Digital Commons Network^™

Small-Scale Characterization Of Additive Manufactured Ti-6al-4v Alloy Through Instrumented Indentation, Muztahid Muhammad

Theses and Dissertations

Ti-6Al-4V alloy has been favored by the transportation applications in the automotive and aerospace industries due to its good combination of excellent physical and mechanical properties. Ti alloys are naturally suited to additive manufacturing (AM) method, a layer wise manufacturing technique, since conventional manufacturing method of Ti alloys are quiet challenging. However, cooling rate and thermal processing history of AM Ti-6Al-4V alloy are quite different in comparison to conventionally fabricated Ti-6Al-4V alloy which leads to undesirable microstructures in the AM Ti-6Al-4V alloy with respect to large columnar prior β grains being found to grow potentially across the entire height from …

Differential Gene Expression Of Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer Marker Genes In A Model Of Arsenite And Cadmium Induced Bladder Cancer, Danyelle Beth Osowski

Theses and Dissertations

Urinary carcinoma is one of the most prevalent cancers across the United States and is among the leading cause of cancer related morbidities. With muscle-invasive urinary carcinoma having only 15% survival at stage T4, diagnostic tools of this type of cancer is necessary. This work sought to characterize a model of urothelial carcinoma into a specific muscle-invasive bladder cancer subtype, which has important implications in for prognosis, development of targeted therapeutic agents, and disease management. Our laboratory has developed an immortalized uroepithelial cell line, UROtsa, which can be malignantly transformed by arsenite (As+3) and Cd2+ and has been shown to …

Using Thermal Imaging To Characterize Groundwater Seepage In A North Dakota Fen, Ogochukwu Ozotta

Theses and Dissertations

Groundwater flow and its dissolved mineral transport plays a fundamental role in the ecology of many wetlands. Installation of equipment to map groundwater seepage, however, is invasive and may damage vegetation and potentially affect biodiversity. By mapping surface temperature remotely in the late summer, when the differential between warm soil and cold groundwater is the greatest, the temperature patterns may reveal areas of greatest upward gradient and flow.

To test the hypothesis, the effect that hydraulic gradient has on surface temperature in a fen located at the north end of the Cherry Lake Aquifer, Eddy County, ND (47.73, -98.66) was …

Northern Great Plains Blizzards In Past And Future Climates, Alexander Trellinger

Theses and Dissertations

Areas that reside in the high-latitudes such as the northern United States can experience hazardous conditions during the winter months due to snowstorms. When strong winds exist with falling or freshly fallen snow, blizzard conditions are able create significant personal, societal, and economic impacts for the Northern Great Plains. While the climatology for these extreme snowstorms is known, the frequency and intensity of how these events may change in a warming climate is not certain. In order to determine how extreme snowstorms may change in the future climate, climate models can be used but the horizontal and vertical grid spacing …

Digital Rock Reconstruction And Property Calculation Of Fractured Shale Rock Samples, Hongsheng Wang

Theses and Dissertations

As the preferential flow channels in the shale reservoir, the fracture systems including the natural micro-cracks and hydraulic fractures have received great attention from the whole energy industry worldwide. However, it is challenging to quantify the fracture systems in the shale rocks precisely because most of well-developed “histogram-based” image processing techniques cannot handle the case of small target segmentation. Because the fracture apertures are very thin, the over-segmentation or insufficient segmentation would lead to significant error in the quantification, including the fracture porosity, aperture, length, tortuosity etc., which would lead to serious mistakes to the property calculation.

In this research, …

Public Authority Liability And The Regulation Of Nanotechnology: A European Perspective, Nina Natalia Baranowska

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

This paper argues that in certain circumstances public authorities should be liable for regulating nanotechnology. Nanotechnology is an emerging field of technology that enables to control shape and size of various structures, devices and systems at nanometer scale on which one nanometer is equal to one-billionth of a meter. In spite of being a nascent field of science and technology, its scope of application – in the food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, construction, textile, electronics, and agricultural industries – is expanding rapidly. The risks associated to nanotechnology, however, and its long-term consequences are still largely unknown, particularly in regards to its health …

The Aleph Bet: Debating Metaphors For Information, Data Handling And The Right To Be Forgotten, Chris Prince, Micheal Vonn, Lex Gill

Canadian Journal of Law and Technology

Court rulings in the European Union (EU) have now established that individuals may seek erasure of personal information posted online. Typically, this involves de-indexing a website from search results, and in some instances the removal of content from primary sources sites. This has, in turn, led to debate around both the logistics and the unintended consequences of removing information online, and subsequent discussions have grappled with a range of images and metaphors to map that new legal reality. This essay surveys that debate, the imagery it employs, and the various logics associated with these metaphors.

Battered Women Who Kill: Stereotype Influence Through The Media, Sonja Bauman

Theses and Dissertations

Research has suggested that stereotypes have significant influence over how individuals view women who experience domestic violence (Ayyildiz, 1995; Browne, 1989, 1993; Callahan, 1994; Goodmark, 2008; Jenkins & Davidson, 1990; Mahoney, 1991; Russell & Melillo, 2006; Schneider, 1986; Terrance & Matheson, 2003; Wimberly, 2007). It has also been suggested that battered woman syndrome may not be a complete or appropriate explanation of the emotions and experiences of battered women (Ayyildiz, 2007; Callahan, 1994; Schneider, 1986; Wimberly, 2007). The current study examined the influence of stereotype fit and battered woman syndrome nomenclature on public perceptions of a battered woman who killed …

The Impact Of Implicit Attitudes On Behavioral Intentions To Prevent Suicide, Julio Brionez

Theses and Dissertations

The suicide rate in the United States of America continues to climb despite national strategies to reduce it (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention & National Center for Health Statistics, 2016; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of the Surgeon General & National Action Alliance for Suicide Prevention, 2012). What the strategies lack is mechanisms to target implicit attitudes (IAs) about suicide. This omission is important as IAs have been effective at predicting future suicide attempts (Nock et al., 2010). This study used an implicit association test of attitudes to suicide (IAT-SUICIDE) to examine IAs to suicide …

Investigation Of Multi-Criteria Clustering Techniques For Smart Grid Datasets, Mitch J. Campion

Theses and Dissertations

The processing of data arising from connected smart grid technology is an important area of research for the next generation power system. The volume of data allows for increased awareness and efficiency of operation but poses challenges for analyzing the data and turning it into meaningful information. This thesis showcases the utility of clustering algorithms applied to three separate smart-grid data sets and analyzes their ability to improve awareness and operational efficiency.

Hierarchical clustering for anomaly detection in phasor measurement unit (PMU) datasets is identified as an appropriate method for fault and anomaly detection. It showed an increase in anomaly …

Health Aspects Of Community-Engaged Natural Play Space Planning, Design, And Implementation, Eric Castle

Theses and Dissertations

Obesity, loss of social capital, and fewer connections to nature are three community health issues faced by many. A team of concerned individuals attempted to address the spectrum of these health issues by collaboratively engaging communities to plan, design, build and program natural play spaces located in public parks. This exploratory study, utilizing a grounded theory approach, conducted focus groups with community members who engaged in this process. The specific objectives of the study were twofold; 1) to generate theory regarding the perceived impact on social capital from the community-driven planning and construction process of the Connecting Children in Nature …

Characteristics Of Individuals Who Participate In Autoerotic Asphyxiation Practices: An Exploratory Study, Lauren Chapple

Theses and Dissertations

The set of behaviors known as Autoerotic Asphyxiation (AeA) have been studied, by contemporary scientific standards, for the better part of sixty years. Within that time, an inadequate amount of research has been completed on a far too narrow sample of the population, namely those who have died from the practice. AeA as a practice has been understudied to this point despite statistics that would note the potential for an unknown number of individuals to currently be practicing these behaviors. There is a paucity of both quantitative and qualitative data about living AeA practitioners. The present study uses Sex Positivity …

Examining Teacher Perceptions On Change In Secondary School Libraries To Promote Informational Literacy, Sarah Crary

Theses and Dissertations

Libraries in schools are changing from a place to check out books to providing access to information from a multitude of media. The specific changes needed in school libraries and the method to accomplish those changes, specifically from the perspective of teachers, is an area of research with few empirical studies. The purpose of the study was to use Fullan’s Change Theory (2007) initiation phase to identify how ready teachers are to engage in changing the way information literacy skills are taught. The researcher investigated teachers’ perception with openness to change. The researcher analyzed teachers’ perceptions about collaborative roles between …

Dieter's Deficit: Preoccupation And Working Memory, Kelly Cuccolo

Theses and Dissertations

Preoccupying thoughts can cause disruptions of ones’ attentional system and may arise as the result of a clinical disorder, societal pressures, or individual predispositions. Goal acquisition requires one to be preoccupied with one’s behaviors in order for success to be achieved, for example dieters must monitor their weight and caloric intake. As dieting is a widespread phenomenon in American culture it is important to understand the cognitive effect of preoccupation. This study examines the relationship between obsessional thoughts about food, weight, and shape, and cognitive task performance. The performance of Dieters and Non-Dieters on a battery of specific working memory …

Teacher-Writer Perceptions On The Essence Of Writing: Influences, Identity And Habits Of Mind To Sustain A Writing Life, Shari L. Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

This body of work contains three articles that support the need for K-12 teachers to write

professionally and personally. The research sought to explore the questions of initial influences

to write, essentials to sustain writing and the relationship of teacher-writer development to self

authorship. Much of the previous literature produced by scholars, authors and teacher-writers

focus on the benefits for students when teachers are confident as writers. Student motivation to

write rests on the beliefs of the teacher who provides a model for writing as this shapes student

beliefs about themselves as writers. However, there is little research that provides …

The Involvement Of Polyol Pathway In Hypgerglycemia And Cadmium Toxicity In The Establishment Of Diabetic Neprhopathy, Bethany Anne Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is a major cause of end-stage renal disease (ESRD), where prolonged exposure to hyperglycemia induces damage to proximal tubule cells of the kidney. Since progression to ESRD correlates to pathological changes in the tubular segments of the kidney, the effects of hyperglycemia in the PT portion of the nephron may be particularly relevant to the progression of DN. Development of this disease also is likely to occur in the context of exposure to other renal toxins, and the heavy metal cadmium (Cd2+) may be the most relevant due to the accumulation of this metal in the major …

Electroencephalogram Signal Processing For Hybrid Brain Computer Interface Systems, Md. Ali Haider

Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this research was to evaluate and compare three types of brain computer interface (BCI) systems, P300, steady state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP) and Hybrid as virtual spelling paradigms. Hybrid BCI is an innovative approach to combine the P300 and SSVEP. However, it is challenging to process the resulting hybrid signals to extract both information simultaneously and effectively. The major step executed toward the advancement to modern BCI system was to move the BCI techniques from traditional LED system to electronic LCD monitor. Such a transition allows not only to develop the graphics of interest but also to …

Removal Of Emerging Poly- And Per-Fluoroalkyl Substances By Water Treatment, Ryan Alexander Hanson

Theses and Dissertations

Per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (per- and poly-PFASs) are emerging contaminants that have raised great concern in recent years. Two anionic per-PFASs in particular, perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) and perfluorooctanoate (PFOA), has received worldwide attention for their persistence in the natural environment, resistance to typical environmental degradation, bioaccumulation potential, and adverse health effects in humans. The stable chemical characteristics have enabled these chemicals to be used in many industrial and consumer products over the past 50 years. They have been detected all over the world in various environmental matrices.

The water treatment removal of per-PFASs has been well documented, but the full …

Examining The Relationship Between Technology Usage And Objective Assessments Of Impulsivity And Cognitive Performance In Young Adults, Sheryl Holter Vogel

Theses and Dissertations

The present study examined objective measurements of cognitive performance in tasks a clinician may use when evaluating an adult for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) to determine if the cell phone behavior and self-reported text-message dependency and social media use accounted for the variance in scores. Seventy-four participants were included. in stepwise multiple regression analyses. Independent sample t-tests found age of first cell phone was significantly higher for men than women and reported significantly decreased sense of control over their social media use. Reported number of texting behavior (i.e. daily number of texts sent, received, and checked) were positively correlated …

Staphylococcal Enterotoxins G And I Elicit Long-Term Anti-Tumor Responses In Humanized Hla-Dq8Αβ Transgenic Mice, Peter Knopick

Theses and Dissertations

Immunotherapies have evolved into a collection of tools used clinically in the treatment of several pathologies. Staphylococcal enterotoxin G and I are potent T cell activators that drive multifaceted immune responses and have been implicated in antitumor responses. The addition of SEG and SEI as useful immunotherapies could be underappreciated as mice do not respond as humans would to superantigen stimulation. HLA-DQ8 mice with established B16-F10 tumors receiving 50μg each SEG and SEI 6 and 9 days post tumor implant resulted in 80% progression free survival >300 days. In comparison, allogeneic C57BL/6 mice did not benefit from SEG/SEI therapy. Remarkably, …

The Effects Of Priming On Trypophobia Prevalence, Rachel Collette Bock

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Examining Nodapl Through The Lens Of Social Movement And Participation Theories, Zeinab El-Rewini

Undergraduate Theses and Senior Projects

No abstract provided.

Free Expression On Campus: Mitigating The Costs Of Contentious Speakers, Suzanne B. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

“If you’re afraid to offend, you can’t be honest.”

“If you offend me, I can’t hear what you’re trying to tell me.”

—overheard on campus

The debate over how colleges and universities should respond to contentious guest speakers on campus is not a new one. A quick look back to the early 1990s, among other times, shows commentators squaring off much as they do today about the tensions between protecting free expression and ensuring meaningful equality.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the issues that contested speakers address are also much the same as they have been for several decades – government action …

Informed Trading And Its Regulation, Merritt B. Fox, Lawrence R. Glosten, Gabriel Rauterberg

Faculty Scholarship

Informed trading – trading on information not yet reflected in a stock’s price – drives the stock market. Such informational advantages can arise from astute analysis of varied pieces of public news, from just released public information, or from confidential information from inside a firm. We argue that these disparate types of trading are all better regulated as part of the broader phenomenon of informed trading. Informed trading makes share prices more accurate, enhancing the allocation of capital, but also makes markets less liquid, which is costly to the efficiency of trade. Informed trading thus poses a fundamental trade-off in …

Mechanotransduction Signaling In Podocytes From Fluid Flow Shear Stress., Tarak Srivastava, Hongying Dai, Daniel P. Heruth, Uri S. Alon, Robert E. Garola, Jianping Zhou, R Scott Duncan, Ashraf El-Meanawy, Ellen T. Mccarthy, Ram Sharma, Mark L. Johnson, Virginia J. Savin, Mukut Sharma

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Recently, we and others have found that hyperfiltration-associated increase in biomechanical forces, namely, tensile stress and fluid flow shear stress (FFSS), can directly and distinctly alter podocyte structure and function. The ultrafiltrate flow over the major processes and cell body generates FFSS to podocytes. Our previous work suggests that the cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)-PGE2-PGE2 receptor 2 (EP2) axis plays an important role in mechanoperception of FFSS in podocytes. To address mechanotransduction of the perceived stimulus through EP2, cultured podocytes were exposed to FFSS (2 dyn/cm2) for 2 h. Total RNA from cells at the end of FFSS treatment, 2-h post-FFSS, and 24-h …

Heat Waves: Legal Adaptation To The Most Lethal Climate Disaster (So Far), Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The worst heatwave in modern history occurred in Russia in 2010; its rare combination of extreme temperatures and long duration killed an estimated 55,000 people. Under an RCP 8.5 scenario, comparable heat waves could occur every two years in the eastern United States by the end of the century, and by then in Europe, the legendary heat wave of 2003 “would be classed as an anomalously cold summer relative to the new climate.” These increased temperatures and heat waves are not just occurring randomly. The science is clear that human activities – mostly greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation – are …

Sociocultural Interactions Of Cuban Doctors Participating In The More Doctors Program In Brazil, Joaquin Molina, Carlos Eduardo Siqueira, Leonardo Cavalcanti

Gastón Institute Publications

This book focuses on a different and underexplored attribute of the More Doctors Program by surveying doctors in the feld with the purpose of identifying important answers regarding the sociocultural interactions of Cuban doctors recruited by the program and of producing knowledge, while also making improvements in the participation, still limited, of foreign doctors in the primary care services offered by SUS. It proposes to induce perceptions, memories, and possible explanations to anyone who is somehow associated with the Program’s development, especially those committed to universal health care and primary assistance as the only paths to an effective health system. …

Using Multiliteracies To Engage And Empower Students With Complex Support Needs, Sudha Vaghul Krishnan

Doctoral Dissertations

Using Multiliteracies to Engage and Empower Students with Complex Support Needs This dissertation is comprised of two studies:

• Creating New Learning Spaces Using Multiliteracies with Students with Complex Support Needs

• Transforming Narrative Identity through Multiliteracies

Students with complex support needs (SCSN) are frequently denied access to meaningful and challenging literacy instruction. These studies explore how student- authored narratives in the individualized education plan (IEP), implemented during a multiliteracies curriculum, can simultaneously engage and empower SCSN. These studies are based on the qualitative research that I conducted from November 15, 2018 to February 11, 2018 at a special day …

Timing Of Market Entry For New Products: An Exploratory Case Study Of The Success Factors For Pioneering And Following, Eunsang Yoon, Hyeonjin Rim

AMTP Proceedings 2018

Launching a new product at the optimal time is imperative for the successful entry and penetration in the competitive market. Expectations of customers, responses of competitors, challenges of emerging start-ups, shortening of product life cycles, and global alliance of corporations are some of the evolving factors that are relevant to the timing decisions for a new product. This paper re-examines the timing-related strategic issues, reports an exploratory case study of the ninety-two pioneering or following market entries, and discusses the managerial implications for a firm’s market-entry decisions for a new product or service.

“Field” Research: Letting Corporate Communication Professionals’ Stories Inform Curriculum Development, Mary Stairs Vaughn, Jimmy Davis, Jeremy Fyke, Nathan Webb

Journal of the Association for Communication Administration

We interviewed 25 corporate communication professionals to learn the competencies they see as necessary for entering and succeeding in their field. We then used what we learned to inform course-level and program-level changes to our corporate communication major. Our results detail: (1) the range of tactical, strategic, and dispositional competencies the interviewees identified as necessary for a career in corporate communication, (2) three categories of strategies for transitioning into the field, and (3) the subsequent curricular and course-level changes that resulted from our interviews. Our study concludes that students need broad training for a wide-ranging and rapidly-changing field, and they …