Digital Commons Network^™

Neural Correlates Relating To Executive Function, Intelligence, And Anxiety., Sarah K L'Heureux

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

The human brain is a complex organ responsible for not only perceiving and sensing information in one’s environment, but also integrating and analyzing these details in a way that will allow an individual to comprehend the material. Scientists for centuries have been curious as to why people process their emotions and thoughts differently, resulting in unique and varied behavior. The manner in which a person comprehends information and whether or not they feel anxious as a result, may be connected to their intellectual and functional capacity. Human intelligence and the ability to function at a high level may be related …

Mechanistic Study Of The Inhibition Of Rho Gtpase-Mediated Metastasis, Hope Gloria Umutesi

Chemistry & Biochemistry Dissertations - Archive

The Ras superfamily of small GTPases are monomeric proteins that bind guanine nucleotides, and regulate many cellular signaling pathways. They function as molecular switches by shuttling between active GTP-bound and inactive GDP-bound states. The Ras superfamily consists of its subfamilies including Ras and Rho GTPases. Ras and Rho GTPases function to regulate cellular growth, transformation, transport, motility, traffic, and adhesion. Small GTPases reactions often require regulators, such as guanine nucleotide exchange factors (GEFs) and GTPase Activating Proteins (GAPs). GEFs mediate fast release of GDP and allow loading with GTP while GAPs accelerate the GTP hydrolysis to GDP. Redox agents also …

Liability For Unintentional Nuisances: How The Restatement Of Torts Almost Negligently Killed The Right To Exclude In Property Law, Jill M. Fraley

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Renaissance Of The Visual Arts In Worship For Churches Of Christ, Heather Heflin Hodges

Doctor of Ministry Theses and Dissertations

This Doctor of Ministry thesis presents the results of a project in which a group of four artists from across the United States met via video conference to create liturgical art activities that can be integrated into the Sunday morning worship for Churches of Christ. The problem identified at the beginning of the project was a lack of integration of the visual arts in worship in Churches of Christ. I understood this lack to be due in part to an iconoclastic heritage in Protestantism as well as a focus on rational intellectualism and desire for simplicity in worship as a …

The Impact Of Stereotype Threat On Object Location Memory, Samantha A. Boomgarden

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Gender differences have been identified in many tasks, and the male advantage in spatial skills has been well studied and is thought to be robust, especially on mental rotation and spatial perception tasks (e.g., Doyle & Voyer, 2016; Linn & Petersen, 2016; Pansu et al., 2016; Thompson & Voyer, 2014). However, women have been found to do better on tasks that require memorization of where objects are located in the environment (i.e., object location memory tasks; Voyer, Postma, Brake, & lmperato-McGinley, 2007). The purpose of this study was to examine how stereotype threat, elicited in women, would affect their performance …

Gender, Gender Roles And Academic Success In Diverse College Students, Noelle Rowe

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

More than ever before, college serves as an important entity to further an individual’s personal and professional goals. An interesting pattern has emerged: women are outpacing men in college enrollment, as well as in degree attainment. Hegemonic masculinity serves as one of many theories to explain this gender gap. Additionally, little research has focused on the topic of hegemonic masculinity exhibited by men of color. Thus, this study had three purposes: to understand the academic behavior and achievement of racially diverse college students, understand how hegemonic masculinity contributes to decreased academic achievement among males, and how hegemonic masculinity differs across …

How Not To Regulate, Lisa E. Heinzerling

University of Chicago Law Review

Review of: How to Regulate: A Guide for Policymakers Thomas A. Lambert. Cambridge, 2017. 256 pages.

Waiving Chevron, Jeremy D. Rozansky

University of Chicago Law Review

By according agencies the power to interpret the law, Chevron deference increases the power of administrative agencies. Yet agencies may not always want the benefits of Chevron deference. If the agency is a party in a lawsuit, it might decide not to seek Chevron deference in the hope that the court will reverse its binding policy. Following the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the Federal Communications Commission did just that in Global Tel*Link Inc v FCC, a lawsuit concerning regulations of calling services at correctional facilities. At least initially, the DC Circuit did not apply the Chevron framework because the …

The Constitutionality Of Income-Based Fines, Alec Schierenbeck

University of Chicago Law Review

In America, fines are typically imposed without regard to income. The result is a system that traps low-income offenders in a cycle of debt and jail while letting rich offenders break the law without meaningful financial consequence. One-sizefits-all fines also fail to meet basic goals of the justice system: to treat like offenders alike, punish the deserving, and encourage respect for the law. Elsewhere in the world, however, systems that assess fines based on earnings have been around for nearly one hundred years. The most common model—known as the “day fine”— scales penalties according to a person’s daily income. These …

Remedial Chevron, F. Andrew Hessick

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bank Sales And Bake Sales: Section 75-1.1 And The Hajmm Legacy, Robert T. Lucas Iv

North Carolina Law Review

No abstract provided.

Informational Handout For Parents Of Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy And Down Syndrome In Tanzania (Or Other Developing Countries), Kailee Moran

Honors Projects

Informational handout about diagnosis and symptoms, behavioral strategies, materials and intervention ideas for parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Cerebral Palsy, and Down Syndrome in Tanzania (and other developing countries).

Analysis Of Michigan Juvenile Detention Facilities, Loredana M. Cunningham

Honors Projects

The world of juvenile justice is a relatively new concept in today’s society dating back to the nineteenth century in comparison to the ancient structure of the criminal justice system. It is no wonder that the development of juvenile detention centers has been a slow process considering the late start to having modern research for this contemporary structure of a justice system for youth. While there are licensing standards for each juvenile detention facility to meet in order to continue having the beds to be occupied, there are unique ways that each facility can achieve that. The research focused on …

Let's Talk About Dementia: The Effects Of Dementia On Communicative Functions, Mary Kate Hoeve

Honors Projects

A general outline and presentation designed for a seminar setting aimed toward an audience of medical staff in skilled nursing facilities. The purpose of this training is to educate frequent communication partners of those with dementia about effective communication tactics, as well as, a brief definition of dementia. Additionally, a small portion is dedicated to dysphagia. The possible role of a speech-language pathologist in dementia care is also discussed throughout the training.

Trauma Therapy And The Need For Cross Cultural Competence, Marijke Sommer

Honors Projects

This project addresses the relevance of cross cultural competence for work in trauma therapy. I begin with a review of the literature on approaches to trauma therapy, identifying similarities and differences in key approaches, and comparing outcomes where that information is available. I then review a variety of cross cultural variations in mental health conditions and symptoms, attempting to roughly position each within the ethnic group or groups in which the variation is mostly likely to be found. Finally, I review the very small existing literature examining the impact of culturally sensitive approaches to trauma therapy in several non-Western ethnic …

Student Engagement: What Is The Best Way To Motivate Students In The Secondary Classroom?, Michiah Arguello

Honors Projects

In the secondary education classroom, the question often arises: How do we engage our students? Often, we are faced with heads down on desks, glassy eyes, and students who don’t remember content taught to them the day before. How can we engage them? How can we motivate them to want to learn?

In this study, I will examine five procedures determined by educators to enhance student engagement. In each section, I will discuss the procedure, discuss what the procedure’s steps are and how to approach it, and share a way I have utilized this procedure and reflect on its effectiveness. …

Arrows In Biology: Lack Of Clarity And Consistency Points To Confusion For Learners, Leslie Kate Wright, Jordan J. Cardenas, Phyllis Liang, Dina L. Newman

Articles

In this article, we begin to unpack the phenomenon of representational competence by ex¬ploring how arrow symbols are used in introductory biology textbook figures. Out of 1214 figures in an introductory biology textbook, 632 (52%) of them contained arrows that were used to represent many different concepts or processes. Analysis of these figures revealed little correlation between arrow style and meaning. A more focused study of 86 figures containing 230 arrows from a second textbook showed the same pattern of inconsistency. Interviews with undergraduates confirmed that arrows in selected textbook figures were confusing and did not readily convey the information …

Sweetheart Deals, Deferred Prosecution, And Making A Mockery Of The Criminal Justice System: U.S. Corporate Dpas Rejected On Many Fronts, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

Corporate Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) are contracts negotiated between the federal government and defendants to address allegations of corporate misconduct without going to trial. The agreements are hailed as a model of speedy and efficient law enforcement, but also derided as making a “mockery” of America’s criminal justice system stemming from lenient deals being offered to some defendants. This Article questions why corporate DPAs are not given meaningful judicial review when such protection is required for other alternative dispute resolution (ADR) tools, including plea bargains, settlement agreements, and consent decrees. The Article also analyzes several cases in which federal district …

Automated Quantification And Evaluation Of Motion Artifact On Coronary Ct Angiography Images, Hongfeng Ma, Eric Gros, Scott G. Baginski, Zachary R. Laste, Naveen M. Kulkarni, Darin Okerlund, Taly Gilat Schmidt

Biomedical Engineering Faculty Research and Publications

Abstract

Purpose

This study developed and validated a Motion Artifact Quantification algorithm to automatically quantify the severity of motion artifacts on coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) images. The algorithm was then used to develop a Motion IQ Decision method to automatically identify whether a CCTA dataset is of sufficient diagnostic image quality or requires further correction.

Method

The developed Motion Artifact Quantification algorithm includes steps to identify the right coronary artery (RCA) regions of interest (ROIs), segment vessel and shading artifacts, and to calculate the motion artifact score (MAS) metric. The segmentation algorithms were verified against ground‐truth manual segmentations. The …

Modeling Harmonic Impacts Of Electric Vehicle Chargers On Distribution Networks, Nicole Woodman, Robert B. Bass, Mike Donnelly

Electrical and Computer Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

As the proliferation of electric vehicles continues to grow, it is becoming important to understand the impacts that electric vehicle charging will have on distribution assets. EV chargers are non-linear, multi-state loads. This manuscript presents a design method for the modeling of EV charging units using a VHDL-AMS simulation environment, per IEEE Standard 1076.1. Voltage and current data collected from in-service EV charging stations were used to create harmonic profiles of the EV charging units. From these profiles, generalized models for both Level 2 and Level 3 EV chargers were created. These models were validated within a larger system context …

Tools For The Investigation Of Reduced Exercise Capacity In Fontan Patients, Akash Gupta

All Theses

Univentricular heart defects represent one of the most complex forms of congenital heart defects, which left untreated, is fatal. Univentricular patients typically undergo three highly invasive surgeries that culminate in the Fontan procedure. The Fontan physiology is associated with several long-term complications, one of which is reduced exercise capacity. Previous studies have found an empirical correlation between the fluid power losses in the Fontan junction (indexed to body size and flow rate), and reduced exercise capacity. There is evidence suggesting that the narrowing of vessels in the Fontan junction results in increased indexed power loss and lowered exercise capacity. Several …

A Low Cost Mass-Market Deployable Security Approach Against Gps Spoofing Attacks, Muaz Irshad Ahmad

All Theses

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is used ubiquitously for navigation and timing synchronization purposes. Many telecommunication, finance and aviation systems rely heavily on GPS information for routine operations. GPS functions by relying on satellites orbiting the earth in very accurately predictable orbits, which are used as references to identify the positions of objects (receivers). Receivers calculate their positions by receiving GPS signals and calculating their relative distances to each of the satellites. With enough relative distances, the receiver can resolve its position using the method known as trilateration [1]. In this thesis, we underline the vulnerability of this orbiting infrastructure …

Dimensional Analysis And Variational Formulation Of Diffuse Optical Tomography (Dot) Model, Thowhida Akther

All Theses

Diffuse Optical Tomography (DOT) is an emerging modality for soft tissue imaging with medical applications including breast cancer detection. DOT has many benefits, including its use of non ionizing radiation and its ability to produce high contrast images. However, it is well known that DOT image reconstruction is unstable and has low resolution. DOT uses near infra-red light waves to probe inside a body; for example, DOT can be used to measure the changes in the amount of oxygen in tissues, which can detect early stages of cancer in soft tissues such as the breast and brain. In this thesis, …

System For The Application Of Hydrostatic Pressure And Mechanical Strain To Cell Cultures, Justin Bacaoat

All Theses

Pressure and stretch are two of the primary forces thatresult in mechanotransductory eventswhichregulatecertainaspects ofhuman health and disease. Laboratory systems such as the commercially available Flexercell® system and a variety of custom-made setups are currently used in research to systematically apply stretch and hydrostatic pressure independently, or in conjunction to cell and tissue cultures. However, these systems do not allow for the decoupling of pressure and stretch under the same culture conditions. The present study aims to design, fabricate, and calibratea device that can apply pressure and stretch simultaneously, as well as independently to cells in culture. Moreover, in order to …

An Experimental Study Of Geometric Defects And Their Significance On Material Properties And Behavior, Jody Bernard Bartanus

All Theses

Geometric defects play a significant role in affecting both material properties and material behavior. Defects occur in a material due to manufacturing imperfections as well as undesired loading such as incidental impacts. With the popularity of composites and additively manufactured metals in structural applications and component design, the effects of their material-specific defects are important to understand to have confidence in the safety of their intended uses. The use of additive manufacturing (AM) in metals has become a popular choice due to its ability to create geometrically complex parts. In this study, the effect of printed defects and build plate …

Comparison Of Electrical Impedance Tomography Reconstruction Algorithms With Eidors Reconstruction Software, Matthew Brinckerhoff

All Theses

Electrical impedance tomography ("EIT") has many significant applications, ranging from geophysical and medical imaging, to the military, to industrial fields. Due to the relevance of EIT in fields of critical importance to society, further development of EIT is vital. The instability of image reconstruction and the highly nonlinear behavior of the image reconstruction problem, make the problem particularly difficult, are referred to as ill-posed inverse problem. Specifically, development of a comprehensive set of techniques to solve the EIT problem is necessary, due to both its ill-posed, nonlinear nature, and its scope. In this thesis, several approaches to the inversion of …

Intrinsic Geometrical Constraints Of Spontaneously Excited Leidenfrost Drops, Jesse Edward Bergen

All Theses

A liquid drop placed on a heated surface above the Leidenfrost temperature will levitate on a vapor cushion. The static shape of these non-wetting Leidenfrost drops is that of a flattened sphere, reflecting the balance between gravitational, surface tension and lubrication pressures. In this thesis, we study Leidenfrost drops on curved substrates where we observe spontaneous star-shaped surface oscillations of characteristic frequency and mode number. Experiments are conducted using six different liquids and the temporal response of the observed modes n = 2 – 13 is analyzed to dene the oscillation spectrum. We observe that large drops oscillate with a …

Finite Element Discretizations For Linear Elasticity, Emma Cinatl

All Theses

The elasticity equations describe how an elastic material moves under a force. An elastic material is one that returns to its original shape after the force is lifted. Modeling elasticity is useful in manufacturing applications such as suspension cables and nail bending, and biological applications such as weight on bones and tendons [1]. In this thesis we study the modeling of nearly incompressible linearly elastic materials. A nearly incompressible material is one that does not change much under pressure. Linearly elastic materials exhibit small deformations under a force. Standard finite element methods do not work well on nearly incompressible materials …

An Investigative Study Of The Snapthrough, Snapback And The Stiffness Properties Of A Kirigami Unit Cell, Aditya Girish Lele

All Theses

Until recently, Carbon Fiber was considered to be a space-age material because of its applications. However, due to the advancements in the synthesis of these materials and manufacturing carbon fiber on a large scale, it has now become possible to use carbon fiber in day-to-day applications. Components which were traditionally being made out of steel or aluminum are now being redesigned and made using carbon fiber composites. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner fuselage is an excellent example where carbon fiber has been used as the major component. This is due to the fact that carbon fiber components are much lighter and …

Job Insecurity Across Borders: An Examination Of Job Insecurity, Perceived Organizational Support, And Turnover Intentions In The United States And China, John Alexander Morgan

All Theses

Job insecurity is growing around the world, with employees staying at their jobs for shorter durations and part-time, contract, and even extremely short-term “gig” work becoming increasingly common. Job insecurity has been linked with several undesirable outcomes for both the individual and the organization, such as higher levels of employee burnout and increased turnover. This thesis seeks to extend the job insecurity literature by treating job insecurity as a demand within the Job Demands-Resources model, with perceived organizational support (POS) as its resource opposite. In addition, I utilized data collected in both the United States and China, providing insights into …