Digital Commons Network^™

Examining Bias Against Women In Professional Settings Through Bifurcation Theory, Lauren Cashdan

CMC Senior Theses

When it comes to women in professional hierarchies, it is important to recognize the lack of representation at the higher levels. By modeling these situations we hope to draw attention to the issues currently plaguing professional atmospheres. In a paper by Clifton et. al. (2019), they model the fraction of women at any level in a professional hierarchy using the parameters of hiring gender bias and internal homophily on behalf of the applicant. This thesis will focus on a key theory in Clifton et. al.’s analysis and explain its role in the model, specifically bifrucation analysis. In order to analyze …

Magnetic And Mechanical Properties Of Ultrasoft Magnetorheological Elastomers, Andy T. Clark

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

Magnetorheological elastomers (MREs), composite materials consisting of magnetic particles embedded in a non-magnetic elastomeric matrix, can reversibly modulate their mechanical and magnetic properties through tuning the applied magnetic field H. Recently, ultrasoft MREs have received tremendous attention due to their great potential in biomedical applications. However, the effects of the polymer stiffness and magnetic particle concentration on the magnetic and mechanical properties of ultrasoft MREs still need to be better understood. In this dissertation, the author presents a comprehensive investigation of the magnetic and mechanical properties of ultrasoft MREs as well as their biomedical applications.

The effect of polymer …

Understanding And Harnessing The Structural Features That Govern Hmg-Coa Reductase Activity, Edwin Ragwan

Bryn Mawr College Dissertations and Theses

The enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme-A reductase (HMGR), which catalyzes the reduction of HMG-CoA to mevalonate using two equivalents of the cofactor NAD(P)H, is part of the mevalonate pathway, found in all kingdoms of life. This pathway is at the heart of natural product biosynthesis constituting one of the obligate routes to producing the building blocks for isoprenoids, which represent the largest and most diverse class of natural products. Natural products and its derivatives continue to provide important compounds in the fields of drug development, biomedical engineering, and commercially-driven products. Therefore, HMGR, which performs the rate-limiting step of the mevalonate pathway garners …

Supporting Stylized Language Models Using Multi-Modality Features, Chengxi Li

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

As AI and machine learning systems become more common in our everyday lives, there is an increased desire to construct systems that are able to seamlessly interact and communicate with humans. This typically means creating systems that are able to communicate with humans via natural language. Given the variance of natural language, this can be a very challenging task. In this thesis, I explored the topic of humanlike language generation in the context of stylized language generation. Stylized language generation involves producing some text that exhibits a specific, desired style. In this dissertation, I specifically explored the use of multi-modality …

Smart Decision-Making Via Edge Intelligence For Smart Cities, Nathaniel Hudson

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Smart cities are an ambitious vision for future urban environments. The ultimate aim of smart cities is to use modern technology to optimize city resources and operations while improving overall quality-of-life of its citizens. Realizing this ambitious vision will require embracing advancements in information communication technology, data analysis, and other technologies. Because smart cities naturally produce vast amounts of data, recent artificial intelligence (AI) techniques are of interest due to their ability to transform raw data into insightful knowledge to inform decisions (e.g., using live road traffic data to control traffic lights based on current traffic conditions). However, training and …

Matrix Interpretations And Tools For Investigating Even Functionals, Benjamin Stringer

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

Even functionals are a set of polynomials evaluated on the terms of hollow symmetric matrices. Their properties lend themselves to applications such as counting subgraph embeddings in generic (weighted or unweighted) host graphs and computing moments of binary quadratic forms, which occur in combinatorial optimization. This research focuses primarily on counting subgraph embeddings, which is traditionally accomplished with brute-force algorithms or algorithms curated for special types of graphs. Even functionals provide a method for counting subgraphs algebraically in time proportional to matrix multiplication and is not restricted to particular graph types. Counting subgraph embeddings can be accomplished by evaluating a …

Geology Of The Jacksonville 7.5 Minute Quadrangle And U–Pb And (U–Th)/He Reveal Sediment Routing And Uplift In The Southern Appalachian Valley And Ridge Province, Derek L. Spurgeon

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

The southern Appalachian Mountains have experienced multiple deformation events having undergone two full Wilson cycles. The foreland Valley and Ridge province is composed of sedimentary Paleozoic rock that range in age from earliest Cambrian to Middle Pennsylvanian. This sedimentary basin was intensely folded and faulted during the collision of Gondwana during the Middle to Late Carboniferous Period. From previous geologic structural mapping that has taken place, some large-scale structures in the Valley and Ridge Province seem to be out of sequence. To better understand the relationships in these structures, geologic mapping in high detail at the 1:24,000 scale coupled with …

Perspectives Of Reading For Pleasure Pedagogy In Western Australian School Classrooms, Jessica Nailer

Theses

Australian children read for pleasure less and less as they move through primary school, with a noticeable decline emerging in the middle primary school years. Reading for Pleasure at School (RfPS) also appears to have become de-prioritised in primary schools, with greater emphasis in the broader literacy education dialogue placed on instructional reading pedagogy and standardised literacy testing. This research focused on the pedagogy that meaningfully supports RfPS in Years 3-6, within a framework of school culture, teacher practices and the physical environment. This investigation aimed to explore the perspectives of three key stakeholder groups from one Western Australian independent …

Public Citizen's Advocacy Campaign Opposing Fda Approval Of Aducanumab For Alzheimer's Disease: The Fight Against Regulatory Capture, Michael A. Carome

Health Matrix: The Journal of Law-Medicine

No abstract provided.

The Wright Message, 2021-2022, University Of Northern Iowa. Department Of Mathematics.

The Wright Message

Contents

From the Dean --- 1
Around Wright Hall --- 3
In Memoriam: Diane Lee Baum --- 4
Faculty Spotlight --- 4
Retiring Faculty --- 5
Statistical Consulting Center staff changes --- 7
Alumni Spotlight --- 8
News from the CTLM --- 10
Student Spotlights --- 11
Donor Spotlight --- 18
First Woman to Win International Meshing Award --- 19
Contribution Recognition --- 20
Department Funds --- 22
Contribution Forms --- 23

On The Spectral Theory For Ordinary Differential Equations With Distributional Coefficients With And Emphasis On The Periodic Case, Kevin Campbell

All ETDs from UAB

In this thesis, we consider differential equations with distributional matrix coefficients giving particular care to periodic distributions. In pursuit of this, we first examine some cases in which there is no existence and uniqueness theorem for a given initial value problem, and then verify some properties of the minimal and maximal operators. We then focus on periodic systems and establish a Floquet Theory for such systems as well as extend several fundamental properties which are well known for periodic functions to periodic distributions. We also examine stability sets for differential equations with periodic distributional coefficients in one and two dimensions, …

University Profile: 2021, Kean University

Evidence Inventory

No abstract provided.

A Tribute In Honor Of Ubiratan D’Ambrósio’S Life And Legacy, Jonei Cerqueira Barbosa

The Mathematics Enthusiast

No abstract provided.

Teacher Education For Integrating Resources In Mathematics Teaching: Contributions From Instrumental Meta-Orchestration, Rosilângela Lucena, Verônica Gitirana, Luc Trouche

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This paper introduces the model of instrumental meta-orchestration (IMO), as an extension of the model of instrumental orchestration. This IMO model is defined as a systematic and intentional monitoring, by a teacher educator, of artefacts and teachers (or pre-service teachers) for facing a Meta-situation, defined as a composition of situations of different natures and difficulty levels. An IMO, in itself, is a composition of instrumental orchestrations (sequenced or interwoven). This paper presents and discusses an instrumental meta-orchestration experienced in a class of undergraduate mathematics teachers. The development of the initial model results in: new concepts, such as ad hoc …

Didactic Engineering (De) And Professional Didactics (Pd): A Proposal For Historical Eesearch In Brazil On Recurring Number Sequences, Francisco Regis Vieira Alves

The Mathematics Enthusiast

The present work presents some examples of data originated from a set of investigations developed in Brazil, at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of the State of Ceará - IFCE, in the context of teacher education, and the consideration of elements of a historical, mathematical, and evolutionary nature. Thus, from a perspective of theoretical complementarity involving the research elements derived from the notion of the didactic engineering for development and some assumptions of the French aspect of the professional didactics, two sets of data are discussed. The first set involved research carried out between 2017 and 2020. …

It Is Necessary To Know A Specific Mathematics To Teach Mathematics, Jaqueline De Souza Pereira Grilo, Jonei Cerqueira Barbosa

The Mathematics Enthusiast

In this theoretical essay we problematize the statement “To teach mathematics one must know a specific mathematics for teaching” of the discourse of specific mathematical knowledge to teach. The study was inspired by Foucaultian concepts and the analysis focused on studies in the area of Mathematical Education that mobilize discourses regarding Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching, Mathematics Teacher’s Specialized Knowledge and Mathematics for Teaching. The analysis showed that the discourses operate under two truth regimes about the mathematical knowledge needed to teach. Analyzing the enunciative intertwining, we observe an approximation with: i) the educational discourse, which deals with the inseparability between …

Ludwig Wittgenstein, Mathematics, Therapy And Life: Research From The Group On Education, Language And Cultural Practices In Brazil, Elizabeth Gomes Souza, Carolina Tamayo, Marcia Maria Bento

The Mathematics Enthusiast

This article aims to describe discursive regularities of theses and dissertations by researchers from the Group “Research, Education, Language, Cultural Practices” - Phala and their effects for / on Mathematics Education. Due to the nature of the proposed study, three axes of description emerged: (1) starting cultural archive and the literatures-traces triggered with respect to Mathematics; (2) therapeutic analog movements operated in research, and (3) aesthetics and writing style. We identified that the archives, taking deconstructionist therapy as a research lens, expand the debates about the understanding of Mathematics as a fixed, linear, compartmentalized, abstract and hierarchical set of knowledge, …

Reconstruction Of Sparse Recurrent Connectivity And Inputs From The Nonlinear Dynamics Of Neuronal Networks, Victor J. Barranca

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

Reconstructing the recurrent structural connectivity of neuronal networks is a challenge crucial to address in characterizing neuronal computations. While directly measuring the detailed connectivity structure is generally prohibitive for large networks, we develop a novel framework for reverse-engineering large-scale recurrent network connectivity matrices from neuronal dynamics by utilizing the widespread sparsity of neuronal connections. We derive a linear input-output mapping that underlies the irregular dynamics of a model network composed of both excitatory and inhibitory integrate-and-fire neurons with pulse coupling, thereby relating network inputs to evoked neuronal activity. Using this embedded mapping and experimentally feasible measurements of the firing rate …

Functional Implications Of Dale's Law In Balanced Neuronal Network Dynamics And Decision Making, Victor J. Barranca, Asha Bhuiyan , '23, Max Sundgren , '22, Fangzhou Xing , '22

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

The notion that a neuron transmits the same set of neurotransmitters at all of its post-synaptic connections, typically known as Dale's law, is well supported throughout the majority of the brain and is assumed in almost all theoretical studies investigating the mechanisms for computation in neuronal networks. Dale's law has numerous functional implications in fundamental sensory processing and decision-making tasks, and it plays a key role in the current understanding of the structure-function relationship in the brain. However, since exceptions to Dale's law have been discovered for certain neurons and because other biological systems with complex network structure incorporate individual …

An Affine Approach To Peterson Comparison, Linda Chen, E. Milićević, J. Morse

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

The Peterson comparison formula proved by Woodward relates the three-pointed Gromov-Witten invariants for the quantum cohomology of partial flag varieties to those for the complete flag. Another such comparison can be obtained by composing a combinatorial version of the Peterson isomorphism with a result of Lapointe and Morse relating quantum Littlewood-Richardson coefficients for the Grassmannian to k-Schur analogs in the homology of the affine Grassmannian obtained by adding rim hooks. We show that these comparisons on quantum cohomology are equivalent, up to Postnikov’s strange duality isomorphism.

Topological Speedups Of ℤD-Actions, Aimee S.A. Johnson, D. M. Mcclendon

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

We study minimal ℤ^d-Cantor systems and the relationship between their speedups, their collections of invariant Borel measures, their associated unital dimension groups, and their orbit equivalence classes. In the particular case of minimal ℤ^d-odometers, we show that their bounded speedups must again be odometers but, contrary to the 1-dimensional case, they need not be conjugate, or even isomorphic, to the original. Furthermore, we give examples of speedups of ℤ^d-odometers which show the significant role played by a choice of ‘cone’ associated to the speedup.

The Complexity Threshold For The Emergence Of Kakutani Inequivalence, V. Cyr, Aimee S.A. Johnson, B. Kra, A. Şahi̇n

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

We show that linear complexity is the threshold for the emergence of Kakutani inequivalence for measurable systems supported on a minimal subshift. In particular, we show that there are minimal subshifts of arbitrarily low superlinear complexity that admit both loosely Bernoulli and non-loosely Bernoulli ergodic measures and that no minimal subshift with linear complexity can admit inequivalent measures.

Think-Aloud Interviews: A Tool For Exploring Student Statistical Reasoning, A. Reinhart, C. Evans, Amanda Luby, J. Orellana, M. Meyer, J. Wieczorek, P. Elliott, P. Burckhardt, R. Nugent

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

Think-aloud interviews have been a valuable but underused tool in statistics education research. Think-alouds, in which students narrate their reasoning in real time while solving problems, differ in important ways from other types of cognitive interviews and related education research methods. Beyond the uses already found in the statistics literature—mostly validating the wording of statistical concept inventory questions and studying student misconceptions—we suggest other possible use cases for think-alouds and summarize best-practice guidelines for designing think-aloud interview studies. Using examples from our own experiences studying the local student body for our introductory statistics courses, we illustrate how research goals should …

Maximal And Minimal Weak Solutions For Elliptic Problems With Nonlinearity On The Boundary, S. Bandyopadhyay, M. Chhetri, B. B. Delgado, Nsoki Mavinga, R. Pardo

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

This paper deals with the existence of weak solutions for semilinear elliptic equation with nonlinearity on the boundary. We establish the existence of a maximal and a minimal weak solution between an ordered pair of sub- and supersolution for both monotone and nonmonotone nonlinearities. We use iteration argument when the nonlinearity is monotone. For the nonmonotone case, we utilize the surjectivity of a pseudomonotone and coercive operator, Zorn's lemma and a version of Kato's inequality.

The Topological Slice Genus Of Satellite Knots, P. Feller, Allison N. Miller, J. Pinzón-Caicedo

Mathematics & Statistics Faculty Works

We present evidence supporting the conjecture that, in the topological category, the slice genus of a satellite knot P(K) is bounded above by the sum of the slice genera of K and P(U). Our main result establishes this conjecture for a variant of the topological slice genus, the ℤ–slice genus. Notably, the conjectured upper bound does not involve the algebraic winding number of the pattern P. This stands in stark contrast with the smooth category, where, for example, there are many genus 1 knots whose (n,1)–cables have arbitrarily large smooth 4–genera. …

Identifying Patterns In The Structural Drivers Of Intrastate Conflict, Jonathan D. Moyer, Austin S. Matthews, Mickey Rafa, Yutang Xiong

Global and Public Affairs: Faculty Scholarship

Quantitative methods have been used to: (1) better predict civil conflict onset; and (2) understand causal mechanisms to inform policy intervention and theory. However, an exploration of individual conflict onset cases illustrates great variation in the characteristics describing the outbreak of civil war, suggesting that there is not one single set of factors that lead to intrastate war. In this article, we use descriptive statistics to explore persistent clusters in the drivers of civil war onset, finding evidence that some arrangements of structural drivers cluster robustly across multiple model specifications (such as young, poorly developed states with anocratic regimes). Additionally, …

Incorporating Hemodynamic Cognitive Neuromarkers For Personalized Assistive Communication Technology, Seyyed Bahram Borgheai

Open Access Dissertations

A Brain computer interface (BCI) for communication bypasses standard efferent neural pathways towards peripheral nerves and muscles and directly translates brain activity into symbolic commands to facilitate communication in people with motor impairments. Although a range of access options have been developed, there are still many challenges, particularly for those with severe motor-control limitations. Limitations in availability of access options and the accuracy they provide may lead to patient frustration. Hence, many conventional non-invasive BCIs that rely on eye-gaze control and alternative communicative solutions, such as eye-tracking systems, fail to provide successful and efficient communication in people with severe motor …

Flattening The Curve: Elements Impacting K-12 Teachers’ Technology Self-Efficacy With Distance Learning During Covid-19, Rochelle Stanley

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine the elements impacting K-12 teachers’ technology self-efficacy while implementing distance learning during a global crisis, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this examination, the gaps in teachers’ technology self-efficacy and learning opportunities may give teachers the assistance needed to hone skills that will enrich student learning within distance learning platforms. It will also provide insight for teacher education programs; school districts; and more specifically, teacher organizations within communities.

“To Multiply Corn Two-Hundred-Fold”: The Alchemical Augmentation Of Wheat Seeds In Seventeenth-Century English Husbandry, Justin Niermeier-Dohoney

Arts and Communication Faculty Publications

Agricultural reform movements proliferated in seventeenth-century Europe. For many who sought to make farming more economically productive, the practices of chymistry offered a way to accomplish these goals. Placed in the context of the development of a “vegetable philosophy,” or a theory of generation and growth across mineralogical and botanical domains, this article examines the application of chymical techniques in the attempt to enhance wheat seeds through seed-steeping and “fructifying” experiments among seventeenth-century agricultural reformers, particularly in England. I focus on three main sources: instructional husbandry manuals describing how to create “fructifying waters” to fertilize these seeds, the writings of …

An Examination Of Perceived Self-Efficacy Regarding Academic Success And Social-Emotional Preparedness Of Rural, First-Generation College Students Who Completed An Asynchronous Credit Recovery Program, Cynthia Oliver

Ed.D. Dissertations

As the number of rural, first-generation college students continue to rise, there was a gap in the literature regarding post-secondary enrollment and the self‑efficacy of these students who participated in asynchronous credit recovery in high school to complete a high school diploma. In this qualitative, narrative study, I examined how completion of an asynchronous online credit recovery program influenced the perception of self-efficacy or rural, first-generation college students regarding academic success and social-emotional preparedness. Nine participants from rural towns in South Georgia provided insight related to their perceptions of their experiences in credit recovery. All nine participants perceived positive influences …