Digital Commons Network^™

Comparison Of Statistical Models For Imputation Of Missing Data In Clinical Trials, Vaishnavi Purandare

Theses

Missing data is an integral part of clinical trials and its analysis. This study discusses the downsides of having missing values in clinical data, traditional methods used to resolve this issue and some techniques which can be implemented to remedy the same.

The data used for the study is simulated from Theophylline data from Pinheiro and Bates (1995). The simulated data measures the Theophylline drug concentration in the body of 10 Subjects over 24 hours. There are three cases considered with increasing number of randomly created missing values for the Concentration variable. Subsets are created to fit linear and quadratic …

Dog Days On The Chaparral, Hugo Teixeira

Theses

Dog Days on the Chaparral is an installation comprised of three photographic sculptures made in response to the question “where are you from?” Although I define myself as both Portuguese and American, as someone who immigrated as a child, my identification as either ebbs and flows. The work embodies this slipperiness—a complicated emotional geography—in fabricated sculptures which collage images of two landscapes, the California chaparral and Portuguese montado, as proxies for these two homes and identities. I employ vernacular building materials and tools, such as lumber, engineered wood, common fasteners, house paint and steel clamps to create a literal and …

Tiny Furious Circles, Ann M. Herrington

Theses

I have had time to live and time to reflect on that living. What I have found is that certain things present themselves, over and over, wearing different skins. And though they look different, there is a certain whiff of familiarity that activates the soul’s hindbrain and pulls you close. That’s how it has been for me. Because of this — my failure to learn the first time; my need to see a thing from all its sides; my constant picking at the half-healed — certain themes repeat. And because they have come to me at different times in many …

The Vulnerability Of Chronic Stress: Implications For Feeling Like Giving Up, Miranda Jany

Theses

The feeling of learned helplessness has been associated with prolonged stress and trauma. Additionally, many previous studies have examined the relationship between stress and decreased feelings of control, such as self-efficacy and locus of control. However, these forms of control have been primarily self-reported. The present study aimed to investigate the relationships among learned helplessness, chronic stressors, and self-agency using a computer-based task. We also measured heart rate variability (HRV) during the self-agency task to assess psychophysiological correlates of these variables. Seventy-four participants completed a series of questionnaires that were used to assess lifelong stressors (e.g., exposure to natural disasters, …

Influences Of Salvinorin A And Sex Differences On Depressive- And Anxiety-Like Behaviors In A Chronic Mild Stress Paradigm, Sarah Mitchell

Theses

Kappa opioid receptors are colocalized with dopamine receptors and are frequently associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and drug use and abuse. KOR antagonism has widely been considered anti-depressive and anxiolytic in animal models while agonism is pro-depressive and anxiogenic. However, recent findings suggest that SalvA, a natural kappa agonist derived from a plant in the mint family, can reduce depressive- and anxiety-like behavior in rats. The current study investigated the effects of chronic mild stress on behavior, attenuation by SalvA, and sex differences. 52 Long-Evans rats, 26 males and 26 females, were exposed to six weeks of CMS. Animals received …

Effects Of Prior Land Use, Carbon Availability, And Hydrology On Nitrogen Cycling In Created Freshwater Wetlands, Michael Mcgowan

Theses

Freshwater wetlands are a critical feature of the landscape, providing important ecosystem services such as nutrient removal. However, created wetlands often fail to meet functional performance criteria, frequently due to shortcomings in management of key functional drivers, especially hydrology and soil quality. In natural wetlands, hydrology, carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) availability play an important role in nutrient cycling. However, controls on the relative importance of denitrification and N fixation, and release of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O ) are poorly understood in created wetlands. The tradeoff between these processes and the mechanisms for improved management are are imperative …

Meaning In The Noise: Neural Signal Variability In Major Depressive Disorder, Sally M. Pessin

Theses

Clinical research has revealed aberrant activity and connectivity in default mode (DMN), frontoparietal (FPN), and salience (SN) network regions in major depressive disorder (MDD). Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies suggest that variability in brain activity, or blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) signal variability, may be an important novel predictor of psychopathology. However, to our knowledge, no studies have yet determined the relationship between resting-state BOLD signal variability and MDD nor applied BOLD signal variability features to the classification of MDD history using machine learning (ML). Thus, the current study had three aims: (i) to investigate the differences …

Do Hardworking Role Models Lower Implicit Gender-Science Bias?, Christina Garasky

Theses

Prior research has demonstrated that implicit gender-science biases discourage women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Gender-science biases promote the belief that women cannot be successful in STEM, which can affect women's sense of belonging and commitment to STEM. While women scientists serving as role models benefit women in STEM by decreasing implicit gender-science biases and increasing perceived belonging and performance in STEM, the influence of role model qualities on implicit bias has not been widely explored. The current study examined the influence role model qualities (hardworking, gifted) have on implicit gender-science bias. The research also …

For The Sensing Of Viral Dna: An Integrated Polydimethylsiloxane Accurate Crispr Detection (Impact) System, Kenneth N. Hass

Theses

Infectious disease outbreaks have become more frequent and extreme in recent years, and as populations continue to grow and the world becomes more interconnected, they show no signs of stopping. The current COVID-19 pandemic affecting the world and grinding economies to a halt was known about months ago but could not be contained. One of the largest issues facing the containment of infectious disease is a lack of real-time, point-of-care detection devices which can accurately and effectively identify those who are infected so they can be treated and quarantined. Here, an Integrated Micropillar Polydimethylsiloxane Accurate CRISPR Detection (IMPACT) system is …

Design And Simulation Analysis Of Deep Learning Based Approaches And Multi-Attribute Algorithms For Warehouse Task Selection, Prashant Sankaran

Theses

With the growth and adoption of global supply chains and internet technologies, warehouse operations have become more demanding. Particularly, the number of orders being processed over a given time frame is drastically increasing, leading to more work content. This makes operational tasks, such as material retrieval and storage, done manually more inefficient. To improve system-level warehouse efficiency, collaborating Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) are needed. Several design challenges encompass an AV, some critical aspects are navigation, path planning, obstacle avoidance, task selection decisions, communication, and control systems. The current study addresses the warehouse task selection problem given a dynamic pending task list …

Nearshore Vertical Distribution Of Barnacle Cyprids: Temporal Patterns And Hydrographic Variability, Gabriela Yamhure

Theses

Most benthic organisms living in the intertidal zone have planktonic larvae that reside temporarily in the water column before settling in their adult habitats. Larvae aggregate in offshore larval pools, and transport horizontally and vertically in the water to remain in the nearshore and during their pelagic life. While some horizontal transport of larvae can be attributed to advection, behavioral responses, like vertical swimming and buoyancy control, allow larvae to position themselves at depths where flow direction can be exploited. Thus, knowledge on how vertical larval distribution relates to physical processes can be fundamental to better understand larval transport. These …

Applying Systems Pharmacology To The Treatment Of Chronic Illness Using Novel Scoring And Translational Methods, Spencer Richman

Theses

Chronic illnesses are poorly understood diseases that are often highly resistant to treatment. The prevalence and severity of these illnesses necessitates new methods for treatment development that diverge from the paradigm of one drug, one illness. Instead, multidrug interventions that utilize repurposable, previously approved drugs could be far more advantageous. In order to support this, a novel scoring framework and accompanying set of tools, collectively termed DrugAble, have been developed. DrugAble scores proposed, model-based treatment target solutions by analyzing drug-target interaction data and addressing the network complexity of these solutions. Actionability scores that summarize the likelihood of a proposed target …

Cognitive Reappraisal And Expressive Suppression: An Examination Of Their Associations With Seeking Social Support, Well-Being And Academic Performance, Khalid Abdulazem Mohamed Ahmed

Theses

This thesis examined individual differences regarding two prominent emotion regulation processes - cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression - and their associations with social functioning, psychological well-being, and academic performance. Six hypotheses were proposed. It was hypothesized that frequent use of cognitive reappraisal is positively correlated with seeking social support, psychological well-being, and academic performance, while the chronic use of expressive suppression is negatively associated with the three factors. Additionally, the differences between high reappraisers and low reappraisers, and between high suppressors and low suppressors, were investigated to confirm the results following the correlational analyses. An online survey was conducted …

Prevalence, Antibiotic-Resistance And Growth Profile Of Vibrio Spp., Isolated From Imported Shellfish In The Local Markets, Hind Obaid Al Rumaithi

Theses

Seafood-related human illness caused by Vibrio species is a major problem. Seafood is prone to contamination by pathogenic Vibrio bacteria especially, Vibrio mimicus, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, and Vibrio vulnificus. The study on the prevalence of this microorganism in seafood of the United Arab Emirates is vital due to the cultural background of the Emiratis as a coastal heritage. A study was conducted to assess the prevalence of Vibrio spp. in imported shellfish from local markets and to identify the Vibrio spp. examine the antimicrobial resistance and profile growth conditions of the isolated Vibrio. In the present study, …

A Study On Dna Memory Encoding Architecture, Robert W. Mason

Theses

The amount of raw generated data is growing at an exponential rate due to the greatly increasing number of sensors in electronic systems. While the majority of this data is never used, it is often kept for cases such as failure analysis. As such, archival memory storage, where data can be stored at an extremely high density at the cost of read latency, is becoming more popular than ever for long term storage. In biological organisms, Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) is used as a method of storing information in terms of simple building blocks, as to allow for larger and more …

Animal Testing Sentimental Analysis Using Twitter, Afra Naji Saeed Almansoori

Theses

This research explores attitudes towards the testing of cosmetics on animals, as pressure is increasing all over the world to stop animal testing and different countries have introduced policies to ban it. It is estimated that more than 115 million animals worldwide are used in laboratory experiments every year. But because only a small proportion of countries collect and publish data concerning use of animals for testing and research, the precise numbers are unknown. This research was designed to investigate whether awareness of the issue impacts whether or not people support animal testing. The research hypothesis is that the reason …

Designing A Mental Health Institute For Adolescents In Kingdom Of Saudi Arabia (Healing Architecture), Heba Bin Seddeq

Theses

The society in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia obstructs people who want to see a psychiatrist, especially adolescents. Based on the lack of mental health support in Saudi Arabia, this thesis will introduce a mental health institute project for adolescents that puts more attention on specific design factors, such as daylighting, color, and green roofs. These aspects provide help for the recovery process by supporting healing according to many psychological studies. This psychiatric institute will be specialized for teenagers 10-19 because the early intervention at this critical period has the possibility for the potential for making a lifelong difference. by …

“Natural State”: Navigating The Experiences Of Black Women’S Natural Hair Identities, Leah Green

Theses

In 2009, The “Natural hair movement” developed and was widely discussed in online discourse. The goal of this contemporary movement was to encourage Black women to wear their natural hair to work in an effort to combat internalized negative images Black women might have surrounding natural hair. This transformative movement resulted in many books and articles being written on the shared experiences and adversities many Black women face about choosing to wear their natural hair today in the workplace. These inspiring books and articles prompted this project which will track my journey and the results of conducting a Black hair …

Walk A Mile In Their Shoes: Empathy And Rehumanization In Community-Based Programming, Rachel Baldwin

Theses

In the past decade, museums have been changing their missions, definitions, and exhibitions to focus on activism and the interpretation of the controversial and polarizing. Through exhibiting controversy and engaging visitors with it, museums have attempted to foster feelings of empathy. This paper summarizes the results of the research done on community-based projects from the 2020 exhibition Hostile Terrain 94 and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM). Hostile Terrain 94 is an international pop-up exhibit concerning the humanitarian crisis at the US-Mexico border. RIT will be exhibiting a piece of this map which will come together at the National …

Machine Learning-Enabled Resource Allocation For Underlay Cognitive Radio Networks, Fatemeh Shah Mohammadi

Theses

Due to the rapid growth of new wireless communication services and applications, much attention has been directed to frequency spectrum resources and the way they are regulated. Considering that the radio spectrum is a natural limited resource, supporting the ever increasing demands for higher capacity and higher data rates for diverse sets of users, services and applications is a challenging task which requires innovative technologies capable of providing new ways of efficiently exploiting the available radio spectrum. Consequently, dynamic spectrum access (DSA) has been proposed as a replacement for static spectrum allocation policies. The DSA is implemented in three modes …

Modulation Of Anti-Microbical Defenses In The Gasrointestinal Tract By Acetylcholinesterase Inhibitors, Alreem Abdulaziz Al-Dhalali Al-Mansori

Theses

Inflammation is a crucial defence mechanism that protects the body from the effect of invading pathogens. However, the inflammatory response needs to be controlled in order to avoid systemic manifestations with serious consequences to the host. Accumulating evidence indicates that the inflammatory response is tightly regulated through immunological and neural pathways. Previously, it has been demonstrated that cholinergic stimulation by paraoxon, a specific and irreversible inhibitor of acetylcholinesterase (AChE), improved survival in mice following oral infection with virulent Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium). However, paraoxon is an organophosphorus compound unsuited for human use. In this study, the …

Improving Template-Based Nanomanufacturing Of Carbon Nanotube Arrays Via Polishing Wet Etching Method, Kosar Samadi

Theses

Multifunctional carbon nanotubes (CNTs) enable novel ways of interacting with complex biological fluid environments, such as single living cells and tissues. It has been shown that vertically aligned carbon nanotube arrays can be utilized to deliver genes into cells with high efficiency. These arrays were produced through template-based nanomanufacturing, where chemical vapor deposition forms carbon nanotubes inside the pores and oxygen plasma and reactive ion etching (RIE) expose the tubes by selective etching. The same devices could be produced faster and cheaper by replacing oxygen plasma and RIE with mechanical polishing and wet etching. However, the biomedical utilization of CNT-based …

Pleasure From Erotic Nipple Stimulation, Pre-Pregnancy, As A Predictor Of Successful Initiation Of Breastfeeding, Jessica Jolie Badonsky

Theses

The erotic association with breasts and nipples can be a barrier to breastfeeding due to fear and misunderstanding by breast feeders and health professionals alike (Polomeno, 1999). Little is known about erotic pleasure from nipple stimulation and its correlation to initiate breastfeeding. This study was to determine if erotic pleasure from nipple stimulation prior to pregnancy is a predictor of successful initiation of breastfeeding.

Group B Streptococcus: Molecular Epidemiology, Pathogenic Profiling And Control Strategies, Katherine Mary Hayes

Theses

Group B Streptococcus (GBS) are frequent colonisers of the gastrointestinal tract of healthy adults with worldwide rates of 18% colonisation; however, they are also opportunistic pathogens capable of causing invasive disease, particularly in neonates and adults with underlying conditions. Indeed, GBS is the leading cause of invasive neonatal disease worldwide with a global incidence of 0.49 per 1000 live births and GBS disease in adults is increasing globally, with estimated rates of 10.9 cases per 100,000 people. While GBS remain largely susceptible to penicillin, there have been reports of reduced beta-lactam susceptibility in certain countries and resistance to other antibiotic …

Effect Of Mptp On Α-Synuclein Spreading, Accumulation And Toxicity In Mice With Intrastriatal Innoculation Of Human Α-Synuclein Preformed Fibril, Madiha Mohieldin Merghani

Theses

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disorder, characterized by abnormal accumulation of interneuronal inclusions of α-synuclein (α-syn) known as Lewy bodies (LBs) and Lewy neurites (LNs), and significant loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNc) region of the brain. Recent evidence suggests that intrastriatal inoculation of α-syn Preformed Fibril (PFF) into mice induces PD-like LBs and LNs pathology formed by aggregated α-syn in anatomically interconnected brain regions which needs several months of incubation to develop the pathology. In the present study, we have evaluated the effect of different doses of 1-methyl, 4-phenyl, …

Investigating The Synergistic Bioactive Effects Of Fruit, Vegetable And Protein Combinations In A Market-Ready Food Product For Young Adults, Jessica Eivers

Theses

Diets high in fruits and vegetables (FV), are widely recommended for their health-promoting properties. A low intake of FV among young adults, is associated with the risk of developing chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension, osteoporosis, obesity, type 2 diabetes, dental caries, hypercholesterolemia and certain cancers in later life. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), despite an increasing awareness of the health benefits of FV, consumption by young adult’s remains below the recommended intake of 400g per day. This project aims to develop innovative, FV products for young adults with demonstrated bioactivity and high nutrient density. Initially, …

An Investigation Into The Technical And Running Performance Metrics Of Gaelic Football Training Andmatch-Play To Inform The Design Of A Novel Tactical Periodisation Training Model, Shane Mangan

Theses

Background: Carefully planned and implemented training programmes are essential for optimal sports performance. In depth knowledge of both the technical, tactical and physical demands of the sport are critical to informing these training programmes. Gaelic football, an amateur intermittent field sport, is one of the most popular sports in Ireland. Limited previous research has attempted to extensively analyse and interpret key findings from the literature to formulate practical recommendations for Gaelic football training and match preparation. The purpose of this research is to objectively analyse Gaelic football performance at the elite and sub-elite levels and to use this data to …

Evaluating The Impact Of Land Surface Properties On Simulated Dust Emissions And Air Quality, Erica Burrows

Theses

Strong winds and dry surface conditions result in frequent occurrence of dusty conditions in the Southwestern United States (SW US) causing degraded air quality and harmful health effects. The Weather Research and Forecasting with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model is often used to forecast such events. Biases in specifications of soil moisture and vegetation cover in the land surface component for initialization of WRF-Chem can result in systematic errors in forecasts. This study examines how WRF-Chem dust forecasts for the SW US can be improved through better prescriptions of soil and vegetation for the following cases: 27 April 2014, 23 March 2017, …

Functional Analysis Of Cftr Promoter Dna Variants, Tiffany Michelle Ledbetter-Brumbeloe

Theses

Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an autosomal recessive disease that affects 1 in 3500 people in the United States. CF affects epithelial cells in areas such as the lungs, GI tract and reproductive system. The disease is caused by variants in the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR) gene which result in mutations in the CFTR protein. However, some CF patients who have the same genotype for the CFTR gene experience different severities of the disease. One explanation for this is that CFTR promoter SNPs influence gene expression which could lead to differing severities of CF. To test this hypothesis, luciferase …

Liquid-Based Extractive Fermentation Of Glycerol To Bio-Butanol, Jonathan Kilroy

Theses

Crude glycerol is generated as a major waste product of the biodiesel industry. Purification of glycerol is difficult and costly due to toxic impurities. Clostridium pasteurianum is capable of converting crude glycerol into butanol, a useful fuel additive. To optimize conversion of glycerol to butanol, a continuous culture chemostat was used to improve cell growth and fermentation. The use of an extraction column containing a hollow fiber membrane was explored as a possible method of separating butanol from the culture. Deionized water and liposome vesicles were both tested as possible extraction solutions. Continuous culture was found to induce a steady …