Digital Commons Network^™

Heart Rate Variability In Adults During 24-Hours With A Focus On Sleep Period, Ankur Ravikanth

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The objective of this study is to investigate heart rate variability (HRV) over a period of 24 hours with special focus on patterns during the sleep period. Comparisons were made between sleep and the full 24-hour data. The Polar M430 watch was used to record heart rate (HR) data for about 24 hours, and the subject kept a journal of the activities they performed throughout the day. The data was visualized as heart rate in beats per minute (BPM) as a function of time. To check the accuracy of the Polar watch, a 7-minute recording of HR from the watch …

Family Communication: Examining The Differing Perceptions Of Parents And Teens Regarding Online Safety Communication, Tara Rutkowski

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The opportunity for online engagement increases possible exposure to potentially risky behaviors for teens, which may have significant negative consequences (Hair et al., 2009). Effective family communication about online safety can help reduce the risky adolescent behavior and limit the consequences after it occurs. This paper contributes a theory of communication factors that positively influence teen and parent perception of communication about online safety and provides design implications based on those findings. Previous work identified gaps in family communication, however, this study seeks to empirically identify factors that would close the communication gap from the perspective of both teens and …

Influence Of Ecm Composition And Intracellular Calcium On Endothelial Biomechanics And Prediction Of Cellular Stresses Using Machine Learning, Vignesh Aravind Subramanian Balachandar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Endothelial cells, which form the inner layer of the vasculature, constantly interact with their external microenvironment called the extracellular matrix (ECM) by exerting contractile cell-substrate stresses called tractions and cell-cell stresses called intercellular stresses. This cellular mechanosensing can become aberrant and act as a precursor for many vascular pathological and physiological processes such as cancer metastasis, atherosclerosis, cell differentiation, migration, and morphogenesis. Also, intracellular calcium signalling plays an important role in endothelial cell motility and in maintaining vascular tone. Alteration in ECM composition has been linked to several pathologies, in fact, a transition to a fibronectin-rich matrix from a type …

Diffusion Biomarkers To Characterize Tissue Microstructure In Chronic Myocardial Infarction, Mohammad Tanjib Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Non-invasive imaging techniques to detect and characterize infarcted myocardium are critical for myocardial infarction (MI) prognosis and post-MI risk assessment. Many existing imaging techniques (such as T1-mapping) for MI detection require the use of contrast agents, which are not recommended for patients with renal failure. Cardiac diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging (cDTI), a non-contrast imaging technique, allows estimating the aggregate cardiomyocyte microstructure in healthy subjects and its remodeling as a result of cardiac diseases. Two main questions are investigated in this thesis: 1) how cDTI based biomarkers can characterize microstructural changes occurring post-MI; and 2) if cDTI based biomarkers can …

A Framework For Mitigating Obsolescence In Military Based Systems, Ryan Rust

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Obsolescence is an unavoidable reality in manufacturing systems and supply chain environments as systems are needed to be sustained for longer and longer periods of time. These extended life cycle products include airplanes, ships, industrial equipment, medical equipment, and military systems. The United States military has coined this issue as Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS). Research shows that the main areas of concern for obsolescence are cost optimization, obsolescence management, system life cycle, design/system refresh planning, architecture/open systems, and end-of-life (EOL) predictions. This effort suggests a need for a more effective management approach to tackling obsolescence with an …

Damping And Ejection Of Sloshing Liquid Drops From Elastic Substrates, Md Erfanul Alam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Liquid slosh is a potential source of disturbance of the motion of a moving structure. In this thesis, we probe the damping technique of sessile drop by absorbing a portion of the kinetic energy. The sloshing dynamics are typically represented by a mechanical model of a spring mass damper. However, damping by drop sloshing is dependent on viscosity, surface tension, drop size and drop location. We explore highly-coupled fluid-solid mechanics using singular liquid drop with varying viscosity and surface tension resting on a millimetric cantilever. Cantilevers are displaced 0.6 mm and their free end is allowed to vibrate freely. Cantilever …

Rule-Following, Enculturation, And Normative Identity, Nicholas Odom

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Rule-following has been a controversial issue in professional philosophical literature since Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. Many authors have developed accounts of rule-following along different lines, including those that naturalistically reduce rule-following to non-normative phenomena and those that take rule-following to be an irreducible aspect of cognition and agency. Hannah Ginsborg, a prominent contributor to rule-following literature, has developed a partially reductive account of rule-following, combining features of both reductionist and nonreductionist accounts. But naturalizing or internalistic theories of rule-following, or even Ginsborg's partial reduction of rule-following, ignore important facets of what it is to follow a rule, particularly its social …

An Anthropological Analysis Of Ancient, Historic, And Modern Anatolian Cities, Genevieve S. Hall

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis proposes a model for the comparison of cities as settlement patterns, based primarily on the works of Monica Smith, Michael E. Smith, and V. Gordon Childe. The Tripart Stage-Based Model proposed here examines city proportions, internal specialization, and external specialization, as well as variables within each characteristic. It is intended for use in both the individual study of a settlement's form and function as well as comparative analysis. The Tripart Stage-Based Model operationalizes Monica Smith's triaxial model and creates a progression of analysis beginning with the form of the city before moving through its individual and larger context. …

The Lived Experience Of Chronic Pain: On The Contributions Of Phenomenology In Understanding Chronic Pain Disorders, Riley C. Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Chronic pain disorders are estimated to affect a significant proportion of the global population. These disorders are often debilitating and pose a substantial challenge to the everyday life of those affected. Modern medicine has made great strides in understanding the physiological processes involved in chronic pain. However, chronic pain is more than merely a physiological process. Chronic pain is an embodied mode of being-in-the-world that manifests in multiple aspects of lived experience, from the ability to perform day-to-day tasks to the relationship between body and self. Consequently, it is essential to cultivate a rich appreciation of chronic pain as a …

Photoemission Investigation Of Topological Quantum Materials, Klauss M. Dimitri

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Topological insulators (TIs) are a class of quantum materials, which behave as insulators in the bulk, yet possess gapless spin-polarized surface states, which are robust against nonmagnetic impurities. The unique properties of TIs make them attractive not only for studying various fundamental phenomena in condensed matter and particle physics, but also as promising candidates for applications ranging from spintronics to quantum computation. Within the topological insulator realm, a great deal of focus has been placed on discovering new quantum materials, however, ideal multi-modal quantum materials have yet to be found. Here we study alpha-PdBi2, KFe2Te2, and DySb compounds including others …

Synchronization And Analysis Of Multimodal Medical Data, Nafisa N. Mostofa

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The United States suffers from a significant disparity in the availability of the medical resources and expertise among different regions of the country. Patients in rural areas may not have the opportunity to consult with a physician until their disease progresses to later stages, resulting in a considerable decrease in quality of life. Advances in telemedicine systems that can provide remote communication, medical data acquisition, and medical data analysis promise a significant improvement to early access to medical care and diagnoses for disadvantaged individuals.

In this thesis, we make several contributions on topics that contribute to the improvement of telemedicine …

Prosthetic Identity: Understanding The Relationship Between The Self, Prosthetic Design, And Society, Remy Marasa

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This manuscript will explore the intersection of perceived disability due to limb loss and self-identity. The research is centered around the work in the Limbitless Solutions laboratory, where clinical research is providing children with customized prostheses. This research applies a focus on how customization can lead to positive identity construction. By facilitating active engagement in the design process a stronger connection is formed between the participant and their prosthetic device.

Long Short-Term Memory With Spin-Based Binary And Non-Binary Neurons, Meghana Reddy Vangala

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Research in the field of neural networks has shown advancement in the device technology and machine learning application platforms of use. Some of the major applications of neural network prominent in recent scenarios include image recognition, machine translation, text classification and object categorization. With these advancements, there is a need for more energy-efficient and low area overhead circuits in the hardware implementations. Previous works have concentrated primarily on CMOS technology-based implementations which can face challenges of high energy consumption, memory wall, and volatility complications for standby modes. We herein developed a low-power and area-efficient hardware implementation for Long Short-Term Memory …

Computational Study Of Target Gene Interactions - Enhancers And Micrornas, Amlan Talukder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Gene expression is an essential mechanism for physical and mental development of human. Aberrant regulation of gene expression creates abnormality in human body than can lead to complicated diseases. Gene expression can be regulated at any stage from the chromatin unfolding stage to post-translation stage of protein. In this study, we focused on two important factors of gene expression regulation that participate in the gene expression process at the transcription and the post-transcriptional stages; enhancer-promoter interactions and miRNA-mRNA interactions. The enhancer-promoter interactions are difficult to detect due to the large distance between the enhancer and promoter region and cell-specific activity …

Representative-Based Big Data Processing In Communications And Machine Learning, Mohsen Joneidi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The present doctoral dissertation focuses on representative-based processing proper for a big set of high-dimensional data. Compression and subset selection are considered as two main effective methods for representing a big set of data by a much smaller set of variables. Compressive sensing, matrix singular value decomposition, and tensor decomposition are employed as powerful mathematical tools to analyze the original data in terms of their representatives. Spectrum sensing is an important application of the developed theoretical analysis. In a cognitive radio network (CRN), primary users (PUs) coexist with secondary users (SUs). However, the secondary network aims to characterize PUs in …

Evaluating Augmented Reality Tools For Physics Education, Corey Pittman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

While we are in the midst of a renaissance of interest in augmented reality (AR), there remain a small number of application domains that have seen significant development. One domain that often benefits from additional visualization capabilities is education, specifically physics and other sciences. This paper summarizes interviews with secondary school educators about their experience with AR and their most desired features. Three prototypes were created which were used to collect usability information from students and educators about their preferences for AR applications in their physics courses. Additionally, we introduce the concept of Environmental Integration, a novel method of defining …

On The Information Content In Unresolved Imaging, Zhean Shen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Imaging is almost synonymous with optics. Imaging is the process of using light to form a tangible or visible representation, an imitation (imitari) of a material property. There are many situations, however, where one can only aspire to 'sense making' rather than forming an image per se. In other words, objects cannot be directly resolved by conventional intensity-based imaging, a situation commonly referred to as 'unresolved imaging'. However, there is still information retained in other properties of light, which can be exposed by other means. In this thesis I will discuss two typical situations: subwavelength and multiple scattering, which are …

It Happened Centuries Ago: Using Gis And Spatial Analysis To Map The Quilombo Dos Palmares, Charlotte Mills

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In Brazil, the largest escaped slave community in the Americas incorporated multiple settlements into a united federation. This was Palmares, named for the palm forests where community members sheltered in the Captaincy of Pernambuco. Encompassing nine individual villages at its height in the mid-1600s, only one known settlement has been extensively studied by archaeologists. The remaining eight have not been definitively located. Through historiography, spatial analysis, and remote sensing techniques, the locations of the eight unknown sites of Palmares may be estimated using geographic information science. Introducing spatial analysis into the current body of Palmares literature offers new insights and …

Understanding The Mechanisms Of Surface Chemical Reactions By Tracking Unstable Intermediate Species, Md Afjal Khan Pathan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The detection of intermediate species formed during surface chemical reactions is essential because it can provide critical information about the reaction mechanisms at surfaces and interfaces. Therefore, the overarching goal of this research was to understand the mechanisms of surface catalytic, photocatalytic, and photoinduced reactions by monitoring the intermediate species formed during these reactions. To understand the initial steps of the carbon monoxide hydrogenation reaction on two-dimensional (2D) MoS2 and TaS2 materials, temperature programmed desorption and reaction are employed. Large-area 2D-MoS2 and 2D-TaS2 were prepared on a Cu(111) substrate under ultra-high vacuum conditions via physical vapor deposition. The highly crystalline …

Ground Movements And Vibrations Caused By Impact Pile Driving Of Prestressed Concrete Piles In Central Florida, Jorge Enrique Orozco Herrera

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

The process of pile driving has been a commonly used method for the installation of deep foundations in Central Florida due to the soil conditions that consist mainly of medium-dense silty sands. Pile driving can generate large vibration levels that might potentially trigger ground deformations in the surrounding soils and cause damage on nearby structures. Currently, design and construction standards provide guidance in terms of ground vibration levels expected during pile driving and establish vibration thresholds to avoid damage on important infrastructure. However, little insight has been given into the amount of ground deformations that soils experience due to pile …

The Mechanics And Multiphysics Of Biomimetic Discrete Exoskeleton Substrates, Hessein Ali

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Biological structures have inspired synthetic materials with unparalleled performances such as ultra-lightweight design, tunable elasticity, camouflaging, and antifouling. Among biological structures, exoskeletal scales that cover the exterior surfaces of fishes, fur, and many reptiles. These exoskeletal scales had appeared in the earliest stages of evolution of complex multicellular life and continued their existence in spite of millions of years of evolutionary pressures. This makes them an attractive candidate for biomimicry to produce high performance multifunctional materials with applications to soft robotics, wearables, energy efficient smart skins, antifouling surfaces and on-demand tunable materials. Canonically speaking, biomimetic samples can be fabricated by …

Photoluminescence Properties Of Polycyclic Aromatic Sulfur Heterocycles And Their Sorption And Desorption Onto Microplastics., Sadia Arif

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Polycyclic aromatic sulfur heterocycles (PASHs) are sulfur analogues of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) commonly found in environmental samples exposed to oil contamination. The determination of PASHs in complex samples is far more difficult than PAHs because of the sulfur atom in the heterocyclic ring, which increases the total number of possible isomeric compounds. Since their toxicological properties vary considerably from isomer to isomer, the unambiguous determination of specific isomers in environmental samples is crucial for ecotoxicological purposes and human safety. GC-MS has been the primary analytical technique for the determination of PASHs in environmental samples. Unfortunately, as the number of …

Modeling Of Crash Risk For Realistic Artificial Data Generation: Application To Naturalistic Driving Study Data, Lauren Hoover

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Most safety performance analysis employs cross-sectional and time-series datasets, posing an important challenge to safety performance and crash modification analysis. The traditional safety model analysis paradigm relying on observed data only allows relative comparisons between analysis methods and is unable to establish how well the methods mimic the true underlying crash generation process. Assumptions are made about the data, but whether the assumptions truly characterize the safety data generation in the real world remains unknown. To address this issue, this thesis proposes the generation of realistic artificial data (RAD). In developing a prototype RAD generator for crash data, we mimic …

Multi-Functional Fluorescence Microscopy Via Psf Engineering For High-Throughput Super-Resolution Imaging, Jinhan Ren

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Image-based single cell analysis is essential to study gene expression levels and subcellular functions with preserving the native spatial locations of biomolecules. However, its low throughput has prevented its wide use to fundamental biology and biomedical applications which require large cellular populations in a rapid and efficient fashion. Here, we report a 2.5D microcopy (2.5DM) that significantly improves the image acquisition rate while maintaining high-resolution and single molecule sensitivity. Unlike serial z-scanning in conventional approaches, volumetric information is simultaneously projected onto a 2D image plane in a single shot by engineering the fluorescence light using a novel phase pattern. The …

Plasmonic Properties Of Nanopatterned Graphene, Muhammad Waqas Shabbir

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Graphene is an atomically thin two-dimensional material with carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice. It has been successfully mechanically exfoliated from graphite and characterized in 2004 by Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov at the University of Manchester, UK. While suspended graphene holds the world record in mobility exceeding 100,000 cm2/Vs, which means that graphene could increase the operating frequency of electronic devices up to the THz regime. For example, imaging computer chips running at a few THz frequency, which would be about 1000 times faster than current chips. However, there are two main obstacles for using graphene in electronics …

Chemical Vapor Deposition Growth Of Transition Metal Dichalcogenides And Their Heterostructure Integration, Sajeevi Sankalpani Withanage

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are of great interest for the discovery of many novel physics owing to their extraordinary electrical, optical, mechanical properties as well as many promising applications including heterojunctions. To realize the overreaching goals of these materials, it is important to develop scalable growth techniques and investigate the role of different growth parameters on the resulting material properties. In this dissertation, I study, (i) controllable and reproducible growth of monolayer molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) via chemical vapor deposition (CVD), (ii) the role of growth temperature on the properties of large area MoS2 thin films grown via thermal vapor …

Combining Multivariate Statistical And Numerical Modeling For Coastal Hazards Analysis, Victor Malagon Santos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Increased population density along the world's coastlines is driven by the wide range of services provided by costal systems, such as transportation, fisheries, trade, and tourism. Despite offering fundamental services, coastal systems are exposed to a range of natural hazards such as riverine and/or coastal flooding, and erosion, thus robust risk analyses are needed to protect coastal ecosystems, infrastructure, and people dwelling in proximity to the shoreline. Numerical and multivariate statistical models have become crucial tools in coastal risk management to support robust risk analyses, and their combined use provides many benefits in the analysis of coastal hazards. This dissertation …

Regularized Estimations In Some Statistical Problems, Feng Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In this dissertation, we consider estimations with regularization in three statistical problems relating to linear time system, stochastic block model and matrix variate regression. In the first part of the dissertation, we specifically investigate Mixture Multilayer Stochastic Block Model, where layers can be partitioned into groups of similar networks, and networks in each group are equipped with a distinct Stochastic Block Model. The goal is to partition the multilayer network into clusters of similar layers, and to identify communities in those layers. The Mixture Multilayer Stochastic Block Model was introduced by Bing-yi Jing [2020] and a clustering methodology, TWIST, is …

Pixelated Domes: Cinematic Code Changes Through A Frank Lloyd Wright Lens, William Allen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Panoramic 360-degree documentary videos continue to saturate the visual landscape. As practitioners' experiment with a new genre, understanding meaning and making awaits the academic and marketplace landscape. The new media journey of 360-degree documentary storytelling is ripe for media archaeologist to explore. New media scholar Lev Manovich (2016) believes "we are witnessing the new emergence of a cultural metalanguage, something that will be at least as significant as the printed word and cinema before it" (p. 49) Considering the meta- development of this new media genre, my dissertation seeks to discuss the historical roots of the panoramic image, define 360-degree …

Development Of Quantitative Intensity-Based Single-Molecule Assays, Benjamin Croop

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Fluorescence microscopy has emerged as a popular and powerful tool within biology research, owing to its exceptional signal contrast, specificity, and the versatility of the various microscope designs. Fluorescence microscopy has been used to study samples across orders of magnitude in physical scale ranging from tissues to cells, down to single-molecules, and as such has led to breakthroughs and new knowledge in a wide variety of research areas. In particular, single-molecule techniques are somewhat unique in their ability to study biomolecules in their native state, which enables the visualization of short-lived interactions and rare events which can be highly relevant …