Digital Commons Network^™

Explicit Learning Of Auditory Categories In Preschoolers With And Without Developmental Language Disorder, Lauren Casey

University Honors Theses

This study a part of a broader study including Quam et al. (2020) and Yu (2020) with the aim of understanding how children with and without developmental language disorder learn language. With a better understanding of the underlying learning mechanisms affected in DLD, better interventions can be implemented. The current study investigates explicit language learning in preschoolers with and without developmental language disorder (DLD). This was done by observing sound discrimination and explicit sound-meaning mapping. One child with DLD and 29 children with typical language development (TLD) participated in this study. Inclusion in each group was determined by a hearing …

Sustainable Energy System: Case Study Of Solar Water Pumps, Vibhu Sharma

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Graduate Student Publications

In rural areas of countries, agricultural lands require reliable and cost-effective water supply systems. This study evaluates the viability of replacing diesel pumps with solar-powered water pumps (PVPs) in rural Ohio, focusing on borehole depths <100m. The analysis shows that PVPs are a cost-effective alternative to diesel pumps, with a discounted payback period of 7 years for 3 HP solar water pumps. Using life cycle costing and financial modeling in Microsoft Excel, the costs and benefits of PVPs and diesel pumps are compared, demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of solar water pumping systems.

Validating An Open-Source Uvlm Solver For Analyzing Flapping Wing Flight, Cameron Urban

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science Independent Study

Scientists have long used the unsteady vortex lattice method (UVLM) to simulate flapping wing flight. However, until recently, there has not been an available open-source UVLM solver designed explicitly for this field. Ptera Software is the only open-source UVLM solver that can simulate flapping wing aerodynamics without the modifications required by other open-source solvers. This report documents the next step in the software’s development: validation of its results. Comparing Ptera Software’s output to high-fidelity experimental data of the pressures on a flapping wing robot shows that the simulated results predict the trends and magnitudes of the net lift over time …

Perioperative Advanced Directives, Derek Washer

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

Technology and surgical techniques continue to improve, resulting in more clients with advanced directives presenting to the operative suite for surgery or procedures requiring anesthesia. Anesthesia providers are in a critical position to discuss with the surgical patient or surrogate any alteration or reconsideration to their advanced directive. Unfortunately, patients and anesthesia provider discussions at a North Texas hospital were limited due to a knowledge deficit, an outdated hospital policy rescinding all directives perioperatively, and an inadequate consenting mechanism. The perioperative advanced directives project involved updating the hospital policy to current national guidelines and developing a “DNR Under Anesthesia” consenting …

Improving The Maximum Power Point Tracking Efficiency Of Photovoltaic Arrays Via Machine Learning And Deep Learning, Sumedha Inamdar

Master of Science in Computer Science Theses

Under partial shading conditions, photovoltaic (PV) modules in a solar array experience varying irradiance. A Global Maximum (GM) and multiple Local Maximums (LMs) can originate on the Power-Voltage (P-V) curve under nonuniform irradiance conditions. There are many maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithms developed to detect the true maximum power point (MPP) of a PV array. However, in the real-world environment, limited samples of power-voltage (P-V) data might be available to quickly and accurately predict the position of the global maximum point. Since the change of environmental conditions are dynamic, limited time is available to locate the global peak. Machine …

The Role And Mechanism Of Cytochrome P450 1b1 On The Development Of Atherosclerosis; Producing The Animation For Visual Communication And Education., Joon Yeol Ryu

Theses

A large number of people are suffering from cardiovascular disease and losing their lives because of it. Atherosclerosis, a classic example of cardiovascular disease, is related to cytochrome p450 1B1 and other molecules in the development of the disease. Educational materials for patients and students on this topic are expected.

Advantage, role and effectiveness of three-dimensional (3D) animation as a communication tool in biomedical science research and education have been proved. Therefore, 3D animation is a suitable medium to create visual material for atherosclerosis and related subject.

Autodesk Maya 3D computer graphics software used for animation from modeling to animating …

Drawing Normal Curves: A Visual Analysis Of Feedback In Writing-To-Learn Assignments In An Introductory Statistics Course For Community College Students, Samantha Estrada Aguilera

The Qualitative Report

Writing-to-learn benefits students in polishing their communication skills and understanding of statistical concepts cultivating a deeper understanding of statistics. A series of writing-to-learn activities were given to introductory statistics students at a community college in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States. Historically, research on the teaching and learning of statistics has been performed on undergraduates while overlooking the experiences of community college students in learning statistics. A total of 79 students completed the feedback instrument over the course of three semesters (Summer 2017, Fall 2017, and Spring 2018). The feedback instrument included three Likert scale questions, two open-ended …

Credit Cards, Credit Utilization, And Consumption, Scott Fulford, Scott Schuh

Economics Faculty Working Papers Series

Credit bureau data show remarkably stable consumer utilization of unsecured debt over the business cycle, life cycle, and individually quarter-to-quarter, despite massive variation in available credit. To explain these new findings, we propose a life-cycle consumption model with heterogeneous preferences, endogenous payment choice, and the option to revolve debt for consumption smoothing. Using diary data to identify payment use, the estimated model matches consumption and credit use at every frequency and suggests that around half the population has an endogenously high marginal propensity to consume. The results suggest understanding credit availability and heterogeneous use may lead to richer counter-cyclical policies.

Revisiting The History Of The De Doctrina Christiana Authorship Debate And Its Ramifications For Milton Scholarship: A Response To Falcone And Kerr, David V. Urban

University Faculty Publications and Creative Works

This essay details the history of the De Doctrina Christiana authorship controversy, suggesting that the debate’s conclusion in favor of Miltonic provenance was declared prematurely. It considers Falcone’s and Kerr’s recent essays in light of the larger controversy and proposes that one consequence of the larger debate should be the liberty for scholars to analyze Milton’s theological presentations in his poetry apart from the specter of DDC.

The Evolutionary Global Vision Of Chinese Political Philosophy; China's Socio-Economic Transformation In The 21st Century, Meryem Gurel

Master's Projects and Capstones

Evolving relations of East Asia due to trade liberalization raised the search for financial stability for institutional development. It also increased the importance of China integrating the global economy into renewing its political philosophy in the new century. This capstone project aims to examine why China has transformed its socio-economic structure by generating outward investments and how it has affected international political relations in terms of the role of the economic institution Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Quantitative methodology aims to examine the impact of China’s export trade on income distribution and economic growth through linear regression analysis for the …

How To Break The "Siwei"?—Practice And Enlightenment Based On Research Institute Evaluation Of Chinese Academy Of Sciences, Li Xiaoxuan, Xu Fang

Bulletin of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Chinese Version)

In 2018, the state issued breaking the "Siwei" related document, while "Siwei" means only papers, only titles, only education back ground, and only awards, and five ministries and institutions, i.e., Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chinese Academy of Engineering, collaboratedly started the special action of breaking "Siwei". Most researchers in universities and research institutions have both expectations and concerns. There are different opinions on how to break the "Siwei" into a hot topic. Based on the introduction and analysis of the development and evolution of …

Dft-Based Study Of Electric Field Effect On The Polarizability Of Three Ringed Nematic Liquid Crystal Molecules, Pranav Upadhyay, Mirtunjai Mishra, Ankur Trivedi, Jitendra Kumar, Asheesh Kumar, Devesh Kumar

Makara Journal of Science

Owing to its successful application to complex molecular systems, computational density functional theory (DFT) has been used to study the effect of an electric field on the molecular polarizability and HOMO–LUMO gap of 1-phenyl-4-{2-[(1s,4r)-4-pentylcyclohexyl]ethyl}benzene (1) and its fluoro-, chloro-, and cyano- derivatives, namely, 1-fluoro-4-(4-{2-[(1s,4r)-4-pentylcyclohexyl]ethyl}phenyl)benzene (2), 1-chloro-4-(4-{2-[(1s,4r)-4-pentylcyclohexyl]ethyl}phenyl)benzene (3), and 4-(4-{2-[(1s,4r)-4-pentylcyclohexyl]ethyl}phenyl)benzonitrile (4). These molecules belong to the family of nematic liquid crystals with three rings: two benzene and one cyclohexane. Furthermore, two DFT approaches, namely, B3LYP and M062X, have been used to examine the results obtained. This study reveals a remarkable feature: the polarizability of these molecules follows nearly a step function …

Automatic Pain Assessment Through Facial Expressions, Ilham Seladji

Theses

Pain is a strong symptom of diseases. Being an involuntary unpleasant feeling, it can be considered as a reliable indicator of health issues. Pain has always been expressed verbally, but in some cases, traditional patient self-reporting is not efficient. On one side, there are patients who have neurological disorders and cannot express themselves accurately, as well as patients who suddenly lose consciousness due to an abrupt faintness. On another side, medical staff working in crowded hospitals need to focus on emergencies and would opt for the automation of the task of looking after hospitalized patients during their entire stay, in …

Control Of Blood Volume Following Hypovolemic Challenge In Vertebrates: Transcapillary Versus Lymphatic Mechanisms., Stanley S. Hillman, Robert C. Drewes, Michael S. Hedrick

Biology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Anurans have an exceptional capacity for maintaining vascular volume compared with other groups of vertebrates. They can mobilize interstitial fluids via lymphatic return at rates that are ten-fold higher than mammals. This extraordinary capacity is the result of coordination of specialized skeletal muscles and pulmonary ventilation that vary volume and pressure of subcutaneous lymph sacs, thus moving lymph to dorsally located lymph hearts that return lymph to the vascular space. Variation in the capacity to mobilize lymph within anurans varies with the degree of terrestriality, development of skeletal muscles, lung volume and lung compliance, and lymph heart pressure development. This …

Psychological Intimate Partner Violence (Ipv) And Child Adjustment In A Context Of Previous Physical Ipv, Tricia Gower

Psychology Theses and Dissertations

Physical and psychological IPV often co-occur, and are both potential risk factors for child adjustment problems; however, their joint relation with child adjustment problems is not well understood. The current study examined whether previous physical IPV augmented the relation between current psychological IPV and child threat appraisals and child internalizing symptoms. Participants were 506 children aged 7-10 (Mage = 8.49; 48% female) and their mothers (Mage = 36.32) recruited from the community. Children reported on IPV between mothers and mothers’ partners, child threat appraisals, and child internalizing symptoms. Mothers reported on child internalizing symptoms. Previous physical IPV, conceptualized based on …

2020-12-19_Michiganoverview_Covidstats, Michigan Department Of Health & Human Services

Cumulative Michigan COVID-19 Data

The COVID Overview page was obtained from Michigan's main COVID-19 page: https:/www.michigan.gov/coronavirus/0,9753,7-406-98163-520743--,00.html.

The State of Michigan is working around the clock to test and treat COVID-19 patients. Below is the most recent data healthcare experts across the state have compiled. It is updated Monday - Saturday.
This report is provisional and subject to change. City of Detroit and Wayne County are reported separately. MDHHS began tracking probable cases April 5, 2020. FCI indicates federal correctional institute. MDOC indicates Michigan Department of Corrections. Diagnostic tests, including nucleic acid amplification/real-time polymerase chain reaction (NAAT/RT-PCR) and rapid virus antigen detection point of …

Observation And Measurement Of The Higgs Boson Produced In Association With A Vector Boson And Decaying To A Pair Of Bottom Quarks With The Atlas Detector At Lhc, Peilong Wang

Physics Theses and Dissertations

A search of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of bottom quarks using the WH and ZH associated production is performed with the ATLAS detector. The analyzed data were collected in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018 LHC Run-2 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb⁻¹. Final states that contains 0, 1, and 2 charged leptons (electrons or muons, denoted as l) are considered, to target the processes of Z→νν, W→lν and Z→ll. Object reconstruction, event selection, and signal and control region definition are included. Systematic uncertainty …

Advanced Thermal Characterization And Temperature Control To Enable The Next Generation Of Micro-Electronic Technologies, Assaad El Helou

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

In the electronics world, self-heating is an inevitable by-product of electrical activation that has a major impact on device performance and reliability. Thermal technologies have been in constant development to effectively dissipate the generated heat and keep device operation temperatures within reliable limits. Moreover, thermal characterization technologies have been implemented to understand the thermal performance within microelectronic sys- tems, but not without facing experimental and numerical challenges. This work presents ad- vanced thermal investigations, both experimental and numerical, that are adapted and most suited for emerging micro-electronic technologies. Initially, the main experimental and numerical modeling challenges faced in the thermal …

Microparticle Propulsion For In Vivo Navigation, Louis Rogowski

Mechanical Engineering Research Theses and Dissertations

Microscale propulsion impacts a diverse array of fields, with simplistic microrobots allowing for novel innovations in microscale surgery and drug delivery. Propulsion at the microscale is constrained by physics, with time-reversal and geometric symmetries limiting available propulsion mechanisms. However, certain fluid environments and surface coatings allow for the propulsion of microparticles through externally applied magnetic fields. Presented here is a detailed analysis of microparticles propelling using spontaneous symmetry breaking, flagella surface coatings, and multi-modal actuation mechanisms. Spontaneous symmetry breaking in nonlinearly viscoelastic fluids is presented for the first time in literature, with two equal and opposite propulsion states existing along …

Integrating Different Data Sources For Estimation Of Total With Unknown Population Size, Zhaoce Liu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Probability sampling has served as the gold-standard in survey practice for many decades. However, as many new data collection methods become available, it is possible to improve the quality and efficiency of traditional survey practices by integrating different sample sources. Web-based surveys from the so-called opt-in panels are one type of nonprobability sample that becoming popular these years. They often come with large sample sizes to yield efficient estimates, but selection bias may compromise the generalizability of results to the broader population.

Our motivating example is a survey conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which collects data to …

Religion And Rural Internationalism In The Nineteenth-Century Middle West: The Global Consciousness Of Rural Dutch Middle Westerners,1865–1901, Andrew Klumpp

Religious Studies Theses and Dissertations

This project asks: How did underlying religious worldviews inform the local, national, and global engagement of rural middle western Dutch communities in the nineteenth century, which are often characterized as isolated and provincial? More broadly, it queries, if the local, national, and global are united by this broad religious worldview, how does that transform our understandings of rural middle western ethnic enclaves and who contributed to the rich internationalism of the nineteenth century and from where?

Close examination of these rural middle western ethnic enclaves reveals not only an ambitious vision for building local institutions but also for extending Dutch …

Statistical Modeling Of High-Throughput Sequencing Data And Spatially Resolved Transcriptomic Data, Shen Yin

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Recent studies have shown that RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) can be used to measure mRNA of sufficient quality extracted from Formalin-Fixed Paraffin-Embedded (FFPE) tissues to provide whole-genome transcriptome analysis. However, little attention has been given to the normalization of FFPE RNA-seq data. In Chapters 1 and 2, we propose a new normalization method, labeled MIXnorm, and its simplified version SMIXnorm, for FFPE RNA-seq data. MIXnorm relies on a two-component mixture model, which models non-expressed genes by zero-inflated Poisson distributions and models expressed genes by truncated normal distributions. To obtain maximum likelihood estimates, we develop a nested EM algorithm, in which closed-form …

Analyzing Performance, Energy Consumption, And Reliability Of Mobile Applications, Osama Barack

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

Mobile applications have become a high priority for software developers. Researchers and practitioners are working toward improving and optimizing the energy efficiency and performance of mobile applications due to the capacity limitation of mobile device processors and batteries. In addition, mobile applications have become popular among end-users, developers have introduced a wide range of features that increase the complexity of application code.

To improve and enhance the maintainability, extensibility, and understandability of application code, refactoring techniques were introduced. However, implementing such techniques to mobile applications affects energy efficiency and performance. To evaluate and categorize software implementation and optimization efficiency, several …

Deep Neural Network Based Student Response Modeling With Uncertainty, Multimodality And Attention, Xinyi Ding

Computer Science and Engineering Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I investigate deep neural network based student response modeling, more specifically Knowledge Tracing (KT). Knowledge Tracing allows Intelligent Tutoring Systems to infer which topics or skills a student has mastered, thus adjusting curriculum accordingly. Deep neural network based knowledge tracing models like Deep Knowledge Tracing (DKT) and Dynamic Key-Value Memory Network (DKVMN) have achieved significant improvements compared with conventional probabilistic models. There are mainly two goals in this thesis: 1) To have a better understanding of existing deep neural network based models and their predictions through visualization and through incorporating uncertainties. 2) To improve the performance of …

Bayesian Semi-Supervised Keyphrase Extraction And Jackknife Empirical Likelihood For Assessing Heterogeneity In Meta-Analysis, Guanshen Wang

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates: (1) A Bayesian Semi-supervised Approach to Keyphrase Extraction with Only Positive and Unlabeled Data, (2) Jackknife Empirical Likelihood Confidence Intervals for Assessing Heterogeneity in Meta-analysis of Rare Binary Events.

In the big data era, people are blessed with a huge amount of information. However, the availability of information may also pose great challenges. One big challenge is how to extract useful yet succinct information in an automated fashion. As one of the first few efforts, keyphrase extraction methods summarize an article by identifying a list of keyphrases. Many existing keyphrase extraction methods focus on the unsupervised setting, …

Examining Multiple Imputation For Measurement Error Correction In Count Data With Excess Zeros, Shalima Zalsha

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

Measurement error and missing data are two common problems in wildlife population surveys. These data are collected from the environment and may be missing or measured with error when the observer’s ability to see the animal is obscured. Methods such as video transects for estimating red snapper abundance and aerial surveys for estimating moose population sizes are highly affected by these problems since total abundance will be underestimated if missing/mismeasured counts are ignored. We shall refer to this problem as visibility bias; it occurs when the true counts are observed when visibility is high, partially observed when visibility is low …

Improved Statistical Methods For Time-Series And Lifetime Data, Xiaojie Zhu

Statistical Science Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, improved statistical methods for time-series and lifetime data are developed. First, an improved trend test for time series data is presented. Then, robust parametric estimation methods based on system lifetime data with known system signatures are developed.

In the first part of this dissertation, we consider a test for the monotonic trend in time series data proposed by Brillinger (1989). It has been shown that when there are highly correlated residuals or short record lengths, Brillinger’s test procedure tends to have significance level much higher than the nominal level. This could be related to the discrepancy between …

Proposed Federal Osha Standards For Wildfire Smoke, Keenan Layton

Seattle Journal of Technology, Environmental, & Innovation Law

With the rise of global temperatures, climatologists predict a corresponding increase in the frequency and severity of wildfires in the Pacific Northwest. Rising temperatures are expected to create drier conditions in forests, thereby creating environmental conditions more prone to forest fires. Wildfires have become a common enough occurrence in the Pacific Northwest that summers have become synonymous with smoky conditions, but the issue is not constrained to this region. Though the Pacific Northwest has recently acted as a harbinger of increasing wildfires, environmental scientists forecast an increase in fire risk throughout the Western United States. The predicted rise in forest …

Spontaneous Tumor Lysis Syndrome In An Adenocarcinoma Of Unknown Origin., Joshua A. Kalter Ms3, Jamie Allen Do, Yuchen Yang Do, Tyler Willing Do, Elizabeth M. Evans Do

Department of Emergency Medicine

Spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome (STLS) is a rare oncologic emergency caused by massive cancer cell lysis or necrosis without a precipitating factor. Although tumor lysis syndrome (TLS) is most commonly associated with hematologic malignancies, a small number of cases in solid tumor malignancies have been reported. We present a case of spontaneous tumor lysis syndrome in a 77-year-old female with a widely metastatic, poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma of unknown origin. She presented in distributive shock, and laboratory testing at admission revealed acute renal failure, high anion gap metabolic acidosis, hyperuricemia, hyperkalemia, hyperphosphatemia, and hypocalcemia. Rasburicase and continuous renal replacement therapy were …

Influence Of Testosterone On Male-Male Competition In The Red-Sided Garter Snake, Thamnophis Sirtalis Parietalis, Isabella M. G. Bukovich

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

Female mimicry in the red-sided garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis, is described in several well-studied evolutionary advantages, but an aspect that remains elusive is how reproductive traits are linked to the 3-fold higher circulating androgens in males with this phenotype. In this study, we implanted male garter snakes (n=15 per group) with either a blank implant (SHAM; control) or a T implant, the latter simulating the female mimic phenotype. Following simulated low-temperature dormancy, males were scored for courtship intensity over three days of behavioral trials with females housed in the same facility. Males were sacrificed, and sperm were collected …