Digital Commons Network^™

Application Of Data Analytics For Prediction Of Suicide Rates At The State And National Levels, Derek Benson

Master's Theses

The increasing suicide rate in the United States has amplified the need to assure that regions with high suicide risk receive adequate funding for programs and related resources for prevention methods. The way in which organizations dedicated to preventing suicides distribute funding could be improved with the development of predictive models for suicide rates. In this study, a multiple linear regression model at a national level was developed to identify relevant factors associated with suicide. The national level model was developed in two phases; the first using response variable data and explanatory variable data from the same time period, and …

Generating Exploration Mission-3 Trajectories To A 9:2 Nrho Using Machine Learning, Esteban Guzman

Master's Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to design a machine learning algorithm platform that provides expanded knowledge of mission availability through a launch season by improving trajectory resolution and introducing launch mission forecasting. The specific scenario addressed in this paper is one in which data is provided for four deterministic translational maneuvers through a mission to a Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO) with a 9:2 synodic frequency. Current launch availability knowledge under NASA’s Orion Orbit Performance Team is established by altering optimization variables associated to given reference launch epochs. This current method can be an abstract task and relies on …

Assessing Risk In Iot Devices, David Levitsky

Master's Theses

The explosive growth of the Internet of Things ecosystem has thrust these devices into the center of our lives. Unfortunately, the desire to create these devices has been stronger than the one to secure them. Recent attacks have shown us ignoring security in Internet of Things devices can cause severe harm in both a digital and physical sense. This thesis outlines a framework for developers and managers to assess the risk of IoT devices using a weighted scoring system across five different categories. Our case studies suggest that devices with higher security considerations have a better security posture and lower …

Micro-Nozzle Simulation And Test For An Electrothermal Plasma Thruster, Tyler J. Croteau

Master's Theses

With an increased demand in Cube Satellite (CubeSat) development for low cost science and exploration missions, a push for the development of micro-propulsion technology has emerged, which seeks to increase CubeSat capabilities for novel mission concepts. One type of micro-propulsion system currently under development, known as Pocket Rocket, is an electrothermal plasma micro-thruster.

Pocket Rocket uses a capacitively coupled plasma, generated by radio-frequency, in order to provide neutral gas heating via ion-neutral collisions within a gas discharge tube. When compared to a cold-gas thruster of similar size, this gas heating mechanism allows Pocket Rocket to increase the exit thermal velocity …

Investigating The Effect Of An Upstream Spheroid On Tandem Hydrofoils, Joel Tynan Guerra

Master's Theses

This thesis documents a series of three dimensional unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes CFD simulations used to investigate the influence of an upstream prolate spheroid body on tandem pitching hydrofoils. The model is validated by performing separate CFD simulations on the body and pitching hydrofoils and comparing results to existing experimental data. The simulations were run for a range of Strouhal numbers (0.2-0.5) and phase differences (0-π). Results were compared to identical simulations without an upstream body to determine how the body affects thrust generation and the unsteady flow field.

The combined time-averaged thrust increases with Strouhal number, and is highest …

Establishing Delay-Based Criteria For Installing Traffic Signals At Two-Lane Roundabouts, Oluwaseun Ayomide Adegbaju

Masters Theses

A roundabout is a circular intersection where drivers travel counterclockwise around a center island in the United States. Roundabouts can be more beneficial than the conventional intersections because they increase the capacity of the intersection and reduce delays and crashes at the intersection. However, the performance of roundabouts can be severely affected by unbalanced traffic flows among the approaches. While the resulting delays can be mitigated by installing traffic signals, there is a lack of clear criteria on when to install a traffic signal at a roundabout. This research focuses on establishing criteria for installing traffic signals at two-lane roundabouts …

Evaluation Of Bike Boxes And Protected Intersections With Bicycle Signal Treatments For Improving Safety And Multimodal Mobility At Urban Signalized Intersections, Odai Al Houz

Masters Theses

With the dramatic increase of non-motorized transportation users, more people are concerned about the non-motorized traffic safety. Unfortunately, bicyclist and pedestrian are prone to more severe injuries when involved in a crash. For bicycle crashes, failing to yield/disregarding traffic control device, and lack of non-motorized facilities were identified to be the main causes of bicycle crashes in urban intersections. This research investigated the effectiveness of two bicycle crash countermeasures with bicycle signal treatments at urban signalized intersections. The two countermeasures are the bike boxes and the protected intersections. The bicycle signal treatments are the leading bicycle interval and the exclusive …

Enabling Robust Distributed Real-Time Hybrid Simulation Method And Expanding Its Applications In Floating Wind Turbine Systems, Mehmet Cinar

Masters Theses

Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS), which integrates physical experiment and numerical simulation, plays an essential role in understanding the time-dependent behavior of structures when subject to hazardous loadings. On the other hand, RTHS might not yield accurate results for complex structural systems due to experimental and computational limitations. Distributed real-time hybrid simulation (dRTHS), which takes the advantage of distributed laboratory facilities using network communications, was proposed and proven to address some limitations in RTHS. During dRTHS, Internet delay due to the network communication is added to the actuator delay in RTHS, which may cause inaccurate results or even unstable tests. To …

Regional Sulfur Isotope Study Of The Vms Deposits In The Penokean Volcanic Belt, Nicholas M. Moleski

Masters Theses

The Penokean Volcanic Belt (PVB), located in northern Wisconsin and Upper Peninsula, Michigan hosts several volcanogenic massive sulfide deposits (VMS) including the well-known deposits of Flambeau and Crandon. The host rocks of the VMS deposits are Paleoproterozoic in age overlying Archean age basement rocks. This study provides δ³⁴S (VCDT) values for the following deposits within the PVB; (1) Eisenbrey, (2) Schoolhouse, (3) Bend, (4) Flambeau, (5) Reef, (6) Horseshoe, and (7) Back Forty, and explains the distribution of δ³⁴S values in the region.

The study reveals tight ranges of δ³⁴S values for each deposit …

The Effect Of Patterned Sensory Enhancement On Balance And Ambulation In Persons Diagnosed With Parkinson’S Disease, Brittany Barko

Masters Theses

One rehabilitation protocol effective in delaying the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is Lee Silverman Voice Training BIG (LSVT BIG), comprising pre-gait exercises and gait training. This study seeks to determine if combining Patterned Sensory Enhancement (PSE), a music therapy intervention, with LSVT BIG will improve quality of movement. During physical therapy sessions with three participants, a music therapist adapted the PSE stimuli to support each patient’s motor needs, which were then recorded on CD and sent with patients to exercise with at home. Results showed improved balance and ambulation comparing pre- and post- measures of the BERG balance scale …

Adaptive Parallelism For Coupled, Multithreaded Message-Passing Programs, Samuel K. Gutiérrez

Computer Science ETDs

Hybrid parallel programming models that combine message passing (MP) and shared- memory multithreading (MT) are becoming more popular, especially with applications requiring higher degrees of parallelism and scalability. Consequently, coupled parallel programs, those built via the integration of independently developed and optimized software libraries linked into a single application, increasingly comprise message-passing libraries with differing preferred degrees of threading, resulting in thread-level heterogeneity. Retroactively matching threading levels between independently developed and maintained libraries is difficult, and the challenge is exacerbated because contemporary middleware services provide only static scheduling policies over entire program executions, necessitating suboptimal, over-subscribed or under-subscribed, configurations. In …

Patient Safety Incentives For Residents: A Slippery Slope Or Reinforcement Of Desirable Behavior?, Kathryn Rapala

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

In a study of error reporting in the care of Medicare beneficiaries, the US Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found that only 14% of patient safety events were reported.¹ A multicenter study found that 44.6% of residents were uncomfortable reporting diagnostic errors, possibly related to fear of repercussions and issues with the reporting system, among other factors.² A key question at the intersection of graduate medical education and patient safety is how to encourage resident and fellow error reporting.

The intervention described in the article, “Improving Resident and Fellow Engagement in Patient Safety …

Depression, Positive Thinking, Personal And Social Resourcefulness Among Caregivers Of Persons With Autism Spectrum Disorders, Abir K. Bekhet, Mauricio Garnier-Villarreal

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Compensation Of Vertical Position Error Using A Force–Deflection Model In Friction Stir Spot Welding, Jinyoung Yoon, Cheolhee Kim, Sehoon Rhee

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Despite increasing need for friction stir spot welding (FSSW) for high-temperature softening materials, system deflection due to relatively high plunging force remains an obstacle. System deflection results in the vertical position error of a welding tool and insufficient plunge depth. In this study, we used adaptive control to maintain plunge depth, the plunging force was coaxially measured, and the position error was estimated using a force–deflection model. A linear relationship was confirmed between the force and deflection; this relationship is dependent on the stiffness of the welding system while independent of process parameters and base materials. The proposed model was …

High-Performance Self-Powered Uv Detector Based On Sno2-Tio2 Nanomace Arrays, Duo Chen, Lin Wei, Lingpan Meng, Yanxue Chen, Yufeng Tian, Shishen Yan, Liangmo Mei, Jun Jiao

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

Photoelectrochemical cell-typed self-powered UV detectors have attracted intensive research interest due to their low cost, simple fabrication process, and fast response. In this paper, SnO2-TiO2 nanomace arrays composed of SnO2 nanotube trunk and TiO2 nanobranches were prepared using soft chemical methods, and an environment-friendly self-powered UV photodetector using this nanostructure as the photoanode was assembled. Due to the synergistic effect of greatly accelerated electron-hole separation, enhanced surface area, and reduced charge recombination provided by SnO2-TiO2 nanomace array, the nanostructured detector displays an excellent performance over that based on bare SnO2 arrays. The impact of the growing time of TiO2 branches …

Blended With The Savior: Gregory Of Nyssa's Eucharistic Pharmacology In The Catechetical Oration, John David Penniman

Faculty Journal Articles

Humankind, for Gregory of Nyssa, was poisoned through a primordial act of eating the forbidden fruit from the Garden of Eden. As a result, the toxin of sin and death has been blended into the body and soul of each person, dispersing itself throughout the component parts of their nature. If eating and drinking initiated the spiritual and physical degradation of humanity, Gregory argues, then it must also be through eating and drinking—namely, through the Eucharist—that humanity will be healed. This article proposes that Gregory's instruction on the Eucharist in his Catechetical Oration should be understood as more than merely …

Sartre, Camus And A Marxism For The 21st Century, David Schweickart

Philosophy: Faculty Publications and Other Works

In 1952 Albert Camus wrote a caustic letter to Les Temps Modernes in response to the journal’s negative review of The Rebel, addressed, not to the author of the review, but to “M. Le Directeur,” i.e. to Sartre. Sartre’s response published in the journal ended their friendship. This article examines the deep cause of this rupture, Camus’s political views moving rightward, Sartre’s moving left. I examine Camus’s critique of Marx and Marxism, then ask the question, “What is Marxism, Anyway?” I defend a version of Sartrean “existential Marxism” as appropriate for our time.

Inhibition Of Human Dendritic Cell Er Stress Response Reduces T Cell Alloreactivity Yet Spares Donor Anti-Tumor Immunity, Brian C. Betts, Frederick L. Locke, Elizabeth M. Sagatys, Joseph Pidala, Kelly Walton, Meghan Menges, Jordan Reff, Asim Saha, Julie Y. Djeu, Chang Won Kang

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Acute graft- vs. -host disease (GVHD) is an important cause of morbidity and death after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). We identify a new approach to prevent GVHD that impairs monocyte-derived dendritic cell (moDC) alloactivation of T cells, yet preserves graft- vs.-leukemia (GVL). Exceeding endoplasmic reticulum (ER) capacity results in a spliced form of X-box binding protein-1 (XBP-1s). XBP-1s mediates ER stress and inflammatory responses. We demonstrate that siRNA targeting XBP-1 in moDCs abrogates their stimulation of allogeneic T cells. B-I09, an inositol-requiring enzyme-1α (IRE1α) inhibitor that prevents XBP-1 splicing, reduces human moDC migration, allo-stimulatory potency, and curtails moDC IL-1β, …

Neoformalist Constitutional Construction And Public Employee Speech, Scott R. Bauries

Law Faculty Scholarly Articles

This Article examines, evaluates, and prescribes improvements to a familiar form of constitutional construction favored by neoformalists—the preference for rules over standards. Constitutional law development can be understood as being composed of two judicial tasks—interpretation and construction. Judicial interpretation of the Constitution involves determining the semantic meaning of the words contained in the document. Once that semantic meaning is determined, the interpreted meaning must be constructed into legal doctrine for application in court. Sometimes, that construction involves the articulation of the legal doctrines based on the interpreted constitutional text that will govern a particular case and those similar to it. …

Proposed Router And Switch Design With Introduction Of Buffering To Reduce Retransmission Cost By Reducing Bandwidth And Time Of Corrupt Packet, Manoj R. Chakravarthi

Manipal Journal of Science and Technology

A new design of router and switch is proposed in this paper to decrease the unnecessary wastage of transmission bandwidth capacity because of retransmission of corrupt or lost packets. A buffer memory is joined to every router and switch. Every one of the packets that go through a router is stored in the buffer memory for a short time. On the off-chance that a packet is discarded at any router, it tends to be asked from the past router, which has a duplicate of the packet in its buffer. Through our approach, we spare a great deal of data transmission …

Gauging Support For Macroecological Patterns In Helminth Parasites, Tad A. Dallas, A. Alonso Aguirre, Sarah Budischak, Colin Carlson, Vanessa Ezenwa, Barbara Han, Shan Huang, Patrick R. Stephens

Faculty Publications

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd Aim: To explore spatial patterns of helminth parasite diversity, and to investigate three main macroecological patterns – (a) latitude–diversity relationships, (b) positive scaling between parasite and host diversity, and (c) species–area relationships – using a largely underutilized global database of helminth parasite occurrence records. Location: Global. Methods: We examined the London Natural History Museum’s collection of helminth parasite occurrence records, consisting of over 18,000 unique host species and 27,000 unique helminth parasite species distributed across over 350 distinct terrestrial and aquatic localities. Results: We find support for latitudinal gradients in parasite diversity and …

Functional Central Limit Theorem For Additive Functionals Associated To The Generalized Nelson Hamiltonian, Soumaya Gheryani, Achref Majid, Habib Ouerdiane

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Stochastic Differential Equations With Anticipating Initial Conditions, Hui-Hsiung Kuo, Sudip Sinha, Jiayu Zhai

Communications on Stochastic Analysis

No abstract provided.

Sustainable And Equitable Financing For Pedestrian Infrastructure Maintenance, Gregory Rowangould

Data

Corresponding data set for Tran-SET Project No. 17PPUNM01. Abstract of the final report is stated below for reference:

"In many communities, pedestrian infrastructure is discontinuous, inaccessible to those with physical disabilities, and poorly maintained. Correcting these problems would be a first step in providing infrastructure to achieve the active travel and related transportation goals of many communities. One nearly universal challenge to maintaining sidewalks in a state of good repair and addressing environmental justice concerns is an adequate, sustainable, and equitable source of funding. Municipal governments across the country maintain and repair their streets and roadways; however, most require residents …

Structure-Activity Relationship Of Novel Rgd-Containing Cyclic Peptides Against Αvβ3 Integrin, Aaron Silva

Honors Theses

The αvβ3 integrin, a receptor for many extracellular matrix proteins with the RGD sequence motif, is involved in multiple physiological processes. The integrin is highly expressed on tumor cells, therefore making it a target for cancer therapy and imaging. Efforts have been made to develop an RGD-containing ligand against the αvβ3 integrin.

A series of RGD-containing cyclic octapeptides (LXW analogs) were previously synthesized, tested in vitro, and screened as integrin antagonists with a different binding affinity (Xiao et al., 2010; Wang et al., 2015), but the structure-activity relationship remains to be elucidated. In the current study, the structures of three …

Har Testing For Spurious Regression In Trend, Peter C.B. Phillips, Yonghui Zhang, Xiaohu Wang

Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers

The usual t test, the t test based on heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (HAC) covariance matrix estimators, and the heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation robust (HAR) test are three statistics that are widely used in applied econometric work. The use of these significance tests in trend regression is of particular interest given the potential for spurious relationships in trend formulations. Following a longstanding tradition in the spurious regression literature, this paper investigates the asymptotic and finite sample properties of these test statistics in several spurious regression contexts, including regression of stochastic trends on time polynomials and regressions among independent random walks. Concordant …

Additive Manufacturing Of Ceramics With Multiscale Heterogeneous Microstructure, Yuzhe Hong

All Dissertations

The additive manufacturing (AM) of ceramic has gained significant attentions because of the difficulties in fabricating hard and brittle ceramics into complex geometry. In addition, AM provides the possibility of fabricating ceramic parts with heterogeneous microstructure on the multiscale, which cannot be achieved using the traditional methods. In today’s AM technologies, ceramics are often extruded for form a green body and then fired to a high density. However, two challenges are faced by the extrusion-based AM of ceramics with multiscale features. One is to depositing ceramics with submicrometer thickness. The other one is to embed microchannels in large-scale ceramic parts. …

Engineering Soft Tissue Replacements And The Development Of Novel Technologies To Heal These Wounds, Sarah Grace Dennis

All Dissertations

The primary focus of tissue engineering is to develop biological substitutes capable of restoring, maintaining, or improving native tissue function. This field advances an exciting array of solutions for organ repair and wound healing. In the United States alone over 6.5 million people are affected by chronic wounds every year, which account for over $25 billion of healthcare expenses. Vascularization and fast anastomosis with the host are essential in engineering cellular constructs that survive once implanted. In the last decade, there has been extensive investigation into fabrication techniques to create tissue replacements that are rapidly perfused post-implantation to address this …

Models For Networks With Consumable Resources: Applications To Smart Cities, Hayato Montezuma Ushijima-Mwesigwa

All Dissertations

In this dissertation, we introduce different models for understanding and controlling the spreading dynamics of a network with a consumable resource. In particular, we consider a spreading process where a resource necessary for transit is partially consumed along the way while being refilled at special nodes on the network. Examples include fuel consumption of vehicles together with refueling stations, information loss during dissemination with error correcting nodes, consumption of ammunition of military troops while moving, and migration of wild animals in a network with a limited number of water-holes. We undertake this study from two different perspectives. First, we consider …

State's Fiscal Dependency And Implications On Monetary Management In Nigeria, Akinboyo O. Lawrence, Apinran O. Martins

Bullion

This study examines fiscal management by States in Nigeria and its potential to sustain growth and development. The study used secondary data from the Bank's Statistical Bulletin and the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics. Information on monthly allocations to States, internally Generated Revenue, Debt stock, total Revenue, and Total expenditure were used to examine fiscal imbalance in the States. Data were collected on statutory allocations to States by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), States' debt stock, capital and recurrent expenditure from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Descriptive statistics …