Digital Commons Network^™

A Locomotion Control Algorithm For Robotic Linkage Systems, Jeffrey L. Dohner Dr.

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This dissertation describes the development of a control algorithm that transitions a robotic linkage system between stabilized states producing responsive locomotion. The developed algorithm is demonstrated using a simple robotic construction consisting of a few links with actuation and sensing at each joint. Numerical and experimental validation is presented. In this algorithm, transitioning excitations, called rhythms, are formulated using terminal state control solutions. Rhythms are constrained to be low order parameterized functions allowing for the optimal control problem to be replaced by a parametric optimization problem with a limited set of easily solved unknowns. This algorithm is developed and demonstrated …

A Cognitive Approach To Phonology: Evidence From Signed Languages, Corrine Occhino

Linguistics ETDs

This dissertation uses corpus data from ASL and Libras (Brazilian Sign Language), to investigate the distribution of a series of static and dynamic handshapes across the two languages. While traditional phonological frameworks argue handshape distribution to be a facet of well-formedness constraints and articulatory ease (Brentari, 1998), the data analyzed here suggests that the majority of handshapes cluster around schematic form-meaning mappings. Furthermore, these schematic mappings are shown to be motivated by both language-internal and language-external construals of formal articulatory properties and embodied experiential gestalts.

Usage-based approaches to phonology (Bybee, 2001) and cognitively oriented constructional approaches (Langacker, 1987) have recognized …

Novel Concepts In Semiconductor Disk Lasers, Zhou Yang

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Optically-pumped semiconductor disk lasers (SDLs) have received much attention in recent years for a myriad of applications requiring intracavity access, good beam quality, wavelength versatility, and high output powers. The traditional scheme of these lasers feature a semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) integrated with the active region, together forming an active mirror in an external free-space cavity. The active mirror component is fabricated by either epitaxial growth or post-growth processing. This places certain restrictions on SDL design, as material system choices become limited. It further viii hinders laser performance with regard to its thermal management and laser bandwidth (tuning range). …

Curricular Analytics In Higher Education, Ahmad Slim 3589498

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The dissertation addresses different aspects of student success in higher education. Numerous factors may impact a student's ability to succeed and ultimately graduate, including pre-university preparation, as well as the student support services provided by a university. However, even the best efforts to improve in these areas may fail if other institutional factors overwhelm their ability to facilitate student progress. This dissertation addresses this issue from the perspective of curriculum structure. The structural properties of individual curricula are studied, and the extent to which this structure impacts student progress is explored. The structure of curricula are studied using actual university …

What Affects Parents’ Choice Of Milk? An Application Of Bayesian Model Averaging, Yingzhe Cheng

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

This study identifies the factors that influence parents’ choice of milk for their children, using data from a unique survey administered in 2013 in Hunan province, China. In this survey, we identified two brands of milk, which differ in their prices and safety claims by the producer. Data were collected on parents’ choice of milk between the two brands, demographics, attitude towards food safety and behaviors related to food. Stepwise model selection and Bayesian model averaging (BMA) are used to search for influential factors. The two approaches consistently select the same factors suggested by an economic theoretical model, including price …

African Dreams Of America: Diaspora Experience In The Writing Of Aidoo, Adichie And Cole, Gbenga Olorunsiwa

American Studies ETDs

This study explores four African diasporic texts against a backdrop of the African dream of America, diasporic experience, post-colonialism and racism in the U.S. as portrayed in the writings of Ama Ata Aidoo’s The Dilemma of a Ghost (1971), Chimamanda Adichie’s Americanah (2014), and Teju Cole’s Open City (2012) and Every Day Is for the Thief (2014). I argue that the African dream of America is different but also exemplary of the American experience and therefore a privileged lens for understanding “America.” During the course of this research project, I found that while the writings of Adichie and Aidoo are …

On Frequency Variation Of Dynamic Resting-State Functional Brain Network Activation And Connectivity With Applications To Both Healthy And Clinical Populations, Maziar Yaesoubi

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

One of the earliest and fundamental observation in scientific study of the brain was discovering the relation between activities in different local regions of brain and some core functions of the brain. This was later followed by observing that not only local activities of regions but also synchronous activities between distributed brain regions play a key role in high-level brain functions. Synchronous activity related to the functions of the brain is commonly referred to as functional connectivity (FC) and is studied in the form of connectivity states of the brain which measure degree of interactions between distributed parts of the …

Using Brain Stimulation To Enhance Working Memory: A Charged Topic, Michael Christopher Stefan Trumbo

Psychology ETDs

Although working memory (WM) training programs consistently result in improvement on the trained task, benefit is typically short-lived and extends only to tasks very similar to the trained task. Pairing repeated performance of a WM task with brain stimulation may encourage plasticity in brain networks involved in WM task performance, thereby improving the training benefit. In the current study, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was paired with performance of a WM task. In Experiment 1, participants performed a spatial location-monitoring n-back during stimulation, while Experiment 2 used a verbal identity-monitoring n-back. In each experiment, participants received either active (2.0 mA) …

Essays On Risky Health Behavior, Bern Dealy

Economics ETDs

Risky health behaviors including substance abuse and risky sex are a significant contributor to chronic illness in the US. Efficient use of public resources to avert or mitigate the consequences of risky health behaviors requires a better understanding of the overall costs of risky health behavior to society. Additionally, a better understanding of the value and behavioral consequences of programs designed to mitigate the consequences of risky health behavior is needed. This dissertation utilizes a number of unique methodological and empirical tools to examine the consequences of risky sex and drug abuse and the value of policies which seek to …

Britain And The Anglo-Saxons In Late Antiquity, Todd Morrison

History ETDs

This thesis concerns the final century of Roman Britain, the continental origins of its medieval Germanic invaders, and the socio-political situation in sub-Roman Britain in the fifth and sixth centuries. Multiple issues are discussed in each of these three broad areas, including the effects of the Diocletian Reforms on Britain, fourth-century urban decay, the first-century origins of the Saxons among the piratical Chauci tribe, and the continued existence of Roman institutions in Britain into the early Middle Ages. Furthermore, the reasons the Anglo-Saxons did not assimilate into Roman culture like their counterparts on the continent, making medieval England an essentially …

Efficient And Robust Methods For Quantum Tomography, Charles Baldwin

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

The development of large-scale platforms that implement quantum information processing protocols requires new methods for verification and validation of quantum behavior. Quantum tomography (QT) is the standard tool for diagnosing quantum states, process, and readout devices by providing complete information about each. However, QT is limited since it is expensive to not only implement experimentally, but also requires heavy classical post-processing of experimental data. In this dissertation, we introduce new methods for QT that are more efficient to implement and robust to noise and errors, thereby making QT a more widely practical tool for current quantum information experiments. The crucial …

An Ionization Chamber For High Resolution Fission Product Spectroscopy, James Cole

Nuclear Engineering ETDs

The fission process has played a vital role in the world’s search for effective sources of alternative energy. With almost 80 years of work with fissionable material there is still much that is unknown about the process. Fission fragment mass and atomic number distributions are still lacking in completeness and critical detail. Knowledge of this information is highly sought after in the effort to improve various fields of nuclear physics and engineering such as reactor design, predictive models, waste disposal methods, and an overall understanding of the fission process. In an effort to better understand this process, we have developed …

A Visual Velocity Impedance Controller, Victor Nevarez

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Successful object insertion systems allow the object to translate and rotate to accommodate contact forces. Compliant controllers are used in robotics to provide this accommodation. The impedance compliant controller is one of the more researched and well known compliant controllers used for assembly. The velocity filtered visual impedance controller is introduced as a compliant controller to improve upon the impedance controller. The velocity filtered impedance controller introduces a filter of the velocity impedance and a gain from the stiffness. The velocity impedance controller was found to be more stable over larger ranges of stiffness values than the position based impedance …

Exploring The Experience Of Foster Parents As They Care For Children Who Are Making The Transition From The Hospital Into The Foster Home, Maximilian Veltman

Nursing ETDs

This study explored the perceptions foster parents have about their work as caregivers of foster children who are hospitalized and then discharged from the hospital into a foster home. The numbers of children in foster care nationwide has decreased over the past 25 years, yet the proportion of children in foster care who have significant health conditions has increased dramatically (Wang, Edelstein, Waldinger, Lee & Bath, 2011). There has also been significant attrition of qualified foster parents who are able to care for foster children with significant health needs (Pecora, Whittaker, Maluccio, Barth & DePanfilis, 2009; Vig, Chinitz & Shulman, …

Drag And Shape Analysis Of Fiberglass Particles, Cody Williams

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Settling tests were performed on particles of NUKON fiberglass to relate the drag coefficient of the particles to the Reynolds number of the particles. A new method was developed to measure fiberglass particles. The projected area, projected perimeter, and average height of the particles are measured using this method. The measurements are used to calculate the measured drag coefficient and measured Reynolds number for the particles. Data collected was compared to previous studies that focused on the settling of sand grains. A predictive correlation that was developed for sand grains was applied towards the particles of fiberglass. Tests were run …

Mitigating The Impacts Of Human Land-Use Change On Biodiversity: With A Focus On Large Migratory Herbivores, Kina Rebekah Murphy

Biology ETDs

Land-use change, commercial over-harvesting of species, and climate change are recognized as the main drivers of biodiversity loss. As a result, it is estimated that 30% of the planet’s biodiversity may go extinct by 2050. This dissertation focuses on how to mitigate the impacts of land-use change on biodiversity. I focus on large migratory herbivores because they are among the most heavily impacted by global change due to their large home range requirements. Habitat fragmentation, illegal hunting, and human-wildlife conflicts are among the biggest threats to large herbivores and result from land-use change. For this reason, my first chapter focuses …

Impacts Of Long-Term Precipitation Manipulation On Hydraulic Architecture, Xylem Function, And Canopy Status In A Piñon-Juniper Woodland, Patrick J. Hudson

Biology ETDs

The Southwestern US is predicted to become hotter and drier, as global climate change forces increasing temperatures and variability in timing and size of precipitation inputs. Drought stress has become more frequent in recent decades, and resulted in massive forest mortality in piñon-juniper woodlands. During recent severe droughts (2000-2003, 2009-2012), piñon pine (Pinus edulis Englem.) suffered disproportionately high mortality compared to co-occurring one-seed juniper (Juniperus monosperma [Engelm.] Sarg.). A large-scale precipitation manipulation experiment was established in a piñon-juniper woodland in central New Mexico to test hypotheses regarding tree survival and mortality with respect to altered water regimes. Our …

Mechanistic Plug-And-Play Models For Understanding The Impact Of Control And Climate On Seasonal Dengue Dynamics In Iquitos, Peru, Nathan Levick

Mathematics & Statistics ETDs

Dengue virus is a mosquito-borne multi-serotype disease whose dynamics are not precisely understood despite half of the world’s human population being at risk of infection. A recent dataset of dengue case reports from an isolated Amazonian city— Iquitos, Peru—provides a unique opportunity to assess dengue dynamics in a simpli- fied setting. Ten years of clinical surveillance data reveal a specific pattern: two novel serotypes, in turn, invaded and exclusively dominated incidence over several seasonal cycles, despite limited intra-annual variation in climate conditions. Together with mechanistic mathematical models, these data can provide an improved understand- ing of the nonlinear interactions between …

Input Parameters In Discrete Element Modeling, Seyedali Yousefi

Civil Engineering ETDs

The discrete element method (DEM) is employed to study complex behaviors of particulate media. Input parameters may greatly affect the response of DEM models and should therefore be selected carefully. Scaling techniques are employed to enlarge prohibitively small time-steps. To study these techniques, dimensionless input parameters were defined. Responses of models in the dimensionless scale were invariant with choice of density, elastic modulus, and characteristic length if the dimensionless parameters were kept constant. Hence, density scaling is equivalent to use of a higher strain-rate, and stiffness scaling results in a higher strain-rate and an elevated stress state in the dimensionless …

Single Particle Tracking: Analysis Techniques For Live Cell Nanoscopy., Peter K. Relich

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Single molecule experiments are a set of experiments designed specifically to study the properties of individual molecules. It has only been in the last three decades where single molecule experiments have been applied to the life sciences; where they have been successfully implemented in systems biology for probing the behaviors of sub-cellular mechanisms. The advent and growth of super-resolution techniques in single molecule experiments has made the fundamental behaviors of light and the associated nano-probes a necessary concern among life scientists wishing to advance the state of human knowledge in biology. This dissertation disseminates some of the practices learned in …

Distributed And Scalable Video Analysis Architecture For Human Activity Recognition Using Cloud Services, Cody Wilson Eilar

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

This thesis proposes an open-source, maintainable system for detecting human activity in large video datasets using scalable hardware architectures. The system is validated by detecting writing and typing activities that were collected as part of the Advancing Out of School Learning in Mathematics and Engineering (AOLME) project. The implementation of the system using Amazon Web Services (AWS) is shown to be both horizontally and vertically scalable. The software associated with the system was designed to be robust so as to facilitate reproducibility and extensibility for future research.

Scatterometry Of 50 Nm Half Pitch Features, Ruichao Zhu

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

Metrology technologies are an essential adjunct to Integrated Circuit (I.C.) Semiconductor manufacturing. Scatterometry, an optical metrology, was chosen to measure 50 nm half pitch feature structures. A bread-board scatterometry system has been assembled to provide a non-contact, non-destructive, accurate and flexible measurement. A real-time, on-line scatterometry system has also been demonstrated and proven to provide a high throughput measurement.

Three different types of samples have been measured using the scatterometry setup. The wire-grid polarizer (WGP) sample has been made by Jet and Flash Nanoimprint Lithography with ~100 nm pitch and ~50 nm wide ~200 nm tall Al gratings on fused …

Those That Trespass Against Us: Childhood, Violence, And Memory In The White Ribbon, Joseph Kuster

Foreign Languages & Literatures ETDs

This thesis examines aesthetic representations of childhood and violence in Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, I argue that Haneke’s film interrogates notions of the idealized child in the context of German history/the history of the Tätergeneration in order to question the possibility of affixing particular objective truth to historical or cultural narrative. First, I examine and deconstruct culturally accepted representations of the child as a symbol of innocence and purity, and explore how Haneke’s film manipulates and subverts these tropes. I then approach the film using three different theoretical structures: the gaze of the monstrous child in the horror …

Selected Musical Works From 2013 - 2016, Christian M. Newman

Music ETDs

This manuscript is a collection of musical compositions written by Christian Newman while a graduate student at the University of New Mexico. Each musical work fulfills at least one composition portfolio requirement as stated in the 2012 – 2013 Music Theory/Composition Student Handbook: the basic requirements include a piece with large orchestration, a piece featuring the voice, a piece featuring electronics, and a collaborativepiece. Newman’s composition portfolio includes numerous works in addition to the requirements that illustrate the depth and consistency of his progress as a composer while a student in the program.

The pieces included in this collection are …

Biogeography, Interspecific Introgression, And The Evolution Of Hemoglobin Genes In The High Andes: The Evolutionary History Of The South American Siskins (Spinus), Elizabeth Jane Beckman

Biology ETDs

Landscape features, interspecific introgression, and adaptation work in concert to shape the evolutionary history of a clade. Understanding the independent and cumulative consequences of these evolutionary processes on diversification is critical to revealing the origins of extant biodiversity. Studying these processes within rapid radiations, a significant contributor to global biodiversity, can provide powerful insight into the process of diversification. To assess how diversification is shaped by these evolutionary forces, I examined the biogeographic history, patterns of interspecific introgression and adaptation to high elevation in a recent, rapid radiation of finches, the South American siskins (Fringillidae: Spinus). I found that …

Assessing The Climate Change Vulnerability Of Ecosystem Types Of The Southwestern U.S., Francis J. Triepke, Esteban H. Muldavin, Maximillian M. Wahlberg, Timothy K. Lowrey, Donald A. Falk, Megan M. Friggens, Karen E. Bagne

Biology ETDs

Climate change is challenging scientists and decision-makers to understand the complexities of climate change and to predict the related effects at scales relevant to environmental policy and the management of ecosystem services. Extraordinary change in climate, and the ensuing impacts to ecosystem services, are widely anticipated for the southwestern United States. Predicting the vulnerability of Southwest ecosystems and their components has been a priority of natural resource organizations over the past decade. Supplementing vulnerability assessments in the region with geospatial inputs of high thematic and spatial detail has become vital for supporting local analyses, planning, and decisions. In this context …

New Insights Into The Martian Crust And Angrite Parent Body Through Meteorites, Alison R. Santos

Earth and Planetary Sciences ETDs

Petrologic studies of two new, unique meteorites were conducted in order to characterize the samples and provide insights into their parent bodies. The first sample, Northwest Africa 7034, is the first martian meteorite breccia to be discovered. In an effort to understand the martian crustal materials sampled by the breccia, we developed a classification scheme for the breccia clasts based on their texture, mineralogy, and chemistry. We then further investigated two clast groups which contained trends in mineralogy and chemistry that suggested a possible genetic relationship between the two. Our findings suggest they are not related by a simple igneous …

Electrochemical Oxidation Of Antibiotic, Antihistamine, Analgesic And Cns Stimulant Pharmaceuticals, Md Mosaddek Hossen

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Electrochemical oxidation is a common method for the degradation of chemicals by applying potential at a definite value. In this research, ‘cyclic voltammetry’ experiments were conducted to find out the oxidation potential for 8 different pharmaceuticals. Mainly, 3 different pH solutions (pH 6.0, 7.5, 9.0) and 9 different concentrations (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 µM) were studied for each of the pharmaceuticals in this experiments. Acetaminophen, Ibuprofen, Naproxen Sodium, Caffeine showed oxidation peak at 0.34-0.79V, 1.37- 1.39V, 0.94-1.01V, 1.44-1.55V respectively at different pH and concentrations. Antibiotic and antihistamine pharmaceuticals i.e. Erythromycin Hydrate, Triclosan, Sulfanilamide, Diphenhydramine Hydrochloride …

Ambivalent Subjects In Neoliberal Times: Non-Governmental Organizations And Binational Same Sex Couples In The United States, Jara M. Carrington

Anthropology ETDs

This dissertation is a critical examination of the increasingly intimate relationship between the neoliberal state, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and their constituents through the lens of NGO-produced advocacy for “binational same sex couples” in the United States. I analyze how neoliberal political and economic ideologies are reconfiguring the role of NGOs, entities traditionally understood as outside state power, as well as the aspirations of their constituencies, within the United States. In particular, I interrogate how NGOs are an increasingly important site in the (re)production of normative gay and lesbian subjects, and illustrate how LGBTQ-identified individuals negotiate these conditions as they seek …

Compliant Culture Platforms With Independently Tunable Stiffness And Electrical/Optical Functionality, Nadeem Abdul

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Interfacing biological cells and solid-state devices is crucial in many applications, ranging from well-established fields, such as electrophisiology, to the newly developed areas of optogenetics and mechanobiology. Most biological cells are anchored to substrates with elastic modulus, E, in the range of ~1 to 100 kPa, the moduli of brain-tissue and osteoid, respectively. On the other hand, bulk semiconductor substrates have ~6 orders of magnitude higher elastic modulus. This large elastic mismatch between devices and cells natural microenvironments is an issue for bio-devices integration, as cells are highly sensitive to mechanical cues. Specifically, cells exert traction forces on their surroundings …