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This Is Not Your Life, Ella M. Carroll-Smith

Stonecoast MFA Theses and Capstones

My novel, This Is Not Your Life examines themes of identity, class, and fate. Identical twin sisters, Annie and Quinn Graves, shared a troubled childhood, which led each of them down very different life paths. Annie is now climbing the corporate ladder at work, while Quinn leads the perfect family life in Richmond’s elite suburbs. And yet, they’re both unhappy, yearning for something different than the lives that seem to have chosen them. The two women decide to switch places for a while, hoping for a change of scenery and lifestyle. However, that decision has potentially disastrous consequences for them …

Predicting The Catch Potential Of Skipjack Tuna In The Western And Central Pacific Ocean Under Different Climate Change Scenarios, Kuo-Wei Yen, Nan-Jay Su, Tooreka Teemari, Min-An Lee, Hsueh-Jung Lu

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

Skipjack tuna (Katsuwonus pelamis) constitute an important migratory species that contributes significantly to the economy and the global fishery industry. Skipjack tuna play a vital role in the marine ecosystem, particularly in tropical waters of the western and central Pacific Ocean (WCPO). However, climate change may affect the characteristics of fishery resources, leading to substantial reallocation and reduction of the biomass of this species in the WCPO. In this study, catch and effort data for skipjack tuna were collected from a purse seine fishery and subsequently analyzed in combination with remote-sensing environmental variables and simulation data from climate models under …

Impact Of Climate Change On Shihmen Reservoir Water Supply, Tai-Yi Chu, Jyun-Long Lee, Wen-Cheng Huang

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

This study evaluated the impact of climate change on the water supply of the Shihmen reservoir in northern Taiwan. Five downscaled general circulation models that represent the daily meteorological data of 2046-2065 were adopted. The future inflow of the Shihmen reservoir was estimated using the tank model. Subsequently, the water supply risk under the given demand and operating conditions was simulated and assessed. Compared with 2004-2011, the average annual precipitation of the Shihmen watershed in 2046-2065 is lower, particularly during the wet season (May-October). Therefore, the risk to the water supply will increase in the first cropping season (from March …

Intersectionality Of Non-Normative Identities In The Cultures Of Engineering Survey, Allison Godwin, Adam Kirn, Lisa Benson, Geoff Potvin

School of Engineering Education Working Papers

This is a survey measuring students' attitudes and beliefs in engineering. The survey was distributed at four institutions across the U.S. in the fall semester of 2015. Students in first semester first-year engineering courses were surveyed on a paper-and-pencil instrument as part of a larger study. We collected 2,916 valid student responses that were digitized by the research group and audited for accuracy. Validity evidence for this survey has been document in ASEE conference proceedings.

Integrating Information Into The Engineering Design Process, Michael Fosmire, David Radcliffe

Purdue Information Literacy Handbooks

Engineering design is a fundamental problem-solving model used by the discipline. Effective problem-solving requires the ability to find and incorporate quality information sources. To teach courses in this area effectively, educators need to understand the information needs of engineers and engineering students and their information gathering habits. This book provides essential guidance for engineering faculty and librarians wishing to better integrate information competencies into their curricular offerings. The treatment of the subject matter is pragmatic, accessible, and engaging. Rather than focusing on specific resources or interfaces, the book adopts a process-driven approach that outlasts changing information technologies.

After several chapters …

Winter Commencement: December 15-16, 2016, University Of North Dakota

UND Commencement Programs

UND Winter Commencement program from December 15-16, 2016.

Stability And Redispersion Of Platinum Nanoparticle Suspensions For Attachment To Dyes In Low-Cost Solar Cells, Jeffrey Rothstein

Honors Scholar Theses

The project involves optimizing the synthesis, washing, and redispersion of platinum nanoparticles. The nanoparticles are to be attached to dye molecules where they will act as nanocatalysts to reduce energy losses in low-cost dye-sensitized solar cells. The goal is to develop a process based on a pure or mixed solvent that will maintain a stable dispersion of the nanoparticles without interfering with their ability to bond with the dye molecules in the solar cell.

Kennedy's Crisis: How John F. Kennedy Used History To Prevent Armageddon, Jordan L. Cerbone

Honors Scholar Theses

The Cuban Missile Crisis may be equated to a dangerous game of chess played between two powerful rival nations, the United States and the Soviet Union. President John F. Kennedy’s closest advisers, including all Joint Chiefs of Staff, recommended an air strike to destroy the Cuban missiles. Although Kennedy overruled them, he was nevertheless able to resolve the Cuban Missile Crisis through a combination of brilliant intuition and successful diplomacy. The mainstream consensus is that Kennedy’s personality was responsible for ending the crisis amicably. Consequently, Americans can consider the Cuban Missile Crisis as Kennedy’s crisis.

This thesis explores the role …

Assessment Of Landform Changes In Baramarae Tidal Flat, Korea Using Combined Analysis Of Multi-Temporal Remote Sensing Images And Grain Size Measurement Data, Yeseul Kim, Dong-Ho Jang, No-Wook Park, Hee Young Yoo

Journal of Marine Science and Technology–Taiwan

In this study, information on landform change in Baramarae tidal flat, Korea is analyzed using multi-temporal Landsat images and grain size measurement data. Unlike previous studies that focused on the extraction of topographic changes from intertidal digital elevation models (DEMs), information on landform change is assessed in the present study by considering both topography and surface sediment characteristics. DEMs in 2000 and 2010 were first generated using waterlines extracted from 16 Landsat images. Mean grain size distribution maps were also generated by interpolating sample data acquired in the field in 2002 and 2012. The non-spatial and spatial characteristics of the …

Mixed-Integer Optimization Problems With Applications To Manufacturing Scheduling And Distributed Energy System Operation, Bing Yan

Doctoral Dissertations

Archival abstract submitted

An Efficient Solution Methodology For Mixed-Integer Programming Problems Arising In Power Systems, Mikhail Bragin

Doctoral Dissertations

For many important mixed-integer programming (MIP) problems, the goal is to obtain near-optimal solutions with quantifiable quality in a computationally efficient manner (within, e.g., 5, 10 or 20 minutes). A traditional method to solve such problems has been Lagrangian relaxation, but the method suffers from zigzagging of multipliers and slow convergence. When solving mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) problems, the recently adopted branch-and-cut may also suffer from slow convergence because when the convex hull of the problems has complicated facial structures, facet-defining cuts are typically difficult to obtain, and the method relies mostly on time-consuming branching operations. In this thesis, the …

Population And Trophic Dynamics Of Striped Bass And Blueback Herring In The Connecticut River, Justin P. Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

Case studies of the ramifications of predator management for prey population dynamics can play a valuable role in developing ecosystem fisheries management. My dissertation focuses on the predator-prey interaction between Striped Bass (Morone saxatilis), an abundant predatory finfish, and an imperiled prey population of anadromous Blueback Herring (Alosa aestivalis). Annual returns of Blueback Herring to the Holyoke Dam on the Connecticut River in southern New England collapsed during the 1980-2000s, coincident with Striped Bass recovery. I studied the abundance and demography of both species in the Connecticut River during 2005-08, measured predation levels, and surveyed the …

Breaking Barriers: Saudi Women In Non Traditional Careers, Suad Dukhaykh

Student Scholarship

Women occupy only 15.8 percent of the private and public positions occupied by Saudi nationals, according to statistics from the Central Department of Statistics and Information 2015. The Saudi government has highlighted the need to support women's higher education and combat sociopolitical barriers to their employment. Despite facing substantial challenges to entering the labor market, females have made gains in Saudi society; these include higher literacy rates, greater employment, and moderate rates of entry into both positions of leadership and nontraditional careers. Qualitative research was based on semi-structured interviews with 30 women, 18 of whom had nontraditional careers and 12 …

Focusing Light Inside Scattering Media With Optical Phase Conjugation, Yan Liu

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In scattering media such as biological tissue, the heterogeneous refractive index distribution causes light to scatter, which makes the media look opaque and prevents us from focusing light beyond ~1 mm deep inside the media to achieve optical imaging and manipulation. Hence, the ability to focus light deep inside scattering media is highly desired, and it could revolutionize biophotonics by enabling deep-tissue non-invasive high-resolution optical microscopy, optical tweezing, optogenetics, micro-surgery, and phototherapy.

To break the optical diffusion limit and focus light deep inside scattering media, optical phase conjugation based wavefront shaping techniques, such as time-reversed ultrasonically encoded (TRUE) optical focusing, …

Understanding The Role Of Dynamics In Brain Networks: Methods, Theory And Application, Mohammadmehdi Kafashan

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

The brain is inherently a dynamical system whose networks interact at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Understanding the functional role of these dynamic interactions is a fundamental question in neuroscience. In this research, we approach this question through the development of new methods for characterizing brain dynamics from real data and new theories for linking dynamics to function. We perform our study at two scales: macro (at the level of brain regions) and micro (at the level of individual neurons).

In the first part of this dissertation, we develop methods to identify the underlying dynamics at macro-scale that govern brain …

Characterizing Nonmodel Microorganisms And Reconstructing Catabolic Pathways For Bio-Productions, Whitney Hollinshead

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In the 1970s, spikes in oil prices sparked early interests into first-generation biofuels (i.e., the production of ethanol from corn). Four decades later, biofuel manufacturing has under-performed as developed industrial strains suffer from poor performance and high costs of feedstocks. While the advancement in molecular biology has greatly benefited pathway engineering, synthetic biology hosts still cannot overcome the obstacles for profitable microbial bio-production. One approach may be to study non-model organisms and employ their metabolic features towards an improved bio-production pipeline. Here, this thesis aims to develop 13C-metabolism analysis tools to characterize novel organisms and re-program cell metabolism using novel …

Guided Medical Data Segmentation Using Structure-Aligned Planar Contours, Michelle Vaughan Holloway

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Segmentation of 3D/4D biological images is a critical step for a wide range of applications such as treatment planning, quantitative analysis, virtual simulations, and rendering visualizations. Automatic segmentation methods are becoming more reliable, but many experts still rely on manual intervention which makes segmentation a time and resource intensive bottleneck. Marking boundary contours in 3D images can be difficult when images are often noisy or the delineation of biological tissue is unclear. Non-parallel contours can be more accurate and reduce the amount of marking necessary, but require extra effort to ensure boundary consistency and maintain spatial orientation. This dissertation focuses …

Genetic Circuits For Transcriptional Regulation In Synechocystis Sp. Pcc 6803, Cheryl M. Immethun

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Microbial biosynthesis has produced a variety of complex compounds using processes that are more environmentally-friendly than many conventional methods. The most common hosts are heterotrophs, which require the addition of an organic carbon source; while cyanobacteria possess many traits that make them a more sustainable biotechnology platform. As phototrophs, cyanobacteria can employ sunlight and carbon dioxide to create many value-added compounds. A wealth of tools has been developed to engineer the commonly used heterotrophs for higher yields and titers; yet, few synthetic biology tools have been designed for cyanobacteria. Furthermore, many of the tools created for heterotrophs do not function …

Towards Clinical Photoacoustic Imaging: Developing Next-Generation Endoscopy Systems And Exploring New Contrast Agents, Chiye Li

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Photoacoustic imaging holds great clinical promise because it achieves high-resolution tomographic imaging at depths. Moreover, its strong spectroscopic imaging capability provides a wealth of molecular and functional information based on. Still, despite recent advances, existing photoacoustic systems cannot be readily applied in the clinical environment. This dissertation aims to push the frontier of clinical photoacoustic imaging from both technological and applicational perspectives.

The first part of this dissertation describes the development of photoacoustic endoscopy (PAE) systems for imaging human Barrett's esophagus and studying preterm birth. We have developed optical resolution-PAE, which significantly improved lateral resolutions, laparoscopic-PAE, which can guide minimally-invasive …

High-Throughput Exploration Of Glass Formation Via Laser Deposition And The Study Of Heterogeneous Microstructure In A Bulk Metallic Glass Alloy, Peter Te-Chuan Tsai

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Bulk metallic glasses are a relatively novel class of engineering alloys characterized by a "disordered" atomic structure devoid of long-range translational symmetry. Compared to crystalline alloys, the confluence of metallic bonding and amorphous structure imbues bulk metallic glasses with a unique set of properties that makes them particularly attractive for a wide variety of structural applications. Such properties include exceptional yield strengths, high elastic resilience, resistance to corrosion, and in particular, the unparalleled ability among metals to be thermoplastically formed across a wide range of length scales when heated above the glass transition temperature. Formation of metallic glass from a …

Novel Contrasts In Photoacoustic Tomography, Ruiying Zhang

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) combines rich optical contrast and high ultrasonic resolution in optically scattering tissue at depths. Taking advantage of its 100% sensitivity to optical absorption, PAT has been widely applied to structural, functional and molecular imaging, with both endogenous and exogenous contrasts, at superior depths than pure optical methods. This dissertation explores novel absorption contrast mechanisms of PAT based on optical/thermal patterns, endogenous cellular chromophores, nanoparticles, small-molecule dyes and genetically-encoded proteins. With these novel contrasts, the proof-of-concept applications of PAT have been extended to include homogenous flow measurements, targeted angiogenesis imaging and therapy, label-free white blood cell imaging, 3D-whole-organ …

Applications Of Aerosol Technologies In The Silicon Industry, Miguel Vazquez Pufleau

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation, the focus was on two unit operations that have the potential to significantly lower the cost and energy required for refining silicon. First, the removal of carbon from silicon kerf (sawing dust from wafering) was examined to enable its recycling. Second, silane pyrolysis was studied to better understand the dynamics of the initial stages of silicon aerosol formation and growth.

Fluorescence Imaging Of Cortical Calcium Dynamics: A Tool For Visualizing Mouse Brain Functions, Connections, And Networks, Patrick William Wright

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Hemodynamic-based markers of cortical activity (e.g. functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and optical intrinsic signal imaging) are an indirect and relatively slow report of neural activity driven by electrical and metabolic activity through neurovascular coupling, which presents significant limiting factors in deducing underlying brain network dynamics. As application of resting state functional connectivity (FC) measures is extended further into topics such as brain development, aging, and disease, the importance of understanding the fundamental basis for FC will grow.

In this dissertation, we extend functional analysis from hemodynamic- to calcium-based imaging. Transgenic mice expressing a fluorescent calcium indicator (GCaMP6) driven by …

Developing High Purity Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived V2a Interneurons For In Vitro Investigation And Transplantation Following Spinal Cord Injury, Nisha Iyer

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Functional recovery following spinal cord injury has been attributed to plasticity in local interneuron populations, which are able to create novel circuits that bypass the inhibitory lesion to activate pre-existing motor pathways. Cell replacement strategies and growth factor delivery platforms often attempt to enhance these natural mechanisms of regeneration. The work of this thesis sought to overcome the major obstacle to manipulating specific interneurons for therapy: an inability to obtain large, enriched interneuron subpopulations for drug screening and transplantation. We focused on the generation of V2a interneurons, which normally coordinate a wide range of locomotor tasks in both the spinal …

Research Express News, Georgia Southern University

Research & Economic Development

• Georgia Southern faculty continue excellence in 2015

Explicit Bases Of Motives Over Number Fields With Application To Feynman Integrals, Yu Yang

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Chapter 1 contains background material on higher Chow groups, KLM formula and Feynman integrals. In Chapter 2, we construct explicit bases for these extension classes mapping to zeta values. In Chapter 4, we study the Feynman integral of the three spoke wheel graph, reinterpret it as an image of regulator using higher Abel-Jacobi maps and theoretically prove that it is a rational multiple of zeta three. In Chapter 5, a reflexive graph polytope based on the graph polynomial is constructed. In Chapter 6, to generalize the results beyond wheel with three spokes, a criterion is given on the vanishing of …

Development Of A One-Equation Eddy Viscosity Turbulence Model For Application To Complex Turbulent Flows, Timothy Wray

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is routinely used in performance prediction and design of aircraft, turbomachinery, automobiles, and in many other industrial applications. Despite its wide range of use, deficiencies in its prediction accuracy still exist. One critical weakness is the accurate simulation of complex turbulent flows using the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations in conjunction with a turbulence model. The goal of this research has been to develop an eddy viscosity type turbulence model to increase the accuracy of flow simulations for mildly separated flows, flows with rotation and curvature effects, and flows with surface roughness. It is accomplished by developing a …

A Transactional Model And Platform For Designing And Implementing Reactive Systems, Justin Ross Wilson

McKelvey School of Engineering Graduate Student Theses & Dissertations

A reactive program is one that has "ongoing interactions with its environment." Reactive programs include those for embedded systems, operating systems, network clients and servers, databases, and smart phone apps. Reactive programs are already a core part of our computational and physical infrastructure and will continue to proliferate within our society as new form factors, e.g. wireless sensors, and inexpensive (wireless) networking are applied to new problems.

Asynchronous concurrency is a fundamental characteristic of reactive systems that makes them difficult to develop. Threads are commonly used for implementing reactive systems, but they may magnify problems associated with asynchronous concurrency, as …

Pleasure In The Past: Queer Nostalgia In The Gay American Century, Elisabeth Windle

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I recover nostalgia—unpopular, too frequently dismissed, and presumptively conservative—as a generative emotional position from which to read queer texts. My archive assembles a group of post-Stonewall texts—literature, film, television, and advertising—that marshal the pre-Stonewall literary past to support reflection on the pressing issues of recent gay life: same-sex marriage, the myth of the down low, effemiphobia and anti-feminism, and HIV/AIDS. Shuttling critically between modernist literary history and contemporary culture, I propose nostalgia as a useful affective mode for negotiating our relationship to queer history. Against both the pervasive narrative of gay progress circulating in mainstream culture and …

Biogenetically Inspired Total Synthesis Of Lingzhiol. Design And Synthesis Of Axially Chiral N-Heterocyclic Carbene Catalysts., Krishna Sharmah Gautam

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

A stereo- and enantio-selective synthesis of lingzhiol has been achieved, mimicking a proposed biogenetic pathway via Brønsted acid-catalyzed semipinacol rearrangement of a 2,3-epoxy alcohol. A new and improved method was developed for alkylation of anilines using a domestic microwave oven. The resulting racemic chiral anilines were resolved via classical resolution and transformed into axially chiral thiazolylidene-based NHC organocatalysts, which were applied to asymmetric benzoin condensation.