Digital Commons Network^™

Leveraging Cultural Assets Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Individuals In Music Therapy: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study, Emma Grace King

Theses and Dissertations--Music

The purpose of this thesis was to explore how music therapists can engage in cultural humility and leverage cultural assets of those who are culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD). The primary research question involved in this study was: “In what ways can music therapists leverage cultural assets of CLD individuals in practice?” Sub-questions were: “What awareness, knowledge, and skills do music therapists need to grow in culturally sensitive practice?” “How can music therapists whose first language is English effectively serve linguistically diverse individuals?” “What steps might music therapists take to effectively serve culturally diverse individuals?” and “How might cultural and …

Constructing A Cultural Bridge: The Compositional Approach And International Impact Of Albert Mangelsdorff’S Now Jazz Ramwong, Michael Desousa

Theses and Dissertations--Music

In the period following World War II, countries such as Japan, Vietnam, and Thailand were under constant intellectual bombardment from global superpowers vying for political influence. West Germany, a newly established ally of Western democracy, was a small part of a global effort to spread this democracy to Asia. Working alongside Joachim-Ernst Berendt and the Goethe Institute, the jazz trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff arranged an album which sought to merge both Western European and Asian music. The album, Now Jazz Ramwong (1964), and accompanying fifty-concert tour helped pioneer a lasting cultural connection between Western Europe and Asia. The methodology behind Now …

1918: Over Here, Carol Street, Jennifer Hootman

Library Faculty Digital Projects

1918 Over Here is an online, curated exhibit of holdings in the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center and other repositories. The exhibit is intended to tell the story of the impact of World War I on the University of Kentucky campus and Lexington primarily during 1918.

An Agronomic-Economic Approach To Connect Manure Nutrients Back To Grain-Producing Regions, Joshua M. Duke, Joshua M. Mcgrath

Plant and Soil Sciences Faculty Publications

Stakeholders for nutrient-impaired watersheds have long discussed the causes and consequences of nutrient surpluses associated with intensive livestock production. Nonetheless, nutrient surpluses relative to crop requirement, particularly with phosphorus (P), persist and continue to contribute to water quality impairment. Nutrient life-cycle analysis shows that mineral P, from soil minerals or mined fertilizer P, flows to livestock regions from grain-producing regions. Although creating a return flow of these nutrients to grain fields seems like an easy solution, significant economic obstacles exist to creating a connected manureshed over large geographic distances. To limit the impact of manure use on local surface water, …

Social And Biological Determinants Of Pregnancy-Related Mortality And Morbidity In A Rural, Underserved Population, Anna Hansen

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Cases of severe maternal morbidity (SMM) and pregnancy-related mortality (PRM) are increasing in the US. Research concerning SMM and PRM has neglected women in Central Appalachia; a largely rural, health-disparate population. The aims of this study are two-fold: (1) Examine patient-level and place-based predictors of SMM/PRM via hierarchical logistic regression modeling, and (2) Elucidate Appalachian healthcare patients’ and providers’ experiences with SMM/PRM, perceptions of contributing factors, and insights on points of intervention.

This study uses a mixed methods approach guided by the WHO’s conceptual framework for action on social determinants of health to identify determinants of SMM and PRM among …

Social Construction Of Hate Crimes In The Us: A Factorial Survey Experiment, Chenghui Zhang

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Hate crime is a social construct that is conceptualized and defined through judgments about the meaning of bias and prejudice, as well as the causal link between motivation and criminal act. While the enforcement of federal statutes has extended the protected grounds of hate crime, significant underreporting issues impede the understanding of the actual scale, scope, and severity of hate crimes. The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate what and how incident factors and respondents’ preexisting attitudes and beliefs influence the perceptions of a bias incident and the willingness to report such incidents. Following a three-paper format, this dissertation …

An Examination Of Three Transitional Events In The Substance Misuse Trajectories Of Women With Criminal Legal System Involvement, Martha Tillson

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

Research has consistently demonstrated that criminal legal system (CLS)-involved women are distinct from men in initiation and course of drug use, with important differences on biological, environmental, and sociocultural levels. Thus, the unique pathways and transitions into and out of drug use for women with CLS involvement are critical to consider from a research perspective, but also from a need to develop and support evidence-based, women-centered services in correctional contexts. This dissertation project uses a three-paper format to investigate three aims: (1) to understand CLS-involved women’s initiations to injection drug use and their experiences providing injection initiation assistance (IIA) to …

The Role Of Shoc2 In Embryonic Development, Rebecca G. Norcross

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

The canonical ERK1/2 signaling cascade regulates cellular functions critical in vertebrate embryonic development such as proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation, and migration. Thus, its signals are controlled by a variety of mechanisms. Scaffold proteins are considered central to the mechanisms regulating the transmission of the ERK1/2 signals. Yet, their functions in development nor the molecular mechanisms by which they exert their control are not well understood.

This study focuses on the essential regulator of ERK1/2 signals during development – the scaffold protein Shoc2. Loss of Shoc2 leads to early embryonic lethality in mice and zebrafish. Germline mutations in the shoc2 gene result …

Structural Basis For Reversible Glucan Phosphorylation By Glucan Dikinases And Glucan Phosphatases, Tiantian Chen

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Plants store glucose in the form of starch, an insoluble macromolecule that is synthesized and degraded diurnally. Glucan phosphatases play a critical role in starch breakdown, working with glucan dikinases in a cyclic phosphorylation and dephosphorylation. Herein, we present a novel glucan phosphatase Like SEX Four3 (LSF3) from Physcomitrella patens. Structural and enzymatic studies demonstrate that LSF3 is a dimeric glucan phosphatase that displays robust specific glucan phosphatase activity. Dimerization is shown to be essential for LSF3 stability and function. Structure-guided bioinformatic analysis shows that LSF3 is found in early land plants and green algae.

Building upon our understanding of …

Inverse Boundary Value Problems For Polyharmonic Operators With Non-Smooth Coefficients, Landon Gauthier

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

We consider inverse boundary problems for polyharmonic operators and in particular, the problem of recovering the coefficients of terms up to order one. The main interest of our result is that it further relaxes the regularity required to establish uniqueness. The proof relies on an averaging technique introduced by Haberman and Tataru for the study of an inverse boundary value problem for a second order operator.

An Integrated Computational Pipeline To Construct Patient-Specific Cancer Models, Daniel Plaugher

Theses and Dissertations--Mathematics

Precision oncology largely involves tumor genomics to guide therapy protocols. Yet, it is well known that many commonly mutated genes cannot be easily targeted. Even when genes can be targeted, resistance to therapy is quite common. A rising field with promising results is that of mathematical biology, where in silico models are often used for the discovery of general principles and novel hypotheses that can guide the development of new treatments. A major goal is that eventually in silico models will accurately predict clinically relevant endpoints and find optimal control interventions to stop (or reverse) disease progression. Thus, it is …

What Is The Sound Of Holiness? The Regulation Of Sound And Silence In Early Medieval Monastic Communities, 600-900, Melissa Kapitan

Theses and Dissertations--History

This dissertation explores how the regulation of sound and silence in the early medieval monastery formed a distinct soundscape imbued with personal, communal, and theological resonances. More narrowly, this investigation focuses on the Frankish empire of the ninth century, which saw a series of monastic reforms led by the Carolingian royal family and ecclesiastical figures and consolidated in imperial legislation and treatises on the monastic life.

These ninth-century reforms witnessed not only the promotion of a single rule and custom to guide monastic life, but also a great flowering of liturgical texts, including the earliest treatises on musical theory. These …

Deletion Of Period Genes Exacerbates Diet-Induced Obesity In Female, But Not Male, Mice, Elizabeth Kantra

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Sex differences in obesity in mice are mediated by differential responses of circadian rhythms to high-fat feeding in males and females. Other studies also showed circadian Period genes regulate diet-induced obesity in mice. In this study, we investigated the role of the Period genes in regulating sex differences in obesity. Male and female C57BL/6J wild type, Per1/2 KO, and Per1/2/3 KO mice were housed in 12L:12D and fed high-fat diet for 12 weeks. We found a striking sex difference in obesity such that disabling the Period genes exacerbated adiposity in female, but not male, mice. Increased adiposity in female Period …

Understanding The Effects Of Embryonic Hyperglycemia On Retinal Development And Maintenance, Kayla Titialii-Torres

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

Hundreds of millions of people are affected by diabetes worldwide. Whether they are diagnosed with prediabetes or Type I or II diabetes, there are a variety of mechanisms in the pathogenesis of diabetes. Diabetes is a disease which consists of recurring states of hyperglycemia that can be difficult to manage due to either lack of insulin production or improper utilization of insulin. While these mechanisms of action differ, complications induced by diabetes occur in both poorly regulated Type I and II. Common complications of diabetes include nerve damage, kidney damage, and eye damage. Eye damage specifically is called diabetic retinopathy …

Identifying Epidermal Enriched Genes Required For Planarian Regeneration- Sp. Schmidtea Mediterranea, Pallob Barai

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The outer epithelial layer covering an organism, commonly known as the epidermis, is crucial for maintaining homeostasis and for the wound healing processes after injury. The planarian epidermis allows flatworms to heal their wounds and virtually restore any missing tissues. Immediately after amputation, planarians contract their muscle and stretch their epidermis to heal the wound area. However, how the planarian epidermis coordinates with other tissues and mechanisms after the initial wound healing processes begins is not understood in detail. I hypothesized that epidermal cell stretching upon wound healing induces transcriptional changes that are required for effective regeneration. To test this …

Assessing Ear Pinna Repair In The Mrl/Mpj Mouse Strain, Fatemeh Safaee

Theses and Dissertations--Biology

The outcome of tissue repair varies across species. Vertebrates such as salamanders have the ability to not only heal scar-free but also completely regenerate lost appendages. In contrast, most mammals heal their wounds with fibrotic scarring. Understanding the key drivers of these divergent injury responses remains a major unanswered question in animal biology. Previous work with the Murphy’s Roth Large (MRL/MpJ) inbred mouse strain suggested they have the ability to rapidly close small (2mm) ear holes. While this ability was originally published as an example of regeneration, subsequent work by other groups suggested that it might represent something more akin …

The Role Of Protein Tyrosine Phosphatase Receptor Type F In Intestinal Homeostasis And Colorectal Cancer, Ashley T. Skaggs

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Protein phosphorylation defines one of the most important regulatory mechanisms in cell signaling. PTPRF, protein tyrosine phosphatase receptor type F, belongs to the class I R2A subfamily of protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTP). The overall objective of this dissertation is to investigate the molecular mechanisms by which PTPRF regulates normal and cancer stem cells by controlling Wnt signaling.

Dysregulation of Wnt signaling promotes the initiation and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC). We first determined the functional important of PTPRF in regulating Wnt signaling in CRC. Combining cell culture, 3D tumor organoid and xenograft models, results from our study establish PTPRF as …

A Multidisciplinary Characterization Of The Enzymology And Biology Of Reversible Glucan Phosphorylation In Toxoplasma Gondii , Robert Murphy

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

Toxoplasma gondii is an opportunistic, protozoan parasite of all warm-blooded animals, infecting roughly one-third of humans worldwide. Humans acquire infections by consuming T. gondii tissue cysts in undercooked meat or from oocysts shed in cat feces. Encysted parasites convert into rapidly growing tachyzoites that disseminate throughout the body, defining the acute phase of infection. Under host immune pressure, tachyzoites convert into bradyzoites that populate tissue cysts found in CNS or muscle tissue and persist for the lifetime of the host, defining the chronic phase of infection. Tissue cysts are responsible for transmission via carnivory, but also possess the ability to …

Defining Patient Cohorts For Guiding Clinical Trials And Treatment In Lafora Disease: A Model For The Rare Disease Community, Katherine Janae Donohue

Theses and Dissertations--Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry

In the US, approximately 8000 rare diseases have been identified. Combined, rare diseases impact more than 30 million people in the U.S. alone, with 75% of those being children. However, research, funding, and therapeutic development for the rare disease community remains challenging because of the incredible diversity – not only between diseases, but often even within a single disease.

LD is an ultra-rare childhood dementia and epilepsy caused by mutations in one of two driver genes: EPM2A, which encodes for the glycogen phosphatase laforin, and EPM2B/NHLRC1, which encodes the E3 ubiquitin ligase malin. Children with LD …

Remote Sensing For Quantifying C3 And C4 Grass Ratios In Pastures, Jordyn Alyssa Bush

Theses and Dissertations--Plant and Soil Sciences

The following studies investigate the accuracy and practicality of exploiting the color dichotomy present between C₃ and C₄ grass species to estimate their respective proportions from drone or camera captured imagery. Understanding the proportions of C₃ and C₄ grasses in pastures is vital to sound decision making for livestock production. The ability to monitor these proportions remotely will also allow for large scale monitoring as well as detection of changes in botanical composition over time and in response to weather events, management, or climate change. A free green canopy cover (GCC) analyzing software, Canopeo, was used …

Examining Psychological And Knowledge Barriers To Colorectal Cancer Screening In Rural Appalachian Kentucky, Caroline Jenkins, Matthew Rutledge, Lauren Hudson, Nathan L. Vanderford, Nancy Schoenberg

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

While recent rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) screening have improved in Appalachian Kentucky due to public health efforts, they remain lower compared to both KY as a whole, and the USA. Suboptimal screening rates represent a missed opportunity to engage in early detection and prevention. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact that lack of knowledge has on psychological barriers (e.g., fear and embarrassment) to CRC screening as well as the potential effect of a psychosocial intervention to reduce these barriers. Participants were recruited through faith-based organizations and other community sites. After randomizing participants to either an …

The Wheel Of Oppression: Rolling Towards Substance Use In Central Appalachia, Sydney Cox

DSW Capstone Projects

For nearly 100 years, Central Appalachia has been characterized by some of the highest poverty rates in the nation. Not coincidentally, the region has also been characterized by some of the highest rates of substance use. Despite decades of funding and support, Central Appalachia continues to foster a symbiotic relationship between poverty and substance use. The purpose of this project was to explore the missing link that ties the two poor determinants of health together and to provide a name to a phenomenon otherwise omitted from social work and policy making practice within Central Appalachia.

The first product of this …

Child Welfare: Workforce Retention, Competence, And The Connection To Social Work Education, Brittany Stanley

DSW Capstone Projects

While there are many avenues to discuss and explore, the key area of interest for the Capstone Project is that of retention of a competent frontline workforce. Each state has their own set of guidelines for hiring frontline workers which allows for variety in the educational backgrounds of the investigative and ongoing workers. This can become problematic when the educational background may not be the most suited for the work and challenges faced by child welfare workers.

During the development of the Capstone Project, one could not help but wonder that if workers were adequately prepared for the demands of …

Explainable Data-Driven Motor Condition Monitoring And Fault Disgnosis, Yuming Wang

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Industrial motors are widely used in various fields such as power generation, mining, and manufacturing. Motor faults and time-consuming maintenance process will lead to serious economic losses in this context. To monitor motor faults and detect motor conditions, different types of sensors that can test vibration and current signals are mounted on motors. However, the main challenge was how to use information gained by sensors to analyze or diagnose motor conditions.

Machine learning is a popular technology in recent years, and it's very suitable for crunching and analyzing data. As an important subset of machine learning, deep learning is suitable …

Development Of Dc Circuit Breakers For Medium-Voltage Electrified Transportation, Trevor Morgan Arvin

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Medium-voltage DC (MVDC) distribution is an enabling technology for the electrification of transportation such as aircraft and shipboard. One main obstacle for DC distribution is the lack of adequate circuit fault protection. The challenges are due to the rapidly rising fault currents and absence of zero crossings in DC systems compared to AC counterparts. Existing DC breaker solutions lack comprehensive consideration of energy efficiency, power density, fault interruption speed, reliability, and implementation cost.

In this thesis, two circuit topologies of improved DC circuit breakers are developed: the resonant current source based hybrid DC breaker (RCS-HDCB) and the high temperature superconductor …

Models And Optimal Controls For Smart Homes And Their Integration Into The Electric Power Grid, Huangjie Gong

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Smart homes can operate as a distributed energy resource (DER), when equipped with controllable high-efficiency appliances, solar photovoltaic (PV) generators, electric vehicles (EV) and energy storage systems (ESS). The high penetration of such buildings changes the typical electric power load profile, which without appropriate controls, may become a “duck curve” when the surplus PV generation is high, or a “dragon curve” when the EV charging load is high. A smart home may contribute to an optimal solution of such problems through the energy storage capacity, provided by its by battery energy storage system (BESS), heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) …

Determining Power System Fault Location Using Neural Network Approach, Edward O. Ojini

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Fault location remains an extremely pivotal feature of the electric power grid as it ensures efficient operation of the grid and prevents large downtimes during fault occurrences. This will ultimately enhance and increase the reliability of the system. Since the invention of the electric grid, many approaches to fault location have been studied and documented. These approaches are still effective and are implemented in present times, and as the power grid becomes even more broadened with new forms of energy generation, transmission, and distribution technologies, continued study on these methods is necessary. This thesis will focus on adopting the artificial …

Energy-Efficient And Secure Hardware Using Adiabatic Logic And Non-Volatile Mtj Devices, Zachary Kahleifeh

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Internet of Things (IoT) is a collection of devices that exchange data through a network to implement complex applications. IoT devices increase the quality of life of their user base which has a wide variety such as the medical field, consumer electronics, and the manufacturing sector. However, IoT devices have several challenges that need to be overcome namely, security and energy consumption. The threat vector that IoT devices face is growing and includes the following threats, the leakage of information through a side-channel attack known as the Correlation Power Analysis (CPA), authentication, piracy, etc. A side-channel attack is an attack …

Hourly Dispatching Wind-Solar Hybrid Power System With Battery-Supercapacitor Hybrid Energy Storage, Pranoy Kumar Singha Roy

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

This dissertation demonstrates a dispatching scheme of wind-solar hybrid power system (WSHPS) for a specific dispatching horizon for an entire day utilizing a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) configured by batteries and supercapacitors. Here, wind speed and solar irradiance are predicted one hour ahead of time using a multilayer perceptron Artificial Neural Network (ANN), which exhibits satisfactory performance with good convergence mapping between input and target output data. Furthermore, multiple state of charge (SOC) controllers as a function of energy storage system (ESS) SOC are developed to accurately estimate the grid reference power (P_Grid,ref) for each dispatching period. …

Three Dimensional Photonics Structures: Design And Applications, Mansoor Sultan

Theses and Dissertations--Electrical and Computer Engineering

Photonics is an emerging technology for light control, emission, and detection. Photonic devices control photons the same way electronic circuits control electrons in active or passive mode depending on the energy requirement of the device. This dissertation will discuss the design, fabrication, testing of photonic structures with applications including imaging and renewable energy. First, we developed a novel lithography method for fluoropolymer resist based on variable pressure electron beam lithography (VP-EBL). VP-EBL proves to be an efficient method for patterning a widely used, but challenging to process, fluoropolymer, Teflon AF. However, rather than solely mitigating charging, the ambient gas is …