Digital Commons Network^™

Circuit Topology Estimation In An Adaptive Protection Platform, Daniel Ruiz

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

Modern electric power systems, power system protections and controls have experienced a significant change, thanks to the introduction of new technologies, such as microprocessors, GPS, communication, etc. These technologies brought an increased amount of measured-data and information flow on power grids. Adaptive protection systems have been introduced to increase the reliability, selectivity, and sensitivity of the traditional protection systems. An adaptive protection system highly relies on the communication system infrastructure to identify the latest status of power grid (e.g., circuit topology or generation level of distributed energy resources). However, when the communication links to some of the equipment are outaged …

Cognitive Radios For Self-Aware And Spectrum-Agile Communications Over Wideband Spectrum, Mohamed A. Aref

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

In this dissertation, we introduce a novel cognitive engine design for intelligent, self-aware and spectrum-agile communications. The targeted cognitive radio (CR) has sensing and learning abilities that incorporate advanced signal processing and machine/deep learning (ML/DL) techniques. It can operate over a heterogeneous wideband spectrum that is much wider than the ones proposed in the literature, most likely covering several hundreds of MHz. It has the ability to detect existing signals in the surrounding RF environment and identify their origins. Furthermore, it cognitively uses channel selection, transmit power control and interference cancellation to adapt its communications mode in response to observed …

Using Eye-Gaze To Evaluate Neural Attention, Shahansha Salim

Master’s Dissertations

The ability to selectively concentrate on areas of interest while ignoring the rest is termed as attention in human beings. This ability has played a key role in survival as well as information processing. Neural Attention is said to be an effort to bring similar action of selectively concentrating areas of relevance in deep neural networks. This simple yet powerful concept has attracted a lot of research in recent years, yielding breakthrough results in Natural Language Processing (NLP) problems and main stream Computer Vision problems such as Image Caption Generation, Neural Machine Translation (NMT), Visual Question Answering (VQA), Action Recognition, …

Wildlife Trade And Covid-19: Towards A Criminology Of Anthropogenic Pathogen Spillover, Piers Beirne Phd

Department of Criminology

The general remit of this paper is the role of wildlife trade in pathogen spillover. Its underlying assumption is that, so far from being the exclusive domain of the life sciences, the study of pathogen spillover will be greatly enhanced by multi-perspectival approaches, including One Health and those employed here, namely, non-speciesist green criminology and critical animal studies. The paper moves from discussions of zoonosis, anthroponosis and wildlife trade to the emergence of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. The paper recommends the abolition of all wildlife trade and the reclamation of wildlife habitat and broaches discussion of the extension of legal …

National Security And Climate Change, Madison Moran

Physics Capstone Projects

Certain scientific subjects are often divisive or technical, which makes those topics difficult to discuss with audiences outside the scientific sphere. One way of getting around this obstacle is to cater scientific communication to different target audiences to cut through any audience biases. In order to accomplish that, a communicator needs to understand the relationship between audiences’ worldviews, and what they know, feel, and do regarding the subject at hand, and then how that relationship influences the types of media audiences trust and to which they respond positively. The following study investigates the worldviews of a military audience with respect …

2020-12-12_Michiganoverview_Covidsymptoms, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Michigan COVID-19 Syndromic Surveillance System Data

The Syndromic Surveillance System Data report was obtained from Michigan's COVID-19 dashboard, from under the link "​Coronavirus Symptoms": https://www.michigan.gov/coronavirus. Data was compiled by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS). The information was updated daily.

Syndromic Surveillance System data is obtained from approximately 183 facilities participating in syndromic surveillance (132 Emergency Departments (ED), 51 Urgent Cares) across the State of Michigan. The reporting is based on individuals who present at EDs and may not be representative of the overall population. The coronavirus-like symptoms query searches visit free-text (chief complaint, triage notes, and clinical impression) for fever or …

Winter Commencement, 2020, Marshall University

Marshall University Commencement

Program for the one hundred and eighty-third commencement at Marshall University.

Experienced Esl Teachers' Attitudes Towards Using Phonetic Symbols In Teaching English Pronunciation To Adult Esl Students, Oxana Kodirova

Theses and Dissertations

Different opinions exist about the use of phonetic alphabet symbols in teaching English pronunciation to second language learners. Some authors and researchers believe phonetic symbols can benefit students in many ways; others consider this tool hardly recommendable. However, little empirical research has been done to find out what ESL teachers think about the use of this linguistic tool. Thus, via an online survey this study sought to identify ESL teachers' attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols in teaching ESL pronunciation. A total of 120 teachers took the survey and most of them were experienced in teaching pronunciation to adult …

Prenatal Alcohol Exposure Alters Transcriptional Expression Of Stress And Tlr4-Related Immune Signaling Factors In The Brain Following Early Life Stress, Chaselyn D. Ruffaner-Hanson

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

Background: Depression and anxiety disorders, believed to be caused by stress-related neuropeptides and pro-inflammatory molecules in the brain, are prevalent comorbidities of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

Methods: Brain tissue was collected following a 4-hour maternal separation stress during the early postnatal period, postnatal days 10 and 12, from mice subjected to 1^st and 2^nd trimester prenatal alcohol exposure (PAE).

Hypothesis: We hypothesized that PAE leads to glucocorticoid receptor insensitivity, stress molecule overexpression, and potentiated toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) pathway inflammatory responses in the brain following early life stress.

Results: PAE and stress increased mRNA expression of TLR4 …

Adult Hippocampal Neurogenesis As A Potential Therapeutic Target In Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders, Kymberly Cheyanne Gustus

Biomedical Sciences ETDs

This dissertation aims to determine if adult hippocampal neurogenesis is a potential therapeutic target in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASDs). Adult hippocampal neurogenesis plays important and unique roles in certain aspects of learning, memory, and mood (Anacker & Hen, 2017). Individuals with FASDs often demonstrate dysregulation in these arenas (Lewis et al., 2015; Temple, Cook, Unsworth, Rajani, & Mela, 2019). Previous work in our lab using a mouse model of prenatal alcohol exposure demonstrated impairment in enrichment-mediated adult hippocampal neurogenesis (Irene Y. Choi, Andrea M. Allan, & Lee Anna Cunningham, 2005; K. Kajimoto, A. Allan, & L. A. Cunningham, 2013). …

A Case Study Regarding Induction Supports And Activities And Their Impact On Successful Teacher Retention, Alicia Ponds

Doctorate in Education

At the end of every school year, new teachers either stay or leave public classrooms. Multiple challenges drive these new teacher choices. State, district, and local administrators struggle to fill teacher vacancies. New teacher departures challenge schools with the maintenance of an attractive work environment and provision of quality student education. This case study shares how five successful Minnesota educators apply extrinsic activities and intrinsic supports to not only meet these challenges, but effectively respond to the 2019-2020 onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through research interviews, this qualitative study analyzes intrinsic supports and extrinsic activities in relation to positive teaching …

Improving Clinical Communication And Collaboration Through Technology, Michelle Machon

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

Problem: Over the last 30 years, clinical communication methodologies in healthcare have evolved to become such disparate systems that they lead to confusion, wasted time, and clinician dissatisfaction. The Joint Commission (2016) reports up to 78% of sentinel events in hospitals are linked to communication failures, which have obvious implications for hospital systems in the quality and safety of their current communication systems.

Context: The purpose of this project was to determine the effectiveness of implementing a unified clinical communication technology platform in an acute care hospital setting and to make recommendations from that implementation to the organization’s larger health …

2020-December-12-Etsu Fall 2020 Commencement, University Marketing And Communication, East Tennessee State University

ETSU News

JOHNSON CITY (Dec. 12, 2020)  – East Tennessee State University conferred more than 1,400 degrees today during its Virtual Commencement Ceremony at 10 a.m.

The ceremony featured special congratulatory remarks from U.S. Congressman Dr. Phil Roe and U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, as well as ETSU alumnus and Emmy Award-winning actor Timothy Busfield, who plays Henry Roswell on ABC’s “For Life.” During his time at ETSU, Busfield was involved with the theatre program and worked closely with faculty members Daryl Frank and Bud Frank. He has appeared as a regular or recurring character in 18 series, including “thirtysomething,” “The West Wing” …

In Pursuit Of Diversity In The Cuny Library Profession: An Effective Approach To Leadership In Academic Libraries, Nilda Alexandra Sanchez-Rodriguez

Publications and Research

Maximizing the current organizational culture and diversity/inclusion practices within CUNY libraries is crucial to retaining highly talented support staff with significant potential for future leadership roles. This research explores equity, diversity, and inclusion within the library profession, with the intention of implementing strategic frameworks to attract, recruit, and retain underrepresented groups within the University. To spotlight areas of upward mobility within CUNY academic libraries, a CUNY-wide Library Workplace Climate survey on the perceptions of diversity, universal inclusion, and career progression was conducted. The scope of the survey study compares the different perspectives of CUNY librarians, full-time library classified paraprofessionals, and …

Fault Lines: An Empirical Legal Study Of California Secession, Bill Tomlinson, Andrew W. Torrance

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

Over the last decade, multiple initiatives have proposed that California should secede from the United States. This article examines the legal aspects of California secession and integrates that analysis with findings from an empirical study of public perceptions of such secession. There is no provision in the United States Constitution allowing states, or other political or geographical units, to secede unilaterally. The Civil War was fought to uphold this principle, and the United States Supreme Court confirmed it in its 1869 Texas v. White decision. Nevertheless, numerous instances of secession, both legal and extralegal, have occurred across human history, and …

When Duty Calls. A Faith & Health Collaborative Response To Covid 19 And Social Justice: A Commentary, Joe Bohn, Karen Liller

Florida Public Health Review

We provide information pertaining to an interdisciplinary collaboration in West Central Florida that launched a faith & wellness teleconference intervention in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 crisis. The collaborative partners engaged from across the 4-county region upon community lockdowns in response to the COVID-19 crisis and later addressing calls for social justice due to the deaths of George Floyd and other African Americans. For 17-weeks Christian and Muslim faith leaders provided live messages of hope along with community partners providing wellness (mental health and wellbeing) focused strategies for coping with the crisis. Thematic analysis of anecdoctal comments revealed …

A Comparative Study Of Posterior Fossa Tumor Approach In Pediatric Patients; Craniotomy Vs. Craniectomy, Hayder Mohsin, Ayad Abdulnaby

Iraqi Postgraduate Medical Journal

BACKGROUND: The posterior fossa is the biggest and the deepest intracranial fossa, containing the most complicated intracranial organs. Posterior fossa tumor access used to involve bone removal permanently, the first craniotomy was done in 1974 using burr holes to access CPA tumors. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the postoperative complications of posterior fossa tumor surgery operated by craniotomy versus craniectomy in pediatric patients.  PATIENTS AND METHODS: A prospective single-center study of 35 pediatric patients with posterior fossa tumors operated in    the neurosurgical center in Martyr Ghazi Al-Hariri Hospital from Oct. 2017 to Oct. 2018. Patients were categorized into two groups using craniotomy …

Copper Electrodeposition In Full Wafer Thickness Through-Silicon Vias, Rebecca P. Schmitt

Chemical and Biological Engineering ETDs

Through-silicon vias (TSVs) are a key interconnect technology for advanced packaging of microelectronic devices, and full wafer thickness TSVs are required for certain microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) applications. In this work, electrolytes containing copper sulfate, an acid, chloride, and Tetronic 701 suppressor were implemented for Cu filling of high aspect ratio (10:1), full wafer thickness TSVs. For each electrolyte system, rotating disk electrode voltammetry was used to identify a voltage range for bottom-up Cu filling in the TSVs. Die level feature filling was performed using voltage ramping, which moved active deposition through the vias to yield void-free Cu features. During voltage-controlled …

Ensuring Justice For All, Jonathan Scott

University of Mississippi News

UM Class of '47 alumna creates fund to assist law students so they can assist others

The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Analysis Of Its Inequitable Impacts Towards The Black Population With Recommendations To Dismantling Institutional Racism, Elena Peterson

Master's Projects and Capstones

Due to the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the 2020 coronavirus disease pandemic uncovered health inequities throughout the United States. This paper explores institutional racism as the reasoning behind these health inequities. A discussion of the United States’ failure to implement preventative precautions once notified initially of the coronavirus is featured. Events that took place after the recognition of the coronavirus, such as the economic impacts and passed legislation, are highlighted as well. An overview of the Trump Administration’s lack of focus towards vulnerable populations, which includes the Black communities, is included. Also, there are highlights on …

The First-Year Experiences Of Students In Remedial Classes At A Research University: Implications For Retention And Support, Therese Baca-Radler

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

As more institutions of higher education adopt non-selective admissions processes, an increasing number of students from underrepresented populations are placed into developmental intervention courses as an added requirement to their educational paths based on standardized test scores alone. This study interviewed students who had these requirements imposed upon them and sought to understand their thoughts and feelings about that placement and how it impacted their transition from high school to college and their first-year college success. As students described their prior experiences in formal academic settings, they emphasized the benefits of family support in building their self-directed learning skills and …

Numerical Evaluation Of Effective Thermal Response Of Heterogeneous Materials, Kevin W. Irick

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Heterogeneity in materials leads to increased complication of physics, at the level or scale where heterogeneity exists, making analysis and material behavior predictions more difficult. As a result of the intricate descriptions or understanding of the physics required to determine the behavior of a heterogenous material or system, practitioners frequently prefer the use of effective properties or responses. This body of work is dedicated to performing computational analyses on the thermal behavior of heterogeneous materials and evaluating the corresponding analyses using formal verification approaches. Custom finite element method code was used for solving the heat equation in a variety of …

Parental Choice Of Charter Schools For Middle School Students With Disabilities, Oluwole Ilesanmi

Special Education ETDs

For many decades, traditional public schools were the dominant public schools available for educating students, including those with disabilities. However, in the current climate of school choice, parents can now choose from a variety of educational options for their children. This study sought to explore the reasons parents of students with disabilities enrolled their children in charter schools. Research questions addressed the reasons parents considered when enrolling their children with disabilities in charter schools, as well as their degree of satisfaction and experiences after enrollment in charter schools. A total of 108 parents of sixth-eighth grade middle school students with …

Otter Tail Corporation, Heather Strese

Dissertations, Theses, and Projects

In my valuation model I gathered Otter Tail Corporation’s financial statements, historical and industry data, public information and ratio analysis from Mergent Online, Yahoo Finance and Otter Tail Corporation’s 2018 annual report. I discount the expected free cash flows at the WACC and estimate that Otter Tail Corporation’s stock is price is at USD 56.36 per share as of November 1^st, 2019, given the small difference between my estimated price per share and the current price per share in the market, and consistent with the EV/EBITDA multiple, I recommend a HOLD on the stock of the company.

Reducing Hospital Acquired Pressure Injuries Through A Standardized Prevention Bundle, Austin Lee Stoker

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract PROBLEM: Currently healthcare acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) in the United States result in significant and unnecessary costs along with lost revenue for healthcare facilities. These costs are estimated to be between 9.1 and 11.6 billion dollars annually. Pressure Injuries (PIs) are directly associated with decreases in patient outcomes and are deemed preventable incidents. HAPI prevention can mitigate this clinical and financial problem for patients and organizations. CONTEXT: Unnecessary patient harm related to four HAPI occurrences in the last quarter on the 2B Medical Surgical Telemetry Unit in an integrated managed care delivery system continue to be of concern. Adherence …

Trustworthiness In Sampling Selection: Remedies Against Introspective Chaos, Cécile Gabarre, Serge Gabarre

The Qualitative Report

The ethical dimension pertaining to protecting participants from psychological harm due to the in-depth nature of the inquiry and to the intimacy resulting from prolonged engagement is well-documented. This is laudable, but very few studies focused on guiding the researchers against chaotic emotions arising from introspectively questioning their beliefs and motivations and inspiring their judgments underlying their decisions. In our involvement with masters’ students’ thesis writing and research management training, supervision, and examination, we became aware of recurring cases of novice researchers silently disappearing from the program, eventually reappearing, continuously struggling with their thesis. Investigating this process, we identified the …

Justice As Message Symposium: What We See When We See Law … Through The Eyes Of Dame Laura Knight, Diane Marie Amann

Scholarly Works

The eye cannot help but be drawn to the cover of Justice as Message, the new analysis by Carsten Stahn of, to quote the subtitle, Expressivist Foundations of International Criminal Justice. On the high-gloss paper jacket we see a tableau of blacks and browns and olive drab, accented only by the purple of a lawyer’s robe and the teal of a dossier perched on the bar behind him. In front, we see that the bench is buried in paper – paper that turns to ashes as the back wall gives way to a vision of buildings in ruin …

Monitoring The Low Frequency Radio Transient Sky With The Long Wavelength Array, Savin Shynu Varghese

Physics & Astronomy ETDs

Transient searches in radio astronomy have discovered some of the most extreme astrophysical phenomena in our universe. This has enabled us to study the physics of these explosive and dynamic sources. Most of the transient searches over the past 70 years have been at frequencies higher than 100 MHz leaving the transient sky below 100 MHz unexplored. The Long Wavelength Array (LWA) telescope offers an excellent opportunity to study the transient sky below 100 MHz with its wide field of view, high sensitivity and fast imaging at shorter timescales. This dissertation presents the transient searches carried out using the all-sky …

Interpreting The Data: Reflections On Asl-English Cross Language Research, Serena Johnson

The Qualitative Report

Cross language research typically ignores the role the translator and translation play in the research process. This paper adds to the literature by examining some of the challenges experienced during the translation and interpretation aspect of research. This autoethnography explores the positionality of a non-native user of American Sign Language who conducted research with native American Sign Language users. Findings indicate that translation and interpretation in research is not simply a matter of rote process and deserves more attention as an integral aspect of cross-language research.

Library Usage By Faculty Members Of Benguet State University, Noel W. Cabfilan, Marjorie C. Ricardo

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study's objectives were to determine Benguet State University faculty members' general impression of the library resources and their usage of these resources. To answer these objectives, questions on faculty members' satisfaction with the library resources, frequency of usage, purposes of using the library resources, reasons for not using the library resources, reasons of not being able to find the resources they are looking for in the library and suggestions for library development in terms of library resources were asked.

It was found out that the majority of the faculty members have used the library resources at least once-a-term. On …