Digital Commons Network^™

The Use Of Clinical Judgment In Differentiating Symptoms Of Autism Spectrum Disorder From Those Of Other Childhood Conditions: A Delphi Study, Staci Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

More and more, due to long waiting lists at diagnostic clinics and access barriers for certain segments of the population, schools are often the first environment in which children are evaluated for ASD (Sullivan, 2013). And while accurate identification of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is essential for proper treatment and service provision, large percentages of school and community-based identifications of ASD are overturned when children are re-evaluated with strict clinical criteria (Wiggins et al., 2015). In part, challenges faced in accurately differentiating ASD from other conditions may be contributed to the diagnostic complexities of the condition itself. Clinical expertise is …

Gender, Social Networks, And Labor Disputes: Household Archaeology At The Industrial Mine Camp, Laura Gwynne Vernon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Industrial Mine at Superior, operating from 1895 to 1945, was one of many coal mines situated within a region known as the Colorado Northern Coal fields. It is exceptional only in that it was one of the largest coal producers in the area and because it was the sole mine in the region with both a company town and company store. Through comparative analysis with the previously investigated mine camp in the southern Colorado coal fields at Berwind, this thesis examines how camp housing structured the lives of women living at the Industrial Mine, as well as how women's …

Exploring The Moderation Mechanisms Of The Association Between Acculturative Stress And Social Self-Efficacy Among Asian International Students, Jinzhao Zhao

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asian international students account for 70% of international students in the U.S., which makes 4.3% of total population enrolled in American universities and colleges. They experience stress related to adapting to mainstream culture in the U.S. (i.e., acculturative stress), which negatively impacts their mental health and view of self. The negative impacts also include willingness and ability to perform social behaviors and to maintain interpersonal relationships (i.e., social self-efficacy). Previous acculturation studies proposed from a theoretical perspective that several factors may alleviate the negative impact of acculturative stress and enhance Asian international students' social self-efficacy. These factors include acculturation orientation …

Commitment And Romantic Alternative Monitoring, Lane Laurel Ritchie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines cognitive and behavioral factors involved in the management of potential alternative partners. Two studies are described here, each in a separate paper. The first study investigates perceptions of potential alternative partners as presented in an experimental paradigm (Study 1) and the second study examines links between alternative monitoring and relationship outcomes, measured longitudinally in survey research (Study 2). In the first study, Perceptual Downgrading and Relationship Commitment, I use a well-established paradigm to test a novel series of questions: Do individuals in committed relationships perceive attractive others as less attractive than single people do? This phenomenon …

A Gendered Intersectional Analysis Of The Private Security Industry, Noa Shapira

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis conducts an intersectional gendered analysis of the privatization of wars and armed conflicts through the use of private military and security companies (PMSC's), thus responding to an existing gap in scholarship on this matter. Two methodologies were used for this analysis. The first is a discourse analysis and interviews conducted in the 5th annual assembly of the International Code of Conduct Association, in November 2018. The second is a search in newspapers and secondary sources for specific incidences of gender-related human rights abuses. Based on lessons learned from peacekeeping operations, this thesis aims to answer the question how …

Application Of Microgrids In Supporting The Utility Grid, Alireza Majzoobi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Distributed renewable energy resources have attracted significant attention in recent years due to the falling cost of the renewable energy technology, extensive federal and state incentives, and the application in improving load-point reliability. This growing proliferation, however, is changing the traditional consumption load curves by adding considerable levels of variability and further challenging the electricity supply-demand balance. In this dissertation, the application of microgrids in effectively capturing the distribution network net load variability, caused primarily by the prosumers, is investigated. Microgrids provide a viable and localized solution to this challenge while removing the need for costly investments by the electric …

Defining The Relationship: Intentional Decision-Making And Sexual Risk In Adolescent And Young Adult Romantic Relationships, Kayla Knopp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents three manuscripts addressing different sets of findings related to the "defining the relationship" (DTR) talk in adolescents' and young adults' romantic relationships. Paper 1 describes descriptive results from two studies, one utilizing a college undergraduate young adult sample (N = 341) and the other using a nationwide online sample of 15 to 17-year-old adolescents (N = 248). Key findings from Paper 1 indicate that DTR talks were used frequently in the relationships of young people, and were associated with relationship commitment and sexual behaviors. Paper 2 describes more in-depth analyses testing associations between having a …

Paving The Way For Multidisciplinary Smart Campus Infrastructure: Leveraging Du's Unique Campus For The Advancement Of Smart Campus Culture, Camerron T. Mismash

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Institutions are embracing smart technologies to reap their benefits while simultaneously innovating new uses. From localized renewable energy generation to health monitoring and everything in between, academic campuses globally are paving the way for smart technology application. Eight primary categories have been identified in which institutions are applying smart technologies. Energy development is on the forefront of these smart initiatives. The University of Denver has begun its Smart Campus Initiative by implementing a revolving fund to invest in campus improvements related to the offset of carbon. By comparing how institutions are investing in smart campus initiatives and analyzing costs associated …

Assessing The Effectiveness Of Goal Setting In Group Treatment In A Correctional Institution, Marisa Kostiuk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Incarcerated offenders represent a large proportion of the American population. Additionally, incarcerated offenders also have high rates of mental health disorders and psychological distress. Given that a significant number of incarcerated offenders also struggle with mental health concerns, providing effective treatment is crucial. However, the examination of outcome-based research has lagged considerably with this particularly vulnerable population. One notable aspect of an individual's adaptive and healthy functioning is the development and implementation of prosocial goals. Despite the well-developed literature base on the beneficial impacts of goal setting, the use of goal setting as a treatment intervention has been largely overlooked …

Sustaining Lamentation In Traumatic Grief Through The Contemporary Elegy: A Practical Theology Of The Poetics Of Testimony, Patricia Shawn Fawson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This project addresses the problem that sustaining lamentation for particular testimonies of bereaved people is not supported culturally or spiritually by current practices of mourning. In a democracy, religious leaders become public theologians who respect and respond to diverse religious, political, historical, and economic interests without losing focus on the individual, family, and corporate systems and the ongoing elements of traumatic grief. In the context of lamentation and memorialization, when spiritual caregiver fail to acknowledge potentials for particular ways of mourning to contribute to empowerment and healing, mourners' grief can be foreclosed.

In North America, the dominant rhetoric of public …

Distribution Level Building Load Prediction Using Deep Learning, Abdulaziz S. Almalaq

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Load prediction in distribution grids is an important means to improve energy supply scheduling, reduce the production cost, and support emission reduction. Determining accurate load predictions has become more crucial than ever as electrical load patterns are becoming increasingly complicated due to the versatility of the load profiles, the heterogeneity of individual load consumptions, and the variability of consumer-owned energy resources. However, despite the increase of smart grids technologies and energy conservation research, many challenges remain for accurate load prediction using existing methods. This dissertation investigates how to improve the accuracy of load predictions at the distribution level using artificial …

China's Lost Face And The Two Koreas: The Effects Of Culture And Identity On Chinese Foreign Policy, Kang Kyu Lee

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the question of why China responded particularly harshly to pro-U.S. military actions taken by South Korea, when this nation was identified as a friend to China, while responding less harshly to similar pro-U.S. military actions taken by Japan, who was not identified as a friend. My argument is that these divergent responses were caused by China’s different expectations, according to whether different nations had a perceived identity as a friend or a rival. China’s behaviors are essentially based on its own proclaimed identity and on the perceived identities of others. China has advanced the proclaimed identity of …

Economic Liberation From The Margins: The Power Of Racial Politics In Social Change, Joshua Sherman Bartholomew

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Joshua Bartholomew's doctoral project is a meta-ethical research study of the relationship between economic justice and racial equality within the United States and its transnational range of influence. Bartholomew critiques the Eurocentric foundations of capitalist economic paradigms, and supplants them with community-oriented strategies of anti-racist self-determination from within the Black Panther Party's socialist praxis. By highlighting the praxis and significant intellectual contributions from arguably the most revolutionary example of racial politics for black liberation throughout the Black Power Movement, Bartholomew emphasizes the need for alternative economic models to capitalism that can support and build upon moral visions of collective racial …

Study Of Acceleration Sensitivity And Nonlinear Behavior In Silicon-Based Mems Resonators, Beheshteh Khazaeili Najafabadi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this work is to study nonlinear behavior in silicon-based micro-resonators and more specifically develop models that could predict acceleration sensitivity and amplitude-frequency nonlinearity in such resonators. Acceleration sensitivity in silicon bulk-acoustic wave (BAW) oscillators is studied and a correlation between the resonator alignment to different crystalline planes of silicon and the observed acceleration sensitivity is established. It is shown both with experiment and the proposed finite element model, that the oscillator vibration sensitivity is significantly lower when the silicon-based lateral-extensional (LE) mode resonator is aligned to < 110 > orientation compared to when the same resonator is aligned to < 100 > . …

Synthesis Of Two-Dimensional Molybdenum Disulfide Nanostructures Using Molybdenum Trioxide Thin Film Via Chemical Vapor Depostion, Vanessa Charles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two dimensional (2D) materials-based nanostructures have attracted much attention due to their unique properties which exhibit promising prospects for application in catalysis and energy storage devices. Control growth method is important in synthesizing these nanostructures. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is a powerful method that provides scalability and controllable way to grow high quality 2D materials-based nanostructures. Here, we report a novel CVD growth method of 2D molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) based different structures in which thin film of molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) was used as the source of molybdenum (Mo), while sulfur (S) powder was used for the chalcogen precursor. Precise control …

A Comparative Study Of Electoral Systems: Majoritarian Rules And Electoral Violence In Africa, Gavin M. Kiger

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

An increasing trend of violent elections is undermining the former optimism over multi-party elections in Africa. Electoral systems are frequently associated with election violence, but the effects of different systems are relatively unknown. This study addresses this gap and assesses whether conditions for electoral violence are greater under certain electoral systems compared to others. Using a new time-series cross sectional (TSCS) dataset, I conduct an analysis of election violence in sub-Saharan Africa from 1995-2013. Overall, I find evidence for the violence-permitting nature of majoritarian systems, and the violence-constraining nature of proportional representation systems. These findings remain after controlling for the …

Changing The Rules Of The Game: Can Voicing For Social Responsibility Influence Market Behavior Toward Greater Inclusiveness In Economic Development?, Eileen M. Hoffmann

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines social responsibility within a capitalist economy by investigating socially responsible investing and, tangentially, corporate social responsibility. These concepts have been at the heart of economic and legal debates for hundreds of years, with no clearly defined consensus regarding how to account for multi-stakeholder welfare inside the market system. This point is brought to life by analyzing two dominant twentieth-century economic periods, 1945-1975/79 and post-1980, through the deliberations of Keynesian economics and Milton Friedman.

This thesis postulates that since the 2008 global financial crisis, a new (i.e. third) economic period is taking shape, ushered in by both the …

Dominating The Disease: A Transnational Feminist Perspective Of U.S. Health Coloniality, Jessica Ann Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

HIV has been a pandemic since the 1980s with 70 million people infected since the beginning, about 35 million people have died of complications resulting from HIV, and an estimated 36.9 million people living with HIV in 2017 (WHO, "HIV and AIDS"). Many organizations around the world have tried to tackle this issue, however most of these organizations are based in the West or have Western organizations holding the majority of power and control. People in these organizations have the intention of ending the spread of HIV, but they also sometimes spread Western ideology.

This work brings together communication scholarship …

Behind The Mask Of Morality: (E)Urochristian Bioethics And The Colonial-Racial Discourse, Jennifer L. Mccurdy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The discipline of bioethics is insufficient and ineffective in addressing the persistent issues of racism and racial inequalities in healthcare. A minority of bioethicists are indeed attentive to issues such as implicit bias, structural racism, power inequalities, and the social determinants of health. Yet, these efforts do not consider the colonial-racial discourse -- that racism is an instrument of eurochristian colonialism, and bioethics is a product of that same colonial worldview. Exposing mainstream bioethicists to the work of anti-colonial scholars and activists would provide bioethicists a framework through which they would be better equipped to address issues of race through: …

Gramscian Perspectives On Populism, Luke William Mooberry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly liberal states are facing challenges from populist movements. This paper argues that the prison writings of Antonio Gramsci can provide important insights into the phenomenon and how to counteract it. The first two sections outline a set of Gramscian analytical tools: hegemony, non-hegemony, passive revolution, and Caesarism. These theoretical tools are then applied to different periods of the Third Republic of France, 1870-1940. This paper looks at this French example because it features unique relationships between populism, ideology, and the experience of liberalism prior to World War II. The third section demonstrates the implications of non-hegemony within international society, …

Application Of Retrograde Analysis To Fighting Games, Kristen Yu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With the advent of the fighting game AI competition, there has been recent interest in two-player fighting games. Monte-Carlo Tree-Search approaches currently dominate the competition, but it is unclear if this is the best approach for all fighting games. In this thesis we study the design of two-player fighting games and the consequences of the game design on the types of AI that should be used for playing the game, as well as formally define the state space that fighting games are based on. Additionally, we also characterize how AI can solve the game given a simultaneous action game model, …

Photoassisted Synthesis Of Complex Polyheterocycles Via Esipt-Driven Dearomative Intramolecular Cycloadditions, Dmitry Kuznetsov

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research is focused on the development of novel photoassisted synthetic methodologies that provide straightforward access to complex and diverse libraries of polyheterocycles from modularly assembled precursors. All methods are based on the dearomative cycloadditions between two components: (i) o-azaxylylenes, generated by the excited-state intramolecular proton transfer, and (ii) tethered arene groups.

We have demonstrated the synthetic utility of four new photoinduced processes that yield complex products amenable for post-photochemical modifications:

• [4+4] Cycloaddition of o-azaxylylenes to 1,3,4-oxadiazoles with subsequent dinitrogen extrusion. This reaction furnishes compounds outfitted with epoxide fragments, which undergo ring-openings with various nucleophiles; furthermore, the oxidized products …

Mechanistic Insight Into Tau Fibril Cross-Seeding Barriers: Structural Order And Disorder, Hilary Ann Weismiller

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Filamentous deposition of microtubule-associated protein tau is a hallmark for a number of neurodegenerative diseases collectively termed tauopathies. While tau fibrils are directly linked to the etiology and pathogenesis of these diseases, fibril morphology and their phenotypic presentation can be quite disparate. Alternative splicing of tau results in two main isoform groups, four-repeat (4R) tau and three-repeat (3R), identified by their number of microtubule binding repeats. Some diseases show deposition of both 4R and 3R isoforms, while others show preferential deposition of only one type. The conformational templated growth scheme and trans-synaptic spreading of fibrils is influenced by fibril conformation. …

When Do Ties Bind? Foreign Fighters, Social Embeddedness, And Combatant Repertoires Of Behavior During Civil War, Pauline Luz Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How does the extent to which rebel organizations are embedded into local conflict contexts - i.e. the extent to which they "fit in" or "stand out" from local populations - affect their behavior on and off the battlefield during civil war? This dissertation examines why rebel group propensities to engage in governance and violence during war vary at the macro and microlevels of analysis and uses as its point of departure the presence of foreign fighters in the ranks of rebel groups engaged in civil war. I employ a cross-national analysis of insurgencies from 1989-2011, and also conduct a theory-testing …

Reclaiming The Radical Economic Message Of Luke, David Dean Mimier King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Of the four canonical gospels of the New Testament, the one most concerned with poverty, wealth, and the ethics of possession is Luke. It contains more economic material and a sharper message than do Mark, Matthew, or John. A centuries-long debate rages over just how revolutionary Luke’s message is. This dissertation employs redactional, literary, statistical, historical, and theological methodologies to recover Luke’s radical economic message, to place it in its ancient context, and to tease out its prophetic implications for today. It argues that Luke has a radical message of good news for the poor and a call for resistance …

Using Repeat Photography To Examine Change In A U.S. National Park Gateway Community: A Case Study Of Estes Park, Colorado, Caitlin Lebeda

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the creation of the National Park Service in the United States, tourists from around the world visiting America's national parks are served by gateway communities. Gateway communities are the towns and cities that border public lands and protected spaces. The impact of our visits on these gateway communities is considerable, with many gateways and their residents relying on consistent and ever-increasing visitation to national parks to spur economic growth and development. To better understand the impacts that national park designations have had on their gateway communities, it is important to determine what changes have occurred both physically and culturally …

Hope As A Strategy: Messianism In The Philosophy Of Emmanuel Levinas, Gary Ray Sunshine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This essay is an explication of the role of messianism, often expressed as hope, in the work of Emmanuel Levinas. Levinas's single philosophical project from 1933 until his passing in 1996 was to establish ethics as first philosophy. This effort was in opposition to the primacy of ontology in the work of Martin Heidegger. Levinas uses a phenomenological method similar to Heidegger's to establish messianic hope as a fundamental human motivation. Throughout Levinas's work, he borrows a religious vocabulary from his Jewish heritage that he resets into a philosophical domain. He takes a religious concept of messianism, specifically Jewish formulations …

The Changing Role Of Public-Private Partnerships In Urban Transportation: A Case Study Of The Rise Of P3s In Denver, Co, Sylvia Arriaga Brady

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines the expanding role of public-private partnerships (PPPs or P3s) in Denver metro transportation projects in three areas: (1) innovative funding and financing of transit infrastructure projects, (2) the partnerships between freight and passenger rail services, and (3) emerging collaborations of local governments, transit agencies, and transportation network companies (TNCs).

The purpose of the first study was to examine the recent use of P3s in the Denver Regional Transportation District's (RTD) FasTracks program, a 2004 voter-approved $4.7 billion transit expansion program. After a shortfall in funding, RTD partnered with several private consortia to enable the FasTracks program to …

Translation Of Partially Decayed Messenger Rnas In Yeast, Ana Luisa Franklin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Flaviviruses are positive-strand single-stranded RNA viruses that are known to form pseudo-knot RNA structures that halt the progression of 5’→3’ exonuclease Xrn1. We show that these viral Xrn1-resistant structures (xrRNAs) can be used to protect specific homologously-expressed messenger RNAs from 5’→3’ degradation. We investigated the effects of addition of xrRNAs, artificially-installed into the intergenic region of bicistronic mRNA reporters, in the observed levels of protein expression in yeast. The reporters also contain an internal ribosome entry site from the cricket paralysis virus (CrPV IRES) to allow for cap-independent translation of the decay-protected gene, LacZ, encoding the enzyme β-galactosidase. Through …

Improving Beginning Teacher Effectiveness: The Most Important And Difficult Competencies And How They Differ In Low-Income Schools, Jessica Anne Lerner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research suggests teacher quality is a significant factor predicting student achievement, especially for low-income students. However, there is insufficient research about which teaching competencies warrant emphasis during pre-service training. The purpose of this study was to investigate consensus among expert educators on the importance and difficulty of teaching competencies for beginning teachers, and whether the importance and difficulty of those competencies differ in low-income school settings. Thirty-one academic and practitioner experts in beginning teacher development participated in the study. Participants rated 8 of 25 teaching competencies as very important and very difficult for beginning teachers. Results indicate broad consensus among …