Digital Commons Network^™

Investigating A University Classroom Where The Participants Are Purposely Invited, Included, And Engaged Through Liberating Structures, Vanessa Sandoval

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to investigate how a classroom that employs Liberating Structures (LS) is perceived and experienced by class participants. Liberating Structures (LS) are simple protocols of how people interact while they work and learn together, allowing for inclusion and engagement of all participants at the same time. The research examined how the use of LS practices and processes in a classroom influences participants’ sense of inclusion and engagement, their sense of being part of a learning community, and their perceptions of the learning and relational outcomes that accrue. Various methods of data collection and analysis—participant observation …

Experimental Investigation Of Cryogenic Convection And Boiling In Traditionally And Additively Manufactured Rocket Engine Cooling Channels, Armando Sandoval

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research at the University of Texas at El Paso, has designed, built, and optimized an experimental high heat flux test facility to investigate the heat transfer coefficient of liquid methane and other cryogenic propellants for regenerative cooled rocket engine design. The system is composed of a copper conduction based thermal concentrator that delivers heat flow into a single sub-scaled cooling channel (test article). This study focuses on optimizing this design of the high heat flux test facility to develop a more accurate method for measuring the conductive heat flow going into the cooling …

Using Dynamic Risk To Predict Violent Recidivism In "Real Time": Applying A Framework For Proximal Assessment Of Risk Of General Recidivism To Predict Violent Outcomes, Ariel G. Stone

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In correctional psychology, risk factors are offender characteristics and contexts that increase the likelihood of reoffending. Risk is generally conceptualized as being either static or dynamic (Andrews & Bonta, 2010). Static risk factors are variables that cannot change, such as one's criminal history or gender. Dynamic risk factors must, by definition, be able to change across time. Perhaps more importantly, changes in dynamic risk factors must correspond to changes in the likelihood of an offender committing a new offense. Although static risk is a more robust predictor of recidivism, dynamic risk is important, in that it (a) has clearer theoretical …

Structural And Electrical Characterization Of Tin Oxide Resistive Switching, Arka Talukdar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Resistive switching in metal oxide is a phenomenon in which the metal oxide changes its resistance upon application of electric field and thus giving two states; high resistance state (HRS) and low resistance state (LRS). Many metal oxides have been investigated however very little is known about unipolar resistive switching in SnO2 though it has shown excellent resistive switching characteristics. Defects in the material play a vital role in resistive switching of the metal oxides. In this work, the role of defects in resistive switching of SnO2 are investigated in Ti/SnO2/Au structures. Two methods were used to control the concentration …

Redesign Of A Volume Adjustable Transtibial Prosthetic Socket, Samuel Terrazas Quezada

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recent research and development in prosthetics have aimed at improving socket designs and components to mimic more efficiently the human body. One such innovation is the Aperture Socket, a low-cost volume adjustable prosthetic socket. During the validation stage of its development, the Aperture Socket successfully demonstrated that it could compensate for volume changes, but various improvements on use and comfort were identified. This project develops and tests a redesign of the Aperture Socket previously developed for amputees in developing countries and subsequently patented and licensed to LIMBS International, Inc.

The first phase of this study was the creation of various …

An Organizational Attachment Model: Lmx-Social Comparison, Job Embeddedness And Psychological Ownership, Saul R. Valdiviezo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between employees' comparisons of relationship quality with their leader (LMXSC) and attitudinal workplace outcomes. Building on the theoretical principle of LMXSC, I postulate that job embeddedness mediates the relationship between perceived relationship quality and psychological ownership. Additionally, I examine the effects of overall organizational justice to understand how environmental variables impact our attachment model. Our results indicate that LMXSC is an important determinant of psychological ownership and job satisfaction and that job embeddedness mediates these relationships. I examine the proposed model with 471 employees from 37 organizations. The results show partial support for the proposed …

Design & Analysis Of A 500 Lbf Liquid Oxygen And Liquid Methane Rocket Engine, Daniel Eduardo Vargas

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The rapid growth in demand for spacecraft technologies has spawned a need for a variety of new and innovative research. The utilization of liquid oxygen (LOX) and liquid methane (LCH4) in rocket engines have played an important role in space exploration efforts to promote missions to Mars with in-situ resource utilization for propellant production. This will allow the production of fuel needed to come back to Earth making the overall mission more cost effective by enabling larger usable mass.

The Center for Space Exploration and Technology Research has focused its efforts to developing Liquid Oxygen (LOX) and Liquid Methane (LCH4) …

Near-Surface And High Resolution Seismic Imaging Of The Bennett Thrust Fault In The Indio Mountains Of West Texas, Alan Thomas Vennemann

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

My research investigates the structure of the Indio Mountains in southwest Texas, 34 kilometers southwest of Van Horn, at the UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso) Field Station using newly acquired active-source seismic data. The area is underlain by deformed Cretaceous sedimentary rocks that represent a transgressive sequence nearly 2 km in total stratigraphic thickness. The rocks were deposited in mid Cretaceous extensional basins and later contracted into fold-thrust structures during Laramide orogenesis. The stratigraphic sequence is an analog for similar areas that are ideal for pre-salt petroleum reservoirs, such as reservoirs off the coasts of Brazil and Angola …

Emergent Bilinguals' Engagement In An Online Mathematics Course Utilizing An Intelligent Tutoring System, Julian Viera Jr

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Students in today's digital world draw from multiple sources of information, hypertext, videos, educational software, social media, and video games to create a multimodal learning environment (Luke, 2005). In 1994, Griffiths, et al. (1994) found that the impact of information technology on oppressed cultures hampered their education when the technology was not available in their native language and culture. Students from countries that did not have the resources to develop software in their native language felt that their language and culture did not relate to the modern world. When these students arrived in the United States and found technology in …

Corporate Sponsorship And The Consumer Socialization Of African American Women Athletes: A Qualitative Study, Tahla Monique Wade

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

African-American consumption is a unique feature of the American consumer market. A characteristic of African American consumers is their participation in conspicuous consumption. A look into the sociological concept of consumer socialization can drive insight to what initiates purchases of this group. However, this is not studied as an evolving process. Over time, individuals may encounter several new influences that affect their consumer socialization and purchase behavior, including the possibility of corporate sponsorship. To explore this evolution, I examine if corporate sponsorships affect the consumer socialization of African-American women collegiate athletes. Fifteen NCAA Division I African-American women athletes from a …

Biochemical Characterization Of Wild-Type Hsp27 And Point Mutation S135f That Leads To Neurodegenerative Disease, Janelly Villalobos

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

HSPB1, also classified as heat shock protein 27 (Hsp27), is a small chaperone that is active in cells during stressful conditions. The chaperone can stabilize target proteins in a non-aggregated folding state and might be involved in regulation of folding and assembly of neurofilaments. There are five mutations in the genome of Hsp27 that are involved in Charcot Marie Tooth Disease (CMT). This neurodegenerative disease is characterized by the first decades of life where it slowly progresses to weakness of muscles followed by sensory loss and skeletal deformities. CMT is the most common hereditary neuromuscular disease, with an estimated rate …

The New Wine: Spirit, Transformation, And Gender In The U.S.-Mexico Borderlands, 1960-1990, Jacob Aaron Waggoner

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Charismatic Catholic Renewal (CCR)—known in Mexico as the Renovación Cristiana en el Espíritu Santo—saw Roman Catholic believers experience ecstatic spiritual practices native to neo-Pentecostalism. At first highly ecumenical, CCR emerged from loosely organized prayer meetings in the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a coherent movement by around 1975. Like many developments after the Second Vatican Council, CCR represented an effort to revitalize the Church by re-centering and empowering the laity. Reflecting a broader reactionary shift in the 1980s, the Renewal gradually shed its potentially liberating elements. This transition was especially notable in the context of the U.S.-Mexico …

Method & Madness: Advanced Techniques For Characterizing Rat Hypothalamic Chemoarchitecture And For Modernizing Legacy Data, Claire Eugenia Wells

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The hypothalamus is a region of the brain with exceptionally high anatomical, chemical, and functional diversity. It regulates homeostatic functions and a number of motivated behaviors impacting homeostasis, such as ingestion and reproduction; it also serves as a point of connection between the forebrain and hindbrain. An improved understanding of the chemical anatomy of this area would benefit scientists working in many neuroscientific disciplines. The work described herein contributes to a chemoarchitectural atlas of the rat hypothalamus, which will include data on the distribution of various hypothalamic neurotransmitters, and on their co-localizations and synaptic interactions. Importantly, the methodology used to …

¡Grito!: Cultural Nationalism And The Chicana/O Insurgency In New Mexico, 1968-1978, Dennis Aguirre Aguirre

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

"¡Grito!: Cultural Nationalism and the Chicana/o Insurgency in New Mexico, 1968-1978,” is one of the first to examine the development of Chicana/o movement practices in the “Land of Enchantment.” While others have cast the Chicana/o movement’s criticisms and actions against federal, state, and local governments as a struggle to gain greater rights for Mexican Americans, I argue that the insurgency was not exclusively a strategy of resistance to subjugation. Instead, I believe the Chicana/o movement was a conversation that activists attempted to have with their own communities to convince ethnic Mexicans to think about themselves in profoundly new ways. Focusing …

Image Data Mining For Quality Control Of Nanofiber Reinforced Piezoelectric Nanocomposites Based On Sem Images, Zhonghua Hu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Recently, portable and wireless nano-scaled devices have been widely used in environmental monitoring, medical implants, defense technology, industrial safety, and personal electronics, such as the nanowire-based gas and chemical sensors and programmable nanowire circuit for nano-processors. There has been an increasing demand for high energy density capacitors that can be engineered for various applications in advanced devices. In it, piezoelectric nanofiber materials play critical role in producing new products. A piezo-ceramic polymer composite contains a polymer of high dielectric strength and high permittivity ceramic inclusions, making it well suited as a high energy density capacitor. Furthermore, the research shows that …

Do Coaches Practice What They Preach? An Evaluation Of The Usage Of Evidence-Based Practices Among Probation Officer Coaches, Tamara Kang

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Probation supervision has the potential to serve a rehabilitative function through the use of evidence-based practices (EBPs; practices supported by empirical research). Often, when administrators adopt EBPs in their agency, these programs may not be implemented with fidelity by probation officers who interact with offenders. Thus, there is a critical need to examine methods of increasing the effectiveness of implementing EBPs among officers. One method, peer mentoring (i.e., coaches), is gaining popularity; however, little is known about the highly-motivated officers who volunteer to be coaches. Consequently, this Dissertation investigates compliance with EBPs among officers who have volunteered to become coaches …

Dft Study Of Adsorption Of Trimetallic Endohedral Fullerenes On Graphene, Nakul Nitin Karle

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A density functional theory (DFT) study on the geometric and electronic structure of C60 and Sc3N@C80 along with their adsorption on pristine single layer graphene (SLG) is presented. C60 is found to adsorb in two nearly degenerate configurations: (i) with a pentagon facing the SLG, which is the most stable one, and (ii) with a hexagon facing the SLG in a face-to-face perfect alignment, rarely common in Ï?â??Ï? interactions, 0.06 eV higher in energy. The calculated binding energy of 0.76 eV, which includes dispersion effects, is in good agreement with previous theoretical and experimental reports. On the contrary, Sc3N@C80 adsorption …

An Environmental Scan Of Diagnostic Practices For Children With Disabilities In El Paso, Alezandra Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With the prevalence of developmental disabilities in the rise in the United States, it is important that these children are identified and diagnosed as soon as possible so that they may receive appropriate medical treatment and intervention. However, research suggests that there are several factors that influence screening, referral, and diagnostic practices. This study aimed to analyze key themes that arose when parents of children with disabilities and pediatric healthcare providers discussed screening, referral, and diagnostic practices for children in El Paso, a medically underserved community. Researchers conducted a 2- phase study that employed both quantitative and qualitative methodology. Results …

Renewable Energy Systems Optimization Using Monte Carlo Simulation And Evolutionary Algorithms, Nicolas Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation explores the Renewable Energy Integration Problem, and proposes a Genetic Algorithm embedded with a Monte Carlo simulation to solve large instances of the problem that are impractical to solve via full enumeration. The Renewable Energy Integration Problem is defined as finding the optimum set of components to supply the electric demand to a hybrid

microgrid. The components considered are solar panels, wind turbines, diesel generators, electric batteries, connections to the power grid and converters, which can be inverters and/or rectifiers. The methodology developed is explained as well as the combinatorial formulation. In addition, 2 case studies of a …

Design And Development Of A Foil Application Tool For A Foil Embedding Process In The Multi3d Manufacturing System, Betty Elizabeth Mckenzie

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Additive manufacturing (AM) encompasses different technologies, including material extrusion 3D printing, a technology commonly referred to as fused deposition modeling (FDM), which is the focus of the work described in this manuscript. Additive manufacturing is a growing technology with many applications in numerous fields from the air force to medical offices. FDM is a process that uses thermoplastics, in this case polycarbonate (PC), where the PC is heated and selectively dispensed in a layer-by-layer process to create a 3D printed part. Currently, FDM systems have advantages over subtractive manufacturing or machining because cavities and other components (e.g., microchips, valves, and …

Development And Verification Of A Lab-Scale Green Propellant Hybrid Motor System, Shyamal Patel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hybrid rocket propulsion offers the potential to combine advantages of both solid and liquid propellant systems, but low regression rates hinder their practicality. The suggested use of hydroxylammonium nitrate (HAN) based propellants in hybrids offers the potential for developing high impulse motors with low development and production costs. In this paper, I present the development of a small-scale system used to measure the regression rate of a hybrid motor. The system can accommodate fuel grains 5 cm long with an outer diameter of 6 cm and can implement the various decomposition gases needed for HAN. The motor firings of hydroxyl …

Source Monitoring In Bilinguals, Renee Michelle Penalver

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Source memory is memory for the context in which a particular target item is learned (Parker, 1995). The source-monitoring framework is the leading model of source memory (Johnson, Hashtroudi, & Lindsay, 1993). It remains unknown at what level context-to-word associations are made (e.g., at the word form level or conceptual level). Three experiments examined the effects of word frequency and language proficiency on source memory, with each experiment addressing one of the different types of source monitoring identified in this framework. In Experiment 1, we examined how language proficiency and word frequency affect external source discrimination. Participants had to discriminate …

Systematics Of Collared Snakes And Burrowing Asps (Aparallactinae And Atractaspidinae) (Squamata: Lamprophiidae), Francisco Portillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Subfamilies Aparallactinae (collared snakes) and Atractaspidinae (burrowing asps) occur in multiple habitats throughout sub-Saharan Africa, and they include multiple poorly studied genera. The monophyly of these groups are well established, but relationships within the subfamilies are poorly known. My study contains samples from six of eight aparallactine genera, and both atractaspidine genera in the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa. I employed concatenated gene-tree analyses, divergence dating approaches, ancestral-area reconstructions, ancestral-state reconstructions, morphological analyses, and taxonomic assessments to infer phylogenies, biogeographic patterns, and evolutionary histories with a multi-locus data set consisting of three mitochondrial (16S, cyt b, and ND4) and …

Target Mass Effects In Parton Quasi-Distributions, A. V. Radyushkin

Physics Faculty Publications

We study the impact of non-zero (and apparently large) value of the nucleon mass M on the shape of parton quasi-distributions Q(y, p₃), in particular on its change with the change of the nucleon momentum p_3. We observe that the usual target-mass corrections induced by the M-dependence of the twist-2 operators are rather small. Moreover, we show that within the framework based on parametrizations by transverse momentum dependent distribution functions (TMDs) these corrections are canceled by higher-twist contributions. We identify a novel source of kinematic target-mass dependence of TMDs and build models corrected for …

Imaging Of Super-Fast Dynamics And Flow Instabilities Of Superconducting Vortices, L. Embon, Y. Anahory, Ž L. Jelić, E. O. Lachman, Y. Myasoedov, M. E. Huber, G. P. Mikitik, A. V. Silhanek, M. V. Milošević, A Gurevich, E. Z. Zeldov

Physics Faculty Publications

Quantized magnetic vortices driven by electric current determine key electromagnetic properties of superconductors. While the dynamic behavior of slow vortices has been thoroughly investigated, the physics of ultrafast vortices under strong currents remains largely unexplored. Here, we use a nanoscale scanning superconducting quantum interference device to image vortices penetrating into a superconducting Pb film at rates of tens of GHz and moving with velocities of up to tens of km/s, which are not only much larger than the speed of sound but also exceed the pair-breaking speed limit of superconducting condensate. These experiments reveal formation of mesoscopic vortex channels which …

Nonperturbative Evolution Of Parton Quasi-Distributions, A. V. Radyushkin

Physics Faculty Publications

Using the formalism of parton virtuality distribution functions (VDFs) we establish a connection between the transverse momentum dependent distributions (TMDs) F(x,k²_⊥) and quasi-distributions (PQDs) Q(y,p₃) introduced recently by X. Ji for lattice QCD extraction of parton distributions f(x). We build models for PQDs from the VDF-based models for soft TMDs, and analyze the p₃ dependence of the resulting PQDs. We observe a strong nonperturbative evolution of PQDs for small and moderately large values of p₃ reflecting the transverse momentum dependence of TMDs. Thus, the study of PQDs on the lattice …

The Heavy Photon Search Beamline And Its Performance, N. Baltzell, H. Egiyan, M. Ehrhart, C. Field, A. Freyberger, F.-X. Girod, M. Holtrop, J. Jaros, G. Kalicy, T. Maruyama, H. Vance

Physics Faculty Publications

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS) is an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon, aka a heavy photon or dark photon, in fixed target electroproduction at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). The HPS experiment searches for the e⁺e^- decay of the heavy photon with bump hunt and detached vertex strategies using a compact, large acceptance forward spectrometer, consisting of a silicon microstrip detector (SVT) for tracking and vertexing, and a PbWO₄ electromagnetic calorimeter for energy measurement and fast triggering. To achieve large acceptance and good vertexing resolution, the first layer of silicon detectors …

Differential Cross Section Measurements For Γn→Π-P Above The First Nucleon Resonance Region, P. T. Mattione, D. S. Carman, I. I. Strakovsky, R. L. Workman, A. E. Kudryavtsev, A. Svarc, V. E. Tarasov, K. P. Adhikari, S. Adhikari, D. Adikaram, G. Charles, M. Khachatryan, A. Klein, Y. Prok, Z. W. Zhao

Physics Faculty Publications

The quasifree γd→π^-p(p) differential cross section has been measured with CLAS at photon beam energies E_γ from 0.445 to 2.510 GeV (corresponding to W from 1.311 to 2.366 GeV) for pion center-of-mass angles cosθπc.m. from -0.72 to 0.92. A correction for final state interactions has been applied to these data to extract the γn→π^-p differential cross sections. These cross sections are quoted in 8428 (E_γ,cosθπc.m.) bins, a factor of nearly 3 increase in the world statistics for this channel in this kinematic range. These new data …

Bow Lake Site 3 Bennett, Cooperative Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.

Conway Lake, Cooperative Extension

UNH Cooperative Extension

No abstract provided.