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Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

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Characterizing And Epitope Mapping Single-Domain Antibodies On Borrelia Burgdorferi Protein Ospa, Saiful Basir Dec 2022

Characterizing And Epitope Mapping Single-Domain Antibodies On Borrelia Burgdorferi Protein Ospa, Saiful Basir

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Epitope mapping a protein that enables pathogenesis is crucial for the development of therapies and prophylactics that can inhibit the pathogen’s function and its transmission of disease. The lipoprotein OspA enables Lyme Disease etiologic pathogen, Borrelia burgdorferi, to inhabit the tick midgut until transmission occurs. Anti-OspA mAbs and their smaller VHH counterparts are highly specific and tailored to bind proteins such as OspA, reproducibly, at established binding sites or epitopes. Previous studies found an array of mAbs that successfully bound OspA and have already been used in epitope mapping. To our knowledge, this is the first use of VHHs in …


Two Matrix-Weighted Norm Inequalities For Commutators With Fractional Integral Operators And Fractional Matrix-Weighted Dyadic Littlewood-Paley Theory, Roy Cardenas Dec 2022

Two Matrix-Weighted Norm Inequalities For Commutators With Fractional Integral Operators And Fractional Matrix-Weighted Dyadic Littlewood-Paley Theory, Roy Cardenas

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This thesis develops a fractional matrix-weighted John-Nirenberg type theorem, two matrix-weighted commutator bounds for the fractional integral operator, an Orlicz bumped two matrix-weighted commutator upper bound for the fractional integral operator, and a fractional matrix-weighted version of dyadic Littlewood-Paley theory.


Domain Aware Deep Learning For Wireless Physical Layer, Shuvam Chakraborty Dec 2022

Domain Aware Deep Learning For Wireless Physical Layer, Shuvam Chakraborty

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Wireless receiver design for OFDM systems is well investigated with classical signal processing tools, which lack the capacity to extract intrinsic channel effects in received signal and lead to high decoding error in receiver. Current deep learning techniques have shown improvement in such cases. But these models are mostly being developed as black box without any anchor to the theory of wireless signal propagation, which leads to surface level information gain and lacks generalizability. We propose deep learning models where the hyperparameters and learning objectives are derived from domain knowledge of wireless signal propagation. These models not only increase the …


Evaluating The Health Impacts Of Fruit And Vegetable Intake At The Individual Level And Food Pantry Level Among Food Pantry Users, Jiacheng Chen Dec 2022

Evaluating The Health Impacts Of Fruit And Vegetable Intake At The Individual Level And Food Pantry Level Among Food Pantry Users, Jiacheng Chen

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background: Chronic diseases impose heavy burdens on individuals and the healthcare system in the US. Many factors were found to be associated with chronic diseases, including demographics, family history, social environmental factors, and individual behavioral factors such as diet and physical activity. Among those factors, fruit and vegetable intake can have substantial health impacts via a variety of causal pathways. Fruit and vegetable (F&V) consumption is generally lower among individuals living in households experiencing food insecurity and rely on food assistance programs. Decreased F&V intake among food pantry users may negatively impact health. However, conducting quantitative analysis on this population …


Understanding SjöGren's Syndrome As A Systemic Autoimmune Disorder, Gaietchyne Chery Dec 2022

Understanding SjöGren's Syndrome As A Systemic Autoimmune Disorder, Gaietchyne Chery

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Sjögren’s syndrome is an autoimmune condition characterized by a dysfunction in the lachrymal and salivary glands which results in dry eyes and dry mouth. Since its first description in 1892, the disease is one of the most common autoimmune diseases after lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis in the United States. Despite its high prevalence in the general population, Sjögren’s syndrome remains hard to diagnose due to the wide range of symptoms associated with the disease that is also shared by other conditions. Furthermore, the mechanisms behind the pathogenesis are not properly understood even though multiple factors have been proposed to …


Vircy-Seq : A Protocol For Characterizing Viral Activity, Tyler James Dion Dec 2022

Vircy-Seq : A Protocol For Characterizing Viral Activity, Tyler James Dion

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The main purpose of pharmaceutical production is to produce safe effective medicine for patient use. In an effort to ensure patient safety constant surveillance for viruses takes place. The detection of a viral nucleic acid in a pharmaceutical production setting results in investigations to assess its infectious potential. This is an intensive, expensive process that entails many tests such as the observation of hemadsorption, cytopathic effects (CPE), and more. These tests are typically specific and only capture certain viruses, as factors like CPE can only be observed in some viral species. A new investigational method that is effective on all …


Motion Planning Under Uncertainties, Sourav Dutta Dec 2022

Motion Planning Under Uncertainties, Sourav Dutta

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

A robot is an agent that can bring some changes to the environment around it. Motion planning is the problem of carrying out specialized tasks by a robot by either moving itself or some other object (usually called \textit{payload}) from one place to another. In a real-world scenario, a robot is faced with constraints such as momentum, friction, sensor inaccuracies, etc., that can affect its decision-making while performing specialized tasks. These constraints are identified as uncertainties, and successful planning involves making provisions for such uncertainties. In this work, we present methods like stochastic processes, sequential inference, and pattern recognition to …


Spatial Analysis Of Housing Vacancy : Time Lag, Spillover Effects, And Spatial Heterogeneity, Yutian Feng Dec 2022

Spatial Analysis Of Housing Vacancy : Time Lag, Spillover Effects, And Spatial Heterogeneity, Yutian Feng

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The housing vacancy issue has long been a concern for community development and urban planning, especially in old industrial cities since the second half of the 20th century. Following the subprime lending crisis in 2007, the problem of housing vacancy again attracts attention as it causes problems like housing inequity, neighborhood redevelopment, and spatial justice in most U.S. cities. This dissertation systematically builds up an analytical framework to explore the mechanism of housing vacancy, using Buffalo urban area as a case study. Firstly, the research pays attention to the factors contributing to housing vacancy. The dissertation also investigates if there …


Metabolic Alterations And Cardiovascular Risk After Hepatitis C Cure In Subjects With Or At Risk For Hiv, Christophe Maxime Fokoua Dongmo Dec 2022

Metabolic Alterations And Cardiovascular Risk After Hepatitis C Cure In Subjects With Or At Risk For Hiv, Christophe Maxime Fokoua Dongmo

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Background. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection engenders substantial metabolic changes. These changes are altered when the virus is cleared after successful treatment. We measured these metabolic alterations that occur after HCV cure; further, we assessed whether these alterations differed in subgroups defined by patients’ characteristics.


Probabilistic Forecasting Of Winter Mixed Precipitation Types In New York State Utilizing A Random Forest, Brian Chandler Filipiak Dec 2022

Probabilistic Forecasting Of Winter Mixed Precipitation Types In New York State Utilizing A Random Forest, Brian Chandler Filipiak

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Operational forecasters face a plethora of challenges when making a forecast; they must consider multiple data sources ranging from radar and satellites to surface and upper air observations, to numerical weather prediction output. Forecasts must be done in a limited window of time, which adds an additional layer of difficulty to the task. These challenges are exacerbated by winter mixed precipitation events where slight differences in thermodynamic profiles or changes in terrain create different precipitation types across small areas. In addition to being difficult to forecast, mixed precipitation events can have large-scale impacts on our society.


Characterization Of An Amine-Thiol Cosolvent System : Ethylenediamine And Mercaptoethanol, Fernanda Giongo Fernandes Dec 2022

Characterization Of An Amine-Thiol Cosolvent System : Ethylenediamine And Mercaptoethanol, Fernanda Giongo Fernandes

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Since its introduction, the amine-thiol cosolvent system has been successfully utilized for the deposition of various thin-film devices, but its mechanism of action is still uncertain. Herein, we have attempted to dissect some of the chemical characteristics of amine-thiol cosolvents, with a special interest taken towards a mixture of ethylenediamine (en) and mercaptoethanol (ME). Conductivity was measured for multiple amine-thiol combinations at different ratios to determine extent of ionization in solution, with en-ME having one of the highest solution conductivities. Exposing the solution to air for several days was found to decrease the conductivity of en-ME, indicating the formation of …


Performance Management And Contracting Out To Support Public Health Objectives : Evidence From U.S. Local Health Departments, Philip Gigliotti Dec 2022

Performance Management And Contracting Out To Support Public Health Objectives : Evidence From U.S. Local Health Departments, Philip Gigliotti

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Contracting out and performance management have been universally adopted in public sector organizations, based on theoretical arguments that they would improve the efficiency and quality of public services. However, this broad adoption was carried out despite minimal empirical evidence that these interventions improve public service outcomes in practice. Traditionally, few studies have attempted to quantitatively link performance management and contracting out interventions to improvements in organizational performance and public service quality. A growing literature has investigated this relationship with inconclusive results, suggesting these interventions do not have a clear ability to improve organizational performance. This dissertation examines these relationships in …


Practicing Re-Enlightenment : Technology Revisited In The Age Of Climate Change, Gyuri Kang Dec 2022

Practicing Re-Enlightenment : Technology Revisited In The Age Of Climate Change, Gyuri Kang

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the age of climate change, the Indian writer Amitav Ghosh asks whether humanity is prepared for the unthinkable nature of climate events. The Earth’s climate is changing faster than humans can expect and adapt. Ghosh warns that modern people are too deranged to imagine in what forms of changes are approaching. His term, derangement, suggests that humans are no longer able to imagine the future world shaped by climate change. The signals of the unexpectable realities of climate change, however, may be hidden in existing knowledge. Here, technology can help us access this hidden knowledge through its ability to …


Before Realism : The Great American Novel And The Forms Of Nationhood, 1851-1882, Naoto Kojima Dec 2022

Before Realism : The Great American Novel And The Forms Of Nationhood, 1851-1882, Naoto Kojima

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation uses the concept of the Great American Novel as a strategic framework for understanding the cultural ascendance of realism. Much more than a naïve expression of literary chauvinism, the rise of the idea of the Great American Novel marks a transformative moment in the decades before realism becomes institutionalized as a “new school” in the 1880s. Examining how Harriet Beecher Stowe, William Dean Howells, and Henry James anticipate or respond to the call for the national novel which mediates among regions, Before Realism demonstrates that American literary realism emerged out of its engagement and negotiation with the Great …


Executive Functioning In Children And Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes : Associations With Hba1c, Glycemic Variability, And Household Income, Victoria Louise Ledsham Dec 2022

Executive Functioning In Children And Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes : Associations With Hba1c, Glycemic Variability, And Household Income, Victoria Louise Ledsham

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Type-1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) has been repeatedly linked to executive functioning (EF) deficits in children and adolescents but the mechanisms underlying this association are not well understood. Chronic hyperglycemia — frequently measured as glycosylated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) levels — and increased glycemic variability have both been proposed as risk factors for EF difficulties in this population, but it is unclear whether they each uniquely reflect T1DM-related risk for EF deficits. Furthermore, few studies have considered interactions between glycemic factors and family-level risk factors in shaping children’s EF development. Particularly, household income may exacerbate risk associations between HbA1c or glycemic variability …


Probability Distributions Of The Scalar Potential, Candace Mathews Dec 2022

Probability Distributions Of The Scalar Potential, Candace Mathews

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In the study of cosmological inflation, string theory and supersymmetry have motivated a wide range of possible inflationary models. These models can be parameterized by a scalar potential V, which is a function of N scalar fields, and determines cosmological parameters such as the vacuum stability and energy density. In principle, we can determine V through high energy physics, such as string theory. In practice, though we may not know the details of V we might have clues about a distribution of plausible V’s, which we can build statistics on to further analyze. The purpose of this thesis defense is …


Maker Programs In Prek-12 School Libraries : Identifying The Drivers And Consequences, Shannon Mersand Dec 2022

Maker Programs In Prek-12 School Libraries : Identifying The Drivers And Consequences, Shannon Mersand

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

In 2005, Dale Dougherty and O’Reilly Media founded Make Magazine, and coined the term Makerspace, which is broadly defined as a community workspace where people come together to solve problems using materials and tools they might otherwise not have access to (Dougherty, 2012). Recently, schools have allocated funding and resources into creating and maintaining maker programs in classrooms and libraries. Despite the overwhelming discussion of making and makerspaces in library practitioner-oriented publications, there is little scholarly discussion of maker programs in PreK-12 school libraries. This research addresses that gap by examining makerspaces in libraries in PreK-12 public schools in New …


Interpersonal Forgiveness Is The Recognition That Justice Is Attained, Raphael Faith Moser Dec 2022

Interpersonal Forgiveness Is The Recognition That Justice Is Attained, Raphael Faith Moser

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Abstract


Large-Scale Flow Patterns Conducive To Central American Extreme Precipitation Events During Autumn, Alexander Kyle Mitchell Dec 2022

Large-Scale Flow Patterns Conducive To Central American Extreme Precipitation Events During Autumn, Alexander Kyle Mitchell

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Extreme precipitation events (EPEs), characterized by daily widespread heavy rainfall exceeding the 95th percentile across Central America, can have large impacts on agriculture, life, and property during the rainy season. EPEs during the Northern Hemisphere (NH) autumn, however, have been observed to be influenced by both tropical and extratropical originating phenomena such as easterly waves and cold surges, respectively. Given the limited research in this area, the novelty of this work is to apply a systematic approach for identifying and better understanding EPEs, and investigating their associated synoptic-scale variability using daily high-resolution observations and reanalysis products over Central America. An …


A Patchwork Community : Exploring Belonging, Gender Roles, And God's Gifts Among Progressive American Mennonites, Christa D. Mylin Dec 2022

A Patchwork Community : Exploring Belonging, Gender Roles, And God's Gifts Among Progressive American Mennonites, Christa D. Mylin

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation demonstrates that progressive Mennonites in southern Pennsylvania struggle to find belonging within their congregations due to the fluid nature of Mennonite affiliations. Mennonites critically examined their institutions and relations with each other, and this critique often led to schism. This research addresses how a recent schism among progressive Mennonites led some people to experience nonbelonging and highlighted other conflicting values that people had within their conference. An overview of Mennonite history demonstrated that Mennonites have often formed separate fellowships when disagreements could not be resolved. However, this history also demonstrated that Mennonites have been adept at interpreting their …


Turning Density Functional Theory Calculations Into Molecular Mechanics Simulations : Establishing The Fluctuating Density Model For Rna Nucleobases, Christopher A. Myers Dec 2022

Turning Density Functional Theory Calculations Into Molecular Mechanics Simulations : Establishing The Fluctuating Density Model For Rna Nucleobases, Christopher A. Myers

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Molecular mechanics (MD) simulations and density functional theory (DFT) have been the backbone of computational chemistry for decades. Due to its accuracy and computational feasibility, DFT has become the go-to method for theoretically predicting interaction energies, polarizability, and other electronic properties of small molecules at the quantum mechanical level. Although less fundamental than DFT, molecular mechanics (MM) algorithms have been just as influential in the fields of biology and chemistry, owing their success to the ability to compute measurable, macroscopic quantities for systems with tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of atoms at a time. Nevertheless, MD simulations would …


Soil From Footwear Is A Newly Rediscovered Type Of Forensic Evidence Due To The Application Of Modern Analytical Techniques : A Review, Rhilynn Haley Ogilvie Dec 2022

Soil From Footwear Is A Newly Rediscovered Type Of Forensic Evidence Due To The Application Of Modern Analytical Techniques : A Review, Rhilynn Haley Ogilvie

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Traces of soil discovered on a footwear were historically among the first types of evidence used by crime scene investigators. This type of evidence has been rediscovered recently due to the application of powerful analytical techniques providing quantitative characteristics of the soil (bio)chemical composition. Advanced statistical analysis of the quantitative data further improves the probative value of the soil evidence. The article overview main aspects of the emerging techniques for the forensic soil analysis and the factors that challenge data interpretation including mixing, contamination, and composition complexity. Overcoming these issues is crucial for utilizing soil analysis for forensic purposes.


Regulation Of A Shared Focus In Open-Ended Collaborative Inquiry, Simona Pesaresi Dec 2022

Regulation Of A Shared Focus In Open-Ended Collaborative Inquiry, Simona Pesaresi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Essential to a flourishing society in a changing environment, knowledge creation has become pervasive across social sectors. Creative work with knowledge and ideas requires dynamic forms of collaboration in which individuals adapt goals as new advances and problems emerge. To prepare students for creative knowledge work, new classroom designs using knowledge building pedagogy engage learners in a process of open-ended inquiry as a community. This type of inquiry involves students taking the responsibility for identifying and pursuing ever-evolving knowledge goals that lead to deeper conceptual understanding through a path not known in advance. However, a major challenge is to understand …


Comparison Of 2018-2021 Tropical Cyclone Track Forecasts Before And After Noaa G-Iv Missions, Melissa Piper Dec 2022

Comparison Of 2018-2021 Tropical Cyclone Track Forecasts Before And After Noaa G-Iv Missions, Melissa Piper

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Tropical cyclone (TC) hazards are primarily dictated by the TC position; thus, it is important to produce accurate TC track forecasts. Many different features can influence a TC’s motion, yet these features are not always well sampled by in-situ observations over the open ocean, creating a need for supplemental observation collected via aircraft, including the deployment of dropsondes. In 1997, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) began operational synoptic surveillance missions in the near-storm environments of TCs using the Gulfstream IV-SP jet aircraft (G-IV), with the goal of reducing track forecast errors. In the first 10 years of operational missions, the …


Two Case Studies Examining How International Graduate Teaching Assistants Built Mathematical Literacy Knowledge Within The Affordances And Constraints Of A Calculus Instructional System, Patricia A. Rand Dec 2022

Two Case Studies Examining How International Graduate Teaching Assistants Built Mathematical Literacy Knowledge Within The Affordances And Constraints Of A Calculus Instructional System, Patricia A. Rand

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

As universities contend with high rates of student attrition from intended STEM majors, due to many students’ difficulty in passing entry-level mathematics courses, they must examine the systems they have in place and determine how best to support these students. Historically, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are assigned to introductory calculus classes, which serve as undergraduate-level gatekeeping courses. On one hand, this allows for additional instructors to assist mathematics faculty; however, many universities do not provide adequate training in pedagogy for their GTAs. Untrained GTAs may not have the requisite pedagogical content knowledge to teach and support struggling students. GTAs should …


Development Of Nucleic Acid Diagnostics For Targeted And Non-Targeted Biosensing, Christopher William Smith Dec 2022

Development Of Nucleic Acid Diagnostics For Targeted And Non-Targeted Biosensing, Christopher William Smith

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The field of nucleic acid technology is rapidly expanding with new impactful discoveriesbeing made each year. Starting from the discovery of the double-helix structure, cloning, gene editing, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), CRISPR technology, and even the late mRNA vaccines; nucleic acid technology is at the forefront of improving medicine. Nucleic acid technology is extremely versatile due to its easy programmability, automated cheap synthesis, and even its catalog for numerous chemical modifications that can be used to alter structure stability. For example, the number of permutations that can be made with DNA just by altering the code for adenine (A), cytosine …


The Simulated Sensitivity Of The North American Monsoon At Convection-Permitting Scales, Brendan Wallace Dec 2022

The Simulated Sensitivity Of The North American Monsoon At Convection-Permitting Scales, Brendan Wallace

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

The North American Monsoon (NAM) is a major contributor to annual rainfall for large portions of the North American Southwest. Much of the prior work examining the NAM using numerical models has been done at scales exceeding 20-km grid spacing. At these coarse scales, unresolved processes and poorly resolved geographic features can impact model performance. This can present a problem when simulating the NAM particularly with regard to orographic precipitation, precipitation on sub-daily timescales, and land surface-atmosphere interactions. This dissertation seeks to better understand the NAM through examination of several sets of convection-permitting regional climate model output. The primary goal …


Understanding Sense Of Belonging Of Students Of Color Attending A Liberal Arts College, Jessica Wenger Dec 2022

Understanding Sense Of Belonging Of Students Of Color Attending A Liberal Arts College, Jessica Wenger

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

College access programs have been created to provide students of color opportunities to attend college. The Posse Foundation selects promising urban high school students to attend highly selective colleges and universities across the country. College success is dependent on a variety of factors, two of which are successful social and academic integration into the campus community (Tinto, 1993). Related to integration, sense of belonging is the feeling that an individual belongs in their environment (McMillan & Chavis, 1986).


Applications Of Search And Matching To International Trade And Unemployment Insurance, Kai You Dec 2022

Applications Of Search And Matching To International Trade And Unemployment Insurance, Kai You

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation consists of three chapters.


Innovation Capacity In Local Government Organizations : A Comparative Case Study Of Three Innovation Labs In The U.S, Qianli Yuan Dec 2022

Innovation Capacity In Local Government Organizations : A Comparative Case Study Of Three Innovation Labs In The U.S, Qianli Yuan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Innovation in the public sector is a high priority on the agenda of both practitioners and academics, as government recently faces increasing citizens’ demands and growing wicked problems. It has been increasingly regarded as necessary to improve current practices that improve government performance in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, and equity. In response to this demand for innovation, many government organizations established innovation labs to strengthen their capacity to introduce new and innovative solutions. Being agile and small and having a certain level of autonomy, they are advocated as a “safe space” that applies a variety of approaches, methods, and toolkits …