Digital Commons Network^™

Cantor Sets, Cantorvals, And Their Topological Structure, Ángel Adrián Agüero

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

With interesting topological properties, the Cantor set is worth studying for itself. In other areas, topological structures arise that are in fact homeomorphic to the Cantor set. In particular, we see sets that are homeomorphic to the Cantor set which result from the subsums of particular series, as well as linear combinations of algebraic sums of Cantor sets. These also result in what has been termed a Cantorval, which we also investigate.

Under The Skin: Psychophysiological Consequences Of Racial Discrimination, Miriam Josephine Alvarez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background. Attitudes toward one's ethnic group can have particular implications for health functioning among groups that are misrepresented or discriminated against by societal institutions. The present experiments tested the consequences of experiencing racism on psychophysiological stress and executive function. Resilience and ethnic identity are examined as a protective factors. Specifically, Experiment 1 testes how discrimination impacts (1) anxiety, (2) heart rate, (3) working memory, and (4) the role of resilience as a protective factor. Experiment 2 sought to (1) replicate Experiment 1, (2) explore the interaction of ethnic identification and perceived prejudice on stress among Latinxs, and (3) establish a …

Computer-Aided Classification Of Impulse Oscillometric Measures Of Respiratory Small Airways Function In Children, Nancy Selene Avila

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Computer-aided classification of respiratory small airways dysfunction is not an easy task. There is a need to develop more robust classifiers, specifically for children as the classification studies performed to date have the following limitations: 1) they include features derived from tests that are not suitable for children and 2) they cannot distinguish between mild and severe small airway dysfunction.

This Dissertation describes the classification algorithms with high discriminative capacity to distinguish different levels of respiratory small airways function in children (Asthma, Small Airways Impairment, Possible Small Airways Impairment, and Normal lung function). This ability came from innovative feature selection, …

Exploring Dynamic Triggering Of Earthquakes Within The United States & Quaternary Faulting And Urban Seismic Hazards In The El Paso Metropolitan Area, Richard Alexander Alfaro-Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Technological advances in combination with the onslaught of data availability allow for large seismic data streams to automatically and systematically be recorded, processed, and stored. Here, we develop an automated approach to identify small, local earthquakes within these large continuous seismic data records. Our aim is to automate the process of detecting small seismic events triggered by a distant large earthquake, recorded at a single station. Specifically, we apply time-domain short-term average (STA) to long-term average (LTA) ratio algorithms to three-component data to create a catalog of detections. We remove some of the false detections by requiring the detection be …

Creating Spaces For Conversations On Conservation: A Case Study Of Joint Forest Management In East Sikkim, India., Paulami Banerjee

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Successful community-based natural resource management should include both resource professionals and local communities. Recognizing this fact, my research seeks to encourage more locally adaptive and collaborative forest governance that facilitates sustainable development by enabling grassroots participation. Specifically, I explore opportunities for developing a more sustainable relationship between India's Joint Forest Management (JFM) program and rural forest-dependent communities in Sikkim-a remote, northeastern state of India bordering Nepal to the west, the Tibet Autonomous region of China to the north and northeast, and Bhutan to the southeast. As an instrument for sustainable forestry management, JFM seeks to develop partnerships between forest user …

Theorizing The Experiences Of Chicana Faculty At A Hispanic-Serving Institution, Karina Chantal Canaba

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Hiring and retaining a diverse faculty has demonstrated to have positive outcomes on student success. However, different forces have made it difficult for universities to have a diverse make-up that reflect their student populations, making it particularly important to investigate how faculty engage with the university. This study seeks to better understand how Chicana faculty engage with the university through the tenure and promotion process. Situated in a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI), this study looks to better understand how Chicana faculty navigate the complex, political environment of academia through their testimonios as faculty at the university.

The importance of retaining Chicanas …

Urban Water Demand In Arid-Regions: Modeling And Forecasting Climatic And Economic Effects, Tallen Ashley Capt

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Water demand is an ever-growing concern for many municipalities around the world and understanding the driving forces of demand is critical to ensure sustainability. The goal of this research was to develop mechanistic models of urban water demand that could be used as decision support tools for regional water managers. This Dissertation research focused on modeling water consumption in El Paso, Texas at the daily and annual time scale for use in a long-term forecast. The Dissertation is divided into three major chapters: the first two chapters describe independent models on (1) meteorological and (2) economic effects, respectively. The third …

Development And Characterization Of Polyethylene Terephthalate (Pet)-Cotton Natural Fiber-Reinforced Composites From Waste Materials, Israel Alejandro Carrete

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Unprecedented levels of production and consumption have caused a rapid exhaustion of the Earth's virgin resources, which is coupled with a fast accumulation of contaminants in the form of solid waste, especially in landfills. Two significant landfill constituents come from textile waste and discarded plastic bottles. Since there is a finite amount of space that can be feasibly used for landfills, solutions that make use of these post-consumer products are imperative. This study presents one possible solution by using surface modifications of cotton fibers to produce a natural fiber-reinforced polymer composite (NFRPC) from post-consumer textile waste and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) …

Raman Computational And Experimental Studies On Label-Free Biological Investigations, John Ciubuc

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Raman spectroscopy is an optical technique that allows for label-free biological investigations to take place. This approach presents both new perspectives and a means for visualizing investigations. This thesis confronts two biological cases: dopamine (DA) detection at physiological levels and assessment of renal osteodystrophy (ROD). We employed surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy on silver nanoparticles recording DA concentrations as low as 10−11 molar. Quantum chemical density functional calculations were carried out using Gaussian-09 analytical suite software. Good agreement between the simulated and experimentally determined results indicates the existence of distinct DA molecular forms, such as uncharged DA±, anionic DA−, and dopaminequinone. Disappearance …

Scientific Islanders: Pacific Peoples, American Scientists, And The Desire To Understand The World, 1800-1860, Roberto Jesus Diaz

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Between 1800 and 1860, Pacific Islanders sought answers to questions about the mechanics and origins of the universe, just as Americans did. But the systems of thought created by Natives addressing these matters generally would not have been considered "scientific" by Americans. Pacific Islanders and Americans, nevertheless, created extensive scientific traditions to systematically perceive, understand, and explain the nature of existence. These systems were rooted in religion, social dynamics, and other cultural norms, and manifested themselves in writing, artwork, explorations, and technologies that benefited their societies. Thus, this Thesis argues that the practice of scientific methods was not simply a …

Nietzsche And The Aestheticization Of The Natural Sciences, Sean Dillard

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Thesis is an exploration of Friedrich Nietzsche's dictum that life only justifies itself aesthetically. Given his attempt to physiologize aesthetics, this project attempts to show the value of the parallels and reciprocities between taste, style, beauty, and good health for scientists - especially natural scientists. It hopes to show something valuable about what late-modern scientific practice lost, especially in the context of the departmentalization of the sciences in universities. Specifically, I argue, disentangling scientific practice from philosophical concerns - the death of what used to be natural philosophy - has resulted in worse scientists, worse scientific practice, and a …

Strategies To Improve The Electrochemical Of Performance Transition Metal Compounds As Anode Materials For Li-Ion Batteries, Noemi Dominguez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Nowadays, our society depends on fossil fuels as the main energy source. However, depletion, price fluctuations, and other concerns, such as global warming, have led to an exhaustive research for renewable energy resources. Here is where electrochemical energy systems play a critical role since they can provide power when renewable energy is not available. Among these electrochemical energy storage systems Li-ion batteries (LIBs) have shown higher volumetric, gravimetric, and power density capacities over other battery systems.

However, commercial LIBs are still relying on graphite base materials for the anode. However, graphite possesses a low specific capacity. Recently, transition metal compounds …

Assessing Delamination Of Concrete Bridge Decks With Aging In Arid Regions Using Nondestructive Testing Methods, Melissa Escalante

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Bridge decks usually experience deterioration at a more rapid pace than other infrastructure components due to the heavy traffic loads and environmental conditions that the deck sustains. Delamination within concrete bridge decks accelerates due to water and deicing salts penetrating the concrete; resulting in the corrosion of reinforcing steel. The corrosion of rebar may result in a fracture parallel to the surface of the concrete structure at the top of the reinforcement layer. The delamination is then subjected to expansion over a large span; risking the overall stability of the structural element. Health monitoring of concrete bridge decks is therefore …

Exploring The Association Between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder And Social Connectedness With Quality Of Life Among High-Risk Hispanic Women Living In The U.S.-Mexico Border: A Mixed Methods Approach, Tamanna Ferdous

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Quality of life (QOL) is an emerging significant public health concern. The QOL among the women living in the U.S.-MX border region is different than that of other parts of the United States. The unique characteristics of U.S.-MX border include lower socioeconomic status, immigration and acculturation challenges. These along with social, structural, and regional norms place individuals, particularly women, living in this region at high-risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), substance use disorder (SUD), weakened social connectedness, and domestic violence, which in turn affect their QOL. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of PTSD and social …

Dynamic Triggering Of Earthquakes Within The State Of Utah, Usa, David Lewis Guenaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Understanding the stress state of faults and the stress needed to trigger earthquakes remains a fundamental goal for understanding the earthquake cycle. We focus on deciphering the stress of faults by studying seismic waves from large, distant earthquakes that trigger local seismicity, called remote or dynamic triggering. Utilizing 17 years of waveform and catalog data (2000-2017) from seismic regional networks (i.e., EarthScope USArray Transportable Array, United States Geological Survey, and University of Utah Regional networks), we search for triggered seismicity in the state of Utah following 227 large magnitude (M ≥ 7) distant earthquakes. Utah provides a long-standing regional network …

The Rhetoric Of Low Carbon Energy Technology Scientists And Engineers, Nicolas Cesar Hernandez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Scholars in the burgeoning field of Energy Communication have successfully contributed to communication studies and environmental communication practice. However, energy communication scholars have largely focused on energy of media coverage, corporate communication and decision making in the context crisis. While rich and informative, this tendency has left quotidian aspects of energy communication rather understudied. As such, this Thesis contributes to the understanding of the internal, non-untechnical rhetoric of low carbon energy technology (LCET) scientists and engineers (herein LCET professionals). Textual analysis was used to examine LCET professionals' internal rhetoric at professional trade conferences and through long form, semi-structured interviews. Wind …

The Design And Testing Of A 500 Lbf Liquid Oxygen/Liquid Methane Engine, Manuel Jesus Herrera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The development of liquid oxygen/liquid methane (LOX/LCH4) propulsion systems has recently become a topic of interest ever since this particular propellant combination was determined to be a suitable candidate for use in space exploration, more specifically missions to Mars. This propellant combination is unique because the propellants can be synthesized from local resources on Mars, a process called In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU). ISRU would allow for spacecrafts to be lighter and/or increase its payload capacity to Mars-bound missions because the vehicle would not have to store the propellants required for the voyage back to earth.

For this reason, The University …

Unveiling Veiled Voices: Understanding The Experiences Of Muslim Women Who Wear The Hijab In Public Spaces, Mohammed Sakip Iddrisu

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

In view of the invisibility of Arab(ic)-Islamic rhetorics and the dominance of scholarship on Christian rhetorical traditions in rhetorical studies alongside an increased visibility of public rhetorics about Islamic women in American politics, this research explores the experiences and performances of veiled Muslim women in public spaces. While much of rhetorical scholarship on public spheres focuses on public talk or the circulation of public texts, in this study, I, together with six veiled Muslim women in El Paso, Texas, explore how veiled Muslim women navigate the hijab's visibility as a marker of difference with strangers-simultaneously performing and provoking performative public …

Impact Of Temperature And Screw Speed On Material Meso-Structure And Tensile Strength In Large Area Pellet-Fed Additive Manufacturing, Xavier Jimenez Guzman

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Evolution in additive manufacturing, specifically in material extrusion, has resulted in large-scale machines capable of extruding thermoplastic-matrix composite materials in higher volumes to fabricate products for large-scale applications. As with small- and medium-scale material extrusion, the properties of the final product often correlate directly with the bevy of print parameters employed. The current research was performed to evaluate the effects of the screw speed and temperature on an ABS 20%wt. carbon fiber thermoplastic processed on a Big Area Additive Manufacturing (BAAM, Cincinnati Inc) machine. Five screw speeds (50, 150, 250, 350 and 400 rpm) and three extruder temperature profiles were …

Formulation And Implementation Of Iterative Method For Generating Spatially-Variant Lattices, Manuel Fernando Martinez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The use of a matrix-free, memory-efficient approach to generate large-scale spatially variant lattices (SVL) was explored. A matrix-free iterative SVL generation algorithm was formulated and then implemented with a tremendous memory reduction observed. The algorithm consists of solving first-order central finite-differences along the entirety of the problem space point-by-point to obtain the grating phase function Φ(𝑠⃗) to which all desired spatially variant lattice properties are applied to. The algorithm was studied to identify key areas of data and task parallelism to exploit in heterogeneous computing systems consisting of clusters of central processing units (CPU) and graphics processing units (GPU) combinations. …

Thermo-Fluid System Level Modeling For The Crome And Crome-X Ground Propellant System Using Generalized Fluid System Simulation Program, Mariano Mercado

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

A recent resurgence of interest in space exploration has given rise to a number of newcomers in the space industry. A number of private companies like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and United Launch Alliance have joined the likes of NASA with the goal to expand the current capabilities of space travel and exploration. Perhaps the most ambitious of these goals is a manned mission to Mars. In order to achieve this goal, many of these companies have taken a keen interest in liquid oxygen and methane engine technologies. Engines like the Raptor by SpaceX and the Blue Origin BE-4 already run …

Precipitation And Transformation Of Iron-Sulfide Nanoparticles In Low-Temperature Aqueous Environment: Effects Of Reactant Iron And Sulfide Sources, Ezequiel A. Moreno Flores

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Iron sulfide nanoparticles assume an important role within a wide range of geological settings as indicators of redox environmental conditions and elemental cycling mechanisms. Initial precipitates of iron sulfide are exclusively nanoscale sized in low temperature aqueous conditions and have been reported to go through diverse morphological and phase transformations, possibly leading to the ultimate deposits of pyrite in geologic records of various times. A systematic understanding of how the early-stage nanoparticles of iron sulfide may develop into more crystalline iron sulfide forms is still lacking however. The major goal for this study was to illuminate the effects of the …

The Illusion Of An Abundant End- A Phenomenological Approach To Sustainability: The Progress Trap And The Transformative Potential Of Dialogue, Shantanu Rojatkar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Abundance is a concept according to which a thing is deemed to be in plenty. The feeling of satisfaction and assurance, arising from something that is concretely abundant, serves as a material reason for motivation of a desired action. Just like the stock of food lying in our fridge, ensuring more than just the needs of the moment, the abundance cooks the taste of freedom, freedom from worrying about tomorrow. However, over consumption out of greed as a potential outcome of abundance, could result in the increased capacity of a person in order to reach the initial level of satisfaction. …

Art As A Mediating Tool: Children And Learning In A Music And Arts-Based After School Program, Claudia Saldana

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study explores the experiences of primarily Latina/o children with learning music in a Music and Arts-Based Program (MABP) the context of a low-income neighborhood on the U.S- Mexico border. This year-long ethnographic study was conducted in an after-school art program in the Rio Grande Elementary School, in a low-income neighborhood located within one-mile of the U.S.-Mexico border. The purpose of the study is to understand how music and art can be used as a mediating tool for children to construct social and cognitive learning within a culturally diverse community, thus, enhancing the social environment in which they interact. The …

Dedicated Hardware For Machine/Deep Learning: Domain Specific Architectures, Angel Izael Solis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Artificial intelligence has come a very long way from being a mere spectacle on the silver screen in the 1920s [Hml18]. As artificial intelligence continues to evolve, and we begin to develop more sophisticated Artificial Neural Networks, the need for specialized and more efficient machines (less computational strain while maintaining the same performance results) becomes increasingly evident. Though these “new” techniques, such as Multilayer Perceptron’s, Convolutional Neural Networks and Recurrent Neural Networks, may seem as if they are on the cutting edge of technology, many of these ideas are over 60 years old! However, many of these earlier models, at …

Ductile Deformation In The Central Panamint Mountains - A Multi-Disciplinary Approach To A Multi-Dimensional Problem., Tai Antonia Subia

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study provides new insights into the geometry and timing of ductile, syn-metamorphic structures in the central Panamint Mountains of eastern California. The study focused on Surprise Canyon, where exposures of Meso- to Neoproterozoic miogeocline rocks, reworked crystalline basement, and syn-metamorphic granitoids record fabric overprints indicative of at least two distinct dynamo-thermal metamorphic events. Prograde metamorphism at greenschist and amphibolite metamorphic facies conditions occurred during Early Jurassic plutonism based on deformation of a dioritic pluton with a U-Pb date reported here of 175.6 ± 3.2 Ma. Mid Jurassic deformation (D1) generated the main continuous cleavage in the rocks (S1) as …

Reanimation (Afterlife Rebellion Book 1), Nicole A. White

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Reanimation (Afterlife Rebellion Book 1) is the first book in a young adult science fiction and fantasy duology about a group of ghosts and a teenage necromancer who must come to terms with a corrupted afterlife. The overarching goal was to craft an accessible fantasy, with its characters being unfamiliar with genre conventions so that readers who were as well could have an entry point into the category, and familiar readers could enjoy new interpretations of the canon. Traditional character archetypes and stereotypes that have been proven to impede representation in the genre and deter new readership are subverted or …

Fishers' Ecological Knowledge And Stable Isotope Analysis: A Social-Ecological Systems Approach To Endangered Species Conservation, Kathryn Rose Wedemeyer-Strombel

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Identifying developmental habitat is essential for understanding population structure and species resiliency, especially for critically endangered species. In long-lived, oceanic, migratory animals such as sea turtles, elucidating developmental grounds is particularly difficult. When data are deficient or challenging to acquire, scientists often lean towards traditional quantitative methods when a social-ecological systems approach could better provide crucial baseline data and guiding information. Fishers’ ecological knowledge (FEK), the combination of experiential and culturally transmitted knowledge, is expert knowledge and should be treated as such. In 2008, FEK led to the “rediscovery” of the critically endangered eastern Pacific (EP) population of hawksbill sea …

Smith V. Pelham, Northern District Of Alabama

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Rivera V. Google, Illinois Circuit Court

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.