Digital Commons Network^™

Interparental Conflict As A Context For Early Child-Parent Attachment Relationships, Laura Yanett Anaya

Open Access Dissertations

The present study explored the concurrent relations between interparental conflict strategies and early child-parent attachment relationships, while considering potential mediating (i.e., parental sensitivity) and moderating (i.e., involvement of child in conflict) variables in the relations. A nonclinical sample of mostly non-Hispanic Caucasian triads (i.e., mother, father, child) were recruited. Parental sensitivity and children's attachment security were observed across four visits: one visit was in the home with mother, one visit was in the home with father, one visit was in the park with mother, and one visit was in the park with father. In a fifth visit, in the research …

"Do I Even Remember The List?': Identity, Place, And Legal Consciousness Of Marriage Among Lgbtq Individuals.", D Ross Beall

Open Access Dissertations

The legalization of same-sex marriage in 2015 in the United States has been a milestone for LGBTQ rights. Popular campaigns pushing for the legalization argued that “love is love” and the idea that same-sex marriage is the same as heterosexual marriage. While there have been surveys investigating popular opinions around same-sex marriage, not much research has been done on LGBTQ communities themselves and what they have to say about marriage. This dissertation obtains a clearer understanding of how LGBTQ individuals consider marriage at a critical moment in history. Specifically, this dissertation investigates how identity, place, and legal consciousness interact within …

Translocation Of Neonicotinoid In Maize And Nontarget Impacts To Water And Soil, Adam Alford

Open Access Dissertations

The neonicotinoids are a relatively new group of insecticides, first commercially available in the early 1990s, and have become the most widely used insecticide class in the world. Neonicotinoids can be utilized in a variety of ways however the vast majority are applied as a seed coating prior to planting. These neonicotinoid seed treatments (NST) are primarily used within field crops, where their main use is as a prophylactic, insurance based approach to pest management. By 2011 US adoption rates exceeded >80% in maize and 34-44% in soy. This widespread and rapid use has not been justified with a corresponding …

She Is A Computer Scientist: A Quantitative Comparison Between The Effectiveness Of Game Design Studios And Robotics At Enhancing Women's Learning Of, Self-Efficacy In, Attitudes Toward, And Domain Identification With Computer Science, Ali Nazil Alshammari

Open Access Dissertations

The underrepresentation of women in computer science is a serious issue with ramifications that affect not only women working in the field, but also the field at large and the national economy. While the problem is attributed to several interconnected causes, such as computer knowledge, experience, and familiarity; they do not tell the entire story, nor do they point to a global trend. Studies indicate that these factors did not stop the computer science field from achieving a balanced male-female ratio in non-western countries. Since no single factor can be attributed as the primary cause of this complicated problem, and …

Pre-Service Teachers' Understanding Of Geometric Reflections In Terms Of Motion And Mapping View, Murat Akarsu

Open Access Dissertations

In this manuscript, I describe a study of pre-service secondary mathematics teachers’ (PTs) understanding of geometric reflection in terms of a motion and a mapping views. PTs often have a motion view of geometric reflection based on their understanding of reflection line, domain, and plane. A motion view is a preliminary perspective developed prior to the construction of a mapping view. PTs need a mapping view of geometric reflection, and to be conscious of sub-concepts of a mapping view involved reflection line, domain, and plane. However, there is no clear evidence documenting how a learner’s motion view evolves to produce …

Three Essays On Skill Heterogeneity In Frictional Labor Markets, Jacklyn R. Buhrmann

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is composed of three essays using labor search models to explore the role of skill mismatch in the labor market. The first, “Skill Mismatch in Frictional Labor Markets”, provides theory and evidence on pair-specific skill mismatch in the labor market, defined as the gap between an individual’s skills and the requirements of her job. Employment data from the NLSY97 display some degree of positive sorting into occupations on the basis of cognitive skills, but skill mismatch is pervasive and costly. I develop and estimate a labor search model featuring heterogeneity in worker skills and firm skill requirements that …

‘Makingthings Happen’ In Cross-Sector Partnerships: A Multiple Case Study, Priyanka Shah Brunese

Open Access Dissertations

Cross-sector collaborative partnerships aim to bring resources and knowledge from their particular sectors to provide innovative solutions in response to current social, economic and environmental problems, and for developing policies and processes for emergent issues. However, cross-sector partnerships involving public (i.e., institutions of higher education), private, and nonprofit organizations are complex and dynamic systems that are extremely difficult to manage once they have been established. Organizations spanning different sectors not only have dissimilar operating models, working cultures, values, and leadership styles, but are driven by different motives in joining the partnership thereby making the act of collaborating very challenging. When …

The Human Dimensions Of Invasive Plant Management On Family Forestlands: A Case Study In Indiana, Mysha K. Clarke

Open Access Dissertations

Invasive plant management is an increasing concern in socio-ecological systems. Ecologically, invasive plants can displace native species, reduce forest health and productivity, and degrade recreational areas. From a socio-economic perspective, the United States spend approximately USD 137 annually in damage and control costs from invasive plants and animals. Despite these impacts, invasive plants continue to spread in forest ecosystems because of various anthropogenic factors like trade, transportation, climate change, and limited regulation in many states. It is pivotal to consider the role of family forest owners (FFOs) in invasive plant management in forest ecosystems because collectively they own 36% of …

Label Free Chemical Imaging Reveals Novel Metabolite Signatures In Living Model Organisms, Jing (Andy) Chen

Open Access Dissertations

Cell and molecular biology often need direct monitoring of the dynamic distribution and interactions of metabolites in living cells and model organisms. However, this task is extremely challenging for a few reasons. Labeling metabolites with markers can potentially interrupt the dynamic cellular events that are aimed to be observed. Moreover, labeling dyes are usually toxic to cells. Lastly, many labeling methods require cell fixation thus cannot be used to study cellular dynamics. Label-free chemical imaging methods such as stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) circumvent these problems by generating signals based on the intrinsic optical property of target biological metabolites. As a …

A Framework For Comparative Life-Cycle Evaluation Of Alternative Pavement Types, Saeed Alqadhi

Open Access Dissertations

Researchers and practitioners agree that the selection of an appropriate pavement surface material type should be made based on a comprehensive evaluation that incorporates the costs and benefits associated with each alternative for the stakeholder. The most appropriate material type generally is the most cost-effective alternative over the pavement life cycle. Hypothetically, the most appropriate material type will vary across the various geographical regions of the U.S. because material costs and performance are influenced by the deterioration agents at play and the construction costs in a region. To address this issue, this dissertation proposes a comprehensive methodology to identify the …

Computational Methods For Matrix/Tensor Factorization And Deep Learning Image Denoising, Joon Hee Choi

Open Access Dissertations

Feature learning is a technique to automatically extract features from raw data. It is widely used in areas such as computer vision, image processing, data mining and natural language processing. In this thesis, we are interested in the computational aspects of feature learning. We focus on rank matrix and tensor factorization and deep neural network models for image denoising.

With respect to matrix and tensor factorization, we first present a technique to speed up alternating least squares (ALS) and gradient descent (GD) − two commonly used strategies for tensor factorization. We introduce an efficient, scalable and distributed algorithm that addresses …

On The Front Line: Locating Mentorship In The Composition Practicum, Sherri Elaine Craig

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation is a qualitative study of fifteen WPA instructors of the composition practicum. Driven by the primary research question, how do WPAs enact mentorship within composition practicum?, the study sought to better identify how WPAs enact and perceive mentorship within the composition practicum through an activity-theory framework in three distinct phases: a collection and analysis of twenty-six pedagogical materials, twelve structured interviews, and one case study. Through these phases, it was determined the difficulty of locating mentorship of TAs required distinguishing between performing mentoring acts and establishing mentoring relationships first, and second, a construction of the practicum course materials …

Producing Nanoscale Laser Spot And Its Applications, Anurup Datta

Open Access Dissertations

Driven by the exponential growth in the field of nanotechnology in the last few decades, there has been a huge impetus in the design and production of subwavelength nanoscale laser spot which has found wide range of applications in different fields such as nanofabrication and data storage, among others. Limited by the diffraction limit of light when using conventional optics, generally metallic nano-apertures and nano-antennas are used for producing sub-100 nm spots. Design of such types of nano structures typically involves the use of surface plasmons to effectively collect and concentrate light below the diffraction limit. This work discusses the …

Hispanic Acculturation And Perceived Discrimination's Impact On Emerging Adult's Internalizing And Externalizing Symptoms Over Time: A Longitudinal Investigation., Hector F. De Los Santos

Open Access Dissertations

Perceived discrimination and acculturation are key minority status and cultural variables that impact Hispanic mental health. Despite discrimination being a chronic stressor and acculturation being a developmental process, the impact of these experiences have been primarily investigated cross-sectionally. This paper uses longitudinal analyses to explore how perceived discrimination and acculturation impact growth internalizing and externalizing symptoms over time, adding nuance to previous literature. Using the Pathways to Desistance Mexican American sample (N =332), this paper utilized latent growth curve analyses to evaluate acculturative theories on mental health and the immediate and longitudinal impact of discrimination on a broad spectrum of …

A Solidarity Economy On The Border: Examining Historical And Contemporary Case Studies In El Paso, Texas As De Facto Contributors To A U.S.-Based Movement, Michelle E. Carreon

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation examines a contemporary U.S.-based solidarity economy movement, which emphasizes economic practice and ideology that prioritize people and planet over profit. In a neoliberal era that is characterized by economic injustice and continued cutting of social services and programming, a solidarity economy framework offers an alternative. Situated within a growing scholarship, this study examines historical and contemporary examples of solidarity economy-related efforts and praxis in the border city of El Paso, Texas.

The historical case of the Houchen settlement house and the contemporary case of the women-led grassroots community organization, La Mujer Obrera (LMO), illustrate significant ways in which …

Modeling The Behavioral Landscape Ecology Of A Reintroduced Carnivore, Casey C. Day

Open Access Dissertations

The American marten (Martes Americana) is an endangered forest carnivore native to the Upper Midwestern United States and culturally significant to local Ojibwe tribes. In this region, the marten faces a number of potential threats to its persistence, including competition, predation, lack of prey availability, lack of recruitment, and lack of population connectivity. To evaluate how marten behavior affects the conservation and management of this species, I developed an individual-based model to simulate marten dispersal and home range establishment. In Chapter 2, I describe the model and the process of calibrating it to perform comparably to real-world martens. I also …

Design And Development Of Adaptive Intrusion Management For Cyber-Based Systems, Muhamad Felemban

Open Access Dissertations

With the growing Cyber-security threats to governmental and organizational infrastructures, the need to develop high resilient Cyber-Based Systems (CBSs) that preserve the security of data is becoming increasingly important. A prominent type of Cyber-attacks is intrusion attacks that aim at data tampering, which can impair the confidentiality and the integrity of data. Therefore, it is imperative to design a holistic intrusion management approach for CBSs.

In this dissertation, we address the challenges of designing and developing a resilient intrusion management system. In particular, we propose an adaptive data Partitioning-based Intrusion Management System (PIMS) that can endure intense malicious intrusion attacks …

Spin-Orbit Interaction And Electron Spin Qubits In Silicon Quantum Dots, Rifat Ferdous

Open Access Dissertations

Spin qubits hosted in electrostatic quantum dots (QD) in Silicon (Si) are among the most promising candidates for building a large-scale quantum computer. Quantum information encoded in electron spins can survive longer in Si due to the scarcity of nuclear spin noise. We can also take advantage of the Si based nano-fabrication technology already in place for classical computers. Quantum computation has already been successfully demonstrated at small scale with Si QD spin qubits. Spin-orbit interaction (SOI) has previously been used to enable electrical manipulation of spins in other semiconductor materials. However, SOI is often ignored in Si as being …

Social Brokerage, Psychology, And Innovation In Intra-Organizational Networks, Hongzhi Chen

Open Access Dissertations

As an important organizational phenomenon, brokerage is common in any group of three or more. A recent meta-analysis shows that brokerage is one of the most influential network properties to individual innovativeness (Baer, Evans, Oldham, & Boasso, 2015). This dissertation investigates the impacts of social brokerage on the micro-foundation of corporate innovation, i.e., generating new projects and getting new things done. In addressing the social psychological foundations of brokerage (Tasselli, Kilduff, & Menges, 2015), this dissertation investigates the influential contexts around the broker and revisits the “human agency” issue in brokerage phenomena in the setting of corporate innovation.

Chapter One …

Acute Effects Of Contractile Activity On Skeletal Muscle Exosomes, Ron T. Garner

Open Access Dissertations

Introduction: Skeletal muscle functions as an endocrine organ, and a key way to accomplish that is through exosomes. The internal budding of a multivesicular body (MVB) forms exosomes and contains mRNA, miRNA, and proteins. Through a multifaceted approach, the following three experiments were designed to better understand the effect of contractile activity on skeletal muscle MVB/exosome biogenesis and release.

Study 1: Exosome-related pathway response to acute exercise. Sedentary, lean, healthy male subjects (n=12) performed 45 min cycling (AEx), followed by single leg knee extensor exercise (A+REx). A biopsy was obtained prior to exercise and 1 hr post-exercise from each leg. …

A Model And Measure Of Parental Vaccine Hesitancy: A Basis For The Development Of Future Health Campaigns, Jessica Hample

Open Access Dissertations

The “anti-vaccination,” or vaccine hesitancy, phenomenon has attracted the attention of many researchers in recent years. A significant amount of research has focused on identifying, categorizing, and measuring the beliefs common to vaccine-hesitant individuals. However, prior attempts to identify these beliefs have suffered from potential biases that call into question both the validity and comprehensiveness of our existing understanding of vaccine hesitancy. This dissertation project attempts to improve our understanding of vaccine hesitancy by systematically collecting beliefs held by vaccine-hesitant parents in the USA and using those beliefs to create a measure and model of vaccine hesitancy. Exploratory and confirmatory …

Lipid And Metabolite Profiling Mass Spectrometry Of Human Glioblastoma Using Mouse Xenograft Model, Soo Jung Ha

Open Access Dissertations

Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common and malignant form of human primary brain tumor. Due to its extremely malignant and invasive nature, the mean survival period of GBM patients is only 12 to 15 months from diagnosis. GBM patients rely on current treatment options including surgery, radiation and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, these treatment options fail to improve quality of patients’ lives. Studies have shown that altered lipids and metabolites in GBM may play a critical role in chemo-resistance, cancer cell initiation and progression regulated by oncogenic signaling pathways. This research utilized multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) profiling mass spectrometry (MS) and desorption …

Understanding The Adoption, Maintenance, Diffusion Of Urban Stormwater Management Practices, Yuling Gao

Open Access Dissertations

Urbanization increases stormwater volume and decreases infiltration capacity due to the impact of added impervious surfaces and reduced vegetation. Urban stormwater management practices (SMPs) employ control and treatment measures to mitigate water runoff and break down pollutants using a natural approach, which has proven to be effectively protecting the hydrological process of streams. Though a significant number of empirical studies identified the effectiveness of urban SMPs, a few studies have investigated individuals’ perceptions about the approach and factors that influence decision-making on its implementation. This dissertation is intended to investigate the adoption, maintenance, and diffusion of urban SMPs through mail …

Gas-Phase And Condensed-Phase Studies Of Small Reactive Intermediates, Christopher William Haskins

Open Access Dissertations

Nitriles are an integral functional group in many chemical industries. A new methodology for the dehydration of amides to nitriles has been developed using a palladium catalyst. The reaction conditions are robust and able to tolerate a wide variety of functional groups and substrates. The substrate scope can be broken into 4 main types of substrates including: alkyl, aromatic, cinnamic, and α, β, δ, γ-unsaturated amides. Mechanistically, the amide goes through a water exchanging mechanism to generate acetamide in equal parts to the nitrile. Cyclopropanols are important precursors for the generation of beta-carbonyl radicals. In the presence of a single-electron …

An Examination Of Underrepresentation In Florida, Indiana, And Washington, Jaret Hodges

Open Access Dissertations

Black, Latinx, and Native American students are underrepresented in gifted education programs across the United States. This underrepresentation is one way in which the excellence gap manifests in gifted education. In turn, the underlying causes for underrepresentation are debated by scholars. This dissertation examines the issue of underrepresentation through three case studies. In all case studies, a generalized linear mixed model is used as the framework to analyze publicly available data acquired from the associated state departments of education.

The first case study examines underrepresentation in the state of Florida. In this study, the influence of socioeconomic status on rates …

Differential Molecular Diffusion In Turbulent Non-Premixed Combustion: Power-Law Scaling, Modeling Requirements, And Flamelet Simulations, Chao Han

Open Access Dissertations

The significance of differential molecular diffusion (DMD) has been demonstrated experimentally and numerically in many studies. Despite the significance, the effort of modeling DMD in turbulent combustion is still inadequate, and assumptions of equal molecular diffusion and unity Lewis numbers are often made when modeling turbulent combustion. It is imperative to interrogate the physics of DMD in turbulent combustion to provide needed physical insights for the advancement of models for DMD. In this work, we examine DMD in turbulent non-premixed combustion and advance the flamelet models for incorporating DMD.

The effect of DMD in turbulent non-premixed flames is studied by …

Transient Liquid Phase Bonding For High Temperature Interconnects, John R. Holaday

Open Access Dissertations

Transient liquid phase bonding (TLPB) is a type of interdiffusion bonding between metals that has been proposed for a variety of electronic interconnect applications. TLPB has been studied as an alternative to other high temperature interconnect materials such as high-Pb solders. The goal of eliminating Pb and other toxic materials from electronics manufacturing processes, and most importantly, waste streams has been part of an ongoing effort internationally to improve the sustainability of electronics manufacturing. Pb containing solders have largely been eliminated from most consumer applications, but continuing exemptions for high-Pb solders have been provided by regulators due to the lack …

Investigation Of The Effects Of Oxidizer Temperature On The Stability Of A Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injector, William Zach Hallum

Open Access Dissertations

Rocket engines achieve extraordinary high energy densities within the chamber in the form of high pressure turbulent combustion. Successful design of these engines requires sustained, stable operation of a combustor exposed to extreme thermal loads. Slight deviations in operating conditions can then incur consequences ranging from reduced performance up to catastrophic failure in the face of excess heat loading. Sustained periodic oscillations, termed combustion instabilities, are often encountered during development, as fluctuations produced by combustion noise couple with heat release modes by way of modulation of the feed system, injector hydrodynamics, chemical kinetics, and mixing and atomization process. Successful development …

The Regulatory Role Of Isopentenyl Phosphate Kinase In Plants And The Evolution Of Terpenoid Diversity In Lamiaceae, Laura K. Henry

Open Access Dissertations

Chapter 1 of this dissertation provides background information into the two plant terpenoid biosynthetic pathways, the mevalonate (MVA) and 2-C-methyl-D-erythritol 4-phosphate (MEP) pathways. These pathways are responsible for the formation of the five-carbon building blocks isopentenyl pyrophosphate (IPP) and dimethylallyl pyrophosphate (DMAPP). These metabolites are then condensed to form various chains of C5x terpenoids. The diversity of terpenoids within the diverse Lamiaceae is also discussed.

Chapter 2 looks at the role of a homolog of the archeal gene isopentenyl phosphate kinase (IPK) in plants. IPK is found in all sequenced plant genomes and acts in parallel with the canonical MVA …

Nonperturbative Methods For Quantum Field Theory: Holographic Wilson Loops And S-Matrix Bootstrap, Yifei He

Open Access Dissertations

In this thesis, we explore nonperturbative methods of quantum field theory through two topics: holographic Wilson loops and S-matrix bootstrap. In the first part, we study the holographic calculation of Wilson loops using Ad-S/CFT correspondence, which is a duality between a string theory in AdS space and a gauge theory living on the conformal boundary of the AdS space. Under this duality, the expectation value of the Wilson loop operator in the gauge theory at strong t’Hooft coupling limit is given by the area of a string worldsheet ending on a boundary curve defined by the shape of the Wilson …