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Vibrations Of Rotationally Periodic Structures: A Metric For Mistuning Characterization And Vibration Localization, Andres Rodriguez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Blisk components are an integral part of jet engines and power generation systems. Composed of a single monolithic structure, integral blisks combine the blade-and-disk portion of primary components such as the fan, compressor stage, or turbine stage. This design modification increases the aerodynamic performance while decreasing the cost and eliminating time of assembly. However, these benefits come with the loss of blade-disk connection interfaces, which greatly reduces the structure's damping and its ability to attenuate unwanted structural vibrations. Blisk dynamics are impacted by mistuning, which is a disruption of the periodic symmetry of otherwise identical bladed sections. This disruption degrades …

Complex Quantum Contagion: A Quantum-Like Approach For The Analysis Of Co-Evolutionary Dynamics Of Social Contagion, Ece Mutlu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Modeling the dynamics of social contagion processes has recently attracted a substantial amount of interest from researchers due to its wide applicability in network science, multi-agent systems, information science, and marketing. Unlike in biological spreading, the existence of a reinforcement effect in social contagion necessitates considering the complexity of individuals in the systems. Although many studies acknowledged the heterogeneity of the individuals in their adoption of information (or behavior), there are no studies that take into account the individuals' uncertainty during their decision-making despite its theoretical and experimental evidence in behavioral economics, decision science, cognitive science, or multi-agent systems. This …

A Contingent Approach To Studying Technical Programs In The Public Aerospace Industry, Laura Segarra

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Bibliometric evaluation of the literature indicates that a unified theory of program management does not yet exist. The vastly different definitions and implementations of programs across organizations and industries indicate that program management as an organizational concept is not well understood. As researchers have tried to make sense of various perspectives and definitions, it becomes clear that different kinds of programs exist, and further attention to their context is needed. While relationships between structural and environmental variables have been extensively researched in organizational studies, studies in program management are scant, lack incorporation of environmental variables relevant to programs and projects, …

An Exploratory Assessment Of Small Group Performance Leveraging Motion Dynamics With Optical Flow, Joshua Desantiago

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Understanding team behaviors and dynamics are important to better understand and foster better teamwork. The goal of this master's thesis was to contribute to understanding and assessing teamwork in small group research, by analyzing motion dynamics and team performance with non-contact sensing and computational assessment. This thesis's goal is to conduct an exploratory analysis of motion dynamics on teamwork data to understand current limitations in data gathering approaches and provide a methodology to automatically categorize, label, and code team metrics from multi-modal data. We created a coding schema that analyzed different teamwork datasets. We then produced a taxonomy of the …

An Experimental Investigation Of Creativity In Relation To Extracurricular Activity And Gpa In Undergraduate Engineering Students, Maria Gonzalez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Measuring creativity for engineering is paramount; previous research has shown that creativity diminishes as students advance through college. This study intends to find possible predictors for creativity in these students. These predictors include GPA, Hobbies, and Extracurriculars while using the Test of Creativity Thinking – Drawing Production (TCT-DP) as a benchmark for creativity. Participants were Junior and Senior year engineering students in Spring 2021. All eligible study participants were provided a TCT-DP and survey to complete. Individual creative ability was assessed from the resulting TCT-DP using a 13 categorical scoring matrix by independently trained evaluators using the scoring guidelines. The …

Generic Behavior Framework Of Sx And Ds Nickel-Base Superalloys With Applications To Constitutive And Life Prediction Modeling, Firat Irmak

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Selection of materials to be used for components experiencing extreme conditions is a critical process in the design phase. Nickel-base superalloys have been frequently used for hot gas path components in the turbomachinery industry. These components are required to withstand both fatigue and creep at extreme temperatures during their service time. In general, the extreme temperature materials mostly embody polycrystalline, directionally solidified, and single crystal superalloys. It is essential for design engineers to predict accurate damage behavior and lifespan for these components to prevent catastrophic failures. This dissertation presents a new framework to represent mechanical behavior of Nickel-base superalloys under …

Teoría & Creatividad. La Imagen Visual De La Lírica Y La Competencia Emocional En La Representación Del Arte, Isabel Urdaneta

Honors Undergraduate Theses

El mundo se encuentra lleno de seres humanos que a lo largo de los siglos han desarrollado sorprendentes destrezas y habilidades que les han permitido desarrollarse como individuos en una sociedad. Satisfacerse de las necesidades básicas no es lo suficiente para el ser humano quien debe además desarrollar una forma de comunicación oral y escrita para poder expresar ideas y pensamientos. Partiendo de la noción de que el ser humano necesita comunicarse para poder expresarse, se puede decir que nace la idea de la literatura y el valor de la creatividad humana. La literatura siendo el arte de una lengua …

¡Controlamos La Narrativa!: Collaborative Dramaturgy As A Tool For Latine Representation In Secondary Theatre Education, Domenika N. Moncayo

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Current secondary theatre education in America places a priority on Western ideals of theatre history and practices. Latine theatre history is hardly taught, and if it is, it is touched minimally. Latine culture places an emphasis on a collective, both in theoretical and practical work. Similarly, the practice of dramaturgy itself is rarely mentioned in curriculums, rather intertwined within lessons of acting, directing, and design. This creates an imbalance in practice versus theory in theatre education. I intend to introduce the concept of collaborative dramaturgy: a form of dramaturgy where students collaborate as dramaturgs to bring about discussions about identity. …

Hymnal Of Teeth: Southern Stories Of Folk And Fey, James E. Phillips Iii

Honors Undergraduate Theses

We are the stories we tell. Folk and fairy tales are reflections of the cultures that pass them down. Contemporary literary traditions, such as the Southern Gothic and tales of magical realism, also provide unique ways of responding to concerns within our society. This thesis attempts to merge these literary traditions to create a collection of Southern folk and fairy tales. These stories vary in style from very traditional fairy tales to more modern styles of magical realism and lyrical poetry. This collection was crafted after studying an extensive reading list of novels and short story collections written by masters …

The Importance Of Emotional And Physical Safety In The Success And Development Of Public Spaces, Isabella Wilhelm

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Our day-to-day lives consist of formal and informal settlements in the built environment. As humans, we gravitate towards successful informal settlements (public spaces) to conduct activities such as socializing and recharging. Previous research has highlighted the importance of distinct factors in determining the success of public spaces. Still, research has failed to develop the foundation that makes all public places prosper. Through examining successful and unsuccessful public places through case studies, this research analyses the success and importance of our emotional and physical safety in public spaces through the presence or absence of sound, light, nature, boundaries, and order.

On Your Painted Wings, Sandra M. Ford

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent of this thesis is to explore historical issues of Cuban restrictions on emigration through a magical realism lens. Drawing inspiration from Cuban-American writer Ana Menéndez and Columbian writer Gabriel García Márquez, this thesis focuses on family relationships, especially how grief shapes those relationships and the people in them. The thesis approaches these issues of family, grief, and Cuban emigration by weaving a more grounded central narrative with an original fairytale.

Hope Without Assurance: The Eucatastrophic Nature Of Tolkien's Arda, Grant Glavin

Honors Undergraduate Theses

J.R.R. Tolkien’s massive body of work represents decades of effort from a man who, burdened by the suffering and grief of a world he considered to be fallen, wished to combine his love of fairy-stories and mythology with the otherworldly hope of eucatastrophe, Tolkien’s word for unexpected divine joy amid suffering, present at the heart of his strong Catholic beliefs. Tolkien’s world of Arda is consequently full of suffering; it is written as a dark and dangerous place, where dyscatastrophe, the prerequisite suffering before eucatastrophe, exists within the world from its conception and Eden has never been obtainable …

Transformations Of Hanbok In The Age Of Hallyu: Fashion, Cultural Hybridization, And The Construction Of Vernacular Korean Nationalism, Katharine V. Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Hanbok is the traditional fashion of South Korea, and literally translates to “Korean clothing.” Once worn every day, today hanbok is reserved for special occasions and holidays; however new “modern” versions of the attire are becoming more and more popular for everyday wear. This new iteration of the traditional clothing created a new vernacular of Korean nationalism and “Koreanness” through the incorporation of modern fashion trends and traditional Korean aesthetics. Modern hanbok represents the unique relationship between nationalism, globalization, and fashion, and can be seen as an example of cultural hybridization. Looking at modern hanbok through the lens of Hallyu, …

Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

From 1945 onward, post-war artists in Japan encountered two interrelated challenges: to both adjust to the war’s aftermath, and also to create a new visual language which expressed new ideas and emotions. For women artists in Japan, this time of distinct culture change allowed for a re-defining of their role in the art community as well as society. However, there were strict boundaries surrounding the institutional and academic realm of art, one that was not inviting to women, or one that allowed opportunity or growth. Nevertheless, many women artists sought to explore gender roles, the idea of womanhood, sexuality, and …

La Carroza Dorada (The Golden Carriage), Camila Cal Mello

Honors Undergraduate Theses

La Carroza Dorada (The Golden Carriage) is a collection of essays and poetry that details the narrator’s life growing up as an immigrant from Uruguay in the United States. Through each piece, the narrator explores themes in her own life relating to family, grief, self-identity, gender roles, language, distance, and more that directly relate to the perspective of a young immigrant. Inevitably, these personal themes connect to broader issues that affect every immigrant such as the Latinx experience, familial hardships, social/economic class differences, and cultural differences. The narrator explores the American Dream and the balancing act between dream and reality …

Good Patients, Susan Mesler-Evans

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis is the first 21 chapters (approximately 150 pages) of a novel, Good Patients, accompanied by a complete synopsis. Good Patients is a social satire which seeks to touch on the flaws of the American healthcare system and social media culture, and how these two intersect for many people. To prepare for writing, I spent my first semester completing a guided reading list and preparing the synopsis, both of which were approved by my thesis chair. While writing, I consulted several medical articles to make my work as accurate as possible. The novel explores the way social media …

Contained Identities: Forms Of Resistance In Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictee And Pamela Lu's Pamela: A Novel, Zohra Qazi

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis analyzes groundbreaking experimental texts by Asian American writers that employ genre-bending formal innovations to resist the uneasy containment of social hierarchies and aesthetic categories. After a brief discussion of Monica Youn’s 2019 poem, “Study of Two Figures (Pasiphaë/Sado),” I trace such experimentation back to the late twentieth century, focusing on two other texts that explore similar strategies of literary experimentation and that present themselves as novels but, as Youn does with poetry, resist that classification at the same time. The experimental expansions of form in both Theresa Hak Kyung Cha’s Dictee (1982) and Pamela Lu’s Pamela: A Novel …

Illuminated Books: A Voyage Through The Verbal-Visual And Caribbean Folklore, Shannon Ganeshram

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis looks at the modern recontextualization of the illuminated book. Utilizing an interdisciplinary approach to English literature and the arts, it illustrates the dialectic between word and image. In my writing, I explore artists’ books as a physical representation of the constant dialogue of the verbal-visual relationship and how they affect each other. In this endeavor, I create an artist book, a modern bestiary that alludes to the myths and folklore of the Indo-Caribbean, specific to the country of Guyana.

Authoring Inclusion: The Sonnet's Shifting Form, Aloysius Devine

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The history of canonical love poetry is inaccurate without the inclusion of minoritized groups. The relevance of the sonnet’s incomplete history and its lingering impact on contemporary poetry are not examined enough within academia. The sonnet is taught through white-, straight-, and cisgender-centered lenses, contributing to the erasure of historically relevant sonneteers who do not align with these identities. This thesis celebrates the diverse history of sonneteering, while drawing attention to the remaining narrow-mindedness within the poetic community. This thesis dismantles traditional elements of the sonnet through varying form, subject matter, and stylistic choices.

When viewed in the physical form, …

The Concept Of Grief: A Phenomenological Account With Continual Reference To Kierkegaard, Nathan Sweetman

Honors Undergraduate Theses

My thesis argues that Søren Kierkegaard provides a perspective on grief that validates emotional experience while offering the opportunity for transcendence beyond the immediacy of grief through the work of love in recollecting one who is dead. Conventional philosophical approaches offer an incomplete picture by focusing on grief either as exclusively emotional or exclusively moral. The alternative methodology of phenomenology serves to draw out common threads from the intensely subjective, inward experience of grief. Kierkegaard’s writings on the topics of grief, sorrow, and love for the dead reflect the complexity uncovered in the phenomenological analysis. Traditional interpretations of Kierkegaard’s call …

Revealing The Black Form: Black Bodies In Nineteenth-Century French Orientalist Visual Art, Nathanael Amir Justin Lapierre

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the nineteenth century, Orientalism functioned as a Western tool for dominating and restructuring the perception of the Orient. In France, where Orientalism found favor amongst artists, Orientalist works were produced in the literary and visual arts to inform and control the narrative about the East. Influenced by the Napoleonic imperial conquests and an increased French presence in the East, Orientalism became an integral movement in the French visual arts. The relationship between France and the Orient was one of power and domination, which was mirrored in that between the French and the Blacks.

As a part of the Western …

Negative Space: The Transference Of Trauma, Jeremy Robinson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Is trauma tangible? My thesis will examine my experiences with trauma and the influence it has on my practice as a visual artist. I define trauma as the reaction to physical and emotional experiences of distress, abuse, and neglect, that invaded mind and body. My traumatic memories remain subconsciously hidden, an instinctive 'survival instinct' failsafe ingrained into my psyche, that files away many unbearable experiences, only to be evoked and experienced in the present by a trigger. For me, domestic space is often that trigger. Throughout the reflective analysis of my childhood traumas, I showcase the allegorical stories, signifiers and …

Online Engagement In Graduate Technical Communication Education, Tabatha Kless

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

In this study, I conducted a content analysis to investigate engagement in online graduate technical communication programs. I wanted to evaluate this topic because online learning and engagement evolve, so it is fitting to evaluate how educational policies, learning methods, and technology have developed in technical communication education. The content analysis consisted of coding course material from three technical communication courses, mostly assignment descriptions, and instructions based on the language in the documents. I found strategies that develop skills 21st century technical communicators should have, such as discussions, service learning, and research papers.

Stress, Coping, And Disease Awareness With Metabolic Disease Risk: A Longitudinal Cohort Study, Chelsea Anestal

Honors Undergraduate Theses

College students undergo stressors (e.g., potential financial strain, changes in workload or location), which may precipitate metabolic syndrome (MetS) risk associated with obesity and high blood pressure. Concerning rises in young adult obesity and type 2 diabetes, prompt study into MetS risk factor prevalence and awareness in youthful populations transitioning to new environments, such as college. This study assessed perceived stress, coping resources, and disease awareness differences in the first time on campus and final-year students associated with MetS risk factors (elevated body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure). We hypothesized lower stress perception, lower weight gain and blood …

Sense Of Support: The Impact Of Healthcare Encounters On The Breastfeeding Experiences Of African American Mothers, Olivia M. Rauls

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Although many studies have found a substantial racial disparity in infant feeding habits, the factors contributing to this unique disparity and potential solutions remain unknown. The general importance of social interactions and medical interventions in successful breastfeeding has been studied, but little research addresses the specific experiences of breastfeeding Black mothers interacting with their medical providers. This paper examines the perspectives of Black women with breastfed infants on their encounters with healthcare providers during prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods. Using qualitative data from 22 in-depth interviews addressing infant feeding decisions and experiences, this paper analyzes the link between healthcare interactions …

Covid-19 And Diabetes, Radhika Desai

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Patients with Type 2 Diabetes (T2D) have been found to have increased mortality and morbidity for COVID-19 and are at higher risk for severe disease once infected with COVID-19. Clearly, there exists a relationship between T2D and COVID-19 that requires more attention. In order to understand the mechanisms by which T2D contributes to more severe COVID-19 disease, attention was turned to extracellular vesicles (EVs). It was speculated that viral RNA components of the COVID-19 virus may have originated from circulating EVs that came from infected cells and use a Trojan Exosome method to infect host cells. It is necessary to …

Mean Pressure Gradient Effects On Flame-Flow Dynamics In A Cavity Combustor, David M. Smerina

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Pressure gradient confinement effects are experimentally investigated within a cavity combustor to analyze the flame interactions of premixed, cavity stabilized, flames in a high-speed combustor. Pressure gradient confinement effects are generated in a dual mode ramjet-scramjet (DMSR) by varying the wall geometry to form converging, diverging, and nominal configurations. The velocity field and flame position are captured temporally using simultaneous high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) and CH chemiluminescence. The evolution of the flow field and flame structure are analyzed, and the high temporal resolution of these measurements allows for the characterization of turbulence-flame interactions. Consideration of the combustion mode and …

Computational Strain Analysis In Microbiome Datasets With Application To Skin Disease, Minerva Fatimae Ventolero

Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020-2023

Identifying bacterial strains is important not only for human health research but also for various environmental and industrial applications. The plethora of available shotgun metagenomic datasets provide an unprecedented opportunity to discover novel bacterial strains in different environmental niches. In this thesis, we evaluated the existing novel-strain-based tools and showed that their performance is still suboptimal. Due to the difficulty in distinguishing strains of similar abundance by available tools, the SMS (strains in multiple samples) tool was developed to de novo identify bacterial strains in multiple shotgun metagenomic samples. We showed that SMS distinguishes strains of similar abundance well and …

The Effects Of Viscous Damping On Rogue Wave Formation And Permanent Downshift In The Nonlinear Schrödinger Equation, Evelyn Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis investigates the effect of viscous damping on rogue wave formation and permanent downshift using the higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation (HONLS). The strength of viscous damping is varied and compared to experiments with only linear damped HONLS.

Stability analysis of the linear damped HONLS equation shows that instability stabilizes over time. This analysis also provides an instability criterion in the case of HONLS with viscous damping.

Numerical experiments are conducted in the two unstable mode regime using perturbations of the Stokes wave as initial data. With only linear damping permanent downshift is not observed and rogue wave formation is …

Transcinematheque: Defining Cinematic Language In The Trans New Wave, Mel Turnage

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis aims to analyze the films of the Trans New Wave in order to define tropes and motifs of cinematic language and structure. The language of the filmmaking itself presents a different approach from mainstream transgender films, and this changes how certain imagery of transness is contextualized in a larger narrative. In particular, the films of the Trans New Wave operate in contrast to both historical trans films and modern prestige/studio films to deliver more realistic portrayals of trans peoples’ experiences and beliefs. This new language of the Trans New Wave serves to create a more accurate and profound …