Digital Commons Network^™

The Use Of Code-Switching In Bilingual Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Monica Yolanda Ponce-Lawler

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abstract

Background: Code-switching may be seen as a weakness in the eyes of many who do not truly

understand bilingualism. Several professionals consider code-switching to be a compensatory

strategy, however other professionals perceive code-switching as a functionally motivating behavior

(Chung, 2006). Whether is it consciously or subconsciously that a child code-switches, there is

limited research on when bilingual children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are likely to

code-switch as well as what patterns they utilize when they code-switch.

Purpose: To grow the limited research on the use of code-switching in bilingual children with ASD.

Introduce and compare two language treatments; …

Crash Rate As A Function Of Access Point Density And Traffic Flow, George Pinal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

High crash rates on U.S. highways results in a considerable loss of human and economic resources. It is estimated that the U.S. loses about $10 billion every year in motor vehicle crashes in terms of fatalities, injuries, and property damage. Demand for access points from highways to properties has steadily increased due to rapid growth in local economies creating thereby compromises between accessibility and mobility or capacity and safety. On the other hand, the availability of access is essential to residential and commercial developments and often occurs at the cost of safety and traffic operations. This often directs the need …

Development And Integration Of The Janus Robotic Lander: A Liquid Oxygen - Liquid Methane Propulsion System Testbed, Raul Ponce

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Initiatives have emerged with the goal of sending humans to other places in our solar system. New technologies are being developed that will allow for more efficient space systems to transport future astronauts. One of those technologies is the implementation of propulsion systems that use liquid oxygen and liquid methane (LO2-LCH4) as propellants.

The benefits of a LO2-LCH4 propulsion system are plenty. One of the main advantages is the possibility of manufacturing the propellants at the destination body. A space vehicle which relies solely on liquid oxygen and liquid methane for its main propulsion and reaction control engines is necessary …

Characterizing Regulatory Factors Of The Sumoylation System, David Quintanar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The effects that influenzaâ??s seasonal epidemics have on human health and the global economy have been clearly noted; while they are indeed very impressive, the impact of influenza pandemics arguably surpass other known infectious agents. Influenza A virus attaches to, enters, and infect cells by releasing its segmented genome which localize to the nucleus then use the hostâ??s cellular machinery to replicate and create viral progeny. The virus is able to hijack transcriptional components as well as to interact with other known and unknown host proteins which ultimately allows for a balance between cell viability and viral propagation. One known …

Analysis Of Gesture Frequency And Amplitude As A Function Of Personality In Virtual Agents, Alex Michael Rayon

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Embodied conversational agents are changing the way humans interact with technology. Agents are expected to behave like people, both verbally and non-verbally. Researchers within the Human-Computer Interaction community have found many attributes of an agentâ??s gesture contribute to an agentâ??s perceived personality and believability.

Gesture amplitude and frequency are two of the attributes that contribute to the naturalness of a gesture. Currently, no previous studies have defined an empirical baseline for generating natural gestures for these two attributes. I seek to discover whether gesture amplitude and frequency affect how users perceive an agentâ??s naturalness, and which gestures would be preferred …

The Prohibitin Protein Complex Promotes Mitochondrial Stabilization And Cell Survival In Hematologic Malignancies, Elisa Robles Escajeda

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Lymphocyte proliferation and differentiation is coordinated with high precision in healthy humans and is vital to maintaining a normal immune system. Imbalance of these events can result in the development of autoimmune diseases, immunodeficiencies and hematopoietic malignancies. These pathologies, specifically leukemia and lymphoma have a high incidence of relapse and mortality due to limited treatment options. Therefore, there is a critical need to characterize the signal transduction pathways and understand molecular hallmarks that mediate T cell activation in order to develop new strategies for diagnosis and treatments of these diseases.

Prohibitins (PHB1 and PHB2) have been proposed to play important …

Constructing An International Community, Monica Hakimi

Faculty Scholarship

What unites states and other global actors around a shared governance project? How does the group — what I will call an “international community” — coalesce and stay engaged in the enterprise? A frequent assumption is that an international community is cemented by its members’ commonalities and depleted by their intractable disagreements. This article critiques that assumption and presents, as an alternative, a theory that accounts for the combined integration and discord that actually characterize most global governance associations. I argue that conflict, especially conflict that manifests in law, is not necessarily corrosive to an international community. To the contrary, …

Design Of A Feed System For An Oxy-Methane High Pressure Combustor, Jorge Arturo Rosero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With growing concern over the effects that fossil fuels are having on the environment and the expected increases in energy demand in the coming decades, it is becoming increasingly more important to find cleaner and more efficient ways to generate energy. Natural gas has grown in popularity in the last decade thanks to a drastic drop in price and its lower carbon emissions compared to coal. With enough natural gas reserves in the United States to last over 90 years, natural gas is expected to be a large part of the future energy outlook.

Increased demand from growing populations also …

The Neuromodulatory Mechanisms That Monoamines Control Simple And Complex Behaviors, Paul Rafael Bermeo Sabandal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

For my Dissertation, I worked on three projects in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, which is a well-established genetic animal model. The first project (Chapter 1) is to elucidate the neural, cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying behavioral control named response inhibition. In this study, I identified that a particular subset of dopamine neurons, D1 dopamine receptors and the neural substrates crucial for response inhibition. Abnormal response inhibition is associated with the mental disorders including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and addiction, This study may help enhance our understanding the pathogenesis mechanisms of …

Validating The Accuracy Of A Language Screening Instrument In Identifying Preschool Children In El Paso, Texas, Roxana Stubbemann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: Effective screeners are time and cost effective and may be an efficient indicator of whether a child needs further in-depth assessment. Surveyed Speech-Language Pathologists in the El Paso, TX region report using informal screening tools such as observational measures and checklists due to the lack of adequate standardized tools that suit the needs of bilingual children, which occupy a majority of their caseloads (Curtis, Summers, Smith, & Stubbemann, 2016). Many language-screening instruments are not psychometrically sound for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) populations and limited research exists on the accuracy of these tools.

Purpose: The purpose of this study …

Development Of An Alternative Laboratory Testing Procedure For Tensile Characterization Of Cement Stabilized Base Layers, Jose Antonio Tarin

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Proper characterization of the fatigue performance of stabilized materials in the laboratory is an integral component of the structural design of stabilized layers in multi-layer pavements. The new mechanistic pavement design protocols require modulus of rupture of the stabilized base layers as an input to the fatigue performance models. This study discusses the practical and theoretical discrepancies associated with the traditional tensile strength tests, and provides an alternative testing procedure for the determination of the tensile strength of the stabilized materials in the laboratory. To achieve this objective, a full factorial laboratory experiment design consisted of four aggregate sources with …

Process-Structure-Property Relationship In Magnesium-Based Biodegradable Alloy For Biomedical Applications, Pramanshu Trivedi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Magnesium alloys are considered to be the next generation of biomaterials because of their ability to degrade in the physiological environment. We elucidate here the impact of multiaxial forging of Mg-2Zn-2Gd alloy on grain refinement to sub-micron regime and relate the structure to mechanical properties and biological functionality. As-cast and annealed samples were multiaxial forged (MAF) for a total number of two passes with a true strain of ~2/pass. Considering that the microstructure governs the biological response of materials, we studied the constituents of the microstructure in conjunction with the mechanical behavior. The antimicrobial behavior in a Mg-2Zn-2Gd alloy with …

Evaluation Of A Nutrition Education Program Targeting Home-Based Child Care Centers, Cassandra Nicole Urrutia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: The development of a highly obesogenic culture promoting sedentary behavior and the consumption of calorie-dense foods has led to increased levels of overweight and obesity globally. While children and adults are both at increased risk of developing obesity, the risk is even higher in minority and low socioeconomic populations. Changes in familial structure and an increase in mothers of younger children (below the age of 6) entering the workforce have created a new demand for child care services. Although some studies have researched the effectiveness of nutrition programs to increase healthy eating within the child care setting, few have …

The Effect Of Yoga Practice On Glucose Control, Physiological Stress, And Well-Being In Type 2 Diabetes: Exploring A Mechanism Of Action, Maricarmen Vizcaino

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Multiple studies have found yoga practice to be effective in improving glucose control and other health markers of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, current findings cannot reach a consensus given multiple methodological inconsistencies. The primary purpose of this Dissertation work was to investigate the impact of yoga practice on the glucose control of participants with T2DM through two different approaches in two separate exploratory studies. The first study, a quasi-experimental design, examined the effect of eight weeks of yoga practice on glucose control taking into account previous limitations in the literature. The second study, a single-subject design, …

Advancing High Spatial And Spectral Resolution Remote Sensing For Observing Plant Community Response To Environmental Variability And Change In The Alaskan Arctic, Sergio Armando Vargas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Arctic is being impacted by climate change more than any other region on Earth. Impacts to terrestrial ecosystems have the potential to manifest through feedbacks with other components of the Earth System. Of particular concern is the potential for the massive store of soil organic carbon to be released from arctic permafrost to the atmosphere where it could exacerbate greenhouse warming and impact global climate and biogeochemical cycles. Even though substantial gains to our understanding of the changing Arctic have been made, especially over the past decade, linking research results from plot to regional scales remains a challenge due …

Production And Functionality Of Melanocytes For Use In 3d-Printed Pigment-Capable Skin Tissue, Corinne Nicole Wittmann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Skin grafts are used in a variety of medical procedures including burn treatment, skin cancer removal, chronic wound/ulcer treatment, skin infections and diseases, large wound closure and in elective plastic surgeries. Ideally, skin grafts are harvested directly from the patient. However, in some cases, direct harvesting of skin grafts is not possible. In these situations, an equivalent skin substitute obtained through another source is utilized. There will always be a greater risk of rejection in such cases and therefore is only intended to be a temporary treatment. A possible solution to lessen the risks and issues associated with skin grafts …

European Migration Crisis. Aspects Of Border Control., Karolina Zofia Zajakala

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My Thesis focuses on the problem of the European Migration Crisis. I ask the question what the EU can do to improve control over its borders. I analyze the 2016 Frontex reform and investigate whether cooperation between the EU and NGOs on search and rescue operations is possible.

Bragg Gratings In Polarization Maintaining Optical Fiber As Three Dimensional Strain Sensor, Joel Quintana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Fiber-Bragg Gratings (FBG) for Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) have been studied extensively as they offer electrically passive operation, electromagnetic interference (EMI) immunity, high sensitivity and multiplexing as compared to conventional electric strain sensors. FBG sensors written within polarization maintaining (PM) optical fiber offer ad- ditional dimensions of strain measurement, greatly reducing the number of sensors needed to properly monitor a structure. This reduction however, adds complexity to the dis- crimination of the sensorâ??s optical response to its corresponding applied strains. This Dissertation defines the set of algorithms needed to measure planar strain using PM-FBGs exclusively. It defines the minimum number …

Tribute To Omri Ben-Shahar, William H. J. Hubbard, Edward R. Morrison

Faculty Scholarship

As of this issue, and after 8 years of service, Omri Ben-Shahar is stepping
down as an editor of the Journal of Legal Studies.

The Contribution Of Alternative Splicing Toward The Global Control Of Sumo1 Sumoylation, Myriah Lorraine Acuna

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

SUMOylation, the attachment of the Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) to a target protein, is a post-translational modification similar to that of Ubiquitination in terms of the cascade of events required to produce the final modified target. However, instead of targeting proteins for degradation, as Ubiquitination usually does, SUMOylation appears to regulate many vital cellular processes including nucleocytoplasmic transport, transcription, apoptosis, protein stability, response to stress, and progression through the cell cycle (Hay, R.T, 2005). This versatility exhibited by the SUMOylation system makes it an optimal target for viral manipulation, as our laboratory has previously described for Influenza A virus (Pal, …

Optimization Of Collagen Microneedle Using Taguchi Method, Abhilash Aditya

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Research is conducted to create dissolving collagen microneedles and to optimize the parameters for close to perfect dimension microneedles. A collagen microneedle patch has been developed with a micro-manufacturing process (micro-molding process). The collagen microneedles, varying in length from 300 to 600-μm may reach different targeted layers of the skin depending on the application. As the microneedles penetrate the skin they dissolve, delivering collagen through the epidermis. Such addition of collagen directly to the dermis layers allows it to be absorbed, increasing skin's strength and resilience, since it is one of the natural components of the younger looking skin. This …

Imaging Live Drosophila Brain With Two-Photon Fluorescence Microscopy, Syeed Ehsan Ahmed

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Two-photon fluorescence microscopy is an imaging technique which delivers distinct benefits for in vivo cellular and molecular imaging. Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP), a second messenger molecule, is responsible for triggering many physiological changes in neural system. However, the mechanism by which this molecule regulates responses in neuron cells is not yet clearly understood. When cAMP binds to a target protein, it changes the structure of that protein. Therefore, studying this molecular structure change with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) imaging can shed light on the cAMP functioning mechanism. FRET is a non-radiative dipole-dipole coupling which is sensitive to small distance …

Self-Interaction Corrected Polarizabilities Of Small Molecules, Sharmin Akter

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Density Functional Theory (DFT) is one of the most successful and popular computational Quantum Mechanical approaches to understand materials. DFT allows the prediction of material properties from the electron density. Although in principle density functional theory is exact, it, however, relies on approximate functional for exchange-correlation energy. Due to the approximate nature of the exchange-correlation functional, the self-Coulomb energy of the electrons is not exactly canceled out by the self-exchange leading the spurious self-interaction error (SIE). This error is responsible for the unphysical orbital energies of DFT and delocalization of the orbitals. The orbital energies of the valence electrons are …

Monitoring And Blunting Coping Style Effects On College Student Processing Of Health Information Via Social Media, Katherine Marie Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The dissemination of public health messages via social media is a growing phenomenon that is changing the health communication landscape (Chou, Hunt, Beckjord, Mojer, & Hesse, 2009). Few studies have investigated how individuals process health-threatening information. This study addressed this gap in knowledge. Specifically, the current study investigated the impact of coping style on an individual's attention to health-threatening and health-promoting words on an attention task. The current study also investigated the impact of coping style on the recall of health-threatening, health-promoting, and neutral words contained in a diabetes health message. In addition, the current study investigated if coping style …

Sonogram In Medias Res, Carla E. Arellano

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In her compelling memoir, Carla E. Arellano addresses issues surrounding abortion and the numerous influences that lead women in the Mexican-American culture to make this choice. Sonogram in Medias Res is a collection of creative nonfiction stories that are personal reflections. These stories come together to show the ebb and flow of memory, culture, and the personal narrative.

Studies Of Direct Solar Irradiance And Aerosol Optical Depth Using An Mfrsr And A Microtop Sunphotometer In The El Paso-Juarez Airshed, Arjun Aryal

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The study of Solar Irradiance and Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) plays an important role in understanding the regional and global climate distribution, and is also important in air pollution studies. In this work an MFRSR (Multi-Filter Rotating Shadowband Radiometer) and a Portable Microtop Sunphotometer were used to measure irradiances and to obtain optical depth values for the El Paso-Juarez Airshed. The Langley method applied on the MFRSR irradiance data was used to calculate the AOD values. The spatial distribution of AOD for this region was obtained using a Microtop Sunphotometer. The graphs were generated using GIS Shapefiles. In addition, the …

Quasi-Static Fracture Toughness Testing Of 7075 Aluminum For Spacecraft Separation Joint Applications, Ilse Alcantara

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Separation joint systems are zero fault tolerant systems that have been used in complex aerospace applications such as vehicle stage separation and payload fairing removal. The structural members of separation joint systems must be able to withstand flight loads, but then completely fracture for instantaneous separation when an explosive is activated. The complex geometry and loading conditions of the structural member create a complicated stress state consisting of mixed tension and shear. A need exists to measure the fracture toughness of the material to ensure it will not support loads intended to fracture and measure its sensitivity to other variables, …

Depositional Controls And Sequence Stratigraphy Of Lacustrine To Marine Transgressive Deposits In A Rift Basin, Lower Cretaceous Bluff Mesa, Indio Mountains, West Texas, Andrew Anderson

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Successful hydrocarbon exploration in former rift basins of the South Atlantic pre-salt has generated interest in understanding depositional, diagenetic, and stratigraphic controls on pre-salt deposits. However, most studies to date have focused on attributes and controls on presalt lacustrine carbonate reservoir systems and little work has been done on the overlying marine sealing facies. Currently our standard sequence stratigraphic model of marine transgression of rift systems involves a single pulse of marine flooding over fluvially-incised valleys resulting in backstepping of fluvial and estuarine siliciclastic facies within the erosionally confined zone of an incised valley. However, the pre-salt systems of the …

Studies Of Air Pollutants And Their Impact On Respiratory And Cardiovascular Diseases In The El Paso Del Norte Region With Emphasis On Mobile Emissions, Juan Gustavo Arias Ugarte

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Air pollution may cause different diseases, such as cardiovascular and lung diseases. Traffic is a major source of mobile emissions causing air pollution. Exhaust emissions from mobile sources (Emissions of Carbon Monoxide, Nitrogen Oxides and Hydrocarbons) and Non-exhaust (Brake and Tire) are complex mixtures of gases and dust, including a large number of ultrafine particles, especially in areas with high traffic density. Recent studies have shown high rates of morbidity and mortality in people exposed to these types of emissions because the fine and ultrafine particles can be transported from the respiratory airways to the organs, thus contributing to increase …

Estimating The Coefficients Of A Linear Differential Operator, Maria Ivette Barraza

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Principal Differential Analysis (PDA; Ramsay, 1996) is used to obtain low dimensional representations of functional data, where each observation is represented as a curve. PDA seeks to identify a Linear Differential Operator (LDO) L = ω0I + ω 1D + ... + ωmDm, where I denotes the identity function and D j the jth derivative, that satisfies as closely as possible that Lx = 0 for each functional observation x. A theorem from analysis establishes that the coefficients of the LDO are in the Sobolev space, and thus can be approximated by B-splines. Current PDA software used to estimate the …