Digital Commons Network^™

Southern Alterity In The Global Modernist Novel, 1899-1966, Benjamin J. Wilson

Theses and Dissertations--English

My dissertation examines the portrayal of southern alterity in the global modernist novel. The trope of southern spaces as sites of decay, degeneration, and dissolution proves to be remarkably durable in both fictions set within the domestic U.S. south, as well as those colonial and postcolonial texts associated with the global modernist canon. Novels like Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! suggest that the alterity of places like the Congo and Haiti are inextricably bound up with racial hierarchies. On the other hand, texts such as Charles W. Chesnutt’s The Marrow of Tradition and Zora Neale …

Race Youth In Twentieth-Century American Literature And Culture, Claire E. Lenviel

Theses and Dissertations--English

Race Youth in Twentieth-Century American Literature and Culture argues for the centrality of black youth, both real and literary, to the trajectories of African American literature and its repudiation of white supremacy. Drawing on research into the rise of the adolescent and teenager as distinct social categories, I argue that age-based subjectivity should inform how we read race-based subjectivity. My first chapter explores how early twentieth-century black periodicals push back against white supremacist theories of human development in an explicit appeal to what I call “race youth,” the children and adolescents who would take up the mantle of racial uplift. …

Wisdom From The Collard Field: Exploring Agrarian Community In Twenty And Twenty-First Century American Literature, Robert M. Gorum

Theses and Dissertations--English

This dissertation surveys agrarian literature written by American writers since World War II. It compares the Southern Agrarians of Vanderbilt University and New Agrarians such as Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, and Gene Logsdon to examine their understanding of place and home. I begin my inquiry with a personal frame story of time I have spent in and around the sustainable agriculture movement. Drawing on various forms of literature, including memoirs, cookbooks, novels, reportage, and other scholarship, I explore American ideals since World War II relating to the production and consumption of food.

I begin my opening chapter with a reassessment …

Wilderness Of Freedom: Slave Narratives, Captivity Narratives, And Genre Transformation In Keckley's Behind The Scenes, Hannah Gautsch

Theses and Dissertations--English

As a modiste well-versed in the social expectations of the domestic world, Elizabeth Keckley crafted an autobiography that would appeal to this wide variety of audiences. Throughout the 1850s, women across the nation negotiated the terms of True Womanhood and identified activism as a space where women could engage with national concerns. At the same time, literary production in the US was increasing exponentially, creating room for literature to be used as a means of social change. Contemporary scholars have devoted much attention to the ways Keckley’s Behind the Scenes combines elements of multiple genres to assure its long-term survival …

A Biochemical Characterization Of The Fusion Proteins From Enveloped Rna Viruses, Chelsea T. Barrett

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Enveloped viruses must bind target cells and then fuse the viral membrane with a cell membrane to enter a host cell. These viruses use one or more surface glycoproteins to carry out these critical functions. The surface glycoprotein that carries out the fusion function, termed a fusion protein, is divided into three classes based on structural similarities. Some of the most studied human viral pathogens, such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Ebola virus, influenza, measles, and the recently emerged severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), possess class I fusion proteins. Following synthesis, class I fusion proteins associate as non-covalently …

Substrate Trafficking Within The Type Vii Secretion Systems Of Pathogenic Mycobacteria, Zachary A. Williamson

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Tuberculosis (TB), primarily caused by infection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) in the lungs, is the deadliest infectious bacterial disease killing 1.5 million people annually. A major determinant of virulence is active secretion through three specialized type VII secretion (ESX) systems; ESX-1, ESX-3, and ESX-5. A large group of substrates exported by the ESX systems is the PE (Proline-Glutamine) and PPE (Proline-Proline-Glutamate) families of proteins, which are highly expanded in the pathogenic species of Mycobacteria and encompass over 7% of Mtb’s genome coding capacity. PE and PPE proteins interact together to form PE-PPE heterodimers, and are secreted through …

Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Optic Fissure Fusion During Zebrafish Eye Development, Megan Weaver

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Vertebrate retinal development requires timely and precise fusion of the optic fissure. Failure of this event leads to congenital vision impairment in the form of coloboma. Recent studies have suggested hyaloid vasculature to be involved in OF fusion. In order to examine this link, we analyzed optic fissure fusion and hyaloid vasculogenesis in the zebrafish pax2a noi mutant line. We first determined that pax2a^-/- embryos fail to accumulate F-actin in the optic fissure prior to basement membrane (BM) degradation. Furthermore, using 3D and live imaging we observed reduced OF hyaloid vascularization in pax2a^-/- embryos. When examining the connection …

The Social Behavior Of Pine Sawflies In The Genus Neodiprion, John W. Terbot Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Group living is found across the animal kingdom ranging from temporary mating aggregations to complex, eusocial lifestyles. A particularly common form of group living found among insects are larval or nymphal herds. This lifestyle consists of immature insects living together and results in several proposed costs and benefits. Benefits of this lifestyle include improved ability to regulate a group’s microenvironment, more efficient use of their host, and the ability to engage in collective predator defenses. Offsetting these benefits are costs resulting from living in close proximity to conspecifics which include increased competition, greater visibility to predators, and heightened disease risks. …

Leveraging Transcriptomic Approaches To Identify Differences In Genetic Programming Driving Two Distinct Wound Healing Mechanisms, Regeneration And Fibrosis, In Acomys And Mus, Shishir K. Biswas

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Why can some animals and others cannot? This fundamental question has fueled scientists studying regeneration for hundreds of years since early observations in crayfish, salamanders and many other organisms. While most contemporary work in regeneration is done in a handful of species including salamanders, zebrafish and flatforms, these organisms lack a closely-related, non-regenerating sister species from which unique genetic differences can be identified. Additionally, while much has been learned from these organisms, they do not share fundamental biological traits with mammals (endothermy, metabolism and immune system) which limits the ability to translate this research for clinical medicine. To this end, …

Pre-Clinical Advancements In Biomarkers, Tools, And Therapeutics For A Metabolic Neurodegenerative Disease, Zoë Simmons

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Glycogen is the storage form of glucose and a highly important substrate for cellular metabolism. Characterization of the enzymes and mechanisms of glycogen metabolism began over 70 years ago and over the last 20 years, a previously unknown protein called laforin has emerged as an important contributor to glycogen metabolism homeostasis. Multiple labs demonstrated that laforin is a glycogen phosphatase and mutations in the gene encoding laforin cause the formation of aberrant glycogen-like aggregates called Lafora bodies (LBs). LBs are cytoplasmic, water-insoluble aggregates that drive neurodegeneration and early death in Lafora disease (LD) patients. The direct relationship between mutated laforin, …

Boundary Integral Equation Method For Electrostatic Field Prediction In Piecewise-Homogeneous Electrolytes, Christopher Keith Pratt

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

This thesis presents a method to predict electrostatic fields, potentials, and currents in regions containing piecewise-homogeneous electrolytes. Additionally, an efficient electric field calculation is presented. A boundary integral equation is formulated for the boundary potentials and currents and is discretized using the Locally Corrected Nyström method. Solution convergence with respect to the mesh discretization and basis order is investigated. The techniques are validated through analysis of problems with either analytic solutions, with published data, or with other solution methods.

Fabrication And Simulation Of Perovskite Solar Cells, Maniell Workman

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Since the dawning of the industrial revolution, the world has had a need for mass energy production. In the 1950s silicon solar panels were invented. Silicon solar panels have been the main source of solar energy production. They have set the standard for power conversion efficiency for subsequent generations of photovoltaic technology. Solar panels utilize light’s ability to generate an electron hole pair. By creating a PN Junction in the photovoltaic semiconductor, the electron and hole are directed in opposing layers of the solar panel generating the electric current. Second generation solar panels utilized different thin film materials to fabricate …

Traveling Wave Fault Location Method For Distribution Systems With Distributed Generation, Oluwafeyisayo Afolabi

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fault location is an important topic within electric power systems, as accurate fault location techniques will improve the reliability of the system and reduce downtime caused by outages. This paper explores fault location in distribution systems with distributed generation using the traveling wave fault location method. The single-ended and double-ended traveling wave methods are evaluated using a single-circuit distribution system which is modeled using MATLAB SIMULINK. The results are compared using a basis of signals and bus pairs across fault types, sampling rates and fault resistances.

Energy Harvesting And Sensor Based Hardware Security Primitives For Cyber-Physical Systems, Carson Labrado

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

The last few decades have seen a large proliferation in the prevalence of cyber-physical systems. Although cyber-physical systems can offer numerous advantages to society, their large scale adoption does not come without risks. Internet of Things (IoT) devices can be considered a significant component within cyber-physical systems. They can provide network communication in addition to controlling the various sensors and actuators that exist within the larger cyber-physical system. The adoption of IoT features can also provide attackers with new potential avenues to access and exploit a system's vulnerabilities. Previously, existing systems could more or less be considered a closed system …

Toward Intelligent Welding By Building Its Digital Twin, Qiyue Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

To meet the increasing requirements for production on individualization, efficiency and quality, traditional manufacturing processes are evolving to smart manufacturing with the support from the information technology advancements including cyber-physical systems (CPS), Internet of Things (IoT), big industrial data, and artificial intelligence (AI). The pre-requirement for integrating with these advanced information technologies is to digitalize manufacturing processes such that they can be analyzed, controlled, and interacted with other digitalized components. Digital twin is developed as a general framework to do that by building the digital replicas for the physical entities. This work takes welding manufacturing as the case study to …

Vibro-Acoustic Codling Moth Larvae Infestation Detection In Apples, Chadwick A. Parrish

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Within recent years, the demand for organic produce has greatly increased due to many factors, including increasing knowledge about such things as dietary fiber and balanced gastrointestinal bacterial ecosystems. This increase in demand, coupled with the financial penalties for sending invasive species and pests across borders, presents a need for a scalable and accurate system to non-destructively detect infestation. The proposed work addresses this problem by testing the performance of a non-destructive vibro-acoustic method for detecting lava activity in apples. This involved 3 steps; design a mechanical data collection prototype for testing apples, a evaluate a set of features, and …

Combining Approximate Computing And Adiabatic Logic For Low-Power And Energy-Efficient Iot Edge Computing, Wu Yang

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

The growing data-intensive applications that run on IoT edge devices require the circuit to be low-power consumption and energy-efficient for limited resources. As conventional Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) scales down to the nanometer technology node, it reaches its limits, such as leakage and power consumption. Adiabatic logic and approximate computing are emerging techniques for the low-power circuit. Adiabatic logic can recycle energy which is a promising solution for building energy-efficient circuits. However, the power clock scheme and dual-rail structure of adiabatic logic increase the overall area. Power consumption is further reduced by applying approximate computing while reducing the complexity and size …

Machine Learning Approach For Vigilance State Classification In Mice, Anik Muhury

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Sleep has a significant impact on cognitive abilities such as memory, reaction time, productivity, and creative thinking; however, there are many aspects of this important activity that are not clearly understood. Over the last century, researchers have developed technology and animal models to assist in the study of sleep. Manual sleep scoring is time consuming, reduces productivity, and is impacted by human scorer subjectivity. On the other hand, automatic sleep stage categorization can enhance consistency and reliability, aiding professionals in identifying sleep related health problems.

In recent times various studies reported significant achievements for automatic vigilance detection and overcome the …

Weakly Supervised Learning For Multi-Image Synthesis, Muhammad Usman Rafique

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Machine learning-based approaches have been achieving state-of-the-art results on many computer vision tasks. While deep learning and convolutional networks have been incredibly popular, these approaches come at the expense of huge amounts of labeled data required for training. Manually annotating large amounts of data, often millions of images in a single dataset, is costly and time consuming. To deal with the problem of data annotation, the research community has been exploring approaches that require less amount of labelled data.

The central problem that we consider in this research is image synthesis without any manual labeling. Image synthesis is a classic …

Accelerometer-Based Vigilance State Classification In Dairy Cows, Evan King

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Globally, dairy farming is a $700 billion industry, with more than 9 million dairy cows in the United States alone. Depriving cows of required activities such as sleep has been shown to negatively impact reproductive efficiency, decrease the volume of milk produced, and increase the risk of culling. Overcrowded herds can decrease individual animal health, demanding the need for automatic behavior detection that would provide insight into their state of health.

Using electroencephalography (EEG), electrooculography (EOG), and electromyography (EMG) to characterize the phases of sleep is a technique which has been used for decades. While these techniques are considered the …

Research On Power System State Estimation Problems – Series-Compensated Transmission Line Parameter And Load Model Parameter Estimation, Yiqi Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Transmission line and load model parameters are essential inputs to power system modeling and simulation, control, protection, operation, optimization, and planning. These parameters usually vary over time or under different operating conditions. Thus, reliable estimation methods are desired to ensure the accuracy of those parameters. This research focuses on estimation for transmission line parameters and the ZIP load model. The proposed estimation methods can use both online measurements and historical data of a specified duration. The parameters of long transmission lines with different series-compensation configurations are estimated using linear methods and optimal estimators with bad data detection capability. Additionally, Kalman …

Designing Novel Hardware Security Primitives For Smart Computing Devices, Amitkumar Degada

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Smart computing devices are miniaturized electronics devices that can sense their surroundings, communicate, and share information autonomously with other devices to work cohesively. Smart devices have played a major role in improving quality of the life and boosting the global economy. They are ubiquitously present, smart home, smart city, smart girds, industry, healthcare, controlling the hazardous environment, and military, etc. However, we have witnessed an exponential rise in potential threat vectors and physical attacks in recent years. The conventional software-based security approaches are not suitable in the smart computing device, therefore, hardware-enabled security solutions have emerged as an attractive choice. …

The Associations Among Parental Emotional States, Adolescent Emotional States, And A1c In Adolescents With Type 1 Diabetes, Jennifer L. Yenke

DNP Projects

Background: This study examined depression and diabetes distress (DD) in adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and in their parents. Depressive symptoms and DD are associated with poor glycemic control.

Objectives: To describe the prevalence of parental and adolescent depressive symptoms and DD in the sample and to evaluate correlations among depressive symptoms, DD, and A1c in parent-adolescent dyads in which the adolescents have T1D.

Methods: Thirty-two parent-adolescent dyads completed measures assessing depressive symptoms (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and DD (Problem Areas in Diabetes- Parent of Teen and Teen versions), self-reported socio-demographic and clinical variables, and responded to questions about living …

Promotion Of Most Forms Through Education About Importance Of Advance Care Planning In Seriously Ill Patients, Nidhi More

DNP Projects

Abstract

Purpose: To establish the importance of early Advance Care Planning (ACP) and improve the utilization of Medical Orders for Scope of Treatment (MOST) forms in seriously ill patients by educating providers and nurses to identify patients who meet specified criteria. The goals of this intervention are reduction of readmissions and better quality of life for this patient population.

Methods: A quasi-experimental design was used for evaluation of an Educational intervention to promote MOST forms, Advance Directives (AD) and Palliative Care (PC) consults. A retrospective and prospective chart review was conducted to determine the number of patients who met criteria …

A Multi-Faceted Intervention To Reduce Low Value Diagnostic Studies In A Medical Intensive Care Unit., Jessica Caicedo

DNP Projects

Routine daily chest x-rays (CXRs) and laboratory studies have been identified as low-value care practices that contribute to the rising cost of healthcare without improving quality or outcomes. There is a large body of evidence as well as recommendations from multiple professional organizations for providers to not order unnecessary daily or routine diagnostic studies. Rather, these should be ordered in an on-demand fashion as a response to a specific clinical query. Despite the strength of recommendations, practice remains variable across the U.S. The reasons for resistance to practice change as well as the most effective strategies for implementing sustainable change …

Home Point Of Care Inr Testing In Left Ventricular Assist Device Patients: A Clinical Evaluation, Emily Corsentino

DNP Projects

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to evaluate the complications and adverse events in left ventricular assist device (LVAD) patients when comparing those using home point of care (POCT) international normalized ratio (INR) testing versus lab testing. Additionally, the time in therapeutic window for both these groups was studied. A cost benefit analysis was performed. All this data was compiled into a provider education evaluated by a pre and post-survey design.

Methods: The project is a single-center study that will occur at the University of Kentucky Chandler Medical Center. It is a cross-sectional, pre/post-test design. Data will be collected …

The Impact Of A Change In Leadership, Taylor Collins

DNP Projects

Abstract

Background: Unmitigated stress in nursing results in moral distress, burnout, turnover and poor patient outcomes. Authentic leaders can improve the nurses’ work environment and satisfaction by improving communication and implementing supportive measures.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a change in executive leadership at BSW Grapevine Medical Center reduced nursing job stress as evidenced by improved nurse satisfaction, nurse retention, nurse engagement, patient satisfaction and care outcomes.

Conceptual Framework: Watson’s Theory of Human Caring

Design: This study is a quantitative, descriptive retrospective measurement of two points in time, before and after …

Sustainability Of A Dnp Qi Project On Bmi Screening And Weight Management Documentation In Primary Care, Assal Moori Shir Mohammadi

DNP Projects

Background: Nurses with a Doctor of Nursing (DNP) degree are prepared at the highest level of expertise to provide safe and efficient health care to patients and help bridge the gap between research and evidence-based health care. Although DNP students invest significant effort, time and resources to implement quality improvement (QI) projects, the sustainability of the outcomes of these is not well studied and empirical evidence on sustainability of quality improvement interventions is very limited.

Objective: To assess the sustainability of the QI project titled: “Using Rapid Cycle Improvement to Improve Weight Management” over time and evaluate the characteristics of …

Improving Tobacco Cessation Counseling Documentation In The Primary Care Setting, Brittany Roher

DNP Projects

BACKGROUND: Tobacco cessation counseling and documentation of the counseling is insufficient in many primary care settings across the United States. This can lead to care gaps such as missed opportunities for interventions appropriate to the level of readiness for change with regard to tobacco cessation. In addition, there is a potential for loss of revenue due to missed opportunities to provide a service and/or not capturing the service when provided. The Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act (MACRA) in 2015 started a new payment approach known as the merit-based incentive payment system (MIPS) which identified tobacco screening and cessation …

Optical Seed Sorter-Based Selection Lowers Deoxynivalenol Accumulation In Soft Red Winter Wheat, William Jesse Carmack

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

Fusarium head blight (FHB) of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) results in discolored grain contaminated with deoxynivalenol (DON). DON accumulation, an indicator of FHB resistance, can be quantified and used as the basis for direct phenotypic selection, but testing is expensive. The primary objective of this study was to evaluate an optical seed sorter as an alternative to DON testing for FHB resistance breeding. Three hundred F4 derived soft red winter wheat (SRWW) breeding lines were grown in an inoculated FHB nursery over several years in Lexington, KY. Grain from each breeding line was sorted using an optical seed sorter calibrated …