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Mabalêl., Johannes Visser May 2019

Mabalêl., Johannes Visser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The symphonic song, Mabalel, as presented here, is an extract from a larger composition that also forms part of a greater trilogy of songs on South African texts. Throughout the three texts in the trilogy, themes of nature, pre-civilization society, and African tragedies create unification between the works. In Mabalel, a young native South African girl is sent to get water for her village from the river, when she is unexpectedly attacked by Lalele, a crocodile. The beauty of this text not only lies in its metaphorical representation of the (most often unjust) difficulties and tragedies faced daily by rural, …


Exploring The Indian Opinion : Interpretations Of Colonialism, Anti-Colonial Activism, And Gandhi's Influence In Three African Countries, 1950-1960., Alexander Ganesha Kaliannan May 2019

Exploring The Indian Opinion : Interpretations Of Colonialism, Anti-Colonial Activism, And Gandhi's Influence In Three African Countries, 1950-1960., Alexander Ganesha Kaliannan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

My research began by uncovering connections between the Non-Cooperation movement in India, led by Mohandas Gandhi and the Pan-Africanist movement in Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, illuminating the process in which Nkrumah engaged with Gandhi’s political non-violence and non-cooperation. The research then sought to understand how the Mau Mau uprising acted as anti-colonial activism in Kenya, and how the Indian diaspora in both South Africa and Kenya, were interpreting the colonial response to the Mau Mau. This thesis aims to answer two questions: How did Gandhi’s political philosophies of non-violence influence/inform leaders, activists, and movements in Kenya and Ghana during …


Liminal Aesthetics : Perspectives On Harmony And Timbre In The Music Of Olivier Messiaen, Tristan Murail, And Kaija Saariaho., Jackson Harmeyer May 2019

Liminal Aesthetics : Perspectives On Harmony And Timbre In The Music Of Olivier Messiaen, Tristan Murail, And Kaija Saariaho., Jackson Harmeyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Harmony and timbre have traditionally been viewed as separate parameters by music scholars and treated as such by composers. Once timbre had been understood scientifically, however, as arising from a fundamental frequency and its overtones sounding at different amplitudes, it became desirable to replicate this structure in music. The composers associated with spectral music, a movement which first emerged in Paris in the 1970s, have enthusiastically explored this closer relationship between harmony and timbre, blurring the distinctions that once existed between these concepts. This thesis examines this new liminal relationship between harmony and timbre, asking how their closer unity has …


Classifying And Predicting Walking Speed From Electroencephalography Data, Allen Rahrooh May 2019

Classifying And Predicting Walking Speed From Electroencephalography Data, Allen Rahrooh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Electroencephalography (EEG) non-invasively records electrocortical activity and can be used to understand how the brain functions to control movements and walking. Studies have shown that electrocortical dynamics are coupled with the gait cycle and change when walking at different speeds. Thus, EEG signals likely contain information regarding walking speed that could potentially be used to predict walking speed using just EEG signals recorded during walking. The purpose of this study was to determine whether walking speed could be predicted from EEG recorded as subjects walked on a treadmill with a range of speeds (0.5 m/s, 0.75 m/s, 1.0 m/s, 1.25 …


Student Community Detection And Recommendation Of Customized Paths To Reinforce Academic Success, Yuan Shao May 2019

Student Community Detection And Recommendation Of Customized Paths To Reinforce Academic Success, Yuan Shao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational Data Mining (EDM) is a research area that analyzes educational data and extracts interesting and unique information to address education issues. EDM implements computational methods to explore data for the purpose of studying questions related to educational achievements. A common task in an educational environment is the grouping of students and the identification of communities that have common features. Then, these communities of students may be studied by a course developer to build a personalized learning system, promote effective group learning, provide adaptive contents, etc. The objective of this thesis is to find an approach to detect student communities …


Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano May 2019

Point Cloud Technology For Analysis Of Existing Structures, Jacob Cano

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For this thesis, a study was completed on two different structures on the UCF Orlando campus through the use of both structural plans and point cloud technology. The results sought to understand the viability of point cloud technology as an accurate tool for the static and dynamic modal analysis of existing structures. For static analysis, a portion of the framing of Spectrum Stadium was rendered, modeled, analyzed and compared to a previous case study. The results emphasized how different users can render dissimilar member sizes and lengths due to human judgment on point cloud visuals. The study also found that …


Mediated Physicality: Inducing Illusory Physicality Of Virtual Humans Via Their Interactions With Physical Objects, Myungho Lee May 2019

Mediated Physicality: Inducing Illusory Physicality Of Virtual Humans Via Their Interactions With Physical Objects, Myungho Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The term virtual human (VH) generally refers to a human-like entity comprised of computer graphics and/or physical body. In the associated research literature, a VH can be further classified as an avatar - a human-controlled VH, or an agent - a computer-controlled VH. Because of the resemblance with humans, people naturally distinguish them from non-human objects, and often treat them in ways similar to real humans. Sometimes people develop a sense of co-presence or social presence with the VH - a phenomenon that is often exploited for training simulations where the VH assumes the role of a human. Prior research …


Decision-Making For Vehicle Path Planning, Jun Xu May 2019

Decision-Making For Vehicle Path Planning, Jun Xu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel algorithms for vehicle path planning in scenarios where the environment changes. In these dynamic scenarios the path of the vehicle needs to adapt to changes in the real world. In these scenarios, higher performance paths can be achieved if we are able to predict the future state of the world, by learning the way it evolves from historical data. We are relying on recent advances in the field of deep learning and reinforcement learning to learn appropriate world models and path planning behaviors. There are many different practical applications that map to this model. In this …


Forward Osmosis For Algae Dewatering And Electrical Field-Driven Membrane Fouling Mitigation, Faris Munshi May 2019

Forward Osmosis For Algae Dewatering And Electrical Field-Driven Membrane Fouling Mitigation, Faris Munshi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Efficient and low-energy microalgae harvesting is essential for sustainable biofuel production. Forward osmosis (FO) can provide a potential alternative for algae separation with low energy consumption by using osmotic pressure. In this study, an aquaporin-based polyethersulfone (PES) membrane was evaluated for algae dewatering using FO with three different types of draw solutions (DSs: NaCl, KCl and NH4Cl), and under different cross flow velocities (CFVs). 81% of algae dewatering was achieved with a 29% flux drop. Among three different DSs, although NH4Cl was the best candidate for improved water flux and low reverse salt flux (RSF), it could accelerate cell division, …


Hybrid Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-Based Multi-Objective Optimization: A Case For Sustainable Fleet Mix, Burak Sen May 2019

Hybrid Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment-Based Multi-Objective Optimization: A Case For Sustainable Fleet Mix, Burak Sen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable transportation idea includes not only switching from conventional energy sources to alternative fuel resources, but also diverging from private vehicle use and shifting to alternative transportation modes. As a part of alternative transportation mode, utilizing alternative fuels in public transportation operation supports sustainable transportation at it full-glance. Given their implications in terms of air quality and sustainable movement of people, transit buses, which provide the primary public transportation service, are considered an ideal domain for the deployment of alternative fuels. An input-output (IO) model is developed based on Eora database – a detailed IO database that consists of national …


Grandma Got Passed Over By A Manager: The Intersection Of Age And Gender In Hiring, Alyssa Perez May 2019

Grandma Got Passed Over By A Manager: The Intersection Of Age And Gender In Hiring, Alyssa Perez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research has demonstrated how age stereotypes influence judgment and decision making at work, but older workers are more than just older. All individuals are members of multiple demographic categories, yet we know surprisingly little about how multiple category membership affects judgments and decision making at work. Competing models have been suggested, such as the category activation and inhibition model (Kulik et al., 2007) and the intersectional salience of ageism at work model (Marcus & Fritzsche, 2015). However, empirical tests of these models are scarce. In the present study, the age and gender of job applicants were manipulated in a mock …


Hearing The Voices Of The Deserters: Activist Critical Making In Electronic Literature, Laura Okkema May 2019

Hearing The Voices Of The Deserters: Activist Critical Making In Electronic Literature, Laura Okkema

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Critical making is an approach to scholarship which combines discursive methods with creative practices. The concept has recently gained traction in the digital humanities, where scholars are looking for ways of integrating making into their research in ways that are inclusive and empowering to marginalized populations. This dissertation explores how digital humanists can engage critical making as a form of activism in electronic literature, specifically in the interactive fiction platform Twine. The author analyzes the making process of her own activist Twine game The Deserters and embeds the project within digital humanities discourses on activism and social justice, hypertext, electronic …


Measuring Player Perceptions Of Freedom And Control In Modded And Unmodded Versions Of Bethesda's Skyrim: A Qualitative Play Study, Mark Kretzschmar May 2019

Measuring Player Perceptions Of Freedom And Control In Modded And Unmodded Versions Of Bethesda's Skyrim: A Qualitative Play Study, Mark Kretzschmar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This interdisciplinary dissertation explores perceptions of control in modded and unmodded versions of Bethesda's sandbox video game Skyrim. Sandbox games are known for greater choice options that suggest greater perceptions of control for gamers. Sandbox games also generally encourage the use of user-generated creations called modifications (mods) that users can download to personalize their games. While we need philosophy to understand and define control as a concept, we also need psychology to understand how users perceive control in media studies. At present, qualitative academic research that measures gamer perceptions of control is non-existent as is research on how users articulate …


Changing The Channel: A Study Of Agenda, Immersion And Social Commentary In Art, Nicholas Kalemba May 2019

Changing The Channel: A Study Of Agenda, Immersion And Social Commentary In Art, Nicholas Kalemba

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the concepts and ideas that pervade my body of work in painting. These concepts include immersion and scale, interactions in space, harmony and disunity, flat and dimensional space and perhaps most importantly, ambiguity. I intentionally use these formal devices to create immersive environments that appear as a familiar but skewed version of reality. By forcing together disparate languages of visual representation into the theoretical space of a painting, I strive to expose some of the humor and decay of our social institutions. In using the format of collage, my paintings have the opportunity to incorporate a wide …


Expanding And Shedding The Self: Processing Selfdom Through Painting, Theresa Lucey May 2019

Expanding And Shedding The Self: Processing Selfdom Through Painting, Theresa Lucey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The absurd perpetual struggle, although entirely without hope of resolution, is the key to life's meaning, or perhaps, meaninglessness. The artist must work to live and live to work and find their place in an absurd world. Find joy in the questioning act of art making, make no attempt to escape the meaninglessness through pacifism, and face the chaos with awareness. I employ self-portraiture as a means to dig deeply into my experience and response to living. Self-portraiture morphs along with my experiences and keeps a record of my thought patterns. My body of work is the harvest of my …


The Suburban Nightmare: A Study Of Atmosphere, Mood And Emotion, Ericka Sobrack May 2019

The Suburban Nightmare: A Study Of Atmosphere, Mood And Emotion, Ericka Sobrack

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis body of work, I focus on the implied human presence through the lack of actual human figures. I believe there is more to say in a landscape with the absence of the figure, allowing the dialogue to be read and interpreted by a larger audience. I am particularly satisfied with White Knuckles, shown in figure 3, because I collide reason with imagination, thus contradicting the context and interpretation of the subject matter. In White Knuckles, I deal with formal elements such as composition, atmosphere, lightness and darkness as well as nuances of color. I have also considered …


Exploration Of Life And Decay In Technological Civilization, Mauro Wieser May 2019

Exploration Of Life And Decay In Technological Civilization, Mauro Wieser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Reflecting upon humanity's obligatory use of technology and its place in our collective evolution has become my endeavor. These reflections happen in a studio and through a process that influences the fine art objects produced. In turn the objects both celebrate and warn us of the dynamic and immanent enhanced human. I balance the use of modern machining processes with dark humor to comment and raise questions about the coexistence of man and machine in an increasingly absurd environment.


Designosaurs: Technological Evolution And De-Extinction Through An Advancing Medium, Sean Vanzyl May 2019

Designosaurs: Technological Evolution And De-Extinction Through An Advancing Medium, Sean Vanzyl

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of my imperative need to understand dinosaurs and their role in science and art, acting as prehistoric symbols for science and imagination. Like our understanding of dinosaurs, my body of work is evolving simultaneously with the technology of our time. Through the synthesis of artistic language with science and technology, I create dynamic experiences allowing a viewer to witness an extinct living being in its entirety, an otherwise lost experience. By utilizing digital modeling, animation techniques, and interactive video games, my work speaks to the power and diversity of digital media's role in visualizing artifacts …


Local Community Influences On Interpretation At Historical Sites And Museums, Jason Fitzgerald May 2019

Local Community Influences On Interpretation At Historical Sites And Museums, Jason Fitzgerald

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"Local Community Influences on Interpretation at Historical Sites and Museums" is an analysis in how interpretations of historical content are chosen for visitors and to what degree local communities contribute to this decision process. What determines which stories and historical narratives are presented at historical sites and museums? Is the process of determining how to interpret historical events as simple as relating the event to the time and place that corresponds with that particular site? Is it possible that public historical sites and museums reflect the social values and points of interests of the local communities rather than accepted and …


From The Temple To The Synagogue: Exploring Changes In Judaism After The Fall Of The Second Temple, Adam Cohen May 2019

From The Temple To The Synagogue: Exploring Changes In Judaism After The Fall Of The Second Temple, Adam Cohen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

"From the Temple to the Synagogue" is an analysis on the influence of external cultures, predominantly the Persian religion of Zoroastrianism on the early rabbis following their failed revolt against Rome and the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century CE. How did the Jewish people react to the upheaval of their center of worship? What can we attribute to the major changes in their religious literature and centers of worship following the demise of their rebellion? Is it possible that what has traditionally been seen as an isolated and uniform group of people did in fact borrow …


Pine, Aphids, And Parasitoid Wasps: Patterns Of Cospeciation And Host Switches In A Tri-Trophic System, Amber Bass May 2019

Pine, Aphids, And Parasitoid Wasps: Patterns Of Cospeciation And Host Switches In A Tri-Trophic System, Amber Bass

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ecological interactions may drive speciation events, and the processes that drive these speciation events can leave behind patterns in the phylogenies of interacting taxa. These patterns have been studied extensively in herbivores and host plants, as well as parasites and their hosts, but rarely in tri-trophic systems. Here, we examine three closely related groups of interacting taxa, including parasitoid wasps (Pauesia), aphid herbivores (Cinara), and pine trees (Pinus) to determine if the patterns between each interacting taxa indicate that cospeciation or host switches are more dominant. We create phylogenies of Cinara and Pauesia in the southeastern United States using ddRADseq …


Suspensions And Referrals To Law Enforcement Of African American Students Pre And Post Restorative Justice, Adrienne Brown May 2019

Suspensions And Referrals To Law Enforcement Of African American Students Pre And Post Restorative Justice, Adrienne Brown

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the number of suspensions and referrals to law enforcement from traditional consequences administered to students in a large urban school district in southeastern United States for the school year 2013 to 2014 to the number of suspensions and referrals to law enforcement from consequences rendered after the implementation of restorative justice practices in the 2015 to 2016 school year, as reported to the Civil Rights Office of Data Collection (CRDC, 2016). There was statistical evidence that schools had policies and/or practices in place that had a discriminatory bias towards racial groups when …


Factors Influencing Unmet Medical Need Among U.S. Adults: Disparities In Access To Health Services, Ahmad Khanijahani May 2019

Factors Influencing Unmet Medical Need Among U.S. Adults: Disparities In Access To Health Services, Ahmad Khanijahani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Inequities in access to health services has negative consequences on individual well-being, and imposes financial and emotional burden on patients, families, health care systems, and the public. Inequities engendered from differences in socioeconomic status, health insurance coverage, race, and other characteristics can engender disparities. This study aimed to identify the potential predictors of unmet medical need among the civilian noninstitutionalized U.S. adults. Inability to receive needed medical care or receiving medical care after a delay, due to the associated costs, constructed unmet medical need. This study used a four-year (2014-2017) National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) data (sample size: 296,301 adults) …


Automatic Signal And Image-Based Assessments Of Spinal Cord Injury And Treatments., Samineh Mesbah May 2019

Automatic Signal And Image-Based Assessments Of Spinal Cord Injury And Treatments., Samineh Mesbah

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is one of the most common sources of motor disabilities in humans that often deeply impact the quality of life in individuals with severe and chronic SCI. In this dissertation, we have developed advanced engineering tools to address three distinct problems that researchers, clinicians and patients are facing in SCI research. Particularly, we have proposed a fully automated stochastic framework to quantify the effects of SCI on muscle size and adipose tissue distribution in skeletal muscles by volumetric segmentation of 3-D MRI scans in individuals with chronic SCI as well as non-disabled individuals. We also developed …


Experimental Immunology And The Potential For Osteopathological Reconstructions : Pursuing An Experimental Foundation For The Skeletal Inflammatory Index., Megan Elizabeth Duncanson May 2019

Experimental Immunology And The Potential For Osteopathological Reconstructions : Pursuing An Experimental Foundation For The Skeletal Inflammatory Index., Megan Elizabeth Duncanson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Individuals who mount a strong inflammatory response may produce a shift in the systemic levels of inflammatory mediators, which may lead to a potential hyper-inflammatory phenotype (HIP). Systemic inflammation can increase severity in local inflammatory processes detected in bone lesions. This thesis investigated in vitro if human immune cells pre-treated with inflammatory inducers would affect the inflammatory response against Porphyromonas gingivalis or Staphylococcus aureus (both associated with osteological lesions). We exposed human peripheral blood mononuclear cells to bacterial lysates, or pro-inflammatory cytokines. Sequentially, we exposed the same culture to either P. gingivalis or S. aureus. The final expression of …


The Actor’S Rhythm, Internal Beat., Lashondra Cherell Hood May 2019

The Actor’S Rhythm, Internal Beat., Lashondra Cherell Hood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is a conversational document that will examine the manifestation of the auditory(hearing) and motor(physical motion) cortex of the cerebrum and how this connection influences character physicality in theatre. In this thesis, The Mountaintop, written by Katori Hall, is used as a gateway to conduct research on music and rhythm as it affects the body and creating physical character choices. By reflecting on personal musical exploration,that of my peers, and students, its concluded that this method can be used for all stages of character building and performance experiences. The various backgrounds of the subjects — students and peers — …


The Role Of Social Supports On The Financial Toxicity Of Cancer., Lisa C. Smith May 2019

The Role Of Social Supports On The Financial Toxicity Of Cancer., Lisa C. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although literature exists on the impact of cancer-related financial burden and its effects on quality of life, we do not have a full understanding of the nature of the financial burden on individuals and their families. Likewise, research on social support has concentrated on social, emotional, functional, and physical well-being but not on the financial well-being of individuals with cancer. The purpose of this study is to understand the role of social support in the relationship between financial toxicity and quality of life of individuals living with cancer. This research used a multiple method approach composed of two studies. Study …


Glycine Receptor Expression Across Identified Retinal Ganglion Cell Types., Ian Scot Pyle May 2019

Glycine Receptor Expression Across Identified Retinal Ganglion Cell Types., Ian Scot Pyle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) represent the culmination of all retinal signaling and their output forms the substrate for vision throughout the rest of the brain. About 40 different RGC types have been defined by differences in their visually evoked responses, morphology, and genetic makeup. These responses arise from interactions between inhibition and excitation throughout the retinal circuit (Franke et al., 2017; Masland, 2012; Sanes & Masland, 2015; Werblin, 2011). Unlike most other areas of the central nervous system (CNS), the retina utilizes both GABA and glycine inhibitory neurotransmitters to refine glutamatergic excitatory signals (Franke & Baden, 2017; Werblin, 2011; C. …


Vlogging Truth To Power : A Qualitative Study Of Resilience As Practiced By Transgender Youtube Content Creators., Corey J. Feger May 2019

Vlogging Truth To Power : A Qualitative Study Of Resilience As Practiced By Transgender Youtube Content Creators., Corey J. Feger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents an exploratory account of ways that transgender people’s personal YouTube channels, or “vlogs,” provide new avenues to cultivate resilience as a collective. To make sense of this unstable, contested model of identity and community, I apply a three-part model of “social resilience,” a theory of resilience that transcends the individual and welcomes incoherency, contradiction, and “messiness” into its analysis. In Chapter One, I provide a snapshot of transgender history and present my research objective and justification. Chapter Two consists of a literature review and argues in favor of a hybrid theory of intersectionality and assemblage. Chapter Three …


Wounds And Writing : Building Trauma-Informed Approaches To Writing Pedagogy., Michelle L. Day May 2019

Wounds And Writing : Building Trauma-Informed Approaches To Writing Pedagogy., Michelle L. Day

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds a trauma-informed approach to writing pedagogy informed by writing studies scholarship about trauma and inclusive pedagogy, clinical social work literature on trauma-informed care, and interviews with nine current University of Louisville writing faculty about their experiences academically supporting distressed students. I identify three central touchstones—“students are coddled,” “teacher’s aren’t therapists,” and “institutions don’t support trauma-informed teaching”—in scholarly and public debates regarding what to do about student trauma/distress in higher education. After exploring the valid concerns and misconceptions underpinning these touchstones, I illustrate how clinical research offers a way forward to help writing instructors develop more complex understandings …