Digital Commons Network^™

Facile Synthesis Of Gold, Copper, And Silicon Nanostructures By Laser Ablation In Liquid, Nicholas Simpson

Theses and Dissertations

Metal nanoparticle (NP) synthesis is a continually evolving area of research, owing to the widespread application of NPs in fields such as catalysis, drug delivery, and biosensing. Compared to bulk metal material, NPs contain a larger proportion of surface atoms and exhibit unique optical properties, thus making them ideal for applications where maximizing surface interactions is key. Moreover, their compositions can be altered in several different ways, as evidenced by metal alloy, core/shell, supported, and defective NPs. While conventional synthesis methods are capable of producing NPs in large quantities, they often require conditions of high temperature and pressure, strong reducing …

Knowing By Heart: Philosophical Dimensions Of Humanistic Mathematics Education, Catherine Henney

Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to revive interest in late twentieth century humanistic mathematics education (HME) so that its principles might cross the boundary of higher education and settle in corners of the K-12 math education space. In particular, HME’s theme of teaching math humanistically directs attention to features and phenomena that bear strongly on students’ daily classroom experiences. Personhood, agency, inquiry, meaning, environment, feelings, relationships: these elements invite a more thorough meditation and philosophical analysis. Though it is a largely philosophical endeavor, this project is enlivened by classroom vignettes and case studies that bring practical relevance to HME’s core principles. Chapters …

Advanced Air Preheater Sealing Systems For Enhanced Efficiency And Reliability In Thermal Power Plants, Pavan Kumar Ravulaparthy

Theses and Dissertations

Global electricity generation still relies heavily on thermal power plants, which consume vast amounts of fuel and emit significant amounts of carbon dioxide. A major but often overlooked source of inefficiency in these plants lies within the rotary regenerative air preheater (RAPH), a critical heat-exchange component where air leakage can exceed 20% in aging units. This leakage increases fuel consumption, parasitic fan power, and CO₂ emissions, while degrading boiler reliability.

This research introduces advanced adaptive sealing systems designed to mitigate these losses by dynamically compensating for rotor eccentricity, thermal distortion, and wear under harsh operating conditions. Brush seals, composed of …

Machine Learning-Driven Optimization For Utility-Scale Quantum Optimization, Bao Tran

Theses and Dissertations

Hard combinatorial optimization problems, often mapped to Ising models, promise potential solutions with quantum advantage but are constrained by limited qubit counts in near-term devices. We present an innovative quantum-inspired framework that dynamically compresses large Ising models to fit available quantum hardware of different sizes. Thus, we aim to bridge the gap between large-scale optimization and current hardware capabilities. Our method leverages a physics-inspired GNN architecture to capture complex interactions in Ising models and accurately predict alignments among neighboring spins (aka qubits) at ground states. By progressively merging such aligned spins, we can reduce the model size while preserving the …

Implementation Of Quantized Artificial Neural Networks With Spintronic Stochastic Computing, Saadi Sabyasachi Mr.

Theses and Dissertations

Artificial intelligence or machine learning is going through a rapid expansion. It also incurs significant costs for power and device footprints. Various approaches are being explored to design energy and hardware efficient machine learning models. Stochastic computing has been proposed for efficient machine learning implementation. It requires a source of random number generation which poses some practical challenges. So spintronic solutions such as magnetic tunnel junction has been used for random number generation. Again, spintronic random number generation to implement high precision circuit is prone to device-to-device variations. Hence we designed quantized artificial neural network with spintronic stochastic computing which …

Learning From Non-Stationary Data Streams, Gabriel Jonas Aguiar

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid growth of data from sources such as mobile applications, sensors, and network monitoring has increased the need for machine learning algorithms capable of handling non-stationary data streams. However, learning from such streams presents significant challenges due to their evolving nature and the presence of concept drift. One of the most complex issues is learning from imbalanced data streams, where shifting data distributions, combined with feature space drifts, complicate continuous adaptation. These challenges become even more pronounced in multi-class scenarios, which are common in real-world applications. Detecting concept drift in such contexts is particularly demanding, as it requires tracking …

Establishing A Conventional Linac-Based Electron Flash Beam, Justin Defrancisco

Theses and Dissertations

Problems: A rediscovered radiotherapy technique, FLASH, involves increasing the dose rate to >40 Gy/s. For a given dose, FLASH is shown to decrease the normal tissue complication probability without affecting the tumor control probability. More preclinical studies are necessary to confirm and enable these desirable properties on humans. Current preclinical investigations have diverse constraints, requiring FLASH apparatuses with flexible parameters and accurate control. However, there are limited FLASH platforms available, the existing ones are costly. Our institution is not in possession of any such infrastructure. Even if available, dosimetry and beam control in FLASH are extremely lacking. There is …

Novel Redox Oxygen Active Materials For Solid Oxide Cells And Thermochemical Hydrogen Production, Jiaxin Lu

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates novel materials designed to significantly enhance the performance and durability of oxygen electrodes for solid oxide cells and redox active materials for thermochemical hydrogen production. The first part of this work evaluates Ta-doped BaCoO₃₋δ (BCT) and its structural analog SrCoO₃₋δ (SCT), focusing on their catalytic performance in oxygen reduction and evolution reactions. Among BCT compositions (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5), the BCT10 (x = 0.1) composition exhibited the highest oxygen vacancy concentration, electronic conductivity, and lowest polarization resistance. However, SCT10 surpassed BCT10 in these critical performance parameters and also demonstrated greater stability over extended operational periods. Notably, …

Knowledge And Ontology Enhanced Approach To Natural Language Understanding (Koe-Nlu) In Computational Social Media And Healthcare, Naga Usha Gayathri Lokala

Theses and Dissertations

Natural Language Understanding (NLU) faces both opportunities and challenges as the amount of social media and healthcare data grows. This is particularly evident in context-sensitive applications such as evaluating cognitive health, identifying mental health symptoms, and monitoring drug abuse. Even though traditional NLU models work well for processing language in a wide range of areas, they often lack the ability to understand language in a specific domain, reason in context, and incorporate structured external knowledge. This dissertation talks about the Knowledge and Ontology Enhanced Approach to Natural Language Understanding (KOE-NLU), a new framework that is meant to make NLU systems …

Influence, Confidence, And Interest In Mathematics: The Route To Increasing Female Participation In Stem, Lisa Galbreath Neaton Black

Theses and Dissertations

Women are underrepresented in STEM professions despite initiatives to encourage young women to pursue these financially rewarding careers. Studies show this divide is not due to inability or lack of female participation in higher education, as women tend to outscore their male counterparts on standardized tests and make up approximately 59% of the postsecondary student population. Rather, the disconnect in the high school-to-college STEM pipeline for young women seems to center on mathematics. In response, this action research study focused on addressing societal influence and mathematical confidence and interest using a constructivist approach in an honors Algebra 2 class.Hands-on activities, …

Modification Of Nanoparticles For Designed Interfaces, Tony Lee Neely, Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The work contained herein, is focused on the design, synthesis, and characterization of polymer nanocomposite interfaces and the property enhancement afforded from said interface design. Through the use of reversible addition fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization for the grafting of polymer chains to silica nanoparticles, the surface of silica nanoparticles can be manipulated to tune the properties of the nanocomposite as a whole.

In the first part of this work, heterogeneity is introduced onto the surface of silica nanoparticles via a sequential RAFT polymerization to afford a bimodal brush system. A densely grafted, short brush population is polymerized from the …

A Math Teacher’S Reflexive Journey Into The Opportunity Gap, Richard A. Ball Iii

Theses and Dissertations

This multiple case study sought to determine what educational factors, if any, impacted Black students in a public school located in the South-eastern United States, to enroll in a lower-level math course. The study also aimed to view the mathematical identities of these students and have myself reflect on my practice both locally and globally. This, however, is a result of the Problem of Practice, the opportunity gap. H. Richard Milner’s (2012) opportunity gap framework served as the theoretical framework for this study and for which all findings were situated. The data was analyzed using deductive coding, with the elements …

Uso De Herramientas De Inteligencia Artificial Generativa Por Parte De Docentes En Una Escuela Del Suroeste De Puerto Rico, Glorimar N. Rodríguez Guiliani

Theses and Dissertations

Esta disertación aplicada fue diseñada para investigar el nivel de conocimiento, uso y dificultades que enfrentan los docentes de quinto a duodécimo grado en una escuela privada del suroeste de Puerto Rico respecto a tecnologías emergentes las cuales presentan desafíos significativos para los docentes y los estudiantes. Se exploró la utilización de herramientas de inteligencia artificial generativa (GenAI) como ChatGPT dentro y fuera del aula para actividades pedagógicas y administrativas.

Los hallazgos revelaron una notable carencia en el conocimiento docente sobre el uso y habilidades de la inteligencia artificial. Se identificó, también, una deficiencia en la capacidad de los docentes …

Instructional Design And Technology Professionals: Why Are Some Laggards?, Hayley Mendelson Smith

Theses and Dissertations

Laggards are often thought of as aloof and uninformed late adopters, as traditionalists living in the past (Rogers,2003). Laggards represent the last 16% of a population to adopt an innovation, and, as a result, they are often depicted for their resistance to adopt an innovation much later than the rest of the population, if ever (Jahanmir et al., 2020; Rogers, 2003). The present study attempted to expand the research on laggards, specifically laggard Instructional Design and Technology (IDT) professionals.

IDT professionals were the target group because of their perceived innovativeness as a result of their high exposure to instructional technology …

Teacher Views Of Augmentative And Alternative Communication With Nonverbal Students With Severe Intellectual Disabilities: A Generic Qualitative Study, Lelita K. Thomas

Theses and Dissertations

Students with significant intellectual disabilities who are nonverbal often depend on augmentative and alternative communication devices to engage with lessons and participate in secondary educational environments. Despite advancements in this technology, issues pertaining to training, consistency, and institutional support persist, hindering effective application in urban schools. The objective of this generic qualitative study was to investigate the perspectives of teachers and related service providers regarding the utilization of these devices for nonverbal students with severe intellectual disabilities in urban secondary schools.

Data were gathered via semi-structured interviews with 11 participants, comprising special education instructors, related service providers, and special education …

Hybrid Energy Storage Systems For Renewable Integration: Combining Batteries, Supercapacitors, And Flywheels, Tanwa Morohunkeji Iwayemi

Theses and Dissertations

Renewable energy integration into existing power grids is crucial for a sustainable future, but its intermittency poses technical challenges to grid stability and reliability. Hybrid Energy Storage Systems (HESS), combining lithium-ion batteries, supercapacitors, and flywheels, offer a promising solution by leveraging the complementary strengths of these technologies. This study explores optimal configurations of HESS using HOMER Pro software and a theoretical analysis approach to establish unified mathematical models for the three storages with constraints to address various operational scenarios, including normal operation, absence of renewable sources, and component failures. The proposed system integrates an Energy Management System (EMS) using a …

Harmony Or Discord? A Study On The Alignment Between National Objectives And Reformed Social Studies Textbooks In Egypt, Lina Yehia

Theses and Dissertations

Education systems, in many parts of the world, have served as a channel for communicating national goals to students, and Egypt has not been an exception. This study examines how public textbooks effectively align with equipping future generations of Egyptians to fulfill the nation’s development policy goals set for 2030. Utilizing a qualitative research design, this study employed textbook and document analyses of the published national policy goals of the current administration, along with the most recently reformed social studies textbooks of Grades 4, 5, and 6, a product of EDU 2.0. Based on an analysis of national documents, the …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of The Effectiveness Of Tier 3 Academic Interventions, Dana Esposito

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to discover teachers’ perceptions about the overall effectiveness of Tier 3 RTI services for resolving academic problems and teachers’ perceptions about transitioning students out of RTI. Students receiving services in Tier 3 of the RTI process often spend a considerable amount of time attempting to meet their goals. A search for answers to this problem, combined with a gap in the existing literature regarding time spent in Tier 3, led to the development of this study.

Data collection was acquired through a qualitative collective-case method focused on semi-structured interviews. Participants consisted of general and special …

Legislative Impacts On K-12 Social Studies Teacher Identity, Curricular Decision-Making, And Receptiveness To Professional Development, Staci Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation examines how K-12 public school social studies teachers are navigating their instructional decision-making regarding content about marginalized groups in response to state legislation. Quantitative data were collected through an online Likert-scale survey to measure teachers’ reported agreement on how state legislation has impacted their instructional decision-making, job satisfaction connected to their professional and personal identities, inclusion of instructional materials, and receptiveness to professional development.

Following data collection, the researchers analyzed whether factors of district political context and teachers’ personal and professional identity characteristics predicted their responses. Survey results showed most teachers reported feeling that state legislation has …

Effects Of Parent Involvement In Their Children’S Academic And Behavioral Performance, Megan Menozzi

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the best practices to increase parental involvement in their children’s school activities by recording and scribing the experiences of certified teachers. Prior to this study, the current school experienced a decrease in parental involvement with their child’s scheduled school activities. As the school carry on with planning scheduled events for parental involvement, teachers were still expected to be prepared to implement curriculum in the classrooms, while ensuring children’s needs were being met by way of continuous communication with families.

The researcher developed a qualitative phenomenological approach. The design allowed the researcher to interview …

Investigating The Impact Of Student Motivation And Self-Efficacy On Academic Performance In Advanced Placement Courses, Alicia Carroll

Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods applied dissertation was designed to provide insight into the effects of student motivation and student self-efficacy on academic performance in Advanced Placement (AP) courses. Secondary educational institutions in the United States offer their students Advanced Placement courses, dual enrollment or dual credit courses, International Baccalaureate (IB) courses, and early college programs to encourage and promote the quest for outstanding student attainment. Although many students in the study school enroll in the Academy for Advanced Placement Studies, not all ninth through 12th graders achieve Advanced Placement credit in the Academy’s required courses.

Education has traditionally been viewed as …

Teacher Perception On The Implementation Of A Culturally Responsive Ela Curriculum, Erica Tate Dial

Theses and Dissertations

While the principles of culturally responsive and culturally relevant teaching hold transformative potential, they can only be fully realized if educators are genuinely equipped and empowered to implement them. This qualitative study examined teacher perceptions of an English Language Arts curriculum through the lens of culturally relevant and culturally responsive teaching. A diverse group of teachers, varying in experience, age, gender, and race, were interviewed to gather a range of perspectives on the implementation of this curriculum. The study focused on addressing the following research questions: 1. What are teachers’ perceptions of culturally responsive and culturally relevant instruction and academic …

An Adaptive Method For Covariate Balancing In Block Randomized Clinical Trials, Ren Rasnick

Theses and Dissertations

Clinical trials are randomized in part to limit allocation bias, but also to ensure comparability between treatment arms for a baseline variable of concern. Comparable with regard to a baseline variable of concern is necessary for the validity of statistical methods. However, comparability is not guaranteed for trials of any size and is even more likely in trials with < 200 total participants. We propose a new method for adapting the allocation of participants in a sequentially allocated two-armed study with a small sample size to better ensure comparability.

The proposed method calculates the expected final imbalance (lack of comparability) based on the current participant values. Unlike several other methods, our method ensures the final desired sample size for each treatment arm, utilizes the expected final imbalance, increases comparability between …

Unraveling The Reactivity Of Nitrate Ester Explosives: Insights From Femtosecond Time-Resolved Mass Spectrometry And Computational Chemistry, Erica Britt

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation uncovers the ultrafast molecular mechanisms underlying the decomposition of nitrate ester explosives—nitroglycerin (NG), ethylene glycol dinitrate (EGDN), and amyl nitrate—through the integration of femtosecond time-resolved mass spectrometry and advanced computational chemistry. Although these compounds play fundamental roles in both military and civilian contexts, the precise molecular dynamics governing their pronounced reactivity and impact sensitivity have remained inadequately characterized. Our research establishes that low O–NO2 bond dissociation energies are the primary driver of ultrafast fragmentation and high reactivity in all three esters. The distinctive molecular architectures of these esters dictate their explosive properties: NG’s tri-nitrate configuration leads to exceptional …

Swarming Segregation: Leveraging Swarm Intelligence And Regionalization As Instruments For School District Desegregation, Jeffrey Wooten

Theses and Dissertations

Even after Brown led to the South briefly having the most diverse schools in the nation, schools throughout the Northeast have remained the most segregated in the nation for decades. While federal jurisprudence has made compelling desegregation pursuant to the Equal Protection Clause more challenging, New Jersey has a particularly favorable landscape to address severe segregation. With a highly diverse, densely populated public enrollment, favorable state constitutional precedent, and a history of successfully compelling desegregation, New Jersey is fertile ground exploring regional desegregation. Scholars, judges, and even plaintiffs in ongoing litigation (Latino Action Network v. N.J.) have called for New …

Relationship Extraction Using Retrieval Augmented Generation For Biomedical Dataset, Jannat Jannat

Theses and Dissertations

With the increasing number of structured and unstructured data, obtaining reliable information effectively has become crucial. In the biomedical domain, extracting information from the scientific papers is crucial in order to stay up-to-date with accurate information, given the increased pace by which new research studies are published. This work focuses on identifying relationships between entities that are extracted from the abstracts and titles of biomedical research papers. In this work, we developed a Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) based system to automatically identify relations between biomedical entities. We evaluate multiple open source Large Language Models (LLMs) and the number of examples …

Hazard Impact Assessment Of Brine Spills On Groundwater Pollution In Western North Dakota, Grace Dzifa Agbozo

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid expansion of oil and gas production in North Dakota’s Bakken Formation has heightened environmental concerns, particularly groundwater contamination from brine spills. Brine, a highly saline byproduct of oil extraction, poses a serious threat to water quality due to its chemical composition. This study examines brine spill impacts from 2013 to 2024 across Williams, Mountrail, McKenzie, and Dunn counties using GIS and the DRASTIC model, enhanced with Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Fuzzy Overlay techniques. Essential hydrogeological factors were analyzed to produce vulnerability index maps. Furthermore, spatial autocorrelation (Moran’s I), Optimized Hot Spot Analysis, and Emerging Hot Spot Analysis …

Mathematical Modeling Of Cyber-Physical Attacks In Iot Systems: An Epidemiological Approach, Tunde Alesinloye

Theses and Dissertations

The Internet of Things (IoT) has made electronic devices more interconnected, which has increased cybersecurity threats while also bringing previously unimaginable convenience. In this study, we explore the dynamics of malware transmission in IoT systems using a mathematical modeling methodology that draws inspiration from epidemiological approaches. To better characterize contemporary cyber-defense tactics like honeypots and proactive device hardening, we specifically suggest the SEIR-DX model, which expands the traditional SEIR framework by adding two extra compartments: Deceptive (D) and Secured (X).

The transitions between the six compartments Susceptible, Exposed, Infected, Recovered, Deceptive, and Secured are described by a system of nonlinear …

Domain Adapted Signal Classification For Simulated And Real-World Signals, Mohammad Ali

Theses and Dissertations

Signal classification models based on deep neural networks are trained on a set of data either simulated or over-the-air that are restricted to specific channel environments, varying distortion conditions such as SNR offsets. The consequence are models that unexpectedly do not do well in scenarios when the feature distribution between domains are too large such as when simulated models are deployed in real world environments. In this regard, we propose signal classification framework leveraging Domain-Adversarial Neural Networks to address SNR variability for simulated data Unsupervised Domain Adaptation frameworks for simulated to real world signals. Our first approach employs domain adversarial …

Advanced Motor Control Using Td3 Model-Free Reinforcement Learning, Muhammad Azam

Theses and Dissertations

Motor control plays a critical role in industrial automation, ensuring the precise regulation of speed, torque, and position across various applications. Traditional motor control techniques, such as open-loop, closed-loop, and feedback control, have been widely used but face limitations in handling complex and dynamic systems. Recent advancements in machine learning (ML) offer potential improvements in motor control by enabling systems to learn optimal control policies autonomously. This research investigates the integration of Reinforcement Learning (RL) with Field-Oriented Control (FOC) for the control of Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs). The study aims to address a significant gap in reward function design, …