Digital Commons Network^™

Unravelling The Layers Of Cell Wall Synthesis And Function In Rice, Ritu Mihani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The plant cell wall is of critical importance to plant growth and survival, functioning in maintaining structural integrity, supporting cell expansion, and acting as the first line of defense in response to biotic and abiotic stresses. The major components of the cell wall are cellulose, hemicelluloses, lignin, and pectin. Recent focus on the transcriptional machinery regulating cell wall biosynthesis in plants has revealed many key transcription factors responsible for orchestrating cell wall deposition. However, many of these TFs act redundantly and work coherently with a suite of TFs to activate the cell wall biosynthetic machinery. Heterologous expression of TFs is …

Quantitative Methods For Select Problems In Facility Location And Facility Logistics, Bin Li

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presented three logistics problems. The first problem is a parallel machine scheduling problems that considers multiple unique characteristics including release dates, due dates, limited machine availability and job splitting. The objective of is to minimize the total amount of time required to complete work. A mixed integer programming model is presented and a heuristic is developed for solving the problem. The second problem extends the first parallel scheduling problem to include two additional practical considerations. The first is a setup time that occurs when warehouse staff change from one type of task to another. The second is a …

Optimal Allocation Of Resources In Reliability Growth, Mohammadhossein Heydari

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reliability growth testing seeks to identify and remove failure modes in order to improve system reliability. This dissertation centers around the resource allocation across the components of a multi-component system to maximize system reliability. We summarize this dissertation’s contributions to optimal resource allocation in reliability growth.

Chapter 2 seeks to deploy limited testing resources across the components of a series-parallel system in effort to maximize system reliability under the assumption that each component’s reliability exhibits growth according to an AMSAA model with known parameters. An optimization model for this problem is developed and then extended to consider the allocation of …

Formal Learning In An Informal Setting: The Cognitive And Affective Impacts Of Visiting A Science Center During A School Field Trip, Charlie Belin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the pressures of budget cuts, many schools--particularly schools serving low-income students--are eliminating school field trips to museums, zoos, and other cultural institutions despite their widely reported utility. First, through a systematic review of the literature, I examine the findings from 17 international studies on the benefits of visiting an informal science education institution during a K-12 school field trip. Almost all pre-post studies reported a positive change in both cognitive and affective outcomes after visiting an ISEI. However, studies that also included a control group to compare students who visited the ISEI with students who had yet to visit …

Multiscale Investigation Of The Behavior Of Heart Valve Interstitial Cells In Response To Pathological Shape And Mechanical Stimulation, Ngoc Thien Lam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Our works aim to provide an insight into how aortic valve interstitial cells (VICs) respond to pathological shape and mechanical stimulation as well as the potential signaling pathway that mediates these responses, using a multiscale approach. A single cell model was developed to investigate the effect of altered shape on valve cell function as valve cells were reported to significantly deform during the cardiac cycle. Single VICs were controlled to take on features with different width-to-length aspect ratios that corresponded to the steady-state shapes adopted by VICs when stretched to 0%, 10% and 20%, respectively. It appeared that single VIC …

Genetic And Phytopathological Studies On Charcoal Rot Resistance In Soybean [Glycine Max (L) Merr.], Marcos Paulo Da Silva

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Charcoal rot of soybean (Glycine max (L.), caused by Macrophomina phaseolina is a disease of economic significance in the United States. The identification and quantification of the resistance is difficult, and very little is known about the genetics and markers linked to the charcoal rot (CR) resistance genes. Current assay methods can be time consuming, and data may vary between tests. The objectives of this study were to 1) create a robust seed plate assay (SPA) for CR resistance by comparing results with cut-stem and CFUI assays; 2) correlate and compare field data disease assessments with SPA; 3) identify QTLs …

How Do English Teacher Educators In Oklahoma Utilize The Secondary English Methods Course To Prepare English Teacher Candidates For Today’S Classroom?, Lara Elaine Searcy

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The study focuses on how English teacher educators in Oklahoma utilize the secondary English methods course to prepare English teacher candidates in four thematic strands: a) instructional approaches, b) inclusion and alignment to national and state standards, c) focus on the state subject-area teacher certification assessment, and d) the course’s curricular changes made due to educational policies. Using a qualitative, descriptive, collective case study approach, the results describe how six instructors prepare English teacher candidates for today’s classroom in 2017.

A description of the secondary English methods course in Oklahoma is difficult to define by a single course title, but …

Principal Engagement In The Professional Development Process: The Identification Of Barriers, Resources, And Supports, Michael John Koonce

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that served as barriers to principal engagement in the professional development process and identify what resources or supports were needed to increase engagement levels. For the purpose of this study, the professional development process included the identification of the professional learning needs of teachers on an ongoing and annual basis and the evaluation of the effectiveness of the professional development that has been provided. This study used a qualitative approach to examine principal engagement in the professional development process throughout a large geographic area in the Midwest. 20 principals were purposefully …

Mitochondrial Mrna Translation Is Required For Maintenance Of Oxidative Capacity, David Lee

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Oxidative metabolism is required to produce adequate energy to sustain human life. A primary example of deteriorating oxidative capacity is seen in the cardiac musculature during chronic heart failure. This suggests that by improving oxidative potential, chronic heart disease could be mitigated and one approach to accomplish this may be through targeting the mt-mRNA translation system. Purpose: This investigation’s purpose was to characterize disruptions in mt-mRNA translation machinery in multiple forms of cardiomyopathy and to determine if mitochondrial mRNA translation initiation factor (mtIF2) is necessary to maintain oxidative capacity in cardiomyocytes. Methods Using a combination of animal and cell culture …

Frontier Capitalism And Unfree Labor In Middle Appalachia: The Development Of Western Pennsylvania And Maryland, 1760-1840, Nathaniel Conley

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Slavery and unfree labor have been a subject of growing interest for historians, particularly when dealing with frontier areas and the rise of capitalism. Recent studies have shown that slavery and unfree labor existed well into the antebellum period in the North despite the lack of legal support for the institution. Few historians have identified the importance of slavery in the development of western areas, however, particularly in the Appalachian regions of western Pennsylvania and Maryland. As a result, concerted study of slavery in rural, western areas is lacking, particularly in the borderland region between slavery and freedom along the …

Effect Of A Skating Unit On Fitness In Fifth Grade Students, Eric Lange

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study investigates the effect of a skating unit on factors of cardiovascular fitness, static balance, explosive power, and agility in fifth graders. Methods: During a 6-weeks skating unit (twelve lesson), seventy-one students (ages 10-12; M age = 10.34) participated during regularly scheduled physical education classes. Three separate classes served as control group (C) (n=19; 8 male; 11 female) and two experimental groups: roller skating (RS) (n=26; 11 male; 15 female) and inline skating (IS) (n=26; 10 male; 16 female). Control group had no access to roller or inline skates during class time of study. Control …

Parameterizing And Aggregating Activation Functions In Deep Neural Networks, Luke Benjamin Godfrey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The nonlinear activation functions applied by each neuron in a neural network are essential for making neural networks powerful representational models. If these are omitted, even deep neural networks reduce to simple linear regression due to the fact that a linear combination of linear combinations is still a linear combination. In much of the existing literature on neural networks, just one or two activation functions are selected for the entire network, even though the use of heterogenous activation functions has been shown to produce superior results in some cases. Even less often employed are activation functions that can adapt their …

A Case Study Of The Umpqua Community College Shooting, Timothy P. Wilson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the deadliest shooting that has happened on a community college campus. The following research questions guided this dissertation study: (1) What was the law enforcement response to the deadliest community college campus shooting in history? (2) Did previous mass shootings inform the law enforcement response to the deadliest community college campus shooting? (3) What implications for practice can be derived by studying the deadliest of these shootings? This case study utilized multiple sources of information, from official police reports, official institutional reports, archives of publications, and participant interviews from some of the …

Properties Of Epitaxial Sr0.5ba0.5mno3 Films From First-Principles, Temuujin Bayaraa

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Magnetoelectric multiferroics, that possess coupled magnetic and electric degrees of freedom, have been receiving ever renewed attention for more than 15 years since they hold promise for the design of novel devices exploiting their cross-coupling.

In this thesis, we present the results of first-principles studies on physical properties of multiferroic Sr0.5Ba0.5MnO3 films under epitaxial compressive and tensile strains, and chemical ordering. We start by reviewing multiferroic materials, a magnetoelectric coupling mechanism and then we give a brief introduction to the first-principles computational methods that are involved in this study.

Here, we report that Sr0.5Ba0.5MnO3 (SBM) films under compressive strain become …

State Dependent Function And Dynamics In Cerebral Cortical Networks, Leila Fakhraei

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cerebral cortex exhibits vigorous ongoing, internal neural activity even with no sensory input is present or the animal is minimally engaged in a task or behavior. This internal ongoing activity is not static; the ‘cortical state’ varies ranging from synchronous and highly correlated activity to asynchronous and weakly correlated neural activity. The main goal of the work presented here is to understand how changes in cortical states effect several aspects of cortical function and dynamics.

To meet this goal, we did three separate projects. First, we compared the predictability of neuronal network dynamics across cortical states in somatosensory cortex of …

Program Evaluation Of Magnet Program Implementation, Tionanatasha Kairecia Harris

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the fidelity of the implementation of a magnet program at an area intermediate rural school. A case study approach was used to conduct the study, based on observations and perceptual information. The following research questions were developed to address the problem of this study: (a) How does the magnet curriculum affect the delivery of magnet instruction in core content areas? (b) How do participants perceive the strengths and weaknesses of how the magnet program was implemented? The quantitative research consisted of classroom observations to determine if magnet curriculum was being implemented in …

A Continuous Space Generative Model, Erzen Komoni

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Generative models are a class of machine learning models capable of producing digital images with plausibly realistic properties. They are useful in such applications as visualizing designs, rendering game scenes, and improving images at higher magnifications. Unfortunately, existing generative models generate only images with a discrete predetermined resolution. This paper presents the Continuous Space Generative Model (CSGM), a novel generative model capable of generating images as a continuous function, rather than as a discrete set of pixel values. Like generative adversarial networks, CSGM trains by alternating between generative and discriminative steps. But unlike generative adversarial networks, CSGM uses only one …

Evaluation Of Dicamba Off-Target Movement And Subsequent Effects On Soybean Offspring, Gordon Travis Jones

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Commercial launch of cotton with resistance to dicamba, glyphosate, and glufosinate occurred in 2015 and launch of soybean with resistance to dicamba and glyphosate occurred in early 2016. It is likely that non-dicamba-resistant soybean will be planted in close proximity to dicamba-resistant soybean and cotton. Therefore, experiments were conducted to examine the distance dicamba moves during an application using commercial application equipment, as well as the effect the drift events have upon soybean offspring. Additional experiments were designed to investigate the effect glyphosate addition to dicamba has upon soybean growth and yield as well as possible effects on offspring. Lastly, …

Translation Of View From The Ossuary By Antoine Volodine, John Thomas Mahany

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a literary translation from the French of Antoine Volodine’s Vue sur l’ossuaire. Additional creative embellishments have been included in the form of translator’s notes and epigraphs in order to enhance the fictive reality of the work.

Improving Asynchronous Advantage Actor Critic With A More Intelligent Exploration Strategy, James B. Holliday

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We propose a simple and efficient modification to the Asynchronous Advantage Actor Critic (A3C)

algorithm that improves training. In 2016 Google’s DeepMind set a new standard for state-of-theart

reinforcement learning performance with the introduction of the A3C algorithm. The goal of

this research is to show that A3C can be improved by the use of a new novel exploration strategy we

call “Follow then Forage Exploration” (FFE). FFE forces the agents to follow the best known path

at the beginning of a training episode and then later in the episode the agent is forced to “forage”

and explores randomly. In …

A Proposed Approach To Hybrid Software-Hardware Application Design For Enhanced Application Performance, Alex Shipman

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One important aspect of many commercial computer systems is their performance; therefore, system designers seek to improve the performance next-generation systems with respect to previous generations. This could mean improved computational performance, reduced power consumption leading to better battery life in mobile devices, smaller form factors, or improvements in many areas. In terms of increased system speed and computation performance, processor manufacturers have been able to increase the clock frequency of processors up to a point, but now it is more common to seek performance gains through increased parallelism (such as a processor having more processor cores on a single …

Improving The Efficacy Of Context-Aware Applications, Jon C. Hammer

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we explore methods for enhancing the context-awareness capabilities of modern computers, including mobile devices, tablets, wearables, and traditional computers. Advancements include proposed methods for fusing information from multiple logical sensors, localizing nearby objects using depth sensors, and building models to better understand the content of 2D images.

First, we propose a system called Unagi, designed to incorporate multiple logical sensors into a single framework that allows context-aware application developers to easily test new ideas and create novel experiences. Unagi is responsible for collecting data, extracting features, and building personalized models for each individual user. We demonstrate the …

Bayesian Network Modeling And Inference Of Gwas Catalog, Qiuping Pan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have received an increasing attention to understand genotype-phenotype relationships. The Bayesian network has been proposed as a powerful tool for modeling single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-trait associations due to its advantage in addressing the high computational complex and high dimensional problems. Most current works learn the interactions among genotypes and phenotypes from the raw genotype data. However, due to the privacy issue, genotype information is sensitive and should be handled by complying with specific restrictions. In this work, we aim to build Bayesian networks from publicly released GWAS statistics to explicitly reveal the conditional dependency between SNPs and …

Development Of Microdialysis Probes In Series Approach Toward Eliminating Microdialysis Sampling Calibration: Miniaturization Into A Pdms Microfluidic Device, Randy Espinal Cabrera

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A new microdialysis sampling method and microfluidic device were developed in vitro. The method consisted of using up to four microdialysis sampling probes connected in series to evaluate the relative recovery (RR) of different model solutes methyl orange, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-dextran average mol. wt. 4,000 (FITC-4), FITC-10, FITC-20, and FITC-40. Different flow rates (0.8, 1.0, and 1.5 µL/min) were used to compare experimentally observed relative recoveries with theoretical estimations. With increasing the number of probes in series, the relative recovery increases and ~100% (99.7% ± 0.9%) relative recovery for methyl orange was obtained. For larger molecules such as fluorescein isothiocyanate …

Investigation Of Nanomaterial Based Photovoltaic Panel Packaging Materials, Xingeng Yang

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research, nanomaterial-based packaging materials for photovoltaic (PV) panels are investigated. A hydrophobic/anti-reflective surface coating which not only repels water from the top glass of a PV panel but at the same time reduces its light reflectance is investigated. COMSOL simulation results indicate that taller ellipsoid rod (aspect ratio = 5) reflects less light than shorter rod (aspect ratio = 0.5) in the desired spectrum for solar energy harvest from 400nm-700nm. The addition of a polymer layer on these ellipsoid rods broadens the light incident angle from 23° to 34°, from which light can be efficiently absorbed. Based on …

Low Latency Intrusion Detection In Smart Grids, Israel Zairi Akingeneye

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The transformation of traditional power grids into smart grids has seen more new technologies such as communication networks and smart meters (sensors) being integrated into the physical infrastructure of the power grids. However, these technologies pose new vulnerabilities to the cybersecurity of power grids as malicious attacks can be launched by adversaries to attack the smart meters and modify the measurement data collected by these meters. If not timely detected and removed, these attacks may lead to inaccurate system state estimation, which is critical to the system operators for control decisions such as economic dispatch and other related functions.

This …

Near Bandgap Two-Photon Excited Luminescence Of Inas Quantum Dots, Xian Hu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) confine carriers in three dimensions, resulting in atomic-like energy levels as well as size-dependent electrical and optical properties. Self-assembled III-V QD is one of the most studied semiconductor QDs thanks to their well-established fabrication techniques and versatile optical properties. This dissertation presents the photoluminescence (PL) study of the InAs/GaAs QDs with both above bandgap continuous-wave excitation (one-photon excitation) and below-bandgap pulse excitation (two-photon excitation). Samples of ensemble QDs, single QD (SQD), and QDs in a micro-cavity, all grown by molecular beam epitaxy, are used in this study. Morphology of these samples was examined using atomic force …

Application Of Modular Multilevel Converters (Mmc) Using Phase-Shifted Pwm And Selective Harmonic Elimination In Distribution Systems, Thouhidul Islam

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Reducing the size and weight of a power electric system is a prodigious challenge to researchers as the development of the latest technologies emerge in the field of electrical engineering. A similar urge is there to develop a light-weight mobile power substation (MPS) to use in the electric power distribution systems during emergency conditions. This thesis proposes a power electronics based solution using the modular multilevel converter (MMC) topology to design the MPS system. The market-available power semiconductor devices are analyzed and suitable devices are selected to design the system. The phase-shifted pulse width modulation (PS-PWM) and selective harmonic elimination …

Immunostimulatory Effects Of Antigen-Conjugated Inp/Zns Quantum Dot Nanoparticles In An Avian Model, Christopher Lyle

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Due to their unique physicochemical and enhanced immunostimulatory properties, quantum dot (QD) nanoparticles have shown increasing promise in biomedical research applications including bioimaging, drug delivery, and as vaccine adjuvants. Toxicity, however, remains a concern for the use of QD in these applications and thus, there is an increased demand for effective in vitro and in vivo systems to measure the bioactivity of QD. In this study in vitro and in vivo chicken models were used to investigate the effects of QD on innate and adaptive immunity. Chicken macrophage cultures were treated in vitro with QD to measure macrophage activation and …

Structure And Property Of Polymers And Biopolymers From Molecular Dynamic Simulations, Xiaoquan Sun

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Natural and synthetic polymers and biopolymers have been studied for a variety of applications in food emulsion, biopharmaceutical purification, tissue engineering, and biosensor. The structure and property of polymers and biopolymers are critically important to determine their functions. Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations have a unique advantage to explore the structure and property of polymers and biopolymers from the molecular level. In the dissertation, MD simulations were conducted to study the mechanisms of various biological and chemical processes controlled by polymers and biopolymers based on real-world experimental results.

Seven heptapeptides have been screened from a peptide library in our earlier study …