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Havana Impressions: Print Culture And Global Modernity In Plantation Cuba (1790-1860), Asiel Sepulveda

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the imagined worlds of the Cuban plantation system. It tells a story of print culture in a slave society. The story is based in the city of Havana, capital of Cuba, the great fortified port of the Spanish Empire, and seat of one of the largest plantation economies in the Atlantic World. The dissertation is primary concerned with what I call “Havana Impressions,” printed and mental images of the city that impressed a sense of modernity upon the viewer. These images, I argue, lay bare the struggle to define urban modernity under the cultural regimes of Spanish …

Application Of Artificial Intelligence And Machine Learning In Chemistry, Niraj Verma

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

In the last four years, I have been exposed to various topics in scientific research under the supervision of Dr. Kraka in the CATCO group. Numerous involved chemistry projects were undertaken to gain an understanding of the basic laws of nature involving vibrational spectroscopy, molecular acidity, and catalysts based on transition metals for halogen chemistry. The insights from computational chemistry were then applied to model and predict various complicated problems in chemistry via artificial intelligence. With the help of classical artificial intelligence, the non-covalent interactions governing the properties of proteins and water properties were analyzed. Significant improvements were made in …

Modified Degradation Process Models And Statistical Methods For Assessing Robustness And Reliability Of Complex Networks, Yuzhou Chen

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we develop a novel stochastic modeling approach based on multiple interdependent topological measures of complex networks. The key engine behind our approach is to evaluate the dynamics of multiple network motifs as descriptors of the underlying network topology. Under a framework of the gamma degradation model, we develop a formal statistical framework for the analysis of reliability and robustness of a single complex network as well as for assessing differences in reliability properties exhibited by two different networks. We validate the proposed methodology with Monte Carlo simulation studies and illustrate the utility of the proposed approach by …

Trinity And Divine Subjectivity: A Study In The Trinitarian Theologies Of Franz Anton Staudenmaier And Isaak August Dorner, Andrew Hamilton

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

In the German philosophical tradition that begins with Kant and grows into Romanticism and Idealism, philosophical understandings of personal subjectivity underwent drastic changes. I argue in this dissertation that these new understandings of personal subjectivity exercised an important influence on how the Catholic theologian Franz Anton Staudenmaier and the Lutheran theologian Isaak August Dorner conceived of the personal subjectivity of the divine, particularly on how they rendered the divine as a triune personal subject.

Finite Element Approximation Of Solutions Of The Equations Of Electroporoelasticity, Yu Hu

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis we consider the solution of the equations of electroporoelasticity, which are a combination of Maxwell's equations and the poroelasticity equations. Included is a description of suitable initial and boundary conditions, weak formulation of the equations, and the error estimate for a general numerical method.

Quantifying The Influence Of Short Timescale Atmospheric Dynamics On Infrasound Propagation, Miro Ronac Giannone

Earth Sciences Theses and Dissertations

Current atmospheric specification systems are restricted in their ability to resolve short timescale atmospheric dynamics. This undocumented variability has the potential to impact infrasound propagation and diminish the efficacy of signal processing algorithms. Previous studies have revealed the effectiveness of utilizing infrasound observations as a means of improving our knowledge of the atmospheric state in real-time. This study is the first to explore the effect of these fluctuations on infrasound propagation.

During the summer of 2016 and the winter of 2021, repetitive signals recurrent over 20-second time intervals were detected by local and regional infrasound sensors in Oklahoma. It was …

School Police Reform: A Public Health Imperative, Thalia González, Emma Kaeser

SMU Law Review Forum

Out of the twin pandemics currently gripping the United States­—deaths of unarmed Black victims at the hands of police and racialized health inequities resulting from COVID-19—an antiracist health equity agenda has emerged that identifies racism as a public health crisis. Likewise, calls for reform of school policing by those advocating for civil rights, racial justice, and Black Lives Matter have simultaneously intensified. Yet each remains siloed, despite the natural connection and implicit overlap between these separate movements and debates. Indeed, there are documented negative health effects of school policing for Black, Indigenous, people of color (BIPOC) youth. But these have …

Response Modification And Seismic Protection Of Yielding Structures Equipped With Inerters And Hysteretic Dampers, Gholamreza Moghimi

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the seismic response of structures with sustainable, long-stroke response modification devices. The main thrust of the dissertation is the investigation of the seismic response of yielding structures equipped with supplemental rotational inertia, or inerters. The last chapter of this dissertation investigates the seismic response of multistory yielding steel structures equipped with pressurized sand dampers.

Inerters are mechanical devices with resisting force proportional to the relative acceleration of their end nodes. This class of response modification devices complements the traditional fluid viscous damping devices with resisting force proportional to the relative velocity at their end-nodes. Mass-amplification is the …

Anisotropic Plasticity Modeling Of Thin Sheets And Its Application To Micro Channel Forming Of Steel Foils, Jie Sheng

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Thin sheet metals and ultrathin metal foils produced by industrial rolling processes are textured polycrystalline materials and their mechanical behaviors may depend strongly on the orientation of applied loading. Consideration of such plastic anisotropy in advanced modeling of these materials is of the paramount importance in designing optimal manufacturing processes for automotive and other applications using finite element methods. This research addresses several critical issues in anisotropic plasticity modeling and its applications in analyzing micro channel forming of ultrathin stainless-steel foils. An experimental study has first been carried out on the accuracy and sensitivity of measuring the plastic strain ratios …

The Bridwell Quill. Issues 32-25: What Is A Museum?, Anthony Elia

Bridwell Library Publications

No abstract provided.

The Gun Rights Movement And 'Arms' Under The Second Amendment, Eric M. Ruben

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

After Donald Trump supporters breached the U.S. Capitol on January 6 wielding weapons including tasers, chemical sprays, knives, police batons, and baseball bats, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) remarked that the insurrection “didn’t seem . . . armed.” Johnson, who is A-rated by the National Rifle Association (NRA), observed, “When you hear the word ‘armed,’ don’t you think of firearms?” For many, the answer is likely yes.

This essay describes how the gun rights movement has contributed to the conflation of arms and firearms. In doing so, it shows how that conflation is flatly inconsistent with the most important legal context …

Making Scents: Multispecies Partnership, Security, And Affect Among Canine Search And Rescue Teams, Kara Griffin

Anthropology Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the qualitative experiences of dogs and handlers working on canine search and rescue teams as they strive to develop a successful relationship through working, training, and living together. In order to work effectively, these teams form affective partnerships characterized by mutual advocacy, correspondence, and trust, which highlight the co-constructed nature of more than human worlds and allow members of both species to contest certain framings of their partners in their social worlds. Each chapter will further explore how handlers grapple with contemporary controversies in their field which are often framed as questions of effectiveness and personal choice …

The Broken Edge: Violence, Kinship, And Nation In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1820-1890, Patrick Troester

History Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a study of how people experienced and gave meaning to the violent conflicts that transformed the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands from a multipolar region into one dominated by two modern nation-states. As multiple imperial and national projects converged here between 1821-1890, borderland violence became a central way in which local people interacted with and participated in nation- and state-making. Using archival evidence from both sides of the modern border, I examine how borderlands people used gendered, racialized, and familial ideologies to organize, understand, and politicize these conflicts as well as to reckon their shifting positions within emerging nation-states. With …

Design, Synthesis, And Evaluation Of Carbapenem And Cephalosporin Antibiotics To Counter Resistant 21st Century Pathogens, Maha Alqurafi

Chemistry Theses and Dissertations

Antibiotics represent one of mankind’s most important discoveries, enabling longer, more productive lives. Carbapenem antibiotics are one of the most potent classes of β-lactams and often represent the last resort used to treat patients who are seriously stricken by bacterial infections. Carbapenems possess a broad spectrum of antibacterial activity including efficacy against the majority of Gram-positive and Gram–negative bacteria. Unfortunately, the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains is posing a serious threat to existing antibiotics. New discoveries in the antibiotic field are desperately needed to counter the threat of rapidly evolving bacterial resistance. Despite the investment of billions of dollars, and …

Jesus Christ, Revelation Of Love: A Christology Of The Disabled Christ, Lisa Hancock

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Though Nancy Eiesland’s The Disabled God first introduced the identification of Jesus as disabled in 1994, sustained reflection on the person and work of Christ as disabled remains a mostly untapped wellspring for theological reflection in disability theology. Sitting with Christ’s disabled performativity, I identify Christ as disabled in both person and work, noting that recognizing disability in Christ’s person influences understandings of Christ’s work and vice versa. Establishing my use of the cultural model of disability, which I expand for use in constructive theology with Judith Butler’s notion of performativity, I examine resonances of the Disabled Christ in disability …

Characterization Of An Urban Watershed: The Case For Rowlett Creek Watershed Impaired By Bacteria And Nutrient Concerns, Heather Firn

Civil and Environmental Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Firn, Heather B.S., Southern Connecticut State University, 2009 M.S., Southern Connecticut State University, 2013

Characterization of an Urban Watershed: The Case

for Rowlett Creek Watershed Impaired by Bacteria

and Nutrient Concerns

Advisor: Professor Wenjie Sun

Master of Science conferred May, 15, 2021

Thesis completed April, 27, 2021

Water quality and its relationship with urbanization is one of many nationwide environmental concerns. Rowlett Creek is located in an urban watershed in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Since 2014, it has been listed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality as impaired for bacteria and as a screening limit concern for nitrate. Water …

Magnetic Gradient-Based Magnetic Tweezer System For 3d And Swarm Control Of Microswimmer, Xiao Zhang

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Microscale manipulation has very promising potential in medical applications such as drug delivery, minimal and invasion surgery. Contactless control is preferable as remote manipulation is necessary for in vivo applications. Among different control methods, magnetic power source is more suitable and robust for the applications mentioned above. Presented here is a magnetic tweezer system, which manipulates microscale magnetic particles using magnetic forces created by magnetic field gradient. The proposed system has three advantages: First, force applied by the magnetic tweezer system does not contact with the target object and can be generated in different directions. Second, the magnetic tweezer system …

The Humanity Of Christ As Instrument Of Salvation In The Theology Of Thomas Aquinas, J. David Moser

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Interpreters of Thomas Aquinas’s Christology have long observed the uniqueness of his claim that Christ’s human nature is “an instrument of the divinity.” For Aquinas, the mysteries of Christ’s life, the actions and sufferings he underwent in the flesh (acta et passa Christi in carne), cause our salvation in the present. And they have this effect because Christ’s humanity is a “conjoined instrument” of the divinity, united to the Logos, the second person of the Trinity, in person. By contrast, nearly all of Aquinas’s medieval contemporaries, like Bonaventure (1224-1274) as well as Aquinas himself, argued that the humanity …

Miming Modernity: Representations Of Pierrot In Fin-De-Siècle France, Ana Norman

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the commedia dell’arte character Pierrot through the lens of gender performance in order to decipher the ways in which he complicates and expands understandings of gender and the normative model of sexuality in fin de siècle France. Beginning with a case study of a chromolithograph by Jules Chéret, the first chapter of this thesis traces the perceived relation between Pierrot and the bohemian artist, and the underlying tensions between the male dominated artistic sphere and increasingly emancipated women. In contrast, Chapter II complicates the dominant impression of Pierrot’s association with the artists of bohemian Montmartre, and instead …

Mein Aur Aap, Usama Khalid

Art Theses and Dissertations

This document is a summary of my artistic practice during my time at Southern Methodist University. It includes a brief history of my portfolio, an examination of the work created while in the program, and commentary on the purpose of relational aesthetics in my operations. I will further break down of the “Theene-Kone” series of works, that make up the bulk of my actual thesis presentation as well as the influences and concepts that shaped my overall work. The final element will be an explanation of Lahori Barbecue, and will include a text containing several recipes for anyone interested …

Gender As Love: A Theological Account, Fellipe Do Vale

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

Despite its ubiquity in nearly all academic disciplines, gender has remained a contested concept, so much so that there is considerable ambiguity regarding what makes one a woman or a man and what relation such traits have with the human body. Debates typically polarize around the positions of gender essentialism and social constructionism, though both have been shown to have serious limitations. Additionally, theologians have typically approached these debates either by understanding gender as a category for sustained investigation but finding that the tools and virtues of theology are ill-suited for doing so, or by retaining the tools and virtues …

High-Order Flexible Multirate Integrators For Multiphysics Applications, Rujeko Chinomona

Mathematics Theses and Dissertations

Traditionally, time integration methods within multiphysics simulations have been chosen to cater to the most restrictive dynamics, sometimes at a great computational cost. Multirate integrators accurately and efficiently solve systems of ordinary differential equations that exhibit different time scales using two or more time steps. In this thesis, we explore three classes of time integrators that can be classified as one-step multi-stage multirate methods for which the slow dynamics are evolved using a traditional one step scheme and the fast dynamics are solved through a sequence of modified initial value problems. Practically, the fast dynamics are subcycled using a small …

When Half The Neighborhood Is Missing: How To Overcome Systemic Poverty And Gentrification Following The Models Of Dudley Street And Mission Waco, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown, Kevin A. Brown

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

By following the examples of Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative, it is possible to renew a sense of beloved community by changing the narrative of poverty and gentrification by rebuilding the village through empowering the poor and marginalized.

Mission Waco and The Dudley Street Initiative are comprehensive sustainable communities because they combine numerous social and economic interventions under developed strategic plans. The principal question that this dissertation seeks to answer is whether these models can be implemented in local communities to help overcome gentrification and poverty. Implementation can be successful if we can identify the problem, rethink …

When The Past Meets The Present: Reframing Leadership Paradigms Through The Lens Of Discipleship, Stewardship And Covenant, Todd Salzwedel

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

Abstract

Todd R. Salzwedel M.Div. Perkins School of Theology

Degree Conferred: May 14, 2021 Completed: March 30, 2021

WHEN THE PAST MEETS THE PRESENT:

REFRAMING LEADERSHIP PARADIGMS

THROUGH THE LENS OF DISCIPLESHIP,

STEWARDSHIP AND COVENANT

The field of research concerning leadership has been undertaken in earnest for approximately one hundred years. More recently, sub-fields of leadership research have emerged focusing on specific aspects or perspectives of leadership. Understanding servant-leadership, the distinction between technical and adaptive leadership, and positional leadership have led to a more conscious awareness of the role leadership occupies in our everyday life. But the relatively recent focus …

American Revival, Greg Smith

Doctor of Ministry Projects and Theses

A B S T R A C T

Gregory C. Smith MDiv, Perkins School of Theology, 2013

American Revival: From the Jesus Club to the Beloved Community

I began a search for what has long been considered the “Beloved Community” by religious leaders, theologians, and civil rights leaders – both within and outside of the church. I used the methodology of history to view how the church itself has struggled throughout the centuries, long before it came to North America. At the outset, I suspected that many of the fraternal organizations and service clubs impacted unsuccessful attempts to become the …

Rule Out Screening For Undiagnosed Dementia And Alzheimer’S Disease Using An Ehr Based Machine Learning Solution, Branum Stephan, David A. Julovich, Dustin Bracy, Jeff Nguyen

SMU Data Science Review

Abstract. Current detection methods for Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease include cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) markers and/or the use of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, both being high-cost, highly invasive testing methods. The need for low-cost, minimally invasive methods to prescreen individuals for cognitive impairment has been a challenge for many years. Today’s costs associated with an annual screen for all adults 65 and above using current methods (CSF, PET) reach well beyond trillions of dollars per year. Motivated by the limited accessibly and high costs, an alternative tool presented within this paper demonstrates an effective rule out screening for Dementia …

Automated Analysis Of Rfps Using Natural Language Processing (Nlp) For The Technology Domain, Sterling Beason, William Hinton, Yousri A. Salamah, Jordan Salsman

SMU Data Science Review

Much progress has been made in text analysis, specifically within the statistical domain of Term Frequency (TF) and Inverse Document Frequency (IDF). However, there is much room for improvement especially within the area of discovering Emerging Trends. Emerging Trend Detection Systems (ETDS) depend on ingesting a collection of textual data and TF/IDF to identify new or up-trending topics within the Corpus. However, the tremendous rate of change and the amount of digital information presents a challenge that makes it almost impossible for a human expert to spot emerging trends without relying on an automated ETD system. Since the U.S. Government …

Middle East Committee, Hdeel Abdelhady, Sarah A. Oliai, Ibrahim Sattout, Dania Dib, Emma Higham, Yasser Shabbir, Abdulaziz M. Al Hussan, Amgad T. Husein, Mahmoud Abdel-Baky, Jonathan G. Burns, Zachary J. Walker, Christian Murad, S. Elisa Kim

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

Mexico, Gil Anav, Francisco Garcia Bedoy Uribe, Susan Burns, Sergio Bustamante, Yurixhi Gallardo Martinez, Jorge Garcia Peralta, Karla Gudino Yanezyves, Matthew Hansen, Yves Hayaux Du Tilly L., Marco Antonio Pena Barba, Juan Pablo Sainz

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.

India, Aseem Chawla, Kavita Mohan, Poorvi Chothani, Gagan Kumar, Amit Kaushik, Namrata Patodia Rastogi, Sharanya G. Ranga, Riya Dutta

The Year in Review

No abstract provided.