Digital Commons Network^™

Factors That Influence Teachers' Utilization Of Siop Learning Strategies When Teaching English Language Learners, Courtney R. Stuart

Theses and Dissertations

Despite standardized certification tests and popular English Language Learner trainings, the strategies and methods used in two educators’ classes would not be identical. In this case-study we look to see what variables cause teachers to utilize certain strategies and how these variables affect the number of strategies used consistently when teaching ELLs. We study the effect of teachers’ language experiences, certifications, participation in SIOP trainings, education levels, perceived preparedness, and years spent in the classroom.

Using quantitative and qualitative data we conclude that dual-language fluency and professional advancements can lead to teachers using more ELL learning strategies in their classrooms, …

Virtual Screening For Potential New Chemotherapeutic Agents For The Gpr119 Receptor, A Target For Type Ii Diabetes, Jennifer Lizeth Bravo

Theses and Dissertations

Three frames from a molecular dynamics simulation run of a GPR119 receptor homology model were used for this study. The homology model was validated by virtually screening 76 known GPR119 receptor. 85% of these agonists bound to the receptor. Following the validation, 21,000 molecules were selected for the virtual screening study. 862 ligands came from the GPCR Selleckchem/Prestwick library, 42 compounds from the Prestwick Phytochemical library, 20,000 compounds from the ZINC library, plus four molecules from the literature. All ligands were built, geometry-optimized, and docked in the GPR119 models using a protocol combining High Throughput Virtual Screening, Standard Precision, and …

Learning To Detect Pedestrian Flow In Traffic Intersections From Synthetic Data, Abhijit Baul

Theses and Dissertations

Detecting pedestrian flow in different directions at at traffic-intersection has always been a challenging task. Challenges include different weather conditions, different crowd densities, occlusions, lack of available data, and so on. The emergence of deep learning and computer vision algorithms has shown promises to deal with these problems. Most of the recent works only focus on either detecting combined pedestrian flow or counting the total number of pedestrians. In this work, we have tried to detect not only combined pedestrian flow but also pedestrian flow indifferent directions. Our contributions are, 1) we are introducing a synthetic pedestrian dataset that we …

Blood Flow Through An Artery In The Presence Of A Stenosis, Martin Carrillo

Theses and Dissertations

We consider blood flow through an artery in the form of a cylindrical pipe in the presence of a stenosis. Here blood is treated as an incompressible, viscous and non-Newtonian Bingham plastic fluid. We derive the equation of continuity and the momentum equation which are obtained using mass conservation law and momentum conservation law, respectively. Assuming that the flow is due to the pressure drop and wall shear stress, we derive the expressions for the velocity component in the axial direction and the volumetric flow rate in an artery. Computational results for the axial velocity and flow rate are obtained …

Topologically Robust Bulk State In Non-Hermitian Acoustic System, Jannatul Ferdous

Theses and Dissertations

A closed system associated with Hermitian Hamiltonian allows real eigenvalues. However, the behavior and dynamics an open system (with gain and loss) will be addressed through the Non-Hermitian Hamiltonian. Though a non-Hermitian operator can allow only imaginary eigenvalues, if the Hamiltonian of a non-Hermitian operator obey the combined parity time (PT)-reversal symmetry it exhibits the real eigenvalues or energy spectrum. That is where the topology comes into account. If we add gain, loss or disorder in the system in such a way that the topology of the system does not change and keeping the …

Inoculation Of Juvenile Monodelphis Domestica With Zika Virus Using Various Routes Of Infection, Juan Garcia Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Monodelphis domestica is a small marsupial from South America that has been previously been used in human metabolism research. However, their suitability as models for Zika virus (ZIKV) research, is currently unknown. Preliminary studies have shown M. domestica susceptible to ZIKV through the intracerebral route. We utilized immunohistochemistry, and analyzation of serological responses to show that juvenile Monodelphis domestica can be infected with ZIKV by using various routes of infection that include subcutaneous, intraperitoneal, and intramuscular. ELISAs performed on sera confirmed that juveniles injected with ZIKV by all three routes generated anti-ZIKV antibodies. Additionally, ZIKV nonstructural protein 1 was detected …

Investigation Of The C—Cn Bond Activation Of Fluorinated Benzonitriles With [Ni(Dmpe)] And Dft Benchmarking Study With [Ni(Dippe)], Dominique C. Gallegos

Theses and Dissertations

Carbon-carbon bond activation has become a rapidly growing area of research due to its extensive range of applications. Despite the significant progress that has been made in this field, the cleavage of kinetically inert and thermodynamically stable C—C σ-bonds under mild homogeneous conditions remains a challenge. The activation is primarily limited to systems in which either relief of strain or aromatization serves as a driving force. A notable exception to this is the oxidative addition of unstrained C—CN bonds of nitriles. In this study, we are looking at the effect of fluoro substituents. We hypothesized …

Factors That Influence Hispanic Female Pursuit Of An Associate Of Arts Degree At A Hispanic Serving Institution, Maria Victoria Guadarrama

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to investigate the possible influencing factors involved with the Hispanic female population that lives on the Texas and Mexico border and how those factors influence the completion of an Associate of Arts degree at a community college. “Presence in higher education is increasing by all minority groups, except for one; while other ethnic groups—including African Americans—have gradually increased their college graduation rates, Hispanics have seen almost no such progress in three decades” (Montalban, 2015). The border area in southernmost Texas is severely limited by lack of education, parental communication, language background, financial problems, and other influential …

Designing Mimo Omnidirectional Millimeter-Wave Metamaterialantenna For 5g Communications, Khan Md Zobayer Hassan

Theses and Dissertations

A highly efficient, low profile, wideband metamaterial antenna is presented for mm-wave 5G communications. The designed metamaterial resonator structure works as a radiator and operates in the FCC auctioned 28 GHz frequency spectrum (27.5 - 28.350 GHz). The proposed antenna is fabricated on a 10.3mm x 10.3mm and .0787 mm thick Rogers RT5880/Duroid substrate and probe feed is used as the feeding mechanism. The effect of different design parameters on the performance of the antenna is examined and then optimized for the best possible performance. The designed antenna shows wideband characteristics with an impedance bandwidth of 2.22 GHz (27.49 – …

Development Of A Cyberinfrastructure For Assessment Of The Lower Rio Grande Valley North And Central Watersheds Characteristics, Linda Isabel Navarro Navarro

Theses and Dissertations

Due to an increase in urbanization in the Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV), there have been substantial modifications to hydrology causing a decline in water quality to the Laguna Madre watershed. The major concern is the inflow of freshwater from the North and Central waterways released to the Lower Laguna Madre which is designated as an impaired watershed for high concentrations of bacteria and low dissolved oxygen. The objective of this study is to perform a watershed characterization to determine potential pollution sources of each watershed by developing a cyberinfrastructure and collect a wide inventory of data. The objective will …

Enhanced Detection Efficiencies And Reduced False Alarms In Searching For Gravitational Waves From Core Collapse Supernovae, Gaukhar Nurbek

Theses and Dissertations

A supernova is a star that flares up very suddenly and then slowly returns to its former luminosity or, explodes violently with energy $10^{52}$ erg. There are stars which are 10 times or more massive than the Sun, which usually end their lives going supernova. When there is no longer enough fuel for the fusion process in the core of the star and inward gravitational pull of the star’s great mass takes place, the star starts to explode. A series of nuclear reactions starts taking place after the star begins shrinking due to gravity. In the final phase of this …

Optimal Quantization For Mixtures Of Two Uniform Distributions, Eduardo Orozco

Theses and Dissertations

The basic goal of quantization for probability distribution is to reduce the number of values, which is typically uncountable, describing a probability distribution to some finite set and thus approximation of a continuous probability distribution by a discrete distribution. Mixtures of probability distributions, also known as mixed distributions, are an exciting new area for optimal quantization. In this thesis, for a mixed distribution we determine the optimal sets of n-means and the nth quantization errors for all positive integers n.

Limits Of Variationality In Full Configuration Interaction For The H2 Model System, Oscar Obed Rodriguez Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

We proposed a framework for exploring the limits of variationality in full configuration interaction (FCI) calculation of molecular electronic structure. We performed FCI calculations on the minimal basis (STO-3G) H2 model for the energy, gradient, and derivative coupling. These calculations were validated by finite difference. These quantities were recalculated with controlled injection of error in the FCI coefficient. The gradient was observed to be highly sensitive to error, while the energy and derivative coupling were robust to errors in the coefficients of nearly 10%. This study lays the groundwork for calculation of other derived quantities, such as the Hessian, adiabatic …

Optimality Of Delaunay Triangulations, Estefania A. Sierra

Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, we begin by defining and examining the properties of a Voronoi diagram and extend it to its dual, the Delaunay triangulations. We explore the algorithms that construct such structures. Furthermore, we define several optimal functionals and criterions on the set of all triangulations of points in Rd that achieve their minimum on the Delaunay triangulation. We found a new result and proved that Delaunay triangulation has lexicographically the least circumradii sequence. We discuss the CircumRadii-Area (CRA) conjecture that the circumradii raised to the power of alpha times the area of the triangulation holds true for all α …

Unravelling The Role Of Pgpr "Pseudomonas Fluorescens" In Semi- Arid Soils Of The Rio Grande Valley, Mandip Tamang

Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1: In this chapter, we have provided a review on the components of rhizosphere engineering and the potential use of PGPR and its challenges to serve as an efficient component for sustainable agriculture.

Chapter 2: In this chapter, we isolated 35 different strains of a PGPR, Pseudmonas fluorescens and characterized various plant growth promoting traits such as production of ammonia, protease, Indole acitic acid (IAA), 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACC) deaminase, ammonia, hydrogen cyanide (HCN), and souliblization of zinc and phosphate.

Chapter 3: In this chapter, we tested the influence of plant beneficial soil microbe, P. fluorescens, on the growth and …

A Study Of Nanogenerator Based Flow Sensor, Farzana Tasnim

Theses and Dissertations

The utilization of kinetic energy from fluid flow to power sensory systems is experiencing an all-time high research focus. Invention of nanogenerators have fueled this research focus with unprecedented flexibility of applications. Many studies have reported on utilizing the mechanism of nanogenerator for sensing fluid flow. In this short work, we have summarized different types of self-powered nanogenerator-based flow sensors and their applications. We have also classified the use of Nanogenerator based flow sensors in different fields, such as Bio-medical Application, Fluid velocity sensing, and Chemical Detection. In the Bio-medical field, the flow sensor can be used for the patient’s …

Coordinating Stem Core Courses For Student Success, Cristina Villalobos, Hyung Won Kim, Timothy J. Huber, Roger Knobel, Shaghayegh Setayesh, Lekshmi Sasidharan, Anahit Galstyan, Andras Balogh

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Research indicates multi-section coordination improves the academic performance of students in STEM education. This paper describes the process of coordination in Precalculus, Calculus 1, and Calculus 2 courses undertaken by a large department that grew from the merger of two institutions through a pilot program, and a project grant. Components introduced in the project courses are documented, including collaborative problem-solving sessions, student learning assistants, Q&A sessions, and additional technology resources. Preliminary data is provided on the impacts of the initiative on student success. The study findings provide a template for coordination, faculty buy-in, and increased student engagement at similar institutions …

Two-Year Responses Of Heart Rate And Heart Rate Variability To First Occupational Lead Exposure, Yuling Yu, Lutgarde Thijs, Cai-Guo Yu, Wenyi Yang, Jesus D. Melgarejo, Dongmei Wei, Fangfei Wei, Tim S. Nawrot, Peter Verhamme, Harry Roels

School of Medicine Publications

Because of the falling lead exposure, the literature relating autonomous nervous function to blood lead (BL) has limited relevance. In the longitudinal Study for Promotion of Health in Recycling Lead (URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT02243904), we recorded the 2-year responses of heart rate (HR), HR variability (HRV; Cardiax, International Medical Equipment Developing, Budapest, Hungary), and median nerve conduction velocity (Brevio, NeuMed, West Trenton, NJ), a routine test in occupational medicine, to first lead exposure in 195 newly hired workers (91.3% men; mean age, 27.8 years). High- and low-frequency HRV power and orthostatic HRV responses were derived from 5-minute ECGs …

Automated Identification Of Lines In Data From Gravitational Wave Detectors, Thomas A. Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

On the frontier of gravitational wave (GW) astronomy, the LIGO detectors record vast quantities of data that need to be analyzed constantly for rare and transient GW signals. A foundational problem in LIGO data analysis is the identification of spectral line features in the Power Spectral Density (PSD) of the data. Such line features correspond to high power terrestrial or instrumental signals that must be removed from the data before any search for GW signals can take place. In this study the method developed aims to automate the extraction of the frequencies and bandwidths of the lines, treated as sharp …

Automated Quality Control In Manufacturing Production Lines: A Robust Technique To Perform Product Quality Inspection, Mark Anthony Reyna

Theses and Dissertations

Quality control (QC) in manufacturing processes is critical to ensuring consumers receive products with proper functionality and reliability. Faulty products can lead to additional costs for the manufacturer and damage trust in a brand. A growing trend in QC is the use of machine vision (MV) systems because of their noncontact inspection, high repeatability, and efficiency. This thesis presents a robust MV system developed to perform comparative dimensional inspection on diversely shaped samples. Perimeter, area, rectangularity, and circularity are determined in the dimensional inspection algorithm for a base item and test items. A score determined with the four obtained parameter …

A Game Theoretical Analysis Of Non-Linear Blockchain System, Lin Chen, Lei Xu, Zhimin Gao, Ahmed Sunny, Keshav Kasichainula, Weidong Shi

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Recent advances in the blockchain research have been made in two important directions. One is refined resilience analysis utilizing game theory to study the consequences of selfish behavior of users (miners), and the other is the extension from a linear (chain) structure to a non-linear (graphical) structure for performance improvements, such as IOTA and Graphcoin. The first question that comes to mind is what improvements that a blockchain system would see by leveraging these new advances. In this paper, we consider three major properties for a blockchain system: 𝛼-partial verification, scalability, and finality-duration. We establish a formal framework and prove …

Rare Earth Free Bright And Persistent White Light Emitting Zinc Gallo-Germanate Nanosheets: Technological Advancement To Fibers With Enhanced Quantum Efficiency, Bhupendra B. Srivastava, Santosh K. Gupta, Raul Barbosa, Alexa Villarreal, Karen Lozano, Yuanbing Mao

School of Integrative Biological & Chemical Sciences (Formerly Dept. of Chemistry)

Recent materials science and engineering research focused on defects, dopants, hosts, and morphological structures has resulted in novel cost efficient and sustainable phases with extraordinary properties and performance. Contributing in this direction we have designed dopant and rare earth free white lightemitting zincgallogermanate (ZGG) phosphors in nanosheet (NS) morphology. These ZGG NSs with interlayer and interfacial defects display bright white photoluminescence (PL) with significant quantum yield (QY). Thermal treatment of the as-synthesized ZGG NSs at 750 1C does not degrade their sheet-like morphology while resulting in long persistent luminescence (PerL) with a duration of approximately one hour. Furthermore, to improve …

Design And Modeling A Tunable Non-Hermitian Acoustic Filter, Sandeep Puri

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, we explore an application of a non-Hermitian acoustic system with tunable loss in filtering specific frequencies from an upcoming signal at will. Using the commercial computational software, we design our proposed tunable filter made of a phononic super-lattice. The super-lattice consists of two sublattices connected in series. The first sublattice is Hermitian, whereas the other can be Hermitian or Non-Hermitian depending on the amount of loss induced in it. By introducing the loss in the system, we observe the generation of absorbed resonances that can be seen in the reflection spectrum. The range of the filtered frequencies …

Practical Challenges Of Using Sunn Hemp As A Cover Crop In The Lower Rio Grande Valley, Qulina Rai

Theses and Dissertations

Sunn hemp (Crotalaria junceae) is an emerging cover crop with many reported benefits such as nitrogen fixation, carbon sequestration, and suppression of weeds and nematodes. Relatively little is known about appropriate ways to inoculate sunn hemp ensuring nitrogen fixation, and diseases that affect sunn hemp within the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.

Four sticking agents, peanut oil, jaggery, gum arabic, and water used to aid inoculation of Bradyrhizobium japonicum in sunn hemp was checked on nodulation. Water treatment was least effective. Peanut oil and jaggery treatment showed better performance in overall total nodules, and active nodules. Gum …

Temporal Convolutional Neural Network For Intrusion Detection, Luis Javier Romo Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

Intrusion detection is an important endeavor for large organizations who are constantly targeted by malicious actors. The nature of network traffic data creates many challenges for researchers that want to create an accurate and efficient system for detecting attacks on networks. Many machine learning algorithms have been developed to take on this task. In this paper, we will review some of these techniques, some data sets used to test these techniques, and an experiment where we developed an intrusion detection system that uses a convolution neural network that can perform sequence modeling. This convolutional neural network outperformed a long-shorted term …

Absolute Power Measurements For Advanced Ligo Photon Calibrator, Francisco Llamas Villarreal

Theses and Dissertations

Since its first detection in 2015, the Light Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory has been notably recognized for the successful measurement of gravitational waves. The successful detection of gravitational-waves comes from the effort of more than a thousand scientist working in collaboration. To characterize the change in displacement of the ETMs, LIGO uses several methods of calibration. The Photon Calibrator has gained significance to the point of becoming the primary calibration tool for the Advanced LIGO detectors. Relying on photon radiation pressure to calibrate the interferometer, the photon calibrator measures the change in displacement of the ETM in relation to the power …

Gupta, Ramanujan, Dyson And Ehrhart: Formulas For Partition Functions, Congruences, Cranks, And Polyhedral Geometry, Joselyne Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

We will revisit Gupta's result regarding properties of a formula for restricted partitions and generalize this. We will then use this result to prove an infinite family of congruences for a certain restricted partition function. We find and prove combinatorial witnesses, also known as cranks, for the congruences using polyhedral geometry.

Semantic Adversarial Attack On Support Vector Machine, Yessica Rodriguez

Theses and Dissertations

Despite the breakthroughs in machine learning, most classifiers are not robust against adversarial attacks. They can be easily fooled by adversarial examples. These examples can be created in a variety of ways. In this thesis, the ideas of detecting edges or critical pixels in an image are investigated that could be used for fooling classifiers. Identifying those critical pixels in an image can lead the way to fix the vulnerabilities and thus making it robust against cyber-attacks. For testing, a Support Vector Machine (SVM) is used to see the success of the adversarial examples generated.

Flexible And Surface Modified Znsno3 Nanocubes For Enhanced Piezoelectric Power Generation And Wireless Sensory Application, Sk Md Ali Zaker Shawon

Theses and Dissertations

Piezoelectric systems and their mechanisms are held in high regard, due to their cost-effective structure and mechanical proficiency to harvest renewable energy. In the present article, we propose an aluminum-doped zinc stannate (ZnSnO3) piezoelectric nanogenerator that can be employed for the harvest of energy and sensory applications. In order to ensure and further enrich the piezoelectric mechanics and product outcome in our device, ZnSnO3 was doped with 1 wt% to 5 wt% of aluminum nanoparticles. We reported that 2 wt% of aluminum-doped ZnSnO3 showed the highest electrical output in terms of open circuit voltages and short circuit current.

The nanogenerator …

Numerical Modeling For Patch Antennas, Luis Mario Bres Castro

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on creating a number of designs that will be tested in a simulation environment using an electromagnetic solver software called Computer Simulation Technology(CST) as well as we are going to develop our own model to be able to simulate more complex design due to the limitations of CST licensing. The simulations will help us optimize the parameters of gain-frequency allocation for future projects of antenna building. After doing a parametric study of a patch antenna we will develop a model for the return signal of a signal patch antenna, we will present four potential models. The …