Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Civil Wars: An Overview Of Literature And The Syrian Conflict Towards A Structural Definition Of Civil War, Mphatso Kaufulu

Master's Theses

Civil War is a term often used to classify a type of conflict which arises within states. This being so, the exact criteria upon which such a classification of conflict is arrived remains unclear. Additionally, political, dispensational and ideological currents have influenced the classification of conflicts within states by different scholars, so that the determination of conflicts as being civil wars rather than some other kind of intra-state conflict can seem arbitrary. Beyond just the academic implications of this arbitrariness are policy impacts as well. This is because the term civil war carries with it certain implications about the nature …

The Effects Of Real-Time Visual Performance Feedback Using A Tier Approach For Increasing Behavior Specific Praise On Teachers, Elizabeth Lown

Master's Theses

A number of studies have found behavior specific praise to be effective in increasing academically engaged behaviors and decreasing disruptive behaviors of students. The proposed study evaluated the effects of real-time visual performance feedback as a strategy for promoting teacher use of behavior-specific praise. An ABCBC design was utilized to determine the efficacy of real-time visual performance feedback in comparison to delayed visual performance feedback. The primary dependent variable measured was teacher use of behavior-specific praise. Additionally, student outcomes were assessed to determine the relationship between teacher use of behavior-specific praise and student behavior. The results from the study provide …

A Microdebitage Analysis Of The Winterville Mounds Site (22ws500), Stephanie Leigh-Ann Guest

Master's Theses

The Winterville Mounds site (22WS500) was a civic ceremonial center of 23 mounds and is located near Greenville in northwest Mississippi. Winterville excavations as field schools are ongoing since 2005 under the direction of Dr. H. Edwin Jackson of The University of Southern Mississippi. Examination of the >1/4" (6.35 mm) mesh screened lithic material provided mixed results of reduction stages and lacked variety of non-local materials (Guest 2006, Winter 2009, McClendon 2012). Authors of these analyses called for the examination of the 1/16” (1.58 mm) water-screened lithic material to identify reduction stages and traces of non-local materials to provide evidence …

The Impact Of Fe-Ti Oxide Concentration On The Structural Ridgity Of The Lower Oceanic Crust, Atlantis Bank, Southwest Indian Ridge, Daniel Winkler

Master's Theses

Fe-Ti oxides are important components of oceanic core complexes (OCC) formed at slow-spreading mid-ocean ridges since Fe-Ti oxides are more susceptible to crystal-plastic deformation than silicate minerals. This study investigated the predicted relationship between the presence and concentration of Fe-Ti oxides and the presence and intensity of crystal-plastic deformation in gabbroic samples from Atlantis Bank, Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). Atlantis Bank is an oceanic core complex that formed through the exhumation of lower oceanic crust along a detachment fault. OCCs form along slow-spreading ridges and are characterized by the complex interactions between magmatism and lithospheric extension, thus making these complexes …

Comparison Study Between Post-Fermentation Stillage And Pre-Fermentation Mash Utilizing Acidification And Steam Explosion Techniques For Cellulose Saccharification, Daniel Mckee

Master's Theses

Pre-fermentation mash fiber and post-distillation stillage fiber were examined and compared using a variety of preparatory techniques to determine the better source for cellulose fiber saccharification. Once screened, dried, and diluted to a 10% solution, mash fiber and stillage fiber were exposed to increasing temperatures for steam explosion techniques as well as increasing acidification techniques. Both underwent enzymatic saccharification to convert the exposed cellulose to glucose and other sugars. Once the optimum steam explosion technique parameters and acidification parameters were determined to be 2.5% sulfuric acid at 127.8°C for 1 hour, a comparison of the saccharification of pre-fermentation mash fiber …

What Do Work Value Differentiation And Profile Elevation Predict?, Jinhao Chi

Master's Theses

Using a sample of 251 college students, it was found that 1) when differentiation (D) of work values was calculated using three indices, high-low D, Iachan D, and variance D, only Iachan D positively related to indecision but high-low D and variance D did not, 2) none of the three indices of D related to career maturity, 3) work values profile elevation (PE) positively related to extraversion, openness, and negatively related to depressive symptoms and career indecision but was unrelated to career certainty and neuroticism and 4) work values PE moderated the relationship between Iachan D and career indecision. The …

Impacts Of Oil Exposure During Early Life Development Stages In Sheepshead Minnows (Cyprinodon Variegatus) Under Different Environmental Factors, Danielle Simning

Master's Theses

The release of approximately 5 million barrels of crude oil into the northern Gulf of Mexico during the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill jeopardized estuarine ecosystem health from Texas to Florida. These estuarine habitats, which serve as nurseries for many important fisheries are also prone to rapid fluctuations in environmental stressors such as oxygen concentration, and salinity. The consequence of combined exposure to crude oil and suboptimal environmental factors during early life stage development of fish is still largely unknown. The objective of this project was to investigate the impacts of exposure to crude oil in combination with varying environmental …

Effects Of Temperature On Growth And Molting In Blue Crabs (Callinectes Sapidus) And Lesser Blue Crabs (Callinectes Similis), Abigail Ann Kuhn

Master's Theses

Temperature can exert impacts on many processes in ectotherms. With global temperatures rising due to climate change, many ectothermic species may exhibit changes in growth rates and size at maturity, and these changes can have population-level effects. Predicting responses of species to climate change will require not only knowledge of thermal tolerance limits, but also effects of temperature change on growth rates and other life history parameters. For arthropods that exhibit discontinuous growth (i.e., molting), this includes both intermolt period and growth per molt. Previous laboratory and field experiments suggest that temperature affects both intermolt period (IMP) and growth per …

Women In Wartime Shipyards: Operating A Drill Press Was Like Using An Egg Beater, Carol A. Strohmetz

Master's Theses

This research examines the duality of the roles of American women during World War II. The research draws upon oral histories, newspaper accounts and advertisements, music and films of the time, letters and family scrapbooks, and primary and secondary sources. Most prior research focuses on either women in the workforce or women in the home. This research synthesizes all aspects of the lives of women as they navigated the hostile terrain of the male workforce and continued to perform the duties assigned to them by society. This research highlights the multiple roles that women successfully executed as they cared for …

Combined Effects Of Dissolved Oxygen And Temperature On Aerobic Respiration And Respiratory Recovery Responses Of The Spioniform Polychaete, Streblospio Gynobranchiata, In Relation To Body Size, Alyssa Bennett

Master's Theses

Elevated surface temperatures exacerbate the threat of hypoxia within coastal ecosystems. These two primary stressors likely interact as they elicit opposing physiological responses from marine organisms. Metabolic depression is typically associated with hypoxia, while metabolic rates increase with temperature. Moreover, physiological effects of combined stressors may not be additive. In light of increasing pressures from hypoxia, elevated ocean temperatures, and other stressors within coastal regions, studies need to examine effects of multiple stressors on physiology of coastal organisms.

Mass-specific aerobic respiration (V_O2) was characterized as a proxy for metabolic cost of Streblospio gynobranchiata, at combined levels of …

The Influence Of Talker Expectations And Acoustic Variability On Speech Perception In Asd, Anders Hogstrom

Master's Theses

Speech perception is dependent upon the ability to map the sensory features of a speech signal onto the perceptual features which make up language (i.e., phonemes). A great deal of research over the past six decades has focused on how variability across talkers influences speech processing. Listeners are required to normalize the acoustic variability across talkers by continuously updating the mapping from the acoustic signal to phonetic representations. As such, processing speech from multiple talkers is cognitively more demanding than listening to a single talker. This processing cost appears to reflect, in part, the influence of listeners’ expectations that speech …

Towards Efficient Computation In Real-Time Systems, Hamza Omar

Master's Theses

Graph algorithms have gained popularity and are utilized in high performance and mobile computing paradigms. Input dependence due to input graph changes leads to performance variations in such algorithms. The impact of input dependence for graph algorithms is not well studied in the context of approximate computing. This thesis conducts such analysis by applying loop perforation, which is a general approximation mechanism that transforms the program loops to drop a subset of their total iterations. The analysis identifies the need to adapt the inner and outer loop perforation as a function of input graph characteristics, such as the density or …

Alternative Mission Concepts For The Exploration Of Outer Planets Using Small Satellite Swarms, Andrew Gene Blocher

Master's Theses

Interplanetary space exploration has thus far consisted of single, expensive spacecraft missions. Mission costs are particularly high on missions to the outer planets and while invaluable, finite budgets limit our ability to perform extensive and frequent investigations of the planets. Planetary systems such as Jupiter and Saturn provide extremely complex exploration environments with numerous targets of interest. Exploring these targets in addition to the main planet requires multiple fly-bys and long mission timelines. In LEO, CubeSats have changed the exploration paradigm, offering a fast and low cost alternative to traditional space vehicles. This new mission development philosophy has the potential …

#Sayhername: Negotiating Issues Of Victimhood, Violence, And Visibility, Carol Ann Jackson

Master's Theses

This thesis analyses both news articles and tweets discussing #SayHerName and both implicit and explicit discussions of race, gender, and sexuality. Prior research on media representations of race, gender and violence has found that black women have been denied visibility as victims in unilateral media portrayals of gendered violence, which has contributed to the social problem of black women’s marginalization as their experiences of injustice become invalidated. This denial is not directly stated, rather it functions through a use of controlling images which reproduce racist, sexist, and heteronormative media messages by naturalizing black women as devious, promiscuous, and aggressive. This …

Evaluating The Success Of Making Equitable, Predictable, And Transparent Development Decisions By Encouraging Community And Stakeholder Collaboration Through Two Participatory Design Case Studies, Samantha Stewart

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to use participatory design strategies throughout the design process in order to make fair, transparent, and successful design outcomes. Participatory design is an approach that encourages actively involving all stakeholders, clients, community members, and site users to make sure the solution meets their desires and needs. This approach is used in two community based projects; the Ecological Screen in Fairfield, CT and Wolcott Park in West Hartford, CT. For my research I completed a series of stakeholder and client meetings, public workshops, and surveys in order to educate the public and build a strong …

Factors Associated With Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (Prep) Adherence Self-Efficacy Among High-Risk Drug Users In Treatment, Chanchala Tiwari

Master's Theses

Background: Recent studies on Pre-exposure prophylaxis treatment (PrEP) has received significant recognition as a promising preventive strategy among high-risk individuals. Although a significant amount of research has been conducted on willingness of PrEP use, and NCI as predictors of HIV risk behavior, no study to date, has explored the impact of various motivation factors along with the use of internet & technology devices and psychological aspects on PrEP adherence self-efficacy. So, the objectives of thesis analyses were to examine whether various motivation factors, psychological factors, and communication technology predicts PrEP adherence self-efficacy. Method: The study was conducted among 400 HIV-negative …

Automatic Music Transcription With Convolutional Neural Networks Using Intuitive Filter Shapes, Jonathan Sleep

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the challenge of automatic music transcription with a combination of digital signal processing and machine learning methods. Automatic music transcription is important for musicians who can't do it themselves or find it tedious. We start with an existing model, designed by Sigtia, Benetos and Dixon, and develop it in a number of original ways. We find that by using convolutional neural networks with filter shapes more tailored for spectrogram data, we see better and faster transcription results when evaluating the new model on a dataset of classical piano music. We also find that employing better practices shows …

Selection Criteria And Referral Patterns Of Clinicians Utilizing Cbct At Uconn Health Center, Jenna Fewins

Master's Theses

The most recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA)/American Dental Association (ADA) guidelines on dental radiograph examinations were released in 2012.¹ Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) is a three dimensional radiographic exam first introduced in the in the early 2000s.⁷ In the 2012 guidelines, CBCT was excluded from the criteria; the guidelines were meant only for “standard dental imaging techniques of intraoral and common extraoral examinations, excluding cone-beam computed tomography.”¹

CBCT is in the armamentarium of radiographs utilized in general dentistry and can be ordered by a dentist, a dental specialist, or dental student. There is a large …

Enhancing Phylogenetic Resolution With Taxonomic And Geographic Characterization Of The Chilean Species Of The Cicada Genus Tettigades, Katherine Nazario

Master's Theses

The Patagonian cicada genus Tettigades, although abundant and diverse, was poorly documented until Torres (1958) reviewed the species of the genus, describing 17 new species and redescribing others. His review provided useful insights on variation and distribution of species in the genus. However, despite Torres’ efforts, some species descriptions remained vague and many lacked descriptions of morphological variation within or among populations.

The goal of this thesis is to compile, evaluate, and integrate previous work with new data to serve as a reference for future studies of this genus. Morphological, geographical, and molecular data are combined in order to treat …

Early Empirical Evidence For The Effects Of Adaptive Ramp Metering On Measures Of Travel Time Reliability, Travis Charles Low

Master's Theses

Adaptive ramp metering (ARM) is a critical component of smart freeway corridors under an active traffic management portfolio. While improving capacity through smart corridors and application of proactive traffic management solutions is less costly and easier to deploy than freeway widening, conversion to smart corridors still represents a sizable investment for a state department of transportation. Early evidence of improvements following these projects can be valuable to agencies. However, in the U.S. there have been limited evaluations, of smart corridors in general and ARM in particular, based on real operational data. This thesis explores travel time reliability measures for the …

Assessing The Effect Of Nutritional Interventions On Body Composition Changes During Pregnancy In Moderately Malnourished Malawian Women, Megan K. Kitagawa

Master's Theses

Background: Malnutrition can affect the body composition changes that occur in healthy pregnancy, resulting in adverse effects to both the mother and infant. Supplementary foods with high quality protein may result in more favorable changes in lean mass and fat mass in pregnant malnourished women.

Objective: To retrospectively assess changes in body composition in moderately malnourished pregnant Malawian women in response to one of three nutritional interventions.

Methods: Height, weight, MUAC, and TSF were measured in pregnant women with MUAC >20.6 cm and19) were compared using ANOVA. If differences were detected, differences between groups were tested using the Tukey HSD …

Immunohistochemistry And Electron Microscopy Of Rat Palatine Glands Development, Zaki Hakami

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Identifying And Reducing Variability, Improving Scaffold Morphology, And Investigating Alternative Materials For The Blood Vessel Mimic Lab Electrospinning Process, Evan M. Dowey

Master's Theses

The work of the Cal Poly Tissue Engineering Lab is primarily focused on the fabrication, characterization, and improvement of “Blood Vessel Mimics” (BVMs), tissue engineered constructs used to evaluate cellular response to vascular medical devices. Currently, cells are grown onto fibrous, porous tubes made using an in-house electrospinning process from PLGA, a biocompatible co-polymer. The adhesion and proliferation of cells in a BVM is reliant on the micro-scale structure of the PLGA scaffold, and as such it is of great importance for the electrospinning process to consistently produce scaffolds of similar morphologies. Additionally, it has been shown that cell proliferation …

Proteomic Analysis Of The Crustacean Molting Gland (Y-Organ) Over The Course Of The Molt Cycle, Talia B. Head

Master's Theses

Molting in crustaceans is a highly complex physiological process involving negative regulation by two paired endocrine glands, the X-organ/sinus gland complex (XO/SG) and the Y-organ (YO). The XO/SG complex is responsible for making molt-inhibiting hormone (MIH) which negatively regulates synthesis of the molting hormones, ecdysteroids, by the YO. Analysis of gene expression in the XOs and YOs has led to the development of a proposed molecular signaling pathway which regulates ecdysteroidogenesis and subsequent molting in crustaceans. In this study, changes in protein abundance in the YO were characterized over the course of a molt cycle (intermolt, early premolt, mid premolt, …

Sex Differences And The Effects Of Exercise Training On Functional Vasodilation Following Arterial Occlusion In The Balb/C Mouse Spinotrapezius, Britta Nelson

Master's Theses

Peripheral arterial occlusive disease (PAOD) often presents as intermittent claudication, which may be caused by impaired vasodilation. Impairment of resistance vessels may contribute to the pathogenesis of PAOD, and explain the poor correlation between resting blood flow and limb function. Collateral function following arterial occlusion is not well defined, however collaterals and arterialized collateral capillaries (ACCs) in male and female animal models exhibit impaired vasodilation following arterial occlusion, which can potentially be improved with exercise training. Furthermore, resistance vessels in the ischemic tree and stem are likely involved in the pathogenesis of PAOD, however the relative importance of each is …

Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization Suite (Stops): Optimization Of Low-Thrust Interplanetary Spacecraft Trajectories Using Modern Optimization Techniques, Shane P. Sheehan

Master's Theses

The work presented here is a continuation of Spacecraft Trajectory Optimization Suite (STOpS), a master’s thesis written by Timothy Fitzgerald at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. Low-thrust spacecraft engines are becoming much more common due to their high efficiency, especially for interplanetary trajectories. The version of STOpS presented here optimizes low-thrust trajectories using the Island Model Paradigm with three stochastic evolutionary algorithms: the genetic algorithm, differential evolution, and particle swarm optimization. While the algorithms used here were designed for the original STOpS, they were modified for this work.

The low-thrust STOpS was successfully validated with two trajectory problems …

Forest Densification Over 85 Years In A Sierra Nevada Mixed-Conifer Forest Decreases Conifer Regeneration And Limits Survival, Marissa A. Vossmer

Master's Theses

Forest densification in response to a century of fire suppression in Sierra Nevada mixed conifer forests has decreased conifer regeneration and survival. Increases in overstory biomass and decreases in canopy heterogeneity, along with decreases in shrub cover in the understory, has created unfavorable establishment site conditions for conifer species. Establishment site conditions are key in promoting germination and establishment of conifers seeds and in determining the survival of these seedlings into the overstory. These changes in establishment site suitability resulting from the removal of disturbance from these forests has decreased conifer regeneration and survival into other age classes. In Sierra …

Exploring The Relationship Of Urban Form And Mental Health In The 500 Largest Cities Of The United States, Daniel Sam Harrison

Master's Theses

Sustainable development efforts frequently focus on understanding and promoting the factors that influence health and wellbeing. Urban environments have received attention in recent years as spaces which can increase psychological distress. Despite hypothesized reports of urban environments being less conducive to good mental health then natural environments, few studies have investigated the effects of urban form characteristics (size, density, nuisances, transportation, and housing characteristics) and mental health measures at the city level. Using 2014 data from the 500 largest cities in the United States, this thesis evaluates the relationship between urban form and aggregate self-report scores of poor mental health. …

Effects Of Support Structure Geometry On Slm Induced Residual Stresses In Overhanging Features, Ryan Baskett

Master's Theses

Selective laser melting (SLM) is a new and rapidly developing manufacturing method for producing full-density, geometrically complex metal parts. The SLM process is time and cost effective for small-scale production; however, wide-spread adoption of this technique is severely limited by residual stresses that can cause large deformations and in-process build failures. The issues associated with residual stress accumulation are most apparent in parts with overhanging features. Due to the complexity of the SLM process, the accumulation of residual stresses is difficult to assess a priori. The deformations and in-process failures caused by residual stress accumulation often lead to an expensive …

X Chromosome Dosage Compensation And Gene Expression In The Sheep, Kaleigh Flock

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.