specificity of the primers was demonstrated through comparisons with a bacterial strain panel and corroborated by qPCR data. Additionally, the primer efficacy was tested when template DNA was spiked into metagenomic DNA extracted from clinical lung microbiome samples. The results showed that while detection of B. thuringiensis or …

A Novel Signal Processing Method For Intraoperative Neurophysiological Monitoring In Spinal Surgeries, Krishnatej Vedala

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Intraoperative neurophysiologic monitoring is an integral part of spinal surgeries and involves the recording of somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEP). However, clinical application of IONM still requires anywhere between 200 to 2000 trials to obtain an SSEP signal, which is excessive and introduces a significant delay during surgery to detect a possible neurological damage. The aim of this study is to develop a means to obtain the SSEP using a much less, twelve number of recordings. The preliminary step involved was to distinguish the SSEP with the ongoing brain activity. We first establish that the brain activity is indeed quasi-stationary whereas …

Keep The Doors Open, Lauren C. Rivera

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My purpose in writing this collection of lyric essays is to examine my evolution during one decade, from age 19 to 29. Essential questions have guided me: What stimulated change? What formed my decisions? What predisposed me to my relationship with my partner? Why did I want to have a child? What kind of relationship do I have with my son? How did my relationship with my partner evolve? Why did we decide to leave Miami? Hopefully, I have given the reader a glimpse into my movement from self-centeredness to motherhood, from aloof adolescent to committed partner, from timid daughter …

The Mcsweeney's Group: Modernist Roots And Contemporary Permutations In Little Magazines, Charles J. Crespo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project centered on the influential literary magazine Timothy McSweeney’s Quarterly Concern. Using Bruno Latour’s network theory as well as the methods put forth by Robert Scholes and Clifford Wulfman to study modernist little magazines, I analyzed the influence McSweeney’s has on contemporary little magazines. I traced the connections between McSweeney’s and other paradigmatic examples of little magazines—The Believer and n+1—to show how the McSweeney’s aesthetic and business practice creates a model for more recent publications.

My thesis argued that The Believer continues McSweeney’s aesthetic mission. In contrast, n+1 positioned itself against the McSweeney’s aesthetic, which indirectly …

Development Of A Body For A Pneumatic Crawler For Radioactive Waste Pipelines, Jose Alfonso Matos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this thesis was to develop a body for a crawler robot to navigate DOE Hanford Site transfer pipelines in a timely fashion. Previous work in pipe crawlers was analyzed and different configurations were studied by this author in order to design a suitable device. Tests were done in CAD to verify the device would fit and be able to travel within the confines of the pipelines’3” inner diameter and 90° elbows with 4.25”radii. Pipelines in Hanford can transition into 2” pipe and this was also taken into consideration when selecting the dimensions for the device. Manufacturing methods …

Recreational Angler Perspectives Of Nonnative Fish Species And Mercury Advisories, Christopher J. Edwards

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The central Everglades serve as a Wildlife Management Area and as a Water Conservation Area for the Miami-Fort Lauderdale metropolitan area. It is also home to over 22 nonnative freshwater fish species and carries restrictive fish consumption guidelines for Mercury. In my study, boat anglers and canal bank anglers were personally interviewed in the field, to research their awareness and perspectives of these potential environmental and health threats. The study found 78% of anglers were aware of the presence of nonnative fish species, but favored native fish species, and that 69% were aware of mercury advisories, but did not eat …

Implementing The Surface Response To Excitation Method (Sure) With Non-Contact Sensors, Sergio R. Gonzalez Jr.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Structural health monitoring (SHM) systems generally install low cost excitation component and/or sensors to the machines or buildings permanently to monitor the health of it. Non Destructive Evaluation (NDE) systems use high cost sensors to perform the inspection of structures. It would be advantageous to inspect the some aerospace structures and parts in vacuum environment by using the remotely monitoring systems such as laser vibrometer. In this study, a scanning laser vibrometer is used to detect the location of the problem at the structure. For data collection and analysis recently, developed surface response to excitation (SuRE) method was used.

First …

Development Of An Enhanced Hydro-Geochemical Model To Address Mercury-Speciation Fate And Transport In Aquatic Environments, Nantaporn Noosai

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An awareness of mercury (Hg) contamination in various aquatic environments around the world has increased over the past decade, mostly due to its ability to concentrate in the biota. Because the presence and distribution of Hg in aquatic systems depend on many factors (e.g., pe, pH, salinity, temperature, organic and inorganic ligands, sorbents, etc.), it is crucial to understand its fate and transport in the presence of complexing constituents and natural sorbents, under those different factors. An improved understanding of the subject will support the selection of monitoring, remediation, and restoration technologies.

The coupling of equilibrium chemical reactions with transport …

Improved Dynamic Headspace Sampling And Detection Using Capillary Microextraction Of Volatiles Coupled To Gas Chromatography Mass Spectrometry, Wen Fan

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sampling and preconcentration techniques play a critical role in headspace analysis in analytical chemistry. My dissertation presents a novel sampling design, capillary microextraction of volatiles (CMV), that improves the preconcentration of volatiles and semivolatiles in a headspace with high throughput, near quantitative analysis, high recovery and unambiguous identification of compounds when coupled to mass spectrometry. The CMV devices use sol-gel polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) coated microglass fibers as the sampling/preconcentration sorbent when these fibers are stacked into open-ended capillary tubes. The design allows for dynamic headspace sampling by connecting the device to a hand-held vacuum pump. The inexpensive device can be fitted …

Operant And Respondent Procedures To Establish Social Stimuli As Reinforcers In Children With Autism, Paloma Rodriguez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

According to the DSM-IV- TR (American Psychiatric Association, 2000), one of the core deficits in autism is in the impairment of social interaction. Some have suggested that underlying these deficits is the reality that individuals with autism do not find social stimuli to be as reinforcing as other types of stimuli (Dawson, 2008). An interesting and growing body of literature supports the notion that symptoms in autism may be caused by a general reduction in social motivation (Chevallier et al., 2012). A review of the literature suggests that social orienting and social motivation are low in individuals with autism, and …

Rapid Inline Derivatization Of Primary And Secondary Amine Containing Drugs By Capillary Electrophoresis With Laser-Induced Fluorescence, Britt E. Turnquest

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the ongoing “war on drugs” the seizure rates for phenethylamines and their analogues have been steadily increasing over the years. The illicit manufacture of these compounds has become big business all over the world making it all the more attractive to the inexperienced “cook”. However, as a result, the samples produced are more susceptible to contamination with reactionary byproducts and leftover reagents. These impurities are useful in the analysis of seized drugs as their identities can help to determine the synthetic pathway used to make these drugs and thus, the provenance of these analytes. In the present work two …

Investigating The In Vitro Oxidative Folding Pathways Of Bovine Pancreatic Trypsin Inhibitor (Bpti), Yingsong Wang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The oxidative folding pathway of the disulfide containing protein bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor (BPTI) was one of the first to be elucidated and has served as a basis for understanding the folding pathways of other proteins. During the oxidative folding of reduced BPTI, two intermediates (N' and N*) accumulate in significant amounts and act as kinetic traps. Both N' and N* bury their two remaining free thiols in their hydrophobic cores, which inhibits further oxidation. Historically, the rate limiting step was considered to be the intramolecular rearrangements of N' and N* to another intermediate with two free thiols, N^{SH …}

A Generalized Adaptive Mathematical Morphological Filter For Lidar Data, Zheng Cui

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology has become the primary method to derive high-resolution Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), which are essential for studying Earth’s surface processes, such as flooding and landslides. The critical step in generating a DTM is to separate ground and non-ground measurements in a voluminous point LIDAR dataset, using a filter, because the DTM is created by interpolating ground points. As one of widely used filtering methods, the progressive morphological (PM) filter has the advantages of classifying the LIDAR data at the point level, a linear computational complexity, and preserving the geometric shapes of terrain features. …

A Common Man Trapped Inside The Queen’S Body, Alexandra Sofia Palacios

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My thesis proposes a feminist-queer reading of Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene in response to Julian Wolfreys’ “The ‘Endlesse Worke’ of Transgression”.

I examine the challenges to male authority that the low-born poet, Spenser, faced when he presented his manual for the formation of new English subjects to his sovereign queen, Elizabeth I. The Prefatory Letter to Raleigh and passages from the 1590 version of the epic provide evidence to support the view that traditional hierarchical male/female binaries may have been destabilized by the presence of an unmarried queen. My thesis also supplements Wolfreys’ essay with historical information regarding Mary …

Xpswmm Analysis Of The Ornl Stormwater Collection System Up To Outfall 211, Heidi Belle Henderson

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, was the site for a number of US Government projects during the 1940s and 1950s including the development of thermonuclear weapons. Chemical processes conducted at the site as part of these projects resulted in contamination of certain building areas at the ORNL. The purpose of this study is to develop a hydraulic-hydrologic computer model via XPSWMM to determine surface water flow rates and water stages within the drainage system during rainfall events and introduce a conservative contaminant into the system to trace peak concentrations of contaminants.

The model was calibrated by simulating actual rainfall …

Traces Of The Dark Sublime In William Faulkner's "The Bear," Light In August, And Absalom, Absalom!, Manuel Delgadillo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore William Faulkner’s paradoxical modernist aesthetic. While his writings evince primal, earthy, and post-Civil War angst-ridden qualities, Faulkner’s narratives are also found to be hyper-postmodern. Using Jacques Derrida’s theories on the absent-present trace, I will show how certain micromoments in three of Faulkner’s texts showcase the “trace” forming a pathway to the inaccessible and unattainable sublime. I will use “trace” and general theories of the “sublime” as methodological tools to explore Faulkner’s narrative of pastoral loss, the cultural institutionalization of racial differences, as well as structures of mourning/melancholia that lead to the disruption …

Network Construction And Graph Theoretical Analysis Of Functional Language Networks In Pediatric Epilepsy, Anas Salah Eddin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation introduces a new approach for assessing the effects of pediatric epilepsy on the language connectome. Two novel data-driven network construction approaches are presented. These methods rely on connecting different brain regions using either extent or intensity of language related activations as identified by independent component analysis of fMRI data. An auditory description decision task (ADDT) paradigm was used to activate the language network for 29 patients and 30 controls recruited from three major pediatric hospitals. Empirical evaluations illustrated that pediatric epilepsy can cause, or is associated with, a network efficiency reduction. Patients showed a propensity to inefficiently employ …

The Investigation Of Photocatalysts And Iron Based Materials In The Oxidation And The Adsorption Of Toxic Organic And Chromium Materials, Wenjun Jiang

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The presences of heavy metals, organic contaminants and natural toxins in natural water bodies pose a serious threat to the environment and the health of living organisms. Therefore, there is a critical need to identify sustainable and environmentally friendly water treatment processes. In this dissertation, I focus on the fundamental studies of advanced oxidation processes and magnetic nano-materials as promising new technologies for water treatments.

Advanced oxidation processes employ reactive oxygen species (ROS) which can lead to the mineralization of a number of pollutants and toxins. The rates of formation, steady-state concentrations, and kinetic parameters of hydroxyl radical and singlet …

Soil Building Processes In Reconstructed Tree Islands In The Everglades, Florida, Andres F. Rodriguez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil building processes were studied in reconstructed tree islands in the Loxahatchee Impoundment Landscape Assessment, Florida. Soil building was evaluated by measuring litter production, litter decomposition, soil accretion, and changes in soil elevation under different hydrologic conditions, and by determining physicochemical characteristics of newly accreted soils. Tree islands showed higher litter production and soil accretion but a larger loss of soil elevation caused by subsidence at higher elevations and shorter inundation periods. Newly accreted soils exhibited higher nutrient concentrations, and organic matter (OM) than older soils. Most of the soil phosphorus was stored in the organic fraction. A positive correlation …

The Dark Side Of Globalization: The Transnationalization Of Garrisons In The Case Of Jamaica, Michelle Angela Munroe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The current study is concerned with the role that transnational criminal organizations play in the ability of a small country, such as Jamaica, to govern itself effectively. Jamaica is identified as a major producer and distributor of cannabis, since the 1970s, and today plays an active role in other established illicit markets for cocaine and illegal weapons. Despite a long-term and continued involvement in U.S. funded drug trafficking and counterdrug programs, and the establishment of several anti-crime organizations within the country, Jamaica’s successes have been marginal. The current study attempts to examine first, how criminal groups located within the garrisons …