Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Applying The First Two Steps Of Polya’S Four Problemsolving Steps In An Advanced Mathematics Classroom, Christine A. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

The teacher-researcher spent eight weeks as a participant observer in an advanced high school mathematics class in a small town in the southeast. The process of problemsolving was introduced to all twenty students from a combined IB Math SL and AP Calculus AB class. After the pretest, three students were selected, from under-represented groups, for in-depth observation, interviews, and collection of artifacts in order to determine the impact of problem-solving techniques. The work of these students, from underrepresented groups, was examined to gain insight into their experiences and thought processes surrounding problem-solving. The students answered questions about their attitude towards …

An Investigation Of Brain Normalization And Lesion Compensation Techniques Applied To Stroke, Taylor Hanayik

Theses and Dissertations

One of the most ubiquitous steps in neuroimaging is the normalization of brain images. The process of normalization attempts to match any given brain to a standardized template image (e.g. the MNI 152 image). However, clinical images such as those from stroke participants present many challenges when we attempt to warp them to the space of template images, which are typically representative of neurologically healthy individuals. Many software packages exist to facilitate normalization of brain images, but most have limited options available to compensate for brain injury, which is often disruptive to these algorithms. Of the injury compensation methods that …

The Impact Of Reading Workshop On Third Graders In A Summer Reading Camp, Meredith J. Davakos

Theses and Dissertations

This action research describes the influence of the research-based program, Reading Workshop, based on student reading achievement, specifically, in one thirdgrade South Carolina summer reading camp classroom. Guiding the research, the problem of practice arose from the passing of South Carolina’s Act 284, which states that school districts should make provisions to support every child becoming a proficient reader by the end of the third grade (SCDE, 2015a), and the lack of literature regarding the use of Reading Workshop in summer camps or summer school. Thus, the overarching question that guided the research was: To what extent are summer reading …

Probabilistic Multilevel Constitutive Model Of The Compressive Strength Of Hardened Cement Paste Reinforced With Mwcnts, Yohanna Mejia Cruz

Theses and Dissertations

Constitutive models available in the literature typically describe the compressive strength of ordinary Portland cement paste (OPC) in a deterministic fashion, in some cases as a function of variables such as W/C, porosity, and the clinker chemical composition. The significant effect of the proportion of W/C on the final strength, porosity and density have been reported in several works in material science. Some studies have shown that the addition of MWCNTs can also modify the microstructure of cement significantly, and improve compressive strength and other mechanical and physical properties. In principle, W/C, MWCNTs addition, porosity, density, and compressive strength are …

The Effects Of Systemic Functional Linguistics And Gradual Release Of Responsibility On Student Self-Efficacy And Engagement In Mathematics, Jason David Aldridge

Theses and Dissertations

This paper addresses the problem of practice that secondary mathematics students do not feel confident in communicating mathematically. The researcher has placed an emphasis on math language by using a systemic functional linguistic approach to teaching mathematics. Building student confidence and engagement in mathematics is the main focus of the methods presented in this action research study. The researcher wants to investigate how systemic functional linguistics and gradual release of responsibility affects student self-efficacy and engagement in secondary mathematics. A mixedmethods design uses researcher field notes, student surveys and interviews, and student work to examine the levels of self-efficacy and …

Machine Learning Based Disease Gene Identification And Mhc Immune Protein-Peptide Binding Prediction, Zhonghao Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Machine learning and deep learning methods have been increasingly applied to solve challenging and important bioinformatics problems such as protein structure prediction, disease gene identification, and drug discovery. However, the performances of existing machine learning based predictive models are still not satisfactory. The question of how to exploit the specific properties of bioinformatics data and couple them with the unique capabilities of the learning algorithms remains elusive. In this dissertation, we propose advanced machine learning and deep learning algorithms to address two important problems: mislocation-related cancer gene identification and major histocompatibility complex-peptide binding affinity prediction. Our first contribution proposes a …

Hierarchical Corannulene-Based Materials, Allison M. Rice

Theses and Dissertations

Merging the intrinsic properties of fullerene (buckyball) and corannulene (buckybowl) derivatives with the inherent properties of crystalline metal- and covalentorganic frameworks (MOFs and COFs), including their modularity, porosity, versatility, high surface area, and structural tunability, opens a pathway to unlock a novel class of fulleretic materials. Despite the great interest in MOFs and COFs, as well as fullerene derivatives, this dissertation is focused on crystalline fullerene- and corannulenecontaining frameworks, highlighting their potential contributions in the fields of optoelectronic devices, electrodes, and photosensitizers. We have revealed a dual role of fullerene- and corannulene-containing building blocks showing their versatility to act as …

A Rotatable Asymmetric Variable Compensation Mirt Model, Xinchu Zhao

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to develop, estimate, and interpret a new variable compensation multidimensional item response theory (MIRT) model, named the Rotatable Asymmetric Variable Compensation Model (RAVCM), that allows for transformation between different correlation structures. Since the model is rotatable like the common compensatory models (CM), it is not necessary to specify or estimate the correlation of abilities to recover the model. Also, it can approximate the existing MIRT models well. In simulation, the RAVCM is shown to estimate the parameters with small error, especially when the non-compensatory model (NCM) is the true model and the correlation of …

Manufacturing Feature Recognition With 2d Convolutional Neural Networks, Yang Shi

Theses and Dissertations

Feature recognition is a critical sub-discipline of CAD/CAM that focuses on the design and implementation of algorithms for automated identification of manufacturing features. The development of feature recognition methods has been active for more than two decades for academic research. However, in this domain, there are still many drawbacks that hinder its practical applications, such as lack of robustness, inability to learn, limited domain of features, and computational complexity. The most critical one is the difficulty of recognizing interacting features, which arises from the fact that feature interactions change the boundaries that are indispensable for characterizing a feature. This research …

Stabilization Of Silicon And Germanium Based High Capacity Anodes For Lithium Ion Batteries, Kuber Mishra

Theses and Dissertations

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) have been the driver of the widespread application of portable electronics. As the electronic devices have been more powerful and versatile, the pressing demand for higher energy density batteries have led the extensive explorations of novel materials for high capacity electrodes. Despite several breakthroughs in literature, the current state of art LIBs still uses the battery chemistry developed in early 1990s.The keys challenges for switching to other high capacity electrodes have been high cost, non-linear scalability and poorer electrochemical performance. This dissertation focusses on development of high capacity electrodes in order to increase the energy density of …

Fundamental Aspects Of A Novel Technology For Abatement Of Indoor Allergens, Odell Lendor Glenn Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

The overall goal of this research was to develop a novel approach to reduce the potency of certain asthma triggers, namely, proteins produced by pests or pets in indoor environments. The broad hypothesis of the research was that naturally occurring essential oils will demonstrate enhanced denaturing ability. In any indoor environment, allergens are bound to dry dust particles. In this work, the effectiveness of using dry ice and CO2 with potential for essential oils on dry allergenic proteins through CFD modeling and ELISA methods were evaluated.

There are three objectives central to this work. The first objective was to apply …

The Effect Of 7e Model Inquiry-Based Labs On Student Achievement In Advanced Placement Physics: An Action Research Study, Vaughn C. Vick

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation involved an action research study of the effects of 7E Model inquiry labs in Advanced Placement (AP) Physics on students’ performance on AP exam inquiry lab-based questions. The study, which is described in detail, employed a one-group, pretest-posttest design to answer the research question regarding the effects of the inquiry-based AP Physics labs on students’ achievement on AP exam inquiry lab questions as measured by unit assessments. Data collection and analysis strategies are also discussed. Sources of data included a pretest, lab reports, and a posttest. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, specifically a t-test comparison of …

Normative Data For Four Neuropsychological Tests In A Sample Of Adults Who Are Illiterate And From Latin America, Alejandra Morlett Paredes

Theses and Dissertations

Neuropsychological tests are standardized tasks used to measure psychological functioning that is associated with a particular brain structure. These tests often are used in diagnosing a cognitive deficiency resulting from brain injuries. Currently, there are a limited number of studies that have focused on standardization of neuropsychological tests in Latin America. Therefore, the vast majority of cognitive tests used in the evaluation of patients with brain damage have no normative parameters adjusted to the cultural characteristics of Latinos and Latinas. As a result, neuropsychological diagnoses among this population may be inadequate, and evaluation of rehabilitation program effectiveness limited. The importance …

Rotating Supporting Hyperplanes And Snug Circumscribing Simplexes, Ghasemali Salmani Jajaei

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation has two topics. The rst one is about rotating a supporting

hyperplane on the convex hull of a nite point set to arrive at one of its facets.

We present three procedures for these rotations in multiple dimensions. The rst

two procedures rotate a supporting hyperplane for the polytope starting at a lower

dimensional face until the support set is a facet. These two procedures keep current

points in the support set and accumulate new points after the rotations. The rst

procedure uses only algebraic operations. The second procedure uses LP. In the third

procedure we rotate a …

Path, Evan Galbicka

Theses and Dissertations

Path is a collaborative system that developed over the course of five months of studio activity and continued through the duration of the exhibition. The system’s main collaborators were a land snail native to eastern North America (Neohelix albolabris), myself, and a digital cellular automaton. These prime agents interwove processes and exchanges between one another into a complex network of folded fractal feedback loops. Cyclic processes produced artifacts and infrastructures to support communication between the components and agents of Path. As a whole, Path spoke to the possibilities for interspecies, cyber-physical, and ecological collaboration to create an …

Smartphone User Privacy Preserving Through Crowdsourcing, Bahman Rashidi

Theses and Dissertations

In current Android architecture, users have to decide whether an app is safe to use or not. Expert users can make savvy decisions to avoid unnecessary private data breach. However, the majority of regular users are not technically capable or do not care to consider privacy implications to make safe decisions. To assist the technically incapable crowd, we propose a permission control framework based on crowdsourcing. At its core, our framework runs new apps under probation mode without granting their permission requests up-front. It provides recommendations on whether to accept or not the permission requests based on decisions from peer …

Integral Measurement Of Atmospheric Particulate Matter (Pm), Di Liu

Theses and Dissertations

Atmospheric aerosol particles also known as atmospheric particulate matter or particulate matter (PM) are microscopic particles (solid or liquid) suspended in air, which is one of six air pollutants in US air quality standard. PM is classified as coarse particles with diameters between 2.5 to 10 mm, fine particles with a diameter less than 2.5 mm (PM_2.5), and ultrafine particles with the diameter less than 0.1 mm (PM_0.1). Epidemiological studies have already showed the adverse health effects (such as asthma, lung cancer and respiratory and cardiovascular disease) resulted from exposure to the fine and ultrafine particles. …

Penalized Mixed-Effects Ordinal Response Models For High-Dimensional Genomic Data In Twins And Families, Amanda E. Gentry

Theses and Dissertations

The Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Study (BLTS) was being conducted in Australia and was funded by the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). Adolescent twins were sampled as a part of this study and surveyed about their substance use as part of the Pathways to Cannabis Use, Abuse and Dependence project. The methods developed in this dissertation were designed for the purpose of analyzing a subset of the Pathways data that includes demographics, cannabis use metrics, personality measures, and imputed genotypes (SNPs) for 493 complete twin pairs (986 subjects.) The primary goal was to determine what combination of SNPs and …

Water Dynamics And The Effect Of Static And Alternating Electric Fields, Mohammadmahdi Shafiei Alavijeh

Theses and Dissertations

Having a net dipole moment, water molecules tend to align with an external electric field. The re-orientation of water molecules to align with the field direction can result in structural and dynamic changes in liquid water. Studying these changes can help us to understand the role of an E-field in many biological systems, chemical reactions, and many technological advancements.

In short, the application of static electric fields causes molecules to stay aligned with the field, so, fewer hydrogen bonds break, and molecules have slower dynamics. This type of field can be used when the mobility of water molecules needs to …

The Investigation Of Oxidative Addition Reactions Of Metal Complexes In Cross-Coupling Catalytic Cycles Based On A Unique Methodology Of Coupled Ion/Ion-Ion/Molecule Reactions, Mariah L. Parker

Theses and Dissertations

Popular catalytic cycles, such as the Heck, Suzuki, and Negishi, utilize metal centers that oscillate between two oxidation states (II/0) during the three main steps of catalysis: reductive elimination, oxidative addition, and transmetallation. There has been a push to use less toxic, cheaper metal centers in catalytic cycles, leading to interest in first-row transition metals, such as nickel and cobalt. With these metals, the cycles can potentially pass through the +1 oxidation state, which acts as reactive intermediates, undergoing oxidative additions to form products, potentially with radical characteristics. The oxidative addition steps of catalytic cycles are critical to determining overall …

Neutronics Studies On The Nist Reactor Using The Ga Leu Fuel, Kyle A. Britton

Theses and Dissertations

The National Bureau of Standards Reactor (NBSR) located on the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Gaithersburg campus, is currently underway of fuel conversion from high enriched uranium (HEU) fuel to low enriched uranium (LEU) fuel. One particular challenging part of the conversion of the NBSR is the high average flux level (2.5×10¹⁴ n/cm²-s) required to maintain experimental testing capabilities of the reactor, without significant changes to the external structures of the reactor. Recently the General Atomics (GA) Training Research Isotopes General Atomics (TRIGA) fuel has shown some promising features as a LEU candidate for the …

Delay Differential Equations And Their Application To Micro Electro Mechanical Systems, Asset Ospanov

Theses and Dissertations

Delay differential equations have a wide range of applications in engineering. This work is devoted to the analysis of delay Duffing equation, which plays a crucial role in modeling performance on demand Micro Electro Mechanical Systems (MEMS). We start with the stability analysis of a linear delay model. We also show that in certain cases the delay model can be efficiently approximated with a much simpler model without delay. We proceed with the analysis of a non-linear Duffing equation. This model is a significantly more complex mathematical model. For instance, the existence of a periodic solution for this equation is …

Investigation Of Gold(Iii) Complexes With Hiv-Ncp7 And Models, James Beaton

Theses and Dissertations

The medicinal uses of gold date as far back as 2500 B.C. in China. In modern times, gold has been used in the treatment of a number of different human diseases including rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, and viral infections. This dissertation will focus on the development of gold complexes for the purpose of selective inhibition of HIV NCp7, a 55 amino acid zinc finger protein with two Cys₃His zinc binding domains.

NCp7 is involved in a number of viral life cycle processes including activation of reverse transcription, integration, DNA recognition, RNA packaging, and formation of the viral envelope. The …

5-Ht2b Receptor-Mediated Cardiac Valvulopathy, Pallavi Nistala

Theses and Dissertations

5-HT_2B receptor agonism causes cardiac valvulopathy, a condition characterized by thickening of the heart valves and as a result, regurgitation of blood within the heart. The anti-obesity drug fenfluramine, which was originally prescribed as an anorectic, was withdrawn from the market due to causing cardiac valvulopathy. Fenfluramine, after metabolism by N-dealkylation, produces the metabolite norfenfluramine, which acts as a more potent valvulopathogen. The same was seen with MDMA (ecstasy), a popular drug of abuse, which is metabolized by N-dealkylation to produce MDA, a more potent valvulopathogen. Glennon and co-workers. studied a series of 2,5-dimethoxy-4- substituted phenylisopropylamines (DOX type) hallucinogens …

Laser Synthesis Of Nanomaterials Incorporated Within High Surface Area Materials: Applications For Heterogeneous Catalysis, Water Treatment, And Photothermal Energy Conversion, Julian A. Bobb

Theses and Dissertations

Chemical methods are generally used for the synthesis of active nanoparticles (metals, semi-metals, metal oxides, and etc) supported on high surface area materials. Chemical methods involve using strong solvents, harmful gases (H₂ & CO), and high temperature techniques such as high boiling solvents, calcination and pyrolysis. The main drawbacks of using this approach, is the prevalence of chemical agents on nanomaterials which tends to negate its applications. Alternatively, photochemical and photothermal methods are widely being considered for the synthesis and design of nanomaterials.

For these studies, the active nanomaterials incorporated within high surface area materials were prepared by the …

An Improved Infiltration Model And Design Sizing Approach For Stormwater Bioretention Filters Including Anisotropy And Infiltration Into Native Soils, Daniel Macadam

Master's Theses and Capstones

Bioretention filters are a common Best Management Practice used to treat pollutants and water volumes of stormwater runoff from urbanized watersheds. The current static sizing criterium for new design applies Darcy’s law to the Water Quality Volume (WQV) as it filters through the bioretention soil media. In retrofit applications, the WQV is instantaneously stored in the system pore space, including the ponded surface. While these designs are simple to implement, the systems areas are oversized because no infiltration or other outflow is considered in the design.

The retrofit bioretention study site for this research located in Dover, NH (HSBS) treats …

Estimating The Respiratory Lung Motion Model Using Tensor Decomposition On Displacement Vector Field, Kingston Kang

Theses and Dissertations

Modern big data often emerge as tensors. Standard statistical methods are inadequate to deal with datasets of large volume, high dimensionality, and complex structure. Therefore, it is important to develop algorithms such as low-rank tensor decomposition for data compression, dimensionality reduction, and approximation.

With the advancement in technology, high-dimensional images are becoming ubiquitous in the medical field. In lung radiation therapy, the respiratory motion of the lung introduces variabilities during treatment as the tumor inside the lung is moving, which brings challenges to the precise delivery of radiation to the tumor. Several approaches to quantifying this uncertainty propose using a …

Optimization For Structural Equation Modeling: Applications To Substance Use Disorders, Mahsa Zahery

Theses and Dissertations

Substance abuse is a serious issue in both modern and traditional societies. Besides health complications such as depression, cancer and HIV, social complications such as loss of concentration, loss of job, and legal problems are among the numerous hazards substance use disorder imposes on societies. Understanding the causes of substance abuse and preventing its negative effects continues to be the focus of much research.

Substance use behaviors, symptoms and signs are usually measured in form of ordinal data, which are often modeled under threshold models in Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). In this dissertation, we have developed a general nonlinear optimizer …

Will You Accept This Rose?, Sasha Baskin

Theses and Dissertations

Using figures from the popular culture program The Bachelor in a large-scale tapestry-style weaving, I address the drive to create idealized simulations in order to better understand one’s own reality and identity. Natural dye and traditional weaving processes in combination with digital weaving technology allow me to literally integrate the juxtaposition of analog and digital elements which defines a woven image.

Dye work and pattern allow for large gestural drawing marks while individual threads overlap to create literal pixelized imagery. I examine the act of weaving as the creation of screens through which one can see, hide, or obscure. I …

Comparing Online English Language Learning And Face-To-Face English Language Learning At El Bosque University In Colombia, Marta L. Montiel-Chamorro

Theses and Dissertations

Although there is significant research surrounding online foreign language education, there are still questions on whether the outcomes are comparable to those obtained in the traditional face-to-face classroom. This study examined four classes, two online and two face-to-face, where students took the second course of a 6-level program of English as a Second Language at El Bosque University in Colombia. The International Test of English Proficiency (iTEP) was administered to students before classes started in order to establish a baseline, and then again after the courses finished. This test evaluates English language proficiency per skill: speaking, listening, reading, writing and …